Waxing chatty on my 125th post

Wow, I've been quite the little blogger during the last 15 months. I consider it a kind of family record keeping effort, so it justifies the time I spend keeping it up. :) My favorite thing to do is change my layout - you may have noticed - because I LOVE change and redecorating my "blogging room" is so easy. Plus it's free. :) I need to figure out how you can have these things bound into books. I'm pretty sure someone's told me before, but I forget.

I've made a small effort to read the news more frequently and I stumbled across an article that made me really nervous. It's not my intention to be too political on this blog, but if this article is any indication of the way things are really going to be in the future, Eldon and I are NOT going to drag our family through medical school. It would be the beginning of the end of that career path. No thank you!

On a lighter note, I've gotten a small "promotion" at my job here at Nu Skin. They're training me for some new responsibilities and it pays a little more, so that's nice. My supervisor told me he's never heard of someone being trained for this so soon, so I'm flattered. It's nice to work for a company that keeps such close tabs on its employees' performance because it becomes easy and obvious who the hard workers are. I love that. Monitor everything I do! I'm "hard" at work blogging at the moment. :) That's been a great perk of this job, actually. The down time we have during the graveyard shift is great. I rarely have time to relax during the day, so it's nice to get some at work. I read and write and study and I love it. The kid next to me cross-stitches, which cracks me up. I'm tempted to bring in the cross-stitch I'm working on too sometime to make it a party.

Aside: The funniest thing I've heard in a long, long time is what he said about being fat. I quote, "I don't like the word fat, I think it's a little harsh. I prefer ... hard to kidnap." He was quoting a comedian he'd heard, but it was still hilarious to me. "That would take some serious planning." I love it. Having good co-workers is fantastic.

Moving on. I've recently been shamed into exercising. I'm just so tired all the time (I typically get two 1 & 1/2 - 2 hour naps in during the day, with a few minutes here and there when Chiara is sleeping or Eldon is home) I've been doing my Pilate's faithfully, and I must say it feels good. I went running the other night but it turns out my body is still too fragile for that to not be a deathly-unpleasant experience for multiple reasons. Plus it makes me too tired. But low-impact Pilate's is great. I want to do the program my friend Mandy wrote about on her blog, but I'm going to have to give myself some more healing time before I'm capable of something like that. For now I will do my Pilate's and go to the BYU gym for some constructive, brisk-walking-up-hills treadmill time. :) Eldon and I are pretty healthy eaters, but we could definitely use a few more vegetables in our diets ... that's my next health-conscious change to make. That and resisting the free diet Pepsi at work. :)

Chiara continues to be the most darling thing I've ever laid my eyes on. She's getting to be quite the reach-and-grasp expert, and even has the muscle to pull the velcroed toys off her bouncy chair, which is impressive. I don't think ours is designed for the babies to yank off. :) I found a $1 teething ring at Walmart that is her new favorite thing. She wails when she drops it and can't find it again ... it's kind of cute. Sometimes it slips from her fingers and goes around her arm like a bicep-bracelet and that really frustrates her. Poor babe. :) She's learning so fast!

I'm counting down the days until I can go home to California for Kev' s homecoming. Chiara and I are leaving Eldon while we play with the Lowder family for a week. Shauna has already claimed my company for the midnight showing of the 6th Harry Potter. Grandma is all too happy to babysit. And I can't WAIT to see my beloved friends from our home ward. I feel like it's been forever since I've been home. They're technically my mom's friends, but I claim them. :) They've been such dependable examples to me over the years, I don't think I could love them more than I do. I'm so excited for our Chiara to meet them!

Anyway, life is good. It's hard right now, but it's been humbling to see how the Lord carries us during the hardest times. I feel like during my darkest hours I can see His hand in my life the clearest. For that reason I can find gratitude in my heart for this season of ... well, struggle, and try to maintain a cheerful effort to do everything I can to endure it well. My child is beautiful and happy, my husband is my best friend, and we'll make it through this. I'm just glad Chiara won't have any memories of these days. :) She can just look at the smiling pictures later.