Vacation part 1

We have a fund at the bank that we put into monthly for vacations. We were saving up to go to Disneyland with my sister. She couldn't go anymore so Jordan and I decided to go, just the two of us!!! I have been struggling a lot lately. Work has been overwhelmingly hard teaching two grades. On top of that, Jordan lost his job (twice) which puts a lot of stress on me. Anyway, Jordan and I decided (with some convincing of a friend) to use that money and go on a vacation to heal our hearts. The vacation definitely was what I needed!!

We found some family and friends to help babysit our two kids; yes, we went to Disneyland without our kids! 😂 I was so excited to go that I talked Jordan into leaving early. We left Saturday around 4 to Mesquite. The drive went by pretty fast. We both were so excited to be on our vacation. Sunday morning, we decided to go to Las Vegas before we finished the drive to California. We walked lots of miles within a few hours. It was cool to see some of the stuff. We have to go back there with someone  that knows Vegas. We had no idea where things were and our feet suffered because of it. We then headed back to the car to finish the drive. We were so lucky that we left that day because there was a shooting there that night. It is such a sad thought that we probably saw someone who died or got hurt from the shooting. It makes me so sad to think that someone would do that. My heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one.

The drive from Vegas to Aneheim is supposed to be four hours. It took us six hours to get there. The traffic was terrible!! Never drive from Vegas to CA on a Sunday!!!!! We were not warned about the terrible traffic that happened near Primm. That drive was long. We tried talking, listening to all types of music, and listening to books on tape. Nothing helped that drive! I don't think we will ever drive there again. We will just make sure that we have enough saved up to fly from now on!

We finally arrived to our hotel Sunday night!!! We went to a pizza place and waited in the longest line for it. Once we ate our dinner, I was back to my happy self. I was in Disneyland!!!!!!!!! We decided to walk to Downtown Disney and look at everything. It was so much fun!!!  The next few days were the best; I'll have to write about them on another day.

I was going to add some pictures, but I don't know how to on my phone. I'll have to try to add them later once someone shows me how😁

The good and the bad

It seems like there is good and bad in everything.  Sometimes the good stands out more and sometimes the bad stands out more.  Right now, the good is standing out more at home (being a mother and a wife) and the bad is standing out more at work and in my church callings.

First, the good in my life.  I love being a mom.  It is exhausting at times and tries my patience a lot at night, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!!  I love Kate and Eric so much.  I already feel like a different parent than I was with Kate.  I was stressed out a lot more with Kate.  I worried about every little thing.  I am so different with Eric.  I think that it is a mixture of Eric not being my first baby and Eric's personality.  He is so easy going.  He makes being a mom super easy.  For example, I remember having the hardest time when Kate was teething.  She was super fussy!  Eric's first two teeth came in without me even noticing.  He is so easy.  He does get fussy, especially at night, but he is so easy!!  I also love being a wife.  It is something that I am always working on though.  I don't know how I got so lucky to get Jordan in my life.  He deserves someone way better than me.  I don't want to give him up though!  I will just keeping trying to be a better wife, someone that he deserves!!

Now the bad.  I had kind of had a breakdown on Friday night.  It sucked because I was alone, well without another adult.  I am feeling overwhelmed in work and in my church callings.  I just have a lot on my plate and don't feel appreciated.  Friday at work was the tipping point for me.  A coworker of my volunteered to be in charge of the Science and Math Olympiad.  The teachers have had to do a lot to help with this.  I kept asking my coworker questions to figure out what I needed to do for the Olympiad and she never knew the answers.  Then on Friday after school, we had the Science Olympiad that the teachers were expected to help with.  The one coworker in charge of it didn't even show up.  Then the game that 6th grade got put in charge of took the longest because there wasn't enough supplies!  I was not happy about it.  I lost my entire prep that day because of it.  I also feel like I have to do all of the extra things at work because no one else on my team will do them.  It is so exhausting.  Being a teacher is hard enough just planning lessons, teaching them, and doing all of the grading.  I don't love that I am also doing all of the extra stuff that needs to be done.  I hate that it is just expected of me.  My team just thinks, "I'm not going to do that.  That is too hard.  I'm sure Lindsey will do it."  It gets exhausting especially when it is expected of me and not appreciated!  On top of all of that, I am stressed with my church callings.  I am in charge of Activity Days.  I do really like this calling, but it is a lot of extra work.  It seems like some of the parents expect me to do more with the activity days too.  Then the lady who is in the calling with me will just do the easy stuff as far as prepping for the activity goes which leaves me with all of the hard and time consuming stuff.  I am also the building scheduler for the stake.  It is like having a part time job.  I get lots of calls for me to schedule the building and some people get mad at me that the building is already scheduled.  I am just exhausted putting my heart and soul in both of my callings and in my job.  I think that I am most exhausted by this because no one appreciates me and just expects more of me.  I give all of this extra time to do this stuff which cuts into the few hours a day that I have at home with my two sweet children.

Sorry for the vent session.  I just needed to get it off of my chest so I don't have another breakdown.  I know that there are times that I love my job and I love my calling, but right now the bad is standing out.  I am grateful that the good is standing out in my home life right now.  I love my family.  I need them in my life!

Progress

At the beginning of this year, I decided to finally lose the weight that I gained from when I was pregnant with Kate (you know, three years ago!!).  I gained 80 lbs when I was pregnant with her.  I stopped eating healthy and exercising.  I also went through a really hard time with my mom passing; that honestly was when I started gaining lots of weight!  I never lost all of the weight after having her.  Then I got pregnant and weighed almost as much as I did when I was pregnant with Kate;  I think that the difference was 5 lbs. LOL.  Anyway, my biggest weakness is and always will be sweets!  I decided to not eat any desserts until I was back at my prepregnancy weight.  I had to post it on facebook because I knew that I wouldn't do it otherwise.  I am so proud to say that I have gone with no dessert for almost 6 six now.  I have lost 20 lbs.  I have less than 10 to go.  Yay!  I really want to lose a total of 20 more which makes me halfway.  I feel that I can be to my goal weight by summer.  It is a weight that I feel that I will be able to maintain and feel healthy.

I unpacked my clothes today that have been stored away for three years!  It was great to see them.  I feel like I went on a shopping spree.  I am just so proud of my progress.  I know that I still have a ways to go, but I am very proud of how far I've gone in just 6 weeks.  It has not been easy!  People always told me that the first two weeks would be the hardest.  That is such a lie!  It is hard every day!!  I really thought it would get easier but it hasn't.  Seeing my clothes today and the fact that I could fit in a lot of them, really excited me!

Here is a picture of me when Kate was about a month old and a picture of me today.

Some favorites!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being home with my children.  Moms out there that get to stay home with their children are definitely the luckiest!  Anyway, I am off track right now so I get to be with my children all day.  One of my favorite things is nap time.  I don't ever get to take time for myself.  I don't get time at night because by the time I put the kids to bed, I'm ready to go to bed too.  I have decided to use today's nap time to write a blog.  I know; I know.  It is weird of me to not be cleaning, organizing, or finding something else to work on in the house.  I decided just to post some of my favorite pictures and say why I love them. Here we go!

This photo makes me laugh so hard.  I think that Eric is a natural model. LOL!

Kate has always had a baby face.  This photo just shows how much she looks like a doll and how much she loves dolls!

Kate was so excited to meet Eric.  You can see in her sweet face that she loved Eric right away!

It is crazy to think that Kate was ever this little!!  She wore mittens for a long time because I was afraid to cute her fingernails.

 Eric was quite a chubby little boy when he was born.  It is crazy to think that he is in the 10th percentile for his weight right now.

 I just love this photo of Jordan and I.  I think that we both look good in this photo.  This photo is from Thanksgiving; the day that we found out that we were pregnant with Eric.  Maybe that is why I think that we look good because we are glowing ;)

LOL!!  Kate's face in this photo!!!  It is hard to tell, but she loved this bath.  She has and still does love everything about water!!!

Disneyland! Disneyland! Disneyland!!  Think of your favorite place in the entire world.  Think of how much you love that place.  Now times that love by a billion, and you have how much I love Disneyland.  I want to go back so bad right now.  I wish that we were rich or had some rich friends or something.  I wish that we could go right now since I'm off track.  I would love to go there a couple of days with just me and Jordan.  Then I would want someone to meet us with our kids so we could go another day or two as a family.  Kate loved it so much in this picture and she was only a year old.  She will love it so much more now that she knows more.  One day I'll go back.  I can't wait for that day!!

This photo doesn't even look like Kate.  She would make this face every so often.  I think it is super cute.  I picked this picture because I LOVED this dress.  She didn't get to wear it much at all.  It was one of my favorites!

 

I love this photo for two obvious reasons!  It is so funny that I took a screenshot right when Jordan sent me that lovely text. LOL.  I also love it because Kate looks super cute posing for the picture.  She is a hard one to get to pose for pictures!. 

 

I guess that is it for now.  There are definitely a lot more photos that I love.  Those are just a small amount.

Love lasts Forever!

I don't know if you know this about me, but one of my biggest fears was getting married.  Growing up, I saw a lot of failed marriages.  I saw people who once loved each other turn on each other with hatred. I have seen people yell and scream horrible things at each other. I have (sadly) even seen people turn violent. I decided when I was younger, that I would never settle and that I would totally be fine never marrying someone.  I have seen enough broken hearts and loss in my life.  Then I met Jordan!!
Now our love wasn't at first sight.  It was far from that for me.  Jordan definitely fell for me faster than I fell for him.  I needed that though because I wanted to make sure that I was actually in love and that it wasn't infatuation.  I found myself telling Jordan everything about my life, the good and the bad.  I found myself missing him the moment that we were apart.  I found myself getting nervous that Jordan would find someone better and leave me.  I found myself in love!
Our marriage has not been without trials, but we haven't ever had a huge fight.  This is because we try to see each other's perspectives.  We also communicate with each other.  We try to not be selfish and put each other in front of our own needs; Jordan does this way better than me!!
Anyway, I just found out a week ago that my best friend is divorcing her husband.  They have been married for 10 years (I think).  It has been so hard for me this week to have this in my life again.  I know that it is the best for them, but it is sad to hear about the things that my friend has gone through. It is sad that someone she once loved and he once loved her has put her through this!  Now she isn't necessarily innocent in all of this, but it is so sad to see.  I don't get how people can fall out of love with each other.
I am so grateful for Jordan.  I am grateful that I don't have to worry about divorce.  I know that we will ALWAYS be there for each other and for our kids.  He is a great father and an amazing husband.  I hope one day that I can make him feel like the way he makes me feel.  I love him and this love WILL last forever!!!!

2016 Review

Thanks to my amazing sister in-law, I can now start blogging again!!  I decided to do a quick recap of some things that happened last year, so here we go.

January: This was the month that we told the public that we were expecting another Keller baby.  I was so anxious to tell people.  It was so hard for me to wait that long.  It was so hard to come up with how to tell everyone.  We finally decided that a picture of Kate would be the cutest.

February: I turned the big 30 this month!!  The sad thing is that we don't remember what we did.  I am sure that we went to dinner or something.  I wasn't sad about turning 30.  It helps that my sister is 10 years old than me and still looks super young.  It also helps that I am in a great spot in life.  I am married, have children (well at this time have a child with one on the way), am in a career, and am just enjoying my life!

March: Eric, Tiffany, and I took Kate on her first Easter Egg Hunt.  It was so much fun!!  Kate loved it.  She kept picking up the eggs and giving them to the other kids.  It was so cute.  One little girl was getting frustrated with Kate, and kept walking Kate back to her basket to show her where to put her eggs.

April: Nothing big happened this month.  I just remember that it was nice so we played outside a lot.

May:  My twin brother got married this month!  I was so nervous to have a part in his wedding.  I just had to light a candle, but it was scary.  I don't like doing things in front of people!!  I couldn't get my lighter to work so I had to use his mother in-law's lighter.  Then I had to dance in front of everyone in place of my mom.  It was a sweet moment, but scary too.  LOL.  I am so happy for my brother.  They are great together!  

June:  I watched my nephew for the month of June.  It was a fun time, but also pretty exhausting (especially because I was seven months pregnant).  Kate loved playing with Leo everyday though!

July  This month was when my sister in-law got married!!  Her wedding was perfect.  Jordan married them, which was pretty cool.  She looked beautiful that day.  Sadly, Kate wanted nothing to do with pictures nor with walking down the aisle.

August: Eric was born on August 5, 2017 at 1:14 a.m.  It is weird to think that there was ever a time that he wasn't part of our family.

September: I was a lot more brave with Eric than I was with Kate.  We took Eric and Kate to a few different places this month.  Black Island Farms was probably the funnest place that we went to.  Kate loved every moment of it.  Her favorite part was the train.  She rode all by herself.  I also took Eric swimming for his first time.  He fell asleep in my arms in the water; it must have been very relaxing!

October: We blessed Eric at the first of the month. Kate turned two.  We had a fun party with friends and family.  Kate hugged everyone after each present she opened.  It was so cute!  Halloween was also fun!  Kate loved Halloween!

November:  We drove all the way to Arizona for our niece's baptism.  It was a lot of fun!  The drive was not my favorite part!

 December: We took this super cute picture to give to our grandparents for Christmas.  We had lots of fun with all of our Christmas parties.  I just LOVE Christmas!