We watched some home movies last night, and seeing Ryan, John said, “Dad! You kept your bald!”
I didn’t even know that was an option.
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I am thankful for so many things.
When I look outside I can see the beautiful trees and grass and see the lovely sunsets in the evening.
I’m thankful for all the animals that live in the world, but I’m especially thankful for my pets.
I’m thankful that we have a home to live in, and we have enough food and water to keep us healthy.
I’m thankful that we have fun things to do, like paint pictures, color, do crafts, and that I have friends to play with.
I’m thankful for my primary teachers, and for the songs we learn in primary that remind me of Jesus.
I’m thankful for my family. They are always there to help me, and they love me. We have fun together.
I’m thankful that Heavenly Father and Jesus love me enough to bless me with all of these things.
I know that I am a child of God, and that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me. I know that Jesus Christ is our older brother and our Savior, and that he loves us, too.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
This is Jenna’s talk for Primary today. She helped me write it, and I think we did a darn good job. These are things I’m thankful for, too.
Where do I even start? There’s been so much going on this week that I haven’t had any time to blog, or even compose a well thought out sentence. But I’ll try. For you, the faithful reader.
REFLECTIONS–With 140 entries, and having done the PTA reflections contest 5 times before, you would think I would have been more organized and paced myself. Not so. I ended up with hours and hours or work to do, in this, the last week. Ugh. I called upon my neighbors and friends to help, and they did. I called my friend on Thursday and said I was having a breakdown and needed some help, and she willingly stepped up and called the parents of the winners so I wouldn’t have to to do it. My family spent Monday night helping Mom with reflections. We had a movie night and watched all the film and video entries, then stuffed 100 prize bags with Nerds, del taco coupons, Wendy’s coupons, Boondocks coupons, etc. until we ran out of bags. I called another friend and asked if she had more cello bags, and lo and behold she did, so I didn’t have to make a run to the craft store. Later we stuffed 45 more with other coupons and prizes.
But Friday morning, with the help of Ryan, the PTA president and two of my best friends, we got the assembly set up, and made it through. There were some glitches, like I had the wrong age group on a child’s certificate, therefore it was on the wrong table. Some kids were confused that they were winners, but they weren’t moving on to the council level. Why? Well, because I like to give out as many medals as I can afford, even though not ALL of them are moving on. I should have been more clear on that fact. But all in all, I’m glad it’s over (well, it’s not OVER until I get all my paperwork done, get entry forms signed on the few that don’t have it done already, and deliver all the winning entries to the council person, but it’s Mostly over).
BELL CONCERT–We rehearsed on Tuesday, had a dress rehearsal with an audience on Wed, and then had a concert last night. We have another one tonight, too. But last night’s concerts was FANTASTIC!! The tabernacle was completely full! We had packed the house. We felt like rock stars! It was amazing. No, we weren’t perfect and still made mistakes, but we did very well. We hope as we play that we convey not just our love for the music, but also our testimonies of the Gospel and our love for our Savior Jesus Christ. We were set apart as musical missionaries, and our hope is that we can share the Gospel through our music. Our director always tells us to wear our testimonies on our faces, and that is what we strive to do. I can only hope that tonight’s concert goes as well.
WEIRD SYMPTOMS–Thursday at around 4:30, I began to feel like I had a canker on my tongue. Dang! I thought. I don’t have time for a canker. Within a half an hour, my tongue was covered with red bumps, and so was the inside of my bottom lip. What the heck? Thinking I may be having an allergic reaction to something ~but what, I don’t know~, I looked for a benadryl or antihistamine. In my whole box of medicines I could not find any benadryl or even generic for benadryl. I found a “Dayhist”, which is like “Tavist”, and I took that. Non-drowsy? I don’t think so. By then it was time for me to go to my Book Club dinner, and even though I was worried about my progressively swelling mouth, I went. My mouth felt like it was on fire. Or like I had taken a chili pepper and smeared it all over my tongue and inside of my cheeks. I told my friend in the car about my troubles, and warned her that if I stopped breathing, to take me straight to the hospital for a dose of epi. “What have you eaten?” she asked me.
“Peanut butter crackers….I had a salad from Kneaders, do you think that was it? And I had a flu shot this morning.”
“Flu shot? Are you allergic to eggs?”
No. Never have been.
I was a little disappointed that no one at my book club had any knowledge of strange mouth rash. Usually when we get this group together, someone has had or knows someone who’s had experience with whatever it is we’re discussing. This time, they just looked at me and said, “That’s weird.” Thanks, gals.
I enjoyed the dinner as much as I could with hardly any working taste buds, but I was quite dozy, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would normally have.
When I got home, I called our local doctor (neighbor), but he didn’t call me back. As I went to sleep, I told Ryan, “If you come up and I’m not breathing, take me to the hospital.” Always the comforting one, he said, “If I come up and you’re not breathing, it’s probably too late.” Thanks.
After a night of thrashing about and having bad dreams, I awoke to a less swolen, less inflamed mouth. Now it feels like it does AFTER you’ve had cankers and it’s getting better, but it’s still raw.
How weird is that? Of course if I look up “mouth rash reaction to flu shot?” I get all kinds of horror stories of people who’ve had TERRIBLE side effects from a flu shot, and I decide I’m not going to read any more. Maybe it was the flu shot, maybe it was stress, maybe it’s some new allergy I’m just developing. Who knows?
AND TO TOP OFF THE WEEK– Last night I was just about to leave for my concert. I was dressed up with makeup and hair done, and as I came downstairs I could smell an awful smell. What is that smell? I said aloud. Then I saw it. Someone had tracked in dog poop on their shoe, and had walked from the back door to the bathroom, then through the kitchen. AAARRGGH! I enlisted Ryan, and he found the offending shoe (along with it’s unlucky owner) and put her to work cleaning it up. I gave her the mop with the disposable pads, as that’s the easiest and most sanitary way to clean up such a mess. But me? I was out the door. Have fun with that, folks!
Thankfully, they DID take care of it, and there was no offensive oder in the kitchen when I came back home.
THE BIG GAME Today the family is doing a bunch of clean up work, before the big game. We’ve got lawn to mow, Christmas lights to put up, and a garage to clean. The inside of the house is not much better, with disasters in almost every room of the house and a HUGE pile of laundry to tackle. So much for “resting up.” I’ve got my concert tonight, too. But the real event of the day is the BIG BYU vs. UTAH game. I’m sure that’s what most everyone I know will be watching this afternoon.
But we’ve made it through most of the week, and although it’s been rough, we’ve survived.
Let’s hope the Cougars can say the same! BYU!!! Go Cougars!!!
Jenna asked me yesterday if we could get out the nativity set and play with it. So, down to the basement we went to look for the nativity set. We found both the Fontanini set
and the veggie tales set.
Normally I would have said that it’s too early to get out the Nativity set. It’s the middle of November, for heaven’s sake! But Christmas seems to be starting early this year. Our neighbors have their yard and house COMPLETELY decked out and TURNED on, and they are not the only ones. This week is our bell choir Christmas concert. 
We’ve been practicing Christmas music since…well, since July, actually. So, if you want to get yourself into a Christmas mood, you’ve got three chances this week to attend this concert this week. I’ve also been buying Christmas presents here and there, so I’m thinking about gifts. On Saturday we gave our Christmas gift to my sister and her family. Yes, it’s a month early, but it’s always the right time for giving, isn’t it? We hope they can use their gift for a long long time. I’ve been listening to Christmas music for a while, but the kids for some reason think that we shouldn’t listen to Christmas music in the car. Whatever. I think they were just ticked off that we wouldn’t let them watch a movie on our short ride from Pleasant Grove.
So, I say, bring on the Christmas cheer. I know we haven’t had Thanksgiving yet, and I’m not pulling out the tree and the decorations or anything, I’m just trying to prepare a little bit. I’m not trying to skip Thanksgiving, either. I LOVE Thanksgiving. We were going to go down to visit my brother in sunny Arizona for Thanksgiving, but that’s off now. So we’ll stay here and enjoy the time off from school and work. We’ll get together with extended family and have a wonderful day. And we’ll eat sweet potatos with marshmallows, thank you very much.
And if you’ve noticed that the blogging has been sparse lately, you are correct. And I’m so sorry. I’m sorry if you’ve rushed over here daily to see what kind of shenanigans we’re up to and all you see is my four day old post about spilled milk. No, I didn’t go to SanDiego this weekend with my husband or my friends. And no, I’m not at all offended that two of my friends went to SanDiego this weekend and no one even invited me to go along. I did have a friend invite us out to party with them this weekend, and I, brilliant person that I am, went to the wrong place and then wondered where they were. Oh well, maybe we’ll meet up NEXT time.
Well, I’ve been kind of swamped lately, and until I climb out of this mountain of work, I won’t be blogging much. We hosted a baby shower here on Saturday, and I was busy getting the house ready for that, (and speaking of babies, my sister had her baby on Friday–Congratulations, Chrissy!!) and I was trying to take advantage of the Oprah/Snapfish deal, and I spent hours downloading and then uploading pictures and arranging my book, only to have my kids close the window to play a game, then then arrange and arrange again and then them NOT credit me with the $29.99 for the book once I placed the order. I’m going to have to call them about that one). I’m just trying to tell you all that I’ve been busy. And I’m literally surrounded with piles of reflections entries in my office. A pile here, a box there, some prizes there, a box of medals there (medals that I ordered engraved, and when they came they were noticeably NOT engraved, so I’ve got to call about that one), a case of candy over there. I’ve got to get all reflections done by Thursday night, as our assembly is scheduled for this Friday. I’ve also got rehearsals or concerts or other obligations every night this week (except for tonight, and I think the theme of our FHE tonight will be…help Mom with reflections), so blogging is kind of low on my list.
So– wish me luck, send good thoughts, send food, send money, send help. Whatever. We’ll get through this and then we’ll get to blog all about it.
Note to self: Seven gallons of milk DO NOT fit on the top shelf of the fridge. Even if they are on sale for 99 cents a gallon as part of the Smith’s grand opening week sale. They just don’t fit.
Note to Ryan: We probably need to move the fridge out from it’s cubbyhole tonight and clean underneath it. Unless we enjoy that rancid horrible curdled milk smell.
jocund
[jok-uhnd, joh-kuhnd]
–adjective
cheerful; merry; gay; blithe; glad: a witty and jocund group.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME jocound to help, benefit, please, delight
My fourth grader had to come up with a sentence for “Jocund”, and I didn’t even know what it meant. I had to look it up. Is that a word that’s in your vocabulary?
Last week, as I walked out of the house and into the garage, I saw a tiny streak of black running through the garage. I dropped whatever I was holding (probably a bag of garbage) and jumped back into the house.
No. No. Please don’t let that be what I think it was! No No NO! Because what I saw was either a mouse or a very large, very fast spider. I was hoping for the spider.
I went back inside to the supposed safety of the house and informed my husband that I was pretty sure I had just seen a mouse, and we would either have to get a cat, clean out the garage, or move.
You may think I’m overreacting on this little issue, but I’m not. Let me take you back a few years and fill you in on our history with the disgusting little creatures.
(Now the fog appears as we go to this flashback in time. Or, we could just have the words “ten years earlier” like they do all the time on Heroes.)
About ten years ago, when we only had two little kids, we decided to up and move our little family to Illinois. Ryan had a consulting job with Illinois power, and we thought it would be an adventure to move to the midwest for a year or so while he did the job. Plus, there were some pretty nice financial compensations to entice us to move, so we decided to go. Since we weren’t planning on staying there for very long, we looked for a renter for our house. My cousin had just gotten married, and he and his wife decided to rent our house while we were gone. We gave them a good deal on the rent, and they didn’t mind that we left our stuff in the unfinished basement. It made the move a lot simpler to not have to worry about moving our food storage, unopened wedding gifts, boxes of book, holiday items and the like. We packed those things into the basement, and packed up the rest of the stuff and took it with us. In fact, we packed our CAR into the large truck, then they built a wall, and we packed the rest of the stuff in the second half, to tell you the truth.
The job out there actually only lasted 7 or 8 months, and then it was time to move back again. I’m sure my cousin wasn’t too thrilled with moving out of the house, but they knew it was just a temporary thing, and they graciously moved out so that we could move back in.
Once we got ourselves settled back in our own home, we realized we had some unwelcome visitors. It started with some suspicions whenever we’d go down to get something out of the storage area. There it was, the tell tale mouse poops on the shelf. Then we’d discover the entire box of granola bars–empty. Sugar and flour strewn across the shelf. Living in a dream world, we hoped that there had been mice, but they had all left. Ryan set some traps. When I saw one of the creatures run across the floor, I had a little caniption fit.
More and more traps were set, until Ryan had trapped and killed at least a dozen mice in the basement. He also discovered their secret entry way into the house–the foundation zigged where the framing zagged, and there was an open overhang where the tiny troublesome creatures could easily gain access to the basement, and therefore the rest of the house. That corner was fixed, more traps were set, and eventually we felt like the house was livable once again.
Back to the present–I am NOT going through that again. When I complained to my dear hubby, he informed me that HE was the one setting all the traps and disposing of the deceased critters, and I did none of the dirty work. But I had to LIVE in the house that was infested with rodents! With my little kids. I lived in fear that one of those disgusting things would bite us, or we would all catch the Hanta virus and die! And NO, I’m not overreacting. So, when I discovered that streak of fur, it was like reliving the nightmare. And in order to not let that happen again, I suggest we get a cat. Or borrow a cat. Or rent a cat. Something with a cat.
Of course, that idea doesn’t go over real well with Ryan, who is allergic to cats, and he doesn’t believe that I could get an OUTSIDE cat and not let it come in the house. But I’ve talked to lots of people who say that cats CAN live outside, and they won’t die. Besides, if we don’t name it, we won’t get attached to it, and then if it decides to run away or dies, we won’t be all that sad, right?
So there you have it. Clean the garage, set traps, get a cat, or we could just move.
My daring husband set some traps in the garage on Saturday and caught ONE mouse that day. He assures me that it was just one, and the mouse problem is all over, and I don’t have to live in fear and not go in the garage anymore. But I don’t believe that it could only be one mouse, and I’m going to check into borrowing a cat while he’s at work. Cat play dates. Only we don’t have a cat for your cat to play with, only mice in the field. Or the garage.
I encouraged my kids to enter the contest for a new musical instrument from a local music store. I had to help some of them, but Cole did his own.
He wrote:
I should get a new instrument because as a flautist I am never taken seriously. If I could get a piccolo, then my peers and my family would take me more seriously. If I got a piccolo then I would be able to further myself as a musician even more than I would have been able to with only my flute. If I had a piccolo, then I would be able to reach new heights in my musical career. Without a piccolo, I may have to live in a cardboard box. With a piccolo, I may get a music scholarship.
Well, now. That’s a winning entry if I’ve ever seen one. Maybe.
Cole is actually with the band on their tour right now. They got to march in the Main Street Parade at Disneyland, go to the beach, and attend workshops. Today they are recording in a sound studio at Disneyland. It sounds like fun. Although I’ve only heard from him once. On Wednesday night. I think he forgot about his instructions to “call me every day.” Hmmmm. Well, let’s hope he’s having fun.
There are a lot of things that could be getting you down today–that nagging cold, your childrens’ grades, the mortgage payment, that PTA assignment, or the state of the economy. Well, all is not doom and gloom, my friends!
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this number from a ward talent show.
Doesn’t that just add a little sparkle to your day? I hope so.
I just wish that ALL ward parties were this entertaining.
Did you get your Albertson’s ad in the paper yesterday? Well, they’ve got some GREAT deals going on this week. If you buy $30 of the featured products, you’ll get $15 back to spend on your next purchase. Then you can use that $15 to turn around and get another $30 in food, and use the $15 on your next shopping trip.
(Just make sure you get EXACTLY the items it says in the ad, or else you’ll be like me wondering where your coupons are, after your carefully calculated groceries ring up for more than they were supposed to. Just saying.)
And then you can donate the extras to the Food Bank. The scouts are doing an emergency food drive on Saturday, because all of the Utah Food bank locations are dangerously low. When our youth did a food drive a few weeks ago, we learned some surprising facts about hunger in Utah.
# Currently 1 in 10 Utahns live in poverty. A family of four living in poverty makes just over $20,600 a year to cover health care expenses, shelter, food and other household expenses (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003).
# Utah is ranked 5th in the nation for the highest rate of food insecurity. More than 345,700 individuals are at risk of missing or skipping a meal due to a lack of resources (US. Department of Agriculture, Household Food Security in the United States, 2006).
# Over 134,000 Utahns receive food stamps, which are not even half of those who are eligible (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2005).
# In Utah, over 63,000 people a month eat dinner at a soup kitchen (Utahns Against Hunger, 2006).
# 1 in 8 children in Utah live in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2005 Annual Social and Economic Supplement).
So, if you can stock up, save, and then give, it’s good for all of us.
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