Opposites Attract

Hod has always been a night owl. Me, not so much. Not that I don't enjoy staying up, but growing up I was trained to be an early riser. While I was in high school I always had somewhere to be by 6 am on school days. You would think I would sleep in on Saturdays to make up for it. Not so my friend! Saturday mornings my Dad always went to an early session at the temple. He got home between 8 and 8:30 am. I always knew I had to be awake by the time he got home. Then, during the summer my Mom would wake us up by 8 to read scriptures. There was no sleeping in at my house.

When we were first married this resulted in Hod trying to get me to stay up late, and me being lonely in the mornings.  It was no good.

#1 is much like me. She goes to bed by 8 pm, and she is up by 8 am. 

Turns out #2 is like her Dad. Late nights and late mornings. This was proving to be problematic for me. I was going crazy staying up late with one kid to turn around and get up early with the other.

Not anymore. Hod now stays up with #2, I go to bed early, and I get up with #1 while Hod sleeps in.

I like it when we can work together on this parenting thing and we both get what we want.

Adjusting

Oh, the life of a mom of 2 young girls!

I love my girls so much.  #1 has a few little quirks.  For example, when she is really sad she will find her favorite pink blanket and bite it.  I don't know where that came from.  This morning I had #2 on the floor as I was changing her diaper and she was screaming.  #1 came over, and though at first I wondered if she was trying to smother her sister, gently offered her favorite pink blanket for her sister to bite on.  Yesterday #1 tried to sit on #2.  We had a very quick, very firm talk about why that wasn't ok.  She went to the other side of the room and sulked for a minute, then came back and gave #2 the sweetest little kiss and pat on the head.

Today we have all been awake for less than three hours.  So far I have given 3 baths, changed 5 diapers, and changed 4 sets of clothing.

Last night I got 2 1/2 hours of sleep.

This morning I had a beautiful 10 minute cuddle session with #1.  She smiled at me and gently rubbed my cheek.

Monday #1 threw up on me.

After a lot of work, I have gotten #2's schedule to shift about 5 hours.  She came home from the hospital almost completely nocturnal.  She is starting to respond a little to me.  Blinking her big eyes and pursing her little lips into the sweetest "O".

I taught #1 how to tickle #2.  Not that she laughs yet, but #1 thinks it is the coolest thing ever.

#2 is already obsessed with her pacifiers.  #1 was never really into them.  This is awesome because it is really quite easy to calm her down.  It is a little less awesome because if the pacifier falls out at just the wrong moment she kind of loses it.

#1 is doing marginally better with eating.  She will now eat chicken and beef.  Now we just need to get her to sleep.  She was doing great, but then we brought home her sister and threw her entire world upside-down.

#2 has the hiccups.  It is so cute!

I almost can't believe how my heart has grown to love my family.  Yeah, I'm exhausted.  Yes, most days there are moments where all three of us are crying.  But I am blessed to have two amazing daughters and one supportive husband that deals with the craziness.

Lesson Learned

We have lived in our new apartment for just over 3 months. We decided to move those 1200 miles only 4 months ago.  Many of you know why we moved, but we recently found something out that makes this move seem even more right. 

Hod used to be an assistant manager for American Eagle Outfitters in Utah.  He quite liked his job and the people he worked with.  Then one day he was told that he just wasn't cutting it and that he needed to look for another job.  So he looked and looked all over Utah.  Nothing.  We knew we were on borrowed time. Eventually they would find a replacement and we would lose our income and insurance.  After much fasting and prayer the state of our current residence popped into my head. Hod had been applying for jobs all over the country but nothing here. He hadn't gotten anywhere with the other applications, so knowing he had nothing to lose he started applying here.  Within 2 weeks he had multiple interviews and a job offer.  This job came with a raise, better insurance... and most importantly it was a paying job.  Putting our faith in what we felt were answers to prayers we quickly packed, shocked our families with the news of moving so far away and left.  Life has been pretty good since we got here. Yes, I have days where I just really miss my family.  One of my favorite moments of my time here is when one sister called me just to chat for fun.  I miss chatting.  With the lame depression I get while pregnant I have spent a lot of time feeling down and alone.  I can't tell you how many times #1 has done something strange and I wished I could show my Mom to get her opinion.  But here we are. 

And this is where we should be.  For Christmas Hod got a gift card to American Eagle for some new jeans (he sold his old ones to help pay for things to get us out here).  His shopping experience left something to be desired and he called his old store to tell them he missed their great customer service.  He found out that his old store is closing in less than 2 weeks.  They are trying to find places for people to work, but there aren't any open manager spots to be found.  Had we not moved we would be stuck in that situation.  As it is, Hod is enjoying his job, he is working in a company that has growth, we have a stable income, we have insurance, and we are making it.

I often miss Utah, but I am glad that we were able to move here and avoid the situation of losing a job.  As it is, Hod had only one week where he was unemployed.  We spent that week driving here.

How blessed we feel that we were able to follow the direction of the Lord and be able to take care of ourselves.

Sniff, Sniff

This morning around 8:00, #1 woke up.  I went in to get her, decided I wanted to lay in bed a little longer and had her come join us.  I gave her a bottle and wondered if she would fall back asleep.  She didn't, but was happy to just sit there quietly.  That's not normal.  She has pretty much always been either moving constantly, or asleep.  This whole "lay by mom perfectly still just moving my eyes and smiling for 30 minutes" though cute was out of character.  That is about the time my brain turned on.  Thinking back, I realized that when I went to get her out of bed there was a strange smell.  Putting on my detective hat, I went to analyze the situation again.

I entered #1's room, and yep, there was a smell.  I woke up Hod and asked him to go smell #1's room.  After being reassured that there wouldn't be any smeared baby droppings on the wall, he went to go check.  He quickly returned, informing me that is smelled like natural gas.  That is what I was afraid of.  Hod called the gas company, I quickly showered and put together the diaper bag.  We were told to get out of the apartment.  After one more quick shower we got out.  Hod went off to work, and #1 and I played outside while the gas company guy checked everything out.

Turns out, we had a bad connector in our water heater.  After playing outside in the nice breeze, #1 was acting much better!  They fixed it all up, and now everything is ok again. 

I should probably go buy a carbon monoxide detector.

On The Road Again

Well, friends, we have officially moved!  It was a bit of an adventure.  Monday, Oct 1, we finished packing up our cars, locked up our old apartment, realized I had left my laptop there and cried a lot, and got on the road.  (Still waiting to see if the landlord will give me back my laptop, or if they are claiming it as abandoned property.)

First thing you should know about this trip:  #1 did AMAZING!  (#2 did just a little bit better, but that is because she is just hanging out inside of my uterus, so nothing was really different about her life.)  We drove 8 hours the first day, 8 hours the second day, and 3 hours the last day.  I would say that in the car #1 cried maybe 90 min total.  That is stinkin' awesome.  I credit it mostly to her enjoyment of sleeping in the car, the advice we got from some friends to just put her forward facing for the trip (don't guilt me, we made it safe, and it made life SO much better!), and her newly discovered love of Teddy Grams.

Second fact:  The Hyatt has AMAZING hotels.  Because of a connection, we were able to get an amazing discount and stayed in the Hyatt House.  It had 2 separate bedrooms (kind of important when we have an 11 month old and people who enjoy their own space.  (Did I mention that my kind parents were with us?)  It also had a complete kitchen, that we didn't use.   But seriously, SUCH a nice room!  And that bed!  Wow.  It was amazing.  We also got to see one of my favorite people and meet her cute daughter.  The first leg of our trip was just wonderful!

Then comes day two.  Dad got a head start because he was pulling the trailer that was CRAZY full of all of our belongings.  Hod, #1 and I were all in the Mazda, and Mom was hanging out by herself, following us in the Buick.  (She kind of had to follow us, cause I had put the maps in my laptop case and that was stuck in Utah.)  We're driving around, looking at a whole bunch of nothing (though we did pass "Jesus with Corn"  It was probably the most exciting thing we saw that day.)  When suddenly my car starts feeling funny.  I couldn't figure out if the road was just really bumpy or if something was wrong.  Another car passed us, and I could tell their car wasn't being bumpy so we pulled over.  (Right as I pulled over Mom was about to call me cause she could see there was something wrong.)  We totally had a flat.  Hod was a little concerned (he's never changed a tire... or watched someone change a tire.  We need to teach him a few things.)  I wasn't worried at all.  I knew where the spare was, and sure, we had to pull about 6 things out of the car to get to it, but that's not so bad.  We got the spare, I reached for the jack.... and it wasn't there.  The lame pole that you use to make the jack work, we totally had, but the actual jack, nothing.  Mom called Dad cause he has AAA so we could get some help.  And we waited.  And waited.  And people just drove past.  And State Troopers just drove past.  (Really?  Isn't that their job, pull over and see the problem?  We just needed a jack, then we could put on the doughnut and drive the 10 miles to the next city.)  I got on the phone with a great friend and had her look up tire places in the closest city, Hod called them to make sure they had a tire for us, and we waited.  After about 2 hours of sitting on the side of I-70, I was getting really bugged!  #1 was still being amazing, pretty sure she had angels with her.  I lost it and cried.  Lame pregnancy hormones.  Then I had a great plan.  I went and took #1, and leaned against the back of the car, poking my pregnant belly out the best I could and tried to wave someone down.  Surely people would stop for a pregnant lady holding a baby, right?  WRONG!  Kansas is on my list of unkind places.  Finally a State Trooper stopped.  He was all, "Oh, yeah, I can help you change your tire".  We told him that AAA was supposedly sending someone.  Then he was all, "Oh, then I probably shouldn't help... let me find out where they are."  After he spent some time in his car we found out that they were about 20 min away.  So he left and we waited some more.  Finally the guy showed.  He had been looking for us for about an hour.  We wanted to follow him to the next town so he could show us where the tire place was, but he had to go the opposite direction for a dentist appointment.  Ok, fine.  We got on the road, got lost finding the town, got lost in the town finding the tire place, finally found them all, got a new tire and were finally back on the road.  This whole thing took over 3 hours.  That really throws off your schedule, especially when you were already loosing an hour that day because of time changes.

Dad was WAY ahead of us at this point, so I gave him directions to the fancy hotel we had for a night.  According to Priceline, it was a suite with a separate bedroom for the queen sized bed, and a queen sized hide-a-bed in the sitting room.  Also with a complete kitchen.  Finally around 10:00 we pulled in.  We were the victims of false advertising.  It wasn't two separate rooms.  It wasn't a queen sized hide-a-bed (more like a double sized piece of cardboard.)  And it wasn't a non smoking room.  Whatever.  We were all so glad to be there that we made it work.

The next day was pretty uneventful.  We drove through a ton of small cities and they were just cute.  We finally got to our apartment, signed all of our papers, 8 guys from our local congregation showed up to move us in, we discovered that our apartment was never cleaned, and we went to bed.

The next day was a flurry of unpacking, assembling things, and having a bit of fun.  I can't imagine how we would have made this without my dear parents.  Thanks again!

We've had some adventures since getting here, and I'll have to share those another day.  But we're here!  Missing family, but glad to be where the Lord wants us.

Love you all!

Here We Go Again.... Again!

Exactly 11 days ago, Hod had a phone interview for a job.  The manager wanted to meet Hod in person and offer him the job.  We flew the 1200 miles (well a few more than that because of a layover) to meet with him.  After a pretty ghetto hotel, our first (and second) taxi ride, and an impossible game of "find a replacement shoelace" we pretty much had a job.  As for finding the shoelace, we searched every store in one airport and asked around and searched a ton of stores in another airport.  No shoelaces anywhere.  How does that make sense?  There are a ton of business men who need to fly, and they could always lose a shoelace.  However, it was not to be.  Hod flew on 2 flights without a shoelace.

Anyway, we are moving within 3 weeks.  I haven't even really started packing, cause we got back, Hod had surgery, we went to a viewing and funeral, and after all of this I just needed a day off for a break.  Today was glorious.  It's sad that tomorrow I have to get going.  I need to learn how to pack with a 10 month old baby.  We still have to live, but we need to box it all up.  With Hod's surgery he is unable to lift anything over 10 lbs.  Lucky for me #1 weighs about 18 lbs.  My muscles are getting pretty awesome :)

So, here come the changes again.  This time it is going to be bigger than ever.  A new city hundreds of miles away from anywhere we've ever lived.  Finding an apartment online is entertaining.  Well, and frustrating.  However, my super nice Dad has found a trailer and offered to make the drive with us so we don't have to pay tons-o-cash to get our stuff to our new place.  Mom is going to make the drive too, and then they are going to party it up in their old mission grounds.  Family is pretty much amazing.

So, even though I have been pretty much absent in the blogging world, it is probably going to get worse before it gets better.  If I find something hilarious to tell you all about, I'll make an appearance.  Otherwise I'll say hello from my new place!

Missing From My Life

Today I drove my sister L5 to the airport.  On the way home I was listening to my iPod with her transmitter.  As I rounded a corner I heard an OLD commercial.  I figured that I had just hit an actual radio station for a second. However, upon further inspection, I discovered that I actually owned this song.  Hidden under the title of "Me and My Shadow" by Frank Sinatra was this:




I couldn't believe it.  What was even stranger was when I discovered that I have supposedly listened to this "song" 13 times on my computer.  I have no memory of hearing it once.  Well, not since the 80's.  So, if any of you have some Zestfully Clean needs, I can hook you up with the song.

Probably one of the most random discoveries in my life.

So Not OK

The other day I was feeling a bit stressed.  I decided to take a nice relaxing shower while #1 was napping so I'd feel better.  It was lovely.

After a substantial time letting the warm water calm me down I decided I needed to get out.  I started drying off with my towel when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  Suddenly the calm feeling was gone.  The relaxation was gone.  My sanity was threatening to be gone.

Dang earwig had climbed onto my towel and taken up residence.  First bug I've seen in this apartment and it had to be on my towel?  All of the surfaces it could have picked and that is what it went for?

Let it be known, all creepy crawlies of any sort that feel the need to trespass on my property will promptly be killed.  You have been warned.

Ugh.  Really, my skin was crawling all day.  Maybe I'll get to feel relaxed tomorrow.

The Perfect Storm

Isn't that the name of a book or something?  About how everything lines up just perfectly to make everything wrong?

Well, that's not what I mean today.

I really quite like snow.  However, last winter I lived in the frigid north, and I didn't love the snow.  Once it snowed in early November, it was cloudy, slick, cold and wet through most of March.  After three months all snow should be banished to the North Pole.  No, really, they like it up there.  It helps hide Santa's workshop.

Anyway, though I live in a place known for "The Greatest Snow on Earth" (just ask the licence plates) we haven't had any snow yet.  That made for a very brown Christmas, but with all of the traveling I was doing, I was actually quite grateful.

But last night it snowed!  And it was done snowing before 8:00 AM.  So then the snowplows were all out doing their business.  Just after 9 I went to the store, and the roads were decent.  But then, the sun came out! And then the roads were great!  And the world looked beautiful!  And we didn't have to die cause of dangerous conditions.

It was perfect.

So, here's to you, Mr. Perfect Snow Storm.  Please come again.

Oh, and in other news, I cut my hair.  I'm still working with the styling, but today it looked like this:

(Please ignore all post pregnancy blemishes... I feel like a teenager)

AND today I made a Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Salad knock off.  And it was pretty darn good.

Pintrest.  It teaches you great things.