An Honestly Slightly Bitter Post

If I have to read about one more person getting to "go home" to see their family for Christmas on Facebook, I may blow a gasket. I'm completely green with envy. I really miss my family. Thanksgiving was hard, and judging by how I'm feeling on only December the 7th, well, in the next 18 days I'm going to wish approximately 1,256,982 times that I too could go home for Christmas. Thank you. That is all.

 (This all may be coming about because one of my friends is going home to Utah tomorrow with her kids and will be staying for a whole month. And everyone else who's out here for school is also going home for Christmas.)

Only 6 more days until Reed gets out of school and Christmas comes 12 days later. I'll be better when Reed's out of school and around more. He gets a month off between semesters. And yes, only one more semester to go. Remind me of that in a couple weeks when I am ready to hear it. :)

Come Up With Your Own Captions!

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A Fun Christmas Project

Take an empty egg carton. Cut out the individual egg cups. 

Make 6 cuts around the circular bottom of the cup, so that it looks like this. 

 (Look in the lower right hand corner of the picture below.)

                                                                                                  

                        We then painted ours but we had no white paint so we used light pink. :)

Aftyn LOVED the painting part. It was her first time really painting anything this complex.

                                                                           Her efforts seen here.
                                  So when the paint dries, you can either sew them into
                                    a falling snow pattern with thread (by hand or machine)
                                      or hot glue them into the same pattern using yarn.  
                                  

I used hot glue. It was fast!  I love how pretty they are - I actually REALLY like that they are such a pretty pink.

 

      And here's my awesome homemade wreath that I made at my ward's

     Relief Society wreath  making activity. It smells SO yummy! :) 

    Be impressed. Ha!

Glimpses of Today

Bronwyn has a love of all things sticker - so today we started a sticker chart instead of treats. It's time to detox. :)

A few days ago, Aftyn wanted to make a bed for her puppy, seen here. She insisted on taking it to bed. I think it's imaginative and reminds me of myself when I was little.

Bronwyn and her dolly in the same sleeping pose.

The Holidays and The End of The Semester

Have you ever noticed that sometimes my posts kind of become impersonal?

Behind the scenes, here's why: something about life is hard and I don't want to share it.

Lately, I feel that I haven't been writing from the heart. So here's what's up.

The holidays this year are different. 

They remind me that last Christmas we were stressed

and excited and trying to get ready to move across the country and decide lots of things.

We said goodbye to our life in Idaho last year.

That's still a very sad thought for me.

I miss living around family, but I appreciate it in a way I probably didn't use to.

Also, we're currently surviving "The End of The Semester". 

A rather bleak place at times depending on what I'm trying to shoulder on my own.

Currently shouldering potty training on my own. 

Some days I'm good, some days not so good.

We're starting our 3rd week and I'm starting to remember 

a whole lot of what it was like with Aftyn.

We're going to make it out, and in about 3 weeks potty training 

AND T.E.o.T.S. will both be better.

We're just hanging on with as much hope as we can muster day by day.

And that's the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Oh yeah, and I'm in charge of our Relief Society Christmas Musical Program 

that is this week.

I'm a little stressed about that as well. 

That will turn out just fine as well. 

I'm sure.

This is me charming the socks off of you. I'm guessing around the age of 8.

Post Script: I turned my comments back on. Because it's nice to hear from you all. :)

What We Did For Thanksgiving

I have to write this down for posterity. Skip it if you like. I want this recorded so I can remember.

We were invited to a family in our ward's Thanksgiving feast. It was delicious!

 Following in my mothers foosteps, I offered to bring the rolls made from her recipe.

They were delicious!

The food was great, our hosts youngest daughter was such a sweet little friend to Aftyn and

Bronwyn and both girls wore themselves out on the trampoline.

As we were preparing to go home, the wife suggested we use her phone and computer to set

up a Skype session to call my parents. Me being me, I didn't want to be a bother, but she insisted.

So I called my dad, got his screen name, and within a few minutes it was a small family reunion.

It was so good to see my parents. I'm thankful for that time I had to sit and talk with my parents.

It was really what I needed. I have missed them.  We were over at their house for about 6 hours.

We watched "The Avengers" amongst all the chaos of playing and eating and kids napping.

Truly a nice relaxed family Thanksgiving.

We came home tonight and decorated and put up

our Christmas tree.  After the kids were in bed and I sat on the couch trying to bask in the light

coming off of the tree, I realized that this tree that had followed us across the US to our new home

in Massachusetts looked a little forlorn in our "cold" apartment. Hopefully its warmth will return

tomorrow when I move it over by the window. Something about a Christmas tree in the corner of a

room near a window where others might catch a glimpse of its sparkly lights.  And then I'll put up

a picture, with my two very excited girls in front of their favorite new attraction. :)

I've lost My Iron-Will

I just figured out about 3 days ago that my iron levels are low.

Which would explain why I've had less energy than normal.

And felt mildly depressed.

Luckily, it's not as bad as it has been.

While I'm waiting for my iron levels to return to normal,

 I'll just be eating junk food and probably putting on a few of the pounds

that I've recently lost. It's all worth it though.

When my iron levels get back to normal  I'm hoping to have the will to exercise again.

Maybe.