Pretend you are Pioneers

 We knew visiting Nauvoo in April might be cold.  It was cold.  Very, very cold and the wind blew 99% of the time.  However, as long as you are not a pioneer heading across the Mississippi river, cold is perfect for Nauvoo.  We would run from house to house and enjoy our time inside.  However, we were excited when we found out that there were quilts to use on the wagon ride.  The cute missionaries kept telling us "Take more quilts!  Wrap up in six quilts!" and so we did.  We stayed warm and some of us even enjoyed a nap during the ride!

We were so well wrapped, it reminded me of a passage from Little House in the Big Woods:
"Ma and Aunt Eliza wrapped up the cousins.  They pulled heavy woolen stockings over the woolen stockings and the shoes they were already wearing.  They put on mittens and coats and warm hoods and shawls, and wrapped mufflers around their necks and thick woolen veils over their faces.  Ma slipped pipping hot baked potatoes into their pockets to keep their fingers warm, and Aunt Eliza's flatirons were hot on the stove, ready to put at their feet in the sled.  The blankets and the quilts and the buffalo robes were warmed, too."

3000 miles

A few weeks ago we jumped in the car and drove 3000 miles in 8 days.  OK, so we didn't quite jump in the car.  Packing for 8 requires a little more time than that:-)  Our destination: Nauvoo, IL and everything within 400 miles of the planned route. 

The trip was amazing.  There will be more to come about my favorite parts.  For now, a memory I will treasure is an early morning run I took down Parley Street to the Mississippi River.  It was quite, peaceful, and cold.  Cold enough that I could very well imagine the pioneers lining that street. 

On my last visit to Nauvoo I was about the start my second year of college.  I had no idea where my life would lead in the next year, let alone the next 15 years.  On my last visit to Nauvoo, there was no temple- just a big grassy lot- waiting. 

When I turned to run back up the hill I saw what that grassy lot had waited for all those years.  And it took my breath away. 

First Flowers of Spring

Although I am an Arizona girl at heart, I do love the seasons in the frozen north (as my family calls anything north of Phoenix!)  The first flowers are the best part of spring.  Paul's sister Suzanne gave me this flower last year and I was so excited to see it bloom this spring. 

Little Things

At our Relief Society Birthday celebration last month, we were encouraged to look for the little things we are doing well.  I think it has been helpful for my attitude about life.

This morning when I saw this:

I did not waste time wondering if I had failed as a mother teaching my children to clean up their breakfast (or me clean up my own rice cooker for that matter!).  Or wonder why my kitchen doesn't look perfect.

Instead, I thought to myself "I am perfecting the lived in look." 

PS When I actually looked at this picture, I realized that it doesn't look that bad. I don't think the picture does justice to the full scope of the mess. 

And Then There Were None

Nathan got his tonsils out, or more correctly, Nathan had a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.  I felt so bad taking a healthy little man into the hospital knowing that he would come out pretty miserable.

We kept him on pain medication and pretty sedate the first day (thank you Nexus (tablet) sedative. Nathan is now a 100 floors, Freddi Fish, Pitfall expert).

The instructions from the hospital said he shouldn't lift more than 20 pounds and take it easy for two weeks.  Yeah.  Tell that to a 3 year old.

By day two he looked like this:

Two little monkeys

Unfortunately day three and four were pretty rough.  I think we are through the worst part. 

At the hospital they warned me that he might develop really bad breath until his throat healed.  After the 5th person warned me about the halitosis (take that ACT vocab) I wondered what the big deal was.  How bad could it be?  They did not kid.  It is bad.  As in we didn't take him to church bad. As in three feet away bad. 

I bought 563 popsicles in preparation for the surgery.  Apparently Nathan doesn't like popsicles.  Is it summer yet?

Little Friend

This year it is just Nathan and I in the mornings.  So what do you do on laundry day when Mom is folding a bunch of laundry and you don't feel so well?  Curl up on a pile of towels and take a nap of course.  He is a sweetheart.