Going Home and Getting a Home

You know that feeling you get when you come home after being gone for a long time? Well, I'd never really experienced it because I've never been too far from home. I went to college here and after N and I were married we moved into an apartment about 5-10 minutes away from our parents. We were always able to visit whenever we wanted. Even now that we are 45 miles away we still manage to get back home every other week or so.

When we were married we moved into an awesome ward with awesome people. We were very sad to leave it when we moved to our current home. We were so excited when my little sister and her new husband moved into that ward and encouraged them to have a baby soon so we could visit the ward for the blessing (yes, it was a very selfish request). Well, this past weekend we happened to be in Phoenix visiting our families and we decided to visit our old ward. It was truly like coming home. Everyone came up to visit with us and I can't even tell you how many people said they had just been thinking about our family or how many of them encouraged us to move back (as if we could afford it!). It was just a great feeling to have so many people remember us and be genuinely happy to see us. We can't wait for March when my sister and her husband bless their baby!

We also put an offer in on a house. It is a nice 2 story, 4 bedroom house with a huge loft upstairs. Everything seems to be moving along with it, but since it is a short sale we could be waiting for months before we hear anything. We took the kids to see it on Monday and they were not even interested in the backyard because they wanted to play on the stairs. If we get the house I hope that novelty wears off really quickly. We'd be a lot closer to N's work and our families, which is really what we were hoping for. An added bonus is that we'd be really close to my best friend (like a mile or two away--hurray!).

Birthday Card Fun

N got a singing birthday card from a friend at work. The kids LOVED it. This video is actually the second time opening it. Their first reaction was better, but this gets the point across.

Untitled (because I don't know what to call it)

I'm sitting here realizing that it has been quite a while since I posted my last post. I wish I could say that we have just been so busy doing fun things that I haven't had time to post, but that would be a lie. Truthfully, it is the opposite. Nothing has gone on that I've felt was post-worthy. (What is wrong with that sentence? It just isn't right.)

N had a birthday earlier this month. He took the day off work to celebrate and surprised me by also taking the day before off, too. We spent his birthday at his parents' house and had a great time.

H and K started swimming lessons yesterday. H is doing...well, swimmingly. She will be swimming on her own in no time according to her teacher. She especially loves to dive for rings at the bottom of the pool. There's only one problem--she floats and that makes it very hard for her to actually get to the bottom of the pool. K's not taking to the water as well as I had hoped. He loves swimming as long has he has his floaties. He'll even jump off the diving board if he has them. So, getting in the water without them has been a little challenging. He is starting to warm up to the idea, but I've decided to pull him out of lessons until next summer when he is a little bit older. N and I will work with him in the mean time to get him used to not having his floaties.

M is just as happy as ever. Seriously, he is the best baby. He pretty much only cries when he is hungry or tired and even then he stops as soon as he is picked up. I marvel at how good he is. I know you're not supposed to have favorite children, but he is mine (at least right now). I'd have 100 babies if I could be guaranteed they'd be like him. (Okay, so not really, but you get my point.)

I'm doing pretty good. So far, this pregnancy is unlike any of my others. I am so tired it is unreal. Luckily, I can take naps when N is home. That helps a lot. I haven't really had much morning sickness. There have been some waves of nausea here and there, but not the constant, all day, wish-I-could-puke-my-brains-out sickness (I probably just jinxed myself). Believe me, I'm not complaining. I had an ultrasound at my appt earlier this month. There is only one baby and everything looks good. K has named this baby "Boo-Boo Sauce." Occasionally it is "Boo-Boo Head Sauce."

Aliens

Can you believe May is over? Where do the days go? The other day N and I went to see Indiana Jones. We haven't been to the movies in...oh...forever. As we were walking in we started talking about the price. We went to a matinee and it was still 15 bucks! Here's a snipet from our conversation:

Me: "Man, I remember when a matinee was $4 and a regular movie was $6."
N: "Yeah, me too."
Me: "Oy! We're turning into those people."
N: "What people?"
Me: "You know, the kind that say, 'I remember when a movie was 4 bucks and gas was 99¢'"
N: "Oh. Those people."

I knew I was getting old, but I really sounded like it during that conversation. By the way--didn't so much care for the movie. Guess I'm not really an alien kind of girl.

Speaking of aliens. I finished The Host on Wednesday. It took me an entire week to read it. It just didn't capture my attention the way the Twilight Series did. I guess I liked it alright, but I thought it was slow in the beginning (meaning hard to follow until I understood what was going on) and at the end. In the middle I found myself torn with what I wanted to happen. I don't know why, but the name Wanda bugged me the whole time I was reading. I'm sure I'd read a sequel (I'd like to find out if the humans ever reclaim Earth and what happens with all the love connections), but I've heard Stephenie Meyer has said she doesn't want to write a sequel. We'll see.

Bring on the SUGAR!

Okay. I am officially quitting...er, stopping my "no sweets" month. Yes, I know it is a week early. But darn it, I'm pregnant and having serious sugar cravings. I did really well, if I do say so myself. I slipped twice. Once, when I went to Costco and they were sampling cream puffs. I just took it and ate it. Didn't even think about it until after I had eaten it. The second was those darn Mint Crisp M&M's. I had seen an ad for them and wanted to try them, but couldn't find them anywhere. Then, my SIL blogged about them and said they tasted like Thin Mints. So I stepped up my search and was finally able to find them. I bought 2 bags--one to take to pizza night and one to save for June 1st. I wasn't going to eat any of the first bag, but I did...2 of them. So, there you have it. After 23 days I'm calling off my ban on sweets. Bring on dessert!

Which brings me to my next topic. N went to the store on his way home last night to buy some ice cream. He has been dying ever since I started the whole no sweets thing. I saw it in the freezer this morning and it is small. I literally did a double take. Whatever happened to a half-gallon of ice cream? I mean, I knew they got smaller a while ago and were only 1.75 quarts, but now they are only 1.5 quarts. Do you think they lowered the price at all? Umm...NO! FYI the ice cream he got is so yummy. It is Dreyer's Loaded Chocolate Chip Mint Brownie. HELLO! What a way to end a sweets fast, huh?

No New House for Us

So, we didn't get the house. Here's a little back story. A little over a week ago we put an offer on a house. It was a small-ish 4 bedroom over in Sundance. It really would have been a great starter house for us. We put an offer in and waited. And waited. Then, late Friday afternoon we got a call from our realtor that we didn't get it. Someone had come in with a larger offer and quite a down payment, I guess. We're okay that we didn't get the house. We felt good about it going in and we still feel good about not getting it. We're still looking, though not really very diligently. Even though the market is really great it isn't quite really great for us yet (and I'm beginning to think it never will be!). Having one income stinks sometimes.

Surprise, Surprise!

About two months ago I had this crazy idea. If we were to get pregnant right then we could have a baby before the end of the year. Since M was born in January this new baby would essentially be free (at least as far as the delivery is concerned) because I met my annual deductible and out of pocket payments with M. I mean, heck, we're going to have more kids anyway, why not have one of them be free? I told N about my idea and he was on board...for a day. Then we both decided it was a dumb idea. M wouldn't even be a year old when the baby was born. Talk about chaos! Add in my PPD and well, that is just asking for trouble. Well, the month passed and I just couldn't get the idea out of my head. I figured we had one more month to try because technically, I would deliver the baby a month early. I talked to N again about it and we decided if it happened it happened and if not no big deal. Fast forward about a month and yep, you guessed it...I'm pregnant! We know it is going to be interesting (to say the least), but we really feel like this is what Heavenly Father wants for our family. So, come mid-December we should be welcoming Baby Peanut to our family.

Side note to my family: If our offer on the house is accepted (which we aren't too hopeful about considering there are so many other offers on it) we will be moving to a new ward where come blessing day we will be starting at 8:00am--again!

Most Things Have an Opposite

And in my house one of those things is H. Her opposite? K. If they have to choose something (color of otter pop, what to eat for dinner, what music to listen to, etc) she will wait until he has chosen his and then she will choose the opposite (or at least something different). It is very annoying. Can't wait 'til M gets to start making choices, too!

A couple of nights ago at pizza night, H started making me Mother's Day "things". She would use my mom's paper punches and edged scissors to make me wonderful Mother's Day surprises. Then, she would run to me and say. "Happy Mother's Day!" and hand me whatever it was. The next day, she wanted to make more so I got out the few punches and scissors that I have and she and K went to town. And, guess who got to clean this loveliness up? I guess it is only fair--they are my gifts, after all! Happy Mother's Day indeed!

This Is Gonna Be Long

Okay, this sugar thing (or should I say no sugar thing) is not as bad as I thought. I've had a couple of near slip-ups, but I'm not off the bandwagon yet. Sunday I was given a king-size Twix bar. Figures. I gave parts of it to each of the kids and N. (I saved one stick for myself for June 1--it's in the freezer, but don't tell anyone). Then, the other night the kids and I were at my parents' house for pizza night and my dad brings out the soda. Not really such a big deal because I don't drink soda a lot anyway. BUT there was root beer. I love root beer. I'd move to Utah or Idaho simply because Barq's is caffeine free there. I made it through, though. Just opened myself up a bottle of water and I was good to go. I have had major cravings for ice cream and cookies, but since there aren't any in the house I'm okay there, too. (Poor N. He doesn't get them either!) This Sunday is Mother's Day. At church the women are getting chocolate (I know because N has been putting them together). I've already promised mine to the kids. Usually for M-day I would get a tub of Red Vines. This year...not so much. It's been hinted that I might be getting a can of peanuts. Nothin' says love like a can of peanuts. So, I'm doing good and I plan to make it to May 31st. I just wish these cravings would go away.

Speaking of Mother's Day...I have received my present already. It is a new camera. I've been wanting one for a while now, but we just never had the available funds. Well, along comes our Economic Stimulus (thank you, Congress!) and voila! I get a new camera. I had to do all the research and choose the one I wanted (N didn't want to take the fall if I didn't like it). I swear--I read so much about cameras that I would go to bed with a headache. I finally decided on a Sony. Originally, I wasn't even looking at Sonys (is plural Sonies?!) because of the whole memory stick thing. Ultimately, though, I decided that I never really shared my SD card with anyone anyway so what did it matter? So far I'm pretty pleased with it. The kids are really excited as well, because they've inherited my old camera. They take great pictures, too. K's are especially good. Well, they would be if he'd keep his finger off the lens.

N is having a proud week. At work they bought all new computers and gave all the old ones to the employees. N scored me one for my scrapbooking and has spent the last few days trying to network our two computers together. It took him a while and a few calls to his brother, but he was finally able to get it to work. Now, when I give myself time outs (or N sends me to my room for being grumpy) I have something productive to do! Speaking of N and his work...he is going to be submitting an entry for an Emmy! It is kind of exciting. He's done it once before and we got to get all dressed up to go to the local awards banquet. He didn't win that time, but it was an honor just to be nominated (or so he was told). Maybe this is his year.

I've been trying to think about what I want to do when I grow up. I really don't have a ton of schooling. I have my AA and I've taken all the classes I would need to transfer to a major U for accounting or elementary ed, but I just don't want to do those things. I worked for quite a few years as a staff accountant. I didn't mind it so much, I guess, but I don't want to do that for the rest of my life. Education was something I thought I would enjoy until I actually had kids. Maybe it is different when they are someone else's kids, but I really don't want to find out. I had thought about graphic design, but N tells me I'd actually have to be creative. On my own. Without copying someone else. He suggested web design/computer stuff (heck, since I'm on it all the time, I may as well get paid for it...or so he says). I just don't know it that interests me either. He also suggested photography. Now, that is something that interests me, but I'm not sure I have the talent for it. My pictures always seem to be...oh, I don't know...unique? And not in a "hey, that is a great photo" kind of way, if you know what I mean. And so, I continue to wonder. Maybe one day I'll figure it out.

Reflections of Christ

In another post I mentioned the "Reflections of Christ" exhibit at the Visitor's Center. Click here to see a 5 1/2 minute slide show of the exhibit.