March--April--May

I'm going to be lazy and do three months in one post.

For March: Gardening.
Well, I'm still renting and don't have a place to garden but someday I do plan to have a garden! Mostly a flower garden. I love flowers and they seem a little less intimidating than food. I have no idea what food I would grow. I think it'd be fun to have a couple fruit trees though! But definitely a colorful flower garden. :)

For April: Strengthening Personal Testimony
This one's hard, I think. I'm like Cathryn. It's really hard for me to make habits. I was really good at reading my scriptures and saying prayers every day and then it kind of broke when I got to college. I felt weird doing it in front of roommates and that carried into my marriage where I felt weird doing it in front Colin. I don't know where this self consciousness came from. Maybe I have a deep fear that I'd look self-righteous or that I would be doing it "wrong?" No clue.
Through many talks with Colin we decided that I pray daily better when he reminds me and we do it at the same time, so I've been getting a lot better at my own daily, personal prayers. Scripture study is trickier. I feel like it's also so much more important considering I'm in nursery and the only spiritual upliftment (it's a word now) is what I can get out of sacrament between dealing with my two girls. It's not exactly like I don't have the time to do it. Somehow I found the time to read 15 books in the last six weeks. It's just a matter of thinking to do it and then in that moment of thought actually doing it. I haven't gotten there yet. But I'm grateful to read your girls' words as a cross-country encouragement! I look up to you girls and it honestly helps to hear that I'm not alone in struggling to do it. I'll let you know how I do! I'm putting it out there so you can hold me to it. :)

For May--Good Food on a Budget
This is another category where I'm lame and useless. Being the poor med student family that we are we have been on food stamps for a couple years now and I don't remember how to be on a budget as we never spend the whole monthly allotment the government gives us. It's massive. We're actually going to use it to build a food storage soon! So, I'd love to hear what you girls have to say so I can file it away for two years from now when we no longer qualify for food stamps but still don't have a lot of money as we need to pay off loans. haha

About Katie

Ok. I'm going to be completely candid here. I've lived with you girls and love you all so hopefully you won't judge me. :)

My Family:

We're currently living in Wisconsin and have no idea when we'll be back in UT again (visiting or living).

Colin:
Colin is incredible. He's in the 2nd semester of his 2nd year of medical school. This means the last semester of lectures, just a few more months until boards (the huge test they take covering their first two years of med school and weigh heavily on residency placement) and then a couple weeks after that is rotations (you spend a month working in each basic field of medicine to see what you would like to do)! Not only is he super smart and hardworking when it comes to school he is also a massive help at home. He's supportive, loving, a comfort, and I lean on him a ton.

Naomi:
Naomi is adorable. She just turned 2 earlier this month. She loves to dance. She is addicted to movies (currently Rio and Tinker Bell) and candy (wonder where she got that from...). She's talking more and more everyday and becoming a little bit of a parrot. This means we have to be careful with what we say. She now knows "booger" and that it's "yucky" and that stinky diapers are "gross." She makes us laugh, drives us crazy, and makes me want to cry with the fact that she seems to be growing up so fast. In my mind it feels like she's going to be starting school in a month. I just want her to stop growing. Well, that and take a really long nap. Or sleep until 8. Both work for me. :)

Chloe:
Chloe is a joy. She's been giving me a rough time at night lately (she still won't go longer than 3 hours between feedings, even at night) but she makes up for it by being so free with her smiles and giggles. She's so excited to get any sort of attention. She's not the cuddliest baby (she's a wiggler) but at least she's happy!


Katie:

I'm exhausted. I feel like I'm not getting enough sleep and I believe it's beginning to affect my parenting. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm losing patience with Naomi and I'm not always the best comforter. It's just frustrating how my girls always seem to prefer Colin to me and then when Naomi gets upset with me she'll ask for Daddy, Grandma, Pa, anyone but me. I've begun to feel a loss of self lately and I'm not sure how to fix it. I love my girls, but I need a break from them. Is that horrible to feel like you need a mini vacation from your kids? It doesn't help that Naomi's having a hard time napping lately and Chloe's still waking up 3 times a night.

In other news, I'm loving Wisconsin. It's nice to lean on each other and really become our own family unit. However, I agree with Melissa. It's challenging making friends. The way I made friends was I either grew up with them or lived with them. Neither of those methods work here so it's been difficult.

I've been trying to improve upon myself. I strive to exercise everyday, I try to diet, and I've been using Proactiv but I've been discouraged. I have no idea if the exercising is working, dieting is tricky while nursing, and I'm not convinced the Proactiv is working.

I swear I'm not as unhappy as this all sounds! Just in a bit of a rut. Otherwise, I'm the same Katie! I still love movies although now we Redbox and stream Netflix instead of going to the theaters and always buying movies. I still love to read although I don't know what's good these days. I still love candy although I can't eat as much in one sitting and I'm leaning towards chocolate. And, of course, I'm still picky, although I've been working on that too. :)

Sorry I was so wordy. I'm still that too. haha Any questions?