Halloween Traditions

In my family, Halloween is a BIG deal.

On my dad's side, one of my aunts was born on Halloween, and so they always had a big celebration for it. Ghost stories and scary movies became favorite pastimes. My dad always had a lot of decorations, and many of them moved, roared, or danced. He also had a lot of bobble headed monsters from old monster movies.

So, it's safe to say that we grew up loving Halloween.

We lived in a pretty small town. Trick-or-treating was safe. We knew all of our neighbors, and they knew us. They didn't have trunk-or-treats until I was out of high school.

Grig, on the other hand, only went trick-or-treating when he was very young. His younger siblings have never gone, and his mom was telling Kevin to always let his parents check his candy before he eats it.

We never did that. We knew everyone we trick-or-treated too, so there was no need to worry about it. Our parents only told us not to eat too much at one time.

It is interesting how different family traditions and circumstances can affect our perception of holidays.

We bought a house in a small town, and once again, I know most of our neighbors. I'm so excited to take Kevin trick-or-treating! I love Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and I'm really stoked that he's old enough to really understand what's going on this year. We've been watching all sorts of Halloween cartoons in preparation for Saturday.

People have been asking what Kevin is going to be for Halloween. A lot of them have assumed that Kevin is going to be Superman, but I told them that there was no way. Kevin is Superman every day. So, he has to be something different for Halloween. Next year, he'll pick his own costume, but this year, we helped him pick it.

Here it is:

He dressed up tonight to go to a Halloween party. He had a great time with his cousins.

This will be his third Halloween. Here are the previous years' costumes:

It's hard to believe how much he's grown!

As Grig and I learn from each other, we have to decide which traditions we want to keep from our parents, and which ones we want to form. It's a fun journey, and we're so grateful to be making it together!

NaNoWriMo 2015!

As some of you know, and many of you don't, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short.

I am super stoked to begin next week.

I am going to be working on the second draft of my story. I'm hoping to complete the book by the end of November and start asking some people to read/edit it for me. If you're interested in doing so, please let me know. I already have a few people who have volunteered.

I have started looking forward to this every year. I've done it the last two years, and it's been really fun for me. I enjoy setting goals and achieving them. The first year, I barely didn't make my goal, and last year I did. I'm hoping to finish the whole draft this time.

I've been trying to finish prepping for my second draft while I wait for November to start, but I'm chomping at the bit. I want to get going. Grig told me I could, but I told him I didn't want to mess up my word count.

If you are interested in writing at all, you can go to the website http://nanowrimo.org/dashboard, and set up an account. It's not necessary to do so in order to participate, but they help you keep track of how many words you write a day. If you're the kind of person who likes to write and talk to other people who are interested in writing, you can also find out who else is in the area and when they're meeting.

Personally, I don't go to any of the meetings, because my husband is the best writing buddy I could ask for. We bounce ideas off of each other for our various stories and we have a pretty good time. We usually both end up getting excited about each other's stories and ideas.

However, if you don't have a spouse or friend who enjoys writing as much as you do, my cousin, who hosts these meetings in her area, find them very enjoyable.

So, yeah. I'm pretty excited about it. It might mean I miss a blog here or there, but I'm hoping I can do both. I mostly am planning on writing late at night or early in the morning. It's very difficult to write while Kevin is awake. He tends to demand my attention and he doesn't take naps.

We'll see how it goes.

This is the official NaNoWriMo logo.

Potty Training

So, I know I mentioned this on yesterday's blog, but I am so stoked about it, that I had to talk about it some more.

A few months ago, I started feeling like Kevin was "almost ready." He was starting to go into the other room when he needed to poop, and he would tell me when he was wet.

We tried him in underpants for a night and a morning, and he was dry all night, used the potty in the morning, and was dry until about noon. Then, after noon, he had three accidents in a row.

After the third accident, I decided he wasn't quite ready. I told myself that I would wait until he could tell me that he needed to go to the potty.

Three days ago, he decided it was time.

Since then, he has only had one accident. He is not wearing diapers during the day anymore, and he's been doing really well. He even told me that he had to use the potty at church. I was super impressed!

Hopefully this isn't TMI for anyone, but I am really proud that essentially he is potty-training himself. It has been his idea, and he's been doing a great job.

It will be super nice to not have to buy diapers for a while. Our son is awesome and we love him. We are discovering that Kevin is the kind of kid who fights if you tell him to do something, but if it's his idea, and you encourage him, then nothing can stop him. We've tried to make a big deal out of it when he does something right, but we're really trying not to push him or make his experiences negative. We just praise and reward him when he does good things, and correct him immediately if he does bad things, and then afterward show him an increase in love. So far, it seems to be working just fine, but we're new at this and we're still figuring things out.

Arkhon was potty-trained before he was a year old, but he is a dog, after all. 

It's taken until he's almost three for him to be potty-trained, but that's just fine. Hopefully the next child learns sooner, but with Kevin as an example, there's no reason why he/she shouldn't.

We hope.

MM: Hushing our Fears

We are officially down to the last week.

Grig's job ends on Saturday. If we don't find a new job before then, we are unemployed.

Though we have had many reassurances throughout these last few month, we are still becoming somewhat stressed. It's not so easy to have peace and faith when a deadline is looming on the horizon.

That's not to say that we're doubting the Lord, or the feelings that we've had. Instead, we just aren't sure about His timing. His timing is often not the same as our timing.

When Grig ends this Saturday, he will get 2 weeks worth of severance pay for sticking it out to the end. He will also receive his unused vacation time in a monetary form. Add all that to the fact that this is a three pay-period month, and we have a bit of extra money to live off of.

Personally, I've been hoping and praying that having this extra money will mean that we can have a baby soon, but the fear inside my heart is saying that it just means we'll use it all up while Grig is looking for a job.

While speaking about this to my mother today, she reminded me of a talk from a General Conference a few months ago. It was given by Elder Bednar, and it was titled "Therefore They Hushed Their Fears."

In his talk, he says:

An example from the Book of Mormon highlights the power of the knowledge of the Lord (see 2 Peter 1:2–8;Alma 23:5–6) to dispel fear and provide peace even as we confront great adversity.

In the land of Helam, Alma’s people were frightened by an advancing Lamanite army.

“But Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but … should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them.

“Therefore they hushed their fears” (Mosiah 23:27–28).

Notice Alma did not hush the people’s fears. Rather, Alma counseled the believers to remember the Lord and the deliverance only He could bestow (see 2 Nephi 2:8). And knowledge of the Savior’s protecting watchcare enabled the people to hush their own fears...

...But can we hush the fears that so easily and frequently beset us in our contemporary world? The answer to this question is an unequivocal yes. Three basic principles are central to receiving this blessing in our lives: (1) look to Christ, (2) build upon the foundation of Christ, and (3) press forward with faith in Christ. 

 I really appreciated this reminder from my mother. These last few months have been a series of trials. However, they have also been a series of miracles. Each trial has in some way also been a blessing. We have learned so much and grown quite a bit.

One of the biggest miracles that we received today was when Grig's job has offered employees to work in the line next week. Grig volunteered. If you work even one day in a month, the insurance covers you for that entire month. That will mean that we have insurance in November as well. Hopefully by the end of November, we will have found a job.

Despite these miracles, I am still struggling with my faith. It is hard to wait for promised blessings. As I look forward to Christmas and realize that we may not be able to afford much this year, I feel strange. Though my parents made little and were never rich, we never wanted for anything. I've never had to worry about not receiving Christmas presents.

Honestly, I don't know that I have to worry about it this year either. We've already had kind friends and family step in and tell us that they will buy Christmas for us if we can't.

As I am writing this blog and trying to talk about my fears and stress, I keep having all of the wonderful blessings that we have received come into my mind and push away the worry. Perhaps writing this blog was what I needed after all.

Link

One of the biggest blessings that I personally have received this week is that Kevin has been potty-training himself. Last weekend, he woke up and randomly said, "I need to go potty." He has had very few accidents since. He has yet to poop in the potty, but he hasn't had any kind of accident in two days. That's been really exciting for me, and for some reason, I am just bursting with pride with how he's doing.

I feel like I'm one of those random mothers who wants to yell, "My son's using the potty!" in the middle of the grocery store because I am so proud of him. I never thought I'd want to do something like that.

I haven't yet, but I want to.

So, despite the fact that we're a bit stressed and worried, we are trying to turn to the Savior and allow Him to hush our fears. We have had quite a bit of peace, and when I focus on that, I can feel the stress dissolve. That doesn't mean that it is gone, but it certainly helps.

We know the Lord told us to buy this home for a reason. We also know that He will provide as we do what He asks us to do. We have been trying to be obedient and charitable. I know that Grig will find a job, and it will be the job that the Lord wants him to have.

Things will work out.

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Pink Room of Death

Ever since we bought this home, there has been one room that I have rather strongly disliked.

I call it "The Pink Room of Death."

Obviously, it wasn't a deal breaker for me, but I definitely wanted to change it. As you can see from the pictures below, the walls had been painted a rather interesting shade of pink. If that wasn't bad enough, the door, random rain gutter (who knows why that was there), and shelves had been painted a deep red.

This is a picture from when we first moved in. It's a pretty grainy picture, but I'd already removed the rain gutter in the other pictures I took. 

Then, on top of the clashing pink and red, the trim near the ceiling had been painted black with gold spotting. 

Yuck.

These pictures were taken right before I began painting. 

I started painting before everything went crazy, and I had been hoping to have the room painted for Grig's sister before she went back to Virginia. However, after her first surgery, I decided she didn't need the added distress of the paint smell, so I left it alone until she was gone. Then, while the room was cleared out, I spent the next week slowly working on it before Grig's brother moved in.

Here is the completed project:

I really like the way the closet turned out.

I think it looks quite nice. Part of the reason we chose the teal was to cover up the black paint. We knew we could do that with fewer coats if we didn't use white on the trim. I really like the color.

I finished painting Friday night, and one of Grig's brothers moved in the next day. They now each have their own room, which is a lot better for them. They were pretty crammed with all their stuff in one room.

Well, that's one more project off my list. Now on to the next thing.

We're doing pretty well. Kevin woke up yesterday morning and wanted to use the potty, and that was pretty exciting. So, he got to wear his underwear most of the day. He didn't have one accident, but when we went outside to play, we thought we'd better put a diaper back on. Hopefully he wants to use the potty again today.

He and Arkhon are adjusting well to Dakota being gone. I think they miss her sometimes, but they are both exuberant and things don't keep them down for long.

We are thinking about getting another dog, but until Grig gets a new job, we can't take on any more expenses. So, we wait and enjoy the dog that we have.

Isn't he handsome?

He is quite a good dog. He's been digging in the backyard, which drives me crazy, but I finally caught him at it yesterday, and was able to tell him off. Dogs, like kids, need to be caught in the act. You can't chastise them for something that they did hours before. They won't know why they're in trouble, and so they'll associate the correction with something else. I need to catch him a few more times, and then I think he'll get that he's not supposed to dig.

Other than the digging, he has very few foibles. He does tend to get over-excited when people come into the house, but we're working on that.

Kevin has learned to ride a tricycle. He's finally tall enough that his feet touch the pedals.

He was willing to wear this shirt, because he thought the treble clef was an "S" for superman.

He's growing up so fast! In just over a month, he'll turn three. That's pretty crazy. Where did my baby go?

This has been kind of a crazy year. There have been some pretty major trials, but also some major blessings. Who ever thought that we'd already own our own home?

We're pretty grateful for our many blessings, and I'm super glad to have that room painted. It's something I've been looking forward to for a long time.