Random Homemade Awesomeness

I'm not a person to go to a lot of trouble to make things from scratch.  I would rather buy ice cream than go to the expense and trouble of making it.  Compounded by the fact that I can no longer eat ice cream (thank you lactose intolerance), my ice cream maker sits on a shelf in the garage and collects dust.  Since Eric became gluten intolerant, I've tried several times to make gluten free bread.  A store bought loaf of gluten free bread is $5.50 and yields about six very small sandwiches.  The slices are the size of a baguette.  However, I've come to the conclusion that making it is almost as expensive (the specialty flours cost $3-4 alone for one loaf of bread) and it's a crap shoot at best.  Sometimes it comes out great, sometimes it doesn't.  I hate wasting an entire afternoon and $4 of flour for a crappy loaf of bread.

But, I love a good bargain.  And I'm not an extreme couponer.  I don't see myself ever going that crazy.      Having said all that, here are recipes for 3 products I LOVE and we use a lot!  And, the homemade equivalent is super cheap to the store bought equivalent... not to mention easy to make!

Homemade Gatorade
2 qts water
1 package of unsweetened Kool-aid
1/2 t. table salt
1/2 t. morton's lite salt
10 T sugar

The best way to do this that we've found is to buy a 64 oz bottle of gatorade at Walmart for a buck-fifty.  Then after you've drunk it, you can make your own and refill the bottle over and over again.  We fill the bottle half way, put the ingredients in, screw the lid on, shake well, fill the rest of the bottle up with water and shake again.  Voila... 64 oz of Gatorade for about fifty cents!  :)

Brown Sugar Body Scrub
2 C brown sugar
1 C white sugar
1 C oil
1 T vanilla

Mix the sugars in a bowl until there are no lumps.  Add oil and vanilla, mix well.  Put in a plastic container and store in the shower so you can rub it all over your heels in the shower.  Since I started using this stuff, I haven't had one cracked heel.  That says a lot, since it's a chronic problem I've had living in the desert.

Granite Cleaner
Take an old windex bottle and fill it 1/8 full with rubbing alcohol.  Then add one drop of dish soap.  (Really, one drop is more than enough.)  You can add a drop or two of essential oils if you have them for scent, but I don't.  Then fill the bottle up the rest of the way with water and you have a super cheap, great granite cleaner!

Summer Vacation

We are just 5 days away from summer vacation this year.  Last year, my summer was filled with camps, road trips and boating.  We didn't have 5 minutes to sit and rest.  This summer is going to be quite the opposite.  There will be lots of sitting and vegging.  My kids are all old enough to help me clean up the house and we have a lot of things to do that we never seem to have time for during school.  Here's my list of things I want to accomplish over summer break.

• Study the scriptures EVERY DAY with the kids.  Might seem like an odd thing to some of you, but it's been years since we've been able to have regular scripture study together as a family, due to crazy work/school schedules.  Usually summer is when we slack off, but I'm hoping this summer will be the opposite.  I really enjoy hearing the insights my kids have about the scriptures.  They are so much smarter than I was at their age.
•  Watch at least the first 3 seasons of Monk.  We've seen every Psych episode ever made at least 3 times, so we will have to get our money's worth from Netflix watching something else that's both family friendly and entertaining for adults.  I've heard Monk fills both of those requirements.  There's 125 episodes on Netflix, so we shouldn't run out of fresh material.  And the best part about Netflix is NO COMMERCIALS!
• Splurge on movie theater popcorn at least once a week.  The weekly kids movie at Harkins should take care of that.  :)  Other movies we might splurge on this summer:  Snow White and the Huntsman, Brave, The Dark Knight Rises (can't wait for this one!), and The Bourne Legacy.  Movies I will be avoiding, even though the kids may think they are must see's:  Madagascar 3 and G.I. Joe (the sequel).  
• De-clutter my house.  We have officially lived in this house longer than any other location since getting married... and it shows.  My plan is to break the house down into several "zones" and tackle one zone each week.  
• Exercise 4 times a week.  I've been sporadic in my routine since Ragnar in February, but I'm all healed up and it's time to get back into Triathlon training mode.  Hoping to do the Mesa Sprint Tri again in the fall.  That was a great race last year and I'm looking forward to doing it again!  Any local peeps want to sign up with me?
• Play catch up with the kids church stuff.  Taylor is behind on Duty to God, Megan is behind on Personal Progress, and Ian is just barely going to get his Faith in God done before he turns 12.  Definitely need to spend some time catching up on all this fun stuff!
• Read The Fountainhead.  It's our book club book for August and the audiobook is 30 hours long.  May be the longest book I've ever tried to read.  Definitely not one I should procrastinate starting!
• Do some fun projects with my kids... we might tie dye t-shirts, Megan wants to do some sewing projects, and I've got some half finished projects I really need to finish and clean up.  And if I'm ever bored I can scrapbook.  I can digital scrap or I can work on some half finished paper scrap pages.  There's never a shortage of projects to catch up on!  Maybe I'll scrapbook while we watch Monk.... I love multitasking!

So there you have it... one more week and we'll be officially into summer vacation.  Even though I'm not going to be leaving town too much, I plan on staying super busy!

Do You REALLY Remember?

I love this image.  The only two times I’ve been to NYC were both in 1999.  This is what I remember the Manhattan skyline looking like from the Jersey side, where we took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty.  Do you ever notice how we often classify time now?  I often say, “oh, we did that pre-nine-eleven”… like when we able to park our cars, walk into the airport, and wait for people to arrive by plane at the gate.  Or when we could put scissors or box cutters in our carry-ons.  (Why would anyone WANT to put a box cutter in their carry-on unless they had evil intentions?)  But I did pack a bag full of scissors and razor-bladed scrapbooking tools and carried them onto a plane in 1999.  Airport security did check my bag, but when they saw what it was, they realized I was a harmless housewife, and sent me through.

I will never forget that morning, over 10 years ago.  I was getting Taylor ready for school.  He was in 1st grade. Megan was a preschooler and Ian was just one.  I never have the TV on in the mornings (too much of a distraction), so I was clueless that the world had been plunged into chaos.  Eric had already left for work, and I got a call from him on his cell.  He had heard the news on the radio and told me I needed to turn on the TV.  I sat in horror as I realized what was going on.  How could this be happening?  Do I take Taylor to school?  Is it safe to leave the house?  In the end, I did take him to school.  I was in the minority though, as only about half the kids showed up that day.  Looking back, I am glad I did it.  Terrorists want us to be afraid.  And as Americans have shown over the last 10 years, we will NOT cower to them. 

I remember the first anniversary of 9/11.  I think as a country we were still grieving.  I think we expected “round two”.  When it passed uneventfully, I think we took a big collective sigh of relief.  And so many other 9/11’s have passed since then, each bringing the thought, “another year, and we are still here”.  Things have been so quiet on the terrorism front, that it’s easy to forget.  (Well, until you go to the airport.)  I have spent the last few years of my life without watching the news.  I have also worked hard to shield my children from watching and seeing senseless hate and violence that happens every day in this cruel world we live in.  I find my life is so much happier without a daily dose of depression that comes with the “news”.  Because of that, Ian (who is 11 now) has never seen the footage of the 9/11 attacks.  In discussing it this week, he admitted, he didn’t even know what “9/11” was.  That’s when I decided we had to act.  If we are not careful, the painful memories of that day will be lost in just one or two generations. 

I DVR’d a couple programs airing on Fox News last night and we sat down as a family to watch one that was basically a “recap” documentary.  I wanted Ian (and all my kids) to understand the horror of terrorism and the lessons we’ve learned since then.  I was dreading it, though.  As I feared, it brought back every emotion I had then.  Especially hard for me were the interviews with the wives of the Flight 93 heroes.  Living in the bay area in 2001, this story was especially important to us.  About half of that plane were Bay Area residents since it was the one bound for San Francisco.  Two men in particular had called their wives from the plane and so we knew details about what was happening in the plane.  I’m still amazed at the courage ordinary people showed when they figured out they were being taken hostage on a suicide mission.

It was a hard program for us all to get through.  I kept using the “skip 30 seconds forward button” on the remote.  Hearing the phone calls to 911 were unbearable, and I would not let my kids see the footage of people on fire jumping out of windows in the towers 60 stories up.  (That is the one image that will haunt me forever.)   Ian kept leaving the room, and at one point, I found him in the other room crying.  We cried together, and I explained to him how important it is to remember how sad this makes us.  And to remember how lucky we are to live in America.  We finished the night by watching Music and the Spoken Word by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Tom Brokaw was the special guest narrator and it was very well done.  It took the feeling of sorrow from our home and replaced it with peace.  Music can do that for the soul.

I know that I will never forget the pain of September 11, 2001.  Now I must teach my children to “never forget”.  It was hard to re-watch it all again last night, but in doing so we honor those whose lives were lost that day. 

My brother inspired this post.  Yesterday, he broke his blogging silence and wrote a very moving post about 9/11.  You can read it here.  Thanks, Adam, for inspiring me to get this jumbled mess out of my head and into cyberspace.  Love you, dude!

Excuses

Where did the last 3 weeks go?  One week was Girls Camp, but the rest, I just can’t account for!  I have a lot of stuff I want to blog about from the end of May and beginning of June, but until I can get my act together, here are some things that have distracted me from blogging… (in no random order):

Paper Books – These two to be precise:

    

I could have listened to BOTH of these on my ipod, but our brand new blu-ray disc drive in the PC broke down.  (That’s a story for another day… we have the “curse of the crappy disc drives” in this household.)  So, I had to resort to paper since I was on a deadline for both.  The Goose Girl was our book club book this month, and City of Fallen Angels was on loan from the library, with a long waiting list behind me.  Both were worth the time it took away from life to read them, though!

Where has this website been all my life???  See something cool on a blog or website you want to remember?  Now you can “pin it” to your boards on pinterest and save it forever!  I LOVE this more than I can say!  I can’t count the number of times I see a cool craft idea or tutorial for something that I want to save for later, and when I go back to that blog to try to find it, I never can.  Now that will never happen again.  I can organize my boards and follow friends to see what they are pinning on their boards.  It’s super cool.  And that’s an understatement.  If you want an invite to be my friend on pinterest, just shoot me a message.  You’ll love it, I promise!

Smartphone Games… particularly this one:

I was never a scrabble fan, until I started playing this game.  It’s so freakin’ addicting!  Do you play?  My handle is az6pack.  Let’s start a game!  :)

I may be the last person on earth to sign up for Netflix, but the whole mailing DVD’s back and fort was never very appealing to me.  I only gave it a shot after I heard about the instant streaming.  Our new DVD player is compatible and it’s pretty awesome.  Until the boys get going on a SpongeBob or Veggie Tales marathon.  Then it’s not so cool.

So that’s the short list of my non-essential distractions over the last two weeks… stay tuned for what other events have sucked the life out of me lately….all were very blogworthy, indeed!

My Top Ten List

I’ve been a bad blogger lately.  There really is no excuse, except that I’ve been distracted with other things.  I’m trying to cram too many projects into my time and blogging was the thing that fell by the wayside.

Here are my top ten reasons why I haven’t blogged much the last couple months:

10.  Facebook.

9.   I’ve gone out of town twice, just in the last 3 weeks… first to science camp, then to Southern California.

8.  Two words:  SINUS INFECTION.

7.  My callings.  I am now an Activity Days leader, a Sunbeam teacher, and a Visiting Teacher.  In addition to those, I have a special Visiting Teaching mentoring assignment and I’m the leader for the 4th year hike at Girls Camp.  Even with all those together, it’s still better than being Relief Society President. 

6.  These is my words by Nancy Turner and Matched by Allie Condie.   I’ve blogged many times about the virtue of audio books, but every once in a while, I read a real paper book.  And when I do, nothing gets done for a week.  That’s why audio books are good for me and my household… I can still do housework while listening to a book.

5.  Exercise.  Up until I got sick two weeks ago, I’d actually gotten back into a regular workout routine.  I love exercising, but I wish I didn’t eat up so much of my time.  Since I can’t work out before the kids go to school, I don’t start until 8 a.m. and often don’t get showered and breakfast until 10 or 10:30 in the morning. 

4.  Deep cleaning and decluttering.  Some areas of my house haven’t seen a purge in about 2 years. 

3.  My camera.  I’ve been working really hard to expand my horizons and take more pictures.  I’m also trying to learn how to take photographs in other settings besides auto.  Sometimes it goes well, other times, not so well.  It’s defiantly an exercise in trial and error.

2.  Photoshop.  This can be even more frustrating than my camera, but when you figure out how to do something, it’s 10x’s more rewarding.  Again, lots of time, lots of trial and error.

1.  Digital Scrapbooking.  I know I said I would never convert.  But I love that I can do my scrapbooking in my photoshop program.  I’m still learning… and my pages are very basic, but I don’t care.  It’s getting done.  Finally… scrapbooking is getting done.  And I am having a good time while I’m at it!

So there you go…. 10 reasons I’ve been a bad blogger.  I hereby vow to renew my efforts in April.  I’m always thinking about things I want to blog about.  I just need to find time to sit down and do it!

Two Separate Rants That Unexpectedly are Connected

I’ve been wanting to blog about this for weeks, but I haven’t had the mental patience to write it down.

I’ve been spoiled my whole life with excellent health insurance.  Whenever given the option, we’ve had some sort of HMO insurance.  I like HMO’s… everything is covered.  Then a couple years ago, our big bad corporate decision maker decided that HMO’s weren’t a “good” option for the employees anymore. In the last couple years, I’ve had to make some tough decisions about receiving medical care.  For example, after visiting an allergist to specifically narrow down what’s causing my allergies, I had to turn down the allergy shots that she recommended.  Would the shots have made my life better in the long run?  Absolutely, but the cost was too high to make it justifiable. 

In November, I looked at our Open Enrollment Options and about had a heart attack.  All three of our possible Health Plan Options had pretty much stripped away all our prescription coverage.  If we were a family that doesn’t have high prescription costs, it might not be as painful…. but…  as I mentioned above, I have allergies and asthma.  The best asthma medicine I have found that really keeps my asthma under control is Advair (the purple disk).  There is no generic yet for Advair.  The retail cost for Advair is $246.  Aetna, being the benevolent benefactor that they are, will only charge me the discounted rate that they get charged for Advair, which is right about $199.  And Applied Materials, being the awesome employer that they are, is allowing us to set up a HSA so that we can pay for our prescriptions tax-free.  Aren’t they just so generous and thoughtful?  So now I can put $200 a month into a HSA just to pay for my Advair… the big question is, what am I going to have to give up to pay for my Advair?  And that’s just one prescription we have…

I haven’t even brought up how high our deductibles are now.  Eric fractured a bone in his foot 2 months ago and it may require surgery to fix.  We really want to go to Disneyland over spring break, but our money may have to go to Insurance deductibles instead.  Unbelievable!  (Well, and Eric won’t be up to a week of theme parks if he has to have surgery.)  So, if he does have to have surgery, I guess it will be a good year to have multiple medical procedures done, especially if we meet our deductibles in February! 

Because of Eric’s broken foot, he has to walk around in this beastly boot.  He complains about it, but I remind him that it could be worse.  He could have a plaster cast.  I have had one of those and they SUCK!  But, back to the boot.  He’s had to make two trips to Portland since he got this boot, and the airport security was a huge concern.  When he walks through the security, of course the metal in the boot sets off the alarms.  So, then he has to have a full body pat down, looking for dangerous weapons.  But here’s the deal,  he could be hiding a dangerous weapon down in that boot, and the full body pat down doesn’t even address the issue.  Honestly, if they were serious about security, they would make him take that boot off and inspect it.  Instead, they pat him down, which is much more humiliating than letting them search the boot.  I just don’t get it.  I’m starting to think that TSA is just a big joke, which isn’t really serious about security. 

So now that I’ve vented this all out, I hope it makes it a bit less painful when they charge my account $200 for a month supply of Advair.  Yeah, maybe, but probably not…  

Weekly Report

Eric's been out of town since Sunday night and I had a goal to blog every day while he was away.  Obviously, that hasn't happened.  I have started two posts, but ultimately abandoned each one.  In a nutshell, here's how the week has gone.

Sunday night, just minutes before I talk to Eric after his plane lands in the Bay Area, I discover the guinea pig is dead in his cage.  Which meant that I had to dispose of it, clean up the mess, and tell the kids the next morning, ALL by myself.  Joy.  Let's just say that I don't do well with dead things... animals or people.  I prefer the living.  But, since it was 10:30 at night, I wasn't going to call my Home Teachers, so I just had to suck it up and deal with it.  I lived through the ordeal, but I hope I NEVER have to do something like that again.  It sucked, big time, and I had guinea-pig-haunting dreams all night long.

Monday I broke the news to the kids.  Ian and Brayden were the most upset, but got over it quicker than I expected.  I guess Ian wasn't as attached as I had thought.  I treated them all to Kokomo for dessert after we delivered cookies to Eric and Taylor's home teaching families for FHE.  We were doing some serious gospel multitasking on Monday night... service, HTing, FHE, and grief therapy all in one.  And I actually got to enjoy my dairy-free watermelon flavored frozen yogurt, which I topped with pound cake bits and vanilla mini chips.  Even though it's not really ice cream, it was a good substitute. 

Tuesday, I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned.  All while I listened to Mockingjay.  I am happy to report that the downstairs is looking pretty dang good.  I've been doing some decluttering too, but still have a long way to go until I'm satisfied that we are completely de-junked around here.

Wednesday was errand day.  I did interrupt my errands to go to lunch with Colee... one of my favorite college students ever.  She just started at ASU and I got a kick hearing about how every student has to take the "Succeed at ASU" course their first semester.  And yeah, they make you pay for that!  Crazy.  One part of me felt 20 again, the other part of me felt 40.  And I'm not 40 yet.  ;-)

Today was supposed to be another cleaning day, but I got distracted with stuff here and there.  I had a long list of phone calls to make... and I booked airline tickets for a weekend away in November for just Eric and I.  (Thanks, MOM!)  Eric knows we are going somewhere, and that my mom will be staying with the kids, but he doesn't know where we are going, so that will be a fun surprise for him when the time comes.  A word to the wise however... if an airline gives you travel "vouchers" in exchange for being bumped or a cancelled flight, don't assume that $400 airline credit will get you very far.  I was totally surprised by the limited options I had for using my vouchers.  Oh well, a $50 flight is better than a $250 one, right?

This afternoon, we went to Taylor's swim meet.  The younger boys have to come with me, which they hate, and today was brutal because it was 106 and only the swimmers get to cool off in the pool.  Brayden saw me train the camera on him, and he gave me a good possum stance.  That kid is a bust up!

 Here's some shots from Taylor's 500 meters.  He's doing much better this year... got his personal best today at 5:52.  That's 20 seconds down from his time last year.  In this picture, he's the only one not wearing a cap and wearing longer shorts.  If he does the Casa Grande Tri again with us this year, I think we will take the top swimming time.  He was pretty happy with his performance today and it's only the first meet of the year.

Tomorrow will be a workout day for me, and cleaning up the upstairs.  Mostly just our room and bathroom... I was doing sewing projects in there last week and there's still fabric mess everywhere.  Tomorrow night we get to see Megan perform with the High School Marching Band during the football game, which normally, I look forward to, but it's supposed to be 110 tomorrow.  So, yeah, it's going to be hot and miserable.  This is what I hate about September.  Where's fall when you need it?

Funk

October was a weird month for me. It started with unwanted drama, ended in unwanted drama and had all kinds of weird stuff in between. I am just glad it's over. If I were ever the type to be "depressed", it would have happened last month. But, thank goodness, I'm not that type. And I'm done with the negativity, and back to positivity. (Is that a word? If not, I just made it up and I like how it sounds.)

I LOVE November. It's my favorite month of the year. Maybe because it's also my birthday month, but I just love fall. I love the cool mornings, making soup for dinner, and all the hype that comes with the approaching holidays. Except when (like right now) I realize that Christmas is only six weeks away, and then I start to freak out a little. ;-) Or, when I walk outside to go to the mailbox and start sweating... but wait, that wouldn't happen in most places in November... only here in the desert.

Posts will be coming very soon about Halloween, the Birthdays and the Triathlon. All were blog worthy events!

And I just want you all to know that I still read and follow your blogs. I know I haven't commented in eons... and I apologize for that. I know how most bloggers feed off comments like it's heroine. (Or maybe it's just me?... leave me a comment and let me know if you agree!) I'm going to be better this month... I promise!

Inspiration

My blog is my internet home page. I see it several times a day when I log onto the internet. And yet, here it has been for a week and I still don't have a concrete thing to blog about.

I could do a "brag " post about my freshman son going to Regionals for Swimming. Of course, he isn't likely to make it past that point. The competition is fierce!

I could do a "stressed out" post about the 24 hour period a few days ago in which Eric and I were more than 50% sure he was going to be laid off in a couple weeks. (False Alarm, we are safe... for now.)

I could do a "parent of the year" post because given the amount of video games my kids have been playing lately, I'm guaranteed to be voted out of that competition.

I could do a "frustrated" post about all the drama and what-not of daily life.

I could do a "project" post and show you a tablecloth project I've been working on. I came up with the idea 6 weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to working on it.

I could do a "complaining" post about how tired I feel all the time and how poorly I've been managing my time. And how I NEVER get enough sleep!

I could do a "gratitude" post because after more than a year of having broken gears on my bike, Eric got them repaired on Saturday! Thank you Sweetie!

I could do a "life's not fair" post and go into detail about all completely unfair situations of life.

I could do a "wish list" post since my birthday is coming up, but I don't even know what I want. World Peace?

In the end, I won't do any of these and just wait for the perfect blogging opportunity to come. For me, I find that blogging is "feast or famine"... just got to wait for the right inspiration to come my way!

Why I haven't blogged much lately...

I've been reading this... it's kinda like a Lara Croft/Indiana Jones/Dirk Pitt novel:

And I've been listening to this on my ipod:

And I need to finish watching this... I'm like 4 episodes behind...

And when I can't resist temptation, I play this online:

Busy, Busy, Busy...

This week has been chock full of things like draining our pool and refilling it for this swim season. Oh, and pulling out a winter-ful of weeds... We've also been working on Ian's car for the Pinewood Derby on Saturday. And most importantly... we've been preparing for the arrival of these two cuties!!!

If I ever doubted that they would arrive safely (which I don't...), I would have no worries now. All my kids, including Brayden have been praying earnestly for a week to guarantee Kate and Matt's safe arrival. I'm just hoping this blasted wind dies down before they arrive tonight!

Rut

Do you ever have blogging ruts? I'm in one right now. Sometimes I have 2-3 great post ideas every day... not that I share them all with you, but the ideas are always there.

Right now, I got nothin'... but I'm not mad about it or anything. I've been spending plenty of time getting my house cleaned and catching up on church duties this week, which has been really productive, but not really blogworthy news, know what I mean? I've run countless errands that have been put off and put off, and then put off some more... and I even used my 30% off coupon for Kohl's yesterday and bought two new church outfits for myself... something I haven't done it a LONG time.

I found out that our pool needs to be drained... like NOW. And then refilled, resalted and rechemicaled (is that a word?). So, I'll need to budget in a time next week to rent the $35 pump and drain my pool. Maybe I should take bets on how much it costs to put about 10,000 gallons of water into my pool. Next's months water bill will be exciting, to say the least! I'm a bit nervous to find out how much all the salt and chemicals are going to cost when it's all said and done... but we are already a year overdue on this chore, so it must be done.

Tonight we are headed to the drive-in to see Monsters vs. Aliens. Looks totally dumb to me, but the kids are excited and I love the drive-in. When we go with 3-4 other families, it's a totally social experience and it's such cheap entertainment. $20 for my whole family and we can legally smuggle in as many snacks and drinks as we want. I guess it's not smuggling if they encourage it though? It is windy outside today, so I'm expecting it to be a cold and windy night. We'll bring lots of extra blankets! Maybe I'll even try to bring some hot chocolate.... I might even get the World's Greatest Mom for that move... my kids LOVE hot chocolate and I never make it for them.

I am very excited for General Conference this weekend. I plan to dedicate myself to scrapbooking our Maui vacation during conference. I find that if I have something mindless to do, I can really listen well and concentrate. I started scrapbooking Maui just after christmas and have hit a wall. I just never seem to be able to budget in enough time to work on it. I'm planning to make some real headway tomorrow. Speaking of conference, I LOVE this... click here to read it again and be prepared to laugh your you-know-what off!

A Heavy Heart

On Monday, our friend lost his battle with Leukemia. Last Thursday evening, we found out the doctors could no longer treat him or fight his illness. They just had to wait for him to pass on and keep him as comfortable as they could. It was a difficult weekend for those of us that know this family. He's a really sweet kid and he's only 14. It breaks my heart to think of the sorrow his family is feeling.

I wanted to share a couple lessons I have learned so far from this experience:

Bad things happen to good people. There is no "fairness" in all of this. Our purpose in life is to be tested for greater things and we don't always understand why bad things can happen to such good people. The bottom line is that no one is invincible to sorrow or tradegy.

I can do all things when supported with the power of the Priesthood. On Thursday last week we got the news of David's condition. By Friday I was falling apart emotionally. How would I be able to be helpful to the family if I couldn't keep it together myself? Eric gave me a blessing on Friday and that has made all the difference in the world. I've been able to feel peace and move forward with providing service to this family in their time of need. I've been able to work with the bishopric in planning the funeral service and luncheon afterwards and hold it together. I've been able to give comfort to the family and to others who are having a hard time coping with such a tragedy.

You never know when your time on earth will be over. It can happen over the course of a long and difficult illness or it can happen in an instant. I want to try to remember to make each moment count. I've noticed over the last week, I've been less short with my family. Even though I've been put under enormous stress, that would normally induce crankiness, it hasn't really come through like you would expect. I've learned from this experience that we have to cherish each moment we have with the people we love.

When no one else can understand our sorrow, God can. I've been trying to figure what to say that might give them comfort. I've never lost anyone this close and I don't think anyone out there can understand the pain of losing a child until it has happened to you. I'm not even going to try to pretend I understand the pain they are suffering. A friend of mine said something really profound yesterday... when no one else can understand, God can. He did send his son to earth to die for the rest of us. He could have stopped it and saved his son, but he didn't because he loves all of us. He knows how it feels to watch a child die.


And here we are the day before Thanksgiving, and I find myself with many emotions. I'm grateful for my family and for my beautiful children and for our good health. I'm grateful for my husband and for his compassion and his generosity. Over the last few days, I have been tethered to the phone and have spent a lot time away from home dealing with all this and he has never once complained. He has even cooked meals and washed dishes without being asked to just to make my life a little bit easier. He's been emotionally strong for our family and been incredibly supportive with all the difficult tasks I've been asked to do. My kids have been incredibly understanding too. More often than not, they turn to talk to me, and I have to hold up one finger and silently tell them "hold on" because I'm on the phone and can't be interrupted. I'm hoping to finish all the arrangements today so that there will be time to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family. I want to be able to cuddle on the couch with my kids and watch a movie with them. I want to be able to play RockBand with them and laugh with them and more than anything else, I want them to know how much I love them. That's my goal this weekend... to make sure my kids know that.

Miscellaneous

Just got back last night from our trip to California. We were originally planning to stay through Sunday and drive home Monday, but Eric had some work issues that couldn't wait another day. I HATE travelling on Sunday, but the Lord blessed us nonetheless... we set a record for time exactly 12 hours (the trip up took 13 1/4). Not sure what the big difference was except that we didn't take Highway 12 (and never will ever again) and we ate our lunch in the car while we drove. We only had a mile or two of Sunday night traffic coming back into Phoenix and saw no accidents (or really any cops, either.) But to our visitors who like to speed on I-10... beware... photo radar cameras have been installed in several spots just outside the Phoenix Metro area and a radar detector won't save you on this one! Thank goodness I was only going 5 over the limit when we passed the first one!

Over the last 10 days we've logged 1802 miles and used 106 gallons of gas (average price for gas was $3.49... ouch!) We visited 1 great grandma, 4 grandparents, seven aunts and uncles, nine cousins, and all of Eric's long lost friends from High School!

There are lots of things I plan to blog about from the trip... I'm not sure they will end up being in any kind of chronilogical order, but that's okay... you'll never know the difference, right? And hopefully Eric will find the time to blog about his last trip out with the Scouts soon... just before we left for CA, he and Taylor went canoeing on the Colorado River and have some fun and harrowing tales to share from the trip!

Spiritual Feast

Last Night I attended a Feast... our church had it's annual Relief Society Broadcast. Click Here if you want to watch it online. If you are LDS and missed it last night, make sure to take some time to watch it online. Reading it in the Ensign will never have the same effect. (I took 8 pages of notes....scribbling furiously in the dark... looking at them today, I can't even decifer half of them... good thing I can reprint the talks online!) Sister Julie Beck gave a talk that I'm thinking she wrote just for me... okay, probably not... but it seemed that way. I'm not sure what it is, but I LOVE her talks. I always feel like I can totally connect with her.... I just get where she's coming from and I'm always inspired to do better. Sister Allred and Sister Thompson gave very inspirational messages. President Uchtdorf hit it out of the ballpark with his talk. I loved the story about him making Fried Eggs.... hilarious!What a great man... here's two quotes I want to remember....

"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." (from the author of Peter Pan)

"As daughters of Heavenly Father, Happiness is YOUR heritage." (empasis added by me!)

This last week has been a real adventure for me. I've had to make lots of time for prayer and meditation. Last night's broadcast had special meaning for me as I was made our ward's newest RS President this morning. On one hand, I'm excited to get to know the sisters in our ward on a more personal level... on the other hand, I'm terrified about some of the new "responsibilities" I will have. (And you don't want to see my new meeting schedule!!!)

I came home after being at the church for 5 hours today (3 hour block, plus meetings) and spent the rest of my day getting Taylor and Eric ready to go on a Young Men's Super Activity. And all this weekend, I've been fighting a monster of a head cold... today, I'm so congested that I can't even get my ears to pop... but one sudafed and two extra strength tylenol later, I'm feeling almost normal. I just need to get the middle two down for the night so I can crash and maybe sleep some of this misery off!

Say a prayer or two for us this week, if you don't mind. :) I've already gotten "phone calls" about my new RS duties and I'm going to be anxious about our guys having a safe trip this week!

On My Mind

I shouldn't be blogging right now. I should be cleaning up all the legos and minuscule toys that are lurking in my family room (under couches, in corners, etc.) but I have a sinus headache and I'm not going to be able to be productive until the drugs I just took kick in. I don't have any specific place I want to go with this post.... just random things that I've been thinking about over the last few days....

Olympics: It's sad that I only watched the first half of the Olympics. After both of the 100 meter relay teams dropped their batons in their races, I just couldn't watch any more track and field. How embarrassing for our country? Reminds me of our Basketball team in Athens... too cocky... not enough practice. Anyone who has been on a track team and run relays could see that they hadn't practiced. Watching the slow-mo recaps made it painfully obvious they were "rookies". Again... sad and embarrassing. I was happy for the Jamaicans to do so well in the sprint races. They've worked hard and they earned some time in the spotlight.

I was happy about the following Olympic outcomes:
Women's Beach Volleyball - they were just plain awesome!
Men's Indoor Volleyball - I wanted them to win Gold just for their coach and the horrible tragedy with his inlaws at the very beginning of the games
Swimming - what can I say - I loved every race I watched, but Dara Torres and Michael Phelps are just plain awesome!
Gymnastics - watching Bella Corolli's reaction in the studios to the girl's routines was fantastic!
Just one question... why are we getting rid of Softball/Baseball and picking up BMX riding? Isn't that a sport for the X games?


Politics: I'm just not in love with anyone on the ballot thus far. I'm hearing a lot of comparisons of Barack Obama to JFK. Can anyone with more insight than me expound on that one? So far what I've gathered is that Obama is a great charismatic speech giver and he grand plans to "help" us all out, but reading between the lines, that means higher taxes and more government. A good friend of mine calls him a "socialist" and his wife a "marxist"... any thoughts? Oh.. and if I hear the word "change" one more time, I'm going to puke! How many politicians have promised to "change" Washington? Give me a break.....

Last night Eric heard that Romney was on the "short list" for the Republican VP slot... I'm trying not to get my hopes up. In the end, it will likely come down to voting against someone, not for someone....

Household: I love the concept of "Legos", but hate cleaning them up. The little pieces get EVERYWHERE... and they are so expensive, I feel guilty throwing stray legos away (even though I do it anyway).

Moreno (my dog) at my lunch today. I made myself a burger (I'm a sucker for Cheeseburgers) and left it on the kitchen table to go to the potty. When I came back, there was nothing left but the bottom bun. (I had to be gone less than one minute!) He knew he was in trouble when I looked at him and then sent him outside in the heat to think about what he'd done. It's only 90 degrees outside right now, so it's not even really a good punishment.

Kids: Ian got a D+ in reading on his progress report. 3rd grade is where they get their first "letter grades". When I questioned him about it, he said, "Mom, it's only the 4th week of school, what do you expect?!?" I probably shouldn't blog my response.....

Wednesdays are turning into a nightmarish day for me... first I have water aerobics, preschool for B, and an RS presidency meeting in the morning. In the afternoon - piano lessons for M, cub scouts for I, soccer games for T, and YM's for T and E. From 3:45 on... we aren't home until after 7:00 p.m. when T and E have gone off to mutual... when on earth am I supposed to feed everyone? Fast food won't even work so that we can all eat together. My only salvation today is that everything got cancelled except cubs. T had YM last night, no soccer game today because it's 7th grade game only, and piano was cancelled. Not sure how I'll get through next Wednesday though....

Brayden has discovered how to use the water dispenser on the front of the fridge... needless to say, I've been cleaning up water spills all day.

Megan is finally getting used to her new teacher this year, although she misses Mr. S from last year immensely. I hate to be a "tough love" kind of parent, but I'm kinda glad her 6th grade teacher is tough... she'll be completely ready for Jr. High next year.

Hmmm... it's too quiet downstairs. That's usually NOT a good sign...

Too Busy to Blog

We've had grandparents in town for the last 12 days and we've been having a blast!!! Here are some highlights of what's been keeping us busy:

manicures and pedicures....

making homemade chinese food....

taking naps with Batman and Scooby Doo....

making Tammy's famous Death by Chocolate cake...

lounging in the pool...

watching Taylor's soccer games...

trying to stay cool outside at 4:30 in the afternoon during said soccer games...

teaching the toddler poor beverage habits during the unbearably hot soccer games...

playing with ninja turtles....

playing RockBand and all manner of xbox 360 games...

painting the upstairs loft and hallway...

making more chocolate cake... (click here to see why chocolate cake is so important while grandparents are visiting):
playing "ghost"...

painting the master bedroom...

and swimming at the public pool...and tonight we have a Court of Honor for Scouts. I'll post pictures of that later this week... If I haven't frequented your blog in the last two weeks, now you know why... it will take me a few days to get back into my normal routine!

Too Much To Do...

I'm feeling very frazzled the last few days... so much going on at once! School got out on Wednesday, it was Brayden's birthday, plus Eric's been off work since Wednesday... I just can't seem to find time to get anything accomplished!

Thursday we went wakeboarding and I should have quit while I was ahead... I ended up pushing too hard and woke up Friday with a muscle spasm in my upper back that made it difficult to turn my neck or use my right arm. It's better now, but I'm still really sore.

Friday we got the water softener fixed and cleaned up some of the garage. We need to get it finished soon... once we get into mid June, it will be too hot to spend more than 5 minutes in the garage... even in the middle of the night. By the way, we got a really nice repairman, who fixed our softener for free. Parts were covered, but he was supposed to charge us for labor. I was really grateful to have my soft water back!

Friday night we watched the Lost season finale... WOW... WOW... and... WOW! I was estatic that Desmond and Penny were reunited. Sad about Jin and Michael, but I sensed it was coming. I'm so happy that I think I'm finally getting it... sort of. I was thrilled to find out that my "epiphany" a couple episodes back seems to be true. It finally dawned on me a couple episodes ago that the "end of the show" will not be about the survivors of the plane crash getting off the island... it will be about them getting back "to" the island (and saving the island from dangerous interests.... like Dharma and Whitmore). But I was wrong about the coffin... I was sure... I mean SURE... that Ben was in that coffin... not John Locke... and what's with this fake name he's using???? Does anyone understand the significance of that? And, the one thing that really blew my mind was when Kate dreamed about Claire visiting Aaron and telling Kate NOT to bring Aaron back to the Island... why??? And will Walt go back, too? Ah... many questions have been answered... but many remain and now even a few more have arisen.... how long until Season Five?????

Saturday, we went to the temple in the morning, then I took Megan to an Activity Days thing for the 11 year old girls... then we tried to get some things done around the house, but I ended up taking a nap while Eric went to the "cash cow" (aka scout shop). We ended up going out to dinner at YC's Mongollian Grill (my favorite place for Asian food because I can pass on the sesame oil) and seeing Indiana Jones. The food was great... the movie... well, not so great. I was really skeptical about this movie... I mean how long can Harrison Ford pull off this character successfully... he is getting old, you know! But, in the end that's not what disappointed me... the whole premise of the "treasure" was a JOKE! If you liked the movie, "Close Encounters".... and you think it would be fun if Indy met one of those aliens in his search for buried treasure, then you might really LOVE this movie! That's all I'm going to say about it... I was disappointed in the story... and even more disappointed that Harrison Ford didn't have the good sense to say... "this is a stupid story line... this isn't Indy... it's Close Encounters!"

Eric and Taylor leave for Scout Camp tomorrow morning at 3:30 a.m. I will not be up to send them off. Eric can only stay two days, so he is coming back Tuesday night. While he is gone, I plan to unbury our house from the sea of paperwork we've been drowning in for several weeks. Every flat surface of my house seems to have a pile of papers on it that need to be sorted, filed, shredded or recycled.... it's probably going to take me the whole two days to get through it, but I'm determined to do something productive while he's gone!

Back in Business

I got home safely today from my trip. I don't like flying and I especially don't like flying alone... I always go through the "what if" senario... "what if" my plane crashes and my kids are motherless and my husband is a widower ... all because I needed a "weekend away" with the girls... blah... blah... blah... guilt... guilt... guilt... plus I'm prone to motion sickness, which hit me hard the last 20 minutes of my flight home today. I thought I was going to be sick before we made it to the gate. Thank goodness I found a vending machine while I waited for my ride and bought a Sprite. That really helped settle my stomach a bit for the ride home. All in all, it was a great weekend away... but I'm so glad to be HOME!

We also have our computer up and running again... works fast and I'm really excited about it! If I could just keep my kids off it, I might actually get to use it!

More on my trip adventures tomorrow... I'm just too darn tired to do more than the bare minimum tonight... I never sleep well in hotel beds, so I'm expecting a great night's sleep tonight!

One last thing... to all the special women in my life -

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Sorry you didn't get a card or email or anything from me, but I still think about you all the same!

Sesquicentennial

I was going to post about something else today, but I realized that this will be my 150th post... so I felt it deserved some fanfare since I glossed right over my 100th post without even noticing! So prepare for torture... here's 150 things about me:

1. I was born in Northern California and it will ALWAYS be home.
2. I remember when Michael Jackson's album Thriller was released... if memory serves correct, I was in like 5th grade...
3. I loved Strawberry Shortcake (the doll) when I was a kid.
4. I had a rainbow bedroom set.
5. I also had a green "nature" bedroom set.
6. I got a waterbed one year for Christmas.
7. When I turned 16, my parents gave me my own phone line in my bedroom (this is pre-cell phone era...)
8. I'm allergic to fresh christmas trees.
9. Growing up, I had 4 cousins... 3 boys and a girl... now I have 8 cousins.... 3 more boys and 1 more girl
10. My birthday is in November and I started kindergarten at age 4... gasp!
11. I graduated from High School when I was 17 and started college in another state before I turned 18.
12. I took French in high school and Driver's Ed for free!
13. I ran track in 11th grade.
14. I was on Yearbook Staff in 12th grade.
15. I had early morning seminary all four years - started at 6:30 a.m.
16. I love mexican food - especially tacos and enchiladas
17. I love Broccoli Beef
18. I just found out I'm allergice to sesame, so now I'll have to make my own broccoli beef from scratch at home
19. I love to swim
20. In high school, I did stats for the girls Basketball team
21. I played Basketball and Volleyball for YW's
22. I rode my first "scary " roller coaster when I was 12 at Great America with our Mutual group
23. I hate free fall rides
24. I have an intense fear of falling
25. You couldn't pay me a million dollars to try skydiving or bungee jumping
26. I've been dying my hair for 12 years
27. I love to read
28. I hate washing dishes
29. I love to BBQ
30. I know how to tile
31. I also know how to install drywall...
32. And I also know how to install laminate flooring.
33. I hate yardwork
34. I love to organize things
35. I hate ironing - Eric irons all his own clothes
36. I'm only 5'3" but I wear size 7.5 shoes
37. My eyes change color between green and blue
38. I have a fake tooth
39. I hate to be late (but I always am anyway...)
40. I love camping
41. And hiking
42. And wakeboarding
43. And horseback riding
44. I've been to Maui twice
45. The only foreign countries I've been to are Canada and Mexico
46. I don't have a passport
47. I keep my toenails painted purple
48. I don't bother painting my fingernails
49. I like silver jewelry
50. I love Eddie Bauer
51. And the Gap
52. And Dress Barn
53. I had a roommate in college named Paysley
54. I will always call Ricks College ... Ricks College - no BYU-I for me...
55. I was a French major in school
56. I still dream of visiting France
57. I was Relief Society Pres in my college ward for 4 months until I got married
58. I worked at Kmart one summer during college
59. I worked at Wendy's in High School
60. I worked for "my mom" helping her with a huge paper route before Wendy's
61. My great great great Grandpa is John Taylor
62. I come from his 3rd wife
63. I met my husband at a blood drive
64. It was sponsored by the singles ward
65. We were engaged 4 months later
66. I was a sophmore in college, but still 18
67. We were married in Oakland, CA
68. We lived in Provo for 3 years
69. I worked as a typist for a title company in Orem
70. I became a notary public while on that job
71. I learned all about how to buy a house while on that job
72. We bought our first brand new car in Utah
73. It was a Dodge Neon
74. It was a stick shift (half way... whew... getting more random now....)
75. I have resided in 5 states - four in the Western US
76. I've had all four of my kids in different hospitals
77. Ian was born in the same hospital I was
78. Three of my 4 kids were born on Friday morning
79. Disneyland is my all time favorite vacation destination... in two weeks I get to go with my mom, my cousin and her mom.... NO kids!
80. I'm terrified of finding a scorpion in my yard...
81. I'm even more terrified of finding one in my house.
82. I hate all seafood (and am allergic to shellfish) cool!
83. I'm a claustrophobic sleeper (I can't be touching anyone to get a good night's sleep)
84. I don't like sleeping with out at least a sheet over me
85. I have one brother, who is 2.5 years younger than me
86. My favorite dessert is brownies (I must have the corner piece) with vanilla ice cream on top
87. I love Twix candy bars
88. I love tulips
89. I love taking pictures and can't wait for the day that I can buy a digital rebel
90. I love to scrapbook
91. I'm working on 5 books concurrently all the time
92. I love to eat out (probably because everyone gets what they want, including me! and no cleaning up afterwards)
93. I hate washing dishes, but I love having a clean kitchen
94. I love to plan and host parties
95. I hate being tickled, but I love to tickle my kids
96. I don't like taking baths
97. I love hot tubs
98. I love audio books
99. I love Lost, The Office and Eli Stone
100. I love to read books in series
101. One of my favorite movies of all time is the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice
102. If I had a celebrity crush, it would be Colin Firth
103. I want to visit all 6 islands in Hawaii - so far I've only been to one
104. I'm not a huge fan of ocean swimming
105. I'm TERRIFIED of sharks
106. I'm also terrified of snakes
107. I have a bad habit of putting my foot in my mouth
108. I love Christmas Music - I start playing it on Thanksgiving and keep it going through New Year's
109. I love playing RockBand
110. I can play the piano - just a little bit - and NOT at church
111. My favorite number is 8 - don't even know why
112. I still wonder what I'm going to do with my life when my kids are all grown up
113. I get emotional at the stupidest things - baseball games, track meets, commercials, etc.
114. I always tear up during the National Anthem - EVERY time
115. My sunglasses spend more time on the top of my head than in front of my eyes... they are my favorite hair accessory
116. I think I make friends easily
117. I like to work behind the scenes, I don't like to be in the spotlight
118. I wish I had more patience
119. I crack my knuckles too much
120. I must have more friends than I think if you are still here reading all this blabbing....
121. When I was a kid, I was very shy
122. My husband is very shy too
123. I love his sense of humor
124. I love his determination to finish a job even though it might take forever
125. I love his ability to fix things
126. I love his cooking
127. I love going on date nights
128. I love decorating my house
129. I am thankful for modern medicine
130. I hate having allergies and asthma
131. I am allergic to cats... good thing I'm not a cat lover (I dont' hate them either...)
132. I love my car - 2007 Suburban
133. I hate paying almost $100 to fill it up
134. I think I am a pretty good driver... I drive very defensively
135. Be careful about "cop bashing" around me... there are 3 cops in my family
136. I've only ever gotten one ticket, but I've never been pulled over
137. I've never read the Old Testament all the way through
138. I don't have a clue how to do Geneology... the research part
139. I have thick skin - it takes a lot to offend me
140. I take sarcasm too far sometimes
141. I think I'm losing my hearing... when people whisper to me in a crowded room, I can't hear them at all
142. My biggest regret from High School is not joining the Swim Team
143. I will never move my family to Utah
144. I fantasize about living somewhere where it snows
145. I love the mountains - especially the Sierras
146. I wish I was better at saving money
147. My biggest weakness in living the gospel is fasting
148. I'm terrified of being a gospel doctrine teacher
149. I've never been good at journal writing
150. I love blogging - it's such a fun way to keep in touch with friends and family and even better it keeps a log of my life and things the kids are doing

TA DA!!!