Happiness

Dear Blog, I missed you yesterday! You may have not missed me- but I missed you! I was off supervising some students- aka substituting- but now I am back! I have noticed lately that my nest is quite empty during the day. I leave to take the kids to school at 7:30 am and Josh leaves right after that. At 7:35 am, I say good-bye to my bed headed children who are full of energy and excitement as they face a new day of elementary school- playing on the playground, learning about planets, phonics (yes, they teach that here), friends, lunch in the cafeteria, music/art/p.e./snack time and then on to a snack and homework at 3 pm. Between 8 am and 3 pm is my time. It is filled with cleaning up after breakfast and lunch making/walking the dog/hitting the gym sometimes!/washing soiled sheets/doing laundry/taking out the trash and recycling/grocery shopping/clothes shopping/an occasional substitute job/dr. appointments/scratching the dog/going online/blog writing/balancing the budget/paying bill...

It's Friday! What are you going to do this weekend? Tonight Josh are and I are going to a J. Reuben Clark Law Society Fireside at the Institute at ASU. He's going for some intellectual stimulation. I'm mostly going to get a break from the kids and be with him! Saturday I may sleep in a little until my hair looks like this! We're doing chores, the kids are going to Stake Softball and I'm going to our Stake Relief Society meeting and luncheon. Someone important is speaking-not sure who. We are also going to dinner at Josh's faculty director's home. They have 2 kids so it should be good! We've been watching Season 2 of Downton Abbey and loving it. Will Mary marry Matthew? Will he get hurt in the war? I can't wait! I love the setting, the music-everything. Our tv only gets 7 channels and they are not pbs nor Fox for American Idol. And now that Josh is bringing home a pay check, we added a few more bills (repairs on the house in Md, etc) and suddenly we ...

image from parenting.com and smitten kitten- mashed banana, chocolate chips between tortillas, dusted with powdered suger- yum!!! It's 10:41 am and I am sitting in a quiet house. The dryer is going, a load has already been folded, my favorite tv show watched, the dog is asleep by the sofa chair and I am on my own. It threatened to not be this way this morning. At 6 am my alarm went off and at 6:02 am the Gilbert Public Schools called with a sub assignment. I picked up the phone and hung it up right away. I subbed half a day yesterday and while yesterday I thoroughly welcomed the change and reason to get out of the house, this morning I didn't even want to know! I let the kids sleep in as much as they wanted since they have been being pills and I think it's lack of sleep that's causing it. Jonah and Elizabeth slept in until 7:11 am- which is 30 min late for them. I planned on being late to school but when the time came that we really would be late, I hurried them them in...

Can you believe it? I own 2 usb cords to my camera and cannot find either of them. Either they have fallen into the trash or a child has used them for their adventure! Luckily I have not taken a lot of pictures lately, but I have played around with my 50 mm lens- as inspired by Hilary- and I will share those one day- soon! Happy Chinese New Year! (yesterday). Our neighbors are from Hong Kong and they put up lots of red and gold decorations outside their house- pic. on my camera. Here's what's been going on lately: - My sister Amy had a beautiful baby boy in Japan on Saturday- one week early. We are all thrilled. Still waiting on a name and pics! -In December Josh and I went to an orientation meeting about the State's foster and adoption program. We had no job at the time, so we decided to wait. Friday we sent in a form that said we are interested in the program. The next step is taking 10 three-hour classes in addition to many other things. We haven't decided yet if t...

My Sister-in-law Hilary took this picture of Elizabeth- isn't it Gorgeous? The lighting is beautiful- as is Elizabeth! There is another baby boom going on and this time I feel strangely at peace. Maybe it's because I had morning sickness for a month recently and I remember too vividly how it felt. Maybe it's because I don't really want to be pregnant in the heat of the summer and think later would be better. But, most of all, I had a thought. A calming, quiet thought. It wasn't the right time for our baby to come to our family. It wasn't me. It wasn't something that I did or didn't do. And it's okay that we've had to wait such a long time . Because babies are worth waiting for. This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.

I ordered 2 of these charms for my miscarriages to go on a chain. I feel like writing a post on miscarriage. It seems like such a taboo topic, yet 1 in almost 4 pregnancies ends in miscarriage. Now that it's been 2 months since my last miscarriage (my 2nd one), I feel like I can write about it at a safe distance. I still feel upset that it happened, I still feel a little hurt, but I know that while the memory of it will always be there, the pain won't be as bad. Maybe people have a hard time talking about it because it is such a disappointing thing. You become attached to that baby the moment you see those 2 little lines on the pregnancy test (or the word pregnant ). There is someone growing inside of you and all you can think about is how to protect and nurture that little one. When you find out something has happened to him/her- something that you couldn't control and that baby is gone, you feel devastated. You realize that you really don't have control over everythin...

that is the signature of my Great-Grandfather. How neat, huh? Josh had MLK Jr. Day off so we headed to our local IKEA- 20 minutes away in Tempe. We had planned a hike but since it was drizzly it was canceled. I've been wanting to turn our guest room into a bedroom/craft room. There was a desk at IKEA which I love and I wanted to create a space where I can sew, blog, download pics, craft and do family history in semi-peace and quiet. Those of you who know me, know I love shopping and I love IKEA. As we dropped the kids off at Smaland, except Elizabeth who wanted to come with us, I beamed with anticipation. Josh was not as thrilled. That's ok. We found the desk, and a lamp, and 2 Christmas stars on sale (for my July 4th themed room), ate lunch (which was free since we spent over a certain amount) and headed home. A successful trip! Josh worked on his Christmas puzzle when we got home and I did some family history and found the record above. I love it! This is my blog. My name i...