Lift Where You Stand

I've always said I'd rather have a piano than a wedding ring. I love my wedding ring so I haven't been saying that much since getting engaged. But Fernando knew and so when he overheard an elderly lady was GIVING away her grand piano to anyone who would pay to move it, he snatched the opportunity.

Weeks later we had a beautiful baby grand piano which needed some work, but we still paid NOTHING for it and so over time we planned to save up the dough to pay for the improvements.

Cut to 3.something years later (where does the time go) when a guy came to diagnose our lovely piano so we can start making the improvements as Mimi will soon begin piano lessons. Thunder rumbled and the sky turned dark (figuratively) as he spoke the words: "It will not be saved."

So sad. The sounding board was beyond repair or something like that which is equivalent to the engine of the piano in autobody terms. The WORST of it all is that when Fernando asked the piano guy, "So, what do we do with it?" The guy said, "TAKE IT TO THE DUMP."

The horror.

It seems like sacrilege to me to put a grand piano in the dump where seagulls will drop on it and banana peels will rot it's legs away. It just hurts me to think of it. But it had to be done. So the crew disassembled it enough to get it out of the house and take it to the truck.

My dad told my to make sure and post these pictures so that my brother Patrick who is in CHINA gets to see the fun he missed. He somehow escapes to the orient every time we have to move anything substantial.

We had to slide the piano on blankets out to the truck, and then everybody had to lift it into the truck.

Anyway, we all got thinking about "Lift Where You Stand" by President Uchtdorf.

"...as strong as you are, you cannot and you should not lift a piano by yourself. Likewise, none of us can or should move the Lord’s work alone. But if we all stand close together in the place the Lord has appointed and lift where we stand, nothing can keep this divine work from moving upward and forward."

So even though the piano is gone and has left a gaping hole in our front room (albeit plenty of room wherein to dance our hearts out), it has reminded us of everyone who has stood where they were and lifted us, and that whatever strength we have, if we are willing to use it to bless others, makes a difference.

ps My dad saved some pieces of the wood. So we will incorporate parts of the piano into future important furninture items. Don't lose sleep over this.

Baseball in style

Some good one liners of late:

Mimi: "I'm not going to have a boyfriend when I grow up, just a husband." soooo much easier.

Me: "Sam. Stop smashing your brother! He's just a baby."

Sammo: "But I LOVE him. That's my commandment!" True. Love is the greatest commandment, Sam expresses love by mauling, and I can't argue with the reasoning.

You win again nursery leaders.

Mimi: "Not all children are geniuses, Sammy. But children of Fernando are geniuses." (Who has been feeding this line of reasoning to you, I wonder...) "And the wife of Fernando is also a genius." Yes, my identity has been completely obliterated at this point. But, I am a genius.

Sammo: "I'm TIIIIIIIRED of being good." I hear ya. But I'll bet being bad is exausting.

fatty boombah

Some friends of ours in Italy, the husband was Australian, used to call their baby a fatty boombah. I always loved the term and now I get to use it on this guy!


F and I were saying the other day how much we love baby feet and how the feet have a mind of their own. This guy loves his feet. I love this face. It's like..."excuse me? Did you interrupt me for something important?"

Actually SORTA seems like a white person could have had this baby. Amazing!

Don't you love babies?! OHHHHHHH.

Such a cutie little squish.

If you don't want to hear a weird baby voice or feel uncomfortable with me acting like a goofball please do not watch the video below.

Girl's day out

Aunt KT took Mimi for a girl's day out. She made some new friends at Old Navy,

Did some animal training,


Said goodbye to new friends WITH a stash of new cute clothes provided by spoiler KT



Got THESE painted at the GLITTER TOE party

Nice. Makes you wish KT would take YOU on a Girl's day out sometime, doesn't it? (Hint hint)

wewease the secwet weapon!

fun with static

These pictures just make me laugh. Sammy is so happy to be with his brother all the time and he loves to do baby things now. He talks sometimes about "when I grow to be 1" because he wants to be a baby again. We watched home movies a while ago and he was so devastated that he had grown up. I feel the same way sometimes. But every stage and age has been absolutely absolutely ABSOLUTELY wonderful with each of these cherubs, and the femme fatale who is not pictured.

Every night when I swaddle Miniman he smiles at me, like, "Thanks Mom, for relieving me of these wildly flailing limbs. Now I can rest. AHHHH." I love it. I laugh every night when he does that. He usually does that then turns his little head to his left, and zones out immediately to sleep. I am always amazed by it! He is the best sleeper we've had, for sure. THANK YOU MINIMAN. What little sanity I cling to I can trace to your sleep habits :).

Actually these little people are all so good. We are SO BLESSED! I cannot believe how wonderful it is to be a parent. Other than the occasional meltdown or 3 hour park visits wherein 1.Mimi practically gets her finger pinched off in a spin around toy and we both (internally me and very externally her) freak out, 2.Sammy smacks his nose on a slide and blood gushes out everwhere, and 3. I get one of my vision migraines where I lose half of my vision for an hour, we do pretty well. (NOTE: Thank you to the dear McKenzie who saved the day there at the park and is a much more prepared and less freakyoutie mom than me, and sorry I didn't tell you Kenz about the migraine but I was having so much fun talking to you). Anyway, Miniman was still a complete angel! So it's nice that they usually take turns going crazy. Usually.

I LOVE this picture. Look at these two! We got to see Fernando's uncles this last week and it gave me another star to steer by as far as brotherly love.

Speaking of love that Sammy has been wooing me lately. It is THE BEST. He tells me to come close and don't say anything, then he puts his little chubby face right in my ear and whispers something wonderful like, "You're beautiful." or, last night, "You're so sweet." HA! It is the BEST! With his little tounge thrust s's and the look on his face afterwards when he's waiting for me to swoon, which I always do...ahhh mi!

The best is that at night when I say goodnight to them Mimi always gives me like a firm, rugged, nearly painful kiss of love to which I'm required to say "Wow!" (Fernie has the same experience and requirement) and when I leave the room and say goodnight every time Sammy says, "You're beautiful, and you're the best mom in the whole white world!"

Miranda tried to correct him but I shushed her because I love it! Then there can be other brown women in his life that he can sweet-talk.

As long as I'm the best white mom he has.