stottrigous

Friday, June 24, 2011
To bring you up to date

So it turns out on the very day of Eryn's wedding, I was sick. I caught a cold from Sloan and was feeling pretty yucky. I had noticed the day before that I was feeling really tired, and didn't have my usual energy to make meals, etc. I took the kids to the ward picnic and survived most of the day with out Kyle. He worked his dumb 12-8 shift on Saturday- which I hate. I was sneezing all the time and having to blow my nose every couple of minutes and I was wondering how I was ever going to give a talk in that condition. When Kyle got home from work, he went out and got me some drugs. I finished my talk preparations and went to bed. I thought of cancelling because I was sick, but I didn't think that would be very nice to do to the bishopric the day before. When I woke up, I was feeling really groggy from the drugs and still pretty gross. I forced myself to shower. I just really felt like I had something to share, and so we went to church. Although on the way to church, I had a little panic attack and thought "what if I don't have anything good to say..."

Luckily there was no recording that day, because I did not look spicy. I got up, I spoke. I was nervous. But while I was speaking the nervousness left, and I did my part. I feel I have been conquering some of my nervousness lately. (Kyle and I sang the week before) or maybe it's just the ward we're in. They don't make me feel as scared or something. After sacrament meeting, I was thanked by several people for my talk. The bishopric said different things to me separately about how great of a speaker I am and how those were the things that really needed to be said. I was sort of shocked because I didn't think I did anything special at all. Really- there wasn't any lovely anecdotes or funny jokes or really deep thoughts. I just shared some experiences and some quotes, and tied fathers into it by talking about Dad and Kyle. Then Sloan and I went home because we were both sick and I wasn't about to go into nursery like that. And that was that.

So tomorrow is Adriel's birthday party. He's invited his whole neighbourhood of friends and we're supposed to have it at the park. There's supposed to be water balloon fights and soccer and a treasure hunt, cake, hot dogs and playing. One problem and it's the SAME darn problem I have EVERY year!!!!!! The weather is so unreliable! It may or may not rain. The weather report is saying periods of rain. Of course at the beginning of the week it didn't say that, but now it does. How can I plan for this? What am I supposed to do for back up? My house is way too small to host so many kids, not to mention there aren't any fun activities to do at my house.

And then there's the cake. So really, I'm not exaggerating, that every year I have a cake disaster. Oh no, not this year, please not this year! Adriel has chosen a spider man theme. So I decided to be ambitious and make a spiderman cake. So I went to a store and rented a spiderman cake pan and decorated it and everything myself. Nothing went wrong with the recipe, the baking, the decorating. It's done and sitting covered in my fridge and I'm feeling quite proud of myself. I've never done anything like that before. However, it's not over yet. The party isn't until tomorrow and it can still get wrecked...Keeping my fingers crossed. I took pictures of it. And here are some others too.

my babies having a snuggle in my bed. So cute.

Adrie'ls Joy School gradutation

My big 5 year old (tomorrow).

Here it is! Aren't you impressed?

You have no idea how long this took me to do.

9 comments
Sarahstottle posted @ 7:56 AM

Thursday, June 16, 2011
What to do on the day that I know the rest of my family is in Kelowna enjoying waterslides...

It's a beautiful Thursday morning. The sun is out. It's going to be hot today. Until the afternoon, I don't really have any plans. What should we do? Go for a bike ride? We have been enjoying a lot of those lately. Although I must say that pulling a trailer is much harder than I realized. Especially when I have both boys in it. I had no idea. Thank goodness it's flat here. I don't have a car, because the truck broke down (some problem with the clutch which happened right before we moved last year- sensing a pattern?) and so Kyle has been using the car for work. Who needs a car when you have a bike, right?

Yesterday it was rainy and gloomy out. My friends Laura and Genevieve and I had a bread day. Laura claimed that she needed to learn from the master. I was flattered that they actually think I know a lot about making bread. I don't know everything, but as we made it, I realized that those seminary years of making giant batches of bread as my chore have paid off. I was surprised. But really, they think this about me because they have tried my buns- which is actually a recipe from Tracy, and my whole wheat bread, which is a recipe that Bethany gave me. So I can't really take all the credit. The morning flew by as we juggled all the kids, passing around a fussy baby and kneading bowls of dough in a big floury mess. It was fun though. I didn't make any buns for myself, I just made the bread. Kyle came to get us, before I really wanted to go. We came home and I got some lunch made and took Adriel to his kindergarten readiness class. The bread smelled soooo good while it was baking. What is it about freshly baked bread that is so irresistible?

Oh, I was phoned last night and asked to give a talk this sunday. It's high council Sunday and for some reason there is no companion speaker, so it's going to be me. Here's the thing. On high council Sundays our sacrament meetings are recorded live for one of the wards that lives way the heck far away from here, so that the high councilmen don't have to travel that far. So I'll be recorded. Did I mention that I hate giving talks and fear them more than most things? And now I only have a few days to prepare...Oh well. I guess I was due.

I hope everyone has fun at the waterslides today!

6 comments
Sarahstottle posted @ 6:58 AM

Saturday, June 04, 2011
Happy Birthday to me!

I know it's not my birthday for two more months, but Ann and Kyle decided to go together and get me a bike for my birthday this year. I already knew they were talking about it (since they talked about it in front of me), but I thought it would be a ways off since my birthday isn't for a while. We had to go to a bike store to get a certain sized nut for Adriel's bike. Just as we were walking in Kyle said "we can look at bikes for you too." So I thought we'd sort of browse and sort of have an idea in the back of our minds what there was and how much, etc. I should have known that Kyle doesn't browse and think about things. That's not him. He goes into a store to buy. When the bike guy came to ask us if we needed help Kyle said "Yes, we need a nut for this, but we're really here to look at a bike for her." I was surprised. I felt a little put on the spot, since it's been forever since I owned my own bike and I had no idea what I wanted. I'm bad in that I care about what it looks like too. I like fun colors and apparently those aren't all that popular. We found one that I liked the feel of, that was in our price range, but I just didn't love the way it looked, so I suggested we think about it and we left.Can I mention that shopping for bikes (or anything, really) with two little kids is so not fun and chaotic and stressful???

I mentioned it to my friend Jill that evening and she suggested another bike store. So while Adriel was at joy school we went and checked it out. I found another bike that I liked the look of better that was also in our price range (on sale because it was last year's model). So we went today and picked it up, along with new helmets for Kyle and I. So exciting! We're getting a little trailer for the boys to ride in the back (mostly Sloan, but Adriel thinks it looks like fun, so he can too sometimes) and wa-laa - we are now a biking family! I don't usually like early birthday presents because I like being surprised on the real day to make it more special, but I'm too giddy with excitement to care right now. Here she is:

It actually looks better in person than these pictures show. I know it's nothing flashy, but I like the red and white detailing, and if you look closely, there's some feminine touches too.

I'm sorry, but I'm in love with my helmet. You can't really tell in the picture, but the silver part is a bit sparkly too.

8 comments
Sarahstottle posted @ 1:32 PM