A couple of weeks ago my sister gave me a whole bunch of boy clothes. A friend of hers had had a premie baby and had put away all the regular size clothes, and then, when the boy got big enough, she couldn't find them, so she went out and bought new ones. (I think it is the strangest story I've ever heard. I would have looked a little harder, and these people are kind of on the poor side, but it is great for me and very generous of her to give them to me.) Anyway, so most of these clothes were still on the hangers from the store with the tags on them. It was amazing!! And the clothes are pretty nice and pretty much filled up our whole dresser.
ANYWAY, so last week I washed all the clothes and sorted them and put them away. As I was doing this Ruth was very excited about the whole thing. She asked me who the clothes were for, and I told her they were for the baby brother. So after that, she would come by periodically and tell anyone in ear shot, "These clothes are for our baby brother. Aren't they cute?"
Later that same day, some one knocked on the door. As I was getting up to answer it, Ruth said, "Hurry, Mom. I think it's our baby brother. I think he's here." I tried to explain to her why that probably wasn't going to happen, but she stayed pretty excited.
Then yesterday, Ruth told me out of the blue, "Mom, our baby brother is going to be here in a few days!!" I told her that it was more like a few months and that the baby brother was in my tummy and she could feel him kick if she wanted. She proceeded to give me a disgusted look, say, "Whatever!" and run off. Apparantly she will only accept an in-person appearance. Oh well, it is good to know that she is excited. And she's not the only one, just the most vocal.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
We should be happy
The scripture that we just finished memorizing is 2 Nephi 2:27. It says, "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh, and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil. For he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."
Surprisingly to me, this scripture seems to be particularly disturbing to Emma and Ruth (the 4 and 2 year old). When we first started memorizing it, Ruth would say after every time that we repeated it, "That's not true. Heavenly Father doesn't want us to be miserable." Emma was also quick to complain that she didn't think it was true either. So after we talked about the meaning of the scripture and that it was the devil and not Heavenly Father who wanted us to be miserable, they seemed to feel a little better about the whole thing.
But still, every night when we repeat the scripture Ruth adds on the end, "Heavenly Father doesn't want us to be miserable, He wants us to be happy!" As soon as I agree to this, she seems happy enough.
And Emma says consistantly after the scripture, "The devil is so silly. We are not all going to be miserable. Nephi wasn't miserable." You can't argue with that logic.
Surprisingly to me, this scripture seems to be particularly disturbing to Emma and Ruth (the 4 and 2 year old). When we first started memorizing it, Ruth would say after every time that we repeated it, "That's not true. Heavenly Father doesn't want us to be miserable." Emma was also quick to complain that she didn't think it was true either. So after we talked about the meaning of the scripture and that it was the devil and not Heavenly Father who wanted us to be miserable, they seemed to feel a little better about the whole thing.
But still, every night when we repeat the scripture Ruth adds on the end, "Heavenly Father doesn't want us to be miserable, He wants us to be happy!" As soon as I agree to this, she seems happy enough.
And Emma says consistantly after the scripture, "The devil is so silly. We are not all going to be miserable. Nephi wasn't miserable." You can't argue with that logic.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Motherhood
My friend asked me to make a post about what I do with my girls. Now I wouldn't really consider myself a "great" mom. I have some real struggles, especially with my temper and yelling. I'm definitely not going to be the mom that my kids say (when they're 40), "I never heard my mother raise her voice." But I'm working on it. I do have to say that my voice has gotten louder with every kid. I don't think I really ever yelled until I had 3 kids, but alas, oh well. It is kind of unfortunate though that Kate and Mary will never remember the nice mom when they were little. I guess I'll just have them read my journal so they can appreciate all the good years.
Anyway, I loved Elder Ballard's talk today. It gave me some good things to work on.
When I get frustrated about motherhood, I pretty much go with my theme, "Play to your strengths." That always runs through my head when I get upset and I think it is the Lord's way of saying, "It's all right. You're doing ok. You just have to focus on what you like and do well." And I think that's pretty true. And I also think everyone has different strengths and things they like and do well. So sometimes if I go to a meeting and listen to someone talk and I start to feel guilty that I'm not as organized or energetic or something, I just have to tell myself, "Those are some really good ideas. That's not my strength, but I can work on it a little but I don't need to psyche myself out about it."
So, two things I really like are reading and music. So we do a lot of reading and music. It's kind of relaxing for me and that's when I have the most fun with my girls. We love going to the library and picking out books together and reading books together as a family. I just love it. We read picture books and chapter books and even regular childrens' fiction like right now we're reading National Velvet. We only read a little a night, and if I'm too tired or don't feel like it we don't read as much. We read non-fiction too. Recently we've found some great math books that have story problems in them with great pictures that my kids love and so do I. (I like math too.)
Going along with that, my best time of the day is the evening. Now I get tired and cranky sometimes, but I like doing things in the early evenings best. So I do a pretty complex bedtime routine. It takes me a little while, but hopefully my kids will remember this time of the day and not the rest when I was yelling at them. We put our kids to bed pretty early, but we start early doing stuff. Basically our kids' bedtime is after dinner and bedtime stuff. Usually it is around 7 or 7:30. We read stories, read scriptures, sing our weekly hymn, say the scriptures we're trying to memorize, say prayers and then they go to their beds. Then I tuck them each in by saying the memorizing scriptures with them, and singing them their bedtime song. Now I know this sounds crazy, but we're pretty flexible. We don't always do everything, but we try. If I have to leave, John puts them to bed and he does what he wants to. Sometimes we do all the stuff in the car on the way home from somewhere and I just tuck them in. I guess the key is that I enjoy this stuff. I like singing and reading stories so that's what I focus on.
So for their bedtime song, each of the girls has their own song. Like I said, I like to sing, so when I had Kate, I just sang to her all the time. I got a little Children's Songbook and I would just sit and sing through the whole book with her and I started memorizing the words for the different songs. I also made her up a song with a familiar tune but words all her own because I heard that kids like to hear their own names in songs. Anyway, the pattern kind of stuck. With every girl, I've picked out a favorite church song for their lullaby that I sing to them to put them to bed at night and I make them up a song to a tune I like. And when the girls get old enough they can pick the song I sing to them at night. Sometimes they're the songs I sang when they were little and sometimes not. I went through a whole year I think of singing "A, You're Adorable" because Kate learned it at preschool and the other girls loved it. I like doing it and the girls like it and they can even talk John into singing to them once in a while when I'm not home.
And about 2 years ago, we started the memorizing scripture thing. We started with the Articles of Faith and now we're doing the Book of Mormon scripture mastery scriptures and primary theme scriptures. We started because the primary was doing it and my kids liked it so much that we've just added it to the routine. We say it together as a family and then as I tuck them in I repeat it individually with each one of them until they can say it on their own. I have a prize box that they can pick something out of once they can say the whole thing word for word on their own. It's pretty good incentive and I just put in dollar store stuff mostly. I also make the older girls keep doing a scripture until everyone has passed it off, even if they've already gotten their prize. And we're doing the Primary scripture by month, so we don't change those until a new month starts. It works out great! I learn these scriptures which is good for me and I get to hear my girls learn them too, which makes you feel really good as a mother. I'm most amazed at my little girls. Ruth and Emma (2 and 4) do great. They take about 2 weeks longer than the older girls to memorize scriptures, but come on, two weeks. That's awesome. And I'm just saying this because it is all them. They love it. And Emma heard one of the scriptures in Conference today and she about jumped off the couch, she was so excited. It was fun to see.
Anyway, these are just some of the things I enjoy doing with my girls. I hope it doesn't make anyone feel overwhelmed because these are just my strengths. If you need to feel better, ask me and I'll help you feel better, because I probably don't do a lot of things that you do great. I love my girls and my husband and it all works out.
Anyway, I loved Elder Ballard's talk today. It gave me some good things to work on.
When I get frustrated about motherhood, I pretty much go with my theme, "Play to your strengths." That always runs through my head when I get upset and I think it is the Lord's way of saying, "It's all right. You're doing ok. You just have to focus on what you like and do well." And I think that's pretty true. And I also think everyone has different strengths and things they like and do well. So sometimes if I go to a meeting and listen to someone talk and I start to feel guilty that I'm not as organized or energetic or something, I just have to tell myself, "Those are some really good ideas. That's not my strength, but I can work on it a little but I don't need to psyche myself out about it."
So, two things I really like are reading and music. So we do a lot of reading and music. It's kind of relaxing for me and that's when I have the most fun with my girls. We love going to the library and picking out books together and reading books together as a family. I just love it. We read picture books and chapter books and even regular childrens' fiction like right now we're reading National Velvet. We only read a little a night, and if I'm too tired or don't feel like it we don't read as much. We read non-fiction too. Recently we've found some great math books that have story problems in them with great pictures that my kids love and so do I. (I like math too.)
Going along with that, my best time of the day is the evening. Now I get tired and cranky sometimes, but I like doing things in the early evenings best. So I do a pretty complex bedtime routine. It takes me a little while, but hopefully my kids will remember this time of the day and not the rest when I was yelling at them. We put our kids to bed pretty early, but we start early doing stuff. Basically our kids' bedtime is after dinner and bedtime stuff. Usually it is around 7 or 7:30. We read stories, read scriptures, sing our weekly hymn, say the scriptures we're trying to memorize, say prayers and then they go to their beds. Then I tuck them each in by saying the memorizing scriptures with them, and singing them their bedtime song. Now I know this sounds crazy, but we're pretty flexible. We don't always do everything, but we try. If I have to leave, John puts them to bed and he does what he wants to. Sometimes we do all the stuff in the car on the way home from somewhere and I just tuck them in. I guess the key is that I enjoy this stuff. I like singing and reading stories so that's what I focus on.
So for their bedtime song, each of the girls has their own song. Like I said, I like to sing, so when I had Kate, I just sang to her all the time. I got a little Children's Songbook and I would just sit and sing through the whole book with her and I started memorizing the words for the different songs. I also made her up a song with a familiar tune but words all her own because I heard that kids like to hear their own names in songs. Anyway, the pattern kind of stuck. With every girl, I've picked out a favorite church song for their lullaby that I sing to them to put them to bed at night and I make them up a song to a tune I like. And when the girls get old enough they can pick the song I sing to them at night. Sometimes they're the songs I sang when they were little and sometimes not. I went through a whole year I think of singing "A, You're Adorable" because Kate learned it at preschool and the other girls loved it. I like doing it and the girls like it and they can even talk John into singing to them once in a while when I'm not home.
And about 2 years ago, we started the memorizing scripture thing. We started with the Articles of Faith and now we're doing the Book of Mormon scripture mastery scriptures and primary theme scriptures. We started because the primary was doing it and my kids liked it so much that we've just added it to the routine. We say it together as a family and then as I tuck them in I repeat it individually with each one of them until they can say it on their own. I have a prize box that they can pick something out of once they can say the whole thing word for word on their own. It's pretty good incentive and I just put in dollar store stuff mostly. I also make the older girls keep doing a scripture until everyone has passed it off, even if they've already gotten their prize. And we're doing the Primary scripture by month, so we don't change those until a new month starts. It works out great! I learn these scriptures which is good for me and I get to hear my girls learn them too, which makes you feel really good as a mother. I'm most amazed at my little girls. Ruth and Emma (2 and 4) do great. They take about 2 weeks longer than the older girls to memorize scriptures, but come on, two weeks. That's awesome. And I'm just saying this because it is all them. They love it. And Emma heard one of the scriptures in Conference today and she about jumped off the couch, she was so excited. It was fun to see.
Anyway, these are just some of the things I enjoy doing with my girls. I hope it doesn't make anyone feel overwhelmed because these are just my strengths. If you need to feel better, ask me and I'll help you feel better, because I probably don't do a lot of things that you do great. I love my girls and my husband and it all works out.
I Will Survive
Does anyone remember the Gloria Gaynor song "I will survive"? When I was single, this was my favorite girl power song. I still really like it although I am no longer bitter about guys; John is great!! (My girls know almost all the lyrics because I sing it really loud and play it at least twice when it comes up on the ipod.)
But ANYHOW, I survived the rest of the week without John. It was hard but with a lot of visits to my parents' house for free food and good distractions for the girls, everything turned out good. I even watched the whole Christy trilogy of movies (if you don't know what this is, ask me). They are definitely girl movies that I'm sure John could do without. They are really cheesy but I love them. They're right up there with Anne of Green Gables and all Jane Austen movies. Ruth watched most of them with me and seemed to like them. (Never mind the fact that she was supposed to be in bed. At that point at night I was too tired to care and she was mostly quietly watching the movie so I let it ride. I have a short fuse that late at night so I have to just avoid it sometimes to preserve the well-being of all involved.)
Anyway, it was all good. I only had one breakdown and that was John's fault so you can ask him about it. Everything else went really well and the girls tried hard to be good. They were a little mystified as to where John went though. Every once in a while Ruth would pop up with things like, "Where's dad? Is he STILL at work?" or "Where's Dad? Oh, he must be sleeping." Stuff like that.
So we're really glad John's home. We like having him around. And I'm glad he had a good time. He deserves a little fun in his life. For more details see his blog. He's got some great stories.
But ANYHOW, I survived the rest of the week without John. It was hard but with a lot of visits to my parents' house for free food and good distractions for the girls, everything turned out good. I even watched the whole Christy trilogy of movies (if you don't know what this is, ask me). They are definitely girl movies that I'm sure John could do without. They are really cheesy but I love them. They're right up there with Anne of Green Gables and all Jane Austen movies. Ruth watched most of them with me and seemed to like them. (Never mind the fact that she was supposed to be in bed. At that point at night I was too tired to care and she was mostly quietly watching the movie so I let it ride. I have a short fuse that late at night so I have to just avoid it sometimes to preserve the well-being of all involved.)
Anyway, it was all good. I only had one breakdown and that was John's fault so you can ask him about it. Everything else went really well and the girls tried hard to be good. They were a little mystified as to where John went though. Every once in a while Ruth would pop up with things like, "Where's dad? Is he STILL at work?" or "Where's Dad? Oh, he must be sleeping." Stuff like that.
So we're really glad John's home. We like having him around. And I'm glad he had a good time. He deserves a little fun in his life. For more details see his blog. He's got some great stories.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Days 1 and 2 without John
Well, we're still here and we even went to church. My mom was very surprised. (Of course we went to church!! If John can do it, I guess I have no excuse.) Not on time, but who's counting really? The girls were very well behaved for the most part. They sat quietly on the couch in the foyer during sacrament meeting and they were very good. I don't know if they would have lasted the whole time, but since we were about 25 minutes late, they lasted. They were getting a little fidgety at the end. We had a few escapees at the end of church and Ruth actually got lost for a few minutes, but we all ended up home and I wasn't in a totally bad, frustrated mood so I counted it a success.
We had lunch and they all took naps, including me and then our home teachers came over. They were very nice and agreed to take the garbage cans out for me so that's good. Then we had dinner, visited with Missy and Steve for a few minutes and then the girls went to bed. I feel like it went pretty well. There were the usual tantrums and breakdowns but nothing out of the ordinary. Our dinner was less spectacular than if John had been here (we had frozen pizza, fruit salad, toast, and brownies from our home teachers) but that's to be expected. I can cook, I just don't feel like it when I'm pregnant.
Yesterday we spent most of the day with my parents. The girls picked up the whole house so they could watch Legion of Super Heros. And then we went up to see my parents. The girls had lots of fun. They watched lots of shows and Grandma fixed one of her catered to kids meals of hot dogs, fish sticks, macaroni and cheese and green beans. She always just asks them what they want to eat and they always end up with about the same thing. But it is always good. My sister Heather also showed up with her family and it was fun to see them. She brought me a whole bunch of baby boy clothes that are almost brand new. A lot still have the tags on them. A friend of hers gave them to her to give to us. Very nice. (Her friend said she misplaced the clothes when her baby was still too small and then found them after he was too big. Odd, but I got some great clothes out of it.)
After we came home last night, we did baths, which almost did me in. Lily pooped in the bath and Mary and Emma threw tantrums. But every one eventually got in their pajamas and went to bed so it all ended well.
The girls have been really good for me so I can't complain. I haven't felt really stressed out yet so that's definitely a blessing. We miss John and can't wait for him to get home though.
We had lunch and they all took naps, including me and then our home teachers came over. They were very nice and agreed to take the garbage cans out for me so that's good. Then we had dinner, visited with Missy and Steve for a few minutes and then the girls went to bed. I feel like it went pretty well. There were the usual tantrums and breakdowns but nothing out of the ordinary. Our dinner was less spectacular than if John had been here (we had frozen pizza, fruit salad, toast, and brownies from our home teachers) but that's to be expected. I can cook, I just don't feel like it when I'm pregnant.
Yesterday we spent most of the day with my parents. The girls picked up the whole house so they could watch Legion of Super Heros. And then we went up to see my parents. The girls had lots of fun. They watched lots of shows and Grandma fixed one of her catered to kids meals of hot dogs, fish sticks, macaroni and cheese and green beans. She always just asks them what they want to eat and they always end up with about the same thing. But it is always good. My sister Heather also showed up with her family and it was fun to see them. She brought me a whole bunch of baby boy clothes that are almost brand new. A lot still have the tags on them. A friend of hers gave them to her to give to us. Very nice. (Her friend said she misplaced the clothes when her baby was still too small and then found them after he was too big. Odd, but I got some great clothes out of it.)
After we came home last night, we did baths, which almost did me in. Lily pooped in the bath and Mary and Emma threw tantrums. But every one eventually got in their pajamas and went to bed so it all ended well.
The girls have been really good for me so I can't complain. I haven't felt really stressed out yet so that's definitely a blessing. We miss John and can't wait for him to get home though.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
My favorite thing John has ever won
About 3-4 years ago John won a 20 gig ipod at a business conference. Now when he brought it home, I was happy for him but not really that enthused for myself. I didn't really appreciate the digital music thing so it seemed kind of pointless. John spent a lot of time telling me how cool it was and that we could put all of our music on it, etc. He's a good salesman but I still wasn't buying. Then we decided we were going to drive to Buffalo that next summer and he started lobbying to buy a car adapter so we could put all our music on the ipod and then not take the tons of cds that we usually took on our trip to keep the kids amused. The adapter was like $100 which was more than I thought we should pay, but John was so excited that I eventually gave in, and tried to act excited too.
Well so we got the adapter, ripped all the cd's, and went on our trip. And I have to say that I LOVED IT!! We didn't have to mess with cd's. We could put it on shuffle and get a good mix of kid's songs and our music, and even some conference talks and BYU devotionals. It was the coolest thing ever. And it was fun to not know what was coming up next, like on the radio, but still know that you were going to like whatever did come up. And the kids got enough of their music to keep them happy and entertained without driving us crazy. It was great!!
Ever since then I've kind of monopolized the ipod. Poor John doesn't get to use it very often because I keep it in my purse to use whenever I'm driving. In fact, some times if the kids are driving me crazy, I pack the kids into the car, tell them to be quiet, and drive around listening to the soothing sounds of the ipod. I even made John buy me an ihome alarm clock so I can listen to the ipod in my bedroom. I have also since acquired an ipod shuffle (that John won at another business conference) and a regular mp3 player (because the library has a service where you can download books on tape for free, but it is not compatible with the ipod). I also have speakers in just about every room that I can plug my gadgets into and a little exercise armband. I guess you could say that I am 100% converted.
Just today John downloaded all the church music into the ipod so that it can go into our shuffle mix. I'm so excited because I've wanted to do it for a while. I probably wouldn't be as excited about these things if I didn't have John backing me up as technical support, but I do so I am.
I seriously love ipods and mp3 players (and their car adapters) and would recommend them to anyone, especially those with kids. There you go. There is my sales pitch for the day. Thanks John for winning us such great stuff. And I guess, as usual, John was right.
Goals update
1. Friday night couples: This has been on hiatus for a while, what with my trip and March Madness and John's trip next week. We'll start up again in April.
2. Scripture Mastery: The girls are up to 2Ne 2:27, which is a little longer but I'm amazed how Kate and Mary are catching on. I think they must practice with each other at night. Mary would desperately like to beat Kate in memorizing this one, but I don't think it is going to happen. Alas, at least it is good motivation for her. The little girls are coming right along too. They really get into it, but it is a little harder for them. Ruth has gotten so that if she is tired she'll say, No scriptures just my song. I'm all right with that. We say them every night as a family anyway so she's really not missing out and she's still learning them really well. I also just had John download some free scripture mastery songs to put in the ipod. I think the girls will get a kick out of them. Musically speaking, they're not the best things ever, but the girls will be excited, just judging from the fact that they made me listen to the Books in the Book of Mormon song like 50 times the other day, just because they knew all the words (we had sung it for our hymn of the week a few weeks before).
3. Exercising: John put my exerciser away while I was on my trip, but then very kindly found me a new spot when I asked about it when I got home. I've done it maybe twice this week, but I have to say that it makes me feel great so I'm going to try to be lots better.
4. Finish projects: I went up to my mom's and at least cut out my quilt block for the month and hers too. I still need to sew it but I'm getting there. I also worked on my frog book for Ruth so I'm taking baby steps toward getting something done.
5. Go to bed earlier: I've kind of given up on this goal because I can only sleep so long on one side before my leg goes numb, and so the earlier I go to bed, the longer I struggle so it seems more time efficient to just stay up and get something done--hoping that I actually do something.
6. Family indexing: I've still been doing it everyday and now they're doing state censuses. Some of them have been kind of hard, but I still get a lot of sense of accomplishment from doing them. They say that they are now indexing about a million names a day. Amazing!!!
7. Surprise gift for John: I have also been working on this daily. I've upped my amount that I do per day because I'm afraid that it is not going to get done on time. Hopefully it will.
8. Positive kid moments: None, not that I haven't had any, I just haven't been recording them all that well. I need to work on the whole journal thing a little.
Monday, March 10, 2008
What does he do all day?
About a month ago, as I was driving Emma home from her preschool, out of the blue, she says, "I think dad should get a job, mom." My response was, "Doesn't dad have a job, Emma?" "No." This made me curious so I started asking questions about what she considered a job, where she thought we got all of our money, things like that. I ended by telling her that yes, dad did have a job and if he didn't, we wouldn't have a house or any food. I found it hilarious. I think it must have stemmed from something they had talked about at school.
A couple of weeks later, just to confirm that I'd gotten my point across in the earlier conversation, I asked Emma if she thought dad had a job. "No," she said.
"Well, where does he go every day then?"
"Oh he goes to work."
"Work isn't a job?"
"No"
Trying to make sense of Emma thinking I said, "Do you have to help people to have a job?" "Yea, all dad does is play on his computer."
"Work and job is the same thing Emma."
"Oh, " in a totally surprised voice.
I laughed. I asked her again today if dad had a job. She kind of laughed and said yes. It was at his work. I think she was just humoring me.
A couple of weeks later, just to confirm that I'd gotten my point across in the earlier conversation, I asked Emma if she thought dad had a job. "No," she said.
"Well, where does he go every day then?"
"Oh he goes to work."
"Work isn't a job?"
"No"
Trying to make sense of Emma thinking I said, "Do you have to help people to have a job?" "Yea, all dad does is play on his computer."
"Work and job is the same thing Emma."
"Oh, " in a totally surprised voice.
I laughed. I asked her again today if dad had a job. She kind of laughed and said yes. It was at his work. I think she was just humoring me.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
The Big Vacation
John so kindly let me go on a vacation by myself. He's trying to keep me from going crazy and I appreciate it. I am now in Oklahoma with my older sister Michelle visiting my little brother John and his family. It has been really fun and relaxing.
We got here on Wednesday afternoon and have been having fun ever since. My brother lives in Moore, OK, a suburb of Oklahoma City and he has a beautiful house there. When we got here his wife Jani picked us up and had made up a room for us complete with lotion and chocolates on the pillows. It has been great. Both John and Jani are great cooks and we've had some great food.
We've also done a lot of shopping. Not many people have brothers who love to shop but we do. I found some great OU clothes and some baby clothes. Mostly I just love to walk and around and chat with my brother.
I've also gotten to work a lot on my projects and do a lot of reading--all things I have a hard time doing at home. I've also gotten to play games, watch movies and have fun with John's two little boys. Now I have a taste of what a having a boy in the house will feel like. It has made me even more excited for our little boy.
Anyway, it has been great and I am so grateful that John suggested it. If you can believe it, the trip was John's idea. It has been great to have a break and I think the girls have enjoyed spending time with their dad. He is a great husband and a great dad and I don't know what I'd do without him. I love him. Hopefully he's still alive and sane when I get home.
We got here on Wednesday afternoon and have been having fun ever since. My brother lives in Moore, OK, a suburb of Oklahoma City and he has a beautiful house there. When we got here his wife Jani picked us up and had made up a room for us complete with lotion and chocolates on the pillows. It has been great. Both John and Jani are great cooks and we've had some great food.
We've also done a lot of shopping. Not many people have brothers who love to shop but we do. I found some great OU clothes and some baby clothes. Mostly I just love to walk and around and chat with my brother.
I've also gotten to work a lot on my projects and do a lot of reading--all things I have a hard time doing at home. I've also gotten to play games, watch movies and have fun with John's two little boys. Now I have a taste of what a having a boy in the house will feel like. It has made me even more excited for our little boy.
Anyway, it has been great and I am so grateful that John suggested it. If you can believe it, the trip was John's idea. It has been great to have a break and I think the girls have enjoyed spending time with their dad. He is a great husband and a great dad and I don't know what I'd do without him. I love him. Hopefully he's still alive and sane when I get home.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Goals update
1. Friday night couples: We resumed this week and invited Sam and Tisha and Amber and Maurice. Maurice ditched us, something about fulfilling a stake calling, whatever(J/K). We had lots of fun and talked probably more than we should have, but it was great. We're going on another hiatus this week because I'm going to be out of town. Oh yeah, and John made the best apple pie I've ever had. It was fantastic!!
2. Scripture Mastery: The girls have successfully completed their third and fourth scriptures. I was a little lax with Emma and Ruth because the scriptures for this month were very similar and pretty long and they kept getting parts of them mixed up. Plus, they had the words profit and prophet several times and it all sounds the same to 2 and 4 year olds. But they knew all the parts and every once in a while they'd get it. I also changed it so that the girls now get a treat for each scripture (before it was 2). I figured we needed to loosen up a little for the younger ones. They were working so hard and long and getting nothing. (We've been working on these for about 3 weeks.) What can I say, I'm a softy.
3. Exercising: I've had several fond remembrances of when I used to exercise, but it just hasn't happened yet. I need to start though because I think it would help with the pregnancy.
4. Finish projects: I did my quilt block of the month for my class. It took a little subtle prodding from John, as in, "Tara, you can finish your icecream bar, but then you are getting off the couch and you will do your square tonight." I love it. It is just what I need and it is why I keep him around, among other things.
5. Go to bed earlier: Well, this hasn't really happened either. Between sick kids and just being dumb and staying up working on things because I'm on a roll, I pretty much have stayed up too late the last little while. Oh well, you have to have room for improvement somewhere.
6. Family indexing: I have been doing this everyday and I love it still. It makes me feel like at least I've contributed a little to the work and it doesn't take long.
7. Surprise gift for John: I have also been working on this daily. However, I just decided to expand the scope of the project so I'm going to have to step it up a little if I'm going to have it done by our anniversary.
8. Positive kid moments: I have been recording some (or at least funny stories) but they have yet to make it into the blog. Sorry.
2. Scripture Mastery: The girls have successfully completed their third and fourth scriptures. I was a little lax with Emma and Ruth because the scriptures for this month were very similar and pretty long and they kept getting parts of them mixed up. Plus, they had the words profit and prophet several times and it all sounds the same to 2 and 4 year olds. But they knew all the parts and every once in a while they'd get it. I also changed it so that the girls now get a treat for each scripture (before it was 2). I figured we needed to loosen up a little for the younger ones. They were working so hard and long and getting nothing. (We've been working on these for about 3 weeks.) What can I say, I'm a softy.
3. Exercising: I've had several fond remembrances of when I used to exercise, but it just hasn't happened yet. I need to start though because I think it would help with the pregnancy.
4. Finish projects: I did my quilt block of the month for my class. It took a little subtle prodding from John, as in, "Tara, you can finish your icecream bar, but then you are getting off the couch and you will do your square tonight." I love it. It is just what I need and it is why I keep him around, among other things.
5. Go to bed earlier: Well, this hasn't really happened either. Between sick kids and just being dumb and staying up working on things because I'm on a roll, I pretty much have stayed up too late the last little while. Oh well, you have to have room for improvement somewhere.
6. Family indexing: I have been doing this everyday and I love it still. It makes me feel like at least I've contributed a little to the work and it doesn't take long.
7. Surprise gift for John: I have also been working on this daily. However, I just decided to expand the scope of the project so I'm going to have to step it up a little if I'm going to have it done by our anniversary.
8. Positive kid moments: I have been recording some (or at least funny stories) but they have yet to make it into the blog. Sorry.
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