Cleaning

Steve and I have been talking for a while about making a chore chart (really more of a division of labor chart) so we finally sat down last week and split up chores and officially who does what. It is nice to have it written down on paper what each of us is primarily responsible for. It's been difficult for me getting into a groove with keeping up with the house. Me becoming a mostly stay-at-home mom coincided with becoming pregnant, so it's hard to know what things are going to be like when I am not pregnant and also have a second kid. I hope I can keep everything balanced and be as good of a mom and homemaker as I want to be.


It is seriously amazing how quickly your house can go from dirty to clean and back again. Our house was a wreck yesterday and my amazing husband was off last night so he was awake and not only did his "chores" but even helped with some of mine, and our house looks fabulous right now! I just gotta keep it that way because we are having our friend Courtney over for dinner tonight, and it's much nicer being in a clean house.


And he let me sleep in until 11 today and got Simon breakfast and played and read with him for a while. (In my defense I was up until 2 watching a movie with Steve, so I really didn't sleep in that late.) Then, when I woke up we went to eat at the Gold 'n Silver Inn and had breakfast/lunch. I love my husband and feel so fortunate to have such a great man in my life. I am currently watching Teen Mom (can you believe I admitted that!) and it makes me grateful for a great husband, son, relationship, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and belief in eternal families in my life. This post was just supposed to be about cleaning so here is a fun little picture. (I am trying to post more frequently and smaller and with pictures.) Simon was helping me vacuum earlier because he found a spot that needed to be vacuumed so he got it out and plugged it in and turned it on so I let him help me vacuum after I vacuumed everything up (the vacuum was actually on and in use in this picture).

Video Games

Me and Steve both have a problem. We are video game addicts. Last night I stayed up with him until 4 a.m. playing video games. What is wrong with me? He has to stay up all night to stay on his same schedule on his days off because he work nights. It was really fun to keep him company, and the game we were playing was really fun- Borderlands- but man am I tired today! Steve was so nice, when Simon woke up this morning he was still up and he let me sleep in until noon and he hung out with Simon. What a nice break!
I have the best husband. We have so much fun together, he is my best friend! I wasn't sure how much I would like his new schedule, but I am liking it pretty well. It is nice because we will lay down in bed together for an hour or two so he can take a quick nap before he goes into work, but we end up just laying in bed talking the whole time. I feel like we talk a lot more now. I think before we would text all day long, but since we are on opposite schedules we can't text each other all the time anymore. I really enjoy our "pillow talk" every night.
I just put more pictures from Belize up on facebook- one of these days I should blog about that trip before I forget about everything.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today I am feeling very un-Valentiney. It may be because I am sick with an upper respiratory infection and ear infection. It may be because I haven't had a chance to go shopping for a present for my Valentine (been potty training Simon since Friday and I am a procrastinator so that is when I would have started shopping). It may be because I only saw my Valentine for about 20 minutes today- but he did bring me really pretty roses! It may be because I am not even wearing pink or red. It may be because I didn't decorate my house for Valentine's Day- not a single heart hanging anywhere.
So with that last statement typed, I just decided I will have to cut out some hearts and stuff and hang them up. Me and my Valentine are going to celebrate on Wednesday, so I figure I have a good two days to get really decorated and buy him a present- but I already know what I want to get him and have for a while, so that counts for something right!?
Although I am feeling un-Valentiney, I am very grateful for my husband today. I am so grateful that was able to marry such an amazing man, and then be sealed to him for time and eternity. He is stuck with me forever and I wouldn't have it any other way! In the year we were married before we were sealed I was always so scared that something would happen and one of us would tragically die before we were sealed, I must say that once we went to the temple, I was so relieved. Not to say it wouldn't really suck if one of us died, but now I have the comfort and knowledge that if that did happen, we would only be seperated for a little while and then we would be together forever after this life. What a comfort to be sealed in the House of the Lord.
I am grateful to be married to such an amazing man. He has sacrificed a lot for our family and has had to deal with a lot of stress from school and working and internships, and having a kid before we were planning on it, and all kinds of other stuff, but through it all and all the stress, he has always been good to me, and to our son, and for that I am grateful.
Last night as we were laying in bed for an hour before Steve had to leave for work we got a text message from a friend whose spouse had left them. It was so sad. Almost all of the couples that were at our wedding are now divorced, including some of our LDS friends. And this latest one is a dear friend who was sealed in the temple. It is so sad for me to see people not take that covenant seriously. How can you promise to love someone and be with them forever, and then after a year of marriage leave them. Does marriage mean anything to people anymore? Do people not realize what they are signing up for or something? Are their expectations not realistic? I am also grateful that one of the classes I took at BYU was Preparation for Marriage, it may seem cheesy, but that class was one of the best I ever took. It makes you realize what to expect from yourself, your spouse, and the whole institution of marriage. It was fantastic.
So Happy Valentine's Day everyone and Happy Valentine's to my husband (even though I am going to pretend Valentine's Day isn't until Wednesday for him so I feel like a better wife). I did buy him a really cute gift bag already to put his present in, it has a robot on it holding a heart- so cute!
P.S.- I was going to put a couple of cute pictures of Steve and I in here too, but my computer is having some issues accessing my libraries right now. :(

Life

Today while I was at work I stepped outside to make a couple of phone calls that I didn't feel comfortable making at work, some things you just don't want people to overhear, like trying to get a new job. So I stepped outside to call Steve to find about the two job offers he got today, and he accepted one of them! Yay! He interviewed at Renown today and they told him they would give him a call back within the next three weeks, he got two different calls about two hours later- two job offers the same day! He accepted the better one- an internship with a two year contract. I don't remember all of the details but the gist of it is that he works in almost every unit of the hospital for about 4 or 5 weeks and at the end goes back to the first one he worked at and stays there for the remainder of the year, and then for the second year he works in whichever one he wants. He will also get to be on some committees which means better positioning to get into better jobs. I might not have all of that correct- but it's how I understood it from Steve explaining it to me in his very disjointed don't give all the information at once kind of way. So yay! A JOB! Did I mention he graduated on Saturday? Yep- done with school and has a job, he starts on January 24th!
Oh, I am so relieved, we I was really starting to get worried about if he was going to get a job, most of his other classmates from nursing school already had jobs so I was getting kind of panicky because I've had big plans for the next year that all depend on him getting a job. You see, I have been the main breadwinner the whole time he has been in school, and frankly, I am so tired of it. It is so hard to be a mom and to be a working mom at that. The hardest part is probably the guilt- but that is a whole 'nother post on its own. So yeah, getting to spend about 3 1/2 to 4 hours a day with my son has been tough. I love him so much and he is just the most incredible little boy, of course I am a little biased (what mom isn't), but my son is just so cool and fun and exhausting. After working and driving all over town everyday, by the time I get home with him I am tired, and I still have to make dinner and play with him and it gets very stressful because once I am home with Simon he wants my undivided attention so sometimes we don't even eat dinner until 8 because I am doing things like spending time with him instead of making dinner for him. So back to my original point... I have been the breadwinner for all this time (4 years) and I am tired of doing it. I am ready to stay home and be a full-time mom, to play with my son all day long, to be able to teach him things, to want to pull my hair out because he is driving me crazy all day long instead of for just 4 hours a day, to be there for my family mentally and physically and emotionally, because lately I haven't been.
So if you caught the little comment up there about me trying to get a job, you might be wondering why I am talking about wanting to stay home and getting a new job in the same post. Well, that is because, frankly, I am a little scared of being a stay-at-home mom. So one of my co-workers told me about this home decor store that is opening soon in Reno and it's only open one day a week, Thursday, and the store gets set up every week on Wednesday. They are planning on opening in January, but it's looking more like it is going to be in February. Perfect! I love decorating, I love accessories, and I still want to work a little bit, and two set days a week would be awesome. Just for the sanity mostly, not for the money. I just want to feel like I am doing something else, that I am contributing to something, and I want to have time around other adults still (I am in nursery at church so I don't even get a lot of adult interaction at church). And it also gives me a break from the stresses of being a stay-at-home mom, it gives Cindy time to spend with her grandson every week still, and gives him a chance to play with other kids. So about a month ago I interviewed for a position at this store, and it went really well, and the guy called me back this morning about it. I am going to meet with him again this Saturday. Pretty sure I have a job, he just wants to make sure we both know what it is going to be like. I am so excited! This all works perfectly. It coincides so well with when Steve will be starting his job and be bringing a REAL paycheck! My anniversary with my work is Dec 15, so after that I get 2 weeks paid vacation to take sometime in the next year. I am planning on using it in early January so Steve and I can FINALLY go on a trip to somewhere cool. We have always planned on Malta, but we realized it is winter there- in the 60s, but if I am flying to the Mediterranean I want to swim in it, and you can't really go swimming there when it is cool outside. So we are thinking its going to be something different, but I don't want to talk to much about that because whenever we do it never happens, and I am sure our families are both thinking something along the lines of "Oh, that Steve and Kari, they keep talking about traveling the world, but who are they kidding? They make all these plans, they buy plane tickets, but they're never going to go anywhere." But this time we are, and it's going to be for two weeks, and it's going to be awesome!
So yeah, today has been the best day I have had in a while, I came back in from those two phone calls (with Steve and the new job guy) and I had the biggest smile on my face, a smile I never have on my face while I am at work, and one of my coworkers knew something was up and since he is the one that first told me about the new job opportunity I told him what was going on, and it just felt so good to be able to say that all these plans that Steve and I have been making for a while now are finally becoming a reality. I just can't wait! Less than three weeks to Christmas, and then about two weeks after that is our 4th anniversary, our vacation, and our plans to start trying for another baby while on said vacation. Life is good, and I can't wait!

Funny Steve

Steve has been working really hard lately. Last night he only got 2 hours of sleep because he was finishing a paper. In his delirious state this is what he sent to his teacher as he e-mailed her his paper- and by teacher I mean professor, who is a doctor, and who goes by Stephanie not Steph if they were on a first-name basis, which they aren't...

Steph,
I hope this paper is the most amazing paper you've ever read, ever. Be inspired, and impressed. Thanks!
Steve



Can you believe that!! I couldn't believe it when he showed me, and I don't think he could believe he would send that to his professor either.

Finals Week!

Today is the first day of Steve's finals week. I have to take a second to brag about my husband, I am so proud of him, he has just been an amazing husband, dad, and student. Steve is taking some really hard classes this semester including chemistry- yuck, and Anatomy. We made a deal that if he gets all A's in his classes then he can buy an XBOX 360 at the end of the semester. Well, we already bought the Xbox because we found a really good deal, so he better get all A's. I have no doubt that he will, so far he has gotten A's and even some 100's on his tests throughout the semester. The past couple of weeks Steve has been staying on campus late to study because it's been kind of hard for him to study at home, which has been hard on me because I am at home all day long, and I really come to miss my husband. But as soon as he walks in the door after a long day of work, studying, and school, he is the Dad and Simon is his. They play together for the rest of the night. Last night I actually ditched Steve to run to WalMart for a minute, and he stayed home with Simon who has been really cranky. So cranky Steve even had to give him a bottle, luckily I have lots of milk stored up in the freezer. But anyways, I am so proud of Steve. He has been doing such a good job with his schoolwork and still finding time in his busy hectic schedule to play with his son and take care of his wife, and even get straight A's in his classes. I know he can pull off all A's, in one class he just has to get at least a 64% to get an A in the class... I don't think that will be a problem. So here's to Steve and final's week, and getting straight A's to earn the Xbox 360 we already bought!!

UPDATE: Steve just called me and he got a 94 on his Anatomy final!!!!!