My own Fancy Nancy

BEWARE THIS POST IS TANGENT CITY:

A couple of years ago I was listening to NPR. I am always listening to NPR.  Do you sense a theme in my blog: NPR, New York City, You've Got Mail, running,  and food.  These are a few of my favorite things.  Speaking of running.  My sisters and I did a marathon together.  Ever since my sister, Lauren, said she wanted to run a full marathon 4 years, I have had the dream brewing (dreams brew right?) that it would be amazing to run a marathon with BOTH my sisters.  Fast-forward to April and they tell me that they have signed up for the Richmond marathon. Uh..me too please! I was worried about running that far 4 months after Elliott was born, but the 1/2 doesn't stay on the same course. If I wanted to run with my sisters, I had to do the full and I really really wanted to run with my girls. So marathon here we come. We finished!!  I wish I wasn't too cheap to buy the pics because the one of us crossing the finish line together is FABULOUS. Jennie is jumping across the finish line.  Wow! I am really all over the place, because I started this post with listening to NPR....(You are in a maze in this story).  ANYWAY, I was listening to NPR about 5 years ago and heard them interview Jane O'Connor about her book Fancy Nancy.  I loved the idea of this little girl who is so precocious and wants everything to be completely fancy and she doesn't think her parents are fancy enough (if you haven't read this book, read it).  I went out and bought the book and it was everything I hoped for and more.  My love for Fancy Nancy was so strong that my friends threw a "Fancy Nancy baby shower" for Charlotte. I had no idea that this would mean that she would become Fancy Nancy.  But, oh she has become a fancy little thing.  I mentioned before that she refers to herself as Princess Charlotte.  She loves everything princess.  She believes that wearing a dress equals being a princess.  So when I put Elliott in a sleep sack and she was wearing feet pajamas she started crying because Elliott was a princess and she wasn't.  Most of the time she calls Elliott "Prince Phillip".  Although, the other day she called him "Beast," because Belle is her current favorite princess. We had the following conversation: 

Charlotte: Daddy and Ayet are Beast and I am Belle. 

 Me: Who is Mommy?

Charlotte: Blank Stare (clearly she has got Disney's message: princesses don't have mommies)

Me: Gaston?

Charlotte:NOOOO giggle

Me: Papa?

Charlotte: Nope

Me: Mrs. Potts

Charlotte NOOO your Heaor Sthedwick.

Me: Oh so are you Charlotte Sedwick then?

Charlotte: NOOO I am Belle.

Apparently, I am not fancy enough to even belong in her magical world :).  

She LOVES anything pink!  Nana wanted her to try thousand island dressing on her salad...she called it pink salad dressing and bam!...thousand island is her new favorite. She did throw a little curve ball at me the other day, because I asked her what her favorite color was and she said something other than pink...shocking, I know.  But then when she said, "sparkles" I knew that all was right in the world again.  She is always putting on "necknesses"(necklace) and joins me every morning to put on make up while I get ready.  Never mind that she puts green eye shadow on her lips.  When we were staying at the Marriott for the race the Marine Corp was having their ball there.  When she first saw all these gussied up gals she said she wanted to meet the princesses.  We went over to meet two girls in their ball gowns.  She was so excited.  Then she spent the whole time we were at dinner pointing out, "blue princess" and "green princess" and "flower princess".  So that night she wanted to put on her "belle dress" (her belle night gown) and go mingle with the other princesses.  The next morning she was sooo disappointed (aka she had a crying/whining/ breakdown) that she couldn't wear the Belle Dress all day.  Luckily, Lauren took her to the lobby and showed her the "secret princesses" who were wearing their street clothes and carrying their gowns out.    Maybe I'll have to tell her that "Heaor Sthedwick" is a secret princess too!  

By the way it took a lot of restraint on my part to allow her to wear this outfit.  The control freak in me was screaming inside.  

We are going to Disney World this next month and I think her head might explode.  Details to come.

A month...A month is a long trip!

I remember once I was flying home from an interview in North Carolina and I was sitting next to a woman visiting Utah for the first time. As we started to land she turned to me and said, "Ya'll have no trees!!!" I smiled and wanted to say, "duh, you guys don't have mountains." (With my strongest Utah accent)  Utah might not have many trees, but the mountains are pretty incredible.  There is something kind of amazing about looking out the window as we are coming in for a landing and seeing the majestic mountains with the jagged rocks. I know my kids will never have that "coming home" feeling when they see those mountains, but I sure I hope they have a "coming for fun" feeling.  We did our best this trip to make sure that was true. 

On my birthday Rich told me that one of his presents to me was a month long trip to Utah in September. A month!! It seemed so luxurious, but since my job is my kids now and they are portable...why not!   He was going to come out at the beginning for a "dude room" 10 year reunion. These guys named their apartment after a stolen sign.  This apartment was the reason we dated (in the most simplified version of the story).

My goodness, 10 years goes fast and yet so much has happened.  That first picture is after a whole lot of weddings, graduations and children....and facial hair.

When I found out that my grandmother was sick I just kept hoping that she would be alive when we came to Utah.  My Grandma Jo is awesome (more on that later). Five days before we left I had a moment.  It was one of those moments in the middle of the night that newborn mom's know about.  It was 2 or 3 or 4 AM.  I don't know for sure, because honestly it all starts to blend together.  But anyway it was a moment where I was alert and not frustrated at being awake.  Elliott had fallen asleep and I was just enjoying his snuggling body.  I thought, "I haven't heard any news on grandma in the last 2 days.  That must mean she is doing well and will get to meet this little guy."  The next morning I had a text from my mom waiting that said, "call as soon as you get this."  I knew what it meant.  It isn't until today as I was writing this that I wondered if maybe the reason I was thinking about my grandma at that moment in the middle of the night was because she was with me....meeting my little guy in his sweet baby dreams.  I hope so.

 

My Grandmother's funeral was the first day we were there. I am just going to say this...her funeral rocked.  Seriously! That feels like the best way to describe it even though as I reread those words they seem wrong for a funeral but they are right for my grandma.  My grandma was amazing and her funeral highlighted all of her.  I bawled and cracked up almost equally.  I felt inspired to be more and better in my life and I felt blessed to call her my grandma.  

My cousin Wendy did a tribute from all of the grandchildren and she called most of us to ask for favorite memories.  Soo many to choose from. My grandma would say the most inappropriate things just for the comedy of it and to see how others might react.  When Richard and I graduated from BYU we went to dinner to celebrate.  I warned Richard's family to not take anything personally and be ready for any question.  So we are all sort of waiting for what she will say.  The waiter comes up to take our order and she says, "tell me about your duck."  He said, "it is prepared blah blah with a blah blah sauce blah blah and served over blah blah blah."  She then says, "well I don't LIKE duck."  The waiter quickly replies, "well then you probably won't like this."  She sits in silence for a moment then says, "I'll have the duck."  

She is one of the original Wedding Crashers.  They lived one block from Temple Square in Salt Lake City where there are tons of weddings.  She used to go to the receptions and get the food.  But that wasn't enough, she would go through the line and greet the bride and groom.  I can just imagine her striking up conversations in the line.  

She was one of the original extreme couponers. She would clip coupons and go to three different grocery stores, then come home change her clothes and her purse and go to all three stores again!

She decided to work as a free sample lady because she thought it would be fun.  She loved to make traditions and create themes. She would get one dollar bills put into a notepad and give us dollar bills for answering trivia questions at family reunions. She would make goals or agendas of things she wanted to do and then do it.  

I want to be able to really explain who she was and i don't think my words are enough.  She was just so great.  I will miss my Grandma, but I think of her often and hope to become more like her. 

 

 And then here are a bunch of pictures from the rest of the trip...IT WAS A BLAST!! But there isn't as much to say about that...or there is and I am too lame to come up with anything. OH and they are not in order. I didn't think you really cared.  you don't right?

She wanted to "do that" after watching me wake board (despite the fact that she cried like I was being murdered while she watched me wakeboard...probably just sad that I can't jump the wake like my sister)

 Pony ride at the State Fair (turns out that I do like State Fairs when Charlotte is there)

 Ferris wheel

 corn dog 

 Dancing like it is her job at the state fair.

 Riding downtown SLC on tracks...this did nothing to help my obsession with big city living.  I thought traveling with two little ones on public transit would cure me of my dreams of NYC...it didn't.

 Temple square

 Learning to give a social smile.

 CARTER...love my nephew!  My sister's pretty cool too!

 Early morning marathon training with my sisters. These girls are the girls that I can tell any portapotty joke to and they laugh...what more could you ask for in a running buddy! 

 My family....what can I say...i like them a lot. (We miss you bubs!)

Hike #1-Elliott in tow...baby girl sleeping peacefully in Ama's care.

Hike #2- one on front and one on back...yep I'm hard core and sweaty (truth be told my sister put Elliott on for the hike down...but can we just pretend I did the whole thing, you know, for my ego)

 Muse Concert with my sisters and their friends.  We went to dinner and ordered Tapas.  They were great, but Lauren summed it up well when she said, "now whose up for Wendy's!!"

 Cousin time!  Learning to share and Charlotte practiced her mothering skills.

 Gravitron at the State Fair...I was laughing so hard that I got an ab workout.

 Touching the doors at the Salt Lake Temple...or "Castle" as Charlotte called it (she asked where Belle and Beast were)

 Rich at my old apartment (What up Double or Nothin!!)

 Rich at the BYU Football game.

 One of our many pics for Daddy!

 Charlotte feeding fish at the pond in Eden.

 Elliott and Apa in Eden!

Elliott and Anna...Loved visting with the Websters.

End of the world as we knew it...but not really

Okay, here are the facts: I have been holding out on this blog and not putting the real details of our life. I was hesitant to post anything publicly when we hadn't made an official decision to tell my work.   Now that we are a little more settled it is time.  Over the last two years we have been hoping, praying and looking for ways to stay in Richmond.  We both loved it there, but it wasn't meant to be. You would think that there is a need for dentists everywhere, but for some reason the right thing never showed itself.  The last year has been challenging....okay no it was more than challenging it was super stressful and tiring and unstable and draining and tear-inducing. Now that we are settled I see how much of a strain the last year was for us. In March Rich starting looking at a practice in Staunton, VA.  Anybody who knows me well, knows that I have love that is bordering on obsession with New York City and city life in general. To make a long story short, I was a big whiney, hormonal baby about moving to a small town.  I was downright obnoxious about it. In the end we felt that this was what we were supposed to do.  Rich started working at this office in June.  He was happy and I was, well I was being ultra dramatic and I was sure that a small town meant impending doom for me. It was difficult for me to leave Richmond with all the wonderful people, my job, the restaurants (I still have a million places I want to try there), the events, the shopping, the museums, the proximity to DC and larger airports.  I was not gracious or optimistic, but after a while I realized that this is really what is happening and I should be grateful.  My husband had a job and it was one that he liked.  We would be closer to family, I would get to spend more time with my kids and Staunton has some definite charms.  Well June, July and August were crazy with a combo of Rich living away from us 4 nights a week, I was working, then having a baby and packing our house.  On August 16th we got word that we had a place to move into. August 21st I gave my work official notice that I wasn't coming back (A call that was a culmination on lots of contemplation and tears. on my part). August 24th my dad came to help. August 25th Elliott was blessed and then we moved August 27th.  The day we moved in a little 2 year old neighbor girl came over to say hi to Charlotte and that night we went out to eat and I fell in love with the downtown of Staunton.  There were 3 restaurants that we were trying to decide between and then we had gelato at this fabulous gelateria. It was exactly what I needed.  It made me excited about our little town.  I have found a lot of favorite things about this town and I am happy.  I still miss my job and friends in Richmond, but we really are doing well.  Oh and Rich was mature and tolerant through all of this...bless him.

 My packing partners...FACT: They were not helpful.  They might be cute, but packers they are not. 

 The day we moved...blurry but the last pic of our fam together in our house.

 Appa with Elliott and loads of boxes.

 Elliott on his blessing day.

Saying good-bye to my office...sad.

 Richard's family, my dad, and the Delmege's on Elliott's blessing day.

 First day in our new house.

 Our new place is very close to a little park where Charlotte like the "fwings"

 Now that we had a little more space we could have Charlotte's Tea party move from Nana's house to our house.  

Before all of our stuff came.

New big bath tub that is MEANT for bubbles.