Permanent Marker Be Banned

Lily wants to do a handstand and cartwheel to badly. She wanted to quit gymnastics, but when I got to why she wanted to quit, it was because she can't do those and she doesn't think she'll ever be able to do them. We have been watching videos and tutorials and she has been practicing so hard. She is getting better, but even more impressive is that she keeps at it, even when she is super frustrated at her progress. But at gymnastics she felt like she was improving, and said she does not want to quit. I keep praying she will get it because it's very important to her, and I know it would boost her confidence so much to see how, with practice, she is able to do hard things that she thought weren't possible.

I had put tape on the floor for Lily to practice some gymnastics things, and Ryan got the idea to put tape on the floor. So he got the scotch tape and proceeded to make a beautiful star! They called it the new star. He adds a little bit each day, but I was pretty impressed.

A magnet creation the kids wanted to document. 

I have never had so much trouble finding babysitters as I do when I have to get one for Ryan's music class every other week. Jenna was not able to, so I reached out to someone else well ahead of time. I was happy that I had it all figured out, when Wednesday morning she texted that she was sick. I tried a few other people and then I finally asked Meredith Logan. I was hesitant to ask her because I knew Ryan would want to play, but in the end we had Jake come play for an hour, then Max and Lily went over there. I was very grateful for her last minute willingness to help, but this has made me really dislike having to ever get babysitters. Whenever I talk about how hard it is, Lily always reminds me that when she's twelve, she can babysit for me. What a wonderful day that will be. 

I have been struggling so much with Jeff gone in Ohio this time. He was only gone two nights, but I feel like my patience and overall threshold level is very thin. I feel like I always react with a snap or by yelling, and I get upset very easily. Ryan wrote on himself in permanent marker with Blake over (I finally put the markers up high, I just thought he had learned his lesson so I didn't think I needed to move them due to  his other tagging he'd done). I got so angry because we had just gone through this two other times with him writing in marker. I just couldn't handle it. I sent him to his room crying and he and Max took a nap. I rested, but still had a hard time getting up from the nap to make it through the rest of the night. Ryan and Max dumped cereal on the floor (though they did have a very fun time vacuuming and cleaning it up) and then Max drew all over himself in marker. I was upset again with Ryan and told him that he is an example to Max and he needs to be a good example. Ryan told Max, "Max, don't ever do that again when I do it." I asked Ryan if he should even be doing it either, and he agreed he shouldn't. Luckily Jeff comes home Thursday night late and will be home all of next week. Life feels very odd with this commuting lifestyle, I don't know how my parents did it for ten years. I'm thrilled that Jeff loves his job, but I guess there's never the perfect job and there are always drawbacks to everything. I think being pregnant is just magnifying every emotion I have, so this has felt harder than normal. 

Max definitely feels no remorse about coloring on himself. 

Ryan was very good about helping Max get the marker off. Luckily Max's wasn't permanent marker. 

We got a light saber for Max and he constantly wants to fight Ryan all the time. Notice the intense look on his face. 

Max found some styrofoam that was in the fish tank box we have in storage downstairs. He came upstairs with it and was telling me something, but I didn't know what. Apparently he was telling me he was going to put it in the fish tank, because he came to me later saying that "it fit in the fish tank!" He probably thought we had somehow forgotten to put that piece in since it was left in the box. 

Ryan's cute school picture.  

Max loves making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I think it's mostly because he likes to lick the jam off the knife a little, then spread it on the bread. 

Ryan really wanted to help make pumpkin pancakes. He did a great job flipping them!

My friend gave us a new bike for Ryan that's slightly bigger than his Paw Patrol bike. He loves it!

I am wanting to buy a house of our own so badly, that I am getting pretty antsy to start looking. Jeff can't even think about it until after he is done with school in December, so right now I'm just gathering some information. With his current job, we could live anywhere. I do like a lot of things about where we live, especially that the temple is so close now and we have family, and would be happy to stay here I think. But there's lots of other nice places too that may have more affordable housing, so we will have to do some research. For now I am looking a lot on pinterest for ideas and costs of how to decorate. My dream is to have a little extra money to make the house look somewhat put together. Most of our furnishings have been given to us, bought used, or from single life, so nothing really flows. It's mostly a hodge podge. And I have a dream for Jeff to have an office, rather than a cold, dark unfinished basement to work in that's cold. He doesn't complain at all, but it would be nice for him to have his own space. I have also started reading Home Buying for Dummies and it has been helpful for me to understand exactly what goes in to buying a home. I have no idea how people do it! It is extremely overwhelming!