My Family

Had one of those weekends where you wonder what the purpose of your existence is. You know the ones where the daily grind just rubs on you and you feel like throwing in the towel?

On Sunday afternoon my family (who I had not gotten together with for a long time) had a party for my Mom, my Niece Nikki, and my Nephew Jaidens birthdays. I dragged my feet going because I was feeling so...."blah". As I was walking to the park area where the party was, 2 of my sisters came running up to me and grabbed Tyson from me and were just squealing and ooooing and ahhhing over him. I instantly knew this was the place I needed to be. The entire party I didn't have to hold that baby unless I asked to (and I had been holding him a LOT that weekend). It felt soooo great. They made fun of Bella's bangs that I hacked, I did my best impression of Paytons Flag Football games (he just stands there and plays with his mouth guard the whole time) and I forced Katrina to "Sit on Uncle Deans lap for a picture!"

With Family, my children are thought of as amazing and beautiful and their children are equally amazing to me. With Family, I can pig out with out worrying about what anyone else thinks. With Family, I can laugh at the lamest things that non-family totally wouldn't get. With Family, I am just comfortable.

I come from a large Family of 9. One is no longer with us but I'm sure he was smiling and laughing right along with us on that beautiful day. As siblings we grew up fighting like cats and dogs, but as family we are fiercely loyal and never say anything we wouldn't say to someones face. We just don't have the jealousies, or competitions, or nit-picky (is that a word?) things that I hear about in a lot of other Families. I don't know if it's because we've been through so much together, but I don't want it to ever change. I truly want complete happiness for each and every one of them and their families.

I'm so grateful that I went to that party, returned to my roots and remembered why I love family so much.

Sadly, I'm not that creative

Ok people, that picture below of those waffles is a borrowed picture from the web. I did not create such a beautiful concoction. Mine are usually thinner around the edges then they are in the middle, and sometimes slightly burnt once the last batches are being made and I get sick of checking them....My husband saw this post from work and thought "Man! What are they doing at home??!!" I just needed to clear this up for the record, just so no one expects me to start moving mountains over here.

Waffles

I got NOTHING ok??? I am grateful for so much but nothing that anyone wants to waste their time reading about! Someone throw me a topic, cuz my life is just
d-u-l-l right now.

Katrina just told me she likes to draw waffles. I'm so grateful she likes to draw waffles, it gives me something to talk about.

I'm grateful for waffles because my kids love to eat them so much. Between the 4 of them (yes Jay is included in this group) they can probably eat about 14 waffles. So, including my one waffle, 15 waffles are consumed. Since my waffle maker only makes 2 at a time this gives me a lot of time to stand around all day cooking waffles and thinking about when I'm going to start preparing lunch.

What am I going to do when Tyson becomes a major contributor at the dinner table? I'll have to triple every recipe! Then in another 5 years Payton is going to be a teenager and....*shudder*. Celeste (who probably won't be compassionate services leader in 5 years but this is my bog ok??)will have to schedule 2 people to bring us meals each night when I have my mental breakdown because I'm ALWAYS feeding Something.

I forgot that I'm grateful

Ok, so I realized that I have started to forget about my promise to make this a "Gratitude Journal". If anyone missed my first original blog to this journal and the epiphany (sp?) I had, here it is: http://joalea.blogspot.com/2007_03_27_archive.html

And if anyone is annoyed with me right now for using a word like "Epiphany" click on it for the definition, see the 3rd definition....I definitely don't want people to think I'm claiming to see divine beings. Man I love the internet! There aint nuttin we can't know!

As I was contemplating what I am grateful for, I got up to answer the phone and as I shut the computer saw this exact face gazing at me:





















I ran and got my camera and tried to get him to do it again and kept getting this:


























I'm so grateful for his perpetual love for me. (How many of you clicked on it that time?!) If we could all have such perfect love and be so free of judgements towards others, what a spectacular place this world would be. Here's one more just to brighten your day like he does mine :)

Still Grateful (M&M's have rights too!)

Did I fail to mention in my last blog how grateful I am for m&m's? I definitely am. It may have sounded like I was cuttin on m&m's (when's the last time you used "cuttin"?) but I wasn't. I love m&m's so all of you m&m activists please don't send me e-mails telling me how wonderful they are. I'm already converted. I just don't love the consequences that come from my love of m&m's.
Just so we're all clear on this....

M&M's Anyone?

My friend Kristi Brausch blogged how she hasn't had any "crap food" cravings for a few weeks and it made me think about the weird signals my brain seems to send when I'm pregnant vs. when I'm nursing.

Ok, now for those who have seen me pregnant, you know that due to some weird gene I hardly gain any weight but still have healthy sized babies, yadda yadda yadda I diet and only eat celery cuz it's sooooo good for a growing fetus.

Seriously though, when I'm pregnant I think my mind goes into this nurturing mode of "eat all the right foods, help the little developing brain, bones, etc..." I mean I eat all my veggies, I make sure to get the right amount of iron rich foods, calicum, protein etc....Then the baby comes out, and once that colicky period is past my rebellion emerges.

I usually lose all my pregnancy weight the first month of having a baby, then I gain almost as much as I did when I was pregnant while I'm nursing. I eat everything in sight! Correction, I eat everything that is crap for my body in sight! Hungry in the morning? How about some chocolate cake! "No kids you may not have fruit snacks in your lunch they're full of sugar!" (quietly stuffing choc. chips in my mouth when they're not looking) Then I quit nursing somewhere around the 1st birthday and find a nice balance of 1/2 healthy/ 1/2 crap. I mean somebody just drive over here and take these M&M's from me already!!

P.S. The twizzlers are in the cookbook cupboard and the Oreos are in the back of the pantry (a special treat for the kids of course). Grab those while your at it.

A hunting he will go

So he's going. And the best word I can use to describe his mood as he left tonight for his Dad's is "Giddy". For the first time in our 10 1/2 years of marriage Jason is going hunting. He grew up hunting with his dad, raised eating everything from Venison to Rabbit to Squirrel to Roadkill (short pause to insert Jay's defense: It only got hit in the head!). Yes he is a born and raised redneck and I knew this day would come. There's always been great excuses...not enough money, time, etc...and then he got into this "compound bow obsession" with his Dad. He went out and bought himself a deer tag for his birthday behind my back and sentences like "What do you think about me going hunting this year?" Turned to sentences like "Deer season starts the end of August." "When I go hunting in August with Dad I'll only be gone for a Saturday." I've never discouraged him from going.....I've just never encouraged him :)

Payton is not quite old enough and was very upset that he couldn't go. (Tears and everything). He doesn't quite understand that he'll scare all the deer in a 20 mile radius with every "When do we eat?". Before Jay left he told me that he told Payton to say a prayer for him in the morning. I said, "That you'll be safe or that you'll kill a deer?" Slight pause...."Both". Oh geeze.

Quick Survey: Should you pray to kill? I mean even Nephi just asked for location.....