ps

You just gotta check out M's recent funny on the sidebar! it's my new favorite and she's been saying it to me a lot the past few days. she makes me laugh!

Eruption!

can you see it? it's there! i promise! it's the bottom left tooth and it's FINALLY come through meaning all that drool and fussing was not for naught!!!

Eat to Live

I think I'm being humbled.

LG is nine months old. I've known for a while that I need to shape up. Literally!

I need better food and exercise habits.  And I've known I needed to start for a while.  

The thing is, I love food. I loooooove all the things I shouldn't.

cheesecake

hamburgers

onion rings

ice cream

cheese

chips

anything I shouldn't? well, then I want it!

My head keeps telling me it's time but I've been procrastinating.

Live to eat or eat to live?

So, I got the plague.

I'm being humbled, I tell you.  I have hand, foot and mouth in the worst way.  I have blisters all down one side of my tongue and up the other.  It's so painful that I talk like had my jaw wired shut and eat like it too! 

I came home from Minnesota and have been miserable ever since.  

Someday, I think I'll be able to eat again. And work again! (I had to call in sick today-I'm not sure I would have been very effective considering I teach people to speak clearly!)

And when I can eat again, I'm going to do it better.

the wagon

I had such good intentions to post. I have many things to post about! 

Alas!

Things got crazy!

We're off tomorrow on an impromptu trip to Minnesota to help W's parents.

See you Tuesday

Home Sweet Home!

We've discovered home is a very relative term.

We have a home in Minnesota.  It's so weird to see other people's stuff in it! But we have a mortgage to prove it's ours!

We had a home in Utah.  It was Grandma Betty's and M still asks to go back to it all the time.  (We think this stems from it being the last place where she was the "queen" before LG was born, and she remembers it better than the Minnesota house and so to her, it's the last place that we were alone as a family)

We have a lovely home here.  My parents have been amazingly gracious and loving, opening their home to us and putting up with us for way longer than they should have had to.

Hence, it's time to get our own home again. 

Welcome!

At the beginning of June, we will be moving into this nice 2 bed 2 bath apartment.  We will be downsizing and it will be interesting to see what fits but we'll make it work!

As you can see, M and LG are a little excited about their new space!

This is the girls/guest bath.  We're working on brainwashing M to believe that diapers won't be coming to the apartment so she has to return to the task of potty training when we got to our new home.

We're excited! W has been a trooper to live with my family for so long.  And we haven't had our stuff in over a year.  It's time! W goes to Utah to move out of the storage unit at the end of May and then we'll be moving in!!!!

Love is a Choice

Even while I'm writing the title, I'm singing the Rick Springfield song in my head. We are young! Heartache to heartache we stand!

sorry, moving on!

We went to a wedding yesterday in Memphis.  Yes, another road trip and Yes! we are done with road trips for a while!  I'm so sick of the car!  Of course, W is still going to Utah in two weeks to get our stuff (yay!!!!!!) so we do have more travel coming up!

I digress.

The wedding was sweet and simple.  The bride was beautiful, the cake was beautiful and tasty and we were glad we were there for them.  W has been a home teacher to these two since we moved here and basically since the bride joined the church, and so it was important to us that we be there.  

They were married in a chapel outside Memphis. The bishop shared some sweet thoughts that I appreciated. 

When we are dating, engaged and honeymooners, it's easy to love.  We live the noun love.  We have lots of love.  It's bounteous and free-flowing and passionate and quick.  And then, later after years and years of life, ups and downs, we live the verb love.  We make a conscious choice to love our partners in life.  We choose to love.  And it's more powerful.  We don't fall in and out of love.  We choose to love.  Our sacrament meeting today echoed those thoughts.  We have agency, and we are blessed when we work at that love and participate in the verb of love.  

I love my husband. I loved spending the day with just him.

Opa!

We went to the Greek Food Festival last night! It was so tasty as always! I could have  eaten gyros all night...but it's probably better that I didn't! That, and the chocolate baklava that I had for breakfast on the way to Memphis today. Yes, breakfast!

M didn't eat at all! She was too entranced by the dancers! 

This church is amazing! They've been doing this for 25 years and it grows every year. The food is amazing, they always have great entertainment and crafts, and this year M also enjoyed the kids tent where she made a necklace. We got her a cute nesting doll and then later hid it from her to give to her later.  We met up with the family and also saw other friends there.  It was 90 degrees and could have been excruciatingly hot but there was plenty of shade, it wasn't too humid, and it was breezy! Sign me up for next year!

King Tut!

We were determined to see King Tut!  It came to Dallas and we may not get the chance to see the treasures of King Tut's tomb again (since King Tut himself did not make an appearance-a big time bummer if you ask me, especially when he was the selling point!)

Six out of the eight of us made it!  Mom was sick and Dad had to work so W and I took M, LG, Grace and Sam with us to Dallas for a quick overnight.  We had a strict agenda!

Wake up and drive!

Take Sam and Grace to Six Flags so they could have fun (doesn't Sam look like he's having fun? :) ...

...while M, LG and I went with Dad on a trip down memory lane

well, we were actually next door to the Rangers and Cowboys stadiums so we drove by those first since neither was playing, and we couldn't keep W away!

then we drove by his childhood homes

He loved seeing where he once lived again and showing me.  After a lovely dinner and cheesecake, mmmmmmmmm, I miss that place! It's a good thing it's not nearby though! I digress.... then we slept and started our walking marathon the next day!

First stop, the Galleria! We had a few hours before our time to see the King at the museum.

Next, a scrumptious lunch at one of my favorites that I miss! They made fun of me for making so many yummy sounds during lunch!  I seriously think W and I should open up a franchise here! Arkansas NEEDS Chipotle!

Then we went to "see the King" as M put it.  Don't get me wrong, it was very very cool! There were awesome things from his tomb, just not him himself....which as you can see below, is not the image they marketed!

We had a much needed break at our friends from Minnesota who also relocated this year. It was so lovely to see them! I miss my Minnesota friends!!! Then most of us slept on the way home... some more comfortably than others! (did you know that you can sleep peacefully while covering three quarters of your nose?) :)

It's gonna be a long 7 months!

...until LOST returns! 

What are we going to do until we find out who the "other Locke" is? (besides the bearded man at the beginning)

What in the world did the H-bomb REALLY do?

What am I going to do without my favorite Juliet?

What are we going to do if this all comes down to a stupid love triangle between Sawyer, Jack, and Kate? (besides be very disappointed)

Did you miss us?

Anyone still out there? We're trying to make it back! I promise to be more frequent and to even come back tomorrow! So come back tomorrow!!

The rain has overstayed its welcome

That's what my brother said yesterday.

This is significant for a few reasons.  First, this came from my brother who has Autism who is supposed to have a difficult time with idioms.  He's awesome.  I still remember when he had an English test where he had to fill in similes.  One of them was:

It was as soft as.... and he wrote "a pencil".  So clueless but it was so cute.

Next year, he's taking AP classes, yes, more than one.  He's amazing.

Second, it's sooooo true! I don't think I hate the rain as much as my friend does, but I'm so done with it! It's rained almost everyday for the past two weeks!

And it's ruined my plans more than once!

I blame the rain for at least fifty percent of the familial contention last Saturday! We needed space and there was not garden, pool, or yard to escape to! By the end of the day, while W and I love each other dearly, we needed to be far apart from each other!  

W had free tickets to the AA baseball team here last Tuesday. He loves baseball so he was so excited!  We had seats in the front row right at the third baseline.  It would have been so much fun.  But when we got there we watched the drizzle escalate to a steady pour and left when it started to lightning!

Yesterday was the Special Olympics.  They were canceled without hope of being rescheduled! I was so excited to go and cheer my kids at school on and do speech therapy with them while they ran their races and did their throws and jumps.  They have been practicing for MONTHS and it was all for nothing.  I feel so bad for them!

So, rain, rain go away, is somewhat of an understatement!!!