Halloween

More costume pictures.

So cool.

We went to the Toys R Us thing and I have to recommend it, well organized and fun for the kids.

I love that in all the pictures the guy took for us April is entranced by Geoffrey.

A pretty good pic of me and my spider.

Halloween Costumes

Krista and Kylie.

Krista is the Tooth Fairy.

Kylie is Medusa, she picked it herself, she wanted the Uma Therman one from Percy Jackson.

April and Andrew.

April wanted to be a PINK witch.

Andrew got to wear the frog costume this year.

Going on close to 20 years of frog costume wearers in my family.

Jessica is the spider, I am the web.

Kind of hard to see my strings.

I'll try to get a better pic.

Thanks to:
Lois - The snakes and the hair piece for medusa.
Mom - The entire frog suit.
Lynn - The bodice for the witch.
Jared - The spider leg socks.

Scrapbook Page

Here's the other page of the ultrasounds I did.

The colors didn't scan quite right but it's mostly there.

As you can see, it's the later ultrasound so it's more gender specific than the last one.

Jessica is indeed a girl.

Scrapbook Page

Kylie and I worked on this one together.

I'm behind in my scrapbooking so it's ultrasounds from January 2010.

Motivation

      I've hit that phase right after the postpartum has mostly ebbed where I'm just kind of low on energy and motivation. I'm not sure if it's something to do with hormones, iron deficiency, some kind of vitamin imbalance from not getting out much, sleep cycle issues, or a cocktail of all of them enough to cause paralysis of the will power. It's the phase where I just don't feel like getting up in the morning. I literally wait for the baby to start crying before I drag myself out and every day I think to myself that if I had gotten out of bed when I woke up I could have exercised, gotten some housework done, maybe had a shower. I give myself guilt over not getting going fast enough so the rest of the day seems to be rushed with me trying to catch up to the kids and the house that are ahead of me in the avalanche of life.
      Some things I do to try and "fix" this are; taking vitamins, riding the exercise bicycle, working at some of my hobbies like scrapbooking and journal writing, setting goals, making lists, giving myself pep talks, praying, reading scriptures, and playing music I like. These usually do it for me but during this down phase they just don't have the same zip and it seems like so much more work than enjoyment to get to them. I am not sure if it's still part of the depression because one of the signs of depression is lack of interest in what you usually enjoy but this is less a lack of interest as a lack of time to get to them and hence a discouragement over that. In other words, I'm just so busy with the new baby and the work of life in general that I don't have time for me so I get discouraged and don't take time for me. Vicious cycle? Sort of.
      I would much rather have this phase than the deep sadness and random crying jags with horrible fear of death or harming my kids phase that is what it is for about eight weeks after I have the baby. There's no fighting that phase. This phase has light and hope and moments of happiness in it that create a kind of balance if I can keep from becoming guilt ridden and discouraged. People that have never gone through real depression think this is what depression is but the real stuff, well, it's so... I don't know, there aren't words.

Snow

Usually there is "warning snow", a few days of snow that falls and does not actually make big puffy drifts on the ground but rather melts and goes away.  Not this time.  Big puffy inches of snow overnight.  Durn.

Brown Desk

           I have a desk. It's a brown desk with one small drawer. Husband and I bought it back in the early days of marriage for a whopping $15 at a thrift store. We have both used the desk often.  We are tall people and the brown desk is a bit short for us. The single drawer is at just the right height to hit our knees if we move our legs under the desk.
           Recently my parents reorganized a few rooms in their house. They offered me a computer desk for the irresistible price of "free if you haul it away". It is a nicer desk than my brown desk. It has no drawers but it has more shelves. It is gray/grey.
           So, what to do with the knee-bruising brown desk? I moved the brown desk over a few feet, transferred all the computer stuff to the gray/grey desk, moved the brown desk into my kids playroom, moved the brown desk into the hallway, moved the brown desk into my brother's room (currently in China, brother, not desk or room) and now I can shut the door and not see the brown desk. My brother will be unhappy when he returns to find the desk taking up most of his room.

Anyone want a used brown desk?

Poem - The Question

This is from The Book of Virtues on Google books:
The Question
Were the whole world good as you –
–not an atom better
Were it just as pure and true,
Just as pure and true as you;
Just as strong in faith and works;
Just as free from crafty quirks;
All extortion, all deceit;
Schemes its neighbors to defeat;
Schemes its neighbors to defraud;
Schemes some culprit to applaud-
would this world be better?
If the whole world followed you––
followed to the letter–
Would it be a nobler world,
All deceit and falsehood hurled
From it altogether;
Malice, selfishness, and lust,
Banished from beneath the crust,
Covering human hearts from view–
Tell me, if the world followed you––
Would this world be better?

      I had a bit of this poem memorized from somewhere "If the world followed you, followed to the letter, tell me, if it followed you, would the world be better?"  I wanted to add it to my facebook page as my current favorite quote.  Not knowing the author, I did a bit of googling and found that it's from a longer poem and no author is listed.  Now I'd love to know who wrote it but in the mean time I just think it's a good poem to live by.

Kylie's Shower Thermometer

I put Kylie in the shower yesterday evening and as she was standing there telling me if the water was still too cold she was all bent over and had her behind stuck out in the spray of water.

Me - Is that good?  Warm enough?
Kylie - Yes, just right.  I can tell because I have a thermometer in my butt.
Me - (trying not to laugh) A thermometer in your butt?
Kylie - When my butt feels the water is warm the rest of me can get in too. (she backs in under the spray)
Me - (leaving the bathroom laughing)

Addicted to farmville

Jared and I started playing farmville on facebook together as something fun to do as a couple.  I was too pregnant and sick to enjoy going out and we needed a date activity we could do with the kids around.  We were excited to find something we both enjoyed because most of the time our hobbies don't really thrill each other.
Now I am an addict.
I wonder if any of my trees need harvesting...