Nathan & Fiona, Kaisa & Everett – Family Blog

Fiona’s gone for the weekend but not forgotten. We all know she’s the favorite in the family, aside from Kaisa, to whom Fiona would have to plea “no contest”. But I think we’ve figured out a way Fiona can keep us all updated via her phone. So watch for those updates this weekend. I’ll be working on a raised garden bed in the backyard if anyone wants to help.

**Update** I didn’t get it working without flaws, but everything’s up-to-date as of Monday night.

**Update again** Everything looked good on my home computer but my work computer (and so probably most of your computers) is missing the pictures!  Sorry about that, I’ll have to check it out when I get home.

Many of you may have noticed that we were baby-free on Sunday at church. Actually, we were baby free most of the weekend! We took the weekend “off” from parenting and spent some quality time together as husband and wife for Mother’s Day.

A few months ago, we attended a timeshare sales presentation, and after listening to their shpeal for a few hours and saying no several times, they finally let us leave with our promised incentive…a certificate to spend a night for free at the Anniversary Inn. I put in a few date requests and we heard back that we would be staying on Mother’s Day. They booked us in one of their least popular suites, Jackson Hole, but our certificate said we could call the morning of the reservation and change to any available room, so we planned on trying our luck with that.

Saturday night we celebrated Mother’s Day at Nathan’s parents and had a nice dinner, cooked by the husbands. We opened gifts and played games, and left Kaisa there. Sunday morning I slept in and enjoyed the luxury of getting ready for church without any interruptions. I shaved my legs, painted my fingernails, and even curled my hair. It was wonderful! We were also able to call and change our room to the Presidential Suite, with a balcony overlooking SLC, a King-size Intelli-Gel bed, and a fireplace! We were pretty excited!
After church, we quickly grabbed dinner and packed, watched the Jazz win game #4, and headed for Salt Lake. We spent a wonderful, romantic evening together and reconnected with one another. It was fabulous!

On the way home Monday morning, Nathan says to me “we should do this once a quarter.” I thoroughly agree. I think it is so important for husbands and wives to take time for each other, away from the children, on a regular basis. We felt so invigorated and close to one another and I came into this week with a LOT more energy to take care of Kaisa and do all of the other things that are demanded of me. Thanks, babe, for a wonderful weekend!

I finally got my photo CD from Kaisa’s 1 year shoot. Here are some of the best ones for your enjoyment. Don’t I have a gorgeous family??

In grade school I was once asked what, of a list of objects, would work in space. We has to carefully things about things like a rubber liferaft, whistle, lighter, matches, piano, and other random objects. I don’t remember much from that lesson except for a piano wouldn’t work because it needs gravity. But would a boomarang work? Make your guess and watch to see…

Goal for May – Begin a Habit of a good Morning Routine. This is something I’ve had little to do with since the mission, although it’s a good idea. I would really like to start waking up earlier and getting a jump start on my day. In fact, “would like” is not as strong a phrasing as I’m going for here: ‘I am going to wake up at 6, eat breakfast, do some quick exercises, and be to work by 7:30′ (and home just after 4:30 if I can rip myself away from my great co-workers).

I’ve debated whether to share this and be held accountable or be on my own. But I need all the help I can get and if I feel responsible to others to do this then I’ll hold myself to it. The more people I can tell the better, even if those people don’t really care now, they will. :)  I need all the help I can get, and now is a great time of year for this goal as well. The sun is now rising at 6:25 (civil twilight is 5:55) and by the end of the month the sunrise will be just before 6AM! Daylight Savings is great, eh?

I believe this goal will be a good building block for other habits. As I said, it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time but now I’m making a concerted effort and pledging it to you guys, as Leo Babauta suggests in ZenHabits.  Talking with Carina yesterday we thought it would be great if we could go without any sleep, or just little naps. How productive could we be?! Assuming, of course, there wasn’t a need to sleep and weren’t constantly fighting off the Sandman.  This will be satisfying enough for now.

Photo courtesy of wickenden