Silent Night

See DG be a sweet girl.  It is calm here at my house while I work until the wee hours later tonight, but when the oldests get back I'm sure the chaos will up to near normal levels.  For now, I like looking over at an adorable little girl in between typing reports.

Speaking of reports and this week, see below to notice how kindly Hulk and DG were to let me shower the other morning without interruption-no easy feat but with some good vibrations and Clifford, we pulled through.

And, yes, DG pic overkill, but if she's my last I'm going crazy, so there.  Rather than in one of her many sleepers, it is so fun to see her in outfits.  I got this number on clearance earlier this week so she has at least 1 0-3 month outfit besides Sunday dresses.  A little girl cardigan?  YES!  Check out the baby leg chubby thigh crease.  Love her so much.

Unfortunately, I do have a pic of Judy Moody, but it was throwing a fit, so, um, I'm just not mean enough to post it...only to take the picture.  Bwahaha!

Cats!

No.  Not the Broadway musical.  I ALWAYS said cats were my favorite animal growing up.  I loved all our farm cats.  I would nurture the sick ones, "help" the mommy kitties feel comfortable when they gave birth, take care of the deformed ones (don't ask, maybe radiation, maybe inbreeding), beg my dad to not hurt any of them, cry when they got shot by teenagers or ran over or disappeared.

Our indoor cat has made me think cats aren't so great.  The outdoor cats were kind of living to survive.  Their stimulation was mousing, outrunning hawks or coyotes maybe.  Our indoor cat's stimulation is finding any cup filled with anything and batting at it until it falls over, spilling its contents.  He is obsessed with our kitchen and opening any plastic bags containing food or possible food he can find.  He drives me crazy.  Yep, for those of you who have already heard of my rants about him, I am complaining again.  Husband has trained me to be used to dogs but indoor cats, they don't give a...care.  They do not respect or feel loyalty.

Alas, our cat with stay.  This is his...forever...home.  BUT ONLY BECAUSE I LOVE MY FIRSTBORN DEEPLY!

Positives of Being Back to Work

Money (a little), more regular blogging (right before I work I take a minute to do this.  When I wasn't working, this wasn't happening), not having the whole company change on me (in the past I've had to change teams, get new computer programs, would forget all my passwords.  a lot can happen in a huge corp in a month or 2).

What the Atonement Can Do IF We Let It

Soo, I'm going off my beaten path today.  I follow the blog of a sweet sort of middle aged/older lady who lives in England.  I'm an anglophile to the core.  Her blog is at http://andthenweallhadtea.blogspot.com.  She is so fun and whimsical and does art and is very reflective and apparently a great cook, though I haven't tried any of her food blog recipes.  Anyway, from her blog today I found another blog, and it dawned on me that this blogger is local:  http://themomentswestand.blogspot.com/

 I read about her husband's murder in the papers 3 years ago and made all sorts of assumptions about him, the murderer, and the murderer's wife.  Oddly, I barely thought about his widow and their 5 kids.  I felt sorry for her and wondered how she felt briefly and that was about it.  Well, I read several of her blog posts.  It seems like she is maybe remarried now and has started this blog to share all the hard (understatement) things she has gone through and how she was able to deal with it, etc.  Some parts of it made me cry because I wonder how could she make it.  I know when you know what you need to do you just keep plodding along, but what heartache, what despair must have been felt.  But she is so great at tying in the Savior's part and I can tell she has a testimony and has forgiven and just seems like a way nicer wife/person than I might have been in that situation.  The Savior can nurture and carry us through anything!!!  That is brought home to me again and again.  ANYTHING

Wassup!

Hey, it's my 100th post.  Who knew that I would ever get there.  I was going to write about how this first day back to work has been exhausting...not because of work so much as the meanest headache/upper body muscle ache inducing cold.  Kind of a pain.  Still, it is a bummer to not be able to take naps...must figure out a way around that.  I am thankful to have the most considerate supervisor when my "special" company couldn't possible find a way to let a lady who just had a baby have any kind of maternity.  I'm sure some kind of law somewhere or at least some women's rights group would be rootin for me.  Anywho, didn't have to worry because my boss realized the idiocy of the situation I was put in and allowed me to take off whatever time I needed.  Four weeks fit the bill.  Life is crazy as I'm trying to get back into the swing of EVERYTHING.  I've tried to add 1 or 2 things at a time (aside from the kids which obviously needed immediate attention from day 1 every day).  I feel pretty ok and when I feel a little down in the dumps I need to realize that I no longer look like this:

I don't care how many people said, "What a teeny belly!"  It was huge.  It carried a 9-pound little giant, and it is now mine again, including an innie belly button!

Four Weeks

Fencer pose.  Hanging in there.  I start work tomorrow, so I am nervous about the great balancing act getting added to.  I can only try my best!  DG is smiling more, though not consistently.  Poor girl has the sniffles but is persevering well.  She is my beautiful little silly one as she tries to focus those eyes-loves when I wear striped shirts.

Keeping it real with piano and Judy.  We have started having to be like hawks (concerned, patient, loving ones) as her piano teacher was concerned.

Dragon Master is still enjoying Cubs, obsessed with Star Wars origami, and giving me piles of video game facts always ( time to unplug?).

My dear little Quiet Man-we have started the process of getting him private speech therapy.  Our insurance covers 28 sessions.  Miracles prayed for always appreciated.

Hulk is a delight but says NO to most things we ask him to do, even under "duress".  He did set the table today all by himself and put stuff away...pretty good for a 2 year old.  

All in all, I can't get enough of these guys.

Three weeks

No complaints here.  DG made it through her first 3 hour block today.  She has really worked on getting her eyes to work how she wants them to this week.  SHE DOES NOT LIKE TO BE ALONE (which after 5 kids I finally get it.  Why would a baby who has never been alone for 9 months suddenly not mind?  It's probably quite terrifying.