I'm So Glad When Daddy is Home

I Believe in Celebrating Early and Often

My friends,
      in approximately 21 hours, our little family will be celebrating something we have never celebrated before. That's right. We have made it through our first semester of graduate school.

     And on this solemn occasion, I would like to let you know all the things I plan on taking advantage of for approximately the next 3 months until the next semester starts:

         1. Daddy daughter dates. Daddy's having double dates.
                          And some Mommy Daddy dates.
         2.  Working out at the gym with my husband. Hopefully.
         3.  LOTS more family activities including camping, hiking, long walks at the park, fun trips to
               far off places like Maine. :)
         4.  Lions! ( A game Daddy and Aftyn like to play together)
         5.  Fee Fi Fo Fum  ( A game Daddy plays with both girls)
         6. Talking with my husband in the evening. Instead of finding people to talk to on the phone.
         7. Anything husband related that I have sacrificed for the sake of school over the last 4
             months.

      I plan on savoring every blessed moment. And I know that the longer we are here and the more people we get to know, the more support and help I will find for myself when the next 2 semesters are coming at me.

Aftyn has become quite the little colorer lately. She will sit for over an hour and just color in her coloring book. She's even learning about coloring in the lines!

Just trying for a funny picture of Bronwyn. She is so quirky.

Coloring wears her right out. She is always telling me, "Mommy, I'm coloring SO HARD!"  :)

               

Bronwyn's First Steps !!!!!

It's Hot

So hot I woke up in bed this morning on my back with my clothes sticking sweatily to my back when I got up. It's impossibly hot here. And we were told we had air conditioning when we got this apartment. Clearly in Massachusetts they have a different sort of air conditioning than I'm used to. They must be talking about your body's natural way of cooling itself, aka sweating. 'Cause that's all we do when we turn on the supposed "air conditioning" units in our bedrooms and in our front room. No cold air coming out of those things.Mostly warm air, kinda like it's sucking the hot air from outside and depositing it into our apartment.
    Don't worry, Reed called our manager and left him a message about this problem, hoping that we really do have air conditioning. I'm fully expecting the call back from our manager to go a little something like this:
     Me: "We were wondering how to turn on the air conditioning in our apartment. It seems like we just don't know how to do it because our house just gets hotter when we turn the switch we think we're supposed to turn.
    Him:  *laughing maniacally in his air conditioned office* "What do you mean? The air conditioning worked for the last tenant, I'm sure there's something simple to fix here. "
     And he's probably thinking: "How can I stall so these people don't get upset that they really don't have air conditioning and that we lied to them from the beginning about the air conditioning?".

       Here's hoping we really have air conditioning, otherwise, prepare for a WHOLE lot of posts about how it's hot. Or about how we had to go home to Idaho for the summer to live with people who DON'T have humidity and who DO have air conditioning.


POST EDIT:  BREAKING NEWS EVERYONE!!!
I just asked one of my neighbors about the air conditioning. Apparently they will be giving us window units in May! We won't have to endure a hot sweaty interminable summer! Yay!!

I've Gotta Take More Time To Sit Back and Smell The Roses

In the beginning of this time of our lives,  I'd like to term TheBigMove, or TBM, I was excited for this unexpected and yet longed for adventure we were embarking on. Reed and I had, many nights when the girls were in bed, talked of this dream of moving away from safe little Idaho and taking on some different challenges in a new place. We both felt that that was what was next for us. And I certainly didn't know where that meant Heavenly Father would take us but I knew we would go.  And here we are 4 months to the day when we got the letter in the mail announcing Reed's acceptance and scholarship to his current university. It hasn't been what I expected and in retrospect I think that was good.
    It's not unlike the newly pregnant wife, due with her first child, so excited to someday come face to face with that loved little being she and her husband created. She's not thinking of the pain of labor, of the aches and pains her body will experience, the sleepless nights waking up to go to the bathroom at all hours. If she knew all of those things in their reality when she first became pregnant, it would change her perspective.
     I am grateful to be faced with so many unseen challenges and opportunities to grow. I may not be grateful for them while I'm in them, but even now I'm grateful for the experiences I've had that have prepared me for this time. Grateful for the support and love and friendship of all of my family and Reed's and so many of our friends, neighbors and ward members from back home. 
      I didn't start out this post intending to get sappy or emotional, and yet that is exactly how I'm feeling. I am incredibly grateful for the blessings we have been given and are continually given at this point here in Massachusetts. I have no doubt that in spite of everything that stands in our way, that we will accomplish whatever it is that Heavenly Father wants us to accomplish in living here.
      I am going to start working on enjoying my "now", whether that means enjoying putting my girls to bed by myself for the 5 millionth time or making dinner for myself and 2 little girls who love me but don't always love what I make for dinner. I will take 5 minutes a day to just sit and breathe and think about what I am doing right now that is important in the eternal perspective.
      Okay. On to the pictures I took of today!

Aftyn and Daddy went to Daddy's school library where they had a children's storytime. Aftyn was the only child there. :)  But she loved it and the "picnic" she and daddy shared on a couch afterward. She loves going to Reed's school.

This is the pizza Aftyn and Mommy made together! Aftyn sprinkled on the cheese and Mommy did the rest and Aftyn loved it!

Bronwyn was throwing a "lay on the ground and kick your feet" fit. She hasn't learned yet that Mommy doesn't do anything but get out the camera for them.  By the way, in spite of the chub you see here, this little girl is topping the scale at a whopping 16.5 lbs. We couldn't be more proud!  :)  lol

And then she turns right around and lays on the charm.

This is her crying/throwing a fit face. 

Easter Skirts

Please note:
*  the girls have bedhead, I just wanted to try their outfits on them right after they got up

* I made these skirts out of one of Reed's out of date dress shirts.  2 skirts for 2 little girls and tons of scraps left over. I thought about sewing Reed a matching tie. He told me no.  Maybe he would have said yes to his own skirt?     :)

Why you may or may not want to call me for the next 3 weeks

When I was a teenager, I enjoyed playing a game on the computer called The Sims.
Any of you know it?
 I want you to remember what happened with your Sim when he/she hadn't had anyone over in awhile. Remember how grumpy, sullen and just plain mad and crazy they got after awhile of social deprivation? I remember it being sort of entertaining for a little while, and then I felt some compassion for this electronic person who just needed someone to talk to who had something in common with them.
What does that have to do with me, you might ask?
Reed's in his final 3 weeks of the semester.
Because of all he has to get done, he is gone from about 9 in the morning until at least 9:45 at night. Except see, that's a good night. A stressful night is when he's gone until the wee hours of the morning studying or writing a paper in the library.

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China, you might ask.

Imagine yourself at home in your apartment. No balcony, no green space. A few windows to open is all you've got. You live in a neighborhood that's not the greatest for evening walks with your two small daughters and so you stay inside and play except for the once/twice a week trip to the store, the once a week trip to the laundromat and the occasional life saving get-togethers with my friend from our ward. And the morning only walks to the YMCA on the mornings that Bronwyn hasn't spent the night crying about her teeth that just don't seem to want to come in. (Seriously, we're working on well over a month for 2 bottom and now 2 top teeth. None of them will come in! I'm going a little crazy over the whole thing.)
What I'm trying to say is that I'm pretty much with our girls for 11-12 hour days. With no one to talk to and break up the monotony of the day or if I do get to talk to someone, they don't come home with me and make dinner when I'm so tired and have had a stressful day. It's all on my shoulders.
So should you happen to call me between the hours of 6-9 over the next 3 weeks, this is what you can expect:
           -- A nice long conversation. I don't mean to, but I can't help it! I finally have someone to talk to, who has something in common with me! I'm that socially deprived Sim! Just think of how quickly my social bar is moving up while you talk with me!  :)
           -- A little screaming from the kids as they go crazy while I just let them run free and enjoy my phone conversation.
             -- Probably a lot of sighing. And venting. And reminders of how much longer until Reed is finished with this semester.

    Keep in mind, I am grateful to be here. I'm grateful for this opportunity to go to school. But there are hard parts. This is just one of them, and this is still MY first semester of learning how to handle 24/7 single mothering. I know it's just as hard on Reed to be missing time with the girls and with me.

    And we'll all survive. But you may never want to call me again in the last 3 weeks of a semester.

                            :)

Post Edit: : : : : :    
                I am NOT  looking for sympathy with this post.
 I am looking to educate the family and friends that call and probably feel like they can't get off the phone with me because I just keep talking!
   I find it funny, and find myself apologizing a lot especially when I feel I might be carrying on the conversation longer than the caller had anticipated it lasting.
      I do have lots of time spent in the week seeing and spending time with my friend and her daughter and even making friends at the laundromat. (I don't make friends because I don't have many. I do it because it only adds to my experience here. I like to get to know more of the people here in Massachusetts and understand what makes them tick.) 
        It's just that in the evening hours, when I'm used to Reed being home from work (back in Idaho) and playing with the girls and asking him about his day and him asking about mine, he's at school.
And that's just life.
And I'm still adjusting.
And so are our girls.
And so is Reed.
And that's okay.
And when we're done adjusting to this semester, the semester will be over and summer will be here and we'll have an entirely new routine to get used to.  :)
LOL   

Video of Bronwyn