Update In List Form

So here's what's new in the Bly home:

* Brettley cut his first 2 teeth. They were first noticed Sunday morning.
* Brett is also demanding 8 oz feedings now. He is growing up way too fast.
* Caleb has officially memorized the 1st Article of Faith, which is "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." Now we'll have to work on the second one with him.
* Ty is my turkey of turkeys. I think he'll be the one that makes me go grey early.
* I had a great visit with my family on Thursday. I will miss my brother a lot.
* My mum camped out with the boys in the living room in my tent on Friday. They loved it.
* She also bought me some new shirts and skirts.
* Caleb gets to give a talk in Primary this coming Sunday.
* I am currently rereading The Work and the Glory series by Gerald N Lund. I really love them, almost as much as I love his Kingdom and the Crown trilogy.
* Brettley has his 6 month shots tomorrow morning and in the afternoon Caleb has a counselling appointment for his anger/violence issues. Hopefully we'll be able to get some good skills for dealing with it.

Yeah, I think that's about it. I've been seriously slacking lately with my blog, but it was a tough first half of the week and then I was busy the second half.

Lookin' Up

Today is better than yesterday. We met with Caleb's ENT doctor yesterday and we have a surgery date for his tonsils and adenoids to come out, October 20th. We are very happy that they are coming out as his quality of sleep is very poor because of them.

I have decided today to do a 90 day health challenge. I have to exercise at least 30 minutes every day for 90 days. I'm hoping by the time I'm done it will just be habit. I will also be calorie counting again because I need to be able to fit my winter jacket since I can't afford to be buying a new one this year. That's my short term goal, to fit my winter jacket. Then I'll find a new short term goal as soon as I reach this one.

My mum, brother and future sister in law are all coming on Thursday, which I'm excited about. This will be the last time I see my brother for a few month. He and Danielle are going to Europe (can we say jealous?). She just finished her schooling and they are going to take the trip before she enters the work force in Interior Design.

That's about all for now, I guess. I am excited for Caleb to start school in a few weeks. We now have his backpack, lunch kit, indoor shoes and some pencils, erasers and a sharpener for homework. That's all they need for Kindergarten at his school. He has already decided what snacks he wants, so when it gets closer we'll pick up the stuff for that and juice boxes and that will be that. Fun times ahead:)

Rough Day

7 years ago I was in a delivery room, about to give birth to the most beautiful girl in the world. In the past, her birthday has never been a problem for me. I celebrated the fact that she was born, and all that she gave me.

Of course this year would be different. Mother's Day was wonderful, so I guess I needed to have another day that would be tough for me. I don't expect her birthday to be tough from now on. In fact, I expect this one will be the only really hard one for me. Because everything to do with a girl this year is hard for me. Watching friends have baby girls, knowing that the only girl I'll ever give birth to is the one I placed, it's been a really huge struggle. It eats away at me a lot more than I'd like to admit. Let's face it, no one likes a complainer and as much of a complainer as I am, I hold a lot back to keep it from being worse.

Just please allow me this one day to struggle. I wish people would stop reminding me of all of the good things that I have and trying to stop me from talking about what hurts. It's not going to get better if I don't talk about it. However, I know very few people who understand the bittersweetness of placing a child with another couple and I've only met 1 person who is in the same situation as me (placed a girl, married and then had 3 boys and won't be having any more kids). Thankfully, at least she told me that it's okay to hurt and that just because it hurts doesn't mean that I love any of my boys less than I should.

I would never want to be without Brettley in our lives. I love him. He is the sweetest little thing with a smile that can melt your heart. I love the other 2 boys as well. I just wanted a girl, too. A girl of my own. I pass cute little girl clothes in Walmart and I tear up. It hurts, it really hurts.

However, I am bound and determined that next year will be better. Because next year will be better. That sweet girl that B wanted me to abort will be getting baptized, and that is definitely something to be celebrated.

Eternal Marriage

Today in Relief Society we had a lesson about Eternal Marriage. I have a huge testimony of the importance of having an eternal marriage. I opted to be married in the temple from day 1, which meant that neither of my parents nor my brother were able to see me get married. It was a bit hard to know that I had no family there with me, but I knew that I was being married in the right place and putting the Lord first and that I would be blessed for it. Having an eternal marriage is such a special thing. It's not a partnership between my husband and I, it is a 3 way partnership and covenant between myself, my husband and our Heavenly Father. It's not something to be taken lightly. If I do something that is hurtful or disappointing to my husband, I'm doing the same the to the Lord.

Some people have issues with my priority list, but here are the top three, in order:
1) Heavenly Father
2) My Husband
3) My Kids

I think a lot of people feel that your kids should be first. However, if I am putting things in the order I listed, they never suffer and they will learn in life the things that are truly important. In a world full of moral decay where living a good and clean life is ridiculed, it is SO important to me that they learn how essential it is to have the right priorities and do what's right, no matter what the cost is.

Anyway, this is my rambling on thoughts I had today. Sorry if I've bored you, please remember that this is also my journal at the moment and sometimes I put things in here just for me, so that I'll remember them.

10 On Tuesday

1) I just printed out a whole bunch of stuff for a chore jar. I am so excited to use it. Some chores are mandatory, other chores you can choose whether to do them or not but they are paid chores. There are also some wild cards (pick 2 more, put 1 back). Should make things more interesting.

2) I taught in Relief Society on Sunday. We had hardly anyone there and it was kind of a tough crowd. I loved the talk I was teaching from, though. It was LDS Women Are Incredible from Elder Cook at the last General Conference.

3) I came home to such a nice clean and organized bedroom. It felt so nice. John also got some oil to burn that smells like pomegranate and raspberry. YUM!

4) Caleb has started getting in the habit of wearing his Medic Alert bracelet all of the time so it won't be new to him at school. He's allergic to amoxicillin.

5) Brettley has a nasty bout of croup right now and just feels rotten. I feel horrible for him.

6) Caleb and Ty are both looking forward to learning skills over the next year. Ty will be learning things like toilet training and saying prayers by himself. Caleb will be learning things like making sandwiches and clearing & setting the table.

7) Caleb is going to start getting an allowance in October. Of all the suggestions I've read, I like the idea of $1/year of age/month the best. So this year he'll be getting $5 per month. He also has the option of doing the paid chores to earn more.

8) I am SUPER happy to be back home. It was a long few weeks and even though I'm glad that I stayed to give them more time with Grandpa Bly, I won't be doing another trip like that until the boys are a fair bit older.

9) Caleb adored swimming and his teacher. He wants to be a swimming instructor when he gets older. We are going to put him in swimming lessons again during the fall, winter and spring.

10) I love looking at Old Navy's website. There are so many shirts for Caleb that I would love to buy, and quite a few things for myself as well.

Potty Boot Camp...In Time.

Is there ever a good time to start toilet training? Not really. However, right now is a really BAD time to start. We have a mass of appointments coming up (pediatrician, immunizations, counselling, throat specialist, etc) and I have to make it through all of this before I can hunker down with Ty for a few days and get him converted to underwear. I feel bad that it's taking so long to get him toilet trained, but life happens.

I sat down today and realized that I couldn't start until September long weekend because off all of the appointments. It's not ideal, because Caleb will be starting school right around then, but I don't want to put it off any longer. I would really like for him to be toilet trained by the time he turns 3, which is Oct 23rd. So the Saturday of the long weekend is our starting date. It gives me time to get everything ready to go. We are doing Potty Boot Camp, which my friend told me about. It's very structured for the first few days, which I think will really help me to be consistent with him and that consistency will help him.

We came back home from Magrath yesterday. It was a very long day and we drove through 2 storms. The first wasn't very long, but was very doom and gloom looking and including some really wicked hail. The second storm lasted for over an hour of driving. It was really hard rain and it really scared Caleb.

It feels so nice to be back home. However, I'm exhausted after a long couple of weeks and yesterday's drive, so I'm off to bed.

10 On ... Thursday?

1) I am really really homesick. I don't do very well away from John for more than a night or two. Apparently, neither does Brettley. He's been off since John went back home.

2) Caleb left early this morning to go fishing in Papa's boat. I am SO glad he's getting to do this. When I was filling out his spotlight survey for Primary and asked him what his dream holiday (or something like that) was he said "to go fishing with Grandpa Bly in his boat".

3) Brettley has learned to roll over both ways in the last 24 hours. Life is about to get a lot more interesting, I'm sure.

4) Caleb has been loving swimming lessons so much. He has had a wonderful teacher, Brad, who is excellent with young kids. The past two days, Caleb has been the only kid wanting to go in the deep end at the end of class, so he has loved that individual time with his teacher (I think he's missing Daddy, too).

5) I get to see my mum today. She is on holidays in Southern AB as well, so they are making time to come and see us. I'm looking forward to going to Cardston with them. We haven't been there together since my wedding.

6) I find that I only miss having cable for one show, Deadliest Warrior. I got to watch an episode last night and I really miss it, but not enough to pay that outrageous price.

7) We went for a picnic in Waterton Lakes National Park on Monday. It was a beautiful drive. We also got to take the boys to see some wild bison. They kept asking if they were water buffalo (we love Veggie Tales Silly Songs).

8) After getting home on Monday we got to take Caleb to the ER in Raymond. He spiked a fever of 39.3•C and had a sore throat and a cough. With him having chronicly swollen tonsils, I don't take the chance of waiting, we go immediately. Luckily, it's only a viral illness and he's doing a lot better, except for coughing evety 2 seconds during the night.

9) I got to have a really long visit with a good friend last Friday. They used to live in our ward but moved to southern AB rwo years ago. We'd been trying since then to meet up but have had no luck until last week. It was fun and much needed.

10) I miss John. I already said it, but it's so strong that it warrents another mention.