Month in Review: January 2008

Welcome to Month in Review: January 2008, documenting events for our family history. Usually this is just a roundup of blog highlights with a few new tidbits thrown in; but, since my blogging has been sparse this month, it's a good chance for me to catch up...

• Chris is back in school, 3 nights a week. This is the last semester of his MBA program, and he is lucky enough to have partial-session classes, so he will be done in the middle of March!
  
• "What's different about me?" This question is now asked of all our friends and acquaintances, since Tommy (6) lost his first tooth. He was so excited that he called a friend from school and left a message on his answering machine. But Chris wins the award for most excited--after he pulled the tooth out, he danced around the room shouting, "I got the golden ticket, I got the golden ticket!"
• David (18 mo.) has finally cracked under the pressure and is now willing to entertain us by learning to start talking to us a little bit. He has suddenly learned quite a few words. He's still pretty stubborn about performing on command, but occasionally we'll catch him copying everything we are saying. He especially likes saying "boo-boo-boo"--like Blue from Blues Clues, and attempting to sing the Goodbye song from Yo Gabba Gabba. ...Who ever said TV would stunt a young baby's development...?
• Barney paid us a personal visit. It delighted the older two boys, but scared little David to death. Our kids aren't actually big fans of Barney (phew...), but he was making a special appearance at a big employee meeting at Chris's work, so he decided to stop by our house first. It's just too bad Daddy wasn't here to see him when he stopped by... ;)
• Michael (3) is now in the Sunbeam class at church. He loves to talk about his teachers and the other little boys in his class. Speaking of church, David started nursery last month, which means Chris and I can actually sit through our classes now. We might even pay attention every once in a while.
  
• Chris and I both got hit with a pretty nasty cold/flu a couple weeks ago. I still haven't been able to kick it. I will spare you most of the details, but suffice it to say that:
• My house is extremely messy
• I never did get around to making my New Year's Resolutions or sending out my "New Years" greeting cards
• Chris and I hold the equivalent of an international summit meeting on a daily basis to negotiate how we are going to take care of kids, a house, and work while we are both completely exhausted
  
• My voice is so hoarse that when I answer the phone for telemarketers, they talk to me for a few moments and then ask if they can speak to the woman of the house!
• We're excited that Chris's brother Jason is back from his mission to Ventura, California, and look forward to catching up with him!
  
• We've been inspired by all the tribute paid to our dear prophet, President Hinckley. Sadly, even though we are close by, we were unable to attend the viewing or the funeral. However, we did drive through the Temple Square area a few times during those few days, and could feel a special spirit in the air. His is the picture my children have learned to associate with the word Prophet. He has been such an inspiration to me for many years--especially as I was a missionary in England. We are excited to sustain our new Prophet, President Monson.

This post has been backdated, simply to file it correctly in the archives. The actual post date was February 4, 2008

President Hinkley Passed Away

We just heard that Gordon B. Hinckley, the President of the LDS Church died today. It took us a while to confirm it, because all the local news sites are swamped, but I finally found an official article.

I can remember hearing President Hinckley speak so many times since I was a very young child. There are so many things he has said that have inspired me, but to me it's all summed up with this simple phrase of his:

Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism [Source]

He definitely practiced what he preached.

Wait, it Gets Better...

Here I was feeling so good about the fact that I finally just updated my blog--and that it only took about 5 minutes--when what did I come downstairs to see?

Complete Stairway Redecoration
Courtesy of David and Michael

So much for starting to feel better...

It Could Be Worse

I can remember a time long ago when if I were to wake up feeling sick, I would just lay in bed. School was out of the question, of course. Mom would make me noodle soup and warm jello water, and I would just take it easy. I didn't have to worry about feeding little kids and changing diapers or washing dishes or ignoring a splitting headache in order to referee the increased fighting going on between my (semi-) neglected children. In fact, in my young sick days, my biggest concern was whether I should watch Price is Right or Press Your Luck. Oh--and whether or not my older brother would bring his friends home for lunch and call me a "faker."

So, I've been feeling pretty sick for a few days, and today I've also been feeling sorry for myself for all of the above reasons--not to mention the fact that there are now 3 days of dishes piled up and we're almost out of paper plates. But then I read my sister-in-law's account of a rotten cross-country road trip. I'm feeling slightly better about my stacked up sink now.

Housekeeping

I feel like all I've been doing for the last week or so is housekeeping. Chris might disagree. Actually my bathrooms might disagree as well.

But for the last couple days, most of the housekeeping has been going on here on the blog; I now have proof of the fact that we survived the holidays. If you're interested in catching up, have a look at my Month in Review post.

**NOTE to those of you who access all the Worth Family blogs at blogs.theworths.org: You may not have noticed my rash of new posts, since they are back-dated and will be buried under all the more recent Worth Posts on our aggregated page. Just hop over to my blog and you'll see them all on my front page.