First off, this is Amy, not the wonderful, loving, cuddly man I married, PJ, writing this morning. (I'm throwing that in so he's not so mad...and because it's true)
I decided since I have no ability to sleep between the hours of 3 - 6am, I was going to update our family blog. Now I use the term "family blog" loosely since you can see it has really been PJ's blog. I blame this entirely on myself since I have really been a blogging recluse. It is hard to jump into something blind when you have all of my sisters, in their glorious blogging perfection, in which to compete. So without PJ knowing, I have hijacked our site and forced myself to learn something about blogging.
As you can see by the title, our family has a not so unique characteristic of being a "blended" family. This fact has given us many ups and downs, trials and rewards, but most of all the opportunity to grow in many different dimensions. I will not lie and say its easy, because it is not. In fact, since I am pregnant for the first time in over 8 years, I am often reminded that "growing" isn't always fun. Sometimes it downright hurts. But then again, when I am home by myself, with PJ traveling and the kids at their respective other houses, I am reminded how much I miss the chaos (side note:Billy that is KAY-os) and the laughing and the excitement of us all being together.
This year we are really going to "blend" this family with our little "Kathryn Ann" or "Jack Ephraim" (although we are still debating Muhammad Moriancumur). So if any of you out there are doubting whether or not PJ's fish still swim-or frog's still hop-I wanted to provide proof.
I officially entered my 15th week of pregnancy and I have to say so far no complaints...now PJ would say I complain to him constantly, but that's just loving updates I give to him of how I'm doing. It has actually been pretty fun with the kids knowing, Patrick reminds me daily that I am going to gain 50 lbs, Mary is just taking it all in, and Elli is worried sick whether or not the baby is going to be OK or that I am going to be in so much pain. In fact, yesterday Elli and I had to run back to the grocery store to pick up some things we had forgotten and Elli wouldn't let me carry anything...including the gallon of milk we needed. She said, "No Mom, you are going to hurt the baby." Of course, she has no problem with me bending over to pick up their clothes off the floor!
Our family does love to revel in the weekends, we do try to really spend time together as our blended family. Elli and I have renewed my love of the library. What an awesome place. The past few Saturdays we have been going there to work on a school project and have just loved it.
We have been renting our movies from there recently and have had so much fun watching some of the movies I enjoyed so much as a kid. Last week I enlightened them with Neil Simon's "Murder by Death" - Peter Sellers is so great and the "Apple Dumpling Gang".
Last night we watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"...it did not take Patrick but 5 minutes to relate the crazy Greek family to my big lovable Utah family. The kids could not stop laughing.
There is nothing in this world that compares to the loud belly laughs of children.
The weekends are such a great break from the insurmountable stress of PJ and my work week. The mortgage industry has really been a roller coaster for us in Arizona. Unfortunately there was only one HUGE hill that took us a long time to get to the top and makes it an even longer
ride to get to the bottom and boy does it feel like we are there. Every day we wake up wondering which of our friends will have jobs, how will our world change today and what enormous roadblock will we have to get around. I think for me, the hardest part is that it is not fun. Even
with the stresses and deadlines that I have always been under, right now, none of this business is fun. No one is happy, no one is excited and there is no confidence. I know we will get through this, I would hope we just get through this gracefully.
We miss our friends and our families all over the country and would love to hear from them. I think PJ needs to see PIG, Lang and Bobo (I so sound like I've known these guys forever!) soon
to get some of his sanity back...and probably to motivate him to go out on his bike more. I keep telling PJ, "I like fat and happy!" but I don't think he does! I miss my family terribly, in fact I think we all do, since Patrick has made Jessica a member in our family band he created on the Wii. (He said we needed a guitarist, but I think he just misses her!)
Finally, I am so grateful to the head of this wonderful, crazy, obnoxious, blended family. PJ is my best friend. He has been such a support to me with my many idiosyncrasies. I try not to take for granted all the things he does for me, even when they drive me crazy. I make fun of him constantly about his obsession with kitchen gadgets, but am very thankful when he makes us
wonderful meals. I tease him about his free-flowing emotional tears, but love how soft his heart is. Planning doctors visits are like scheduling Israeli peace talks but he just wants to be there every step of the way. I get so distraught when he tries to pin me down about trips we need to take, and yet I totally rely on him to make sure every detail is intact. Every time I think about how to describe our relationship, I think of this picture a girlfriend gave to me when I was in second grade. It was a little picture of 2 skunks and the tag line said, "A friend is someone who really "nose" you and still likes you." PJ knows the good, the bad and the ugly (and there is
a lot of ugly) about me. I know I don't let him know enough how much he means to me, but he is my best friend and I love him.
So I hope he is not too mad at me for stealing his page, but at 6am, you snooze you lose!
