PB Wolf

So, we have a cat. Well, we have a couple, but one in particular, PB Wolf, is quite a hoot. Before you ask, yes PB does stand for peanut butter. Don't ask how he got that name. It was Jungle boy who named him.

This is PB Wolf:

He is actually quite sweet, though he doesn't look it in this pic. He is also very smart, sometimes too smart. He has figured out how to open drawers in the plastic container with drawers we keep in our bathroom. It is the home of all my makeup and makeup brushes. PB Wolf has decided that there is quite possibly nothing better than makeup brushes. He loves to carry them around in his mouth and feel the beautiful bristles of the brush against his teeth. At first I thought I could keep them safe by keeping them in the drawers, not leaving them out on the counter as I have a tendency to do. Then one day I saw PB Wolf very deliberately open a drawer, pick out a brush, and try to sneak off with his treasure. Now I try to just keep PB Wolf out of the bathroom all together. The other day though, Christmas Eve actually, I was getting ready in the bathroom, with the door open. In slinks PB Wolf. He casually jumps up on the plastic drawer container which sits on the floor, puts his little paws up on the counter, grabs his favorite brush, which looks like this:

crushcosmetics.com.au

and then books it out the door. I dash out after him, drop my curling iron on the bed (quite possibly not my smartest move ever) and manage to just barely grab him by the tail. He drops the brush and I think I will be able to grab the brush before he can get back to it if I let him go. So, I stupidly let him go and grab for the brush. No dice. He is much faster than me. He grabs the brush and takes off again, out through the living room, through the kitchen, down the hallway and in to the corner of the room which is half cat room, half man cave and is an obstacle course just to get from one side of the room to the other. I finally manage to catch up to him, he is crouched under a chair. I snatch my brush away and though outwardly acting annoyed, inside give a little chuckle at the antics of the cat called PB Wolf.

Winter

A strange thing has happened to me this year. Its odd, because I've only lived in cold places. I've lived in Utah and in the even colder Alberta, Canada. However, I hate cold. I hate snow. I hate skiing and snowboarding and ice skating and all things winter.

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 Until........the other day I was walking to pick up one of my daycare kids from school and I realized that the chilly air was.....invigorating? What is this, I asked myself. I am opposed to cold. But it seems that after almost 27 years I finally have become accustomed to the cold and dare I say, embraced it? And then, yesterday it snowed.

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I have been dreading snow because I take kids to and from school. Kids that are not my own children. Kids that I would be horrified if anything at all bad happened to them. I feel I am a good driver, but driving while it snows can be dangerous, especially since there are crazy drivers out there! I managed to get all the kids to school safely and then I was driving back and watching the snow fall and it hit me. Snow is beautiful. So it made me think, life is like winter. There are always going to be good and bad. You choose what you see. I used to look at snow and think only of the negatives. Cold, scary roads, etc... However, I now look at it and enjoy the beauty of it. I'm going to do my best to start doing that with my life, too. There is beauty all over and it is up to us to find it in our own lives. There may be clouds and rain and thunderstorms, but if you look closely, somewhere there is a silver lining or a rainbow. Something good can be found in every day.

digital-photography-school.com

Christmas

In sad news, its December 14 and I still don't have a tree up. Jungle boy and I may not even put a tree up this year. For whatever reason, we are not feeling especially Christmasy this year. Actually, that's a lie. I am feeling the spirit of wanting to give to others, especially those in need. But not so much feeling like decorating a tree and putting up cute decorations (mostly because I know they would be trashed by the dogs/cats that live in my house!). However, at work when we sing Christmas songs, it puts me in such a happy mood, especially today. Two of my kids at work have developed, well its hard to know what to call this exactly. When my youngest brother was around 3 he developed what we called his "demon" voice. Its hard to explain, but thats what my two kids at work are doing, only when its being done while singing Christmas songs, its HILARIOUS!!! It goes something like this:

*Teachers sing the words in red and kids sing the words in green*

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

And a Happy New Year!!

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Now imagine Happy New Year being said in a strange, demonic voice coming from a sweet blue-eyed, blond haired little girl. Ah, it was one of the more funny things I've seen (and heard) in quite some time. 

Speaking of giving (as I did way at the beginning of this post) I shall share a story of Christmas past. Growing up my family would always try to do something for others at Christmas. Often this meant providing Christmas for a family in need. One year we provided Christmas for a single mother and her young children. Even though  there had been many other years of serving like this at Christmas, it was my first year of actually going with my mom to drop off the gifts. I can still remember walking in to this little apartment and seeing this tiny Christmas tree on their small kitchen table. The mom couldn't speak English very well, but she was so gracious and sweet and just kept saying "Thank you, thank you" over and over. It made me feel so happy that we could help someone. Last year, Jungle boy and I were lucky enough to be the ones helped by a family in our ward who anonymously gave us a card with a generous cash donation in it. We were so appreciative and it meant so much to us.  That's what Christmas is all about, being giving and also being grateful for the things you receive. It's a time where we can focus on serving others and strive to be even more like the Savior. I hope that this year I can honor that and focus on the real meaning of Christmas. So to all of you, I challenge you to do one (at least one) act of service to help you feel the true spirit of Christmas!

acelebrationofwomen.org

Ambition

***FYI:Words appearing in blue are Jungle boys added comments***

Remember when you were little and you had to list what you wanted to be when you grew up? And the boys all said things like cops or firefighters?

 And the girls said things like a teacher or ballerina?

I said a mom. That has been my ambition since I was a wee little girl of only 3 (ask my mom, I speak only the truth!) Here is a picture of me practicing being a mom:

Precious right?? Turns out its not as easy for me to become a mom as I thought it would be. We all have plans of how life is gonna turn out. Mine went something like this: Get married young. Check! Be a mom by age 24.... By age 27 (the age I will be in approximately a month) have at least 2 kids.
I currently have ZERO kids. And I know that God has a plan, that everything will happen in His time and everything, but sometimes it hurts to not be able to hold my own baby. It's good I work at a daycare and can cuddle and nurture kids, but sometimes I just want to nurture MY child. I want to be a mom, and actually be THE mom, not just accidentally be called mom by kids at work (which oddly enough happens on a quite regular basis!)
It also sucks sometimes to get on Facebook (which is sometimes the bane of my existence!) and see that 20 people are currently pregnant (not even an exaggeration). And I am happy for those people, of course, but sometimes a girl just wants to know, when is it going to be MY turn?
But alas, sometimes life gives us lemons and we can either be depressed by the lemons or we can see the good in the lemons.

 After all, lemons are my favorite color (mine too) and you can also make a delicious drink with them (lemonada! I'll explain at a later time what that is, it's a "Brasilian Thing").
Thus, here is a list of top 5 reasons its good to be a young, childless couple, in no particular order:
*When you want to go on a date you go, no babysitter necessary!
*Your house is not cluttered with baby toys!
*You learn how to be a couple, which is something entirely different than being parents, I imagine at least, since I've never been a parent!
*When you are sick, you can take a day off. Moms don't get sick days, this I've learned by example!
*You save money! Babies are expensive, or so I've heard!

However, I would trade all of those "perks" of being childless in a heartbeat to be able to hold my own baby. And I like to think that someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, I will hold my baby in my arms. And I like to think he (for I've already decided my first baby will be a boy, and we know how well my life turns out like I plan) will look something like this:

Only much smaller and more infant like! Cause after all, Jungle boy is pretty cute, thats why I married him. Just kidding. I married for love. And for the fact that he is Brazilian (wink, wink!). And here is the honest truth: When I was 20 I told my mom "Mom, I will marry someone from South America. Just wait." And I did. So sometimes my plans for my life really do come true. Thank goodness!