Whitty title here..

So.....
it's April Fools Day. Not my favorite day of the year. When Dave and I were first married, I basically said, "I really don't like April Fools Day and if you ever play a mean joke on me it's likely I won't forgive you." When I found out Logan was to be born around April 5th, I prayed he would not be born April 1st. I got my wish and he was born one day after, thankfully. I understand the fun, harmless jokes like food coloring to change your food, but I am not a big practical joker. I guess it's my current mood and bad health that prevents me from getting in the spirit of the day this year. It's just another day for me today. I do love to hear about a good joke though. Anybody do some fun things this year?

I stopped nursing my sweet Sydney about 3 weeks ago at 14 months old. I put it off as long as possible because I do enjoy nursing and this was my last chance to do so. I think I finally drew the line when Sydney was getting so attached to me that she wouldn't keep her hands off me. She perfected her own "nipple-fishing" technique by shoving her hand down my shirt until she found my nipple. Then she'd squeeze the Charmin just to reinforce what she wanted. Not exactly appropriate while I'm talking to someone in public or checking out at Target. She still tucks her hand inside the top of my shirt for comfort, which I do think is so endearing, but not as often now that we are not nursing.

I weaned Sydney very gradually, but now that my hormones are shifting back to 'normal' it is really messing with my body. I've had a few killer migraines that have laid me up for entire days and now my monthly 'friend' has worn out her welcome over the past 7+ days and draining my energy big time. It seems I get really sick from one thing or another at least once a year, and it reminds me how thankful I am for an otherwise strong, healthy body. Ironically, Sydney has been sick the last 2 weeks right after I stopped nursing her when she could have benefited from the antibodies and milk. Dave has been so patient and helpful by fixing meals and not complaining about the condition of the house when he gets home.

The first time I was down with a migraine it was all I could do to make sure the kids had food and got home from school. I picked up Jessie from school at 3, and told her she was in charge because I had to go lay down. She came in at 6 o'clock with Logan carrying a tray with dinner in bed. She even made a little card signed by all the kids saying they "lurve me!" It was so sweet and I felt a lot better after sleeping for 3 blessed hours. I guess it's been a weird blessing in disguise that Sydney has been sick too, because she has slept whenever I needed to. Anyway, I'm looking forward to having my body back to normal and feeling better. I pray that time is soon. :)

Glad it's a new week

We're in a quandary about Mr. Bennett's car. It ended up costing us $900 to repair his Jeep on Friday. Thankfully, he has a car again, but we don't know if we should cut our losses before we really have to sink some money into that car or keep it until it dies. I'm leaning toward selling it now while it's still in good shape to buy a car that gets better mileage. Mr. Bennett really wants to sell it after he saw that his car is fourth from the bottom on some reliability list. We'll see.I bought a new stroller last week and got to use it a lot while Mr. Bennett had my car on Friday. This was my view a good part of the day as we walked to schools to pick up kids, walked to Bennett's to check on the house while they're gone, and walked to the park to meet our ward play group.
I feel like there is a dark cloud over our house. It's keeping all the sick germs in so we get reinfected every couple weeks. I am resolved to do a major, deep spring cleaning starting with the kids room. Bring on some warmer weather so we can get out of this funk.

Here's your funny-punny for the day. Dave was waiting in line to return Bolt at the RedBox (thanks Thompsons!) on Friday night. The guy in the front of the line was taking forever to look through the movies so everyone else in line got to talking. The lady in front of Dave mentioned that she was thinking of renting Milk (coughlameideachoughcough) and turned to Dave to confirm it was a "political drama" when explaining it to another woman. Just then the lady's teenage son walks up with his giant slurpee and Doritos in hand. Mom looks at son and says, "I think I want to rent Milk." Son looks at her with a puzzled look and says, "How do you rent milk?"

Today turned out to be one of those not-good, very bad days. It started out okay. The kids were better today after all 4 of them bombarded me with sickness yesterday. J and Toby went to school and Grandma Evie came by to visit. After Toby got home from school, though, he spiked a fever and complained of a sore throat. Jessie sounds like she's hacking her lungs out. Logan melted soon after and Sydney was clingy after Grandma Evie left around 4 PM. So Dave calls me in the late afternoon to say that his car was acting weird but he thought he fixed it with a new fuse. An hour or so later, while the kids were whining for food, Dave calls to say he didn't fix the car and that he was at his mechanics trying to get it fixed. By now the kids are asking, "When's Daddy going to be home?!" every 5 minutes. They had quick showers and stories and went to bed late at 9:00 while waiting for a call or sign that Dad would be home.

It turns out there is a fuse in Dave's Jeep that won't allow the car to run for longer than 10 seconds to several minutes. His mechanic said it is something a Jeep dealer has to fix. Dave decided to drive it home and made it more than half way by changing the bad fuse over and over again and limping home on the backroads. I had to go pick him up when he ran out of fuses so he could get to Walmart for more. Then we went back to the Walgreen's parking lot several miles away from home, and started the rest of the way home. I stayed with him until it got to the point that a new fuse would barely get the car started and in gear. The situation turned comical when I suggested I just try to push him home. The last couple blocks home I carefully pushed the Jeep down the street, across traffic uphill, gunned it just before all four speedbumps along the shortcut, and finally up into his parking spot. I'm sure we looked pretty pathetic. Both cars have a little body damage on the bumpers, but under the circumstances it was the best we could do. We didn't get home until 10:30. Poor Dave is understandably pissed and frustrated with his car. Hopefully, we will get things resolved tomorrow and it won't cost too much. Hindsight is always better right? We should have just left the car with his mechanic and dealt with it tomorrow.

I know we take our cars for granted sometimes. Today was one of those days when I'm thankful we can count on 2 working cars most of the time.

What a wife!

Lately, I have been reevaluating my marriage and what kind of wife I am to my husband.

My cousin's husband passed away very unexpectedly over a week ago. She is barely older than me and also has 4 young children. I have thought about and prayed for her every day since. While pondering her situation and speaking to family who live close to her it has strengthened my belief in God and that he can truly lighten our burdens. My dear cousin is a great example to me of faith and strength. I will continue to think of her often, and pray that this time between now and seeing her husband again will be full of happiness. I love you Andrea and am thinking of you!

I mention this because pondering my cousin's situation has forced me to look inward to my relationship with my husband. Am I the kind of wife that my husband would think of fondly if I were gone? Would he remember me nagging him about putting his clothes away all the time or would he think of the things I do for him that let him know I love him? As a mother of young kids who take up so much time, it is easy to let the marriage building things sit on the back burner. I really notice when Dave and I don't take the time to build and strengthen our relationship. We get short with each other, and I start to think of him as working against me instead of the 2 of us helping each other with our common goals.

Anyway, I am more aware of just how much Mr. Bennett means to me and how hard he works for us and our children. He is my perfect compliment in so many ways, and I would be lost in life without him. The song "Lucky" playing at the left says it so well.

They don't know how long it takes
Waitin' for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
Lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been what I have been
Lucky we're in love in every way....

I am renewed in purpose to be all that I can be in the wife department. . . . . . .just as soon as he puts away that pile of clothes at the foot of the bed. ;)On a related note, our power went out a couple nights ago. We just got home from baseball games and dinner with the P's. The kids were trying to get ready for bed since it was well past pumpkin time (8:00). The lights flickered twice and then went dead for a couple hours. Toby, who was the only one awake still, helped me set up all the candles and I had the place bathed in candle light before you could say "Boo." Dave and I joked when he got home several minutes later that I had just sorted and put away all my candles the night before and now they were all out again.It was nice, and a little foreign, to have a quiet and dark house. After the kids were in bed and we took super fast showers, to beat the water heater running out, I hesitated for a minute. What was I going to do? This was usually the time I used to wind down checking email, editing pictures, writing here or snuggling with Dave on the couch if a show was on that we liked. I decided to go read in bed by the candle light, but as soon as I did the lights went back on. Did I turn them all off and continue with my plans? No. Lame huh. I should have. Just goes to show how much of a distraction our electronics are sometimes. I mentioned to Mr. Bennett that it would be fun to have a mandatory candle night once a week, with and without the kids. He said, "you know how we'd end up most the time, right?"
"Mmmm, hmmm," I said.

I finally took pictures of our kitchen, just for fun. Here is a before shot. Thankfully you can't see how stained and dilapidated the counter tops were. I will also spare you the picture I took of the inside of the original porcelain sink with the huge rust spot in it. I stared at that thing a lot so I had to take one picture to remember how ugly it was. ;)Aaaaahhhh. Much better. I love my double sink and big faucet with the pull out sprayer. I call him goose just for fun. Tom did a great job on the counter top and plumbing. Thank you Tom!! I'm glad it was you doing the reno if you know what I mean.
Having just a little bit new makes keeping the kitchen clean so much easier!