Friday, April 28, 2006

Snowy days bring wonderful blessings.

It has snowed on almost every imposrtant day in my life. Two years ago this day was no exception. It was a wonderful 80 degrees the day before. I went to lunch with some work friends, and barely did anything at work. That night I dropped my little dude off at my sister's house to spend the night. Why you ask? Because I was going to have a baby! My little princess was born 2 years ago today. It was a shocker that it snowed that day. It was the only day out of the week that it was less than nice outside. I was thrilled though.

Lets jump back about 6 months. I had gone into my family doctor for something that had NOTHING to do with being pregnant. Actually at this point I had no idea I was pregnant. I had just stopped nursing my little dude and was taking birth control, there was no way that I was going to be pregnant. The doctor was doing all sorts of tests that day. He gave me a perscription and sent me on my way. That night at about 9:00 I got a phone call. It was my doctor. The first thing that he tells me is that I needed to sit down. My first though was, oh crap! I have cancer! Well the doctor continues to tell me that after I left his office that day he had a feeling that he needed to do a pregnancy test. He did one and it was positive. Good thing I was sitting down! What a complete shock! I had no idea. Aparantly I was almost 3 months along. Even more of a shock.

That night after putting my little dude to bed my husband and I sat on the couch and cried for about 4 hours. This sounds really extreme, but let me just explain. My little dude was only about 5 months old. You can do the math, but I will help a little. That meant that they were going to be 14 months apart. I was not sure that I was ready for that. It was really hard adjusting to motherhood. My husband was having a hard time as well. With adjusting to fatherhood and motherhood. Not only that he had just been laid off from his job a few moths before. We didn't have very much money and had only one car. I had just started a new job and wasn't sure if the insurance would cover the pregnancy because it was a pre-exsisting condition. So many things where going trough our heads that all we knew at that point was just to cry.

Well, on April 28th 2004 our little princess joined our lives, and changed them forever. She has been a blessing in so many ways. I realized so many things about myself and so many things about life all because of having her. I had post partum depression after having her and that was a struggle, but again another blessing. She has made me a stronger person, she has made our family stronger. I look at her every day and am so proud of all that she is learning, all that so does. I was scared for her to come into this world, all for my own selfish reasons. The Lord had another path for me. I took it, and I have been very blessed and I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Happy Birthday little princess! I love you with all my heart! Keep your spirit strong, and keep your mind healthy and clean! Remember who you are and where you came from. You have changed your mommy's life, I feel that you have the ability to have a stong impact on this world! You are an amazing little girl, please don't ever grow up and try to change that! With much love, Mommy.

Monday, April 24, 2006

The short version of my week.

It seems like it is really hard to post these days. I feel like since the weather is warmer now I have a million more things to add to my list of things to do. It is great though, exactly what I have been waiting for all winter long.

I am officially a soccer mom, minus the mini van. My little dude started soccer on Saturday. He has been waiting for weeks to play, so he was really excited that it was really here. His team lost, but he still had so much fun. He liked trying to tackle the kids that were in his way. I kept telling him that he has to go for the ball not the kids. I did have to laugh though when he took down the biggest kid on the other team. I asked him why he did that and he said because he couldn't see the ball. We need to work with him a little more on his sportsmanship. What do you expect from a team of a bunch of 3 year olds though? There were a few times that he came to the sidelines to ask me if he was being good playing soccer. I loved it! He can't wait to play again on Tuesday. Pictures will be coming, he looks so grown up in his jersey.

It has officially started. Wedding season. What a crazy season it will be too. We are very busy with photography. It is great though. I love the practice and I love doing them. Most of the time anyway. I had two photo shoots this weekend and another one tonight. I have a wedding almost every weekend for the next couple of months. It will keep me very busy.

On Saturday I shot the 50th anniversary party for my husbands grandparents. It was fun. I love to hear of people being married for so long. It will be neat to make it to my 50th anniversary. It was great to meet more of his family too. People that I haven't seen in years, people that I have never met before. There was a lot of hard work, and effort that went into that party and it was fun. The kids had a hard time not being able to play outside when it was so nice and warm, so that made it a little hard. They sure did sleep great that night though.

Another thing that happened this last week is that I started a job. Well kind of. It is for a huge children's clothing store, and I will only be working once a month. Just to help with floor sets and stuff. I am really only doing it to get the discount and to buy my kids cute clothes. It was really fun to start and I can't wait to keep doing it. It is a great outlet to relieve some builded stress. I got the kids some great summer clothes too.

This is my life, boring I know. But between being a stay at home mom with two kids, teaching guitar lessons 3 days a week, soccer 3 days a week, photography every weekend, cub scouts, and working my new job, I really have a lot going on. Life is busy, but I wouldn't ask for it any other way!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Results and Reaction

Ryan Seacrest is such a nerd. He will forever be known for "After the break." Last night this was my reaction....

Taylor you walked to the right side of the stage. You were right the first time!

Chris SO can not be in the bottom three!

Oh my gosh he is in the bottom two!

******GASP!!*****

Good thing Ace is gone!

Take a deep breath.

Chris go back to your rock! It was working for you! No more almost heart attacks for me!

Maybe I should have called in my votes last night. The one night I didn't he is in the bottom two. See hubby, acting like a teenager and voting does pay off!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Life's Adventures

I have been laying in bed for over two hours staring at the ceiling. I have way too many things on my mind that are disturbing me. The details I won't get into, but I have been having a pretty crapy week. While I was laying there trying to get over a few things, figure a few things out, and tring to learn what lesson I should be learning from all of this I started to think about a mountain biking trip I once took. Some how thinking about this trip helped me learn a few things.

My husband and I used to be really into mountain biking. We used to go almost every Saturday morning. We still love it and talk about it all spring and summer long. But that is all that we have done for the past few years is just talk about it. With two kids now, it is a little harder to go do something like riding your bike down crazy trails. I think that once the snow melts we will be heading up there. I hope anyway.

One year my brother, my sister, my husband, and I decided that we were going to try to Wasatch Crest Trail [Click the link and it will show you pictures, but if you scroll down the page a little it will show you a map. That way you can get a better picture of how crazy this trail is.] It is about 26 miles long and goes from one side of the Salt Lake Valley, into Park City, and out on another side of the Salt Lake Valley. We started in Big Cottonwood Canyon by Brighton Ski Resort. A few miles down the trail is a hill called Puke Hill. This hill is named this for a really good reason. It is a VERY steep hill and has pretty soft dirt. (at the top the altitude is about 9900 feet.) You have to be in extremely good shape to make it to the top of this hill even if you are walking, let alone with your bike. I have never been one to be in very good shape so this was a challenge for me. I remember complaining and cussing the entire way up. (Which felt like hours) I was slipping down the hill while walking my bike to the top. I felt like with every couple of steps I would take one step back. I wanted to turn around so bad. My family was ahead of me and kept encouraging me to keep going, and telling me that I was doing a great job. Finally I made it!

Here is where I want to add how this part of the journey helped me while trying to sort things out tonight. While going through life we will sometimes have our huge hills to climb. It will seem like it is impossible to reach the top. It will be tough along the way, and we will struggle to make it. You will always have your reasons why you want to turn back, but there will also always be people that have climbed that hill before encouraging you to keep going. They will tell you the great and wonderful things that you have done alone the way. If we keep trying and never give up we will make it! Then we can look down the hill and see how we have grown.

After Puke Hill there was a long stretch of trail that went across the ridge between the Salt Lake Valley and Park City. It was beautiful, with lots of wild flowers and trees. It was a nice and flat ride too. Nothing too crazy. Just as I was getting used to it, there was yet another challenge to overcome. I saw a bunch of people stopped and getting off their bike and putting them on their shoulders. I didn't really know what was going on until I got closer. The trail went across this small rocky ridge that was no more than a couple of feet wide. The catch was that on either side were cliffs that dropped about 100 feet. Most people were too scared to ride over this. So one at a time people would walk with their bikes on their shoulders over this ridge. My husbad had already gone across and then it came my turn. I was scared to death! I was so afraid that I was going to slip and fall off this path and go tumbling down either cliff. So what did my sweet husband do? He put his bike down, hiked back across to carry my bike for me so I could climb across with out it. (what a sweetie!)

Here again is another lesson that I learned tonight. When you think that life is going smooth and easy there will most likely be some type of trial ahead. One that if you don't walk carefully through, you may slip and fall and get hurt. If you take it easy and one step at a time you can make it through ok. Once again, there will be someone there to hold your hand and guide you through. These trials are hard, and they are scary, but in the end you can look back and see the clear path. You may even see people that need your helping hand. Reach back and help them through. Your experiences are there to not only help you, but to help others too.

Shortly after that we were on the decend onto the Mill Creek Trail. Down hill is the BEST! I love it because you get to go fast, and jump down the natural steps in the tree stumps and rocks. On this day there were lots of mud puddles to go jumping in too! It was so much fun! We made it through that canyon in no time at all. We wrode all the way to one of our cars that was parked at the mouth of the canyon. I remember getting off my bike and being so tired after riding for hours that I laid down on the sidewalk. While laying on the sidewalk it started to rain. Just a little bit. It was a warm rain, and it felt so good to just lay there and let it rain on me. It was refreshing.

Last lesson of the journey. There is times in life that we get to be rewarded for all our hard work. Going fast down hill is the small reward for all the hard work peddaling uphill. I am not saying that once we reach the top that we will fall back down. We need to look at life like a mountain range. It is never just up and down. There are hills and ridges, and cliffs, and valleys. They continue up and down for as far as the eye can see. We work hard to go up, to overcome the trials that are on our path. We should be able to enjoy coming down too. To see what we have learned. To be gratefull that we were given the new light on things, that we were shown a different side of life. Things aren't always going to be easy, but they aren't always going to be rough either. We need to hang in there and try to learn from every trial and every mistake. And most importantly we should try to reach out to those that are trying to help.

Sorry this post is so long. I really needed to write it to find my own strength in the trials that I am facing now. Thank you all for baring with me through it!




Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Does anyone know?

My little dude asked me the other day if I knew where the Easter Bunny lives. I didn't have a clue what to tell him. I thought if I told him that he lives in the North Pole with Santa then he would ask lots more questions that I couldn't answer. So I am asking the internet. Internet, does anyone know where the Easter Bunny lives?

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

American Idol Junky!

I have a confession to make. I am an American Idol Junky. I have been addicted since the first season when I fell in love with Kelly. Now I am 26 years old and I still call in my vote every Tuesday night. My husband laughs and thinks that I am being very teenager-ish. (funny word that is) I don't really care though because every Tuesday and Wednesday night I am glued to the tv and he is sitting there right next to me. He would never admit that he likes it though. It isn't manly enough for him I guess. He thinks it is funny to ask "How's your boy Chris? Still think he's hot?" Yes, yes I do. Well he sings great too! He had me from his first raspy note of that Rascal Flats song he sang at the audition. What a rocker!

After Mandisa got kicked off last week you really don't know what is going to happen now. I was shocked, she was one of the better ones. So all day tomorrow I will be sitting on pins and needles hoping that Chris didn't get voted off. Yes I am being teenager-ish, but you know, at least I am not watching Big Love.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

A day of sorts.

Have you ever had a morning where you just didn't want to get out of bed? You didn't get much sleep so you try so squeeze ever last minute in that nice warm comfy bed. You roll over to try to hid your eyes from the morning sun shinning in through the window, then you realize that there is puke in your bed. So you jump out of bed to start a day that will now have a wonderful trend. Welcome to my morning!

Instead of teaching ABC's or subtraction I got to teach my little dude how to puke in the toilet. I also get to explain why when you are sick and you start to yell and throw a fit that you sometimes mess your pants. I also get to comfort when there are all sorts of accidents in his bed during nap time (and by all sorts I mean ALL SORTS!) (yes that one too) instead of getting upset.

I feel really bad for him! I really do. It is hard to see him so sad, and so tired and so not climbing on everything. He couldn't pick a better day to be sick though. It snowed the entire day! Some parts of the valley got more than 6 inches of snow! WHAT THE FREEKING HECK! (I am so Utahn when I say that!) We are going to have more snow for Easter than we did for Christmas! Good thing I haven't planted my garden yet!

One more to add to the Silly things my 3 year old says.

"I can't start on fire when I fly."

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

One just like me!

When I was little my mom used to tell me that you could just see the mischief in my eyes. This is very true, you can look at a picture of me from when I was little and you can see it! Right there in my bright blue eyes. You could see that I was going to be giving my parents trouble. And I did! I lived up to that instinct that my parents had. As I got older they used to tease me and tell me that I was going to be "blessed" with a child just like me someday. I used to laugh and say, oh they will be so cute! Well, can I just say now that I AM NOT LAUGHING!

My little princess is absolutly adorable! She really is! I have only mentioned a few things that she has done in the past. Things like getting into my makeup all the time, painting herself with fingernail polish while I am in the shower. Like drenching the birds in Resolve. There are a few things that I haven't mentioned though. Things like coloring on every wall in my living room with a crayon. Or coloring on my oak kitchen table with marker. Like cleaning her bed room door with scrubbing bubbles and MY TOOTH BRUSH. Or taking off all her clothes and standing in the corner of her room naked and peeing on the floor. Maybe I should also mention the time that she got into daddy's reces peanut butter cups and ate them on daddy's pillow COVERING it with chocolate. One of her new favorite things is to throw her lunch across the kitchen. She also really likes to climb to the top of her toy shelves in her closet and pull all her clothes off the hangers. Today she dumped a bottle of water all over her blanket and pillow that she had taken into my bedroom and had it spread all over the floor. Another favorite toy of hers is to unwrap all my tampons. (hummmm) Oh yea she also likes playing in the garbage. She pulls things out and spreads it all over the house. She really is cute though! But just like me??????

I must say, I NEVER DID ANYTHING LIKE THAT TO MY PARENTS! Ok maybe a few!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Silly things that my 3 year old little guy has said to me.

"I see the banana in the sky! Look up there!" (speaking of the moon.)

"[Sister] if we be good we can have a treat ok, so stop yelling."

"Mommy, who made the outside?"

"I don't want to brush my teeth. I did it last year."

"Mommy, why is the moon broken?"

"Watch out there are cars on the road! Let's jump over them."

"Are we up or down?"
"What do you mean?"
"Are we up or down?"
"I don't know, bud."
"Well, just pick one mommy."

"Do I have my sister in my tummy?"

"When I'm a girl can I have a sister in my tummy?"

"Daddy, when I get big I will drive you to get a hamburger."

Pointing to his belly button "If this falls off will spiders come out?"

"If I eat my food, hair will come out on my chest."

"Is this popcorn making me big?"

"Mommy, when is the plane bringing daddy home from space?"

"Mommy, there's a worm in my cereal. I don't want to eat it, it looks yucky." (He is very picky when it comes to food, and has quite the imagination. This should be a whole other post on it's own.)

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Inspiration

The church held it's 176th General Conference this weekend. I was very happy that I was able to listen to all 4 sessions because this usually doesn't get to happen. I feel very blessed to be able to hear what the leaders of the church had prepared for us. I realized a few things about myself, my family, and my faith that I really needed to come to terms with. All in all it was wonderful and uplifting!

I had a thought in the first session on Saturday morning that inspired me. Here it is. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve. As for me in my house we will serve the Lord." I have heard this scripture many times before, but it was a great reaminder for me. It inspired me to change some ways of discipline, a few thoughts, and a few ways that we run our home. The last couple of weeks have been really hard. The kids have been really sassy, and down right mean. This makes for a mean mommy. I feel that I am always yelling at them, and telling then to stop what ever it is that they are doing. I hope that with some of the new ideas that I have had things will be a little bit easier. This house needs to be a happier place to be!

I feel very uplifted today, I just hope that as the week goes on I don't loose this feeling. There is nothing better than to get inspiration from higher up, the man that knows all. He knows what I am going through. He knows how I feel. He knows what is best for me! I will accept his advice ANY time!