late for luncheon at Downton

So I'm a little late to the party, I know.

I didn't want to watch series two before series one.  And I waited ever so patiently for series one for months until the day before it came in at the library, I found out my friend Rachel had it the whole time! :) But I finished season two this weekend, and I want to talk about it!!!

If you haven't watched Downton Abbey, stop reading and start watching!

Okay, here are my thoughts:

Lady Mary: I know we're supposed to have a love/hate relationship with her, but I'm afraid I fall on the hate side. I don't hate her, but I hate how she treats just about everybody! Matthew's too good for her! I think a lot of Mary's behavior is purely her upbringing-the demands of her social status and how she was taught to treat people, but I also think she's just plain cold sometimes!

Matthew: First, I loved Lavinia, and I am soooo sad that she died. I hope Matthew gets over it, but I also don't think he should be with Mary. Maybe it makes the most sense, but I'm still sad.  He's just a good guy. I hope her death doesn't ruin him.  I think his mother, Isobel is funny, but I can also see why she drives everybody nuts!

Lady Edith: I'm glad she's done double crossing Mary for the moment because I like her. I think she deserves more than she gets. I wanted her to fall in love with one of the soldiers she took care of and live happily ever after!

Lady Sybil: I just love her! I loved her when she came out in those wild pantaloons and headband! I love how she's smart and not afraid of change!

Thomas: I don't trust him. Obviously. Even his good side of helping out while everyone was sick. Wouldn't trust him farther than I could throw him and "with my bad knee", well. You can't trust this guy. And I couldn't figure out how he lasted so long as a servant when everyone knew he was a cheat and a liar.

O'Brien: love the curls, like when she's nice, but also don't trust her.

My favorites though? Of course Anna and Mr. Bates! I love that they finally married and I love that she just wants to be with him! And I love how they made up a room for them after they got married! I love Lady Violet!! She gets the BEST lines!

I thought the housemaid Ethel/baby/soldier fiasco dragged on too much. And I don't think it's done yet. But I guess there had to be something I didn't like about it!
What do you think about Patrick? Was he the wild eyed burn victim? Will he come back?

What are your thoughts? Do you love it? Are you wondering what all the fuss is about?? What will happen next series? How long will we have to wait for it??

lately

Miss M had safety week. She was amazed that I already knew about "stop, drop and roll" :)

All week long, she was quoting the brilliant "Mayor Sayer", leader of Safety Town.

 Lulu has been testing our sleeping tolerance.  We've had multiple wake ups, tears, taking away toys, beds on the floor, night terrors, and uncomfortable cosleeping.  I promised never to complain about my girls' sleeping because my girls slept through the night at three weeks old.  But now that you know how spoiled I am, you know how distressing this is, three years later! She has consequences, rewards, you name it, but it's not enough yet!

 Earth Day at school brought about "recycled art".  Here is Miss M and her owls nest.  

 My Miss M colored a cute coloring page at my work earlier this week. It was of a bunny sweeping the front step of her little bunny cottage.  Before I knew it, Miss M had cut out the bunny and created a real 3D bunny cottage!

 with a bed, chair, lamp, bushes out front and family picture on the wall!

 I love when she is so creative like this! I love when she thinks outside the box. I love that she let Lulu take it over and play with it for the next two days straight!

Tonight in the bath, they just wanted to play. She played with Lulu's hair, pretending to braid it and curl it.  I love love love my girls!

four

four things I learned on this friday:

1. Miss M has never had a fever of 103 before. It freaked me out a bit! Thank heavens for Tylenol!!

2. My house is a wreck! I have no excuse for this because of lesson number one and that we are home today, but I have been ignoring my house all week. I eat less and definitely snack less when I'm running around town! It's so much easier to munch at home!

3. I am in a major sewing slump! I have a humongous list of things to make and do, but I can't bring myself to break out the sewing machine.

4. Lulu is forming some rather strong opinions lately. She is really into side ponytails. I kind of love this one. She holds out a chunk of hair and demands that we put the ponytail "here"!

Miss M

So... I wasn't in love with the background they chose for spring pictures. But since she took a beautiful fall picture, and I think the spring pictures are a gimmick anyway ("here is your beautiful package, you can either return it or pay for it!") I chose to return it after snapping a picture of it.  Because she's so stinkin' photogenic!

It's time to check in with Miss M.

She is winding up her kindergarten year with a bang!

She is learning addition and subtraction and I'm amazed all the time at what she's learning.

She can still throw a fit worthy of a two year old-they're just less frequent!

She is writing sentences and letters all the time! (now I need to train her to address and stamp her letters herself and maybe Grandma Jan and Grace would get more of them!)

She would still eat pizza every night of the week if I'd let her.

she still has an affinity for all things pink and all things twirly!

She insisted on cutting her hair short again (which I love!) but then immediately started moaning about how it's not long like a princess anymore! So we're growing it out again, of course!

She is singing along more at church c/o her bang-up reading skills and I love this!

She likes to read to her sister which I also love!

She is wild and clingy and spunky and sweet and funny and cute and I love her to pieces!!

three

Three Things that I learned this Thursday:

1. I'm not the only one who thinks the saying "Food never tastes as good as skinny feels" is complete and total crap. My Mom agrees with me.

2. I want a baby more than I want a donut.  They gave one to Lulu at the doctor this morning and I didn't take one bite.  I did, however, lick my fingers after handing it to her :) And after crying to my doctor, I left with a plan.  Isn't it amazing how good knowing there's a plan feels?

3. I'm so absolutely blessed with the friends and family who surround me.*

*I guess I was more reminded today because I really do know this one to be true.

choir c/o Miss M...and the iphone!

Our church choir sang on Sunday. Miss M had fun documenting our Wednesday night practice with my phone.

 This is O. She is her favorite babysitter. I constantly have to remind Miss M to stop hanging on her and to keep some appropriate boundaries. She, in return, cries that it's not fair that O isn't her big sister.

 There were more pictures of O. Our photo bomber is our former frequent babysitter, N. Do I sense some envy there?

 This is Sister R. She is the chorister for our kids every week in Primary and she is A.Ma.Zing! She is so creative and enthusiastic and everyone's favorite part of Primary is Sister R.

 Our fearless leader.  She always loves how we sing. Even when we don't deserve it!

 You know who this one is.

The music was beautiful, the Spirit bore testimony, it was a lovely Easter Sunday!

a few tidbits

I want to thank you, my lovely readers! 

I have been encouraged, motivated, and inspired by your sweet comments to my last post!! I debated long and hard about writing that post.  I didn't wanted to complain and moan and groan. I was tired of that!  I was overwhelmed at the support and love in each of your comments. It's been a great week and it felt very cleansing and healing to get it out and feel your support as well.  I now feel accountable to you as well. I need that.

This last week, I:

-exercised four days, starting on Tuesday, plus a loooong day of working hard at a wedding, plus swimming on Saturday

-didn't eat one french fry, Chick-Fil-A is going to send out a search party soon!

-enjoyed Wendy's salads 

-only had one serving of macaroni and cheese at the wedding

-texted my dear friend every day when I exercised and when she exercised

This next week, I will:

-work out six days, starting today

-continue to cut back on portions and fat

-meal plan and research low-fat crockpot ideas (thanks for the ideas so far, Jen and Amy!

I did give myself a freebie for the Easter weekend. It was already planned, and I knew I wouldn't QUITE be able to resist everything there. So, I DID eat the lovely eclair, but I DIDN'T eat the donuts or cookies.  That counts for something in my book!

Okay, enough is enough.  Here are a few of my spring pics as of late. We all need a little cuteness.

We had a fun spring break week with a zoo day with school friends.

 Not Easter, but Miss M's Easter dress on a lovely Sunday morning

 Make-your-own pizza night

 We had painted nails that afternoon and so Lulu wanted to show her nails in every pic

 Miss M lost another tooth on Saturday

 My Mom had her annual Easter Brunch and egg hunt. I loved these little guys, parking in the middle of the chaos, trading and sharing eggs.

Happy Easter! I'm so thankful for the sacrifice of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

doing hard things

In December, my doctor told me that he thought my fertility was being affected by weight gain.
I have had an internal fight with myself for the past four months, mostly in denial, but also a great deal of avoidance. I refuse to get the blood tests he wants done because I'm terrified of the results.

But recently I've come to the conclusion that I am even more terrified of facing myself if I ruin my own chances at having more children.

I easily got pregnant twice and expected my luck would hold.  For the past year and a half, however, as I've gained more weight, my cycle has completely gone crazy.  And it hasn't been as easy as I thought.

I don't like talking about it. I don't like working on it.  I don't want to do it.  But I know that I need to do it.  And I know that I need to want to do it.  I also know that I desperately need all the help I can get.

I'm ridiculously addicted to fried food. I crave it.  Chick Fil A is my best friend.  And I have truly deluded myself into thinking that because of my job (working out of my car) and my schedule (working until six three days a week, and kids that won't eat ANYthing that comes out of a crock pot) made it okay.

It started last month where I would challenge myself to a week of no fried food and then fail miserably.  Then on Monday night, I had a breakdown to my husband. He is supportive  and loving but I think he's a little scared to have me report to him.  He doesn't want to deal with my wrath if he has to remind me to exercise or what to choose to eat. And I didn't think I needed to report to him.  But I do. Oh, I really do.

So, this week we are BOTH eating no fried food. Yesterday I exercised. Tonight we ARE both going to exercise and tomorrow I WILL exercise again.  I WILL exercise five times this week.

Because I need to. Because I need to want to. And because if we don't have that third baby I crave so desperately, it is NO longer going to be my fault.