Ode to Joy

Maddy had her 2nd piano recital last night.  She did great and had a good time.  She worked really hard to learn to play Ode to Joy and I am so proud of her.  I can hardly believe she has been playing piano for a little over a year now.  We are really going to miss her piano teacher, Sister Shirley, when we move to Arizona.  Enjoy the video!

Ba-boom, clash!

That is the sound maddy makes after she tells a joke!  Can you hear the cymbals now? (she writes it as "boom! boom! clash!")  So yesterday morning she was busy writing Dan a letter before school ( he was at work finishing the night shift) and she sweetly left it for him on the kitchen table.  This is what it looked like: 

In case you can't read it (she was writing on the soft couch after all), this is what it said (plus my translations):

Dear Papi, (because that is what Dora calls her dad, so why not Maddy?)

I am overdue 4 school! (no explanation needed, of course, isn't every 6 year old overdue for school at 8a.m.?)

Our 1-year-old (Elsie) has a didee ("mom, if I don't know how to spell diaper I can just write didee") radish. Boom! Boom! Clash! (get it? get it? Elsie has a diaper rash!)

Love, Yours Truly (dan couldn't possibly have any other "yours truly"!)

P.S. I changed my name MSB (her initials) to Pam.

Ok, now I know the last part needs a lot of explaining: this is not the first mention of changing her name to Pam (which, by the way, comes from Pam cooking spray, can you see me shaking my head and sighing?) When I ask her why she wants to change it to Pam she says because it is short for Maddy.  Who knew?  not me!  She said it is easier to sing than Maddy.  What is a mother supposed to say to that?  Please tell me! 

A Beautiful Testimony!

I was reading President Uchtdorf's talk in the February Ensign the other day and his testimony of The Prophet Joseph Smith was incredible.  It touched me to my very core and he put into words much of how I feel about that good man.  This is what he knew as a child:

Before I recognized the tutoring of the Spirit testifying to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, my youthful heart felt that he was a friend of God and would therefore, quite naturally, also be a friend of mine. I knew I could trust Joseph Smith.

This is my testimony too.  I have always felt this way about our dear prophet, President Hinckley who died last year.  But I know that Joseph Smith was also a prophet of God and as a friend of God, he lived to bless me with the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For more information about the work Joseph Smith did to share the Gospel of Christ, please clickhere.

A 5 year old frat party!

No I'm not talking about a frat party that lasted 5 years, but rather what a frat party would look like if it was hosted by 5 year olds!

So I was sick all weekend.  We're talking flat-on-my-back-kill-me-now sick. Seriously, sicker than i have been since I've had kids.  So what happens when you get a semi-comatose mom, a dad working night shifts, and three kids stuck at home all weekend?

This is what you get:

half drunk sippy cups everywhere...

fruit snacks under the bed, in the bed and stuck to the covers...

the stickiest floor all the way from the sippy cups to the open bottle of gatorade...

half eaten pop tarts on the couch, the floor, and everywhere in between...

Apparently, Levi and Elsie found the stash of fruit snacks and brought them to me in my state of semi-consciousness and I opened them, ALL of them!  They must have thought they had died and gone to heaven! (Or just mom died and left a snack opening zombie behind!)

The best part was on Monday morning when I just couldn't get the kids ready for school, we waited for Dan to get home from his night shift and he took them to school a little late.  At 9:15 am I hear a loud insistent knock at the door.  I drag myself out of bed to see the termite inspection guy here.  I had totally forgotten about our appointment!  He had to inspect the ENTIRE HOUSE!  I was mortified!  All I could do was say I had been sick all weekend and tell him I was going back to bed while he did his thing.  There was no amount of apologizing I could do that would make the mess disappear.  He even had a flashlight people! Imagine a flashlight tracing the piles of crumbs that float toward the baseboards as the kids run through the house with whatever snack their dying mother just gave them! I could have died, except I thought I already was dying so instead, as I climbed back in bed I felt the smallest smile creep over my face at the ridiculousness of it!  I even felt a tiny tingle of relief that it was out of my hands and there was no point in scrambling to clean anything.  So for once in my life, I let it go and didn't give another thought to the stranger with the flashlight climbing over the piles of laundry to inspect my bathroom!  It was quite liberating actually, but don't worry, it will never happen again!

I made it up, mom!

I know, I know, I am totally behind on my blogging but school is under way and yadda, yadda, yadda...

I just have to tell you this joke Maddy told Dan today while she was practicing her spelling homework:

Maddy:  Why was Tigger looking in the toilet?

Dan: why?

Maddy: Because he was trying to find Pooh! Get it? Pooh! Hehehe!

Me: (trying so hard not to laugh) Maddy, where did you learn that joke?

Maddy: I made it up, mom.

Dan: (rolling on the floor laughing with nothing to say but looking pretty proud of his daughter for telling her first dirty joke)

Me: sigh...

10 years!!!

Dan and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary today and it was fantastic! Not because we gave each other amazing gifts or had a huge celebration but because it feels good. It feels good to know that 10 years ago we knelt across the altar in the Salt Lake Temple and promised to love and care for each other for eternity. And 10 years later we love each other more than ever, we are better at caring for each other and we have developed a deeper understanding of the eternal nature of marriage. The picture above is one I took last month while we were visiting Utah and went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was amazing and so uplifting. So I had this picture enlarged (after adding the details about our anniversary) and framed for my gift to Dan. I love the Christmas lights on the trees!
We went to dinner tonight at the Chart House on the Riverfront in Jacksonville. The place was deserted and we got to enjoy a quiet, relaxed dinner together. It was simply perfect.

So after 10 years, here's a little description of Dan & Christy as a couple and individuals:

He's a doctor and she's a doctor's wife, they are lovers of education, devourers of Jack Reacher novels and haters of cigarette smoke. They love being garage parkers. She is anal and he is laid back. He is a quoter of the Simpson's and she rolls her eyes. They are temple recommend holders and grateful recipients of our Savior's Gift. They are lovers of sunshine and haters of snow! He hates neck ties and she thinks he looks great in them. They are suckers for kids saying please-please-please! She thinks he is the funniest guy ever and he IS the funniest guy ever. They love to snuggle with three kids in a king size bed in the morning, but not in the middle of the night. She hates to cook and he doesn't mind. They dream of traveling and serving a mission together. She loves taking pictures and he pretends to love looking at her pictures. They love Macs and not Microsoft. She loves scrapbooking and he lovingly tolerates all that comes with that hobby. He is a runner and she runs to Target. He dreams of playing golf in the PGA and she is his biggest fan. Together they make each other better, a life of love and laughter.

wow my life is good!

So i got a new computer yesterday (more info to come) and this means transferring data. lots of data.  I just imported a folder of pictures from Dan's hard drive (hardly has any pictures from the last two years) and it was 33GB! More than 18,000 items!!!  So as I sat at the computer watching my life literally flash before my eyes; thousands upon thousands of pictures of my children, it dawned on me: my life is good!  Actually it is great!  I just taught a lesson in Relief Society about enjoying "the moment" as a young mother.  I have had so many great moments I should be exploding with joy!  I think i will spend more time looking through those snapshots when i feel a little joy-less because there is no way those images won't make me feel happy/alive/grateful/joyful!

Snapshots to follow!  They are still importing...