Something right

It is so fun to watch Megan develop. It is intriguing to watch her play. The way she takes care of her dolls, pretend-washes her clothes, and mimicks every thing she sees us do just thrills me. It's amazing to think that a year ago she could barely scoot across the floor and now she has become a person full of likes and dislikes, a silly personality and a vocabulary to boot.

Sometimes I wonder how many things I am doing wrong. But then, there are the moments when I know we're doing something right.

These percious moments- like when Megan folds her arms and bows her head before a meal; when she sings lullabies to herself long after I have left the room; when she recognizes a church song- help me know we're on the right path. I love the moments when she stops what she's doing, says a gibberish prayer, and keeps on playing. Megan asks to read the scriptures before bed; she has now begun to repeat our family prayers as we say them.

It's little things like these that let me know she is learning the important things in life. Knowing her colors and being able to recognize letters may be helpful, but the best, most important things are the spiritual ones. I am so glad that Megan already knows when and how to say prayers and that we read scriptures every day. I'm not trying to toot my own horn; I guess I am just thankful that I was once taught these things, and that I can now teach them to my child.

And, most of all, I hope she continues to do these things long after I am gone; that she will grow up one day and notice that she has done something right, too.

Cali Trip Part 2: Disneyland

As you might remember from my last California post, Jared & I have been wanting to visit Disneyland since we got married 7 1/2 years ago.

We did get a couple days of Disneyland. The day after we ventured Sea World, we headed off to Disneyland. Jared & I, his parents, and his two youngest brothers all went for a day without the kids to ride all the big-people rides. (thanks to Aunt Jenny, Aunt Ann Marie & Uncle Jason who stayed home to watch all the kids!)

After our day-long Disneyland adventure we plopped in bed around midnight and then got up 7 hours later to take all the kiddies to Disneyland. Disneyland was so fun with Megan. I can't wait to take her back when she's older and she thinks it is magical.

Here is a picture of Megan on the carousel with Jared. She screamed her little heart out each time she got off. She sure knows how to make a scene.


Here she is on the "It's a Small World" ride. We were riding in the front of the boat and she was in awe the whole time. She doesn't look very excited in this picture, but, trust me, she loved this ride. I wish we could have gone on it a second time.


While we were in Disneyland we took a little side-trip to New Orleans. So convenient that Megan's roots were within walking distance!


And, here we are in front of the Disneyland castle. This picture is extremely unflattering but we have to have one in front of the castle, right? So, it will do.


After a long day of riding kiddie rides & walking around the park, we got back to my brother-in-law's house (where we were staying) and I laid Megan down on our bed. Before I could even get out a diaper to change her, she was out like a light. I think her body position here is hilarious. And, no, I didn't stage it at all. She's just funny like that.


And, that was Disneyland in a nutshell.

my band-aid

Today I was asked by a friend to share my experiences with inferility. When I look back upon those horrendous times, I feel like a stone. When I write about all the things we did to figure out what was wrong- the surgery, the trials & errors, the different things we tried- it's all kind of like a blur. I don't really have any emotion when I speak of those things.

The emotion comes in when I start to talk about our precious Megan. When I think of everything we went through and all the pain we experienced in the years previous to her coming to our family, I start to choke. I choke because she was worth every heartache, she was worth every penny. Our little slice of heaven. She is worth the world and I would never change anything we have done... because it led us to her.

Megan is my little band-aid. She makes everything better. When I think of what the future holds- that this Foster Care thing is going to be difficult, that we can't just go make another kid like all my friends get to do- I get a lump in my throat. Our desire to have more children is going to be just as hard as it was to have our first child.

But, like I said, Megan is my little band-aid. All she has to do is smile, and mommy feels better. She knows just when to give me a hug or a smooch on the cheek. Her laughter melts my heart and I know that the Lord sent her little soul to us. She is such a pure child, full of spunk and truth and beauty. My little band-aid of love. I am so grateful for my little band-aid; she mends my soul.

Cali Trip Part 1- Sea World

For the past 7.5 years Jared & I have been wanting to go to Disneyland. Maybe it's ridiculous that it took us so long to get there, but at least we finally did.

We drove 10 hours in our van with the three of us, Jared's parents, and his two teenage brothers. We stopped to eat dinner at my sis-in-law's house in St. George. Here is a pic of Megan with Uncle Tyler & her cousin Oriana with Papa:


Megan slept for about one hour the entire way to California because she was very excited to have so many of her favotire people surrounding her. She was quite good until the last hour or so.

We were lucky enough to stay with Jared's brother & his his wife, who live just 20 minutes from Disneyland. We left Utah on a Saturday, relaxed & went to church on Sunday, and went to Sea World on Monday. This post, obviously, is all about Sea World.

Here is a picture of Megan & I before the Dolphin Show began.


And, a picture of Megan & Jared before they got soaked by the dophins. Megan did not want to be covered with plastic and kept trying to get out- until the first soaking. Then she only wanted to be under the poncho. She was not a happy wet girl.


One very cool thing at Sea World was the tide pool where you could touch starfish and other sea animals. Of course, I was too scared to touch anything, but Megan didn't hold back. Here she is touching a starfish:

And, lastly, we took the kiddos on some rides at the park. Megan was apprehensive at first, but the apprehensiveness turned into anger every time a ride was finished. There was some definite "weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth" every time we took her off a ride. Here is Megan and Jared & Uncle Tyler:


That's it for my Sea World post. Honestly, I wasn't all the impresed with Sea World. I thought that the price of admission was really steep for what the park had to offer. In my head I imagined it to be this wonderul, awe-inspiring place. It probably is awesome to kids, though. I'm glad we went because now I know not to go again unless we can get cheaper tickets!

Stay tuned for my next post: Disneyland.
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Coupon Craziness

For the past 5 years or so I have been telling Jared that "someday I'd like to try doing that couponing thing."

Well, a few months ago Jared took me up on it. I went to a free class and the girl showed us how to easily organize coupons- which, by the way, is not a lot of clipping- and how to find the deals. I am using the website http://www.grocerysmarts.com/. Basically, you use coupons and buy things that are already on sale so that you are paying cents instead of dollars. I now get 5 copies of the Sunday newspapers so I can get 5 times the good deals. I don't care so much about the news as I do about the coupons.

The class was very exciting and I could not believe how easy it all seemed. Well, I finally had enough coupons this week to give this coupon-shopping thing a try. It definitely seems to have paid off, as evidenced below:

I paid about $14 for all of this, which costs at least $85 to your average shopper. (If you can't tell, that's 6 boxes cereal, 24 rolls TP, 5 packs fancy women's razors, one men's fusion Gillette razor, 1 toothbrush, 1 toothpaste, 1 box bandaids, 1 deoderant, 1 sunburn lotion). I could have gotten at least $36 more of free stuff, but the stores were out of them.

Though I got such great deals, it did come with a price. The price? My time. I spent easily 5-6 hours this week figuring out what I was going to buy and where I was going to buy it. (It shouldn't have taken so long but I am a novice). Then I spent at least another 2-2.5 hours traveling to stores, only to find that all the sale items were sold out. It seems that unless you get there at 4:00 a.m. you're not going to get the free stuff- even if you go on the day they get the shipments in.

I learned my lesson and I'm not going to try and get free stuff all the time. It's just not worth it. I'm going to shop when I shop and if they have the free stuff, great. If not, I'll still get great deals. Plus, I'm making sure to only buy things that my family will actually use, so I'm not going to be one of those people who takes home 85 bottles of free mustard. That's just rediculous.

Is all of this worth it? Probably. I'm sure that this will get easier for me. I really DO want to save money for our family and I'm going to try and make it work. I have a one-year subscription for the newspapers so I'm going to give this discount shopping thing a year's try. Then I'll re-evaluate.

And, I promise, this is not going to become a blog where I just tell you all the great deals I got. I merely wanted to say that I am now trying this new thing and it is taking up all my extra time. That is all.

Happy shopping. (or, stressful shopping, if you're me!)
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a ridiculous request

I think that loud vehicles should be outlawed. Isn't it illegal to disturb the peace? It seems like there are a lot of people in my neighborhood who sport loud motorcycles or thunderous trucks.

Another plea to my state government (yes, I have made previous requests from my blog... because the government folk read it often): please outlaw these vehicles during the morning hours, during naptime, and in the evening while my child is sleeping. That leaves about 8 hours that it is permitted to drive uproarious transportation. Eight hours is plenty. I don't see the problem.

When these totally obnoxious, self-serving people drive their prized posessions during Megan's sleeping hours, it turns this:



into this:





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a hoe is a great thing

In my first year of gardening I learned how to build a retaining wall.

In my second year of gardening I learned that a blend of turkey poo does wonders for my veggies.

In this, my third year of gardening, I learned how to use this:

I used to pull out every weed in the garden by hand before planting my veggies. Tonight Jared borrowed a hoe from the neighbors and I was astonished at the easiness of the job. You'd think I would have used one before but I guess I just forgot about it.

Now I look back at all that time I wasted pulling weeds and I think that time could have been much better wasted by blogging.

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