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!!!! 

Things that make you go hmmmmm...

When my mom (I use her as an example because I have never personally purchased carpet, or chosen paint for any place we have ever lived in seeing as how we have always rented) buys carpet, paints a wall, or buys new furniture she goes through this big process. She might find a picture in a magazine or see an idea at someone else's house. She ponders. She plans. She looks at lots of furniture stores and many, many swatches of carpet. Many, many paint sample cards. She brings them home and ponders and plans some more until she finds JUST.the.right.one! My mom would NEVER just walk into a store and buy the first carpet she came across. So you might understand why the "unique" interior of the house we are in might cause me to wonder WHAT was going on in the mind of the dear, sweet woman that lived here. Were these conscious decisions? Or did she swing by the carpet and wall store on her way home from having cataract surgery and make her choices with her eyes covered in bandages, clearly obstructing her vision. Or did her colorblind husband decide to "surprise" her with these decorating wonders? It truly makes you go hmmmm...

They thought this formica counter top was so fantastic that they decided to use the same material on parts of 3 of their walls in the kitchen.

They liked these paneling front cabinets so much that they decided to...

Put the same paneling on one of the sections of one of the walls...

And, while the paneling and formica are lovely wall options, it's true, I might like this fancy sparkly, pink and gold snowflake patterned wallpaper better. It's a toss up really!

I think the floor is the best feature in the kitchen, really. I mean, what mother of 4 wouldn't dream of having carpet in their kitchen. And not just ANY carpet. But this carpet. The carpet that SOMEONE presumably put a lot of time and contemplation into before actually purchasing it. It's obviously very "special" carpet! I know you're jealous!!

I know that this green carpet didn't have holes in it when it was purchased, I just thought I'd throw that in so you can see the super fun carpet we have here, but seriously, this may be the ugliest green carpet ever! Even the parts that are still in one piece. 

This carpet is Matty's dream carpet! He was so mad at us when we didn't let him have the room with the orange carpet. He says it's lava and he likes to play with his dinosaurs on the lava floor. That room is smaller and we wanted him and Max to share a room and Zack to have his own room and Gracie has the room closest to us so we can hear her at night and that left poor Matty without the lava room. Poor guy! He still complains every couple weeks that he wishes HE had the room with the orange carpet instead of Zack. Zack doesn't know how lucky he is! It is pretty SaWeeT!!!

The paneling in Gracie's bedroom is especially nice since it has a nice scallop border. FAAncy!

Her carpet is just beautiful. If you are blind or colorblind or your taste is all in your mouth then it.is.bEaUtiFUL!!!

The bathroom HAS to be our favorite part of the entire house! It is just lovely. And everything is very conveniently placed within arms length of each other. It is really nice! Not sure if you can see the baby blue tiles on the wall. So super pretty! Occasionally you do bruise your knees on the gargantuan cabinet when sitting on or standing from the toilet but that is just all part of the 'charm' of living in an old house.

This is the beautiful floor in the laundry room that is right next to the kitchen. I would rather have this ugly floor in the kitchen than the ugly carpet in there. At least it can be swept and mopped! UGH!!!

I'm sorry ladies but I don't think they make this front door anymore. It is a beaut but I think they bought the last one. Shucks!!!

On a cute note, I finally found Gracie's little purse I made for her. And I found my camera so I thought I'd post it, too. It's straps are skeewompus but I learned my lesson and the next one I made had perfectly placed straps. She didn't notice.  :) 

My new favorite thing...

I used to just add a bit of taco seasoning to ranch when I would  use it for taco salad but I noticed this packet of Spicy Ranch dressing mix a couple weeks ago and decided to give it a try. It is DELICIOUS!!! The other day I decided I was sick of sandwiches, mac n cheese, and frozen burritos for lunches and I wanted something different. I threw together a taco salad using lettuce, tomato, chunks of cheddar cheese, canned, drained black beans, crumbled tortilla chips, and lots of this delicious ranch. It was SOOO yummy!!! We have TONS of canned beans and we seem to always have the other ingredients around so we have ha d this salad for lunch several times now. Brian, Gracie, and I LoVe it!!! It tastes as good as any salad you might spend a fortune on at a restaurant. It's a fun, easy, cheap treat for those of us who can't afford eating out all the time but want to awfully badly!!! Just thought I'd share in case you were wanting to try something different, too...

phones...

K, so, we were in Utah County on Friday and we went to Walmart and signed up for their new cell phone service that somehow runs through T-Mobile but isn't T-Mobile. We were with T-Mobile already and didn't have a contract with them. So, through Walmart's service we pay $45 for our first phone to have unlimited talk and text and $25 for our additional phone to have unlimited talk and text. We thought it was a super smokin deal that was much cheaper than having one phone and a home phone or 2 cells with any other company so we did it. I didn't have my T-Mobile account # with me so I had to get a new number. I was so excited for Brian to have a phone again and I just kept my old phone and changed sim cards on it. They worked wonderfully when we were up there.  We drove back in time for Zack's 10:30am game Saturday morning. Our phones didn't work here. Clearly it has something to do with T-Mobile towers since it has happened with 3 different sim cards and 2 different phones.  We contacted them online Saturday and they said we should know what's wrong by Tuesday. UGH!! It sucks not having a phone!!! So we're back to square one. Well, maybe square 2 since Brian can at least text now.  :) 

Matthew had a birthday Friday but I can't find my camera so I don't have actual evidence of it but it did indeed exist. I even made him a Wii controller cake that I found on parenting.com   Of all the ADORABLE, FANCY cakes to choose from he chose the easiest one so that was nice!!  He had a great day and it was a lot of fun celebrating our sweet boys day! He was BEYOND thrilled!!! He has counted down for at least 2 months! So cute and fun!!!

I'm good. It's all good!

So my phone has been on the fritz for 3 days now. I can text, receive texts, and I can receive phone calls and make phone calls. The problem is that I can hear people but they can't hear me. We never changed our phone number or service when we moved from Salem so we still have T-mobile. There aren't any T-mobile stores here so we have to wait until Friday when we go to Spanish Fork, to get my new sim card. Apparently mine malfunctioned. Yesterday's craziness (read last nights post for more info) was even crazier without my phone. I had to run to Brian's office for a few minutes to call the rec center, the coach, and to make an appointment with Dr. Bailey since my tooth was killing me. Then, when the secretary from the high school called me to tell me she knew where it was she had to just tell me but I couldn't thank her. Thankfully she understood since I had explained my situation to her. Well....this morning gave me a heart attack!!! Matty is going on his first field trip of the school year with his new teacher this morning. We discussed his peanut allergy and epipen needs the week before school started but I don't think we talked about field trips. I start panicking! Especially since they are sending all the students with peanut butter munch-ables from the lunchroom for their lunches except Matty and the other boy in his class this year who is also allergic to peanut butter or if you just planned on sending them their own lunch. I can't call the office to ask the secretary to PLEASE remind the teacher to take his epipen. We shut Brian's phone off a couple weeks ago since we couldn't afford it so I couldn't text him to call. We don't have a home phone because our local phone service is ridiculously expensive to hook up and have!! Thank goodness for instant messaging on the computer! I messaged him and thankfully he got the message and called the school right away.  She was very helpful and promised she would tell the teacher right away. I was so relieved!!!  PHONES ARE NECESSITIES!! I've gotta have one! How did we ever survive before cell phones?! Really! I can go without a lot of things in life but contact with the outside world is not one of them. Phones and internet are NECESSITIES!!! I can live without cable. I can  live without eating out (it's difficult but I do it!!!). I can actually live without a lot of things but phones and internet are just too important in my life, I've realized! Not for frivolity but for NECESSITY!!!

Umm ExCUSE me light lady, we're not finished here thank you very much!!!

K, so last night Zack had a football game at the high school football field. This was only his second night game most of them are on Saturday morning. Well, he had to be there at 6:50 and his game started at 7:30.  It ended at 9:00. His team won so that was awesome! We had all 4 of our kids with us and it was an hour past their bedtime and we..were..DONE!!! We immediately stood up when the game was over and collected all our crap and shoved it in Gracie's stroller. Not sure what I'll do with all our crap when we outgrow the stroller. Anyhoo, not 3 minutes after the game ended the MORONIC light lady turned the lights off. Yeah! She just turned the lights off. Apparently once you turn hallogen lights off they won't come back on for like 30 minutes or so. LOVELY! My 4 year old son had gone down to the field to congratulate his big brother.  The coaches were conversing with their teams. Most of the little kids were playing on the track and their parents were in the stands. There were really old people there to watch their grandkids and great grandkids play. People were there with tiny babies and all their crap to carry. And all of a sudden it's mostly dark with just a tiny bit of light from a far away light in the parking lot. Of course we're on the grass bleachers way south. There were no openings to the stairs. Just a constant railing that you have to go over or under to get to the stairs by our car. So I hurried all the way over to where I thought I might be able to find my boys. Zack was on the stairs getting ready to head down our row and Max was still down at the bottom of the stairs TERRIFIED crying out for Zack so I yelled for him to follow my voice. Poor baby!!! It scared him to death! Then Zack says, oh I forgot my inhaler. NICE! So we stumble down the stairs, Zack fell at one point. We start trying to see a dark blue inhaler on dark grass in the dark and some how we can't find it. Go figure! I hear the head coach yelling that he can't even see if any of his kids are still on the field or if they had hooked up with their parents. An assistant coach saw us looking and tried to help but there was no way to see anything. He said that he saw a coach from the team that played before us pick up an inhaler. Great! Well, we gave up the pointless search and headed to the van. Meanwhile poor Brian had to put the stroller full of crap, Matthew, and Gracie over the railing, up the stairs, and in the car, in the dark. I was LIVID!!!  .Can you imagine all the things that could have happened with that many people scrambling to get out of dark stadium. So CRAZY!!! So, today I called the rec center and asked for the coach from the other team's name and number so I could ask about Zacky's inhaler. Then....I issued my complaint. The guy was so nice and concerned and apologetic. Apparently not only was she supposed to leave the light on but she was supposed to clean up the trash after everyone left too. The coach dude said one of his kids DID get an inhaler and he'd call the mom just to be sure it was his. He calls back and says that the kid realized it wasn't his and dropped it on the grass on the field. Seriously?! So, the kids and I head to the field to look for the inhaler (which by the way the bleachers and field were covered in garbage) and can't find it anywhere. We talked to the secretary at the school and she said the coach dude had just been there looking. How nice was that! She paged about it and said she'd repeat the page in the morning and took my name and number and email address. When I was almost home she called me and told me that a student told her that it had been turned in to the rec center. WHEW!!! So relieved!!! Inhalers are expensive!!! I just had to share this super fun experience with you all. I'm glad we live in a small town and all the running around wasn't as bad as it could have been! Isn't it amazing the affect that ONE crazy light lady can have on so many people. I wonder what other stories there were to tell from the situation. Crazy light lady!!!

I posted some really cute pictures of Miss Gracie and our boys on Word From the Zoo

A calling and show and tell...

A Calling



I have served in Nursery and Sunbeams and other Primary callings for the better part of the past 15 years. I LOVE Primary! It is awesome! Exhausting! But awesome!!! However, this part of my life has become much like most other parts of my life. Rather monotonous and repetitive. The Relief Society president in our ward asked me a few weeks ago if I had received my new calling yet. I said, no. She said she wanted me in Relief Society but someone else had already requested me. I have been SO nervous ever since then wondering what my new calling would be. Honestly, just the mere thought of serving in Nursery or Sunbeams again brought tears to my eyes. Brian and I taught Max in Nursery and in Sunbeams and he is still in Sunbeams. Max is the child that causes me the most stress and frustration these days for many reasons, one main reason being the fact that he almost NEVER listens to me. You might imagine how much fun it is for me to be his Primary teacher. When the member of the Bishopric called me in FINALLY on Wednesday I could hardly stand the suspense. I was dieing to know what my calling was. I was THRILLED when he said they wanted me to be the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's presidency!!! This is EXACTLY what I need right now in so many ways. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's guidance and direction in my life. I have been thrilled ever since Wednesday and look forward to all the fun activities and getting to know the wonderful young women in our ward. I am more than just a little bit scared. As I mentioned it has been 15 years since I served in Young Women and my life has revolved around little boys for the last 10 years so I'm scared but also thrilled. If you have seen Groundhog Day the movie, the day he finally wakes up and realizes that something is different he is like ANYTHING different is good. That is how I am feeling. It is like FINALLY... SOMETHING in my life is different!!! I am really, really excited for this change and just really, really happy. I haven't been this excited about a calling since I was in the Primary presidency in Cedar. Once again it was different than teaching nursery or Sunbeams but so much fun and I LOVED that, too! The Young Women's president is AMAZING so I am beyond thrilled to be working with her too!!! I was so anxious to be set apart after church today. I have such a strong testimony of being set apart for your callings. What a wonderful gift the priesthood is in so many aspects of our lives!!! Anyway, I think it will be great fun!

Show and Tell

Sewing usually really hates my guts! I have tried to like it many, many times and always come to the same conclusion...I HATE IT!!! Well, I've been really wanting some sort of hobby lately. Some sort of creative outlet for me. Scrap booking doesn't really work for me at this time in my life. I just don't have the space for it. I decided to try sewing again. I bought the fabric to make Gracie a quilt last year around the time she was born. I started to sew it together but we moved and I never finished it. Well, my first project was to finish sewing that together. I only finished the top. I need to get more fabric to make it a bit bigger and I need to buy fabric for the back. She won't be in a big girl bed for quite some time so that project will be on hold for a while. The top's cute though. :)  I made a quilt for my sister, Stephanie's baby, Emily. Yes, she's 6 months old but better late than never, right?  :)  I totally loved it! It's very bright and a bit crazy but I like it. I finished another baby quilt yesterday. I fell in love with the fabrics Tara B. used in her quilt she recently posted about. I HAD to use a couple of them. It is the CUTEST fabric!!! I'm not very good at sewing so there are tons of mistakes but oh well. Practice makes perfect. I'll just have to keep practicing!!! I had been promising Brian I would make him a denim quilt for about 15 years or so. I had saved the old jeans and we have lugged them around every time we have moved. I bought 2 bolts of flannel about 10 years ago for $1 a yard. I decided to finally break down and make his quilt. It turned out great and I was pleasantly surprised that my sewing machine had such an easy time sewing denim. I tried to avoid using the parts of the jeans that had big seams just in case so it made it easy. I wanted to buy Gracie a purse for her birthday in May but couldn't find one. I started thinking about some of the bags I've owned in the past and decided to just try to make up a pattern and go for it using the scraps from Emily's quilt. It turned out really cute and it was so easy to make. I can't find it right now to post a picture of it so I'll post a picture later.  Matthew's teacher sent home canvas bags for the parents to decorate with whatever subject the kids wanted us to and then we send them back and he uses them to put things in that pertain to that subject. I made up a dinosaur themed bag. He'll put puzzles, books, games, stuff like that and then the kids get to bring them home sometimes for a couple days. Well, I decided it turned out cute enough that I would make one for Steph's son, Josh's bday in October. He LoVeS dinosaurs!!! I had decided to make Matthew and Max each a little bag for church. They had chosen some fabric from my scrap box. After I made the ones for the school and Josh, Max wants one like theirs now but Matty still wanted the one out of scrap material and canvas letters. I haven't made Max's yet. I have been having so much fun sewing stuff and haven't had to spend money because luckily I am a HUGE procrastinator and have enough unfinished projects laying around to keep me pretty busy.

Gracie's quilt top...

Baby Emily's quilt...

The other quilt I made...

Brian's queen size denim quilt FINALLY...

Matty's class bag

Josh's bag. I forgot to put something inside the bag to keep the paint from leaking through so I had to add a tree to the other side to cover up the paint. I'm a spaz sometimes haha...

Matty's bag...



I'm in love...

with this time of year!!!

I never thought I would be one of "those" mom's. You know the ones that just couldn't wait to have her kids go back to school after the summer. I always thought I would be super sad when they went to school. I am always a bit nostalgic, especially when my kids go to kindergarten, of course, but this year I felt PURE JOY when they went to school and it just gets better every day.  The kids were so restless by the end of the summer. I had started a schedule with them because they really thrive on knowing what to expect and having stuff to do. They made lots of science projects, played outside lots, played in our little swimming pool, had very little t.v. time, read books, made crafts, I taught them to sew pillow cases, they drew lots of fun pictures. They loved it! They were very excited for school to start. Matthew is our sleeping-in child and he is usually a bear every morning when he's getting ready for school.  He cries and begs not to go to school many mornings.  So I was getting nervous about the first day of school with him.

Usually I take them to school the first day. Take a picture of them in their new classroom. Sometimes I take a picture of them with their new teacher. Zack's getting older and this ritual embarrasses him. Matthew and I met his new teacher the week before school started in his classroom. He was very nice. Matthew found where his backpack would hang. Took a little tour of the classroom. It was great. So when they wanted to ride the bus (which picks them up in front of our house  HOORAY!!!) instead of having me take them to school that first day I went with it. I felt sad I wouldn't be taking their picture at school and stuff but I figured it would be better for Matthew to not have me there.  They LoVeD their first day of school!!! It was only half a day for the first 2 days. Matthew started begging to stay home the 3rd day of school.  He's such a little home body. He loves being home!! But he loves school while he's there. He just doesn't like the going part I guess. Probably hates the waking up early part most. Max started preschool last Tuesday.  He is a bit timid about it this year because he only knows one of the kids in his class. She was on his t-ball team this summer. It's a pretty big class too.  Once he makes some more friends I'm sure he'll love it even more. I am really enjoying the 2 hours, 3 days a week thing. Who knew that 6 hours a week with only one very quiet child could be so rejuvenating.  I all but did a happy dance the other day in the kitchen when I was telling Brian how great it had been having the kids in school again. It's wonderful!!!  I thrive on having my own schedule back again. It helps me be a better mom to have a bit of a break once in a while. They love interacting with friends and learning new things and the whole school thing.   

And don't you just love everything about this time of year.  The weather is PERFECT!!! It's not too hot, not too cold.  It smells like fall. The food gets so super yummy and comforting.  I love it when I can start making soups, stews, and casseroles again.  And...apple pie!! So delicious!!!  No air conditioner. No heater.  I get to wear my light jackets or long sleeves.  I just thoroughly enjoy each of the seasons.  I love that we live somewhere that has all of the seasons.  There are places that don't really have much of a fall.  Who doesn't love the beautiful colors as the leaves change?!  I so enjoy the decorations and holidays of fall.  And the smell in the air and in the house.  It's just a wonderful time of year!!!  I feel so happy and so grateful for all of our blessings and to be living on such an amazing planet that our Savior created for us.  What marvelous gifts he gives to us.  How blessed we are to have fall.  To have seasons.  To have apples.  And pumpkins.  And the smell of cinnamon.  And such a gorgeous state to live in.  To have such great family.  To have the gospel in our lives.  To live in a free country.  To have shelter and transportation and food and clothing and shoes.  We are truly blessed!!!!!  I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this time of year!!!!

(A More Real) Love Story

Super blessed...

So, we have been going through some pretty tough stuff the past few months. One of the problems on their own would be a challenge but going through both trials has been really hard. We have been constantly amazed at the love of our Savior!!! We are so grateful for the many blessings He showers us with. It is sometimes hard to recognize the blessings when there are difficult times but we have been reminded of our blessings over and over these past months and we are grateful. It seems like when we have reached the end of our rope He throws us another line and we feel so blessed again to see His hand in our lives. It's been hard not to murmur and complain and feel discouraged and totally not blessed but we have tried so hard to remain positive throughout the hard times. We have good days and bad. The bad days are especially bad and thank goodness we have loving, supportive family members and friends to help us get through the really low times and then we can pick ourselves back up, dust ourselves off, and face the next day with a smile on our faces and a determination to be happy, even in our trials. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father. I am grateful to know that He knows me and loves me and hears and answers our prayers. Not usually in our time frame but always in the time frame that is best for us. I know He lives and loves each of us. I know that He wants us to be happy. I know that He wants us to talk to Him. To pour out our hearts to Him and ask for His help, love, guidance, peace, and comfort. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and for my precious little family! I feel blessed each time I hear them laugh, see them smile, get loves and kisses from them. They are the greatest gifts and blessings in my life! I am happy to be Brian's wife and to be parents of such amazingly wonderful children!!! I also feel so very blessed to live in our country. So grateful to all of the people who have fought for our freedom and for the freedom of others. So happy to know that all of my blessings come from my Heavenly Father!!!!

A great quote...

In Relief Society today there was a quote on the board that is by Elder Samuelson that was WONDERFUL!!! Just thought I'd share.

"Worthiness and perfection are NOT synonyms."   

The lesson was about how we are just too hard on ourselves. Our teacher was talking about how we often tend to look at ourselves as satan and the world want us to look at ourselves. Like we aren't good enough, we aren't skinny enough, we aren't good enough mothers, we aren't good at this or that. Like we aren't worthy. She was saying that we should, instead, look at ourselves as the Savior looks at us. We don't have to be perfect at everything and in every way but we just need to do our best to be good and faithful and not let the negativity of the world come through.

So I say, pat yourselves on the back...feel like a beautiful daughter of God...smile...and find joy in the ride.

Skunkville

Living on the outskirts of town is kind of nice in some ways and really annoying in others. The kids love catching lizards, trying to catch the cute little bunnies that hop through our yard daily, watching the horse in the neighbors yard, the openness of our back yard area, and I love the beautiful view of sunrises and sunsets.
                            HOWEVER......
waking up from a dead sleep every couple of weeks by the unbelievably strong stench of skunkiness is NOT my idea of a good time!!!  It smells like the stinkin thing is right in our bedroom. It doesn't just spray and go on it's merry way. Oh, no! It sprays...and sprays...and sprays...for AT LEAST an hour. Sometimes HOURS!!!  It will start to subside, just a bit, to where you can breathe through the stench and then it sprays again. Sometimes it happens at around midnight. Other times around 2 a.m.. This morning he waited until about 5:30. Seriously NOT cool!!!  Anyone up for some target practice???

So exciting.

clean
wash laundry
wash dishes
change diapers
Coca Cola
cook
back to school
sleep-ish
read
vacuum
Gilmore Girls
feed fish
clean
baths 
cook
football practice
cut kid's hair
scouts
vacuum
sew
Coca Cola
cook
put laundry away
clean
change diapers
sleep-ish
wash laundry
football games
baths
Coca Cola
wash dishes
wash dishes
wash dishes