He Really Does Love Me, Part 2

Remember back in January when my mom was sick and I went to stay with her for nine days and while I was gone Matt completely cleaned and revamped Eva and Sophie's room and I was completely shocked out of my head excited when I got home and saw it? Weeeeellllll, this time I took the girls to Idaho with me to visit my dad, and he completely cleaned and revamped the ENTIRE HOUSE!!!!!!! I have been born again people. I have been cleansed. I have seen the light and been healed. Coming home to that kind of surprise was like an out of body religious experience!

After my spirit had been reunited with my body, the first thought that ran through my mind was to hurry and invite someone over to stay for a visit. Then I decided it'll have to be someone who doesn't read this blog as to successfully give the false impression that I'm an awesome housekeeper. So sorry, none of you are invited ;-)

After all that ran through my head and I had made a mental note about whom to invite, Matt revealed to us that he hadn't done the cleaning himself, but that he had hired some ladies to do it all (he also had carpet cleaners do the carpets). My subsequent mortification at having not cleaned the bathrooms before the cleaners came over only lasted a moment though, as I looked closer at everything and realized it had all been deep cleaned. EVERYTHING!!! IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE!!! That realization soothed all the mortification away really fast! This is the first time in my life we've ever had housekeepers come - and I really really really really really really really really really really really really really liked it a lot. Did I mention i really liked it a lot?

This is just what I needed to get me going on my extreme brain makeover, which I never did get around to after that little semi-annual pity party was over, cuz I forgot all about it after a day or two and reverted back to my normal lame-o self...

So thank you Honey for such a wonderful and thoughtful surprise! Happy Father's Day - here's the post I was working on while we were in Idaho, but which I never posted because I was experiencing writer's block and couldn't come up with the right words to finish what I wanted to say. But here it is in rough draft form:

Beins (I couldn't think of a better word/non-word) how Sunday was Father's Day, I did the logical thing and left for Idaho with the girls, leaving Matt at home alone - that's the kind of awesome wife I am :) Truth be told though, Matt seems to enjoy spending Father's Day without us (we were here in Idaho last year too) because I can't make him go to any family functions that way and he can spend the day watching golf and napping in complete peace. And I made sure to stock up on Honey Smacks cereal for him, so what more could he ask for really? ;-)

Here are messages from the girls written on the way to Idaho on Sunday...

Dear Father,

You are the bomb diggitiest dad ever! Thanks for everything you do for us! I ♥ you and hope you have an amazing Father's Day! :)

♥ Ella

Dear Dad,

My favorite memory with you was when we went on the Double Shot together at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Happy Father's Day, Love Eva

You are the best dad in the whole world! I ♥ you, Sophie

Can you believe he did all that after being abandoned on Father's Day? I hesitate to tell what happened on Friday, the day after we got home, because it will certainly make anyone reading this a little more jealous than he/she already is... don't hate people, but Matt suggested that I take the girls to the lake so he could finish some paper work he needed to do without all of us around distracting him... so we headed up to the lake Friday afternoon. It was tough after having been out of town for five days, but somehow I managed to mustere the energy to sit on the beach and chat with friends for a couple hours - I'm a pillar of strength like that. Then at 8pm, we went to a Gladys Knight concert which was my Mother's Day gift. Gladys was great of course, just as I expected she would be. But the entire week actually felt more like a Mother's Day celebration than a Father day celebration, so to make up for it a tiny bit, I want to dedicate this song to Matt - THANK YOU - you're the best thing that ever happened to me!!!

p.s. Gladys had a Pip along with her (her brother, he's always on the right), and that was a very special treat! He was Pippin' like he was still 25 years old :D They don't do dance moves like that anyomore :( Here's one of my favorite Gladys Knight and the Pips song with some flippin' sweet Pip moves. Enjoy.

Sophie's Special Day

I never imagined a baptismal service for seven unrelated children could go so smoothly and be so personal, but it was. It turns out that having people you've never met before plan everything about your child's special day is the way to go, and I highly recommend it. There was no stress - all we had to do was show up with towels and dry underwear. Oh, and I had to e-mail a picture of Sophie to said people we'd never met before (the Stake Baptismal Coordinators), but was all. The Jackons organized a wonderful service with excellent talks, and one of the sweetest musical performances I've ever seen by one of the girls who was going to be baptised. I forgot to bring tissue and ended up using Eva's thick cable knit sweater which didn't work very well, but was better than my bare hand. It was a wonderful day with family and friends, and I'm so grateful for Matt being able to perform Sophie's baptism and ordination. She was our last to be baptised *sniff sniff*

Me and Sophie color coordinated, cuz we're awesome like that

Matt and Sophie

In their whites

Grandma Lynda (my mom) and Sophie

Grandpa Marv (Matt's Dad) and Joanie

Sophie and Sophie

Yosemite Visit - Three Cheers For Global Climate Change... Holla

Global climate change is so underrated! Taking the long way home through Yosemite on Memorial Day brought that point home to me like no other place has. Every time we visit Yosemite, I'm keenly aware that I'm feeling every cliche known to man having to do with man's place in the universe.

Stuff like; I'm so small, so insignificant... so puny and powerless in the face of nature. I am a mere speck - probably more like a micro speck on a micro speck in this universe - like a Who in Who-ville. And yet... I'm important. Infinitely important. I'm more than just an organized mass of cells. I have a spirit and a purpose. In this vast vast universe, God actually cares about little ole me.

Then I feel all corny and grateful and all that.

But back to global climate change. It was one of the major forces that created the Yosemite Valley, with multiple alternating ice ages and warming trends. Glaciers repeatedly formed and receded, formed and receded.

This view from Glacier Point is quite stunning, and it's easy to imagine an ice-blue glacial flow covering all of the green area down in the valley. What's harder to imagine though, is that at times, ice covered the entire area, including Half Dome and El Capitan. Melting glaciers are what exposed the massive granite formations that were formed deep below the earth's surface hundreds of millions of years ago (yes, I have been watching lots of History Channel and reading too much wikipedia). It's unfathomable really. And you can call me crazy, but I kinda sorta think that no amount of tax payer money, world climate change summits, legislation, Michael Moore films, 'go green' products, celebrity admonishments, concerts to raise awareness, carbon credits earned or trees planted, could have hindered or altered the formation of Yosemite, or anything else on earth for that matter, in any way!

Cue the music now please...

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly express my gratitude to Global Climate Change - I know it's true ;-) I'm so grateful for the beauty it has created in this world over the last 4.5 billion years (amazingly all before the internal combustion engine). Without it, I would not be here. But I would be remiss if I didn't specifically mention Global Warming. I'm so grateful it ended the last ice-age 10,000 years ago so I could be here writing this blog post, not to mention living. I'm grateful for the food and plant life it makes possible, and for just the right amount of oxygen - not too much, not too little - just right. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt and with every fiber of my being, that I would rather live during a warming trend than during an ice age. So can I get a 'what what' for Global Warming? Holla. Amen.

Eva, Ella and Sophie at Glacier Point in 2004

At Glacier Point in 2009

Overlooking Yosemite Falls - Sophie's arm is not broken... Matt and I just make weird elbows

Something even smaller and more insignificant than me

Something definitely significant

The Hamrick Family - proudly brought to you by Global Warming (and other 'significant' forces)

Happy Birthday Matt

It's always difficult to know what to give Matt for his birthday. He's about as decisive and full of ideas as when I ask him what he would like me to make for dinner.

"Umm, I don't know, just make one of your usuals", is what he always says. Being an extremely indecisive person myself makes for many a mealtime dilemma.

And so it goes with his birthdays as well.

The progress of this post is being interrupted in order to rub the almost birthday boy's feet.

I'm back. I'm nothing if not extremely accommodating and submissive on the eve of Matt's birthdays.

But back to the matter at hand... what kind of gift would Matt like for his 39th birthday? What kind of gift could possibly be as deeply meaningful and memorable as what I would like to give the man who works so incredibly hard for our family, who is the father of my three lovely daughters (and a great one at that), who makes me laugh and laugh and laugh (which is something I really like to do), and who has generously become so accustomed to my lack of domestic skills that he rarely ever mentions it anymore (the lack of course), and when he does perchance make mention of my domestic challenges, it's so mild as to hardly strike any fear in me at all.

So is there anything befitting the situation?

Yes. Yes there is. In a stroke of sheer birthday gifting genius, I have thought of the perfect thing.

For Matt's 39th birthday, I want to give him a concession - an admission if you will. And I think this will make a lot of other husbands jealous, which adds a lot value to this gift from the heart. I want to admit that... drum roll please......... I'm not always right about everything. There, I said it. I'm not always right. In fact, I think there have been two times, possibly even three times, in the last year when Matt was right and I was wrong. I can't remember any of the specifics of course - the details have all conveniently unfortunately been lost in the distracted haze that is my mind, but I do know for a fact that I wrong on several occasions over the past year - and I now admit it. Who needs the details anyway? Anyhow, I think a list of times when he was right and I was wrong, a short one of course, would be an appropriate 40th birthday gift. What man alive would not want such a gift?

And so, Matt, the one and only true love of my life and the person with whom I have chosen to spend eternity (a decision I've never regretted), Happy Birthday - sometimes I'm wrong and you're right... I ♥ you with all my ♥