Blah!

This week has been CRAZY! Monday was Parker's annual awards banquet at work, so I had found a sub. to take my patients for the afternoon so that I could get ready to go to the banquet and spend a little time with the kids, since I wouldn't get to see them all evening. I realized I hadn't spoken with Artina (the girl who was supposed to work for me.....also my visiting-teaching companion) about working in about 2 weeks. I wondered if she remembered. I sent her a text message that morning to remind her. After a couple hours at work she still hadn't replied to my message. I started calling her phone every spare minute I had at work. There was never any answer. I called her husband. Even her mother-in-law (who also is in our ward). Nobody answered EVER. I started to stress out. What if she forgot? What if she's out of town? I'm gonna have to either work this afternoon, and show up late to the banquet, or cancel my patients. It wasn't until I was LEAVING the office to go home (Dr. T. had said that we should just expect her to be there, since she said she would) that she finally called me. Apparently she had her phone on vibrate and one of her kids had run off with her phone, and she'd just barely found it. PHEW! When I got home, Angie was EXTREMELY clingy. She just cried every time I put her down. I HAD TO GET READY! My in-laws came over to watch the kids since I didn't feel right asking any of my young women to babysit till 10:30 pm on a school night....not to mention it was Family Night anyway. 5:00 hit and it was time for me to make the commute to Jackpot to meet my husband (who had car-pooled to work that day so we could ride home together). It was snowing, so I decided it might be safer to take the Explorer (4 wheel drive and a set of really nice tires). As I pulled out of the garage, I noticed that the clock light on the dash seemed a little dim. I checked the brightness and the lights were all the way on. Well. It was probably dim because it was still light outside. As I start to turn onto Highway 93 to go south to Jackpot, the battery light turns on. The clock on the dash is now out completely. Then the ABS light came on. Ok. TWO lights? I'd better call Parker. I reach for my phone and realize it's dead. No charger in the car either (although I would learn later that a car charger would have done me absalutely NO GOOD in this situation anyway). I had this feeling that I needed to turn around......NOW. Too many bad things going on this early into the trip. As I flipped the car around the radio died. Then the windshield wipers (remember....it's snowing). I decided I should turn on my emergency flashers. Nope. They didn't work either. I went about another half-mile and then the spedometer dropped to zero even though I was still moving. As I'm turning off highway 93 back onto highway 30 to get back home, I started to panic. Things were dying left-and-right, and I didn't have a phone. And I'm in a dress. And it's snowing. I prayed and prayed. In too much of a panic to cry. "Please let me get home." I said over and over again. I groaned to myself as I entered the 35 mph speed limit through Filer city. The stupid lazy drivers. Everyone was going 25! Didn't they know my car could die any minute? Shocked that I had actually made it back to Filer, I started to actually think I might make it home. Then the accelerator quit. I was rolling now. "Ahhhh, NO NO NOO NOO!" I turned at the last gas station before my house (about 1 mile from home). The steering wheel was stiff (no power steering anymore) and as I rolled into a parking spot, the brakes were stiff too. I put ALL MY WEIGHT on the brake pedal and managed to stop the car. Everything was dead.

I walked into the gas station, thinking I'd use their phone to call my in-laws who were currently at my house. I'll just have them come and get me. I ask to use the phone, and as I'm holding it in my hand, I realized I don't know Claudia's phone number. It's on my phone. Which was dead. Panic. What numbers DO I know? Parker. That's it. The only number I know by heart besides my own. So. I call Parker. And OF COURSE he doesn't answer. He's at work. He NEVER answers his cell phone when he's at work. Yes it was after 5:00, but he still could be working. Ok. Well......I try again. For 5 minutes. Nothing. The lady at the desk suggested that I go talk to the mechanic who's shop is on the other end of the gas station. She said he could probably give me a jump so I could get home. Ok. So I go knock on the door. I told the man what happened to me. I said. "Is there anyway you could jump my car so I could get home? I'm just about a mile away." The mechanic looks at me and says, "It sounds like your alternator is your problem. Not your battery." I looked at him. "So.....there's no way you could get my car going to get me home?"
"No" he said.
I walked back into the gas station. I'll try Parker again. As I dial the number, I started crying. I'm gonna have to walk home, I thought. I get to walk home in heels, and a dress. In the snow. I definately won't make it to Jackpot in time if I have to walk home. Not to mention I'm gonna freeze. The lady at the desk seemed to take pity on me.
"I'll bet one of these guys over here can take you home. They're in here twice a day, and are all nice men. Lets go ask one of them."
She walks over to a huddle of men in the diner portion of the gas station, and comes back with a man who's probably a few years older than my father. He says he'll take me home. And he did. I realize now I never even asked him his name. Just as well. I would have forgotten. I thanked him and walked back into my house 15 minutes after I'd left. Caleb yells,
"Mom! You're BACK?!!" So I explained to Paul and Claudia what happened to the car. Paul looks at me.
"That stupid mechanic. I'll run over to the gas station and get your car."
I was confused. "He said he wouldn't be able to get it running."
Paul replied, "Well he was right that it was likely your alternator that caused you to break down. But the alternator just charges the battery while you drive. If I go and charge the battery for 10 minutes, it should be enough to get it home for you."
I decided to NOT take a minute and think of the stupid, and vengeful insults I wanted to throw at the greasy mechanic who couldn't figure THIS out or more likely WOULDN'T figure this out in order to get me home A MILE AWAY!
I grabbed my phone charger and jumped into our little Hyundai (the supposedly "less-safe" of the two.....or so I had thought before now). This o'l foreign car has prooven itself time and time again. It's true it currently doesn't have all new tires....it does have 2 new tires though.....and although it doesn't have 4-wheel drive......AT LEAST IT WOULD START. The o'l plum sedan has been around since we got married. And it made the trip just fine. It's got close to 175,000 miles on it, but we haven't had to make a SINGLE repair on it. Oil changes, new brakes, a couple allignments, and one strut replacement. Nothing major for sure. Anyway. I called Parker from my now charging cell-phone (who ironically answered his phone, now that I wasn't in trouble anymore) and I let him know I would be about 15 minutes later than I'd thought. After I'd explained to him what happened, he said he was surprised I was still coming. Yes. When I think about it, I'm a little surprised at myself too. But I took time off work for this. And our babysitters drove in from an hour away. So yeah. I still went. And it turned out to be a nice evening. The dessert made the whole thing worth it. :)

Ok. So- Monday down. Wednesday night was "New Beginnings" for young women's. This event was my first major project in my new calling. About 6 weeks ago when I was put into young women's they told me that New Beginnings was a little over a month away, and they wanted me to organize and prepare the musical presentation for the evening. I've purchased music, chosen girls to sing, made speaking assignments and LETS NOT FORGET, learned ALL of the songs the girls would be singing on the piano so I could accompany them. Wednesday afternoon at work, I was sending text messages and making phone calls with every spare minute between patients to try and make sure things would be ready for that evening. I was supposed to get off at 5. I had to get home and pick up the kids and try to get them fed before I had to be at the church at 6:15 so I could help the girls who would be performing to practice one more time. The YW's president said she'd be there at 6:00 to begin setting up. And apparently that task of burning CD's as a gift to the girls was supposed to be completed by me FOR THIS EVENING and not by some arbitrary deadline like I'd thought. So after picking up the kids I raced home and started burning CD's like a crazy-person to try and get them done before I had to leave. I completed 12 (which is amazing) but as it turned out, they ended up NOT passing out the CD's anyway. I got to the church at 6:10 and NOBODY was there......except a bunch of young men playing basketball in the Gym, which we were supposed to be setting up in. Ok. Well I wasn't involved in set-up anyway. But nobody came for practice until 6:30....and the YW president ALSO didn't show up till 6:30. I was completely frazzled, but tried to keep it cool. They can set up in 30 minutes (after kicking out the basketball players).....and we can practice 2 numbers right? I got one number all practiced and ready to go....but the other didn't have everybody show up for practice until 10 minutes before 7:00. We ran-through the number once, and even though I had 5 girls singing, it sounded weak. These girls loved music but were NOT performance-savvy at all. No confidence, no power, and as a result no pitch. I was REALLY freaking out. The other number only had 2 girls and it sounded awesome. I remembered one of those 2 girls telling me she REALLY liked the other song too. I ran out to find her. "Do you know 'Beauty Is' ? Would it be too much trouble to have you sing with these 5 girls? They're just not getting it." I am grateful to say that this young woman had NO problem with singing an extra number.....with no practice, and I have to say......it made a WORLD of difference.

Aside from all the crazyness involved with these 2 performances, I was frustrated beyond belief that this program was thrown together 30 minutes before start-time with little to no communication between the leaders. We'd talked about using a projection-screen for the videos that would be used for the program, and when everybody finally showed up for set-up.....nobody seemed to know WHERE the projection screen was, let alone how to set it up. We SHOULD'VE had a meeting before all this....I kept thinking to myself over and over again. But somehow everything was ready by 7:00 and everyone who came (which was a very SMALL percentage of the young women I am sad to report.....since this was an evening of District sports competition and many of the girls were involved with that as well) seemed to report that the program was beautiful and VERY well put-together. The stake YW presidency was also there, and they had nothing but praises to say after it was over. I couldn't believe it had fallen together like that. I felt like SO many things were left to chance, and put off till last-minute that it was a guaranteed failure. I guess it shows that when you're on the Lord's errand, all things fall into their proper place. When it was all over, I was.......Tired. Very very tired.

I won't take any extra time to point out that Angie hasn't been sleeping through the night for about 2 weeks because of a cold, and I've been fighting one myself, and LETS NOT FORGET I'm pregnant and extra-tired ALL THE TIME anyway. This week has been crazy, and I am SO glad that it's over. :)

Potty Training

Two weeks after her 2nd birthday, I decided Angie is ready for potty training. All the kids at daycare kinda started at the same time, and we decided to jump on board. She loved to sit on the potty, and although I'd never been able to get her to go yet, I decided I'd take the weekend and see what we could accomplish in 3 days.

So on Thursday after work, I went to Walmart and bought some underwears and some pull-ups and decided we'd get started the following morning. My hopes weren't too high, she is afterall BARELY two. But we'll see. So Friday morning I sat her on the potty and decided the best way to get a first success would be to spend as much time as possible on the potty....since she didn't even really know how to go yet. Sure enough, after making her sit there for about 20 minutes right after she woke up, she managed to go for her first time.

I put underwears on her after that, so that she would learn what it feels like to be wet. She didn't go again until about 11:00....but surprisingly, after making her sit there long enough she went again. I wondered, "Is it really gonna be like this?" "This is EASY!" Hah. That was my problem I guess. She didn't go for the rest of the day. We spent lots of time on the potty, but she had accident after accident.

On Saturday, we went through about 6 pairs of underwear. 3 of which were poopy. Ick. We had NO success on the potty on Saturday. And discouragement set in. I said to Parker on Saturday night, "I'm only trying this for one more day. If we can't get her to go, we're gonna take a break for a while." He agreed.
Sunday morning she woke up dry, so I took her straight to the bathroom, and something clicked. I told her if she'd pee in the potty she'd get a treat. And she looked at me and said, "Ok." And then went. It was like that for the rest of the day! With the exception of a couple poopy pull-ups (which I'll take over a poopy pair of underwear). She went in the potty all day that day. WOW!

Monday at daycare, was ANOTHER success. Tresa (our babysitter) was amazed at how quick she caught on. She's kinda opposite from other two year olds, because when you ask her if she has to go potty....she'll answer "Yeah." every time. Most 2 year olds say "No" every time and you have to take them anyway. But luckily she hasn't got any objection to going potty.....yet. Anyway. We're pretty thrilled. We haven't mastered going #2 in the potty yet.....but honestly it's only been a couple days. I'm sure she'll catch on quicly. I have a few shots of her crazy hair below. It's always out of control, unless I make an effort and comb it every day. Which I do on weekdays. Weekends we get a little sloppy sometimes.
A couple days ago she climbed into the tub with Caleb....AFTER I'd taken her out and gotten her dressed. It doesn't look so bad in this picture, but she'd allready sat down in the water, and was totally soaked. The damage was done. But I'm sure I'll have a picture like this of every kid. I have 2 of Caleb.
She's such a doll. She just melts my heart. She likes to fall asleep holding your hands. And most of the time I'm just amazed at how cute she is. She's growing so fast.....I'm so grateful for such an amazing child. She's a busy little 2-year old....but I really have NOTHING to complain about. She's a sweetheart.

Troubled

A couple weeks ago I took the kids to Boise for the weekend. I had a CE course that my office was attending, and I decided to spend the weekend with my parents and visit with Grandma Willis, who is staying with mom and dad for a couple months.

My sister, Melissa, was kind enough to watch my kids while I was at my class....but when it was over we got a few $5 pizzas and hauled all the kids over to mom and dad's to play. Caleb sure LOVES his cousins! He tells everybody that Chase is his best friend. It's fun to see the kids grow up together. It reminds me of my visits to Grandma's house in Missouri when I was a child. I got to see my cousins WAY less often, but when we DID get together, it was like we were best friends. And I just love seeing my kids get that same experience with THEIR cousins. Anyway. While I was at mom and dad's Grandma told me about a cousin of mine (I have.....MANY.......) and I'm not going to say who it is on this blog, because I'm not trying to publicize the situation.....only explain how it has made me feel. This blog has become more of a journal for me than anything else. And hopefully I've lost enough of my readers, that I won't offend anyone by saying this. But I really feel like I should document my feelings here. Anyway. This....cousin....and her husband have left the church. I was completely FLOORED! And I just couldn't believe how MUCH IT BOTHERED ME. I could think about NOTHING ELSE for almost an entire week. It just weighed on my mind SO HEAVILY. If THEY could be drawn away and lose their faith.......someone who HAD a temple marriage, whose husband served a mission, and had children born within that temple covenant.....how important is it that I keep MY family strong? That I nourish my testimony and help my children to build their own before someone tries to crush THEIRS (which.....HEAVEN FORBID it be THEIR OWN PARENTS!!!!) Augh. I'm not trying to say anything bad about this person. I won't lie, it's not like I was ever even close to her. It just troubled me SO MUCH. It's not like they JUST left the church either. They don't even believe in God anymore. I just can't fathom it.

After hearing this news, I lied awake just thinking and thinking. For almost an entire week I was constantly thinking about it. And then making promises to myself. Promises like, "That will NEVER happen to me". Promises to be better at reading the scriptures, and saying prayers. To have Family Home Evening, and take the time to teach my children the gospel principles that I SO STRONGLY believe are true. I came to the realization that the world around me is gonna do what it's gonna do. And even those in my own family may not make the decisions that I think are right. But my testimony is MINE. And there is NOTHING in this world that will make me forsake my faith. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that that happens.

I have seen the blessings of living the gospel in my life. And I know it's not by chance that I am where I am. And that the choices I make to pay my tithing, and to atend church, and sacrifice my time to build the kingdom of God are choices that have BLESSED MY LIFE. And I will NEVER forget it.