#100

This is my 100th Post!

I've decided to tell you about an experience I recently had. Now, I'm not the type of person who feels like they receive profound spiritual experiences or revelations every day. And this might not seem very profound to you at all. But to me, it was exactly what I needed.

This past Sunday was Fast Sunday for our Stake, due to Stake Conference. I had made up my mind a few days early what I would focus on during my fast. It was a specific blessing I have been wanting for quite some time now. I had every intention of fasting, praying, pleading even, for his purpose which I believed, and still do, was a "righteous desire of the heart". That morning, I knelt down beside my bed and quickly prayed to open my fast and told my Heavenly Father once more what I wanted and we went off to church.

David had a migraine that morning and stayed home, so I sat in the chapel with Caroline, who was... her usual self: climbing on me and the bench, asking for snacks and entertainment, trying to get the attention of anyone around us. When it came time for the Sacrament, the 11 year old girl behind us asked if Caroline could come sit with her. I nodded a "yes" and Caroline sat quietly for that 10 minutes. I bowed my head, thankful for some peace, and prayed. Only, my prayer had changed. I found myself asking for a completely different blessing than I had originally intended. I didn't know I needed what I was asking for. I did.

In my prayer, I found myself asking for help in appreciating what I have, and enjoying every day. I asked for reminders to find joy in my life as it is right now.

I never mentioned the blessing that I planned to plead for.

Now, I still want that first blessing. I know that Heavenly Father knows that. But what I didn't know was how ungrateful I had become. I didn't realize that in my pursuit of something I didn't have, I was missing opportunities to have truly happy moments right now.

So, for this 100th Post, I want to tell you that I LOVE my life.

I LOVE my husband.


Marriage is harder than I ever expected, but over the last 5 and a half years, I've learned that the less-than-happy moments could have been better if I'd been less selfish, more mature, and more in-tune. Dave is a catch. He's handsome and caring and hard-working and my best friend.

I LOVE my daughter.

My daughter is not perfect, but she sure is fun! I have spent way too much time on worrying about what other people think of her behavior and what she's doing wrong than I should. She is 3, for crying out loud! She's messy and mischevious and funny and wonderful.

I LOVE my church.

By church I mean my religion, my testimony, my knowledge, my calling, my ward. Who would I be without it? I don't care to ever find out.

I LOVE my family

I have amazing parents and awesome siblings. They have great spouses and wonderful children. I love that I have big family. I love that they are all so different, but so the same when it comes to what's important.


I LOVE my job.
I love that I have the time to take care of my home, my husband, my daughter, our pets and ME! It's so nice to be able to plan my day the way I want it!

I LOVE my conveniences.
My house. My car. My kitchen. My bed. My computer. My TV. My dishwasher. I don't know how the pioneers did it. I am grateful for them.
I LOVE my pets. I LOVE blogs, books,American Idol, watching movies, dancing and singing with Caroline, laughing with Dave, pit-stops at the donut shop, shopping for clothes, and foot rubs.
There are so many things to enjoy, to be grateful for and I am. It's a wonderful life.

Build-A-Bear! Woo Hoo!

While we were in Texas, we were able to go to my niece, Lucy's, birthday party at:

Build-A-Bear!!!

This was Caroline's first Build-A-Bear experience and it was definately a big hit!

Here are the girls anxiously waiting to pick out their animals. Don't be fooled by Caroline's reverent pose - she was ALL over the place! We constantly had to wrangle her back to the group, because she was SO excited!


The happy Birthday Girl!


If you've never been, Build-A-Bear is a pretty cool place. They picked out a bear (or bunny or sheep or unicorn - they have everything!) then they each got a little red heart to make a wish and kiss and put inside their bear. They stuffed their bears, and washed their bears, and clothed their bears, and named their bears and even got a "birth certificate" for them!


This is one happy customer!
Caroline named her bear "Coco" and she loves him!

Since Caroline has turned 3, she has been to several birthday parties and I've learned a few things. I always thought that parties at home were the least expensive and therefore the more practical choice. But now that I'm a mommy of a toddler and have both been to and given birthday parties of all kinds, I think I've changed my position! A good home birthday party for several young children requires A LOT of planning and preparation and money too. I'm more than willing to pay someone else to plan, set-up, entertain, and clean-up for a kid's party!

Surprise, Joleen!

We surprised Joleen for her birthday this year with a little get-together at their new house!

Joleen and her adorable Tinkerbelle cake!


The kids enjoying their cake in the backyard.

Emily here is the other birthday girl. You see, Joleen's (and Nana's too!) b-day is one day before Emily's and we actually threw the party on Emily's birthday, just because it worked out better for most people's schedule! What a good sport she is!

I still love the people in Germantown ward and always enjoy it when I get to hang out with them.

Happy Birthday Joleen, Nana, and Emily!

Finger Lickin' Good

What to do when your husband is not fond of spaghetti,

BUT

Your darling daughter likes it this much:

Our trip to Texas

We just got back from our week-long trip to the Houston area to visit my sister's family. We left Monday and then Karen and her husband, Jason, left that Thursday to go to Salt Lake for Jason's mission reunion while we stayed with their 4 kids! It was a fun, busy week!

We've been talking about this trip for quite a while and Caroline was super excited to go see her "Texas cousins". The Saturday before we left we started getting things ready and saw Caroline had started packing her own suitcase! She packed her play dishes and dress up shoes and zipped it up and rolled it out to the car! It was so cute, but I had to explain that there woud be pleanty of toys at her cousin's house to play with, so all she needed to pack was her clothes.

We went south through Mississippi, and west through Louisianna to get there. This picture is of a friend Caroline met at a Louisianna gas station!

Caroline had a lot of fun playing at their house. Any place with a sand box and a trampoline is an automatic hit! Emily is 11 and was so great about playing with the two younger girls - Caroline and 5 year old Lucy.

I love this picture of Lucy. She's usually a pretty serious little kid, but this is a face of pure glee from Uncle Dave's tickling!

Making cupcakes with Aunt Karen for Lucy's b-day party. (More on Lucy's party at Build-A-Bear to come!)

The kids all slept in the same room for most of the week which meant many late nights!

They have a greyhound named Bullet that became Dave's new buddy. Caroline loved him too, but I'm not so sure he was as fond of her as he was of Dave!

There was a very cool park in their town the kids called the "train park". We went 3 times that week! Here's Lucy, Randy, and Emily. Caroline is in the background somewhere pouting because she didn't get icecream from the icecream man!

Dave and Randy enjoying a game of tennis.

We had some activities to keep the kids interested during conference. It worked great!...for about 20 minutes.

We had a good time getting to know Karen's family. I also learned how difficult it is to be a mom of 5 kids! And it was only for a few days! I was nervous that I would forget to pick someone up from school, or I'd lose one at the park (which I did, but it's ok - it was mine!!!) I don't know how my mom handled 8! Dave reminded me that it's not normal to go from one child to five - that they're usually added one or two at a time giving the family time to learn and adapt. That made it seem more possible, but still, managing so many different schedules and personalities is quite a task! It makes me feel so spoiled and lazy being a mom of just one. So kudos to all of you with two or more children! You are my hero!