Is It Naptime Yet

Eden loves dress-up. She loves to wear every item of dress-up clothing, though she has toned down a little, depending on the day. One night she fell asleep on Jon still dressed up and I just had to take a picture, plus Jon was asleep too so it was an added bonus.

She always wears her Sunday shoes for dress-up.

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We also made cookies at Carolyn’s house one weekend for the Monday we fed the homeless in November. This is something we started doing with Carolyn’s work a few months back and I think is really good for the girls. Lilah loves it, while Eden mostly just stays attached to my side but there are times where she is ready and willing to hand out cookies and that makes it worth it to me. We bought the girls the heavy coats so they could be nice and warm on the nights we feed the homeless during the winter and possibly make a visit to the snow, but that has yet to be determined.

Lilah helped with each batch and was wanting to be apart of the entire process. She’s by some of the chocolate chip cookies we made.

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Lilah with our tub of chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. I think we made around 75 total, or three batches.

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Eden with the cookies. She liked bagging the cookies the best.

Well I’ve figured out how to use GIMP, or the image editor in Linux. I can’t make videos, but I can actually edit and post pictures finally! I might be playing catch-up over the next little while as I find time avoiding dishes, which is what I’m doing right now.

Here’s the link to my written overview of Halloween and here are just a few photos of the fun we had. I’m really disappointed because I did not get a  picture of Lilah’s side of the pumpkin. I really loved how it turned out, but in the craziness of getting out the door I must have forgotten. 🙁

Eating doughnuts off a string at Carolyn’s work party.

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Gutting the pumpkin.

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Lilah loved the feel of the goo.

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The girls in their costumes (Glinda and a fairy) and Eden’s side of the pumpkin.

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With their cousin Zarina, the cutest ghost ever. ( Mine were going for scary last year.)

We got a Wii for Christmas. It’s been lots of fun and I am now a Wii widow…at least until the novelty of it runs outs. I would like to play, but the lure of dishes, laundry and the fact that someone else is usually playing makes it a little more difficult. It has been fun and I’m so happy we got the Wii Fit. I’m also lucky because Carolyn and Derek now think of us and what our girls might like when they buy games so we’ll get to borrow and try some out without purchasing them ourselves, unless we really like them, then we’ll buy them. (Sigh to all that comes with a game console, though it is lots of fun.)

We have had a wonderful Christmas and I hope yours was merry and bright. I now need to do dishes and think of something to do for my church lesson tomorrow since we ran out of lessons. So fun.

Christmas is almost here….Are you ready?

I’m mostly ready. I just have gifts to wrap, in which I’m not completely happy with what I got Lilah, but I think she’ll still enjoy it. I’m very excited for this Christmas.

I love Christmas music and so do my girls. They’ll replay whatever CD is in the player, which is Faith Hill, and then they sing to it and create “plays” to each song. It’s a good thing I really like the Faith Hill CD, or I think I would have gone crazy. They always hit play when my hands were messy with truffle making.

Speaking of truffles,  I mostly sold large bags of popcorn for $5 a bag, but I did sell some truffles, though my mom put in the largest order and I will say I’m giving her a large discount because if I wasn’t selling them and she had asked me to make them, I would have done it for free.  I’m happy I was able to make a nice dent and repay some of the money I’ve spent for Sew Lacey. I have a lot of material and after the Holidays I hope to get some motivation back and begin sewing some more. I made a really cute nursing cover and matching burp clothes for a friend recently and am thinking of adding that to my list of items.

I’m so happy for Christmas and can hardly wait for the new year!

Also, the committee met and interviewed a friend’s husband for the play next year and loved him. I’m so excited to work with him and hopefully be in the play.  Once it’s official, as in the board meets and approves him and the play, I’ll give more information. For now I just can’t wait till 2010.

Sorry this post was so scattered. I just wanted to jot down some thoughts while the truffle center warmed up so I could make them. I had it in the fridge too long and now it’s too hard to shape.

Every year I make truffles and popcorn for Jon’s work and every year there is one new person who says I should sell the truffles and popcorn. This year I am and have sold some. I’m what you call a bashful salesperson. Have I even posted the link to my business yet? SewLacey.com if you’re wondering. So here goes. If you’d like some leave a comment and I will then e-mail you without publishing it or just e-mail me.

I make delicious truffles and chocolate covered popcorn and this year I’m selling them! If you’re looking for an easy gift to hand out to co-workers, a unique stocking stuffer or just some dang good truffles e-mail me. It’s $2.75 for three handmade truffles, of your choosing, and $0.75 for a bag of popcorn, which you get a generous 2 cups of popcorn or $3.25 for the combo.

Las Vegas area only, you will need to pick up or I will deliver for a small fee.

There are many combinations, these are just my favorite.

Truffles: Dark chocolate, milk chocolate with mint milk chocolate center, white, dark chocolate with crushed peppermint on top. They are all hand-rolled and then hand-dipped in chocolate.

What the packaged truffles and popcorn look like. I cannot guarantee this particular bag, it depends on what the store has.

Natural lighting. 😉

A few years ago I decided to surprise Jon with an afternoon date at the end of a pretty hard semester. Since then we’ve made it a tradition to go for our monthly date as a lunch date at the end of the Fall Semester. We also go to a yummy Mexican restaurant that I can only pronounce the first name, Lindo’s, and almost anyone I talk to knows exactly what I’m talking about and can pronounce the last part, Michogcachanigans. OK that last part I made up, but it’s something that starts with a M. It’s near my old stompin grounds and even as I  felt so close to home when I was driving Jon back to work I was so far from our current home.

My good friend Beth watched the girls for me and Jon and I were able to enjoy a nice lunch together. We haven’t been on a date since… well I don’t know when, but that’s because this semester was pretty hectic for the both of us, and it seemed that watching a movie together counted as our dates because that’s all we could afford both time and money wise.

I’ve realized I’m a very set in my ways person and I love traditions, or doing the same thing over and over again. I know Jon likes to try new things, but I’m thankful that he lets me enjoy my rituals and set in my way, ways.

I love you Hunny Bunny and here’s to a couple more end of the semester lunches.

My friend Anna recently did a posts on Christmas memories and I made a little comment because she asked us to comment on our favorite Christmas memories. Here’s my comment:

My favorite has always been sneaking out to see the tree at night after Santa had come and eating one or two treats from my stocking. I loved sitting and looking at the lit tree with all the lights out.

I may actually not put the child’s gate up this year and maybe my girls will enjoy this too, though in some ways they are so good it might take a year or two.

So this year I’m going to relinquish some power and not put up the child’s gate. Jon doesn’t like them sneaking and poking around, so he’s thinking of maybe putting up a curtain, so they can peak out the curtain, but hopefully not go past it. This is a tradition his family has and as a child he never actually went past the curtain, just peeked. I find this somewhat amazing, but I think my girls would take after him since they do have a tendency to really respect what we ask them to do.

Taking Anna’s lead I want to share some of my favorite Christmas memories.:

Staying up late waiting for Santa to come.

Exchanging gifts with my siblings.

My dad driving us around to go look at Christmas lights so Mom could wrap presents. I think of my Dad whenever we look at lights with my girls. Their enthusiasm reminds me of my own.

Picking out Christmas tree’s with my dad each year. I always went with him and got the last say. I don’t know if he taught me well or just made it feel like I picked the perfect one each year. Every once-in-a-while another sister got to come along, which I didn’t like too much, but I still got the last say.

Making decorated sugar cookies for my friends.

Our Christmas Tree Angel. My parents have the perfect angel for their tree, just simple, not extravagant with big wings. I wish I could find one just like it.

Our house on Base decorated with lights and a manger scene.

Silent Night, and not knowing if my sister’s catholic boyfriend knew the song. I can  be a bit air-heady at times.

The one Christmas I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night and had gotten a new bike.

Turning out all the lights and watching the Christmas tree glimmer with it’s lights on.

One year my dad set up the camera to record for 2 or so seconds every 10 or so seconds and we watched as we peeked in the presents and our bodies appeared at different places in the room.

Wrapping presents that my dad bought my mom.

5 years or so of plain red and green wrapping paper my dad had gotten somewhere. We wrapped the new computer in it the first year and it lasted f.o.r.e.v.e.r. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was still some hanging around or if my mom just tossed it.

My dad being able to return things, but us having to keep things we didn’t like unless they didn’t fit or were broken.

Peeking around for where the Christmas gifts were hid.

Unwrapping gifts once in a while and re-wrapping them.

Learning mom’s secret code on how to tell what gift belonged to who since it had no name tag. Lets just say each of our names start with different letters and D was for Dad, since our names both start with L.

What are some of your favorite Christmas memories?

Each year we try to have Thanksgiving with both of our families. It’s nice because we don’t have to prepare a huge feast, but we also get to see both our families.

This year we headed over to my parents first and helped to set up. It was a rather small bunch this year, with only 8 of us total. My parents, Glenn, Carolyn and my family of four. Since we only had two children and we could all fit at one table, the girls got to sit with the adults and eat off of my parents china, though they didn’t get the glass steam ware. I’ll have to take a picture of my parents China, but it’s from Germany and about 35 years old. Since I grew up on this china, it’s exactly what I envision my China to look like, but the problem being it’s from Germany and it’s 35 years old.

My mom fixed a wonderful meal and it was fun to sit and be with family.

We left about 3:30 to head over to Annie’s house for the Blake family dinner. I had baked two pies that morning so we stopped and picked them up on our way there. I made the pumpkin from scratch, as in a baked and mashed the pumpkin I used in the pie, though it was a store bought crust since pie crust intimidates me still. Then I baked an apple pie just like the one I made last year from the apple pie filling Sam and I canned last year. Both were pretty good, though I’m not a big pumpkin pie fan I’ve decided. I like banana cream.

My mother-in-law’s sister and husband were in town for the Blake Thanksgiving and needed somewhere to stay for the night so we offered our small home. We stayed up and talked with them for a bit. I think they thought our girls were a little odd since they both wanted some vegetable before they went to bed. Eden had grabbed some mushrooms and Lilah some carrots and you just can’t say no it’s too late to eat vegetables, so I let them eat ’em.

They had asked what time the sun came up so they could be off and running early, but we thought we’d still be able to make them a nice breakfast before the left. When Jon woke up at 6:40 am they had already packed up and left! I don’t know if we were terrible host or if they were the best house guests, but we were a little sad to see they had left so early and we hadn’t even noticed. ( We now know we can fit a queen size air mattress in our living room if anyone wants to stay here, though  it’s very “cozy”.)

I then enjoyed the weekend with Carolyn, so as to stay out of Jon’s hair so he could study.

I hate to say Jon leaving The Church is a burden, but it is. It makes things a little more difficult and life that much harder. We’ve learned to handle it and deal with it and I hope we continue to deal with it as the girls grow.

It’s been three years since I’ve known and nearly three years since Jon made it public. It’s not necessarily an anniversary I like to remember exactly to the day each year, so I just leave it at the month it happened, or the end of November. It seems funny that it happened three years ago, when three years doesn’t seem that far away. The feelings I felt three years ago have mostly faded. The anger, the hurt, the wondering if our marriage could survive such a change of heart.  It seems funny that I’m mostly OK with it, or I guess have come to terms with how things are. We’ve discussed many things since it’s happened and I’m sure will continue to discuss.

On Sunday our combined priesthood and relief society meeting dealt with helping others with their burdens because we’ve born them before, or had similar burdens. Really they were talking about unemployment or underemployment in this difficult economical times, but it took on a very different meaning that day.

Just moments before that meeting a sister had come to me to talk about dealing with a spouse leaving the church. Her husband has not been coming to church with her and he gives one excuse, not feeling comfortable in the ward, as 80% of the reason and 20% being up in the air. She worries about him leaving the church and was wondering and asking advice on how to deal with it.

Her and I don’t have a close relationship, though we have a friendly one, and for obvious reasons she was asking me for advice and solace. It was hard to give and it made me sad to hear her story, but I was happy that I could be there to help her. Luckily she has options and can take actions for him not feeling comfortable, but that 20% doubt will always be there for both her and him until things are resolved.

I hope I gave her words of advice and I hope I was able to help her, but I don’t really know and may not since they’ll be leaving the ward soon.

This is not the first time someone has asked me on how to deal with a spouses disbelief, and I wish it would be the last, but I fear it won’t.

I’m not happy for my “burdens” but I’m happy that I can help others and that Jon and I have come to some compromises. I had no one to personally turn to who had been through anything like what I was going through. I only had many friends with open ears and hearts, and that I am grateful for.

I know I have made a path for those I might meet who may have similar burdens as me. I hope it’s a path of love and compassion towards a wayward spouse and not bitterness at the betrayal, though I was very bitter for a time.  I hope others are able to see light in their marriage, even when everything seems so dark.

I know I’m also following the path of others I just haven’t encountered personally.

I hope I can follow my Savior as I walk this path and I hope I can serve others no matter the path they are on.