Happiness

“Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you, but on what happens inside of you. It is measured by the spirit with which you meet the problems of life.”

President Harold B. Lee

A little while ago I was reading someone's blog and she was talking about attitude. I met this someone momentarily at a reunion after party. She was the spouse of someone that I went to high school with. She seemed to be such a happy, upbeat person. Even as I read some of her blog entries I thought, "wow, her happiness is infectious." So as I read her post about changing her attitude and having a positive one I couldn't help but think I had something to learn from this.

I know it will blow most of you away to hear me confess that I am not upbeat and happy all the time. A good chunk of the time I can be a bit negative, focused on the future, and how things will be better then. So on Sunday morning when I read this quote, and thought of this someone's blog, I decided that I need to make a real effort to be happy with the here and now.

Who knows, maybe someday I will miss changing diapers, silly stories, cleaning the flood of messes that are scattered about the house each day, having complete control over who my children interact with, 8:00 bed time, kids home and in bed by 8:00, having the favorite Friday night activity be a movie with popcorn and "julius", having our account balance be $7 or less at the end of any given month (okay, I don't think I'll ever miss that), reading stories, babies laughing at something they think is funny that no one else gets, being the center of my children's universe, and the list goes on and on. So see, I need to be happy with the here and now because there is always something good about the here and now.

A gimpse at our afternoon

Owen is currently sporting wounds from his morning adventure with Ainsley. Well, it wasn't that much of an adventure seeing as how it only involved Ains closing a drawer that Owen was playing in, Owen falling, and the above wound appearing. I didn't see the monumental event I only heard Ainsley's version. Her side of the story was so confusing that I can't even remember what she said. I also wish I could have gotten a better picture of the bruise. It looks like Owen is wearing purple eye shadow. He was just refusing to hold still while I tried to get a picture of the side of his head. He insisted on looking directly at me while grabbing for the camera. So we'll take what we can get. Or I'll just admit that my photography skill are comparable to hers.

I also decided to add this video just because I took it and thought it would give some insight into our afternoon (I know that you are all deeply concerned with what we did this afternoon:). I was trying to get Owen doing his daredevil moves on his bike where he does squats while standing on the seat with his hands in the air, but he decided he didn't want that move on film for all to see. So...you all get the more toned down version. By the way, yes we are listening to Mama's and the Papa's and yes I was a part of the Karaoke previous to the recording.

Harvest

A while ago I bought garden surplus at our ward service auction. This has proven to be the best service auction purchase ever! I am now finally sick of zucchini and decided to grate and bag my newest installments of zucchini so that I can freeze it to have zucchini bread year round. I am also planning on sneaking frozen zucchini into spaghetti sauce (Shhhhhh!).
I also received a gallon size bucket of tomatoes yesterday that were ripe and ready to be used. Being the amazing chef that I am I decided to make salsa....with no recipe....meaning I was going to come up with my own salsa recipe. So this morning we stopped by the store to buy the things that I felt I was going to need. You know, cilantro, lime, green onions, red onion, yep that's all that goes in salsa right? We also got bananas, we never go to the store with out buying bananas because then Owen would starve. I started making my salsa this afternoon and got to about this point in my creation.....
The kitchen was a mess and there were random ingredients everywhere due to the continual rechopping of whatever I decided I needed more of. I kept tasting the salsa thinking, "this just needs some kind of a kick." After a few moments I realized that the kick I was referring to was something called a jalapeno pepper. An ingredient that makes salsa salsa. Salsa by definition must have some sort of pepper in it and I had somehow forgotten this key ingredient. So the kids and I got back in the car and headed back to Fred Meyer (terribly over priced but also terribly close) to purchase my jalapeno. We did not purchase bananas this time and thus our grand total at Fred Meyer was $.3. That's 3 cents, not 3 dollars. So maybe Fred Meyer is not that overpriced on their jalapenos. We then came home and I finished the salsa. I must admit it's not the best salsa I've ever had but it's pretty darn good for a recipe from my head!

Funny

Okay...I'm copying my friend Karalenn and putting this on my blog. I thought it was so funny! I added this lady's blog (Because I said so) to my links as well because I got such a kick out of her. So check out this auction!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675&ru=http%25

Overbooked!

I succomed and turned into the parent who overbooks their child. It started out as not much. Preschool Monday and Wednessday for 2 1/2 hours. Then we added dance because she had so much fun doing it last spring. Then I got a call this morning and Ainsley's 2 best friends (Nathan and Kiley) are doing an art class on Fridays. We are just going to try out the art class for a month (it's through the library and you only have to sign up for a month at a time). Plus, I clean my mom's house every other Friday so who knows if it will be worth going every other week. I also have scouts on Tuesdays. So starting September first our weeks are full. I know that Ainsley will love to be gone that much. She's to the point where she gets bored at home and is always wanting to go and do. I'm just hoping that Owen does well and still gets his naps, life is miserable if he doesn't.

Good Fortune

Occasionally John and I get a hankering for take-out at night after the kids have gone to bed. Usually it's because we're watching TV and we see someone on TV eating something and think, "hey, that looks good." Well, that happened on Saturday night. We were watching How I Met Your Mother (which I would highly recommend) and they were eating Chinese. I made the mistake of saying, "hey, that looks good" and John was out the door approximately 2 minutes later. But as it turns out it's a good thing we got Chinese that night. When we opened our fortune cookie our fortune read...
"The star of riches will shine on you beginning next month"
This is a great! Especially since raises for John come out next month. So, for this moment I'm choosing to completely believe in fortune cookies because it is in my best interest to do so.
Also, our lucky numbers are 12 25 30 37 39 43. I've never understood what the lucky numbers were for but I'm sure in this case they are a good thing!

The campout

John has been promising Ainsley a camp out in the back yard all summer. So he decided that tonight was the night. Probably because he realized that summer is coming to an end, and it's cooled off a bit which means he doesn't have to sit out in a tent in 100 degree weather.
Owen got in on the fun and played in the tent for a while after they set it up and before his bed time. He was so sad to have to come in and go to bed. He looked so sad as he cried while reaching longingly for the tent. I think tonight was the first time he has felt left out of something. Maybe next year Owen can cram into the tent with them. I'm thinking that would be a really fun night for dad!
Hopefully Ainlsey's camp out will be as memorable as my summer cam pout with my dad as a little girl about Ainsley's age. Actually, now that I think about it I'm not sure that I remember the camp out or have just been told about how scared I was after it. My camp out involved my dad telling me that there was a bear in our backyard. He convinced me of this by shaking the tent while we were in it. As the story goes, from that point my dad told me that he would go out and fight the bear. At which point I became a bit upset and demanded that he stay in the tent. He then proceeded to go out of the tent and fight the "bear" while I sat in the tent crying. (mom and dad feel free to correct me if any part of that is wrong).
I'm sure the camp out tonight will be a little more low key seeing as how they took out the portable DVD player and watched "Lion King" while I made them popcorn and "Julius" to heighten the thrill of being outside. What a fun daddy/daughter activity! I'm just hoping they make it through the night and I don't have to wake up at 3:00 and put a cold 3 year old to bed.

I'm not 14....

and yet my face insists on maintaining the zits I sported at that age. I'd take a picture of my face to post but why? I don't want to draw any more attention to the 3 large and 30 small pimples that currently dot my face. I have a feeling that I'll have zits on the day I die. The "make up artist for the dead" (what are those people called anyways?) will have to find a way to cover my blemishes at that point. By the way I plan on dying at 79 or 80. The only time I don't have zits is when I'm pregnant. So I guess there is a good thing about being pregant, I get to have beautiful skin for about 6 months!

It's a Tough Job!

I was out shopping with 2 kids yesterday trying to get fall/school clothes and a baby gift for someone at John's work (he always gives me so much notice). What that really means is that I was wrestling with 2 kids occasionally glancing at what was on the shelves. After braving the mall (I didn't even brave it by myself, I had my mom and Merel with me) I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of the grocery shopping that I still needed to do that afternoon. This is why the call I got from John was particularly exciting. He called to tell me that he got to come home from work early because the power circuits had exploded and they weren't going to be fixed that day so they just sent everyone home. What a nice present for me! John also informed me that he got to go out for 2 lunches that day so I decided that I wouldn't feel to guilty about using him as a babysitter to make my afternoon a little easier.

As soon as John got home I left him with a sleeping baby and Ainsley so that I could do the grocery shopping child free! I love going in public with no children. It's so refreshing. After the groceries I came home and things seemed to be going fine so I went out shopping again in an attempt to fill the current clothing need in our home. I shopped for 2 hours by myself! It was lovely. I took my time. I went up several isles of clothing and sometimes even took time to go down an isle twice. I tried on all the clothes I had stuffed in my basket without having a certain 3 year old open the dressing room door while I was in between outfits. I didn't have to listen to a baby cry if I let his hand be void of a snack for more than 5 seconds. I loved every minute of it.

What was best about this shopping trip (other than the really cute shirt and skirt I found for myself) was my entrance into our home. I walked in to Ainsley crying, throw up on the floor, the kids half bathed (this means they were wet and in pajamas but their hair had not been touched), and random dinners were sitting out in the kitchen. At this point John handed me Owen, informed me of the throw up on the floor, and walked into our bedroom and closed the door.

Why does this make me happy? Well, I guess I have a twisted sense of humor. But I was happy to see John dealing with what I have to deal with on many days. John is good about giving me a break when he gets home and can see that it's been a rough day and I'm about to reach my breaking point, but still, it's just such a good reinforcer when he has to go through it himself. So yesterday John had an afternoon where he had being a mom thrown at him and it made my day. Perhaps because I had a nice relaxing afternoon?

Something New

Owen discovered that he can do this neat trick the other day. He also likes to crawl with his head lowered so it rubs along the floor. I've tried and failed to get it on video. He looks hilarious when he's crawling along with his head buried into the floor and runs into something.

10 Year Reunion

This weekend has been full of festivities revolving around my 10 year reunion. Unfortunately I only took pictures the last night, but at least I took those. On Friday there was a picnic for the families of my graduating class. It was held at a park so John got the fun job of playing with kids on the playground (with a lot of the other spouses) while I got to talk with old friends. It was a lot of fun to see so many people with their families.

That night after the picnic I had a sleepover with Maria, Alyssa, and Karalenn (all pictured in the photo above). We decided to get together and Maria was nice enough to let us use her house and her husband was nice enough to let us be noisy in his house until about 4 or 5 in the morning. It was a blast. It was like being in high school again. The four of us have kept in touch after all this time and it's so fun to get to do things like this and laugh and be stupid like we were way back when. Karalenn even made us tell fortunes with cards.

Saturday night was the big event. Our reunion was at a club called the Reef. The food was good, I only wish I had eaten more. There was an open bar so we got lots of virgin drinks while we watched other people get lots of real drinks and slowly get a little silly. I think John had 20 or so (virgin I'm assuming). Our husbands found a room in the back with a big screen TV showing nature shows so they sat back there and had a grand old time eating and drinking and didn't have to talk to that many people. As much as it would have been fun to have John with me it was nice to be able to use him as an excuse to leave a conversation. When I would get to the point in a conversation where you run out of things to say I just had to say, "Well, I should probably go and find my husband." It was nice to see everyone but when the point in the night came where the band started playing it was time for me to go. Not because the music was bad, the band was actually surprisingly good, but because I realized that I'm old and don't enjoy music that's so loud that you can't hear someone yelling in your ear.

After the reunion I headed over to a get together with some old friends at someones house. We just hung out and talked for a while and then I went and dropped Karalenn off at her brother's house where I was introduced to the "worst music video ever" by her sister in law Sunny. I'd just like to thank Sunny for the great deal of laughs that this video has brought into my home.

This is a video remake (obviously done by LDS kids and just as funny as the original)

Look What I can do!

Owen is starting to walk more and more! He walks along furniture all day long but still lacks the confidence to take off walking on his own. I'm sure that it won't be long before he is up and running. We have had a heck of a time getting him walking on film. So here are a couple of our attempts. We did get a great shot of him walking across the room last night but if we want our blog to remain rated "G" we can't use that video. So, alas, we had to delete it and are stuck with the following not so good clips. They illustrate the point though so enjoy.

I'm not a runner

I've decided that I really hate running. Or maybe I just think that because I'm in really bad shape right now and I haven't been in shape since I found out I was pregnant with Owen. So it's been a while. There was a time when I enjoyed going out on a 3-5 mile run. I felt great when I was done. Now when I run 1-2 miles I feel like I'm going to die. It's not so much my body that can't keep up (although my body really hurts) it's my lungs. I just can't seem to fit enough air in them.

I tried to start working out again a few weeks ago and I've been running probably about 6 times. You can tell I've been really motivated. Yesterday I got a call from a friend in my ward who has been looking for someone to run with. I knew she had been wanting me to run with her for a while now just because she was desperate for someone who wanted to run in the morning, not because she thought I would be a good running partner. She has been running for a while now and is actually in shape. This morning was our first run together. I did my best to keep up and felt I held my own, however, when I was done running I think she could have gone another 15 minutes. She was nice and didn't say anything but I wonder if she'll still think that running with me is better than not running at all. I could give up and just get really fat, but then I would have to buy all new clothes (or just wear my maternity clothes). So I'll continue to run, even though I don't necessarily like it. I'll run until I can afford my gym membership.

Foreign Exchange

Over the past few weeks my sisters and I have been convincing my parents to take advantage of an opportunity to have a foreign exchange student. The opportunity arose when the family that a girl from Holland was supposed to go to had an emergency and had to back out. Somehow my parents got contacted about this 18 year old girl that needed a home for the next 10 months. Syd thought it would be great since she is currently an only child. My parents finally decided to commit and agreed to take Merel into their home.

Friday we went to the airport to pick up Merel. She is a really sweet and excited girl. She was so excited to be here. Her English is a little broken but I'm sure she'll catch on soon enough. We got together and had a barbecue and swimming yesterday and got to know her a little better. I'm sure that Syd will like having another girl around the house and hopefully Merel will like living with my parents as well. It will be fun to get to know her and about her culture over this school year. I don't have any pictures of her but here is the link to her blog...http://www.merel.tk/.

Beading

Last night I went to my first beading party. I'm not really into beading but it was a girls night out with some friends in my ward, so I went more with the intent to hang out than to make bracelets. I made Ains this bracelet and thought it turned out cute. I also got inspired by one of the girls there. Most of the beaded jewelry that I see just isn't me and so I don't own any. But last night I found someone who was making necklaces that I would actually wear. I'm just a plain person and these were simple and cute. So now I will be purchasing some beads and making some of my own!

Celebrate!

The cake!
I'll just toot my own horn here and say that I thought the cake looked awesome. Although the first words out of John's mouth were, "he's not turning 8." And I do have to admit that the cake wasn't nearly as delicious as it was amazingly decorated. I baked it a little too long so it was too dry, and I had to skimp on the frosting because I was a little lazy and didn't want to make a second batch. But hey, it looked good!

Owen's special b-day dinner!
Left over spaghetti, he doesn't look thrilled but really he was. I could tell because he actually ate it.
The decorations and decorators!
The Party!Owen demolished his cake. I don't think he even realized he was supposed to eat it until I took a smashed up piece of cake and put it in his mouth. Then he tried to eat his jumbled up

The kids had fun jumping on the tramp and playing in the pool. Owen and Bailey sat in the pool by themselves having a lovely time most of the night. The adults were kept happy with Italian sodas. I thought it was a fun party!

Owen's First Birthday

It's crazy to think that last year I was in the hospital at this exact moment and Owen had just been born. Except for the fact that Owen was finally out of me it was quite a miserable day. But I can't think of anyone who actually enjoys labor. So I'm glad that I'm home this year decorating a cake and out buying balloons rather than in the hospital. Plus, today means that we made it through the first year!

So here is Owen's year in review. Born August 8th at approximately 2:30 pm. Weighed 8lb 11 oz. Owen rolled over at 4 months, although he decided it wasn't for him and he rarely did it. Crawled at 8 months and soon discovered how to get into everything. Owen currently has 3 1/2 teeth. I don't know another 1 year old that has that few teeth, except for maybe his sister at that age. His favorite places to play are outside, in Ainsley's room, or in the bathroom (when we forget to close the door). He still hasn't said his first word, but he's not much of a talker. He's a very quite and mellow baby (thank heavens). His favorite foods are bananas, yogurt, and I guess that's pretty much it, it's quite hit and miss with him, one day he likes it one day he doesn't. He loves to play with Ainsley and has typical younger sibling syndrome where he loves to play with her a lot more than she likes to play with him. Owen has taken a few steps but is still what you would call a crawler, especially since he pretty much refuses to walk 90% of the time. So in a nutshell, Owen is great and cute and thank heavens now he's one! Enjoy the pictures. (Party post coming soon.)

Good Idea. Bad Idea.

Bad idea:
Leaving a cell phone on the ground outside next to where your daughter is playing with bubbles and will most likely spill them on your phone and ruin it.

Good idea:

Getting a cute new pink razr for free!

Welcome Back! (insert welcome back Kotter theme song here)

We're back from our trip to Utah. We got together with all of John's family in Salt Lake this weekend. There was a packed house seeing as how John has 6 brothers and sisters and there are 12 grandchildren. The trip was fun though. We got a family picture taken. Ainsley got to have a sleepover with her cousins. We got to go hiking (okay it was just a leisurely stroll) in the mountains. We went to a water thing (not sure how to describe it) in Liberty Park. We got to see my nephew's baptism. And because of the baptism we got to see John's grandparents who we don't get to see all that often. I just stuck on a bunch of random pictures from the trip since I had a hard time remembering my camera.


These final pictures are from the highlight of the trip for John. We went geocaching with David and Yanira. I guess you might say it's their new family hobby. I might be a little slow but I had never heard of this until a few weeks ago. In case there is anyone out there like me who has no idea what this is, it's kind of like treasure hunting but you use a GPS system and you go looking for "caches." There all over the place! You find the "treasure" that someone else left behind (usually little trinkets and knickknack's) and then you leave something in it's place. It's kind of cool because there are these things hidden all over the place. Can anyone guess what John wants to buy now and what he thinks our new family hobby should be????