Leppert News

MACY
The other night I was putting Macy to bed and she said to me in a very concerned voice, "I really hope President Monson (the president of our church) doesn't get voted out at the election." Apparently they've been talking about the election in school, and I think someone got a little confused.

Macy is loving second grade and anxiously awaiting next Friday (the premiere of High School Musical 3). I came to the sad realization this week as I helped her with her homework that I think she has actually become smarter than me. She loves her teacher and has great friends and is trying to hide from me the fact that she's discovered boys.

PAYSON
Driving in our car a few weeks ago, Payson suddenly said, "I really hope I get the jerk next." I laughed and said, "What?" Where has he ever heard that word?! "You know, at McDonald's, the Lego Batman toys. I want the jerk." I wracked my brain for all the characters in Batman and finally realized what he must be talking about. "The Joker?" I asked. "Oh, yeah," he said, "the Joker."

We had the most exciting thing happen last Friday night...Payson started reading! We were completely shocked when he randomly started reading "words" off of his Applebee's kids' menu. (They weren't always words, it was the word search, and some of them were just letters put together, but still...he was reading them.) I have no idea when or how this happened, but I was ridiculously excited. I started spelling real three-letter and even four-letter words for him and he read them all! Yay Payson!

BILL
Our most exciting news is that Bill put in his two weeks at FedEx (his second job). I can't even begin to describe how ecstatic this makes me. This means I will have a husband again in the evenings. It means we'll get to eat dinner as a family, and I'll have help putting the kids to bed, and I won't have to find a baby-sitter for every function that takes place between Monday-Friday. But, wait, this isn't about me. Yay, Bill! No more working til 8:30 at night, no more hauling insanely heavy boxes, no more seeing his kids in the mornings only. He is so excited. He'll be picking up some extra hours at the shop, but mostly early morning and lunch-time. He is loving his motorcycle and spends all his free time trying to convince me to let him buy some sort of gaming system. "For Payson."

ALICIA
So as I count down the days until two weeks from now, I am staying busy doing the typical stay-at-home-mom stuff. Nothing too exciting going on here. Cleaning, cooking (really, I've been doing better at actually making dinner), helping with homework, playing chauffeur, cleaning, blogging, reading, doing laundry, cleaning, battling with Payson each day to take a nap (me, not him), trying to lose weight, cleaning, etc...My life couldn't be more monotonous, but I'm actually grateful for that. I'm trying to look on the bright side. There have been too many periods of my life when just doing the "norm" was incredibly difficult. I am so grateful that at the present time I am suffering from nothing...headaches magically disappeared, no unexplained nausea, no depression, anxiety....my family is healthy and happy and for that I have nothing else to complain about. I have taken President Monson's suggestion to heart and made it my personal motto, which I repeatedly tell myself throughout the day: Find joy in the journey. It was like he was talking to me--this is something I constantly struggle with. I have to find a way to be happy with my life at any given point because, frankly, nothing is ever going to change except my attitude.

Okay, that got a little heartsy fartsy. Just wanted to mix things up a bit by doing something I rarely do: blog about my life in a positive fashion. Weird, huh?