Wow! It’s already the 17th and I am just finding find time to sit down and write my update! Does that give you any idea how busy things have been? Working full-time has made things totally crazy in my world and I’ll be glad when I can get back to a schedule I can manage. You know, one that includes the little things like grocery shopping and cleaning ;)

It’s been a packed couple of months! I turned 35 at the beginning of March and had one of the best birthdays I can remember. It feels good to be getting older. I look back at periods in my life and almost remember them like a movie - it’s hard to believe that some of them were really my life. I’ve also been noticing that I’m spending more of my efforts on the things I value and less time on the unimportant things and that makes for a very fulfilling day-to-day. I felt very celebrated by lots of people I love which made it such a wonderful birthday. And no new wrinkles this year! Go 35!

Since my last update we’ve also celebrated Easter, Mother’s day, and had my sister Alli’s bridal shower (brides maids and bride shown in the picture). Hard to believe that the wedding is only 7 weeks away!!!! I took a week long business trip to Albuquerque without Ethan. It was strange to have five full days where the first activity of the day did not involve someone else’s bodily waste (something I could totally get used to by the way!) Ethan and I had our yearly pilgrimage to Florida to visit with Jackson and Karen Stump. It was a really good trip and the boys actually spent more time playing than fighting this year so HOORAY! There has been talk about renting a beach house next year – we’ll see how adventurous we feel as the time gets closer.

In general, things are really good and I feel completely overwhelmed. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel but there is just a whole lot that needs to get done between here and there. I’ll be glad when life settles back down to its usual break-necked pace!

Ethan has had his ups and downs with the medical profession over the last couple of months. He had his very first dentist appointment (see the picture!) with no cavities. He had a blast playing dentist and putting me in the chair. They let him squirt the water and play with the light and everything! It makes me think that playing dentist at home was a really good idea. He was perfectly still and made it easy on everyone. On the downside, Ethan took his second trip to the emergency room in April. We were reading stories and Ethan took a flying leap from the bottom of the bed. He smacked the headboard just right and the blood started flowing. To make a long story short, we ended up in the ER and Ethan got four stitches in his left eyebrow. He was so brave through the whole thing and it was HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE to see him have to be. I’m glad it wasn’t worse than it was and hope that we are done visiting the ER for a long time.

There are tons of funny stories I could tell you. Ethan says something that cracks me up about every day. But, for the sake of brevity, I’ve chosen only a couple to share.
-We went to see a marionette show at the library. It was called Clown Alley and looked to be very entertaining. It turned out that it fell on a particularly crabby day for Ethan. He said he wanted to go and then kicked up a fit when we got there. He grumped for about the first twenty minutes. Finally, he turned to me and announced in a very loud voice “Maybe they doing the funny parts tomorrow”. I think we were far enough back for the performers to miss the comment, but I caught a handful of moms snickering around me. Oh brother!
- Ethan has somehow mixed up the police and sales people. There was a period of time where EVERY time we got in the car we spent a LONG time discussing why we can’t go faster on the roads. “REALLY REALLY FAST MOMMY!”. And how that would probably result in getting a ticket (but I want a ticket mommy!) and how that’s not a desirable thing and how Mommy drives the speed limit (or a close facsimile there of). Finally he got it – or at least mostly got it. Now, when someone speeds by, Ethan-Master-Of-The-Rules-For-Others says “he going too fast. A sale-person going to pull him over and give him a ticket”. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I tell him it’s a police man. Those wires seem irrevocably crossed for the time being. So watch out for traveling sales persons!
-The funniest one was the day that Ethan and I were having dinner and talking about Allison’s wedding coming up. We were talking about the ring bearer duties and what the day will look like for him. He got a quizzical look on his face and asked “that where I wearing my penguin dress?” I just about spit my soup across the table. How perfect! Now he always calls his big boy tuxedo the “penguin dress” because he knows it will make me laugh.

Ethan is just about three and a half and we’ve had very mixed results with potty training. There have been a couple times when he’s been going in the potty just about all the time. Then he stops completely and can’t tell me why. During a diaper change a couple weeks ago, Ethan told me “you really good at this mommy!” And that was the last straw for me. I told him that that was the last day we were going to wear diapers. So we went to Target and he picked out some big boy underpants. Then we went to Toys R Us (Ethan calls it Toys TO Us which I think is a much better name!) and picked out a 50 piece puzzle. You have to understand that Ethan LOVES puzzles. We do one just about every day and he’s very good at them. Then I told him that every time he goes potty he gets another puzzle piece. I didn’t know if it was actually going to work but it’s been pure magic. There have been no accidents for me. He announces “Pee pee coming! That mean I get another puzzle piece!” At the beginning, I was going to give out puzzle pieces at night too. That is, until I went into the bathroom at 9:30 one night and saw my little crack monkey straining to make something, anything, in the potty to get another piece. I told him no more pieces at night and he’s chilled back out. Now, I don’t know what happens when the puzzle is actually fully assembled. But I feel like I’ve caught the mother of all waves and am going to ride it as far as it will go!

Many of you have asked about my dad’s cancer and I’m SO grateful to announce that he received a clean bill of health in late April!! Strangely, I thought I would feel more relieved when I got the news. But I found that I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop – like he’s cured but… However, as time goes by (and as his hair grows back!) it seems to be sinking in more and more and I am feeling more confident in feeling optimistic. I also realize that I didn’t ever get too far into “what happens if” scenarios. I was taken by surprise a couple of times along the way with the thought that dad will not always be around and that totally sucked. But most of the time, the thought that he wouldn’t get better just didn’t cross my mind. Let’s hope it stays like this for a very very long time. Who else would teach the next generation all of those HORRIBLE jokes?

The other topic that I’ve had a lot of questions about is “David Jordan”. There are those of you who think that a relationship just isn’t going to move backwards. There are those of you that are holding out hope that things will work out between us anyway. There are those of you who are wondering if staying with David is keeping me from finding “the one”. And to be honest, I’ve been in each one of those places on different days. Here is what I can tell you: things between us are good. We are enjoying each other’s company. We are getting along well. And (don’t tell anyone) I’m actually learning stuff. I have never been in a relationship where I’m not totally invested. And I am able to be different in really good ways. I am more honest. I am less attached to what is said and what is done and don’t decide that things are going to be like this forever. I have been appreciating how David is with Ethan a lot more because he isn’t interviewing for the Father Position. I plan to take all of these things and apply them to any future relationships. When might that be? Beats us. We’ll let you know when we know!