meet virginia

weed it, till it, compost it, dig, fertilize, plant, mulch...I don't ever want a front yard bigger than the one I have now. So this new homeowner thing has been quite the experience. I really have no idea what I am doing- especially when it comes to keeping a nice yard. My mom always planted petunias and alyssum in her flowerbed so that is what I planted in mine...

My neighborhood is interesting. There are quite a few young couples like Chay and I...then there is the middle age who seem to have a lot of stuff, and of course the elderly who have the most amazing immaculate yards. Unfortunately or fortunately- depends on how you look at it- Virginia, an 80 year old who has more energy than...me- lives right next door. She isn't your typical 80 year old. She named her cat Mr.Goatee. She of course has the yard of dreams...she is always out there pulling weeds, clipping this, digging that- I feel quite the pressure as she peeks over at my lawn as she waters her flower pots. It's like I know what she is thinking. Last year I attempted to grow flowers in my front yard...but I was big and pregnant and so the whole month of July and August I kind of just let my yard go- it was a freaking jungle- weeds everywhere- it was a mess. Virginia would make little comments "your flowers need a little weeding it looks like" It was a little embarrassing-

So today- I finally planted some flowers. All morning I struggled with keeping Julia and Kenzie happy out on the front lawn- with a big blanket, a box of cereal, toys--every 5 minutes Kenzie wanted something or Julia was crying...running back and forth into the house, back to the garden shed-everything I tried to do took so much longer than it was supposed to- I then notice Virginia watering her hanging flower pots which already look stunning- she just smiled and said, "Are you going to try again this year?" What??? Her comment threw me off guard and then I realized how it kind of came across a little ungracious. It was like she was supposed to let out a scary cackle after she said that.... Of course I just smiled but all of the sudden the competitive side in me raged...Bring it on Grandma! All of the sudden I was planning out all the things I would do to my yard to make it look better than hers. I was imagining her all amazed and stunned at how beautiful my yard was for a young mother with kids...

well this prideful feeling died real soon...and it made me laugh because it reminded me of a sitcom on TV or something-

Have you guys ever seen the movie Stranger Than Fiction? I love that movie only because I always feel like my life is being narrated...I always describe my life events in my head with funny or not so funny commentary in literary form...do you guys ever do that? My thoughts seriously consume me at times.

President Monson

ok so many of us didn't get to see this. This is when President Monson wiggled his ears during the priesthood session- it is a great story. Enjoy.

sunday highlight

ok- I really don't know how to process this- it took me a little off guard. I was sitting next to Elissa at church- Sacrament meeting was just about to start and I was of course browsing the ward bulletin- and you know-- some people just really love their callings.... As I skimmed through the agenda seeing who would speak, I noticed a quote at the bottom of the page. Now you would think a quote found in the ward bulletin would be spiritual and/or from a prophet or apostle- oh no, it was from Mariah Carey...yes it was...and this is what it read:

"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff." ~Mariah Carey

you got to love ward bulletin humor- This is so random to me! Is this just crazy to anybody else?...I think I will take a picture-



If anybody can relate this quote to the gospel I will buy Mariah's new CD for them...ok probably not but that would be funny if I did.

julia gulia

Julia Kaye- what a little crazy girl you are. She is cute and smiley- but she can be quite the opposite. She already gets mad when you take away a toy- she loves outside so when I take her inside she starts to scream. Nursing has to be her idea and when it isn't and she doesn't want to- she will bite me! Hard! oh ouch...she already has her two bottom teeth! she is going to be a tough one I can already tell. She now scoots and can crawl a couple steps...so she is trying to move! She is precious though- she is so full of personality. I have a feeling our house won't be a quiet one through the years...

Here is a video for family- kind of long but Mom will love it. Hey mom- show Daddy!

tulip play

I was going to call this entry "death of tulips" because I had to dig up some beautiful in bloom tulips from my out of control flowerbed. I am converting the flowerbed to a garden....but "death of tulips"? almost sounds like a name of a band-and not too welcoming.

Kenzie and I were enjoying outside while Julia and Gage slept. I think I want to learn how to have a beautiful yard. Leaves, flowers, water, rocks...just very relaxing- so beautiful. Enjoy the slide show.


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it runs!

Chay finally got the little blue 4 wheeler working. I was a little skeptical when he told me a year ago that he was going to buy a 20 year old 4 wheeler that doesn't run...but you know? After a year of tinkering and ordering parts after parts- it runs! It is so fun. I'm not sure what is more fun for Chay... having a 4 wheeler that runs or just fixing a 4 wheeler until it runs...He has already made mention of how he wants to get another project to work on. Oh my poor back porch- someday we will have a normal garage... you know how they say you subconsciously marry someone like your brothers?- well it is like serious childhood deja vu when I walk outside and see Chay hidden under his 4 wheeler with tools scattered everywhere-

oh and grass experts....any advice? I have fertilized, watered...what is wrong with my lawn? Is that a bug or fungus?

comebacks please

I really want to put words to this song I have made up on the piano. It's a pretty tune and the words needed would be somewhat serious and meaningful I would think.

So yesterday I was at the piano trying to come up with some words to my song. My mind was blank. "What do I feel when I play this?" I would just sing silly stuff...just kind of entertaining myself- but then for some random reason I started to think about the guys I have dated in the past and especially the ones who wouldn't let me break up with them first...because I was so desperately in love with them...and my pride couldn't get over the thought, "why didn't they like me as much as I liked them?" Do any of you reflect back on stupid things like this? Well suddenly I started to sing "man hater-I'm so hot- your loss" kind of words to my song and no it didn't go well with the melody but it was so fun...

I need your comebacks. You see, I dated this guy once who swept me off my feet- he had a pull on me (this is pre-chay mind you) and I fell for him pretty hard. Well one day in the car he looked at me and said, "April...you have almost everything I want in a girl...it's like you have 9 out of the 10 things I am looking for in a girl" Who says that?? At the time I was so devastated and obviously lacked self esteem that I immediately thought, "tell me that 10th thing and I'll be it for you" I know pathetic. Don't worry I know...I was kind of lost at that time in my life- but so...now that we all know better, grown up a little, love ourselves a whole lot more and are completely disgusted with what this guy said to me...let's play the perfect comeback game! Write and tell me what I should have said back at that moment in the car! Do you want to play?

best comeback wins!

my turn on earth

President J.Reuben Clark Jr. said, 'We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer' (in Conference Report,
Oct. 1936, 111)."

For mother's day I must write about what has been on my mind lately. Joette will probably giggle about this...but she understands better than anyone: Mom, thank you so much for making sure we were apart of the stake play "My Turn on Earth". I was 7 years old and Joette 9. We were in the angel choir for the play and only sang the song "My Turn on Earth" twice- once in the beginning of the play and once in the end. We wore white. I wore the dress I would be baptized in. As simple of a play this was...it was a serious testimony land mark in my life. Keith was a main character of the play. We lived, breathed, slept the words and music of that play for 6 months or so. To this day- 21 years later I still have all the words memorized to the music. It wasn't until recently that I noticed how simply perfect this play lays out the marvelous plan of salvation. You can seriously answer most of life's questions with a line or two from this play...well guess what Chay got me for Mother's day besides making chicken enchiladas for dinner?

My Turn on Earth Soundtrack!... it was like the feeling you get when you haven't seen a best friend for a long long time. So as 80's as this music might sound it brings me back to my childhood, dancing and singing in our living room- Mom do you know how one little effort on your part could be so monumental to me? I know it sounds so silly- but I am so connected to music and so hearing these songs is one of the most comfortable feelings ever.

So guess what will be playing in our car??? I know there is a lot cooler music out there to listen to- you know me- I have my all time favorite artists who are so incredibly talented...but I have to carry on mom's tradition- and....I would rather have Kenzie singing dorky mormon music than...Jonas Brothers? (who are these guys anyway? I haven't heard one of their songs. I just hear about them on the news. Am I so out of touch???....I feel so disconnected from some things..what is happening to me? I used to be so cool. I think it's motherhood and deciding what's really important and what isn't...losing my cool identity while at it. lol

Happy Mother's day.

as of lately attempt2

 

Kenzie stepped on a nail outside. It went right through her shoe. Ouch! In her tears she still insisted she say the prayer. (She has seriously given every prayer we have had as a family for the last month or so...) So Chay cleaned her foot with soap and water while she sat next to the kitchen sink- I decided to say a little prayer thinking it would bring hope and faith or something... and then her sobs stopped for a second to say, "I DO IT, I SAY IT!" and this was her prayer as tears rolled down her cheeks and in between big gasps of air: "Father, I hurt, owie foot- better please....mommy...foot hurt outside...name Jesus Christ Amen"

Chay and I both got a little teary-eyed ourselves- I don't think I have heard a more sincere prayer. All I could think was 'well with that faith I wouldn't be surprised if the owie was already healed and gone' so that was a tender moment...we then stopped her crying with hot chocolate and Ice Age...



um...here is a quote that made me reflect much... "Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it." - Dalai Lama
-this could be turned both ways- it is good to sacrifice and work hard for things...yet we need to be careful that our goal of "success" doesn't ruin or lessen essential growth in relationships with our children, spouse, family, friends...

 

Julia Kaye- what a precious little person. She will be 9 months on Thursday! Can you believe how fast the time has gone? I can. Every minute. It has been a long 9 months...or a long 2 years since I started to have children...

Julia is at this stage where she is full of giggles, curiosity, and snuggles. She always smiles. She is still fat. She is struggling with this very much- her spirit wants to crawl and be everywhere but her body is just too heavy to move...she spins circles on her belly...cruises in the walker...and still jumps like crazy in the johnny jump up...but she cries a lot when she is on her belly because she can't move...oh Ju Ju you will figure it out...


So you know your kids are close in age when: they are both teething, both wear the same size diaper, both weigh the same, both shake their head no at me,...

 

Kenzie loves to get in Julia's crib and wrestle with her. I try not to interrupt unless I hear screaming or gagging or something- Julia just laughs and smiles most of the time. I want them to get along. Please get along forever and ever...no fighting!!!!

Ok well my laundry room is almost finished...
when you get free counter tops and cabinets that were designed for someone else's kitchen it can be tough getting them to work and fit- it has been a puzzle...but seriously I can't get over how nice the room is looking...more to come on that later

but guess what I got ourselves into now?...I got a free fence- a 6 foot wood privacy fence to go around our back yard and between us and our crazy friendly cigarette bud flicken neighbors. We share the same driveway basically...and it so hard to get used to.. I placed an ad on KSL saying if anyone was getting rid of their wood fence please let me know and we'll come take it down for you. Well sure enough a nice lady wrote back 2 weeks later offering us her fence...she was of course upgrading to vinyl...so...another project comes our way.

I like projects. It gives me something to think about and to look forward to. Chay I am sure would like to relax and go ride his 4 wheeler or something...but for me- I am a lot happier when I am creating, learning new things, seeing change...working on something new (not doing the dishes or laundry- these don't count...or cleaning the bathroom)

 

 

gamma

thank you so much for coming mom...we miss you already...and your cooking.

My mom is my motivator. She gives me more reasons than I can explain to get things accomplished and to see an end in sight when working on a project. We are both known for starting things and not finishing them so together we must create an odd synergy or something- we just don't want to let each other down. So with her help we almost finished my laundry room!! I want to post pictures so bad but it isn't finished exactly yet- we have a few small things to do- and I get my little chest freezer on Monday- and we still need to build some food storage shelves...so maybe in a week or two-

When Mom came I was in the middle of my first coat of paint on my cabinets...ahhh what a chore! It was fun but so time consuming- especially with little kids with curious fingers.

But I will elaborate greatly on my laundry/storage room when it is finished but thank you Mom for all the help-



Thank you Mom for being such a special grandma to my girls. Mom loves children and it shows. She would rather play and give Julia a bath than anything else and that is what a Grandma is supposed to do! Thank you for taking individual time with each one of my girls. It is so important to me and to them that they have special love from outside the home and from someone besides Chay and I. Thank you for bearing your testimony to them during Family Home Evening. You taught me that Family Home Evening should always end with a testimony...

I am thankful for all the many things my mother has taught me- she continues to do so as she reaches new chapters in her life...My mom is faithful, fair, funny, um...another f word- fantastic, fixer, forever

The two weeks she stayed we mostly worked on my basement. We did go see the Emma Smith Movie and we went out to eat way too much. I always eat a lot when I am with my own family members. I eat so well when my mom is around because she loves to serve in the kitchen...for example for dinner I made pork chops and potatoes...she then said, "we've got to have biscuits too" never in a million years would I make homemade biscuits if I already had potatoes to eat...but um...her biscuits are the most amazing most fluffy things most delicious yummy ever...so I will have to post the recipe on the kitchen website.



I have seen my mother change a lot from the time I lived with her as a teenager. I am sure her struggles with health and constant prayer have a lot to do with her change...but she is unmovable, steadfast and courageous about life...and about Heavenly Father's plan for her. I love being with my mom. I wish my girls could spend more time with her. It makes me sad living so far from my Mom and Dad and my siblings. I get kind of lonesome at times. But I feel blessed to be in an amazing ward...everything is ok...swell...remarkable.

I love you Mom. You left your hat. We now have three hats here that belong to you.