Brittny - 24 May 2010

Low: Uhm, it's the 24th of May and it's snowing outside. Yeah, that was the view from out our study window this morning. Ew gross yuck. I keep wanting to box up all of our coats and snow gear as a start to preparing for our move... guess I'll have to wait a little longer for that still. (Yes mom, I'm sure it is beautiful in California right now and we should move there. :P)

High: Sam is doing better at sleeping through the night, hurrah! Also, we ran the roomba last night so our front room is all vacuumed. Of course, when we run the roomba we move our furniture to be off the carpet so that we can get all the things that Sam has hidden under the coffee table, rocking chair etc as well. So usually when I wake up the morning after running the roomba I have to bring Sam out (while he's still sleepy and cranky and hungry) and put him down for a minute while I take down the coffee table from the couch. But this morning the coffee table was already down when I got up! I was a little bit confused but very grateful that I didn't have to make Sam mad and we could go straight to feeding him. I found out later this morning that Eric had woken up in the middle of the night needing a drink of water. While he was out in the kitchen he noticed that the roomba was done and thought of me trying to get the coffee table down while holding Sam and took it down for us. It may seem like a really small thing, but the fact that he thought of us in the middle of the night when he was half asleep really touched me. Best. husband. ever. Thank you Eric! I love you!

Brittny - 15 May 2010

Low - This is my fourth attempt at writing this post now...

Also, just feeling inadequate to do all the things I ought to be keeping up with - work, cooking, laundry, mothering, blogging, sleeping, dishes, vacuuming, freelance projects, my calling, temple attendance, scripture reading, praying, exercising, grocery shopping, budgeting, dating (but only Eric of course), service, family home evening... not enough hours in the day!

High - I found a decent blogging client for my droid! Granted it's super annoying to write a full post with my thumbs... but I can! Now I can blog from bed, woot!

Also, I got some super cute pictures of Sam while we were playing outside today - we'll see if I can add them to this post...

Well after much trial and tribulation I've decided to settle for a link to the photo gallery. Maybe next time...

Samuel

Cute pictures of Sam :)

Brittny - 24 January 2010

Low: Our family had a really slow start this morning. Sunday mornings are still pretty rough since we're not used to being up at 9am when church starts... let alone beforehand to get ourselves ready! We were late to church as a result, but...

Highs: ... Sam was really cute when he woke up. At first he was *legs tired, so tired*, and just snuggling us and trying to figure out why in the world mom and dad were trying to wake us up. But when I took him into the bathroom and put him down to turn on the bathtub he immediately was happy and smiling and trying to hop in the tub. It was super cute! He also slept through almost all of church, which was definitely a blessing so that we could teach our Sunday School lesson and pay attention during the 3rd hour of Ward Conference. (yes, Ward Conference was another high :)

Also, Mom & Dad Hansen came over for lunch this afternoon and to visit us and play with Sam. I made our fettuccine alfredo all by myself and it turned out well (although it took me longer than I would have liked to get everything put together and on the table). We had fun visiting with them and showing off Sam's new tricks. It's such a blessing to have family nearby that can come and see us often.

Plus, after Mom & Dad Hansen left Sam was getting sleepy, so I took him to bed and nursed him to sleep and was able to sneak out and leave him alone in our bed. He's still there now! Eric and I even got to spend some time by ourselves which is a definite rarity and something I really miss. I think it's going to be a big driving factor in sleep training Sam. I just want to get to talk to Eric sometimes without a baby crawling over us! (Even if I do really like that baby :)

Hooray Sunday!

Brittny - 18 January 2010

Low: I spent all day yesterday in a house with cats. I think I might be allergic to cats because my throat hurts today (of course, my allergies have been acting up for awhile now anyways)

Highs: SAM IS WALKING! He's so cute just toddling around the house now. There are few things as happy as watching that kid learn new tricks. What's really fun is how proud he is of himself and how he'll show off. One thing he does is he'll crawl almost to Eric and then stand up and walk the rest of the way just to see us clap for him. He's the best baby in the whole world!

Also, I got to spend all day yesterday helping a good friend of mine organize her bookshelves and discussing some deep topics of parenting. I'm so glad that I found Denise in our ward and we've made friends. I've learned so much from her and she's such a great example to me.

Brittny - 10 January 2010

Low: Being *really* tired this morning. Between our alarm going off I dreamed that Eric and I were in a special husbands-and-wives unit of the army. But we'd just been transferred to another base that was two hours away from where we lived. We realized that with 9am church that meant that we'd have to get up at 6am to get all ready and back to our ward in time. We were really conflicted as far as what we should do because we were supposed to be teaching Sunday School (which we really were), but since we hadn't gotten to bed before 2am we would be really tired and that was a long trek. So we were about to email our friends in the ward to see if they would teach the lesson we had prepared.... when I woke up to the alarm for reals. We weren't any less tired than we were in the dream but twenty-five minutes later we were all up, dressed, with dinner in the crockpot and out the door to church. Ick, not a great way to start the day.

High: Because church is so early we have ALL afternoon to nap... which we did. Also, this was a really productive weekend! I got a few things checked off of my task list which have been on there for months. That felt good. Additionally: we got the apartment all cleaned up, I got my New Year's Resolutions posted, Sam slept on his own on the futon for a couple of short naps, I got to spend time with Eric, I got another offer for a freelance job, I got my hair cut and I have my task list ready for the new week. Yay for the weekend! Although, I am excited to start another week too, I like getting things done and being productive :)

Brittny - 01 January 2010

Low: Having a sick and grumpy baby all day :(

High: Being home again! We had a great holiday and a really nice vacation, it was awesome to get to spend so much time with family. But, it was time to be home again. Nice to be back in our own bed and doing our own thing.

Brittny - 30 December 2009

Oops! Sorry, I thought I'd posted this a couple weeks ago. Here it is now :)

Low: Sam is teething, poor kid :(

Highs: Today was my niece's wedding and it was awesome to get to be a part of it. She did an awesome job of keeping everything focused on the spiritual aspect of the day rather than all the frills. We started the day by all participating in an endowment session. Eric and I have had a difficult time going to the temple lately because Sam is going through separation anxiety, so we were worried that he was going to make it so we couldn't go. But when we got to his cousin's house to drop him off he just hopped down and went straight to his cousin. Apparently he was good for her the whole time! The Lord really does bless you when you are serving Him!

It was really neat to get to do an endowment session as a family. It was really cool to look around the room and realize that all of the siblings in Eric's family could be in the temple. Not all of them were able to be there right then, but all 9 siblings had received their endowment, married in the temple and was living worthy to be in that sacred place. That was such a neat feeling to be surrounded by faithful people as part of my family. I can't wait for the day when we can have that experience with our family, although obviously we have to wait until Kyle's old enough to receive those blessings. It was pretty cool.

Then we got to go straight from the endowment session to the sealing. It was awesome to see how the ordinances all flowed together. You know that they all build on one another but it's different when you can actually see it right next to each other. I really want to go to the temple sometime and start with doing baptisms and go all the way through to doing sealings. Obviously it would be a long day but I think it would be so cool to see the whole progression in one experience.

Brittny - 18 October 2009

Low: Eric and I have decided to go back to being more adamant that Sam sleeps in his playpen and not in our bed (since he's kicked Eric out of bed - literally - every night this week). I have a feeling tonight is going to be a loong night.

Highs: My lesson in Relief Society went fairly well. I had a lot less material than I had thought so I was sort of panicking as we raced right through the first two sections. And I didn't feel like my thoughts were coming across very cohesively. Luckily, Eric had a video clip that he was using in his lesson that he let me play from his laptop for my lesson. It was from Elder Holland's talk in our most recent conference. It pulled together my lesson very nicely and filled out the rest of my time perfectly. Phew!

This evening we got to take a family nap after lunch, Sunday naps are the best! (and yes, I do mean nap, get your mind out of the gutters people!)

We had family home evening tonight! It wasn't anything fancy or elaborate, but it was good to be able to spend time together as a family and getting our lives in order and talking about the gospel. It's been difficult to FHE since Eric's been working nights, but we've finally found a good time that we can do it!

Speaking of working nights... my real high is *drumroll please*.... THEY FOUND SOMEONE TO REPLACE ERIC ON THE NIGHT SHIFT!! The new girl won't take over the shift for another 2 months since she has to go through training, but it's SO nice to know that the end is in sight :)

Brittny - 10 October 2009

I've meant to post highs and lows a few times this week but hadn't gotten around to it. So these will be for the whole week -

Low: Sleep. I think our whole family needs to sleep more consistently. We need to teach Sam to sleep through the night, and Eric to work normal daytime hours. And by teach Eric to work normal hours I mean teach Omniture to finally let him work the normal daytime hours since they're not using him at night anyways (not that I'm bitter about that or anything :P)

Highs: On Thursday Eric pulled out his violin and practiced some and played for me and Sam. He thought he was rusty but I *loved* listening to him play. It's not a coincidence that I agreed to marry him after seeing him play for the first time (ok, yes it is, but it sure didn't hurt anything ;) ). Whenever I see him play I am always left feeling in awe that I am the wife of such an incredible man. It's hard to explain exactly what it is, but it always reminds me what a smart, passionate, dedicated man he is and how lucky I am to be married to him.

On Friday we had a really fun day. Eric's friend Vance found this place in Provo that has authentic Taiwanese food so we all went there for lunch. It's called the Cooking Taste Right Cafe and the food was really good. Definite high! Then that evening Eric and I went with our good friends the Criddles to Trafalga. Sam stayed at our place with Taylor and Ryan and apparently wasn't a big fan of being left behind, but we had a fun night out with just the two of us, which doesn't happen very often.

Today I went to our Quarterly Relief Society meeting. I ended up not signing up for any of the crafts because I had a hard time deciding on one to do that would be within my skill level without having it be no more difficult than putting stickers on something (sorry, I like the vinyl things that people do, but I have a difficult time considering it a craft) and something that I would actually want. So I spent my morning making a soup for the lunch and just going for that portion of the meeting. I'm really glad that I did! I got to talk with a sister in our ward who has two high-functioning autistic kids and is struggling with a degenerative disorder that is causing her to lose motor function. She needs some help in the evenings and Sam and I need to get out of the house and do something useful. Win win! I'm really excited to have made a new friend in our ward and to finally have something worthwhile to do with my time.

So, I guess that pretty well covers me! Happy Weekend :)

Brittny - 29 September 2009

High: Eric and I got to go on a date to ... the Gym! It was actually pretty fun to finally get to use my membership, and to have a hot gym buddy to go with ;) Eric did a really great job showing me how to use all the machines and not making me feel dumb that I could only lift a small fraction of the weight he was lifting... or that I couldn't even bench press the bar. Thanks Eric!

After the gym we went to Five Guys which was another high in and of itself. Yum, good hamburgers. But better still was when Eric told me about this. Yup, In 'N Out is coming to Orem!! Boo-freaking-yah! (But, don't worry mom, I would never use the word freaking :P ) Five Guys is excellent, but this is real live In 'N Out!

Low?: I'm not really sure these count as lows but sorta the parts of my day that didn't quite go according to plan. For the most part they turned out pretty good, but they didn't quite belong in the highs category. Perhaps though they should go in a different category altogether....

Chicken Smoothies: When Eric and I got to Gold's Gym we found out that we were supposed to have set an appointment to have them watch Sam in the childcare. Oops! Luckily we were able to set an appointment for a couple hours later. In the meantime we went and made a Costco run. We are now all stocked up, including a little bit of food storage stuff.

When we did leave Sam at the childcare I was a little bit concerned because it was our first time leaving him with someone other than Taylor and Ryan or his grandparents. Not that I didn't think the child care people could take care of him, but he's been having some separation anxiety lately and I just wasn't sure how it was going to play out. We dropped him off at 3:30pm and at 4:25pm (5 minutes before we were supposed to go back and pick him up) I got paged to go to the front desk. I went into the childcare to be confronted with a very sad Sam :( The girl running the childcare said he'd been crying for about 5 minutes and was just looking for whatever would make him happy. Luckily, I was pretty much done with my workout anyways and he was happy to just have Eric and me again. It was sad to see him sad, but I actually feel really good about how well he did!

After we came back from the gym and Five Guys Eric took a shower with Sam and then I got Sam all ready for bed (he was rubbing his eyes and acting sleepy). I put Sam down around 6:00pm and was excited to have a couple of hours to clean up and get some stuff done. I was able to take a bath while I talked to Mom on the phone. Of course, just as I had shampoo in my hair... I heard Sam. He'd only lasted about 45 minutes. So I quickly finished washing myself and hopped out to get Sam. He proceeded to stay awake until 11:30pm. I'm not actually complaining about him staying awake that long, he was really cute as it turns out. He was just quietly playing for most of the time. And he ate a little bit, but mostly he was just pretty chill and cuddly. It was pretty fun. Just not quite what I was planning to do with my evening.

Anyways, that was my day. It was a pretty awesome one. I really love my boys!

Brittny - 18 September 2009

I don't want to post lows. So I'm not going to, neener neener.

Highs: I listened to a book this week that I really enjoyed. I felt a little bit guilty for spending so much time listening when I probably should have been paying more attention to playing with Sam (which isn't to say I neglected him, but my attention was probably more split than it could have been). Sometimes I forget just how much I love reading.

However, my big high for today was taking a walk with Eric... around our living room. As dumb as that may sound it was really great to just get to talk with him and spend some time with him (Sam was asleep, but Eric wasn't feeling too well so he wanted to walk). It's funny how we always seem to wait until late at night when we need to be asleep before taking the time to just talk to each other, but it's always time well spent.

Brittny - 13 September 2009

Low: Having two sick boys this weekend. Strangely enough though the older one had a worse time than the little one. You probably wouldn't have known that Sam was even sick if it weren't for the fever he was running and the goop coming out of his nose! He was running around and smiling like everything was good in the world still. Cute kid!

High: Sam and I went to Ryan and Taylor's for dinner tonight and it was yum yum yummy! Eric also let me take a nap this afternoon while he played with Sam. Then Sam ended up taking a 4 hour nap on his chest! Who would have thought that Sam could take a 4 hour nap?

Brittny - 01 September 2009: Ferber Method Day 1

Low: Listening to my baby cry for 4 hours and only being allowed to comfort him about every 10 minutes. Then comforting him... making him happy again... and then leaving him to cry some more. I feel like the worst mother ever :(

High-ish: Sam is finally asleep in his Pack 'n Play and hopefully will stay that way for a few hours. Unfortunately, now that he's asleep there I feel like I ought to pick him up and hold him and hug him and apologize for letting him cry so much. Yeah, not much of a high, I feel like poop.

Thanks Cody and Kyle and everyone who's praying for Sam to learn to sleep on his own. I didn't want to resort to the Ferber method but I can't get anything done all day because Sam will only sleep on me or Eric or another warm body (and most of the day I'm the only warm body to be had). I truly appreciate all the support from our family in this.

Brittny - 28 August 2009

High: Lexie came over tonight! (For those of you who don't know Lexie and I were best tech crew friends in YAs for my last two years of the group) It was so much fun to reminisce with her and talk about all the things she's doing now and all that we're doing now. You've got to love friends who can come over for dinner and you're still having fun talking and laughing and just enjoying each other's company 5 hours later. We finally had to force ourselves to stop talking so she could go home and get some sleep. It was soo much fun. Plus, Sam took a good nap while she was here, and I made us some really yummy food (BBQ chicken, potato salad, watermelon and cookies :)

Lows: Lexie and I were talking about some of the situations that face kids today. It's scary to think about the world that we're bringing Sam up into.

There are lots of dishes now to do because of the yummy food I made. Crap, I'd almost had them all cleaned up when I started making the food too :(

Brittny - 25 August 2009

Low: Trying to get a project done for a client that was rather hot and bothered that it get done tonight. In a tool that I hate, but am apparently the "expert" from our company on it. Eww gross.

High: Taylor made cake for her birthday that I didn't get to have last night... but I got to have some today! It is incredible! I know this makes two days in a row that Taylor's cooking has been my high... but she's a really good cook, so you shouldn't be surprised.

Also, I got to ride on the scooter with Eric after dropping our car off to get maintenance done on it. It was only my third time on the scooter and it was more fun this time because I was not pregnant like I was the last two times. Plus, we went on the freeway, which was kinda fun to see the scooter get to go that fast!

Brittny - 24 August 2009

High: It was Taylor's birthday today! It was fun to get together with her today and celebrate her birthday. And she made really awesome chicken parmigiana for us. It probably should have been that I made dinner for her... but she's definitely the better chef so, oh well.

Low: Sam had a baby meltdown and we weren't able to go back to have some of the awesome looking cake that Taylor made. I'm still not quite sure what's up with him, but he hasn't slept much in several days. I think we might need to have a few days of just Sam and mom time so that he can get onto a schedule again. Luckily he is asleep now so that's a start!

Brittny - 16 August 2009

Low: Today Eric and I changed wards for the fourth time since getting married, and my 10th ward that I've been in since high school. I don't do well with change. It seems like every time I start getting settled in a ward, it's time to move out of that ward :(

High: I really think I'm going to like our new ward. It's exciting to be in a real family ward again. Everyone was very friendly and I think we're going to enjoy our time here.

Also, Taylor made us some really yummy salmon tonight. I love eating fish and don't make it very often, so I get really excited when I do get a chance to eat it. Thanks Tate!

Brittny - 04 August 2009

Low: I went to go work on some updates for work and the email has completely disappeared. It's not in my inbox, outbox, trash, spam... nothing, it's just gone. I have never in my 15 years as an internet user had an email disappear so completely without reason.

High: I got to talk to my dad for about an hour tonight while working on some stuff for the Theronyx website. I'm lucky to have such a great dad and I always enjoy getting to talk to him :)

Brittny - 02 August 2009

Low - Sam fought me through all of church. Eric was home sick this morning so it was just Sam and me. We bounced in the back through all of sacrament meeting, and then tried eating, bouncing, rocking etc in the Mother's Lounge. I finally gave up and went home (since I couldn't listen to Sunday School/Relief Society from the Mother's Lounge like I can with Sacrament Meeting). Of course, I put Sam in his carseat and drove halfway home... and he was out cold :P Just my luck.

High - Taylor and Ryan came over tonight and we made really yummy banana chocolate chip bread! My tummy is still happy thinking about it :) The recipe we used is here.

Brittny - 30 July 2009

I'm going to break with my current trend and actually post my high and low in the prescribed order, since I think it will work better that way.

Background - As you all know, Eric and I have had a very special conundrum placed before us. On Wednesday, July 21 - the day before our due diligence deadline (the last day to cancel the offer we had placed on our house without losing our earnest money) - Eric was informed of an opportunity which would take us to China. Of course, this meant that we had to scramble to get information about this opportunity and others which we had and reconsider whether or not we were buying the house we had placed an offer on. It was an incredibly hard decision. On the one hand we've always felt like we wanted to end up doing something in China someday. However, the opportunity that Eric was presented with wouldn't really make the most use of all of his skills or give him much room to grow. Plus, we were really happy about staying here in Orem. We *loved* the house that we'd put an offer on, and we'd already invested a good chunk of change in purchasing it. We have lots of family around here, and are much closer to the rest of them here than we would be in China. Now that we're done with school, and have a baby we're kind of ready to just settle down. Anyways, we were able to push our due diligence deadline back a week from Thursday, July 23 to Friday, July 31 while we tried to gather up all of the information about the different options we'd been given. By Wednesday, July 29th it was pretty evident that we weren't going to get all the answers we needed to make an informed decision, and we were obviously staring down the barrel of a pretty major decision with a hard and fast deadline.

High: Taylor agreed to watch Samuel while Eric and I went to the temple to get a chance to think things over and ask the Lord for guidance. We were running a little bit later than we would have liked, and we got to the temple just after a session had started. That was actually a blessing because it meant that we had longer to just sit in the chapel and read scriptures and ponder together. I got in there before Eric and was able to flip through the scriptures for a second. I opened up to the back where the pictures are (yes, I am 4 and am drawn to the pretty pictures). As I looked at those pictures of the church history sites - most of which I've been blessed to be able to go to - I had a feeling of how blessed I had been to have seen those places with my own eyes and be able to feel of their spirit. Then when Eric came in he opened the scriptures at random to Doctrine and Covenants 68. We read through it and even though most of the chapter is devoted to priesthood hierarchy and things that would generally be considered less inspiring (not unimportant, but not what I'd generally look at and be inspired by), there were a few phrases that jumped out to me. In particular verse 8 -
Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, acting in the authority which I have given you, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Before going to the temple I was leaning towards that we should go to China, but since we didn't have an official job offer, and we didn't even know if it was going to come through ever... and we *really* liked the house, it was only a slight leaning and I can't say I really wanted it to be true. After reading that scripture I felt like my leaning was confirmed and that I couldn't fight it anymore, we were supposed to be going to China.

That endowment session was one of the best that I've ever been to. Somehow going with a purpose to receive an answer opened up the endowment for me. I can't explain what it is exactly that I got out of it more than usual (not just because there are things that shouldn't be talked about outside the temple, but because I can't explain what I saw that was different even if I did talk about it), but everything seemed to have deeper meaning and I came up with more questions than ever before. Also, since Eric and I were the first ones in the chapel we were asked to be the witness couple which is always a cool experience. I felt like the Lord was particularly aware of us and our being there when in a prayer given in that session the brother giving the prayer asked that anyone who had come to the temple that day with a special purpose would have their purpose granted. No one there knew what we were facing at that time and I knew that Heavenly Father had inspired that brother to give that prayer on our behalf. The spirit that I felt at that moment was so strong and unmistakable.

After the session was over Eric and I had a few moments to sit together in the Celestial Room and ponder together. After a few minutes of silent prayer we discussed our feelings. We had both come to the same conclusion, even though we didn't have an official job offer, or a place to live or many of the other things you'd want to have before making such a decision - we needed to be ready to go to China at any time. Which leads me to my low...

Low: Our lease on our condo ends next Monday and we don't have somewhere to live yet. We don't know how long we're going to be here and we don't have a particular job offer. We're in the ultimate limbo land. However...

High Part II: My Facebook status right now says that we are "living it up by faith." That's not how you'd usually see it phrased but I'll tell you why I phrased it that way. We're not merely living by faith, but thriving on that faith. Even though we're in this mega limbo land with nothing decided, I'm totally at peace. I hadn't even realized how much turmoil I was in before receiving this answer and getting to a point where I was totally at peace. Weird huh? You would think that receiving an answer to move to the opposite side of the planet, and not having anything prepared would be a state of turmoil, but I am at peace about the whole thing. It doesn't mean I'm not sad about not buying that house, or scared to death of moving to China, or frustrated that we don't have somewhere to live next week... but I'm perfectly at peace. The Lord truly does take care of us when we are willing to listen to His counsels. I am so grateful for His guidance and the power of prayers and temples.