A Crazy Couple of Weeks

We've been so busy lately, and I'm finding it hard to stay awake (unless of course I'm in bed where it's been fairly difficult to fall asleep, guh!).  At least Carter is sleeping longer at night.  He's always been great and slept for at least 6 hours, but in the last week I've been trying to cut out his middle-of-the-night feeding and just let him sooth back to sleep with his pacifier.  It's been working almost every night.  So hopefully soon he'll be used to it and sleeping 8-9 hours without my help.

So here's a recap of my busy last couple of weeks:

Two weeks ago we had Carter's baby blessing and I just want to say how grateful I am for the priesthood and for my husband.  The blessing Leland gave Carter was so beautiful.  My mom looked at me afterward and said, "All right, no tears!" to which I replied, "No, I totally cried," and she said, "Not you, the baby."  Our little man was so handsome in his little white outfit.  We were able to transcribe most of the blessing so I'm putting that into his baby book.  I hope one day he'll look at it and realize what a special blessing it is to have the priesthood in our home.  Lawanna was able to have a family member do Leland's blessing in shorthand and then transcribe it; it is really great to be able to read that now and feel the strength of the priesthood and that blessing.

After the blessing we went back to David and Lawanna's house for a lunch/family gathering.  Thanks to Lawanna for opening up her home to not only her family, but mine as well.  And thanks to all those who helped me with food for the lunch.

We didn't have much the week after the blessing.  Sam's 14th birthday was the following Sunday.  Goodness, how time flies.  I still remember when my mom and dad got the call from our social worker at LDS Family Services letting us know we were going to be getting another brother.  And not just any brother, but a full blood brother for Daniel (I don't know that it's common knowledge, but my brothers are each others' biological siblings.  They have the same birthparents.).  Sam is our resident goofball and I love him so much.

Here's where things start to pick up a little bit.  Mom and I have been slowly working at the grandparents' house in preparation for the young women in the ward to do a service project at their house.  They're going to be coming in tonight with some Relief Society ladies to do some deep cleaning.  Mom and I have spent our last few Saturdays over at the house clearing stuff (ok, I'll say it, JUNK) so that it can actually be cleaned.  Last night, Aunt Linda joined us and really dove in.  She took the bull by the horns and we got so much more done (Thanks, Aunt Linda!).  There was so much stuff that should never have moved from California (and that was 15 years ago).  I'm not kidding, we found a coupon with an expiration of 1984!!!  I wasn't even alive when that coupon was printed.  In addition to battling the clutter, we had to battle the mighty will of Rudy.  He seems to think that we shouldn't throw away Fuller Brush cleansers that are 60 years old.  Really, Rudy?!?!  If you haven't used it in 60 years, do you really think you're going to use it now?  Not that it would even work if you tried using it.  You might just give yourself cancer from all the crap that's in those things that we didn't know about in the 1950s.

I've also had quite a few appointments/activities to make it to in the past week.  Here goes it:

• Last Thursday - Leland kept Carter at home so I could go to our ward's Relief Society Royalty Dinner.  The theme of the dinner was to remind us that we are children of our Heavenly Father and what that should mean to us as we go about our lives.  It was so lovely.
• Last Friday - Initial visit with dentist & optometrist appointment
• Saturday - Grandparents' house
• Sunday - semi-restful, you don't really get to veg all day when you have a baby
• Monday - Back to the dentist for a cleaning.  My mouth hurt the whole rest of the day (but that's my fault for not having gone for so long.  I won't make that mistake again.)  And then the chiropractor, I'll be going back next Monday and probably a lot of Mondays after that because I'm so tense and I keep whacking it out carrying around a giant car seat and baby.
• Monday night - Leland helped my dad and Daniel lay laminate wood flooring in Dan's room.  The contents of Dan's room have been in the living room for 2 weeks.  After we'd worked on that for awhile, we headed over to Dairy Queen for a little break and to support Angie's family in their March of Dimes/March for Babies fundraiser.  Here's the link to their family's fundraising site.
• Tuesday night - Back to my parents' house for more flooring.  The men got the room finished and moved all of Dan's stuff back into his room.  Yay for reclaiming the living room!  Mom and I were at the grandparents' house with Aunt Linda working our butt's off.
• Wednesday (today) - First thing this morning I was at the dentist for a filling.  At some point, I need to go by the optometrist's office to pick up my new contact lenses.  I think I might also have to meet someone to sell some baby gear that I posted on Craigslist.  Later today I will head over to help my mom in the last efforts of preparing for the service project at the grandparents' house.  Grandpa will be taking grandma to dinner so that she isn't frantic with all of those people in the house.  Leland is one of the Webelos (Cub Scout) leaders in our ward so his Wednesdays are spoken for.
• Friday - My coworker is having a Cookie Lee jewelry party.  I don't know if I'll buy anything, but I haven't seen her new house so I think I'll go and take the baby so everybody can see him.

Also coming up in the next 2 weeks: my annual checkup, Carter's 4 month checkup, and a consultation with an oral surgeon about having my wisdom teeth removed.  I guess this was just meant to be the month of many doctor's appointments.

Thought for the day:  Now I know how moms get everything done; they cut out the crap that doesn't matter, take care of the necessities, and spread as much love as they can while doing it.