The Culprit

Since we've moved in to Wymount, our bathroom sink has had a few drainage problems. No big deal--it just gets a slow drain from time to time. Last time we called the maintenance guy to fix it, he took an unbent wire hanger, swirled it around in the drain, pulled out a wad of gunk, and Voila! it was fixed.

This past week, our drain slowed again--and I learned at a recent Relief Society activity that pouring baking soda and vinegar down the drain works like a foaming pipe snake. Being the ultimate handy-woman that I am, (LOL!), I decided to try this out while Ryan was at school on Friday. I poured in the baking soda and poured in a little vinegar. It foamed nicely for a few minutes, so I poured in a little more. After a few minutes of this, I started to notice that now, instead of draining slowly, the sink wasn't draining at all! I tried plunging it to no avail. So, I did what any self-respecting handy-woman would do in the same situation. I gave up and waited for Ryan to come home and figure out how I broke the drain.

When he got home, we searched the house for a wire hanger--and not finding one, I called in the reinforcements, (in the form of Brittany Hall--Thanks a bunch for the hanger, BTW). After prepping the hanger with a tiny hook on the end, he started "snaking" the drain pipe. A few minutes later, I was summoned to the bathroom to see this:

Well, no wonder our sink hasn't drained well for the 9+ months we've lived here! Miraculously enough, our drain works perfectly now. The only question I have is why didn't the maintenance man find that a few months ago?

My Calling

Sunday, I was asked to take on an additional calling as the new Sacrament Meeting Chorister. I haven't ever served in this capacity before, so it's a new experience for me. I would have to say, it's one of the easiest callings I've ever had, though. Since I've known how to lead music since I was old enough to wave my arm around, figuring out the beat pattern isn't much of a challenge. In fact, the most challenging part of this calling seems to be purely physical--as my arm gets pretty tired by the end of the songs, especially when they're slow. At least this calling presents some motivation to tighten up these budding Relief Society arms.

...And this is how it ends

A few weeks ago, I posted about our upcoming decisions regarding Ryan's schooling and job opportunities. This is the other end of that post, since we know what's going on now.

First: We have decided that getting a PhD is not in our best interest. Every time I thought about going for one, I got sick to my stomach and couldn't stand the thought of it. Ryan finally came to the same conclusion a few days later. (Whew!)

Second: Ryan was called back for a second interview with that great company. And, while we were waiting for news one way or another, we started feeling like taking the job wouldn't be the best option. So, it was with a sense of relief that Ryan got an e-mail a few days later telling him that they were "pursuing other candidates." We both liked what we knew about the company, but didn't want to jeopardize Ryan's eventual graduation and didn't want to end up living in Utah when he graduates.

Third: We started thinking about the possibility of law school once we're done with this Masters. (Yes, I realize I'm talking like we're BOTH going to school. That's because it takes great effort from both of us to accomplish this advanced degree. ) Our bishop went to theology school, law school, and has and MBA, so Ryan decided to talk with him about it. After they chatted, we both started feeling like that, too, wasn't our best option.

Which brings us to our final point. We have come to the conclusion that once Ryan is finished with his Masters, we're going to head off and find a job. We're still hoping for the Seattle area, but we'll see what happens with the job hunt. Now...if Ryan can just settle on a thesis topic, we'll be doing alright for the next few months!

Company

For several weeks, I have been planning to get a picture of Christ to put in the girls' room. So, I finally went out last week and bought a picture and a frame. I put it together that same day, but didn't get it hung up in the girls' room before bedtime rolled around. While we were going through the bedtime lullaby routine, Kallie started begging me to hang the picture right then. Had Whitney not already been asleep, she might have had me convinced. Her reasoning? "Mom, I need Jesus in my room so I will have company tonight!"

Toyland

A few weeks ago, a strange phenomenon started happening in our home. When Ryan came home from doing the laundry, I noticed there were a few toys in the empty laundry hampers he brought home. When it happened again the next week, I started to get a little suspicious. I'm now convinced that the toys are purposefully trying to escape because Ryan continues to return stow-away toys each week now. I'm not sure why the toys have decided that being in the apartment isn't such a great arrangement. Maybe my girls are TOO hard on the toys and they need a little time away before jumping back into the fray. Maybe, in the 10 seconds before they're removed from Whitney's hands, the window-banged toys have seen there's life beyond these bland-white walls and hope to travel the parking lot. Maybe the house toys have heard from the sand toys what a great place the playground is and they want a chance to see for themselves. Whatever the reason, I hope they never realize the laundry hampers aren't the best escape route!

It's working!

About 6 months ago, I posted about my experience going to the naturopath. To give a little more background, last summer, I thought I was dealing with post-partum depression. It was awful--and, as a result, I discovered that my adrenal glands were out of whack and needed some "recovery time." (Which they have had and are now back to normal.) At that time, I also found out that I am allergic to lactating hormones, which run rampant in a woman's body during pregnancy and afterward as she breastfeeds her child. After having 2 kids fairly close together, I was dealing with the effects of having lactating hormones in my body for much longer than it appreciated.

The great news is that I won't have this allergy forever. Through homeopathic remedies from the naturopath, I will be able to become "un-allergic" to these hormones. But, there is a process associated with this. When we first discovered the allergy, I started taking homeopathic drops on my wrist. You're supposed to start out with one drop, one time each day on your wrist. You gradually work up to doing that three times per day, then you start taking the drops under your tongue, and keep progressing until you're taking three drops three times each day under your tongue until you overcome your allergy.

The plan was that I was going to start taking drops under my tongue in December--but it was still too strong for my body. So, I reverted to the previous moderate dosage I'd been using on my wrist. When I went in for a "check-up" in February, the nutritionist noticed that I was holding steady at the same dose I'd been on for 2 months straight. Come to find out that because dairy products all contain this lovely lactating hormone, I was throwing things off by eating milk, cheese, sour cream and any other dairy products you can imagine. So, for the last month, I have eliminated all dairy products from my diet. It has certainly been a challenge for me--especially when you realize how many foods contain dairy!

So, today, I went back to the naturopath for another check-up and discovered that I can finally start taking the drops under my tongue! I realize this may not be miraculous and amazing to anyone else--but I am SO glad that the challenge of changing my diet has worked. It means the last month of saying no to ice cream, milk, and yogurt has been totally worth it! It definitely makes it easier to make changes like this when you can see positive results from them.

So excited!

I just registered for Women's Conference and I'm so excited! I think the last (and only) time I have been, I had just finished my junior year at BYU--so it's been a while. I'm really looking forward to having 2 days to attend uplifting classes and do something different than the daily grind.

Compare and Contrast

We've all done it. No matter how many times you are told you should never compare yourself with others, we're all guilty of doing just that in some form or another. During the past few weeks, how I compare myself with others has really been brought to the forefront of my thoughts. It started with a comment that Cheryl Lant made during the Roundtable Discussion as part of the LDS Worldwide Leadership Training back in February. Normally, it would seem to me that such a comment would be a compliment--but seeing the situation from Sister Lant's perspective helped me to understand this whole idea in a different light.

It seems, in my imagination, that everyone around me lives a "perfect" life. Now, I do understand that no person is actually perfect and their lives aren't actually perfect--I definitely know that everyone makes mistakes or goes through hard times. So, by perfect, I mean more that my imagination leads me to believe that somehow the completely normal, human foibles of people around me are perceived to be much less significant than my own. (And, please know, I'm NOT saying this so people will counteract this opinion--I'm just sharing something I've thought about a lot in the past few weeks.) As a result, I have found a lot of self-inflicted pressure to be someone that only exists in my mind as a collaboration of selected good points I believe people around me possess.

Recently, however, a few experiences have reminded me that this ideal image is only that--an image, and an elusive one, at that. During the past few weeks, I have talked to several "perfect" people about things they feel unsure about or are struggling with in their own lives--and in most cases, these are the things that I feel pretty confident in at the moment. Does this mean that I think they need to step it up and get with the program? Not at all. Actually, I feel increased compassion toward them because I have certainly been in similar shoes more often than I would care to admit!

The lesson that appears so clearly at the forefront of my thoughts is that most people around me are plugging away one day at a time, just like me, doing the best they can on a daily basis. Going back to what Sister Lant said, we don't really know how much hard work goes into making something look so easy from the outside. What a person struggles with most may be the exact same thing that looks like a piece of cake to others.

Keeping all of this in mind, I have felt a great boost of confidence in my abilities over the past few weeks. I have found that having a closer-to-the-truth perspective of those around me, I worry less about what and where I think I should be and feel I have a greater ability to see myself as I truly am. I can honestly see where I have progressed, instead of constantly seeing where I don't quite live up to those imagined ideals.

Will I ever stop comparing myself to others? Probably not. But for once in my life, I'm finally OK with that!

Walk in the Light

The other day, Kallie went into her room, turned off all the lights, turned on the radio static and sat down in the rocking chair. When I checked on her, (about this point), she informed me that she was going night-night. Since it was about 10 a.m., I wondered whether she was serious or not--but left her to play regardless of the outcome. A few minutes later, I heard her singing through the lullaby routine: Angel Lullaby, Butterfly Song, and Teach Me to Walk in the Light. The last one is the song she always requests that we sing for FHE and lullabies--and she's been known to sing through all 3 verses while she's sitting on the potty.

As a mommy, I have to say that hearing my child sing that song really makes me think about what I'm teaching her every day. Is she learning the things that are going to be MOST important throughout her life? Am I teaching her that she has a loving Father in Heaven and a Savior who loves her with the most perfect, unconditional love? Am I teaching her all of the things that will lead her back to the Light? What a wonderful, sweet way to be given a thoughtful pause in my day.

I think we've made it!

I'm really hesitant to post about this on here, because I know the second I do, something will go wrong. BUT--today is the 6th day that Kallie has been 100% accident free!!! We did diapers on and off for a few days and then she finally got sick of wearing them and has been doing really well ever since. I'm so proud of Kallie's progress!

While I'm at it, Kallie had a very funny day yesterday. I say that because she just kept saying funny things to me. So, I wanted to write them down.

Every time Kallie goes potty, she gets a treat from her Halloween bag. (Yes, we still have Halloween candy--no 2 year old needs as much candy as she hauled out of my parents' neighborhood last year. She couldn't even carry her own bag!) Anyway--in an attempt to get rid of the candy and encourage Kallie's good potty habits, we've resorted to bribery. So, yesterday, she picked out a package of Twizzlers. After she started munching on it, she brought it to me and said, "Mom--this candy is red. It's STOP candy, Mom!" Apparently, we've been really effective in teaching her that red is STOP and green is GO.

Later in the afternoon, she chose a mini KitKat. She was so excited about eating it! She came running in to where I was and said, "Mom! I got a chocolate candy with cookies inside! I have a Kitson candy!" Kitson is my sister's, (Mirinda), cat--who Kallie LOVES to see when we're at my parents' house. Kitson and KitKat are really close--and when you spend more time with one than the other, they're easy to confuse.