shoot me now

I have strep and have just survived three days of working full time, taking Annie to the hospital, traveling to SLC last weekend, dropping the veggie tray off to new beginnings, 2 doc appointments, and about a million other things. Plus, I taught dance like crazy for two days during the worst of it. I am now, finally, going to bed and no one better wake me up until after 9 am. I don't care how disastrous my house is. I am sleeping in!

Is showering optional when you are this sick and tired?

I am happy to announce that Connie the trailer park chain smoker has made an appearance in my life this year.

Lucky me..........

Fresh Out

Or for those who know restaurant speak... *86* money.

Brandon had to go to the bank tonight and deposit our last two $10 bills so that tomorrow when the life insurance payment is withdrawn there will be enough money in the account. He started scrounging for some change to buy some ice cream while he's out. I took our usual bowl of change to the CoinStar in December. (We call it a CoinStar Christmas.) Where to scrounge up some change?

And then he had a brilliant idea... his metal detecting jar of coins. He was getting quite excited about it..."There are quarters, Alana! We can get blue bunny!"

It was pretty funny. You had to be there. (???)

So the metal detecting finally paid up.

She's proud of the weight I've lost. And really proud of this!

Amazing

I am still amazed by how beautiful the desert is. I can't believe I get to live somewhere this gorgeous.

My Baby

He's 1 today!

Anika's Photography

I love finding photos in my phone that Anika took. Most of them are, of course, cat related. She also draws pictures on the phone and saves them for me to happen upon. It always makes me smile to browse the album and see what she thought was picture-worthy. That bottom photo is Crispin the cat. That's who she has been pretending to be for about a month now.

The cat thing acts as a degree of separation for her, I think. Like how psychiatrists use puppets like on What About Bob. She never lets me comfort her or talk about her feelings. If she gets hurt or upset, she gets angry and wants no one to look at her or talk to her. (She totally got this from me. I still do that to my family.) But if I talk to her in meows, she will pour her heart out. Meow meow meow meeeeoooow... you can totally catch the drift of what she is saying or crying about. We seriously will have 5 minute conversations about feelings all in meows. She plays with virtual cats on the phone that have a happy meter you have to fill up. She lets me snuggle and comfort her now... as long as I ask her if I can help get her happy meter to the top. She accepts much more affection in cat mode. While she's been a cat, what have I been for a month now? A flamingo! Yes, I have to play the part. It's exhausting. But that's another story entirely.

Lately

Anika and Emmet relentlessly draw pictures to hang up in Ben's room. He totally enjoys it and talks about them and points to them very excitedly. As you can tell, Anika is deep into a cat phase.



They have been playing with a giant box for a week straight and I think it's funny. That's Emmet's writing on the box and a blatant slam to Anika because she's actually been a cat for weeks now. They have a one-up, ultra-competitive thing going on. (Scroll down and you'll see 'no real cats allowed'.)

Ben loves to drive Anika's remote controlled car she got for Christmas and she doesn't.

My social life is reduced to the Sister Missionaries, my Survivors of Suicide support group, and... well, can't even think of anything else. So please, let's hang out soon? That's Sister Atchley in the red and she just got transferred after a looong time in our area. We were besties :(

The only toy from Christmas Anika plays with is Boggle Jr. She is very excited still about her reading and writing.

Should I be worried about this cat obsession?

Hey, I 've never shown you Ben's room before. I just had to put up a 'keep calm and carry on' because I thought perhaps I would be needing to deep-breathe my way through Ben's babydom like I did Anika's. Turns out, we did okay and I could have put up something else.

And there you have it. Some random photos uploaded from my phone in random order, depicting my happenings lately. That's all I have energy for.

Williams - 5 more weeks

Enjoying the calm before the storm with 5 more weeks to go before Abby joins our family. I haven't been up to much other than complaining about how uncomfortable I am getting. I am tired, my stomach is tight and itchy, my leg hurts, and my back hurts (that reminds me of the commercial for Snickers. The kids think it is hilarious when the lady says, my back hurts, ow, now my front hurts). I sewed a few things for Abby over the last few weeks: small blanket, pacificer clips, and some swaddling blankets. I am pretty much ready to do this other than I am not looking forward to the lack of sleep.

We also started potty training Nora this weekend. I am doing a 3 day potty training regime (day and night). I am not one for a strict regime but a friend recommended this method and I thought I would give it a try because I don't want two kids in diapers. It has been a long weekend. We started on Saturday and that first morning was long with lots of accidents but it has gradually gotten better and she is doing fantastic. I have to watch her like a hawk and keep reminding her to tell me when she needs to go but I like the method so far. She has stayed dry for naps and actually stayed dry all night Sunday night. I purchased the ebook from the following web site if this style interests you and I have been pleased so far: http://www.3daypottytraining.com/. I was extremely nervous to start and it is a work in progress but I won't go back to diapers. I am so proud of her and the progress she has made.

 small blanket

                      pacifier clips                                                                           swaddling blankets

 Me and my basketball!