Happiness

I signed up at the Y this morning. There was no sign up fee for the month of January and they will babysit all four of my kids for free, so I thought- why not? This morning I did a fit n trim class and actually touched dum bells longer than it takes me to move them from one room to another. It was all new and different, but having done work out videos off and on since I was pregnant with Elizabeth, I was able to keep up with the instructor pretty well. So, I probably won't be posting as much on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but yeah for me! Also, I was laying in bed last night, thinking of what my dreams in life are. I already have a wonderful husband and four kids, a house and a mortgage, what next? I've decided that my three main dreams in life are: 1. A healthy, happy handsome family (with six or seven kids). 2. A beautiful home (not just cute. Not just comfy, beautiful). 3. A mazda miata (a cute sports car). I'm working on the first two. Once...

One thing I don't like about living in a new town, is that I don't know exactly when each store/ library opens. This morning we set out for a new place: the Germantown library. I figured that it opened at 10 am, just like the one in Gaithersburg. I parked the car on the street, unloaded four kids, plus a bunch of books and a stroller and headed to the front door. It was locked. It was cold and windy. I looked at my watch. Five to 10. Ok. I said, let's wait for five minutes until it opens I told the kids. We huddled in a corner to keep warm and I told them a story about three little kids and a wolf. At 10:00 we checked. It was still closed. We waited five minutes and then took off downtown. All the stores didn't open until 11, since they were ice cream and hamburger places and it was extremely cold and windy. Elizabeth had been there before with Josh, so she convinced me to go around the back and try a different door. (That's not the right door, Mommy! Aaah!). It was...

There are three things, among many, that I love: Target, Dwell Home Decorating Ideas, and babies. Combine all three in one and you get the DwellStudio line that just started at Target on Sunday. Can I just say- it's gorgeous! I love, love, love it! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

Last night, our beloved President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and Prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley died in his apartment, with loved ones at his bedside. At the age of 97, he was ready to go, but this morning's news has brought me sadness. When such a beautiful soul departs this earth, it is with grief and pain that we mourn it's passing. President Hinckley, I will always remember the day I saw you in the Marriot Center at BYU. As you entered the auditorium, a hush fell and we all rose to our feet and sang the beautiful words of "We thank thee, oh God, for a Prophet." I felt and knew in my heart that you were truly the Prophet of God. We will love and miss you, always, President Hinckley. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you, President Thomas S. Monson, who will soon take President Hinckley's place. May the Lord strengthen and uplift you. This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

I'm thinking of making a business card for myself, considering that I am in the most importance business on the planet- that of raising children! This is what it would say: Megan Abbott Mother....at play 111-111-1111 joshmeganabbott@hotmail.com pinkpanda2.blogspot.com What else should I add? This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

The last time I saw my counselor she gave me a homework assignment. It was to write down all of the roles that I hold currently. I came up with a list of 58 roles, so far. Here they are: 1. Nurturer 2. Teacher 3. Leader 4. Friend 5. Wife 6. Mother 7. Disciple 8. Sister 9. Piano Player 10. Visiting Teacher 11. Woman 12. Giver of service 13. Writer 14. Poet 15. Scrapper 16. Granddaughter 17. Latter-Day Saint 18. Temple Attendee 19. Shopping diva 20. Housekeeper 21. Cook 22. Secretary 23. Chauffer 24. Example 25. Chocolate Affecianado 26. Home Decorater 27. Party Planner 28. Menu Planner 29. Financial Budgeter 30. Bill Payer 31. Babysitter 32. Caregiver 33. Nurse 34. Blogger 35. Researcher of Cancer 37. Magazine Subscriber 38. Internet Surfer 39. Television Viewer 40. Music Listener 41. Counseling Patient 42. Gas consumer 43. Almost everything consumer 44. Non-smoker 45. Lover of tiny animals 46. Mazda Miata affecionado 47. Return Missionary 48. High School Graduate 49. Bi-lingual woman 5...

Have you ever been thrust out of a warm bed with a half awake husband next to you, to go comfort a crying child? This was how our morning began. Jonah had found some slippers (which used to be Ethan's) and claimed them as his yesterday. I let Jonah have them. Ethan wanted them back. Thus an early morning brawl was brewing. Now all is calm. Or at least, calmer than before. I have turned my electric blanket off, as a result of finding that it may increase my body temperatures too high at night and have discovered a new thing: Josh! He is warm, he is comfy. Who needs an electric blanket when you have a Josh? I may go donate mine to Good Will. Or course, Josh may prefer that I use my electric blanket- for some nights at least. This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

Bathroom Craziness. Three weeks ago Josh and I stripped the wallpaper of our downstairs bath. Four full days of work and we are still not done. Day 1: We stripped the wallpaper Day 2: We removed the wallpaper glue Day 3: We spackled the holes left by removing some of the wallpaper Day 4: We sanded and cleaned the walls off. Still to be done: Painting! Who knew it would take almost a full week of work to re-do one bathroom! We will now just be painting for the rest of the year! Removing wallpaper is just too much work! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

About a month and a half ago, I cut the boys off from all diapers and pull-ups. This resulted in screaming and kicking and yelling. A basic power-struggle. After four days I decided to call it quits. Since then, I dropped the issue completely for about three weeks and have been gradually re-introducing the potty subject. I started out by putting out the potty seat again and letting them have access to the underwear. They would play with the underwear and make messes with them, so I promptly put them back away. Then, I set up a chart for Ethan and told him that he gets stickers each time he goes potty. He has about four or five stickers on the chart right now. This morning I was getting ready and I heard and enthusiastic yell "Mommy! I put my poops in the potty!" Ahh, what glorious words! Instead of "I'm poopy, Mom." with a sad face, it was "I did it! Just like Elizabeth does!" Hooray! for Ethan! A potty success! The next open weekend that I have, which...

It's 7:45 pm and I'm just now getting to my post. It's been one crazy day. Let me just say that Asher is now a rip-roaring eighteen month old boy. He knows when I'm headed for the shower, and chases in after me- peeking his head in the shower and getting sprayed. Luckily, I had taken a bath- and cut and dyed my hair- the night before, so I only needed to rinse off quickly and get out. Then, we were headed out the door for Asher's 18 month Dr. appt. I took all the kids with me. Big mistake! Elizabeth was so nervous for Asher's shot that she kept covering her ears and talking a lot. The boys kept asking "are we done yet?" No more Dr. visits with the whole bunch! Then, to top it off, Asher had stranger anxiety and they kept calling him Joseph, after numerous attempts to say his name is Asher, and he cried whenever they tried to do anything to him. The shots were a shock to his poor system. We got home, had a quick lunch, watched Reading Rainbow- where A...

Right now it is snowing. I do not like the snow. Ok. Ok. At first, it was magical. Wow, there are soft, white flakes falling from the sky. It is like Heavenly Father's way of making our world beautiful for us. So then, why does it make me grumpy? It's because I hate being cold! I hate it! And snow means cold. I want to just turn my electric blanket on HIGH, crawl in bed with a good book and not come out until the Spring! What's worse is that we made a trip to Target this morning to buy sweatshirts for the kids. All I found were flip flops, swimsuits and goggles. In January! No sweatshirts to be found! Now I know what to buy in December next year, when I saw them on sale! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

Two years ago, we were living in Eastgate Townhomes, in South Provo. Elizabeth was three, the boys were one and Asher was a little bump in my belly. Here, Elizabeth is playing Candyland with Josh. It's funny that she still loves that game. She's playing right now. Right now, we are living in Montgomery County, Maryland, in an older, but new to us home and she is playing an older and slightly more used Candy Land Game in our retro carpeted basement downstairs. She is five, still not in school, the boys are three, still in diapers, and Asher is talking up a storm lately. This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

This morning I am taking my crew to a class at Black Hill Regional Park. It's a fifteen minute drive from here. The class is called "Babes in the Park" for 3-6 year olds. Perfect, since I have three kids of such age. They are going to do a craft, some songs and a hike at the Visitor Center there. Hopefully we won't all freeze! I talked to Josh last night and he said to put the kids in t-shirts, then sweatshirts and then coats. What did I realize? Everyone but Asher only owns Sunday sweaters! Where are their sweats? You, know those comfy, baggy sweatshirts!I never bought any this year! I am such a California girl! Hopefully it will be fun, despite the fact it is January 15th today! Happy Pay day, today too! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

I'm not planning a vacation any time soon, but when I went on a mini vacation last November, I wrote up a list of things I needed to pack, and I want to put it on my blog, so I will be able to find it later. If not, it will end up lost, in a myriad of papers. My vacation packing list: 1. Warm pajamas/ summer pajamas- whatever the season. 2. Socks 3. Notebook 4. Toiletries plus: -bath, body scrub -lotion -bath bubbles 5. Travel slippers 6. Outfit for going out 7. Garments and other outfits needed 8. Laptop 8. Red Journal and various journals I want to peruse. 9. Cooler w/ milk, cereal and bowl and spoon- if needed 10. Movie and snacks 11. Cell Phone 12. Curling Iron 13. Scriptures 14. Pass along cards/B.O.M. 15. New Notebook and Pilot G2 pen. There ya go. This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

The "In-between" stage of our downstairs bathroom. Josh working on taking the paper down. We started using a vinegar solution, but ended up with the whole family tearing off big strips. The boys loved it! Construction! The "Before" picture of our downstairs bathroom I want to start blogging every day. This past weekend Josh worked on our downstairs bathroom. Last Saturday, we stripped and removed the ugly, ugly wallpaper. We could tell it was original because it was so old and dry that it came off in huge, crackling, strips. The easy part was removing the wallpaper. The hard part has been to remove the wallpaper glue that is still left on the wall. We've tried to repaint over wallpaper glue before, on our basement door, and it came out looking terrible. So, yesterday, Josh spent most of the day removing the old glue with vinegar, and then making a trip to Home Depot for some stronger stuff to take it off with. Who knew that this project would be a month long pro...

Josh knew that the ball was in his court. I had come over to his apartment, alone, and talked to him. He knew that I would not make another move, without him showing at least some interest. So, he made the decision to come and ask me on a date. A problem occurred when another guy was in my apartment- Dan- playing scrabble with me, when he wanted to ask me out. I saw him walk by the window. "Yay! Please come in! Please!" He kept walking. Then he turned around and came in. Dan and I continued playing and we talked a while. Josh brought up the date subject nonchalantly "So...a bunch of us are going to see a comedy troupe tommorrow night. Do you guys want to come?" I looked at Dan and said "Yes! That would be great!" or something to that effect (Dan and I were at the seeing other people stage of our relationship.) Dan said "Nope. That's okay." He knew I was interested. Then, Dan and Josh started talking and both got up and left and went to Dan...

I love Valentines day. I just got my February 2008 edition of Martha Stewart Living in the mail and I am so excited I can't even blog today. Sorry blog readers! The red glossy cover depicts roses formed in a heart shape. Who could resist opening these pages! This morning I called an obgyn that my friend reccomended, just to schedule a routine check up and the earliest appointment they had available is in April. April! and I thought that Utah was the busiest place on earth for having babies. Turns out that Montgomery County alone, with our population of 900,000 +, beats out all of Utah. Go figure! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

I've recently re-discovered the show "A Baby Story" on the TLC channel. Before Elizabeth was born, and I was done teaching, I would watch the show daily- switching the channel when the Mother was in pain and then turning it back to the good part where the baby was there and the Mom was happy. I would get scared after watching the show though. With the boys I never watched it- we didn't get cable then and with Asher I was always taking a nap- tired from three toddlers- when it was on. Now, I turn the tv on for Elizabeth at 2 pm- right when it is on and I am fascinated! Elizabeth has decided that it's a scary show- I didn't let her watch the pain or birth part, but she still probably saw a little bit- so I can't watch it anymore. Larissa told me that it's on YouTube and now I know what I'll be watching from now on! Let's see if I can post a video on here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xecoeXl31wM. That's all I can do. There you go. This is...

Elizabeth, wearing a New Year's Hat, ready to party! The boys on their first day as Sunbeams! Not Asher- yet! Party Hats for the New Year. Welcome 2008! I haven't posted a lot of pictures lately, so here are the top three pictures from January so far. Also, I have our ward's newsletter in front of me and the two babies born in our ward most recently were named Barrick Scott and Lucy Anne . What do you guys think of those names? My current names are Abigail Rose for a girl and Lucas Hulihan for a boy. So, there you go. My name is Megan Abbott. This is my blog.

Can I just say that the family I married into is amazing! I am often getting e-mails that speak of doctrine and new ideas on how we, as a family, can improve our lives! I am excited for a new year. A new time where we can focus on getting and receiving the Spirit. I look forward to going to the temple often, the place where I have received the most inspiration in my life. Go Abbotts! This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

If you are praying on the side of your bed and feel a distinct warmth in your chest, you may want to check to see if you have put your electric blanket on high before you make any important decisions. If your back pocket all of a sudden sticks to the side of your van when you bend over to pick up a toy, you have probably put a magnet (that you picked up off the floor or taken out of a baby's mouth) and put it in there and then have totally forgotten about it. This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

On September 23rd of last year Josh and I spoke in Church on the subject of personal spritual learning and growth. As I was going through my files yesterday, cleaning and purging, I found this talk and realized that I have learned more about this topic. So, I have decided to write a second part to my talk, entitling it "Spiritual Learning and Growth, Part II" (a creative title, I know) and since I can't access my word documents for some reason, I am putting in on my blog. You never know what you get when you read my blog! Good morning, brothers and sisters. I spoke to you three months ago on the subect of learning, spiritual learning and would like now to expand upon the principles I mentioned. I spoke of the importance of studying the scriptures and of applying lessons learned at Church in our own lives, giving the example of telling my kids I love them several times a day and then experiences a change in our daily lives. Now I would like to speak on the importa...

For each one of my pregnancies, I told Josh that I was expecting in the same way, but with a twist each different time. I had received a statue of a Mother and a baby one year- ok our first year- for Christmas and we decided together that if we found out we were expecting, I would take the statue out of storage and place it where he could see it. For Elizabeth: I found out on a Monday. I placed the statue on our coffee table, sat on our futon (that cost $35 from D.I. and that we still own) and waited for him to come home. He came in and said "No!!!....Way!!!" I'm glad that it wasn't just a no! For the boys: I placed the statue in my diaper bag- Elizabeth had just turned one- and we met Josh for lunch at the Creamery at BYU. I told him to look in my bag for something and he found the statue. Surprise! It should have had twins on it, though! For Asher: I wanted to do something different, but still unique. I took a picture of the statue with my digital camera and sent it...

Our Love Story, Part II: Later that night Later that night my buddy and I were going over the ward directory, aka meat market, that contained a picture of each person in the ward. I would tell my friend whether I was interested in the person, or not, and why. I don't even remember what I said about Josh. His picture was kind of fuzzy. Finishing this activity, and looking for some other fun, we headed over to apt. 11, where some friends were playing cards. Little did I know that it was Josh's apartment! I was watching the card game, not playing- I don't know why- and in came Josh- laughing and joking. I was surprised and happy and eagerly jumped into the joking. He made fun of my red hair. What red hair I said? This, the hair I tried to dye blonde, but chickened out at the last minute, making it a bronze-yellow dirt like hue. He quickly found out I had served a mission in Spain and that dispelled his fear of "red-heads". We talked for a while- him standing, me sitt...

This post is written within the first week of the new year, so I count it as a new year post! Here are my goals for the next six months, a year is too long for me to conceptualize: 1. Eat 3 fruits/veggies a day (for those of you one who know me, this is a big accomplishment! Does blackberry yogurt and strawberry jam count for today?) 2. Read a book a month. (I will write a blog and synopsis of each one, making six by the end of June.) 3. Ask open ended questions. (For those of you who also know me, I have a hard time conversing with others. Sometimes.) 4. Write down the impressions I get as I study the Book of Mormon this year. 5. Write in my gratitude journal daily (making 187 entries by June) This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

This is what some of my morning was like today, in Deep Thought format: "I really don't think it's a good idea to go to a do-it-yourself car wash in January when the temperature is below freezing, because then you will see icicles hanging off of the car wash hose, the water and soap that you didn't get finished rinsing off because you were so cold will turn into icicles as you drive away, and overall it would just be a plain stinky experience." This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.