Love you, Grandpaw

August 25, 1925 - April 8, 2010

$1.50

That's how much I paid for all of this.

:) Gotta love couponing.

Visiting Grandpaw

We had a wonderful visit with my grandparents in Seattle. Each day we had a short visit with Grandpaw, and it was so fun to have him meet and hold Isaac (although Isaac wasn't particularly fond of the picture taking).

Moving On

Sunday was the last day Isaac nursed. Sniff, sniff. Mixed feelings about that. We're moving on to a more mature baby phase (he's still a baby, right?). And I fasted for the first time since I got pregnant, so about 18 months. Wow! Can't believe it's been that long. I was a little nervous about it, but it actually felt SO good to be able to fast again.

This week we fly to Seattle to visit my Graden (paternal) Grandparents. In January my mom's parents encouraged the extended family to make 2010 and the coming decade a time to really focus on family relationships. I thought about that and realized I hadn't visited my Graden grandparents in about 18 months, so we began planning a trip. As we planned I felt strongly that we should go sooner rather than later. Easter/Conference weekend seemed like the perfect time because it was an excuse to just sit and watch General Conference and talk with my grandparents and not feel like we needed to go sight-seeing or anything. Several weeks later, my Grandpaw found out that he had Mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer cause by exposure to asbestos decades earlier. It was in the late stages of development, and his health very rapidly started deteriorating. He is confined to bed now, resting at home, done with the attempts at chemo. He's moving on. I can't wait to see him one more time and have him meet Isaac before he goes. I feel an enormous sense of gratitude for the promptings of the Spirit that made this last visit so timely, and for the life of faith and integrity that my grandpaw must be so at peace with. I hope he'll tell my mom hi for me.

Family Night Activity: Isaac's First Bubble Bath!

Irish in my Blood

I am proud to be 1/32 Irish! Hee hee. My great-great-grandmother is a Cavanaugh. This year I finally decided to do something American-Irish traditional and made Corned Beef and Cabbage in the crock pot, with a key lime pie for dessert (limes are green, right?). Walt dished himself up, and suddenly his plate started talking! I had to take a picture of his corned beef Irishman. The first picture shows just how tired my hard-working husband was tonight (before he went BACK to work after dinner), and the second one was taken after I told him to smile bigger. He humored me, but I somehow like the realness of the first one better. Thanks for working hard to support us, Honey!

Challenge Follow-Up

So I tried the modified challenge this week of not using electronics before 1:00 pm. In my version of the challenge I could talk on the phone (but not text) and I could watch my aerobics video to work out (did that twice). No radio, computer, television.

There were a couple of close calls: On Thursday morning I needed to get out and run some errands, and I had a book that I'd sold on Amazon that needed to be mailed. But I had forgotten to print the invoice off the internet, so I had to wait until Friday. On Friday I almost caved at 12:20 because I wanted to look up a recipe online really bad! But I made myself leave the computer room (aka Kitchen) and wait. Whew! One day Walt called before 1:00 needing me to look up a couple phone numbers for him. I hesitated, wondering if this was a legitimate exception and then remembered about a long-forgotten resource collecting dust in a drawer. Some of you may have used one before: a phone book! And what do you know, it had the numbers I needed.

It surprised me how often my first reaction when I finished a chore or put Isaac down for a nap was to head to the computer to check my email or look something up.

I was more productive in the mornings, more focused on Isaac, and I took a couple naps and read more for an overall better feeling me. Ahhhh. I loved it. Of course, in the afternoon and evening I could use those electronics as much as I wanted. But I found that I wanted them a little less.

Definitely a success. I'm trying to decide where to go from here. Keep on keeping on? Modify a little more? Chalk it up to a nice experience and go back to my old ways? I think it would be good for me to keep doing it, but a little part of me is resisting. You know how that goes?