Utah Love

I wrote yesterday how much we love Utah and how we are planning on being here for a while. I have been thinking about why.

One of the reasons we love Utah follows.

We lived in a state where we saw sun on maybe 90 days a year, a little less where Paul grew up and a little more where I grew up. Here in Utah we see sun on 285 days a year. Today - I woke up to driving snow and now it is almost 50 degrees and the sun is shining. You never really need a heavy coat because the sun always warms you - no matter the temperature. And when the weather comes, you can see it for miles. We watched the clouds roll in yesterday afternoon and today I am watching them roll out - and they are not gray clouds here, they are beautiful white clouds. Just like paintings. If you were painting skies, this is where you would want to be - most days.

Never underestimate the power of the sun for your disposition.

About Utah

It looks like we'll be staying here for a while. I have been thinking about why I like Utah so much, given how not like me that is.

A million years ago, when I was 18, I traveled to Tempe, Arizona for a Bowl Game - back when Syracuse actually won football games. And I remember getting off the plane and feeling comfortable - for the first time ever. At the time I thought I must be having some connection with some former life lived in the southwest. I had the same feeling eight years ago when I arrived for a job interview and then came out to find a home. Maybe my Type A, fast paced personality really thrives in the laid back western culture.

My husband spent the months between my job acceptance and our arrival reading the local newspaper online and looking at pictures and learning everything he could about Ogden, Utah. He really committed early - probably earlier than I did. When we moved I said to my usually homesick self, self, we are not leaving Utah for at least one year so we can make sure we give it a chance. And I did. And the weird thing is, when I went to New York, I only missed it for the first couple of hours after leaving. For the first time in my life I lived very far away from my people and was not homesick at all. And while I like to get home in the summers to spend time on my lake in the Adirondacks, I also like to get back to Utah in the summers as well.

Whenever I say to him, would you like to look for work back east, he says, why? We love it here. And he's right, we love it here.

Reporting on my Life

Good things:

• Back to work and loving teaching.
• Finishing scholarly projects and getting brain set to think of new ones this summer.
• Got good letters from department, college and the Dean - so should be job secure.
• Healthy, not so wealthy as to cause problems but just enough wealthy to survive, and relatively wise.
• Great family - see above - who make me smile all the time.

Bad things:

• Nothing.

My Big Girl!

Tonight we look around and the Princess is missing so we walk down the hall and she's using the potty all by herself - never thought I'd care so much about someone else's bathroom habits - but HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT!!!

Motherhood 2 - Duchess 0

Whilst walking into pre-school today, carrying the Princess, her back pack, her valentines and her cookies we (I) made for her class - I dropped them all. Luckily no living thing was hurt, but the cookies took a hit.

Getting that Martha Stewart magazine, which was supposed to help me become a better mom, hasn't really delivered.

Valentine's Day

I generally do not care about these Hallmark holidays. Valentine's Day is a day I always had a date on but I do not care to get gifts or cards or anything for this stuff. I think you get stuff for Christmas, Easter and your birthday. Three major annual events is good enough for adults.

For children, however, I have always believed I would be the kind of mother who would do neat things on these dates. And so I find myself, at my scrapping group, realizing that Valentine's Day is one of those damn days that children care about. They have these swanky Valentines they've worked on and prepared for - and I'm all, what? When is Valentine's Day? What?

So this year, the Princess and I will be making cookies for her class to compensate for the lame Disney Princess and Cars valentines we will be handing out. Next year, by God, I will start making her Valentines in October. They will sing and dance and bling like nothing you have ever seen!

Momhood - 1, the Duchess - 0

My Last Twelve Hours

1158pm - crying from Elizabeth's room. I go up and offer to sleep with her. She wants to come sleep in our bed. I am too tired to deal with it, so I carry her downstairs.

1215am - in our bed, in the dark, she announces "I have to go potty." Paul carries her upstairs to go potty and puts her back to bed.

315am - crying from Elizabeth's room. I go up and offer to sleep with her, she says "I'm missing Daddy." So downstairs we go again.

330am - in our bed, in the dark, she announces "I have to go potty." Paul carries her upstairs to go potty and puts her back to bed.

6am- my alarm goes off to start my day.

8am - I am trying to get Elizabeth awake for school as we need to leave at 815am, thinking, if you didn't wake up twice during the night you'd wake up no problem right now, curse word curse word.

I am wearing a wrap.

805am - Elizabeth wakes up, looks at me and says "super Momma! dododododo" in perfect Superman timing.

806am - all my frustration and tiredness is defeated in the face of her absolute cuteness

My Ballerina

Here we are, chatting about the world.

My favorite thing she says as we walk in the door - "I need a crown, a tutu and my wings." And I have to get her into her crown, her tutu and her wings. The appropriate outfit for any afternoon.