April 2013

As I've mentioned a million and one times 2013 has been a really hard year. April was no exception. Just when we thought things were getting better with Paul's job we got more bad news. Unfortunately things are still difficult but our fate will be determined this coming Tuesday. Deep breath.

April was an eventful month. We had a lot of life changing events. Some highs. Some lows. It whizzed right by. April consisted of spring break, birthdays, braces, anniversary, electronic baby, sleep depravation, flour sack baby, chicken sitting, cupcakes, track meets, quilting, a trip to the DMV to renew my license and of course church callings etc. etc. Here are the highlights.

Clockwise from Top left-Andrew got his braces on the 29th. Andrew turned 12 and was ordained to the office of a deacon. We got to do it at our home so we could FaceTime with David and Nancy in Mongolia. Andrew celebrated his 12th birthday but of course it wasn't without drama. He injured himself that day and was grumpy and in pain all day long. Paul's brother Ben came for a week of applicating in Utah. While he was here we celebrated his 40th birthday by going out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Emma had an electronic baby for her teen living class. It was awful. That baby put her through hell. Emma registered for high school, her sophomore year, with the help of two older friends. She got all the classes she wanted. Paul and I celebrated 17 years of marriage by going out to dinner.

March 2013

March was another hard month for our family. It had some highlights but I pretty much think 2013 sucks rocks. I'm so so so hoping and praying that it gets better soon. We are still very blessed, but dang, we could use some carefree happy days.

Clockwise from the Top Left: Our St. Patrick's Day family photo, our Easter family photo, Andrew giving Emma a peace offering rose (He wanted to start being nicer to her. It worked for a little while.) , the kids on Easter, Emma and Jenna at a track meet, Emma throwing the shot put and Emma and Andrew at another track meet.

Here are some honorable mentions for the month of March ; )

These two had track practice every Tuesday-Friday. I felt like I drove to and from that school approximately a million times a week. 

Andrew had an epic game of Munchkins. He had so much armor/gear/weapons it was crazy. his fighting power was a 30. Unheard of!

We had a Relief Sole-ciety birthday dinner at church to celebrate the Relief Society's birthday. We had pizza, balloons, cake and ice cream. The turn-out was wonderful and we all had a really good time. These are the cute centerpieces that we on the tables. (Of course there was a ballon bouquet floating above) Since our theme was a play on the shoe theme (hard to explain) we had sisters make the little paper shoes at our visiting teaching conference the month before to deliver as invitations. They stuffed candy and the info into them. It was fun to be able to use some on the tables. The biggest hit of the night was the game where we had to guess sisters from baby/toddler/teen photos. It was a riot.

Yes I found myself in another skit. With shoes on my hands. About visiting teaching. Sigh!

I brought home one of the balloon bouquets for Andrew to shoot at. They were a little rubbery and the plastic BB's were bouncing off hitting ME so I told him to stop shooting them. He threw knives at them instead. I don't really understand boys...

The day after the Relief Society dinner Paul left again for a trip. He was in Pennsylvania for a little while. I kept myself occupied with this happy stack of fabric. The first block was a practice block (I was so scared to try this!) but it ended up going together really well. Now I need to really get down to business. I have everything cut and bundled into the color combos I want. Now I just need to get busy sewing them all together. Hopefully I will get it finished sometime soon but without money to have it quilted it's hard to be motivated.

It lined up quite well if I do say so myself.

 This is a soup recipe that I found on Pinterest. Here's a link if you're interested. It was good. Not great but good. I don't totally love ground beef soups though and mine came out really dry. I should have bought more beef broth. I may or may not make it again. It was hearty! 

While I was digging through and using a lot of my quilting crap Emma decided to sew a project for math, yes math. It was "quilt" for pi day showing that there is no pattern in pi. I texted Paul this picture during his trip and said, "this house isn't big enough for one quilter let alone two!" 

My mom eased my sorrows of being away from Paul with this fun treat. They came in the mail while he was gone and it was just the boost I needed. I love them! Especially the Glinda palate. 

I spent way too may days like this. Face-timing Paul. I missed him.

Andrew and I went through the car wash together and finally got all of winter removed. Good riddance. 

2013 Monthly Recaps

January 2013

Paul laughed when he saw my January collage. He said, "Almost all the pictures are from our trip down south." I replied, "That's all I'd like to remember about January." Oh I crack myself up! I'm just glad that January is behind us.

Clockwise from top left: Our only family picture from our trip taken at the St. George temple. Icicles. I saw so many bloomin' icicles this year it was ridiculous. I even got stabbed by one. True story.

The kids before going on the roller coaster at the New York, New York hotel in Las Vegas. Andrew went sledding with some friends and tried out snowboarding. Sort-of. The red rocks of Ivins, Utah. Paul and I at the Bellagio Conservatory. 

February 2013 

February was a very hard month. We had a pretty nasty illness hit Andrew and I. He got it first and then shared it with me. Wasn't that thoughtful? It took us each out for a week. (But not the same week so we had two full weeks of funk.) We had high fevers, massive headaches and zero energy. That was how February started. 

We had a pretty good Valentine's Day so all was well for about a minute.

I won't get into too many details but after I recovered from my cold/flu/bug thing I was "cursed" with my lovely womanly issues so I got to kiss another week of my life down the toilet. 

Paul left on the 21st very suddenly for an emergency work trip. We didn't know how long he would be gone. That sucked. It was very hard on us because we didn't have time to mentally prepare and it just didn't feel like it was a good thing. It turns out it was a very hard trip for him emotionally. It was draining for all parties involved. He was gone for nine days. I know that to military families etc nine days is nothing but it was still very hard. 

Clockwise from top right: Paul and I on Valentine's Day. I got a Godiva chocolate tower. With my wicked PMS that little honey only lasted about 36 hours. Andrew had to do a report on an inventor. He chose Henry Ford. His presentation was the day Paul left for his trip. When I got to the school to see him he was hiding behind his tri-fold crying. It broke. my. heart. I may or may not have started crying myself. He said, "this is going to be the worst day ever if dad calls and says he will be gone a year." Oh my word. I didn't realize that when we said we didn't know when daddy would get back that he would assume it be a whole year. I told him at the most it would be two weeks. I think that helped but he still had a very hard emotional day. Emma at one of her basketball games. She was so done at this point. She was playing rec ball, church ball and track had started. It was too much with all of her hard classes. Our sweet little family on Valentine's Day. A quilt that had been in the works for some time. I finished it late last year and got it quilted as a Christmas gift. I finally got the binding sewn on in February and I LOVE IT! It's so busy but it's pink and green and girly, oh my! This is how we survived Paul's trip. FaceTime. What a wonderful invention. It was so good to see Paul while he was away. One night, after his worst (hardest, most disappointing) day there, he went to bed early and I didn't get to see him all day. I knew what a difficult time he was having. My heart ached for him. I wanted to see that he was okay physically because I knew he wasn't okay emotionally. But I couldn't. I fell asleep crying. I felt so helpless. I wished I could have been there to hug him or something. We were so happy when he returned in early March. Spending a good part of the month without my Paul is no fun at all.