Brave-ness

My 9 year old Matthew is PAINFULLY shy! He is SO shy that it worries me sometimes. He definitely takes after his dad in that respect. For a couple of weeks now he's been talking about trying out for the school play, which is Cinderella. He wants to play the part of Gus-Gus, which totally cracks me up because he is an incredibly slim size 8. Seriously, we have to cinch up the adjustable waist on those slims. Believe it or not, he takes after me AND Brian in that respect. Who could guess with the way we look now, but it's really true.

Anyhoo, He actually took the initiative to sign up on the list and he chose a certain day and time for the audition. Tuesday, January 22 @ 4:30. He was SOOOO thrilled about this!!! He had to pick a song to sing that was as long as the Happy Birthday song, and recite a couple of lines. Well, I suggested and suggested and suggested songs to sing. For example Spongebob's It's the Best Day Ever or F-U-N. The Best Day Ever shows lots of range if you think about it, so I thought that would be perfect.  He never liked any of my suggestions and he never could decide on a song to sing until 10 MINUTES BEFORE THE AUDITION! He chose Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Whatev! I know he should have practiced it a lot more and he should have been more prepared and I told him that but he didn't care. He wanted to audition!

The way I pictured it going down: We would get to the school and he would have a severe case of stage fright. He would cry. We would come home.

The way it actually went down: He led us right to where the auditions were. He showed us the paper that he had signed up on that was hanging on the door leading to the auditions. He studied his 2 little lines as he patiently waited for his turn. The chick came out to get him. He bravely walked up the slanted ramped hallway leading to a stark white room with 4 lady judges. He sang his song. He said his parts. Gracie, Max, & I waited in the rampy hallway where we could see his back and hear his voice. He did a great job! We came home.

I...WAS...STUNNED!!!!  

And more than just a little bit proud of my boy!!!!! I am so impressed with him and it makes me feel better. Like he's going to be ok. I can't begin to tell you all of the times he's been too shy to do something. He won't even stand up for himself or ask or tell his teacher something important. I've worried about how he's ever going to make it in this crazy world. Well, apparently he has it in him he just has to want it bad enough. It seems that he's improving little by little, day by day, year by year. I just have to remember that everyone grows at their own pace and that Matthew is Matthew and Zack is Zack and Max is Max and I just can't compare them to each other because it just doesn't work that way. They are rightfully different and fabulous in their own ways and I am just so glad that I get to be their mom. The one who cheers them on when they need encouragement and the one who gets to pat them on the back and praise them when they take those baby steps and show that growth.

I've always said that he would be a wonderful actor. He is SOOO dramatic! When people think we have it easy because girls are so dramatic I always say...you haven't met Matthew or at least he hasn't warmed up to you enough to let you see his dramatic side. He'll be good if he gets the part. I hope that they at least give him some kind of part. He was so brave that I would hate for him to not at least get to participate in some way. Fingers crossed...& toes! :)

Cuteness and goodbye...

~This morning I was sitting on the floor in the closet trying to organize shoes and clothes when Matthew and Max started getting ready for school. They were singing songs from the radio. They didn't get a lot of the words right and it cracked me up. I didn't correct them, I just smiled as they sang their little hearts out. I just love them so much!

~Last night we had the last family shindig before Nathan and Heidi headed back to Florida. We ate, visited, the guys watched the big game upstairs. The kids played together. Isabelle (Nate's oldest daughter who's 5 and in kindergarten) said to Steph and J.J. that they could come to Florida to visit them on Valentine's Day or Easter. Then she told Brian and I and our kids that we could come visit them for her birthday in June. She described the birthday cake she'll have and other fun details about the party she'll have. She is adorable and had a wonderful, dramatic, excitement, and imagination about her. It was so hard to look at her beautiful little face and her pretty little eyes and try to explain that we can't afford to go to Florida to see her. I'm so afraid she's totally expecting us to show up for her birthday and will just be so disappointed when we don't show up.

When Izzy was born they lived in Provo. They came to Mom's for Sunday every week. They shared holidays, birthdays, dance recitals, births, baby blessings. They moved about a year and a half ago. My mom has been broken hearted ever since about it and poor little Josh (Steph's 5 year-old son) has missed her so much. They were best pals since he was born when Izzy was 4 months old!

I'm not big on goodbyes! There are 6 of us kids in our family and now Rob, Dana, and Nathan all live in other states with their sweet families. We all miss them so much! When I think about it I just don't know how my mom handles it!

They left for the airport at 3:00am so we had to say goodbye last night. We said our goodbyes and headed downstairs before they said goodbye to my parents. I guess Izzy just sobbed and said that she didn't want to leave. :'(  Little Mikey is about a month older than my Gracie is. Tommy is about 14 months old. We'll miss them all so much! Gracie still didn't really know what was going on so she cried this morning when we told her they were gone.

It was fun to see what a cute little family they are. I love listening to my brothers talk to their kids. Heidi is such a good little mom!

Still here...

Life is hard isn't it! I have seen so much loss over the past few months and so much suffering happen to others and it has just been hard to watch people go through such hard times and not be able to do much to help them. In addition to loss of loved ones I've seen loss of jobs and other temporal losses.

Also, my sister, Dana's husband, who is in the Special Forces in the Army, is deployed right now. He missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, the birth of their second grandchild. My sister only has her little family to celebrate with as she doesn't live near any of us or her in-laws. I have felt so bad for her and her family. I feel bad for the families who's soldiers have lost their lives.

Words cannot express the feelings of sadness I have had for the people in Connecticut who lost loved ones or who have loved ones who survived it and will struggle with it the rest of their lives. It breaks my heart to think that there is such evil in our world. Truly horrific!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We are truly blessed in so many ways. My brother, Nathan, and his family are here and have been since the 18th. They live in Florida and it's been a year and a half since we've seen them. It's been wonderful having them here!

My sister Steph and her husband J.J. are part-owners of a cabin. This year they were able to stay in the cabin from December 26th to January 1st. They were nice enough to invite our family, my parents, KayTee and Chris, and Nathan and his family, to spend that time with them. It was so much fun! The kids and Brian rode snowmobiles and went sledding and played in the snow. I stayed inside the entire time as one of the main triggers for my Trigeminal Neuralgia is cold. Cold air. Cold food. Cold drinks. Cold. I read a book, relaxed, held Steph's darling 2 month-old son, Jacob. It was so nice! Matthew came down with a fever on Christmas Day and had some breathing issues so he had to stay inside the whole time. He did get to play outside for a little while one day when he was feeling a lot better but then he was back to square one again afterwards so we kept him inside the rest of the time. It's beautiful there!

Sometimes it's hard for my extremely sympathetic/empathetic heart to enjoy things to the fullest when I know of other people's trials and suffering. I know that "men are that they might have joy" but still! I just sincerely hope and pray that those who have cause to mourn are comforted and blessed in the ways that they are in need of. Sometimes it's hard to snap out of depression when it rears it's ugly head. I'm trying to overcome it and be joyful but it's hard. I have so very many blessings and I am trying to focus on that and to be what my family needs. And to be grateful for all that I have. I desperately want to help those around me who are in need of a lift. Can anyone suggest ways that I might be able to do that without making their suffering worse? I'm not very good at this! I so want to be though!

So, I know it's been a while since I've posted on here but I'm still here. Just haven't known what to say...

This and That...

~I must say that I was rather embarrassed to HAVE to put up a whole end cap at Walmart that was solely devoted to Justin Bieber. I'm not a fan of the show, The Office, but Brian and Zack LOVE it so I just endure it each week.  :)  I will admit, though, that I laughed my butt off when Jim said something to Dwight about Justin Bieber and Dwight said, "What's a justice beaver?" LOL! So ever since then I call him Justice Beaver. It's not that I don't like HIM or anything, it's just that I just...don't "get" it. Last night Justice was on The Voice and his pants were so far down it was ridiculous. Seriously, below his entire butt. What is up with that? LAME!!! Just had to get that out... 

~That baseball craziness has begun. Zack's games are so much fun to watch now that he's older. Add the kids are more competitive and more able to execute awesome plays and such. I'm so proud of Zack because he got hit with a pitch the very first time he was up for bat this season. I figured it would be a very crappy hitting season for him because of being afraid but he is awesome and has hit most pitches since he's been up to bat. Max and Matty are on the same team this year also so that will be a TREMENDOUS help!! Only problem so far is that a lot of the games are scheduled right during Y.W.. Tonight Zack has a game in a town really close to ours from 6:00-8:00 and has to be there at 5:30 and Matty and Max have a practice at a baseball field near where my parents used to live here in town from 6:00-7:30. And I visit teach tonight at 4:00 and 5:00. I don't have to work today like I did last week, which is so nice with all of this going on.

~Brian still hasn't found work. I am stressing so much! Ever since the Priesthood Blessing I had last week I've felt a lot better but it's just so very hard to deal with! We HAVE to figure out what we are supposed to learn from this so we can stop having this same trial over and over and over and over. It's so draining/exhausting/stressful.

~My house is looking more in order now that I'm not working so much. It will get crazy again closer to Mother's Day but for now it's been nice to have more time to devote to cleaning the house and more energy. I've felt so much better lately. I've had my share of pain here and there but for the most part I can deal with life better than I could before. Bending down to pick stuff up is getting increasingly difficult again, which I hate. Feeling like my head and face are going to explode is just not my favorite, call me crazy. I really can't complain though because it is so much better than before and I know it can always be worse. I really need to be more positive!!

~I am always so terrified when it's my turn to teach the Young Women's lesson. I seriously stress out for at least a good week over it. This week when the girls heard it was my turn to give the lesson they all were really happy that it was my turn and were like "Yay, it's Sister Freeman's turn to give the lesson". It just made my whole week! They are such amazing girls and I really hope that my lessons help them and that they I'm not just a blithering idiot up there. LOL!!! We were really early for Sunday School this week. We were actually REALLY late for Sacrament Meeting, but I'm trying to be more positive.  :)

~So, when Gracie was about 2 months old or so, I bought at darling light pink tutu and some cute fairy wings to match, so that I could have her pictures taken in them. Well, she wore them for her Halloween costume when she was one year old, but other than that it has been hanging in her room waiting for us to be able to afford to have her picture taken again. The only time we had her pictures done was when she was a month old in her blessing dress. My parents had some pictures of them with their grand kids when Gracie was about 6 months old. Other than that, this poor little girl hasn't had her pics done in all that time. She will be 3 in May. Everyone thinks she looks like she's at least 4. I worry they'll expect more out of her. Trust me, she may look 4 but she acts like she's 2!  :) Anyhoo, I finally got her pictures done a while back and I'm so excited to share them!!! I can't tell you how happy I am about it!! I'm sure Brian is happy he doesn't have to hear me whine anymore about it. LOL!! I usually only leave my kids' pics up for a couple of days because I don't want creapos to see them.  :)  I got the disc so prepared for a plethora of pics. Who can pic just one. I mean really...  ;)

~Please excuse the grammer and incoherent sentences. I don't have time to proof read...

Twilight?! LOL!!

Really?! Seriously?! Matthew lost his retainer....AGAIN!!!

 

On a good note, Brian's interview went well Tuesday. He'll know in about 2 weeks if they are hiring him or not.  

 

And, I know this is totally random, but I've been wondering if I'm the only person that thinks that parts of Twilight are inappropriate for the young teenagers who are so into it. I think of my little 12-13 year old girls at church and I would not want them to see it. I probably shouldn't either if I want to be an example to them I guess. And honestly, the movies are pretty much exactly like the books. It just seems to me that it all seemed so much less cheesy and ridiculous when I was reading the books than when I watch the movies. At least they give me a good laugh. Everyone can stand to laugh more! :)

Random stuff...

~Well, I'm over my bout with strep throat. NOT fun, by the way. Now poor Zacky has it. Matthew has croupe. Gracie has RSV. So, yeah, super fun times here at our house. Stay far, far away from our house!!!  :0)

~We had our big revision with Hallmark at Walmart last Thursday. It looks great! We had a couple of nights of working til 1:20 and 2:00 a.m. in preparation of the revision.  We had a lot of fun, giggled a lot. I just love working with Tamra! I found out my friend, Tiffani, who lived in my parents ward when we moved here, also works for Hallmark at Walmart in her town in Nevada. Fun!

~Last night we had rootbeer floats for our F.H.E. treat. For some reason Matthew and Zack used forks instead of spoons. They also ate theirs in the living room, huge no no. Then apparently one of them dropped the fork on the floor and didn't pick it up. Then Zack was chasing Gracie around and she was happy and laughing. Then she fell and landed on the fork. It gowged (don't know how to spell that) her cheekbone area with one of the tines. It was right under the corner of her eye. Scared me to death!!! It came way too close to her eye!  I feel so incredibly blessed that today she still has an eye and that she was shielded from serious harm!!!  Makes me sick to think about it. I made up a new House Rules chart, using some of the ideas I found on Pinterest. I made them recite it with me this morning and I'm going to make them do it every day right after we read scriptures. Maybe if they have to repeat it every day they'll start following the rules. Many a rule was broken last night that all added up to make one very scary accident. We used to recite a House Rules chart right after we read scriptures together when we lived in Pleasant Grove and then we would read an article of faith. One for each month. We've got to get back to doing that. We just get so caught up in every day life that we just forget that doing those "little" things make such a HUGE difference in our family dynamics. They have rules at school and they follow them so I think it's important that they realize there are rules in our home and family also, and that they are expected to follow them.Well, I hope it works out. I used a different font and a different size of font for each rule.

 House Rules

Always tell the truth

Use kind words

Keep your promises

Keep your hands and body to yourself

No yelling (that one is especially for me)

Say please, thank you, excuse me

Chew with your mouth closed (my sis Dana would laugh cuz she knows I'm a freak!)

Try new things

Forgiveness is mandatory
Always be grateful

No Running

Ask first

No hitting

Offer to help

Count your blessings

Clean up after yourself

Stop eating when you are full

Encourage each other

Always be looking for ways to serve others

Dance

Food stays at the table

Have integrity

Be on Jesus' team

Laugh

Have faith

Have a good attitude

Pray always

Be happy

Don't forget to be awesome!!

~I'm feeling so inspired by the quotes that are posted on pinterest. It is so nice to read those positive things. And to see a lot of fun ideas for making crafts and organizational ideas for our home. I also love all of the recipes and ideas for giving homemade gifts. The food storage ideas and other preparedness ideas. Oh, and the outfit suggestions.I LoVe my clothes board!!! So much fun!! I haven't found anything I don't like about it, actually. 





Seriously?!

I like to at least give the illusion that I have it all together but my family just keeps revealing how very much I don't have it together at all and it is so not nice.  :(   So yesterday I was at BYC for like ever and when I got home it was time to leave the house to head to church. Matthew was wearing a cowboy boot and a dress shoe. When I asked him what the heck was up with that he told me that he and Brian had searched high and low and hadn't been able to find either of the matches to his crazy little pair of shoes. Greaaaaat! So I did a quick search and couldn't find a match either. Now, some of you have actually seen their room and you are not surprised in the least but they had their room totally clean on Friday. I bribed them with a trip to the $1 store and they whipped that room into shape in no time. This fact made me even more upset about the shoe thing. The matches are probably hidden in abyss at the bottom of the toybox, never to be seen again.So he went to church with 2 different shoes on and even had to give a talk in Primary (which, by the way, went surprisingly well considering I forgot he had to give a talk in Primary until the last speaker in Sacrament Meeting was speaking, so I had to just throw something together), where he had to walk to the front of the room where EvErYoNe got to see his unmatched shoes. Oh, and by the way, I just LOVE what obnoxious kids say to other kids. (yes I know mine are probably obnoxious too and I'm just blinded by motherly love to see it) Last week he couldn't find the other church shoe and wore his cowboy boots and some obnoxious kid made fun of him for wearing cowboy boots to church. Ummm there are parts of Emery County, Salem, Kansas and, I'm sure a zillion other places, where cowboy boots ARE their only church shoes and that's totally cool.

Anyhoo...



So, just when I'm getting over the embarrassment of yesterday's shoe dabockle, Max is ready to walk out the door to wait for the bus, when I look at his feet and realize he has on 2 different sized snowboots. One being his size, and one being 4 sizes bigger. Seriously!?! Does he not see a problem here? Really? (big ol' sigh)  So I frantically looked for a matching snow boot and Brian found the match and told him to put them on. The bus had already showed up and Zack was doing an outstanding job of stalling in hopes that Max would get out in time. Well, Max ran out of the house with one boot on and one boot off. Thank goodness Brian had shoveled snow so he wasn't running through that. So I close the door, and I'm still furious over this crazy situation and Brian tells me that Max didn't take both of the matching boots. He took one of those and the 4 sizes too big boot. So I furiously drove over to the school, in my pajamas and my hat that protects my trigeminal nerve from getting cold and causing me pain, but makes me look like the 3rd clone of the dude on the movie, Multiplicity, you know the copy of a copy one, that is always saying, "Hi, Thteve!" and tried to shave his tongue but they had taken out the blade on the razor. So, I get to the school in all of my glory and Max and Matthew just happened to be the only kids on the playground, seeing as how it's only 20 degrees out and all and they are clearly crazy. So I have Max switch boots but he couldn't get the one on his foot so he still has the 2 unmatched boots on. I told him that if anyone says anything to him about his crazy boots then he is to tell them that his mom didn't want him to wear them like that but he snuck out with them on, so people don't think I'm such a loser mom. If this illusion I'm trying to give is eVeR going to work then I'm going to have to have my kids on board. I mean really, they're totally cramping my style.

I survived Black Thursday/Friday at Walmart...

Well, Brian survived his first "Black Thursday/Friday experience. We went to Walmart in Payson. It was CRAZY! I've never seen anything like it and I've been going to these for years now. One chick's hand was bleeding from fighting someone over something. Not a fan of bumper carts! Had to ditch the cart to try to get through and I still couldn't get through. I thought I was going to have to punch a couple looney cart chicks when I still had the cart. My sister, KayTee would have totally mopped the floor with them! We were so excited though because we were able to get one of the $99 4-wheelers for Max. He will be over the moon excited! We were also able to get Matthew a pogo stick for $12 and 3 Barbies that were $5 each for Gracie and we were also able to find a Harry Potter Lego Wii game for $15 that my mom wanted us to pick up for her. There were lots of other things we wanted to get but they will have to wait until after Brian's payday.  :)  The lines seemed to be moving pretty well to check out so that was nice! I would much rather stay up later than get up at 4 a.m.! Unfortunately, so would everyone else! We were able to save about $150.00 and as cheap as we are and as much as we love a good bargain, it was totally worth it!. Fun times! Fun times! 

We had such a nice Thanksgiving! The food was delicious, the company was wonderful, making gingerbread houses was so much fun, and the Black Thursday/Friday sale was very productive.  We missed Rob, Jenise, Dana, Richard, Nathan, Heidi and everyone's adorable little children and grandchildren!!! I love Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful time to reflect on all of the wonderful blessings we have! I hope everyone I know had a wonderful day as well! Later today my mom and sisters and I will go to the craft sale in Spanish Fork. Oh, I just love this time of year!!!

A very....interesting baptism...etc.

Our sweet little Matthew was baptized Saturday. He has looked forward to being baptized ever since he saw Zack get baptized 3 years ago and has talked about it often. As his baptism date has drawn near he has talked about it even more. He had started talking about how excited he was to be baptized but how scared he was to actually be dunked under water. We've encouraged him and I told him that I was TERRIFIED to have my head under water when I was baptized, too. I told him that our Branch President even talked with me and told me that everything was going to be ok. My wonderful Grandma Irvine sent me a lovely letter of encouragement also. I just remember praying really hard that I wouldn't drown and being so thrilled that He actually answered my prayers and kept me from drowning. HAHA   I thought that might help him but it didn't. He got more and more nervous as the week progressed. Poor kid!

 Well, the big day came. There was a little girl from another ward named Jessica who also was being baptized. When the talks finished the Bishop who was conducting said that they would like to have Matthew baptized first and then Jessica. Well, Matthew freaked! He did NOT want to go first! I was rather embarrassed and explained that Matthew was very nervous about having his head dunked under the water and wondered if she could go first. That's when SHE freaked out TOO! Her mom said she was scared too. It was seriously the craziest thing we all had ever seen! They both were weeping and wailing and yes there was some gnashing of teeth! They both were baptized...eventually. LOL! Some of us joked that we wished we could take video of it so we could show it at Matthew's wedding reception. LOL! It was definitely crazy! Now he says that being baptized was so awesome that he wishes he could do it again and that he can't wait until he's 12 and can go to the temple and do baptisms.

Interestingly enough, though, the spirit was very strong. Especially when Brian confirmed him. I'm thankful that Zack & Matthew have been blessed with that companionship. I am grateful that Brian holds and honors his Priesthood. What a beautiful thing! We felt the spirit throughout the rest of the day. It was like we just felt we needed to be reverent. I had to run to the store for my prescription and I hated going because it felt like I was breaking the Sabbath or something.

The luncheon afterwards was nice. Yummy food and spending time with family. I love baptism days! They are just joyful! I am so grateful for the gospel. I am so grateful for the joy that fills our lives as we strive to live righteously. We are FAR FROM perfect but Heavenly Father blesses us for our efforts and I am truly grateful for Him and the blessings He gives us.

~Brian was told at the very end of last month that his job will be terminated in January. They just simply have enough people in Logan at USU that do the work that Brian does here that they are going to give them the work from USU-CEU and terminate that position here. We are so worried and Brian is hoping that he'll be able to find something. It was nice to have Matthew's baptism to bring some joy to our lives since we've been pretty stressed out. If you hear of any Accounting jobs in your area please feel free to let me know. :) tarafree26@hotmail.com

~So my friend Nikki who was doing my hair in exchange of me babysitting her 2 awesome kids, moved away a couple months ago. She did hair but she also worked part time for Hallmark at Walmart and Smiths here. My friend Tamra worked with her. Well once Nikki moved they put Tamra in charge and they needed to hire someone else to work with her and they hired me! It's very part time and very flexible, which is what I need! So I started yesterday. It was SO much fun! I am really excited about the whole thing! There were about 9 of us yesterday working on a whole redo of the cards and displays and such. It was really fun working with those ladies and learning lots of new things. And those of you who know of my love for stationary, cards, and wrapping paper, and organizing, sorting, and filing, know that this is right up my alley!!! I'm just thrilled with the opportunity!

~So Brian had church meetings all morning Sunday. He usually helps me tons on Sundays so I was worried about making it to church on time when we are always late to church when I HAVE his help so I figured I didn't stand a chance on my own. I was really trying to stay on top of things. When we got to church I scanned the congregation for Brian and couldn't see him anywhere. So I looked at the congregation and I realized that none of these people looked remotely familiar. So I looked at the Bishopric and THEY were different too! So I checked my watch and it was 10:00. We were an hour EARLY!! Yes, I'm crazy!   :~/

Matthew rockin' his 70's jumpsuit. He thought that big collar was totally groovy! :)

My hair looks like crap but I was there on time. :)



Matty with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa gave the best talk on Baptism. I cried like a baby when he talked about how 8 years ago we were all gathered together for Matthew's (and Jessica's family for her) baby blessing. The time is just slipping away...  :(



Matty with Steph, J.J., Josh, & Emily. He's looks kinda like a little ragamuffin. He started undressing and I told him he had to take pictures before he could change his clothes. So his shirt is cockeyed, and his pants are twisted. But his cute little Jack-o-lantern smile makes the rest not matter!!!  Grandma and Grandpa game him a suit and he was THRILLED to get to wear it for the first time on Sunday. He looked very handsome!!!

Matty with his cousins Jordan, Jeremy, and Marne. Jordan just came home from his mission a couple of months ago. We just love them!

Matty with Aunt KayTee. Uncle Chris had to work so he wasn't able to make it. We're so glad KayTee came!!!

Randomness...

~There is a chick in our ward named Nicki who has the cutest hair! I asked her who she goes to, since I'm still trying to find someone to do my hair. She said she does it herself and that she works at a salon here in town. I figured if she can do her own hair that well, she must be GOOD!  Well, you can imagine how thrilled I was when she called me a couple of weeks ago and asked me if I would like to do a trade. I would watch her kids 1 or 2 days a week and she would do my family's hair.

Ummm, yeah!!!!

 To  be honest, I was a bit worried. I mean, you never know what you're gonna get when you watch other people's kids. But they are so well behaved. Ty is 8 years old and Max and Matthew LOVE playing with him. Tessa is going to turn 2 in July and she and Gracie get along really well too. I do have to save poor Tessa from my bully daughter, who has a hard time with this whole sharing thing, from time to time. But other than that they are getting along really well. Ty has great manners too. So far it's going great and everyone is happy!  It's been fun getting to know Nicki as well. I finally found a picture of what I want my hair to look like and I can't wait to have it done!

~Between having Zack on a Cal Ripkin Majors team, Matthew on a Cal Ripkin Pee Wee team, and Max starting T-ball this week on a city league team, we go to a LOT of baseball games! We have 9 this week alone. Tonight will be #7. It's been a lot of fun watching the kids having such a great time! It's been really fun to see the different ability levels too. T-ball and Pee Wee are just so remedial compared to Majors. Everyone cheers for both teams and are just so positive and nice. There are a few overzealous (crazy) parents who expect super great things out of their poor kids at this level and are continuously disappointed when it just doesn't work out the way they want it to. It cracks me up to listen to them! Then you go to the Majors and h-o-l-y  c-o-w! The parents REALLY get into it! Last year was really fun to watch but this year is AWESOME!!! All of the players finally really get how to play and they make some incredibly awesome plays! It's exciting to watch and I don't dread the games like I used to. I think a lot of why I dreaded them so much in the past was the way I felt physically. It has been so incredible, the contrast between how I feel this year as compared to how I felt last year. It was bad! It just makes me so grateful each and every day that I feel better. I still have some sporadic pain here and there most days but most of the time I feel great! It's truly a blessing!!! An answer to prayer for sure!!! 

~I have finally started trying to lose some weight. I have gained 20 lbs since November and I can't fit my fat butt into any of my jeans except my maternity ones and ones that have that stretchiness to them. Definite low point!!! And I saw some very cute, thin, girls I went to high school with and I looked like the stay puffed marshmallow man. So humiliating!!! So, I decided I have to do something about it! I've been trying to exercise and I have made some minor changes with my eating habits. I lost 10 lbs!!! Which inspired me to keep at it! Brian has lost some weight too. We both need to be healthier for sure!

~My kids have finally figured out that it's so much more fun to play outside than it is to stay in the house, which is a huge plus! Last year I had to force them to play outside.

~We were able to find Matthew's backpack that he left at school on the last day of school. It had his inhaler in it and some other medicine equaling about $70. I was totally freaking out. We looked in the lost and found 2 different times before we found it.

~I feel like we live at the dentist office. Matty and Zack both have retainers. Both of them have broken them twice. They have only had them since like April or something. Matthew even threw his away at school and the super nice janitor spotted it on his tray in the garbage can and took it out. Thankfully! Course, about 3 hours later he broke it. I tell ya, this could drive a mom to drink!

~So we all know it's not good for us to eat fried foods. I rarely fry. Maybe a few times a year. I found another reason not to do it a few weeks when I was frying some chicken for my family to have between baseball games while I was at a Young Women's barbecue and homework burn. I placed a wing in the front of the pan and reached over it to put another one on the other side of it at the back of the pan and right when my hand was about an inch above the first wing, it popped. Oil splattered on my wrist. It burned it bad! It blistered up and has gone through some interesting changes over the past 2 weeks. Not fun! There is one part that I can't get to heal and it was the most blistered. So frying is not my friend! I feel so bad for people who are burned in accidents.I can only imagine what they must go through!

~Oh, and for those of you wondering, the Essure thing has been wonderful!Just make sure you get everything worked out with your insurance company and your drs office before having it done.

A little catching up...

K so I know I haven't blogged in a really long time, it's actually been almost a whole month! Crazy for me! But my medicine has been working REALLY well...most of the time anyway. I still have some really bad days, sometimes for several days in a row. But I'm definitely having more good days than bad days...I'll take it!!!! On the really good days I think of a zillion things to blog about but I'm running around doing all the things I can't do on the bad days. I still try to just work through life in pain on those days, I'm just a LOT slower! I have to sit down more often and rest. Thank goodness for recliners! I just try to find joy on those bad days by spending more time with the kids. Reading to them. We like to watch movies and eat popcorn together when it hurts too much. I love the chance that those bad days give me to just spend time with the kids, snuggling 1 or 2 kids on the recliner while we watch our movies. The good days have been like a dream come true! I can mow weeds, clean more deeply, run errands, organize our house better. When we moved in a year ago we just haphazardly put things away just to get rid of the piles boxes in the house. I have reorganized most closets, drawers, cabinets, to make them more functional. I just get so much more done on good days than I do on bad days for sure!!! I have caught myself feeling FANTASTIC many times and doing things I couldn't for so long and I just feel so incredibly happy that it always brings tears to my eyes to feel NO PAIN and I feel like myself for a change! Then when I go back to having my Trigeminal Neuralgia pain on bad days that brings tears to my eyes too. I am so grateful to have found a wonderful doctor who knew what was wrong with me AND how to help me! I am grateful to a wonderful friend who, when I mentioned I didn't have a dishwasher, gave us a dishwasher that they had in their garage that was from a different house they had. Her very clever husband build a cover for it since it is the kind of dishwasher that is meant to be built in to your cabinets. We had to have it as a portable one so he made it portable. He also came over to our house 2 evenings in a row hooking it up. I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to have a dishwasher!!! As you might imagine, we have a LOT of dishes around here seeing as how there are 6 of us and we eat out once or twice a month, if that often. So 3 meals a day for 6 people.....fun stuff!! I have spent more hours washing dishes this past year than I care to think about. What a time saver a dishwasher is! I feel giddy every time I close the dishwasher door and press the buttons to start it and walk away after spending a few minutes loading it! It's unbelievably freeing! And I am so incredibly grateful that they so generously gave us the dishwasher and that he sacrificed 2 evenings hooking it up!!!

Baseball season has been going on and tonight Matty has his second game at 7:00 and Zack has a game at 6:00 to make up for the game they couldn't play yesterday because of rain. Matty is a natural when it comes to hitting! He's awesome! Zack has been playing second base this year. He has always played third base before so it's a bit different but he likes it and does a good job! He's been hitting the ball, being pitched to him since he was 2 years old but he's been hit by the ball a couple of times from some wild pitches and he has not hit much at all for 2 or 3 years. It drives us nuts because we know he can do it he just needed to get past the fear of getting hit. I finally told him a couple of weeks ago to just forget everything his different coaches have told him about how to stand and stuff and just watch the ball. It doesn't matter how he stands or what he does if he doesn't watch the ball. I told him baseball is meant to be fun and if you aren't having fun then what's the point?! And I told him that the worst case scenario is that he gets hit by a ball. He's done that and he lived so don't worry! It did the trick! That night he actually hit the ball!!! We were so excited for him! He has been hitting the ball at games ever since! They had a tournament last week. Friday night his team won which meant he had a game Saturday morning at 9:00. That was Gracie's bday and I had a zillion things to do so I couldn't go to the game. He hit the ball way out to right field and made it to 2nd base and 2 of his teammates scored off of that hit! What a confidence boost for him! I was so happy for him! His team lost but they still have the best record in the league for the tournament  with only one loss, so they play tonight again. They would have been finished last week but with all the cancelled games because of rain, the tournament is still going on. I can't wait to see how his team fares!

Can you believe Gracie is 2 now?! It just blows my mind! I'll try to post some of the fun pics of her bday. For now I have to go...busy, busy, busy!!! :)

I'm A Worry Wart!!!

 So, pretty much if you know me or have ever read my blog you know that my son Matthew is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. Well, he's been having random breakouts of hives and itching and mild allergic reactions to who knows what lately so we decided to have him tested to see what else he might be allergic to. He was tested today and wellllll, lets just say, what isn't this kid allergic to?! Seriously bad!

Oats

Shellfish

Soybeans

White Potato

Egg

Whole Wheat

Horses

Cats

Dogs

Pretty much EVERY weed, grass, and tree known to man

FUN TIMES!!

Some friends of mine were telling me about some of the symptoms their kids have with their food allergies and they are things like...fatigue and orneriness because their poor little tummies were torn up and they would have headaches lots and then once they either eliminated the food item or cut their intake way down after they had their allergy tests  their kids were like completely different people. Happy and relaxed and enjoyable to be around. I decided it would be a good idea to just test all of us to make sure I'm not feeding us all things that could be causing us problems. Zack was tested today as well and he is allergic to

Milk

Soy

Oat

Egg

Horses

Cats Dog

And pretty much every weed, grass, and tree known to man

Matthew has been allergic to soy all along but when he was tested at around 2 years old it was a very mild allergy and now it is much, much worse. We've been thinking it must be worse because he is affected now to things with soy in them, where he used to be fine to eat stuff with soy in it. Soy is in almost everything!

Oh well. Whatchya gonna do!?

This just makes me more determined to make our treats from scratch and make our meals from scratch instead of feeding our kids processed foods because there are so many crazy things added to processed foods and it's just all around healthier to make our own food and to be able to control the ingredients our family eats.

Many a child in the world would give their right arm to be allergic to oats and not have to eat oatmeal for breakfast anymore but my kids were actually disappointed. Go figure!

I'm trying to "cut the cord" as Brian said and be ok with Matthew going on his first REAL field trip next Thursday. They will be on a bus for 4 hours round trip and all the kids will have uncrustable peanut butter sandwiches to eat except Matthew and the other 2 kids in his class that are also allergic to peanuts. It just scares me to death. I know I probably should trust that the teachers and parents that are going will be able to keep my son alive from 8am to 5pm with lots of other kids around him eating peanuts. It just makes me sick to my stomach to think about it. I'm such a worry wart!

Rice, Surviving Sacrament Meeting, Ipod Touch, Spiritual Thought, Crazy Life, Please share!

~I finally perfected rice after 17 years of trying. When Brian and I were first married I was the worst cook ever!! I was especially bad at cooking rice. I also had a hard time actually remembering to cook rice in the first time with meals until the sauce or whatever I cooked was finished. Brian was also bad at cooking rice. He can make fabulous bread, rolls, meals. I can cook just about anything that doesn't require yeast. But we just couldn't get along with rice. It always ended up crunchy in spots and gummy in other spots when we made it. So gross!! So we started making Minute Rice all the time. It saves time and it is always cooked right. Now that we have a family of 6 people to feed and a VERY limited budget, we decided we better master the art of cooking rice. We've been trying for a few months now and Brian finally figured out Jasmine rice. But still more expensive than regular old rice. I was still struggling until I started cooking 2 cups of rice with 5 cups of water and I cook it at a bit higher temp than we were before. Now it works! Every time!!! I am SoOoO happy!! I know it's kind of weird to be so happy about that I just felt like a weirdo for not being able to figure it out before. It seemed EVERYONE but us could cook rice. Yay me!!! Now I just have to get serious about mastering recipes that require yeast. Wish me luck!!  :)
~I've decided after attending Sacrament Meeting with my kids last week as usual on Sunday morning, that every single one of them must have ADHD. Sometimes they're worse than other times and last week was rough. We've tried taking snacks, books, coloring books, notebooks, Friend magazines, lacing boards to keep them entertained but it seems they just fight over them. Or discuss what they are doing...LOUDLY!!! Make huge messes. Cause many distractions and big scenes. It just isn't pretty! So last week we tried the -not bringing anything- thing...again. I think it worked about the same as anything else does. My biggest problem is that Max and Matthew think their voices only have one volume. Full blast! I wish there was some kind of muzzle for kids that I could use at church. Is that bad? This week we didn't bring ANYTHING again and it worked pretty well. Much better than last week. Matthew's volume is still full blast but they behaved as well as any little wiggly boy could be expected to behave.
~I am truly grateful that we decided to buy Zack an Ipod touch for his birthday last year!!! He had been begging for a Nintendo DS or an Ipod for a couple of years. An Ipod touch costs more than they do but you can use it for both games AND music as well as about a zillion other things. We NEVER spend anywhere near what we spent on that thing for birthdays but he's a great kid, we can't afford to pay allowance, we can't afford to take him anywhere fun ever, he NEVER gets ANYTHING fun so we figured it was worth a splurge for him!! Thank goodness we got it for him! If you don't have one in your family you definitely need one!!! We were sitting there in Sacrament Meeting when Zack remembered he was supposed to give a talk in Primary today. He whipped out his Ipod touch, that Brian was going to borrow for Sunday School and Priesthood since it has the scriptures and lesson manual on it, and looked up the Friend magazine and found a lovely little story by Elder Uchtdorf to read for his talk. Saved again!!!
~Our lesson in Sunday School was fantastic today! I just love it when this certain man substitutes! He is outstanding!! We talked a bit about The Word of Wisdom and about how some people don't want to commit to following that commandment or any commandments but want to eat, drink, and be merry and not be accountable at all. Brother McCourt talked about how Jesus suffered all of our sins and died for us that we might be forgiven of our sins and return to live with Him, our Heavenly Father, and our families forever and what does he ask of us in return? That we obey His commandments. That we live lives that emulate Him and that we be instruments in His hands in serving others, loving others, and bringing our brothers and sisters to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that none of us is perfect and that ultimately we are all striving towards the same goal. And that we all know what we should and should not be doing but I just love how each week at church we can be inspired to live certain  commandments and principals more fully. Each of us may find something different that we, as individuals need to work on but if we all go with the same attitude of being humble/teachable, the spirit can speak to us and help us find ways to achieve our Celestial goals. I was really not thrilled to go to church this morning. Time changes are hard and I turned off the alarm and decided say a quick prayer before getting in the shower and accidentally fell asleep until 10 minutes to 8:00. Not good!! It's a circus at our house Sunday morning and sometimes when I'm sitting in Sacrament Meeting after all the craziness, I don't always have the right spirit about me. But I forced myself to go and I am so glad I did! I eventually humbled myself and allowed those wonderful whisperings to happen. Next week I'm going to try to not FORCE myself to go but to go with a happy heart and with an excitement to learn.
~The last few weeks have been crazy! Here are a few of the things we've had going on.
*baseball sign-ups
*baseball try outs
*New Beginnings: LOTS of hours and details and work but oh so worth it!!! It was a really great night!!!
*Zack received his Arrow of Light badge through a really neat ceremony at the Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. Incidentally, the entire Blue and Gold Banquet lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes! Only church should last that long and even then...kind of iffy! :)
*Meal planning for a month
*Grocery shopping for a month
*Zack's D.A.R.E. graduation
*Matthew's Patriotic concert for school on a Wednesday night that lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes
*Zackary's Patriotic concert for school the very next night that lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes also. Same program. Same parts. Same songs. Different kids. They didn't have enough room for all of the parents and families to be there on the same night so they decided to split it up and have them do it on 2 different nights. UGH!!!
*Fire station field trip with Max's preschool
*Parent/teacher conferences: Warning: Shameless bragging ahead!! Have I mentioned lately that my children are positively BRILLIANT?!!!!! I am so proud of them! I love that the teachers always say they wish they had a class full of students as well behaved and smart as my kids are! They are awesome!!! And they both have THE best teachers EVER!!!
*I had a couple of Dr.'s visits, medicine additions and tweaks, and 8 vials of blood for testing. Fun stuff!
*A 3-4 hour Book of Mormon Read
*My beautiful niece Emily's 1st birthday party

We've been busy and having fun! Brian and I are gearing up for a very busy baseball season as many of you are. I've GOT to be more organized with our meals this year. Last year we ate so many hot dogs that the mere thought of them makes me gag a bit! We never tired of sandwiches though. What is your favorite "go to" busy night meal. Please comment and share your tip with me! Even if I don't know you PLEASE help me out here! Take care everyone!!!

Great idea...

Matthew's Primary teacher last year was INCREDIBLE!!! All the kids loved her. She was there almost every week and really took her calling seriously and did a great job! In January she gave Matthew this book to take home and keep. It is a journal he worked on each week last year. There is always extra time after the lesson in primary. Some teachers fill the extra time by taking the children for a little walk, singing songs, letting them color, or if the kids are older, the old reliable "Spiritual Hangman". Sister Hamaker, however, chose to have the kids work on a little journal each week. I think it is just fabulous! I wish I'd had this idea with the zillions of primary classes we've taught over the years! I thought it was such a great idea I'd share.

It was also really fun to see the improvement in his handwriting since he was half way through Kindergarten when they started the books and then halfway through 1st Grade when they finished.

These are some of my favorite pages...
This is the first page but could have easily been put on the cover of the 3 ring binder. She left the cover plain. She put the pages in page protectors.

Apparently he was absent this week but it's quite nice.

 This was the Father's Day page and he wrote on the hearts...he is nice...he makes me laugh.

 I shared my blocks with Max and made him happy

 It says on the bottom of the page...I'm grabbing my sister so she won't bite my brothers.      hehe

The next picture has nothing to do with the rest of the post but I thought the roses that Brian gave me for Valentine's Day were so pretty. They all opened up really big just like they do on a rose bush. Usually they stay pretty closed, which is equally pretty.