Help!

I am in need of serious recipe or dinner planning help. I am in a cooking funk. I have no desire to cook and so when I do, it shows! I keep trying and once even Jeremy said, I'm sorry I just can't eat this. I am usually a pretty good cook and I was trying something new and it was just gross. Eggplant and fermented black beans - I should have known that having a fermented main ingredient was not a good sign! Justina posted a recipe and inspired me to ask for help. I am not even pregnant and I am in that nothing sounds good, I don't want to cook phase. Michael, at least is eating baby food so he doesn't have to suffer.  Thank you! 

My Birthday!

Well, yesterday I celebrated the day I was born. :) Thanks, Mama and Daddy for helping me to get here! We celebrated yesterday by going to lunch and buying a rug I had my eye on! Thank you to all who contributed - I would have felt guilty buying it, except for the birthday money. :) Andrew is on the new rug in the picture. The boys bought me roses they picked out for me. It was so sweet, they carried them in saying Happy Birthday, Mama with the most excited looks on their faces. I am lucky to be their Mama. Jacob and Michael even slept in until 7 in the morning, which I thought was a wonderful birthday present. We are going to Phoenix this weekend, where we will go to the temple and maybe IKEA for a little shopping! Jeremy is really good about going shopping with me on my birthday and christmas, any other time and he is just miserable. I am beginning to feel like a grown-up. I am even started to notice all the wrinkles around my eyes! But smile lines aren't a bad thing in my book. Maybe now strangers will think I look old enough to be the mother to my three children! 

ARIZONA

Jeremy signed a one-year appointment to teach and perform here in Tucson. And now they have asked him if he would like to stay. After a lot of thought and prayer, we have decided to embrace the heat. Jeremy thinks two years of experience at a great university and hopefully even more experiences here will help him to get the job he would like to have. I am so glad we don't have to move again and deal with all those expenses and transitions. Though, I was hoping to settle down and take advantage of the housing market and get a great deal on a house somewhere! It will still happen, I know the Lord has a plan for us. As I prayed about the job and maybe moving ( I was secretly hoping for a very clear answer that there was a great job for us in ___ )I felt joy and peace. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and cares about where we are. Even though I was really hoping to move somewhere with green grass and rivers that actually have water in them, Tucson seems to be the place the Lord would like us to be. And I honestly do want to follow His will. 

My Andrew will start school here in Tucson. I looked up his neighborhood school and it is underperforming. So, I am now trying to figure if we can get him in another school. They do have applications for open enrollment, but I don't know if the good schools will fill up. Just thinking about putting him in school is overwhelming to me, let alone one that isn't even performing at the right level.  Advice anyone? 

I experienced an Arizona first - I saw a coyote at the park. Jacob, Michael and I went to the park while Andrew was in preschool. I let Jacob out and unbuckled Michael. After locking the car, I couldn't see Jacob, but I could see a coyote. Apparently, they are all over town. A City of Tucson employee, who just happened to be there, told me not to worry, they are usually afraid of people. But this coyote didn't look very afraid, he kept looking at me with what looked to be a little grin. I was holding Michael - he would make a nice snack at almost 19 lbs! :) Oh and I did shortly locate Jacob, burying his car in the sand. 

Happiness

Happiness is finding a pencil. Pizza with sausage. Telling the time. Happiness is learning to whistle. Tying your shoe for the very first time. Happiness is playing the drums in your own school band and happiness is walking hand in hand. 

Happiness is two kinds of ice cream. Knowing a secret. Climbing a tree. Happiness is five different crayons. catching a firefly. Setting it free. Happiness is being alone every now and then and happiness is coming home again. Happiness is morning and evening, day time and night time too. For happiness is anyone and anything at all that's loved by you. Happiness is having a sister. Sharing a sandwich. Getting along. 

Happiness is singing together when day is through, and happiness is those who sing with you. Happiness is morning and evening, daytime and nighttime too. For happiness is anyone and anything at all that's loved by you.

I love this song. The little blessings that make me smile, the big things I often take for granted. What is happiness to you? A child growing inside you, a new home? These things are not happening to me right now, they are friend's joys - just so you didn't see this as an announcement! :)

Happiness is three little smiles, a loving husband and our families. Happiness is learning the gospel, feeling the love of my Heavenly Father. Happiness  is ..... what do you  think?

New Things

We have had an eventful last ten days or so. So many new things in a short amount of time.

Starting off...

For the first time, I picked up a sick child from school. 

Andrew was diagnosed with Scarlet Fever. A disease of Helen Keller and Little Women proportions! Thankfully, with pink liquid antibiotics, that tasted like strawberries, Andrew is better and back in school. Amazingly, no one else in our family contracted the disease, which is highly contagious. The doctor had me scared, visions of hospitals visits. The other day after his bath, he asked me to carry him. I told him, No. He said, "But, I can't carry myself!" I thought it was really funny.

Michael is starting to sit. He can sit for about 5 seconds by himself. :) Little by little....

He is 7 months old and weighs 18 lbs, 12 ounces and is high in the percentiles! He is wearing clothes now that Andrew wore when he was walking, which was a couple months after his birthday. We even had to change him to a bigger car seat. He was uncomfortable in it and it was just too hard to carry him and it. I even bought a sling to carry him in, which I love and never thought I would. So, even though a infant car seat says you can keep them in it until 25 lbs, no way. Which takes me to...

Jacob now has a big boy booster. It is a little early, he weighs 29 lbs, not thirty. But, we went ahead anyway. We put Michael in Jacob's old car seat and now Jacob gets a new one. A rarity for a second child. Plus, it was much cheaper to buy Jacob a booster, than Michael a new convertible car seat.  He was a little sad to give up his seat. He said, ' I want to stay little'.

Another new thing, terrible twos, which I am sure will blend into the terrible threes - his birthday is in a couple months. He has learned how to throw serious fits, how to mantipulate - Mommy, I'm scared!, he even is yelling at me and tried to hit me. All new. He has always been stubborn, but oh boy howdy! (A little Texas for you, I miss it) He also enjoys taking off his pants and says he needs to race naked. make any sense?  He revs his engine, kicks his right foot backward and takes off. It would be funny, if he would listen to me eventually and put his underwear back on. He is still a sweet boy who says he will get me Roses and five cherries for my birthday, because he knows I will like it and I will be happy. When he hears Michael crying, he says Mama, I will give him a kiss and sing Twinkle, twinkle. That would make anything better! Sweet words from my sweet, first born in the wilderness(like Lehi and Sariah). :)

We have now lived in Arizona for six months and yesterday, something I never expected happened. We walked through the hail to our car and our windshield was completely frozen over. I had to scrape ice off my car in Tucson! One of the doors wouldn't even open until it defrosted a little. I know that a little ice is nothing for most of you, but this is Arizona!

There are more, but this post is already too long!