An Ode to a Sunday Afternoon Nap.

On this lovely sunday afternoon, I have been pondering pleasant, sunday afternoon activities. As a child at my church we all learned the "appropriate" activities for a sunday afternoon:

- Write in a journal

- Write a letter 

- Read Scriptures

- Read other books

- Watch a quiet movie

- Avoid on pain of spanking, fighting with siblings

and my dad's personal favorite:

- TAKE A NAP

I was brought up thinking that it was practically mandatory to sleep on sunday afternoons! As a smaller child who, by nature, detested naps, I avoided and resisted them. As I got older, I learned the virtue of a really good nap and learned to really enjoy it. Now that I am the parent, we still do sunday afternoon naps, but not always. I have realized though, that, all of us REALLY enjoy our sleep. Also, that my little family sleeps ADORABLY! 

Case in point:

They learned quickly, this is days after Aubrey was born!

See how peaceful they appear!

This is what you call, "playing till you drop"

Even awkward sleep is cute!

The great, baby burrito, and daddy.....asleep!

"beautiful dreamer....."

look at this and TRY to think of something cuter!!

This was an ACTUAL sunday afternoon nap!

Baby asleep on mommy's chest LOVE IT!!

And just in case, you were wondering.........Yes, I too have been caught on camera.......asleep.

...in my defense I was pregnant at the time.......

  

Grant Me Serenity....

   In the short 5 1/2 years of my marriage I have found that the best way to center myself, when I am feeling chaotic, is to clean and organize my house. (*note* this does NOT work with other people's houses, I know this because I had a job as a maid for a few months and it did not elicit the same level of satisfaction....so no snarky comments about how I should "come 'center myself' at your house" Kay?)  during my first two years of marriage living in our tiny, little, one bedroom, matchbox apartment, if I was going to do a thorough job, it took me about an hour and a half to do a REALLY good job. I would then sit peacefully admiring my work. Today, living in a somewhat (but not too much) bigger place, it takes me most of my day to get it clean to my liking, I am not slower at scrubbing, oh no,

                                               THIS ladies and gentlemen, is the culprit!

(Extra points if you can spot the extreme Andy-Panda
close-up)

I have two small children who don't just want my complete attention, they DEMAND IT! Andrew is typically easy to entertain, just pop in his flavor-of-the-week movie and he is good for a while. Aubrey, however, feels that it is my purpose in life, to hold her ALL THE TIME and keep her entertained and/or fed, whichever she feels is appropriate at the time. Unless she is napping I can hardly put her down for more than 15 minutes at a time before she becomes bored with life and needs me to attempt to convince her that her bouncer is INDEED fun! *sigh* some days I just give up and plop on the couch, baby on my lap and flip through channels. Not today, today I persevered and got my house clean! Success! Victory! Yay me! Because.........it REALLY needed it!

Kitchen Before.....

Kitchen AFTER!

Bar/Andy's toy area before...

Bar/Andy's toy area, AFTER......(ok its not PERFECT, but
seriously I DON'T know what to do with all those toys!)

Dining room  before.....

Dining room AFTER (yes the table did get smaller, I took
     the leaf out, it makes the room seem bigger, and therefore cleaner! )

Living room before......

Living room AFTER!

Red hair, Mother's day, and a hole in my foot

Before: Boring, run-of-the-mill, plain-jane, easy-to-overlook...

I have been pretty predictable in my 25 years on this planet.  I was never what you might call 'rebellious' or 'interesting' during my adolescence and young adulthood. No weird piercings, tattoos or vibrantly colored clothes for me!  And so, after many years of being, well, lets face it BORING, I decided to do something about it!  A tattoo was too permanent for my liking so that was out. Similar reasoning for no more piercings, but I have the added deterrent of two young children who would likely pull and tug on them, so that was out. I could have worked on adding some bright colors to my wardrobe, but come ON now, lets not be CRAZY people! I
finally settled on something that I have always really, wanted to do. I dyed my hair.....RED! Not like a'ginger kid' red, a fiery, intense, 'Ariel from the Little Mermaid' red! Of course being that I am a brunette to begin with it looks more burgundy, but I LOVE it!! It is just enough fun and whimsy to give my look a lift and when I am ready to be boring again, all I have to do is dye it back!

After: Fun, Fiery, Vibrant!

Though, from the comments I have been getting from people, I may keep it this way for a while!
 
I feel that this new color change, (in addition to the work I have been doing to improve my 'post baby' figure) may help to contribute to my goal of being a "hot mama" we shall see..........................

And with THAT lovely segue, Mother's day was this past weekend. Which means, my brother (who is serving a mission for our church, in the Philippines) got to call us!!
First: a little back-story. In early February there was a really bad storm that knocked a tree over in my parents yard. It hit the roof when it fell and caused some damage. After calls to the insurance company and a good roofer, my parents got set up to get a completely new roof. This past weekend they got started, ripping the existing roof off leaving lots of roof debris and nails and stuff all over the yard. The new roof is almost complete (and it looks very nice)
So we have all been anxiously waiting for this phone call, since we haven't gotten to talk to him since Christmas. I write him an e-mail each week and he writes and tells us all the fun and/or crazy and interesting things that happen to him. Since we only get to talk to him on the phone twice a year, I was pretty excited to get to talk to him for a few minutes. I had gone grocery shopping the morning of the day he was scheduled to call. He was supposed to call us around 4:00 in the afternoon so I thought I had plenty of time to get home and be there for "the call". Well I am driving home at 3:30, and my sister calls to tell me that Stephen is ALREADY on the phone!! I rushed to get my cold groceries in the fridge/freezer and then to my parents house to get on the phone. WELL.....remember all the debris in my parents yard? I had been carefully watching where I walked EVERY other time I had been there since they started on the roof, but this ONE time, when I was in a hurry to get inside, and did NOT watch where I was walking....I stepped on a nail. It went right up through my shoe and stuck me in my heel! I was SO frustrated, and it hurt! I would post a picture of it, but really, who wants to see a picture of THAT? its gross! (also, I did not take a picture of my punctured foot)  So, today I had to make a trip to my doctors office to get a tetanus shot since it has been a LONG time since my last one, and now I get to limp around until my foot no longer feels like it was hit with a mallet!!