Spring has sprung

High time for a thankful list!

Great weather. This week we've been able to get out and about and have loved every minute.

Girl friends. Getting together with Julia and Emma at Columbia's main campus for lunch. Getting together with girls definitely re-energizes you. Believe it or not - Julia is pregnant!
Good news. My little brother Mark just got engaged and will be married in June in Salt Lake.

A winner. Helaman's research won first place in last year's competition and he went on to present it in San Francisco's national dental meeting. This year, he was awarded the opportunity to present somewhere else.

One nap. Charlotte's mid-day nap is great - we can do things in the morning and in the afternoon.

Giving kitty "a kiss"

Wonderful counsel. I keep recalling Elder Ballard's talk he gave at our church's annual worldwide conference on Sunday directed to young mothers which I really need to hear.

"After observing and empathizing with three generations of mothers and thinking of my own dear mother, I surely know that there is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood.... There are moments of great joy and incredible fulfillment, but there are also moments of a sense of inadequacy, monotony, and frustration. Mothers may feel they receive little or no appreciation for the choice they have made."

Comforting words from an inspired man.

Countdown. To next week's house-hunting trip!

Deals. All of a sudden Charlotte outgrew her size 3 diapers, and there was a great deal listed on BabyCheapSkate for Seventh Generation diapers, which are supposed to be environmentally better than regulars. First, sign up for Ebates, which you should do if you ever buy anything online - it's cash back for every purchase just for clicking through their site. Then, find drugstore.com through the ebates site and buy the Seventh Generation diapers which are on sale for $31.32 (after $5 instant coupon). You will get $2 cash back from ebates plus their $5 sign up bonus, making the size 4 diapers .17 cents each - smaller sizes even less. Of course, you have to be a first-time user of drugstore.com to get free shipping. I was already a user - so I signed up Helaman and it worked fine. You also get cash back from drugstore.com, but you have to use it within a month which I never do before they expire so I didn't figure that in the calculation. The diapers came in two days, and they hold strong in the face of blowouts just as well as the others.