First Day of School!

It is so crazy that it is this time of year AGAIN! This year, at least, I was very pleased with the teachers when we met them last week (NOT the case last year!). Also, having them be in 2nd and 4th, I wasn't nearly as sad and nervous as when I had a younger one going. This is their third year in the same school and they are confident and ready. It made saying good bye so much easier....I'm not worrying if they'll know where to go, or know how to eat lunch...etc, etc. And...they have been so at each other's throats this summer...that I'm ready for them to have separate time. All in all, this is the first time I haven't felt extremely sad to see them go back. Here are some pictures from this morning:





LD---All alone and driving me crazy! :)

While the cat's away...the mice shall

PLAY!

DH has a seminar all weekend. And, crazy though it is, I have never slept in any of our homes without him. I have gone with or without the kids and he's been home, but I have never slept in our bed without him...EVER! Knowing how darn emotional I can be and how much I would miss him, I decided to put this night to good use and invited a few friends over for games and food. We ended up with only a group of five and it was a huge blast! I am so grateful that I have such great friends. We didn't even take any pictures...we were having too much fun talking and playing. It was really a fun, relaxed, and laid back evening.

Now, it is after midnight and I am subbing in Primary tomorrow (still need to read that lesson!), as well as conducting in Relief Society(gotta get those announcements down). I also have the last load of laundry in the dryer and stuff to read before tomorrow's lesson (five conference talks this time! Yikes.). Oh well, when I finally fall into bed I will be so exhausted (hopefully) that I won't miss DH too much!

Out with the old, in with the new

Yesterday morning.....Old table (bought for us by my parents in early 1999). Still in good condition, but quite small and with a chair injured and gone:

Empty Kitchen...it looks so big this way!:

Yesterday lunch: No table to sit at and LD freaked out since his high chair wasn't in the kitchen:

Yesterday Night: New table (bought by DH and I on Saturday after 9-10 months of looking). It is counter height and HUGE! It fills up all that space (but I love it!).

We also bought other furniture on Saturday (pictures of the other pieces to come), including this new kitchen island for moi! LOVE it! It felt like such a splurge since I am the only one that cooks, but it has a knife drawer, utensils drawer, silverware drawer, built in spice rack, trash bag holder, shelves. On top it has a granite cutting board and the table opens up to be bigger. As huge as my kitchen is, it doesn't have a ton of counter space and this helps a lot.

It is fun to have new furniture and we've already put it to good use. The pictures don't even do it justice, so everyone's welcome to come visit. The only problem is that this table is so big that we feel like we are living in the land of giants!

Out To Lunch

Today, C was at a friend's house and a very generous friend of mine agreed to take LD for a couple of hours so that K and I could go out to lunch and shop for a first day of school outfit. It is always nice to have one-on-one time with each of my children, but K, in particular, seems to really thrive on it. Today was memorable in that it was POURING rain. We ran from the car into the restaurant and into the store....ending up soaked, drenched, and dripping, but laughing all the way. K just loves to spend time alone with me and I'm so glad. This is the time we get to really talk and figure out life stuff. She is growing up too fast for me and I sure treasure this "date" and this time with her.

A couple of pictures

I am such a camera person...but I guess we took so many in DC that I haven't been using it much lately. I noticed a few hours before my niece and nephew went home that I hadn't taken any pictures of their time with us. Bummer. So, here is a picture of my kids and their cousins.

Also, I have been forbidden to go through our trip pictures until DH can look at them with me. The problem is...if DH is home, we are watching the Olympics. Even staying up until 1 in the morning isn't helping us. I think we are still two days behind on the DVR. But, I took this picture after we got back with them in their DC shirts (after we got back doesn't count, does it?).

Lonely

This is a rather personal post. I don't usually post about this type of thing, especially so soon after another post, but I keep feeling like I need to....so here I am. Hopefully it comes out coherent.

Yesterday was bad. Really bad. I was so down. I'm not usually like this, but I was so low. I've had a lot of lows lately, but this was worse than usual. For hours, I prayed and prayed and prayed that someone would call or email or drop me a letter. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. In all my despair, it turned to great loneliness.

Today is 3,000 times better. Looking back, I really feel that there was a reason that the Lord allowed me to feel that depth of loneliness. Speaking with some of my best friends that are always so in-tune with the Spirit, they did not feel prompted at all to call yesterday. The Lord was letting me go through it. I don't know why for sure yet, maybe I need to be in that place to empathize later on with someone else. Maybe I just need to feel the resiliency of being better today. Who knows? But I really feel that I needed to go through that experience.

I do know that today I have had many calls and emails. My friends really are there. It just amazes me the great mysteries of God and how he operates. He allowed me to be alone yesterday, but responded today with a great outpouring of love.

Now...I feel so silly posting this. It is way too personal for me....but...I know I needed to. If it is because you are feeling lonely and down, I've been there. If it is because you needed to feel inspired to call or email or write someone...do it! They might really need you.

Moments not captured on "film"

There are some moments that you just have to use the camera in your head. This morning, DH and I happened to look outside where the kids had been playing. It was the absolute cutest thing EVER! K had her cousins, E and S, and her brothers, C and LD, lined up on the bench and was presenting them medals for some sort of kid Olympics that they'd been playing! It was so cute. And...can you tell what we've been doing since Friday? Next, they all went in the kitchen and made "flags" and came out with their own Parade of Nations. So fun. I just wish the memory was also captured in a photo.

Randomness

Sorry. I have been missing again. It takes a lot to get back into real life after a vacation. In addition, it has been a rough week for me...hopefully this next one will be better. Thank goodness for friends that lift me up. I am so lucky.

Church yesterday was really awesome. I always gain so much from attending and I always learn something through the Spirit that I need to know. One thing that really impacted me was from yesterday in Relief Society when the teacher read a small paragraph from President Monson in the current Ensign. Although I'd read it before, it really touched me. It was about how we all die, so we never know how many tomorrows we have. Do today what needs to be done: change, love, serve, etc.. It really made me realize that I do want to live each day as if it were my last, being the best I can be and loving dearly those I love. I also know that I don't want to look back on my life and think that I wasted it being sad or depressed. Living each day also means choosing to be grateful, cheerful, and looking at the silver lining in any cloud.

Now....this week promises to be a little crazy. I get to have my niece (almost 4) and nephew (2) stay with us for three days! :) My kids are so excited. They couldn't wait for them to get here. They are very good and very cute kids and I think their stay will be fun for all. My only worry at all is nap time. We'll see on that one. Otherwise...it is a week of fun for all of us! :)

Then, it is back-to-school already. CRAZY! Where did the summer go?

We're Home!

We are home. We got back late last night and we are HOME!

It was a super-duper busy six days. We walked and walked and walked. We should've taken a pedometer to see just how many steps it was....miles and miles daily, I am sure.

We had 950-ish pictures to take on the memory card we took with us. Thought that would be enough. Nope. When we got close to the end of the card, we tried deleting some to make enough room and finally realized we couldn't delete enough and bought another one. We took 230 pictures on that one! Needless to say, before I post pictures, I will weed through over 1000 of them!

Here is a day by day look at what we did (hope you don't get exhausted just reading it!):

Wednesday: flew to DC, checked in at hotel, took the Metro to downtown (LOVE it!), went on a walking tour of many of the monuments (including the Lincoln memorial, WWII memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Washington Monument, etc.), went back to the hotel for 10 minutes of swimming (pool closes at 10)

Thursday: took the METRO (of course!), toured the capitol building, visited Smithsonian museums: botanic gardens, American Indian, Air and Space (we planned to spend hours there...but they happened to be closing early for a special event), art gallery, and natural history

Friday: More Smithsonian: International gallery, Freer Art Gallery, Smithsonian castle, Air and Space, Natural History (we only did half the day before), rode up the Washington Monument

Saturday: National Geographic Museum, National zoo, ate at a very expensive, but yummy Lebanese restaurant, picked up our rental car--cried as we used our good friend, the Metro, for the last time!

Sunday: visited the Washington DC LDS temple, toured the National Cathedral, walked to the White House, visited the Claude Colonial farm, and went and visited Herndon, VA, where DH lived for seven years

Monday: Library of Congress, Jefferson Memorial, Arlington Cemetery (including the tomb of the unknown soldier), walk along/across the Potomac river, return the rental car, fly home

It is good to be home, but hard to be back to the daily grind of life. It will be especially busy for both DH and I. Since we were gone, he is booked with patients the whole week.....not a spare moment to breathe. I have Enrichment to put on (with lots of help, of course) on Thursday. LD was especially terrible the last half of this trip (what one-year-old LOVES going to museums day after day?), so I hope that he will calm down now that we are home. Keep your fingers crossed for me!