11/11/11

(My journal entry from today...sorry if it's a downer, just being honest)

11-11-11

Pretty cool huh? The date won't look that cool again until next year on December 12th!!!

What a rough week. This may be my hardest week as a mom yet. Both kids have been sick all week, and now Russ too. I have been trying to spend a lot of good time with Gracee so she wouldn't notice what a cooped up week it's been. Yesterday I wasn't able to do as much because I had to take care of miserable Joey EVERY second of the day. He was feverish and sore from a shot the day before and wouldn't even let me put him down. Gracee has been acting out and disobeying every second she can think of something to disobey about ever since. I texted Russ today and told him that I've totally forgotten how to be a good mother and that I hope I don' t scar Gracee for life. He took it as a joke, but I was mostly serious. My patience runs so thin after 6 grueling days of this. I wish I could say I've already learned how to take things in stride and not let things get to me, but I'm not there yet. I dug deep so many times today for inner strength and prayed a bunch. I know this is the most important work I can be doing right now, so I really am interested in doing it right...well, as right as I can muster anyway.

Thanks for listening.

A dose of emotional honesty...

So Gracee must've been peaking over my shoulder when I wrote that last post about her always trying to do good. ...yah we've had a major week of experimentation with boundaries and I'm soooo tired! She's so darn cute though, I just keep praying for more patience! I know I say this all the time but I SO admire mothers with two or more kids! Wow, I'm just exhausted. Anyway here are some pics of what has been going on over here.

25 weeks and counting!! He won't stop moving, what does that tell ya?

finger painting with Aunt Jesse (see FB for video)

Potty date with mom and dad because she filled up her

second potty chart!! Slide and ice cream!Woohoo! She

really seems to be solidifying this potty stuff. Phew!

Oh and I love that she likes to be girlie!! She always wants

me to paint her nails with the kit that Gramma Peterman

left here. I even put a sticker on today and so far she has

kept it on--woohoo!!!

Confessions of a loser

Written in the front cover of my scripture journal is the heading: "The first things I'll ask when I get to heaven". The first thing on the list says I will ask where my cell phone went to that I lost back in 2007. When I lose things, Russ isn't surprised. In fact, I even lost the ipod he gave me for Christmas one year. I recently found it in a discreet pocket of one of our duffel bags--it was lost for about 3 years!!

I've also broken 2 phones, 2 cars and 2 cameras now. So we don't have a camera. I don't really deserve to have one--but we've been saving up to get one. My mom let us borrow her camera when we went to Vermont and New York to tour church history sites with the Jenny Phillip's choir group we are blessed enough to be a part of. Guess what? I lost her camera. I didn't even get the chance to take even ONE picture before I lost it!! It makes me sick. Anyway, needless to say, we replaced her camera and are once again...saving up.

Luckily, a bunch of people in our tour group took pictures so I'll be able to post them. They didn't lose or break their camera...they probably never have. It's okay, I still have other redeeming qualities.

My sister Steph and her family are in town and then I get my tonsils out the day after they leave...so if I don't post for a while, that is why.

A love affair

Are you one of those people who can't go to bed with the kitchen messy? Bed unmade? Are you one of those people who has to lick your plate in order to feel satisfied? (I hope you're reading this Star!) Are you one of those people who feels incomplete unless they have vacuumed? Dusted? Do you have to have a bowl of cereal EVERY morning? Not eggs, not pancakes--it has to be cereal, otherwise you will be starved the whole morning?

I AM!!

Russ and I both have a deep love affair with cereal. It's an expensive habit! Recently we've had to get creative and start thinking of other snacks at night and for skipped meals (Russ's dilemma when I am not at home.) I am putting up a list in our cereal cupboard that says, "Wait! Is this just a snack? Have you already had cereal today? Try another option FIRST:" We have put our heads together and come up with about 10 other snacks that we could settle for--in order to reserve the cereal for breakfast. We will have to muster a lot of self-control, but as I always say, "We CAN do hard things!"

The love affair will continue--oh yes--there's no doubt about it. But perhaps it will feel more special each morning to know that I won't be able to have another bowl for at least 24 hours...

Do you have a love affair you'd like to share?

My Protest

Recently Utah decided that EVERY phone number had to have the 801 area code placed in front of it, no matter where you are dialing from. (Even if it's not long distance.) Ever since then, there has been this wave of people being "801- happy" (if you are one of these people, I still love you.) So you may be asking, "What does '801 happy' mean"? It means that when somebody tells you their number they ALWAYS say 801 before it, and they pause to let you write it down before moving on to the other, less obvious digits in their number. As if I don't know! Granted, some people have out of state cell numbers. That and ONLY that would be the time to give me your area code. If you don't give me an area code, it's pretty darn clear that you have an 801 like all the rest of us! So if you are getting a number from me and I just tell you 7 numbers...please,whatever you do, don't say, "is that 801?"