Well Wishes

Thanks for all the well wishes about my dad. I'm sure everything will be fine.
Of course, that doesn't stop me from thinking about every bad story I've ever heard about surgery. I won't go into it here, but we nurses do love to share our horror stories.
Today I called upon the nurses world power, hoping that every good deed I've ever done for a patient will come back to my dad. Hoping he'll have smart nurses who make good decisions in his care...
Today as I was getting ready, I remembered what I always think when I'm in a situation like this. I honestly kind of forget that these are someone's loved ones that I'm taking care of. I am never rude to families, I try and keep them as informed as humanly possible but sometimes it just drops off your mind as you're spending hours and hours charting.
Just something for me to remember.

When Service Bites Ones Booty

My parents were planning on coming for Christmas.
Last night my dad was out with the High Priests (church thing) visiting some people from the church -- he fell and broke his ankle.
Tomorrow he needs surgery to put some pins in.
Not coming for Christmas. I'm so sad, but I'm more sad for my dad.
He was just getting into a good work-out routine, and now this!? Oh well, if it's not one thing, it's your mother... :D
On an entirely different topic: Conner's tooth is VERY loose. He's more concerned about that then the fact that Grandpa's not coming. It really grosses me out.

The View

We all know my views on Rosie. But today The View was about Foster Care. I was really touched by it. I am well aware of how many children, an even newborns, are out there without proper parents. I was just touched by all these people who foster and later adopt the children. They have giant hearts, and I can only imagine that the leap to fostering a child is huge. Someday I hope to have that kind of courage, but until then.... I'll keep cheering for those who do it willingly.

Weighty Monday

Weighed-in yesterday. I'm up to the exact point I was when I BOUGHT the scale. Now true, I didn't work-out that often last week, but I didn't eat like a pig (much). I just don't even want to talk about it. Seriously, much depressing.
Anyway, some new goals for the month:
1. One "sugary" thing each day. I'm trying to include "high fructose corn syrup" in this particular category. For instance, today I was gonna put some jelly on my sandwich, but it had high fuctose corn syrup, so thankfully I'd just bought some fruit spread that just has the fruit and some juice. I substituted.
2. One serving of cheese/day. Now, I'm not totally sure of the size of my serving, but I'm only going to have cheese in one thing per day. Period. Cheese is my downfall, it's nothing to be proud of.
3. One hour long workout and 2 1/2 hour workouts/week. This morning I did the All Star Workout with Ellen Barrett, it's not hard coreography, but she worked me hard.
4. 1/2 hour of walking or 15 minutes of weights at least 3 times a week.
5. No eating after 7 pm.
Oh, and lots of water... lots, and lots of water.
So, just another weighty blog entry, just trying to write it all out and give myself some gumption.

My big plans for Capitol One

You see, we probably get at least 5 pieces of mail from Capitol One wanting our business every week. We didn't ask for them, we don't have a Capitol One card (nor do we have plans to get one) and frankly, I want to throw things at the TV when I see their ads come on.
So, here's my plan, Capitol One.
You give me all the money you're spending on postage and printing. Seriously, we'd be RICH. Even if it was only like 20 cents per mailing....
We'd have a much brighter Christmas AND, I'd have a much better opinion of you -- Capitol One.
Until then... we are foes.

4:30 is Early

FYI.
Actually, it wasn't as early as I had envisioned. I think I'll be needin' a nap later on.
But my Christmas shopping is pretty much done.
I still have the dreadful opportunity to take each kid out to buy stuff for the fam...
But there were some deals to be had.

You don't know what you've got til' marching band season is over...

It's not quite as catchy as the "don't know what you've got til' it's gone" -- but I've missed seeing Drew around the house.
We've had a lovely day. First one of just being around the house in ages.
I baked: two pies (mincemeat and pumpkin creamcheese), yams and jello (although the jello only involved boiling water, but that's hard enough my friends).
Drew cleaned. Honestly, couldn't be more in love with him.
I even did my visiting teaching.
And tomorrow i'm off to work. At least now, I can remember how truly thankful for a husband who loves me, even when we're far apart. and a family who allows me to go to work on Thanksgiving without crying too much.
I'll be home at 4, and we'll have din-din then kiddos.
On a sad note, the Ikea set I had you all drooling on, is not going to be on sale. It's only the antique finish, which is not really what Drew and I have our hearts set on. Probably best, we really need a weekend to just the fam. So, to a nice Ikea trip next summer.

Thanksgiving

break could not come sooner....
COME HOME DREW.
I'm done parenting.
Anyone else?

Fudgy Buttons

We had this treat for FHE tonight SUPER easy, great for the kids to help with too (it's from Quick Cooking)

2 Tbsp butter or Margarine

1 1/2 tsp baking cocoa

1/2 c. confectioner's sugar

1/2 tsp milk

2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter

In a small suacepan, melt the butter, remove from the heat. Add cocoa and mix well. Stir in sugar. Add milk and stir until smooth. Add peanut butter and mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper, flatten tops and shape into 1-in. patties. It says it makes 1-1/2 doz. but I only got six. Not sure HOW they could get that many -- I will probably double it next time. However, I only had one -- which was also good for the diet. :)

Anyway, FHE was also a raging sucess. I read a great story called The Secret of Saying Thanks. Great book my peeps. It's final line (which I read, and then made Conner read) is:

We dont give thanks because we're happy.

We are happy because we give thanks.

So, we used our dice from Discovery Toys to roll, and then I had each color as a category, and we'd pick an item from that category and name something we were thankful for. For instance, yellow was "things in Nature" and Drew said yellowstone. We then wrote that on a yellow feather and attached it to our ever-enlarging turkey.

Loud is Nice

Yesterday the primary sang in church.
"Children Holding Hands around the World."
During most of it I could pick out Conner's voice. I think we have an issue with blend... but I was proud that he was singing and not staring blankly into the crowd.
Then came the chorus.
Wow... the kid has some pipes. He's not messin' around when he sings. I was proud, and I also want to sing more as a family so that he realizes that he can sing loud, but not crazy. Of course, the fact that Spencer told me "NOT GOOD SINGER" this morning in the car does tend to dampen my spirits....
Went to Walmart this morning. Bought some stuff before the Christmas rush comes on. I think i'm pretty much done, sad to say. Well, happy to say -- I suppose. Spencer needs a few more items. What's everyone else getting their almost 3 year old boy?
Also, how does everyone deal with the problem of "mine" after they open presents? it's not really something we've had to deal with much before now. Spencer's always been fine with Conner seeing his stuff. But, we also don't really have "my" sections of our toy cabinet. Pretty much everything is shared (unless it is unsafe for Spencer). I worry at Christmas, that I want them to have some "mine" time -- but also share. Thoughts? Experienced moms -- shower me with knowledge.

Weigh-in Sunday

I worked yesterday morning, and didn't have the will to find-out such bad news before a whole shift.
I am now at an almost record high.
That's right, a 1.5 pound gain.
I don't want to talk about.
Although, as my mental excuse I can barely bend my fingers with all the water weight I'm carrying in them this morning.
{sigh}
I keep pushing on.... Good thing I work Thanksgiving. :)

A Fancy Friend

K, did anyone else think this was adorable? My friend Erica designed it. She has amazing talent, and if anyone's looking for a logo or business cards. She's a great gal to use. I highly recommend her.

Thoughts

I was just strolling through the creating garden at 2P's, when i saw my friend Shannon's layout. It rocks.
Look at it, and then come back.
I just loved the way she said what I've always thought. If my "first new mom" self could look into her crystal ball and see all that am/do now... she'd sure feel a lot better about her current life.
Enjoy... love Shannon's stuff.
Of course, I love Shannon too... but that's a whole other story.

Last Days of K

{sigh} I'm pretty sure this is my last Kindergarten layout for another 3 years. But let me just take a moment to remember our times with Mrs. Ross. She was such a great teacher, we miss her so, but lucky for us Mrs. Dodson so has our back. She's amazing, and perfect for Conner. I couldn't be luckier!

Muchos Gracias, Feliz Navidad

Thanks for the input on the entertainment center you guys. I appreciate everyone's input! I am hoping it's on sale and then we can go get it next week, and bask in our Ikea glow. :)
What's everyone doing for Christmas?
I thought I'd just list some of the things that we like to do around here, to give some of my Bay Area peeps some ideas.
First off, we LOVE the living nativity that the Baptist church does. Amazing. Everyone needs to go. If you have questions, you can read about it in this entry from last year.
We also really enjoy going to "Behold the Gift" it's a dance presentation at the Inner Stake Center. They basically act out the entire Christmas story through song and dance. We went last year, and I was a little anxious about what my kid would do. But, we went to the matinee and Spencer actually really enjoyed it. They do have some slow parts, but a lot of it has nice colors and a lot of people dnacing on the stage. They use a lot of the sountrack from the movie The Missions, has anyone heard it? Anyway, I love that soundtrack. This year, their matinee is on Saturday the 9th at 4 pm. We'll be leaving here in our fancy Minivan probably around 2:30 if anyone else wants to go. We'll also be stoping at Fudrucker's on the way back. Oh, and the sweet part is that once you leave Behold the Gift, it's just dark enough to enjoy the lights around the temple.
Christmas in the Park. It's in downtown San Jose. It's a favorite spot to enjoy some fake snow.
Anyway, those are some ideas, but I'd love to hear everyone else's. I must admit that I have a hard time getting into the whole Christmas spirit when there's no snow or family to help me swing that.

Hmmm....

{Click on the title for a funny article}
Thanks to my friend Lara.
Really thinking I should ask some of the lactation consultants at work about it.
FYI, there is a breast milk bank that NICU babies are sometimes fed out of -- that would be a nice alternative for this mom.

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm just thankful that I'm not at work.

Period.

There are just some nights where you realize that people think you are their slave. Last night was one of those nights. Not a thank you for bowing to my every wish, hardly a smile, just thinking everything I did was wrong.

Just a stern reminder to myself that you catch more flies with honey... if you know what I mean.

SO, I've decided to ask for some decorating advice from my blog pals. Word on the street from www.blackfridayinfo.com is that the entertainment center we want for our living room is on sale next week. You can see them on the Ikea website here: TV Unit, Book Case and Skinny bookcase (all in the dark brown finish, not the antique finish). So, it'll pretty much look like the one in the picture, except we're not doing the glass-fronted cabinet (because it has 2 glass shelves that only hold 26 pounds, and we all know my scrapbooks weigh WAY more then 26 pounds), we'll just do the other bookshelf. I think we're also thinking of getting this one next year or something. What do you guys think, esp. the friend that have been to my house. This is a pretty dark brown stain (as it says) but Drew and I both loved it when we saw it at Ikea last year. Do you think it'll be too much for our small house? Come on... people, comment. I need input here ladies (and men).

Seriously... how'd he get so old?

FHE, Beta and Fitness

A recap of our Monday night FHE for all my fellow FHE doers (Janelle just posted what they did at their FHE and I think I'm going to steal it for next week, so I really like it when my peeps post their ideas). We did ours on talents. The missionaries were here. We taught about the biblical story of the talents and really stressed that you have to work hard to make your talents of worth. Anyway, we then wrote our feathers, on the front something we're good at (for me it was Designing) and on the back it was a talent we want to work to improve. Then, Conner just happened to bring home a turkey that the family was supposed to decorate, so we used our talents to put buttons, and puff balls all over the poor turkey. I'm pretty sure it's the first time the missionaries had used Elmer's and puff balls on their mission.
So, about the Beta version. Let me tell you the benenfits. If you scroll down you'll see my archive is way cooler then it was before. And you can also put labels on your posts. I'm mostly using that on the photo blog, because this blog is so random. But I know that if you had people who mostly wanted to look at your pictures or whatever, you could label them as such (if you scroll down on the right of my blog, you'll see my "labels" on the right side -- so far it's just scrapbooking, but I hope to make more categories). Also, sometimes I do travel journals, and sometimes i have random blog posts in between, so I could label all my travel journals as such and people could bring them up if they wanted to. Also, instead of having to know much about HTML you can change the layout through their drag and drop system. Also, you're able to go in and mess with those things (like links, music, header, etc) all by themselves (no HTML really needed, although I did have to mess with mine a bit). I like it. What do you guys think of the music? Kill it?
Lastly, Conner's school had a family fitness night last night. It was dancing, stuff like the hokey pokey, the conga, the bunny hop, the twist. We had a great time, and we vowed to do it as a family later on. I think it's a great idea, to show that family time and fitness time can be one and the same.
P.S. Guess who just passed the 15k mark for blog visits. How if you'd all just click on my google adsense banner.... :)

Check me out in Beta

FYI, Beta is the new version of Blogger. What do you guys think? I must admit, it was moderately painful to make the change. But now I'm a big fan.

Switching to Beta

Anyone switched yet?
I'm thinking it's time....
I worry about my little blog.
I love it so....

Weigh-in and Goals

Weighed in on Saturday. I think I lost 0.6 pounds. I wasn't to into the whole diet thing last week. I've noticed that I'm not wearing make-up, not really caring about the way I look as of late. So I'm back on the "me" bandwagon this week. Did some Denise Austin this morning, and I'm gonna go do a couple of laps around Costco this AM. I'm hoping to also find a book about free weights, and give me some good exercises to build muscle, when I can't get out and walk because it's rainy.
I am, however, wanting to walk at the mall for like an hour each week. Anyone wanting to join? I figure we coudl do a full lap and then pick a store to go in as our "reward."
This week, I'm also going to try harder at reading my scriptures every day. I used to do it in the AM, but now working out is taking that time. I am hoping to do it after I lay Spencer down for his nap, so that I can get a bit of energy back for my afternoon (which, lately have consisted of me laying on the couch eating something salty). Does anyone have a routine that works for them, as far as scripture study goes?

Layout o' the Day

As if I do one a day... but I try. :)

A Day of Band

So, I'm thinking of becoming a marching band photographer... :)
Good luck SC Band today!

The D word

I've had a really hard time with the whole Reese and Ryan break-up. They always just seemed so genuinely in love. A Hollywood couple that would make it, unlike so many others.
Then there's Brittany and K-Fed. Not as if it was shocking, but it's always sad. I was really sad by the way that Rosi threw confetti all over because 2 kids parents were splitting up. I wish she'd realize that divorce is a much bigger issue then gun control.
Sometimes I look at divorced couples and wonder how much worse their marriage really is then mine. I am in NO WAY saying that I have a bad marriage. I am just saying that we fight, we drive each other crazy, stuff like that. We're totally committed to working whatever it is out. We've had almost 10 years to realize that we are dis-similar in many ways... and we have to work through those differences.
My mom once heard some wife of someone important (I'm thinking GA or 70, or something) say, "We have never once thought of divorce, murder -- yes, but never divorce." I think it's a great saying, especially coming from someone that our church tends to idolize. I can't imagine that President and Sister Hinckley ever hard a harsh word between the two of them, but you know they have. You HAVE to, you can't live with someone that long and not think "THAT IS NOT HOW WE DO THAT."
Anyway, what I think I'm trying to say is, I think it'd be an eye opener to all of us to have a peek in some regular old marriages, those that are working with their differences. I'm fairly sure it'd make us happier in the ones that we have.

Thankful Thursday

So, here I am in my bitter mood to write a blog.
Hoping to be a tad more positive today. Drew has a football game this afternoon and then we're gonna go out for pizza at C's school fundraiser... so I'm hoping the shift out of my regular monotony will be positive. :)
So, today I'm going to list the little things around my house that I'm thankful for:
1. New light in the boy's room. We don't have fixtures in our house (it's circa 1950's). Dave Zimbauer (who's great, if you need a contractor) came in and put a light in the boy's room. I LOVE IT!!! I mostly love that we can now take their nasty lamp off their dresser (sorry dad -- it was his lamp, he'd had it since college, but now it will be heading to the DI).
2. Dishwasher. Need I say more? We did seven years of marraige without one, and I can't get enough of it now.
3. Washing machine and dryer. I mean, seriously ladies -- where would we be if we were still cranking our clothes and washing them on a rock or a washboard. Yikes.
4. DVR. OMG, revolutionized the way I live. LOVE IT!!!!!
5. The Minivan. LOVE clicking on my keychain to open our little vehicle up. So dang fancy. I'm a lucky gal.
Well, there we go, feeling better already. I think I'm off for a walk with a friend. The day is just sunshine and roses as far as the eye can see (note: positive self-talk).
Hey, I was just talking to Michelle when I got my Kraft Food and Family cookbook. It's free, and you sign-up online. I've had a lot of easy recipes come out of it, so I'd recommend signing-up!

Source Book

Conner writes in his "Source Book" every day at school. Then, they pick pieces from that source book and "publish" them in a more dramatic fashion.
Anyway, today when I was playing Hilary the Spy I read Conner's most recent source book entry. They've been writing letters. He wrote his to a little girl in their class.
He told her that he is lonely at recess and wishes she'd play with him. The end of the letter was my most favorite part. He says that there are lots of people for him to play with at recess but "you, I prefer."
Somedays, the pay-off for being a spy is just too, too much.
If you'd like to see more of Conner's writing, you can look here. Conner's teacher is really big on people giving "response" to their writing. So, if anyone has something to say about it, feel free to email me or comment and I'll send it to Conner's teacher. They're going to have them read all their responses in class. I know Conner would love to hear from many of you.

FHE Review Tuesday

Had a stunning FHE last night. I really wanted to focus on thankfulness this month (starting next month I'm gonna do an article of faith each month). So, we started our thankful turkey. We did something similar on these lines last year, but it never really made it. So, this year I am going to try a new row of feathers each at each week's FHE.
This week, we put specific people that we're thankful for on the Turkey's body and then I had everyone think of different ways we can show them gratitude and we put those on the multi-colored feathers on the turkey's body.
Next week I'm thinking we're going to put things that we're thankful for. Maybe put the ones that are MOST thankful for on one color, and then some things we just really like on another color. If anyone has any other ideas on how to add to the turkey -- lemme know.
On a sidenote. The song "Where Love Is" gets me every time. It's in our church's Children's songbook, but I always enjoy its central theme. Where love is, there God is also, totally true. Click on the link and it will play it for you. We played it last night at FHE, and then it played again this AM in the car (I have a CD of favorite children's songs to listen to on our way to school).

Nursing School

Anyone who knows me, knows that the most horrific time in my life was nursing school (and after much reflection, yes -- I think it was worse then having a newborn, because... well, just because it was).
I had a teacher that I specifically had a hard time with.
Her name was Mary Jane (not totally sure of her last name, thinking it was Johnson). I had her my first hospital rotation. We did a block in just classroom work, and some lab stuff and the next block they threw us to the lions on a med surg floor.
I remember my first patient, had the runs, and messed his bed about 8 times in my shift.
Uh huh... getting the picture why it might be akin to having a newborn?
Anyway, one day she calls me into her office to tell me that my papers suck. Each night before our shift the next day, we had to travel to the hospital, pick a patient and then do a total work-up on them for the next AM (that's right folks, a 20 page paper written between 5pm and 5 am -- followed by an 8-12 hour shift).
So, I thought I'd been rockin' out the papers. Really, I didn't have a clue she didn't like them.
Then, one day she calls me in and says they're awful and says that she's about ready to kick me out of the program. She also made several references to the fact that my father was a dean in another college at BYU and made snide references to perhaps that was the reason I had gotten into the BYU nursing school (honestly, it may be -- I didn't have amazing grades, but I did try hard, and I had good letters of recommendation).
I, of course, went crying to my dad. I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong. The things she was asking me to correct didn't make sense to me. Of course, he wrote the dean a nice letter saying that if this particular teacher ever made reference to him being my dad and that perhaps making a difference in my collegiate education at BYU he'd take it further then the dean (my dad was always very sure that I did not get preferential treatment because I was his child -- he also always made sure that I signed up for the hardest classes that BYU offered). So, I fixed the things she had requested and I made it through the sememster. I felt marked through the rest of nursing school. I felt like I was the dumb one. I honestly didn't think that I'd be a very good nurse when I left. Of course, I totally proved that wrong when I have people stop me on the street here and tell me what a great nurse I've been. Haha, take THAT Mary Jane!
Anyway, I don't know why this came to my mind so strongly this AM. I know that after I left BYU she was no longer with BYU. I wonder if that day changed her life more then it changed mine. I just googled her to see if she'd written any papers or was on some other faculty. She's not. I'd heard that about a year after this incident she decided that maybe teaching wasn't her thing.
Oh yeah, and she also told me not to get married (I was dating Drew at the time, and she felt that the 1 hour I spent with him/week was perhaps taking too much time away from my studies).
Anyway, I'm babbling. It was just a story I wanted to share. Triumph over adversity, nausea whenever I hear the word Mary Jane (be it a reference to shoes or the person). Sometimes I just don't think we give ourselves credit. I do believe if I can make it through nursing school, losing this weight can be done too.

Sunday Confessional

People in the LDS religion have one Sunday set aside each month (it's the first Sunday, aka -- today) called "fast sunday". We go without 2 meals on that day and we donate the money in a "fast offering" to the church and they use it to help others our with their material needs. During this time we're also supposed to have a purpose in mind and be praying about it.
People, I suck at it. It's not the whole going without food thing that I suck at. It's the rest. I always forget until either the morning of, or sometimes by the grace of God I remember the night before. Then, I'm always stuck trying to think of something to fast for. There have been several Sundays where I have truly felt the power of the fast, but they have mostly been when I was fasting for a family member that was sick or needed other serious help. Now, when my life seems to be going OK I feel like all the things in my life that are my concerns seem trivial, and most definately not worth a fast. These things would be like being a better mom (and I pretty much have made this my purpose the past few months), losing weight, having more love in our home. General stuff.
Anyway, does anyone have tips to make Fast Sunday a better sunday? I have already put it on my calendar for next month so that it can be weighing on my brain the week before.
Now, I'm gonna go do my 20 hail marys and dream about what to have for dinner.

Welcome to Weigh-in Saturday

Alrighty then.
Giving-up on the scale. However, I only gained less then a pound this week, which is pretty good since my mom's here and we've gone out to eat a lot. The body fat thing though -- I think it's a crock. I am still about what I was last week, which is more then when I started a month ago.
So, this month I'm adding drinking more water. I started on the 1st, and MAN do I have to use the bathroom a lot. I am hoping that decreases. However, every time I do use the potty I imagine little fat cells going out with it.
And yes, that is TMI. :)
On a brighter note, my mom has been here this week. We went sho-ping! Hello Kohls. Nice sale. Anyway, I got about 10 new tops. This was TOTALLY needed. I don't think I'd bought a new winter shirt since S was born. Anyway, I'm feeling fancy in my new duds, and I think my sista' Jana's gonna come cut my hair sometime soon so I can stop bringing frizzy back.
I do feel better about myself, and it's not just the new clothes. I do feel that I'm getting new muscle groups and after a while I know that's going to have SOME effect! Right, right? RIGHT?
And thanks for coming mumzy! I'm taking her to the airport in about a half an hour, and it will be a sad day indeed {sigh}.

Reminder

Today I was dropping Conner off at school and walking back to my car. This car crossed right in front of me while kids were in the crosswalk and the crossing guard had her stop sign up. I called 911 when I got back to my car, and I'm guessing the crossing guard did as well, since she ran for a notebook to write it all down on.
Anyway, it made me really glad that I didn't have Spencer with me (thankfully he was at home with grandma) because this guy wasn't stopping for anything. It also made me realize that we all need to be careful and watch-out in the school zones.
It also reminded me never to be in so much of a hurry that I leave safety behind.

Welcome to November

Aloha.
November always seems to creep up on me.
It's always hiding behind Halloween.
Dang that November.

Princess Leia Revealed

A little video of our Halloween fun.

Want to see more?