Portland Trip- Day 1

I have been asked about our trip out to Portland a number of times now. Here is the rundown of the first day of our vacation.

5:08- After realizing Ross had set the alarm to 4:30 pm the night before, we rushed around to get out of the house. We were on the road around 5:20ish. We got to bed around 12:30 the night before after tying up all the loose ends before the trip.

6:30- I dropped Ross off at the airport. This is me wondering if I can really do this whole driving 12 hours with 2 girls and 4 hours of sleep all by myself thing.7:30- wondering what I was so worried about. My girls are amazing. Also- Ross missed his flight and was transferred to another later one. 8:00- Making good time!

8:30- Remembering why it was so easy to move away from Idaho. . . 9:30- Wondering how I could have forgotten how incredibly cute Bambi is.

10:30- I was pulling into Boise at this point and was wondering if it was too early to order the chicken nuggets Emma wanted. It wasn't.

11:30 I contemplated stopping at this point just after getting lunch with the girls- but they were both sleeping so good that I just couldn't waste that time on the road.

12:30- I drained a second giant cup of Dr. Pepper to keep myself going. I have to say that it worked pretty well. I felt much better after getting all of that caffeine into my system.

1:30 I have the best babies! They were seriously so good! We stopped once for lunch. They got out of the car for an hour, and were just find getting back in. I stopped two other times the entire trip- once for about a minute to fix Emma's straps, and once to fill Sara's bottle and open a bag of cookies for Emma. They only ever got out of the car once during the whole ride. They were AMAZING!!

3:30- I was singing along to something at this point- Pippin I think. I saw this around 4:00. I thought it was interesting.

4:30 I was starting to regret all that Dr. Pepper about this time. I considered borrowing one of Sara's diapers.

5:30- I'm starting to lose it a little bit. I really wish I had gotten more sleep the night before!!

This is about 30 minutes before I got to Portland, and about 2 hours before I got to my hotel room. I am serious about that. I hate driving here! The streets are all one-way, they all have similar names, and they all lead to some kind of freeway if you stay on them too long. It was insane. I have never been so tired or frustrated in my entire life. I could feel myself starting to slip mentally because I was just so tired. I called Ross and made him stay on the phone with me to help keep me awake. I realize now that I should have just pulled over for a little bit- but I was just so close. . .

I was on the phone with Ross as I tried to find my way. At one point, he walked out to a common street corner, and met me there. It was about 3 blocks from the hotel. He hopped in to drive thinking he could get me there quicker. As soon as I was relieved of the driving responisibility, I promptly gave in to my exhaustion and passed out. It scared Ross a little bit. An hour later, Ross finally pulled into the hotel parking garage. Yes- it took us an hour to get 3 blocks. This was due to a combination of crazy traffic and all the other complaints I had. At least it wasn't raining.

All the effort was made worth it when I saw the hotel room. It is nice! I have never stayed anywhere this nice before. We have a full kitchen with a stove range, and a dishwasher. There is a king sized bed and there is a couch and daybed for the girls to sleep on. I love it. This is turning out to be a very nice vacation, indeed.

I took a shower, brushed my hair, and slept for a good 20 minutes while Ross unloaded the car. After that little cat nap, I was ready to eat something, and to get something good for the kids to eat. Our hotel just happened to be serving free dinner that night in the lobby- so we enjoyed the free spread and then went back to the hotel room. It was a really lame way to spend the first night of vacation, but I had no energy for tourism that night. After watching So You Think You Can Dance (LOVED Jeanine and Jason's routine, and LOVED Melissa and Brandon's hippee dance!), I slept deeply the entire night. I hope the girls were good, because I did not wake up even once.

My Guy!

I am a lucky woman! My husband is the sweetest and kindest man I know. This has been a tough week, and Ross has done a number of things that have just made my heart melt with love. He is amazing. I feel like bragging a little bit!

First off, I don't want to get too personal, but one of the main reasons this week has been so difficult is that I am going through a miscarriage. This was not devastating. Please do not worry. I have been through this before, and chances are it will happen again. However, that has not made it any less physically and emotionally demanding. I have struggled this week, and Ross has been incredibly supportive and kind hearted. He made dinner one night, put the girls to bed for me another night, and let me sleep while he dealt with a cranky and teething Sara even though he had to get up early for work. He has washed dishes, done loads of laundry, and vaccuumed cheerio messes. He never complained, and tried to do whatever he could to make things more comfortable for me. He is wonderful!

I have mentioned before that the primary in our ward is a force to be reckoned with! It is huge, and a good majority of the people in our ward hold callings in the primary. Unfortunately, not everybody called to these positions are thrilled with their assignments, and many are less than dependable about showing up or finding substitutes. To help with this problem, the Primary Presidency has some lamintaed pictures of life saver rings that they send around in Sunday School to beg for helpers. Today they needed help in another of the Sunbeams classes, and I wanted to kiss Ross right on the mouth when he came in with the Sunbeam lifesaver. He said he was worried that my partner had ditched me again and didn't want me to deal with the class alone.

When we came home from church, I was exhausted from all the potty runs and renditions of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes', so I changed my clothes and wasted time on facebook. During this time Ross did the dishes, warmed up some leftovers for lunch, and cleaned out my car.

Right now, while I am writing this up, he is scanning pictures into our computer for the FHE packets that I am supervising for Super Saturday next week. I have to finish these by tomorrow because we are going on a 2 week trip to Portland on Wednesday. I was worried about making copies of pictures that I have already colored, and was trying to trace them when he said he could work some geeky computer magic and make them all scan in black and white like I had never colored them.

I cannot even express how relieved I am by this. I had a lot of work ahead of me, and now all I have to do is buy some cardstock and make some copies. When I told him that I would be happy to scan them after he showed me how, he looked at me and said, "I don't mind. Let me help you."

I love this man, and I am so grateful for his eagerness to make my life easier in any way he can. he is so considerate and sweet. I know that this week has not been easy on him either. I love you, Ross. Thanks for being such an amazing husband and father!

Clever Little Monkey

Emma: Mommy, I wanna play with the Mr. Potato Head. Can you get him down for me?
Me: Sure- but first you need to clean up the mess you made with the blankets.
Emma: Umm, I wanna read a book.

Later that day

Emma: Mommy, do you want to play Mr. Potato Head with me?
Me: Sure that sounds like fun.
Emma: OK- just clean up all the blankets and then you can get it down and play it with me.

Speechless!

I spent the first half of my day down in Lehi at my sister-in-law's house. She had to take one of her kids to the oral surgeon (poor guy) so I watched the other 3 and my 2 until she returned. Since I was already in town, I decided to go ahead and kill two birds with one stone and headed over to the AF Macey's to do some shopping and take advantage of their caselot sale. While there, I took Emma and Sara over to the ice cream counter to share a frozen yogurt cone with them. As I was placing part of the cone in separate cups for the girls, the lady working the counter said something to me that literally left me speechless.

Lady: "They are so cute! Are they both yours?"
Me: "Yes."
Lady:"Wow. You are so young! It looks like it worked out well for you, but I really think most girls who get pregnant as teens should give their kids up for adoption. I just don't think it's right! I mean, did you even get to finish school?"
Me: *Stunned silence*

I just took my fro-yo and walked away without saying anything. I didn't know what to say!

For the record- I was happily married and 21 years old when I had my first child, but that isn't even what bothered me about this awkward exchange. I feel that something has happened in our society that has caused people to be incredibly closed minded and overly personal. When did it ever become remotely appropriate to discuss teenage pregnancy with a perfect stranger. Just because I gave you 58 cents and asked for two extra spoons and cups does NOT mean I am ready to get life advice and hear your moral opinions about what I should do with the fruit of my loins!

Also- what if she hadn't been wrong about me? She was- very much so- but what if I had been a teenage girl who made a life changing mistake? What if I had been among those courageous girls who find themselves in the precarious position of picking up the pieces of their shattered adolescence, and piecing them together into some form of pseudo-adulthood?

No girl in that situation takes that decision lightly. There is no way she could. When a child is growing within you, there are bonds, emotions and chemicals all making it impossible to be flippant about the product of your mistake. I cannot imagine what kind of Hell it would be to give one of my babies to someone else- no matter how amazing they are or how much better a life they could give that child. I cannot imagine how awful it would be to know that you love your new child too much to be selfish enough to spare yourself the pain of giving her away. Torture! Pure and unadulterated torture! How dare ANYBODY openly criticize what a girl chooses to do in that sensitive situation.

I, along with the deli-counter-30-something, feel that girls in that situation should do what is right by the child. I know it has to be hard- but I truly feel that is almost always the right thing for the child and the girl for the baby to be given to a well established, financially secure, and loving home. I do NOT however, feel it necessary to tell every girl I see going against my personal opinion about how much I disagree with their extremely intimate decision. Who does that?

Anyway- that is my rant for the day. I take solace in the fact that I still look to some people like a high school student, even if it is more of a resemblance to a teen mother high-school drop-out.
Ross wants me to make mention of the fact that I was wearing my BYU Idaho t-shirt at the time. You'd think that would have tipped her off at least a little bit. . .