Happy Anniversary!

Happy 12th Anniversary to Jared and me! What did we do to celebrate this joyous occasion? We both got up at 5:00 a.m. and got ready for church. Jared headed off to his 6:00 a.m. Bishopric meeting, while I got the kids ready. I drove to the church, deposited the kids in the nursery, then met Jared at a 7:00 a.m. ward council meeting. I glanced down at the date on the agenda and realized its significance. Oops! I turned to Jared and whispered, "Happy Anniversary!" We were interrupted halfway through the meeting by one of our crying children., who needed to be comforted. After the meeting, Jared went home with the kids while I attended BYC then stayed after for a short meeting with the Bishop. I met back up with Jared and the kids in the chapel for sacrament meeting. After the meeting, I quickly finished preparing my lesson (Yes it had been one of those crazy, busy weeks!), then taught an incredibly boring lesson. Sorry Laurels! After church we went home, changed our clothes, then drove over to my parent's house where we ate dinner and helped Makenna practice (I know! Sigh....not the best Sunday activity!) for cheerleading tryouts. From there we headed to a home teaching appointment with one of my favorite people in the world. Then instead of attending our marriage and family class, we decided to relieve our exhaustion by taking a long nap. Our efforts to do so were foiled by a houseful of cranky, fighting children. Serves us wrong for ditching our class! We spent the rest of the evening helping our daughter prepare ( I know, I know, another not so great Sunday activity!) for her science fair project. Then I went to bed and Jared stayed up to work on taxes. Definitely a less than exciting/romantic anniversary. Hopefully in a month or so when we have more time and money we can do something a lot more fun.

The Far Pavillions

The past few months I've been re-reading three of my favorite books by M.M. Kaye: Trade Winds, Shadow Of The Moon, and The Far Pavillions. I would highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. Don't be intimidated by the length of these books! They are worth the time and the effort.

Oops!

My husband just happened to read my last post and saw that it started out with the quote, "You will either marry or give birth to your greatest challenge in life."

He pointed out that since I then mention that my kids are wonderful, the natural conclusion could be that he is not and that he is my biggest challenge in life. Nothing could be farther from the truth! He is a wonderful husband. Marrying him was the smartest thing I ever did. I just thought it went without saying that my biggest challenge couldn't be him. Sorry Jared! I love you!

The Struggles of Motherhood

"You will either marry or give birth to your greatest challenge in life."

That's what our high council speaker said on Sunday. Ain't it the truth?!!

I have wonderful children! But like most parents I spend quite a bit of time thinking and worrying about them. It's scary being a parent sometimes, particularly a mother. You've probably heard the joke amongst Psychologists, "So tell me about your mother?" The meaning behind it is obvious. No one impacts or influences a child as much as his or her mother. No pressure!

One of my children has been really struggling lately. As a mother, it's so hard to watch this. My child has experienced some very serious disappointments. And looking back I can see that I could have prevented the situations. I'm doing everything I can to help now, but some things are just beyond my control. I wish I could just jump in and make everything all better. But I can't! And that's really hard!

I'm doing my best to help the child learn from the experience. There are certainly some lessons to be gained. And hopefully I can help my child learn them and to grow stronger because of the trials of life.

Any advice from you parents and friends out there?

Moapa Valley Residents-Sign up here for St. Patrick's Day Treats

Happy Early St. Patrick's Day everyone! In honor of the holiday and my Irish heritage (who could have guessed?) I am giving away treats to anyone who comments. And no, this is not just a ploy to get you to leave a comment. The truth is that I made a list of everyone I wanted to deliver treats to and found that there were more people than I could handle. I tried to think of ways to shorten the list, but none of them seemed satisfactory. I finally decided to just have a sign up list here for all my friends who would like to receive St. Patrick's treats. It's easy! All you have to do is to leave a comment and I will show up at your doorstep on March 17th with treats in hand.

Sadly, I can only deliver treats to those of you living in Moapa Valley. Yes, I know, it's completely unfair. The simplest solution would be for all of you to move here. I'm sure you've always wanted to live in a little desert town out in the middle of nowhere, right?

Dance Anxiety!

I've been feeling very stressed and anxious this week! Why? Because I was foolish enough to volunteer to dance with my daughter and my friend, Summer in the ward variety show. What was I thinking??!!

It all started innocently enough when I volunteered Summer to dance with Makenna. Makenna was very excited about the idea. Summer...less so. I felt guilty about volunteering Summer so in a very weak and very stupid moment, I actually agreed to dance with them. Of course they both thought this was a wonderful idea. Then I dug myself even deeper by notifying my mother, the ward activities director, that we would be dancing. And now there is no way I am getting out of this. Yikes!!

So basically I'm going to be a 34-year-old woman doing a hip hop dance with an 18-year-old and a 10-year-old. Nice. I 'm worried that I am going to look totally silly and old ladyish. And the stress is mounting as the event approaches!! How in the world am I going to pull this off?