A Good Turn...

I periodically try and ask myself, "What am I doing to better humanity?"  Regular answers excluded like: raising kids, serving in church, etc.  This semester it's been hard to find volunteer efforts that fit my lifestyle: i.e. I can't dedicate a 3 hour block every week to teaching English, for example (not that I have done that before).  But  I did come across one that really fits the bill right now.  Deseret Industries has a humanitarian element to it.  They make humanitarian kits and send them all over the world.  For their newborn kits, they need flannel blankets.  45 inches by 45 inches, with a 10 inch square sewn in the middle.  

  My friend actually went to Humanitarian Square in Salt Lake and watched the video (that I refuse to see until I've at least donated some blankets, because I know I will just bawl my head off seeing all those poor babies) she said that they show video of babies being brought home wrapped in newspaper in some places of the world that are too poor to have blankets to wrap their babies in.  That is inconceivable to me.  So, if you have a spare afternoon and have some extra flannel, and want to do something for the world, dust off that sewing machine, and let's make some blankets!

Madeline

You can't see the top of this hat, but it's a PUMPKIN!  How appropriate!  Madeline always knows how to dress in season!
She LOVES this bike seat!  And she gives me reassuring pats on the 'rear' as I'm biking up the steep hill that's in between our house and the park.  You can't see her helmet in this pic either, but it's got Bees on it--cute!!
Mommy and MJ (in her pig pj's) and baby doing some yoga; unfortunately the baby doll doesn't really get it.

Madeline is into imitating everything we do.  Here you can see the intrigue on her face while flossing with daddy.  This must be a hard concept for little ones to grasp.  'Why do you pull string in between 4 teeth?' she must be wondering.

 She also likes doing yoga with me.  It makes me laugh.  She just puts her head down on the floor and stays there!  That is the same position she has adopted when she is sad and cries.  I don't get the connection, but it's pretty darn cute.  

Hiking

These are two separate events; the one was Timpanogos caves with my brother, Andrew.  The other was Stewart Falls.  I don't think there's a better way to spend these early fall days.

Seriously funny

ok, so I stole this link from Rachel, who stole it from Staci (just had to give credit where it's due) 

www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com

Hilarious.  I am totally laughing at my old posts now, man, I sound like a TOTAL dork- this is why I HATE keeping journals because I'm worried other people will read them and think "who's the DORK?"  Yeah... that's what I"m thinking right now...dang it!

  In other news, we're back from our vaca- and I'm busy coming up with what my sis-in-law called "boring" costumes- who doesn't LOVE a baby witch??? - I just finished reading The Tale of Despareaux which was awesome. yes it is a 6th grade level book.  but it's good lit, ok?  I will post some cute pics of MJ on this post to make it worth-while.  Enjoy!

You can't really tell the full cuteness of this outfit from this picture, because I guess I had the camera on a weird setting (of course! if I get a perfect picture, the setting is wrong), but I made Madeline the cutest skirt and leggings for October.  This outfit is sooooo cute!  I can't wait to take her to story time in this baby!  All the other moms will be super jealous !!  (And come on,  that's the whole of dressing your kids up cute is to show them off !)  

  On top of that, one of my goals for this semester was to make bread, and I turned out the best two loaves of white bread the same week!  Man, I am feeling so on 'top of things' right now!  (I mean- it's only a YEAR after I had Madeline, that's progress right?)  Anyway, I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of the stay-at-home mom thing.  My house is basically clean every day, I'm cooking good meals, and I can turn out skirts and bread!  Oh, and I made some fresh peach jam!  Yum.  Ok- I guess this is turning into a bragging post... I don't want to say it, but ... am I ready for kid #2?  

I get the bad blogger award

Ok, ok already!  I have so many loyal followers who have asked me to post something!  Well, thanks for the flattery, but we've been moving, and busy, so here's a quick little post to tide my faithful friends over... 

I have to make my first post a congratulatory post to Adam for getting a 9th circuit clerkship for next year!!!  Yeah!  (I'm pretty much bragging now, but that's the best clerkship you can get) the kind of downside is that it's in Pocatello Idaho!  HAHA!  Adam, the world traveller, is going to Pocatello ID, the "armpit of Idaho".  Awesome.  But, seriously, I am very proud of him, and I think it'll be great, we'll have a really fun time and we hope that all of our "faithful" friends and family will come visit us (or maybe I'll come visit you)--we'll need it!  

Moving Stinks, bad.

I hate moving. I have done it my whole life, and so my dream is to just live somewhere (in the middle of nowhere) forever and know the whole town and take dinners to people and bake cookies all day. Sounds like domestic bliss to me! I don't know if I'll ever get anything close to that- and that's ok, keeps life exciting.
We've already moved two times this summer, and we're upon our third time: moving back to Provo. It totally stinks. Housing prices are Horrendous (they are seriously charging $700 for basement apartments) and there is NO WHERE!! I have only found this one place where the management company is so ridiculously LAME! They asked for our financial statements! (BTW- we're just RENTING) What the heck? Do you think that's normal? Because we don't. OH yeah, and they totally nickel and dime tenants: $5 for every hole in the wall, $15 for someone to spend the night, $10 if you lock yourself out of your house!!! The unfortunate thing is we're probably going to end up living there unless a serious miracle happens, which I will be praying for tonight. I have honestly been working my brains out trying to find somewhere to live, and quite frankly I'm exhausted. I'm supposed to sign the contract tomorrow morning. I know I am going to regret this, but what can I do?