Good things already done and still to come

Been struggling with feeling overwhelmed and thought I would write about the good things.

Good things done:

1. Liddy is alive. She is just as she was before we ever wondered if she would survive. What a perfect and   merciful gift Heavenly Father gave us.

2. Washing machines were invented and made available to just about everyone. Since mine just died, I am so incredibly thankful that I am rarely without one.

3. Ben has finished 27 1/2 months of anesthesia school. Hallelujah.

4. People out there actually created companies to haul your junk across the country so you don’t have to.

5. Airplanes were invented. They cut the travel time down immensely and your kid doesn’t have to be strapped down the whole time.

6. God created mothers who raised husbands who are unbelievably patient with their wives…and one was given to me.

7. God created mothers who are unbelievably patient with their daughters…and one was given to me.

8. E-mail, cell phones, web-cams, and texting were created so I never feel very far away from people I love.

9. Everyday I have been shown love by one of you even when you didn’t know I needed it.

10. My friend was on the People’s Court. That was definitely the most awesome TV program I saw this week and the hardest laugh I have had in a good long time. I needed that!

Good things yet to come:

1. Ben will graduate in about 2 weeks and we may never have to be students again!

2. I will be relieved of my duties in the Young Women organization at least by May 12th, at which time I will leave the state.

3. We are moving back to Utah!

4. The summer is here and Ben won’t have school…or work for a while!

5. We will probably be buying our first house ever this year!

6. We will be buying a brand new washing machine for the first time ever.

7. We will be totally purging our stuff and emptying this house. I love the feeling of cleansing and starting off fresh.

8. We will be moving to a place where on bad weather days, there will be Kangaroo Zoo just minutes away and my kids can WEAR THEMSELVES OUT!!!

9. Ethan will be starting school in the fall and I don’t have to really worry that he will get stuck in a ghetto school since there really aren’t any in the school district we’re moving into.

10. SUMMER! SUMMER! SUMMER! GRADUATION! GRADUATION! GRADUATION!

 

Archiving the widgets

Don’t want to lose all the fun from past widgets so I’m going to start posting the contents each time I change them.

Posted sometime in January:

WHAT I DID THIS WEEK

Did 9 loads of laundry in one day

Fed the missionaries

Had a YW presidency meeting

Planned and attended Mutual

Drove in a blizzard (thus had to walk in

    a blizzard upon exiting the car) for like

    3 days in a row

Made fliers for the field trip

Set up the webcam

Cleaned house over and over

Grocery shopped

Shoveled snow

Made green eggs and ham and pink eggs and ham

Finished the invitations for New Beginnings

Made gummy bugs with Ethan

Watched about 15 episodes of Crosswords with Ben

Did reading lessons with Ethan

 

MY CURRENT OBSESSIONS…

Trying to maintain the house instead of going from totally destroyed to clean to totally destroyed…

 

I’ll just post it like it is…

This was originally written about a week ago. I thought I would come back to it, post pictures, whatever…Then I got strep throat and all the kids got sick so here you go… 

No, I haven’t abandoned my blog. I’ve just been avoiding it because I’ve hit some spells of serious negativity intermingled with nostalgia and I don’t want to let the whole world know that I went off the deep end temporarily. So, I’m beginning to feel like things are looking up and I trust myself to not act like a nut in print.

If January was a hard month for me, February was even worse. Let’s just leave it to that.

March has also been a real peach thus far. We got 20+ inches of snow in two days this past weekend and all three of my kids have vomited copiously and produced so much mucus I don’t know how they haven’t dehydrated. Grant has perfected the “wall of snot” as we have coined it. You know, when there’s not even trails from the nostrils there is just a huge slab of goo from nose to mouth. I don’t remember the last night I had more that a couple hours of sleep at a time because of sick kids. And it’s not the “Mommy I don’t feel good and I just need love and Motrin and I’ll go straight back to sleep” it’s the “Mommy! {heave} Mommy!  {heave}”–mom comes running totally disoriented only to splash through vomit both on her way to the kid and on the way to the bathroom. It also has complicated my frantic scurrying to throroughly scour my home because my mom was coming to visit. Alas, I just quit…and I wasn’t even ahead.

Mom did fly in today and we are so glad. She is always so fun with the kids and great company for me (those are selfish reasons…what can I say?). Ben flew out to Utah today for job interviews. So far he has two lined up so technically all of our eggs aren’t in one basket…I’m so proud of him. He graduates in less than two months!

Little funny story: Liddy has a porcelain bride doll given to her by my Grandma Liddy that she absolutely loves. She carries her everywhere. The other day she started calling her “Polly.” I thought it was from Polly Pocket until she explained to me that her whole name was “Polly Gize”…as in “apologize”! Can you tell she’s heard that alot?

Ethan’s not ready for ol’ yeller (guest post by Ben)

Ethan and I sat down and watched “Where the Red Fern Grows” and I have to say that E did not find the ending satisfying at all.  He was riveted to the show and loved watching that toe headed boy play with those two hound dogs.  He picked up on their names Old Dan and Little Ann.  He surmised that Little Ann was the better hunter as she crossed the stream first chasing after the clever coon on the inaugural hunt.  His favorite part is when the boy got the money at the raccoon hunting championships.  For E, there were two fatal flaws in the show.  First the mama was too strict for E’s tastes and I had to reassure him that the boy’s mom really loved him even though she was constantly reprimanding the boy.  With all the drama at our house you would think that E would have the concept of tough love down.  And of course the ending where Old Dan was killed by the lion was unacceptable and even worse Little Ann dying of loneliness and sadness is not an appropriate ending.  Especially when the boy had to leave the woods and move to the city and never got new dogs.  No amount of red ferns makes up for losing a fine pair of hounds.   I could almost see the wheels in E’s head turning as he dreamt up adventures with his dogs in the woods.  I got to admit after watching that show I wouldn’t mind a nice pair of huntin’ dawgs (and 250 acres of land in the Ozarks)

Year in Review (question list borrowed from Angie Farley’s blog)

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?                                                                                        Went to DC, Philadelphia, Lancaster County, and Punxsutawney (thus met Punxsutawney Phil–you know, like on Groundhog’s Day). Had a third child. Blogged. Did the whole “room mother/parent coordinator” for school thing. Went to the temple with my whole family. Snowmobiled.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?  Let’s just be honest with ourselves here…New Year’s resolutions only bring guilt when the next New Year rolls around so I resolved last year to have less guilt and made no resolutions. My only resolution this year is to be more patient.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? It doesn’t get any closer than myself!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, MawMaw Liddy.

5. What countries did you visit? The Republic of CrazyWoman and The United States of Sleep Deprivation and Over Stimulation

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? Income

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and  why? July 20th when Grant was born, May 12th when Kev and Alissa were married, Oct 30th when I last spent time with MawMaw and the day of her funeral when so much family hung out at Aunt Jennifer’s house (thanks Aunt Jen and Uncle David for having us!).

8. What was your biggest personal achievement of the year? Surviving and making some improvements.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not being more kind and patient. Being selfish.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I guess technically pregnancy is not an illness but I sure felt ill, and a c-section is not an injury but I sure felt injured!

11. What was the best thing you bought? Coke Zero, chocolate, disposable diapers, a babysitter, Grant.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Kev and Alissa and their wedding, Grant being born and smiling and sitting up, Liddy pottytraining, Ben getting through the worst parts of anesthesia school, Tristy and Kevin and their wedding, Ethan learning to read, Dan getting into anesthesia school and bringing my other female half to Erie.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Sometimes my children, sometimes my Young Women, sometimes myself.

14. Where did most of your money go?I technically never really had anything that was “my” money really. But it went to rent, Ben’s school, food, and diapers.

15. What did you get really, really,  excited  about? See number 12                                                                                                                                                        

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? Fireflies by Faith Hill because Liddy loved it so much we listened to it over and over. We listened to it in the car, at night when she was falling asleep, hanging around the house. She could sing it about word for word. And then when we went to Punxsutawney and every night there were fireflies everywhere! We would catch them in a jar and use it for the kids nightlight at the hotel.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
My life is more full and I guess happier. I was happy  before!  b) thinner or fatter? About the same, sad seeing as how I was pregnant this time last year. c) richer or poorer? WAY poorer.        

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Throw fits and worry about stuff that didn’t really matter.

 20. Did you fall in love in 2007?  All over again with my sweetheart Ben.

21. What was your favorite TV program?Grey’s Anatomy, Antiques Roadshow, Lost, Biggest Loser, The Office.

22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don’t have time for hatin’.

23. What was the best book you read? Ashamed to admit: the Twilight Series.

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? Do people have musical discoveries? I guess that I love to go sit in the back of the Primary room and listen to the kids sing. It just soothes me and helps me invite the Spirit back after I chased it away trying to get to church and make it through sacrament meeting!

26. What did you want and not get? A million dollars. Sleep.

27. What was your favorite film of this year? Why can I not think of anything? I love movies!

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 29 in September and I had a 9 week old so I don’t remember much. I know Ben got me a tiny iPod shuffle that I love and my aunt sent me flowers.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I could have spent all day everyday having new adventures and hanging out with Ben, like in the good ol’ dating days! And if I could live off sugar with no consequences.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?Maternity clothes. Enough said.

31. What kept you sane?  Ben and Jenn

32. When you think about 2007, what sticks out in your mind? The summer when we lived for weekends because Ben came home and we were waiting for the baby (we didn’t know if it was a boy or girl)… then Grant finally came.

33. Best moment of 2007? Grant’s birth. And when we watched Ben cross the finish line at the Punxsutawney 5K. That was such an odd but fun unexpected event…to actually be in Punxsutawney on July 4th a hundred weeks pregnant and Ben running? in a race?!

Webcam anyone?

So, for Christmas we gave my parents a webcam and got one ourselves and it is awesome!!! You sign up with Skype (or something similar…I think yahoo and windows live messenger have a service) for free and you can have webcam live conversation!!!

 Does anyone remember on PeeWee’s Playhouse how he had a videophone? I remember thinking that was the coolest thing ever and I wish someday there really was something like that for me and my friends. Well there is!!! A childhood dream came true.

If any of you have a webcam (some just come built in to your monitor) let me know and lets videophone!!!

I’m so excited!! (can you tell?) Thank you electronic nerds for inventing wonderful stuff.