Busy, Busy, Busy...

Well, I been so busy lately that I haven't taken the time to download pictures again. We have been busy getting ready for Christmas. I went a week ago to Albuquerque to do a temple session while my girlfriend Karina spent some much needed time with her husband whom she is separated from. Everything went great. I got home in time to welcome Shanna and her kids for a visit. My kids were so happy to get a little time with their cousins that they just don't see often enough. I enjoyed shopping and spending time with Shanna as well.

Sunday morning I had to go early to church to meet with the bishop for a few minutes before church. I was a little nervous cause there was an opening for a primary secretary position in our ward. But then I remembered the bishop isn't the one who extends calls to primary. He extends calls to Relief Society, OH NO! There was an open teacher position. That is scarier than teaching primary. I guess I am a little intimidated by the older crowd. So it was a complete shock to me to sit down and have the bishop ask me if I had any feelings about what calling he was going to ask me to take. Uh yeah right Bishop. No way am I guessing that one. Well I guess the second counselor in the RS was asked to be the new Primary secretary. So I was asked to be in the RS presidency. I am the counselor over Enrichment night. I was actually really surprised. This is one of those times where one feels almost completely under-qualified for the calling. I do have crafty skills and connections but being in charge and responsible is a little out of my comfort zone right now. So I guess I have a lot to learn. I do feel though that this is where Heavenly Father wants me right now if not for anyone else but for me. I need the chance to serve and get outside myself for a while. I know I wouldn't have been called if I can't handle it. I guess I just have to find a way to handle it.

Then we had Christmas eve dinner here on Monday night. I had William's parents, grandparents, and brother's family here. Karina and the missionaries where supposed to come but Karina went back to Albuquerque and the missionaries got invited to an investigators home for dinner. We had a nice time and finally did our first nativity. There were enough kids to put on the little play while William read from the scriptures. Then the kids all opened their one present, pajamas (our Christmas eve tradition.)

One of my favorite gifts this year was the Payne Game we got from George and Joanne. We have been asking them to make us a board for years and we finally got one. Yeah! We have had fun with it already.

Karina and her husband are getting back together and will be moving to Albuquerque. So until they find a place they had to move out of where she was living. They had no where to go with only hours notice so I have their family staying with us right now. My kids are in heaven. Alisa is almost 11 and Dalen is 5. Amy and Emily fight over who he should play with but he loves them both. They are both great kids so I don't mind them being here at all. I have gotten to be really close friends to Karina so I want to help them anyway I can. Besides it is fun to have another couple here to play the Payne Game with us every night before bed. Oh and Alisa and Makenna, best friends from the moment they met.

I will be back later with some pictures to add.

Elf Yourself...

I emailed this out to many of you. I posted it here though for those of you who didn't get it. My kids still crack up at this.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1413054212

Feeling homesick...

Let me start this post by saying that this IS my journal and so this is a more personal post for me. I also want to say not to worry about me I will be ok.

Life has been rough since we moved to New Mexico. The girls like it here but Amy is having a hard time adjusting again. Her trichotillomania is back and I am am having a tough time dealing with it this time. It just started again this last couple of weeks and last time we dealt with it it lasted maybe 8 weeks and we got her over it. This time no behavioral therapy, no insurance. The techniques I learned will hopefully still work. However, she is missing Utah so much. She has few friends here and some of them are a little catty some times. That is not how Amy is and Amy hasn't ever had to deal with someone NOT liking her. She has been getting picked on by a couple of kids on the bus. That makes me want to cry. And she is begging me to homeschool her. She is really clinging to me lately. Hardly ever wants to be away from me. I am trying to help her deal with her problems rather than just pull her from school. William doesn't want me to homeschool again because of the time it takes. He thinks Liberty and Mason are way too much of a handful to have to deal with both. He also wants me to have more time away from the kids. Yeah I want that too but I just don't want my kids to feel so terrible at school. They are in girl scouts and activity days so they have friends outside of school but when they are at school they are having issues with personalities of the other kids. It seems like a bunch of kids here just haven't been taught to care about anyone else's feelings. I have seen it on a weekly basis in Emily's kindergarten class. There are so many kids who actually hurt eachothers feelings on purpose. I guess now would be a good time to lighten this up a little and mention a sweet thing that happened before Thanksgiving. A little girl in Emily's class came to me and said Emily helped me today. I said "Oh yeah, what did she do?" This little girl said that she was on the playground and some girls were being mean to her and she was crying. Emily sat down by her and hugged her and sang her a song. She said that made her smile. Oh that makes me smile too! A big smile!
Ok so back to the way I have been feeling. I have had a hard time with me moving. I had finally made really great friendships in Utah and I loved my ward, my neighborhood, my house, my yard, my kids friends, etc. We seemed to have it all there. However, it was my idea to move here and my decision, ultimately. I knew William already decided and was leaving the final decision up to me. He had a job offer in Utah, a potentially awesome one. We could have stayed easy enough. Even though we seemed to have everything going for us I was feeling unsettled and felt prompted to consider moving. Then William lost his job. Then the answer finally came...No matter where we live my kids will be ok as long as I teach them them the gospel and help them to recognize the spirit in their lives. There were lots of reasons to move and they are all good reasons. However, I wasn't prepared to feel so homesick. I miss everything about Utah. My kids having problems at school just intensifies the homesickness I feel. I had this same problem when I moved to Utah but I though it was mostly cause I was pregnant and cooped up in the house being sick all the time. Now I am experiencing it again and this time I am not pregnant. I think this time is worse though because when I left my family and friends in AZ I knew since my family was there I would see them often enough still. This time is a little different cause Utah is further away and the times I will get to go back will be much fewer I am sure.
So I was lying in bed this morning thinking about how I have been feeling and how to deal with the things happening to me emotionally. I decided that I am dealing with things all wrong. I have been so focused on myself. I need to stop feeling sad and start taking care of my family first. I need to get my house in order. It is all unpacked but not everything has a place yet. Ok my scrap stuff remains in boxes (some of it). But it is staying there until we move again. William has been so neglected cause I have been so busy feeling sorry for myself. I spend more time out shopping or with the kids than with him. I love him and want him to be happy. That is one of the big reasons for moving here. However, he loves me and when I am not happy he isn't either. So I gotta get right!

I have to find a way to help my kids adjust here. Makenna seems to be doing ok but she is older and used to moving around now. Mason and Liberty don't even talk about Utah. They are fine as long as mom is around. Amy has had stomach aches and isn't eating well since she moved here. Emily has been sick since Thanksgiving. I don't know what to think of that. It has been all kinds of different bugs. The coughing flu, the stomach flu twice, and the kidney infection too. Her poor little body has had it. Last week all of us were sick.

So this week my goal is to focus on my family instead of worrying about getting over my own feelings of displacement. I hope that will help me feel better. William actually told me he thinks I need to start scrapbooking again with friends. Hahaha! He actually learned something about me and remembered it! So get my house in order and get scrapping!

Ok now I feel better just getting that out!

Feeling much better!

Well, the stomach bug lasted only one day. A miserable day, glad it is over. No one else caught it thank heavens. Yesterday it rained almost the whole darn day. So instead of running out to go get some errands done I stayed home and cleaned my house. It finally is starting to feel like my home and not a pig sty. I made some chore charts for the girls and started an allowance schedule. So now they at least have their routine down in the morning. If you have any suggestions how to get them to do their charts without me nagging them please share! After getting my house mostly clean I sat down and made my Christmas card and ordered them from Walmart. I made them digitally again this year so it only took me about 20 minutes to make them and order them too. Here is your sneak peek...

Stomach flu bug this time, yuck!

This morning Mason and I both woke up with the stomach flu. I tossed and turned all night with an upset stomach. I even had a dream that I was in the hospital and had a baby. It is funny how every time I feel sick it reminds me of pregnancy. So the baby in my dreams was a little girl. Even more reason to determine we are DONE! If I could guarantee another boy I might consider it but I don't know if I could handle any more hormones in this house.

I was supposed to teach Relief Society this morning but I had to call the president and tell her I couldn't do it. Good thing I did cause it would be embarrassing to have to run out of the room to vomit. Other news, my Christmas lights are all up but I still haven't taken a picture. Also my black eye is finally going away. It got much worse before it got better. No one ever really noticed though I think because I wear glasses. Also because the make-up I wear now covers it so well. Go Bare Minerals!

The Ladder shelf is in my entry way. The Candy Cane and Snowman I got from Real Deals and they are outside my front door.
I reserved the top of my piano for my nativity sets. The black bookshelves are the ones I got from Ikea. I love them but I still haven't made time to actually arrange the things on them.

This last picture is during the day so tomorrow night I will get a picture of what the lights on my house look like at night. I guess I posted this cause these are the lights I was working on when I gave myself the black eye.

OUCH!

Yesterday I began the task of hanging Christmas lights on the outside of the house. I had a little mishap with the hammer which I forgot I put on the ladder. I went to move the ladder and the hammer fell about 5 feet onto my eye. Thank goodness I was wearing my sunglasses. I am sure it protected my eye. It hurt really bad and immediately became a bruise. This is what it looks like this morning.

Just in time for me to teach Relief Society on Sunday. I'll just tell everyone my husband hit me. Hahaha!

Well off to the school to help in Emily's class. When I get back I will post some pictures of my Christmas decorations around the inside and outside of my home. Have a great day!