Utah Mom Blog & Mommy Blogger | Life Elevated Mom

Talkin’ about my girl

October 25, 2011 by Amber

Part of trying to connect on a deeper level is taking a step back and looking at who needs TLC.

Hadley is one of them.

I’ve always had a deep connection with Bode but have to work harder with Hadley. Though we’re both independent, adventurous spitfires, we speak a very different love language. Bode and I are snugglers. Hadley is not physical but I’m slowly learning her “love language” is spending quality time together.

We haven’t had any meaningful one-on-one time since school started.

So, on Saturday morning, I announced Hadley and I were having a girl afternoon. The boys would go to Bode’s soccer game (another three goals–yay!) and the girls would hike Lookout Mountain in Golden.

I’ve probably hiked Lookout Mountain a hundred times, half of them were carrying my babies and the other half solo. I thought I knew the nuances of every bend in the trail.

Until I hiked it with my 7-year-old daughter.

I love hiking for a number of reasons that include beauty and fresh air but I’m in it for the workout when I’m alone. While Hadley kept a fast clip, she reminded me of what it means to stop and smell the roses.

That means applauding the squirrels as they launch across their forested trapeze and scaling every random rock wall she could find.
Finding perfect perches to howl at the ~~moon~~ abyss.
And stopping to marvel at the view at the summit.My sad confession: I’ve always enjoyed the view but have never been absolutely blown away by its beauty until I saw it through my little girl’s eyes.

There is a very kid-friendly nature center at the top and I suggested we eat our snacks over there to get out of the wind. She looked over at the crowded parking lot, wrinkled her nose and pointed to a bluff overlooking the mountains.

“There’s too many cars and people over there. I want to look at the beautiful view and then go to the nature center,” she said.

Mini-Me.

Thinking back upon it now, I can’t even remember what we talked about but we babbled non-stop. It’s amazing how a whole lot of nothings amount to something wonderful.

We stopped at Cold Stone ice cream and as we drove home, Hadley pensively said: “That was an awesome girl day, Mommy. We need to do that more often.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Filed Under: Colorado, Hadley, hiking

Bode’s competition for the “Sweetest Kid on the Block”

October 24, 2011 by Amber

Bode has a lot of great qualities but what I value most in him is he is just a good, sweet, kind-hearted soul. In fact, when I picked him up from a recent playdate, my neighbor observed, “Bode is the nicest kid on the block.”

He (obviously) doesn’t get it from me.

Part of being a nice kid is he has rarely has meltdowns and he gets along with everyone. I can put him in any situation, even with the socially-backward or aggressive types, and he will befriend them while being a force for good.

We have four hours until Hadley gets home so we try to go on an adventure every day. On Friday, we biked around Lake Arbor.
We stopped at the local playground and Bode played with a cute boy a couple of years younger than him. At one point, I overheard their conversation.

Bode: “I am Bode. What’s your name?”
Kid: “My name is Brandon. But they call me ‘Sweetie Pie.'”

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

When revenge is (too) sweet

October 21, 2011 by Amber

Remember when I blogged about my friend Lisa’s sons wreaking havoc on my sweet Bode?

Wednesday, I had payback when I dragged her up my favorite secret hike.
Though with views like that of snow-covered 14,264-ft Mt. Evans it’s an iffy attempt at payback.

I’ll keep working on it.

Filed Under: Colorado, hiking

The Clicker and the Importance of Getting Unplugged

October 20, 2011 by Amber

Sometimes you just need to get unplugged.

This is opposed to unhinged, which is what I have felt the last several weeks.

I hit my limit after a compendium of stress, work and more stress a couple of weeks ago. I woke up feeling…not depressed…but burned out and in dire need of a reboot after my family’s onslaught of medical and financial trials this year.

I attended Time Out For Women a couple of weekends ago and it was a much-needed spiritual boost. One of my favorite speakers (and inspiring musical artist) Hilary Weeks spoke about a statistic she had heard: that the average person has 300 negative thoughts a day. Thinking this was a staggering number, she decided to put it to the test. She bought herself a clicker and every time she had a negative thought, she counted it.

The final number wasn’t important but what resonated with me was how she felt after almost a week of doing it. For no reason at all, she woke up feeling depressed and absolutely hopeless about her life.

Recognizing the source, she turned the experiment around and documented every positive thought she had. The number of clicks skyrocketed as it became a practice in gratitude–from her family to God’s creations to the many little miracles that surrounded her. (Read her blog posts about it here).

Lesson learned: When you focus on the negatives, all your energy and psyche will give way to that energy. Conversely, thinking positive thoughts makes you happy.

I’ve never been a negative person but when you’re drowning in negative influences and aren’t filling it with as much positivity as possible, something’s gotta give and that’s exactly how I felt. So last week, I refused to let the uncertainty and stress take hold of me. I stepped away from my computer and filled my life with positive energy. I recommitted myself spiritually and spent every spare second in the outdoors marveling at the fall colors.

We picked crab apples and made applesauce.

We climbed trees.
I hiked.

And hiked some more.
And biked almost daily.
There is something so special about fall–life in all its summer pastels becomes golden. And somehow through imersing myself in it, each day I grew stronger, more at peace and connected. While our future may be uncertain, for these past weeks we’ve been living in the brevity of the moment and it has been magic.

One of my favorite passages of scripture in Mosiah 24: 13-15 has resonated with me. Alma and his people are doing what’s right and are living their lives when they are faced with a huge trial: wicked Amulon is sent to rule over them and places horrible burdens on their back. They even try to pray and risk the treat of being put to death.

Human instinct is to pray all the bad things away. I know I have and continue to do so. But the answer they received is so much more inspired.

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

Another lesson learned: Don’t pray for a lighter burden, pray for a stronger back.

Our situation has not changed but my capacity to handle it has. And for that, I am grateful.

Filed Under: issues, LDS

On character building

October 18, 2011 by Amber

I’m still alive but am taking a much-needed blogging break. In the interim, a glimpse at a conversation we had en route to the temple last weekend.

Me: I noticed last week just how many wrinkles I’m getting these days.

Jamie: That’s OK. It adds character.

{Long pause}

Jamie: And that’s just what you need–more character.

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie

The Day Jerry Rice Jr. Got Taken Down

October 10, 2011 by Amber

I have another busy week and am just not feeling motivated to write so blog postings might be sparse this week. However, I have several posts in my “drafts” folder I never published so here’s one of them about Bode’s near-death experience late last summer…..

We’re going on our seventh year of being in our dinner group with friends from church. We’ve experienced everything from the humiliation of Halloween to when Groucho and Marilyn did murder. Last month, the festivities sunk to a new level.

Usually, our dinners just involve couples but a couple of times a year, we bring the kids together for a big ol’ party–no small undertaking because the six couples have 24 kids between them.

And yes, we are the underachievers in the group.

The first of those kids was college-bound so we planned a final picnic at a park near our house. It was a fun evening of good friends and fun as the kids played on the nearby playground until after dark. After dinner, we opted for a friendly game of kickball in the neighboring field.

Only it wasn’t quite so friendly.

You see, some of these people are competitors and make me look like Pollyanna comparatively. Bode was the youngest out of all the kids by two years and certainly the most overzealous, thrilled to catch the ball and run with it.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him he wasn’t Jerry Rice.

It all started going downhill when Hadley’s friend Alex went up to “bat.” You see, headstrong Alex and I have history. She talks smack, I dish it back. I once sang, “Girl, you’re amazing” to her at the top of my lungs in the grocery store because it’s her goal to be on America’s Got Talent and I was just showing her what it takes.

OK, so maybe I just wanted to embarrass her.

Anyway, back to kickball. Alex looked at me with her little beady eyes and I knew she was mine. The ball was rolled, she kicked it and it soared straight toward me. I leaped, caught it and she was out. In one gratifying moment, it was me vs. Alex and for once, I won.

And then her family cried foul. “She’s just a little girl!!!!” and revenge was sworn.

Problem is it wasn’t against me but against Jerry Rice Jr. The next time sweet Bode was up to bat, he kicked the ball. As he started to race to first base, Alex’s brothers–allegedly upstanding young men, Eagle Scouts and BYU-bound–nailed sweet Bode with the ball. H-A-R-D.

These photographs are not of The Incident, which means there was more than one because photos don’t lie. Brother #1:Brother #2:
As the Evil Ones rejoiced after Bode’s forcible take-out, their Head Evil One (their father, Phil), said, “Thank your Mommy for that, Bode.”

He came over to me and said in the most innocent voice, “Thank you for dat, Mommy!!”

Unfortunately for them, unforgiving Mommy is already plotting their take-down.

🙂

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Marriage: The “Worse” Part of the “Better”

October 7, 2011 by Amber

Me: “You seem less stressed today. Are you finally getting caught back up on work after being in the hospital last week?”

Jamie: “Doing much better. I only have two people yelling at me right now.”

Me: (At the top of my lungs): “HONEYYYYYYYYYY!”

Jamie: “Better make that three.”

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie

The pumpkin weigh-off’s shocking results!

October 6, 2011 by Amber

It was a small miracle Jamie was able to take his pumpkin Ricky (named in honor of Ricky Gervais) to the Jared’s Nursery weigh-off after he discovered a crack a few weeks prior. For weeks, he caulked it and though he was not able to officially enter his pumpkin, Ricky made it to the weigh-off.

And he was the prettiest pumpkin there.

Yes, I just referred to an inanimate object as a “he.”

The kids and I always have a blast getting spooked in the Ghoul Galleria, jumping in the bouncy castle, playing in the maze, doing face-painting, balloon animals and marveling at the over-sized gourds.

Yep, that’s a pear behind Bode.

This year, the kids’ pumpkin was a lot smaller so we had low expectations. In fact, Jamie wasn’t the only grower who had a rough year–most of them lost at least one of their pumpkins. Denver had a really wet spring and a super hot August, resulting in a lot of pumpkins rotting out. There were no records and a lot of grown men inwardly crying.

It wasn’t pretty.

The kids won the children’s competition with their 146.5-pound pumpkin. Their father couldn’t have been more proud. Their mother, on the other hand, was mortified when another child took their pumpkin to the scale and Bode joked, “That’s too little!”

Once again, they won the blue ribbon and…(wait for it)….a bag of fertilizer.

I informed Jamie I’m overseeing the prizes for the children’s competition next year.

As for Jamie? He was shocked and delighted with his result: his heaviest pumpkin ever!
The scale says 926 pounds but it was actually 924.5 pounds. Cheater had his hand on the pumpkin.

That’s sure a heavy hand.

There was only one pumpkin that was larger at the weigh-off and that grower was from Wyoming. Jamie had the biggest pumpkin in Colorado that day and Ricky would have assuredly been over 1,000 pounds if it hadn’t cracked. Jamie’s goal is to break 1,000 pounds so that means we’re in it for at least another year.

Who am I kidding? He’s in it for life.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

At Long Last: The 3rd Annual Pumpkin Par-tay!

October 5, 2011 by Amber

Three years ago, we instituted our First Annual Pumpkin Par-tay. Admittedly, it was a ruse to get people to help lift the pumpkin but it has grown from there.

Both the size of the pumpkin and the parties.

Since Jamie loves big pumpkins and I love to eat all-things-pumpkin, we decided to make it a pumpkin potluck and ask our guests to bring some pumpkin-inspired dishes.

Now, there are varying degrees of commitment to the cause. Some planned their dishes out several weeks in advance and it showed with delicious offerings such as pumpkin caramels, pumpkin bundt cake, pepita (pumpkin seed) salsa, mini-pumpkin pies, pumpkin chili, pumpkin empanadas (my offering) and more.

Others call the day of the party complaining they can’t find canned pumpkin anywhere and bring brownies. And then a few call a half-hour before and say, “Hey, I misplaced my invite. Is that pumpkin party of yours today?”

Regardless, it always comes together in a delicious and fun way.

Bode took on the important role of tour guide and directed people to our backyard.

Of course, The Pumpkin Man was our local celebrity.
Last year, my bestie Tina busted out with a killer pumpkin hat Jamie made famous on The Marriage Ref.

This year, she gifted him some ultra-cool pumpkin glasses.
To think she almost didn’t make it because she somehow didn’t receive an invite (apologies to any of my other regulars who befell the same fate).

Of course, everyone comes to pose with The Great Pumpkin.

And marvel.
But the real attraction was the official vine-cutting. Many people have asked me how we transport the pumpkin to the weigh-off. We use a forklift but you first need to put lifting straps around it (not an easy process).
It’s also a good excuse to get a nice butt shot of your husband.

Then, attach the lifting straps to the chain on the forklift.
Then you watch a grown-man pray that the bottom of the pumpkin hasn’t rotted out completely (if you will recall, it cracked a few weeks ago). All was well.

Except for the fact Jamie’s body turned into a pumpkin. Nice legs, dude.

For the second year in a row, our neighbor Andy was the forklift driver.

When it was over, he was heavily perspiring. “Dude, that was the most stressful thing, ever!”

Then they loaded it onto a trailer. And no, I did not approve of Jamie graffiting the back window of my vehicle with that saying.

See that kid in the orange shirt? That’s our neighbor Luke who kept shouting out, “PUMPKIN PINATA” and swinging his baseball bat at the air.

I think he was kidding but his murder would have been no joke.

After that, the kids cut their pumpkin off the vine.

And (let’s count ’em): SIX guys carried the pumpkin to the front porch.

I mention the number of men because the next morning, Jamie and I (TWO mere mortals) carried it out to the car. By ourselves. With my sore knee.

One of the many sacrifices of a pumpkin widow.

Tune in tomorrow for details of the weigh-off!

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

Copper Mountain and My Ride of Death

October 4, 2011 by Amber

Missed yesterday’s post? Be sure to read Part I.

Admittedly, my reason for wanting to go to Copper Mountain in the off-season is because I have been dying to bike the portion of the Ten Mile Recreational Pathway that runs from Copper Mountain down to Frisco (about 13 miles round-trip.)

This extensive network of trails in Summit County is among my favorite in Colorado. A few years back, I biked with the kids from Frisco along the reservoir to Lake Dillon (one of my favorite days ever). Another time, I biked from Dillon up to Keystone and also we did Frisco to Breckenridge.

All that remains are for me to do Copper Mountain to Frisco and then Copper Mountain up Vail Pass, the latter of which is a 1,000-foot climb.

It’s no wonder I saved the best (or rather, worst) for last.

But on Saturday, I was determined to bike to Frisco and so I woke up at 6 a.m. It was still pitch-black outside.

I dozed until 6:30 a.m. It was barely starting to light up.

I fell back asleep hard, awaking at 7 a.m. I tried to talk myself out of going and stay snuggled up to Jamie but I had come on this trip for the express purpose of biking the trail. All other portions have been glorious and why should this one be any different?

Turns out, it was. Different, that is. As in bad-different.

It wasn’t the actual trail that was bad. In fact, a beautiful smattering of lemon-lime trees lined the path and the moderate decline to Frisco should have been a breeze.

But it was awful for two reasons: the weather and my bike.

Daytime temperatures were 60 degrees but nighttime hovered around freezing and that’s what it was when I started out. I had only worn a light fleece and Capri biking shorts and cannot ever remember being so cold on a bike path.

But I wouldn’t, I couldn’t turn back. For me, the only thing worse than quitting is having unfinished business and so I pressed onward, slowly.

The sluggish pace was due to a problem I am admitting publicly for the first time: I have an aversion to pumping tires. I’ve always felt this way and if you factor in my bike’s presta valve (that requires an adapter to pump), I avoid it at all costs.

That morning when I started out, my tires weren’t firm but still rideable. By the end, they were nearly flat.

Have you ever biked 13 miles in freezing temperatures with near-flat tires? It wasn’t pretty.I couldn’t even fake a smile here.

But I did it and now the only portion that remains is climbing from Copper Mountain to the top of Vail Pass.

Lesson learned: Wear winter clothes…and fully pumped tires.

Filed Under: biking, Colorado, Family travel, Humor