A much needed recap...

Wow, has it really been a month since I posted? Luckily, my last post mentioned morning sickness, so i'm sure you understand where I have been all month! Well, here's the run down of what I remember of what you missed:

Last weekend some gals and I all went to Time Out for Women in Salt Lake, and it was a BLAST!

We had so much fun at the conference, and just as much fun hanging out all the time to, from, and in between!

The weekend before that, we were in charge of a Luau at church, which turned out great and from which I still have decorations stacked 2' high on my kitchen table, and a bunch of tablecloths to iron.

This next picture is from the day brooklyn INSISTED on having her hair straightened, though it a little hard to see, it was cute, and she was excited about having "long hair"

And before that, Halloween! Jason needed a wizard hat and beard for work, and we could NOT find one anywhere, so we made one. Although, on my dad, it looks more like the Travelocity gnome! As you can see, my parents came for halloween, which was such a nice treat! It gave me time to whip up a peter pan costume for Diego, since Brooklyn was Tinkerbell. Athen was the little brother that's always in PJs and carrying a bear, but it was not quite enough of a costume so we opted for an adorable borrowed pumpkin suit instead.

(this was the best picutre I could get out of them, funny huh? Pretend Brooklyn's hands are not across her face, and imagine Diego's peter pan hat on his head instead of behind his back. Oh, and you can't even see the awesome little green boot covers on diegos little feet!)

I still haven't put away costumes yet either, but hopefully it will all get done soon because we go on vacation next week, then it's the christmas RUSH! Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Oh yeah, and we have an ultrasound on Thursday to figure out an exact due date, and by the guesses, we might even get a peek at the gender! Cross your fingers for the latter!

"Time marches on...

... and at some point you realize it's marching across your face" (hey, name that quote)

Well, actually my face feels fine, it seems to be marching across my gag reflex. But still, life continues and here's our top 5 of what we've been up to:

5. Babysitting the preschool tarantuala, Webby. Brooklyn REALLY wanted me to take it out so she could pet him... no thanks, not even with the protective oven mits they sent home for that purpose. I'll gladly let the preschool teachers trump me in bravery.

4. Brooklyn and Diego telling EVERYONE that there's a baby in my tummy.

3. Babysitting Snowy, the class rabbit. So cute. I think I enjoyed him almost as much as the kids.

2. Brooklyn's BIRTHDAY! A new bike and gum ball machine at the crack of dawn. Gusher fruit snacks for her preschool friends. A tinker bell costume with her birthday money. Pizza, wings, root beer floats for dinner. Chuck e Cheese to play, and a tradgic heartbreak averted when chucky made an announcement over the loudspeaker that he would be out to celebrate the "Birthday stars" but bypassed her for someone elses very expensive and official birthday celebration, even though he "knows it's my birthday, he sent me a birhtday email for free tokens" The heartbreak pouring from her eyes nearly brought me to tears, not Jason though. $20 from daddy's wallet later, bingo, out comes Chucky with a birthday star crown, medal, and some TLC.

1. Athen started nursery, and loved being able to follow Diego around and charm a whole new audience. Although, now that we don't have a toddler to distract us, Jason and I need to re-learn how to pay attention in Sunday School.

You know what this means, don't you?

My camera needs to be charged, so this will have to do, but it's exactly what it looks like!

You know what that means right?

Yep.

JACKPOT!

I know, it's ridiculously exciting!

When I look at the stars...

At the end of a lazy day, I was feeling physically and mentally exhausted looking on the mess that had only become worse than earlier that morning when I initially decided I didn't want to clean it, after what seemed like only a few short hours since the last time it was clean.

Sleepy @ 9:30 pm: Not a good time to evaluate my self worth, and muse on the idea of possible failure in the grand scheme of things. "By their fruits ye shall know them" and yesterdays fruit was rotten. I was rotten at this life of mine.

Out of sheer frustration and desperation to escape from this YUCKY train of thought, and REALLY not wanting to wake up to it in the morning, I began picking up the floor.

Toys to the toy room.

Clothes to the laundry mountain.

"What's wrong, Lucia?" Jason asks. "Nothing, I just... nothing."

Trash to the bin- nope, too full, that would have to wait.

Books to the buckets.

A refreshing encouragment from a prophet in my memory: "Don't dwell on negative thoughts"

Camping chairs to the closet.

About a dozen mismatched shoes to another closet

Dishes to the overflowing sink.

More stray toys, books and laundry.

A whiny prayer in my heart:"I'm failing, I know I shouldn't dwell on negative thoughts about myself. I don't want to be cleaning this house. I don't want to feel this way. Please help. I just..." trilailing off into nothing because my whining just feels like an excuse. "Will You help me please, I need to get this done, and I need to feel better. Okay, i'll just take this trash out first"

Apple Jacks swept into a pile next to the the trash can.

Lift the trash bag out of the bin and shake it down to make room for the new additions.

Tie up the bag and take it outside.

Wow, those stars are beautiful. The sky is so peaceful- and always so fresh and clean. Maybe Jason and I should just go lay out on the grass under these pretty stars for a minute. No, that's not really his way. "Ask him." Maybe i'll just ask him, maybe something inside him will tell him I could use a break from my thoughts.

"Let's go out on the grass and watch the stars, just for 10 minutes?"

"Sure, you get the blanket, i'll get dressed" -yup, he IS amazing, how did I not know that?

As we lounged on a cotton sheet, in breeze of fresh cool air, making pictures in the stars, and creatures in the clouds, I felt the burden lifted, my thoughts refreshed. Reminded of the love of my sweetheart, and the Love of God that sheddeth itself abroad unto the hearts of the children of men... and a silly, self-concious, tired woman. And I savored the peace that flavored this fruit, growing in abundance from the Tree of Life, this love of God. Peace in your body and your spirit at the same time, enough to wash through and remove anything else. Yes, Nephi was right. Most desirable.

Preschool has finally arrived!

Brooklyn LOVES her new Preschool! Her world revolves around what happens during those 2.5 hours and it is so fun to hear her talk about it!

Diego is enjoying the one on one mommy time, but is always ready to wake Athen up from his nap so we can go pick up "Brookly"

I do NOT love walmart.

So, over the past few years we have tried to trim Walmart off our list of necessary errands, and just get stuff elsewhere. It's the same old anti-Walmart stuff: destroying small town business, the cheap overseas workforce and the faces of those young adult workers basicaly slaving away their lives so I can buy socks for $1.50 less, or their irresponisible employment practices, you know, same old complaints. Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert, but I just can't get over the feeling that I'm hand-feeding a blood-thirsty beast when I shop there. Okay, that's overly dramatic, it's not that graphic, but I simply do prefer to shop elsewhere, especially considering how mind numbing walking into that gigantic place is, and the high likleyhood that I will spend a portion of the trip wandering aimlessly, having forgotten what I was supposed to be looking for, and too distracted by clearance tags to notice!

So anyways, today I found myself there again, after a few months absence, and what's even more torturous than the fact that I was there, was that the stuff I bought was SO much cheaper. ARG!

The $37 protien shake powder was out, and I couldn't stomach getting it again (especially since you pay all that money and when you open it, it is only about 40% full! What is that about?).

But at Wallyworld, the stuff is $11- ish, and you get MORE. Are you kidding me?

And then there was the wickless candle wax, just like my EXPENSIVE scentsy stuff, for $2.88

agony.

We don't even need to go into my personal favorite, Vlasic Kosher Dill Pickles.

It's like an unhealthy relationship. Dependant on something you are catagorically opposed to.

Okay, well, enough of that, but I just had to get that off my chest.

Sorry workers in Malaysia, I caved.

The Contest!

Well, I told you guys about the ccontest I was in right? Well it was last friday, and it was fun! We arrived a little early just in case it was a mad house, but it was totally relaxed!First item of business was getting my name into the Golden Drum, then onto the activities. There was a bounce house for the kids, and lots of food, and sugary drinks, and local mini-celebrities like Miss Utah, the Grocery Guru,the radio station DJ, and the guy that owns Colosimo Sausages. Not to mention 40+ people hoping to win the $5000 in groceries for the year!

Can you believe we were the ONLY people with signs??? Come on people, this is a YEAR of groceries for goodness sake!!

So... in goes Miss Utah's hand, and out comesthe name of....

this very excited guy from Clearfield :

He was GENUINELY overjoyed, and although we didn't win the grand prize, it was sweet to see!

Congrats, whoever you are!

And no worries guys, I still made out like a bandit with all this free stuff:

1 t-shirt

2 boxes of Fat Boy ice cream desserts

1 package of golf balls

1 pack of spicy sausages

1 gallon of milk

1 tub of cottage cheese

1 SWEET trapper keeper thing (I am not kidding when I say this thing is sweet, it has built in speakers! and comes prestocked with coupons, and various couponing supplies like scissors, hole punch, etc)

AND

$50 Maceys gift card

not to mention, two weeks of excitement!

THANK YOU MACEYS!!! (and Fat Boy, and Colosimos, and Meadow Gold ) :o)

Hey did I tell you that Jason entered in hoped of me getting TONS of junk email, as part of our on going email war... haha... he's nice even when he's TRYING to be mean. I love that guy.

Everything is an Apple.

Athen says:

"Dee-go" for Diego
"wa-wa" for drinks
"dada"
"mama"
"bella" for the babies that live by us
"NO!"

and for anything that looks delicious to him, he refers to as "Apple!"




BTW, the voice you are hearing is my older sister, not me. How's that for similar genetics?