Gratitude Part III

I can't seem to blog three days in a room, but I'm still trying to be grateful for my blessings.  This weekend it was super hard and I had a minor MAJOR pity party Sunday night.  I am fighting off another sinus/head cold received from the smallest creature in the house (that apparently doesn't keep her down) but knocks me out.  In attempt to offset my pity party and continue with my gratitude, here's a continuation of my list:

1. Cold medicine.  Yay for cold medicine or headache medicine or just antibiotics.  Can you imagine the time with the doctor was 20 miles away and even then he didn't know much and might not have anything to help you?
2. Eight year olds with a heart of gold.  When she thought I wasn't look Laney, snuck back downstairs after bed time last night and put a note on my pillow.  It read, "To: Mommy, From: ??"  Inside: Dear Mommy, I hope you feel better.  Love, Laney"  I think she forgot she was trying to leave a secret note.  :)
3. Guacamole.  I made some this weekend from scratch, and it was AWESOME! Amen.
4. Two year olds who are willing to mimic anything you say or do.  Lately, Lindsay is raising her arms in the air and saying, "Whoop, Whoop", flinging her hair over her shoulder, sitting on the potty!!!!! (no activity other than that, but she is asking to sit there), and a myriad of other things she sees/hears the other kids say and do.
5. An in house baby sitter.  I know staying with us helps my friend and her family a lot.  But I really love, love, love, not having to wake up extra early to get two kids ready and drop them off somewhere before I leave for work.

Day 2

It might have taken a long time to get to blog about day 2 of gratitude, but I have been grateful all week long.  Here's the latest:

1. NAPS (and husbands who watch the kids so you can take them)
2. Hope - in anything, for anything.  It just keeps me going some days when I'm about to lie down and give up
3. Friends - with family far away, they are all I have.  And they have pulled through for me more than once.  :)
4. Shoes - such variety, such design, many perfect kinds for every need.  Isn't it amazing?!
5. Moments of inspiration - God knows what we need and when He tells us, it always amazes me. ALWAYS

Gratitude Part I

Things I'm grateful for:

1. Hot water.  Oh, how I love thee hot water.  I could take a hot bath and read a book almost any hour of any day. (And how I miss it when it's gone! Please come back hot water heater!)
2. My job.  Having been without one when I really wanted/desperately needed one, I'm so grateful to have a gig where people pay me money to show up and do stuff.  Yay work!
3. My girls.  I smile just seeing their little faces in my mind.
4. My husband.  He's not perfect, but he's mine and I love him.
5. A great bed with some soft covers.  I love hanging out on the bed all wrapped, snugglily in some covers.  Ahhhh....

Stay tuned, more gratitude to follow tomorrow.

A Bad Run of Luck?

Seriously, I'm one of those people that hears (constantly), "I've never seen the likes of this in the 30 years I've been in this business" or "I've never seen anything like this happen before and I've been doing this 20+ years" or "Your chance _________ will happen is very rare.  Less than 1%", and then _________ happens.  EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  You would think we would join the lottery.  I mean really.  With like like this, who needs, well, LUCK?

So what did we do? The smartest thing, any two people with weird luck could do, we opened a business in an industry we have exactly zero experience, with two people who have luck just like ours, and stepped back to watch the fireworks.  It's been almost 2 years since our hair salon opened, and it's still open so that is good, right?  It's definitely had ups and downs and a lot of ------------.  These past 45 days though, have just been *&(^(%(% obnoxious though.  And I'm not sure I can take any more!!!!!  First of all, our A/C went out in the beginning of July, it would take too long to fix so after several hotter than hot days of a record breaking hot summer, our building owner move an A/C unit from a store near us to our shop.  Give it exactly a week and the second unit went out.  Wait 2 business weeks and we get a new unit, during the recording breaking HOT month of August, during the busiest time of the year (back to school), and we had to close early every day and turn away customers because of said hotness inside the building, only to have a random thunderstorm on the exact date (and time) of the installation.  So we had to delay for that.  New unit gets installed, and the next day my manager is out with multiple kidney stones (poor girl!).

Manager just about comes back from sick leave and the shop dryer breaks and the shop stand alone chair dryers break (yes, all three of them!), and the gas goes out at the shop.  During this same time frame, the A/C went out in my office at work (yep, I'm in charge of fixing that), Lindsay got some weird coxil virus on her skin that looked like herpes all over her body (trust me, don't look up the pictures), and Arlin got some weird boil thing on his stomach (fingers crossed it is not coxil or MRSA).  Sigh.

Other than those things, we are good.  I think.  Now we are fighting with our landlord over losing our entire busy season (beginning of July though the end of August), trying to replace employees that quit since they did not make money for 2 months, and trying to keep sanity in a 9 person packed 2200 square foot home.  You know the saying goes, "If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all."  :)  Here's to luck changing!  :)  We're moving on!

And no, I could NOT be the mother of six children

So we have a friend staying with us for the next foreseeable future.  Yep, another house guest.  We are apparently very good at either living with others or others living with us.  Mostly the later, but it's all good.  This time around though, we have managed to fill every single nook and cranny in my little 2200 square foot home. And I do mean EVERY single nook and cranny.  My friend and her four children are now living with us for the next several months.

How's it going you ask?  Pretty well for the most part.  This is of course surprising to me and to her as we figured combining two households would be a little more uncomfortable.  Luckily they were here only 2 weeks before school starts (which all moms knows is the time siblings get on one anothers' nerves the most), and now that school starts, the kids enjoy being home together more than they did in the summer.  Those two weeks before school though...let's just say there were a little dicey.  Laney spent the summer at my parent's visiting with them and her cousins for the majority of the summer.  She was home exactly two days before the crowd arrived.  It was a nice little transitional phase for us all, as you can imagine.

My friend, she's a trooper.  She watched all six kids before school started, and is alone with all six kids before and after school.  She makes dinner, watches Lindsay while we work, the kids pitch in on the weekends and we all clean the house, Lindsay makes some messes, and gets laughs, the kids do homework, entertain Lindsay (read: dote on her every whim mostly, with two exceptions, boy #3 hoovers to intimidate her because she took his spot as the baby, and boy #2 ignores her because he really only pays attention to the things that entertain him and she requires too much work).  Luckily all the kids are older, we now have (or will have in the next month once b-days hit) children aged: 13, 11, 9, 8, 7, 2 to keep us running.  We have Activity Day girls, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and most of the kids will start some type of sport in October.  It's insane!

We now have 4 women in the house and 4 men.  It's crazy to have such a house full!  Two weeks ago Arlin walked into church behind all the kids and a man we did not know made a comment similar to, "Wow! That's a lot of kids you have there!"  So yes, we have a house full, and yes, I do feel like Wife #1 with a Wife #2, but it's cool, we're working it.  But I'm grateful for the blessings of the Lord that allow us to help our friends, and allow them to help us by watching the girls.  A plan neither one of us would have come up with on our own, but apparently is working quite well, despite how it sounds on paper.

And no, I could NOT be the mother of six children...I'm just saying.  (I know my limits is all)

Well, hello third grade ...

Today is Laney's first official day of third grade.  I think she is very excited to be back in school, among friends, and beginning some more fun times.  I do not, even for a second, delude myself into thinking she is excited for homework or learning math.  We have talked a lot about the importance of being a woman and having an education.  About being able to take care of yourself and your family.  I want her to have a degree in whatever field she wants, not because I think people with degrees are smarter than those without, but because a degree is what employers look for when hiring.  We've talked about how her life goals may be to have a career, or to just be a mom (not just, but you know what I mean).  Either way, I want her to be educated to be able to help herself and her family.  She might not be married until she's 30, she might get married young, but her husband could get sick, physically injured, laid off, or sadly, die.  I want her to have the tools she needs to always be okay, and I think she is finally starting to realize that now is the time to take care of these things. 

She's only in third grade, but she knows her job now is to be a student during the school year, and to be a family member.  I'm proud of her, because she is really a great girl.  She's helpful, kind, tender hearted, and giving even when others don't deserve it.  And she is forgiving.  She is awesome.  So this might just be the start of third grade, but it's an adventure and we're all excited to be sharing it together!  Welcome third grade!!

Turning Eight

Laney just turned eight in June, and in our church it is called the age of accountability.  It means you are old enough to understand your actions and the consequences of them, and the responsibility you have for them.  At this point we baptize children, and it is obviously something very moving and sweet to see your child reach such a major milestone.  I have to be honest though, it is SCARING the living daylights out of me.  It is one of the first major step backs I have to make as a parent and I can't say I enjoy it.  Sending her to daycare was hard because I wasn't there to keep her safe and make sure people did not pick on her, or that teachers were nice.  Beginning school was huge too, she was now a full time student for the first time and was responsible for things away from me.  And I had to step back and rely on her to understand what she needed to do and how to do it.  I had to trust her relationships with students, teachers, leaders would be positive up-lifting relationships; and I had to deal with the fall out when they were not.

Laney has not been baptized yet because she spent the summer at grandma's and grandpa's house on summer vacation.  We were going to handle it as soon as she returned, but our congregation was divided because it was too large.  No we are in week 3 of a brand new congregation and everything is new to everyone.  We're giving Laney some time to get back to home rules (no grandparent rules) and the congregation time to assign someone the baptism responsibility so we can smoothly walk through the event.  I've also been trying to prepare Laney and help her to understand the significance of it all.  The fact that it means she has to stand up and be strong for herself, pray for forgiveness for mistakes, pray for guidance in decisions, and build a relationship with Heavenly Father of her very own.  And here I am taking another step back and allowing her to be her own person and grow from her decisions and mistakes.

I am one of those parents that does not buffer my child from consequences, but deep inside I really want to.  I really want to.  And I can't.  Not any more.  I can guide her, instruct her, pray for her, and support her.  But she is growing up and becoming her own person and living her life.  I know she is only eight, but 18 and college and 21 and missions, and 26 and marriage (59 if you ask Arlin) doesn't feel so far away anymore.  And I'm a little sad too, to lose my little baby girl and her sweet blond curly headed self.  They say as soon as you have children you are teaching yourself to hold them close, and them to let you go.  To eat and drink and sleep on their own, to be okay staying with the babysitter, to eat with a fork and drink from a sippy, to go to the potty all alone, to leave on that school bus with confidence, to pray and read their scriptures, and on and on. 

The more I teach her to let go, the more I want to hold on ...