You Just Never Know

Last night while over at Mom & Dad’s I watched NieNie on Oprah. I had Mom record it for me. I didn’t learn about NieNie until a few months ago. For those of you who don’t know, she has a very popular blog and she’s LDS and lived in Arizona. A year ago in August, she and her husband were in a little puddle jumper plane that crashed and burst into flames. The pilot that was w/ them died and she and her husband survived, but barely. 80% of her body was burned. Anyways, she was on Oprah yesterday and it was such a touching story. They showed her story and some of the struggles she has had. Then they had a mom from California go stay w/ Nienie for a few days at her home in Utah. This CA mom had written into Oprah about how much she hates being a stay at home mom and the thought of having to play w/Play-Doh makes her want to kiss herself (she says that jokingly of course).

After spending the day w/ Nienie, the CA mom appreciated the little things so much more. Like being able to pick up her kids (which Nienie can’t do) and giving them a bath (which Nienie can’t do w/ out wearing gloves) and getting ready for the day in 20 minutes (it takes Nienie 2 hours to get ready) and making her kids lunches (Nienie struggles just to open a ziplock bag), etc.

It was so touching and really made me stop and think about how I interact w/ Autumn. It made me realize that life can change in an instant and to really focus on the small things that I tend to take for granted.

On my drive into work today, the skies were really dark and foreboding. While I was sitting at stop light, I looked up and noticed the clouds moving by pretty fast and all of a sudden, a little patch opened up and I could see through the dark clouds to the blue skies and white clouds just above. It just made me think of how much like life that is…so often all I can see is the dark and troublesome times. Yet, I need to remember that those dark times move by quickly and just b/c my life seems dark at the time, there is light shining through and always there even though I can’t see it.

I must have something on my camera, b/c sometimes my pictures have that dark dot in them…it’s annoying, sorry. This is a field also on my drive to work. You can’t tell unless you look closely, but there was a tractor in the distance near the trees. This picture really doesn’t do it justice, but it was just a pretty and peaceful scene on my busy commute to work.

For my lunch break, Liz & I went to Yogurt Fever to get some frozen yogurt. We got our yummy treat and then went to pay for them. The guy behind the counter asked if we were paying together and I said yes, and that I was paying. Liz jumped in and said that no, she was paying. I told the guy that Liz had just gotten out of prison, so she didn’t have any money and couldn’t pay. Liz was speechless for a second but then she chimed in saying I couldn’t pay b/c I was a prostitute w/ a child! LOL! We were laughing so hard at this point and I said that’s why I should pay…b/c if I’m a prostitute (which I made sure to tell the guy behind the counter I was NOT really one) that means I have lots of money so I should pay. He was laughing and took my card to let me pay and said, “Well, you gotta do what you gotta do!” After we paid and were walking out he jokingly said, “So, how much do you charge?” We all laughed and said thanks and he said to come back again. It’s ALWAYS an adventure w/ Liz around!

I made some yummy tacos for dinner, but Autumn was not wanting any meat or cheese or anything in her tortilla. She just wanted to roll up the tortilla and dip it in some salad dressing. I swear, this girl LOVES to dip everything. Chips in salsa, fruit in fruit dip, veggies in dressing, etc.

In keeping w/ my desire to spend more meaningful time w/ Autumn, we made some cupcakes together. I know this picture is grainy, but I just love the expression on her face. She was so ecstatic when I let her hold the bowl and clean it out. She had fun licking her fingers.

Then we had to make sure to get all of the stuff we couldn’t get w/ our fingers, so we got out the rubber spatula and she was eating the batter off of that.

Once the cupcakes were done, I let her have 2 of them and she was ALL SMILES. It made me so happy that she was so happy w/ something so simple and fun. I need to do little things like this more often and really treasure everything about her.