Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: blessings (Page 8 of 14)

What a weekend!

May 2, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Women’s Conference. The two words that conjure up images of thousands of women swarming the BYU bookstore, hundreds of pounds of BYU mint brownies, a silly skit my Mary Ellen Edmunds reminding us to turn our phones off, traipsing around campus with hundreds of other women hoping to get a seat in the JSB auditorium, and rain.

Robin came into town Wednesday night, and I picked her up at the airport after bells rehearsal. We got home by about 11:30. Thursday dawned bright and early, and we were out of here by 8:00 to make the trek to Provo and the hike to the Marriott Center. And for once it wasn’t raining or freezing. In fact, it turned out to be a beautiful day! Shock, I know!

I went to a wonderful class on parenting, and then hustled over to the HFAC for a class on patience, only to be greeted by a line that went out the building, down the sidewalk, made a turn, went in front of the Wilkinson Center, and up the ramp. Seriously. Perhaps this line IS the class, we joked in the line. I wish I had a picture, because it was QUITE the line. The class was supposed to start at 12:30, and at 12:25, I hadn’t moved forward all that much in line, and pretty much knew that I wouldn’t be attending this particular class on patience, unless they had an overflow room or were broadcasting it somewhere else. I guess all those ladies at women’s conference need to learn patience. Or at least they think they do. I was pleased that there were no impatient riots or shoving, especially when most of us were turned away.

Knowing that any class I wanted to get into had already started and was therefore full, I wandered over to the bookstore to do some browsing. I eventually ended up in the MARB where they have service and listening stations. I decided to sew “courage capes” while listening to a wonderful talk on being women of God. It’s fun to do something productive while listening, but then I have no notes. I stayed for the next class and finished two more capes. Such fun.

By the last session of the day, my brain is pretty much dead tired. But we sat through the talks on courageous and wonderful examples of early Relief Society sisters.

Robin and I had decided to stay the night in Provo instead of driving home. Then we could go to the evening of service and the fun concert put on at Women’s conference on Thursday night. But first we had to check into our hotel and ditch some of our stuff. We ended up sidetracked at the Spaghetti factory enjoying a FABULOUS meal. I sent a text to Ryan, who did not appreciate the fact that I was stuffing my face on Matzithra cheese pasta while he was attending the elementary school band concert. Sorry, honey. After our pasta binge, we checked in to our comfort inn, and flopped on the couch. We had every intention of getting right back up and going to the evening of service. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it. We did make it in time for the evening performance by the Shadow Mountain artists. But by the time that was over, we were SO tired, we wanted nothing more than for our heads to hit the pillows.

Unfortunately, no sooner had we snuggled into our beds, then our raucous neighbors decided it was time to run, shout, and slam doors. What the heck, people? It’s 11:30! Go to sleep. It took more than one call to the front desk and some asking to please be quiet before they calmed down. Some people!

In the morning, I woke up so dizzy I could barely turn my head. I made it to the bathroom, but felt like I might throw up from the nausea. I came quickly back to bed, and told Robin that I didn’t think I was going to be going to classes right away. I fell quickly into a nap. We worked it out so that Robin took the car and went to the conference, and my sweet hubby came and picked me up and took me back home, where I spent the rest of the day napping. I felt bad that I was missing a day of wonderful talks, and also that I hadn’t yet gotten my BYU brownie! But I was so wiped out and needed sleep to help me feel better. By evening I was feeling mostly put back together so I felt like I could possibly function.

Saturday morning dawned with 3 or 4 inches of snow. Seriously? I guess that kills our garage sale possibilities. But Robin came with me to go and get my bountiful basket, and then we drove around with hope in our hearts. Maybe, just Maybe, there would be some brave souls hosting garage sales. We did indeed find two garage sales and scored some cheap scores. My favorite–a mask/cape combination that looks pretty much like Megamind but with a green head.

John thought that was fun.

Later in the day we attended a cousin’s baptism and family party while Robin went to the temple, and then later we spoiled ourselves with our annual “women’s conference pedicures”.

Sunday we all attended church, and then had a nice dinner. We invited Julene and Italo to join us, and it was all delicious! Later, as we were watching Joe verses the Volcano (can you believe Robin had NEVER seen that movie?), I checked facebook and saw the Bin Laden news. We couldn’t believe that after all this time, they had finally gotten him.

It was quite a memorable weekend!

Spring Ring–or how I spent my Saturday

March 7, 2011 / / 2 Comments

My Saturday was spent with my bell choir peeps. Can I call them ‘peeps’? Sure, I can.

Every year the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers sponsors a Spring Ring, where bell choirs from all over the state come together for an all day ring session with a guest clinician. Our choir attends every other year, and this is my third time at this event. It’s usually held at a school, in the gym. Imagine if you will 19 bell choirs all set up together in one room, playing the same pieces. Amazing sound. There were 253 of us there.

I must admit I’ve had a little bit of a bad attitude about this before. It’s just such a long day. A LONG day of ringing bells. It’s killer on your feet, legs, back, shoulders, hands….well, it’s just very taxing. And I’m reminded that I’m not young anymore. Getting older every year, in fact.

But our guest clinician, Timothy Waugh, was really amazing. He was so positive and had a wonderful attitude. We weren’t just a whole bunch of choirs playing the same songs, but we were trying our best to tell stories in song. I learned a lot and it was a really good experience. Exhausting, but good.

Thankfully, we brought our own crew, who did all the unloading and loading for us. It’s a HUGE ordeal to move a bell choir of our size, with 7 octaves of bells, chimes in their big old cases, tables, pads, risers, etc. They have to transport all our stuff in a big semi that is rented for the day. We are lucky that way. At the end of the day, we performed a short concert. Four of the choirs performed solos (we were one of those solo performing groups) and we played all six of the songs we had worked on through the day. Although our solo could have gone better, the concert was fun.

After we put everything away and I changed out of my sparkley dress, I was hauling all my stuff out to the parking lot. I had my dress, my purse, a second pair of shoes, my water bottle, and my piece of carpet to stand on. I could barely hold on to all my stuff, and I wandered out to look for my car. Ahem. Excuse me–to look for RYAN’S car. I knew I had parked pretty close, but I couldn’t find it. I kept clicking the “unlock” button hoping the car would blink at me, but no such luck. Our director, Tom, walked by, and asked if I was lost. “I can’t find my car,” I said, feeling really stupid. He asked if I wanted to drive around a look for it, but I was pretty sure I could find it eventually. But then, after walking around some more, I still couldn’t find it. Another friend from the choir stopped and asked if I needed help. I must have looked rather forlorn in my exhausted state hauling all my gear. I took her up on her offer to drive around and look for it. It’s such a small car, and it’s dark grey–not a stand out color–so it’s easy to misplace it, right? Tom pulled around again and rolled down his window. “Are you sure you parked in this lot?” he said. Oh. There’s more than one lot? Hello! So my friend Serena drove me around to the other lot on the OTHER side of the school, and there it was. Our little grey car! I just walked out following everyone else, not realizing I was walking out the WRONG way. Ugh.

Once I found the car, I started to relax a little bit. I drove over to my sister’s house to give her a birthday present. My sister who is expecting a baby any day to add to her current houseful of kids. She is amazing. Her kids are all so cute and happy, and they all wanted to show me ALL their toys while their mom was trying to talk to me. I obviously don’t visit enough. It was nice to just sit and visit with her. Hopefully all will go well with this new baby and she will be born without problems. They are worried about her measuring small, so she has to go in for all kinds of tests. I think her poor old uterus is just tired and worn out!

By the time I got home, it was almost bed time for the kids. They took a break from their video game extravaganza to say hi to me, while I ate some dinner and then dragged myself up and flopped on the bed.

I turned on the tv and flipped some channels, and saw that they were playing Les Miserables on PBS. Amazing. I settled in, got some Kleenex, and watched the second half. In an attempt to avoid going to bed, the kids all wandered in, and climbed on my bed. “What is this?” they asked, “Who is that?” “Why is she crying?” Hey, I’m not here to give you a commentary, I thought. But I tried to explain it in simple terms, and they were soon enthralled, as well. It was such a nice moment. In my cozy bed, surrounded by my kids, trying to instill in them a love of all things musical. But then Ryan came in, scoffed at my viewing choice (he’s not a fan) and sent the kids to bed. It’s a good thing, because they really drag out those PBS pledge drive shows. But I kept watching, tears rolling down my cheeks. It’s just all so SAD. But the music is so beautiful! Even though Ryan doesn’t like the show, he was kind enough to set it to record the next showing, since I had missed the whole first half. He may be crotchety and not like musicals, but he knows me, and is sweet like that.

All in all a good day. Exhausting. I got zero Saturday jobs done, and neither did my family, but we’ll survive the mess, and I’ll remember the musical experience of the day.

—

Our Roadshow, by the way, will be performed tomorrow. I’m hoping I can get some good video and post a song or two to show you how incredible these kids are, and what a great show we’ve created. And then I will sigh a great big sigh of relief to let you all know that I have survived.

Happy 50th Anniversary Larry and Nadine

February 28, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Last week we celebrated Ryan’s Parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Fifty years. That’s a long time! But then when I think that we’ve already experienced 18 1/2 years together, I realize that 50 years will pass before we know it.

For their Anniversary Celebration, they didn’t want a big party or open house like we had originally thought. They chose instead to gather the family in the temple for a session and sealings, then have everyone get together for a nice dinner.

It was really special to be there in the temple with all of Ryan’s brothers and sisters and spouses, and even some of the grandkids. I hope we can do that again.

We also all wrote letters to the happy couple about our favorite memory. This one is John’s letter.

I wrote this letter:

February 19, 2011
50th Anniversary Celebration

Dear Mom and Dad,

I want to thank you for raising a wonderful family. Specifically, a wonderful son who is now a fabulous husband. He is a patient, caring man, and I know he learned that from the both of you. In fact, I used to be a little bit paranoid because I thought that the both of you had NEVER raised your voices or yelled at your kids. I’ve never heard either of you yell or even use cross words. Ryan does tell me tales of mischief during his younger years, (a lot of mischief, in fact, but he always blames it all on Kyle) and assures me that, yes, his mom did yell at him, and might even have whacked him with a spoon. That’s a relief. I thought you might have been perfect!

I’m also happy to hear about the occasional flop in the kitchen. Every time I eat anything you have made, it’s pretty much perfect, so I wondered if you had just been born a naturally great cook. It’s nice to know that some of your dinners weren’t so well received and that your cakes were sometimes flat. It makes me feel better.

The first time I was given some of Dad’s famous truffles, they were in a cool whip container labeled “turkey gravy”. He didn’t say what they were, just passed them around. I looked in the tub and said, “You’re giving me turkey gravy cubes?” I felt a little foolish to discover that they were NOT turkey gravy, but yummy truffles. We all had a good laugh and we still occasionally call them turkey gravy cubes.

I appreciate your efforts in getting the family together. The monthly family home evenings are a fun way for the cousins to interact, and to learn about the gospel. You are teaching them by example that the family really is the most important thing. And there’s no family drama, either. No one says, “well, if she’s going to be there, then I won’t come”. I attribute that to you and your loving ways. As a daughter-in-law, I realize how lucky I am to have married into such an accepting family.

The kids also love the one on one time spent on their birthday date. I’m thankful that they get to have time with you by themselves to connect with their grandparents. And they love the freedom to chose ANY place they want to eat. I’m sure you’ve gone everywhere from McDonald’s to Olive Garden, and every place in between.

Have I embarrassed you enough? Well, that was not my intent. I just wanted to let you know that I am so thankful to be part of your family. Thank you for accepting and loving me like a daughter, and for loving, teaching, and taking care of my kids. We have all been blessed by you. Happy 50th Anniversary, and may you have MANY more!

All my love, Paige

Ryan also wrote a letter about some of his favorite memories growing up. Maybe I can get that inserted into this post as well.

I don’t know if you can read Jenna’s letter, but she wrote about staying at their house once, and how the honeybear had red eyes. She even drew a picture. Oh, these kids are cute, aren’t they?

After the temple, we went home and picked up the kids and went to the Chef’s Table, where we had reserved a special room for the celebratory dinner.

The food was fancy, but still delicious, and it was fun to be with the whole family.


It was a special day. I still remember my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary, and what a big deal it was that everyone be there. My parents are creeping up on their 50th anniversary, as well, so I guess it’s time to start thinking about that. To my in-laws, I wish you a Happy Anniversary, and thanks for raising such a great husband for me! Here’s wishing you many more happy anniversaries.

Date Night

February 6, 2011 / / 2 Comments

I asked my dear husband out on a date for Friday. Yes, a DATE. I figured we hadn’t been out together just the two of us on a date since we went to a quick dinner on my birthday. We really should be able to squeeze in at least ONE date a month, you would think, but sometimes even that is difficult.

So, after my harried afternoon of ultrasounds and baking bread with the activity day girls (no, it’s not my new calling, I was just helping out), I made a quick dinner for the kids and the two of us snuck out. Thanks to my friend Lisa, I had won tickets to a concert/comedy night by the very funny and talented Jason Hewlett.

First we went to dinner at Cafe Rio and I got my fav, the Cafe Rio chicken salad. Yum.

Then we went over to the Waterford School for this fun benefit concert.

Even though I didn’t know Dan Sloane, by the end of the night we felt like we knew him and we hope for the best for him. And Jason Hewlett was AMAZING! So funny! If you ever get a chance to see him live, go for it.

The music was fun, the comedy was great, and I was glad to have been there. Such a great date night with my hubby! Does that count for our Valentine’s Day date?

I’m not a hypochondriac, I just think like one

February 5, 2011 / / 4 Comments

Unexplained symptom-heated calf.

I know. It sounds totally stupid and fake, right? But for over a week, my right calf has, well, felt….hot. Stop rolling your eyes at me. I know it sounds made up. Therefore, I tried not to whine and complain about it too much. Except for at home. Poor Ryan.

I’ve also had some other cruddy stuff going on this week that made me not so productive around the house. I’ll just say it was a stomach flu kind of a thing and leave it at that. Even after I’d made it through the worst of the sick part, I have been just SAPPED of all energy. If I’m able to do my volunteer commitments for church and at the school, I’ve come home totally exhausted and lay around on the couch not doing all the mom things I should have been doing. By Thursday, I had just enough in my energy reserves to make it through the book fair, a short shopping trip and parent teacher conference. I came home feeling ready to drop into a coma. But this leg thing, it was just driving me crazy! Was it really hot? If only there were a way to measure the temperature. Then I remembered that Ryan had picked up this crazy temperature gadget that is something like this HERE.

I waited until the leg was having a hot spasm (it isn’t hot ALL the time, just when it feels like being hot) and rolled up my pants and asked him to scan me. Sure enough, the right leg was TWO degrees hotter than the left leg. And when I measured it later, it was THREE degrees hotter.

HA! So I’m NOT just making it up. There really IS something wrong with me.

Then my worry level began to kick it up a notch, because there really IS something wrong with me. You may remember that time that I was pretty much convinced that I had a brain tumor because I kept smelling a strange illusive burning smell. That wasn’t much fun. But my point is that I am a worrier, so when I can’t figure out what is wrong, I worry, and it makes it worse.

I contacted our doctor to see if he thought it was a big deal. He asked me some questions and said it wouldn’t be a bad idea to come in to the office the next day. And he’s not just fishing for a co-pay. So, he squished me into his schedule, and at 8:15 the next morning, there I was. He checked out my calf, and sure enough, he could FEEL the heat. Even though I didn’t have swelling or pain, heat is one of the symptoms of a blood clot, and I’ve had a few minor blood clots before, so he sent me off to schedule an ultrasound at the hospital. They didn’t have any appointments until 3 pm. Ugh. I’m supposed to have 8 little achievement day girls over to my house at 4 to make whole wheat bread, but it’s that or 6, so I take the 3.

At 2:30, with my first batch of bread made and my kitchen cleaned up and prepped for the second batch with the girls, and there I was at the hospital. Sitting in the radiation waiting room is always uncomfortable, because I wonder what all these other people are here for. One lady has to drink some kind of special drink before her CT scan, someone else is there with their two little kids, and I wonder why they are there. Cancer? Darn it, I think, why didn’t I schedule a mammogram, since I have to be here anyway? The ultrasound tech took me early (thank goodness) and had me all prepped and covered with slime before 3. I tried to be all casual and read my book while she searched my leg for clots, but I was indeed worried. And then she was done. What was that, 13 minutes? Really? I sat up and watched her type “no evidence of DVT” into the computer before she left to share her findings with the radiologist. No clot, huh? Well, then what the heck is causing these weird hot flashes of the leg? I got dressed and then talked to my doc on the phone, who confirmed that they had found no clot, and that I should be relieved that I don’t have a blood clot.

Relieved? Yes. Still confused? Yes.

So I have….nothing? I wasted several hours of my day and several hundred of my dollars to find out that I do NOT have a blood clot.

Well, at least I can hopefully get over those nightmares about how I’m going to manage after my stroke.
And hopefully the leg hot flashes will also diminish when I stop stressing out about it. How do you spell psy-cho-so-mat-ic?

Now I have to wait 364 days until my birthday

December 30, 2010 / / 4 Comments

Birthdays are Great. Really! Even if you have a often forgotten right after Christmas birthday, it’s still a wonderful “make you feel special” day.

Ryan showed me this comic a few days before my birthday, and I had to laugh because it’s so true.

So often the birthday just gets forgotten in the Christmas hype, or people give one present that is for both Christmas and Birthday.

So I’ve learned to lower my expectations. I threw myself a big bash for my 40th birthday, and now that we’ve done that, I’m ok if I don’t have parties. But I woke to breakfast made by the family! Even Ryan, who hates waking up early, set an alarm and got up at the crack of 7:30 to make me breakfast. He even bought bacon and pancake mix the night before, so that we would have some! That’s going above and beyond the call of duty, if you ask me. Megan made me an omelet, and it was a beautiful breakfast!

The kids painted or made presents or coupons for me, which is cute. I love coupons, really. Megan brought me a handful of candy and a coupon for a free smoothie that her friend had given her for Christmas. Blatant regifting? Really? Fine. At least she thought enough to share stuff that she knew she was probably not going to use.

Then I got on the computer to find over 40 emails of birthday greetings! Say what you want about the evils of Facebook, but there’s nothing better for birthday reminders! It meant so much that so many people would take even a small minute to write a birthday greeting on my wall. And it really isn’t hard or doesn’t take much time at all, but it was wonderful. All throughout the day, there were more and more greetings. I felt VERY much loved!

Even though it was snowy and yucky weather, I took the kids out to lunch at Iceberg. We used gift cards they had gotten for Christmas and I got a free shake for my birthday! Woot! We also stopped and picked up two movies from Redbox using my codes I got when Groupon was doing a three movies for $1 deal. Score! So, after our lunch, we came home and watched the Sorcerers Apprentice. The kids were a little ticked that we had to keep stopping it so mom could answer the phone for her birthday greetings, but since it was my birthday, they couldn’t complain.

The best surprise was the package that came to the door. The box was from Hollywood Mega Store, addressed to me. Inside was a note that said “Happy Birthday Paige”, and there was sucha fun surprise!

megaphone clapboard

My own “director” megaphone and clapboard! Such a great thing, since I’m now knee deep in Road Show preparations (I’ll tell you all about that in a future post). Who could have sent this, I wondered? I called Ryan, but he claimed to know nothing about it. Who else would be so thoughtful and cute? There on the box, it was addressed to Paige Erickson and Scott Coleman right under it. My brother? My brother isn’t cute and original like that (no offense, Scott), is he? When I emailed to ask him if that was really from him, he said, “Yep that was from us. I had a flash of creativity.” Well, I’m impressed!

And I LOVE it!! I’m going to take that to rehearsals and yell at the kids! So Excited!

When Ryan came home from work, he was bearing gifts. An Ice Cream cake from ColdStone Creamery, for one. Yummers! He was also a little put out because he went all the way to a certain store only to find out they were closed until Jan 3. Sorry about that, dear. But there were presents, and not just the ladle I bought for myself the day before from Ikea. New breadpans, a cooking thermometer even (I have been wanting one of those!) And he planned to take me out to dinner, since it was my birthday. I made Ramen noodles for the kids, and even though I said I was fine to stay home (HUGE BLIZZARD going on!), he insisted, so we drove the one mile to Blue Lemon for dinner. I had a coupon, too, so that was even better. And Hooray for Blue Lemon. They took my buy one get one free coupon, so my dinner was free, AND, when I asked what they would do for birthdays, he said I could pick any treat from the counter. I chose the carrot cake! Most places would let you chose to use either the coupon or get the free birthday dessert, but they let me do both!! Hooray! Because even if it’s my birthday, I’m still cheap, you know.

When we came home, we were too full to even eat the special cake he brought home, so we’ll save it for later. The kids were all watching Lord of the Rings, but I slipped upstairs with my other free redbox movie and watched Eat, Pray Love in my room, in my bed.

So, it was a great birthday! People remembered me, I got cards from a friend and my mom (thanks, Mom! Mom always remembers, even before there was facebook to remind her), and I got many, many birthday greetings. I felt loved and special on my special day! And isn’t that what it’s all about?

Today I ordered a couple cute things from Coldwater Creek. Right now everything on their entire site is 50% off, even clearance. So, I picked out some things from the clearance, then it’s half off of that, and I used my groupon deal from a few weeks back where I paid $25 for a $50 gift certificate, and, since I have a Coldwater creek Visa, they always send me a $15 gift card for my birthday. So, after using all those, I ended up paying $14 (plus the $25 for the groupon deal) for a skirt, a jacket, a dress and a scarf. Not bad for $39 out of pocket, I would say. So that will just extend the presents into the dreary January!

Yes, there was too much snow, and there’s STILL too much snow, but we’ll try to make the best of it. And bundle up ’cause it’s COLD out there.

Now, if we could just get out of our neighborhood, one of our children REALLY wants to go ice skating.

It’s time for giving

December 23, 2010 / / 4 Comments

This year for Christmas I wanted to GIVE more. I organized Ryan’s family party and hosted so that I could have the whole family participate in the Sub for Santa program. Instead of giving gifts to the cousins, we would give our gifts to families in need. I asked for 6 children, so that each family could give to one child. The united way asked us to provide two clothing items, a toy and a book for each child. We were assigned two families, one with four kids, and one with two kids. We chose the 3 year old from the Brazilian family, since Ryan could call and talk to them on the phone better than us English speakers. When we had the family party, everyone brought their presents for their assigned child. Originally the mom of the four kids had asked that the presents not be wrapped, but then after everyone had already dropped off the presents, changed her mind. So Natalie and I had a little wrapping fest.

Yesterday was delivery day. We packed all the presents into big black garbage bags and hauled them to the car. Both families were in Provo, so we set out to deliver. We went to the first family. Not wanting to overwhelm them with all of us going in, Ryan and Cole took the gifts. Without giving away too much information, it was a family of 6, with two tween kids and two teenagers, one of whom is autistic. The dad is disabled. They live in a small dingy condo in Provo. This was maybe the only Christmas they were going to get. I am sure they are going to enjoy the skateboards, clothes, and microscope sets, among other things.

When they delivered the gifts, the family was oh so appreciative, and gave us a wonderful thank you card and a plate of yummy sugar cookies. It made us feel so great. Really, I wished the whole family could experience the joy with us, but when I asked if any of them wanted to deliver the gifts, no one wanted to. I wished we could have done more, actually. We didn’t get anything for the parents–that was not required, but we kind of felt like they should get something, too. Before we went to the second family, Ryan suggested we go and pick up a ham. So the whole family traipsed through Maceys grocery store and picked out a ham for the next family. It was quite weird shopping with the whole family, let me tell you. We also got an extra coloring book and crayons, for our little 3 year old. Then we went to Wymount to find this family. As the kids came up the steps, they invited us all in. “‘Come, sit down,” they asked us, and so we did. We ended up talking to this family for about 1/2 an hour. They had sent their little girl with a friend, and their baby was sleeping, so we didn’t get to meet the kids. They are a little family from Brazil who are here while Dad completes the MBA program at BYU. He is here on scholarship and a generous grant, which as long as he serves in the LDS church and goes back to Brazil when he is finished with his degree, he won’t have to pay back the loan. He speaks English very well, but his wife only understands a little bit of English. Ryan did quite well keeping up. His Portugese is still quite good (much better than my German skills). They were so gracious and thankful, and it was a wonderful experience. They also gave us some treats and a picture that the girls had colored.

As we were leaving, the kids were talking about how fun that was, and that we FOR SURE had to do this again next year! I’m sure we will do this again. If the extended family does not want to do it, maybe we’ll sponsor a family with only one or two kids by ourselves next year.

It’s such a great reminder that Christmas isn’t about receiving. It’s about the giving. It’s about remembering and celebrating the birth of our Savior, in Bethlehem in a stable so many years ago.


It’s a time for giving

November 30, 2010 / / 3 Comments

I wanted to do something for the homeless this season. So many people are homeless and really need help, especially in these cold, cold months.

The Road Home is a private non-profit social service agency that assists individuals and families experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake County and along the Wasatch Front. Our mission is to help people step out of homelessness and back into our community.

Originally established in 1923 to assist stranded travelers, the Road Home has grown to address a spectrum of needs that people experiencing homelessness encounter as they work to restore their lives. In addition to operating the largest shelter in Utah, the Road Home has developed a comprehensive housing program that helps people move into housing as quickly as possible.

I looked on line to see what kind of supplies they accepted, and I found out that they really take ANYTHING except for furniture. They are especially in need of common items like socks, clothing, sleeping bags, blankets, shoes, and personal hygiene products.

For Family Home Evening one night, I told the kids about my goal to provide some warm things for the homeless, and they jumped right on board. While I looked for blankets and coats, the kids looked through their toys, stuffed animals, and books for things they could give. I was most surprised by John, my youngest. He was VERY generous in his giving. He brought book after book and stuffed animal after stuffed animal. Even some books I didn’t think we should give away, he said, “No, Mom, I want those kids to have this book. I don’t read it anymore.” They gathered three big bags of stuff they wanted to give to those kids. When we added the blankets, towels, and coats, and pillows, our donations filled the back of my car.

Originally I wanted the kids to go with me to donate this stuff, but there just wasn’t a good time. I ended up taking everything up to the road home before a rehearsal, when I was going downtown anyway. It was quick and easy. I just pulled in and someone came out and helped me unload. Kind of like when you drop off donations to Deseret Industries. The lady there thanked me and said that they would use ALL of these items. As I drove away, I saw the people lined up at the door of the shelter. The people who were there for a hot meal, or some warm clothes.

It was 12 degrees when I drove my kids to school this morning. Twelve. I cannot imagine how in the world people can survive when they have no place to go at night. When life has not worked out the way they wanted and they end up homeless. I hope that they can find shelter and a warm place to sleep, and I hope that our coats and blankets help to warm them, and that the toys and clothes the kids gave also help to make some child happy.

If you would like to do something to help others stay warm, and also warm your own heart, you might also like to donate to the Road Home,or a homeless shelter in your area.

Grateful

November 25, 2010 / / 1 Comment

I hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and those who you love! I can’t even list all that I am grateful for, but I’d like to start with my wonderful husband, my fabulous and talented children, my awesome parents and my brother and sisters, as well as the incredible family that I married into. I love them like my own family. I’ve been blessed way more than I deserve, and I am so thankful for all those who have sacrificed so that I can have the life I do. I have a warm place to live, food enough to feed my family and share with others, and the freedom to practice the religion I believe in. Truly blessed and truly grateful.

I’d like to share one of my favorite songs on gratitude.

I have a wonderful family, and I loved spending time with them today. Thanksgiving was truly a party, with volleyball and basketball before and after the big meal. The food was plentiful and delicious, and we all had a fabulous time.

We even made these turkeys yesterday.

They took forever, and I should have used my own frosting instead of frosting from a can. Now I know! But it was a fun project to do with my kids.

I also made mountains of mashed potatoes, a huge jello salad, and this easy pumpkin crumble. I didn’t cook a turkey, but I do have one in the freezer that I’ll have to cook up in the next month or so, just so we can have leftovers.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday!

Boiler Boiler Toil and trouble? No, that doesn’t sound quite right.

November 23, 2010 / / 2 Comments

When we built this house nearly 10 years ago, Ryan did a lot of the work himself. He wanted to install radiant floor heating, so he laid all the pipe in the concrete floors.

We talked about how someday we would buy a boiler and then hook up all this orange pipe and have warm floors. But boilers are expensive, and so we did not purchase one. I kept bugging Ryan about getting started on finishing that basement, and he said he wasn’t going to work on the basement when it was so cold down there, and I said let’s buy the dumb boiler, etc., etc.

Well, last winter we decided it was about darn time to buy the boiler. There was a healthy rebate offered, so we purchased the boiler. And there it sat, nice and cozy in it’s box. Other projects and Ryan’s heavy traveling schedule were always in the way.

At the end of summer, I had the furnace inspected, and they discovered a crack. They recommended that I have them fix it, or NOT run that furnace. Well, it was time to decide…are we going to get that boiler hooked up, or do we fix the furnace? (We did end up fixing the furnace, but called in the guys who originally installed it, so it wasn’t so expensive.)

Ryan and his brother-in-law have been working many long hours to get things hooked up in the basement. They’ve moved things around, unhooked the water heaters (which were leaking, by the way. It seems water heaters do NOT last more than 10 years. Many of our neighbors have recently experienced flooding due to water heaters leaking.), and there’s been lots of banging. Some nights I went to wash my face and found that we had no water. Or no hot water. There have been many mornings when I went to shower and was met by much sputtering and splashing and COLD water before the air in the line was forced out and the hot water finally came out. And the expense! I mistakenly thought that buying the boiler was it. I thought you just bought the boiler and “hook it up”. I forgot about all those many many orange pipes that have to go somewhere.

It’s been about a month of working and buying more and more parts, but on Sunday I went into my bathroom (the one with the coldest floors EVER) and I thought, “I must be crazy. The floor feels warm.” Could it be? Could it finally be working?

In the basement, it looks like this.

See all those orange pipes and that gorgeous manifold? Isn’t it pretty?

I’ve been walking around barefoot just enjoying the warmth on my feet. It’s not all evened out quite yet, so there are a lot of warm spots, and it feels wonderful. Of course, there are cold spots, too. Although yesterday my family room was 75 degrees and I had to open a couple of windows. Eventually it will all be regulated and hopefully won’t be getting too WARM, but it’s SO FANTASTIC!

Today there are forecasts of a huge blizzard that is hitting our area, but I keep thinking, “the weather outside is frightful, but our floors are so delightful”.

So, a big thank you to Chuck and Ryan, who have worked many long hours to get this thing set up. I’ll be enjoying my warm floors for many years to come. And if I get cold, I may just have to lay down on the wood floor to warm up.

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