Speaking of Cards...

These are the three latest cards I designed and made. I designed these for Mom to send out for Christmas:

It was her idea to add the little gems onto the snowflakes. They turned out sooo cute.

These were the Christmas cards I sent out:

Mom did the sewing part for me, which was nice. My sewing machine isn't very happy. She's still tense. :) (Her tension is messed up, so I like to say that she's "tense.")

And I just made these for my card exchange this month:

Sorry the scans are a little blurry!

Craft it Forward

Oh, alright, alright!! I've seen this on a few of my friends' blogs, but I never was fast enough. You'll see what I mean in a second. But I was fast enough on my friend Cami's blog, so now I've got to Craft it Forward. Here's the tag:

The first three people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!Who's in?

At first, I wanted to pretend that I wasn't one of the first three people to see the tag on Cami's blog, because I have such limited time, but if I have a whole year in which to do it, I think I can. And it will be my cards. I'm not so crafty in other areas, but I make pretty decent homemade cards. So if you want a packet of my homemade cards, and you're one of the first three, and you want to craft it forward to someone else, then yay!!

Smooth

Dylan [to me]: I hate you.

Me: What did you just say???

Dylan: I want to date you.

One of the Low Days

Well, Ben talked to the engineer guy on Thursday. The engineer says that he isn't sure he wants to go through the expense and time to train Ben if he will be gone in a year. If I was Ben, I would have said, "I will commit to you! Bring me on to your company! I will be with you for five years!!" Instead, Ben said, "I understand. Maybe you could have me do some different things for your company..." And the guy said, "Well, I'll think about it. Call me on Monday." I don't think things are going to work out with this guy.

I was, understandably, upset about how this went down. Ben and I differ on how he should be going about finding employment. I think he's looking for the Perfect Job, and I think that, right now, it doesn't exist. Ben told me he would want to shoot himself in the face every day if he had to do engineering work. And I told him that everyone wants to shoot themselves in the face every day when they get up to go to work. I don't know many people that adore their jobs. If I was him, I would take this job and run with it until the economy picks up. The economy could pick up in a year or ten years - we don't know. This job could have benefits, or pay enough for me to be at home with my kids, where I belong.

I'm just having a really hard time. I have okay days and I have low days, and today is obviously a low day. If I was Ben, I would be working like three jobs so my wife could be at home with our kids. And I would look for a "real" job while working the three dinky jobs. It's just something I really believe in, that I need to be at home with my kids. But I don't think Ben agrees. I don't know what to think, and I don't know what to do. Is working, and pursuing getting a job teaching, enabling him? Or is it being a partner with him? It's a fine line, and I can't figure out what to do.

And am I acting Entitled? I don't want to be acting with a sense of entitlement. You know, like those teenaged kids who are like, "Um, I deserve to have a cell phone with unlimited minutes and a brand new car that my parents gas up and pay insurance for." Am I acting entitled??

When Ben told me about that phone call on Thursday, I went jogging out in the freezing wind. I just needed to get away. Punishing my body physically actually felt strangely good. Like the outside was matching what I've been feeling on the inside.

Thanks for listening.

We Love Our Boppy

It turns out that our boppy can be used for more than a nursing pillow or a sitting aid for babies - it's quite comfortable for lying on the floor and watching TV, as well.

There He Is!!

This is one of Micah's favorite games to play:

I Love to See the Temple

Someone was speaking in sacrament about a month ago, and they were talking about the temple. Usually, Dylan pays zero attention to the talks in sacrament (and that's kind of my problem, too), but he perked right up when he heard the word "temple." "Hey, Mom," he tried-but-didn't-succeed-to-whisper, "I want to go to the temple for Family Home Evening." So, the next day, we went to the visitor's center.

It's been remodeled, and it's really nice. It seems smaller than it did when I was a child. But it has lots of little interactive booths, and the missionaries there are really sweet. They offered to take a picture of our family in front of the Christus:

It took a LOT of convincing to get Sadie near the Christus. She was scared of it, which is weird. But she's scared of everything, so.... And we could not get Micah to turn toward the camera. We took like five pictures, trying to get him to turn forward. Silly little baby.

Ben and Micah in front of the Christus:

This poor missionary lady was trying so hard to keep Dylan engaged, but he has such ADD, I swear. He just kept looking around, right when she was trying to talk to him. I felt bad. Here she is, temporarily keeping their attention with one of their booths:

I think this station had the introduction to the Book of Mormon in all of these different languages. So Ben was listening to it in Portugese, of course:

It's the double-chinned ones, both me and Micah:

My Two Sons:

Micah is just so stinkin' cute:

Dylan really, really, really wanted to take one of those pictures where it looks like he's leaning on the temple spire. After many tries, we finally succeeded:

It was fun, and it beat the heck out of coming up with a Family Home Evening idea myself. I hope my kids continue to be as enthusiastic about the temple when they're older as they are now. Ben and I need to get over there for a session. It's been too long. It would do a lot for our stress levels. I love the calm, peaceful feeling inside the temple. I get sad when it's time to leave and rejoin normal life.