Maybe sewing is one of my outlets... Look what I made!

Sam loves Thomas. He was with my friend Aimee at Joann's one day and when her daughter started begging for fabric he started begging for this Thomas fabric. Aimee lives down the street and is practically my sister. We are like second mom's to each others kids. We watch each others kids all the time. We tell each other we love each other when we get off the phone, a day doesn't go by that we don't talk. She was there with me the entire divorce and when it comes to dating she is like a mom, her standards are high-- she thinks nobody is good enough for me. I am mostly only allowed to go out with those who she finds for me ;) I'm a big girl and sometimes act like her teenager and go out with whomever I want. Anyway back to the fabric. She didn't buy it because, c'mon he isn't ACTUALLY her child. So she told me about it and Sam needed more jammies, so I got it and made him these. They are his favorites- mine too. They're made of fleece and so cozy, now I want some too! What's with the silly face? Its just Sam-- I love 'em!

I found this soft silky fabric with cozy flannel on the other side at Joann's and fell in love with it. Not only is it pretty, but you dont' have to worry about sticking to your sheets like regular flannel and the inside feels so nice! When the divorce first happend there were a lot of people that were there for me, but two in particular went above and beyond-- my two closest friends and yes Aimee was one of them. The one with the bird mask in my mice post is the other, her name is Shannon. I won't go into too much detail as to all the many things they did for me, but anything you can think of they pretty much did and probably more. So when I told them that I was moving to WA to live near my parents that very week, they sort of began to freak out-- Aimee even more so. She asked how I would move so fast and just matter of factly I said "I'll take what I can for now and come back for the rest eventually." Never mind that I couldn't eat or sleep, or even think straight, but I was making a huge life decision for me and my children and was going to pack up and move to WA just like that! People tried to talk me out of it, saying "you're moving tomorrow?! Maybe you should think about it for a little while. What about all the work you've done on the house?" My response? "I don't care about anything material right now- my house yeah its nice, but its nothing in comparison to what really matters to me." Well I undoubtably received more inspiration and blessings than I probably even know to this day, because each step led me in the right direction and I didn't leave. I eventually came to realize that I needed to stay here and at least get things figured out. A couple of months gradually had me in a strong enough postion to know I could do it by myself (and of course a little help from my friends). Hanging my own Christmas lights and catching my own mice were two things that gave me more credibility in my decision. So back to the Pajamas. I know I tell long stories with lots of tangents, I hope you can follow, if you know me you're use to it. It makes for easy conversation when you talk to me, we never run out of stuff to talk about! The nightgowns--I decided that since I had to be careful with money but I really wanted to give a gift to my two closest friends when I moved, that I would sew them a nightgown like the one you see Ashlin wearing. It would be something that was useful and nice and would cost a lot more to buy in the store. And its cheesy but I really wanted them to have something to remember me by after I left and knew when they put it on, a memory or two might flash into their minds. That was a comforting thought to me. So I began by sewing them these nightgowns. Shannon says her husband calls it her angel nightgown since she looks like an angel when she's wearing it-- of course that makes me happy. And of course she IS and angel . Ashlin loved them so much as did I, that we decided she needed one. You can tell when she puts it on she feels really good. She, not even knowing about what Shannon's husband had said, started calling it her angel nightgown. I love her in it-- she does look like my little angel! I want one now too :)!

9 dead mice, 9 dead mice, see how I run....

I promise she is usually much more stylish than this.. such a good sport!

So as long as I have lived in UT which ok, is only 2+ years (this is my 3rd winter here) there was talk of mice around the neighborhood, but none really to speak of in my house. We did catch one in the garage about a year ago. However, nothing could have prepared me for what I found this year! It all started when my mom was out here to stay with me. She was in the basement bathroom and saw a mouse run in front of her while she was on the toilet (hope she doesn't care I shared that bit) she came upstairs freaked out-- it was funny sight :). We put out a trap-- one of those metal and wood old fashioned kind. Well it didn't trip, but the mouse ate it CLEAN of the peanut butter I put on it. So then I ran out and got some more traps all different kind and placed those strategically around-- still nothing! Too smart of a mouse I guess. So we left town for Thanksgiving and came back to find food was gotten into everywhere in my cold storage room. I really didn't loose that much, a couple bags of chocolate chips and a bag of crackers. I went out and bought plastic containers to put everything inside of. The only thing out was a bag of wheat that didn't quite fit inside a bucket- it was in a burlap type plastic bag. I folded it up really tight and placed it on top of a bucket until I could buy another bucket for it. Well eventually did catch that mouse and disposed of it MYSELF, while on the phone and humming a primary song :). We remained mice free for a few weeks until all heck broke loose! I was walking down to the cold storage to get Sam some cereal he wanted. As we walked he said "Is there a mouse mom?" and I told him not anymore we had caught it, but a shiver kind of went through my spine, like "Um why would you say that Sam?" I opened the door and didn't even walk in because right in front of me is a TON of mouse poop trailing out from between two buckets, one of which had the bag of wheat that they had no problem getting into. I had left traps out just in case and decide to see why it hadn't caught these guys. I was about to go grab a trap and check it out when ....... (are you nervous).... I caught a glimpse on a lower shelf a sticky trap with mice on it. I ran screaming! There were two, a mom and a baby, whom she led to its death :(! The bit about the mom leading it to its death was a nice addition to the story from my friend. This is where my friend comes into the story. She is the one in the picture and she's awesome. I called her and said "Um, hi mam... Is this the mouse hotline?" She said it indeed was, so I shared my problem with her. Her service was good because she came quickly and dressed professionally, disposed of the mouse with great humor and stayed to visit with me as well! She also came later that day (each time wearing that snazzy mask) because I caught 2 more mice! I also called the mouse hotline next day when I caught one more mouse and it was still alive on a sticky trap! That was just too much for me to even think about doing myself! So we were at a mouse count of 5 now. A day goes by and now I'm out of traps. I finally got some more and put them out. I checked later nothing. Then I remembered I had put a sticky trap in the bathroom and decided to check if it caught anything other than spiders.... there were THREE more baby mice stuck to it! I disposed of those MYSELF while on the phone with the mouse hotline and singing 3 blind mice! Not one of my fondest moments. It was one crazy week, one mommy mouse and SEVEN babies, but we have been mouse free for a good few weeks now. I need to figure out where they are getting in!

Its been months since I've blogged and I'm gonna blog about boogers!

Hey everyone, I am not sure if I am back or not. I thought I would stop in to tell you something that is so great about kids. Its their nose picking! I catch one pickin' their nose and ask them not to (won't mention who because they might be embarrassed) but about an half hour later I hear the same child telling one of their siblings not to pick their nose! I love kids and how they clearly see the mote in everyone else's eye!

Alex turns 7 on Saturday. We are going to have a birthday party. Its a soda geyser party. I guess we will eat pizza and make soda geysers (you know like with mentos). He also wanted to make soda guns! Holy crap-- that is out of my area of expertise! He imagined something up that had a pipe of any type with a hole in it and a cap, that opens up to fit a mento inside then it explodes and you shoot it. A pretty cool I idea I must say! I thought he meant you shoot at each other, and when I said mothers would probably not like that, he said he meant a target. It was a good idea but we are moving to marshmallow guns instead-- I can do those! I'll let you know how it goes! Any other ideas in case it turns into total chaos and I don't have enough to do? A pinata is always good huh?

I hope to drop back in here every so often and fill you in on various parts of life! Most everyone who reads my blog now knows of the divorce I think. So I guess I am safe to talk about that. however I don't plan to tonight, other than to say things are going well. However as time goes on I might share a thought or to as a way to laugh or cry or vent or get an opinion. Ok so I just remembered a couple of you who don't know about the divorce. Crap... I think I'll post this anyway. I read back some of my older posts and decided that I really do like to blog as a way of journaling. I had forgotten the feelings I had during some of those events and the details. I am not the best journaler, but I do like to blog on occasion- its much more fun to share things with other people. I love you all! Thanks for the amazing support and love! I'll be in touch soon.

The last Tuesday of Summer (according to the school calendar)

Today was a busy day the kind you come home from and you can barely function, because taking all of your kids with you FREAKIN' wore you out. I knew it would be a big errand day because so many things to do kept piling up. Plus I like to get it all done in one day because I know there is a very good chance I won't want to leave the house again for a long time. Besides on big errand days I neglect cleaning and laundry and that usually takes a while to get under control again. Who am I kidding? It is never much under control.

Here's how today went down: Ran 6 miles,made breakfast, cleaned up, cut my boys hair, cleaned that up,bathed them, went to Great Harvest (I was starving from the 6 miles),The Quilt Shop (it was next door), Micheal's (scrapbook paper is 25 cents right now), back home (to give Ed some food),the Libraray (our books were due-plus we shopped around), the bank (deposit a check), the Post Office (mailed Breaking Dawn to my MIL), Costco (looked for new pots n'pans for my birthday- more on that later), Sams Club (to make sure they didn't have better pots n' pans than Costco), then to Walmart (for the items I DIDN'T need 37 of).

I am now too tired to post about any of the things I have been needing to, but hope this might help you to see what the heck I have been up to. Its different stuff everyday. Obviously all of us get so busy in the summer with the kids home that we don't have energy to blog! If I haven't been on your blog too much lately please know I still love you and I will be back. School starts Monday... I will miss my kids and miss getting sleep. There are a couple things I won't miss namely fighting (it hasn't been THAT bad) and constant messes (although I actually think it might be Sam's fault and HE isn't going to school.)

Speaking of Sam-- he wanted to go to Sam's Club today, even saying "we going to my cwub?" still I am not convinced that he really knew what it was. Maybe he did though because we were at a stoplight and he saw Home Depot and he told me "oh Home Depot." How many 2 year olds know Home Depot? I guess for him if he is leaving the house (especially if its with Daddy) he has a pretty good chance he is going to end up at Home Depot. He is usually really easy to take and a lot of fun so Ed and I take him whenever we run somewhere- even for a minute. Today however he was almost souly responsible for my head being about to explode. I bet he had between 1 and 5 fits per store! He has to do EVERYTHING himself and refuses to sit in the cart lately.

We watched the movie "Penelope" as a family the other night. We all really liked it. However there was a witch in it for all of like 2 minutes that terrified Alex. I knew as soon as I looked over at his face that we would be having sleep troubles. That night he wouldn't go to bed in his bed and settled for falling asleep out in the hallway with the lights on. We put him in his bed when we went to bed, but he returned to our room and slept there during the night. The second night he stayed in his room during the night but still insisted on falling asleep out in the hallway. Tonight (night three) I put my foot down and said buddy you can't do that anymore, you've got to move on and we talked about it all. He wouldn't let me go and begged me to lay with him for just a minute. I was afraid if I did that that he woudl start to expect that every night. Still he looked so scared and I felt bad for him, so I laid there and talked to him for a few minutes which really did help him. When I am in my kids bed I see the room from a different perspective. Hoping to get him to see his room as not scary at night, I said to him "you have a pretty nice room." He said "thanks." Then he said "I like how the walls look purple at night." Me: "yeah thats cool." Him: "and like the sky in the day." I thought to myself about how I am so exhausted at night all I want is to get them in bed and go unwind. This made me realize that I was missing out on knowing some really special things like what he likes about his room at night. I have a brother that had these old fashioned looking soldiers on the wallpaper in his bedroom when he was little. My mom shared with me that she thought it was sweet because he had once told her he liked them because he felt like they were protecting him. So go ask your kids tomorrow what they like about their room at night-- you might learn something that you will remember even when you are 80 with fondness. He is about to lose some teeth and can barely eat apples, but manages somehow. It is a fun age. Oh also when he watches the Olympics he says "I just need to practice a little, then I can do that." This is while guys are placing their bodies parallel to the ground on the ring in gymnastics, or flinging their bodies around the uneven bars, or while Phelps is beating another world record. It is so cute how kids are so confidant in their abilities. I think what it is, is that some of those athletes make it look so easy.

Something about Ashlin real fast too. She knew for for 2 weeks she was suppose to write a note to a teacher or grandparents or her parents so she could pass it off for Activities Days. Every couple days she would talk about it saying she needed to do it but never did- taking resposibility since only she was there to get the assignment and I knew nothing about it, it was hers and she was reminding herself -a very good thing. So today she knew she had to do it because they were meeting again. So she did it and the sweet girl that she is, she wrote the sweetest note ever and left it on our bed. She chose to write to her parents- even though we stink. She is more than I deserve as a daughter sometimes. She has to start school on a new track which means a completely different class of students than her past 2 years. She might possibly not know anyone in her class. She told me she wished I could come with her the first 2 days of school. I can tell she is nervous and I wish I could. She just memorized the 13th article of faith, with no help from me. Once a month they get a cookie for each (up to two) articles of faith they recite to their leaders after church. This has been an excellent incentive. It is harder for Alex (he's 31/2 yrs younger though) but he gets it eventually. Sam just smiles and looks cute and copies whatever they tell him to say while jumping up and down (his own addition) and he gets a cookie. Ashlin is totally into the Olympics. She watches them with great interest and is her Dad's best company during to watch with. (I like it too, but I am always doing other stuff as well as watching.)I don't know how better to describe Ashlin, but I just know with her I hit the jackpot.

Ok none of it was fast, but I decided a little way in that I would just make this a journal entry. Sorry if I bored you out of your mind!

The Magnet Boards

Here is the magnet board we made for Ashlin's friend for her birthday. She seemed to really like it.


Here is the magnet board we made for Ashlin a while back. We just got magnets for it, so she hasn't yet hung stuff on it. She would every so often tell me we needed to get her some magnets for it and a picture of me to hang on it. Isn't that sweet that she wants to hange a picture of her mom? She is really sweet.


This is a picture of a huge "A" we ended up picking up for her for her room. It was brown and meant to be crafted, so we went ahead and mod podged it too.



This a picture of her on her bed with her crafts. We have plenty more to do to her room, but I am waiting for the right idea to come around and really the time too.

4th of July fun

Many of you have been posting your pictures of all the fun parades and activities you had on your Independance Day. Well I didn't go to our annual town parade (on the 3rd of July) because I volunteered to stay home with Sam who had started running a fever the night before. He continued to be sick the entire weekened following and it turned into quite an event. So any lack of pictures I am going to blame on this. Let me share with you the entire story.

Upon our return from Bear Lake, where we went for a family reunion (you can read about this on my sister Erin's blog or sis-in law Anna's blog- or when I finally get to blogging about it) we had a couple days to recover before Sam came down with a fever. I considered this typical and just waited for it to pass. The 4th of July was day 3 of fever with not sign of improvement. I had to keep him on Tylenol and Motrin around the clock. At night he would cry and wake up because he was burning up and he needed more medicine and a drink of water. Every night. So when there was no letting up I figured it could be something more and went to urgent care on the 4th. The Dr did the typical examinations for things that could be causing fever. There was nothing showing us how it could be viral, still sometimes it is and you never see the reason, so he sent us home to wait it out a couple more days.

It continued to be difficult and I sensed it was not normal so I called the On- call Dr the next day and she said she would definitely get a white blood cell count on him considering the length of time and lack of symptoms. Well I momentarily thought he was on his way to getting better and so I waited until the next day when it was clear he was not. We were now on Sunday--5 days and counting with fever. This time the kids urgent care with peditricians was open and that made me feel good. This lady Dr did take blood to check his white blood cell count, which she found to be elevated indicating infection warranting antibiotic injections. After the blood draw he was already mad about, he had to withstand an injection in each leg of antibiotics --which they tell me really burns. He was NOT happy.

After this all I am thinkng we are finally done and that he will be better and it will be all behind us. However the Dr sait that even though he would probably be fine by the next day that we still needed to follow up with his regular pediatrician. She said if for some reason things aren't better he may need another injection of antibiotic. So we went in the next day (Monday.) Our regular Dr was not in until Tuesday, so we saw a very new, young, nice female Dr. She was worried that Sam was not better after the prior days injections and that he wasn't showing us any reason for infection. We didn't know what was wrong with him and that wasn't good. It didn't appear that was even getting better. Yes -he was still running a fever of about the same tempurature as always- maybe just slightly lower. The antibiotic they gave him was strong and they had given him a lot of it, so it should have done something... So the Dr ran even more blood tests on him, the whole slew for anything it could be. In the end we didn't have a lot of results back yet but we did know that his white blood cell count had come down and that was proof that the antibiotic was helping. So she gave him another injection (just one this time) and told us to go home and we were sure things would be fine and we would move on. Sam HATED the Dr by now especially since it seemed we were going in every day of his life and sticking him with needles. I should also mention that with this young female Dr I mentioned to her that Sam didn't seem to be able to move his neck very well and she examined him and said he was okay for not having meningitis. If they can't move their head up and down that is a sign of meningitis and his problem was with side to side movements. We did however discover he had very large lymph nodes and that was what was hurting and making him not want to turn his head. I made the comment that they were humongous --they really were, it looked like Frankenstein- like big golf balls inside his neck on either side! I made the comment that he must be really trying to fight whatever he has and she just said "yeah" and we moved on. I wish I had gotten a picture to show now, but that is just not what I was thinking of or worried about when my son was feeling so crappy and truthfully I was about in tears throughout some of it.

Well the next day I got a call from our regular Dr who was back (mind you I thought we were already done with Dr's and he was fine) and after looking at Sam's blood work, said it came back abnormal and he wanted to see him. So we go in for our 4th visit to the Dr in 5 days. I took Ed this time so that I wouldn't turn on the tears and be as worried as I was alone the day before (the lady was talking about admitting him and ruling out some serious stuff.) The blood work was abnormal what did that mean? Well the numbers that measure inflamation were 90 and the upper level for normal is 15. We head in and Sam is doing much better the fever is down and he is happier,-- except for the face that he is at the Dr, which he definitely NOT happy about. The Dr seeing that he has been traumatized decides that we still don't have a reason he is sick and that isn't good but he is getting better and is about to say that we should go home and keep in touch about how things go, when we mention how large his lymph nodes are. Well-- he then tells us what important information that is. I tell him I had told the Dr the day before. I mean if she doesn't react at all to that, why would think it was so important? Anyway its a good thing we did mention it because we found a cause for the infection and after all this run around it ended up being fairly simple. His lymph nodes were infected-- the cause of all the problems! Sometimes they help fight infection and sometimes they are what becomes infected. He is at a common age for this infection. The Dr put him on an oral round of a fairly aggressive antibiotic and now he is fine. Hooray! If we hadn't taken care of this the lymph nodes can eventually rupture and then he would've needed a CAT-scan and surgery to drain them. I tell you this in case you ever have to deal with anything like this! The fact that he could actually turn his head as difficult as it was, was a good thing, because when they rupture it makes it so you really can't turn it at all from side to side. I had never heard of this and then all of a sudden I get a call from my brother and his daughter has got it too! Too weird. Where is all of this stuff in the What to Expect Books???

Summer and Smoothies

I love smoothies all year round, but especially in the summer. Fresh fruit is everywhere in great variety all summer long and it makes it easy to come up with yummy flavors. I often freeze my fruit if I can't use it all, so I have frozen bananas, mango and strawberries in my freezer and I am about to add some raspberries as well. I especially love when I wake up in the morning and don't feel like a heavy breakfast, to make a smoothie for breakfast. I cools me down in the summer and in the winter, it just makes me cold! It tastes much more indulgent than it really is. In fact the one that I made this morning tasted like a sugared down version of a strawberry drink that Olive Garden was sampling out the last time we were there. I'm sure theirs had cream and other things carrying many more calories than this one did. My kids loved theirs and drank it all up. In fact they might get more excited for me to make smoothies than they do when I am making pancakes or waffles and smoothies are much easier. Sometimes when I have it and feel like being a little crazy I spray some whipped cream on top. That somehow tells my brain that what I am eating is very decadent, even though in reality it is quite healthy. Here's the recipe. I don't measure and what I do changes each time, so I'll just tell you what I did today. Here's one more picture-- of Alex enjoying his and its almost gone. I should have taken a picture of our finished product, the picture above is a stock photo that looked very similar. I wasn't thinking about it and I was too eager to drink it up (was hungry just off the treadmill) and my kids had many needs surrounding the smoothies, because its serious business in our house!

Tropical Strawberry Smoothie

2 cups frozen strawberries (unsweetened)

1 cup frozen mango

1 tub pina colada flavored yogurt(the personal size- not the honken ones. Mine was store brand western family-nothing fancy. I don't like that kind of yogurt to eat so much but it is great in smoothies.)

1-2 cups milk - I just pour the milk in until it not quite covers the fruit and yogurt.

Then I give it a good long whirl in my blender and it pours out oh so good.

Calories wise, you can see with nonfat milk like I used and the fruit the only reletively unhealthy thing is the yogurt. Most people don't think of yogurt as unhealthy, but I checked -the pina coloda yogurt I put in had 250 calories for the little container! That is a lot my friends. However it was really the only sweetner that I added and it also makes it creamy and adds flavor. So splitting a 250 calorie yogurt with a lot of healthy things between me and my 3 kids, works out pretty well. My kids love fruit, but it has never been easier to get them to eat it than in a smoothie. Also I am very proud to be saving what is it now $4 or $5 at Jama Juice for a better more nutritious alternative at home. And I highly recommend a little whip cream on top, it really is a happy thing.

I promised a post and this I am sure is not what you have been waiting for (all 3 of you!) I have been gone so long I really should update on what in the world I have been up to. I promise I will and I thought I would have time today, but it is going to have to wait until tonight or at least later this afternoon. Right now there are some kids being neglected and letting me know about it too. Actually they are doing okay right now and that is because I got them settled in so that I could finish this entry. I have a lot of fun stuff to share and I'll be back. Right now I am off to get a shower and then help my daughter mod podge a magnet board to give her friend tomorrow at her birthday party. Hopefully I can remember to get a picture of that and show you the results. She is suppose to wear pajamas as it is a pajama party and so I need to make sure she actually has something decent to wear to it! I might pull out the ol' sewing machine and see if I can whip her something together, you know like the mice in cinderella! Or maybe she can wear that crazy, huge, bright colored tie die shirt her dad got free at a Microsoft conference. He gave it to her and she sometimes wears it to bed. Ahh bad idea... and I AM just kidding. I think she would rather not go at all than go in that!

Big Breakfast Diet

This is not going to be a long post. I merely want to point out how my last title is about how I am a pig and this next title is about an article that advocated eating a big breakfast while on a diet. Take from that what you will.

Anyway this is a great article so check it out. I love that it doesn't give carbs a bad wrap but encourages them. It goes on to show how low-carb diets are MUCH less sucessful in the long run. I have always hated and never even thought of trying a low-carb diet. Sorry for the strong opinions. One thing it doesn't say that I think is important is that the carbs we do eat should pack in a lot of fiber. Here's the link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25286161/

So read it and twalk amongst yourselfs.

Proof that I'm a pig

Tonight we went to a neighborhood BBQ and we had a watermelon eating contest which I was somehow convinced to compete in and I actually won. Up against some men and my husband included. I ate like the sloppiest, loudest, rudest eater ever. To make it worse I was laughing so hard that food was coming out of my mouth and at one point watermelon juice sprayed out like when you have drink in your mouth and someone makes you laugh. One guy declared after that that he was done. It wasn't my most attractive moment. My hair was sticky and glued together at places from getting watermelon on it and my make-up was coming off and watermelon was in my eye. So I don't win races that I run in, or anything else for that matter, but a food race... I can kick butt! What can I say I AM a pig.

wedding presents

When Ed and I got married, we didn't register anywhere. Why? We were to busy in school, work and being in the sappiest of love ever. Life was overwhelming and we had no parents around to tell us what we should be doing- registering didn't really occur to us. I think that kind of thing was just not on my mind. So we got all kinds of things from all over and most all of it was really good. It was Christmas time- we were married on the 21st of December, so we got a lot of Christmasy stuff- a glass christmas platter, a christmas frame and christmas decorations. One thing we opened was a box for a Christmas tree stand. We figured oh good, we will need this next year, that was thoughtful. Ed's mom even made a comment about how pricey those can be so that was a thoughtful gift. So we never opened it since we weren't going to get a tree that year but stuck it in a closet and sent off a thank you note telling the Dyer family (yes Anna your family must have needed a new stand that year and used the box for a much better gift which they gave us) thank you for the Christmas tree stand. We never heard anything or discussed it since, I am not sure that they ever knew about all of this. By the way a few years later my Brother Brandon married their daughter Anna making us all family now. So finally the funny day came when I am not sure why, and it wasn't because we got a tree, but we opened the tree stand box and inside was a gorgeous 2 tiered plate stand. I LOVED it and about laughed myself to death thinking about how I actually thought they got me a Christmas tree stand and how this gift was so much more their style, and how I was a dummy for not looking inside, and about what the heck they thought when they got my thank you card. Their family has good classy taste and I should have known. I still have the plate stand 11 1/2 years later and it sits in my kitchen with fruit on it as I write. I have used it at babyshowers and bridal showers and other gatherings to make desserts and appetizers and other food look beautiful. I think next time I see Val I will tell her this funny story.

Weddings

Tonight we went to the wedding of our next door neighbors daughter. It was very nice. We especially like that although there were cars up and down the street for as far as you could see, we merely had to walk out the front door and into the next yard. The weather predicted rain and although it was slightly chilly out there was no rain. The wedding was beautiful and fun, there was a band and dancing. It got my 9 year old daughter super excited about weddings and talking about what hers would be like. I told her that I would make sure she liked it all and we would plan together, but that I would be living my wedding through her. Which leads to a story. You see I got engaged 4 months after my parents left to serve a mission for 3 years- my dad was a mission president in Bolivia. I was 19 and I wasn't expecting to fall in love and plan a wedding, but I did and I knew it was right. So with my Mom in Bolivia my Aunt in Florida was nice enough to plan and take care of the wedding. I was in school and super busy and totally in la la engagement land. The end result was a very gorgeous wedding that I chose very little of. A surprise wedding if you will. I chose the announcement, the dresses for the bridsemaids etc and my dress. Other than that-- working over such a distance with the amount of time we had and the amount of stress I had with work, school and engagement, (I got a D in anatomy that sememster) I wasn't able to help much with the wedding. I think my Aunt did try to involve me and now that I think about it I was never home to get a hold of. Thinking about this now I am still trying to figure out what happened. Oh and during the short wedding planning we did have, I left for week around Thanksgiving to go visit my parents in Bolivia- it really was an insanely crazy time. The wedding was so nice and my Aunt has great taste and chose pretty much things I would have chosen had I been there for every detail, still it leaves me wanting to plan a wedding! So needless to say I am very excited to help plan Ashlin's wedding and I have lots of years to think about it!

This is totally new information

Ok so when my husband leaves town I hate to cook and the kids and I eat most of our meals out. Well sometimes its too much trouble to go out and we just eat simple stuff at home, but this time we are out anyway and so we ate out. Ashlin loves Panda Express and had been wanting to go there. I love it too, but I always feel like I am at risk for eating too much when I go. I know that I have to plan on eating about half the meal and saving the rest. Which why the heck is that? I didn't have parents who made me clear my plate and I don't make my children. I think that theory about the need to clear your plate being a result of parents who encouranged it is crap because I still feel like I should eat everything on my plate and have to make quite an effort to stop myself from eating until I am uncomfortably full even though my parents never encouraged it. I am not sure if most of have this problem but I kind of think we do, at least I have had other friends express it. I wonder if naturally skinny people don't care....
So as for my discovery. I like to get the steamed veggies, but don't want to have to replace a meat choice with veggies but learned I don't have to you can get veggies instead of that really fattening chow mein or rice and it puts you back into a diet friendly meal. I got half veggies half steamed rice and two meat choices and it was perfect. I still had to save some of the meal for later, but I was so pleased. At least now I can get fresh veggies somewhere when I go out to eat- that is my biggest problem with fast food- very little fresh vegetables or fruit. Lame thing to blog about? I don't care... you can tell what kind of stuff I get excited about. Hey- I studied to be a dietician. I told my younger sister (who also studied to be a dietician) and she was totally stoked too. I don't have a weight loss blog to put this on-- my blog functions as everything for me. Which I guess since this is a diet-ish entry I may as well mention that I did finally reach my 10% and stay there and was actually below it during the heat of the kitchen renovation (still not finished I promise Iwill post when it is), but am back at right around the 10% again. Who won the throwdown? I still don't know if it was sis-in-law Kariann ( I think it was) or my sis Julie- they both say each other won. Still want to say see ya to another 5 or 10 lbs.