FISH

One of the first times we went to our community pool Henry floated off the bottom step and sunk to the bottom like a brick. Joe jumped in, fully clothed and pulled him out. He then exclaimed, "Mom, I drowned!" For the next couple weeks Henry wore a life jacket every time he got in the pool. Then we bought him goggles and he didn't want to wear the life jacket anymore. Now, see for yourself his amazing progress. I'm wondering now why I enrolled him in the swim lessons for non-swimmers which started yesterday.

Missing Home

Henry has told me several times now that he's ready to move back to Utah. He misses his family and friends. I think he's longing for something familiar. He wants to play with his cousins. Have a play date with his friends. Eat dinner at his Grandma an Grandpa's. Play the Wii with his aunts and uncles.

Can't say I disagree.

I was sitting in church today pitying myself... thinking how sad it is that I haven't had five minutes to myself in the past six weeks. Thinking how much we left behind and how long it will be before we get to see people again. I was feeling sorry for Henry and his lack of a little best buddy to play with. I was thinking how weird our ward is and how smelly the building is. I was sad that Joe was at work again and sad that we can't have a date night because we don't have a babysitter. And frustrated that I'm not wealthy enough to furnish and decorate our house.

And then the talks were about the pioneers and the sacrifices they made to come to Utah to establish Zion. One of the speakers told stories about a pioneer woman who began to cross the plains with a large family. She was forced to leave one of her children in a shallow grave somewhere along the way. Every time she heard a coyote she retched at the thought of what might happen to her son's remains. She lost two other children to mountain fever and her husband grew weary from the condition as well. She prayed every night that he would not die and leave her alone.

Theses same pioneers were likely feeling similar to Henry and I at the outset of their journey. Sad to have left the comforts of home. Missing their families. Missing their friends. Missing the familiarity of the place they called home. I can tell you that this alone feels a bit depressing at times. But this was the least of their worries. The pioneers continued to endure through physical hardship as they crossed treacherous terrain often while attempting to manage untreatable medical maladies. And for those who arrived at their destination safely, they did not unpack in a beautiful home, sleep on a comfortable bed and take a warm shower. Instead they endured continuous hardship.

Today I am more grateful for the sacrifices of the Mormon Pioneers than I ever have been because now I understand a minuscule portion of the loneliness they must have felt along the way.

The pioneer anthem, Come Come ye Saints beautifully portrays the pioneer spirit of enduring hardship with vigor.

Come, come, ye saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
Tis better far for us to strive our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell -
All is well! All is well!
Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward if we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell-
All is well! All is well!
We'll find the place which God for us prepared,
Far away, in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the saints, will be blessed.
We'll make the air, with music ring, Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell -
All is well! All is well!
And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! All is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again to see the Saints their rest obtain,
Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell-
All is well! All is well!
 
I don't pitty myself. I have arrived in beautiful, fun, sunny Florida with my healthy beautiful family and I am more than happy to be here and more than grateful that my journey did not include any real hardship to speak of.

I am grateful for the pioneers and grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ which is the foundation of my nearly perfect life.

I still miss you all terribly.

In Pictures

Here's what we've been up to lately:

ART PROJECTS:

Can you guess the article from Henry's wardrobe that inspired the color for his toy room?

Amelia's art project. Henry has one to match from when he was this age. 

BEACH TIME:

DAYTONA SPEEDWAY:

@ Victory Lane

THE SWIMMING POOL:

THE GREAT OUTDOORS:

Henry wanted to see a swamp, so we found one.

Amelia usually looks out that window but for the sake of the picture I turned her around.

NERDS:

Henry loves to play PBS Kids on the computer.

Help Me Hide my TV

Just before we moved here Joe purchased a giant television. I'll be honest, I mostly hate it. It's gigantic. But, alas, it's here. Now I need to make it inconspicuous. I have yet to find anything that will hide this behemoth when we are not watching it. Please tell me that someone out there is aware of something. The TV is 46" - I welcome your suggestions.

Beautiful Baby Girl

Amelia is two months old now. She is such a fabulous baby. In her short two months we have done everything with her that you should never do with a newborn.

We carted her across the country

.

We have taken her to many germ infested tourist destinations, including: DisneyWorld, NASA, Blizzard Beach, and the Alligator Zoo (among others).

@ DisneyWorld

We regularly ignore her at the beach and the swimming pool. We occasionally take her swimming at the beach and the swimming pool (not sure which is worse for a newborn).

In response, Amelia sleeps well (almost all night long). Amelia eats like a champion (Henry calls her Chunky Monkey). Amelia smiles and coo's. She cooperates and hangs out in the car seat whenever we're playing in the water.

Amelia is such a fabulously complacent baby. We love this beautiful baby girl.

Pure Torture

Some things are not meant to go together. Though I suspected it at the outset, when you combine this:

And, this:

It results in Hell on Earth. 




A month after moving to Florida we are still partially in boxes; we are still unsure of how we will finish putting our house together. We are still in a state of chaos and until yesterday I was nearly certain we would live that way for eternity. But last week I started to get antsy. It's been bugging me to be so unsettled so long after moving here. To remedy the problem I decided to buck up and make the trek to Ikea (because it's affordable) all by myself with two kids. *bad idea*

2:15pm - - Ikea is about 1 hour and 15 minutes from my house. Henry and Amelia both slept the entire drive. *success*

3:30 - - We arrived at Ikea and sat in the car for fifteen minutes while I fed Amelia so we would have some uninterrupted shopping time. *success*

3:45 - - My strategy was to put Amelia in the Snuggli (baby carrier on my chest) and Henry in the shopping cart with his Leapster game. So, after feeding Amelia, I stepped out of the car and proceeded to put her in her Snuggli. While I was occupied, Henry proceeded to lock and shut all the car doors. Everything (except the people) was inside. No keys. No wallet. No binki. No glucometer or insulin. Nothing. *serious failure*

3:50 - - Go inside and find nice stranger with iPhone to lookup and call locksmith to my rescue.

4:05 - - Go outside to wait for locksmith. Henry informs me he must pee now. I cannot go inside or I risk missing the locksmith, so instead I make Henry pee on a tree. Thirty minutes, $120 and one indecent exposure later, I again have access to my car. *sigh*

4:35 - - Proceed inside to begin shopping trip. Henry spots the kids care center and decides it looks fun and insists on staying. *success*

4:45 - - Henry and I learn that he is too short to stay. Henry cries. No, Henry wails. *failure*

5:00 - - Get Henry ice cream. Begin shopping (three hours after the beginning of our journey). Tired already. *sigh*

5:45 - - Spend 30 minutes in the family bathroom. Feeding Amelia. Changing her diaper twice. Really grossed out by the bathroom. *yuck*

6:15 - - Tired of shopping (actually, just looking) we stop at the cafe for dinner. Amelia is crying and getting sick of being ignored. Henry is running amok. I am one of THOSE mothers now. (You know, the crazy frazzled one at the store with multiple children.) *embarrassed*

7:15 - - Begin making a list of the things that need to be picked up. Realize I cannot possibly do all this alone with two kids. Consider leaving with nothing. *depressed*

7:20 - - Henry pinches his bottom while playing in the shopping cart. Commence wailing yet again. *careful not to get frustrated, why did I come to Ikea with two kids!?!*

7:30 - - Find nice worker who tells me how to make the list and have the Ikea workers pick it up for me and deliver it to my house, for a fee of course. *finally success*

Finally, at 8:00 we get in the check out line. Wait for a half hour in one line and Twenty minutes in the home delivery line. Too many lines! *serious stress*

After finalizing everything we go back to the car where I again feed Amelia.  On the road again. It is now at least 9:00pm.

After driving for 3 minutes Henry informs me he must go pee, even though I had just minutes earlier instructed him to go pee before we left and he didn't have to go. We have to pull over at a gas station. *frustration*

By now Amelia is very upset at being ignored and carted around all day. She cries most of the way home. *sad* *failure*

After thirty minutes we pull over and lay on the grass together. I can't wait to get home but the kids need some down time right now. *undecided*

While I am occupied with Amelia Henry proceeds to lock and shut all doors. *mad*

Luckily I'm brilliant and kept the keys with me this time. *success*

11:00pm arrive home. Joe puts Henry to sleep and Amelia refuses. She is not tired. *sigh*

12:30am restless sleep.

I definitely won't be doing that again.

The English Language is Impossible

Henry and I play scrabble. I spell a word and he reads the word and then he spells a word I read it. Typically I spell words that he can read like car, dog, pig, hat, dad, etc. Typically he spells words I can't read like jrzq, abif, tygh, etc. It's a fun way for him to learn to put the sounds together and a fun way for me to attempt to figure out how to teach him the many various sounds letters make when they are placed together.

The other day Henry and I were finishing our game of scrabble and just for fun I spelled:

Henry asked me to tell him what it said and when I told him that was how to spell Amelia he insisted that I was wrong. U says "uh" and A says "ah" so of course, he insisted Amelia is spelled like this:

Sometimes I think he is too smart.