My Journal

So I just got back from GA. Last minute, Chad and I decided that I would drive our car down and ride back up with his parents who were planning to come up for spring break anyway. (My car needs a home while we're on rotations.) I have mixed feelings about this. I miss my car tremendously already. In the meantime we're borrowing his parents' minivan. Though I am terribly grateful to them for their generosity, I LOVE my car! I got to spend a day with my sister and two days with my parents. I'd been so wrapped up in trying to figure out rotations that I'd forgotten how much I missed them. Chloe and I had a lot of fun with them and I miss them tremendously also. Chad's parents are here now. We went to the Children's Museum yesterday. We got there late but still had lots of fun. After the kids went to bed we watched a movie. Today, we went to the park twice, played in our yard, and went out to dinner. We've had fun with them as well. Now Chad's break is almost over. Our last hoorah and we spent half of it either apart or entertaining. But we have had fun and the whole thing really was quite inspired. We were trying to think of how best to get the car to GA, and we were either going to have to buy 2 plane tickets home or Chad would have to take off of school and buy one plane ticket. Until last minute this idea sort of knocked us upside the head. And it worked out great! The kids were great for me on the car ride and we had fun. We got to see my family again.

Chloe is doing amazingly these days. Her world is starting to turn upside down, but she's not acting out or terribly needy...I mean, she is a little, but nothing like I'd prepared myself for - so far. In fact, she's potty-training and doing phenominally. She has the occasional issue, but I totally trust her. In fact, she wore panties down to GA and did great! She would've worn them back too, but on our first stop, we had the misfortune of learning about the automatic flush. (I now have to demonstrate which toilets are safe.) So she's nervous now, but also very brave. I'm so proud of her and grateful for her!!

Last week I attended a baby shower in which a friend spoke of a "mommy inspiration" she had. I started thinking of some of the mommy inspirations I've had. Once in particular, I remember scolding Chloe for something AGAIN (I don't remember what) and I thought "I need to teach her correct behavior to replace this one with." I'd learned the concept from Dr. Phil or something like that, but I totally would never have thought about it or remembered it on my own. And it totally worked. In that instant I understood where she was coming from, I was no longer frustrated, I was able to replace my scolding with teaching. It was Fabulous! I am so very grateful for my beautiful children and for the help that Heavenly Father gives to mothers. It is truly a calling and Heavenly Father loves and respects motherhood tremendously.

So Everett. Everett is learning to sit up. He is such a joy. He Loves his big sister and she loves him. It's so much fun to listen to them play together and laugh and laugh. He's such a good little boy too. He's had some rough days lately with the teething and whatnot, but he doesn't usually complain too much.

Chad. Spending 4 days apart was not a terribly long time, but it was enough to make me really appreciate him and be grateful to be with him again. I have really enjoyed being with him these past couple of days.