...Nations Revere

After all these years, you'd think I'd learn to locate my glasses before I take out my contacts. But alas, time after time I find myself down on my knees, feeling my way around the floor/dresser/table searching for my glasses with my hands because I've left myself blind.

This happened tonight, after a long, Spirit-filled, emotional day. I spent the morning with my sweetheart improving our adoption profile as a part of our special fast to be lead to our baby's birth mother. Then we attended church and spent time with our sweet primary children who melted my heart and made me yearn for children of my own even more. And then we spent the evening at the Mesa Temple Visitors Center with a sweet teenager who finds herself pregnant and unmarried. As we walked through the Visitors Center with this young woman and saw examples of families complete with mothers, fathers, and children lining the walls and the halls, it was hard not to ache inside.

And then we came home, and I had a few minutes to contemplate the blessings of this day, along with the things I need to improve on. After a few minutes of hands-and-knee searching for my glasses, I finally found them and I had a sweet moment of realization. Our Heavenly Father has given us so many things to help us see; the scriptures, living prophets, temples, church leaders, church programs, and the list could go on. But when we stop using the gifts He's given us, without replacing them with other good gifts, we're left as blind as I am without my glasses on. Too often I take my spiritual contacts out without already having my spiritual glasses in hand, ready to put on as to not be left blind even for a moment.

My goal for this week is to never lose my spiritual eye sight. I will commit to knowing where those seeing gifts can be found at all times so that I will never walk blindly through this life. There truly is no reason that we ever have to walk blindly. Heavenly Father knows us, and He remembers us, and that is evident each and every time I forget to find my glasses before I take out my contacts and I some how always find my glasses anyway.

Really?

Has it really been almost 2 weeks since my last post? I can't believe it. Except that I can. I have 3 words for ya'll. Twenty credit hours. Nuff said. Anyway, I just thought I'd pass on a nugget of a conversation between the mr. and myself tonight;

Me (while saying our evening prayer): And please help us to sleep way better than last night....amen.

C: Amen. Weren't you the one who gave a lesson in Primary on prayer last week?

Me: Yeah, and I said "We thank Thee" first and "We ask Thee" last, that's how you're supposed to do it.

C: Yeah, but you say Thee and stuff to be formal and saying help us sleep WAY better than last night isn't formal.

Me: Oh, sorry.

C: Next time just say, "please let tonight rock".

Me: Will do.

I'm going to go to bed now and ponder my prayer language. Anybody else have fun prayers stories?

Monday

I've always heard people talk about manic Mondays, or how much they hate Mondays and on and on. And sure, I've never really liked the feeling of an awesome weekend turing back into the mundane, but I've never despised Mondays like most people. Until today. This Monday. Right now.

Not even one thing went as planned after I left the house. Or before I left the house for that matter. Here's the basic outline:

wake up-good

be happy for C as he shows me good news on his website-good

morning tinkle-good

write blog post on Spoiled Eggs-good

phone call saying all plans for morning time shopping have changed-good

phone call a good thing because I remembered that I have a lab at 8:30-good

hurry and get ready, trying on everything but nothing looked good-and so it began

finally settling upon looking like a pioneer-getting worse

grab the key to my bike lock-good

can't find the key to the lock to the shed where my bike slept-bad

call C, he doesn't know where it is-bad

C suggests the scooter-good

find scooter key-good

find lots of change to feed meter-good

try to put bag in scooter seat, doesn't fit-bad

hold bag between my legs while going 40 mph-really bad

finally park, feed the meter, search for building I've never been to-kinda bad

find the building, walk 3 flights of stairs-bad but needed

find the classroom with a sign about my class starting today-excellent

sit down-fine

listen-fine

hear lots and lots of talk about physics-bad, very, very bad

remind myself that I'm actually not taking physics and I must be in the wrong classroom-bad

go look around-awkward

check my schedule and verify the room-i was right

go back to the physics talking room-more awkward

sit down and listen to more physics garble-extra awkward

look at my schedule one more time to make sure-humbling

find out my class is at 8:30 PM-mortified

attempt to secretly escape the room-terrifying

realize my shirt's untucked and I'm showing what my mamma gave me to everyone-perfect

get on the elevator, call C-good

hear his voice and try not to burst into tears-embarassing

get reassured by lover-boy and walk to the scooter-hot

hold my bag between my legs again-dumb

get home, come inside-finally

plop on the couch-currently

consider going back to bed and trying again-probably

drop a class that goes from 8:30-11:00 PM?-DEFINITELY

Me looking quite pioneer-ish.

I've only been awake for 2 hours. Hopefully the next 12 or so are a little better than the first 2. Happy Monday everyone. Hopefully. :)

He Did It!

Well, after lots of planning, preparation, and hard work, C has finally launched his site all about toys. I'm so excited for him. He's wanted to do this for so long but has been so busy and so focussed on bringin' home the bacon that he's been putting off the things he loves. No longer! This site is going to be so radical. He'll do giveaways, rate toys, talk about toy safety, and do a whole bunch of other really fun interactive stuff. So go check it out! It's called

Playful Factory.

In other news, whenever we're gone for a long period of time (like a week to babysit) when we come back to our house it smells like smoke. It doesn't smell like smoke when we are here, but after our vacations this summer it smelled like smoke and again yesterday when we came back it stunk. I have no idea why, but if I run into you anytime this week and my clothes smell like smoke, here's my apology in advance.

Lastly, school started. I'm taking 21 credit hours. That equates to life being over. But it'll be good because 21 this semester and 21 next semester equates to graduation which equates to never going to school again which equates to pure and complete bliss.

We haven't taken photos in weeks. That's a lie. I just thought of a couple really cool pictures we took 2 weeks ago when I made piping hot soup for dinner. The lighting was somehow perfect for some really crazy shots. I'll add those pictures for your viewing pleasure and call it a day. Then I'll run off to class. Here I go. Happy Monday.

5 Days Down

Well after 5 days with the little munchkins we have...

missed the bus

gotten diaper rash

wet the bed....3 times

done 7 loads of laundry

had massive diaper explosions

thrown dishes across the kitchen

had requests by the 5 year old to throw him out the window

gone streaking

we have also....

read 17 stories

played tons of games

wrestled til we cried

had root beer floats more than once

heard the sweetest prayers of all time

done lots of tucking in

done lots of swimming

said lots of "I love you too's"

given lots of kisses

gotten lots of kisses

seen a small glimpse of what parenthood looks like and are that much more excited

and fallen more in love with these kids than we could have ever imagined

Only 2 more days to go, and frankly it makes me a little sad.

X 3

Our family has tripled in size this week. We've inherited 4 kids for 7 days. I tell you this for about 5 reasons.

1. Pity

2. Understanding. So you'll understand if I don't blog much this week

3. Advice. We'll take any of it.

4. Prayers. We need them.

5. Anticipation. Get your hopes up for some killer stories. I'm sure I'll have plenty of them by next week.

We really are happy/excited to be hanging out with these kids. But it's only day 2. I may not be saying that by day 7! Heaven help us all!!

P.S. Be sure to check out my infertility blog for a pretty sweet giveaway.

She's Back...Grandma's Grammar Part II

Remember her? If not, read this.

This week's little tidbit of information is going to cover the apostrophe. You know, that little tiny mark thingy that's 2 keys to the right of the 'L' on the keyboard? It's such a sweet little thing and can be ever so useful. So here are a few instances when apostrophes are to and not to be used. Observe...

Example 1

One apple, two apples. Correct

One apple, two apple's. Not correct

Example 2

Ashlee's apples. Correct

Ashlees apples. Not correct

The first example is called making something plural, which means more than one. When making something plural, or saying there is more than one of something, simply add an s. That's it!! That's all you have to do!!! Just add one s. Nothing else. Just the letter s. It's easy!

See watch:

apples

cats

humans

cars

toes

flowers

hats

magazines

Easy enough right? Hopefully! :)

Example 2 I gave above was that of making something possessive, which means that something belongs to somebody. When making something possessive, simply add an apostrophe and then an s. That's it!! That's all you have to do!! Just add one apostrophe and one s! Nothing else!

Just 's. It's easy!

See watch:

Ashlee's apple

Kate's cat

God's human

Collin's car

Everybody's toe

Mom's flowers

Lucy's hat

April's magazine

Easy enough again right?! Hopefully! :)

If there are any additional questions, feel free to comment and I'm sure that one of my brothers would be glad to quickly comment and answer your question.