Ta Daaaaa! An Entry!

"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hope that the expression of my opinions on this blog help you get to know my character better. :)

I don't think there will be any pictures in this entry, but as this really is for me and not for you, I hope you won't mind.

Saturday was B.U.S.Y. That morning we were cleaning and such because everything seems to get so backed up during the week. Then my parents and younger sister came to visit us. It was the first time they'd been to our place since we moved in, outside of our very first day when boxes were everywhere. It was really great to see them again! I miss being so close!

There were reasons it was so great to have them here, the first being that my mom brought some cookie dough that was kinda like play dough and made some fun cookies with the boys. They had a lot of fun! There were four different colors, and some of the cookies had an almost tie-dye look to them.

The second reason is because my dad was lucky to come at all. I forgot to mention in my last post that he recently gave my whole family a huge scare. A few months ago, he had a checkup at the doctor, and the doctor decided it was time for him to have a colonoscopy. When he had the colonoscopy, they found a mass that they thought might be cancerous, but could be benign. Turns out it was cancer. We found this out just before we moved, and it was like torture, leaving my parents and being so close to move away. I know we're only 2 hours away, but it almost felt like a lifetime to me considering we didn't know how bad the cancer was! About two or three weeks ago, my dad went in for surgery to remove the tumor and some of the surrounding lymph nodes; if the nodes had cancer in them, it meant that the cancer could have spread. My prayers for my dad were very fervent during that time, let me tell you. I kept thinking about how I had two grandparents who had died of cancer before I had been born, and an uncle who had died of cancer as well. Surely my dad wouldn't join those family members, right?

Fortunately, the cancer was completely removed at that time, and the lymph nodes were clear. I am so grateful that his life was spared! He has been healing well, and though he wasn't 100% when he came to visit, I was more happy than usual to see him again, I think.

After their visit, our ward had a trunk-or-treat. I wish I would've taken pictures of the boys, because they were cute! Andrew's costume, a dice, had even won "most original costume" at a Halloween party with a play group the day before. Good thing they get to wear the costumes again on Thursday, because I'll be sure to take pictures of the boy-dice and boy-giraffe we have.

This was Andrew's costume in progress (ok, so I lied. There are pictures on this post!):

It was missing the head and arm holes at this point.

It's based off a pin I have on Pinterest. I wanted the boys to both do it, but Andrew was too big for a box that would be the perfect size for David, and David too small for a perfect-sized box for Andrew. Oh well. Here's the inspiration (pinned HERE):

Cute, right?

And then, after the trunk-or-treat, a friend of ours that we hadn't seen in years came to see us! Elliot was a childhood friend of Jason's older brother, and had been room mates with Jason and his brother at BYU-Idaho. We hadn't seen him since sometime in 2009, we determined, but he was about an hour away from us here in Kentucky doing a rotation for medical school. It was really fun to catch up with him.

Sunday was barely less busy. Jason and I were called a week ago last Thursday to give a talk in church. When he called us, he told us we would speak that next Sunday, only three days later. We were seriously scrambling then, trying to prepare everything in time, but it turned out we shouldn't have worried - they were misinformed, and we were actually supposed to talk the NEXT Sunday, which ended up being yesterday. Our talks went well! We talked about the importance of General Conference, Jason talking about the conference as a whole, and I took a talk from a past conference and showed how taking specific talks and applying them can improve our lives. If you're wanting to read the talk I based mine off of, it was "Come What May, And Love It" by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. You can read it HERE, or watch a short video based on the talk HERE. You can even watch the whole talk HERE. I loved Elder Wirthlin's talk, which helps us learn how to better endure our trials, and knew that many people could benefit from learning more from him.

We went to choir after church, where the week before we were two of only three people who showed up. Fortunately, more people came this time!

Jason and I ended up both taking naps yesterday afternoon (one nap on purpose, one on accident), which ended up being a mistake. I mean, the naps were great, but David ended up upending several game boxes with cards in them (like Apples to Apples), and Andrew had gotten into David's candy bag and eaten the entirety of what candy was left in it. That wasn't fun to deal with and clean up. For a while, I felt like their misbehavior was a terrible reflection of my mothering. I had to step back and remember that they are kids and likely to get into trouble without diligent supervision, which they didn't have. And they're boys, which seems to mean to me that they're more prone to look for trouble. Haha.

Heaven help me if the boys are not the death of me!

And then we went home teaching. It started at 7:30, and I wasn't really excited to go - awful, right? - but we all went anyway. We ended up making some really good new friends, and we left at around 10:15 last night! Wow! We really enjoyed ourselves, and we're set to get together to bake desserts and have dessert and generally hang out again on Saturday.

Today was back to the same-old, same-old. Dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, you know. Daily life.

I would like your opinions, though. I was thinking of starting a second blog. *gasp* I know! I can barely keep up with this one; why would I want a second blog, right? Well, I had this thought that I could make it an "interests"-type blog, where I update with recipes that I've tried and liked (or didn't like); I could talk about books I read and my opinions on them, and if they were clean; et cetera. Does that sound like a blog you would want to read? Please let me know, and I'll share the link for it if I create it.

Secret: I wish I could get paid to read books without having to go to college to become "better learned in the ways of the English language". Do any of you know how I could do that? Haha!

A New Beginning

"Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it's committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever." -Will Self

I've started this new thing where when I pray, I keep a journal nearby so that if I feel like I think of something important or feel like I'm receiving answers to my prayers, I can write it down. I've found that I've received more answers than I thought I had in the past, and it's easier to remember what those answers are.

One thing I felt during one of my prayers is that I need to be better at journal-writing. I used to be really good at writing in my journal, in middle school and part of high school. At that point, I got a Xanga, which is kinda like a blog, and I kept up with it religiously up until a little while before I got married, when I switched to blogger. Then I kept up with this pretty religiously until... a year-ish ago?

Anyway, I've felt bad that I haven't kept up with my life and the lives of my boys. I thought about writing in a paper journal, but I write in there so seldom that I feel like I have to catch up for MONTHS every time I write, and my hand starts to hurt after a while. I much prefer to type, so here we are, on my blog - my new journaling outlet. I'm hoping to get on closer to every day and just talk about what's going on in my life and my family's lives, and talk about my feelings like I would a journal.

I'm not sure that anyone reads this anymore, but if you do, feel free to read along if you feel like it.

For starters, Jason got a job. He works as a kind of over-the-phone health coach for the insurance company Humana. He started his job on my birthday, midway through last month. His job is in Cincinnati, and we moved down to Northern Kentucky the weekend before he started. We found this great 3-bed, 2-bath townhome apartment that's only about 20-25 minutes from downtown Cincinnati in heavy traffic, and the boys are loving having the space. 

We came without a lot of furniture, so we're slowly but surely filling the place. For example, just earlier this week we got a couch. We'd been sitting on the floor before that, and it was starting to get really uncomfortable, so I'm really grateful for the blessing this couch is to us! And there are a couple great things about it - first, it's from IKEA (which is pretty close to us!), so it's really good quality, but relatively cheap. Also, it's kinda like a futon because the pad on the couch is actually a mattress with a slipcover on it, and it can be laid down into a bed. This is perfect because Jason's mom is going to be visiting us toward the end of next month, and I was really stressing about not having a place for her to sleep or for us to sit while she was here. Anyway, next on our list is a real kitchen table and chairs, which we'll also get from IKEA, because right now we're using a card table and folding chairs.

The boys are doing well. Andrew's made friends with some of the neighbor kids, although he hasn't been able to play with them very much since it got cold outside. We end up spending a lot of time inside because we still have just the one vehicle that Jason takes to work, and while there are some places close to us, they're not really a walking-friendly distance.

Andrew keeps asking how much longer until Halloween, until Christmas, and until his birthday. He'll be turning 5 this year a few days after Christmas, and I can't believe that he's getting so old. He is so smart and such a smart-alek that I often have a hard time keeping up with him. We looked into putting him into preschool around here, but the one or two places I've really looked at cost a lot of money. I'll have to do a little more research, because I think Andrew could really benefit from having some structured learning time.

David is getting so big! Almost two weeks ago, we started potty training him, and he's doing really well. He still has accidents every now and then, and he's ever only gone #2 in the toilet once, but he's doing so much better than I could've hoped that I'm really happy with his progress. Also, I just moved him into 4t clothes the other day, and I keep looking at him and wondering how the time has passed so quickly.

As for me, I have a couple things to confess. First is something that I thought about a lot before but didn't want to admit to anyone: I'm pretty sure I have depression. It hasn't been diagnosed or anything, but I often feel down and lack motivation to do anything. I have some anxiety, and have trouble sleeping, and all these things have lasted for a long time. I'm not ashamed to talk about it, and I'm hoping that by putting it out there for others to see, I might feel a little better by being open about it.

On top of that, Jason and I have been trying to get pregnant with child #3 for over a year. So many of my friends have been getting pregnant and having kids, and while I'm happy for them, sometimes I wonder what's wrong with me or if I'm doing something wrong. I know I'm not doing something wrong, but I DO know something's going on with my body. Over the last year, I've had my period maybe 4 times, and even though I saw a doctor right before we moved, nothing has changed. I'm hoping that once we get our medical insurance cards that I'll be able to find an ob/gyn that will be able to help us figure out the root of my body's issues and we'll be able to add to our family again.

If you've stuck through this whole entry and are still with me, congratulations! You've earned yourself some pictures! These were taken by our good friend Vanessa back in June. Enjoy!

Family Picture

Momma and the silly boys

Superhero pose! (Or as Andrew puts it, Brave Pose)

My little hams

This has to be the best picture of me and Jason EVER.

Can a funny family picture get much better than this?

Phew! (And yes, it was raining!)

Cute Andrew

Sweet David

My two cutie-patooties

One more to get you to go, "awwwwww!"

Secret: Things HAVE to hang straight on the wall. If they're crooked, it drives me mad until I fix it. I was like that as a teenager too - the posters on my wall were all hung up nice and tidy and straight, with each corner tacked carefully in so that they wouldn't move when the door opened or closed. I may be just a little OCD about this...

To the Fathers in my Life

"I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom." -Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum

I've learned a lot from my dad, mostly in moments when he wasn't trying to teach me anything at all. His example, his actions and reactions, his life has been a lesson for me as to how I should be living mine.

Happy Belated Father's Day!

These are two of the fathers who have had an influence on my life:

My wonderful dad! I have no idea what he's doing... Haha!

My handsome hubby! He was a fun uncle to his nieces and nephews, and then became a great dad to Andrew and David. I wouldn't trade him for the world!

I'm not gonna write anything mushy; I just wanted to quickly say that I know how blessed I am to have both of these men in my life, and that they've loved me and grown with me and helped me become the woman I am today.

Secret: I really don't like drinking milk. When I was young, my family went to visit my grandparents in Idaho one time. There was a big storm, and the electricity went out. I was really thirsty, so I got some milk. Maybe the milk was going bad, or maybe I was just getting sick anyway, but after I drank the milk, I felt sick and ended up throwing up. Ever since then, I really just don't like the thought of drinking milk. I have the same bad experience with someone else barfing after eating coconut... to this day I can't eat coconut. Bad associations taint my taste buds, I guess...

A Reason to Smile

"All the statistics in the world can't measure the warmth of a smile." -Chris Hart

We've been smiling a lot lately. Keep reading for one of the reasons why.

After experiencing REALLY hot weather in Florida (high 80s plus a TON of humidity) last week, the weather here has felt perfect!

Yesterday, the high was in the mid-70s, and it was like heaven. My dad and I took the boys and my niece outside to go for a walk, ride bikes/tricycles, and to enjoy the sunshine outside. Here are some pictures to help me remember the experience.

Starting to ride! My dad helped David, who has gotten pretty good at actually pedaling, but can't steer for his life...

No serious faces from this boy!

Sweet Andrew :)

David and Dad playing catch-up.

I can't believe how big he's gotten...

Miss Zoey loved the grass. (although she hated it last summer!)

Tricycle time!

My and Zo's toes, basking in the sunlight.

I love Spring. I know, I know, it's almost Summer, but it feels like Spring out there! Spring and Fall are my favorite seasons. Spring means new life and comfortable warmth after the cold Winter. Fall means rustling leaves and beautiful colors and wonderful smells and comforting coolness after the green, hot Summer. (Ok, so Fall is REALLY my favorite season, if you can't tell... but I DO love Spring...)

Who else loves Spring?

Secret: I love Disney animated movies. The Little Mermaid has some of my favorite music in it, and Beauty and the Beast will always have one of my favorite stories. I love Finding Nemo, Mulan, Aladdin, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty... They're wonderful! Disney just has some masterful story tellers!

Life is Beautiful. Aaaaand crazy. Very crazy.

"I would imagine that if you could understand Morse code, a tap dancer would drive you crazy." -Mitch Hedberg

Random quote for a random (catching up!) entry.

Holy smokes. It's been a long time since I've updated the blog. Five months, right? Sheesh.

Looking back, a lot has happened, but as it was happening, it felt like nothing was happening at all out of the ordinary. Let's do a run-down:

• David turned 2 in February. He has since become a bossy little bugger and a much pickier eater, which can be unpleasant, but he is at such a fun age, I can't help but smile every time I see him.
• I babysat. A LOT.
• Jason finished school! Almost. He's done with classes, and has one last HUGE project to finish before he can officially graduate.
• My mom, sisters, and I went to Time Out for Women, and even had our picture taken with John Bytheway at the airport! (He even tried to steal some of my sister's chocolate! Ok, he was just kidding about it, but it was hilarious all the same, especially because at that point we had no idea who he was...)

  

  Carrie, on the far right, looks like she's an old geezer, leaning over like that... lol. (And I'm pretty sure her mouth is stuffed with chocolate...)

• We took a jaunt to Indianapolis with on of Jason's friends for a few days. That was fun.

Walking down the street in Indy.

• Jason's brother and his wife were able to get sealed to their adopted children in the Washington, D.C. Temple, and we were able to attend. I have such tender, sweet feelings about that experience. Those children are so blessed to have the wonderful parents they have, and Paul and Jennifer will forever feel the blessings of being able to call those beautiful children their own.

  

  Paul and Jennifer and their forever family - Michael, Neil, and Grace.

• We moved out of our apartment and moved in with my parents. This is not the ideal situation, but our apartment's contract was up, and we didn't want to sign a bunch of new papers to stay if we weren't sure how long we'd be around anyway. (Hopefully it'll only last a couple months, and we'll move out as soon as Jason has a job, wherever it may be.)
• My parents took us on a trip to Disney World to celebrate Jason being done with school! (Even though, officially, he's not quite done...) David got sick on the trip, but recovered in time to spend the days we spent in the park with us. The boys LOVED it! I think Andrew's favorite might have been Splash Mountain, and who can blame him? And they ADORED Mickey!

  

  They ran up to him and gave him a HUGE hug!

• Jason stayed behind in Florida when the rest of us left so he could catch a flight (taking off tonight, actually) to El Salvador, where he served his mission from 2004-2006. It's going to be not-so-fun with him gone for a week and a half, but I hope he has a great time. He's been wanting to go back there since we started dating, but he decided the spend the money he was saving back then on an engagement ring for me instead of a plane ticket, and thank goodness he did! :) He was able to get a cheap ticket from Orlando, so we figured he could go now.

And now we're in limbo. Jason's pretty much done with school. We're living with my parents. He doesn't have a (real) job. Pray that we'll survive this period in our lives with our sanity!

Sooo... I think that's most of the major stuff. Now that Jason's done with school - mostly... - hopefully I'll get back to updating the blog more regularly. We'll see how that goes. No promises.

Secret: If I don't write things down, I usually remember nothing. This means I have to-do lists and to-read lists and packing lists and meal lists and grocery lists and lists of names I like (for any future children we may have) and lists of things I want for my birthday or Christmas and so on and so forth. This also means that a lot of my wonderful memories, if not written down, have been forgotten. I have a horrible memory. I really hope I can do better at keeping this blog up so I don't forget what my life was like at this point, and what my boys were like. Life passes so quickly...

Andrew's 4 Years Old!

"You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely." -Ogden Nash

Andrew had his 4-year wellness appointment yesterday. He looks healthy and happy, but still pretty big for his age. His BMI is still in the 95th percentile for his age group, but the doctor didn't seem overly concerned. We just need to limit screen time a bit and get him exercising a little more.

As for his height and weight, he is now 42 inches tall and 45 lbs. At last year's appointment, he was 39 3/4 inches tall and 41 lbs, so he's grown and gained probably a normal amount. He just started out big... Almost 30 lbs at a year old.......

Here are a few things about Andrew I want to remember at this point in his life:

• He's too smart for me already. And I don't know where he's learned what he has!
• He loves making funny faces with me. And having me chase him. And being tickled. Being tickled is one of his favorites.
• He LOVES cars. We recently acquired from friends two things Andrew plays with all the time: one thing he calls a "car mountain", a plastic mountain that has several tracks where cars can make their way down. The other is a rug with little roads and a town and train tracks on it. Between the two, he'd probably be happy for several hours.
• He's recently figured out how to work the Wii, and sometimes starts playing Super Mario Brothers without my knowledge. He also knows how to get to the Netflix, so he often starts watching TV without my noticing either. Yikes.
• He says the funniest things. When he wants to have a turn doing something, he says, "Let me have a go!" He still says "to-deh-grr" or even "to-deh-gler" instead of "together", but if he says it slowly, he can say it correctly. He always announces when he toots, and wants everyone in the apartment (or wherever he is currently) to know when he's peed or pooped in the toilet. A couple weeks ago, they spotlighted him in Primary, and for the questionnaire, one question was, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And he had said, "I want to be a good guy!" I guess he's been watching some super-hero shows!
• He plays well with David, mostly. They love running up and down the hallway together, playing in forts, and attacking Jason. It's really fun to watch.

As I think of more, I'll post them. :) I need to write down the funny things the boys do more often.

Andrew will always be my guinea pig, for which I will always feel guilty. He is my first child, and every new stage for him is a new stage for me where I don't know what I'm doing. Does anyone else feel that way? The good thing is, the good always outweighs the bad, and he still loves me. It's amazing. I'm his mommy, I will be forever, and for that, I'm grateful.

My handsome dude before getting checked out yesterday.

Secret: I definitely like sweet things better than salty. And I have trouble with the sweet + salty combinations. Like those people who like dipping their french fries into their frosties from Wendy's. Don't get that at all. The one concession I WILL make is for pretzels dipped in chocolate. I will NEVER turn those down.

Happy New Year!

"Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right." -Oprah Winfrey

Yes, thank goodness for second (and third... and fourth...) chances! Happy 2013, everyone!

It's been a while since I've updated. I'm not going to make this a huge long update to cover everything, because trying to keep up is what gets my blog backed up to begin with. Here's a bit of what we've been doing:

• Went to a benefit concert at my old high school, raising money to help pay for a civics and arts center in my hometown. It was great!

  

  Picture from dinner before the concert. It's been a while since we've taken a picture together!                                       

• Had Thanksgiving with my family. Totally relaxing.
• Did my first Black Friday shopping in my hometown - and I did it by myself! I only got a couple things, but there was one bigger-ticket item I wanted that I was able to get: a KitchenAid stand mixer! I've used it several times since buying it, and I love it.

  

  The wait outside of Kohl's before midnight

                                  
                                            
• We switched David over from sleeping in a crib to sleeping in a toddler bed. Really, we just took one of the sides off the crib, and that works perfectly. He does really well in the bed, and we haven't had much trouble since the switch. :)
• I threw a Christmas gingerbread house-making and movie-watching party! It was fun! We watched the Christmas classic White Christmas.
                                                
• Went to California for Christmas with Jason's family. It was wonderful! And colder than I was expecting for California. And rainier. Yuck. But I loved it all the same! We also rented our first rental car while we were there so we could drive the 8-ish hours from Jason's aunt's house to his Dad's house, where he lives about an hour outside of LA. It was fun visiting him, and driving a 2012 car... if I ever own a car made in 2012, it'll be in 2020, just because we're never going to have a new car... *sigh*

  

  This is the beautiful car we drove. It was even red! Oh, I miss that car... Haha!

• I got sick during our trip to California. I had the nastiest sore throat. It was awful. Thankfully, we were able to relax a TON during the break, so that helped a lot.
• We came home to Ohio and there was SNOW on the ground! It's snowed a few times since then, and I love how beautiful everything is. I love the snow. As long as it doesn't come before December and it doesn't last after March. :)
• We celebrated Andrew's 4th birthday! He turned 4 on Sunday. I can't believe he's 4 years old. The time just passes so quickly... Anyway, he has his 4-year wellness appointment in about 45 minutes, so when I get back, I might do another update just about him and how he's grown.
• We celebrated New Year's with my parents! We spent the night at their house, and everything was really laid back. I read a book, we all watched tv, and the boys slept right through everything. Happy 2013!

And now we're back to the regular daily doings that are known as Life. It's always hard for me, going back to normal after the hustle and bustle and fun of the holidays. It's almost depressing, but I'm trying to keep my head up and have a good attitude and keep life fun. Maybe I'll make some cookies later today. ;)

Secret: I think my brain has a hard time multi-tasking. Or letting me do things outside of my normal patterns.  With my boys, I'm constantly frustrated or flustered because there's constant upheaval or chaos. My brain doesn't know how to process it all or how to begin to get things back to how they should be. I think this is part of the disorder I have (Auditory Processing Disorder, or something like that). The problem is, I don't know where to start to fix it. *sigh*