I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU!
{I really do!}

Last week was a very stressful week for me. It was just a lot of pressure to get stuff done for LHS, and then I had a final to study for, a 1700 word paper to write and my part of a team paper. On top of that preparing a talk for sacrament meeting AND my monthly Relief Society lesson. I survived and this past week I have done NOTHING and it's never felt so good. I have 2 weeks off before my next class starts {business ethics. Yuck!)

Since it's Sunday, I decided to hold off on what I was going to blog about and tell you a little secret.

I cried teaching my lesson on Sunday.

I didn't even think I was going to! It just came, and it felt GOOD! The lesson was "Joy in the Journey" by President Monson in Oct. 2008 Here's the quote that really hit my center.

Some of you may be familiar with Thornton Wilder’s classic drama Our Town. If you are, you will remember the town of Grover’s Corners, where the story takes place. In the play Emily Webb dies in childbirth, and we read of the lonely grief of her young husband, George, left with their four-year-old son. Emily does not wish to rest in peace; she wants to experience again the joys of her life. She is granted the privilege of returning to earth and reliving her 12th birthday. At first it is exciting to be young again, but the excitement wears off quickly. The day holds no joy now that Emily knows what is in store for the future. It is unbearably painful to realize how unaware she had been of the meaning and wonder of life while she was alive. Before returning to her resting place, Emily laments, “Do … human beings ever realize life while they live it—every, every minute?”

Maybe it's because I can hear him saying it, or maybe it's because I don't even know how my kids survived this past week, I just threw crackers at them and turned the TV on. But it made me realize I am way too caught up in the every day monotonous things and that I'm not looking at the bigger picture and enjoying my kids, and enjoying school and work.

Moral of the story? I'm going to enjoy my life more. Exciting things up for this week

1. Fix giant holes in rental house.
{It's the size of a mans shoe.}
There are more JUST LIKE THIS beauty!

2. Find renter for rental house


3. Fix van door
(it won't open! How did people survive before 2 sliding doors?!)

4. Finish wedding videos from January. (Beth that means you!)

5. Do a fun awesome craft for my kids to do every day.

Growing up my parents did foster care, and one of the kids they had was named Asher. I had to share a room with him and I remember him in the morning always hitting his head on the crib. I thought it was so weird! When Chris presented me with the name Asher that was the first thing I told him that it made me think of the foster baby that banged his head.
On Monday, we were having family time rolling around on the clean clothes and Asher started banging his head on Chris's head. Really hard! Chris was only letting him do it to see how long and hard Asher would do it. I started filming the end of it. Here's more evidence that Chris and I only produce crazy kids.

KINDERGARTEN GRADUATE!

Jocelyn is moving on to first grade. Hopefully she'll be attending Franklin East but if not I'll still be happy for her to go to West. She's going to be attending summer school and she's really excited! It'll be weird for me to have her gone all day when she start first grade, it's all she talks about sometimes that it's hard to believe she's growing up.

The other night we put Jocelyn to bed and Chris went in to check on her and she was reading in bed quietly. Instead of telling her to go to sleep we let her keep reading cause these moments as a parent are almost too special to ruin with discipline.

Our Cecily
{aka. treasure-eating-one-legged-pirate}

It all started April 21. I just arrived at our church building to attend enrichment night. Jocelyn was holding the huge medal door open for Me, Ash and Cec and she pushed it a little more open for me and cut Cecily's little toe to where it looked like it was just hanging off her foot. At first I thought she was crying about a scratch or something but then I saw her foot gushing blood and I immediately began freaking out. My brother the nurse said it looked really "meaty" and suggested I take her to Twilight Pediatrics. I did and she had to get 5 stitches! (this is when she got the stitches out)


Then May 11, we were at the library and Cecily found a penny! It was very exciting so I told her she could keep it. After I had put them to bed I heard Cecily call out crying and coughing. I ran in there and she choked out "I swallowed my penny!" I quickly jumped into super mom mode and started pounding on her back and shoved my finger down her throat and yelling "CAN YOU BREATHE?!" I didn't feel anything and she was talking so I calmed down and let her stay up with me for awhile til I felt sure she wasn't going to die.

May 14, Cecily and Asher had found some yarn and were running it all around the house. I was working in my room when I heard a cry that sounded very similiar to the cry Jocelyn made when she broke her leg. I ran into the front room to find Cecily on the ground holding her foot. She wouldn't walk on it or stand on it so we knew something was wrong. Later that night when we put her to bed she was SCREAMING "My stomach hurts!!!" I thought it had something to do with the penny passing or trying to pass, and I needed to get her foot checked anyway so I brought her to Twilight Pediatrics again and they ordered an x ray for her stomach and foot.

Friday morning I brought her to the place and got to see the penny on the xray (I wish I had a picture!!!) It was somewhere in her colon and they said it would eventually pass. The foot they couldn't tell if it was broken or not so I went to see the orthopedic surgeon on Monday and found out her foot was broken in 3 spots.

May 20, I brought Cecily in to see her eye doctor and he told us that we needed to start patching her good eye to make sure her lazy eye that's been turning in will start working so we won't loose vision in it.

With the new trend of re-making movies, for example, Italian Job, Terminator... Have you ever thought of who you would cast in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Well, I TOTALLY have and this is going to blow your mind but I would cast it with SNL {Saturday Night Live} cast member old and new. WOULDN'T THAT BE AWESOME!? They can act, they can sing (which always surprises me) and they can dance (even if it's as a joke) Here's who I would cast and where...

Adam = Will Ferrel. This is what inspired my whole thought. I was watching SNL on Saturday and he was singing in a skit and it just popped in my head, he'd be perfect!

Milly = Maya Rudolph. This was a tuff decision but if you have ever seen her play Whitney Houston then you'll understand why I picked her to play Milly. Plus I think she has the best singing voice of all the cast members.


Benjamin = Jason Sudeikis
girlfriend- Tina Fey

Caleb= Will Forte
girlfriend- Kristen Wiig

Daniel= Chris Parnell
girlfriend-Molly Shannon

Ephriam = Andy Samberg
girlfriend- Amy Poehler

Frank(insence) = Tracey Morgan. The guy is insane! Plus diversity is a plus. Looks like momma Pontipee got jungle fever. Which worked out cause this is the only kid who didn't get a bible name.
girlfriend= Ana Gasteyer.

Gideon= David Spade. He's small, sarcastic and would make a good baby of the family. He's the opposite of what Rogers and Hammerstein stand for but that's why this is going ot be HILARIOUS!
girlfriend- Rachel Dratch. She's the ugly duckling of SNL but she used it to her advantage. I think there could be a lot of funny stuff with her.

So what do you think? Did I get it right?

You know something that would really make me applaud? A guy gets stuck in quicksand, then sinks, then suddenly comes shooting out, riding on water skis! How do they do that?!

Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

So life has been a little crazy the past couple months for us. Asher in the hospital, Cecily getting 5 stitches, Jocelyn having 3 cavities, Cecily swallowing a penny, renters not paying rent, Computer breaking down, Cecily breaking her foot, A/C not working, projects piling up, SCHOOL! I am starting to feel like I'm drowning in quicksand.

Chris and I talked about it the other night, well, it seems like every night, but we talk about how there's no point being upset or angry about anything right now cause there's nothing we can do about it. Sure it's hard keeping up the mental game of not letting things get to you, so here are the things I'm grateful for...

1. Insurance to pay for all the hospital, stitches, penny swallows, broken bones and cavities.

2. Apple. Seriously, what would I do if I wasn't able to drop my computer off at the genius bar to figure out what's wrong with it. All you PC users really should think about this, where do you go when your computer breaks down?

3. Chris has an awesome job that allows overtime so we can pay for the mortgage our lame renters think they should live at for free.

4. Super awesome family and friends support willing to watch our kids.

5. {I saved the best for last} The Gospel. Seriously. What the heck would we do if we couldn't hit our knees when we need peace or just to say thank you for our blessings? We'd be a freakin' mess and that's why I'm so grateful for what I know.

***This was longer than I thought it would be. Sorry to those looking for pictures or something entertaining, like listed above my computer is at the doctor and I don't have anything on this one.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I'm writing this while I wait out Jocelyn's massive tantrum. {It's a good one!} And I can't think of anything more appropriate to happen on this day. It'd be nice if I didn't even have to dress myself today and I could sit in a bathtub of clouds and eat bon bons without the voice in my head warning me of the guilt to come, {Oh, she just told me I'm making her throw up. That's a new one!} but I can't, and I'm ok with that. What has been fantastic is my amazing husband and all the time he has spent thinking about what to do for me this day. I got breakfast in bed, slippers and a book written just for me and about me by my beautiful kiddos.

For our mother's it's never easy to share how grateful we are to them for the countless hours they have taken care of us and our children. Now that I am thinking about it my gift seems so lame but I did put time and love into making it. I put together a badge album. It's so small but it's cute and something they can use to show off their grandkids.








HAPPY MOMMY'S DAY! AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!





{Tantrum still in progress}