Family History

I just started looking at the info that new.familysearch.org has in its records. I have never been the family history doer, but I thought I'd take a look and see what the website is like. Its cool. There is work to be done only a few generations back. I have to take small steps with this one cause it could be SO overwhelming, but I'm excited to be looking back into history a little!

Out of ideas!?!?!

Only day 7 of this little challenge and I am out of ideas. Yikes! Or maybe its that I waited until 10:00 to log on and start typing today. We'll talk about that. My sleep.
I love my sleep. I am blessed with children who sleep 12 hours at night. 8pm-8am. More recently I've had many 7:00 mornings. But I can handle that. I've always needed more sleep than the average person. Ten hours at least occasionally is a must for me. No less than 8 will do. And this is not a "princess" complex I have going on here, it is a true need. Several days with only 5 or 6 hours a night and I will have strep throat or a sinus infection or both. Bleh! Not quite sure what I'm going to do when I have to get kids ready to be out the door by 8am (or earlier!) for school, but for now I am enjoying the fact that I can sleep in and so can they.
GOODNIGHT! :)

Aiden...

How can my "month of me" be complete if I don't throw in a little about my kiddos!?!? Today is just another "aiden-ism".
This morning when Zack and Aiden got up, Aiden was trying to give Zack a "good morning kiss" and Zack wasn't thrilled. If you'd smelled Aiden's morning breath you would understand why. When I told Aiden to quit it, he looked up and said "But MOM! I'm a kissing machine!"

Lifeguarding

I was a lifeguard a few years ago... or at least that's what it seems like. It was more like 10 years ago. Okay, there. I said it. 10 years ago! I can remember when I COULDN'T remember what I was doing 10 years ago. But I digress.
Lifeguarding. I loved it. I was mexican-tan, crazy blonde hair - with no chemicals... other than chlorine:) and I spent my days by the pool. I got paid crazy amounts of money (relative to my age) and did basically nothing to earn it. I met some of my best friends ever during those summers. Including myself. I gained so much self confidence. I learned that there were people in the world who like me because of who I am and not because I acted the way I thought they wanted me to. Those were a few very liberating summers!

Me, cook? No....

One of the first weeks of our marriage Jeremy was talking to his dad on the phone when dinner was ready. He shamelessly rubbed it in that he had to get off the phone because his wife actually cooks. My mother in law does not cook. Jeremy thought he had struck it rich with me. Haha! Little did he know.
I have about 5 meals that I feel good about putting on the table. Not including grilled cheese & quesidillas. I make chicken enchiladas (which I love but Jeremy mostly just tolerates), sweet & sour chicken (a recent discovery), tacos (which almost falls under the grilled cheese category), potato cheese soup and pizza (no not delivery, DiGiorno!... and homemade!). Maybe there are more. Maybe. But not many more.
The sad thing is that I actually kind of like to cook. When the kids aren't playing with hot wheels cars right under my feet and pestering me about when they get to eat, and when I have all the ingredients, and when I know that once the food is on the table that everyone will actually eat it... THEN I enjoy cooking. But that just doesn't happen very often. Its usually a 5 o'clock "hey babe, what's for dinner" that spurs me to consider what is already in the pantry & the fridge. Hot dogs maybe? And hamburgers if I have time to defrost meat & I can convince Jeremy to light up the grill? Or maybe its a DiGiorno night? GROSS!
So help me out ladies! Give me some quick, easy, the-whole-family-loves-it-every-time ideas here. I'll take your "plan ahead" ideas, but I'd especially love the ones I don't have to think about until my tummy is rumbling! Please comment before 5:00 tonight! :)

The REAL May 3rd Post

Back on schedule. But don't know what to talk about. Oh! How about stake conference. And me repenting a bit!
I was REALLY dreading stake conference this past weekend. It really filled up my Saturday with the Youth Session (leaders too!) and then the Leadership session and then Adult Session. And I did not want to dedicate myself that much. I murmured. A lot. You may have heard it? And now I am repenting. I forced myself to go to all of the sessions on Saturday and the Sunday general session and I was blessed. Despite my bad attitude, I was blessed to learn and grow and feel the spirit in each meeting. I really enjoyed all of it.
Jeremy & I have hardly seen each other for the last 2 weeks and I could have easily justified ditching any of the Saturday sessions to spend time with him. But one of the blessings I received from being where I was supposed to was that I felt like the time away from him actually helped me feel closer to him. Unlike the last 2 crazy weeks where we've just had a lot of stuff going on.
I feel like I'm rambling a little. But I am glad I went. And hopefully next time I will be grateful for the opportunity and not whiny about the time commitment.

May 2nd retroactive post

Wow! Off to a great start, huh? Missed the second day of the challenge. I'm making it up anyway... I might be disqualified from the "challenge" but what the heck.

My best friend left a super sweet comment on my May 1st post, so I'm dedicating this post to her. Month-of-me appropriate? I think so! She has had a great impact on the person I am today! Cassie is one of my truest, most loyal, most sees-me-for-who-I-am-and-still-loves-me type friends. We met when we were in primary in the same ward for a brief time but we became friends in Spanish class during my sophomore (her freshman) year in high school. It was an instant friendship. One that you know you picked up right where you left off. We have always talked about how we are kindred spirits. She is my sister in the purest form.
We have some silly & crazy life happenings that seem to mirror or match each others'. Lets see if I can do justice to the examples... its been a while :)
Our birthdays are January 23rd (me) and January 24th (her) one year apart.
KIDS...Our daughters birthdays are July 23rd (mine) and July 24th (her's) 5 years apart. And you'll notice, our daughters are born on our respective 1/2 birthdays! She has 1 girl & 2 boys in that order. I have 2 boys and 1 girl. Both our oldest sons are a month apart.
Our husbands were both a part of our lives LONG before we knew we'd marry them. We fell in love with our hubs at the same time of year, just not the same year. We married them at the same time of year, just not the same year.
Anyway... silly, but we've always laughed about the little similarities. And there are a lot more that I'm totally forgetting or leaving out.
The point is, she is awesome! At a time in my life when I had many people who claimed to be my friends, she was one. I owe a lot to Cassie. A debt that I can never repay.
I hope everyone has a friend like her. Someone who you've know a lot longer than just this life. Someone whose a part of your eternal family, someway, somehow, even though there are no earthly family ties.
Love you Cass!

Month of Me

My lovely friend Julie has issued a challenge. A challenge to write something about myself every day during the month of may right here on my blog. Not sure I have that much to say about myself, but here we go.

I am a mom! Simple right? Well, hardly. But that statement means so much more than words can express. My "about me" on Facebook says "I am doing what I've waited my whole life to do!" And these four little words are what I've waited for. I don't think I'm any different than most of you who feel the same way. I think we all feel that way (most of the time) :) And I love it! Serving with the young women gives me the opportunity to be ever mindful of what I felt and thought and hoped for at that age and I've come to this conclusion... I'm meeting my goals & doing what I've always wanted to do. I am a mom!