Earlier this week I ordered a Bountiful Basket.

If you haven't heard of them. They're wonderful. I think the site is www1.bountfulbaskests.org.

When you order a basket, you choose a pick up time and place. Last week all that was left was a 1/2 hr away at 7:30am. So this time I scored a closer pick up at 8:45am. Then Kellan told me he had a work meeting at 8:00am. They usually go for an hour and a half. Groan. That meant me alone will 4 kids. Oh well, I thought, last week we just drove up, threw our produce in the van and were on our way. I'll be fine.

I arrived and parked a gazillion miles away since it looked like the only place left (Later I noticed there were much closer parking spaced behind the building). We made our way across the road at toddler speed. A nice van waited for us to cross. Libby lost her shoe half way and freaked out. The nice van contiued to wait as we retrieved the shoe, put on the shoe, and inched our way across the road. We were quite a scene.

We turned the corner to find a long line wrapping all the way around the building. Groan again. The kids were thankfully, really good in line. They stayed right next to me and Truman was happy hanging out in the car seat (Yes, he's a bit big for the portable. We're working on it.)

A half hour later though, it became clear that lugging a car seat with a 18 lb baby and pushing an apple box full of produce while herding 3 other chilluns was going to take a while to get back to the van a gazillion miles away. I had seen this coming as I waited in line, but had been unable to think of a plan to get all my kids and the produce back to the car. So there I was lugging and pushing and cursing and feeling very foolish.

Today I'm grateful for the nice man who had been behind us in line and returned after loading up his own basket to offer his help and carried my box to the van for us. If it weren't for his help, I might still be lugging and pushing and herding.

Today I'm grateful that Kellan had the day off.

I'm even more grateful that he has tomorrow off.

Happy Dance.

I'm grateful for the hilarious way my kids mispronounce certain words.

Anne- zizzors (scissors), ridikleeous (ridiculous), fravrit (favorite), binocleears (binoculars)

Sara- go-als (girls), stoa (store), scwiptshos (scriptures)

Anne tells me I'm being ridikleeous at least once a day. Usually in response to me telling her she better start obeying or else. It always cracks me up in an other wise frustrating situation.

My kids are pretty hilarious. Its probably the only reason I haven't gone completely nutters.

Kellan was supposed to have a 12 hr shift at work today. So he can learn the ropes of the new job. He left at 7:18 this morning.

But........

He's on his way home now! Happy Dance!

I'm grateful that sometimes its not as bad as I gear myself up for.

Sometimes.

Yesterday morning I threw a roast in the crock pot and rushed off to church. I forgot to plug it in though. My brother was here though and noticed. I'm grateful he pluged it in for me.

Every 4 months brings another end to yet another semester as we slowly but surely work our way toward Kellan's bachelor degree.

The last 2 weeks of a semester seem like the last mile of a marathon, or the last few reps of lifting weights, or the last 1/2 hr of labor.

Sorry to mention labor, but its really the only one in that list I can relate to. But I imagine running a marathon and lifting weights are difficult in a similar way.

This is where our lives are right now. Wondering what on earth we got ourselves into and why the heck we thought we could take on so much.

It doesn't get easier each semester either. You'd think I'd be a pro at managing stress and chaos by now, but I think I'm only getting worse.

The worst part is I know its coming and I try to prepare myself, but inevitably I have at least one nervous break down every other day. My kids are quick to pick up on this useful tool for managing the stress and the we-miss-Dad-and-are-bored-to-tears phase of the semester.

This past week began normally and the nervous break-downs commenced. But this time Kellan decided to handle the stress a little differently.

Thursday morning Anne and Sara presented Dad with an invitation they had made him. It was an invitation to a Daddy-daughter date. Complete with a picture of everything they wanted to do with him- Go to movies, get popcorn, etc.

It pretty much ripped the poor guy's heart out to tell them he wouldn't be around again to take them. It's a been a while since their last date. It was a rough day for everyone.

Friday morning came with a five page paper due and Kellan had hardly had time to start it. But this time he decided to tackle it another way.

He didn't do it. Instead he wrote an email to the teacher requesting an incomplete and took the girls on a picnic to 2nd dam.

The girls were ecstatic.

They had great time, and now Kellan might be able to use the remainder of the semester to pass his other 2 classes and handle his new job promotion.

Have I mentioned he got a promotion?

He did. He is now the new HR guy for Macey's and is really excited to do what he loves- payroll, interview, hire, train, who knows what else? I don't get it, but he loves it and is really good at it. We're really excited for the great opportunity it is for him.

The new job means he'll have experience and a degree eventually and then, hopefully, all of the end of semester crunches will be worth it!

I'm grateful for Kellan and his amazing incite into how to cure melt downs and that he's so passionate about his job, school, and family. He pours his heart into everything he does. Really, I think I could do my grateful post on him every day.

Today I'm grateful that I can finally run up that darn hill on 12th east without wishing for death.

This kid's army crawl is hilarious. He's so fast at it, I'm not sure he'll even bother with regular crawling. He's already mastering climbing as well.

He just gets cuter and cuter. I want to yell "Stop growing baby!" and "Yay!" at the same time everytime he masters something new. I want newborn Truman and big baby Truman at the same time. Is that so much to ask?

I just love to look at him. (Name that movie)

That's all for now folks.

Did I just post 3 times in 2 days?

Ahh!

I think I'm becoming one of "them".

This is my little boy.

Before we found out he was a boy I was sure I wanted another girl. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was all the condolences we got with our third girl (Condolences! Really?) that made me want yet another one, to prove to the world that a third or fourth girl can be just as loved as any boy. I have a terrible streak of spitefulness forever getting in my way.

I think mostly though, I honestly just didn't know what to do with a boy. What do you do with a boy after three girlies?

Here's what you do:
1) Kiss his adorable fatso cheeks every chance you get!
2) Put a flat cap on him. He's so adorable in it I can hardly stand it. Yes, I'm a pretty vain mother. I can't help it. I have cute kids.
3) Kiss those squishy cheeks some more.

This morning I discovered these gems in my garden!

I think I may have been dancing around my tomato plants as I picked them, but I'm not sure, I was too delirious with glee to care what a fool I must have looked like.

Sara and I promptly gobbled them up. Delish!

We just got back from Magna where we spent the weekend with Kellan's family, so you can understand the delay in posts.

I'm grateful to have such great in-laws.

Thanks for letting us take over your beds, your food, your house, and for taking us all to see Toy Story 3. We had an awesome weekend!

This is our wild little Libby.

Let's just say she marches to the beat of her own drum, and that's saying something in this family.

I'm grateful for her sweetness and her great sense of fashion.

It makes us smile.

Today I'm grateful I didn't have anywhere to go or anything that had to get done. Finding the wizard for Sara and Anne in the new Where's Waldo? book, and pushing Libby in the swing for who knows how long was way more important than getting out of our pajamas today.

I started reading A Wrinkle in Time (why can't I figure out how to underline?) today. Why have I never heard of this book before? I'm love, love, loving it! Thank you Tee for bringing it over for me!

I'm grateful for good books. They take the monotony out of the continual cycle of housework. Plus, its good motivation to get things done for instance: do a sink full of dishes- read a chapter. Of course sometimes I just keep reading and ignore my house and chilluns and then I have to ground myself for a few hours. Anyway, I'm going to get back to it now.

Today I'm grateful we were on time for our 9:00 church, because its been a while.

The kids are in bed and Kellan's home. I'm grateful that that is a rare enough occurance that it automatically constitutes a date night. For us that usually means treat and a movie, we're kinda boring but its what we like. Tonight we're watching "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy." Yay!

Yesterday was a completely counter-productive day. Everything was going great until about 4:30 when everything I'd accomplished all morning and afternoon seemed to be undone by my children within minutes.

As I was trying to get dinner started I looked out my kitchen window to see Brother Anderson weeding my garden. Our poor garden usually gets put on the bottom of the to-do list, so you can imagine how often it gets any attention. It's lucky to get water. So it was no small job to weed the entire garden.

How grateful I am for their help and that it is one of the few things my kids can't undo!

A little perspective goes a long way. I'm grateful for those who have helped us see the big picture. It seems that everything could, afterall, still work out. Possibly better than what we had hoped for. And if it doesn't this time, then it will eventually.

Everything has seemed to go wrong the last couple of days. I'd list everything, but that would just be depressing.

As we've struggled how to get through the unfairness of recent events its been hard to have patience. The disappointment and hurt we feel has been almost paralyzing and we just want to be over it.

Today I'm grateful for hope. The hope that comes from knowing that Heavenly Father is in control of our lives if we let him.

Remember the sunburn I mentioned?

Well, somehow I forgot to put sunblock on my back and shoulders when we were at Bear Lake. Usually I'm religious about sunblock, so I can't remember the last time I burnt like this.

Yesterday afternoon it blistered.

Then this morning I woke up covered in hives. That's right hives on top of a blistered sunburn. Let's just say that it feels like a thousand pins being stuck into my burning flesh.

Gratefully I was able to get a preisthood blessing from Kellan and Brother Anderson. That plus large doses of sudafed and painkillers has made this day bearable.

Well, I used to. But now, against my better judgement, I'm kinda starting to love it.

Kellan started it and has now got us both into doing crazy things like getting up at 5:00 am to run 9.3 miles on 4 non-consecutive hours of sleep (thank you Truman).

Needless to say there was a lot of grousing and cursing on my part as I shivered and wished I was back in bed instead of on the starting line this morning.

Once we started though it was awesome! We ran the same pace the whole way and reached our pathetic goal of 1 1/2 hrs. together.

I have to say I really enjoyed it. The last mile or so was about the longest of my life, but it was just really satisfying to accomplish something I never thought I'd be able to do with Kellan. I really don't think I would have done it without his optimism and encouragement.

So today I'm really grateful we were able to reach a huge goal together. I'm actually looking forward to the 1/2 marathon we're training for at the end of August!

Today we went to Bear Lake. It was crazy windy, and I got a nasty sunburn, but we had fun anyway. I'm grateful we went!

are the greatest ever!

I can't have my parents live beneath me, so Heavenly Father sent the Andersons. Really, they are the next best thing to having our parents live under us.

They entertain my children for hours, watch Truman while I get the girls to bed on occasion, and are not only willing but pleased to babysit for us at 5:30 am so Kellan and I can run a 15 K this weekend.

I'm really grateful for their constant perfect example of love and service.