Pumpkin Carving.

We carved pumpkins tonight.. Just wanted to show some picts of the fun the kids were having.. Sorry for my topless son.. He wouldnt wear a shirt because he didnt want any pumpkin guts on it!! Everyone but logan was disgusted pulling out the pumpkin guts. Logan was giggling and laughing the whole time.. She was the first one to get her pumpkin cleaned out.

And this was our results.. Steve usually does all the carving. In years past he has spent hours carving away. This time I told him he was limited to 2 hrs. So he only got 1 really cool one done but I think they all turned out pretty good...

Pumpkin Hay Ride

Thursday our ward had a what they call Mother's Group activity for mothers and their small children who are not in school yet. They usually have some kind of activity once a month and this month was to go to the Windsor Farms and got on a hay ride and pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.. It was a really fun time.. My other children really missed out. They drive you through the forrest where they have set up little towns and villiages with scarry halloween characters from scarry movies like freddie crougar and Jason. They also had the amnityville house and the bates motel. It was really cool.. After leading us through the haunted forrest we stopped at a big rest place where they had several tables and bathrooms and they gave us fresh apple cider.. I am not a big apple juice fan but this apple cider was just the best stuff I have ever tasted. It was strictly juice straight from the apples it was so good!! I brought some home and my family devoured it..

They also had a bunch of Disney characters throughout the forrest from some of the monster disney movies like shrek, scooby doo, monsters inc,3 pigs and the wolf, little red riding hood,casper. The kids were so excited they just had a blast.

Ok so this is strange.. blogger is not letting me format the way I want so this is not looking how I wanted it too. I am not sure why it is doing this.. Anyways here is a pict of the pirates, they had a big pond and acroos the other side of the pond was a big pirate ship with all the skeletons and pirates. Sorry some of the pictures ar not that great it was hard to get some of them as we were moving on the trailer. But if you click on the picture it will show you a bigger picture..

Logan picking her pumpkin!!

The villiage of the witches!!

This was at the entrance. The pumpkin goblin actually lighted up and talked to us the kids really got a kick out of it..

Forgetful Toothfairy

As if I didnt have enough trauma last night.... Before the light of day this morning we had to experience yet 1 more... So my 6 yr old lost her tooth yesterday and she had put it under her pillow upon going to bed with a note to the toothfairy that said I love you on it... So sweet right?? Well anyways I come home last night and she was already asleep so I tucked her in and gave her a kiss and went off to bed. Come 3:00 this morning we had a very distraught little girl come into our room stating her tooth and note was missing and there was no money left for her.. We had to reassure her that everything was ok and that we were sure the toothfairy would be coming and to hurry and go back to sleep so she could come.. Of course I couldn't go back to sleep after that worrying about how the dang toothfairy could manage to get the tooth but forget to leave her money DUHHHHHHH..... Naturally after fretting about it for an hour I think the toothfairy assumed it was safe to come and left her some money however mom stayed awake the rest of the morning. Come 6:30 this morning we had a happy little toothless grinning girl come bouncing into our room holding her dollar and proceeded to tell us her concockted story that she truly believed that when she had woke up at 3 AM she had found her tooth that it must have slid off her bed into her garbage can and that she had found it and put it back under her pillow and that is when the toothfairy came. I figured there wasn't any need to let her believe otherwise even though I knew the tooth hadn't fallen into her garbage can but I did give her 2 other possible scenarios that maybe she had taken the tooth back to fairy land to have it weighed to see how much the tooth was worth and then had to come back and leave the money or maybe that when she had taken the tooth she began to wake up so the toothfairy had to use some of her special fairy dust to turn her invisible so she could hide and not bee seen and then when she fell back asleep she was able to leave the money.. Who knows!!

My personal opinion and conclusion to this story.....Well this isn't the first time this has happened. Big sister lost a tooth a couple months ago and she didnt get any money for her tooth either until the next night.. what a very forgetful toothfairy... Well I remember having the toothfairy come to me and leave money for my teeth and my mom saying that she used to come to her and leave money for her teeth so I am guessing this toothfairy is really old by now and maybe she suffers from old timers and a little senility.... LOL Jessie will be loosing her second front tooth probably today or tomorrow so lets hope the toothfairy has it together by then aayy!!

Not a good night!!

Ok people this one is gonna be another long one... It's been one of those days!!!

Can I just say AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!! As my kids repeatedly will say practically everyday when they dont get their own way:(This is the worst day ever!!)

I had this brilliant idea that I would make some homemade wheat bread and I have never made homemade bread since I was like 14 and I helped my mom once. I always have used my bread machine but with all this stress over food storage and being prepared I wanted to see if I could do it if I had to do it the old fashion way so I decided to use a friends recipe well her husbands recipe she posted on her blog. It looked so good in her pictures.. It was supposed to be made with a bread mixer but I figured I could do it by hand. It makes 6 loafs so I went and got all the stuff I would need and spent most of the day making it up.. Tonight we had alot of things going on. We had pack night for scouts and I also had activity days at the same time so I knew that I had to get everything done at a decent time so we could eat and get to the church on time.

Well forget that!!!!! After I had put the bread into the loaves to rise I waited an hour and they still were not rising so I got this idea to warm up the oven then shut it off and put a shallow pan of hot water on the bottom rack and stick the loaves in and see if it would make them rise.. After about another hour they did finally rise and looked pretty good however it was time to get my dinner cooked and we were already way behind and I knew we were going to be late.

So I took the loaves out thinking oh I will let them raise a little more while dinner is cooking then stick them back in to cook. So I took them out and set them on the counter and within a min or two they all sunk and flattened out. I was so mad I just couldnt believe it.. All that time and now they had just flattened right out.. There was nothing I could do so I knew I needed to get them cooked now or they wouldnt be done in time before I had to go to the church so I slid the loaves in around dinner and put a couple on the bottom rack of the oven. When they all were nicely browned I took them out but the one on the bottom rack burned along the bottom and sides and the rest turned out pretty good other then they were squatty little bricks.. They did however still taste pretty good I must admit.. But they definently were not pretty by any means. I was hoping to give some away to some friends but I guess I wont be doing that now.. I am not sure if my house was to cold so they didnt have a warm area to rise or just what because my yeast was brand new so it couldnt have been that. Anyways I was pretty dissapointed.. My little loaves were the only ones that turned out somewhat decent.. I never put them in the oven to rise I just let them rise on their own for about 2 hrs or so.

Then of course my kids wouldn't hurry and eat and then Austin couldnt find his scout shirt that was hanging in his closet, then we couldnt find his neckerchief and clasp. He's only had it for 2 weeks and already he has lost it.. I think he left it at the church last week and we checked lost and found but nothing, so now we have to go buy another one.. And of course we were stuck in traffic trying to get onto the freeway it took us 15 mins to go 2 blocks. I was so flustered by the time I got to the church I just wanted to scream.. Then for activity days we made scripture cookies and the oven was very slow in cooking so we went way over for our meeting waiting for the cookies to get done and we were waiting for the last final batch so the girls could have 1 to eat because the other ones were supposed to go to someone as a service, and as I was taking it out of the oven I dropped one edge and the whole pan of cookies slid off the sheet and fell onto the door of the oven so I had a big pile of mushed cookies.. I was so ready to cry at this point. I just wanted to crawl in a hole and never come out.

Then oh wait yes there is more.............. I live about 15-20 min for church so we are about half way home and my son says oh I left my scarf at church so we had to turn back around and go all the way back to get it. So by the time we got home it was 9:30 and my kids still had to take their baths and get into bed hoping they can even get out of bed in the morning at 5:45.

So this was my day!! I swear this could have led me to drinking!! LOL I think the reason Im not handeling all this to well is I have also been without my hormones for 4 days because I have been to busy to run down to the pharmacy to pick them up so I am going through all this with crazy hormonal mood swings and hot flashes as well.. Someone just kill me now PLEASE!!!! LOL I know that was probably more info you didnt want or need to know!!

Sorry for rambling on so long I just had to tell someone about my crazy day..

3 Month Supply

I was told about a wonderful blog which had alot of great ideas and recipes and easy day by day planning for food storage, emergency kits, and 72 hr kits.. I really loved this blog.. It was just what I needed.. They give you great recipes for using your food storage and daily or weekly challenges for your 3 month food supply which was great for me.. Our stake has challenged us to have our 72 hr kits and our 3 month food supply by Dec 31st of this year. I just found out about it last week so I have alot of planning to do.. I was going nuts trying to figure out how i was going to accomplish this task in such a short time but with the help of this site I think it could be possible. Now if I can just come up with the money.. LOL
I am going to attempt to make the cardboard box oven tomorrow that is if I can find a box..It looks pretty simple..
Anyways check out the site.. The link is on the side of my page under my friends list. Its called safely gathered in...

I was also sent a couple links that had some awesome info about food storage and making it simple. It also contains recipes and info on making a solar oven and easy ways to get a 1 yr supply of food like taking a meal you know your family eats like say spagetti. Find out how much of each ingredient you need for the meal so like 1 can of hunts spagetti sauce, 1 lb hamburger, 1 16 oz bag of spagetti and 6 cups of water. If your family would eat it once a week you times it by 52 or if every other week times by 36 and that is how much you would need of each ingredient for 1 yrs food storage for that meal.. Pretty easy hu?

It has alot of good info so check it out.
http://theideadoor.com/PDF%20Files/RS/EverythingUnderTheSun.pdf

http://theideadoor.com/FoodStorage.html

Seems we have been getting alot of warning lately about getting prepared and getting food storage.. Its all I have been thinking about lately and it is driving me nuts because I am so unprepared and not in a state where i can do much about it at this time. I hope whatever is coming waits until I can get caught up with my food storage and financial savings.....Knock on wood!!

Fall

I just love this time of year..The colors are just so beautiful.. Of course this morning as I had to stand out at the bus stop for 40 mins waiting until all the kids got on their buses was not too fun. All the grass was frosted and it was bitter cold.. It was 34 degrees and the kids had to put their gloves on and their hoods of their jackets on their head.. I think its time to break out the winter coats. however it was really nice last week. I thought i would share some photos I got of some of the trees and Logan playing out in the leaves. She has really gotten into collecting the prettiest leaves we can find on our way home from the bus stop.







Dont look to closely at my weeds. They were a little out of control.. But as you can see in the next picture I got it all weeded and planted some beautiful bright mums in their place..

It was a great relaxing weekend for us. I was able to go running on sat and the weather was just beautiful. yesterday was our stake confrence and we had some wonderful talks given. One on Making our familys our first prioritys. we were lucky to have one of the General Authorities Elder Porter come speak to us about familys and getting through difficult times and how fast the years go and to cherish our moments with our kids and to alway tell them we love them. It was a very uplifting meeting..

We have many things going on this week. It will be a run, run week.

Happy Fall everyone!!

CatholicVote.com

Another really good video to see...


CatholicVote.com

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Proposition 8

Our voices need to be heard.. Please take a moment to check this clip out.. It's pretty sad..
I couldn't figure out how to get the video in this post but it is at the bottom of my blog that you can go click on and watch as well... It's just above the holiday countdowns...


http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1352578267/bctid1819819843

Kid Tag

I saw this on a few friends blogs and thought it was cute so I decided to do it too!!

Allie says

1.What is something mom always says to you? "That she loves me"

2. What makes mom happy? " When I do what she wants"

3. What makes mom sad? "When we dont do what she says"

4. How does your mom make you laugh? "She says funny things in a funny way"

5. What was your mom like as a child? "A tom boy"

6. How old is your mom? "like 31 arnt you?"

7. How tall is your mom? "5 ft 8 inches my guess"

8. What is her favorite thing to do? "Die cuts and scrapbooking"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "I have no idea"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "Probably everything she does"

11. What is your mom really good at? "making good meals and die cuts"

12. What is your mom not very good at? "Art"

13. What does your mom do for her job? "She makes Die Cuts"

14. What is your mom's favorite food? "I dont know"

15. What makes you proud of your mom? "She always tries to make things as perfect as possible"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "There's no cartoon that explains you"

17. What do you and your mom do together? "Sometimes we go out to dinner and shop"

18. How are you and your mom the same? "We both like chocoalte and chinese food"

19. How are you and your mom different? "She is better at sports and Im not"

20. How do you know your mom loves you? "By the way she acts and by her telling me"





Austin said:
1.What is something mom always says to you? "You say alot of things.. No you cant read at night"

2. What makes mom happy? "Not fighting"

3. What makes mom sad? "fighting"

4. How does your mom make you laugh? "she makes up funny jokes"

5. What was your mom like as a child? "funny, cool, impressive"

6. How old is your mom? "31"

7. How tall is your mom? "around 5 ft"

8. What is her favorite thing to do? "spend time with us"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "sometimes play games, sometimes clean"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "being nice"

11. What is your mom really good at? "making people laugh"

12. What is your mom not very good at? "making people really sad"

13. What does your mom do for her job? "make die cuts"

14. What is your mom's favorite food? "I dont know"

15. What makes you proud of your mom? "she's always there to support me in all the things I do"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "Dora"

17. What do you and your mom do together? "we play games, we go to the park. go to movies"

18. How are you and your mom the same? "we both are funny"

19. How are you and your mom different? "My moms funnier"

20. How do you know your mom loves you? "she helps me and really takes care of me and gives me hugs and kisses"



Jessie said:
1.What is something mom always says to you? "I love you every night"

2. What makes mom happy? "Not to fight"

3. What makes mom sad? "when we fight and yell"

4. How does your mom make you laugh? "You have alot of stuff like making jokes up and tickeling me.

5. What was your mom like as a child? "You were little"

6. How old is your mom? "a 3 and a 1"

7. How tall is your mom? "22 big"

8. What is her favorite thing to do? "visit her mom"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "She goes to the store"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "singing"

11. What is your mom really good at? "being nice" (she is so sweet)

12. What is your mom not very good at? "playing wii

13. What does your mom do for her job? "you dont have a job"

14. What is your mom's favorite food? "salad"

15. What makes you proud of your mom? "When she is nice to us"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "zoey o1"

17. What do you and your mom do together? "We go shopping together"

18. How are you and your mom the same? "we have the same eyelashes"

19. How are you and your mom different? "I dont have long hair and blue eyes"

20. How do you know your mom loves you? "By caring, and watching us and makes us happy when we are sad"..

logan Said: (she is only 4 remember)

1.What is something mom always says to you? "Be nice"

2. What makes mom happy? "Flowers"

3. What makes mom sad? "not eating our dinner"

4. How does your mom make you laugh? "tickle me"

5. What was your mom like as a child? "like me"
6. How old is your mom? "5"

7. How tall is your mom? "1,2,3,4,5,6,9,"

8. What is her favorite thing to do? "play on the computer"

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "do work, go on the computer"

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "sing"

11. What is your mom really good at? "playing on the computer ( do you think she's trying to tell me something)

12. What is your mom not very good at? "at wii"

13. What does your mom do for her job? "you dont have any job"

14. What is your mom's favorite food? "Salad"

15. What makes you proud of your mom? "taking me to the park"

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "girl that has long hair on scooby doo"

17. What do you and your mom do together? "Play games sometimes, go to the park"

18. How are you and your mom the same? "Blue eyes"

19. How are you and your mom different? "our hair"

20. How do you know your mom loves you? "Cuz you take me to the park"


I was a little scared doing this for fear of what they would say but to my surprise it was alot better then I thought.. Didnt know I was so funny!! Whew!!

Time Out

Beware... This is a long one!!





I had such a great time at the Time Out for Women Confrence I attended on Sat. It was such an uplifting event. Here is a little info about Time Out for Women from the President and Chief Executive Officer of Deseret Book Company:


About Time Out for Women
During recent years, it has been my privilege to meet hundreds of thousands of you throughout the world. And you are, very simply, spectacular! I know something of your goodness, your virtue, and your strength. I also know something about the intensity of your lives. It's not necessarily easy to raise happy, righteous families and live as a woman of God in the 21st century. No doubt there are days when your clear perspective about life dims a little and you long for someone to remind you why you're here and who you are.
If you're like I am, on those days you might have wished you could just call "Time Out" long enough to regroup, and catch your physical and spiritual breath. As a result, Time Out for Women: Celebrating Life, Love and Learning was born.
In September 2002, we held our first-ever Time Out for Women in Phoenix, Arizona. The women who attended were fabulous and their response to the authors and music artists who presented that day was overwhelming. Since then we've been inundated with requests to bring Time Out to other cities.
It is our hope that during this day filled with messages of inspiration from respected authors and music artists, you will learn, you will laugh, and your spirits and sights will be lifted. It is Deseret Book's great pleasure to invite you to catch your breath, take a break from daily pressures, "huddle" with your sisters and friends, and feel rejuvenated for the days ahead.
We look forward to taking a Time Out with you!
Sheri Dew








And it was just that a rejuvination.. I didnt quite get the opportunity to really get into it as I had wanted to due to coming down with the worst tension headache I have ever had.. I was in so much pain I could hardly concentrate on anything else. But I still enjoyed it emmensly and would highly reccomend that if you have an opportunity and the means to attend one of these confrences that you jump on it..



So we left friday night around 6:00 and got into philly around 7 or so.. We went and got checked into our hotel and then tried to find a place for dinner.. We found this little Italian restraunt just a couple of blocks away.. I am still not used to the busy life of big citys and was taken back that we had to pay $20 bucks just to park.. The restraunt was fairly busy and by the time we finally got our dinner it was like 9-9:30 It is hard to eat so late but it was really good. We got back to the hotel and decided to get ready for bed and call it a night. I think it was close around midnight by the time we finally went to sleep and we were up at 5:45 Am to start getting ready. My crazy roomy decided she wanted to excercise before getting ready so she went and walked laps around the hotel floor we were on.. LOL!!! I didnt bring any work out clothes or I would have joined her.. So I just decided to do some crunches and push ups and some stretching so I could at least say I did something physical.. By the time we were ready and were heading out the door to the confrence center I could feel my headache coming on.. I had had one for the last 4 days just minor tension headaches due to some back and neck pain I was experiencing probably for sleeping wrong on it and I dont know if sleeping in the hotel bed made it worse or not but by the time i got to the confrence center I was in so much pain I was on the verge of crying.. I took some pain medication when I first got there but it didnt seem to do much. The music and noise just seemed to make it pound worse. A couple hours into it I took a little more pain medication and it finally helped take the edge off but never really took it away.. It kind of came in waves of feeling like I was ok and could actually function to horrible pounding with my neck and head tensing up.. Finally by the time it was over 6 hrs later I was finally getting some relief.


It was so great though. The confrence this time was really church oriented which I heard others in the past have not been so centered around the LDS faith. It was so refreshing and uplifting. It was all about finding joy.. Everything doesn't have to be going just right in order to experience joy.. It is sometimes in the midst of everything going a little less than "just right" that we can learn so much more about the everlasting joy promised to each of us.

Sorry for the quality of some of the pictures.. I think they were reflecting my head!! LOL

We got to enjoy many songs performed and written by Hillary weeks who was so witty and funny yet very spiritual. she had a couple "dittys" is what she called them that she performed to The sound of musics These are a few of my favorite things that was just hilarious..It kinda went like..... nap time and bed time and bed time and nap time, nap time and bed time and bed time and nap time these are a few of my favorite things. So funny...She related to how all of us moms have felt at one time or another and put them in words to beautiful music. There were 2 that really teared me up. 1 called If I only had today wich was so beautiful about what if we only had today what would we do and who would we do it with and about spending it with our family... So beautiful and the other one was Just let me cry which is a song about grieving and that sometimes we dont need all the words and nice deeds to make us better but that sometimes we just need to cry... Very beautiful... She is very talented. She and her family live in Lehi Utah.


We also got to hear from Chris Stewart who is a best selling author and world record setting air force pilot who talked about what is the purpose of our being. How much joy are we supposed to feel in a troubled world. Can our trials make us happier as well as stronger... Very good!!


We also heard from Carolyn J. Rasmus who was a professor and an administrative assistant to Pres Dallin H Oaks and Jeffrey R Holland. She is a convert to our church and she talked on that just because life's mountain tops are followed by spiritual valleys and deserts, that doesnt mean we cant or wont experience great joy.. I think I enjoyed her talk the most!!


We also heard from Jane Clayson Johnson who most of you from utah probably have already heard of her or know her from being the co- anchor of the early show on CBS as well as the network correspondent for the evening news and 48 hours. She spoke on "Stop. Listen. I'm here." Do you ever feel like your'e too caught up in life? When the noise and distractions of the world start to crowd out the voice of the spirit. We must stop and listen. as women we have the unique ability to tap into the promptings that come relative to our children and our stewardships. Today is more critical then ever that we hear and heed those promptings.



We also heard from Douglas E. Brinley who is a professor of church history and doctorine at BYU. He has authored or co authored several books on marriage and family relations. His talk was on "Because of the Empty Tomb" If there was no savior, there would be no faith. Nothing would matter. But, of course there is a savior and because of the doctorine of his resurrection, everything in the gospel of Jesus Christ has relevance to our daily lives, including our familys and our marriages. Drawing on the truths of the scriptures, you'll discover new applications for the resurrection in your most important life treasures.



Also we heard from Emily Watts who is an editor for Deseret Book. She taught us "Be Joyful..Even if it's all your fault".. She talked about experiencing motherguilt the nagging feeling that somehow everything that goes wrong is our fault. She taught us about putting our family's challenges into perspective and to feel the joy (and the relief) that comes from partnering with the lord in our parenting.



It was such a great confrence.. They had tables from deseret book there with their books and alot of stuff from the store for sale. It was hard not to buy everything. And now I am wishing I would have got more...



And so because of your life circumstances (or in spite of them) whatever they may be, today may you find joy in every song, every message, every struggle, every tear,every smile....

Here's to discovering your Joyful Life!!




I am so lucky today I recieved an award from my very good friend Jodi at Beacon of Hope who said some very nice words of me and my blog. I recieved the....

award.. Since she already recieved the award I cant pass it back but I love her blog.. From her Friday memes and fill ins to her serenity sundays which always has something spiritual and uplifting to her parenting points and tips for the frazzled mom based on the book The power of Positive Parenting there is so much entertainment on her blog and I look forward eveday to reading it...

Now to my nominees.... I wish I could have named you all for I look forward to reading each and everyone of your blogs.. No wonder i never get anything done!! I know a few were nominated by Jodi already...

Jen at Living the life

I can relate alot to her. She has kids the same age as mine and I can relate to some of the funny storys she posts about them. She has alot of strength and spiritualness that shines through in her posts. She also has a running blog thay I love to read.. I have learned alot from her.

Jody at Doran & Jody

I have always thought she is so funny and witty..I love to hear about her adventures with her family. She says it how it is and I love that..

Courtney at Ramblings of a Working Wife and Mom

I relate alot with her as well.. I think all of us mothers of small children relate with each other.. It's hard enough to raise a family but to work as well is amazing!!

Natalie at Me and Ma Vie

Even though she is family Ilove reading her blogs.. I love keeping in touch with her and watching her new baby grow.. She also is juggeling the life of motherhood and working.. You go girl!! Love ya...

Rebecca at The Pearson Posse

Also a good friend of mine.. I love reading her adventures too.. Her family loves the outdoors. She has the cutest kids ever.. They have had many struggles and trials with the health of their children and I admire her for her courageous strength.

Jodi at The Gallagher Family

My old neighbor and good friend.. I love to keep up with old friends.. She is so crafty. She is in the process of making the cutest halloween costumes and selling them...I love to watch her kids growing up through her posts.. She is a great mom and the love she has for them shines through in them...

And last but not least Emily at Family Junk

Another good friend and awesome hair stylist... I so miss her doing my hair.. She is so hilarious.. And she is a cool mom.. I miss home like crazy and reading her blog tends to take me back there..

The rules are simple - choose seven blogs you love, post a link - then leave a comment telling them they have been awarded.

Whew!! finally made it to the end... Sorry for such the long post today... Happy monday everyone!! Oh by the way all of you in utah.. Ha ha ha while you are freezing in the snow I am enjoying almost 80 degree weather out here.. Its been absolutely beautiful here!!!

Bad Girl

Well I'v been a very bad girl and I am off to my time out!!! LOL Yeah I am so excited to be leaving for the time out for women in P.A It is a much deserved time out.... Have a great weekend everyone!! I will post on my time out when I get back... MUUUAAAHHH!!

Stress test

Today I got to have a stress test done. Of course I wasnt lucky enough to get to wear a sports bra. I had to do it with just a paper gown wrapped around me.. It was quite interesting. First they swab you down with alcohol, then they take this stuff I didnt get a good look to see what exactly it was. It was either some kind of tape or some kind of razor but they slashed it across my chest and around my breast and along side of my stomach so quick and it really hurt. I think it was for removing any hair so they can put the leads on and have them stick good. It felt like she was taking a piece of rough sand paper and rubbing it over me.. 5 hrs later and I still have these scrape marks all over my chest. It looks like I got in a fight with a cat. Oh man right after she finished and got the leads on, my skin felt like it was on fire. The area was stinging and I thought I was having some kind of allergic reaction. Crazy I know!!! Anyways I did pretty good I think until I got to level 5 of the test. See they are striving to get your heart rate up to 159 based on my age and weight and being a runner I am pretty well conditioned (at least as far as my heart goes) so it took more levels to get my heart rate up fast enough which is a good thing... But by level 5 I was running and breaking a sweat and while your trying to hold on to the handle bar and run the nurse is trying to take my blood pressure plus your running on an incline so it was kinda hard. I only ran 14 min but I was tired by then and had reached my heart rate and kept it there for about 3 min and I said ok we can stop now.. By then I had sweat rolling down my head and face and I was glistening everywhere.. How embarassing!! After reviewing it with the Dr. she said I had an almost perfect test except one area that had some diffrent thing going on but that since I didnt make any complaints during that area that it was probably nothing to worry about.. I was supposed to be hooked up to a heart monitor to wear for 24 hrs after the stress test but they decided they would let me go home first and shower and freshen up and then go back in the morning and get the monitor put on then.

Now you guys are probably wondering why I am having these tests done... Well over the past year I have been experiencing heart palpatations and flutters so a few weeks ago they decided to do an EKG on me and said that I have a short PR whatever that means and that most peoples measure between 120 - 140 and mine was 102 so they said it was probably nothing and that I appear to have a healthy heart but where I am a runner they just wanted me to be checked out. So I guess they are trying to figure out why mine is a little faster then normal but nothing major and everything looks good so far.. I have to have an echo cardiogram next week and then a follow up with the Dr to discuss results. And of course now that I am having tests done my heart has not had any palpatations for several days now.. Isnt that how it always works. I kinda hope something does happen in the 24 hrs that I am wearing the monitor just so they can see exactly what it is doing so I can feel more at ease but it probably wont.. They tend to come and go. Sometimes I will have alot and some days I have none..

Anyways thats my crazy story for today.. The kids have school off tomorrow so we are so excited we get to sleep in tomorrow and relax. I cant wait until Fri I am going down to stay in Philadelphia with a friend of mine so we can go to the time out for women confrence on sat. I hear this is the most awesome confrence out there for women. Very spiritual and uplifting. I cant wait. It will be a nice girls night out!!

Happy Hump Day everyone!!! The week is half way over... Yeah!!!

Catch Up

Wow it seems life just is not slowing down. Or at least by the time the day has finally slowed down and I have a few minutes to myself I am to tired to get on here and blog...


We had a great weekend. I cant remember that far back to tell you what friday brought but Sat we all got to finally sleep in and it felt so good!! We had a late pancake and bacon breakfast then steve took austin to karate and went and did some grocery shopping for me and I spent the afternoon cleaning my house so that we could spend the rest of the day relaxing and listening to confrence. We decided to record the last half of confrence so we could go to a soccer game at Princeton University. Austin had 1 more activity to do to get his bear badge completed in scouts and it required going to watch a college or highschool sport. So we went and watched the princeton tigers play against wisconsin B? I cant remember what they were called. This was my first time to a soccer game. It was pretty fun. I am glad we were finally able to get Austins requirements completed for his bear.. When we moved here and got into the scouting program we found they do it a little diffrent here. They dont advance you by your birthday they do it by the grade your in at school. So when we left utah he had just advanced into the bears and had only passed off like 2-3 things since his birthday was in Nov but when we got here all the boys in the bears had completed all their requirements for their bear so we were told that austin would have to do all his requirements at home on his own so we (Austin and I) spent the whole summer working on it and finally got it done sat. Now he is caught up and in the same place as everyone else in the webelos. It was a lot of hard work. I never had to worry about it before because his previous leaders made sure they did all the things to pass their stuff off but when its all up to you it takes alot of time..





Anyways Sunday was great.. Confrence was so great this year.. I was really moved by Elder Hollands talk I was a blubbering mess. Steve's new favorite words now are Come what may and love it!! It was so uplifting and scarry at the same time.. Go Here to listen to some of the great talks.... I'v had this overwhelming feeling lately that I need to get things in order and get prepared.. The church has been telling us this for years but it seems to really be stressed alot lately.. I am so far from where I want to be as far as food storage and emergency preparedness. With the possibility of moving come summer I want to wait and buy food storage when I get settled somewhere a little more permanent so I dont have to move it all but it just makes me nervouse not being prepared right now and being so far away from family... I have been thinking alot lately about all the what if's that could happen with the market and economy being the way it is going and what if something was to happen to steve. what would I do.. I just pray I never have to find out..


Anyways I am rambling again... Im a little sleep deprived.. So monday I am out doing some yard work and I am bending over pulling some weeds and behind me I hear this sound of something running up behind me I turn around and this Doe is heading right for me.. It runs right up just feet from me and passes me running along the side of our yard and into the back yard and on to the neighbors yards.. Around here alot of people dont fence in their yards. Every house sits on about at least an acre of property or more so there is alot of land between the houses and because it is so forresty out here we have alot of wildlife out here so it is not uncommon to see deer and other wild life around here. But man it was crazy I dont know if the doe didnt see me until I stood up or what but about scarred the tar out of me..

Boy our mornings and nights have been pretty nippy here.. we had a low of 38 yesterday.. I made the kids wear gloves and jackets to the bus stop today. Once the sun comes out it warms up and is alot nicer but the mornings and nights are chilly already.. Seems we didnt get much time between running our air conditioner and turning on the heater. I finally had to break out an extra blanket and put on our bed last night. Today Jessie had field day at school. Logan and I went to the school to watch her for a while.. Its so funny to see all these little first graders learning how to do relays and learning how to jump rope for the first time and do the hoola hoop it was so cute. You forget how small they really are.. And yet they try to act so grown up.. Of course I forgot the camera again..

Anyways thats our little catch up for the past week.