This is so funny!
The Chocoholic has had one dream that he has dreamed of for months. I told him we could do it just before school got out. May 26th, his dream finally came true. Enjoy.
Yes, we did it outside because I didn't want the mess! And his head felt like a baby's bum! So soft! Amazingly, by the next day, there was stubble. I really thought we would get a couple days with it smooth, but not so. And he has decided that he's not going to go bald again. Too much work and pain!
Now if only my dreams were as easy to obtain!
Yes, we did it outside because I didn't want the mess! And his head felt like a baby's bum! So soft! Amazingly, by the next day, there was stubble. I really thought we would get a couple days with it smooth, but not so. And he has decided that he's not going to go bald again. Too much work and pain!
Now if only my dreams were as easy to obtain!
I was 19 when I got married. For some people, that is too young. But I was ready. I was so in love with The Doctor and he was in love with me.
The day of our wedding, I prayed to Heavenly Father that he would confirm to me that I was doing the right thing.
As we kneeled across the alter in the temple, I felt the most overwhelming confirmation that I was marrying the right person at the right time, in the right place.
There have been times throughout my marriage that I have wondered what in the world I had done, but I am always able to go back to that moment and know that I am where I am supposed to be.
I love you babe!
The day of our wedding, I prayed to Heavenly Father that he would confirm to me that I was doing the right thing.
As we kneeled across the alter in the temple, I felt the most overwhelming confirmation that I was marrying the right person at the right time, in the right place.
There have been times throughout my marriage that I have wondered what in the world I had done, but I am always able to go back to that moment and know that I am where I am supposed to be.
I love you babe!
Need a better clue? Try this one.
Still not sure? Here you go.
I shredded my keyboard. Yep. Shredded. My shredder is right at my feet, and somehow I got papers on top of the cord as I stuck them down to be shredded and suddenly the keyboard flew off. Fortunately my shredder is okay, but I had to get a new keyboard. I will never live this one down!
The purpose of this post is not to get preachy. So keep reading!
In our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (you may know us as the Mormons), we partake of the Sacrament every week in remembrance of the Savior's sacrifice for us. Young men who are worthy are given the Priesthood at the age of 12 and become a Deacon. So when The Artist turned 12, he received the Priesthood.
One of his duties is to help pass the sacrament. Shortly after he was ordained a Deacon, he was passing the sacrament. When each young man is done with his section, he will go stand in line and wait for the other young men to finish. Then they will all go to the sacrament table together.
Well, The Artist is easily distracted. This day as he was standing in line, waiting for the other boys to finish, he was observing a family and watching their little children. He was not paying attention to the line.
The other boys finished, the line moved, and he stood there watching the family next to him. Suddenly, he looked up, realized that he was supposed to be up at the front, and ran to join the other boys.
Ran.
In church.
In Sacrament Meeting.
In the middle of the Sacrament.
The Doctor and I were laughing so hard. Not out loud...quietly. But our whole bodies were shaking from trying to hold it in. I thought I was going to bust.
I will remember that my whole life.
In our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (you may know us as the Mormons), we partake of the Sacrament every week in remembrance of the Savior's sacrifice for us. Young men who are worthy are given the Priesthood at the age of 12 and become a Deacon. So when The Artist turned 12, he received the Priesthood.
One of his duties is to help pass the sacrament. Shortly after he was ordained a Deacon, he was passing the sacrament. When each young man is done with his section, he will go stand in line and wait for the other young men to finish. Then they will all go to the sacrament table together.
Well, The Artist is easily distracted. This day as he was standing in line, waiting for the other boys to finish, he was observing a family and watching their little children. He was not paying attention to the line.
The other boys finished, the line moved, and he stood there watching the family next to him. Suddenly, he looked up, realized that he was supposed to be up at the front, and ran to join the other boys.
Ran.
In church.
In Sacrament Meeting.
In the middle of the Sacrament.
The Doctor and I were laughing so hard. Not out loud...quietly. But our whole bodies were shaking from trying to hold it in. I thought I was going to bust.
I will remember that my whole life.
You know sometimes your children do things that make you proud. This is not one of those times.
Yes, that is a worm that my wonderful son is putting in his mouth.
Yes, he ate the whole thing. My brother did this too when he was a teenager, but at least he did it on a bet and got money for doing it. Only my son would do it willingly.
I include this picture only to show the reaction of the kids behind him. What is a mother to do? :-)
Yes, that is a worm that my wonderful son is putting in his mouth.
Yes, he ate the whole thing. My brother did this too when he was a teenager, but at least he did it on a bet and got money for doing it. Only my son would do it willingly.
I include this picture only to show the reaction of the kids behind him. What is a mother to do? :-)
I have a great boss. For having to work, I couldn't have asked for a better boss. She is understanding, patient, kind, willing to tell me things over and over, and willing to work with me on my schedule.
When you consider 2 years ago I was working every day in the office from 1-5, and now I work in the office 1 day a week from 9-12 and the rest of the time I am working at home, I think I am doing really good.
My boss is a single mother. I try not to complain about my schedule and having to work around her because I know she would love to be home too. The other day I was talking to her about having my kids on different schedules (1 in high school, 1 in jr. high, 1 elementary, and 1 kindergarten). Okay, I was whining.
She said, "You can't complain until you have 1 out of country, 1 in college, 1 in high school, 2 in jr. high, 1 in elementary, and 1 in preschool. That was my first year of single motherhood. I came home every night and cried."
Wow. That really put things in perspective. I don't have it so bad. It could be so much worse!
When you consider 2 years ago I was working every day in the office from 1-5, and now I work in the office 1 day a week from 9-12 and the rest of the time I am working at home, I think I am doing really good.
My boss is a single mother. I try not to complain about my schedule and having to work around her because I know she would love to be home too. The other day I was talking to her about having my kids on different schedules (1 in high school, 1 in jr. high, 1 elementary, and 1 kindergarten). Okay, I was whining.
She said, "You can't complain until you have 1 out of country, 1 in college, 1 in high school, 2 in jr. high, 1 in elementary, and 1 in preschool. That was my first year of single motherhood. I came home every night and cried."
Wow. That really put things in perspective. I don't have it so bad. It could be so much worse!
I love this. I read it on someone's blog, and now I can't remember where I got it from. So if you recognize it, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!
***
Mother’s Day can be a tricky thing.
It is a day to honor our mothers, to show them that we love them. All too often though, a card listing the best-mom-in-the-world attributes, or a well-meaning sermon can leave a mom feeling not so special; not the best, and well… guilty.
Guilt is a common feeling among mothers.
We do our best, and yet it never seems to add up to the larger than life Supermom we imagine we should be. Perhaps it’s that we compare our worst to other people’s best, or that we promised ourselves we would be different than our mothers (ha!), or maybe we just feel the enormous amount of responsibility for molding these little beings. It is a big job, worthy of respect and hard work. But if you’ve ever been less than admirable, or your children have, it doesn’t make you a failure as a mother.
You are a good mom, whether you believe it or not.
If you’ve ever stayed up all night with a crying baby, and managed to be showered, fully dressed and chipper the next day, great for you! If however, you were unkempt and irritable the next day (well, let’s face it, it was at least another week), and yet managed to keep said child fed and changed, you are still a good mom.
If you love being at home with your kids, and have your days all planned out, complete with age appropriate activities and lessons scheduled, great for you. But if you’ve ever wished that you could escape the house and the kids and have adult interaction at a paying job, you’re still a good mom.
If you bring your kids to daycare or the babysitter and work hard to pay the bills and feed your family, good for you. But if you’ve ever wished you could just be there for all the little things they do, or if you like your job and you’re grateful to have it, you’re still a good mom.
If you’ve ever held your tongue when you wanted to scream at your child, great for you. But if you’ve ever lost it and screamed at your child… and later had to apologize and really mean it, you’re still a good mom.
If you feed your child three well balanced meals a day (and they eat it!), good for you. But if you let them have cold cereal for dinner because you really don’t know what you’re going to make, and you know they won’t eat half of whatever it would have been anyway, you’re still a good mom.
If you read the suggested 20 minutes+ to your child every day, make sure their homework is done and volunteer at their school, great for you! But if you’re lucky to tell the same story at bedtime, or look in their backpack occasionally, you’re still a good mom.
If you’ve managed to keep all the good things your mom did and not repeat the things that weren’t, congratulations! But if you’ve found yourself saying the EXACT SAME THING your mother did because you now get that it’s just easier, you’re still a good mom.
If you were totally confident and open when having “the talk” with your children, good for you. But if you were freaked out at having to explain everything when you weren’t sure how to, and you weren’t quite ready to, you’re still a good mom.
If your kids still give you hugs and say, “Thank you,” and, “I love you, Mom”, wonderful! But if you’re lucky to get any acknowledgement at all, and get an angry, “I hate you” when you say no, you’re still a good mom.
If you’ve ever taught your children to be honest and trustworthy, and they were when it would have been easy not to be, that’s awesome. But if you’ve caught them in a lie (big or small) and then let them deal with the repercussions, you’re still a good mom.
The list could go on and on. We all have things that we would do better, given the chance, or the energy or the motivation. (They really should sell those last two in bottles.) The time is short though, and for better or worse, we are our children’s mothers.
Whether they’re perfectly clean with organized rooms, or grimy with all the everything strewn across the floor (and playing with the box).
Whether you’ve stayed up late waiting for your teenager to get home, or fell asleep trying.
Whether you’ve had a hard time letting them go, or could hardly wait for them to be in school, or out of the house, you are a good mom.
You are.
Because the thing we all really need most in life is love, and if nothing else, you can LOVE your children;
even when you don’t like them;
even when they’ve made a huge mess (literally or figuratively);
and even when it breaks your heart.
You are a good mom.
And don’t let anyone (including yourself) tell you otherwise.
Happy Mothers Day!
***
Mother’s Day can be a tricky thing.
It is a day to honor our mothers, to show them that we love them. All too often though, a card listing the best-mom-in-the-world attributes, or a well-meaning sermon can leave a mom feeling not so special; not the best, and well… guilty.
Guilt is a common feeling among mothers.
We do our best, and yet it never seems to add up to the larger than life Supermom we imagine we should be. Perhaps it’s that we compare our worst to other people’s best, or that we promised ourselves we would be different than our mothers (ha!), or maybe we just feel the enormous amount of responsibility for molding these little beings. It is a big job, worthy of respect and hard work. But if you’ve ever been less than admirable, or your children have, it doesn’t make you a failure as a mother.
You are a good mom, whether you believe it or not.
If you’ve ever stayed up all night with a crying baby, and managed to be showered, fully dressed and chipper the next day, great for you! If however, you were unkempt and irritable the next day (well, let’s face it, it was at least another week), and yet managed to keep said child fed and changed, you are still a good mom.
If you love being at home with your kids, and have your days all planned out, complete with age appropriate activities and lessons scheduled, great for you. But if you’ve ever wished that you could escape the house and the kids and have adult interaction at a paying job, you’re still a good mom.
If you bring your kids to daycare or the babysitter and work hard to pay the bills and feed your family, good for you. But if you’ve ever wished you could just be there for all the little things they do, or if you like your job and you’re grateful to have it, you’re still a good mom.
If you’ve ever held your tongue when you wanted to scream at your child, great for you. But if you’ve ever lost it and screamed at your child… and later had to apologize and really mean it, you’re still a good mom.
If you feed your child three well balanced meals a day (and they eat it!), good for you. But if you let them have cold cereal for dinner because you really don’t know what you’re going to make, and you know they won’t eat half of whatever it would have been anyway, you’re still a good mom.
If you read the suggested 20 minutes+ to your child every day, make sure their homework is done and volunteer at their school, great for you! But if you’re lucky to tell the same story at bedtime, or look in their backpack occasionally, you’re still a good mom.
If you’ve managed to keep all the good things your mom did and not repeat the things that weren’t, congratulations! But if you’ve found yourself saying the EXACT SAME THING your mother did because you now get that it’s just easier, you’re still a good mom.
If you were totally confident and open when having “the talk” with your children, good for you. But if you were freaked out at having to explain everything when you weren’t sure how to, and you weren’t quite ready to, you’re still a good mom.
If your kids still give you hugs and say, “Thank you,” and, “I love you, Mom”, wonderful! But if you’re lucky to get any acknowledgement at all, and get an angry, “I hate you” when you say no, you’re still a good mom.
If you’ve ever taught your children to be honest and trustworthy, and they were when it would have been easy not to be, that’s awesome. But if you’ve caught them in a lie (big or small) and then let them deal with the repercussions, you’re still a good mom.
The list could go on and on. We all have things that we would do better, given the chance, or the energy or the motivation. (They really should sell those last two in bottles.) The time is short though, and for better or worse, we are our children’s mothers.
Whether they’re perfectly clean with organized rooms, or grimy with all the everything strewn across the floor (and playing with the box).
Whether you’ve stayed up late waiting for your teenager to get home, or fell asleep trying.
Whether you’ve had a hard time letting them go, or could hardly wait for them to be in school, or out of the house, you are a good mom.
You are.
Because the thing we all really need most in life is love, and if nothing else, you can LOVE your children;
even when you don’t like them;
even when they’ve made a huge mess (literally or figuratively);
and even when it breaks your heart.
You are a good mom.
And don’t let anyone (including yourself) tell you otherwise.
Happy Mothers Day!
Remember how I told you how much I hate to weed? Yes, it's true. I hate to get my hands dirty at all. So as we have been working on our backyard, we decided to do raised flower beds, using the same technique as the square foot gardening.
It was The Doctor's idea to use rocks for the walls instead of wood. And would you like to know how much we paid for these big rocks? Rocks that cost .87 each at Lowe's? We paid NOTHING, except sweat and tears. They all came from our backyard as we tilled before putting down dirt and sod. Every. Single. Rock.
We put landscape fabric underneath, just like we did with the garden, and then used the rocks for walls and filled in with the dirt/peat moss/vermiculite mixture. We have some flowers, some plants, and some herbs.
I love how they turned out. Very natural looking. And watering? I water every day when I water the garden. It takes about 10 seconds on each flower bed. So simple!
This is the front of my house. I have daisies and iris's thanks to my next door neighbor, Melissa! And the rest we are filling in with wildflowers. My goal is to get so many flowers in there the weeds can't grow. I love how it is looking.
So it's all still a work in progress, but after 5 years of living here, I am starting to enjoy my yard!
It was The Doctor's idea to use rocks for the walls instead of wood. And would you like to know how much we paid for these big rocks? Rocks that cost .87 each at Lowe's? We paid NOTHING, except sweat and tears. They all came from our backyard as we tilled before putting down dirt and sod. Every. Single. Rock.
We put landscape fabric underneath, just like we did with the garden, and then used the rocks for walls and filled in with the dirt/peat moss/vermiculite mixture. We have some flowers, some plants, and some herbs.
I love how they turned out. Very natural looking. And watering? I water every day when I water the garden. It takes about 10 seconds on each flower bed. So simple!
This is the front of my house. I have daisies and iris's thanks to my next door neighbor, Melissa! And the rest we are filling in with wildflowers. My goal is to get so many flowers in there the weeds can't grow. I love how it is looking.
So it's all still a work in progress, but after 5 years of living here, I am starting to enjoy my yard!
I love, love, love square foot gardening. If you don't know what I am talking about, there is a whole web site dedicated to it. I hate to weed. Some people love to go out and dig in the dirt. Not me. Yuck! So square foot gardening is perfect because there are little to no weeds to worry about. And watering! It takes me 5 minutes to water this whole garden. Seriously! You put a cup of water on each plant each day. The soil (which is a mix of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite) holds the moisture in. I love it!
Let me take you on a tour of my garden.
This tree is a plum tree. And we think it's a flowering plum because it had beautiful blossoms, but there is no fruit growing! All our other fruit trees have fruit, but this one? Nada. Bummer! However, underneath the tulle are strawberries. Yummy, tart, delicious strawberries. They are so good! The tulle is to keep the birds from eating them. It was much cheaper (.97 a yard) than buying the netting from the garden center!
Just look at this beauty waiting to be picked! He didn't last long after I took this picture.
Here is another "plum" tree with cabbages underneath. I have really come to love cabbage over the last couple of years. I guess it is true that your tastes change as you get older. You can see one of our raised flower beds behind. That is another post!
This is one of our newest boxes this year. We planted black Krim tomatoes, purple Cherokee tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, and hot peppers in it. I know what you are thinking. I planted peppers? No, they are for The Teenager. He has discovered he loves hot and spicy!
Peach tree with more strawberries.
More strawberries. Yum!
Zucchini. I love zucchini. Cooked with butter and salt. I could live on that! All the chicken wire is to keep the neighborhood cats from digging in it. I hate cats. Sorry, Melissa!
Another peach tree and more strawberries!
Now the tomatoes. The Doctor bought the plants from the greenhouse at the high school where he teaches. They already had tomatoes on them! We planted 12. Then he came home with 6 more. Then we bought the black and purple ones. I now have 17 tomato plants! I love it!
More tomatoes.
And more tomatoes!
Spaghetti squash. I love using spaghetti squash instead of noodles. It is so tasty!
This is an apple tree with more strawberries!
This poor little box is struggling. We have carrots from last year that don't taste good, but we just haven't pulled them yet, Swiss chard, and more carrots growing.
Another apple tree with more strawberries.
So that is a total of 14 boxes. Some small, some bigger, all easy to take care of. If you scavenge for the wood, the most expensive part is the dirt. But it is so worth it for me! I actually enjoy watering my garden and looking for stray weeds because there are only going to be 2 or 3! And if you want to come over and take a look, please do! I love to show it off! I am not an expert, and we keep learning things about it. But it's fun and easy!
Oh, and all the space in between the boxes are going to be filled in with bark chips. We just haven't gotten to it yet! I had to let you know that! LOL
Let me take you on a tour of my garden.
This tree is a plum tree. And we think it's a flowering plum because it had beautiful blossoms, but there is no fruit growing! All our other fruit trees have fruit, but this one? Nada. Bummer! However, underneath the tulle are strawberries. Yummy, tart, delicious strawberries. They are so good! The tulle is to keep the birds from eating them. It was much cheaper (.97 a yard) than buying the netting from the garden center!
Just look at this beauty waiting to be picked! He didn't last long after I took this picture.
Here is another "plum" tree with cabbages underneath. I have really come to love cabbage over the last couple of years. I guess it is true that your tastes change as you get older. You can see one of our raised flower beds behind. That is another post!
This is one of our newest boxes this year. We planted black Krim tomatoes, purple Cherokee tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, and hot peppers in it. I know what you are thinking. I planted peppers? No, they are for The Teenager. He has discovered he loves hot and spicy!
Peach tree with more strawberries.
More strawberries. Yum!
Zucchini. I love zucchini. Cooked with butter and salt. I could live on that! All the chicken wire is to keep the neighborhood cats from digging in it. I hate cats. Sorry, Melissa!
Another peach tree and more strawberries!
Now the tomatoes. The Doctor bought the plants from the greenhouse at the high school where he teaches. They already had tomatoes on them! We planted 12. Then he came home with 6 more. Then we bought the black and purple ones. I now have 17 tomato plants! I love it!
More tomatoes.
And more tomatoes!
Spaghetti squash. I love using spaghetti squash instead of noodles. It is so tasty!
This is an apple tree with more strawberries!
This poor little box is struggling. We have carrots from last year that don't taste good, but we just haven't pulled them yet, Swiss chard, and more carrots growing.
Another apple tree with more strawberries.
So that is a total of 14 boxes. Some small, some bigger, all easy to take care of. If you scavenge for the wood, the most expensive part is the dirt. But it is so worth it for me! I actually enjoy watering my garden and looking for stray weeds because there are only going to be 2 or 3! And if you want to come over and take a look, please do! I love to show it off! I am not an expert, and we keep learning things about it. But it's fun and easy!
Oh, and all the space in between the boxes are going to be filled in with bark chips. We just haven't gotten to it yet! I had to let you know that! LOL
You MUST go read this blog post:
E Ticket!
It changed the way I view my entire life. Seriously.
Then come back and tell me what you thought. Have you ever looked at our journey in life like that? I hadn't...until now.
E Ticket!
It changed the way I view my entire life. Seriously.
Then come back and tell me what you thought. Have you ever looked at our journey in life like that? I hadn't...until now.
...it's been a week since I posted last. In the last week, I have had:
- work
- laundry
- dance dress rehearsal
- last days of school
- dance concerts on 2 nights
- movie
- working in the yard (pics to come...when I take them!)
- rain
- family in town
- dinner with good friends
- church
- family get-together
- dentist appointments for the whole family
- son getting job and consequently me taking him to and from becuase it is 5 miles away
- son starting drivers ed
- work
- Family Home Evening
- working in yard
- visiting teaching
- serving at the Bishop's Storehouse (I love doing that! Seriously!)
- laundry
- work
I love, love, love this commercial. When he says, "Isn't your sister lactose intolerant?" and the boys stifle their laughs, I just laugh out loud. My sister is lactose intolerant! Anyway, I needed a good laugh tonight.
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