Hopelessly Devoted

Is it ridiculous that Stephen and I love this place almost as much as our kids do? We were all pretty giddy to see the castle and the fireworks and ride all our favorite rides again. A few new family favorites were discovered along the way, too. Toy Story Midway Mania stole our Buzz Lightyear hearts and bumped Astro Blasters from its #1 spot as Overall Family Fave, a.k.a. The ride you willingly agree to re-ride the most times.

D-land definitely delivers, and this spring break was no exception. We were having a little too much fun to stop and take many photos this trip. . . but at least the character sightings forced us to stand still long enough to remember, "Oh yeah, the camera!" Here's a smattering. For in-depth character coverage, you'll have to ask the boys to see their autograph books and accompanying photos.

"Silly Stitch" as Eli kept calling him

Hangin' in Toontown

More than happy to flex his muscles with Mulan

Good ole Woody

The only proof we have that Stephen, Millie and I were on this trip

Buddies

Millie has a buddy. Her name is Liz. Millie lights up every time her buddy shows up at our house. They are quite a pair, those two.

Liz got a new camera this week and practiced a few shots out back. I love this one. I also love that two of my favorite people in the world adore each other so much.

Soccer Saturdays

of long ago

and today

Can you tell he's having fun scoring goals?

Getting control of the ball


Dad, aka The Ref, taking a break with his biggest fan


Celebration


And away he goes

A big thank you to Grandpa Geddes for all the great action shots

Stye Eye

What do you do if your kid wakes up looking like this?

1. Panic.

2. Worry that it's some freaky kind of pink eye and keep him home from church.

3. Give him his baby sister's pink eye medicine from a few months ago.

4. Realize it looks nothing like pink eye.

5. Regret putting the wrong medicine in his incredibly swollen eye.

6. Guess that it's a stye, even though you have know idea what a stye really is.

7. Call the advice nurse and have her explain that a stye is "an inflamed oil gland on the edge of your eyelid, where the lash meets the lid. It appears as a red, swollen bump that looks like a pimple. It is tender, especially to the touch." (Google Health)

8. Learn that you need to put warm compresses on it four times a day, ten minutes each time, until it drains on its own. This could take up to three months!!!

9. Feel sad for your kid, who has to look out of a small slit for what could be up to ninety days.

10. Get creative in motivating the most active boy in the world to sit still for ten minutes with a warm washcloth on his eye four times a day.

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