Finding Joy in the Journey

As some of you know, I recently got my old job back working as a waitress at "Da Pineapple Grill" to help earn some extra cash. It was not our first choice of things to do, but we felt it was what was right for our family at the time. It was stressful and hard, but provided us with some money to tide us over. So many times I'd come home late with my feet just killing me and I'd sit next to Richie and think, 'One day, I won't have to go to work and that will be awesome" or in other words, "then, I'll be happy." Long story short I was semi-forced to quit this past week. I know we always have a choice, but the female owner didn't like me too much and just stopped scheduling me because she was afraid that if she fired me, she'd have to pay me unemployment. So I ended up quitting because it just wasn't worth it. So I should be breathing a sigh of relief, right? Yay! I don't have to go to work at night anymore!! Right? Well, although it is nice, I'm not 10 times happier than I was before, like I expected.

My point is, I seemed to always be trapped in thinking that I would be happier if "this" just happened, or one day when we get "this", I won't worry so much, or if I had only done "this" before I was married, I would have so much more of "this". It seems to be a chronic illness, akin to what the Bernstein Bears like to call the "Gimmies".

I've had this quote up for as long as I can remember to help me with this condition, and it looks like I'll have it up for quite a long time more. Maybe one day, when I'm finally over the "gimmies", I can finally take down this quote. ;)

"For a long time it seemed to me that life was about to begin-real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one. Happiness is a journey, not a destination"
-Souza

Insert wise and whimsical Irish phrase here _______

So this past Friday we had our friends the Christensens over for IRISH NIGHT! We realized it's way early for St. Patrick's Day, but wanted to do it to make sure we got it in, in case our scheduling changed, plus we were just itching for something out of the ordinary.
The menu consisted of Corned Beef and Cabbage, Irish Soda Bread, Pistachio Pudding squares, and a pint....of root beer. Megan brought over some delicious fruit salad and a totally Irish movie for us to watch. "Secret of the Roan Inish" The girls liked it, the boys preferred to make commentary throughout to make it more interesting. We listened to Irish Pub songs on Pandora, and had a fantastic, out of the ordinary, Irish night!
If anyone's interested in the recipe's above, let me know! They are in the "Mormon Celebrations" cookbook if you have that. Everything turned out way yummier than I was expecting, and much easier. So if you're looking to do something special for St. Patty's day, this might stir things up a bit. Richie has also had fun finding clovers around the house that I planted. It's such a fun idea for spouses or for kids. I found the idea at Love Actually, whose button is on the right side of the screen.




Totally unrelated: Miles caught a case of the croup (sp?) this weekend. So not fun. If anyone has any creative ideas on how to ease the symptoms, let me know.

Modge Podge Post

I had a few random things to post about today.

Book Review:

I recently finished reading "Leadership Education" by Rachel and Oliver Demille. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who interested in home schooling, or just making their home more conducive to nurturing a great education. It's written by LDS parents who home-school their 8 children; the basis of the book is how everyone who has been or is in the public school system, has gotten a "conveyer belt" type education. They want to help educators and parents turn away from this style and help give children a true leadership education by giving our children the tools they need to think for themselves and to love learning. As with any educational book, you have to think of how their suggestions will fit into your family and then adapt the things you agree with in the best way possible for your particular situation. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and look forward to reading it again and again.

Project!


While the Garners were here, Richie's mom helped me make some bean bags with some left over fabric and old pop corn kernels. How fun right?! We made squares, circles, stars, hearts and rectangles. Some were big and some were small, and they all had different colors and patterns. He LOVES the fuzzy one. That didn't surprise me. I had a left over oatmeal container, so Miles and I painted it, and all of his new bean bags fit perfectly inside! Too bad he's already destroyed the twine on the outside. :)

Miles:

As messy as ever! My friend Megan came over to visit and brought us some delectable brownies. They were a bit messy as you can see. You can also see Miles' typical reaction when the sweets are all gone. He can now fold his arms for prayer and 'says' amen. He can also 'say' Jesus when we point to His picture. Unfortunately, he thinks every picture is Jesus; including pictures of himself.

Mormon Message:
It's been a while since I've posted one of these, and I thought it was about time. I especially like this one because I do like to create! But it's something I get to continually work at and practice. It reminds me that to create is not just something you do for fun, but something you exercise, nurture and develop because you were created by the most creative being ever and it is central to our happiness.

How Many People Can One Baby Entertain?

This weekend, it was at least 7. Miles had everyone wrapped around his chubby fingers. We had a great weekend with the Garners who thankfully came up to help us with our taxes among other things, but mostly just to cure us of boredom and homesickness. I never remember to take as many pictures as I'd like, but here are a few.

Grandpa and Grandma getting some kisses on Miles after bath-time!


Uncle Jeffrey sharing some Nilla Wafers with Miles


Before Sledding:


During Sledding:


After Sledding:


See how much fun doing your taxes is???


Everyone humored Miles by dancing with him


I've never been able to get a video to upload. This one did, but it wouldn't play for me when I viewed me blog, let me know if you can watch it.



Thanks for the great weekend Garners!

Family Pictures

A friend of mine from our old student ward has a talent for photography and one day would like to make it a business perhaps. So for the time being, until she is famous, she offered to take family pictures for us for free so that she could build her portfolio! We couldn't thank her enough, they turned out so fabulous; like she read my mind on what I wanted. She lives in Pocatello but comes to Rexburg frequently, so if any of you are in the area and are looking for a photographer, her name is Kelly and I'd be happy to give you her number. Thanks so much again Kelly!

Here's just a few of our favorites. I know there are a lot, but there were a lot of fun ones. In case any of you are interested in where these pictures were taken, we wanted to take them around Rexburg to document this period in our lives. The ones inside are taken at the upstairs ballroom above where we hold our swing dance at the Woodside. It's the ballroom above "The Bed Place" on main street. The ones outside are taken down College Avenue, just off of Main Street.

Our latest DI finds!

We saw this at the DI and couldn't pass it up, even if it's way too big on him now.

I saw this, and against Richie's wishes, had to buy it. I thought it was the cutest little table. Still in great shape and right now works perfectly in our entry-way. Later on, I plan to make it into a kids coloring table. I really want to paint it, but I can't decide on a color


These are just some projects that I've been working on. They're basically finished and I'm glad to have them now!
Miles' scrapbook of his first year! No, I do not plan to make scrapbooks for his entire life. But I wanted him to have at least one that I made.

For Valentine's day, I made Richie our family's history thus far. I started from right before we met and it's caught up till now. I divided it into chapters and at the end of each chapter, I just chose a few meaningful pictures to showcase that chapter. I think it will be a great keepsake for Richie and I, even if no one else reads it.

M is for Mess

Lately, Miles has been a MESS in SO many different ways!

On Monday morning, I gave him a bath earlier than usual, although I knew I was taking a risk. I should have followed my instincts and given him a bath after her went #2 in his diaper. Then I would have avoided #2 in the tub and on the bathroom rug Later in the day a customer came in and so I had to take Miles away from his beloved "Tarzan" with me into the office. He threw a fit and eventually found his way back to the living room while I was with the customer (I had left the door open on accident) When I realized it was too quiet, I excused myself to check on him and saw that he had found the bowl of jello we were sharing. I guess I didn't put it up high enough. Yay for carpet cleaners.


On Wednesday I was baking bread and had the tub of flour out. I thought the lid was tight enough to keep him from getting into it. I was wrong. Luckily I caught him soon enough to avoid total disaster. When I fed him lunch later in the day, he had noodles and sauce. He's big into feeding himself these days and needless to say, it's time I invested in a big plastic bib! Why don't I have one of those yet?



The biggest mess of all is that he's in the middle of a major schedule change and teething. Richie and I are on the brink of going nuts. How do you handle this? I'm afraid he's transitioning into only 1 nap per day, but I'll take any nap time over the 30 minute cat naps and being ornery throughout the day. Help!

This Valentine's day was low key as usual. I had to work on Friday and Saturday, so I made a special lunch on Saturday to celebrate; complete with all the trimmings of a 5 star restaurant!
Menu:
Steamed veggies
fettucine alfredo
filet mignon
french bread with evoo and balsamic vinegar dipping sauce
and cream puffs!

Then I realized that I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen this Valentine's day trying out new things and thought I'd give you a review to save you some time if you're debating between cooking projects.
*The heart jello thing that I posted a while back....not as amazing as I was hoping. It looked cool, but just tasted like plain jello
*Sugar Cookies- I finally got the perfect combo of sugar cookie and frosting recipes. If you'd like them, just let me know.
*Dipped Oreo Suckers- way harder than they deserve to be. Every time I put the stick in, the cookie would break, then I couldn't dip it. I ended up just laying them on the sheet and drizzling chocolate over them, then freezing them until I gave them out.

*Cream Puffs- Awesome! Way easier than I was thinking and taste SO good!
*French Bread- I'm sure there are better recipes out there, so if there is a really easy and tasty one, please let me know. This was my first time making french bread, but it actually turned out pretty dang good and wasn't as time consuming as I was betting it would be. But definitely a recipe only for special occasions since it does take you some time.


This is Miles helping me make the cream puffs! He wanted to lick the beater ( who wouldn't?) and then flicked some on his face by accident, so I had to snap a picture!

Oh what do you do in the winter-time?

In a recent post, I asked you what you did in the winter with kids Miles' age. I got a few good suggestions and thought I'd share them and some others we've come up with!

*building forts
*blowing bubbles
*putting drops of food coloring into water
*dancing to music
*blowing up a balloon and then letting it go (he loves this one)
*"helping" mommy with chores
*going to other people's houses to get a change of scenery. He especially likes going to the Christensen's ever Sunday and playing with the ferrets! Kissing the ferrets Miles? Yuck!


And then there's all the normal stuff like bath time and watching baby videos and trying to get him to hold still long enough to read to him. But maybe those few ideas will help out.

Since this is unofficially Valentine's week, I made a heart pizza last night for dinner, complete with heart shaped pepperoni! Since I'll be working on Saturday night, Richie and I are celebrating whenever we get the chance!

I know I'm biased, but....

this is one cute kid! I really think he learns something new every day. Just in the last week he picked up the signs for "eat", "milk" and "hat". He also says the sounds for a choo-choo train (doo doo!) and a monkey! Since he's one now, he can drink cow's milk. We started him on whole milk on Friday, and he's already almost gone through a whole gallon! He loves it!!

You may not believe me, but Miles thinks this is hilarious! We do too!


Miles' alter-ego...Letters boy! They are supposed to stick to the sides of the bathtub, but Richie likes to stick them on Miles.


Hope you all have a good week!

Looking for a car??

One of the new business tenants we have here at our business park and storage facility is called MV Autobuyers. They can find you almost any new or used car at an auction for a fraction of the price you'd pay if you bought it from a dealer. You don't even have to live here in the area, because they can find cars all over the country or have them shipped to you. I just thought I'd put a plug here for them, so if you're interested now or ever, just let me know, or you can go to their website at www.mvautobuyers.com, or call them at (208)346-3726