Karisa, Leia and the Boys

Renegade

2012-02-07T20:10:00.004-07:00

I found this site http://www.foodrenegade.com/ after seeing some family talk about it on Facebook.

I've learned a lot, and she makes things easy to understand. Heathy eating, real food.

We have stopped buying milk for about a month now (the kids are drinking almond milk for now)

and we haven't bought any lunchmeats for about 2 months, and we all eat Ezekiel bread or homemade bread.

We still love our carbs and sweets, but I don't make so much like I used to. This has been hard for me since I love to make awesome cinnamon rolls, and all sorts of pastries, cakes, cookies, breads, etc, and I want my kids to have a fun home where good food abounds, but all that stuff adds up, and I feel better teaching them about good food.

We've also been eating very little meat. I'm not against a little healthy meat, but it's been good to try more vegetable dishes, even if they don't all work out. It's an education.

Has it been easy? Nope. But it's getting easier, as we adjust and learn what to eat in place of the processed, incredibly altered non-foods. And Pat is on board for the most part, and I didn't even have to do the convincing. He's been reading up on it too. And my kids beg me to go get fresh fruits and vegetables now. You should see them go to town on broccoli, purple cabbage, carrots, sprouts, etc.

This site helps explain why I am trying to change our eating habits, and has been helpful with new recipes.

All I can say is that I'm on a journey. I don't know for sure what is right for my body, because I've been having digestive issues and weight gain issues, but I do know that for my health and the health of my family we are cutting out the stuff that I know is bad, and I don't see how I can go wrong slowly changing out the bad for good. My friend's husband just overcame a major illness by changing his diet.

What's something big you've done to change your diet?

Superbowl Sunday!

2012-02-05T09:18:00.003-07:00

I don't even know who's playing in the Super Bowl, but our special girl was born on Super Bowl Sunday two years ago! Happy Birthday Leia Nora! We love you soooooooooo much!

Leia loves to sit on her butt with her knees bent and feet out on the sides. She is our slowest talker, but is starting to say more and more words, and when we ask her how old she is, she timidly says, "Two!" trying to hold up two fingers. She has learned how to make the craziest faces, and smiles really hard so that we can't help busting up. She is loca.

She LOVES baths, and when I tell her it's time to get out, she grunts at me and rolls away onto her stomach trying to get out of reach. She is very brave in the water. Her brothers have been pouring water over her head in the bath for at least a year, and she just deals with it, even though I tell them to stop, and get really mad. But then I do it when I wash her hair. She is scared of the shower though, but it might have something to do with me throwing her in there when we're late and she has a last minute code brown that is beyond wipes.

Leia LOVES girly things. She loves picking a dress for Sunday, and when she's all cute I tell her to go look in her mirror at her cute clothes. I hope this doesn't make her a stuck up girl too obsessed with looks. I must admit, I'm just having too much fun having a girl! Our neighbor gave her a Disney princess mirror that used to be her daughter's, and at the bottom on a scroll was written Who's the Fairest One of All or something ridiculous like that. So I painted over it, Daughter of God. I love seeing that mirror now and reading it.

Leia LOVES books and someone to read her books. She also knows our family cheer and does it after every family prayer. She likes music too, and is starting to learn how to dance. She has also discovered (when we had a warm day or two) that she LOVES going outside! If anyone is leaving the house, she wants to go too! And she loves going to her nursery class at church each Sunday. She immediately runs over to hug Brother Woodard and finds all the 15 or so babies in the nursery and keeps them for her own. Pat showed her how to share with her friend Sasha, since normally she wants them all to herself.

Leia still gets called by many names. I still call her Nora about 20% of the time, Eleanora about 20% of the time, Lei-lei about 20% of the time and Leia about 39% of the time. 1% of the time I throw in Rio since I wanted that to be part of her name. Here are some pictures of her birthday! (Coming soon)

2012-02-03T11:32:00.001-07:00

Watching the YW play dodgeball. I tried to show our girls not to hang out safely at the back of the court, to work the line and launch their balls from up close. Then I demonstrated it for them, promptly getting nailed right in the eye. I was so embarrassed. Luckily it didn't hurt. The balls are pretty soft.

Thanks to her cousin Elle, she has cute clothes! My cousin Jennifer used to pass me her stuff too and all I can say is thank heavens for hand-me-downs! Thanks J and K and Elle!

Evan read a story that had a farmer making raisin bread. So he decided he really wanted raisin bread. Honestly that sounded pretty disgusting to me, and I didn't feel like looking up a raisin bread recipe. So last night as I was making pizza (with my french bread recipe) I took a big piece of dough, rolled it out into a rectangle, sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar and raisins, rolled it up, and baked it for Evan. He would never know that it wasn't real raisin bread! But it turned out so good! I know what your thinking Steph...

By the way...

2012-02-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

If anyone is looking for the Lemeki post, I put it back in 2011 when it happened around July.

Update on Regan

2012-01-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

So, I knew this would happen. Tons of problems trying to adopt Regan. First of all I'm told that in Ghana, I have to spend a total of a little over two months there (two trips), plus all money. That would be impossible with the children I already have. Then I'm told that one trip, by one parent for about 3 days is all that is needed. ??
Then I find the house that Regan is actually at, and am told that she is schizophrenic, at least that's what they think (there are no doctors), and that she hears voices and has hurt some of the smaller children so they have her in a separate place.
Then I'm told that they would not even consider me for adoption because I am a Mormon. It's a very small place (only 15 or so children) and the person who runs it has chosen this. I'm not offended, so much as just sad. As I was talking to her agent on the phone, and she was explaining this to me, I thought how good Mormon families are and how it is sad to let a child stay in an orphanage, because as she put it, "You don't believe in the Trinity." She also said, Oh and that you guys think you can become Gods, and you think other people can write scripture like the Book of Mormon and we believe the Bible is the only true word of God.

Okay, I said, I respect your feelings, and thank you for your time. I expected that to be the end of it, but somehow we got talking, and she really liked me, and is going to the director to see if there are any rules that can be bent. She said, the director would probably let you adopt someone who will be, because of their extensive problems, very hard to place. Someone like Regan for example, or someone severely disabled. I just don't know what to think about that. I told her I feel like I was led to talk to her for a reason, and if she ever had someone for us we would consider it. But that's all I can say.

But for now, join me in grieving for Regan. She won't have a long life where she is. When I told Pat, he still didn't want to give up on her. I really don't either.

Warning: Catching up post!

2012-01-27T14:45:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to me!

Pat made me this trifle, and my sis got me the Michael Jackson dance thingy! Yea!

I always throw together a pasta dish with whatever I have. My birthday pasta turned out great! However I do have to say, that since I try to not eat this stuff regularly, I had a total carbohydrate crash after pasta AND cake.

Evan emerges from his bedroom in his dragon suit, Mario backpack, and superhero cape to top it all off. Leia is a bit worried about him. Oh, and like what I did with all the Christmas cards this year?

She loves the jewelry her aunt got her for Christmas.

Evan made Leia a crown. It said prinses Lau.

Sam loves these math worksheets where you have to solve the problem and then use a ruler to draw a line to the right answer, and then color if you like, the pattern.

Aren't these cool neckercheifs(sp?) that the boys got at the pinewood derby. Here's E sporting D's.

Notice the STOP don't touch sign? Last year, our non-member friends came and someone stole their car (I think it was a youth acting stupid). It was the saddest thing ever. We searched for 1/2 hour, and never could find it. So they used a back up car, lost every race, had a bad night, and then at the end of the night someone opened up the gym door and rolled it in and closed it before we could see who it was. By then it was too late and all the hard work they'd done to prepare their car was useless. They never came back. Please help me to never find that person, because I'm still so mad about it!!!

We have the best group of scout leaders and they do such a great job with these boys! This is no small deal to put on and I really appreciate them!

Just chillin' in the tub. Sometimes mom doesn't feel like filling up the whole bath tub for a quick rinse. Leia loves it.

Dallas won grand champion last year. This year he lost every single race. He was still happy, and I loved how he did his car! He got the award for the Happiest Racer!

More Food

2012-01-27T14:14:00.001-07:00

I decided that I wanted to bring a healthy treat each Wed to Young Women (that is the activity night at the church for the girls 12-18). Just to show them that I love them, and to broaden their horizons with food. So I made these raw cookies off a recipe, but have now lost the recipe. I didn't follow the recipe perfectly anyway, but they turned out so good that I wish I could remember which website I found it on. We had a Yoga night, and these healthy treats fit in really well!

They had about 2 cups of dates, 2 cups of rolled oats, pinch salt, swirl of agave, spoonful of peanut butter, and I don't remember if that was all or not. Food process it all and then roll into balls. Chill in refrigerator and then dip in chocolate. The tops only since I was in a hurry! But they didn't need the chocolate. They were so good already, we couldn't stop eating them. They don't have to be refrigerated, I just did that to make the chocolate set faster.

Now everyone wants the recipe, and I'm like Me Too! If I ever find it again, I'll post it.

My first attempt at making tofu. Hated it. This Asian stir fry would have tasted fine with just nothing but the vegetables on rice. But hey, I tried it! Now I know that I never need tofu. Although it has been good in some Indian dishes I've tried.


This was actually a history project. We are learning about Russia, and they used to decorate eggs and color them with the peel from onions. These eggs used to be white! Not so impressive to us though since our chickens lay brown eggs already. I wonder what a purple onion would do?

CDC researchers say mothers should stop breastfeeding

2012-01-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Someone posted this on facebook, and I couldn't believe it.

CDC researchers say mothers should stop breastfeeding to boost 'efficacy' of vaccines

http://www.naturalnews.com/034722_breastfeeding_vaccines_CDC.html

Someone named Sara, commented: "Okay, 4 years ago our naturopathic family doctor said, point blank, 'Sara, the time will come when the CDC starts going after breastfeeding, because based on all the science and studies coming in, the titers and antibodies in breast milk cause the vaccinations to only be effective 1/3 of the time....and that is just not going to be acceptable to big pharma.' Don't you love it?! Our doctor's prediction is coming true."

My kids have all their vaccines, but I was heavily pressured into it by the school (when D was in school) and by the doctor. I don't even believe that all vaccines are bad. But I do believe it should be each parents choice what to do with their children, and not governments. When the government doesn't even let you enroll without proof of vaccines, it's just a way of forcing it on you. I went to get my foot checked out last month and they actually asked me if I'd had all my vaccines! So they could look at my foot! And of course they have them there for me conveniently if I need one. Why would they even do that unless it's making money for all of them? The same thing happens all the time at the hospital when I go to deliver a baby too. They want to immediately hit me up and the baby up with the vaccines. One time I had to change doctors because after researching the vaccines my son was about to receive I had questions about some of them, and the doctor started yelling at me, "You people...!", she said before storming out. I was so taken aback it was ridiculous and I had to try to not laugh as I watched her have a fit. I was wondering if I was having a dream. Aren't doctors there to help answer questions? Apparently not. At least not with her.

One thing that taught me is not to just submit your children because everyone says you have to. Mothers are given an intuition about their children and need to listen to it, since all kids are not the same and will not react the same. Any doctor or government official that makes you feel dumb for trying to listen to that intuition should be ignored. Find a new doctor. I did, and he is so much better!

I do believe big pharma, are pulling the strings with lots of lawmakers. And sorry, CDC, I've done a lot of reading, and I've never trusted you.

Plus, on a side note, I've always wondered, how do we really know that when they enter the room with the injections all ready, that they aren't expired, that they have been stored at the right temperature, and that they weren't mixed up by the young girls that usually administer them?

Regan

2012-01-21T17:12:00.000-07:00

I wanted to name Leia Reagan, because I really liked Ronald Reagan and because I thought it was so cute.
Pat didn't.
Today I found my Regan. I wish I could adopt her. She has HIV and was born in 1998. Think I should try?

I don't have a clue where to start, or how hard it would be. But I just look at her and want her so much! She's from Ghana.

Pretty good bar

2012-01-16T15:58:00.001-07:00

Had this for dinner tonight, although we scrambled the eggs in with the kale. Bit of oil, salt, dash of cayenne pepper, and a bit of garlic- saute in chopped kale and then push aside to scramble eggs then mix together. Serve over toast or hashbrowns. Pretty good! We ate it all before I could take a picture of my own.

From Tasty Kitchen.com

Pretty healthy, and tastes great. Just wanted to share. I haven't tried all the stuff out there, but out of the 3 brands I have tried, this is my favorite.

Raw Revolution Chocolate & Coconut Raw Rev 100 Calorie 0.8 oz bar. Organic.(bag of 12) Price: $9.99

They have a 2.2oz size also for about $1, but the smaller size seems to be enough.

Followup on the Soup post

2012-01-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

I never did make all those soups that week. Got busy, meals got changed, you know LIFE. But here are a couple.

Beef burger soup We love this. It is a tomato juice/cream of celery base with hamburger and finely shredded carrots. Very hearty.

Now my one of my favorites: Pho. First the condiments:

Fresh basil, cilantro, green onions, jalapenos, and limes. Sooo good! Just look at all this healthy stuff above that goes into the soup with a broth base and rice stick noodles below.

No gluten

Before and after the add-ins.

I still haven't found a place I like more than my Vietnamese restaurant. $6 for a huge bowl of pho soup and lots of green stuff to put in it, including bean sprouts which I didn't have, and fried spring rolls that you wrap up in the lettuce and herbs and dip in a slightly sweet sauce. Pat and I can eat there for $20 on those rare occasions that we get to go out to eat. I LOVE IT! If I lived in California there would be other places I'd enjoy eating at, but I just don't care for much here.

Speaking of going out, last night we went out for our anniversary, had yucky food at Mimi's, paid $35 dollars for it and $40 dollars for a babysitter since we were gone for 6 1/2 hours and have four kids. I blame you Steph, for not living near me and babysitting for free. And all of Pat's family too. I blame you all. :) This is why I don't go out. I'd rather save up and go to Ireland. That's just me. The amount of money spent for babysitter, food, and a movie is frightening!!! Plus since we heat our house with a wood burning stove, and the babysitter can't do that, we come home and the poor thing is frozen. Poor girl sitting on the couch in her coat! I can't wait until Dallas is a bit older! Dates are good though. Especially the free ones!

Random thoughts

2012-01-13T13:50:00.003-07:00

Leia, let's change your diaper. (Immediately she runs away.)

And hides...

And is just so funny!

I always think I'll post my schedule of how we do school, and what curriculum's we use, but then it changes in one way or another, so I never post it. Now I think I just need to do it and post it every time it changes too. It may be helpful to someone someday. And news flash, Karisa, schedules with children are never set in stone! In fact with babies they can change daily. In other words, I used to think that through researching and trying different curriculum's I'd get it narrowed down to one thing for each subject and stick with it through high school. Now I know that each child is different, their needs different, and that change is good! It expands their abilities and way of thinking. We've been using Rod and Staff for English, Grammar, Reading, Vocab, etc., but I realized that it was mostly filling in the blanks, which is good- kids need to be able to read something and remember what they read and come up with the answers, but we just switched Sam and Dallas to some different stuff that requires more discussion which has been good already. Dallas is in Total Language Plus, and he had to read The Whipping Boy, which is a fun story, but with a great analogy to Christ.
In fact since it went with the story, I told Dallas how when I was 4 and Jeremy was 2, I broke a measuring tape, and I knew by how mad my mom was that I was going to get spanked for it. So I told her that Jeremy did it, because he couldn't really talk and defend himself, though he tried. I've always felt bad about that, and I did end up telling my mom the truth later that night (wearing all my underwear for padding- though she didn't spank me). Then I asked Dallas, how do you think Jeremy felt getting punished for something that was my fault? I did it. It was my choice. How does it feel to know that Jesus willingly suffered for us.? He was our "whipping boy". It doesn't seem fair does it? Yet God knew we needed a Savior, and gave His only Begotten Son, and Christ knew what had to be done, and loved us enough to do it. If we repent, we need not suffer as He did. (Now forgive me while I go into Handel's Messiah, but I just love it so much)

Behold the Lamb of God
That taketh away, the sin of the world
A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief
despised, rejected
He hid not his face from shame and spitting
Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows
He was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquities
and with his stripes we are healed
all we like sheep have gone astray
we have turned, everyone to his own way
and the Lord hath laid on Him(self) the iniquity of us all.

The truth of those words could not be more beautiful.
Back to the post:

Sam has switched to Great Books and I don't really have an opinion on it yet, since I'm just getting into it, but we enjoyed the story from yesterday, discussing how to be a friend.
I am also realizing that although I'm not an unschooling type of homeschooler, where you let your children direct their learning completely, I really don't think it would hurt a child to just grow up in their father's shadow, following him around at work, or their mother, and never even go to school. So many of our founding fathers did just that, doing their book learning on their own or with their parents at home. Then they could explore what interested them, or learn a trade, and get to know the world and why hard work is important. I really do think kids would learn a lot.
For instance, this year we've been studying plants, but it has been really frustrating because most of the projects want us to collect leaves, and do other things that New Mexico can't provide. Especially in the wintertime. But there's an organic garden place that takes community volunteers, and I realized that if we do that this spring, they would learn more than they could out of a book. Yes we'll still do what we can in the book, but hands on is so much better. And we hope to do our own garden again this year. It's a huge struggle to grow anything here, but we get a bit better every year.
Also, Pat and I are always trying to eat healthier, and follow the Word of Wisdom better. I believe in eating a mostly plant based/whole foods diet, but believing something and doing it are two different things. You just have to keep trying and slowly get better. Abraham Lincoln said, "I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."
As I explained to the kids about how we would be cutting back a lot on meat (we now buy no lunch meat, and have greatly reduced our other meats), and how we'd be cutting back on milk and cheese and how we'd need to learn to eat beans and vegetables more, Dallas completely understood. In fact he told me about Daniel in the Bible when he was carried away to Babylon and the king wanted to feed him certain foods, but Daniel would not eat the king's meat or wine. Then Dallas told me how Daniel and his friends turned out healthier than the others by eating vegetables. I sure think Dallas is neat.
And I can tell you that your kids will eventually like it. Sam is my hardest to feed. Period. But even he begs me for a big wedge of purple cabbage or a radish or a big fresh carrot to chomp on.
And speaking of Sam, yesterday, he had to read a short story, and I was teaching him to do a book report- so kind of summarize what was in the story- pull out the most important stuff- condense it- you know.
He cried through it, but he understood, and today he did the short story all on his own and did a nearly perfect job. I am so proud of him! It's nice to know that you're efforts as a teacher are not in vain.

To conclude this rambling post, I just want to say that as of yesterday, Pat and I have been married 11 years. I looked back through all the photos to find a wedding picture to post, but then remembered that there were no digital cameras back then. And I don't have a scanner, so no luck. In looking through the photos though I noticed a common theme. Me pregnant, nursing, or with small children. For 10 years now. Very rarely is there a picture of us together, since we had children quickly and one of us is always holding the camera and the other the baby. We don't have very many friends. We are friendly, but there aren't usually people hanging out at our house, taking family pictures for us. But it's all good, it could be worse. At least we do things together as a family, and I'm grateful to Pat for being a good husband, and father, and for all the hard work he does for us. He's put up with me for 11 years, and that takes a strong man. I love him very, very much.

Added bonus: funny things said lately
Dallas, what's a tutor?
Someone who toots.

Overheard, Evan talking to Leia.
Leia, do you want to take another bath?
Leia:Hmmm
Then Leia, if you want to take another bath then just poop in your diaper again! (recalling her gigantic blow-out this morning).

These two guys just got back from their missions and agreed to come talk to the young women at church about dating. It was pretty funny, and I really appreciated them being such good sports.

Happy 100 years New Mexico!

2012-01-07T11:34:00.001-07:00

1912-2012 Happy Birthday New Mexico! I love the new license plate I just got! Isn't it sweet?

LA Times

WAIT!!!!

2012-01-04T14:55:00.001-07:00

Okay, 2012... I am really excited and ready for you. New Years Resolutions? Check. Excitement and all for the new year? Check.

I just haven't finished closing out 2011 on the blog. Still not finished with some things. Unfortunately, everyone is sick with the flu, and Pat and I have been cleaning up throw up.

Then I got the flu.

Now Ln and Pat are the only ones left. Will they hold out and not get sick? Here's to optimism!

Here's one thing I forgot. On Christmas Eve guess what we were doing? Cleaning the church building!
I just think that's so funny. It's a good thing I love my husband even though he signs us up for the craziest things. And a good thing the Noorlanders were there to help!

Kid History

2011-12-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Julie for recommending this. So funny.

2011-12-29T17:42:00.002-07:00

Finally got our family pictures! I think they turned out pretty great. We did them in Old Town Albuquerque. Thanks to my friend for her time and talent. Thanks DeAnn!

My political views

2011-12-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

This man speaks the truth, and sums up my views perfectly in easy to understand language. Both parties are full of unsavory people, but I loved how Herman Cain told black people to get off the Democrat plantation.

I would like to add, on a different subject, the difference between collectivism, and individualism. (Or another way of putting that democracy and socialism.)

Quote from Tocqueville: "Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom. Socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."

I'd call the redistribution of wealth, the poor state of the economy, the government restrictions, and the enormous tax burden on little more than half of the country (because almost half pay no taxes), and the unfathomable debt the country is in, restraint and servitude.

Quotes from The Road to Serfdom, by F.A. Hayek

I yust go nuts at Christmas- Yogi Yogerson

2011-12-28T00:13:00.000-07:00

Oh, I yust go nuts at Christmas,
On that yolly holiday,
I'll go in the red, like a knucklehead
Cause I squander all my pay.

Yust befor Christmas dinner, I relax to a point,
Den relatives start svarming, all over da yoint.
On Christmas, I hug and I kiss my vifes mother,
Da rest of da year, ve don't speak to each other.
After dinner, my aunt, and my vifes uncle Louie,
Get into a arguement; dere both awful screwy.
Den all of my vifes family, say Louie is right,
And my goofy relations, day yoin in da fight.
Back in da corner, da radio is playing,
And over da racket, Gabriel Heater is saying,
Peace on earth everybody, and good vill toward men
and yust at dat moment, someone slugs uncle Ben.
Dey all run outside vhooping for da neighbors will hear,
Ohhhh, I'm so glad Merry Christmas,
Comes yus once a year.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T19:49:00.006-07:00

Waking up early to open presents and get to 9am church on time. It didn't occur to me until later that we could have just opened presents after church. It was only 1 meeting. Silly me. And I felt weird this Christmas, because I couldn't find any of our Christmas music, or our Christmas book with stories and scriptures for each day. I don't know where they could be. Frustrating. I did get my blessed scripture journal, some cut socks and a ring! And Pat got a new sweater, book, and reading light, for which he was very excited until his sister made fun of him for getting old people gifts. :) We all got some cute socks and family games, homemade jam and a new camera. I have the best kids, who are happy with their gifts. They are so fun and so happy and I am so blessed to have them. I love you guys so much!

Waking up is hard to do.

She laughed so hard when I tried to do this and they kept falling off.

She loves this stroller and the necklaces she got!

Keeping the Wiggles tradition alive.

Fancy new clothes!

I'm not a huge fan of these movies- we don't own any of them, but I LOVE Buzz Lightyear. He says the funniest things.

K'Nex Mario Cart tracks- took all day to put together but it is very cool.

The kids and all their loot. Their holding the things they loved the most. Swords and Buzz. Although Dallas and Sam really loved their books. Notice the jammy pants on all four courtesy of Bren'mama, and they're all wearing their special socks. And Ln got the cutest dollhouse, dress and coat, and other girly stuff that I just LOVED. Dallas was sweet and bought her her own crayons and coloring books- all princess ones.

I did make treats for all our neighbors, and took them out on Christmas Eve Eve. I said I'd never do that again, and I may not, because it was a whole day's work, and they kept turning out wrong, but I felt so much love in return from them, that it was worth it. W gave us some sand dollar ornaments, P came over to thank us in person on Christmas day and gave us the nicest card, and our two new neighbors have been wanting to get to know everyone, and thought it was great. One's the fire chief, and one is a younger couple who seem really nice. One house we sent Dallas to with Evan and I don't really know how it went because the only thing Dallas would say was he couldn't understand them. Oops. And Pat's carpool friend/neighbor left the nicest message on our phone of thanks.
I know that everyone had a great Christmas in my family, but I felt sad and unhappy and I don't know why, and I didn't know how to turn it off either. I had a really hard time going to church, and just couldn't shake the sadness. What got me through was that I had some gifts for some families we home/visit teach and we gave them those, and I got the strongest hug from sweet Sister Potter who visits me for no reason at all except she is just full of love, and then going to the Colson's for dinner is always relaxed and fun and even though I didn't want to go (not because of them, but because I was grumpy), I was glad I did. It finally broke the mood I was in. Poor Pat. Every now and then his wife turns psycho.

Can you tell we're on break?

2011-12-21T12:06:00.001-07:00

Cuz, I can't stop blogging. I'm still trying to catch up, but also, the kids get to play Wii for a while everyday, and therefore I blog.

1)Scripture Journal (Oh, and if you could just throw in food storage for 6 with that!)

2)Someone I'm excited to vote for. I guess it'll be Romney and he's okay. He certainly could get this economy going and is a million times better than Obama. I just wish there was someone to articulate conservative values well and fight for them. Someone like Chris Christie, or Ronald Reagan.

3)Running shoes. After visiting the doctor about my foot, he told me not to run on my rocky road and that I needed new shoes. I hadn't realized that my shoes are already 8 years old. I am still in daily pain, and my foot just doesn't seem to want to heal. He did and ultrasound and saw a lot of fluid in there and gave me a Rx of something like Ibuprofin, but I keep forgetting to take it.

4)Instruments such as the: yukelele, acoustic guitar that you can plug in, bass guitar, voilin, drums, celtic flutes, or Native american flutes.

5)Make-up stuff. Anti-aging make up stuff. I don't have clue what to buy, but I seem to be getting spots on my face and I wish they would go away! (Oh yea, and there might be a wrinkle or two.)

6)Someone to go with me to buy make up stuff, since all those make up counters at the mall intimidate me.

7)Michael Jackson's dance thing for Wii. I will not rest until I can moonwalk.

8)Oh, and I've really been good, so feel free to throw in any pea coats, jewelry or boots you like. That's all for now. Thanks Santa. You're a pal.

Now back to reality. Got to feed the kids and go decorate the church for the winter ball.

Leia and Snow

2011-12-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

It took five minutes to get her all dressed up and she stayed out in the snow for less than a minute. Then it was a several minute process to get her undressed.

Let it Snow!

2011-12-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

We got lots of snow yesterday! I couldn't get out at all yesterday and had to cancel my plans. Today I want to go to the temple (and shop and get groceries) so we'll give it a try.

Chickens

Try finding wood for the fireplace under all this!

Pat's been shoveling all morning

Can you tell I'm catching up?

2011-12-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

These two knuckleheads each lost a tooth in the same day!! It was the second tooth for Sam this week so now he's missing his two front teeth, and it was Evan's first tooth! It was hilarious, because after Sam lost his tooth in the morning Evan started saying he had a loose tooth, and I thought he was just making it up. But then I saw that it could lay down flat, and he let Pat pull on it and all he said was,"Ow", like he was completely bored. Then it was out! I could not stop laughing! I still can't believe it! Luckily Pat is on top of the tooth fairy duty, since I never remember in the night to do that!

That Halloween candy never did make it into the garbage. But I found a use for it. Gingerbread houses! Or in our case, sugar cube houses, glued together with corn syrup. Kind of a fun twist on the gingerbread house.

Happy Birthday Dallas!

2011-12-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

It was fun being with family at Thanksgiving, since it was right before D's birthday and so he got to celebrate a bit with them and get some cool presents. Below is a video of a treasure hunt D had to do to find his present from us. It lasted about 10 minutes so we cut the video down to about a minute. What was funny, was that Evan and Sam figured out the clues sometimes when D couldn't. No wonder he thanks his trusty brothers at the end. Evan and Sam chose some of their favorite things to wrap up for him and even the things that D didn't care about, he earnestly thanked them for and they were all hugging and it warmed my heart, and not a little. I love my boys! (And girl!) Sam wrapped one of his presents 8 times, so it started out big, and we just kept laughing harder and harder when we saw that we still hadn't gotten to it. In the end it was a special shell. It was soooooooooo funny. None of us has ever done that so he just came up with it on his own!

Best lemon cake I've ever had. I highly recommend the pastry chef.

Can't believe he's so big!

Christmas Caroling

2011-12-18T20:54:00.001-07:00

Since the houses where we live are so spread apart, and since it's so cold, the only place to carol to our neighbors is at Walmart. And they were kind enough to let us! I'm the one in the white shirt who somehow ended up leading.

What would we do without Santa, Mrs. Claus and the accordion. Best instrument ever!

Our Santa is a total showman. What a ham! He really gets the crowds going.

Walmart dancers. Everyone LOVED us.

Sometimes it gets depressing when you are so busy raising a family and fulfilling your many responsibilities and you start to not even know who you are anymore. I wanted my kids to see me having a hobby that I love, and friends. I hoped this would make me come home a better mother and be a good example for them in their own lives. I thought, what are my hobbies? Interests? Well music, of course! I have always loved music, and wished I could sing like I used to with my friends. Our community could really use a music group. We could perform all sorts of music! I've just got to find people who are interested in joining... (harder than it sounds).

I got started contacting families in my home-school group, church people in several congregations in the community, and I found a great accordion player from an accordion club in Albuquerque! It has turned out to take 10 times the effort to gather good musicians, and time than I thought it would, so I can't say that it fell together, but I actually got people to come, so that was a start. Right away they told me I needed to be a stronger leader, and I forced myself to do the best I could at that. I have NEVER lead a choir (besides primary), nor have I ever been in a school music group of any kind, so I was intimidated a bit by others in the group who are obviously more experienced than I, but hey, I started this thing, and they had a point... I needed to lead it!

We decided to choose some Christmas music (enough for a two hour program), and get our feet wet by caroling during December. We sincerely hoped to bring joy to people and lift their spirits with this gift of music. I prayed much during this whole process that I would do the right things as the leader, and that everyone in the group would have fun, and be glad that they joined and want to come again, since I know what a sacrifice of time it is.

I hope we continue to play together, and that we can draw in more people from different faiths and backgrounds, and that the group can just keep growing and improving. I personally have always wanted to be in a Mariachi/Latin band, or a kids music band like the Wiggles, or Rock, Country, Celtic, Polka... it never ends! I love it all!

These two pictures below are at the hospital.

Rebecca taking us around to the different floors. There was a mom who just had a stroke and was paralyzed from the neck down, who has twin 11 month old babies at home, along with a 5 year old and 15 year old. What words are there for that? I can't even think about it.

I loved the songs we sang. Here they are:
O Come All Ye Faithful
Away in a Manger
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Coventry Carol
Pat-a-Pan (flutes)
Twas in the Moon of Wintertime
What Child is This
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Jingle Bells (with bells to pass out to the kids)
The First Noel
Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer
In the Bleak Midwinter
Accordion's choice-don't remember what he played here
O, ce veste minunata (Romanian carol)
Angels We Have Heard on High
Heigh Ho (Round)
Silent Night (German, Spanish, English w/sign language)
Sleigh Ride (with bells)
Violin's choice
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Joy to the World
O Holy Night (absolutely stunning)
Winter Wonderland
Chipmunk song (hula hoop)

We totally nailed all but two songs and even those weren't so bad. It was our best performance yet, and everyone just loved it. It was so fun!

80th Birthday!

2011-12-18T17:15:00.001-07:00

We were so excited to be able to go to Grandma Dixie's 80th birthday party while we were home for Thanksgiving. She doesn't seem 80, but those good genes run in Pat's family.
She's in front in blue, and I'm in front in white holding my niece Alice, and Pat and the boys are up at the top. It was good to visit with all of Pat's cousins, aunts and uncles we never get to see. Unfortunately, my foot was hurting so much from the race the day before, and my throat suddenly got really painful (I was coming down with a cold) so we left before it was over so I could put my foot up and go to bed. Talking hurt a lot, so we didn't even get to say good-bye. I'm still getting over that cold!

Everyone brought food, and it was a WONDERFUL potluck Thanksgiving dinner. Pat's parents were in charge of the food so how could it go wrong? Awesomeness!

More Thanksgiving

2011-12-16T16:30:00.001-07:00

Sam, Ln, Karisa, Steph, Dal, Elle (not pictured Jeremy, Kim, Pat and we'll pretend T was there.

My sister gave me a great present! We ran (to feed the hungry) on Thanksgiving morning! It was right in the part of Sacramento where much of my life was spent (CSUS, Institute, Sutter Memorial Hospital where I worked for years, my first job at Baskin Robbins when I was 15, and my college roommate apartment and first married apartment), so it was super fun for me. I was so happy to be there again. Unfortunately I really injured my foot, so after we parked at Jeremy's place and walked over to the start, I realized I was already in a lot of pain, and probably shouldn't run it. But the joy of being back "home" made me just push though the pain (I know bad idea), plus the fact that I wanted to see what going from nearly 7000 feet elevation where I live to basically sea level would do to my running abilities. It was so fun. I shaved 6 minutes off my time, and that was with a really sore foot, and thousands of people WALKING and being in the way, that I had to weave around constantly, and it was raining on us the whole time. I feel confident I would easily have shaved off 10 minutes if not for those factors. And it felt easy. Still my time was pathetic, since even though I ran the whole thing, some people even walked a bit (Kim), and still came in about 10 minutes faster than me. But I'm just happy that I actually ran the whole thing and didn't stop! I ran my first 5k!! A lot of neighbors were out saying, "Happy Thanksgiving!" as we ran by and there were bands along the way playing for us as we ran by, and I just thought it was so, so fun.

Things we learned this year:

Steph has bad shoes that make her bleed- she must not be saddled with D next time too
Don't take kids on the race- leave them with Pat and T or at Jeremy's house
Don't run with a sore foot, because now it won't heal
Start the race up at the front so you are in front of all the walkers
Find a meeting point so we can all find each other after the race
Turn off the rain (this is hard for me because I love the rain, but it makes running harder)

Funny thing happened- after the race I ran into one of our cousins on Pat's side (Joseph), and I told him what my time was kind of embarrassed, and his time was the same! I was starting to think he was pretty lame, when I realized that he was in the 10k race, which joined up with us in the 5k at the end. Ha.

TG 2011-Pictures

2011-12-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

My favorite parts of Thanksgiving were the fact that Dallas has a new boy cousin, Isaac, who is actually close to his age (older) and they had fun together. And G-pa kept playing tricks on them like pretending that a ghost was after them, and they were really freaked out, but simultaneously suspicious of Grandpa. It was really funny. We also went to our favorite hiking place, but it was much farther than we had remembered, and it was covered in snow, so everyone had a very cold hike (and illegal since it was closed but we went anyway). Still we had fun.
Oh, and can I just say that Daddy Pat makes the best candy ever? Yes, I can. My blog. We arrived to find his home-made caramels, caramel covered marshmallows, caramel covered apples, chocolate covered caramels, and turtles, and even more. It was off the hook good. Like amazing good. Did I mention that I gained like 8lbs over Thanksgiving, and I think 5 of those pounds were the homemade candies? Oh, and did I mention that my FIL needs his own candy shop?
Also despite having three sumptuous Thanksgiving dinners while we were in Sactown, we also enjoyed Leatherbys, and In and Out. I ate really healthy breakfasts everyday, and then enjoyed myself the rest of the time. Still paying for it too.

We got to do lots of fun stuff with my sis, Mom, and brother too like the zoo, and train museum which Rick and Sunny and their kids and Bren'mama and Taylor were at. The kids loved it of course and I loved all the time my kids got to play with cousins. We had fun singing songs with Elle, and taking turns lighting and blowing out the candles on Grandma's pueblo house. Also playing Mexican train dominoes, and watching movies and just hanging out. Good food, and visiting with family. What could be better? Evan and Elle became special friends. Here's some cute pictures my brother sent me of our outings. I of course never take pictures when I should. Dork.

Leia

Didn't see enough of this sister.

and didn't see enough of this brother.

Saw way too much of this sister. Ha! Just kidding.

Soup of the Day!

2011-12-13T09:36:00.000-07:00

Come take a journey with me! Now that it's getting cold, I am in the mood for soup. I noticed this when I was planning out the menu for the next two weeks and nearly everyday was a different soup! So I'll be blogging each one if you're interested in expanding your soup repertoire. I'll start with something real basic though. Ramen soup, pictured below. Just add something to it! Last night I just added some green onion and doesn't that look so much better than plain ramen? Or try adding cilantro, basil, finely shredded carrot, or any other vegetable. Just shred it finely so that when you add it, it cooks just the right amount.
Or you can stir in an egg. As it cooks in the hot broth it makes the soup a little creamy, and there will be bits of egg in with the noodles.
I know ramen isn't healthy for you by any means, but we like it, so I try to spuce it up a bit. I asked once what to do instead of adding bouillon to flavor soups since it's all MSG badness, and I can't afford to buy that much stock/broth already made, nor do I have time to make my own. My doctor said, to just simmer a bit of meat in the soup all day and that along with salt should do it. He said in the mornings he fills his thermos with boiling water and then adds the vegetables and finely sliced raw meat, then closes it up, and by lunch it's all cooked, and very delicious. He would never recommend ramen both for the msg and the gluten/carb noodles, but hey...

I could have handled three times this much green onion! So good!

And here is that shake from a couple posts ago with the parsley in it. I just wanted to show you that this is how I normally make it. Everything's the same except I used mixed berries so that it turns this color. But you can see the little green flecks!

Lauralei's grave

2011-12-13T08:55:00.001-07:00

I got to go to see our first daughter Lauralei's grave while we were home for Thanksgiving in Sacramento. She would be turning 10 on Monday. We went with Aunt Char since her little baby girl Charlotte is now right next to Laura. It was a nice visit, and I could not stop crying. I didn't get any pictures, so I put these up from long ago before we had Leia. Jeremy mentioned last night that Laura probably looked more like me, whereas Leia looks more like Pat. I realized he's right, because in her book we could definitely see in the pictures that Laura had my nose, and Leia doesn't. I think she has Brenda's nose. I don't know if I could scan a picture without taking apart Laura's book, or if I have any stored, because it was before we had a digital camera. Anyway, we had such a good Thanksgiving visit in Sacramento, and I keep not having time to write about it, so I thought I'd start with just a part of it.

New van

2011-12-13T08:35:00.000-07:00

After our mechanic told us not to put anymore money into our old van, we've been driving it around praying each time we get in the car that it will not break down and leave us stranded somewhere. And after listening to it ding non-stop (really annoying), and flash all it's warning lights non-stop for a month, we finally went car shopping. We found this 2006 Toyota Sienna for a great price. It has almost 100,000 miles which is why it was a great price, but it is 7 years newer than the old van and I love it. We got the bench seat in the middle, so it can seat 8.

This snow in the picture is a week old, and currently it is snowing like crazy outside and has already added a couple inches more on top of this. The trees are covered and it looks like a big, white winter wonderland. Anyone want to come visit for Christmas?

We heat our house entirely by the wood stove, and so the boys had to bring in A LOT of wood last night before it got all wet with snow today. I love the wood stove because even though the rooms don't get as warm, there is at least one really warm place in the house, and we all do our lessons and hang our right in front of the fire. The only thing I don't like is that wood is a BIG mess. Just imagine trying to vacuum up kindling/wood dust and ashes!! Our living room is just a mess in the wintertime. I'm not sure what to do about that. But I'm not complaining. At least we're warm! It is a great blessing.

Piano Recital

2011-12-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry I wasn't closer, you can't really hear any of the talking...

2011-12-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

Where's Leia? And where are my matches?

2011-12-09T20:48:00.001-07:00

My music group performed for the first time tonight and everything went well! Above is a picture of some of the police and families there. I started this group to bring joy to the community through music. Tonight was a police charity event and we had a lot of fun. We are called Lamplighters (Old Time Carolers). The guy playing Santa in this picture (sorry- it's the only one I have), is in our group and plays the accordion. FYI- the accordion is sooooo cool. I'm so thankful to the good people who are willing to hang out with me and make music! Everyone is busy and I really appreciate their sacrifice of time to help me with the group and to bless the lives of others. I hope we can do it every year! Two more performances next week and then we're done for this year.

Indian names

2011-12-05T11:56:00.002-07:00

Sam's two front teeth are so loose that one is hanging crookedly and the other is sticking straight out. I told him if we were Indians his name would be Crazy Tooth. So he pounded his chest and gave an Indian war whoop and made us all laugh.
Then I said, "Crazy Tooth! Go eat lunch!"

And Dallas said, "Yeah, Crazy Tooth! And Bossy Lady, go do something!" (Get it? That's my Indian name.)

Last week, I actually shaved Ln's head. She had cute little curls and I feel horrible saying that I shaved them all off, but over her ears was growing about 5 inches long, and yet she had hardly any other hair so she was starting to look really funny. Kind of a mixture of bald and clown hair because her long hair was so thin that you couldn't do anything at all with it, it just frizzes. I heard that if you cut it, it might all grow back faster and thicker, so here's hoping. Now all her hair is 1/2 inch long and she looks just like her brothers. I'm sure she'd hate me if she knew any better.

Trying to get a Thanksgiving post soon... I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a great time in
Sacramento! Unfortunately we picked up someone's bad cold, and have been really sick since we got home. We even had to leave Grandma Dixie's 80th party early without saying goodbye when I started to feel really sick, and I couldn't sing with Sandra on Sunday! I think we actually had 2 or 3 colds in a row progressively getting worse. More about all that later...

Pat went to work today, and then they closed the freeways since there is so much snow. He better make it home!

Who will change the diaper?

2011-11-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Evan, apparently tired of waiting for us, or excited for the challenge, decided to change Ln's diaper all by himself. He's five.

I became aware of it when they both walked out of the bedroom looking very pleased with themselves. Ln, followed E to the garbage can where they both watched the diaper get thrown in. Then I asked, "Evan, did you change Ln's diaper?" He said yes. Well actually he stared at me a long time with his cute smile and then nodded.
Afraid, I asked, "Was it poopy?"
Again a long pause with him smiling again, he nodded yes.

Pat and I stared wide eyed at each other, and I'm trying not to think how gross that is, and Pat shrugs his shoulders and says, "Well I hope you wiped her really good!"

A couple minutes later the new diaper fell off, and Pat finished off the diaper change by putting it on properly.

Breakfast ideas

2011-11-15T09:52:00.001-07:00

I just had one of my favorite breakfast smoothies and wanted to share the idea with you. I have some very healthy eaters/doctors at church that told me about this a couple years back when we just kept getting one illness after another. It's supposed to boost your immune system. I think it tastes great. All but one of my children agree. I couldn't find my camera, so I grabbed these pictures off the internet. My shake doesn't look quite as green, but you can tweak it how you like it.

So for the recipe, you do: 1 can of pineapple (naturally sweet), a BIG handful of parsley (I use Italian, but any green herb will do), and a spoonful of plain yogurt (probiotics), a spoonful of ground flaxseeds, and to make it colder add ice or any frozen fruit (I did frozen mango). Just blend it up. It does not need any sugar! So altogether you get the good yogurt, fruit, flaxseed, and green veggie and it is delicious!

I usually eat a piece of toast with butter pretty much every morning for breakfast. If I'm really hungry, I'll fry an egg to put on top with a little salt. Most days I just have the toast alone though. I changed my bread to Ezekiel bread which I can now find at my regular store. I lost 5lbs just doing this. I use it for my sandwiches too. It is more coarse, but I think regular bread tastes like unsweetened cotton candy now. This is so much better for you.

Along with breakfast, I always eat a handful of raw nuts (almonds, walnuts) and if I have enough money for citrus fruit, then I eat a grapefruit or drink some lemon juice. My kids all love citrus fruit. I'd do oranges, but we seem to never get good ones where we live, and I'm so tired of wasting my money on them.

Of course if Pat is home and cooking, then we have omelets, pancakes, waffles, french toast, hashbrowns, etc. I love those breakfasts. Just not what they do to me!

Random other tips: if I eat something sweet that I shouldn't have then I drink a Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in maybe a cup of water. It restores the acidic/alkaline levels in your body that the sugar will throw off, and it's really good for you.

Also, I've pretty much stopped eating cheddar cheese. I've switched the kids over to mozzarella, and I eat that or cottage cheese. One of my favorite lunches is cottage cheese with green chile on top (hey I live in NM!) and maybe some salt and pepper. It's really good, and these cheeses are much healthier for your body. I'm not trying to be preachy, because I mess up ALL THE TIME. But these changes really have made a difference that I can feel and see.

2011-11-13T14:46:00.002-07:00

Ln helping D with his homework

We were so proud of our boys today. They did their parts in the Primary program wonderfully!
They all memorized their parts, which wasn't hard since they were pretty short, but most of the kids didn't, and it makes a difference when you can actually look out at the audience/congregation. It gives your words more power. And they all sang their hearts out. Maybe not so much Sam, but he sang every song. Evan's face was super cute as he tried so earnestly to sing the right words, and Dallas, yet again, wins the award for the loudest kid. But I would never tell him to stop. He is singing with all his heart!

Last time we had a testimony Sunday, Evan said he wanted to go up and say his testimony. I said, "Well I can't help you. You have to do it all on your own."

"Okay!", he said, all excited.

Feeling a little wary, I said, "Evan do you know what you want to say?"

He said he did. So I asked him to whisper to me what he was going to say before he went up, and I had to pretend I wasn't laughing when he whispered his primary program part into my ear. He was the first to memorize it and has known it for weeks and been dying to get it out. I told him that it was wonderful, but he'd better keep it a surprise until the program.

So today he talked super loud and clear and said it perfectly just like he told me he would. "Without a single drop of help!", is how he likes to put it.

It was a fun Sunday too since the Oldham's were visiting, and the Debucks. Both such awesome families and we really miss them and wish they could move back to our ward! Also Josh Young leaves tomorrow on his mission to Canada, and I got him the ugliest tie I could find at the thrift store. (And Santa hats for Christmastime- you know the essential missionary stuff.)

Dropped off a little gift to our neighbor since his dad has been very ill and he takes care of us a lot. I sure appreciate great neighbors. Our other neighbor P saw Dallas and I running and offered us a ride home. We're trying to get ready for that race in Sacto so I told him that we still had 2 miles to go. Dallas was timing us with his stopwatch. Which is funny, because I think Ln could walk faster than we ran.

Dallas worked doing extra chores to make enough money to get his watch. At our house we have regular chores that they have to do everyday because their part of a family, and then I have a list of money chores that they can do to make money. Like empty the dishwasher for .10 cents or clean out the chicken house for $1.oo. Dallas has worked so hard and he LOVES his watch. It's just a $10.00 Walmart watch, but it can go underwater, has a timer, and all sorts of other cool stuff so he can time us when we run. His scout teacher told me today that he was so excited about it at scouts, and when they asked him a question about it, he pulled out the directions and read them! We were both laughing at that. I'm so proud of him.

I actually had a pretty bad week and did terrible at my calling this week and couldn't even sleep one night because I couldn't even stop thinking about how bad something I did went, and hating that I did it. It's all over now, and life goes on- but yuck. I kept wishing that I could just make myself throw up, because I felt so bad about it that I thought throwing up would maybe make me feel better. I didn't of course, but I'm having a hard time trying to figure out this extremely difficult calling! (For me.)

Happy Veterans' Day

2011-11-12T12:27:00.002-07:00

Grandma Pat

2011-11-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to finish 2011 without remembering two people that passed away this year who were a part of my life. The first is Grandma Pat. I don't have a single picture of her, but when I get one, I'll update this post. But I can picture her thin frame and perfectly straight white/blonde hair perfectly. I remember after my Grandma died of cancer, and my Grandpa remarried, and that it sure seemed quick to a lot of us. I remember going to Thousand Trails with them, and Pat sure seemed like a really nice lady, but it was hard adjusting to someone so different from your own Grandma so quickly. But we got along just fine. I was one of the older cousins, and since we lived far away, I didn't get to know her as well as some of my younger cousins who, to them, she was the only Grandma they remember. Then my Grandpa died, and I didn't really know how much I'd see of her, but just like a real Grandma, she kept in contact, constantly sending out cards for every birthday or anniversary that any of us had. I know moving out of Grandpa's house and back into her own was difficult. I told her I loved her and that I appreciated all that she had done for us and for Grandpa. I read with fondness the things she submitted to the family cookbook I did long ago. She talked about wishing she could still pull the tissues out of Grandpa's pockets when he left them in and they went through the wash. It was sweet. Sometimes I got the feeling that she was very unhappy. I think she was a sweet lady, who did the best with what she knew, or with what she was given. I wish her well, and hope I see her again.

What it means to be a man

2011-11-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

Everyday S and D have to write in their school journals. I give them a prompt. Today's was "What it means to become a man"

D wrote:

"What does it mean to become a man? It means business.
First of all it means to be strong.
Second of all it means to be trusted.
Third it means to be honest.
Fourth it means to be a Dad.
Fifth you have to be big.
Sixth you've gotta be calm. Men don't yell.
The end."

S, who is known for flying way off topic wrote:

"What does it mean to become a man? You don't talk like a baby or people will call you a baby. A man is to do work and not play. If you are a boy you need to help work and sometimes you can play games and stuff. You can play lots of fun games like Spaceopoley. If you don't know about that game it's really fun! Because it has rockets and missions and planet cards and even a space board that is really cool!!!! Well just get the idea... or you can read the funnest fact book called The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kon-fu cavemen from the Future!!!! It even says how to say cavemen talk at the End!!!!"

Yeah, it kinda got away from him. Funny how I like both of these very much though. I don't know if they quite nailed what it is to be a man, but they gave it a good try for a 2nd and 3rd grader. And I'm glad they have a good dad to be an example to them. Hopefully I can just get their writing to improve. Every day they crack me up with what they write, and they crack each other up too. Then they just sit at the table shaking with laughter at each other, and I'm stuck trying not to laugh, and trying to get them to sober up and perform their duties more dutifully.

Spaceopoly

I will not eat them in a box!

2011-11-02T21:30:00.000-06:00

We always let the kids read in bed a while and Evan is getting to be quite a good reader for a kindergartener (sp?).
I heard him yelling, "I will not eat them in a box, I will not eat them with a fox!!!", and so on. (Green Eggs and Ham with lots of emotion.)

The other day he came to me holding a freshly cut lock of Ln's hair and said, "Mom, someone cut Leia's hair."

After a lot of stern talking, he finally came out with the truth that he had done it (her biggest lock of hair!), "But", he said, "I was just cutting something and her hair got in it."

Today, after I finally got the van back (3 days in the shop and I was going crazy!) they said we needed to get a new van. She fixed the battery dying problem, but said there were so many oil leaks and other leaks that she didn't have any confidence in the van. On the one hand I am so happy since all I ever do is dump money into repairing that van every month. On the other hand, this means going into major debt and having monthly payments. Life- gotta love it. Any suggestions as to what van/suv to buy?

Halloween night, after the kids got home, we thought we'd watch an old 80's favorite 'Ghostbusters' while we ate candy. We fast forwarded through a lot of talking boring stuff at the beginning and got to the part where they see the first ghost in the library. It scared Sam so bad that we immediately turned it off. Now we sleep with him at night. Evan didn't care, but Sam is very sensitive.

The next day I decided they'd had enough candy, and told them to pick their 15 favorite pieces of candy that they had left and to give me the rest. (I'm so mean.) I now have a bag the size of a pillowcase full of candy that will soon be in the garbage can. I know that sounds awful and I hate wasting things, but it really is junk, so what else can I do?

Too busy?

2011-10-30T23:09:00.001-06:00

Quick run-down of the week: I did waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much this week. Besides home schooling which should be enough for anyone, it was just one of those weeks where everything culminates at the same time. Attending a baptism, preparing music and delivering it to everyone in the music group so they'd have time to practice before practice and trying to find more people to join to fill in some empty spots, carving pumpkins for family night, working on a song and teaching it to the young women, writing a skit for the young women to perform in an upcoming event that is way too close, fixing a leaking pipe, getting an oil change and finding out after that that I have an oil leak and have to take the car in tomorrow, having my battery die and figuring out how to jump a car with only me and the piano teacher, having piano lessons, quitting piano lessons for the holiday season, organizing and buying clothes that match or somewhat go together for family pictures, ironing and washing all those clothes for 6 people, taking family pictures twice, having pack night, going visiting teaching to two homes with my kids and their school work, quitting speech therapy because we can't afford it anymore, taking a thank you card to the speech therapist, going on a field trip with home schoolers to a grocery store, getting snacks for three soccer parties on Saturday one of which we are in charge of since Pat's the coach, doing yard work, running, and then finally today going to church for 4 hours since we had choir practice after church. Oh yeah, and the usual making meals, housecleaning, diaper changing, story reading, grocery shopping fun we normally have.

My weeks are always busy, but this one was over the top with soccer ending, Halloween, and family pictures. I don't like being under this much stress because I couldn't focus on my kids and I lost my temper a lot. (Like when we were already late for soccer and Evan still couldn't find his shoes, so we tore apart the house even more, and I'm shrieking if anyone would ever put anything away then we might be able to find something, and eventually we gave up and grabbed some shoes out of the back yard that had been on the grass for at least 6 months and Pat had to clean the spiders out of them before E could wear them.)

I felt so bad about losing my temper. I seem to be learning more patience as the years go by, but sometimes I just freak out. I hope to be able to just say no someday when it's appropriate and not feel guilty. I just read a great article pertaining to home schoolers and how they need to not answer the phone during the school time, or the door, and need to not let their church obligations keep them too busy to do their work well. I think that could apply to any family, when it's involving time with their kids. While I love serving in the church and community, if your own family is falling apart, or coming in second place, I don't think that's okay. And a lot of the stuff I do, I fully take on myself so it's my fault. I get an idea, and once I start it, I feel like I have to see it through. So all I can do is pray that God will help me to see what is wise and best so that I do things with better judgement and prudence in the future. To my children who will read this one day in the future- you guys are the best and I'm sorry I yelled at you! I love you so much.

The two small pumpkins are from our garden. We carved pumpkins and then roasted the seeds with salt. So good.

We had our first snow of the year. Dallas showing his frozen shirt he left outside. It's tied to a pole because it's the flag for his fort.

We had a fun trunk or treat at the church. Wish you could see the feather on the back of Ln's head band. She is too cute!

We took family pictures this week. Twice. I won't see how they turned out though for a couple weeks. One was just $10 for a fundraiser-5 minute family picture and done- they'll mail it in two weeks. The other my friend did for free, but I have to do some service to pay for them. So she serves us if we'll serve others and write on her blog about what we did. I'm doing my music group, and Pat's doing something else.

Saturday wrapped up the end of the boys soccer season, and we had three parties (one after each game was over). We had lots of fun and the boys all really improved a lot. It's difficult having three games every Saturday, and practices every week, but now that it's all done, it's going to feel a bit empty. Dallas and Sam especially had good friends and soccer gave them the opportunity to see them consistently and play with them which they don't normally get to do since we home school. We've come to know a lot of the families out there and it's nice to see them season after season. It was funny because on D's team, 5 of the 9 boys were home schooled, and none of those were in our home school group. Some are new friends and some we've seen for 3-4 years now. I just thought that was cool.

By the way, I didn't mean to make it sound like I was complaining about serving. I enjoy it and I'm really grateful for the church programs since while I am helping in one place others are helping my children. I am really blessed to have such wonderful scout leaders who watch over Dallas and run such a fun program for him. He and Sam both love going to the church each week to do scouts and then they all play with their friends afterwards in the gym, while I'm finishing up with the young women. And hopefully the mothers of the young women feel like we do a good job with them!

Now if you'll excuse me, it's 11:15pm and I have to go work on the skit and correct a weeks worth of work.

I hate coming up with a title for each journal entry.

2011-10-17T20:13:00.002-06:00

The best babysitter in the world came over this weekend. She doesn't charge a thing, and lets us go out for 8 hours at a time. (Longer if we want to.) The kids love her since she cooks, plays games, reads books and lets them watch movies. She even finished up the school work with them! This babysitter goes by the name of Stephanie, and looks very much like my sister. But she also went by the name Aunt Stephanie the next day when we watched the boys soccer games. She even cheered and took pictures like a real Aunt.

Unfortunately, she left as quick as she came. Sad, I know.

I think I may be heading toward a mid-life crisis. Sometimes I stay up really late and dance my brains out. This seems to be happening more frequently. I get to go to a church dance this weekend. My high school friend Ruby and I used to go to those all the time and dance like crazy, so I keep feeling excited, but I have to remind myself that I am going this time as an adult chaperone, and I won't be dancing. Yep, I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to dance and I cannot pass for a high-schooler. No one wants to see me dance anyway, but... you can bet I'll be tapping my toes really hard. Do you think they're still playing Jump Jump, and Cotton Eye'd Joe? I hope not.

Today I went to see a surgeon because whenever I bend over too long my organs fall out. At least that's what it was feeling like. Then it makes you feel crazy panicked like you might not get it all back together and after some wiggling it all finally goes back in, and you're relieved. But it hurts for a week after that. So a friend said I should really get that checked out since it's been happening for 2 years or so.

The surgeon said I don't need surgery because it's actually my ribs sliding out of joint. The perscription? Wear a corset! He called it a rib belt I think, and I said, "Like a corset?" and he said, "Yes."
He said it's from all that babies kicking way up high in my ribs. (I'll get them for that.)

Beautiful double rainbow. I have an awful camera, but if was a full bow. And you can see my sunflowers!

Couldn't quite get the full bow in the picture, but it was stunning.

Trip to the pumpkin patch with our home school group. We went to McCalls this year which is right by our house, but it's the first time I've been there. It was pretty awesome.

They have a huge corn maze, but we just went to the first lookout and back.

Fast slides!

Corn!


Finished correcting a big stack of work! Homeschooling is a full time job. This is my least favorite part. They just finished the first of 5 units. Sam's overall grade is and A. Dallas' math is an A and his English is B-.

We were glad to have Hasslers and Colsons to dinner this week. We have people to dinner about once a month, even if it is just the missionaries, and I realized that I never wrote about that, but since I don't want to talk about people on my blog who may not appreciate it, I'll just say that I just found out that someone is from Sacramento and played water polo just like me in high school. That is sooooooooo weird.

A couple days ago Sam got something stuck in his eye and the doctor was able to get it out and he was more brave than I would have been. Dallas has an appointment for braces this week. Hopefully they'll say he doesn't need them for a couple more years.

We've been getting into the fun of Halloween around here. We actually grew two pumpkins this year, and the boys have each made a skeleton, spiderwebs, and helped me decorate. We've also learned some fingerplay Halloween songs that Ln LOVES (5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate, and I'm stirring and stirring my brew). I found a dragon costume at the thrift store for Evan, but I still don't know what to do for Sam and Dallas. They want to be wizards with a white cloak and a dark cloak and they even found staff's in the back yard (sticks that we can spray paint). Someone gave us an Indian costume for Ln so she's good. Pat and I are dressing up as really cool people. Go watch Adam Sandler's SNL skit for cheap Halloween costume ideas. Very helpful. Good day.

10 Commandment Rock

2011-10-06T08:34:00.000-06:00

"In the middle of the lonely desert, rests a long forgotten stone deep in the heart of the New Mexico. The language, written in anicent Palo Hebrew, records the very words of the Ten Commandments. To date no one knows how long this stone has been there, or how it got there. Yet over the years, this stone has been visited by over 75 different Bible Scholars. All Bible Scholars have concluded that this stone is not a fake, but indeed real and authentic." Underwood, L. Lyle

Last week we went on a field trip with our home school group out to Indian lands to see this large boulder weighing about 80 tons. Some believe that it was college students who came here and copied the inscription from a book, but I find that doubtful personally because it's in the middle of nowhere and would have taken so much work to do that. But who knows. That's why it's called a mystery rock. Some firmly believe it is 4000 years old, others 2,500-2000 years old. Since there's no fee to go see it, and it cannot be moved to a museum, people have been visiting it, some destroying it, some to clean it, so apparently it cannot be tested with accuracy.

"A letter group resembling the tetragrammation YHWH, or "Yahweh," makes four appearances. The stone is controversial in that some claim the inscription is Pre-Columbian, and therefore proof of early Semitic contact with the Americas. The first recorded mention of the stone is in 1933, when professor Frank Hibben, an archaeologist from the UNM, saw it. Hibben was led to the stone by an unnamed guide who claimed to have found it as a boy in the 1880s. The 1880s date of discovery is important to those who believe that the stone was inscribed by a lost tribe of Israel. The Paleo-Hebrew script is practically identical to the Phoenician script, which was known at the time, thus not precluding the possibility of fraud."- copied from Wikipedia

The lady who showed it to us told us that there used to be Irish living at this mountain and Israelites living there back from the time of Kind David in the Old Testament, but I have no idea how she knew that. She was very old and hard to understand. I'm thinking of the Book of Mormon and how we know that many people were lead out of the Old World at various times to come here to the New World. She has invited a lot of scholars to come and see it and one who was knowledgeable of Israelite things said, "There ought to be an alter on this mountain somewhere." They looked and eventually found it- only about a foot high with more of this ancient writing inscribed on top. However as I said she was old and hard to understand, and though we climbed the whole mountain and looked, we would have never found it without someone to show it to us. Too bad. Here's pic's.

Driving in

Weird bug

Hiking up a short distance

And we're there! The rock has rolled some, so the writing used to go up and down like columns. Also you can see someone scratched out the top line.

Me and my big hat.

D&S off on their own

Sometimes I can't believe these are my kids!

Heading up to try to find the alter.

Looking out over the valley about halfway up

There were some walls built up here on the mountain. Were they lookouts? Karisa believes it was the Irish.

We saw lots of trains pass by. This is in Los Lunas only about 1/2 hour from Albuquerque. Isn't the valley beautiful? For a desert?

Some people stay on the path, and others take the dangerous way- while holding a baby.

She's a trooper

Can you see the home D & S found for themselves?

This activity was a fun day of hiking and Pat was able to come along and the kids just memorized the 10 commandments so it fit perfect!

Food experiments

2011-10-05T12:49:00.003-06:00

I sometimes think I should just start a food only blog... I love experimenting with food! If you think I sound kinda like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with my love of sinful food vs healthy food, well you're right. I am split in half, both sides fighting against one another. One side is evil, but I'm so good at it, it's hard to give up. Actually my goal is just to control it to very limited amounts.

Pat made the most delicious green chili alfredo sauce! Creamy and SPICY! It's a New Mexico thing.

These are Polish cookies called Kolachki. The cookie is the strangest cookie recipe ever (yeast, sour cream) and it tasted like pie crust but light and buttery,and then topped with jam and powdered sugar frosting. It is heaven. I made some with just cinnamon and sugar and they are so sinfully good! Seriously, you can't eat just one.

I love turkey burgers way more than regular ones because meat grosses me out so much. Pat doesn't, but after I made these he said that was the best turkey burger he'd ever had. We hardly ever go out to eat, and there's no place to order in where we live so we've gotten good at cooking for ourselves. Our favorite burgers, when we really want to splurge, are topped with bacon and a fried egg with a mostly runny yolk, and everything else you like on burgers.

Sprouted bread, tuna, and home grown sprouts on top. Great lunch!

This is a recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks blog. Eggplant and tomato pizza (mozz cheese/no sauce). I used my french bread recipe for the crust and it couldn't have been more perfect- probably the best pizza I've ever made!

You know you're in NM... This is brown rice with chicken gravy which has nothing to do with NM, but on top, the wee bit of roasted green chili- has everything to do with NM. I laughed when I saw that I had made my lunch up this way. The hotter it is, the better it is for you! In NM at this time of year, outside of every grocery store, they are roasting green chili's and the smell fills the air. It's lovely. People buy them by the sack- and it's not a small sack!

Pat said to surprise him for his birthday, so knowing he loves pumpkin pie, I made this creamy take on pumpkin pie. It was just okay, not a keeper, but it was fun to make.

Cute Sunday dress

2011-10-05T12:21:00.000-06:00

I tried to get some pictures of this cute Sunday dress from Aunt Steph many times and finally succeeded! The one at the map is before church, and the others are after church playing in the rocks. It's been turning cold and we'll miss perfectly sunny days like these!

Life recently

2011-09-14T20:23:00.002-06:00

I'm starting a music group, and Dallas said, "I want to be in your band."

I said, "Hmmm... I'm not sure what you could play since you can't carry around a piano"

Then the idea of shakers came to my head, "Maybe you could shake something!"

And not missing a beat Dallas said, "Yeah, like my butt."

Isn't E great? He's been watching Dallas diagram sentences I guess, and I came in and saw this. Pretty good for a new kindergardener (sp?).

Currently, the sister in our house, goes into the brother's underwear drawer and helps herself. Usually she just pulls them all out and makes a big mess. This time she thought they made pretty good hats.

This is Sam at a baseball game. Pat got two free tickets from a co-worker and free food vouchers so Sam got to eat real game food. You know, healthy stuff like hot dogs and cotton candy and kettle corn.

Lately, I've been getting really frustrated at all the special food Pat gets through his work. He was at a meeting recently and someone had ordered Chicago style pizza FROM CHICAGO! He brought home a piece for me to try since I had no idea what it was, and it was sooooo good. Then I went online to try to make my own. You make it in a round cake pan so it's deep, but it's really only high since the bottom is thin. Then you layer cheese, pepperoni and sauce ON TOP. Mine turned out okay. I didn't want the white bread/cornbread crust so I used whole wheat. Wasn't quite the same.

I don't think a prettier picture of our town has ever been taken. This is a new field they put in and here is Pat coaching soccor. Sam is in orange and his best friend Tyler is in blue looking at the camera.

Evan very proud of himself for folding his laundry and putting it away.

Dallas stuck this note to Ln's head and came to me and said, "I found a way to make Ln stop crying!"


Boys proud of their "stained glass" artwork.

After getting home from the temple the other night, the boys all met me and told on their dad. Apparently Pat had not cleaned up dinner off the table and Ln had gotten up there while he was distracted and dumped a huge tupperware of homemade syrup over her head. She was scared to death, her face covered in syrup, and the mess was enormous. Pat mopped twice, and after I got home I mopped again and still I find syrup everywhere- on the curtains, chairs, in my bathroom where he took her to bathe her, and all day today my baby smelled very maple-y.
Today Sam and Evan had doctor visits. Evan was as sweet and smiley as can be and Sam was... well... on his dark side. He let the nurse take his height, weight, pulse, bp, etc, but once the doctor came in he refused to even sit on the table. He was so rude that it took everything in me not to spank him and threaten him with his life. I'm not necessarily against spanking, but I knew it wouldn't help. What a frustrating day. Uuugghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

On a Sunday afternoon...

2011-09-14T19:54:00.000-06:00

We went up to take a walk along the crest of the Sandias. I always hate the winding drive up the mountain, but I LOVE it once we get there! It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful walk.

I love Ln's "ears".

Dallas who is always cracking me up, tried to slide down every single rail even the flat ones.

Dallas found this. While we were in the woods we found a spot to read our scriptures.

Looking out over Albuquerque- so pretty!

4th Annual Chili Cook-off

2011-09-14T19:39:00.000-06:00

Since this is the 4th year we have been in charge of the chili cook-off via Pat's Elders Quorum calling, I figured I'd better actually document it with some pictures for once. The first two years were at the Shepherds home and these last two years we had it at the Nuckols. I think it was the best year of all. We've had bigger numbers some years, and it's always fun, but this year it was so relaxed. I made french bread, corn bread and Pat made a dutch oven dessert while we were there (apple crisp). Everyone brought chili or some side dish or dessert. We didn't do the kids sack races and relay races just because we were tired from three soccer games that morning. But still everyone played and had a grand time. This year we just didn't stress at all and I should really do that more often.

Waiting for people to arrive. Ln loved the grass. So did the missionaries. They got down and rolled around on it. You never knew how much you appreciate grass until you've lived somewhere where there's hardly any. This is our Bishop's house.

The chili's start arriving.

Ammon

Ln loved this swing and stayed put pretty much the whole night.

Pat's favorite-the Woodards corn cakes. My favorite-the Underwoods jalapeno poppers.

Ultimate Frisbee- we have a great group of energetic players in the ward.

Winding down and cleaning up- I wish my yard looked like this!

I have to say I am so thankful for the opportunities the church gives us to meet and make friends. It is a privilege to know so many great people. I was just struck recently with all the selfless service given in the church as I went with the youth to the temple. Not only were the youth serving when they could have been home doing homework, playing volleyball or other after school activities, but all the leaders who gave their time to carpool them down there and serve in the temple after a long days work, giving up personal time, or time with their families. Temple work is amazing. I was just called to be a leader with the young women, and I feel so happy that I get to go on trips like this. At first I was nervous, (well I guess I still am) because I really like primary and don't know how I'll do with teenagers. But I got to really love working with the Beehives (12-13 year old girls) for the last 2 months, and was sad that they suddenly changed me again, but now I get to do activities with all the ages and I'm really excited! I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I have a testimony of the wonderful blessings that come with service, and I hope that we can all grow closer to the Lord and to one another.

Thankful post!

2011-09-03T22:55:00.003-06:00

I'm thankful for the great date that I had with my husband a couple weeks ago.
I went out running in the morning like I usually do on Saturdays and when I got back he'd arranged for Samantha to come over and babysit and I got so excited!
He took me to a vegan/raw foods restaurant. They did cook some stuff though. I got an Indian plate that was okay, and Pat got the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. It was shepherds pie made with lentils instead of meat and sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes and lots of green stuff in it too. It was mostly disgusting though because of how they presented it. It's hard to describe...Pat hates yams/sweet potatoes but he ate almost all of it!
Which reminds me that we had a family over for dinner that Pat invited last minute and so I made what I had which turned out to be yam mashed potatoes and a zucchini casserole, and pork chops. It all turned out really awful. My friend Melinda, well lets just say she is a great cook and she hates vegetables so this was a trial for her.   It was hilarious. Man that dinner sucked. She finally gave up trying to be polite and said it was prison food.   She didn't offend me, since we were all laughing about it. You know, I'm usually a really good cook, but I experiment a lot and things usually go wrong when I experiment on guests. Luckily she brought dessert so people did get to eat something.   I'm glad people love me anyway. Although I watched a chef make those yam mashed potatoes on T.V. and they said how good they were and so I was mad that they didn't turn out. Especially since those yams were for me to eat raw, and I sacrificed them to the last minute dinner for nothing!
Back to our date:
Then we had to go get a water softener since ours broke. Don't you love buying really expensive appliances?
Then we stopped at Kohl's since Pat needed some shirts and they had some necklaces on clearance for under 5 bucks so I got a few that I liked. Yep, Karisa's going to look spiffy-er on Sundays.   Anyway, it was a great day!

Today I listened to Andrea Bocelli's Canto de la Terra and burst into tears since it was so beautiful. All the kids freaked out and Pat laughed at me since he knows me and how much I love music. I'm so thankful for music.

Sam had his friend Tyler spend the night last night and these two seriously have so much fun together. I only wish Dallas had a friend like that. They couldn't stop laughing. It was great.

Later after we dropped off his friend today we ran by the store and Sam was rude or not helpful to two people. I was so sad. I talked to him a lot about it, worrying that my children are turning out home-school freaky, you know.
I don't know what happened to Sam, especially since I had chewed him out, but all evening he could not stop saying how much he loves me.... kissing me, hugging me.   He would never walk away. He would just hug again and again and say I love you again and again, brushing my hair, etc. It's not strange for him to do that stuff, but tonight he just seemed overwhelmed with love for me, and of course I appreciated it so much! Strange though. I wonder what happened?

Then I laughed really hard because Pat started to get jealous and went begging hugs from him.
He told him we're going to go on a walk tomorrow. All the boys were excited, but since it's on the edge of the highest mountain overlooking Albuquerque, Dallas said, "I wish they would put a fence up. My hands are getting sweaty."
He's so funny. He beat me in chess today. Like usual.

Journal found!!

2011-09-02T22:43:00.000-06:00

I finally found my journal that I took to Ireland!! Almost 1 year later. So with my flying typing fingers... and Pat's too... it's all in here now.

So if you are interested in the extremely long winded story of our trip to Ireland (it's really boring) then look back to November of 2010. (It's a series of posts starting with Day 1 and ending with the Andrea Bocceli concert.

I'm just glad I found it since Pat is trying to get our 2010 book ready to print and it would have been missing so much!

Granola Bars

2011-08-30T10:48:00.000-06:00

I altered a granola bar recipe (Playgroup Granola Bars on Allrecipes.com) to make it a bit healthier and the results are fantastic!

Here is the recipe if you are interested. It makes a big cookie sheet full of bars (about 30 total).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease cookie sheet.

In your biggest bowl combine:
4 c. rolled oats (whole grain)
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. wheat germ (or 1/2 c. wheat germ and 1/2 c. ground flaxseeds)
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 c. raisins, nuts, sunflower seeds, choc.chips, m&m's, or any combination of these (optional)
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Make a well and add the wet ingredients:
1 c. honey
2 eggs beaten
1 c. vegetable oil (or healthier oil)
4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c. water

Mix with hands until thoroughly combined and pat into cookie sheet and press down evenly. Bake for 35 minutes (more if you want it real crisp or less if you want it more chewy). Cool for 5 minutes, then cut bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.

Restoring Courage

2011-08-25T14:36:00.005-06:00

Leading up to the Restoring Courage event there were some really neat gatherings of religious leaders who spoke. The overwhelming message was one of love and working together for God's chosen people of Israel. I have always been interested in the Jewish people since I read 'The Diary of Anne Frank' as a girl and learned all I could about the holocaust.   Now I am interested in the fate of Israel and the Jewish people because of all the prophecies in the Bible.   It is very interesting to me and it will kill me my whole life that I didn't go to Israel when I had the chance many years ago.

The actual Restoring Courage event on the 24th was, I thought, very well done even though there were last minute changes since all the Muslims who were supposed to participate had to cancel. The threats against their lives grew so serious that it was understandable and Glenn knew that might happen. Sad that they would have to endure this though. (This because they would support Israel's right to exist.)

All the music was WONDERFUL.   (Discovered two new wonderful singers Dudu Fisher and Alex Boye.)
Cool story: A man from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Alex Boye) felt inspired to come and sing the closing song for the event in Jerusalem. He flew across the world and even brought his own accompanist though he was not involved with the program in any way. Somehow a couple days before the event in Israel Glenn heard him sing. He then asked him the morning of the event to do the closing song. This man though surprised, agreed. He said the Spirit had told him and he had known for several years he was supposed to sing this particular song at an important event.   (He is from Africa, grew up in England I think, but now lives in Utah since he performs with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.)

The main focus of all of this, was standing with Israel. As goes Israel, so goes the rest of the world.

Israel is being set up and the whole world, it seems, is against them.

Are we courageous enough to stand and say "Take me first!" were something like the holocaust to ever happen again? Will we wait and hope for the media to change their minds on Israel? (They won't.) History is repeating itself.

After all Israel has been through... they are remarkably patient. Yet today people are making the same mistakes. It is easier to flow with the majority as they condemn Israel, rather than stand for Israel. Just like in Hitler's days- people are turning a blind eye.

Israel is a tiny country, surrounded by enemies, enduring bombings daily, and the collective critisicm of the world's leaders, when all they want is to survive.   I believe they have the right to defend their land and to survive. If you have never read the book by Corrie Ten Boom 'The Hiding Place', please read it. It makes you think about fear vs. love and courage to do what is right no matter what. I hope to be like their family one day. But putting that aside, one of the greatest testaments that the gospel is true, is that Israel, having been hated and persecuted since the beginning of time, still stands. God made a covenant with them, and we would do well to be on their side. I study history with my children, and all those empires who have taken over and destroyed Israel (Babylonians, Assyrians, Romans, etc), failed and now no longer exist... yet Israel stands.

Probably my favorite quote from the event:
"Evil is counting on us to do nothing. Evil is counting on us to be afraid.   But evil had misjudged us. " - GB

http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/08/24/declaration-of-rights-responsibilities/

Hiking the W

2011-08-21T21:07:00.000-06:00

I carpool with my neighbor and a few months ago he finally got me into geocaching. This is a game where someone hides some type of container, posts the latitude and longitude and possibly some type of hint and you go and try to find it. Once you find it you can log your find on geocaching.com. The boys and I like it because we get to hike and when we get there the boys think it's fun to find some type of hidden treasure.

Mike, my neighbor who was going for his one thousandth find this last weekend, picked a suitably memorable geocache to find and invited me to come along. Three miles, a little over three thousand feet in elevation gain and lots of fun to be had. The cache was called "The W" and from its description:

The Knife Edge is aptly named, as it drops off hundreds of feet on either side. Only people who are very confident of their scrambling abilities, with respect for but not a fear of heights, should attempt this. The W is also an appropriate name, as it is two large notches in the Knife Edge, which are clearly visible from below.

Oh...did I mention, I'm pretty scared of heights. I went on the hike expecting to sit out once we got to the Knife Edge. There was never any one good place to stop, it got scarier and scarier the further we went on so slowly that I just never stopped. When we were about 200 feet from our goal I was absolutely terrified but I'd come so far and was not stopping at that point. I just ignored what my eyes were telling me and kept them looking closely at the rocks in front of me.

The goal from the bottom of the mountain, the "W" is circled in red.

Mike and Matthew on the way down, yikes...can't believe I'd been up there.


Me and Matthew on the way up.

These are two videos that Mike got, one on the way up and the second at our goal. In the second video you can really see where my fear of heights had kicked in and I had to have two hands and both feet touching something so I didn't completely panic. Despite that fear it was actually a ton of fun. As a side note my username on the geocaching website is "paboperfecto", Mike refers to me as that at least once in the videos.

For those who are interested in these types of things here is the hike profile downloaded from one of the GPS units we had along with us:

And so it begins...

2011-08-15T18:27:00.002-06:00

Yes. Today was our first day of school! I must say my kids crack me up. Idients and Terps. These are their made-up names for themselves as barbarians. (We were learning about the fall of the Roman Empire- Huns, Visigoths, etc, and of course the Idients and Terps). You had to be there. But they both impressed me with how much they remembered from where we left off last year and how much they can find on the map still.

We kind of fizzled out last year since I had to do the food for girls camp right when school was ending, however for their final project the kids "published" their own newsletter and delivered it to all our neighbors. It was very informative; the kind of must read news you can't live without from a 1st and 2nd grader. Someday I'll get it up here.

We've been preparing for weeks now and though our schedule will always need tweaking since I have a baby whose nap times vary, and other interruptions to our days like speech therapy and piano, but I feel pretty good. Okay well, in actuality, there's a lot of stuff I can't figure out how to get to , but I had a strong feeling that I should continue to home school this year, so I am trusting it'll work out. Pat gave us all blessings last night and now we just do our best.

I noticed that things don't go well if I don't get enough ME time and time with Pat. So I'm waking up at 5am everyday to study scriptures with him before he leaves for work. Then I'm hoping I have from 6-7am to exercise ALONE without a baby awake, but that's really hopeful. There's so much I want to do!

Still trying to figure out how to fit in a few other things into our collective schedule... it's not easy.
And soccer is starting soon. Sam has decided to try playing again after taking 2 years off, and I really hope he has fun. He'll have two friends from church on his team! Evan and Dallas are playing too. Busy, busy, busy. Pat is coaching again- Sam's team this time.

So here's a big catch up on some of what we've been up to.

Busy girl. Update: Just had her 18mo appointment and she is 25% for height which I was shocked about because everyone always says how tall she looks, and she has not really gained any weight since the last visit 6 months ago. The Doc said he knew why- she was the busiest kid he had ever seen! She climbed on and off the exam table about 20 times during our visit, opened up all the drawers, etc. He said she's really smart and not to worry- she'll start talking soon.

This is a home-made Wii remote. I pulled on the cord and it said something along the lines of If you let us play Wii...

One of the gorgeous dresses from Aunt Steph.

Ln interrupted the boys puppet show.

Destined for the theater.

I fancied myself a seamstress, able to make these supposedly incredibly easy shorts. I gave up a year and a half later, and mailed the cut out material to my MIL (before they grew out of them!) and she whipped them out and back to me. There are more than these but this picture shows you the different fabrics the boys picked. The love them, and we are so thankful to Bren'mama for saving the day!

Can I call this her first ponytail?

Don't fight a tree. You'll lose.

A year and a half old and so cute! She is taking her sweet time talking though and I'm beginning to get worried! She can say Mama, but refuses to do it. Other than that, she's not talking.

Sam could never decide what he wanted on his cake, so I did a generic one. You're cool if you know where the quote is from. (We have the power, so can you!)


I cannot believe Sam is 7. Really.

We're still letting the boys sleep in the tent outside as much as they want since once winter sets in, it's impossible to step outdoors for months and months...

Our little garden. Better this year than last. Credit goes all to Pat. I've spent a total of about 1/2 hour in the garden this year. Anybody need some zucchini?

I'm trying to get to at least 50% of what I eat being raw. Pat keeps trying to feed me raw meat, but I MEAN raw vegetables! The garden has certainly been helpful. Bye!

Tired of the same old dinners?

2011-08-11T08:04:00.000-06:00

After reading Stone Soup to the kids, Sam said, "Is that real?"
I said, "Of course!"

FYI- The book is about some hungry travelers who finally arrive at a town, but no one will share any food with them. They pretend to not be worried as they are planning on making some stone soup to eat. Stone soup? This gets the villagers curious.   The stones boil in the pot and the travelers taste it and say how delicious it is.   BUT it would be even better with a little salt. Then a little bit of herbs. Then some onion and carrots.   Then meat and potatoes and so forth.   The villagers become so anxious to taste the stone soup that they gladly provide the additional things that go into the soup and in the end it turns out delicious and the travelers and villagers have a great feast together.

So since the kids were skeptical, I told them to go and get some stones and we'd make stone soup.

We looked at the book and did it exactly how it read.   Water, rocks, bring to a boil.

Then each ingredient in order including throwing in red potatoes WHOLE just like they did in the book.

After two hours simmering we ate stone soup for dinner.    It was delicious!!    The potatoes and meat were buttery soft. Sam thought the stones had melted into the soup, but I showed them they were still there. They were just in there for flavor, I said.

So if you're wondering what to make for dinner tonight...

This post is not funny

2011-07-26T20:13:00.001-06:00

Do you know what my dear boys did today?
They took advantage of the very rainy/muddy conditions and stamped their muddy hand prints in a continuous band around the entire house (outside).

When I told them to get the hose and wash the house off, they forgot to shut the windows first.

Not funny.

Big mess.

Then I told D and S that they would be getting no birthday presents since I would probably have to buy new locks for the doors (they had filled the little keyholes with mud).

As you can see, this was not funny.

Tonight we were all weeding the garden, and D said, "Come on, Mom. You'll forgive me. Just think about all the good things I've done. Just think about ... (fill in lots of good stuff.) Lets not think about the past. Lets think about the future."

Then Evan said,

"Mom, the future is in the sky."

(Then he looked up at the sky, I can only presume to look for the future.)

Ln Videos

2011-07-22T08:16:00.000-06:00

Ln and Ring Around the Rosies, and Ln and the Chicks.

I love music!

2011-07-21T17:53:00.018-06:00

I love music. I spent my entire teenage years dancing in my room. Here's Fleetwood Mac's Gypsy. Watching her dance around in front of the mirror reminds me so much of me back then, and my sister thought the same thing, although I never listened to Fleetwood Mac growing up.

Do you ever have the wish that you could go back in time to the 80's? When music was good? (U2, Def Leopard, Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, etc)

Duran Duran below. You can't beat Simon's voice or John Taylor's looks. Still. Don't you love real talent that happens naturally without being manufactured?
(Favorite songs: I Don't Want Your Love, The Reflex, Save a Prayer, Perfect Day, Hungry Like the Wolf, Rio, Come Undone, Ordinary World, The Seventh Stranger, Union of the Snake, Notorious, A Matter of Fact, Salt in the Rainbow, Is There Something I Should Know?, Friends of Mine...)

Duran Duran - always classy.

And then by the 90's you'd be the lead singer of the cranberries?

Everything... I give up trying to name every song.

Then for fun you would sing in a whole different way, say, in a Mariachi band? Or Cumbia like Selena?

Or Mana?

And then, hailing back to our ancestors, we'd sing the lovely haunting melodies of Ireland and/or Old English songs like in the movie "Under the Greenwood Tree". Doesn't this group below look fun?! It would be my dream come true!

Edit 7/22:

This one goes under moving traditional haunting melodies:

Personality test

2011-07-21T16:38:00.000-06:00

As an activity with the young women at church we all took this color personality test.   Everyone is a mix of the four colors Red, Blue, Yellow and White, but what color are you predominantly?

I am predominantly Blue, with a far away second place of Red, then White, and last Yellow.

Pat is tied for first place with White and Yellow, and then tied for second place much lower with Red and Blue. No surprise.

But sometimes I wonder if we are what we are because of the circumstances we're in.   Perhaps we'd be different at different stages in life. In fact I'm sure of it.   Teenagers for example, and singles without the responsibilities of family are bound to have more Yellow in them because they can naturally be more carefree and fun.    Or for example, if I was married to someone with a different personality, would I be different too?   I think so, to a point.

The person teaching the class used the example of her Aunt, who she really grew to love only after her Uncle died. You see, he was such a dominant, and her aunt was such a peacemaker, that her real personality didn't even come out until after he had passed. I thought that was really interesting.

Can we develop the personality traits we wish we had? Definitely, but it's not easy since it's not natural to us and sometimes requires that we step out of our comfort zone, or deal with a lot of frustration. Believe me, I'm trying...

I've been reading about Gandhi, and I love this quote by him:

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Choose your words for they become actions.

Understand your actions, for they become habits.

Study your habits, for they will become your character.

Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny."

We may be born with certain personality traits, however, that cannot define us.   It is up to us to decide who we will be.

Video games vs. Chores

2011-07-18T12:23:00.004-06:00

D: Why don't we have machines to do our piano lessons for us?

M: Because then you would have a mush brain and only know how to play video games.

D: Hey video games teach a lot- like how to drive. Can't I turn my head into mush if I want to?

M: You can when your older but for now mom and dad will have to make the rules since we'll have to answer to God someday whether or not we taught you good things.

D: Come on, I know the pledge of allegiance. Isn't that enough for me to be on my own?

M: I think you'll need to know a little more than the pledge.

D: What about the Star Spangled Banner? What if I learn that?

M: (rolling eyes)

-----------------------------------

The kids are extremely inventive when trying to get me to let them play video games. I let them play one hour a day since it's summertime instead of just one hour on Saturday's, but sometimes through bad behavior they lose their "Mario time". That's when they pull out all the stops.

"Mom can we brush your hair?"

"Mom are there any extra chores we can do to play Mario?"

Usually it's things like that. In the past they've done a protest, marching with signs, etc.

Last week's was the most impressive of all; a little skit. It was like the Chicken Little Movie, you know, acting out the end of the world if I don't let them play Mario.

Sam started out whispering in a ominous voice:
They saw the signs.

They tried to warn her!

Etc, Etc- progressively worsening.

The skit ended with desperate pleas for me to give in and save the world. I did give in, not for the world's sake, but for creativity. Pat- LN coated herself in a layer of vaseline this morning from her head to her shoes!

2011-07-17T20:24:00.003-06:00

Isn't it good that our little ones are so cute?

Caught playing with the phone.

Otherwise mom might get a BIT frustrated.

...hands in soup...

...on table hands in food...

Okay let me scroll up to that cute picture at the beginning so I can de-stress myself again. Okay.

The following is just what we've been doing lately in no particular order, rhyme or reason.

Since I'm trying to incorporate more vegetables and especially raw vegetables I tried this Spaghetti with Zucchini dish below. I had leftover spaghetti sauce with turkey meatballs and I just warmed it and put it over some raw shredded zucchini. Guess what? It was great!

This is Salmon over romaine lettuce that has been tossed with just a bit of olive oil, salt, and lots of lemon juice. This has long been one of my favorite no-carb meals. I ate it since my mission and love it!

Sam was being really grumpy and lashing out at his brothers. I wanted to yell at him and punish him, but instead I felt like I needed to do something with him. I let him pick out a recipe to make in the kids cookbook and I was hoping he'd pick something I could eat, but alas, he picked cookies. The hard kind that you have to make and then refrigerate and then roll out, then cut, then bake and then decorate. As far as kids are concerned these are the best kind to make. The bad attitude completely left Sam for the 3 hour process of making these and he continued happy for the rest of the day! I like the Red, White and Blue frosting and the kids had a lot of fun. Then I remembered that instead of me getting left all dishes with those hard to clean cookie cutters, I could make them clean up after themselves since that is good for them anyway and so they did the dishes and it was wonderful! They really are growing up. This morning Sam made scrambled eggs for breakfast all by himself.

E covered in cherry juice.

This kid is sneaky. Pat was eating some Fruit Loops in front of the computer one night long after the kids were in bed. He reached down to get the box of Fruit Loops off the floor to refill his bowl and they weren't there. In fact, they weren't anywhere. He found Evan hiding behind the couch eating them after he had snuck in and stolen them while Pat's back was turned. He's been sneaking gum out of my purse too because he woke up with gum stuck in his hair and all over his pillow. Good thing he's cute.

Our pathetic dog Bella. She suddenly just stopped making tears for no apparent reason, and now her eyes are constantly full of crusty and slimy gunk. I've been to three vet's now, the third being a dog eye doctor, and spent way too much money for medicines and I don't know what to do! She needs eye drops all day long! I can't do this! Partly because I'm too busy and partly because I just don't remember to do it every two hours all day long. Help!

Raw cookies/bars. Very good and cures your sweet tooth if you're trying to eat better. It's a mixture of almond butter, unsweetened coconut, raisins, and agave nectar for sweetness. Pretty darn good, but they don't stay together in a cookie shape very good so we just scooped it.

There it is folks!

My other Dad

2011-07-15T20:58:00.000-06:00

Lemeki Fakalata Muo'mua

Born February 6, 1940

Died June 14, 2011

I didn't know how much this man meant to me until he died. I cried. A lot. In fact I was at piano sitting on the couch while my kids did their lessons, and I couldn't hold back the tears (I had just heard that morning) and Sister Mink turned around and astonished asked, what the matter was. I, kind of laughing said, I didn't know. My step-dad, Lemeki, died and I'm really sad about it, was all I could say.

See, this man had a bad side. He would get drunk, and scare us. He once came home with a machete cut across the top of his head from a fight he'd been in when he used to work at Black Angus as a dishwasher. (I remember he used to bring home the uneaten brown bread for us.) He'd play rugby and those Tongans were so rough. Once he got his foot broken in a rugby game, and I could see the bones on top sticking up, but would he go see a doctor? No. He preferred to take care of it himself. A lot of shocking things happened during the years he lived with us- stuff I won't ever share. I felt sad that he used to be mean to Jeremy. When Jeremy cried, he'd laugh at him and say he was laughing. I think that was just his way of toughening him up, and perhaps it worked, but it was still mean. Lemeki worked construction usually painting or roofing, and I remember the smell of the tar, and how horrible his hands looked. Those poor hands sure went through a lot. But we were poor, at times on welfare, and when my mom got a job finally, he didn't feel the need to work anymore, so that was lame. Growing up we were perpetually poor. And when he and my mom separated, I remember that I had to go live with my friend Jennifer C. for two weeks for my mom to safely get him out of the house. And then for years afterward, he threatened to kidnap Stephanie, my then 3 year old little sister, so they would do custody visits at the mall, and we'd have to alert all the security guards first about the possibility of him trying to kidnap her. I loved my little sister so much (still do) I was like her second mother since I was so much older than her, and I stressed heavily about the situation and had nightmares. I hated him during those times.

But there were good memories too. Here's some of mine with him: Someone once gave us a huge above ground pool, and he dug out the dirt about 1 foot deep in a circle 24 feet in diameter to fit the pool and it was PERFECTLY flat with sloped sides.   I loved watching him do that, and I can remember not wanting to go to school, because I wanted to stay and help him work. Also he built a shed for us out of wood, and it even had a real roof and windows and we used it as a playhouse. I thought it was a real talent to be able to build something so sturdy.

He had a horse when he was a kid growing up in Tonga who was his good friend and protected him on several occasions. My mom says that he was in orchestra one day and he played a wrong note and the teacher hit him with a stick, and he grabbed it from his teacher and broke it.

He drank Lipton tea, and grew Taro in our back yard and ate all sorts of weird things, that in time weren't weird to us anymore. Like how he'd just eat garlic cloves raw. He'd always eat a huge stack of toast in the morning with hot chocolate, and dip the toast in the hot chocolate, and soon we were all eating the same thing. Once for Steph's year old birthday, we had a huge lu'au, (Tongans are related to everyone) and we even raised three pigs in our back yard, and then he killed them and hung them up in our shed to drip dry of blood and then dug a huge pit to cook them. I still remember helping my mom boil the water to scald their skin and scrape off the hair from it.

I remember being so poor that for a while we lived off of really old canned food storage in the garage, and one night my mom tried to make us a treat, and was able to make a cookie for each of us, though I don't know what was in that cookie, because it was a weird color, and looked really weird. It tasted weird too, and Jeremy wouldn't eat it, but I did, and my dad was really proud of me. I think because he knew it made my mom happy. He and I used to sit in the kitchen, and with box cutter knives and for hours we'd strip the plastic off the old copper wires he'd brought home from jobs, and then when he had a good amount of wires folded up nicely and compactly in a box, he'd turn it in for money.

I remember too when he came to live with us. I don't know how my mom started dating him or whatever, but we went to visit him in his apartment once, and it was near our house, but in a worse area, and he had cockroaches scurrying everywhere (which hitched a ride with his stuff to our house), and the neighbor's dog bit me, and my mom was scared that I could have gotten rabies since it broke the skin.

I think they got married in Vegas, and I remember we all had matching outfits and he was young with kind of an afro. I got a new last name. Muomua. And I guess because of child support issues with my real dad, he adopted us? I don't know for sure, but I remember getting talked into that, and one day seeing his name on my birth certificate as the birth father which was shocking and made me mad because it just wasn't true. Shortly after he moved in with us, his kids came over from Tonga to live with us too. I remember borrowing an old van from the other Tongans, and there were no seats after the front seats, so we just sat on the floor for the ride to San Francisco, and I still remember their luggage was not like anyone else's. They had boxes wrapped in leaves and tapa cloths. It is a really cool memory. There was Sii, Pelinda, and Mavae. I guess the boys Sii and Mavae roomed with my brother and Pelinda moved in with me, but they were so much older that Sii and Pelinda moved out soon. To where? I don't know. Mavae stayed for several years though, and he was my real and true brother. We had a lot of fun in that pool. I don't see him at all now though. But I'm happy that at least he's friends with Stephanie. I remember sitting at the kitchen table Jeremy, Mavae, and I all doing our homework together, but he seemed so much older since he was at Burbank highschool, and I was just in elementary school and junior high.

I used to remember some of the Tongan they spoke, but now the only thing I remember my dad saying is "shook". At least that's what it sounded like, and for all I know it's a cuss word. (?)

We used to go to lu'au's or big family/feasting/gatherings with everyone, and the ladies just loved me because I liked all the food. I think we all did. The house we ate at was a regular house just like ours, but there wasn't a chair or piece of furniture in the room. Instead they covered the walls and floor with white butcher paper and then layed out mats on which they placed the many dishes of food. I loved it, and miss it so much. I was so happy when Stephanie got married, that Lemeki and Mavae, and all the brothers took it upon themselves to make all the food. It was great. I especially loved the spinach(or maybe taro?) and corned beef in foil, called Lu'pulu.

Toward the end of his life, Lemeki moved in with Stephanie and her husband T. I was glad that on one visit home to see our families, that we decided to stay with her. Lemeki and I never talked much. He never spoke English very well, but we understood each other and I could feel that again as we lived under the same roof again for a couple days, and I also felt he really liked me and was proud of me.   I don't know if I could have taken him on like Steph did, but I hope it was good getting to know each other better. I think it happened for a reason, and I hope she knows that she has 10x the patience that I would have.

Steph felt after a while that he needed to move out, and I think it was to spare her.   Soon after moving locations, he went to bed early one night, not feeling well, and the people he was living with found him in the morning.   I hope he died in his sleep, peacefully. I think he had a hard life, and I wish he had found the gospel, but no matter what, wherever he is, he is resting from his labors, and I hope he knows that he is loved.   I wish my kids could have known him more, and I'm glad he at least met them. He's not my dad, but for some years he was, and he was a big part of my life. I grew up in an area that had lots of Tongans, and I miss that. I love the people from the islands. They are dear to me.

Event concerning Israel

2011-07-15T12:05:00.000-06:00

I am ordering GBTV (it's only 4.24 per month) so that I can watch this Restoring Courage Event in Israel. If you are interested in seeing what it is about, and why it's important to stand with Israel, here is a link below for a short video. (There's actually two if you want to watch them both.)

http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/07/14/why-you-should-stand-with-israel/

When do you feel powerful?

2011-07-12T15:37:00.000-06:00

The kids have a secret club and they are always writing up secret stuff for their club.
D gave me the priviledge of reading one of the club books and it all had me laughing, but one page in particular.

Title of the page reads "When We Feel Powerful" and then they each wrote when:

D: When I am playing my favorite game.

S:When I'm happy.

E: When it's Saturday.

Utah trip part 2

2011-07-10T19:10:00.002-06:00

First of all I have to say that I feel really bad that I never got any pictures of adults. Okay, there are a couple of Matthew and Pat, but they don't really count.   I wish I had gotten Papa Scott, Janis and everyone else we hung out with. I'll tell you, trying to document everything and keep it journaled is not easy!

We never expected to be so taken in by Janis' sister Elaine and her husband John, and by Janis' sisterinlaw Colleen and her mother Beth.   They were so kind and insisted it was no trouble to feed us nearly every meal starting Saturday night all the way through Monday night! It's not easy to add an extra 6 people to your table! However, Pat and I kept commenting on how relaxing it was. He said, it was the most relaxed vacation he's had in a long time.   There was a fantastic BBQ and I ate a whole huge burger in spite of myself because it was so good, and home-made donuts with everything you could want for breakfast, and delicious fried chicken and BBQ chicken and all the picnic fixin's, and terrific pork loin with the best potatoes and corn and desserts! We thought we were just having 4th of July with all the family and were surprised (happily so) that we got to have much more time with them!

Below is the big picture dump with as many activities as I remembered to take pictures of. The first thing we did in Blanding is their water park and the kids had a great time, but for me and LN there wasn't a space anywhere to sit or a bit of shade that wasn't taken so it was pretty hard and I wasn't thinking of taking pictures.   It was really busy because anyone with any connection to Blanding comes home for the 4th of July weekend since they really know how to celebrate!   Next some sight seeing:

The boys out site seeing in Blanding. The tower.

Old Pioneer Home.

Outhouse.

D pulling wagon.

Teepee

Finding a geo-cash.

Fun mound of dirt that the boys later found out was a home that you could go into pictured below.

On the Fourth there was a parade and it was so fun! The boys especially loved the big fire trucks and construction trucks that sprayed some fierce water! I got to sit next to Colleen's mom Beth and she is almost 99 years old and just as spry as can be. Last year she was the grand marshall of the parade as the oldest citizen of Blanding.

Getting ready for the parade!

Setting up our spot

LN sitting on the curb ready to grab candy!

My favorite! Not only was this band playing Hoop-de-doo our favorite polka song which is actually the only polka song we know, but just check out the name of the band. Gadianton Band.

These guys were so funny. You have to check out this amazing contraption. The sign that says 'I don't really play an instrument I'm just here for the looks'. The two kids hanging off the back in tire swings. The guy way up high riding in the Rameumpton. Absolutely hilarious!

At our hotel there was a pool and we'd go swim whenever we could with Matthew. We did our skits for everyone too. It was so nice to sit on the lawn and enjoy a)grass, since that is a luxury here in NM, and b)seeing other families having BBQ's on their lawns, and c)have beautiful trees shading us and sidewalks and nice yards for the kids to play in. I never knew how much I'd miss those things.

One of the days there we all had a BBQ in the park. It was the best park. Old school. Blanding really seemed like a cross between Utah and New Mexico. There were a lot of Native Americans there like here, along with the pioneer stock. I fell in love with one little Indian boy at this park and wanted to take him home with me!

Old school slide would make you shoot off at the end!

Old teeter-tooters! Notice how S and E are exactly the same weight. E is shorter but S is skinnier.

Old see-saw (I think that's what it's called). All I know is all of this equipment was adult friendly and look at Pat and Dallas go!

Pat and Matthew were spinning the kids and I felt so sorry for them when I heard that two kids got thrown off (one was Evan and he got scraped up), and two other kids threw up. Yet I wish they'd bring back real playground stuff like this. Can you see Dallas in these nearly getting thrown?

LN loves swinging and had a great time. Funny story: LN fell and was crying and that made Papa Scott start crying. I was chuckling but it was very sweet. The world needs more caring people.

Sam and I went early in the morning on the Fourth to run the mile run together, but when they shot the gun and it was time to start he suddenly didn't feel good and the sun was too bright. He really is very sensitive to the sun and has trouble with his eyes so we just walked a bit and then quit.

Then late at night there was a small fair where we let the kids ride three rides each and then we all sat on a blanket to watch the fireworks.

The firework show was so awesome. There was a band out playing good music and then when it was finally 10pm they started the fireworks. Once I thought it was over and we all got up and suddenly the REAL finale started and it was so spectacular! We all went back to our hotel happy, having had a great vacation and in the morning bid farewell to Papa Scott and Janis who were right next door to us and started the long drive home. Our car did break down twice, but was quickly fixed and we made it home safe! Thanks so much for inviting us Papa Scott and Janis! We had such a great time!

Utah trip part 1

2011-07-08T09:29:00.002-06:00

My dad invited us up to Utah to visit for the Fourth of July. We met in the middle (Blanding) since he and Janis have family there and that way it was only a 7 hour drive for us. We made a few stops along the way though. In keeping with our theme this year of trying to explore our state of NM, we decided to stop and see Chaco since it was on the way. It was unfortunately really hot and not a tree or bit of shade anywhere, so if we went here in the future I'd go in the cooler months preferably a cloudy day. The kids had pretty much seen all the ruins they cared to see and Chaco has about 8 different ruins sites that you have to drive/walk and hike to. Needless to say we didn't see all of them. We saw two of them which was as much as we could manage with all the kids and the threat of sunburns and sweat dripping off of us.

The ruins were really neat though as you can see if you enlarge this picture below. This was a central place where people from all different areas even hundreds of miles away would come. No one knows why this place was chosen since there is little water, but it had dozens of huge kivas (the round things) which they say were for special ceremonies. Once again the homes were accessed through the hole in the roof and lots of ladders. Apparently there is a PBS special or something on Chaco I need to see sometime.

What Chaco was like so you can get an idea of what our pictures are all about. By the way, everything is this color brown, but since I have the cheapest camera money can buy, everything turns out a really washed out weird bright grey color. So try to imagine all the below pictures a warm brown like the above picture.

Long walks to the ruins

The girls

D's thinking spot


Mom saying, "Isn't this beautiful?"

Looking at pictures carved into the rock walls and hoping this rock doesn't fall on us.

This picture and the below are of the Pueblo Bonito site

Ceremonial Kiva

This place let us go in through the homes and the doors and pathways were TINY!

Perfect for Evan!

Painful for mom!

This was our favorite spot since it was a room they let us go into the had the roof restored like it used to be so it was dark and cool inside and I would have liked to set up home here!

LN had her fingernails painted for the very first time. Isn't it fun?

Here's the kids as we drove on the 20 miles of dirt roads to get to Chaco all watching a movie. It took a while going that slow.

The next place we went after Chaco was to Four Corners! We had to drive right by it too, so we figured we might as well stop. Apparently it used to be free to stop and see this monument, but the government gave it over to the Indians/Native Americans and they charge $3 dollars per person!! Yep. Not per car. Per person.

Dallas in four places at once. We had a lot of fun pretending to get mad at each other and leave the state we were in by taking one step over to a different state.

Like that girl is in two states since she has one foot on each side. Really this is a picture of Sam who was super grumpy and hates the bright sun so he's laying down in the shade.

And then he got a nose bleed. Pat had to get fry bread, but he told me mine was much better. All I could think was, for that price I could have made at least 50 servings of fry bread!

Happy 5th Birthday!

2011-06-28T21:17:00.004-06:00

We love Evan so much. We hardly ever call him Eegee anymore. He still has his special way of talking.

"I'ma going outside." (He adds an "a" or the "uh" sound after words.)

He has a tiny smile that looks like he's in on some secret that you don't know. But when you can make him laugh out loud his smile is brilliant!

He calls his oatmeal Opy-meal. He and Sam look increasingly like twins.

And if you ask him a question like, "Did you like your birthday cake?"
He'll say, "Uh-huh!" With a major accent on the last part like a really high note. He has a tiny tiny voice!

He is still shy in a lot of ways, but very loving. We all did some skits at scouts (Ya pucha, Worms, Pick-pocket, Seven), and he doesn't feel comfortable to do that yet, but he wants to and I'm sure he will someday.

He likes to be tucked in every night and if no one does it he'll come out and say, "Can somebody tuck me?"

He is learning to read just because he wants to and doing wonderful! He starts Kindergarten this year!

Because we have Netflicks he has found Dora and watched a few of those shows and really likes it so he asked for a Dora cake. We were lucky to have Stephanie visiting and since it was in the middle of their birthdays we decided to go ahead and celebrate them both! (Stephanie secretly wanted a Dora cake. Oh and she is also five.)

The lego thing was what I asked Pat to make to be like the castle that they get to after they cross the bridge and go over the mountain, but it just doesn't seem to fit I think.

Girl Camp Desserts

2011-06-28T16:52:00.001-06:00

What I had the MOST trouble with is a dessert for the first night for 160 people.   I didn't want to do something simple like brownies because I had done that before. I really wanted to make giant chocolate chip cookies like Levain's in New York City, but you cannot transport those easily for that many people without padding them, and individually wrapping them so they don't crumble. I went through cupcakes, bars, puddings, cobblers and crisps, an assortment of cakes, and so many other things! I finally emailed my Aunt Nancy since everyone loves her ice-cream dessert and I was resolved to make it. So I decided to test a 9x13 pan of ice-cream pie dessert calculating in my head how much ice-cream I'd need and how to get them up there without it all melting, etc, etc.

Then I tried to cut it, and I nearly died just trying to get one piece out. I don't have very strong hands and I knew I was not going to be possible to cut and serve this to 160 people.   Back to the drawing board.

Then one day I was at Costco looking at their already made desserts and wondering about what to do when I saw these mini croissants.   I asked the bakery guy what to do with these to make them a dessert.   He said to mix whip cream (you could probably buy it, but I whipped it with a bit of vanilla and sugar), with Jello Pudding Cream Cheese flavor (make it up). You just fold the pudding and whip cream together.   Then you split the croissant almost all the way in half, brush with honey, and put a big spoonful of the whip cream mixture into it.    Now place filled croissants on a cookie sheet and cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Costco mini croissants

On the side prepare some berries: chopped strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, and toss gently with a bit of honey also if you desire. (The honey has to be warmed slightly so it runs over it all. Then refrigerate the berries until ready.)

To serve have small disposable plates ready. Place one filled croissant on the plate and a scoop of berries next to it. Voila!

I even had some homemade hot fudge that I drizzled a bit over them. I had made it when I was thinking of doing the ice-cream desserts, so it worked out great! It's such a simple idea for a dessert I don't know why I never thought of it, but I bless that nice man at the Costco bakery. He told me everyone would love it and he was right! I'm not even a croissant fan, but these were sooo good! By the way, if you're not a cheesecake fan have no fear. The cheesecake flavor barely comes through (since it's a mix and there's no actual cheese in it), but it gives it a depth, whereas if you had just used vanilla pudding it would have tasted too blah sweet.

And here's what happens when the girls find the leftover whip cream filling.

Girls Camp!

2011-06-21T20:15:00.002-06:00

Girls Camp was great, and I worked myself hard. I could not have done it without my two assistants Cumorah and Susan. Cumorah had mad skills on the griddle, and Susan never left my side and never stopped doing dishes. They both supported me in everything since they were called to assist me after I had planned the menu and all. The only thing I needed was more help the morning of. My assistants had to ride up with other people since I didn't have any space. You should have seen how crazy it was at Costco first thing in the morning (they let me come in a couple hours early). I had already bought everything that was non-perishable and had it in the truck, and now I had to get all the fruit, meat, milk, butter, cheese, OJ, sour cream, bread type stuff. I was literally running through the store. 20 gallons of milk!!! I filled up one cart and two flats. Luckily someone loaned me their truck, but a large empty van would have been better, because some hot dog buns blew away on the trip and it was really hard to fit all the food even in that truck! That was the only part I hated was being alone for all of that (Pat came to help, but some more men would have been great since we had to watch the kids too and there was a lot of lifting), and then driving to the camp by myself sucked since I always get lost and I did! This camp was definitely out in the middle of nowhere! I got lost on the way home too and added an hour to my trip! The only other thing was that the estimated numbers they gave me were at times twice as high as the amount of people that actually showed up most of the time. Some girls wanted to sleep rather than eat so they didn't come to breakfast, or, the scout ranch staff that we were supposed to feed didn't show or whatever. I really could have cut down on the budget if we had known these things would happen, but nobody could know that. Everyone loved the food though, and wanted the recipes and were really, really thankful, and I got the award for Best Camp Food Ever! Then I came home and slept, and slept, and now I'm behind, behind! Why do I do this to myself? I think camp is fun and it is always a spiritual experience. President Shepherd gave a wonderful talk that I just can't say enough about, and the night we broke up into wards for testimonies was a wonderful experience too. Camp is just special, and I get to know people I never would have in the Stake and to be able to associate with them is a blessing to my life. I always come away a better person. And I was so happy on Thursday when my family got to come up to camp! They needed priesthood to accompany the girls on a hike and since they were desperate, Pat volunteered. He and the boys went and LN and I went to my tent and took a nap! The boys liked seeing where I was sleeping and they got to eat with us twice before heading back home.

I was so busy at camp that I didn't snap a single picture! So I got these from others. The below picture is of almost all the girls. I'm in there somewhere.

This is the group of leaders at camp (I'm in the back). All of them awesome. Good times.

Each group of girls was given a bag of random items that they had to incorporate into their skit. This was the best skit! I laughed so hard I cried!

Gorham Scout Ranch in Chimayo NM

I found this picture online because this is where I hung out most of the time! In the dining hall. Of course the scouts weren't there. Just wanted to give you an idea of it. It was a very large kitchen and dining hall- this picture doesn't even show a quarter of it! Here's my menu if you're interested.

Sister!

2011-06-21T19:04:00.004-06:00

My sister came to visit! My sister came to visit! We had Vietnamese food, went swimming, sang every camp song we knew, had a little birthday party and she helped with my lesson for church on Sunday and it was just a relaxed, fun, comfortable visit! I was totally exhausted after just getting back from Girls Camp so I barely cooked at all, or we made simple food and we all loved it! And let me just say it was waaaaaaaay more fun than last time when I had a new baby and because of all the storms we were confined to the house with snow and mud up to our elbows and everything pretty much sucked. I had been wanting to go see some ruins 1 hour from our home that I just learned about. There were three sites with ruins (ABO, QUARAI, and GRAN QUIVIRA) and they were all near the town of Mountainair, a little town where we had a surprisingly good lunch! I was glad we finally got to go here, and that we got to take Steph too! I'll post more on our trip later when she sends me the pictures. (p.s. Why can't I dress as cute as her? And Uncle T.... we miss you.... !!! )

S and E hiding in one of the many rooms. This place was perfect for hide n' seek.

LN is a real busy girl now

Can you tell this was a lot of homes clumped together?

A view from the top of those homes so you can see into the rooms

S and D down in a deep room

There were several of these circular pits with a chimney that lets out where S and D are standing. They had some guesses as to what they were for, but they don't know for sure.

I love this picture

Love this girl

Evan and his cute smiles

Can you find the snake?

My sister is deathly afraid of snakes like I am of spiders. So she was off somewhere looking at the ruins when the rest of us walked into this big area and came upon the snake. (hint: It's climbing up a wall)
I started calling to Steph to alert her and make sure that she wouldn't come in here. When I did find her, she freaked because she had ALREADY been in here before all of us and did not like knowing that she had been close to a snake. She was curious and we walked back toward this big room since she couldn't believe it. Suddenly I looked down and it was right in front of me hiding on the steps behind where you see Sam in this picture. Bam! She was gone!

They were doing some work in here- that's why you see a cable.

What it would have looked like

The boys got their badges at each place. The worked hard for them!

Thanks Steph for taking a picture of the whole family!

Father's Day

2011-06-20T05:24:00.000-06:00

Sam and Evan had to sing in the evening since they wouldn't go up during church.

Hand-made Boots

2011-06-16T22:27:00.000-06:00

I found out recently that Brother J at church makes hand-made boots. It reminded me of the time in Chile when I needed a pair of good boots both for walking all day and to keep out the rain, and a shoemaker made them for me. It was a neat experience, so I asked Brother J if the kids and I could come over and learn about what he does. He graciously allowed us to come into his work room and showed us how he makes boots. I know for a fact his boots sell for more than $400 dollars. They are very finely made and all hand sewn, not a single nail. He even let the boys sew on the leather, glue some leather together and watch him work. What an art! Plus I thought all leather was made from cow hides, but he had ostrich, elephant and kangaroo leather that we got to see and feel. The ostrich leather had holes all over it from where the feathers were and was dotted where the knees were, the kangaroo is supposed to be some of the strongest leather you can find, and the elephant leather looked wrinkled everywhere just like an elephant. Fascinating! Thank you Brother J for your time today!

Anything you can do, I can do better

2011-06-16T22:00:00.003-06:00

No, Mom, you can't feed me. I can do it myself. If you attempt to help me, even by turning my spoon right side up I will scream like my leg's being cut off. And when I'm done, I fully intend to lick the bowl clean by placing it upside down on my head. I'm thankful for this bib, but I'm making sure that you will be bathing me (I like baths) and dressing me all over again. Today I think I'll try pooping in the bathtub to see what that's like. Eewww!! I hate that!!!! This is gross! Maybe this wasn't such a good idea! It's on my toys! Screaming- Get me out of here! Don't forget to wash and bleach that tub! And all my toys! And the toilet and floor since carrying handfuls of wet poop from the tub to the toilet doesn't quite work. Now hurry and get me dressed. We are late mom... I'm waiting. Thank you. Now I will go through your bag and take out anything I want to play with while you handle the 'code brown' in the bathtub. Then you really should clean up breakfast, or that 'tiny' bit of cream of wheat that I spilled on the table, chair and floor will turn into cement. Gosh mom! It's only 8am and you look pretty awful! Yes I did dump the prunes all over the carpet... It was fun! Yes I know you and Dad just cleaned the carpets yourselves. They just needed a little something. You should try it Mom. Mom?

And this just in...
Moments earlier a certain baby was seen throwing herself all over in a convulsive manner, clawing at her parents and screaming. I won't mention who that baby was, but let me just say, you better not leave that certain baby off the tire swing. All better!

A couple days ago I got to take dinner to a friend in the homeschool group. She is close to my age and just had her ninth baby. I don't know how she and her husband do it, but there is a wonderful spirit in her home and she does a fantastic job with her children. By the way she had twins twice in a row! My head is spinning. Just like my friend growing up who was one of 11 children in her family, and she and her siblings were all wonderful! Some parents just do a wonderful job. I know they rely on God and that's what makes them so wonderful; they don't try to do it alone. Today I salute my friend. She is an inspiration!

Arizona Fire

2011-06-06T20:24:00.001-06:00

The smoke so thick the sun looks red

Just after dinner tonight, the sky filled with smoke and we are nearly choking it's so thick! It's the smoke from the Arizona fire blowing here, but it seems so thick that at any minute we should evacuate ourselves.   And we are more east than Albuquerque!

Now the sky is a dark brown color because of all the smoke.   If you go outside it smells like you are standing in a campfire.

Girls camp was great last week. I'll update once I get pictures from friends since I was so busy I didn't get any. The smoke interrupted girls camp too.   We just can't believe this fire is as far away as Arizona!

Swimsuit!

2011-05-28T17:14:00.001-06:00

LN came out in a swimsuit for the first time and I just thought it was so cute! She screamed when the water wasn't as warm as the bath though, and she did not like walking in it. It was hilarious.

Can you see all the personality bottled up in this cute thing?

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu Prime Minister of Israel

2011-05-24T12:19:00.001-06:00

Great speech. It's important to know what is going on with Israel. You can read the summary or watch it here.

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/05/24/open-thread-netanyu-addresses-joint-meeting-of-congress/

On a somewhat related note, about 1 year ago I had watched the twin towers fall with my boys on youtube and explained to them about what happened. I was glad I did because I was able to explain to them the good news of OBL's death. When Pat woke me up at 5am to tell me, I was just so happy. Happy for the families in the 9/11 attacks, and happy for the thousands of others souls he's killed in other countries. Especially happy for our military for accomplishing it. Finally!

Bandelier

2011-05-15T14:58:00.002-06:00

The day before Easter we went to Bandelier National Park since it was free entrance day. Now I'm finally getting around to blogging about it. It took us a while to get there since Pat got directions off of Google and Google gets everything around here wrong. Okay, yeah, there was a road, but to take it you needed and off road vehicle or dirt bike. (We found this out after going 1 mile in our van while dirt bikes raced around us probably laughing. It was so narrow and uneven with boulders everywhere it was amazing that we even found a spot to turn around. Oh, and that mile took us 15 minutes. So we had to go back and around a different way taking about 4 hours instead of two to finally get to Bandelier. Everything worked out well though and it was a perfect day! I was so glad my friend and native New Mexican Chantelle told me about how awesome this place is!

The first thing we came upon as we walked were these "boxes". We were trying to figure out what in the world they could be for. They looked like rooms, but there were no doors, just solid adobe and rock walls. We found out later that these were rooms and homes, but they used to have roofs with a hole in the middle and a ladder to get in and out of the home through the roof. That's why we couldn't find any doorways!

The cave dwellings were my favorite however. Is it weird that I really would like to live here? (Okay until it got too cold.) Still, it would be so fun to live here! These cliff dwellings were like a whole cities with winding paths and many rooms. I loved crawling into these stone caves and imagining my family living there. It must have been really neat!

Notice all the caves and the stairs made out of rock. Handrail was added by the National Parks Service of course. This place is fascinating! It seemed like every person that passed us was a tourist from a different country. We heard a lot of different languages. We hope they liked it. We sure fell in love with this place.

Evan looking out, with the rest of the family in the background.

Sometimes they enhanced the cave dwelling by adding a stone front onto it to make it larger and more comfortable.

The cliffs were very high! Here we are looking at ancient paintings on the walls.

And if you look closely you can see some of the ancient carvings in the cliff wall. All of the holes across the bottom of the rock were where wooden poles from a roof once were.

This is us now walking along the path that leads to the extra high Alcove House. Formerly known as Ceremonial Cave, this alcove is located 140 feet above where we are walking in this picture. How do you get up there? You climb really, really tall ladders.


Suddenly as we were walking we saw a mother bear with her two bear cubs. I know it's hard to see in this picture, but they were really close. I thought at this point that we should get away quickly, but a forest ranger had been notified and came up with some rubber bullets in case the bears got too close. The ranger was really upset because the bear was showing no fear of the gathering crowd and continued to roll around playing with her cubs. She thought she'd have to shoot the bear just to install a fear of humans (otherwise if the bear ever hurt a human it'd have to be put down). We continued on... tiptoeing by... FYI - on our way back over an hour later, the bears were still there!

LN and I decided to stay on solid ground while the boys laddered up 140 feet!

Halfway up, perched on a ledge, waiting for their turn at the next ladder.

D and S going up! I told Pat that it would be safer if he took the boys one at a time, but the boys all went together and Pat just watched over E really well. Plus by the time they were done Pat was worn out. It's a lot of leg work!

Here's a picture of got off the internet of the same ladder that D and S are going up in the previous picture. You can kind of see better how large this cliff dwelling is!

They made it! This ceremonial cave was a special place but it was also the home of several families. One of the homes is pictured behind the boys.

Here is E going down the ladder into the home through the hole in the middle of the roof!

It was really dusty inside!


Can you imagine hauling all of your food and water up the ladders to this place? This is halfway down! The boys waiting for their turn on the ladder looking down at me. I love learning about how people lived! Isn't it amazing?

A few pictures

2011-05-10T11:49:00.001-06:00

Oh no!! We have a climber! I walked in the office and found her standing here grinning at me.

Ask the boys to smile and this is what you get. (LN jumped in the picture at the last second.) Look how big these chickens got! Can you imagine how happy we were to get them out of our house? Yea!!!

Notice the white chicken in the box watching me.

And here is the one and only Easter picture we got. Evan didn't want to be in it, and we were late for church, so viola! Thanks to Dad and Janis for the cute Easter dress for LN! We all liked our books too!
We had a great Easter and week leading up to Easter. We read a bit from the New Testament everyday for the week before Easter about what Christ was doing on those days, and it was so amazing for all of us. There's just something that happens when I teach the scriptures out loud; they seem to come alive. The way that Jesus taught in parables to the elders and priests and how the stories were about them, but they wouldn't realize it until maybe later. He really was a master teacher. I could go on, but it is enough to say that we will hopefully remember to make this a yearly tradition. We also made a CD of all the children's songs about Christ and listened to that for the whole month to get more familiar with them. We all wrote poems and then read them out loud about Easter and unfortunately we all wrote really dorky poems, but Pat wrote a beautiful one. We never got out to the cemetery because it was storming here on Easter Sunday, but my mom went out to our baby Lauralei's actual grave for me. It meant so much to me since it really is hard to never be able to go there. We miss our Laura.

Thoughts on Mothers

2011-05-09T21:43:00.001-06:00

"As daughters of our Heavenly Father, and as daughters of Eve, we are all mothers and we have always been mothers. And we each have the responsibility to love and help lead the rising generation." -Sheri Dew

Yesterday we took turns going to church since LN was very ill. We had been in urgent care the day before because she had such a high fever. Today her fever has broken and she is doing much better, thankfully.

The boys all treated me really well and despite our exhaustion, I had a great Mother's Day. Dallas made me the neatest card too that made me really happy. He spent a long time on it and put in coupons for the things I love like a good hair brushing!

At church, I watched the children sing to their mothers and my boys sang so well and were really cute! Evan didn't want to go up so I told him that I could hear his heart singing and that was okay.   Since Pat was home with LN it was just me and the boys and we all sat cuddled close together on our bench with D and E leaning on me and holding Sam's hand. I sure love my kids.

But the best thing that I thought was really moving was seeing the moms up next to the children singing. The primary sang a two part song where the children sing and then the mothers and then together... When the mothers started to sing they just looked so beautiful to me! My friends, Julie, Andrea, Leslie, Stacey and Sarah looked so beautiful to me! How lucky are the children of mothers like these! Oh if I could only be in their club! The club of women who forgo worldly things and know who they are! The club of women who know God's eternal plan and their role in that plan. The club of women who love their children and teach them right from wrong. I realized in the same moment that I AM one of those mothers, or at least I am trying to be. The important role of mothers hit me so forcefully as I watched my friends sing next to the children, that of course I was crying, and I just thought how happy I was to be who I am...

I am certainly not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I try to only write good things on the blog, because why dwell on the bad? Does anyone need to know how often I have a big childish fit! I am trying to learn patience and to overcome my faults... but I am thankful for God's plan that shows me the way to be happy. I am thankful that He gives each of us weaknesses and yet He calls us to obey... And so He teaches, that we must call on Him for strength... (Cumorah's Hill).

I sometimes feel trapped as a mother, like every second of my life is given to others and I start to go crazy if I don't get time for me to have a girls night, or just a date. I wish I could hit pause everyday and have time to exercise and study my scriptures without interruption, but that doesn't happen, so I read my scriptures in the bathroom usually with Evan telling me about why I should let him have a bandaid...

And this weekend I was showering when Sam came in and pressed his book report up against the glass where I could see it and asked me to proofread it... and I did.

I used to think of others and visit other people all the time and now with four kids in tow and homeschool to get done everyday, that hardly happens, so I feel like I'm not connected and not serving enough, and Pat has to remind me how much I do... but a lot of times I miss my old life and friends...

And someday when I have lots of time to have friends and do what I want, I'll probably wish for these times again! It passes so quickly...

A quote I like from two people I've never heard of Marguerite Kelly & Ella Parsons:"Motherhood brings as much joy as ever, but it still brings boredom, exhaustion, and sorrow too. Nothing else ever will make you as happy or as sad, as proud or as tired, for nothing is quite as hard as helping a person develop his own individuality- especially while you struggle to keep your own."

I look at my once beautiful hands and they are starting to get worn with age and doing so much with them. Do you ever feel like there is no end to the dishes and laundry? And obviously this body I have has been changed so much that I feel really uncomfortable in it... I don't like dancing anymore or singing in front of people anymore because I feel too big and run down looking. I'm not sure what to do about that.

... but at the same time, I am so thankful for my body. I love it. It has given me so much and seen me through so much and I'm sure it will continue to do so! (As long as I do my best to take care of it.) And my hands? They just tell the story of a life of work, and that is a good thing! I'd much rather go to God having worked hard, rather than investing my time in things that have no meaning or constantly seeking after the next age defying beauty secret.   My hands tell the story of lots of dishes, cooking, cleaning and caring, and I'm okay with that.

All you experienced mothers I wish I could just know what you know already. I'm sure it would save me a lot of worrying, heartache and so forth. But here I am, thankful for who I am, and trying my best with the changes that life brings!    I found this poem in my stuff and I don't know who it is by, but I liked it:

She came tonight as I sat alone
The girl that I used to be...
And she gazed at me with her earnest eye
And questioned reproachfully;
"Have you forgotten the many plans
And hopes that I had for you?
The great career, the splendid fame
All the wonderful things to do?
Where is the mansion of stately height
With all of it's gardens rare?
The silken robes that I dreamed for you
And the jewels for your hair?"
And as she spoke, I was very sad
For I wanted her pleased with me...
This slender girl from my past
The girl that I used to be.
So gently arising, I took her hand,
And guided her up the stairs
Where peacefully sleeping, my babies lay
Innocent, sweet, and fair.
And I told her that these are my only gems,
And precious they are to me;
That silken robe is my motherhood
Of costly simplicity.
And my mansion of stately height is love
And the only career I know;
Is serving each day in these sheltering walls
For the dear ones who come and go.
And as I spoke to my shadowy guest,
She smiled through her tears at me;
And I saw that the woman that I am now
Pleased the girl that I used to be...

For another take on motherhood, click on my sisters awesome post.

Blessed are the feet...

2011-05-05T20:44:00.000-06:00

I have been so busy lately getting ready for girls camp, trying lots of recipes, and finishing up the school year. Then a beautiful thing happened...

The missionaries stopped by.

They talked with us for about half an hour and I feel so full and happy after their being here.

At first I was afraid that I had signed up to feed them dinner and forgotten, but no, they just wanted to visit with us.

I know that missionaries are supposed to be doing the work of the Savior Jesus Christ since he can't be here himself to go about teaching...

...but tonight I really felt as if the Savior was just in my home.

I am so thankful for these young men who came to my house tonight. I am so thankful that they choose to give two years of their lives, at their own expense to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have no doubt that they will end up feeling that it was nothing at all of a sacrifice just like I did. They will end up feeling that it was the greatest blessing ever given them and even more indebted to the Lord for his goodness and mercy.

Romans 10:15
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!