Life With The Smiff's

It seems like all I do lately is give people updates on our weekends. That's kind of boring huh? Well too bad... because you're getting another one!
Friday I enjoyed the company of get this... OTHER WOMEN! What? Really!? I know right! I had a girl's night "out" and it was quite enjoyable. Ryan and Ben kicked it at the house and I went and hung out with Ashley and Martha and some other girls from their ward. We watched a chick-flick, ate junk food and talked GIRL talk. It was nice and much needed I think for all of us. One really good perk of the evening is one of the girls I met does hair, but from home and so she charges HALF of what I've been paying the salon. SCORE! Another way to save money...
Thursday I got a surprise text message from my sister Delinda that said she was "accidentally" in Atlanta visiting for the weekend. Saturday was her birthday, so we were excited when she decided that they would come with us to our already planned Saturday activity- the Red Bull Soapbox Race. Click here to see some pictures and info on if there's an event near you! It was a lot of fun, hot... but fun. We wished we could have hung out with Delinda more but it was nice to even get to see her since she's moved far away from us! Ben was a champ, had fun playing in the park and drinking lots of Gatorade (G2- half the calories, which means less sugar and my kid stays hydrated!). They had the NASCAR Camry that drove by and made a lot of noise and Ryan and Ben LOVED that. We couldn't really see the soapbox cars too well as they were "racing", but before we got to snap some photos in the pit. It was fun, and next time they're in town- we are so there! After we got home we let Ben finish his nap and then went to the store for groceries and then ate dinner, put Ben down when it was time- and Mommy and Daddy watched a movie and ate a half a pan of Rice Krispie treats and cuddled. It was... LOVELY. :) Except for we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and it was a little depressing. But pretty good.
We had a good Sabbath, Ben was good at Church especially after a good breakfast, nap and then snack! So we had a nice weekend and are a little bummed it's over. However, one more week of work and then we're off to the beach for Labor Day! Destin, here we come!
We decided to not go to St. John's this winter with the Terry's unfortunately. It really saddens me deeply, but like my mom said (and the Rolling Stones...) "we can't always get what we want" and well, life goes on. We get to at least go to Destin and then we're mostly likely headed to TN to go to Dollywood with my cousin Laura and her family and stay in a cabin in the Fall. So that should be lots of fun too. ALSO... good and exciting news! I helped my parents find a pretty good deal on tickets for Christmas this week and we purchased them so prayers were answered and Grandma and Grandpa are coming for Christmas!!! Wahooo! (Ash, that's for you!) It will be so nice to have them here and we will enjoy their company and I'm excited for them to spend Christmas with Benny.
Money always seems to be a stress in our lives. Maintaining a mortgage, car payment and VERY expensive daycare payments is difficult. We are currently looking for other avenues to lessen these stresses and this is one of the reasons why we can go with the Terry's to St. Johns. Hopefully things will straighten out soon, even if we have to do it ourselves. I am praying we can find cheaper but still GOOD care for Ben during the day, until I can hopefully one day do it myself. Of course this is something that presses on my mind and HEART daily... I miss him so much I try not to think about it because I get all weepy if I do. We of course would like to have more additions to our family but we can't until we can get some of the costs of life down. So I pray that this will all work out soon. I'm not getting any younger!
Other than that we are good. We are tremendously blessed and I am so grateful for our family and friends. We have so many nice and wonderful things and a roof over our heads and food to eat. And more importantly each other.

We had a really good weekend. I took Friday off and first thing in the morning was violated by a Nurse Practitioner at my OBGYN office who told me that I was in great need of lowering my blood pressure and basically that I was fat. She didn't come out and say "you're fat"... she was nice, but it was obvious what she was getting at. AND well come on- it wasn't exactly news to me. ANYWAY, after a quick change of a poopy outfit at the daycare when I went to go get Ben after I was done, we ran to my work so that I could let someone use my computer to run a report and so that everyone could go bonkers over my cute kid. After I was done there, we drove to go see Cecilia and her little Ryan! It was so much fun! I haven't seen her in a long time and haven't seen the baby since he was itty-bitty so it was so good to see her and spend some time with her. Plus we talk very candidly and I appreciate that a lot. Ryan is a cutie little bundle of happiness and fun and I am so happy for her and Aaron.
After we spent a couple hours with them, we met up with Clint, Ashley and JENNIFER! YAY! It was SO good to see her. And then basically the whole day was spent in honor of Jiznin. We ate lunch and talked and laughed and then headed to the Terry's and talked some more and then that night we had breakfast for dinner and the Elton's, Neaner and Clint came over (and Ryan came with the Elton's after work). We got to listen to her tell us all about her mission and she showed us some really neat pictures. We are glad to have her back and are proud of her and pray for her to get back in to the swing of things soon and to find a good job to boot, hopefully close to all of us! Yesterday we went and helped move Clint in to his new apartment. Goodbye stinky, scary place and hello nice little apartment. (Even though there is already cockroaches in the new one!) After we got done with that we ate lunch and then cleaned out our back room and put up a lot of stuff in the attic. I didn't really realize how many clothes Ben has until yesterday... ones he doesn't wear anymore anyway. Hopefully we have another boy eventually! We basically really just cleaned yesterday. Did a lot of laundry... and played with Ben. Today we did the church thing and then made spaghetti and cookies for our Sunday Dinner, had our home teacher over (whom we really enjoy) and had a good night with our friends. It was such a nice night some of us decided to eat out on the deck. Other than stupid mosquitoes it was great!
John and his family are off to Argentina today, I wish them the most fun and safety and a safe return. I can't wait to hear all about it!!!! The Fall is rapidly approaching, I dare say I am already seeing some of the leaves on the trees changing and the air and light is changing. It's making me quite excited! We are excited to go to FL in a couple weeks, hopefully TN in Oct, maybe even a quick trip to Chicago to see DJ. We will see about that one, but here's to wishing! We are also hoping (and praying) that my parents can come out here to GA for Christmas. That would be so awesome. Hopefully finances with allow it.
Well, here are some photos... Ben looked super handsome and all grown up today at church I just had to take a couple of pictures of him. Also, I wanted to add video of him playing the piano over at the Terry's house Friday. He's pretty much the cutest thing ever, and I'm smitten over him!!! Also, when we were sick last Monday we decided to go on a drive to get out of the house. When I was younger my mom always sent me outside to get sunshine and fresh air when I was sick- and so I decided that's what we needed too. To get away from the germs and fill our lungs with goodness. So we drove up to Lake Lanier and Benny decided he wanted to play in the water. It was warm and he had so much fun.

I have the day off tomorrow, not because I'm sick- but because I get to visit with friends! Oh and I have to go see the girl doctor since I was supposed to Monday and was holed up in bed trying to get over my previous night's bout with the flu. I plan to visit my good friend Cecilia and her little guy and Ashley's going to pick Jiznin up to come up and see us! Yay!
We've had an okay week. The beginning of it- not so much. Tuesday we were still recovering, Wednesday we had a fun time over at the Terry's celebrating Jacob's b-day. The boys played Madden and I chased the kid around a little and he played on their cute new white piano and LOVED it. And got to see a cute new little baby Olivia. She's adorable. :)
Tonight I went visiting teaching and Ryan and Ben had a manly men bonding experience. Ryan cut Ben's hair and gave him a bath and put him down to bed. I enjoy chatting with the ladies and so that's a nice little thing to do once a month. We missed one of the girls we were supposed to visit, I guess maybe she forgot! That happens!

-does anyone else hate how long it takes just to get in to your mail on hotmail anymore?
-I STILL don't like the new U2 or Pearl Jam songs... I have cannot be convinced. I'm sorry.
-I tend to agree with Kelly and couldn't have said it better!
-we live close to the Verizon Amphitheater that's in Alpharetta... all I have to say right now is why does Judas Priest have to be so loud? Ryan just opened the back door and said "Heather, come here...I know this song". That's just how loud it is. (It's Saturday now, and it's loud AGAIN.)
-I love Kohl's. And I love that I used the $10 gift card they sent in the mail today to buy and bath rug and only paid $1.33 for it.

The Itsy-bitsy Spider...

I tell you what... me, Ryan AND especially Ben will be glad when all those toofies come in. There's a pattern; teething, growth spurt, teething, growth spurt, teething... get the picture? He just finished a happy-Benny growth spurt and everything was sunshine and lollipops and pig outs and lots of sleep, and now- the molars. Ech... poor kid has been miserable today. And to boot has a HORRRRRRRIIIIIIBBBBBBLLLLLEEEE rash on his bum and poor little boy balls. :( He snuggled a long time with me tonight and I sang "Go to Sleep My Baby" and lots of primary songs to him... he almost fell asleep. I love when he wants to snuggle with me, so I take full advantage of that! He's sleeping like a champ now.He says "nose" now-only with out the "se" on the end. He says don't, no-no, shhh, and I'm pretty sure it's "poop" he says now too. Twice when he's had a poopy diaper he's said something VERY similar to the word... so I think that's what it means! Leave it to my kid to learn to say poop! He's able to feed himself with a spoon or fork, so to get him to eat his veggies I give him a bowl of (baby food) veggies and let him go to town. We remove clothing, and he eats them, has fun and makes a mess- most importantly he gets what he needs! He's all green and goobery and cute here.Not much else happening. Oh, there's a ginormous spider out on the deck right now. Kind of cool and gross all at the same time.I'm really, really ready for Labor Day to be here. I am a little worn out with work. Our friend Jennifer got home from Mongolia today. Or she's supposed to anyway, haven't heard the latest. Ashley and I are hoping to go visit next week possibly. Love to you all.

Ben eating a lemon

He's so cute.

I guess it's time to update. I haven't been much in the mood to, although I've had a lot of really good thoughts I have wanted to share. But I don't remember them anymore now!
One thing that's been kind of hard of me is Ben is starting to have a little bit of an issue with kicking, biting and hitting. This not only makes me mad it makes me sad too. I know it's normal and almost every kid goes through it- that doesn't mean I have to like it. He's been sent home twice now with "Incident Reports" because he's bitten someone. Sometimes he'll snuggle his face in my legs when I'm wearing pants and bite my pants. He's started to kick at me when I change his diaper and has gotten in trouble with Daddy for that. And today I was holding him and he wanted down and I wouldn't let him because we were in front on the daycare waiting for Ryan to come and he slapped my face with both hands. I know it's kind of silly for me to be upset because he's so little... but I don't want this to become the beginning of bad habits and notions of how he treats people-especially his mommy. He's testing his limits and that's normal... I just want to be patient and stern at the same time and I'm assuming this will be my next challenge as a mommy! It's really important to me to make sure he and I get along but that he respects me and Ryan as his parents. And any adult really. I was taught and raised to respect my elders and I will expect that out of my kids as well.
Delinda made it to Chicago today. That girl... she somehow finds herself in a series of unfortunate events. She had a run in with a cop and an impound lot and then her car unfortunately met a pole but not in a good way, which dislodged the bumper that came undone while driving to stay in Louisville, KY that had to be tied up with the string from a mesh laundry bag! They had to sneak Kidder, her dog, in to the hotel room in a suitcase since pets weren't allowed! Then Louisville was experiencing major flooding and storms and I said to her, "wouldn't be appropriate if your car just floated off?" Luckily it didn't and they made it to Chicago safe and sound. She's starting a new adventure in her life and I'm so proud of her. I will miss her SO much. I know she's gone and left me for AZ and Africa before, but for some reason this feels more permanent. I'm just glad she has plenty of people to visit here in Atlanta so I know she'll be coming often. I find comfort in that. PLUS I've always wanted to visit Chicago so it'll be fun to go and see her digs. We got to hang out with her and Jen on Saturday night. She brought Kidder over and Ben is TERRIFIED of her for some reason, so we watched Kidder torment Ally and Ben be afraid of her for a little while. He started to get more and more used to her but still didn't really like her being around.We're counting down the days to 1. the arrival of our friend Jiznin (Jennifer G.) getting home from her mission to Mongolia. I can't believe it's already been that long, and it'll be cool because the last time she got to see Ben was when he was still in my tummy. And 2. going to Destin, FL for Labor day! I need something to look forward to and this is just the thing for me. We're going with The Terry's and Clint and maybe Jennifer if she's up to it and possibly another couple of friends. I'm excited to see how Ben does at the beach and to even to just GO to the beach. We'll be staying in the same condo that we stayed in a couple years ago for Memorial Day. So we're excited. Should be lots of fun.
This past Sunday after dinner, we headed over to Jacob's parents house. They have loads of land and it's all beautiful and kept beautifully but also very rugged. His dad had a burn permit so we went and made a bonfire and made S'Mores. It was a lot of fun. One thing that I LOVE about the summer time in the South is the lightning bugs (or fireflies)! I am so excited my kids get to grow up around them. It was kind of hot and humid for a fire, it had been raining all day... but it was still way fun and enjoyable. I didn't have the camera so iPhone pictures will have to do. It makes me excited to finally get to go camping this Fall. We love the Fall in our group of friends... there's SO much fun stuff to do. Camping, pumpkin patches, apple festivals, the leaves changing and nice drives, corn mazes, the Holidays... we're almost there which honestly freaks me out. It's AUGUST people! School starts in our county next week! Weird.
More photos of Ben playing in the pool. It was nice and toasty from being in the sun this time.
It's late... off to bed.