Tuesday, January 29, 2013

OH MY ACHING BACK!

Did I say I liked the snow? O.K. I still do but I am getting a bit tired of shoveling it. We had about 6 inches yesterday and now it is snowing again. At first they told us to expect 2-5 inches and now it has been revised to 4-7 inches and there is supposedly another storm right behind this one. Yikes!

Although, it is pretty to look at and as Grandma pointed out since there isn't as much wind here as in Indiana the snow sticks to the trees more and looks just beautiful! She had me take a picture of the trees behind the house this morning so you could see. It looks like we had them flocked! Lovely eh?

K. Everyone grab your snow shovels and come help! See you soon! ;)




Saturday, January 26, 2013

NIGHTMARES AND MONSTERS, OH MY!

So Rob and I have been having a little visitor in our bedroom in the middle of the night for several nights over the past couple weeks. Something about nightmares and monsters. I've let her curl up beside me for a few of those nights, on other nights I've let her fall asleep and then carried her back to her own bed. I did try at first to take her back to her room, turn on the lights and show her there were no monsters but she was having none of that. It was night-time, she was scared and I wasn't going to talk her out of it. I even tried having a prayer with her but she was just plain scared!

Last night when she showed up--Rob had hit his patience limit so I decided to let her camp out in Jonathon's room. That ended up being a good solution since Jono tells me he's scared on a fairly regular basis since his we moved big sis into her own room. Well, good and bad solution, I guess--because now that they can use the "I'm scared" card to get camping out privileges in each other's rooms it will probably be an every night request--at least for awhile. Then again--if it allows the parents more sleep--who really cares, eh?!  ;)

Friday, January 25, 2013

SAY GOODNIGHT WANKY

The weather was so much better today that I actually told someone it was fairly warm outside and then laughed when I realized I was considering warm to be 36 degrees. It's all relative, I guess. We've been so accustomed to the single digits and even a few nights in the negatives that 36 degrees feels almost balmy!

It was still a little bit icy this morning but by mid-day most of the ice had pretty well melted off the roads and sidewalks--at least where it had been sanded and salted. So, we could get about without breaking our necks!

Grandpa has been sore for a few days. He's got a hip that is bothering him a little more than usual. It seems like every once in a while that flares up. He did seem a little better today, though.

Bedtime was a big deal at our house tonight. I didn't even know it until I put Carly down. She went to bed without her "Wanky". That's what she calls her favorite blanket that she's had since she was a baby. Turns out she had asked Grandma to babysit overnight for her baby doll and she had put the baby doll in a home made crib (home made by Carly) and covered her with her Wanky. I asked her if she was sure she wanted to try sleeping without it-- (selfishly because I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night with her crying for her Wanky.) She assured me she was fine and that she really wanted her baby to have it to sleep with. WOW! This is huge! Just to check, I asked her if I could throw it away. She was very quick to tell me "No!" on that. Hee hee! Not that I would. It's one of those things I will probably save for her so she can treasure it later.

Well, nothing happening here. Move along folks. Lol! Night all. ;)


Thursday, January 24, 2013

I'LL TAKE MY ICE IN A GLASS, THANK YOU!

Wow, was the weather person ever off base here! We did not get light snow, we got a quarter of an inch of ice today. What a surprise! It has literally stopped traffic! We've had over 200 accidents reported so far and even got a robo-call from the city police tonight asking us to stay in our homes and off the roads for safety sake. That brought back memories of the late '70's ice storm in Indiana. It's not nearly as bad but it made me think of it when the police called.

I had to cancel a doctor appointment today because there was no sense being out needlessly on the roads when they were so terrible. Ice and fog are two of my least favorite things to drive on and in. It is still below freezing so I am not certain what tomorrow will bring ~ and I definitely am not counting on the weather people to tell us this time. I guess we will just watch and see. Luckily Rob is off tomorrow so none of us need to leave the house! Yay for that blessing!

Take care everyone and be safe!

SMART MORMONS

 This is an article a friend of mine found and it is titled SMART MORMONS. While it is not written by a member of our church the author has a pretty good grasp of our beliefs and I love the correlations he makes. So I just thought I would share. I hope you enjoy it!

                                                         SMART MORMONS

During the 2012 presidential campaign, that awesomely deep well of perpetual wisdom, Alec Baldwin, proclaimed that if Barack Obama were not black, his vote total would have been 20 percent higher.
People of real intelligence realize that the opposite was probably true: if he had been white, his vote total would have been 20 percent lower. The African-American voting bloc combined with enough whites suffering from liberal guilt guaranteed a higher vote total for Obama.

The truth of the matter is, if Mitt Romney had not been a Mormon, his vote total might very well have been significantly higher.

In fact, according to a Galup poll released in June of last year, while 4 percent of people said they would not vote for a black president, a full 22 percent said they would not vote for a Mormon. In fact, only atheists and gays ranked higher.

So Baldwin probably had it backwards, which he usually does, so that comes as no surprise.
What did come as a surprise to me is why people would have such negative views of Mormons. I have known lots of them in my life, and in most cases they have been hard-working, kind, generous, family-oriented people—just the kind of people this country used to value (and maybe that’s the problem right there.)

Mormons have intrigued me ever since Mike Huckabee back in 2007 claimed that Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers. With the recent election over, I decided to check out Mormons a bit more.
My hope in doing this was to explain to readers who Mormons are and whether or not 22 percent of the people were justified in opposing having a Mormon president.

But instead I’m going to share an intriguing bit of Mormon theology I learned that I think makes them perhaps the most politically wise human beings on the planet. Ironically, this story stems from that Huckabee quote about the relationship between Jesus and the devil, but the lesson to be learned is one that, regardless of our political or religious views, we would all be wise to consider.

So here’s what I learned: Mormons, unlike most other Christian sects, believe that all humans lived a life before mortality. They call this the pre-existence or pre-earth life. At birth a veil is placed over our minds so that we don’t remember it (you’ll see why in a minute).

In this pre-earth life, we were all in the presence of God as His spirit children. Jesus was there—the first-born of God’s spirit children, and a leader in the councils in Heaven. Lucifer was also there, and was another leader among the children of God. He was called a “son of the morning.”

At some point in this existence, the Father called all of His children together to explain how things worked. All of His children would have to leave His presence and come to earth for a period of testing. The goal was to see if we would live a righteous life even when we had to live by faith, as we would no longer be able to remember God or heaven (that’s the reason for the veil).

If we would live a righteous life, we would be given the opportunity to return and live with God forever. Otherwise we would forfeit that chance, because no unclean thing can live in God’s presence. However, God knew that we would all make mistakes, so he would provide a Savior for the world. This Savior would live a sinless life, and because of that, he would qualify to pay for the sins of the world through what would be called the “Atonement.” If people would sincerely repent of their sins, then the Atonement would essentially erase their sins, and they could still return and live with God. The Father called for volunteers to be this savior, and two stepped forward: Jesus and Lucifer.

Lucifer said that he would be the savior and he would force everybody to live righteously, thus guaranteeing that all of God’s spirit children would return to Him in heaven. Jesus said that He would follow the Father’s plan and allow God’s children their free agency. They could choose for themselves whether to live righteously and take advantage of the Atonement or whether to live in sin and forfeit the opportunity to return and live with God.

God rejected Lucifer’s plan, causing Lucifer to rebel and declare war on God. One-third of God’s spirit children joined Lucifer in this rebellion. In the end, the rebellion failed and Lucifer and his followers were cast out of heaven. They came to earth without bodies and now, continuing the war they started in heaven, they tempt men to do evil to one another and lose out on the chance to return to God.

PAY ATTENTION HERE; THIS IS THE GOOD PART

Now, any traditional Christians reading this will see similarities to their own belief system. Most traditional Christians believe that Lucifer lived in heaven as an angel, but then declared war on God and was cast out. However, the causes for that war are not necessarily clear in traditional Christian theology.
That is where Mormon theology is so intriguing. For Mormons, the greatest of all battles, the war in heaven, was fought over LIBERTY—or as they call it, “free agency.” Lucifer wanted to take it away, while God demanded that humans have it.

Although a Mormon might balk at my making comparisons between their religious beliefs and modern politics (and as I said earlier, every Mormon I’ve ever known was a very good person, so I apologize to any I offend), I see a direct correlation here. For a Mormon, the battle for liberty is not unique to this life; it is the core battle of the ages. Lucifer lost the war in heaven (he really thought he could beat God?), but the war continues on earth. So seeing the government become more and more tyrannical is not just a political concern; it’s a fundamental, eternal concern.

I’m inspired by this Mormon theological idea: God intended for humans to be free to make our own choices and live with the consequences of those choices. The Founding Fathers of this country said essentially the same thing in the Declaration of Independence:

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

My study of Mormonism has not only given me newfound respect for this people and their religion; it has also made me evaluate my own attitude towards the liberty that seems to be slipping through all of our fingers. Is this just something that is nice to have, and for which I thank the Founding Fathers? Or is it really something that is endowed by God, and that He expects me to fight for. According to Mormon theology, I already fought for this once. The fact that I’m here says that I was on God’s side in the war in heaven, and fought for liberty.

A Mormon might ask, why should any of us be less willing to fight for it here than we were there?


By Mike Jensen
Mike Jensen is a freelance writer living in Colorado. He received his M.A. in Professional Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he wrote his first book, Alaska’s Wilderness Highway. He has since published Skier’s Guide to Utah along with humor, travel, and political articles for various magazines and newspapers. He is married with five sons, and spends his free time at a remote cabin in the Colorado Rockies.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

A JUMBLE OF THOUGHTS

We are in for another storm tonight. At least that is what the weather people say. They tell us we are getting 1-3 inches. I like snow. I can't even say I'm tired of it yet. I actually hope it warms up enough to snow because I'm pretty sure it's too darn cold to snow right now. I do wish it wasn't so slick to walk and drive on and that it wasn't so hard to move off driveways and sidewalks. Other than that, I think it's awfully pretty to look at and fun to play in.

I've always loved having a change of seasons though. I'd get pretty bored if it were the same weather all the time. Although, if I had to pick one season to stay in it would be Spring. I love the re-birth of everything~leaves on trees, blades of grass coming up again, flowers blooming in a rainbow of colors! I love that it is warm, not blazingly hot. I even love the occasional rain storms. I don't usually get caught up talking about the weather but I actually am grateful for the change of seasons.

Today I let the kids have a playdate with a new friend named Mitaya. She came over for a few hours and had lunch with them. They had a terrific time. Mitaya was terrified of dogs and I didn't know that until she met them. The dogs got to have a nice long nap in my room while she was here which I don't think they minded much. They do like their afternoon naps!

Tonight I went to a jewelry party as a favor to a friend. I am not much for "sales" parties and if you know me very well you know I am not much for jewelry. It's not that I don't wear jewelry. I am not one to spend much on jewelry. My philosophy is why spend good money on the real stuff when the fake stuff usually looks just like the real stuff--at least for the most part. Anyway, I went to be a warm body and a good sport.

I actually had a friend years ago whose husband was a jewelry salesman and she used to bring several of us pieces of jewelry. She told us the mark up on jewelry is ridiculous~that they make SO MUCH MONEY on it. Now whether that is still true or not, I don't know. I just know that no one ever makes very much on me. If they do on you~more power to you!

Have a terrific Thursday! Hope you are enjoying your weather~whatever it is! ;)

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!

My cousin Bill's 57th birthday was today. He wasn't here to celebrate it. He died eight years ago of cancer much, much too young. We lost his mom, my mom's sister (and my Aunt Marcia) at the same age. Just eight months ago we also lost my cousin Ned (Bill's younger brother) to complications of surgery for cancer as well. We sure miss all of them and only hope they are having a wonderful reunion with all those we have loved and lost. Happy Birthday Bill. If we can't have a party for you here, hope you got one there! Sure love you! 

I GUESS IT'S THAT TIME . . .

You know, the time when your child is about to hit one of those "milestone" ages and you start hearing that magical little song in your head "Turn around and she's two, turn around an she's four, Turn around and she's a young girl going out of the door." It must be that time because it's happening to me ALL THE TIME now!

Carly is seriously about to turn 5 and I can hardly wrap my mind around it! She is just nine months old in the photos below. I just found these and don't know if I'd ever seen them before or not, but I LOVE them! My friend Lori took them after Carly's sealing. I think they are so precious and I am so grateful to have them! (Thank you Lori!)

If you can't tell, I am the HAPPIEST MOMMA IN THE WORLD HERE! I am truly, truly blessed and grateful to have all my kids and my wonderful husband! I waited a very long time for all of them and they are such blessings to me! Still~my babies are growing up much too fast! I love you Carly!

Carly and Mamma~such a happy day!



Mamma kisses for her baby girl

Loving and Kissing

Carly and Momma ~deep in thought

Sunday, January 20, 2013

THE LIST

In less than a month my baby girl is going to turn five. I can hardly believe that five years have slipped by so quickly. It really does almost seem like yesterday I was holding her for the first time. She is so excited to turn five she has a new idea nearly every day for her year five gala. She wants me to throw a surprise party for her. In fact, she wants a surprise party so much she tried to make me promise I would do it. I am planning on it but I cleverly avoided promising by telling her if I promised to throw a surprise party for her it would no longer be a surprise! That confused her at first but I finally got her to stop bugging me about it. ;)

Seriously though, her new ideas turn into a new list of to-do's for me--my first instructions were a long list of friends I needed to invite to the party. On Friday she asked me to get a pinata for her party. Tonight as I was going to bed, she told me she would really like to have her party at Chuck E. Cheese's. Can't wait for tomorrow's new and exciting ideas and instructions.

I just keep giving her the "We'll have to see" answer on everything. The "I'll put it on the list" answer stopped working really well when she asked to see the list and then wanted me to read the list back to her. I would have been fine had she not asked me to read the list back to her! I mean, I could have pulled it off-she still thinks scribbled lines are words! I couldn''t begin to remember every toy on every commercial she'd ever told me she wanted. It worked really well for awhile but I got nailed.

At least I learned my lesson. I'm doing the same thing with Jono now but I'm going to memorize five or six of the things he tells me to put on the list so I won't get in trouble when he finally corners me! Lol!




Saturday, January 19, 2013

WOODPECKER - THE SEQUEL

Today we went a-visitin'. We had lots of things to do in Provo so we made our way there this afternoon, picked up our baby girl (our oldest one-the college student) and started making the rounds. We went to see Rob's mom, dropped some things by Aunt Susan's, and another friend's house and then visited with some other dear friends.

As you can imagine, the little ones were so happy to see their big sis--and so sad to leave her at the end. It's always so emotional for them. They miss her so much. She is in the second week of her semester and seems to be doing really well.

We did sneak a break for dinner in the middle of all our visiting and took Julie to Cafe Rio, one of our favorite restaurants. That means I broke my diet, but hopefully, I can get back on it tomorrow. I've been really doing well so I don't want to blow it too badly!

Grandma made some molasses cookies today. Thankfully, I am not tempted in the slightest by molasses cookies. I was not raised on molasses anything. So, it's not a flavor I enjoy. The kids love them, though. Jono ate 3 of them before he went to bed and Carly had 2.

The sun was out today so it felt warmer even though it was still only around 20 degrees. When we got back home tonight, our woodpecker was back. We haven't seen her since the first night I mentioned her about a week ago. We decided not to put the light back up to warm her since we think it may have over-warmed her and chased her away last time. Plus, it got down to -2 that night and it's a blazing 16 degrees here tonight so we think she will be just fine! Lol! I guess we will see in the morning!

Night all.



Friday, January 18, 2013

WE'RE HAVING A HEATWAVE~A TROPICAL HEATWAVE!

Sorry it's been a couple days. Rob was gone for a few days and that meant I was wrestling mugwumps by myself which is never an easy job! Well, I say by myself but Grandma and Grandpa helped, too. It still wasn't easy for any of us! For some reason, they respond best to good old Dad's voice. (Pretty sure I was the same as a kid, too so I can't really fault them all that much!)

Today was a catch-up day. We caught up on sleep, got a few things done around the house that have needed done and then went out got hair mine, Rob's and Jono's hair cut.

We had a massive warm-up today. The temperature doubled. It went from 9 degrees yesterday to 18 today. Lol! We're having a heatwave! Bring your suntan lotion and C'mon over! Hahaha! Night all!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

HISTORY IS SO INTERESTING

I did not know this until my sister sent it to me. I don't know that I'd ever heard this account before now but it gives some insight, at least to me, of why the Second Amendment is so important. Check it out:

http://voxvocispublicus.homestead.com/Battle-of-Athens.html

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT . . .

I recommitted to my diet today . . . and it took every ounce of willpower I had to stick to it. I've restarted it four times in the last week alone. I wouldn't worry about it so much but my clothes feel tight and I really don't want to go up a size. It's not like I want to lose a huge amount of weight; I just want to lose the ten pounds I have put on (and keep fighting with) and keep it off. I think that is a pretty reasonable goal.

Anyway, I'd made it through the morning without cheating, gotten into my exercise clothes, put the kids down for a nap and was heading for the treadmill when the doorbell rang and there stood a darned girl scout selling girl-scout cookies! I've lived here for nearly 8 years and have NEVER seen a real, live girl scout on my porch! What are the odds? I mean seriously! I'll tell you that girl doesn't know how lucky she was that she wasn't carrying any cookies on her today! Lol! It really is a good thing those cookies don't arrive in the state until March! Hopefully by then I will be svelte enough to consume the dozen boxes I ordered! That's right, she hit the mother lode! She walked right into the home of a dieting, sugar-deprived woman in her fifties and got one sweet order! Well, at least you know now where that ten pounds came from and why I need to get it off! Hahaha!

P.S. Don't bother me in March. I will either be in the middle of my sugar feast or my sugar coma! Lol!

RUNNING ON EMPTY . . .

Well, our bird was gone this morning so she apparently was warm enough to fly. The kids were pretty sad to have lost their new pet but I'm pretty sure I convinced them it was a good thing she was able to be gone compared to the alternative of freezing to death. Although, I didn't put it to them quite that starkly.

I ended up taking the kids to church by myself yesterday because Rob got called out at the last minute. That was quite the experience. Jonathon isn't used to a three hour block of church meetings since he hasn't gone with us regularly in the past because of his health. This is the first time we are trying to take him in more than a year. He's three now--and people often remind me that "if you think two was bad wait till he turns three."  Well, it's true! It's worse!
And of course, I had to teach this week so I couldn't keep much of an eye on him in his Sunday School class. When checked in after I finished teaching the comment I kept getting from his teachers and leaders when I asked if he was being good was "Wow, he is really fast!" Oh great, he's been practicing his track moves on them--in Sunday school! (My little boy is the reason I can still run fast in my fifties--and yes, I can still catch him!) 

The great thing is they have candy-bribery system figured out that works fairly well with the toddler classes so I think they may figure out a way to hang on to him without having to run after him first to do it. There's that and the fact that his dad and I are usually there to check up more closely on him. I only teach every three weeks and Rob is only on call once a month so he's going to have to behave MOST of the time--OR ELSE! You know--that big scary "OR ELSE" that none of us ever wanted to know about. Lol!

Well, hopefully, we can slow this little guy down and even get him to stay in his class the next time he goes! Wish us all luck. We will probably need it! :)




Sunday, January 13, 2013

BLESS THE BEASTS AND THE CHILDREN.

Late this afternoon Carly noticed we had a large feathered friend who had taken sanctuary under the eaves of our front porch. It has been very cold and has now gotten as low as two degrees so I think a lot of the birds and outdoor animals are having a tough time of it. It could get as low as negative one tonight. We've never had a visitor like this before--at least not one we've noticed.

Megan came over after dinner and felt so bad for it she was determined to box it up and take it home for the night. As I mentioned it's a large bird--we initially thought maybe it was a falcon-- and no one except Megan thought her taking it home was a good idea. Megan has lots of allergies, let alone the worries over the types of germs or disease the bird might be carrying. We didn't know if it was sick or hurt. We couldn't see the bird's head or beak--it was keeping it tucked into it's breast so all we could see was the back and tail really. Carly and Megan worried about it all night.

Finally, Rob hooked up a construction lamp and put it out there to give the bird some warmth and I put some sunflower seeds out for it to eat. After about 20 minutes with the lamp on it, the bird moved and we could see her face and beak. It was a woodpecker! None of us thought of that. Anyway, she shifted off to a different side of the eave--staying near the warmth but not directly in the path of it. We have checked several times since and she is still there. Poor birds--we have over a foot of snow on the ground and near zero temperatures. Food, water and heat are all scarce.

I really feel for all the creatures that are out in this awful weather. We have been seeing tons of birds flying from tree to tree trying to stay warm. This is our first close-up-warm up, though! Hopefully, it turns out well. Bless the beasts and the children!

Thursday, January 10, 2013

SNOW THANK YOU . . .

Well, it started snowing here at 3:00 p.m. today and it's almost midnight now and it hasn't stopped since it started. It has been coming down really hard almost the whole time. I think we probably have between 5 and 6 inches right now. We are in the middle of a Winter Storm Warning and the forecast tells us to expect up to 12 inches before Saturday is over. It has been a long time since we got hit this hard.

Grandma and Grandpa both got out this morning and did some running around. Grandpa got a haircut and Grandma went to the chiropractor. They got a few other things done and got home just before the storm started. I had almost begun to think it passed us by since the morning went so smoothly. Then all of the sudden I looked out into a wall of white!

So, we all stayed in tonight and watched movies and made some treats. Rob is on-call but luckily he didn't get called out. That is until his phone went off just a few seconds ago. Hopefully, he can handle it by phone and not have to get out in this mess. It's supposed to get down to eight degrees tonight, too. Pretty darn cold.

Well, that's what is going on here. What's going on in your neighborhood? ;)

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

OH, NOW I GET IT!

Seriously, I have understood all along we have a real problem but this helps put it in perspective in a way nothing else has. Please forgive the French~had I written it, I would have used milder language. :)



FOOD FOR THOUGHT

One of my friends has a dialogue page he where he invites others input on different topics each day. Some days the topics are pretty dicey and can get tempers boiling. Other days they make people dig deep and stretch their thinking. Yesterday, my friend put up a quote that while it didn't get as much discussion as some of his other topics, got my attention and has stuck with me. Here is the quote:

"What if all you had today was what you thanked your Heavenly Father for last night?" 
                                                                                                                                 - Ted Dymock

For some reason that really struck a chord in me. I've listened to talks about giving thanks in our prayers--and I do give thanks in mine but probably not to the degree I should. Generally, I spend more time asking for blessings of health and protection for my loved ones. And we have been commanded to pray for "every needful thing" but it is also a good reminder to me that we have also been told to "give thanks in all things."

I guess what I am trying to say tonight is how grateful I am for all the blessings the Lord has given me. I am especially grateful for a friend who made me conscious of a need to thank my Father in Heaven daily and specifically for the beautiful gifts of home, family, freedom, employment, plenty and so many other amazing gifts all around me. 

God bless.



Sunday, January 6, 2013

JUST A FEW THINGS!

Well, we did it. We went to church as a family today and it was really nice. Jono even went to his own class and as far as I knew did pretty well. Although, he told Grandma when she asked if he was a good boy "No, I was not." Actually, his teachers told me he was a good boy, but Carly told me that in opening exercises (the first twenty minutes where all ages of kids sing together before going to their own class) Jono got up and went up to the microphone. I asked her what he did and she told me someone's father went and got him. So, it sounds like the crisis was averted before a new "Emcee" was born. Yah, that is all Jono needs is a working microphone! ;)

When we got home Sarah's family was heading back from Disneyland and landing in SLC so they stopped by for a short visit before heading home. It was nice to visit with them and hear about their trip. They had a great time.

Rob got some more family pictures hung tonight. Our home is feeling more put together and I really like it.
We still have several walls to go but we are making such progress. Yay! Oh and one fun thing-- we found one place we could put up a painting of the Little Falls that Irene Sanders painted for my Grandparents years ago. It used to hang in my parents front room and now it is going to hang in ours. I love it!

Saturday, January 5, 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO US!

We spent the day saying goodbye to Christmas 2012. Yes, it's true, some of us still had our Christmas tree and decorations up this late. Jonathon teared up and pouted when we took the train down. I guess he thought it was going to be a permanent fixture. No wonder he's been confused when he has asks for train candy and I keep telling him it all got put in the stockings on Christmas Eve. I guess he thinks it should have been refilled by now. Duh, Mom! Lol!

Our other big project has been to frame and put pictures on our walls. We have had a few things up on the walls but most of the pictures we've had taken over the years have either sat in boxes or in frames and never made it to the walls. So, Rob and I have been busy working on that the last couple of weeks and we are really making some headway. It is starting to look really nice around here.

The weather has turned bitter cold. We haven't wanted to wander outside much at all--only for absolute necessities. We still have snow on the ground from about a week ago and it's not going anywhere anytime soon with this cold snap hanging around.

We actually get to officially take Jonathon to church tomorrow. He won't be in the nursery class where they are playing with germs, oops, I mean toys--and so we and his doctors feel he might have a better chance of staying healthy. He is finally in an old enough class that they just sit in chairs and listen to the teacher. Yay! I guess they also sit in a group and sing songs, too. But either way, they are not passing around germy toys! Say a prayer for us that this works will you--we've been going to church in shifts for way too long! Hopefully, this will be one of the Happy New Year gifts to ourselves--that we can attend church together on Sunday. So, Happy New Year to us--and Happy New Year to You, too! :)

Friday, January 4, 2013

MY BIG BATTLE

You know your 4 year old is addicted to cartoons when she asks why you don't have a television on your bathroom wall ~ and is serious. Holy cow! I am not sure why she has latched on to cartoons specifically but she likes them better than movies--I mean animated kid movies.

I've got to get her back into a pre-school - or gymnastics or find something she can do during the winter months. Either that or I have to be a RMM=Really Motivated Mommy and come up with lots of activities to take the place of that television so she won't even think about it. It's a battle every day. And it's not like we don't already have a ton of  learning and developmental books and toys. I guess I am just going to have to be more willing to fight the battle.

Any good suggestions from Moms out there who have gone through this or are in the process of going through the same thing would be much appreciated. 

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

FAMILIES ARE FOREVER

I got an early morning text from my sister Sarah this morning telling me some very sad news. One of our friends, Debbie (Sparks) Hancock, from home lost her father, Jim, unexpectedly during the night last night. Sarah and I are both so sad for Debbie and her family. We spent a lot of time together in our teen years and after with Debbie and her family and know how close they were. It's never easy to lose someone you love but it's so much harder when their death is unexpected.

We love you Debbie and are thinking of you and keeping you in our prayers. Please know we are here for you if you need us.

It is times like this that I really want to share my strong conviction that we can be with our families forever. I believe that is part of God's plan for us. I believe it is one of the main reasons our Savior laid down his life for us so we could have the opportunity to live again. We have a wonderfully loving Father in Heaven who has a plan for us if we live worthy to return to him. We are his children and he loves us and wants us to come home to him. I know with all my heart that Debbie will see her Dad again.

God is real and he loves us very much and wants us to find our way home to him. 






Tuesday, January 1, 2013

YOU WANT WHAT? LOL!

I just went in to put Carly to bed, a nightly ritual that includes tucking her in and turning on her music and sound machine only to find her all grown up ~ sort of. When I walked in thinking I would find my four year old baby girl ready to be sweetly put to bed I was instead met by a young lady who had already tucked herself in, turned her music and sound machine on and who in a determined voice told me "I can do it myself Mom!" I was a little taken aback because just before she went downstairs she mentioned she wanted me to swing her around before I put her in bed like I'd been doing--so I truly expected my four year old. Silly me. Somehow, she'd grown up a little going down those stairs! Lol!

I soldiered on and decided to just put her to bed like normal if she would let me. I said, "Well, what if Mommy isn't ready to let you do it yourself? She said, "I want to put myself to bed all by myself like Julie does. I'm a big girl." "Yes, you are", I said. "But Julie was quite a bit bigger than you when she started putting herself to bed so I'm going to just keep helping for awhile." She gave in at that point and let me tuck her in and kiss her goodnight.

I turned out the light and went to tell my Mom and Dad what had just happened. I couldn't believe how precocious she was becoming. Anyway, we had a good laugh and I walked out of their door and heard Carly crying in her room so I walked in her room and asked what was wrong? She only said one word. "Wanky!" That's what she calls the blanky she's had since her first few months of life and hasn't been willing to part with yet and will not sleep without. Lol! I said, "Carly, I'm pretty sure Julie doesn't sleep with a wanky--and I know for sure she isn't crying about it." All she said was, "I WANT IT!" Hahaha! So of course, I let her be four and got it for her. Hee, hee, hee!