Showered with love

I have the best friends.



Truly.



Jenn, Nelly, and Nicole, with the help of many other wonderful women threw me the most amazing baby shower. The food was fabulous, we had lots of time to visit and catch up, and I recieved the sweetest presents for this little boy on the way.



Many friends who couldn't make it to the shower were so kind to call, visit, bring a present, and in so many ways let me know that they're excited for our new arrival. 



I left the party feeling overwhelmed with gratitude for the many wonderful women who have influenced my life.



J and I moved here to the desert not knowing a soul, and over the past 7 years have developed friendships that will last a lifetime.





I have relied on these women to mother me, inspire me, nurture me, teach me, help me, correct me, and be there for me and mine. I am so grateful for each of them and consider it a true blessing that our lives have crossed paths at this place and over this time.



I love my friends and don't know what I'd do without them.

 

April 2013

Blogging took a back seat through the spring/summer months when I was in the first trimester of the pregnancy and my house (and life) often looked and felt like this.

However there were some fun events that took place in April that I don't want to forget. First, we have a lovely long weekend visit from my Grandma Pat and my parents. They came over J's birthday and we enjoyed celebrating together. J is a great man, husband, and father and I'm daily so grateful for him. 

My grandma is an avid shopper and spent a few hours at Last Ch*nce and the used book store. I love that my kids get to see and spend time with their grandparents and I'm grateful that they made time to come and visit us. 

Lauren played a piano piece with her friend Daniela in the school talent show, and showed great courage to get up and play despite her usual shyness. We also finished up the Let's Play Music class (that I teach) for the semester and both girls performed so well in the recital.

 At the end of April we had a lovely almost two week visit from my sister Claire and her two kids. We enjoyed our time with them, and I loved having another adult around to talk to and have help from all day long. Maybe sister wives wouldn't be such a bad gig... :)

 Finally, Ada made her debut visit to the dentist and we filled up all of their avilliable chairs with our 3 girls getting a checkup. We've just had word that Lauren is already going to start phase 1 of ortho care and we're destined to spend a lot of money on our children's teeth in the near future.



As the summer heat came on we got on our suits and got outside to play in the water and didn't get out until just this month.

And that's an April wrap.

Boston

In August, I was able to take a wonderful trip to Beantown.

My brother Dave and his family are there for a 6 month assignment, and back in the spring my sister Claire was telling me about her plan to go and visit them.

I thought it was a wonderful idea, and one way or another we hatched a plan to go out and visit them together.

I left on a Thursday morning and returned the following Tuesday afternoon. J held things down on the home front, with the help of wonderful friends to watch Ada during the day, and a driving babysitter to pick up the girls after school.

The weather couldn't have been better. It was a lovely 70-80 degrees each day with relatively little humidity. We loved staying in Dave and Courtney's spacious apartment, and had our own room and bathroom, thanks to their little man Charlie moving his accommodations to a closet. They were beyond fabulous hosts and were genuinely happy to have us there, which makes them even better hosts in my book.

We got there at 5:00 pm on Thursday and were busy sightseeing for every waking minute until I left on Tuesday at 10:00 am.

Claire was the official trip planner (and photo taker with over 800 pics), and spent weeks pouring over travel books, maps, and consulting with friends about things to see, do, and places to eat. I lazily, and luckily, was along for the ride and got to benefit from all of her hard work.

We had planned to tour around during the days with Courtney and Charlie, but just before we got there Courtney got an awful stomach flu that kept her house bound until our last night there. I felt awful for abandoning her and for her horrible sickness. Dave had a touch of it too, but was still able to see a few things with us.

I loved spending time in such a historic and wonderful city and was especially grateful for the chance to spend so much time with my sister. I love talking, joking, laughing, and having fun with her and and I love that we're in the SAHM cohort and can discuss child raising thoughts together. She is an amazing person and I'm so grateful for how she knows me so well and teaches me so much.

All in all it was a lovely trip that I'll remember fondly in my sleepless nights to come.

Managing technology

Red indicates areas with 3G coverage

My sister gave us (mostly J) a subscription to W*red magazine.

Usually I just move it from the magazine rack to the recycling bin, but today I popped it open for a quick read and came across a lovely article called "The end of unplugging."

In it the author argues that on such a connected planet we are literally running out of land mass where we can get away from technology. The network truly spans the globe.

I wage a constant battle against technology taking over my life. With blogs, pintrest, FB, IG, banking, email, bills, etc., etc., etc,  being so accessible online I could literally spend all of my waking hours in front of a screen.

And I kind of hate that.

I believe in technology. I know that it has its place and that in so many ways our lives are better and easier by being so connected. I also know that people are able to learn more about the church through technology than ever before.

However, I often find myself reaching for my phone/kindle/mouse whenever I have an extra minute to see what's going on in the world.

The author of the article, Mat H*nan, states, "The phone isn't the problem. The problem is us- our inability to step away from email and games and inessential data, our inability to look up, be it in an alpine lake or at family members. We won't be able to get away from it all for very much longer. So it's vitally important that each of us learns how to live with a persistent connection, everywhere we go, whether it's in the wilderness or at a dinner party."

I love his thought. The solution is not starving ourselves from technological devices. They are a part of our world and are not going anywhere. The solution is taking control of what, how, when, where, and why we use them and being accountable for the time we spend, and the content we consume, living our lives in front of a screen.