Top Ten

Here are a list of things that always seem worse when you're in the middle of it, then they do when you look back:
1. being sick - having H1N1 was probably the worst sickness I can remember experiencing, but now when I look back, my foggy memory has clouded it a bit.
2. back pain - seriously, so annoying, not sure that one ever seems better
3. having babies ( i mean, taking care of and dealing with babies...it seems to last forever and then you think about it, and it's only like a year or so in the grand scheme of decades of your life...but that year or so is made up of 365 screamy days and 365 sleep-deprived nights.)
4. having babies - ie. labour...nuff said
5. a sleepless night - in the middle of it, you'd give practically anything to be able to sleep - ANYTHING!
6. a cranky day after a sleepless night
7. being without water in the winter when you really want a shower to warm you up...and clean clothes
8. being without water in the summer, when you really want a shower to wash off your sweaty sticky body...and clean clothes (not sure which is worse, but right now I'd say being w/o water in the summer, because that's what I'm experiencing right now.
9. a bad dream - but when you describe it in the morning it seems really silly.
10. endless bad hair days while you try to grow your hair out to the length you really want, but seem to be stuck in that awkward in-between phase forever and everyone else around you seems to be having good hair days...or good hair lives!

CPU

Tonight we are headed to the pioneer picnic at the church. Everyone is responsible to bring their own dinner, and since we're feeling particularly lazy and not in the mood to cook in our already incredibly hot house, we're stopping at CPU on the way picking up pizza by the slice. It really is a life saver...that way everyone can get what they want without having to order 4 different pizzas. Cheese for Lucy, Pepperoni for Max, Hawaiian for me and all-of-the-above for Tyler. And the slices are big enough that one is enough for each of the kids. Love it. Only problem is, there's tons of garlic in the sauce and crust...bad breath. This post is written in advance of what's happening, so Tyler fears that I am predicting the future and it may not go so well...
My camera is not working for some reason, so we may not get pictures of the festivities tonight. Dang!

Addendum

An addendum to my last post: My sister-in-law, Kari, and her husband Barrett and their new baby Luke just arrived to visit for the weekend. It was a great surprise to see them and to see this little baby who I didn't think I was going to see until next weekend at his baby blessing. hooray! He is so tiny, and cuddly, and sleepy. He made Logan look huge. I can't believe my baby has grown that much! Today is a much better day now. Still emotional, but with a happy ending.

Bittersweet Faith

It's a hard day. I feel especially emotional today. Not sure why. Tyler actually went into work today instead of working from home like he has for the past week. Maybe doing this alone has something to do with my emotions being so close to the surface today. Anyway, he was gone from early this morning got home at 5:20, ate dinner and was out again by 6pm to help someone in our ward until who knows when. He was at young men's all evening yesterday, so that means two days in a row that I have to do the whole bath and bedtime thing by myself. I'm not trying to complain, just painting a picture. He always has early morning meetings on Sundays now that he is the Young Men's president, which means I have to get myself and 3 kids ready for church by myself - we've been on time for church once I think. I try to not think about it, because I know he is fulfilling his priesthood responsibility, and if I'm supportive of him in that, then we will be blessed. I see so many thousands of other women who have had to do the same - our Bishop's wife has 5 kids and I imagine on Sundays she doesn't get to see her husband much at all. Anyway, I'm not looking for sympathy, or anything, just wanted to document my feelings, so one day when my daughter reads this (which I hope she will some day...we'll see) and sees that I had real feelings and struggles as a mother of young children, hopefully it will give her courage to continue on. Of course, I already think she's a much more amazing person than I am...so maybe she won't have these struggles. So my faith is bittersweet. It's there. I have faith and know this is right and that my husband is away and for a good reason, and if he could be here, he would, but by serving elsewhere, we will be blessed...but I don't quite have the faith yet to know that AND like it at the same time. I'm still a work in progress.

First Tastes, and First Steps

Today, Logan had his first taste if real food...in the form of infant rice cereal. I think he liked the taste of it...it's just a new concept to try and keep the food in his mouth, and get it off the spoon. He made a few funny, sour faces, but then made his "uhhh!" sounds when I stopped. As we ate dinner tonight, he kept trying to reach for my plate and was licking his lips as we ate, so I poured him some more cereal. I'm sure he looks at our food and then his own and figures there's no way they taste the same. It's a work in progress buddy...you'll get to smokies and potatoes soon enough!

On another note...this morning as Tyler poured himself a bowl of cheerios, he discovered a bug...burrowed into one of the cheerios - which prompted HIM to dump them in the garbage, the two of US to lose our appetites and skip breakfast, and the WHOLE family to head to Cochrane to buy containers to keep all our dry goods in. It's suprising that we haven't done this sooner, as we've always had a problem with mice...but they seem to avoid our cereal. So now our cereal cupboard is full of beautifully clean containers instead of cardboard boxes. And we bought a few extra for pasta and rice. I am 1/100th of the way towards my ikea dream kitchen.

Prepare Every Needful Thing

So today was the day...finally. Spring cleaning in July. I try to stay on top of my house as best as I can. Well, to be honest, I know I can do a lot better, but it takes a lot of my mental and physical energy, that I have decided is better for me to reserve at this point so I can be a better mom and wife...so a clean house is a lot lower on the priority list. But every once in a while, it just gets to the point where you can't handle it anymore and that's when the overhaul comes. Today, was that day. We made a list of jobs and assigned people to do them. Picking up toys, cleaning the kids rooms, cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry AND putting it away (one doesn't always mean the other), vacuuming, dusting, cleaning the floors and organizing the boot room.

The kids helped a great deal - Lucy worked with Dad in the kitchen and Max helped me with dusting and washing cupboards.

By about 3:00pm they were done with this cleaning and just couldn't understand why we had to do this. We were pretty much done, so we sat down for a spell and I got out my scriptures (boy, I'm turning into my dad...and funny enough, I like it!). I read to them D&C 88:119, line by line and asked them if they knew what it meant. Do we have a house of prayer? yes. Do we have a house of fasting? yes. Do we have a house of faith? yes. Do we have a house of learning? yes. Do we have a house of glory? yes. Do we have a house of order? yes! So, now do we have a house of God? yes! And then I explained to them that having a clean house will help the Holy Ghost to be able to be here more and help us more, and isn't that what we want? yes! Then Lucy got out her paper and markers (as she always does) and made a sign that said, "We have a house of God and we love it" with a big heart on it. Well, that makes it worth it.

Sarah's Bridal Shower

Last night, the kids and I attended a bridal shower for Sarah at the Christensen's. A lot of the family was out of town, so we were pleased to attend and represent the Williamson's. The theme of the Shower was Mexican - as you can see by the decorations and food.


Louise had a playroom set-up that the kids enjoyed and was a relief to me. Tyler had a dinner meeting, so I had to bring all the kids with me, and I was worried about having to take care of things and entertain on my own.

With every gift Sarah opened, the person who gave the gift was asked to give her a piece of advice. She got all sorts of advice, including: attending the temple often, never go to bed angry, stop everything and greet each other when you get home (with a 10-second kiss), assume nobility of intent, don't let the fire die (a marriage is like two logs on a fire - they stay close enough to keep each other warm, but give each other distance so they can breath). It was good advice for those who have been married for a while to hear too. Tyler and I tried the 10-second kiss when he got home, and it was a long time...but enjoyable - no complaints here. Now he teases me each time we kiss because he thinks I'm always counting.

We had designed a 50s-themed apron for her with her favorite colors and her initial embroidered on it, and she loved it. She got lots of cookbooks, which she was equally excited about, and a 2-person 72-hour kit from her mom and Janeen. As we left, the kids each took a handful of Mike and Ike candies and said, "I'm taking these so we NEVER forget this fun place!" They pretty much only feel that way about Grandma's houses...so Louis should feel very proud.

Make Your Own Rain

We had a break from the rain this week and decided to make the best of it...but running through the sprinkler. The kids were nervous at first and barely let their skin touch the cool water, but eventually the fun outweighed the fear and they were running through and screaming. Logan and I hung out in the shade and watched.

Slip N Slide

July 9th + 30 degrees + a trailer that is 40+ degrees = time for a slip n slide!

The air was filled with Lucy's nervous screaming laughter until she finally got the hang of things...then it was hard to get her to stop.

We finished the evening off with a bbq and popsicles at Grandma's before her, Janeen and Great Grandma head to Utah for a week.

Not much Time - MARATHON

After our time at Calaway Park and out in Airdrie, the kids were a bit tired, and happy to just relax, so we decided to start the Star Wars trilogies. We have spent much of our down-time over the last 6 days squeezing in moments of Star Wars wherever we can. And much of the kids play has consisted of "life savers" ("I know they're called Light-Sabers mom, but I like to call them 'life-savers' because they save lives" - Lucy), and Obi-wan-kinobi. They've enjoyed watching Anikan's path to the dark side, and were so surprised at the end to realize that he turned good again! Part of our Star Wars marathon has also consisted of eating a lot of icecream. This is part of our summer of trilogies. We've already watched the Jurassic Park trilogy, the Shrek trilogy, and Transformers 1 & 2...which is not a trilogy yet, but hopefully will be soon.

Not much Time - CALAWAY PARK

(seriously, isn't that the best face!)
On July 2nd, we decided to make use of our park passes and headed out to calaway park with Papa, and Jacob, Jason and Ali. Grandma met us there and we spent a few hours on the kiddie rides. It wasn't too busy, so the kids didn't have to wait in too many lines, which is always a plus.

The park handed out KD crackers and chips, which the kids also enjoyed...which made my packed snack of cucumber and apples a little less exciting. Lucy got $5 for her birthday from her Great-Grandma, which she has been keeping in my wallet ever since. And it was on this day that she finally decided to spend it. On a bag of cotton candy, which she kindly shared with everyone. The bag cost $4.75, so now she still has a quarter she has to decide what to do with, but I think she felt it was money well spent.

Not much Time - CANADA DAY

I haven't had much time for blogging lately, but we've been doing a lot of fun stuff, so I thought I'd at least get some photos on here and we could have a pictoral account of our goings on. But I imagine I will end up writing a bit too, because I just can't help it. We spent Canada Day in Airdrie watching the parade and hanging out with Mike, Tammy, Emma and Ashley. Emma got a bouncy house for her birthday and the kids had a blast playing with that. The parade was pretty cool, and fun for the kids to experience without dealing with the crowds of the Stampede Parade. It was super chilly that morning, which we weren't counting on, so we were grateful to have our big Canada blanket to keep us warm.

yes, that is gretzky sitting with us.
We decided the theme for the parade was irony, since they had the jelly belly mascot walking right in front of the Good Life Fitness folks...and a couple girls (i'm not sure what they were affiliated with, or even if they were part of the pararde), come a shake their booties right in front of all of us...literally, right in our faces. I'm sure we looked the like the perfect crowd for such a thing...a bunch of mom's and their kids - plus Tyler and Mike.