I write, therefore I am

So, I went quiet there for a while.  Not quite sure why.  My approach to the blog has been that I write when I feel like it and don't write when I don't feel like it, and I guess I stopped feeling it.  From the time I started the blog in Switzerland, my blog entries usually wrote themselves unbidden in my head long before I sat down to actually type them out, but I don't have blog entries floating around in my head anymore.  The blog was really good for me when I was a single parent.  I think it made me feel less isolated.  Maybe the urge will come back again one of these days.  (And if it does, look out world!)

Here's a quick update:  Michelle and I went to Switzerland and Ireland last summer.  It was a great trip.  In fact, Michelle is going to start up her own blog, Woodn't Miss a Thing.  It's at www.woodntmissit.blogspot.com.  She's going to fill everyone in on our trip.  Maybe she and I will have competing blogs.  The blog with the most views at the end of the month wins.

As for the kids:  Lindsey's thyroid numbers continue to bounce around like a pogo stick.  She goes in for labs every few weeks, and we usually have to adjust her medication each time.  She started out with Graves' disease (hyper) for a couple of years, then suddenly reversed course and went to Hashimoto's (hypo), and now she's showing some signs of going back over to Graves'.  She's now in middle school.  She's doing well with piano and clarinet.  She plays clarinet in the sixth-grade band and piano in the jazz band.  She'll be a Beehive in about six weeks.  Yikes.

Tanner is a junior.  His plans for life are, shall we say, still under development.  (You can lead a horse to water but . . . .)  He'll get there.  He's getting some good experience and making decent money working at Famous Dave's, a rib joint.

It looks like we're heading back east this summer.  We're thinking we'll visit Niagara Falls and Palmyra to see some church history sites, and then work our way up toward Maine.  We'll spend a few days in Maine and then finish the trip in Boston.  Michelle has seen Boston, but I've never been there.  I've always wanted to go.

So there you have it.  Go check out Michelle's blog if you want to know the latest.  Talk to you again in a couple of years, or a couple of days, or a couple of hours, or whenever the mood to write strikes me again.

So, here we are

Well, we're now in Hawaii for our honeymoon (or is it honeymoon #2?).  Jet lag is still no fun.

It's been a long time since I've reported on a trip or posted any pictures, but maybe it's time for me to unleash my inner trip reporter again.  Here's what happens in the age of smart phones:  it didn't even occur to me to bring my camera.  I guess I'll just make do with my phone.  Anyway, aloha from Kauai!

Still alive

Things went quiet there again for a while, didn't they?  So, a few things have happened:  Michelle and I got married, Michelle moved to Minnesota along with her car and her furniture and a bunch of decorative pillows, Michelle set up the house, Michelle planted some stuff, Michelle bonded with Lindsey, Michelle hung out in Duluth with us . . . . hey, it kind of sounds like Michelle is the one with all of the interesting things going on, doesn't it?  It almost seems like Michelle should be writing the blog since my life has gotten so boring.

That's it!  We'll have Michelle take over the blog!  It's a done deal.  From now on, Michelle will be doing the blogging.  I'll reserve the right to chime in once in a while, but from now on, Michelle's in charge.  Enjoy reading Michelle's blog!

The latest developments

Not much blogging lately, but I figured I'd update everyone on a few things.

First, Lindsey's thyroid.  The thyroid medication she's on has had wonderful effects on her.  She's much more able to sit still and to concentrate, she's much less squirmy, and many of her other symptoms have gotten better.  Unfortunately, a blood draw yesterday showed us that although the medication is helping her symptoms, the underlying disease isn't getting any better.  It's looking more and more likely that they'll have to ablate (kill) her thyroid before too long.

Second, our wedding.  We're now officially set for March 8 in the Logan Temple.  We had to move it from Brigham City because that temple is closed during that time.  We'll still have a wedding dinner back down in Brigham City after we're done in Logan.  And then Michelle will pack up her life and move it all to Minnesota.  Yikes!

Third, Michelle.  She's here for Thanksgiving, and things are going well with our family.  Tanner is now comfortable being just as ornery with Michelle as he is with me, which is just his way of accepting her into the family.  Very heartwarming.  Lindsey is responding very well to having a female role model who gives her lots of positive attention.  She's counting the days until Michelle comes back for Christmas, and Michelle hasn't even left yet.

Fourth, Tanner.  He's now started swimming.  He's complaining mightily about how hard it is, but that's because he hasn't been in the water for several months and he's horribly out of shape.  He'll get there.  It should be a fun swim season.

So, there you have it!  I'm still busy, but Michelle has made more good meals in the last five days than I've made in the last eight months of single parenthood, so that's been great.  Back to dinner from a box in a few days.  Sigh . . . .

The latest

Well, I haven't said much lately.  Life's been busy, and I now have another outlet for all of my amazingly profound thoughts.  (Michelle is still doing a good job of pretending that everything I have to say is incredibly interesting.  She'll crack eventually.)

So, the latest:  Unless Michelle has changed her mind since I last spoke with her ninety minutes ago, we're still on for March 8.  The wedding will be very simple, if you define "simple" as having five showers.  That's what happens when you grow up in Utah and then suddenly tell everyone you're moving away in less than four months.

Also, I now own two guinea pigs.  Technically, the kids own them, but I'm sure they're pretty much mine now that the novelty has worn off.  They actually haven't been too bad so far.

Stace and Jody are also now engaged, with a wedding to take place here in Minnesota sometime in the next few weeks, so the kids have had a lot thrown at them in a relatively short time.  They seem to be handling it well, but I keep an eye on them, especially on Lindsey.  She doesn't express concerns about Michelle anymore, though, and is excited for Michelle to come visit us again over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

There you have it.  Life is busy, but we're all doing fine.  The adventure continues.

Well, there's a surprise

If you notice the time stamp in this entry, it's almost 3:00 a.m. in Minnesota.  It's insane for me to be up this late, but I've been on a roll for several hours with getting things done while the kids are tucked safely in bed, so I'll keep going.

I've been waiting to write this entry until I had adequate time to do it justice, but I keep not having time, so I'll just have to get the news out there:  Michelle and I are engaged.  We've got one little logistical issue yet to resolve, but the plan is for us to be married in the Brigham City temple on March 8.  That's the start of spring break for the kids, and they need to be a significant part of this.

I already told the beginning of the Michelle story in an earlier post.  The continuation is this:  Michelle was out here last week.  We saw much of the Twin Cities as well as other parts of Minnesota.  Michelle also started to get to know the kids.  That all went well.  Lindsey continues to be a little concerned about what this means for her relationship with Stace, but we keep reassuring her that everything will be fine.

Michelle will be moving to Minnesota because she thinks the weather will be much better here than in Utah.  (Ha!  I really fooled her there, didn't I?  It sure is a good thing that she doesn't know about this blog.)  She's ready to live in a state where not every freeway billboard talks about missionaries or temple wedding dresses.

Michelle is terrible at math.  You can tell this because the equation of our lives doesn't balance at all even though she thinks it does.  Here's what she gets:  a divorced guy with two kids, MS, twenty degrees below zero, no mountains, a population that thinks that the word "bag" contains a long "a" sound, and a church building that's not within walking distance.  Here's what I get:  Michelle.  That hardly seems like a fair deal for her, does it?

Anyway, we have a million logistical issues to work out, and I need to learn to chew with my mouth closed again and to put the toilet lid down when I'm done because I won't be a bachelor anymore.  (There are always drawbacks, aren't there?)  We'll get there, though.

I'm still going to try to compose a blog entry about the engagement that reads like a Shakespearean sonnet, but it won't happen tonight.  It's time for me to go to bed now.

Lindsey working it out

To no one's surprise, Lindsey is still trying to make some sense of the world and to figure out where the ground is.  She's been excited for Michelle to come out this week.  They've been texting back and forth, and Lindsey asks me to send pictures of her to Michelle from time to time.  But there's still some underlying nervousness.

We were at swimming lessons yesterday.  Lindsey asked me to take a picture of her in the water and to send it to Michelle, so I did.  On the way home, though, Lindsey suddenly blurted out that she doesn't want Michelle to visit us this week.  Rule Number One of being a parent in a situation like mine is to listen rather than to overreact, so I probed a little deeper.  I gently told her that I didn't really think she felt that way, and I asked her why she was saying that.  Not surprisingly, she said that Michelle was coming here to replace Mom.  I repeated the things that I've told her before and asked her why she felt that way.  Her reply was something like, "You told me that she was coming here to replace Mom."  I reminded her that I've never said any such thing.  She then said, "Well, that's what Tanner told me."  I told her that I knew that Tanner hadn't said anything like that, either.  I again reminded her that she'd still be able to spend time with Mom and that no one was trying to change that or to replace Mom.  That was good enough for Lindsey, because she then told me that she was hungry and wondered when we could eat lunch.  That was that.  A little while later, she asked me to send a picture to Michelle of a cucumber that we had grown in our garden.

That episode was just her nine-year-old way of making sure that I really meant what I'd told her before.  Her world became much less stable six months ago, and she needed reassurance that no one is trying to take away one of her parents.  She'll be just fine.