Lunch Box Girl

I just have a random post today! 

This girl loves to put things in Grant's lunch box.  She carries it around everywhere!  So silly!

Where have all the pictures gone?

I have some pictures ready to post and will be posting them soon.  I have missed blogging and I can imagine you miss the pictures and regular posts.

I have been covering for a fellow SLP while she is out on maternity leave.  I have been so incredibly busy it hasn't even been funny.  I typically get home after 6 PM we eat dinner and put Celeste to bed by 7 PM.  I only get to spend a few minutes with my kids during the week.  I also have been working weekends at the hospital.  It has been insane!  I hate it, and I only have 7 more days to work and then I am done!

It has been hard, but worth it.  I make really good money when I work and we have needed a little extra money. Especially, since we had to replace our new fridge in July and then just last weekend our washer went out.  I am very grateful to have the extra money.  It has been a true blessing.  

I have also been very grateful because every. single. day. I witness small tender mercies from my Heavenly Father.  A couple of times my mornings have been super crazy and I get a call saying my first appointment is cancelled.  I then have an extra half hour to get out the door.  I have had appointments at the end of the day cancel countless times so I can get home a little earlier and spend a few extra minutes with my children.  My baby, who normally doesn't love to cuddle, was really cuddly one night when I put her to bed.  I needed to hold her and have her close to me.  I miss her so much during the day.  

I even forgot messed up my schedule one day and to make a long story short I was able to go back home for two hours and clean my house.  I really needed the alone time that day.  I was going crazy in my dirty house and it felt so good to vacuum, mop, and scrub my bathrooms.  

Let me tell you Heavenly Father knows me and knows what I can handle.  He has helped me get through this crazy few weeks and without Him there is no way I could have done it.  

Grandma Cindy

Cindy always has the most amazing flower beds.  Every. Single. Summer. They always look fantastic.  Every year they look different.  Every year the beds are an explosion of color.  This year is no exception. 

Crazy Star Wars Birthday Hats

At the end of April I helped kidnap my friend Auna for her birthday.  Six ladies met together at 6 AM for breakfast.  It was hilarious!  No one was at the restaurant at 6 AM except for these two old guys.  We came in wild and crazy.  We all wore these Care Bear birthday party hats.  

We had a fun breakfast and would have loved to stay longer, but our husbands all had to go to work.  When we left I kept all the birthday hats for Celeste's birthday.  Seeing how they went with the rainbow theme.  

One morning Grant came out of the bathroom with 4 party hats on his head.  It was funny!  It made my day.  He was proud of himself and asked me to take his picture.  He decided he looked like a character off of Star Wars.  I agreed.    

Ol' Reliable

In December of 2005 my 1989 Toyota Camry blew a head gasket on my way from Logan to Ogden.  It broke down at the famous "Break Down Burger King" in Wellsville.  (I coined the name after said car broke down there and then many cars of friends and family also broke down at the same spot.)  The Camry was dead!  Because the oil and antifreeze mixed the engine was ruined and we ended up selling the car form $30 to the pick a part.  It was a very sad day.  

Kyle and I ended up buying this 1998 Toyota Camry with about 70,000 miles on it.  I drove this car everywhere!  When I was working for Up to Three I was putting 3,000 miles on the car about every 6 weeks.  I did that job for 5 years.  The car took us to San Diego in 2009 and has made a few trips from Idaho to Utah.  We have done nothing special to the car.  Just regular maintenance.   We loved this car!

At Christmas time we rented a car to go to Utah because we were too afraid to take the Camry.  We just didn't want to chance it with kids.  In April the car hit 249,000 miles.  Yes!  We put 179,000 miles on this car in 8 years!  The car was dripping oil like crazy.  It needed new shocks and struts  (if you hit a speed bump you would bottom out).  The car also needed a few other minor repairs.  It hadn't broken down yet, but it was getting to the point where we didn't want to drop any more money into it.  

We discussed keeping it until it broke down.  We talked about trading it in.  We weren't sure what to do.  We looked at some new cars, but the thought of having a car payment just hurt.  We toyed with the idea of a new car, but decided we needed something bigger.  We test drove a mini van.  We liked it and almost bought it, but then we found this:

It was 200 miles away and so we almost didn't buy it.  I called the dealership and negotiated over the phone.  I told them I had two young kids and I wasn't driving 200 miles (400 miles round trip) for a car I might not like or not get a good price on.  I told him what we would pay.  He said yes.  I put some money down to hold it.  Then we jumped in the car and drove to get our new Honda Pilot.  

When we got to the dealership they said it was a good thing we put money down because 3 people had test drove it before we did and 1 person had come back to buy it.  He was mad because it was "sold" another person saw the Pilot on the internet and when he went to look at it the Pilot was "sold."  

We test drove it and loved it.

We got back from the test drive and signed the papers.  We traded our Camry in right there.  The salesman almost died when he saw how many miles it had.  We just laughed.

We love our new car.  It has a back row and so it can seat 8.  We are hoping this car lasts to 249,000 miles too!

Old Food, New Tastes

At our Christmas party with the Murray family we always have a great time and delicious food.  This year was no exception with one exception.  Irene is notorious for serving somewhat outrageous recipes.  For example, when she makes macaroni and cheese she sprinkles dehydrated onions on the top.  Now some might find it delicious, but Kyle did not.  Hence the reason when Kyle and I first got married he refused to let me use dehydrated onions.

This night was no exception for Irene's experimental recipes.  Irene made a coleslaw, but felt like it didn't have enough sauce.  She proceeded to dump a half a bottle of ranch and pineapple juice into the coleslaw.  Now I didn't dare taste this crazy concoction because coleslaw is not one of my favorite foods, but Aunt Lorna did.  Lorna nearly gagged!

Lorna and I then proceeded to have a conversation about how our tastes change over time.  We talked about how families have different recipes and different ways of cooking similar dishes.  There are also foods you don't ever try because of how you are raised.  Lorna then proceeded to tell me some of the things she has learned to like being in the Murray family.  I got to thinking about the different things I have learned to like being in the Maybury family and found the list quite long.  I decided to make a list just for fun.  So here we go!

I met Kyle almost 15 years ago and here are some foods I have learned to like because of his tastes.

• cornbread (I used to hate cornbread.  I thought is was so gross.)
• croutons (I just didn't like these either.)
• asparagus (My mom never cooked asparagus growing up.)
• steak  (I found out that steak is better when it is cooked to medium.  I don't like my steak well done.)
• roast beef (I used to hate roasts.  I thought the were so dry and gross.)
• garlic bread (I didn't like the taste of garlic on anything.  I have learned to like garlic and use real cloves on occasion.)
• potatoes and gravy (I hated potatoes and gravy until I was pregnant with Grant.  Then for some reason I craved potatoes and gravy.  I even had it for my birthday dinner.)
• Dutch oven food (I never like dutch oven food until Grant cooked it.  Then I found out Dutch oven food was delicious.)
• refried beans  (I didn't like refried beans at all until I craved them when I was pregnant with Grant.  I have no idea where this craving came from, but I craved them just the same.)
• coconut  (Irene puts coconut in EVERYTHING from Jell-O to brownies. It has taken a very long time, but I have finally learned to like coconut.  Ross makes macaroon cookies every year for Christmas.  Kyle has eaten them every year, but the last year or two I have eaten them all.  Kyle and I ate an entire coconut pie this year for our Christmas dinner.)  That brings me to my next item...
• pie (I used to hate all kinds of pie.  I now like pumpkin pie, lemon pie, coconut pie, and a quite a few others.)
• rhubarb  (I have acquired a taste for rhubarb and also like rhubarb pie.)
• nuts (Irene also cooks with nuts a lot.  I used to pick the nuts out, but now I love nuts in my brownies.  I will eat almonds, cashews, and walnuts willingly.  I still don't like nuts in cookies or bread)
• honey dew (No one in my family really like honey dew and so I had never really tried it until I married Kyle.)
• cantaloupe  (I still don't love cantaloupe, but if we get a really good fresh one I will eat a little bit.)
• peppers (I used to never cook or eat peppers.  I now really like cooked peppers.  I even grew some in my garden this summer.) 
• onions (I have always liked the flavor of onions, but didn't like to cook with them.  I thought they stunk to high heaven.  I now keep sweet onions in my fridge on a regular basis.)
• Dr. Pepper (If anyone knows Kyle it will not surprise you that he has influenced me to like Dr. Pepper.)

Wow!  Quite a list huh?  Now you may ask if there are any foods that Kyle didn't like and now he does.  Well, no not really.  He still hates eggs and hates dehydrated onions.

Girls' Night Out

In November a few ladies in the ward got together for dinner.  The night started out by almost literally getting hit by a car.  We were driving down the state highway when a deer ran out in front of us.  Jenalee saw the deer, but the car next to us did not and hit the deer.  They tried to swerve and avoid the deer nearly running us off the road.  We pulled to the side of the road to get our bearings.  Auna told us we shouldn't get out of the car  because the highway is a busy road and we could get hit. Jenalee got out of the car and later swore she didn't her Auna say not to.  

The driver of the car was very distraught about hitting the deer.  His kids were sobbing and very upset. While everyone was looking at the damage the deer caused to the vehicle another car came down the road and almost hit the deer.  They swerved and almost hit Auna, Jenalee, and the driver of the other car.  

We were very lucky no one got seriously hurt.  We learned no one should stop on a busy highway unless absolutely necessary.  It is very dangerous.  

We were so grateful nothing serious happened and were able to enjoy the rest of the evening.  When I say enjoy I really mean laugh for the next four hours straight.  It was so much fun!  I can't tell you all the stupid stuff we laughed over, but it felt so good.  I haven't laughed that hard for so long.  I felt like I was a silly teenager all over again. 

After dinner we went to a new out door shopping mall that reminds me a lot of The Gateway in SLC.  It isn't finished yet, but so far is really cool.  There were some neat water fountains and lights around the walkways.  We decided to take our picture to remember the evening.

 

Now for those of you who know me aren't surprised at all to find another picture with my mouth wide open.  My mom will be so proud.

But let me explain why.  So, Wendi is on my left and she is standing right next to the outdoor fire lamp and she is telling the person taking our picture to hurry up because her arm is on fire.  The lady on her left is also chuckling, but she somehow managed to close her mouth when she laughed.  I should also mention there were about four pictures taken and this was the best one.

From left to right: Seri, Kathy, Jenalee, Brandi, Me, Wendi, Brandy, Auna

We can't wait to do it again.  It was so much fun!

Feet Update

The move was obviously very stressful!  So many little things went wrong right at the end.  The stress of everything on top of not eating well and working too hard caused my feet to swell up like a Puff tissue box!

My feet and legs were so swollen and puffy.  My socks would leave huge indentations in my ankles.  If you touched my feet or legs it would leave an indentation.  My feet also hurt so bad.

I could only wear one pair of tennis shoes and only if I didn't tie them up.  I just had to loosen the laces and wear them like slip ons.

I had to work on Monday and Tuesday.  I tried to drink more water and eat healthier.  At night I would lay on my back on the floor with my feet on my bed, but it wasn't enough.  I saw some minor improvements, but my legs and feet still hurt.

Wednesday is my day off and I tried to put my feet up a couple times during the day.  My legs were finally not as swollen, but my feet were still awful.

For the next few days I continued to see improvements and I could finally wear different shoes.  I still wasn't able to walk very well because my feet couldn't bend.  After a week I finally broke down and bought some support socks.  It took a lot of work to get them on, but they were so worth it.  The support socks are not my favorite, but they really do work.  I know don't have to wear them every day, but I wear them 5 or 6 days a week.

Gas Update

I felt so bad we didn't have any heat or hot water in our home.  I still can't believe I forgot to call and hook up the gas.  I guess I had a little too much on my mind.  

Sunday I cooked baked potatoes and some meat to get the house warmed up a little bit.  I also opened the blinds to try and get some sunshine in the house.  The weather on Sunday was fairly nice for the first part of March, but the house still cold Monday morning.  I called the gas company from my bed first thing in the morning to get the technician out.  The lady told me she couldn't send a technician out until Tuesday.  That is when I got upset.  

I explained how I called on Saturday and we couldn't get anyone out to hook up the gas until Monday.  I told we had no hot water and no heat.  She didn't have much sympathy...yet.  She told me to heat some water on the stove.  I told her my stove was gas and that would be impossible.  The only way for me to get hot water would be boiling it in the microwave.  I went on to explain my 5 year old son was cold and I was pregnant.  That did it!  She said she would get a technician out some time during the day.

Kyle still needed to go over to the apartment on Monday.  He needed to turn in the keys and finish the last of the cleaning.  Kyle knew that if he left the house for even a second Murphy's Law would go into effect.  He agreed to stay until the technician came.  I had to go to work, but we knew we could get everything taken care of.  Luckily, the technician came within an hour and a half of when I got off the phone with the gas company.  The technician told Kyle that we should have mentioned we had a 5 year old and I was pregnant on Saturday because it would have constituted an "emergency."  Meaning we could have and should have had gas on Saturday!  GRRR!  

Moral of the story:  If you don't have gas tell the company you have kids and are pregnant.  

I was grateful to have hot water and heat.  I also hope my mistake can be avoided by someone else. 

It's Official!

I am so excited!  I went to the doctor today and my c-section is scheduled.  I am currently 27 weeks and    3 days.  My c-section is scheduled for Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at noon.  I can't wait to meet this little girl!

Silly Boy

I took this picture during the holidays, but forgot to post it.  It is such a great picture I have to post it!

Bed time is one our favorite times of the day.  We always read stories, including a Book of Mormon story, and say our prayers.  It is the one time during the day Grant and I have a few minutes of quiet time together.  

Once in a while Grant has a hard time settling down to go to sleep.  He gets a little wound up and needs prompting to settled down.  On this particular night he was quite wound up.  I had been in his room to remind him to get to sleep a few times.  I went in a little later to find him almost asleep with his swim goggles on.  He is pretending to be asleep in the picture, but he is obviously not asleep.  If I had waited 10 more minutes he would have fallen asleep with his swim goggles on.  Silly boy!

Learning New Things

I am so excited to have a little girl in the house!  I am nervous about one thing.

Doing hair.

I have to confess I rarely do Grant's hair!  Kyle actually combs and gels Grant's hair more often than I do.  

I know that with a girl I will have to at least run a comb through her hair on a daily basis.  It is going to take some getting used to that is for sure!  

As I get ready to do these little locks I have started practicing doing hair on myself.  I was pretty proud of myself when I got this braid to look as good as it does.  Go me!

The Mission Field

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have often heard people talk about "the mission field" and see picture similar to the ones posted above.  

First, some back ground information...

Today at church we had a missionary farewell for Sister Sadie Peterson, who is going to be serving in the Oslo, Norway mission.  Kyle served in Oslo and since the mission isn't very common, like Brazil, she was really excited to talk to Kyle.  She mostly wanted advice on climate and what to expect for weather.  

Sister Peterson is full of the love of the gospel and will make a wonderful missionary.  Hearing her talk about going out into the mission field reminded me of a childhood memory.

As a child I remember having "fancy" pictures on our sacrament meeting programs.  There were a couple of different missionary ones, but one I remember specifically had a picture of two missionaries standing in a wheat field.  People would often talk about heading into the missionary field, serving in the mission field, finding investigators in the mission field, and so on.  

I remember thinking it was great to have all these wonderful experiences in the mission field, but I couldn't help wondering how they found all these people in a wheat field.  I also found it somewhat of a tragedy to have all these handsome young men and women in nice dresses and suits basically farming!  I also could never imagine going on a mission myself and having to wear a dress just to work in a stinking wheat field.

Sister Peterson made a comment today about she has always known she wanted to serve a mission.  She told a story of how even when she was a little girl she would one day serve a mission.  I on the other hand had no intention what so ever of trying to find people in a wheat field, or any other type of field for that matter.

Sometimes Small Places Are Just Small

When we moved into this little apartment in April 2011 we had no idea we would still. be. here.  In some ways the time has moved fast and I can hardly believe we have lived here for 2 years.  Part of me thinks it is because my mind refuses to acknowledge the fact we have been here for so long!  
We have really tried to appreciate and enjoy our time in this small space.  It has been good for our family in many ways.  We have realized the 2 huge storage units full of stuff is...well, just that stuff.  We have lived with out many of our simple "luxuries" now for 2 years and in all honesty could live without them.  Our family has grown more patient with one another.  We have no room to escape when we want our own space.  If you want space you have to go outside or become tolerant of each other and our needs.
As our time here comes to an end and we move through the closing processes of our new home our patience has grown thin of this tiny apartment!  Here are some things we are looking forward to:

10.  A play room.  We are tired of trying to watch a show, playing the Wii, or just walking through our front room with out tripping on 100 toys.

9.  A large kitchen!  Our kitchen is small to start with and we don't even have room for our real dinning table.  We sit at a folding table with folding chairs and food storage under our feet.  We have food stashed in our coat closet and over all the cupboards.

8.  Large closet.  Kyle and I have a lot of clothes!  About 6 months ago we were sitting in our living room when we hear a large bang.  We run to the source of the sound to find our solid oak closet rod had completely snapped in half.

7.  A second bathroom.  With only one bathroom it is really hard to practice strict modesty.  Grant has seen both Kyle and I naked a few too many times.  He is growing a little too curious about body parts for his age.  I have already had to have way too many conversations about body parts!

6.  Some of the simple luxuries that are in storage I really miss!  I haven't made cupcakes for 2 years because I left our muffin tins at the storage unit 300 miles away.  I miss my big mixer and cookie sheets and haven't made home made cookies in 2 years.  We have bought store cookies, but they are not the same.  Kyle misses our big rice cooker and a normal size microwave.

5.  We both really miss our big freezer.  Thank goodness I married an engineer who can some how manage to get all of the this...

into this tiny little freezer...

with room to spare!

I don't know how he does it!  I am amazed!

4.  A garage!  I really miss our garage for a number of reasons. The first being I can go out to my car in my underwear to grab my purse or anything else with no one even knowing!  I love being able to get into a cool car in the summer and a warm car in the winter.  I really hate scraping my windows!  I also hate it if I get home past 5:30 at night because it means I have to drive around looking for a parking spot.  It also means I have to walk forever on an unplowed parking lot to get to my front door.  Our kitchen is small...I think I mentioned this, and to make the kitchen even smaller we have to store our bikes in the kitchen because there is no where else to put them.

3.  My own washing machine and dryer.  Now doing laundry at a laundry mat has its advantage and that is you can do 9 loads all at once!  Yes, I have done 9 loads all at once!  The disadvantage is it takes all day.  We have to scour the house for quarters and hate knowing how much money it costs to do a single load of wash.  We can't leave our laundry in the dryer until the next day to fold it because if we do it will be stolen.  The laundry doesn't get as clean and we frequently come home with random socks and underwear.  It really bugs me!

2.  We really want our own space.  The family next to us smoke and we can't live our front window open or our whole house smells like smoke.  The guy who parks next to us can't park in his stall and we often can't get in and out of our car.  The guy who lives above us has bowl problems and we can hear EVERYTHING!

1. Kyle and I bought a king size bed when we first got married.  We got a lot of grief about it, but we didn't care.  We love our space option.  We can be close if we want or we can roll over and sleep on our own sides.  Our king size bed didn't fit in this apartment and so we had to buy a queen.  We have kicked, pushed, shoved, and hit each other for 2 years.  Neither one of us have got a great night's rest on the queen.  We want our big bed back!

Rubber Band Fly Shooters

Here is an interesting fact about the Maybury family.  All of the boys can shoot flies with rubber bands.    I am talking about traditional house flies and just regular rubber bands.  All of the boys can do it.  They learned from Grandpa Grant.  Grant could shoot the flies in mid air.  It was really cool!  People don't believe it when I tell them about the rubber band fly shooting boys.  But, I have never owned a fly swatter since being married to Kyle. There was never a need for one.  

Now that Grant is getting old enough Kyle has started teaching him how to shoot flies with rubber bands.  There is an art to being able to shoot so accurately.  The first important detail is how the rubber band sits at the end of your finger.  Second, you have to pull the band straight back and at max capacity.    I don't know the rest and don't need to because I already have one great fly shooter and I have another in training!  

Don't Eat The Mud

I went to get Grant from daycare today and his teacher told me this funny story.
This afternoon the kids had chocolate pudding and crackers for snack.  Grant told his teacher he would like some crackers, but didn't want to eat any of the yucky mud.
Silly Boy!

One Big Rose

Don is Cindy's boyfriend.  He is a great guy.  We have enjoyed getting to know him and his daughters. We find it ironic that Don has all girls and Cindy has all boys.  They have been dating for quite a while now.  Don is very nice to Cindy.  Don knows Memorial Day is hard for Cindy and because he is so kind he gave her this gigantic rose from his flower garden.  I thought is was a tissue paper rose at first.  It is so perfect!  I took a picture of it next to my lens cap so you can get an idea of how big this rose really is.

The Hardest Thing...

What is the hardest thing you have ever done?

This is a really hard question for me to answer.   I have been through some tough times.  In fact I am struggling with a hard thing right now.  I will have to go into the details on a different post because it is just going to take too long.

I have to say one of the hardest things I ever went through was after the birth of Grant.  I am not saying the labor and pushing for more than 2 hours was hard because it was awful!  Grant started going into distress and so her was delivered via c-section at 1:40 AM.  When Grant was born he wasn't breathing.  He had to be rushed to the NICU and the doctors had to make sure he was going to make it.

I was forced to lay in my hospital bed for nearly 7 hours before I was allowed to go see my baby.  I was told shortly into the wait that Grant was doing ok.  So luckily I wasn't stressing out about whether the first time I saw Grant he would be dead.

A kind nurse from the NICU sent up this picture of Grant so I could at least see my baby.  I stared at the picture for a long time.  I never remember a picture meaning so much to me.

At about 9:15 AM a nurse finally came in to tell me I could get ready to go see my baby.  I remember being so excited.  I never thought I would get to see my sweet baby boy.  I know it was only a few hours of heart ache and turmoil, but it was so hard.  I have never seen a clock move so slow in my entire life.

I shed a lot of tears when I got to hold my baby for the first time.  I hate this picture of me because I look like I just got hit by a bus.  However, considering that I had endured 21 hours of labor, 2 hours of pushing, and more than 7 hours of waiting to see my baby I think anyone would look like they had been hit by a bus!

I am HAPPY

The next part of this randomness is to name 5 things you are happy about right now!

1.  I am happy fresh spring air is blowing through my windows.  It is a little chilly, but it feels good.  I love spring time.

2.  I am happy to have an offer on our house in Utah.  We are not done with the house yet, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  I am grateful that things are working out.  I really didn't want to have to worry about the house all summer long.  It was no fun!

3.  I am happy to have a 4 year old boy that is so kind and sweet.  I love him to pieces.  My heart just jumps for joy when ever he smiles.  I couldn't ask for a better child.

4.  I am happy and excited to see my family in 9 days!  I haven't seen most of them since Christmas.  I am very excited!  I can't wait to laugh until my sides ache.

5.  I am happy to have some time off of work.  I love having some time off to spend with my 4 year old.  I also love to be home so I can cook delicious and nutritious dinners.

Dear 16 Year Old Self

The next part of this randomness is the question:

What would you tell your 16 year old self?

Dear 16 year old self,

I have one word for you/me/myself: RELAX!!!!  That is all.  Relax.  The next few years are going to be so much fun.  You are single and can do what ever you want when ever you want!  The world will not fall to pieces because you didn't go to bed on time.  The world will not spontaneously combust if you take a day off.  The world will not fall out of orbit if you get lost on 25th street.  Let me tell you what you should worry about and that is being nice.  Be nice to EVERYONE!  There will be people you would never dream of seeing again and you do!  There will be some really awkward moments if you don't treat everyone with kindness.  (This includes the obnoxious brother you have.)  If you would stop worrying about yourself and serve others you will be a lot happier in life!

Relax and Enjoy!

P.S. Also will you legal change your name to Kelly when you are changing your last name after you get married.