It's Done!!

It's official. My back yard is fenced in once again. After losing a huge chunk of our fence to winter storms, my very handy husband and our neighbor have succeeded in getting it all repaired and replaced. No more stray dogs, no more bratty neighbor kids, no more unwelcomed visitors in my back yard. It took a while because we had to work around weather (pouring cement in the rain doesn't work) and schedules (8:00 PM in the dark doesn't work either), but it's done now. And it looks great! Scott and Randy did a fantastic job; better than the original builders in fact. I think I'm really lucky to have a husband who is able to do these kinds of repairs. They did it for about 5% of the estimate we got when we looked into having it fixed by a contractor. Well done, gentlemen!!

Sunday Post

Today may have been one of my favorite sacrament meetings ever. Instead of the usual speakers you'd expect to hear, the meeting was opened up to the congregation, sort of like a testimony meeting, but instead of bearing our testimonies, we could request to sing a particular verse of any hymn in the hymn book. Most people would give a short explanation of why they chose that hymn or what it meant to them before we sang it, so it became a meeting filled with testimony and a very strong spirit. There is so much truth and love in the hymns, and being able to sing so many of them was a really beautiful experience. It was a little surprising to me what was chosen. When one sister asked to sing the third verse of If You Could Hie To Kolob, I was really surprised. I didn't think anyone but the Sauters knew that hymn! It was really a very special spirit in that room, and I am so grateful I was there today to experience it. In case you're wondering, I did go up and ask for a particular hymn. It was really tough for me to pick just one hymn. There are so many hymns that I love and wanted to sing. For most of the meeting I was leaning towards Lead Kindly Light, but couldn't decide on one verse over another. Ultimately I chose the 4th verse of hymn #86; How Great Thou Art. If I were ever required to choose just one verse of one hymn that was truly my favorite, this is it.

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,

And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.

Then I shall bow in humble adoration

And there proclaim "My God, how great thou art."

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Green Thumb wanna be

The Prophet said to plant a garden.

Oh won't you plant a garden too,

and share the many joys

a garden brings in health and love

to happy girls and boys!

My "playgroup" on Thursday was at my house. It was a beautiful day so we worked outside. One of the things we did was to clear out the area I used for a garden last year. I hadn't touched it at all since last year, so it was pretty overrun with weeds. But we got it all cleared out! It's a bit late in the season to be planting seeds, so I bought a few actual plants to transplant into my newly cleared garden. I'm kind of excited at the prospects. If it all goes well, I'll have zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant and watermelon! I hope they all survive the transplant process and give me some decent results. If so, next year I'm clearing out an even larger area and adding onions, peas and cantelope to my garden. I hate the work of the garden, specifically the weeding, but I sure love having home grown fruits and vegetables to eat. They just taste better. And the price of produce has gotten so high, I think a little work is worth the effort. Anyone know what it takes to grow jicama? And I'm thinking about asking Scott how he feels about planting apple trees...

Side Effects

Ok, I've been on this new medication for a few days now and I'm not sure I'm noticing any change as far as the real reason I'm taking it, but I'm definitely noticing some of the side effects. I'm having occasional dizzy spells. They're not major, but they come from time to time. Also, I'm dried out. Dry mouth hardly covers how it feels. If I don't have a glass of water by me, I'm not happy. And I'm hungry! I see why they use this to treat eating disorders. This is not a good medication for someone trying to lose weight. I can't seem to stop eating. I'm as bad as my kids; almost the minute I'm done eating a meal, I'm wondering what I'm going to have for a snack. I am definitely not enjoying this particular side effect. The good news is I do seem to be sleeping a bit better. In fact, every day seems a little better than the last as far as my sleeping goes. I guess I'll give it a few more days and see how I feel then.

Huh...

After quite a bit of prodding from Scott, I finally went in to see my doctor about my insomnia. I'm not quite sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. After talking about my symptoms and what I've done to help (like not reading in bed, giving up caffeine, and exercising regularly), she decided I didn't need a sleep aid. Instead she prescribed an antidepressant. I can't decide how I feel about this. I'm not sure I would have said I'm depressed. But she may be right; this may be the elephant in the room I've been ignoring. At this point I'm just not sure what to think. It's the same antidepressant I was on for a month in college, so I know I won't have any weird side effects, and I know it'll help me sleep. I guess there's just such a big difference between taking an occasional sleep aid and being on a daily dose of antidepressants that I'm having a hard time adjusting to it. This isn't what I expected to happen.

The one part of this that made me laugh was reading what else this medicine is used for. Here are a couple highlights;
bedwetting in children
migraine headaches
chronic pain
eating disorders
OCD
panic attacks
premature ejaculation

Sounds like just what I need! :P

Lesson Time!

Becca was in charge of the lesson for FHE last night. I asked her several times during the week when she wanted to work on her lesson, and she told me every time that she didn't need my help. She was sure she wanted to do it herself. She also kept telling me it was going to be "so cool, Mom." Being the independent girl she is, I decided for once I'd let her do it herself. Maybe I should have pushed her a bit harder. Our lesson was on...

...toilet paper. Yep, an entire lesson on toilet paper. Somehow she missed that the lessons are supposed to be spiritual in nature. But she'd planned her lesson, so we let her do it. When she went over the different ways of wiping your bottom (demonstrating over her pants), I couldn't help myself. I laughed. A lot. She'd actually put some thought into her lesson. We also talked about other uses for toilet paper (like wiping noses and cleaning mirrors), as well as things not to do with it (like playing with it, leaving it around the house, and cleaning trees with it). Little Becca did her very first solo lesson, and she was as proud as can be of herself. :) It's times like these that make me LOVE being a Mom.

Check it out!

Since I'm one who rarely looks at what other people have linked to their blogs, I'm sure none of you look at mine either. There's a real gem out there I want to make you all aware of. My friend Deborah has a blog all about the amazing food she cooks. When we hear Deb is bringing food to any gathering we have, we all start to cheer and drool. She's amazing. Y'all should check out her blog, and tell your friends. Everyone should have the goodness of Deborah, but since you can't have her (lucky me), you can at least read her blog and try out her recipes. I particularly recommend her trifle and spinach artichoke dip. Oh, and you have to try the cheesecake fruit dip. It's heaven! :)

Let's all share the goodness that is Deborah!

http://deborahsw.blogspot.com/

Mothers Day

As with my birthday, my family did more for me this Mothers Day than they've done before. I chalk it up to my kids being older and more involved.

My morning started at about 7:30 with Tyler plopping a bowl on my tummy and telling me I get breakfast in bed. He decided I should have a bowl of cereal so he took the crumbs from the bottom of the bag of shredded wheat and poured in my (expired) milk. My kids drink 2% milk, but I drink nonfat, so he was being so good by using my milk. He had no idea it was sour. It was such a sweet gesture.

Scott then went downstairs and let the kids know Mommy wanted to sleep in a little bit, so they needed to be quiet and leave me alone. They did. About 9:00 they came up with my second breakfast in bed; peanut butter toast and pineapple juice. It was very good. They also came up with gifts; a beautiful, bright spring bouquet of flowers, a cute balloon, some sugar free candy, and a poem and recipe holder Rachel made at school. It was all very wonderful.

At church, instead of the usual mums or pansies we're given, our ward gave out pies. Yes, pies. Full size 9 inch apple pies. I was impressed.

When we got home from church, I got to sit on the couch and watch a movie with my kids while Scott made dinner. He did a great job of it, and he did a full on dinner. He made a roast, baked potatoes with all the fixings, and asparagus. It was all delicious. And with the apple pie, dessert was covered! Of course, you can't eat pie without ice cream, so we pulled out my new ice cream maker I got from Mom for my birthday and made homemade ice cream to go with it!

It was a very nice Mothers Day for me. My family really made sure I felt loved and appreciated.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yes, the candles say 21, but really I'm 31 today. Between Activity Days, gymnastics, and my normal busy day I'm not sure we have time to celebrate today, but it is my birthday. So happy birthday to me!

A Mommy First

Today was the first time I've ever had to take one of my children into the emergency room. Rachel was riding her bike and fell down, splitting her chin open. It required 4 stitches. (The stitches are blue, something she's not happy about as blue is a BOY color.) She was incredibly brave through it, even though she said she was sure she wasn't that brave. She did NOT want to go in, and was sure stitches just weren't for her, thank you very much. She was actually fine when we could get her distracted. She played with a little magnetic table with sand and frogs for quite a while in the waiting room, and even worked a word search with me. It was only when a medical professional came near her that she got scared. When it was just us, she was happy and laughing and cheerful as can be! I did take a couple pictures with my cell phone (who would think to bring their real camera to the ER?), but I'm just too tired to deal with that tonight. I'll try to get them up tomorrow so you can see the injury. It wasn't pretty.
It was a long evening, but she's fine, and the stitches will come out in about 5 days. Hopefully the scar isn't too bad! Overall, my first ER trip probably could have been a lot worse. And she was wearing her helmet which I'm sure saved her from a worse injury.

Besides the injury to Rachel, the worst part of this was the 5 hours I lost in preparing my talk for church tomorrow! That's why I'm still up at 2:00 in the morning. But my talk is printing as I type. Now I just have to stay awake long enough to give it! Wish me luck.

Here are the pics:

My Not Date Night

Last night was supposed to be date night with Scott. We'd been planning it for a while. The original idea was miniature golf, but with my arm being the way it is, that was obviously out. We ultimately decided on dinner and a movie. But I had a bunch of girlfriends doing a movie night that I was supposed to be a part of, so we decided we'd stop by that before we went out. I talk about these girls all the time, but Scott doesn't really know them and he wanted to be able to put faces to names. Or so he said.

I walked in to find not movie night, but a surprise birthday party for ME! I was SHOCKED. I had no idea. And it wasn't just a party with the girls, they invited people from all areas of my life, getting them all together in one place. It was an amazing night. The food was excellent, the company even better, and the activities of the night were hilarious. I had an amazing time. But most importantly, I feel loved and appreciated by an incredible group of people. This is a huge change from a year ago where I didn't really have any friends to invite to a birthday party. I have amazing friends. And I am incredibly touched by all the effort and love that went into planning last night. My birthday is still a few days away, but already this is the best birthday I've ever had.

I don't get it.

I'm curious about something. When did women become PROUD of being irrational and difficult? When did that become something admirable? I have a friend who posted something about women and the "funny" things they do, like when they say "fine" it means they're right, they just want you to shut up and "that's OK" means she's just still thinking about what your punishment is going to be. There were several things on this list, all of which were negative female stereotypes. Within minutes of her posting it, three more female friends posted it as well. They think it's funny. Perhaps my discomfort and lack of sleep are restricting my sense of humor, but I didn't find it funny. I found it embarrassing, mostly for the women who take pride in being that kind of woman. I recognize women in general have their shortcomings, and I probably more than most. But instead of doing something to make that better, most women I know seem to enjoy being able to get away with their irrational and silly behavior because "it's what women do." I don't understand taking pride in shortcomings. I don't understand celebrating irrationalities. If we as women enjoy and promote our faults, how will we ever improve? If we laugh at our failings, who does that help? And what are we teaching the next generation of girls if we applaud this kind of behavior? Perhaps I'm ranting over nothing and I need to lighten up. I just don't understand celebrating such negative behavior.

OK, rant over. :)

Ouch

Friday night I started having a slight ache in my right arm. It wasn't bad, just a twinge when I'd reach behind me. It was still around on Saturday, but it still was just an occasional twinge of pain. But it's been steadily growing. I now have a pretty constant ache from my elbow almost up to my shoulder with some pretty painful shoots going through it when I try to do simple things like brush my hair or get dressed or even little things like opening my refrigerator or trying to lift something. I don't even have to do anything to feel it, I just have to move my arm around. I couldn't sleep much last night because there wasn't a position I could lay in that didn't cause my arm to ache. I hate my doctor and am trying to avoid going in to see her, but I feel like I'm slowly losing the use of my arm. Any thoughts? What could be causing it and what can I do about it?

UPDATE:
The pain got to the point of being debilitating, so I sucked it up and went to my doctor. When I can't even wash my hair or put on deodorant without crying out in pain, it's time to do something. I can do a lot left handed, but I can't do everything and my right arm was almost useless. Fortunately for me MY doctor wasn't available for 2 weeks, so I saw someone else. She was fantastic. After a very thorough exam, she determined I have multiple micro tears all along my tricep muscle. It makes using it at all very painful. You have to use your tricep in almost everything you do with your arm, but using it causes more tears and prevents the old ones from healing. So I'll have my arm in a sling off and on for the next week and I got some pretty nice pain medication to get me through until it heals. It's a relief to know it's something so simple, and as soon as my ibuprofen kicks in, I'm sure I'll be much happier. And I have Vicodin for night time so I may actually get to sleep tonight!

Welcome Connor!

Connor James Carnegie was born yesterday at about 5:30 pm, weighing in at a nice 7 pounds 11 ounces and measuring a bit over 20 inches long. He is the first child for his very excited parents. We are all thrilled to welcome a new member to the family! And my kids are so happy to have a brand new cousin, even if it is another boy.

Is it a play group or a work group?

I was invited to join a rather interesting (for lack of a better term) play group this week. There are only 4 women in the group at a time, and we get together once a week, alternating houses. The idea is to get women with similar aged children so they can play together, but while the kids play, the women work. Today we met at Heather's house. We finished painting her kitchen, washed windows, cleaned her refrigerator, swept floors, vacuumed, and hung a painting. And we were only there for 2 hours. It's amazing how much faster everything goes with help, and there were only three of us there today! (One of them has a very sick mother.) And I was surprised at how much fun it could be to clean out someone else's refrigerator. It doesn't seem quite so much like work when you get to do it with great people working along side you. The group is limited to four so that we each get the group at our house once a month to help with whatever it is we need done. You only have to commit for a month at a time, but you're welcome to be in the group as long as you like. I don't actually know these women yet since they were all in the ward before the change, but I have to imagine I'll get to know them all very well very quickly. Now I just have to come up with projects that will take 4 women 2 hours to do! Any thoughts?

Better

I went back to Fantastic Sam's last night and the manager there attempted to help with my awful cut. The result is better. It's still much shorter than I wanted, and I still have the bangs I didn't want, but at least the layers are even and well blended. I'm not in love with this cut, but I don't feel like it's so terrible anymore.

Sorry, Angela, I didn't get a picture before I left to get it fixed. I called them as soon as I got off the phone with you and she said if I could get in before they closed, she could fix it right away so I rushed off to get it fixed. But I will take a picture later today so you can see the end result. Good enough?

Ok, here's the picture! And yes Scott, I colored it again last night as well, so it's a much darker red than it used to be.

Token

I was out shopping yesterday at my new favorite store looking for cute things to put in my hair to help me until it grows out, and I found this:

I'm not actually participating in Self-Portrait Tuesday, but this made me think of it. I don't have any kind of good luck charm myself, and I didn't dress up for St. Patrick's Day. But if I ever wanted a little token to keep with me, I think I might just go buy this.

I don't like it. Not one bit.

After many months of not getting around to getting a hair cut, I finally went in on Saturday to fix that. I just went to the local Fantastic Sams down the street from my house. It's right next to the gym, which was my real destination, so it was convenient. They were very slow and actually had a bit of a discussion over who got me. I jokingly said I wanted whoever was best, but got whoever was next on the list.

I told her I knew I had a lot of damage, but I was hoping to keep as much length as possible. I also said I wanted some long layers in it. After playing with my hair a bit, she commented that I didn't really have any layers, and I said again I like my layers long.

Normally my favorite part of getting my hair cut is getting my scalp rubbed during shampooing. Sadly, there was none of that. I'm not even sure she got the roots of my hair when shampooing. She really concentrated on the ends. But that's not my real complaint. After shampooing, she combed my hair out and started to cut. The first thing she did was pull the front of my hair down in front of my face and before I knew it, SHE GAVE ME BANGS!! I haven't had bangs in years, and for good reason, and I certainly didn't ASK for bangs. But that was her very first cut. And it just got worse from there.

I lost about 5 inches in length, I have horrible, choppy, uneven layers, and the layers she did give me are all short! The layers stop a few inches from the end, then the bottom few inches are all the same length. This is quite possibly the worst hair cut I have had in my adult life. I've tried doing my hair curly (I looked like a poodle), I tried just blow drying it (it looks like an old lady cut), and I've tried straightening it with my flat iron (which just makes the unevenness and choppiness of the layers super obvious), and it's too short to even pull all of it back in a ponytail! I can get the back of it up, but the front of my hair just falls down around my face.

I didn't realize the cut was so bad before I left because I was just going to the gym, so I didn't even bother having her blow dry it. I just tied my bandanna around my head and left. It wasn't until after my shower later in the day that I realized how bad everything was.

No, I did not take a picture to show you because I don't want a record of this horrible cut. Until I figure out some way to make it look good, I'll be avoiding cameras. I guess the moral of the story is, when you have an option, don't just take the next hairdresser on the list. Find out who the best is and wait for that person. Or find yourself a good hairdresser and stick to them!

A beginning and an end

Because of the change in our ward boundaries coming up, last night was my last night hosting our recipe Enrichment group for my ward. As of next month I'll be in a new ward! I was a little sad to see it end, at least for the time being. We had 4 women in attendance (that included me), which is about average. This group never had the time it needed to build up a good group coming, though many women expressed interest in the group. We had a fun night talking about anything and everything that came to mind. Two of us made stuffed mushrooms, but they were so different it was nice to have them both. There was also a cold spinach dip served with french bread, a pineapple cheese ball, and a warm cheesy bread. It was all excellent. I'm glad I started this group, and I'm hoping someone liked it enough that they'll keep it going after the boundary changes. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try to start it up again in my new ward. I'll let you know if I do.

So that was the ending. As for the beginning, I am officially a soccer mom! We signed Rachel and Tyler up for soccer and they both had their first practices this week. This will be a short season, just two months, so it'll be just enough for them to get a sense of the game and if they want to play in more established leagues (and it will give me an idea if it's worth paying for a more established league before I put in a lot of money into something they end up not enjoying). We ended up with great coaches for both kids. Tyler's coach is our neighbor, and her daughter, along with the little girl across the street are both on his team. This is really great for me since some of his practices will be at the same time as Rachel's gymnastics class, so he can go with them. Rachel's coach is also named Rachael, and it's a mother of one of the kids in her class, so she's met her several times. Both coaches have several years of experience and really know what they're doing. Not all teams have that. The district had more than double the expected number of kids sign up, so they called pretty much every parent who had a child signed up asking for people who would coach. As difficult as we're already finding it to get two kids to practices and games (and gymnastics for all three still), I'm excited that my children have shown interest in soccer. Scott played for years as a kid and really wanted his kids to play as well. We didn't push this at all, they told us about it (repeatedly). Rachel even read the flier she brought home from school and marked the last day for sign ups on the calendar to make sure we didn't forget! So we're off to start on our next adventure, this one being soccer. :)

Oh, I also had my first piano lesson last week! It was just an evaluation to see what I knew and what I didn't so he could start with a lesson plan for me, but even that was exciting and fun for me! I can't wait to see what I'm able to do with his help.

Fizzy Joys: unseasonably warm days, pumpkin candles, laughter, fresh fruit in season.

It makes me want to cry...

I found out today that in two weeks time, they will be changing boundaries for almost all of the wards in my stake. This most definitely includes my ward. And I've found out from a very reliable source (my bishop) that we will be changing wards. This has happened to us in the past, and I know this is a normal process, but this is a really difficult division for me. I feel more attached to my current ward than any other ward I've been in. I really feel like I belong in this ward, like I have a place here, and that I'm loved and wanted. I LOVE my calling and finally feel like I'm doing it well. Our primary is running smoothly with wonderful teachers and great kids who I have grown to love. My kids, especially Becca, adore their teachers. To be honest, losing Becca's teacher is actually the hardest part of this. Sister Bills has been the sunbeam teacher since Tyler was a sunbeam. She's been looking forward to getting Becca since she got the calling. These two seem to have a really special bond. Becca just adores her teacher, and is more attached to her than pretty much anyone she's ever known outside the immediate family. And after only 2 1/2 months together, they're being separated. I'm heartbroken over it. Sister Bills is heartbroken over it (she spent the majority of the day in tears, and the split won't even be happening for two weeks), and I'm sure Becca will be heartbroken when she understands what's going on. I know changes can be good, and I do believe the Lord's work is being done, but I'm still sad about what I will be leaving behind.