Mary Loves Her Daddy.

And her Daddy loves her. It warms my heart to see them together.

Jeff spinning Mary.


Mary's dizzy.

Still dizzy.

Mess maker, Mess maker

Mess maker, Mess maker (Sung to the tune of Matchmaker, Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof)

Mess maker, Mess maker you are a mess,
Food in your hair and on your dress!
Mess maker, Mess maker look at your Mom,
She’s cleaning up a food bomb!

Mess maker, Mess maker you know that I’m
In love with you. Still, so much time
To clean up after each mess that you make
I do it all for your sake.

Dear Mary, I know you think it’s cute
To put buttered toast on your head
It’s not that I really mind that much
It’s just I JUST shampooed your head!

Mess maker, Mess Maker toys everywhere,
Poop on your bum, sand in your shoe
Soon you will grow up and I’ll be so blue . . .
So bring on the juice, toast and the jam
Banana and cake –I’ve got the cam’!
Oh you are my little ham!



Alternate "Dear Mary" part:
Dear Mary you make a lot of mess
For someone who is so pint-sized
It’s not that I really mind that much,
It’s just you’re so uncivilized!

Which one do you like better?

Escapism

Thank goodness for the simple pleasures in life - a new outfit, something tasty to eat, or something beautiful in nature. When life gets hard, it is nice to have these comforts and also to enjoy a little escapism. After all, they say that the two industries that did well during the Great Depression were cosmetics and entertainment. Kind of gives more weight to the idea that I might've made a slight difference in people's lives when I performed for them. But I digress . . .

What better way to do enjoy a little escapism than to watch one of my most favorite movies, Pride and Prejudice. Now I must confess and disappoint many of you by saying I prefer the more recent Keira Knightly version to the BBC - takes a billion hours to get through - version. Though I really like Colin Firth, he isn't very attractive in the BBC version (Not so in Girl With a Pearl Earring though ; )). And many of the actors seem too old to be playing young ladies. I'm sure though, that if I had seen that one more, THAT would be my favorite. But hence, tis not so.

I LOVE the cinematography of the Keira Knightly version. Love the acting, love the casting . . .

I think one of the reasons I love it is because Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship reminds me of me and Jeff's relationship. Both people are so proud and stubborn. Jeff is Mr. Darcy in so many ways . . . Some of these quotes ring true to Jeff: "We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of fellow", "'Do you dance Mr. Darcy?' 'Not if I can help it.'", "My good opinion once lost is lost forever." Jeff is also very honorable like Mr. Darcy.

Incidentally, in Jane Austen's Emma, the title characters also remind me of Jeff and me. Have I mentioned all this before? Seems like maybe I have. Hmmm . . .

Funny though. My Mom's bestfriend is Janice Kapp Perry - some of you may have heard of her ; ) (they became acquainted through collaborating and now are very close). And before JKP met me, she asked my Mom if I was more like Jane or Elizabeth. My Mom said I was actually more like Lydia!!! Can you believe that?!! : ) When this all came out awhile back, I reported it to Jeff and he agreed. *sigh*

Anywhoo . . . the point is just that I love this movie and I enjoyed watching it the past few days. And also just to tell you that I am indeed a dreamer. My Mom too mentioned this recently about herself. So I guess I get it from her. (Mom, I need you to send me your last update again so I can reread that part.) My being a dreamer was one of the reasons for the title of my blog (other reasons: life goes by as if it were a dream and life is good like a dream come true).

And I'm okay with that. I think you should dream big!

Name the following musical that this quote comes from . . . "Baby, dream your dream. Close your eyes and try it. Dream of three fat kids. Brother, would I buy it! Life could be frozen peaches and cream, if only I could dream, dream, dream, a dream."


Guess I could've also titled my blog LIFE IS A MUSICAL. What do you think? :)

Happy Spring!

I made this cookie bouquet of flowers (except the pot I can't take credit for - my SIL made that for my baby shower) yesterday/today as a centerpiece/handout for my lesson for the 12-13 year old girls (Beehives) about Extended Family Relationships.
Attached to it was this: "Extended Family Relationships can blossom into many blessings".

I've enjoyed being the Beehive advisor. Here are some of the other handouts I've made.


The picture of Jesus went with a lesson called "Coming to Know the Savior". It talked a lot about having the Savior as our friend. On the back of the picture, I wrote this scripture: D&C 88:63 "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you." I told the girls I loved this picture of the Savior and that they can always look at His eyes in this pic and know that He loves them.

The Valentine handout was given out the day before Valentine's Day. That lesson was about a woman's responsibility to teach. Inside it says:

Characteristics of Christ’s Teachings
1. Jesus loved the people He taught.
2. He used stories and examples that were familiar to the people so they would understand and be able to apply His teachings. (He related it to them)
3. He taught the people when they needed to be taught. He didn’t tell them to wait until it was convenient for Him. (He took advantage of teaching moments)
4. He knew the scriptures well and had prepared himself spiritually to teach.
5. He prayed for help to teach and to bless the people He taught.

One of my favorite handouts was the crown. It was from a lesson called "Our Purpose In Life".
On the back I listed 5 ways that we can find out our own special purposes in life (Personal Prayers, Study and Meditation, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Priesthood Blessings, and Patriarchal Blessings) and this quote by H. Burke Peterson; "Do you think for a moment that Heavenly Father would have sent one of His children to this earth by accident, without the possibility of a signigicant work to perform?... My dear friends, you are a royal generation. You were preserved to come to the earth in this time for a special purpose. Not just a few of you, but all of you. There are things for each of you to do that no one else can do as well as you . . . . If you will let Him, I testify that our Father in Heaven will walk with you through the journey of life and inspire you to know your special purpose here". I am hoping the girls took their crowns home and put a little picture of themselves in the center and then decorated the rest of it with jewels or by coloring it.

And the one from last week was about family unity and building family relationships through family activities. I gave the girls a little paper sack with the tag "Family Unity Begins With Me" and I gave them rainbow paper to write down family activities and then cut them up and place into the bag. I also had them label the bags "Family Fun Sack" and write on the back of the green tag one way in which they could strengthen their families. The yarn is significant too. The lesson talked about how it is difficult to break a piece of yarn, but when you pull it apart by individual strands, it is much easier to break. This was a metaphor for families. When we all work together we are strong. And when we don't, we aren't as strong and easier to break. The green and yellow and the rainbow were all reminiscent of St. Patrick's Day too. : )

Anyway, I know you all probably don't care, but for some reason I just wanted to record all that.

Here are some fun Mary happenings too:

A week or so ago, Mary and I went to see Peter Rabbit at PBK. She squealed with delight and wasn't scared in the least!


Mary enjoys dipping her graham crackers in milk. So cute and grown up eh?

Mary enjoys sitting in the computer chair whilst I spin her.


Last week, Mary fell asleep like this. Hilarious!


When we say the blessing, Mary bows her head and folds her arms like this. She doesn't close her eyes yet or stop eating, but often reminds me that we need to pray. She kept wanting to pray tonight over and over. Sweet Mary Pie.

Feeling lucky?

I am! I have a great family. We had a little (well big considering) dinner last night and used St. Patrick's Day as the theme. We had corned beef, cabbage coleslaw (I missed the traditional cabbage but that's okay), Irish mashed potatoes (okay they were just mashed potatoes) and green jello fluff salad. At the end we had Trifle. But I renamed it Rainbow Trifle because it was like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow complete with rainbow sprinkles on top. Freakin' delish! With that and the St. Patrick's Day parade happening in Chicago this weekend, it's been a festive St. Patrick's Day and it's not even St. Patrick's day!
Here are some pics!

Another hat. Lots of Peek a boo fun.


Just look at this girl! What a cutie if I say so myself.


My Dad and sister, Jennifer


Robinsons/Murrays (both apparently Scottish, but have Irish I think as well)


Me and Rosanna


Joe and Mary flirting. Buff and scruffy Ivan looking on(just arrived from a pig hunt) and Grandma Bonnie playing piano while we all sing. Well, Mary dances.


Love birds Aaron and Catherine. Guess my Mom was right. He was destined to become a son in law with a double consonant name (Scott, Jeff, and Matt are the other brothers-in-law) Jeff and Adam behind.

Mary and Daddy (purposely not looking at the camera)

Chicago!

Chicago was a blast!

For those of you that may not know, Kantorei was selected to sing at this year's national ACDA convention. It was an honor to get this opportunity.

Anyway, it was a great time - mostly just having a change of the norm. It was fun to be in a big city and hang out with adults and eat out and not have to work. I was of course a bit worried about how Mary would do. But knowing her history and her disposition and how attentive Jeff is to her, I thought it would be fine. I left on Thursday mid morning and returned Saturday evening. So it wasn't too long. When Jeff and Mary came to pick me up, it was the biggest "non-reunion" ever. Mary wasn't the least concerned.

Got to meet some living composers including John Duggan, Eric Barnum, and the superstar Eric Whitacre (I should also mention that Tim Tharaldson is already a member of Kantorei - BYU singers just sang one of his pieces on tour).

We got to perform in two of the most beautiful auditoriums ever and we sang well. According to one person we were the "buzz of the convention". Fun fun!


We had some time for a little sight seeing as well. Here are some pics!

A church where we rehearsed


My friend Eldeen and me at the pizza party on Thursday night


The Sears Tower glass window box. Cool huh?


A pic of Eldeen in one of the boxes taken from another box


The "Cloud Gate" sculpture in Millenium Park. Known better as the giant reflective silver jelly bean.


And one final note is that we had some donors who gave enough that most of us had our travel and hotel costs covered! Now that is my kind of trip!!! The only bummer is that I didn't get to see everything - particularly the museums. Oh well. Guess Jeff will just have to take me back there. : )

119.5. So nice to see you again.

I had wondered if the day would ever come. Last week, on Thursday morning - as I was preparing to make final preparations to leave for Chicago, I checked the scale - as I do most mornings (after I've peed and before I've eaten anything and with no clothing on : )). I have been very close for weeks - even within a half of a pound. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't say I had accomplished my goal until I was really there. And my friends - I know it will be okay with you - if I do share this accomplishment. I have FINALLY returned to my highest pre-pregnancy weight. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I know in the grand scheme of things that God probably does not care whether I am 122 or 119.5. But I do. For some reason it is just a reassurance to me that I will still be me post partum. And in all honesty, I am back up a few pounds after my Chicago trip. But that is okay with me because once I have hit where I want to be, I know that I may fluctuate, but I will get back easily.

This by no means means that I think I have "arrived" in terms of my body. Do you really know any woman who is completely happy with her body? I don't. But I have accomplished one small thing and just wanted to share my joy.

How did I do it? Counting calories. I shot for 1500 a day. I'd say I was successful maybe half the time. I felt that for me, I wanted to still enjoy life a bit. And so that meant a lot of days - especially on the weekends - when I just didn't do as well. I probably could've reached this goal a lot sooner had I been strict. As one of my former theatre colleagues said, "I've figured out how to loose weight. You can't cheat."

1500 is doable for me. Not sure I could do 1200. It is much harder though if you eat out. You can even have one treat a day on 1500. Counting calories is pretty tedious though. But I don't really think there is any way around it. It is both easy and hard at the same time.

One other thought: It is truly eye opening to count calories and see how many calories some things have - particularly when eating out. One milk shake can be 1000 calories. Some restaurants have lower calorie options. And most of those meals are around 500 calories (not counting bread or drink or anything else). Imagine what the calories are on the other menu items.

So that's all for this post.
Time to get pregnant again? I don't think so. I think I'll enjoy this for a minute.

Discipline. I don't have it all figured out.

So I actually wrote almost this entire thing yesterday and then lost it. I was not a happy camper. But I’m finally over it and ready to start again.

I’m hoping that this post won’t sound like I think I know everything about parenting - because obviously I don’t have much experience. But I do think I know what I want in life (I always have). Sometimes I need some help getting there and this is why I share it with you now. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

My sister Jennifer and I, recently had a conversation in which she told me about a conversation she had with her daughter (my niece), Hannah. Hannah asked Jennifer why I am the kind of parent I am. I don’t think she was being critical. Briefly, here is the background. I have been teaching Hannah voice lessons once a week since December (normally I don’t teach, but I made a special exception in this case) and in exchange she pays me by babysitting for me once a month. It has worked out well and has been nice for Jeff and I to go on a date now and then. A month or so ago, I had to reschedule our lesson time because Mary’s nap schedule had changed and I didn’t want a lesson interfering with it. It wasn’t as good of a time for Hannah, and I think she wondered what the big deal was. Also, I think my family thinks I may be too uptight about hand washing and too much sugar before dinner. But I think I have struck a pretty good balance and feel good about what I'm doing.

Jennifer told Hannah that she thought the reason I parent the way I do was because I had waited to have children and because of this I got to observe and think about- more than some- the way that I wanted to do things. It is true. I always thought about the kind of mom I wanted to be and actually had a notebook with ideas. I got to observe how others parented and this helped me figure out what I think worked well.

If I had to say what my parenting philosophy is, it would be that a baby/child is a human being and should be treated as such. I make a concerted effort not to push Mary beyond her limits. I don’t shop or do other things if she is tired or hungry. I try to follow a basic routine so that she knows what to expect. And I always talk to her and let her know what is happening and I think she understands me. I also hope to be consistent. And this brings me to the subject at hand – discipline.

I’ve known from probably before Mary was born that I’d have a tendency to be a pushover. But having been an active observer, I knew that I would need to be aware of that tendency and work to get stronger in that area. And I think I’ve done fairly well so far. I’ve caught myself a few times saying no and then changing my mind after Mary fusses. But now, most of the time, I am good about sticking to my guns.

But even after reading about and listening to different types of discipline, I still haven’t quite figured it all out. And I’m sort of ready to be decided about it because Mary is getting older and more willful.

Here is what I have decided in regards to discipline . . .
- Be consistent (I sort of already said this)
-I want to be in charge and not have my kid in charge of me
-I don’t want to use physical punishment. I’m not completely against it - I think there are times when it may be appropriate. But in my experience, I think parents spank when they just don’t know what else to do and they are angry. I have seen some awful behavior from parents (that I didn’t even know) – throwing a shoe at a kid, spanking a child over and over . . . it really makes me so sad. I think hitting really just teaches kids to hit. And it just isn’t very effective (from what I’ve seen).
- I think Jeff and I will do time outs


One other thought. I do believe children are born with their own personalities and that some children are more difficult than others. But I believe that parents aren’t slaves to that. They make a huge difference! Don’t you agree?

So the catalyst for me bringing all this up is that Mary has started doing something in which I’m not sure how exactly to deal with it. I tell her no sometimes and sometimes she throws a little fit but it doesn’t last long and hasn’t been a big deal. No. This is different. She has started – well I think it is best described as - squawking. She basically yells to me when she wants me (or something) and I can't get to her right that second or she has to wait. So for example, last Friday when we were at Target, I was talking to an associate getting some help and Mary wanted me to entertain her with the ball. I would tell her “Mary, please don’t shout at Momma”. But that didn’t work of course. She was majorly disruptive. Then she continued shouting while we were in line at Q-Doba. It isn’t anywhere near a tantrum, but it is still quite loud and disruptive.

I want her to get her needs met. And if I am distracted by something and don’t hear her, I feel that I want her to speak up and get my attention. But I also don’t want her thinking she can shout at me whenever. She really has been doing it a lot. So Jeff and I are trying some different things. The other night when she was doing it, Jeff would say “NO” and take her out of the room for a minute. Today when she was doing it, I’d first say, “Mary don’t yell at me” and walk away. After that, I’d try to ignore her and walk away when she did it. It might be working. Hard to say.

Maybe I’m making too big of a deal out of it, but I don’t think so. It really isn’t a good thing.

So tell me now what you are thinking. : )

In honor of Kate Middleton . . .

the future princess of England, we have some new hats, gloves, and shoes to share.

Mary thought she was being so funny.

Bunny time.

Baker. Correction. Dancing baker : )


She LOVES these things. I'm not complaining. She will also use her pretend oven mitt and wipe down the coffee table. So stinkin' adorable.

So funny looking.

Spring is right around the corner and it is a good thing because Mary has outgrown 2 of her 3 pairs of shoes. She loves the new ones.
Posing for the camera.

Piles

Incase you're wondering why I've been MIA the past week or so, it is because my house has been screaming for some attention. It got to the point where I couldn't find what I needed in my closet and the stack of mail was around 12 inches high. Yep. I know. I know.
My bathrooms and a general vacuum are also screaming for attention - as well as a reorganization of the family room, but I'm getting to it. Bills, and grocery shopping, laundry, and oh yea - the baby! had to come first. We also celebrated Jeff's birthday on Monday.
Here is some progress . . .
Isn't it beautiful??? (Okay - ignore the pile of books on the chest of drawers)


What is left of that 12 inch pile of mail . . .


Clean laundry folded and ready to be put away!


Here are some other piles I need to get to . . .


Ironing . . .


Toys . . .


Bathroom . . .


And the worst nightmare ever . . . my craft table. *SIGH*