The Girl Smiles!

Those of you who frequent this blog know that Anna seems to be a very somber child. (She's actually not at all.) I can't get the girl to smile for photos! Well, I finally achieved the seemingly impossible.

Behold...

Ahhhhhhh...so cute.

Inspiration

I've recently been inspired by a website that a friend showed me. The writer of the blog is from Austrailia and an amazing photographer. Her pictures are really inspiring. Mostly they are just of her own children, but my gosh, GORGEOUS! In addition, her writing is beautiful. The tone is often melancholy, mostly because she lost one of her children this last year in a tragic accident.



I admit, I feel a little guilty about reading what seems to be a very personal story, but it's made me examine the real treasures in my life, my family, friends, and especially Anna. Life is precious and fragile, isn't it.


http://sheyerosemeyer.blogspot.com/

My Own Christmas Miracle

Alright, story time. Last night was Erichment Meeting for our ward. I am the Enrichment Leader of our ward, so I was pretty much in charge of the deal. (Not to say that I did all the work, because I have an amazing committee.) I was really excited about this one because I was able to get free food donated from Bertucci's Italian Restaurant. How? I might need to back this story up a bit.


As we were planning this activity we thought it might be fun to do an Italian Christmas dinner. We were planning on making pasta, salad, and rolls. The whole nine yards. That was the plan until this conversation at our last committee meeting:


One sister: Hey, you know what would be awesome? If we could use our budget to get this meal from an Italian Restaurant.


Another sister: Good idea! Actually, they could probably use it as a tax write-off, they might even donate it to us.


Rachel: It wouldn't hurt to try.


Imagine about ten minutes of women talk: stories about asking for free things, our favorite Italian food, who's been to what restaurants, and finally...


Rachel: So who would like to be in charge of this assignment.


SILENCE


Rachel: Okay, I guess that'd be me.


A couple days later, with tax exempt form in hand, I set off to conquer the restaurantuering world. I started at Maggiano's which is very upscale. Not surprisingly, the manager wasn't available. So, on to the next spot, Bertucci's Italian Restaurant. I went in, asked for the manager, and had a seat. She came out and this is about how it went.


Rachel: (nervously) Hi, I was wondering if you'd be able to help me. I'm in charge of planning a dinner for the women of my church, which is of course a non-profit organization, and I was wondering if you would be willing or able to donate some pasta.


Manager: Sure, let me go get my business card.


Rachel: (thinking to herself) Are you serious? It's that easy?


Yes, it was. I couldn't believe my luck. The manager laid out what they would donate, 3 bulk pasta bowls, a bulk salad, and 5o rolls. Enough to feed 5o people. PERFECT! Thrilled is an understatement. What a weight off my shoulders. Not only would I have pasta to offer, but salad and rolls. My committee wouldn't have to cook a thing!


I touched bases with Bertucci's a couple times before the meeting just to ease my worries. I was sure I was going to end up paying a huge bill based on a misunderstanding.

Needless to say, everything went smoothly until they handed me the food. I don't know what their idea of feeding 50 people is, but it wasn't the same as mine! There was simply not enough food. Panic started to set in as I realized that there was NO WAY that there would be enough food for the sisters.

While hyperventalating on the way to the church I decided we would have to suppliment. I sent a sister to pick up four large pizzas to fill in the gaps. We had an amazingly good turn out (about 55) so it was definitely necessary.

As we served I just kept praying that we'd make it. Here's where the miracle happens: we had enough for exactly how many sisters showed up. I mean exactly. No seconds here. When we finished serving there were four rolls left, and about four servings of pasta, enough for the four of us who had not had a chance to eat yet. It felt like the parable of the fish and bread in the bible! All kidding aside, I was very grateful that somehow, we pulled off the dinner. I am happy to say that the rest of the evening went off without a hitch and I have recieved a lot of good feedback about the evening.

I was definitely humbled. Thank goodness for the committee who stepped it up and pulled the evening together. I could not have done it otherwise.

Babies

Every Thursday, some women in our ward offer a "Mommy & Me" singing class for infants to Pre-K. I try to get Anna there as often as I can. She really is beginning to love it. She doesn't sing much, but she does love to do the actions to the songs. In fact the only song she attempts to sing is the ABC song. When she does, she BELTS it out. I'm hoping that she'll extend her excitement for singing to other songs soon.

Anyway! Back to the point. Last week we started to sing some Christmas songs. One song that the kids are singing is "Away in a Manger" The teachers bring baby dolls for props. All the kids get to rock a baby while we sing. I was so touched this week as all these beautiful, wild, funny children settled right into a sweet song. They were ALL so gentle with the baby dolls (even the boys!). I teared up a little because the symbolizim of the whole thing hit me very strongly. Here are Heavenly Father's beloved, innocent children honoring the birth of Jesus Christ and intuitively they seemed to know that.

Since then, Anna keeps asking to sing the "baby" song. She gets her baby and we position her just right in Anna's arms and then she rocks the baby as I sing. Wow, what we learn from little ones!

An Hour of Naughtiness

Yesterday Anna managed to accomplish quite a lot in a matter of about an hour. First, Anna has recently learned how to open and close doors. But, yesterday she had a first. She locked herself in her room. We didn't even realize there was a lock on the door! So, Jeff broke out the tools and started to work on rescuing Anna from the clutches of her room. Anna was hillarious while we were trying to free her. She would go back and forth between playing a babbling loudly and hanging on the door knob (making it impossible for Jeff to unscrew it from the door) and crying because she wanted to get out of her room. Finally Jeff succeeded in getting the door open.

About two minutes after freeing Anna, I went to get something from our bathroom and found the toilet full of stuff. If you're wondering what is in the pot, I'll tell you. There is some pieces of quesadilla from dinner, a tag from the garbage, hair bows I had just bought from the store, and about 35 hair rubber bands. Ahhhh! I do remember telling Anna to throw the dinner pieces in the garbage and to put the hair bows on the counter. Maybe it was like one of those times where you aren't thinking and you put your keys in the refrigerator, or the milk in the pantry. Somehow, given Anna's past with toliet incidents, I think this one was somewhat more delibrate.

Finally to top off the hour, I turned around to find Anna's princess wand, broken and placed ever-so-carefully on the

toliet paper dispenser. Sorry, Mom. Anna really did play with it a

lot.

Sometimes, things are are too funny to be mad about. Jeff and I ended up laughing for a long time.

Anna thought we were crazy.

First Snowfall

We had our first snow of the season yesterday. I really had to convince Anna that it wasn't rain. I'd say, "Anna look at the snow," and she'd say "Rain." She was very difinitive about it. I finally decided we'd better go out so that she could

experience it.

Anna liked the snow for about, mmmmm, 60 seconds.

The snow fell, melted, and stopped all in about a half-an-hour, but we still felt a little more Christmasy.

The best part about going out into the cold snow is coming back in to a warm, cozy house. Anna and I came back in, took off our coats, hats, gloves, etc and cozied up in some blankets and turned on Anna's current favorite show, Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas.

The Dealio

Jeff was in Denver for a second interview this past Thursday through Sunday. He had a series of interviews with several CEOs of hosptials in the HealthOne hospital chain in Denver. Here's the breakdown of how he spent his weekend.


Thursday: Dinner with current residents

Friday: Interviews with hospital CEOs
Dinner at a country club with all HealthOne Execs.

Saturday: Breakfast interview with one last CEO, visit the Red Rock ampitheater, hang out in downtown Denver, and then hole up at the hotel and work on homework (seriously.)

Sunday: Fly home, with a three hour delay in Cinncinati


Jeff really connected with the CEO of North Suburban Hospital in Thornton, CO. (Just north of the city.) He is even a fly-fisher, so Jeff was thrilled about that. Anyway, he really liked that particular hospital and felt really good about the CEO so he just was completely honest. He said, "I want to be here, it's my number one choice." Apparently, that made a big impression on him because he brought it up later in coversation. He told Jeff he was going to "hold him to it." It was said in a light-hearted conversation, but it gave Jeff an extra boost of confidence. At the exec dinner that night, Todd (the CEO) came and sat by Jeff and they spent most of the dinner talking about family, Utah (the guy used to live in Sugar House and work at St. Mark's), snowboarding, religion, and of course, fishing. Jeff felt so comfortable with him and it confirmed his desire to work with this CEO in particular.


After the dinner, the four canidates met with the Division President, Jeff Dorsey. He asked them each where they were interested in going (to what hospital). Jeff told him North Suburban was absolutely his first choice. It was the first choice of two of the other canidates as well. That ended the evenings and the dinner.


Jeff was pretty confident that he would know one way or another by Monday or Tuesday and sure enough, Monday about 4:30 the director of his program came into his office and gave him the good news. He then recieve a phone call from the CEO of North Suburban, Todd Stoddard who gave him a verbal offer over the phone. An official offer came via UPS today.


I personally feel really excited and at peace about going to this particular residency site. As Todd was giving Jeff his offer over the phone, he asked if I would need help finding a job. He was offering to fly me out to look for one on the hospital's tab. Jeff told him I was staying home with Anna and he said, "Well good, the Lord will bless your family for that decision." How wonderful to hear those words. Most of the executives that Jeff has worked with have either been working mothers themselves or their wives are professionals in some other field. It just confirmed my feelings that this is going to be a good place for our family to be.


So, for now the weight of the world seems to be lifted off Jeff's shoulders. I'm sure that will change once he starts working, but for now the stress in our lives has definitely been lifted.