Yummy stuff, etc.

~So, I found this recipe on Pinterest and Brian made it today and it is so yummy and easy I just have to share! Pour a 2-liter of your favorite soda pop and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk in your ice cream maker. Then follow the directions for your ice cream maker. We used orange soda pop and it tastes like a dreamsicle. It took about 45 minutes.
~Our bank account was hacked into two weeks ago. Brian is still unemployed. Its so frustrating that they took from what little we have. The bank will give it back but it still bites!
~Our kids have been begging us to take them to the wave pool. Last week Zack's scout troop led the pledge of allegiance at the dedication of the new giant flag near Wendy's. Each scout was given enough wave pool passes for each member of their family. So we finally went and we all had a great time! Poor Zacky was fried because he had Matthew put the sunscreen on his back. Brian tried to get him to let him put it on him but he wouldn't let him. Lesson learned. I didn't get even a little bit burned. That was a record for me! I reapplied sunscreen half way through. Everyone had fun and the pool wasn't very crowded. And there was barely a breeze at all, which is so rare these days. Everyone is at fun ages to take places and do fun things with. I love my little family!!!
~If you know anyone who needs boys jeans size 12 Husky from The Children's Place, please let me know. I have 6 pair of them. They are very gently used. He grew out of them so stinking fast! They are totally FREE!!! And they don't just have to be from my town either.

Like mother like son...

My mom tells the story of how embarrassed she was to take me to swimming lessons. When she tells the story she still gets mad just thinking about it. I was AT LEAST a foot taller than all of the other kids in my swimming lessons class. On the last day of lessons we were "blessed" with the opportunity to jump off of the diving board to a certified lifeguard who was waiting below to catch us. She had a rectangular shaped life preserver thingy that she held onto. We were given the option of wearing a life jacket if that would make us feel more comfortable. Also, if that wasn't enough to make us feel safe, we could have the lifeguard wear a life jacket also. I very distinctly remember standing (remember; at least a foot taller) by all of the other children, with my arms defiantly crossed, as one by one each of them jumped to their certain death. Amazingly they all survived and then it was my turn. I have no idea how long they actually tried to convince me to do it. It seemed like forever. I'm sure it felt even longer to my poor, humiliated mother as she sat on the grassy little hill by all of the other mothers. They tried everything you can imagine to convince me to jump but there was no way I'd do it. NO WAY!!! My parents had paid for swimming lessons and my mom had dutifully taken me to my lessons for weeks and I didn't pass because I wouldn't jump. I can only imagine how upset they were by this. One day Stan took me to the college pool in Dodge City and HE got in the water under the diving board and I jumped to HIM. I trusted HIM to not let me die. And not Just because I knew my mom would kill him if he let me drown, but also because I knew that he loved me and wanted to keep me safe and wouldn't let me die. There was no trust with the little lifeguard chick!

Well, last night the cub scouts met at the indoor pool and passed off the swimming requirements so they can be in a boat without a leader, just with another cub scout, when they go to day camp this weekend. Well, Matthew wanted Zack to go with him so that he would feel more comfortable. They were doing all of their swimming in the 12 ft part of the pool. There was NO WAY he was going to do it. Apparently he held onto the little ladder thing for dear life and no matter how much they coaxed him he wouldn't budge. He especially didn't want anyone to touch him when he was in the water. I totally feel the same way! When they got in the car when I picked them up Zack told me how it all went down and I could tell that he was SO not impressed. I surprised them both by saying, yeah I wouldn't have done it either! What can I say when...he gets it from me! I was a little worried about how Brian would react to this. I was pleasantly surprised when he said good, because he didn't feel comfortable with him being in a boat without a leader anyway. It was especially nice that Zack had to endure all of the embarrassment at the pool instead of us! :)

Ok, so I'm thinking I need to hire a vacuum-er for the summer. I swear my kids have crumbs and lint and dirt and who knows what the heck else, that just falls off of them everywhere they go. I've vacuumed 3 times today. Not just food or anything like that but just...kids. It's kind of discouraging. Frustrating. Annoying. And disappointing. And don't get me started on the dishes. And we even have a dishwasher now and everything.....

A clever Primary idea. Gift envy. Some quotes and some fun 4th of July ideas.

~Ok, so they changed the Primary Presidency and the Relief Society Presidency in our ward last Sunday. I just loved all of the ladies that were released so much and I think they did a wonderful job in their callings. They had all been in their callings for a long time so it was just time for a change. One thing that the new Primary Presidency has done is this: 

A sticky note! I shudder to think of how many notes we HAVEN'T received from our kids, telling us they had a talk or prayer or scripture in Primary the next week. I just thought it was a very clever way to send home their notes so I thought I'd share.

~The Relief Society gave all the dads a big cinnamon roll in clear plastic boxes that look kind of like what a corsage would come in for their Father's Day gift. They added a sticker to the top that says "Happy Father's Day". Luuuckyyyy! Thankfully, one of the girls in our YW brought us each one also since they had more than what they needed. They.were.delicious!!!

~Some more of my favorite Pinterest finds...
Quotes-

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all-in which case, you fail by default." -J.K. Rawling

"The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday." Author unknown

"Life is like a camera. Just focus on what's important and capture the good times. Develop from the negatives and if things don't work out, just take another shot." Author unknown

"If you want to make a difference in the world, you must be different from the world." Elaine Dalton

This adorable shirt with large ric-rack and blue polka dot ribbon. Too cute!! I tried to find the original post-er but I couldn't.

I found a new blog to stalk follow. You just HAVE to check out their link. Isn't this strawberry the cutest thing ever! And super easy! I'm not a big sprinkle girl so I would maybe color more white chocolate blue and dip it in that for the bottom. I just can't wait to try them!

http://www.thesisterscafe.com/2011/06/4th-july-strawberries

  

These ladies are AMAZING!! This is one of my favorite blogs too! http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2012/06/35-fun-july-4th-recipes.html

An experience to treasure...

Thursday was our Stake Temple Baptism day. Zack just turned 12 in April so he got to go to the temple for the first time. I am so grateful to be serving in the Young Women's program right now so that I could be there to watch him have that experience. We went to the Manti Temple that day. As we were walking to the car to leave I reminded him that his dad and I were married in that very temple and told him which of his aunts and uncles had been married there as well. It is so surreal to attend the temple with my first born son almost 19 years after marrying Brian. Time flies by so quickly. I'm so glad for the little moments in life that you just know will stay with you forever. The things that were said. The way that you felt. Life has so many beautiful gifts to give us. They may not come in the form we "want" or think we "need" but if we just humble ourselves and think of how important those little moments really are. We will feel blessed beyond measure. We will remember what ReaLLy matters. And we will be ever so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father for giving us these experiences to treasure...

Just a few things I've been thinking about...

~My sister, Steph, invited my boys to stay at her house from Monday until today. How awesome is SHE?!! It has been so nice. I did miss them lots last night at bedtime. Not used to having them gone so long but it's good for us to spend a little time away from each other. They need that fun time away and we need the break!!! I LOVE that she did that! She is so brave! She has 2 little kids and she is pregnant. She even braved taking our 3 and her little boy to the Payson swimming pool alone. She's amazing! We were too afraid to let Gracie stay because she hasn't ever spent a night away from us and we were afraid she'd be sad at bedtime. We live an hour away so it wouldn't be very good for anyone if that happened. So, we took the kids to her house Monday and we went to Tucanos for lunch since Brian got a free meal post card since his birthday is this month. Then we caught a movie at a theatre that has cheap tickets. We saw Sherlock Holmes. Gracie stayed with Steph that afternoon while we did that stuff and then we took her home with us. She.was.not.happy to be leaving!! Steph made sure that my boys had lots of fun and she even said they behaved themselves really well. I guess they listened to my gazillion lectures. hehe When she brought them  home today, Gracie was in hog heaven! She just LOVES Steph's kids! When they left she stood on the front porch and watched them drive away until they were completely out of sight and then ran to her bedroom. I went in to check on her and she was standing in her room crying and said, "I miss them!" Then Steph said that when they got home her Josh sat on the couch with big tears running down his face and said, "I miss them!" So sad. They broke my heart. We need to live closer so they can spend more time together.

~On Memorial Day we went to the cemetery to put flowers on Brian's dad's grave. As we were walking Zacky (12) said, "That is so sad!" We asked what was sad, figuring that he had seen a grave for a baby or something. He said, "Someone named their kid Orange." He cracked us up!

~Gracie has been surprising us lately with her understanding and use of the English language. Last night Brian told her we were going to a church BBQ. She came and excitedly told me that we were going to a BBQ at the King's house. Last year we went to a couple of church BBQ's at the King's house from our church. The King's moved several months ago so we were so surprised that she would remember those BBQ's and that she would remember the King's names. Then tonight Brian was scooping some ice cream and Gracie said, "Ladies first." How did she know that?! She's so funny!

Isn't life interesting?! Oh, man..sometimes it just throws you for such a loop doesn't it?! For a few weeks there I was feeling SOOOO depressed. I hate being depressed! There were just so many worries and stresses and so many different directions I was going with work, my church calling, baseball, helping in my 3 kids' classes, my job, and so much I needed to do at home and on and on and on it goes. I just got to feeling so overwhelmed. I felt like I was just being buried. Then when my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer things just kind of all came to a head. And that's when I decided I needed to get a priesthood blessing. It made me stronger and helped me to really be able to put everything in perspective.

~My mom's life was most important above everything else and pretty much everything else seemed so trite and unimportant. My kids are healthy and happy. We have the Gospel in our lives. We live in The United States of America. What more could you want out of life, really?

~-School's out!!! I'm SOOO glad!!! The last week of school my kids had lots of fun and they were given rewards and awards and so many people told me what great kids they are. I was kind of sad for the year to end. I even cried a bit. Zacky had such a wonderful year with Peak and Student Council. He's going to be in 7th grade now. My baby is going to junior high. AND he's a Deacon! Mind boggling! How the heck did he grow so fast?! Matthew had THE BEST TEACHER EVER!!! What an AMAZING woman!! I just love her so much if you couldn't tell! I really hated that to end. Some teachers are wonderful and some...not so much. She gave him the Citizenship Award. That's a really big deal! I'm so proud of him! Max did really well in kindergarten. He LOVED it! I soooo enjoyed not having a care in the world with Max and Matthew at school. Zack made us kind of crazy not always handing in his assignments on time and stuff but he's such a great kid that it all evened out.

~We knew for a month that our family would be speaking in church. The topic was family. We spoke on the same day I had to give my lesson in Y.W.. I fretted and worried and stressed over this so much, just like I always do, but I think we did ok and it was nice to just have it over with. We really needed to learn the things we learned from giving our talks and I always learn lots when I give the Y.W. lesson. Really it is all basically reminders but still, we need reminders sometimes. But, whew!!! was I ever relieved when that all was over with!

~I quit my job. It's for the best and even though I liked it a lot I just really need to be home with my kids. And if, by some chance, Brian gets another job, I didn't want to leave my friend/boss Tamra high and dry so, yeah, I quit my job.

~Only one more game day. Saturday. The boys all have a game and then there will be closing exercises and then we're DONE with baseball!!! I am literally doing the happy dance right now!!! This has been my favorite baseball season to date but I am always happy to see it end. Someone told me that these are the things I'll miss most when my kids are grown and gone. Right now I just can't see that being a possibility but whatev.

~Ok, I may have been a little hasty when I wrote the School's out part...I started writing this yesterday and was interrupted. Today is the first day of summer break that my kids have really about pushed me over the edge. Oy... We took all 4 of them with us to Fresh Market. Yes, we're insane. After we all survived that torture, we came home. We gave our only set of keys (the other one was in the stolen bag at Disneyland) to Zackary (remember, he's 12) to unlock the front door so we could bring in the groceries. Well, he thought it would be super fun to leave the keys in the door. Max (remember, he's 6), who never misses anything, discovered the keys in the door and took them out. Well, for the next 4 hours we searched everywhere you can imagine for those keys. Inside and outside of the house. In the car. EVERYWHERE! At one point Brian found Max sitting in the bathroom sink, in his swimming suit. Apparently, we need to invest in a new little swimming pool since ours broke last year. So, anyway, Brian told him to let the water out and get outside if he wanted to be wet and run through the sprinklers. Then Brian came outside to help me look out there. When we went back inside Gracie had a VERY distressed look on her face and led us to the bathroom. She had decided that her brother's idea of playing in the bathroom sink was really great so she plugged the sink and turned on the water and then it ran...and ran...and ran...until it had flooded the entire bathroom floor and had started a little 2 inch river that ran from the bathroom to her bedroom and into her closet...the good news is that we didn't yell or scream...or kill ANY of them...and the floors are linoleum and wood and the water didn't sit there long so we just mopped it all up with towels and life is "normal"-ish again. Not long after this I was standing in the house by the front door and glanced at the floor behind the TV stand and what to my wondering eyes should appear...but our missing set of keys just laying right there. Hallelujah, Max was saved!!!

Seriously though, you would not believe how much better I feel now that all of these weights have been lifted from my shoulders. Obviously life isn't perfect and it never will be, and that's ok, but I wish I could express in words how much better I feel now that these changes have taken place. There will be another thing lifted soon but I can't say what it is. I have very mixed emotions about it. Mostly, I want to cry just thinking about it, but it will be nice in it's own ways also. I'll be sure to talk about it on here after it happens. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the gifts he has given us and the joy that he has brought to our lives, even when there is so much that can bring us down. He truly wants us to be happy, we just have to humble ourselves and ask Him to help us feel the joy sometimes.