Update

I wanted to include this just to show my mother that her presents weren't wasted :) These are really cute little clips but the main pictures on the package only show them being used for full up-dos. They work well for more than that though.

This week was a good one, in fact, it's been really great. I've worked really hard to get into the whole "mother" role and just focus on being a stay-at-home mom. Alisabeth partnered with me in my efforts and made sure that there was ALWAYS something to clean up. I have vacuumed at least 3 times in the last 7 days :)
I have also done at least 2 loads of dishes a day. . . which is unusual, but I think I've finally caught everything up and we should be back on track. As for the laundry, I've been keeping up on that pretty well, so no change there, but I'm considering taking on the additional challenge of keeping the bed made daily. . . I haven't started yet. . . but I'm considering it :) With our bed it's easy for a while, but after about 4 days the mattress has moved enough that the four corners of the mattress cover come undone and then it's impossible for it to look good anyway. I guess that should be a sign that we need to get a better mattress cover, but we'll have to wait on that one.
I've also been doing really well on my goal to pack 2 boxes a day. I've packed pretty much everything we don't use daily, so now I'm working on the hard cleaning. I did the fridge last week. I finished the stove yesterday. Sometime this week, (maybe tomorrow since I don't need the stove) I'll pull both the stove and the fridge out of their holes so I can deep-clean under them. My last big chore will then be the blinds which get absolutely glued with dust over the course of a few years. I'm thinking I'll wait 2 more weeks on those and make my mother do them when she gets here. . . after all, she claims she's coming to work, so this will just be the ultimate test :)
Jason is doing well in school. He tells me about his classes daily. The one that irritates me the most is the Business management class. They are currently discussion HR issues, especially those regarding discrimination. I am absolutely and utterly disgusted with that issue, so every day he comes home and explains their latest articles and the class discussion that goes with it, and I get all hot under the collar and boil for about an hour and then I calm down and forget about it for two days. Ah the joys of modern living.

We also had a really cool experience yesterday. In every ward there is one or more people asked to be "ward missionaries" Their role is to help missionaries and that work. We don't have missionaries, and being in a church-school setting there aren't any non-Mormons around, so instead they organized an outing to the visitor's center at the temple in Idaho Falls. We went and listened to a message about the Savior and all that He has done for us, and then we watched a fairly recently made movie about the beginnings of our church and the testimony of Joseph Smith about what he saw and learned about Christ's desire for all of us to come unto Him. It was really a great experience. We then had cookies, came home and put Alisabeth to bed.

I am also currently planning a couple of parties for the next couple of weeks, baby-showers, birthday parties and even a Mary Kay party. I don't know how I get roped into these things, but there ya go. They should all be a blast.

We went on a shopping trip to gather the supplies for the baby shower and I ended up getting some nail polish for the little animal. I couldn't choose which one I liked more so I got these 2. Alisabeth actually sat still and blew on her fingers and spent more time than I had expected. . . Congratulations mom, it looks like you've got your Spa mate right here :)