What God Blessed Me With Today …

Charlise eating her “cone” at our wards corn roast at the beach. 

I forgot to take pictures today, so I decided to take a picture of what I’m doing tonight. I have a new craft blog that I called “Crafty Chic” that I’m playing around with a little bit, and I’m watching So You Think You Can Dance on TV while Wade is at a meeting at church. 

Today was okay. I got in a weird mood to organize some things that haven’t been touched in years … like the totes under our bed and in our closet, and even a couple from outside. It feels good to have gone through the “junk” and gotten rid of what we really don’t need. I ended up with two trash bags full of needless junk, and a small bag of stuff I just don’t want anymore to give away to someone. I’m going to do some more tomorrow … maybe make it out to the garage … I shudder at the thought. Ha. This afternoon I had to go to Target to get some boring necessities, and while we were out Hannah was begging me to go to Weinerschitzel (I know I spelled that wrong), so I gave in and we went there for lunch. It was gross as always. Why I gave in?? Who knows. Then at 5:00 we met Lindsay and Elise at Chick-Fil-A where they are having customer appreciation week, so we got dinner for free (well for $1.50 because I got a drink too). Not bad, although we’ve had a bunch of junk to eat today. We’ll have to make up for it tomorrow. (Minus lunch time when we’re meeting Hannah’s old teacher, Miss Golji at Taco Bell for lunch). We had fun chatting while the kids played in the play-place for a while. When we got home I pretty much just got the kids ready for bed. I got online to check a few things, and saw that my mother in-law was online, so I started chatting with her. She gave me some good news … my sister in-law is going to have another baby … and some bad news, another sister in-law is getting a divorce. Seriously such a shocker. I feel so awful for her, because she has definitely had her share of family drama. I’m just at a lack for words, I just hope she’s doing okay. Right now I’m just watching So You Think You Can Dance, waiting for Wade to get home. I’m pretty tired, so I’m going to head to bed as soon as he gets home.

Charly’s cute little feet. (I LOVE baby feet) She was extremely cranky today, so this is the cutest picture I was able to get.

My favorite quote for today is from Reha … again. Here’s our conversation:

Reha: “Can we go swimming today?”

Me: “I don’t think so.”

Reha: “YAYYY!”

Me: “Reha, I just said, ‘I don’t think so’.”

Reha: “I know! But that means that maybe we can!”

Gotta love a 5 year old’s optimism!

Today was a challenge for me. The kids were all “on one”. Hannah and Reha fought all day, and Charlise was really cranky all day. She woke up at around 7 this morning and was so cranky that I put her back in bed. She slept for an hour or so, but when she woke up she was just as cranky. It’s been lovely. Reha had another dental appointment this morning. She went in for her kindergarten “check up” and had two small cavities. The dentist said that he would rather “treat” them with vitamin/fluoride treatments instead of filling them. So she went in two times a week for a month to get these treatments and when they took another x-ray one of the cavities looked great, and one still was on the verge of needing to be filled. Since our insurance pays 100% for these treatments, we decided to do it for another month. It’s quick and she leaves with a “prize”, so she has no complaints. After the dentist we came home and ate lunch, then I put Charlise down for another nap … because, seriously, the kid was a monster cranky pants queen! (Okay, I don’t know where I came up with that, but for Charly today … it fits) Lindsay came over with Daylynn this afternoon, and Daylynn was just as cranky as Charlise. Must be cranky baby day or something! Would have been nice if I didn’t miss that memo! The rest of the day was pretty much just getting kids fed and ready for bed. I’m really praying for a better day tomorrow. I seriously think that my days will be filled with a lot more patience if I do what I’m supposed to be doing and crack open my scriptures more than once a week at church. It’s funny (okay … probably not funny) that I know what I should be doing, yet I don’t do it. Someone needs to smack me over the head … or maybe that’s what Heavenly Father is trying to do by throwing me these “off” days. Sigh … time to better myself … again. That’s a good thing, I know, but I hate that I don’t really notice that I need to change things until I’ve fallen far. It’s always such a big climb out of these holes I dig myself into. Someday I’ll get it … right?

The camera strap I made today. I feel retarded posting this picture on two of my blogs, but since it’s the only thing I took pictures of today that’s what you get to look at. 

Today was really productive. This morning I decided that since we didn’t have to be anywhere today I would sew a little bit before cleaning the house. I made a camera strap that I saw on a blog, because I knew it was easy and I’ve been wanting to do it. When I was done sewing I got busy on the house. I was really nit picky today and in a total cleaning mood, so I seriously cleaned the heck out of my house! It feels so good right now, sitting in a house that doesn’t need a lot of cleaning tomorrow. That took most of the day. When Wade got home we had chef salad for dinner. The girls love it because they get to make their own and chose whatever they want to go in theirs. Charlise loaded up on olives, cheese, tomato, and avocado. She LOVES avocado! When we were cleaning up dinner I remembered that my friend was having girls over tonight to watch The Bachelorette, so after we had our family home evening I went over. We had a really fun time watching the show and then chatted for a while afterward. Now I’m sitting here at 12:15 am wide awake. I’ve been reading The Notebook, so I think I’m going to go in and read for a while until I fall asleep. Sometimes that’s all that helps me go to sleep. Otherwise I lay there thinking of a bazillion things for hours before I actually fall asleep … and that’s usually at the same time that Charly wants to wake up for one of her nightly “sessions”. This kid and her sleeping habits … I mean really … 

It’s time for me to make my blog private now that I’m writing more specifics about my life that I don’t want people I don’t know reading about. I’m happy to have my friends and family read, so please leave a comment with your email address so that I can include you on the invite. Thanks! I’m going to make it private next Monday.

Charlise at Aaron & Lindsay Evans’ house. This little chair is her favorite thing at their house. She climbs up and down … normally standing up on it so that I have to go and get her off so she doesn’t fall.

My favorite quote for today is from Charly: I was nervous that she would fall, so I finally turned the chair around so she couldn’t climb on it anymore. She was SO sad, and kept saying sadly, “No Mommy. No Mommy” over and over. So I decided I would let her keep doing it and I would just sit close to her. When I turned it around she was REALLY happy and said, “Yay! Gu gul! (good girl) Yay! Gu gul!” So cute.

Today was a good day. Church has been a bit of a challenge with Charlise. I normally take her during Sacrament meeting, and then take her to play in the nursery for the second hour. I was called to be the Relief Society secretary, so Wade always takes her for the third hour. It’s been so nice to be able to sit through RS. Aggie (who is in charge of visiting teaching) taught today on truly knowing the women in our ward, particularly the women you visit teach. It was a real eye opener when she talked about how she’s been a member of the church for 15 years and can count on one hand … probably 3 or 4 … times that she’s had visiting teachers come over. It made me realize how important it is to make it into the homes of the girls I vt on a monthly basis. It’s not that hard to take an hour or two every month to make sure that they are doing okay. When we only go every once in awhile it’s hard for them to ask you for help, but when we actually make a point to really get to know them and love them it’s much easier for them to open up and ask for help. We all need help sometimes, but how often do we really humble ourselves enough to ask for it. It was a good lesson for me today.

After church we came home and ate lunch, and then the girls went in their room to lay down and watch a movie. If they aren’t good while watching the movie I’ll turn it off and make them take naps … which was the case today when Reha woke up Charlise. So the big girls (and Wade) took naps. I fed Charly lunch and cleaned up while they were sleeping. Our home teacher, Jeff Hollstrum, came over for a little while, and then we went over to the Evans’ house for dinner. They were brought lunch from one of the neighbors who Lindsay always helps out, so they had a big lasagna that they were nice enough to share with us. After dinner we all played Pirate Dice … which I thought was really fun. After playing once, I was all ready to play more but everyone else was done I guess. Party poopers! haha just kidding. It’s always fun to hang out with them and just chat, so that’s what we did for the rest of the evening … although we did turn on an old Oprah that was pretty funny … a bunch of moms talking about their “dirty mom secrets”. All in all it was a pretty good day. 

Reha at the stake 4th of July party.

My favorite quote for today is from Reha: When we were watching fireworks, she was sitting on Wades lap and asked him, “Daddy, how does Jesus make those?”.

We had a really good day today. Although Wade has felt like he’s been coming down with the flu … total bummer. This morning he got up and made us blueberry waffles that were SO good, and I helped with the bacon and fresh squeezed orange juice. After breakfast he went in and took a nap while I cleaned the kitchen … which turned into me organizing the pantry. I knocked the Hershey’s baking cocoa onto the floor and made a HUGE mess, so that took a good while to clean that up. After I finished the kitchen I got me and the kids ready for the day. At 5:00 there was a party at the church with the entire stake. There were 3 bands with people from the stake, and there was a really good BBQ with steak, chicken, salad, and rice. When it started to get dark and the bands were through playing we all walked over to a park where we watched fireworks. Charlise fell asleep on the way over to see them, but woke up just in time to see the finale. Her happy reaction was fun to watch. When we packed up and started walking to the crowd I had Hannah and Wade had Charlise and I thought he had Reha. About 5 minutes into us walking Hannah & I caught up with Wade and we discovered that neither of us had Reha. I dropped my stuff and raced through the crowd yelling for her. Luckily someone we know saw her crying and stayed with her. We were all really scared. Reha told me that she was so glad that the Dougals found her and took her and not someone that we didn’t know. She was afraid that someone would take her. I felt SO bad that I wasn’t more careful. I really thought that Wade had her, and he thought that I had her. Ugh! One of my worst fears is that someone will take one of my kids, so running through the crowds trying to find her was terrifying. I’m just so thankful that she was so scared that she stayed in one spot crying. If she would have started walking or running through all of those people she would have been a lot harder to find. Sigh … I’m off to bed.

Hannah has collected shells for years, so when she finds a cool or unusual one she ALWAYS keeps it.

Wow … I’ve really dug myself into far too big of a hole to dig my way out, soooo I’m just going to start over. I have been idle for so long that it’s going to be WAY too hard catching up. I will dedicate a post to some favorite pictures from the past couple of months soon. I also decided that I’m going to start writing more about the day in each post like I used to. I just read back on some of those old posts and LOVED it. I stopped doing it because it made me nervous how many people I didn’t know were looking at my blog. I’m just going to be less candid. 

This morning we got up and raced to get ready for church. We started going at 9:00 since our stake got mixed up a couple months ago, so it’s always hard to get busy. Although, no matter what time we start we always seem to race to get there on time. It’s something that I can’t seem to fix. Lovely. Just need to add that to my list of fix’s … it’s getting longer by the minute. Ugh. After church we fed the girls lunch and put them in bed. It’s our new “tradition” for everyone to take a nap after church. The last two weeks all three kids and Wade slept and I worked on sewing projects. It’s been SO nice … I love it. This afternoon we went to Newport beach to take a walk. The weather was PERFECT and I really wanted to enjoy it. Charlise was really cute. Wade helped her walk the whole time, but she kept going toward the water. If he let her go she would have gotten completely wet. She would get MAD if he tried to take her away from the water. I got some cute pictures of her first time walking in the water. I’m glad we made it out this week. Sunday always seems so long just hanging out at home. When we got home we had nachos for dinner and laughed together all the way through the meal. These girls of mine crack me up. I’m so lucky to have them … it’s a shame that I don’t try harder to see them as “people” more often. I’ve had a hard time being patient and I’m sure it has everything to do with me being in a spiritual rut. It’s always hard to get back on track when I’ve been off for so long. I just know it’s something I need to work on!

Right now it’s almost 10pm and my family is asleep. I’m really taking advantage of these “me” times and doing something productive. I’m going to a friends baby shower on Tuesday, so I decided to make her baby boy a little quiet book. It’s been fun doing something BOY. I’m always doing girly things, so it’s a fun change. I just hope I can get it enough complete to give it to her on Tuesday. Crossing fingers …

This is our new favorite park. There is enough fun to last the entire day … if Charlise allowed it. The girl needs her nap time!

She looks all sweet and innocent, but this is her right after she pulled off the entire roll of toilet paper and tore it into shreds.