Popcorn Popping

Our Young Women activity was extra fun this week! It started out with one of the leaders reading this Parable of the Popcorn to us.

The Parable of the Popcorn

Behold at the time of the harvest, the ears of corn did bring forth

kernels which we dried and prepared for the popper's hand.

And then it was that the popper did take the kernels, all of which

appeared alike unto him, and did apply the oil and the heat.

And it came to pass that when the heat was on, some did explode with

promise and did magnify themselves an hundred fold, and some did burst

forth with whiteness which did both gladden the eye and satisfy the taste

of the popper. And likewise, some others did pop, but not too much.

But lo, there were some that did just lie there and even though the

popper's heat was alike unto all, they did bask in the warmth of the oil

and kept everything they had for themselves.

And so it came to pass that those which had given of themselves did bring

joy and delight to many munchers, but those which kept of the warmth and

did not burst forth were fit only to be cast out into the pail and though

of with hardness and disgust.

And thus we see that in the beginning all appear alike, but when the heat

is on, some come forth and give their all, while others fail to pop and

become as chaff to be discarded and forgotten.

Which are you?

Bursting with enthusiasm, ready to give your all


OR


Content to keep to yourself, and not pop or just pop a little

Then, another leader gave some examples of ways this applies to us and stuff. It was nice. Then the fun part! All of the leaders and some of the YW brought different kinds of popcorn to share with everyone and exchanged the recipes. I LoVe getting new recipes!!! And they were absolutely delicious!!! We loaded up bags full of all the different kinds of popcorn to take to our inactive and less active girls and then we each got to load up a bag full for ourselves. So fun!!! Then we loaded up into cars and visited the girls. It was a great night! I thought I'd share in case you all needed a new yummy treat to try. Also, at Max's preschool Valentine's Party yesterday a girl brought white cheddar popcorn that her mom made. Her mom says that there are some different flavored salts at Walmart by the popcorn and she just popped the popcorn in her popper and then sprinkled the white cheddar flavor on it. It was fabulous! I don't usually like cheese popcorn but this white cheddar flavor was so salty and delicious! Good stuff! I just made some and the bottle suggests buying some sort of spray stuff to make it stick to the popcorn. I didn't read it until I was home so I sprayed some cooking spray on it and it stuck and was good. Also I salted the popcorn more with regular salt as well and that made it better.  

Sesame-Ginger Popcorn

This snack is as fun to make as it is to eat. It's popcorn with a twist. Toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, brown sugar, and fresh grated ginger give this popcorn it's unique sweet and spicy flavor. If you are looking for something tempting to serve at your next movie night, this delicious snack is the one.

Ingredients

• 6 cups popped popcorn                         
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 1-1/2 cups lightly salted cashews
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons light-colored corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Remove all unpopped kernels from popped popcorn. Put popcorn and cashews in a greased 17x12x2 inch baking or roasting pan.

• In a medium saucepan combine brown sugar, butter corn syrup, ginger, and sesame oil. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils. Continue boiling at a moderate rate, without stirring, for 5 minutes more.

Remove pan from heat. Stir in sesame seeds, vanilla, and baking soda. Pour mixture over popcorn mixture. Stir gently to coat. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown, stirring twice. Spread popcorn mixture on a large piece of buttered foil to cool. Store tightly covered. Makes 8&1/2 cups.

Cinnamon Popcorn

• 2-3 quarts popped corn in a large bowl
• 4 Tablespoons butter-melt in a small saucepan.
• Add: 3 Tablespoons water, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Increase heat. Boil 3-4 minutes. Stir into popcorn. Stir while cooling.

White Chocolate Popcorn Crunch

• 5 cups popped popcorn
• 1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
• 1/2 cups sliced almonds
• 12 ounces white chocolate baking chips, chopped white chocolate or white candy coating
• 1-2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Here's how:

Cover a baking pan with foil or wax paper; set aside. Place popcorn, cranberries and almonds in a large bowl; set aside. Melt chocolate in a double boiler over barely simmering water, stirring until smooth OR melt according to package directions. (If chocolate in not smooth after melting, stir in 1-2 tablespoons shortening until mixture is smooth and loose enough to coat popcorn).  Pour chocolate mixture over popcorn mixture and stir to coat.  Spread onto prepared pan; allow to cool completely. When chocolate is cooled and set, brerak into chunks for serving. Sotre in an air-tight container at room temperature.

Variation: White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn Crunch: Omit cranberries and almonds. Stir in 1 cup crushed hard candy peppermint after chocolate is melted.

Marshmallow Pink Popcorn

1/4 cup plus 2 Tblsp. light corn syrup

2 Tblsp. butter

 1/4 cup water

3 cups mini marshmallows, divided

2 cups powdered sugar

6 drops red food coloring

4 quarts popped corn

1 cup salted peanuts

In heavy saucepan blend syrup, butter & water. Cook over low heat until mixture thickens. Add 1 cup of the marshmallows and stir until they melt. Add powdered sugar and coloring. Stir and cook until bubbling. Pour over corn and salted nuts and the rest of the marshmallows.

Jello Popcorn

1 c. unpopped corn (24 c. popped popcorn)
Salt, optional

3 oz. pkg. Jello

1 c. granulated sugar

1 c. light corn syrup

Put popcorn in large bowl. Salt to taste. Put Jello powder, sugar and syrup into saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve. Bring to boil. Pour over popcorn. Stir to coat well.

One of our girls brought raspberry flavored Jello popcorn and one of the leaders brought strawberry flavor and grape flavor. All delicious!!!

Gummy Bear Popcorn

I took this one. It's my ex-sister-in-law, Anna's recipe. LOVE IT!!!

1 cup butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups marshmallows

Pop 2 or 3 bags of buttered popcorn. Pour onto cookie sheets and gently pick up popcorn and put into large mixing bowl so that the unpopped kernals fall to the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle gummy bears over popcorn and gently toss. Melt butter-add sugar and syrup. Bring to boil, stir and simmer for 3 minutes. Add vanilla and stir in marshmallows. Pour over popcorn and gummy bears. It will melt the gummi bears if you it this way otherwise you have chewy gummy bears mixed in and trust me it isn't so yummy! Just stir and stir until gummy bears are nicely melted and eveything is mixed well. Then poor out onto  cookie sheets and ENJOY!!! Anna insists that Kraft marshmallows and real butter are necessary for the recipe. I am cheap and use Great Value marshmallows and it works out well but I totally agree on the butter!!!

Mouse attack...

So, I totally hate mice as most people do. We had one in our apartment in Pleasant Grove and it totally freaked me out! That was the first time in the whole time we've been married so I guess that's pretty good. Then we moved here. To the outskirts of town. Everyone kept warning us that we would probably have problems with mice but we just kept our fingers crossed that there wouldn't be any. One morning we came to the living room for scripture study and the boys noticed a mouse sitting on Brian's shoe. We brought our dog in and thought she would attack it because she likes to catch mice under the bushes and play with them to death. She never noticed the stupid thing and the mouse never moved once. Brian picked up his shoe and took it outside and threw the mouse off of it and the dog "played" with it and we thought that was that. I haven't been able to put shoes on without shaking them out first ever since just in case a mouse has decided they would make a nice cozy home to live in. So freaked out! Well, Brian decided to get me a HUGE bag of Peanut M&M's for my birthday which was a Thursday. He bought them the night before and hid them in his sock drawer until he would give them to me in the morning. Well, when he brought them to me there was a hole in the bag where a stupid mouse had chewed through the plastic to get to the M&M's. I was so freaked out! Another mouse! And since the month of January was so tight (see previous post) that was my only present from him which I totally appreciated other than the fact that I had to throw them away because of a stupid old mouse! Brian set some traps out. A couple days later on Saturday morning I was in my bedroom getting something out of the closet and had all of my weight on one foot and the other stretched back a foot or so behind me, when I start feeling this weird sensation on my heel. It feel like little claws coming around both sides of my heel. Like put your forefinger and your thumb around your heel and scratch and pull back lightly til they touch again and that is what it felt  like. It creeped me out a bit but I just figured it was no big deal and moved my foot several inches away from that spot and...it happened again. Well, I FREAKED OUT!!! I don't know exactly what happened after the initial screaming started. I kind of blacked out or something. I ended up on my butt on the floor, right where I'm thinking this dangerous, killer mouse is right, Brian's exercise bike is on top of my face and I'm screaming bloody murder and repeating at the top of my lungs, "Brian, HELP ME! Brian, HELP ME!"  He comes rushing in, along with all of my children, asking what's the matter. My nose is bleeding at this point and it really hurts from the scuffle I had with the exercise bike I'm still on the floor and can't get up and they are all looking at me like I've lost my mind when I tell them about being attacked by the dangerous killer mouse. Especially poor Gracie just looked at me with this very concerned look on her face. Not my proudest moment. But what would you have done if you thought a mouse was attacking you. I mean really. Under such circumstances you just don't always think logically you just think about survival!  :) I was thinking this morning that my nose seems all better now and thought I'd share my ridiculous story with you all. I hope it made you laugh!  

Dana's here! Stupid Medicine! Fun weekend! Blessed! Making stuff...

 I really try to be positive and remember the many wonderful blessings our loving Heavenly Father has given us. But sometimes I have a bad day. Today is one of those days. I really hate feeling like this. I hate thinking of the things we don't have and really facing the disappointment of unrealized dreams, wishes, hopes, as meaningless and trivial as they may be. I hate feeling like I know my joy is there somewhere I just need to try harder to find it today than most days. I changed medicine last weekend and it made me weird. Well, I'm already weird so I guess I should say it made me weirder. :)  I went off the first medicine too quickly which caused CRAZY withdrawals. I was a MESS!!! My mom came and helped me Monday and Tuesday and left Wednesday morning. I appreciated her help so much! I just hate having something wrong with me! I really hate medicine and all that goes along with it! I just hope this one actually helps and then I can start appreciating medicine in my life instead of resenting it! Every time I add a pill or switch medicines I am just plain weird for days. I added one Friday morning and I was still weird from changing the medicine in the first place and now I'm definitely weird!!! It was fun spending time with my mom! I have missed having her come and stay and the kids were THRILLED about her staying!!! Zack thought she had gone home Tuesday because Brian had her car and when he came in the house after school and saw her he dropped to the ground and said YES!!! You're still here!!! Cracked me up! I said, Hey, no one ever reacts like that when they see me! :) 

My sister Dana came Friday for a visit from Colorado. She stopped by on her way to my parents' town. Then we went up Friday and stayed until Sunday night. Brian gets paid monthly now instead of twice a month. It started in January. We only had 1 of his 2 week paychecks to last the entire month of January during the lovely transition. I only mention it because it was truly a miracle that we survived the month! We were so truly blessed! We didn't have to beg, steal, or borrow or anything we just...made it through. I know we made it because we pay our tithing!!! If it weren't for that who knows what the month would have been like. It wasn't an easy month at all!! It stressed me out so much I just can't tell you! We had some touch and go moments. Syphoning gas from one of our cars to the other was involved but we made it! LOL!! Definitely a low point! But it all ended up well and when the month ended and we evaluated the situation we just truly felt blessed! We felt like marathon runners crossing the finish line! When payday hit it was like a drowning person finally getting water! We were so happy!!! We had run out of EVERYTHING!!!! We had plenty of food and clothing and gas (just not in the right car LOL). I ran out of laundry soap on Thursday or Friday and payday was Tuesday so that was kind of hairy but I had planned my last soap well so that we had everything we needed to last til payday. The laundry room just became a VERY scary place! HAHA All in all it worked out! I just mention it because I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father who always takes good care of us and makes sure we have everything we NEED. I am grateful to be His daughter and to know that He loves me and my little family and that He is mindful of us and our needs. My testimony of His love for us and my love for Him grew during that month. It was difficult going through the month but looking back it was such a blessing. I know He loves all of us and looks out for us! See there, I'm already feeling happier just remembering His love for me! The best gift!!!

Well, now that Brian is only getting paid once a month and we have 6 people in our family and a limited budget we decided while we were in Utah County we would make a trip to Sam's. I so miss living in Pleasant Grove where I could go to Costco every paycheck and load up. I'm learning to be more organized. I have always made up a menu for the entire 2 weeks and shopped right on payday for everything we might need during that 2 weeks. I don't ever want to find ourselves at the end of the pay period, out of food to eat and out of money so we always cover that base first thing!! I guess I am pretty organized already but now that I have to do it for an entire month at once I have to kick up the organization a few notches. Life happens and things come up and if I don't do it up front we won't have it at the end. I bought 2 things of laundry soap this time I can tell you that! And I bought Ziplocs at Sam's because we ran out of those and I use those for EVERYTHING!!! And flour lots of flour! I'm learning as I go. We love a good trip to Sam's or Costco so it will be fun for us to make a monthly grocery shopping trip up there and to some of my favorite grocery stores like Macey's and I have heard wonderful things about Winco. Can't wait to check them out!

I got a pedicure while I was up there too. I used a gift certificate Nathan and Heidi gave me for my birthday. It was nice! I was going to get my hair done there but chickened out and a pedicure was just what I needed! So relaxing! My friend Sherelle taught me to make those cute little flower clips for little girls' hair so I took all my supplies up with me and we all made cute little flower clips! It was really fun! It was fun spending lots of time with my sisters! I love them all so much! Dana, Stephanie, KayTee, and Heidi (Nathan's wife) are all different, beautiful, talented, wonderful women! We laughed and had a great time! I wish we all lived close and could just spend time together like that all the time!!! I think about all the times we spent singing into our hairbrush microphones, dancing, watching chick flicks, braiding each other's hair, talking, playing games, and just being silly when we were kids and I miss that time. Now we enjoy each other in different ways. Instead of Prom dress shopping we went grocery shopping. We're more tired and poop out sooner than we used to. We have little kiddos to care for and to put to bed early. But we savor the moments we can spend together and I'm so grateful to have them in my life!!!  Last night we went to Steph and J.J.'s for a fun Super Bowl Party. It's always fun to go to their parties! The food was divine! It was a fun weekend! Dana will be here until Friday. Maybe that's what I'm most upset about today. She's in UTAH and I'm HERE! Not fun! Whatchya gonna do?!

I am going to embellish the middles of some of these differently. I just put a brad in for now til I find what I'm looking for. They were fun to make! Remember if you click on the picture you can see them bigger.  :)

The difference between a man and a woman...

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and the conclusion that I finally have come to is that men's lives are finishable. What I mean is, typically they go to work at a certain time. Their meals are eaten at basically the same time each day. Their tasks at work involve steps that, if followed, lead to actual completion of said task. When Brian worked construction, masonry, he had a visual reminder of the progress he had made that day and eventually the job would be completed and he would move on to the next job and never look back except to admire the beauty of a job well done! He is an accountant now and he has different tasks to perform. He must finish some, each day, others, each week, often they are only completed each month, and there are some that need attention only once a year or longer. But no matter what, he, at some point, finishes them. No one comes along and destroys what he has done. It's complete! He comes home at the same time each day and leaves his work behind until the next day or until the weekend is over. When he's home he gets the "honey-do list" and he will usually help me out with whatever I specifically ask him to. But if he wants to watch a TV show or a movie he can do that with no thoughts of anything that needs to be done around him. He is "done" for the night or whatever and can truly relax and enjoy the show. I know a lot of men's jobs are different than that. They are on call, or they work in varying positions that have varying hours or whatever but the main point I am trying to make is that at some point, most of them can feel like their job is "complete" and they can TRULY relax.

Women, however, live a completely different existence. Especially mothers with more than one child. Whether you work outside the home or not, basically your home life experience is the same. You start the day going a million miles an hour. You are lucky to eat whenever you finally get a sec to do that or, when your body finally threatens to revolt if you don't feed it, whichever comes first. This is true with breakfast and lunch and in a lot of cases, dinner, depending on how many sports and extracurricular activities your children are involved in, the varying ages of your children and the different levels of attention they require, whether or not you have a tiny baby to feed at their command, if you have an out of the home job or 2 in addition to your mom job that keeps you hopping from one place to another all the time and you wonder if that next meal is ever going to come, which calling you happen to have at the time among other variables to your life's equation. It's a given that dishes and laundry are just never going to be "finished". As soon as you finish vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, or picking up things you can bet money that someone is going to mess that all up at some point, usually sooner than later. You work from sun up to sun down and at the end of the day you finally melt into the couch, exhausted and look around the house and realize that there is absolutely no proof that you have done anything all day because it all needs to be done again, tomorrow. You sit there, feeling defeated, half watching the TV as you make a mental list of all the zillions of things that need to be done tomorrow. You get up during each commercial to switch loads of laundry, straighten up, add something to your calendar you are worried you'll forget, check on the kids, on and on it goes. Then you somehow muster up the energy to fold some laundry during the show, because....what woman can ever, truly, RELAX!!!!  Seriously!!! It's impossible. Our minds are always going. Always thinking of something we need to do. Planning something for someone or something. 'Complete' and 'finished' are rarely part of our vocabulary. This is why we all love scrapbooking, reading, sewing, needle work, crocheting, card making, crafting, creating, whatever it is you like to do on the RARE occurrence that you get the chance! When else do we ever get the chance to really, truly get something finished that will stay finished.

So...this is the difference. This is why when he is sitting on the couch completely enthralled in this show and is completely relaxed, without a care in the world...YOU WANT TO SMACK HIM!!! OR SCREAM!!!  We all just want him to see that there is a load of towels that you folded but you are too exhausted to put them away. We don't want him to step over them, or slide the basket out of his way, or use it as an ottoman, we want him to PUT...THEM...AWAY!!!

Or is it just me????

Ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble...

So, yesterday was Max's 5th birthday. I let him invite some friends for the first time. He was so excited and anxious for his big day. One really nice thing about having a birthday in January, in a small town, is that Walmart has some super sweet deals on toys they've marked down that were left over from Christmas. We got him a scooter for 15 bucks!!! We found some other great things too and he was happy with his loot. I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for 2 days. I had a Dr.s appointment and a dentist appointment and I've had to run Brian to work all month because we need to register his car but can't until February 1st (UGGHH!!!!), which means back and forth to take him, to get him at lunch, to take him back and pick him up if I need the car in the afternoon, if not he drives back after lunch. I had to run some errands, visit a new young woman in the ward (which was the highlight of my 2 days of crazy and turned out really well!!!!), run Max back and forth for preschool, wash a million dishes and clean frantically every extra minute I could find, all one handed while lugging around my adorable 20 month old little Gracie who is getting over a cold and NEEDED her mommy. Yesterday morning I made a batch of strawberry cupcakes (yes, pink, I know, I tried to talk him into chocolate but he's stubborn) and a chocolate cake. Of course my stupid pain was terrible all day both days because stress makes it worse and I was more than a little stressed! So, I'm at my dentist appointment that took an hour and a half and I get this phone call from the school saying Matthew threw up. SUPER!!! I go to pick him up after my appointment and I'm asking him on the way out to the car if he was sick to his stomach or what and he completely fell apart and says, through his tears, that he was choking on a piece of chicken and tried to drink to make it go down but it wouldn't go down so he started puking and it finally came out. SCARY!! He did that once at home and I had to do the Heimlich on him. He needs to chew his chicken better! I was sad for him that he was obviously so traumatized by the whole experience but relieved that he didn't have a stomach bug that would cause me to cancel the party or anything. So, it's getting down to crunch time. 2 hours till the party. I still needed to pick everything up and vacuum, make frosting in at least 4 colorful options so the kids could decorate their own cupcake, wash a bunch more dishes (they never end!!!), clean the bathroom, dust my adorable Ikea shelves, decorate for the party, wipe off counter tops and stove...I'm only ONE woman needing 14 more hands. I decide a prayer is in TALL order. I called the boys together and we thanked Heavenly Father that Matthew didn't choke to death at lunch and then asked that I'd be able to get everything done in time for the party. I was frantically trying to do my best at that and running out of time when my angel friend, Sherelle, drove up in her chariot (mini van) and offered to help me out. Bless her!!! She really saved my tail! And she stayed and helped me with the whole party too! Thank heavens! We didn't quite finish all the tasks on the list but we did get all of the really important stuff done and the rest didn't really matter in the end anyway. I don't think I'll ever do another midweek party again. It was fun but just too CRAZY!!! Once the party was over I still needed to make the chocolate cake I made earlier in the day, into a football. I was definitely channeling my inner Paula Deen yesterday with all the butter and shortening I used in making two kinds of frosting and a chocolate cake from scratch. And it...was...good!!! Sherelle showed me the super fun little comment thing I added to my blog. I am so excited about it! Then when Brian came home from work he made a pizza crust and homemade pizza (that's what the birthday boy requested) and I got to work looking for scrapbook paper for our little Y.W. activity. It was so fun! I'll post about that later! Then we ate and sang Happy Birthday to Max and then Zack and I were off to pack meeting at 6:30. His leaders were nice enough to give him his awards first thing so I could be there for it before I needed to go pick up a couple of the YW for our activity at 7:00. When I got home I CRASHED!!! I am exhausted today! Oh to have the energy, focus, and cleverness I used to have before my pain started sucking it all out of me. I'm starting a different medicine combination today and I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that it does the trick since the pain seems to be worsening and the ibuprofen doesn't seem to be doing anything for me anymore. Crazy days! Crazy life! That's what keeps it interesting, right! I hope you all are having fun with your interesting lives too!!! Have a good one!!!

 

 His cake that kinda, sorta looks like a football....I'm NOT a professional!!!  ;)

Sassy Style: “Mix Tape Monday”

Sassy Style: “Mix Tape Monday”

When I was combing Max's hair the other day I discovered that he had decided he needed a hair cut and cut a big chunk out of the front of his hair and the side of the top of his head. Like almost to the scalp in spots.

I used the clippers and cut it down as low as I dared go in the dead of winter. If you look closely you can still see spots that are lower than I went but oh well. Silly boy! I just laughed until it occured to me that he might try doing that to his sister's hair some time. I had a flashback to a story a lady told us once about how her mother had put curlers in her long, beautiful hair and she thought it would be cool to cut the hair off at the roller and unroll the hair on the bed and look at the pretty curls. Then she said at some point she realized if the hair was on the bed, it wasn't on her head, and she CRIED!!!  I decided to threaten unspeakable things to Max if he ever dared touch scissors to her hair.  Hopefully that works!!!

I survived my first time!!

Last night was the first time I had to be in charge of a combined YW/YM activity. I was scared to death! I don't know why. I just need more confidence in myself I know. As I thought about ideas for the activity I thought playing a game would be a lot of fun. There is a really fun sounding LDS Family Feud game idea online but I was a bit worried about pulling that one off. I thought about our 'Spiritual Pictionary' game we play for Family Home Evening and decided it would be perfect! It was pretty easy to prepare for. I wrote like 30 different clues or whatever you call them on the back of cute scrapbook paper strips for cuteness and just used sharpies to decorate a white sack to put them in. Not real clever looking but colorful and 'cute' enough to not be too boring. Then the YW leaders brought cookies for dessert. The kids LOVED it!!! We all did! We laughed a lot and had a really fun time! We put equal amounts of leaders and youth on each team. We had 6 youth there and 8 leaders. I couldn't play because I knew the clues and one of the leaders took score. We have a small group but they are a lot of fun!!! Now that I think of it it might have been fun to have kids against leaders. But it was really fun to watch them all play! The leaders AND the kids all said what fun it was and some of them even said it was the most fun they had had at an activity in a long time. I was SO relieved!!! I know some of you have Young Women's callings and thought I'd pass the idea along. Some of the clues I used were things like...Be strong and of a good courage, Pinewood Derby, for the strength of youth, Resurrection, Love at Home, Ammon, Samuel the Lamanite, Joseph Smith's first vision, Baptisms for the dead, Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, Pearl of Great Price, Golden Plates, etc. I hope you give it a try!!! Please let me know if you do and how it turns out!!

Please google My Sisters Love at Home and listen to their totally awesome version of this great song! I can't figure out how to link it but it's so worth taking a minute to listen to it!! Have a great day!!!

I've fallen off the wagon...

So, most of you know that my 7 year old, Matthew, is SEVERELY allergic to all nuts. We pretty much kissed all nuts goodbye in our house because it's so scary to even consider the possibilities of accidental cross contamination and also he was so little that we were afraid he would accidentally eat something he shouldn't have. SCARY!!! Well, I LOVE peanut butter!!! I never cared much for it as a child but I can't get enough as an adult. It saved me during my first trimester when I was pregnant with Zack and NOTHING sounded good but peanut butter sandwiches or Arby's regular roast beef sandwiches. I used to gag over Reeces Peanut Butter Cups as a kid but now....LOVE!!! And who can get enough peanut M&M's?! I mean really!!! Sometimes I sneak some when he's at school but then I have to really watch my kisses with him. I can only kiss him on the top of his head on his hair after I've eaten anything with nuts or he breaks out in hives. Even if it has been HOURS since I ate it. So I usually just don't have any. Well, this week I've had 2 peanut butter sandwiches and Brian snuck me some peanut M&M's and I needed to make some cookies for YW/YM activity tonight so I did it...I made peanut butter cookies. I even licked the peanut butter spoon clean afterwards. I feel so guilty and like everything is contaminated but I've truly scrubbed and scrubbed and I think it's all good. And can I just say that these may be the best peanut butter cookies I've ever eaten. Could be that they are just so dang yummy because it's been like YEARS since I've eaten any but still.. YUMMY!!! If everything goes well with these and we can keep him safe since he's old enough to really understand the dangers and stuff then I'm going to have to make more peanut butter goodies. Oh, scotcheroos, how I've missed you!!!

Like a kid again...

So I have wanted some of the dark chocolate brown UGG-type boots for ever!!! I have either been too broke to get them or they don't carry them in my ginormous size 11!!! Brian tried to find me some for Christmas but ran into all the same road blocks. My mom and sister, Steph, were looking for some for me for my birthday at the mall and told me that they had once again ran into the same problems. Well, today Mom, Steph, Steph's kids, and Stan drove the hour through the canyon to take me to lunch for my birthday. Mom made me her special strawberry cake and they gave me a gift to open. You can imagine my surprise and JOY when I looked in the box and saw dark chocolate brown boots in a size 11 and everything!!! I was so THRILLED!!! I haven't been this excited over a gift in a really long time and it's really fun!!! I feel like a kid again! I was thinking about sleeping with them on tonight. Or hugging them while I sleep tonight. I am just so happy to have them! They are so pretty! And comfy! And the fur inside is so soft and fluffy and lovely!!! And I just LOVE them!!!! :)

Good for them!!

 http://ldsliving.com/story/63283-sister-missionaries-get-a-new-wardrobe
 I think this is great!

P.S. Does anyone know what "de" means? Gracie keeps asking for it. Begging for it. And sometimes crying for it. It's not drink because she calls drink "me". I've tried EVERYTHING!! Usually she's pointing at the frig when she says it and yesterday I showed her everything inside hoping to unfold the mystery only to hear NO!!! over and over again!!! Wish me luck!!!

Here's Hopin'!!!

I've known for a long time I needed to get healthier but I just wasn't there mentally. Do you know what I mean? When you decide to get healthy it's such a mental change!!! It is for me anyway. If I haven't really done that it's not going to work!! Well, ever since I was thrust into this stupid world of drs and medicine and pain and CRAP I have felt such a lack of control. I really really hate having to take medicine. I really really hate drs appointments and wasting hours of my life in waiting rooms, on hold with receptionists, on hold with my insurance company, etc. Well, one of the stupid medicines I'm on causes you to gain weight. SUPER!!! As if all that elbow exercise I've been getting doesn't do enough damage on it's own I have to take a medication that makes me gain weight.When I was first diagnosed I was just totally grateful that my kids are healthy!!! I can handle having health problems better than I can handle having my kids have health problems!! I was also so incredibly grateful that I didn't have a brain tumor I didn't care what else they said. Now the realities of my "condition" or whatever you want to call it have sunk in and honestly it's HARD!!! It SUCKS!!!!!!! I hate it and I'm ANGRY!!! I'm not angry at anyone I'm just angry! It sucks and I'm angry! I can't help that! Probably natural to feel that way. I'm not living IN anger if that makes sense. I STILL feel so incredibly GRATEFUL for the kids good health and that I don't have a brain tumor I'm just mad about this stupid thing. I am trying to learn to function and deal with it to the best of my ability. When I bend over and my face explodes in pain I get MAD that this stupid thing effects me and the way I funciton and take care of my family. I am grateful for my freakishly long finger toes now because they help me pick stuff up! I knew there had to be a good reason for them!!! I'm hoping to get one of those little claw picker upper things for my birthday so that will help, too!! It's hard to not have control over my body. I may not be able to control the stupid medicine I take but I DO however have control over whether or not I get my fat @*# up and ride the exercise bike or what kinds of food I put in my mouth. Now that the medicines have gotten me back to a pretty decent functioning level (haven't helped pain but have helped dizziness and nausea, etc) I feel like exercising!! Brian asked for an exercise bike (see January 1st post) for Christmas and has been riding it faithfully for a couple weeks now. I've been trying to mentally be ready to do it. The end of last week I couldn't even button my fat pants. It's definitely TIME! I became mentally ready at that very moment!!! Seriously bad! Granted I just had that Essure procedure and there was some bloating and swelling but STILL!!! So, I have ridden Brian's bike twice so far. I feel fantastic when I'm done. Don't you just feel so good about yourself and your efforts after you've taken good care of your body and have exercised? And don't you feel so invigorated? It's the best! So I'm hoping that exercise and some food changes will help counter act the effects the medication has on my weight!!!

Here's hopin!!!!!

Back to reality.....

So, for the last 2 weeks our church building has had no power. We couldn't meet there or have weekly activities for 2 weeks. We met at the stake center with the 2nd ward for Sacrament Meeting and then we were...justifiably...with permission...even encouraged...

to go home!!! 

Isn't that totally awesome! We ALL loved it!!! Don't get me wrong I do enjoy church but it sometimes feels more emotionally and physically exhausting than it's worth wrestling 4 kids and all. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that way. And sometimes I dread it like crazy so having a nice little break was great.  The super nice bishop of the 2nd ward invited us to stay for all the meetings. But our bishop said we could go home so we did!!!! The other ward's members were very welcoming and kind to us and we appreciate them letting us steal their designated pews for 2 weeks! But now...sadly...it's back to reality for us. Our ward building has power again. It sure was nice while it lasted though!!!

Better late than never...I hope!!

I was finally taking my friend Tara B's advice and labeling my blog posts since I REALLY needed to sit down and ran across a couple of posts I was going to make over the holidays but for some reason forgot to actually push PUBLISH POST. Yes I'm a goofball! Here they are...

 11/28/10

So, I totally love the prices of Black Friday! I'm not a big fan of the crouds but I do enjoy getting in on all the sweet deals! My Mom and I decided to avoid most of the crazy loons by leaving around 7:00. No offense to any of you crazy loons! I am usually one of them but just wasn't up to it this year. Most of what we were interested in was gone but I got some super cute brown dress boots at Penney's for 30 bucks. We got a few other things but the best deal this year for us HAS to be the ladder we got!!! They had these 6 ft ladders that are usually $50 on for $19 at Lowe's. We haven't ever really needed a ladder much before. But since we've lived here we've needed one lots of times but they are so stinking expensive. So this was like HUGE for us!!! I wanted Christmas lights up and that was just NOT happening without a ladder. So we went on over to Lowe's and to our HUGE disappointment they were OUT of them!!! Brian used to work at Lowe's and he knew that they price match so we decided to check out Home Depot and see if they had the ladder and if they price matched and sure enough they DID!!! Not only do they price match but they also give you 10% off of the purchase as well!! We got a $50 ladder for $17.10!! So cool!!! It was so fun having our Christmas lights on the house and I'm sure we'll use it lots! I LOVE a great deal!!!

12/23/10

~Today I finally finished my Christmas shopping. I am so excited to have it all done and hopefully everyone is happy with what they get. I used to have all my shopping finished by October so having to wait until two days before Christmas to finish things up made me hyperventilate often but it was actually kind of fun being at the stores today. Walmart totally rocked today too! They had someone there to help the cashier bag groceries and put them in the cart and there was even an employee in the parking lot who offered to help me put my groceries into the car. It was the best customer service I've ever had there!!
~I checked over my list of all the things we have bought for the kids for Christmas and can you believe that somehow we managed to buy only gifts that don't require any batteries. Usually we spend between $20-$40 on batteries alone at Christmas time so I was so excited not to have to buy any!!!
~I made some projects at Super Saturday last month that were so cute. I made a cute, big, brown bracelt. 7 sets of blocks that say Family for me, my mom, and each of my siblings. One of the things I made was one of those fancy big watches that everyone is wearing. It has black, silver, and clear beads. I love it! I debated over giving it as a gift or making it for myself. I've wanted one for myself so bad for a long time and I rarely get anything for myself so I decided to make it for myself.  SO EXCITED!!! Today at Walmart while I loaded up the conveyerbelt I accidentally smacked it on the little metal edge and broke the cute little crystal cover. :(  Oh well. It was fun having something cute and fun while it lasted!
~I finally finished everyone's Family blocks on Christmas Eve. Yes I'm a procrastinator! They ended up cute and I was so sad I couldn't give them to my sisters and brothers and parents right that moment! I can't send them to Dana and Rob until February but hopefully they think it's better late than never!! :)

This one is mine and the others were a variety of dark reds, cream/tan, and navy blue or green. I have fun making them and learning to use Mod Podge and can't wait to find something else to mod podge!! I made a sign for Matty and Max's room using the technique that says I hope they call me on a mission. I need to make one for Zack now and I want to make one for Gracie's room that says I love to see the temple, I'm going there some day.

Can you see the broken crystal?  :(

A few of my favorite things...

So a couple weeks ago I took some pics of my favorite decorations around our house and I was going to post them on my blog but completely forgot until I was checking out blogs today and one of the blogs I follow had a post with all of their fun decorations on it. So now that I remember...here goes...I don't have a lot of fancy stuff and my camera bites and I'm not so good at using it anyway but whatever!

This little star was my Grandma Hazel's ornament she used to hang on her tree. I have another like it that is just white. I LOVE to see these ornaments when I'm decorating the tree and throughout the month. It makes me think of her and I miss her so much! And my other grandmothers too!

Zacky's little first 5 years Hallmark ornaments.

Matthew and Max both had the same little set for their first 5 ornaments.

Gracie's first 2 ornaments.

Mickey Mouse of course!!!

This is not how we hung these I just squashed them all together to take the picture of all the ornaments we've made the past few years. 2 years in a row we made mittens then last year we made snowflakes, and this year we made stars. The kids got really creative this year and last year their snowflakes were rainbow colors and covered in glitter. It is a fun part of our Christmas celebrations now. I just googled salt dough ornaments and used a recipe that popped up. I think they are really fun!!! And a little old fashioned which I like!

When my Dad was alive he would send us a hand carved and hand painted Santa ornament. I looked forward to getting these in the mail every year and cherish them! I love hanging them on the tree and thinking of him and including him in our Christmas celebration in this small way each year. They are hung as high on the tree as I can hang them for safety purposes of course! This one is my most favorite one!!  

Well, it's done...

I had that Essure procedure done Tuesday. No more babies.  :(   :)   Can't decide whether I'm happy or sad. I always wanted 5 or 6 kids but we couldn't have kids for like ever and now I have this stupid nerve pain crap that makes it impossible to imagine being pregnant again or caring for a newborn baby again and I live in constant fear of getting pregnant again under the current circumstances but still...I'm kind of sad. I officially can't EVER bring another life into this world. No more kicks. No more exciting ultasounds. No more teeny tiny clothes. There are a million negatives and a million positives. I am INCREDIBLY grateful for the 4 beautiful children we have been blessed with and thank my Heavenly Father every day for being blessed with the divine gift of motherhood. I'm totally feeling like it is the right decision for us. For me. The procedure only lasted about 5 to 10 minutes. It went super well. I watched the whole thing on a little screen and it was rather interesting. You could see the entrance to the one tube just as clear as day but the other one was covered with endometriosis which made it rather hard to find and then he had to put it through the endometrioses. I've had a lot more pain on that side than the other but the pain still hasn't been too horrible or anything. It's been a great way to go about this whole thing and I would definitely suggest it to anyone! Especially if you have Dr. Thorpe in Provo do it because he was AMAZING through the whole thing! He totally redeemed himself in my eyes! He delivered Zack and it didn't go so well and if I could have kicked him I would have but I couldn't feel my leg because of the epidural :) But after this whole experience I say he's WONDERFUL!!! I am glad it's all over now. Just 3 months until I have an xray with dye in me to make sure they are completely closed off and then it will truly be OVER!!! I'm blessed and grateful and everything but still...I'm a woman...and sometimes women can feel happy and sad at the same time and that's ok. For 16 years becoming a mother has been a BIG part of my life and thinking. Each child took time to come to our family and there were lots of hoping, praying, begging, pleading, etc. It's just kind of strange to think it's over. That that part of my life as a woman is over. That my mind has to switch. That we are entering a new chapter of our lives. I'm sure it will be a wonderful chapter as well, it's just going to take me a while to wrap my mind around it and accept the new realities of my life.

Christmas and ringing in the New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas this year even though I almost totally ruined the whole thing and we had a little change of plans.

How I almost totally ruined Christmas (for Zack anyway): I put Zack's basketball goal he wanted on layaway at Kmart early in November. I was going to get it off layaway December 23rd and it was going to work out perfectly! Well, lots of Dr's appointments, pain, festivities, callings, and craziness in general and apparently somewhere in there I was supposed to remember to make a payment on the thing at the end of November...big OOPS!!! Brian was inspired one day in December to check out the status of the layaway online...it was...CANCELLED!!! WHAT!!! WHAT!!!!!! Total heart attack city for me when I got that lovely phone call! Thank goodness Brian was able to find one on walmart.com that was actually like $40 cheaper anyway. There weren't any left in the stores here in our little town and we weren't planning any trips to the big city anytime soon so we were so LUCKY (blessed!) to find that one online! And it was delivered 2 days later which was awesome!!! Thank goodness Zack has a great dad!!!

Change of plans: We were planning to go to my parent's house for Christmas dinner but my mom and my sister Katie got sick with a stomach virus that morning that they got from my adorable niece, Emily. I feel so bad for them that they were sick because that would be a totally rotten way to spend Christmas. And my brother in law Chris who is married to Katie has his birthday on Christmas day. So he spent his big day watching Katie be sick. Fun stuff! Well, we obviously stayed home and it turned out to be an awesome day!!! I was worried how the kids would react to having a slimmer, but still, very nice Christmas gift getting experience this year compared to last years major over indulgence. They LOVED it! They were so happy with everything they got! They were disappointed to not be going to my mom's and we were too but it was SO awesome to just watch our kids relax and enjoy their gifts and enjoy the day. We haven't traveled for Christmas in several years because it just doesn't work for us anymore but we thought it would be nice to go for Christmas dinner. I'm thinking while our kids are still young enough to really enjoy the magic of Christmas this may just have to be the way we do it from now on. It was a great day! I had a lot of energy that day which is highly unusual for me so I cleaned a lot and accomplished a lot of things I had been wanting to get done so it worked great for me. I kept getting teary thinking about not getting to see my sister Dana and my brother Rob that day. I knew we'd see the rest of my family in a few days anyway but I was really sad to think I couldn't see Rob and Dana! We did enjoy just being alone for the day though and realize sometimes a change of plans isn't such a bad thing after all. We spent New Year's Eve with my family and had our belated wonderful Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts and had a great time!!! It's all good!
Here are some of our pictures from the fun and crazy month of December...

Gracie had so much fun tormenting our poor tree this year. Eventually we had almost all of our ornaments on the top of the tree and only indestructible ones down low. I gave up trying to rearrange them to look halfway decent. I took this picture on Christmas Eve. Poor pathetic tree!!! I didn't want to put the gifts out until Christmas Eve because of our sweet little tornado but Brian talked me into it on the Sunday  before Christmas and sheesh...we should have waited. She unwrapped like 6 gifts. You can see that Brian's exercise bike he got was unwrapped. Silly girl! P.S. I wasn't trying to send Brian a message by giving him that bike or anything! That's what he wanted!!! Just wanted to make it clear that I didn't say here's an exercise bike fat a.. USE IT! He would just have said ditto!!

Brian made us each a hat for Christmas. Love them!!! We usually do Christmas pjs for Christmas Eve but didn't this year. Oh well, we survived! !

Apparently Gracie agrees that being surrounded by presents and chocolate = pure bliss!!!

Cute little Lucy on our way to Spanish Fork. Thank goodness Katie and Chris let her sleep over at their house with Sam and Sia when it's too cold to leave her home!!!

We came to Spanish Fork for our New Year's celebrations a day early on Thursday so we could go on a date while my parents watched all the kids. What I won't do for a date night! Even driving through white out conditions in the canyon couldn't stop me from cashing in on that prize!!!

 So, 2010..not my favorite year I must say!! A lot of trials and bumps in the road! Also many, many blessings!
Great things that have come from this year:
~A stronger testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and a greater feeling of closeness to Him, our loving Father in Heaven, and the precious gift of the Holy Ghost.
~A stronger testimony of the power of prayer.
~A closer family unit seeing as how we are so CLOSE in our tiny house. They say love grows best in little houses and boy are they right!
~The joy we feel in watching our children grow and enjoying the precious gifts of being their parents is truly a blessing!!!
~Our children have been really healthy this year and we are so very grateful to our Heavenly Father for that amazing gift as well!
~Our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all He has provided us with in our lives has grown tremendously this year!!!
~Brian has a great job with great benefits. We have a roof over our heads. We have food on the table. We have clothes on our backs. We have cars to drive. We have the gospel in our lives. We have friends. We live in Utah in the United States of America. We have people to love. We are blessed!!! And we are grateful!!!

So GOODBYE 2010 and HELLO 2011!!!!!  Please be kind to us!!! :)

Gotta learn as you go...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fun time!

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

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

Here are the words to the song...

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

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

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

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

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

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