Routine

Life is normal now. As normal as can be with two under two. Which is... Well, it depends on the day. Sometimes it's pretty normal. Other days I want to pull out my own teeth! Super! 

First item of business today, testing out my webcam. Because it's a new one, got it yesterday, and I'm starting work next week. Which is a whole 'nother kind of "normal." The kind of normal you need to brace yourself for, by hanging black out curtains in the nursery to hopefully get your babes to sleep longer, and the kind of normal you DON'T brace yourself for because you want to take advantage of staying up as late as you can for as long as you can. When you work at 4am, you can't stay up late anymore. Or you can, but then you look like death in the morning.

Webcam works. And this is my blogging room/office. And Joe's office. Hah. Blogging room. As if I blog.

Oh the babies are asleep. I think one of them is sick. That's why I'm blogging. TIME FOR IT.

The last month.

The last two months?

Bought a house, had my in laws in town for a week, had my mom in town for two weeks, had a baby, had my mother in law in town for a week, had husband off work for two weeks, visited Utah for a week...

It was a lot. It was a lot of not routine. And now we're getting back to it.

But that two weeks of husband off were pretty swell. Preettttty swell.

First, the basis. He gets two weeks of paid leave for vacation time. Which is really hard on me. I joke that as a teacher, you get paid in vacation time. And working for VIPKid I get all the time I want. So when we're put on a constraint like TWO WEEKS it really freaks you out. Don't even get me started on next year when we're hitting up the big H. As in Hawaii. Without kids. Whatever.

But Joe's work threw us a bone in the form of two weeks paternity leave. Didn't get that with child #1! It almost makes it worth it to have kids... almost ;) WINK WINK WINK.

Wait. Don't read into that. I'm not pregnant. I'm joking about having kids being worth it, because of course it is. But two weeks makes it extra super.

So we crammed those two weeks full of as much as possible.

Part of which was a lot of cleaning and finishing the last touches of unpacking. Which Joe was less than thrilled about. It's a rough thing when you learn that your wife cleans the house, YES, every DAY! Because she's a little obsessive about crumbs on the floor and the toddler is a little obsessive about leaving crumbs on the floor. It's his primary hobby.

But we also hit up Tucson. We're not in a hurry to live there... Though the mountains were nice.

Speaking of mountains. I was going on and on, on the drive to Tucson, about the mountains. Joe at one point laughed and said they weren't mountains, they were glorified hills. Sure.... but there WAS a respectable mountain in Tucson. Anyway.

Also hit up Utah, and when you see the mountains in Utah, you realize where "glorified hills" comes from. Living in AZ has me saying a lot of AZ things like "Wow, look at those mountains!" and "It's so green here!" and "Rain would feel really nice." and "Only 95? It's a beautiful day!" and "Three whole pine trees? This feels like the mountains!"

We used to joke, as kids, because my grandparents would talk like that a lot, and we thought it was old-people talk. Nope. It's AZ living talk.

K. Hit up Tucson for the LDS Tucson Temple Open House. It was gorgeous. It's a very unique building! A very beautiful one. The grounds were desert landscaped, which we noticed was a trend through Tucson. In Gilbert, people seem to try to forget that we live in the desert.

Huh.

Oh, hit up the Grand Canyon.

Yes, little one #2 is wearing clothes. Just not a lot, because we were wrapped together the whole time and it got hot. And never mind our weird squinty "Where do I look" eyes because the sun was everywhere. I cannot emphasize how much sun there was.

Joe: "Lara, have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?"

Me: "I think so, but not since I was really young."

Joe: "Then you must have been M's age, because you'd remember it if you were older."

Oh. 

That there is a joke about my memory skills that are slightly alarming. 

We'll talk about that later, but it involves the unfolding tale of me realizing I remember things back to 1 year old, vividly, and my mom saying that maybe that means I've got some kind of social disorder or something.

We'll talk about that later.

But the Grand Canyon. You get there, you park or ride the bus or however you get there, and you'll probably hit up the visitor center first, it's only smart. And there you'll see that there's a 5 min walk to the nearest lookout, so that's what you'll do.

5 minutes later, you'll be there, you'll see this big ol hole in the earth, and you'll realize what the big deal about the Grand Canyon is.

Guys.

It's a freaking huge hole in the earth. It's mind blowing. It's fascinating. It's hypnotizing.

And then you'll say "Ok swell, we've seen the Grand Canyon!"

But since you decided at 7pm the night before to drive up there, you decide to make a day of it and hit up all the stops at this big ol canyon, not expecting much.

But oh there is much to see.

It's interesting how interesting a big ol hole in the ground can be from every angle.

Reminds me of a quote.

Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.

Funny quote of the Grand Canyon.... But I don't like baseball. That can't be emphasized enough. Though I do enjoy sitting in a baseball stadium if it means there's interesting smelling food, interesting looking people, and the promise of fireworks.

Well.

This has been all very rambly. And has had very little to do with routine.

But I did say I'd blog, didn't I? So here you go. Me. Or you... Or whoever this promise was made to.

Martha Stewart, signing out.

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