How do they survive?

I haven't quite figured out how it is that children make it through life alive. They are always doing some silly thing that wind up getting them hurt. An example to prove my point.

JEH was in primary today and he was messing around with a safety pin, that was supposed to be holding his tie together. Well in the process of playing around the pin some how sprung open and got him right in the eye. He ended up with a scratch across his cornea, which was very painful but not super serious. It was very nice because our bishop is a doctor so his teacher immediately got him to look at the eye. He said that it wasn't serious but that it would be very painful for the day and told me to take him home for a nap. JEH had to walk around most of the day with a cold rug tied over his eye. He seems to be doing fine now and after a good nights sleep should be back to his silly self.

So I wonder how they survive. Every time they leave my sight I am terrified of what they are going to do. Will they come back to me in one piece or in pieces? I almost want to put them all in padded little rooms and never let them out of my sight, but if I do that I suppose that they won't be able to figure out what the right choices are the should be making. I have to let them live life, but if scares me to death all the time.

One of the reasons...

I love being a member of the church is that I love the women of the church. They always seem to be incredibly talented and they always seem to know exactly what I need at a certain time, even with out me telling them. I always seem to be boosted every time I interact with one of them it doesn't matter where I am living (and we have lived in a lot of places.) I guess what inspired this topic was different events in the last week. Here is one that I will share:

I have decided to take sign language classes with a bunch of women in the community. Well, yesterday was the first day that I went to class and while I was there I found the reason why it all got started. It was about three years ago one of the ladies in our ward confessed to one of the other women that she wasn't getting anything out of church any more because she was losing her hearing and it had gotten to a point where it was just to hard to hear. So the two women decided on their own that they would get some books and try to learn sign language. They did figure it out and now it has grown into this huge thing and just about all of the women in my ward have or are now learning sign and they all take turns interpreting for the woman who is now fully deaf. They don't only do it during church but they also will go to events with her in the community and so forth to help her out.

It just amazes me of the love that all of these women have for one person that they are all willing to learn something new to help her out. Now I get to be a part of that too. This is only a small thing that I have seen the women of the church do and it isn't always for other members either. And I love the insight that they all have on different topics. Every time I go visiting teaching (which is a challenge to me) I always come back a better person and with a greater love for the women of the church. Anyway that is all I have to say right now. Love all of YOU!

Essentials

So, Ali asked for a list of essentials that we use each time we scrapbook. Here is my list:

1. Card stock- usually the base for any page I make. the colors that I lean towards the most are earthy colors, cream or white.

2. Bright Patterned Papers- love the splashes of crazy colors that you can get. use them mostly for matting pictures.

3. Paper Trimmer- I have two that I use most both are fiskars. One is the really big one and the other is a 12x12 personal trimmer

4. Adhesive- Usually my tape runner from creative memories. but I also like to use a glue stick to get those really little pieces.

5. Sticker Alphas- I use them on just about every page I make.

6. Computer and Printer- Need to use these for journaling since I hate writing on my pages. Really bad hand writing. and also for printing out my pictures.

7. Camera- Probably the most important essential. I have a Sony Cyber-shot. It is really my husband as he takes the pictures. It is huge and I would like a little smaller one to carry around with me in my purse, but for now it works just fine.

I think that is just about everything that I tend to grab when I get started or I'm on the go.

To Afraid to try this....

here is a post from another blog that I read that made me laugh today. I don't think that I would actually try it but it might be fun. I think it might take more like a week of me not doing anything for him to catch on. Any ways enjoy.

BOYS!!!!

What is it about boys that make them such gross creatures? I think this is a mystery that will plague me until the next life. It seems that as soon as you get more that two of them together they need to have some sort of contest that deals with their bodily functions. Example:

Yesterday JEH had a birthday party at his very best friends house. It was a small party about 5 of them total, all boys. So when I come back to pick him up this is the conversation that was had:

JEH(looking pale)-I drank way too much pop.

Me- well you can do that at a party sometimes you just have to be careful and use your brain.

JEH(excited)- no we had to drink a ton because we had a burping contest.

Me-oh, fun

JEH-I drank five glasses of root beer really fast and then went all the way upstairs to see if they could hear me in the kitchen. (which was in the back part of this house and the stairs in the front)

Me- so how did you do?

JEH(very pleased)- I was the loudest. I'm the only one that they could hear from upstairs. It was soooooooo cool!

Now if those were little girls burping would never have come up. So why is it with boys it is the inevitable? By the way I had no doubt that JEH would win He has had quite the burp from the day he was born. He would shock us every time. Boys just must be born gross. It is the only explanation I can come up with.

MMMM! COOKIES!!!

One of the great new things I have learned since we have been up here is how to make my own homemade oreos. Which is way cheaper than buying them at the store. I think that I personally have helped to keep that company going, but not any longer now that I can make my own. Thought that I might share the recipe with you all. I hope that you all try and enjoy them.






Oreo Cookies Recipe

1 pkg. chocolate devil's food cake mix
(I tried it with a yellow one too. needed to have some uh-oh's)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup oil

Filling
1 1/3 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup cream cheese

Mix all three ingredients together well with a spoon. You may need to use your hands to mix it at the end. When it is all mixed cut dough into four equal sections. Take one section and roll it out like a snake(remember playing with play-doh) Cut the snake into 12 little sections roll each little section into a ball and place on cookie sheet. Do the same for the three remaining bigger sections. Cook at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Make filling while they are cooking use your blender to cream these two together.

Once finished cooking remove from cookie sheet and let cool on paper towels. When they are cool match tops and bottoms together try to find the ones that are closest to the same size. Fill each pair with filling. Then enjoy!

Winter Wonderland

So here is what we woke up to this morning and it hasn't stopped yet. I think that I have shovled the walks at least 3 times today already. All the kids are bummed because they still have to go to school. If they were in Oregon still they would be home. Poor babies.

We are all wishing that we were somewheres warm and tropical tonight.

Enduring to the end

Sometimes I think that this has got to be the most difficult of things to do. Especially when you are living with your in-laws and you can see the end in sight.

We have about 2 months left until Phill is done with school and will be able to go back to work again. So things will be good after that and we will be able to move into a house of our own, but in the mean time to help save money we are staying with the in-laws. It's not that I don't like my in-laws it is the fact that it isn't my house and all my stuff is in storage and I can't get at it. I think that the part that has been the most difficult about the last five months is knowing that we have been on our own for 13 years and now we have to live and depend on others right now.

I bet that you are all wondering how in the world we got in this situation, so here it is.

We toyed with the idea of moving back to Canada for a few years now(many different reasons) So when Phill got an offer at a funeral home in Drumheller, AB we decided to take it. They promised us a bunch of things that sounded really good. So we packed up the family, once again, and moved them 1500 miles. As soon as we got there everyone quit and they put the funeral home up for sale. This all happened in a matter of weeks! So Phill tried to stick it out but it was way to stressful and he just couldn't deal with the people in the industry any longer. We then decided that maybe it would be time to make a career change. Phill went back to school in September and we moved in with his parents so that he could concentrate on his studies. Moving back in with your parents is hard but with three children it just seems to add a bit more stress. Things have gone fairly smoothly but there is always the longing to be in your own spot. We all knew that it would be temporary and it was good and we were all sure that we could survive. But now that the end is in sight it seems like it is farther away instead of closer.

Maybe it is because we all know that it will all be over soon. so we are all anxious about it, but there seems to be more grating of nerves than there were at the beginning. The bishop told me when we were all done that we could talk on patience and endurance. I think that I should have a pretty good grasp on both by then.

The beginning

So, I have played with this idea of having a blog for a while now. There are a few out there that I really enjoy reading (which i will somehow figure to post soon) that touch me and I thought that maybe I could do the same. This is also a great and inexpensive way to let friends and family know how life is and what is going on.

I think the main reason though is because of one of the websites that I visit. She challenged us to come up with a word for the year to work on. You can find the info on her site.click here

Well, the word I came up with was share.

I want to be able to share me with others. I'm usually a quite person when I am around people and I don't share my opinions on things so I figured I could do my own blog and share my feelings or whatever. It will be a start to a year long challenge that I'm really going to work at. I was looking up quotes to do with my word and this one I think helps to explain what I am trying to do:

Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness.

It comes from letting the world tickle your heart,

your raw and beautiful heart.

You are willing to open up,

without resistance or shyness,

and face the world.

You are willing to share your heart with others.
Chogyam Trungpa

I hope you all enjoy that which I have to share.