What a week! Wow! It started out with a birthday bang. I turned 32 on Wednesday. Jared surprised me by taking the day off so we could do something fun together. What I really wanted to do was spend an afternoon thrifting in some new areas, but I knew that would be more fun as a solo activity so I did that the afternoon before. This was SUCH a great idea that I want to make a yearly pre-birthday tradition. It's nice to spend my actual birthday with my family, but with the kids being so young there's a high chance that any family outing will go awry, so it was nice to know that I already got to do what I wanted to do and it was wonderful and peaceful. This made me more patient during the more meltdowny portions of my actual birthday.
My birthday morning went smoother than anticipated. After Jack was on his bus to school, Jared and I loaded up Alice and the inflatable paddle board I got for Christmas into the car. We drove nearly an hour to a new lake we'd never been to before: Lake Cavanaugh. We had to drive up a quiet mountain road for some time to get there (so pretty) and then the road opened to a big lake surrounded by cute lake houses (probably mostly vacation homes). The weather was nice, but not warm enough to want to get wet. The purpose behind this excursion was to visit a new lake, but also to see if Alice would sit still on a paddle board. I've been wanting to take her out while Jack is at school, but knew I should probably bring Jared with us this first time in case Alice wouldn't sit still. It was a good choice. Alice was very wiggly for our first 5 minutes on the board. I really needed to sit and hold her in my arms while Jared stood on the back and paddled us around. This worked wonderfully, and eventually she understood what was going on and sat still and enjoyed the ride. A huge bald eagle flew up above us and perched in a tree to look for a fish, so we spent most of our time watching that, until Jared's back started to hurt so we headed back. Alice is FINALLY at an age where she can be occupied with a baby show in the car, and I think I wrote this last week but it has made car rides so much more enjoyable (for the most part). We made it home in time for a late nap for Alice, and she napped really hard. Her best nap yet.
After Jack got home from school (he gets home early on Wednesdays), the goal was to load everyone back into the car and drive to nearby Camano Island to play at a really neat kids' park in the middle of a sculpture garden, and then walk along the beach and get seafood for my birthday dinner. This is the part that went awry. Alice woke up from her nap pretty angry, ands she was NOT happy to be immediately strapped back into the car for her third long car ride of the day. She screamed and screamed, and then Jack started to put up a stink, and about 25 minutes into the hour-long drive to Camano, I wised up and called the whole thing off. It was just going to be pushing Alice too far for one day. So we pulled into the nearest park, let the kids play for half an hour, and then drove back to Granite Falls for Jack to catch the last half of his football practice while I sat in the car and did some birthday reflecting and journaling. We considered going out to dinner at our local Mexican restaurant, but again, I knew this would be pushing Alice too far and it wouldn't be enjoyable. So instead we went home, microwaved some chicken nuggets for the kids, got Alice to bed, and then had cake and opened presents with Jack. I got a beautiful large book from my parents (AD 100--I've wanted it for a long time and it's gorgeous) and an at-home laser hair removal device from Jared haha (yes, this is what I asked for for my big gift this year). I have very coarse hair and always get lots of painful ingrown hairs in the summer from shaving. But I'm not willing to go through the hassle and upkeep of going somewhere to get 10 separate sessions of professional laser hair removal and then go back regularly for upkeep. So I'm gonna try this at-home thing and I'll let you know if it's a success at the end of the summer. Pritty kool.
After we got Jack to bed we ordered in some food from the local Mexican restaurant to eat while we watched a movie of my choosing: the new Little Women. We hadn't seen it yet and the interiors were incredible. It was a lovely evening.
Late Friday evening we got to see the Northern Lights from our house! Such a cool opportunity. I wasn't sure we'd ever get to see them unless we took a trip to Iceland in the winter or something. Jared was giddy. He loves a celestial event (if this counts as "celestial"). The conditions were just right with a level 5 solar storm, clear skies in Washington, and a crescent moon. One of our neighbors texted Jared with a picture of the sky bright with colors at around 11:00 at night. Normally we don't stay up that late, but we knew the Northern Lights were a possibility so Jared was painting and I was moving some picture frames around. We rushed outside and tons of our neighbors were standing in the streets staring up at the sky. Like something you'd see in a movie. We looked up and at first thought we were looking at wispy clouds, but the more we stared and let our eyes adjust, the more we noticed them changing from blue to pink, getting darker and brighter, and moving around. They were more visible from the darker areas of the street, and from the tiny park in the corner of our neighborhood, where we watched them for quite a while before going to wake Jack and watch them in our backyard. Jack was glad we woke him up but only lasted a couple minutes before he wanted to go back to bed. We got some pictures. The aurora definitely didn't look this vibrant in real life, but our cameras picked it up really well. Come to think of it, I'm kicking myself for not bringing out my DSLR to try to capture it there. The phone cameras did the job of documenting though.
On Saturday morning, Jack ran his first 5k. He was probably a little young, but he's always had an abundance of energy and loves to race. We've been wanting to sign him up for a race for a while to see if he loves it and wants to join a youth track team. Jared signed up to run with him in our town's Granite Falls 5k. This felt like the easy choice, but in hindsight I wish we'd signed up for a bigger/more fun 5k with water stations, hundreds or thousands of racers, and maybe some attractions at the end. That type of race day energy would have made it more fun. It was a bit of a let-down to show up and realize there were only maybe 20 people running the race, and no water stations or anything. Nonetheless, Jack did really well. There were a handful of other kids running and Jack beat all of them, which was his goal. He finished 4th overall and finished in 32 minutes, which is pretty impressive for a 6-year-old. He was glad he did it, but he got pretty worn out toward the end and said he's not sure he wants to run another 5k for a while. I think a 1-mile fun run would be more his speed next time. Nonetheless, we immediately hopped back into the car at the finish line to drive 30 minutes to Jack's football game. He played as aggressively as always and immediately scored a touchdown for his team. Jack's more of a "game" type of guy than a "long run" type of guy, so we'll skip the youth track team and keep with flag football. After the game Jared's parents treated us to a seafood lunch in Snohomish for my birthday, and some presents from them. It was another wonderful day.
Sunday was of course Mother's Day. It was a busy but beautiful day. I woke up to German pancakes and some sweet presents Jack made for me. Jared gave a nice talk in church, then Alice refused to take a nap after church and it was a rough few hours. Finally we drove to Jared's parents' house after church, and I thanked the stars once again that Alice will watch a show in the car now. That drive was pretty miserable for the first 18 months of her life, but it went great this time. At Jared's parents' home we had a nice dinner and some lemon bars Jared and I made for dessert, and went for a leisurely kayak rid and sat on the lawn at their neighborhood lake. Now that I know it isn't realistic to take Alice out on a paddle board on my own, I've been wanting to see if it would be possible to take her out on my own on a kayak. I was grateful to have the opportunity to test it out, and it went really well! Much better than the paddle board. She was still wiggly, but I could keep her pretty contained in my lap and with a free hand to pull her back closer when needed between paddling. Jack loved going for a ride with me too. I'm not sure I'd take them both out at the same time, but it would be nice to have a kayak and a paddle board this summer so our whole family can go out on the water at the same time. There are so many gorgeous lakes within a 20-minute drive of our house. We're looking forward to enjoying them this summer. Whew, that was a big post. Now, pictures:
Hello hello! I am so happy to greet May! With my birthday and Mother's Day coming up, along with a slew of fun outings I've planned around them, it should be a great time. This last week was a good week in home decor land. We got a new bed to replace our old bed frame that didn't have a headboard or footboard. I wanted one with a slat-style headboard to let light from the window into the room (our bed is pushed up against the window so we can look at the stars while we fall asleep when we feel so inclined). We went with an iron bed because all the other furniture in our room is made out of wood. Most importantly I wanted ease of install since we'll likely be moving at some point in the next few years, and this one checked that box. I'll have to share a picture next week. Our bedroom always seems to be one of the last rooms in the home I tackle design-wise, but it is finally starting to come together.
In other home design news, we are proud owners of our first large, original oil painting! Jared has always loved oil paintings. His grandpa dabbled in painting and Jared is a pretty good artist. I'd never really had an opinion or even really thought about paintings or other wall art during the first 30 years of my life (other than my weaving phase, which was so much fun). But I learned a lot about art after listening to every episode of the Dear Alice home design podcast this last year, and with Jared getting more serious about his oil painting hobby I finally got on the train. Jared and I have loved having "art research" date nights where we scour pinterest and show each other what types of paintings we like. I've started looking for paintings when I go thrifting and on Facebook Marketplace. FB marketplace is a new hobby for me, but this last week I found an enormous oil painting listed for less than $100. I texted it to Jared and he loved it. From the little FB marketplace experience I have I've learned that good pieces that are listed at a great price often get scooped up within minutes in our area. So I offered a little extra for them to hold it until Jared could get home from work and drive the 45 minutes to get it, since I had school pickup and football practice to get to in the meantime. Also, Jared's the one with strong art opinions so I wanted him to be the one to see it in person before committing. Anyway, they agreed, Jared got the painting, and it's now hanging right in our entryway. It's a painting of a melancholy little abandoned rowboat, presumable tied along the Washington shoreline. It's definitely moody, but we like a moody oil painting. I'm gonna do you dirty and leave you without a picture this week. I'll add it to my planner to take a picture to post next week though!
I'm still playing catch-up from the week I accidentally skipped a blog post. So we have LOTS of pictures this week! Not too many life updates though. Jack is in his spring season of flag football and loving it. Alice learned how to say "no no" and it's actually very cute, and pretty helpful for her to be able to tell us what she doesn't want. It's crazy how fast she got to the point of understanding . . . pretty much every question we ask her. She doesn't have many words yet but can communicate quite a bit. Jared is enjoying his work. No news on that front. I got through the weekend, which included a doozy of a stake primary activity. It was three of us from the stake primary presidency and 40-50 kids playing gym games. A healthy kind of chaos! And now for too many pictures:
To start out with, I'm sorry last week's blog post went missing! It was the pictures from our week in Utah, but I am not seeing it anymore. I will upload them again into this post and hope it sticks.
Now onto the disappearing snorts and warts. A bit of a TMI post, but if you have snoring or wart problems in your life perhaps it might help. (If not, you may as well skip to the pictures.) Jared has had a persistent case of the snores over the past 5 or 6 years--around the time Jack was born and Jared started residency. For a while it was easy to blame "stress," since nothing else had really changed. But the snoring got progressively louder and worse, even after residency ended a few years ago. It got so bad that my sleep was really taking a hit, since the snoring would begin immediately upon Jared falling asleep, and he tends to fall asleep, well, immediately after we turn the lights out. We tried all the easy fixes--different sleep positions, nasal strips, etc. Nothing helped much. The research I started doing on snoring indicated that if the snoring is every night no matter what, and is nonstop, it's probably a good idea to do a sleep study to rule out potentially dangerous conditions. Jared was not a fan of this idea at all, so he assured me it was probably just related to a little weight gain, and he would prove it by getting the weight off. Which he did for a while, but the snoring continued.
Fast forward to 2024. The snoring is worse than ever. It's some of the worst snoring you've ever heard. The only worse snoring there is comes from his dad, which indicates to me that this problem probably won't just get better on its own. My sleep is suffering deeply unless we sleep in separate rooms, which I know lots of couples with a snoring situation make work, but I just would rather not if possible. My quality time with Jared is too limited in this stage of parenthood as it is. And even if earplugs did help me, which they don't much, I can't hear the baby waking up if I have earplugs in. So in sum, it's been a bit of a dilemma. Thought I'd share what so far seems to be a welcome solution in case there's anyone else out there in this predicament.
First, the strategy. Whenever I suggested a sleep study, Jared would get defensive. "I'm too young to have sleep apnea. A study is annoying. It's expensive and will just show that nothing's wrong. Some people just snore!" And since he's a doctor, it's tough to change his mind on anything medically related, even if I'm coming at it with research of my own to back me up. But again, my quality of life was suffering. So I played the birthday card. "All I want for my birthday is for you to do a sleep study. Please don't get me anything else. All I want is to sleep soundly in the same room as my lovey dovey." (All the heart eyes and flattery.) He still got defensive, which I think is pretty silly because my issue here wasn't about him snoring, it was about me, the love of his life, losing sleep every night. I told him I was letting him know a month in advance so he could try whatever other ideas he might have to get rid of the snoring, but if it wasn't gone by my birthday then this was indeed the birthday request I would ask of him. This finally lit the necessary fire under his bum and he ordered all sorts of devices to try to prove a sleep study would not be necessary. I will be honest and say I didn't expect any of them to work.
But alas! On night one of Jared's personal project snore-be-gone, he tried a snore nasal spray that helped substantially. It cut the snore volume fully in half--maybe more. Pretty great! I honestly would have taken that as a win enough and let him off the hook, but he still had two new tricks he wanted to try. On night two, there was a funny-looking chin strap. This did very little--possibly even less than the snore strips he's used nightly for the past 3 years. But on night 3 he pulled out the big guns. "Snore RX" the package read, and inside was a monstrous mouth guard that he boiled and then fitted into his jaw with a flourish. He seemed very optimistic about this one. And with good reason! It finally happened. I fell asleep next to my husband to the sound of (for the first time in years) absolutely nothing! Praise be! I poked him a few times to make sure he was really asleep, but sure enough he was out and silent. I woke up the next morning feeling something new. It was a feeling called . . . refreshed? The first time I've slept through the night uninterrupted in quite a while--except for the stint when Jared was sick/contagious and I made him sleep in the guest bedroom. The next night, last night, was another Snore RX success story. I think the snores have disappeared for good (knock really hard on wood)! It is very strange to turn my light off at night and feel something other than dread that the snores will arrive in my ear holes at any moment. Anyway, this post isn't a Snore RX advertisement. It's a "play the birthday card on your snoring spouse sooner than I did" advertisement. The solution will be different for everyone. For my snoring brother it was having his tonsils and adenoids removed as an adult. For my snoring dad it was getting on a C-pap machine. For some the snore strips you can grab at any drugstore do the trick. For others, ear plugs or sleeping in separate bedrooms might be the right solution. And for us, for now, Snore RX! I'm so happy. Happy almost birthday to me. And thank you Jared. You truly are the medical genius of this century😏
Can't end this post without exposing my own unflattering secret. Warts. Plantar warts. All over my big toe. For years and years. Gross. Probably as many years as Jared's been snoring. Took those warts to a doctor to have them frozen off a few times. They always grew back, and were starting to spread to the next toe over and cause me pain. So a month ago I started attacking them with apple cider vinegar on a cotton swab taped over the warts every night. It's taken a full month and been kinda painful, but they are mostly gone. I tried this method a year ago and they turned black (gross) but I never cut or filed them down, and they just ended up coming back. This time I'm attacking them much harder and they will be destroyed completely forever. You'll see. You'll all see. Our 30s are looking very glamorous on us haha.
And now on a more wholesome note, some pictures from Utah! I will have to be sparse with the captions because it is well past my bedtime. Busy day.
