What's Worse...

We all know that a "pain in the rear" is irritating, and a "pain in the neck" is a bother, but I'll tell you what's worse than either of those: a pain in the throat. A severe pain. Making it difficult to swallow, talk, eat/drink, or sleep. With accompanying fever, aches, and sleeplessness. (And to complicate things, this happens while your husband is out of town -yet again- all week.)

I can tell you quite positively that a pain in the rear is much better than a pain in the throat, because I still have a little pain in my rear (thanks to yesterday's shot of penicillin), but the pain in my throat is almost obsolete (thank goodness).

Plus, Doug is home now. And that makes me feel better, too.

Good Day, Sunshine

From dawn...

...til dusk, I'm lovin' it.

Even though it's not powerful enough to melt the snow that has covered the ground since Christmas, it's bright enough to encourage my smile.

You are my sunshine, and I've missed you! It's so nice to be back together again!

Highly Recommended: Midnight Sun Spa

I found my new favorite relaxation spot the other evening:




I've been to a few nice spas in my day, but none has topped the convenient location, the relaxing atmosphere, and the friendly, quality service I received at this joint. It was absolutely perfect! Here's the official review:

I had just tucked in the last "little person" for the last time (I told myself...wishfully thinking!), when I was whisked away down the hall to this "Midnight Sun" haven, by the owner and operator, Miss Emily Larson. Her partner in this business is Miss Katelyn. Katelyn's main responsibilities were

• ambiance/mood music (Katelyn's bedroom, and Katelyn's MP3player)


• hair brushing (heavenly)


• applying warm towels to my face (very nice touch)


• and (*very critical*) Crowd Control (ie. putting Hannah back to bed a few times, and finally bribing her with a dollar bill, to give Mommy some peace).

Emily had laid out the bed with pillows; soft, warm blankets; and my very own pink fluffy bathrobe. And she had a pleasing variety of aromatic lotions and beauty products for me to choose from. She let me smell each one, as she noted their unique qualities and highlights, and offered her recommendations. (So professional, let me tell you! But not pushy!)

Emily provided a soothing, delicate (not to mention long-lasting) foot rub to start the package. She knows I love to have my feet rubbed. (This is when Katelyn was brushing my hair, in between trips to get Hannah settled back in her bed.) We had a little bit of conversation, but mostly Emily left me to my thoughts, which is the way I like it during a spa treatment. Sometimes those spa people can be too chatty. But not Emily. She just started her treatment, and asked me, "Is it hard to have Dad gone?" (meaning out of town! Don't get the wrong idea!) And when I nodded my head and tried not to cry, she just soothed me with her foot rub.

My hands were next. I love hand rubs, too! (I later noticed that the hand rub included sparkly lotion. Very glamorous!) My favorite part of the hand rub was listening to Emily's tiny little noises made by sucking on her cheeks. (Let me explain: When Emily was really little, like starting as a toddler, she loved to play with people's hands and fingers. It was cute, but sometimes inconvenient. Sometimes when I was preoccupied, like using the computer, and it wasn't easy to give my hands to Emily, she would lay at my feet and play with those, instead. And all the while, she would do this sort of cheek-chewing/sucking thing. It was Emily's self-soothing habit. She never took a pacifier or a bottle when she was a baby. She just sucked on her own cheeks.)

(But don't tell her I told you that she still does it sometimes--she doesn't even realize!)

To finish off the evening, I received a delightful back rub. Once again, it was perfect. And then Emily hung my bathrobe over my shoulders and sent me off to bed. And isn't that just what you want to do after a soothing spa treatment? Go to bed? I love sleep, too!

And did I mention that this entire spa package was

F-R-E-E!?

Now that you all want to book your own package, I must tell you the unfortunate news: The Midnight Sun Spa services Larson household members only. I know, it's a shame. Go ahead, tell me how lucky I am. I know!

P.S. Note to self: Don't forget to buy oil and honey. And start a new shopping list, since this one turned into Emily's spa marquee!

Another good medicine is chocolate.

Today was that kind of day, and so I needed a few of these after dinner:



Did you know they print messages inside the wrappers? Guess what my message was, on a day like today...

"Sometimes one smile means more than a dozen roses."

Are they joking?!



That's like saying, "Sometimes one leaf of spinach tastes better than a few of these chocolates."



I don't know about you, but I get smiles every day. Not true of a dozen roses.



I think one of the Laffy Taffy writers must have snuck into the Dove Chocolates factory.

The Best Medicine

Over dinner the other night, we had this conversation:

K: I heard that every time you laugh, it adds 5 seconds to your life. Do you think that's true?

D: Well, that's kind of hard to prove...

(thinking)

...I guess it would depend on what you're laughing at. For example, if you were standing in the middle of the road, laughing at an approaching semi-truck, and then it squashed you flat, I would say that laughter didn't really add any time to your lifespan.

(We all laugh. And probably add a few seconds to our lives.)

Then someone (could it have been me?) reminded us that if you laugh while you're eating Jell-O, that could potentially shorten, not lengthen, the time you have to live.

Right, Aaron?

Still Curious who Olivia resembles?

Blogging on the Back Burner

Well, blogging is not the only thing that has been pushed to the back burner in my recent life. It's in the company of many other worthy activities (like returning phone calls and trying out Wii Fit, among other things). But blogging is something that is hard to catch up once you've put it on the back burner. There's so much I'd like to share, and record for my own sake, if no one else's. Now that it's already a new year, I hate to go backwards, but I must.

Olivia is now 8 months old, people! Can you even believe it? While she was seven months old...

• she survived a move, even though ...





• she got a bad case of conjunctivitis and an ear infection right in the middle of that adventure.





• She also experienced her first Christmas.






• And she learned to really enjoy eating food, which I was kind of worried about, since she had rejected it for a couple of months as I was trying to introduce it to her. I can hardly keep up with her appetite, now.
  

We moved out of our house (so thankful that we were able to sell it in this market), and stayed at our friends' house while they were on vacation for a week. They got some pet-sitting out of the deal, and we got to stay and finish the last week of school before Christmas Break. At least, that was the point. But Mother Nature decided to play a mean trick on us, and lots of snow and ice = Snow Days, and no school. The last 3 days before the break were cancelled. Such a bummer!

After that disappointing week, we hoped to get to Utah before Christmas, but the weather had its effects on lots of events that week, which made it impossible for us to make that wish come true. So we went back to Plan A: Christmas with family in Oregon.

Bye Bye Washington

If you look closely, you can see Mt. Rainier. I know, the snow looks like nothing here, but this is what most of the drive to Portland looked like:And this is what it was like at Aaron's house, and back at our place in Washington:

I know some people are sick of Christmas, but I am not. Let me tell you what I loved about our Christmas this year:

• On Christmas Eve, Doug did make it to Portland to be with us. Phew! That was looking sketchy for a few days (darn weather!), but we're so grateful we got to be together.

• We also got to be with several of my family members (at my brother's nice house), which was very fun.
  
  


• This was our final activity on Christmas Eve, before closing our eyes and dreaming visions of sugar plums:





• You might think that staying at a hotel on Christmas Eve would be a disappointment, but let me tell you why you'd be wrong about that: We have never slept better on any Christmas Eve in our own beds than we did this Christmas Eve at the hotel. Why? Because our hotel room was quiet and dark and cozy, and because Santa came to Uncle Aaron's house nearby, instead of to the hotel room. So there was no reason for little girls to wake up too early on Christmas morning. We overslept, in fact! It was great!

See how happy we were after a great night of sleep?

Lauren turned 7

We spent most of her birthday driving to our new home, but thankfully we had a few gifts stuffed in the car with us. For months, she had been begging to go to Ruby's Diner for her birthday, so I took the girls there for dinner one night before the move.

Remember how last year she got sick on her birthday? Gratefully, we had a relatively healthy holiday season this year! :) (Please, don't let that be a jinx!)

My New Year's Resolutions: 9 for '09

1. Never, ever move during the month of December again!


2. Cherish the sunshine.
3. Read more good books.


4. Learn new songs on the piano.
   
5. Bake more bread.
   
6. Learn how to use my new camera.
   
7. Get a screamin' deal on a new house.
   
8. Appreciate the good (and overlook the bad) parts of each day. (You may need to remind me of this one.)
   
9. Make new friends, and keep the old.