Author: christy

Today is our anniversary. Ten years ago today Matt and I were married on a very cold day in Idaho Falls Idaho. I don’t know that we noticed the cold weather as much as everyone else in our wedding pictures. We were so young and in love that the cold wasn’t all that noticeable.

So today I look back on the last decade and think, “Holy Cow. We’ve survived a lot together.”

There have been tons of hard times, and plenty of good times. Here’s a few things that we have done right in our marriage that has helped us to be survivors:

When we first got married we set some guidelines. We had our first fight and we both felt like crap so we decided these things. 1. Never raise your voice to the other person. We have discussions. They’re much more productive. 2. We never say hurtful things to the other person. 3. Never bring up past occurances during current discussions. 4. NEVER involve family in our marriage difficulties. 5. Always give the other a kiss before leaving the house and when arriving back home.

Despite really hard times, we have survived for a couple other reasons. We’ve been willing to work through the hard times and not just give up. We’ve watched other couples who have been close friends and had similar marriage troubles, go through ugly divorces because they refused to try to work it out.

We have also found that other people’s advice won’t always work for us. For example, when we got married everyone told us not to go to bed mad at each other. Most of the time we found we were upset with each other because we were tired. Sleeping on it and discussing problems when we’re cooled off a bit is much more our style.

So here’s a small tribute to Matt: Thanks for putting up with me all these years! Including my emotional roller coasters. Thanks for being such a great dad. Thanks for understanding that I need a break from the kids on a regular basis to keep my sanity. Thanks for remembering that I have desires and goals outside of being a housewife. Thanks for letting me go on vacation without the family once or twice a year. Thank you for being willing to work through the hard times. That is what has kept us together! Thank you for loving me for who I am.

So for those of you happily married, what has helped you stay together?

We are not couch potatoes at our house. We have no reception to speak of and getting dish network or something of that nature would surely turn us into couch potatoes.

However, I do allow my toddlers/preschoolers to watch as much TV in the form of movies as they would like. I have a couple reasons for this: first of all, I get absolutely nothing done around the house otherwise; secondly, repetition and music is good for vocabulary development for little children.

My two year old proved this theory correct this morning. He is two and a half and loves his movies. His usual favorites are Muppet Treasure Island and George of the Jungle. But recently we bought the new release of Mulon on DVD so we’ve been watching that constantly.

This morning as I was trying to get my big kids ready for school, Elijah was playing with a toy drum, using a “magic wand.” He proceeded to the kitchen and beat on the floor, then suddenly turned to Zach and said, “Bow to me!” He normally doesn’t speak very clearly so I was surprised to hear him say it so clearly and asked my big kids, “What did he say?” He seemed to sense our need for a repeat and did, “Bow to me!” with his magic wand in place of a sword as seen in Mulon, pointed directly at Zach’s face. I had to ask the kids what it was from. Of course it all made sense once they told me, Mulon.

So our little Eli is growing up, speaking more clearly and using a magic wand as a sword! As tedious as housework is for four children, these are the moments that make parenting worth while! They sure can be fun.

One week ago yesterday, Matt and I were discussing the delay of starting his new job. With possibly two weeks of no work, we decided it was high time to get the yard work done. While money and time never meet we decided not to worry about the money aspect of it and use our time wisely and just get it done.

Initially I just wanted to get the front yard done this past week and worry about the back another time. In the middle of the week Matt decided we might as well do the whole thing since we’re putting forth so much effort. Holy Cow, he pulled it off.

My focus was on a couple garden beds and a flag stone path. I also picked out a large rock to put at the base of the driveway for the kids to climb on. Matt finished the sprinkler system, including many repairs and connecting it to the main water line. He also had to till the whole lot and level it in a hurry since sod was on it’s way.

Besides all that Matt recovered the front yard from the mess of mud and stuff before our big ice cream social yesterday. Truly amazing. I wasn’t so sure we could pull it off. It’s amazing what a man will do for the woman he loves!!!!

The exciting thing is our house doesn’t look like white trash anymore, and our yard even stands out from our many neighbors. I still have one more garden bed to finish, but wow, what a difference.

Thank you Matt! I love you.

My best friend, (no names mentioned) has been a “bad” influence on me. Before we started hangin’ out, I had never dyed my hair or had my nails done. Three months ago she convinced me to dye it. My hair dresser gave me highlights and sent me on my way and I was perfectly pleased with that.

Then for Mother’s day she convinced me to have my nails done. They used to be long and strong on their own, but not since I’ve had kids. We all benefit from long nails!!

So last night I took the plunge … my hairdresser moved so I found a new one, had her cut it and dye it “apple cider” brown. When everyone saw the box with the color I had chosen, they told me, “Why bother, it’s the same color as your hair!” But I’m just plain chicken. Those boxes of dye sat on my bathroom sink for a month before I finally made the appointment.

My hairdresser was rinsing my hair and I saw purple running down the sink. I was thinking, “What have I done?”

Now the background before all this is that my mother has red hair. When she started dying her hair to hide the gray, she dyed it red and it went carrot orange. So she has to die her hair brown and it goes a nice auburn red. This is why I bought the brown die, instead of trying even an auburn color. But purple? I was getting nervous.

Once she rinsed out the dye and washed my hair, she cut it as I asked. I told her if she cut it too short, I’d have to hang her by her toe nails. I also told her she’d better do a good job to hide my gray or I’d come back to haunt her!

When all is said and done, I looked in the mirror and my “apple cider” brown hair dye gave me beautiful auburn red hair. So now Matt will feel like he’s got a new wife, and I finally took the plunge! We’ll have to take a picture sometime and have Matt change my avatar.

EDIT by matthew: Fixed a couple of tpyos.

Last night Matt and I went to see Phantom of the Opera in Salt Lake. Matt actually planned his flight home from D.C. according to our date schedule!

Matt had seen it twice before but I had never seen the Phantom. We enjoy theatre, and go watch comedy theatre about every other month, but this was a big treat. We paid for the expensive seats right up front and enjoyed every minute of it!

Now I know that these people are professionals, and they do this for a living, but I was highly impressed at the quality of the performance. For example, the orchestra stayed in tune. Matt laughed that I noticed that, but I’ve played in orchestras and it’s not easy to stay in tune after playing for so long. The props and background were amazing. There were awesome special effects and the actors were great.

So what can I say? It was worth every penny.

Thank you so very much for your hospitality in Matt’s behalf while he was in the area! He had a great time, enjoyed hanging out and reminiscing. Of course we missed him terribly, but we spent that time in Idaho hanging out with my folks.

Mother’s Day is right around the corner.

Have you thought much about what to get for your significant other, mother, mother in law, and grandma?

If you don’t want to think too hard about it, let me help you!

I am a Home Interior Decorator and I’d love to help. I do custom-made floral arrangements for great prices and would ship whatever you need to where ever you need it to go. If you’d like to take a look at my products, visit my web site at www.homeinteriors.com/cbarnson. You can place an order from the web site and it will come right to me!

EDIT by matthew: Fixed formatting and a tpyo 🙂

He did it! Matt successfully fixed the van. Though it took a week due to regular work and bad weather, our family transportation is back on the road.

We have to give a big thank you to our friend and neighbor Paul, who is also a computer geek, but has realized the great need to be mechanical. Matt was inspired by Paul and decided it was time to save some $$ by learning to do it himself.

The exciting thing is, the cost of the tools and the cost of replacing several parts was probably less than half of the cost of having a shop replace just the one part–an $8 timing belt plus $400+ in time. Yeah!

Congratulations Matt, on a job well done.

Among the many things that come with terrible two’s there are a few cute things as well. Elijah is our blanket boy. If I recall correctly, he would be Linus who always drags around his blanket on the cartoon, Charlie Brown.

A year ago, if anyone touched Elijah’s blanket, he threw a fit. This became a bit of a game among my family when we visited them. Gathered in a circle around Elijah and his blanket, everyone would reach ever so quietly to touch his blanket and see if he’d notice. At that time he called his blanket a “BT” and would tell everyone, “No BT.”

Somehow over the past year a change has occurred. He now trusts me, his mother, with his blanket, which he now calls “bakey.” If he’s headed to the table he’ll hand it to me for safe keeping. On occasion he has even shared his blanket with baby Joshua! I was shocked by this gesture as he covered up his little brother with his own blanket.

I believe all of us in our home are hands on learners. One of the charactersitics of such is liking textures. That is one of the best parts of that blanket for Elijah. To comfort himself, he will take the knotted yard between his little fingers and rub it under his nose. I’ve always thought this was a bit funny because my dad would do something like that to us kids when we were little to tickle and tease us. But Elijah does it for pleasure and comfort.

So one day last week I was holding Elijah and his blanket on my lap. He grabbed the yarn as usual and offered to rub my nose. I laughed out loud, but this gesture must have been one of great love for his mom! Now as he runs through my house in a whirl wind of holy terror, I have a knowledge that he loves me.

At our house we have an Easter tradition that’s a bit different from the usual. The Easter bunny visits our house a day early. We chose to do this over the years so that the children can enjoy the Easter treats, be excited about the bunny and then on Easter Sunday we can focus on the Spiritual side of Easter.

So last night my six year old, Zach, asked if he could help the Easter bunny prepare the baskets. Then of course Sara, 8, wanted to join in the fun. The older two then prepared the baskets and filled the eggs with candy and then we sent them off to bed so we could hide the baskets and the eggs for our hunt this morning.

This morning came way too soon. Once some chores were done the hunt began….and the hunt will continue for who knows how long, since we have a couple eggs yet to be found. With this in mind there are a couple things I’m greatful for. One is that they are candy eggs and not hard boiled eggs! The second is that we’re moving, so in the cleaning, they’re bound to turn up sometime within the next couple weeks.

Then come the usual concerns from the children. “How come my chocolate bunny is hollow? That’s not fair!” As if any child needs a two pound solid chocolate bunny. Of course two year old Elijah is thrilled at the concept of being given a huge chocolate bunny. Also, “How come we don’t get Easter grass this year?” Well, I’m so tired of finding plastic grass across the house for months afterwards, so this year their Easter outfit went in the bottom of the basket to take up space! Meanwhile, the sugar is kicking in and I’m going to have three children bouncing off the walls as we leave the house to go to our family birthday party today.

For those of you that believe, be sure to take time to ponder the Savior and his Atoning Sacrifice He made for each of us. From the LDS perspective, believing in eternal life, ponder this: I know many religions don’t believe in an after life, but what is the purpose of a Redeemer if there is no after life? Christ sacrificed His life and was Resurrected that we, too, might live again.

Happy Easter!