So Glad!

Allow me a "Pollyanna Moment" please.

I've said this off and on, and I really mean it today:

 Things just can't get any better than this!

All my little chicks are home and safe and healthy and happy.  I'm not pregnant.  I'm even mostly fully functional.  The Handsome Prince is, well, handsome and princely.  His job is stable and he loves it.  We are in a beautiful home, lovely neighborhood and have amazing friends.  Our family support system is obscenely hugonguous.  What a blessing to be related to so many good people!



We have what we need and what we want.  Our water is clean and we have food.  The house and car are both temperature-controlled.

Unbelievable.  I'm so happy and content, it's scary.  (Though I think I'm getting a touch of the stomach flu.  Ugh.)

Our kids are learning and growing--the village is doing a fine job--they have awesome teachers and leaders.  There are just so many opportunities for them.



I LOVE this time of having everyone home: it is short, I know.  Next year they will start leaving the nest, and I'll lose one about every two years.



How amazing that we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ, such easy access to the scriptures, the words of a prophet, the freedom to believe.  I know that God loves me!  How cool that I can read, and see, and hear!



My preschool class is darling!  My friends are delightful and dependable.  My kids are active and interesting and challenging and rewarding.  Their friends are good kids and hang out here a lot.  I am never bored, or even alone.  I have a little person who still snuggles, a big person who is applying for college and everything in-between. I wake up every morning to the sound of a crazy man singing silly songs, making breakfast and doing dishes.

It just doesn't get any better than this!

A Score

Almost 20 years ago, I made the best choice of my entire life.
I was 19 1/2 years old.  (The 1/2 was important--and shows that I was still a teen-ager.  Oye!  I've been married now longer than I've been single.)  We committed to eternity and solemnized that promise in a Temple of our Lord.














To celebrate, on Friday Handsome Prince and I went to the sweetest bed and breakfast inn.
Woodland Farmhouse Inn Bed and Breakfast in Kamas, UT.

    

Unbelievable!

First, to show what an amazing father he is, Friday morning he took Mr. Lamadingdong and Lil' Mama hiking.  They hiked to the top of Mt. Timpanogos.  It was a 14 mile round-trip hike, taking them to an altitude of  11,749 feet.
They made it to the top, and signed their names in the register.  They began at 6:45 a.m. and returned home around 7:30 p.m.

Unfortunately, it took them longer than they thought to get back, and the Prince missed our anniversary dinner at Tucanos.  Luckily, my brother and his wife (who stayed with our kids while we were gone) were able to come, and we had a lovely dinner, with me as third wheel.  Tucanos allowed me to use the B1G1F coupons that I had to get a "Boxed Lunch" for the Prince, which he ate as we drove to the B&B.
  
Dinner was spectacular, the B&B was lovely, and the company was awesome!

Top 10 Things About the Handsome Prince:

10.  He is difficult to offend and quick to forgive.
9.  He sacrifices constantly, serves and is selfless.
8.  He works hard and is smart and strong.
7.  He has integrity.
6.  He's fun to be with and funny.
5.  He smells good.  And he's good-looking.  AND he's got soccer-legs.  ;)
4.  I wake up in the night sometimes to find him holding my hand (or rubbing my back if I'm pregnant--which I'm NOT.)
3.  He goes out of his way to do something kind for me each day.  (This was a promise he made when we were engaged, and he hasn't missed a single day--but, it's my job to look for it.)
2.  He's an amazing father and a fun dad.
*Most Important:
1.  My eternal companion loves the Lord above all, aligns his will to God's will and is perfectly obedient regardless of the consequences.

Best Marriage Tip:
I think I read this in the Reader's Digest about 20 years ago, and still think about it (uh, and use it) almost every day.  When an elderly couple was asked on their anniversary for the secret of their marriage longevity, the wife responded that when they were first married, she decided that she would give her husband a "get out of trouble/free forgiveness" pass for 3 things.  Then, every time he did something irritating, she would just mutter under her breath, "Oooh, you're so lucky that THIS is one that I'm forgiving."

Worst Marriage Tip:
"Never let the sun go down on your anger."  Puhleese.  The witch you see before you tonight will most likely become the darling you used to enjoy after she's had a good night's rest.  (The only trouble is that sometimes it is weeks, months or even years before she gets a good night's rest.  Until then, it just sucks to be you.  Still, it's not going to help to try to resolve anything late at night.)

Some Miscellaneous 20-Year Stats:
Moves we've made (including the one from the Hechtle's basement into the apartment):  8
Days of complete emotional stability (on my part):  13
Times he's forgiven me for stupid or selfish:  7, 582+
Full nights' uninterrupted sleep: 54
Moments of undiluted joy:  Too many to count
Craziest thing he ever said:  "Why do we always do this at night?"  (Spoken as we checked into Labor and Delivery.  He's lucky he's still alive.)
Craziest thing I've ever said:  "I'm just running in for one thing.  I'll be right back."  (Spoken as he dropped me off at Wal Mart, leaving him in a blazing parking lot with a van full of kids.  We're lucky that any of us are still here.)
Favorite Activity Together:  Laughing at the kids.
Him:  Morning person
Me:  Night owl
Times I've won at Scrabble: Two
Deceptions we revealed after marriage:
                 Him--He really doesn't like to dance.  Or show any PDA.
                 Me--I'm not an outdoor enthusiast.  And I really don't like kimchee.  (Unless I'm pregnant.)

My life was incomplete before him, and is infinitely better when he's there.  He's more than a handsome prince.

Every day marriage is hard, but I can't think of anything I'd rather work at.  I'm honored to know him, and still amazed that somehow I snookered him into marrying me (And that he is still here.)

The longer I know him, the more awed I am by his goodness.  The more I discover about him, the more I respect and admire him.

I've learned that whatever sacrifices that I have to make are worth it.  I know that when God makes a promise, He keeps it.  I know that when He asks me to do something, He'll make it possible.
I've learned that the Savior will bridge my gaps, comfort my sorrows, and forgive me over and over again.

I've learned that my husband can't and won't be my girlfriend.  I've learned that no one has to be perfect for things to be OK.  I've learned that I can survive without constant positive feedback.  And no one is going to insist that I take care of myself, but if I don't everyone will be miserable.  Every day, grown-ups do stuff that they don't want to do because they are responsible and love each other; and selfishness always has a consequence. Nagging and criticizing never inspire change or love.

I've learned that when two people have the Lord as their focus, regardless of who they are, those two can only move closer to each other as they each progress toward Him.   (But that doesn't mean that they won't want to strangle each other sometimes. )

MIGRAINE

It usually starts with stupid.

You know how you're trying to make connections, but you just can't, and you know that you're trying to say something, but you can't quite say it, or you aren't sure what it was in the first place...and someone looks at you funny.




That's my migraine aura--which is confusing in and of itself, because it is also just a normal part of who I am, so it doesn't necessarily mean I'm about to get a splitting headache--sometimes it just means I'm my crazy-loopy self.


As the stupid progresses, sometimes my eyes join in the game, and start sparkin'.  I can see the little pulsing blood vessels or whatever they are dancing around, and a fun little flickering light show.  This is about the time that I start stepping on little girls, who are everywhere.  They sense a disturbance in the force, and come to me for random conversation and chaos.

The sharp pain in the left side of my head begins to grow.  I'm pretty sure my eyeball is about to pop out.

(If I'm not too far into stupid at this point, I take an Imitrex; some vascular pill that usually stops the migraine in a few hours.   Then I try to figure out what to take for the pain; usually a combination of Advil or Aleve and Extra Strength Tylenol.  Sometimes I forget this important step and lay down somewhere.  Then I lay there until I can talk myself into getting up to take the stuff.  The Imitrex helps a lot, and where I used to know that I was down for at least 24 hours, now I know I'll be mostly functional in about 2.)  I drink a ton of water, Gatoraid and sometimes a Dr. Pepper.

It's unbearably bright and yet dark and foggy at this point, and I start to panic a little as I realize that I can't do whatever it was on my list that seemed pretty important earlier in the day.  Also, a short snippet of annoying song usually repeats itself in my head over and over, or a word.  Pretorius.  Pretorious.  Pretorious.  Pretorious.  Where's the Caboose?  Pretorious.

People are climbing on me. Putting their little hands down my shirt, and trying to communicate with me, crawling over me again and again, or asking me questions that I can't understand, random, annoying questions that are difficult to process pretorious and need more than just a yes or no just really to hijack my brain and make me crazier than I already am pretorious.  Pretorious, pretorious, pretorious...They flick the light on and off and if there is a flashlight handy, they start waving light around.  Swirling, overstimulating pretorious.

I start to feel irritable.  What the heck does pretorious mean?  I need to look that up when I feel better.  Someone comes in and flips on the light.  I panic--Where's the Caboose?  (She's laying beside me, asleep.)  OK.  Pretorious.
Little K, "Hey, Mom!  Dow sawt not kink!"
Huh?
"Dow sawt not kink!  Like we learned in church."
Huh?  Are you trying to say, "Thou shalt not...something?"
"Yeah.  You know, KINK like kink the hose.  Heavenly Father doesn't want us to do that."
Uh, OK.

Womanizer, woman-womanizer, you're a womanizerOh, womanizer, oh, you’re a womanizer babyYou, you-you are, you, you-you are
(Noooooo!!! Not Brittany Speares!  Anything but...)
Womanizer, woman-womanizer, you're a nizerwoman OH!
Wait...
Womanizer, woman-nizerwoman, you're a womanizer
Wait...
Nizernizernizernizernizernizernizernizernizernizernizernizernizer.

The world spins and spins and if I'm not laying down at this point then I'm hunched over the throne.

The left side of my head!  Ow, ow, owwie, ow, ow!

Then, eventually I'm able to accomplish a dark room, a wet washcloth, and quiet.  As the headache fades, I am left with my old friend, exhaustion.

Also, sometimes the Imitrex wipes out the headache, but not the fuzzy brain.  Better than nothing, I guess.  Makes me more interesting as a mother, probably.

Usually when I write about something, it makes it funny and bearable.  Not today, I guess.  I had 4 or 5 migraines last week.  The one last night was so severe that I finally took some narcotics to wipe it out (on top of the 2 Aleve, 2 Extra-Strength Tylenol and the Imitrex.  Took a long time to get on top of that one.)
No worries, though.  I feel great today.  Hopefully, last week was a fluke; for a long time I've just been having 3-4 a month.  That is a lot more do-able.

My goal for this week is to shampoo the upstairs carpets.  

In Stitches

These little girls are just killin' me today!

Little P woke up grouchy and declared that she wasn't going to school.  If it were only a few hours a day, like Kindergarten, then maybe; but this whole-day stuff in 1st grade is boring.  It took me until 10:45 to get her there.











As we were climbing out of the van, I noticed Caboose needed a diaper.  I said, "Whew!  You're wet.   Let's get you a diaper.  She grinned and said, "I a duck-butt!"

Then just a minute ago, Little K, just out of the blue, said thoughtfully, "Mom, when I get bigger and I'm ready to find a husband...I'm gonna need to take the black car to do it, OK?"

Dinner

OK.  That worked really well, to post dinner plans for last week.  I didn't actually follow it to the letter--we did the old stand-by of spaghetti and meatballs because I was too busy doing a preschool craft, but we didn't do fast food, so hooray!  (Except the planned Panda Express.)  The Cafe Rio pulled pork in the crock-pot was divine!  (I had to use Red Creme Soda, so it was a little sweet, but still to-drool-over good.  I added a little black pepper and Lawrys season salt at the end.)

Here's this week's plan.

Monday: Leftovers (we still have quite a few)
Tuesday:  Shepherd's Pie
Wednesday:  Chicken Quesadillas

8 oz softened cream cheese
8 oz sour cream
(Cream together then add...)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 sm diced onion
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp chili powder
(Mix well, set aside half.  To first half add...)
1 (4oz) can of mild diced green chilies
1 can chopped olives
1 (4oz) can mushrooms (optional)
5-6 cups cooked chicken or turkey, cubed or shredded (she used canned chicken)
(Also need tortillas and 4-6 cups shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese)

Spread the bottom of the pan with the set-apart soup mixture. Place a scoop of the other mixture with a spoonful of shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese into tortillas, roll and place in pan.  Top with remaining soup mixture.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake 350 for 45 minutes. Cover with 'tented' foil for the first 30.

I was under the impression that the above recipe was TUNA--huh.  Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much-- it was chicken.  I guess I'd better call my sister.

Thurs: leftovers
Fri:    Crock pot mac and cheese, pigs in a blanket. (Didn't make it last week)
Sat: Kid party--build your own nachos
Sun: Marinated beef (Korean), rice, won-tons

Last week I was able to can the peaches with my fun sis-in-law Erin, I went to the gym twice, and I mopped the kitchen floor!

My goals for this week are to continue to offer 3 fruit/veggie choices at each dinner, go to the gym at least Tuesday and Thursday, make one healthy alternative snack, and to shampoo the upstairs carpets.