Sunday

I just have to say that I have a pround moma moment. Elizabth invited her friend to church on Sunday and his partens said that he could go. He had fun at church and wants to go every week. I hope that he will be able to share with his family what he learned and mabye make his family life better. His father and older brother are into drugs and some times they sell them to. The poor kid has not chance at life. He lives with his mother, father, aunt, little brother and sister. I see him hanging with the aunt most of the time. I hope that he will contune to come to church with us and that his family will want to learn and hopefully make his family life better. I am glad that we had all those talks about telling your friends about church and she decided that she would ask him to come to church with us. That helps me to know that I need to do the same thing. I need to open my moth and I need to share the gosple too. The "book" is blue and the church is true!

Cookies

I thought that I am going to post all of the things that I bake. I tell Issac that I invented another cookie recipe and he says that I didn't invent it because I didn't get a patent for it so I told him that I am going to blog about them.I have been cooking sence I was 6 years old. I know what tasts good together and what does not. I hope that you enjoy these as much as I do. Chocolate Peanut Butter Delights 1 cup white and brown sugar ¾ cup Crisco 2 tablespoons water 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 ¾ cups wheat flour 1 teaspoon salt ½ cup rolled oats 2 teaspoons Baking soda ¼ cup toffee pieces ½ cup caramels ½ cup chocolate chips ½ teaspoon baking powder ½ cup peanut butter chips Preheat oven to 350 degrees . Mix sugars Crisco and water until smooth. Add eggs and mix well. Add vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, flour, and rolled oats mix well. Add caramels, toffee pieces, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips. Cooke them on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes OR you can make them into cookies and bake them for 10-12 minutes. When they come out of the oven pour about 2 cups of chocolate chips and when they are melted spread them with a knife. Then drizzle with peanut butter frosting. I put them in the freezer for about 1 hour so the topping would have time to settle. Frosting: 3 tablespoons peanut butter 1 cups powder sugar 4-6 tablespoons of milk I am excited to have Thanksgiving so I can spend time with my sister and her family they are going to be staying with us. We will be going to my brtohers house and having the celebration there. We are going to be making some Thanksgiving hats for the kids. I am going to teach the kids about our reltive Govnernor William Bradford he was the guy that did the first Thanksgiving. It was fun to read about him and how it all came about. He was a very religous man and would read the bible. I am greatful for him becaue I think with out him I would not have become a member of the Church Of Jeasus Christ Of Latter day saints. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and remember to give thanks.

Keep On Going

Well I have decied that I need to take a look at my life and see what I need to change so that I can be happy again. In a book called On Eath As It Is In Heaven Elder Holland said this " we need to be able to put everything upon the alter and walk away". I am trying to do this I have been praying a lot that I will make the right choices in my life. I am trying to have fun times with my kids. I am trying to make the time that I spend with my kids more meaning full. I need to look at the postive things in my life and not focus on the negative. That will make me more happy. The past three weeks I have been working at night and so I have not been spending as much time with my hubbie as I should have. I will be glad to be back on days for the next three weeks. Then we will be able to spend more much needed time togather. I have been feeling so tired lately with all that is going on. I have decied that I am going to exercise Monday-Friday and that way my body will not hurt as much. I also think that it give you more energy too. I am going to keep pushing my selfe at home and try to get more work done. Next Monday I will be going in for some tests to see why my hands are numb all the time. They are going to shock my arms and then stick a needle in the mussles to see how the blood flow is. I am not looking forward to having this done because I have had it done in my leggs and I wanted to cry as a matter of fact I did cry. They are going to drug me so I will be able to handel the test. Issac will be there with me which I am glad for. With my nurves working over time that is why it hurts so bad to have the test done. I hope to get some answers so I can start feeling better. If it is what they think it is I will have to have surgery to repair it. I am not looking forward to having surgry, but I do want to feel better. I hate not being able to do things that most people can do. There are times that my arms get so week that I can't finish what I am doing. I also have a hard time opening things. I have been waring braces to bed every night to see if that will help. I just hope and pray that I will be able to get some answers. I have been trying to work really hard so I can get my full raise. We have went up 20 points in 6 weeks (that hardley happends). That is so good we are no longer at the bottom of the pack we have moved up to the middle of the pack so that is good. I really do enjoy working at the Olive Garden. I honestly do not know what I would do if I didn't work. The kids are doing great! Elizabeth is recovering great from her surgery she even told me today that she was glad that she got to have surgery. Crazy girl! but I still love her. I do the reading minutes for her class and she has the most reading minutes for her class. Alex has had to be put on three differnt medications to stop him from being so conjested. His dr. thinks that he has acid reflux. His tummy hurts so his throute will burn and then he will get a runny nose. He is still enjoying school and I think that he will have the same teacher this next year. Rebecca has alergies so he has to take a Clartin every day she is getting better at taking them. I hope that one day she will get fater at doing things instead of taking a long time to do things. I hope you all are having a great day!

My Children

I have been having some time this week becuase I had surgery. My kids went to my mother in laws house to spend 5 days with her. She is spoiling them rotten, but that is ok that is what grandmas do. I have not really taken the time latley to talk about them and ay how I feel about them. I love them all they are so special to me. Alex I do not know why, but I have decied that I like to call him Pedro and he likes to tell me that, that is not his name. He is so cute and has some quirky things about him that make up who he is. He is very shy, but most of it is because I think that he wants to be in charge of the situation that he is in. He is getting much better though. He LOVES going to scouts and his leader makes him talk loud so they all can hear what he has to say. He loves to build things and is very creative. He is good to make sure that Becca is not left out of anything and some of the time he will do her work so he will be able to do something else with his sisters. I have to tell him that she needs to lean how to do those things by her self or she will never learn how. He is really good at reading and will somethimes read to Becca. In fact he had the higest reading minuites in his class for October. He is beging to get some ideas about the church and likes it when we go to Sharlees once a moth and he gets to give the FHE lesson he gets really happy. Last month we were in charge of doing it and he wanted to be in charge of reading the book "You are Special" (great book if you have not read it you should). It was long and I thought he should not read it all he got really mad and wanted to read it so I decided that we could take turns reading it. That made him happy. I told him that he would have to read it loud if he wanted to read it. He did ok. He is not so good at counting money though so we need to work on that with him so he will not become like me and get behind in math like I did. He is also having a hard time when he has to carrie the one over he forgets to add that in. Elizabeth She only likes to be called by her full name and she will make sure that she tells you that just in case you forgot. She is a great friend to all and likes to have everyone at school be her friend. She gets sad if she is not liked by all. She was chosen for an award at school she got to eat Chick Fila at school. Her teacher said that she was putting "First Things First" by helping other students do the monkey bars the whole recess insted on playing. She was super stoked about that. She loves to draw, color and write stories. She likes to make things for you and give them to you. She was really happy because for the month of October she had the higest reading minuites for her class. She gets mad when she does not get 100% on her math tests. She is also really good at spelling and I have been forgetting to pratice with her and she is still getting 100% on them. I think that she is a great help to her teacher. She seems so much taller than most of the kids in her class. She looks so BIG compaired to her desk. The desk looks so tinny. She will be a great leader someday and I think if she goes on a mission like she said that she wants to she will do a great job. She would love to take dance or piano lessons. If I had the extra money I would let her do it I keep telling her that I will let her do it when we have money. I have also taught her a few dance moves and I think that has helped her for now. Becca She is still SUPER SLOW with EVERYTHING I know that I was like that some times with my mom I do not know how she put up with me. Sometimes I want to spank her. It should not take someone 4 hours to put away there laundry. She has a hard time brushing her teeth. She does not like the tooth past no matter what kind I buy I have bought 4 differnt kinds so now she just has to use the kind that there is in the coupboard. I have had to pin her to the floor a few times to brush her teeth. She is learning her numbers and how to read and loves to read to me. I will admit that I am not the best at reading with her because of work, but that has changed so I will be able to help her more. She too like to color and draw. She will cry real easy over things and I have to tell her that she needs to not cry. I am trying not to treat her like she is youngest so she will not act like a baby somethimes I think it is working. I am glad that she was sent to our family. She is a very sweet girl. Like Alex she is shy, but just not as bad. I hope that you are all having a good December and will remeber the "reason for the season". We were able to go to temple square last weekend to see the lights and ride the train. It was lots of fun. We heard the Luke 2 storie with a nativity. It was awsome!

When Life Throws You a Curve Ball Sometimes You Cry!

So Issac and I got insurance at the begining of the year and about a month ago I finally called my OB to see if he would take my insurance and they did. I was so happy because I didn't want to have to search high and low to find another dr. He had delivered all of my kids and I wanted to keep seeing him. He jokely got after me and said that he wanted me to go and see and ENT about my Nodule on my right thyroid. I decied that he was right so I decied that I had better schdule to see the Dr. he ordered me to have an untra sound done so I was thinking if I could see him then I would be able to go to St. Marks Hospitle and have it done. My dr. also found a lump in my right brest so he suggested a dr that I should go and see so I go and see him and get told when I get there that I will not be able to have surgery with him, but that I could still see the dr. he orders an untra sound for me to so I schdule them at the same hospitle for the same day. I had waited a week and then I go into have the appoitment, but only to find out that I can not have it done at that hospitle because they do not except my insurance. So I had a nervours breakdown with the lady she was very understanding and offered to call another hospitle to set it up for me that made me feel better. I was gald I only had to wait 1 more day, but I was still upset. I had to go to talk to both of the dr.'s offices and have them fax a referal to Jordan Vally Hospitle and of course when I wanted to talk to them it was luch time. I waited outside of the brest dr.'s office untile they came back from lunch. I tried calling the other dr and could not get a hold of them until later because they were out to lunch. So I go and get both of the untra sounds done and find out that the lump is just a growth and so I wait to hear from the brest dr. about what he wants to do and of cource he want to do surgery so I call today to find a dr. at Jordan Valley and they tell me that I can't be seen unless they get a refferal faxed over to them from my dr. Meanwhile I have found out that my Thyroid Nodule was bigger and they want to do a guided MRI needle stick and take out some fliud to find out if I have cancer or not. So now I am torren as what to do because that Dr. can not help me any more and if I go and see another dr. I have to wait three weeks, but if I do not have cancer then I will be ok and they will just monitor and see if it is getting bigger. I have decied that I am going to go and have the MRI done and I have schduled to see the new dr. in three weeks. It does bug me some times so I kind of want to take it out, but I really want to know how big it had gotten in 6 years (that was the last time I had it checked) because if it got doubble in size in 6 years then I should have it taken out. I am also going to go to another OB that takes my insurance so I can have a hysterctomy. My grandmother died of ovarian cancer 9 years ago so I would like to not get it and I really should not have any more kids because I could die carring the baby. My other OB told me to wait a few months and see how my cycles go because he thinks I have intramertiosis so he thinks that when I am having a cycle then I would not have to have the pain. I do not want to be on the drugs that you have to take for that, but my grandmother has been on them for 50 years and she is still alive and well and 92 years old so if she can do it so can I. I am greatful that I have insurance to help pay for all of this, but I am not going to say that this has been easy I have cried a lot, but I know that I am strong and I know that I can get threw this. I can figure out what is wrong and make it better. I have learned that you just have to say postivie about everything and then it will be eaiser for you. No matter what curve ball gets throwen at you it is how you choose to handle the situation that makes you a stronger person.

Alex surgery

Alex had to have surgery on Monday. He had a deviated septum. He kept getting lots of runny noses and would sneeze a lot. It would get so bad that he would then get an eye infection. When it became January of this year it was bad. He was taking a decongestant 3 times a day and a nasal spray once a day. That did not seem to help so then his pediatrician put him on an asthma medication and that didn’t help so he told me to call his ENT and try to see him. We had to wait a month to get into see him. Can I just say that I LOVE Dr. Albert Park!!!! He is the best. When we were there of course Alex had nothing wrong with him so the Dr. ordered and MRI to be done he wanted to have it done that day so Alex would not have to come back. They were able to get us in that day we had to wait about 45 minutes, but I was glad that we could get in. The MRI came back that there was nothing wrong that he could see. He then said that he was going to look into his nose with a camera again (this would be the 3rd time that he had done this with Alex) to see what he could see. Alex’s left side of his nose was crooked so we talked with the Dr. and he agreed to do the surgery. We decided that we would wait and talk it out so in the car Issac, me, and Alex decided that he would have the surgery. He would have to wait 3 weeks to have it. At this point I had stopped giving him all the medications so on the day of surgery Dr. was thinking that he did not need to do the surgery, but we told him that we wanted him too. The surgery was going to last 2 hours. Issac and I decided that we wanted to eat at Red Robin so he placed a ToGo order and went to pick it up. They had done some things different this time around they have a paging system to let you know when it is your turn to check in and go back to pre op. They also want you to sit there in a waiting room and not leave in case they need to call you. Which they do call you when they are ¾ of the way through the surgery. It was nice to have the nurse call me and give me an update. The Dr. came to talk with us and told us that he was pretty deviated meaning that his nose was really crooked and glad that he could fix it. I was then called back and told that I would be able to go back and see Alex that he was waking up from surgery. This was scary to me because he was not all the way awake yet he was thrashing that throwing himself all over the bed. He did have some gauze up his nose which he did pull out so the nurse had to put some presser on his nose to control the bleeding. I had to hold his arms and hands down because he wanted to make the nurse take it off. The nurse kept giving him some pain meds to calm him down because he kept crying and moving all over in the bed. The nurse was able to put some gauze over his nose they like to call it a moustache. Alex kept trying to pull it off and I would tell him that he needed to leave it on. I was also trying to keep the oxygen by his mouth so he could breathe better. Meanwhile, Issac is sitting out in the waiting room wondering when he gets to go back because it had been 30 minutes so they called back to where we were and was told he would have to wait 15 more minutes. Alex had never woken up from a surgery like that before (this was number 7). I was so scared and wanted to cry and one point, but I just needed to keep it together for his sake. There was another nurse 2 beds down who saw Alex freaking out. It was so bad that he had kicked my purse in the floor and kicked both of his socks off and got all the cords wrapped around himself. He is doing better today. Yesterday I took some saline water and squirted it up his nose to clean out the bloody mess. He has thrown up 4 times, but I think that is over due to the fact that I have not been giving him so many pain meds. I truly believe that this boy has something special to do in this life and that he is going to overcome these elements and not be sick when he is older. I think that he is going to be a great strength to his fellow man. He has the desire to serve a mission and I think he will do great at it. He will be a leader in the gospel and will help all people around him. He will be able to be a light to all he comes in contact with. I Love this boy so much! He never has a mean thing to say about anyone.

Alexander

We took Alex to see his ENT Dr. Park yesterday. We went to have him look at his nose. The Dr. was looking at his nose and of course he was having a good day. He was not really sure that anything was wrong so he had to go and have an MRI he was such a trooper he laied on the table and did not move. The Dr. said that there was nothing wrong with him. He then decided that he was going to stick a camera up his nostrolls this was the 3rd time that he was going to have this done and it was the first time that he was going to have his nose numbed. The dr. showed us that his left side was the crooked side. You could clearly see that the left side was very narrow and the right side had more room. The Dr. explaned how he was going to be doing the surgery he even drew a picture of it. It made me like him even more because he takes the time to explane how he is going to do the surgery he does not just tell you and make you do the suregery. He tells you that you can think about it. We asked him if he would be able to be off all meds if he had the surgery the Dr. responed that ideally that is what we would like to have happen, but we will have to see. he told us that Alex will not be able to blow his nose after the surgery. I told him that he really can't blow his nose anyways I made the sound that he makes when blowing his nose the Dr. laughed. The other thing that I like about the Dr. is that he comes in and shakes your hands and says it is good to see you again. I also told the Dr. that Alex told me a few months ago that he wanted his nose fixed and that he wanted to have the sirgery allready. The last time that we saw him was in 2011 so it had been a few years. The Dr. said that it should be sameday surgery, but he knows Alex and sometimes he needs more time, but I think that he is going to be a trooper and be able to pull through it. We did not schdule the surgery right away we talked about it in the car and we even asked Alex if he wanted to have the surgery and he said that he wanted to have it that is when I called to schdule it. I love Alex so much he is such a strong boy! It is too bad that he thinks that in order to get over something you need to have surgery in his case that is what you have to do.

work

I am in pain today and I know why. Last night at work my boss decided that she was going to write me up. I accidently opened a section that was not the right one and then a table sat there for 15 mins without getting help. I understand that is a HUGE deal, but I think I could have gotten a verbal warning. I know that the regional manager is cracking down on the managers because we are so bad right now, but I feel like this manager does not like me and she is just out to get me. I need to move pass this I and feel if I wright this down then maybe I will feel better. I have not gotten written up in a very long time for this not being a good host. I have not been told in a long time that I am doing a good job so that hurts too it makes me feel like they do not appreciate the job that I am doing. The manager who wrote me up didn’t even give it to me it was another manager. I feel like she was being a coward by not telling me herself. She feels like if she would have done it before she left then it would have made my work suffer. I would have liked to talk to her and ask her why I could not have gotten a verbal warning why did it have to go to a strait wright up. I feel like I should have been able to explain myself. oh well today is another day.

Strengthen our brothern

I shared a message for my sisters last month for visiting teaching. It was by the Prophet Thomas S. Monson Sunday morning session. It was talking about being strong and faithful. He shared a story about 3 men. One of them was 17 when he joined the church in Germany during WW1 then he moved to Hungry shortly after joining the church. He felt like he was alone the church because they didn’t really have the church in Hungry at that time. Fast forward some years later and another gentleman gets his home teaching route (that is where men in my church are assigned to visit families to make sure they are ok) and calls his companion to ask him when they could go to visit this gentlemen. They said they would go the next day. They would be gone for a week “if” they made it back. They would have to take a train and a bus to get to this brothers house. They get to his house and want to shake his hand, but the brother says just a second I need to get something. He went to his room and pulled out a box from under his bed and he had been saving his tithing all those years. He gave it to his home teachers. He then would shake their hands because the felt like he was in good standing with the Lord now. That made me think if this guy could save what little money that he was making and give it to the Lord when he didn’t even know if he was going to see anyone to give it to or that he might need the money for himself. What am I doing to show the Lord that I am faithful to him? It also made me think the two home teachers had to travel for days to see this guy. They had to spend time and money to go and see this guy not knowing if they would make it back, but do I sometimes have a hard time driving for five minus to go and do my visiting teaching (this is where ladies in my church go and visit other ladies to make sure that they are ok). What sacrifice am I willing to make for the sake of His church. Am I willing to do all things? Am I willing to go and visit the active sisters or am I willing to visit the less active ones too? I am setting a goal to visit whoever is on my list. They were put on my list for a reason and I need to take care of them too. They are children of my Heavenly Father and they need me to talk to them. Who knows maybe I need them too. I have made some good friendships from being a visiting teacher. If the Lord was here then he would be doing the same thing too. He would be visiting all people and I need to do the same. I have a friend who is not a member in my church (The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints) she had told me that she was sick so I decided that I was going to make her some soup. I just got what I had in the house to make it. I put chicken, rice, carrots, corn, and part of a green pepper in it. I then made chicken broth with crushed red peppers. She said that she loved it and that no one had ever done that for her before. That made me feels great that I could help her and do what Jesus would do if he were here. I hope that she will want to listen to the missionaries. I am going to invite her family to come to Alex’s baptism and hopefully they will feel the spirit and want to learn more. She is a very strong catholic, but would make a great member she is super nice and would do anything for anyone.

House

I am soooooooooooo excited for Friday. We will be going to a family reunion in Moab with Issac’s family. It is going to be fun we will be there until Tuesday. I was put in charge of fun things to do with the kids. I think I found lots of entertaining things for them to do. I was shopping at Wal-Mart one day and I saw a box that had popsicle sticks in it and different kids of animals that they can put on them so excitingly they will be making puppets I think that the kids will have fun with them. They also get to paint and play with play dough. I never by play dough because I do not like how it sticks to my tile floor. I will let them keep it for this trip and the other trip that I will be going on in July then I think I will throw it away. The bathroom downstairs is coming along great! Issac was able to put lights in it. How grateful I am that we have lights in there now. He has been able to make 3 way switches some from scratch. I am so grateful that I married him. He is so handy and can build and fix things. Almost as good as my dad. Our goal is to finish our basement by September so when Alex gets baptized my parents will be able to stay at our house. I am getting so tired of trying to go downstairs and seeing all the things that I have out of place. We just had to hurry and shove things wherever we could put them. So you can imagine how messy and cluttered it is. It will be good when all is said and done because we get to have new good stuff. When we are done we will be re-painting the upstairs most of the rooms have not been painted in the 9 years that we have lived here. We are going to be moving the girls into our room and Alex will be moving into the girl’s room. Then Alex room will then become the office again. We want the rooms to look nice so we will be putting crown molding in every room. We will start at the top then move into the middle then move to the bottom. That is how the master bedroom looks now and we think it just looks so beautiful. We are going to paint two different colors on the walls so the girls will be pink and purple. We have not decided on Alex’s room yet. He wants brown and orange, but I do not think that is going to be the colors that we choose.

Grandpa Warren Newton Shelton

Just getting things packed so I can go to Idaho to go to my grandfathers funeral. He was a great man. He was not always an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but he listed to some missionaries and decied that he needed to change his life. We would go and spend a few days with my grandparents when we were kids. It was some good times they made you feel very special. They would go and buy you special treats or let you go and pick them out. Grandpa would then get up and make the best french toast or pancakes for breakfast. I asked him if he would teach me how to make cinnamon roles from scratch and he taught me. He also taught my young womens when I was going. he would tell you funny stoires and he liked to take out his faults teeth. We would laugh. You could hear my grandmother from the other room saying warren put those theeth back in. He would then laugh. He was always cooking something for someone else and would make about 30 doezen cinnamon roles around christmas time. For a few years they took in there grandson Jeremy until him mom was ready to have him back. We are the same age and he would come and play a lot with us. My mom's younges brother Brian would come and play too. He is something like 14 years younger than my mom so we are more like cousions to him then neices and nephews. It will be fun to see all of the family. it has been about 9 years sence I saw most of them. That is how long it has been sence my grandmother passed away. We all live so far apart my Aunt, cousion, and uncle live in Washigton and my other aunt lives in PA. I feel like we will not see some of this family ever again unless they come to my uncle Dee's funeral his organs are dieing he drank to much most of his life. Most of them are not active in the church that is sad for me that they would turn from the truth and throw away a good thing. My grandfather would tell my mom that I sang "How Great Thou Art" so good at my grandmothers funeral and that I would be singing it at his. He would hear others sing the same song at other funerals and he would say that I did a much better job and that I should be in the Mormon tabernacle chior. That made me feel so good to think that he liked my singing that much. I was able to see him a few months ago to say good bye. I made him some cookies and he liked them. I wanted to return the favor to him and give him a treat for the last time that I would see him alive because he would always make sure that we had yummy treats to eat when all the family got together. On a side note one of his dogs died before he did. I do not think that he was all there in the head enough to know that he dided. When I was there I know that he wanted to die, but was told by my grandmother on the other side that it was not his time to go yet he needed to wait a little longer. My father is a great man he would basically spend 24/7 there taking care of him because he is retired and my mom is not and with my uncle Dee not feeling well eaither my dad was one of the only people who could take care of him. Grandfather you were a great man and made good choices in your life and taught me it was good to go to church and fullfill your callings you will be loved and missed by all. I love you!

Grandfather

Life is good. My gradfather in Idaho is getting ready to die. He is 89 years young and is ready to leave this life and go on to the other side to see my grandmother and some other family members. He was a great greandfather he and my grandmother would come to our dance recidles and piano recidles. He would still come to things even after my grandmother died. He taught me how to make cinnamon roles and come to my young womens one night and taught the girls there how to make them too. It was a fun time to be with him and cook with him. When we were younger we use to stay with my grandparents for a few nights in the summer we all looked forward to spending time with them. They treated us like we were the best kids ever. I am trying really hard to get next weekend off work so I can go and see him before he dies. My mother has all ready told me that he wants me to sing How Great Tho Art at his funeral. I am happy to do it. I get better and better at singing it with each time that I do it. My sister Celeste will play for me on the piano. We make a great team her and I. My Aunt Debbie and her son Jeremy and my Aunt Joyce came to help out with my grandfather. My brother Bryce and his family went to Idaho this weekend to help my Uncle Dee move out of his house into my grandfathers house that will become his until he passes away from kidney failer. I have a painful sinus infection and it has made me cough all the time so I try not to talk. Which if you know me that it very hard to do. Talking is one of my favorit things to do. I had to call my work yesterday and tell them that I was not able to come in as my head was pounding really bad. I hope that I will start feeling better soon. My kids keep asking me why are you not talking? I have to keep telling them that my voice has gone away. Alex and Becca have strep throut. They were not even feeling very sick. Years before before Alex got his toncles out he would tell me that his legg was hurting. I would take him in the the dr and the dr would say that he has strep so this week when he told me that his leg hurt I knew that he had strep. A few days later Becca come to me and told me that it hurt when she went pee. Lizzy had, had that problem a few months beofre and she ended up having strep and then knew that Becca had that too. They just kept playing like there was nothing wrong. Most kids get a feavor, stomach ach, or throw up, but not my kids that is why I had a hard time thinking that they really had something wrong with them. It has been a month sence my father in law passed away. I know Issac is having a hard time with it, but I know that he will be ok. I hope you all are doing well. God Bless!

LIFE

There is not much going on. I was picking up the kids from school yeasterday when Alex's teacher Ms. Wood told me that he has been talking more in class. He had just taken the Dibbles test (reading test) she said that he did really good. He talked realy loud for the lady giving the test, even louder that he had for his teacher and if his teacher came closer to where he was reading he would speak quiter. What a silly boy I have. I was teasing him the other day if he thought a girl in his class was cute and he said how did you know. I told him that she would like it if he were to talk to her and he smiled and told me no that she would not like it. I tease him every now and again about her. I know he likes it. He has the BEST speach teacher Mrs. Cantanavous she gets him to talk to most people that he needs to be talking to. The lady in the office was telling me yeasterday that she tries to tease him when gets his meds. after lunch I feel so blessed to have her there to help him. He sure has come a long way. I love it when he gets up to bare his testimony. You can not HEAR him, but you can FEEL him trying to convey his testimony. I know he chooses when he want to talk and if he does not want to he will not. Lizzy got kissed on her shoulder yesterday by a boy in her class. everyone in the calss knew about it. The teacher said that she had all ready told him before that it was not ok to kiss anyone. I guess that he had done it before this year and she had told his parents what he did and now she gets to tell them again. I told Mrs. Pruze that the father of the boy scares me because he is super creepy. He will just stare at me and it makes me feel very uncomfortable I just try to pre tend that I am busy with something on my phone so I do not have to deal with him. Lizzy was leader in me a few weeks ago she was super happy to get that. She got to sit at a special table and got to have a lunch brought in by Chick Fila. Her teacher also wrote her a little note. I was looking at Lizzy in her calss today and she was a lot taller than most kids. She looks like she could be in first grade. Her and Alex are the same height and almost the same weight. Becca is enjoying her pre school class. She has a really great teacher Mrs. Hansen. They get to spend part of there morning with Lizzy's class so I am sure that is fun for the girls to see each other. She is still acting like she can't do things, but I keep pushing her along and make her do them. Yesterday we went though her and Lizzy's clothes and I was able to get rid of 2 garbage bags of clothes. She was helping me put the clothes in the bag so that was nice. She is starting to talk really well. She is also wanting to learn how to read. She will bring me a book and ask me what does this say. She wants to be like her big brother and siter and read a book. She is good in the morning when we are reading our Book of Mormon to repeat the words that we say. Issac is still enjoying his job. They were so great to let Issac have so much time off when is father passed away. They said that they were sorry for him and told him that he could take as much time as he needed to take it all in. Him and his brother Tony went to speak to a lawyer about is father's things and they have done almost everything that they needed to do. I am sure that it a load off of all there minds. I am still working a lot, but I like my job. I feel really comfortable working there I and would like to think that I do a good job. Saturday I was there until 1:00 I was helping the manager and waiting for her to finish all her stuff. I got home at 1:15 and then I had to do something for my lesson for the next day so I was up until 1:45 and then I didn't want to get up the next morning for church. My primary class this year is much eaiser I just love it! I get to work with a wonderful Sister in the ward so that is nice too. The girls I teach are so quite and the one boy that I have does not come all the time, but when he does he is quite too. I have been trying to listen to good music on Pandora so I can make sure the spirit is in my home for when the kids get home from school.

Dave's Passing

Robert David Rands -- 1947 ~ 2013 -- We sadly announce the passing of Robert David Rands on January 13, 2013 at his home in Orem, Utah. Dave Rands was born on January 22, 1947 in Ogden, Utah. As a young man he served honorably both a building mission in the Northern States Mission and a proselytizing mission in the Canada Alberta mission. He was a US Army veteran as well as a retired Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff. He earned a master’s degree in education and enjoyed teaching for many years. He was a dedicated scoutmaster while raising his family in Southern California. In his retirement, he enjoyed fishing and woodworking. He considered his family to be his greatest achievement. He is survived by his parents, Robert and Lorraine Rands, brothers Richard and Paul, sisters Janice Scott, Constance Romito and Marte Eyre, and by children Ann Hardt, Anthony, Issac, Jeremiah, Suzanne Cook, and Matthew, as well as 20 grandchildren. Funeral service will be held on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 10:00 am in the Hillcrest 1st LDS Ward Chapel, 1450 South 800 East, Orem, Utah. Family and friends are invited to attend a gathering at the church from 9:00-9:45 am prior to services. Interment - Utah Veterans Memorial Park in Bluffdale, Utah. We had a great day at the funeral yesterday. My children as well as all of there cousins sang a song for him called I Am A Child Of God. I was able to sing a song to him as well the song is called How Great Tho Art. I belive that singing has a way of touching your heart in a way that you would not always expect it too. He had served in the military for a few years so we were able to lay him to rest with the military doing there 21 gun salute and taps being played. He was a great man and I am sad that my children will not really get to know him that well. I hope that they can keep some fond memoried of him though. All of the older grandsons and the brothers and brother-in-law all were waring a tie to the service that belonged to him. May he rest in peace and may we all rememeber the good times that we had with him.

Christmas ECT!

I have been bad at posting on here. The past 2 weeks I have been working over 40 hours at work. I have been trying to keep up on the house and the kids. The kids had a fun time with Christmas. They were all super excited to open there gifts. We started having them open them one at a time. I got away with buying wrapping paper that was dual sided so I used one side for the gifts from me and Issac and the other one from Santa. It was so fun to see them get so excited for Santa to come. Lizzys teacher told her class that if you are super quiet then you will be able to hear Santa's slay bells. When she woke up in the morning she told me that she didn't hear them. I told her that she must have went to sleep super fast and that is why she didn't hear them. We were lucky we got to sleep in a little. Alex was up at 6:30, but we made him come and lay in our bed until 7:00 then we let him wake up the girls. He was glad to be able to wake them up. He likes to do that every day. We got the kids a thing called a dream light. It is a stuffed animal made by pillow pets and on the top it has a big plastic thing that light up your room with stars and a shape of the animal that they have. All the kids say that they are afraid of the dark so this has helped out a lot. Me being in primary knew that we would be studing the Doctrin and Covenants this year and I can't belive that Alex will be in senior primary so I knew that he needed to have one so I bought him a Book of Mormon/Doctrin and Covenants/Pearl of Great Price and had his full name put on it. He really liked it. It is hard to belive that he will be getting baptized this year that he is turing 8 in September. It just blows my mind. We got the girls a Doctrin and Covenants reader and a New Testament reader. These are books with photos and easy to read stories. The kids like them because they can read them to me. Issac and I have been making more an effort to read our Book Of Mormon every morning. We read 1-2 chapters each morning before Issac leaves for work. speaking of Issac's work he officially got hiried on with his companie. We will be able to get insurance in March I am so stoked I can go and get some new glasses. It has been about 2 years and I know that my prescription has changed. I will be looking for another eye dr. however because I do not like the other dr that we have been going too. We will also be able to get Issac into a dr. to see what is wrong with his shoulder. He has constant pain and feels like the bones are rubbing up against one another. He is still training for the St. George Marathon. I am so proud of him for doing this. He is very strong and will succed.

Let it snow, let it snow!

Today is a snowey, snowey day. I am not looking forward to it, but we need to have the snow. The kids are super excited for it they want to go out and play in it. I think it is going to be hard to tell them then no when they get home from school. I think I will have to bribe them with something. I will have to tell them that when they get done doing there reading homework then they can go out and play. I am not ready to deal with the mess yet and not all the kids have boots. I guess I will have to get on that. LOL! Issac is still enjoying his job. He will be hiried on in a coupple of months. That will be nice. The companie is all about the family. They let him leave when I need to get to work as long as he tells his boss and is able to get his 40 hours. We are still hoping that he will be able to get a job that he will be able to provided for the whole family so I can quit my job. I would like to be able to be home at night so I can cook dinner and read with the kids. Speaking of the kids. Alex and Lizzy had partent teacher confrences this week. They did good. Alex is reading at a second grade level and not doing so well in math, but we will work on that with him. I found a math book for $.79 at a book store. He will be getting that for Christmas. He actually got into trobble the other day. I had to laugh. I made him tell me what happned he told me that he was fighting over a marker. I guess 3 kids were involved and had to pull there names. I asked him if he used his words to tell the other kids what he wanted and he said no. I told him that next time he needs to. His teacher said that she felt bad that she had to have him pull his name because he was actually playing with other kids. We had a great laugh over that one. We did however tell him that he can not do that again. We set a goal with the teacher for the next confrence he has to talk to her for 5 mins a day. When asked how he liked that he said he didn't so I told him to bad he should have talked him selfe then and told the teacher what he wanted to do. When I went to talk to the speach teacher she told me that he is doing really good. She said that he had gotten a little scrape on his finger and would not talk until he go a banaid. So she gave him one and the he started talking more to her. She also told me that he was not talking to the school psychologist he would not talk to her, but then she told him this "don't you think that you should use your words with her don't you think that she would like to hear you"? He siad no, but when she talked to her again she said that he was a little chatter box YAH!!!! He is making grat progress. Know that he needs to be in the school and that he needs to be with this speach teacher because she is the one that is really helping him come out of his shell. I will be enternally greatfull to her for helping him to succed in life. He got up last fast and testmonie meeting a bore his testmoine. Lizzy is doing great in school. She is getting the highest greades in almost every area. Her teacher said that she is a good student she is a big helper for the teacher. Her speach teacher tells me that when she comes to calss she walks around like she ownes the place. That made me laugh. she is reading at a first grade level. I do not have to worrie about her not wanting to talk she has lots of friends at school. Some days I find that she has taken her hair out of her pretty. She tells me that she wanted her friends to see how long her hair is. I think that is funny. I have to keep her hair in brades in order for her to keep her hair done. Beecca is enjoying the pre-school class that she is in. She gets to go 3 times a week from 8:30-11:15. She has a really great teacher. I am not sure how long the class will go, but I am enjoying that she gets to go. she is such a happy girl. I have to keep telling her that she is old enough that she can do stuff eventhough she keeps telling me that she can't. Silly girl. I have been feeling rally good latley. I will have to see what the weather does to me. the only thing that has been really hurting his my hands, but I can live with that because that is better than my back hurting.

VOTE!!!!!

I have only voted once in my life, but I knew that we needed to have the right man becomming our president so I decied that I was going to vote. I will tell you that I voted for Mitt Romney because how nice would it be if there was a guy running our country who can recive revelation for our country. He will be a great leader. The most amazing thing is that he has the prestood, the athority to act in the name of God. I feel like when he prays on matters of our country he will listen to the still small voice speaking to him telling him what he should do. If you think about it when Nephi and his family were in Jerusalem they were told that the city would be destroyed. They listed to God and were able to get to the promis land which we know is the USA and right now we are not doing that great! We need a leader to get the U.S. back on top not headed further down the list. The world is going to stop listing to us if we do not regain back some power. Just like in the Book Of Mormon when the Nephits were prideful and would not listen to God then when it came time for war then they would be defeated, but when they would listed to God then they would win. Please go and vote for Mitt Romney he is our man for prisdent. He will be the man that will lead us in the way that GOD wants this country to be led.

Family Happinings

Becca has been starting pre school and she loves it. I think that her teacher is the best! I have had all of my children tested by her to see if they can get into the classes at school that I want them to get into. Alex and Lizzy were tested by her to see if they could get into all day kindergerten and then Becca was tested to see if she would be able to go to pre-school. I was happy when I found out that Becca was going to be in her class. She is super nice and works well with the children. Alex was tested at school for reading and we recived a letter in the mail telling me that he was not reading where he should be reading. Issac and I were floored because when he had left kindergeten he was reading at a first grade level, but probably could have went further, but his teacher didn't want to push him to much. I was finally able to talk to the teacher and found out that he was teasted in the libary with a bunch of other kids and I think that he shut down. A few weeks later I saw the speach teacher and I talked to her about it and she was going to ask if she could give the test to him because she thought that he would do a much better job. One other thing that I told her that the teacher had said was that he needed to be reading faster. His speach teacher said for him that is not important. What he needs to be doing is getting all the sounds out right not reading faster. She said that she would talk to the teacher about it. She did say that he was doing a great job in her class. He is talking lounder and much more. That made me soooo happy! I told her that I thought it was the year around school system that really helped him. she agreed with me. Lizzy is having fun the kindergarten. She tells me that she has a best friend and that she is going to go to her house and play. I informed her that I needed to meet her parents and talk with them first. She then told me that she was going to ske for Issac's phone number so she could give it to her BFF. I just had to laugh I thought she was so funny. That girl is going to give me a run for my money. She keeps having to many mood swings she will be nice for one second and then trun all bratty. She will yell at me, spit, and hit me. I just wonder how she is going to be when she becomes a teenager. I have hope that she will mellow out sometime....soon I hope. I have been told by many people that it is just going to get worse YAH!!! for me. Gotta love girls! I went to work yesterday and found out that I was up for a review and that my manager had done it and she had given me a small raise($.20). Which I was happy to get. Any raise is better than no raise at all. I am trying to become an assitant manager. We shall see how that goes. I am still working alot so we can get our car paied off and so I can have Christmas for my kids. I know some of you will think that I am crazy, but I have been buying stuff all ready. In fact I think that I am almost done with one of them. I just want to be done so I can enjoy the holiday seasons. Issac was informed a few weeks ago that he will be able to be hiried on full time with the companie that he is working for now. He was hiried through a temp agency for the job and was glad that he would be able to get hiried after the 3 months was over. They are all about family. They want you to take care of family first then work. How cool is that! I was happy about that for sure. He is still training for a marathon that will be in St George next year. His brother and him are trying to run it together. It will be loads of fun.

New Blog

I am thinking that I am going to be making a food blog. I belive that there are people in the world who have to eat like I do and are not sure what they are going to do for food. If I can help them I would love too. If God gave me this illness then I am going to do all that I can to help people who feel the same way. It is hard when you start out and do not know what it do. The last thing you want to do it not be able to eat do you feel overwelmed and that their is nothing that you can eat. I am putting together some recipies so people know what they can eat. It is not that hard to change your eating habbits. I have not been feeling so good lately my back has been hurting, but I have refused to take my medicine. I have just been takeing some Tylonal. I am trying to figure out if I weather plays trick on me or if I am just hurting. I have decied that I am going to find another missage therpust becuase the one that I have is not that great. I try out the new one on the 23rd. I hope she will be better because I would rather not take any medication. Hope you all have a great day. May God bless you with what every you need.

Becca's Birthday Ect.

Today is Becca's 4th birthday man how time flies! It is hard to belive that she is that old and that we really do not have a baby any more. I have to keep telling my self that she is old enough and that she can do things. Today I made her take a shower and wash her self. I had to put her in and make her do it, but then she was ok with it. I have been pre-paring her for almost a week that she was going to have to start taking a shower when she turned 4. That way I was not just sprining it on her at the last second. I think if I would have done that it would have been much harder on her. She is very independent, but if she does not want to do something she will tell me that she is to little to do it. My responce to that is "oh are you a baby" and then she will usually do it. She is having a hard time with the other 2 in school all day. I have now become her play buddy of course I do not mind. I think she secertly likes all the one on one thime that she gets with me that the other kids do not get. I have been trying to teach her some things that she will need to know for kindergarten next year. She is a very happy girl who loves to dance and sing and play games with you. When you call her by a different name like "stinky" (as a joke) she say no that is not my name my name is Rebecca. We love her some much and are glad that she came into our family. I decied that I was tired of telling the kids that they need to do things before school so I made a chore chart of things that they have to do. I know this may seem weard to you, but I even got tired of telling the kids to take a shower in the morning so that is on the list. I think that are excited about it because it gives them something to do and they can get rewarded for doing it. They have to do it for 20 days and then I will give them a small reward. I put somethings that thay have to do twice a day on there to try and chalange them. Forinstance, thay have to do homework and brush there teeth twice a day. I reminded them when they went to bed what they had to do in the morning. They all got happy. I am also hoping that this will help with Lizzy too. She get so mean with me when I need to do home work with her. I am hopeing this will help her chill out. If I am reading with her and she dosen't know the word I make her sound it out she gets really mad and yells at me I do not know what it is tell me. I tell her that she needs to know what the word is and that she needs to become a better reader and the only way that she is going to be able to do that is by sounding it out. I am hoping that as the year progress that she will mellow out. I only hope that I was not like that for my mom because if I was I am sorry. We have been having some problem with our neibors. They have 5 yappy dogs and we have been worken up by them so we have called the police a few times. Now the wife is telling some people that Issac yelled at her so they have not been beeing very nice to us. When we try to say hi they will not talk back. I am very happy for Issac because of all the things that they have said or done he went to there house tonight and is helping them repair there roof. They are getting a new one and he is helping to take it off. We thought this might mend fences with them. Of course he only went over to help when there was someone else from the ward there who Issac could talk too. I think that made it less weard. I am proud (if I can say that) Issac for being the bigger man and going to help and not holding a grudge.