Hope for the New Year

I was blessed to be asked to teach the Relief Society lesson in my ward this last week. It was the fourth Sunday and the conference talk that my bishop picked to be taught was "The Infinite Power of Hope" by President Dieter Uchtdorf. It was a really difficult talk for me to work into a lesson, there is a lot of information and honestly in parts of the talk I had a very hard time differentiating between hope (as it is defined in the talk) and faith. However, I did finally get through it and I gave a lesson, my mom helped me with part of the lesson, she suggested that I have each person in the class share their hopes for the coming year. It was neat to hear all of the different things that the women in my ward are hoping for, from "running fast" to completing to genealogy projects, from hope for the conversion of a husband to hope that the hearts of siblings fallen away would be softened, the span of hopes was interesting to hear and it was a neat way to get to know the women in the ward a little better. The idea got me thinking about my hopes for the new year...

I hope that Bobby and I are able to continue preparing to go to the temple so that our family can be sealed together. I hope that Bobby returns home safely to me and Punk from his deployemnt. I hope that I continue to work on becoming a better wife and mother everyday and that I never loose sight of the things that are most important in my life.

One of the things that we discussed in my lesson was that hope must lead us to action. I hope that I don't forget that and that I remember to take action to make positive things happen in my life and in the lives of those people I love everyday.

What do you hope for the new year?

My baby...

"Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life." ~ Sophocles

I don't remember ever having a favorite sound before in my life. Favorite smells, yes, I love the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking, or cinnamon rolls, or pretty much any yummy baked goody. Favorite sights, yep I've got those too, the lights on top of South Mountain letting me know that I'm almost home, my wonderful husband in uniform on the day they returned from deployment last year. My son has brought me a new favorite...a favorite sound, the sound of his laughter. We were in Discount Tire today (the Subaru needs a new tire which they of course didn't have and have to order), and my baby just laughed and laughed and laughed while we waited in line and played with him. Laughing, it seems so simple, but the sound of laughter from my baby boy does something to me that is seriously physical, a kind of internal happiness that I never even imagined was possible before I became a parent. That leads me to what I think is probably the actual point of this entry...

This year has been full of wonderful things for me. Bobby was baptised, Punk was born, Bobby was ordained to the Priesthood, Punk and I were able to spend quite a bit of time with our family in Phoenix (that means that Bobby was gone, but we are pretty good at dealing with Bobby being gone), Bobby was able to bless Punk and will be able to perform all of the most important ordinances for Punk and all of our future children and we are preparing to go to the temple sometime next year to be sealed together as a family. My family is amazing to me, being a wife and a mother is so much more than I ever dreamed it could be and it takes more of me than I knew I had to give, and yet it invigorates me and fulfills me in a way that amazes me everyday.

I highly recommend the experience of motherhood, it changed me, made me better and made me want to be better everyday.

...Jiggity-jig.

I'm back in WA for a few weeks. Bobby and the ship are HOME, even if it is just for a relatively short period of time.

It's cold here but other than that, I'm mostly glad to be here.

Punk has his four month well baby tomorrow, crazy, I can't believe it's been almost four months since he was born, I feel like he's been mine forever. Punk has changed my life drastically, however, it's almost impossible for me to really remember my life before motherhood.

I feel bad, I'm one of those people I never really wanted to be, I have a dog, I loved the dog like a child...until I had a child, now the dog hair in my house is killing me and I am doing enough traveling in the next year that the dog is becoming a huge issue. Bobby loves the dog (I do too, but I'm more realistic than he is I when it comes to him I think) and all I can think about is finding him a new home so I don't have to worry about him and I don't have to clean up after him...never thought I would not want the dog, but I don't want the dog...

I have been trying to clean up a lot of junk in my life since Punk came. It's funny, other things in my life that seemed important before, now, really seem like they might be more stress and trouble than they are worth. Honestly, I feel a real draw towards focusing on being a better wife and a good mother and doing everything in my power to be a better person to be better at both. Things that were important previously that don't help me be a better wife/mother just seem like they need to go in order for me to focus that energy on being the best me for myself and, more importantly, for my family. I never imagined that being a mother would prove to be such a real change in the focus of my everyday life...I couldn't be more happy about the changes that I have made or the changes that are to come.

Mad Baby

Punk doesn't like to take a bath, his Grandma Deb likes to give baby baths...hilarity ensues. (You can't see it from the pictures, but it should be known that he peed on her just as she was finishing up the bath and she had to then START OVER)...and this is why he showers with me and we avoid the bath madness all together.

My little Jack Jack

Just wanted to get some pictures up from Halloween. Punk was Jack Jack and I was Kari (the babysitter) from Disney's The Incredibles movie. His hair wouldn't stay up and I was too chicken to put a makeup mask on him (I was worried about getting it off, he's only 3 months old people, I should be allowed to still be a little concerned). Anyway, we went out to dinner with my Mom, Dad, April, Duane and their friend Mara, and then we went to Theater 168 to see the Jesterz perform. It was fun and Punk got to make a cameo appearance on stage as a "baby" prop.

What are YOU reading?

Because I'm totally engrossed in...wait for it...wait for it...Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series...I know so is everyone else, but I can't even help myself, seriously, a friend of mine told me that when I started reading it I would like it so much that I would "even neglect your kid a little bit" and she is so right, I mean, not that I'm neglectful, but I figured out how to nurse and read at the same time so that I could read during nursing as well as while he sleeps. It's pretty much a miracle that I am willing to do anything else, but I am sad, I only have about 250 pages left of the last book and then I don't know what I'll do with myself. I suppose at that point I can just obsess about how many moments remain until the Twilight Movie hits theaters November 21st.

Slideshow

All New

I used to host a blog at www.scatteredmusings.com, but I gave that up...I decided last night that I maybe needed a place to get all of my frustrations out again and a place to celebrate all of the great new things happening in my life as a woman, as a wife and as a mother, so...here I am, back again with a new blog all my own.