Jewels 4 U

My new blog!!

2011-04-27T11:26:00.003-06:00

My Blessed Blended Family: Out of the Ashes: "From the ashes of two failed temple marriages, one for each spouse, comes the promise of eternal happiness through the union of two dedica..." This is my new blog dedicated to my experiences as a blended/step family. I hope you will check it out, and continue to come back often. Enjoy!

Women’s Center Workshops Aimed at Helping Single Mothers - Weber State University

2010-01-06T11:27:00.003-07:00

Women’s Center Workshops Aimed at Helping Single Mothers - Weber State University Click to go to the site or read the notice below. Hope this helps someone else or lets them know of the support available! We can use all the help that we can get!

December 28, 2009

OGDEN, Utah –The Weber State University Women’s Center will host a series of workshops specifically aimed at offering support, education and resources to single mothers.

The workshop series, “Single Moms United,” will be held on consecutive Wednesdays beginning Jan. 13 and continuing through March 3. Classes will run from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Shepherd Union room 331.

Topics will include relationship adjustment, dating safety, parenting and goal setting, as well as additional information and resources to help single mothers gain emotional and financial stability.

“The goal for Single Moms United is to reach out to single mothers on campus and the community and provide them with educational resources and a support network of other single mothers,” said Sarah Stanton, Women’s Center counselor advocate. “We’re going to tackle topics that are most relevant to the struggles and challenges that single moms face.”

The workshop, including materials, is free of charge and open to single mothers on campus and throughout the community.

Visit weber.edu/womenscenter and click on programs to learn more about Single Moms United.

Contact: Sarah Stanton, Women’s Center Counselor Advocate 801-626-6372 • sarahstanton@weber.edu

Author: Gentry Reinhart, office of Media Relations 801-626-7295• GentryReinhart@weber.edu

Have I mentioned that I love my School? :)

Uplifting thoughts

2010-01-05T00:07:00.005-07:00

My cousin posted this on her facebook page and I just had to share! I am getting ready to head back to school after a much-too-short Christmas vacation. I will be updating this blog with my latest happenings very soon- as well as great family pictures taken by a dear friend, Kim Kolsen(Hale). For the time being, I hope you enjoy this uplifting video.

I need to be more thoughtful.

2009-11-16T16:17:00.002-07:00

I posted more than I should about my marriage and as a result did further pain to my husband who is trying to change. I wouldn't want all of my dirty laundry aired and even though I didn't mention his name in the last post, you all knew who I was talking about. I'm really imperfect in this area of being wise about the things I say and it contributed to the problems I currently have. I still have many things to learn. Being self-rightous has always been a problem for me too. Hopefully this will help by admitting to everyone my faults. I'm sorry to my spouse as well. I'm still not mentioning his name in case others who don't know us are reading this.

College Update

2009-09-06T21:01:00.003-06:00

I was sooo happy and surprised when I found out I got a B+ in my Intermediate Algebra class and an A in my English class. Both classes were intensive, but the English class was a seven week course. Of course moving and dealing with many other issues was one of the reasons I didn't even dream of pulling off anything but a B- or less in math. What a self-esteem booster!

Now I'm in College Algebra/Trigonometry and English 2010. So far the math is just review for me, but for others it is harder since they haven't had math for a while. I guess my last math teacher taught us a few things beyond what she needed too, which is helping me now in the harder class. I just thought some of you would appreciate an update on how my schooling was going. I need to spend some time doing my homework now. Take care!

New thoughts on my life

2009-08-30T19:25:00.002-06:00

I may not have everything, but I have faith, love, and family, and that is all I need.

Life is too short to not live it beautifully.

Happiness takes effort, if you didn't earn it, then it isn't lasting.

Just some thoughs I have had recently.

Learning Life's Hard Lessons

2009-08-12T20:10:00.003-06:00

I saw it coming.... after years of counceling, meds, surgeries, and both of us trying to make it work, Ryan and I are getting a divorce. I will not be able to discuss some things for privacy reasons, but I felt you- my friends- might want to know why I've been soooo quiet for such a long time.

I'm living with my parents in their basement with two of my three kids. The oldest, Tyler, wants to live with Dad right now and is enjoying being with him. Sydney and Dallin are living with me and are very happy here. There are many things to do to go forward with this situation, but this isn't the place to discuss them.

I am soooo glad I started the process of getting into college before now. Some of you may judge me for going back to college and working and you may think that is the main reason things ended up the way they did. Please understand that I can't tell you the main reason for choosing to divorce, because it would be compromising the privacy of both of us. Let's just say that there are honest reasons for me making this decision. I went to the Celestial Room in the Bountiful Temple and counceled with my Heavenly Father before making this decision. I spent most of my days the past month weighing the issues and came to the same conclusion. Priesthood blessings were given to me by many of my relatives and many hours have been spent in deep thought and prayer.

It has taken me being seperated for an extended period of time in order to clear my thoughts and look honestly and deeply at our situation. Of course, during this time I had to also keep up with my classes and work and move things out of our house that the kids and I need to feel comfortable. What a busy month!

Also, all three kids and I went to Oregon (as planned weeks earlier) to our family reunion. We had a great time and I found all of my family to be very supportive. I have been blessed with caring, compassionate relatives and I love each of them dearly. Since the reunion was held on the Alsea River at my Aunt's family cabin, we were able to spend some time at the coast as well.

It was the first time Dallin had visited the beach- but he hated it! The wind was blowing sand in his face and the waves scared him. I couldn't even put him down in the sand without him making a fuss. It was all just too stimulating for him. He is two-and-a-half now so this reaction was a little odd. He never has liked wind blowing strongly in his face. Then you add loud noices of the waves crashing and sand blowing and you get an unhappy two-year-old. On the other-hand, Tyler and Sydney loved the waves and water and didn't want to leave! They had a great time being chased by the water as it crashed and fanned across the beach. It was a cold day so we didn't bring swimsuites, but the kids got wet anyway!

During the reunion, we spent time on the Alsea River and went swimming, four-wheeling, crawdadding(sp?), and visiting with relatives. I made sure to get in a few walks/runs around the old christmas tree farm where the cabin is located, in order to keep fit. My sister joined me on my walks and now I hear she is walking with her friends around her neighborhood in Draper. She had been working out at Gold's Gym, but enjoys walking/running as well now.

My parents, my sister Kristi, and my family rented a house in the Bayshore Community in Waldport, OR instead of camping out with the others at the cabin. It was wonderful and we had a really nice time. The days at the reunion were jam-packed with activies and since I needed to get back home for work, I didn't have much time to stop and visit with friends in Corvallis. We did manage to drop in on Ryan's Dad and visit with him and his wife Sharon. They are very comfortable to talk too and were saddend to hear of Ryan and I seperating.

My Mom had drove with me and my kids in her suburban on the way to Oregon and had been planning to stay an extra week because she was in charge of a reunion in Lacomb, OR for her side of the family. She decided to help me drive back with the kids and pass on the duties and responsibilites to a cousin of hers. This proved to be very helpful to me since I had only been seperated for a week from Ryan and was going back and forth about trying to keep it that way. That second week was very hard and I needed the extra support. My dad and my sister had to fly back to Utah because they were scheduled to work on Monday. I had secured the day off so it was spent driving back to Utah. Dallin was real trooper on the trip but Tyler and Sydney hated the long trek. Oh well, it was much cheaper paying for gas than for four plane tickets!

After getting home, I had to head straight to class on Monday night. I have now finished my classes for the term and I have to wait a few days for my grades. I'm pretty sure I got an "A" in English 1010 and I am hoping for a "B-" in Intermediate Algebra. It will all come down to the final in my math class since on the four unit tests I got 79%, 78%, 95%,and 85%. I'm pretty proud of those results since I've been through so much the past month! The trick for me to do better on my math tests was to slow down and focus on each question, one-at-a-time. When I went faster, I made silly mistakes like forgetting the + and - signs. I ended up taking almost twice as long on the last two tests, but as you can see, the last two test scores were much better! I also learned that I shouldn't plan anything for after the test, because then I don't focus as well and I rush through the problems.

Over-all I'm satified with my results and have found it beneficial to be an older student. I have a broader view of life and can contribute much to the discussions in class. The younger students seem to enjoy my "sage" advise and enjoy hearing my stories learned through years of experience. I know- I'm not that old, but put me up against high-schoolers taking summer classes and then start to realize my own son is only 5 years short of being in their position!!!!! Most people can't believe I'm almost 34 though. I guess my freckles and fair skin are good for something!

Well, I need go eat dinner now that my mom has cooked for us. Ah, the benefits of living at home. I haven't had to cook much since most of my waking moments are spent doing homework, going to classes, going to work, and spending some time with my kids as well as moving things into my parents house, sorting through stuff, acquiring beds and dressers for use at my parents house etc. During this whole time, I have been blessed with the spirit as a shield and comforter so that my strength could be used for the essential things that fill every moment. Only in the last couple of days have I felt the protecting powers lessen in order to let me grieve- for what could have been, not what was. Sure, I miss the security of familiar things such as my house, and the routine of my life before. I also miss Ryan in many ways, but the reasons for me leaving trump any other feelings/reasons. I need time to heal. I need to learn to stand up for myself and not allow myself to be hurt over and over for various reasons. I have done everything I could possibly do to try to work things out. This has given me much peace as I've gone through this process. Sure, I still have many faults and weaknesses that I'm still working on. Ryan is also working on his issues. That's all I need to say about it.

I'm not very good at closing posts like this, so just know that I am thinking about many of you and hope someone can learn something from my experiences. If I could say one thing I've learned or had entrenched in my head, it's that if we keep the spirit with us by living rightously, we will be inspired to do whatever is needed. Not only that, but we will be strengthened by unseen Angels to do anything that is required. I can do anything with God's help. Without Him, I am left to my own faculties (which sadly, I think isn't much and frankly, I don't want to test it out:) Love, Julie

Odd and Ends

2009-07-07T07:35:00.004-06:00

Busy, busy, busy is what I am now! I started my English 1010 class last Tuesday and we do a lot of writing in it. I take this class on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 am to 1:10 pm. I take Dallin to Grandma's house during this time and Ty and Syd stay home or go with Dallin to Grandma's. Sampson and Sophie protect the house while we are away (just in case anyone gets any crazy ideas!) This English class and my work schedule keep me from blogging since I have so many things to read and short essays to write. I love the class though and I know my writing is improving. To help me out, I got a laptop so that I can type my papers up during the "downtime" at work. I bought it used from a person online at ksl.com and it works well.

I took another math test a couple of weeks ago in my Intermediate Algebra class and I got 78%. It seems I may end up with a "C" in the class- which I'm not happy with- but at least I'll pass! I take that class on Mondays and Wednesday nights from 5:30 pm to 7:20 pm.

For the Fourth of July, I walked/ran 2 miles in our city 5K run/2 mile walk! I pushed Dallin in the stroller the whole way. Next year I want to run the 5K. I've been increasing my strength by walking at least 2 miles in the evening about 3 nights a week. Last night I was able to run 3/4 of a mile and walk the rest of the 2 1/2 mile loop. I take my big 80 pound dog Sampson with me and he loves to come! One night I pushed Dallin in the jogging stroller and Tyler and Sydney came with me as well. We had a good time and I was proud at how much more in shape the two older kids were than me. Just wait, I'll keep getting stronger and maybe beat them:)

The jogging stroller that I mentioned is also one that connects to my bike by removing the front wheel. I found it used on ksl.com for $27! It's older, but does the job. Dallin likes to go for rides in it.

I need to get ready to head to class now. I have many pictures that need to be posted but I'll have to wait until school is over around August 14 before I can find enough time to post them.

Ever Wish You Had Brought Your Camera?

2009-06-19T17:03:00.004-06:00

Today I did! I was driving home from work to pick up Dallin from the babysitter. His babysitter lives in Farmington which is where Lagoon is located as well as a lot of open fields. There is a ranch that is located just to the side of the freeway and the Farmington "spaghetti bowl" which is what we Utahns call a mess of freeway on-and-off ramps. This ranch has about 20 buffalo that roam around as well as horses and cows.

Today, the buffalo were close to the road, just on the otherside of an electric fence. They were very close to a big intersection and the ranch sits on one corner of the intersection. Just on the other side of the fence (inside the fence)was a red fire hydrant and a big buffalo rubbing itself on it! I thought, how many times do you see a buffalo rubbing against a fire hydrant? I berated myself for not bringing the camera with me like I had been inspired to do. I was running late and decided against going back into the house to get it. BUT, like I said, I had been inspired by the Spirit to go get it but I chose not too. Bummer, would have been a great shot!

Update on Church Meetings for our Stake

2009-06-18T09:18:00.003-06:00

I received an email from a Bishopric member in our ward that we are not going to have the special Stake Conference this weekend to sustain a new Stake President and that it is postponed until further notice. That includes all three meetings that were going to be held (the priesthood meeting, adult meeting and Sunday meeting).

Also, I received an email from our Relief Society Secretary stating that all of our visiting teaching should be done by telephone. If anyone we visit(telephone) teach has flu symptons, we are supposed to let the Relief Society President or Elders Quorum President know about it.

One interesting development is that our Stake was chosen to participate in the Relief Society Chior in the next General Relief Society Conference. I would love to be a part of that, but I doubt they will want anyone from our Stake there with us passing around the swine flu. We'll see. I'll keep you posted when I hear more about this.

I went looking at the church website about the "prophesy" I had previously mentioned and I couldn't find anything other than that we shouldn't live on borrowed light. President Heber C. Kimball was the prophet that stated:“To meet the difficulties that are coming, it will be necessary for you to have a knowledge of the truth of this work for yourselves. If you do not have it, how can you stand?” (in Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1945], p. 450). I will let you kow if I find anything more on this subject.

Literal Prophesy Being Fulfilled

2009-06-16T20:09:00.004-06:00

I remember being taught in Seminary many years ago about a coming time when a family would need to be able to stand on their own feet spiritually and when church wouldn't be able to hold meetings for a time. Well, for our stake it is coming to pass now. Because of the numbers of people in our stake coming down with the swine flu, they have canceled ALL meetings including Girls Camp that was supposed to start today. The Elders are directed to call certain camp leaders if they learn of a need for food. Since there is an abundance of food bought already for camp, they will use it for the needy in the stake.

This weekend we are supposed to be holding a special Stake Conference for the express purpose of sustaining a new Stake Presidency. Now we are awaiting direction from the Area and Seventy church leaders to see if this meeting will be held as planned.

In this time of uncertainty, I know it is important to continue to teach the Gospel to my children. Being the teacher of 6 and 7 year olds at church has been great training to be able to teach my own children at home. Each week I would go to the Church website at lds.org and print the current lesson. I don't like using the manual that was given to me since I can't mark it up and it would get well worn too fast. Since church is canceled, I plan on holding a mini-meeting in our home. I don't look forward to being the main person to do it but at least I will get some help from my husband. Others aren't so lucky. I want to continue to hold prayers, a lesson, singing time and scripture study and I'm not sure what else we can come up with for us. It will have to be tailored so that the older kids will be able to grow while my two-year-old is also learning.

Last week when we got to church, we were told that only sacrament meeting was going to be held because of the swine flu in our stake. So after sacrament, we all slowly went home, lessons and songs already prepared and wating to be used. When we got home, after grabbing lunch and changing clothes, I sat the kids down and gave them the lesson I had prepared for my class at church. It was shortened but be had a lesson! Next time I will try to be more formal about it and we can get dressed in our church clothes for it. This will be interesting, but we can do it and I know that any efforts will be blessed.

The biggest challenge is the uncertainty of how long this will last. How long will we not be able to take the sacrament? How and when are Temple recomends going to get renewed? This will be a struggle for those who aren't used to having access to tithing funds when they can't regularly get them taken out by using the special forms. Mailing them to the Bishop is possible, if you have the forms, but I can see how extra money laying around will be tempting enough for some to forgo paying it. Ah, the sifting of the wheat from the chaff. It can really get personal now, can't it. I don't want to be the chaff that the prophets in the scriptures have long fortold of. Did they see me? Did they see you?

For those of you not in Utah, the swine flu has been increasing in intensity here. Most are mild cases and the activity of this illness is like a moderatly busy flu season- but the real "seasonal" flu is over right now. The CDC is now wanting the doctors to treat all flu symtoms as if it is swine flu. Since the CDC is flooded with samples to be tested, only those who are hospitalized will be fully tested. Everyone else will be given the seasonal "rapid" flu test. It will sometimes come back positive for swine flu but isn't reliable because many who test negative with it, actually do have the illness.

Personally, I'm worried about this winter when the virus may have mutated enough to become more deadly. If you ask me, I would rather get this illness now and build up an immunity to it. Especialy while it is so mild. The problem is if I was to become the host in which the disease decides to mutate into something deadly, I would feel sooooo bad!!!! I guess I'll just wait and see if we get it. Maybe the illness we had a couple of weeks ago was the real deal but it was so mild, that even when we brought one child in to be tested, they said it was only a mild respiratory illness. Well, two weeks later and the "officials" are saying it is more widespread than they thought. Imagine that!

I could go on about some of the things that have bothered me about how ill-prepared we were to stop the spread of this, but really, we're all human. And being such a human that has to work tomorrow- I need to head to bed!! I hope this gives others ideas on how they will handle such a situation of having your main, but not only, source of spiritual uplift- church- being closed for an unannounced period of time. Bless you in your efforts!

Blossoms= Happy Thoughts

2009-06-14T20:03:00.005-06:00

Our flowers are blossoming so Ryan went out a couple of weeks ago and took these photos. I edited them (not much- he just hadn't got to them before I did) and I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! They put a smile on my face and every-so-often I can be found sniffing the flowers!

This bleeding heart plant can be found in our next-door neighbors yard.

My clematis plants are about 3-4 years old and now cover my front porch railing!

Sweet William macro by Ryan.

My sweet Dallin William having fun in his jeep!

Tonsilectomy and Septoplasty Surgery for Me! Yippy!

2009-06-09T09:00:00.003-06:00

Note: Scroll down for pictures of my throat before and after surgery as well as a photo of my nose before surgery.

This was the attitude- "Hurray for me"- that I had going into the operating room on May 15th. I can't be any farther away from that attitude than I am now, one week later (As of June 9th I'm three weeks post-op)after having the surgery. What a horrible, agonizing week I've had since then. And I've actually had no problems with infections or too much bleeding- but it was still the worst pain I've been in for such an extended period of time. I should start by going back to my reasons for electing to have this done to me.

Ever since my I started having problems with allergies as a young adult, I've been susceptible to sinus infections. I thought that nothing was worse than going through a sinus infection while pregnant and not being able to take anything other than antibiotics and Tylenol. Fast forward 10 years and yearly antibiotics for such infections and you end up with my first reason for getting my nose straightened and my tonsils out.

Oh, for those who may not know- I had a deviated septum (essentially a crooked part in my nose) in TWO different places. The surgery to correct such a problem is called Septoplasmy. It's a little difficult to explain how they repair such a thing, but you can click here and find out more or click here to see a drawing of a deviated septum. Having a deviated septum can cause your nasal passages on one side to become blocked or partly closed. This makes it difficult for your nose and sinuses to drain properly. It also makes it harder to breath since only one nostril is fully open. This adds to problems sleeping at night and snoring because the passages aren't open properly so you compensate by breathing through your mouth. Most people don't even know that they have such a problem because they have been coping with it for so long.

This photo is for the benefit of medical science and increasing the knowledge of others- but it sure is embarrassing for me to show to the people who know me. I know that others will be seeking out this type of photo as an example.

Pre-op photo of my deviated septum taken at home

Note: Post-op the nose is still misaligned from the outside, but I can feel the difference in the inside as I breath in. The nasal passage on my left on the inside is much more open. The procedure was done inside my nose with a few stitches on the inside that dissolved.

Now, go back about 4-5 years ago when my husband was having many weight, sleep apnea and heart problems. He was referred to many different specialists including an ENT which is an ear, nose and throat doctor. After he had seen this specialist and had a sleep study done, he was asked to use a CPAP machine at night. This is a contraption that has a mask to fit over your nose or mouth or both depending on what you breath through at night. then, humidified air is blown through it to create a "positive airflow". This means air is pumped through the mask which forces your body to breath it in more than it would without the continuous flow. Just a note- the air is not attached to an oxygen tank, it is just normal air with a little bit of humidity added so you don't get dried out. I hated the feeling when I tried his mask on and if you have problems with claustrophobia, you would hate it too!

Nevertheless, Ryan used this for a while before electing to have his tonsils and uvula as well as part of his soft palate removed. He really felt better after about a month of healing. He had more energy and was able to take better care of himself. He ended up losing over 40 lbs and has kept it off for a couple years now.

This is the same dilemma many people face- having a lot of weight to lose, but being too tired to exercise because your body is not getting the oxygen it needs at night to repair itself. People who have full-blown sleep apnea stop breathing for seconds at a time- sometimes it can be thirty seconds or more. Then their brain realizes this and they startle/wake up enough to breath again. This can be happening several times an hour. As a result, they wake up in the morning feeling worse than when they went to bed. Some people have headaches right as they wake up and others self-medicate by drinking caffeinated beverages to get some energy. Others over-indulge in carbohydrates because your body craves them when you are tired. Most people don't have energy to even think about getting some exercise, let alone get through the day without falling asleep. It really is a vicious cycle.

Now, I was seeing myself heading down that path and the momentum was picking up. I was waking up more tired and with my allergies, my passages were even more closed off and swollen. I had a bad sinus infection this spring and realized this wasn't getting any better for me. As we age, our skin becomes looser and so the back of the mouth doesn't regain it's shape that it had in our youth. This adds to snoring as there isn't much room for air to pass through. I had the wonderful joy of having an extra flap of skin in the back of my throat which adds to a smaller passage. Not only that, but little pockets would form in my tonsils and the flap and collect food particles in there that would harden over time. I couldn't do anything about it. I know it sounds gross, but luckily I didn't have bad breath like someone with halitosis might have. But those older food particles could have started infections eventually. There really was a reason why I needed to get my tonsils out!

WARNING: Pictures of the inside of my mouth!

Notice in the pre-op picture where the arrow is on your left. These pockets would trap food and get bigger. The food would harden and sometimes break loose and come out. Very gross!! The other arrow is showing my extra flaps of skin that would just take up room in my throat. They also added to snoring sounds like a sail flapping in the breeze....lol....

Also notice how swollen and red my throat is from allergies.

Next: Three weeks post-op.......

In the post-op picture you can see how much wider the back of my mouth is. The extra flaps are gone as well as the tonsils/pockets. I guess you can't see the area very well of where my tonsils used to be, but believe me, they aren't there! My throat is still red and scabs form where the skin was cauterized to stop the bleeding. I feel much better now and my husband hasn't noticed any snoring!

I hope those who read this appreciate the pictures because they are hard to get when your camera wants to focus on the closest thing which is my teeth or tongue. Even with a good camera (Nikon D40) and a second person taking the picture, it was really hard to get good photos.

For those wanting to know how my recovery went, I will be writing that up soon. That is another story in itself!

Update on the Gerbils

2009-06-09T07:13:00.004-06:00

Yesterday a guy called about the gerbils of Sydney's that we advertised for free on ksl.com. He had previously raised gerbils and sold the extras to pet stores. He wanted to raise some more again with his two daughters to teach them responsibility. He took ALL of our extra gerbils.

Sydney now has four adult gerbils in two cages- two females and two males that are separated by their sex. It's nice to not have to worry anymore about the extras. They really are cute and fun to watch. It was also fun to see the different stages that the babies went through. Sydney is happy that the others have a good life ahead of them but she will miss having the babies around. They all had their eyes open and she kept a baby from the first litter we had that is now an adult. Ah, the drama of pet keeping!

Passed Up...

2009-06-07T19:41:00.003-06:00

He did it! Tyler finally passed me up in height! He's now 5' 6 3/4" tall. I'm at 5' 6" even though in the picture I look shorter. I was holding the camera up and wasn't extending myself. Also the angle is kind of bad. Enough about me though! He is growing up fast now and is projected to get to 6 feet tall according to the growth charts. He is only 12 1/2 years old!

Tyler had a great year in school and was able to get on the honor roll. He also was nominated and received the President's Award for Academic Excellence and the award was signed by the President of the United States. He is a bright young man who loves to please his teachers. He has was chosen by one of his two teachers as the top boy in his class- not necessarily academically, but because of motivation, and improvement, although he is very bright. The top boy and girl got to pick out a book for the teacher to buy for them. Tyler chose a Star Wars book "Republic Commando: True Colors" that is 481 pages long. He loves reading science fiction and will ask me to take him to the library to get books to read. But this kid is not only smart, but well liked. He has many friends at school and church. The girls like him because he is nice to them.

At home, he can be counted on to do what I ask most of the time. If something doesn't get done, it's just because he forgot- not because he wasn't going to do it. He changes Dallin's diapers when I ask, takes out the trash, swaps lawn mowing with me, will shovel the snow, help people move things since he is so strong, and does the dishes and wants to help ME with my math homework.

He loves going to the assisted living home to pass the Sacrament to the elderly adults that live there. I stayed with him a couple of times and watched how my boy treated the adults so sweetly and used their names. He told them he was glad to see them and hoped to see them next week. He loves to volunteer to do this job and sometimes his leader has to remind him to share the blessings and let the other boys help out too! It makes my heart swell to see my children treat others who are less fortunate than themselves with such respect. A person can go far if they remember to treat all people with kindness. Especially in the eternal scheme of things.

I've actually wanted to go to the elderly home in our ward for some time, but hadn't found the time to do it until now. Since Tyler needs a ride sometimes, I have an excuse to drop in and see how the people are and how the home is run. Being a CNA has given me more self-confidence to be in such places and know that I am welcomed and valued for any effort made in making others lives better. I love that Tyler is getting that same joy that I feel. I love you Tyler and I'm so grateful to have you as my son!

Cute Gerbil Pics

2009-06-04T16:55:00.003-06:00

I have too many pictures to post, but since I just added these to KSL to sell some of our gerbils, I thought I would post them. Sydney is our Vet. Tech. in training and picked up 9 (four adults and 5 babies) gerbils not too long ago. We thought it would be fun to let her raise them and sell them for a few extra bucks. Well, with the economy the way it is, not many people are looking to add mouths to feed at their homes. We'll be lucky to give away the extras. She was told she can keep three or four but the males and females are going to be separated. We now have close to twenty gerbils. They are great fun to hold and very curious. Enjoy the cute pics!

Good News About My Parents

2009-05-30T10:37:00.003-06:00

My Dad finally got a job after nine long months without one! He is technically working for a temp. agency, but the position is his pretty soon. He works for H.C. Brill which is a food company that makes frostings, cookie dough and other things for sale in the bakery departments at stores such as Albertsons, Target and they even make the frostings for Krispy Kreme. My Dad is in the quality assurance department and also makes sure the lines are running that make the food. He gets the lucky job of every so often taking test bites of the cookies that come off the line. That ensures the dough is made correctly. He only takes one bite of a cookie so he isn't getting that many calories. It's a lot of walking and being on his feet all day so he is getting adjusted to that.

*Note- this picture of the front of my parents house was taken in Decmeber. The trees are now leafy and beautiful. It is in West Point, UT.

The second exciting thing for my parents is that they were able to close on the house that they had been renting since moving to Utah in December. The loan companies wanted my Dad to have a job even though they were putting a sizable portion of the morgage down. Now that he has one, they were given the go ahead to close! It was just in time too because the previous owners were needing to have my parents buy the house by the end of May or they would make my parents move out. The previous home owners were having some finanial difficulties themselves so they needed to set the date for my parents to buy or move out. Now, everything is fine and my Mom is getting to work painting the dark purple and spring green room that was a little girls room. They are making it into an office for my Mom's personal history business. She is wanting to have neutral colors in there and has been dying to paint over the bright spring green wainscoting and purple walls AND ceiling. The picture above is the previous owners furnature. Right now my parents have office furnature in it.

We are all so happy for my parents and are looking forward to spending more time with them. They surprised my siblings and our families with season passes to Lagoon this year. The passes are for our birthdays this year and so we are very excited to spend time together riding the roller coasters and hanging out at Lagoon-A-Beach. Here's to ending a busy year-and-a-half of change for my family!

So That's Where it Went

2009-05-26T14:21:00.002-06:00

I have managed to lose 11.5 lbs since I had surgery on my tonsils and my nose on May 15th. I have a whole post dedicated to this awful experience but I just had to share this cute story that happened to me today at work. It was the first day in about 2 weeks that I had been to work since the surgery. I was helping my client and asked her to roll towards me in her bed. She has no railing on that side, so she usually holds onto me in order to complete the roll.

She said to me " You really have lost weight, there isn't as much for me to hold onto" as she patted my butt.

We burst out laughing!! I just figured I had lost a little all over but I could see the most difference in my face. I didn't realize that I my butt is where I had lost so much of the weight. :D

Work and School

2009-05-22T12:04:00.001-06:00

Wow, I am way behind in posting! There is so much to write about that I will just give a brief overview of the things that have been happening in our family. I have been working part-time for 5 months now and I love my job. My clients love me and totally appreciate the work I do for them. One of my clients wants to hire me to come and give her bed-baths if she ever goes home from the assisted living faciltiy. She says my baths are like massages and she had never had such a refreshing thing as a bed-bath before. Most people don't have to have one unless they spend a long time in the hospital or nursing facilities. It's amazing how warm water, wash cloths, soap and a little scubbing can make a person feel so much better!

I also check vital signs as part of my routine and I've gotten pretty good at it. I'm not as scared as I used to be about taking someones blood pressure. I used to find it hard to be so close to a stranger in order to get their blood pressure but now it is not so hard. But I haven't had to take a reading on a cute guy stranger so that may seem unnerving at first.

One of the people I work with is a Nurse and she is like a mentor to me. If I have any questions, I can always count on her to give me the answer I need and she respects all questions that I ask, whether big or small. She gave me the confidence to apply to Weber State University in order to start working towards becoming a Nurse. She thinks I will make a good one. I only hope so!

I applied to WSU and crossed my fingers becuase I had never applied to a university before. I was so happy when I opened my acceptance letter! One major goal for myself can be checked off my list! Next, I began applying for financial aid. I also applied for a scholarship that is given to non-traditional students going back to school. I won't find out about financial aid and scholarships that I will get until after the semester starts. We'll see how it goes. I'm figuring out how to make the system work for me. We have some money in Savings and the federal system thinks that is what you should use to pay for education. Never mind the fact that we are trying to be self-reliant and saving that money in case of emergencies. We will need to put that in IRA's or something in order to be eligible for pell grants. The same goes for stocks- they are assets and will make you unable to get grants. It doesn't matter if you have a lot of debt like we do for a second business. You can't have too many assets or you are penalized. IRA's are not counted as an asset. You could have a million dollars in that and still be able to get pell grants if your income wasn't too much.

If a person lost their job, they could go to school and get quite a bit of financial help- especially if they go to school full-time. Since I'm going to school part-time right now, I'm not eligible for a lot of scholarships. I may go to school full-time in the fall if we can afford not having my part-time income. We'll have to figure out the numbers soon since I need to apply for financial aid for fall soon. When I apply, I need to know if I will be going full-time or not. This summer is considered part of the '08-'09 school year and required different forms than the '09-'10 school year that starts in the fall.

I'm sorry if all of this is boring to those of you who are through with their degrees. It is quite a different experience for me to be navigating this arena as an adult over age 30 with children. I hope that by sharing my experience, I can make it easier for others who want to go back to school.

A couple of weeks ago I went to orientation and I was surprised at how many adult students there were. Especially in the Health Science Department which is what I'm going into. I am not positive that I will be going into Nursing, but I know that working in the health sciences is what I want to do. I am working towards getting an Associate of Science in Health Sciences right now. That will cover all pre-requisites for Nursing as well as other good to know and easy to transfer credits for other programs like Respiratory Therapy and Radiology. The two previous programs I mentioned are interesting to me as well. Radiology is always on the cutting edge of health science and respiratory therapy is needed for those who have asthma, emphysima and other lung realted disorders/diseases. Respiratory therapy can be done as part of home health services which makes the hours flexible.

I have registered for classes and taken the placement tests. I was very nervous about my math placement test but luckily someone recomended going to the site math.com and spending three or more hours on that to brush up on math skills. That was great advice! It really helped me and probably saved me $600 or more on a math class. I placed in math 1010 which is Intermediate Algebra. Not bad for not having a math class for 15 years or more! Once again, going to math.com really saved me money by helping me place into a higher math class.

New update- since I first started writing this post a couple of weeks ago, I've already been to my math class and I'm surprised at how well I'm doing so far. Homework takes forever for me, but I suspect it will speed up once I get the hang of it again. I haven't had to sit and write using paper for so long now, that it's weird doing equations in pencil and paper. Tyler caught me doing homework the other day and he asked me if I need any help. He is a natural when it comes to math and he will most likely be going into Algebra next year- skipping Pre-Algebra. Then he asked me why I was doing my homework in pencil (doesn't everybody do math homework in pencil?) I said told him that I make too many mistakes so I have to go back and erase it. Tyler said he can do his homework in pen because he doesn't make many mistakes! ARGHH! I would love to have his natural abilities with math. He takes after his dad in that area. I have another subject to write about on this blog so I need to end this post. Hope you have learned something from my little journey back to school. Take care!

Skidboot the Famous Dog

2009-05-12T12:24:00.003-06:00

I received this video in an email from my Father-in-law Richard. Anyone who loves animals, dogs, Texas, or humble cowboys outta love this video. Enjoy!

Part two of Valentines Day 2009

2009-03-26T09:20:00.005-06:00

What is Valentine's day without a cute stuffed animal and sweet baby holding it? Mom and Dad know about this and so after our family was done viewing the Temple open house in Draper, we went to Applebee's for a late lunch. All of us together were quite a site. I think Kristi took this picture and the next few with my camera and I edited them.

We had a yummy meal and then afterwards, the gift giving began. Mom is known for her love of giving gifts during most holidays. This valentines day was no exception. First, the frosted cupcakes that she made were passed out. Then the gift bags of candy and little valentines that were filled out for each grandchild and even us adults were handed out. Lastly, cute stuffed animals for the kids were passed around so that they could choose one. Obviously, Malia loved her animal of choice. Gotta love the next picture!

Cousins! L-R: Morgan, Sydney and McKenzie. Sydney was being silly that day and wouldn't let me get a good picture of her.

The classic McKenzie picture- doesn't she look older/wiser than 8?

Micah- loving every minute with his new dog.

Morgan- surprise! ......click....

Our table was so colorful with pink, red and white things all around! What a sight!

Finally Kristi got in a picture while Mom took this one with my camera. What a good ending to a great time spent with family!

Valentines Day 2009 (part one)

2009-03-14T13:32:00.005-06:00

My brother Randy was able to get a bunch of tickets for the Draper Temple open house on Valentines Day. We thought it was a great way to spend the day! We had to be at a certain church to catch a shuttle up to the temple. There were atleast four different churches set apart as shuttle bases.

Here is our group waiting to board the shuttle (so we thought). Closest to farthest: Kristi, Ryan, Dallin, Tyler, Linda, Will, Richard (standing), Alina, one of Alina's nieces, Randy, Katie.

Another group shot. Clostest to farthest: Kristi, Ryan, Sydney holding Dallin, Tyler, Linda, Richard, McKenzie, Randy Katie and Micah (with the stroller).

This one is looking the other direction down the line. Closest to farthest: Micah, Malia (the blur), Katie, Randy, McKenzie being held by Katie's sister Megan- fresh from her mission, Morgan being held by Alina (Will's wife), Niece of Alina(?), Will holding Alina's nephew (?). Alina and Will were watching their niece and nephew that weekend. They were great to have along.

Earlier I mentioned that we thought were were waiting to load the bus. We must have waited for about 45 minutes. That wasn't the case as we were led to another room to watch a 10 minute video about the temple that explained the things we were going to see. It was a good video. THEN, we were led to another room for a few minutes to wait. After that we waited in the foyer for the bus to come. That took about 5 minutes.

The bus ride was fun for Dallin since it was his first time. It was so full that many had to stand. It was interesting listening to the different conversations on the way up. Especially as we got closer to the temple. There are so many huge houses in the neighborhood and many of them are for sale now. It was reasuring to hear others talk about how extravagant the big houses were and that most people can't afford them unless both the husband and the wife worked well paying jobs. I'm glad I don't live in such a house.

The bus stopped at a covered awning that turned out to be a long, covered walkway that had heaters running. It led all of the way to the side doors of the temple. That was such a nice ammenity because it was raining and windy that day. When we entered the temple, we were told to talk in soft whispers and that the rest of the tour was going to consist of us following the marked path through the different rooms.

It was very quiet except the sound of many footsteps shuffling in the line and a few toddlers that were tired. The carpeting was covered by a temporary carpet layed over plywood sheets on the original carpet. As we went along, Dallin was sooo good and enjoyed looking around. Some people were smart and brought umbrella strollers (like Randy). Luckily, Dallin had Ryan, Tyler, Sydney and I to hold him. It was good to be in the temple together as a family with our extended family. That is one of the main reasons we have temples. To unite us all as a big family.

When we got to the Celestial Room, which is the biggest, prettiest room, Dallin said "Wow, what's that?" He really paid attention in that room and Sydney and Tyler also loved it. We loved the huge chandelier hanging from the extra tall ceiling that was rounded at the top. It is the tallest celestial room I have ever been in and the chandelier was the biggest/ longest I've ever seen. I failed to mention the walls that were in the endowment rooms were painted in huge murials that went all around the walls. Those were very well done.

When we were done touring the temple, we were led out the front doors and into another covered tunnel leading next door to a church building. At the church, the gym was decorated in many different displays explaining our beliefs. There were also refreshments (cookies) and bottled water to enjoy. Missionaries were available to ask questions. It was a nice break for the kids who had been so quiet for so long (in their church clothes) and by that time were hungry for lunch. We exited out into the covered waiting area to wait for our bus. That took quite a while because a bus had broken down and they had to take care of that matter.

Other busses arrived, but they were going to different church buildings, not ours. We were the "red" group and there were three other groups. We watched as others around us left, but we couldn't. Good thing the cousins had each other to play with. They were a little rowdy/giggly, but who could blame them after having cookies for lunch and being so good for so long. We still had a special time together. My feelings as I was going through the temple surprised me. I didn't feel the same level of the Spirit as when I go to a temple already dedicated to the Lord. It does feel different. I hope to be able to go back someday soon after it is dedicated and enjoy the fullness of the spirit.

This temple was the first one that I have watched through the whole process. Indeed, I have observed the whole city over the past 20 years go through a remarkable change. My Aunt and Uncle live nearby in Sandy and I remember going to church with them and their 6 kids. The big "joke" back then was when the locals said, you can live in heaven (meaning Sandy) or you can live in Draper. Draper back then was known for the cow smells from the dairy farms and there wasn't much in the way of nicer buildings. You would exit off the freeway and drive through the run down places to get to the new, beautiful homes on the east bench which was the edge of Sandy, UT. As I grew up, I saw the transformation of prosperity run down the benches, into Draper. It became a little metropolis with many restaurants and upscale stores. The dairy farms were eventually pushed out. Even bigger homes were built up into the far east canyon and then they went up the south mountain face where the Temple is now located.

When the temple was announced for Draper, I thought of my extended family on the east bench that go to the temple at least once a week for baptisms and initiatories. They used to have to travel to the Jordan River Temple which is about 20 minutes from their house. Then, after the temple was being built, I went twice to take pictures of the progress. That is how I got the first photo you see. Now, I was able to go with my family to the open house. Today my two oldest kids and I were able to get special recommends that allow us to go to the dedication next Sunday. I can't wait to take them to see the culmination of the work put into the building. Then it will be the Lord's house.

New photo- I'm showing myself again :)

2009-02-22T16:25:00.003-07:00

I find it hard to post pictures of myself since I don't like my weight right now, but I did get a couple of nice photos I took of myself recently. I've never had a good sense of self-esteem, but every once in a while I get a surge of creativity and hopefullness that I will get a reasaonable photo of myself.

For months now I've let my comments and photos of flowers or other things be the introduction to me. Now I guess I'm feeling brave enough to post a pick of me on my blog and in my profile so that wherever I leave my comments, people can "see" who wrote them. As if blogging wasn't enough to expose yourself. Put a face to your comments and it takes on new meaning. I was just wondering how you felt about it. Is it easy for you to put your face on your profile, or do you have a hard time with it like I do?

This One's for Kim G.

2009-02-17T18:12:00.004-07:00

My childhood friend Kim G. is a very talented photographer and a few months ago had a drawing for a copy of one of her photos of our choice. I was one of three people that won! I had a hard time choosing which one of her gorgeous photos I wanted to keep. She has dozens of neat macros and beautiful flowers.

After some serious consideration, I chose the picture that is shown above in this photo of my desk. It's of raw cotton in a field in Alabama. You might wonder why I chose this photo over any of her beautiful flower ones. It's because of the symbolism of the image and of Kim's new side career.

She and her family had moved to Alabama a couple of years ago. Word spread of her talent for photography in her new city and soon she was being asked to do family portraits and getting paid for it. Now she has her own photography website and offers other pictures for framing. It's been great seeing her talent grow. The cotton picture reminds me of where she was when her photography really took off.

The symbol of the raw cotton makes me think of our talents and how raw they start out, but with work, time and patience, they can become great and useful things. I think of how we use cotton in so many different products from plain cotton balls used in cleaning wounds, clothing and even canvas for beautiful works of art. I'm sure you can think of different things we use cotton for. For this gift of inspiration, I thank my friend Kim and wish her the best in all she does!

My Sweet Dallin

2009-02-17T13:08:00.003-07:00

Sydney had a mini-photo shoot with Dallin while we were in-between school programs with Ty and Syd. She took all of these photos but I edited them with our software. These photos are so precious to me because of the way they capture Dallin's personality. Great job Sydney! Oh, and in case you are wondering, he does have light birthmark on the left side of his face by his nose. It looks like a dirt smudge!

Christmas in February?

2009-02-10T08:38:00.005-07:00

I'm finally posting a couple of pictures from Christmas at my parents house. I didn't take that many except of the gift that us kids gave to Mom and Dad. I wished I had taken more family pics, but I must have been having too much fun. I won't spoil the surprise for those who don't know what we got them. It was a little "over the top" for the economic times that we all share, but I got a good deal. Check it out! P.S. They had just moved into their house three days earlier and we managed to throw up their christmas tree so the Randy and Katie's kids would have one to open their christmas presents under. They spent christmas night at Mom and Dad's.

In this first photo Mom and Dad are opening the first part of the present. It was premade bags of popcorn that had the oil/butter packet attached.

The next part of the present was unveiled from under a tarp that I threw over it. Dad's reaction was priceless.

A popcorn maker! I knew it would be really fun for them in their basement where they will have a big t.v. Also I know they love to entertain and so they could have fun with it.

They were very surprised and we used it to make yummy popcorn that night. It came with bags and a scoop so they were set to have fun. We must say it is a pain to clean up since the oil splatters on the side of the glass, but the popcorn is sooo good! Thanks to my siblings for putting up with this outrageous gift that I found a good deal on KSL.com classifieds. Next year you guys get to find the perfect gift for them.

Mr. Dallin

2009-02-04T14:42:00.005-07:00

My youngest has an interesting nickname that has been part of him since he was a baby. He has been called "Mr. Dallin" from various people and sometimes when a person has never heard anyone else call him that. He just seems like an old soul sometimes. He has been changing and so I feel impressed to record some of the things he is doing/has done. Here he is enjoying our wheat grinder and finding out how to make it work.

Don't you just love his disheveled hair?! It adds characture. His eyes smile when he smiles!

This is how I found him the other day. He grabbed the stool out of the bathroom and proceeded to play with the microwave. I call him my "button boy" since he has to test any button he finds. I let him play with the microwave to get it out of his system but I was right nearby to make sure he didn't cook something or turn it on. He liked to hear the beeps as he pushed the numbers.

When my oldest son Tyler was two, he was playing with our microwave and ended up locking it so that it wouldn't cook anything. We had to find the manual and call the company to find out how to unlock it. This time, when Dallin did the same thing yesterday, I was smart enough to unplug it. That reset the controls and I didn't have to search for the manual. I guess I've raised two "button boys".

I just love his sweet face with a hint of masculinity. Dallin is showing great interest and ability in learning the letters of the alphabet. He has known the letter "O" for quite a while now. The second letter he learned has a funny story that goes with it. He and I were driving home at night when he started saying "M". I noticed that we were passing a brightly lit McDonalds and the big yellow letter M. I was so surprised and I told him that he was right! Then the next letter he learned was the letter "I" and he grasped that one by watching Word World and Super Why on PBS. They are his favorite shows since we don't have cable TV.

The next letter he learned also has an interesting story. He and I were in Ace Hardware when we walked by a sign just his height and he pointed to it and said "A"! It read Ace Hardware in big read letters, so I knew he really was talking about the letter A.

I recently had a birthday check of his cashed that he got from a relative and some Christmas money for him as well and I thought he would really enjoy some sort of learning toy. I remembered that my sis-in-law Katie has a cute letter Leap Frog toy that is magnetic and is always attatched to their front door. There are magnetic letters as well and when you put them in the recepticle, it says the letter name and sounds that it makes. It's set to a catchy tune so that the little ones remember it better. I got this for Dallin and he loves it. He has learned the letters X, and T and is probably learning more letters since that is the pattern so far. My other two kids weren't interested in learning the letters so early. It just comes naturally to him. I just love this little man and I can't cuddle and kiss him enough during the day. I'm so glad to have him. I love you Dallin!

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

2009-01-29T09:55:00.011-07:00

*Check out the end of this post for two short videos of us going down the mountain!!*

Soldier Hollow hosted the 2002 Olympic Cross Country Skiing and the Biathlon events. Another interesting fact is that it has the longest tubing lanes in Utah and the entire west half of the US. The movie High School Musical opened with a scene from the lodge in the first movie (the New Years Eve Party and Karoke).

My Aunt and Uncle from Virginia came to Utah to visit their daughter Nicole and her husband Lance and their grandson Nicolas. We had a big dinner at my parents house with extended family that lived in Utah. While they were there, my Uncle suggested going tubing at Soldier Hollow before they went back to Virginia. I thought that would be really fun and on Tuesday, January 27th, my Uncle Duane, my Dad Richard, my Cousin Nicole, my Brother Randy and I headed out to Soldier Hollow. We met at Randy's place and headed east up the Provo Canyon. It was a great trip that only took about 40 minutes to get to from Orem.

The view looking down at the lodge and beyond. It was a beautiful day!

Our group L-R: Randy (my Brother), me (Julie), Nicole (my Cousin), Richard (Dad) and Duane(my Uncle).

The race is on- there are five lanes side by side and your group can race each other down.

Our group again

We're all smiles as we head back to the cable that tows you back up to the top of the runs. Talk about plush tubing! It was $20 for 2 hours. They also had music playing in the background. It was a great facility!

Randy trying to stop before heading into the fence.

Can his smile get any bigger?!!!

Nicole, looking beautiful even with the snowy, windblown look.

Uncle Duane was all smiles! He had a great time and we loved having him visit us in Utah.

My Dad as he was being towed up the mountain. What a great view and beautiful skies! The tubing was so safe! None of us fell off our tubes the entire time. Although some of us hit the fence at the end of the run. Luckily they are just flimsy plastic things that try to keep you from going further down the mountain into the parking lot. I went through the first fence into the second and tore out three stakes! All that I did differently was get a bigger tube and suddenly I was sliding all the way into the fence if I didn't try really hard to stop.

Look at these brothers go! My Dad is in his late fifties and Duane is older than that! They had a great time together with us "kids".

The view again as we get close to the top of the cable run.

I took this picture while in my tube going up the mountain. The runs were extreemly safe, even though you would fly down the hill at 30-40 mph. I even took our expensive camera and our cheap digital video camera down the slide. I will post the video of me going down the hill while the others were racing behind me.

Check out this video of me going down the run!

This video is of the others racing down the hill! What a great day. Thanks for inviting us Duane!

Together after 20 years! Angie and Julie

2009-01-22T19:00:00.005-07:00

My childhood friend Angie Nelson and I decided to finally get together since we both live in Utah. I wrote about it on our joint blog One Tidbit at a Time. I decided to put our picture here as well since more of our childhood friends read this blog then our other one. You'll just have to skip on over to the other one to get the details! I will have to say that i'm not proud of this current picture of me especially since I'm so pale that you can hardly see where my chin is since it all is such a white blur!! Oh well, blame it on genetics!

I finally downloaded our newest pictures onto our computer and made sure our editing software is running. Be prepared to see a bunch of new posts soon complete with pictures! Take care everyone!

The Truth Be Told...

2009-01-22T13:11:00.003-07:00

I'm a Twilight addict! I started to read the first book in December sometime (that month is such a blur) and read it in less than 48 hours. I decided that since I spent so much time reading it, I needed to devote more time to my family. So, last Saturday (a month later)I finally decided to pick up the second book "New Moon" that I had on hold at the library. I didn't start reading it until Sunday and by Wednesday I had finished that one! I don't care what others say about the sequels. Stephanie Meyers has a gift from God for writing fluidly. Her descriptions are full of imagination and I was hooked from the moment Bella met Edward.

Today I put a hold on the copies of "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn". I can't wait until I can get to the library to pick them up. Luckily our library has many copies of these books because many of them are already checked out or on hold.

I haven't seen the movie yet but I'm hoping to next week when Ryan goes to San Mateo, CA for work. I'm going to bring my Mom and maybe my sisters Kristi and Katie. (are you up for it guys?) Anyone else (friends, acquantances) in Utah that that is reading this post is welcome to join us. I know it is belated since the movie has been out since November, but I wasn't ready to see it then. I hadn't even read the first book back then!

Well, I'd better get back to Dallin since he is coughing up a storm. I put a more detailed post of my happenings of late on my other blog- One Tidbit at a Time. Hope your day goes well!

A New Job in this Economy!

2009-01-07T22:44:00.004-07:00

If anyone is just dying to get a job, become a CNA! I was looking for a part-time job since the daycare business has been slowing considerably. Even at the main offices for Childcare Resource and Referral, they had been noticing a slow-down in people looking for childcare. In this economy, families are looking for ways to shave their budgets and childcare is one thing that gets axed. So, back to my topic of me looking for a job. I sent my resume out to three places and got one interview. Remember, I have no work experience as a CNA, just the certification and quite a bit of volunteer/real life experiences. At the interview on Tuesday, they said I was more than qualified and basically offered me a job on the spot!

I was so excited to take this opportunity as a way of getting my foot in the door in the health care industry! Usually the first job as a CNA is in a Nursing Facility and is quite the grunt work. The hours in a facility are typically eight a day and even if you get to work part-time, they make you work two-to-three eight-hour days a week and they require you work every-other weekend.

Not so with my new job! It is in the Home Health field and so I will go to clients homes and perform the needed services. I can accept as many clients as I want or just keep the two that I am starting with. So far my hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday for about 4-5 hours a day! Just perfect for me and my family! The company I work for now is called Home Caregivers Home Health and their web site is very nice. Check it out by clicking on the name!

My parents have been a huge help by watching Dallin until I find a good daycare setting for him. Now that he is two, it will be almost like going to preschool. He misses his buddy that I used to watch. His little buddy used to come everyday for 4hours. We miss you Worsley family! So now he can play with other kids his age while I pursue a little work experience. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I have a feeling it is down this road of health care- somewhere!

Journaling

2009-01-04T21:23:00.003-07:00

Tonight I wish I had Ryan around to help me figure out how to get our old pictures off the new exterior hard-drive. Between learning two new computers and an exterior hard drive- I am feeling stunted in my abilities to accomplish much blogging. Ryan was in L.A. with Tyler running a booth at a Reptile Expo this weekend. Of course, now is the time I feel I can get back to blogging, but he has the nice camera with him and I can't seem to dig up the pictures that I haven't edited yet. Oh, and yes I would like some cheese with this whine!!

I guess all I can do is type.... how boring! JK..... I can't believe how fast I've changed since I began blogging! I was using a very old digital camera, dial-up internet and a pretty slow computer. Just a year later and I have four blogs I contribute to and a good camera (thanks to Ryan's snake business- business expense), DSL and now two smoking computers. You might be wondering how in this economy we can even think of getting two. Well, one was a surprise gift from my parents and my brother Rob and his family. Rob was feeling pretty sad for us as we were trying to keep up with technology using an older computer. We would call him and ask him how to patch this and over-come that. He is big on computers (majored in something with computers:)and always has up-to-date tech things. My parents had also noticed our dilemma and got the idea of going in with Rob on a computer for us since Rob's family had our name for Christmas and since we housed them so much this past year while Dad looked for a job. Well, this was exciting for Rob and he immediately got to work finding a good but not so expensive computer. He also knew how my two oldest kids love playing in the virtual reality world of World of Warcraft. He made sure that this computer was up to high speed gaming.

Meanwhile, Ryan got his annual bonus and began looking for a good computer for us for Christmas. He found a great deal on a refurbished computer that also was good for gaming. He also found a nice 22 inch monitor that is sooo cool!!! Ryan gets to work on two of these types of screens at work. So even though I had just bought the 17 inch flat-screen in October after using the sales from selling toys at the SLC Reptile Expo, he bought the new one so that I could enjoy such frivolities (is that a word?)and so Tyler could have a cool gaming view.

To make a long story short, we kept both computers and the 17 inch monitor is connected to the computer we got from M&D and Rob's family. It has replaced a very old dinosaur in our front room. The other computer is set up in our main living area and so both kids can play each other at the same time or I can kick one kid off the computer and there is still one good computer to use. I think this will come in handy as these kids use them for homework more often! It was a great surprise when we learned about the second computer. Thank you Mom, Dad, Rob, Kendra and family. We love you!

The 2nd half of the Basement (part four)

2009-01-02T20:07:00.001-07:00

This video shows the final part of the house my parents bought. Nothing super exciting. Enjoy!

The Basement (part three)

2009-01-02T19:06:00.002-07:00

This video shows part of the basement and is a little shorter than the others due to me having to stop taping because Sydney hurt her elbow(edited out). Enjoy!

My Parents New House Upstairs (part two)

2009-01-02T18:58:00.003-07:00

This video show the other half of the upstairs as well as quite a bit of my kids petting the horse and the pony that live behind the house in the neighbors yard. Once again, Sydney shows her wilder side. Dallin follows me around in true toddler fashion. Tyler's voice cracks a little as it deepens. Enjoy!

Move-in Day! My parents new house (part one)

2009-01-02T18:26:00.004-07:00

This video shows quite a bit of the upstairs of my parents new home and of my daughters personality. She can be a wild one! Sorry that I have taken such a long time in posting new events. I have been so busy helping my parents unpack, keeping up with the holidays, getting over some bug that has turned into a mild bronchitis/pneumonia, and getting used to TWO new computers. It takes quite a bit of time to learn how to navigate Windows Vista and get all of our info switched from the old computer to the new ones. Also, just setting up my dashboard the way I like it and all of the settings for the Internet such as favorites, has taken quite a bit of time. I hope every ones Christmas and New Year was a good one! Enjoy part one of my parents new house!

My Farewell to my Childhood Home

2008-12-17T10:53:00.004-07:00

For those of you who are new to my blog, my parents have sold their home that they lived in for 28 years. Before then, my grandparents had lived there for 12 years so the home was in our family for over 40 years! My brother Randy, my Sister Kristi my son Dallin and I flew back to Oregon from Utah in order to help my parents pack up the house and to say good-bye to it. My brother Rob and his wife Kendra and their two children Alyssa and Lance flew in the next day from Texas. We were able to have their new little boy blessed in Church on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon my parents hosted a going away party/baby blessing luncheon for our relatives. We had over 20 people come. We used some boxes for a buffet table. After everyone left, they did more packing until late in the night. A big snow storm hit and left a couple inches of snow in the yard and then the roads turned to ice in the middle of the night.

This video is the last shots of the house as I saw it. I wasn't sad. It really hasn't hit me yet about not being able to go into "our" house anymore. Just don't laugh at my funny recording voice. I still need to stop jabbering while I record videos. Enjoy!

My World On Digital Video!

2008-12-08T11:51:00.004-07:00

I was at Blockbuster on Saturday and spotted this Flip video digital camcorder for $49! I just had to have it since I have been wanting one for months. I called Ryan and he suggested coming home and doing a google search on it to see how people have rated it.

Well, I followed his advice and found it has excellent ratings for being a cheap, easy to use camcorder with built-in software so you can use it with any computer. It has a flip out USB port on the side- hense the name "Flip". I went back later that night and have been very impressed with this little gadget! The newer versions cost about $129 but the one I bought was last years model. It has 60 minutes of recording time and there were ones that had 30 minutes of recording time for only $39. It runs on two "AA" batteries. I'm so excited to have this when I go to Oregon later this week! I can record and share the home I grew up in before my parents finish moving out!

The House My Parents Have Bought

2008-12-05T10:38:00.005-07:00

This is the house my parents have bought in Utah. It is located in West Point which is about 40 minutes north of Salt Lake City. My Dad found it while searching utahrealestate.com which has listing for most of the houses for sale in Utah. I went to check it out for them and was really impressed with what I saw. I took pictures that night when I saw it for the first time. Then I went back the next day to see it in the light and took outdoor pictures. This house interested my parents so much that the day after Thandgiving they drove out to look at it. After a couple of days of looking at other properties, they realized this house is the one they wanted. Coincidently, the owners are almost finished with their other house they are building and so the timing is perfect. My parents are scheduled to move in on the 22nd of December!

As you can see it is a very well kept house and the man who currently lives there with his family built it. He put in a lot of extras since he is a contractor. He also has an ongoing christmas light duel with a neighbor so the outside is well stocked with outlets. The landscaping is well done with drip lines going to all of the plants.

The parking area is huge with room for both my parents boat and RV. The huge storage shed at the back has two lofts for storage and will hold the riding lawnmower.

You can fit four cars across this parking area. Good thing since my parents have three cars and they expect family to visit often!

The gorgeous master bath! My parents have never had a bathroom just to themselves off the master bedroom. Unless you count when us kids moved away and they had no one to share with! The entire upstairs has been professionally painted within the last year and there is a completely finished basement. There are 4 huge bedrooms, a family room, a big living room, a dining area and main floor laundry. It has two and 3/4ths bathrooms with each of them being large but the basement bath has only a walk-in shower, not a tub. There is a big office space and room for an exercise area or game area in the basement and tons of storage! The basement even has a wet bar (sink with counter space).

The house backs up to a horse pasture that is sectioned off in 1 acre parcels. This is the backyard view looking south-east across several parcels of horse property. From the front of the house, it looks residential and is a typical suburban neighborhood.

While my parents backyard is actually sort-of small, they have this view in the back. The pony and horse live behind them and come up to the back fence to be petted. They are very sweet and I am looking forward to visiting them. The current owners 4-year-old daughter feeds the horses apples. The gate opens up to the horse property and doesn't have barbed wire on the second fence.

The backyard! The enormous play structure is staying and it has a sand pit at the bottom of the slide! The trampoline will not be staying.

There is also a well made fire pit that Sydney is looking forward to roasting marshmallows in. This house will be the favorite place for the grandkids to visit! If my Mom chooses to do daycare again, it will work well for that too! I can post inside pictures after my parents move in. I just didn't want to show someone elses furnature and things for safety purposes.

News Release

2008-12-03T09:59:00.003-07:00

For those of you like me who are not so happy with their less than "hourglass" shape, here is some good news. This is a study that was just released from the University of Utah. Enjoy!

The Friday After Thanksgiving- Pineview Reservoir

2008-12-03T09:25:00.005-07:00

My Husband Ryan decided to ask the kids if they wanted to go fishing on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Sydney and Tyler decided they wanted to go and since Dallin was sick with Roseolla, I stayed home with him after taking him to the doctor. When they all came back late in the afternoon, they were all excited and full of stories to tell of this cold, but memorable fishing trip.

The kids ended up catching their limit and these were not small trout! The smallest was approx. 16 inches long and the biggest was approx. 21 inches! The fish were good fighters and they limited out in less than 2 hours! Ryan said he could only bait the hooks, cast them out and then one of the kids would have a fish on. Then he would take care of the fish and start the process all over again. He said it was one of the best fishing trips he's been on. Enjoy the pictures- they pretty much speak for themselves!

Our Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-01T11:46:00.002-07:00

Our "Tom" turkey

My pumpkin pie using pumpkin from our garden! It turned out well, but I think I prefer the taste of Libby's pumpkin better.

Our feast! Thanks to Kathrine, Ryan's sister who brought the sweet potatoes and some yummy cream cheese filled ham slices for snacking on and Kristi, my sister who brought the rolls and cooked some broccoli and cauliflower. I provided the turkey, potatoes, greenbeans, carrots, olives, pie, salad and deviled eggs! We had a great time visiting. Tyler showed Katherine his new Cello and she played for him on her guitar. We watched the new Indiana Jones movie and Kristi played games with Tyler and Sydney. Dallin spent the day being sick with a fever and the nasty "D" word. I wasn't feeling very well either since I had been up at night with Dallin and I was fighting off something. I slept on the couch after the late lunch was done. It was a great holiday for us and the food was divine! We had much to be greatful for with our family, food and a roof over our heads. What a great day to focus on our blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-25T17:34:00.003-07:00

From our house to yours, we wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. I am busy these next few days preparing for my sister and my sister-in-law to come to Thanksgiving dinner at my place. I am also house-hunting for my parents as they are moving in only 2 1/2 weeks! I must admit, I love looking at houses and they didn't have to twist my arm very much to get me to look around. I pretty much volunteered for the opportunity! There is at least one house that is a real possibility. I will post pictures after they actually get moved in.

My parents are flying me, Dallin, Randy and Kristi as well as Rob and his family to help out with the last minute packing. We will be leaving on the 12th of December and Ryan will stay here with Tyler and Sydney. Luckily they have movers to actually load up the truck.

I just found out this morning that my parents are coming back on Friday to check out a house that they are very interested in buying. It will be a big upgrade to anything they have lived in before. I was able to go and take pictures and then load them onto a new blog site for our family. It is a private site, but it shows up on my profile. I will post more as I find out more!

Dallin's Second Birthday

2008-11-21T09:54:00.003-07:00

Our little guy Dallin turned 2 on November 8th. For his cake I chose to do a vanilla one with white frosting and made spots using sugar crystals. I'm not one to make super fancy cakes. We had a small party that evening with Grandma and Grandpa since they were here to look for a job. They hadn't found out about the house selling yet, that was still a week away.

Dallin didn't know what to do with the candle flame and despite our efforts to teach him, we ended up blowing it out for him. Tyler was in a church shirt since he and I and my parents had spent the morning at Mount Timpanogas temple. We were able to do some work for an uncle that had passed away. It was Tyler's first time being baptized for the dead and he had a very spiritual experience while performing this in behalf of his Great Uncle. The temple was abuzz as we were able to perform the Baptism, Confirmation, Initiatory, Endowment and Seal him to his parents in one day. I watched the whole thing and my sister Kristi was able to see the baptism part. My parents and my brother Randy helped with the other parts. It was a great day for our family. My only regret was not remembering my camera! My mom got pictures though, so she will have to share them. Maybe when she moves to Utah, I can teach her how to blog!

Dallin in his favorite gift- a big Jeep! he has been wanting a "car" to play in for a while. I found it on KSL.com for thirty bucks! My parents bought it for him. Thanks Mom and Dad!

A few days later, we were able to visit with my Grandparents while they were in Utah. They stayed at my Aunt Deanna's place. This is one of the first pictures we have of them and Dallin together. I think it is such a sweet picture. The next one is even better.

I just love this one of my grandparents looking so lovingly at Dallin. Isn't having loving family the best! I think this picture will be one for Dallin's children to cherish.

It's Sold!

2008-11-17T12:23:00.007-07:00

My parents house had an offer made on it last Friday and they accepted it! They are scheduled to be out of the house by December 15th! They are now in Oregon packing and making arrangements to move to Utah! We are so excited, knowing how hard it is to sell a house in this market. My parents Realitors are Brent and Marie Boyter. I've known them for years. He used to be in the Stake Presidency in Corvallis. If all of this had happened a couple of years ago, I would have had a hard time. But we are all ready for this now and it is a good time to leave Corvallis if you are affiliated with Hewlett-Packard or the computer componant making business.

Rummors are that HP will be shutting down the Corvallis plant completly in the next few years. They are fazing out and laying off workers. My sister-in-laws father was an Engineer at HP and just lost his job. With the layoffs, the market surrounding Corvallis will be flooded with workers and only the best people or the fastest to jump ship will get the miniscule jobs available. This means most workers will have to commute to Salem or Portland to find a decent job. If they try to sell a house, it will be VERY hard because of the number of houses to sell and not enough buyers. Best option for those working for HP- go back to school to find a job that allows you to stay in Corvallis, or cut your losses and jump ship before you are stuck with an even bigger loss. Sad, but the way this life is, make lemonade from lemons or be stuck with a bunch of rotting lemons!

McKenzie's Baptism

2008-11-14T15:10:00.006-07:00

My niece McKenzie turned eight in October and made the decision to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is the daughter of my brother Randy. In our religion, a person can choose to be baptized anytime after the age of eight. Sometimes there will be multiple baptisms, but on this day McKenzie was the only one scheduled so she got to choose who would speak and what songs to sing. Traditionally there is an opening song, a talk on Baptism, then the baptism would be performed. Then after the person has changed clothing, there would be a welcome to the ward talk by a member of the Bishopric and then a talk on the Holy Ghost. Then the person receives the gift of the Holy Ghost by those who hold the priesthood. I was chosen by McKenzie to give a talk on Baptism and her uncle (Katie's brother in-law) was chosen to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.

When Katie asked me to give the talk on baptism, I was honored! I decided that I really wanted it to be memorable and I wanted to use some sort of visual to help. I was only given about three days to think on this, so after praying for guidance from Heavenly Father, I went to work. I looked up baptism talk ideas on Sugardoodle.com and some other sites as well as LDS.org. I wasn't satisfied with what I found and I found myself wanting to be original- not relying on what others had done before. This meant having the Holy Ghost lead me to what I was supposed to say. By friday night, I still hadn't found what I wanted to say and so I took a trip to Walmart to look around for visual aids. I somehow ended up in the keychain isle and was looking through the different little items. I found a magnifying lens on a key chain and thought about how I could tie that into baptism. Then I found these neat old fashioned keys on key chains. I was so excited and began thinking of ways to make it work for my talk.

That night I tried to find scriptures on baptism and was led to three different ones in the Book of Mormon. Mosiah 18:10- talks about covenants, Mosiah 18:16-17 talks about entering the Church of Christ, and Mosiah 21:35 talks about baptism being a witness that they are willing to serve God. I didn't feel impressed to write out my talk like I usually do, but I desired to do it without "purse or script" like it says in the Bible. I went to bed a little discouraged about not finding a way to tie in the keys with baptism. I mentioned this to Ryan who was already in bed. He reminded me about the scripture that talks about "entering in at the strait gate" and likening it to having the key to enter that gate- which is baptism. It was an exciting moment as I knew the talk would come together on it's own.

The next morning, I rushed to get my kids and I ready and leave on time to be at the nine o'clock baptism. It was in Orem which was an hour and 15 minutes away from our house. As I was waiting for the others to arrive, I quickly looked up the last scripture that Ryan had mentioned the night before. I found it in the Bible under St. Matthew 7:13-14. When it was my turn, I was nervous but the spirit took over and I just said the things that came to mind as I read each of the scriptures. It was very simple- just right for McKenzie and yet every adult was reminded of the covenant that they made when they were baptized.

Then I told McKenzie that I had something for her and I held up the keys- there were two of them on one keychain (I had bought them seperatly but then combined them on one ring). I read to her the scripture in St. Matthew and likened the keys on the ring to Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost (which we call "Comfirmation" or being "Confirmed") and how they are the first keys in this life that she will get to return to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I also told her that there are other keys that she will need to get, but that these are the first. I then handed her the keys to keep as a memory of the choices she made that day. My daughter Sydney said that McKenzie reached out really quick and was so glad to get them. I then told McKenzie how glad I was to be her Aunt (by then I choked up and I had tears in my eyes). I told her I knew the Church was true and I told her some other things as well. It was a great experience and I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to stretch my faith a little and not rely upon myself. It seems like it should be such a simple thing to give a little 2-3 minute talk, but even simple things can make a big impression on our lives.

McKenzie and her dad, Randy and her Grandpa. McKenzie was baptized and confirmed by Randy.

Can her smile get any bigger?

McKenzie's family- Malia being held by Randy, Katie holding Micah, McKenzie and Morgan.

My second cousin Jeff and his family- Jacob, Chris, Andrea, and Jessi (and of course McKenzie)

Kristi (Aunt Dee-da), and McKenzie

Grandma, Grandpa and McKenzie- she is their third grandchild baptized and on Katie's side of the family she is the first one baptized!

Tyler, Me and Sydney- Dallin was sick and stayed home with Daddy.

This is my second cousin's wife Andrea. We know them so well that it is wierd introducing her as an in-law. She is like a cousin! At the church building in the Primary Room are these cute childrens benches. I just had to snag a picture for the blog. Andrea was my model. Isn't she beautiful?!

This is Jeff and Andrea's third child sporting a jacket that has Lego guys attatched to the buttons! He kept his mind busy playing with them.

Here is a blooper picture. Randy was teasing McKenzie and my Dad was calling a family member in between photos!

Afterwards, we all went to Golden Corral and had a yummy brunch. I had never been there before and was very impressed with the variety of the buffet. They had just about everything you could ever want for breakfast! From grits to crepes!

This is such a cute picture of Katie's sister Lori and her oldest daughter. She is pregnant with their fourth. It was really nice to see you again Lori! You have such a great family!

I've reached the end of this long post. I hope you enjoyed reading about our family and our religious beliefs. It really is interesting posting this for all the world to see. Please be considerate of this as you contemplate your comments. I would love to hear your thoughts on this special day we had.

Halloween 2008- Hoyer Style!

2008-11-09T17:52:00.002-07:00

L-R: Dallin(puppy), Kristi (my sister as Little Red Riding Hood), Sydney (She-Devil), and Tyler(Anakin turning to the dark side). For Halloween I took my kids and one of my daycare kids to Ryan's work at the American Towers in SLC. He works for Franklin Capital Corporation and they have three floors in the office building. The kids trick-or-treated to all of the cubicles and got a bucket full of candy for their efforts!

This was Dallin's first time actually participating in the action and it took a few minutes to get the hang of it. He tried to give his candy away after the first cubicle. He thought they were trading. Then when he realized that he got a lollipop, he wanted to eat it. After that, he wanted to be tasting something throughout the whole evening. He was very sticky within the first half hour! needless to say, I just wheeled him around the offices in an umbrella stroller. The only way to go!

Sydney wanted to make faces at the camera whenever I took a picture. She would quickly cross her eyes! My parents were here for the festivities and my sister went trick-or-treating with us as well. We had our traditional halloween pizza dinner and then hit the streets. We had excellent weather for the first hour and then a light drizzle decended on us. Sydney brought her dog with us and Sophie was very good. Sophie had an angel costume but didn't wear it trick-or-treating. Sydney had bought it for her. Since Sydney was a Devil, I told her they were going as opposites of their character! (Sophie has been having some accidents on the floor).

After trick-or-treating, we settled in to watch my favorite Halloween movie- "The Burbs" Staring Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Dan Akroid and Corey Fieldman. If you haven't seen it, check it out! It is a great silly/spooky comedy about a family that moves in to the subburbs and keeps to themselves. They don't fit in with the rest of the neighborhood and become the subject of observation by the nosy neighbors and they don't like what they find!

Sophie in her angel costume!

At our house, when you come to trick-or-treat, you get a trick as well as a treat! Ryan answers the door by poking a snake out the door. Then he opens the door all the way and the kids can pick a candy out of a bucket. The funniest kids are the teenage girls- boy can they scream! When I walked to the end of the cul-de-sac with my kids, you could hear kids talking about the house that has a snake! It was a big draw to the kids! Halloween- Hoyer Style!

Clark Planetarium- Salt Lake City

2008-10-27T09:00:00.005-06:00

Tyler's sixth grade classes at his school took a field trip to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City a couple weeks ago. I was lucky enough to get the day off from watching children- thanks Stacey and Blanca! Dallin went to a neighbor's house and had a blast! The morning started at 8:30 when we boarded the new Front Runner commuter train that runs from Davis county to Salt Lake City. From there we took the Trax to the Planetarium at the Gateway Mall. Trax is like a mix of a cable car and bus. The kids loved riding the Front Runner especially since they didn't have to sit in their seats and could walk around. There were giggly sixth grade girls going from group to group to socialize. I felt bad for the poor commuters that were bombarded by over 75 sixth graders! No, really the kids were entertaining! Since I was on the field trip with Tyler, they assigned me 4 boys to supervise. They were all good kids and didn't make trouble.

Tyler on his first ride on the Front Runner!

As you enter the Planetarium, there is this globe suspended by three cables. If you are in a group like we were, they have a presentation that shines four different projector images onto the globe to give it a full picture of whatever planet they are presenting. In our group, they started with the sun and worked their way out to pluto. When the image of earth came up on the globe, I was surprised to have a spiritual moment as I looked at the beautiful blues and greens. I was overwhelmed with gratitude to God for this gift of a beautiful, perfect planet for life in the middle of the Milky Way. Who would have thought that I would have a spiritual moment on a sixth grade field trip! Just a couple of minutes later, one of the teachers sat down by me and mentioned just about the same thing that I had experienced! Someone was really inspired to put the program together!

As you tour the museum, there are many different space things to look at. Here is a suit from one of the Apollo missions.

This is an actual moon rock from another of the Apollo missions. It was really hard to get a decent picture of this with the glare of the angled glass and my flash.

I really liked this form of the moon and tried to get an artistic picture of it. I think it turned out okay. Could be better if I had a tripod and worked with the lights more.

I just liked the colors in this photo and the interesting signs that make it feel it really is Central Station.

This young man is one of Tyler's friends from Church. He was also in my group. I looks like he is on the planet Mars! The school my son attends has a manditory uniform policy. White shirts with collars and blue dress pants are required for field trips. While we were there, we also saw a presentation in the dome theater. It was presented by a man with a microphone so that you could ask questions if you had them and he could stop to answer them. I was actually tired by the time this presentation was done because of all of the information I took in. Then we went to the Imax theater located in the museum and watched a movie that was narrated by Tom Cruise. It was very informative and was in 3-D. The kids really liked it- but it is geared towards school aged kids and adults.

By the time we got back to the station to leave Salt Lake City, I had a small headache and was tired. We all had a great time and learned quite a bit. I would recommend this museum to older kids who are interested in the planets and the solar system. Toddlers wouldn't find this museum too exciting since it is geared towards children that can read.

Sydney's New Dog

2008-10-21T14:08:00.003-06:00

Sydney got a new dog! We rescued her from the Davis County Animal Shelter. She is a chihuahua/pekinese mix we guess. Her name is Sophie. I know, you are probably wondering why we even let her get a dog when we already have one, and a bird, and rabbits and snakes, mice and lizards. The story began about 10 months ago when we had our cat Nickels. Dallin had been waking up several times a night even though he was over a year old. I would go into the room and the cat was in the crib with Dallin. I was sure he was the reason Dallin kept waking up. Also, the cat fur was driving me crazy as was the hairballs I would find and have to clean up. I was also pretty sure my allergies were worse having the cat.

Finally I told the family I was through with having a cat at our house. I put up an add on KSL which has an awesome classified section. No one responded. A week went by and I was growing impatient since the baby was waking up and I couldn't lock the cat in a room or else he would have an accident. Ryan and I are also firm believers in not having cats roam city streets and pooping in flower beds. If we lived in the country, it would be different.

Soooo, I decided to take Nickels to the animal shelter. That night, Sydney was begging to go say goodbye one more time to him. I said we could go after school the next day. When we got there, Nickels had already been given a new home. He didn't even stay there a full day! Sydney was so upset, since she was so close to him. He would sometimes sleep on her bed.

This brings us to our recent purchase. Sydney has been begging, drawing pictures and sending us letters about getting a cat. I found out one of the kids I babysit has cat allergies. That was enough of an excuse to rule out a cat. I suggested a small dog that could sleep on her bed. We went to the shelter and found this cute little bundle of energy. She is very sweet and loves to give kisses (licks). She is an awesome lap dog and keeps Sampson company. We only had one accident on the first morning, then no more for over a week now! Sydney loves Sophie and enjoys taking her for walks with her friend and her friend's dog. Sampson is just too big for her to handle and hasn't been properly trained. Sophie's side profile. She is very soft to the touch and I love her little curled up tail that wags very fast when she is excited. She reminds me of a small fox.

Sleeping with Sydney. What an awesome companion dog.

Sophie vs. Sampson. Just a little size difference!

Fall Pictures

2008-10-18T20:44:00.004-06:00

Popper Fun

2008-10-12T20:06:00.002-06:00

One of the toys that we have is the Fisher-Price popper toy. Dallin and one of the kids I babysit that was also 22 months, figured out a new way to play with this toy. We had a couple of pieces of paper from school laying on the floor. It was in small strips and they were spelling words from one of the older kids. The little boys crumpled them up and put them into the popper toy. Then they turned it on. Those papers went flying and the kids laughed and grabbed them again. They stuffed them as fast they could and turned it on again. This kept them busy for about a half hour! Dallin's smile says it all!

Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve

2008-10-12T19:45:00.004-06:00

One of our favorite places to go on a warm, Sunday afternoon is the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve. It is located in Layton, Utah. We like it because of the well-made boardwalk that you can walk on and the diversity of the animals. One year we saw a family of red foxs that had a den just 10-15 feet off of the boardwalk. One thing that you need to take with you besides your binoclars is mosquito repelant. The boardwalk is over a mile long, in a loop and has different learning stations along the way. There is also a huge tower that is not handicap accessible, but offers a great view of the wetlands. You also get a great view of the mountains and Antelope Island. Enjoy the pics!

Oh Happy Day! I'm a CNA!

2008-10-09T14:12:00.002-06:00

I passed my state exams to be a Certified Nursing Assistant! I set this goal over two years ago, and I finally got the courage up to take the state exam- two days before it expired. I was really scared of passing things off in front of an Registered Nurse. Go figure. I can speak infront of hundreds without notice, but I was freaked out about the skills portion of the exam. I didn't know that two students get tested together at the same time which makes it less threatening. I also had a really easy senario to have to perform. I could have done the harder ones, but it was the luck of the draw. I'm so happy! I will be certified for two years and can go to work in Nursing Homes, Home Health Care, Rehabilitative/Restorative Therapy places, Assisted living facilities, or Hospitals if they allow new CNA's. There are always jobs available for this kind of work and the projection is that it will increase as baby boomers retire and need help. I could now apply for nursing school if I wanted. But don't worry. I'm not doing anything right now but running my day care business! Hope your day goes well!

Need a new handbag- or want one?

2008-10-09T10:07:00.004-06:00

Click here to enter a contest to receive a handbag- FREE! It is sponsered by Handbag Planet and they are opening an online store on October 14th and 15th. The contest is free and you don't even have to pay for shipping or handling and it requires no credit card to complete. They are giving away 24 handbags in 24 hours! You can pick which one you want to put your name in the drawing for. Or you can do what I am doing and earn more entries by putting it on your blog or website or other places. Enjoy!

Wasatch Reptile Expo- 2008

2008-10-08T13:44:00.012-06:00

My other life is centered around the business that my husband runs out of our basement. He raises snakes to sell on the internet and at reptile expos. In September was our annual Wasatch Reptile Expo put on at the Utah State Fairgrounds in Salt Lake City. This year, Ryan had many more snakes to sell than in previous years. I have spent time helping out at previous expos, but this year I wanted to add to our capital by introducing toys for kids with a reptile theme. We had done this on a much smaller scale to raise money for the Utah Herpitological Association a few years back. We had sold little toy snakes for 50 cents a piece and gave away some candy. It was a big hit back then, but I hadn't done anything like it since. The parents told us they loved being able to buy a souvenir without having to buy a live animal. The kids loved the toys and enjoyed a quick sugar rush while Mom or Dad dragged them around the expo. Back then, it wasn't geared to kids and there wasn't as many animals to touch or get close to. This has all changed.

This is a picture of my new idea to have a table dedicated to the selling of toys for the little visitors. It was a good idea because of how well it sold. This was my plan- I went to our local Dollar Tree and bought any toy I could find that had to do with reptiles. I borrowed $60 from Ryan (from a snake fund) and bought packages of little snakes and geckos that had eight toys in the bag. I sold those for 5o cents a piece and they sold like hotcakes! So, I profited $3 for every eight tiny snakes bought. Then I also bought these really cute books that fold out into a snake shape. They sold for $3 a piece. There were 1 foot snakes that you could put in water and they would expand 600 %. They were also sold for $3 a snake. I had some little pieces of gummy creature candies that we sold for a quarter. Then, the big favorite- a squishy frog that was clear and filled with colored fluid and little confetti pieces. they also sold for $3. Each of the $3 items netted $2 since I had bought them for a dollar. This was how it looked right before we opened on Saturday.

Within two hours of opening, I sold out of most of the sixty dollars worth of toys. I was able to pay Ryan back and still have about 70 dollars left. I had Sydney watch the table while I went to the nearest Dollar Tree and bought $70 worth of toys. While I was there, I got a phone call from Sydney saying some people wanted drinks. I thought, there is no way I'm going to try and figure out what type of pop people want, so I grabbed a couple of cases of water bottles at the Dollar Tree. I then sold the water for $1 a bottle. These sold very well too. There was no concessions at the expo, but even though we were inside, people were getting hot and had a hard time finding the drinking fountain. That is why the water sold so well. Later on that night I had to buy more toys for the next day. I spent $80 of our Saturday's profit and was well stocked again. At the end of the Expo on Sunday, I had earned $300 profit from selling the toys! Sydney had her eye on a baby bunny for sale and we let her buy it with the money she earned. I was able to purchase a used LCD computer monitor and a new soundcard and speakers with our earnings!

This is Ryan's nice glass display that he just bought. It helps to make sure the snakes don't grow legs and walk away- if you know what I mean! Stealing is a problem at these shows, so people have to show receipts as they go out the door past security.

Here is a bigger picture of Ryan and his display. All of the animals on the black table cloths are his as well as the ones in the display case. You can see my toy table in the corner as we were placed right in the corner of the Expo. That is why I could leave Sydney with the toys since Ryan was right next to us. Tyler had a scout campout Friday/Saturday so he didn't come with us. Then on Sunday he chose to go to church and pass the sacrament for the first time. I made sure to see him pass the sacrament, then I hurried down to SLC to help out Ryan and Sydney. Dallin was babysat by our next-door neighbors on Saturday and then my sister Kristi came up from Provo to watch him on Sunday for us. Thanks everyone!

Our Dumerils Boa was on display. The smaller snakes on top are the babies. This helped people to know how big they can get.

Ryan's new banner with the name of his business.

Here is the photo I promised of me holding the tarantula. Yes, it really is me- can't you tell by the freckles on my arm? This was the second time I've held a tarantula.

Sydney eating one of the novelties of the show. Lollipops with real scorpions or crickets in them, dead of course! No, she didn't eat all of the lollipop. Just the parts without the scorpion in it. These pops sold for $3 a piece by a guy that breeds crickets.

Sydney petting a burmese python that was getting a break from being cooped up in his cage. This guy came up and asked if we wouldn't mind having the python be on the ground behind our toy display. I said it wasn't a problem. Pretty soon, people would stop by our table, then see the snake behind us and go and look at it. They stopped buying the toys! I was glad when they put the snake away after only about 15 minutes. The chair in the photo is where Sydney and I had been sitting.

These three little guys (or gals) looked fake, but as I got a closer look, they were real! They were real posers! Just about as cute as bearded dragons get!

This young family was so cute, I just had to take a picture. They reminded me of the Ditto family- a couple of years ago when they only had four kids!

This is an interesting story. See the man holding the megaphone? That is Guy Versluis. He puts on the Expo every year. He was announcing the drawing for free prizes in this picture. Anyone who came automatically got a ticket. I noticed before the Expo that no one seemed to be taking pictures of the booths. When I asked Ryan about it, he said that Guy is usually too busy to do it. I then said I would volunteer since I had the camera and I've become a shutter-bug. Guy was very happy to have me take the pictures. I became the unofficial- official photographer for the Expo. The pictures will be replacing many that are currently on the web site. In this photo, I suggested that Guy tell everyone to smile and say "reptiles". He did and here is the result! I then told him to tell them to check out the website in a couple of weeks in order to see themselves. I guess I'm a shameless marketer at heart!

Since I took the pictures, I get to use some for my blog! These are our friends, Shaun and Jen. They had a booth next to ours. When the crowds slowed down, Jen would come over to our toy table and visit. Then her husband would give her this look of "Help!" and she would go back to her duties. They used three of my toy snakes to fill empty spots in their display. Check it out- and the price tag attached!

This price tag attracted many second glances, and even a news crew got a close-up of it. I was proud to say that one of my "stock" became famous (maybe) on the nightly news. I didn't stay up to see it.

Another one of our crazy snake friends- Evan Jameson (the taller one) with his worker that I don't know the name of (sorry). His wife is very sweet and I get along well with her too.

Ryan would every-so-often take out a previously frozen mouse and feed it to a snake. He would lay it on the display case and a crowd would gather every time. Here are some kids that enjoyed watching the snake and learning about how they ate.

This young man was one of the few that asked to hold our Dumerils Boa. He had a great time. His friends thought it was really neat.

Just one of the animals brought to be shown. People learn to appreciate things if they encounter them and have a good experience with them. This tortoise is owned by our friend Jim Dix who is pictured below.

Jim owns his own reptile rescue service. If someone has a venomous snake in their yard, they call him. When the Division of Wildlife Resources needs to train an officer in how to handle such animals as rattle snakes, they go to Jim. He is like Steve Irwin without the antics. Very mellow guy.

Well, I've reached the end of my photos I planned to post. I hope you enjoyed this eye opening journey into my "other" life!

Vote in November

2008-10-08T10:01:00.002-06:00

A family we are friends with in Oregon, the Gatherum's, had this posted on their blog. Even though both of our families are not affiliated with the Catholic faith, we can support other religions in common beliefs and issues we agree on. This video is inspiring and should be passed on to help stir others into a deeper commitment to vote this election, if not every election. If you have a blog, post it on it as well if you agree with it. Enjoy!

Bowling with Grandma and Grandpa

2008-10-07T08:30:00.001-06:00

My parents have been in Utah for about a month now as my dad looks around for a job and they enjoy a long vacation. My dad actually quite his job at the beginning of September and decided to put the house up for sale in August. So far it hasn't sold, but there is a family that likes it but needs to sell their house before they buy anything. Tyler and Sydney have been wanting to go bowling for quite a while now, so we went as a group for Family Home Evening. Kristi (my Sister) had spent the last few nights with us as well so she came with us. Here are some of the highlights.

I snagged this shot right before my turn. I'm sure the other bowlers didn't appreciate the flash. At least it wasn't league night!

What form Sydney! She did a great job bowling and even beat my score! It was her first time bowling- sad to say. I know we took Tyler when he was little, but we just haven't been bowling as a family for a long time.

Tyler surprised at his first strike! Good job Tyler!

Kristi did a great job! It was fun to have her around.

Dad had a blast!

Mom really gave those pins something to think about!

Dallin was so cute as he watched everyone. He wanted to be next to everyone and clapped and cheered when the pins were knocked down. I let him take a turn when it was clear my game was not great.

Ryan took the next couple of photos while I was right behind Dallin. He looked so small, but had a great time!

Dallin clapping for all of us!

Music Monday

2008-10-06T12:26:00.004-06:00

I'm not sure if this will become a regular weekly post, but I have a song I wanted to share that I really like. It is called "Little Wonders" sung by Rob Thomas and is from the movie "Meet the Robinsons". It is also the inspiration for the name of my day care- Active Wonders Daycare. It is inspiring for the way it points out that it's the small hours that last, the little wonders. In the movie, the little boy was abandoned at an orphange. He had to learn to "Keep Moving Forward" and be himself. Things worked out for him as he did so. He eventually became part of a family that was perfect for him- but different than most. Sometimes happiness comes in ways and places we never would of thought of. Listen and see if you are inspired. Enjoy!

No More Pacifier!

2008-10-06T09:00:00.000-06:00

This is the last photo with Dallin and his pacifier! He had fallen asleep in the highchair recently. Last week, I was putting him to bed and I couldn't find a pacifier. I was too tired to do a thorough search of the house, so I just layed him down. I was surprised that he was too sleepy to put up much of a fight. The next day, I saw a pacifier, but hid it since I was so happy that he didn't need it. This continued throughout the week and he hasn't been really asking for it! One night he did wake up and put his hands to his mouth and cried like he missed his pacifier. It broke my heart, but I just held him and settled him down and he went back to sleep. I didn't give in! Really, he was just very easy to break of the habit. I'm sure there are many kids who would not have given it up so easy!

Fun photos of the family

2008-10-01T14:20:00.003-06:00

Randy's third child, Micah.

Randy's second child Morgan- always a ham for the camera!

These cousins could pass for sisters- well, two of them are. L-R: Sydney, Mc Kenzie, and Morgan.

Are they from the same family- nah, must be coincidence that they look soooo much alike! (Father-daughter, Randy and Mc Kenzie)

Three generation picture with Mom, Katie and Malia- the youngest in Randy's family.

We had a great time together after the ordination of Tyler. We celebrated too many birthdays with ice cream cake and exchanged gifts. My Parents gave the three older cousins matching shirts with bracelets as you saw in the earlier pictures. They pranced around excited to match each other. I don't think they did a make-up session like the other recent times when they've been together. We will be spending time with them this weekend for General Conference. We will then be celebrating Mc Kenzie turning eight! Another family baptism coming up!

Wednesday Weigh In has been moved...

2008-10-01T11:58:00.003-06:00

I have decided to put my Wednesday Weight In on my new blog that is dedicated to eating healthy etc. I am also beginning a weekly post on my new blog, "Friday- Try It!" where I discuss a new-to-me food item or anything that might me different/healthy but interesting to try. This may include links to scientific information on the topic or links to other blogs that are interested in it. I have also posted links on my side bar that will take you to the Food Pyramid, a calculator for your Body Mass Index, as well as nutritional guidelines from the US Department of Agriculture and The US Department of Health. I just recalculated my BMI and I dropped 2 points over the last two months! I just need to drop three more points in order to not be classified as "overweight". How's that for a sneak peak of Wednesday Weigh in?!

I have a new blog!

2008-09-29T15:09:00.002-06:00

I've decided to begin a new blog dedicated to healthy eating and my weight loss goals! It is called One Tidbit at a Time. You can click on the link or type in tidbits4health.blogspot.com in order to access it. This way I can focus on family events for this blog. I hope you will check out the new blog just to see if it interests you. Otherwise, I plan on posting more family happenings soon such as the Wasatch Reptile Expo that our family had a booth at. There will be plenty of pictures of snakes and even one of me holding a tarantula! (Just in time for Halloween!)

Saving Money While Eating Healthy

2008-09-26T09:34:00.007-06:00

This post is in response to a comment from a friend in the last "Wednesday Weigh In". My friend Ann commented how expensive it is while trying to eat healthy. I found that at first it is expensive to eat healthier because I tried so many new recipes and bought low-fat butters and margarine's that slim fast recommended. I also bought slim fast bars and drinks while I was still buying junk food for the family. Since I've been doing this now for about 2 months, I have more of a routine and the family is on board now so I buy less junk and more healthy crackers etc. I still like to buy the slim fast bars because they are so good and give me a chocolate fix without all of the calories.

One expensive thing that was in most of my new recipes was peppers- green, red, yellow and orange. I tried to find the cheapest place to buy peppers in bulk (Sam's Club)and then cut them up and froze them. This saves me money and time in the kitchen. I cut the peppers into four or more pieces after taking out the seeds. Then stick'em in a plastic Ziploc bag and freeze. I buy only garlic in the clove and as a whole bud. I found out that by buying the previously peeled garlic, it goes bad faster. I am lucky that our garden is growing tons of tomatoes right now so I don't buy those.

Lettuce was always a part of our diet but I try to buy the whole heads because you get more for your money. I can see if you are single though, it would be wasted faster so for you it probably is better to buy it bagged. My personal favorite lettuce combo is l head of each of these- Romaine, red leaf and green leaf. I don't buy iceberg since it is mainly a filler without much nutritional value.

The most expensive part of switching to healthier eating is buying the spices that help to flavor the foods. With less fat, it needs more flavor since fat is what gives most foods flavor. If I was on a really strict budget, I would buy only one new spice or seasoning a week(or month) and then make due with pepper and other already bought seasonings. I recommend cumin because of its stimulant properties it helps with appetite. Click on the link to understand the word stimulant when talking about food and drugs. It doesn't "increase" your appetite like in the word stimulate, it suppresses your appetite. In our society, cumin is used in currys, chili powder, taco seasonings etc. In researching cumin I found an awesome blog about spices and foods. Click here to go to it.

My last suggestion is to try out Mrs. Dash seasonings. In my previous Wednesday Weigh In, I mentioned a friend of mine that is a body builder. One day when we were visiting his house he was cooking some fish in a pan on the stove. He was preparing for an upcoming competition and had a very strict diet to stick to. I asked about the seasonings he was using and he said Mrs. Dash because it is MSG free, salt free and had great spices in it. I then checked it out at our local Walmart and was very surprised with the number of combinations you could choose from. From a good chicken grilling seasoning to a barbecue seasoning, to a yummy lemon pepper seasoning. You should also make sure your seasonings are low in salt because we all tend to get too much salt in our diet. It makes our bodies hold onto too much water which makes our weight loss seem less. I think I will need to do a post on MSG as I learn more about it. I seem to have a reaction to it that I need to watch. Look for that in the future!

With all of this food info and weight-loss talk, maybe I should start a second blog and keep this blog dedicated to family. What do you think? PS- did you notice I looked up html and found out how to separate my paragraphs? Yea!!!!

Tyler's Ordination

2008-09-25T10:47:00.005-06:00

Tyler turned twelve earlier this month as you know. In our religion, when a boy turns twelve, he can receive the priesthood and be ordained a Deacon. Tyler wanted to be ordained and has been living the commandments as best as he can. So on September 14th, he was ordained a Deacon by his Grandpa in our Bishops office surrounded by family and other Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons. It was exciting for him and he couldn't wait to exercise his priesthood by passing the sacrament at church. Sydney, Tyler, me (Julie) and Dallin after Church. Ryan dislikes having his picture taken but by the time we had gotten around to taking pictures, he was already upstairs taking a nap! That's a good way to get out of pictures!

My brother Randy, Tyler and Grandpa.

Tyler with Grandma and Grandpa.

Back row: Randy holding his daughter Morgan, Tyler, and Katie. In the front row: Micah and Mc Kenzie.

My sister Kristi with Tyler.

Wednesday Weigh In

2008-09-24T13:47:00.002-06:00

I beat my goal for this week! I lost a half a pound beyond what I had planned. During the previous week I ate quite a bit while my family was here. This current week I focused on loosing the pounds I had gained so that I could be back at 174 lbs. Yesterday morning I had hit my target weight for the week and then today I weighed in at 173.5- the lowest I've seen my digital scale at for a few months! Last Wednesday I weighed in at 177 lbs, so I lost 4 pounds this week! Maybe most of that weight was from my body just holding on to the fatty food I had consumed. I seemed really sluggish in my digestive system last week. I notice that as I eat healthier, my body regulates itself better and I don't get nearly the same amount of stomach pains/problems. Ryan has a friend that is a body builder and when he was over one day I told him about my weight loss plans. Now, to fully understand and appreciate what this person told me, you have to understand his background. He was quite overweight and lost 60 lbs in 90 days (not recommended) and has kept it off by exercising with a passion- as only body builders can. Seriously, this man will work out for 4-5 hours a day in order to prepare for a competition. Anyway, this man told me that one of the fastest ways for a person with my build and height to lose weight would be to do this: For breakfast, eat one whole egg and seven egg whites for breakfast. Cook them as I please, but stick to the egg whites since they are more healthy. For a snack, eat protein that is lean such as turkey or fish(tilapia) and avoid any sugar. For lunch, eat more protein such as turkey, and limit breads to 2 slices a day. Make sure to snack on more protein such as nuts (peanuts, almonds) and beans. For dinner- I forgot what he said :) I'm sure it consisted of more fish, etc. Now, you are probably thinking- "Whoa, what a huge diet change" but in reality, it's not that bad. I didn't try the egg breakfast idea until today because I was afraid that the flavor would be very plain and I don't like egg substitutes which is mainly egg whites. I put in the whole egg (yolk and white) and then added seven egg whites. I made sure to put a generous portion of pepper in the mixture and a little salt for flavor. I was surprised with the result! It was very good and the pepper added the right amount of seasoning. I was actually surprised how big the pile of eggs was and I ate it up. Afterwards, I felt very full and the feeling stayed for a couple of hours. I have since did a little research on eggs this afternoon and found some great facts. The incredibleegg.org has some great facts and information. I found out that because the egg has such high quality protein, it aides in helping you to feel full longer. This same protein helps support fetal development in pregnant women. They also have choline and folic acid in them which are very important for pregnant moms. For those of you suffering from anemia which is a deficiency of iron in your blood, the iron in eggs is "a healthy mixture of heme and non-heme iron" that is "particularly well absorbed". Well, I need to go pick up my kids from school now. I hope this little info helps someone in their life with learning to eat healthier!

Wednesday Weigh In (better late than never!)

2008-09-18T19:21:00.002-06:00

I was a bad girl this week :) My parents came from Oregon last Thursday and we have been celebrating everyone's birthdays since then. We've had cake (ice cream and regular), pizza from Little Caesers, We ate at the Asian Buffet one night and another night my Mom made a wonderful lasagna. Yumm! Who doesn't like Mom's homemade lasagna?! As you can see, I wasn't eating very low-fat. I didn't loose weight this past week- I gained it :( I am now getting back on track and hope to be down to 174 lbs again by Wednesday and then even further the following week. What amazes me is how I ate fairly healthy in the mornings and afternoons this past week but having a big dinner and then adding cake to the mix gives me way too many calories! Before I started changing my eating habits a couple of months ago, I was eating unhealthy all day long. No wonder I am having to lose weight! I am really needing to stop cheating so much if I am to lose over thirty more pounds. This is taking forever at the rate I am going. But I know I am more healthy over all. I just need to be more patient and stop the cheating! Wish me luck!

Tyler's 12th Birthday

2008-09-15T15:44:00.005-06:00

This year for Tyler's birthday we decided to have a smaller, mostly family party. He was able to invite his two best friends to celebrate with us!

This picture above really shows how big Tyler is getting. His arms are as long as mine and he is only a couple of inches shorter. His feet though are bigger than mine! I've gone to the growth charts online and looked at his projected growth pattern based on his past growth. He is expected to be 6 feet tall as an adult! Sydney who has always been very tall for her age is projected to be 5' 8". I wouldn't doubt that! Dallin is much more petite since being a premie but I haven't checked out his projected height. I think it is a little early to tell since he has less than two years of growing "experience".

The next photo is of Tyler and one of his friends using the new nerf guns that he got for his birthday.

Tyler's two best friends.

We had a great time celebrating Tyler's birthday. He is growing up so fast! We love you Tyler!

Morning rays

2008-09-10T19:00:00.001-06:00

We've been busy preserving.....

2008-09-10T16:38:00.003-06:00

Ryan and I have been busy canning plum jam and shredding zucchini as well as cooking pumpkin for future pies. On Saturday we picked the shiro plums and peeled and pitted them. Then we made the jam with the flesh. It is yummy and tastes like fruit roll ups. Actually, Ryan did most of the work of peeling the plums and sterilizing the jars while I was running around trying to find more jars and a food mill. I found a good one at Bed, Bath and Beyond for about $50. It pitts the fruit and you can choose the texture by selecting different discs. Who doesn't love getting a new kitchen gadget?! I shredded the zucchini on Monday and put four cups of it to a quart sized bag. I freeze it and use it to make zucchini bread. Our tradition is to give out small loaves of zucchini bread at Christmas to our neighbors. Each of the eight bags of zucchini will make four large loafs or 12 small loafs. That means I have enough to make 96 small loafs of bread if I wanted too. I also took our pumpkins and peeled and cooked the flesh. Then I mashed it and put it into freezer containers. I filled five of those containers with 4 cups of pumpkin. Each container will make 2 pies so I have enough to make 10 pumpkin pies! Sydney loves pumpkin pie! Later I will have to get a picture of the pie at Thanksgiving and Zucchini bread at Christmas! This is the first year that we have been serious about preserving the plums so don't think this is a regular occurrence. It is also the first year I have cooked pumpkin for pies. The zucchini I have been freezing for several years now- that's why it is a tradition for us to give away the bread!

Wednesday Weigh In

2008-09-10T15:24:00.002-06:00

I lost 2 more pounds according to my scale on Monday! That put me at 174 lbs! Of course this morning the scale said 176 lbs- so it fluctuates from day to day. But still, it has been quite a while since I was down to 174! Monday was Tyler's 12th birthday and so I had pizza, cake and ice cream and I had another piece of cake on Tuesday- gotta love leftover cake! Thankfully the cake is gone and I don't desire to eat ice cream. I really do love to drink milk and that has been hard to cut back on. Well, I don't really have a whole lot to talk about diet wise but I have been taking a lot of pictures for future posts. Stay tuned for photos of Tyler's birthday and other family happenings.

Children's Art

2008-09-04T12:38:00.003-06:00

I recently ordered this tabletop easel and paints for my daycare. I had a grant that I was able to use towards supplies and toys. It finally came last week and so Sydney and a six-year old that I watch had a great time using them. Here are some of the creations that came from it.

Wednesday Weigh In

2008-09-03T14:27:00.005-06:00

I didn't loose any weight this week :( It doesn't surprise me since I fudged a little everyday. I am still eating waaaay healthier than I used to. Even though I didn't loose any weight this week, I still want to keep with the good eating habits that I am forming. It takes a long time to become satisfied with the amount of food that I am supposed to eat verses what I like to eat. For some reason I always associated feeling "full" with well-being. This week I have another sore throat for some reason and I keep feeling like I need to eat in order to "feel better". Kind of weird huh? I also thought that since I am eating a lot of veggies and fruits that I would be healthier. That isn't the case! I did pick up a vitamin B-complex sublingual mix that should help with metabolism as well as health. I try to have something everyday that has probiotics in it. It does seem to help my digestive tract overall. I have been able to keep my energy up since I eat regularly- three meals and three snacks a day. This seems to keep my energy up. My husband said that when a person sleeps well, it helps to keep the appetite down. When you are sleepy, your body craves more carbohydrates. That is why people who snore or have sleep disorders like sleep apnea have a hard time loosing weight. Well, I need to go and pick up my son from school. Sydney came home earlier with a stomach bug. Yuck, here's to another school season of sickness!

Somewhere Only We Know- Keane

2008-09-01T12:18:00.002-06:00

Appetite and Stomach Shrinking

2008-08-29T14:12:00.003-06:00

I have some more things to add about my "diet". Yesterday, I roasted a chicken for dinner. Usually I am such a pig that I can eat half of the breast plus more. The bird I cooked was a 5 pound chicken so it was medium sized. Well, I had quite a bit of salad and one piece of whole grain bread with Country Crock Spread on it. I was surprised that after eating the half of a breast plus the salad and toast, I was full!!!! This means that after a month of cutting portion sizes down, I am finally feeling full sooner! Quite the little scientific discovery for me. I am not feeling as hungry all of the time, but I still desire to eat quite often. I try to just snack on things that don't have many calories. Today I looked on a package of cream cheese that is 1/3 the fat of regular cream cheese. It was only 70 calories for one ounce of it. Then I looked on the package of mozzarella cheese sticks. One of those packages is an ounce of cheese and have 80 calories. The cream cheese actually had less calories. I spread some of it on a lightly salted rice cake and had a great snack for 100 calories!(the rice cake had only 30 calories) It was pretty filling. I have also found that eating a good sized salad as a snack can be quite filling as well. The Kraft brand has some good "lite" dressings that taste good such as their Lite House Italian dressing. Some people like the Zesty style, but I prefer the creamier taste of house. I didn't like the way slimfast suggests using many different types of spritzers and sprays. Each one costs 2-3 dollars and you don't use them up very fast. Ryan says that is how slimfast makes their money- by getting people to try and use more expensive products which is advertising for the other companies. You can still eat healthy without having to buy so many different sprays, spritzers, butters and vinaigrette's. They do make otherwise bland foods taste better though! If anyone tries out the slimfast plan, you will notice the amount of garlic that is used in the dinner menus. I loved it but my family complained about the smell when I cooked and they wouldn't eat the veggies very often. Their loss I guess. I thought it all tasted great- especially when you are starving! Ryan eats everything I cook and he tries to get the kids to taste the foods. Dallin is our best veggie eater since he has grown up on soy milk. It tastes more "natural/dirt like" while cows milk is much sweeter/fatter and kids get used to that flavor. I have been better at getting Dallin to eat veggies at an earlier age and continuing to give them to him even if he didn't like them for a while. My older two won't even try things again that they hated in the past. Someday their taste buds will change. I will just have to keep presenting them with veggies. I used to be the worst about eating veggies. So if I can change, anyone can change!

Neither of them talk.....

2008-08-28T09:54:00.003-06:00

Yersterday as we were getting ready to go to school, Sydney began tell a riddle that she made up about flies. "Which would you rather catch- a fly that can fly or a fly that can't?" I said, "A fly that can't fly- since it is easier to catch". Then she said "But you don't know if it is faster at walking" and then she began to laugh at her little riddle. I then started thinking about the riddle that says "Which is heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?" I then changed it and asked Sydney, "Which has more volume, a pound of feathers or a pound of gold?" She replied, neither of them since they both don't talk!"

My Daughter the Drama Queen

2008-08-28T09:34:00.003-06:00

For the first day of school, Sydney came to me actually asking me to do her hair and nails! Who was I to turn her down? Of course I could do her hair since she never lets me. She wanted to use the rollers and insisted that I put them in. Never mind that her hair is much shorter now and so her hair would be frizzy curly. The next morning her hair was a version of a poodle-doo and she made me straighten it out as much as possible. It had a little extra volume that day! We still had fun doing her nails and watching the closing ceremony of the olympics together while I rolled her hair. Fun times!

Sydney is a ham for the camera and this is how she wanted to show off her nails.

Next, she wanted to go for a partial rap look.

The next two pictures were taken after she insisted on posing and begging me to take the picture. No, She is not scared or sreaming- she is acting and it looks pretty convincing to me!

Sydney- My Drama Queen......

Wednesday Weigh In

2008-08-27T09:12:00.002-06:00

I lost a pound and 1/2! That brings my total to six and 1/2 pounds! I'm now at 176 lbs. This week was the hardest week for me yet. I was getting over a sinus infection that I needed antibiotics for. I didn't feel up to cooking anything intricate so I tried to just be careful of my caloric intake. Usually Slimfast would have me cooking for about an hour or more at dinner time. I didn't feel like thinking too much so I didn't follow the plan. One night we had a stirfry that used frozen veggies and a pre-made sauce in a packet. I thought it would still be good since it's veggies. We also had brown rice with it. I noticed the next morning that I still had gained an extra pound of weight. The stirfry had a lot of sodium. My theory is that whenever I eat foods that are high in sodium, my body just packs on the water. I think this is why when I am pregnant I gain so much weight. Especially with my last pregnancy I was carrying excess amniotic fluid and just a week after giving birth I had lost 25 lbs. Dallin was only 6 lbs, 2oz so a good majority of the weight was excess fluid. Even the placenta and amniotic fluid would not weigh 18 lbs. I do plan on getting pregnant sometime in the future- just not for a little while. I even had another dream a week ago about the next daughter I will have. It reinforced the fact that now is not the time for her to come. But she will come. I have another daughter after her that will come as well. For me and my family, it is important to know this. I don't exactly know why God has decided that I should know my kids so well before they are born, but for some reason I do. I think everyone can feel their presence them if they ask God and really seek to have this experience. It is really about God revealing to you your personal best family situation. For some families this is one child and others it is many. Still for others they may not have children in this life. I enjoy spacing out my kids so that they get sufficient time to themselves with me. Also, my kids don't sleep well at night until about age two so I get very tired easily. Dallin is actually sleeping well now so I don't have anymore problems with him. He is 21 months now. Okay, enough about kids, and right now I really wish I knew HTML so that I could create another paragraph. I should just look it up on the internet. But I need to take the kids outside to play so I don't have time to look it up now. Back to weight loss- I need to loose weight before I get pregnant again. I have not been following the slimfast plan directly now since I know the basics of how to eat healthy for my height/bodytype. Meals are about 300-400 calories and snacks are about 100 calories three times a day. It's better to eat the majority of those calories in veggies and fruits with just 1/4 of it in starches and 1/4 of it in protein during meals. I have to watch portion sizes and sodium content. In order to control hunger I have found that having three scheduled snacks a day helps. If I am still hungry after eating everything for that meal or snack, I try to judge if I'm thirsty, anxious or tired. Then I'll add maybe a little food if I'm truely needing more. I noticed that on the days that I'm most hungry, I'm probably loosing the most weight if I don't add more food. The next day after feeling unusually hungry, I loose a pound. If I do more work or exercise than usual, I seem to be able to eat just a little more calories and still lose the weight. Knowing that I have to report on my weight loss makes me motivated to keep eating healthier. This is working for me!! I'm so excited! One major milestone I want to hit is having someone that doesn't know I'm trying to lose weight, say "Julie- have you lost some weight?" I will have to post something about that person and tell you how I know them. For some reason I think it will be someone from church since I see them only once a week yet they know how big I was before. I wonder who it will be!!

Pumkins in August?

2008-08-26T11:36:00.002-06:00

Well, I got ahead of myself this year and planted the pumpkins a little early. It really was an experiment to see if any of our old seeds from previous years would manage to grow. Well, they worked! We had a carving type pumpin grow and the type you can make pie with. Ryan and I planted about six different types of tomatoes and they are growing well. I haven't been as diligent with fertilizer and bug killer so some of the plants are looking anemic and the squash eating bugs are taking over the zuchinni now. The corn has been good to eat and the grapes are just starting to ripen. Earlier, the snap peas were yummy. We've had some apples, peaches and raspberries and a boat load of Shiro plums. The strawberries were not watered well enough and so the morning glory took over the bed. Really, I've been very busy with the child care business so I haven't been out in the yard enough. Here is a picture of our still growing garden!

We have a new member in our family!

2008-08-22T22:17:00.002-06:00

Welcome Molly! Sydney has been bugging us for a bunny. She earned her own money and bought this little female Rex bunny from a breeder. She is show quality and could be brought to the county fair next year if Sydney takes good care of her. As you can see, our dog Sampson loves her and just after this photo was taken, licked her. She likes Sampson as well. We didn't plan on her being the same color as Sampson. It just happened to be the bunny Sydney picked out.

Sydney begged me to use the camera. She had Sampson pose nicely for her. This is her photo of him and all I did was crop it and sharpened it a touch. Good job Sydney!

Tagged!

2008-08-22T14:48:00.002-06:00

I was tagged by Heidi! Rules Once Tagged:1) Link to the person who tagged you.2) Post the rules on your blog (copy and paste 1-6).3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post.5. Let them know they are tagged and leave a comment on their blog.6) Let the tagger (who tagged you) know when your post is up. Random things about me:

I know nothing about HTML! (I can copy and paste things in order to change my blog though!) If I did, I would make sure I had correct spacing between my paragraphs and whatever else. Any help here is greatly appreciated! I did figure out how to use the button for making lists like this.
My life is flown by the seat of my pants (so-to-speak). I'm not an orderly person- but I do admire people who are. I am impulsive in some ways but I manage to stay out of major trouble.
My daughter is going through a "Princess Diaries" faze and is watching the same 2 movies with Anne Hathaway over and over again. What does this have to do with me? I'll tell you- I learn a lot from good movies like these! I think everyone has an inner princess just dying to come out. I think we all need to feel important to someone. Maybe we want to feel important to a lot of people! When we follow our heart- we are more likely to be influential to others.
I love animals. If I go to a persons house and their dog comes up barking, I lean down and offer the back of my hand to them. If they respond nicely, I will attempt to pet the dog and tell the owner that it's okay the dog is barking and that I love animals. I'm so bad that if a dog is in a car with the window rolled down a little, I will attempt to get the animals attention and just observe how the animal reacts. Some dogs react ferociously, others act interested and seem to beg for attention. I may say to the dog- "Hi pup" or something similar and then go on with my business. I don't pet dogs while they are in someones car. I like my fingers!
My claim to fame is that I am related to the Crocodile Hunter's wife- Terri Irwin. She was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon and we have the same Great- Great Grandpa or something. My mom can trace the linage and is in contact with her since my mom is in charge of that side of the families' genealogy. I like to say that it's in my blood somewhere to marry someone who likes reptiles and to have many animals. We literally have hundreds since we raise the mice to feed the hundreds of snakes Ryan works with. My daughter hasn't met Bindi Sue yet, even though she came with her mom and brother to a reunion a few years back. I think those two would be like two peas in a pod since they both love animals. Sydney and Bindi are just a year apart in age.
When I was in high school I seriously thought about starting a Badminton club. I thought I was pretty good at it in P.E. and it didn't require endless running. I have bad knees and that kept me from playing basketball and soccer. Now Badminton is in the Olympics and I really feel bad I didn't keep up with the sport. (Are you laughing yet? I am!) We recently got a cheap badminton set for the backyard. Sydney took to it quickly and wanted to play it daily. I found out how out of shape I was. It was a good work out! I was just thinking the other day, how could I get to the next Olympics in London? Maybe I need to take up badminton again!

I now tag Ann, Anne, Katie, Kendra, Denise and Heidi C. (it doesn't count if Jared does it!).

Wednesday Weigh In

2008-08-20T17:34:00.002-06:00

I've decided to start a "Wednesday weigh in" so that I have a time frame to work in and then I report on how I've done. This way, if you are interested in my healthy eating, you only have to check the blog once a week. The rest of the time I will post whatever I feel like! So, to start off, I've lost 5 lbs!!! I started my quest to eat healthy and exercise more often about 2 1/2 weeks ago. I've been eating just about 1500 calories a day I think. It is more than the recommended 1300 calories that slimfast wants me to eat. I figured why not start out a little easier and not cause such a shock to my system. I still desire to eat fast food, but I also just want to eat more veggies- to fill me up! I think it takes a while to "shrink" your stomach so that you don't need so much food to "feel" full. I still have the remnants of a major cold and it may be turning into a sinus infection. This makes it harder to want to eat better. I added a few calories last night by making a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup before bed. I did that to help loosen my congestion. It seemed to help. Well, I hope I can get rid of this before I need to get antibiotics.

Let's play a game....

2008-08-20T12:01:00.002-06:00

On the camping trip to Moon Lake, we saw many different animals. I really wished that we had a telephoto lens or a much better zoom lens. Since I didn't have one, we get to play "spot the animal"! The first one is easy since I blew up the picture to get a good look at the squirrel. you should have seen the original picture! If it helps, you can click on the picture to make it a little bigger.

Next, spot the moose!

Now, spot Sampson.

This one is more challenging. Spot the squirrel.

The last one is easier- another Moose!

Thanks for playing!

Camping at Moon Lake

2008-08-19T18:33:00.006-06:00

This gorgeous rock formation was located about 10 miles south of Moon Lake.

As you get closer to the lake, you go through some tribal lands that let the animals have free range. This was the first time on our trip to see cows in the road. It wasn't the last! Just look beyond the cow and see the beautiful view!

This was the view of the lake from our camp site. It was a beautiful setting!

This was another view right at our campsite. The opening in the fence was how we got down to the water. The next day as Ryan was taking the kids to gather firewood, I saw two deer come bounding up right towards me between the opening in the fence. I was startled and pointed and yelled "deer"!!! Ryan stopped the van and the kids saw the deer. Sampson started barking at them and they turned around and ran back into the forest. They came at me so fast, that I was scared. I probably scared them as well when I yelled. Later on, you will see pictures of the same two deer in our camp. Tyler and Dallin staring at the fire. It was Dallin's first big fire and he was leary of it- good thing!

Sydney also staring at the fire! We roasted hotdogs and made smores each night. The kids loved cooking on the fire. We even had trout for breakfast each morning. There was other foods to eat, but Sydney loved eating the trout that we caught. She loved fishing and went at least twice a day. Tyler caught quite a few fish as well. He loved playing in the mud/sand at the beach area. Dallin wanted to follow everyone to the lake whenever anyone left. This is why we chose a site away from the water, but it had a great view! Sampson loved going into the water and fetching sticks! All of us were so happy to have him with us so that he could be a water dog. I had looked forward for a long time to taking him to a lake. Unfortunatly, the lake has bugs called Buffalo Flies that has a bite worse than a mosquito. Sampson was bitten terribly by the time we looked at his stomach that first night. He had many big welts from where the bugs ate him up. We had to put deet on him just to keep him safe. Poor thing. Luckily the mosquitos were very few in number.

The mornings were cool but when the sun came up, it was refreshing.

Tyler trying to warm up in the morning.

This picture of a moose was taken on the last day but it wasn't the first moose we saw. The first day we saw a female moose drinking. The second day we saw probably the same female moose but this time she had a baby moose with her. The third day we saw the male moose in the same area as the female that we had seen before.

One of two lizards that Ryan caught on our trip. When you flip it over, it has a bright blue stripe down its belly.

This porcupine wandered near our camp when the kids were fishing with Ryan. I grabbed the camera and Dallin and followed at a safe distance. It was sure ugly and slow.

This doe wandered in between our camp site and the neighboring camp site.

A minute later I saw her fawn. They took off together into the bush. We had a great time camping and the kids said it was the best camping trip ever. Next time we will be getting a bigger tent though. Fitting five of us in a small dome tent didn't work very well. We managed to get some sleep but we could have been more comfortable. I thought Ryan had packed a smaller tent for Tyler and Sydney to sleep in with Sampson. I guess he thought we could all fit in the one tent! Sampson slept in the van instead. I fought off being sick with a bad cold but I am glad I went!

Random thought......

2008-08-16T16:48:00.002-06:00

As I was going about my work today I had this thought come to mind. "Pity the man or woman who's life changes magically in a day without hard work, toil or strife. Instant riches, power, beauty or fame don't make a person great- for they have learned nothing. "

Been on vacation....

2008-08-15T22:57:00.003-06:00

.....and we just got back. I have many photos to edit and stories to write but they will have to wait since my house is a mess. Camping in a small tent with five people for two nights w/o showers means two things. 1. You will be very dirty. 2. You will be very tired. I am both of those plus one more- I got a cold the day we left! I knew it was going to be a doozy when taking two ibuprofen only took the edge off the sore throat. I used a nasal spray decongestant and sucked it up so that our family could have a good camping experience together. It turned out to be a great trip. Ryan, Tyler and Sydney fished everyday. Both of the older kids said it was the best camping experience they ever had and they actually thanked Ryan and I a number of times for taking them. Awwww. I'm so glad I went. Dallin and I both came down with the same cold but Dallin was a couple of days ahead of me. It's hard to judge just how sick a toddler is. Since I was not feeling great, I just hunkered down with Dallin when the wind picked up at the lake. He actually wanted to take naps in the van in his car seat since it was familiar to him. This ended up being a great way to get out of the wind that would occasionally whip up. Hear I go telling a story when I should be getting to bed- it's 11:15 pm. Tomorrow I will be mowing the lawn and the doing the grocery shopping for the week as well as washing a ton of clothing to get out the campfire smell. Gotta love the smell of a good campfire- but I don't like smelling it on my clothes when I get home. For now it's bed time!

White Trash

2008-08-12T09:23:00.007-06:00

This recipe is not for those trying to eat healthy! It comes from my sis-in-law Katie who got it from her sister Lindsay. It has been called other things but Katie and I both like the name "White Trash".

Ingredients

One package of white almond bark

2 cups of already shelled, salted peanuts

5 cups Golden Grahams Cereal

2 cups pretzel sticks (Katie and I both use about 4 cups for the salty flavor)

Directions

Melt bark, mix together all of the ingredients in a big bowl until well coated. Spread on wax paper until cool. Break apart and store in an air tight container.

Healthy Eating

2008-08-10T16:04:00.005-06:00

What an interesting thing it is to change your diet. I have been tempted so often it's not funny. I have driven past fast-food restaurants a couple of times this week without stopping. When I was grocery shopping, at the checkout I was tempted to grab a candy bar. I bought a pack of tic-tacs instead! Even if I ate the whole pack at once, it would only be 70 calories verses a 220 calorie candy bar. Of course I didn't eat the pack all at once. I just had a few pieces. I even bought happy meals for Dallin and Sydney on Saturday, but only a water for myself!!! I had already had an early (healthy)lunch but Sydney rushed us out the door to see the pets at Petsmart before I fed her and her brother. I did eat a couple of fries and a nugget that Dallin didn't want. That is still waaaaaay less calories than what I normally would have eaten if I didn't start to change my eating habits. I'm a sucker for chicken sandwiches and I love to add a slice of cheese to them. Tonight the diet plan called for veggie burgers with a slice of cheese and whole wheat bun and a yummy fresh green bean skillet recipe that includes teryaki sauce and garlic. The veggie burgers were okay but I really liked the green bean recipe. The veggie burgers use soy as the main protein. They were only a hundred calories for a patty. Later this week we are going camping and so this will be a challenge to eat healthy. I plan to pre-make redbeans and rice using our pink beans from our home storage. If we go out to eat, I will get a salad. Or I can just eat a meal bar and add something like a small bag of fries:). We'll see.

Farmington Canyon

2008-08-08T09:49:00.005-06:00

A couple of weeks ago Ryan, Katherine, the kids and I went up Farmington Canyon with the goal of going to the top by the observatory. Katherine had never been up that far and we were excited to show her the beautiful views. It was a very pretty, hot day and so going up the mountain was a good way to escape the heat. The first picture was taken on the way up the canyon, looking over the Salt Lake Valley. As you are looking at the photo, the first mountain range in the distance on your right is actually part of Antelope Island. The mountain range on your left is the Oquirrh Mountains (pronounced oak'-er).

After we went up about 5 miles, we got out and checked a spot that Ryan new a few cars had gone over the edge in the past. Sure enough, there was at least 3 car bodies and an old refrigerator down there. Ryan climbed down a trail that went to a cliff edge. It was very steep!

How would you like to own this little cabin nestled in the canyon? It is next to a great hunting area Ryan said.

We were traveling up the canyon on a two-lane dirt/rock road and Ryan suddenly hit the brakes. "Snake", he yelled as he excitedly exited the van. Sure enough, there was a young gopher snake. It's only a couple years old and will get much bigger. A couple of trucks slowed behind us and and decided to pass. They asked if we were alright. Ryan just smiled and held out the snake and said we stopped to take a look at it. The people in the first truck just gave him a look like "whatever dude" and drove off. The second truck followed the first. After that Ryan hopped back into the van after letting the snake go in the grass.

We arrived at a big open parking lot about 2/3 rds of the way up. It had a great view and a very short trail. We mainly wanted to get out of the van and stretch our legs. This photo shows how Tyler is growing up so fast. He is going to be as tall as Ryan in a couple of years- or sooner! He will turn 12 on September 8th! Ryan is 6 ft tall and Tyler is 5 feet 3 and 1/2 inches tall.

The view looking east from the parking lot.

We finally arived at a different parking lot just south of the observatory. There was a snow bank holding the last remnants of the snow from winter. We decided to hike out to it and check out the view. It was fairly steep and we let Dallin down to give our arms a rest. He loved being in the grass and shrubs. He got mad whenever we picked him up. We decided that he is a nature boy and so far has been the easiest one of our kids to take on an off-road adventure. He loves rocks and will spend quite a while looking at the different ones by his feet.

I couldn't get the colors in the previous photo to work for me since the sun was setting and we were on the east (shadowy) side. I got tired of playing with that photo and just left it as you see it. The next one is shadowy also, but I love the blue flowers behind Dallin. He looks so content to just sit and watch the view and play with the things at his feet.

Here are some pretty plants on the way up.

The next couple of pictures were from as high as we went! The view is looking south-east and the mountains just seemed to go on forever! Very inspiring.

Tyler and Sydney playing on the snow bank. On a hot summer day- the snow was inviting!

Aspen and wildflowers in another part of the canyon.

As we headed down the canyon while the sun setted, the creek begged to be played in. Well, it was too fast to play in but we stopped to take a look. I'm not sure why, but this area of the creek was once developed and had cemented walls. The water has erroded though the concrete and created its own passage. Ryan helped Dallin up the side of the bank.

A shot of the once develped farmington creek. We had a great time as a family and really enjoyed taking Katherine with us. She is very smart and knows quite a bit about nature. We wonder how this will inspire her in her paintings. She likes to take cues from nature and then turns them into surreal settings.

Changes to previous post

2008-08-06T20:16:00.001-06:00

I made a couple of changes to the previous post about the song "How to Save a Life". I learned a couple of things about the story attached to the song. Check it out!

Weight Loss Update

2008-08-06T19:09:00.002-06:00

I lost 2 lbs according to my scale yesterday! Those have been the hardest for me to loose. My body seemed to be set on staying at the weight it was. Now, I hope it has reset itself to keep on loosing. I have done very well keeping with the food plan. I like having the freedom to substitute something if I want. I also been able to keep up with doing some sort of exercising for atleast 30 minutes a day. Today we went swimming. Yesterday I did a mix of pilates (20 minutes) and a lot of housework. Now for the honesty session. It is very hard to be around food constantly and not eat it. My littlest one Dallin is supposed to gain weight since he is isn't even on the weight chart. Since he can't have milk, I can't fatten him up with cheese etc. He has to have lots of snacks. In the past I have just eatten them with him. Now, you add my daycare into the mix and then I am exposed to many high caloric foods. With the daycare federal food program, I am required to give meals that are approved by a dietician with the company I work with. The meals are supposed to have more calories than what an adult needs because growing children need more. I used to just eat what the kids were having, but of course it was way more calories than I should eat. So, now when they are eating, I just eat my diet food and maybe let myself have a bite of something from their meal. Way less calories and fat than I was previously eating. As far as my energy is concerned, I am more tired than usual. I think it has to do with several things but I know if I drank more water, it would help. Water just isn't tasting good to me the past few days so I started putting just a little Vita-splash mixed in with it and now I seem to drink more! Vita Splash has no sugar, lots of vitamins and comes in little packets that you add to water. It has so much flavor that I don't use but one packet every couple of days. If someone wanted to use it for the vitamins, you would need to follow the directions. I'm just using it for the flavor. At this point, whatever works for me I'll do- within reason!

How to Save a Life

2008-08-04T23:23:00.005-06:00

This song just stands out to me and strikes a chord in my soul. The writer/singer of the song, Isaac once was a councelor to a troubled young man that was on drugs. The young man was told by his friends and family that it was either them, or the drugs, he couldn't have both. The man left the counceling session and Isaac wished there was a training manual to help the young man. The video gives ways to help "Save a Life". Just watch and listen to your heart. You may just be the person someone is needing right now. I just found out that International Suicide Prevention has made "How to Save a Life" its theme song. Check it out.

[MV] The Fray - How to Save a Life @ Yahoo! Video

Pioneer Day- July 24th

2008-08-04T14:29:00.005-06:00

Here are some pictures of some things the kids and I did on Pioneer Day. For us it was a day of spending time as a family. Ryan had to work that day so I took the kids down to Randy and Katie's place. We raided Kristi's pool at her new apartment complex. She is completly moved in and is now a Utahn! There were mostly college kids around since it is on campus at BYU. No, She isn't going to school there. She is looking for work as a photographer. She took the photos of us in the pool using my camera. She knows way more about it than I do. Hers is even better than mine but she left it at the apartment. I just love this photo of Tyler and Dallin. They have the same expression and look alike.

My boys

Katie and Malia tried to enjoy the water, but Malia thought the water was too cold. She is used to the water at the local pool that is much warmer. Isn't this a great shot of Katie?!

Sydney and McKenzie are 18 months apart. Having a cousin close to your age is so fun!

After spending the afternoon together eating and swimming, we headed over to Randy and Katie's church ward bar-b-que. Keep in mind this is before the slimfast diet. The party was held at a member's house and they had a pool in the backyard. The backyard was right on a ridge that overlooked Provo, BYU and the Temple. It was a beautiful day. Here is a pic of the pool and the next one is of Provo Canyon.

Now, bear with me as I originally intended to write a small blurb about Pioneer Day, but it ended up writing an essay about Pioneers. Hey, I thought I wasn't in school anymore!

Living in Utah has it's perks. We have an extra holiday that is recognized by most businesses. It is Pioneer Day. It's to remember the sacrifices and lives that were lost as well as the people who helped found this great state. When the pioneers came and President Brigham Young looked over this valley, it was a desert. Yet "this is the place" was the visionary statement from a Prophet of God. It truely blossomed like a rose and is still blooming. It didn't happen overnight and not everything was rosy from the beginning. There was a lot of work involved. People died, families were seperated in some cases as some chose to stay back east. But the people banded together and supported one another. God blessed them as they learned to do whatever was asked of them. I am lucky to have actual pioneer ancestors that crossed the plains during this period of time. They were from England and had been converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by a Missionary (future Prophet) Elder Wilford Woodruff. They came across the seas in search of Zion. They were poor and arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs. They joined the ill-fated Willie Handcart Company that left too late in the season to ensure a safe journey across the plains. They became stuck in the snow and bitter cold hundreds of miles from their destination- Utah. My ancestors endured frost-bite, sickness and starvation but held onto their belief that what they were doing was what God wanted them to do and where they were going was where God wanted them to be! Their love of God was greater that any desire for a comfortable home or milder climate. They could have stayed back in England or even on the East Coast. Instead they pressed on to their ultimate goal. This is the "stock" of people I am from. Now, I believe a person can be a pioneer in their own right. The Webster's Dictionary definition of pioneer is 1: one that originates or helps open up a new line of thought or activity. 2: a early settler. Many different people can be a pioneer of many different things. My mother joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a young adult. This changed the pattern of thought that was followed by her ancestors and her own family. She is a pioneer in her own right. So, having a pioneer heritage is great, but personally knowing a pioneer is more life altering. They were the ones to take a courageous leap that ultimatly changed the course of mankind. Martin Luther King was a pioneer. Marco Polo was a pioneer as well as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstien. But for me to be able to say that my own Mother is a pioneer is awesome. I can say that I was raised by a pioneer! Now, a person can say that by joining a religion is hardly worth being called a pioneer. Tell that to Joseph Smith. Tell that to any Jew, Muslim or Islamic believer. By changing or joining a religion, you are shaping the moral fibers of society. Without morality, chaos exists. When chaos rules, no one is happy and life is confusing. I am so glad I know some basic truths about being humble, prayerful and hopeful. I am thankful to know that life does exist after death. I am thankful to know that if I choose to lead a good, moral life, I will be rewarded in the next life as well as blessed in this life. I may not have an easy life, but God will help me as I seek to chose the right. I am thankful for religion being in my life as well as the good people of other religions or non-religious believers who seek to be the best they can be. I am thankful for the guidance that the religion I belong to has given me. God bless the pioneers!

Adopting a Motto or Two

2008-08-04T13:55:00.003-06:00

My childhood friend Heidi S has been offering some great support for me as I try to stick to my goal of loosing 40 lbs. There are a couple of sayings that she has written in my comments section that are exactly what I need to hear at this time! The first one she said that really stuck in my head is "You can do this". It is so true- all I have to do is make up my mind to do something and I can usually find a way. It doesn't happen easily or all at once. Sometimes it is hard and takes a while to accomplish. This brings me to the next saying that she wrote "You can do hard things". It's very interesting that she wrote this because I was reminded of this very saying on Saturday. I was mowing the lawn and thinking about my blog and my goals. I remembered that my Aunt Suzie once told me a story about her son and how she would tell him that he could do hard things. She then told me that I could too. I really took that saying to heart and made it through some rough times that I was going through. Now, today I checked the comment section and Heidi was inspired to tell it to me. It has come full circle and now I feel the need to make these sayings my personal mottos. So, I will put them on the side of my blog to help myself remember them and whenever any of you visit- you can think about them as well! Thanks Heidi!

My Facebook Profile

2008-08-03T15:29:00.004-06:00

On my Facebook profile there is a place where you can enter something about you that you are doing or thinking at the moment. Usually it is only a sentance long- or two. Here is mine for the next couple of days. It pretty much sums up my feelings. "Julie is hungry- avoiding the kitchen is hard work. Does that count as exercise?"

My First Update on Weight Loss!

2008-08-02T22:17:00.003-06:00

Where to start..... I really think that posting my journey is going to help. The first night after posting about my problem, I went to bed really late (for me) and couldn't sleep. I had some family issues and so they were bothering me and I was anxious. By the next morning, I was so tired and I thought to myself, "I was going to start exercising today but I don't think I feel like it since I'm so tired and I've got a 20-month old coming at 9:15 in addition to my own 20-month old." But then I remembered my post and I didn't want to let everyone down. I got up and did about 20 minutes of some serious pilates! My stomach is still sore today! I read up on slimfast.com that Heidi recommended to me. I was impressed with all of the resources and menus. I went ahead and signed up! That is going to really help me with my eating habits! It's not very hard to get set up and you don't have to use the shakes and bars if you don't want to buy them. You can just click a button and it gives alternate food suggestions. Amy recommended probiotics and kefir. I looked both up on the web. I am going to incorporate specially formulated yogurt and I found cereal that has it in it as well. Once I looked around the store for probiotics and I was surprised at how many different products you can now find it in. Maybe it will help me curb my cravings for carbs. I think that just shrinking my stomach a little by not eating so much will also help! As for kefir- I think I will wait on that. I'm not sure how it tastes. Do you like the taste Amy? Today, Saturday, I woke up and spent an hour and 15 minutes mowing the lawn. Seriously, we have quite a bit of grass and it takes me that long to mow it all. Ryan and I have an agreement that I will mow the yard because it is good exercise. After that I weeded for a few minutes until I realized I needed to be careful and not over do things. I also started to follow the slim fast menu today and did pretty well! I was very hungry by the end of the day and so I had a couple of extra snacks- blueberries and about a half-cup of chocolate ice cream. I didn't have a ton of crackers and snacks like I usually do. One thing I noticed though was by 11 am I was totally wiped out and had no energy. I decided to take a nap on the couch. The feeling didn't go away by the time I woke up fully. I had about an hour of not very restful sleep since the kids and Ryan's workers were coming and going. I know that I probably am a little hypo-glycemic (low blood sugar) and so I made sure to eat lunch right away. I will have to make sure that I am careful about loosing energy when I am doing my daycare. That would not be good! I have a small stash of candy- mostly saltwater taffy if I need a quick sugar boost. I think I did pretty good though for my first couple of days of changing my habits.

Amy's Meme

2008-07-31T23:15:00.005-06:00

Besides your family, what is your most prized possession? My house. If you were on death row, what would your last meal be? A deep dish canadian bacon and pinapple pizza with some sort of vanilla ice cream with chocolate, peanuts and wafflecone. At a party, would you be hiding in the corner or hanging out at the punch bowl talking it up? And, what food item would your bring to the party? I am usually around the punch bowl yaking about anything and everything. I like to bring chips and/or pop if it is a casual party. Rootbeer and Sun Chips are a couple of my favorites. If it is a fancier party I like to make a dessert such as pumpkin pie during the holidays or Linda's Delight which has a layer of crust, a layer cream cheese and whipped cream and another layer of chocolate pudding. It is topped with whipped cream and sprinkled with walnuts. Just heavenly! What is the most "girly" thing about you? I never leave home without makeup on. Unless it was like last week when I forgot that I didn't have any on when we arrived at Toys-R-Us. I look like a ghost without it! What is your favorite piece of furniture in your home? It's a toss up between my big dining room table and my antique piano. The piano is a diamond in the rough that needs to be restored. It is extreemly heavy since it is an upright made in the 1800's. It has a big brass soundboard in the back and it takes about 4 strong men to lift it. It has never been tuned since we moved from California to Utah 7 years ago. The dining table is huge and can seat ten people around it when the two leaves are in. We use it to play games on, the kids color and paint on it, we eat our meals at it and we can sit and chat around it when visitors come around. What is most likely to be painted -- your toes or your fingers? My toes- they last several weeks. My fingers are rarely painted since I use them so much that the polish wears off too fast. I would rather have nicely trimmed nails and use my hands a lot, then have nicely painted nails and never do any work. For some odd reason I like to weed with my bare hands and that ruins nail polish! If I was going to buy you a bottle of Bath and Bodyworks lotion, what scent would you want? It's been a while since I've scoped out the different lotions, but I know I like the cucumber mellon scent. Do you like to nap? If so, how often do you get to during the week? I try to get a nap when all of the kids are sleeping. I can sneak in about 1 1/2 hours 4 times a week including Saturday and Sunday. Do you have a place in your house where you "hide"? A place where you can have a long phone conversation with a friend without interruption? Where is your quiet place? If I need a break I can go to my room which is on the second floor and I can lock the door if needed. Most of the time I am downstairs on the main level and I hardly get a break unless Ryan is home. At this point in your life, are you living the life you imagined back when you were in high school/college? My life right now is different than I imagined- some of it good and some not so good. I have more things than I thought I would have such as a big house and large yard. I never imagined having hundreds of snakes in my basement! I never thought I would live in Utah since I was raised in Oregon. I thought my family would all be active in our religion- which Ryan is not but he still believes in it. I thought I would have three kids by the time I was 25. Well, that came and went and I was lucky to have three kids by the time I was 30. That was because of our choosing to not have any more for a while after Tyler and Sydney were born so that we could take care of many other issues that needed attention. I really needed to grow up and become more responsible. I didn't know I would develop Generalized Anxiety or that I had ADD (Inattentive Type) thoughout my life. I think that I've been very surprised at how my life has turned out. I think I'm a much better person for all of the tough things I've endured. Would you ever get plastic surgery? What would you have done? This is a sensitive issue but here is the truth- I would have breast augmentation. I don't know if I would actually do it though. What have you accomplished (besides having children) that you feel most proud of? I guess I am most proud of taking a Certified Nursing Assistant class at an Applied Technology College while I was working part-time doing childcare and pregnant. I finished my clinicals when I was seven-months pregnant. I passed the class with a 97% on my final exam and got high A out of it. I couldn't find the time to study well for the actual state test since I was soooo pregnant and watching a two and four year old. Then, I was having tachycardia but was told it would probably go away after the baby was born. My heart rate then was 120 beats per minute ALL of the time. It was like running a marathon all day long- I was so tired. We figured it was the Strattera but I was unwilling to quit that in order to keep my head on straight to help my marriage. Then Dallin was born 6 weeks early so I couldn't study for the State test. I still have until September to take the exam without having to retake the entire class over again. I am wanting to take it in August.

Weighing In

2008-07-30T08:05:00.002-06:00

I have a big problem. Actually, the problem is I'm too big! I can analyze all the different reasons for how I got to be so big- but the main reason is I don't eat in moderation. Now, I can see some of my friends saying oh, no you aren't TOO big. But reality is, for my height, I am overweight. I am 182 lbs now. Before I got pregnant with Dallin I was about 150 lbs. After having him the lowest I dropped to was 155 lbs and then I have been steadily gaining. Now, before you feel too sorry for me, realize I enjoyed all of the food that got me to where I am today. But enough is enough. I've looked at a couple of web sited and found my body mass index. Since I am 5' 6", I am at 29.4 bmi which by itself it borderline for high risk for heart problems. But then you add the fact that I have an apple shaped body (not much waist) and that my waist is about 41", it brings me over the line and into the high risk category. I hate having to divulge my personal problems/secrets but I have learned over the years that I overcome my problems faster and more completely if I FEEL I have to account to someone. Now, that person or group for me is not always the first person MOST people turn too. A long time ago when I was having problems quiting spanking, I took on childcare because I knew that I couldn't lay a hand on other peoples children. When their children did the same things mine did to upset me, I was forced to find another way to discipline the child. I took parenting classes at church as well as Love and Logic classes in order to help me come to grips with my feelings and parent more effectively. BUT, the biggest motivator I'm sad to say was that I felt accountable to the other parents and I didn't want to let them down. Most people would just think about their own kids feelings and their spouses and find the motivation to change right there. I had to find it elsewhere and in a manner that would nip the problem in the bud. Nowadays, most people say I'm one of the most patient people they have met and can handle several rowdy kids. Oh, yeah, did I mention that in my journey of self-introspection I went to a counselor and found out after testing that I had Attention Deficit Disorder? This was adding to my inability to create order in my household and parent in an effective manner. Once I started medicine (Strattera) and added the classes and focused on changing, I became a much better parent- and more patient. My reasons for sharing this last experience was to show one way I am able to overcome my problems. Now, to apply this to overeating and gaining weight. I know I accomplish my goals better if I feel accountable to someone. I believe that by posting my battle with weight loss, I will be accountable to everyone who reads this! In my typical anxious manner, I would totally dread what all of you are thinking about me, but I'm ahead of the ball-game since I take medicine for anxiety. Otherwise I would never be posting such personal information!!!! A couple of other issues I'm dealing with is already possible heart problems since the medicine I take for ADD causes me tachycardia (fast heart rate) if I take too much of it. My doctor and the research I've done say that I am at risk for this no matter what medicine such as Ritalin, Concerta etc. that I take. It's just how my body reacts to these medicines. I've lowered my dosage to a low 40 mg with my doctors advice. If I develop anymore problems, I may have to go off of it completely. That leaves my ADD unchecked and I have to rely on other methods to help me there. Believe me, that is a big bear that I don't want to face. But heart problems are worse and when you add my weight and body type to it, I have a high risk. The other problem I need to stave off is diabetes. It runs in my family. It can kill. It can cause blindness. It can cause major circulatory problems that lead to amputations of limbs. I've seen a very elderly man whose arms and legs were all amputated due to diabetes. That is not the life I want look forward to as I age. I've worked in nursing homes and seen many problems yet that is not my best motivator- being accountable to someone is. Here is a list of the things that I have that to get me started on losing weight. Mainly I am listing this to show you that I have the major purchases that keep others from exercising, but have lacked the ability to stick to an exercise plan.

weights - (2) 5lbs dumbbells and (2) 2 lbs dumbbells
Newer walking shoes that have good support
clothes to workout in
DVD's - (2) Pilate's and (1) fat-burning dance mix
a punch pass to our local aquatic/workout center
a yoga mat

Now, I have no excuses about not having time to workout since the earliest a daycare child comes is now 9:15 am. As of yesterday, I don't have the two-year old that comes at 7:30 am.

I know I'm leaving out the food issue and focusing on exercising. Any suggestions on this issue? A food journal is the best thing to do but I dread doing that. Especially since I snack a little all day long. My mom has a good computer program that calculates the daily calories that a person should eat. Mine was only 1300! I eat way more than that hence all of the extra weight. Well, I need to go now and focus on my kids for a while. I hope someone will join me in this weight loss crusade!

Frontier Pies for Breakfast

2008-07-28T15:34:00.004-06:00

Frontier Pies in Rexburg is our traditional place to eat breakfast when we visit any student of BYU-Idaho in our family. We love the great food, the interesting decor and, of course, the delightful company. We ate here before going back to the Hotel to pack up to go home. We recomend it to anyone who visits Rexburg.

Tyler posed with this drunken man that is on display around the side of the restaurant. He has been a fixture for at least a couple of years.

This last one is of Kendra about 7 1/2 months pregnant. Doesn't she look great! That's the end of my pictures from Idaho! I hope everyone enjoys them!

What's wrong with this photo?

2008-07-28T14:55:00.005-06:00

What are they laughing at?

Oh, You made us sit through graduation for that?

J.K.~ Julie

His real diploma is in the mail!! Playing with the photos is one joy of being the photographer. LOL

Pictures after graduation

2008-07-28T14:45:00.003-06:00

The sun was setting as we got the family pictures done. This is my current best editing job at brightening up these photos. Hope you like them Rob and Kendra!

You are loved by many Rob! Congratulations!