jim dec 2010

mae dec 2010

dec 2010

A season closes

Times are changing for me. I've been struggling in my life, and I hope these changes will bring some relief.

Yesterday, I took my final exam for sign-to-voice interpreting. Next semester I'm taking a break from college courses.

I drove 2 hours to Jefferson City on Dec 1 to take the Missouri State performance exam for Sign Language interpreters. That was an important milestone for me professionally, even though I am confident I didn't pass. (I won't receive the test results for up to 6 months.) From that failure, I learned a great deal. My biggest weakness is reading fingerspelling, and that test is loaded with it!

Royal has been gone for about three out of the last six months. He will be home by this weekend. Now, we are pursuing a less travel-heavy work schedule for him. When he left this last time, after Thanksgiving, I simply did not find enough childcare support in my church/friend community here. When it is very cold outside, I feel trapped in my house. It takes about 3 hours of work to bring home groceries. I'm not counting finding time to put them away.

I don't know about your life, but it is next to impossible for me to find 3 hours of time to work just on getting groceries with 3 or 4 kids in tow, who meanwhile will be hungry, poopy, need to go to the bathroom, hungry again, tired, and need to ask if we can get 400 things, oh, and what they want for Christmas.

So, now, I'm looking forward to enjoying my life more. As long as I've got an adorable, cheerful, playful 7 month old, I may as well really have fun with her.

As long as I've got the most beautiful 2 year old son, who gives rapt attention to almost any book, I may as well enjoy cuddling up to him.

I'm looking forward to working with Royal to bring our 2 different views of the future into focus and harmony. I really enjoy pursuing goals that we are both in on. I feel delighted to have him back.

I feel very blessed with the future I have to live into this winter.

Quill Pen, Really from June 2010

Brent's debut

After my dad's wedding, my Brother-in-law, Brent M., and my sister Nicole, and my mom, and Royal and the kids...
We all visited Nauvoo and St. Louis. Here, Brent is feeding Mae. Back when her hair was a lot thicker! (Hey, at least she's not bald yet!)

Mae, four months old

Since Heather's request, I have repented my blog inactivity. Here is my darling youngest.

Laumiere Sculpture Park

We're the blurry pixels in the background. There weren't a whole lot of representational sculptures in the park, but it was still fun.

Good Clean Funny

You want hilarious, and just fine for the kids? Check out our new friend, Tim Hawkins.

www.timhawkins.net

Click on "The Government Can"

Royal and I periodically mourn over little good, clean humor or movies. Thank you, Gramma P. for this link!

And, here's a 2 minute song he does about what you Don't Say to Your Wife!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK2OakMoW_c&feature=related

I hope we get to see him live when he comes to Missouri!

Finally the Facebook Frontier

Well, I did it.

I joined Facebook.

This is what this means to me: 1. an opportunity to develop a professional network of the Deaf and Interpreters in the St. Louis area.

2. An opportunity for old friends to contact me and be as current as I wish them to be about my life.

I am not interested in local contacts on Facebook, other than professionally. I am also not interested in having an internet social life. My life is already brimming over with life! (Meaning my work of raising children to be with me in the eternities.) My life is overly full of very important things, and I don't have much room for less important though perhaps good things.

So, I love you, feel free to send me a friend request. If I don't respond, just email me. Why, Elizabeth? And I'll tell you. I'll say, "I really only use facebook for specific reasons. Why don't we go out to lunch, instead?" Of course, we'll have to do lunch after 10:30 PM when Mae goes to bed. (Did I tell you the good news? She is sleeping through the night! About 7 hours average.)

Burden of expectation

It has been 3 weeks since Mae arrived.

We've had mostly ups and some downs. but, I've been carrying around some pretty big expectations all this time. I've been carrying around the expectation that I'd be back to "normal" around 2 weeks after Mae's birth.

Well, now I'm mad because life hasn't aligned with my made-up idea of what it should be! The universe forgot to comply with my plans! And I'm the angry, red-faced three year old throwing a tantrum.

Here's what is happening. I'm trying to "encourage" (which means force) Mae to eat every 2.5 to 3 hours. Feeding her takes at least an hour. (We have had some breastfeeding complications. She has a "dysfunctional suck".) Then, I either sleep (if Royal or Grandma are home) or I race against the clock to do whatever. Like, make or eat lunch. Make or eat breakfast. Brush my teeth. Try to make Jim or the girls feel loved while I feel like eating them.

Yesterday, I decided this week I was going to get some things done! That was my first mistake, which Royal kindly and politely pointed out. Oh, no! I said. I can get things done without losing my head/temper! I can set limits on my exertion, I said.

Well, This morning, I proved him right. I can't get anything done.

But, you know, I am making up this big story that I should be able to. And that something is wrong here.

But it is just life. I have a big life and a big game to play right now called, "Caring for a darling, demanding newborn while loving and fulfilling three other children." That's my life. And that game just doesn't involve transplanting my overgrown marigold seedlings today. ANd probably not this week! *sigh*.

Announcing Mae Nicole

Born Last Sunday night, 10:46 PM, here is our new daughter. She calms easily, eats well, and is the new joy in our family.

Outfits and hairbows by foxdenproductions.com

School

Elizabeth is in school.

Progress report: the last test is May 5, and I'm not due until May 8. So, I should be in the clear, right?

;-)

Also, I'm doing boastfully well, if I do say so myself. I am becoming an interpreter for the Deaf.

Tooth Fairy Special

There's a sister in our ward who pulls teeth! She pays any kid who'll let her pull out a tooth $1. So, Grace decided to double up on Tooth Fairy profits and get $1 from Sister R and $1 from the tooth fairy.

No More Training Wheels!

This is a long-awaited day for Mother! Grace can now ride a bike!!!

Three cheers for Grace! Hip-Hip-Hooray!

Hip-Hip-Hooray!

Hip-Hip-Hooray!

An occasion!

Just wanted to share Jim's latest achievement! The long awaited for speech!

He has finally learned to clearly articulate "No!"

He has already followed up with the, "No, no, no, no, no!!"

That is about 50 percent of his current English vocabulary. (Knows at least 15 words in signed language.)

Letter to a friend

Here is an excerpt from a letter I wrote today:

"I just started homeschooling Grace, and every day feels like a fresh puzzle to sort through. I like puzzles, don't get me wrong. Its just not so fun to do them with 3 little voices singing, “Mom! Mom! Mom!” etc. Okay, only 2 voices. Jimmy is just up to a mumbled growl or whine so far. He doesn't call me, yet.

The good news is that Grace is already much happier and less tired each day. She is kinder to everyone, especially Sienna, than she was at the time we unenrolled her from school.

I'm rounding out nicely. I even have some good news about that. I know I mentioned to you that one hard thing about this pregnancy has been gaining too much weight too fast. Well, I saw a dietician, and I've been recording what I eat. I was really- and I mean REALLY- dreading writing it all down. (Who wants to write down that she just ate 6 rice krispy treats?) But, the surprise is that I feel way more in control of my diet now. I actually love writing down what I eat. At the end of the day, I can look back and see how many carbs I have left for my evening treat. (I get to have dessert every night, but I'm supposed to aim for only 150 calories.) Sometimes, I can have cupcakes, and sometimes I have a fruit smoothie, depending on how many carb servings I'm “allowed” by day's end. So, since I started writing down what I eat, and being conscious of my servings, I haven't gained any weight over the last 3 weeks! That is a huge achievement. I only sometimes get cravings that I “shouldn't” have. And, I only sometimes indulge those cravings. :-)

I am really feeling “homemakey” lately. .. I am having urges to quilt (which I don't even know how to do), clean, garden, and organize the basement, and all this with basically 1 free hour a day. Well, the urges aren't painful, so who cares if I actually indulge them or not. "

Life is good and full. My mom lives with us now, and is constantly busy helping around the house. I took Royal on a Getaway to Nauvoo, IL, about 2 weeks ago. Thank you, Gma Gail! It was wonderful to get away for 2 days.

Bunny is a girl!

Well, we have a bun in the oven, and she is female!

I'm just announcing this excellent bit of news because we are not in communication with most of our loving extended family, and I'm hoping the news will reach them from here.

By the way, just in case we didn't call you on Christmas to say we love you, We Love You.

We called: No one. Ooops. One of those really socially unacceptable mistakes.

But, we love lots of people out there, and I actually got off 37 Christmas cards! I'm so proud! They were less than a week late, too!

Being a Wife

I'm glad I'm grown up, so I can be a wife.

Being a wife beats everything else.

I brag a LOT about how much work Royal and I have put into making our marriage awesome. (In fact, every chance I get to speak to a teenage young woman in the church, I gently preach about how happiness in marriage is simply a matter of working off your you-know-what; and since I have, well, I'm very happily married.)

I hope someday I write a book on marriage, just so I can get all my preaching about it off my chest.

But, for now, it is good just to be married. I love it. I love the fun times, the busy times, the intimate times, the working together times, the missing him while he's away times, the screaming-DADDY-and-running-to-the-door-when-he -gets-home times, the argument times, the thrill of going (alone) on a date after the struggle to get a cheap sitter times.

My marriage isn't always fun or easy, but it is the best part of my life, both presently and compared to everything I've ever had before this!

Meet Frostina

We got two good snows over Christmas break! Now, you can't beat that!

Royal helped the girls build this beauty. The girls named her Frostina. She stands a little shorter than Sienna.

Sienna turned Ballerina

Thank you, Grandma Parker!

New Hats and Scarves all Around

Thank you, Grandma Gail! Yes! We really needed these!

Sienna's Pixie Haircut

More birthday fun

Birthday Fun

Back in November, Grace and I decorated her cake like the 2 evil geniuses that we are! She put a stencil of letters down, then we sprinkled purple sugar over top (from Grandma Lori). It turned out great! Pulling the paper off the frosting was tricky, but we sure are proud!

Grace reads to Jim