11 days!

So...I have pictures to post, but I am not going to yet (laugh if you will-but it is not a "blog-day" in my schedule). I just have to quickly comment. CK was here for the weekend. It was wonderful. He was here less than 48 hours, but there are 11 days until I get to see him. My turn to go there. I can't wait. I love him and I had a great many confirmations from the Lord this weekend that I am doing the right thing. I am so ready for the rest of my future to begin. For now, however, I am so excited-only 11 days!

PS- I am battling what XDH believes is a combo of sciatica and SI joint pain. It is excruciating and I didn't get much sleep last night. Hope I can recover in 11 days!

K's New Hair

So, K has been asking me for a couple of weeks to cut her hair. We have been busy and neither of us have had time. As I got to thinking about it, I decided that Middle School is a good time to start having a professional do hair and not Mom. I asked her if she wanted to go to my stylist (and good friend, JK). She said "Yes" so we set an appointment and off we went.

What I was afraid of happening did: she looks so old! My baby looks like a teenager. She still has just over a year...but she already acts like it, why not look the part? She is always gorgeous....now even more! And....I have been trying for years to get her to let me flat iron her hair occasionally. She was against it and I only got to on a rare occasion. JK does it and now? She loves it!!!! It looks good on her.

(Her glasses are broken...so she looks even more like a different person!)

Finally Normal

The last few years have really taken their toll on me, particularly emotionally. While life is not perfect, I have a deep sense of normalcy that has gradually returned to my life.

This is how I know I am normal again:

• I have gained 12 pounds in the last year, since I realized food was still yummy. :)
• I am organizing and deep cleaning on a fairly regular basis again.
• I feel overwhelmed and stressed out with all I want to accomplish and be. (definitely normal!)
• I laugh.
• I play games with my kids.
• I am available for friends and neighbors that need me.
• etc.

Most of these things were true much of the time, even in my non-normal state. But, as I review how I was before XDH shattered my world, then how I was while picking up the pieces, and how I am now....definitely back to normal. And, it is all due to a Savior that knows me and loves me and carried me when I could not manage alone. I am so blessed and grateful. I love Him.

Winner and....ALMOST winner!

It has been an eventful couple of days for C. All my children are talented (Yes! I am biased), and that includes C. C entered a photograph in our local PTA Reflections contest. He placed in the top 3 at our school and thus went on to district.

Last night was the awards ceremony for the district level. Only 1st place goes on to State. C waited and waited and waited for his name to be called. Finally, the last trophy of the night: 1st place in 3-5 Photography.....and it went to C!!!!!

He was sooooooooooooooooooooo excited. He came in to my room after 10 last night exclaiming that he could not sleep because he kept hearing, "You won first place. You are going to state." I love that grin of happiness. :)

.

He didn't have long to rejoice in his award. Today was the 4th/5th school spelling bee. Last week, he had placed in the 4th grade one and thus moved on to the school-wide one. He was VERY nervous. We studied as much was we could. Unfortunately, because we were out of town, we did not get the list to study from until Wednesday afternoon and the bee was today (Friday).

Here they are ready to begin:

ROUND 1:

ROUND 2:

ROUND 3:

ROUND 4:

ROUND 5:

ROUND 6:

Three participants left!!! Way to go, C!!!!!!!!!

ROUND 7:

And...that was it. He did great!!! He struggles, though, because 1st and 2nd get trophies, and 1st and 2nd go on to the next level. SO CLOSE: 3rd place!!!!! He might have been disappointed, but I am so proud of him. I would have been proud of him if he got out in the first round. He tried. He studied. He did his best. AND, he is only a 4th grader. There is always next year!!!

Weekend Fun

This weekend was amazing. We had a 3.5 day weekend and we took advantage of it by driving to St. Louis. It took us exactly 11 hours. I was expecting 12-13, but the kids are getting older and are okay in the car. Our stops were brief and infrequent and that helped.

Once we got there, the kids (especially the boys) were crazy and wrestling on the air mattress. A was already asleep and it is amazing that she didn't wake up.

The next morning, A had somewhere to be. When she was done, we all went and picked her up and headed out to lunch at Red Robin. I have never been to Red Robin. There is a reason, but it is kinda personal....so, I just have never been. But, YUMMY! Every one of us LOVED our food. More importantly, we loved being together.



Our next stop was visiting the St. Louis Temple. It is so beautiful, but it was very cold! We walked around it quickly, only stopping for a moment or two to take pictures. I cannot wait to enter this temple with CK (when we don't have four kids with us!).





We got back and headed to the indoor pool that CK has at his apartment complex. I think we spent an hour and a half there and the kids could've gone for more. There is something very neat about being able to swim in the winter.

Sunday was a relaxing day spent together, at church, playing games, having home teachers come, and eating yummy food. The kids loved making up games and playing together.

Monday we didn't have school. The original plan was to drive home Monday, but, we had had to leave later than planned and so we decided to stay Monday (A was out of school, too) and drive on Tuesday.

We went to the arch. Of course. The kids had been waiting for a long time to do this.









We crossed the Mississippi River just so that all four of us could say we'd been in Illinois. It was just for a few minutes, but we accrued a couple funny/interesting stories. :) Ask me about them sometime.
Next, we headed to lunch. We stopped at Steak and Shake. The kids did so well. They really are great together. (Disclaimer: CK did not know he was in the picture.)
We then went to the Science Center. It was very cool. We had different children interested in different things, but it was still cool. The beauty of having two parents is that we could split up and each take a couple of them where they wanted to go.
They have this part where you can use a laser to determine speeds of highway traffic going underneath. Very cool.
They also had glass in the floor so that you can see the speeding cars whizzing by underneath you. I thought it was neat. Others around me were exclaiming that it was freaky. Maybe a little of both.
This is how much it would cost to send C in to space. I got on the scale with him after this picture....over $2 mil. to send us together. Yikes!






So, there you have it. A wonderful weekend. I am so grateful for CK and A and their hospitality of having us stay with them. I am so grateful that our kids are feeling more and more that they are siblings. It is difficult to mesh families and I am sure the challenges are just beginning, but I am so grateful we had this weekend together. I love CK. I love A. I love K, C, and J. I am one lucky woman to have such a great family. It isn't what I planned, but it is still wonderful and I see Heavenly Father's hand in the path my life has taken.

Merry Christmas, J!

So....I decided this year to give each kid 5 gifts, one from each of 5 categories. One of these was "something homemade." Life happened in December. I got sick. I spoke in church. I had a dear friend in the hospital. The "something homemade"s didn't get all done. I finished A's and K's, but not J's and C's.

Yesterday and today I worked hard to finish J's. It is a reversible cape. I found a tutorial online and knew he would love it. The one problem is that I am NOT a seamstress. I basically have no idea how to sew. There are a lot of flaws, but he loves it and I am happy! :)

Now.....if I could only finish the quilts that were for Christmas 2009...............

Found Treasure

So, I was doing the final sweep-through of taking down the last of my Christmas stuff, including rearranging my furniture since the tree is down. This is what I found:I remember all three kids working on this and I'd wanted to take a picture, but I'd long since forgotten. Thank goodness it was still there! If you look closely, you will see all the toys gathered around the baby Jesus. They thought that they would all want to come to Jesus. Shouldn't we all? We all need Jesus, every second of every day. What a treasure to have found this this afternoon!