Early Morning vs. Afternoon

Well we got kicked out of the Campbell Ward! Our stake just re-did the ward boundaries and we are now in a new ward. My feelings are mixed on this whole ordeal. I'm excited to meet some friends that live within a reasonable driving distance, but I miss the comfort of our Campbell Ward. We have been there for the last 3 1/2 years I believe which has made this our home ward since it's the longest Chad and I have been in a ward together. I like knowing most the people in the ward and knowing where everything is so going to a new ward took me out of that comfort zone. However, there are a lot of kids in this new ward and even some new girl classmates for Shaylee. Sadly, most of Shay's friends moved away within the last year. So overall I'm excited for the new change and will have to make even more of an effort to keep those friendships I've made in the Campbell Ward.
The other thing I love about this ward is they meet at 1pm. However, that's only for the next two months. I personally like the afternoon meetings because Sunday is often the ONLY day I can be lazy in the mornings. Roll my butt outta bed after 7:30 and not jump right in the shower. I also love that I can get dinner ready before so that we can eat a nice Sunday meal when we get home. Before when we had 9am church (which meant we had to be out the door by 8:30) there was never time to get everyone ready and get stuff in the oven for lunch so often times we would come home starving and eat whatever we could get our hands on then we were never hungry for dinner. I enjoy having a nice dinner on Sundays. Soooo for those reasons I enjoy the afternoon meetings.
What about you? Do you prefer early morning/ or afternoon church?

BTW- For those that might argue that early morning church is better for kids I have to disagree. NO time is better for kids. Either it's early morning and I can't get them to sit still because they haven't had a chance to get out some built up energy or it's nap time.

I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!

I just waited a half hour for a show to load on my ever so slow computer and finally gave up when nothing happened. This is sooooo annoying! I have too many shows that I never get to watch. I'm sure you're thinking "why don't you just get DVR/TiVo?" Well I'll tell you why I'm having a hard time breaking down and getting it....

*Getting DVR means that we'd have to get REAL cable not this basic stuff which means we'd have ESPN (and anyone who has a husband who loves to watch, read, listen to sports knows what that would mean).

* We pay $10 a month for our basic cable which is all I want. I watch enough tv on those channels.

*It costs $60 a month to get DVR because we would have to get digital cable and I'm told that's their cheapest plan.

...We pay $120 a YEAR. With DVR we'd pay that much in 2 MONTHS. So due to those cons (yes, I making a pro's and con's list Michael) I don't think it's worth it. So my next option is to watch them online. This wouldn't be a problem if I had a normal speed for my computer, but it takes me 2 hours to watch an hour long show because the words get to fast for the picture or the other way around. My only excuse for not getting a faster internet connection is I'm cheap.

So I guess I am going to take it because I'm not willing to pay more money. What I would give to just have an old VCR. It would solve ALL my problems. Well except the one where I have two shows on at the same time and I'm not home to watch one while the other would be recording!!!!!!

Grrrrrr!!!

I would maybe give up my shows if I didn't already sacrifice most the other things I enjoy doing. It's the one thing I have to look forward to at the end of a loooong day.

The results are in...

The votes are in....

31% take naps
25% clean
18% catch up on blogs
12% read
6% watch tv
6% other

I don't know why I've always been curious as to what other moms do during nap time. In a way I figured that we all did the same thing. I am NOT a napper. That doesn't mean I don't get tired and wouldn't LOVE to take a nap, but I'm always more tired after a nap then I am before so I figure what's the point. Plus, if I nap I have hard time going to sleep at night. I don't read, other than the occasional magazine. I'm not much of a tv watcher during the day unless it's 3:00 and then I might turn on Ellen. Life might be different if I had TiVo or DVR. Maybe it's a good thing that I don't. So during nap time I typically read peoples blogs and/or clean.

What's this other business? What do you do if your not napping, cleaning, blogging, reading, or watching tv?
Do you feel tired after a nap or is this a personal problem???

19.2 pound bundle of pain in the you know what

Did you all hear about this 19.2 lb baby that was born? Holy Hannah that is a big baby. They're gonna be able to turn around his carseat on the way home from the hospital. YIKES! All I have to say is I hope that mom got an epidural. My little 6.1lb bundle of joy was painful enough.

Let me serve you....

First, I want you all to know that I'm not picking on any one in specific. I've offered to serve people before and you may have been one of those people, but not the only one so don't feel like this post is targeted directly at you. However, I hope it will result in you letting me help you.....

I think my sister Melanie said it VERY well in one of her posts... "I (Melanie) think it is great that babies are so dependent and that service is a necessity. Love is born through service and I can't think of a better way to develop Christ-like love for your children."

I've thought alot about service lately and after the talks yesterday I've decided it was time to do a little more. I remember being young and watching my mom serve an elderly lady that lived at the end of our block. We also have an adopted g-ma and g-pa who my mom helped take care. Even to the point that when my g-ma died and years later my parents moved to Utah they moved my g-pa there as well. So they could continue to watch over him. Remember this was not my mom's dad nor my dad's dad, but she would help him move into different homes and visited him often. She (and my dad) took care of him as if he were there own father. I'm soooo appreciative of my parents for serving this couple. One because they were WONDERFUL grandparents. We grew to love them sooooo very much. But, most importantly I'm appreciative of my mom and dad for being excellent examples of service. They served these people out of love. No one asked them to do it. They wanted to and because of their service these friendships were strengthened. It didn't just stop at their friendship though because as a result our (my brother and sisters) relationship grew towards this couple as well.
I've been thinking lately that I need to be better at serving others. Typically when I think of service I think of pulling an elderly couples weeds on a Saturday morning. However, it doesn't always have to be that elderly couple. It can be my friends. It can be cooking a meal for that friend that just had a baby or watching a friends kids for them so they could run errands, catch up on things around the house, go to an appointment, or simply giving them a much needed break. It could simply be giving that friend company who just needs to sit and talk. However, I've come to realize that often it is much easier to serve others than to allow others to serve you. After all, you don't want to feel like you can't do it on your own. I should be able to care for my newborn baby while giving each of my other kids the attention they need while keeping a tidy house, clean laundry, dinner on the table when dad walks in the door, etc. The truth is we can't do it all. That's why Heavenly Father wants us to serve others. More importantly he doesn't expect us to do it all. He knew we would need help. So it's time to let go of some of that pride and ALLOW others to help. Allow others to cook you a meal when they offer. Allow them to watch your kids. Allow them to give you that break.

So my dear friends... allow me to serve you. I promise it will only help strengthen our friendship. Most of my best friendships are a result of service (if not all of them). Let me be a better friend to you.

What was she thinking?

Today was a preschool day for Shay. Like any other school day we hurried and got ready in the morning. I told the kids to get in the car and I buckled them in. Usually to the point that they were telling me "It's too tight!" in which I reply "It has to be tight. I don't want to lose you." We then travel across town to Shay's preschool. As I was waiting for Shay to get out of the car a black convertible sports car rolls up. I assume it was one of the kids grandparents car. He was in the back seat STANDING UP with his mom sitting next to him as they pull up the the house. WHAT was this mom thinking?!?! It's bad enough that he wasn't in a car seat, but she was letting him stand up in a convertible. One little accident and that kid would be road kill. RIDICULOUS. This has to be one of my BIGGEST pet peeves. I know that back in our parents parenting days they didn't even use car seats, but it still drives me crazy to see parents holding there little baby in the front seat as they drive off. I wont even drive down the block without my kids buckled up. Maybe it's because my husband works for GEICO, but really. These are your kids.
Does this drive you all crazy or is it just me? It takes a lot not to give these parents a piece of my mind. I just hope they don't learn the lesson the hard way. Sheesh!!!

40+ dollars

Soooo today I went and bought diapers for K. Nothing I haven't done before, but this time I paid a little more attention to the price than I usually do. We have been buying the Kirkland 1-2 diapers, but she's put on some weight so I went for the Huggies 2 this time. It cost me $12 more making them $40 some odd dollars. This make them almost $0.17 a pop. That means that everytime I change K's diaper is costs .17cents. Unfortunelty, for me she likes to make sure she does her buisness in a nice clean diaper. In fact when I thought about it I probably only pay about $1 a day for diapers for her. *Keep in mind she's not the only one wearing diapers around here.* In my mind it's worth it to pay $1 a day to be able to throw away a dirty diaper rather than washing out used cloth diapers. Which of course means doing laundry and we all know how I feel about the laundry. However, when I'm buying those diapers at $40 a box it kills me. One of our recent costco trip included buying diapers for A... ka-ching, buying diapers for K... ka-ching ka-ching, buying wipes... ka-ching ka-ching ka-ching, and buying formula... ka-ching ka-ching ka...... you get the point. We spent well over $100 on just that stuff. Forget all the food, tp, cleaning supplies, etc. we had to buy.
My point is that although that $1 a day is worth it.... kids are a GRIP.