Reverence lesson

I have decided to try blogging again. 

TRY. 

I certainly have enough going on.

I was in charge of teaching combined Young Women's today. I approached with a couple of goals in mind:  

1. We need to gear up for the new youth curriculum for 2013

2. Setting a standard for our class room that invites the spirit for the new curriculum.

3. Sneak in there a little lecture about how being REVERENT during class 

*sheesh*

It basically went down like this:

  

Identify what they want out of class/what is a good class

(treats, cute hangouts - not just a piece of paper, object lessons, feel the spirit, discussion, personal stories)

-

The distractions: talking over someone, not being prepared, a 'boring lesson' (whatever that means), doing a lot of out loud reading

+

     Using this picture as our guide

How can they be like these 'students' of the savior :

(attentive, wants to be there, respectful, REVERENT)

+

     How can we/I as a teacher -- teach more like the savior

(be prepared, be among the group, give personal examples, object lessons)

=

THE STANDARD for our YW class.

Respectful

Attentive

Reverent

A participate

Positive attitude

The plan is to use the picture + their goals/standard in a wall hanging to remind them of what we want our class time to be like. 

        And because everything is better with chocolate wrapped in cellophane...

"RIESENs to be reverent"   

    

Bugs

Last night at about 4am I felt something buzzing around my face.

Of course you would do some sleepy swats at it.... then

ah - its in my ear...

AH ! IT'S IN MY EAR!!!

I had Ben try and suck it out with a straw, drown and flush it out with water and oil,..

blah. 

So. Went to the doctor and the little bugger was squished up on my ear drum.

BLAH.  But it wasn't too big of a deal to get it out.

In the mean time.. I had an hour to entertain a baby in the waiting room. 

Where did my hands go?

The Garden

 

Looks pretty good huh :)

Many of these babies are going to be coming out and along with us when we find a more permanent location (all the pots, strawberries, raspberries and rhubarb)

This is pretty cool.

Once upon a time we built a strawberry-raingutter stand... that didn't get watered... so it didn't get to live up to it's full potential... BUT if you google image 'strawberry rain gutter' - you'll see my post! Ben has been watching it and has see it come up on other blogs and facebook a couple of times! Cool huh. Here is "Strawberry rain gutter 2.0". When Ben first described it to me I thought it sounded like a red-neck planter box. blah. But it looks nice attached to the chain link fence. 

In baby news. Still working on tummy time. He'll tolerate it with a cheater pillow.. but gets hot mad without it. Poor thing has to lift that big ol head...

The Job

Happy Tuesday

This week has mutual, CASA mock trial, expanding the garden, planning the sunday lesson,  pay bills, laundry every stinkin' day,  face time with Granny, lunch with Ben at work, and snuggles.

I have been out of the work force for almost a year now. Yet - I still wake up every morning with a little sliver of panic over my 'to do list' - Then I remember that this smilie face IS my job. Everything else is second - how cool is that.

 

 I have little day dreams like....

" ..but your honor... I was parenting!

Bailiff! Un-cuff this woman and relieve her of all other obligations!"

*sigh* That'd be cool huh.

Lazy

This last week was rough. Ben was working late with end of residency assignments, I had a LOT of stuff to do young women's service auction, CASA meetings, and all the normal chores.  Blah. So we were excited for the weekend to come. We had some big plans to work in the yard, clean the house, cook/bake, road trip to Chelan...yah. None of that happened.

We crashed. :)

We did have this fun thing happen while getting ready for church. 

Don't we sound like first time parents? 

The baby is sleeping

I'm not sure how you guys do it. 

How does any one have kids and do anything else?! :) I don't mean that negatively. I certainly could do a lot more. House chores, blogging, work out, church stuff, (sadly) bills....

It's just I was told over and over...

"aaahhh! How old is your baby? ... aaaahhh Enjoy these times - they go so fast!"

 

So I have. :)

I spend more time on the couch snuggling while he sleeps watching My Fair Wedding ... or whatever...

.. When in the back of my brain I can hear

"You need to put him down! 

Do you smell that? 

Have you seen the mail pile? 

Remember you have a presidency meeting tonight?

You need to check on the chicks - they are big enough to escape now..

Ben really deserves to have at least a dinner PLAN tonight..

Srew it. 

My baby is sleeping :)

Bath Time is the Greatest

It's been very fun to see D have interests - like BATHTIME. He can be screaming full blast -- but as soon as you start to undress him with the bath water running - he's like YAAAHHH!!

Then cries and cries and cries when it's time to get out.




I have to cold today. blah

(D at 3 weeks)

Okay.
Made it back from Spokane. Not the greatest trip.
Ben had a 103 temperature
The hotel did NOT have the food channel
D had his first blow out -that comes out the diaper soak the clothes - in the CAR. oh yeah.
....
lame.
Though - we learned a lot from this trip to apply to the one next week.


Today I'm trying to put the house back together and pack things for "the trip"
Since my time is cut pretty much in half (for good baby reasons) I have to get a WAY early start.

My favorite part of today was after D went down for a late nap...
I pulled out a saved, frozen piece of Costco's chocolate cake and ate it with my hands
I felt like Bruce from Matilda
It was awesome.

Okay, it's for real now..

Went out to the mail box the other day and *WHAM*
Another trippy moment.

The whole thing is for real when your kid gets mail from the government.

One for each of us ... unfortunately Ben and mine are bills. Danget.

Tomorrow is another practice run for the trip home to Utah next week. Last week Ben was craving panda express and we made a mad dash to Kennewick. I would call it a success.
Tomorrow Ben is giving a lecture to the pharmacy school newbies at Washington State University in Spokane. We are spending the night there too....
So we'll see how that goes down.

Ben's been pretty stressed about it.
Here you can see him 'trying' to study... Dalton is not helping..

Question:
Mama's of the interwebs... D is starting to throw these.. tantrums when he gets tired. Like he's tired, and it's time to sleep but he's forgotten how and it makes him hot mad. If I don't intercept and get him to sleep... it can be a couple hrs of screaming (still cute screaming). Is this when I need to try the weird stuff like riding the drying or running the vacuum or whatever. Or coming up with a wind down routine?
Thank you. :)

Naps

Dear Mamma
Thanks for letting us just sleep this afternoon.
I wasn't feeling normal and it was nice to kick back, nap, and watch x-files with you.
Lets do it again some time.
~Lil D
ps - i'm so glad we skipped to the middle of season 2... the first season was very disjointed and they finally put together come character development..


Dear Baby D:
I really enjoyed our day off today. Though I'm the one who should be thanking you! It was nice to take the extra nap for me too!

Ditto to season 2.
~ Mama

Oops

Alright. Today I learned that we ALL need to stick to some kind of routine. For myself, Dalton, and Ben. I can see that it's messed up all our groove today.

We'll try again tomorrow.

In the mean time.... we look videos of more calm days ... which remind me that the dust will settle.

*Thank you to Christy for the encouragement on the 12 hr trip*
I'll get around to posting the photos from that.

Everyone cross your fingers for Ben who is pulling double shifts for a couple months.

Happy (almost) St. Patty's Day

When you have a new baby - you play dress up.
Everyone does that... right?

I have this cute onesie I should have pulled out yesterday ... but it was in the wash.
So today we are pretending it's St. Patty's Day

Yesterday Ben went to work with green shirt and tie and we made Girl Scout cookie-thin mint milk shakes
oh baby.

This is not a smilie face. It's a okay-lady-i'm-done-playing-dress-up/about-to-blow-up face.
But I had to show off the curly.

Over Easter weekend we are going back to Utah for the baby blessing. That's a good 12 hr drive... with OUT a 1 month yr old. I'm pretty nervous about it. Though I'm told that traveling with that young of a babe is the easiest. Any guesses on how long it will take us? 27 hrs? That's about my guess.

In other non-baby news. The ants are back.
Time to pull out the battle strategies from last summer. I really feel like I'm at war with them. I lay in bed at night wondering how they are revising their attack on my home. Today they were flowing out from under the toilet to get at another bug on the floor.
gross.

through the cell phone lense

Was tidying up my phone and making room for more pictures....
and took a quick trip through time.

February 25th

March 3th

March 10th

March 17th

Things sure do change fast.
For example: I just texted ben to please pick up diapers and milk on his way home from work.
I can't believe that really happened....

First normal day.

When Granny J was here, we tried to establish a routine.
I know enough about child development and ages/stages that predictable routines provide security and stability for all ages of kids.
But now I think it's for me...to keep my stability and sanity.

Morning has been very good so far.
Changing
Feeding
Boppy time (just snoozing on the couch)
breakfast for me
change
feed
bath - as slowly as possible (he likes it)

Snack
Rock to sleep
NNNNAAAAPPP
(for like 3 hrs!)
change
feed
....usually about now I'm like....
Okay now what.



Went to the doctor this afternoon. He's 11 lbs and counting.

Dalton Brice Sharples

D. 10 days old.

March 3rd 2012 - 1:44pm
.... I birthed a human...
That sounds gross

No really - March 3rd 2012 - 1:44pm I got to meet my 10lb 12 oz baby Dalton -- with no drugs to fog the experiences. Actually I managed to fog the experience on my own. I would like to post a 'birth story' -- but I would need Ben's help - seeing I don't remember half of it.
"Ben.... where did i get this bruise?"
"... it was the first IV they put in...."
...oh...

So. More on that later.

For now - I commit to post often (with a strong effort of daily) on our new human.
Right now he's sleeping. He struggled to totally give in to sleepiness and just stirred and stirred for a couple of hours. Come on dude... relax!

Best Wishes to Mom driving home. You were missed the second you left.
Now we have to stop talking about it or I'll start crying again. :)

Oh a lighter note..
Da boyz are sleeping.

The Changing Table

Alright. It is finished.
I only have a 1/2 room to work with for Baby Awesome's nursery.
(which really, is all I think I want right now)

The colors of Ben home-made changing table worked out out too! I thought it was going to be the DEFINITION of compromise (me picking the 'blueberry' and Ben picking the 'lime pop'.) On the sample paper they looked okay... and ... Ta Da!

We learned a couple of things about 'building' during the project'.
1. Measure twice/cut once? NO!
Measure 45 TIMES/cross your fingers that you don't cut crooked.

Also - we got a little crazy with the sanding. We bought an electric sander and we both were like 'whoa! I really can make some round edges!' I think one of the boards I nearly turned into a base ball bat... which during the next step of assembly and painting... difficult.
But. Eh. Does the job.

This is the mostly complete baby room. I have a few more pieces to get - then I think I'll do a 'nursery tour video' for the Grannys. :)

This is Baby Awesome's roommate.

Ben has been practicing his bed time stories.
"Once upon time... there was a lonely little hydrogen atom... All he wanted to do is bond with a friend... "
A Chemists' lullaby.

The Sanding Zone

HOW TO COME INTO POSSESSION OF A CHANGING TABLE:
By Kim and Ben Sharples

1. Establish that you can't afford a brand new one
2. Realize that there is only one hand me down store in your small town
3. Scan craigslist for a couple of months wondering when will the same 5 postings change. (Again- small town)
4. Suggest that you drive to a 'near by town' (2 hrs) to get a $30 table
5. Husband will calculate the drive time and gas balanced by the cost of the table and vetoes the idea.
6. Husband will decide to make his own.
(this is actually a cute and good idea. Man nesting.)
7. Find appropriate plans on the inter-webs.

8. Set aside several hours to visit home depot - there are many decisions to be made (muffin - this was the day I emailed you :) )
9. Do a cost analysis of all types, shapes, colors, thicknesses and sales of wood and make selections.

10. Become totally side tracked for an hour when you discover a power tool sale.
11. Call everyone you know for an opinion on whether or not to by the tools that are on the sale.


12. Pace up and down the isles until you decide against it.

13. Take LARGE pieces of wood home in your small Corolla.
14. Use brand new hand saw to cut pieces down

15. Set up a 'Sanding Zone' in small laundry room by closing bed room down and putting tiedie sheet in door way to kitchen --- because it just too STUPID COLD OUTSIDE to be sanding.
16. Thank Home Depot in your prayers for the sale on power sanders.
17. Have wife sand for a while while husband applies for jobs. (sanding is kinda like ironing :))

18. Screw most of the pieces together
19. Realize that you are missing a couple pieces of wood after reading the directions again.
20. Repeat from step eight.

The Mattress

Next mile stone completed - mattress + water proof pad + sheets = more prepared.
So - baby stuff is expensive. In order to help out on the financial front - If found a mattress on craigslist for 20 bucks! A lucky find.
After work Ben and I stopped by Hastings while I got confirmation from the seller and the address of where to come check it out. On the way to the car - we spot a lock smith guy in a van with a dead battery. We offer and he accepts our help - I say to him with the price that he give us directions to this mattress address I have. As Ben is fishing out the cables, I read off the address to him and he give me a little bit of a shocked stare... saying... 'you know that's not a great neighborhood...'
*Now. I need to explain that because of my previous work experience I have learned that there are shady people in 'good looking neighborhoods' and good people in 'not good looking neighborhoods'. And Wenatchee's standard of 'not a great neighborhood' looks like Kaysville compared to some of the places in Ogden I have been to. Okay.. moving on...*
Ben and the lock smith attempt to jump his van. For whatever reason they couldn't get it to work and sparks were flying every where. The lock smith guy said thanks but no thanks and that help was on the way .. I'm sure freaked out by our sparking Corolla. He gives me the directions to the mattress house one more time then checks out my prego-state and says "Does he know where you are going?"
Dude... we're not crossing into enemy lines...
We get in the car and mr lock smith asks Ben if he's clear on the directions and if we had a flash light with us.
Okay okay I get it! You are scared you are going to see us on the news that night...
COUPLE FOUND IN DEAD IN CAR IN WORST PART OF TOWN.
whatever.
It's hard not to be on 'high alert' after such a warning or that the street you are looking for is called 'Terminal".... but ... I gotta tell ya. It wasn't bad. Across the street from the elementary school. Mini van in the drive way. It was a little family with young kids - and the Mama ran a day care out of their home. She was trying to switch out the couple of cribs she had for pack and plays to save space. Very sweet family. I could have stayed for tea and crumpets. Ben and I laughed all the way home about the 'wrong side of town' and what a sissy Mr. locksmith was.

The mattress was great, pretty much like new. I still bleached the sugar out of it but saved like 40 bucks and DODGED DEATH on the bad side of town.
good grief.

Annnnnnnnd.... we're back.

I'm not even going to try and catch up. :) We'll just say that last months have been BUSY. Vacation(s) were awesome but bittersweet.
On to the next.

Now that the dust is settling...
...Baby Awesome is center stage.

This is my favorite discovery over the break. And will be one of the first pictures I take :)

Next is this...

I only have 1/2 a room to work with but should be enough. The other day I had a mini panic attack and laid out everything I have in order to take stock. I'm trying to think in the mind set of only the first 3 to 4 months. There is a good chance we'll be moving again in 3 months ... so to prevent unnecessary packing - I'm only trying to gather up the essentials. BUT WHAT ARE THEY? :) (this is the opportunity to post useful help).

In other most recent news:
Ben starts a new rotation today at the hospital. The ICU. Ooooohhh. That should be interesting.

Yesterday I was released from young womens and now into the relief society secretary. Also should be interesting. I have be doing other things for so long... It's kinda new grounds for me.

Some sad news. We did have to send Reggie to heaven before the christmas break. It was one of the HARDEST things I've ever done and neither of us could talk about it for days with out loosing it. However, I don't doubt my choice. He was big time suffering from heart failure and it was best.
I'm sure I'll have more to say later.

So Tally is learning to be the "Main Dog". We've had to do strange things for her in order to accommodate Reg (ex: Tally won't drink out of Reg's water - i'm guessing because of the floaties... so we would stop up the bath tub and fill it up just a bit for her water. When she was thirsty she'd jump in and out of the bath tub to let us know.) No more of that ridiculousness. Your own bowl.
It's tough being the Main Dog.