Gotta learn as you go...

As with everything else in life, having Trigeminal Neuralgia is a learn as you go kind of thing. Apparently there are some super fun triggers for the stupid thing. It is always painful but some things REALLY set it off and make me feel like when the dentist hits a nerve when he's fixing your tooth that EXTREME pain lasts for HOURS. So far I've learned that drinking, eating, heat, cold, chewing gum, talking on the phone, and touch are my triggers. Drinking cold or hot stuff on that side of my mouth or chewing food, especially hot or cold stuff on that side of my mouth, or rinsing my mouth out with cold water after brushing my teeth just send me to the moon! Wearing my cute little adorable hat I showed you all in August just sets it right off because touch is NOT good for the stupid thing.  :(  Being out in the cold air is NOT good. :(  I love winter! :(   Waking up on that side of my body is incredibly painful. Apparently it's because of that touch thing again. I TRY to sleep on my left side but HELLO I'm a crazy sleeper! Like I can control what side I'm sleeping on. It totally sucks waking up like that! I am convinced that that is where that saying, "She woke up on the wrong side of the bed" came from! I think that when I hold the cell phone on the right side of my face when I talk it sets it off. It's either the heat from the phone or the touch of the phone on my face or both. I have noticed some of these triggers for the last year or in some cases, 2 or 3 years but I just thought they were teeth problems. I was accepted by University of Utah Hospital's Neurosurgery clinic for treatment I just have to wait til June to be seen. I am on a cancellation list so I'm praying that I move up quickly so I can see if I qualify for the treatments they have for TN. I'm trying to remain as positive as I can about it all but I'm really irritated with the stupid problem! The medication I'm on hasn't helped the pain at all but it has helped some of my residual symptoms, like, I don't feel so dizzy or nauseous most days. Which is a nice improvement I must say! I have more and more good days which is great. Still lots of bad days but improvement is always good! I'm up to 5 pills a day. I start 6 a day tomorrow and have to do that for a week to make sure it isn't helping the pain. If it still doesn't then I have to switch medication and this process continues until I finally find one that actually treats the nerve. I really hate taking medication! I really do! But hopefully it eventually helps! Then I would be cool with it! Sometimes I wish I could put ice on it or a heating pad or something but hot and cold make it worse so...Anyhoo, just thought I'd give a little update.

STOP...and...THINK...

This time of year is the best! It snowed yesterday, and last night, and it still is...FINALLY!!! I am so excited! I love seeing the world around me covered in a blanket of snow. It makes me smile! The kids built a snowman. Gracie is thinking this snow stuff is pretty cool! Mostly this time of year I love focusing on the Savior. We, as Christians, focus on Him throughout the year. Each year the stores put out the Christmas decorations for sale earlier and earlier. I started seeing them out in October...OCTOBER!!! Crazy! My first thought was the same as many of you would have. What are they doing putting decorations out in October! Why do they try harder and harder each year to take the focus off of Christ and put it on all the worldly stuff! Then, I remembered the shame I felt last Christmas morning when I realized that for the first time in our 17 years of marriage we hadn't really stopped and focused so much on Him as we always have before. I determined right then that I would make it more meaningful next time as we have in the past! Well, when I saw those Christmas decorations in October and my thoughts, feelings, and heart went straight to our Savior and how I could make it a more Christ centered celebration this year I decided having decorations in the store so early, and lining Main Street, wasn't so bad afterall. It got me thinking about Him. It gets us ALL thinking about Him. Our defenses come up, we think of our testimony of Him. We think of what we SHOULD be thinking about. We think about what is really important at this time of year. So...good for commercialism! Hooray for Christmas decorations in October! It helps us Christians, all of us, no matter what religion we are, to think so strongly of Him during our busy, crazy lives. During our busy, crazy errands, we STOP...we THINK...of HIM!!!

Exhausted, even crazier than before, and more than just a little bit sparkly...

~I told the kids that we'd go to the $1 store sometime and let them buy gifts for each other. I got a wild hair Sunday and suggested they make each other gifts. I thought it would be more fun to make some bacelets and book marks with my jewelry making stuff than it would be to fold laundry so I joined in the fun. I was completely unprepared for the glittery explosion that I was unleashing but it's all good. Who doesn't need a little sparkle in their lives, huh?! Zack made God's Eye's for each of us and his teacher. Matthew made God's Eye's for Zack and his teacher and the teacher's aide, a bracelet for me, a pencil can for his dad out of an empty vegetable can that I hot glued around the inner edge to avoid cuts, I hot glued popcicle sticks around the outside and had him paint it and decorate it. He also made a gold star out of popcicle sticks and glitter. Max painted a star salt dough ornament for my mom, and he put LOTS of gold glitter on it. LOTS!!! Then he made a paper weight for his dad. He painted the biggest rock he could find in their "rock collection", then covered it in LOTS of glitter. LOTS!!! Then he drew a picture and made a picture frame for it out of popcicle sticks and suprisingly he chose to COVER it with LOTS of glitter!!! The boy loves glitter!!! I made like 14 little girl bracelets and 6 book marks just for fun! Gracie just enjoyed stringing items from each of our projects all over the place. She LOVES glitter too!! AND beads! By the time I finally packed up all the supplies at dinner time Monday night I was seriously SPENT!!! And very sparkly. I looked like a character out of Twilight standing in the sun. Brian has been making each of the kids a hat with our hat making looms. Matthew still has to make something for Max and Gracie. Max still has to make something for Gracie, Matthew, and Zacky. I may have to take a valuum to be able to survive our next little craft making extravaganza!!! Any suggestions for cheap, cute, little homemade gifts for a little girl that little boys can make? I'll be finding glitter in nooks and crannies for the next 2 years! At least we had a lot of fun together, eh?! I didn't think to take pictures of our creations until after they had wrapped all their creations but here are some pics of the bracelets I made, the bracelet Matty made me, and the book marks.

Here are some random pics just for fun and to save me from having to do more posts since I'm finding it hard to find time to lately...

This is of us at Rodizio Grill. Yes I'm fat! I told it to rotate the picture but it didn't. Nobody ever listens to me anyway so I'm used to it! ;)  Steph and her adorable kids (Josh is the cute little blonde in the striped shirt. His head is turned but trust me...ADORABLE. Emily isn't in the pic but she was there. What a cutie!!! Love them!) and KayTee came with us. It was fun. Zack ate himself sick for a minute but we all loved it! And we even have one of the $50 gift certificates left so we can go again some time!

We also made a trip to the mall to see Santa. I am so glad they let you take one snapshot with your own camera. Obviously Gracie was less than thrilled with Santa. That is until he gave her a coloring book. Then smiled at him and I said Santa is nice,isn't he?! She nodded yes really big and even gave him a quick wave goodbye.

 Thanks Grandma Irvine for the super cute outfit you gave Gracie! LOVE IT!!! Once again, it didn't listen and didn't flip. Oh well!

While we were up there we also got to go to Ikea! HOORAY!!! I've missed Ikea so much!!! It was a fun weekend! We came back Saturday.

Also, I went to the High School Choir Concert last night with the young women and young men to support the young women and young women who were performing. It was a wonderful experience! I am so glad I was able to go! The last song was so lovely it made me cry! Most of the songs were actually about the Saviors birth. What a novel idea huh?! Way to go Mr. Pinedo!!! It was awesome! All the school concerts I've attended in past years all have goofy Christmas songs about Santa and the commercial side of Christmas. It was refreshing to actually go to a Christmas concert that focused on CHRISTmas!!! Very uplifting! Can't say enough good things about it! I may have to take my little family with me next year so they can experience the beauty of it! Rarely have I felt the spirit at a school related activity but it was definitely there. Especially during that last song! So good! I hope you all are having a wonderful month!!!

Fun time!

For our Young Women activity this week we had an ornament exchange. We were supposed to think of a meaningful ornament to give to everyone. We could make the ornaments or buy them. We had to bring 16 to give to the girls and leaders. It was so much fun! I made some little salt dough ornament stars. I painted them red to represent Individual Worth and I gave them each a copy of the words to Every Star Is Different. I love that Primary song and thought it would be a good reminder that they are unique and of great worth to our Heavenly Father. My little ornaments were pretty plain and ordinary compared to everyone else's I think but that's ok. Hopefully, it's the thought that counts!!!

Here is what the stars looked like. Some had silver ribbons and some had white.

Here are the words to the song...

Here are the ornaments from all the very creative and talented young women and leaders...

On the other side of the white ball ornament it says faith. She personalized each one and put faith on them using her cricut and vinyl letters. Clever! The gold high heel shoe had this scripture with it...Who can find a VIRTUOUS woman? For her price is far above rubies. Proverbs 31:10. She put the little red rose on it as the "ruby". She wanted the girls to think of their Virtue value when they see it since Virtue's color is gold. Love it! The clear ornament in the middle has a picture of the nativity on the outside. Lovely! I didn't hear the significance of the others because I had to run with Brian to the Stake Presidents office where they issued him a calling as the assistant ward clerk over memberships. Incidentally, they also called him to be the secretary in the Elder's Quorum just 2 weeks ago. They wanted him to be over home teaching routes. I think he should do both! LOL!!! Can you imagine!!! Silly silly!!! Anyway, it was fun when I was there at the activity anyway! And who doesn't love a whole bunch of new ornaments for their tree?! My tree is very hodge podgy so I love adding to the collection!

Winner, Winner, we get a free dinner!!!

When we lived in Pleasant Grove, Brian commuted for at least 30 minutes each way depending on traffic. He could be driving for an hour or so. Well, he used to listen to B98.7 and would call in to win prizes. One time he won a $25 gift certificate to a steakhouse in Salt Lake. Another time he won 4 tickets to the Living Planet Aquarium for singing A Few of My Favorite Things on air. Wish I'd have heard that one!!! ;)  Well, now he goes online to My 99.5 and listens to that while he's at work. They also have a contest each week where they post a picture and you have to write a caption to go along with it. If they pick your caption you win a prize. Today they called him and told him he won the caption contest and the prize is $100 gift certificate to Rodizio Grill. Hooray!!! Now he just needs to win a contest where the prize is a gazillion dollars or a trip to somewhere fun or a dream house! That would be even cooler! For now though, we'll enjoy dinner at Rodizio Grill!!! I can't wait! We haven't eaten there in forever!!!
http://www.my995fm.com/pages/photocaption/7.html

PART 2 OF...Stick a fork in us...we are DEFINITELY done!!!! (we think!!!)

Oh yeah, we're done! To see part 1 go here . There is absolutely NO way I can go through a pregnancy again! I realize now that the Trigeminal Neuralgia was most likely the cause of the major dizziness I felt while I was pregnant with Gracie and why I had so many headaches and why I felt so crappy.  I know I would have felt that way to some degree but the feeling car sick all the time, like my head was spinning and stuff is how I feel a lot of the time from TN anyway and add pregnancy to that and UGH!!! When I think about being pregnant again it makes me hyperventilate a bit so I'm thinking...definitely done!!! We were weighing the options...vasectomy or tubal ligation. I told Brian that I figured I had carried and delivered 4 babies so he was up! It was his turn to experience a bit of pain and sacrifice his body a bit to keep us from having more since tubal ligation is supposed to be more invasive, more costly, more of an uncomfortable recovery for a longer period of time than having the big V. He is a big ol' chicken :)  and started googling options for this sort of thing and discovered a procedure called Essure. Basically, it is something they do right in the Dr.'s office, all we have to pay is our $25 copay, they give you a percocet and a Valium for pain management because it can feel a bit crampy during the procedure if you don't do that, you don't have to be put under or anything, the Dr. says its like having a pap smear. They open you up with that double shoe horn looking gadget and insert a scope into you and release metal coils into your fallopian tubes. Scar tissue forms around them, eventually blocking them completely. 3 months later you go have them put dye up in you and do some sort of x ray to make sure nothing is getting through the coils. This is a permanent fix. No reversing it. The accuracy of this procedure is even better than either the tubal ligation or the V mainly because they actually check to make sure it worked and things are COMPLETELY shut off. There is no affect on your hormones or periods or anything like that. Everything continues on as normal, whatever your normal is. The recovery is the easiest of the options as well. They say you feel loopy that day from the medication you took and then some people feel a little crampy like you're on your period for a day, some people a few days. That's it. Seems like the best option for us financially and physically. I still would prefer to have Brian have a V instead of me having to do anything but since I live in constant fear of getting pregnant again, at this point I don't care I'll do anything to ease my mind. This TN is just more than enough to deal with right now. I was a bit sad as I watched all the cute little pregos at the Dr.'s office. It's still hard to think about that part of my life being completely over. Not an easy choice. If I could guarantee another pregnancy would be as easy as my pregnancy with Matthew was, and if I could know for sure that the baby would sleep through the night from day 1 like Gracie did, and that the baby would be as easy as Gracie was, and if I could know that if the pregnancy was as hard as it was with Gracie I could hire a full-time maid to clean while I was pregnant and a nanny to take took care of my other kids while I laid around feeling like I was going to die, and I could know that I could hire a maid to clean once the baby came or a full-time nanny to help me take care of the baby while I cleaned and kept up with life, then SURE, I'd be all over having another baby! So, there you have it, we are DONE!!! I am scheduled to have the Essure done on January 4th. Dr. Thorpe will perform the procedure. He was the Dr. on call ,instead of Dr. Dayton, the night we had Zack. I'm trying to look past THAT experience!!! No fond memories there!!! Not many Dr.'s do this procedure and my favorite Dr., Dr. Harrison referred me to him. Little nervous but also looking forward to a little peace of mind!!!

Gratitude post...

So, with tomorrow being Thanksgiving and all, I thought I'd list some things I'm thankful for. In no particular order of course...

~My family...Brian G., Zacky T., Matty, Maxers, and Gracie Sue!!! They are the best!!!
~My family. I keep thinking about my childhood and all the fun memories I have! Thanksgiving was so awesome when my Uncle Don's family, Grandma Hazel, the missionaries, and people in our branch who didn't have anywhere to go, would come over and we had so much fun!
~The gospel of Jesus Christ and His redeeming sacrifice for us and His great love for us!!!
~My Heavenly Father and His love for me and all He does for me and for my love for Him!!!
~My calling
~Having our own place to live and just...be
~How cute it is when Gracie runs...cutest thing ever!!!
~My friends
~Sewing (I never thought I would say that one!!!)
~Making projects
~Modge Podge :) 
~Paper plates and plastic cups
~Chocolate popcorn
~A working forced air furnace
~Snow!!!! :)
~Warm clothes
~Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin bars, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pancakes...basically all things pumpkin. Oh, and decorating with them too!
~Washing machines and dryers
~Blue skies in the dead of winter
~That Ibuprofen helps take the edge off of my TN when NOTHING helps most people!! HUMONGOUS blessing!!!
~Being diagnosed with SOMETHING. Not the actual diagnosis..that sucks big time..but I have gone to so many doctors and no one could tell me what was wrong. It was horrible not knowing for so long why I feel the way I do. Someone that was supposedly close to us even told people that he thought I was bipolar because of the extreme changes in me from one day to the next sometimes from one hour to the next. You try feeling excruciating pain in your head and different parts of your face ALWAYS but with varying levels of pain and then some days you don't feel SO bad so you actually CAN function a bit better and then the next day you're back to feeling like crap. Or sometimes you feel super for hours in a day and then suddenly you have so much pain you can't stand it or you wake up in pain at 4a.m. and don't get enough sleep on top of the pain you have and then see how super bright and smiley you are and how consistent your moods and functioning levels are. You never know what can trigger it to intensify it just happens (it turns out stress can make it worse and I was beyond EXTREMELY stressed in the living situation I was in at the time. AND you have 4 precious kids to care for AND I had a person in my life who was trying to make it as difficult as humanly possible. Not a good combination!
~I am so thankful for Brian I know I already said that but he has been amazing through this whole thing. He loves me and I love him. Our relationship has grown in many ways over these past about 2 years or so and he has helped me so much and has been so loving and understanding and I just don't know what I would have done without him!!!! We are not perfect. Our life is not perfect. Our relationship is not perfect. But we have learned a very important lesson this year. We might not have a lot of worldly possessions and life isn't easy but as long as we have each other and our sweet little kids we are ok. So sorry he has been through so much this year but I am so grateful for his unconditional love and I want the best for him!!! He is an amazing man and I just wish EVERYONE knew that!!!
~Prayer
~The Priesthood
~Blogging
~Music
~The scriptures
~My notebook/laptop thing Brian gave me for my birthday in January
~Nursery
~Vacuum cleaners
~Reading
~Journaling
~The healing power of gratitude! Life is so much easier, happier, and more enjoyable when we look for the good things in it rather than the bad things.
~Modern Medicine
~Healthy, happy kids!!!

A bit of randomness...

~We've been waiting for this moment for so long, and finally, yesterday, it happened....Gracie turned 18 months old and went to nursery!!! Hooray! Doin' a little dance! She is, by far, our child that has been the most attached to me. She LOVES church though, which is great! She won't go to family, she is such a stinker about that. She likes all of them at a distance, she just doesn't want them touching her. At church, though, she becomes a social butterfly. She is hilarious! Everyone oohs and aahhs about how pretty she is all the time and smiles at her and they even indulge her when she touches their scriptures and other pretty things they might have. She has even run her hands up ladies' legs playing with their silky pantyhose and they just let her. She is funny! But I wasn't sure how she'd handle being in nursery...alone. She cried for just a minute until the leader held her on her lap during their little singing time. Then she had the most terrified look on her face and had her little hand shoved in her mouth for comfort which completely tore my heart out. Seriously PAINFUL for mom to watch secretly through the awesome little window in the door! She is so sweet I really hated for her to be so scared and sad. Then there was snack time. She LOVES food and water in her own little cup. She was in heaven at that point. My friend, Sherelle went in there to help the leader who was in there alone, and Gracie knows Sherelle well enough that I think that helped her out. She didn't cry again and did really well. YES!!! We'll see how she does next week when she knows we'll leave her again but so far so good.
~Have you all seen the commercial for pistachios where "Snooky", whoever that is, eats a pistachio off of a tanning bed? Do y'all remember when I worked at Steph and J.J.'s tanning salon? Yeah, I used to clean tanning beds. Do you know how many butt cracks and hoo-hahs slide across that part of a tanning bed in a day. DISGUSTING!  I am such a germaphobe, as you know from previous posts, so I REALLY scrubbed those beds down after someone used them. One time a coworker came out so quickly when she was supposed to have cleaned a room. You have to spray the little plastic rug and wipe it (that person could have athlete's foot or who knows what else), spray and wipe down the chair (umm, yeah, someone could have sat their in all their glory, you just never know. And their undies were just sitting on it and I don't even want to know what could be on that chair if you don't sanitize it), spray and wipe down the bed. I had to give her a little "cleaning the room" demonstration after that because ICK!!! So, watching someone eat a pistachio, or anything else, off of a tanning bed, that I'm sure was EXTREMELY sanitized, makes me want to hurl every time it comes on. WHAT were these advertisers thinking. SERIOUSLY nasty!!!
~WHAT do these young girls see in Justin Bieber? I "get" the attraction to Joe Jonas, and Zac Efron, but Justin Bieber?! Just don't get it! We had so many "hot" guys to have crushes on when we were growing up.  Maybe that's it. Maybe there just isn't enough manmeat out there for them to crush on so they are DESPERATE! I just don't "get" it!!!
~Max has his Thanksgiving Feast at preschool tomorrow. This morning Brian reminded me that when Zack was little he called it the Thanksgiving Veast. Loved that!!
~So, we get to speak in church again Sunday. We are SO thrilled about it. We're praying that lots of people are still out of town for the holiday. We are forcing our children to each speak too to take up more time. Aren't we nice parents!? They were like, NOOOOO!!! So I said, ok, here are your options...either you give a little talk or you sing a song together. They decided the talk would be better. I was like, seriously dudes, you just had to do your parts in the Primary program and you did AWESOME!! And you have to give talks in Primary so you can give a little talk in Sacrament Meeting and it won't kill you. We need to settle in one place and never move again if for no other reason but to avoid speaking in church so often.
~Brian made this yummy dessert the other day that he got in an email the other day. You make it like you do a cobbler in the dutch oven. It's best to mix the cake mix some with the butter so you don't have clumps of uncooked cake mix just like a cobbler. He just cooked it in the oven in our big pot and he didn't line the pot with foil. He cooked it at 350 degrees for about an hour. It was really good!!!

Pumpkin Pie Crunch

Ingredients:

1 can solid pumpkin (15 ounces)

1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp. salt

1 pkg yellow cake mix

1 cup butter, melted

Optional 1 cup chopped pecans (we did not add these)

Line dutch oven with heavy-duty foil and spray well with cooking spray. Combine the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Pour into oven. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle with pecans, if desired. Pour melted butter evenly over whole cake. Place 6 hot coal pieces in a circle under the Dutch oven and about 20 pieces evenly around the outside of the lid on top for 50 to 55 minutes. Cake is done when the pumpkin custard is firm. Lift the foil out of the Dutch oven and place on a large dish to cool. 

Roller coaster week

I started my anti-seizure medication, Gabapentin, Monday. It has been a roller coaster week! The plan is to take 1 each night for a week. If I don't see any progress I take 2 pills for a week. I can add a pill each week if I'm not seeing improvement until I'm up to 6 pills a day. If I still don't see improvement I have to switch to a new medication and I will continue this pattern until I finally find the right one. I took the first one Monday night and when I woke up Tuesday I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. I felt HORRID!!! On top of just feeling so horrible my head felt like it was spinning. Some of the side effects are fatigue and dizziness. I already have fatigue and dizziness so added fatigue and dizziness was so bad!! I thought there was NO way I could live like that!!! Then when I woke up Wednesday and Thursday I felt a bit better but not much. Thursday night Brian convinced me to take a muscle relaxer I had been prescribed a couple years ago, along with my gabapentin. When I woke up Friday I felt FANTASTIC!!! No pain! And can I tell you that sleeping straight through the night without waking up at midnight or 4:00 in excruciating pain because the ibuprofen wore off was AMAZING! I can't tell you how WONDERFUL I felt! I can't tell you how long it has been since I felt THAT good! Around 8 am the pain started to come back and I took some ibuprofen and then throughout the day it got steadily worse but I felt great for a few hours and that was SOMETHING! Saturday when I woke up I didn't have the nerve pain. My head felt like it was in a vice. Warning: TMI coming up! I was having a visit from my Aunt Flo and the cramps were comparable to labor pains and just horrid all day and the ibuprofen didn't touch the pain. I only occasionally take darvocet and I would have done that yesterday if it hadn't been recalled on Friday for causing heart problems in people that take it and even causing deaths. Apparently gabapentin can cause added problems with menstration and can even cause early menopause and stuff like that so that's a super fun side effect. Anyway, even though I was in pain in other ways yesterday I'd take that over the nerve pain any day of the week! This morning I feel good again. It takes time for the medication to build up in your system and it takes time for your body to adjust to it but hopefully once everything gets adjusted it will be the perfect solution and I won't have to take more than one pill a day. I really don't like to take medicine of any kind. I hate that I am even taking so much ibuprofen but I'm grateful it helps take the edge off the pain since most people with TN don't get any relief ever from anything.
There are 2 permanent solutions we have learned about. One of them is a gamma knife procedure where they pinpoint radiation to the nerve which damages the nerve which stops the nerve from causing pain to the face. It is all done on the outside, no surgery. I think this would be an awesome solution but I've read that it usually helps people who have pain that comes and goes but not so much with people who have it constantly like I do. I am going to find a neurologist who can perform this treatment and see if it would work for me. The other solution is to cut open your skull and treat the nerve right up to where it goes into your brain. Sometimes it is caused by a blood vessel pressing up against your nerve so when they cut you open if they see that that is the cause the move the blood vessel away from the nerve but sometimes it will move back there eventually. This procedure sounds very scary to me and the recovery is excruciating so I'm really hoping the gamma knife thing will work for me so I don't have to take medication all the time that can cause side effects that suck or have to have surgery. Hopefully I can find something that will help me feel human again and will help me be the kind of mom I want to be and that my children deserve!!! Here's a picture of the nerve and everywhere it hurts me. Fun stuff.

Putting Christ back in Christmas, Part 2...

At Shani's request, here are the things I wrote on my papers in my jar.  Hope this helps!

Sing  I Know That My Redeemer Lives  Hymn 136
Sing  The Lord Is My Light  Hymn 89
Sing  I Feel My Savior's Love  Page 74 (childrens' songbook)
Sing  A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief   Hymn 29  
John 9:1-11
John 11:1-45
Mark 7:33-37
3 Nephi 17:11-25
Matthew 9:1-8
Luke 8:41-56
John 13:34-35
Matthew 14:14-21
Read "None Were With Him" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland  ( I found this on lds.org it was from the May 2009 Conference Issue
Ether Chapter 3
READ  How Great Thou Art  Hymn 86  (I decided reading it would be better because I cry when I read it or sing it so I can just have someone else read it and cry without sounding like a freak. Such a beautiful song!)
Matthew 3:13-17
Luke 17:12-19
Sing  I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus  Page 78
Matthew 6:1-4
Matthew 14:22-33
3 Nephi 17:4-10
Read "The Certainty of the Ressurrection" by President Spencer W. Kimball ( I will just read the first part of this talk. Found it on lds.org)
Sing  I Stand All Amazed   Hymn 193
Christmas Eve: Read Luke 2    Sing Jesus, Once of Humble Birth (Remember to put this one on a different kind of paper so that it stands out as the one to save until Christmas Eve)


You can certainly mix this up and change things to what you like better or whatever. Maybe you'd rather sing a song about Resurrection or read a different article that means a lot to you. You can personalize it however you want but this is what worked for our little family.  

P.S.  Make sure the mouth of your jar is big enough to put your hand in. Mine barely is I just discovered. Brian would never be able to fit his hand in there. HEHEHE  Might want to check that detail out before decorating up your pretty jar. Course maybe kids' hands would fit or you could shake the papers out. Remember that I printed the references on the white, back side of  pretty Christmas paper to make the jar look prettier. Hope you have fun with it! :)

Putting Christ back in Christmas...

So when I think of last Christmas it is just a big ol' blur of craziness! Lots happening, not living in our own home, I was in pain, it went by SO fast, I just don't remember much of anything except that at the end of it all I really felt like we hadn't focused on the Savior through the month like we always have in the past and I was really sad and felt ashamed that we hadn't tried to stop and really focus. Well, I decided this year is going to be different. The kids are fully aware that they won't be getting as much as they did last year. I asked each of them if they care if we don't have pj's to open on Christmas Eve. Zack and Matty were cool with it. I was honestly quite suprised that Matty was cool with it. Zack has given us a very small, modest list of things he would like to have. It was like pulling teeth to get Max to tell us ANYTHING at all to get him. Even after a special trip this weekend to Toys R Us, walking up and down each aisle, he still only said he wanted a skateboard. What 4 year old doesn't usually say he wants EVERYTHING at Toys R Us! It's awesome in some ways but hard when you're trying to buy him something for Christmas! Then there's Matthew who wants

EVERYTHING!!!

I was SHOCKED when he said he didn't care about the pj's and Max was the one that was upset about it. Turns out he just want SOMETHING to open that night so I'll just make a trip to the $1 store and wrap a little something up for them that night and all will be right in his little world.

Back to the focus...our Savior! I decided it would be nice to dress up an old pickle jar and fill it with little pieces of paper (I printed them on the backside of pretty Christmas scrapbook paper so that it makes the jar look pretty) with scripture references written on them that have to do with miracles he performed or teachings of his or just special moments like when he blessed the Nephite children. Some of the papers had the title of a song about Him that we could sing. Some were from the primary song book others were from the hymn book. None of them were Christmas songs or scriptures about his birth. As I studied the scriptures, looking for just the right ones that our children could appreciate and understand, and as I read the words of the songs as I searched for just the right ones, I was so filled with the spirit and so grateful for my Savior and His love for us and His atonement and sacrifice and example and life. I felt that I should add something about his atonement and about the resurrection and I decided to search for talks on LDS.org. I found the one by Elder Holland a year ago in May that was so beautiful about the atonement and decided to use that one. I just put Read, None Were With Him by Elder Holland, on the piece of paper and printed the talk. I'll highlight parts to read that night. I also found one by President Kimball about the resurrection that I thought I'd read the first part of. We will have a little prayer, sing a lovely Christmas song. No Santa ones! And pull a paper out each night of December and follow it's instructions. I put the Christmas Eve one on a different piece of paper so we know not to take it out til last and it tells us to read Luke 2, which we do each year and it will be a nice end to our little Christ centered Christmas. I really enjoyed this project! It really brought me closer to the Savior just preparing it and I hope it will help bring our family closer to Him as we return the focus back to Him again this year. I just used what little things I had in my scrapbook stuff to decorate the jar and I thought the Merry Christmas sticker was just right because I want the kids to relate the whole Christmas holiday with Jesus and it's decorated festively and stuff and I'm hoping they "get" that the true gift of Christmas is our Savior. I know we've talked about this before with them and in years past we have always tried to focus on Him in some way the whole season, as I'm sure you all do too. I just thought this was a neat little way of doing it that hopefully helps us have a truly meaningful Christmas season! Just thought I'd share in case any of you were looking for something different to do.

Great news!

NO TUMOR!!!

I do have trigeminal neuralgia but for who knows what reason. They don't know. But it's not caused by a tumor or M.S. in my case thankfully!  Basically I will have excruciating pain the rest of my life because of a nerve in my head that for some reason has been causing me excruciating pain for about 3 years off and on and especially for the last year. I have to start taking anti-seizure medicine in an attempt to control the pain. I will have to take it the rest of my life. So, I know that this pain will not be easy to deal with as the doctor told me but I am just glad I don't have anything life threatening!!! This has been a very scary few days I must say! I just kept looking at my babies thinking how hard it would be to not be here to raise them and watch them grow. I am so grateful for my life and for the lives of my family! Among about a million thoughts I had during the past few days, I started thinking about all the things I wanted them to know about me if something were to happen to me. My testimony. Testimony building experiences I have had in my life. Little fun tidbits about me and my siblings and parents as I grew up and stuff. The things I like. The things I don't like. I wanted them to know the details of Brian and my courtship. EVERYTHING! I started realizing that my journal is very factual I guess you'd say. Like a travel log. I want them to know about me as if I was having a conversation with them telling them the stories and such. You can learn so much from other people's experiences, how they got through the challenges in their lives, and how the celebrated the great blessings in their lives. And I LoVe hearing stories from my parents and grandparents from their childhoods!!! I decided whether I was ok or not I wanted to start telling my story in a more meaningful way so that it is documented for them. I hope it will be fun for them to read some day. That my grandchildren will read it someday and enjoy it too. I wish my grandmothers and parents would have done this! One time Stan set up a video camera up in my Grandma Irvine's living room without her knowing it and got her talking about her life. She had such interesting stories to tell. Anyway, I think everyone should start a little history book about themselves for their posterity. I think Tara H. would especially love doing this and hers would be so clever and fun to read!!! Not just a journal where you sit down and write what happened that day. Get a big ol' 5 subject notebook and start writing about yourself. I started writing where I was born and on what day. Who my family members were when I was born. Then I just started writing about things like my parents divorcing when I was 1, my mom joining the church when I was 2, my mom meeting and marrying Stan when I was 3, my younger siblings' births, and then things just started to flow. Stories and tidbits my mom told me about that time. Things I remember from my childhood. Pals I had. It is rather random but it's written down anyway. I have written about my fear of drowning when I was baptized because I was so scared of the water and how I prayed really hard and can you imagine, I didn't drown! Or about times I received priesthood blessings or fun holiday memories and such. It is fun and I write it like I would tell it to someone else, dramatically and full of fun and silliness. It is just a fun project. You should try it! I even decorated my notebook really cute so it makes it even more fun to write in. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts! I appreciate it so much!!! So blessed!!!

I'm scared!!!!

About a year ago I started having a LOT of pain on the right side of my face. It ran across my lower jawbone, my upper jaw and cheek bone, up to the top of my head and everywhere in between. My teeth really were the worst. It felt as if I had a HORRIBLE toothache and the pain radiated from it all over. I had a tooth that had had some problems for years and a dentist had told me I would probably have problems with it the rest of my life because of the issue with it. Well, I was in such constant pain, needing round the clock medicine for it that I finally just asked Dr. Bailey to pull it. I kept having pain in my teeth and would go in for visits and Dr. Bailey suggested a couple of times that I see a TMJ specialist. I never did make a special, costly, trip up to Salt Lake to see a specialist because I just couldn't see going all the way up there just for me and besides the pain wasn't consistent with what I had read about TMJ. Well, this entire year I have experienced this pain in varying degrees MOST days. Each time I would get a tooth fixed I would start feeling pain in another tooth. Then I would suffer with it for weeks because it's such a pain in the butt to make it to a dentist appointment. My biological father and both of my biological grandmothers wore dentures so I just figured I had bad teeth genes and eventually that would be my lot. Usually when he would fix a tooth it would feel better for a few days before I noticed another one hurting. Sometimes the pain was bearable, sometimes I needed some ibuprofen, about 4 weeks ago it really intensified and I was back to using ibuprofen round the clock and 3 teeth were bothering me. I called Dr. Bailey's office and had to wait a week to get in. The pain got so bad the weekend I went to Manti for baptisms for the dead which was Halloween weekend that I was taking 4 ibuprofen and a Darvocet we had left over in our cabinet and I was STILL in pain. I was also taking some sinus medicine because I also started feeling a LOT of dizziness, pain and pressure that made me wonder if I had a BAD sinus infection on top of it all. Well, I called first thing Monday morning and they got me right in. He did an x ray and said my teeth looked fine but I had a cloudy sinus that I have 2 teeth growing into and he thought the dizziness could be from an inner ear infection because my ear hurt too, everywhere on that right side hurt too but sometimes tooth pain radiates so I just thought it was teeth. Well, I took the antibiotic he prescribed and showed very minimal improvement if any at all. My mom was like, you NEED to go to a Dr. so I finally did and it is IMPOSSIBLE to see a doctor the day you call the doctor's office in this town. Maybe just if you are a new patient, but Dr. Etzel was the only doctor in town that could get me in the next day so I went to him. He said he thinks I have a condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia a.k.a Acute Facial Pain. I saw my regular doctor Dr. Harrison on Friday in Provo for my yearly visit and she is a family practice dr, a DO, she delivered Gracie. She is AWESOME!!! I really trust her judgement. I explained my symptoms and she said she thought it was Trigeminhal Neuralgia and I hadn't told her his diagnosis. Dr. Etzel had sent me to have a C.T. scan Thursday. He told me he wanted to do the scan to eliminate the sinusitis as an issue but that he REALLY thought it was the trigeminal neuralgia and that he would give me details and talk treatment after the results of the C.T. were back. Well, his office called Friday and said that he wanted to discuss the results with me in his office and then she told me something I can't remember how she worded it but basically it was a message from him and it was letting me know that it is the trigeminal neuralgia. What I've read and what Dr. Harrison said is that often times you have a tumor that is putting pressure on this nerve in your head causing the pain. Sometimes it can be caused by M.S. Sometimes you have had an infection of some kind and it can trigger this condition. Sometimes you just get this condition for no apparent reason. Dizziness is not a symptom of it. And either are some of my other symptoms. They didn't have any openings to discuss the situation until Monday at 11:00. So I have been a wreck all weekend waiting as patiently as a very impatient wife and mother of 4 little kids can possibly wait to hear whether she has a tumor in her head or not. I keep thinking about words I've waited to hear in my life. I love you from Brian. Will you marry me? Forever. You are pregnant! It's a boy! It's a boy! It's a boy! It's a girl! Mama! How exciting and thrilling those words were to hear. How exciting the anticipation was as I waited to hear these beautiful, life changing, glorious words! I'm terrified of the words I will hear on Monday. Of course my mind has gone over all of the possibilities. If I hadn't had so much pain, and if the dizziness and pain had not debilitated me so much these past weeks. If I wasn't fully aware that this has gone on for an ENTIRE year meaning that if I have a tumor it has grown in my head for at LEAST a year. Why didn't I listen to Dr. Bailey and see that specialist a year ago? Maybe they would have figured it out all that time ago. If I hadn't lived in this town, in the 8th ward for about 7 years, off and on I might think it couldn't happen to me. But you can't live in that area and watch so many around you get diagnosed with cancer, M.S., or other diseases and not realize...it can happen to anyone! I'm scared! Really, really scared! How do you tell your children you have something wrong with you. I don't want to have to know the answer to that! Prayer is a beautiful thing! It is the first step towards experiencing a miracle in your life! It is comforting and healing to the body or spirit or both. I was going to wait to blog about this until after I had the results. Instead I decided to ask for your prayers. Please pray that it isn't really anything major. Please also pray that I will have the strength to endure whatever the answer might be. Whatever HIS will is for me. Thank you friends....

Sharing the savings...

Brian was looking on Fresh Market's website one day and saw that you could sign up to have coupons mailed to you weekly. Well, he signed me up for them and I must say, it is definitely worth signing up for if you have a Fresh Market store in your town! This weeks email included a coupon for a 5 lb. bag of potatoes for .79 and one for $2.00 off any $10.00 purchase at the butcher block. Last week there was a coupon for .89 for a loaf of their farm bread with a limit of 4 loaves. Their farm bread tastes just like Grandma Sycamore's bread I love it! It's regular price is pretty good anyway comparatively speaking at $1.49 a loaf but .89 is really good! And there was a coupon for 64 oz. bottles of apple juice for .79 with a limit of 2. The week before that was our first week and the coupons included one for 4-12 packs of Pepsi for $8.00, and 2 bags of Doritos for $3.00. I know we are all trying to find ways to stretch our dollar so I thought I'd share! If this interests you just go here and sign up.

Happy Savings!!!

And so it goes...

~I hate going to the Dr. I can't decide which I'm more worried about. That he'll tell me that something bad is wrong with me or that he'll blow me off and just act like it's no big deal and I'll have wasted time and the $25 copay. Either way, not looking forward to it!!!
~Poor Matty has strep throat. Of course he didn't tell us his throat hurt until AFTER he went to Primary yesterday. I hope no one in his class gets it. I hope no one else in our family gets it. You gotta love this time of year. I feel like I need to get a job just to pay for our copays and prescriptions.
~They say there's no use crying over spilled milk but I have to say that it does help a little to cry when your 4 year old drops a brand new gallon of milk on the floor, breaking it and causing milk to go all over the frig, the floor, under the frig, and run down the slanty floor and get all over the coats and jackets that he thought would be so super fun to unload from the closet. I've asked him to ask me to get him drinks but he thinks he is 20 years old, does not need parents, and certainly does not need help doing ANYTHING!

~big sigh~

Today was just SUPER!!! I know it could be worse but the way I feel today, it was plenty!!!

On a positive note though, some of you will remember my cousin, John's son Parker who had meningitis at the age of 8 months about a year and a half ago. Well, I know it's been a long time since I updated you about his condition but he got a cochlear implant some time back and has been doing really well with that and now......HE WALKS!!! Renee put a little video on her blog of him walking. WONDERFUL!!! Such a blessing and an answer to so many prayers!!! So happy for Parker and his parents and beautiful sisters!!!! Miracles happen!!! God answers prayers!!!

The trade off...

Today, while I made this for one of my Beehives' birthday gift....

 

Gracie was busy making

this.....

 

I asked Max 3 times to put it in the sink when he was done with it. He's very obedient as you can see... Don't you love how there is always a trade off when you make something fun or do anything besides clean. Oh well! At least she's cute!!!

Halloween...

Last Saturday we carved our totally awesome pumpkins.

Zack did a great job! Sadly his pumpkin rolled off of the table and broke but Brian saved the day by using some wood bbq skewers to hold it together. 

Max had the big daddy pumpkin! It's almost as big as he is!

Matty was SO excited to carve pumpkins!

So focused!

Mine

Max's

Matty's

Zacky's

Max was a scary ghost for his preschool party on Thursday.

Matty was a mummy and Zack was Frankenstein at their school's Halloween parade and carnival. Brian did a great job of painting him up complete with scars and everything! This activity was a fun addition to our Halloween celebration!

Max was Dracula for Matty and Zack's school party.

Saturday night I was exhausted! I have had a sinus infection for a week now. I thought it was just tooth aches and a cold but I went to the dentist this morning and he said it's a sinus infection. Hopefully once I start my antibiotic my head won't feel like it's going to explode anymore!!! Anyway, on Saturday I went to the Manti Temple with the youth to do baptisms for the dead. When I got home I just wanted to go to bed but it was time to go trick or treating. Brian let me lay down for a few while he put everyone's makeup on and got everyone ready. He is an amazing husband and father and I am so grateful for him! It started raining right when it was time to start trick or treating. We just drove them to houses in our neighborhood to start. Max INSISTED on going to Miss Tawnya's house first! He is so funny! He loves his preschool teacher! We kept having to make them wait in the car until the rain let up. A lot of people thought that it was dumb of us "mormons" to go trick or treating on Saturday instead of Sunday so they didn't pass out candy. One person even stuck a note on their front door that said, " Halloween is tomorrow, come back then." It's also the Sabbath so thanks but no thanks! We drove out to the best neighborhood to really load up at and they went to a few houses before the rain really started to pour down. This had been happening off and on for about an hour or so by this time. The kids jumped in the van and we asked if they wanted to wait for it to let up again or if they just wanted to go home. They all opted to just go home. I said, I KNEW my kids were smart!!! I felt bad for them that they didn't get as much candy as they would have liked but it will be nice to be rid of candy wrappers sooner and hopefully avoid cavities! 

A couple of things...

~First of all, I would like to tell all the news reporters out there that it is a terr-OR alert, not a Tar-A alert, thank you very much!!! I'm just sayin!
~Secondly, I can't think of anything cuter in the world than Gracie's 17 month-old belly laugh when she's playing peek-a-boo!!! She is just SO cute and fun!!! We all just love her so much!!! She has been such a wonderful addition to our family and she and her brothers make life worth living for sure!!!

We survived...barely

Last year Matty and I got the H1N1 vaccine because we have asthma, just in time for Matty to come down with it after being exposed before getting the vaccine. Well, everyone in our little family got it except me. I just got to get up all night each time one of them got it so I could give them their ibuprofen to keep their fevers down. Poor Matty had such a rough time with it! He was one sick boy! Luckily he was able to make it through without being hospitalized. Course he later had pneumonia and was hospitalized for that. Well, Zack has started having asthma problems this year and has an inhaler and everything now so I decided we better ALL get the vaccine this year, except for Brian of course because he's stubborn  :). Last year when Matty got the shot I had Gracie with me and had to hold her while trying to drag him, literally, kicking and screaming to the room to get his shot. I begged Brian to come with me this year to help control kids and to help fill out paper work since we were getting them at the health department. Thank goodness he eventually agreed to come with me. We got in the van as soon as Matty and Zack got off the bus. Once we started driving down the road, Max broke the news to them that they were getting flu shots. They both started bawling! Poor guys! Then when we headed for the shot room Matty started freaking out! He does that thing where he goes completely limp. Gotta love it when they do that. Then he starts screaming...I want it in my bum, I want it in my bum.  hahahaha He thinks it hurts less to have a shot in his bum than in his arm. Once I pried his coat off of him and 3 of us held him down, he got the shot in his arm and immediately stopped crying. Poor guy! You should have seen poor Gracie's eyes at this point. She thought he was being murdered or something. We are quite an entertaining group for shots. Sheesh! But at least we survived...barely!!!

A Funny

The boys wore sunglasses to school today for Red Ribbon Week. Matty came home from school and laughed as he told me that his teacher told him he looked like Bono in his glasses. I laughed too and asked if he wanted to see who Bono was? He said sure so I showed him a video of U2 singing Beautiful Day on youtube. Zack was like, he sings this? Dang! He's pretty good for an old guy! HEHEHE!!!!

Randomness...

~I love that the kinda older lady I visit teach has Dynamite by Taio Cruz playing when you call her phone instead of hearing ringing when you wait for her to answer. Not sure what that's called but it totally cracks me up every time I call her.
~We had a great activity on Friday with the youth. The Bishop invited the youth and leaders to his house for a Book of Mormon read. During the summer they had an all night Book of Mormon read-a-thon at the church. They would each take turns reading a page and then once in a while they would have a break and eat snacks and stuff. It sounded like a lot of fun to me. They had some of the kids and leaders talk about the experience in Sacrament Meeting that week. Well, they all loved it so much that our Bishop invited everyone over to his house for a mini read-a-thon. Just 3 hours this time. From 6pm-9pm. He ordered Pizza Hut pizza and had plenty of pop. One of the leaders brought homemade salsa and chips and another brought homemade oreos. It was fun! And so neat to read and then discuss some of the scriptures and have some spiritual insight from everyone. It was just a neat experience that I am grateful I was able to be a part of this time.
~I'm so excited to start working towards achieving my Young Women's Medallion as a leader. They even have fancy new ones that are really pretty and I'm hoping to get one of those! They have a garnet I believe and you can get it in either silver or gold.
~The kids had their Primary program today and they did a really good job. It was really a neat concept that the ladies came up with. Matty did the opening of the program, Max gave a talk we had to write for him for the program, and Zack had a part as well as reading the conclusion of the program. I was thinking how well behaved the boys had been through the program. Zack was reading the conclusion. I started to get choked up for some girly reason. Some ladies started making their way to the front while the pianist started playing Teach Me To Walk In the Light. I realized the ladies were going to sing the verse that starts, Come little child and together we'll learn. More tears. Then the kids started doing the first verse in sign language. Flowing tears came as I thought about my cousins sweet little son, Parker. Then......Max (who is sitting on the front row on the stand and is realizing that it's hard to do sign language while holding a talk in your hands) threw his wadded up piece of paper (talk) to us seeing as how we were on the 2nd row of pews (and I thought making the walk of shame to the 2nd row since we were late was going to be the most embarrassing moment of the meeting). Instant end to flowing tears. Silly boy! We were SO CLOSE!!!
~Went to the Soup and Bread Dinner last night at church. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that night each year! Brian made ham and potato soup (clam chowder with ham instead of clams since Matty is allergic to fish). So yummy! It was the first soup gone and everyone loved it! One old guy was even scraping the pan to get the last of it on his second helping. Good stuff! Bonus...The Banasky's let everyone fill up the cute little bushel baskets with gourds that were decorating the tables and take them home. I was so excited! They grow tons of gourds and pumpkins. They sell them and donate all the money to the Angel Tree at Christmas. Super neat people! Such HUGE hearts they have! One of their daughters is one of my Beehives. Love her! She is just the sweetest girl in the world!
~ Brian and I made this apple crisp together a few minutes ago. It is SO yummy and the house smells just like Fall!!! LOVE IT!!!

It's official...I'm old!!!

So, yesterday I saw an email from Facebook that was from someone I went to high school with announcing that we are going to be having a 20 year reunion next year. THAT'S OLD!!!

Later, I planted some tulip bulbs and dug out the dead tree stump that has been in our yard for who knows how long, then decided to rake the yard. We were planning to take care of it Saturday, now that Zack's football season is over and we could actually plan something like that for a Saturday. Well, the weather forecast is iffy for Saturday so I figured why not just do it and get it over with. Raking is hard work when you are OLD!!! My shoulders and biceps are feeling it big time! It sure is nice to have a cleaned up yard though. It was totally worth all the pain! It looks nice and I can cross it off my list now instead of dreading it. I posted some cute pics on Word From The Zoo of the kids again. Check those out if you get a sec. Did I mention that...

I LOVE FALL!!!



Oh, and now that we have a frig lock on our garbage can so Gracie can't throw random things away anymore she has started throwing random things in our kitchen sink. Off and on, all day, every day I find silly things in there. This is what I found this morning....

That is a wad of playdough under the dolls hand. I have no idea where she found the playdough but I am so glad she threw it in the sink instead of smearing it all over the house. Since my mom might see this I feel I should apologize for the pot marks in the sink.  :)

A love letter...

Dear Ikea, Target, The Sweet Tooth Fairy, University Mall, Provo Towne Centre Mall, Olive Garden, Costco, Sam's, Quilted Bear, Seagull Book, TaiPan Trading, Robert's Crafts, JoAnns, Gracie Lou's, Kohl's, Toys "R" Us, Park City outlets, Papa Kelsey's salads and "mater bread", Cute little store inside of the Conoco in Salem, etc.,

          It's been so long, so very looonnngggg!!!!

I MISS YOU!!!

I can't stop thinking about you and all of the good times we've shared.

               The holidays just won't be the same without you.

  If loving you is wrong...I don't wanna be right!!!

                    They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and it's oh, so true!

I thought time would make the loneliness go away but it just seems to get worse with each passing day.                                
                         How do I live without you? I want to know...

                                                             

I'm SO over my relationship with Walmart, Penney's, KMart, and the $1 store. They've done their best to fill the void and heaven knows we've tried to work things out. It's just...not the same.

                I need YOU!!! 

Though the miles may separate us,
 just know that my heart is with you!!!

Love always,

           Tara              

                                         

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Halloween!!!!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Fall!! I love the food, the smells, the holidays, the slight chill in the air (usually but so far not so much this year but I'm sure it will happen eventually), and the super fun decorations!!! Halloween has always been a favorite holiday of mine to decorate for. We used to have an entertainment center to use for surfaces to decorate and we usually have fun, wide window sills or counters or drop cabinets to decorate. Here we don't have ANY surfaces! I was so sad when I got out the decorations and couldn't decorate because we don't have anywhere to put our cute things. There are 6 plant hook things in our living room ceiling. I decided to Google homemade Halloween decorations. I found a couple of fun things to make and saw this adorable idea where you paint B-O-O on 3 white pumpkins. We broke out the egg cartons, black craft paint, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners and I let the kids go to town. Then we hung their creations from the plant hooks (at least their good for something).They LOVE making craft projects so they loved making these. I think it's cute and helps the house feel a bit more festive. Some day I hope to have another entertainment center and some more fun places to decorate but at least for now this does the trick!

My mom gave me this black table cloth a few years ago

 and it really makes the white pumpkins stand out on my kitchen table!
Kind of fun!

Kind of hard to take pictures of these bats since the window is right there making it so bright.

I made this next one out of some old decorations I had. I saw my friend, Jenn make some similar decorations before so I decided to turn the old decorations into a new fun one.

Show and Tell

 I saw this advent calendar idea on a blog a while back and have wanted to make one. I just needed a cookie sheet. I have tons of magnets and all of these cute little chip board pieces and letters from a kit I bought on QVC about 5 years ago. They have been collecting dust so when I saw this idea I figured this would be the perfect project to use them for. I figure, use what you have when you can, right?! I would have liked to use all red letters but I didn't have enough red letters and I was too lazy to cut any out so I just used green and red together. I still need to get some ribbon to make a bow for the top of it and then it will be complete but I thought I'd share it really quickly now since it may be New Years before I remember the ribbon. :) You can see the original idea here. 



silly me

Max hated preschool for the first 2 weeks this year because his class was quite large and he only new one little girl from t ball. I had to force him to go each day. I figured I'd give it 2 weeks and if he still didn't like it I was NOT paying for something he hated. Well, I kept telling him he would make friends and then he would like it. He made friends with a boy named Logan and that helped tremendously! He started being excited for school each day. We have all...day...kindergarten here which is pretty tough for most kids to get used to. It takes around 2 weeks for them to adjust but if they haven't had some sort of school experience before it's even more difficult to adjust so preschool is pretty much a MUST. I know of parents who enroll their kids in 2 preschools to help with the adjustment. I think that's pretty extreme and costly. Anyhoo, yesterday was Max's class pumpkin patch field trip. I have been trying to be more involved in school activities with my boys this year since I didn't do much last year because Gracie was so little so I happily signed up to be a driver. Well, all morning yesterday Max kept telling me to forget to go on the field trip. I was a bit hurt and asked him why he didn't want me to go. He told me he wanted to get to ride in Logan's car with him. WHEW! He likes me he just wanted to be social. AWESOME! He's come a long way in just a few short weeks! I talked with Miss Tawnya and she said that Logan's mom wasn't going on the field trip so she made sure Logan got to ride with Max so he would be happy. We were excitedly walking to the van to start on our fun little adventure when I realized I locked my keys in the van. NICE!!! I left my purse in the van and locked it but apparently dropped my keys on the floor in the back when I was getting Gracie out of her car seat. SO.LIKE.ME!!! Thankfully one of the other mom's had room in her car for the 2 boys and even had a car seat for Gracie to ride in and happily offered us a ride. So we all jumped in and made our way to the pumpkin patch. I called Brian from her cell phone and asked him to get the extra keys and unlock the car so I could come home after the field trip. A really nice preschool mom decided it would be fun to have a pumpkin patch for the preschool kids to go to so she planted pumpkins in her garden and bordered the garden with hay bales and corn stalks and scare crows. SO CUTE and FUN!!! It was awesome! I guess she has done it for a couple years now. The kids were all so excited to get a pumpkin. Max looked and looked for the biggest, best pumpkin. Unfortunately it didn't take him very long to drop it and break it on the way to the car. Poor guy! Thankfully the nice pumpkin patch owner let him get another one and even let Gracie have one. When we got back to the preschool the van was unlocked and Gracie and I made our way  back home. It was a fun little trip! So glad to be past that first year of Gracie's life so I can feel more like I can do stuff. I cherish that first year of her life and really made an effort to enjoy her and her little sweet stages since she is the caboose of our family. I'm a bit sad to see that time gone but also happy with each new stage and each new milestone. So glad for nice mom's who plant pumpkins for preschoolers to enjoy and for nice mom's who come to the rescue of "silly" mom's like me. So glad for super nice preschool teachers who try to make each child happy. And especially glad for a wonderful husband who saved the day and unlocked the car for his "silly" wife! Of course, I forgot my camera which wouldn't have mattered even if I remembered it since it would have been locked in the car anyway. So no pictures to share. I keep kicking myself over that one. There were tons of fun photo ops yesterday. Oh well!

WANTED:

A good apple crisp recipe. And a good peach cobbler recipe. If you wouldn't mind sharing your recipes I would greatly appreciate it!!! My email address is tarafree26@hotmail.com.

Thanks bunches!!!

We love Lucy!!!

We have another dog. She's an 8 week old puppy. She's a Red Heeler. Her name is Lucy. I picked the name and everyone liked it. She is very cute, very sweet, and just the best puppy I've ever been around. The kids adore her. I even like her. And of course Brian loves her, she IS a dog after all and he's wanted one for years. Gracie can't get enough of her! When she saw her this morning she said, hi daw (dog) and waved. She is constantly trying to escape outside and Lucy is constantly trying to get inside so it's kind of interesting when someone needs to go in or out the door between the 2 of them. They keep life fun!



Oh the horrors of Sunday School...

LOL! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our ward!!! We love all the members we have met so far and feel so welcome and at home. We're making friends and really enjoy going to church each week! The Relief Society teachers are amazing and we are really learning a lot about the Old Testament in Sunday School from our regular teacher as well as lots of subs that have taught the class. I even LIKE going to Sunday School here EXCEPT...I'm not a big fan of reading in public. It intimidates me. Especially reading Old Testament scriptures in public. I'm a chicken! Well, each of the teachers, the regular one as well as the subs, start at the front of the classroom and then everyone takes their turn reading until everyone in the class has had a turn. UGGHH!!! There is actually a rule in our church that you aren't supposed to do that for several reasons. One of the reasons is that someone might not be able to read well and it might offend them to be asked to read in front of everyone. One of the reasons is sometimes people have been disfellowshipped or excommunicated and they are not supposed to participate in prayers or any part of the service. They are supposed to just be there to learn and listen through their, hopefully, very PRIVATE time of repentance. None of these apply to me, I'm just EXTREMELY uncomfortable reading difficult scripture in front of people, call me crazy! But I really enjoy benefiting from this rule!! Reading in class or praying is supposed to be an entirely voluntary thing. Well, apparently our new ward does not know of this rule and they do this each week. Well, we are studying Isaiah and this week there was a DIFFERENT sub. Not only would she MAKE you read the scripture but then she would ask you to EXPLAIN or EXPOUND on the scripture. Can you imagine! It's Isaiah remember!! Seriously intimidating stuff! Finally, it was my new hero, Cristen's turn. When she finished reading the teacher asked her to explain the scriptures she just read. She said something like, I don't know, that's why I came to this class, because I don't understand Isaiah. I was hoping someone else would explain it to me. I had to force myself to not stand up and cheer! I did however, tell her how great I thought it was that she said that when class was over.  I'm sure for some people it seems just silly to be so uncomfortable about this but I'm also sure I'm not alone. I think it just always pays to try to be considerate of others and to try to always follow the rules that are set in place. Even if you don't understand the reason for the rules, they are in place for a reason.!!!

Silly Max...

K so Brian asked Max today if he has thought of something different to ask Santa for besides a baby (see previous post).  The conversation from there...

Max: I'm going to write Santa a letter and ask him for an iPod Touch.
Brian: Santa doesn't bring iPod Touches to 4 year olds.
Max: I won't tell him how old I am! (Max talks very dramatically with lots of influxion ending the sentence in a way that makes you think his next word will be DUH!! making this statement even cuter!)
Brian: Oh, Santa KNOWS how old you are!
Max: Really?!?!?
Brian: Yeah! Santa knows EVERYTHING about you!
Max: Made the cutest look ever like HOLY SMOKES!!!

Very interesting...

This morning in the car on the way to preschool I asked Max what he thinks he'll ask Santa for this year. He said he is going to write Santa a letter and ask him for a baby.
uuuhhhh...WHAT!!!!
I hate to break his heart but all Mommy wants for Christmas is her tubes tied so this may not work out as he would like!!!
We may have to take a little trip to the toy store so he can find a little something DIFFERENT to ask Santa for!!!! 
OY VEY!!!

Attitude and gratitude

My last post was all in jest but since I have been trying to count my blessings more I had a hard time keeping myself from talking about how much I love living here at the end of that post because I wanted to keep it light and silly. Do I wish I had a dishwasher...UMM, YEAH!!!  Do I miss having a garbage disposal...absolutely! Do I cringe every time I have to vacuum because I know that there will be less of the green carpet by the time I'm finished because no matter how careful I am a string of it ALWAYS gets sucked up in my vacuum and stuck on the roller thingy...DUH!  Could I go on and on about the little things that bug me about this house...FOR HOURS!!!

BUT I LoVe...

Having our own place to live.

             Our ward for about a gazillion reasons.

                          Our yard.

                                      That our kids are in the same school as they were last year.

That the bus picks them up at our house.

            The cute little bunnies that hop through our yard all the time.

                       That our kids see beauty in the things we find fault in. See previous post-orange carpet comment :)   

    That there were already holes in the walls and carpets and scribbles on the walls when we moved in so I am not SO worried that the kids will cause damage to the place.      

         That the atrocious green carpet makes me think of my Grandma Hazel every time I see it. She had ugly green carpet too. It was in perfect condition and very clean, unlike our green carpet but still, it makes me think of her so I still kind of like it.  

                     That sometimes when I walk into the back part of the house near the bathroom it smells like my Grandma Irvine's house did and makes me think of her. I LOVE that!!!

            That I am grateful every day to have a roof over our heads so that our family is protected from the elements and from harm. 

     That I have realized that it doesn't take a lot of fluff to make a person happy. You can be happy or miserable anywhere you live. It is all in your attitude. We are choosing to be happy and boy are we ever happy! We have our fair share of trials that's for sure but ultimately we are happy. We love each other. We love our greatest gifts..our children. As long as we are together we don't care where we are. I feel such a lovely peaceful spirit in this house. I KNOW we are supposed to be living here right now. I think that the reason that we couldn't find a place to live, even though we were desperately praying, driving up and down every street in several towns all the time, diligently, desperately searching for our own place to live, that Heavenly Father knew that we needed to live HERE. The people that lived here had bought this house as a fixer upper only about a year and a half before we rented it. The husband lost his job and they ended up having to move to Montana. They didn't have any money to fix it up and so it's in the same condition it was when they bought it. Heavenly Father has a plan. He is in charge. We appreciate all He gives us every day. We are truly  blessed people!!! We might not have as much as others. We have more than some. We have sufficient for our needs. We NEED the gospel, our family, food, shelter, clothing. We have those bases covered so IT'S ALL GOOD!!! It seems the
less we have the more we feel blessed. The more we appreciate what we DO have. The more we are able to have our priorities where they need to be. 

One last thought...think of all the crazy celebrities you see in the news. Fame and fortune do not make you happy! You can live in a mansion and be a MISERABLE person or you can live in the gutter and be the happiest person on earth! It is all in your attitude and your gratitude! It's a very conscious choice. "Men are that they might have joy". Our bishop reminded us of that Sunday in his talk in church. This man who is fighting for his life in a battle against the stage 4 cancer that is in his body stood at the pulpit and urged us all to find the joy in life. To look at our lives and if we are not happy, then we need to live the gospel more fully and find the joy in life and be HAPPY!!! What an amazing man! What an amazing message! One thing that has been on my mind for the past few months is that we need to see ourselves as Heavenly Father and Jesus see us. It's not always easy but blesses our lives so much when we make an effort to see our eternal potential. 

WE...ARE...BLESSED!!!!