little man

Ya, we're still plugging along over here in spite of what my blog activity level shows. For those of you who don't already know, we have an announcement to make.

  It's a boy!

Please welcome Little Man. A month ago we received this precious little guy for foster care at only 7 weeks old to keep while his mom pulls things together. Most likely he'll be with us for 6 months to a year. I am having so. much. fun. that I need to say it again. He is So. Much. Fun. And yep, I already know I'm going to need therapy when he goes, but I try really hard not to think about it right now.  It's been exactly 14 years since my last baby and it is a completely different experience this time around.

Number 1 difference is the boy thing.  We've never done that around here before and more than once this little guy has caught us off guard... But wow, he is handsome and I try really hard not to dress him too girlie. I do have to admit, we have ALL been guilty of slipping and calling him 'her' though, at least once. Poor kid!

Number 2, I am 14 years older than I was with my last baby and have had some pretty substantial life experiences in that time. My body and my intellect aren't handling the endless day and night-time scheduled feedings at maximum capacity. In fact, I think I have never been this exhausted in my whole life. Not even when I was 16 and I yelled at my mom that she would never understand how tired I was...  Sorry, mom. Again.

This leads nicely into Number 3, which is that I am blessed to have wonderfully amazing teenage girls (I know, I totally don't deserve it) who have made all the difference. Between them and my helpful Count Studley, we are handling this experience with minimal trauma. And last night he (That's Little Man, not Count Studley, well, and Count Studley) slept for 8 hours and this morning he laughed his first ever really real laugh because Count Studley was being so ridiculously silly in his face.

The last difference is my perspective.  He is pretty much a grumpy-pants a lot of the time but I'm pretty good with it.  He reminds me a lot of how Our Princess was when she was really tiny.  Only she was Ultra-Major-Grumpy Pants. Then, when she was 3 months old exactly, she turned into a brand new happy princess and we've lived happily ever after. Those 3 months seemed more than eternity for a first time mom, and I wondered constantly why no one ever told me the truth about motherhood. But now she is 16-stinkin-years-old, and my perspective is so different than it ever could have been then. So I don't worry so much about the housework and the laundry and fall canning and even my fun projects, and I hold him too much, and I talk to him when he is sad, and we sing and we dance and in a couple of months he'll be just fine. And then I'll give him back to his mom. What were we ever thinking??

Our church held it's semi-annual general conference this weekend.  This is always a favorite time for our family.  We set up the card table in the living room and work on craft projects together while we watch each of the four- two hour sessions.  This conference, as life in general as of late, was a little different.  My Angel's fourteenth birthday was on Saturday and Count Studley was out of town for work.  The sessions flew by between making and decorating a birthday cake, fixing favorite meals, opening gifts, visiting with friends, and a trip to the mall for birthday shopping as well as the usual feeding, changing, napping and playing with the baby.  I'm grateful for the technology that we have that gives me an opportunity to watch and read and watch again these messages that are so uplifting and inspiring for me, especially when life gets complicated.  It was also fun to see on Pinterest that others had gleaned the same insights that I did and have already been creative with them.

These are some of my favorite thoughts to ponder with a link to the individual talks as well as the sources from pinterest:

proclamationpictures.blogspot.com

Ann M Dibb

yourhomebasedmom.com

Linda K Burton

diapersanddivinity.files.wordpress.com

 Henry B Eyring

281fourthstreet.blogspot.com

"Sometimes in life we become so focused on the finish line that we fail to find joy in the journey."

This man speaks directly to me every single time.  It's like he looks right at me and tells me how it is and what I need to do.  Once again, this was just for me.  I'm pretty sure he was called to this responsibility just for my salvation. 

  Dieter F Uchtdorf

And lastly, so good to remember when life becomes full of uncertainty, from our prophet:

diapersanddivinity.files.wordpress.com

President Thomas S Monson

Keep Smiling!

for Frances

To my Dearest Fan Fran,

Thank you for caring.  You will always be one of the truest friends I have. I miss you and hope that your school year has started in a spectacular way.

Love always,

any takers?

from pinterest

Wow! I knew I'd be out of commission for a while, but WOW. We have never had such a crazy adventure of a summer in our whole lives!! We left mid-June for our two week road trip.  Super fun + super long.  Our girls were amazing and we (mostly) got along really well. Thank goodness for technology.  You know those days of singing joyfully and playing car games together as a family as they went? The only singing that happened on this trip was with Disney SingIt on the Wii and the only games that were played were on the Wii or the Ipad, and many movies were watched between all of us, together and independently, I'm afraid. I decided that Count Studley and I have never in our 17 years of marriage spent that much time consistently together. right next to each other. Until this trip.  I'm grateful we had that time together, but I'm also grateful that he has another 25 years until retirement ;)!! Speaking of retirement, when that day comes, we are definitely moving to rural New York. Gorgeous.
We had 3 days after we got back from that trip before we left for our church's girls camp.  Since I am the assistant girls camp leader, those three days were spent pretty much entirely with last minute preparations for the camp. And unpacking. And doing laundry. And repacking. One of those days was the 4th of July, so my poor family skipped out on that holiday pretty much completely.  And I had even found so many fun things on Pinterest to try!! Boo.  We did slap together some pbj's and headed up to our local Independence Day show for a couple of hours to watch the fireworks and hear the group Kansas perform. (I totally didn't remember who they are and they even came from my day!!)
We got home from girls camp on Saturday evening and had to be ready to leave Sunday morning for our next adventure.  So Saturday night was filled once again with unpacking, laundry, and repacking. Sunday morning I headed out to take Our Princess to a ranch in Island Park, Idaho where she was attending a horse camp for the week. After dropping her off there, My Angel and I headed over to my parents house for a couple of days to hang out with my aunt and cousin who are visiting from Australia.  Then we (did laundry and) headed up to Island Park with my family to stay in a gorgeous cabin and spent a few days touring Yellowstone National Park before heading over to a rained-out rodeo that Our Princess was supposed to be performing in. She got to sing the national anthem, and that pretty much was the beginning and the end, because it was dumping rain and the horses were going crazy. We picked her up on Sunday morning and got home Sunday evening.
Monday morning at 6:30 a.m. we had to be at our church ready to leave for a 3 day pioneer trek with the young men and women. So Sunday night was spent, you know, unpacking, doing laundry, repacking. Monday we rode on a school bus for 7 hours to the middle of nowhere in Wyoming, Tuesday we walked 15 miles. (plus an extra 3 to find Our Princess and her 'lost' peeps) Wednesday we bussed for 2 hours, walked another 5 miles and then bussed again for 6, getting us home just after midnight.  Thursday we unpacked and did laundry.  Our realtor called Thursday afternoon to see if we could do a showing and I looked around at the piles of laundry, clean and dirty, the tents and sleeping bags strewn all over the yard, the weeds that have completely taken over my flower beds, and the dust that was at least an inch thick on the furniture, and all I could do was laugh. And say no.
So this week begins is my summer vacation.  It will be filled with all kinds of relaxing things like trying to find my vegetable garden under all the weeds, and trying to find my piano under the dust.  And probably doing laundry.  And hopefully visiting the chiropractor, lol.  But I'm home and I'm so happy to be. This weekend we will head out to go camping with Count Studley's family, then Our Princess is off to Especially for Youth at BYU Idaho for a week while we visit more family.  We'll then finish off the summer with My Angel attending MDA summer camp. Then comes the blessed day when school starts and we have to stay home. I have always dreaded the first day of school, I love love love my kids being home for the summer. Home being the key word here. Home is not something we've been at all this summer and my craft room and the solitude of those quiet school days is calling me as loudly as it ever has.

Anybody else out there living it up this summer?

Hoping your Summer is as happy as mine.
Keep Smiling!