Second blog of the year and it's only November, I am on a roll now!

This year has been a little bit all over the place. It's always nice to look back at this time of year and see how much we really have to be thankful for. Jed and I have had a few major issues and I'm embarrassed to admit that Ary has been the one to play peace maker. I am so grateful that I have this little one-woman show living with us to remind us to get it together!

We got to go to Disneyland for Ary's 4th birthday in May. It really is the happiest place on earth when you are 4 or the mom of someone who is!

We went with my parents and baby sister and I seriously don't know who had a better time, the birthday girl or 5 adults who went with her. I am lucky that my parents and sisters have turned into my best friends. We laugh and cry and solve all the world's problems with each other and I appreciate the relationship we have now that I have my own little family so much more.

Jed will finish his last semester of nursing school at UVU and graduate again in December. I am proud of the persistence he has had to have to be able to do it and how smart he is. I have been "lucky" enough to do some of his homework and help with papers when there is not enough hours in the day to get it done in time, and I'll be the first to admit I am not as smart as him and his classmates! I get a stomach ache just thinking about all of the stuff they have to be able to do. The next step will be to find and get a nursing job with critical care experience for a couple of years.

I have found it a real adjustment to be home more full time this year. I jumped back into work full time when Ary was 8 weeks old. It was a good excuse that we didn't know where finances would be and how we'd do it but truthfully I was afraid to be alone with a tiny baby that I didn't know how to take care of. It was a good thing to take it in steps to be the one fully in charge of another little human! I am thankful for the time I had to kind of ease into doing all of the day to day mom things because I might have drowned if I jumped in 4 years ago! Ary won't remember when she was teeny and I wasn't here with her and now is a good time for me to get brave. We already have lots to do with preschool, dance, and "nastics" plus all of the shenanegans that go along with it all that I don't know how I'd do it without the help that I used to have anyway.

Katy Perry's "Roar" video Ary style

We got a cousin on my side of the family for the first time this year. Milo is Kenzi's baby boy who was born  at 31 weeks and had to come home with a feeding tube. He lived in the NICU till his due date in September and Ary asked every day when we could be able to meet him. This was her first visit and she was so in love. 

I asked if we could have a baby at our house and her reply was, "Maybe when I am a grown up. We can just have Milo for now." 

Good thing I didn't push my luck, she has no interest in being a big sister and is just fine being the main event at our house. I've struggled with some health issues this year besides and another baby right now wasn't in the cards for us anyway so she still gets to be queen bee! 

First (and hopefully not last) post of 2013


Ary: Had a Barbie Christmas and loves hair and make up for them and herself. Still loves 'nanstics and preschool and is still a social butterfly. I try to be careful what conversations I dare have in front of her because she will out all of the skeletons in my closet! Loves playing with cousins and thinks Payzlie is the coolest thing on earth besides her grandmas. Doesn't stay in her own bed at night and pees more nights than not. Will turn 4(!) May 24th. Has been asking for months and finally got her ears pierced today!

She was so brave and didn't shed one tear! I wish I would have gotten a pic of her face when they did it though, she couldn't decide if she was hurt or scared or just shocked:)

Jed: Has entered the bachelor's program in nursing. They say you have to go on and not stop with an associates anymore to get anywhere in the field. The scary NCLEX has come and gone and he passed, whew!! His grandma Linda was a nurse in her working days and was able to to the "pinning" at their ceremony. It looks to me like these last two semesters are going to be easier on all of us even though school is still full time; he is able to work on clinical hours and balance it in with Century Link. I am so grateful that things have worked out so well for him at work and school and pray things continue to go smoothly!

When he's not at work or doing homework Jed is in his usual spot in front of the Play Station or coking with his mom and siblings.

Calee: Same story as always for me. Motherhood kicks my butt every day; they say it isn't for the weak at heart and I totally believe it! It's good to get out and do my few days at the office still to keep some adult logic going on:) I love being home though and know that's where my time is best spent right now. I keep thinking we should have more kids soon if I want to be able to go back to work full time before I'm 50 but I am such a multi-tasker that I want to wait till Ary goes to school all day to be able to pay attention to another baby. I might have a man brain instead of a mom brain; they only seem to do one thing at a time too;) I  like being able to soak in the individual time plus I don't love living the single parent  life with Jed doing full time school and work right now. 

I don't stay in my own bed at night either but don't pee nightly either. I can be found at all hours of the night eating or web surfing. Thank goodness for ambien. Speaking of, I really am thankful to live where we do and when we do; I am just getting over the nastiest flu I've had in a long time and it makes me thankful for modern medicine and easy access to health care. Too bad the nightly munching didn't stay gone for long! 

Maybe a quarterly blog post?

I need to keep myself posting at least a little bit so I can look through blogger someday and remember life's happenings. I don't have a regular journal, and facebook, instagram, and whatever else has my attention at the moment is so quick and easy but you don't post anything journalish on that kind of thing, so here I am.

*Ary is 3. The terrible two's is a big fat lie. At three, she talks back and has learned how to argue. She goes to preschool twice a week at Miss Kelci's and loves it. She is one of the class mothers; I hear they have a couple of girls like her so she is in good company. We are working on letters and their sounds, she can even draw a few and can spell A-R-Y.  She has started to like to be read to, and have the same story read over and over and over and over...

We still go to gymnastics once a week and it's as funny as ever! Ary is a skinny little thing without tons of coordination but she is strong too:) She loves going and if nothing ever comes of it she is still getting good social skills and some exercise. I should practice more at home with her, I want there to be a parent/child class where they spot the moms and dads!

*Jed's story is the same as always; Century Link and nursing school. This semester he has done a preceptorship, which means he works right along with nurses in their departments at the hospital. He has worked in the ER at Utah Valley and loved it, and a few different departments at Primary Children's that haven't been as exciting for him. 

He takes the NCLEX in December, which is a nursing competency test and will determine if he passes the state boards. Bring on the Valium now for me! After that, most of his class will go on to get their Bachelor's degrees, not many finish with only an Associates anymore. I really don't know how he keeps his sanity with a full time job, full time nursing program, and us two yahoos scrambling for his attention when he is here. The nursing concepts classes sound SO HARD to me that it would be all I could do to study and go to school alone, not to mention keep up with the rest of life going on around me.

*Calee is still cookoo as usual too. I make myself crazy starting things and not finishing, both my own to do lists and Ary's. I need to remind myself that I am not the same as other moms and she is not the same as other kids. With her being my first and only child I keep trying to compare us to others, and I don't even think it's to judge me or them, but more to wonder what, when, and how I should be doing whatever I am doing. Am I normal, is she normal, what IS normal? Yep, just as spacey as usual for me;)

I have been called as the 2nd counselor in the YW presidency. I don't like being in charge but I am over the beehives and when you are 12 and 13 you are still excited about coming and don't have jobs, boyfriends, cars, etc. to keep you from coming so at least I have that in my corner. I stress about all of the meetings and feel the weight of responsibility but try to keep it in perspective.

I saw a picture of me with Ary and Kimber on the couch and have decided I need to be put on a diet and the show "What Not To Wear." I feel like my brain is still a teenager but my body is going on without it! Maybe if I write it on the internet I will have to stick to my word a little better and do something about it, I've been asked more than a couple of times if Mitzi was my sister! 

*Schroeder bites. He is getting older and fatter too and is only nice to me and my family.

Yes, this is how I bake. No cooking involved and yes, the rest of the house is as messy as the kitchen table!

We love Gotye

Ary turned three on May 24th. Grandma Teresa gave her a karaoke machine and we've heard "Somebody That I Used To Know" every day since. (last week she started at it on my bed at 6:00 AM, talk about a wake up call...) I honestly don't know where she gets this star attitude; Jed probably was a diva in his previous life!

Ummm?

Yep, same story as ever here.
Jed still works for Century Link and goes to nursing school at UVU. He is finishing this last semester with clinical hours at the hospital at all odd hours of the day and night so he got to spend Friday nights till 2:30am with the night owl nurses over there. He came home with a few funny stories but nothing crazy enough to remember. He's also been called to be the first counselor in YM, so same as always, between work and school and church we don't see much of him.
I am a spaceball as usual too. I still am having a hard time balancing my life, whatever that means. We all are pulled lots of different directions these days but I want to peek inside the life of someone who does it well and keeps her cool while doing it. I bet (well I hope) there are more space cases than I realize and just don't see past the candy coated shell. Also, I am making an appointment to go get some sleeping pills. Off the subject I know, but insomnia is wearing on me and it's only funny to listen to infomercials and dream talking from Jed for so long...
Ary turns three next month and is such a little woman. She is very independent and knows just how it all should go. I hope she keeps the attitude but can polish the edges as she grows up. We always hear that God saved the strongest spirits to come down last! I think they need that spunk to make it in the world how it is now. She will start preschool in the fall so I want to squeeze her all summer long while I can before she makes friends that teach her that her mom isn't the best thing that's ever happened to her:).

I think the three of us could have made the next Three Stooges movie the way we all want to knock each other's heads together around here!

To blog or not to blog?

Blogger is passing me by with it's new formatting and layouts, and I'm to dumb and impatient to try and figure it out. Each post might look completely different, hmm...

Around here we are just doing our best in an effort to survive summer being over. I already miss the days of walking out the door in a t-shirt and flip flops and heading to the park. I also am trying to decide if I should or could work a little bit to not feel like a single mother all day and night since we rarely see Jed anymore. I almost feel like nursing school (or any school really) is as hard on the rest of the family as for the actual student! It also would be nice not to pinch pennies so hard when he has to leave work to do clinicals. We'll see if Dr. Graf would even have me back now though. Oh how I wish we would have gone through this years ago, but I guess then I couldn't tease Jed for being the old man with all those little girls at school ;)

-Ary is still the boss around here and knows it. 

-We have turned into THOSE PEOPLE at the grocery store when she throws a master temper tantrum and you wonder who her mother is. 

-We've started a little parent and tot class at gymnastics that is great to burn off a little energy and get monkey time in.

-She is so fun to have conversations with now. She speaks in full sentences that usually begin with "Pecause."

No matter what it looks like she does it HERSELF

mini Mitzi in the making

fall 2011

Another pic without pants

This video is from Christmas time, but I want to have it on here to show Ary...