Anyone could confuse the two

When asked in primary who this prophet was, Max was unusally excited to know the answer!
Chancellor Palpatine of course!!

Really anyone could mix the two up right?

Missionaries in Michigan

This past weekend we went to Ann Arbor to visit Eldon's parents on their mission. They are serving a CES mission at the University of Michigan. We have decided it is the most absolutely perfect getaway. It's only three hours, no hotel cost, and since we are with missionaries, it's cheap too!

Eldon's mom and dad really went all out for us there. They bought a real tent to set up in the living room for the boys. They had little airmattresses, and battery powered lanterns for them. They were in HEAVEN! Their apartment is furnished right from the famous church furniture we have all grown up with so it had a very "homey" feel to it. We really enjoyed learning about what they are doing, seeing the institute, and just taking it easy for a few days.

I loved having no TV. The boys had to play games and with each other which was great. On the last night, they had had enough of the missionary sacrifice of no visual media so we plugged in both laptops on each end of the couch. There they sat with their backs to one another and we had a marvelous album of Star Wars and the Wonderpets to entertain us for the evening.

We worked on a quilt for the new baby girl and played games and ate. Couldn't have been more relaxing. I am so happy that they get to leave everything behind and serve together. They are loving it and are so happy.

I'm finally a real mom and a real member of the Worthington Ward

I am a Honda Odessey mini van driver and I love it!!

Cruelty

Shaving legs while pregnant. I haven't heard much about this from other women, but anytime I bring it up I usually get a moan. At first I thought it was just me because I'm a bigger girl with a stand up shower. But I have come to realize that bending over while you are 30 weeks pregnant for any length of time for any woman is just cruel. So today I must take a moment to share just how cruel this is.

Like I mentioned above, I don't have a tub in my shower. The shower is just long enough and wide enough that I can't hurle my leg up against the wall either. That has never worked before for me anyway because my legs lets just say are really heavy. The only way I can make it work is to either bend in half and frantically run the razor up and down my legs or to sit on the floor risking to create an unbelievable suction between my buttocks that won't let me get back up again. It's always a huge ordeal.

Let me digress for a minute. My poor husband. When we were first married, I shaved my legs almost daily to have the smoothest legs possible. He didn't even think hair grew on my legs. Well as time went by, it became more and more infrequent. I believe now he understands that my leg hair can catch up to him at anytime if I so desire. Let's just say, I haven't gotten to that point because that's just nastybut we have been close during the last tri-mester of pregnancy.

Back to pregnant shaving. Because I have no oxygen with water running into my eyes, and it is the most painful experience possible I usually let my leg hair grow a little longer just so I can see where I need to shave. The risk: missed patches look unbelievably disgusting. When you are 30 weeks pregnant, not only is it a feat to get to the floor to shave your legs, but getting back up may never happen!!

Today is Sunday. I feel that since I wear a skirt on Sunday's I should have minimal leg hair. I wear the same skirt every Sunday with awful black knee highs. Some of the knee highs you can see through and others not. I never know what will be clean so it's always a gamble. Today was not only the knee high debacle, but it had been a considerable amount of time and so I met the shower with a new blade and determination. I decided to quickly bend over and get it over with. After two seconds into the first leg, I felt like the baby's foot was crawling up my esophogus and my liver was going to explode. I began to be light headed, and there was water running into my eyes. I tried to remember to breathe and went as quickly as I could. One leg down I stood up to start the other. By this time, I already am completely hesitant but I can't have one leg done and the other hairy. So I take a deep breath and bend over for the next round. I race with the razor. I finish quickly and think, I survived. I get out of the shower and begin to lotion my legs and see the tiger stripes on the second leg. In my haste, I totally missed spots and eeewww. I refuse to get back in to fix it and say that will have to wait until the next shower.

So many of you may be saying, "why doesn't she shave in the tub?" I cannot sit in hair infested water. It's just something I can't do. I also don't clean my own tub and am too embarrassed to have the cleaning lady wipe up my hair. It's gross. I have told myself to not complain about this problem, "FIND A SOLUTION!" I even bought this hold to anything handle on an infomercial that I thought I could just prop my leg up on while shaving because it was supposed to "hold to anything." Yeah except for the small print of, not in water and with large amounts of body weight resting on it. The first time I tried, I hit my head on the wall when it broke free and sent me flying.

I think the only solution is going to be remodeling. Our shower is a mess and we need to replace it. I will not let the design go without a place to put up my leg to shave. If anyone else has a solution, or feels the same as I, please share!!

Some Pics from Photography Class

We took a trip to the Franklin Park Conservatory. It was so much fun to have two hours to take pictures without kids hanging on your arm and to experiment with what we learned in our class. I highly recommend the class.

It was freezing outside but pretty.

This is the Chihule art. I over exposed the picture and I think it looks cool.

Very pretty little flower.

Funny sayings

So the snow days last week really threw the Gale house off track. The kids had been very used to getting up and out the door. When the snow days came, they could lounge around in the morning on both Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday I had a 10 am meeting so we weren't in a real hurry in the morning. Then they had the weekend. Needless to say, Monday and Tuesday were awful!! How easily they forget!

Max is slow. He cannot find urgency anywhere in his soul. Combine that with not wanting to get out the door and it's a nightmare. I had to be to work early on Monday and Tuesday. Jackson was in tears both mornings over really silly things. I hate that. I get the biggest guilt complex when I'm hurling them into the cold and they are still trying to wake up.

So this morning I didn't have to be to work as early and so the morning slowed down a bit. I let Max play Lego Star Wars while I was getting ready. We have had an issue with him understanding that when we ask him to stop playing that we are not being mean, we are just needing him to do something else. So I told him that when I got out of the shower I would yell down to him that it was time to get dressed and he had to pause and get dressed and then he could play again until it was time to leave. So after my shower I yelled down and he paused the game immediately and said, "OK mom, I love to follow all of your GREAT rules!" I about fell over with shock and laughter. Even better was when I said it was time to leave, he pushed pause and came up immediately. This has never happened. He even had a smile on his face. WHAT????

Now Jackson had me laughing out of control this morning. He likes to watch Blues Clues and Little Einsteins in the morning while I am getting ready. I got out of the shower and he said to me, "Mom, can you get me a doughnut?" First, I was struggling to understand how he thought we had doughnuts? We never do. So then I told him we didn't have any and so he said, "Mom, I'll just have some candy." I told him no and asked him if he was hungry. He then said, "I just need some chicken nuggets with ranch dressing." I told him it was too early for chicken. He paused for a minute and said, "I know, if you give me candy, I won't throw the wrappers on the floor!!" He has a very bad habit of just dropping whatever wrappers on the floor he ends up with and I am always trying to get him to pick them up or throw them away. I thought it was so clever of him to try and negotiate with me.

So overall it was a great morning and I am so grateful to have these moments with my kids when I can't be with them all day.

Being sick while you are pregnant

This goes out to everyone. Does anyone have a good idea on how to take care of a nasty cold while you are pregnant? I'm sure there are some herbal somethings or another. Or just some weird thing that works that I don't know about. I'm sick and I'm tired of being sick. I have the Vicks tissues and I'm drinking lots of water and taking my vitamins. What am I missing?

HELP!

Christmas 08

Christmas Eve with new PJ's and cousin Parker





The tree and some bounty.

















My favorite picture of my kids and the least favorite when I was a teenager. But you have to have the waiting to go downstairs picture.

We had a great Christmas. Eldon got a LeCreuset pan. I got a Photography class and some UGG slippers, and the boys were covered in Thomas and Star Wars. It was a wonderful day and season. Jack finally gets it and Max is right in the middle of all the bliss.

What's up with us

So this week, Eldon is traveling. What does this mean? We had popcorn for dinner last night at Target. The boys and mom get more TV in, and I go to bed when the boys do. It's my favorite thing.

I am trying to get ready for the little baby girl coming our way. Eldon has grand plans for the nursery so I haven't done much there, but slowly I am accumulating things I think I may need. I have hit a few wonderful sales for her next winter wardrobe, but am going to wait until the spring collection goes on sale for 0-6 months.

Thoughts about having a girl. I have always been a tom boy. Anything feminine I do or have has been completely because of Eldon. My poor mom had to wait for my sister to live out all of her little girl dreams. It's just not in me. I would darn straight rather watch a war movie, ball game, or crime drama than a chick flick anytime. I hate dresses. I endure jewelry. I don't mind wearing it once it's on, it is just the shopping for it and remembering to wear it that is a problem. I try to not be emotional, but I can't get rid of all the female genes. So the thought of a little girl is a little frightening.

I am so excited don't get me wrong. I guess I just look at how close my mom and I are and I am really excited to have that with a daughter. I don't know how to do hair, so I don't want her to be a freak. I hate giggling and drama. I promise I won't be a pagent mom. I wouldn't even know where to look it up online to read about it. I used to light Barbies on fire, so I will have to get over that. I might have to admit that lightsabers aren't the only cool toy and possibly learn something about fairies, princesses, and stuff. Not nearly as cool as the whole Star Wars/Harry Potter movement, but I guess I will survive. So, with all that being said, I'm sure this is really good for me.

Eldon and I swear that Max and Jack got the absolute best things we have to offer genes wise and we just hope that there are a few left. We both have many undesirable traits in us and in our families that we hope get passed by again. So for the next few months, I will be processing all of this, but I'm sure once I hold her, I will be just fine with a girl.

Retrieving the Tree

Every year we go to the Cackler Farms in Delaware Ohio to
get our Christmas Tree. The reason why we continue to go
is because of the sled we pull the kids in. I have pictures every
year of this and you can really see how the kids have grown.
This was such a cold day. We didn't spend that much time
looking but we found our favorite tree. Jackson looks like
the little brother in "A Christmas Story". We were very
happy to get in the warm car and feel ourselves thaw out.

The Boy, Dog, and Insensitive Mom

Now when you look at this, you may say, look at how much this boy loves this dog. What amazing friends they must be. What a fulfilled life the two will have together. Then you learn that this is not his dog, it's a cousin's dog. This boy's mom has no intention of providing this type of relationship for him anytime soon. Is this cruel, or just an understanding that his mom is not a dog lover and having a new baby in 4 months?

It's the latter I promise. I keep telling Eldon that we need to enclose the fence in the back yard, and the boys need to be able to help. Yeah that's a few years away. Jack really did love this dog. He has named every other stuffed animal dog after her and will someday have a fantastic relationship with one. I just can't think about it right now.

Catch up

One of the problems of having a 4GB card for your camera, is that you don't have to download the pictures to your computer ever. So I am not prepared to post Christmas memories at this time, but I have had some thoughts I can share. Pictures are to come.

I'll start with the most recent experience since I can remember it. Yesterday. Eldon and I are preparing to move to one income. While I have been working we have never had to really be concerned about what we have spent. So to avoid the shock and change in a few months, we are trying to wittle down what we spend on food. It's a start. On Sunday, we planned our menu for the week and I made a grocery list. I went to Walmart yesterday and it only cost me $58!!!! I about fell over. We have meals for every night of the week and food for breakfast. Since we both work, we still eat out for lunch most days, but this is a tremendous start. I even bought a few things not on the list for food storage. I was so energized when I left. I actually felt like we can make this work. Now I know that every week isn't going to end up being $58, but hey here's to the first one!

Second thought. During the "holidays" to be politically correct, I met with my boss to tell him of my plans. It was SO HARD!! I have always known this was going to be a challenge for me. I love what I do. I love earning money. I love interacting with different people everyday. I love learning about the technology. I came home kind of annoyed or more of a brat really. It's going to be a trial. But then I spent the next week with my kids at home. I saw the groove we got into. I saw how much I noticed about them that I have been missing that will be critical to their development. I was enveloped by the spirit helping me to be ok with this. I am excited and sad at the same time. I have been SO grateful for all the help people have given me to make this work. I have a fantastic babysitting set up that was more ideal than could have ever been imagined. I have had people carting my kids around for me to various places all the time. So many have stepped up to help make my working work. I have been so blessed. I am really excited to just be able to drive my kids to where they need to go.

The biggest thing I will miss about working full time is I will have to let my cleaning lady go. It has been pure bliss and I aspire to have her again someday. Who knows, maybe I can save up for a six month spring cleaning time twice a year. So here goes extra faith, courage, and prayers to making it happen this time.