It's about time for another food storage post

The window seat Brandon made me for Christmas doesn't just hold things on the outside.  It also has a ton of storage space on the inside.  Last week Brandon moved a lot of our extra food from the cupboard under the sink to the window seat.  I think this doubled the amount of storage space in our apartment.  It's weird to go to the cupboard, open the door, and see space instead of cans and sacks and other things.  In case you are wondering, a lot of this stuff is from WIC.  We just don't go through beans, juice, or cereal, as fast as they think we should.  Milk on the other hand we go through like crazy.

Anyway, in honor of having more space to actually store food storage I thought I'd post a few of my food storage tips.  This is from a presentation I gave to my friend's Singles Ward Relief Society a few months ago.  


Before we start I need to define what I consider an emergency.  Everyone always thinks about an emergency as being "The Big One."  Mass property destruction,  displaced people, the break down of civilization as we know it, and so one.  In my mind an emergency can be smaller than that.  Something as simple as a water pipe breaking, the power going off, or even unemployment.  These things are more likely to happen than a huge earthquake, tornado, windstorm, ect.  I'm not saying earthquakes and other natural disasters won't happen.  I'm just saying that it's more likely a power line is going to get knocked down by a tree branch.    

I based my presentation on the suggestions found inside the church's pamphlet "All is Safely Gathered In."  You'd think with a title like that it would be full of detailed instructions.  Instead the thing is barely 4 pages.  Actually is more like 2 pages because the cover is just a picture and the back is just a quote.  I love that it is simple because the ideas behind food storage are simple.  Here they are with my thoughts and anecdotes:

DRINKING WATER:

Storing drinking water is the easiest food storagy thing to do.  You can start doing it today.  Right now.  Just fill up empty water/soda pop/juice bottles with tap water and put them in your fridge.  Ta da, you are done.  

I know that some people are concerned about things like BPA and stuff like that, so if that is you then you don't have to actually drink out of your stored water on a regular basis.  Just keep it in the back of your fridge until a real emergency occurs and I guarantee, when that happens you will be grateful for that potentially BPA contaminated water.   For those of you who are not concerned about BPA here are two reasons that storing tap water in bottles is a good idea.  1.  It's a food grade container.  Meaning it's designed to hold a liquid intended for drinking.  And 2. Tap water is just as good for you as bottled water.  The FDA which is in charge of quality for bottled water just uses the standards that the EPA has already set for the quality of drinking water.  The quality of taste may be different to you, but the quality of purity is the same.   

Here are some extra hints about storing water.  

Store extra water in your freezer.  Freezers work more efficiently when they are full. Also, in case of a power outage everything in the freezer will act as ice packs and keep each other cold longer. So if you have a half-full freezer just fill up the other half with water.  Go do it now.

Place an extra water bottle behind your toilet.  This will give you an extra flush in case the water is turned off and you really have to go.  

These tips wont give you ALL the water you need in case of a large scale water problem that lasts for days, but they will help you out in the small emergencies that, as I said, are more likely to happen.  Don't believe me, here are two experiences Brandon and I had with water.  

The first one happened in February 2010.  I got up, showered, toweled off, and turned on the faucet to brush my teeth.  The water was off.  In the 30 seconds between finishing my shower, and trying to brush my teeth the water pipe for my street had burst.  I was lucky that I'd finished showering.  I brushed my teeth without water, finished getting ready, and headed out the door for work.  It was just a isolated problem so I knew there would be water at work.  Brandon wasn't so lucky.  He didn't have school or work that day and so was home in a house without water.  We'd been lazy and hadn't refilled any of our fridge water bottles so he didn't have any drinking water.  He had to go across the street to the store to fill up a small water bottle and to use the bathroom.  He was very happy when the pipe was fixed in the afternoon and the water was back.  

The second story happened in September 2010.  By then we had moved to our current apartment.  One of the other apartments in our building had a leaky washer hookup valve.  In order to fix the valve the apt maintenance people had to turn off the water to the whole building.  12 apartments were left without water at about 9:00 PM.  Brandon and I had learned our lesson from the earlier experience so we had plenty of water.  It was a little annoying to not have running water, but we had enough to drink and to brush our teeth with. The water was back on by morning.
 

THREE MONTH SUPPLY OF FOOD

I'm guessing that freeze dried meals that last 30 years aren't part of your daily diet.  Then why do you think you need to go out and buy them in order to have "food storage?"  Same with having large amounts of wheat, oatmeal, dried beans, etc.  If you don't eat it now, then you shouldn't start your food storage by buying it.  (More power to you if you do eat those things on a regular basis.)  

Your initial food storage should be made up of things you already eat. Think about it, if there was a small scale emergency which would you open up first: a 5 gallon bucket of wheat, or a can of fruit cocktail?  If there was a large scale emergency I think I would still eat my regular food first.  

Not having an ingredient when you need it can be considered an emergency.  Brandon and I always try to keep an extra box, bag, can, or whatever of everything we like to eat.  For example we try to have a jar of Miracle Whip that we are using and then an extra one in the back of the fridge for when the first one is empty.  Then once we open the second one we add Miracle Whip to our shopping list.  It's so nice to always know that we have an extra of everything on hand.   

When Brandon quit his job we knew we didn't have enough food storage to get us to whenever he got a new one.  But we did have some food storage.  We are very grateful for the food that we received from the Bishop's Storehouse.  But we are also very thankful that there were some things we didn't need to ask for.  We still have sugar, tomato sauce, pineapple, fruit cocktail, and a few other things that we bought at case lots sales when Brandon did have a job.  

And I can say that having relied on the Bishop's Storehouse for most of our food for the past 4 1/2 months there are some things I'm going to make sure we stock up on. Namely; chips, Lynn Wilson Burritos, and pepperoni.  I've missed those things.

    

THREE MONTH SUPPLY OF NON-FOOD ITEMS

This topic isn't covered in the "All is Safely Gathered In" pamphlet.  I think it should be.  You need to have extras of all your non-food items.  Things like shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, household cleaners, tampons, make up, etc.  Life as you know it depends on these things.  Think about how big of an "emergency" it would be if you got into the shower, got your hair wet, and then realized you were completely out of shampoo.  

Even if you weren't in the shower it could be considered an "emergency."  And what if it was several days until payday?  You'd still go out and buy the shampoo today.  And you'd possibly notice a lot of other stuff to buy and end up spending more money you don't have.  But what if you had an extra bottle of shampoo tucked away in your closet? All you'd have to do is grab the bottle and make a note to buy more when you got paid.     

Brandon was unemployed for 4 1/2 months.  Through that whole time we had enough deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, soap, make up, and face wash stuff.  I'm glad too because I'm really loyal to my brands and I just don't know if I could have used the Bishops Storehouse 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner.  I would have been grateful for it, but I probably would have hated my hair for 4 1/2 months.    

And what about a large scale emergency?  Will any of this stuff be useful?  Heck yes.  Having things you are used to is important to help maintain your emotional state during a disaster.  I often joke that I'm putting mascara into my 72 hour kit because if there is a disaster I want to look good when they interview me on the 6:00 o'clock news.  

FINANCIAL RESERVE

Brandon never would have quit his job if we didn't have 3 months of savings in the bank.  Thanks to a large tax return last year we were able to pay off our jeep, but some needed/fun stuff, and then put the rest into savings.  We knew we had all of our expenses covered in case of an emergency.  When Brandon started being treated like slave labor we told each other that if one more thing happened he would quit and we'd live off the savings while looking for a new job.  The "one more thing" ended up being a schedule that required him to be gone 10 hours on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  We did not like the thought of what a lack of any regular weekend days would do to our marriage or our ability to be active in church.  So with a lot of faith he turned in his two weeks notice.

And we made it!  It got a little dicey at the end, but Brandon was able to earn extra money doing handyman jobs. We had enough money to pay all our bills in full and on time the whole time he was unemployed.  Plus were were able to fully participate in church meeting and activities.  Best of all, our marriage improved because I was no longer married to a zombie.          

Okay three months of savings is a little daunting, especially without the aid of two kids to give you a huge Earned Income Credit.  So how do you do it normally?  The same with anything else, start small and with what you can do now.  If all you can save is five dollars then Save The Five Dollars!  Don't procrastinate starting to save just because you can't save a lot.   

And you aren't just saving for a rainy day.  You could be saving for a sunny day too.  One of the greatest moments of my life was when I bought my wedding dress.  I'd spent several hours picking out the dress, the veil, the shoes, and the jewelry.  Another girl had been there almost the whole time I had.  When it came time for us to pay for the dresses she was on the phone begging her dad, "Please Daddy, they need me to pay now so it can be altered.  If you pay for this one thing I won't ask you to pay for anything else.  Pleeeeeeease." I don't know what his answer was.  I was too distracted by the thrill of handing my debit card to the cashier and knowing that I was paying for my own dress with my own money.  

One more tip about saving money.  Keep a few dollars in cash in your wallet.  ATM's and card swipy machines wont work if the power gets knocked out in an emergency.  You'll want that money just in case you do need to run to the store -which hopefully you wont because you will have everything you need already stored at home.

Even if there isn't a disaster there may be another type of situation where you need cash.  When Brandon and I took the girls to the Copper Mine we were surprised that the entrance station only took cash.  We aren't cash people (it's too easy to spend without any accountability) so this could have been really annoying for us.  Luckily Brandon usually has a few dollars tucked away in his wallet so we were able to go see the mine without backtracking to an ATM.    

LONGER TERM SUPPLY

The final thing the pamphlet discusses is a to establish a longer term supply.  This is where you buy food like freeze dried meals, giant drums of dried apples, and other things that come to mind when you usually talk about "food storage." I didn't talk about this much in my presentation and I wont spend too much time on it here.  It's something I dream about, but it is not fiscally or physically possible to achieve right now.  I'll just quote what the pamphlet says, "Do not go to extremes; it is not prudent, for example, to go into debt to establish your food supply all at once."

Things I haven't done . . . but I will . . . eventually

In case you missed my announcement on facebook . . . Brandon got a job!!!!  He starts today and works 8 to 5.  Which means for the first time in a long time we had to use an alarm clock to wake up. Lately we've just been depending on the girls to wake us up. We didn't even know where the alarm was.  And when we did find it we had to reset it to account for daylight savings time ending in November.  This morning we were able to experience something that a baby doesn't have . . . a snooze button.  I swear, that extra 10 minutes of sleep felt like an hour.        

Anyway, now Brandon is at work, the girls are down for their morning nap, and I am staring at a whole day of being home by myself (relativity).  And not just a whole day - it's the whole day tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day.  This amount of predictableness is new.  I've been in such a reactionary state the past forever that is seems weird to suddenly have the ability to build a routine around what I want/need to get done.  I'm not complaining here, it just seems odd to realize that we probably wont have a spur of the moment trip to Lowes today.  

I'm looking around the house at all the things I've been letting slide.  Being pregnant and having Brandon around a lot the past 4 1/2 months has made me lazy.  Now that he's going to be gone each day I need to start doing things again.  So here you have a post about all the stuff that I have been meaning to get done.  It's basically a picture to do list.  

Okay this first one is something that I have been planning on finishing since before the girls were born.  It's a shoe holder for all their little shoes.  They only started wearing shoes about 3 weeks ago (I didn't want to worry about 4 more articles of clothing) so this hasn't been a priority.  However, now that they do wear shoes, it's something I need to finish.  Plus they love to pull all the fabric and shoes out of this bag whenever they get the chance.  

 I honestly don't know the last time I really cleaned out the fridge.  This will either be the first thing I get done, or the last one.

 This desk usually gets cluttered.  But this clutter has been on there for over a week.  I really need to straighten it up . . . or at least put that hanger away.  I also need to sew the material into curtains for my friend (I'll get them done soon, Erin).  I should start by moving the material onto the sewing desk.

 Here are a lot of the girls' toys.  I need to go through them and box up the ones they don't really play with.

 So we switched rooms with the girls about 4 months ago and I still haven't blogged about it.  Mainly because the room is never perfectly clean to take pictures of.  Expect a blog post about they room switch - one day.

 And I need to go through their clothes and box up the ones that are too small right now.

 My nightstand could use some TLC.

 And I really really really need to get my craft supplies organised again.  I stare at all the disorder every night and its starting to drive me crazy.

 This shelf is full of stuff Brandon and I need for our current projects, callings, and quick references.  My high school binder is out here for when I need to look up stuff for my blog post about my memories from growing up.  I need to start writing those blog posts again.    

 Here is our wonderful box collection.  It needs to either move to the dumpster or start doing something useful.

Well there is my to do list.  I'm going to go take a nap . . . but I'll put the hanger back in the closet on my way.

Inspiration: Happy Ironing!

A few months ago someone called me a domestic engineer. I could have punched him. I don't need some made up title to make me feel better about being home with my kids. This is something I chose to do, not something I did because I couldn't think of anything else to do other than get married and have babies.

You may wonder if I ever think that it was a waste of time to go to college for 4 1/2 years just to stay home with two (and soon three) small babies? Well the answer is no. It was not a waste of time. First of all I don't plan on staying home forever. Eventually my kids will grow up and go to school and I'll need something to do during the day. But even now while they are small I'm glad I have a Bachelors degree in Economics. I learned so much about the world and about myself by going to college.

Sometimes as I clean up the house I think about this quote that I read when I was first trying to pick a major. It is from the book “Glimpses into the life and heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley.”

At my wedding shower Grandma gave me an iron with a card that read “Happy Ironing! The most enjoyable of all household duties. Love Grandma H.” It reminded me of when I was trying to decide on a major in college. Grandma told me to study something other than home economics so that when I was at home doing the ironing I would have something interesting to think about. Now when I pull my old iron off the shelf and run it over a wrinkled blouse, I think of sonnets and Shakespeare . . . and I think of Grandma and smile.

Celia B Benson a granddaughter to Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I never iron so this doesn't quite apply to me. But every time I make bread I think about marginal cost and marginal revenue. My bread recipe makes two loaves of bread. But it doesn't take much extra effort to double the recipe and make 4 loaves of bread. The marginal revenue goes up by two and the marginal cost in time hardly goes up at all. Which equals a marginal profit of 2 loaves of bread. (I'm ignoring the cost of ingredients in this example) The same theory also sort of applies to twins. If I'm already sitting there spoon feeding one baby it really doesn't cost that much in time to add another baby. See my degree was worth it!

January Relief Society Meeting - Family History

So several years ago I was minding my own business in the hall of my student stake's church building.  Sacrament meeting had just ended and I was waiting for the other ward to finish up using the classroom so I could go in and sit down for Sunday School.

My friend Christina W came up to me and asked me an innocent question, "Are you going to come to the Family History Class?"
I was a little caught off guard, but since it was Christina I replied, "Uh sure" and followed her down the hall.

To be perfectly honest if she had asked, "Do you want to come to the class?"  I would have said no.  I have never considered myself as the type of person who is interested in genealogy.  That is my mom's department.  And my sister Emily has successfully taken over as the genealogy daughter.  I've always figured they could do all the leg work, and I could do the temple work.

Anyway, I went to the class and enjoyed it.  It didn't really change my outlook on doing genealogy, but I did learn about the church's family history website, www.new.familysearch.org.  I logged onto the website and discovered that it's a really cool site, but there wasn't a lot of obvious work that needed to be done.

Fast forward to about last September.  The Relief Society lesson was on Family History or something and the teacher was talking about all the great resources the church has for doing family history.  She asked us to raise our hands if we had been on new.familysearch.org.  I was the only one who raised a hand.  "Hum, that's a bad sign." I thought.

About this same time a new convert to the church, Rob M, asked Brandon and me to be the proxy for his parents when he is sealed to them.  (Yeah, pretty awesome!)  He and I started talking about everything that needs to be in place for that to happen.  I told him a little bit about new.familysearch.org and how it will help him keep track of his parent's temple work.  I offered to help him out, but felt completely inadequate.

About October I decided that we should do a Family History Relief Society Meeting in January.  It would be for beginners and help the Branch members become familiar with new.familysearch.org.  After reviewing our options I decided to break my rule about doing all activities at the church, and make this a "field trip" activity to the South Davis Family History Center.  I also decided to invite the Elder's Quorum along.

 I'm so glad I decided to go to the center.  They had 8 volunteers there who were able to assist the 12 or so of us with everything from creating a username, to finding ancestors, to creating family history fans.

 Everyone had a great time.  Most people were able to set up their family trees and begin to see where work needed to be done.  One brother found an ancestor couple who hadn't been sealed in the temple yet.  The center volunteers helped him print off the paperwork to take to the temple. He and his wife will go do the work soon.

Rob not only got his parent names into the program, but he added many other ancestors as well.  He barely scratched the surface of all the family history he can do.  He's already making plans to take a day off work and come to the center to work with his new friends there.   

 And what about me?  Well I was a little bored through out the night. But I was so happy that I could help all these people get started with their Family History.

And at the end I learned about something really really cool looking. Here's how to do it for yourself. (Sorry if I skipped a step, I'm a little tired)
Go to www.treeseek.com.
Click on start now.
Log in with your new.familysearch.org login info.
Click "create a tree" and then select yourself (or whoever you want to do the tree for)
Click create data set - then wait a while
It will take you back to the page you were on.
Scroll down and push "create chart" You want it to be set to "9 generation fan"

After several minutes something like this will come up.  You can totally tell that my Dad's side of the family have been members of the church forever as compared to my Mom's side where she is a convert.  Maybe there still is work for me to do after all.  

       

Silly Sleepers

The past couple nights I've found the girls sleeping in really odd positions.  Here are some of them.  

This picture shows off all Lydia's favorite sleeping positions.  1) On Tummy. 2) Bum in the air. 3) Head in corner of crib. 4) Head pressed up against the bars.  5) Teddy, Doll, and books nearby. 6) Pillow near by. 7) Blankets off.

 This is the after effect of 1:00 o'clock church without a nap all day.  Charlotte didn't take a nap until she was in the stroller on the way home from Church.  I brought Lydia upstairs first.  Then I brought Charlotte up.  She was still asleep so I laid her on the floor while I went to bring up the stroller.  She would have stayed asleep except Lydia stole her binkie.  (Easy Target)

I don't know why this one is upside down, but you can still see the main object of interest.  Yes, Lydia is sleeping with a kitchen ladle.  Don't ask.

 Here is another funny Lydia picture.  She loves this doll and has to go to sleep with her every night.

For some reason Charlotte wanted to sleep with her head covered.  She was kind enough to make sure she was labeled so we would know it was still her.

Of course the girls don't just sleep all the time.  Here is Charlotte watching her Daddy build some furniture on the patio. 

 Brandon was building something for my cousins' bedroom.  The girls checked it out and made sure it was kid approved. 

 Lydia loves Brandon's shoes.  So Brandon put her into them.  She was so excited . . . even though she couldn't walk in them.

 My friend made these really cute dresses for the girls for Christmas.  They wore them on Sunday and got tons of complements.

And here is Charlotte hanging out with her toys.  If I remember right Brandon put her into the basket.  

Inspiration: The wind did never cease

Sometimes I am afraid that we are never going to be "blessed" in this life.  By blessed I mean that maybe we won't be temporally blessed.  That we will just go through life with a happy, but poor family.  And then in the millennium, or after death, or in the Celestial Kingdom we will receive our reward, and it will be so great that we won't care about our little financial worries that we had when we were mortals.

But then I remember that Heavenly Father often does bless people temporally and in this life. Recently a few scriptures in Ether Chapter 6 reminded me of the fact that Heavenly Father is leading us to our land of promise.  Here are the scriptures with my thoughts as I read them in blue.    

 5 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.

 6 And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

I need to remember that just because there are strong winds and mountain waves it doesn't mean that I am not doing what Heavenly Father wants me to do.    

 7 And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters.

 8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.

Even though things get hard Heavenly Father was always leading them toward the promised land.  In fact, it was the strong wind that was pushing them toward the promised land.  And it NEVER stopped blowing in the right direction. So maybe the hard things in my life are pushing me toward my promised land. 

 9 And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.

 10 And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.

 11 And thus they were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water.

WHAT?  344 days?  That's almost a year!  Well I guess my problems aren't going to go away overnight either. 

 12 And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them.

 They did get there!  So can I.  So will I.

Oh, by the way, Lydia is walking

With everything going on last week I didn't get around to posting this video of the girls.  Lydia officially started walking on Monday January 2nd.  The main motivator was the baby doll that you can see in the video.  She realized that she couldn't carry the doll while crawling.  

 Here are some other things that the girls have been doing.  Charlotte loves these sunglasses.  She likes to have us put them on her and then she walks around with them on.  The best moment was when she tried to wear them while walking into her dark room. Within seconds Brandon and I heard "Thunk"  when she walked into something.  We laughed so hard.

 Charlotte has been walking since about the first of December.  She's getting really fast at it.  We took the girls to some parks during last week's warm weather.  Charlotte would just take off walking in a random direction.  She didn't care if we followed her or not.  I love this picture of her and Brandon together.

 We added Lydia to the picture.  She wanted Brandon to hold her.  You can see Charlotte striking off on her own.

 We went and visited my Aunt's family this weekend.  The girls loved playing with my cousins and vise versa.  Here they are enjoying the nice office chair.

 The girls' new favorite pass-time is putting linky toys into containers and then taking them out again.  Their favorite containers are our shoes.

 Lydia will especially sit and play with the shoes and links for a long time.

 Here is Charlotte trying to get the camera from me.  Both girls are obsessed with the camera and I usually have to be pretty sneaky when I try to take a picture.  Even then most of these pictures resulted in a tantrum at some point because I wouldn't let them play with the camera.  On a related note, if you call me and I don't answer the phone it's because Lydia will freak out if she sees my phone.  She always wants to play with it.  As a result I hide in the bedroom to make phone calls and usually text in the bathroom.

 Here is Brandon putting the finishing touches on some crown molding he installed at my Aunt's house.  Several friends and family members have helped us out by hiring Brandon to do handyman jobs.  Thanks for your support!  (And if anyone else needs a handyman, Brandon is good at just about everything)

 The girls got some belated Christmas Presents from my Grandma.  Lydia loved the tissue paper more than the teddy bear at first.

 Then she found out the teddy bear sings and so she loves it more now.  Unfortunately the button to make the teddy sing is hard to push and so I get to push it all the time. More unfortunately it only sings one really annoying song.  And most unfortunately the song is about Jesus so I can't make fun of it in good conscience when it starts to get on my nerves.

I often say that one year olds are the reward for successfully dealing with newborns. I love the girls at this age.  It is so fun to see them explore and learn about the world.

Thoughts on this third baby

Here I am today at 28 weeks along.

And because my friend Casandra asked, here is a picture of me at 29 weeks with the twins. (I couldn't find the 28 week pic very quick)   I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I am in fact smaller this time around (and my hair looks better.)

To say this pregnancy has been easier would be a bit of an understatement.  This pregnancy has been a cake walk!  I go to the doctor ONCE every four weeks.  I don't feel like I'm on an odd first name basis with the receptionists. I've only had one ultrasound.  Let me say that again because it feels awesome - I've only had ONE ultrasound.  And I only had to wait 2 minutes in the waiting room for said ultrasound.  So far it looks like I wont have any Non Stress Tests.  It is so nice to not feel like a walking medical experiment.

Until recently I kept having little moments where I honestly forgot I was pregnant.  Like when I was planning Brandon's birthday I was looking up info about going tubing at Snow Bird.  My mom looked at the computer screen and asked me if I was really planning on doing that.  "Yeah, why not."  I said and she replied with, "But you're pregnant."  Oh yeah.

Those moments are now mostly over.  Baby C has started to make his presence known by dancing around inside of me.  I swear he's doing jumping jacks.  He's probably thinking, "There is so much room in here."

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two pregnancies (besides being checked up on all the time last time) is the way I feel about this baby's name.  With Charlotte and Lydia I always referred to them as Baby A and Baby B.  It just seemed weird to call them by their names until they were born.  Part of that was because I didn't want to commit to who was who until we actually saw them.  But the main reason was it just felt wrong to give a fetus a name.  

Well, this this time around Baby C is referred to as Baby C most of the time.  But when I am talking with Brandon we hardly ever mention Baby C anymore.  Instead we talk about about Derrick.  We've had that name in mind since about 20 weeks along (which is the same time we came up with Charlotte and Lydia's names)  Barring any movie villains or Twilight characters being named Derrick in the next twelve weeks that's probably going to be his name.     

I guess the other big difference is the fact that I'm expecting a VBAC  and healthy a healthy baby instead of a C-section and a few weeks in the NICU.  In some ways this makes me feel like this is my first pregnancy.  And I'm kind of weirded out by the whole concept.  I keep thinking things like "What? I'm going to get to hold the baby right after he is born?"  and "The baby is going to be in my room at the hospital?  Why would I want that?"

For a while there I was considering going all natural with this birth.  Several of my friends have done the Bradley Method and I am really interested in it.  The part that appeals to me is the fact that your husband gets trained as your coach.  I even talked to the lady who teaches the classes here.  She was nice and we had a great conversation.  But then I realized that deep down I'm kind of hoping Baby C is breech, and I get to have another C-section.  So maybe I'm not the best candidate for the Bradley Method right now.  I can just see myself talking with someone in the class.

Other person: Oh I'm so scared I could have a C-section.  It's major abdominal surgery you know.
Me:  Actually they are not that bad.  The recovery kind of sucks, but the surgery itself is nothing to be afraid of.
Other person:  Why are you in this class?

For those of you who are part of the all natural crowd I guess I should bring up the fact that not only did I like my C-section (gasp), but I hate breastfeeding, and I believe in immunization.  I hope we can still be friends.  

So anyway, my goal right now is to have a VBAC and see how far I get naturally.  If I want it, I'll have an epidural.  I'm going to be pretty tempted to have that epidural because I've had one and I know how nice they are.  Maybe on the next baby my goal will be to go natural all the way and actually do the Bradley Method.

And now you are probably thinking, "What? Next baby?  Just how close together do you want all your kids?"  Well the plan right now is to have a bit of space between Baby C and Baby D. To put it in economic terms the marginal cost of having a fourth kid is pretty high because we would have to buy a new car.  But I do eventually want at least one more baby.  Brandon says he wants to go for triplets next time.

Inspiration: Daily Bread

This might be a little too applicable right now, but I've been thinking about it a lot so I figured it should be the topic for today's inspirational message.  This is from Recognizing God's Hand in Our Lives in the January Ensign and it is by Elder D Todd Christofferson.  It's nice to know that even General Authorities have had financial worries.

Some time before I was called as a General Authority, I faced a personal economic challenge that persisted for several years. It ebbed and flowed in seriousness and urgency, but it never went away. At times this challenge threatened the welfare of my family, and I thought we might be facing financial ruin. I prayed for some miraculous intervention to deliver us. Although I offered that prayer many times with great sincerity and earnest desire, the answer in the end was no. Finally, I learned to pray as the Savior did: “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). I sought the Lord’s help with each tiny step along the way to a final resolution.

There were times when I had exhausted all my resources, when I had nowhere and no one to turn to for help to meet the exigency before me. With no other recourse, more than once I fell down before my Heavenly Father, begging in tears for His help. And He did help. Sometimes it was nothing more than a sense of peace, a feeling of assurance that things would work out. I might not see how or what the path would be, but He gave me to know that, directly or indirectly, He would open a way. Circumstances might change, a new and helpful idea might come to mind, some unanticipated income or other resource might appear at just the right time. Somehow there was a resolution.

Though I suffered then, I am grateful now that there was not a quick solution to my problem. The fact that I was forced to turn to God for help almost daily over an extended period of years taught me how to truly pray and get answers to prayer and taught me in a practical way to have faith in God. I came to know my Savior and my Heavenly Father in a way and to a degree that might not have happened otherwise or that might have taken me much longer. I learned that daily bread is a precious commodity. I learned that manna today could be as real as the physical manna of biblical history. I learned to trust in the Lord with all my heart. I learned to walk with Him day by day.

Book Review: Flight

I read A LOT.  I usually read at least one book a week.  I decided to start posting reviews of what I read on goodreads.com.  I'll link them to this blog too.  Here is my first review.  It's of my favorite biography.  Flight: My life in Mission Control by Christopher Kraft.  You can read the review by following this link.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/257798958

Or if you are lazy, here is what I wrote:

I didn't grow up during the space race. Everything I know about it comes from the movies Apollo 13 and October Sky, and what my dad tells me. I randomly decided to read this book because it seemed interesting. It became my very favorite biography. I just finished reading it again - this time with my husband. 

The book is written by Christopher Kraft. He was NASA's first flight director (in the movie Apollo 13 Gene Kranz is the flight director - if that helps). He was with NASA before they even had the word astronaut. He vividly describes the challenges that they faced in trying to get man into space - let alone the moon. 

The best part of the book is the way he pulls no punches when describing certain decisions and events. My husband and I often laughed out loud at the way he would describe a failed procedure. We could tell that he really cared about doing everything correctly and safely, and he often got frustrated with the people who didn't feel the same way. 

All the "famous" (meaning people I've heard of)NASA people are discussed, and Kraft's perspective is, as with everything else, entertaining. He didn't particularly like Werner Von Braun, he had personality conflicts with John Glenn even before NASA, he helped decide that Neil Armstrong should be the first man on the moon, etc. He also spends a considerable amount of time giving credit to all the unsung heroes of the space program. He especially highlights the contributions of his mentor and boss, Bob Gilruth. The book is in someways a biography for Gilruth as much as Kraft. 

I am very interested in operations management so this book was a treasure trove of how to solve problems. He talks about the things they learned along the way - NASA's successes and the failures. He goes into detail about the way they continued their successes and learned from the failures. 

The book is really reader friendly. Kraft brings the details of rocket science down to a level where anyone can understand.

Not the first time life has been hard

After today's crappy day I went to turn off the living room light.  Above the light switch I have 6 pictures framed.  I made these as a Valentine's Day present for Brandon back in 2009.  In the last 3 years I've grown so used to seeing the pictures that I hardly think about what the words on them say.  Well, tonight I noticed the words and I almost started to cry - again.

When I made this present I thought the words applied to all the trouble the flight department was giving us.  I thought that if we could just get past those issues then everything would be better forever.  We did eventually get away from USU, and we are very thankful for that, but of course we didn't leave all of our problems behind.  

Still, reading these words reminded me that we have been through tough times before.  And we have resolved them in ways that made us happy.  Already I am feeling better.  

Here is another interesting thought for you all.  The first picture here, the one with the dark ominous clouds was taken on the same night as the last picture of the beautiful sunset.  It was the night of my sisters wedding reception in Cedar City.  Her reception was outside and we were all a little nervous about those clouds.  But the weather stayed nice and we ended up with an amazing sunset.  And that is kind of how life is.