Playing Mom and Dad

My parents left for New York on Saturday morning to see my Grandma and Grandpa Dunford in the Palmyra pageant. That left Jake and I to stay with my 5 younger siblings until Tuesday. It has been quite the experience so far, especially trying to get everyone ready and to church on time this morning. The kids have been a great help and very kind to us and we haven't had any big problems. I am making Beef Stroganoff for the first time in my life for dinner tonight and the prospect is stressing me out. I am hoping that it will turn out alright. I have had a lot of great helpers in preparing things and so it has mostly been a family effort.

It has been interesting having the responsibility of keeping track of, entertaining, and watching out for a large family. The baby of the family is not quite 3 (although her birthday is on Tuesday) and she has taken up large amounts of my energy. She is a very energetic and talkative child and repeats the same questions a million times until she gets an answer. And then she always follows up with, "Why?" It has been quite entertaining trying to explain WHY I want to eat lunch. My mom tells me that I was exactly the same way when I was a child and so I guess it is my just due to have a child like her. She is in the stage where she wants to do everything herself and insisted on brushing her own teeth and scrubbing her own hair in the bath yesterday.

The other kids all come with their own set of fun traits and experiences. The boys can always make me laugh and it is really nice and convenient to have my sister Alyssa (who will be 18 in September) to help me with the baby. It has, overall, been a great learning experience so far and I hope it will continue to be so. It definitely has given me a bit of perspective on what it is going to be like to be a mom.

Last night my college roommate Ashley Miller came to visit us. We had pizza, played the Wii, and had a great time talking. Jake really enjoyed getting to know her a bit better and we were playing until late hours of the night. We were also privileged to have Jake's best guy friend, Michael Anderson, join us once he got off of work.

I am very grateful for loving friends and family. No matter what happens in life I know that there will be people there that I can turn to. At this time of life when I spend most of my days just trying to make it through my daily activities without giving in to exhaustion and the sometimes overwhelming nausea and discomfort, it is such a blessing to be surrounded by wonderful people who will help and support me.