Hunk a hunk a burnin' love!

This is the hunk a hunk a burning' love that I woke up to this morning.

Summer of George

Do you remember the Seinfeld episode, Summer of George? If I remember correctly, George had lost his job and was going to have a summer to do what he wanted to do before going back to work. I still have my job, but am enjoying a much needed break today after a very busy semester and before beginning to prep for summer school. I am calling it, The Week of Stephanie.

Today I slept in until 9:30 (Jeff dropped the kids off at school for me), took a bubble bath, went to lunch with Jeff, went shopping at the craft store, went to happy hour to get a ginormous diet coke, picked up the kids from school and came home. Unfortunately I got bombarded with more school work as soon as I turned the computer on, but think everything is done now.

Other activities I have planned for the week of Stephanie: scrapbook class, lunch dates with friends, volunteering at Mylie's school, maybe visit the old pennitentiary to photograph it, scrapbook, read (just started Water for Elephants - going to see the movie next week), and play with the kids - hopefully outside and in the sunshine!

Yay for the Week of Stephanie!

Beautiful!

It was a beautiful weekend. The sun was shining and I am done grading papers (whoo hoo!) I only have about two hours of work standing between me and a couple weeks of summer break. Mylie had her last soccer game of the season yesterday. It was so nice to be out in the sunshine. We were only there for an hour and a half, but my arms got totally sunburned.

I tried to take some pictures of Blake waiting for the game to begin. This was the reaction I got.


And then this glare.

Mylie, of course, has no qualms about the camera and loves to pose.

She played awesome yesterday, in fact, probably the best she has played all season (figures it is the last game). I was so proud of her and she had a lot of fun. This is her on one of her many break aways.

Yay for sunshine!!

Opposites attract ...

So if I had a day off and all to myself (hopefully next week, fingers crossed), my plans would include sleeping in, scrapbooking, maybe some shopping, then lunch out with my girlfriends, reading and an afternoon nap.

Jeff took today off. He got up and lifted weights and then asked me to take him to the top of Horseshoe Bend hill because he found this great dirt road from there to Pearl. I mean its only 15 miles.

Its a good thing opposites attracts!

Hello lover ...

I must officially be a grown up, because this has become my dream car. I recall a conversation with my mom sometime during my know-it-all early 20s. It went something like this:

Me: I will NEVER drive a mini van.
Mom: Never say never Stephanie.

As usual, she was right. It is amazing how what you consider to be an awesome car when you are 25 (Jeep) to what you consider to be an amazing car when you are 35 (van).

I yuv you too Mommy.

When Blake was struggling with his speech I often wondered what it would be like to hear him tell me that he loved me. I vividly remember thinking that and imagining him saying those words. Blake has been a talking fool for the last eight months or so. His vocabulary is growing so fast and in the last month it has exploded even more. He tells me he loves me, he tells me he's mad at me, he tells me he wants a snack, he tells me he wants to ride his bike, in fact, he tells me everything!

But yesterday, he and I were holding hands and walking and I squoze his hand two times (Mylie's and I's secret code for "I love you") and said I love you Blakey. He squoze my hand back and clear as day said "I yuv you too Mommy." Its like at that moment I remembered the yearning I had to hear those words from him. And once again I recognized how far he has come. He is a different little boy now. One who is a sheer pleasure and a total turd, all wrapped into one. And it is delightful to be his mom.

Weekend Update

It finally felt like we had a spring weekend! Saturday was soccer day. Blake officially hates soccer so it is just Mylie now. She had fun and did a great job. She got to play goalie for part of the game and thought that was pretty cool.

Love how my boys hold hands.

Saturday afternoon I lucked out and Mylie, Blake, and I all got in a nap. Everyone at our house continues to fight this icky cold, horrible cough thing. We cannot seem to zap it. And it is wearing us all out. While we were all napping Jeff went for a bike ride (hello 43 miles, ouch!). Later that afternoon he took the kids out to ride their bikes.

This was the first time I would say that Blake was really successful and engaged in riding his bike. Perhaps it is the spiderman helmet?

At 6:55 this morning the kids woke us up to tell us that the Easter bunny had come. I swear I was still in a nyquil coma at that time. Blake started eating chocolate bunnies at 7:05 - he was *slightly* hyper today.

They both looked super adorable in their Easter outfits. We had stake conference today, which seemed kind of odd for Easter, but it was a good meeting with a good message. Lucky for me Blake had a sugar crash and literally slept on my shoulder for the entire two hours.

And seriously, apparently Blake can't even pose for an Easter picture without some superhero move thrown in.

After church we went to Grandma and Grandpa Breach's house for Easter lunch. We had a great visit and the kids were happy to see them. We came home and the kids watched "Tangled" (Mylie got it in her Easter basket) and I think I fell asleep. Sigh, I so wish I could get feeling better. This is really sucking all my energy. I honestly feel like I got sick in November and I have never really gotten better. I will get feeling better for a short period of time and then it is back.

I am glad we had the chance to celebrate Easter today and to be able to share with our children why it is an important holiday and what it means to us. I usually get the kids a church book for Easter, but didn't find any this year. Instead I made them both little books with pictures of Jesus and of the Easter story. Jeff and I also wrote to each of them our thoughts about Easter. I want them to know how important Jesus Christ and his Atonement are to us.

Time to get back to grading papers and loading assignments for next week. It is hard for me to believe that there are only three weeks left in my semester. I plan to take a very long nap at the conclusion of the semester. Preferably all day.