Category: Family

We are spending the weekend with my brother, his wife, and my seven year old nephew – about two hours away from Bryan’s family. We started off the weekend by playing Guitar Hero for about two hours, which, I have to say, is the only video game I have been able to beat my husband at. Ever. What can I say? I gots me some rhythm.

And also? It warms my heart to hear my nephew singing “hit me with your best shot” as he rocks the guitar with Pat Benetar.

My nephew bonded with Bryan as he worked, playing his Game Boy along side his chair. He’s a pretty smart kid, trying to figure his uncle out. He already knew Bryan liked Guitar Hero, so he asked him to play a football game with him on the Playstation and Bryan was like, No dude, I don’t do sports games. So then he asked if he’d play Lego Star Wars, and Bryan was all over that.

Later when Scout was wandering aimlessly, Bryan told her to go lay on her bed, and she did. My nephew’s eyes bugged out and he said, “You mean, she does what you tell her to??” Bryan thought that was pretty funny.

Around seven the first night my nephew, who is an only child, asked me when “the little kids” were going to bed (Ruthie had been singing at top volume and Thomas was running around growling at everyone – all while Guitar Hero was blaring on the tv). “They irritating you already?” I asked, laughing. He smiled. “Me too,” I said. “But it’s going to be a couple hours.”

We wrapped up this evening by lounging in the hot tub, and Ruthie got to practice her newly learned breath-holding skills from her summer swim lessons. She’s more daring in the water, now, and was willing to do some running jumps into the pool after she saw her cousin doing it.

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As a side note, we went to Disneyland on Wednesday with Bryan’s brother and his family and had a total blast. I can hardly believe it, but my kids lasted for TWELVE HOURS at the park – from 8am to 8pm. Thomas slept in the stroller for about an hour, but still…TWELVE HOURS. Ruthie was asleep before we left the parking garage.

More on that later – I’m actually working on a video.

Somehow I’ve managed to maintain my current weight this week even though every flat surface in this house is covered with something sugared or baked. I mean, for cryin’ out loud! I nibble a little here, and I nibble a little there, but for the most part I have avoided a full throttle gorge.

Today, Christmas Eve, it is delightful outside. It is the sort of day that requires one to use the word “delightful.” I’m wearing my summer capri pants with sandals (no socks, of course), and the kids are barefoot out in the yard. I told my mom this – my mom who lives in Minnesota – and I was ordered to “hush up.”

It’s true that a change of circumstances has lifted my Christmas spirit. While I would like to say I learned to find joy in the midst of my circumstances, what really happened is that I found sun and warmth in the midst of the Seattle rainy season.

Not very spiritual, but extremely practical.

It also helps that there is Christmas cheer everywhere in the Zug Clan. In fact, the evening we pulled up to my brother-in-law Brad’s house for dinner and saw his house wrapped in lights with lighted Santas in the yard, Thomas said, “Wow, daddy, that’s a lot of Christmas!” Bryan’s dad’s house is decorated, too, and even our camper has lights on it with a candy cane lined walk leading up to it.

Yesterday we spent the evening with all of Bryan’s cousins on his mom’s side. We last saw everyone two years ago, so it was fun to ooo and aahhh at how big everyone’s children were. There are six cousins in all, plus spouses, plus a million kids between everyone so it was a packed house, but so much fun.

I’m looking forward to some post-Christmas fun activities, including, but not limited to, a trip to Disneyland and an excursion to the Joshua Tree National Park.

If you are bored, or missing me, or both, follow my witty Twitters, which come more frequently than my blog posts.

I am back from the land of Maxwell House coffee. My sister actually told the couple who served us the rehearsal dinner, “Could you please make the coffee a little more like coffee house coffee, and a little less like church coffee?” I appreciated her effort, because strong Maxwell House coffee is much better tasting.

My nephew’s wedding was very sweet with just the right amount of pink and softness, and it was in a beautiful old Mennonite church on the Kansas prairie. Isn’t this dreamy?…

I was sad at times that Ruthie wasn’t with me to hang out with all her cousins, but being kid-less also meant I could be put to hard labor setting up the church and putting it back together again. When I called home on Friday morning to tell her I was decorating the church, she said, “I wish I was there to help you!” Proof that leaving her at home was the right decision!

Hard labor was my task, because after I tried countless times to tie a wired ribbon bow I remembered why I left all the foofie stuff up to my best friend at my own wedding. My sister-in-law, Nicole, was the bow master.

It’s not often that my brother and sister and I find ourselves in the same place all at once. I think the last time this happened was at Gordy’s funeral in 2005, and before that at my wedding in 2001. It was fun to catch up together, lounge by the hot tub, play games in the hotel’s family room, and document how many different conversations about football can take place within a 24 hour period. I am now schooled on the finer points of who’s rank will go down if USC wins the next game. I think.

I even got into an intense political discussion with my dad and brother at dinner Saturday night, testing out my political awareness now that I’m no longer a political apathetic. I was enjoying myself and would have kept going down the checklist of issues, but my mom – She Who Cracks Under Intense Conflict – nervously pleaded for us to leave the restaurant.

I crashed in the same room as my mom and three teenagers – my niece, Kara; my nephew’s girlfriend, Karina; and Rodica, the Moldovan girl living with them (more on her later). We were packed in there, and the mess was messy (Rodica kept pointing out the boys’ room was not as messy), but we also stayed up late watching movies and talking about hair. Plus, the boys’ room was stinky.

I learned that my niece has a Facebook page. When I discovered this, I almost blurted out, “I’ll add you as my friend!” Then my brain got a hold of my tongue, reminding me that it is not cool to have your 36 year old chubby aunt as a friend on your Facebook page.

We also got a kick out of my seven year old nephew following my college age nephew around. Everywhere. Drew. Drew. Drew. That’s all Jake was about, was Drew. Fortunately, Drew is awesome, and the sort of magnetic personality that draws all seven year olds everywhere to himself. No wonder he’s majoring in elementary education. Also? Jake must have been jealous of Drew’s girlfriend, because he asked her, “Why do you follow him around so much?” Uh, backatcha?

My nephew, Jesse, is all grown up, and his new wife, Kaley, seems very sweet and confident and aware of what she wants. There was no bitchy stressed-out bride vibe coming from her at all. She was wonderful.

Besides drinking coffee from a can, I will leave you with the other clue that I wasn’t in Seattle anymore – a sign posted at the Wichita Airport’s baggage claim:

We spent three days in Northwestern Iowa visiting my sister and her family, who live on a small, extremely dreamy farm. They live in Dutch country, which is to say the young boys are tall, strapping, and very clean cut, the farms and in-town homes are quaint and well maintained, and the churches are all Dutch Reformed.

As in other visits to my friend’s farm in Ellensburg, WA, Ruthie spent the majority of her time barefoot and wearing a sundress or swimsuit as she and Thomas frolicked around the property. There was seemingly miles of well groomed lawn on which to do somersaults, as well as patches of tall grass in which to explore.

On the North side of the property is the obligatory patch of trees to block the frigid winter winds, on the South side of the house stand three grand trees to shade the house from the summer sun, and all around the perimeter was a cut-lawn path of grass where my sister and her dogs walk for exercise. They are surrounded by corn fields that are farmed by someone else, but this time of year it provides for a lush green landscape view.

Just days before our arrrival one of the two sheep had birthed a lamb, and two of the cats had birthed a litter of kittens. What more could one ask for on a trip to a farm? We were all in a state of awe and wonder at the beauty, the newness of life, and the fairy-tale existence we city-folk like to think those country-cousins live.

We spent all of Monday evening in a town far away watching baseball. In Iowa, the school baseball season is in the early part of the summer (not in the spring during the school year), so hundreds of families gathered at a baseball complex to watch freshman, JV, and Varsity games of girls’ softball and boys’ baseball – with some parents (including my sister and brother-in-law) straining to see what the excitement was on one field while sitting in the stands of another field.

I felt very home grown middle America that day. All we needed was some apple pie.

It was very difficult to leave the farm with its cute red buildings and baaah-ing sheep, especially knowing it may be several years before we can return. But I’m thankful my children will have the memories of visiting Auntie Jody’s farm, and seeing real live sheep that they have so far only seen in books.

See all the photos here.

I survived a three hour flight to Minnesota with the kids Friday night despite the fact that our Northwest Airlines flight was delayed TWO HOURS. Never did I think a flight would be delayed TWO HOURS – twenty minutes, maybe, but TWO HOURS did not cross my mind – so the kids and I were at the airport promptly, which is to say TWO HOURS prior to our scheduled departure.

What do YOU do in an airport with two small children for what has now become FOUR HOURS?

We rode the subway between terminals several times, we ate dinner, we went to the bathroom more times than a male dog and checked out various drinking fountains, and then BLAM – a kids play area appeared before me somewhere near the B Gates and we were in energy-burning heaven for over an hour.

Thank you SeaTac airport: you saved my life and the lives of all those unsuspecting passengers on flight 168.

The good news in all of this was that our now 7:45 departure time would put the majority of the flight after the kids’ regular bedtime, which is roughly 8:30 or 9 – and they did indeed sleep for over an hour.

The bad news in all of this is that my poor mother had to pick us up at the Minneapolis airport at 1am. By the time we were the last ones off the plane and took all the late-night janitorial detours through the airport to the baggage claim, installed the car seats, drove home, had a snack, and got everyone into bed, it was 2:30 in the morning here (after midnight for me).

Poor mom. She’s a night owl like me, but this was stretching it. What a trouper.

I nearly threw Ruthie off the balcony when she woke up at 6:30am Seattle time on Saturday morning. She completely bypassed me sleeping on the sofa bed outside her room and tried to make a run for grandma’s room, but I just HAD to stop her since grandma really WAS up until 2:30am. Ruthie was so devastated to be intercepted from her beloved Gamma that she threw a total fit of heaving sobs which woke her up anyway so I was feeling like a total shmuck.

(paranthetical observation: giving a spirited child what she wants disrupts others (waking up gamma), yet setting boundaries and toeing the line ALSO disrupts others (throwing fits that wake up gamma) – so what the hell is a mother to do???).

But my mom, the ever graceful Marge, simply crawled into bed with Ruthie and me and we all got what we wanted in the end: a little more sleep, and a whole lotta snuggle.