Penny for my thoughts

More like -- A quarter for my blabber--

My younger brother and his sweet wife just welcomed their first child into the world on July 3rd. Whitney Elizabeth came ready for the world, weighing in at 9 pounds 9 ounces. It is a little crazy for me to imagine Cameron as a dad. He was always just "my little brother." I am so excited for these two. They will certainly be great parents. Whitney is one lucky little girl.

It hit me the other day when I was talking to my oldest neice, (on the Woolf side at least) Brittney is 13. Wow, Brandon has a kid that's a teenager, this beautiful and quite mature young lady sitting next to me belongs to my brother; how did this all happen? Brittney was born the day after I went into the MTC. How have I let time pass by me?

Next month Mark and I will celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary and Ethan will turn 8. Somedays I find myself sitting at the dinner table just staring at everyone and trying to figure out how I got to where I am and why have I been blessed with so much?

I have three amazing boys to call my own. How they bring so much love and joy to me. They also drive me crazy and make me second guess myself, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't be the person I am without being their mother. But last night, I didn't want to be a mom. Alex hadn't been feeling well, and I had to decide whether or not he was sick enough to take to the doctor. He's nine months ,and I hate not knowing exactly what's wrong with the kid. He was just miserable. Anyway....the doctor said he has an ear infection and has since lost his voice from crying so much. I think the antibiotics are finally kicking in and he's finally able to get some sleep.

Looks like I need to run, Batman, (aka Ethan), Darth Vadar, (aka Aaron), and one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, (aka our neighbor Isabelle) just ran out the front door. It's off to save the world!!!!!

A few firsts....

Fashion 101
This morning as Aaron was in the shower, I performed one of my motherly duties and picked out some clothes for him to wear. When he looked at what I had chosen for him he said, "I can't wear that. Mom, you don't know fashion."
He then proceeded to pick out his own outfit, I was awaiting his return with great anticipation, wanting to know what is the latest in fashion for 5-year boys going to preschool for the day. He brought back a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt. He then began his explanation of why these clothes were a better choice.
"See mom, these underwear have white on them, this tag on my shirt is white, and these shorts have a white stripe."
Makes sense right!!?? This kid wants to match EVERYTHING. So you'd think he would look okay, right? Not always the case, but he really goes for matching outfits. I guess I should look into the Garanimals line of clothing for him. Sounds right up his alley. I just wonder what he thinks about what I pick out for myself to wear. I'll have to ask the kid. Guess it's good I don't go to preschool with him, I'm sure I'd embarrass him for sure.


PB&J
I know this sounds so un-American, but I don't like peanut butter sandwiches. The thought of peanut butter spread on two pieces of bread just never did it for me. I have no recollection of having them as a kid, although I'm sure mom made them for me. Eating them as a child has been suppressed from my memory.

Fast forward 30 years....

The other day I was making sandwiches for the little guys and thought, why not? Live on the wild side here Mindy. Mark said if I was actually going to try this out, I would have to use the crunchy peanut butter, not creamy. SO on went the CRUNCHY peanut butter and next came the strawberry jam. I laid it on thick, the jam that is, I thought I might need to ease into this peanut butter thing. Mark also said I would need a glass of COLD milk to accompanying this virgin sandwich. As they say, the rest is history.
You ask, what did Mindy eat for lunch today? Why a peanut butter sandwich of course. And all along I thought this PB&J thing was for the birds.


Let's play HOUSE!!!
Being the mom of three boys I never thought I would hear these words coming from them. Then a little girl moves into the neighborhood that my two older boys are smitten by and the next thing I know my boys are playing house. Today they actually called it "Family." Maybe that's more politically correct, I'm not sure, or maybe that sounded more manly for them. Either way, all I have to say is that they play for hours and they have quite the imaginations. It's getting a little confusing for me when I hear them calling for "Mommy" and they really don't want me but the aforementioned little neighbor girl.

Sign me up for Summer, maybe?

Here I sit on the verge of summer vacation, and I'm not quite sure I am really ready for it to finally hit. You know the scenerio, no rush to eat breakfast or get out the door in the morning, kids riding their bikes in the street, playing in the sprinkler or splashing in the slip n' slide with the rest of the neighborhood kids, Otter Pops and more Otter Pops, lunch at the park, dirty little feet and sweaty faces. The list could go on and on. But this summer is different. This summer I have three little boys to hang out with, one of which that needs a bit more attention.

Now all I need to do is figure out how am I going to keep up with two little boys who want to be outside playing and their baby brother needs his mother inside. Somedays I wish I really was Elasti-Girl and could stretch myself a little bit further.

Sonic Good

I just enjoyed myself a free rootbeer float -- compliments of Sonic. And did I mention that I L.O.V.E. rootbeer floats? I love them so much that when I (well, really my mom) was planning my wedding, I told my mom I just wanted to have rootbeer floats and popcorn at my reception. She even made it come true -- I know it sounds a little crazy, but she pulled it off in class.
So thanks are in order here -
First to my little sis, Marty, for giving me the heads up on FREE floats at Sonic.
Second to my lovely husband Mark, for driving to Sonic to get me a float when I know he really wanted to be in bed sleeping.
Third to the people at Sonic - and just like the cup says, it really is "even sweeter after dark."

Billy Blind Cleaners I'm Not

I found time today to actually do the some "Spring Cleaning" that's been on my list of things to do for a while now. As much as I dislike cleaning windows and blinds, I really love the end result, just wish it would last longer.
I had to laugh though, as I was cleaning the blinds in my bedroom window, I couldn't believe what I saw. Pulling up to my neighbor's home was this big ol' white truck with "Billy's Blind Cleaner" plastered on the side. For a split moment I thought my dreams had come true and someone else was coming to clean my blinds for me, but alas, it wasn't true. If I wanted to have clean blinds, I was going to have to do it myself. To all those lucky people out there that actually have someone else clean their blinds, "Can you really enjoy your clean blinds as much as I enjoy mine?"


Just because it made me laugh....and I didn't want to forget it!
Yesterday Aaron was outside playing on the playground when he dropped something and exclaimed, "CRAP!"
I quickly turned to him and said, "Aaron, I don't think that's something we should say."
Aaron looked at me and very seriously said, "Okay, how about 'HOLY CRAP?'"

Another fun weekend

Last weekend we were able to go to my parents' and spend time with Cameron and Miranda as well as see Margett and the kids before they all headed back home. Our stay included good food -- of course, playing grandma and grandpa's new wii (thanks to Cameron and Miranda), four-wheelers rides, Car Legos, throwing Easter Eggs up on Giraffe Hill, and stringing beads.

Mom made sure we enjoyed ourselves and let the girls make a beaded watch. They turned out super cute, at least I thought we did pretty well. I didn't even think about getting any photos of most our activites. I think we were just having too much fun.

Alex loved meeting his new cousin. They were born all of 14 days apart. The two boys got all decked out in their matching outfits. They were funny to watch with each other. Get them too close to one another and soon one would be sucking on the other's fingers or one would be pulling on the other. I'm sure they'll be great friends as the grow up.

After weekends like this, I really wish that my siblings lived closer. We are all spread out across the nation...good thing are hearts are knit together with love.

My New Adventure

I flew under the radar for six months and enjoyed just going to church and not having to worry about Sharing Time or if all the Primary Teachers would be there. It was good while it lasted. One Saturday morning about a month ago, I received a call from the Stake President who asked that Mark and I meet with him later that evening. Needless to say, that's not my way to start off a Saturday. The rest of the day was filled with worrying about what it was he wanted to see us for. I was convinced that he was giving Mark a new calling.

As it turned out, the calling was for me. Uggggh! A new program would be implemented for the Young Men and Young Women, and I was asked to help out. Our stake has very few youth, a total of 32 MiaMaids. Our Stake President has asked that we combine the mid-week activities or mutual with the six wards and do this by age-groups. I am the Stake MiaMaid Committee Leader, which in short means I oversee the MiaMaids' weekly mutual activity, and chair a committee of six Young Women 1st Counselors from each ward.

I haven't been in Young Women's for a while now...it's been fun to back. We've only had one activity so far, but I look forward to working with the MiaMaids. Haven't served with them before, always been with the Beehives.

If anyone out there has any great ideas they would love to pass on, I'm all ears!!