You Know You Need a Laugh

It's the last day of September. We are officially in autumn time. And turkeys are right around the corner.

You know you need a good laugh! Why don't you go get it at Is It Just Me?, where Randi shares one of the most hilarious turkey stories I've ever come across.

And while you're there, I highly recommend that you subscribe to her blog. I found it not too long ago, and she's always got something great to talk about!

This is Life.

I've washed and dried 7 loads of laundry. Almost all of it has been folded and put away. Yay me?
Unfortunately, I still have about 4 loads to go. And by the time I get those 4 finished, I'm sure the rest of the house will be a complete wreck, as well as enough clothes and towels dirtied to make at least one more load of laundry.

Sigh.

Melinda and I had an interesting conversation this evening. She got out of her bath, and was getting pajamas on and brushing her wet hair while I was folding some laundry. She started saying something about seeing me get married, and I had to embark on this whole explanation about how she couldn't have been there to see me get married, since she wasn't born until three and a half years later. Of course, I conceded, it might be possible that she watched me from Heaven. "Did you watch me from Heaven, Melinda?" She screwed her face up thoughtfully, and informed me that she definitely did. Because she remembers that the bride's hair looked like my hair.

Oddly enough, this little conversation got me thinking about the idea within our religion (which is, I'm sure, not doctrine), that when we lived with Heavenly Father before we were born, sometimes we got to choose who our parents would be. Or maybe that some children were destined to be born to certain families. I'm not sure what I think about that idea, honestly, since what would that say about all the children who are poor and dying around the world? Did they not get a choice, or did they choose poorly, or what? But anyway, it's something that's been said. And I don't put a lot of stock in it. All the same, it got me wondering what, exactly, a child of mine - Melinda specifically - would have seen in me that would make them choose me for a mother. (Oh heavens, don't let me get started on that too-hard-on-myself thing again! Hopefully this will just be motivation to be better... to be the something that she could have potentially seen in me.)

We also talked about marriage in general. She was sad that she didn't get to go to my wedding, so I told her I would go to her wedding someday. "But who would I get married with, Mommy?" She asked with such a frantic concern in her voice. I explained to her that she would fall in love with some boy someday, and marry him. She was silent and thoughtful for just a few split seconds, before she worriedly said, "But I don't think I love Jacob to marry him...." I nearly burst out laughing! Of course I had to explain we don't marry our brothers. And then we had to talk about kissing brothers vs. kissing other people, and what the difference are between "in-love" kisses and family kisses And why we shouldn't just kiss people whenever we feel like it, that kisses are special, and so on. Which prompted the question, "Is it okay to kiss your brother a lot when he gets hurt?"

Honestly, I was a little surprised at some of our conversation. Seemed like it was coming a little soon. But, I guess a conversation about marriage will do that, huh?

Jacob said a few funny things today, too. But I've forgotten them already. Except for the most recent, when he was hopping up and down on my bed energetically, while I was folding yet more laundry. "I'm happy today, Mommy!!" I smiled and told him that I could tell. And then Alex, who had spent the last hour cranky and tired, joined us on top of my bed, and started bouncing, too. Sitting on his bottom, rocking up and down, pumping his arms along with him. Jacob, in the middle of bouncing, laughed his funny staccato-styled "forced" laugh, and exclaimed, "Look! Alex is happy today, too!!" Apparently, being happy for a few seconds is all it takes to be happy all day long. Oh, the lessons we learn from 3-year-olds!

Oh, another Melinda story, before I forget. This one is from yesterday.
After Primary classes on Sunday, Jesse brought Melinda to me so I could take her and find a seat for Sacrament Meeting while he took Jacob to the potty. I look down at her, and she is one giant mess of tears. She seems just terrible - like she had seriously hurt herself, and hadn't recovered by the time Jesse brought her to me. I had seen her, looking perfectly fine, not 5 minutes before, so I was really confused. Things were crowded, and she was breaking down, but I managed to drag her to a seat and sit her down so I could talk to (and hear) her. It took me a minute to get her to say, clearly, at least, what was wrong with her.
And she said it with a truly massive, heartbreaking wail: "My teacher is getting married and this is her last week at church!!!!!" More tears erupted and streamed down her already beet-red, splotchy face.

Oh. Oh, dear. I don't know how to make her feel better about that one. I finally got the whole story, and her teacher is indeed getting married, and she will be attending the Spanish-speaking branch of church with her soon-to-be-husband after they are married. She'll still have one other teacher that she absolutely loves, so I was quite taken by surprise by the sheer magnitude of her distress at this news. She's had other friends move away before. One "best" friend, even. I was not at all prepared for her being so upset about a teacher from church. I finally got her to stop crying with the idea that we could make a card and some treats to take to her teacher, and say goodbye and thank you while dropping them off. Of course, I need to call her and see if there's even any time she's not incredibly busy preparing for a wedding. I better get to that first thing tomorrow, huh? But Melinda really was comforted by that idea. I hope we can manage to do it.

Validated

I'm listening to the General Relief Society Meeting right now. (And making puppets.)

Do you/did you hear President Uchtdorf? He's talking about me! Well, not specifically me, but how I described I felt here.

God loves me, huh? Speaking directly to my needs.
My heart sure feels full.

Back to listening, I go!

Autumn Theme

I changed the color scheme because I felt like it needed more of an Autumn sort of vibe.

What do you think, honestly? I like the basic colors, but I wonder if it's a little too vibrant with the oranges. Like maybe it needs to be toned down.

I might eventually make a whole new header and background, but I wanted to do something quickly.

Not that I should have been messing with it at all. I'm supposed to be busy making puppets for a little puppet show our Primary class is doing for Sharing Time tomorrow. I'm such a slacker.

P.S. - Alex woke up at 8:30am. And didn't fall asleep for a nap until 3:30pm. At least he's staying asleep. Unlike yesterday.

Needs More Sleep

Yes, it's a given that I need more sleep. I feel like I can never have enough.

But I'm talking about Alex. His schedule today (well, yesterday, technically), which was insane and completely unexplained:

9:30am: Wake up for the day.
Played until 12:30pm (and hard- it was playgroup day!), started getting cranky. Nursed some, didn't want to hold still, played some more, despite the crankies.
Finally fell asleep at about 1:30pm. I held him in my arms for about 10 minutes or so. When he seemed good and out, I laid him down.
He immediately woke up.
I tried nursing him back to sleep. It worked, and he slept for maybe 5 more minutes. He seemed out, so I put him back in his crib, since I can't leave him on a bed anymore.
He immediately woke up again.
But this time he was WIDE awake.

I gave up. It was now 2pm and I hadn't fed the older kids lunch yet. Ugh.
Alex went back to playing. No sign of napping on the horizon.

3:30pm rolled around, Alex still hadn't acquiesced to sleeping. Jacob was causing problems left and right, Melinda was playing the part of a cheerful accomplice, and Alex was now melting down at every bump on the head. Which was a lot. Because he was tired, and getting uncoordinated. And because Jacob was causing problems too (*cough*throwing toys and roughhousing*cough*)

Somehow I decided that the ideal solution to mommy not going bonkers and burning the house down would be to take the kids shopping.

That was stupid. Jacob kept up his antics at the store, and I was buying storage containers, so there was no room for strapping him in the cart. I should have anticipated that. Again, it was stupid, incredibly so. Luckily we were in and out before too long. (Read: before Jacob decided to really play hide-n-seek in the store.)

Alex fell asleep in the pouch carrier as I was paying, at approximately 4:15pm.

He kept sleeping soundly as I transferred him to his car seat.
He slept during the 5 minute drive home.
He slept as I walked up the stairs to the apartment.
He slept as I put down my bag.
He woke up as soon as I put him down in the crib.

All children were immediately sent to their respective beds for their own protection. I went back out the car to grab the boxes, and let Alex cry in the crib for those couple minutes. Something I never do. I have enough issues with simply leaving my kids in the apartment for just a couple minutes to grab groceries or check the mail. I also don't like to let my kids cry in bed. I did both in one shot, intentionally. I really was going crazy.

By the time I got back up, a max of 3 minutes later, Alex was already reaching past the edges of his crib to play with items on my nightstand, and no longer crying. I decided to just leave him there, and leave the older two in their room, too, until daddy got home about half an hour later. Nobody was crying. I was breathing.

Ate dinner.
Played games with the kids.
Nursed in a rocking chair.
Alex fell asleep again (finally!!) at about 6:30pm.



He woke up 5 minutes later.



Put older kids to bed.
Caught up on blogs.
Rescued tired, stubborn, uncoordinated baby from ramming into every piece of furniture in sight.
Watched Presidential Debate.

Alex finally fell asleep ... for good ... at 10:30pm.

Summary:
From 9:30am to 10:30pm, my not-quite-6-month-old baby had only about 30-40 minutes worth of napping. And not even solid minutes, at that. Broken up into just a few teeny tiny segments over the course of the day. And this was on about 11 hours of sleep overnight.

No, 12 hours is not enough sleep for a baby in a 24-hour period of time. I can't explain it.

Any time I tried to get him to hold still - to nurse, to rock, to walk, whatever - he was squirming with every ounce of strength he had (and boy, does he have a lot!). Arching his body in order to squirm his way to the freedom of the open floor. He did not want to hold still. At all.

He had better sleep like an angel tomorrow.
.....What an incredibly insane day.

I Feel Swappy

Because, yeah. That's a real word.

I recently joined PaperBackSwap. It's an online book club for people all over the country. You post books you have that you're willing to give away, and in return you get credits. With one credit, you can request any book you like. There's so many available to choose from. The person with the book you requested then wraps it in paper and ships it to you. You receive the book, you read it, and you do whatever you want with it. Keep it, share it, even post it back onto PaperBackSwap to share with someone else. You can also specify that books you receive only come from non-smoking homes, or no-pet homes, or anything else you might need, if you have specific preferences.

The cost to ship an average book is around $2.30 or so. Sometimes the books are sent first class, sometimes they're media mail, so it can vary how quickly you get a book. But I've already received 5 books since joining, and have mailed out 4.

Books are all supposed to be in very good used condition. And all the books I've received are, in fact, in very good condition. Even the used book from 1984 that I just got - it has a stamp inside that indicates it was in Bremerton, WA at some point, but it was mailed from the midwest. It is yellowed with age, but the pages and cover are in great condition for it's age.

The first book I sent went to Louisville, CO. I grinned to myself about that one - sending a book to my favorite place I've lived!

And according to the page that's keeping track of the books I've received since joining, I've saved $22.50 by swapping instead of buying new. Yay!

And ya know what? It feels pretty fun to swap books, send personalized messages, and see where the books have been before they came to you. There's so much more you can do within PaperBackSwap...I've just barely scratched the surface so far. It's a cozy little club. And hey - books are great!! Check it out. They even have CD and DVD swapping available with sister clubs!

Tonight's the Night!

9:00 p.m. can't come soon enough!!

It's time for a new season of The Office!! Woooo!!

I have to admit, I didn't watch this show for the first couple seasons it was out. It looked too dry at first glance, and let's face it, my hobbies leaned more towards computer gaming with Jesse at the time. But we happened across a few re-runs early this year, and were hooked, even though we had no idea what the plot line was.

And then we found out that we could watch full episodes "on demand" through Netflix, and boy, was that fun! We had little marathons, sitting in front of Jesse's computer, while Alex slept on and off. We would watch several episodes, look at the time, see that it was getting later and later, but then look at each other... "One more??" ... "Okay! One more!!" And we would watch The Office as late as we possibly could. If one managed to end just before midnight, we'd convince ourselves that another 20 minutes or so wouldn't hurt, and we'd stay up late enough to watch just one more. And then we'd eagerly start off where we left, the next night.

It was so sad when we ran out of new episodes to watch. Oh, they were so much fun! And it's been quite some time since we enjoyed a TV show together. We used to watch Smallville together, but then we both lost interest as the seasons wore on. And call us crazy, but we also loved watching Buffy: The Vampire Slayer together. Neither of us watched it until after it had already completed and was only showing re-runs. But we found a TV station that was playing a show every single day, in order. And we watched it beginning to end at least two times. So, The Office is really great, because once again, it's something that we love sharing together.

And come on, it's incredibly funny, too!!!

In the end, I cannot wait for tonight. I'm so excited for a new season! New laughs!! New twists in the plot!! The only thing I'm not excited about is the fact that this time, we have to wait a whole week between episodes.

That's really not going to be fun. I get really spoiled when I get involved in a fandom right as things are finishing up.

All the same, I'm excited. And you know where I'll be tonight: Planted squarely in front of my TV, laughing myself silly.

It Could Always Be Worse

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed lately by the sheer amount of bad luck that people around me are experiencing.

A friend of mine's house burned down a month or so ago. Luckily nobody was hurt, and her older son who was home alone at the time made it out okay. It was a totally unexplained fire - it started randomly on the back porch, maybe having something to do with a bag of fertilizer. The inspectors couldn't quite figure out what happened. She also has a baby younger than Alex, by at least 6 weeks. I think the range is more like a couple months younger, though. I can't imagine how I would cope in her situation, especially with such a young baby.

A woman who is new to our church has cancer and is beginning chemotherapy very soon. She is not a U.S. citizen as of yet, she is here with a Green Card. When I visited her the other night, it was after 7pm and her children still hadn't eaten, and she had no money for the next day, either. The medication she needed simply costs too much. Not to mention she's tired and feels terrible. With chemo around the corner, it's just going to get worse before it gets better.

Another woman from church called, frantic and emotional: She was set to be evicted from her apartment of 12 years on the next morning, and had no idea where she was going to go, or what she was going to do. Her roommate (and sister) didn't come through with her share of the rent, and she couldn't get enough hours of work, despite having two jobs, to cover all her bills. She is an emotional mess; as an adult, she feels like life is just getting harder and harder, instead of easier. She works so hard, but it isn't enough to keep her home.

I am overwhelmed by two emotions: One, I am so incredibly grateful that I have a home, that I can pay my bills, that I have relatively good health, and that nothing catastrophic is happening in my life. Two, I feel so bad that I can't help more. I can offer to make and bring dinners, or a small bit of cash to help pay for food, or a shoulder to cry on and a listening ear... but I feel like it's not enough. Not nearly enough for these poor, wonderful women.

But at the same time, I'm so glad I can help in any small way. There are so many people in this world who don't have circumstances as comfortable or as consistent as mine. So many, it's overwhelming to think about, sometimes. So many people need help. I can't possibly help them all. But when I am in a position to help, in whatever small way that I can, I'm so grateful for the opportunity. I truly hope it makes a difference to them. I think it would make a difference to me, if I were on the receiving end. But even if it doesn't, it makes a difference to me. My heart feels lighter when I can help other people. I remember to be grateful for what I have, and stop taking things for granted. It is truly a blessing to think about more than myself when I take the opportunity to serve others.

Service makes us strong in our faith and useful in His kingdom. Service gives us purpose and courage in life. It brings us closer to God and helps us refine our divine nature. It teaches us to love and understand our fellowmen, and it helps us forget about our personal desires, eliminating selfishness, pride, and ingratitude. It teaches us to think of the needs of others, which allows us to develop the virtues that the Savior possesses.

Kindness, love, patience, understanding, and unity will increase as we serve, while intolerance, jealousy, envy, greed, and selfishness decrease or disappear. The more we give of ourselves, the more our capacity to serve, understand, and love will grow.

Those who serve will always seek to please God and live in harmony with Him. They will be full of peace; they will have a cheerful countenance and a spirit of kindness.

Carlos H. Amado, “Service, a Divine Quality,” Ensign, May 2008, 35–37

Still... I wish I could do more. My heart is definitely softened when I can interact with and help those who are in need of help, but the sheer amount of empathy I feel sometimes often makes it painful, too. I find myself wishing I could snap my fingers and make everyone's lives just work out. I hope the things I can do will at least bless the lives of these people in some small way. I think, maybe, that knowing there are people willing to help and be a friend when you find yourself in a very rough spot is enough to lift a person's spirits, at least. In fact, one time that I felt most blessed in my life was when a woman simply listened to me as I cried and shared my frustrations, and gave me a big hug. In my experience, nothing ever feels more desperate than feeling like you're all alone with your problems. On the flip side, everything feels a little easier if you know somebody loves and cares about you.

If You Use Internet Explorer

I hate you.

No, okay, not really. I actually love you. I just hate all the hoops I just had to jump through to make sure you could still access my blog.

Because apparently for the last couple days, Internet Explorer has been hating on Javascript. And it made it so my blog would refuse to load, giving you a lovely (ha) "cannot load" error, instead. And I was busy, and so not wanting to deal with something as technical as this. It took long enough just to find out what the basic problem was, before I could even attempt to fix it. And then I had to go and troubleshoot my blog. I removed just about every single fun little thing on my blog, checking and re-checking with Internet Explorer (shudder) to see if it fixed the problem before going and removing another.

I finally found it on the very last thing - the Moon Phase widget, which I just loved. I wasn't going to remove it because I didn't actually see any javascript on that one - it came directly from Blogger, and thus I didn't have to mess with (or view!) any code. So I didn't think that would be it. But it was. And now it's gone. All because I love you. *sniffles* Oh, my poor pretty moon phase widget!!

And all the rest of the code is back in place, so nothing else should be missing. I hope, at least. This was not a fun process.

You should really consider using a different web browser. Really. I like Firefox, a lot. I hear the new Chrome by Google is interesting, too. How about Apple's Safari, for both Mac and PC? Or try Opera (I know nothing about it). They're all free. And, dare I say, all better than IE. But if you're completely stuck in your ways, you could even just download the Internet Explorer 8 beta... because apparently, this whole javascript thing is not a problem with IE8. But I couldn't tell you that unless you could access my blog first, right? le sigh.

I love you, really, I do. Where would I be without half of my readers, after all? But really, I truly hate what your stinkin' browser just made me do.

At least my mom told me there was a problem. I don't think I would have ever figured it out without being tipped off, first.

Welcome back, you crazy (but wonderful) Internet Explorer users.

A Shove in the Right Direction

You know when you get stuck in a pretty major rut? You accept that you need to make some changes, but something always stops you from doing it. You even want to make those changes, but not badly enough that you actually do.

I have been in that sort of rut for a very long time. I haven't been reading my scriptures or saying my prayers - at least not regularly - for a few years now. Yikes, I know. I hate saying it in such a public way, almost convinced myself not to... it makes me feel a little exposed and very much self-conscious. Completely ashamed, even.

But if I didn't admit that much, than the rest of what I want to say wouldn't really make a single bit of difference. And let me warn you that this will take a long time to tell. A very long time. So get comfy.

For quite some time now, I haven't felt good enough. Like I'm doing everything wrong in my life. Or, even if I'm doing it right, I'm not doing it well enough to really make it count. I would often sit down and have a huge mental list going of all the changes I felt like I needed and wanted to make in my life. And you know, it became overwhelming very, very quickly. To the point where I would give up before I even got started, and just get on my own case about what a failure I continued to be. Can't even find the motivation to do one tiny thing. How worthless I am.

I know! I should have stopped myself right there, and told myself to just do something, anything, to start improving myself, reaching my goals, and making myself what I want to be. I know what a trap I was putting myself into with that sort of thinking, but I never could seem to pull myself out of it, despite that knowledge. I simply felt overwhelmed, and held my own worth in very low esteem. I just couldn't motivate myself to simply get started, no matter how badly I wanted to change. There was always some lame excuse getting in the way.

Then Sunday happened. I went to church, as we do every Sunday. With three small children in tow, and a calling to teach the 6-year-olds in Sunday School, I typically don't really learn very much during the meetings. But somehow, things worked out this particular week, and I was able to listen fairly well to the talks given during Sacrament Meeting that day. A rare treat, our Bishop presented a talk he prepared. I didn't hear every single word of his talk, but I heard enough that it made an impact in my heart.

His talk focused on the story of the Jaredites found in the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon, and how their experience can be likened to our both financial and spiritual safety in today's world. The financial aspect makes sense, of course, since Bishop Paul is works in the finance industry, and obviously, as he discussed, our country's current state of financial affairs is looking pretty grim. But my heart was really focused on what he was saying on the spiritual aspect, since that is where I've felt like I really need help lately.

The Jaredites, as the Book of Mormon tells us, were led to the Americas by God at the time of the Tower of Babel. As they prepared to cross the ocean, they built barges shaped like a dish, and prepared them so that they would be sealed tight. As they traveled in them, the waves and weather literally pushed them towards their promised land. It wasn't a smooth ride, by any means. They crossed an entire ocean with no oars and no sails, after all. But they couldn't get to a good place until they had passed through all the rough waters, first.

I wish I could remember clearly everything that Bishop Paul related to this account. But I didn't write it down right away, and since then, other things have caught my attention, and my memory has become a bit more vague. But I do remember that regular scripture reading and prayer were two things that he compared to sealing the barges tight, so that no water could get into them. If our spiritual selves are the boats, and we have to be pushed along a rough ocean full of trials and temptations before we can get to our promised land, we need to make sure our boats are sealed tight. Reading our scriptures and saying our daily prayers are absolutely vital. This probably isn't sounding too profound, now that I've over-summarized it and have forgotten details, but it was something I needed to be reminded of, and really absorb. I felt touched by this talk, and it again reaffirmed my desires to make positive changes in my life.

Well, life never pauses. We got home from church, had lunch, and were about to get the kids settled down for naps and quiet time. After I ate my lunch, and the kids were still working on theirs, I decided (on a whim, as I often do, when the temptation is visible) to grab a small handful of treats to enjoy. Jesse saw me, and made a remark about how I "always complain" about my weight, and then I go and grab a treat so casually.

I'm not one to be super sensitive about my weight. I know I'm overweight, I know I should work harder at getting back into shape, but all in all, it comes back to my earlier-mentioned problem. It's one of the many, many, many things I feel like I need to fix about myself, and since it's one of so many, I end up just shoving it all away, because it's too overwhelming to deal with it all. In order to start fixing something, you have to pick which something needs to take priority, and I never could get my head wrapped around that enough to do anything.

Bottom line, Jesse's words didn't hurt (well, except for the use of "complain", because I really don't. I've barely started saying anything at all to him about it, and it certainly hasn't been to "complain"). We regularly tease each other about how out-of-shape we've gotten over the years. Packing pictures away for our recent move really shocked Jesse - he saw our first year anniversary photo, and could hardly believe it was him in the picture, it looked so different. I feel the same way about myself, a lot of times. That slim girl who got married? She looks so different from what I look like now. So, no, his words didn't necessarily hurt me, or shock me. But his tone did. I heard what he said and instantly reacted: I sank unceremoniously to a chair, my face surely revealing the pain I felt, and I got silent. After my mind processed things for several moments, I whispered, voice cracking, "Jesse... That really hurt my feelings."

He apologized immediately, of course. The number of times we've fought or hurt each other over the past 9 years could be counted on less than than 10 fingers. Our personalities mingle in such a way that it simply doesn't happen often at all. But for once, it didn't matter that he meant no harm, or that I would normally just brush him off and not even care. No, this time, my mind was already completely focused- and had been, for quite some time- on all the ways I simply wasn't good enough. Self-control with the treats? Yeah, that's kinda high on the list- it represents both a pretty big weakness of mine, and a major contributor to the whole weight thing. I heard his apology, but it also turned into an explanation about how he was just pointing something out, not trying to be mean. But of course, having a weakness pointed out to you in a tone that sounds awfully derisive, even if it wasn't meant to be, is something that can hurt you when you're already plenty focused on it, and feeling guilty enough on your own.

Seeing that he wasn't really getting why I was suddenly so hurt, and I was feeling trapped by yet another weakness (my difficulty with speaking my feelings while holding any semblance of composure), I began feeling very low and very frustrated. I could feel the tears filling up in my eyes, and I quickly left the room just as they started to spill over. I felt immediately guilty about that, too - I can't remember the last time I cried because of something between myself and my husband. I didn't want him to feel guilty about my current self-esteem issues, and I knew that leaving the room crying would probably do that to him. Nevertheless, I needed to cry, and I needed to do it without the audience of my children.

I walked swiftly to my room, flopped onto the bed, buried my face in the pillow, and let it all come out. All those days and weeks of not feeling good enough, feeling like a failure... the endless cycle of thoughts that reminded me of exactly why I don't measure up, exactly what's wrong with me, how I'm weak and pathetic. Each thought ran through my head in rapid circles, and the more I was left alone, the stronger I sobbed into my pillow.

Finally, Jesse came. I wished he would have come immediately... I wondered to myself why he didn't chase after me to make sure I was okay (my ideals sound like they're out of a fiction novel, sometimes). Later, it became obvious that he wanted to make sure the kids were settled down and taken care of so he could talk to me without being interrupted. I suppose I'm thankful for that. I'm not sure it would have turned out alright if we had been constantly bothered by the children.

We had a very quiet, honest talk. I managed to get my thoughts across without completely butchering them, and the tears kept coming, just like you would expect when I'm trying to express myself. The gist of the conversation was that I felt so bad about myself. Jesse had no idea that I felt bad enough that his one comment could send me over the edge and cause a crying spree. He asked me what, exactly, had me feeling so down. "Everything!" I cried. As if that could fully explain it! But I eventually tried to explain it better for him, and he was very tender and did his best to understand and comfort me. It would have been enough for me that he just listened so well, and held me while I cried. But he helped me so much more.

Finally, he suggested that as overwhelming as everything is, and since I've had such a hard time just getting started with anything, I should really just work on the scriptures and prayer. Like I know should be the first priority. He admitted that he needed to work on that, too, so we would simply start together- right away, that night. And he reminded me of something we hear constantly in the church: That if you do what you're supposed to do and have faith, everything else will fall into place. He then embraced me, and did his best to try to get me to smile again, snuffly-nosed and blotchy-faced as I was by this point. It felt completely goofy to smile in the state I was in, but smile I did, and I truly did feel so much better by this point. Sometimes, you just have to cry something out, and get someone to listen, and things will start to settle themselves. Keeping things bottled up inside just makes for a worse situation... I really need to work on opening up more often. But what really touched my heart was that after I smiled, and we embraced once more, Jesse again apologized for hurting my feelings... and then he started crying, saying how much he loved me. There is nothing on earth more sweet to me than a man who is full enough with emotion that he starts crying. My heart absolutely soared.

When it came time that night to start back up our scripture reading, Jesse convinced me that we should start with the Pearl of Great Price. It seemed a very random place to start, for me. Generally, in church curriculum, the Pearl of Great Price is tacked on at the end of other works, and usually not at the start. Jesse's argument was that it's a fairly short portion of the scriptures, and both easy and fun to read. It had been quite some time since I had read through the Pearl of Great Price (um, since college??), so I went along with it, though I was still a bit unsure.

This could not have been coincidence. I fully believe that Heavenly Father needed to send me a message, to speak to me through the scriptures. And somehow He put it into my husband's head exactly where it was that we should begin.

We opened up to the first chapter of Moses. It immediately begins with God coming to Moses, talking with him face-to-face. In the space of only a few verses, he addresses Moses three times as His son, really making sure that the message is coming across:

• Verse 4: Behold, thou art my son.
• Verse 6: Moses, my son.
• Verse 7: Moses, my son.

God then grants Moses a vision of the the world, from beginning to end, and every being within in. Moses marveled and wondered at it all. And then the presence of God was withdrawn, and Moses was left to himself again. He suddenly felt very insignificant and perhaps even a bit dejected:

Moses 1:10
...I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.

Man is nothing. I sure can relate to that, I thought. And as soon as Moses is in this state of mind, Satan comes and speaks to him, tempting him (and I can just picture it all with a mocking sneer on his face), saying "Moses, son of man, worship me".

And here's where I just about fell apart - it was my turn to read out loud, and I barely managed to choke it out between my sobs:

Moses 1:13
And it came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?

Moses taught me such a huge lesson here: Even when he was feeling worthless, like nothing, and faced with Satan's lies, he still remembered who he was: a child of God. And as a child of God, he is worth so much, and has so much divine potential. I am worth so much, as a daughter of God, and I have so much potential. My Heavenly Father loves me. He knows me. He is here for me in my struggles, and will support me with gentleness and unconditional love. So many endless blessings are there for me to enjoy, they are promised to me - I simply have to reach out for them. (See this month's Visiting Teaching message on the eternal potential of women, for yet another thing that ties into this whole experience for me.)

I am so grateful for the way Sunday played out. I'm grateful for the incident that caused my feelings to get hurt - it was a shove in the right direction, the start of a very good thing. Just like the Jaredites who had to be pushed along rough ocean waters to reach the promised land, I needed a pretty forceful emotional shove to get my spiritual self going back in the right direction.

And you know? Jesse was right, of course. We've read our scriptures and said our prayers daily since Sunday. And even though I haven't been hit with a spiritual ton of bricks with every scripture session or personal prayer, I have noticed a HUGE difference in my days since we started this. I haven't lost my temper. I've faced individual problems with much more patience and love. I've been more eager and able to get something accomplished. I've even invited my children to help me in the kitchen, and did it happily, something that definitely is not par for course around here. I saw more beauty in the world surrounding me, and felt more wonder and awe for the simple things in life. Even in the face of Alex having a cold and sleeping in only half-hour bits and pieces throughout the days and getting crankier and crankier by the minute, I kept my patience and still had a smile at the end of the day. Normally, those days are enough to make me want to run screaming by the time Jesse gets home from work. So yes, definitely - this whole thing was a shove in the right direction. And my testimony of the power of daily scripture study and prayer has been renewed. I can see without a doubt the power it has had to change my life for the better, and it happened almost instantaneously.

Yeah, I still have a lot that I need to work on and improve about myself. But you know? With the right perspective, it doesn't feel as oppressive. I can handle it.

D&C 78:18
“Be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.”

2nd Nephi 2:25
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

Be happy. Love yourself. Remember that God loves you, and that you are His child. You are worth everything in the world.

Conversation with Jacob

It's finally cool enough in the morning that I actually put socks on Alex's feet. First time he hasn't been barefoot since spring! I decided to go with the fun Blue's Clues socks that Grandma Newson bought for him. And then this conversation happened:

Jacob: "Oh, wow, look at that! Blue's Clues socks!"
Mommy: "I know, aren't they cute?"
Jacob: "Yeah, they're so cute!" "What are those socks for, Mommy?"
Mommy: "Just to keep Alex's feet warm today."
Jacob: "Oh. Where did those socks come from??"
Mommy: "Grandma Newson bought them for Alex when she visited us when he was born."
Jacob: "Oh! That sounds like fun for Grandma to do!"
Mommy: "Yes, it does sound fun for Grandma, doesn't it?"

5 minutes later, as Jacob is getting dressed....

Jacob: "Grandma didn't buy me Blue's Clues socks."
Mommy: "No, honey, only for Alex."
Jacob: "Yeah, only Blue's Clues socks for Alex."

Interestingly, he didn't seem jealous. He was just observing the fact that he didn't have any Blue's Clues socks of his own. And he really enjoyed seeing them on Alex's feet.

Blackberry Picking

One of the best things about late summer is blackberries! I've always loved fresh blackberries, from the days they grew, wild, in my childhood backyard, to the years I was a teenager and found them on the path of a local park, to my summer job in landscaping where I happened across wild bushes near my work sites, and finally, to my days as a mother with access to locally grown u-pick thornless blackberries.















I was planning on going earlier in the week, but weather happened, and they closed the picking fields due to heavy rain (they don't want their fields damaged, after all). But we finally made it out on Thursday morning. I picked a bunch of peaches on a whim, but the whole purpose of going was to get yummy, fresh blackberries. And I love that they're thornless, so the kids could help, too.


















Melinda was happy enough to help me, although she complained when I didn't follow her down the row quickly enough. I was taking too much time trying to get all the ripe berries I could find, whereas she was only grabbing the berries she could plainly see. Jacob didn't want to pick berries, but instead found a broken branch and started whacking everything in sight with it. Alex gave me a bit of a hard time, being too restless for both being carried and put in the stroller. Still, we managed to gather a couple flats of blackberries, and about 10 pounds of peaches.


















After I paid for them all, I put them back on the stroller to transport them to our car. I took 3 steps when suddenly all the boxes tumbled off and fell straight to the ground, much to my horror. All those beautiful blackberries, all of that time picking!! Most of them were easily squished by the fall. We did our best to salvage them, but I was heartbroken. I really looked forward to just eating a lot of berries plain, like I love to do. But because they were now much more susceptible to getting moldy and attracting bugs, I had to come up with something different.

When we got home, I washed them all off, and immediately froze a few bags of them for later use. I quickly made a cobbler, and then made blackberry smoothies for myself and the kids. A lot of the peaches got a bit beat up, too, but they still had to sit out on the counter to get soft before I could do anything about them. They're slated to be mostly frozen, as well.

Even though we don't get to enjoy the fresh fruit as much this year, it was still fun to go picking with the kids, and to have a lot of fruit in the freezer. Making memories is half the fun, right?


















Mmmmm. Looks like yummy peaches!!

2 hours later....

I have a baby-shaped sweat mark on the back of my shirt.

Seriously.

We went for a walk this morning, and I was feeling all ambitious and ready for a bit of an adventure, so I took the kids for a walk around a nearby neighborhood, planning for just a mile or two. I'd looked at the layout of the neighborhood on Google Maps before, but I didn't bring a map with me. Which turned out to make for a very .... interesting walk.

An hour into it, I had no idea where I was (silly me didn't think to use the sun as a compass), but I hoped I was coming closer to a main road, when I suddenly realized that the road ahead was not the one I was expecting it to be. No, looking at the map later, I discovered that I was about half a mile or so off my mark. And unfortunately, my path had led me down a fairly steep hill, and of course, it would be impossible to get back to our original destination without going back up the hill.

In the end, our little excursion was 2.6 miles and lasted a full two hours....with one baby on my back and two in the stroller. Although, I did make Melinda walk when we were going uphill, because it was just too hard to push her extra weight, otherwise. Google Maps thinks our route should have taken me 51 minutes. Do you think I can justify taking twice the amount of time with the fact that I was transporting over 90 pounds of children (plus a stroller) on top of my own out-of-shape self?

Still - it was a lovely morning outside. Not too hot, not too cold. We saw a pretty spotted butterfly, a bunch of big mushrooms, acorns, a chipmunk, a friendly little dog, and "helicopter" seeds from a maple tree. It was a good morning to be outside.

But next time? I think I'm taking a map with me. Facing the giant hill after already walking for an hour was a little too much like self-imposed torture.

Twilight Fanart

I've not seen very much quality fanart out there on the web for the Twilight books, so I had to share a link to one I did like. And maybe it's not your cup of tea, but hey - I like anime, too. :) I'm an oddball like that. (If they made an anime show with the Twilight characters in the Twilight world, I'd totally watch it. Just sayin'.)

Robbuz @ deviantart.com

Here are some of my favorites (click to go to the original location, click again to view full size, and get the full effect!!):

The Cullens by *Robbuz on deviantART


Edward x Bella - Hug by *Robbuz on deviantART


Eclipse Bloopers by *Robbuz on deviantART

Book Giveaway

Summer at Summer's Nook is having a book giveaway!

Now, you probably know by now that I just love a giveaway. But I really do only enter giveaways when the item is truly something I'm interested in. And you know from a previous post that I am currently entertaining an obsession with new books. You should also realize by now that my favorite genre is Fantasy. Well, then, it was easy to get excited about this giveaway.

The book up for grabs is called Far World - Water Keep. I've never heard of it or the author (J. Scott Savage) before. But, it's fantasy, and it's Young Adult. I don't need to read YA books, but since I liked Harry Potter (YA), and I liked the Twilight series (also YA), is there any reason I wouldn't like this one, too? I'm always up for an easy, entertaining read - especially when it's set in a fantasy world.

Summer has posted more information about the book, including a Q&A with the author, over at her blog, along with the giveaway. If you're looking for something new to read, check it out here!
http://summersnook.com/2008/09/far-world-water-keep/

The Questing Spirit

“I hope that you will develop the questing spirit. Be unafraid of new ideas for they are the stepping stones of progress. You will of course respect the opinions of others but be unafraid to dissent—if you are informed.

…Now I have mentioned freedom to express your thoughts, but I caution you that … in that search you will need at least three virtues; courage, zest, and modesty. The ancients put that thought in the form of a prayer. They said, ‘From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth, from the laziness that is content with half truth, from the arrogance that thinks it has all truth—O God of truth deliver us’.”

-Hugh B. Brown

Taken from
http://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/122-80.pdf

Neighborhood Children Etiquette/Safety

So I've run into a situation I never before really imagined.

As we were walking into our house the other night (and I do mean night - it was practically dark outside), suddenly, out of nowhere, a little girl was right in the middle of my still-walking family (seriously, was she hiding under the stairwell or something?!), asking if "her"- pointing to Melinda- could come play. Jesse and I exchanged quick, confused glances, looked around to find her alone, and I explained that we couldn't play, because we were taking the kids in for bed now. I suggested she come over another time. I didn't actually expect it to happen.

Call me naïve. She came over again tonight, as we were finishing up dinner. Jesse would be leaving for cub scouts within the hour, and this is part of our unofficial family time. At the knock on the door, I got up to answer it. Impatient someone was on the other side, and began knocking incessantly as I made the 20 steps over to the door with Alex in hand. I was, at that point, expecting to open the door to find a family friend or something. Who else would knock like that? Oh, right, a young child all by themselves, I guess.

As soon as I opened the door, she blurted out a quick hi, saw Melinda behind me, and started walking in as she asked "Can I play with 'her'"? I held the door firm, confusion and disbelief quickly swimming up to the surface of my mind.

"Umm, we're having dinner right now. She can't play."
"Oh, that's okay." She starts forward to push past me. I hold the door firm, still, trying to think through this as best I can.
"Where do you live?" I nearly demand.
"Over there." She points vaguely towards a wall, and I assume she means a neighboring building.
Still not at all happy with this situation, I ask a little roughly, "How old are you?"
"Five." She answers without hesitation.
"Is your mom or dad home?" I'm still looking for reason somewhere among this situation.
"Yes." She waits impatiently for me to allow her passage, while Melinda and Jacob are practically clawing past me to meet this new, interesting person.
"Do they know where you are??"
"Uh-huh." No hesitation. She believes her answer.
But I hesitate. There is no way on earth that her parents really know where she is. I certainly don't know who they are or where they live. I still haven't met any of the adults in this complex. Well, aside from one church member who is moving next week. How could any parent let any 5-year-old girl wander through a very densely-packed apartment complex, inviting herself into random people's homes? 20 years ago, sure. But in this day and age?!?? I'm SHOCKED! I seriously can't believe it!!!

In the end, the conversation dragged on a little while longer, because this is seriously one persistant little girl, but I told her the kids couldn't play tonight, they'd be going to bed soon after their dad left for the evening. When she asked when she could come again, I told her she could come back before dinner sometime.

And as I shut the door on this little girl for the second time, again completely alone, I suddenly realized that maybe it wasn't a good thing to do. If she weren't coming into my home, whose home would she go into? Would she be safe? There are at least 5 sexual offenders of some degree listed within 1 mile of this complex. None of them are listed in the complex, but what's to keep them from hanging out in the parking areas? I suddenly felt very guilty for sending her away. But I can't in good concience allow her in, either, not knowing her family at all. Or is that wrong of me? It at least feels wrong to bring a complete stranger into the house, no matter what her age is.

I have a feeling she'll come back another day. What do I do? She is, most likely, a perfectly decent child, and my kids would enjoy knowing other kids in the neighborhood. But Jesse and I both have really icky sorts of feelings about parents who would let their 5-year-old daughter ask herself into other people's homes without ever checking out the situation themselves. I suppose, if I have time whenever she next appears, I could have her take us with her to meet her family, so we can get an idea of what's going on. Maybe her parents don't even actually know she's out of the house and walking around the neighborhood? It's a possibility, right? And if I meet her parents, is it appropriate to tell them that I'm seriously uncomfortable with the fact that their very young daughter is not being supervised in these situations? And here's another sudden thought: Am I supposed to call the police, or something, if I have a strange child approach my door without supervision, even with the innocence of just wanting to play? In Jesse's words, this is "criminal child neglect!!!" I don't know if that's technically true, but the whole situation feels shocking enough for me to nod my head vigorously, my eyes wide as saucers, when he says it.

And it also brought up some interesting conversations about strangers with Melinda. In Melinda's eyes, because I was with her, and the girl gave us her name, she is no longer a stranger and perfectly okay to play with and let her into our house. I'm going to have to work on this one. She's always overly-friendly with new adults, too. There's a book I've heard recommended a million times, called Protecting the Gift. Looks like I really truly need to read it and then work on discussions with my kids a little harder.

But really, I'm not the only one quite a bit creeped out by this, am I? This sort of thing may have been acceptable when I was a child in a quiet neighborhood 20-some-odd years ago, but certainly not anymore, right?? RIGHT???

Magnadoodle Tracing

Every now and then, it's a nice thing to have new ideas for quiet activities for kids, isn't it? I'd like to share one of mine.

I don't have my own ideas very often, and this one really came out of the blue. About 8 months ago or so, I was sitting with my two older kids, playing with our mini Magnadoodles. We did a lot of the typical things like tracing each other's hands, practicing letters, drawing our own pictures, and so on. Suddenly it just dawned on me how they like to sometimes trace things, and how it would probably work through paper on a Magnadoodle, since it's all magnetic anyway. I tried it, and it worked VERY well, so I instantly set out to make a full set of traceable papers to go with our Magnadoodles.

All I did was take regular computer paper, lay it over the top of the Magnadoodle, and press around the edges with a dull pencil to make an outline. I then cut it out, following the outline, and I had a piece of paper that fit perfectly into the Magnadoodle's face. Then I drew a simple picture on it. I also flipped the paper over and drew another picture on the reverse side. Then the kids can place the paper on the face of the Magnadoodle, hold it down, and trace with the magnetic pen. Take the paper off, and voila! You have a very magical-seeming tracing!



I made a whole set of pictures, including monsters, dinosaurs, flowers, mountains, rainbows, a house with a tree and sunshine, an apple, ABC's, traced hands, the kids' names, and quite a bit more. I store them all in a zip lock bag, and take them along with us wherever we need a quiet activity - the car, an office appointment, and especially church. The kids love that they can make more intricate drawings by tracing, and I love that they're practicing their fine motor skills while having fun! My son a bit older than 2 years old when we started this, and he would often just scribble over the whole paper, but still exclaim with joy when he "finished" the picture and saw the result underneath. He later started containing his scribbles to key areas on a drawing, and now, just turned 3, he often follows a line well enough that you can tell what he was tracing when he's done. And with a whole set of reversible tracing papers, this activity will keep both my older kids occupied for a good 10-20 minutes!

I'd love to hear more unique ideas for quiet time activities! What works for you?
More "Works For Me Wednesday" at Rocks In My Dryer!

In the Wake of Hanna

Tropical Storm Hanna really didn't seem too tropical from our perspective. It came and went over the course of the afternoon. It made for getting completely soaked while we did some shopping yesterday, and there was some standing water on the roads (read: we got great big splashes while we drove!!), but otherwise, it was pretty tame. It wasn't windy at all for the longest time, and once the wind did come, it still wasn't as bad as some of the typical summertime thunderstorms that roll through.

By evening, the sun was coming out. There was a very pretty sunset, and the air left behind was so nice and fresh, completely countering the stuffy humidity we had during the storm. There were maybe a few random, very small branches on the ground, and more leaves than normal, but by evening, the roads were already looking dry, like nothing ever even happened. I was just thinking that Hanna did absolutely no damage in our area at all, when I was proven wrong. All the years we've driven to church, we've passed one house on a corner that has what we've called "the Moose tree". It's a nice tall tree, but only has a couple large branches at the top, that stick out and look like antlers. And the rest of the tree is covered in typical Maryland tree-smothering vines, so that once the vines get their leaves in the summer, this tree looks like one giant moose head. I've been meaning to take a picture of it for something like the last year, that's how much of a landmark it seems to our family. Every time we drive by - Look! There's the Moose Tree!! So you can imagine how much my heart fell when we came down the hill and saw that the storm did in fact do damage - the Moose Tree fell. That was the only tree in our 10-15 minute drive that had fallen. There were a few branches that broke from other trees, but typically pretty small branches.

ONE tree fell down that I saw, and it was the ONE tree our family just loves to look at and admire - the ONE tree I've been meaning to take a picture of for the last year or so, just so we could remember it after we're gone.

And it fell down before I ever got around to it.

I briefly considered writing a poem, "Lament of the Moose Tree" (for truly, our hearts lament!) Though I'm not sure I have enough words for it. So I settled for making a rough drawing in Photoshop, instead.

We'll miss you, fair Moose Tree.

Melinda's Primary Talk

Melinda's first church Primary Talk
August 7, 2008
Assigned Topic: I can learn about prayer through the scriptures


I can learn many things about prayer from the scriptures.


Enos, in the Book of Mormon, prayed a whole day and night so he could be forgiven for his sins. And when Heavenly Father told him that he was forgiven, he prayed again for both the Nephites and the Lamanites, and for the safety of the records that are now the Book of Mormon.








Daniel, who was a prophet in the Bible, knew that prayer was so important that he kept praying many times every day, even though it was against the law. He was thrown into the lion’s den because he broke the law, but Heavenly Father protected him, and the lions didn’t hurt him.




The king of the Lamanites was taught by Aaron and his brothers about the gospel. The king listened to them, and then prayed so that he could gain his own testimony. Because of this, the king and all the Lamanites in seven lands and cities were converted and became righteous people.








Abraham the prophet, and his wife Sarah, prayed to have a baby. They lived many years without having a baby, but when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old, Heavenly Father finally blessed them with a son, and he was named Isaac.








Because of all these stories in the scriptures, I can learn about prayer and follow these examples.
I can pray to be forgiven, just like Enos.
I can pray always, no matter what, just like Daniel.
I can pray to gain a testimony, just like the king of the Lamanites.
I can pray for blessings that I need, just like Abraham and Sarah.

I know that Heavenly Father will hear and answer my prayers, just like He did with all the prophets.

************
The mommy's narrative:
Granted, I wrote this for her, but she had to practice a lot and be the one to speak into the microphone!! During the course of practicing, it became obvious that the talk was too long. Took about 8 minutes. So, we cut off a big paragraph at the beginning (about Jesus visiting the Nephites) and end (about Joseph Smith's vision), and this talk was the result. Melinda did a great job, she wasn't nervous at all. And she didn't yell into the microphone or do funny things with her voice, like she had while we practiced, thank goodness!

***********
We're going to Pennsylvania later today for our friend's baby blessing. It will be interesting to see how the kids handle going to 2 church meetings in one day (although we did leave after Primary in our ward, to minimize it for them), and also having church later in the afternoon. But we're excited to visit our friends and see their new daughter blessed!

Randomness

I've been slacking on the blogging lately. So sorry! By the time I get to sit down long enough to think about things like that, I'm just too tired. But, we're almost completely settled in, here, and so I think I can manage to say at least a few things!

Randomness #1: I know a few of you are wondering what our new place looks like. I was going to hold off on that until everything looked GREAT, maybe even PERFECT, but hey, let's face reality: This is me here. It probably won't be perfect, ever, and if it is, it won't be for many many months. I can't keep you all waiting that long!! So, un-perfect as it is, here's the new place. Please note that it was very nearly spotless before playgroup at our house this morning (at least, everywhere except for my bedroom and the master bathroom), but I didn't have time to make a video then. So this is it in it's partial playgroup aftermath. And, uh, yeah. Still no curtains for the sliding door. I keep thinking I'll just make them (especially because then I could make nifty matching pillows on the couch!!), but it's a traverse rod, and I have absolutely no experience with how they work, and not much time to really sit down and figure it out with online tutorials. I think we'll be doing some shopping tomorrow, and either buy something pre-made, or at least give myself a physical reference point to look at. Anyway, here's the new place.


Randomness #2: Tropical Storm Hanna is coming tomorrow! We're not worried at all. It'll just be some rain and wind, I'm sure - an extended strong storm, and we love those in this family! When we first moved to Maryland, we had an apartment that was ground level - half sunk into the ground. The A/C unit was at ground level. When there was a hurricane (thought it was a tropical storm by that point)- during our first month there, mind you - it dropped a lot of rain and flooded the well beneath the A/C, and the water came in and flooded our master bedroom's closet. Not fun. But we're on a 2nd floor, now, so no worries. I suppose there's the possibility of losing power for a while, but hey - good thing I have a lot of books in "queue" to read, huh? :)

Randomness #3: Things you learn at a ward party:

1. If you stick a big sister with a balloon in front of an eager 5-month old baby, said baby will do everything within his power to lick the balloon to death.
2. If a grabby baby is anywhere near a paper plate and plastic fork, he will reach it. And you will not be fast enough to catch what falls. Take precautions.
   
3. Balloons that float to the top of the church's gymnasium will often catch on the corner of a lighting fixture and pop dramatically.
   
4. Said balloon-popping will easily cause all three of your children to jump and turn stiffly towards the sound at the exact same moment.
   
5. When doing a ward talent show, interviewing participants beforehand in a video format, with the pretense of being stuffy famous people, is a fantastic recipe for good laughs.
   
6. Loose tablecloths, plates full of sloppy joes and other food, and 5 grabby kids at one table is a disaster waiting to happen. Find reusable adhesive tablecloths, and put stock in them.
   
7. If you make a bet at how many balloons will be at the top of the ceiling at the end of the evening, guess on the very high side, or you'll be dead wrong.
   
8. You can never have too much dessert at a potluck. Seriously.
   
9. 6:30pm dinner time, + normal bedtime of 7:30pm, + 3 tired, hungry kids =/= happy ending (that's does not equal, for those of you not in the mathematical know-how, or who are otherwise confused by my makeshift text symbol).

Randomness #4: A couple Alex videos. 'Cause, you know, he's growing so darn fast, there's always something interesting to see!!

First video- Melinda being her normal, crazy self, taking it upon herself to entertain Alex while I made dinner. She is so over-the-top, but so far, both younger brothers just love that about her. Most of the time. ;)


Second video- Alex crawling. He pretty much crawls full-time, now, and he's not slow about it, either. He can crawl over low obstacles (like your legs), and up small steps (like into the kitchen and bathrooms), and he pulls up to his knees on furniture and toys and anything else he can steady himself on. I have to be on constant choking-hazard watch, these days. Jacob made me a bit lazy - he was never one to really stick a lot of things in his mouth, and now I've had a couple years to forget what it's like to be around a little baby. It's almost like I'm doing it for the first time. Plus, now I have a lot of older kid toys to be worried about.




Randomness #5: I almost forgot! We finally got a WiiFit. Yay! We were at a church playgroup when Serena called up a store (Shhhh, don't tell!... I think she's been stalking them!!!) and found out they finally had some in stock. I told her how eager we were to get one, too, and that we couldn't find any, and she offered to get one for us. When I got back in touch with her later in the day, she had to tell me that they wouldn't let her buy more than one. Which, I guess, I should have anticipated, with how hard they are to come by. BUT, as soon as Jesse walked in the door, he called up and found out there were still some in stock, and ran back out to get one. So, we have yet another new toy to play with. I've tried a few of the little activities, and the balance games are interesting, and the yoga poses - holyohmygoodness, even the basic positions are painful. There's a jogging game, too, but I find it rather awkward to run in place. I think I'd be better off with jumping jacks or something that's meant to be done in place. Maybe something like that might be one of the unlockable games. And yes, I know this game alone won't get me in shape. Don't worry, I'm not expecting it. Still, it's fun to have a game that might actually be good for your body, huh? And it can track my progress for me, too. Which will either be fun to watch, or at least a very good kick-in-the-pants for how much more serious I need to get.