A Day in the Life

Sometimes the days seem to melt together, but I do my best to make each one different from the next (for my sanity AND for Nicole's entertainment). So, to give you a taste of how life goes around this house, here's how my day went today:

7:15 - I'm roused by the sounds of a happy toddler shrieking from her crib in the room next door. I feel groggy because I couldn't fall asleep until well past midnight last night, so I let myself lie in bed and listen to Nicole chatting to herself for a while.

7:30 - I finally get up (bladder reasons, mainly... #pregnancyproblems) and then go in Nicole's room and sit in the chair in the corner and listen to her talk some more. 5 minutes later Doug comes in to say goodbye before work, toddler gets a fresh diaper, and then it's into her high chair for breakfast. I make a single-serving waffle recipe out of my Trim Healthy Mama cookbook, eat it, and get the breakfast mess cleaned up before Nicole's even done eating her small bowl of cereal. Slow eater, you guys. Very slow eater.

- My brother Johnathon emerges from the downstairs den (he's staying with us for the week, and I'm reminded once again that we really need to get a guest bed) as I'm finishing up cleaning. Nicole is very excited and forgets about her last little bit of cereal. It takes her 15 more minutes to finally finish the last handful, and by 8:30 she's getting a thorough wipe-down and is set loose to terrorize the house.

- While Nicole is distracted by playing with Johnathon, I go and get my exercise clothes on, gather up a warm outfit for Nicole, and get Doug's Frisbee gear together because he forgot it and wants me to bring it to work for him so he can play with his coworkers during their lunch hour.

9:15 - We (Johnathon included) are out the door and heading up to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon so I can do some uphill powerwalking while pushing Nicole in a stroller. Quite the workout, folks. It's a mere 10 minutes away, but by the time we get to the parking lot the car thermostat has dropped to 56 degrees, plus wind chill. There are trees changing to fall colors in every which direction. Nicole and Johnathon come with me a bit past the waterfall, and then I have him go back with her so that she can get out of her stroller and explore while I continue up the trail further. I get to finish my cardio for the day by myself in the beauty of early-autumn nature while Nicole gets to run around and feed giant fish by the waterfall with my brother. Win, win, win all around. Not to mention that I get nearly halfway done with hatching my 10 km egg on Pokémon Go. That's a plus. ;)

^^^A view of Provo Canyon from Sundance Resort. Just to give you an idea of the beauty we're working with here. Picture source here.

10:15 - We get back to the car and head over to drop off Doug's frisbee gear. While we're out, I run a couple errands to Target and Michaels. I forgot how dangerous it is to go into Michaels at the beginning of the autumn season. I want to buy the whole store. I resist. We also pop into a Halloween shop next door, but it's mostly costumes. I was hoping for décor.

- Today's T-Mobile Tuesday food item is a free 6" sub at Subway, so we stop there on the way home. Free food, can't resist. We don't get home until a bit after 12:30, which of course means that Nicole goes down for her nap late because she takes forever to eat her pesto panini and grapes. Such a methodical eater.

1:30 - Toddler is finally done with lunch. Straight into the crib for naptime. She babbles to herself for almost an hour before finally falling asleep. Sometimes, I don't get that kid...

- Naptime for Nicole = time for me to do whatever I want, pretty much. I wash my hair, make a hanging planter for my new Lemon Button Fern to hang by the piano (yay, another plant baby! What should I name her?!), get some laundry folded, make the kitchen sparkling clean, eat my favorite chips and dip combo for a snack... a pretty good afternoon, all while my brother got in some good video game time whilst singing a bunch of annoying pop song parodies. Weirdo.

^^^This is the plant of which I speak :D

4:30 - Nicole wakes up. Or rather, I go in and wake her up because if she sleeps any later than this she'll never go to sleep tonight. She rewards me with 15 minutes of snuggle time, then finally gets down from my lap to watch for daddy out the window. He gets home at 5 (pretty much on the dot) and he keeps her entertained until dinner is ready shortly after 5:30

- At some point in all of this, Nicole gets into our renovation-zone master bedroom and picks up hammers and screwdrivers. A couple pictures for this blog post seemed necessary before gently taking the pointy metal objects away and guiding the toddler back out of the room filled with paint fumes (despite the open windows and running fan). A bit later, she sticks a block and a little (empty) makeup bag in the downstairs toilet. 2nd time in her life she's pulled a stunt like that. She's feeling a little rebellious this evening, I guess.

^^^Waiting to open the door for daddy when he gets home.

- The boys head out shortly before 6 to go play Frisbee, and Nicole finishes eating only a minute or two later. After getting wiped off, she hangs around in the kitchen for a minute or so to watch me start cleaning up, then heads down to her playroom to entertain herself. Cleanup takes less than 10 minutes. It feels good to have a clean kitchen.

- Clean kitchen = rest of the evening to spend with Nicole, guilt-free. She turns on the TV as I come downstairs, so I sit down to watch an episode of Little Einsteins with her. She snuggles with me the whole time, and spends more than half of the time with her head resting on my 7.5 month preggo belly. Her little brother kicks her in the face a couple times, but she doesn't even seem to notice.

- After the episode finishes, we spend 10 minutes reading and then another 10 minutes cleaning up all her toys and books. When I say the words "Bed time!" she decides that it's a good time to play a quick game of chase-the-toddler-around-the-couch. I humor her for a minute, then scoop her up and whisk her away up the stairs. Or rather, huff and puff up the stairs. Let's be honest. #morepregnancyproblems

- PJ's, a quick game of chase-the-toddler-around-the-rocking-chair, brush the teeth, read one last book, and then she snuggles against my shoulder while I sing her a song. We say her prayers, then I cradle her like a baby and ask her about all the things she liked doing today. She smiles and plays with my hair and runs her hands on my cheeks. I only tickle her a little bit ;) Then it's into the crib, and the happy toddler settles down for the night. She still babbles to herself for an hour, just like before her nap. Every now and then I can hear the high-pitched whistle made by her sippy cup filled with water as she sips from it.

7:30 - Freedom! I light an apple-scented candle, flatiron my hair, do a quick 10-minute general house tidy-up, and get this blog post nearly all the way finished by the time the boys get home from Frisbee at 8:20.

- Doug heads upstairs to paint another layer on the walls of our master bedroom. (After this we'll just have to do edge touch-ups and paint the trim! And maybe the ceiling. We haven't decided yet. Then the carpet guy is coming to measure and give us an estimate on Thursday!) I get the blog post finished, except for these last couple points, which I type as the evening progresses:

- After prepping the blog post, I go upstairs just in time to help Doug paint along the ceiling/baseboards/doors. Once we're done (after 10 PM) we join Johnathon and settle down around the kitchen table with our laptops to play a good round of Age of Empires II (a classic game that I used to play with my dad and brothers all the time growing up). Standard difficulty so it'll be a quick game ;)

- It's still shortly after 11 PM by the time we finish. We head our separate ways to get ready for bed. I settle down with phone in hand so I can spend time browsing online and reading some scriptures until I feel drowsy enough to fall asleep. Who knows how long that will take. #MOREpregnancyproblems

- Hit publish on the blog post. Goodnight.

The Little Things - Priorities

One thing that is great about caring full-time for a first-born child is that you get a lot of opportunities (while the baby is eating... and eating... and eating again) to ponder. And I find myself pondering and appreciating the small things.

Getting fresh air outside after sitting so long in a stuffy apartment.
Nicole's little fists twitching back and forth when she stretches.
Doug coming home earlier than I expect.
The mountains turning pink in the brilliant sunsets caused by the inversion air.
Warm showers.
Slippers and sweatpants.
The way this girl stares dramatically off to the side as if she's a model or something:

The little things give my life color and meaning. So, this year I'm going to pay more attention to those little things; the small moments that enrich my life. My priorities get flipped so often because of getting caught up in popular culture, as well as from beating myself up because my little existence doesn't even begin to compare to the picture-perfect images that everyone shares of their own lives around the blogging world. I have to remind myself not to lose sight of what matters.

It's one of the curses of the internet. You only see what other people want you to see. Comparison is never healthy, and nobody's life is perfect.

So... here's to priorities! To family, to self, to God, to improving by my own measuring stick rather than by everyone else's!

Because Gene Kelly is that awesome

You guys. I'm done with the month of March. You don't even know how happy I am about that.

I've had a nice, long, hard month full of ballroom competitions and performances, plenty of homework, and a one-month rehearsal process for the production Jimmy Stewart Goes to Hollywood. We just had our performances this weekend, so the amount of things I have to do in April is half of what I was doing in March. Are there still projects and papers? Yes. Is there still a big, fancy ballroom concert to prepare for that I'm having three 6:30 AM rehearsals for this week? Yes. But there are only two weeks of classes left in my college career - then finals - then graduation!

Meanwhile, let me show off these bright, happy yellow dresses that we used for one of our most recent performances. We did a quickstep to the song "Good Morning" and so I had Gene Kelly constantly echoing in my head, while simultaneously doing a play where the all the characters are from the golden age of Hollywood. Lots of classics in my life. Because people like Jimmy Stewart, Gene Kelly, and Ginger Rogers are all so great.

Happy yellow dresses. I think they're my favorite costume we've had (although I have not seen what costumes we'll be wearing for the concert yet).

Needless to say, every time I'm around my team members in the morning this song is bound to come up. Who can't spend a month working on a quickstep to "Good Morning" and not start singing it every morning?!

Happy end of March, everyone. The green buds that are appearing on the trees are telling me it's going to be a good month.

October Lately... in Cartoon Format

Obviously, this blog has been low on my priorities list in the past couple weeks. This is not what I intended, but that's how life goes. In any case, I am rather short on pictures, and I am under the delusion that a blog post is not complete without visual images, so I figured I would tell you some of the things I've been up to using animation. Yeah.

So... TA-DA! Here I am as a cartoon! And this look is based off an actual outfit I have... the color, the coat, the boots, the hair flower and poofy wavy hair... everything. Thank you Bitstrips for distracting me.

To start things off, I have been just as obsessed with the fall weather as nearly everyone else in the blogging community. Sometimes I just want to drop what I'm doing and sit by myself in some secluded corner of the wilderness and soak up the fall weather (especially the weather from this past week... it's been perfect). I found myself stopping and standing in the middle of my parking lot the other evening as I came home from school because the colors looked so beautiful in the dying sunlight. *Sigh...

I have also reasoned with myself that with all the dancing I do during the week, I deserve to let myself pig out on sweets. So, along with ordering a box of Godiva chocolate truffles (in my defense, I had a gift card) and buying Halloween Oreos, I have eaten more ice cream than I probably should. I can't stay away from that stuff, it's a true weakness.

Along with the unhealthy bucket-loads of ice cream, I've been allowing myself to stay up until unholy hours of the morning re-watching my favorite Doctor Who episodes, particularly those containing River Song. Who's excited for the 50th Anniversary Episode?! Anyone seeing it in theatres? Anyone? Am I the only nerd on this side of the blogosphere? Probably...

Another obsession that has been detrimental to my time is Candy Crush. Oh, curse you Candy Crush. Some of the levels are a breeze, but every now and then I'll get stuck on a level that I simply cannot get past. I think I've found a new solution to these levels...

During the week of the Seussical performances and Homecoming festivities, I was doing pretty good at keeping the house clean. Even last weekend, it was still in pretty good shape and I was feeling pretty proud of actually keeping things in order. Yeah. This past week I have not been as successful. But it was great while it lasted. I'm sure I'll have another obsessive cleaning burst soon.

I've been getting excited for all the great movies coming out in theatres in the next two months. Since one of those is Ender's Game, and I still have not read that book, Doug has been insisting that I get through it before we see the movie. I, however, am stubbornly reading Harry Potter for the zillionth time. I'm on the fourth book. I really don't know how I have the time to read for fun when I have reading to do for school. Also, as a side-note, I would make such a dang good Quidditch player.

Speaking of Doug, I think I've been babying him a little too much recently. You see - I am baby-hungry and pet-hungry. I want a baby, and I want a cat. Or dog. Or some sort of pet. Since I am lacking a baby or cat, I have resorted to using my "baby-ing" voice with Doug. I find myself calling him "cute" and talking to him as if he were a fuzzy feline or a little child. TMI? Maybe. Since Doug is awesome and patient, he just gives me weird looks and lets me go ahead and be strange. Oh goodness, how did I ever convince this guy to marry me?! I'm so crazy... besides, Doug would look a little strange as a cat.

In other news, I took Doug to his very first haunted house this past week. We made it a double date with my friends Darci and John. It was a rather tame haunted house, so it was a great way to just ease Doug into the realm of the zombie makeup, strobe lights, and blade-less chainsaws. He only jumped a couple times. I pride myself in not getting scared easily, and compared to places like Nightmare on 13th or the Haunted Forrest, this haunted house was a walk in the park. It had its moments, though.

Well, those are some of the things I have been up to. I'll be back on this blog in a couple days with a "normal" post with normal pictures and other normal bloggy things. Perhaps I'll talk about Halloween cookies and the Little Women auditions that are this Tuesday/Wednesday and the Seussical cast party and other things.

Until then, I'm going to keep intently watching my mailbox and waiting for my new nail accessories to arrive. Recently, my passion for DIY nails has been rekindled and I got an awesome deal on nail rhinestones and metallic tape and stuff like that. The shipping date is very loose though, so I'm just keeping my eye on the mailbox and waiting.......... and waiting........

Allons-y, everyone.
As strange as this post is, I'll probably do it again sometime because it's just fun.

About those weekly wishes...

I know, I know. I missed the Weekly Wishes link-up this week. I suppose it's high time I take a break from that link-up, just to keep things fresh, but I'll still report on my goals! This is how my 3 goals from the past week turned out:

• I've kept my apartment comparatively tidy (especially because I had a lot of time this weekend to work on it)
• All homework was done in a timely manner
• I bought 3 big, fat cans of pure pumpkin! Bring on the pumpkin cookies! They are #1 on my To-Make list :)

In other news, Doug and I knocked another one of our fall date items off the list this weekend by taking a scenic drive through Provo Canyon. We even brought homemade hot cocoa along in a big thermos and got out of the car to explore the beautiful fall landscape.

The sun was bright. Pictures were few and in between (which is fine because it was so bright and I was in a moving vehicle, which makes for less-than-excellent pictures). The temperature was perfect. And the whole outing was simply lovely.

This was one of the least blurry/pixelated shots that I got. Wouldn't this lane be great to drive down in the early evening just before dusk? It would be perfect, in my opinion. And I probably would have made Doug take me in the evening if we hadn't been expecting a visit from my grandparents and uncle :) It was great to visit with them.

This week marks the end of Seussical the Musical and a good 1 month break from any theater production projects. It is also Homecoming Week here at BYU, and I will be doing my very first Ballroom Team performance this Saturday at the Homecoming Parade. Yes, I've mentioned this a million times, but I'm excited, okay?! Today I went and (finally) bought some fishnet tights, along with fake eyelashes, dangling rhinestone earrings, and keds/bobby socks for the parade this weekend, since we'll be dancing on the road and we don't want to tear up our latin heels. Besides, swing dancing looks good with keds.

Looking at all I have right now and all the opportunities I'm blessed with, I can't help but feel so happy. I'm at a really great place in life. It makes me giddy to know that things will only get better! Sure, trials will come, but I am willing to face whatever life throws at me if it means that I can keep living through gorgeous autumn weather each year, cuddle with my handsome ginger husband, and eat ice cream far too often. Yeah. Life is good.