I'm terrible at blogging. I don't even know what to say other than that. I want to be good at it, but with four little kiddos, a busy husband, serving at church and two businesses on the side, blogging often gets tossed to the side. So I pop in when I can, and try to give myself a little grace when I can't. I have tons of things I could catch up on, pictures to share, stories to tell, but I really just want to give a little written snapshot of how we are doing, so at the very least, I have that recorded!
Bruce- Bruce is busy with work and his church calling. He is an early morning seminary teacher so he gets up at 5 each morning, gets ready for the day then heads over to the church to teach 18ish teenagers about the Bible. This year they are studying the New Testament. I know we aren't suppose to aspire to callings, but this truly is his dream calling... he debated heavily between becoming a paid CES teacher and a police officer. This calling is wonderful because he gets to have his cake and eat it too Ü The calling has been a challenge at times, but overall he loves it.
Work is going well. He is the PIO for his department, so he has a nice cushy day time schedule with the fun of every day being new and different. Sometimes he is in city meetings, another day he is touring news stations and meeting celebrities and other days he makes videos to post on social media. There are plenty of other responsibilities as well, but each day brings variety and he loves that.
Sunshine- Sunshine just finished being part of her school production of Annie Kids. She played the part of July, an orphan with a few speaking parts and solos in songs. She put in so many hours of hard work and it completely paid off. The play was adorable and she loved being a part of it. The commitment level was difficult on my end, but somehow we made it through and in the end, I am glad she participated.
Now, Sunshine is back to swimming several times a week, she is taking piano and plays the flute in the school band and she enjoys Activity Days at church. She is a busy girl! On top of all her activities, she is excelling in school and has made the Principal Pride list for straight A's the past two grading periods. The switch to the new school has been a challenge at times, but overall, she is excelling and really does love her new school.
Beebs- Beebs also made the switch to the new school and is thriving there. She is learning so much and is already becoming quite the avid reader. Her favourite books are Elephant and Piggie and I could listen to her read for days. She has such fun intonation when she reads, I just adore hearing her! She still loves to play and sometimes it can be a bit of a struggle to get her to do things like homework or practice piano because she really just wants to get out all her toys and escape into her imaginary worlds.
Like Sunshine, Beebs swims multiple times a week and she is getting so good at it! She also plays piano and is picking that up very quickly. It is such a joy to have our home filled with the sounds of the girls practicing.
Man Cub- Man Cub keeps me busy! He is such an active child. He has preschool (taught by me!) three days a week and he does gymnastics on Mondays. He LOVES gymnastics and I just love watching his new tricks each week. He loves Primary and always comes home with stories about the things he learned. He is so good at telling us about his lessons each week. He is super social and always wants to go to a friend's house or have a friend over to our house. He would rather watch TV and eat than anything else, but once he gets to playing, he is a lot like Beebs. He comes up with elaborate games and can play for hours. He recently started taking swim lessons with the girls coach and he counts down the days each week. He tells everyone about swim lessons and invites them all to come watch him. He is so eager to be like his big sisters!
Man Cub has a little bit of a speech issue that is absolutely adorable. I wish I could adequately describe the way he talks, but I just don't do it justice. It may be something he needs help with down the line, but for now, I just enjoy the adorable way he talks. He also has such a sweet side! He brings me flowers, tells me I'm "the prettiest mom he's ever seen" (I taught him that, but he'll just say it randomly and it melts my heart every single time) and says things like "I want us to have another baby so Shark Bait has a baby to play with". He adores Shark Bait and looks up to both of his sisters.
Shark Bait- Shark Bait is growing like a weed. We took away his pacifier, I gave him a haircut and he started talking up a storm, all at once. He runs everywhere, he climbs everything. The boy has no fear at all. Not even one little bit. He talks all the time and is very good at telling you exactly what he wants. He thinks he is a big boy and opts to sit on a barstool at the kitchen island instead of in his high chair. He loves food, but not typical kid food. He turns his nose up at macaroni and cheese! He really loves fish and avocados and greek yogurt and beans and veggies. He is such a great eater... though sometimes too good because he eats all his food and then moves in on mine. Ü He also loves to read and play with toys. He makes all kinds of sounds, like he is trying to read, or acting out something elaborate with his toys. It's adorable to watch. And speaking of watching... another big screen fan in this guy! His favourites are Mickey's Monster Musical, Baymax, and Frozen.
Shark Bait does not love nursery. He's been attending nursery since he was born and did great in there, but they released me a month before he started attending on his own and that month ruined him! He does not like nursery very much anymore. He is still my best sleeper in that he'll go down quickly and without a fight, but he does not sleep through the night most nights. He likes to nurse once or twice during the night, if I'll let him. Which I usually do, because he's my last one and that breaks my heart a little bit.
Me- Oh there is so much I could say... I'm busy with preschool and my photography business. I've taken several amazing photo classes lately that just have me chomping at the bit to go completely full time with photography, but I know I'm not ready for that at this point in my kiddos lives. I am so enjoying all the education though! I look forward to sitting down at my computer each evening to do a little more of my classwork and I'm seeing my photography improve by leaps and bounds. It's amazing.
I've been dealing with some health issues lately that have been stressful and frustrating and annoying. I think I am finally getting a handle on things and maybe I'll devote a post to explaining it all later. I just feel like such a Debbie Downer when I talk about it all! But it makes me feel like a Debbie Downer to be experiencing it all too, so it's just been hard. Things are improving though and just this week I have taken a huge turn for the better! Here's to hoping things continue on this positive path.
So there you have it... updates on us, in a nutshell. Just know we are here, we are alive and well, we are just busy and I don't see that slowing down anytime soon. But we are also loving life and working hard on house project, planning some fun vacations and just enjoying each other. I'd love to say I'll be back soon with more posts, but I don't want to set anyone (including myself!) up for disappointment. I have more I want to post and hopefully I can find/make time to do it soon!
Showing posts with label Life Lately. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Lately. Show all posts
Catching Up With Us
Apr 20, 2017
Dec 6, 2016
My blog is suffering... that much is obvious. I am about 11 months behind on posting and as much as I like to hope that life will calm down and I will have the time to devote to catching up, the truth is I have less time than ever, with each passing day. I have debated heavily how I want to continue. Sometimes I contemplate throwing in the towel all together. Turning blogs into books has become really difficult and that is discouraging as my ultimate goal has always been to turn this blog into a printed history of our family.
But when it comes down to it, I can't let go. Between this and the private blog I wrote on from 2006 until 2013, I have over 1000 posts, countless number of photos, and so many recorded memories. I hate the thought of not continuing on. But something has to change. I cannot keep dreading logging in because I know I am so far behind. So, I'm letting myself off the hook. It pains me to not have the past 11 months recorded in great detail, but I want to be able to move forward and blog in the present. Perhaps a day will come when I can go back and fill in the holes. But, if not, I need to be ok with that as well, and I think I am!
So here goes, a brief recap of the past 11 months, in words only, no photos, and from here on out, I am blogging in real time. Hopefully this space can once again be a place I enjoy spending time, rather than one more thing on my to do list that stresses me out.
February- The main highlight of February was our trip to Disneyland. We surprised the kiddos with the trip at Christmas and then anxiously counted down the days until our trip. It was magical. We had a few days to ourselves and a few days with Bruce's brother's family, his dad and aunt. The girls dreams came true when Grandpa gifted them an afternoon at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, where Sunshine was transformed into Jasmine and Beebs was transformed into Anna. The girls also became Jedis and fought Darth Vader and The Seventh Sister. Shark Bait wore a different Disney onesie each day and got stopped everywhere we went so people could oh and ah over him. And Man Cub was just in heaven overall, especially when the night parade opened with his favourite character, Mack from Cars, leading the way.
After Disney, we headed down to San Diego for a few days with our friends from Bruce's academy days. It was wonderful to spend time with them. And after we returned home, the rest of February seemed pretty low key. We did take the kiddos to a Coyotes hockey game which was so much fun. I forgot how much I enjoy watching hockey! And then I turned 31, which was pretty dull... turns out, after all the hoopla of turning 30, it all goes downhill. Ü Especially when you spend your 31st birthday speaking in church. Not cool!
March- In March, we started attending a lot of mission paper parties. Many of the youth we have grown close to through Trek and teaching Sunday School and Bruce's years in Young Mens left on missions this year. We got to attend a lot of gatherings where the boys opened their calls and later in the year, we were able to go through the temple with many of the boys and hear their farewell talks. It was an exciting time! In March, we found out that the trek son we are very close to would be serving in the England Leeds Mission, speaking Slovak. I totally called it... the England part. Not the Slovak part!
Mid-March, we bid farewell to our trusty Blazer. She was 20 years old, we had driven her for 10.5 of those years and she was on the way out. She is the car we brought Sunshine home from the hospital in and it was really sad to say goodbye... but our new fancy pants minivan helped ease the pain. Well, other than the part where we took on a car payment for the first time in our marriage. Luckily, we've almost got that sucker paid off already. We could actually pay it off right now, but were told that it was better for our credit to pay on it for a year? I hope that's actually true or I'll be mad that we keep holding off on making the full and final payment!
April- April was pretty low key... Sunshine took a sewing class and learned to make pillowcases. She's been her own little pillowcase sweat shop ever since. Pretty much everyone who is near and dear to her has a Sunshine-made pillowcase. And if they don't, they are probably getting one for Christmas! My best friend KJ was in town from Hawaii for her brother's wedding. Unfortunately, we didn't get much time together at all and it broke my heart to know she was just an hour away but not able to spend time with me. But she did bring me some POG (passion fruit-orange-guava juice) that eased my pains marginally.
May- May brought the end of a great school year. Sunshine and Beebs both loved their teachers and their classes. Man Cub rocked his first year of preschool, which was technically a one day a week tot class. Kindergarten graduation made me cry and we held our second annual Memorial Day BBQ with our favourite friends from the girls school.
June- This is when life started to get crazy! June was the month of swimming for us. Both girls were heavily involved in competitive swimming, with an hour long practice for each of them 4-5 mornings a week and swim meets two nights a week. We eventually got into a good routine with it, but it was a hard month! Especially since right after we signed the girls up, Bruce got a promotion at work that changed his schedule, making him unavailable to help with getting the girls to practice and meets. I'm not sure I would've committed to swimming had we known about the job change any sooner, so it is probably good that it worked out as it did. I am glad both girls got to compete all summer, even though it was difficult to spend that much time at the pool with four kiddos. It was amazing to watch them both progress and grow so much in their sport.
We also got ourselves a family pass to our community pool for the summer, so most nights of the week, we would eat dinner, then head over to the pool and swim for a few hours more. There were days when I spent 5-6 hours sitting in or at a pool. But it helped us to stay busy and mostly beat the heat during the first part of the summer.
July- Things really picked up in July. Along with the end of the swim season, we also had Shark Bait's first birthday and our two week road trip to Utah. It was a crazy, hectic month, but oh so fun. We had a blast in Utah. We touched lots of temples, ate lots of donuts, and spent as much time as possible outside enjoying the beautiful cool evenings. We fell in love with Swig cookies and sodas, ran a temple to temple 5k and celebrated Pioneer Day, Utah style. We ended the visit with a day in the mountains with all of my family before heading home to Arizona where Bruce and I had to decide which school our girls would attend... the one they had gone to since Sunshine was in Kindergarten, or a new school that opened in our area that I felt really strongly about...
August- In August, we headed back home to the sweltering heat. Bruce turned 33 and the girls got ready to start school. We debated heavily until the very last moment, at which point it became clear to us that they were suppose to attend the new school in our area. It was scary beyond belief to make the change, but it has been a wonderful experience. We are so happy with their new school. The curriculum is wonderful, the campus is beautiful and both girls are absolutely thriving there. We just really miss our friends from the old school and wish they would have all moved with us Ü Bruce and I hit a relationship high when together, we won the jackpot playing the basketball game at Chuck E Cheese, and we took a quick day trip up to Prescott to visit with some friends and enjoy the cooler mountain air.
September- Always a big month, September brought the beginning of my fourth year of teaching preschool. Bruce and I were given some amazing tickets to a Cardinals pre-season game and took Shark Bait with us. We were also invited to join some friends for a day at Wet N Wild water park. We celebrated Man Cub's 4th birthday by projecting a movie onto the side of our house and inviting all his friends and their families to join us in watching and we did all these things without spending an extra penny outside our regularly scheduled bills and food budget! No Spend September for the win! We saved a bucket load of money by really watching our spending, and were able to pay off a huge chunk of the new car as well as gear up for the expensive and fast approaching holiday season.
October- In October we added a new member to our family- Harvey Bones, the 5 foot tall plastic skeleton. He mostly hung out on our piano bench, but occasionally he could be found in miscellaneous places around the house. He was fun and we look forward to his return next October. The girls got their official Hogwarts acceptance letters and donned their wizard robes to attend Halloween at Hogwarts, presented by the Phoenix Symphony. Bruce and I hosted our first annual adult Halloween Party and it was amazing. Can't wait to do it again next year and we celebrated my nephew's birthday at Touch a Truck... aka, little boy heaven. Though Man Cub did not like all the honking horns at the event, he did love getting to touch and sit in the excavator. We finished off October with family photos at the Phoenix Temple, and for the first time in years someone other than myself took our pictures! It was fun to have someone else be in control and get the kiddos to all look at the camera and we ended up with some beautiful photos where everyone is looking and smiling!
November- November brought about our 5th annual Planksgiving celebration. Crab legs and melt-in-your-mouth ribeye, desserts galore and a trip to the movie theatre to see Moana. It was a spectacular day. I even started the day out by running a 5k with some friends at church. I did the race at a 10:25 mile pace which is huge for me, especially considering I hadn't been running regularly. My typical pace is 11:30-12:00 a mile, and that was when I was running 3 times a week and training for half marathons. It was exciting to see that I am not completely weak and useless when it comes to physical activity. Hopefully soon I can get back into a good running and exercise routine... as soon as I get my health back on track. Post with more info on that, coming soon! November ended with Bruce flying out to Maryland for a week long training at the Emergency Management Institution headquarters. My dad flew out to stay with us and that was such a blessing since it was one of those weeks where lots of little things happened that could have made for a difficult week had I not had some help... everything from Sunshine sewing through her finger while making pillowcases to a backed up toilet and two sick boys. It was nice to have my dad's company and help while Bruce was away.
And that leads us to December... the here and now! Blogging in the present for the first time since Shark Bait was born! Woohoo!
But when it comes down to it, I can't let go. Between this and the private blog I wrote on from 2006 until 2013, I have over 1000 posts, countless number of photos, and so many recorded memories. I hate the thought of not continuing on. But something has to change. I cannot keep dreading logging in because I know I am so far behind. So, I'm letting myself off the hook. It pains me to not have the past 11 months recorded in great detail, but I want to be able to move forward and blog in the present. Perhaps a day will come when I can go back and fill in the holes. But, if not, I need to be ok with that as well, and I think I am!
So here goes, a brief recap of the past 11 months, in words only, no photos, and from here on out, I am blogging in real time. Hopefully this space can once again be a place I enjoy spending time, rather than one more thing on my to do list that stresses me out.
February- The main highlight of February was our trip to Disneyland. We surprised the kiddos with the trip at Christmas and then anxiously counted down the days until our trip. It was magical. We had a few days to ourselves and a few days with Bruce's brother's family, his dad and aunt. The girls dreams came true when Grandpa gifted them an afternoon at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, where Sunshine was transformed into Jasmine and Beebs was transformed into Anna. The girls also became Jedis and fought Darth Vader and The Seventh Sister. Shark Bait wore a different Disney onesie each day and got stopped everywhere we went so people could oh and ah over him. And Man Cub was just in heaven overall, especially when the night parade opened with his favourite character, Mack from Cars, leading the way.
After Disney, we headed down to San Diego for a few days with our friends from Bruce's academy days. It was wonderful to spend time with them. And after we returned home, the rest of February seemed pretty low key. We did take the kiddos to a Coyotes hockey game which was so much fun. I forgot how much I enjoy watching hockey! And then I turned 31, which was pretty dull... turns out, after all the hoopla of turning 30, it all goes downhill. Ü Especially when you spend your 31st birthday speaking in church. Not cool!
March- In March, we started attending a lot of mission paper parties. Many of the youth we have grown close to through Trek and teaching Sunday School and Bruce's years in Young Mens left on missions this year. We got to attend a lot of gatherings where the boys opened their calls and later in the year, we were able to go through the temple with many of the boys and hear their farewell talks. It was an exciting time! In March, we found out that the trek son we are very close to would be serving in the England Leeds Mission, speaking Slovak. I totally called it... the England part. Not the Slovak part!
Mid-March, we bid farewell to our trusty Blazer. She was 20 years old, we had driven her for 10.5 of those years and she was on the way out. She is the car we brought Sunshine home from the hospital in and it was really sad to say goodbye... but our new fancy pants minivan helped ease the pain. Well, other than the part where we took on a car payment for the first time in our marriage. Luckily, we've almost got that sucker paid off already. We could actually pay it off right now, but were told that it was better for our credit to pay on it for a year? I hope that's actually true or I'll be mad that we keep holding off on making the full and final payment!
April- April was pretty low key... Sunshine took a sewing class and learned to make pillowcases. She's been her own little pillowcase sweat shop ever since. Pretty much everyone who is near and dear to her has a Sunshine-made pillowcase. And if they don't, they are probably getting one for Christmas! My best friend KJ was in town from Hawaii for her brother's wedding. Unfortunately, we didn't get much time together at all and it broke my heart to know she was just an hour away but not able to spend time with me. But she did bring me some POG (passion fruit-orange-guava juice) that eased my pains marginally.
May- May brought the end of a great school year. Sunshine and Beebs both loved their teachers and their classes. Man Cub rocked his first year of preschool, which was technically a one day a week tot class. Kindergarten graduation made me cry and we held our second annual Memorial Day BBQ with our favourite friends from the girls school.
June- This is when life started to get crazy! June was the month of swimming for us. Both girls were heavily involved in competitive swimming, with an hour long practice for each of them 4-5 mornings a week and swim meets two nights a week. We eventually got into a good routine with it, but it was a hard month! Especially since right after we signed the girls up, Bruce got a promotion at work that changed his schedule, making him unavailable to help with getting the girls to practice and meets. I'm not sure I would've committed to swimming had we known about the job change any sooner, so it is probably good that it worked out as it did. I am glad both girls got to compete all summer, even though it was difficult to spend that much time at the pool with four kiddos. It was amazing to watch them both progress and grow so much in their sport.
We also got ourselves a family pass to our community pool for the summer, so most nights of the week, we would eat dinner, then head over to the pool and swim for a few hours more. There were days when I spent 5-6 hours sitting in or at a pool. But it helped us to stay busy and mostly beat the heat during the first part of the summer.
July- Things really picked up in July. Along with the end of the swim season, we also had Shark Bait's first birthday and our two week road trip to Utah. It was a crazy, hectic month, but oh so fun. We had a blast in Utah. We touched lots of temples, ate lots of donuts, and spent as much time as possible outside enjoying the beautiful cool evenings. We fell in love with Swig cookies and sodas, ran a temple to temple 5k and celebrated Pioneer Day, Utah style. We ended the visit with a day in the mountains with all of my family before heading home to Arizona where Bruce and I had to decide which school our girls would attend... the one they had gone to since Sunshine was in Kindergarten, or a new school that opened in our area that I felt really strongly about...
August- In August, we headed back home to the sweltering heat. Bruce turned 33 and the girls got ready to start school. We debated heavily until the very last moment, at which point it became clear to us that they were suppose to attend the new school in our area. It was scary beyond belief to make the change, but it has been a wonderful experience. We are so happy with their new school. The curriculum is wonderful, the campus is beautiful and both girls are absolutely thriving there. We just really miss our friends from the old school and wish they would have all moved with us Ü Bruce and I hit a relationship high when together, we won the jackpot playing the basketball game at Chuck E Cheese, and we took a quick day trip up to Prescott to visit with some friends and enjoy the cooler mountain air.
September- Always a big month, September brought the beginning of my fourth year of teaching preschool. Bruce and I were given some amazing tickets to a Cardinals pre-season game and took Shark Bait with us. We were also invited to join some friends for a day at Wet N Wild water park. We celebrated Man Cub's 4th birthday by projecting a movie onto the side of our house and inviting all his friends and their families to join us in watching and we did all these things without spending an extra penny outside our regularly scheduled bills and food budget! No Spend September for the win! We saved a bucket load of money by really watching our spending, and were able to pay off a huge chunk of the new car as well as gear up for the expensive and fast approaching holiday season.
October- In October we added a new member to our family- Harvey Bones, the 5 foot tall plastic skeleton. He mostly hung out on our piano bench, but occasionally he could be found in miscellaneous places around the house. He was fun and we look forward to his return next October. The girls got their official Hogwarts acceptance letters and donned their wizard robes to attend Halloween at Hogwarts, presented by the Phoenix Symphony. Bruce and I hosted our first annual adult Halloween Party and it was amazing. Can't wait to do it again next year and we celebrated my nephew's birthday at Touch a Truck... aka, little boy heaven. Though Man Cub did not like all the honking horns at the event, he did love getting to touch and sit in the excavator. We finished off October with family photos at the Phoenix Temple, and for the first time in years someone other than myself took our pictures! It was fun to have someone else be in control and get the kiddos to all look at the camera and we ended up with some beautiful photos where everyone is looking and smiling!
November- November brought about our 5th annual Planksgiving celebration. Crab legs and melt-in-your-mouth ribeye, desserts galore and a trip to the movie theatre to see Moana. It was a spectacular day. I even started the day out by running a 5k with some friends at church. I did the race at a 10:25 mile pace which is huge for me, especially considering I hadn't been running regularly. My typical pace is 11:30-12:00 a mile, and that was when I was running 3 times a week and training for half marathons. It was exciting to see that I am not completely weak and useless when it comes to physical activity. Hopefully soon I can get back into a good running and exercise routine... as soon as I get my health back on track. Post with more info on that, coming soon! November ended with Bruce flying out to Maryland for a week long training at the Emergency Management Institution headquarters. My dad flew out to stay with us and that was such a blessing since it was one of those weeks where lots of little things happened that could have made for a difficult week had I not had some help... everything from Sunshine sewing through her finger while making pillowcases to a backed up toilet and two sick boys. It was nice to have my dad's company and help while Bruce was away.
And that leads us to December... the here and now! Blogging in the present for the first time since Shark Bait was born! Woohoo!
May 29, 2014
I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. I made a list of 13 things I need to blog, and soon, before I get even more behind on documenting the happenings of our family. I'm going to attempt to catch up, and I may even double and triple post, which is something I never do. But I've got to get caught up!
Before I go on to the posts filled with pictures, here are some tidbits of life lately that don't really warrant posts of their own.
* Bruce and I completed a "40 bags in 40 days" spring cleaning/decluttering challenge in April. I was inspired by posts from a favourite blogger, Sarah at Clover Lane, who often does this decluttering challenge during Lent. This year was my second attempt at doing the challenge, and my first time actually completing it. It. Feels. WONDERFUL! Over the course of the 40 days of Lent, Bruce and I got rid of 40 large garbage bags of stuff from our house. Some of it was trash, some was stuff that we somehow had ended up storing for other people, but a lot of it was from going room by room and evaluating just how much we needed (or didn't need!) each object in the space. We got rid of so many things that we hadn't used in ages, or that we no longer loved. It feels awesome to have unloaded so much unnecessary baggage from our home. I still find myself picking things up and thinking "do I find this useful or beautiful?". If the answer is no, I have another bag of donation stuff in the garage that I am constantly adding to. I'm planning to attempt the challenge again next year, but probably with grocery store sized bags this time around. I certainly hope we won't have acquired so much stuff over the course of one year that I need to fill 40 garbage bags again.
* The last time I blogged about running, I had just finished my first 7 mile run and was anxious to kick things up a notch. Well, during that 7 mile run, I apparently injured my knee and for the past 5 weeks I have really struggled with running. I haven't been able to go more than 3-4 miles at a time and I was not enjoying my runs at all. (The increasing heat doesn't help with that!) I started doing some strength training, hoping to build up the muscles around my knees. I also gave myself plenty of rest time and started stretching a ton. It paid off, and last Saturday I was once again able to do 7 miles. It felt good and I really enjoyed the run. But what I enjoyed even more is that on Monday I was able to do 5 miles with no knee issues, and I did another 3 on Wednesday. I think I am back on track to train for my half marathon! 6 weeks till race time and I've got an 8 mile run scheduled for tomorrow. I hope it goes well!
* I had kidney stone surgery mid-May. I've had (and passed!) kidney stones 3 or 4 times now. They are awful! My most recent stone was too big to pass but was causing issues and needed to be taken care of. Enter surgery. It was super scary for me as my only surgery experience was my emergency c section when Beebs was born. Needless to say, that was beyond traumatizing and I am realizing now, that I still haven't quite processed the trauma from that event. I was pretty worked up over the kidney stone procedure, but it went off without a hitch. Seriously, it could not have gone better. I had no pain or side effects from the surgery, other than it taking almost a week to feel "normal" again after the anesthesia. I was absolutely exhausted for about 6 days post surgery, but that was the worst of it. The stone was blasted into oblivion so there was no pain passing it. Now we just have to figure out why my kidneys aren't filtering correctly, thus making me a little kidney stone manufacturing plant. Luckily, my Urologist is amazing and he is very proactive. He is determined to figure things out so I can hopefully avoid surgery in the future.
* For as successful as our garden was last year, this year has been a disaster. We have a ground squirrel infestation that is causing all kinds of issues. It has been really depressing, especially when I look back at pictures from this time last year and we were enjoying a great harvest of homegrown veggies. We have tried every humane way of taking care of the problem... Bruce is getting pretty determined to take care of this issue for good. We'll see how exactly that ends up happening...
* Summer is in full swing. Beebs finished up her swim lessons today, Man Cub has one more session. Sunshine is on swim team and has her first meet on Saturday. Bruce and I leave to be Ma and Pa for our Stake's Trek in 2 weeks. I'm nervous as can be about it... I'm sure it will be a great experience and I'll love it once we are in the throws of it, but right now, I just feel stressed as we try to make sure we are prepared. After Trek, the wee ones and I will head to Utah for several weeks, during which I will acclimatize to the high mountain air, and then run my half marathon. Bruce and his dad will continue working on our kitchen facelift. Once we are home from Utah, we have a camping trip planned and then school will be back in session! Summer only just began, and it already feels like it it almost over!
Despite being crazy busy, life really has been good lately. I feel like we are running non-stop, but we are getting a lot done. And over the next week or so, hopefully the lots I am getting done will include catching up on blogging. Prepare for a posting overload! I'd really like to be caught up before we head to Utah, because I'm sure three weeks up there will give me plenty more to blog about.
Before I go on to the posts filled with pictures, here are some tidbits of life lately that don't really warrant posts of their own.
* Bruce and I completed a "40 bags in 40 days" spring cleaning/decluttering challenge in April. I was inspired by posts from a favourite blogger, Sarah at Clover Lane, who often does this decluttering challenge during Lent. This year was my second attempt at doing the challenge, and my first time actually completing it. It. Feels. WONDERFUL! Over the course of the 40 days of Lent, Bruce and I got rid of 40 large garbage bags of stuff from our house. Some of it was trash, some was stuff that we somehow had ended up storing for other people, but a lot of it was from going room by room and evaluating just how much we needed (or didn't need!) each object in the space. We got rid of so many things that we hadn't used in ages, or that we no longer loved. It feels awesome to have unloaded so much unnecessary baggage from our home. I still find myself picking things up and thinking "do I find this useful or beautiful?". If the answer is no, I have another bag of donation stuff in the garage that I am constantly adding to. I'm planning to attempt the challenge again next year, but probably with grocery store sized bags this time around. I certainly hope we won't have acquired so much stuff over the course of one year that I need to fill 40 garbage bags again.
* The last time I blogged about running, I had just finished my first 7 mile run and was anxious to kick things up a notch. Well, during that 7 mile run, I apparently injured my knee and for the past 5 weeks I have really struggled with running. I haven't been able to go more than 3-4 miles at a time and I was not enjoying my runs at all. (The increasing heat doesn't help with that!) I started doing some strength training, hoping to build up the muscles around my knees. I also gave myself plenty of rest time and started stretching a ton. It paid off, and last Saturday I was once again able to do 7 miles. It felt good and I really enjoyed the run. But what I enjoyed even more is that on Monday I was able to do 5 miles with no knee issues, and I did another 3 on Wednesday. I think I am back on track to train for my half marathon! 6 weeks till race time and I've got an 8 mile run scheduled for tomorrow. I hope it goes well!
* I had kidney stone surgery mid-May. I've had (and passed!) kidney stones 3 or 4 times now. They are awful! My most recent stone was too big to pass but was causing issues and needed to be taken care of. Enter surgery. It was super scary for me as my only surgery experience was my emergency c section when Beebs was born. Needless to say, that was beyond traumatizing and I am realizing now, that I still haven't quite processed the trauma from that event. I was pretty worked up over the kidney stone procedure, but it went off without a hitch. Seriously, it could not have gone better. I had no pain or side effects from the surgery, other than it taking almost a week to feel "normal" again after the anesthesia. I was absolutely exhausted for about 6 days post surgery, but that was the worst of it. The stone was blasted into oblivion so there was no pain passing it. Now we just have to figure out why my kidneys aren't filtering correctly, thus making me a little kidney stone manufacturing plant. Luckily, my Urologist is amazing and he is very proactive. He is determined to figure things out so I can hopefully avoid surgery in the future.
* For as successful as our garden was last year, this year has been a disaster. We have a ground squirrel infestation that is causing all kinds of issues. It has been really depressing, especially when I look back at pictures from this time last year and we were enjoying a great harvest of homegrown veggies. We have tried every humane way of taking care of the problem... Bruce is getting pretty determined to take care of this issue for good. We'll see how exactly that ends up happening...
* Summer is in full swing. Beebs finished up her swim lessons today, Man Cub has one more session. Sunshine is on swim team and has her first meet on Saturday. Bruce and I leave to be Ma and Pa for our Stake's Trek in 2 weeks. I'm nervous as can be about it... I'm sure it will be a great experience and I'll love it once we are in the throws of it, but right now, I just feel stressed as we try to make sure we are prepared. After Trek, the wee ones and I will head to Utah for several weeks, during which I will acclimatize to the high mountain air, and then run my half marathon. Bruce and his dad will continue working on our kitchen facelift. Once we are home from Utah, we have a camping trip planned and then school will be back in session! Summer only just began, and it already feels like it it almost over!
Despite being crazy busy, life really has been good lately. I feel like we are running non-stop, but we are getting a lot done. And over the next week or so, hopefully the lots I am getting done will include catching up on blogging. Prepare for a posting overload! I'd really like to be caught up before we head to Utah, because I'm sure three weeks up there will give me plenty more to blog about.
Mar 6, 2014
I failed to blog some of our February Fun, so here it is, in one final post from my favourite month of the year!
First up- Valentine's Dance. My counselors and I were in charge of a ward Valentine's Dance on February 15th. We had a small budget and big dreams. Somehow everything fell into place and we threw one awesome bash considering what we had to work with! One counselor had all kinds of red and pink decor from her sister's wedding, a member of our ward agreed to MC and another acted as the DJ. Relief Society members signed up to bring sugar cookies and a lot of the women went all out, making super fancy ones. As I was heading to the church for the dance to begin, a girl who works at a local candy shop called to tell me that her store was about to throw away 100 chocolate covered strawberries that were past their prime and could no longer be sold and she was bringing them to the dance instead of taking them to the dumpster. Plus, the store donated several items for door prizes. Looking back, I still cannot believe how perfectly everything fell into place. The whole thing was such a blast. I danced, I limbo'ed (and won!), I looked like a total fool but had the time of my life, being out there with all my Primary kiddos. I'm still not 100% comfortable being in a calling that requires me to be in charge, but boy oh boy do I love being with all those kids! And the dance was such a fun way to spend time with them, without having to shush them or remind them to be reverent.
Towards the end of the month, Sunshine's class went on a field trip to one of the local zoos and I got to be a chaperone. I even got to ride on the school bus with her. And when I say "with her", I mean we were both on the bus. She wanted to sit by her friends and chatter, so I sat a few seats away and watched my little social butterfly. Despite being a loner on the bus, the field trip was a blast. I had Sunshine and one of her best friends in my group and we did our best to see as much of the zoo as possible.
Along with those two larger items, there were lots of little things I loved about February .
The writing practice that Sunshine brought home from school...
Man Cub's latest escapades...
Sunshine's first KinderEgg...
A rocking ensemble put together by Beebs herself... (what you can't really see in the pictures is that those heels match the flower on the shirt exactly. That girl has an awesome sense of style)
Man Cub proving that certain male characteristics start young... I took this photo and Beebs wanted to see it. I showed her and she "awwww-ed" over it. Then I went to show it to Man Cub, and without ever looking away from the television, he too said "awwwwww".
And the month ended with my birthday (yay!) which was a glorious and rare overcast day that eventually turned into an awesome storm and then a beautiful rainbow. Technically the rainbows are from March... but the rain started in February, so I'm throwing it in this post!
First up- Valentine's Dance. My counselors and I were in charge of a ward Valentine's Dance on February 15th. We had a small budget and big dreams. Somehow everything fell into place and we threw one awesome bash considering what we had to work with! One counselor had all kinds of red and pink decor from her sister's wedding, a member of our ward agreed to MC and another acted as the DJ. Relief Society members signed up to bring sugar cookies and a lot of the women went all out, making super fancy ones. As I was heading to the church for the dance to begin, a girl who works at a local candy shop called to tell me that her store was about to throw away 100 chocolate covered strawberries that were past their prime and could no longer be sold and she was bringing them to the dance instead of taking them to the dumpster. Plus, the store donated several items for door prizes. Looking back, I still cannot believe how perfectly everything fell into place. The whole thing was such a blast. I danced, I limbo'ed (and won!), I looked like a total fool but had the time of my life, being out there with all my Primary kiddos. I'm still not 100% comfortable being in a calling that requires me to be in charge, but boy oh boy do I love being with all those kids! And the dance was such a fun way to spend time with them, without having to shush them or remind them to be reverent.
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| Bruce and Sunshine playing with the photo booth props |
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| Man Cub cheated and joined the adult limbo. He had a very unfair advantage |
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| My winning limbo... I took home a chocolate basket filled with dipped strawberries as my prize. |
Along with those two larger items, there were lots of little things I loved about February .
The writing practice that Sunshine brought home from school...
Man Cub's latest escapades...
Sunshine's first KinderEgg...
A rocking ensemble put together by Beebs herself... (what you can't really see in the pictures is that those heels match the flower on the shirt exactly. That girl has an awesome sense of style)
Man Cub proving that certain male characteristics start young... I took this photo and Beebs wanted to see it. I showed her and she "awwww-ed" over it. Then I went to show it to Man Cub, and without ever looking away from the television, he too said "awwwwww".
And the month ended with my birthday (yay!) which was a glorious and rare overcast day that eventually turned into an awesome storm and then a beautiful rainbow. Technically the rainbows are from March... but the rain started in February, so I'm throwing it in this post!
Dec 17, 2013
It is definitely December!! I cannot believe it has been almost an entire month since I last had a moment to sit and write. We have crammed a LOT into the past four weeks, and things don't look like they will be slowing down anytime soon. From hosting visitors to planning and executing parties {plural}, from end of the year church calling necessities to our regular day-to-day responsibilities, we are running around like crazy people right now.
I have plenty to catch up on around here {Not that this is anything new!}, but for the moment, I wanted to jot down a few tidbits about life lately...
* Bruce still doesn't have an assigned squad. We have no idea what his schedule will be over Christmas week so we have plans in place for both options... if he has Christmas morning free, we'll stick to our regular Christmas traditions- brunch, presents, a pot roast dinner. If he doesn't have Christmas morning free, my father in law and I are taking the kiddos to the zoo to help the morning pass, then we'll meet Bruce at home for presents and Christmas dinner once he is off work. Either way, Christmas is going to be spectacular. I can't wait to find out which itinerary we will be following.
* Since I last blogged, Sunshine has learned to tie her shoes and ride a two wheeler. Not only did she finally get the hang of riding her bike, she has gotten so good at it that she occasionally rides along side Bruce when he goes for a run.
* Beebs is just two and a half weeks away from her fourth birthday and officially being a Sunbeam in church.
* Man Cub chipped his front tooth. It was devastating for me. He didn't even cry. In fact, we have no idea how he did it. I still am not completely use to his new smile, but it is growing on me. At least I don't get teary eyed looking at his poor tooth.
* On November 16th we celebrated 3 years of living in our dream home. I love this house even more today than the day we bought it. To celebrate our third house-iversary, we finally settled on paint colours and last weekend Bruce and his dad gave the outside of our house a facelift. It looks amazing! And then we were informed that due to an HOA website error, the colour we painted it is in fact NOT an approved colour. We shall see if we can convince the HOA board to let us keep it. Cause it looks awesome.
* Sunshine is all caught up in the spirit of Christmas. She has one thing in particular that she wants for Christmas, but her true focus has been what she can give. She even told me yesterday that she is not really that excited about getting stuff, because there isn't much she can think of that she wants, but she cannot wait to give everyone the gifts she has picked for them.
* Beebs loves to sing Christmas songs- Jingle Bells and Rudolph are her favourites. This year she is actually willing to visit with Santa and tell him what she wants {the Lego dolphin boat, swimming pool and high school sets, but mostly the dolphin boat, in case you were wondering}. At our ward Christmas party she met Mrs Claus as well as Santa. It was very exciting for her.
* Man Cub has been learning signs and it is so fun to watch him communicate with us. He will regularly sign "thank you", "nurse" {milk}, "all done" and "more". For quite some time I was working on teaching him "please", which involves moving one hand over the chest in a circular motion. After trying to get him to mimic me on several occasions, one day, he finally did it. He picked up his hand and moved it in a circular motion... right over my chest. I about died laughing. He cracks me up!
* Sunshine recently started attending speech at school to help with her lateral lisp. Bruce and I were so concerned that she would feel like there is something "wrong" or that she would be picked on, but we had no reason to fear. Sunshine LOVES speech and is up well before her alarm on days when she knows she has speech.
* As usual, I have stretched myself a little thin this holiday season. Hence the lack of blogging. Luckily, teaching preschool this school year has really helped me with time management, and for the most part, I feel like I am handling my overloaded schedule well. There have been days when I feel overwhelmed to the max, but there have also been many, many tender mercies that have allowed me to not only accomplish all that is already on my plate, but also have the time and ability to do more when needed. I am truly grateful for all I have been able to participate in lately, especially for the amount of time I've been able to spend at Sunshine's school in the past month.
I think that is a pretty good overview of what has been going on here. Hopefully soon I'll be able to sit down and share pictures from Disneyland back in October, a sweet story from Thanksgiving and some odds and ends from December.
I have plenty to catch up on around here {Not that this is anything new!}, but for the moment, I wanted to jot down a few tidbits about life lately...
* Bruce still doesn't have an assigned squad. We have no idea what his schedule will be over Christmas week so we have plans in place for both options... if he has Christmas morning free, we'll stick to our regular Christmas traditions- brunch, presents, a pot roast dinner. If he doesn't have Christmas morning free, my father in law and I are taking the kiddos to the zoo to help the morning pass, then we'll meet Bruce at home for presents and Christmas dinner once he is off work. Either way, Christmas is going to be spectacular. I can't wait to find out which itinerary we will be following.
* Since I last blogged, Sunshine has learned to tie her shoes and ride a two wheeler. Not only did she finally get the hang of riding her bike, she has gotten so good at it that she occasionally rides along side Bruce when he goes for a run.
* Beebs is just two and a half weeks away from her fourth birthday and officially being a Sunbeam in church.
* Man Cub chipped his front tooth. It was devastating for me. He didn't even cry. In fact, we have no idea how he did it. I still am not completely use to his new smile, but it is growing on me. At least I don't get teary eyed looking at his poor tooth.
* On November 16th we celebrated 3 years of living in our dream home. I love this house even more today than the day we bought it. To celebrate our third house-iversary, we finally settled on paint colours and last weekend Bruce and his dad gave the outside of our house a facelift. It looks amazing! And then we were informed that due to an HOA website error, the colour we painted it is in fact NOT an approved colour. We shall see if we can convince the HOA board to let us keep it. Cause it looks awesome.
* Sunshine is all caught up in the spirit of Christmas. She has one thing in particular that she wants for Christmas, but her true focus has been what she can give. She even told me yesterday that she is not really that excited about getting stuff, because there isn't much she can think of that she wants, but she cannot wait to give everyone the gifts she has picked for them.
* Beebs loves to sing Christmas songs- Jingle Bells and Rudolph are her favourites. This year she is actually willing to visit with Santa and tell him what she wants {the Lego dolphin boat, swimming pool and high school sets, but mostly the dolphin boat, in case you were wondering}. At our ward Christmas party she met Mrs Claus as well as Santa. It was very exciting for her.
* Man Cub has been learning signs and it is so fun to watch him communicate with us. He will regularly sign "thank you", "nurse" {milk}, "all done" and "more". For quite some time I was working on teaching him "please", which involves moving one hand over the chest in a circular motion. After trying to get him to mimic me on several occasions, one day, he finally did it. He picked up his hand and moved it in a circular motion... right over my chest. I about died laughing. He cracks me up!
* Sunshine recently started attending speech at school to help with her lateral lisp. Bruce and I were so concerned that she would feel like there is something "wrong" or that she would be picked on, but we had no reason to fear. Sunshine LOVES speech and is up well before her alarm on days when she knows she has speech.
* As usual, I have stretched myself a little thin this holiday season. Hence the lack of blogging. Luckily, teaching preschool this school year has really helped me with time management, and for the most part, I feel like I am handling my overloaded schedule well. There have been days when I feel overwhelmed to the max, but there have also been many, many tender mercies that have allowed me to not only accomplish all that is already on my plate, but also have the time and ability to do more when needed. I am truly grateful for all I have been able to participate in lately, especially for the amount of time I've been able to spend at Sunshine's school in the past month.
I think that is a pretty good overview of what has been going on here. Hopefully soon I'll be able to sit down and share pictures from Disneyland back in October, a sweet story from Thanksgiving and some odds and ends from December.
Nov 5, 2013
Ten things I want to remember about life right now, that might not get blogged otherwise.Ü
1. Happy Bonfire/Guy Fawkes Night! Remember, remember the 5th of November. Bruce is working swing shift tonight, so we celebrated yesterday with a fire pit and s'mores. I also had the girls draw pictures of "a bad guy" (Guy Fawkes), which we threw in the fire. I love my British heritage!
2. Man Cub learned how to shake his head "no" on Saturday. Luckily, he hasn't realized he can do it all the time, but the few times he has done it, it makes me a little bit sad. The beginning of the end. I'm sure he'll tell me "no" many more times in the years to come.
3. I am 90% done with my Christmas shopping. All I have left is buying Bruce's stocking stuffers and ordering the traditional Disney Precious Moments figures for each of the wee ones. I've chosen which ones to order, just haven't placed the order yet. It is the BEST feeling in the world to already be done and know that I can spend my holiday season creating memories and enjoying traditions instead of battling the shopping crowds.
4. Bruce and I have gotten sucked back into Once Upon A Time and I am ticked that Peter Pan a villain. My brain is coming up with every possible scenario to make him turn good, but I'm losing hope. This is why I hate TV!!
5. I am 4.5 weeks Facebook free and in those 4.5 weeks, I have been a better wife and mother and more productive homemaker than I was before. I don't know why it has taken me so long to ditch Facebook, but I have no intentions of going back!
6. Bruce and I started "Operation Curb Appeal" last week. The front of our house has been desperately in need of a makeover since the day we bought our house (which will be three years on the 16th). Some of the planned projects for Operation Curb Appeal will have to wait until funding becomes available, but I hope our first steps will make an impact. I'm tired of having the ugliest house on the block!
7. Our next door neighbours are getting baptized on Saturday. I'm so excited for them!!! We have the world's best neighbours, hands down. We just adore them and we are so excited that they will be apart of our church family now, too!
8. I made homemade bread today, for the first time in over a year. I really should make it more often. Somehow, I've built it up in my mind to be this super messy, time consuming activity, but it's not!! And fresh baked bread is so darn good.
9. I took the wee ones "garage sale-ing" this weekend while Bruce was sleeping. We scored some awesome things, but by far, our favourite are the old school Polly Pockets that we got for a quarter a piece. Why did I not buy them all!? We only brought home six of the two dozen or so the lady was selling and now I'm kicking myself for not getting more. The girls love them just as much as I did as a child.
10. We also went through the car wash and vacuumed out the car to kill time while Bruce slept. I was so proud of my handy work {especially since I despise going through those automated car washes} and already the back of the Jolly Roger is a crumb filled mess. Sigh. Well at least we have something to occupy us next time we need to leave the house and let Bruce get some rest!
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