12 hours

Since Thursday, Scott and I spent 12 hours on the road. First we drove two hours to Preston Idaho for Thanksgiving with his family and then back home Thursday evening (Scott had work on Friday) and then we drove to Alton for Scott's Uncle Ed's funeral. It was a lot of family time and a lot of time on the road but it was worth it.

Thanksgiving was lovely. We drove to Doug and Heather's on Wednesday evening. Patrick decided to wake up at 3 in the morning and was awake for about an hour. Scott woke up with me to help out and we wound up downstairs in their great room as Patch crawled and explored, happy as a little clam. He was particularly fascinated by Atlas, the dog. Finally, we got Patch back to bed and we all slept until about 6:30 when we woke to get ready for tree hunting. I LOVE TREE HUNTING! I'd never had a real Christmas tree until Scott and I got married. The tree history:

2011: My first tree hunt. We drove with Doug and he played this really silly recording of old random Christmas songs. It was fun to get to know Doug better and tell stories on the drive with him.

It was a little more sparse than the fake tree we had growing up but, it smelled amazing and it was a blast to hike through the snow to find it.

2012: Scott and I JUST moved back to Utah and into our apartment in Taylorsville. We were a bit strapped for cash at that time and missed the family tree hunt because we did Thanksgiving with my side of the family but, Scott surprised me and went out to get us a tree the day before Christmas. It was tiny and sat up on a coffee table in our little apartment. It lifted my spirits to have a lovely little tree!

2013: Our first Christmas in our first home. I'm not certain that I captured a full photo of this lovely tree but I did string up popcorn and captured a tiny segment of that tree. I ran all around town trying to find red wooden beads. I wanted it to look like strings of popcorn and strings of berries. I settled on these beads from Target. We'll see if I keep using them.

2014: I was great with child expecting Patrick. I felt like the virgin Mary all Christmas which was cool and imagined myself riding around town on an ass...I mean donkey. We did Thanksgiving with my family again and missed the tree hunt so this one was purchased at a tree lot down the road. I think we paid $80 for it which, at the time seemed obnoxious but, when you figure the price of fuel to get to Preston and add in the cost of the permit...you're almost at $80 but the experience of hunting down and hauling your own tree?...priceless ;)

 We were expecting my parents to arrive at any moment when this photo was taken. The house was in perfect order and presents were wrapped under the tree. That sled was our gift to my mom from an antique shop up the road.

Can you see the image on the TV screen? It's a video of a fire crackling. hehe. mmm so cozy. And there I am sleeping...again. I guess I really like napping next to the Christmas tree.

As for 2015's tree...that will have to wait until later...you know...after we get it decorated and such.

Abundance

When I pray, I often thank God for the abundance in which we live. We have so much. So so much.

I could go on about that but, for now I'll share good news. I'm thankful for this news and that is....

I had a huge loan book today. This means that I'm dangerously close to winning a trip to Florida that will be all inclusive and paid for by the bank. I've been working so hard to get to this point. I'm focused. I'm determined. I'm working smart and I'm working hard.

We changed our schedule recently so, Scott brings Patrick to his nanny, Kathie, at 7 am. I begin working from home at that time. This gives me a couple of hours to do administrative stuff that I find myself pushing off usually. I work my tush off during the day so that I can leave the office and get Patch by 3 pm and just enjoy the rest of the day either running errands or playing at home. We've been doing this for a week and it's working rather well.

I have moments of "wow, I love doing this whole working thing and mommy thing" and there are some times where I'm completely overwhelmed thinking "how can I possibly do both? How can I be the mom and the wife that I want to be and still be the banker I want to be?" Somehow, right now, I feel that I've found a balance.

Patrick has a bit of a cold so these last few nights have been rough. I've been waking up with him more frequently. It's bitter sweet. It's a treasure to cuddle with him but when he gets agitated and has a hard time falling asleep it can be frustrating. I guess this is motherhood.

Tomorrow, I will begin the live fit challenge again. I will focus on clean eating and hitting the gym every day. I will not log onto Facebook and waste time there. I will dedicate myself to continue etching this pattern of success into my work life. I will make my time there as valuable as possible. I will then be free to enjoy home time. It will be worth it.

Catching up

Since June of 2013?
I was in the following productions, back to back:
Carousel, Bonnie and Clyde, Cinderella, Altos-a Mafia Murder Mystery, Shrek, I was supposed to be in Company (more on that in a minute) and Heritage Singers at This is the Place Park (TITP).

So what happened with Company, well, in June of 2014 we found out we were expecting. The character I was set to play, Kathy, is one of the girlfriends of the main character and being 6 months pregnant wasn't going to make too much sense ;) So, I bowed out of that show and began nesting. But then I couldn't help myself and simply had to audition for Heritage Singers. Scott and I spent the Christmas season 2014 caroling through the streets of TITP dressed in period costume (coincidentally, those costumes were used in the filming of the Work and the Glory films).

January 2015 rolled around and I focused on making final preparations for baby Patrick's arrival and on February 1st we went into the hospital. I was fairly certain that I was in labor and that they would not have to send us home. I was right. I went in 5 cm dilated and we welcomed Patch at almost 8 PM.

Here we are, almost 10 months later. I'll reflect on some highlights:

In May, Scott and I decided to be crazy and do a Salty Dinner Theater show together-Sherlock Holmes. I was just coming off of maternity leave and heading back to work...oh and we had a newborn. With the help of family and friends, there was someone to look after Patch during each of our performances. Well, we had him with us at a few of them but, he didn't move much or make too much noise at that point so, he was easy to cart along.

Here he is at one of the rehearsals:

In June we went on a road trip to Montana to perform a charity show for Salty Dinner Theater, a revival of Cinderella. A couple of weeks after that, we took a trip to Park City with some friends and stayed in a lovely town house over the weekend. Great fun! The day we returned from that trip, Bonnie, Stephanie, and I did a fancy breakfast with Andrea to celebrate her birthday and we presented her with a book that we made of memories from when Katie and Kenna were just little tiny girls; a time that Andrea does not remember well for it was a rough few years for her.

In July, we hit up Taylorsville days, Patrick started eating solids, we had the family camp (organized by us at Wolf Creek where the camp was in HORRIBLE shape and I demanded a refund...we got it), and Pioneer Day.

In August, Patrick took his first international trip for Uncle Brent's birthday to Mexico. What an adventure. It was a week of fun, delicious food, and relaxation on the beach. Melissa and I may have snuck onto the resort where the wedding party was staying. Two words: worth it.

On September 2nd, Uncle Brent's birthday, Patch began crawling. We managed to keep it all together after he became mobile and Scott even threw me a super fun Fiesta birthday party. We were also able to use our Lagoon passes to attend Lagoon-a-Beach one day. Brent and Ana flew out to surprise me while we were at the Utah State Fair. They came to celebrate my birthday and see our home. It was such a treasure to have them here. I also began rehearsals for another Salty show in September. I was in The Salem Witch Trials. I brought Patrick to all of the rehearsals and we may or may not have rehearsed at a church.

In October, I was basically performing every single night. Every chance we got we used our Lagoon passes and hit up the park. I also arranged for someone else to cover my performance on the night of the Pumpkin Walk in Logan so that Scott and I could travel to his parent's home for our traditional apple harvest and Pumpkin Walk event. Around Halloween, I went to Scott's work's family Halloween event, Frightmares, Kate's performance of Beauty and the Beast, and we hung out at home on Halloween. We carved pumpkins, busted out the fog machine, played scary music, and had some friends over.

Since late August, I've been getting together weekly with some ladies in our ward for lunch on Fridays. It's a blast and we take turns getting together at someone's home and swap stories about our little babies. Patrick now seems so much older than the other babies because he's the only one that's mobile. Soon, this will not be the case.

Here we are in November. I cannot believe that Patrick is almost 10 months old. He is such a happy little man and we love him a whole lot. More on that later.

I suppose I'll post more pics later also.