In addition to hiking, Isabella and I have been super busy with various Girl Scout activities. In addition to our usual biweekly meetings, we hosted our first bridging ceremony at Isabella’s school. This ceremony celebrates the girls moving from one level of Girl Scouts (Daisies) to the next (Brownies). Our troop learned a bridging song sung to the tune of “Frere Jacque” and they each received a certificate, a patch, and got to put on their new Brownie vests after they crossed our homemade bridge. It was a great ceremony, and we celebrated with homemade brownies, of course! We also went to a recruitment celebration where Isabella learned all about different types of animals such as service dogs, Great Danes, and even a horse. Last week, I took all three girls to another GS event–a mother/daughter event. They had different tables set up where the girls could make a potpourri gift for their moms while we made bracelets for them, they got to wear high heels, and then we took quizzes about each other. Now, we are in the midst of planning for our troop camp at the end of August, which, as with everything else with GS, requires a lot of paperwork and training. We’re also going to be doing early bird registration for our troop (another pile of paperwork), so needless to say, I have been very busy!

Besides the Girl Scout activities, Isabella has attended a couple of birthday parties, participated in a dance night at her school, and is getting ready for an end-of-the-year field trip to the zoo. Mythili has been busy practicing her songs and dances for her preschool graduation, took a field trip herself to the Plains Conservation Center, and just got picked by her teachers as Best Kinder Kid!

We celebrated my 32nd birthday with a prime rib dinner at my parents’ house followed by a hike. Bruce got me one of the best gifts ever–a homemade quilt, made by our good friend Heather. It’s a “sister’s choice” pattern in various shades of green to match our bedroom. The work that went into it is incredible, and I will always remember this as one of my most cherished gifts.

Meanwhile, I have been “training” for my half marathon, coming up this Sunday, via the bike. I’ve had a problem with tendonitis and have been unable to run, so I’ve been riding the bike like mad to keep up some form of cardio regime. I know it’s not the same, but at least I will be able to walk/jog the marathon on Sunday morning.

I have also started “teaching” another University of Phoenix course which will carry over into the summer a bit. And we’ve been super busy getting our house all prepped because we found renters–two doctors and their three-year-old-twins–to rent it for the summer while we’re in KY! Just goes to show–if you do good deeds, good things happen. Seems like that’s been happening a lot lately. I mean, I still have a job next year at my school despite the horrid economy, the massive budget cuts in our school district, and having so few students. Hmmm… it must be the weekly brownies and cakes I bake for everyone! (I know it’s not a direct correlation, but those good deeds bounce back, I swear!)

And yes, we are still spending the summer in KY. Baby Lucy is awaiting our arrival, and we’re almost all set to go. We leave the night of May 28, returning July 31. Exciting! If I don’t keep up with this blog, you can check out my other blog–my resolution for 2010 is to write every day: Step Write Up.

She can do so many things for us now–get Riona dressed in her pajamas, fill everyone’s water cup, empty the trashes and recycle bins, clean up her room, dust the shelves, put away the lower dishes. And so many things for herself–ride a two-wheeler, roller skate, in-line skate, ice skate, read the Magic Treehouse books, write letters to and about her boyfriends, read the instructions to and complete her homework… it’s almost too much to take in! Is she still a little girl? Am I still allowed to refer to her as a little girl? I think by the time she’s eight she might be as tall as me!

She decided on an all-girl tea party for her seventh birthday celebration, and when I told her that it would be three hours long, twice the length of most of the parties she attends, she replied, “Three hours is not long enough for me.” And after three hours of tea, sandwiches, cake, eight games, two crafts, and nine screaming girls, she put on a pouty face when it was over and asked, “What now?” Limitless energy! She is the last to go to sleep and the first to awaken.

Isabella, my oldest daughter, still relishes in being the center of attention, just like when she was the baby and was not only the first child, but the first grandchild. She will always be a social butterfly, always fight for her rights, and always know just how to manipulate every situation to her liking. Gee, I wonder where she gets it??

As sad as I was when she began first grade this year, I have come to accept this new age. Seven. Wow. Soon I will have a tween, a teen, a college student, a bride. And I know I will enjoy all of her ages, as screaming and wild as they may be. Happy birthday, little (big) girl!

The Things You Carry
For Bruce upon Graduation
2009

In your arms you carried three tiny girls
and books as heavy as each
balancing diapers, cooking, and cleaning
with late nights in front of the screen.

In your mind you carried math for months
followed by accounting and, gasp, writing!
But just as quickly as you craved freedom
Dreamweaver and html set you free

In your soul you carried the heaviest load
the fear of failure mixed with the will to succeed,
the uncertainty of your degree,
the uncertainty of your future career

In your heart you carried your love for all of us,
including yourself, proving to everyone
that you could be smarter than you ever thought
and you could go farther than you ever knew.

In your arms you carry a 6, 5, and 3-year-old,
the best-ever recipe for homemade bread,
the tools to make the house sparkle like a jewel
and a well-deserved associate’s degree.

In your future you carry your dreams,
a web site that will walk you there,
and the knowledge that we will
carry whatever you cannot.

So much for the recession not having an impact on education!

Needless to say, the morale at school is a tad morose, I’m not sure what my job will look like or where I will work, or who I will be working with, and it’s a heavy cloud to hang over my head, but not anywhere near as heavy as the one that hovers over the probationary teachers who will lose their jobs.

All the same, the holidays are upon us, and we can head straight for break knowing that at least things are OK now, that I have amazing people to work with, the best family I could ever ask for, a roof over our heads and delicious homemade food on the table. Bruce’s parents arrived last night and his sister and family will be here by Sunday, so for the first time in twelve years of marriage, we will have more than a full house for Christmas, and don’t have to travel ourselves! We have a beautiful white pine tree that we picked out at Nick’s during a snowstorm/zero-degree weather, enough gifts for everyone, and firewood piled up out back to keep us all warm, inside and out. Christmas is coming, and we… are… ready!

If for one moment I could recapture that magic for my daughters, then my job as a parent would become everything that I had imagined it could be.

I never read “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg as a child, but discovered it years later when I was a nanny. I was immediately captivated by the story and the amazing illustrations. And a couple of years ago when I saw an ad in Colorado Parent about an actual Polar Express train ride in Durango, I knew I wanted to take the girls. So, Disney plans on hold due to financial setbacks, we decided we could afford this one little getaway.

We set out the Saturday after Thanksgiving and arrived to three little girls’ thrilled pleasure at the indoor pool and hot tub at our Hampton Inn. Of course we swam immediately, then had a delicious dinner at Steamworks Brewery. The restaurant was packed with families, all of the children dressed head to toe in fleece pajamas, ready to ride the train that night. Our tickets were for the next day, but the excitement was building at the sight of all those Express-bound kids.

We spent Sunday on a beautiful drive along the Million Dollar Highway between Durango and Silverton, stopping to look at a natural hot springs formation, to take some pictures of the San Juans and Colorado Trail, to point at one of the mountains I “peaked” during Outward Bound, and to stroll through the quaint Victorian village of Silverton. We stopped for lunch at the Brown Bear Cafe, a turn-of-the-century dive with aluminum ceilings, a giant wood stove, and an intricately carved bar. After we arrived back at the hotel, we took one last dip in the pool before heading over to the train station.

The giant Santa balloon out front might have been enough to satisfy Riona’s happiness, because she even bragged about it later to the conductor of the train. We went inside, collected our souvenir tickets, and… waited. At last, they let the ever-increasing crowd out into the boarding area. On the loudspeaker, they immediately began playing Liam Neeson’s recording of the beginning of the book where the narrator describes the arrival of the train. Then, they played the soundtrack music from the movie. We were all standing and looking at this train, and there were several cars that had no windows. Bruce turned to me and said, “Do some people have to sit outside?” And we tried not to say aloud how disappointed we were… and then we heard the whistle. The REAL Polar Express was chug-chugging around the bend, puffing steam. Between the music, the excitement of the crowd, and seeing the mile-wide grins and giggles of my girls, tears crept into my eyes when it came right into view and actually had POLAR EXPRESS painted on the side (when all us grown-ups know it’s the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad).

And then the clip from the movie: “Well, are you coming aboard?” “To where?” “Why, to the North Pole of course!” And the conductors, the chefs, dressed exactly like the book, escorted us into our first class car. We sat down in our plush seats after removing the golden tickets from each, and they started playing the hot chocolate song from the movie, and quick as lightning, they brought us our special mugs filled to the brim. The only pictures I was able to snap of Riona caught her on the edge of her seat, so excited was she that she couldn’t sit still. Isabella gulped down every drop of her giant cocoa and Mythili grinned, grinned, grinned out the window. The conductor came around and, just like the movie, clipped away at our tickets with a hole puncher containing the letters, NP. They played the entire story on the loudspeaker as the chefs walked around showing us pictures from the book. Then they brought cookies… and we arrived at the North Pole!

There was Santa in his sleigh, surrounded by lit-up houses and trees and several elves. The chefs told us to open the window and soon everyone was dangling outside of the train, reaching out to the elves and telling of their adventures. And then Santa came on the train. All day long, my girls had been saying, “I hope I get picked to get the first gift of Christmas!” And he came around and gave a beautiful tinkling bell, exactly like the reindeer sleigh bell from the story, to every child on the train. He stopped to let me take a picture with him and the girls. And with one delicious chocolate sucker and a songbook of Christmas songs that we all sang along with the music playing on the loudspeaker, we were headed back to Durango.

I looked back and forth between my girls’ faces as they shook their bells and nibbled at their chocolate and couldn’t stop talking about the lights, the train, the amazement of it all, and I thought, this is what it’s all about. This is what makes me a mother, what makes us a family… this is what love, and its magic, are all about.

Mythili amazes me with her creativity, her imaginative nature, and her ability to logically explain everything that she encounters. She is an artist, a singer, a dancer, and, above all, a storyteller. Nothing pleases her more than cuddling up with a good book to read, either on someone’s lap or flipping through the pages in her own imaginary world. She will take any two objects, from Q-tips to Barbies, and create conversations from things she has heard grown-ups say, things she has read in books, or bits and pieces of her favorite movies. She admires everything her older sister does and proudly demonstrates her knowledge to her younger sister. She is the perfect middle child, a balance of Isabella’s ferocious independence and Riona’s angelic spirit: she is both slightly free and anxious to please.

For her birthday this year, she asked only for her ears to be pierced. And though we thought she’d change her mind, she persisted, not only holding back even the slightest wince, but grinning from ear to ear. “Did it hurt, did it hurt?” Isabella demanded, still too frightened of the pain to venture, and Mythili calmly responded, “Not at all.” She’s ready to be all grown up, and in so many ways I already see her as such, but then she searches for blankey, sticks her finger in her mouth, snuggles in my lap, and I know that, even though she is five now, she is still my little girl.

Happy birthday Mythili!

Chaos

You are an uninvited guest
for whom I have just one request
that you leave with the autumn leaves
and give up your severing sieves

because your weapons reduce me
with your veiled generosity
and in the dark from which you hide
I know just how you look inside

I can flush you out with the cold
even though you appear so bold
because you do not frighten me
because you tread so carefully

the door will shut and smack your butt
and I’ll move from this languid hut
and you will never find my place
but if you do I’ll smack your face

and your tears will drown out my own
and your gifts will leave me alone
and I’ll find my true party guests
who have received my real requests.