Twilight

I stole these pictures from Katie! Right before the movie started, with our Vampire teeth in...

(Katie, Me, Alyssa)

Katie and I after the movie, still smiling. Even at 2 in the morning.

November

So with all of the exciting stuff going on this month....These are the only pics I've taken. Oh wait, I actually just remembered there are a few still on my camera. But very few. Shocking, I know. So this is a cute card that I made for one of the YW in my ward. I love how it turned out. For detailed instructions...click here. While your there, check out the other fun things Jeanette had posted about.

Bailee and Daddy raking up the leaves.

And the party favors I made for the Twilight Premier. There were 220. And this was before I decided to print and staple a little flyer to them. But it was worth it. Everyone seemed to love them.

Speaking of Twilight, I did really love the movie. I went in with pretty low expectations though, I knew it could never live up to the book. But I think they did a great job. Rob P. playing Edward even grew on me. I think all of the parts were portrayed well. Although Charlie was nothing like I pictured. So I'd give it an 8. And I'm going to go read it again.

Next up, Thanksgiving! I won't lie, I've been drooling thinking about the hot mashed potatoes, rolls, turkey, gravy, olives, hmmmmm. Everything. But the pie, for some reason pie doesn't sound that good. Weird, I know. But I think I'll fill up on the other yummy stuff...ooooo and stuffing, I love stuffing....yeah. So only 3 more days. Yeah!

And only 4 weeks until Mom and Dad get home from Connecticut. Can't wait!

Bailee and Mommy's favorite new song

Just a week left! and other musings...

What an exciting month it has turned out to be. We've been super busy all ready, and our calendar keeps being added too. Just this month we are looking forward too TWILIGHT, (well, maybe just me....) BYU vs UTAH, THANKSGIVING, and the days ticking down to Mom and Dad returning from their mission! And those are just the really exciting things! (And I forgot to add planning for Christmas!) I also have to throw in there that Dec. 1st I get my hands on a copy of the Spring 2009 (holy cow, 2009?!?!) CTMH Idea book. Yippee!

So for the Twilight premier, a friend of mine rented out an entire theater for the midnight showing. Complete with a pre-party, t-shirts, goody bags, prizes and the crowning moment...the long awaited movie. She asked if I'd donate a raffle prize and if I wanted to add something to the goody bags. Of course! So the raffle basket is ready and I've been slaving (yeah, right) over the goody bag item. I'll post a pic after the event, I don't want to give too much away. BUT, as you can imagine it does involve stamping and it's super cute! Oh, did I mention there are only 217??? Yeah, I've been busy.


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Much to Luke's dismay, I volunteered to let the YW paint our room downstairs. So after my card class next Wednesday, I've really got to get busy getting the room ready for paint. I've pulled down the wallpaper already. Next on the list is some (and by some I mean a lot) mudding and taping, and probably replacing a section of drywall, (not a very big one) and a coat or two of primer. But before I can get to that, I've got to get all of the stuff out of the room. Needless to say, we probably won't get our Christmas tree up until the first weekend of December. Surprisingly, I'm ok with that. I get super excited for Christmas, but this year I've decided to slow it down a bit. There are plenty of fun and exciting things to do and enjoy before Christmas, and I'm going to do them! I was watching a movie while working on my goody bag treats today and a character said something to the effect of "When I was a girl, they started decorating a few weeks before Christmas. Then it was right after Thanksgiving. Now Thanksgiving is overlooked and they start earlier than ever selling Christmas to us." That's so true! (I do have a few fun projects I'm working on for Christmas gifts though. I have to give myself plenty of time for that!)

Which brings me to this...
A couple of months ago I hit a breaking point. Thanks to some help from family and friends I am feeling like a totally new person, a better, happier person. I realized that some of the things going on were not normal, and I needed to deal with it. I have struggled with anxiety and depression for a really long time. I just didn't know that's what it was. I truly thought I was just crazy, and I did my best to hide it. I thought if anyone found out, they'd put me in a mental institution. A particular night when I was about 12 stands out to me. It's something that I've tried to forget since then, but keeps coming back to my thoughts. While the details won't be shared, the experience really freaked me out and I thought that I was a horrible person. While I didn't do anything wrong, the thought had been there. I realize now that it was a moment of OCD/Anxiety, and that I handled it pretty well. Getting the thoughts out of my head and taking myself out of the situation. There has been anxiety, panic attacks, OCD thoughts (the thing I struggle with the most) and as someone described "anxiety's evil step sister", depression, over the years. And honestly becoming a wife and mother have just made it worse. When you have someone besides yourself to worry about and take care of, it's easy to get out of control. Anyways, after prayer, a blessing, and a lot of support, I went to the Dr. I got on some medication and have been working every day to overcome this trial I've been given. It's been hard for me to talk about, but as the topic has come up and the time appropriate, I have come to realize how common these problems are. For awhile I went through the stage of "I should be able to overcome this myself. I don't need help..." but now that I've faced it, things are so much better. I feel alive and happy! I am enjoying the everyday moments and not worrying needlessly about things out of my control. I've come to realize that my best is good enough, and as long as I focus on the important things I'll be fine. It's a daily battle, but I know what I need to do to fight it. And more importantly, I'm not fighting it alone. Thanks to a loving supportive husband, and wonderful family and friends. And my biggest advocate, my Savior. The reason I finally decided to post about this is that I hope I can help anyone else who may be struggling with this or other problems realize that it's pretty normal and there is no shame in getting help. I only wish I'd have known sooner.

What a weekend...

Well, as you can see we've been very busy the last few weeks. I was changing our calendar to November this morning and writing in what's coming up. Its not slowing down any.

To add to it, our water heater broke and we had to replace it on Friday. I thought we just needed to replace a valve, but when I called and asked Eugene if he could help me take it off (it was way tight and I didn't have the right wrench to loosen it) he looked at it and said we needed to replace the whole thing. Luke was at work so I took Bailee and Moses and went and bought a new one. I realized I wouldn't be able to replace it my-self so we carved pumpkins instead. When we got home from Trunk-or-Treating we started figuring out what we needed to do. Thankfully our good neighbor called and asked if we needed help, Eugene to the rescue as usual. We are very very grateful. I really freak out when you have to do anything with gas, I can just imagine doing something wrong and blowing up the house. Yikes. Luke and I were able to do most of it, with Eugene's help and guidance. It was a lot of hard work, but we are so grateful for the help of a good friend and neighbor.

I also taught a class at our ward's Super Saturday and had 'planned' enough time to finish it up Friday night. With the water heater mess, I didn't get to bed until 2:30. Double Yikes. So Saturday didn't start out so great either. Because the carpet was wet near the water heater, we decided to rent a carpet cleaner and clean all of the carpets. We started that around 1:30 and didn't finish until late afternoon. We were exhausted and sore by the end of the day.

But today as I was sitting in Church, I was thinking about how good it feels when you accomplish something that was hard. It makes you feel so successful and positive. I'm so glad to live in an area where there are good people surrounding us and willing to help. We've learned a lot and truly been blessed. We hope that those that have offered such service have in turn been blessed as well, and that someday we can return the favor to someone else.