Surrounded by Love

I've been thinking about how I am surrounded by love. My husband and kids love me, my parents and siblings love me, my in-laws love me, my ward member friends and neighbors love me, and the feeling is completely mutual. Even though my focus is centered on my little family, I love so many people, and I'm so glad so many people have touched my life for good.

I never dreamed of moving to Ammon, Idaho, obviously. I'm a Virginia girl. Idaho was never on my radar. But after meeting Doug, and going to Idaho Falls, where Doug grew up, and hearing all the stories he and his family members told about their childhood, I started wondering if Idaho Falls (and Ammon is just across the street from Idaho Falls--it's just an extension of the city) was as "Leave it to Beaver" as they described.

Of course there are problems. Doug knew about a lot of them as a prosecutor for Bonneville County. But there are incredible people here, and I'm glad to be here.

8 years ago, I would have turned down living here because there isn't a ton of religious/ethnic/racial diversity. But I have kind of figured out that judging a group of people based on their religious/ethnic/racial qualifications cancels out all of the goodness and uniqueness they possess individually. There is no one else like me on earth, and no one else like you. So I know I can grow from people, and that the people I will be around will be diverse, no matter what.

So things are good (and too cold, of course) in Ammon, Idaho.

And a bit of catch up:
Doug probably has a sinus infection and plans on seeing what Walgreens can do for him because we are too cheap to visit a doctor unless we absolutely have to. He worked out for the first time in months yesterday, made the best German pancakes he has every made in his life yesterday (and the secret, unfortunately, is that you put a whole stick of butter in the pan!), and he was excited to dig out a Hawaiian shirt he bought in Hawaii 7 years ago for a luau reunion we're going to in Utah this weekend.

I finished my third heavy grading week of the semester, and I am catching my breath and catching up on the house now. Only two more heavy grading weeks to go, and then I'll finish up my semester, have a one-month break, and enjoy teaching only one class this fall. Although I am able to teach two, and be over a group of instructors, I feel like it will be a good change for me to teach just one class--for my family--in the fall. Maybe Doug will get a raise to compensate for the money we'll lose? No matter what, I know it will be good to get a little break from teaching two classes for the last year and a half.

Isaac lost his first tooth a few days ago, and it was startling for both of us. He's only 5 and I wasn't expecting tooth loss! We were at a picnic in the park, and Isaac bit into a nectarine and said it really hurt. I assumed he bit into the nectarine core, so I assured him that it would feel fine if he just ate the soft outside part, but he pointed to a loose tooth on his bottom row of teeth and said it still hurt. After devoting 2 hours (of his obligatory quiet time on the couch downstairs) to playing with his tooth, he pulled the tooth out. He put a cloth in his mouth on our way somewhere, and the tooth fairy gave him a silver dollar that night (from a collection of coins Doug has been saving since he was a little boy, to give to his future kids--how sweet is that?!), which Isaac spent the next day. He got his second orca whale, and Lucy got a gift as well--also a repeat: 4 small princess Frisbees.

Lucy is adjusting well to now sharing a room with Isaac. They have bunk beds in what used to be Isaac's room, and Doug and I (mostly me) spent a whole lot of time looking at beds and bedding online as we plotted what to do. Pottery Barn really is the best place to look, and that is my admission after spending hours searching for other things in cheaper places. I will post pictures, but just know that we went with a plain approach. I got them both white down comforters so we can put duvets on them, and change the duvets later on. We're planning on putting Brooklyn and Lucy in the bunk bed in a few years, and giving Isaac his old full bed then. While we know this set-up is temporary, I still want the room to feel peaceful and cute. Any ideas regarding how to frame a big map from Costco? It's too big for normal frames, and I'm not a craft-lady, so I don't know anything about buying boards, putting them together to make a frame, and painting them, then putting that frame around the mod-ponged map. Any tutorials are very welcome. The map is cool, but it will rip if I don't laminate or frame it. I didn't say much about Lucy here, but she is doing better at sitting still for stories, and she deeply loves a purse I gave to her when I bought a new one. She prays that River and Haven (her cousins) will be her best friends in every single prayer.

Brooklyn is thriving in a room of her own that isn't the laundry room! We stuck the full bed in her room, and made Lucy's toddler bed back into a crib and voila! the room is done. Brooklyn slept until 9:20 am this morning, and has started taking three hour naps during the day. She is cutting teeth, and feels betrayed when I put her down. She has "walked" for three whole steps, but it is really falling toward me, as I excitedly count steps mid-collapse. She likes to splash in toilets, climb stairs, rip pages out of books, and play with silverware as I load the dishwasher. She is one-year-old with a vengeance. I didn't write in my previous post her most often used word: "Uh-Oh!" She drops things deliberately and exclaims "Uh-Oh" several hundred times a day. You can't help loving her, AND she is such a handful.

Yay, I caught up!