The Iowa Machine Shed

Adam enjoying his food

The Iowa Machine Shed is a home cooking, serve cinnamon rolls the size of your head, drink out of a mason jar restaurant that is yummy. After the Capital building nobody felt like cooking so we went out to eat and stuffed ourselves. Poor little Leah got sick and just wanted to sleep and be cuddled but other than that we had a great time.

Leah starting to not feel great.

That is Eric in case you don't recognize him with the beard :)

The Iowa State House

My brother-in-law is now a State Senator for his district in Iowa. When Eric and I were home for Christmas he was very excited to show us his new "office" and the law library.

The Senate Chambers

The public viewing area

Dolls of the all the first ladies

Issac, Leah and Eric in the public viewing area

Jake's desk. Once session starts the senators all pick new desks.

Only the Senators are allowed to sit the senators' chairs or walk down the center aisle and they are very serious about it.

Where the Speaker of the House sits.

Inside the dome

One of two spiral staircases in the law library.

The ceiling in the law library.

The law library.

Mom pondering in the law library. (Leah took this picture for me).

Adam confused by a law. Aren't we all?

A sample of Leah's photography skills. She had my camera and took almost 50 pictures in less than 15 minutes.

Spending time with Adam

The bell from the USS Iowa

A model of the USS Iowa

View to downtown Des Moines from the capital.

The ceiling in the capital.

Christmas 2012

 Christmas day was a blast. Travis and Bri got their first after doing Christmas at their own house. We had to wait a bit for Jenn and her clan. Opening presents took about three hours with all of the playing and taking turns. It was a blast. One of the best moments was when Leah opened her microphone. There was pure joy on her face. She had a few more present to open after that but we had to pull her away from the microphone. All of the kids were great to watch open gifts.

Christmas Eve

 Eric and I were able to go home to Iowa for Christmas this year. We didn't tell the little kids that we were coming. On the Saturday before Christmas we showed up at family dinner at my parents house and surprised the kiddos. Isaac and Leah were over the moon with excitement, Adam was trying to remember how he knew us and Arabella was a little leery of the new people.

As you can see from the pictures there is a lot of wrestling and rough housing going on. We were never sitting still for very long. The only thing we did more than wrestle was to eat. Every night there was a yummy dinner. Christmas lasted a while week.

Ever since she was little Leah and I have been super close. This week she was sick so there was a bit more snuggling than normal.

Happy Thanksgiving

HappyThanksgiving to everyone!! Sorry a month as gone by without a word from Baltimore. Life has been pretty routine. Eric has been working at the VA in Baltimore and is getting ready to switch on Monday to a surgery rotation at Walter Reed and Fort Mead. He has been on call for almost the whole month but it has been pretty light; which has been a great blessing. I have been working as a nanny still but had this week off. I made a to-do list that was a mile long and will probably not get anywhere near all of it done.
Today on the great turkey day we are celebrating with our Canadian friends and the missionaries will be joining us later. Eric is making a great looking turkey and we are doing all of the traditional sides. The only one that we are cheating on is the pumpkin pie. Neither Eric nor myself like normal pumpkin pie so we make little pumpkin jello pudding pies. Every year Jell-O makes pumpkin spice pudding. We mix it up and put it in the graham cracker crust bowls and then add whipped cream. It takes about 5 minutes and we have a pumpkin pie like dessert. I didn't do a running list of things I am grateful for this year so I thought  I would add the list here.

Gratitude List:
*Eric
*Book of Mormon
*Gospel
*Joseph Smith
*family (biological and the kind you pick up along the way)
*babies
*a warm, safe place to live
*having two cars
*friends
*laughter
*Atonement
*clean water that is readily avaliable
*cell phones
*sunshine
*the sound of rain
*yummy food
*books
*free libraries
*popcorn
*GPS
*the technology to communicate with family long distance
*helping others smile 

We survived

Sandy has come and gone. She took our power but other than that we are fine. Eric got off work at noon on Monday and has Tuesday off. I worked till about 2:30 on Monday and went in a few hours late on Tuesday. Baltimore was spared the worst of it. Our hears go out to those who were greatly afflicted by the storm.

What to write

Throughout the day I will have the thought, "that would be great to write about on the blog:" and then I sit down to write and...nothing. I downloaded the blogger app for my phone but typing a full blog post on my phone is not a task I feel equal to. Just trying to text is enough for me on the little, tiny keyboard. I have stated keeping a list of subject headings but even then a lot of times I have lost my original thought wave and the phrase just doesn't get my juices flowing. I want to write more and keep a better record of my goings on and wandering mind bubbles but I can't seem to get my computer and my thoughts in the same room at the same time. On that note here are a few updates for the past month.

Kristelle:
-has weaned off the meds for depression and is doing quite well. I still attend a support group at my ward each week which has been a huge blessing.
-still works as a nanny and struggles with being pseudo-mom rather than real mom at times. Not because of the infertility but because there are things I would do differently.
-Has made no progress on a quilt that I have been working on since March. I have decided I am not a quilter.I want to finish this one and then go back to crocheting.
-has enjoyed the book group started by ladies in the ward and gets to read "The Professor and Mad Man" for November.

Eric:
-is back to working at the VA in Baltimore but now that he has his own car life has been much easier with getting him to and from work.
-is spearheading a conference that the VA is hosting in March. He gets to ask companies for money to sponsor the conference.
-is debating about doing a fellowship or going straight out into the working world.
-is serving with Kristelle in the Activity days at church (our ward doesn't have a cub scout program so Activity days are co-ed).
-is going paint balling this Saturday for the first time in years and is really super excited about it. If anyone in the Baltimore area wants to join him I am sure he would love it.

Defining

I have always been a little worried about defining myself. If I am a chocolate lover does that mean I can't be someone who is healthy? There are a few titles that I feel confident in and would feel proud to wear on my t-shirt (see Sister Dibb's talk from conference). I am a wife, daughter, sister, reader, crocheter, and many other things. I feel like there are so many options out there in life and I don't want to close any doors. Things like following an exercise plan becomes really confusing with this problem. I really like yoga and zumba and walking but it is hard to to merge all that together. I am trying to simplify like we are counseled to do but I am not sure which things to cut out. I should have been a pioneer that had fewer websites with craft ideas.

Good thing my finger nails are long...

because some times I feel like I am hanging on by them. Working full time for the past nine months has been a huge blessing. Eric and I needed me to work to help us financially and I needed a reason to get up and get going everyday to help deal with my depression. That being said working full time has been a big adjustment for me that I can't quite seem to adjust to. I feel as though I am never any where close to accomplishing anything on my to do list. I have a hard time finding time to get even the basics done like brushing my teeth and reading my scriptures some days. By the end of the day I am exhausted and feel totally drained. If I take time for me I feel guilty for not having housework or other such items done or if I do the housework and other such items I feel even more depleted by bed time.

Right before we went to Florida we decided that sharing one car wasn't going to work with Eric's rotations this year. Having two cars has helped me in the evenings. When we were sharing I felt I could never start anything at home since I never knew when Eric was going to need me to go get him. Now that he just brings himself home that has made my evenings a lot less chaotic.

When we were still in Iowa my counselor told me that I needed to find something to to be excited about in my future. Not big way down the road things but up coming events. Over the summer I was super excited to go to Florida. Being on the beach with no agenda for the day and seeing family and no PAGERS!!! (Eric was on call a lot over the summer). I ended up being sick most of the time we were in Florida so my vacation wasn't as good as I had hoped. Looking back I remembered why I never let my self get that excited for things-I always hyped them up so much in my mind and then I was always disappointed for some reason or another.

I have also found that I run away from things. Over the summer we were having a maintenance issue that took months to get resolved and at one point I said "Let's just move." I am also like that with my job right now. Since that is what takes the most time I want to just quit and find a new job. I am not going to do that for a lot of reasons but I find that leaving the situation is my fall back method of dealing with issues. I think some of that comes from moving around so much as a child. I knew that if I just hung in there we would leave soon.

All this boils down to me needing to find balance in my life. Balance seems to be the theme in my life. I am not very good at achieving it but I am good at thinking about it and planning for it-just not executing it.

Tampa Bay Aquarium

 During the time we were in Florida we spent one day in Tampa at the aquarium and also IKEA. The aquarium was pretty cool. I have been to the one in Baltimore a few times and the one in Tampa is more geared towards children which makes it a lot more fun with kids. Isaac, Leah and Adam had a blast at the splash pad that was outside. The splash pad was huge and a great way to get wet. There were a lot of really fun animals along with fish and other marine animals.