Here's a good story for you...

I hi-jacked this from another blog I stumbled upon, I thought it helped put things in perspective... enjoy.

THE WISDOM IN HOT CHOCOLATE

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired.

During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives.

Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said, 'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones.'

'While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.'

'What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other's cups.'

'Now consider this...life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have.'

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate!!

Oh my gosh...

My baby brother called today to tell me he's getting married. At Christmas time too! And it's going to be in Arizona, which I couldn't thank him more for!! This is so wierd... and exciting of course. And her name is Adrienne, so now my only 2 sister in laws are both name Adrienne. I'll be forever confused. Oh well... it could be worse! Congrats Bryan!! Hopefully I was allowed to spill the beans to the rest of the family that reads this, cause I just did!

Okay, before you read what I'm going to write here, go back and read my very first post "Give Her Back"........... Okay did you read it? Then you know Little Man's anger and frustration that he doesn't have another baby brother or sister. This has continued on for over a year now! A few days ago we we're packing a gift for SIL's baby shower which is today. He wanted to know why so I told him she's going to have the baby soon, This is the conversation that followed:

LM: "So when do we go get the baby?"
Me: what are you talking about?
LM: It's going to be our baby right? when do we go get it?
Me: no, it's bryce and adrienne's baby. not ours
LM: Well I want to have a baby sister!

He growled at me and left the room! Where in all the world did he come up with this idea that they were going to give us their baby?!?!? That was a new one. So watch out guys when you come visit at Christmas, Little Man might try to kidnap her or something!

Bye Bye Bella, Bye Bye

She gone! She's really gone and for the first time since July, I got to sleep through the night. I swear that dog was as bad as a newborn! One time in the middle of the night, I went to take her out and when I opened my door (she slept caged in my bathroom) she ran the oposite way of the door and ran into the boys room and jumped on their bed, waking them in the process. I could have killed her. The next night I decided I'd pick her up so that this didn't happen again. Well aparently that little bit of pressure was all she needed because suddenly I was being pee'd on. Nothin' will wake you up like getting pee'd on at 2am. Again, I could have killed her. She really was a sweet dog, but I just didn't have the energy to keep up with a puppy, my other dog, and my 2 kids. I'm sooooooo glad she's gone!

Hubbie's grandma (the one who dumped her on us in the first place) found an older couple that really wanted her. So Monday morning I took her over to grandma's house. The whole way to school Little Man was begging me not to "sell" Bella, told him too bad, so sad... have a good day at school. Then after we dropped Little Man off, Squirt continued the plea: Bewa tay mommy, bewa tay pees. (Bella stay mommy, bella stay please) It was actually so sweet and a little heart breaking... oh well!

My kids are so random... and they love yoga.

I saw Squirt dragging my yoga mat down the hall the other day, then he went in my room. I grabbed my camera and snuck in after him. This is what I found him doing:

This is called Downward Facing Dog pose.
He heard me take the picture, looked over and said Hi Mom! and went right on doing it.

Little Man naturally can't have the camera out with out him having his photo taken, so he had to do one too. This is tree pose:

actually it's Little Man falling out of tree pose, my camera wasn't quick enough. I caught him practicing it again later that night.

Hubbie just rolls his eyes and swears I'm creating "queers" out of our children (his word not mine).

Squirt's Death Wish

Squirt started screaming this afternoon and then came crying to me holding his fingers, I assumed the dog bit him, this usually happens when Squirt is trying to feed him something but doesn't move his fingers, I yelled at our dog, then realized he was sleeping under the dining room table. So I asked Squirt what was wrong and he wouldn't stop crying, so I told him to show me what happened. This is where he took me:

Yes, that is 2 bobby-pins stuck into the plug. The ONE with out the plug cover. I'm assuming that the little rubber tips were the only thing keeping from getting killed.

My Week

This week has had it's up's and down's. It started off with a day off, always a good thing. We got together with some friends for a BBQ, that was fun too- aparently I'm pretty good at the drums in Rock Band- who knew??. While there I got a call from my mom that my grandma was not doing so well and they weren't expecting her to live through the night. Frankly, that's a call nobody wants to get. I got another call just 2 hours later, saying that she had passed away.

My parents forked over a small fortune to fly out there. They had a short layover in Phoenix on Wednesday, but I got a call at 11am from my dad saying that their plane had "broken" and they now had a 3 hour layover, so to come get them and we'd go to lunch. So I picked up Squirt, and we hauled it down to the airport (got there in 22 minutes, thank you very much!) I met them on the curb, it felt like I was "busting them out"- I slowed down, they jumped in and we sped away. So that was a nice little visit. Squirt wouldn't even look at them for the first little while, but he warmed up quickly. Next week they have a scheduled layover and we're going to do the same thing. I'll probably let Little Man skip school to come b/c we don't get to see Grandma and Grandpa often.

this is from 2 years back at our family reunion
grandpa, grandma, mom, me strangling Little Man, my dad holding Squirt and my brother Bryce.

The funeral for my Grandma was Friday- I wish I could have gone, but because people don't usually give you notice when they're going to die, we couldn't really make arrangements that quickly. My Grandma was pretty sick and I know that she's in a better place. I feel so sad for my Grandpa and really want to just give him a hug. He and my Grandma we're married for 63 years! Can you imagine. He must be so lonely right now.

Saturday we went to a wedding for Hubbie's cousin. It was very strange- Hubbie's cousin and his girlfriend have been together for like 12 years and they have 4 kids, I actually didn't even know that they weren't married. Not sure why they decided now to get married but what ever. Better late than never I guess.

And the best news of all- Bella goes bye bye tomorrow- I was dancing around my kitchen when I go that call!!

The Book of Mormon

This past month our relief society challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in 30 days. At first I just threw the paper away thinking "OH, I am so sure!" But after some more thought, I decided to give it a try. And I DID IT!!! Who'd have thought??

They recommended we just read it like a novel, don't stop to highlight, etc. I kept pointing things out to Hubbie and he was just like "have you never read this before??" well, yes I have but never this way before. So it was cool and it just shows you that it can be done. Yes, I had to hide in the bathroom sometimes to escape my children, but it can be done! I probably could have done it in less than 30, but I had to take a 3 day break to read "Breaking Dawn"- I really was going to wait till the end of the month, but the curiosity was killing me. Too bad that that book was about twice as long as the Book of Mormon and I read it in 1/10 of the time. Oh, well- I did it and that's all that matters.

Free Puppy

Do you know anyone that wants a dog?? (Well anyone local I mean?) She's a 5 month old mini- shnawzer, she is pure-bred but we don't have papers, both her parents are white shnawzers but so far she is grey with a little brown and white mixed in. Her name is Bella. She really is a sweet dog, and she is incredibly patient with my boys. Squirt sits on her, pulls her by her ears, picks her up by her legs... and she just follows behind him with her tail wagging. She is 95% potty trained as well.

I'd keep her but I'm having a hard time adjusting to having a 2nd dog and I just don't have the time to train her or give the attention that she needs. She needs some major grooming (she's a big puff ball right now- it's actually kindof cute) and she does need shots. I just want to give her away for free but I want make sure she goes to a good home, and doesn't end up as a toy for somebodies pitt-bull or something.