Whoa

Last Tuesday as Shelby and I were leaving gymnastics I got a call from the Bishop asking if he could stop by the house.  I automatically assumed he was stopping by to speak to Jeremy because he is the Deacon's Quorum advisor and they recently made some changes in YM.  I quickly called Jeremy and asked him to make sure the living room had been straightened up and got home as fast as I could.  I literally had no time to even dwell on the possibilities of why he was coming over, so when he started talking, I was startled when I realized he was talking to me, and he was talking about YW.  "Ok", I thought.  "He's going to ask me to be an advisor or the secretary, or MAYBE a counselor."  So I was completely in shock when the words "Young Women's President" came out of his mouth. 

I am so excited to be working in YW again.  While I have served as YW president before, I was only 21 then so I feel like I (hopefully) have grown since then and can maybe offer more to the girls than I could then.  Of course, this ward is MUCH larger than our tiny ward in Natchitoches, so I feel a bit more pressure there.

I was up until almost 2 last night putting together a calendar that has everything on it- gym schedule (we share a building), teaching schedule, dances, mutual- including who's in charge of what activities, etc.  With work and the girls, life is already so busy, so I was having a bit of a panic attack.  I am starting to feel a bit more organized now though, and will feel lots better after we get through mutual on Wednesday and our first presidency meeting later this week.

So that's what has been on my mind all week.  Other than that, things are good.  Turns out I do have plantar fasciitis.  I have to stretch my feet in the morning and wear these super hard inserts in my shoes.  I am not supposed to be barefoot at all, or wear flip flops.  I haven't been great at following the last two rules.  But I have gotten used to running with the inserts in my shoes, and that has helped a lot.  The worst pain is when I am in the shower and when I am cooking.  I really need to get a good pair of slippers that I can wear around the house with my inserts in them.  Also, in other medical news, my mole biopsy came back negative.  I wasn't worried about it at all, he only wanted to do a biopsy because that one mole was darker than any other moley-freckle thing on my back.  BUT, I will say that it definitely made me not care that my legs are pasty white. 

Shelby got her "report card" today and did very well.  Last time she got a few W's (working on) for things like listening and waiting her turn to talk.  She's definitely the class clown and a social butterfly.  This time she only needs to work on tying her shoes  She almost has it down.  The other school related thing that has been on my mind a lot for Shelby is the bilingual program.  When I went to register her for Kindergarten they asked if we wanted her in the bilingual program.  I am just not sure how I feel about it.  She takes a Spanish class in preschool now, and really enjoys it, but I don't understand how a teacher can teach a class of half Spanish only speaking kids and half English only speaking kids how to read (in both English and Spanish) and not have them fall behind.  I just need more info on it, and of course, both mandatory meetings are on Wednesday nights (when Jeremy and I have to both be at mutual). 

That's about it for us right now- kids, church, work.  I keep waiting for things to settle down but they only seem to get busier and busier!

Look Whooo Turned 2!

Happy Birthday to my little Joey!  I can't believe two years have already gone by.  I was just watching the video of her birth and feel like it was just yesterday (Emotionally, at least.  Thankfully not physically.)  In honor of the big girl we had a fun little birthday play date this morning with some of her friends from nursery.  I pretty much decided the day after her birthday last year that her next party theme would be owls.  I love all the cute owl stuff that I have been seeing over the past year! 

I had grand plans of creating this woodland mural to wrap around the room, and then creating this huge tree that would stand in a corner and have owls hanging from it.  In the end, this was all I did:

Not quite what I'd had in mind, but I don't think Joey cared either way.  We brought some of the toys downstairs from the playroom and just had a nice time playing together.  I think I have finally learned that if you are going to have a party for kids this young, you can't really plan much.  It can be overwhelming, and ultimately frustrating for everyone involved if you do.  After playing for a bit, we had a nice little picnic on the floor. 

Of course, after a light lunch it was time for cupcakes.  Joey decided she couldn't wait for some silly song to get her cupcake, and grabbed one right around the "dear Joey" part.

After the kids got nice and sugared up it was time for presents.  Joey got some really cute sound/music books that she looked at all afternoon.  After careful consideration in the toy aisle, Shelby chose to get Joey a cute little Dora doll. 

Joey and the girls were really cute.  We were trying to get them to all smile for us, and then they broke out the silly faces.

After the party we decided it would be a good time to give Joey her present.  Ok, truthfully, it's for both girls, and we were going to get it anyway, we just figured Joey's birthday would be a good time to do it.  We told the girls to close their eyes and guided them through the back door.  They were both so thrilled to see a trampoline in the back yard!  In a few weeks we are going to be digging a ginormous hole in the ground and putting it in. 

After some jumping, we cleaned up and went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory and then let Joey (and Shelby) ride the carousel and play on the playground.  I think Joey would ride the carousel ten times in a row if we let her.  She has the biggest grin the entire time she is on it. 

I hope Joey had a great birthday.  We love her so much- feisty-ness and all- and couldn't imagine our family without her!

Easter 2012

Another long weekend in the books.  We left Friday afternoon for Hattiesburg and got in around 12:30 am.  The girls handled the trip ok, but when we got in, Joey wanted to be up and playing.  She kept saying, "Go see Papaw?".  She finally fell asleep around 2 and then was up bright and early at about 7 asking for Papaw again. 

Every year at Easter the Gore family has a family reunion.  It is great because we do an Easter egg hunt for the kids, have a yummy lunch, and get to visit with family that we only get to see once a year.

Shelby ran straight for the Easter baskets...

Joey ran straight for Papaw.

After breakfast we packed everything up and headed out.  On our way home we decided to stop and make a surprise visit to Jeremy's dad.  He was going to drive down and meet us in Hattiesburg yesterday, but he just had back surgery a couple weeks ago and is still recovering.  Thankfully they weren't mad that we dropped by unannounced.  ;)  It was great seeing him and Stephanie, even if only for an hour. 

The girls traveled really well on the way home.  They took a good nap in the car and watched Beauty and the Beast and played.  I hope they travel that well when we head to FL next month and to UT in June!

It was a great Easter and we were glad to see everyone, even if only for a short time.  Now it is on to party prep for Saturday- Joey's 2nd birthday!!  But before that I think I am going to have to make a trip to the doctor to get my foot x-rayed.  I either have a stress fracture again or plantar fasciitis.  Probably the latter, but boy does it hurt.  I can barely even stand on it- which really stinks, because I had just started running again with minimal migraines.  Hopefully it will heal quickly.

Long Day

What a long day!  We woke up at 5 am and were on the road to Bastrop, LA by 6 am.  The girls went to bed late last night, so we fully expected them to fall right back asleep when we put them in the car this morning.  Wrong.  They stayed awake the whole drive. 

We got to Bastrop at about 11:30 and had a great visit with Mamaw and Papaw.  The weather was great so we stayed outside in the courtyard and let the girls play. 

We only stayed a few hours- I know the girls can wipe Mamaw and Papaw out- and then headed home.  So all-in-all we were in the car for over 11 hours today, but it was worth it to visit family!