Inaguaration Day

I really wanted to watch the inauguration today. Too bad work has to interrupt my TV viewing schedule. I did get to see snippets of it when I was at my parents' house this evening. (Sidenote: Is it just me or does Obama sort of sound like a preacher? Something about the intonation he uses and the inflection in his voice.)

I was amazed at the number of people that turned out for the actual ceremony. It will be interesting to see what he does with all the support he has right now. Because of the way Obama sold his ticket on the campaign trail, it seems like he is sort of the people's last hope for government to prove that they are trustworthy and will come through on their promises. He has made so many promises and instilled that Hope into so many I just wonder - what happens if he can't follow through?

I don't envy his position. What a weight to carry on the shoulders of one man! Although he has great power, he can't follow through on anything without many other people supporting laws and bills the way they are written. Is it wrong to put all of the responsibility for getting it done squarely on his shoulders?

Wrong or not, it appears that the entire country, and much of the rest of the world, is now looking to him to solve a LOT of big problems. As much as I disagree with some of his politics, I sincerely hope that he is able to follow through. I pray for him, and those that surround him, to have the strength, insight and support that they need to effect the changes we need to get back on our feet.

Return with Honor

It is always so nice to see friends that have been away for a long time.

Especially when those friends have been in places like Afghanistan.

One of our dear friends got back from his year long assignment in Afghanistan on Saturday. Oh what a relief to see him home safe and sound!

The girls were ecstatic. He has been a treasured playmate of theirs for a long time. Kenna had been asking me just a couple of weeks ago why he never came over to visit anymore. What a great surprise!

We were able to have a good (albeit short) visit with him last night. It was so interesting to hear about all the things he has been doing. It was kind of strange though, hearing about things that up until that point, I had only read about in newspapers or heard on TV. As he shared some of his experiences, the whole abstract concept of a far away war that I had in my head was shattered by the reality of hearing about it first hand. It was very sobering.

Regardless of whether or not we agree with the reasoning behind the war, we should honor the people that are willing to serve their country, wherever they are called to go, and in whatever capacity they serve in.

Pray for these amazing people!

Hard habit to break

I have a bad habit.

(Actually, I have several, but that's beside the point.)

The one I'm referencing this go around is my tendency to continually put things off once I feel like I'm behind. I'm not sure how this helps exactly...maybe I think that I'll get around to catching up at some point...but the longer I wait the harder it is to do that.

So here I am, REALLY behind in posting and I keep putting it off because so much happened that I feel too far behind to catch up.

But seeing as how this is the time of year for making changes and resolutions, I'm going to attempt to change this bad habit (again!) and hopefully make it stick.

Here is the abbreviated version of December 2008:

• I became a great aunt. (She is SOOO CUTE!)
• Much to our pocketbook's dismay, we had to replace our water heater. But oh how nice the new one is!
• Liam figured out crawling and is starting to pull himself up on things. Scary.
  
• Matt graduated from college!! He had a double major - one in Criminal Law, one in Psychology. (MUCH REJOICING ENSUED)
• The girls had their Christmas dance recital.
• Kenna had her preschool Christmas program.
• I crafted my heart out trying to finish baby gifts and Christmas presents.
• For the first time since we've been married, we took time off work around Christmas. All we did was hang out at home and do Christmas type things with the kids, but we loved it!
• Matt dug us out of the 4 foot high snow drifts in our driveway on Christmas day. (Have I mentioned we've had a lot of snow lately?)
• I got a new Church calling.
• Two weeks later I got another new calling.
• Major work stress. (Gotta love budget cuts...)

Now that I've gotten all that out of the way, hopefully I won't fall back into procrastinator mode.

But feel free to slap me around a little if I do.

In which I realize how fast two weeks passes...

Has it really been two weeks since I posted last? That sure went by fast. I have been absorbed with snuggling sick and/or cranky babies. Try as I might, I just couldn’t pull myself away from them. (Okay, I didn’t try that hard because seriously which is better: sitting at a computer or kissing their chubby little cheeks?)

But now they are feeling better and don’t need mom’s attention quite so much, I can give a run down on what we’ve been up to.

• Voting: What a wonderful opportunity to participate in an historic election! I was lucky enough to get to the polls when there were absolutely no lines. (I tend to take my time voting so it was really nice not to have someone oozing impatience breathing down my neck this time.) I must say that overall I’m impressed with the general public and their interest in the races. I think more people actually took the time to educate themselves, not only on the presidential candidates, but the candidates for their local offices as well. Although my candidate didn’t win, I am always grateful that we have a chance to cast our vote. (And I am grateful that we can hear about something besides politics in the news now. Two years is an AWFUL long campaign season.)

• Anniversary: Matt and I celebrated our EIGHTH anniversary. (Although my dad keeps asking me if I’m sure it’s really eight years and not five. When I remind him that I have a five year old and I had her AFTER I had been married for a while, he just shakes his head like he thinks I’m crazy.) We went out of town for a night while my parents took the kids. I forgot what sweet BLISS it is to be able to sleep in as late as I want to, and what wonders a full night of rest can do for the dark circles under my eyes. We didn’t get to do the things we had planned because of the inclement weather, but it turned out better because of it. Matt surprised me with a trip to the jewelry store to pick out a new ring. We couldn’t find exactly what he had in mind, but found these that have some sentimental significance.
  
  
  We had a nice lazy, relaxing time. It was honestly probably one of the best anniversaries we’ve had. I love him more everyday.

• November Family FHE: Every month my entire family gets together for a big family home evening. This month it was collecting the walnuts under a neighbors’ tree and cleaning them up. It was fun to get to see everyone, as always. We were able to put mom and dad’s new back porch to good use as a walnut cleaning station and cafeteria for the soup and hot chocolate. Dad and Liam took a little nap together on the couch. I wish I had had my camera there to snap a shot. They looked so cute together with their little bald noggins poking out of the blanket they were snuggled in. I love seeing the two of them together.

• Speaking of Cameras…a long time ago I coveted a camera that was just coming out on the market. I mean REALLY REALLY coveted. My sweet hubby suggested that I use it as a motivational tool to help me reach some goals I was in the process of setting. (I must apologize to him for my original hostility toward the idea. Sometimes that psychology degree of his gets really annoying when he’s right.) So guess what…I reached my initial goal and now I’m the proud owner of THIS baby. I took it out for a spin during my lunch hour at work one day and had a lot of fun trying out all the features. Here are a couple of the results:
  
  
  
  
  
  I’m still trying to figure it all out, but I’m hoping the quality of our family photos will improve (as well as the quantity) once I learn how to use it.

• Mix it up Monday: We made our tent:
  
  
  We turned off the lights and gave them flashlights to keep them entertained for a couple hours. Somehow every toy and activity seemed more intriguing to them if it was performed under the cover of a blanket tent. I think we’ll be doing this more often. I’ll also resume doing the mix-it-ups next week. We have a few projects in mind to try out.

• This week has found us shuttling McKenna to various birthday parties and trying to comfort Alyssa when she had the misfortune of having to stay home with mom. It has been good for McKenna to have some time with her friends. It's just hard for the little one left behind. While McKenna was gone last night she kept erupting in tears while saying, "I miss McKenna!" (Basically the same routine we go through every night except substitute 'Daddy' instead of 'McKenna'.) Funny how she doesn't seem to like her quite so much when she's home.

That's pretty much it for the most part. I'll spare you the details on the newest sickness that has plagued our house. I'm just hoping someday we will be able to go disease free for at least a couple of weeks in a row. We're all going stir crazy locked up in here!

I'm baaaaaaack...

What a crazy few weeks it has been! Wanting to leave the post about Stephanie and the auctions at the top of the blog for a little while has been a good excuse for focusing on some other things.

We seem to have been plagued by sickness...Four visits to the doctor in one month! Kenna was in once for a foot we thought might have been broken (X-rays were clear!). Alyssa was in once for a nasty cough. We found out she has some asthma that makes the cough deeper and stick around longer (still has it despite the prescription). And Liam has been in twice, once for an eye infection (eeew, goopy green eye) and on Monday for an ear infection. The last time we were in the doctor's office (Monday), I asked our pediatrician whether they had a frequent flyer program. Sadly, NO. And even more sadly he said that even if they did, we wouldn't qualify. I would have thought for sure we qualify for SOMETHING. Boo. Guess not. Needless to say, we would like to stay away from the doctor's office for a while as we generally only visit for well child check-ups.

Work has also been kicking. my. trash. (WARNING - Boring work content ahead...) The first couple weeks of September are the busiest (and most stressful) of the whole year in my particular line of work. We outline all our projects and budget for the following year. Given the volume of work (real estate purchases and construction mainly) and funding that we deal with, it is a major undertaking. To make the matter more difficult, this year we absorbed another portion of the United States into the area we work with, so we had to establish all new baseline numbers for our performance measures. There are around 35-40 pages worth of numbers to fill out. (Each number can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours to put together.) I have been glued to the phone and my desk for two weeks trying to gather all the information. As soon as I turned in my plan last Friday, I heaved a huge sigh of relief that the whole process was (mostly) over again for another year. It felt good to finally detach myself from the phone and the desk chair and not have anything work related to worry about over the weekend!

Friday evening some of us girls had a chance to get together again for dinner. This time Jamie was able to come with us. It was so great to see her! I very much enjoy spending time with these women. (We missed you Shauna!) You would never know that we had spent so much time apart since we talk like there's no tomorrow! We were at the restaurant for nearly 4 hours and I didn't even notice. It has been so much fun finding out what everyone has been up to.

By the way, I could use suggestions for a restaurant that will tolerate 5-6 rowdy 30-something females since I'll be planning the next dinner. (p.s. must have Diet Coke for Shelly)

A little help?

Last time I posted I talked a little about some folks that are in desperate need of some assistance, both of the spiritual kind and the temporal kind. Looks like the internet is banding together to help out this wonderful family that has touched so many lives.

They have declared tomorrow Nie Nie Day and several websites and readers of Stephanie's Blog are donating items to help contribute to her and Christian's recovery fund.

I have made a little donation of my own (see above picture) and hope that you will go take a look the all the amazing items up for auction.

It's a chance to reach out and help some people that have truly made themselves a force for good.

Go check it out!

Family Reunion

We had our big ol' family reunion this weekend with all my dad's brothers and sisters. I was able to see several aunts, uncles and cousins that I haven't seen for a long time. It's amazing how much everyone changes in a year!

I spent most of the time wrangling the rugrats. But I did get to talk to some nieces and nephews that I haven’t chatted with for a while to get caught up on their news. Some of the biggest headlines in the immediate family:

Mandy is expecting baby #1 (a girl!) and is due in December.

Stefanie is engaged! She and Tyson are getting married December 20th. (Looks like December is going to be a big month!)

Shannon and Shantel are almost done with their respective schooling endeavors. And my sister Jill is just starting up.

Lyssa sat and nursed this bottle of bug juice for about 15 minutes. (Good thing we took it out of the paper bag!)
Check out how red her cheeks are. They were playing so hard!


Mom spent some of the time with Grandma to get some people in old family photos identified. (Check out the set up they’ve got there. A digital photo frame and 3 laptops…poor almost 96 year old grandma was a little over-whelmed!) It was such a cute picture seeing the two of them together trying to figure out who everyone was.

We ended with the traditional water fight (the girls had fun dumping water on each other as you can see in the photos). You should see how fast people can move when that water starts to fly.

It was just a nice relaxing day to hang out and catch up with everyone.

Check-ups

We took the kids in to the doctor for their regular check-ups this afternoon.

Is it crazy to anyone besides me that 6 month old Liam is only 7 pounds lighter than his almost 3 year old sister?

Anyway...everyone is healthy. Liam will NOT have to wear a helmet after all. Such a relief! It only would have been for 6 weeks, but oh what a long 6 weeks it would have been.

Shots were traumatic...more for McKenna than for Liam (Alyssa lucked out this go 'round). Heavens, you would have thought they cut her leg off. She gingerly coaxes her pants over each band aid every time she goes to the bathroom. Liam just cried for a half second and it was over. This just goes to further prove that girls equal DRAMA.

And after we gave them shots...we left all three of them with my poor niece to baby sit for the night. At least we gave them Tylenol before we left.

p.s. We had such a fun night out. Tried out a new restaurant, went miniature golfing and ended the night watching the fireworks at the state fair on the way home. I could get used to this Friday nights off thing.

Update

We got some great news today...

They are going to move ahead with my sister-in-law's kidney transplant!

She has been waiting so long and has worked so hard accomplish all the things they told her she had to be able to do before they would do the surgery.

She had to learn to walk and talk again after two strokes almost took her from us a couple of years ago. If you had seen her then and could see her now, you would not believe the amazing progress she has made.

And now, it looks like they are going to give her a transplant date in a couple of weeks.

All I can think of to say is...WAHOO!!

Girls' Night Out

I went out with three old friends last night.

I have to admit, I was a little worried how it would work out. There is something very scary about meeting up with people that you haven't seen for a long time...Especially since I arrived at the restaurant before anyone else and had enough time to wonder if anyone else was coming.

But really...it turned out to be one of the best evenings I've had for a long time.

Since I moved around so much as a kid, I really missed growing up with the same group of friends my whole life. This is the closest I get to having that kind of relationship. There's just something really...refreshing...about being with people that have known you for a really long time...especially if they can still pretend to like you.

We got caught up on what everyone has been doing, shared pictures, laughed about dumb stuff we did when we were little, found out what other people we knew have been up to and just generally had a great time. Looking at us talking and laughing at the table, you wouldn't have known that we haven't seen other for 8-13 years. (And according to our waiter, you wouldn't have known that we were all in our 30's either. Such a nice boy.)

(We even took some cheesy pictures at the restaurant. You can see them here on Anji's blog.)

Thanks to Shelly for getting us all together!

To a grieving family...

http://www.legacy.com/DeseretNews/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=112264312

Thank you for the opportunity to attend his funeral and learn more about what a wonderful person he was.

May the sweet memories of a life well lived comfort you during the difficult times ahead.

We love you Tanya and Nathan! Our hearts and thoughts are with you.

Week in Review

Since I was a little preoccupied with other things this last week, writing everything down sort of fell by the wayside. I need to play a little catch up with the "goings on" before I get into the thoughts that have kept me so distracted.

Monday: Got the invitation to an old and very good friend's wedding. We were best friends when I lived in Hawaii back in 6th to 8th grade. I am so excited for her. She is an amazing person - I can only imagine that he is too. I wish I could go and be with her on her big day!

Tuesday: I got to go to chemo with dad and the rest of the "entourage". (Mom and 4 out of the 6 kids were there with him.) He has a little train of people that follow him through the office. I personally think it's SO cool that my sibs make the time to come with him to so many of his appointments. I am grateful for such a close knit family!

Kenna had tumbling so I got to hang out at my sister's house and contemplate a family history project with her. (My sister has a tumbling studio in her garage...)

While there I learned that my niece is expecting a baby!! She is the one that miscarried not to long ago so I am doubly excited for her and her hubby. What great news!

Wednesday: Some sad happenings with friends from work. I found out that a former co-worker and beloved grandpa type friend has been diagnosed with cancer. It breaks my heart to hear that yet another person in my life has been afflicted with this horrible disease.

Another sweet hearted person that is in my work group found out her 23 year old nephew was killed in a car/motorcycle accident. This also breaks my heart. I have some nieces and nephews around this age and couldn't bear to lose any of them, especially like that.

Thursday: Crazy busy day at work. So many things had to get done and it felt like I just couldn't find the time to do it all.

I found out a project that was scheduled to move forward this week didn't go because someone didn't get the submission packet turned in until today and it missed the approval committee meeting. It killed me to see the project get stalled after the person had known the urgency and had promised to move it forward. I was extremely disappointed, especially since the person responsible has not yet called to let me know - I had to find out from another source.

Got to go to lunch with a dear friend. She needed mashed potatoes and I needed some time out of the building. Being with her always cheers me up.

I was also able to spend some time with mom and dad, and review the family history project with them as well. I actually got some of my old junk cleaned out of their basement too. (I've only been married for 7 ½ years...and officially living on my own for 11. It's about time!) I found some old cards and letters which I'm thoroughly excited to read again...just as soon as I can catch a spare minute at home!

Matt had his last day of class for the semester. One more class and he's done!

Friday: Another busy busy work day. Deadlines were moved up, which always creates a special type of chaos. We finished the most important items though, and I was able to sneak out a half hour early to get a head start on a weekend with the whole family at home. I love Matt's weekends off - four days straight of having him home in the evenings goes a long way to improving my sanity levels.

Saturday: Matt took the girls shopping to get a few of the things we need to get the yard/garden in shape for the summer. As much as I really hate yard work, I'm excited to get things spruced up and looking nice. I know the girls will love having some flowers in the front yard that they can help take care of (they even have their own watering cans now thanks to daddy).

I was able to get a few things done around the house while they were gone, and I got a little one on one time with the boy.

Grandma and Grandpa T. took the kids later that evening so we could have a night out. They had the 4 other local grandkids over too so it ended up being a very fun evening for the kids...although I'm not so sure about poor grandma and grandpa.

Matt indulged me and took me to look at a camera I've been ogling for a while. It finally came out on the market this month and I've been anxious to get a look at it. Not that we can afford it right now, but it's nice to know what you want should you ever be the recipient of a large sum of money you can't figure out what to do with. (I must say I'm unimpressed with the staff of Best Buy and their knowledge of digital cameras.) We ended up getting a small (and cheap!) digital camera for the girls to play with.

We went for a late dinner and ended up running into Matt's brother Joe. Seems he was working the off-road show at the convention center up the street and was able to get us in for a peek after we finished eating. It was fun to look at all the tricked out Jeeps and other off-road vehicles.

It was even better to hear about all the progress that Angie (Joe's wife) is making though. The last few months have been amazing. She's almost rid of her cane and they are talking about moving forward with her transplant in August.

Sunday: Church was nice. The girls were pretty good and Liam slept most of the way through it. I had a dead arm, but it was worth it to get the chance to concentrate on the lessons. My visiting teacher still thinks I'm her project, but she's nice and helps with the baby when I need it. The Relief Society teacher did a great job and I had to hold back tears all the way through the lesson. (When did I get to be such a cry baby!?! I get choked up at everything these days...)

We had a pretty nice slow day at home. The girls were able to go outside and try out their new camera. Lyssa took a bzillion pictures of everything. Kenna's were a little less prolific and a little more interesting. I was able to press all the quilt blocks (finally!) and finish getting them arranged. Matt was able to work on a schedule readjustment for work in the hopes that they take his suggestions instead of what their current plan is.

If you actually read all that, I'm impressed. I barely had the attention span for it myself. Here's a little reward for your stick-to-it-iveness.

Me=Slacker

 

So I've totally had a bunch of stuff percolating in my brain that I wanted to write about. I get all these fabulous posts crafted in my head on the way to and from work, or in the shower, or lying awake in the middle of the night, but by the time I take a minute to sit down all the witty and funny stuff is gone (some would say it was never there...) and my mind goes blank.  Perhaps it has something to do with this:

 

 

Mr. Liam has entered the "I don't want to be happy unless you're holding me" phase. I love holding the little guy, but come on. He's 15 pounds already and I am not nearly buff enough to cook an entire dinner holding him in one arm. (Yes, I'm a weakling and need to go to the gym. Or, maybe I should just start bench pressing my kids...)

 

 

 

Or this:

I  dug out an old project that has been bugging me for like 2 years since I bought the material. Matt and I desperately need a not-so-wintry quilt for our bed so we don't roast to death in the summertime. I had most of the pieces cut out (or so I thought...) so I have been trying to finish up that part so I can start on the sewing. I'd better get going too, it's 80 degrees today! (I know it's just Utah weather playing tricks on me, but a girl can dream, can't she?)

Or these:

 

 

They're girls. Need I say more?  (Although, these two girls are outside playing "Star Wars" at this very moment. Lyssa is R2-D2 and Kenna is Princess Leia.) I guess we know who's the boss.

 

 

 

Or even this...

*

 

The humidifier we had to buy to fight the cold/croupy cough sickness the girls have had for the past few days that we are praying Liam doesn't get and which necessitated a trip to the doctor's office on Saturday (yay for Saturday clinics!) after spending a night in a steamy bathroom with Kenna.  The girls are still complaining about the gross medicine they got.

 

 

*(I was going to put a cute picture of Lyssa sitting on the potty with her legs crossed for that last one, but figured I wanted her to still talk to me when she gets older so I nixed that idea.)

In other news:

Kenna has now started telling me how to drive. Well, more accurately has started telling me how to drive again. We were on our way home the other day and she was asking me what some of the road signs meant.  As we pass the "Speed Limit 40" sign she says,

"I know what that means."

"Oh?" I reply.

"That's how fast you're supposed to go."

"That's right." I say proudly.

"Mommy, the orange line isn't on the 4. You're going too fast."

BUSTED

This child was sent to me for some very specific reasons, the most important of which is to test  my patience. The second (and the one I'm talking about here...) is to make me laugh. She does both with surprising frequency.

She demonstrated her "Princess Leia Run" for me today too. Priceless.  Who knew Princess Leia runs like an angry ogre? MY DAUGHTER, that's who.

 

See? I just ran out of steam when I realized what time it is. I need to go heft my 15 pound two month old, make dinner and get an FHE lesson ready for the big ol' family get together tonight. Perhaps I'll compose a coherent post on the way home from the party tonight and actually have something better to say tomorrow. 

Perhaps...

No wonder...

After seeing me limp around the office on my last visit, my OB recommended that I go see a Physiatrist (I thought she said Psychiatrist at first! I probably need that too...) to get checked out.

At the appointment today she poked at me a bit and determined that I had broken the tailbone (she couldn't tell how badly without an x-ray, which is obviously impossible at the moment) and that my SI joint is out. This is not normal, even in pregnancy, so I get to go to physical therapy. Yippee. And if that doesn't work, I get a fun shot in my hip. Even better.

Well no wonder I can't sit, stand, lay, walk or generally move without hurting (especially after yesterday's marathon of cookie making!).

Yet, for some reason, breaking my tailbone while pregnant, especially this far along, seems extremely funny and ironic to me. If it didn't hurt so bad, I'd be rolling on the floor laughing about it.

This kid is definitely gunning for the position of youngest child.

Sad news

I just heard tonight that my sweet niece had a miscarriage.

My heart is aching for her and her husband. What a terrible thing to have to go through.

I think I'll stop complaining about being pregnant now. My aches and pains don't seem so important when I think about how she must be feeling right now.

Funny how things like this can put your life back into perspective.