Day 274: Most Anti-Climatic Halloween Ever

But if we're being totally honest--and I'm always honest--I really don't care that today didn't feel like Halloween at all.  I think we celebrated plenty for one Halloween.

Today's Joyful Moment was seeing a picture of my mama tacked to the wall at church.  Last year when she graduated, they took a photo of her jumping triumphantly in the air.  With her legs kicked back, just like in those old Toyota commercials.  Except, she's wearing a cap and gown.  And in keeping with our tradition of honesty, how cool is it that my mom went back to school and got another degree (she graduated way back when (but not that way back when--she's still a young'un) with her associates, but now added on a Bachelors)?

And now, she's in an ad encouraging other people to do the same.  And because it's involved with Brigham Young University and the Church's stance on continuing education, I guess, she gets to be stuck on the bulletin board on the wall.  And that makes me happy.

And it might have made me laugh a little bit, too.

And now, some photos to go along with the last couple posts:

If you count the one lonely leg already attached to the toy (and sitting there all by its lonesome for the last few weeks), you will see 5 (FIVE!) left legs.  And there on the right, the coveted, long-awaited right leg.  Blessed right leg!

And I recognize that this is not a great photo, but look how happy he is to be playing in his new toy!  He still loves it!

And these are the intestines I made.  It's okay, I'll say what you're thinking for you:  Awesome.

Wishing you all Joyful Moments that are:  Awesome.

Day 273: Still Energizer Bunny-ing

My children got to wear their Halloween costumes.  Again.  And this time they pulled in a major haul of candy.  We don't trick-or-treat on Sunday because it's the Lord's day.  So, since Halloween falls on a Sunday this year, we had a "Trunk-or-Treat" in the church parking lot.  If you're not familiar with this idea, basically everyone parks their cars and then hands out candy out of their trunk.  Really festive people even decorate their trunks.  It's great.

I didn't decorate my trunk.  I didn't even take my trunk.  My HH was given the exciting opportunity to attend the football game today with one of my friend's husbands.  So, we had their family over to make spooky face pizzas for dinner and then we all headed over together.

Just before heading over to the church, we did a little practice run at our next door neighbors.  They gave the kids king-size candy bars.  And then gave them another.  Because they know hardly anyone will come t-o-t-ing on our street tomorrow night.  And our children need two king size candy bars.  Each.  Shockingly, that was a Joyful Moment for my kids, but not as much for me.  But don't worry, my fabulous neighbors then gave me a treat when they offered to watch Baby B while we went to the Trunk-or-Treat.

I think they were joking, but I took them up on it anyway.  I missed my BB, but it was so nice to not have to worry about him because the parking lot madness was chaotic enough with the other two.  And don't worry about my neighbors, they're always asking if they can watch Baby B.  And he was in such a good mood when I picked him up.  He had all kinds of things to say to me and, as you can guess, that was another Joyful Moment.  He is S.O.  C.U.T.E!!!

Wishing you all Joyful Moments and the opportunity to wear your Halloween costume at least 3 times this year!

Day 272: I'm "The Grossest!"

Too many things!

Remember when I bought that play station for Baby B?  Well, it's been quite the adventure, but I now own 5 left legs and 1 right leg.  The mail man came to my door with the package yesterday and when I saw him I squealed with delight and could not contain my Joyful Moment.  He was trying to tell me that they should have shipped it in a box (the package had torn open), but I was busy telling him that I'd like to hug him except that I thought it might not be appropriate.  And then he left.

And I kept the Joyful Moment going as I put it together.  Actually, Little M slipped the leg into place (take that all you Customer Service Reps who thought I was just to inept to put it together!).  Baby B was asleep, but after he finally woke up and ate his lunch, I stuck him in it.  And he just sat there smiling and talking away as he played in it.  So cute!  And satisfying.

Other Joyful Moments of note included taking the kids trick-or-treating at the gym and having a good time as a family.

Then we left the kids with a baby sitter and headed off to a Halloween Party.  It was really well done.  Tons of fun!  And I won an award for "The Grossest" food.  I'll have to post a picture of it later when I upload to my computer.  But I made intestines.  Awesome!  I totally knew I'd win.  And I'm more than a little competitive, so is it wrong that that was a Joyful Moment for me?

Plus, dressing up was pretty fun in and of itself.  I went as a punk rocker and HH went as Napoleon Dynamite.  Another Joyful Moment was watching him spontaneously do the Napoleon Dynamite dance in front of all our friends.  He's normally a little reserved in public.  But apparently, donning a wig has a liberating effect on him.  It was so funny!  And I loved that our friends got to see a little piece of the hysterical man I married.

Fun fun fun day!

Wishing you all Joyful Moments in excelling at grossness!

Day 271: Slow And Easy

So, after babying my feet for a couple weeks, I've finally been running again.  Although, it's a whole new ballgame now.  The technique for running barefoot is so totally different, it's almost like learning a new sport.

Today's Joyful Moment was running in them for 8 minutes.  JM because that's the longest I've gone since that very first fateful run.  JM because I stopped myself before overdoing it.  The tendinitis is still somewhat tender.  "Taking it easy" when it comes to my running has always been sort of impossible for me.  Once I get going, there are so many voices in my head telling me I have to go harder, faster, longer and I struggle to tune them out and give way to reason.  In fact, I pretty much never do.

So, I'm really proud of myself because this time, I think I've finally got things figured out.  No more running until I'm physically ill.  Baby steps until I've got this new technique figured out, then I can figure out what kind of running I'm really capable of.  And looking forward to that day is yet another Joyful Moment.

Wishing you all slow and easy Joyful Moments!

Day 270: It Has Begun

Trick-or-Treating, that is.

Tonight we went to the annual "Boo at the Zoo".  Joyful Moment seeing the kiddos in their costumes.  And how totally impressed they were with my face painting skills.  Sweet P is a bat (a costume my mama sewed when I was a kid) and Little M is a cow.  I painted Sweet P's face all black and Little M's all white, except for a black circle around one eye.  I'm amazing.

"Just moms know everything, not dads"--Little M.

Then we met up with some friends at the zoo.  These kinds of events are always more enjoyable when there are more adults to converse with and more cute children to watch having fun.  Plus, her husband seems to have a lot in common with HH and, let's be honest, I would love for him to have some closer friends.  And if those closer friends could be married to some of my friends that would be ideal.  Plus, I like these friends.

And, naturally, everyone who saw my little pea pod Baby B cooed at how adorable he looked in costume and with his crazy fluffy hair.  And that is always a Joyful Moment.

Now, if I could just figure out what I want to dress up as for Halloween... Any ideas?

Wishing you all Joyful Moments involving penguins (they're new at our zoo and they are adorable)!

Day 269: Choices

So, I've been going through a bit of a rough patch as of late.  Mostly just cranky.  Yesterday HH had a stressful day, too and then (lucky him) came home to Mrs. CrabbyPants.  We just sort of rubbed each other the wrong way all evening and made each other grumpier.  So, after posting here last night, I sat and caught up on other friends' blogs for a bit while the back of my brain worked through things.  I finally remembered what I've already learned a billion times:  I can choose to stay mad at HH for no real reason besides that I'm just grumpy, or I can choose to not be.

After an hour and a half, I was ready for the second choice.  I went upstairs and apologized to him for being lame when he needed a little support.  He's pretty much always great at forgiving, so we went to bed maybe a little bit sad with the world, but at peace and love with each other.

Which made waking up this morning better than it otherwise would have been.  I had an early appointment with a psychologist (yay) that I was pretty apprehensive about.  Having HH on my side definitely helped put me at ease about it.  But it was still a hectic morning getting myself and the kids ready to head out the door, dropping them off at a friend's, and then driving across town to the therapist my doctor picked out for me.

That went all right.  The rest of the day went okay.  A friend invited us to go swimming in the afternoon.  I never want to do that because it just feels like too much work, but today I decided it was worth the sacrifice for how much the kids would love it.  So, after naps I got everyone all ready, woke poor Baby B up from his nap early, and loaded everyone in the car.  We pulled in to the gym parking lot just in time for Sweet P to puke all over the entire back half of the van.

Awesome.

We went home and I spend an hour cleaning out the van.  Which was nice because I've been meaning to give it a deep cleaning for sometime now.  I just would have preferred to do this sans the throw up smell that almost made me toss my own cookies a few times.

Not a Joyful Moment--in case you were wondering.

Where am I going with all of this?  Well, I just needed to set the stage for you that today was not the best of days.  And then factor in that I'm already leaning toward crankiness anyway, and well, you get the picture.

And that was when I realized that if I didn't do something, we'd have a repeat of yesterday and really, yesterday was pretty lame.  So, I put on a crazy pair of pants that might be part of my Halloween costume if I can figure out what all to put together (basically, they are super-tight, snake skin, pleather pants--awesome).  And I kept them on until HH got home.

It's amazing what a crazy pair of pants can do to a couple of tired, cranky-prone adults.  Don't worry, nothing crazy happened.  It just made HH smile which made me smile at him instead of griping at him.

Whew!

So, choosing to rise above the bad attitude that is seriously fighting to take over my world right now was my Joyful Moment.

The End.

Wishing you all Joyful Moments that happen in an instant but take a novel to explain!

Day 268: Inter-Galactic

Today was kind of overwhelming.  The kids are out of school for Fall Break (really?  Because it doesn't seem like they've been in school long enough to warrant a break, but not my decision).  Now, don't get me wrong--Sweet P is still my Sweet P, it's just that we're all kind of used to her being at school most of the day.

It was like everyone was competing for my attention all day.  At full volume.  And my sensory processors are exhausted.

Plus, we had a normal day on top of that which included:  gym, visit with the lactation specialist, quick trip to the baby store to pick up a fun supplement to enhance my milk supply, babysitting for a friend, and trying to carve pumpkins.

Overwhelming.

But during dinner, a friend stopped by with her family to go "ghosting".  I'd never heard that verb before, but apparently, it involves dressing everyone up in sheets and running circles around the tree in our front yard.  Hilarious.  And the littlest one was beyond adorable in his little pillow case.

Joyful Moment.

And they brought us a bag of Milky Ways.  When it comes to regular old candy bars, Milky Way is hands down my favorite.  Of course, I haven't had one in ages since they involve dairy.  But Baby B has given the okay for me to add some dairy back in to my diet.  (Hooray!)  So, I popped one of those babies in my mouth and for a moment, that Milky Way and I melted together.  Chocolate and caramel.  Yum.

Joyful Moment.

Wishing you all Joyful Moments that are out of this world!