Don't go changing

I'm pretty sure Billy Joel didn't have babies in mind when he wrote "Just the way you are," but it's the perfect ballad for how I feel about my little Millie these days. I know it's selfish to not want her to grow up. I know I shouldn't be saddened by the fact that she's rolling and scooting and getting closer to crawling every day. And I know better than to think that having a baby in the house makes life better and happier for all of us. But I can't stop wishing she'd just stay how she is today forever.

I guess I'm starting to understand why people keep having kids. You fall a little more in love with each baby that comes. Not that you love your first or second less than your third. You just have more capacity or emotional space for loving and adoring than you did with the earlier ones. The nerves and fears you felt with your first kid are pretty much gone, as is the baffled confusion you felt at how completely different #2 could be from #1. I should stop speaking in second person, because I am definitely speaking from my own limited first person experience... I could be the only person who feels this way. The point is that it's not my kids who become more lovable, but rather I as a parent who gets more appreciative of simple, sweet baby love. Or maybe it's just the contrast of her older brothers' fighting, disobeying, melting down, etc. that make me enjoy her more!!

Easter Wall

We tried something new this year in an attempt to make our celebration of Easter a bit more Christ-centered. It sorta worked. It sorta didn't. We started this two weeks before the actual holiday and looking back we should have only done one, because the kids kinda lost interest by the second week and we started forgetting to do it. But the basic idea was that every night at family scriptures or right after dinner we would share our testimony of the Savior's atonement and resurrection. Then one of the kids would choose a picture of Christ to put up on the mantle. It was interesting to see how the pictures' mere presence changed the way the boys acted in that room for a few days. (another reason to only do it one week next time, so they don't have time to get too used to them) It also felt really good to testify of Jesus' love for us. The boys weren't necessarily fully-attentive, but I know it gave me a boost just to feel the Spirit and think about all that the Lord has done for me. Every time it was my turn to bear my testimony, I would think to myself, "It shouldn't take Easter to get me to tell my kids how I feel about the Savior." And really, it shouldn't.

Geddes Family Move

This year has been a busy year for me as I have been working on quite a few projects at work. As the new Health Care Reform bill passed through the House and Senate and was finally signed by President Obama, I thought it would be exciting to work on some new projects involving United States Benefits.

However, an opportunity of a lifetime presented itself and the interview process went quite quickly. This position came down to two current Stanford employees after several rounds of interviews and I had to sweat it out a few days to find out the good news.

On June 1st our family will be putting a lot of our stuff in storage and going overseas so I can take the Director of Benefits position for Stanford University's Bing Overseas Study Program. It is a 12 month fixed term position based in Madrid, Spain in which I will get a crash course in International Benefits working with employees across the world in Japan, China, Italy, Germany and a few other countries.

I won't have to learn a new language since I speak Spanish and all of the employees speak English as well. I will however, have a steep learning curve when it comes to national health plans around the world. The good thing is the population is very small (under 100 employees) compared to our 13,000+ employees and 3,000+ retirees in the US. I will get a 2 week training from the current Director and then off I go. The position is on a rotational basis to give as many people an opportunity to work in international benefits. So I plan to be back in the US in June 2011 and back to work implementing some of the many changes from the 2,400 page Health Care bill. Whoopee!

I am totally psyched to get to be in Spain during the World Cup. I also plan on catching a few Real Madrid soccer games, which means I can see soccer legends like Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy play up close and personal. Well, maybe not so close. Their stadium is HUGE:











And our budding soccer player, Bennett, will surely pick up some good skills from the locals.

This is where another local soccer team plays--hope to see it:

















For those of you who are geographically challenged this is where we will be in Spain:


















And for my wife and other "cultured" folks, I am sure we will be taking plenty of photos of places like this as tourists:


















For those who want to know more about the Overseas Study Program you can check out this link:

http://bosp.stanford.edu/

I am not quite sure where we will be staying yet, but our mailing address as of June 1st will be:


Stanford Program in Madrid
Instituto Internacional
Miguel Angel, 8
28010 Madrid, Spain


We will be sad to be away from our family and friends, but the time will actually go by quite quickly.






















In fact...It will go by so quickly you may just get another April Fool's blog entry from me next year.

APRIL FOOLS--After all it is April 1st in Spain right now :).

Gotcha!

Stephen

Missing callings

At church today, someone mentioned going to the General Young Women Meeting last night, and I immediately felt bad for having missed it. This is the first year in over five that I have NOT gone to one of those spring broadcasts. Then I remembered that I'm not in Young Women anymore (haven't been for almost a year), which of course means I don't need to go to those meetings. You'd think that would have been a relief: "Phew! No more having to sacrifice a Saturday evening to go sit in the stake center with a bunch of teenage girls." Truthfully, however, my reaction was the opposite. I felt a bit wistful and sad.

I miss those girls. I miss the women I worked with in that calling. I miss saying the theme every Sunday during opening exercises. I miss teaching lessons. I miss listening to advisers teach lessons. I miss the girls' genuine questions about the gospel and life. Yes, I even sorta miss their texting during class. It's funny how the things that drove me crazy while I held the calling are now somewhat endearing.

Then we're driving home from church, talking about Stephen's new calling, and he tells me he feels like he did toward the end of his mission. He was in an area that he absolutely loved, training a new missionary, and thinking he would finish his last 3 months there when he was transferred to a more difficult area with a companion he previously had and was given the responsibility to help him finish his mission on a strong note. He knew he was in that last area for a reason, but that didn't stop him from missing what he'd just left. Stephen misses the young men's calling he was released from a few weeks ago. He loved working with the priests and was just starting to feel like he was really getting to know them. Alas, he's needed elsewhere. That seems to be the way callings go: the second you really love yours, it's time to move on to a different one where you can be challenged in a new way.

Sprung Spring

How do I know I'm ready for the next season?

1. The mere jingle of the ice cream truck coming down our cul-de-sac makes even me giddy, and before you know it I'm buying Teenage Turtle popsicles for my kids (well, minus Millie, who looks more than a little jealous...) for no other reason than it's a nice day.

Your guess is as good as mine as to why Eli is wearing mittens in 70 degree weather

2. I almost started skipping, no joke, on the walk to pick up Benito from school today. Sunshine, blue skies, mid-sixties, no jacket, no socks. Don't those things make you want to skip on a Monday afternoon?

3. I find any excuse possible to hang out in the backyard. Some of today's excuses included folding laundry, pushing the baby in the swing, getting out the bubble machine for Eli, reading a book, upping my vitamin D (or is it K? I never can remember), sweeping some bark, pulling a few weeds, giving the kids snacks, putting away strollers, organizing storage, etc.

4. Last-minute dinner decision to grill some pork chops outdoors rather than make minestrone indoors.

5. Half the windows in the house are open.

6. Popcorn trees are popping, and making the air smell divine, everywhere I turn.

7. Everyone's in a good mood. At the same time!

8. I come home to find my husband gardening at 9:45 at night.

Welcome, welcome, vernal equinox!

Small SAHM Victory

Some days I feel like a prisoner to my baby's naps. We completely overdid it this past weekend, so la nena has really needed some quality sleep this week. Rather than dwell on the fact that I could be out running errands or doing something fun with others, per my usual m.o., I actually stopped to smell the Stay At Home Mom flowers today. I PLAYED WITH MY KID! And liked it. Shock of shocks. I should clarify: I played with my three year old. Playing with the baby is pretty easy and natural. Playing with my older kids? A little harder to want to do these days. Once #1 and #2 started playing together a couple years ago, I kinda got used to getting things done and seemed to lose/forget the art of playing with my own children. Don't get me wrong, if my kids are in the backyard and want to play basketball or soccer or something, I'm all over it. If they come up and want to play a board game or read a book, I'm usually up for it. If they come in my bed to snuggle or hug or wrestle, sure. But get down on the floor and play with cars or trains or superheroes? I don't do that one much anymore. And they don't really ask me to do it, either. I guess they're as used to doing it with each other as I'm used to not doing it with them.

So the rare moments when I set my own, ever-growing agenda aside and actually play with independent Eli, who didn't ask me to but deep down probably needs me to, really IS a small victory for a gal like me.

Eli, the train conductor

"All aboard!"

Then there's this little one

Caught in a world of boy toys

Hermana Jory

It's been exactly fifteen years since I entered the MTC, donned a little black tag and received a new identity as a Spanish-speaking missionary. Serving in Guatemala Quetzaltenango (yeah, try and pronounce that on your mission call letter) was a singular experience.

My mission definitely had its physically and spiritually-grueling moments. I still remember the bathroom cockroaches, the suffocating humidity of the coastal towns, the warm "agua" (soda in a small sandwich bag with a straw in it) that never quenched my thirst, the bacterial infection that kept me sick for months, the frustration at not being able to express the testimony I had burning inside me those first few months in the field, the utter loneliness of spending your entire day with a difficult companion, and of course the heartache of investigators whose addictions, relationships or pride prevent them from accepting the gospel.

As persistent as the challenges were, they certainly couldn't eclipse the good. I felt the truest kind of peace and happiness I had known in my twenty-one years of life while serving in Guatemala. Studying the scriptures with more purpose than I ever had, testifying of the Savior, learning how to feel and respond to the Spirit, meeting new people every day, pushing myself to learn a new language, coming to love and care for investigators like they were my own family, laughing with companions and spending eighteen months focused more on others than myself made feeling that peace and happiness a whole lot easier. Was I a perfect missionary? Not even close. I screwed up just as much as I succeeded. It wasn't all that different from life now: when I do what I know will bring me closer to the Lord, I am a better, happier person. My mission served as the first laboratory where I experimented with that principle over and over again.

Anyway, here's a glimpse into my jumper-clad mission past.