I am Thankful

Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and with it being one of my favorite holidays, a thankful post is much needed...Becky Style.

I am thankful for a husband that gets mad at me sometimes. A good friend once told me that while I am not a very emotional person (except when I was pregnant), I can be, what he called "hard to deal with". I am not about to deny that fact. I can get absolutely frantic, completely crazed...you get the idea. Often times what I need in these situations is a swift kick in the pants. Daniel is just the pants kicker I need, sensitive when needs be, but willing to be tell me when I need to knock it off.

I am thankful for a daughter that is very often cranky. She is a happy baby, if she has your constant attention. Trying to accomplish things can be, at the very least, frustrating. She constantly tests my patience. I am grateful for the patience I am gaining, but most of all I am glad that her crankiness helps me to keep my priorities straight. Family should come first, and when she screams as I try to do the laundry (or other things), it reminds me of that fact.

I am thankful  for a best friend that lives nearly 200 miles away from me. Since Savanna and I became friends, she has lived both near and far. All over Utah, and several places in Idaho. At times we go long stretches without seeing one another. It is sad and I miss her often, but I am grateful that through the distance we remain close. The mileage just helps me realize what a great friendship we have. (She is, however, visiting this Saturday, and I am sooo excited!)


I am thankful that I am poor. Soon after finding out I was pregnant, I quit my job. I know many people thought I was crazy. Who quits a job right as you need more money? Money is tight at times, and sometimes it stresses me out, but I am so grateful that instead of  working and having a cushion of money, I get to spend my days with a beautiful baby princess.
 

I am thankful that people don't always like me. I can, as I have mentioned, be hard to deal with. I can also be fairly blunt and opinionated. Not everyone gets along with me, and I am grateful for that. It makes me realize how many people I have in my life who love me, for me, personality flaws and all. 

I am thankful that we must live with the consequences of our decisions. I know that our sins can be forgiven, because of the atonement, and I am so grateful for that, but I am also grateful that our consequences don't just go away. I have learned a lot of things from mistakes I have made. I am thankful I made those mistakes, and I am thankful for the lessons the consequences have taught me. I would not be who I am without every one of them.

I am thankful that my plans don't work out the way I want them to. I like to make plans. I am not one of those spur of the moment type of people. Even small changes can make me frantic. We all make plans for our life, and quite often those plans don't turn out. My life is nothing like I planned, and while plans being changed would normally throw me into a hissy fit, I am grateful. I know that this plan (God's plan), is better than mine could have ever been.


I am thankful for opposition. After all, isn't that what this whole post has been about? I am grateful and things aren't easy. I am thankful that I have trials. This is what life is about, working through the hard things. The tests which we will feel the best about passing, are the ones that really made us work. Life is a test, the greatest test of all. One, that if we pass, will bring us everlasting joy. I am grateful it is tough, it means the payout will be great. I am thankful for opposition, for if we can get through it, we can live with God again.


I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder Day Saints. This post reflects my beliefs. If anyone who reads this would like to learn more, visit mormon.org.

All Hallows Eve

Halloween has come and gone. :( I must say, I'm a little sad it's over. Since it was Juliet's first Halloween, we had to make sure she did all the normal Halloween traditions.

She decorated a pumpkin.

Yes, I did dip my six month old's hands in paint.

She wore Halloween clothes.

You've seen her like this before, but it's still cute.

She ate orange food.

Eating carrots for the first time on Halloween.

And she dressed up as a terrifying monster.

Cultist mommy and daddy with Cthulhu Juliet.

Cutest scary monster ever? It's quite possible. Everyone loved Juliet's costume. I'm sure most people had no clue who she was supposed to be, but she looked cute. I better start coming up with a creative idea for next year. I refuse to be run-of-the-mill when it comes to costumes. Until Juliet can say "I want to be a princess.", she plays by my rules. Some may say I'm crazy, but who else has an awesome Cthulhu baby? Until next year, Happy Halloween!

P.S. More pictures to come to Facebook.

Juliet has cereal

I've been planning to start Juliet on cereal at 6 months. She has been quite interested in food for awhile now, reaching towards everything we eat, driving my family crazy (since we are currently living with them). I'm going to be pretty strict about giving my baby food, because of my many nutrition classes. I did, however, give in and let Juliet have cereal a whole SIX days earlier than I planned, mainly so Daniel could be there for her first time.

Juliet thought food was fantastically awesome. Pictures? Why yes, I do have pictures.

We weren't fast enough, so she tried to take over.

This is my favorite.

On a non-cereal related topic-My sister mentioned that she has more cute Juliet pictures on her blog than I do on mine, whoops. So here are some other random pics of my cutie.

I thought Juliet was ready to wake up for the day, apparently not.

Aren't those lips just so kissable?

Wishing Daddy's friend Trevor a Happy Birthday.

Starting new baby trends of only wearing one sleeve.

As of August 22, 2011...

School started

AND

Juliet turned 4 months old!

We know that 4 months is a little young to start school, but in this day in age you have to start your kids out early if you want them to be a success.

Alright, Juliet isn't actually going to school; Daniel and I are. Daniel is a full time (12 credit hours) student/full time employee, because he is awesome. I am a full time mommy/part time (9 credit hours-online) student, because I get stressed out easily and didn't want to overload myself. I guess you could say that Juliet is going to school, since she watches my lectures with me, sits with while I'm reading my books, and gives me screams of encouragement during quizzes. School and a baby is going to prove to be most interesting. Though, I must say, I am extremely grateful for the online option. Juliet is so sweet, I would have a hard time leaving her. (A really hard time, the little stink won't take a bottle).

Speaking of Juliet, did you hear she is 4 months old now!? Crazy isn't it? She is still pretty little (11 pounds, exactly, at her appointment last Tuesday), but getting smarter and cuter all the time. She is ahead of the game as far as milestones go. The doctor was impressed by her amazing rolling skills. She reaches out to grab things now too, like the doctor's stethoscope that she grabbed and put in her mouth. That could possibly be the cause of her runny nose this week..who knows where that thing has been.

So, in case any of you are thinking: "Oh great, school started, the already neglected food blog will become even more neglected". To the contrary dear friends, I cook MORE when I'm stressed out.

Scrambled Thoughts

Remember how I am on a Facebook fast? It's going well. I haven't even been tempted to cheat or anything. (I did log on once, for about 30 sec to cancel e-mail updates from a group, I had over 200 e-mails because of it; it was a necessary action). I do, however, have a few things floating in my mind that probably would have ended up on there had I not been fasting. Soooo, the thoughts get to end up on here instead.

Juliet has become a master rolling machine. For those of you who don't know, Juliet has HATED tummy time. She would scream like it was the worst possible thing I could ever do to her. Since she can roll now, it's no longer a problem. I put her on her tummy and she rolls over while giving me a look as if to say "ha ha mommy, I'm in control now!" She will even roll onto her stomach and be okay with it for a while. When she gets fed up, she just rolls over again. It is beautiful.

Today, as you can see above, Juliet rolled underneath the bouncy chair. That takes talent my friends.

An update about the honey burn: It's really just my thumb that is burnt, with a few tiny splash mark burns elsewhere. I have one large blister and 3 or 4 small ones. I think it's a combination of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree burns, mostly 1st. The 3rd degree is only a tiny portion on my knuckle where I don't have feeling anymore. It's is my left thumb, so I have been able to most everything normally. I'm hoping the scar looks cool and I am able to use it as a kitchen safety story in the future.

Juliet was blessed on Sunday. I made a pasta trio for the after party. I almost made a 4th pasta. It's a good thing I didn't. Daniel took the last of the leftover pasta to work today. There weren't a ton of leftovers, but enough for us to live off of for the past few days. It was delicious by the way, if you didn't come, you missed out.

I added Daniel as a contributor. Has anyone noticed that? Post comments encouraging him to write something awesome! It should prove to be most entertaining. (Especially after this post, which was pretty boring. Besides the cute baby picture, who could think that is boring!?)

It could have been way worse.

I'm going on a Facebook fast this week. I've done it before, so I can do it again. It's just nice to take a break sometimes. Does that mean more blogging will happen? Yup, hopefully on both blogs.

Had I not been on a Facebook fast, I probably would have posted a status saying:
I just burnt my hand with boiling honey.

Since I am on a Facebook fast, you good people get the whole story instead.

Monday is my bread baking day. (Well, usually every other Monday). I started to make my honey whole wheat bread, but I didn't have very much honey. The honey I did have was crystallized. Honey is literally the only food that will never spoil. When it crystallizes, all you need to do is heat it up a little and you are good to go. I made a few mistakes heating my honey. I heated it too long, to the point that it was boiling, and then I tried to open the honey bottle...bad idea. Apparently boiling honey explodes everywhere when the top is open.

Boiling honey spewed all over me and my kitchen. I screamed (it was really freakin' hot), ran to the sink and washed my hand in cold water. I think I acted quick enough that the burn won't be too bad, though it is still a little early to tell. I thought my thumb had taken the brunt of the explosion, until I woke up Daniel.

I had started looking in my first aid kit for something to help burns. when I say (yell) to Daniel to wake up because I burnt my hand with honey. He looks at me concerned and says "Did you burn anything else?" "Uh, no." "Okay, good." He went and took care of the screaming baby while I found and applied some weird burn thing. I dropped something, so I looked down to get it and discovered I was completely covered in honey. No wonder Daniel thought I burnt more than just my hand.

I'm sitting here, typing one-handed while Daniel finishes the bread ( He didn't know how to knead, that was pretty funny),  just being grateful that it wasn't any worse. Juliet was no where near the explosion, and even though my hand is burnt, the rest of me isn't, even though the honey was everywhere.

I wanted a boy, but I needed a girl.

Reader Beware: this one is lengthy and revealing (not the naked kind of revealing, get your mind out of the gutter, sheesh) .

For as long as I can remember I have wanted my children to be boys. Strapping young men to help with the myriad of animals I wish to someday acquire . Some people might question why I would want boys over girls, but I have several reasons.

I grew up in a family of five. Three girls, and two boys. My two sisters are the eldest, followed by my two brothers. We aren't one of those " a kid every two years" families, so my sisters are approximately 11 and 13 years older than I am. My brothers however are only 5 and 3 years older than I. I love my sisters, but I mostly grew up with my brothers. You get used to being with what you grew up with, and I grew up with boys, so I wanted to have my own.

My eldest sister was married a few months before I turned 9, and they welcomed their first child, a boy, 13 months later. Two years later they had a second child, another boy. My first baby experiences were with those two little guys. Once again, you want what you know, so there's another point towards wanting boys.

I've never been great at comforting people...and well girls tend to be emotional. Need I say more?

There are probably more reasons, but I think you get the point. I have always wanted boys. Remember this post? I even thought Juliet was a boy. However, I am in no way disappointed that my first child is the opposite gender of what I have wanted for years. One reason for this being that the more I think about it, the more I realize that while I wanted a boy, God knew I needed a girl and let me tell you why.

Not too many years ago (though sometimes it feels like a lifetime) I had a bit of a mental breakdown. A breakdown that lasted far too long, for no real reason. I had terrible body image, terrible self worth and horrible depression. I fell into some pretty bad habits during this time, habits that are hard to shake. Many of you may know, and many of you may not, that an eating disorder was developed during this time. Eating disorders are not something that are easily taken care of, and many people who have them will tell you that they are a lifelong disease. Even when I am doing well, the thoughts still haunt me.

God knows all of our struggles, and he knew mine. He knew even though I had control of the monster (instead of it controlling me), that I needed a little push to keep me strong. Strong enough to be able to resist the little voice that comes calling telling me to put down the fork and walk away. God knew that best thing he could do for me was to have my first child be a daughter instead of a son.

I never want Juliet to feel the way I did. I want her to think highly of herself. I want her to be happy with herself. I never want her to think she needs to lose weight to be beautiful, or that she has to fit in a certain dress size before prom. In order for this to happen, I need to be her example. I need to not care about my pants size, or what weight I am at, as long as I am healthy.

God knew that a daughter was the one thing that would keep me constantly motivated to resist temptation. He knew I needed a girl as my first child so that I would stay strong post-pregnancy when I realized I would probably never fit in my pants again, because my body had changed. He knew a daughter would help me in ways I could never imagine.

I am so glad that God does not give us what we want, but instead gives us what he knows we need. I may have wanted a boy, but I know now that I needed a girl.