week in review

This week was sweltering hot. By Wednesday, temperatures were hovering around 100 degrees, with the heat index pushing them up even higher. The only way to make doing anything bearable was to find a comfortable place to sit, preferably with some semblance of a breeze wafting by, and not move at all, something I did my best to do a lot of. But that method will only work for so long, which is why at least a portion of every day was spent in swimsuits running through the park sprinklers. On one particularly memorable visit, Garrett fell in with a group of kids going down a makeshift water slide. Garrett had a blast; Caleb, who is still a little wary of this wet sprinkler business, found a comfortable place from which to watch.




On the hottest day of the week, Garrett's class hosted a family picnic at another local park. Garrett of course couldn't get enough of both the sprinklers or his special friend, Sofia. The potato sack was especially funny to watch him participate in. It took him awhile to figure out how to maneuver both hopping and moving forward, and once he did, the rest of the racers began rushing past him en route to the finish line. Garrett, thinking it better to keep up with everyone else rather than hop the race completely, just turned right around and joined the others. But even with his attempt at a shortcut, he still didn't win.




That same day was Stake Temple Day. After the picnic I started my day over again with another cold shower before heading up to Manhattan to attend a session. It was nice to be in the temple, partly because of the peaceful spirit that can be felt there, and mostly because it was air conditioned.

But speaking of air conditioning, our little heatwave served as the kick in the pants we needed to install our window a/c units. For the first time since we moved here, we have (thanks to my friend, Ashley, who moved earlier this year to a building with central air) an air conditioner for almost every room in the house: two smaller ones in the bedrooms and a larger one in the livingroom, which also helps to cool the kitchen. By Friday they were all installed, and we were living the good life. For probably the first time ever, I didn't mind the fact that I had to wait around all day for the UPS guy to come deliver my diaper order because for probably the first time ever, I got to spend a hot, sticky summer day at my house not feeling hot and sticky.

When the UPS guy did finally show up, he came bearing not only a supply of diapers, but also a soon-empty cardboard box that both boys quickly got to work playing with. Garrett, whose imagination runs wild these days, proclaimed that the box was a boat, a car, a train, a rocketship, a city, and a tunnel, though not necessarily at the same time or in that order.


Caleb, meanwhile, was perfecting the art of climbing out of his crib. We discovered this new talent of his on Friday when he joined his brother at my bedside first thing in the morning. Can I tell you how surreal it is to watch your your 21-month-old son walk nonchalantly into your room when you are pretty certain that you tucked him into a crib the night before? What the --? How did he --? Wait a minute -- isn't he too young to have figured this out already?! After he did it again during his Saturday afternoon nap, we asked him for an encore, which we captured on film. While on the one hand, he handles his escape in a relatively safe manner, on the other hand, this is the child who's already paid a visit to the ER with a concussion. We're trying to figure out our best next step (given our space, immediate room rearrangement is not really an option at this point). For now we're doing our best to get him out of the crib before he takes matters into his own hands.




On Saturday morning my friends and I put on a baby shower for our friend, Deborah, who is expecting her first baby (a boy) next month. Because we spread the assignments over so many people, coordinating the details was relatively simple. (Thanks to everyone who helped!) We served an assortment of cheeses, I made cake balls, and Emily made a pretty amazing diaper cake. The best part, though, was getting to spend the morning in the company of a group of women I have really come to love.



And if this wasn't enough to make for a week filled to the brim, I somehow managed to devour a highly addicting book: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Have you read it? Because, wow. You really should. It was absolutely riveting. Because it's the story of a WWII POW, a good chunk of the book was also pretty horrifying, and as such, there were times I just wanted to put it down. But I couldn't. Which was good because even though things always got worse just when you thought they couldn't, eventually everything turned out all right for old Louie Zamperini.

And now, my friends, I need/really deserve a nap. So here is the first full week of June, signing off.