A New Marble Game and a Snash-snash

Here is handsome Ollie. 

I was thinking for a first Halloween he could be
1. Superman
2. Harry Potter

3. Prince Charming (I'll be going as a princess this year)

Votes?

Gabe and I made up a really fun game this morning.  You roll the dice, and move the marble to sit on the Lego that many spaces away.  When your marble gets all the way up the steps, you send it down the "water slide", and win. :)  It was pretty fun.  We used Legos, blocks, railroad tracks, marble shoot parts, Playdough (to keep things together), and dice.

Gabe is winning...

Henry was busy playing with Mr Potato head.

He was excited to show me the finished product.

 His potato head has a yellow snash-snash today. ;)

Ollie was being Captain Hook. :)

Then we had to go drop Gabe off at school.

We went for a walk after dropping Gabe off.  I'll admit I had slightly ulterior motives.  I don't think the crossing guard likes me very much... This way home avoids the crossing guard, puts us in nature and takes 6 minutes longer.  So... I guess it's a little silly, but Henry and I both enjoyed ourselves.  It was a nice walk. :)

And just for fun, a little throw-back I found while I was working on getting pictures up.

Truth and Hard Things

So I had a really truth revealing talk with Andy today. Andy is my advisor in the opera studio and he's most of the reason I'm here and getting paid to be here. And he's got a tender soul so I knew I could talk to him without feeling invalidated about struggling so much with my emotions. We talked about everything- religion, my relationships, my vision of myself, our family, and he had had me observe the reasons I cry.

So while we were talking of course, I cried, and he told me to look at myself from a critical observation view instead of inside. And he had me move from the right side of his couch to the middle of the couch to be a different person observing why Kayla was crying. The physical movement of me looking at why she was crying was actually really, really, amazingly effective (I still cried... just less...). I forget what thing really triggered it, but we talked some more and he observed that it sounded like there were two people. There's right side of the couch Kayla who has a hard time memorizing things, always doubts herself, feels nervous about her expectations and how they fit with other people's, can't grab the words in her large vocabulary and has to work around them, procrastinates, and generally gets in the way of herself. I'm Kayla on the middle couch, and it's not right side of the couch Kayla that's crying- it's critical thinking, middle of the couch Kayla who's crying trying to get out when I actually do something I know I can, or I get really frustrated when I'm not doing what I know I can do. My success, my failures, my gratitude are all buried by this stupid, blundering Kayla who makes choices that aren't any good for me.

It's ok for middle of the couch Kayla to be Mormon around a bunch of baptists because it makes me happy. It's ok for me to be proud of my singing, because I'm pretty freaking good at it and I was given a physical instrument that has the ability to make people CRY. It's ok for me to have opinions and EXPRESS them. I'm not mean under my polite, apologetic exterior. I'm way more genuine and kind, but I don't sacrifice myself to be that kind person. I'm not afraid of who I am. Middle of the couch Kayla is fairly... fearless. And Andy pointed out, middle of the couch Kayla is the one who got me to grad school. She's the one who touches people's hearts performing. And she's always there- underneath everything else. And I've felt her there even since high school. I knew the crazy potential I had as a singer before I could even sing classically. It was at my core that I was awesome and had awesome things I could do with my life.

SO now I have to figure out how to get rid of debilitating right side of the couch Kayla for good. How do I incorporate what my brain thinks I need from this person in order to be my truest self? Maybe I don't incorporate anything, but I just get rid of her. And finding my truest self- seeing TRUTH is what makes me cry. When I'm not doing well, I can see my potential, and if I have actually worked hard enough, it doesn't bother me as much to make a mistake. When I'm given an opportunity to sing, I'm given validation and truth that I can sing and I can feel such crazy amounts of gratitude for the revelation and opportunity.

So, my family, can we all try to find our middle of the couch person? Who are you when no one is looking? Who are you when you're at your awesomest? Who are you when everyone around you loves you and thinks your the bees knees? Who are you when you don't have to explain your opinions or your choices to anyone and they make you feel good and true? Who are you truthfully without any stupid right side of the couch person there? I'm challenging everyone in our family to find  that person and figure out how to be that person all the time. Because we all need her/him. It'll be a crazy road I think, but seeing this glimmer today- I think it's worth any amount of work to be her. I want to just be her with every fiber of my being. I know she's who Heavenly Father sees every day. I know she's the REAL me.

Where The Mom and The Dad Run Away From Real Life and Play at The Lake

Hey Family!

Dad and I ran away from life and all responsibilities

yesterday and headed up the North Shore.

And guys, I know I told you we're getting

along great. But we were so crabby!

We weren't even sure if we should go. We 

didn't want to waste our resources in case

it was a horrible day.

But we learned something; 

Apparently the thing

to do if you are super crabby at someone

is to go up the north shore together and listen to the 

waves and hike in nature, and see all the beauty.

Nobody can stay crabby surrounded by all that.

We found (re found?)

a place just like five miles out of Duluth to walk 

along the shore. Well, in truth, we drove into one of the pull offs

and sat in the car and ate sandwiches. We went to that awesome

deli/fish market that is in the building right behind Duluth Pac

and got sandwiches for the road.

We sat in the car with the windows up eating and 

suddenly realized where we were. 

Down the windows went and off went the car.

The  sound of the waves was glorious!

After we finished eating we climbed over the cable (rule breakers)

and down the rocks and were on the shore.

I couldn't even believe all of the glass and agates 

I found in just thirty minutes!

We watched this big ship come out of the

 harbor and zip down the lake.

He was moving!

Then we went to Palisade Head.

Definitely not a place for little boys.

Yikes!!! 

This is laying on the edge of the cliff looking straight down.

I was disappointed to not get better pictures there.

It was so beautiful, but the afternoon light was casting

big shadows so none of my pictures

 turned out as well as I hoped.

I need to go earlier in the day, I think.

It was super windy and I wished hard core that I had my hair

in a pony or that I had a good hat.

I didn't want to walk off a cliff because hair was in my eyes!

A really nice couple took our picture. It was so bright and windy we couldn't actually open our eyes.

Then we went on to Tettagouche and parked at the rest stop.

We went in the gift shop, but opted out of the caramel corn we 

really wanted because it was tiny and $8.00!

Sad, because it looked so delicious!

This hike said 1.5 miles to the high falls.

They lied, haha.

We hiked and hiked and hiked and barely saw the river.

It was a gorgeous hike through the woods though!

After we had been hiking for a while I remembered that

it is "fatten up the bears for winter" season, and we had a 

little "hey bear" happening.

I'm such a chicken.

Dad laughed at me but played along.

Isn't it pretty and fall-y?

This is us on a bench about a third of the way up a

 giant flight of steps.

We were extremely grateful to whomever decided to put

 that bench in that particular spot.

This hike was a little bit of "death by steps"

Dad's knees and my booty are sore today.

This is at the bench, already one third of the way up.

I only included this too close, zoomed, accidental photo because Dad looks happy.

We went in the visitor's center to use the bathroom and viola! I

suddenly had wifi and about a million messages.

My phone remembered the wifi from when I

 have been there before.

It was a nice surprise.

We hiked down the walkway to the mouth of the river.

It's so interesting how different it is every time I come here.

I feel like where we were sitting last 

summer  while Dad did laundry

is under water now. Yes? No?

For your viewing/listening pleasure

Dad was so enjoying the sound of the waves he

 wanted to video it on my phone.

Then we went to the place where we all were

 a couple of weeks ago.

It was getting dark and raining.

I wanted to have a fire again so bad but the rain said no.

Look at how much more sandbar there is now!

I really love these cairns that people are building. It is a new phenomenon. Nobody used to do it.

And it was time to head for home.

We drove to Duluth to find something to eat.

We felt strongly against the McDonald's dollar menu

so we tried out Grandma's in Canal Park.

So so so good! I mean yummy!

And then we ran into some friends from Buffalo who were up

for their anniversary. We shared a table and visited for a while

and it was so fun!

Then came the hard part- driving home in the dark and rain.

We stayed way too long and it was way too late and

poor Dad had to work in the morning.

We listened and sang along to The Big Bad Voodoo Daddys

and Huey Lewis to get us home.

Can I be honest? It made me feel young

and alive. It was fun.

We did have a sad casualty on the way.

We hit a big racoon by Princeton.

It was really sad.

Luckily we were fine and the car was fine.

We got home and pet Luna because she was super lonely. 

She's a funny girl.

And then we crawled in bed for a very

short night.

It was 1:30 AM

We are too old for those hours. Haha!

But it was worth it.

Totally worth it.

Love you all and hope you are well 

and finding things that chase away the crabbies

The end

Wirig update

Hi Family!

Some things that are going on at the Wirig household:

1. We are all getting over a cold.  It was awful and I was unable to teach at the primary training last Saturday.

2. Less recent:  Gabe is a kindergartner and he is awesome. :)  It's his "new"middle name (Gabe Awesome Wirig). Haha.  He has a fabulous teacher, and has made a lot of friends, but he has yet to play at the sand table.  The day it was finally the blue table's turn to play, the tables got switched around, and now he's at the red table.  He says he misses preschool.  I hope it's just a transitional thing.  Here is a picture of Gabe and Henry walking to school together.

The walk to and from the school is really nice.  We end up playing at the playground every day after school, and there are always 2-6 other families that we know hanging out there.  It's fun. :)  

Homework is a weird new thing.  Last week, his homework asked him to draw a picture of something that started with an "I".  He came up with the word "itchy", probably thinking of the Dr. Seuss book.  he drew a perfect arm and hand, then went on to draw a circle next to it.  He then explained to me, "that's his butt-cheek, mom"  I said, "You can't draw butt-cheeks on your homework!"  And as if this hadn't occurred to him, he drew a couple more lines and said, "that's his leg. " 

Gabe is also reading really well.  Tonight we were reading Curious George Goes Fishing, and Gabe read the entire last half of the book.  He needed some help on some words, but he's doing such a good job. :)  I'm so proud of him.  Here are some random snuggle pictures.

 Henry had a hard time picking up Gabe today.  I think he picked up my sleeping genes. haha.  He is doing a great job learning how to ride his tricycle.  He also knows how to work Google now.  Today he searched for snakes, owies, babies, and centipedes.  Giraffe is still important.  We lost him last week, and Henry was so sweet about it.  I thought it was as home, but we couldn't find it, so I offered him a substitute stuffed animal.  He took it, but later came out too sad, and and couldn't go to sleep without his giraffe.  We went on a search for a good hour.  During that hour, Henry said a prayer to find giraffe, and I wrote it down, so I'll record it here too.

"Heavenly Father, help silly ghost find giraffe.  Heavenly Father. Jees Kyst (Jesus Christ), Amen."

Shortly after that, Evan thought to look at the park.  Giraffe was so dirty, he blended right in with the rocks.  I'm grateful giraffe was found though.  Henry was so sad.

 Ollie is doing awesome.  He is moving around like a crazy.  He can't crawl, but somehow, he can make it from one side of the room to the next using some sort of inchworm/rolling technique.  He also has a tooth, with another one coming.  He still has massive amounts of hair that everyone comments on.  He likes tickle games and patty cake right now.  I used this picture for business stuff, but I liked it so much, I thought it could go here too.

Business stuff is going really well right now.  We are focusing on MLSP at the moment, which is a website that teaches online marketing, but we are also affiliates, so we can sell memberships to the website.  We have two trial members that will automatically go to mastery on Friday, and we have two more people seriously considering it.  This means we can help them learn how to market their own businesses, while at the same time make $100 a month for each member that we have brought in.  I'm pretty excited about it.  :)  I really like that in this industry, you have to be teaching and helping other people in order to be successful.  In my blessing, it talks about how teaching will play a pivotal role in my profession.  When I got it, I thought that it meant I would be a traditional teacher, but the more I counsel with Heavenly Father, the more I believe this is what He meant.  I'm meeting really amazing people online, and I'm really thankful for the direction I have been led in, even though it's really hard a lot of the time.

And... as a random ending, here's a selfie that I am very happy with. :) 

I love you all, and hope you're doing well!

-Emma

Last of the Family Adventures For a While

Hello, My Lovelies.

Here are the rest of the pictures from our

 time together this August.

It was so beautiful at Beebe Lake, and we just

 about had the place to ourselves. The

 water was especially green this year,

 which is kind of gross, but we had 

such an early spring and such a hot wet summer

 it just was a constant algae bloom.

Mandy and I got dropped off at the boat

 launch across the lake and kayaked across. 

Everybody else went straight to the beach.

Mandy and I saw this pretty guy 

(or gal) on our way across.

Truly, it was a glorious day.

Mandy was sharing all the good vibes with us.

Emma and I took the boys for a little kayak ride too.

I loved being able to share that with them.

I'm not sure how much Gabe was able to actually see, haha.

We looked so festive on the beach.

Em had her umbrella (ella ella ella)

and Mandy and Mia had one too.

Sadly, the one picture that I took of our whole

 beach set up didn't work out.

Chilling and having the snacks.

I definitely look like I am being The Mom in this picture.

Dad showed Gabe how to blow through his

noodle and make water shoot out the other end.

He kept trying!

I could not get enough of Henry playing with this toucan!

He was so intent I couldn't keep up,

so I don't have any face shots.

He was having a good time though!

Emma and Evan relaxing on the bench above the beach.

Ollie was so good!

Such a little trouper!

The Sam, hanging with the Fam,

but so ready to go to college.

It was such a treat to be able to snuggle this darling baby.

He's just so delightful.

And then it was time to go.

This time Dad and I paddled across to the boat launch.

And I got to snuggle some more with Oliver.

That hair though!

And then I got just a couple of pictures at the Stockade.

It was kind of crazy trying to perform with three 

little boys with us.

They really were very good.

And Gabe learned to climb a tree.

I think that was pretty great for him.

He hung out in the tree pretty much every set

the rest of the stockade, I think.

I really like this picture of Emma and I.

And that's all she wrote, Folks!

I guess my posts have to be

about my life now.

That's much trickier.

I'll have to get some pictures at handbells

and choir.

And of course I will share mine and dad's

adventures in nature and otherwise.

I found a new nature park I am eager

to explore.

Oh, if you haven't heard, I decided not

to do Pathways. It wasn't a good fit for

me. Disappointing, but there are other

things out there for me to do.

I feel certain.

And Dad is really pushing me to try 

write. I feel like I want to try, to see if I

still have anything to say.

Dad and I are doing well. Our lives are 

somewhat simpler, so there is a little less stress,

and we hardly ever fight or get crabby.

It's pretty lovely.

Anyhoo...

I love you and am proud of you and excited for

 the the adventures you are ALL having. 

You're doing a good job human-ing, kids.

Love you like your biggest fan!

Mom