Cats out of the bag

I mentioned on Instagram recently that I was really nervous because I had been asked to accompany two sisters while they sang in church on Easter. Well, I appreciate anyone who said a little prayer in my behalf, because it went really well. Unfortunately for me, that little performance gave away my secret of piano playing and suddenly I'm the primary pianist and a substitute Sacrament meeting pianist. I don't mind at all helping out in the primary, in fact I would have volunteered to help out much sooner if I had known that the primary president was also the pianist, but Sacrament meeting is a whole other ball game. I was very tempted to say no when the lady who plays the organ texted me this week to ask if I would play, and even more tempted to say yes when the one other lady in the ward who plays the piano (primary president) offered to play for me if I really didn't want to, but I decided that it was something I really needed to do. I was completely nervous the whole time, and have no desire to do it again anytime soon, but I'm actually quite proud of myself. The kids were excited to see me up there today too, which is one of the main reasons I said yes. I don't want them to ever be afraid to share their talents, and I can't think of a better way to teach that than by example.

  The rest of the week has been fairly quiet thankfully. Most of the time when we go to the beach during the week it is just at the bay here by our house which is nice but not quite the same as being out by the ocean, so on Tuesday I made the kids do two days worth of school work so we could take Wednesday off and go to the "big beach." I was met with quite a bit of resistance from one dramatic tween, but the next day she couldn't say enough about what a great idea it was! Life would be so much easier if she would just believe me when I say it will all work out and be worth it! Josh was bummed that he missed the beach on Wednesday so we made sure to go again on Saturday and got to meet up with Melissa and the kids for her birthday. (Beau was in Japan). I love that we are getting so much cousin time, but really the more the kids get to know each other, the harder it is going to be to say goodbye.

I know both of these pictures were already posted to Facebook, but I just love them, so I'm posting them again.

This girl has suddenly become very brave in the water and it makes me incredibly nervous!

Happy Easter

Wow. So, apparently I'm not so good at the once a week blogging thing. I really am trying though. Our day to day is pretty much the same. School work and beach, or if the weather isn't cooperating we go to Barnes an Noble or just hang out at home.

We did have the great opportunity to drive down to Fort Lauderdale last weekend for the temple open house. My kids have never been inside a temple so I was really excited for them to go. We made a fun weekend out of it and stayed with Beau and his family. The kids had a blast, of course and were really mad when we told them it was time to go. The adults even got to sneak away Saturday night for a movie. Having a live in babysitter is SO awesome! Life changing, really.

Not even a little rain was going to stop them from swimming!

And I would be completely ungrateful if I didn't mention today of all days how much the Savior means to me. Because of Him, I have these four eternal blessings to call my own. We didn't plan a lot in the way of Easter activities this weekend because Josh has been on call for the last two days, but last night the kids and I sat down and watched a couple of the Mormon Messages then read in the scriptures about the resurrection and had a really nice talk about what it means for us. It was really wonderful to see the understanding in them and know that they are already gaining their own testimonies of him.

We had to be earlier than usual for church this morning so I wasn't able to take pictures until we got home and Laila just wanted to go inside and eat her treats. Also, after we got done Samm said "wait mom, we have to take a picture of you!" I kept telling he no, but she kept insisting, so I gave in. Then she said "now do your most beautiful pose." I'm not sure if this is my most beautiful pose, but she seemed satisfied with it.

After a much needed nap for both mom and Laila, we piled in the car again and drove to my uncle Tony and aunt Patrice's house. Thy only live about 20 minutes from us, so we are hoping to get together with them again before we leave. My aunt Melissa was in town visiting with her family, so it was really fun for the kids to get to meet new relatives. They had a lot of fun with their 2nd cousins Bohdi and Skylar, and they got to meet their Great Grandpa Hug. He and Samm really hit it off.

Oh, I almost forgot. Macy decided this week that she was tired of brushing her hair so she asked me to cut it like aunt Krista's. And since I am equally as tired of the crying when I brush her hair I didn't hesitate to say yes. I was a little worried at first that she might be upset or think she looks like a boy, but so far she has been thrilled with it. And I think she looks adorable!

Where I've been, Josh turns 35, and take your wife to work day.

OK, I'm going to try and explain a little about why my blogging has been so scarce, but that's a little difficult right now. Keep reading and you will find out why.

So, the short (ish) version of why I haven't done much blogging is because I am just plain exhausted. After a six month break from exercise I joined the rest of the country this January in hitting the gym again. This time though I decided that I really wanted to get in shape. Something I have never done before. I was spending a couple hours in the gym 5-6 times a week and doing some workouts at home. Plus, I decided to take a serious look at what we were eating as a family and was honestly pretty disgusted and disappointed in myself as a mom. I had never really read any of the labels on the stuff my kids were eating and I discovered that I was stuffing my kids with sugar and mystery chemicals. Getting rid of processed foods though means more time in the kitchen making snacks I'm happy to serve my kids.

After so much hard work, here is what I was not prepared for. 1) like I mentioned before, straight up exhaustion. My body just could not keep up and I was literally falling asleep in church, which if you know me well you know I have trouble sleeping and that would never happen normally. 2) My kids rejected 90% of what I was making. It was so frustrating to spend hours planing and making food that no one would eat. 3) The amount of crap they were being given outside of our house. I don't expect them to never have candy again, but it seems like they are getting it every day from somewhere.

While I am super excited to report that for the first time in my life I have muscle definition (maybe someday I will be brave enough to post a picture), it's just not worth the sacrifices I've had to make for myself and my family (my house has not been really clean in weeks). So I'm cutting back on the crazy workouts (not giving them up completely) and buying some foods that come in packages (only short lists of ingredients with names I recognize) and hoping to find some balance.

And, speaking of balance Josh and I decided that even though we are eating healthy at home we still want to splurge for special occasions like birthdays and holidays. Last week Josh turned 35 and what he really wanted to eat more than anything was a Bloomin Onion. So, to Outback we went.

 

I caught her licking ranch off her plate with a huge smile on her face.

Free birthday desert that dad was nice enough to share.

I always forget a bib when we go out to eat. Fortunately this time most of it ended up on her face and not her shirt. 

And finally, today was a snow day from school. The kids were thrilled of course. Me, not so much, but I was going to make the best of it by doing some fun things in the kitchen with the kids. I was hoping that if they helped make the food, they might be more willing to eat it. Then I changed my mind though and decided I would rather spend my afternoon at the hospital with Josh. I'm not going to tell you what happened because I was told I need to come up with a better story. I will tell you though that I did NOT slice my finger because I used a very sharp knife to try and make the hole in the top of a very tiny essential oil bottle bigger. That would just be silly. 

 Josh was in surgery when I got there so I wasn't expecting him to come down, but I was very happy when he did. It's amazing how much more at ease I was having him making the call on my finger instead of an unknown ER resident.

 

In the end I just got a few stitches to close up the skin, but there was a lot of in-between stuff including an IV, tetanus shot, and having Josh shove needles into my hand to completely numb my finger so he could cut it open more to get a better look and make sure I didn't damage something important. He explained it to me several times and showed me diagrams but I could never explain it to all of you. I will tell you though that having my finger numbed hurt like hell! For women who have given birth, imagine multiple epidurals in your hand. I would not recommend it to anyone. They did give me quite the bandage for all my trouble and a pass from dishes for a whole week!

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If your squeamish like I am, keep scrolling really fast. For anyone who is interested though this is the nice little cut I gave myself. I sent Josh this picture after it happened. Actually I sent him a different picture first and he said "no I need you to open the cut and take a picture so I can see how deep it is." I am very proud of myself for not passing out while doing it, because I promise you I was feeling very light headed.

So here I sit with a very numb bandaged finger attempting to type. It's not so easy.

A week in the life...

All my blogging energy is going to be over Here this week. If you care to see what our day to day looks like than come on over.

Adjusting my sails

Some times I make new years resolutions. Sometimes I don't. One year my resolution was to return a friend's wheelbarrow. This year, inspiration has played a large role in my desire to make a resolution. President Thomas S. Monson wrote in the January Ensign "You can't redirect the wind, but you can adjust your sails."

Attitude is everything! Especially since my new year started out with yet another sinus infection/breast infection combo.

Still Pregnant

Just in case you were wondering!

36 Weeks

As huge as I feel, it still amazes me that a little person can actually be inside of there.

Here is what I'm thinking about tonight

1. My husband ROCKS!- He was on call last night which means today he only had to go in for a few hours this morning (so far 2nd year of residency rocks as well!) After he got home, he came in the kitchen and asked "what do you want to do today? Do you need some alone time?" And yes, I very much did, so I went and bought myself a new pair of shoes and then went and got a pedicure since I can no longer touch my toes.


2. I hate paying people for things that I can do myself- Even though it was really nice to sit in a massage chair and have someone else make my feet pretty, I keep looking down and thinking "If only this big belly wasn't in the way I could have done it myself and saved $30!" It's for this very same reason I refuse to pay someone else to color and/or cut my hair.


3. Staying up late does nothing but make me hungry- I really tried sleeping but I just couldn't so I came downstairs to read blogs in hopes that it would make me sleepy(not that any of your blogs are boring) and now I am a little sleepy but I'm also really hugely hungry!


4. Never ever go to the mall in the last month of pregnancy- I WANT MY WAIST BACK!


5. Not having a camera is like not having an arm- OK that might be slightly dramatic, but I'm so mad that I've taken it in twice and I still don't have any pictures from our summer because it's still not fixed. Part of me is ready to just shell out 100 bucks for a new lens rather than take it in a 3rd time and risk not having a working camera when the baby comes.


6. Very much still hungry!


7. I hate blogger- What good does it do me to have a blog if nothing happens when I hit the publish button? Maybe next week someone will be able to read this.

Seriously people, Big Lots is a magical place!

I had to go to Big Lots again yesterday. I went to the brand new one close to our house this time since I knew they had what I needed so there weren't any "interesting" people there. However, just as I was walking in the door a lady passed me on the side walk and said "Aren't you pretty!" And then she kept on walking.

So I'm pretty much convinced that Big Lots has some sort of magical powers and only nice people go near it. And I'm also thinking about making weekly trips just for a little pick me up!!!

Big Lots is a strange place

As most of you know I have weird things happen to me while I'm at stores. For some reason I attract mean, crazy people at grocery stores who like to yell at me and make me cry. At Big Lot's I also attract strange people but at least they are nice so it's not so bad. It probably doesn't help that this one particular Big Lots is in an "interesting" part of town, so there are always very "interesting" people inside of it. And by interesting I don't mean bad or scary, I just really mean kind of different.

Anyway, A couple months ago I was leaving Big Lots with all the kids when this woman followed me out to my car to tell me that as soon as she saw Samm she just knew that God had big plans for her and that she was going to do great things in her life. Of course we've always thought she was going to do great things in her life, (we're her parents, how could we not!) but it was still a little weird to have a woman standing at my car window telling it to me.

Today I was there again with all my kids because they have really cheap planter boxes and I'm cheap so that's why I go. And as I was standing in the candy isle letting the kids pick out a treat for being good and getting ready to explode because they wouldn't just pick one! I heard a woman say "Excuse me!" I was a little hesitant to look up because she said it kind of harshly, but when I did look at her she just started clapping her hands. It took me a second to realize that she was applauding me for not completely losing it with them. I wasn't quite sure what to say so I just thanked her and then hurried up the decision making and we left.

So, even though there are very "interesting" people who shop at Big Lot's they are very nice to me and I will take that over being yelled at in a grocery store any day!

Belly Update, 25 Weeks

I snuck upstairs a couple days ago to try and document a little piece of this pregnancy. I don't like taking pictures in general and trying to take one of myself was even worse.

And then it was pretty much impossible...

She's kind of a mirror hog!