Valentine's Day part 2: Silk Jammies

One thing I forgot about my perfect day is that John bought me two pairs of silk pajamas. Now silk pajamas is not code word for lingerie. They are just nice big silk pajamas. They're big enough to fit me all during my pregnancy and they have a draw string. I love them!! They are so silky and nice. They're so slippery that Ruth slid right off my lap today when she was trying to sit with me. One of them is a cheetah print that matches my girls obsession with Cheetah Girls. Anyway, so although I didn't find an outfit, at least I got these PJs and I LOVE them. I'd recommend them to anyone.

Happy Valentine's Day!! (The perfect day or nearly so)

John and I celebrated Valentine's Day on Saturday and I thought at the end of that day that it was nearly perfect. I got to do most of the things that I love and I loved it. So here's what I did:

First, I had to get up and get going and get everyone going too because John had to be at the church at 9am for the World Leadership Broadcast. We got going and we dropped him off, dropped Kate off at a party and went and picked up my mom. We picked Kate back up and then made a trip to Costco and shopped and got the girls treats. I loved this because I love shopping with my mom even if it is with all the kids and I love just walking around Costco and looking and we were able to get there before things got crazy.

I dropped off my mom at her house and sped back to go to the World Leadership Broadcast myself at 12:00. I was about 45 minutes late after dropping off the groceries and the kids (John was home) but the part I saw was fabulous. I love the apostles and general authorities! They are so down to earth and make things seem so doable. I heard some things that I really needed to hear and made me feel good about where I am in my life and what I'm doing.

Next I went home, ate lunch and then had time to take Kate, Mary, and Emma to the library. I had been promising to take them for cleaning for about 3 days and it was nice to be able to go without the little girls (who were napping). I don't know if you could tell, but about my favorite place in the whole world is the library. I love it and I love to watch my girls loving it and picking out books and having fun. We had fun and were able to find lots of good books.

After we came home we packed up all the girls and took them to my mom's house to stay for the evening while John and I went out on our date. The girls love to go to grandma's and I am so lucky that my parents are such a big help to me. I don't know what I would do without them.

John and I went to Smokehouse for dinner which was great and didn't have a wait. I love going out to eat. I always have and it is twice as fun when John and I can actually talk to each other without any interruptions. Plus John picked the place which I also love. I hate making decisions so I love when he chooses.

Afterwards we went shopping for an outfit for me for Valentine's Day. While we were semi-unsuccessful in finding something I had a great time. As I said before I love shopping. And I especially love shopping with John. We get to talk and have fun. This was a big sacrifice for him because he does not love shopping for clothes but I really appreciated it.

Finally we stopped by the Stake Valentine's Party and said hi. We got to talk to some of our friends, have some great refreshments and listen briefly to some crazy music. It was fun.

Anyway, I really loved my day, and am grateful that John would be thoughtful enough to spend the time with me. It was great!

New Rediscovered Favorite Poem

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody too?
Then there's a pair of us--don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

-Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is by far my favorite poet, and the poem quoted at the top of my blog is my all-time favorite but I read this one in a children's book I was reading and I loved it.

Maternity Clothes 2

Last time I was pregnant (with Lily), I made a post about my complaints about maternity clothes nowadays. I just read it and I pretty much feel the same so if you want to read it, refer back to the original, but I have a few things to add.

My sister-in-law is getting married next weekend and I wanted to get a new outfit for the festivities. I was telling John just the other day that being pregnant is ok except for on Sundays when I HATE it because I hate all my Sunday clothes that fit me right now. Most of them are skirts that are just bigger, not maternity so they pretty much make me look like a whale. And after 5 pregnancies of wearing basically the same 3 dresses I'm pretty tired of them plus they're kind of worn out. So I decided that if I could find a nice maternity skirt and some shirts it would make my life happier.

SO, yesterday John and I went shopping for a skirt. Having already looked at the cheap places like Walmart, we decided to go to the mall department stores because they generally have nicer things. Anyway, I actually found some cute shirts, but there was not a skirt to be found anywhere, except one acid-washed jean one at Motherhood that I was not completely sold on. (I was hoping for something a little more dressy and I hate buying clothes at Motherhood because you can't get a cash refund even with a receipt and they try to sell you all kinds of magazines and pregnancy related things AFTER asking you fifty questions and BEFORE they will ring up anything in their store. I HATE it!)

All of the dresses we found were barely knee-length which I find completely unacceptable. I didn't wear knee-length skirts/dresses when I was 16 and they're definitely not any more flattering at 31 and pregnant. Plus when you factor in the kids climbing on you at church they are really upper thigh dresses because that's where the hemline is going to end up.

The last place we went was Dillards. Now I have never been that thrilled about their store anyway. I had a friend who swore by it and was always telling me all the "deals" she got there, but often in my head I was thinking, "Is my definition of deals the same as yours?" Now I'm just going to say right here that I am cheap. I can't help it. If you knew my father (who I love but is VERY money conscious) you would understand. Anyway, we went up to the Womens section and asked a lady there where their maternity clothes were. "I'm sorry, we don't sell maternity clothes," she said in a very condescending tone. John's interpretation was, "I'm sorry but we don't serve YOUR kind here!" and I think he was about right. Well, I have to say that I probably won't be going back to Dillards anytime soon.

Anyway by the end of the trip I had concluded that pregnant women must not go to church anymore or wear skirts for that matter. I found tons of cute pants (none of which had waistbands that would stay up on me in 2 months, but at least they were cute), but only the one half-way acceptable skirt. I'm still going to try the other mall but I was very discouraged, although I had fun shopping with just John and no girls. Maybe my taste is just too weird. I don't know, but I guess I'll keep looking.

ThinkGeek@home

John often visits a website called ThinkGeek.com. It has lots of really funny techno gifts and gadgets. He loves it and I have to admit a lot of their stuff is pretty funny, although I don't get all of it. Which brings me to the admission that I am not a computer geek like my sweet husband. This is not bragging because it is because of my own personal techno ace that this blog exists today and in the great form that it is. He spent an hour today just updating the sidebars and links for me and putting it in an easier form. I basically just write and add pictures that already exist on my computer (I still haven't figured out the whole transferring the pictures from the camera to my blog). So here's to John and all he does to keep my blog alive. Thinkgeek@home is the way to go!! Hurrah!!

Goals update

I've added a couple things to my goals list:

1. In an effort to focus on the positive in motherhood I am trying to write down one good thing or funny thing that happened with one of the girls that day. Maybe I can turn these into some posts, we'll see.

2. I also am striving to do one set of family search indexing a day. This only takes about 15-20 minutes and is easy to do while the girls are watching a show. They're doing the 1850 US census right now and it is really easy, not much information to extract. I love it.

3. Work a little on my surprise 10th anniversary gift for John everyday. I'd tell you what it is but since John reads my blog that would kind of blow the surprise.

Boy clothes

I went shopping for premie clothes yesterday for some friends of ours that have a premie boy and I found the cutest boy clothes at Walmart. They were so cute that I had to buy some for our little boy, so I have officially bought my first boy outfit. And I have to say that I know people are always saying that girls' clothes are so much cuter than boys, but I have to say that after 9 years of only shopping for girls it was incredibly refreshing to look at boy clothes and they all looked super cute. It was very exciting!

It was also exciting to really shop for our new baby. The past few girls, we've had so many clothes already that I almost felt guilty buying any more because we didn't have room for them. Now I can really look and feel like we need the clothes since we only have a few boys' clothes. I love shopping so this was fun and will be fun. I'm excited.

Goals update

Friday night couples: We had over the Blackhams and Pyles. It was a good mix and John made a great dessert as always. We've also developed a system for cleaning the house by Friday. Each day the girls clean one room (and straighten any that they've already cleaned this week) and by Friday they're all clean. I focus on deep cleaning. As long as they participate each day, then on Friday they get to pick out of the surprise bag (which they LOVE). This week we added the restriction that you can't fall down and scream for an hour before participating and still get to pick a prize at the end of the week (obviously that was a problem that was driving me crazy!!!). It makes me happy to get to know people in our ward better and do something fun with John and other adults.

Scripture mastery: All the girls memorized the Primary January theme (part of the Proclamation on the Family) and first scripture mastery scripture (1Ne 3:7). They got to pick a prize for doing both of these. Now they are working on the Feb theme (2Ne 4:15) and 2nd scripture mastery (1Ne 19:23). They love it!! I don't know if they'll retain that much but Mary used one of the scriptures for Primary today and she was excited. We also started a scripture reading plan for Feb out of The Friend and I told them they get a prize if they read everyday this month and we made bookmarks to keep track. Again, they are pretty excited. It's all going pretty well.

Exercising: I exercised once this week, better than nothing.

List of personal goals: I updated and printed out a list/chart of personal daily goals to keep each day. It really helps me stay focused and makes me feel good when I see how much I've done when I get discouraged.

Scrapbooking: No actual scrapbooking but I am using my supplies to make a book of frog pictures for Ruth. (She really likes frogs and we got an awesome daily calendar at the dollar store that has great color pictures of frogs.)

Finish projects: I've been working on finishing FHE kits that I started like 3 yrs ago and also making some of the church activities I've bought for the girls more accessible to them.

Go to bed earlier: I talked to John and we agreed to go to bed earlier--between 10 and 11 (as opposed to 12:30 or 1)

New goal: I started a new quilt block of the month class this week. It's at a different shop than I've done it at before but I'm way excited. Hopefully it will get me in the mood to sew and quilt again so I can also finish some other projects I have going.

Book Review: Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach

I was fairly impressed by this book. It would be a great bridge book to get kids interested in Shakespeare since it centers around a mystery involving the present and Elizabethan England (Shakespeare's day).

It also discusses the pressures of family life and middle school life for young teenagers, (the main character is in six grade) and does a good job of portraying different situations and different aged characters (the other main character is in her 60's).

It was a quick read and a great listen (I listened to it on tape). I loved it and would recommend it to anyone.

My "Secret" Goals

Here are the secret goals that John referred to in one of his posts. They are not all of my year goals but they're a good start. I wrote them one night at like 3am when I couldn't sleep.

Things I’m thinking about:
✿ We should invite couples over on Friday nights to play games—maybe in the summer we could invite families. Then we could get to know people better and have fun at the same time. It would also help motivate me to help keep the house up better. Maybe we could have activities with the girls sometime Saturday.--We've done two Friday nights so far and it has been great. We've also done some fun activities with the girls.

✿ I want to do the scripture mastery with the girls again for the B of M. The books were a little too cumbersome but maybe if I laminated the small scripture mastery cards with a picture on the back and put them on a ring it would work better. I also want to find a music version of these that we could learn. I also want to find all the small scripture books and put them in a basket and keep them all together with the scripture mastery rings and some hymn books and children’s hymn books so we can find them for scripture study at night.--I made the girls the scripture mastery cards with pictures, laminated on a key rings. So far they have all passed off 1Ne 3:7, even Ruth. Sometime I'll make a recording and put it on the blog. It is super cute. Ruth loves "repeating" as she calls it. I also did the basket thing and it has worked pretty well. I found some free online versions of scripture mastery songs but I have yet to incorporate into our memorizing.

✿ I want to maybe arrange a weekend getaway for John and I sometime soon if funds allow and we can find a babysitter. --We'll see. Funding is still in question.

✿ I want to start exercising again everyday so I can have more energy. I also need to make time to spend more individual time with the girls and doing fun things that I enjoy with them. --I've maybe exercised twice in the past couple weeks, but I have at least been getting up and getting going in the morning instead of going back to bed. I need to work on this more.

✿ I need to sit down and make a list of personal goals for this year and kind of like a checklist like I had last year. It would help me be more productive and feel better.--still in the works.

✿ I’d like to do a featured gift of the day on my blog so the girls can acknowledge and say thank you for some of the gifts they were given by extended family. --did the Thankyou blog. I'll do some pictures when I figure it out or have John help me.

✿ I’d like to think of something to send back with Ron for Sarah’s birthday. Maybe a photo album with pictures of the girls and notes to her from the girls. Maybe some kind of special toy or book. I’m not sure. It can’t be big but I would like to show her we love her and think about her way over in France. --I made a small photo album with a note from each girl. It was very simple but it was done before Ron left to go back to France

✿ I’d still like to make a princess rag quilt and baby princess rag quilts for the Hunts. I need to get going though. --I picked out the fabric but have yet to do anything else.

✿ I need to finish the girl’s skirts. --nothing done yet.

✿ I need to start working on scrapbooking again. I really enjoyed that. And I need to use up all the supplies I bought.--nothing done yet.

✿ I need to finish sewing the back of Lily’s quilt and get it put together so I can start quilting it. --I organized it and drew a plan and cut the pieces so they fit but I haven't done any sewing yet.

✿ I want to be more of a doer and get some of the projects I’ve started finished.--well, I did make a table of contents for my FHE kits and finished a few I had started.

✿ I need to do the I spy picnic quilt--nothing yet

✿ I need to get some more flat storage containers and start on the toy room. We need one for Bratz and Barbies, one for Little people people, one for Littlest Pet Shop, one for food and kitchen stuff, one for super heros, one for baby accessories, and one for small dress-up. Hopefully if I organized it a little, the girls wouldn’t have to rifle through everything to find what they are looking for.--I bought some more bins but I haven't filled them with anything yet

✿ I want to start reading the Joseph Smith lessons together with John. Maybe we could read a section a night along with our scriptures. We need to start going to bed a little earlier so we have time for that.--we have been reading the lessons but we definitely haven't been going to bed earlier

✿ I want to organize the girls’ art supplies too.--nothing yet. I'm really going to have to think about this one.