Home

Time to sit down, relax, and enjoy being home.

I am such a better mother in the Spring, Summer, and Fall months! Bring on the sunshine and outdoor activities!  This week we have gone on walks, picnics, and the kids have played outside with reckless abandon almost every day.  This weekend we had our first backyard campfire and tonight we are grilling for dinner. Having a plethora of activities available in a moments notice greatly impacts my parenting abilities and attitude.

A few weeks ago Logan and I created our Hazard Family Declaration (see blog post from February 9th), and this week we created our Hazard Family Theme.  I think Logan did a good job of writing a little poem that sums up our family values (see photo).

Life has been full speed for me for the past three weeks.  I have had long weekends away from home and this madness has got to stop!  Balance in all things.  This weekend I interpreted for a large LDS young women's conference in Spokane.  I saw a lot of my friends that were there for women's conference next door. I quite enjoyed myself, but I missed being with my family.  I have had to start turning down a lot of work, and I think I am finding my groove for how much is a good fit for me and my family.  

Our sweet little Ig-a-loo (A name bestowed by her cousin, Zoey) is doing splendidly.  She is a wonderful house guest and I hope the rest of my pregnancy goes as well as it has up until this point.  All pregnancy symptoms stopped at 8 weeks and have yet to return, and I haven't even noticed an increased appetite.  I have recently had a little bit of uncomfortable back and hip pain, but nothing enough to really mention.  This is by FAR my easiest pregnancy, and I am really enjoying the little movements and wiggles from our little one.  We are excited to add Ig-a-loo to our not-so-little-anymore family!

I joined the world of technology this week and upgraded to an Iphone!  I am excited for this development considering my old phone wasn't even a smartphone.  Here are some cute pictures from the week that I took with my very own phone!

What is wrong with this picture?

Our Hazard Family Theme (as mentioned above)

My double life

As I was driving to work on Wednesday I had the thought that I am living a double life.  The more I thought about this concept the more I realized that it was true.  My first life is my happy, stay-at-home, play with kids, clean the home, cook, try to keep my cool and be a good mom life. My second life is working at a challenging job as a professional woman and keeping up my interpreting skills through workshops and conferences so that I can aspire to become an interpreter with Jedi Knight interpreting skills.

I must say that I love both of these sides of me and that I think having both of them provides balance in my life.  I LOVE being a stay-at-home mom.  I LOVE seeing my kids every day and giving them love, attention, discipline, and Momma time.  I also LOVE being able to put on my professional persona and going out into the world to make a difference for other people and to improve myself.  I have found a wonderful schedule that works for our family.  I work every Wednesday afternoon while the kids have a babysitter, and I work every Friday while the kids have a much needed Papa day.  Besides my scheduled times I occasionally pick up community jobs.

I think our kids are going to thrive BECAUSE they have their dad taking time and being the stay-at-home dad with them.  I don't think dads get enough credit for the work they do in the home.  My working situation gives him the perfect chance to be with the kids and only the kids.  It is a win-win situation for everyone!

Now to one of the best parts of my job.  I feel like working away from home is actually making me a BETTER mom.  I have more appreciation for the time I am with the kids and I do more with that time to make it count.  

This week I hosted a weekend interpreting conference at Heartwood.  We have a large conference room that was perfect for a group to interact during the online webinar.  The conference was all day Friday and Saturday and I think everyone involved had a great time.  We learned a lot and we had fun getting to know each other a little bit better. I look forward to hosting more workshops and conferences there in the future.  

We will work on getting pictures for our next blog.  Have a great week!

Today I am writing this as I hold my sweet Maren girl who is very sick right now. I have to admit (and I even feel a little bit bad about this), that a part of me is glad that she is sick because that is when she cuddles the most. That’s horrible, I know, but I think that most parents know what I am talking about…maybe?

Anyway, this has been a pretty good week for us, but nothing super spectacular. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how we got passes to the Kroc center, and we are still loving them. Rachel and I both work-out three days of week, and I try to climb an additional three days besides. I have already seen pretty big  improvement in my climbing, and more importantly, I am starting to make some climbing friends who I think I will partner up with once the weather warms up.

Probably the biggest event of the week was when Rachel and I attended the “Red Carpet Premiere” of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a production put on by the Christian Youth Theater (CYT). Rachel and I help sponsor this amazing youth group, and this was a fun wine-and-dine-and-mingle event before the show where we got to meet other players in our community. Following the socialites (which I have never been totally comfortable with, but have learned to play the part pretty well), we enjoyed a top-notch show and feel that congratulations are in order for everyone involved. These kids are incredible, and their hard work has paid off in a big way. If our kids choose to, am excited for them to be a part of the program as they get older. Their youngest classes start at six years old, and Evelyn is already looking forward to making new friends and participating in a play later this spring.

Well, that’s about it for us. I’m going to finish here so I can help Rach get dinner on the table. Have a great week!

 My Maren- Poor Girl.

Rachel and I at the CYT event. It's too bad that it's such a blurry picture but it's all we had- Just know that Rachel was radiant that night.