Lots Going On

I can tell I have been busy, probably too busy, because I am not recording anything. I have neglected my journaling, among other things. But tonight I have the dishes done, the kids are sleeping (and so is Josh) and my mind is relaxed enough to write down some thoughts.

Co-op has been keeping me on my toes. We have over 20 families this semester and between all of the regular weekly stuff, Anita and I have been working on applying for non-profit status with the IRS. I still need to get our co-op a checking account set up but I may have our new treasurer do that. Last week we had our big "mom meeting" which is when we plan out the next semester's classes and the next year's assembly days (the big co-op events when everybody does an activity together). It went really well and I have a draft of our schedule put together, not an easy task. That is what most of my free time is being eaten up by and it will be nice to get that finished. I have some unfinished projects that I would like to get back to...they are starting to collect dust in my brain and I want them cleaned up and moved out of there.

One other big thing is that we expanded our co-op board to include five people, instead of three. I hope it helps the group next year. I am now only over the education stuff, and Anita will be moving on (lots of tears for that) since her husband is finishing dental school. So, lots of changes. We are trying to get a logo designed, a new website made, t-shirts planned for next year and a yearbook done (but I'm not in charge of that part). It is feeling more official and organized as we go along and it is a fun project for me, but pretty demanding at the same time.

Other than that, I'm still trying to lose weight but I have totally stalled. I was at 175.5 on Sunday, which is totally fantastic, but I'm not making any progress and here's why: I keep cheating. I have snitched Easter candy and birthday cake and dessert at the General Women's meeting and mini candy bars that were passed around at young women's. It seems like there is a constant supply of junk food in front of my face and I am finding myself saying, "Yes, thank you," instead of running away from it. And I can tell I'm eating it because my head hurts and I'm sluggish and tired and depressed. So, I know I need to eat cleanly and that it will help me feel better, but that doesn't make it easier. It is not easy to keep all the food prepared for my vegan diet while still making "normal" food for the rest of the family. I need to figure out a way to plan my food preparation into our routine. I need a way to find more time. Maybe I should stop typing and go make some healthy food, right? I know most of my wasted time is when I'm sitting right here doing nothing on the computer.

One other big gripe that I finally did something about was my incision. Yes, my c-section incision. Cora is almost four months old and it still hadn't closed. I finally got up the courage for Josh to stitch me up and I'm praying that it will heal up and that I can finally start exercising and feeling normal again. And wearing something other than yoga pants will be nice too.

Young women's is busy but good. Josh is almost done interviewing, which will be nice. He has been working hard and is exhausted every day. School is starting to feel possible again. This week so far the kids have finished early enough to really enjoy their afternoons. 3 on Monday and about 2:30 today. It makes us all happier when things get done quickly. Baseball has started and I am busy trying to run them both in two different directions. My friend Jill and I are having to coordinate rides almost daily between ball and scouts. It is crazy but it is working. Speaking of scouts, Emmett is trying to earn his Wolf rank at the May pack meeting so he has a month to finish all his loose ends. Melynn has a dance recital coming up and is loving ballet. I need to write about her birthday...another day. I have a hilarious video of Tucker I need to put on and Cora is just a darling. Too bad it is now late and my mind has turned fuzzy. Perhaps I can write more tomorrow...

More Trip Pictures

I stole all these photos off Eileen's facebook page. Hopefully she doesn't mind.

Whoa, What a Trip!

A week ago we packed the kids in the car for an exciting adventure to Texas! I was so excited to drive to Houston and see my brother, Adam, and his wife, Eileen. It has been about five years since I've seen either of them. Josh had an interview on Monday at Texas Children's Hospital for a fellowship position in pediatric ENT. He also had an interview scheduled in Dallas on Wednesday, so the plan was to stay at Adam's for Sunday and Monday nights, drive to Dallas Tuesday, interview Wednesday, and then drive home Thursday. We also planned on visiting our friends, the Whittacre's, while in Dallas.

Day 1, Sunday: The drive was long but enjoyable. We listened to Harry Potter #5 The Order of the Phoenix along with movies interspersed with listening to the audiobook that Melynn picked out, Julie, an American Girl book. I ate too much junk. I didn't particularly love our route through rural east Texas. The speed limit changed frequently and that was aggravating. We arrived very tired and had a nice cookout with hot dogs and hamburgers cooked by my bro. I should have taken pictures but I was really tired and didn't feel well from eating so much crud all day. 

Day 2, Monday: I woke up sick. I threw up my breakfast. I tried to force my way through the day with really bad stomach cramps. We decided that while Josh was interviewing that we would try to find the rodeo. It wasn't supposed to start until the next day but Adam and Eileen really wanted to check it out, so we did. We had a hard time finding a parking lot that was unlocked but when we did, we parked by the other cars, crossing our fingers that we wouldn't get towed, and go the kids out. We wandered through the parking/unloading area and saw men working to unload cattle and get them into the building. The kids loved hearing the cows mooing. We wandered until we bumped into a lady that told us we could watch the cutting event by going through a back door and up into the stands. Cutting is when a cowboy and two teammates try to isolate one cow from the rest of a herd of cows by having the horse cut, or make sharp turns to block the cow. It was fascinating to see them and see the scoring. We had no real idea of what was good or bad, but it was fun. I felt like we were breaking the rules by being there without a real reason, other than pure curiosity. 

After about an hour, the kids grew restless and so we made our way to the Houston zoo. It was a nice zoo. It was comparable to the Memphis zoo, with mostly outdoor exhibits. They were nicely done though. I really like the chimpanzee and lion exhibits. By this point in the day, Melynn started feeling badly. It started with a headache and progressed to throwing up as well. She threw up twice at the zoo. She and I went and sat in the car while the rest of the group enjoyed the zoo until Josh was done with his interview. At this point we said goodbye to Adam who needed to drive to Austin for work meetings. I didn't get pictures on my camera but they got a couple on their phone. I just was too sick to think about it. Maybe in another five years I'll have my brain together enough to take a picture of us together. 

After picking up Josh, we drove back to their suburb and ate at a Texas bbq place to see if it was better than Memphis bbq. I liked it, but was it better? I'm not sure...I still wasn't feeling that great so I didn't eat much at all.

Adam and Eileen were wonderful hosts. Their house is gorgeous and so well decorated. It was so much fun to hang out with Eileen and just see my kids love her instantly.

Day 3, Tuesday: The drive up to Dallas was easy. We left after breakfast and got there in the early afternoon. We checked into the hotel downtown and got everything unloaded. As you can see above, Tucker got to sleep in a big queen size bed all by himself. Emmett and Melynn insisted on sleeping on the pull out couch. Weirdos. My grandma Rose had a pull out couch that Haylee and I had to sleep on when we went to visit. I hated it. But, the kids loved it (or at least they didn't complain).

After unloading we split up. Josh stayed at the hotel to study until the hospital people picked him up for the interview dinner and I went up to my friend's house with the kids. That was pretty exciting...navigating a new city without a map or a GPS. I had written instructions that we jotted down at the hotel is all. Scary but I made it. Getting back was much harder because it was dark and everything looked different. All the buildings downtown were lit up with neon lights and it was distracting. I actually took the wrong exit and ended up by the big jail in downtown Dallas and crossed some river I wasn't supposed to and panicked. I called Kristy and started getting help but then Josh called saying he was done and he figured out where I was and easily guided me back to the hotel. I had taken the wrong turn because in Texas there are these access roads alongside of the interstates and tollways and you can do these funky u-turn maneuvers and I didn't go far enough before u-turning. Silly me. By the end of our 3 days in Texas I was starting to figure it out.

It was so nice visiting with Kristy. She is one of my best friends, even though we haven't lived by each other since Emmett was Cora's size. We used to play games with them on the weekend and she and I taught at the same high school. She was an actual teacher while I was just pretending in order to get my degree. We are what Anne of Green Gables would call bosom friends. We can just pick up where we left off, which is so nice. I just love her. I secretly hope we move to Dallas so I can be closer. Shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Day 4, Wednesday: Josh left early for his interview. It was my job to pack up all the stuff, load the car, feed the kids and get myself up to Kristy's to hang out. It was rainy so we didn't check out any fun places in Dallas, except for IKEA! After a horrendous breakfast at the Marriott (the hospital put us up in the fancy schmancy room that didn't include breakfast of course) because the kids were acting like minions and making me look like I was insane for having children in the first place, I got us out of the hotel and to the IKEA without getting lost. Points for me. IKEA was kind of a nightmare at first though because Tucker was throwing tantrums and Melynn didn't want to go into the daycare area and it took about 30 of my 60 minutes to take care of life things before we even got to venture through the store. But, in my final 30 minutes of perusing I found myself, Melynn and Tucker some birthday gifts and enjoyed looking at all the fun things they carry. Tucker enjoyed the mirrors. I let him slime up quite a few before making him move on.

It was hard saying goodbye to the Whittacre's but when Josh got done with his interview we knew we needed to get out of Dallas as soon as possible to race the incoming ice storm. We made it to Texarkana before things froze over, which was pretty good progress.

Day 5, Thursday: This was the bad day. It was a LONG day. We got up, Josh took the kids swimming while the temperatures rose and the roads melted, and we hit the road about 10 am. We drove until about 8 PM and made it to Little Rock, AR. That distance should have only taken about 2 hours but we were in the car for 10. Yuck. Most of it we were sitting on the interstate at a standstill, behind a million semi-trucks and other unfortunate souls headed east. The kids did pretty well considering how boring it was. This is when the audiobooks really saved my sanity. It didn't seem too bad just sitting there since I could listen to Harry Potter. We were on the road during lunch time and the kids ate a lot of snack foods. I was so glad I took way more than we needed. I nursed Cora in the passenger seat multiple times. The kids unbuckled and played on the side of the road in the snow. Melynn had to pee in the cooler towards the end of the ordeal because she couldn't wait any longer. Poor thing. When we finally drove along the shoulder of the interstate to get off at an exit close to Little Rock in order to find a hotel we were all very crabby and tired. The exit where we stopped had a whole bunch of little hotels but we got the very last room in the area...and it was 2 double beds, smoking. It was the kids' first time smelling the stink of cigarettes in such a concentrated way. We donated a car air freshener to help them out. We got Taco Bell after getting a hotel room and after eating we went straight to bed. We had absolutely had it by this point.

Day 6, Friday: Our last day in the car, finally. We got home just after lunchtime. It was still a slow trip because we had to stop to feed the baby. But we made it and were so happy to be home. We had eye appointments for the whole family that afternoon that we almost forgot about. Luckily, the office called us asking if we could come a little earlier. I'm glad we got that done. I had quite the task of washing all the clothes and getting everything in our lives back in order. Here we are a week later and I am just barely feeling like I am almost back to normal. Thank goodness all we had were delays and no real crises. Nobody got hurt, the car was amazing and we got the interviews done. It all worked out in the end.

Sunday after our trip: my two girls looking lovely together and I got to give a talk in Sacrament meeting.

Black History Month

Every year, our homeschool support group does an event for Black History Month, to allow students an opportunity for research and oral presentations. I try to use these opportunities to help my kids learn those skills, since I feel they are very useful in the real world. This year it was really hard to get this done, since normal life is fairly overwhelming and adding large projects on is not what I wanted to be doing. But, it felt like something I should squeeze in and I'm glad we did it. I'm also very glad it is over. Having the science fair and this in the same month about did me in.

These are the cinnamon rolls I took for Kate's baby shower. They turned out pretty good.