29 November 2015

It was a glorious week!  I cleaned and baked on Monday and enjoyed time at home.  I was able to run in the afternoon and was happy to see kids coming home from the bus.  Monday afternoon was very busy with school projects that needed to be worked on.  Helen did a poster project about Desert Tortoises.  I helped her print out the facts that she had found and she included a picture of her and Ammon her baby tortoise.  When we were done with Helen’s project we moved on to Felicity’s Million dollar project.  It was such a challenge to work on this with Felicity.  She had $1M dollars to spend with some guidelines.  She just could not get the hang of spending that much money.  She initially picked out a house for $125K and a used minivan from Craigslist and then when I told her to find a pool for her house, she found one on sale at Walmart.com for $200.  Ahh!  So I had to do a fair amount of hand-holding and helping her out.  Her finished PowerPoint presentation was nice and I think she started to understand the concept.

 Tuesday I continued on in my quest to get ahead of Christmas projects and then in the afternoon I went to the salon for a trim.  My mom picked up the kids from school and when I was done I met them for dinner and then we were off to the district auditorium for Helen’s 2^nd grade musical performance.  It was cute and she had a good time.

Wednesday morning I got all the kids off to school and then headed to the Gilbert temple.  They were closing early for the holidays, so I hurried to get there in time.  I ended up having plenty of time and enjoyed myself greatly.  It’s so nice to have the opportunity to feel refreshed and recharged as I try to attend the temple once a month.  The sky was really pretty and I got a couple of nice pictures of the temple before heading back home.  We enjoyed the evening together and ordered a pizza and had movie night.

Thursday morning the kids were picked up early by their dad to spend the holiday with him.  I made a birthday cake for a friend’s daughter and after that, I snuggled into a couple of movies and some sewing.  I had purchased several yards of cute flannel at Jo-Ann’s the day before on sale, so I made each of my kids a couple of pairs of PJs for Christmas.  I had several invites for Thanksgiving dinner, but just really was happy to be home and being productive, so that’s where I stayed.  The kids got home Thursday evening and pretty much went straight to bed after a long fun turkey day.

Friday the girls went to a birthday party and Arlo and I went grocery shopping and to pick the last of the ingredients for the holiday baking and the goodies for our 8^th annual Gingerbread Family Home Evening.  I was grateful the grocery store wasn’t too crowded even if the shelves were pretty picked over!  When the girls got home, Felicity helped me make some candy and then in the evening we went over to Nana and Papa’s to help them eat some of their Thanksgiving left-overs.

The kids went back with their dad Saturday morning and I went with Mindy to her parent’s house to have yet another Thanksgiving lunch and to help take family photos for them.  I always love being with their family and this time was no exception.  The kids came home in the evening and we went to bed fairly early so that we would be ready for church.  Our meetings went well and after church on Sunday we went back to my parent’s house to finish off the pie!  And now I find that my week of vacation has sadly come to an end.  I did manage to make seven home-made Christmas ornaments, two sets of painted gift blocks, five pairs of PJs, 21 mini loaves of sweet bread, 6 lbs. of fudge (edible fudge none the less), two batches of haystacks, three dozen Hawaiian Moon Drops, Angel Sweets, Sugar Cookies, and enough dough for six dozen cut-out cookies, and three dozen gingerbread men, and two-tier birthday cake among progress on several other gifts.  It was a happy Thanksgiving week and I feel ready for the holidays. 

I have so much to be thankful for: my family and friends, my children, our health, our home, the wonderful country to live in, my job, the temple, and most importantly the Gospel truths.  I hope that everyone had a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving as well.

22 November 2015

What a week!  I spent quite a bit of time working this week so that I will be able to have next week off for the Thanksgiving holiday.  It has made for some pretty long nights!  Felicity presented in class this week on career options, I love these photos of her with the pointer.  I’m grateful for Primary, because I know that it’s opportunities to speak in Primary and participate in Primary programs that has made her more comfortable speaking in front of people.  She is getting so big, it’s hard to believe that she’ll be ten in the coming year!  She helped me make dinner one night this week, and she also helped me prepare our family home evening lesson for Monday.

Tuesday was nice, we had our home teachers come by in the evening and we were able to get homework done and everything else we needed to do.  I taught a lesson on gratitude for Activity Days on Wednesday and we made “Thankful Paper Chains” to decorate with at Christmas.  I had visiting teaching on Thursday night, and that’s always nice to get out and visit.  The kids went to their dad’s Friday night and I started my vacation!  I stayed up far too late making Christmas gifts and loved every moment of it.  In the morning I went for a run (brrr!  It was cold) and did some chores around the house.  I also started my Christmas baking, which I love.  In the evening I pulled myself away from my craft table long enough to attend the adult session of stake conference, and enjoyed that.

Sunday morning I met my mom and we drove into Tucson to pick up Grandma and go have a Thanksgiving dinner with Grandpa.  He was asleep when we got there but woke up enough to have lunch with us and seemed to enjoy it.  My heart aches at how much he’s changed, but I’m grateful that he knew me and laughed when I teased him, so I have that to be thankful for.

I’m excited for the week off to do things that help me feel normal.  I look forward to making meals and baking and crafting and spending extra time with the kids. 

15 November 2015

It was such a great week!  We started the week off with my birthday on Monday.  One of my friends at work took it upon himself to inform everyone in the office that it was my birthday and to make sure to wish me a happy birthday.  Well, I was not disappointed, it was a very spoiling day!  I came home to a house full of balloons and streamers as Melynda had sneaked into the house and decorated with the kids before I got home from work.  It was too fun and such a surprise!  In the evening Mom and Dad took us to dinner at Red Lobster and I got to enjoy coconut shrimp and good company.

Tuesday we celebrated over at Mindy's with dinner and most of the clan.  There was yummy dinner and cake and by this time I'm starting to feel overly spoiled.  I took the kids over to my parent's house after dinner so that they could spend the night and be over there for the Veteran's day holiday.  I came and picked them up after work on Wednesday.  Thursday evening I had the opportunity to go out with some girlfriends, and Kayla came and babysat for me.  I was up far too late trying to get ahead of Christmas preparations.  I've also been trying to put in a few extra hours at work over the next couple of weeks so that I'll be able to have the whole week of Thanksgiving off.

I was off on Friday and took advantage; I went for a run, completed some chores, and had lunch with a friend.  My kitchen light had also gone out, so I got the necessary part at Home Depot and undertook taking it apart and rewiring it myself.  You don't realize how much you depend on something until you don't have it!  I helped Mindy make some mini birthday cakes on Friday night.

Saturday morning I was up early for my race!  I ran in the Sahuarita Pecan Festival Classic.  I signed up for the 8.5 mile (15K) run through the pecan orchard.  It was a little cold when I got through registration at 7:30, the race started at 8 and I was grateful that I was feeling good.  The run was beautiful through the trees and on the outskirt of the orchard.  It was different running in the dirt instead of on the asphalt.  It was pretty slow going, but I had expected that as I hadn't really had much training the two weeks leading up to the race.  I ran the duration and came in at 1 hour 35 minutes, about 11:20 minutes per mile.  So it wasn't fast or impressive, but I did it!  I spent the rest of the day with my cleaning chores, grocery shopping, and making a cake for Fynley's birthday.

I didn't get enough sleep Saturday night, but then again, when do I ever get enough sleep!  Our meetings were good on Sunday and I was happy to substitute teach the Mia Maid Class third hour.  We had a lesson on Health.  The weather has been beautiful and we are looking forward to going to Nana and Papa's for dinner and visiting this evening.  Going to try and get through the next week, looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday!

08 November 2015

It was a great week.  I stayed home with Arlo on Monday and Tuesday because he was not feeling well.  We enjoyed spending time together, even though he wasn’t feeling himself.   I’m not complaining however.  I am loving this weather, although it seems to have skipped getting cooler and just went straight to being cold.  The garden is green and thriving again.  Felicity taught our Family Home Evening lesson and it was lovely, she did a great job.  For our activity we worked in the garden.  We pulled some weeds out of the beds and did some fall planting.  The kids enjoyed getting dirty with me. 

We had activity days on Wednesday and we made decorations for the upcoming ward Christmas party.  I was home again on Thursday, not feeling well myself.

Friday night I took the kids into Tucson for their weekend visit with their dad.  Then Kayla and I went to dinner at Chipotle and to the movies.  We saw “Miss You Already”.  It was a good story and I enjoyed it, but it had some scenes that were a little on the inappropriate side, enough such that I checked the rating on my phone again to make sure I hadn’t brought Kayla to an R rated movie.  We went back to the house and stayed up chatting and I’m grateful she wanted to spend the evening hanging out with me.  I cooked some of the pumpkins we decorated for Halloween and made a wonderful pumpkin pie; it smelled so amazing!

Saturday was filled with lots of chores and cleaning and grocery shopping.  In the evening I went to the Stake Center to watch the Studio C Sketch comedy activity going on.  It was a fun time.  We had a stake conference Sunday morning, so church was a little shorter than usual.  After our meeting was over, Fynley wanted to come home with me, so I brought her home.  We baked a cherry pie and I taught her how to make a double pie crust from scratch.  We crocheted together and played some games.  It was fun to spend one on one time with her.  In the evening I took Fyn home and Mindy drove into Tucson with me to pick up the kids from their dad’s.   


I’m looking forward to the coming week as I continue to work on Christmas projects and plan some of our holiday traditions.  I love this time of year!

1 November 2015

Busy, busy!  We had family home evening on Monday and enjoyed spending time together.  Tuesday we had visiting teaching and then we went to the high school for senior night, Kayla's last home game.  The kids had a ball all playing together and I enjoyed getting to watch *some of the game in between trying to keep an eye on Arlo. 

 More visiting teaching on Wednesday and I was pleased that the kids were so well behaved.  We went to Mindy's to carve pumpkins on Thursday and had a blast!  Helen really got into hers and did such a great job.  I'm so grateful for their friendship and all the wonderful experiences we've had with that big crazy bunch! 

 I was home on Friday and got to see the kids off to school in their Halloween costumes.  Helen stuck to her guns and refused the mom-made costume and wore some ruddy old witch costume from the bottom of the dress-up bin.  I was more gracious than I thought I would be as she asserted her individuality.  They all came home from school with candy and fun stories from the day.  I spent the day doing some much needed cleaning and organizing in the garage.  I pulled out all the winter clothes, stored the summer clothes away, and donated several bags of stuff from the garage to DI.  We had pizza for dinner and had family movie night. 

 The kids helped me clean a bit on Saturday and I was able to get a lot of work done in the yard.  I trimmed everything in the front yard, mostly the things in the walkway and around the entry way and pulled weeds.  I mowed the backyard, edged, cleaned out the chicken coop, and pulled the weeds in the garden beds.  I was dirty and tired when the afternoon rolled around, but it felt good to get so much accomplished in a couple of days.  The bad part of being productive is that Arlo was left unattended long enough to take his Halloween candy from school behind the couch and eat it all in one sitting.  By the time it came to take pictures and get ready to go trick-or-treating he was coming down from a pretty good sugar high.  There was wailing and crying and he couldn't even tell anyone why he was so upset.  We had Kayla and Mindy's and Melynda's families over for Halloween; the kids were all so adorable.  I stayed home to hand out candy while most everyone else went to the ward trunk-or-treat.  The kids all got back and went out in the neighborhood to collect some more candy.  Jeff picked up my kids for a couple hours and then returned them.  We had chili and visited and the kids had such a great time.  I'm so grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life.

 There was no candy eating Sunday since I was worried Arlo was going to end up in a diabetic coma.  We went to Sunday School and Primary and then came home for lunch and went back for Sacrament meeting in the later ward.   In the evening I went to a single adult fireside meeting.  There was a pot luck dinner and then an entertaining fireside about the origins of our local church congregation.  I am grateful we enjoyed such a quiet and peaceful Sunday.  There's so much to be grateful for and I love this time of year to reflect upon those things.  This first day of November I am grateful for my family, for my children, for our health, for the Gospel, for my friends, and for all the wonderful things that are on the horizon for us.

25 October 2015

It was a nice and relatively quiet week. Monday found us at the Elam's to celebrate Troy's birthday.  I had made a carrot cake from scratch and boy, if I do say so myself, it was delicious.  I had made him a fleece liner for his sleeping bag, a new hat to wear while hunting in cold weather and a pair of PJs that match the ones I made for Isaiah and Malachi earlier this year.  We had such a nice time.  I am grateful for their friendship.

 I spent some time this week making Halloween costumes.  I went simple this year and crocheted the kids minion hats.  Then I just had to track down yellow shirt and overalls.  Felicity and Arlo were excited about it, Helen said she didn't want to be a minion.  I figured she would cave when she realized it was the only thing I was making.  Well, I should know better.  She promptly went into her room and rummaged around in the dress-up bin until she found an outfit that suited her and declared that is what she would be wearing.  Ok, my dear.  You win.  We had Activity Days on Wednesday and all the girls were combined for a pumpkin painting activity.  Felicity's pumpkin came right out of our garden (I love that) and I stopped at Walmart to get Helen one to paint.  They had a ball.

Arlo was in desperate need of a hair cut, so we took him for one on Thursday.  The wait was atrociously long, so we read.  Felicity is really enjoying the last Harry Potter book and I don't know what we'll start when we finish.  I'm grateful I have three kids, because I may subject all of them to reading the whole series with me!  His hair turned out so cute and I'm so glad I can see his adorable face again.  I didn't recognize him at first when I went to pick him up from school on Friday afternoon.

I worked on Friday and got to have lunch with An which is always a nice treat.  In the evening the kids went to their dad's to visit and I commenced with house cleaning and grocery shopping.  I stayed up late crocheting minion hats and watching movies and trying not to feel too crazy in the very clean and quiet house. 

I slept in a bit on Saturday, in that I woke up when my body said "time to get up" as opposed to the alarm.  That still turned out to be about six, so when the sun came up I went for a run.  I registered to run in the Pecan Classic in a few weeks.  I signed up for the 15K and have been training for that for several weeks.  I wanted to see if I could run the full 8.5 miles on Saturday so I set out with that as the goal, but fully intending to turn around when I got tired.  I ran out of road at about four miles and had to turn around, so I only completed about 8 miles, but was pleasantly surprised at how well I felt.  I even kept my average up above a 12 minute/mile pace.  When I was done I did some running around, including a trip to the thrift store in search of overalls for Halloween.  I found Arlo a pair for $1 and then found myself two cute skirts and a pair of heels!

Sunday was quiet.  I attended my meetings and then did a little baking in the afternoon. I'm enjoying the nicer weather and the beginning of the holiday season.

18 October 2015

We were back to school and back to the routine after a fun fall break.   We also had a pretty hectic week.

Wednesday I met with Helen's teacher for parent teacher conference and that went well.  Helen is doing well in school, she needs more time to practice her reading and we need to work on her spelling as well, but otherwise is doing quite well.  The kids had 1/2 days on Thursday and Friday and I was able to meet with Felicity's teacher on Thursday.  She also is doing so very well and ended up with a fair number of 4s on her progress report.  I'm so grateful that the girls enjoy school.  I heard from both teachers that the girls take their time in their assignments and have pride in their work.

Thursday after getting home we went to dinner with Nana and then Nana, Felicity, Helen, and I drove downtown to the convention center to see Disney's Frozen on ice.  Arlo stayed with Kayla and we really enjoyed a girls night out.  It wasn't too crowded and the show was a lot of fun.  I was really impressed with the costumes and the sets, they even had snow!

Friday I took the kids into Tucson for Grandma Ruth's memorial service.  Jeff's grandmother had passed away the previous week.  I sat through the memorial at the church with the kids and then handed them over to their dad for the grave-side service and family activities after.  I was very fond of Ruth and I know that while she'll be missed by her loving family she is happy and whole; reunited with many people that she loved in life.  Helen got a little emotional during the service, but wasn't able to put words to why she was feeling the way she was.  Perhaps it was just feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost, or perhaps because others were choked up.  She is a sweet girl and I love her and her sweet spirit.

I came home after leaving the kids to get groceries and clean the house.  Saturday morning was the Tucson Temple Groundbreaking ceremony and then later in the morning I went with Mindy to the Relief Society Super Saturday activity.  We made some fun crafts and enjoyed lunch together.

Sunday was church and a trip to Nana and Papa's for a visit.  Arlo and I played with grasshoppers in the back yard and we all had such a nice time.  Felicity helped Nana frost Halloween cupcakes.  They were pretty hyper and sugared up by the time we were ready to head home!

11 October 2015 -Elk Hunt

Ok, this week was awesome!  So the kids had spring break, and their dad expressed an interest in having them stay with him for the week, so that's what they did.  He picked them up on Sunday evening.  I went to work Monday and Tuesday as normal and then on Wednesday morning I got up really early and headed out on a camping adventure with the Elam clan.  Mindy had invited me to go camping with them as Evan had gotten an elk tag and would be hunting.   

 I stopped at the Phoenix temple on my way up to the White Mountains and enjoyed a little time there.  Then I changed clothes and made it up to the camp ground around lunch time. I don't have a lot of camping gear, but I didn't have to worry; when you camp with the pros its a pretty fun and comfortable experience.  My tent and cot and bedding went up quickly and I had my own chair and everything.  Wednesday evening I got to go out hiking with Troy, following a heard of Elk.  We didn't get to see them up too close because we had a couple of the little kids with us and they announced our presence in the woods quite nicely! That night there was a lovely camp fire, smores, and plenty of lively conversation.  I was a little cold in the night, but it was so fun I didn't let it bother me at all.  You could hear elk bugling and a coyote pack howling and the stars were incredible.

I was up and dressed with the sun on Thursday morning and Troy took me out hiking again for a couple of hours.  He was calling to the elk, and we saw some and some mule deer but could never get very close because the wind kept changing direction and giving us away.  It was gorgeous.  After breakfast we gave the kids quad rides and played cards and I'm sure I threw a football for at least an hour.  I took some crocheting with me and sat in the sun long enough to end up with a pink nose even though I didn't take my sweater off.  It was perfect and relaxing.  I missed the kids, and they would have loved it.  I'll make sure they get to come the next time.  I made some adjustments to my bedding the second night and actually got too warm!

The boys went off hunting Friday morning in search of Evan's elk, but came back empty handed.  The kids played so well and we had such a nice time.  In the evening the guys went back out and Mindy and Melynda and I took the kids for a walk.  They were so noisy we were never going to see any animals, but it was fun just the same!   Evan got his elk Friday night, but managed to cut himself badly cleaning it.  So Mindy and Melynda took him to the hospital while Dan and I made sure all 10 kids got dinner!  I think Dan was pretty relieved when Peter and Troy showed back up to camp so that every family had a parent there.  We talked around the fire until bed time.  The girls brought Evan back with a few stitches sometime after the rest of us went to bed.

We packed up camp, which took a fair amount of time and then we were headed home.  It was so much fun and I was so grateful for the fun opportunity.  I went to church on Sunday and then in the evening picked up the kids.  It will be hard to head back to work after so much fun!

04 October 2015

I am so grateful that this week seemed so much less hectic.  It really does seem that activities line up in such a way that they all land on the same week.  Felicity and I were reading fools all week.  We finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  The only thing worse than seeing her react to Dumbledore’s death, was having to hear her malign Severus Snape the rest of the week!  I guess it just gives me something to look forward to: seeing her face when we get to the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  She also had a social studies project that was due, so there was a night dedicated to that as well.

Last weekend I came to the conclusion that I needed to make some changes in regards to our finances.  I am extremely grateful for the great job I have and I’m tired of feeling like I don’t make enough money to make ends meet, because I really should.  Without going into too many details, I have some debts that I’ve been paying on for years now, including the year of student loans I took to finish my education, and some debt I acquired at a time in life when as a family we didn’t have any income coming into the house.  I made the decision that effective immediately, we would be cutting out a lot of the extras that we enjoy and tighten our belts a bit and focus on getting the debt paid off.  I canceled my weight watchers subscription, our Netflix, and piano lessons.  There are some other changes I’m making as well.  I hope that we can get to place where we have more financial freedom and can use our money freely instead of being burdened by paying debts.

Camping out on the couch

Helen had another student council meeting on Thursday and is excitedly planning activities and fund raisers for her school.  She has really enjoyed having this opportunity.  The kids were picked up in the afternoon and taken over to the Boveington's for a birthday party and I had a girls night out.  We had so much fun, I really look forward to those evenings.  The kids had a blast as well.  It was a fun mid week evening.

I worked from home on Friday, and after a morning of work, I took time to complete my chores and make a run to the grocery store.  In the evening we had our weekly movie night and got to watch, as you may have guessed, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  We had a great time.  I love to hear Felicity say ,"the book was better".  Saturday was the beginning of our weekend of General Conference.  This is something we look forward to twice a year.  It is an occasion for our church leaders to deliver inspiring messages and instruction.  I made each of the kids a packet of activities and a place for them to take notes.  They love this tradition and look forward to new conference packets every six months.  In between the morning and afternoon session we went to the park for a picnic lunch and to play on the playground.  The weather was beautiful, it was such a perfect day for it.

Sunday we continued to watch the remaining two sessions of conference from the couch in our PJs.  I managed to make three crocheted hats as Christmas gifts, so I was pleased with that.  After conference we went to Nana and Papa's to visit and have dinner.  The kid's dad came and picked them up at about 5:30.  They have fall break next week, so they are going to spend some extra time with him.  I know I will miss them terribly!

I would encourage anyone to read or listen to any of the talks given during General Conference.  Skeptical?   I read a great article entitled "TED talks with a twist—Why you shouldn’t be scared of Mormon General Conference".  Maybe some food for thought!  This conference was very special as three new apostles were called and sustained to fill vacancies in the quorum of the twelve apostles created by the deaths of President Packer and Elders Perry and Scott.  There were some very touching and inspiring addresses this conference.  The two that immediately stick out in my mind are A Plea to My Sisters by President Russell M. Nelson and Behold Thy Mother by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.  They were both about women, mothers, and motherhood.  I'm so grateful that the Heavens are not silent that just as He did anciently, our Father still speaks to His children by way of prophets and apostles.  Love to all!