Friday Fill-Ins

1. My stomach is content.
2. Turkey is what I ate the most of on Thursday.
3. The yard is in need of a good weeding and uncovering my plants.
4. A hot bath is where I'd rather be at any given time.
5. The smell of cinnamon reminds me of Christmas.
6. A doctor is what I need right now!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to putting up the Christmas tree, tomorrow my plans include relaxing and Sunday, I want to go to church. I am tired of being sick or having sick kids and not going!

I am declaring November sick month

Since my kids have gotten ear infections my husband and I have been slowly getting sick too. Now he and I are both miserable too. I had a miserable night tossing and turning. I didn't think we had anymore sudafed so didn't take anything. At 5:30 this morning my husband informed me that there was some sudafed on the counter in our bathroom and he had just taken some. I took some and finally got back to sleep an hour later and slept for another 1 1/2 hours. If the base clinic was open he and I would be going in. I have been sick 3 of the 4 weeks of November. It doesn't help that the weather here can't decide if it is cold or warm. At least the kids are getting better.

Thanksgiving turned out good even though I really didn't want it here. I didn't make too much of the food and everyone brought food so we had plenty. The house was clean enough. After dinner and everyone started leaving Ray's parents took the kids for a couple of hours so we could go to the movie "Twilight." I had to suck cough drops through it but I was glad I finally got to see it. It wasn't as good as the book, but not many movies are, but it was still good and my husband even enjoyed it.

Ear Infections Galore

Yesterday our home teacher came over and helped give the children blessings. That helped bring them comfort last night and Sheila slept through the night for the first time in days. This morning we got them in as early as we could. Timmy was acting better, his temperature was lower, and his energy level was up. The doctor looked at him first. He has a bad infection in one ear and the other is just starting. Sheila's are horrible. One has actually already busted open. So they both have antibiotics to take twice a day. We gave it to them before I headed home so Ray could help me. I am just glad that we now have some medicine to help them feel better. The doctor said Timmy's probably would clear up on their own since he is improving but Sheila's is beyond that point. This is the sickest either of them have been.

Friday Fill-ins on saturday

1. The last band I saw live was New Kids on the Block on October 29 in Atlanta Georgia.
2. What I look forward to most on Thanksgiving is eating all the good food, and it will be good since I am cooking it.
3. My Christmas/holiday shopping is about 3/4 done. The kids are done, each others gifts are almost done, so all we have left is a few extended family. I start in August or September every year.
4. Thoughts of worry fill my head. Both children are sick and I am worried about them.
5. I wish I could wear my size 6 jeans again.
6. Bagpipes are really cool, especially at funerals. Sorry if that is morbid.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to buying a new computer since mine has died, tomorrow my plans include taking care of sick kids and Sunday, I want to see my kids get better!

She's meeting

We had the meeting with Sheila's school finally. We found out that her IQ is higher than average (for a 3 year old) but her language and speech is around half her IQ. She has a communication disorder. The speech lady said what it was but of course it was a big word that I can't remember. We have to get copies of the IEP still. But anyway they recommended her attending the ESE preK program. We agreed and she will start school December 1. I have to get her registered, school supplies, school clothes (they have uniforms here,) etc. She met her teacher and the three little boys that are in her class. She will be the only little girl although the class should grow throughout the year and they get all the kids with special needs tested. They think that she might be able to progress to a voluntary preK by next year and may be fine by kindergarten. She will be in full day program right now but next year if she does progress that will be only half a day and I would have to pick her up every day. She will be able to ride the bus. I have to meet her at the bus stop but the bus stops right in front of our house. I will take her the first few days though. It will be interesting to see how Timmy does with out his big sister to play with every day. I may even get small naps some days again.

What happened?

Our computer crashed Thursday morning and we still don't know what is wrong with it. Ray took it to a friends after work yesterday and still couldn't find out what was wrong with it so we went and bought a new hard drive last night and we still can't get it to work. But we decided to get a laptop too since we have been thinking about getting one. We just got the internet hooked up to the internet.

We will be working on our desktop computer still to get it up and running. We lost everything we hadn't saved in awhile which was our trip pictures and maybe 1-2 months more worth. I did burn all the others a couple of months back but not sure if it was August or September that I did that. I also lost our five year budget that I keep. Also my ebay listings that are not currently listed on ebay. That is like cutting off my right hand. We now have a flash drive for me to use to save all that stuff so if it happens again I won't have to start from scratch again.

Grillin Goodness

Almost forgot about this cute little thing Tiffany had on her website. I thought it was a fun question/answer thing.

1. What's the worst thing you've ever sent through the washing machine/dryer?
A crayon when I was a kid and doing laundry for my mom. I also washed my drivers license once when it was just a laminated piece of paper and almost ruined it.

2. Do you do any of your Christmas shopping online?
Yes. I usually do most of my shopping for my husband online and sometimes for the kids toys since the stores don't always carry everything. Love Wal-Mart Site to Site shipping.

3. What are you looking forward to this Thanksgiving?
Absolutely nothing because I am stuck cooking the whole thing again this year. Normally I don't mind but this will be the third time I have cooked both Thanksgiving and Christmas for Ray's whole family. It gets expensive. I wanted to get out of it this year (and just do Christmas) but they have decided to go to Golden Corral since I wasn't cooking but I refuse to take my children to a restaurant for a holiday meal. That is one thing that I enjoyed as a kid and so even though I might not enjoy it I hope my children do.

4. What did you do before you had children that you miss doing now that you have children?
I'm with Tiffany on this one. Sleeping in was very nice. Now I am up by 6:30 whether the kids wake me up or not.

5. Do you have a fireplace? (Do you use it?)
No. Probably wouldn't use it if we did have one since it only has a few cold days a year here. We had one in our first apartment and we never used it.

6. Do medical shows showing surgeries and blood freak you out?
Nope, I like a lot of them but sometimes I can't eat while I watch them.

7. How long have you lived where you live?
In Florida-5 years. In this house-4 years.

8. What is one of your favorite seasonal items?
I will have to say Christmas trees and lights. When I was a kid I would just watch the Christmas trees twinkling lights. I also love to go around and see how people decorate. We don't have a lot of storage here so our decorations are a minimum but maybe someday I will have an attic I can use and get more.

It's my 200 post and I am doing a tag

My cousin tagged me so here is mine. It is my 200 blog. I can't believe I have blogged that much.

8 Fave TV Shows

1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6.
7. 8.

8 Fave Restaurants

1. Treasure Ship
2. Red Lobster
3. Big Jud's Country Diner

4. Bluebird (in Logan)

5. Roadhouse Grill (closed here)

6. Old Mexico

7. Sonic (for the Blue Coconut Slushies)

8. TGIF (for the cheesecake)

8 Things that happened yesterday

1. Went shopping

2. Took a nap (very short)

3. Watched Chuck & Heroes

4. Cross stitched

5. Hung new drapes

6. spent time on internet

7. read

8. bathed

8 Things to Look Forward To

1. Christmas

2. Disneyworld trip with the kids in February

3. Ray's promotions

4. More babies

5. the mail (unless it is bills)

6. getting my new Cricut Expression machine (it's backordered so not sure when it will come in. I got it on a great sale at Customcrops.com.)

7. Catching up on scrapbooks (like that will ever happen.)

8. Planning our next trip.

8 Things on your wishlist

1. fence

2. hardwood floors

3. knitting machine

4. new digital camera

5. paint for the walls

6. trees in the backyard

7. Ray's promotion

8. Larger house

8 People to Tag

1. Tiffany

2. Cher

3. Meryn

4. Anyone else that thinks this is fun.

Sidewalk Art

Last Thursday we had a nice day (it was over 80 degrees) between the morning rain and the afternoon rain and so the kids and I went out to play while Daddy slept. I had a whole bunch of things lined up but they loved the sidewalk chalk so much we ended up doing that for the little over hour we were out there.

Sheila drew some beautiful flowers.

Timmy drew rain on my flowers. They needed watering.

And doing things with your tongue hanging out is so much better.

It got so bright out we had to wear shades.

The kids didn't want to come in but it was getting very hot and if you look close Sheila's face is bright red. The kids don't know it but today I bought them a huge bucket of sidewalk chalk with a lot more colors. When it warms up a little we will go out again.

In the Primary Again

About 6 weeks ago I was interviewed by a member of the bishopric to be the 2nd Counselor in the Primary Presidency again. It was the position I was released from under the old President but the new president wanted me in the same position. I accepted. It was the Sunday before General Conference so they said they would sustain me the week after Conference.

That week came and went and I was not sustained. I noticed the counselor who interviewed me wasn't in church so I thought maybe they were waiting for him. The next week came and went as well. We then went on vacation for the next two weeks.

Last week we just went to Sacrament meeting because I was still hacking away and Timmy and Sheila both had coughs and sniffles. The executive secretary came up and asked Ray and me if the bishop had talked to us yet. We said no so he set up a meeting for Wednesday. That day in Sacrament meeting they changed the counselor that had interviewed me with a new counselor.

On Wednesday Ray and I were interviewed by the new counselor. I told Ray before hand I wondered if they would ask me in the primary presidency again and if they had forgotten since it happened so long ago. The new counselor started asking Ray what he did in the church so I started to think, maybe I was wrong, maybe it was a calling for Ray. Ray was the secretary in Elders Quorum but the Presidency has recently changed and since we were gone so long we were unsure if he had been released or not.

So after making a note of that to find out if he was still the secretary he asked me what I did in the church. I answered, "Well, nothing." Then told him the story of being called and never being sustained. So he told me he was going to find out about that and if I was still intended to be the 2nd counselor I would be sustained today.

Well, today I was sustained. But I got the rest of the story. The counselor that had originally interviewed me went out of town for two weeks after General Conference and didn't realize the bishop didn't know that I had accepted. So it was not communicated between them. Anyway, the executive secretary apologized to me for the delay but no harm done. I was gone or sick half that time too so maybe it worked out for the best.

Anyway, I am excited to be in the Primary again. Our primary program is next week and this week we just practiced. We are having a ward meeting and a stake meeting this week so I should get thrown back into the swing of things very soon.

First Presidency Response

I just went to the church website and saw this article.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/first-presidency-urges-respect-civility-in-public-discourse

I agree.

This is what I am talking about in #6 of prior post

My husband came home this morning and told me about this story:

"LOS ANGELES (AP) - Letters containing a suspicious white powder were sent Thursday to Mormon temples in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City that were the sites of protests against the church's support of California's gay marriage ban.

The temple in the Westwood area of Los Angeles was evacuated before a hazardous materials crew determined the envelope's contents were not toxic, said FBI spokesman Jason Pack.

The temple in downtown Salt Lake City, where the church is based, received a similar envelope containing a white powder that spilled onto a clerk's hand.

The room was decontaminated and the envelope taken by the FBI for testing. The clerk showed no signs of illness, but the scare shut down a building at Temple Square for more than an hour, said Scott Freitag, a spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire Department.

None of the writing on the envelope was threatening, and the church received no calls or messages related to the package, Freitag said.

Protests in recent days have targeted the Mormon church, which encouraged its members to fight the recently passed amendment banning gay marriage in California.

Authorities are looking into several theories on who sent the letters and why, Pack said.
Anthrax mailed as a white powder to Washington lawmakers and media outlets killed five people and sickened 17 just weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Periodic hoaxes modeled on the anthrax mailings have popped up since then but usually prove harmless. "

This is not the first of these stories. I have heard of people having to go through throngs of protestors jus to get to the temple in California. I seen the video about the protestors all going out to Salt Lake to protest at the temple after Prop 8 passed in California. Here we had Ammendment 2 that passed that was the same as Prop 8. Luckily the church hasn't been blamed for that one passing here and there has been no protests here.

But come on, people, grow up! It was put to the vote. People voted how they felt and now because the people screaming for tolerance didn't get their way they are now being the intolerant hypocrites they claim others are.

It should come as no surprise how the church stands on same sex relationships. It has made it's view known. It's called "The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Other churches has similar positions. If people don't like that view or opinion they have the option of changing their religion.

What happened to the First Amendment? What happened to people being able to worship how they choose? What happened to people having the freedom of speech? These people are screaming for it but then the turn and infringe on another's First Amendment right.

I voted for the Amendment not only because that is what I believe but because I do not want the schools taking my right away to teach my children what I feel is right and wrong. I don't want schools teaching my son and daughter something is right when I believe it to be morally wrong. Schools should teach children math, reading, writing, and science. Religious teachings should be the parents and churches responsibilities. I do not and will not persecute someone else because they believe differently. I expect the same respect.

(Ugh, as I am typing this they are having a discussion on Fox News about this very topic and the "expert" they have on there for "Civil Rights" just claimed the LDS church has delusional views on marriage so what right do the members have denying others the same right. Just goes to show that even "experts" are delusional.)

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Please feel free to tell me how you really feel. (Dripping with sarcasm.)
2. When I receive some flowers I can't help sniffing it occasionally.
3. My favorite thing to cook is roast or anything baked.
4. Scrapbooking paper is something I can't get enough of. I swear I'm starting to horde it.
5. Freedom, That's the thing I love most about life in the USA.
6. People screaming for tolerance when they are not tolerant themselves always makes me think to myself, what the heck?
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to filling my cupboards with food since they are so bare, tomorrow my plans include nothing at the moment and Sunday, I want to go to church for the full time since none of us are sick now!

My little artist

My little daughter has been an artist since she was 6 months old and could hold a crayon. Yesterday Oprah had a clean up your clutter show and on it she showed a book that can be made at snapfish with pictures of your children's artwork and for the next 48 hours viewers can get one free going through her website. So this morning I took some pictures of the collection of artwork I have of Sheila's and made up a book. For some reason I didn't get the credit and Snapfish charged me full price so I had to email them and hopefully I will get the refund but anyway it got me to finally download some of Sheila's pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

This is the lion king. Notice the teeth. She loves imitating the lion king and scaring her brother.

This is our family. T is on Mommy's lap and She is on Daddy's lap. Can't remember who is who.

Here she is practicing letters. As you can see she makes I, E, Os pretty good. She can also do Ts & Hs very good but almost any letter she can imitate if she sees it drawn but she did these from her head.

The Grouch Shift

My father is a police officer, for those who didn't know, and so he has worked revolving shifts as long as I could remember. One shift we all came to dread was what we/he dubbed the "grouch shift." That was the shift of midnight to 8 a.m. or a similar shift. We would have to be so quiet during the day so he could sleep. I'm sure most of you know how hard it is to keep children quiet all day long.

Well, my husband is on the grouch shift for the week. Luckily he doesn't have to work it often. Usually his job is the normal day time hours but on occassion if they have something going on they have a night shift. Last time they had an exercise at work he was on days so this time he is on nights. Also luckily my husband is a real heavy sleeper so once he is out it should take a lot to wake him up. But I still need to figure out ways too keep some quiet. I think that if the weather is nice enough I will take the kids out to play with sidewalk chalk and go on some walks. Maybe we will get the playdoh out and take She's folding table outside too and let them have at it.

Playing at the park

The other thing we did on vacation before I got too sick is take the kids to a park and let them play. It was one of the busiest parks I have been in for awhile. We have decided people do not teach their kids manners anymore. Kids were pushing their way past anyone; other children, small children, and adults. She is usually a little timid but by the end she was doing the same thing because she got tired of people pushing past her.

The kids had fun though until She feel down and got hurt. It was time to go by then. A few days after we got home we took them to the park here and even though it's busy on the weekends it wasn't on Thursday or whenever we went and they were able to play with out fending other kids off.

Getting into the swing of things

So I am still hacking and wheezing but I am getting very excited about Christmas. So even not feeling that good I am putting on my shoes and going shopping. This time it will be for me! Well, for my scrapbooking/ebay business but I love sells. I am dragging my husband along to give him ideas for Christmas. I will sit in the car while he makes his purchases after I point out which things I want.

So this is how into it I am. My children's Christmas is all bought. I might have little odds and ends I still get but for the most part they are done. I started before Halloween and finished while I was still sick and went to buy milk. Some stuff is still hiding in our trunk of our car since I need to clean out a closet to hide it in.

I also have been making stuff for Christmas. I redid my brother-in-laws baby book for him this year. I am excited to give it to him and hope it goes over better than some of our past gifts. It's hard to buy for someone that has everything or can get it himself since he is making the big bucks.

Each year I also try to make something with leftover pictures for the grandparents of the kids. Well, my Scrapbooks etc magazine came a few months ago and I saw this cute hand made mini scrapbook so that is what I am making. I cut paper and put holes in it then I glued pictures and other paper on top. My parents is almost done (since I have to mail theirs) I am just going through and adding a few more embellishments. I also have to buy binder rings to put through the holes. I will have to take some pictures when I am done to put on the blog.

I never put away all of my Christmas village from last year so I am going to finish putting that out before Thanksgiving. Also Ray's aunt gave us a merry-go-round so that is out and my angels (2 of them) never get put away since they are way up on my plant shelf. The day after Thankgiving I plan on decorating the house and this year I am going to try to get all the decorating done since last year we were terrible about it except for the tree.

I hope to be done with Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. I still need to make a few more Christmas cards since every other year I make my own Christmas cards and this is the year. If I make too many I might try to sell some on ebay.

Tagged by Meryn

10 unknown or unusual things about me.

1. When I was 15 I had a very vivid dream in which I had a daughter and then a son. So when I got pregnant about 14 years later for the first time I knew she was a girl. I didn't need an ultrasound to tell me. Same with my son. The next baby is up in the air and we have decided that when we do have another baby we will leave it up for surprise.

2. I really don't believe in ESP but sometimes when the phone rings I will know who it is for before we answer it and sometimes I will know who it is. It's not 100% and I don't usually say anything because I have been wrong. I have been able to do this as long as I remember so I could do this when there was 7 people to choose from and not just 2.

3. Breakfast is my favorite meal. I use to have a pancake every morning and rarely ate cereal, which I don't like. However, since having children I have found myself eating quick breakfasts and I think that is why I am always so hungry during the day so I am trying to go back to big breakfasts and am encouraging my children to eat more than cereal in the morning since they love cereal.

4. I hated holidays when I was a kid but love them now. I think it stems from when I got a little older, not quite a teenager, but not a kid anymore my parents and everyone said holidays were for little kids and the specialness kind of left for me. The only holiday I liked at that time was Thankgiving and that was because everyone got to eat, just not kids, and adults could eat more. But now that I am an adult I have started to love the holidays especially Halloween and Christmas. I love to dress up for Halloween and when I was in college enjoyed throwing Halloween parties. Christmas I love decorating for and buying people presents. It's even better now that I have kids. I love wrapping gifts (but please don't bring me yours to wrap, I have enough to do on my own) and making cards, goodies, etc.

5. I do not like summer. Summer is way too hot especially down here in the south. When I lived in the west I loved camping in the summer because the mountains were cool but I don't even have that down here. So unless I am going to the beach I stay inside during the summer. I love spring and fall but rarely get those here. Florida has two seasons, summer 9-10 months of the year, and then winter for the rest and winter although no snow, can get very cold with the humidity.

6. I am very low maintenance. I rarely wear more makeup than foundation and that only when I go out. I rarely do more to my hair than maybe a braid or a ponytail (since I do have to wear it up so I don't get so hot here in the south.) I haven't had my hair professional cut since I moved away from Logan and my friend in beauty school. I only received a manicure once and hated the fake nails (loved how they looked though, it was a gift from my sister for my wedding.) My makeup I own is probably unusable and needs to be thrown out so when I do need to wear makeup for something I usually just buy new stuff. I have gone through some stages though of wearing stuff. Right after my mission I went through a nail polish stage (yes, I still have most of that and it needs to be thrown out) and then a lipstick stage but I haven't worn either that much in years. The low maintenance extends to my clothes and accessories too. I generally only wear my wedding ring and stud earrings. My clothes I rarely spend full price on. They have to be on sale for at least 50%. I buy my purses at Wal-Mart for no more than $10. I will use it until it wears out most of the time before buying another.

7. I am petrified to drive here in Florida. I had no problems driving out west. But here people either drive too slow or too fast and the highway our subdivision is off of is one of the worst highways for wrecks in the nation. We have really young spring breakers and the really old snowbirds and they do not make a good combination. I have had several near misses and have seen a horrible wreck or two, one happened right before my eyes. I only drive when I absolutely have to or on roads I feel comfortable with. Before I moved here I would go for a drive if I was upset or needed to think but now I wouldn't dream of doing that.

8. I'm the rule enforcer in the house and I do not like that. My mom was not the disciplinarian and even though I knew I would have to enforce the rules I didn't know I would be "the enforcer." It's my one gripe but my husband is getting better but She has her daddy wrapped around her finger.

9. I sometimes have the TV on just for noise. I grew up in a house of five really noisy children and so sometimes I just need the noise to think and function. Silence can be deafening.

10. I can't believe I came up with nine other items, although who knows how unusual or unknown they really are. I feel like I am an open book and don't have many things about me that people don't know or would want to know.

So there they are. I was tagged while I was away on my cruise so it has been awhile. Anyway I tag whoever would like to do this.

Horse riding

Ray's brother's girlfriend gives horseback riding lessons to kids and invited us out to see the horses and possibly ride the horses. The kids warmed up rather quickly to the horses. She is giving one a treat in the above picture. She gives her grandparents' horses treats when she goes out there. Mom and Dad were very surprised at how fast the kids warmed up to the horses since it took them the whole trip to warm up to their Uncle's great dane.

Both She and T enjoyed brushing the little horse (it's a cross between a shetland pony and some type of horse.)

She was the first to get to ride. She loved wearing the helmet and had no problems with being put on the horse. Just 3 months ago she would not get on the horse at the July 24th celebration.

She rode the horse around the practice ring a few times and learned the clicking of the tongue to tell the horse to go forward.

T was next up. Now this was a real surprise to us since he has never been too close to horses but we figured once he seen sister do it he would want to do it. Daddy walked close behind to make sure T wouldn't slip off. He is the youngest person to ever ride this horse. He loved it and didn't want to get off.

She enjoyed helping lead the horse around. It took us forever to get them off the horse since after this T sat on the bigger horse and She sat on the little horse again.

Daddy got to ride the horse into the woods.

Mommy was thrown off and stepped on and rolled over on last time she was on a horse so it was a big step just for her to sit on the horse. Maybe next time we go to South Carolina I will actually ride the horse.

Finally back, Friday fill-ins

1. My blueprint for success includes living each day at a time.

2. Kissables was the last candy I ate.

3. The best facial moisturizer I've ever used is nothing. When I use that stuff my face dries out even worse when it has wore off.

4. Knitting & crocheting can be good therapy.

5. I'd like to tell you about my nightmare but I don't remember it.

6. Loyalty is my strongest characteristic.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to listing things on ebay, tomorrow my plans include recovering from the crud and Sunday, I want to go to at least Sacrament meeting since the kids and I are still sick!

Georgia Aquarium

Make a Smilebox postcard

Our Halloween

Make a Smilebox photobook

Obiden or McCalin

The day has finally arrived and we now have the opportunity to choose which pres/vp package we prefer. Luckily my husband and I voted early because I would not be feeling up to facing lines and people today to do so.

So in true hollywood fashion I have combined the names of the candidates with their vps. It was on accident really. A few weeks back I was talking about the Democrats and it came out Obiden and then a few days later I was talking about the Republicans and McCalin came out so that is what I started calling them like Hollywood would. In fact I am kind of surprised that the media hadn't done that in this case. I mean we had Bennifer and Brangelina and numerous others.

I do prefer the McCalin package. I do not trust the Obiden ticket. Too much back talking and changing of the minds. I have been a true Republican since the Reagan days and for those who realize how long ago that was that means I was truly a Republican since I was about 8 (since I really don't remember his first term.) Although my brother accused me of being a tree hugging liberal once and I just busted up laughing.

I would love to say that if you prefer the Obiden package please stay home today but I think everyone should vote. If you don't vote then you have no right to complain about what happens in government because you didn't care enough to cast your vote. For those of you voting today good luck with weather and lines and just know you have a part, albeit a small part, in most likely the biggest historic presidential election in history. A first will come from this election.

Home again and sick as a dog

We came back from South Carolina a day early because I am very sick with some sinus thing. I am achy, can't breath, have a headache, and a fever. Ray's brother had a class most of the day today so we decided to come on home a day early. Ray had to drive the whole way because I was either struggling to breath or enduring coughing fits. I will post about our trip when I get feeling better.