1 Week Old

LeRoy and the kids are all sick so there aren't any new pictures with the others. I have 2 friends who have just had their babies in the hospital with RSV so I'm probably a little over cautious. Levi, Chad and I are the only ones holding, snuggling and kissing the baby and the others are all adoring him from a distance.

We are beginning to pack up for the big move on Friday so I won't be around the computer except to do the necessary office stuff. I'll catch up with you all sometime next week from my new office (I love the sound of that! - no more tiny corner for me).

Today's Favorites

So many have asked how I am doing. Here are a few of the things that help me to answer, "I'm doing very well", without giving away too much information. Ok, some of you may have received too much info, sorry :) I'll call this my 'list of favorites' for today.

#4 - Cabbage. In theory it is supposed to reduce swelling and heat. Compared to other pregnancies it really is working. However, I still feel and look like I am carrying around 2 overgrown cabbages (I traded in the watermelon). Add a little stray milk and I smell like coleslaw. I am grateful that this particular salad fixing is making this unpleasant process a little less painful and alot more humorous.

#3 - Lansinoh for Breastfeeding Mothers. I'll keep this a G rating and just say it is a favorite today - and this week.

#2 - Cramp Relief. I know it has helped with the afterpains and I can't imagine them being worse without being actual labor contractions but finally I have some relief. I am still having them though not as frequently and not as intense.

Hopefully we can get rid of these 3 favorites in the next few days, but for today I truly appreciate them.

And here we are at #1 . . . drumroll please . . . .

#1 - My Newest Angel Baby! I can't quit looking at him. He is so perfect. His swollen eyes and nose have gone down and now he looks so much like Levi did as a baby. As he snuggles and squirms in my arms I tear up with overwhelming feelings of love and joy and for a brief moment the pains are forgotten as I soak in his Divinity. As I feel his silky soft hair against my cheek and he nuzzles into my neck for security, lovin' and of course, a hint that he would like to eat again, I remember that this is all worth it and that I am doing the greatest thing I can right now. Nope, it isn't the laundry, cleaning the house, or making dinner. It is sitting in complete humility at the wonder that Heavenly Father trusts me with yet another of his children to raise.

A little overwhelming sometimes. . . so I think I will go cuddle with him again.

(Thanks to all of you for your e-mails and phone calls. They really brighten my day and I feel so loved. You are all wonderful!)

A Very Happy Easter!

From the very first minute of Easter Sunday 2008 - it has been our best Easter ever! At 12:00 Midnight - exactly - out little baby boy was born. He was in a hurry to make it during the first minute, or I was just in a hurry to have that part done, as he came literally sliding in on the 23rd of March. He weighed in at 7lb 7oz and is 19.5 inches long.

The midwife lovingly provided bunny ears and Erika played photographer to give us this beautiful Easter photo.

I'm not sure even where to begin telling about his birth and really don't have the words for it now and I am supposed to be at the computer to get payroll done. I'll try to update later.

Some highlights of the last 46 hours:

Having of my children tell me that I 'almost walk normal'.

Having Nathan sit on my lap, pat my belly (aka: squishy padding in front) and say "lap, lap" in a tender voice of awe, ready to read his story before naptime.

Being able to really get a good hug from LeRoy without the belly getting in the way. I've missed his great hugs!

Struggles:

My hips did not miraculously return to the painless state they began the pregnancy in. I'm probably going to need to visit the chiropractor for that.

The afterpains are bringing me near tears.

We still don't know what we are going to name him.

First Day of Spring

Spring has brought the sunshine. Real sunshine that shines in the windows not just the stuff that squeezes light through the clouds of winter. I do love the sunshine. The grass is green, kind of. Maybe a little more brown than green but still, I can see grass. Birds are singing. I've missed them and I need to get some trees planted to welcome the birds to our new house. It has to be good luck to start the first day of spring with everyone healthy. That is a blessing.

With one of my favorite seasons waking to the world I should be so content. Winter is gone, or in the process of leaving. But so is my patience.

Why is my patience gone? One word. Sleep. What is sleep? I can't remember! I don't think I have slept for at least a month. Ok, if I were to be honest, I have had a couple of good nights but sleep isn't something that you can store up and spread out over a couple of days. I need it every night and I can't seem to get it. Naps are rare and not quite as effective as sleep. I'm running on such a low sleep tank that my brain, emotions and physical body are about to fall apart.

I really do feel sorry for my family. They have been at their best. Helpful is an understatement. I didn't know teenagers could be so thoughtful. Thankfully, they seem to have additional patience where mine is lacking. Except Nathan. He is so full of life, exploration, curiosity and energy that I really need the others to keep up with him and they are all gone for 7 hours a day.

I guess I am losing patience but gaining appreciation.

An appreciation for walking. I miss it. Last night it felt like this little guy was squirming down so low he would pop a hand out. (Sorry, if that is to descriptive) Yet, here I am trying to walk, when running really would be better, trying keep up with 2 year old Nathan. Walk? More like waddling in squat position.

Stairs? Are you kidding me? I have put the gate at the top of the stairs to keep Nathan from going down but the TV is down there. He must have Elmo. I must have Elmo. Elmo is my 1 hour-sit-at-the-computer sanity. So here I am. Yup, I did the stairs. I haven't figured out what I will do when it is time to go back up. When I came down I brought a load of laundry with me but can I get it back up and still be able to breath when I reach the top? Hopefully.

Now that I have let you all catch a glimpse of how exhausted I am let me add: Yaayyy! I'm exhausted! I'm to the end of my rope! I feel like I can't do this one more day, or more specifically, one more night! I'm on the verge of tears at the thought of going to the bank, the drive thru at the bank.

Wait, I haven't lost my mind yet. This all makes sense. I am so far gone that I am excited about the pains of labor. Bring them on! Labor would bring a smile to my face. I would definitely offer a prayer of gratitude. It must be part of the pregnant plan to get the woman so far gone physically, mentally and emotionally that she craves labor and is willing to do whatever it takes to get beyond the pregnant point to the next stage.

Labor, please come soon.

I'm ready.

Elmo is over.

Blues, Greens and FHE

When I was expecting Nathan I knew that we were planning on another baby so I decorated the room to fit either a boy or girl. Now that I know I am having a boy I decided to go a little more boyish so I have redone the babies room.

It was originally the Malawi theme in greens and yellows with jungle animals and now I have switched everything out to cars. I found a twin quilt that I liked at Pottery Barn so I waited until I found one on e-bay that I felt was price-worthy. However, I didn't want to pay Pottery Barn or e-bay price for curtains or crib stuff so I decided to find a complimentary fabric and make it. I have had the quilt for about 3 months and the fabric for 2 and just needed the right motivation to sew everything up.

I guess the right motivation came Saturday afternoon and yesterday. I'm not sure what sparked it but I finished and love the look. The room will be a little less crowded when we move and will have only the crib and twin in the room but for now we are going to put the baby in the pack & play, and leave Nathan in the crib.

I made the curtains, pillow case on the twin, and the bedskirt. I'd like to do a small crib quilt also but my back hurts so bad from my terrible sewing posture (and having my big belly sitting on my lap while sewing) that it will have to wait.
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Happy St. Patrick's Day! At least it was yesterday. I don't know why our family is kinda lacking in birthday celebrations but we always celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Nope, no Irish blood in us. Just a love for the color green.

This is our 7th year celebrating but it was by far our smallest party. Usually we all wake up with "Leprechaun Kisses" all over us (clover stickers) and a prize at the table. One year it fell on Sunday and the kids even wore a couple of 'kisses' to church. I was serving in the primary presidency at the time and had sharing time that day but while the kids were in their classes I snuck home to hurry and decorate the table and set out all the green food. This was when they were all younger and it just made them believe in leprechauns even more because they saw me at church and didn't think I would be so sneaky. Now they know better but we all still enjoy our family green holiday.

This year we just did dinner - all green. We had taquitos with green chili sauce, green cornbread, grapes and kiwi, and green jello (I found out that Levi has been missing jello and reminded me that I haven't made it since 2003 - which is true). We also had green crowns to go with it and balloons. Nathan's favorite part (since this was all new to him) was the grapes, kiwi and balloons. He wasn't too fond of the jello at all - that was Levi's chosen treasure. For dessert we had mint ice cream sandwiches.

Yes, Nathan is still in his Elmo shirt. It did get washed on Saturday, I promise.
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For family home evening last night we talked about the rewards of obedience. I used the article from the March New Era called "What I Learned as a Cowboy" which had a story with some great 'this is what I learned' thoughts in it. Then we read scriptures relating to obedience.

• 1 Nephi 22:31 - Prophets teach obedience - we will be saved at the last day
• Alma 57:21 - Stripling warriors were obedient because they remembered the teachings of their mothers (parents). They did "perform every word of command with exactness".
• D & C 59:3 - Rewards of the earth
• D & C 58:2 - Rewards in heaven
• D & C 89: 1, 18-21 - health, wisdom, great treasures of knowledge, etc.
• D & C 93:1 - See the face of Christ and know that He is.

We also discussed the fact that obedience doesn't guarantee an easy life or that nothing bad happens but that there is a reward in it somewhere, even if we don't see it for years, or even in this life but in the next.
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So after thinking I had nothing to post yesterday it turned out to be a very full day. I love the days of feeling a little normal, doing something productive (ok, so growing a baby is productive but it sure can leave other things falling waaaaay behind) and having great family time together.

More of Nathan

I don't know what else to post except that I am still waiting to have a baby. So.... you get more of Nathan.

I realized that all of his clothes were getting way to small on him (rightly so, he is almost 2 and still wearing size 18 mo.) so I did a little Nathan shopping. His favorite character right now is Elmo so when I found this outfit I couldn't resist, especially because it was on sale. When I put it on him the next morning he would not get out from in front of the mirror. He just keep talking to himself and was so excited to have Elmo on his shirt and pants. As the kids came in from school and LeRoy came home from work that was the first thing he showed them, in a very animated way!

I love this video clip because it shows what most people don't get to see . . . the chattering Nathan. Usually he is very easy to understand and uses real words to express himself but when he gets in one of his chattering moods we can hardly understand anything. I also love seeing Levi play with Nathan and to have Chad (Levi's best friend) come over and give him quality attention as well. He is certainly not ignored when friends come over.

Yummerrific!

Today I couldn't figure out what I was craving so I decided to try something new and made the cake that Kellie shared and that Kate made for her birthday. It was soooo good.

I also tweeked it a little. I didn't feel like going to the store for frosting but I had all the stuff to make a cream cheese frosting so I did that with the oranges in it. I set aside a little and made it more runny so that I could poke holes in the cake and let the frosting run down into it (I'm not usually a cake fan because I don't just like moist, I like soggy cake). It was easy to hide the holes with the oranges on top.

After a couple of hours in the fridge it was the perfect sogginess and the flavor was soooo very good!! For the recipe go here (the link that Kellie listed) and for a very fun picture of the cake go see Kate's cake.

Caliente Dolar

During Levi's spanish class this week they have been working on foods, ordering from a menu and using more complete sentences. Levi had to come up with the name of his restaurant (Caliente Dolar), a printed menu with all the restaurant information and menu. The fun part is that he has had only had 1 trimester of spanish and had to come up with all of this on his own, including the descriptive paragraphs of the foods, and then present it to the class - all in spanish. He designed this picture for the front of his menu (kinda funny that his US dollar has spanish writing on it) and really did a creative and fun project.

Then today in class his teacher had a table set up at the front of the classroom that had a bunch of foods on it. Each student was given a card with three spanish food words on it and they were randomly asked what they would like to eat. They had to respond in spanish with the food listed on their card. One kid asked for cereal. So the teacher walked over and poured cereal on his desk. Another asked for milk and the teacher poured milk on the desk. I'm sure the janitors love this teacher!! He was trying to get the kids to use complete sentences: I would like a glass of milk, a bowl of cereal, etc. According to Levi the room was busting with laughter and a big mess. They also learned about a couple of spanish foods and had so much food that Levi didn't even eat lunch.

Levi has loved this class because from day 1 they have not been allowed to speak any english. It has been hard for him at times but the teacher uses alot of hand gestures and pictures on the board to teach them. He also doesn't focus on vocabulary as much as sentences.

According to high school parent/teacher gossip, this teacher was accused of not really teaching the kids well enough for them to pass college entrance exams for spanish so he left all the textbooks behind and started teaching his own way. Against district policy at first, but has since had great success with kids who have gone on to college using their spanish. The only sad part for us is that he is retiring this year. Why can't the really good teachers stay forever???

Pi Day

Yup - I spelled it right. I had to look it up on google because I am so mathematically challenged but pi = 3.14159. Why do I need to know this today? Because today is Pi day in Algebra II and Levi needs extra credit.

Pi day in class = pie day in class = Levi begging me to take him to the store before school to buy a pie = spending $6 = 20 extra credit points = a smiling 16 year old boy who adores his mommy today

Now you know the extent of my math abilities . . . spending money :)

Pregnant Apologies

Wow - I'm a wimp!

I really need to apologize to you guys. Maybe I should have edited a little in my latest posts to not complain so much and have everything be about me wishing I could just have this baby. Everyone has been so kind to leave nice comments. Maybe one of you should have commented a couple of weeks ago saying "you have a month - deal with it!!"

Today I looked at Kara's blog and her banner says: "My Baby Is Due Tomorrow". I realized once again that my little sister is awesome! I already knew that but I gained a new respect for her. You know, she has been so patient and uncomplaining waiting clear until her due date (unlike the whiney, gripey me). I'm sorry, Kara, that you have been reading my complaining blogs wishing I was done 2 weeks early and you have been doing that last 2 weeks leaving nice comments for me. You rock!

I will now send you all my "I-Wanna-Have-This-Baby-Now" vibes your way. You are constantly in my thoughts and prayers. Love you!!

No Such Luck!

Sunday was a wonderful day! I felt great, our family seemed in harmony, church was nice (enough that I stayed beyond my premeditated intention of leaving after Sacrament meeting) and the sun was shining.

Monday morning was the complete opposite. It was still dark when I woke up to get kids going because of the time change. One of my legs (from the knee to the toes) was so swollen that I couldn't see my ankle and yet the other leg was fairly normal. Then I looked in the mirror and cringed - not because it looked a whole lot different other than I couldn't find my eyes and my nose was standing out in extreme 'look at me' fashion. Why the sudden swelling I don't know but I felt miserable!

Ok, so the sun is still shining and the snow is melting, the birds are singing and yet . . . I feel like crap! I missed the perfect 'convenient' time for childbirth and now I am hoping to just wait until the weekend even though I wouldn't complain if it came on right now!

This is me taking it easy:

I no longer drop off or pick up kids from school, scouts, mutual or dance (amazing how quickly they take care of their own drop off/pick up schedule when forced to walk), all piano lessons are cancelled until next fall, I refused to sign 2 boys up for baseball, I gave up the idea that my house is going to be clean before I move and dinner is extremely optional on my part (once again, they really can do it on their own).

This is what I'm still taking care of this week:

Monday I made a quick trip to Idaho Falls to choose different counter tops (the ones I was going with turned out to be much more expensive than initially thought so I wanted to choose something else), and I got a bunch of groceries at the same time. By the time I got home I could hardly walk. Nathan was great to walk beside me the whole time (sometimes having a child that is a social introvert isn't so bad) and he didn't wander off but still. . . . getting in and out of the vehicle and all that walking was a little much!

Today I was considering cancelling Levi's orthodontist appointment because I just didn't want to make another trip to Idaho Falls but decided it would be easier to do it now than to try and work around a nursing newborn and 2 year old to do it. I will have to do that anyway but for some reason it seemed logical to get this appointment out of the way. Levi did the driving and took care of Nathan as well so I was really just along for the ride.

Future plans:

Today- Justin's gymnastics, finish making dinner, American Idol.

Wednesday - keep my feet in the air, Derek & Justin's dentist appointments (then all dental will be done for 6 months), possibly Enrichment with our new ward (2 sisters have called to invite me and it sounds fun but . . . we'll see)

Thursday - afternoon appointment and massage with my midwife - Hallelujah!! I do have Enrichment with our current ward but I really don't know if I will make it home from my appointment in time to go and don't know that I want to dress up for this one. I may skip it and watch to see who gets kicked off American Idol, using the "I need to stick my feet in the air" excuse.

Friday - have a baby :) This is me planning ahead with a positive attitude. I like living with that little wishful bubble around me. I can always deal with reality later.

If I don't have him on Friday, then Saturday, even Sunday would be great. If I have to start the next week still pregnant I may just fall into the 'depths of despair' and will need major coaxing to pull me out of it. Really, I will manage no matter what but I'm considering asking the midwife to put me on bedrest no matter how good/bad it all looks by Thursday. Of course, sitting in bed for the last week may end up being worse than the depths of despair so I'll just go along with whatever happens and wait it out - do I really have a choice?

Wishful Thinking

Could I pleeease have him today??!!

My house is still clean, the laundry is caught up, dinner just needs to be heated, no one is sick, the birthing kit is ready, I shaved my legs this morning, my hair looks good, my attitude is top notch. It is Sunday so it would be convenient for LeRoy, the midwife, the kids. I got 7 (yes, read that again - SEVEN) straight hours of sleep last night.

It sure would be nice but . . . I won't hold my breath.

Today's Observations

A cell phone may seem to recover after being dropped in a bubble bath with a 2 year old but it really just pretends to be ok and then freaks out making random calls on its own, flashing numbers across the screen and finally giving up all together. I should have learned this last year when I dumped the cordless phone in the washer with a load of laundry. Good thing I'm due for a free upgrade (and have been since September '05).

My 16 year old son needs similar bribing to that of my 2 year old to get him to do his chores. They can have similar whining tendencies as well.

Wearing tennis shoes and being on my feet all day doesn't put me in labor. It just gives me very swollen feet, a backache, more contractions and great satisfaction to stand back and look at all I accomplished on my new home.

Having a 14 year old daughter cheerfully watch her 2 youngest brothers for almost 8 hours straight and then volunteering to make dinner brings tears to my eyes! She actually commented "I got to hang out all night last night and figured you needed the help today". Ahhh - what a great kid!

My 2 year old expects me to listen when I have been gone for 8 hours and he wants to tell me all about his day - whether or not I understand it!

When on a date with my very-middle-child-11-year-old Derek, I have to initiate all conversation. He's so used to everyone else demanding the attention and controlling the conversation that he just sits quietly, and almost awkwardly, unless spoken too. I need to pay more attention to this kid. He can be so good I forget he is there.

I wish I had LeRoy and Justin's energy! They both make me tired just watching them.

I probably won't really miss that extra hour tonight. Nights seem to long as it is when there is more wishing I were alseep instead of just sleeping.

That's Good, That's Bad

In similar fashion to the book "That's Good, That's Bad",
this is how things in my week have gone. Just random, some good, some bad.

I missed American Idol last night (that's bad), but I did get to go out to the new house and see most of the kitchen cabinets done (that's good - they look beautiful!), and I can look it up online who was kicked off - Danny (that's Good).

I had an appointment with my midwife yesterday (which was great) but my body isn't doing anything except having contractions yet so I will go another couple of weeks. That's not so bad except that I would love to be resting with my new baby next week instead of doing everything else on the schedule (it's not really bad, just busy).

Nathan has just started coming to me when he needs his diaper changed and tells me "poppy" which really means "poopy", and he will bring me a diaper and the wipes (that's all good). However, he has had such stinky, disgusting, frequent diapers lately that the smell lingers and that is all I smell most of the day (with my pregnant nose, that's bad).

Our house is coming along great (that's good). The rock is nearly finished on the front, the marble is in around the jetted tub, the wood floors are finished and the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms should all be finished today (all so good!). It is seeming more real that we will be moving soon (that's good - new house, and bad - alot of work right after a baby). However, with us moving soon the people who bought the house we are currently living in want to come tomorrow morning at 10am and start making plans to remodel it for apartments (good for them). It just really has some pathetic spots right now that I am embarrassed to have anyone see, like the laundry/storage/mechanical room that has been the dump all lately (that's bad).

I have had terrible leg twitches during this pregnancy which keep me awake at night, otherwise known as restless leg syndrome (that's awful!). I was told that if you put a bar of Coast soap under your sheet, it stops the twitches and leg cramps. I was so skeptical and there is no medical or reasonable explanation for it but hey, I'm willing to try anything, especially if it only costs as much as a bar of soap. I am happy to announce that I had a wonderful 'leg' night last night (that's good) but the smell of the soap was so strong that it only brought out even more the headache that has been lingering for the last couple of days (that's bad) and I was awake from about 4am on (bad), but at least it wasn't the legs (good). This little experiment also gave Levi the medical paragraph that he needed for health this morning (great). He was intrigued to find so many positive online comments on such a quirky medical study and to have it be odd because the teacher wants out of the ordinary. Glad I could be his guinea pig.

With a long morning and a rather pounding headache (Bad) I was not looking forward to today. However, LeRoy and the kids were great to pamper me this morning. LeRoy got everyone off to school and picked up a Dr. Pepper for the headache, Erika shook out all the carbonation for me, Levi took care of Nathan this morning and I was able to soak in a soothing bath to start the day (all so good and I am grateful). Also, Nathan has been wonderful this morning, being very obedient and calm.

Nathan's activity of choice for the last couple of days is to sit and watch PBS all morning (good for me not to be chasing up and down the stairs to follow him around, bad that he is becoming a couch potato) but it is so frustrating that they are doing fundraising all week long and keep interrupting the programing every 15 minutes for a 10 minute break (annoying). We did find Sesame Street online and he loves Cookie Monster Alphabet (good) so that is our backup during the fundraising breaks (good?? staring at another screen?).

It is Friday (good), I only have 17 days to my due date (good) and I am staying in my jammies all day (good?), maybe I'll put a bra on (bad). So I guess the good outweighs the bad. After all, we need opposition in all things and we can't find balance if we don't have a little on both sides so somewhere along the line my life must be coming together in balance. To quote Nathan on his new found phrase: "O-tee, Do-tee" (translation: Okee Dokee). The day moves on . . .

YW At Our Home

For the last year the young women in our ward have been going once a month to one of their homes for mutual. They took turns so that each girl and leader had a chance to host mutual in their home and prepare any kind of lesson or activity they wanted. Since everyone had already had a turn (we don't have a very big YW organization) the presidency asked if they could take turns going to the homes of the Bishop and his counselors. They chose us to be first since we are moving soon. So last night we had all the YW and their leaders over to our house.

LeRoy was actually in charge of it but girls, you know how that goes. He told me the topic that he wanted to work around and asked my suggestions. Which really means, "would you plan this activity for me?" (grin, grin, my wonderful wife, please!!). I actually really enjoy putting these kind of things together but I don't like presenting them so it works perfect for us.

This is a very raw summary (you can click on the outline to read it better) but it is what I gave to LeRoy so that he could adjust it for his personality and still do the object lesson. He built a real banana split while doing it, asking questions and having open discussion. From what I heard downstairs (while also watching American Idol and keeping the boys out of the way) it seemed to go over very well. The girls were sufficiently grossed out when he added dirt, rocks, mustard and soy sauce to the delicious looking dessert and from the comments that were made after, the open discussions included great thoughts from the girls. They especially liked making their own banana splits afterward for the refreshments. . . without all the "disgusting" ingredients.

Oh, and Erika did very well not to give it away as LeRoy went along, since we have done a similar activity for FHE in the past.

Mundane Monday

Today is just an average, midline Monday. Not bad, not great, just here. The sun isn't shining enough to let true Sunshine in but it isn't gloomy, the kids aren't spectacular but they aren't fighting, I don't hurt but I'm not necessarily comfortable, etc. So I thought I'd post a few little do-dads that have caught my attention lately:

Yesterday I got a comment on a blog that I pretended to start but didn't really commit to and I didn't realize was public. After a couple of weeks I could see that I probably wasn't going to get back to it much so just forgot about it. Then, I got a comment in my g-mail inbox for one of the posts on that blog (from Australia no less). Woops - I guess I didn't hide it very well. So if any of you want to see one of the projects, which falls among many, that I started and didn't really get into . . . here is the address for my recipe blog. I think I was also feeling like it was all just breads and I did intend to post more of the healthy things we eat to balance it all out, I just didn't get to it. I may get back to it in the future, and I would like to, but I probably won't.

http://familyapprovedrecipes.blogspot.com/


Another funny part of my day is an e-mail that I got from a friend for a free screen cleaner (for your computer screen). Nathan is in love with it and I have just left it running for him to watch while I do other things in the office. He is quite content to sit in my office chair and watch the screen be cleaned, with plenty of giggles. Try it out for yourself.

http://theglobalbible.com/temp/screenclean.swf


I was visiting Holly Homemaker's blog and loved the "Mom Test". How true. So since most of us reading are moms and most of you don't have Holly's blog set on your pages to read, I thought I'd share the test as well as her insights. Instead of re-typing it I'll just direct you there.

http://holly-homemaker.blogspot.com/2008/02/do-you-pass-test.html


I hope all of you have had a good Monday . . . or at least not a bad one!

Sunday Sunshine

Countdown: only 3 Sundays left before this baby comes! If for some wild reason I happen to go a week over due I am already planning on Levi's method of "repent now, then sin" and I WILL NOT be going to church that week anyway! Yes, heathen me.

Today was actually a really good day. The sun was shining beautifully!! I went to Sacrament Meeting intending to bring Nathan home right after instead of doing the fight for nursery but as I was getting ready to leave I noticed that the primary president was playing the piano in primary. This usually means that the piano player didn't show up so I went in and asked her if she needed me. I ended up staying for all of primary but it was ok because I could stand during the non-singing parts and Nathan stayed with LeRoy (he also thought it was easier than the screaming of nursery).

Choir is my Sunday Heaven. I know I have mentioned this before but I love the music we are preparing and singing for the Easter program. It strengthens my testimony (not to mention gets me all choked up) and fulfills my spiritual uplift need for a Sunday. I find myself humming the songs during the first part of the week and I love it! I'm just a little sad that I may not be able to actually sing for or at least hear the program with the narration since we will be doing it the 23rd and I am due the 24th. If I do go clear to my due, this would be one highlight among the suffering :D

How much better could a Sunday get than to have a friend bring dinner over? And this friend could host her own food network show! She really spoils me, both in conversation and kindness. We can go quite a while without really 'talking' but seeing each other at different activities, like bunco and bookgroup. Once we have a little time to talk (ok, it was over an hour) I am reminded how much I enjoy her friendship. We can share funny stories about our kids or life in general and even cry together over hardships or spiritual lessons we are learning.

She also brought over a onesie for the baby that she had ironed on "What happens in the mountains . . !" This is an inside joke on us. When we were hoping to get pregnant we needed to work around the midwife's schedule so LeRoy and I planned a trip to Jackson Hole hoping that it would do the magic trick. While there LeRoy found matching t-shirts for us that say "What happens in the mountains stays in the mountains." Now it is our joke because what happened in the mountains . . . well, let's just keep this a "G" blog. I'll have to post pictures after the baby comes, with all of us in our matching shirts (my camera battery is dead right now so I can't post it tonight).

So to follow in Ally's "Gratitude Sunday" footsteps . . .

I am grateful for Sunshine, Choir and Friends. And not having any major catastrophe's fall on this beautiful day . . . we really did not need a repeat of last Sunday!

Weeks End

During the last 2 days I have:

• Finished deep cleaning my room - looks great!!
• Organized, de-cluttered, rearranged Nathan (and new baby's) bedroom. I probably shouldn't have moved the twin bed, dresser and crib but it felt good to do something 'normal' instead of using the 'pregnant' excuse not to do it.
• With Erika's help, washed the walls in the bathroom, hung new shower curtain and deep cleaned the bathroom
• Installed thousands of switches and outlets at the new house. (OK, not quit that many but my hips feel like I did at least a thousand squats to get down to the outlets)

These were the things I got done on my extra day of the year (woohoo, Leap Year) and on today, Saturday. I am so tired, but it feels great to be tired from actually accomplishing something instead of just being tired.

I've also had to work at calming LeRoy down because of major frustrations with our house. He is usually easy going about problems that come up at work but after a long (60 hour) week and trying to get our house done without it interferring with the regular work load, his patience with other trades is a little slim.

The sheetrockers covered up several outlets and switches and even tied a wire into a huge knot (it looked like a bowtie) to hide it in the downstairs ceiling. He had to rip up an 8 inch square section of the kitchen floor to get to the wires that they covered up. I had to remind him that at least we found it now instead of after Monday when the wood floor is being installed in the kitchen.

Then as we were wiring up each of the bedrooms, we found that Levi's room and the guestroom had no power at all. It took alot for LeRoy to explain this to me so I won't try to explain it but it initially looked like we were going to have to tear out some of our brand new painted walls to fix the problem because it was all downstairs with no attic access above the rooms. We have our own apprentice to thank for that, but LeRoy was beating himself up for not catching it as he went through the house with the inspector. With the help (and calming influence) of our builder they came up with another plan that would leave all the walls alone. But wow - has LeRoy been stressed and he has had a terrible headache all day.

More than any calming influence I was, he really just needed a couple of games of pool with Justin, who beat him with 5 balls left on the table. Luckily this doesn't frustrate LeRoy, he loves it that Justin is so much like him and playing pool gets his mind completely off the stress.

As we are heading to bed tonight it is good to post that my room, Nathan's room (also baby room) and the bathroom are ready for the baby to come, and our house is coming along ahead of schedule. It has been a seriously busy week with many ups and downs but at the week closing it is all good!

Now on to Sunday, another week and another month . . .