Day Four - 10 Things I Would Tell My 16-year-old Self

Oh jeez...I'm not really sure what to even write for this one.  First though I thought I'd share a funny picture.  One of my friends had an 80s party for her 16th birthday since we were born in the 80s.  Here I am all dressed up in an over sized sweater and leggings. Oh leggings...something I thought for sure would stay put in the 80s. So...
#1.  This hideous outfit you're wearing to the party is going to be in style again when you're a young mother (at least the leggings).  Oh, and you'll still think they look ridiculous and will therefore fail to remain in style.  Don't judge women who seem to get stuck dressing in a certain decade too harshly.  You will probably become one of them.

2.  You will eat macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches again. Becoming lactose intolerant is not the end of the world.  They make lactose free milk and cheese and in a few years they'll come out with lactose free yogurt and cottage cheese. Be patient.

3.  You are going to rely heavily on the examples of your mother and other righteous women when you are raising your children and serving in the church.  Watch them closely.

(One of my young women leaders who had a profound influence on me.  I am forever grateful for the MANY incredible women Heavenly Father surrounded me with as a youth.  I had such amazing role models that I never felt a need to look to the women in the world and media in my discovery of what it means to be a woman.)

4.  He's not worth all these tears.  Getting your heart broken is a good experience, but someone 10,000 times better for you is in Rexburg right now already working on his Bachelor's Degree.  Greener pastures up ahead!

5.  Heidi is worth it.  She's not just a high-school best friend.  She's a forever best friend.

6.  Have more fun with dating.  Keep your standards high, but stop freaking out about whether or not these guys want to marry you.  They're 16 and not even thinking about it.  Promise.

7.  Spend more time with your brothers.  You're going to miss them something terrible.

8.  Driving on the freeway isn't that bad.  Practice now so you're future husband won't make fun of you for driving like a grandma everytime you drive on the highway during your first year of marriage.

9.  Memorize your scripture mastery.

10.  Stop wasting so much time thinking up names for your future children.   Your future husband won't like any of them.

Day Three - Parents

Today I describe my relationship with my parents.

Let's start with my dad. 

 I am the only girl with four younger brothers so I always felt like I have a very different relationship with him than any of my brothers do.  He always made me feel like a princess.  Like I had something to offer that no other girl did.  He was always pushing me to be better.

  My dad is a great example to me of a hard worker and provider.  He taught me the importance of education and hard work and was a lot of the driving force in my studies growing up.  He set the standard for the kind of hard working man I wanted to marry.  I know he sacrificed so much to make it possible for my mom to stay home with us. 

I also have to say that my dad makes me feel safe.  I come from a very huggy family, but hugs from my dad are always different.  Whenever he hugs me, I feel protected and safe - as though he wouldn't let anything hurt or harm me.  Sometimes when life gets hard even now I just really want a hug from him.

I'm so grateful he's my dad.  We don't talk a lot - he's not really a phone talker, but I know he's there for me.

Now I already mentioned before that my mom is now my 2nd best friend (A boy named Adam took the lead about 6 years ago).

I talk to her everyday (except for in Spring because it's gardening season and she's too busy for her only daughter.  I'm just a little bitter.  Are you reading this mom? CALL ME).

I always wanted to be my mom when I grew up.  Then I did and realized how extremely difficult that task is going to be.  I've learned a lot about sacrifice by becoming a mom that has helped me appreciate my mom so much more.  I also feel like it's made us closer.  I know she can relate to what I'm going through and give me wise advice.

She's a great listener.

She is also SO selfless.  Everytime I turn around she is serving and helping someone else.  When I was in Georgia staying with my family during externships, I was able to see how she notices those in need and her approach in offering help.  I'm trying to learn as much as I can in this area because her selfless service is an attribute I want to obtain.

I feel really blessed to have my parents.  I am grateful that they took the time to teach me the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This, more than anything else they have taught me, is reason enough to rejoice in my relationship with my parents.  They have shared with me the knowledge that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me.  They taught me what I need to do to have a relationship with him and the Savior.  It has provided me with a foundation to build my life on, and I pray I can do for my children, what my parents did for me.

Day Two - Three Fears...

and how they became so.

One - Being lonely.  I cannot even remember when this became a fear because it's been a fear of mine for so long.  I have a strong need for companionship (like all the time).  Remember me stating that my mom was my best friend growing up?  Well, when I got home from school I would follow her around all evening and just talk to her while she cooked dinner, cleaned, etc.  (I probably should have helped her with those things while I was talking instead of just sitting there blabbing away.)  Before I got married, I would get really worked up about my husband dying before I did...that I would be left all alone in my old age and terribly lonely.  I'm grateful though for prayer and the answers I've received that have helped me to keep this fear in check.  Because I like companionship so much, my favorite part of the day is when my husband comes home.

Two - Scarring my children for life.  I worry about this all the time when I'm disciplining them.  I just really want to have a good relationship with all of my kids, and I want for them to feel good about themselves now and as adults.

Three - E.T./aliens.  I watched this movie for the first time when I was probably four...way too young in my opinion. I watched it at my friend Jacque's house, and they had a statue/figure of him in the upstairs of their home. I had a very intense fear of this alien growing up that led to a fear of aliens and being abducted by them in general.  Add in the movie "Flight of the Navigator" and I went through a phase where I was convinced that I had been taken by aliens in the night and they erased my memory of it.  While the fear isn't as strong as it used to be, I'm still pretty sure that if someone were to place a picture of him somewhere in my house or beside my bed while I was sleeping I would scream and/or pee my pants.  There is no way I can watch this movie.  I no longer fear being abducted by aliens.

Day One - Thirty Randoms

A couple of my friends are doing this on their blogs.  I decided to join in for a couple of reasons: 1 - I've had no idea what to blog about lately...life has gotten very routine.  2 - I feel like the only thing I ever blog about anymore is my children (whom I love dearly, but it might be fun to write about something else).

One - I love peanut butter.  My favorite is Natual JIF, but since we're trying to save money I've been buying the knock-off brand at ALDI.  It's almost as good...

Two - I hate breaking rules.  If something even slightly resembles a rule, I'm bound to follow it.

Three - I hate annoying people almost as much as breaking rules.  Examples:  In first grade I was tapping my feet on the floor.  The teacher politely asked me to stop. I was mortified and started crying to myself because I had done something she found unpleasant.  My senior year of high school I was popping gum inside my mouth during a test (I didn't even realize I was doing it).  A girl in my class glared at me and told me to cut it out.  It was so upsetting to me.

Four - I got a full ride scholarship to BYU-I and gave it up after a year and a half to follow my husband to Ohio so he could go to Podiatry school.  It was the right thing to do, but it still stinks a little bit.  I hope to go back to school one day.

Five - I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mother.  I'm glad my wish came true.  I love being with my kids.

Six - I have a little crush on James Stewart.

Seven - My top five favorite movies are: "It's a Wonderful Life," "While You Were Sleeping," "That Thing You Do," "Hope Floats," and "You've Got Mail."

Eight - I was in chorus in high school.  I miss it.

Nine - I have now lived in Ohio longer than I lived in Georgia, but I still don't feel like I can call Ohio home.

Ten - My favorite type of cookie is chocolate chip.  I haven't bought chocolate chips in over a month now because that last time I made some I ate almost all of the cookies by myself.  Disgusting!

Eleven - My mom was my best friend growing up.  I told her EVERYTHING!  I hope Charlotte and I can have a relationship one day.  Now that I'm married my mom is my second best friend.

Twelve - I stink at small talk.  If you want to have a one-on-one intimate conversation about feelings I'm on board.  If you want to talk about small stuff - it's most likely going to be an awkward conversation...sorry to anyone that's had to go through one.

Thirteen - My favorite tv show as a kid was Full House.  I still remember it came on at 5pm on channel 13 in Utah.  As a teenager my favorite show was Boy Meets World.

Fourteen - I started going gray in high school.  I have a nice patch of gray hairs in a cluster on my head.  I always have to part my hair to the left so no one sees them.

Fifteen - I love organizing both things and information.  The more order, the happier I am.

Sixteen - My favorite book is Wuthering Heights.

Seventeen - I lived in Florida for only 11 months, but it was by far the most defining time of my life.  It was a hard time, but I found out who I was and made some of the best friends I've ever had.

Eighteen - I recently realized that my favorite color is no longer green, but actually an eggplant purple.

Nineteen -  I would rather burn to death than freeze to death.  I HATE being cold.

Twenty - Speaking of cold, I hate cold air blowing on me.  I'm not a fan of air conditioning and fans.  If I wasn't married to Adam, I would probably never use either.

Twenty-one - I have to have my toe nails painted.

Twenty-two - I can walk away from a book of movie without ever knowing how it ends.  It drives my husband crazy.

Twenty-three - I love going for walks.  Some of my favorite memories with my family growing up are from walks.  I now go for walks with my family multiple times a week, and it always lifts my mood.

Twenty-four - I have made my bed everyday since I was a senior in high school.  I found that if I made my bed, the rest of my room stayed clean.  Now that I have kids, sometimes I don't even get to it until 5pm.  I still make it anyway.  For some reason I equate a made bed to having my life in order.

Twenty-five - The first movie I ever cried in was Harry and the Hendersons.

Twenty-six - I would love to visit Spain.

Twenty-seven - I hate peas. Luckily Adam does too so we never eat them.  It's the only vegetable I hate.

Twenty-eight - One of my favorite games to play as a child was "pioneers."  I would pretend our playset was a covered wagon and make my brothers walk in place beside it until we set up camp for the night.  I don't think they enjoyed it very much.

Twenty-nine - I have lived in 6 (Utah, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, and Ohio) states and visited 31 states.

Thirty - My husband can make me laugh harder than anyone else.  It's one of the reasons I married him because it's hard to get a good belly laugh out of me.

Christmas Valentine's St. Patrick's Sugar Cookies

Back in December I bought some red, green and white frosting to decorate sugar cookies for a Christmas party.  I used some of it, but not all.  It's been sitting on my baking shelf just waiting to be used again.  I had really good intentions for some Valentine's Day cookies.  I figured I could use the red and white frosting.  Well by Valentine's Day, I still had leftover cake from my birthday and a few of our friends brought us over some lovely treats.  I just could bring myself to make sugar cookies when we had so much sugar in the kitchen already.  So, this past Sunday I finally made some dough and pulled out the heart shaped cookie cutter.  The kids Charlotte helped me decorate the cookies while Jonas ate some.



Eventually Jonas decided to try and decorate one too.

I decided it was close enough to St. Patrick's Day to use the green frosting as well.  Charlotte went a little crazy with the green and white puddle cookies.

Merry Valentrick's Day!



Line Em Up

I think we've got a scientific little guy on our hands.  I find his cars like this all over the place.

He also likes to line them up the other way too.

He's all about the cars these days.  They're driving around everywhere when he's not lining them up.

His other favorite activity: reading.  This kid could look at books ALL day.  He also wants us to read them to him all day.  No longer how long I read to him, he's still upset when I finish.  In fact, he just said his first sentence this week: "More books." 

Whenever he was little my pediatrician advised me to make sure I read to him.  She said that little boys have an especially difficult time sitting still and paying attention and that reading to him now will help him with this when he's older.  Well, if you know me, I'm a little bit obsessive about following rules, especially the ones that I know will bring good consequences.  So, I read to him...a lot because I wanted him to be able to pay attention in school and church.  I think I may have overdone it though.  I'm pretty sure he's going to be the one who gets in trouble for reading in class when he's supposed to be paying attention to the teacher.

25th

So, I just celebrated my 25th birthday.  It's the best birthday I've ever had.  Easy.  My parents drove all the way up from Georgia to celebrate.  As if that wasn't enough, they also arranged a hotel stay for Adam and I so we could get away while they watched the kids.  I haven't spoken much about how hard December and January were, but it was HARD.  Adam was on call for those two months, and we hardly saw each other at all.  Adam hardly had time to sleep or eat.  We were tired.  Emotions ran strong.  Patience ran thin.  I do have to say that despite everything we had going on, we did a pretty good job of keeping our heads afloat.  The day before my parents let us know they were planning on coming up I had told Adam, "All I want for my birthday is to stay in bed in while you get up with the kids, make them breakfast and clean the kitchen."  Well, instead the hubby and I got to sleep in and go out to breakfast while my mom and dad made the kids breakfast and cleaned the kitchen.  It gets even better than that...my mom also made lunch and dinner and a snicker doodle birthday cake! 
Their trip up here also made it possible for us to go to the temple in Columbus which was a huge blessing...it had been a while since we've been able to go due to externships, nursing a baby, and the insane residency schedule.  It was nice to go to the temple and refocus on what is important eternally.  It was also nice having 4 hours in the car together to just talk and be "us."

I have to say that I really missed the kids though.  After being with them almost constantly for the past two months, I kind of felt like I was missing a limb (or two) being without them.  However, I am fairly certain they did not feel the same way about me.  My mom said the only time either of them made mention of me was when C took a bathroom break in the middle of the night.  They had so much fun with Mita and Papitito!

My brothers Dario and Dallen also came up for the weekend.  It was great to have some time to hang out with them. 

The only unfavorable thing about this visit was the length.  Two days just isn't long enough...especially when I was gone for one of them.  I am so, so grateful for my parents making my 25th so memorable!

Cassie and Kids Came for a Visit

I have four brothers.  None of them are married yet.  I have no sisters.  Luckily, Adam does have two sisters.  It was nice to automatically inherit sisters when I married Adam.  We tend to run pretty parallel lives with his sister Cassie and her family.  We married within a year of each other, had our first babies (girls) within 6 weeks of each other, and our second babies (boys) within months of each other.  It's really fun.  She came up to visit at the end of January with her two kids (we're sad her hubby had to stay home to play video games and golf, work).  It was a really neat trip too because Adam and I hadn't met our only nephew yet.  He's so dang cute!  He started walking while he was here...I think he wanted to keep up with the bigger kids.

Their first full day together the girls picked out their outfits.  Mimi gave them both shirts a few months ago and they insisted on wearing them the same day.  It was really cute.  They were really silly together!

We had lots of fun while they were here.  We visited the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center.  Jonas and Hailey loved it.  Charlotte wanted nothing to do with the reptiles.

Hailey got to play in snow for the first time.

Jonas and Emmett reorganized my pantry daily.

Right before Hailey was about to leave I found the girls upstairs with these on their heads pretending to be robots.

It was so enjoyable to have them visit for a week!