Mother's Day 2012

There is a mother and daughter in our ward that remind me of my mom and me.  They are best friends and always do fun things together.  The daughter spoke in church on Sunday and mentioned how when she went out to Utah to go to school she still talked to her mom on the phone everyday.  Adam leaned over to me and whispered, "Now that sounds familiar."  I smiled at him and then I had to hold back the tears.  Yes, I do talk to my mom on the phone everyday, but even so I still miss her terribly.  This Mother's Day was especially hard due to some unexpected events that have occurred in our family recently.  They have made me realize how truly irreplaceable my mom is and how important mothers are.  Here are a few reasons why I love my mom:
1.  She has always listened to me no matter how much I have to say or how late it is.
2.  She is so optimistic.  She is great about finding the good in every situation and making sure everyone else knows about that good as well.
3.  She is very selfless.  She serves others in a way that I pray I can one day.  Her eyes just see what people need and she quietly gets to work helping them.
4.  She tapes her face up in silly different ways to make the kids laugh.
5.  She always stands up for what is right and isn't going to apologize for it.
6.  She loves to discuss books with me.
7.  She is a peacemaker.  Whenever she was feeling upset or like she was going to lose her temper, she would quietly slip into another room until she felt she could talk about it without offending the Spirit. 
8.  She is patient.
9.  I cannot count how many times I saw her studying the scriptures or praying.
10.  She made us breakfast every morning and felt guilty when she gave us cereal once a month.  She even made breakfast before early morning seminary...getting up around 4:30 or 5am to make it.
11.  She likes to play games.
12.  She sings all sorts of silly songs.
13.  She makes the best biscuits and gravy.
14.  She still talks to me on the phone everyday and is always interested in what I'm doing.

Those are just a few of the many things that make her the best mom. Despite missing my mom, I did have a wonderful Mother's Day.  I was spoiled and didn't have to cook or clean a thing.  I got to spend time with my lovely children that are my sunshine.  And amazingly enough, they both cooperated for pictures!

I love my Charlotte.  She is oh so obedient and happy to please us.  She makes my job pretty easy.  I love how girly she is, and she definitely wants to be the "second mother" to Jonas.  I really hope that as a teenager we can be best friends because I know we would have so much fun together.  She has a lot to say and has taught me that it is important to listen.  I want to listen to what she has to say now, so that she'll know I will listen to her when she's older...when her problems are bigger than a brother who wrecked the tower she built.

My Jonas makes my heart smile.  He is so busy and curious.  I love watching him as he debates between what is more important: obeying mom or figuring out how how things work.  He has taught me a lot about being a mom...that I don't have all the answers, and that what is best for C isn't necessarily best for J.  It's helped me better understand how Heavenly Father can love all his children and how he has a different plan for each of us.  I love how quickly Jonas will apologize and forgive.  He has a big heart. 

Love these kids!  Love my life!  Love my mom! 

Happy Mother's Day (I know, I'm a few days late!)

Day Tripper

Saturday morning we woke up with no plans.  There was nothing we needed to do, no where we needed to be, no pager of Adam's to say: "You can't do anything more than 30 minutes away from the hospital." We were in bed trying to think up how to use our precious day. So I suggested a day trip to Pittsburgh (which really meant IKEA). I could pick up some "Mother's Day" gifts there. I have been wanting to go for a couple years now.  Adam replied, "Boring."  Well maybe not that bluntly, but more or less he declined my idea.  I got out of bed and started muddling through the daily tasks.  I usually don't muddle through them, but I was a little bummed.  About 30 minutes later Adam comes into the room where I'm getting J dressed.  He has a grin from ear to ear and he says, "Guess who's playing in Pittsburgh?  The Astros!  Let's go."  So we got ready (meaning Adam made Astros shirts for the kids to wear and I took care of all the logistics).

We stopped at IKEA first.  Happy Mother's Day to me...I got a few items to organize my pantry and the kid's room.

We then joined up with some friends we went to podiatry school with who moved to Pittsburgh at Primanti Brothers.  They serve some "almost famous" sandwiches that always include Italian bread, tomatoes, coleslaw and fries (all of those items come ON the sandwich...not as a side).  Our little girls were born a month apart and while they didn't remember each other they became fast friends and started begging us to take their picture.  I think they changed their minds as soon as we pulled the cameras out because we could not get them to look or smile at the same time.

After dinner we changed the kids clothes and headed over to the game.  The city is so pretty and has these big yellow bridges.  They close one of them off to walk to PNC Park.  Randee snapped a quick pic for us.

The game was fun.  We bought some seat from some guy selling tickets on the street.  We only bought four tickets and hoped that the seats next to them wouldn't be full so that the girls wouldn't have to sit on our laps the entire time.  We lucked out!

The kids were really good for the game.  I was a little surprised since we had been out all day, and I didn't bring any snacks with us.  The little boys had fun crunching peanut shells on the floor though.

We weren't really sure who we were cheering for.  While we all have to be Astros fans for Daddy, it was really hard not to get excited with the crowd whenver the Pirates scored (which was more frequently than the Astros...)

So fun to chat and catch up with friends during the game!

 Thanks to my hubby for such a fun pre-mother's day celebration/gift.  How will I ever forget the Mother's Day Adam took me to a baseball game?  I think for Father's Day I'm going to take Adam to see the most girly musical that I can find. :)  Seriously though, it was a wonderful day that I will always remember spent with family and friends!

Room with a View

My family likes to go for walks.  About two months ago we were walking around our complex past some apartments that are different than the town homes where we were living.  Adam mentioned that we should move into them because they are situated in a quieter area.  I immediately dismissed his proposal since a 500 foot move seemed like way more work than it could possibly be worth.  Plus, I had just repainted our main floor (after having primed it back for our last move that fell through a week before), and if we moved again we would have to prime it again.  No thank you.
A few days later some workers came and cut down the only tree I could see from our town home.  It exposed another "lovely" row of town homes for me to look at instead.  It bugged me.  A lot.  We get really bad snow drifts in the winter, and I could just imagine them getting so much worse without the tree to block the wind.  Plus, we live on the "dark side" of the building.  It's a bummer in the summer, but just downright depressing come winter.  On another walk past the apartments I started having second thoughts about my hasty dismissal of them.  I told Adam that I would at least be willing to look at them.  So look we did.  We liked what we saw: an actual eat in kitchen without carpat under the dining area, no tile in the bathtub/shower area, two full baths...one off the master bedroom, more counter space, more than just one outlet in the kitchen, 100 more square feet, all one level, trees outside our windows.  The biggest drawbacks were bumping down to 2 bedrooms instead of 3, not having our own private entry, and no first floor apartments were available.
We took a few days to make a decision.  Okay, I took a few days to make a decision.  Adam wanted to move to the apartment, but didn't really care either way...whatever that means. We prayed, I prayed, I stressed, I worried, I thought about it, I decided to do it, I changed my mind...I was so scared that I would decide to move to the apartments and miss the town home and regret the decision I had made.  The two places were just different.  One wasn't really better than the other. I prayed some more and was extra focused on receiving an answer.  The only answer that came was that, "It doesn't matter either way."  So, in the end I decided I cared more about trees and no carpet under my table than private entries and having a guest bedroom (that does not mean we do not want guests!).
So we moved last week, and I can say that I am 100% glad we did.  Our new place just "fits" us better than the other one did. I am so glad that I don't see this anymore when I look out my windows:

But instead I see this:

And this:

And this:

When I first moved to Florida from the desert, all the trees made me feel claustrophobic.  We then moved to a home in Georgia surrounded by trees, and I fell in love.  I love the green, the peace, and the quiet they bring.  And I have to say I am actually looking forward to seeing them glisten with snow on their branches that will be left undisturbed by human feet and cars this winter.  We now wake up to birds singing in the morning instead of our neighbor's dramatic phone conversations, and when I opened the blinds the other morning there was a deer standing outside my window just waiting to greet me.  Is this a Disney movie or what?  Pretty sure tomorrow I'm going to meet some singing chipmunks...