A Split Personality?

I feel like this because.....

• There are too many things to do.
• I have to get up too early.
• I am a Marine wife.
• I am a working mom.
• Gas prices are too high.
• I am trying to read up on parenting.
• I keep getting older.
• I need to go to the store and often don't get around to it.
• Too much laundry.
• Weekends are too short.
• I have a chair full of ironing that has been there for a week.

And sometimes I feel like this because....

• I have a great life.
• I love my husband.
• I have a beautiful daughter.
• I am smart.
• I have a good job.
• I get to hike in the hills every day.
• I have a place to live.
• I am strong in my faith and know for myself it is true.
• I eat lots of grapes and oranges, which make me happy.
• I had a wonderful childhood.
• My husband is working hard in school.
• I get to snowboard.
• I get to go camping.
• I have eye sight and hearing.
• I get to listen to blue grass music.
• I can watch the sunset.
• I get to hug my daughter every day.
• I love to read.
• Life is pretty dang good.

I am two women tied in to one. Often the tired cranky one is more visible. In fact, I even have to put her aside and choose to embrace the relaxed, happy, life loving woman that I enjoy so much more. Even in my moments of collapsibility, if I ponder the great parts of my life and just thank God that He has given me so much, I am happy.

A Few Excerpts from Our Exciting Life

Kayla thinks she is quite the big girl. Lately she has been really interested in helping out with whatever you are doing.

While unloading the dishwasher, Kayla loves to put the tupperware away. She knows just what cupboard they go in to. You should see the condition of that cupboard since she took over that job.
While folding clothes she loves to come up to the biggest (and neatest) pile, pick it up and run toward the room in which it belongs. By the time she reaches her destination she has one or two items and everything else ends up on the floor.
She helps with the mopping but last time she threw my cell phone in the mop bucket. Now we save that for after bedtime.
She loves to feed the dog but also loves to eat the dog food.
She loves to help me blog but ends up mashing the keyboard.
But for some reason I still think it is the greatest thing. She gleams in delight as we disregard the disaster she has created and hug and kiss her for a job well done.
Mowing the lawn with her special lawn mower has been great!

Another new milestone in Kayla's life lately has been the ability to pretend. We have her pack n play set up in her bedroom next to her crib. Every night she gets in the pack n play, enthusiastically reads a bedtime story to her babies, feeds them all a pretend bottle, covers them up and last but not least, kisses each of them with a very loud mmmu. She then lets us know she is ready to get out of the crib. Sean and I watch every time and crack up laughing about it later.

We went to the Hogle Zoo down in Salt lake. Kayla loved it. She was so excited to see all the animals. Her favorite animals were the giraffes and the elephants. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. She slept good that night.

Mother's Day

While pondering the memories of my childhood, there is one moment that truly stands out above all.
One Saturday afternoon, while my dad was away with the scouts, my mom was trying to get us to do chores. We defied her motive and tried to avoid getting caught playing instead. Suddenly the ground started to shake. We were all aware of what was happening. It was obvious an earthquake had started. We all flocked toward Mom. She instructed us to quickly get under the table. As the ground shook under us, Mom amazingly had enough arm length to comfort all of us. We all clung to her as she calmly informed us that it would be okay. The earthquake lasted about 45 minutes in all, there were a lot of quakes one after another.

As I think of this experience, I think of the example this is of what Mom does for her children. Somehow she has enough love to make each of us feel so special. She always has enough energy to stay up late and talk if we need it. No matter where we are, when we talk to Mom we are home again.

Mother's Day is a special time when I can truly reflect on the blessing my Mother is in my life. She was the one who came to pick me up from my mission, she was the one who was in the waiting room at the hospital when Kayla was born, sneaking by the room to see if she could here a cry, she was the one who seems to call right at the moment you need her.

Mom is the one who taught me how to work, how to play, how to hug and how to pray. She showed me how to care and love.
I love you Mom, Happy Mother's Day