Drew's A Biker & A New Family Member

Last week, Drew participated in Lose The Training Wheels.  LTTW is a national program that helps people with disabilities learn to ride a bicycle.  Kevin and I had tried over the years to teach Drew to ride a bike but our attempts were met by a lot of fear and frustration.  When I signed him up for the LTTW, I wasn't sure how successful it would be but figured it was worth a shot.

Every day last week, Drew, Ethan and I went to our local rec center (luckily, the only time LTTW is in Colorado this year it happens to be only 5 minutes from our house.  Drew's classmates were from all over the state.) where Drew practiced riding for 75 minutes each day.  There were only 8 kids in each session with 2 trainers and 3 volunteers per kid.  The first few days they had Drew riding a bike with a roller thing in the place of the back tire.  In the beginning, the roller is broad making it so the kids can't tip over.  As the kids practice, the trainers swap out the roller for more and more tapered ones gradually giving them the feel of needing to balance.

By day 3, they had Drew riding a two-wheel bike with support from his volunteers but during that same day, he moved from that to this.....

And then to this.......

(While you are watching this, listen to the dad yelling instructions at his daughter.  From day one of the program this guy was telling her constantly what she needed to do better or that "it doesn't count if you don't do it right" and in my video here you can hear her crying saying she is trying.  By the 4th day of this, I told Kevin not to be surprised if I were arrested on Friday for trying to strap a muzzle on that guy.  Just let the kid be successful for a minute for crying out loud!)

He was so proud of himself and Kevin, me, and Ethan are all really proud too and excited to bike together as a family. 

The last day, they had a BBQ where the kids were presented with trophies and they got to show off their new biking skills riding with our local motorcycle police.  Drew loved the police officers and they were super friendly with him and even let him sit on a motorcycle.  Drew also had to tell them that his "mom was caught by them" and Kevin was teasing me about whether I recognized any of them.  Ha ha! 

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In other exciting news, I am thrilled to announce the arrival of my newest niece!

Naomi April Rehmert

June 26, 2011

6 lb. 13 oz.

In what is typical behavior for the Icelandic side of our family, she was impatient and arrived 2 weeks early.  She was breech and unable to be flipped (family stubbornness showing already perhaps) and was delivered via c-section, a sight that my brother-in-law Nate never wants to see again.  Mom, dad and baby are all doing well and I can't wait until we can meet her in August.  Drew was very jealous that grandma got to hold her already and is dying to get his hands on her.  

A Trip To My Hometown

Last week, I met my cousin Amy, aka, my surrogate sister, in Chicago.  She was headed there to attend a company conference and invited me to come along as her guest.  I was super excited because I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago but my parents moved when I was in college so I don't get back there nearly as often as I would like.

Here is a little photo tour of my trip.

The first night we were there we went to a Cubs game.  The company had rented out a rooftop facility where we could have dinner and watch the game.  Thank goodness for that because it was about 60 degrees outside and pouring rain.  Amy and I hung out for a bit but left before the game, which was delayed for weather, even started.  Yep, we aren't big baseball people.

The view from our hotel room of the Chicago river and the Wrigley Building, one of my favorites.

Chicago has a bunch of great architecture and one morning while Amy was in meetings I walked around and visited some of the buildings I love and the parts of the city I love.  This is the art deco style Carbon and Carbide building built in the early 1900's.  This is probably my favorite building in the entire city and I love when the gold on the top shines in the sun.  This building currently houses the Hard Rock Hotel which bugs me for some reason.  Hard Rock Hotel = Lame; Carbon & Carbide Building = amazing.  They just don't go together.

This is the "Bean" in Millennium Park.  This was added to the park after I moved away for college and when I first saw pictures of it and heard about it, I kind of thought it sounded lame.  But it is actually pretty cool to see the city skyline reflected back as you walk around the bean.



When I am in Chicago, if I am anywhere near State Street in the Loop, I always stop in what used to be the Marshall Fields store, now Macy's, and pay homage to the Louis Comfort Tiffany mosaic that is there.  There is a 7 story atrium on the main floor of the store with the mosaic at the top.  It was built in the early 1900's and has over a million pieces of glass.  Pictures can't capture how gorgeous it is. 

Funny story, while in Macy's admiring Tiffany's handiwork, a few steps from the atrium was an area of Lush products.  My kids love Lush bath bombs so I stepped over there to buy some stuff.  While I was there, I was chatting with one of the employees about the products and mentioned coming in to see the mosaic.  She says, "what mosaic?"  So I walked her literally 6 feet over from the place she works every, single, day and told her to look up.  I thought was kind of hilarious that she works there daily and never knew that there was such a gorgeous thing up above her head.

This ends the photo tour because my camera battery died.  (Note to self, check batteries before leaving on a trip).   While in town, Amy and I also caught a Blueman group show where I lost 50% of my hearing but had fun doing it, did a service project building bikes for inner city kids with her company, and went to a dinner at the Museum of Science and Industry where we learned about tornado's, played mind games (actual mind games not some passive aggressive stuff), and Amy dared to try the machine that takes your picture and ages you.  She is going to look pretty darn good at 75.  There was also tons of talking late into the night, eating food that wouldn't qualify as "clean" by any stretch, and some shopping squeezed in here and there.

It was a great time and I loved seeing the city and hanging out with my amazing cousin.  Thanks Amy for inviting me!!

Putting Fear In It's Place



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There was a period of time some years ago where I became afraid of flying.  I have been flying since before I can even remember and my family has always traveled so I have gotten on a plane at least once a year for my entire life and it never bothered me.  Then suddenly, every bump, every weird noise, every seat not bolted to the plane floor (word to the wise, never, I repeat never, fly a regional carrier in South America), had me breathing hard and putting a death grip on my husband's leg. 

Was it a rational fear?  No.  I knew that I was more likely to die driving my car than in a plane.  I knew that turbulence is the equivalent of hitting a bump in the road while driving and doesn't bring down a plane.  I knew all that but still told myself there was something to be afraid of.  Eventually, I got over it and now Kevin can sit next to me without getting the circulation to his leg cut off. 

The reason I bring it up now is that lately, I have been thinking quite a bit about fear and how irrational it sometimes is but yet we let those feelings hold us back or cause us angst.  If you look at a very young child, it is apparent that we are born into this world open to all things and unafraid.  Through experience, we figure out what to be afraid of or, more importantly perhaps, what we feel like we need to protect in ourselves and it seems like those impressions are made before we even have the perspective to know if they are justified or not. 

I think it is safe to say that everyone of us has fears.  Maybe you are afraid of rejection, or of not being in control, or of not being worthy of love, or of exposing your inner self, or of being weak.  Whatever it is, we all have them and they can turn into very powerful influences in our lives.  The amazing part too is that certain things we are well aware we are afraid of and other things are so ingrained that we don't even recognize it as a fear.   

In my own self, I can see how at times I have let certain fears motivate me in one direction or a fear will have me deciding something is a certain way before I have even tested it out to see if that is, in fact, a truth.   For example, two years ago when things really fell apart with my back and I was in horrendous pain day after day after day, I started telling myself that my life was over.  That it was never going to go away.  Had any doctor told me that?  No.  Did I know that those things were implicitly true?  No.  But I can't tell you how much time I spent being upset and angry and depressed over something that I didn't really know to be fact.  Kind of a waste of time and energy in hindsight and two years later I know my life was not over and okay, the pain hasn't completely gone away but I am soooooo much better. 

Is it possible to totally eradicate our fears?  I don't think so because some of them are necessary but I would love to get to a place where when fear shows it's face, I can say, "hello fear, I see you there but you are not in charge."  Because I do believe that if you stare something in the face long enough, it loses it's power.

In thinking about all of this, I am working really hard to see my fears for what they truly are and to be open to what the universe throws my way without deciding one thing or another about it.  Just like me no longer getting on a plane convinced that if I am not in control of it something bad will happen (btw how crazy IS that anyway because, um, I have no idea how to fly so how would it be better if I was in control?), I am working to NOT be convinced of things that I don't know are true in every aspect of my life.  I can't say it is always easy or that it isn't sometimes frightening but it is something that I really see as being worth the effort.

A Week In Which I Actually Hold a Coherent Thought In My Head

A week ago, we left the kids in Utah to hang out with their grandparents.  After 11 years of parenting, it is kind of strange, but in a totally good way, to be child free for an extended period of time. 

Now that both boys are in school most of the day, I am used to filling my time from 8:30 until 3:30 and usually a good portion of that time is devoted to cleaning up messes related to small boys, or running errands related to small boys, or doing laundry created by small boys (one of them, who shall remain nameless but I know you all can guess who, creates about 3/4 of the laundry because he likes to change almost as much as a presenter at the Oscar's).  Without them around, I have to say there is kind of a strange, Twilight Zone type, feeling in the air when 3:30 rolls around.  Without the backpack bomb shrapnel to clean up, the snack crumbs to wipe and the homework to push, I mean encourage, people to get through, I don't know what to do with myself.  But trust me, I will find a way to suffer through and fill that time.

So, after a week sans children, I was reflecting on what I really enjoy about them not being around (gosh, that sounds kind of cold and heartless but you people with kids, you know exactly what I mean, don't you?). 

Here is what is cool about being child free:

- I can eat my oatmeal in the morning and watch the news in complete peace instead of having to crank the t.v. volume to an ungodly level because someone is flying a fighter jet, complete with sound effects, around my head while asking me over and over again when he is going to have to get dressed.  Complete peace people!  It is not to be underrated.  Matt Lauer actually forms complete sentences, who knew?!

- Kevin and I can eat salad for dinner without me having to make some pasta or carb filler because both my boys seem to have a hollow leg and would surely die of hunger if served merely leaves with some chicken on top.  And there is no complaining at dinner about whatever I decided to fix.

- If I decide I want to leave the house after 3:30 p.m., I don't have to beg, plead and bribe the two homebodies before leaving.  I just grab my purse and walk out the door.

- Kevin and I can actually converse at dinner AND stay in bed on the weekend as long as we feel like it without that same fighter jet flying around our room. 

 - Finally, when I pick up the house and the bathrooms are clean, things actually stay clean!  It is astounding and really a beautiful thing. 

Now, all that being said, I still do miss the rugrats and all their hi jinks.  I miss the hugs, the funny questions or comments, Drew's smile and Ethan's cackle of a laugh, the mystery of never knowing what I will find in the washer after a cycle, and just generally constantly having my minions, ahem, children around.  They do kind of fill up the house in a way that is irreplaceable.  (By the way, grandparents reading, that is in no way to be interpreted to mean that I can't part with them for a week or two.  Just to be clear and you guys are the best for having them to stay with you.)

A Weekend at Sundance Resort and My Baby Sister Gets Hitched

We left last Friday to spend a long weekend at Sundance Resort in Utah and to see my sister get married.  We rented a cabin right near Sundance with my parents.  The cabin was full of cowboy and indian type decor and the boys had fun trying on the various cowboy hats strewn about the house.

Ethan getting his cowboy on.

Drew posing with a stuffed bear found in the cabin. 

When we had booked our trip, we had great plans to do some hiking in the area but the weather was not cooperative.  It was in the 40's and rainy so instead of hiking, on Saturday, we took a drive to Park City to do some shopping and eat lunch.  While we were there, Ethan made a new friend.

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out, going to a rehersal dinner, visiting Kevin's parents in Salt Lake and spending time with my sister and her family to be. 

On the day of the wedding, two days before June I might add, we woke up to snow, which made Ethan happy because he could do this,

Fortunately, by wedding time the snow had melted but it was still hailing and raining off and on so my sister's outdoor wedding got moved inside. 

We got all dressed up, even the boys, and headed off to watch my sister get married and to have dinner afterward. 

Here are Kevin and I all dressed up AND with somewhere to go.  I bought my dress months ago when I thought it would be warm by the end of May so I was happy that we were going to be sitting inside for the nuptials.

My sister and I before the ceremony.  In case you are wondering, that bump in her dress isn't just a large burrito she had for lunch but rather a baby girl due in July. 

My dad walking my sister down the aisle.  They are both laughing here because my mother, from her seat, was admonishing them for moving too fast. 

The newly married couple right after being pronounced man and wife.  My sister, who hadn't eaten much all day and was starving, is looking directly at the hors d'oeuvres table in this shot.

After the wedding, we were all stuffed and tired but Drew livened things up doing some Risky Business style dancing in the kitchen of our cabin.

As you can probably tell, he has some sweet dance moves in his repertoire.  The next day, Kevin and I got in the car to head home while the boys stayed behind to spend a little over a week with their grandparents and cousin.