5 things you may or may not know about me.

Believe it or not but I have been thinking about what I could write about myself for a while and this is what I have come up with.

1-I love to throw things away!  That exhilarating feeling that things are being cleaned out and less things are going back into storage gets me all excited.  Just ask Dave, when we have a ward DI drive I make him go through his things to find something to give away.  Don't tell him but sometimes I go through his stuff without telling him.  I guess I should feel bad, but he hasn't noticed anything missing yet! 

2-I have a lack of sentimentality-   Probably from my love of throwing things away I don't have a lot of sentimental things.  There are things that I keep just for the principle of keeping things that someone might think is important someday, but most the time I will throw it out. I hate to say it but I have inadvertantly forced this onto my kids.   Most kids have a special toy or blanky that they can't do without and brings them comfort but,  I never nurtured this in my kids.  Mckenna and I differ in this belief, when I begin my DI rampage, she cries about how much she loves each and every unplayed-with toy. My mother-in-law can attest to this.  This last Christmas season, I was helping her clear out her Christmas stuff, and I would  pull something out of the many boxes and say what about this (with a screwed up face) and she would begin to tell me who gave this to her and when, etc.  I didn't understand most of her sentimentality (she has a lot) and therefore convinced her to throw away more of the outdated stuff but alas some went back.  Is this a bad thing?

3-I love cold water, but I do not like ice in my water.  I feel like it inhibits me from taking a big gulp.  I have to sift the water through my teeth while trying to hold back the ice.  Of course you can only do this so long before your teeth are freezing.  Yeah, hate it!  Although, I will accept ice in my cup if I can have a straw!

4-I love to read young adult fiction books.  You know those stories that are not reality and mostly involve some sort of magical powers; vampires, talking bears, powers, flying abilities, etc.  I love to lose myself in an adventure that doesn't resemble real life, but can keep me going back for more.  Just recently I met a fellow YA Fic reader and we had a lovely time discussing all the same books we have read.  To be honest this is a little embarassing because, I guess I should be into more adult books, but I just can't seem to get into those real life, documentary, doctrinal books.  Her are some recommendations.   Midnighters by Westerfeld, Twilight Series-Mayer, East-forgot the author, The Great and the Terrible-The brothers-can't remember the author-this is not a YA FIC.  If you read this series of 4 let me know what you thought.  

5-  I don't understand the magic of Disneyland.  I have had this discussion with a couple of people all have which disagreed vehemently with my synopsis of the place where all your dreams come true.  I just don't understand what is so great about it, it is a little kids place, right?  My mother-in-law loves to go as many times as she can-and she doesn't even take kids. Actually she is going this next month.  She told me that it bothers her to see parents getting mad at their kids at Disneyland, because it is the happiest place on earth and it is wrong to do that.  Dave said that the next time he goes with his mom and our kids he will be sure to get mad at them.  From this you can conclude that Dave and I agree on this point.  I do agree that the next time I go I am going to budget a good amount of money and not come home till it is gone.  I am guessing that part of the magic is being able to experience the atmosphere.  The food, the shops, etc.  Every time I go I have to act like a prune and not buy anything in the park and be sure to take my own food.  This mentality comes (I think) from how I grew up, those of my siblings reading this, you know what I am talking about.   Anyway,  if you think otherwise about Disneyland or even the same as me let me know.

Well if you knew these things about me then I guess you can call me an open book. 

And Life Goes On!

This past week has been quite uneventful as far as activities, due to Spring break, but the exciting (not) weather changes have been interesting to watch.   The term "Utah weather" has really shined through this week.  Monday was 80 degrees and we got sunburned working in the garden.  Tuesday it was a warm morning and then turned colder with lots of wind.  Wednesday it was even colder with more wind.  Thursday was nicer, Friday and Saturday were lovely with mild winds and we were able to do more yard work.  Of course, here we are again on Sunday, sunny skies but cold, snow was in the forecast but alas nothing.  I am pretty sure that we will have snow, chilling rain, whipping winds & hot days in the near future, possibly in the next week or even all of these in one day.  It would not be foreign to Utah.  Anyway, they say when you have nothing to say talk about the weather.  Ha Ha.  Like I said this past week has been slow, school was shut down, dance was closed, play group was postponed and many people were out of town.   I hope to post pictures soon of the past month, so stay tuned!

Thanks to you!

Thank you to all who posted a comment on my problem with Mckenna's inner anxiety issue. I thought I would update you on her progress. First things first; what I learned. The first thing that I have learned is that when young children are having turmoils (unless it is abuse) it happens to be a spin off of the parents emotions. For the past three months I have been experiencing an overload of emotion, anxiety and stress. I thought I was hiding this fact very well, but alas, my children picked up on it and experienced their own similar emotions. The second thing I learned was that when we think children don't understand what is going on; we are wrong. Children are very smart and they either learn how to take advantage of you or they display an outward showing of fear hidden as an action. (ex. hiding things, overeating, etc.) I came to this realization (with some help) 2 Sundays before we moved. I was overtired, I was on the brink of a major breakdown and I (sadly to say) was not a very good mom. I was trying to cope myself and was not realizing that my children were hurting too. I cry just thinking about what I had been reduced too. Constant frustration , yelling and a lack of patience. There was no positive validation for my children. As you can guess Mckenna displayed her emotion through the actions I have discussed and Josh was more clingy. To make a long story short, upon my realization that this was happening I cried and couldn't believe it. That very next day our life changed. Dave would work at the house and I got to play with the kids. Each day he would work and I would play. Let me just say that I was amazed at how fast her anxieties went away. She stopped overeating and stopped hiding things. We are still working on the biting the fingernails but I think that may be an age thing too. Anyway, thanks to everyone for your support, love and concern.