The Idea of Home

I have been pondering on the idea of home for a bit now. There is a girl in my ward that has been in Indiana for at least 4 years (I'm actually not sure how long she's been there) while her husband has been getting his PhD. She mentioned to me one time that she calls West Lafayette home because that's where her family is. She said that she knows people who call where their family (family of origin, their parents and siblings, not husband and children) is, home. She said that she has found that they struggle to really embrace and enjoy where they are because it's not home.

I have been thinking about that, and I realized that I need to be better at that. Home is Indiana for me right now. But on the other hand home is where the heart is so they say, so does that mean that home is several places? I have been trying to call West Lafayette home, but what do I say when I come back to Utah?

When we lived in Provo, it was home, and coming up to my mom's house wasn't home. But now that I'm 1500 miles away, I'm finding I don't know what to call home. Especially this trip because so far Jonathan isn't with me, I'm feeling a pull back to him even though being here is wonderful.

Ouch

On Saturday we went up to Chicago to meet up with Robert, James, Sadie and Arilyn. We had a really good time! We spent some time just chatting with Robert, and eating food. Then we went to the temple and did sealings! It was awesome!

As we were hanging out with Robert, we decided to go on a walk at a nature reserve park thing... It was quite fun, till I realized that I had been eaten alive by mosquitoes! Seriously... we counted the bites on the back of my neck and I had 9!! Woah! Luckily, it the only other bites I found was on one of my knuckles and one on my forearm. But... the one on my forearm got really swollen! Like, REALLY swollen, it's probably raised a good 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch, and it's got about an 3-4" diameter of redness. Ouch.

Earlier this last week, we played Frisbee Golf with some friends and Jonathan came home with some rashes on his arms, he thinks it's probably poison ivy. So, I have to consciously stop myself from scratching my neck and my arm, and he has to consciously stop scratching his arms. Ouch.

mmm... Milk

I visited the OB again last week, I had lost ten pounds past my pre-pregnancy weight and I was worried that my thyroid medication was off. When I visited with my doctor he asked me how much food I eat. He said that I probably only eat 1500-1600 a day, and I need a lot more than that. We talked about how expensive food is, so he suggested drinking whole milk three times a day, and mixing carnation's instant breakfast in with one of my glasses a day. This will give me the nutrients and calories I need, for relatively cheep. (not going to lie, I felt a little like Alan (my nephew, who also has a hard time gaining weight) I almost felt like my OB was going to suggest putting oil on my food too.)

Well, I don't really like whole milk, I feel like I'm drinking cream, so I got two percent for me, and skim for Jonathan (Aldi doesn't have one percent...)

So, after looking in the fridge on Friday, I realized who is the milk drinker in the family.

[caption id="attachment_614" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The pink milk is Jonathan's. The blue milk is mine. Keep in mind that I went shopping on Tuesday. I think I drink a lot of milk...[/caption]

FREEEEEE!!!

So you know on the movie "What About Bob" in the end when Dr. Marvin dances around saying that he's free? (click here to watch a small section of it) Ya, I felt like that today when I met with my therapist when she told me that I for sure don't have postpartum depression anymore! WAHOO!!! Granted, I still have good days and bad days, but guess what, everyone does! She said that I'm "definitely out of the woods"!!! I literally felt a weight lifted when she said that. WAHOOOOOO! Yep, I think I agree with her.

just thought I'd share.

Busy Busy Busy

I leave for Utah in 6 days! Before then, I need to:
make a car seat cover for a friend,
go to Cambria's 4 month doctor appointment,
go to a therapy session for me (for my postpartum depression),
do family pictures,
have an ice cream night with some friends,
visit a new mommy,
babysit a one year old,
visit two brother-in-law's and a sister-in-law and a niece,
do a sealing session in the temple,
make a trip to Chicago and back,
pack
and go to two play groups.


Busy Busy Busy...

Then, when we get back we move! Thanks to Jonathan, he's going to pack our entire place while I'm gone! How nice is that!?!

Father's day

We had a good day yesterday! We didn't do too many things out of the ordinary till after church. First of all, the last two hours of church was canceled because the gym floor was resurfaced and the fumes were still pretty bad. So we had a couple extra hours in our day. I made Jonathan his classic Sunday dinner, the only thing I missed was the homemade bread. Sorry... that's not going to happen for a while. I tried making bread, it's an art form that I haven't mastered, and don't have a desire to for a while. While I was making dinner Jonathan took a nap. It's not often that he takes naps, so it was definitely different.

Then I gave him his gift, a frame to put on his desk that has a picture of me and a picture of Cambria, some butter flavoring to put on our popcorn, and a couple pairs of shorts. And the best part is, I only spent like 10-11 bucks! Go me!

Jonathan had some home teaching appointments that he had to go to, so I relaxed while he went there, and then we had my classic Sunday meal! Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup! MMM! It felt like Sunday for both of us! We have decided that once we aren't in grad school, and we can afford a roast every Sunday, we'll have my classic meal and his classic meal! I'm so excited!

We also decided that starting next year, we are going to do something small for our kids on Mothers Day/Father's day. After all, they are the reason we have something to celebrate on these two holidays!

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Last night we went and saw the Mo-Tab down in Indy (Indianapolis). I love them! They were on tour with roughly 500 people (members of the choir, orchestra and tech crew)! Woah! I'm so grateful that we were able to go, I'm grateful for the wonderful lady that watched Cambria for us so we could go. I'm grateful that we were able to have Jonathan's friends (from school) and his adviser come too. I'm grateful they enjoyed it. Living in Utah, that was one thing I really took for granted. The last time the choir had come out to Indy was in 1911 I think. It had been over 100 years since they had been back. I'm so glad we were able to go! Here's the picture proof that we were there :)



 

I think one of my favorite parts was the organ solo by Richard Elliott. He did an arrangement of "I've got rhythm" on the Organ, and it was UN.REAL! He's pretty amazing!

They also have a tradition at the end where they have a prominent figure from the community direct one of the last songs. They had the Governor of Indiana come! He did pretty good too. I was impressed :)

All in all. We had a good time :)

So Many Babies!

Our ward has a lot of students/grad students in it. So... there are a lot of young families. Just two weeks ago there were two babies born, and then I had another friend have another baby last night! I like to go see them in the hospital so... I have made quite a few trips down there. I'll probably be making another one either today or tomorrow. I also like taking pictures of the two babies (mine, and her newest friend) because I know they will be friends at least for the first few years of their lives. Here are some pictures of some of Cambria's newest friends.

[caption id="attachment_592" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Cambria with friend Evelyn (this was back in April, so Cambria was about two months old) Evelyn was 9 lbs when she was born.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_593" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Cambria with friend Kisty and mommy with friend Elisabeth. Kisty is only an ounce smaller than Cambria was, I was blown away with how tiny she was! It's hard to remember that Cambria was once that small.[/caption]

Scootching

Have I mentioned that Cambria scootches? Ya... I'm a little blown away.

I did it! I did it!!!

Apparently it can take longer than four months to fully recover from pregnancy. I'm still not all the way there (silly postpartum depression. You should go away) but I made a HUGE step yesterday! For some reason, the idea of going grocery shopping with Cambria by myself seemed like a daunting task. I hadn't ever done it, UNTIL YESTERDAY! I was so proud of myself!
That was the one household task that was hanging over my head that made me feel like I wasn't all they way recovered from having a baby.
BAM! I did it! :)

Breakfast with Portuguese

I have been trying to learn Portuguese again. My friend told me about a website that is really effective. It's called livemocha.com. It's pretty similar to Rosetta Stone, I'm liking it a lot.
This morning Jonathan and I chatted almost entirely in Portuguese... Don't get too excited, it was mostly "where are you from?" "What is your name" "How many kids do you have?" ... rinse and repeat. It felt really good though. It made me feel like I was making progress. I'm glad that we can share this together.

Garage Sale-ing

We went garage sale-ing on Saturday to look for some clothes for Cambria. She's now heading into 3-6 month size clothes, and I realized I don't have much besides pajamas...

We found a rollie carry-on size suit case for 3 bucks too! We need one of those, because Jonathan's is still at his parent's house in Texas... and traveling with a baby would be a lot easier if I didn't have to carry my luggage too. So, that'll be nice to have when I go visit our families.

As we were going around to a lot of different people’s houses, people would come by and smile at Cambria. She would smile at every single person that came up to her, it didn’t matter what they looked like, or anything. There were a few people that I judged, but she didn’t. As she was smiling at one lady I just had the words of her baby blessing come into my head, that she has a gift of loving people. And the feeling came to me that she loves people just like the Savior loves them, she sees the good in them, and is attracted to their purity, because she is pure. It made me want to be more like her. I have a feeling that this won’t be the last time that I will want to be more like her, or that she will teach me.

Three Months

I thought I should probably post the pictures of Cambria at three months before she turns 4 months old... Here they are. She was kinda fussy that day, so we only got three...

She kind of developmentally exploded after three months, I'll blog about that in a couple weeks when she turns 4 months old. Before she turned three months though, she really has started discovering her feet. She loves to kick her hanging toys. She'll kick them with her feet before she reaches for them with her hands.
She also has started to grab things with both fists and bring them to her mouth. She is getting so big! She also can easily hold her head up now. It's still a bit floppy, but I don't need to worry as much as I did before.

We love our little miracle baby. We still haven't forgotten how many prayers got her here. We love her so much and try to thank Heavenly Father daily for her. She's such a blessing to us, even if some days are hard.

 

Called to Repentance

I have been told I need to blog more. That made me feel really good, somebody reads my blog... Oh, I'm so happy!
I'm going to try. I have yet to find a good time to blog, the morning doesn't work because I go to aerobics, and almost every day directly after that I'm off playing at the park with friends. The evening doesn't work because... I like to talk to Jonathan :)
... I'll find a time. I promise!