Catch-Up

I got my haircut. Yes, I'm trying to grow it out, but the bottom was much longer than the top and I was feeling on the brink of mullet-ness. So in order to stop that before I was ashamed to go into public I got Lindsay to cut my hair. Now I can let it grow, grow grow, let it grow.


My sister-in-law is getting married! Horray! Beth and Wade got engaged last weekend when they were here for Jim's 23rd annual 39th birthday party. We are so excited for them, and can't wait until July 10th when they will be sealed in the Nauvoo Temple.


Morgan got a fish in his bum. Yeah, I said it. So Morgan was supposed to dictate this story to me, but I always forget to update the website when he is home, or generally for that matter, so here is the story as I remember it.

Last Saturday Morgan and his brother Gordon went to a park in Ottumwa to go find discs in the pond. They had their 'swimming' clothes and found about 20 discs or so. Once they got out of the pond, Morgan put his pants on over his shorts, the went to the van and sat on the towels to start the drive home.
Ten minutes into the drive Morgan feels something wiggling at his backside, reaches behind him and pulls out a fish that flops on to the dashboard. Gordon grabbed the fish and put it in a bucket in the back to bring it home and tell the beautiful story to us.
(Look to the comments, Morgan will probably fix the story when he reads this.)

Yes, this is the fish. It died shortly after this picture was taken.

And finally, sweet Eli. I have stopped trying to get Eli to take a nap for a couple of months now. It was hit or miss, and I would be frustrated when he wouldn't sleep because he would keep coming out and bothering me. So we are all happier letting him stay awake. Not to mention he goes to bed so much better!
However, the other day he was just too tired. He got hurt or something, and had to lie down on the pillows with his blanket. I was checking the computer and by the time I was done he had fallen asleep. He stayed asleep even after Josh woke up and was playing all around him in the living room. Crazy kids!

Spring Break Dollar Days

This past week was Spring Break for the Waterloo Schools. It didn't effect me since the kids don't go to school, and it didn't effect Morgan since he still has to work hard everyday. BUT, the museums around town were having a dollar days Monday - Friday from 9am-5pm. So we went to the Phelps Youth Pavilion one day (sorry, no pictures I forgot my camera) and Friday we went to the Sullivan Brother Iowa Veterans Museum.

I did not know this but the 5 Sullivan brothers were, obviously brothers who served together during World War II. All 5 brother were on the USS Juneau together (contrary to normal Navy protocall). The ship was torpedoed, and sank within one minute. About 100 sailors survived including one of the brothers. But because the ships left rather than look for survivors, it was several days before a plane flying overhead saw that there were survivors so when they went to get them there were only 10 survivors, and all 5 of the Sullivan brothers had died.

I took several pictures at the museum and tried not to get weepy in front of the boys when I read about all sorts of sad things that come with war. But here are some of the shots I got.

Eli and Josh both love to help me cook.


The boys in front of an old car. Eli is trying to get Josh to look at the camera.

Eli kept this 'dog-tag' in his mouth ALL day long!
Eli and Josh with the Sullivan brothers statue.
Josh was more interested in the statue.
They had a mini-replica of the front of the USS Juneau, the boys loved looking out the windows.

Here's Eli in a fighter jet.
Again, dog-tag in the mouth.

Eli popping out of the tank.

Don't believe me, here's the tank.

Missing Home

Today has been one of "those " days. A day when nothing seems to go right, or according to plan. I get upset much to quickly with the boys, loose all motivation to get anything done, frustrated at myself for not getting anything done. And so today I miss my Mom.

I don't really consider Utah to be home, Iowa is my home now and will be probably for the rest of my life. But when I'm having a bad day I just want to go back to my parents house and forget about being an adult and let them take care of me.

I'll be alright. Even while writing this I've started to feel better. Along with Eli asking me if I'm doing better, you just can't be too upset when your kids tell you they "love you and forgive you the truth."

Just like Mom!

I finished using the weights this morning for my exercises and Josh started pointing and grunting wanting the weights. So I got them down for him and he started working out!

Hartmon Maple Syrup Festival

Last Thursday we went to the Hartmon Nature Reserve for their story time. The focus of this month was on Maple Trees and the syrup they make. So we played around inside for a few minutes before the story time. Then we got to go outside gather our own sap from the trees and bring it back to the sugar shack. After that we got to eat some ice cream with maple syrup on it. Yum!

Eli hanging out inside.

We've got our red bucket and were dumping the sap from the silver buckets.

Eli was doing a syrup dance for me.

Eli likes ice cream!

Joshua likes ice cream too!

Day at Nauvoo

Today Morgan and I got to go to Nauvoo without the kids. They stayed with Grandma and Grandpa, and it was nice to be able to drive down there by ourselves and not have to worry about time, and not abusing the babysitters, etc.
We didn't have a set plan, but knew we wanted to do an endowment session. We were there too late to go to the 10am so we did sealings first and then got on stand-by for the 11am session. They said we were good to go, we went and sat in the chapel and then we were asked to be the witness couple. Kind of funny how things work out. That is the third time, in a row, that we've done an endowment session and asked to be the witness couple. I enjoy it because I am able to focus a little bit better, and things just seem different.
I love the temple. I miss that we don't get to go there every week like we did before we had kids. I told Morgan that I would love to plan a day at the temple, do all of the ordinances that we can. There were some people in our session who were going to go on the 1pm session right after. I think they're crazy, stop for lunch man! Anyway, we had a wonderful day.

Visit

Morgan's sister came here last night to visit us. She just returned from her mission in Jacksonville, Florida. We were talking about how she is looking for a job and hasn't found much luck in Ottumwa and Morgan mentioned that she could come work at his office as a temp. Morgan said he would talk to the guy who would be hiring her on Monday.

Well, today Morgan gets into the office and first thing he receives an email from B who is the one who hires the temps to work for him. He asked Morgan if he knew of anyone looking for a job. Morgan replied that his sister was and now she is there, starting her job.

So Shannon's visit will be extended as she lives with us and works at Morgan's firm. Hopefully we can move into a new house soon, and then she will have her own room and not be stuck in the cold basement. :)

Anger

Today I am working on not being angry. It started at 6:00am when Eli woke up complaining of his foot hurting (it was probably asleep). I sang to him, rubbed his foot etc. He had, of course, already woken up Joshua who was crying also. I sing to them again, Josh is ready to go back to sleep and Eli just won't stop crying. I am Mad! I hate it when they get up so early, ironically because I can't read my scriptures.

So I tell Eli to go to my room, and I try to put Josh back down. Josh eventually quiets, Eli rests on my bed and I pray and ask Father to help me not be angry and to be able to read my scriptures and learn from them.

The morning is going well after that, I'm trying to keep positive even though Josh is obviously tired. By the way it isn't even 9:00am yet. Anyway, its time for me to go downstairs to shower. We're not going to be down long, and I don't want the boys watching too much TV so I tell them just to play.

I have a wonderful HOT shower (something I appreciate since our water heater was broken this last weekend.) I'm feeling great. I come out of the shower and Josh hands me something. It is a Kidney Bean. I realize that once more they have taken things of the food storage shelf and have at least broken open 1 bag of beans. I am MAD. I go out, find beans, and lentils and noodles all over the floor. I make the boys go sit on the carpet while I try to put cans and bags back and figure out which ones are broken.

I'm starting to calm down a little since I know I'm being angry and it is unfair and unkind to the boys. So I decide to come to vent on the computer, and little Joshua starts picking up the kidney beans and bringing them to me. How cute is that. All of my anger goes away at this little boy trying to clean up and make his mama happy.

So I'm alright now. I haven't cleaned up the mess yet, but I am working on not being angry and being a good mother to my boys.

Playing Outside

The weather was warm enough and we were tired of being inside, so the boys and I went outside to play!

Cleaning Up

Eli is helping us clean up Josh.

Post

So, I check my blog daily, probably multiple times daily to see if anyone else has updated their blog. Not the best use of my time, perhaps, but it is fun for me. The interesting thing is that I can go several days without posting anything, and when I do, I am usually doing three posts at once. So I decided to update my blog today.

I actually do have something exciting to write about, but I am not sure how everything will turn out so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. BUT...Morgan and I have have signed the paperwork to buy a home. We still have to do home inspections and who knows what else to see if everything will go through, but we might be home owners soon!

Wish us luck!