Cynic

I once tried to defend myself to someone accusing me of being a cynic but failed miserably.

You know Pinterest? Of course you know Pinterest. One of the common items pinned and repinned are cutesy inspirational quotes, usually pulled from Tumblr. If you haven't been to Tumblr to see these, you should take a look.

It is filled with wonderful gems like these:

I'll give you a moment to grab some tissues.

I know quotes can be great and inspiring. I love highlighting passages from books that are unique and gracefully worded or pretty much anything from Albus Dumbledore. And I acknowledge that not all quotes on Pinterest are oozing with cheese. But has anyone's life ever been changed from reading these random, gushy quotes from Tumblr or Pinterest? Show of hands? Okay maybe a few. I guess just not mine. Does this make me a cynic? Probably. I was running the idea of this post past Jericho the other day and he said he thought it was a good idea and that it seemed very like me. Hm. The man knows me well.

I have a heart, I swear. I just don't feel my heart is spoken to by dramatic, cliche thoughts typed over generic landscapes or a couple holding hands or a wee child holding a single yellow daisy. [For the record, pictures #3 and #6 above makes me laugh hysterically every time.]

I wanted to incorporate my own quote into Pinterest so I needed to post it somewhere first before I could pin it. Here are my thoughts on life, in Tumblr format. Please don't hate me.

GOP Race 2012

The other day Jericho asked me, with great concern in his voice, if my blog was turning into a Mom Blog. Oh dear. It is tough not to blog about my child and being a mom since that occupies roughly 125% of my time, thoughts, and energy. He suggested I write about something political.

So here is my breakdown of the GOP prelim race. 

Michelle Bachman- All defense and no offense. Her french tips are Real-Housewives-too-along. And I don't trust people from the midwest.

Herman Cain- New guy that hasn't been tainted by being a career politician. Knows some stuff when it comes to business and economics. Makes a mean pizza.

Newt Gingrich- Tainted by tainting himself in the 90's during the Clinton admin. Such a longtime career politician that all I can see when I look at his face are caricatures from political cartoons. And the man's name is Newt. NEWT! How could we expect the world to start respecting us again when our Prez shares a name with a lizard famously referenced in Monty Python.

Jon Huntsman- Appointed by Obama as ambassador to China. Mormon although hasn't decided what definition of Mormon he falls into. Like Mitt Romney except he's a Utah Mormon instead of a Massachusetts Mormon. And without the awesome hair. Or the winning politician's smile. Or the supporters.

Ron Paul- He's kind of nutty and I've never really been sure what political party he should belong to. And he's 75. I think over 70 should be considered "of advanced political age" and therefore be required to take additional medical testing to assess one's ability to not die while serving in office.

Rick Perry- Serious contender for the bid. A real Christian. Strong following and a lot of supporters. A strong push with his jobs plan. But I don't trust people from Texas.

Mitt Romney- Strong frontrunner for much of the race thus far. Focuses on jobs and the economy. Serious business knack. Some consider him too moderate to be a Republican. Some consider his teeth freakishly white. Little known fact, his full name is "Mittens".

Rick Santorum- I don't know much about this guy. His last name sounds like a prescription drug.

There are a bunch of other people on the official list but I've never heard of them. These are really the only ones that are causing any buzz. If you would like to have an actual educated and official description of the candidates, please consult pretty much any other source. Happy voting friends!

Charity Never Faileth

Technically, she was 10 weeks for this picture but I got lazy on her actual 2 month birthday and didn't take a picture.

As you can see, little missy is starting to smile a lot. She doesn't laugh yet but she definitely smiles and at times just for the heck of it. She'll wake up from her naps smiling and making all sorts of delightful little baby noises. She's also starting to eat her hands.

The last two nights, she's slept more than 7 hours. Last night was from 9:30 to 6:30. At 6:30 when she woke up, I picked her up from her bed, hugged and kissed her and danced around the room in a celebratory waltz.

In my previous post, I mentioned how well things are going. It's true. Everything is smashing. But I absolutely wouldn't be this set if it weren't for the help of so many fabulous people. My awesome neighbor girls (Jami, Jesica, and Kristi) watch Sydney for me once a week so I can go to the gym. It's the most regular workout schedule I've been on in months! It's a dream! My RS President practically begged me to let her watch Sydney for a few hours this afternoon. I had forgotten what running errands is like by myself. And of course my wonderful mother is always on the ready. Even at 2:00 am when I get scared during a thunderstorm.

I made a goal before Sydney was born and before Jericho left that I would always say "yes" to any help that was offered and if people made open-ended offerings of help, I'd try my best to come up with something. Asking for help is way hard! But through all of this great service, I've been able to develop closer relationships and never have the feeling like I'm doing this alone. I feel so overwhelmed with thanks to them and to my Heavenly Father and hope that I can, someday, adequately return all that I'm receiving right now.

Guest Blogger

Hello friends.
I was super honored to be asked to be a guest blogger for today's post on the superb blog- Hey Nonny. I'm so jazzed. Please feel free to read my post and, even better, read all the other posts from this week as well. It's a wonderfully written blog that you should definitely follow if you aren't already.

Happy weekend everyone!!

much love
kelley

FAQs

Nearly every Sunday and every time we visit with someone, people ask: How is Jericho? Where is Jericho?

Here is a little bit about how things are going.

Jericho's unit is currently at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. They arrived September 13th and have been doing training almost the entire time since they arrived. They are replacing another unit that is doing what they'll be doing so they meet with them and get trained on the trucks and what they'll be doing on the missions. The first group of people will start on a mission later this week. Jericho will not be in that group. He said they'll be sitting around cleaning guns and washing trucks while the other people are gone. 

September 24th was his birthday. I'm so glad that some of the boys celebrated with him. They bought him a cake and some presents! [sidenote: I haven't met the guys he's serving with, except one. Apparently they were on Facebook and saw pictures of me and decided I was either Greek or Jewish.]

Since he's been in Kuwait, I've been able to talk to him on the phone almost every day. For a time, they were off at a small base 2 hours from Arifjan where the only way for him to call was on phones they had to wait in line to use and had a 20 minute time limit. When he was there, we didn't get to talk as much. While at Arifjan, Jericho has internet access so we either Skype or talk on the Magic Jack phone he bought before leaving the states. It's amazing to me that we're able to talk as frequently as we do. Lately the internet connection has been a little spotty so our conversations have been shorter. But it's still amazing to me that he's half a world away and we can still talk like he's just down the street. It'll be rough when he starts his missions [meaning, when they drive into Iraq to load things up on the trucks] since he'll be gone for about a week at a time without any communication. I figure the time will go by even faster then because the phone calls with be spaced out further and I'll be looking forward to each one.

We also found out today when his leave will be- December 23 through January 6. He'll be here for Christmas!!!!!!! This is the greatest news I've had since we found out he'd be here for Sydney's delivery. 

The other main question I get is how I'm doing with things.

It amazes me every day how well things are going. It helps that I have a super easy baby. She requires a lot of attention, which I willingly give because really, I would just lay around on the couch all day watching movies with her napping in my lap if I could. She also eats and sleeps well so I'm able to move around the house and get things done. And she also travels well so we LOVE running errands. I honestly think up things to go do just because I like being out and about so much. My favorite place right now is Target. I don't think Jericho loves that though...

Logistically, I'm a single mom. But I have it a bit easier since I don't have to worry about holding down a job and caring for a newborn at the same time. Money just appears in the bank account. It's pretty magical. I hate to admit it, but I'm loving the government right now.

Emotionally and mentally, I'm not a single mom. I email Jericho pictures of Sydney as much as I can. I've taken roughly 4,721 pictures of her since he's been gone and have to refrain from attaching them all the emails to Jericho. I get to talk to him about her and how wonderful she is and how she's growing and learning. When we get off the phone, he tells me he loves me, and Sydney too. The first time he sent me a text telling me to kiss Sydney for him, I cried. Not out of sadness but out of sweetness. I can't wait for her to be old enough to understand what he did for the first year of her life and to see just how awesome her dad is.

The initial shock of being apart from my husband has thankfully worn off. Sometimes, when it's quiet and I'm thinking about  him, somewhere in the Disney movie part of my brain, I think that at those times he can somehow "hear me". Like suddenly the wind will blow or he'll call me right at that moment or a bird will start chirping while a rainbow bursts into the landscape.

I don't know if it's my meds, divine intervention, or the radiating joy that Sydney brings to everyone and everything, but, aside from the fact that my husband is in the middle of the desert with a bunch of smelly guys, life is pretty great. I'm excited every day to hold my baby, to work on projects, to take time for myself to just be happy and enjoy this time. Ever since Sydney was born [except for the first week that we'll call my "dark days"], I've had this renewed lust for life. I find that I talk to people differently, I smile more, I'm more motivated in everything I do. I continually amazed at how blessed we've been.