Summer Nights

Some highlights from our summer:

Our first time to Phittsburgh for Josh's deposition (which HAPPENED to be near the city the EXACT night as the last U.S. U2 concert).

Josh played on the Richard Harris Law Firm soccer team.

Maddie played in the beach sand. And played and played and played.... (lots of beach time!)

Maddie continued to be a very brave little girl, who isn't afraid to try something at least once (unless it is a vegetable).

We flew kites.

Josh and I went to see Sarah Maclachlin with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Beautiful!

Maddie swam with her cousins who didn't let the fact that they don't have a pool stop them from swimming.

Josh tried to fit in surfing whenever he could.

We hung out at some pools with friends.

Josh loved having friends to play soccer with in our backyard. (Almost as much as Bo loved wearing Maddie's swimsuit over his clothes!)

The entire Stucki family went to Disneyland. It was weird that I was in the "big kid" group with Maddie.

I love this picture from Space Mountain because Maddie was about to barf all over me. I wish I was one of those people who looked gorgeous in amusement park ride pictures, but it wasn't meant to be.

Josh was the favorite uncle for the ten minutes it took the kids to eat the ice cream cones he bought them. (Then they went back to ignoring him.)

A Hot Mess

Am I the only one super excited that Project Runway is back on? Josh likes to point out that it has one of the smallest viewerships on cable tv, but I like to think that means I am in an elite group. I have watched and loved and been inspired by every single season.

So inspired (in fact) that I pulled out my sewing machine and am sewing a cushion for my black & white piano room's window seat. It may not be as fabulous as runway couture, and I am a little out of practice, but I'm sure Tim would say "Make it Work."

I got a new camera and am working on downloading and organizing my pictures from this summer and finally updating my blog. (Sorry Grandma, I'll get it done soon!)

Another cousin!!

Maddie's cousins are very important to her. With no siblings around, they are her real family, and she takes her role as their cousin very serious. As you can see, she is very excited to have another one, and was very excited that it was a little girl. Josh's sister, Julianne, and her husband, Adam, had their first child: Miss Scarlett Stone. Adorable.

Best Buddy

Nobody told me that eventually your little baby grows up to be your best buddy. That eventually you look forward to summertime with your baby, instead of having panic attacks about how you are going to entertain her all day every day by yourself. That eventually your baby sits and has conversations with you at restaurants, instead of throwing food and screaming, and drawing angry faces from the unlucky adults seated near you. That eventually your baby says, "I just need to finish this last page and I'll be right there," while reading a novel, instead of clawing for your attention while you're trying to finish whatever it is you were trying to finish.

I like six.

Swimsuits all day long

When I think of my childhood summers, they are full of memories of cousins, living in swimsuits, eating hotdogs and Cheetos, having sleepovers, and watching "rad" movies. I'm glad Maddie will have wonderfully similar memories of her childhood summers too.

Father's Day

Making dinner to celebrate my dad and Josh on Father's Day

There are certain things that dads do. It's a part of their job description. One of them is teaching how to ride a bike.

Another one is fixing broken things when they come to visit. I know my dad complains that I always make him fix something when he comes over to visit, but I'm pretty sure that he loves it. Deep down. Very, very deep down. It means I still depend on him and need him in my life. If nothing more, than to just fix the sound on my DVD player.

Turning 30 is a Big Deal

So....I decided that turning 30 is a big deal, and therefore I threw myself a birthday party since I haven't had one since I turned 16. I invited some of my closest girlfriends and we had a very fabulous dinner at the Melting Pot to celebrate my last night in my 20s. It was so much fun, and it made me realize I really need to make more of an effort with my girlfriends because I love spending time with them and I really suck as a "fun, go out to lunch & dinner and hang out" friend sometimes.

This is me on my last night of being in my 20s. You know what? It doesn't bother me one lick. I like 30. Josh didn't have a problem turning 30 either, so we decided that maybe it's because we are exactly where we thought we would be at 30 and are happy to be here.

Anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes knows I love myself some cheese!

My Maddie girl wanted to be part of the celebration too, so she and her cousin made me a birthday cake and cupcakes. There is nothing better than Funfetti made from the heart.

And Josh did an extra special job of spoiling me rotten. The highlight of him spoiling me? Ridiculously good seats to the U2 concert in Anaheim. It was magical.

Boys' Time

If Josh could design a perfect 24 hour guys' trip, it would include his best friends on a trip to San Francisco, chili in a breadbowl,

....a Giants Game,




....and a U2 Concert.



Sounds about right....

"Fluffy" - our pet turtle

And who said turtles aren't fun and interactive pets. :o)

The Happiest Place(s) On Earth

Newport Beach is my happy place. Whenever I have needed my body/mind/heart/soul to heal, I go there with my Maddie Stinker Pants and my Josh Bop Lover Buns and we all sit on the beach, and then everyone is happy.






And we go to Disneyland too, cause that is another happy place. Tell me how cool this is: We got in the extra long line for Splash Mountain, which is Maddie's favorite ride (and which I loathe). And these two adorable boys came up and said they had a paper that would let them skip to the front of the line and they wanted to let us skip to the front with them. I was like, "What? Us? Why?" They said "You just looked like nice people." It was so awesome.....




And we stayed up for the late night Disney fireworks for the first time with Maddie. Let's just say as soon as the fireworks ended, she was passed out in her Daddy's arms.

Music To My Ears

Maddie's First Piano Recital - She was nervous, but played a duet with her Grandma Linda/Piano Teacher flawlessly.






Josh's Gig - Do you see a particular resemblance between Maddie playing an instrument and Josh playing an instrument? Aren't they the cutest?





I am Josh's biggest groupie. Maddie always gets bored at her Dad's concerts, but at least she didn't fall asleep this time.

Gratitude AND Faith, with String Cheese and TiVo

So....Josh and I went in to our doctor last Friday. We were so excited to see that there were two little guys growing in utero. But the nurse was quiet, and when we looked a little harder, be both knew immediately. There were no heartbeats. BAM! Our hearts were broken. Our hope was dashed. We squeezed each others hands and just looked at each other silently with tears in our eyes. Not a total surprise, but still a bit of a shock. On Wednesday I had to go in for a D&C, which is not a pleasant experience.

I HATE sharing my feelings on this blog. I am so very private. My feelings are personal and real and sacred to me. But I have to tell people that I am no longer pregnant. "Luckily" I have had many years of experience of being in awkward conversations, and it has once again come in handy when just in the last week I have had to explain that I am no longer pregnant when people come up and say, "Congratulations! I heard! You must be so excited!"

The part that I hate is when people respond. "I'm so sorry." "Well, you're still young." "You are such a strong woman." These are kind and sincere and hopeful comments, but I just never want to hear these said to me again. 9 years of working so hard to have children and two incredibly sad losses and rough pregnancies and miserable in vitro tries and multiple miscarriages have left me exhausted. I just want to sit in my house and eat string cheese and watch The West Wing on DVD and catch up on TiVoed Oprah episodes. I don't want to explain it to anyone or have to smooth it over when they don't know what to say. Therefore I disabled the "Comments" on this blog post to spare my friends the question of what or if you leave a comment now that I am bashing your good intentions! :o)

Speaking of watching Oprah episodes, I was watching Friday's show that had a mother who lost four children to a disease very similar to my boys'. She summed up very much what I have come to feel, after many years of understanding:

"There are times that I feel the weight of an empty lap and empty arms from burying children, but I don't get stuck in that. I'm not a woman to be pitied. I thank God every morning when I wake up that I have another day. And I know there will be burdens balanced in with the blessings throughout the day, but that's okay. I'll balance them." - Jeni Stepanek

And I also keep this quote on my computer, from Elizabeth Lesser's book "Broken Open." I like it:

"The only thing we can really ask for when we pray is the ability to trust in the greater purpose. We pray to have our hearts opened and our purpose revealed. We pray for gratitude when our life is good and for faith when it is not so good." I have come to understand that I can feel gratitude for the good parts AND faith for the hard parts at the same time. And I feel lucky to be at that point in my life.