Giving Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and I don't intend to spend any of it on my computer, so I'm posting this today.  I love Thanksgiving. I love enjoying good food with family and reflecting on what I am blessed with.  Here are a few, well maybe more than a few, of the things that I am thankful for this year...

• My children---they bring me joy on a daily basis
• Nate---of course.  He's my best friend and my world
• That Nate won't be spending this winter changing tires all day everyday in the cold and the snow.  
• Flannel sheets
• Our Jeeps
• Good friends
• Extended family
• Chocolate, as always 
• Being able to continue my education
• Temples
• My calling with the cub scouts---I think I'm learning more than they are
• Good health
• Pumpkin pie
• A place to call home, shelter from the cold
• Modern conveniences---I never would have survived before electricity, indoor plumbing, modern medicines, and diet coke
• Wonderful neighbors
• Books---even though all I get to read right now is textbooks.  Hopefully soon I'll pick up a good novel. 
• Denise Austin---Yes, I know she's a bit cheesy, but her workouts get the job done and I don't have to leave my house to do it.  
• Being able to stay home with my children everyday to share in their joys, triumphs, and challenges
• Bubble baths
• My testimony, especially of the plan of salvation---we lost two grandmothers this year and the knowledge that we will see them again one day is a blessing we cherish
• That Nate finally finished his bachelors degree
• Sweaters
• Hot chocolate
• Christmas lights
• Music

I could literally go on and on and on and on.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday surrounded by those you love!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Winter has arrived and I am less than thrilled.

 Yesterday morning we awoke to 12 inches of snow outside and no power.  What a way for winter to make it's debut.  "Hey everybody!  I'm here to make you cold and miserable and NO! you can't even use your microwave or stove this morning to make some hot chocolate so that you feel better about all the snow I brought with me!"

The power went off sometime in the night, I think around 2 or 3am.  Since my kids are such tossers and turners, we had to get up a few times to make sure they had their blankets over them to stay warm.  One look out my window in the morning had me burrowing back under the covers.  We all kind of slept in a bit.  
At 10:00am, when the power still wasn't on, we decided we'd better get dressed for church so we could be on time.  When we arrived at the chapel, we noticed no power there either.  Luckily there were enough of us in the chapel to generate a bit of heat and enough light coming in through the windows for the pianist to see her music.  Despite the lack of power, the meeting was wonderful.  I left feeling so grateful for my blessings and looking forward to spending the day with the ones I love the most.  
The power did come back on about fifteen minutes before the meeting ended, but we were all told to go home rather than continue the block.  It probably had something to do with the fact that the rest of the church was still freezing cold and it takes a while to get that heater going.  



They say that when you live with a person you begin to take on some of their characteristics.  Nate and I have been living together for over seven years now and for the past seven winters I've listened to him tell me just how much he hates the snow and the cold.  I regret to announce that he has finally brought me over to the dark side.  I don't like snow.  Sure, it's pretty.....for about a minute.  Then you have to shovel it and drive in it and try to keep from freezing your nethers off.  Winter? No, thank you.  Give me sunshine and balmy breezes any day. 

I miss my body

I am nowhere near old.  I'm not exactly a young filly anymore either.   In my last post I mentioned a few things that no one ever tells you about growing up and becoming a parent.  Today, thanks to my adventure in running this morning(yes, running), I am reminded of one thing that nobody ever tells you about pregnancy and childbirth:  During pregnancy your body changes in ways you never thought imaginable and some of those ways NEVER GO BACK TO NORMAL!!!  So young women beware! 
A few of the doozies include, but are not limited to...

• wider hips---I knew they'd spread a bit to make room for the babies, but I honestly didn't realize that they would spread more each time and then stay that way.  We're talking the bones people, not just fat.  
• forgetfulness---when you're pregnant some hormone or something causes the neurons in your brain to be a little farther apart which causes the whole absentmindedness thing and no, they don't go back either.  
• loose joints---over the course of three pregnancies, I became so good at dropping things that I am now not to be trusted with anything of value that may break upon impact with the ground.  Also, my hip joints are much more loose and are aching like crazy right now.  Yes, they were my inspiration for this enlightening post.  
• saggy breasts---I had to say this one.  Sure, they get all full and nice while you're pregnant and during breastfeeding.  But beware the deflation!  It will happen as soon as that milk dries up.  Oh, and the deflation times 3?!  Yeah, my ladies look a bit tired.  Thank goodness for the miracles they can work with bras nowadays. 
• skin---skin changes in weird ways when you have kids.  I have three times as many freckles now as I did before venturing into motherhood and a lovely(feel the sarcasm?) mole on my chin that appeared while pregnant with Jonah and only increased in size with Lilly and Jayne.  I'm saving some pennies to get the sucker lopped off one of these days when I don't have more important things to spend the money on.  
• You grow hair in places you  never thought it possible---Yes, I'll admit it.  I never had to pluck ANYTHING before having babies.  Now I get these annoying black hairs on the sides of my face and sometimes my chin that I have to yank out on a very regular basis.  
• Battle Scars----Thanks to the lack of elasticity of my skin and the wonderful weight gain of pregnancy, no amount of lotions or creams could prevent the gigantic stretch marks that now decorate my body.  They may fade, but those puppies don't go away.....ever. 

 I could probably go on some more, but you get the idea.  I miss my pre-baby body.  But I must admit, those three cute little creatures that are now my world were worth the sacrifice.  

So I will take my achy hips, stretch marks, and saggy breasts and slip into a hot bath....if I can remember where I put the bubbles. 

Changing Your Dreams

It's funny how the things you want most can change over time.  Growing up, we may have had dreams of being professional athletes or musicians or changing the world.  When you're young, everyone encourages you to choose a "dream" that you want to work to achieve.  The sad reality is that most of those aspirations are exactly what they are named, dreams.  They almost never come to fruition in the ways we imagine.  
When I was a girl, my friends and I would play that M.A.S.H. game.  Don't pretend you didn't play it too.  You would write down your top four choices for things like who you would marry, how many children you'd have, what job you would have, where you would live, what kind of car you would drive,....the list could be endless.  Then through random counting and crossing out and circling, you would arrive at your destiny---Married to a movie star, driving a brand new convertible, working as a professional singer, living on the beach, and raising eight beautiful children. 
No one tells you about the realities of life.  No one tells you that your chances of being rich and famous and never having to have a "real" job are slim to none.  No one tells you how hard it is to raise one child, let alone the numbers on your little M.A.S.H paper.  No one tells you that once you have those children, you're going to have to rearrange every priority in your life and more than likely, your "dreams" will change in the blink of an eye.  
Before I got married and had my first child, I was a music major, vocal performance to be exact.  I don't mind saying that I was pretty good, and getting better thanks to amazing professors.  I had my little dreams about auditioning for opera companies, even if I was just in the chorus, and eventually having my own studio.  I loved to perform.  
Enter marriage.  I still was going to school.  I was a bit distracted, but still focused on my dream.  
Enter baby.  Jonah was born in January.  I attended full time at college the semester before he was born.  Even performing in several concerts, recitals, and juries in December.  My pregnant belly would bounce with my breathing and I had a very hard time with the long phrases.  I looked pretty silly, but sounded pretty good.  
After Jonah was born, reality sunk in.  Going to school full time and taking care of a new baby while your husband also goes to school full time and works full time is no easy task.  So I "took a break".  This is where the dreams begin to change.  
All of a sudden I'm thinking more about financial aspects of my chosen path.  Music isn't exactly a sure thing business to get into and I want to be able to contribute to our family if I need to.  We'd decided that I would be a stay at home mom, but I wanted to be prepared should the situation change.  We found that both of us going to school full time and Nate working full time wasn't working out, so I stopped going to school.  Not before I'd taken some family studies courses and gotten interested. 
It took five years before I was able to continue my education.  I'm so grateful for online degree programs.  But now, my dream has changed from being a performer to being a good mom.  I love my major, family life studies, because it applies directly to my life.  When I'm finished, depending on our situation at the time, I'd like to pursue a masters degree, possibly in marriage and family therapy.  
It's funny how my dreams have changed to much simpler things...healthy, happy kids, a good marriage, a career helping others.  These are my new dreams.  My wonderful, attainable, fulfilling dreams.  
I know this post is incredibly long, and I didn't initially mean for it to be.  It was inspired my recent events in our home.  Nate has changed his dreams.  He always dreamed of working in law enforcement.  He loved the idea of chasing down the bad guy, driving the police car, and carrying his gun everyday.  He's worked toward this for a long time.  He finally finished his B.A. and recently he applied for border patrol.  It was his "dream".  He could use his Spanish, carry his firearm, and have exciting work days.  He passed his test and was given a tentative offer of employment.  We filled out all the paperwork and he passed the next hiring phase.  Then he got his job with Verizon, which has been going really well.  When the cards came for us to get his fingerprints done and mailed in and to schedule his interview, he made the hard decision.  He said, "Border patrol may be perfect for me, but it's not perfect for our family."  I'm so proud of him for putting our family first. He recognized that it would mean a lot more time apart, dangerous work, and a drastic lifestyle change for our family.  While we mourn the loss of Nate's dream, we rejoice in the blessings we have.  His new job is working out wonderfully so far and shows lots of promise.  

I love you Nate.  Thank you for being such an amazing husband, father, friend, and example.  

Church Volleyball

I've always enjoyed playing sports.  Among my favorites are soccer, volleyball, softball, and basketball.  I've never really excelled at any of them.  I played softball and soccer growing up, but never on the school teams or anything like that.  I've never quite developed the skill level for it.  That's why I love church sports! No one really cares about how good you are as long as you show up.  
This year I played volleyball with the women in our ward.  I really enjoyed it.  The games were always kind of late, around 9pm, but that worked for me because Nate was actually home to watch the kids so that I could go play. 
We did pretty good this year.  We were first in our stake, only losing one game and that was because we were one player short and had to forfeit. 
So last Saturday, we got to play in the region tournament.  Wow!  That was an eye-opener.  Our ward basically comes to have fun and we do have some talent, but we never had time to have real practices or anything like that.  The other teams that we played were very, very, very serious about volleyball.  We played three teams, two games each in three hours and lost every single one of them.  We did pretty good though, we didn't get totally clobbered, and we got better with every game.  I'll tell you one thing though, I was feeling muscles that I didn't know I had when I woke up the next day. 
And most important of all....we had a lot of fun!  So if your ward participates in sports, go for it.  Don't worry that you aren't a superstar.  Half the battle is getting enough people for a full team and you never know, you might learn something knew, make new friends, get some good exercise, and enjoy yourself. 
Thanks to all the wonderful women of the Parkside Ward who came out to play this year!  I really enjoyed hanging out and playing and getting to know you all a little better. 

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween festivities this year included a family party with Nate's parents and sisters, carving pumpkins, and our ward trunk-or-treat which turned into an inside activity due to the rain.  We didn't do any door-to-door trick-or-treating this year because of the weather, but the kids didn't really even notice.  They got plenty of candy and had a great time dressing up!
I made Lilly's "Princess Bat" costume.  Jonah had wanted to be a robot and we were planning to make it for him, but he changed his mind and wanted to be a knight instead.  We found all the items for his costume at the dollar store.  Jayne was given her pretty angel costume for her birthday from my grandma. 

My Princess Bat, Angel, and Brave Knight

 The ward activity was a costume fashion show for the kids.  They played music while the kids walked down the runway to show off their costumes.  Lilly and Jonah loved it.  I tried walking Jayne down the runway, but as soon as everyone started clapping for her, she chickened out.  But everyone got to see how cute she looked before I had to pick her up. 
 

Lilly on the runway.  She had no fear and flapped her wings for everyone to see. 

In his own words, Jonah "knocked their socks off!" He did his knight moves all the way down the runway. 

Jayne LOVED the "trick-or-treating"!

Jonah getting some of the good stuff. 

These are our pumpkins.  We had three, but one was stolen off our front porch before we could carve it.  Lilly's is on the right and Jonah's on the left.  They drew the faces on pieces of paper and then I carved them.  Nothing fancy, but not too bad, if I say so myself. 

 We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!  Now on to Thanksgiving!  Mmmm....I can almost taste the pumpkin pie!