Party, Family, Money

So far, I've been doing a lot better about keeping my blog updated. I don't know if anyone reads my blogs, but it's a good way for me to journal and every few months it's fun to look back and see what I've posted about.

Kyle's b-day party is this Saturday, June 19 and I haven't gotten many RSVP's regardless of how many emails I've sent out. It's a bit discouraging. I know my sister-in-laws from SLC are coming. A few families have family reunions, my family is coming up later on the 22nd and staying for a few days, and the rest well, I haven't heard from. But if it's only us and my sister-in-laws then we'll make the most of it. And I won't have to make as much food! Instead I'll put more money toward presents. I suppose later this week I will resort to making phone calls because I do need an idea of how much food to have prepared.

Other than that, the party plans are coming along nicely! I have great party favor ideas, the two swimming pools will be set up, and I have some awesome recipes! I've changed the menu again from sloppy joes to tater tot caserole and spaghetti bake, with homemade french bread and a green salad. The only other change is I ommited the pinwheels. I made some last week as a test and Jason and I weren't fond of it. I could try a different recipe, but at this point I think I have enough food that I don't really need to worry or add any more to my baking list. I hope Kyle has a great day! And we are going to get Lily just as involved because she's too young to understand it's her brother's day and vice versa on her b-day.

On Tuesday or Wednesday when my family arrives, we've decided to hold a b-day celebration for Kyle, Lily and my niece Gracie. Because we live so far away from eachother that we don't see eachother often. I think that will be fun. We'll do a mini party with a small cake with just us. It'll be so much fun to have my kids meet Gracie again. We've only met her one other time and that was at the most for only an hour. Kyle and Gracie are only 3 months apart; Gracie will be one in August. I'm excited to have them visit!

In other news... Jason has another paper route! We've been blessed that he was able to switch his part time job with Herald Journal to Preston from Logan, but in doing so we lost $150 income a month. But he was asked to start a new route last Friday and with this route we've closed the $150 gap, and increased by $140! It's not much, but it's something to be happy about! Every little bit counts and the best part is that we're not short the $150 and having to budget for less, instead we are out on top, and are in a house! The Lord has really been good to us. I'm a little afraid that we've been blessed so well, that right around the corner may be turmoil! Knock on wood!! I'm blessed that Jason is so hard working. I wish he didn't have to work so hard. And someday soon, I believe things will ease up once he finishes school.

Today has been a lazy day. I've been feeling off today and so I haven't done much. I did clean the living room and kitchen, but I didn't get to organizing and putting away toys or putting my room back in order (the kids LOVE to bring toys and books to my room-- it's like their unofficial play room) And I did make two loaves of french bread following my friend Launi's recipe on her food blog. It turned out fabulous and sooo yummy! I made it because we have spaghetti bake leftover from last night and I thought french bread would go great with it. It was my first time making french bread, but it was so easy!! And I used half wheat half white flour ratio. i've been trying to do little changes to help my family be more healthy and this little switch is easy to do and wheat adds a nice nutty flavor in my baking. I actually like it better in my bananna bread and frybread. I guess I haven't been too lazy today, but compared to being on the go and having the house spotless, and at least going outside to play with the kids or go for a walk, I wasn't close to accomplishing my norm for a regular day. I hope I feel better tomorrow. I feel quite unaccomplished today.

It's funny how things change when you are single to being married with two kids. I use to sleep in until at least 10- 12 noon, and then spend the day doing nothing at all... Now I'm up at the crack of dawn, and try to be in bed by 9:30pm. And all day is pretty much on the go. At first it was hard. I'm glad that I was able to adjust with one child at a time. I think it would of been so much harder if Lily and Kyle were twins and I was dropped right into it. It has still been an adjustment, and to be honest getting into the swing of things has just recently happened. I think a few months before we moved here I was finally able to keep the apartment clean and things put away. And now, I'm starting to have time to bake. A big difference is Lily is older and Kyle has someone to play with. When Lily was Kyle's age she relied on me a lot to entertain her. These days, I find I'm kid free for an hour or so a few times a day. I just check on the kids in another room and take care of their diaper, feeding needs and they go off and play. It's not like this all the time, but it's becoming more and more frequent. Now I have no excuse about not having time to exercise. That is my next thing to add back into my life, along with really styling my hair and putting make-up on.

Ray of Sunshine

The yard is looking great! I need to post a current picture of the backyard. along the fence on the left-hand side there was a row of overgrown small trees and bushes that was pushing the neighbors fence down. One weekend Jason and I decided to tackle it and prepare to put a newer fence in in a few months. A lot of the trees were dead so they were easy to pull out. So we started and worked out there for a few hours and then stopped for the day to get dinner ready and served. Anyways, our next door neighbors on the other side of the fence came over the next day and he was sooo happy to see the trees go. He's lived next door for twenty years and hated the trees. He's able to get his truck into his backyard, unlike us (not really happy that we can't get a car in the back) and with his truck, tied rope on the remaining trees an bushes and pulled it out in a jiffy. And then within a week, he had a beautiful fence put up. I'm glad he had the moolah handy to do so, because we weren't planning on knocking down the fence yet. So, it looks fabulous! It's so nice. I love our backyard. And every Saturday Jason, the kids and I are out there pulling weeds and trying to improve the yard. It looks so much nicer now than it did when we first moved in.

Sunday we went to Crystal and Clay's baby blessing for their son Christopher William Woods. Cute little guy! We went over to Grandma Barbara's after for a luncheon. Crystal and Clay live with her and help her out. I've already forgotten how small babies are and it's only been a half a year since Kyle has really grown. Oh, how I love babies!!!

Kyle's party is coming along nicely. I was having a hard time planning it, but I finally have the menu finalized! It will be great! Here's what I'm serving and I'm so excited!

Refreshments:
2-3 variety of party pinwheels
chips and salsa
homemade banana bread
watermelon
cookie tray variety
jello tower
birthday cake
pop and water

Dinner:
sloppy joes
potato salad
green salad
chips
& whatever is left from refreshments.

I have to say it is easier to plan parties now that I had the calling of being Enrichment Leader in the Logan 23rd Ward. I learned a lot from my calling and loved it! I absolutely love it! I learned how to serve a large group of people good food for a reasonable price! And I learned how to decorate for a party!

The kids are enjoying nicer weather finally! It's still stormy at times but nothing like it was in early and mid May. And it's not too hot yet, so they can enjoy being outside.

Kyle has learned how to push himself backwards and forwards on his little push car-- hand me down from Lily. He loves it! And he has had the pleasure of tasting Popsicles and ice-cream and loves it. He tackles me whenever i head to the freezer! He'll sit on his little car, put his feet up, and kick back and relax eating his Popsicle. He's not walking yet, but he's very close to standing up, and I think once he does that, it'll be official... My baby will have truly grown. ;) It's a bitter sweet feeling.

Lily has learned how to ride her tricycle! And she loves it! She also loves the frozen goods, and enjoys playing outside. I love that the back is fully fenced in, it gives me comfort to know that and be able to send her out to play safely. She also no longer uses a stroller when we go for walks. So we only use a single stroller now for Kyle and Lily walks next to me. It's great to give her good exercise and teach her about how to navigate herself on the sidewalk and streets. I've started talking to her about crossing, and checking both ways to look for cars. When we get to an intersection to cross, she'll grab my hand before we cross and really does take mind to looking for cars. She really is getting to be a big girl.

I cannot say how much we love this house! How much we've grown to love Preston. I feel safer here, more accepted?-- strange as that sounds to me, or perhaps just happily settled is a better way to put it. I feel safer going for long walks here verses when I lived in Logan, and people are the nicest I've ever come across in my life. We meet new people every time we go for a walk. People will just stop us to chat and introduce themselves. They have a real interest in knowing who their neighbors are and as Jason said, "They look you in the eye's when they talk to you here." It's nice. On our walks, we've been invited into homes, invited over to dinner and family night, and even walked right into a play date on our walk home. We've had friends invite us to the park and life is just quiet. I feel like this place is just ideal for us. True, it's a small town. And I thought I disliked small towns, but I think that dislike came from living in the small town I grew up in. Preston is filled with kind people, hard working people, and honest people. And we're really not to far from Logan, and one of these weekends we'll venture to Pocatello, because Jason and I have never been there.

We love our God; we love each other; we love our lives; we love our home. It's a season of blessings for us. We've had our fair share of storms and they are still there, concerning extended family, but here's a ray of sunshine.

I Don't Quite Know What Title To Put Here

I am one of those people who can't stand to hear stories about abused children, yet I can't turn away from hearing it. It just breaks my heart and I cry and cry. In my little world my kids and I have a loving relationship and I adore them. I guess I forget sometimes that not all children have this. I just watched a video and then did a few searches on a 5 month old baby girl named Brianna Lopez in New Mexico. This took place in 2002 and she was only 5 months old when she died. It makes me sick... She was bitten numerous times, pinched, thrown up to the cieling but never caught, and she was raped by a full grown man. I can't even begin to accept that these things actually happened to a 5 MONTH OLD BABY! I am sick to my stomach that this took place. And how could a mother do this? Her mother was the one who mostly bit her? I pray to God that she didn't suffer, that maybe the pain was taken away when these things happened. Or maybe since she was still so young and innocent that she had thoughts of her Heavely Father and Savior and the heaven that she just left to comfort her and get her through the pain she suffered in her short life. I hope she saw angels around her to cofort her; maybe she saw the Savior. I know that we know what we'll face on this earth before we came here, and so she perhaps was prepared. But a baby? A small baby? How can anyone be so cruel? How can there be so many cruel people in her family to all do this to her? Her mother, her father, her uncle and a grandmother and another uncle who knew about the abuse but did nothing.

I just don't know. A part of me hoped that this story wasn't true and that it didn't take place and so that's why I googled it, but it is true. It did happen. Baby Brianna had broken new and old broken bones and new and old bleeding in her brain in addition to bite marks and bruises from being thrown and being raped. And somewhere out there, it's probably happening again. This is just one story I'm writing about but I know that I've read and heard other stories in the past. It's so hard to hear, but I can't ignore it either.

There will come a judgement day and people who do these evil things to innocent children will have to answer. I wish that gave me peace right now. But I still feel sad just having read this story. I think I'll finish this post then go hold my sleeping children. At least, these small children and babies that suffer and are dead, are now in the arms of a loving heavenly family, Father, Mother and Brother.