Disclaimer: I probably shouldnt be writing this in the state im in, being tired after such a long few weeks... but i have to explain why, so just ignore the sarcasm, because there will be plenty! Also, a lot has happened so please be prepared for the short novel before you, go potty and grab a snack before you start...
The Beginning of May was Nephis 8th Birthday (may 2nd to be exact) and since my sister Shannon was visiting from Hawaii we decided to go to Go Kart World in Carson.
So the Saturday before his birthday (may 1st) we got everyone ready to go (grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, etc) and Shane says to me in a very helpful way;
"So, how much does it cost to go to Go Kart World?"
So, I looked it up online and found out that the tickets are discounted if purchased online and in bulk, which was great! (please note that, here, i was not being sarcastic)
And we set off!
(on a side note, my Palm Pre phone had been cracked a few days previously somehow on my couch by an unknown culprit, "police" are still investigating. Keep that in mind.)
Nephi got to bring his cousin Sage, who he absolutely ADORES, which made this trip a 100% awesome in the "Good Mom: Score Book" and EVERYONE had a BLAST. Even Elijah got to go on a go kart with me! Willow got to ride the baby go kart, which was hilarious! (photos coming as soon as they get uploaded and emailed) The Grandparents (all four) had fun riding too. It was just a good day!
Then of course I had to go and do something dumb.
Shane handed me his phone because a friend of mine called while we were waiting in line to get on the go karts. So I end the call as I'm getting in the go kart and stick the phone in my left pocket, since mine is in my right pocket.
As we are getting off the go karts and I look around for my MIL who is holding Willow, Shane says to me, "Can I have my phone back?" and as I reach into my pocket my heart skips a beat in horror when I realize that my left pocket is, in fact, completely empty. Quickly I check my right pocket because perhaps somehow by some mystical force of nature maybe, just maybe, Shanes phone might have beamed itself into that pocket to be with its one true love, my cell phone. Then, with a quickening of my pulse, I realize that both phones are missing! They must have slid out of my pockets while on the go kart, it was the only, and most obvious, explanation.
Shane and I look at each other after I finish checking my right pocket, he sees the horrified expression on my face and we both run back towards the go kart entrance.
Unfortunately another go kart session had begun, but almost finished, so we waited as patiently as we could for the workers to come over and acknowledge our existence long enough for me to ask one of them "if" they had found our phones.
(Now I was only being a little sarcastic here, and the reason for this was because I knew damn well they found our phones, the only question was whether or not they would tell me. I know I'm being a bit pessimistic, or rude perhaps, but I grew up near Carson and I know how some people are)
Anyways, after I ask them, one of the guys looks at the other and says quietly, "..hey that phone.." or something of the sort. The second guy then proceeds (and quite reluctantly I might add) to walk over to us and holds up a Palm Pre with a very noticeable crack on the screen. I knew it was mine immediately because of said previous injury to the phone.
"We found it on the track." says the man.
My heart fell.
Oh no! it could be Shanes! Please dont let it be Shanes phone! Please please please! I thought with only slight panic.
You see, I was sitting in a two person kart and I was on the left, so my left side was the only side next to the track. Shane's phone was in my left pocket.
After what seemed like twenty minutes, he hands me the phone. I check, its mine! Panic: gone.
Where is Shane's phone?
We told him to look in the kart for a second phone, he finds it. And we are once again reunited with our lost smart phones!
(note, we really shouldn't be so dependent on our smart, beautiful, little, hand-held, helpful, robot phones♥)
ANYWAY.... the rest of the day is a big hit and we all go home and have cake!
The Next Morning is Sunday, Nephi's actual birthday. We planned on going home to go to our own ward so Nephi's friends could sing to him and I had agreed to teach the nursery lesson and all that jazz.
Alas we were awakened early (and by early I mean about 8am, ha ha ha) by a hacking Elijah whose nose was bleeding quite abnormally. So Shane decided it best for us to take him to the ER. That was a good choice because it turned out that he had Pneumonia... or Bronchitis... or Something Along Those Lines. (note my sarcasm, because doctors are people too and dont actually know everything about everyone's bodies, even though they have a degree that says they studied the human body and how it works for ten years straight.) (note on the note, I love doctors and am not bagging on all doctors. Just this particular one)
Either way, I blame our smoke-happy downstairs neighbors and I am not afraid to write it.
It was also kind of lame because it was my sisters last day in LA, she was leaving for Hawaii the next morning.
We had to give our poor sweet little Elijah an inhaler so he could breathe better. And when we got home I had to get his prescription for antibiotics (which i fricken HATE, but i made sure i did it right so it would go away and not mutate in his sweet little body)
He got better and is doing great now, has not needed it again since!
So we finally came home and decided that we should work on planning Nephi's baptism, since he is now 8 years old, he has reached the age of accountability which qualifies him for baptism by immersion for the remission of his sins into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
He was all too eager for this. I love that kid!
By Mid May Shanes brother and sister in law had come to visit from Georgia with their two year old daughter, switching off staying with us and with her family. It was really great to see them! However, this month was proving to be quite busy! They stayed for Mothers day (the brothers made their wives breakfast!♥ got us cards and flowers too) and after church we went to Boomers! It was great because Shane printed out some special Mothers Day coupons, where moms get unlimited play for free in May!! Then if its your birthday you get the whole month to chose when to go get unlimited play free too! Shane and Nephi both got free passes as well! that was pretty nice!
The next day we went to Boomers again!! Of course. Because that day was Shanes moms birthday, so we took her along and left the babies sans Nephi at home with my mom.
It was so much fun and so hilarious to race Shanes mom and Nephi in the Go Karts! We kept spinning each other out and breaking all the rules, and they never told us to stop! It was a really great way to relieve stress!
Finally we had gotten all the preparations done for Nephi to be able to get baptized, with the help of my wonderful friend Amy!
Ever since Elijah's Nemo birthday party the kids wanted me to build them awesome cakes like the Nemo cake I made! I don't blame them, it totally ROCKED! So Nephi originally wanted me to build him a Pokemon cake, but I convinced the sweet kid that it just wasn't appropriate for a baptism. Although he agreed to let me make it for him next year, we did decide on a design for the current years cake.
The Golden Plates!
Now this was an amazing concept, easy to build, no real difficult carving in the design. my only real dilemma was
how the crap do i make it gold?!So of course I Googled "gold cake" and came upon some hilarious sites, mostly mocking the gaudy, golden wedding cakes! Ha! Hilarious. And fortunately I found out how some of them made their cakes shimmer with golden glory!
The "easy" trick was to make a paint out of golden pearl dust and lemon juice. So I bought some pearl dust at Joanns for 4 bucks and tested it.
Nope.
Back to square one...
I figured if i could make it look mostly gold then i can just dust the fondant with the gold dust.
Attempted.
Success!
Victory is mine!!
(pictures to come soon. See, that is why I need my smart phone, people!!)
The Baptism was beautiful! I loved my dads talk, my mother seemed a bit nervous during her performance (goodness only knows why, the woman is a diva!) and Amys talk was great!
After Nephi was baptized he told his dad, "I feel like I just drank a lot of hot coco!" meaning that the spirit filled him with warmth! What a cutie! Im so glad his uncle could be there to see.
The day before the baptism, I got a chance to go to Target and buy some new clothes! I was so excited. I got a few outfits that I love, and hope to be too big for me in six months or less.
My little brother James ended up coming home with us that night and was going to stay for church the next day and I was going to take him home Monday morning so he could get to school. Shanes brother went back to his in-laws. So the house wasnt as crowded as before. They were going to come back that Monday, though, so I needed to clean up the house!
After church we came home and relaxed, which was nice! But that night I really needed to get some cleaning done before Shanes brother and wife came back! So I was running around the house picking up stuff, I went in the kitchen and as I was walking swiftly back into the living room my pinky toe got caught on the TV stand, like it so often does, only this time it snapped in the middle of the bone!
Who ever would have thought that such a tiny little insignificant appendage would harness so much pain... I never would have thought.
This stupid, and preventable, injury cost me my whole foot for a month. I couldnt clean up the house, I could barely walk without pain for a couple weeks AND we still hadnt taken my brother in law and sister in law to Disneyland yet!! And Folks, if you aren't form southern California, you really can not come here and not go to Disneyland.
This is true, so true that I still went a day and a half after I broke my toe. But that was only because I knew they had wheel chairs and having a wheel chair is like having an unlimited fast pass! Cha-ching! Hey, some good had to come out of this.
We opted to go without the kids this time, which was very weird because I had not gone to Disneyland without kids since I was a kid! So I suppose I had never spent the day at Disneyland without kids (I say this because my hubby took me to D-land on my B-day a few months prior, but it was only the evening, not an entire day)
My mother was gracious enough to take on the task of watching all four of our kids and my niece who was not her biological grandchild. Five kids ranging in age from 8 years to 8 months!
In exchange, I bought her a Disney Princess picture frame with 3D statues of Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella on it. My mom always associates my sisters and I with the Disney Princesses and those four just happened to represent us, in my moms mind. Needless to say she loved it! And I loved the VERY RARE alone time with hubby♥
The next day, which was a Wednesday, they left AGAIN, to go back to sister in laws parents home to visit again before they left for Georgia.
Now heres a tricky thing, ladies and gentlemen, communication! Because, one person can be trying to communicate something with another person, and think that what they said made sense to the other person and everything is planned. But then the other person changed their plans but the original person didnt think they were serious and everything goes wrong and they fight.
Communication is important in a relationship, but first you have to learn how to communicate!! Thats where it gets a little tricky.
The End of May is Shanes birthday, May 21st to be exact. So I said to him, "I am going to throw you a party and invite some friends over for a potluck birthday, would you like that?"
And he replied, "Sounds alright, but you dont have to. I do like spending time with just the family, though" This is where I was confused, because it sounded as though he liked my idea. I have been telling him for years that he should be more outgoing and make more friends and inviting people to a birthday party was the perfect way to do that, so I ignored the comment about not having people come over and settle with the, "sounds alright." part.
I Evited people, made a delicious homemade ice cream cake, created a balloon version of Shane, and made sure to only invite people who I knew liked to talk to him. I did not, as a matter of fact, invite only my friends, because there would have been a lot more mothers with kids there, I tell you!
Everything was ready to go, people came bearing delicious foods, we ate, we talked, we laughed and Shane really looked like he was genuinely having a good time. I really thought that the party was a success, and I think it would have been had his brother been there instead of at his in-laws. He was there because they wanted to celebrate their two year olds birthday on that day since they wouldn't see them during her actual birthday, which was a week from then, because they were going back to Georgia.
The next day, a Saturday, we attended our very first live LDS temple sealing! It was very exciting and very special, because it was the sister of Shanes high school best friend (who had passed away just after high school)
We RSVPd for the sealing around noon, a luncheon afterward, then the ring ceremony (her family is not LDS) and reception in the evening!
We had a great time at the sealing and luncheon. It was the first time i went through the temple wearing black (my foot brace) and hopefully the only time!
After the luncheon we went home to have a break and breastfeed baby Willow. We planned on going to the ring ceremony then reception at 6 or so, Shanes brother and and his wife were at my moms house waiting for us to get back from the luncheon because his brother wanted to give him a birthday gift and hang out for a bit.
I was a little annoyed with this because Shane told me he would dance with me (which he hadn't done for years) I was looking forward to that night for over a month and he was going to blow it off to go see some stupid movie or something with his brother. I said no, we ended up arguing and missed the ring ceremony, were late to the reception, I lost Shane for a few minutes and ended up in the middle of an awkward conversation between three old people, and when I finally got out of that I ate alone, then we left early and didn't even get to dance at all.
Shane said I was being selfish, but I think I was just not allowing him to be selfish (yet again) and that made him mad.
Sometimes guys act different when they are around certain people. This is true yet Shane doesnt really see it.
One thing I really love about talking to my sis in law is the fact that the complaints we have about our husbands (who are brothers) are almost IDENTICAL!
She told me that her hubby acts different around my hubby. This is true. And it bothers her sometimes, and it bothers me. Shane says that we just don't have that same sense of humor and trust me when I say that is a good thing, because all they do is make fun of people including us and its mean and they think its funny.
Okay, maybe we should lighten up a bit. But why don't you try having someone you love laugh at your expense every twenty minutes, how is that?
Anyway, I apologized for not trying to figure out a better solution to the problem. He could have hung out after the reception. But everyone was just stressed out and it had been a long month for everybody.
No real harm done. Right?
All in all it was a very exciting and BUSY month.
So busy, in fact, that it took me several months to write about it!!
