The Countdown

December 2004-

I was completely in love with my boyfriend. I knew that I wanted to marry him. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I knew that he was the right person for me, but I also knew that it was not the right time. He needed to serve a mission. He needed to serve God the way that God asked him to, by sacrificing 2 years of his life to serve and teach the people of Argentina. December 25, 2004 I flew on an airplane to his house to say goodbye to him and to start counting down the 2 years until I would see him again.

December 2006-

I was still completely in love with my boyfriend and he was returning from his mission in a matter of days. It had been the hardest 2 years of my life. For those 2 years I wrote him letters every week. I made sure that those letters were encouraging and not distracting. Although I loved him desperately, I kept the letters focused on the work he was doing, not my feelings. I had not gone on a date for 2 years. I said no to everyone who asked or plotted to have me leave my missionary. In my room I had a candy countdown marking the days until my boyfriend would return from Argentina and we could resume our relationship.

December 2008-

I was 8 months pregnant and my husband (who used to be that missionary boyfriend) and I were counting down the days until we would meet our firstborn son. We were so excited, we even had presents under the tree for him. Those were long days of braxton hicks contractions and anticipation.

December 2009-

Our 10 1/2 month-old son and I are counting down the days until daddy is done with finals and he can play with us. We are so excited that he will be done with his hardest semester of law school and will be able to celebrate the holidays with us. Jif and I are so proud of all the hard work that he is doing and we know that he is doing it for us. He has a final tomorrow and a final on Friday and we know that he will rock them. Christmas countdowns have a lot of meaning in our family. All of them have been special and worth it! Now I just need an advent calendar, maybe I’ll make one.

Victory

Victory! Victory! Victory! For the last 3 nights Jif has slept between 10 1/2 and 12 hours without waking up once during the night. Last night he slept for 12 hours and didn’t even cry when I put him to bed. Tonight at 7:30 he was already asleep and didn’t cry when I put him to bed. It feels good. My husband and I all of a sudden have so much more time together. It’s amazing. I am very tired though. I am not used to sleeping 8 hours straight, I haven’t done it in 8 months. Suddenly getting sufficient sleep makes me very tired. I will get used to it. Believe me, this is a good problem to have. If you are a mom with a baby who is older than 6 months who is not sleeping through the night come talk to me and I will MAKE you read this book. Next to the scriptures and Les Miserables this book may have done more for my life than any other book.

My husband is currently typing away at his computer writing a memo for law school. Do you mind if I brag for a moment? I love bragging about him, I’m so proud of him. He recently took some very difficult law school midterms and received top grades on all of them. However, even though the midterms were graded they don’t really count for his grade. It’s the final that makes up his entire grade so he has to keep up the pace and keep studying like crazy. I just hope he has time to do something fun this weekend. I want to go out on a date with him. Once Wednesday comes along I start to get really excited for the weekend when we get to spend time together doing fun things.

Jif and I like to go to the park everyday and Jif is getting big enough that he can climb up the jungle gym and go down the slide by himself. Well I help him on the slide so he doesn’t get hurt but the rest he does on his own. How did he get so big? Is this why parents always say that parenthood flies by because children grow up too fast? I am currently looking at a picture of when he was 3 months old and realizing that he will never be that little baby again. What’s a mom to do? I guess I should have another one………………………………………………………………

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I hope you don’t think that I’m pregnant, because I’m not. And I probably won’t be for several more months. But I must confess that I find children very addicting. I started planning when I could have my next child when Jif was less than 8 weeks old. But I shouldn’t be hasty, I need to do what’s best for his health and my health….and my husband’s mental health. I don’t think he is quite up to the task of force feeding me through my pregnancy while in his first semester/year of law school.

Well here are some pictures of our recent trip to see Grandma and Grandpa over conference weekend. One of the days we went to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve Exhibit. It was so much fun. It was like a mix between a museum and a zoo with a fancy restaurant overlooking Las Vegas. Even Elmo was there to say “hi” to Jif. Jif was very interested in Elmo although I don’t think that he quite trusted him. If you are ever in Vegas I highly recommend visiting the Springs Preserve. It is peaceful to walk around the gardens, educational to see all of the exhibits, and a great fun family activity.