Eve's best friends

Every Friday Eve and I have lunch at my friend Saeka's house. She moved to Seattle from Japan a year ago and wanted to work on her English. We were introduced at Church and being the Literacy Specialist I offered to meet with her so she could practice speaking.

Over the past few months we have become great friends and I look forward to our Friday afternoons all week. But it isn't just me that has found a friend. Eve, whose social life is a bit limited these days, loves to visit Saeka's house mostly because she has twin 3 year-old girls, Ayu and Yuna. And they love Eve. They poke her chubby cheeks and bring her all their toys. It is so awesome to hear them jabbering away in Japanese and then to hear them say "Eve."

Saeka knew that it was Eve's birthday so when we arrived last Friday she had a gift basket all ready for her. Saeka is quite crafty so she had made felt hand puppets: a mother and baby bunny, a candle and, my personal favorite, a chicken that opens up to reveal an egg which "cracks" open to reveal a baby chick. I honestly think Saeka is the most giving person I've met. She always makes something special for dessert (banana clafoutis, black sesame seed pudding, cheesecake, Japanese walnut raisin rolls, etc.) and always sends some home with me for Scott. If she's reading this, thank you for being such a good friend!

Yuna making Eve a sand birthday cake

Ayu helping Eve push her alligators

Eve's birthday presents

That's not an adult conversation

Eve is still having a hard time keeping her eyes open when the flash goes off

Yesterday was one of Scott's co-worker's last day of work before going on maternity leave. She is in her late-thirties and will soon be having her first child. At a meeting/going away party (composed of 15 people, 10 of which were women) yesterday someone asked how long her leave was. She replied that she would be taking six months off. And then one of the other ladies at the meeting asked the group how many of them thought she would last the full six months.

Did I hear Scott correctly!? Last six months? The conversation that followed was made up different "mothers" saying how long they lasted before coming back to work, some returning in as few as three days. Here are some of the comments that were made:

[While putting dirty rags in the washer] Did I get my PhD for this?

You'll come back when you want some adult conversation rather than just the 'playground talk.'
[Someone else] Oh that's not an adult conversation!


I don't know any of these women but my heart went out to their children. Do they really think that their life's work is at the office and not caring for and teaching their own children? Apparently the answer is yes.

After Scott told me all this last night I promised myself to be a good example of a stay-at-home mom and homemaker. Here are some of my goals and I am preserving them here in cyber-space so you can remind me if I get off track:

- Be happy and cheerful in my role

- Keep my mind active by

-read interesting books

- have intelligent conversations (talk about ideas and not things/people)

- explore new topics and areas of interest

- Keep my body fit and healthy

- Look nice (this one's can be a hard one for me but I need to remember that I am capable of showering, fixing my hair, putting on mascara and shaving my legs on a more regular basis than I have been known to do)

- Develop new skills and talents (sewing is my latest)

If any of you see my slacking off I give you permission to say "Hey didn't you write on your blog once that you were going to be happy and cheerful? How's that going for you?"

The Birthday Report

Where' still working on the "how old are you" trick

Birthday Dance with Daddy

Eating the wrapping paper

Worn out and perhaps a bit hypnotized

Happy Birthday Eve! 1-year old today

Not quite the beginning but pretty close

First Hike and she loved it!

Boo!

Eve in a Donut

Has always had a fondness for leaves

Who loves Grandma?

Yelling while whacking tree with celery

Ummmmm mess!

Swingin' Eve

Blue Eyes

Happy Birthday!

Where did this tradition come from anyway?

When I was 12 or 13 I was shocked to learn that the Easter Bunny brought other kids Easter baskets filled with candy. What were they talking about?! The Easter Bunny didn't put candy in baskets outside their door! Obviously the real Easter Bunny wasn't going to their house. You see, the real Easter Bunny hides your favorite pair of shoes (filled with candy as an added incentive to find them) as he had been doing to me and all my family for generations. My poor husband Scott was one of those unfortunate Easter-Basket-Children but for the past two years he has experienced the joy of finding his shoes crammed into heating vents, tapped to the lids of garbage cans, and buried in flour.

Happy Easter!

Oh you're going to have to look in better places than the toy basket.
This is the Easter Bunny we're dealing with here.

Eve loves to get into (eat) the wheat so that was a natural place for one of her shoes.

Thankfully Daddy helped her reach her shoes and the bag of
raisins that the Easter Bunny had left for her.

This is Eve wondering why her shoe is in a plastic bag.
I'm sure she'll get used to it after a few years.

It really does rain 9 months out of the year in Seattle

Forecast Conditions High/Low °F Precip. Chance High Temperatures Low Temperatures Precipitation Wind Speed Today Mar 13 Rain 48°/41° 80% 48°F Check Flight Delays Fri Mar 14 Rain / Thunder 48°/40° 90% 48°F Sat Mar 15 Rain 50°/38° 90% 50°F Sun Mar 16 Few Showers 49°/41° 30% 49°F Check Your Local Event Forecast Mon Mar 17 Showers 48°/40° 40% 48°F Tue Mar 18 Showers 51°/38° 40% 51°F Wed Mar 19 Showers 49°/38° 40% 49°F Get Tips for Driving in the Rain Thu Mar 20 Showers 50°/36° 60% 50°F Fri Mar 21 Rain / Snow Showers 49°/39° 60% 49°F Sat Mar 22 Showers 54°/38° 60% 54°F Check Flight Delays

MFEO - Part V

Inspiring isn't it?

The clothes we wore that night.
(Scott on the left, Rebekah on the right)

Going into date 3 (including the bike ride) I was prepared to pull out all the stops. I planned a killer of an evening complete with a vegetarian dinner (Scott comes from a carnivorous family) and a trip out to the Utah West Desert to see the Spiral Jetty. Oh yes. Wow, do I know how to charm a man or what?

Not only do I feed Scott what is possibly his first vegetarian dinner of his life, I also make him help cook it. Just as I fired up the ol' grill the door bell rang and before he knew what was happening there he was chopping vegetables. To tell you the truth, that grilled vegetable pasta that I made that night is now one of his favorite dinners. Bless him.

So far, so good. After dinner we hop into my Dad's pickup truck and head off for one of Utah's more obscure claims to fame: the Spiral Jetty. A literal gem of the 1970's, I had been there twice before and just couldn't wait to get back! Ok, not really. But it was a chance to share some art (I was an art history major after all) with Scott and get outside for a bit. Little did we know that my brilliant plan would also end up meaning 6 hours of car time. That's right. Rebekah thought she knew exactly how to get there but .... she didn't. After asking directions from a woman wearing a coyote t-shirt whose house had one of those cowboy silhouettes out front ("Spiral what?!") we eventually found ourselves on the right road. By now it is 9:30 and pitch black. The road is more like a series of huge dirt pot holes studded with boulders the truck is barely tall enough to go over.

Looking back it was amazing that neither Scott nor I were totally stressed out at this point. We had actually had a nice talk during our scenic drive of the desert but to be completely honest we were a little tired of sitting so we decided to bag the Spiral Jetty and just get out and walk on the dirt road (even more romantic, yes!).

So we get out and start walking. Because we were roughly 60 miles from any source of electricity, there was no light pollution and the stars were brilliant which made me feel a little better since my carefully planned date turned out to be somewhat less than what I had imagined. We had been walking for a few minutes talking about the stars and how quiet it was when Scott said "Rebekah, could I ask you a question?". I said that of course he could. At this point I stop breathing. He then said "Do you think we could ever be more than just friends?" Between not breathing and my heart rate doubling I'm surprised I was able to keep walking. I then told him that I thought he was one of the greatest guys I've know and that I would love to be more than just friends. As I was talking I had started to walk faster and faster. When I was done and Scott was almost jogging to keep up with me I asked him "What do we do now?" Scott responds with "Well we could stop walking for a start."

At this point I can't explain all the emotions I was feeling. The two major ones were absolute joy that Scott liked me and nervousness so severe I was shacking. You see this was all new to our little Rebekah. Never had a boyfriend, never kissed, never held hands, nothing. And then Scott gently took my face in his hands and kissed me on the cheek and then pulled me into a hug. All my nervousness went away and I believe that moment was the happiest of my life.

I don't know how long we stood leaning against the truck talking and holding each other but it was long enough to see a couple of trains go by in the distance. We talked about why we liked each other and all the grief we had gone through the past month and a half, not knowing how the other one felt. It was wonderful.

Now it was getting close to midnight and we had a 7:00 am Church meeting the next morning so we decided to head home. Between Scott holding my hand and me always wanting to look at him it's amazing we got home in one piece. But the worst that happened was we got lost again and had to stop for directions.

After I dropped him off (big hug but no kiss) I drove home and rushed up to my parent's bedroom and threw myself on their bed exclaiming "HE LIKES ME!" To this day that is one of my parent's fondest memories of me.

MFEO - Part I
MFEO - Part II
MFEO - Part III
MFEO - Part IV