pity party

It's just one big pity party around here. Sometimes it is remarkably easy to feel sorry for yourself. At least I find that is. The last couple of weeks Brennan has had to put more hours in at work than normal. The other day he figured out that excluding weekends, he spends an average of 2 to 3 wakeful hours at home every day. That's not very many. :( His more frequent absence has made it easy for me to feel very lonely. And when it rains it pours. Or rather when you start feeling sorry for yourself you tend to think of plenty of reasons as to why a pity party is deserved. To add to all my crummy feelings of the week, I decided to head to a Church activity tonight. Don't ask me why, because I usually leave those feeling more depressed than before I went. Tonight was no different...except for my drive home. I started thinking about the conversation I had with my sister yesterday. We talked about how lucky we truly are. How it's so easy to complain about all the little things, or to feel sad that things aren't exactly the way we want them, but so many people in this world don't even have the basics or the essentials in their lives. We mostly discussed physical needs like food, water, and shelter. But what about a loving family or faith in a Heavenly Father? We really are so blessed. But we become so accustomed to our many blessings, that we stop seeing them. Today I had a speech kiddo tell me that he had a birthday this week. As I asked him questions about it I discovered that he received no presents and had no party. I have had such an easy and good life that I cannot even imagine what it would feel like to not GET things for my birthday, to not have an elaborate party as a child. But for this student, it's just life. He has to wear the same few outfits to school over and over again and he has shared some not-so-pleasant things about his home life. And here am I being all "woe is me" because I don't have many friends and I don't see my husband as much as I would like. I think it's time for an attitude change, Rachel.

I am blessed. And I am happy.
Goodnight.

it's in the genes...or not.

We have received many homemade items from people related to us in the last few months (Christmas presents and such) and I have been struck at the talent and creativity possessed by so many people I am related to. For a moment I thought surely it must be in the genes. But then I realized...I'm related to them...doesn't that mean I should be talented and creative too? But alas, I am not. So either it isn't related to genes at all, or I'm unlucky and missed out on that awesome gene. Either way, I'm trying my unskilled hand at a few crafts these days. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have some photos of my own work to share, but in the mean time here are some wonderful items crafted by others.
The neat wooden table that my dad made for us. It folds up nicely for storage and is perfect for doing puzzles or crafts.
Some beautiful wall art that my sister-in-law Marci gave us for Christmas.
My mom made me a quilt for Christmas using old significant t-shirts of mine (tennis, races, concerts, girls camp, softball, etc).
Another H that Brennan's step sister Kellie made for us.

Wish me luck!

Will you be my Valentine?

Yesterday at work I went to get one of my favorite little first grade speech kiddos.

As he sat down at the table with me he said, "Will you be my Valentine?"

He didn't even give me a chance to respond.

"I want everyone in the whole world to be my Valentine. Except the bad people."

Well how could I say no? I couldn't, of course. Most days I am really glad I get to work with kids. And it just takes one short interaction like this one to make up for those days when I'm not so glad.

Two years

Two years ago this very day, I met the pizza-crust-throwing man pictured above. As this anniversary of sorts approached and Brennan and I had a few conversations about it, I realized that I have never really heard of other couples making note every year of the date they met each other. (I'm sure there are others, it's just not something you see people writing on Facebook or anything:)) For a moment, I wondered if we were strange to do it ourselves. But as I thought about it I realized that my life changed on this day two years ago just about as much as it changed on our wedding day. I woke up on February 8, 2009 not having a clue who Brennan was and with no idea that my life was about to change. I went to bed that night with butterflies and thoughts of seeing him the next day. After that fateful Sunday we saw each other every single day for the next year and a half (until last fall when I visited Mara in Arizona). That day definitely brought one of the most sudden and significant changes I have ever experienced. Sometimes it is hard to believe that it has already been two years since we met, but then at other times it seems like it has been much longer than that, it is hard to even remember what it felt like to not be together. It has been a crazy two years that is for sure. We have definitely had our bumps in the road, but you know what, I think I'm okay with that. He makes me want to be a better person and I love him. I love him for walking into my life two years ago and never walking back out.

Libraries, cakes, and falls.

Our local library has something like 50 cake pans available for check out. These aren't just plain Jane cake pans, they are in all sorts of shapes (mostly characters). When Brennan and I first went there to get accounts set up we weren't all that impressed by the selection of books (it's a pretty tiny library), but the cake pans all over the tops of the shelves were unique enough to grab our attention. It was just too funny that we could check out cake pans from our library, we knew we had to check one out at least once. This last Friday Kelbie, Caden, and Macy came and stayed with us. So we headed over to the library to pick out a pan. We got there exactly four minutes before the library closed and the librarian continually reiterated that if we could not choose a pan in four minutes we were out of luck. So with just a few minutes to peruse the pans these were the possibilities we left with:
Under such extreme pressure we couldn't commit to just one, so we brought Batman and Oscar the Grouch home with us. Oscar won in the end.
We were all so excited about the awesome cake we were going to make and then this came out of the oven....huge crack down the center and all. And it really wasn't as easy to see what it was supposed to be as we thought it would be. But then we set the cake decorators to work....and that unrecognizable Oscar above turned into...
This.
Brennan and Macy with their creation. Not only did it look great, but it tasted delicious as well!

We also made pizza and Caden hates having his picture taken so I just had to share this. :) He looks happy, doesn't he?
On a bit of a separate note, I have to tell a bit of an embarrassing story. One for me and one for Brennan actually. We had to make a quick stop at the grocery store after the library and as we walked in we saw none other than my mom and my sister Crystal (who had also stopped at the store after they dropped the kids off at our place). They were just getting in line as we walked in and even though we walked right in front of them, they managed to look right at us without seeing us. So we hurried to get in line behind them to see if they noticed. I was in front of our group and was speed walking. In hindsight I can see that speed walking in old shoes that have no traction on naturally slick floor probably isn't the brightest thing to do. But anyway, bright or not, I did it. As I went around the corner in the produce section there was a wet spot on the floor and I immediately knew I was going down. Similar to how falls frequently occur, this one was in slow motion. Giving me plenty of time to be downright horrified by the fact that I was wiping out in the middle of Fareway. Plenty of time to reach out and try to catch myself on the bin of oranges beside me. And plenty of time to decide that maybe if I got up quickly enough no one would notice. Unfortunately, there was no way to make it so Brennan and the kids wouldn't see, and boy did they get a kick out of it. Brennan said it was like I bounced off the floor. One second I disappeared behind the oranges and the next second I was back up, red face and all. Apparently it was quite impressive. Oddly enough in my slow motion fall I never thought about how falling might hurt. But boy did it ever. I was hobbling around for the rest of the night and today my knee still hurts if anything touches it.My embarrassing wound a couple of days after the fact. You can't really see much, but trust me, it's pretty.

One fall just wasn't enough for us. When we got home Brennan and Caden ran outside to put the pop in the snow so it could get cold. The steps out our front door weren't very well cleared of snow and suddenly the girls and I heard a very loud noise followed by Caden's shocked voice saying "are you okay?"....yes, that's right Brennan fell down the steps outside. When I asked Caden what happened he said "He just fell from like six steps up! And then he jumped up and walked away!" Hahaha, apparently he was trying to walk it off. He came in with snow all over his pants and a pretty impressive bruise on his back. OUCH. Clearly, we are not graceful people. But at least we give entertainment to those around us.

Getting creative

Sometimes you have to get creative. That can be hard if you are like me and completely lacking the creative chromosome in your genetic make up. In our ward lately the talk has been about cheap date ideas. And if you want to go on a date but you don't want to spend money, creativity is a must. If you are really a creative person, all you need is a small plastic wheel from a children's game to have fun (see above.:)). A few weeks ago we were at my parents house for dinner and I was inspired to be more creative by those around me. Caden and dad started blowing the wheel back and forth across the table. After the rest of us saw how much fun they were having it quickly turned into a table long game with all six of us. Three people were on each side of the table and we tried to get the wheel to roll off the opposite side of the table.

Check out the determination on their faces. It was seriously entertaining. Who ever said that you have to spend money to have fun? I guess it's time for Brennan and I to get in touch with our inner creativeness and think of some fun things to do during the long and dreadful winter.

Snowed In

Our mailbox nearly buried by the snow.

We got hit last night by the blizzard that swept across the country. The school I was at yesterday closed early, as well as Brennan's school and work, in anticipation of the storm. After my school let out I decided to go to the agency's office to finish up my hours for the day, even though Mara strongly advised against it. She was insistent that I just go home before the storm hit. I assured her that the roads were fine and that I wouldn't be staying at the office for long. I am happy to publicly admit that she was right. :) I left the office about an hour later and the weather was much worse. My drive home was not fun. And then last night we got great news! Kirkwood was closed for today and so were both of our work places! Yay for snow days in adulthood. We got to spend a relaxing (minus the huge task of shoveling the driveway, which Brennan tackled) day at home together. It was great! The only downer was that Brennan had to go to his second job tonight. :( I guess people still want ice cream even after a huge snowstorm. Lame.

Here are some pictures of the incredible snow:

That one little trail through the middle of the driveway must have taken him 15 minutes and that was only the beginning. We got at least a foot of snow.

The wind made some pretty cool looking drifts.

Happy snow day!