Grace's Nightmare

Last night, Grace woke up screaming around 2:00 a.m. Figuring she was having some kind of terrible, horrible nightmare, Spencer hurried in to assuage her fear. When he got in and asked her what was the matter, she said (in tears),

"Mommy took away my popsicle."

And there you have it, folks. The deepest, darkest fear of a two and a half year old.

"There's an app for that..."

I have a tendency to over analyze every interaction I have with people. I always worry that I don't come off as I intend (which I'm pretty sure does occur at least 85% of the time...) and I frequently stew for days over stupid things that somehow escape my mouth. Guilt, sadly, has been one of my longest and most faithful of companions. We know each other well.

As I sat pondering my latest social blunder, I racked my brain for a way to keep myself from saying dumb/insensitive things to people so often. Since simply never talking to anyone ever again seemed a (*sometimes*) appealing, though impossible and utterly ridiculous answer, I knew I had to come up with something better. :)

And then it hit me, straight from Pavlov the psychologist himself, app shock therapy. Okay, I know it sounds weird, but let's consider the possibilities together. Anna walks up to a friend/family member/husband/daughter/acquaintance/grocery store clerk in a bad mood. Instead of allowing her calm, more rational self to come out and socialize, her bad mood completely takes over and she gears up to say something terrible that will haunt her for days.

And instantly, *shock.* No dumb words; no regret.

Come on, doesn't it sound just a little bit appealing? :) It could quite possibly "condition" the crankiness right out of me! And it's not like the shock would even have to be that strong. Just a small, imperceptible jolt that could alert me that I was heading into "potential-guilt-for-days" zone and nip it right in the bud. The possibilities are endless, really. You could buy the shock therapy app catered to your very own weaknesses and insecurities.

I'd buy it. :)

Traditions

I love traditions. There's nothing like a good, comfortable ritual to get you feeling the holiday (whichever holiday that might be...) spirit. No doubt, the idea of having "traditions" was realized through a peaceful agreement between the sentimentalists of the world and...the slackers.

It is so nice to have something special to look forward to every year; an activity that marks the passage of time and gives a point of comparison from year to year. Something you can share with your loved ones and pass on from generation to generation. Something that reminds you about the real meaning of the holiday.

But...it's also nice not having to reinvent that Christmas/birthday/

Valentine's Day wheel every year. A planning slacker's paradise. For example, this year Spencer and I went rock climbing on my birthday. Why, you ask? Oh, because we did it last year and it was fun. Why mess with perfection? Why put in unnecessary effort when whatever you did last year can be easily recycled this year? Say hello to the birth of an unintended "tradition."

With that said, this past holiday season, Spencer and I (mostly me...because I'm obsessive like that...) spent a lot of time trying to discover our "dream" traditions. This came about, I believe, mostly because it was the first time in our five Christmases together that we would be waking up Christmas morning in our own place instead of a family member's.

To me, this felt like some kind of rite of passage. I took it as a sign that I needed to figure out the holidays completely and spend ridiculous amounts of time researching traditions. Because really, as discussed earlier, if you do it right just one time, you are set for decades. :)

We'll start with Thanksgiving. I might as well just admit that I did not spend as much time contemplating Thanksgiving traditions as I should have. Sigh. Thanksgiving; such an under appreciated holiday. The mere fact that it is the least commercialized holiday I know of merits extra recognition and attention. Next year, I'm sure.

As it was, we mostly just piggy-backed on the Warnick's traditions. Grace did run in the Toddler Turkey Trot down Lane Ave, but that was about it. But, hey, the Warnicks' traditions are fabulous, so it was still a win-win situation.

We were lucky to have lots of family come to Columbus this year. Our Merkley cousins, Sarah and Hannah, and their families as well as good old Sam, Emily, and Alex joined us for a few days. Terri, a lady from our ward, also got in on the fun. The dinner was fabulous and my small contributions paled in comparison to the feast the Warnicks produced. As such, they shall not be mentioned. :)

The post-Thanksgiving dinner gingerbread house making was a hit. My goal was to cover mine with as much candy as possible, so I could happily snack on it later. Spencer's goal, as always, was a little more ambitious.
And now, on to Christmas! Not all of the traditions that I tried to implement this year were successful. Perhaps we were suffering from tradition overkill, but we definitely found some keepers. We went to see the Thomas the Train Christmas display at the downtown library.

We braved the cold in order to experience "Zoo Lights" at the Columbus Zoo.

It was totally worth it. Grace made friends with a wolf. Two seconds before this was taken, the wolf had her front paws perched up on the window, staring into Grace's face.

However, most of our new traditions do not come accompanied by a picture. During the entire month of December, Spencer and I wrote down little compliments/(things we'd noticed the other doing that we appreciated) on slips of paper and put them in each other's stockings. On Christmas morning, we got to read them all. This one went swimmingly. I'd forgotten how good Spencer is at writing love notes. (blush...)

We also tried implementing a 12 days of Christmas service project. It involved doing at least one little act of service for someone outside of our family every day from December 13th-24th. We sort of accomplished this. We went to the temple, delivered lots of Christmas treats, cleaned some public areas, took cookies to the house in the neighborhood with the best lights, and wrote some thank you notes. The delivering of Christmas treats extended to far more than one day, so we counted it multiple times. Cheating. We'll do better next year.

Insert random pictures from Christmas:

Also, thanks to a friend's blog, we started a Christmas story reading tradition. I wrapped 12 Christmas-related stories for Grace (most of which I just picked up from the library) and let her open one each morning during the 12 days leading up to Christmas. Obviously, I seem to have a thing for the number 12. This tradition was a great success as far as Grace was concerned and it got her really excited about present-opening in general.

However, "someone" could have done a better job at screening the stories. (read: me) The culminating story, opened on Christmas Eve nonetheless, ended up being "Hark, the Aardvark Angels Sing." A bit anti-climactic, needless to say.

And lame. Lame, lame, lame.

You know, there is an amazing number of truly terrible Christmas stories for children out there. But, whatever. The title seemed appealing to me when I was just trying to get out of the library. :) Again, I'll do better next year.

We hosted the Warnicks, a sweet lady from our ward, and our neighbor Jennifer for Christmas Eve. There, we served Japatis (Spencer's African special), performed a live Nativity, and painted little, wooden Christmas ornaments (another stolen Warnick tradition). All in all, it was a fabulous Christmas.

I look forward to not planning for it next year. :)

The Great Hobby Search

This past fall, Spencer, Grace and I were wandering about through a local, outdoor Arts Festival. As we walked, we talked about which of the arts displayed we could see ourselves really getting into. I chose jewelry making, mostly because I love earrings and saw it as an "easy" way to accumulate LOTS of them.

Spencer chose glass-blowing. He's always thinking big. Watch out, Chihuly.

Once this lovely, little stroll down artsy-lane came to a close, I thought very little about our conversation. I thought a lot about starting up new hobbies, but kept all of them theoretical. I'm really good at having theoretical hobbies. In my mind, I'm quite the seamstress. :) And, periodically, I do a fantastic job of refinishing imaginary furniture.

Spencer, strangely enough, thinks theoretical hobbies are silly.

Now, if you looked up supportive in the dictionary, no doubt you'd find a little, smiling picture of Spencer sitting next to it. Spencer thinks I can do anything. I can't, mind you, but because I know that Spencer thinks I can, sometimes I dare to dream. That is, stop dreaming and turn my theoretical hobbies into reality. :)

For Christmas, Spencer surprised me with a simple jewelry making kit and a few beads to begin with. The part I like best, however, is that he sat with me for the better part of Christmas afternoon and helped me make my first creation:

I know it's not much, but I felt pretty good about my first attempt. I twisted and bent all the wire and was surprised at how simple it was. There's a lot I still have to figure out (the necklace doesn't hang right most of the time...), but...I'll get there.

And I'll have you know, I've already made at least three more fantastic pairs of earrings in my head.

And, as if that wasn't enough, check out this beauty that came to live with me on my birthday:

How many people can say that they have a hand-crafted, literal jewelry tree? Far too few, I tell you. Far too few.

That Spencer; he's done it again.

Merry Christmas 2010

The Bardsley Family’s

Top Ten Countdown of

2010

10... Grace entered nursery at the beginning of the year and has since competed in her first nursery eating contest. Anna is overflowing with pride.

9... Spencer has completed his time as an indentured servant in the physics lab and now actually works for pay.

8... Anna successfully ran two half-marathons in record time and thinks her days of running full marathons are definitively over. I mean, really, why run 26 miles when you can run 13 and hurt just as much?

7... The whole family took trips to Utah, Washington D.C., and Michigan to visit family, friends, and a lot of old fashioned cars.

6... Grace is potty-trained. Anna sort of misses diapers.

5... Spencer got a MacBook Pro with our tax return and loves it almost as much as life itself. Almost.

4... Anna read more books than any one person probably should, but unabashedly continues to further her addiction.

3... Grace discovered spontaneous ice cream runs, princesses, trains, and dinosaurs. She has never looked back.

2... Spencer has ventured further into his career path (Engineering Physics) at The Ohio State University and feels like, someday, he might be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

1... The whole family has had a good year and is feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future. We have been so blessed and are so thankful for all the opportunities we have been given.


We hope this letter finds you and yours well and happy. We love you all and are so pleased to have you as a part of our lives. We are who we are because of you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Spencer, Anna and Grace

Celebrating the Small Things

Since Grace is one of the greatest little "small things" that I know, I thought I'd celebrate some of her accomplishments of the past little while. They are many...prepare to be amazed.

First of all, I would like to bring your attention to her zip-lining skills. Notice the form: arms straight, legs tucked gracefully up towards chest, head erect. Flawless. You can't teach that folks. You just can't.

And then there's her decorating abilities. Grace managed to almost single-handedly decorate the bottom of our Christmas tree whilst Spencer and I waged war against the *popcorn we were trying to string together. And she only broke three ornaments!

We're planning on hiring her out next year.

*Notice there is no popcorn on the tree. No doubt you can guess who won the above-mentioned war.

And then there was...the race. Grace participated in her first "Toddler Turkey Trot" on Thanksgiving and furthered the family legacy by finishing...dead last. But honestly, take a look at the above picture. Do you see all that hand-holding and carrying going on? I mean, really.

Just look at that---the flair and finesse of a champion. Grace has learned quickly that, no matter how far back you are in the standings, you still get a medal and a cookie. That's victory in my book, folks. Victory.
She and Spencer have also been practicing their dance moves. With our luck, they'll be winning us an Ipad in no time.

Grace's mad kite-flying skills have already been well-documented on this blog, but I couldn't help but include another photo.

And last, but not least, every once and a while even I have a moment of pure brilliance. Look at those Christmas sweaters. Award-winning Christmas sweaters, that is.

As always, the Bardsleys are in it to win it.

Bye

A strange turn of events

I've never been one to follow sports.

Scratch that.

I've never cared much for any sport or team that Spencer wasn't participating in.

Okay, scratch that, too. I did go through a brief period during junior high when I faithfully followed the Utah Jazz. And John Stockton was my personal hero. And I might have cried a little when the Chicago Bulls beat them over, and over, and over again.

But since then, nothing. Until...

...we moved to Ohio and were thrust into the midst of Buckeye mania. Now, once upon a time, I thought people got pretty into BYU football.

I had NO idea.

It's just a different experience to cheer for a team that actually has a fighting chance of winning the title every year. AND seven national titles under their belt. AND a stadium that seats 110,000. I've actually found myself surreptitiously checking BCS rankings and secretly sending losing thoughts towards the likes of TCU, Oregon, and Auburn.

Not that I actually sit down and watch the games. That would be silly. Four hours; are you kidding me? I just care about the outcome. Such a strange, strange turn of events. :)

The game Spencer and I went to was against Penn State. The weather was perfect, the game was much more exciting than we would have expected, and I finally learned that the easiest way to get what's going on is to watch the quarterback like a hawk. And, yes, Spencer had to tell me. I guess he'd had enough of my constant, "Man, I couldn't find the ball that entire play!" exclamations.

And have I mentioned the marching band yet? Wow. I want to go to another game just to see the band again. I've never seen anything like them. To quote a friend, watching them is "like a spiritual experience." :)

You just never know what life is going to throw at you.