wait, what?

Let's talk about my memory these days.

Wait. What did I just say?

No seriously. That's how my life is. It's driving me INSANE. It's a side effect of a hyper thyroid. (Hashimoto's disease generally causes an underactive thyroid. But it's rebounding after pregnancy and having a gay ol' time being hyperactive instead, a whole new set of symptoms that I'm really not used to.) I'm told it will correct itself as my brain stops fighting my overactive thyroid. But honestly, it's driving me insane. For example, I forgot that I just said that exact phrase, "driving me insane," three sentences ago. ARG. I hate redundancy in writing, yet I'm fully aware that I'm regularly redundant. Why? Because I'm often missing half my vocabulary. At least I can still alliterate. (Is that a verb?)

I forget things within a time span of thirty seconds. I feel so stupid all the time. The memory loss isn't large, as in I remember how to drive a car or cut an onion, how to dress my children and keep them fed. And I know their names and their faces and their perfect eyes (seriously - their eyes!). But the small things disappear out of my mind constantly. Words are regularly completely absent, thoughts are sometimes impossibly hard to finish. I stare at my computer screen for full minutes sometimes, just trying to recall why I opened it in the first place. And finishing a single task is nearly impossible. I start one thing and then start another and then another until I notice the first thing is undone and then attempt to finish that. Or when someone text messages or emails me, I fully intend to promptly respond, but I generally can't keep my brain focused enough to do it until several hours later when I've recalled it many times and force myself to complete the task.

Losing. My. Marbles.

So if I seem to be a little slow these days, it's because I AM.

the first snow?!

 

So just a few hours ago, I looked out the window and saw...SNOW. And because I'm a huge fan of snow, I announced it to Annabelle and Lydia. Annabelle, a girl of my heart, responded frantically while jumping up, "Let'sgooutside...and Iwearmycoat...and Iplayin thesnow!! Snow! The groundisgonna bewhite!" And she ran away to find her pants (because she's usually pantless at home, what?) and yelled at me to get her coat. Seriously. She did this.

 

And so I bundled up the babies and took them out for the first snow. As I've mentioned, pregnancy causes a bi-polar switch in me and I don't like the snow. At. All. But the good news is I'M NOT PREGNANT. And snow is beautiful and lovely again.

 

 

Belle went and stomped through the white, while her little sister sat by - quite unimpressed, might I add. Perhaps she'll share her father's love of snow. Which is nonexistent. Shame.

 

 

I realize that my fall foliage has probably been destroyed, but I have memory cards full of fall foliage to sort through still. And for now, we'll enjoy the snow.

let's get together (yeah, yeah, yeah)

So we've never had a family photo taken. Ever.

You can blame me for this for the most part. I had no desire to document the chub that happened after Annabelle. In hindsight, of course, I regret it somewhat as we really don't have a family photo with our one baby family. But let's be honest - I wouldn't hang my chub on a wall anyhow. This year, with the amazing foliage changing color (a post is forthcoming - Jess has been busy), my father-in-law called for family photos. Jess scouted out a place up Big Cottonwood Canyon, everyone brought their cameras, and we took some pictures. They turned out great, especially with four babies to wrangle:

{Jess and his siblings don't look related. Good luck guessing.}

And then I had Jess put on a matching shirt and we took some timed photos with the tripod. So I suppose we still haven't had official pictures taken - you know, ones with a photographer and such - but these do the trick. The price was right and honestly, I really love them. 

{Photo without both sun glare and a smile from Belle.}

{Photo with sun glare and a smile [of sorts] from Belle.}

Except those pesky ten or twenty pounds I could really stand to lose. But like most problems in life, I blame said pounds on the thyroid. You might blame it on my cookie dough consumption. Tomato, tomatah.

{Photo wherein I intentionally crop my gut off but make it look artistic with a little extra processing.}

question and answer

So it seems a little early for this, but Annabelle has started the "Where does BLANK come from?" questions. It's often about her clothes or the food we're eating. But sometimes her questions are pretty random. We were driving up the canyon, and Belle asked us where the trees came from. Then she asked where the houses came from. I let Jess field that one. "Well, some people go to work like me...and when they go to work...they make houses?"

Yesterday, she came up to me and asked, "Mommy, where do babies come from?"

I'm. Not. Even. Kidding.

My mind instantly flashed through the many awkward conversations I had with my mom as a teenager. Oh the disgustingness of it all. So I took a deep breath and said, "When a daddy loves a mommy very much..."

Just kidding. I told her they come from heaven. Because heaven knows that answer makes much more sense than the conversation we'll have when she's a teenager.

over the shoulder

She's at that squishy age where she fits just perfect right over my shoulder.

Indeed, she really loves it there.

If she had her way, she'd just bob her head on my shoulder all day long.

(And if I had my way, I'd be pretty okay with it too.)

a disease

Last night, as I lay in bed, aching with exhaustion, I said to Jess, "I think sometimes we forget that I have a disease. I mean, literally. I have an auto immune disease. And it's never going away."

I visited with my endocrinologist today (thyroid doctor). We're working on getting my thyroid back to normal after pregnancy. I really love this woman. I love her for keeping my thyroid steady for nine months while it shared with a baby, and I love her for being willing to fix it now. It will take some weeks, but it will happen. She did an ultrasound of my thyroid as well. It was kind of fun to see my missing half thyroid, and that other spongy gross right lobe that's just rotting in there. The good news is it looks disgusting, but normal for my disease. No suspicious spots this time.

She rattled off a bunch of symptoms she guessed I might be experiencing - exhaustion, anxiety, ravenous hunger, depression, tremors (my hands) - and explained that it was normal and that we really could get it back to normal. It felt good to hear someone say that all this nuttiness is normal. I mentioned that I was weaning Lydia (we're down to morning and night feedings and neither of us have been happier since she was born) and she actually responded with enthusiasm. Because doing so will just help rid my body of excess hormones. Right now I just want my body back. I'll always need help setting my body right, but I really want to get it there. I mentioned my low carb, no sugar pregnancy diet, and she told me that I'd do well to stick to it. Forever. Most bodies don't "need" excess carbs, but mine just doesn't deal well with them. I agreed with her and explained that although I snitch, I'm sticking to it pretty well. (Minus that baby shower weekend, when I got sick as a dog because I didn't just snitch, I became a glutton. Gag.)

Anyhow, this is just me rambling and remembering. My disease isn't a big deal. In the realm of physical ailing, it's pretty much at the bottom of the ladder. I mean it won't go away, but it also won't kill me. I'll be affected by it forever, I'll balance it forever, and I'll blame all of life's problems on it forever, but it's relatively mild. I'm so grateful it's manageable and that I can live a normal, healthy life. One with babies and a redhead. And chocolate. And Diet Dr Pepper.

round and round

If you're from St. George, you're probably like me, and when people mention they're going to St. George for a visit, you're like, "WHY?" The city really doesn't have much to do unless you have a strong desire to golf and/or sweat. Seriously.

Until now. Now they have a CAROUSEL. Mock all you want, but this thing is seriously the best. Why? Because it's something to do. We took the girls on our last evening in St. George. It was still six hundred degrees, but Annabelle loved it and rode three times. And as you can see, Lou was totally into it too.

oh how tweet!

My sister Rissa - number three of four - is having herself a little baby girl in November. So I thought we'd have ourselves a little baby shower to celebrate.

If you know me, you know that I love spreadsheets and planning and bossing people around. So baby showers are right up my alley. Given the fact that I've given birth to my brain twice now and that planning had to occur in spare minutes when one tiny one wasn't screaming or one larger tiny one wasn't begging to play, I've been planning this shin dig for months. It actually worked out great that way, however, as I was able to just keep my eyes open for things that would fit our theme. And what a theme it was:

Not only am I obsessed with birds, but so is Rissa. Maybe not as much as me (?) but she does love them. I designed a few invites before this became the winner. And then everything else was inspired by it. I tried to do this on a budget, and this is how it broke down:

invites - Designed by me, printed at Wal Mart as photos - it's a seriously cheap way to print invitations and cards. That said, you have to get a few test prints done and adjust color and margins to fit accordingly.

decor - Because of my obsession, I've got random bird stuff that I was able to put to work. I found that {slightly strange} pigeon for fifty cents at the DI and spray painted him to match. The darling bird houses and bronze birds are my mother-in-law's. I'm completely in love with them and wish they could disappear into my own collection. :)

:: banners, cupcake toppers, food labels, etc. - Designed by me, printed at Alphagraphics - rip off - then a local St. George printing shop, Steamroller's - great deal. My recommendation is to shop around before printing instead of just using the closest place (like me). Alphagraphics was more than twice the cost of Steamroller's. I cut out everything as well, but using a cricut machine would be much quicker (I don't have one).

:: "feather" banners - I used this tutorial to make accordian streamers out of tissue paper. I used two bags of tissue paper (they're only about $1 a bag).

:: table runner - I bought two pink feather boas at Zurcher's ($5 a pop) and ran them lengthwise folded in half. It may be my favorite thing about the shower.

:: hanging birds - Spotted those lovely numbers in the dollar bins at Target.

:: food label clips - Dollar bins at Target. I found them just days before the shower and was more than a little excited.

food - I yo-yoed the menu around for weeks. Because the theme was "oh so tweet," I really wanted to do sweet treats only, but Rissa preferred to have more of a lunch spread. But then as I began pricing a real menu out, I realized that making just treats would save us money. And with a huge invite list (seventy people!), we needed a bunch. So we made everything (the day before, and wow did the kitchen get hot), and everything was "oh so tweet."

:: honey lime fruit salad - I make this recipe from Mel all the time. Kiwis, grapes, and strawberries are staples, but I also throw in random fruit all the time. It always works, and it's always delicious. We used half canned and half fresh and bought at Costco to save a little (and make a lot).

:: grandma's sweet rolls - These are my mom's sweet rolls, a favorite of our family. We tried making them tiny - and they are smaller than normal - but they turned out nice and fluffy and a little bit big. And a lot bit delicious.

:: almond Texas sheet cake - Many people are familiar with the regular chocolate Texas sheet cake (which I also love). This is the same, sans the cocoa and plus almond extract. It's one of my favorite desserts. And makes a nice big batch.

:: oatmeal chewies - This recipe is from Mel too. My Internet BFF. (But she said we could be BFFs so it counts. I love the Internet.) If you haven't made these, you haven't lived. They do have coconut, which some people balk at, but honestly, you don't even know it's there. It just makes the cookie moist and unbelievably delicious. (I didn't even use the word "coconut" on the food label so people wouldn't be scared.)

:: mint brownies - Uh, Mel's recipe. (Her recipes are my favorites, if you were wondering.) We doubled this and ate a truckload of batter.

:: mini cheesecakes - Oh hey Mel. Her recipe too. Rissa really wanted to make these. I'm so glad she did - they were delish. And so dainty and pretty.

:: orange-kissed cookies - These were made, but never frosted. We ran out of time and space on the table. But these cookies are honestly melt-on-your-tongue delicious.

It was super involved and a ton of work (and very little sleep for a few days), but it was worth it. Babies are so worth a celebration, and I wanted to make my sister's perfect. I think she liked it, and it's possible I loved how it turned out.

{Cue the truckload of photos.}

Photos by the youngest sister, Danielle.

fall and a moose

It's heeerrre! We went searching for fall and found it. The leaves are switching. Glory, glory.

We went up to one of our favorite spots, Silver Lake, and as we rounded the first bend, bumped into this fellow:

Almost literally. There were groups of people standing around daring one another to run and catch him. Moosey ride anyone?

We just watched. And took pictures. And followed him around per the toddler's request. This was like the zoo. But real life. And she was into it.

And see that old man taking pics off to the left? He was a total crack up. He did indeed venture off into the marsh to see if he could cetch 'im a moose. He seriously ran around chasing a moose. Who does that? I think we mostly found it amusing because we knew that at least we wouldn't be the ones being trampled by a moose that day.

Oh, and please excuse the young one's apparel. She dressed herself. Just call her Little Orphan Annie-Belle. (I often do.) She's got the hair for the part in any case.

Oh, and the excuse for my look? That's called the I-don't-shower-on-Mondays look. You likey?

Welcome Fall!