Week 4: The Final Week

Yes, J is home. He made it home last night. But before I get into all that, here is my week's recap...

Sunday 5/20: I made it through Stake Conference with 3 boys who apparently were so thirsty after the first 15 minutes that they were unable to sit up in their chairs and were about ready to die. Somehow, magically, they all perked up at the close of the meeting two hours later to  sprint out to the car yelling in their not-Sunday voices. Magic, that closing prayer is sometimes...
When we arrived home we checked J's spot device. He was on the move toward the summit.
I tried to take a nap on the couch. S stomped in, saw me, and said, "Arrrgghh!! I hate it when you take a nap!!" O walked in a few minutes later, covered me with a blanket, and then proceeded to clean up the playroom and kitchen all by himself without my having to ask. That night when I put him to bed he gave me a tight hug and said, "I love you so so much, Mommy. Tomorrow if you need any help, just ask me and I'll do it for you." Sweetest kid on the planet.
After my nap we made our way to Lehi for a picnic/get-together with my awesome friend Kelly who was briefly in town. Yummy food and great company plus not having to make dinner made for a stellar night! We missed the eclipse because of the clouds though that didn't keep me from peeking at the sun once in a while.


Monday 5/21: Bad night for sleeping since I was up every other hour checking J's progress from the summit (at midnight) back to camp (around 5AM). Then I could rest easy during the day knowing he was in his tent asleep. I hosted another Shelf Reliance party, fed my kids breakfast for dinner, and ran 3 miles at a 4% grade on the treadmill. The thought that kept me going through that torture was, "If my husband can summit a 20,000' mountain in the freezing cold, I can run 3 freaking miles on the treadmill." And I did. But just barely.


Tuesday 5/22: Busy day of friends and visiting. Drove carpool, dropped off the garage sale leftovers at Savers and ReStore. Attended H's neighborhood preschool graduation where he again refused to have his picture taken. Silly boy. Visited with a number of truly inspirational and amazing women who I am lucky enough to call my friends. A wonderful friend brought us a yummy dinner. Came in crawling at the end of the day, but I made it!

Wednesday 5/23: Bad night for sleeping since I stayed up till 3AM watching the entire first season of "Downton Abbey" on Netflix. Not the wisest choice, but my first waste-of-time-gratuitous tv-watching since J left. Highly entertained to say the least. Watched J's spot travel to 11,000' and then on to the plane pickup site. Ran 4 miles with my buddy -- she's the best!


Thursday 5/24: Put together some thank you gifts for the many wonderful friends who helped me out while J was gone. S called after school and asked if his friends could come over to play. Of course I said yes! It was the first time he had friends over since Kindergarten! There's hope for my boy! So glad that today my house was that house. The one that I've wanted our house to be -- where all the friends congregate to play and hang out. We had S and his two friends, plus a few from up the street, O and the friends he walks home with on Thursday, H and his best buddy -- not to mention the ones during the day who came to play with H. Love it! I hope it can continue. Had a sitter/friend/fellow runner come tend the boys so I could go to Chorale, during which J called from Anchorage!


Friday 5/25: Cherry Hill Elementary Dance Festival -- hands down one of my most favorite events of the year. Who doesn't love watching little kids square dance, dance to "Kung Fu Fighting," or dress up in rags and make-up and perform to Michael Jackson's "Thriller"? So fun. The 5th grade did the dance to "Kung Fu Fighting," and it was awesome. Awesome.


Here is S with his two best friends:



After lunch our friend Sophie, H, and I headed to the high school to watch O's patriotic program. It was great! O has to be the cutest first grader at that school. His odd facial expressions were priceless to watch!
 
Again we had S's friends over before he and O went to swimming. Then home for dinner and prep for the sitter. I told the kids I had been taking care of them for four weeks and just needed a break to go out to dinner with friends. This was true-ish, since J is my friend and -- if you're going to get technical about the plural -- I am friends with myself. Up to the airport to see my mountain man:
  
and then to dinner with the bushy fellow:

Mountain man and squinty Asian wife!

 


Saturday 5/26: Saturday morning was awesome! H woke up and called for me, asking me to turn on the bathroom light. I told him it was on, that he should go use the bathroom, and then come in my room for a second. J was peeking out from under the covers, and H starts screaming, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Best reunion ever. Of course H's shrieks brought the other two in and joy and happiness abounded. While J made pancakes for the boys, I was able to sneak away for a quick 5-mile run after which we went to Chili's for lunch. We've discovered that J is like a baby. Every 3 hours he is starving and must be fed a full meal. After lunch we took the kids to Get Air Hang Time. Then home again for dinner (pizza) and a movie party (The Muppets) complete with caramel popcorn (yummy).


It's been a great month of May without J, full of schedules, school, swimming, and scouts. We are so glad to have him back with us, shaggy hair (though he did have it cut today (May 30)), frostbitten fingers, wind burnt cheeks and all. We've cleaned up and stored away his mountaineering gear with no thought of selling it, since the adventurer that J is couldn't bear to think that this would be his last expedition climb. For now, however, we are happy he's with us, and he's happy to be home.

Week 3

We're more than halfway there!

Here's how Week 3 went...

Sunday 5/13 (Mother's Day): The boys let me sleep in! They played Legos and ate frozen waffles until I finally got out of bed at 8AM. Those kids are the best! O presented me with a variety of truly awesome things that he made for me at school. There was an "ice cream sundae" made out of bath salts, this terrific information sheet about me:

 And a book entitled "If Mom Had Three Arms"

 

("If Mom had 8 arms, she cold do londry faster" 

(...'she could do laundry faster'))

 

("If Mom had 4 arms, she could be the captain of the uoonivers."(...'universe')) 

("If Mom had 3 arms, she could be the only one in the wold to have 3 arns." (...'only one in the world to have 3 arms'))

We spent a little time making Grandma Lundgren and Aunt Alisa tissue paper flowers after which the monkeys put on a fabulous production of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" complete with costumes, costume changes, narration, action, humor, an intermission, and bows at the end. Was my favorite when O was the troll who declared, "I don't charge a dime. I don't charge a nickel. I'll just eat you up like a crunchy pickle!" or was it when he was the biggest Billy Goat Gruff and wore pink pants cut out of a piece of paper taped onto his bare legs? I don't know. They crack me up.

After church we drove down to Millburn to spend Mother's Day with my in-laws. The kids got to play with their cousins, and I was able to relax and visit. It was so nice. J had called his mom in the morning, so she was happy. He called me on the way home, so I was happy too.

Monday 5/14: Somehow I slogged through Monday on very little sleep and some raging cramps. (Sorry if that's TMI.) I managed to dejunk the storage room and guest bedroom. I was very glad to see bedtime at the end of that day.

Tuesday 5/15: H went on a preschool field trip from 8:15AM-2PM. I almost did not know what to do with myself! Dejunked the garage, ran 7.5 miles with a couple of friends, dejunked the garage some more. Piano, dinner, bed for the boys. My wonderful neighbor came over for a visit, after which I went to bed!

Wednesday 5/16: I visited with a friend in the morning, went out to lunch with two other friends in the afternoon. Had a little quiet time before kids came home from school and managed to get everyone through our crazy Wednesday happily. 

Thursday 5/17: H graduated from preschool by sitting on my lap and refusing to participate in the graduation ceremony. He didn't want his picture taken and wouldn't even let his buddy talk him into sitting with his class. The second the ceremony was complete, however, he jumped up and was his normal, hyper, delightful self. He is a great little kid! We took his buddy to Jamba Juice and all was well. Here he is with his buddy. I had to sneak a picture.
 
We had a nice, slow afternoon and evening, complete with leftovers for dinner, and then I headed off to Chorale when the sitter came. Apparently I offended at least a few people, probably more, while I was rehearsing my song, but I was really just too tired to care. Is that bad? I'll work on getting some rest and being more tactful. In my journal at night I wrote, "Feeling strong, capable, independent, vulnerable, exhausted." Pretty much sums up my day.

Friday 5/18: I had a little anxious time in the morning which I remedied by wandering around Walmart for an hour and a half. Ran into J's cousin there and had a nice visit in the cookie aisle. Spent a little OCD time sorting out all the randomly found screws in my house and garage into an organizer purchased at Walmart. Finished getting everything ready for Saturday's yard sale. After swimming, I dropped S off at a birthday party and took O and H out to dinner (J Dawg's -- I know. I'm ashamed of myself. But it's so yummy) and to Old Navy for flip flops. Home to put them to bed and wait for S while pretending to care that my lawn is crunchy and treating my garden tools with sandpaper and boiled linseed oil (Thanks, Martha Stewart!). S came home so happy from the party and gave me a full report. 

Saturday 5/19: We woke up early, set up the yard sale and concessions and settled in to wait. Turnout was pretty good and we had fun, so I'd say our yard sale was a success. We closed up a little early, ate some lunch, and then spent some of our earnings on seeing "The Lorax" at the dollar theater. Home again to play, weed, clean out the shed, eat chicken quesadillas, and put my tired monkeys to bed. Full and busy Saturday made even better when J called from camp at 17,000'. They are going to try for the summit tomorrow. Wish him luck!

This week the blessing that stands out the most has come through O. On Sunday, I made a note to read the scriptures with O every day. We hadn't been up until that point. Reading has been such a struggle for him that I haven't pushed it too hard. Well, I didn't tell O about my impression to read the scriptures daily with him. I forgot on Monday and Tuesday too, until he said, "Let's read my scriptures," as soon as we sat down to read his bedtime story. He reminded me again on Wednesday when I forgot again. Friday I finally remembered. It was just such a testimony to me of Heavenly Father's care for each of us. How else could O and I have the same thoughts around the same time? I'm grateful for that this week. 

So I have a week and a half to go. It may be even shorter. J really wants to come home as soon as possible and spend some time with us before he goes back to work in June. Can't wait to see my mountain man.

J's update

J posted another update yesterday. Here is the direct link:

 http://climbing-alpine.blogspot.com/2012/05/more-storms.html

To help you understand his post...

HAPE = High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, treatable with Viagra. Not that I hope he gets HAPE, but if he doesn't use the Viagra on the mountain, I'm in for it when he gets home ;)

AMS = Acute Mountain Sickness. J said the guy who was throwing up finally was able to keep food down yesterday. I hope he's doing better.

By the way, the mashed potato, cubed ham, and beef that J's eating are all Shelf Reliance THRIVE food, purchased and packaged with love by yours truly. It's saving his life up there. So there's my little plug. :)

It can be a little tedious scrolling through the SPOT device updates on the blog, so in case you missed any of the other posts, here are the direct links to them:

Tuesday, May 1:  http://climbing-alpine.blogspot.com/2012/05/sorting-resorting-and-sorting-again.html
Friday, May 4: http://climbing-alpine.blogspot.com/2012/05/flying-to-base-camp-and-moving-to-camp.html
Thursday, May 10: http://climbing-alpine.blogspot.com/2012/05/moving-from-11000-to-14000.html
Friday, May 11: http://climbing-alpine.blogspot.com/2012/05/storms.html

Enjoy the posts and keep praying for him!

Week 2

We made it through Week 2 of J's Alaskan Adventure.

This week I decided that I'm going to hold a yard sale on Saturday, May 19 (and the 18th if I'm feeling ambitious enough). I've been cleaning, dejunking, and organizing like crazy. As if my life isn't busy enough! Today it feels like the silence is trying to creep up on me and loneliness snag me. I'm determined to not let it happen. Oh, and for those who are wondering -- no, it's not silent in my house -- I have 3 boys! I just mean the quiet of not hearing J's voice and feeling like he is so far away from this warm, Spring-y world where I am.

Monday 5/7:  H went to preschool so I went for a 6.5 mile run with my running buddy, all-around friend extraordinaire. The hills kicked my butt. Another friend came to lunch and kept me company while I tended to my garden a little. (The garden is going to need some care -- 1/3 of the plants I put in the ground last Saturday froze.)
Tuesday 5/8:  S went to school early for a field trip to Timpanogos cave. They ended up doing a "nature walk" instead of the cave because of a miscommunication with the park rangers. We'll have to go as a family this summer. I taught another violin lesson in exchange for a voice lesson, visited with a few friends, and worked on cleaning my house after neglecting it for a few days. After school O was able to play with his best friend, which made him exceedingly happy. We ate dinner, I dropped the kids off at piano. I came home and played with my newly acquired Dyson vacuum (jury is still out on it) until the arrival of Grandma &Grandpa Kim! I took my mom with me to pick the boys up from piano. I hadn't told them G&G were coming, so it was really fun to see their looks of surprise and hear their shrieks of delight!
Wednesday 5/9: Since my parents were here I was able to run at 6AM, 6.5 miles up hills that I killed! Once the kids were all at school, my mom and I went to Shelf Reliance in American Fork where she purchased a number of things, then to Costco for more things. We picked H up from preschool and took him to the mall where my mom found some really cute outfits for herself. We met my dad at Shoga for lunch --yummy! My parents watched all the kids swim and helped me out by bathing kids and reading them stories as they arrived home from our crazy Wednesday at different times. S and I rode our bikes to scouts after which S rode home by himself. What a big boy he is!
Thursday 5/10: 8 miles of hills at 5:45AM felt awesome! G&G Kim left for NM once more. I managed our flood irrigation for the first time this year, cleaning out the ditches and making sure everything got enough water. I tamed one of the many wilderness places in the yard, which made me feel good. Now onto the others... A friend brought us the yummiest dinner ever, during which J called to talk to the kids. A sitter came so I could go to Chorale, which went really well, and then that day finally came to a close -- 17 hours after I began it!
Friday 5/11: Friday started out funny: the group O scooters to school with forgot him, so 4 minutes before he was supposed to be there I hustled him and S out the door and told them to ride like the wind! S came back home and reported that O made it on time -- whew! Then, 10 minutes before S's school started, we got a phone call from my friend's daughter (who I thought was driving) who told me that I was driving carpool. I had completely forgotten. I dropped all the kids off late. O boy. Accomplished all the Teacher Appreciation stuff I had to do, plus errands, praying the entire time that I didn't forget anything else. H and I had a little quiet time. I watched a friend's little boy who was bored to death because H fell asleep during his aforementioned quiet time. Swimming, baths, dinner, movie party (Despicable Me) and bed! O and H slept on the floor in my room so after midnight when J called to tell me he loved me and that he had updated the blog, I sat on my bathroom floor with my laptop reading about J's latest adventure.

I can picture him hunkered down in his tent, trying to keep warm, while the storms are buffeting the tent from all sides. I hope he's finding his poop bottle and pee bag handy. Today they were going to go back down and get their cache from 13,500'.

Saturday 5/12: This morning I made a quadruple batch of waffles which I put in the freezer. The kids love to eat them frozen -- don't ask me why. Hopefully this will hold them over for a while. I cleaned and organized the kitchen while the kids made cards for J's cousin, who got married today. We are going up to the wedding dinner in a few hours. Then home again, home again, jiggety-jig, and to bed!

A few years ago I was rereading journal entries and discovered that I was only talking about the events of the day in a list form. Kind of like this blog post. I decided instead to write down my daily blessings, or tender mercies of the Lord, or whatever you want to call them -- those events, thoughts, feelings that occurred during the day that let me know the Lord is mindful of me. On Thursday of this past week I played catch-up with my "daily blessing" list, as I had fallen behind a few days. In rereading it to refresh my memory for this blog post, I realized that the daily events in my life have become my daily blessings. Every time my kids swim well is a blessing. Every day that my kids come home happy from school is a blessing. Spending time with my mom while she happily spends money is a blessing. Every opportunity I have to run is a blessing. Visiting with friends, accomplishing errands, talking to my love, sitters coming to help me out, Chorale rehearsals going well -- every single thing, every person, every event is a blessing. I am so humbled and grateful for this perspective and that all things testify that Heavenly Father knows me and loves me. I haven't always felt His love so personally and strong, but I am grateful that I do now, in these almost-5 weeks that J is away from me. I couldn't manage without it.

Week 1

Well, we made it through Week 1 of J's absence. The general feeling in my heart this week has been one of calm and peace. I feel good about his climbing adventure. I really feel that he'll be fine and will return to us in 3 1/2 weeks.

So, what have I done this week? Here's a general overview...
Saturday (4/28): Dropped J off at the airport after a family dinner at Chipotle. Went to a friend's house to watch the REAL Salt Lake soccer game. She explained to us what was going on (we were blissfully ignorant of the rules of soccer up to that point) and had a lot of fun watching the game, playing with her kids, and taking turns on the elliptical.
Sunday (4/29): Navigated 5 hours (!!! I know!) of church with the monkeys. They did awesome during Ward Choir, and church was business as usual, since I don't get to sit with J during Sunday School anyway. I wonder if his Primary kids missed him though... Great, relaxing afternoon with the boys after church.
Monday (4/30): S turned 10 years old!!! We had celebrated on Friday with J -- kids swam, off to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe, birthday gift from J and me (his own camera -- he loves it!) -- so on Monday he woke up to the traditional birthday cookies and the Lego Architecture set of Fallingwater from G&G Kim. He loved that too! (I'll give him his own birthday post soon.) Early-out day and swimming, plus breakfast-for-dinner (love that kid!). I managed to get a run in because one of my many awesome friends watched H for me.
Tuesday (5/1): Nice, slow day (besides scraps of paper everywhere from teacher appreciation posters. Poor house. Not a stellar day for being clean.) I taught a violin lesson in exchange for voice and piano. Once the kids got home from school we just hung out and had a relaxing late afternoon. I love days like that!
Wednesday (5/2): This is our day of insanity around here. During the day -- not so bad. Another awesome friend watched H so I could run. (My friends are great! All believers in sanity!) The boys all survived the craziness that is our 5-7:30PM (3 activities during that time back-to-back, dinner in the car. Nuts.) The little gift that was a blessing in disguise was my little H pooping for 10 minutes so I could just sit down and have a quiet bowl of taco soup. It was enough to give me the needed energy to do the last of the pick-ups from activities, get the kids home and to bed.
Thursday (5/3): All the kids went to school. I ran errands. Yet another awesome friend came and weeded my garden with me (as if running 6-8 miles with me every other day isn't enough!) Piano, dinner at the neighbors. Orem Chorale while another incredible friend (sensing a trend here?) came and put my kids to bed.
Friday (5/4): Other friends (yes, even more of them) watched H so I could run, though the hills kicked my butt. Teacher Appreciation posters (2 at 2 separate schools -- never again) done and up! Piano recital went well. Blessed with extra strength at the end of the day to clean the kitchen before I went to bed. It almost was left till the morning.
Saturday (5/5): Attended a niece's baptism and following brunch. It was a great baptism -- such a cute little girl and so sweet to see her take that step. Went to the greenhouse and bought our garden. Came home, S mowed the lawn, O & H moved dirt, I prepped the garden. We got most of the plants in before we went to dinner at Chili's. Home for ice cream, baths, and bed!
Sunday (5/6): 5 hours of church yet again, but then I cancelled Ward Choir for the rest of the month. Great block of church meetings. S bore his testimony in Sacrament Meeting for the first time!! I was so proud of him! The kids have gotten out the Duplo Legos and built a town. I love it when they do that! I even snuck in a cat nap this afternoon. We had a great Family Home Evening by S on temples. Coloring pages and videos on lds.org and then bed. All the monkeys sweetly asleep and safe and sound.

Whew!

So tonight I was panicking (because I make stuff up in my head and then worry myself sick about it) because I hadn't heard from J since last night at bedtime when he called to talk to the boys. I knew today was going to be a rest day, and J knew we had church and then would be home, so around 10PM my heart starts beating hard, freaking out because I was sure something had happened to him. All the peace and calm of the week just went out the window. Why did he not call to talk to the kids today? Did something happen? Is he sick? Buried under an avalanche? All kinds of crazy talk. I forced myself to stop trying to technology-stalk him and made myself read my scriptures again. After I was done, I offered a fervent prayer for his safety and to know that he was safe so I could go to sleep and be able to take care of everyone tomorrow. (Yes, I know I'm up blogging. I promise I'll go to sleep soon.) About 30 minutes after I last checked all of J's regular check-in spots (facebook, his blog, my email), I pulled out my computer one last time. Just after I finished my prayer he had sent the spot device message. It may have been coincidence, but I don't believe that it was. I know beyond a shadow of doubt that Heavenly Father heard my anxious, fervent prayer and put the thought into J's head to message me. I know that Heavenly Father has been blessing me with the peace and calm I've felt this entire week. I know He is mindful of me and my needs. Although I want to be strong and independent, making it through these 4 1/2 weeks on my own, He knows that I need help. He has sent me so many angels this week. My friends are amazing! I can't express how much I love and appreciate every one of them. A line from one of the hymns has been running through my head this whole week: "...and walking by faith I am blessed ev'ry hour." (You know, which is odd, because the hymn it comes from is a little weird and not one of my favorites :))

Truly blessed every hour...

Motherhood

With Mother's Day fast approaching and the whole Ann Romney thing going around on the internet, not to mention the blogs and articles in response to said Ann Romney flap, I've been thinking quite a bit about my own journey to motherhood. I realized that my thoughts might offend some, while giving others a reason to never leave their kids with me again, but I just wanted to put them down somewhere.

Here goes...

I did not settle very easily into motherhood. Sure, it was planned and sure, no one has any idea what they are getting themselves into when kids come into their life, but it was truly a wake-up call for me. I don't really like most little kids and spent the first years of my married life not wanting to have babies. But, after a call to repentance, we felt it was right, so we took the plunge. Pregnancy was great, labor and delivery went smoothly without incident. I held in my arms a perfect, strange-looking-goop-covered-tiny-old-man-baby who would begin squalling the next day and not stop for 3 months. He was beautiful, intense, so precious, so needy. I had no idea how to care for a baby. No idea how to breast-feed. No idea that I was flooding him with milk, which is why he was screaming every time I tried to nurse him. No idea what cues I had to look for around naptime, eatin' time, playtime. I received many not-so-helpful bits of advice from people who clearly thought I was clueless (which I was). I received a few very helpful bits of advice from people who could see the wild look in my eyes. I bonded with my little baby early on, but it didn't make it easier. I fell into the role of servant, wet-nurse, baby-sitter, maid, and diaper-changer quickly -- answering the demands of my spirited child, my Ephraim's child, my gifted child, my Aspie. It wasn't until much later that I found myself actually "mothering."

Even when we added our second little monkey to the brood, it still felt like J and I were playing house, playing with babies, pretending to live the domestic life. Then along came #3, the move to a bigger house, and the start of Kindergarten. Since my first little one doesn't easily pick up on social cues, we avoided the hurt feelings, the creeping in of pop culture, the bathroom humor, etc. that seems to accompany most Kindergarteners. And hallelujah for that! But still not feeling the "motherhood" of my life. Now with a 5th grader, a 1st grader and an almost-Kindergartener, J and I finally feel like we are no longer "playing house" but actually living the life. And now I feel like a mother.

I have a really hard time with women who just write about joyousness and exhilaration and sweet sweet children and happy-happy-happy-love-motherhood-110%-of-the-time-make-me-puke! I don't think this is the case for any of the mothers I know, and I don't want to hear about it! I think it does mothers everywhere a disservice to only read such gushing, positive drivel. Being a mother is hard. It's supposed to be. We all go through it, loving it and hating it. Sometimes wishing that we could be away from the kids, other times wanting only to spend the days with our sweet little ones. We need to know the reality and difficulty of motherhood and that our "perfect" neighbor down the street with the "perfect" children struggles too. It's how we support each other and teach our children to support and serve one another.

To me, motherhood means prayers; selflessness; sacrifice; growth; pain; selfishness; laughter; tears; frustration; faith! faith! FAITH!; years of sleeplessness, followed by years of more sleep, followed by sleeplessness yet again; maturity; joy; sorrow; rice cereal kisses that give way to hot chocolate smeared by mouths on my shirt by my belly to carefully hugging the 10-year old whose head squishes my booblets (not big enough to be called boobs); certainty; uncertainty; watching my baby, my big 5-year old take off on his bike without training wheels, wondering where the time went; listening to my 7-year old read with more fluency each passing day; seeing my 10-year old cut through the water so swift, so strong, as he swims laps at the pool; humility; wonder at the incredibleness of these amazing souls; comforting my 1st grader when his favorite girl decides she doesn't want to marry him when they grow up; talking to my sons about faith, testimony, goodness, accountability, boogers, and why their peanuts sometime get hard; singing bedtime songs with my 10-year old in sweet, shaky harmony. The list goes on and on...

I don't know anything about raising kids, but I know that S, O, and H were supposed to come to J and me and be part of our family. I hope I can continue on, open and humble, to receive guidance from the Lord as I strive to guide the monkeys to know their divine worth and make smart decisions. I realize that there is so much more to experience with the boys and so much more to learn about each of my kids.

Surviving Denail, Part 1

As many of you may know, J is off on an Alaskan adventure, climbing Denali. He set up a blog chronicling his training leading up to, and his climb of the highest peak in North America. I thought I would write the occasional blog post about how we are doing, surviving the absence of our favorite furry white boy.

J called tonight on his rented satellite phone for the first time. Yesterday morning we spoke while he still had cell service, just before the bush plane arrived to drop him off on the glacier. Today he had to call me back several times, as the satellite phone kept dropping the call. They are at a camp in a little bowl, so each time the satellite the phone was connected to went out of sight of the bowl, the call dropped. J gave me some interesting tidbits about the temperatures on Denali:
7, 200' (Where the plane dropped them off) L: -20º  H: 0º
11, 000' L: -30º  H: -10º
14, 000' (Approximate halfway point) L: -40º  H: -15º

I've had many friends tell me that I am a super wife to let him go do something so dangerous and recreational for a month. I'm only so super because I am receiving heavenly help, and because I have the best friends in the world. I couldn't do it without the thoughts and prayers of my amazing friends, who are the angels Heavenly Father sends my way when I need some help. I know that the Lord is sustaining me. I'm pretty sure that, if I didn't have the Lord's assurance and care, I'd be a basket case. As it is, I feel at calm and at peace about the coming month. I'm not worried about J's safety. My capacity to handle all of my responsibilities with the kids and home will grow as I trust in Heavenly Father's care.

The boys and I have been busy. Life as usual. O has seemed to miss J the most, huddling in his blanket in the morning and having a little lonely time before he gets going for the day. This afternoon while doing his homework, S looked at me and said, "I just want daddy to come home." I replied, "He will." We have regular, busy days planned; fun weekend events to look forward to; a surprise visit from G&G Kim (don't tell my kids!); and end-of-school programs to occupy our time. The month will fly by before we know it.

I'll post more as the weeks pass. If you want to follow J's adventures, click on the blog on the sidebar entitled, "Expedition 2012 Climbing the High One."