A Bronwyn Moment

This morning after bathing the girls, Reed brought Bronwyn out to me so I could dress her.

And to further illustrate what Bronwyn's been learning lately, 

I brought her two little hands together

so he could see how eager she was to clap but how she hasn't mastered it yet.

And she clapped! With the biggest grin and the most enthusiasm I had seen yet!

Reed and I both were surprised, but happy 

that we both got to witness such a cute moment with her.

We love her playful little personality in our family.

Let me out!

Rosy little cheeks from her nap and her mouth in its normal position: making some kind of sound or other

2 people who also love our little Bronwyn

Big Things Happening Around Here

Bronwyn has finally uttered my name: Mumumum
She has mostly said it when she wants out of her crib. :)
Or when she gets left downstairs and she wants to come up.
But she seems to have the grasp of who she's talking to!
(She gets a big grin on her face when I say it to her to get her to say it.
She won't say it unless she wants to. So far.)

Aftyn, the girl who doesn't like ketchup, has found a love for tomato soup. Odd.
And finally, spaghetti sauce as well!
Now that I've said it out loud, she'll probably stop liking both of these things. Again.
Oh well.

Reed finishes one of his classes this week. He can't wait. I can't either.

Next week is Spring Break!! And Reed's birthday!!
We're planning on taking the train into Boston and making a fun day of it.
Walking the Freedom Trail. Seeing Paul Revere's house.
Have some good quality family time.

Before Reed has to go back to crazy school hours again
 and he's adding 2 more classes into the mix for the next 2 months.

Joy!!

As for me, our lives here at home (just me and the kids) seems to have finally gotten back into our
old rhythm. Aftyn just finished digging out all her toys out of the boxes this morning.
T-Rex!
Martian!
Mr. Bubbles!

It's a family reunion! :)

I'm looking forward to meeting my goal of nursing Bronwyn full time until 10 months. I haven't found a way for me to lose weight and continue to nurse Bronwyn, so since we needed to save money over me losing weight, I determined that at 10 months I could start to exercise and diet in earnest and that we could feed Bronwyn formula for 2 months and I would continue to nurse Bronwyn as long as she felt interested in the little I would be giving her. So, with mixed feelings I am looking forward to 16 days from now when Bronwyn turns 10 months!  :) 

I'm looking forward to Thursday night when Reed has his last class
and his Spring Break officially begins!
Can't wait!!

And Then it Snowed

It has felt so like springtime here with warmer temperatures and some sunny days that I had positively decided that this weekend was going to be my winter/spring barrier.
Time to break out our spring dresses and other sunny spring attire.
Today I dressed my girls up in warm springs colors and decked them out with jackets as we prepared to go out shopping for groceries.
 Just as we pulled up to our first grocery stop, it started to snow.
Not kidding.
Oh well.
We hurried and the snow stayed light until a few hours later when we had a bit of what appeared to be a blizzard in the air and nothing on the roads or sidewalks. Since we need some new pictures of my kids on here, I will oblige:

p.s. I know, Aftyn is not wearing tights. Other than some wind though, the temperatures didn't really drop for the snow! Odd, hmm?

A Skyline Full of Possiblities

Don't you just love the green of the bay windows? After 6 weeks, these 2 buildings are beginning to become favorites

I love how gothic this church looks. The one slightly to the right of the middle of the picture, in case you don't see it.

For some reason, this painted on name reminds of a hotel in an old abandoned ghost town. It seems a pretty old way to identify your building.

Mildly crooked, but yet another church steeple in our view out our front room/kitchen window. LOTS and LOTS of old brick buildings in this city. It's pretty neat.

Talking To Strangers

I've decided that I have a bi-weekly, sometimes weekly experience, that is mostly worth writing about. It's called "doing laundry at the laundromat". And I've decided to write about it as often as it happens, especially if something noteworthy occurs. Because most of the time, it's day - altering!

I happen to go to a laundromat in the next town over. Why the next town over? Well, if you saw where I live and the people I see and experience, you might understand why I choose to go the next town over. It's a little less rough, I pay a little more money for a nicer crowd of people, and have yet to really be disappointed there. Plus, it's only about a 7 minute drive.

My first visit to said laundromat ended with 2 very friendly women, one who told me her name was Patty and a few of the close local stores where I could find cheap groceries and household items, and the other woman helped me figure out all the laundromat machines. It always helps when I have my children with me because their cute little faces could charm the pants off of most people, on a good day when they have both been fed and napped. :) My 2 girls went to work, and soon enough we were all talking like old friends! It's always rejuvenating when complete strangers will be kind and helpful. Patty even helped me out to my car with all my bags of now-clean-laundry! What a sweetheart!

I seem to go bi-weekly, so my 2nd visit was two weeks ago and Reed was able to accompany me for the first time since I wanted him to see "our" laundromat and the neat store that Patty  had informed me of on my first visit. That week there was a grumpy hispanic lady who frowned at me anytime I tried to make eye contact or even smiled at her. Her wall was impenetrable. No talkative strangers that day.

This morning I had everything ready to go and despite a rather sleepless night thanks to a teething Bronwyn, I was up and at the laundromat *by myself* by 9 am! Reed stayed home with the girlies, so I got to go do laundry by myself. It was heaven. I was mostly alone until my clothes were almost finished washing, when a man wearing sweatpants approached me to ask me how to wash something for his fiance.
 I was literally tearing up as this man explained he was trying to wash his fiance's sheets because it was their anniversary and the one thing his sweetheart loved more than anything was clean sheets and so he wanted to have that as one of his surprises for her. He just didn't want to mess it all up, so what temperature should he wash them at, should he wash them together and what heat should he dry them? Honestly, at first I thought he was going to ask me for quarters and I was debating what my answer would be.
 So the Bedding Guy and I started talking as he seemed open to talking and very kind hearted. We talked about all kinds of things including kind people and how they're rather hit and miss in this area. Then a man who only dried his clothes began to talk to me. He was a driving instructor named Bill who taught in my city. I learned some interesting driving tips from him, but mostly that you have to drive defensively AND aggressively here otherwise you'll get hit and honked at. And you have to watch out for the red light runners. Evidently they're everywhere. 

All in all, a very talkative day in the laundromat. Such kind and caring men. A little odd that I find the men here more caring and open to talking than the women. (But that's not just at the laundromat). I had to go back into the laundromat after I was done and starting up my car because I hadn't talked to the B.G and wished him good luck with his bedding washing and his anniversary.
And he thanked me again. (!) 

Feel free to come back in another 2 weeks or sooner 

and hear 

about another edition!

Things I'm Learning and Have Learned:

The stress I feel and carry:  Normal!

I can handle more than I think:  Especially if Heavenly Father's on my side and helping me

I'm supposed to learn something from being sick
(everyone woke up on Monday sick with our 3rd cold) : patience? long-suffering? To slow down?

It's important to me and my family's well-being that I learn to handle my stress well: A-huh!

I'm grateful for all the family and friends who support and love me and my kids

This will all only be a little blink of the eye, but what we'll have learned from it will be huge!

I Guess Life Can't Always Be Hunky-Dory

Are you ready to hear a whole lot of whining?
I hope not. I'm going to try to keep it to a minimum.

I can't tell you how much I would rather keep this to myself
 but I think it's making the current pain I'm in worse.

Since we have moved here to Worcester, I have suffered 1 severely sprained/strained wrist, 1 slight
relapse with the same wrist, and several mornings woken up to a very stiff neck. The stiff neck I
attributed to the 2 colds I've had as well since we've moved here. You know, sometimes the achy yuckiness of a cold can move into the parts of your body where you carry stress. Well, I'm here to tell you that I now have a pinched nerve in my neck, which has given me a lot of food for thought that perhaps I've had  stiff neck muscles and today's pinched nerve in my neck because of the current load of stress I'm carrying.

My stress level has been pretty high at different times since we've moved here.

It is stressful living in a new city, surrounded by risks I'm not accustomed to, drug dealers and scariness literally outside our door. My husband is gone A. LOT. Full time jobs have nothing on full time class loads. And I feel like I'm whining to a world full of other people who shoulder more stress than I do and carry it off with a whole lot more grace than I'm managing to right now. 

I guess what I should be asking myself is what is Heavenly Father trying to teach me right now? Maybe he wants me to slow down, obviously he wants me to not get so stressed. Stress is something I've struggled with a lot in my life. I guess I need to learn better ways of handling it.

So now that you know why I've not been blogging this week, do you have any words of wisdom to pass along and make this time while we're in school any easier?

p.s. I miss home. In case you couldn't tell. I miss my quiet street. I miss my backyard for Aftyn to play in and run around in. I miss the playground close by that is nice and safe. I miss, I miss, I miss.