Therapy by Mail

I get a lot of misdirected mail at my house. I mean a lot. This kind of concerns me. I wonder if there are pieces of my mail floating around the neighborhood in other people's mailboxes. I guess this could be a good thing- maybe they don't read carefully and will pay my bills. On the other hand, they may be receiving that letter stating that I have won a million dollars, in which case, I'd like it delivered to my house, please.
At first, the misplaced mail was innocent enough: a stray circular here, an occasional bill or a customer survey. However, the last several months I have only been receiving misdirected magazines and catalogs. Sometimes they are addressed to my house number but on any number of different streets, sometimes they are addressed to our street but one number off, and sometimes it seems that they have arrived at my house completely at random sharing neither my house number nor my street name. How, I wondered to myself, could the South Euclid post office be so completely inept? Were they hiring blind persons to sort the mail, because it is not brailled, nor are the addresses in large print. Do they have an inadequate number of sorting bins so that, when postal employees run out of places to put mail they just match it with the closest address already utilizing a bin? I just could not think of a logical scenario which would produce so much wayward mail.
Then, I remembered that the post office is, in fact, a government organization. I started thinking along the lines of conspiracy theory. Maybe, this misguided mail was no accident. I began noticing patterns. My lawn was in desperate need of mowing. The dandelions were threatening to take over- when lo, and behold, what should arrive in my mailbox? A seemingly innocent copy of Better Homes and Gardens that belonged three houses down. The cover? A pristine yard.
My mail carrier has decided that I need some direction and that she is the person to give it to me.
She has delivered copies of Newsweek, these seem to come on weeks when I am feeling especially unintellectual and disconnected from the world- how does she know? I have received a copy of Woman's Day whose cover features indicated I needed to improve the menu in my house and decorate for the new season. Has she been talking to Marc? Health magazines, movie magazines, book catalogs, and jewelry order forms have all made their way to my house with very suspicious timing.
This week, I have not been dressing especially nice due largely to the fact that my clothes are slowly refusing to fit correctly. As a result, I even went walking with the boys, in, I am ashamed to admit it, sweat pants. So yesterday I got The Week in my mailbox featuring a large elephant on the cover, and today I found waiting for me an L.L. Bean women's catalog with a large caption "chase away the chill with our Fitness Fleece". Apparently, our mail carrier appreciated neither the sweatpants nor the bump now evident on my middle.
There is still one magazine, however, whose purpose in my mailbox I have been unable to decipher. Last month, I got a copy of National Geographic (I was actually excited thinking maybe someone gave us a gift subscription, but no- just more therapy mail). It had something very similar to this picture on the cover:My question to you is- what does this mean? Any suggestions? Do I need to get a facial with "light tweezing"? Do I have wrinkle lines? Should I dye my hair red? I'm just not sure what my therapist is getting at and until I figure it out I am guessing that the barrage of magazines will continue finding their way to my door.
Oh- and to some residents over on Lawnway- I have your magazines. I will walk them over at my earliest convenience, as soon as my L.L. Bean fitness fleece arrives.... by mail.

Utah Part 2: Marc and Sarah's Grand Adventure

Tuesday, Day 4
We spent the morning swimming at Ryan's mom's house who generously offered to let us use her in-ground pool while she was at work. We took Meagan, Camden and Kaleb with us while their parents were at the temple. Jen met us there with Cayelle and Cassius and Lora came with Maya. It was quite the party. We all enjoyed swimming even though the morning was a little cool. Gabe, however, decided to add some additional excitement to the event. He came walking up to Marc with what looked like a rubber snake wrapped around his arm. "Look Daddy, a snake!" Then the snake started moving. Marc told Gabe to put it down so Gabe threw it in the pool. It started wriggling frantically and Marc had to fish it out. Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming from the girls.
After lunch, everyone 2 and older went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It was highly entertaining and even though we thought it was a little scary our boys weren't bothered at all. On the way home, we learned that our nephew's favorite part (Kaleb is 8) was when one character said to another "You're sexy." We thought that was pretty funny.
Oma watched all of the kids so the four remaining siblings and their spouses could go out to dinner. Here is a picture she took of Elijah, David John and their cousin Maya jammin' on the piano.

Wednesday, Day 5
We said goodbye to Rebecca, Marcus and their kids as they drove back home to Denver before Marc and I left for our first overnight getaway since the twins were born. Oma and Opa bravely agreed to watch all three of our boys for 24 hours. We hit our favorite burger joint for lunch. It's called Burger Supreme- if you are ever in the Provo area please give it a try. It has awesome burgers and fries and the best fry sauce. After that we headed to the Mount Timpanogas Temple where we were married almost 8 1/2 years ago. We didn't get any pictures there this time, but for those of you who didn't know us before we were married here is a flashback:


We then headed to the Thanksgiving Point gardens. They were just incredible and far more expansive than we expected.

My favorite was the garden entitled "The Secret Garden" complete with an ivy-hidden door. It really made me feel as if I were in the story I read so long ago.


We checked into a bed and breakfast in Salt Lake City with themed rooms. Ours was a secret agent theme complete with a bookcase that really opens up to an awesome bathroom with two-person jacuzzi. Our stay included cheesecake and sparkling cider at night and an amazing breakfast in bed in the morning. We loved it. For dinner that night, we went to a Brazilian steakhouse- if you've never been to one you need to go. We definitely enjoyed our romantic and relaxing night away.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our boys were spending time with Oma and Opa. They loved helping Oma pick pears from her tree in the backyard.

They also "helped" Opa sort out six boxes of files around bedtime.


Thursday, Day 6
We were grateful to find, as Opa put it, that "Despite everything, everyone is still alive." Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder and we were happy to see our little guys again.

I did some shopping at the BYU bookstore and got a favorite and rare treat of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. Lora and I also learned that the clothing store Shade is going out of business. We visited the store and I scored an awesome brown tank top for $4. Their online store still has a few things left. You should check it out.
At night we went out with our good friends Josh and Evette Dutton to the Pizza Factory, another Provo favorite. Marc also got to see his friend Ben Sorensen. His wife was due on Friday, but their little girl didn't favor us by arriving before we had to leave.


Friday, Day 7
Sadly, this was our last day. We spent the morning packing and grabbed lunch at Cafe Rio (who knew Provo had so many delicious restaurants?) before heading to the airport. We had an absolute blast on our trip and, thankfully, the flights home were not nearly so long as on the way out. We arrived back in Cleveland at 11 pm and our kind neighbor met us at the airport with our van. It's always fun to travel, but it also good to come home. I found that what I missed most (besides by friends, and the birth of my friend's baby) was my pillow. We are glad to be back, but will be looking forward to our next Utah vacation.

Utah Part 1: The Family Reunion

Saturday, Day 1
This was a 12 hour day of travel. Due to our cheap plane tickets, we got to fly to Baltimore before flying to Salt Lake City. The thing is- we used to live in Baltimore and we could NEVER find a direct flight when we lived there.... go figure. Anyway, we survived the harrowing 5 hour flight from Baltimore to SLC without too much trouble and with no Benadryl. After a 1 hour drive from Salt Lake to Provo, we finally got to see all of Marc's siblings and their kids who had gathered for the weekend family reunion. Unfortunately, no one wanted to hug us because our whole family had pink eye. Woo hoo!

We had a lovely family dinner with some amazing potato leek soup (I am still waiting for that recipe, Marcus...) and salad with steak and shrimp. We also did our Christmas gift exchange that night. We received a much-needed new skillet and two awesome games. We just played "In a Pickle" last night and loved it. Thank you Lora and Johnny!

Sunday, Day 2
The real miracle of the day was that our boys SLEPT IN! This was the first trip to Utah since our kids were born in which I did not have to get up at 4 AM with crying children who had not adjusted to mountain standard time. Hallelujah!
We all got up and dressed for church and we just couldn't resist getting a couple of family pictures in our matching red outfits.

Then, it was off to church to see our adorable new nephew Cassius receive his name and blessing from his father. After, we all went to Ryan and Jen's house for a gourmet lunch (best tomato salad ever!) and virgin mojitos.


We spent the afternoon napping and chatting then went to church again for the Baptism of one of our other nephews, Kaleb. Gabriel was very interested in the concept of baptism and was convinced that he wanted to be baptized too. (I think it had something to do with the attention and Reeses peanut butter cups that Kaleb received.) Gabriel immediately changed his mind about being baptized, however, when he saw that Kaleb had to go all the way under water.

That evening, Marcus made his famous cookies and we all played a mafia-like game called Werewolves. I don't know how I feel about this game. I got killed off both times, and Marc turned out to be a werewolf both times... what does that say about our relationship?


Monday, Day 3
Monday morning was officially family picture time. One thing you should know about all Ricks women is that they are a little fanatic about their pictures. It took some time, but I'm sure we'll all be happy with the results. Here is a picture of Marc with all five of his siblings:


The rest of the morning was spent going to visit Marc's paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother. Marc's grandpa (also named Marc Ricks and also a doctor) turned 100 on Thursday. Pretty impressive. Our boys were happy to share in a birthday cupcake and they even recognized their great-grandparents from the photo albums we made for them.

The whole family went out to lunch at Los Hermanos, a Utah tradition. If you wear a Los Hermanos t-shirt you get a free specialty drink, so we all showed up in owned or borrowed t-shirts. Our boys, of course, did not eat any of their entrees, but instead preferred to eat any food that other people dropped on the floor. David John's goal was to make as large a mess as possible, and I narrowly missed being the target of some catapulted guacamole. Despite all of this, their behavior was a huge improvement over the last time we all went out to eat together. There was no screaming or tantrums and no non-family members had food thrown at them.
Unfortunately, Robert and Nancy and Jonx and Tine had to leave after lunch, but the rest of us headed back to Provo.
We had promised our boys that while we were in Utah we would take them to see the temple. Gabe's favorite song and nightly request is "I Love to See the Temple" (Ding Dong the Witch is Dead is a close 2nd, he has varied taste in music). The boys were awed as we drove onto the temple grounds. We pointed to the temple spire and asked "Who's that up there?" Elijah answered "That's a child of God up there!" (I bet you can guess which primary song is his favorite.)


The boys loved the fountains and all of the flowers. We walked around the grounds and just really enjoyed being a family.

That night for dinner we devoured Johnny's signature whole wheat and applesauce pancakes. Marc's sisters are all smart- they married men who can cook!
We loved being able to see everyone and enjoy being together as a whole extended family even if it was only for a few days. Our thanks to Oma for hosting and doing a ridiculous number of dishes and to Opa for assisting with the financing so we could all make it.

Fly Boys

A note about flies, then onto the boys: I am happy to report that we have resolved our fly problem with the use of good old-fashioned flypaper. I realize it is not the most humane way, but I imagine being hit with a flyswatter is not the most pleasant experience either. In looking for solutions to our fly problem, we searched for a bug zapper that we could plug in at night in our kitchen. However, the only zapper we were able to find was- get this- a hand held one. It looked like a badminton racket with a button and electricity. Really? How is this better than a flyswatter? You still have to aim and hit the fly, but now with the possible dangerous side effect of zapping someone you love. What are Walmart patrons really using this device for? I am sure columnist Gregg Easterbrook would agree with me that the existence of this item is further proof of the decline of western civilization.

Now the boys: As many of you know, I grew up in the Dayton area- home to the Wright brothers, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and the National Air Force Museum and Aviation Hall of Fame. Earlier this month, my brothers Joe and Sam helped me take the little boys for the first time. They were in complete awe of all the airplanes. Elijah's favorite was the little plane nicknamed "Bug" just like him.
Here is Gabe pointing to his favorite plane, although I couldn't get him to articulate what exactly he liked about it.
Both the boys loved climbing in the cockpits and playing copilots.


This is my favorite plane, the B-2 Bomber. I think it looks awesome, and my Dad helped design its radar systems as a top-secret project for the Air Force. I remember feeling a real sense of pride every time I saw one fly over from the Air Force Base. I also had a toy B-2 when I was younger.
David John wasn't too thrilled about the planes, but LOVED the space section of the museum. Here are some of the rockets we saw:
And here is David John looking like, as the boys said, "Buzz Lightyear to Finity and Yond!"

At the end of the trip, everyone was tired- but David John actually fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the car.

I'm glad we live close enough that I can share the history of where I grew up with my little fly boys.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

We've been saying "hello" and "goodbye" to a variety of things during this past month. Here's the rundown:

Hello Awesome New Camera
Thanks to Oma's early Christmas present we were able to finally get an awesome camera! Did I mention that it is orange and we even found a stylish matching orange-lined camera bag? (Eat your heart out Gina.) We are really excited- but don't expect fabulous pictures just yet. I'm still learning how to use the new-fangled thing.

Goodbye Old Camera
We bid thee farewell old camera... you served us for many years despite your often blurry pictures and tendency to randomly shut down at any moment. We will miss your rabbit-chewed camera case and strap.
Hello Flyswatter
This isn't actually new, more like newly rediscovered. Move over Mr. Miyagi, instead of catching flies one-at-a-time with chopsticks, I took out 50 in one session with this baby.

Goodbye Flies
Warning- the next picture is slightly graphic in nature. This is a message to all of you flies out there. My house is now a no-fly zone (please forgive the terrible pun). I am tired of you coming in uninvited and breaking the maximum occupancy rules for my house. I am pretty sure 25 individuals are not allowed to reside in one window sill- this is a serious fire hazard. I will no longer tolerate you landing on my food, making Elijah scream "Ahhh! Mommy, a bug! It scares me!" or tempting Gabe to try and smash you (what I am talking about- succeeding in smashing you) with his toothbrush. Enough said.
Hello Super-Bright Chalk
My Mom found this amazing sidewalk chalk for the boys to draw with. We had a great time with the bright colors and it kept my monsters busy for a whole afternoon while Marc was on call. They are crayola brand if anyone is interested in finding some.

Goodbye Clean Pants
Of course, the downside of chalk is that it gets EVERYWHERE. Luckily, this stuff is washable.

Hello School Year
Okay, so none of my kids are starting school for a while, but my friends kids are so it still affects who we can play with and it means the school playground down the street will be unavailable during school hours. I have to admit I feel a little jealous of those parents whose lives will be getting "back-to-normal" when school starts. Anyway, here is a picture of my guys enjoying a huge pile of books in preparation for future school studies.

Goodbye Summer Preschool
I really had a great time with this summer preschool. It reminded me that I do have a non-mommy skill set and I miss teaching in some ways. I even got a gift from my "students" aka their moms of some yummy candy and Kohls gift card. Woo hoo! Friday was our last day. I'm thinking about starting a joy school group in the fall or winter. Maybe after we've mastered potty training...
Hello Deer
Marc was on call AGAIN today (after being on call Friday) and David John started running a fever Friday afternoon so we've all been cooped up inside without Daddy. Today we couldn't go to church, but I had to get out of the house so we drove to a park with a stroller-friendly trail. The boys were thrilled to spot a family of four deer. We only got a picture of two of them but they sure were beautiful.
Goodbye Deer
Here is the last deer just before they all ran away through the woods. After the deer left, the boys asked, "Mommy, now we gonna see some cows and goats?" Obviously we have some work to do on categorizing woodland versus farm animals.

Little 'Lijah

I certainly didn't want to deprive my "middle" child and major cutie Elijah of having his own post. Elijah is our resident lover-of-food (although David John is also vying for that title) and consummate organizer. Here are a few stories about my little Bug from the last few months:

One stark difference between Gabe and Elijah is their initial reactions to new foods. Without tasting it, Gabe will immediately declare "I don't like it!" while Elijah will say "I like it Mommy, I like it!" Elijah made this declaration about some hot sauce that I put on the table with dinner one evening. Elijah asked if he could have some on his plate. I explained that it was spicy and that it might make his mouth feel funny, but I put a little on his plate for him to try. He chose to dip his watermelon, of all things, in the hot sauce and ate it. He made a terrible face but doggedly insisted that it was "liscious" and that he wanted more. He continued to dip every piece of watermelon in the sauce and made a terrible face every time. I think it was some show of his manliness.

One evening, Elijah said our nightly family prayer and it consisted of entirely food-related statements. Elijah thanked Heavenly Father for breakfast, lunch, watermelon, peanut-butter and dinner. He then blessed the food (even though we weren't eating anything) and said "Amen."

Elijah loves to pick things up and organize them. He is unable to go to sleep unless every toy is in its place and all of the books are on the shelf and oriented correctly. Last week, he wouldn't start eating dinner until I closed an open cabinet door that was driving him crazy. Hmmm... Marc's son maybe?

Sometimes, Elijah's cleaning means that I can't find something he has "put away". On Thursday I drove to my parents' house since Marc was going to be on call for the entire weekend. I gathered everything that needed to be loaded in the car and put it in a pile in the living room. I then made a few trips to the van to pack it all in. It wasn't until after I buckled the boys in that I realized there were no diapers in the car. I knew that I had put two packages in the pile of things to go out but when I went back in the house they weren't in the living room where I left them. Finally, I spotted them on top of the diaper changing table where Elijah had put them away.

Lately, Elijah has taken to calling me "Honey". I think this is because he hears Marc call me that. I think it is kind of cute but after days of "Honey, I want some more milk." and "I need a hug, Honey." and "I busy Honey." I decided to start correcting him in an effort to get him to call me Mommy again. Yesterday at dinner, Elijah said "Honey, I want more blueberries." I said, "Elijah, my name is Mommy." He looked at me and smiled, then said, "Mommy, you Honey. Okay?"

Elijah has always been very sweet and concerned about other people. When Gabe is in time out (often for hitting Elijah) Elijah will go talk to him under the door and even passes him toys and books. One day, I went into the boys room and needed to look for a box of clothes in the closet. I locked the door so the boys wouldn't feel the need to come in and help take everything out of the closet. Elijah came to the door and said, "Mommy you in there?" I replied that I was. He tried the door but found that it was locked then said, "Oh no Gabe, Mommy in time out." He then pushed a few books under the door.

Last night, Jennifer and Chris Mahoney came over for dinner. They were here when it was time to put the boys to bed. As part of our bedtime routine, once the boys are all tucked in we give them hugs. They often request different kinds of hugs like a "daddy squish hug" or a "baby hug". This time, they asked for a "Christmas hug". It took me a minute before figuring out they wanted a hug from Chris. Pretty cute. Luckily, Chris was up for it.

Elijah is definitely his own person. We hope he knows how much we love and enjoy him and that he doesn't develop middle child syndrome. Marc insists that he is fine even though he was a middle child but sometimes I'm not sure.... just teasing.

Baby Davey's Big Day

Even though David John's birthday was on Friday, we celebrated on Saturday so Sarah's family and many of Marc's awesome colleagues could join in on the fun. Here is a diary of his day in pictures with commentary. However, I first wanted to mention that one of his birthday gifts was the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle (thanks Sophia!). Here is a passage from the book which I think is a fairly accurate description of David John's activities on his special day. "On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon." In the book, the caterpillar ends up with a stomachache. Thankfully, that didn't happen but we paid the price today with a record number of poopy diapers. Woo-hoo!mmm... oatmeal with a spoon

Grandpa took me to the park and then we hit some garage sales...

...where we bought a new pool!

zzzzzzzzz

mmmm... cereal on the garage floor

mmm,... Gabe's snack

Is it time for my party?

Happy Birthday to me!

mmm... cupcake

I even shared with my brothers!

awww... aren't my guests cute?

I can't believe I ate that whole thing!

I got some serious loot, thanks friends and family!

My brothers got some too.

Check out my new stylin' boots.

I am one popular guy.

Michelle gave me this awesome balloon. You can see though it!

mmm... ice cream

Good one Joe, "Shovel it in!" ha ha

I definitely needed a bath.

Then it was time for PJs and more attention. I love birthdays!