Daddy's Girl

Claire has been a little obsessed with "daddy" lately. It started a few weeks ago, intensified when we went on vacation to Utah and then heated up even more when Dave went back to California and we stayed behind. She adores him, idolizes him and can't wait to spend time with him. A perfect way to illustrate this for you is to explain how she calls for us. When she wants Dave's attention puts on a perky smile and in her best sing-song voice in her cutest little girl tone, says "Dah-dee". When Claire wants my attention, she looks at me demandingly, gestures her arms emphatically and says in a perfect Long Island whiny accent, "Mawh!" Crazily enough, both are equally adorable and endearing and make us jump to attention.

Claire has also spotted symbols for her daddy everywhere--little tokens that remind her of him. Here are just a few. The first one Claire spied on a telephone pole outside side the grocery store, Dave calls this his "mother's milk" and is often, much to my chagrin, spotted with one in hand. When she saw it she excitedly yelled out, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!!!"

The second symbol, Claire spotted in the grocery store again accompanied by a "Daddy" chorus of squeals. Dad's deodorant has become one of Claire's favorite toys. She likes to rummage through the bathroom drawers, clutch onto the deodorant with a monkey-like vice grip and then run like mad, knowing that I will chase her before she gets even a nibble out of the appealing blue surface.

The third token of Dad was adopted after Dave tore down a 19th century family home that was on his parent's property with a track hoe. I took Claire out to see Dave run the track hoe several times and she even got a ride on it. After Dave left town, I was in the backyard with her at my dad's house and she saw a track hoe in a lot a few yards down and for 15 minutes called out for dad in her perfectly perfect daddy singsong while waving her hands. 

Unfortunately, my little daddy's girl does not have any symbols for "Mawh" yet, but I am sure when she adopts them it will be something really exciting like toilet bowl cleaner, or broccoli, or maybe even dental floss. 

Lesson from the Great American Jackalope

Because Claire and I surf youtube shorts when it is 118 degrees outside and because this is what we sometimes find.

which somehow, just for a minute, makes being inside all day bearable.

Wanted: Excorcist (specializing in unruly 18 month olds)

So how is it that my little wee looks like this on the way to church

and like this on the way home


but during the actual meeting she looks and acts like this?


Any advice?

Claire has an announcement to make...

She's expecting! A new baby brother or sister on December 22, 2008. We can't wait and are excited to have our wee ones just two years and one month apart. I am feeling pretty good, despite being really tired, over emotional and nauseous most the time and am just looking plain old plump. I'll be happy when my stomach starts looking more baby, then its current pudge look that I have only obtained through a diligent commitment to my "keep-it-down diet" of pasta and ice cream.

My first trimester just ended though and if this little squirt is anything like Claire was, it will be smooth sailing from here. Oh yeah, except for the night-time wake-you-up-screaming leg cramps and heart burn (from apples, watermelon, bread and other noxious foods). Overall, Dave and I both feel really blessed we get to have another little one around again and we can't wait to meet him or her.

Turkey and Greece 2008

I just returned from nine days of sailing and touring Turkey and Greece. My brother Ian organized the group (me, Laurel, Ethan, Melissa, Kyle, Nicole and Kevin). Note: no Dave and Claire, much to my chagrin. Dave didn't have vacation stored up at his new job and Claire, well, let's say I wouldn't trust her on a boat for a week. Claire stayed with my wonderful mom who even endured three hours of church with Claire, twice! We spent two days in Istanbul and then picked up our catamaran (which Ian competently captained and we less competently crewed) in Gocek, Turkey. The first few days were spent viewing the coast of Turkey and tons of cool Lycian and Roman ruins and then we were off to the islands of Greece (Rhodes and Symi).

Every bit of the trip was amazing (except the missing Dave and Claire part). We ate incredible food every night in the various ports (Including one port that was just a restaurant the only family in the town owns. They raise the lamb and chicken and spear the fish for your meal). We saw amazing architecture (my favorite was Greek Neo-Classical on Symi) and incredible remnants of previous civilizations (the Basilica Cistern built in 532 AD by Justinian was unbelievable and very difficult to photograph—just imagine, people). We lounged on the boat and swan in the warm waters of the Mediterranean and just enjoyed good company. Incredibly, I read three books while there. Which really makes a trip.

Here are some favorite pics from the trip (Unfortunately, no bathing beauty shots because of the "keep-it-down diet", see above post).

Tara's # 7: The Story of Us

First, this is a long post, so I forgive you for skimming or skipping out on this one, but I just felt like writing and couldn't resist making this my longest post yet. Second, I know, I skipped Dave but this week is our five year anniversary and since our rapid fire posting ended up being a bit slow-paced, I didn't want to miss the perfect opportunity to tell The Story of Us.

"We" started in NYC and without the Big City I don't know how the two of us could have found each other. After being introduced by Dave's roommates and enduring countless singles activities together, Dave finally asked me out. Our first date was to a rodeo in Queens. Dave's choice, not mine. I am not sure where I stand on rodeo's but I wanted to get to know Dave so much, that I threw my reservations to the wind and went. After bonding while mastering the mechanical bull together, we were off to a solid start.

Although our first date occurred in November of 2000, we didn't get married until May 24, 2003, so the solid start got a little shaky, at least for a bit. I must admit that most of the shakiness was due to me trying to figure out that it really was the best thing to marry my best friend. In all of my vacillations, Dave was a pretty remarkable. He was constant, but not clingy, sure, but also a bit mysterious. Best of it all, in our "breaks" he moved on (but, not really). In May of 2002, I took a vacation with some girlfriends to California while Dave and I were on one of our "breaks". While it wasn't meant to be a romantic discovery mission for me, it became just that. I returned with a firm resolve that this time we must date, really date and figure the whole marriage thing out.

I was worried when I returned that Dave wouldn't be as enthusiastic as me about my new resolve, considering that on our last heart to heart I had told him that it was never going to happen and to move on. Undaunted, I determined to talk to him about it that very night. I called him when I got back and asked if he wanted to go to the movies. After, we walked home to my apartment and on the steps I was trying to muster all my courage to ask him to date me again and then, he did it. He asked me. Dave looked me in the eyes and said, "Tara, let's date. I mean really date." The Lord had been pulling some major strings for me behind the scenes. Dave felt that he needed to ask me again, but was also convinced that it wasn't going to happen. When I responded "okay", Dave looked at me with this perplexed look on his face and asked, "Why?". After all my vacillations, I had to do some convincing that I was really into it this time. And I was.

After I made my decision to really date Dave, it came easy. A couple weeks later, I wandered into church late and as usual didn't have my glasses with me (What, you say, Tara wears glasses? Well, I'm supposed too, but rarely do and am blind as a bat without them). The meeting had started and had gotten pretty solemn, but I stood in the door and continued to scan the crowd for Dave when all of a sudden I saw him across the congregation stand up and wave to me with both arms above his head. It sounds crazy, but at that instant I was filled with such a rush of love for him that it was shocking. I knew it. He was the one for me. Not only was he looking out for me when I didn't know it, he was even willing to make a clown of himself on my behalf and then when I sat down next to him he gave me such a winning smile that I knew I had to marry this guy.

We got engaged along the East Side River in February 2003. The infamous site of our almost first kiss, that Dave just calls a short electric shock as our lips just brushed, followed by the shove off and a "Let's talk". After we went to dinner—where we went on our first dinner date—at an Indian restaurant in the Village, Baluchi's. New Yorkers will laugh at this because at the time we thought we had found the most authentic, unique Indian place in town. Years later, we realized that Baluchi's dot the map of Manhattan, and while the food is delish, it's quite commercial. While there, Dave read me excepts from his journal while we were dating—first impressions, first time he knew he was in love, first time he knew he was going to marry me. The night was perfect. When I got home I celebrated with the roomies, so loudly that the neighbors called the police (Not the first time, mind you, they liked to do that sort of thing for any celebration , particularly birthday parties).

Four months later we were sealed for time and all eternity in the Oakland temple. It was an incredible day and my face still hurts thinking of all the grinning I did. I still can't believe all the wonderful support we had from NYC friends. Meredith, Lillian, Laura, Noelle, Lisa Farr, Lisa DeSpain, Brent, Mike, Jen, Heidi, Barrett and many more made the trip to the West Coast to see our day. I knew that I loved Dave when I married him, but I was totally unprepared for the surge of love I felt for him right after sealing the deal. My love for him increased ten fold in one day and has kept growing ever since. Maybe not so dramatically as that day, but incrementally it creeps up on me and every once in awhile it shakes me up to think that I almost didn't choose him.

So five years later, and one little wee with us, I just want to thank Dave again for sticking with it and being mine. I can't wait to know him in 20 years, 40 years, 60 years and forever.

Tara's #6 Manhattan, New York Temple

Okay folks, we arrived in California at last and as you can see our visions of completing our top ten moments in NYC before we left, were reduced to recording only our initial top 5.5 momnts in NYC. At this point, it seems a little anticlimactic and nostalgic in a desperate we-can't-move-on way (which we can't and needs an entire post altogether) to finish the rest our our memories when we should be recording our new experiences in sunny Southern California. To make sure that our final five moments do not go unrecorded, here are the final five of the best of the rest in rapid succession. We then promise to start posting about our new life in the Desert.

Without further ado, Tara's #6: Manhattan, New York Temple. Often times, non-NYers are amazed when they hear that there are many people of genuine faith in NYC. I think people are even more surprised to hear that there is something about NYC that inclines people to take a closer look at God. Dave and I have often commented how many intensely personal and spiritual moments we have had on the busy sidewalks, in the park and even on the subway in the city. There is something about being among so many people that makes you aware, in a very real way, that we are all connected and there is a larger plan for us in this life than we could have ever imagined for ourselves.

That said, when you are seeking those moments of solitude and peace you might more easily find elsewhere where quiet spots abound, they can be hard to create spontaneously in the city. Members of the LDS church, have several churches around the city but until June 13, 2004 did not have a temple–the most sacred of our buildings. So sacred to us, in fact, that we call it the House of the Lord. The dedication of our temple across the street from Lincoln Center was an incredible experience, but in March of 2002 I had my first experience with the NYC temple. The leader of our church at that time, President Gordon B. Hinckley, came to the NY and spoke at a special regional conference. While there he said that he didn't know where but that we would have a temple in New York state in the next two years. Dave and I were dating then and sitting together at the meeting, so I turned to him and said that I felt that the temple would be built in the city in the building that we were sitting in. At the time, I thought that it was kind of a crazy thought and the corner of 65th and Columbus was not exactly the typical locale for a temple, but it felt right so I said it. About six months later it was announced that the temple would be built on that exact site.

In reflection, I think God was already connecting me to the temple in preparation for some of the amazing real-life moments I would experience with God in that building. Shortly after it was opened, I was asked to volunteer to clean the temple and before I knew it I was in charge of the cleaning crew on Saturday nights. It was such a serene experience to wander around after hours unatteneded in the House of the Lord, even with a vacuum in hand. Later, Dave and I were asked to work in the temple on Tuesday nights. The peace I felt seeing others come to the temple for the first time, or even the 100th time, still amazes me. Many times, I felt a love for strangers that was not like anything I had ever known before and understood things more clearly about myself and my strengths and weaknesses (and miraculously felt empowered by it, which is so unlike my "normal", depressing self assessments). My first real conversation with Claire occurred in the temple when I was pregnant and for just a moment I got a glimpse of who this remarkable young lady will be.

Someone spoke in church once about how Jesus Christ always went to desert places to rededicate himself to God, find clarity and recommit to his mission in life. In the lesson, he encouraged us to find our "desert places" in life, where we can grow closer to the Lord and find out more what his plan is for us. I am so grateful that I found a spot for me, on a busy street of NYC (not far from Times Square) where I can and have experienced God first hand.