find joy in the journey

quiet, finally

I just laid Anna down . . . haven't heard any noise from the boys in about 15 minutes . . . just waiting for Scott to get home.  The quiet is very nice.  It's been quite a week on our own, but we've managed pretty well.  Although, when Scott leaves on a Sunday afternoon it makes the week seem so much longer.  It will be nice to have him home.

The one thing I enjoy about his weeks out of town is quick and easy dinners for me and the boys.  Not that Scott expects me to cook big meals when he's around.  But when it's just the boys it doesn't take much to please them -- eggo waffles, macaroni & cheese, frozen pizza.  Quick and easy.  Although tonight I surprised the boys with meatball subs.  At first they weren't too happy that mom was going to make them eat one whole meatball, but Payton ended up enjoying it quite a bit.  Plus, it made me happy to eat something that didn't come out of a box.  But I did make it into a quick & easy meal by using frozen meatballs -- they were the best!  I've never used them before, just always made my own.  So I've made a mental note that frozen meatballs need to earn a permanent spot in my freezer.  Here's what I do for my subs:

• Pour entire jar of Ragu Super Chunky Mushroom into saucepan
• Add 25-30 frozen meatballs
• Warm & stir on medium heat for 25-30 minutes
• Spoon meatballs and sauce onto sub roll and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese
• Use leftover sauce for spaghetti & meatballs tomorrow!

So, later next month Anna and I are going to visit my parents.  Since 2001 my mom and I have had an annual mother/daughter weekend sometime in the spring.  This year she's in charge so I'm going there.  Aside from shopping and maybe a little trip to the coast she is going to throw a garden party at her house for all of her girlfriends.  Today I received my "save the date" invite in the mail and after chatting with her tonight about all the details it sounds like it is going to be so much fun.  Inside the invite she included the quote:

"The circle of women around us weave invisible nets of love that carry us when we're weak and sing with us when we're strong."  You are invited along with that special woman who has encircled you!

Obviously it is a "girl" party and it's going to be quite the girly affair.  With "party pretty" as the designated dress code, an elegant lunch, and flowers/linens/tableware that will be perfectly coordinated (my mom does not miss a single detail).  The invite also included an insert listing "events of the day".  I am going to be part of those events -- I'm going to teach a scrapbook page.  But reading & seeing it in front of me made me laugh a bit.  Here's what it said:  "Make a special scrapbook page with Shannon Brown [who's work has been featured in:  Creating Keepsakes, Simple Scrapbooks, and Paper Trends.]"  Ok, so now it's like everyone is expecting a professional.  I feel like I need to come up with something pretty good!  The pressure is on.

For all intentional purposes, Anna has rolled over today!  This is from her back to her front.  She's been stretching and twisting her body all week.  She can get over, but still has a problem with one arm getting stuck underneath her body.  Sometimes the imbalance makes her too wobbly that she falls right back over.  But in my book she's got that milestone checked off.

our second winner is

Sheila!  She'll be receiving her RAK soon!  Visit her blog here.

Although the prizes are gone, the challenge is still there for anybody who wants to join in by starting their own blog.  You don't want to be left out!

and thanks Lisa and Sheila for humoring me and answering my desparate plea!

we have a winner

My sister-in-law Lisa has answered my challenge, so a RAK is in the mail.  Check out her new blog:  it's all good

Don't forget, there's still time for you to get in on the action.  I've got one more RAK on deck!

why blog?

I started this little blog last September.  Anna was due soon and I wanted a way for my family & friends across the country to see pictures and read up-to-date reports on her growth as well as our family's happenings, and to share my thoughts on whatever from time to time.  A blog was the easy solution for all of this.  So now I'm lovin' blogging.  It really is the easiest thing to do -- for each of my posts I just type what I want to say, press save, and everything pops up perfectly formatted and cute. 

Now you might be wondering why I am going on like this . . . . Well, I love blogging and was hoping that some of you could love it too!  I have a few blogs I read each day and while I love connecting with some of my cyber scrapbook buddies, what I really want is to read something from my family & friends.  And just in case you were wondering if I'm talking about you, here's a short list of my long distance family & friends who I think should get a blog.

• Sam
• Lisa
• Tamra
• Bernie
• Karen
• And anybody else who wants to jump on the blog-bandwagon is invited as well!

So there's your challenge. I also think you should check out this article from LDS Living to help you see all the great things that can happen with blogs.  If you do set up a blog I promise to visit, make lots of comments, and even put a link in my "blogs I read" list! 

And to show you just how serious I am about this I will send a RAK to the first 2 people who create & post on a brand new blog in response to this post.  (In the scrapbooking world RAK refers to random act of kindness, which basically translates into fun free stuff!!)  And because the purpose of this post is to get my family and friends blogging, this RAK offer will only be available to people I actually know -- sorry, random people on the internet.

our saturday, PT updates, Conner's quirks

So I woke up Saturday morning at 8:00 am to the sun shining through my window and Scott and Anna plopping into bed asking, "where should we go today?"  We had nothing going on.  The day was wide open.  And it was a gorgeous day outside -- although frigidly cold and windy.  We decided on a family trip to the outlet mall and by 9:30 we were on the road.  Scott hit Nike for new shoes, golf shoes, golf rain gear, and I don't know what else, along with new shoes for Conner.  On Friday he told me that his shoes were squeezing him.  (It seems like I just bought him new shoes -- oh well). 

Then I got to enjoy some time in the Gap outlet with my GapCard from Christmas.  I found 2 sooo adorable outfits.  A new -- very pink -- skirt and striped cardigan which I wore to church today.  And some cuffed capri jeans and a white button-up top.  And what I love about the outlets is that I was able to find all this for under $100.

It was a fun trip to the outlets.  The cold weather did make things interesting though.  Each time we exited a store we would be greeted by a blast of wind.  The boys huddled close to us trying to protect thier faces and Anna's stroller blankets would attempt to fly away.  But the boys behaved very well, so we treated them to lunch at Chuck E. Cheese's.  This was a first for our family.  And while the boys had a fantastic time, it's safe to say that we don't need to do that again for a couple years.

PT update:  Payton is doing soooo well.  I hesitate to say it (for fear of jinxing myself), but I think that after just a week he is potty-trained.  Often he will go completely by himself, he'll maybe have one little accident a day (no soakings, just enough that he realizes he needs to get to the bathroom quick).  But the most amazing thing is that the past 3 mornings he has woken up with a completely dry diaper.  I have to say that this potty-training experience has been quite a pleasant one.  Payton has really just figured it out.

Conner's quirks.  So we know he has a lot of them.  Here's a funny story from today.  We had just left the church building when a member of the primary presidency came running out, "Conner's teacher said he forgot this.  She tried to give it to him, but he won't take it."  It was a brand new CTR ring.  I took it and said to Conner, "why don't you want your CTR ring?"  Immediately, and with quite a bit of conviction he replied, "I - don't - touch - cold - things!"  Oh for the love . . . . I had almost forgotten about this one.  Here are just a few of the things Conner will not touch because they are cold.

• Pennies, dimes, quarters -- If there's one laying on the ground he won't pick it up.  I guess all the spare change goes to Payton because this boy only deals in paper.
• Zippers -- When he uses the bathroom he will not undo his pants -- he just shimmies them down so that he can avoid touching the zipper or metal snap.
• Keys -- Once I tossed my car keys to him and he jumped, screamed, and threw his hands in the air. 
• And now CTR rings.

and the winner is

. . . me!  I was the big winner at bunco last night with three buncos in all!  So excited!  Our wonderful hostess made jewelry for all of the prizes and here's what I got.  Lucky me!

And the kids wanted me to take pictures of them this morning so here's one with all three.  Payton is the ghost in the background.

This has been a week of getting over sicknesses in our house.  Anna finally got over her week long cold.  Payton spent an entire day sleeping on the couch with a sick belly.  And for some reason I've been feeling just a little nauseous the last couple days -- must've caught what Payton had.  Hopefully it will pass today. 

Hey it's Friday!  We love Fridays in our house.  Scott let me know that he will be coming home ridiculously early so I'm way excited about that.  Hope you enjoy your weekends!

we have a mouse

No not a pet mouse.  A mouse living somewhere in our garage and pilfering through our food storage.  Scott went out to clean the cars & do a little organizing this morning and found mouse poop in all corners of the garage.  Yuck!  And a bag of Sun Chips that had been nibbled into.

So he literally took everything out of the garage and piled it in the driveway so he could do some deep cleaning.  He set a few traps behind the gorilla racks.  The plus side to all of this is that we have a sparkling clean & organized garage!  I would say that's a very good thing.

This morning I got a long overdue hair cut.  My last cut was 2 weeks before Anna was born, so for the past couple weeks I have been pony-tail girl.  The stylist did a great job and I'm loving my hair all over again!

potty-training boot camp: day 1

It's official.  The potty-training has begun.  Yes, Payton did turn 3 last week so you're probably wondering what took us so long.  Well, I hate potty-training.  It was such a long, torturous process with Conner that I have just been putting it off and putting it off.  Although a few months ago we were pretty excited when Payton spontaneously started telling us when he needed to go poo.  It was fantastic -- never having to change a dirty diaper.  We thought that maybe he would figure out the whole potty-training thing on his own.  But we shouldn't have been so optimistic.  He ended up regressing to his usual thing.

I've also been putting it off because I wanted to wait for a week that we would just be at home (no big errands, appointments, meetings) so that I could concentrate on this.  But that's never going to happen, so I just have to suck it up and start.

So far he's done relatively well.  The "big boys" went on at 7:30 or 8:00 am and now I set the timer for 20 minutes (we tried 30, but he couldn't make it that long).  Every 20 min I take him to sit on the pot and he does actually go.  His reward is 2 M&M's.  We've had 3 accidents so far, but all of those were within the first hour and a half. 

He's surprisingly cooperative with the whole thing.  I thought I would have to drag him kicking and screaming and was preparing myself for a day with a lot of tears.  This is Payton afterall -- our little drama king.  But I'm very proud at how he's doing so far.  Every time he hops off the potty he says, "I'm going potty just like Conner!" 

We have also been enjoying some beautiful sunny days this week.  The boys are having so much fun going outside to play.  It makes me so happy to see them out there. 

Anna is sick again.  The poor girl does not feel well at all -- runny nose, congested, watery eyes, just plain miserable.  It's so sad to see her this way.

On the good list for today is my brand new Hoover vacuum I picked up at Costco yesterday.  It is so nice!  Our old vacuum was dying, but it has served us well these last 7 years (we got it as a wedding gift).  I should also mention that yesterday was my first big trip into town with all 3 kids.  We hit Costco, Office Depot, McDonalds, and Old Navy.  And we survived.  I was pretty proud of myself.  Although it's not very likely we'll be doing that again soon!

isn't she such a doll?

that's all I have to say.

i've been tagged

I've seen these little things being passed around on blogs.  Answer a few questions about yourself and then "tag" a couple other people to do the same and it continues on and on and so forth.  I don't personally know many people in the (scrapbooking) blogging community.  I mostly stalk the celebrities and read about their interesting lives.  Imagine my shock when I make my routine visit to Stacy Julian's blog and find that she has tagged ME!  How in the world?!  I was so surprised.  I mean, Stacy is the founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine.  I guess I left a comment on her blog once.  And I did see her speak at CKU-A in Provo last summer -- along with 500 other women.  Regardless of how it happened, it was a little thrill -- so thanks Stacy for including me!

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I think I answered that one in my previous post.

What were you doing one year ago?

See previous post again.

Five snacks that you enjoy

1. pears
2. Cheese Nips
3. string cheese
4. grapes
5. Sobe - strawberry daquiri

Five songs to which you KNOW all the lyrics

1. the Veruca Salt song from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory -- been watching that a lot lately in our house.
2. Intro song to Little Einsteins and a host of other children's shows
3. Somebody -- Depeche Mode
4. I Enjoy Being A Girl -- from a musical, can't remember which

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

1. Build my dream house
2. Furnish my house with Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware stuff
3. New wardrobe for sure
4. Get a vacation home somewhere on the coast
5. Regularly pamper myself with salon/spa treatments

Five bad habits

1. staying up too late
2. not washing my face every night
3. letting my bedroom become a clutter pit (working hard on that one)
4. popping in too many videos for the boys
5. picking the dry skin off my heels

Five things you like doing

1. scrapbooking
2. talking with my husband
3. going to the park with the boys
4. visiting my parents house
5. bunco nights with the girls

Five things you would never wear, buy, or get again

1. a perm
2. overalls -- too much time spent with them as a wardrobe staple in multiple early pregnancies.
3. CD albums -- why buy when you can download & burn?
4. a Franklin planner -- tried it many times, not my style

Five favorite toys

1. digital camera
2. iPod shuffle
3. my high-powered medela breast pump -- yes I know it sounds weird, but it's a lifesaver
4. digital video camera
5. and I'm hoping my new chocolate fountain makes the list -- breaking it out of the box this weekend

Five people you are tagging

Nikki