Romancing the Stone

Brent and I are having a bit of an argument.

He thinks that, when he's in excruciating pain from a kidney stone, I should somehow whip out some amazing supernatural driving skills and fly through traffic a bad "Starksy and Hutch" car chase scene.

I, on the other hand, think it would be very bad for us to get in an accident and possibly kill ourselves (or someone else), while I'm trying to rush him to the Emergency Room.  I keep picturing myself arrested and telling the judge, "But Your Honor, my husband had a KIDNEY STONE."  I don't think it would help me avoid time in the slammer.

Do I break traffic laws while we're going to the ER?

You betcha!

Do I use the emergency shoulder lane to pass all the cars waiting in line to turn at the light and weave my very large Dodge Magnum through traffic like a fighter pilot dodging (no pun intended) enemy fire?

No. No, I do not.

Why?

Because, my friends, I suck at driving.  I admit it.  I hate it.  I've been in an accident... or two.  Possibly three - but I wasn't driving for the third one.  I would much, much rather not do it at all.  To the point that I'll put off errands of any type to avoid driving.

Two adults with no kids at home can go a LONG time between runs to the grocery store, by the way.

I drive a good distance to work every day so I'm kind of numb to it now but I really hate it.  The very sound of a road trip makes me want to cough up a hairball.  There's nothing appealing to me about long periods of time behind the wheel - no matter the destination.

So, needless to say, both times that I had to run Brent to the ER yesterday there were some... firm words... exchanged between us. 

This stone is a "little" one, compared to some in the past.  I really pray he can pass it without surgical intervention like the last few.

Sorry that you're hurting, Brent.  And I'm sorry I suck at driving.  But at least we're all alive.

Nathan, by the way, was VERY patient with us and all the hours spent at the hospital yesterday.  He did tell me multiple times that we were "All Done" but he really did pretty well for a 2 yr old that has no idea what's going on or why Mom doesn't want him to run in this beautiful, wide open hallways that echo.  Thank you for being a good kid, Nathan.

Ki Se Ti Bebe Mwen?

Brent made up this little song about "who is my baby?"

There's a little dance they do together, too. It's obscenely sweet!

Yesterday, Brent started drumming on the counter and Nathan started singing it.

Prepare to get tooth decay from how adorable he is! (Nathan, of course, although I think Brent's pretty cute as well)

My Husband May Be Addicted...

.... to spackle.

I can't make him stop. He's re-texturizing the entire basement. He says that he wants the seams in the drywall to be perfect, but I think it must have some secret ingredient and he's getting some sort of contact high. He's already redone the hallways upstairs. And repainted the entire upstairs.

The terribly ironic part is that we're moving. Trying to move anyway. We've made an offer on another house. That house is a "short-sale" which means the bank has a 3 MONTHS to tell us whether or not they'll accept our offer. The good side of that is it means we have time to try to sell our house. The bad side of that is it means Brent can keep redoing all the things that have apparently been secretly driving him crazy.

Apparently he could live with them but he can't bear the thought of someone ELSE living with them.

It's completely awesome to be married to someone who can fix and build and do things. Except for the part with the drywall dust.

Please excuse our mess... Brent's renovating.

I love this one...

"-Ectomy" Is Latin For "I Hope You Weren't Using That Cause You Ain't Getting It Back"

Brent's had a rough week. He actually thought he had food poisoning earlier in the week but then it just didn't get better. And then there was the whole symptom of extreme pain in his abdomen. He finally went into the doc today and when the doc pressed on his belly Brent kinda came unglued. The doc sent him over to the hospital for a CT scan and at that point they just admitted him. He's back in surgery right now.

The way I look at it, his appendix is entirely to blame. Brent's a pretty patient guy. He's put up with me for 11+ years so that should show you that Brent has the patience of Job. So it's really saying something if he takes extreme measures. Brent doesn't just go from "oh, you're my appendix? Nice to meet you! I've heard about you but it's nice to put a face with the name" to "this relationship isn't working for me" to "you are dead to me. It will be as if you never existed" in such a short time frame for no reason.

He's a pretty reasonable guy. He would have tried counseling. He would have worked out some sort of schedule I'm sure. But no... suddenly EVERYTHING is about Appendix. Appendix has to be all "look at me! look at me!" and becomes such an attention-whore that Brent can't even think straight. It all boils down to Appendix being needy, self-centered and shallow. It's really like the Paris Hilton of internal organs.

Think about it... Brent's given Appendix food and shelter for all these years, taken Appendix on trips, and camping and all sorts of things, and do you think Appendix has ever once thanked Brent? No! Not once in 38 years! Not even a card! Then, out of the blue, Appendix stabs Brent in the back (or belly as the case may be). I mean, what's Appendix ever done for Brent REALLY. You give, and you give, and you give, and you get nothing back. Sometimes relationships are so one sided that they aren't worth the investment.

I don't blame Brent. I would have done the same thing if I were in his position (that position being "doubled over in pain").

Brent's gall bladder should consider this post a warning.

Happy Anniversary.... Now Go Jump Off a Cliff!

It's our 11th anniversary today. I got Brent a paragliding session at the Point of the Mountain. So, he does get to go jump off a "cliff" but in a good way. It looks like it will be a blast and I'm very excited for him to go try it out.[Brent's addition - What she forgot to say is that I have an ever so slight(ly raging) fear of heights. She didn't even buy me a pair of Depends to wear during this adventure. I think she is after the life insurance policy!]

He got me what he called "the Lori version of a dozen roses and chocolates". (I don't eat chocolate) - a bouquet of assorted flowers including calla lilies (which I had in my wedding bouquet and he gets points for remembering that) and the "polygamist family pack" of fruit leather. Fruit leather is my crack cocaine. The man knows me well.

Snuggling with Daddy

I think we took these pictures the first night of our October trip. We had only Jessica for most of the week, as you'll recall. That night, Brent had his computer out and was trying to upload some pictures or something.

Miss Jessi just came right over and of course wanted to help - anything with that many buttons and lights has to be AWESOME!! Naturally, right?


But the part that I liked the best was when she snuggled back into Brent's arm - cuddled right up with Daddy. She'd touch a key on the computer and then look up at Brent to see what his reaction was.

Of course, we think everything they do is adorable, so he was laughing which made her laugh with him. She has the funniest laugh - particularly if she knows she's being funny.



My dear friend, Melissa, recently posted about how her daughter likes to snuggle up with Daddy and they take a nap.

I can't wait until that's Brent and Jessica on our very own couch at our very own house.

Please let it come soon enough that they're still little and still want to snuggle. With our luck, they may well be 17 by the time we get them home! :D

And the Award Goes to....

Brent's now an award winning photographer.

Granted it's just my company's internal photography contest, open only to employees and their spouses. It was judged by an independent panel made up of members of the Utah Arts Council. I figure they should know what they're talking about.

Plus, this is just a fabulous picture. Even if I am ridiculously partial to both the photographer and the subject matter.


(This was taken the 1st day of this last trip. We were still at the orphanage, after meeting the kids again.)

Hanging With My Dad

How It All Began...

I had the opportunity to tell someone how Brent proposed to me the other day and I remembered that it really is a great story.

We met at a in the bishop's office at church. We were both in leadership positions at the time and so we had meetings together. He was the only one who "got" all my "witty banter".

Our first "date" (term used loosely) was when I invited him to a Halloween Party that a bunch of us were having. It was a "How to Host a Murder" Party so there happened to be 4 girls and 4 guys because that's how the game is set up. Brent loves to say that on our first date, Lori went out with another guy. It seems that I wasn't very clear to Brent that it was a group event and he was more than a little confused when I arrived to pick him up with another male friend. :)

It's also interesting that Brent never really asked me on a date. I asked him to come to that party, and then we went to a fireside with a bunch of people kind of spontaneously the next evening. The night after that I went over to his house and read him some bedtime stories (it's one of my mad skills). And after that, we were just always together.

Brent had season tickets to the symphony when we first met (he really is a Renaissance Man). I guess he probably did ask me to go to the symphony that night. It was December 11th and it was very cold. Brent was working as a baker (he makes European hearth breads and at one time trained with members of the US Baking Team. Did you KNOW there was a US Baking Team??) and so he worked horrible hours the first year or so of our lives. At any rate, my baker boy feel asleep during the concert. He was exhausted and I couldn't blame him.

I tried to get him to just let us go home after the concert but he kept insisting that "you can't come to Salt Lake in December and not stop by to see the Christmas Lights on Temple Square". It is quite a sight if you're ever in the area (or on this continent, for some of my other friends) in December.

At any rate, due to the temperature, we slipped into the Assembly Hall (one of the old buildings built by the pioneers) on Temple Square to get out of the cold. There was a choir performing some Christmas music in there. Christmas time on Temple Square is an event - and you can move around through these performing groups and displays and things as you'd like.

So there we are, standing at the back of this hall... lots of people either sitting on the benches or just standing to listen to the choir. I'm listening to the choir and looking around (I'm an avid people watcher) when suddenly, I see a familiar face in the crowd... and then two faces...

"Brent, there's my mom! And your mom! I didn't know they knew each other!" I said. (It was late, I was cold... cut me some slack). He looked at me like, "Come on, Lori. You're smart enough to figure this out." Then I noticed his sister there amongst the crowd as well. And she was holding a huge bouquet of flowers. And it all clicked with me and I knew what he'd planned.

There, in front of an Assembly Hall full of strangers and our moms and his sister, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. He knew that it would be a special moment for these other women in our lives so he invited them to be there, which I still think is so sweet and thoughtful! His sister handed me the flowers and the ring was tied into the bow around the bouquet. There was also a note (which I saved of course) that said:

"There is no confection so sweet as joyful reunion."
From the first time we spoke it was as if our two souls had known each
other for eternity. As time progressed, the truth of this statement rang
clear. I know that the future will show that for us this quote is as true
as the Gospel. I love you and want for us to never have to reunite
again.

He did well, no? It's a great memory. I'm grateful our moms and Trudi were able to be there. It's always meant a lot to me that he took the extra time to include them.

Brent is...

Spring is here although we keep getting snowfall as someone neglected to notify the weather that it' is SPRING.

Spring always makes me think of Brent - it's probably our favorite time of the year. Brent broke out the tiller and went all "blitzkreig" on the front flower beds yesterday. He's an expensive tiller, as some plants that I thought we were keeping inevitably fall victims to the front lines of Brent's war on untilled earth.

I don't write much about my husband, so I thought today was a good time to start.

Brent is....

....patient. He doesn't complain much about anything - EVER. When Brent says he needs to go to a doctor, you know he is probably close to death. But I'm not sure if that's the "not a complainer" part of him or the "hates the phone" part of him or the "this too shall pass" part of him.


...a kid magnet. Children - even total strangers' children - seem to be able to sense that Brent's heart is a large as his stature. They start climbing on him within minutes and he's more than happy to oblige. A week or so ago he spent a couple of hours out in the yard swinging around the little neighbor kids. I've heard about that from several moms. They love that their kids love and feel safe with Brent and that Brent loves their kids. He's always overly enthusiastic about playing with the kids. The last few times he's done this he's actually injured his neck - he has some permanent damage in there from something previously and it always flares up wickedly when he goes into "human junglegym-mode" but he always does it anyway. Our nieces love him
- our nephews were too grown up for that sort of thing by the time they joined our family.


...good for snuggling. There's something about his 6'4" frame that is just cozy. And if you don't believe me, ask my nieces.


This is a picture of Brent with one of our youngest nieces at my brother's wedding a few months ago. You can tell that a) they're both content, b) they've done this before and c) they stayed in this position for quite sometime.


...talented. He's got a vision for how he wants things to be in the house, the talent to "make it so" and the work ethic to complete it. He's made things like this:
in our backyard. The design for the arbor is all him - he dreamed it up, figured out how to make it work, and pretty much installed it while he had some time off from work. I came home and went, "Oh! We have a pretty arbor!" Same thing with the waterfall (pondless = childsafe). There are tiers and steps around it, all sorts of plants and trees - we have a beautiful yard. He designs it, plants and I weed it. That's the arrangement. And if you think I've got the short end of that stick, it's because you've never tried to plant a tree with a 300 lb root ball. THAT wasn't fun!


... a master chef and grillman. He has a reputation amongst our friends and neighbors for his cooking. When Brent touches something, it becomes greater than it thought it could be. No plain, ol' pancakes on his watch! No, they'll be cinnamon pecan pancakes. Or Mango pancakes. Not just plain chicken. It's cranberry almond chicken. He also makes artisan European hearth breads. He was a bread baker when we first met. And you haven't lived until you've had what the man can do to a tri-tip steak, grilled pears, or tilapia.


... a hard worker. He's done tile in half our family members homes or former homes. He helps with yards and moving and hardwood floors.


... organized. I needed him for that quality alone.


...a sports man. Loves golf, basketball, watching football and has even tried his hand a field hockey. We keep meaning to take up fencing but one or the other of us keeps getting injured, sick, hospitalized or sent on long business trips.


...quiet. He's tempered me over the years. I'm not sure how we met sometimes. But at least he asked and I said yes.


...loyal. Brent is fiercely loyal. He's also terribly reserved. Just because he won't pick up the phone doesn't mean he isn't aware and concerned and thinking about you.

He's going to be a great dad and I'm excited to see him in Haiti with Malot.

Brent is also interviewing tomorrow for a job that we're really, really, really interested in and one where he could really do well. Prayers, please!