Bad Wife

29 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

Apparently I'm a bad wife. Like I'm surprised! I wonder what sealed my fate? Is it talking on the phone? Using profanity? Squeezing the toothpaste at the top? Having spunk? Hmm . . . I wonder.

I love kiddie kandids!

I went to Kiddie Kandids over the weekend with the kids to get some updated pictures. It took 2 trips, but we finally got some winners! They always do SUCH a good job and they're having a sale till Aug 24th for anyone who's interested. I LOVE KIDDIE KANDIDS!!!

This last one is of Tysen when he was 3 months old. You'll notice that when Tysen was a baby he had a full head of hair - Audrey is bald, poor thing! He's almost 6 now and he's grown up SO much! Sometimes it makes me sad and I want him to stay little forever! But he's so much fun and gets bigger and smarter every day! But I miss him being a little guy - he's a person now, not just a baby. I'm getting so old!

Kids say the darndest things

Each night before bed, we read Tysen a story from the Church's series of scriptures for children - you know, the old school ones where its a big book and there are 6 pictures on a page with the outline of the story underneath. Tysen loves them! Anywho, we read him a story from the scripture books and then I tuck him in and let him read me a few pages from a book of his choice and then he reads to himself until he falls asleep. That's the long way to set up this story.

So the other night he decided for the book of his choice he would read his New Testament stories book (incidentally, not the church's version, its a cartoonish one from Deseret Book). And obviously, the first page was about Mary and Joseph travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem (as a side note, he sounded out both of those places by himself - I know, my kid is brilliant) to pay their taxes. Then he stopped and said, "Hey! That's what you do at work mom! You do taxes!" It was so adorable! And proof that once in a while he actually listens to us speaking, which is a good sign!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my fabulous father's birthday! I won't tell you how old he is out of respect for him. I'll just let your minds wander. I am so very grateful for both of my wonderful parents! They are so kind and generous. Dad, especially is always willing to offer advice, even when you didn't ask for it. But the advice is ALWAYS good! And both of my parents are brilliant! Hence, my impressive intellect (for those of you who don't know me, I'm extremely smart . . . and humble). I just wanted to say happy birthday Dad! I love you!

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam

After nearly a year in AZ, I've finally gotten a calling at Church. It was so nice to just be able to go to church each Sunday and not have to worry about preparing a lesson or keeping anyone entertained or what I was going to wear (who cares what you look like sitting in the back row of Relief Society). It was also nice not to have to worry about mid-week activities and what the kids or adults would enjoy doing while getting something spiritual out of it. However, those days are now gone. I have been asked to serve as the Sunbeam teacher in our ward. For those of you unfamiliar to the Church, this entails being responsible for the 3-4 year olds for 2 hours each Sunday. At least I still don't have to worry about what I'm going to wear, right? Part of the time they are in with a larger group of kids for sharing time (where they have a short lesson and talks by other little kids) and singing time (where they sing, obviously). The rest of the time I will have them alone in a small room to try and teach them a lesson. Yes, me and a groups of preschoolers in a room together. This can't be good. Let me also add, for those who may not know me well, that I'm not really a sensitive person or maternal in any way. I didn't have younger siblings to care for and I never babysat as a kid. I mean I have kids of my own, but other people's kids really aren't my thing (incidentally, some days my own aren't really my thing either). Please, please pray for me - I'm going to need all the help I can get!

America's Next Top Mormon!

Interesting article

http://www.newsweek.com/id/136340

Memory Tag . . .

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

PS: If you can't think of anything specific, put what your first impression was of me when we first met. And for those of you who check my blog but your spouses are the ones who actually know me/us, ask them for a memory.

Audrey's Room

So we finally bit the bullet and painted Audrey's room. It simply wouldn't be my house if it weren't a little over the top so you'll see a total of 3 shades of pink (feel free to insert a Steel Magnolia's reference here, although none of the colors were called blush or bashful). And we painted them in a plaid pattern using different sized lines and paint mixed with glaze & water to give the overlapped effect. The pictures don't even do it justice! It looks SO COOL!

This is Toby putting up one of the roughly 9 million lines of tape we used

Painting the vertical stripes

Painting the horizontal stripes















The finished product! Audrey loves it!

Mommy Tag

This is a tag about your first-born child. Apparently the other children gt lost in the shuffle. Ah, such is life!

1. Were you married at the time? Yes.

2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? Totally freaked out! Me? Have a baby? I was barely becoming accustomed to caring for myself and I'm supposed to care for another human? Thank goodness for Toby who was thrilled and has raised Tysen for me!

3. How old were you? 20 - I was a baby myself

4. How did you find out you were pregnant? Pregnancy test.

5. Who did you tell first? Toby, of course. Then I think my parents.

6. Did you want to find out the sex? Of course! So much planning to do and we were dirt-freaking-poor when we had him so I needed to be able to buy things along the way in the pregnancy.

7. Due date? November 3, 2002

8. Did you deliver early or late? Early by 5 days.

9. Did you have morning sickness? Morning sickness, afternoon sickness, evening sickness, middle of the night sickness - you name it.

10. What did you crave? Because of the aforementioned sickness, I didn't really crave much. I always wanted to eat Wendy's fries dipped in a Frosty but that's no different than normal. I did have weird smelling cravings. I'd rather DIE than eat a hotdog and I was a little obsessed with smelling corndogs. I'd drag Toby to the mall just so HE would order from Hot Dog on a Stick and I could smell his corndog between every bite - weird!

11. Who irritated you the most? I don't want to name names, but a certain HR manager that I used to work for in SLC - Anyone who worked with me at JWHM will know exactly who I'm talking about!

12. What was your first child's sex? Boy

13. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 30ish.

14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Just pregnancy induced hypertension - hence I was induced early.

15. Where did you give birth? Murray, UT at the old Cottonwood hospital which I think no longer exists.

16. How many hours were you in labor? 10

17. Who drove you to the hospital? Toby on the morning I was induced.

18. Who watched? Toby - and at the last minute I asked my mom to stay. I'd been thru a lot of medical crap when I was growing up and my mom had always been there with me for that so it felt right that she should be with me in the hospital for the baby too.

19. Was it natural or c-section? Natural-ish - I had an epidural, obviously!

20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Duh! I got my epidural about 20 minutes after I started on pitocin to start the labor - it was fabulous, I didn't feel a thing.

21. How much did your child weigh? 7 lbs, 5 oz

22. Did your child have any complications? He had the cord wrapped around his neck so every time I had a contraction his heart rate would drop - then he didn't want to come out and they came to get me for a c-section when he finally decided to join us in the world the easy way (is there really an easy way?)

23. What did you name him/her? Tysen

24. How old is your first born today? He will be 6 in October. It makes me feel old! He acts like he's much older and he's really smart for his age - and I'm not at all biased.

Now I tag anyone who has a kid who wants to do this!

Back from Utah . . part deux

So I want to let everyone know that it is COLD in Utah. I literally didn't feel my feet for the first 5 hours we were there! We were sleeping in my mom's basement which is about the temperature of liquid nitrogen (give or take) and it was really, really cold. The next night we moved to the upstairs bedroom where it was more comfortable to sleep and spent a lot of time in the sunroom at their house which tends to run about 10-15 degrees warmer than the rest of the house. The days were nice and comfy outside at around 90-95 the whole week. I am officially used to being in Arizona. I was actually glad to step outside at the airport in Phx and feel that warm wave of hot air rush over me. It was such a fun trip, but it's nice to be home, too. Bring on the late summer days of 115 or higher temps!

Back from Utah

So we got back from our fun-filled week in UT yeaterday morning. Me, being the emensely stupid person that I am, thought it would be a fabulous idea to fly out early in the morning on Monday so I could maximize my time in UT and also make it to work and be productive on Monday. YEAH RIGHT! We were SO exhausted that I went to work for about 3 hours and said, you know what? I can't even focus my eyeballs here! So I went home and slept all afternoon. I feel much better today, but still tired.

We had SO much fun while we were there! I can't speak for Toby (since we spent the entire vacation apart) but I was going every minute and I still didn't get to do all the things I wanted to and see all the people I wanted to while we were there! I was able to go back to Richards and Duckworth (my old accounting firm in Provo) and see their new digs at the brand new office. I went to lunch with April & Heidi after that (great to see you girls!). I went to Lagoon with April (thanks for blowing off work to play with me). I even won her a huge Care Bear - like I'm her boyfriend or something! It was called Oopsy Bear, which we're not really sure about - like Oops I crapped my pants? Not really sure about that one. Then I went back to Lagoon the next day with my mom, Tysen and my nephew, Brayden. The boys had SO much fun! I went shopping - more than once and found fun things.

And then, there was Day Girls'! Where to even begin! A fun-filled weekend with all the women from my dad's side of the family - to the tune of about 70 people! It was SO much fun! Imagine eating, shoppping, gossip, and lauging so hard you pee your pants multiple times! We played a game on Friday night after dinner with questions about the family's history and each table had to find the answer and go sit in a chair with points on it. Now, I consider myslef a fairly competitive person - and now I know where I got that trait. There were elbows thrown and trash talked - and I'm not even kidding someone was hoisted out of their high-point chair and thrown on the floor by somone half her size. It was hilar! My sister, Joanna, came from Indiana too and it was so good to see her! I hardly ever get to see her and spend time with her so that was nice. And my sister-in-law, Mary, came up for breakfast on Sunday so we were able to have all the girls from our immediate family there which was awesome. I didn't win the candy quilt in the raffle - dang it! I guess I didn't put it out to the universe with enough conviction (long inside story).

Then on Sunday we all went back to my parent's house and hung out - everyone in my whole family was there except my sister's hubby, Kris. Mom, Dad, Steve, Mary, Brayden, TK, Kian, Joanna, Alex, Toby, Me, Tysen & Audrey. It was really fun to just get to hang with everyone! We haven't done that in years, all of us kids together! Then we went to another mini reunion at Draper Park with all the same Day Girls, but we brought our families - as though the men are actually interested in socializing! Then we went to see my brother Steve's new house in Eagle Mountain and got to hang with him and Mary which was fun too! (Thanks for the gift, Mar!) Then I stayed up WAY too late on Sunday talking to my mom and woke up on Monday morning at 4 to catch our plane. THEN, after we get thru airport security we realize I forgot to pack Audrey's bottles for the flight. BAD NEWS! Luckily, Joanna was flying out just after us and gave us one of Alex's bottles for Audrey. Thank freaking goodness! I'll post pics another day once I dig my camera out of the luggage and download them. So much fun!