Porter Mont Griffiths

Babies have big heads and big eyes, and tiny little bodies with tiny little arms and legs. So did the aliens at Roswell! I rest my case.
William Shatner

How great is this quote!?  Shatner always seems to come up with the best quotes.

I realize I haven't really posted anything about my baby! Yes. I'm pregnant. In fact, I'm 28 weeks pregnant. We're having a baby boy and we're super super excited about it.

When I first got pregnant I was so sure that I was having a girl. I was having dreams about a baby girl, I had tons of names for a baby girl. I was even calling the baby a 'she'. Justin kept telling me not to get my hopes up and, well, he was right! 

20 weeks came and the ultra-sound tech lady took her sweet time getting to the good bits. She was kind of weird. She kept telling us that in her 15+ years of experience being a Ultrasound tech she had never been wrong on the gender. I don't know if she was trying to reassure us or just brag but we thought it was odd. We didn't really need any reassurance cause when she finally got to the private parts, even we without a degree in reading ultrasounds, could tell it was boy (He's...uh...well endowed...lol). 

A boy is a magical creature you can lock him out of your workshop, but you can't lock him out of your heart.-Alan Marshall Beck

 

I was very happy that it was a boy but it threw me for a loop. Mentally, I wasn't prepared for a boy. I had all of these little girl ideas in my head and now, all of a sudden, I had to think boy. How exactly do you do that? I ate steak for a while, looked at pictures of bugs, read "boy books", looked at pictures of my nephews and finally played a little bit in the dirt. What really put me in the mind set of boy though, was looking at the men in my life. My dad, my husband, my brother, uncles, in laws. I am surrounded by some really amazing men in my life. Very smart, intelligent and worthy men. Seeing them and the examples that they set made me so happy I was having a boy. He has the best role models to look up to and I want to teach him to be like them, upright and outstanding men.

I can only hope that I will be able to teach him how to be a worthy priesthood holder and how incredibly important it is. The task is very daunting to me and I don't feel in any way worthy to do it. I will do my best and I have the best companion to help me with this. 

So far we've come up with Porter Mont for his name and I don't think we'll change it. Unless, he turns out not to be a Porter then I don't know what we're going to do. 

 We chose Porter because Justin's hero and role model in his life is Orrin Porter Rockwell. One of Joseph's Smiths bodyguards and (as Justin likes to call him) a Modern-Day Samson. He was a pretty cool guy and I encourage you to read up about him if you haven't already.

I came up with Mont kind of on accident. I was flipping through a baby name book and saw it, liked the sound of it and asked Justin about it. Turns out Justin's Dad and Grandpa are both named Mont. We liked the idea of Porter being a 3rd generation Mont so much we decided to keep it.

I'm also taking hypnobirthing classes which deserves a post all to itself. I highly recommend it to everyone! It truly is an awesome class and I've connected with my baby on a completely different level since I've taken it. I was so scared at the thought of giving birth but this class has really calmed me down and now I'm looking forward to this beautiful experience in my life. 

I can't wait to meet Porter. I have been surrounded by so much love and support that I can't wait for him to meet all of you and this amazing circle of love. I am so blessed to be given this wonderful experience. Thank you to everyone who has been there for me and Justin during this transition. We are a truly blessed family.

A letter to the current Government Officials

To whom it may concern,
I think we have a misunderstanding.
I married my husband on December 18th 2010. When I married him I made many vows and commitments which I fully intend to uphold. I also chose HIM (now pay attention cause this is important) to live the rest of my life with and raise a family with.
As I understand it, polygamy and bigamy are illegal in this country. I married one man and am starting a family with one man. Where in the world did you get the idea that I wanted YOU to be in my marriage or in my life? Let me be clearer:  My husband is the only one that I will discuss how to feed my children, how to raise my children, when to have children, how to live our lives, where to worship, where and when I go to the doctors. Most importantly, My husband and I will be the only ones who decide the intimate details of our sexual lives as well. I married one man and intend to only have one man make those decisions with me.
 I am a fully functional adult female. I have a brain. I know how to take care of myself. My life isn't perfect and I make many many mistakes but those are MY mistakes and I will learn from them.
The fact that you feel obligated to tell me how to live my life is, frankly, insulting and degrading. I am capable of making hard choices, I do not need you.
 I believe whole heartedly, that the people of this country and I are fully capable of facing difficulties and trials that come with life. We have survived through enough already and have come out (somewhat) unscratched. What have we done that you should have such little faith in us?
What ever it was I would like to point out something that you seem bent on us forgetting: We are strong. Unfortunately, many people have forgotten that but I for one will NEVER forget it. I would just like you to know that I will tell everyone I meet and teach every single one of my children that We are strong, our country is strong and we have the power.
Stay out of our lives.
Sincerely,
Ricquelle Griffiths

Too tired to think of a title.

I should've updated this a while ago but that just seems to be the story of my blog. I've been hesitant to put this up because I'm never sure if my mom reads my blogs and what I'm going to post up now is her birthday present. I'm still working on hers, this is just a model. Also, My internet connection has been having major mood swings lately so there is a possibility of this post getting more and more sarcastic as I try to deal with the frustration.

Presenting: Rice Therapy Bags!

(Sorry for the quality of picture, it was taken on my phone)

Isn't it cute? It looks like a little owl! This is actually a rice therapy bag in it's cover. The cover is closed up top with 2 yellow buttons. Originally the design called for velcro but I had these buttons on hand that I wanted to try out. Next time, I'm gonna use velcro. I messed up big time on the button holes. I was trying to figure out the "button hole" setting on my sewing machine and it wasn't going too well

The blue rectangle is the actual rice bag, the owl looking thing is the outside bag that the blue thing goes in. I like it cause then I can wash the outer bag. 

I mixed with the rice some lime essential oils cause I really like the smell and it relaxes me. The odor has kind of faded from the use but it's still there. If you don't want to mix in essential oils you can always just put a drop or two on the outside cover.
 I found this wonderful pattern on this website----->http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2007/11/rice-heat-therapy-bag-tutorial/ This is actually a really awesome website. It has a lot of cute tutorials on lots of different things. I want to try some of the pillow tutorials, they're cute. 

On a side note:

I just found out that I've had 498 page views on this blog!!  2 of those page views has been from Alaska and 1 viewer was from LATVIA! How cool is that?! This new layout also tells me who my top viewers are so Grandma and Devery! Thanks for reading my blog.  I love you guys! :D  

An *exclusive* look into the making of Collins the Pig

Meet Collins the Pig.

My first hand-sewn stuffed animal! *cue fanfare!*
Yessiree bob! I made this guy and I am immensely proud of him. I've never done anything really like this and I was stunned by how simple it is.

The idea for Collins came from this book:
I love love love love love this book. My only complaint is it doesn't have instructions for all of the animals. The creatures it this book are adorable and imaginative!

Collins was so incredibly easy to make. I made it out of 2 socks, 2 buttons, 2 beads, 4 cotton balls, some thread, and a bit of cotton. I recommend this book to everyone. Do not be intimidated by the hand sewing! It is so incredibly easy. Also, just keep one thing in mind. If Ricqui can do it, you can Definitely do it! I'm a horrible seamstress, not to mention worse hand-sewer but this was easy and I managed to create something that I'm proud of. Collins was created in just a few hours.
Currently, I've had a request from my husband to make a sheep. So that's what I'm trying to do and somewhat succeeding. The best part about making stuffed animals is that it's OK if things are disproportional or sewn crooked or lumpy cause all of those "Screw-ups" gives it character. It makes it yours!
I'm determined to create my own little misfit island of stuffed animals and even though some may come from a book, I still can claim them as mine!

Feminists every where are groaning in pain at this post

No, I haven't made a craft per-se...

My book is still MIA and in order for me to find it I will have to tear apart my storage unit and my house. At this point it's pure laziness that has stopped me from doing it. 

But that doesn't mean I have stopped creating things. I've been flexing my "creating skills" (is "creating skills" better than "nun-chucking skills"?) in multiple different facets. I've being toying around with card making and some books as well. But mostly I've been creating my house-wife persona. 

It's been difficult work and a couple of times I thought I was going to have a mental break down. It's that perfectionist in me that won't shut up. I beat myself up mentally and throw myself into these ditches that I can't seem to crawl out of.  Sometimes, I get into these unexplainable moods where all I want to do is just sulk and cry and wail about how miserable my life is. Thinking about it now a lot of those emotions show up in my journals. If anyone ever read my journals they would think I'm such a depressed person.

The fact is my life is wonderful, I love being married, I love being a wife so why do I want to be miserable? I toyed with the idea that maybe I have Depression. Though, I acknowledge a lot of people suffer from this, I also believe that they don't have to. So when that thought crossed my mind I quickly crossed it off because if I do suffer from such a "disorder" I didn't want to give me an excuse. So what if I do have it? I'm not going to let it define me or blame it every time something goes wrong. Anyway, I found something much more helpful than diagnosing me.

I've had these emotions well up inside of me that I would quiet because I thought they were ridiculous and unjustified. It's like trying to stuff a balloon inside a bottle; an impossible task but the more you press it down inside the bottle, the more air will be pushed to the top of the balloon creating this incredible pressure that one tiny prick or touch will cause it to explode. A couple of weeks ago I exploded. Earlier in the day, I decided it would be a good idea to rearrange my house, figuring if I did that it wouldn't seem so messy and maybe I'd have room to breathe. The way I decided to do this was by pulling all of my books off their shelves and arranging my furniture all at the same time. It didn't take long for me to become overwhelmed, frustrated and I quickly realized I do not have decorating or rearranging skills (They don't really offer that in High School, ya know!). But the admission of these feelings, to me, meant that I was admitting that I failed as a wife so I kept shoving that balloon in the bottle. I lost it when my husband came home for dinner. It was kind of a disaster. He left with me furiously trying to justify my anger. My balloon popped after he left. Trying to hold myself together, I called my mom then promptly shattered when I talked to her. To make an unnecessarily long story short my mother divulged to me the secrets she has learned and introduced me to FLYing. Over the past month I came to the conclusion that when I keep myself busy, do my daily "blessings of my house" (for all you little FLY ladies out there) and take care of me, I'm happier. That's it. Simple concept but revolutionary to me! I'm starting small and hoping I can become a wonder What I struggle with, I've discovered, is a common house wife issue. So slowly, I'm piecing my house together and trying to get into routines and it all starts with a shiny sink every day. I've switched mind-tracks. Does that mean I've given up on my dreams? Never!  There are just other things that need to be taken care of as well. I've signed up for singing lessons, I've taken up sewing, I clean, I make lists, I even bought a calender I'm not perfect. In fact I struggle with staying on track (This blog is living proof of that!) but the point is I'm not sitting and feeling sorry for myself any more, I'm giving myself a purpose. A divine purpose, I might add.
In conclusion I happily declare: Discovering my wife-hood is very enjoyable as long I stay out of my own way. Most of all, I've found that deflating the balloon is easier.

(http://flylady.net/ <---There is a manual to teach women and men every where how to live with out CHAOS...and the more you know....)

I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry

I'm sorry. I have no excuse why I haven't updated my blog. None. But if it makes all you loyal devoted readers out there any better my husband already verbally lectured me. I'm currently in the middle of a life changing move so I don't have anything yet. Once we get settled down and life isn't so crazy I will update this for real. I have A LOT of catching up to do. Thanks guys for your patience I'm sorry I haven't been more consistent.

Blog overload 12,13,14,15,16 & 17

Phew! I have a lot of catching up to do!

Friday: 12
"Buttons are quintessentially versatile:they are a tool (or an analogy) for closure, but can also be used as embellishments for fabric, paper, or even beaded projects."
Today was all about a button collection. Unfortunately, I had no buttons to start a collection. I went through all my clothes to see if I had any buttons on some shirts that I don't wear or pants or something. Instead I found some shirts I can make a present for a certain somebody for their birthday. Which got me started on someone else's  birthday present and then everyone's birthday present. In my defense my family has tons of birthdays in February and I'm poor so I have to work with the materials I have. I can't tell you or show you pictures of what I made because they have not received their gifts yet and I do want to maintain some illusion of surprise. Eventually, I remembered that I needed buttons. I had to go over to my parents house so while I was there I asked my mom if she had any buttons. In my childhood my mother kept this giant pink container full of buttons. I loved to take them out and look at them, seeing if I could match them up, feeling the texture of them. I loved it and figured maybe I could take a  few from there. I found out, though, my mom got rid of those buttons but she told me she still had some. It was in a pink sewing box with some other sewing things, needles and such. I found a cool old Gillette blade. It looked really old but I couldn't find a date on the package. So I grabbed some buttons that smells like my great grandma and started my collection! (No pictures yet...)

Saturday & Sunday: 13 & 14
"Fresh out of ideas? Consider using seashells, (or other sea-buffed natural artifacts) to augment or inspire new elements in your work" 
Oh boy...I have a confession to make. Well two confessions. I don't have seashells and I the only thing I did these past two days was cut out this seashell border that was on a card. After I cut it out I had no idea what to do. It's kind of sad considering this project gives you two days to figure something out and to create it. I figured all is not lost so I kept the seashell border and decided it would come to me.

Monday: 15
"Although many journals are filled with words, just as many are not. Consider a journal as a collection of items, a place to store what ever it is that awaken your creative instincts."
I actually enjoyed this one. I made a collage of my thoughts and feelings and opinions I guess. I would show you but if I did all of you would think I was announcing I am pregnant but I'm not and you know...a journal is a private thing so I'm also not going to explain it. :D

Tuesday: 16
"Sometimes the elements you collect will fall into place quite naturally, but other times they require a push or two. Keep this in mind, however: if the process feels forced or unfruitful, don't consider it a failure--simply walk away, give it a rest, and try again another time."
This was an interesting day. I figured it would be a good day to try and write something. It's been a while since I've sat down and wrote. For some reason I didn't get much opportunity to and had to wait until later that night. I've had this idea in my head for a couple of years now and so I took this opportunity to expound on my characters a little bit and the plot. I didn't get very far because I'm very out of practice but I did get some more ideas and was able to jot it down. I dunno this is definitely a project that I will be coming back to quite often. At this point I feel like it's never going to be down.

Wednesday: 17
"Sometimes, creative energy works all by itself. Let your hands lead the process (instead of your brain). You may be surprised by the results."
I took this project to the extreme! I found most of my problems start is when I over think things and get stressed out with creating something. So today I didn't think about it at all and literally let my hands do all the work. I talked to my husband the whole time and didn't look at my project very much. The results? oh....a disaster. Obviously when you don't look at your project it kind of ends up all over the place. It was so much fun though. It's like drawing a portrait of someone without looking once at your drawing. It ends up all over the place. Unless you're a very good artist...and if you're blind.