Hello Spring... I hope

So a month flew by. No joke. Where did it go? How is it almost the end of March ! ah ! I'm too busy for my own good.

I'm sure not much has been going on and that's why I haven't updated. Or that's what I tell myself.

Chris only has like 4 or 5 weeks of actual class left. What !! So excited. He went and had to register for graduation, and sign up for all this weird stuff, and got his tassel. It was fun. SO excited. Except I'm not because he's probably leaving me the day after graduation to go to Arkansas for work. COOL. (sarcasm, in case you don't get that) But there's a LOT of money potential. And... yeah that's all the positives I can give you. Money. So we'll pretty much pay off debt and then some, in the perfect scenario. But I won't have a husband for 3 months. I'll be a single mom. A single working mom. Ugh. Shoot me now. I think we have Logan's daycare sorta taken care of, possibly. And that was my biggest concern. Especially since it was going to be at least $2500. So yay for that problem gone. Other than that there are just negatives. He may or may not make it to Maddies wedding. Which sucks. He is probably not going to come to Utah. No, he's not coming. No probably. Not coming to San Diego. Not going to be here in general, anniversaries, birthdays. Luckily he'll be here for Logans, or I'll kill him.

Logan time. Happy time. He hasn't been sleeping super well. Yay for me. ie last night he went to bed at 930, up at 11 but right back down. Up at 1230, fed and back down. Up screaming at 130... and we're up. Screaming. Finally i lay in our bed with him listening to lullaby music and at some point before 230 he fell back asleep, sideways. And we tossed and turned all night. Joy. And every day has been insanely busy and I'm tired. But do I get a break? or a nap? nah... moms don't do that right? Other than sleep, he's adorable. Growing so fast. He's so close to walking. He'll reach for something and be a step away and start to step but panic and just fall log a chopped down tree into the couch, or us or whatever he was going for. So close to taking steps. And he looooves screaming. Anytime he's excited, high pitched ears bleeding screams. So funny. He LOVES water. LOVES LOVES LOVES. Anytime a faucet is on, he comes crawling and screaming. He has to play in it. Can't just watch it. He's started to try and climb over the edge of the tub, lifts his fat little leg, not quite high enough thank goodness. And he just plays and plays in the tub. Flops around, splashes, belly to back, and falling all over. He's such a fun kid. Just not last night.

Had to get in the water at Angel's Bday dinner. 

And then screamed when he had to get out.

We bought a fancy DSLR camera with some of our tax money. Ugh. So much money. We've talked about one for years. And finally caved. Because we keep talking about it. We really do want to use it and get good. And I know it's a thing right now, but it's been a thing I've wanted to do since high school, but I'd love to have a little thing on the side and do family shoots, seniors, babies, engagements. I'm too scared to ever say weddings. But maybe one day when we're good enough :] We've just messed around with taking Logan's pics and two senior ones. And for every 20 shots I think there's one perfect one. Not bad. For beginner with no training. Just reading online and getting out there. Hopefully one day it will be for every 20 shots there's only one bad one !

And that's my life right now. Work is always the same. Getting excited for our conference in San Diego next month ! Summer will be interesting. At least I have Utah at the end of May (my mom's getting married! Yay!!) And then a little loop through the east coast from DC to NJ to NY back here. Weddings. Two. In a row. Fun fun ! And then getting my husband back. So far I have nothing going on in June, if anyone has anything they want me to come to lemme know !

I'll write more later when its not 11:54am and I'm starving. Toodles !

Our New Beginnings Come Unto Christ: Diamonds in the Rough 2014

We had our ward New Beginning's last night. We did the (typical, I'm noticing) theme of "Diamonds in the Rough" that I'm seeing everywhere.  I don't feel bad doing the same as a lot of other places, because the girls like glitzy glam stuff and its fancy, and it goes SO well with the youth theme this year of "Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him."  I love the idea of our hidden potential to become perfect beautiful diamonds if we come unto Christ, allow the trials and pressures of life work on us, and become shaped into something beautiful.

We invited all the parents, family members, and bishopric to come enjoy in this evening.  Of course we had fancy invitations that we handed out a few weeks prior and mailed to those we didn't catch at church.

Fancy schmancy! 

Then we set out to decorate the black and white and light pink the girls requested. We are so blessed to have wonderful sisters in our ward who have collected decorations over the years from weddings, and proms and whatever events and we got to pick and choose from their stash. So lucky ! And we came up with the following:

The program table. (Iron needed, I know!) Got the Theme print out here.

Absolutely loved the idea of the girls pictures surrounding Christ. They were excited to see their pictures and take them home.  This was probably my favorite part. 

The table post closing prayer. Excuse the mess :]

Oh and admire my awesome cupcakes I made. Um.. yummy? First time with fancy frosting and I love it!

The program was very simple. We didn't want a long program, hours into an already long Sunday. We had a talk by our YW President, introducing the theme for the night, Diamonds in the Rough, and talked about the diamond process and how we can relate this to Coming unto Christ.  We also had a talk by the YW Secretary who's over the Personal Progress and her talk was on... Personal Progress! And how we can Come unto Christ through Personal Progress. Which you can get more info here.

From here we turned the time over to the YW and they presented Jenny Phillips program "Come Unto Christ" which can be found on her website.  We just swapped out her music for ours, for time constraints of learning the songs and we have instrument talent we wanted to show case.

But we did have the girls learn and sing the theme song, Come Unto Christ (so good!) and an arrangement of I'm Trying to be like Jesus with a beautiful vilolin part, and a few more Christ related songs. 

After that we presented a homemade "Mormon Message" by yours truely (that I wanted to make for my faith project). We previously recorded the girls answering the questions: What does it mean to Come unto Christ, how do you plan to come unto Christ and how has/does Personal Progress help you come unto Christ? I then did some snazzy editing in iMovie (woo!) and smashed it all together and go this! 

You can also go to the YouTube link here!

All credit goes to the artists for their pictures & the song is the minus track of Come unto Christ.

It was so incredible to make this video. Being able to sit in on their testimonies and here their answers was amazing. I had to be very aware, because I'd get teary eyed but couldn't cry since sniffles wouldn't be easy to edit out of the video! 

We also made them tiles with cut vinyl (shout out to my awesome cricut!) and had each one for the girls. 

Simple. Nothing fancy. We just wanted something for the girls to take home. Tied to the back is a copy of the video I made in a little sleeve so they can keep it forever and watch it everyday, right girls?

All in all, it was a very stressful event. We had SO many mishaps along the way. Nothing big, but just one thing after the other. The poor YW president and I were so ready to rip our hair out. But by the end we knew it was just Satan trying to frustrate the whole evening and stop us from having this event. Which we knew the Lord wanted so we persevered and survived ! And loved it. So many stories and memories. 

Here's one for the road ;]

Oh that happened. ::shivers::

It was a wonderful night. With wonderful girls and the wonderful spirit. I loved seeing the girls showcase their talents and testimony. And hearing the rave reviews of the night from so many. I love being back in this calling !

Our beautiful girls !

To food, or not to food?

I had this thought a few weeks ago. I've been trying to figure out how to say this.

In the past few years, decade, whatever, people have become more health conscious.  All natural, organic, free range, grain fed, no genetically modified, pesticide blahblahblah. There's movements, movies, groups, songs [maybe not] all about the horrible things in our food and the horrible things you are then putting into your bodies.

While I'm not saying we shouldn't be worried, or wary, or conscious about the GM foods, high fructose corn syrup and whatever else people are up in arms about, I thought of some other things we take into our bodies, that aren't as good.. But we aren't picketing these things.

So here's my picket sign.

Maybe because I'm getting old. Maybe because I have "mature" [haha] taste.

Do you stop and think about the music you listen to? What about the movies? What's the language like, the scenes? What about those friends you choose to be around? I'm not talking about the school hall talk; obviously you can't control that and you need to be in school or work. But when you choose to be around those people.

The standards for members of the church have been set forth in the "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet, which surprisingly isn't just for youth.  In the entertainment & media section, the First Presidency has stated, "Do not attend, view, or participate in anything that is vulgar, immoral, violent, or pornographic in any way. Do not participate in anything that presents immorality or violence as acceptable. Have the courage to walk out of a movie, change your music, or turn off a computer, television, or mobile device if what you see or hear drives away the Spirit." 

Pretty straight forward?

There is more information in other sections, language, music & dancing, friends, etc. We've been directed by modern Prophets on what things to allow "into our bodies" and what things to stay away from. 

So where are the news crews headlining this? Where are the documentaries, the protesters demanding awareness for these spiritually detrimental things we allow in our bodies, our families, our children? 

Food for thought. 

[pun intended]   

Quickly

I probably shouldn't update when I'm feeling frustrated. I'm afraid you'll sense the angst in my writing and it won't be fun. Well, I hope my normal writing is fun.

I just thought I'd put a quick update on here. Nothing big going on.

Logan is officially a crawler. Almost a week now. He just decided one day that he wanted to crawl. And then he did. No learning. No awkward attempts. Just mastered it. Bam. 24 hours and he's a crawler. He's so fast. He loves getting into the dogs water bowl. Great. But he loves his baths, so I'm not surprised he loves to splash in the bowl. He's stood twice in the last few days without holding on and just stood. No biggie. It was pretty intense except he didn't realize it. He just plops down. He loves when we try to get him to stand and he falls one way or the other. He giggles and laughs. Its amusing. Did I put he got his first full hair cut? It was a few weeks ago. Chris did it while I was a church one day. I came home and it was gone. He did ask permission. But I didn't realize he was actually going to do it. Logan grew like 2 years in a matter of 2 hours. It was sad.  But he's so cute.

Long shaggy before hair

it's all gone ! He looks so much bigger. Crazy !

 He's 9 months. Had his check up. Not quite 20lbs which kills me, cause I would have sworn he was. He's taller than he is wide. So that explains why all his shirts come up over his belly. That fat little belly. Which is why i love him in footie pjs. I don't have to worry about the bottom of clothes coming halfway up his leg, or his shirts riding up over his belly. And had his second flu shot. So sad. Poor kid. Not excited for his 1yr check up when he gets stuck with all kinds of stuff. His sad little face. I can't take it. But that's all thats new with him. He's not walking quite yet. He loves walking along the furniture. He discovered his walker toy he can walk behind, since he's only ever climbed up on in and played with the activity front part of it. Now he likes to get it and walk all over the living room. He walks crooked. Like he's drunk. Silly kid. He doesn't like food. Well, real food. He eats all his jarred food and then some. But give him the real version of what his mashed food is, he hates it. Spits it out, makes the grossest face. I hope this kid isn't on jars forever.

Chris applied for graduation last week. Since the deadline was Friday. Nice. I am excited about that. He's on schedule. Should be fine as long as he passes all class. He said he's pretty sure he can get all D's this semester and still graduate with an air force acceptable GPA. Woot. He talked to a recruiter for the Air National Guard in Charleston. They have a pilots position open there. Chris wants it. So he got all the info, just needs to start working on that. Ie, studying for the tests, physicals, reference letters, etc. We may be west virginia-ers a few years longer. Who knows.

Chris got me a Nexus 7 tablet for my early Valentines present. I'm excited to use it. I don't really know what to use it for. Most anything I can do on it I've been using my phone for, so it seems redundant so far. Except when I have to teach church, then it will be wonderful, since the new curriculum is online and printing it all is a pain and just having it there on this cute little tablet will be lovely.

Life has been pretty hectic. I'm kind of at my end. Physically, emotionally, spiritually. I'm just tapped out. I'm not tired, in that I'm not sleeping. But just so much. All the time. I can't. I mean I can. But it feels like I can't. There's just always something. And I'm not handling it well. I know it will be over soon. I know I should be positive and have that optimistic outlook and blah blah blah. And I will. But not right now. Let me be cranky, and moody and eat chocolate every night. I keep thinking this is a challenge for me. I've been just going through the motions lately. Not really into what ever it is I'm doing. And a few times, I've been thinking about how to challenge the Young Women to follow the theme for this year "Come Unto Christ" and then I think about what I am or can be doing to do that as well. And maybe that's what this is. Unfortunately, it's not until we're tired, lost, broken, forsaken, alone that we turn to our Savior. And maybe I am not being a good example to the YW and this is going to push me to be.

At least thats what I'm going to tell myself while I'm dealing with stuff.

Progress

Progress: noun

ˈprägrəs,ˈprägˌres,ˈprōˌgres/

1. 1.

   forward or onward movement toward a destination.

I've been thinking a lot about progress lately. Maybe because I'm watching my sweet little boy master crawling, or pulling himself up preparing to walk off across the room at any moment. Maybe because Chris is a few short months away from graduation and we get to move forward with the next step. Maybe because of some things I'm dealing with in my life as a YW leader. That's probably it. Because this will focus more on the Gospel's (well my version of the Gospel's) view of progress.

Members of the LDS church talk a lot about the Plan of Salvation. If you want more information that I may not cover proceed here ---> http://www.lds.org/topics/plan-of-salvation?lang=eng. I found a fancy color picture depicting said Plan for this purpose.

There's a lot of information there. Bear with me. 

This is huge for members of the church. This is THE plan. Where we came from, where we are, where we are going. It's the purpose, gives you direction. Gives you that destination we're progressing towards. I love having this knowledge. I don't have to wonder. 

[Hopefully] quick break down. We lived in the Premortal existence with our Heavenly Father and Christ and all God's spirit children. There two plans were proposed, Lucifers plan, which lacked agency, basically forcing us all to making right choices and return to Heaven and Christ's plan which allowed us to use our agency and potentially return to live with Our Father again, or not. Based purely on our choices in life. These opposing plans started "the war in Heaven" between Lucifer's followers and those who supported Christ. 1/3 of all the spirits in Heaven sided with Lucifer and God ultimately cast them out of Heaven. Those who remained and followed Christ, left the Premortal Existence and came to Earth. We have forgotten all this because of the Veil (seen) so we can be objective and make our decisions in this life, whether to follow Christ's example, make right choices, follow the scriptures, commandments, prophets etc. This is where we are (duh right?).  When we leave this world, through death, our body will be buried, and our spirit will continue on to one of two places: spirit paradise or spirit prison. Placement is based solely on your decisions here in this life. If you've kept the commandments and follow Christ and his prophets you will enjoy paradise. If you need to work on some things, repent, iron our your kinks in obedience, you will go to Spirit Prison where you will have the opportunity to be taught and fix what needs fixin'. This is currently happening for all those who have died since the beginning of the world. And will continue to happen until... the Resurrection. Christ rose on the 3rd day. Agreed? We are to follow his example and because he broke the bonds of death by being resurrected, we too will be resurrected. This will be the rejoining of our body and spirit so we can stand before God and be judged according to our works in Earth life. From here the judgement takes place of all spirits/people who lived on the earth. Here is where things get a little awesome (imho) instead of just a pass/fail system, there isn't just Heaven or Hell, good or bad.  There are three kingdoms of Heaven. Celestial is the best, most sought after. Where we will live in the presence of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. It's compared to the glory of the sun. Brightest, most glorious. The second kingdom is the Terrestrial, compared to the glory of the moon. Still bright. Still beautiful, but not quite as magnificent as the sun. And the last is the Telestial Kingdom, which is comparable to the glory of the stars. And for those that are absolutely horrible, and basically evil followers of Satan/Lucifer, get to go to outer darkness. No light. (See 1 Cor. 15:40-41).  

Ok. Overwelmed? Sorry. I had to make sure we were all on the same page. 

So back to my progress. So you see how going through this plan is sort of linear. You start from one and go to the next and continue on. Until you reach the destination. The definition, remember, of progress says the forward or onward movement towards a destination. Not backwards. Not sitting still. Forward. Go. Move. 

There is no progress in standing still. 

Would it make sense in the grand scheme of this Plan, to say, stop after you come to earth? Refuse to leave? Stay in earth life... forever? No. What's the point? We came here to experience, use our agency, make choices and prove ourselves worthy to return to live with our Father in Heaven. Or even after death. Let's stay dead... What? Why? What was the purpose of any of that? At any point (beyond making it past judgement and into one of the kingdoms) there is no reason to stop. There is no reason to stand still. We must progress. We must push forward toward our destination. No matter how scary that next step is. I'm sure leaving the comfort and glory of our Father in Heaven to come to this dreary world called Earth was intimidating, fearful, you name it. I'm sure we felt scared. But we trusted God. We trusted our Savior. We had faith. We took the leap and came here. Now people talk about fear of death. Fear of what's next. Why yes, we fear the unknown. But if we exercise a little faith, and see what's next, see what's coming, would we delay it? Would we want to live forever, just because we're scared of the next step? No. It seems silly. Childish, to throw a tantrum because we're scared and refuse to move. We must go forward. This is the plan we agreed to before we came to this life. And knowing what comes next and what we can obtain, the goal we are moving towards, that wonderful destination... why fear? "This is a time for faith, not fear" (reference). 

So (how could I keep going!) to relate this to life. My life. My things. Working with Young Women (girls ages 12-18) in such a scary transient time in life, there is a lot of fear. You're dealing with so much uncertainty at that time in life. But... you still move forward. What would you tell the little 11 year old who's preparing to leave the children's primary program and enter the Young Women's program, who's afraid. Who doesn't want to leave the comfort of the familiar Primary program. How silly it seems. Ask anyone, Young Women's rocks. But they don't know that. They don't know what goes on there. They know what happens in Primary. And they want to stay. Sadly, they don't get to stay. You must progress. You must move forward. And before you know it that scared preteen is loving Young Women's, loving the new friends, the teachings, the activities and wonders why she ever fought against this natural progression. 

So what I'm trying to say, move. Forward. Not backwards. Move. Don't stand still. Have faith not fear. This whole entire Plan is based on the next step. Planning, preparing and moving forward. 

Frozen: Not the Disney Movie

It has been snowing. And snowing. Which I LOVE. Don't get me wrong. Snow means money. Snow means Chris gets to work. And that is awesome. Since he doesn't have a "real" job so he can plow. So this past week or so he's been home on and off. He'd have been gone more if school wasn't getting in the way. Curse you college ! But this has been nice. He's exhausted. Poor him. I'm mostly exhausted from taking care of Logan and being stuck in the house.  Logan's getting stir crazy. He can't stay in one room. He moves so much the front of his onesie gets covered in dog hair (yuck) and all dingy. I'm going to have to start mopping 3x a day. Awesome.

Speaking of college, and Chris. He gets to apply for graduation ! Woo ! I almost forgot about it. Until I saw the calendar event that says dead line to apply. So, this is happening ! He's got a couple scary classes that are definitely going to be tough. But he can do it. So I'm excited. Before I know it, it will be May and my baby boy will be one and I'll have a graduated husband ! Whatttt !

I can't really think of too much going on. Same old. Snow days. Work. It's been pretty laid back. We probably need to get warmed up to working. But this cold makes us all want to go home. All the time. Which is what we do. Yay for my awesome job :]

I've started doing a new work out challenge. I'm almost done with week 3. Which is probably the longest I've ever kept up with any workout/diet routine. Go me. Luckily I have a few friends doing it, and its all on facebook, AND I convinced my dear sweet husband to start it too. He's just a week behind, but hey. He's doing it too :] which is funny because it's called the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge.  90 days. We can do it ! Hopefully we see results. I can't say I have yet (granted its been 3 weeks, and I'm not dieting) but they workouts aren't killing me as much as they used to. So yay for being stronger !

And that's all I can think of. Life has been too busy but not with anything interesting. I've got a girls night party thing with Patti @ her house tonight, which I'm pretty excited about. I was up all night making sugar cookies & learning to decorate with royal icing. I gave myself a sugar hangover. Man, did I feel horrible this morning. And then my dad's big 5-0 birthday is Saturday and they're coming over for dinner :] I'm excited to have people over. And especially for them to be at my house and see Logan in his natural state. Which means cleaning. Lots of cleaning. Which I feel like I spent all last weekend doing. Which I did. Because my mess of a basement is absolutely gorgeous and clean now. I want to just sit down there. Because it's so pretty. Organization ::sigh::

Annnnd that's all folks. This snowy week went by fast. And hopefully I'll more interesting things to write about. I can make up stuff. Well not make up stuff, but just write random things but I don't think anyone cares.

I restarted doing this for my Project Life album. I'm still trying to work on the rest of my "Project 26" from 2013. I'm only a few weeks behind. I have them all planned, I just have to match them to a layout and print pictures. And I want to do this year, but the longer I wait, the longer I get behind and ahhhh. Maybe next week life will let up a bit and I can try to do more. I love being able to go back through and look at the fun things. Chris actually said "I'm so glad you've taken the time to make this" the other day when we were looking through what I've done so far. It's nice that he doesn't see it as a waste of time or money. And hopefully we like to keep looking at it through the years. And it's a ton easier to do now that the products are available at Michaels and HobLob now too :] Woo !! Check it out if you have no idea what I'm talking about: http://beckyhiggins.com/   scrapbooking made easy !

And now, that's really all I have.

The end !

Because sleep is overrated...

For whatever reason its 1am and my baby is asleep, husband is out working and i'm... updating my blog. Because... see title.

I realize it's been way too long since I've updated and I know I won't do it any other time. Mostly because I haven't been at work which means I've been busy at home. I've LOVED this wonderful 2 1/2 week long break <3 I never want it to end. Sadly... In 4 days it will :[  We really haven't done much which is fine by me. It's been lazy, and being home, and being together as a family. What more could a girl want?

We had a wonderful thanksgiving (I have even updated since then?!) in NJ and I saw a bunch of wonderful people I haven't seen in years, some in lots of years. It was really great to just be, hang out, catch up. Just talk. See how far we've all come. It's wonderful to keep in touch with people. I never had that, growing up and moving so much. It's nice to have people I have kept in touch with. So yummy turkey. Lots of people. LOTS of people. Lots of dogs. All under one roof. Wawa. Yum.

Christmas was busy. As usual. We had a last minute Perry Party, since no one really planned anything at the Thanksgiving thing we usually do. But it turned out really well. Perry's are always down for some perry time and food. It's nice to see everyone for a bit too. Chris has two cousins expecting, one's 1/2 way thru her pregnancy, so it was fun to talk to her. And the other wasn't there but they'd just announced it earlier that week. It's so fun. So many babies ! I know there are other couples (not us, so calm down spaz) that are trying so there are more on the way ! I can't wait til we have more, but.. I can. I get all anxious and have a mild attack when I think of another one. Except I miss being pregnant. But I love just having Logan, and paying attention to him. I can't make up my mind.

On to Logan. This kid is getting huge. Make it stop!  He has 7 teeth that have broken thru, we're waiting on the last one to complete the bottom "set" so his 4 top, and 3 and almost 4th on the bottom. They make him look so grown up ! I finally trimmed his hair because it was all in his eyes and growing over his collar and making it look all mullet-ish. ::gag:: I couldn't take it. He's 8 months old today. Weird. 4 months til his bday ! I've been planning it cause I'm a weirdo planner, but I might start getting stuff together, crafting the crafty parts and getting stuff going on. It's going to be a fun time in May. Hear this weekend.  So my mom's coming out for Josh's graduation (weird, my little brother.. baby brother, is graduating!) and thats the 12th, so whatever that thursday before is, she flies, then she'll drive here Friday. I'm going to wait a week to do Logan's 1st Bday since her and my grandma will be here, and really? It's not like he'll notice. So party Friday, Saturday is Chris' graduation ! Ah ! Yay ! Luckily we'll have a joint party w/ his little sister later in the month. And then sunday is normal busy Sunday, and then Monday is Josh's graduation. AH. So. Much. To. Do. But yeah. So my baby is big. He's not actually crawling yet. He's so much better at getting up on his hands and knees all by himself. But he scoots like a champ. He moves so much it's crazy. He loves all his new toys he got for Christmas. So many noisy, sound, singing things. But he always loves wires, wrapping paper tube, remotes and shoes. Because... we didn't buy any of those things for him. So why not?  He loves pulling himself up on you, the couch, legs, whatever he can stick his little talon like fingers in to. So we had to lower his crib so he doesn't try to prison break outta that thing. He's getting so big. He loves to talk. Recently learned how to scream like a banshee. Not even when he's mad, but ALL the time. Gah, this kid kills me. I love him tho. He loves to eat. Everything. Still makes funny faces when you give him "real" food vs his pureed baby mush. Knows how to use his big boy sippy cup, even if he doesn't hold it himself yet. And... that's all I can think of. He's adorable. I love him to death. I can't imagine life without him. I have LOVED these last few weeks being able to be with him constantly. It's like maternity leave all over again but now he does stuff instead of just sleep and eat. I have the cutest kid ever.

And thats all I can think of for now. Loved talking to Maddie on Christmas Day. She's too cute. Sounds like a little sister missionary. I'm super excited for her to get home, especially since Chris is planning on leaving me for the summer to go work. I'll be lonely. Even tho Maddie's other half will be here, hopefully they'll let Logan and I tag along as a joint third wheel like we let Maddie do for our first year of marriage. And Mert is in Oregon awaiting to go to Brazil. Which is awesome. I still can't wrap my head around her being on a mission. I'm super jealous.  They're both having the best experiences and I love hearing about all the wonderful things they're doing. Can't wait til I'm old and I can go on one !!

Oh and I got called to Young Womens. Again. It's been a few weeks, so I'm beyond the shock of it all. I was so sad to be leaving the Relief Society and working with the wonderful women in the church. But I know callings are definitely inspired and I know even in these few short weeks, the women I'm working with are wonderful and we are going to do great. I have to stop reverting back to when i was in the presidency in NJ. It's different ! But it's so hard to not compare things, right? But it should be fun. Fun. fun. fun.

And.. thats all I can think of at this wonderful early 1am time. Yay for snow so husbands can go work. Yay for wonderful jobs that let you have vacations and spend precious time with family. Yay for this wonderful season that has come to a close, so we can remember our Savior and all He's done for us and how much He means in my life. And... here's to 2014. I don't really have... resolutions. Because I think I've only ever kept one in my whole life. But the obvious, I do want to get in better shape. I've been mentally psyching myself up for that one. And then work on some personal things with some character flaws I want to try to iron out. Hopefully we'll be expecting sometime in 2014 :] how fun ! Ah ! and scary. And we may not even be in WV this time next year. 2014 is going to be big changes for our little family and I can't wait !