Spring Birthdays

Another sign spring is well on it's way!! Wooohooo!!!

The daffodils in our front yard bloomed!

Chunkers getting ready to blow out the candles

Adam's birthday-he LOVES Dora!

Audry had a sleepover this year. These are her friends that spent the night. Crazy girls!

Audry's birthday. She's in the double digits now. The BIG 1-0!!!

Today was perfect as far as weather goes. 80 degrees with a little bit of a breeze. So nice. The kids have really enjoyed playing outside. Adam turned 2 today. My baby!! Hard to believe. I remember wanting him to grow up faster when he was born. I wanted him to be able to watch tv for just a few minutes so I could get a break. He can do that now and I'm glad. He's at a pretty good stage right now. We got him a bunch of outside toys. We got him bubbles, side walk chalk, and rakes and shovels. That way they can stay outside and it's less that I have to clean up in the house. That's all for now. Later!

Thankful

I am feeling quite grateful today. I am most grateful for Craig. He is my best friend. He is so patient and kind. I am so grateful for all the hard work he does at Aptuit and at home. He really does do a lot. I am grateful that he works so hard so that I can stay home with the kids. I really am glad I can stay home with my kids. I just read a statistic that said 76% of 2 parent households have both parents working. I thought that was pretty high but Craig said it's very common. He doesn't have any co-workers that have a spouse stay home. I guess I was thinking of my friends who are mostly LDS and they stay home. But then I was looking at our culdesac. I am the only one that stays home and all the houses in the culdesac are 2 parents households. There are some moms in the subdivision that stay home, but I guess most work. The kids sometimes do drive me nuts and it can tiring looking after them all day long, but when I think about parents that have to work and put their kids in daycare, I don't think I could do it. It would be hard for me to only see them for a few hours in the evening.

I am grateful for this home. Even though it's not my ideal home, I am still so grateful for it. I don't think I could have imagined living in a home like this when I was still in Mexico. I have come a long way! Craig and I would still like to be able to build someday. I am in no hurry though. I don't feel we are crammed or anything.

I am grateful that we are able to pay our bills. I remember when we were pretty poor in Kuna and all I wanted was to be able to pay the bills. We aret here and are even able to pay extra on debt. we could do better on cutting back on expenses, but I think we do pretty well. I am very glad Craig has a job and we have a steady paycheck.

I am grateful for my van. I love my van. I love it even more since we have paid it off! I know some people feel they are too good for minivans or that they are just not van people. I am not ashamed of it or above a van. I am not vain that way.

That's all for now. Later!

Random Thoughts

These are just some random things I've been thinking about. No rhyme or reason or any relativity between most of them.

Will the church ever cut back on the amount of meetings it holds? I know most are meeting the members themselves schedule, but some are required.

Will the church ever cut back on activity nights for the youth?

Sometimes I wish we wouldn't have church during the summer. Wouldn't it be nice to have the summer off?

I got the answer to this question thanks to Craig's coworker. Can Asian people tell the difference between a Chinese, Japanese and Korean person? Yes! Kook (Craig's coworker) said he can. He doesn't know how, but he can. I found that very interesting. Especially since I can't the difference between Hispanic people. I wouldn't know the difference between somebody from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Honduras, etc...

Do other countries have different kinds of food? I had a pen pal from Australia and she said they used to have a Mexican restaurant but that it had closed down. But, does China have an Italian or Mexican restaurant? Not a chain like Taco Bell or something like that, but a regular one? I think we're pretty lucky in the US to have so many types of food.

This is not meant to offend, but I honestly want to know. Why do some gay men act feminine and others not? Some act like a normal man and others act like women. Why? Some of my friends said they think it's because they feel like there should be a female in the relationship. If that's the case why not just date a female?

Sometimes I feel like I'm being punished just for being a woman. I feel like women go through a lot more than men. We get periods, have babies and go through a lot of hormonal changes. I don't mind having babies. That was a piece of cake. It's what comes after that's so difficult. I know not every woman goes through this, but I go into a deep depression. Every month I have a period. I feel like I turn into a monster during that time of the month. Why don't men have to go through something similar every month? I know some men get depresses, but it seems like women are more susceptible to it.

What kind of world are my kids going to face 20 years from now? What will the government be like then? What will TV be like? More liberal than it already is? I already get scared of what they or even my grand kids will have to face. All I can do is hope that I teach them correctly.

Why don't more parents place more of an emphasis on college? On working hard? Of taking care of yourself? Providing for your family? I get the impression that some think that if you don't have money you can't go to college. Not the case at all. Craig and I had NO money when we got married. There's student loans, grants, etc... I wish people would realize that living in the US offers you so many more opportunities than any other place. You don't even have to have a college degree to be successful. I don't mean that people need to be rich in order to provide well for their families, but make sure you work hard and provide well for your family. I hope Craig and I are teaching our children that they should work hard and be continually improving themselves. I hope we have emphasized that and continue to. I hope we can teach them to find a spouse that values those things as well. I especially worry about the girls and them finding a young man that will work hard and take care of them. Do his duty as the priesthood holder and head of the family and take care of his family.

Do other people struggle as much as I have been with the ward? Do others struggle in other wards? I know they do. But as much as I do? I feel like there are so many that don't do their part. So many won't step up and help out. Even a little help would be nice. It feels like it's always the same people doing the work ALL the time. Don't those that don't contribute feel like complete losers? I would. Maybe that's the wrong thing that drives me. I worry what others will think of me. Is that it? Some don't care what others think of them so they just don't worry about contributing? I don't understand it.

Will I be able to accomplish all that I want? I want to do so much and I worry I won't do a lot of it. I would like to travel. I want to finish school. I want to learn to play the violin. Is all that too much? I want to build on land someday. I want to see my grand kids as much as possible. Do I want to do these things only because I fell like I haven't really done anything with my life? We got married so young and I don't regret that EVER. I guess one of the positive things about that is that we will still be fairly young when the kids are out of the house. Oh yeah...more things I want to do. Bungee jump and skydive. I'm sure I will be terrified, but I still want to.

So those are my thoughts for now. Not even sure why I wanted to write them down. So there they are.

Later!

The US is suffering!!

The nation had something awful happen his week. Socialized health care. I am NOT happy about it at all. I don't want to have to pay for somebody elses' health care. Especially if they're lazy butt heads that are able to work and get health insurance. If it's somebody that can't get insurance and has serious health problems I don't have a problem. I don't want to wait forever to see a doctor. I don't want to go to the doctor and see all the hypocondriacs there. It won't all take effect right away but it still scares me. It will mean higher taxes, clogged doctor's offices and emergency rooms, less pay for those in the health care field. Pretty soon the government will take over other programs and we will have a socialist nation. NOT good!! I can't think about it too much because it makes me sick and gives me a headache.

This week has been pretty good. It feels like it should be Friday already though.

Caleb had his first soccer practice. Craig said it went pretty well. I'm glad it's only him playing soccer. We'll have him and Cooper playing baseball soon. We're still working on finding something for Audry to do. I need to look into taekondo. (I know my spelling is way off. I tried spellcheck but I'm so off the word won't come up!) We'll see what happens with that.

Not much more to say for now. Boring... I know.

A Great Week!

It has been such an awesome week. Carolyn came back to clean up some outside buildings and I got to see her quite a bit. I saw her Monday night. I thought she meant to meet at La Mesa and she thought I meant Santa Fe South! We were waiting for each other at the the 2 different restaurants! We finally met up though.

Tuesday night we went to Cheesecake Factory with Jen and Melanie. Soooo much fun. We talked, laughed and cried. Great food and great friends.

Wednesday we had a poluck lunch at Melanie's with Carolyn's other friends. More great food and great company.

Wednesday night Craig and I took Lauren and Audry to see Disney on Ice. When I was going to buy the tickets the plan was for Cooper to stay home with Adam. I asked Caleb if he wanted to go. The characters for this particular show were Cars, Lion King, Little Mermaid and Tinkerbell. Because it had 2 girly characters he did not want to go. So it was just the 4 of us. Lauren had so much fun and was mesmerized by it. Even though Audry has outgrown the princessy stuff she still had a good time. I wish I could take them all to Disneyland. Especially since Lauren is still very much into princess stuff. She would LOVE it. Someday...

Thursday Caleb and I went on our date. We went bowling. Did a few errands and then had Chinese for lunch. It was so much fun. While at lunch I asked him who he would ask on a date when he was older. His answer was such that he has no desire to ever do that with anybody!

Friday we just hung around the house. Late in the afternoon we went to Darren and Steph's house. We left the kids there and then went to Carrabba's. We hadn't been there in a while and it was so dang good. I had the salmon with mashed potatoes. Mmmmm! We also had calamari for an appetizer. Again, mmmm!

Carolyn left today. She came by to drop off a few things so we got to say goodbye. I was sad to see her go. She's been such an amazingly good friend. I will miss not being able to see her on a regular basis. Thank goodness for cell phones! We have kept in touch pretty well and hope we will continue to do so. It's always sad to see friends move away.

BYU plays Kansas tomorrow during March madness. Craig is pretty excited. He's not too confident that they will win, but there's always hope! Go Cougars!!!!

The kids go back to school Monday. :p It's been nice to just relax and not have to be anywhere for a while. Not too much longer before school is out though. Caleb will start soccer next week too then baseball. That's when things will start to get pretty busy.

That's all I have for now.

Sprig Break!

The kids are on spring break right now. It has been nice to not have to rush in the mornings to get them out the door. Craig will take Thursday and Friday off so that will be good. Wednesday night we are taking Audry and Lauren to Disney on Ice. Some of the characters are princesses so Caleb did not want anything to do with that. When we went to see The Princess and the Frog, he didn't want to go either. It's quite something. Lauren is very excited about it.

Craig went out of town last week and we made it through it!! It wasn't so bad. The kids behaved for the most part. Cooper and I did have quite a moment though. Long story short... he kept talking back and insisting he could watch Adam and tv at the same time! We got it sorted out, but it was not a good moment.

We just had daylights saving on Saturday and it has been so hard to adjust. I don't ever remember having this difficult of a time before. I'm glad it's over spring break so when the kids go back to school we will have gotten used to it.

The weather went back to being yucky. It's been overcast and cold. No rain to go with it even! Still a sign of spring I guess because the temperatures aren't too cold and it hasn't snowed, so I can't complain too much.

Adam has been such a sweetheart lately. He has started saying: "Oh Mama!" When Craig's mom would call that's how he would answer the phone, so we just say it sometimes out of the blue and Adam copied us. He sounds so funny when he says it. It makes me laugh. He'll say "Oh Papa!" too. On Sunday after sacrament meeting he was sitting on my lap and his nursery teacher came by and asked if he wanted to walk with her. He sat there for a couple of seconds and then jumped right down, grabbed her hand and off he went! He loves nursery now. At first we wasn't crazy about it but now he can't wait to go in there. It's great to be able to go to class and actually listen!! Thanks goodness for awesome nursery teachers. They are amazing!!!

That's about all we have going on around here. Pretty boring I guess! :)

Spring is in the air!

The weather has been wonderful lately. I can feel and smell spring. I think everybody is ready for it. We're supposed to be getting rain the next few day but I don't mind it. Another sign of spring, right?

Craig left this morning to go to Connecticut for work. He will be back Friday night. Surprisingly, I'm not as stressed out as much as I thought I would be. We'll see how things are by Thursday night. (Or even by tonight!) He was so sweet this morning. He let me go back to bed after I took the kids to school and did the dishes while I slept! What an awesome husband I have. :)

Caleb woke up this morning crying because he said he didn't like taking lunches to school. Then he was complaining about taking the same lunch all the time. I told him some options he had and what does he pick? The same thing! He's been doing a lot better in school. He gives me his daily oral report everyday. He has finished his work on time, hasn't had to stay in from recess and hasn't had to move his clothes pin in a long time. A big victory for us all!!! I'm quite proud of him. He can't stand busy work. I hope this doesn't become a problem when he's in middle school and high school!

Lauren has been wearing dresses nonstop lately! We went to Kohl's on Saturday and she picked out a church dress. We can't get her out of it unless it's to eat or to go to bed. She has dress up clothes but doesn't wear those for some reason. She's our last princess so I'm not getting after her too much about changing.

Adam has been a little squishy guy lately. This morning I called to him and he said : "What!" It made him seem so grown up! Yesterday Caleb walked past him and Adam just shoved him. For no reason! What a bully! I can't believe he's almost 2.

We're trying to get Audry interested in an activity. She doesn't want to play any sports. So we asked if she'd be interested in playing an instrument. Violin! Unfortunately there isn't anybody that teaches that here. We were thinking piano but she will start band next year and it would be quite expensive for her to take piano and to pay for the rental for band. She wants to play flute so I think we'll just have her do that. I wish she showed more interest in sports, but we can't force her to.

Cooper does want to take piano though which really surprised us. I'm happy about that though. He's had a much better attitude lately. I noticed he's turned his lights off without me telling him too. He's really such a great kid.

I'm still waiting for Craig to get released from some of his callings. It's just too much for our family right now. Hopefully it will get done in the next 3 months or so. I'm really frustrated with the ward right now. Not sure what it is exactly, but it's getting to me. Hoping to get over it soon.

Spring break is next week. Craig will take a couple of days off, so that will be good. We're not going anywhere but we'll do some fun stuff aroud here. I hope the weather is nice so we can get outside. We are looking forward to planting the garden, grilling and sunshine!

Utah

I left Thursday to go spend the weekend in Utah. Yvonne's birthday was Friday and she took the day off. I had so much fun hanging out with Yvonne and Claudia. We got pedicures, went shopping, had some delicious food and laughed a lot. Here's a few highlights:

Yvonne and I played a little

scrabble with Allyson,

Teedy and Margot.

One fun and entertaining

group!

The cake was divine!!!

I went for the double. No guilt here!

The BEST hamburgers on the planet!

Our

beautiful

pedicures!

It was a GREAT weekend. Craig was an awesome husband and took 2 days off work to stay home with the kids. The house was spotless when I got home. What an AMAZING husband I have! I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband. I missed Craig and the kids. It was good to get away and recharge. I was more than ready to get going Monday morning even though I got home pretty late. If a mom has the means to get away every once in a while I think it does wonders for her. I will try and take a break once a year I think. It's been good for me.