March

I think I might actually be able to write about something that happened this month before it's completely gone!!! I didn't think that was ever going to happen again!

So... this month started off with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Allen and Rachel's blessing. The week after they left was pretty much survival for me, and I knew that with all the family gone for good we had to get into some kind of a routine. Now that it's been about 4 weeks, I think we might have it but I'm knocking on wood for continued good luck right now.

The week of March 10-15 was really all about Prom. Out here they have a special prom for the Priests and Laurels from the wards of the three local stakes. The dress is formal and it's a big to-do for everyone involved. The only adults from each ward that are invited are the Bishop, and YM/YW Presidents and spouses. So we were expected to go to prom but since it was only 6 weeks after I had a baby there was absolutely no way I was going to fit into the formal dress I already had (I've lost almost 25 lbs but that doesn't mean I fit into a size 8 yet, sadly enough). I went to several stores and encountered a rather significant problem: if a dress fit on top it was really tight on the hips; if it fit my rotund hips the top was so huge that I couldn't keep it on, and all the 2 piece dresses were really expensive. So I ended up making a dress for the church prom. Sadly enough I didn't come to this conclusion until Tuesday night and needed the dress for Saturday... Which explains why I did nothing but sew all week long. It ended up working out all right; it definitely wasn't perfect but it wasn't horrible. I'll probably take it in a bit and wear it for Calista's wedding which is now only 6 weeks away. Despite the craziness of making my own dress the prom was a lot of fun. There was a photographer there, and we got a free 5x7 (when it comes I'll put a copy up here). There were lots of people there, and strangely Joe ended up talking to a couple of high councilmen from our stake and 2 stake presidents. I told Joe he shouldn't do that any more because he's busy enough with what he's already doing church-wise. The last note about Prom was how interesting it was to take a 2-month-old to a formal dance. I had to nurse in the middle and boy was that an interesting experience, trying to feed her without getting milk all over our fancy clothes! (Rachel wore the dress we got her for Easter)

Well, that's enough for today. I hope y'all are doing well! Hopefully more soon (probably Monday).

I'm Back!!!

Well, I only intended it to be a day or so between posts...but I guess that didn't happen. So once again I'm almost 2 months behind in writing...and I don't know that I'll ever catch up. So I thought I'd just hit the highlights of February and maybe March today-depending on how long winded I decide to be-and then 'turn over a new leaf' and move on like I didn't miss anything. Hopefully I've got my life enough under control now that I can blog regularly again. (I know, famous last words)

So February... My sister Calista came to visit us for the first couple weeks of February. We had a great time. I was able to go out and do things some by this time, and almost every morning we went somewhere 'fun'. We went to the mall, we went to different parks, we went shopping, we looked for apartments. It was a great time. Karen absolutely LOVED Calista, thought she was the greatest person ever-except maybe mommy or Kitara. While Calsita was here we worked on her wedding announcements, and got all 300 or so that she brought fininshed. One afternoon we took a tour of Lowe's Motor Speedway, up the road a couple of miles in Concord, NC. It was cool to ride around the racetrack in the big 12 passenger vans and see all the stands and pits and everything. (If you're wondering what it looks like, just turn on Cars; the track at the beginnig is a very accurate copy of LMS.) We took lots of pictures of the girls with Calista's fancy camera. We watched lots of different movies. In general we had a great time, and I think Calista had a good time skipping classes-even though she had a ton of stuff to do when she got back to Provo. While she was here I narrowed our apartment search to the last 2 places; both are in the ward and a mile or less from where we live now. Last week we signed a contract with one of them so we'll be moving about a half mile the last week in July.

The week after Calsita left and the week before Joe's parents came to visit was crazy; like after my mom left I had a few days to get used to being on my own and then had to get ready for more visitors. Joe's parents came the last couple days of February and stayed for almost a week. We had a great time while they were here too. The Saturday they were here we went to the Carolina Raptor Center. For those of you who are thinking dinosaurs, think again. These are raptors as in birds-of-prey instead of the raptors like Utah Raptors or something like that. They had all kinds of owl, hawks, and even a few bald eagles (one of which was nesting-really cool to see). Karen loved seeing the birds and trying to say all the different names; "barn owl" was not hard, but "screech owl", "bard owl", and "bald eagle" were more difficult. Sunday, March 2, was Rachel's blessing day. She wore the same dress Karen wore, but it was a little bit too big (although still adorable. I just realized those pictures haven't been transferred to the computer yet-I'll have to do that soon so I can put them up). There were quite a few people in the circle for the blessing, 6 or 7 besides him and Grandpa Allen. It was a nice blessing but it was very hard to hear because the sound system was going in and out (it was mostly out during the blessing); I also had Karen fussing on my lap which made it even more distracting. Thankfully Joe's mom took good notes and we have basically what was said to put in her baby book. Monday the 3rd we went hiking with Karen for the first time since she was really little. She really loved it! I think she fell down about a hundred times, but she had a great time running down the trail with her grandpa. Actually she just loved doing anything with grandpa. The two of them are quite 'ADD' and they wore each other out nicely while grandpa was here; I think he was glad to go home and rest ;)

Well, I think that's enough for now. I wish I could write more about that time, but if I write too much no one will read it and I'll never get caught up. So I'll stop for now and write some more tomorrow, hopefully. I'll also try to put more pictures up soon.