New blog world

So I love finding people I know who have blogs. Usually, I manage to find tons of people that Steve knows much better than me and their blogs. If they are male, then it is typically their wife's blog, aka his high school friends, New Horizons, etc. etc.

But today, I was really excited because I found friends of mine. This does not mean they weren't friends of Steve, just that for once they aren't my friends just because I met and married Steve.

It was exciting. I have decided that I need to break my side bar links down. Because it is getting pretty long!

Yay for blogs and helping slackers keep in touch!

Snow

Well, Christmas can come. We are getting snow and Conner ran outside and yelled, "mom, it can be Christmas. It is snowing. We have a chimney mom?" He's anxious that Santa have a chimney. I told him no, but it was ok because we would be at Nana and Papa's and they have a chimney. Then he said, "but mom, they don't have snow." I told him Christmas could come anyway, even without snow. He said, "no, we better go to Bomma's. They have a chimney AND snow."

So there you have it. Sorry to disappoint. I figure its not that he doesn't want to go to Nana and Papa's. It just that since June he has been asking when Christmas will come and I have been telling him that it would come in the winter. And that winter was when the snow came. So apparently Christmas doesn't exist in his mind without snow!

In Honor of Thanksgiving

I am grateful for family and that they have been given to me.

I am grateful for my husband.

I am grateful for my children.

I am grateful for my parents and for Steve's parents for raising us and supporting us in our own new family.

I am grateful for the temple that allows us to be together.

These are the things I am most grateful for today!

IN honor of THanksgiving - Day 6 and 7

Well, I remembered when I was already in bed last night. But to ease my disappointment, I had at least thought of things I was thankful for....but of course I can't remember them all now.

I am grateful for bowling. I used to hate bowling and that was a passionate hate (just ask Nikki, Mel or Steve). But our family (extended) has spent some time doing it lately at family gatherings and I have come to be thankful for it. It gives us a chance to interact and watching Conner learn and grow from each time we have played has been so fun!

I am grateful for the timings of Steve's lastest closings. For those that don't know, he is self-employed as a real estate agent and so we have quite the income fluxuation. The last couple have been perfect timing for our family in many ways and I would be ungrateful if I didn't acknowledge that the Lord has a way of guiding our lives and also a way of really letting us know when He is.

I am also grateful for a clean toilet. Now don't get me wrong, it's not as if my toilets are usually dirty or anything. But I don't particularly get along with the toilet smell and cleaner smell together, especially lately. So Steve cleaned them both yesterday with perfect timing! Yeah for Steve!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone tomorrow. I am hoping to spend some time in reflection so that maybe this last gratitude attitude post can be a little more thoughtful and reflective!

In honor of Thanksgiving - Day 5

Today I am grateful for FHE. I usually teach my primary class every other week. And then teach the same lesson at FHE the next night. Well, this time we hadn't made it through the lesson on Sunday so I wasn't quite sure what exactly worked best. It was neat because we were able to direct this particular lesson specifically for something that Conner needed to learn about and also something that he understood. Hopefully it will be something that sticks.

I am also thankful for a patient, creative husband who helped Conner take all the big foam letters and build a house (box) and then they played the Three little pigs. Only there was only one little pig and a big bad wolf.

I am also grateful for the beautiful weather today. Who ever heard of 66 degree weather the week of Thanksgiving? Not here, not me. It was gorgeous! And I felt good enough that we were able to spend time outside. What a blessing!

IN Honor of Thanksgiving - Day 4

Today I am grateful for our Stake Relief Society fireside. It was called a Night with the Stake Presidency and their wives. I am grateful for a good visiting teacher who gave me this challenge. She also happens to be the stake president's wife, so she even mentioned me and this challenge tonight in her talk. I saw that as a little tender mercy because I had forgotten about my goal to be grateful and take time to think about those things. It was little a sweet little reminder.

I am also grateful for the things we are or can be taught each day by the Spirit. I was taught truths tonight and reminded of others. What a blessing it is to have moments like these that help foster a desire to have them more frequently.

Lastly, I think I need to say something about Steve tonight because truly I am grateful for him and need a way to express this. I am grateful he was supportive of me going and made it possible and was so willing in every other thing...

Oh and he makes fantastic guacamole!

In honor of Thanksgiving - Day 3

Today I am grateful for a volleyball team that are all good sports. That they like to have fun and that they don't mind sharing the playing time. We had a lot of fun at our co-ed tourney today. After losing in the 1st game by 1 pt, we had to fight our way back through the losers bracket. Everyone was great and we had a lot of fun.

I am also grateful that Conner was healthy today. In fact, his fever was gone all last night and all today. (Sadly, it is coming back) But that was definitely a good coincidence (blessing?).

I am grateful that I was able to put my printer back together and that the power came back on when I was done. The trick is, I now have a new error, from a piece put back in wrong, but I am grateful I know what piece it is. (I truly need to post pics for you all to get the full effect)

Mostly I am grateful today for a supportive husband who got up early to take stuff to the first ball game so a tired momma could sleep and a sick boy could get his rest.

In Honor of Thanksgiving - Day Two

I am getting to my gratitude attitude thoughts a little early today. Mostly be my sweet boy is running a fever and his wonderful daddy took him up to nap. So I had a couple of minutes....I think after this I might try taking apart my printer again...check back for a lovely post on that!

First, I am grateful for the following modern day miracles:


I posted about health last time because I am truly grateful for ours. But unfortunately, Conner started running a fever last night and has been miserable today. I am so grateful for Tylenol and Motrin to help him out. It is a sad thing to not be able to do more for our children especially to save them from hurt. I wonder if our Heavenly Father thinks this too sometimes...hmmm.

Second, I am grateful for small miracles in that Conner didn't have to throw up. I know I could not handle that right now and it has been an awesome blessing today. But since that is not a super highlight...I think I will do one more today.

I am grateful for friends who bring me lunch. These friends were going around with Steve to look at houses and decided to go out to lunch afterward. They had Steve call and ask me if I would like anything and then they brought it to me to go! It was also impeccable timing. Thanks you guys!

In Honor of Thanksgiving

In honor of Thanksgiving, and to get myself out of a bit of a slump. I decided I needed to post some gratitude, in helping me towards my "gratitude attitude". Also, if truth is told, my sweet visiting teacher this week (ok so it was last week and I am just getting to it) challenged me to think of two things that were blessing or miracles in my life that happened that day or that I recognized and to do this for a week and to be grateful in my prayers and thoughts and see if it didn't help me be a little happier.

Today's gratitude attitude thoughts.

I am grateful for my calling(s). But tonight I am especially grateful for my stake sports director calling. Tonight was our last night of stake v-ball play. I am relieved that is it done (except Sat co-ed tourney). But I am so grateful for the opportunity it has provided me to be active...more particularly active in an activity that I love. That most weeks Steve and I were able to spend some time together. And that in some cases, especially lately, it has made me get out of my house at the end of a long, hard day. IT has made me feel good physically, when those moments are recently hard to come by. I have made new friends and gotten closer to others. I have learned to appreciate those who are there when they say they are going to be there and then to thank them for that. And it has made me really appreciate my husband's fantastic height (thanks a million sweetie for all your net help). I mean, I always thought his height was a very attractive feature but now I am grateful for its functionality beyond reaching things off the top shelf. :)

I am grateful that the lives of my little family have been blessed with health. That aside from our sweet Bella, the worst we get is a cold or flu bug every now and then. It talking with friends, that is quite a miracle and I am so grateful for it.

Taking a cue from Denae and her thought provoking questions at the seeming end of every blog.

What are you thankful for?

Old friends, new again

Well, I read a friend's blog that she had 300 posts and I thought that was pretty either amazing for her or sad for me with my count at about 40...But that is 40 more journal entries than I have for the last year. Anyways, so I was thinking of what to blog about and I thought of something that makes me happy.

Steve and I have now lived in this place longer than I have lived anywhere in my life. And since we have lived in areas of town that are quite transient, most of our Married friends have moved. So imagine how excited I was to hear that some married friends were moving back.

Well, I am excited. We may or may not live close. We may or may not spend a lot of time together. But in the end, I don't care because for once it means a friend is moving here instead of moving away and that is always something to rejoice about!

Married friends

So my parents came up for Conner's primary program and for some reason my mom had put the roast on warm, instead of high in the crock pot so of course it wasn't done when we got home from church. I have to remind her that our family is quite grateful for any cooking done at our house lately. Although Conner is quite fond of Wendy's chicken nuggets and honey mustard. ....Anyway, we got discussing some things and we were talking about friends and families that my parents have kept in touch with through 27 years of marriage and at least that many or more moves. And we came up, through our discussion, approximately three kinds of friends. Although I had never heard my mom talk about it, I have had similar discussions with my husband and other friends.

1. Single friends - these are the people you or your husband knew when you were single. They may or may not still be single. But just because they graduate from single status, they don't always graduate to the next group of friends. Some you still keep in touch with and may even get together with, either by yourself or if they are still single, invite over for an occassional family dinner. But if they are married, and you get together with them and their spouse, they are no longer single friends but have made the jump to married friends.

2. Married friends - These are the friends that both you and your husband like. Sometimes you knew them single and they have graduated....but more likely you have met them since you were married. Typically this happens when the wife likes the wife and the husband likes the husband. You have similar interests, situations, etc. Sadly, there may be many of the above mentioned single friends whose new spouses disqualify them from being included in this group. You know the drill. The wife can't stand the other wife, or the husband thinks the other husband is dull or not quite enough in tune to SportsCenter. I think everyone can follow this logic and can think of at least one occassion where they have been forced to bear an unpleasant social situation where you are "testing" out of the likelihood of making a new "couple" married friend.

However, this next group gets more complicated and I hadn't quite thought of it until my mom articulated it and then I went, "oh we do that."

3. Group three - Married friends you can stand their children - (Sorry couldn't think of a shorter name - am up for suggestions in the comments) - Ever met a couple that didn't quite make the cut for married friends? In fact, they might have been acquaintances that you didn't spend much time with and then all of a sudden you have children similar in age or activities and you begin hanging out. It all starts with a playdate and then it just kind of works out from there. On the flip side, your old married friends may not make the cut if you can't stand their kids or what they allow their kids to do. Granted, they still get to be married friends, but the whole family deal is few and far between.

Anyways, that is my two bits. But in all reality, we don't spend a lot of time with friends. Mostly just family because we are too busy for much else. But it works for us. What works for you?

Halloween, Halloween, lots of fun on Halloween

Here is my little spidey man...unfortuntely, I didn't dress up and Steve did some version of a character from Christmas Vacation complete with shorts, my blue bathrob and some clunky snow boots. I had the misfortune of taking a pic of him but totally cutting off his head, so you will have to use your imagination.

WE did trick or treating on Main and then a trunk or treat with our old branch and ward. It was fun, but I miss the days of going around a neighborhood. The last two years we have driven to my mom's for that exact reason. Her neighborhood is quiet, safe, low traffic and homes are relatively close together. This year I wasn't quite up to the drive! So we had to settle for a trunk or treat! Sad I know!

My favorite line was when someone asked him if he was Batman and he said, exasperated, "No, I am spiderman." The guy teased him by saying, "no there is no such thing as Spiderman." Conner said, "Oh yeah?" And then he pointed his wrist at him and proceeded to wrap him up, securely I am sure, in pretend spiderweb!