Be Thou Humble

I made the mistake of letting my bishopric know that I don't turn down callings. I never have because it seems to me that if the bishopric is inspired to call you somewhere you ought not say no to the Lord!
Right?
Well, what if the bishopric feels inspired to call you to be a pianist and you don't play the piano? Are you still required to say yes? Probably. I said yes anyway. I'm terrified though. I got the schedule for the hymns for the rest of the year and I've been practicing about an hour and a half every day. It's not going well. I stumbled across this gem while I was practicing and it made me feel a little better.
"Be thou humble in thy weakness and the Lord thy God shall lead thee, Shall lead thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers. Be thou humble in thy calling and the Lord thy God shall teach thee to serve his children gladly with a pure and gentle love."
I like to cut off the end after the "Lord thy God shall teach thee." Since I'm in need of literal teaching, it speaks directly to me like this. I figure if Heavenly Father is gonna teach me how to play the piano and I'm willing to practice it can't be a complete failure.
PS. Should you have a little extra time in your prayers, remember me!

Failure?

My plan for Levi was to breastfeed him for as long as possible. My sister Ashley is my inspiration. She is just hitting the 6 month mark with her son. What a champ huh? I haven't done it longer than 6 weeks with either of the first two boys and I was determined to make it!. First off, in case you are a man, let me tell you why this is hard.
1. You must stay within 30 feet of your baby at all times. Going out of the house has to be done in one hour increments just in case the wee one gets hungry. There is always the option of pumping and storing for times when you are away from home, but then you increase the demand and therefore the supply. If you stop pumping there is too much hanging around and that's just not fun.
2. You may have to give up foods you enjoy because your baby doesn't like them.
3. Baby doesn't get as full as formula babies so you have to feed them more often.
4. Hello! That tiny bag of bones already hijacked your body for 9 months. You think once you evict him you can get it back, but the truth is he still runs the show!
5. It's supposed to help you lose weight. For me, it hinders it. I am great at dieting, but you aren't supposed to diet when you are breastfeeding.
6. Public outings. Need I say more?
So, I know there are a million reasons why breastfeeding is good for baby. Hence, why I wanted to succeed this time.
Well, last week Levi was having a super rough couple of nights. I was afraid he was getting colic. He was just miserable and needing to be held all the bloody time! One night it got really bad. I fed him twice within a one hour period because it was the only way to calm him down. My mom suggested giving him formula and I shot it down. Heck no! 5 weeks old and he hasn't touched the stuff yet! I'm doing so good. After 15 or so more minutes of crying I gave in.
What a difference. My baby was immediately happy and full and relaxed. I continued formula for a couple of days and he was happy as a clam. I decided to let the gals dry up and continue formula.
I was sad that it came to this. I had been so proud of myself. I was succeeding! But then not...
I know a lot of people judge formula moms. I have friends who would not be happy and would lecture my poor boobs into shame. But you know who is happy? Me and Levi. So there. It's not failure if both Levi and I are happier because of it.

A poopy post

So, ward campout. New ward. We love it. So welcoming and accepting. We had a ward campout this last Friday. We had decided we would just go for the activities at night and not stay over night. Things were going great. I'd met like 5 new people, the boys had made friends and I'd eaten steak. Sounds pretty perfect no?
A little area had been taped off due to a septic leak. People knew not to pitch tents there. My kids, I'm assuming thought that meant it was a designated play area. Yup. You guessed it. My boys went puddle splashing. In poop. They are the smelly children. Joy

First Pictures of Levi

Levi Daniel Parkhurst

Levi Daniel was born on July 20th, 2010 at 10:28 PM. He weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz and was 19 and 3/4 inches long. He has brown hair and dark eyes that I'm guessing will be brown.
Everything went grand and easy as pie. I will post some pictures soon, but I can't on this computer cause it sucks. =)

Come on!!!!

That's it. I'm officially filing a complaint against the stork. Sure he said between June 28th and July 19th. I know there's that whole 3 week span. But why do delivery people always do that?!?! They expect us to take off work and put our lives on hold because they will show up eventually in that time frame. Just tell me when the frick you are gonna show! Don't give me a giant span of time and show up on the tail end.
With Caleb the stork was so prompt. I know he's got nothing better to do. He's just taking his sweet old time because he can. He's probably parked out in front of my house eating a sandwich in his kidnapper van because he knows he doesn't HAVE to be here yet.
Piss me off....

Stupid Truck

Yesterday I tried to borrow my parents' truck. We recently got our boys bunk beds, but haven't had a way to get them mattresses. I was at their house so I figured I would just drive the truck home. Yeah right.
(Please remember I'm a week away from my due date, it was hot outside, and I had both of the boys with me. Truly this wouldn't have been such a dramatic occurrence if I was alone and not carrying a giant bowling ball in front of me.)
First problem: The truck wouldn't start. Oh, there was nothing wrong with it... I guess turning the key so hard there are indents in my fingers just isn't sufficient. The boys are buckled in and sweating already. My dad finally tries the ignition and of course it fires right up for him.
Problem B: The stupid thing that points of the PRDN23 doesn't exactly work. It goes between two of the letters, so what I thought was Drive was actually Neutral. Stupid truck.
Problem III: The truck had no gas. Or did it? All signs point to empty. When I go to fill it it does the clicking thing and refuses to fill. I'm sweating like crazy at this point, nearly swearing at the frickin thing. I leave the boys in the boiling car and go tell the guy at the register to help me. "The tank is full" he says. Sure, of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?!?!
Fourth problem: A mile down the road the engine starts smoking. I wasn't sure at first. Then I came to a stop light. Smoke is billowing out from under the hood and now filling the car. Adam says, "Mommy, we gotta get out of this place because it smells like hot dogs!" You're right Adam. Hotdog smelling cars are never good.
I pull over and we all get out of the car (lest it does us all the favor of just blowing up.) While waiting for rescue from my parents, I call Kyle. Poor guy. I'm not scared or hurt, I'm just frustrated. But how do you articulate that through tears? He thought I must have gotten in an accident and been hurt or something.
Anyway, eventually I was rescued and got home safe and sound. I know it wasn't as big of a deal as I made it out to be. I knew that while it was happening. I blame it on being pregnant. AHH.. sweet pregnancy, the 9 month long disease for which there is only one cure: the expulsion of an 8 pound parasite! Unfortunately all that excitement didn't put me into labor. I thought at least one good thing might come of it. Nope!