decisions, decisions

Last Saturday, Zeke and I started watching a movie in bed around 10:30pm. FYI, I am NOT a late night person... I just cannot stay awake. So sometime around? I don't know? midnight... I was SCARED awake by this horrible snorting/choking pig noise. Then, I suddenly realized I was choking a little and gasping for air and.... then, I realized it was ME! I had fallen asleep sitting up and snored/snorted so loud I woke myself up. How attractive.

We've been married for 15 years now, and I am still so embarrassed. I think Zeke was embarrassed for me too, because he didn't really laugh too much (on the outside anyway). I was really confused and groggy and said, "*snort* Wha! What's going on?! *gasp*" and he just said, "Uh, honey, I think you were snoring..." Nice. Anyhoo...

Saturday is Zeke's graduation... YAY!
Saturday is also Zeke's big party... it will be fun, right?
So far 168 people have said they are coming. 168 people! In my backyard.
Or if the weather doesn't hold, we'll be at the church, but still.
I've got a LOT of work to do.

So this is what I should be doing:

• mowing the lawn
• cleaning out the garden
• cleaning my house
• grocery shopping
• fixing the hole and scratches in the paint on our wall from trying to put our couch in the basement
  
• getting lights, music, and decorations for the party
• preparing my Primary lesson for Sunday... yeah.
• taking down the trampoline -- 168 people? that's just a law suit waiting to happen.
  
• etc
• etc
• etc (i.e. WORK)
  

This is what I've been doing:

• blogging
• making the "perfect station" on Pandora. Today? The Hives, Jet, Jimmy Eat World, The Script, Jack Johnson...
• playing "Just Dance" with Beck... our favorite song? "Lump" from Presidents of the U.S.A.
• stressing about my aquarium... I lost two fish over the weekend and I took a water sample in to PetSmart and the ammonia levels are really high. Not sure why. I love my fishies.
• sewing funky pillows for my bed, oh the possibilities...
• reading "The Help", so far I like it. It's a great distraction from the party. At this point anything is. I'm excited, but I would rather just have it be here than stress about it.
• stressing about my aquarium... I've changed the water twice since Saturday. :(
• redesigning an old dress of mine after seeing this. I hope it turns out... Here's the before:

I sound like a 10 year old... and you know, this week, I kinda feel like one.

*GOOD NEWS!!* Remember Kaia's weird little growth/mole thing on her tummy? I took her in yesterday and it's nothing serious at all. Some weird phenomenon where the lymph nodes and blood vessels group together on the surface of the skin. Official name? lymphangeoma circum scriptum (spell check did NOT like that one!) Nick name? Frog Spawn! (I am NOT kidding!) When Kaia heard that she yells, "Wicked!!! I'm going to tell Hannah that I have frog spawn on my tummy!" :) Oh, I am so happy it makes me cry. We are blessed.

Oh, and one more VERY important thing... it's Book Club on Thursday! How does it always seem to come just in time?

Professor Babe and Procrastination Queen

Did I tell you that Zeke is teaching a class at the University this semester? I am SO proud of him and excited for him. The class is called: "Real Time Systems" and it has something to do with robotics and computers and that's about all I know about that... something something UML... sorry, honey, my mind just can't quite grasp it.

He's really great in front of people. (I'm not) He's one of those people that actually feels comfortable and even enjoys speaking in public. He's very articulate and funny and interesting to listen to. But I am his wife...

Anyway, he's always wanted to do this and a great friend of his asked him to teach the class with him. Good Luck, Babe! Can I call you Professor Babe? And Professor Babe gets paid too :)

I love this picture of him with Caspian and Pippin. He tries to pretend he doesn't like the cats, but he DOES. And the shirt. He loves this shirt! Oh boy, last weekend my Mom and I made the mistake of asking him what it means... yeah, our eyes glazed over in no time. Sorry, babe.

Here's Zeke playing Guitar Hero during Christmas:

And then there's me: I've had a sinus/ear infection thingy all week and I haven't felt very good. When I have been feeling good, I haven't been cleaning... check out my kitchen :( Blah...
Some days, I feel like a little kid playing house... all I want to do is play with the cats and my kids and bake cookies and make stuff. When I have been feeling good, I've been working on my Primary lesson. I love my little CTR 5 class! And I've been playing "Just Dance" on the Wii. It is so much fun! Good times :)

My brother, Jody, gave me a can of Green Curry sauce when we visited him on Monday. How cute is that? We both LOVE Thai food and he made sure I took it home with me. I can't wait to use it. Thanks, Jode, I love ya! Growing up, I remember watching Jody cook and tasting many of his creations. We always had a lot of fun together.

One of my most favorite quotes of all time is: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." ~ Albert Einstein

Really if you think about it... this quote is very profound. It applies to almost anything and has seriously changed my life. I've been feeling kinda bummed out this week and I know being sick doesn't help, but I thought about this quote and thought about something I should change.

Since school started in August, I've been getting up at 6:30 to get the kids ready and Beck wakes up too and I pretty much hit the ground running. I say a quick prayer while I'm in the shower trying to keep Beck from poking me with his toys and I try my best to get through the day. At night after the kids are in bed, I curl up in my bed with Zeke and attempt to read my scriptures for at least 10 minutes. Well, once my body is holding still and the house is quiet... I fall asleep in 2.7 minutes... so yeah, I'm not really getting enough personal scripture study.

By some miracle, Beck slept until 8:15 this morning. Today as soon as I got the kids off to school, I went upstairs in my room, knelt down and said my prayers and read my scriptures until Beck woke up. It was wonderful. I needed it.

I changed how I was doing things and I know I'll get a different result. I'm going to try my best to start the day off with my scriptures.

2 Nephi 32: 3-4 "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock; wherefore, ye are not brought into the light, but must perish in the dark."

Busy Bee

Here's some pictures of our trip to Bear Lake last weekend. The water's really high this year, not much beach area. But we had a great time anyway.


Zoe and Beck are in our little cubby shelf thing by the garage... the kids love to climb up there.


And also a picture of Zoe's Halloween dress she's been begging me to make ever since we found the fabric in my storage box a few months ago (it's not going to be that long) She's going to be the Blue Fairy from "Pinocchio". (The fabric we already have is blue, so that's what I suggested she could be, aren't I sneaky?)

Well, I don't know what's up with me, I've just been busy busy lately... I've got this sewing bug and even a yard work bug and cleaning bug (Man, I must be sick, because this is NOT like me!) Maybe I'm finally recovering some energy after being released in May from almost 4 years in Young Women's. If I were pregnant (NO!!!! I'm NOT!) -- I would call all of this energy "nesting" I suppose. It feels good to get a bunch of little things done that I've been neglecting forever and in some cases I've even forgot about. I found two cute shirts of mine in my sewing basket today that have needed mending for so long... I forgot I had them! Wow!! It feels like I have new clothes.

However, I just haven't really been in the mood to blog. Too many thoughts and feelings I don't really want to share with anyone. Too many crazy things going on. I want to be positive and share good things. I've always been a bit of a non-conformist type person. Not quite sure if that's the right word, but I just kinda do my own thing. Every once in awhile I'll meet someone who doesn't mind that about me, but usually people just can't handle it. Well, I'm pretty sure I'm a complete nutter, but what the hey, I have an awesome husband and 4 healthy children to love me anyway. Thanks to my friend, Jill, for the quote: "There is pleasure, sure, in being mad, which none but madmen know!" -John Dryden

We are looking forward to Zeke finishing school in December! We're still hoping and praying for enough money to pay his tuition. We don't have all of it yet, but I have a very good feeling whenever I think or pray about it. I know something will happen to help us get him through school. I'm so thankful for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. It is so wonderful not to be stressed about it.

I also wanted to share another great reminder of the power of prayer and faith. Well, just to set up the story, Zeke gets paid on the 5th and the 20th of every month. Friday was the 16th and well, we're out of money (no biggie, it's just the way it is right now). I've got plenty of food in the house, but I looked at some recipes and thought if I just had some egg noodles, carrots, and mozzarella cheese, I could put together some nice meals until Tuesday. (not those things together necessarily) So, I'm a very straight forward person when it comes to prayer. I knelt down and asked Heavenly Father if I could come up with just enough money for those things I would be fine until payday. Later that day, I went to get the mail and guess what?! Yep, there in the mailbox was a $5 rebate check from a rebate I had sent in months ago and forgot about. Is it a coincidence that it arrived on Friday? I think not!! Jeffrey R. Holland said, "A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous." Thank YOU very much... I went to the store today and got exactly what I wanted. (and free candy for the kids from the bank! SCORE!!) I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.

I also like another quote from Mary Poppins, "Enough is as good as a feast." I am truly thankful for the desire we have had to follow the prophet and "live within our means". It has been a great blessing in our family. We are so happy for little things and we are so good at not spending money. Try it, it's harder than you think, but I promise you that the peace that comes with it is priceless!

I'm rambling... I should be going through my Primary lesson..... ok, that's why I've got all of this energy to do OTHER things... it's called PROCRASTINATION... now if that's not the best motivator to do anything but the thing you're supposed to be doing, I don't know what is :) Hope you're all having a FABULOUS summer!

How do you spell PROCRASTINATION?

Wow!! Today was SO productive... Beck actually took a nap and I cleaned out the garage... I mean really cleaned it all out! You'd think that was so great and amazing, but actually I'm just putting off preparing my talk for sacrament... oh man, Sunday is almost here. I'm sure I'll feel really productive tomorrow too... you know I've been thinking about repainting Beck's room for awhile now. I'm in TROUBLE!