Sooooo, I was bummed because Abby is turning 10 months old and I still haven't lost my "baby weight" yet. It sort of rearranged itself, but it was still there and no matter how many walks I went on or how healthy I tried to eat it just wouldn't come off. Getting out with the kids is hard, even with my awesome stroller, in this heat. I was looking for a way to get some exercise and get out of the house a little bit more. I don't have a lot of time to myself nowadays. I don't have a class I take, Enrichment is only 4 times a year, and when I go out with Dylan we usually end up eating somewhere. When we're home in the evenings we're usually watching TV. Something had to give.

So, my mom called me up one day and told me about a water aerobics class she had found at the local rec center. It was super cheap ($3/day) and was at 8:30-9:30 at night! We decided to check it out. After one night we were hooked. The timing is perfect--just after Shay goes to bed and we get home before it's too late to unwind before bed.

The aerobics routine is awesome. We start out with jogging and cardio workouts, then we get "weights" or flotation dumbells and do arms, and we alternate that with leg workouts. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to get your heartrate up and keep it up for a whole hour. There are so many perks: the water offers great resistance, you don't feel your fat jiggling around, nobody can see your body 'cause it's all underwater, the impact is very low, and the sociability is very high. The class runs Monday through Thursday. Mondays and Wednesdays are pretty empty--like 5 to 8 people including us. Tuesdays and Thursdays are packed with 15-20 people each time! I prefer the smaller groups. Surprisingly, there are no older participants. Most of the attendees are my age (in their 20's). About a third of them are pregnant. My mom is one of the oldest, in her 50's. I've only ever seen one man there one time and he came with his wife.

They have different instructors on different nights and each of them like to focus on different parts of the body. It's so nice to have a variety so you don't get too sore. They also all have different exercises that work legs, arms, abs, etc. For example, one instructor, who likes to kick our butts, has us jump out of the water as high as we can go while shouting "I'm a star!!" Sure, it's fun the first few times, but try doing that for 90 seconds after doing two sets of interval sprints and some barrel jumps. Isn't it funny how every activity has its own lingo to learn?

I can already see the results. We've been going for two weeks now and I've lost 5 pounds and an inch off my waist. That might not seem like a lot, but my goal is to lose about 25 pounds, so I'm 1/5 of the way there! And this is something I think I can stick with because it's so much fun! It's so great to put on my suit at the end of the day and go be weightless in the water. I competed in swim team as a kid for like 5 years and I've always associated the pool with a fun time. It's also nice to be away from the kids and hubby, God love 'em. I love them, too, but sometimes I just need time to be Jessie, not Mom or Hey, Honey.

Hooray for water aerobics!! Not just for old ladies anymore!

It's amazing to me how the simplest moments can become teaching moments and the slightest comment from the littlest kid can reverberate within you and make you understand eternal principles. Now I understand a little more about how parenthood can help you understand Heavenly Father more.

I was sitting in Shay's room today with the kids. We were on the shady side of the house trying to keep cool. The kids were enthralled with Shay's toys and I was sitting there watching them. It was fun, but I was getting a little bored, so I turned on the small CD/clock/radio that I've put in Shay's room. He likes to play his Primary CDs on it. I flipped it to the radio and put on some oldies. I guess Shay didn't want me to do that because he turned around with a mad expression on his face and said, "Hey, Mommy, you can't do that!"

"Do what?" I asked.

"Turn that music on. You can't play with my radio!"

Now at this point all I wanted to say was, "This is my radio, not yours. You only have it in your room because I put it here. I bought this years ago with my own money and you are using it out of the kindness of my heart."

But I didn't. He just wouldn't have understood, and it's not a mommy-like thing to say. Instead I asked nicely if I could borrow his radio for a few minutes and then I'd read him a story. He loves books, so he readily assented.

A simple moment, yes? But in that moment the Spirit whispered in my heart an eternal truth. I realized that the only reason I have that radio, my clothes, this house, my car...everything I call mine is because my Father gave them to me. They're all His. They're all His creations, and, through the kindness of His heart, He allows us to use them for awhile. He doesn't ask much, just that we let Him use them every once in awhile (read: 10%). Even then He doesn't use them for Himself, so much as for others who need a little more than they have. He doesn't say to us, "This is my money and I'm going to use it." Instead he gently asks that we willingly give up a small portion of the abundance with which he has blessed us. And then when we do it, he blesses us even more.

Simple truths through simple moments. I'm sure this simple principle is one that other people have gotten long ago, and I thought I understood it, too, but I never considered it from the other side. I love my son more than anything, and I wouldn't make him give up something I'd given to him. But I do ask him to share with his sister. And I praise and reward him when he does. Just like someone else I know. Man, isn't parenthood great?

Compliments of Coldplay:

"Our lives are made
In these small hours
These little wonders
These twists and turns of fate.
Time falls away,
But these small hours
These small hours
Still remain."

This Saturday we went to the Highland Games/Scottish Fair at Thanksgiving Point. It was so much fun! We've gone for the last three years, but this is the first year that we've owned a Mini Cooper. Dylan has joined the British Motor Club of Utah, and they were invited to come and show off their cars. The best part was that if you brought a car to show off you could get in free, and so could anyone else who came in the car with you. We jumped at the chance to not spend $10 per person to get it! We crammed me, Dylan, Seamus, Abby, and my 6'3" brother into the Mini Cooper and decided to have a great time.



Dylan was brilliant and decided that we needed to bring a tent to survive the 90 degree heat. He found a nice one at Wal-Mart and we were so glad for it! Dylan's car was the only Mini there. Most of the other ones were Triumphs or Jaguars. Little two seater coupes, most of them red, and very cute. Dylan's was the tallest car there! Of the 12 or so cars that came three of them were right-side drive. Eight of them were red, and all but Dylan's were convertibles.



Poor Abby, she did not enjoy herself. She spent about 4 hours fussing and crying while I tried to get her to sleep. Finally we decided to pack it in and head home. When we finally got everything packed up, of course, Abby fell asleep. So we walked around a bit more and found Seamus a really cute little kilt and sporran (little war purse). He loves it and wore it around the games for the rest of the day.



So, a fun day after all. Today, Father's Day, wasn't much to talk about. We all got a little bit of sunstroke yesterday and I was up about 9 times last night with Dylan, Shay, and Abby. Needless to say I was exhausted this morning. As a Father's Day present to Dylan I let him sleep in...waaaay in...and we didn't go to church. He pretty much slept all day while Tom and I watched the kids off and on through naptimes. We had a delicious dinner and some yummy cake, and thus passes our third Father's Day. Oh, and I had a nice conversation with my dad. The first one in years and years. So a good day. How was yours?

So, I walk into the room last week and this is what I saw. Yes, she has started pulling herself up on things. With a vengeance.

Nothing we put on the couches is safe anymore. Or on the tables. Or on the chairs...pretty much anything that's within this little girl's reach. It's amazing how fast she went from rolling around to crawling to pulling herself up. She hasn't quite gotten to walking along the couches yet, but I'm assuming that's next. She just can't wait to keep up with her brother. I love this little girl! Even if she is trying my patience by boycotting naps and getting lots of teeth in at a time. Good thing she's so cute.

I was reading the paper today and I came across an article that makes me realize how indulgent we're getting. "We" being Americans, women, and specifically pregnant women. This article in the Washington Post was about pregnant women pampering themselves. Now I'm all about a pedicure before you go into the hospital or a nice hot bath to relieve the aching back, but this article brought me up short. Do these women really need a "babymoon" to Jamaica or a $65/day catered food plan. One mom is hiring a live-in nurse for a few weeks after the baby is born at $250/day. And her mom lives 20 miles away. The mom was upset that her daughter didn't want her to come live with them and help with the baby for a few weeks. I would have been upset, too. The daughter said that she'd feel more comfortable taking advice about the baby from a nurse than from her mom.

When did we get to this point? When did the advice from strangers become more important than the advice of our mothers and grandmothers? By definition of the word "mother" they've obviously done this before. Sure, things have changed a bit, but holding a baby is the same and getting some sleep while someone helps out is the same. And who has $1500/week to spend on a nurse? I guess some people do.

These silly women are spending hundreds (one in the article even spent $10,000!!!) on pampering themselves. Women have been having babies since Eve, folks, you're not that special. What makes you think that you can spend that kind of money when there are children starving all over the world? I think these people need to take their heads out of their collective rear ends and realize that the world may no revolve around them. So what if your ankles are swollen or the skin on your face isn't perfect. Do you really need a $5,000 custom-made ring as a "push present"? This is a present that the husband gives his wife for pushing the baby out! Isn't the baby a present enough? It's a PERSON! Pretty good present if you ask me. And it's not like the mom has a choice...she's going to have to get that baby out of her stomach no matter what.

We're vain. We're conceited. We're waaaaaay too full of ourselves. We think we deserve the moon and we're willing to pay out the wazoo for it. What's wrong with us?

Why is it so hot and what are we doing in this handbasket?

I think I just answered my own question.

I used to think that the kind of moms who made their own baby food were Granola Moms. The kind who also made their own diapers out of old t-shirts and who dressed their kids in tie-died outfits and wore lots of beads. There was food readily available at the store in cute little containers and who was I to go against the crowd and make my own? Then I started adding up how much we spent on Shay's store-bought baby food and my eyes glazed over a little. At about 35 cents a pop the totals started adding up pretty quickly. I'd recently read in a book about the kind of leftover non-inspection-passing food that gets put into baby food and this got me thinking. Should I be paying nearly a dollar for that sweet potato puree when I could just push the puree button on my food processor with minimal effort? How hard could it be to buy canned beans and mush them up?

In one of the baby mailers that inevitably find their way to every mom's door the advertisement claimed that their food processor was an absolute necessity for any mom. Their little tupperware containers looked so cute and were so inexpensive that I decided to get some. I made up my mind to make Abby's baby food and I'm so glad I did.

I found these huge cans (#10 cans for you food storage aficionados) at Costco with Peaches, Pears, and Green Beans in them. These are Abby's favorite foods and the ones she consumes the most. I got a can of each and took about 30 minutes to grind them all up. It went relatively quickly. I froze most of it and put the rest into the fridge to use that week. A $3.50 can of green beans/pears/peaches will pretty much last me for a month. And this is three square meals a day. I supplement with pinto beans, cheerios, crackers, home-pureed yams, bananas, graham crackers, and whatever else I think she's ready for.



I fill my food processor, puree them, and then dump the puree into a big bowl. When I've finished with the can I spoon it evenly into tupperware, freezer bags, and her daily cubes that she eats out of.


This is how much I get out of one can of pears. It'll last me about a month.

And here's how much I get out of a can of green beans. Notice that I leave some in the whole beans. They're super soft and I give these to her when I'm trying to get something done in the kitchen and she needs a snack. Then I don't have to sit there and spoon food into her mouth.


And finally, here's my happy, well-fed girl! She thinks she's going to be a Rock Star! Look at those chubby legs. Just what we like to see.

Earlier this week I saw a notice in the local paper regarding a planetarium show at BYU that was open to the public. I was thrilled to see that there was a 7 pm showing and immediately called Dylan to see if he'd want to take Seamus and me to go see the show. He agreed and I told Shay about it. That pretty much is the clincher on our plans. If you tell Seamus he's going to go do something he doesn't forget. He asks every morning about it. He talks about it all the time. He tells everyone that he's going to do it. And he confirms with you several times a day that it's still happening. Every time he asked I reassured him that we were going to go to the BYU Planetarium and that Daddy was going to come with us. My brother agreed to babysit Abby (who'd be asleep by this time) and everything was set.



I ran into a friend at the library today and told her about the show. She was excited and said she'd probably bring her family along, too. Shay loves her boys and was pumped that they might come. They did end up coming, and one of them sat next to us, since the seats went fast. I ended up giving up my seat and having Shay on my lap so this friend could sit with us. This turned out to be fine, since I'm pretty sure he would have crawled up into my lap anyway. It was pretty dark in there and he was constantly asking me questions. So was his friend in the seat beside us. I spent most of the 45 minutes answering questions like "Where is the moon?" "Is that an asteroid?" "What's that red thing up there?" "How many stars are up there?" and "When is this over?" It was fun, although my whispering voice is a little strained at this point.




Afterward we went downstairs in the Eyring Science Center to look at the hands-on displays. Dylan and Shay found a neat one with laser beams in which you could move prisms around to refract the beams. We had a great time looking at all the displays, but it was after 8 pm and the little tyke was getting a bit tired. Plus, we had promised him ice cream and he wanted to make sure that we didn't forget to get some on the way home.



As we walked across the quad we saw the EFY kids having their Friday Night Dance at the end of our week. We stopped to watch these hundreds of kids corralled into a tiny space grooving or standing as only 14 year old kids can do. While we were watching we saw our Neighbors their with their twin 2 year old boy and girl. Now Seamus loves these kids. They always come to the fence that separates our properties as soon as they get outside and yell for Seamus. "Seamus, Seamus, come on, Seamus!!!" He runs to get his shoes on and usually goes over to their yard to play. They have fun toys and fun personalities. Mrs. Neighbor and I have started trading "watching the kids for a few minutes" so the other can get some stuff done. We love the distraction the neighbor kid(s) provides for our own tyke(s). The kids were thrilled to see each other and ran across the quad to say hi.



Seamus, of course, told them we were getting ice cream and their eyes lit up. They asked in their sweetest voices if they could have some, too, and their parents relented. So, we all walked over to the Creamery (which happened to be on the way home) and got some ice cream. Then we sat on our porch and ate it and chatted for awhile. It was so nice to get to know our neighbors. We've lived in this house for a year and a half and haven't gotten to know them at all. A few nods in the driveway and a few pleasantries at church was the extent of our relationship.



I'm so glad to have a chance to get to know them. They're really nice people and right up our alley. It's fun to get out and do things in the neighborhood, especially when you run into your neighbors!

With my new calling at church I have to ask people for favors all the time. It's made me a lot more likely to answer a call for help from another sister who passes around a sign-up sheet. In that mindset I volunteered to provide a nursery for another ward's Enrichment (Relief Society Activity) tonight. We meet in the same ward building, and they babysit for our Enrichment if we babysit for theirs. I was happy to help another sister in need and arranged my day/kids naps/dinnertime, etc. to make this work. I put Abby down early (after keeping her up through her third nap) and made sure we'd all eaten in plenty of time. Then Seamus and I set off to walk the few blocks to the church building. We were there just in the nick of time and proceeded to sit around and wait for the kids to show up. We waited...and waited...and waited...for nearly an hour. No kids showed up. I guess they didn't need a babysitter after all. I went and found a leader and asked what they wanted me to do. "Are you still here?", they said, "We thought you'd gone home a while ago. I guess we don't have any kids, so... thanks for coming!"

No biggie, right? It's just a wasted hour and Seamus and I had fun playing anyway. We stopped at the park on the way home and played for a little while. Then some hoodlums show up. This is something I've never seen in the sweet, darling little park by our house. It's usually populated with families looking out for each other, BYU coeds playing tennis, and dads getting together to play basketball. These teenage boys were obviously energetic youths with too much time on their hands and nothing good to spend it doing. They were dressed in tank tops (I hate the term "wife-beater") and gym shorts and proceeded to yell swear words and chase each other around the play equipment (much to the dismay of the moms of small children). They even chased each other over the tennis courts, disrupting the games of the people on the courts. When they started heading over toward where we were I decided I'd had enough. I grabbed Shay and we headed home.

No big deal, again, it was almost Shay's bedtime and we were getting tired. We looked both ways when we got to the street and headed through the crosswalk. A car came zooming along, well above the speed limit, so we started walking very fast across the street. The driver then proceeded to swerve towards us like he was going to hit us! I couldn't believe it. I grabbed Shay and practically threw him to the sidewalk. I saw the teenager and his friend laughing as they flew past us. Ok, I enjoy a practical joke as much as the next guy. I'll admit that I've pretended to "hit" my brother with my car...going about .2 mph in my driveway. Who hasn't? But going 40 mph with a 2 ton car when it's aimed at a 3 year old is going waaaaaaaay too far. What if his hand had slipped on the wheel and he didn't swerve away in time. What if Shay had tripped and fallen in the way of the car? I can't even think about any of the possibilities if Shay had gotten hit. I probably would have killed this stupid kid. Literally.

So right now I don't have much faith in the teenagers of the world. When I was a teenager I (as well as most of the kids I knew) had a job. I don't remember ever hitting my parents up for money to go to the mall or buy the latest game. Sure, I went out with friends, but we went to someone's house to play or to mini-golf or something. We did not loiter around the park and make general nuisances of ourselves. I guess I'm feeling old...especially if I've started with the "when I was a kid" stories. When did I grow up? I don't remember doing that. Senility...another sure sign of getting old.

Does it seems like my last few posts have been rants? Sorry, good things are happening all of the time, but I just don't seem to get access to the computer when they do.