Organized Chaos

14 and Counting

2009-07-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have me as a friend on Facebook, this will come as no surprise to you. I have come to the conclusion that there are statistically more women pregnant right now than usual. Either that or I simply know all of them. You see, through the last month or so, I have noticed many of my friends announcing their expected bundles of joy and I decided to count how many I had heard about. On Facebook alone, I tallied 14 friends that are prego right now. Well, I don't know about anyone else, but for just my facebook friends (no ward friends, neighbors, or otherwise) I think that is a lot! Now, one may ask why this even matters to me? Do I not have enough of a life to focus on more than how many pregnant friends I have? In fact, I do. However, whether it be due to my extraordinary love for babies and all things baby, or Heavenly Father sending a gazillion prego friends my way in order to shout the message, "It is time for you too! Quit stalling!", I HAVE become preoccupied with this trend because I too hope to be prego by Christmas. :o)

Family Home Evening (Toddler Style)

2009-04-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

So, ever since we moved, we have been trying to do better at certain aspects of our lives. One of those things that we have been trying to be better at doing is Family Home Evening. It has been difficult in the past but we figured that we should have a little bit easier time now that our kids can at least participate. Of course, this also means doing Family Home Evening in a fashion suitable for toddlers. Each week we try to talk about something for 5-10 minutes (or how ever long we can manage to keep their attention) that pertains to family, the gospel, or simply bettering ourselves. After we have talked a little bit about the chosen subject and then lost the attention of our kids, we have an activity. Some weeks the activity is watching a Veggie Tales that happens to coincide with the lesson. Some weeks we just play duck, duck, goose or London Bridge. The kids have come to absolutely love Family Home Evening and Damien will ask many other nights of the week if we can do "Home Evening". Anyway, last week we talked about exercise and why it is good for us. Then we all did several different exercises for the activity: played some soccer and basketball, showed the kids how to do a somersault. After we were done, both kids wanted to play ring-around-the-rosies. Daddy was worn out after all our exercises and so this is what was said:

Damien: Let's play ring-around-the-rosies!
Daddy: I'm pooped.
Damien: You need to go potty, Daddy.

I don't think Craig will be using that phrase again any time soon. ;o)

Back up to Date

2009-02-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

So, since it's been two months and things have finally calmed down a bit I decided that I should bring my blog up to date. Here is a synopsis of our lives through December and January.

Early in December, before my birthday I think, our landlords came to us and said that they were foreclosing on the big house they were in and had to move back into their smaller house, the one we were renting. That night I went through various stages of panic, anger, fear, and more panic. After a few days I began to calm down and just accept that it was what it was. At least they had given us two months to move (we had paid up through January, so they kinda had to). We began looking online at rentals and keeping an eye out around our neighborhood. We also contacted a real estate lady in our ward that several people recommended. We really didn't know her at the time, but we are pretty good friends now. :o)

Craig was done with school for the semester about a week before Christmas and we really looked hard at our different options for a few days. Then we took a break in order to get ready for and celebrate Christmas. We had a great Christmas and this was the first year that the kids really got into it. They both talked all the time about Santa and they loved singing Christmas songs in the car on the way to parties.

On December 30, just after all the Christmas festivities had wound down, Craig decided to throw a little monkey wrench into our plans. (okay, it wasn't really his fault, but still ;-)). He woke up feeling fine, and then started having a small stomach ache about 10:30 in the morning. We though it was just because he hadn't eaten. However, after eating and then after taking a few different meds to try to help it, his stomach just kept getting worse and worse. Five hours after the pain started, just after 3:00, he couldn't even stand, much less walk, and let me take him to urgent care. They sent us immediately over to the emergency room and at about 9:00 that night he was in surgery having his appendix removed. What a surprise! Fortunately it hadn't ruptured yet and Craig would be fine, but we spent 4 days, including celebrating the new year, in the hospital. (We were on the sixth floor so we had a great view of fireworks from his window.) We were able to leave after one infection, one fever, two different allergic reactions, a whole lot of walking around the halls, and being away from our children who had a rather difficult time with the whole experience. We learned that Craig can no longer take anything with a codeine base. We were very grateful for living right next to a hospital, grandparents that love their grandkids and don't mind taking them for 4 days at the drop of a hat with out much more than the clothes they were wearing and a few diapers, hospital food that was surprisingly good, and a Heavenly Father that allowed all this to happen in between semesters at school. It was quite an experience.

Anyway, Craig healed up nicely and aside from having to be careful not to lift anything, we got busy with the moving details. We dug in our heels and spent almost every waking moment looking for somewhere to live. We tried to pack a box here and there, but we mostly just wanted the assurance that we had somewhere to go at the end of the month. Along with all the home hunting and packing, Craig's semester at school started up on the 12th. It was interesting and difficult to figure everything out, especially because we had the feeling like we should move in with a couple of Craig's siblings and share rent. I'll spare you the details, other than telling you that it is not easy finding a place that works for 3 separate family units to share and have enough room for a year or two. We finally decided on a place with about a week and a half to spare. We were able to start the lease 5 days early and began moving stuff over. We officially moved in on January 31, Craig's birthday.

So, it's been crazy. I am glad that the last two months are over. Not that they were bad, because December was actually a pretty good month, but they were just a little too busy for me. Now the biggest task ahead of me is unpacking all of our junk! The kids have adjusted well to the new house, although they had a pretty difficult time while we were kind of in between homes. Can't really blame them. Anyway, for those of you who may have been wondering if we had dropped of the face of the earth, we are still here, we are still kicking, and we will hopefully keep you up to date a little better now. :o)

Dark Chocolate

2008-12-08T21:29:00.001-08:00

A little piece of Heaven on earth :o)

Hubby Tag

2008-11-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

I stole this from a friend's page (Thanks Melissa) because I haven't had anything original to write about and I felt like I'd been a slacker on posting. I thought, how fun to learn about my friends' best friend and be reminded of how wonderful our husbands are. So, here you go...

What's your husband's name? William Craig Milton

How long have you been married? 4 years and 4 months

How long did you date? About 5 months

How old is he? 28

Who eats more sweets? Definitely me

Who said "I Love You" first? I hinted at it first, but he really said it first

Who is taller? Craig

Who is a better singer? Same

Who is smarter? It depends on the issue

Who does the laundry? I do, when I'm not at the beck and call of my wonderful little ones

Who pays the bills? That would be me

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Depends on which side is closer to the door

Does he snore? Lol, yeah

What does he do in his spare time? Plays with our kids, spends time with me, reads, spends bonding time (aka: computer time, game time) with his dad and brothers

Who mows the lawn? He would mostly, if we had a lawn worth mowing

What is his favorite candy bar? Snickers

Who cooks dinner? I do, unless he is really in the mood to make hamburgers or I am gone

Who drives? I drive when it's just me and the kids, when we're all together, he does

Who is the first to say they are wrong? It varies

Who kissed who first? He kissed me first

Who asked who out first? Craig asked me out first, after having to give me his phone number instead of me giving him mine, because I had just moved here 2 weeks prior and couldn't remember the phone # for where I was living.

Who wears the pants? I think we do a pretty decent job of trading off

Does he say he loves you every day? He sure does! :-)

I tag LaChelle, Lindsey, Erin, Stacy, Megi, Mandie, Julie, and ShaNae

Cinnamon Candles and Egg Nog

2008-11-12T14:01:00.000-08:00

As a precursor to this post, I do not wish to aggravate anyone by my obsession with the holidays and Christmas. ;)

I sit here as I type this post with my bowl of warm savory soup and a glass full of delicious egg nog. I have two cinnamon candles burning and the radio on. Much to my husband's dismay because Thanksgiving has not come yet (and the dismay of others, I am sure) I have already tuned into the station that plays Christmas music all season long. You see, I am a Christmas fanatic. I always have been and the years do not seem to temper that trait. I simply collect more and more Christmas things and holiday traditions. Don't worry, my Christmas tree will not make it's appearance until the day after Thanksgiving. I tried explaining to Craig that I really do enjoy the entire holiday season, and that I am just as excited for Thanksgiving as I am for Christmas. I even told him that if they played Thanksgiving music on the radio I am sure I would listen. Unfortunately they do not, and I consider Christmas colors to be prettier than Thanksgiving ones. There is simply something about the sparkle that comes along with Christmas that gets me so excited sometimes I feel like I could jump through the roof. :)

That brings me to the reason for this post. I have a conflict going on with myself that I cannot do anything about, so I figured writing about it might help. The problem is that as much as I feel the holiday spirit growing around me, there is something distinctly missing and I am reminded of it each time I look or venture outside. That's right people, there is not even a hint of my beloved snow. Here in the valley of the sun where it reaches temperatures hotter than Hades during the summer, it is still reaching into the 80s during the day. I just recently noticed that my A/C is not kicking on anymore and I have finally dug our jackets out from their hiding places for the occasional evening that it becomes cool enough to wear one. So I have resigned myself to hoping and wishing and praying for even a tiny amount of blessed snow. I never realized that one day the Christmas legend of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" would ring so true for me. :/

Don't worry friends, I will survive. I am sure that I can resist sinking into a sun~induced depression. ;) All I ask is that if you are being blessed with beautiful, sparkling snow that you do not desire, please send it my way! Phoenix could use some color other than brown!

Playing Tag

2008-11-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

So, this is my first tag. I was tagged by a friend and hadn't posted for quite a while, so I figured this would get the ball rolling again. Tag forward if you so desire. :-)

8 Favorite TV shows:
Chuck
24
Wheel of Fortune
Family Feud
Deal or No Deal
American Idol
Suns basketball
House (sometimes)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
Olive Garden
Red Robin
Texas Roadhouse
Red Lobster
Flaming Wok
Macayos
Sweet Tomatoes
Fazzoli's

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
Woke up late
Fed kids breakfast
Talked to my mom
Played with kids
Put kids down for a nap
Went to my in law's house
Watched Suns and Cardinals games
Won my fantasy football game

8 Things That I Look Forward to:
More children
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Seeing my sister-in-law
Weekends
Craig graduating from law school
My birthday
Meeting my nephew

8 Things I Love About Fall:
Crisp air
Sweaters
The colors of the trees
Halloween/Thanksgiving
My birthday
Lower power bills
Family time
Hot Chocolate

8 Things On My Wish List:
More children
No debt
A car that the car seats can actually fit into
A happy, stress-free Husband
A Vacation
My own home
Security
To be with my family for eternity

Tag 8 people
Mandie
Megi
Stacy
ShaNae
Melissa
Julie
Rachel
Nicole & Cody

Music!!!

2008-10-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hooray! I found music for my page! For those who do not know me well enough, I LOVE music! I like lots of kinds of music, but not all. :) Because of this deep love of music I like to share my favorite songs with my friends whenever I can. So I have added a playlist to my blog in hopes that all who stop by once in a while can find something to listen to that they enjoy. Maybe I will help someone find a new favorite. I will add new songs from time to time, but will leave most of the old ones as the songs that make it onto my playlist are true favorites. Enjoy! :)

My Life

2008-09-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

So, I decided to write a post about the title of my blog. I have always had a thing for oxymorons and such, and one of my favorites has been Organized Chaos. As I thought about what to name my blog I thought about my life and I realized that organized chaos perfectly descibes the life I live. When Craig saw the title he as well said, "I like that. That's us, isn't it."
My life has always been prone to such organized chaos I think, but I have been assured of this since getting married and having children. To give an example, if any person outside of my family were to walk into my house they would find the very basics in a pretty basic location. You could probably find the silverware without much trouble and the linens are in the linen closet. But as things get less basic and more individualized, things also seem to get more chaotic. The funny thing is, I tend to develop a subconscience OCD kind of system about our stuff. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it all, but if someone moves something too far, I may go crazy trying to find it.
Also, I think simply having children denotes some kind of organized chaos. Little children can by their nature be chaotic at times, and yet the design from our Father in Heaven of having children and bringing them into this world to love, teach and cherish them is quite organized.
So, I just thought I would share with you all the thought process involved in choosing my blog name and answer any questions as to the oddity of myself and my life. I am happily who I am!

I have overturned my stumbling block

2008-09-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true, I have finally figured out (at least to some degree) blogger and how to create my layout! Boy did it take me long enough! As I watched more and more friends jump on the blogspot bandwagon it gave me a little more motivation to figure this thing out. So, here I sit at just past midnight happily proclaiming myself victorious. I have officially started my blog! For all who may be interested, I am horrible at keeping up with these kinds of things, but I am going to try. Feel free to keep in touch with us and I will do my best to keep you updated on the happenings of our little family. Well, that is all for now. I am off to cuddle with my wonderful pillow!

Oh Boy

2008-05-31T01:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I have no idea what I am doing. I guess we will see how this blog turns out. Hope you enjoy the updates and latest news that will be posted occasionally. I'll get on and write again when I have figured out this whole layout thing.