Catching my breath...

Oh what a whirlwind my life has been the past few months. I seriously do not know how I managed to do it all without landing myself in the hospital. I guess it's because I am slowly learning how to manage my time and just concentrate on what needs to be done next. If I think too much about ALL of the things, then I just get overwhelmed, crawl into bed, put the covers over my head and fall asleep in the fetal position. It's not a very good coping strategy.

I really don't like writing "catch up" posts, but I feel like if I don't do it I will forget the fun times. So here goes:

I'll start with Alex's birthday. He turned 18 and I have to admit I felt a little sad. Life just goes by too fast. Soon he will be off on his own, doing his own thing and I will no longer play a leading role in his life. Ah well....I am excited for him too, though. That kid has a lot going for him; talent, intelligence, humor and not to mention my devastatingly good looks. :)

I love this picture. I can't tell who is more excited about the cake--Alex or Abby?

I can't let October go by without a shout out to one of my favorite holidays. Halloween! This marked the first year in which Abby wanted to be something other than a princess (or a variation of one.) Yay! She picked something scary. Doesn't she look terrifying? Ha!

I think this might be the last year that I get Seth to dress up. Of course he chose David Tennant's Dr. Who, complete with his sonic screwdriver.

Abby turned 7 this year! I swear the time has just flown by. Here she is blowing out her candles and losing her first tooth all on the same day.

This is self-explanatory. I went to school. Got good grades. Decided not to go back. The end. Well...not really "the end" because I plan on writing about the details of that later, but this is just to prove to myself that this actually happened.

Random Mommy and Me pic

Our New Year Celebration at Uncle Fraig's.

This doesn't even come close to being all the things I want to talk about, but it has literally taken every ounce of my energy just to write this post. Ahhhhh! More on that later too. Stay tuned! Part 2 is up next!

Panic attacks and other fun stuff

I can't even begin to explain how incredibly busy I have been lately. But apparently not so busy that I can't blog about it, right? Ha!

Birthday parties, mission farewells, anniversaries, father's day, homework, homework, homework and more homework. Did I mention that I have homework? Can you believe it? I HAVE HOMEWORK! My instructor (because that's what they're called nowadays...none of the "teacher" business) opened the class early, so I have been working my tushy off trying to get ahead so I don't fall behind when I go to Girls Camp this week.

Ahhhh... Girls Camp. In capital letters because it has been all Girls Camp, all the time here at my house. I cannot stop thinking about it. I eat, sleep (or in my case, NOT sleep) and drink it. It keeps me up at night and makes me slightly sick to my stomach. The other day I literally almost had a panic attack when I found out how cold it's going to be up there in the Uintahs this week. Highs in the 50's, lows in the 30's. Dang. That's frickin' cold. And we all know how much Megan loves to be cold.

Then there is the kids. Alex is off to go on tour to LA this week, Nate has a youth conference to go to and Seth has a birthday sleepover with his cousin. Abby gets to hang out with super cool Aunt Amy since I won't be around for this week, which we will now refer to as a hot mess. Thank heaven for my sister who is rescuing me in all sorts of ways and keeping this hot mess from literally going to my head.

Shawn gets to run around in between all of this hot mess and then go work his butt off like always. Ahhh...good times.

Well, I suppose I shall go sleep in my comfy warm bed for the last time before freezing various limbs off of my body this week in the mountains. Hopefully I will still have fingers to blog all about it.

What Moms really want for Mother's Day

Breakfast in bed? No thank you, the thought is nice but what I really want is a couple extra hours of sleep. So yesterday my boys took Abby, made her breakfast and quietly entertained her downstairs while I slept until 10. I honestly can't remember the last time I was able to sleep that late. It was the best Mother's day ever!! After I woke up, Abby came in my room and set a cupcake I had made the night before on my nightstand. "Happy Mothers Day!" she said. She is such a sweetheart.

I'm glad I got to have that relaxing day yesterday because this week is going to be a busy one for me. Whenever I know I have a lot of activities and responsibilities coming up I start to get Restless Mind Syndrome. You ever heard of that before? It's a thing. Well, at least I say it is. And I have a severe case of it today. It's funny how just the other day I felt like a slug, but today my mind feels like it's constantly buzzing, twitching and fluttering around from one thing to another. You wanna know what I usually do when I feel like this? Besides wandering aimlessly around the house? I sit down and write. It's a great way to externalize all of the endless jabbering. As I write down my thoughts it's almost like I am filing them away somewhere in cyberspace. They're not really gone, just a little quieter. The only problem is that lately when I sit down to write, nothing comes out. It's like I am having a hard time connecting with the part of my brain that allows me to remember the alphabet and basic vocabulary. It's maddening. Yup...I am a restless, restless girl.

Maybe my restlessness today comes from having a lot on my mind. It's the beginning of the busy season. The kids are winding up the school year, which means award events, band concerts, class parties and field days. I also have summer vacations to plan, spring cleaning on the brain, and let's just take a moment to mention that I got a new calling as a counselor in the stake YW. While I am very excited about this new challenge, it is tempered with the knowledge that I am the counselor assigned to help with our stake girl's camp in June (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Yes, that was me freaking out. We have a great camp committee so I really don't have to be freaking out so much, but alas it is my nature to freak out about things in general. I didn't realize how busy this calling is going to be and quite frankly, I doubt my ability to keep up without losing it. This week alone I have a seminary morningside, ward visits, leadership training, camp certification, camp committee meeting and a ward conference. That's a lot of stuff and a lot of dresses I need to wear. Time to update my wardrobe, I think. Unless I want to wear the same 3 dresses over and over.

The kids have been on my mind a lot too. But of course they always are. They each have their own struggles, but they also have a lot of good things happening in their lives. Alex will be a senior this year, Nate starts high school, Seth starts junior high and Abby will be in school full time as a little first grader! Yes, this is going to be a year of change. It pretty much scares the bejeebers out of me.

Shawn is doing well at his new job in the ER. He loves the variety in his day, but is also feeling the effects of seeing some pretty awful things. It takes a toll on him and some days when he comes home I can tell it's been a hard day. I'm not sure if a person ever gets used to things like that. I think it takes a lot of courage to see death and suffering every day. But Shawn is a compassionate person and an excellent nurse. I wish I could be more like him.

My brain has also been racing again with the idea of going back to school. I know I already talked about this a few weeks back but I can't seem to get it out of my head. So I am pleased to announce that I took the first step and ordered my transcripts from WAY back when I went to the University of Utah! I don't have a ton of credit since I only attended part time for about 18 months, but something is better than nothing and it feels good to know I have a little bit of a head start. Now I need to see if I qualify for some financial aid and decide where I want to take my first classes. Any ideas?? The community college would be the least expensive, but I would rather take online classes from the U of U or the University of Phoenix. I guess I need to see how much everything would cost, since that would probably be the deciding factor of where I would go at first. Plus I need to decide if I am actually going to do it and what I want to major in. I suppose that's pretty important too. Ha ha.

So there it is. My crazy life and crazy mind. But amidst all of the craziness there are bright and sunny moments that make my day. Like Mothers Day. And sleep. And each of my kids (even the teenagers) giving me hugs and telling me they love me. I'm a lucky girl.

Random acts of photography

This is going to be one of those posts where I put up random pictures from the last six months in a feeble attempt to update my life in blog form. So....try to keep up.

These are my amazing parents!


They just left to go on a mission to San Jose and I had a severe case of separation anxiety that really surprised me. I was really excited for them and (mostly) ok about it until the night they were set apart as missionaries. Then I sorta lost it, had a meltdown and realized how much I am going to miss them and how much I rely on them. I'm feeling a little wimpy. I am not very good at saying goodbye, even if it's more like a see ya later type of deal. But they are going to be great missionaries and are already doing so many good things.

This is Abby giving her very first report in school. Each child had to choose an animal to research for the science fair and Abby chose dolphins. She did the whole thing by herself, including the picture and writing all the facts down on the paper. I was so proud of her!

Seth did a really cool science experiment with color and heat. He set up different jars of water at room temperature, covered them with different colors of paper, exposed them to a heat lamp for a while and then measured the temperatures. It was surprising how well it worked and guess what? He won first place! What a smarty pants.

You probably had a hard time recognizing him with his blond hair and goofy glasses, but this is Nate. He just turned 15 last month. I truly cannot believe how fast my kids are growing up. Next month he will apply for his drivers learning permit, which means my anxiety will skyrocket once again, along with my insurance policy, and I will probably need to actually do those deep breathing exercises that therapists are always talking about.

He was on the high school swim team this year and really loved it. It wasn't always easy for him; he had to work hard, but I think he learned some very valuable lessons along the way. Including how to say no to the speedo. (That's him on block 5 getting ready to swim the 100 freestyle.)

Alex was asked to go to the Sweetheart's Ball by his good friend Andra. He doesn't date a whole lot, so I was super excited that he got to go. Don't they look adorable?

This is Alex performing in one of his bands called The Soul Research Foundation. (He's the trombone on the right.) They had a huge event called the Peaks Jazz Festival in February where every band from the Caleb Chapman program performed a set. It was a blast! I absolutely love seeing this kid perform.

And just when you thought this post couldn't get any more random, I present to you what I call:

The Most Amazing Valentine's Day Box EVER.

AND...

Okie the turtle!

We turtle-sat him for a few days and I have to say that he is pretty freakin' adorable. I might even consider getting one for my kids if it wasn't for the fact that they live to be 50 years old and grow to the size of a small planet.

Have a great day!

~Meg

The pictures say it all...

I have happy things to talk about after yesterday's rant about the spiteful month of January.

I went on a cruise baby!

A CRUISE!

It was awesome.  Really.  I can't stress it enough how awesome it was.  It was warm, sunny, happy and just plain fun.  Go on...be jealous.

Here are a few of my favorite pics:

Chillin on the sun deck

Towel animals!  Yay!

Abby and her new penguin hat.  Because that's what she wanted from Catalina.  A penguin hat. (?)

Alex strikes a pose.

Mario Kart...Catalina style

Abby, Seth and Kade enjoying the beachiness.

Awwwww!

Catalina Island

All fancied up for Christmas Eve dinner.

La Bufadora, Ensenada

Me showing off my cool new bag I bought at the market in Mexico.  Notice my photo bomber and the sketchy pharmacy.

Best fish tacos EVER

The view from my cabin window

Nate showing off his abs in the pool

Eatin' lunch with Grandma.
This was a spectacular view from the back of the ship.

Life is sweet.  :)

verbal vomit

Welcome!  In this post you will find nothing earth-shattering or insightful but instead you will find that I simply regurgitated the contents of my life onto the page.  Verbal vomit, I like to call it. So read on and then you can consider yourself informed.

So I am sitting here at 5:11 am.  I know, it surprised me too.  But believe me, I didn't get up this early because I wanted to.  I just returned from taking Nate to the high school for swim practice.  He is on the team this year (which I think is so cool and I am so proud of him!) and he practices every morning at 5, has a class period every other day for swim, and then has after school practices.  That's three to four hours of swimming.  Every. Day.  Thinking about it makes me feel tired.  But the good news is that at least one person in our family is incredibly in shape!  Woo hoo!  The rest of us are a bunch of slugs, but whatever.  He has his first meet today and he is so nervous.  He looked like he wanted to throw up when I dropped him off at practice.  But I am excited to watch him compete for the first time.  He is an awesome kid.

Onward with my life!  Next up...Abby. What can I say.  Abby is...Abby.  She had her birthday the other day and the day was interesting, I guess you could call it.  She was sooooo excited.  We had a family party planned and when she wasn't running around the house screaming "I'M SIX!", she was asking me how many more minutes until her party that night.  Six hours is a looooong time when you have an hysterical six year old waiting to open her presents.

Here are a few Abby quotables from the day:

"Mom, I wonder what these presents are.  Do you think they are the ones that I ordered?"

"Mom, I want the party to start.  When are my people going to be here?"

"Thanks Aunt Amy for the dress.  But I wish I could get some more presents that are cooler."

.....sigh......

I guess this is normal for a six-year-old.  The combination of self-centeredness and the inability to control what they say is par for the course.  But it's horribly embarrassing!  And kinda funny too.

Here's a picture of the cutie to make up for her social faux pas:

Next up is my Seffers.  I love that kid!  He is 11 which happens to be one of my favorite kid ages.  Kids this age are funny and smart.  They haven't turned into teenage monsters yet, but you can have extremely intelligent, although somewhat odd conversations with them.  They still tell you about their day.  They still hug you when they come home from school (well, at least mine does).  I wish I had a recent picture to share, but for some reason I have been absolutely terrible about taking pictures lately.  I have a new camera, not to mention a GREAT camera on my phone, so there is no excuses for me.  I guess I will have to settle for a selfy he took the other day that I found on his iPod.  Don't tell him I did this because he would DIE.  But he is so funny!

Since I already told you about Nate's swim stuff we will move on to Alex. I don't know if I blogged about this already, but Alex had the opportunity to travel to New York last May with a really cool jazz band that he plays in called the Voodoo Orchestra.  They played in several places including Dizzy's Coca Cola jazz club and a little place called Carnegie Hall.  Yes, you read that correctly.  CARNEGIE HALL, PEOPLE!!!  

Here are some pictures to prove he was there :)

Three of the bands that are part of the Caleb Chapman Music group were able to perform their own night at this amazing venue.  The main band, who headlined the event, is called the Crescent Super Band.  Voodoo orchestra and La Onda Caribena both played 20 minute sets before Crescent came on and played for about an hour.  Unfortunately, Shawn and I weren't able to go on the tour with him. We were able to save up enough for Alex to go, but it was too much to pay for all three of us.  But that's ok!  I am just so glad that he was able to go.  All of these bands are part of an organization called Caleb Chapman Music down in American Fork, Utah.  They have 15 different bands made up completely of Junior High and High school kids.  And they are really, really good!  Alex is so lucky and blessed and totally excited that he got the chance to be part of it last year and go on that amazing tour.  He auditioned this year for Voodoo and is able to be part of it again for another year.  I can't tell you how much this group has helped this kid.  He has learned so much;  not just about music, but about how be good at life in general.  Words cannot even express how proud I am of his accomplishments.  If you're interested, here is a link to a review of the concert that was posted in the New York Concert review:  http://www.nyconcertreview.com/blog/?p=2360

As you can see, life stays interesting here at the Shipley house.  We are running every which way as fast as we can and sometimes, honestly, it gets a little out of control, but we have much to be grateful for.  We have trials and problems like everyone else, but for the moment, life with the Shipleys is pretty sweet.