Happy first week of summer break to you! It has been a ride. Not at all what I expected it to be. I anticipated that we might experience some of the difficulties we did last summer (Jack wanting too much of me and getting ragey). But that has not been the case at all. Jack has been lovely and we've had some really sweet times together. Alice is old enough to play with him more, and I've made some changes around our house/schedule that have really set us up for success this summer.
The difficulty so far has been with the neighborhood friends. On the first day of summer they were knocking at our door and ringing our doorbell constantly. We got back from the park and 2 minutes later there were kids at our door. I told Jack he could play with them for 20 minutes before we needed to eat lunch and have nap time/quiet time. He did so and then came back in. But the neighbor kids were back knocking within minutes. "Can Jack play at 2:00? We are going to blow up water balloons then and have a water fight!" That was going to cut both of our quiet times short, but it was the first day of summer and I'm not a monster so I said yes. Jack finished lunch and I got the kids upstairs. It wasn't long before I started hearing screaming on our porch. I peeked out our window and saw 3 neighbor kids playing on our porch, pushing each other on the baby swing and screaming/laughing. I figured they'd go away soon since Jack was gone. They did not. The yelling got louder and soon I started hearing thuds against our house as they thwacked the swing against the wall. NOPE. I went out and told them that Alice was trying to sleep and they'd need to go home until Jack was done, and then I'd send him over to their house. They left, but 5 minutes later I was hearing the same sounds, and lo and behold the same kids were back with two more kids from the neighborhood.
I spent the rest of the quiet time and day policing the neighbor kids and teaching Jack about play etiquette, as one time one of his "second-tier" friends came over and asked to play. He said yes, but 4 minutes later a "first-tier" friend came over and so he ditched the initial friend to go play with the other friend, and the first friend looked so sad and dejected and asked if she could play with me and Alice and it was just a long day. At one point a kid barged into our house, without knocking, when Jack wasn't even there. One of Jack's friends is a 30-year-old woman with disabilities who is about 7 years old mentally. She's really sweet and I don't mind them playing together outside in our front yard, but she can get attached to me and Alice and Savvy too and it just adds another level of complexity. I feel like I can't enjoy our front porch this summer because if any of us are spotted, the peace will be gone for the next several hours. I took Alice's swing off the front porch and it's being stored in the guest room because I don't want it drawing in neighbor kids during quiet time anymore, especially when they aren't respectful of our property or of my requests to come back later.
The other part of the "neighbor kid" problem is that Jack's favorite friends in the neighborhood are a really rough little bunch. Not great influences. It's a 5-year-old boy and his 9-year-old uncle who carries his phone with him everywhere and will show Jack videos on youtube (big red flag). They are mean, get physically violent when upset, name call and swear every time they open their mouths. But they are the friends that live closest and the friends that like to do the same things as Jack (active games and sports). They are always outside or knocking on our door, so they're constantly on his mind. I've been tweaking our schedule every evening this last week to try and put up boundaries to protect my boy and to protect my own peace and happiness this summer. Our new schedule includes a relaxed breakfast, doing some chores, leaving the house, then coming home for lunch, quiet time, and computer time. No friends until after computer time, and even then . . . I'm going to do my best to keep Jack out of the neighborhood as much as possible. Our day just goes so well until the neighbor friends come into the picture.
I want to be able to just send my kid out in the neighborhood to play with friends all summer. I'm really pretty laid-back and loved my own childhood summers playing tag with friends all day. But the kids on our particular street are rough, they disturb my peace, and there's a level 2 child sex offender who lives 4 doors down from us. Combine all that with getting rejected from our last viable prospect for a Utah job last week . . . I've just been feeling stuck and discouraged. I ordered an open/closed sign to put outside our front door to try and train the neighbor kids that they can only knock during the very limited times each day when the sign will be flipped to "open." And I'm jumping back into the research phase of job hunting to see if we can get any other options on the table. Jared talked to his intermountain contact last week and they said there won't be any new family physician openings in or around Utah Valley until 2026. So we're expanding the radius to, likely, the entire state of Utah. I am dying to be closer to family/Jack's cousins, and to be able to move to a safer neighborhood. Pray for us! And now, some pictures from our week:
It's getting late, but I wanted to publish a post before the end of the day--especially because tomorrow is Jack's last day of school and so writing time will be more difficult to come by for the next few months. We finally heard back about our "big career news" this week aaaaand . . . it was a bust. No job offer extended. Jared specialized in rural family medicine during residency, and the tricky thing with rural medicine is that oftentimes rural clinics are looking for a family physician who will also do OB work. Jared did get a fair amount of OB training during his residency and he delivered lots of babies, but he didn't specialize in OB, and he didn't like the higher-risk environment of delivering babies. The rural job he interviewed for in Utah ended up hiring a family physician with an OB fellowship instead of him. We wish they would have told us from the get-go that they were hoping for a family physician who would also deliver babies. In the end he wouldn't have been as happy in that type of job though, so the outcome is probably for the best. But it still stings to be turned down.
There are no other job prospects on the table at this time, so for now we settle in for a gorgeous PNW summer, relax our pace a bit, and continue to keep our eyes peeled for Utah jobs. The pickings are a bit slim since our loan repayment plan requires Jared to work for a nonprofit hospital system at this time. Luckily Jared does love his job here and we do love the beauty in this area of Washington. Our town's not all that family friendly though and we wish our kids could grow up closer to their cousins and in a better school district than where we currently live. It's also just been a long time since I've lived close to my family, and even though home is wherever we are, I'm frankly feeling a bit homesick for where I grew up. It's officially been over a decade of living far away now. And I wish I could spend more time having lunches with my mother and grandmothers in Utah. Grateful to be close to Jared's parents here though and share lots of special moments with them. They are planning to retire to Utah in the coming years too though. So. Pros and cons to being here a while longer. Like with all places. A few pictures from our week:
The post that already went up this morning is one I wrote and prescheduled last week. But it doesn't really match the mood of the day so I wanted to write this more current post about our weekend we're just coming out of. Saturday evening, Alice took a fall off our patio table onto the concrete below. She had climbed out of her clip-on seat onto the table after dinner, and just as I was reaching over from the other side of the table to lift her off, she slipped backward and landed flat on her back on the ground (or so I thought at the time).
I immediately knew it had been a serious fall. Alice just lay there screaming, not attempting to roll or get up. I ran to get Jared before scooping her up, because I didn't want to risk moving her the wrong way if there was a back injury, and I really value his doctor eyes in these types of situations. Jared picked her up gently and tried to comfort her. Her back was scraped up and so was the back of her head. She looked dazed to me, so my mind went straight to "concussion." Jared got a bath ready for her. I didn't feel comfortable putting her in by herself and she felt pretty limp, not really holding any weight, so I got in with her. She sobbed the whole time and was shaking. I asked Jared to take her to an urgent care, but he insisted that he knew the signs of concussion and wanted to watch her a little longer. It was past her bedtime, but I didn't feel comfortable putting her to sleep in her crib by herself, and she's not a baby who will fall asleep in your arms. I decided to try and get her to sleep in our bed so we could keep an eye on her throughout the night. I turned on a toddler show to try and calm her down, which helped. Within half an hour she seemed more like herself and could answer our questions and point to things on request. It was also clear she wouldn't actually fall asleep unless she was in her crib. Jared assured me he would check in on her a few times during the night and take her to the urgent care in the morning if there were any concerns.
She woke up once or twice in the night and Jared went to check in on her. In the morning when I went to get her out of her crib, she kept pointing to her arm and saying, "Ow, ow." Jared told me she had done the same during the night and he noticed she wasn't using her arm much. He made her a makeshift arm splint and off they went to an urgent care while Jack and I got ready for church. After several hours at the urgent care, it was confirmed that her head and back were fine, but she had broken her elbow. The elbow must have taken the brunt of the fall. It was bad enough that she would need to have surgery to get pins put in. When he called to tell me, I had just dropped Jack off at a friend's house so I could run to a meeting for my calling. The stake center is half an hour from our house and I cried the whole way there. The ladies in my calling were so nice and it turned out to be a blessing to have some alone time in the car to cry while Jack was gone, and have a distraction for an hour or two and some older moms in my calling to comfort me and tell stories of their own children getting hurt and everything turning out ok. I called my mom after and then Jared video called me and I got to see Alice in her little hospital gown before her surgery, in mostly pretty good spirits. I felt a lot better after that and Jack and I had a nice afternoon together, talking and clearing the floor of tripping hazards in preparation for Alice to come home and making brownies.
Alice's surgery went well and she came out of the anesthesia great. She got a cast and was happy and a little loopy from the anesthesia when they got home. It is going to be a challenge to keep her safe and stable and dry for the next 3 weeks until the pins come out--she is not allowed to fall at ALL during that time or the pins might get knocked loose. But I am grateful that the surgery went seamlessly, that Jared is medically knowledgeable and took the lead on the all-day venture of getting our baby fixed up, and that it was an arm injury instead of a head injury. I'm quite nervous about keeping everyone safe and happy when Jack's summer begins next week, but trying to focus on gratitude that he will be in school for another week and a half. We are doing ok. Alice is a trooper. We are going to be more cautious going forward. And now you're all caught up! Should be an interesting few weeks.
^^The two pictures Jared took in the hospital. I feel like he had to have taken this one for irony purposes? I'll have to ask him. He was really impressed with everyone at Seattle Children's Hospital. Our experiences with medical professionals in the Seattle area have been really great so far.
So like I mentioned in last week's post, we found a VRBO cottage on Lake Bosworth, which is pretty close to where we live. Vacation rentals fill up FAST in this part of Washington since we're so close to Seattle (lots of people looking to go on a summer vacation). Knowing that this might be our last summer in Washington we really wanted to do something as a family. Top of my list and what seemed easiest with a toddler was to stay at a house on a lake and spend the days snacking and napping in the house, lounging on the dock, and playing on the water. The tricky part was not knowing if we'd be moving this summer. If we do find ourselves moving, that would likely be happening in August. So we blocked August off as a no-vacations month, just in case. In July we will likely be visiting Utah for a family reunion--especially if we aren't going to be moving to Utah the next month for a new job. So we blocked July off too, just in case. That left June. Not the hottest of months in Washington, but if this was our only guaranteed option for a "summer" vacation we'd gladly take it. And at the time of booking our vacation (two months ago) Alice still wasn't tolerating long car rides, so we decided on this lake close to home. We booked the only two nights still available.
Unfortunately, it did end up raining the entire time we were there so there wasn't much dock-lounging or water play, but we had a great time nonetheless. Two days and nights of games, yummy snacks, braving the rain, and making some wonderful family memories. It was worth every cloudy, rainy minute. Jack went to bed in his window seat overlooking the lake with the biggest grin plastered across his face each evening after we played several board games. And neither of our kids woke up during either of our nights there! Like, at all! That rarely even happens at home, and never on vacation for us. It might've been our very first trip since before Jack was born that nobody woke up in the night. It was an unexpected vacationing-with-young-kids miracle. (We did have AMPLE difficulty getting Alice settled to initially fall asleep for her bedtimes and naps though, so we didn't get let off the hook too easy.) Here are some pictures from our lovely, cloudy time at Lake Bosworth:
I'm writing this post on Sunday to be published tomorrow (Monday). We will not be home. We will be on our first family vacation as a family of four! We have done several trips to visit family, but this is our first attempt at a "vacation." We wanted to do a family vacation somewhere in Washington this summer. But all the cool places we haven't been to are a bit of a drive, and with our vacation track record it would probably just be hours of kids crying in the car, and then a full night of no sleep because Alice would have trouble sleeping in a new location, and then we'd call it quits the next morning and abandon ship and head home. So I found a little VRBO cottage on a cute lake 10 minutes from our house. We're calling it our vacation with training wheels, because if Alice won't sleep at night one of us can run home with her for the night sleep, and if we need a break from Jack during the day we can send him to school haha. And actually, we will be sending him to school! That was originally the emergency escape plan, but then Jack informed me he would be SUPER bummed to miss pizza Monday, and his teacher let me know it's end of year testing, so it's a vacation, it's a staycation, it's a couples retreat (if Alice naps while Jack's at school) . . . this could be great. The only bummer is that we were hoping to spend the two days we're there living on the private dock and kayaking around the lake, but although it was sunny all last week and will be hot and sunny again once our vacation ends, the forecast shows a constant downpour from the time we arrive to the time we leave. We're doing the only thing we can do and packing puzzles, games, sweatpants, and lots of snacks and leaning into it. It's going to be our lazy rainy sweatpantsy lake vacation.
In other news . . . there really isn't any other news from our last week. Le sigh. I mentioned we were expecting big news this week, but it never came. I am abandoning all expectations and fully prepared for it to take several more weeks before we receive any big news. Rest assured I will let you know if and when we do! In the meantime, this is the perfect time to unplug and get away on a sweatpants vacation. Some pictures from last week:
Happy Memorial Day! Jared got the day off so we made the most of it. The boys met with some of Jack's football friends at the trampoline park this morning. Then we went to a ward picnic lunch at Cascade Park, where there were delicious burgers, hay rides, and lots of friends to play with. Then after Alice's nap we loaded up the little kayak I got for my birthday to take it for its inaugural ride on our town's little lake. It was a hit! I got one of the Lifetime Daylite kayaks that are at the front of most Walmarts here this time of year. It's lightweight enough that I can carry it and load it onto the car myself, but holds enough weight that I could take Alice and Jack on a ride with me. Jack even paddled it around the lake himself this afternoon and loved it. We'll likely get a second one at some point, especially if I use it multiple times a week all summer long like I intend to.
Jack's ear infection went away quickly last week and he was able to perform in his Kindergarten spring concert. First he was "really nervous" to be in the concert, so much so that he was having trouble sleeping, because one of his class friends told him how nervous he was. Then the next morning at the bus stop one of his neighborhood friends said, "Jack are you so excited to be in the concert tonight? I can't wait!" And then all of a sudden he was so excited about it. Kids are so impressionable when it comes to their peers at this age.
We're expecting big news this week (probably Friday), so keep us in your thoughts. Jared handles the anxiety by shutting down and sleeping all the time. I handle it by snapping at everyone. We're a good time! I'll keep you updated next week. In good news, we got a new nephew this last week--baby Hunter! That's 3 new nieces/nephews this year so far. Can't wait to meet and spend more time with all of them. Here are some pictures from our week:
We made it to the other side! Of spring football season, of my first stake speaking assignment, of Alice fully transitioning to a long one-nap sleep schedule. And on the other side we found . . . our family's first ear infection! We're focusing on gratitude that in our kids' combined 8 years of life, this is the first ear infection. I'm also big-time grateful this week for the perk of Jared being able to call in prescriptions for our family instead of having to jump through the hoops of making an appointment, waiting for the appointment, dragging my kids there, paying for the visit, and waiting for the prescription to be called in. It feels really good to be on the other side of that long decade of medical training.
The ear infection hit Jack hard last night. Right as I was getting into bed Jack let out a deathly scream from his room and had woken up in agony. Jared went in there as I finished calendaring all the school performances we'd need to be at this week, and tried to comfort him. Got him some medicine. Determined that the problem was an ear infection. But then he just left him in there screaming and went back to bed? He must not have realized the extent of the issue and thought it was a "bad dream, he'll calm down and fall back asleep on his own in a minute" type of situation. That was not the situation. Poor kid was in so much pain. I ended up spending the night on his bottom bunk and getting him medicine and warm compresses as he woke up screaming in pain every 2 hours all night long.
Frankly I'd be justified in feeling annoyed at Jared opting out of the night care, leaving Jack screaming and assuming I'd just take care of it after a week of me staying up late working on my talk, but (a) I think he truly believed Jack would settle down and sleep through the night, and (b) these days Jared is usually the default night-care parent if Alice wakes up in the night. She gets more worked up when I go to her at night and calms down more quickly when Jared goes to her. He is very sweet with her during her sleep disturbances. It's true that there is more work involved with two kids than one, but there is something satisfying about being able to cut the load in half pretty evenly with two kids in situations like this (Jared taking Alice's night wakings last week, me taking Jack's). Doesn't always work out that way but looking back we've been pretty good at ebbing and flowing over the years when the parenting night-shift load needs needs adjusting (when Jared was in residency I handled most of Jack's night wakings, when I was pregnant Jared handled them, when I was breastfeeding I handled nearly all of Alice's, now we split the kids' wakings pretty evenly). It isn't always an equal split, but it feels fair and has worked for us. That was a random tangent I didn't intend to go on, but I've been listening to the "Fair Play" audiobook this week so it's top of mind.
Anyway, Jared looked in Jack's ear this morning with his otoscope and was taken aback by just how bad it looked. "Definitely a middle ear infection--not a 'wait and see' situation. I'll send in for antibiotics immediately," he said. SO satisfying to hear. I kept Jack home from school since he was still writhing in agony. And now we cross our fingers that the antibiotics will make quick work of this infection because we've got a Kindergarten spring program to be at tomorrow evening!
Can't end this post without touching on the highlights of our weekend. Jack had the "best Saturday ever!" It was his final flag football game of the season. He scored two really incredible touchdowns in the pouring rain. Then his team had an end-of-season party at his school's park. And then he went to a birthday party all afternoon. I gave a talk on "Finding Personal Peace" Sunday and it went really well. It was a timely topic for me and I loved collecting insight from loved ones to add to the talk. I'm finally starting to hit my stride in this calling. There is actually a LOT required of it (monthly ministering in different wards, semi-frequent stake speaking assignments, teaching training meetings and planning/executing several large activities during the year. I'll be honest and admit that sometimes I feel really weighed down by it, but when I do the elephant approach and take it one bite at a time it's ok. Definitely a lot for the stage of life when I have young kids at home, but I don't feel like it's going to drag me under anymore (famous last words).
Anyway, here are some pictures from our week:
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:
