A Hopeful, Inspiring Quote

“Your every need shall be fulfilled, now, and in the eternities; 

every neglect will be erased; every abuse will be corrected. 

All of this can come to you, and come quickly, 

when you devote yourself to Relief Society.”

                                Mary Ellen W. Smoot 

                                                             (1997 General Conference)

Organizing and Yard Work

Ok - I saw a shirt at Walmart a week or so ago that said something to the effect of "wives do real work, husbands do yard work."  Yeah, really?  No... not when your husband is super busy and it is such a beautiful day! (For those not from Utah, you may be confused, but yesterday it snowed and this morning when Eric left for work it was in the 30's... but this afternoon it was upper 60's so I just HAD to go out!) Besides, my mother-in-law gave me 4 pairs of gardening gloves for Easter (she knows I love to garden) and so what excuse did I have to stay indoors after my indoor project was done? None!

So, first today I organized the "Laundry Room." (Don't be confused by the name, we don't actually have a laundry room, but we like to fool ourselves into thinking we do.) I'm clearly terrible at "before" pictures, but here is an "after."


Then I started working on the yard. First I mowed the lawn and then as I went to put the lawnmower away I realized just how many weeds we had on the back patio. Yuck! How had I let them grow so much? So, since I am still able to bend over, I got out my trash can and started pulling weeds. (This way I can justify using weed-killer for the rest of the season. Genius, no?) Again, no before pictures, but here's the can full of weeds (it doesn't look like much, but when you think that all this grew in the cracks between the pavement that is our patio, it turns out to be a ton!)











Look at how nice my patio is now... (that is sarcastic, this is a terrible patio, but at least it is weedless!)




Then I began the long task of pulling all the dandelions out of the front yard. By that I mean crawling around on my lovely (obviously a past-tense adjective) hands and knees and pulling out all the heads. This worked really well last year - after a few weeks of pulling heads they stopped popping up. But this year I started much later and so we had a TON of dandelions! At first I wondered how on earth we could have that many, but then I looked over at my neighbor's yard and realized his yard was simply a giant dandelion... the seeds blew from his yard. Every once in a while I think to myself, "one day, I will go weed Calvin's yard..." but it never happens. (don't be fooled into thinking I'm a saint or anything, my reason for weeding his yard would be purely selfish - so that his weeds stop creeping into my yard!)  I have a picture of the bag and pumpkin filled with dandelion heads and some pictures of my yard. I no longer have a yard that is the eye-sore of the neighborhood (my neighbor's yard excluded because his is obviously more of an eye-sore than mine ever was)... at least for now. Tomorrow all the dandelions I missed will be popping up and my work will begin again, but today it looks great. (unlike my poor knees and hands)

  

 This poor plot to the right of the door is where I weekly shovel out cat turds... I have no idea how we're going to get anything to grow there this summer - everything we planted last summer died thanks to cat urine. *sigh*

No, I did not plant the tulips - I have no idea why they are kind of all over the place. Once they die I will tear out the tops and put in my own flowers! The lilies are from my students and I am super excited for my DayLilies to bloom!!!

 

 And now I am simply waiting for Eric to be on his way home so I can start the Mac and Cheese that I planned for dinner (recipe courtesy of the "Cook Yourself Thin" website my sister-in-law, Kelsey, told me about). My wrists are pretty sore so I am hoping that I don't drop too many things while I'm cooking!

Oregon

Eric and I have been so blessed. We have joined together 2 great families who love to take care of us!!!

This past week, Eric and I were able to fly out to Oregon to pick up a car! His brother Tyler and wife Kelsey bought Dad's car and offered to give us their old one. Now, to be honest, as excited as I was about a new car, I was definitely more excited to have an excuse to go see Eric's family. I love them so much and there is not a single day that goes by where I don't think about them and find myself homesick for a place I've never lived.

I thought I'd share a few pictures from our trip!

Whenever we go to Oregon we make sure to spend time with our great friends,
David and Emily Bass.

We went on a beautiful hike. Look how GREEN this place is!

 I told Eric to poke his head out to get in the picture and this is what I ended up with... :D

He looks slightly frightened.

The tree on the left reminded me of a spider and I wanted a picture...
I asked David and Emily to jump in. 

p.s. She is pregnant too!!! Our babies are both boys and will be 2 weeks apart!

There was a tree that grew in such a way that a seat was formed. Perfect!

So, if I had photoshop, I would have inserted a scared looking Asian family to the left of David.
(Eric's idea)

My sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law threw me a baby shower.

Doesn't this food look amazing???

Katie helped me open the biggest present.

I got this adorable outfit from my sister-in-law Kelsey, isn't it cute? 

My baby boy will dress in style!

Here's what I've done with some of the gifts I've received. A huge portion of what is on this changing table is courtesy of my sister-in-law Amanda. She's amazing!!!

When Ane (my mother-in-law) was growing up, a huge part of Easter was a big Easter Egg Hunt. 

She loved it so much that every year she replicates it with her grandchildren.

Here is the line up - the girls are all geared up to go!

p.s. My sister-in-law, Heather, (the one in blue) is pregnant too! She's due in October!

Eric's parents have lots of fun toys in their back yard, including these big blow up balls!

I absolutely adore my nephew, Thomas, and so the next few pictures are of him.

How could you NOT fall in love with this guy?!?!?!?

I had planned to document our drive home - and ended up taking 2 pictures each day. 

 Trivia time!!! 

How do you know you're getting closer to Idaho? Cows... lots of cows....

How do you know you're getting closer to Utah? The rain turns into snow... lots of snow....

Here is day 1:

Day 2:

Why is it raining as we are getting further from Oregon???

TADA!!!

Now, I just need magnets!

While the Cat is Away, the Mice Come Out to Play!

Ok, so I did a few fun things while Eric wasn't around today and thought I'd show you.  The first was start a new project. Yay!

Now, you may ask yourself, "How is she going to get this --------------------------->

from these materials": 









The answer??? I'm not - at least, not exactly. This cute one above is super bright and colorful - my kitchen consists of green and white  - so mine will obviously turn out different.

Eric went with me to the dollar store to get the frames and then DI to get the wood sign. I wanted to start the project today, and since I'm not allowed to play with sharp objects without adult supervision (Eric was at work) I decided I wanted to paint the frames. I set up shop on the bed (genius, I know... luckily I didn't spill) and added some green accents to the frames. I'm hoping I can get Eric to help me tomorrow so I can have my wood cut and begin the rest of the project.

Eric was super tired today - I can't blame him since he's tired because he was up late making me a milkshake and massaging my back so I could fall asleep.  He came home and took a nap.... he looked so cute all curled up that I just had to take a picture. :D

Since Eric was sleeping, I had to be quiet... so after thinking about it, I finally found a suitable activity:

TADA! Paper Chain! 90 pieces (90 days till my "due date"). Perhaps I cheated a bit by using small pieces of paper so that the chain would be smaller - but oh well. It's bright and fun and short, so I am happy!

p.s. Eric is still asleep, so now I need to find something else to do... hmmmmmmmmmmm

I Love My Husband

I know - most of you don't want to read these "sappy" posts... but I want to tell you a story.

I don't know how many of you have seen The Blind Side (it is a great movie) but there is a scene in it that I would like to reference before I begin my story.  The scene I want to reference is when the family first meets "Big Mike." They are driving along in their car and see him on the side of the road. After asking where he is headed they continue driving. About 3 seconds after they leave, the mom (Sandra Bullock) says "Turn around." The husband, without even questioning, immediately turns the car around. The mom then goes and invites "Big Mike" to get in the car and takes him home. Again, no questions from the husband. Every time I see this scene I think to myself "what a wonderful husband."

Now, my story. Last week I was talking to Eric while he was on his way home from work and his phone died. Depressed, I stared at my phone. That's when I got a message that my sister needed me, immediately. With no way to contact Eric I sat and waited looking anxiously out the window. As he began to pull up I ran out the door and jumped in the car - he was not even halfway into the driveway. No questions asked, he put the car in reverse, pulled back out of the driveway. I told him we needed to go to my sister's and he put the car in gear and headed out. Again, no questions. He was willing to blindly follow me wherever I felt we needed to go.


My husband is incredible - I look in the mirror and see The Creature from the Black Lagoon and he will see something completely different... I always worry about my ever increasing size, but he just gets excited. He is super happy that we are having a baby and finds me more attractive each day.

I am so grateful to have found Eric and I am so lucky that he asked me to marry him.

Alright - so I got a few good pictures. They turned out nice because I made Eric get in them with me.  :)

So, this first picture is obviously old, but it is to show you my size prior to pregnancy. ------------------------------------>



This next one has a line drawn to show how much of me Eric didn't marry.... As you can see in the picture - this baby is a low rider!

I also did some way fun cooking crafts today. The first to be featured is No-Bake Cookie Bunnies!

I didn't use M&M's... I used white chocolate and karo syrup to create a putty then added food coloring for the eyes and noses.  Eric had to pick up the almonds at the store as well as the Cadbury Eggs used in the other craft at the store, so when he got home he helped put the ears on the bunnies.

I also made nests using coconut and chocolate (the dark ones) and coconut and egg (the lighter ones)

 These last few pictures are of the flowers Eric surprised me with today
before taking me to dinner at the Thai Kitchen.  :)