Good Friday

So we’ve had a good start to this “Good Friday”.  I thought it might be a rough day when Hank woke up about 6:15 which is totally abnormal but I got him up, changed his clothes cause he was a little wet, and then gave him some milk and he went back to bed and slept until about 8:45.   So I was able to sleep in until about 7:45.  So nice.  Then for breakfast we all had strawberry banana smoothies with spinach.  They were so yummy.  And when Hank woke up I gave him a big glass of it and he drank the whole thing.  In short this kid NEVER eats anything.  It’s such a chore at meal time getting anything down him.  So I think I will be making smoothies more often now.  He loved it! 

Then we headed off to an Easter egg hunt the park district was doing.  Hank and Kate had a lot fun (except for meeting Ronald and the Easter bunny; Hank hated that part )!

Then we headed out for lunch.  I thought lets keep this good day going.  Kate didn’t have any school because of the holiday so we didn’t have to rush back for that so I thought let go to lunch.  So we went to my favorite and now Kate’s favorite, Chili’s (she likes to play the games and watch cartoons on the little kiosk thingy).  They were so good.  Better than they ever are when I take them out to restaurant.  Kate was calm and ate most of her food.  Hank sat and actually ATE food.  Shocking!  So good kids and yummy food.

Now we’re home and Hank is down for his nap and Kate is being good playing with all her goodies from the hunt.  Which means I get to have some time to catch up on the blog.   Fantastic day so far.  I think what would top it off is having Craig walk in the door before 6.   hint hint 

My April Fools Joke on Craig

I’m grateful for tender moments

So a few days ago I started a a gratitude journal.  I was finding myself going through out the day realizing different, very little, everyday things that I loved so much that I get to do, see, hear, etc.  I wanted to make sure I recorded these things.  So I had heard awhile back about the concept of a gratitude journal that Oprah had done.  You can read more about it here.  I know this is old news (I think she did this show in ‘96…I think…I could be wrong) but I thought this would be a good way to get my thoughts down and hopefully draw in more positive energies.    Did I just say that???  That doesn’t even sound like me…but it’s true.  I think it sounds like fun.

Examples that’s I’ve done in the last few days are

Grateful when Kate’s fallen asleep in our bed that I get to pick her up and hold her for a few minutes.

Grateful when I get to go check on Henry right before I go to bed and see his sweet self all cozy in his crib.  His face is always soooo cute!

Grateful for the sound of my kids laughing in unison as we play hide and seek.

Grateful for Diet Coke that gets me through most days (What! I had to put that one in there!)

Grateful for Craig’s job and that he is in school and loves it.

So that’s a few.  Today I am grateful for the tender moment I had with Kate today.  This morning we (Hank,Kate,and myself) were all sitting at the table eating our breakfast.  Now Katelyn is so clumsy when it comes to her food and drinks.  With out fail at every meal she will spill something.  Most of the time it’s her drink but not always.  If it’s not her drink then it’s something from her plate.  It gets really frustrating sometimes because I am ALWAYS going to have to clean up after Hank; he’s the baby.  I guess I just think Kate should be able to get through a meal without spilling.  It just doesn’t happen.  So anyway back to breakfast…I guess I kink of ruined it with where this story is going.  Katelyn spills her glass of chocolate milk and it goes all over the table and floor.  You’re probably saying to yourself “Then give her a sippy cup if she’s always spilling!”  I guess I could do that.  I guess I just figured a 4 1/2 year old shouldn’t be drinking out of a sippy cup.  So I’m mad and I yell a little more and louder than I usually do.  It’s not an excuse but I guess I’m just a little spent this week.  Craig was gone the first half of the week and it’s been spring break and Craig had to work today which I was looking forward to having him home.  So I tell Kate to go out of the kitchen and out of the way so I can clean this up and she goes up to her room instead and slams the door.  It takes me about 5-7 min. to clean up and then I scarf down the rest of my breakfast and then take Hank upstairs to get dressed.  I walk into their room and she says to me “Mom, I know you’re mad at me but soon you wont be.”  I was like “Oh ya.  Why is that?”  Okay are you ready???  Here comes the tender moment. She says “ ‘cause I said a prayer to the Holy Ghost and told him to tell you not to be mad anymore and I told him to help me not spill my drinks anymore.”  It was pretty bitter sweet.  On one hand I thought it was really sweet and I was happy that she knew she could pray for help and comfort when she needed it.  But I was upset at myself for getting so upset over “spilled milk”.  Upset enough that my little Kate had to go upstairs and pray about it.  Guess it’s another lesson learned for the mom in another day of motherhood. 

False Alarm

Thursday was kind of a crazy day for me.  A friend of mine had invited us over to her house to let the kids play outside in the pool since it was such a beautiful day.  I was really excited cause I knew my kids would have the blast.  Last weekend we happened to buy Kate a new swimsuit but I didn’t have one for Henry.  I knew the one from last year would in no way fit him.  So I got up early to get ready so I could leave the house by 9 to go to the store to get Hank a swimsuit.  I had to leave early cause Kate had dance at 11:30 so I wanted to make sure I had enough time to find one I liked.  So after Kate was done with dance we headed straight up to my friends house and we didn’t leave there until about 5 or 5:30.  Didn’t plan on staying that long but I guess that’s what happens when you get carried away talking.  It was good but frustrating talk.  There were just things I had found out from this friend about stuff going on that related to my calling at church that made me really upset and frustrated.   So because of this crazy day Hank hasn’t had a nap and so I hurry and get him some dinner and put him to bed at 6.  Then I ate dinner and was trying to get Kate to eat some dinner which she refused.  She wanted to eat with her dad.  So I was like fine with me.  My sister Dani then called to tell me the bad news that my brother was coming home from his mission so I was like great.  Then I had to get ready for a meeting that I had at Kate’s pre-school that I didn’t really want to go to at 7:30. 

So I’m upstairs getting ready and I’m pretty frustrated and Craig comes home and comes upstairs gives me a hug and says “How was your day?”  And I snapped back at him “Not good!”   He asked why and I replied that 1-my house is a mess.  I’ve been gone literally all day and I haven’t had time to do the dishes and Kate’s toys and papers are all over the house 2-I found out stuff about my calling that has really made me mad and 3-Dani just called me and told me that Zach’s coming home.  So he was very nice and said “I’m sorry, what has happened with your calling”.  So I continue let him know everything I had found out things that were bothering me that I didn’t know how to fix and with all this I’m am pretty heated.  Swearing and yelling even.  So Craig is being a great listener and letting me vent and he’s feeling bad cause this calling crap has been going on for so long.  Well Kate was in the room with us and she was trying to play with Craig’s phone but it is locked with a password.  So on the blackberry phones when you try to unlock the phone there is also and emergency call button there as well.  I think you can all see where this is going…So I’m ranting and Katelyn comes and gives Craig his phone and says “Here dad.”  Craig looks confused but then answers the phone and starts apologizing to the lady on the other line   He’s saying stuff like oh it’s just my wife, she’s had a bad day, she was just venting to me.  She then confirms our address and then they end the conversation.  We couldn’t believe Kate had just called 911.  Craig then says “I bet they send the police over, that phone call was 2 min. in.”  I’m like great so I tell Craig well then get down stairs and you and Kate pick up all her toys and papers in case they do.  I felt really bad for Katelyn cause she was genuinely scared and upset.  She kept saying to us “Please don’t let them take me to jail.”  I was worried because of the conversation they heard that they would think I was a crazy person, want to search my house or something.  Which made it worse since I hadn’t touched my house all day.  Katelyn then said to Craig “Don’t let them search the house dad.”  I know typing this and you probably reading this are thinking why were we being so irrational.  Oh well.  So  I have to go cause I’m already late for this meeting and when I pull into the parking lot at the school I get a phone call.  It’s Craig and when I answered he said “Hey Linds, here you need to talk to the police officer.”  GREAT!  He gets on the phone “Hi ma'am, this is officer so n’ so with the Lake County Sherriff's Office.  I just wanted to call to make sure that you were alright.”  I told him that yes I was fine and I was just venting to my husband cause I had had a bad day and that I’m really sorry about all this.  He then asked me if I knew how all this happened and I said “Ya, my daughter was playing with my husbands phone but it was locked and she must have pushed the emergency call button.”  He was nice and was like okay and then went back to talking to Kate and he told her “If you are ever scared you can always call the police cause were the nice guys and you can call us anytime.”  Then he left.  Craig said that when the police officer had pulled up he started to walk away from our house and so Craig opened the door and said  “I think you’re here for us.”  haha  I honestly didn’t think that they would send someone over.  So it didn’t look very good that right after this phone call the wife suddenly isn’t home anymore.   

I am glad though that they cared enough cause I’m sure real domestic violence calls are made a lot with small children involved and they wanted to just be careful so I’m glad they cared enough to come and make sure Kate was okay.  I just can’t believe the timing of it all.  I don’t really vent very often.  I tend to hold stuff in and then every once in awhile have a good venting and get it all out.  This time a 911 dispatcher go listen too.  I wonder if she was thinking “What is wrong with this crazy lady.  She talking nonsense.”

Afterwards when I got home we just laughed a lot about it.  Kate’s defense is “I didn’t know I was calling 911 cause I don’t know how to read cause I’m not in high school yet.”

This is one for the books! 

Things I did instead of blogging…

So it’s obvious I have not blogged in….hmmm…awhile.    It’s crazy that my last post was about when Henry was born.  He’s 17 months now!  The more  months that went by the more overwhelming the thought of blogging was.  I was just getting more and more behind and I never had the day that I could just Spend all day catching up and blogging (I wish though).  So I have finally decided that instead of catching up with every detail of the last 17 months of our lives I will just give a brief summary of what we’ve been up to.  Maybe a month to month description.

January 2011

January was a busy month in the sense that half the month we were still on vacation in Utah from spending the holidays there.  Craig took Katelyn skiing for the first time and had a blast.  Something I think they missed getting to do this year.  It’s also busy too with getting home and getting back in to your routine.  Henry was 3 months and so it is always nice to come home to your stuff with one that small.  They just require so much stuff that you have to pack up. 

Craig also found out that he was accepted to Duke’s Cross Continent MBA Program.  We were so thrilled!

February 2011

This was the month of our crazy winter blizzard.  Chicago got 20 inches of snow.  Craig didn’t even try to go in to the office that day.  He just worked from home.  It was crazy how much snow we got!

Henry also rolled over for the first time on Feb. 08 and sat up sometime in the middle of Feb.

March 2011

Henry started crawling the first of March.  It’s crazy how fast he did everything.

April 2011

We had Easter at the end of this month and were able to spend it with all my best friends!  It was bitter sweet day.  I don’t remember exactly now but I think it was the very next day that our “R” was leaving us.  I miss her so much!  :)  Kids had fun hunting eggs in the yard.  It was a good Sunday.

May 2011

May was a very busy month.  Now that Craig was going to be starting school we knew we were going to stay in Chicago for another couple years.  Our condo we were living in was so small and the kids were getting bigger so it was time to move.  We found a place we liked in Mundelein and moved there the end of the month.  SO all month it was packing every day!  This was also a hard month because Mundelein is a 1/2 hour north west of Evanston where we lived and so we were moving out of our ward and stake.  We wanted really badly to stay but just couldn’t find a place in the boundaries that fit our needs.  Luckily I go down there a lot and stay in touch with all my friends there.  We miss them.  We’re fortunate to be in a great new ward.  They are very friendly and I have made many more new friends.  You can never have too many right The new townhouse is good too.  There are things we love and things we hate but all and all the space is MUCH better and things are good with that. 

June 2011 

The start of June was pretty busy.  We had just had the move and Kate still had a few days of pre school that had us driving to Wilmette a lot.  Kathy and Taryn also came the first of June which worked out really nice because it forced me to quickly un pack all our boxes and settle our new home in 2 weeks.

The rest of the month consisted of strawberry picking, Craig and Kate camping, and Kate starting her first swimming lessons; which she passed with flying colors.   

July 2011

Another busy month.  First thing, we had lots of fun celebrating the 4th of July with old  friends down in Evanston and then finished off with fireworks with new friends in Libertyville. 

Then the middle of July we set off on our 6 week vacation to Utah/Idaho.  That’s right.  I said 6 weeks!  Crazy right!   We started off in Utah with a family reunion and baby shower my sister Sydney and I had for Dani who had a baby in October 2011(cute pictures of him later in the post).

After Utah we headed to Idaho which was filled with lots of busy days and busy weekends. 

One weekend; fishing…well Brandt fished.  Being in   the mountains was fun though.  Thanks Dani for the photos!   

Girl time for a few days in Idaho Falls

and the good ‘ol fair and rodeo

That’s just to name a few things.  We ended our trip with spending a few days at the Fryers which of course is just as much fun! 

Sleeping outside with Dave and Mimi.

Riding horsy

Swinging

and Jungle Jims

So since we didn’t get back until the end of August this entire section will take care of that month.   

Craig goes on his first school trip to Shanghai in August.

Milestone: Henry started walking the end of August while we were in Idaho!    He was a cruiser!

September 2011

It’s funny I started this September section by saying how this month was little calmer.  Then as I started writing I realized it actually was pretty crazy too.    I had to go back and re write.  Katelyn started at her new pre-school.  She loves it!  Her school was in a parade for Mundelein High School Homecoming week.  Kate said that waving to all the people and throwing candy was her favorite.  The theme was hippie/60’s.

Sept. 06 I got my first set of stitches on my elbow.  I was taking out the garbage and had garbage in both hands.  The garbage can was pretty full and as I was struggling putting the garbage in my elbow slipped and cut on a tuna can.  It was really deep and I was losing a lot of blood.  I don’t know where the main arteries are so I kind of freaked.  Called 911 and they wrapped me all up and Craig came home and took me to the insta care.  The doctor said we only have to do about 5 stitches.  It would be more if it were anywhere else but because it’s the elbow and it bends we need to do less so they don’t rip.  It hurt and hurt for a few weeks after and now I have a really ugly scar. 

  Turned 27 on the 13th.  Had beautiful weather.  Katelyn started ballet and tap which she LOVES.  She struggled the first few weeks with listening to the teacher.  Before when she thought she was going to dance she thought she was going to just dance however she wanted.  So it was hard to listen and do what the teacher said.  Doing much better now though. 

The end of this month Kate, Henry, and I went apple and pumpkin picking with Katelyn’s class.  Her first field trip.  Had so much fun!

October 2011

October 22, 2011 my very first nephew was born.  Little Jack is just the cutest.  Kate, Hank, and I all flew out to Utah and drove straight up to Idaho Falls to meet this new little guy.  Ended up staying there again for a few more weeks.  Kate went to Utah to visit mimi and apa for a week and spent Halloween there.  SO it was just me and Hank to go trick or treating but it was a great time.  Katelyn was Strawberry Shortcake this year and Hank was a big fat gorilla.

 

Zach also got his mission call.  Everyone was in IF visiting the baby so him and Sydney drove up to us so we could all watch him open up his letter.  He is going to the Tokyo Japan Mission.  Yay!!!  I’d post the video of us watching him but we were all so excited we did things that I’d rather not show….That sounds bad…what I mean is there was a lot of hooting and hollering and high fiving (high fiving-not done by me-I’m not that weird, Syd and Kyler).  haha JK  SO excited for Zach!!!

November 2011

Still in Idaho first of the month. 

SO we mostly relaxed and enjoyed being with family

So since we were just with family earlier we were home in Chicago without family this year for Thanksgiving.  All good cause the kind Walker family invited us over to their house for dinner.  It was really fun and we had lots of yummy food!

December 2011

Well December right off the bat we celebrate Kate’s birthday.  This year she had a Tangled party and she and her friends had so much fun.  I had fun planning it too but it was a lot of work and I was happy when the party was over.

Then we had Christmas which I’m kind of bummed because I can not find anywhere the pictures we took from that day.  So sorry no pictures from that day.  Kate got everything she wanted from Santa.  Share Carebear and Cheer Carebear and a baby set.  Henry just liked unwrapping all the presents.  :)  Then we finished out the year with our friends from Wilmette at the Kings New Years Party!  Always a good time there.

January 2012

The end of this month we headed out once again to Idaho.  I know you’re probably thinking “AGAIN”!  This time we went out for my brother Zach’s farewell.  As always, a great time with the fam.

February 2012

Valentines Day this year was fun.  Craig surprised me and got me a Kitchen Aid.  I was totally not expecting it so it was fun to open it up.  He did good.  Made the kids pink heart pancakes with pink milk for breakfast.  They thought that was fun.  Then Craig and I went out to dinner at an awful Mediterranean restaurant.  The whole evening at this place was so crazy awful that Craig and I were laughing about it all night.  It was crazy how bad it was.  We were going to go to a movie but the service at this place was so bad and slow that we missed the movie so we just went to the mall for a little bit and then went home.  All in all it was fun cause I finally got a night out with my man. 

March 2012

So here we are finally in March and it’s been great.  The weather this winter has been so mild.  Usually by this point everyone around is dying and just needing spring and summer to come so badly cause it’s so cold.  Today is the 21st and the last couple of weeks it’s been 70’s and 80’s.  Today was 85.  I can’t believe 80 degree weather in March.  CRAZY!!!  So we’ve been out at the park a lot and taking full advantage.

St. Patrick’s Day was another fun filled busy day.  We started off with another festive breakfast with shamrock shaped green pancakes and green OJ.  Then we went to the park and had a picnic lunch.  Then we drove up and went to the Jelly Belly factory and then did shopping at the outlet malls.  Then out for dinner.  Very fun day!  

So if you’re still reading….Thank You!  I know I said I would be  brief but that wasn’t so brief was it.  Oh well I’m caught up now and now hopefully it won’t be another 18 months before I blog again.