Happiness

The weather is gorgeous- think 72 degrees- the trees are blooming- right in front of my house- and it's St Patrick's Day! One of my favorite Holidays! When I flew to Spain 16 years ago (ah!) on my mission it was St Patricks's Day and my Grandpa and Grandma Hulihan showed up to the airport (when you could see someone off at their terminal) decked out in green hats and necklaces. Ever since then, it's had a special place in my heart.  Last night some women got together at Kneaders to celebrate a birthday. It was lots of fun and afterwards we went to local grocery store- along with quite a few others- to stock up on green, gold and rainbow treats the leprechauns could leave in the traps our little kids have made. Here, it as an assignment in third grade to build a trap. We've never done it before but Asher had his out that night- waiting by the front door.  This morning he found the trap sprung, candy inside but no leprechaun.  Josh had a video interview with BYU today...

  Elizabeth and Declan goofing off. I got to help out with Jonah (and Ethan) and ride the Front Runner- a train that runs from Provo, Utah to Ogden- up to Salt Lake City where the 5th Grade classes were doing a field trip at JA Biz Town at the Discovery Gateway museum. It was cold but pretty fun! Jonah and his classmate on the train. Waiting for Josh to finish his run. Josh running the 5K Rex Lee Run. It was cold (again) but fun. Soon I won't mention the cold- I'll just be used to it! Asher and his first day of indoor soccer. He loved it!! He got to be the goalie- his dream position- for most of the game and did a great job!  Jonah and Declan enjoying the sun. A scary balloon. Declan and I were matching- so we took a picture! And that's it for last week in pictures!

I've wanted to be a writer for about ten years now. After I had three kids under three years old and all that that entailed, I felt like I should write everything down, let people know what that was like. It seemed a good way to get everything out of my head and on to the paper. I would write short stories- the time when the twins emptied the eggs out of the carton in a trail across the floor while I showered, the time it took 2 hours to put them down for a twenty minute nap, the time Ethan broke his leg with a toddler fracture and I had to carry him while carrying the baby in a baby backpack. Ah, those were the days !  Yep, these were stories that needed to heard and felt. Yet, instead of writing a book, I wrote it down in this blog. I vented my frustration when the kids were tiny, I was silent in midst of my depression, I was chatty while I was hyper, subdued when we lost our two babies and exultant when we had Declan. This blog has seen it all and while I haven...

I  feel as though things I post on fb, if reposted here are redundant and mundane. Oh, well. Yesterday we had a solid snow storm. The kind that blows in in ten minutes and then blows fast and furriest snow flurries for the next four hours while covering the ground in a sheet of white instantly. I was supposed to go grocery shopping. It was my grocery shopping day- evry 7 or 6 or 8 days I head into town- town being Lehi- and spend more money than I care to admit at Walmart. If Winco was closer I would go there. Sams Club is great, but it also takes my money a little too happily. What's a Mom of 5 to do? Price compare? Coupon clip? Make snacks from scratch? Who knows! But, since it was the blizzard of 3/3/15, I stayed at home and made a Boston Cream cake out of the leftovers of Monday's eclairs (which were a big FAIL and I won't make again. Cream Puffs yes, eclairs- no). I let Declan eat some, even though he's not one yet and that's our tradition. Younger babies get s...

               Charlotte's 7th Birthday. Feb 24, 2015       Yesterday, we had a wonderful lesson in Church entitled Trust in the Lord. I was excited about it since that is always one thing I've wanted to focus on in my life. The teacher, a woman of my age with a daughter Elizabeth's age, spoke of how her husband is unemployed and how she has been trying to handle interview after interview rejection.     This hit quite home for me, especially since Josh is now unemployed (his project at ASU sadly ended). She spoke of trusting in Him, and of His plan for us.       This morning, during my scripture study, I wanted to work on that trust and I deviated from my normal Book of Moon study by opening the LDS library and clicking on  the October 2013 General Conference section. Elder Bednar's talk entitled The Windows of Heaven jumped out at me. As I read, I realized that this talk was speaking di...