My yearly torture...

Canning is one of those things that I HATE to do, but LOVE the end result of. As of right now, I think I may never do it again. My back aches, my feet are sore, my thumb is brown and icky, I have several little cuts and burns on my fingers, and my hands still smell faintly of onion. And I still haven't done my pears! At this moment, it all seems a bit overwhelming. But ask me next week when the pain has faded and my kitchen is clean again and I'm sure I'll speak with pride of the quarts of peaches, pints of salsa, and various jars of pear sauce I have stored up. And I know my family will be enjoying the "fruits" of my labor all year. Like I said, I LOVE the end result, but it is such a (literal) pain in the neck!

Oh, and as soon as I'm done with my canning, I'll be pulling out my dehydrator so I can get to work on beef jerky, onion flakes, and other herbs and produce... Why oh why do I torture myself like this?

STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!

Our school teachers are officially on strike. Which means we have no idea when school will actually begin for my kids. I remember going through this when I was a kid (anyone remember how long that one lasted?) but it's totally different from the side of a parent. I have not only the frustration of constantly bickering kids with no end in sight, but the added issues of Rachel's tears of disappointment and constant questions about when school will start. Contract negotiations have gone so poorly the state appointed a mediator to help them sort things out. There has been offer and counter offer after offer and counter offer, and from what I hear, the sides are still so far apart there's no telling when a compromise will be reached. But then, that could just be the rumor mill working overtime. At this point, when the first day of school will actually be is a complete mystery. Let's hope my kids and I don't kill each other in the mean time...

When it rains...

Because I didn't have enough to deal with, we're now looking at yet another repair.

When Scott was mowing the back yard on Saturday, the lawn mower shot out a small pebble and it hit the stationary piece next to our sliding glass door, shattering it. Fortunately it's double paned so we don't have to fix it right this second, but we do need to replace it. The glass didn't fall out right away, it stayed all spiderweb like in the frame for a day or so. All afternoon it crackled and crinkled as the glass continued to break more and more. It was kind of a cool sound, and fun to watch new "webs" form on the glass. Of course that didn't last and eventually glass pieces started falling to the ground. I spent a good hour cleaning up the glass yesterday, getting it off the ground and knocking the last of it out of the frame. We're getting estimates on repairs this week, so hopefully we'll get it fixed soon.

Oh, and the starter on my van is going out.

Catch up... again.

I feel like my entire life is spent doing catch up sometimes. For those who want to know, here are the highlights of my past few weeks:

• Someone tried to break into my van by breaking in a window while we were at a concert in the park a couple weeks ago. Fortunately the safety film on it held so they didn't actually get IN my car, but we still obviously had to have it replaced. It actually held for a few days, then blew out unexpectedly while driving to the library. My kids thought it was hilarious. Fortunately it blew OUT of the car, not in.

• A couple weeks later, at the same park, Rachel's purse got stolen right off our blanket. We were playing in the wading pool, and it was there with all our other stuff. It was the only thing taken. She was heartbroken. We're not sure we're going back to that park anymore, even if it is where the concerts in the park my kids love so much are held. (By the way, the concert that afternoon was Taylor Ware, the yodeling girl from America's Got Talent. She was darling, and very good.)

• My kids got to go bowling for the first time ever a couple weeks ago. It was awesome! Bumpers came up automatically for the kids then went back down for the grown ups, and they even had a cool little ramp the kids could slide their balls down to give them more momentum. That ramp was a life saver. The first few balls Becca sent down the lane went excruciatingly slowly. Even SHE got bored of watching it, and there was one that didn't even go the whole way. It got stuck in the pins. But once we found that, the kids' scores went way up and they had much more fun. Of course Rachel was too old for that kind of thing and did just fine on her own, beating me in all 3 games. She also had the bumpers, but that's beside the point. :D

• Scott and I celebrated our anniversary a couple weeks ago. I can't believe it's been 12 years already!

• Scott and I and some friends went to a great club called the Triple Door last weekend. It had great food, and the entertainment was fantastic. We'll definitely go back.

• We made it (EARLY) to 9:00 church in Mill Creek (north of Bothell!!) on Sunday to be there when Devin Williams blessed his baby on Sunday. It was so nice to see them again.

• We finally decided to have our septic tank pumped this week for the first time in 5 years and found our pump had gone out. It turned into this whole ordeal. Instead of being an hour long, $300 job, it was a 2 day, $3,000 job. Fortunately the pump went out recently, or we would have had sewage backing up into the house. We're lucky it was caught when it was.

• I'm on my third medication for my insomnia, and it's working fine without all the weird side effects the others gave me, but I worry about the dependency rate and withdrawal problems of it. I talked to a friend who's on another medication in the same family of drugs, but it has a much lower risk of dependency, and it doesn't have withdrawal symptoms, so I'm going to ask my doctor if I can be switched to that one instead.

• We had a fantastic Activity Days activity at my house last week. A couple weeks ago we had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom. Last week we put it into action by making a meal together that was based on what we're told we should be eating. The girls had so much fun, and the dinner was really yummy! We had spaghetti with home made sauce full of fresh herbs and just enough garlic, home made meatballs, a really great salad filled with lots of yummy stuff, and home made bread sticks. The girls had the most fun forming the bread sticks. None of them had ever done it before! For dessert we did my crock pot peach cobbler and home made ice cream. I'm not sure how I'm going to top this activity.

• I finally got my eyes checked out for the first time in a few years. I'll be getting new glasses and contacts in a couple weeks!

That's what I can think of about my last couple weeks. We've been spending a lot of time at the park and the library this summer. This was supposed to be my relaxing summer at home, but I'm never home! Does life ever slow down??

Hippo Birdie to Ewe...

Happy Birthday to the bestest, most wonderful, most amazing woman I know!

I love you Mom!

Let's try again...

I went to see my doctor again yesterday because I didn't like the side effects of the medication I was on. So we've changed meds once again. This is the last medication I'm trying. If this doesn't work, I'm going back to be an insomniac. Actually, she suggested doing a sleep study if this one doesn't work, but I'd rather have done that to begin with! I feel like she's really pushing meds, and not the meds I want. We'll see how this goes...

She's awesome!

I officially LOVE my babysitter. My kids adore her (she plays games with them, brings them coloring books, and gives them piggy back rides to bed) and she cleans! My house is always in better shape when I come home than when I left. Friday, she did my dishes (like always) AND she cleaned my kids' rooms!! Getting them to clean their rooms is like pulling teeth, but she and Rachel did both rooms in what I hear was record time. AND she's grateful that I use her and feels like I pay her too much! (I don't pay her ENOUGH!) When both kids love her and the parents love her, you know you've found a great babysitter. Mine is the BEST!

Now THIS is summer

Today is the first of what I'm sure will be many 7+ hour days at the park this summer. We got to the park at 10:00, played for a while, ate lunch while we watched a kids variety act that was the concert in the park for the afternoon, then my kids got drenched in the wading pool. Of course we forgot swimming suits, but it was so hot I couldn't deny them the chance to cool off. We left a little after 5:00 sunburned and exhausted, having had a really excellent day. I took some pictures, but my hard drive is dying so I won't be uploading them until we can get it replaced. Pictures to come soon! I know I should be more detailed about our long day, but I'm too tired. Maybe you'll get more detail when you get the pics. :D

We're expected to hit temps in triple digits tomorrow. Rare for us.

Better than I thought...

Apparantly my lesson on Sunday went better than I thought. I got a call from my bishop last night asking me to adapt it into a talk for Sacrament Meeting this Sunday! How do I get myself into these situations? This has to be his wife's fault...

My favorite lesson!

As I think I mentioned before, I taught in Relief Society on Sunday. It was a pretty remarkable experience for me. My lesson was on the hand of the Lord in the formation of our country, specifically in our constitution. I don't have time to do a full write up here, but I thought I'd pass along a few of my favorite quotes.

Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea. - John Gunther

No human laws are of any validity, if contrary to God's laws, and such of them as are valid derive all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original. - Alexander Hamilton

In 1740, a mere generation before the Revolution, the intellectual life of America was dominated by clergymen; by 1840, a generation or so after the Revolution, it would be dominated by scientists and inventors. Only for the brief span of a single lifetime would America's statesmen and her brightest thinkers be the same men.

How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! - Thomas Jefferson

One man with courage makes a majority. - Andrew Jackson

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisibly hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. - George Washington

Those men who laid the foundation of this American government were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits... [and] were inspired of the Lord. - Wilford Woodruff

The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life. This country will not be a permanently good place for us to live unless it's a good place for all of us to live. - Theodore Roosevelt

A citizen of this republic cannot do his duty and be an idle spectator. - Ezra Taft Benson

Because of our unwillingness to get involved in the preservation of these values, small, radical, Godless groups are literally stealing from us our rights to enjoy the freedom to choose our own value system. - L. Tom Perry

Evidently the Supreme Court misinterprets the true meaning of the First Amendment, and are now leading a Christian nation down the road to atheism. – David O. McKay

Ok, that ended up being a few more than I intended, but still not nearly enough. What a blessing it is to live in a land prepared by the Lord. This truly is the promised land and I am grateful to be blessed to be a citizen of The United States of America. Happy Independence Day, and God bless you all.

I need a nap...

I'm exhausted! I've spent pretty much every day at Lisa's house over the past week or so, helping her clean and unpack and paint and take care of her kids. Hunter, her 7 month old, is incredibly cute, but he's a needy little boy. If he's not being held, he's screaming bloody murder. That makes for slow going. The past couple nights I've been there past midnight trying to get Annabelle's room painted (stripes of two colors of pink and white stripes, and we had to paint over a horrible blue wall). So that's why you haven't seen any new posts from me. Lisa is great. She and I are a lot alike and get along like we've known each other pretty much forever. Our kids play really well together as well. I feel really lucky to have met her. But I am exhausted. It'll be nice when life gets back to normal a little. Her husband gets home this weekend from an almost 6 months away doing training for his job, so she won't need me as much then.

I taught Relief Society again on Sunday. It went really well. I'll try to post some of my favorite quotes from my studies tomorrow. They'll be appropriate for the day.

It's a small world after all...

I went to help a new family move into our ward this afternoon. Well, the Elders Quorum did the big move on Saturday, but this woman's husband is across the country doing job training, so she is doing it all herself, with a 3 1/2 year old girl and a 7 month old boy, so I went to help her unpack today. We got to talking about where she was from and what her husband did. She mentioned her husband went to school on Bainbridge Island. "WHAT? What is your last name again?" Dahlstrom. Ken Dahlstrom and his family just moved into my ward! The world seems so small inside the church.

He happened to call while I was there and asked my maiden name. When he heard it, he immediately went into stories of scouting with Ben. I just had to laugh. You never know who you'll run into or what distant memory will suddenly turn up in your ward! I was just going to help a woman alone with her move, and suddenly I'm taken on a trip into my past. This is weirder to me than driving down Meridian and having Alan Cleaver driving right behind me.

Catch Up

Just a few random oddities of my life so y'all feel caught up:

1. Tyler had his birthday party on Saturday afternoon. It was the easiest one I've ever put on, and he loved every minute of it. He looked so handsome in his new church clothes from Grammy and Grampy today! (picture to come)

2. I got my first "excellent!" out of my piano teacher on Saturday afternoon. He was very pleased with how far I'd come on a song we've been working on. That was really exciting for me.

3. I badly twisted my ankle Saturday night and can hardly walk.

4. We had a storm come through here this afternoon. I LOVED it. The colors in the clouds were amazing (as were the greens of the trees against the dark sky) and I've come to love thunder and lightening. I'm so glad my kids love storms too. They ran around, loving every second nearly as much as I did.

5. I still don't love my new medication. I'm still having side effects, but not as severe as with the other one. But I'm not sleeping as well either. I'm leaning towards forgetting meds all together and just suffering through my insomnia, but I'll talk to my doctor once more before I make that decision.

6. I have about 10 loads of laundry that need to be folded. My kids are finally out of school for the summer. I'm supposed to be at Activity Girls Day Camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I'm still not sure if I can make it. I promised to help a new woman in our ward unpack tomorrow since she has 2 small kids and her husband is out of town. Scott is going out of town for the weekend with his dad and brothers. I'm having a fondue party one night he's gone (Jenn, I could use some help on this!). What happened to the LAZY days of summer?

That's about it for me for now!

TYLER

Happy Birthday to Tyler!

In honor of Tyler's 6th birthday, I thought I'd take a moment and write down a few of the things I love about my son.

1. He loves a good joke.

2. He's smart as a whip.

3. He has a sensitive spirit.

4. He loves to learn.

5. He's concerned with people around him, and wants everyone to be happy.

6. He makes sure he acknowledges as many people he can, and doesn't leave anyone out.

7. He wants to be just like his daddy.

8. He's a great soccer goalie.

9. He's willing to compromise in order to keep the peace.

10. He is so proud of himself when he learns something new.

11. He loves to ask questions.

12. He'll tell his life story to anyone who will listen, or at least anything interesting that's happened to him recently.

13. He has an amazing imagination.

14. He wants to be in the middle of whatever is going on.

15. He saved his tooth fairy money for more than 2 weeks until the ice cream man came to our neighborhood because there was no question but that he was going to buy ice cream from him.

16. He loves to help Daddy barbecue.

17. He gets super excited over little things.

18. He's been telling people the countdown to his birthday since June 1st.

19. He's so ready to be a grown up.

20. He wears his heart on his sleeve.

21. He thinks school is the best thing EVER!

22. He does a great "ready Freddy" ball catching position.

23. He finds humor in the inane, just like his dad.

24. He likes his hair spiky.

25. He is quick to smile and laugh.

There is so much more I could say about my wonderful son, but for now I'll stop and just say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER! I LOVE YOU!!

Enough

I've been on the antidepressant my doctor prescribed for almost a month now, and I have to say, I HATE it. The two main purposes of this medication are to relieve depression and to relieve anxiety. I feel like it's CAUSING both. I've had occasional bad days before, but never this often, and not this bad. And I've never had issues with anxiety before. Sitting in church yesterday was almost torture for me. We sat in pretty much the very middle of the crowded chapel. The normal me wouldn't have thought anything of it, but yesterday it was terrible for me. I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed like the longer the meeting went, the louder the room got, and the noise was oppressive. To make it worse, I felt a constant pressure pushing in on me. It was like I was being compressed and I could hardly breathe. Sunday School wasn't quite as bad as it was a smaller group in the gym, but it was still hard. I had to leave Relief Society early (which was a huge relief) because Tyler was giving a talk in Primary, but the primary room almost did me in completely. I was a mess by the time we got home. Even in smaller gatherings this week, I had a very difficult time being in large groups. At a movie night with some women in the ward, I couldn't sit in a room with 10 other women to watch a movie. It was too confined with too many people. Anxiety is a completely new experience for me, and I do not enjoy it at all. Add in that this is the most depressed I think I've ever felt, and you can guess I'm pretty miserable right now.

In general I think antidepressants are a great thing and a much needed help for a lot of people, but I don't think it's what I need, at least not right now. Fortunately I have an appointment this afternoon to talk to my doctor about this. Hopefully I come back with good news!


UPDATE:
Of course my doctor immediately took me off the offending medication I was on. She was amazed I stayed as long as I did on it. She'd never seen it cause anxiety to the degree I had it. It is a known side effect of the drug, but a very very rare one. She's given me something new to try instead, but is starting me on just half a dose for now. It'll also take a few days to come down off the old medication, but within a week I should be feeling MUCH better. If I don't, she wants to see me again. I didn't sleep quite as well on the new medication, but I woke up already feeling a bit less anxiety. Not a lot, but some. And every little bit helps. And once the old medication is out of my system, I can increase my new one to a full dose if I'm not sleeping enough. So things should be getting much better!

By request

A few pics from Pearls and Gloves:

This is me with Melody, holding the carebear that represented Deborah.

Mel is quite talented at self portraits. :)

We took off our gloves to eat dinner.

I thought this was pretty cool...

Last night's Enrichment night had something so cool, I had to tell y'all about it.

One thing I don't have in my emergency supplies is a way to cook. I don't even have a camp stove. Last night I learned about a really simple and easy way to solve that problem. You need just 4 things; an empty gallon size paint can, an empty quart size paint can, a quart of rubbing alcohol, and a roll of toilet paper. You smush the toilet paper to get it through the hole in the smaller paint can, then pour the entire bottle of rubbing alcohol into it. It'll take a little time for the toilet paper to absorb it, but it will take the entire bottle of alcohol. You then seal the paint can. Punch holes in the larger can around the top and bottom (for ventilation) then seal the smaller can inside the larger one. When it comes time to use it, open up both cans, put the smaller can onto the lid of the larger can, light the alcohol, then cover it with the larger can to give you a cooking surface. Apparently it's hot enough to boil water within half an hour. The heat coming through the holes punched in it is enough to warm you, and to roast pretty much anything you might toast over a fire. It lasts 6-8 hours, and can be replenished just by adding more rubbing alcohol. How easy is that? And if you have the storage space for just a can of paint, you have a makeshift stove!

Great weekend!

It would be silly for me to not blog about my weekend. It was great!

First off, this is just a silly thing, but it was important to me. In my piano lessons, we've been working on Fur Elise. There are two parts that have been giving me trouble, but this week Ashton was able to walk me through one of them, and in practicing the other with him there, I was able to figure out what I was doing wrong on the other one! I'm still not anywhere close to perfect, but at least I know what I've been doing wrong and can try to correct it. I love when a light bulb goes on in my head like that! That's my fizzy joy for this post.

My main event for the weekend was going out to a play with some friends. My friend Melody started a little group she calls Pearls and Gloves. We dress in black dresses and wear (you guessed it) pearls and gloves and go see local plays. The plan is to do a combination of full blown professional stuff in Seattle and smaller local stuff, but the idea is to support the theater. We had our very first outing Saturday night. We went to Everett to see a local production of Guys and Dolls. How is it I've never even seen this movie? How did I not know A Bushel and a Peck was from this musical? or Luck be a Lady? They're songs I grew up with and yet never knew their origins. Our night out was so much fun! Our original dinner plans ended up not working (Wait, we're in Everett? We passed Lynwood??) so we went to Olive Garden to eat. The food was excellent. The play itself was very well done. I was impressed. The actress playing Sarah Brown seemed a touch old for the roll, but she sang VERY well. We got pelted with eggs (plastic ones with candy or dice in them) and the band came walking down the stairs through the audience. It was well cast, well acted, and well sung. Overall I was impressed. We're planning on returning to that theater to see Annie in February. But our next definite outing will be Into the Woods at the 5th Ave. Theater in Seattle in November. As good as all of that was, really the best part was the company. This is a remarkable group of women and I am incredibly lucky to count them as friends. We had such a great time mostly because of each other! (But we REALLY missed Deborah who had a family medical emergency and couldn't make it.) Ok, that's my other fizzy joy for this post. :D

Then came Sunday. For just the third time in my life, I was asked to substitute for Relief Society. (I was also asked 3 separate times to substitute in Primary this week alone as well!) Normally that's something I like to do, but this time I was STRESSED over it. I didn't have the time I needed to prepare the way I wanted. Right before Relief Society was supposed to start, you would have found me pacing the halls shaking like a leaf. I can't remember ever being that nervous before! Fortunately it went well. The women seemed responsive, asked good questions, and made insightful remarks. It was a great lesson. But I came home absolutely exhausted!

That was my fantastic weekend. :)

Where are my sisters?? None of them have been on in forever!

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!