Personality disorders

Yesterday Abram smiled up at me and said, "Mom, you're weird....But you're weird in a GOOD way." This got me to thinking about the weird things that I do or enjoy.

A little while later I was smashing the third spider of the day that I had found crawling around the house.  Man I hate spiders!  They ALL give me the creeps....except for one...and that one is the spider that lives in our storage room, that Abram and I refer to as our "pet spider".  I have very fond feelings for this spider!  Is this a "weird- in- a -good -way thing?" About a month ago, there were fruit flies ALL OVER our house!  Once I had Pace and was feeling more like navigating stairs again, I got to the bottom of the problem.  I cleaned out the storage room, which had been sadly neglected, and found some rotten squash which the fruit flies were going crazy over.  These fruit flies were a good/irritating thing - I don't need to spell out why it was irritating - fruit flies are irritating!!  It was a good thing, because whenever Pace was being really cranky and all I could do was hold him, I could still smash flies with a fly swatter.  Once the flies made it into our living quarters, they seemed to head straight for the upstairs bathrooms.  We have nine foot ceilings, so I spent many happy moments "accomplishing something" standing on the toilets or edges of the bathtubs, swatting at fruit flies on the ceiling.  They became my mission:)

One day Kami came home from lunch and had to share her funny fruit fly story of the day - she said that at lunch-time she headed to her locker to grab her lunch and several fruit flies flew out of her locker when she reached in to grab it!  We got a good laugh....we Gees are really something, I tell you!

...But back to this pet spider business....You should see all of the fruit flies that he/she(?) single-handedly dealt with! The smart little thing set up a web right by the door at the top of the storage room stairs and any time a fly tried to head out it got caught in it.  Then Abram and I could watch with fascination as the spider sucked their insides right out.  VERY SATISFYING!!!  Yes indeedy, you can bet that spider is safe in my house...as long as he stays in the storage room.

 A few weeks ago, Shawn was gone week after week for a couple of months straight, only coming home on weekends.  I was living on three hours of interrupted sleep every night.  (Oh my goodness, life is SO MUCH better with a husband!  It's so nice to be able to trade off a little bit during the night and have both of us get adequate - if not sufficient- rest.) Anyways, one week while he was gone, all of my life-lines floated out to sea, so to speak.  These are my lifelines:

1. My husband.
2. Sleep
3. At least three days a week that I get to exercise
4. Socialization - usually with friends while I get the exercising done
5. A clean house

I could repeat the lifelines of "my husband" and "sleep" several times.  One day during the end of this loss-of-lifelines week, I started feeling stressed, and burdened and depressed.  I had kids to run all over while Pace screamed in the backseat.  I was stressed because several kids needed to be in different places at the same time.  Kami can drive, but not after dark - and HELLO!! It is dark practically from the second they get out of school now!!!! Did these day-light- saving people think this scenario through?  I think not!

 Then there was the Relief Society meeting that I really wanted to go to but would be super late to if I made it at all-and remember that socialization is one of the things that gets me feeling better about things.  So anyway, I was sitting outside in the car waiting for my kids to get out of piano lessons and my Father-in-law came out to talk to me.  He said, very sympathetically, "How are you doing today?"  And I started crying - how mortifying is that?!? It's mortifying for me because I'm not much of a crier.  THEN, I never could get things under control.  I cried ALL the way home.  Caden was sitting in the passenger seat staring straight ahead giving off the most "I'm uncomfortable" body language that you would ever see.  Under normal circumstances that would have sent me into peals of laughter.

Well, I made it to RS and it was very therapeutic.  When I got home I walked into a spotless house, - bless my traumatized children's hearts- got Pace to sleep and went to bed myself.  Then, miracle of miracles, he slept (for the first..and last time....) until 4:00 in the morning!  Three life-lines thrown to me in no time!! When the kids woke up, I said, "It's a miracle! He slept until 4:00 a.m!  They said, "yeah, we were all praying for that!"  Then Caden sent me back to bed and they all watched Pace and I slept, without stirring, until 10:00.  And do you know, from the second I woke up the world was just the most wonderful place again!  Boy do I love sleep - it just puts everything back into perspective.  And babies have a way of making you value every little bit you get even more!

Even though things aren't as pretty taken from my phone - or taken by me for that matter:), the phone is the only thing I ever have handy! So here you go. When I am rested I like seeing things like this:

Maddie was on activity and chose coloring for FHE

 or this:
I went to clean up this pillow from the floor and it seemed weightier than usual!

 or this:
I guess he must be comfortable...he isn't crying...

 And I like watching my kids enjoy things like this:

Maddie's team played her cousin Abby's team.  They had ALOT of cousin moments like this, (above) talking during the game:) And Abby was assigned to guard Maddie which gave them more opportunities:)

Shawn left again this morning, but before he went, he sent me off to exercise, and let me hurry down to IF with my good friend Amanda, since we both needed to buy some bulk honey.  We talked all the way.  Two life-lines down. And the house is clean.  That makes three. Now I'm just hoping to get a good night's sleep so that I don't develop any more "personality disorders".