Amber | Life Elevated Mom

The Perils of Colorado Hiking Moms

September 17, 2012 by Amber

I’ve fallen into a pretty great routine with the kids back in school and I can’t believe how fortunate I am. I mean, I actually have time to write! I filed my column early! I’m picking up freelance assignments! I have time to respond to emails! My house is clean! I’m starting to travel this week!

I would’ve written that above paragraph in all-caps but figured exclamation marks were less annoying. #Fail

My day always starts with work before dawn and then once the kiddos are nestled away in school, I play for a bit. Thursdays are my hiking days with a few of my besties. It had rained a lot the day prior so I worried the trails would be mucky. I gave them two choices: Hike up up up up the Apex Parkor head down a paved valley.

Without hesitation, my friend Jenn pointed up and up up up we went for a pretty rigorous hike but with stunning views.

Those are my kind of friends.

And believe me, I have great ones. Last Monday, I asked my friend Tina to hike a new-to-me trail on the lower part of White Ranch Park. I’d hiked the Belcher Hill trail several times but had never attempted a neighboring trail, the Longhorn.

I do a lot of hiking by myself but try to stick to areas I know will have at least some foot traffic, just in case something should happen to me.

Which is very, very likely.

And there was something about the Longhorn that made me hold off until I had a buddy to do it with. For once, listening to my gut paid off.

I love Tina. We’ve been hiking friends since Hadley and her son Nolan were babies and she did the HealthOne Red Rocks Fitness Challenge for three months with me last summer.

That basically means she knows what she’s getting into by hanging out with me.

But we were not prepared for the Longhorn. Not only was weather REALLY hot (hopefully our last 90-degree day) with zero shade but it was steep. Really steep. As in this-is-never-gonna-end-steep. After a long while, we started to wonder if we’d missed our turn but it seemed unlikely–we were going at a snail’s pace.

See those smiles? We’re faking

After what seemed like eons, I skipped ahead a bit and saw it: a sign, just as the trail started mercifully leveling out. And you know what that sign said?

No, it was not a trail marker but rather, a testament to the journey we’d just endured:

I anticipated our loop would take us between 1-1.5 hours (the standard length of my hikes).

It took us three hours.

Forget my worries about Tina not speaking to me after that little adventure.

I wasn’t speaking to me.

Filed Under: Colorado, hiking, Humor Tagged With: Denver

Let It Go

September 17, 2012 by Amber

I’m on the precipice of four very busy, stressful weeks of travel, the pumpkin party and weigh-offs, along with everything else we’re already juggling.

But it was the perfect final weekend of reprieve before delving in head-first. Several friends and I headed to Time Out For Women Friday night and Saturday, which if you’re not familiar with it, is a fantastically inspiring conference for Mormon women that bolstered our spirits and basically reminded us how awesome we are.

Good gracious, who knew timeouts could be so rewarding?

Lunching with the ladies at Corner Bakery

One message in particular touched me to my core and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Chris Williams was a happily married father of four with one on the way when a drunk driver hit his family’s vehicle, killing his wife and two of his kids.

His story of almost instant forgiveness is so darn inspiring I was blown away by his story and the relationship he has formed with that young man. I rarely post videos so you know this one is powerful so please take a few minutes to watch it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7zwQ_7q-fU]

Talk about poignant and “Let it go” is my new mantra. Most of us will thankfully never face anything of this magnitude but we become wrapped up in so many petty things in life that his attitude puts everything in perspective.

I was also thrilled that one of my favorite food blogs, Our Best Bites, just released another cookbook. So I, of course, snagged Savoring the Seasons With Our Best Bites.

It has been just over 24 hours since I purchased it and I’ve already made four recipes: the mango rice, easy Thai chicken noodle soup, pumpkin crumble and the gorgonzola pear pasta.

If that ain’t a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.

Though Jamie has been working around-the-clock and hasn’t been feeling well, the kiddos stayed busy. Haddie had a party with her Activity Days girls from church and Bode and Jamie had a Boy’s Night Out Friday. They went to Buffalo Wild Wings Grill for the first time and Bode was blown away by an entire wall of flat-screen TVs!!!!!

I’m sure they didn’t say even one word to each other the entire dinner. He also got to meet a famous UHF wrestler who was there signing autographs. Tough dude wouldn’t smile for anyone except for sweet Bode.

Yup, boy’s night out, indeed.

I’ll stick with Time Out for Women, thanks.

Filed Under: LDS

Fat Kitty on the Lam

September 13, 2012 by Amber

Fat Dude has a pretty easy-going life as an inside house cat. He sleeps. He eats. He snuggles. He sleeps some more. And if he’s lucky, we take him for supervised visits in the backyard (remember his first Great Escape?)

Basically, Fat Kitty is our prisoner.

The other night, he made a bid for freedom that failed oh-so miserably. Every night before bedtime, he dutifully waits for Hadley on her bed and falls asleep with her. He’ll usually make his way into our bedroom later and sleeps perched above my head.

He’s like a bit, fat, squishy pillow.

But when I woke up Wednesday morning, he was nowhere to be found. I wasn’t worried. Occasionally he likes to pull an all-nighter with Hadley or wander the house. Jamie opened up our bedroom window a crack and discovered it was raining HARD. It was a shock because we assumed Denver forgot how to rain (it has been that long).

And then I heard a very distinctive MEOW!

It wasn’t his normal morning “hey wassup” meow but rather of a ticked-off cat in distress. I started racing around the house to see what closet he accidentally got locked in this time (don’t judge; it happens). But I couldn’t find him anywhere.

Until I went downstairs and looked outside. There, sitting on the patio was a verrrrrrrry angry Fat Kitty who was locked outside. Remember when I mentioned it was raining? Welp,it rained cats and dogs (pun intended). All. Night. Long.

Every evening in the summer, Jamie opens up the windows and blasts our attic fan to cool down the house. What likely happened that night was he’d opened up the back door and Fat Kitty must have snuck out through the busted screen.

And yes, Jamie will continue to be nagged until it is fixed.

Then, when Jamie locked up the house an hour later he unknowingly locked the Fat One outside. Did I mention the rain storm?

Fat Kitty won’t let us forget about it. But he hasn’t shown any desire to go outside so don’t be watching for him on Prison Break anytime soon.

Especially when it’s raining.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: Fat Kitty

Jamie’s wake-up call

September 13, 2012 by Amber

Hadley’s back-to-school night was last week. She continues to love her new school and is making lots of friends.

After an overview from the principal, we went into the classroom so see what they’ve been working on these past weeks. The school’s philosophy is to teach academics through the arts and are they ever staying true to that.

In orchestra, she’s learning the basics of posture, position, pizzicato, bowing and creating a beautiful sound on the violin.

Hugest bonus ever: she does not yet have violin homework so we haven’t had to listen to the painful trial-and-error process. Horribly played violin=nails on chalkboard!

She’s also learning the recorder, all-immersion Spanish and knitting in her Handwork program. Gym class is always outside rain or shine (exempting -20-degree days), which I LOVE. I think it’s ridiculous how everyone hunkers down at the first sign of inclement weather.

And yes, that’s the Canuck in me talking.

While we were sitting in the student’s desks getting an overview from Haddie’s teacher, I could see Jamie gazing around the room. After the orientation, he commented:

“The parents in Haddie’s class sure are old.”
“They’re all our age, Jamie.”

I suspect Botox is in his future.

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, Jamie

The juggling game and Bode’s injury

September 12, 2012 by Amber

Our school year is in full swing and we’ll really kick things into gear as Haddie starts swim team and piano this week. We’re new to this whole after-school juggling scene and though I’ve made the goal to not overschedule the kids with more than one activity, I can see how easy it is to do.

Or rather, hard. I look at some of my friends who turn into after-school chauffeurs as they shuttle kids around and I’m really trying to carve out a significant amount of time for them to just play and do their homework.

In addition to life’s regular chaos, we’re also entering pumpkin weigh-off season and our annual pumpkin party. I also have some travels lined up that include a press trip to California, Haddie’s three-day camping trip to Mesa Verde and then I was asked to speak at the Governor’s Tourism Conference in Steamboat Springs.

Poor, poor Jamie who will be holding down the fort.

But we had a swell weekend! A wonderful family in our ward invited us over for authentic Bolivian food (delish) and we’ve promised to return the favor next month good old-fashioned American grub.

Still trying to figure out just what that will entail?

Then, there’s our annual pilgrimage to the Arvada Harvest Festival. This year, the kiddos opted to blow their entire allowance on the hamster balls.

And yes, they said it was totally worth it.

Then, Bode had his first soccer game of the season. He lost some of his confidence last spring as the teams grew more competitive and we tried to tell him his days of scoring nine goals in a game are over.

This time, he scored one and he was pretty happy about it.

And then we attended a S’mores Party. Many of our besties were there and we had a great time. The only problem was I discovered I have deep-rooted marshmallow-roasting issues. I freaked out as the kiddos raced around with their skewers of flaming marshmallows.

When I was a kid, we were camping when my cousin Fraser’s marshmallow caught on fire. He flipped it over to blow it out but the flaming marshmallow landed straight in his eye. Were it not for a doctor camping next to us, who knows what would have happened.

This is just a nice way of saying I have issues with kids + flaming marshmallows and was internally FREAKING out. So, I kind of got a kick out of Sam (the hostess) putting these with the spread of s’mores:

What I didn’t anticipate: it would be my kid who’d need them. A few minutes after snapping a picture of the Bandaids, Bode limped over to me.

“I’m hurt!” He exclaimed. I looked down and his knee was oozing in blood. I rushed him into the house and he was surprisingly calm. In fact, as we were passing his friend, he calmly explained,

“Alex, I am not able to play for a little bit because I am bleeding.”

Nice to know we have one level-headed person in our family.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Why I cannot be reincarnated as Bode

September 7, 2012 by Amber

I don’t believe in reincarnation but like to tease my kids how good they have it.

Me: “In my next life, I’m coming back as Bode.”
Him: “You can’t do dat!”
Me: “Why not?”

Reading to captive audience Fat Kitty

I then waited for the kid’s doctrinal profundities on how it wasn’t even possible. It didn’t happen because he countered with this reason:

Him: “YOU CAN’T EVEN PLAY WII!”

Filed Under: Bode, Humor Tagged With: Nintendo

The Monster My Mother Created

September 6, 2012 by Amber

We’re a family of contrasts.

Jamie obsessively clips his nails and for a while, Bode followed suit.

Though I usually suffer through a pedicure in the summer (the heel scraping is like nails on a chalkboard), I just can’t be bothered to care about my fingernails and it’s painfully obvious.

But Hadley is the worst of us all and has always thrown a huuuuuuge fit whenever we’ve attempted to cut her nails. This probably stems from deep-rooted anxieties of when she was just a week old, I attempted to clip them and accidentally cut her.

As if being a new mom wasn’t stressful enough, we were on our way out the door to meet Grandma for lunch. So, I was the Mother of Improvisation and put a little stock on her hand. By the time we arrived, her baby paw was perched in the air, the sock saturated in blood.

Ahh, good memories.

So, when my mom suggested we take Hadley for her first mani-pedi before she got baptized, I was wary. I mean, you practically have to hold the girl down to clip her nails and how would she do in public?

Turns out, surprisingly well.

So well, in fact, when we were in Calgary, she was excited for a girl’s day out for yet another mani-pedi.

That was over a month ago and her nails are looking mangy. I heard Jamie cutting his nails and begged him to cut the kids’ as well. Bode was game but Hadley took one look at him and said,

“Naw, I’d rather go to the pedicure place.”

And so it begins.

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

Addendum

September 5, 2012 by Amber

Tuesday was the first day I’ve felt quasi-normal so I decided I’d make it a big, exciting day with this tweet:

After 5 comatose sick days, I’m going to Target AND Costco today. #LivingItUp

My follow-up tweet a few hours later?

Had 1st outing to Costco since getting sick. When I went to check-out, I realized I had someone else’s cart. Crawling back into my hole.

I’m apparently not ready for the real world yet.

Filed Under: Humor

The ramblings of the sick and afflicted

September 4, 2012 by Amber

Welp, the last several days have been an unexpected bust. All the research and hikes I did leading up to helping my friend Tiffanie take the Scouts on a 20-mile hike on Labor Day were for naught because I got sick.

Really sick.

As in I can-barely-make-it-up-the-stairs-without-passing-out sick.

I’ve wised up over the years and instead of wallowing in misery for several days before seeking medical attention, I can tell the difference between a cold and an infection/virus.

Mostly because I rarely get colds and tend to go for the Big Dogs.

We have a lovely treasure trove of antibiotics from my frequent outbreaks and I started on them right away. However, on Night 2 I was in a lot of pain so Jamie gave me a half a Percocet.

It numbed the pain but it was like SPEEEEEEEEEEED. “LOOK AT ME! I’M AWAKE ALL NIGHT! AND STILL SICK!”

Note to self: Stay away from Percocet if I ever want to sleep again.

I feel really bummed I had to miss the big hike and also our annual trek to St. Mary’s Glacier on Saturday but this is not the first time something like this has happened. Four years ago, Jamie and I were supposed to lead a large group of teenage girls on their first ever multi-day backpacking trip for girl’s camp.

Note: I said supposed to.

I instead spent that week on my deathbed due to the plague that struck the night before our trip. This wasn’t your friendly, everyday sniffling and hacking plague.

Are you sensing a pattern here? Yes, extreme illness but perhaps the Lord is sending a very strong message: He does not want me taking the youth in the backcountry under any circumstances.

Duly noted. Now, can I please get better?

The kids and I spent the last several days snuggled up on our couch in the basement having a Lord of the Rings marathon. Now, this isn’t something I ever would have shown my kids (Harry Potter terrifies them) but when we were at my in-laws for Christmas a couple of years ago, LOTR was on TV and they loved it.

A few months later, we watched the trilogy and as the final credits rolled, little Bode proclaimed, “Dis is the best day of my life.”

The kid apparently had a pretty low standard.

But laying low is just what we’ve been doing and it’s been the one glorious part of our busted long weekend.

Filed Under: Humor

Let’s hear it for the boy (and girl)

August 31, 2012 by Amber

Thursday was one of those (rare-ish) days when you think, maybe I’m not such a complete failure as a mom and these kids are turning out OK.

And it happened on a day I was pretty down-and-out with the flu and a killer sinus infection. So pathetic was I that even slothful Fat Kitty ditched me because I was too boring just lying around.

Now, that’s pathetic.

For starters, Haddie brought me fresh-squeezed orange juice that she’d squeezed with her own two hands. Then, the first thing she did when she got home from school was prepared me a snack of cinnamon toast and fresh strawberries. But here’s the kicker: she did it before she ate.

If you have ravenous, sometimes egocentric kiddos like mine, you’ll realize just how amazing that is.

Then, Jamie forwarded me a message that Bode’s teacher left on our voicemail (Vonage sends an email transcript). She is the nicest lady and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had called a number of students (if not all) to give positive affirmations about her kids. Here’s what she raved about Bode:

Hi Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, it’s Bode’s teacher Jenny and I was just calling to let you know what a joy Bode as he is been doing such a fantastic job this week. He is an excellent listener. He is sitting just like he should in crisscross applesauce. He’s raising his hand and adding some of the most insightful comments I have ever heard from a first grade student so I just wanted to let you know that he is just a joy to have in class and that you’ve raised such a fabulous young man.

It’s so neat to have a leader in the classroom for my other students to see what it looks like to be a first grader and to be a listener and to be thinking all the time. So I just wanted to let you know what a joy he is. If you need anything please let me know and again thank you for raising such a fabulous young man and I will talk to you soon.

So, even though I’m down in the dumps I’m feeling pretty darn grateful today.

Fat Kitty rejection and all.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley