Emerson's Blessing

The little lady of the day

Sunday, September 4th was really special for us, as it was the day we blessed Emerson. Nick gave a beautiful blessing and it was wonderful to have so many people there who love and support us. I always get a little teary-eyed with that kind of stuff, but it was even more magnified because that day I was also released from my calling as Laurel Advisor. I have loved serving in the Young Womens program and will miss the girls and the other leaders so much! After church we invited all of our family and friends over for lunch in our backyard. We lucked out with perfect weather and had a fabulous day!

I love this new picture of our little family of four :)

The wonderful men who were part of Emmy's blessing circle L-R: Ben C, Grandpa Ron,
Uncle Ryan, Nick, Albert V, Jeremy T and Melvin E. Thanks for your support

My Mom made this little sweater for my brother when he was a baby so I thought
it was a wonderful way to honor my mom by having Emmy wear it.

Of course we made our token chicken salad croissants!

Thanks for coming everyone!

Grandma Teressa, Nick, Emmy & Grandpa Neil

Grandma Jeannie, Grandpa Ron, Aunt Jill & Max

Summer Top Ten

Since so much has happened this summer and I am so ridiculously behind on blogging, I am going to do a quick, all inclusive summer recap. In no particular order of our enjoyment, here are the top ten events of our summer. Okay so there are thirteen ;)

#1 Getting a new, updated photo of my family :)
(Thanks to Ashley Bennett Photography)

L-R back: Max & Jill, Levi & Ryan, Carrie & Nixon, Nick, Landon & Shane and Jennica.

L-R front: Dani, Kelsey, Emerson & Grandma Jeannie,
Grandpa Ron & Savannah, Ian and Kaden

#2 Seeing Emerson meet all of the new little babies
that were born in the same week as her.

Emerson & her cousins Blake (Luke & Kara's) and Savannah (Shane & Jennica's)
I tried so hard but could not get it rotated right side up :(

(Kay & Melvin's little girl) Andie & Emerson


#3 Going to Fort Edmonton Park with Nick's family

#4 Schow Family Reunion at Flathead Lake

I am so proud of how great our "Club Betty" reunion T-shirts turned out!

Nick & Kenny double wakeboarding

#5 Seeing my baby girl learn how to smile :)

#6 Swimming at the Ledge

(or more like just chasing after Nixon...)

L-R: Hadley & Leah, Julie & Blakely, Carrie & Nixon, Emmy, Quinn & Erin

L-R: Charlotte, Megan & Bennett, Tylee, Andie & Kay


#7 Spending time at Mama & Papa Hall's farm
(Linds, I still need that picture of us... Imagine it inserted here)

Nick, Nathan and Ben

Wil, Mama Hall & Nixon and Beckett


#8 Going to Waterton Lakes National Park

Dani, Nixon and Levi

#9 Fraser/Famulak family reunion

L-R: Neil, Teressa, Nick & Nixon, Alysha, Carrie & Emerson, Grandpa Ed,
Grandma Mena, Evan, Uncle Bill, Aunty Janet, Robin and Leanne

#10 Having my family come to our house & spend time with us

Max, Grandpa Ron and Nixon

Max, Nixon, Dani and Levi

4 Generation picture: Grandma Jeannie (My Mom), Carrie
and Great Grandma Hull holding Emerson

#11 Enjoying the beautiful weather with good friends at
various splash parks

Blakely and Emerson

(Bennett & Nixon just couldn't resist lovin on their sisters... haha!)

#12 Seeing how much my kids really do look alike!
(if Emmy's chin was tipped a little more towards her chest, you'd see it even more!)

# 13 Camping with the Famulaks at South Buck Lake

So long sweet summer! ' Till next year...

Irrational

I have NEVER had a hard time falling asleep at night, but the past few days I have become somewhat of an insomniac. To the point that I'm getting out of bed to get something done quick that I'd been worrying about, or write myself a note so I won't forget to do something.

Monday I ran a bunch of errands and felt like I had a pretty productive day. Tuesday I woke up with a list of a few things to do, and only half accomplished ONE of them. It turned into a terribly stressful day for me, and the frustrating thing is that I know it was totally irrational. I am going to be going back to work part-time starting in October. It took about four hours to figure out what I need to do to recertify myself, and start looking into courses and information about the continuing education I need to accomplish. You'd think I would have been happy that I finally got that figured out, but by then I was starting to stress about everything I didn't get done and the fact that I wanted to shower but can't leave my kids unsupervised. I was stressing about all the things I had wanted to accomplish that would now have to be done on Wednesday.

By 3pm on Tuesday I was feeling so anxious that I thought I might have a nervous breakdown. I called Nick on his break and vented to him. He sent his brother over to take Nixon off my hands so I could have some time to shower. I gave up on the idea of cooking dinner and ordered pizza. The day was looking up until I attempted to do one of those continuing education courses and had a ton of problems trying to upload things and had to send a million emails back and forth with the dental company. It still isn't figured out. I went to bed feeling annoyed about my day and all the things I had to get done the next day. Things like cleaning my house and putting away laundry. Easy things. I laid in bed worrying about cleaning. About cleaning for goodness sake!

On Wednesday Nixon slept in a little, so I got up and got most of my cleaning done before a few friends came over to visit. I had a wonderful afternoon hanging out with friends. Wednesday night I finished vacuuming and mopping the floors (which had not been cleaned in FOREVER). I sat down to watch Survivor only to discover that the 3 shows I had PVR'd didn't work for some reason. I practically had a melt down and yelled at Nick (like it was his fault...). I started recording Survivor at a later time that night and did the dishes. When the night was over I looked around at my clean smelling house and was so happy that what I'd been worrying about was done. Pure relief. Why was I even worrying in the first place???

Today I started looking into the course Nick is going to apply for and realized that he is going to have to do some upgrading first, and we missed the fall cutoff. Stress began creeping back into my head... Then while Nixon was napping I read a friend's blog where she talked about all a life changing tragedy and all of the things she is grateful for. It started to put things into perspective for me. Why was I stressing about things that DO NOT matter? Then while I was preparing dinner Nick called to tell me he had to work late and wouldn't be home in time for dinner, or for me to go get a massage that I had booked. The annoyance came back....

WHY ARE MY EMOTIONS ALL OVER THE PLACE??? I feel like a crazy person and I know that I am being irrational. Is this all seriously stemming from having a baby? That was practically 3 months ago. All I want to do is feel normal and happy. Anybody have words of advice?