10 On Tuesday

1) I have a wicked sunburn on my neck. I got it on Saturday from the parade and lawnmower races. It still stings like mad.

2) Caleb and Ty are currently in swimming lessons. We thought Ty would run at it head on and Caleb would get scared. It turned out to be the opposite. Caleb adores swimming and Ty is terrified of it. He's taking a break from lessons tomorrow.

3) I learned an important lesson today. If your son falls asleep in his carseat while holding an ice cream slurpie, take said slurpie away as soon as you notice he's asleep. If you don't, said slurpie will end up on the floor of the van 2 minutes later.

4) I have been craving Booster Juices again. Luckily I am in Magrath and it's not an option right now.

5) Of 4 different brands of formula, Brettley tolerates the Parents Choice from Walmart the best. Who would have thought?

6) I have very mixed feelings about my blog being private now. I can't decide if it was really the right decision or not. I like knowing who's reading and so I feel more comfortable disclosing how I feel about things, but at the same time I feel like it will never make a difference if it's private.

7) Tomorrow is my mum's birthday, she'll be 52. She is only 7 years older than my oldest sister in law. That never fails to crack me up.

8) I love being able to send Caleb out to play without having to worry. It's been wonderful for us both.

9) John watched the end of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition today. I cried, even though I didn't know why they needed it. I'm such a sap sometimes.

10) My canola allergies are seriously hurting my eyes this year. I'm seriously considering caving and buying some Benadryl.

The Hardest Letters I've Had To Write

Just over 7 years ago I wrote a letter that would be the hardest thing I'd ever written in my life. C & D asked that I write a letter to give to Laur at a time of their choosing. Trying to put everything into words was so hard and my face was soaked with tears as I wrote it (I'm sure pregnancy hormones didn't help any).

That letter has now become the second hardest thing I've ever written. I just finished off my letter to my father in law. I have been trying for months to do this. Trying to tell an amazing man like that just how much they mean to you under these circumstances is such a hard thing to do. However, I did it, and I know that he'll appreciate it.

On to more fun things, we're finishing up getting everything ready to head off to Magrath tomorrow morning. I'm so excited:) I probably won't get on here much while I'm gone, so I hope you have a great few weeks.

Painted Nails, Hair and Perspective

I painted my toenails today. It sounds so painfully normal if you don't know me. However, if you do know me then you know that this is something that only occurs once every couple of years, if that. It happened after Ty found my bottle of pink nail polish and decided to paint up his face. I locked the pink bottle in the bathroom, sent Ty to his room, grabbed the bottle of purple polish and went at it. They look so strange, not like my feet because my feet don't have painted toenails...I like it, though. It adds a punch of color, and purple is my color this year (for personal reasons).

I also am liking that my hair is long enough to put up in a pony tail or whatever without needing to be wet first. This is great on sweltering days like today. We have decided to invest in a pair of thinning shears so that I can keep my long hair and not have to pay to have it thinned every 6 weeks or so.

I feel better about the girl thing today. Nothing like reading someone else's post about a tragedy to put things into perspective for you. C wrote about D's cousin losing their 2 year old in a tractor accident on Saturday. I have a 2 year old. As crazy as life is with him, I would be devastated if we lost him. Even though all of my kids have a handle (to quote my FIL), they are still precious to me. I love them and I am so glad that our family is an eternal one.

The Girl Thing and Dad B

I thought I was really making peace with not having a girl of my own. I'd been doing a lot better. However, this morning at church they announced that a couple in our ward had a baby girl this past week. In came the tears, a couple of different times. It got me to wondering, when will I be okay enough to stop crying every time that I hear that someone has had or is having a baby girl? I know there's a reason why John and I have all boys. I could even take a few guesses that are probably really good ones, but I don't fully know the answer. I probably never will in this life. So when will it stop stinging so bad that I cry? When will it stop throwing me for hours or days?

Don't get me wrong. I love all of my boys and I wouldn't trade them for anything. However, it would have been so nice to have a girl as well. I'm sure it wouldn't have hurt as much if there wasn't a beautiful girl out there who's turning 7 in less than a month that I carried in me for 9 months before I placed her in the arms of one of the most amazing women I know.

So now I'm looking forward to going to Magrath even more and being able to take a step out of my normal life and just enjoy things. To spend time with one of the most wonderful men in the world. Remembering Dad and what he's going through helps me to keep my perspective better. He's such a blessing in my life. I love him so much. However, before Thursday, I want to write him the letter that I've been thinking about writing since we got the bad news last year. I don't know how to put all of this into writing, but I know that I need to do it. Because he's amazing, and I love him.

Goodbye To The Last 9 1/2 Years

In December of 2001, I went and saw Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with my brother and our friend, Scott. I had not read the books yet because I still had a hard time reading anything fantasy like. I came out of that movie entirely hooked. Over Christmas hols I devoured the first 4 books (not literally). It felt like falling in love. That month was followed by waiting for movie and book releases. It shook me in book 5 when Sirius died, he was my favorite character. I wanted to scream at the Prisoner of Azkaban movie as it's my favorite of the books and the movie was the worst of them all. In July 2007 John went out and bought me the last book right at midnight. I bawled my eyes out at the death of Fred Weasley (the book has been out for almost 4 years, surely you know by now that he dies even if you haven't read it). It was bittersweet finishing that book. There was no story left, but as a diehard (obsessed) fan, I still had the movies to look forward to.

My emotions have been all over the place the past few months anticipating this movie. I have been excited like a little kid again at one point and then feeling indifferent at other points. I had no idea what to expect from this movie that would end my 9 1/2 years of waiting for the next Potter event. Yesterday morning things got even crazier when at the last minute I needed to find someone to go with me. There was only 1 person I wanted to ask, though, and thankfully she couldn't turn it down. As we stood in line for about an hour or so it felt so unreal and so exciting. I was jealous of the people in full costume. I tried, but my sweater doesn't fit at the moment and things didn't look right without it, so I just wore the tie in my hair instead and wore my muggle clothes (it is summer hols for Hogwarts right now, right?). John said I looked really cute, though:)

I won't spoil the movie for anyone, but I will say the following: My hat is off to you to, David Yates. You definitely did the finale better than any other movie I've ever watched. I could watch it over and over again (I'm sure I will when it's released on DVD/Blue-ray). Also, I must mention Alan Rickman. You were the perfect man for the role and your portrayal of the bravest man in the series is absolutely astounding. You did it justice and them some. It's been a long time since I cried like that at a movie, but by golly, you deserved it.

I have never left a Harry Potter movie without complaints before. However, when I walked out last night, it was just "WOW!". There's no complaints here. Bang on, Yates, bang on!

8 Sleeps Until Magrath

We had a really fun FHE on Monday about the Plan of Salvation. I printed out the pictures from a lesson that I found online and John told what each picture meant as I put it down. The boys really enjoyed it. If I were rich I'd have all of the lessons from Crafty Copies. However, I'm not, so I'm searching the net to find some good ones online that people don't charge you for. Today we printed off ones for Fire Safety, The First Vision and The Word of Wisdom. That will last me until we come back from Magrath. I'm pretty sure we're coming back on the 6th, but I keep waffling about staying an extra week. I guess we'll see how things are going closer to the 6th.

I have been counting calories and exercising the last few days. The exercising is exhausting me as I don't sleep properly, but it will be worth it in the long run. The calorie thing is going better than I'd expected. It's always nice when I find low calorie recipes that we really like. Last night we had Foil Bake Taco Chicken Dinners and we really enjoyed them. One plate is only 310 calories, which is awesome.

I'm in the process of trying to figure out a new way to do my blog. My friend, Sami, decided to focus on one thing every day (for example, weigh in Wednesdays). I'm trying to think of something like that. I enjoy blogging frequently and this is my journal, pretty much. So any ideas would be great.

I have a confession to make. I'm not over the moon excited about Harry Potter on Friday. This is really baffling me as I have LOVED the Harry Potter world for over 9 1/2 years now. Maybe it's because I realize that my priorities in life are changing or maybe it's because I feel guilty that I'm spent almost $40 just on 2 tickets to see it. I'm not sure. However, I'm sure I'll enjoy the movie once I'm sat down watching it.

Health, Magrath and Brettley

This weekend involved a lot of thinking. John and I have decided to really focus on our spiritual health and on our physical health. We have started using Lose It again and will be doing 30 minutes of exercise every week day. What happened to the running you might ask. Well, my hip is not in any condition to handle it right now. I'm hoping that once I lose some weight that I'll be able to handle it, but if not, the main priority is that I'm doing my best to be healthy. In focusing on my spiritual health, I have 1 book left to read in the series I'm working on, and then I will be focusing on just spiritually uplifting books for a few months. At least for the rest of the summer, but probably longer. Also, we will be refocusing on holding FHE every week and will be studying the new Marriage and Family Relations manual from the church. I want the things that I do to be reflective of what's really the most important to me, which would be Heavenly Father, the Savior and my family.

We are excited to head to Magrath late next week. The boys and I will be staying for at least 2 1/2 weeks. Caleb and Ty are enrolled in swimming lessons, which should be lots of fun. We are looking forward to getting to spend lots of time outside and with John's family.

Today Brettley turned 5 months old, adjusted age 3 1/2 months. We are sure that he is at least past the 4 month mark in development now. He had his first meal of rice cereal yesterday. He has been acting hungry shortly after downing a whole bottle of formula, so we decided to give it a try. He seemed to enjoy it and didn't fuss at all. He would have sat nice in his high chair, but John and I find it easier to have someone hold the baby the first time they try baby food. He'll be back in the high chair tonight.

If Only...

Day 5: The Dress

For the redo of the original wedding, picture the red as white and the gold as silver. I couldn't find a picture of the bouquet I wanted, but it would be ivy with white and blue roses.




















For the Hawaii wedding, here is something that I'm sure will shock the living daylights out of my mum. If I hadn't had the theme that I did for my wedding, this is what I would have wanted (dress photo courtesy of TotallyModest.com).

My Peeps & Their Garb

I will be foregoing the Attitude of Gratitude today. I'm thinking about just doing it the first or last Thursday of the month instead of every week. We'll see what happens.

Onto the wedding...
Day 2: The Bridesmaids & Co

Let's do the youngin' first. My flower girl (since mine are too old to be flower girls now) would be Addie Summers (my friend Heidi's little girl). Here's the dresses she'd wear for both themes. Just imagine with the first one that the blue color would be navy blue and the gold trim parts would be silver instead. (The second photo is from TotallyModest.com)



































Next would be my maid of honor and bridesmaids. If I could change one thing about my real wedding, this would be it. My maid of honor would be Danya Wood and my bridesmaids would be Heidi Summers and Danielle Rajotte. I had a few other people that I wanted to include as well, but I didn't want too big of a wedding party. So here are the dresses. (The second photo is from TotallyModest.com and would be in fuscia instead of the color it is in the picture) For the first wedding, they wouldn't have flowers, they'd have a wreath of ivy in on their heads instead.



































(I really want one of these dresses in either the blue or the fuscia)

















(The bridesmaids bouquet ball)

The Monstrosity

Day 3: The Cake

For the bigger version of the original wedding, I couldn't decide between 2 different cakes. Props to you if you know what both of them are. I also would pick either almond cake or egg nog cake for either of these and it would be made by Charm City Cakes (think Ace of Cakes). Actually, the top cake WAS made by CCC.





























~~~

For my beautiful Hawaiian wedding, I would pick a far more traditional looking cake and the flavor would be marble. I probably wouldn't be so picky about who made this one as long as they did a great job.


















Stay tuned tomorrow to see who my bridesmaids and co would be and what they would be wearing.

The Big Par-tay

Day 2: The Reception

First off, I would only have 1. We had 2 and the second one wasn't really important to us because we'd been married for a week already. However, the whole calling reception thing would be out the window in a heartbeat. I didn't enjoy it because I just saw a whole bunch of people I don't know long enough to shake their hand and have them congratulate me (or offer condolences if they had a sense of humor). I was sick and I was confined to stand in line and not have any supper. Instead, remember that sweet looking castle wall in the last post? They would have been all around the place and we would have had a light dinner with salads and sandwiches with people we actually REALLY knew (I knew hardly anyone at our big reception) and then we would have had a big fun dance. Our wedding song would be God Bless The Broken Road by Rascal Flatts. It wouldn't have been in the church so that we could have stayed and had everyone ring in the New Year together. Fun times.

However, if we were in Hawaii we would have been having a big sit down dinner that would include Zuppa Toscana and Herb & Brie Stuffed Filet Mignon, among other yummy foods. Then we'd dance it up on a beach or something with everyone in nice casual tropical attire. Free non alcoholic drinks all night (mmm, virgin strawberry daiquiris...). In looking for pictures to go with this tropical idea I realized that my main color would be a really bold pink. It doesn't seem like me, hey? But I'm lovin' it (and now I'm stuck on McDonald's).
The dinner area would look something like this:

My Imaginary Wedding - Day 1/5

On one of the blogs I'm reading she's doing an imaginary wedding week. Here's what I would do if I were planning a wedding now instead of 5.5 years ago, and with an unlimited budget.

Day 1: The Theme
Day 2: The Reception
Day 3: The Cake
Day 4: The Bridesmaids & Co.
Day 5: The Dress

***

Day 1: The Theme

We had a medieval/Lord of the Rings themed wedding and I loved it. I don't think I would really change that. We had originally picked blue and silver as our colors and I would still go with them (the burgundy and green came in for convenience reasons).




























However, if money were no object, I would have loved to have had a tropical wedding at the Laie Hawaii Temple. If we'd had the wedding there I would have picked any fun tropical colors that really went.

Canada Turned 144 Years Young

It felt strange not to be posting over the long weekend, I really got used to doing this every morning. Oh well, it's not like I had a lot to say anyway. The older boys left with my stepdad on Thursday morning to spend the weekend in Wainwright. My dad took Brettley and I to Brettley's checkup with the pediatrician. He weighed in at 13 lbs 6.5 oz. His ped said that for his developmental milestones he's pretty much at par with his actual age, instead of his adjusted age, but still just a bit shorter and lighter. He's doing great with catching up, though. The only concern is that Brett has a 'very' lazy eye. His ped has decided that because it's so pronounced that we will be safe and she's referring him to a pediatric optometrist. Hopefully it won't take too long to figure out what's up.

We kicked off our Canada Day long weekend by having poutine for supper on Thursday. I went to bed with my throat bothering me. I really should have been smart and gargled with salt water before I went to bed. On Friday I woke up and felt like I'd been punched in the face a few times or something. My throat was sore and my nose was having some huge sinus issues. We didn't do much of anything for Canada Day, except grocery shopping. I slept a lot, the cold was really wiping me out. I'm not the kind of person who feels the need to go nuts once a year in an effort to make myself feel patriotic. I love Canada all of the time and I'm always happy to be a citizen of this wonderful country. Brettley did wear his Canada shirt, though.

Saturday we did a whole load of nothing. I slept a lot again and was feeling worse. For the evening I went for a ladies night at a friend's place. We had snacks a watched a couple of movies. It was a lot of fun, but I was feeling pretty rotten by the end.

When I woke up yesterday I thought that there was no way I was going to church. Then I got a nosebleed and decided that since I missed the weekend before that I needed to go this time. I got through Sacrament meeting okay, just had to get up once to go down the hallway and hack up a lung. Sunday School was spent in the hallway with our home teacher and I only made it partway through Relief Society before I had to call it a day and have John drive me back home.

I'm feeling better this morning, though. My head isn't quite as foggy and I only feel like I've been punched in the nose instead of all over my face. So my Canada Day weekend wasn't quite how I'd envisioned it, but I did get more sleep than usual and Caleb and Ty had a BLAST at Grandma Jo and Grandpa Bob's.