Not So Bad After All

You know when things seem to go wrong, they go REALLY wrong?

This morning I had two choices:

A- Go to a sweet baby blessing for a friend's baby then go to ward conference or

B- Go directly to Ward Conference for my stake calling

The good part of A is that my sweet friend has none of her family close by--when I show up to special occasions, it really means a lot to her. I had already told the Stake Young Women's president I would be at the blessing before going to that ward's conference.

With B required me to be at church by 8am. If any of you know me, I'm REALLY bad at being on time! And the earlier I have to be somewhere, the worse off I am!

All I could think was "I really want to surprise Susan and be there to support her" --I went with A. I decided to mix up some pancake batter before I left. Normally, I put chocolate chips in the pancakes to insure my kids eat up. I was out of chocolate chips, so I thought "Hey, I should see if Susan can bring me some to her son's blessing and I can finish up when I go home to get the fam for church." Then I thought she wouldn't have time to answer cause she'd be getting her 4 kids ready...etc. I was running late (surprise) and doing my best to roll out the door. I jumped in my swagger wagon and off I went. Got about 15 minutes up the road and onto the interstate to look down and realize I had a very limited amount of gas. But again, I really wanted to support my friend.  As I got closer, I knew I was in trouble. I had NO gas, and my wallet was at home and I happened to be about 30 minutes from home. I had decided I'd ask a friend to borrow a few dollars and maybe I should text her to make sure she's at church. The texts went something like this:

Me: Hey! Are you at church today?

Melanie: No...are you at my ward???

Melanie: I worked last night and again tonight...So I'm actually bout to get some shut eye :/

Me: I'm trying to get there for the baby blessing.

Me: I hope I didn't wake you.

Melanie: Oh no!!! She postponed it!!!

Me: WHAT?!?!

Melanie: She put it on facebook yesterday

There I sat, frantically looking through my van for any amount of money. Luckily, I found 5 ones in different locations. (I'd like to give a big thanks and shout-out to Bev White for teaching me to throw money in weird places in my car, just in case.) I didn't prepare well for Sunday like I should have. It broke my heart to have to buy gas, but thankful I found money to buy the gas. Got back home, picked up my family, we all went to church. Walked in, someone said to me "I hear you've had a rough morning!?" I said "yeah, and worse is that fact that I didn't listen to the spirit at all!" Humble pie? I'll take it a la mode, please!

The next thing I hear is that a friend's husband, Mike, (a Capt in the Navy) had to fly from Africa to Wisconsin because his dad is terminally ill and it's getting close. She was called early this morning to learn that her husband, Mike, died in his sleep while visiting his dad. :(  He is 36, his wife is ridiculously sweet. They have 4 beautiful children, ages range from 9 yrs to 14 months. What terrible news that changes your perspective. I have sobbed many times today. When they are your own age, you begin to put yourself in their position and try to imagine what they must be going through.

I will take my slightly crappy morning, because out there, is someone who has just experienced the official worst day of her life. I will just happily learn from my experience and pray this sweet family finds comfort in knowing their family is forever, the kind of comfort that only the sweet Spirit of the Lord can deliver.

Today I held my family closer, kissed my husband more and thanked heaven that my morning was not so bad after all.

Gift cards

Do you ever think gift cards are slightly impersonal? When you give them, do you feel like you're cheating or taking short cuts? Well, I'm a TERRIBLE gift-giver! I think that I think way too hard. As if I have the personal responsibility to give the receiver the bestest most creative gift they will ever open. Talk about putting pressure on yourself! But receiving a gift card/ certificate, who doesn't want to? Well, in my house, my husband makes the BEST cards and/or gift certificates. Here is my Christmas gift certificate and please enjoy!

With every too-good-to-be-true deal, you always have to read the fine print!

(P.S. When writing fast, whether letters are silent or not, they can be forgotten)

 

Merry Christmas to each of you!

TMI Baby Talk

Conversation with Mark this evening.

Me: Hey Honey, I think I’m ovulating from both sides! You want twins?

Mark: Not if they’re gonna be conjoined!

Me: HUH?

Mark: Did you see the conjoined twins in the news?

Then he proceeded to pull up YouTube.

Guess who is NOT ever having sex with a 32 year old again!?  Unless there is some chocolate involved.  But he only has a few hours left.

Can you take a hint?

Sure is stinky in my house right now! Can you guess why??

Random Photo Ops

Here are some pictures I took and later looked back and gave myself a slight pat on the back…both for the great photo and for making such beauties!!  

 

Sweet Sleeping Beauty

This is from the Zoo…Marky could have cared less about the animals, he just wanted to ride the train.

Marky LOVED Easter egg hunting! (Katheryn, this is one)

She LOVED the beach, even though at the time, it was too chilly for her

Marky always has to be carried away kicking and screaming

Also hunting eggs…I’m pretty sure we picked the perfect time of day

This one was taken with my cell phone…have I mentioned what an awesome camera it has?? I rarely miss the moment with it!!

Ok, now I’ve posted something before I give you the shocking news that you can expect a 1st birthday post this weekend. Is it more shocking that my baby is already turning one on Sunday or that I’m gonna blog more than once!?

Woah Casey, Part 2

Do you remember last January when I posted this story about Mark pulling my hair when I would roll over at night? A few months back, we were sleeping in bed. From left to right: Mark, Casey, Callie. Callie wasn’t rolling too much at the time, we all fell asleep after nursing. While sleeping, Callie started falling off the bed, so I grabbed her leg and yanked her back up…Mark sat up screaming at me “WHAT IS GOING ON?” as I opened my eyes to realized I was not pulling Callie’s leg. I was, in fact, pulling on my husband’s parts. Yep, you heard me. Pulling. on. his. PARTS!! You know, the kind of pulling required to save your infant child. When I realized what I was doing, I started shouting “Oh my goodness, I’m SOOOO sorry. I was dreaming Callie was falling off the bed. I’m so sorry!” I’m no longer welcome to be the middle sleeper. For the safety of my husband, future children and our sex life!

I guess you could say I got him back? And there has been enough time that it’s finally ok to laugh about. But to be honest, I was laughing as soon as he left to sleep in the guest room.

Sunday Best

This is how cute half my family was last Sunday. I sure love them. Marky was taking off down the hallway. So shortly after this, I was running and out of breath. But isn't that what having a two-year-old boy is all about? Hopefully I can post zoo and beach pictures soon.

The Moose is Loose

When Marky was born, he had the cutest little outfit that said the Moose is Loose. Mark and I refer to it often when speaking of this guy being out of control, escaping or any combination.

Our 17-yr-old niece Brittney had Marky in the car while I was in a store.  And she sent this picture. This is my heart. The red cheeks mean he’s warm and having fun. The open-mouth smile, well that’s how he lives. And he is watching the tv. So of course he can’t look at the camera. This Moose was Loose inside the van.

FaceTime

Watch out world, the Gullett girls got FaceTime. And we are officially ignorant. And if we can’t FaceTime, I just make her or Mark a little video and text it to them.

Lunchtime Fun

While we eat, Callie plays.

\

And her playing is just so exciting…

…Until things get serious…

…Like poopy diaper serious!

Poopy diapers don’t take away from her sweetness. But they do keep me from snapping more pictures.

Day 4 (Yeah, I’m finally back to blogging about our trip)

 

After all the driving, we were so thrilled to take Marky to the Chicago Children’s Museum. Never have we ever loved spending $12 on a 2 yr old’s admission until Friday, October 7th, 2011. Seriously the best money we spent the whole trip.

This was our first room, and man, we were in there so long I had time to take a few pictures, nurse Callie (in the awesome and oh-so-convenient nursing chair), awkwardly talk to people while I was nursing Callie and watch about 45 people come and go. This room was a camping room. There was a cabin (fully-stocked kitchen), a tent, a small hiking trail and this little stream to catch fish to put on the fake fire.

Then we said goodbye to the camping room and HELLO the Transportation Room.

He got to fill the red car with gas, help wash the blue car and do a few rounds of ‘Wheels on the Bus.’ Along the way, Mr. Bear found himself in a few mirrors and got very friendly…

….See, he was making out with himself. It was really sweet.

You can see by his cheeks that he was HOT. The midwest was having their Indian Summer and boy oh boy, it was SOOOO WARM!! What made it worse is that the week before it was cold. In fact, I think the whole month before it had been cold. So they were not prepared to crank the a.c. up. And we were over prepared with cold weather clothes.

Unfortunately, after 3 days of driving and being exhausted, our cameras were not fully charged. Our phones were barely charged and I was so sweaty that I didn’t care anymore. But we did get some video footage of Marky playing the water works area. He had so much fun. While he was splashing, I went to ask for directions and saw a camera crew. I told they guy if they were looking to shoot a kid who was having a blast and SUPER cute, they should go film Marky. They kinda rolled their eyes and I walked the other direction. Upon returning, they walked in the water works room, saw us all laughing at Marky and said “is this your son?” I said “Yep! See what I mean?” They said “Really, can we film him?” I said “Sure!” After about 5 minutes worth of footage, they had us sign consent forms. He could be the sweet and excited face of Chicago Tourism.

After a great day at the Navy Pier (where the Museum is located) we went back to the hotel and Mark left for his concert. That night, Marky, Callie and I cruised the streets of Chicago. Marky really loved the lights of the city. After he sat in his stroller for a while, I had no choice but to take him for a walk. Big city life really does have perks.

 

Compare-a-Bear

   

Here are a few pics of our bears. Do you think they look alike? Do you think they look more like one of us?

 

            Mark                                    Casey

 

What are your thoughts?

Blogging Streak

In honor of this blogging streak I seem to be on, I thought I’d delight you with my favorite streaker.

After bathtime, Marky joyfully runs through the house. It’s probably my favorite time of day. Plus I get to squeeze his little bare cheeks. Softest cheekies I’ve ever felt!! :)

Did you know Marky swims?

  Last spring (yep, 2011) Marky took survival swim lessons with Mrs. Suzi.

Did you also know he hated it? For the first 4 weeks he would scream and sign “ALL DONE!” in a panic. I had to wear sunglasses. As if being pregnant didn’t do enough to my emotions, hearing him was torture.

Then, one day he stopped. (And I stopped crying, too!) Who knew he could learn life saving skills while so upset. But he did.  And he even enjoyed the remainder of his classes.

Did you know Marky learned how to float on his back  to get some air, flip over and swim to the wall/step/human, repeating swim-float-swim until safe.  Speaking of repeating, did you know Marky will be taking refresher courses this spring?

Thank you Infant Swim Resource for offering these awesome lessons. And thank you Mrs. Suzi for your friendship. For info, visit www.infantswim.com.

Once Upon a Time…

…There was a girl named Casey…

…She rocked. Look how cute.

Now…I broke another laptop. HOW. IS. THIS. POSSIBLE!? I bet my husband doesn’t think I rock so much now. Someone should buy stock in cheap laptops, cause I will make them rich.

So for those of you counting, that is 3 laptops and 1 camera broken in 1 year.

Good news: I found my broken camera, again. It went missing after I posted how excited I was that Marky found it. So, now I’m set up on a desk top. We’ll just see how this goes. I am planning to spend tonight trying to do some catching up. I have missed you, my blogger buddies. 

A Little Christmas Eve Miracle

Mark and I loaded up the kids and went to finish some shopping. And by finish, I mean by myself something to wear on Christmas day to church. I ran in and he drove the kids around. I came out, went down a block to pick up some lunch, came out and Mark said “I think one of the kids just had an explosion back there.”  I looked back and realized Marky had thrown up. And it was all over his car seat, his blankie, clothes and it was SOOO stinky. This was his first time throwing up, other than spit-up as a baby. So we undressed him, I jumped in the back seat, we buckled him up and drove straight home snuggled next to me. Then out of nowhere, he pulled out THIS black familiar looking item ↓

My sweet little green-faced man found my long lost camera. I knew it was somewhere, just didn’t know where. Now stay tuned for day 4 of our trip. It gets it’s own post. Thankful for please-help-me-find-what-I’m-looking-for prayers being answered. And to me, the camera being found was a tiny Christmas eve miracle. And the fact that my Marky wasn’t otherwise sick.

Day 1, 2 and 3… I think

Our trip was so great. We were gone for 11 days. We visited family, friends, strangers and many parks, rest areas and malls along the way.

We set goals to get a certain distance each day. We knew with both little ones, we would have to make frequent stops. So in order to allow plenty of time, we broke down the drive to Chicago into 3 legs.  And speaking of legs…look at all that leg room.

Day 1 our goal was Atlanta. It was a gorgeous day. When we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner break at a rest area. Mark and Marky walked around while I prepared sandwiches. We were lucky enough to spend the night with my Aunt Sandy just north of Atlanta.

 

Day 2 Goal: Get through GA, TN and end in Louisville, KY

It was so great to travel through the mountains and enjoy the scenery.

Babies sleeping

Can you believe they still use pay phones? In the middle of TN? Weird.

We made a fabulous stop in Bowling Green, KY. Highly recommend the parks there. WOW. It was beautiful. In the van that night, the kiddos fell asleep so we kept going. We made it to Indianapolis, IN. Which meant we were only 3 hours from Chicago.

 

Day 3 Goal: Get to Chicago

We loaded up after a great breakfast at Waffle House and hit the road. However, we stopped at the mall in Indy to let Marky enjoy the play area and I got to enjoy some retail therapy. Too bad to one kid’s version playing meant busting Marky’s mouth open from being rough.  So back on the road.

The kids slept the WHOLE way to Chicago

Indiana was so pretty from the backseat.

And look at that cute baby. Just want to give a shout out for my little pork chop…She is 5 months old today. We’ll see about throwing her in here later.

Back to Chicago…We got checked into our hotel and hit the streets. Saw lots of awesome stuff in Chicago.