Hallelujah

In the last few days the following tragedies have occurred in my life:

1. Timmy fell off my choir with his head on the joint of my big toe.

2. Timmy dumped out the clean laundry on the floor, and something in my hip screamed out as I tried to clean it up. I spent the next 24 in quite a bit of pain.

3. A second little chunk of filling chipped off of one of my molars.

It never rains but it pours, right?

Well, I think that, contrary to what I originally thought, maybe my toe isn't broken. It doesn't hurt unless I push on it. Sweet! 

This afternoon I went to the chiropractor, and she did some stuff. She hooked up some sticky things on me. I imagine they looked something like those sticky things from that heart monitor. She placed them all around where I was hurting and turned it on and added a heat pack. The stickies vibrated. It was such a strange feeling! But after a while it felt nice. And then she did some adjustments and found that my hips are crooked! Well, no wonder since I carry kiddos around all the time. I was so disappointed when I went back to the car hurting just as badly as when I went in.  But guess what. Now, a few hours later, I'm feeling a lot better! It still hurts, but hooray! I should be able to sleep tonight! :)

I still have to wait until next week to get my tooth fixed, and I have to go back to the chiropractor a few more times, but I feel quite blessed! :)

Plus, who can feel glum for too long with this guy around? :)

I am a builder

This morning as I was driving home from taking Hyrum to Seminary I was thinking again and kind of hoo-hooin' about another instance in which I've failed my family. Maybe it's lack of sleep or hormones or hunger, but,  man! Anyway,  as I was praying about a specific challenge I'm facing I suddenly thought of a song we learned in Primary while I was in the stake Primary presidency. You can find it here. It's about how we're all builders, building an eyeball family. The chorus says, "My heavenly father sent me here, and He knows I can be song and righteous as I build my eternal family."

(On a less serious note, my tablet corrected eternal to eyeball. My eyeball family.  XD)

As I thought about those words I realized that, of course, Heavenly Father had confidence in me! He's given me a lot to work for and with! I'm thankful to remember that! We all have shortcomings, but we make do with what we have, and He promises to make up the difference.

College, Shopping, and a Dream

This is from a recent trip to our public library.  Brom was running around while I was in the back room with Rachel helping the other kids do their Thanksgiving craft, so when Brom came running past, Hyrum grabbed him and pulled him into the teen room.  See the look on Hyrum's face above?  It's just amazing that I caught it!  It lasted a split second.  Right as Hyrum sat down with him Brom grabbed the book and tore on of the pages a little.  Argh!  But I love that picture.  Ha ha!

 

 

Here's a more normal one. :)

 

 

So... I said I was going to go Thanksgiving shopping on Monday, but I'd forgotten that I already had something to do.  Hyrum is 14 now, so he's old enough to do college classes, and I needed to take him out to the college to get his application in and get his placement testing done.  I took Hyrum and Brom and we went and did that.  They asked for some forms of ID, which we had to bring back, and in the process we ended up going to the MVD and getting him an ID card.  He does have one form of photo ID already (his passport), but this will be easier and better to carry around.  It will fit in his wallet.  (He has a paper copy of it.  The real card will come in the mail in about 2 weeks.)  Anyway, we got all of that in and went over to the college library for testing.  When I did testing for EAC, we sat in a room with a bunch of other students and did the three tests in a testing booklet, just like we used to do for Iowa Tests.  And back when I tested at EA, I had to write essays.  It's different now.  All of Hyrum's tests were on the computer, and his writing portion was mostly correcting essays that were already written.  (Our college here is an extension of EAC, in case you were wondering.)

It was a long wait for Brom and me!  I'd forgotten his shoes, so he toddled around outside in his socks, and I chased him around and around and around.  We looked at the fish in the pond with the water lilies.  We hunted for a bathroom for a bit.  We went in the library and looked at some books.  We visited Aaron's lab. (It's a pretty cool place.  I had never been there before.) And then after an hour and a half Hyrum was all done.  Jeremy showed up just as the librarian was giving us the results.  He had to teach that night, after all. 

So the results said that he should enroll in English 101 and Math 055 (Basic Math).  I'm so proud of him!  And he was pleased with himself too. :) He was allowed a retest, and he decided to take it.  He felt like after the reading and writing tests his brain was too fried to do well on the math.  So yesterday I took him back to retake that math (I took the other kiddos to the library while we waited), and this time he tested into Math 077 (Elementary Algebra).  It's still not college level really, so this math won't count towards a degree, but that is ok!  He's 14.  There is time.  And I really feel that that's a good placement for him anyway.  I think the next class after this one is College Algebra, but even if it's not, this is just fine.

So he'll be starting classes in January.  I'm not sure what he'll take, but because of his good English scores he can take history or any of those other classes that require a good reading score.  I think he'll probably take either English or math and then a fun class like stained glass.  I might even sit down with him today and figure that out.

Now, before you think that we're forcing him to do this and stuff, well, this is really Jeremy's idea, and Hyrum seems fine with it.  Jeremy wishes he could have skipped high school and kind of resents that he couldn't at least do college courses on the side during high school.  He wants to give his kiddos the head start that he wishes he had.  And after teaching all those kids at the two high schools and seeing their level of scholastic achievement, which, really, doesn't seem to amount to much, we really started to realize that Hyrum was ready for college work.  So why put him through high school anyway?  A lot of people will argue that it's good for you, that it's a rite of passage for American youth, that... whatever.  Well, to that I say that I do believe that the public schools are great for some people.  I can honestly say that even though Jeremy wishes he hadn't had to go to high school I'm thankful that I did.  Some kids really do really well in high school, but too many kids are being shoved along from grade to grade without learning anything.  A lot of the high school kids we've met can't spell and really have hardly anything to show for all their years in the public school system.  It's sad.  I feel a lot more comfortable sending Hyrum to college.  He may not ever go to Prom.  He may not ever do this or that that normal teenagers do, but I've talked to him, and he's not sad about not going to Prom.  He's not sad about missing a lot of the trouble that teenagers have from associating with a bunch of other teenagers, people who are going through tough times trying to find themselves.  Besides, I think we should have a family Prom, or a Prom with just his friends or the ward's youth.  It would be fun. :)

So that's where we stand.  He'll continue to do some regular school stuff at home, and we'll send him to college for other stuff.  I think he'll like it.  He seems pleased and excited.  He doesn't seem nervous at all.  And Jeremy, Aaron, and Rachel all work out there, and I think Grandma is taking some classes there still too.  There's a nice Burk influence there. ;) I'm excited for him!  The only thing that I really wish is that there was a choir out there.  If I could point to the two experiences that had the greatest impact on me in college they would be Institute and choir.  (There's no Institute either, but he's taking Seminary, so that's ok. :) )  I wish he could have a choir this year, but, like I said, there's time.

I did go shopping yesterday for Thanksgiving food.  I'd promised Michael and Jill that they could come with me, so they came, along with Joshua, Timmy, and Brom.  Timmy has developed this new habit lately of jumping out of the cart as I'm checking out and running off at top speed to wherever the gumball machines are.  It's nerve-wracking!  It's just a good thing I know where he's going and that he stays there.  And thank heavens I had some older kids with me to track him down.  The whole trip was kind of a circus!  Brom was fussy because he'd missed his nap, and Jill and Timmy were everywhere!  Between Wal-Mart and Fry's I had to sit and use my #1 anger management tactic, which is to realize that my anger isn't coming from the situation.  It's coming from me.  It's not that kids aren't naughty sometimes, but I don't have to get worked up about it.  And if I just take a step back and remember that what's really making me mad is that I'm hungry or tired or whatever, I can try to fix that and move along and stop being mad.  It's great!  And it got me through the trip without losing too much hair. ;) And we're ready to start cooking!  I think that today we're going to grind some corn, which I've never tried, and make some cornbread for tomorrow's stuffing.  Exciting!

We tried to get some of our guild friends to come to Thanksgiving like one of them did last year, but none of them can come.  I'm kind of sad about that, but we'll have our own Thanksgiving tomorrow and then we'll have Thanksgiving with the Burks on Friday.  It'll be fun!  And this has nothing to do with the rest of the paragraph, but Susie is coming home December 29!  I'm excited about that too!

And the last thing I want to talk about is maybe a little silly, but I want to write it down anyway.  I had a dream last night that was really vivid.  I liked it.  In my dream we were moving into this house that cost us like $400,000.  Whoa!  But anyway, we were moving to this little tiny town in Utah.  It was down in a little tiny valley with high mountains literally all around.  The highway (also the main road of the town) swept down into town and then back up out the other end.  It was so beautiful!  I wondered what in the world the name of the town was, but I never figured it out.  We went to church, and there we learned that an entire area close by that was part of our town had been excommunicated years before.  I'm not sure if it was a section of the town or another town that was nearby.  I couldn't figure it out in my dream.  The ward members called it Madison, wherever it was.  But Jeremy was kind of put in charge of that situation.  We were told that it was time for all those people to be re-baptized.  So we set up a meeting for them.  It was out in a field near town.  Jeremy and I sat and marveled at the beauty of the little valley while we waited for people to come.  I wondered where they'd be baptized because the only water I could see around were little ponds that weren't nearly deep enough.  Then people started to come.  Some of them were hokey old people.  As I looked around at them I knew that some of them would not grasp the importance of what was going to happen to them.  I knew that some of them would figure they were "saved" like other people from other churches say, and that they'd figure they didn't need to do anything more for their salvation for the rest of their lives.  But Jeremy and I both knew that God loved them and that this was the right thing to do.  The best he could do was to talk to them first and try to help them understand.

And that's it.  Isn't that interesting?

And now I'm going to go take care of Jilly and brine my turkey!  I'm excited! :D

Random Stuff for Monday

I guess I've been thinking about family history since that Temple dedication last week.  I finally got my buns over to ancestry.com and signed up.  It's such a different format I'm not sure what to do with it.  If I add people to my tree then we'll have another set of duplicates.  I really only spent a few minutes on there before the little leaves on my tree drove me nuts and I got off.

I also hopped onto my family tree at familysearch.com today and looked over my children.  I looked and looked.  Now that Brom has been blessed his name is listed with our family on the ward directory at lds.org.  (He has an official church record!)  But he still wasn't listed on my tree.  It's been bugging me for a year.  I decided I was done being bugged and just added him.  And then I looked at my children again and they were all out of order.  I did Google searches and stuff, trying to figure out how to change the order of my children.  I came up with nothing and was getting frustrated until I realized that more than half of them didn't have birthdates listed.  No wonder!  Well, that's fixed now.  I wonder if Brom will be added later and I was just jumping the gun and will have to merge him later.  And I wonder how in the world I can say, "BIC!" so people know he is sealed to us.  I know nobody but Jeremy and I can see him at all right now, but I like to have those things in order. :) I guess I just leave it as-is for now.

I also have 2 sealings to parents that need done.  And I need to figure out when Jeremy and I can get to the Temple and do those!  And we need to take Hyrum and Joshua to do baptisms again.  Joshua hasn't been to the Mesa Temple, so I'd like to take him there.  That would be awesome!  We ought to see if Joe can come too.

Thanksgiving is coming!  I have a turkey in the fridge thawing out, and I'm so darn excited!  I've got a list of food to buy, and I think I'll probably go get it today because I don't think I can wait any longer!  On Wednesday I want to get corn bread (for stuffing), rolls, and pies made, and then on Thanksgiving we'll make the rest after getting family pictures and going for a hike.  Also, Aaron wants us to do a family fun run thing.  It doesn't really work out for me to actually do much on the track if I go there with children, so I don't know about that one.  Last time I just sent Jeremy, and he won.  It should be interesting this year since Jeremy, Aaron and I all have hurt feet.  But we should be hiking Round Mountain and getting a new family picture either way. :) And then we'll have Thanksgiving dinner.  This year Hyrum is assigned to make rolls, Michael wants to make the mashed potatoes, and Benji wants to do two kinds of stuffing.  How am I supposed to complain about 2 kinds of stuffing? ;) Joshua doesn't want to do anything, so maybe I'll make him do sweet potatoes. XD Just kidding.  I should have him inject the turkey.  He ought to think that's fun.  Last year he saw me stuffing herbs and butter under the turkey's skin and thought that was disgusting, so I'll make him do that and clean out the giblets and neck too.  Ha ha ha ha ha!

Did I mention here that my boys have been going nuts making bread?  Hyrum made some, so Benji and Michael needed to try.  I found a recipe on allrecipes.com (that's where I always look first) and handed it to Benji, and he made it without a hint of help from me.  And the next day he taught Michael how to make it.  It came out great!

That's blue food coloring, not mold!

 

Yum!

 

Timmy turned 4 last Wednesday!  He got Wreck-it Ralph!  (He used to call it "Weck-it Balph," but now it's "Wocket Welph.")

 

I made this cake.  It's  little lopsided, but it came out all right, and he liked it. :) It was yummy too!  Well, I didn't really eat the frosting, but that's normal - unless it's chocolate frosting.  I have a wonderful recipe from chocolate buttercream.  Too bad I couldn't use it for this cake. ;) But the cake was good!

 

Timmy wasn't too interested in presents after a while.  He got a Hulk hand and a ninja to bop with it, and he just had to take a break from presents.  He got a lot of things that he loved, though, and he had a great time.  I was so glad!

 

I've decided I probably won't do a whole lot of proofreading on the next few books I make.  I just don't seem to have the time.  And remember that new book I had printed?  Well, within the first day I found two typos.  So why bother anyway? ;) I'm not bitter about it.  I just don't have time and have found an excuse to skip it.

Just so you know

I final went back and fixed the second paragraph of this post (link below). I must have had some little helpers. Brom really likes to help me type lately.

Friday Pictures and Thoughts http://talesfromhappyland.blogspot.com/2014/11/friday-pictures-and-thoughts.html

Love

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

19 We love him, because he first loved us.

Temple Dedication

Photo found on lds.org

Today the new Phoenix Temple was dedicated.  I am sad that we didn't get to go to the open house, but I was glad I could go to the dedication. :) I took Benji with me, and we picked up Joe on the way.  I was glad they came with me! :) Benji and I had a little talk about what goes on in the Temple.  He and Joe got a little rowdy there for a bit, but mostly they were good.  Benji remembered about the Hosannah Shout and was excited for it.  He had his handkerchief out and ready for the entire meeting. 

We were there for the second session (1:00), and the talks were all so good!  The matron's assistant who spoke talked about how we should go out of our way running errands to go by the Temple with our children and things like that.  We need to show them how important it is to us and make sure they know that we're going to the Temple when we do go and why. 

I forgot who from the 70 spoke.  His talk was so good, though.  What I remembered was where he talked about Joshua.  He mentioned Joshua 24:15: "but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  His people answered and promised the same promise.  And then Joshua took a big stone and put it under an oak tree near the sanctuary and told the people it represented their promise to keep the commandments.  The guy who spoke to us told us that our recommends are like that stone in what they represent.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke.  I have always loved his talks. :) One thing he said was that at the beginning of the apostasy the first thing that was lost was the knowledge of the nature of God.  He said that it then was easy for the other things to be lost as well.  And he pointed out that that was the first thing that was restored with Joseph Smith - the nature of God - that he has a body of flesh and blood, that he is a separate being from Jesus and the Holy Ghost. 

And President Uchtdorf spoke.  One thing I didn't realize before is that he received his endowments in the Mesa Temple.  That's cool!  There was a little video of him on Facebook with his wife yesterday, and he talked about how the Mesa Temple feels like home.  I like that. :) As I entered the doors of that Temple for my own endowment that is exactly what I felt.  It felt like coming home.  The entire Endowment session for me felt that way. :) In his talk at the dedication he said that when he finished his fighter pilot training he received something that said he was fully combat ready for any military service.  But he said that at the Temple he received combat training for life and for fighting against the bad he would face. 

President Uchtdorf also said that we should show our gratitude for the Temple by attending it, and that in the Temple we learn things as they really are.  I would add that those things we learn are greatly enhanced because we have the Spirit to whisper things to us there.  I know that is what he means.  It's a beautiful thing! :) I'm thankful.  What a great meeting it was!  My testimony was strengthened, and it made me feel so happy. :)

Saturday

I've been meaning to say - that pain in my foot was probably a bruised heel bone. I tried may walking and came home thinking I was good, but it didn't last. So I thought I'd use the elliptical, but one day Jeremy called while I was on it. I stopped to talk, but I didn't want to do nothing while I was at the gym, so I say on the bike and started peddling. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it! I've never liked exercise bikes. I've avoided them like the plague. Not anymore, though. It's a good way to still get a good cardio workout without further hurting my heel. Hooray!

Today Jeremy did a half marathon. He's been doing a bit of training at the gym when he can. It's kind of an informal one that a local guy set up. Jeremy figured he'd start going and see how far he got, and he ended up doing a whole half. He's been super sore ever since. I'm pretty proud of him for doing that! :) Go, honey!

We took a little trip up the mountain in the late afternoon. It was nuts! Timmy was everywhere. Our neighbors were nice but loud. Brom has been sad a lot today, and to be totally honest, my cycle started a few months ago, and it's the pits riding the roller coaster of hormones and emotions that it brings. I detest it. It makes me feel out of control because  I kind of am. It is not a pretty picture. I can't really say I'm happy we went. Jeremy was kind of too sore anyway. Oh well. We did it for Timmy, really. He has been asking to go camping, but there hasn't been an opportunity.

Jeremy told me a bit about the explosions at the mine. He says they saw that something was going to fail, so they hurried to evacuate. Whatever it was did fail and molten copper spread all over. He says there was a crane made mostly of titanium. It melted and fell apart. The copper went through a wall and I don't remember what else like it was nothing. One of the explosions was the crane machinery. Another was when the copper hit water. I think another might have been a truck or something. I can't remember. I was so thankful everyone is safe! There was millions of dollars of damage, but for such a huge company that's nothing. The crane was worth like 2 million by itself. But it'll be ok. And the smelter will be upgraded soon anyway. And in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't very much of a disaster.

My kiddos have their primary program next Sunday. We'll have to practice! There is really no way Timmy can do it. He is excited about the idea of taking on the microphone, but then he doesn't want to go away from it. And with all the overstimulation he'd be jumping all over anyway.  Maybe next year.

Seems like there was something else to say, but I'm top tired. Brom had gas and boogers last night, so it was a long night.

Oh, one more thing. Jill is crying at my bedroom door because Jeremy had gone and laid down in there and locked the door and turned off the light. "You're locked in your room in the dark!" Such a calamity. How can anyone be okay under these circumstances? ;)

Hmmm

Last night there was some sort of explosion at the mine. We still don't know what it was. It sounds like Jeremy tossed and turned over it all night. I just happened to see the news coming through my news feed on Facebook. I felt bad passing it on to Jeremy because I knew he'd worry, but I felt like I ought to, and he said he probably need to know.

 

Well, just a few minutes ago I took Hyrum to Seminary, and I noticed that there were a lot of cars over at the mine's training building. I thought that was odd. I just mentioned it to Jeremy and he said there must have been a fatality. That's horrible! Now I'm afraid to go look at Facebook. I don't want to know, but I do, you know? I think I will wait it out and Jeremy can tell me later. I ache thinking someone must have died there yesterday, that somebody went to work but won't come home. I wonder what happened.

 

Update: Jeremy emailed me right after he got to work.  Nobody was hurt or killed.  Thank heavens!  The facility was evacuated in time.  I'm so glad!  This caused a lot of damage, though.  I bet it'll make it so nobody gets a safety bonus. :( Bummer!  But I'm just really glad nobody was hurt.

Monday

Every now and then Timmy is such a sweet boy to Brom.  Sometimes he needs some help to be sweet, and sometimes he does it on his own.  On Saturday night Brom was sitting on our new futon that Jeremy had just set up (more about that later) and Timmy was picking on him a little.  I think he stole whatever Brom was holding.  I told him he should be nice and that maybe he should get Brom something to play with.  Timmy disappeared for a little bit, and he must have really dug around in the toy box because he came back with three baby toys and gave them to Brom. (It doesn't matter that I try to keep that baby toys separate.  They always get thrown in with the rest of the toys, where they migrate to the very bottom.)  Good job, Timmy!  :D I love that he got Brom some toys, and I love that he knew which ones are Brom's!  I wish I had a picture!

And speaking of a good job, Timmy likes to tell us, "Good job!"  He comes and watches us do something and then tells us, "Goo job!"  (It does sound like he leaves the d off.  It kind of sounds like one word.)  I love that!  It makes me feel pleased with myself. ;) I have Tetris on my tablet, and he likes to sit and watch me play and say, "Goo job!  Building a house!"  And then when I clear lines he says, "Ah!  Don't broke a house!"  I love it!

So a little over a week ago Jeremy decided it was time to take stuff to the dump.  Timmy's bed and the couch were among the things he took. Timmy's bed was falling apart.  I had to put it back together every night, and he would pull a few pieces apart just for fun.  And there were some broken boards in the back of the couch that scraped up the wall whenever the couch got slid, which is more often than you think.  It was stained and broken in a few other places as well.  Before we put it in the van to go I dug through it one last time to make sure nothing important was in there.  I found the third book of Harry Potter just a little bit further in than I usually reach, I guess.  I was surprised!  It's been missing for about a year!  Literally!  Hyrum and I were just a few chapters in reading it together.  It still has a Kleenex in it marking our place.  Ha ha!  We gave one of the cushions to Buster, and he had a heyday.  He spread stuffing from her to kingdom come, all over the driveway.  We cleaned it up and he did it again.  And again.  I think it's pretty much empty now, though.  We need to get him a proper house and bed now that it's getting cold.

On Saturday we knew we'd have people coming for Sunday dinner the next day. Jeremy went to find some seating since we didn't have a couch anymore.  We got a folding chair and a futon.  It took hours to set up that futon, and I helped Jeremy get his finger pinched.  It seems like I always feel bad if I don't help with the projects I end up giving Jeremy, but when I help he always ends up hurt.  Poor guy!  Well, anyway, the futon is now together, and I love it!  The cushion is one piece, so there's no getting things stuck between cushions. You simply cannot lose stuff in a futon.  It's not the most comfy thing every, but it's passable, and I like it. :) Plus, it lays down into a bed.  Wahoo!

One more thing, and then I'd better go.  Maybe I'll try to put up some pictures of something tomorrow.  Yesterday I was juggling Timmy at church again.  His teacher was there, but they were practicing for the Primary program.  There's just no way he can do that.  So we tried to stay in the chapel where they were practicing. (It's the Sunday after this coming one, by the way, last hour.)  I had Play-Doh, paper, crayons, and my tablet, but he was not interested in any of it.  After a while the executive secretary came and asked me if I could meet with the bishop.  I said yes, and then I promptly had to chase Timmy all the way down the hall and haul him back.  By then, somebody else was already in there, and then one other person went before me.  Ha ha!  But by then Timmy had calmed down and was drawing on the little papers they have out there.  Anyway, we finally made it in there and Timmy played with the clock and ate a candy while Bishop asked me if I would be a teacher in Relief Society.  Isn't that fun?  I'm kind of excited! :) I haven't had a calling in a while.  In fact, I don't think I've had one since we moved back here.  I'm not sure what we will do with Brom and Timmy.  I guess I figure maybe Jeremy can take Timmy to class with him the one Sunday a month that I teach, and I be the ladies in Relief Society can help with Brom.  We also have a new nursery leader, and I bet she would let Brom in there.  She has been the leader before.  He is going to be old enough in March.  Well, we'll see.

Anyway, he gave me a few bits of counsel.  He said to remember that I'm teaching a wide variety of ages.  And he said that it's more important to him that the key points of the lesson be taught than that I say every word of the lesson.  He asked me to please pull things from Primary lessons and Young Women's and any other place I need to.  He mentioned how the Gospel all fits together and how we, for example, use the things we learned in Primary even when we're old.  And he said it would be good to remember, too, that a lot of these ladies never got to go to Primary or Young Women's, and they can benefit from that stuff too. 

Anyway, next week is the Phoenix Temple Dedication, so we don't have church.  But I'll be sustained and set apart the week after.  I'm not sure which lessons I'll be teaching.  We'll see. :)

Friday Pictures and Thoughts

I've been meaning to blog all week!  And now I'm stuck typing with a Band-Aid on my finger!  I make Jeremy a breakfast shake every morning.  So this morning I was fumbling around in the semi-dark, too sleepy to turn on a light, looking in the dishwasher for the pieces of his blender bottle, and I found out just how sharp my new peeler is.  Impressive!  I barely touched it!  Really it's not so bad, and I don't mean to whine.  It was impressive. :)

On Thursday Rachel watched our kiddos while Jeremy and I went on a date. Jeremy won a gift card from the company picnic for Copper Bistro, and we finally used it. Jenny ordered a steak. It was quite a nice-looking one, even though he likes medium rare. I don't like my steak mooing at all!  But he enjoyed it a lot. I ordered the chicken strips and fries basket.  I really love those when they are done right.  It was so fun!  And we have some left on the card so we can go again!  We agreed to go on a Thursday again because the special on Thursdays is pasties.  We'll both get one.  Yummy!

One thing that's been on my mind is this book I've been reading.  It's called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.  You guys might enjoy it too!  It's only $2 or $3 for Kindle.  It's really interesting.  So far the author has validated that being an introvert is not wrong or bad.  It's just one personality type, and it's every bit as needed as the extrovert type that is so widely preached as necessary.  She went into the history of our country and how it came about that people worship extroverts and shun/work against introverts, and also how our schools have been taught that those are the people to look out for, that they are problem people.  She even mentioned Dale Carnegie and how his work has contributed to the problem.  (She wasn't saying that he did something wrong.  I think he's done a lot of good in the world.  She was just saying that in some cases people are being encouraged to be something they're not to achieve some goal of great salespeople when in reality they're just going to be getting a job in the mailroom or something.  She's just pointing out that while Carnegie is helpful, people have taken it to the extreme of saying that anything but being an extrovert is bad and needs to be discouraged.)

So anyway, I've been thinking about this as I read it.  I am so glad I came across it!  I feel it gives me more license to just be who I am.  I don't have to feel bad for being a quiet thinker.  It's who I am.  It's not wrong and it doesn't need fixed. :) So there is another book for you to go read!  I do think you would like it too, Mama!

Oh, and before I forget, a few months ago I found that I could sign my kiddos up for BookIt!  This is a program that Pizza Hut has.  The kids are given a goal for reading, and if they meet it they can have a ticket to get a free personal pan pizza.  My kiddos used to get those from the schools, but homeschoolers can do it too.  Pretty cool! :)  Hyrum and Joshua are too old and Timmy and Brom are too young, but I have 3 who can do it.  On Monday I filled out their tickets (and my early voting ballot since I needed to finally get it done and since the courthouse is over by Pizza Hut - convenient!) and took them to get their pizzas.  They were so pleased!  The lady gave them little cards to take in and get a sticker each time they get their free pizza.  If they get all 6 months they are entered for a drawing of some sort, or something like that.  And she told them to be sure to read every day.  Since then, Jill has been even more excited about me reading to her, and has been bringing me books every day to read to her.  It's been great!  It does mean that we have books scattered all over the house, but we'll get them put away.  I'd rather have that than not read to her.  She brings them to me and said, "The lady told me that we need to read every day so I can get another pizza!" :)  Good on you, Pizza Hut!

Jeremy's mom works at the local Boys and Girls Club.  Apparently NASCAR came and gave them some great tickets, and there ended up being extra tickets.  So she decided to take Dad and my older boys with her. :) Hyrum decided he didn't want to go, but Joshua, Benji, and Michael went, and they had so much fun!  They were up in a box, away from the crowds and noise, and they were fed the whole time.  Benji cheered for #99 right from the start, and that one ended up winning.  He told me that after he won he did some victory donuts.  Ha ha!  Well, cool!  I'm glad they got to go!  When I told Jeremy where they'd gone (we had very little notice and I couldn't get hold of him), he said, "Well, good thing they went.  That's some place I'm never taking them."  Yep!  I must admit that I was a tad bit jealous, though!  I'm so glad for them!  Here are the pictures she sent me:

Cool, huh? :) So exciting that they got to go!  Also, I've gotten quite used to Michael wearing glasses now.  Sometimes he forgets to put them on in the morning, but at least I'm at the point where I can notice and send him to get them.

 

Here's another picture.  Brom fell asleep like this in Priesthood two Sundays ago.  (Last Sunday I stayed home with all but Jeremy and Benji because they were all coughing and sick.  We didn't want to pass that on.  It was pretty bad.  They were all coughing constantly!  Thank goodness for cough drops and Vitamin C!  They're all a lot better now!)  How does somebody fall asleep like that?  It looks so uncomfortable!  But so cute!

 

This has nothing to do with these pictures, but as I've been working on my summer 2012 book I've realized it's going to be too long to be printed.  I'm going to have to make two books of it.  I've already done the division process, so now I'm working on two books.  Well, I should be able to get a deal printing them together!  Anyway, it's exciting working on them!  Also I've been adding more pictures just because I can.  There are a lot more awesome pictures that just the ones he sent. (And that's interesting because what he did send really took FOREVER!  I can't believe how many he sent when it took so long!  He's awesome!)  I'm still so excited that he got to go all those places!  And also, now he owes me a trip somewhere. ;)

 

And here are a few more pictures.  I told you Jeremy and Hyrum went to that youth conference last month.  Here are a few pictures.  Hyrum had a BALL.  He loved all the classes, and he loved that dance.  He's a pretty good little dancer, too.  He danced with 8 girls - at his first dance!  I'm pretty proud of him for that. :) It's a lot due to his friends' prodding, so yea for them too! 

 

Uncle Gary did one of the classes.  I told Jeremy he needed to get a picture. :) I wish Hyrum could have been in it too!

 

Here is the dance.  There were so many people they decided the gym was too small for the dance, so they did it in the parking lot.  You can see Hyrum there cutting a rug. :)

 

And here is Hyrum dancing with a GIRL!  Kind of fuzzy, but you can see that he's smiling. :)

 



Thankful

Soooo....

I've been reading that book I just got printed, and I came across a post where I used this picture.  The post talked all about how I was so much more selfish back in the days when we were just dating and when we got married.  I know that I was just using this cute picture to have something cute to look at at the top of the blog post.  I wasn't trying to be selfish.  But it is kind of ironic, and it kind of makes me laugh at myself a bit.  Not in a mean way.  :)  You know.

Anyway, I looked at this picture and smiled and remembered and then read the post and thought, "Now, wait a minute.  Why didn't I comment on how cute this picture is?  Why didn't I say how cute we were?!  There are a million things I could say about this picture!"  So maybe I'll say some of them now.

For starters, look at us!  We were so cute!  (I happen to think we're still kind of cute. :) ) I also could say that I loved it when he'd come up behind me and hold me like that.  I felt (and still do feel) so safe when he holds me.  I believe that that is a hymn book, some letters, and a hanger.  I think I left that hanger at his parents' house one weekend, and he returned it.  I was so obsessive in those days about remembering things that I actually put a piece of tape on that hanger so I could remember that was the one, and I thought of him every time I looked at it.  I'm still a little obsessive, but not as much. ;)

I think this picture was taken in the spring just before Jeremy left for his mission.  Those were some hard days for me, having him gone.  It was a long, long two years.  But still, if you ask me it was worth every minute.  I waited for him on purpose, and I'm glad I did. 

But most of all I want to say I'm thankful for the choice I made to marry Jeremy.  I'm thankful for him and the sacrifices he makes for us.  I'm thankful for the love we share.  I'm thankful for how he makes me laugh every day and for how he laughs at my jokes - or just raises an eyebrow if they're not really that funny. ;) I'm thankful for the example he sets for all of us, for his firmness in the Gospel despite our many trials, and for the many times he has taken me to the Temple.  I love how he helps me feel centered.  If I'm feeling flustered or upset he listens to me.  And sometimes all I need is for him to be there for me to remember that everything is ok and to bring my focus back to where it needs to be.  I love that.  I love him so much!  I'm thankful that he chose me too, that he continues to choose me.  I look forward to many more happy days with my Jeremy. :)

Happy Halloween!

One thing I love about this time of year is that I can finally open the living room curtains and have them stay open all day. :) In the summer time Jeremy will close them if I open them because he says it lets the heat in more to have them open.  He's right.  We have single pane windows, and they do let in a lot of heat.  But I like the curtains open!  Even if we do have an eyesore house across the street. XD

I think my camera has officially died.  It shuts off and insists that I put in new batteries, even if I just did. :( I'm so sad.  The new camera I got makes everyone look sunburned.  I wish I had bought the one I was looking at first.  Maybe I need a new simple camera like the dying one for Christmas.  I gave the new one to Jeremy and he thinks it's wonderful.  I'm so glad he's had so much fun with it. :)

I told you we made a robot costume for Timmy, right?  He LOVES that thing! He keeps finding it and putting it on and then walking around looking pleased.

I'm kind of feeling disappointed.  I said some time that my heel was hurting from running, right?  Well, yesterday I went to the gym again.  I decided to try to take it easy because my heel was still kind of hurting.  I ended up running a mile after walking a couple of laps.  I tried to focus on turning my foot out a bit.  See, I'm the kind of person who walks on my insoles more than on the outside of my foot.  I thought maybe the hurt was because of striking too much on the inside part of my heel.  That's where it hurts.  So I turned my foot a bit so that I was running more on the outside part of my foot.  I thought it worked.  It didn't hurt while I ran.  It didn't hurt until hours after I was done, and then it sure hurt.  I don't know what to do.  Do I go back to the elliptical where my toes go numb?  Do I just walk on the treadmill?  That feels like cheating, and, besides that, I want to fill in my running chart!  I'll figure out something.  It is sure frustrating, though.  I was sure that after a week off it would be all better, but it's not. :(

Now on to Halloween pictures.  Some of these are from the Burk Halloween party, some are from trunk-or-treat, and some are from our house.  Trunk-or-treat was last night, and I was actually doing really good.  We were going to be almost on time, but those last minutes sure get sucked away fast looking for shoes and such.  And then we decided to wait for Jeremy, and he hadn't eaten yet and needed to use the bathroom.  We didn't get there until like an hour after it started, and everybody was packing up and leaving. :( The kids each got a couple pieces of candy, so we just went and got some candy at the store and Jeremy handed it out from our bedroom door.  He put on a few different costumes and had them come back for more.  First he was himself with a squeaky voice, and he called Michael a fairy princess.  Michael's brothers thought that was very funny.  Then he wore his cloak.  Then he wore his Freeport McMoRan hat and safety vest.  Then he wore his spaceship apron and straw hat.  Then he wore his cap and gown from ASU and his hood from INSEEC.  It was great fun. :)

Jeremy bought a bunch of pumpkins, and we cut out faces on them.  There were enough for everyone.  Here's Brom making his surprised face and eating a piece of pumpkin that got cut off.  I'll have to post more pictures on the photo site someday.  This one makes me laugh. :)

 Here's Jill at Grandma's Halloween party.  I thought I had a better picture of her, but I don't!  I'll have to try again.  She had her pink leotard, pink tights, her blue tutu, and pink ballet slippers with pink ribbons sewn on.  And I put her hair in a bun with a pink bow on it.  She felt so beautiful.  It was fun. :)

Hyrum got his hair painted red and yellow.  He hated the spray and decided we needed to not spray it for trunk-or-treat.  Darn! 

 

Timmy the robot

 

Bubby! I think all of my boys wore this costume.

 

Michael got his hair sprayed red, and then he colored red around his eyes for trunk-or-treat.  He says he was a fire wizard.

 

Poor Hyrum was sick.  He's been sleeping and coughing today. :( He couldn't even make it to Seminary this morning.  (You know Hyrum is pretty sick if he insists on missing Seminary. :( )

 

Benji bought a mask to go with his holey clothes, but it wasn't allowed at trunk-or-treat.  He was trying to look weary in this picture, I think.  He colored with gray marker on his face like five o'clock shadow, and I think he said he was a guy who had traveled a lot or something.  I had actually bought him some zombie makeup, but we found that the package said it wasn't for people under 15.  Dang it!  He was kind of bummed.  And then we were too late for trunk-or-treat anyway.  Ugh.

 

Joshua - I don't think he said what he was.  He just thought this get-up was funny - the beard and the glow-in-the-dark wig.

 

 Jeremy pulled Timmy and Brom's costumes out of the back of the car so we could get them dressed.  He put them on his head and told me to take a picture.

Here is Freeport Man, ready to hand out candy.

 

And a guy with Twizzlers in his apron.

 

 

And a graduate who needs to shave.  Ha ha!

 

 And here is Benji in his mask.

 

I think we're done with Halloween now.  We may be going camping tomorrow, and then we'll miss all one of the trick-or-treaters that come down our street.

Winged it

I'm not sure what to write about.  It'll probably come to me as I start talking. :)

My blog book came in the mail today! :) I'm so excited!  It covers moving to Utah all the way until Jeremy leaves for Paris.  It's big, it's blue, and it's beautiful!  Some of the pictures came out darker than I hoped, but overall I'm quite pleased with it.

We had a Burk Halloween party last night at Grandma's house.  I am such a horrible procrastinator!  Halloween is my biggest procrastination season.  I leave as many costumes as possible until the last minute. :) Ha ha!  We made Timmy a robot costume with a box and dryer hoses.  Of course, I waited until yesterday afternoon to start.  And Jill was a ballerina.  All I had to do was sew ribbons on her ballet slippers and get her dressed.  She felt so beautiful  It was so fun! :) Michael and Hyrum wanted their hair sprayed different colors, so I had to do that.  Thank goodness Joshua and Benji did their own costumes.  And thank goodness Brom's is the good ol' pumpkin that all my boys took a turn wearing, I believe. We also had to make some stinkin' mummy dogs (pigs In a blanket where you roll the biscuit into a snake and wrap it around the hot dog like a mummy) for the party.  The funny thing is that just the night before we watched how hot dogs are made.  I think I've seen it before, but man!  That is so gross!  They take the leftover, fatty bits of chicken, pork, and beef, and they extrude them through a meat grinder, and then they mix it with lots of salt, some corn syrup, and water in a huge vat.  It looks like pink diarrhea.  Gross!  Then they put it in the casing and give it a salt bath and steam it and whatnot.  Not at all appetizing.  It felt weird to be buying hot dogs after watching that!  Anyway, so we were late after getting all the costumes and mummy dogs together.  Oh, well.  Their part of dinner wasn't ready either.  And Jeremy had class that night and then a tutoring session, so he didn't get there until just before we started singing pumpkin carols (I hate those!) and trick-or-treating to the bedroom doors.  There was also apple bobbing in the bathtub, as per tradition.  All my family but Brom and me tried it.  Yeah, I'm a party pooper. :) It was a pretty fun little party, though.  I'm glad we did it.  Some years we run out of time.

I read an article just recently that was written by a lady who gave good reason to just go with the flow when "six-foot trick-or-treaters" who are only half-costumed show up at your door.  She said that she always kind of grumbled about them, but then one year her own son was a teenager.  He asked if he could have friends over on Halloween, and she said, "Of course."  Well, when the friends showed up, they decided they wanted to go trick-or-treating, so the lady and her husband scrambled around finding costumes.  She pointed out that maybe a lot of kids end up going half costumed because they don't realize until the last minute how very badly they would want to go after all.  That sounds familiar, as I watch Hyrum and Joshua headed that direction.  I definitely have a lot more compassion for those silly teenagers than I used to.  Ha ha!

Hyrum had been adamant about having a full costume the last few years, even though he was getting a little old.  Then this year he just wanted his hair sprayed.  I tried to convince him to be broccoli like his friend Nolan suggested.  Green hair paint and a green shirt.  Perfect!  He's got the curly hair to set it off perfectly.  But he didn't want to.  So he was red and yellow speckled, and it sounds like he's just going to be himself tomorrow at trunk-or-treat.  And this year, Joshua, who also always wanted a full costume, just bought a beard, and I bought him a white glow-in-the-dark wig to go with it.  And he wore the cape from his Darth Vader costume.  I'm not sure what he was supposed to be.  I don't know if he knows, either, but he giggled about it.  That's good enough for me. :)

Benji wanted to be a zombie.  He had a button-down shirt that had a big hole in the back, so he used that and just cut some more holes in it.  He had some pants that he insisted were holey, but I didn't see them until last night.  They had a bit of, I guess, holes down at the back of the cuff.  I nearly cried when I found he took the scissors to them as well.  I just held my tongue and went with it.  We'll buy him new pants if he needs them. :)

Michael found a red phantom costume at Fry's, and I got it for him.  He lost his hood, so he decided he wanted his hair sprayed red.  OK. That worked all right.

So there you go.  They were all costumed. :) I didn't get pictures of all of them, so I'll try to get the rest tomorrow night, and then I'll post them.

Purpose

So I know it's monotonous, but I'm still thinking about school and how to make it work.  I decided that I need to find out what in the world I'm supposed to be studying and start studying it.  In the meantime, I read my Patriarchal Blessing, and it mentions learning and being prepared to teach the Gospel.  I guess that answers that question, huh?  I'm lame and never finished the Old Testament, so there's a place to start.

I've also been thinking - one thing I need to share with my children every day in our little devotional (if I can ever get into that habit!) is my love for the Gospel.  It is lovely, exciting stuff, and I love it.  My kids should know that and catch it themselves.

Joshua has been increasingly frustrated lately and has been dragging his feet, laying around yelling and screaming.  That is a good indicator that he's getting bored with what he's doing and that he's ready to transition.  I need to help him find a purpose and get moving.  We need to figure out what he wants to accomplish and map it out.

Hyrum is ready for scholar phase but is too busy goofing off.  He's so funny!  He would spend all day watching funny videos if I let him.  Right now he's supposed to be working on the assignment Jeremy gave him - a report that answers his own question about the difference between mushrooms and toadstools.  He looked it up and found that there is no difference.  I thought, "What in the world?!"  After a while he said, "Well, there is no difference, but toadstools are poisonous."  Uhhhh... That sounds like a difference to me. Ha ha!  I need to help him draw up a plan and start studying.  I'm actually waiting on the next TJEd book to come in the mail.  It's TJEd for teens, and we're supposed to both read it, and then maybe I'll feel like I know more what to do.  I think, though, that this is one of those figure-it-out-as-you-go things since it's so personalized.

Benji needs to ask some questions and do some projects, and so does Michael.  That is the phase they should be in now.  Science experiments and whatnot, I'm guessing.  I need to help them make a plan as well.  I think today would be a great day to sit down and kind of hammer out some details.  I'm looking forward to it, though.  I think my biggest hurdle is whining.  They know how to push my buttons, and I too easily give in because all my life my job has been to not ruin anybody's life, to not rock to boat or.  Time to just remember that I'll ruin their lives if I don't insist.

I've had the distinct impression lately that what Timmy needs is for me to teach him to read.  That is where Jill is also.  I also feel that I need to employ the older kids to help the younger kids with that.  The only problem is that they don't want any part of that.  They only want to be read to and taught by their mommy.  I think maybe if we did it in kind of a class setting with a coloring page to start with they might do better.  I don't want to push Timmy, but I do want to help him, and it seems like learning to read (even if it takes a long time and we go slow) would be a blessing to him and help him in his learning to talk.

Bubby has been having a hard time lately.  I think he might have gotten hurt falling down.  He has been kind of fussy lately.  And he is getting so quick!  He is practically running everywhere he goes, and he is getting to be quite an experienced climber.  So he runs and then climbs, and before I know that he's gone anywhere he falls off a chair or something.  It's either that or he trips while he's walking and falls on his face.  Or Timmy comes along and pushes him down.  Poor fella!  Argh!  I think Brom is learning to be a little more careful, though.  When he climbs on the couch, he's learned to go down on his belly and slide off.  I'm kind of relieved.  I figure that since I can't follow him around all the time, at least I can try to teach him how to get down safely.  So I've been trying to help him learn that, and he's getting it.  Sometimes he climbs up on a chair in the kitchen and then stands there and cries because he can't get down.  I would rather go get him down than have him fall down.  I recognize that "I'm stuck" cry and we rush in and save the day. :)

Vent

Maybe I'll take this down tomorrow. I'm feeling mad right now.

Remember how I was complaining about doing more than our fair share of Sunday dinner? And how I was happy that we would have a few weeks off? Well, I was wrong about time off. It's Becca's turn, and she asked to do it at our house. Hers is too small. That made me feel frustrated! We did get some good cleaning done yesterday, except that all the bigger things in the kitchen were piled around dirty, and the bedrooms were messy. We grudgingly (because you can't tell family no) told her she could do it here, but asked that she help us clean first (the dishes and Jill's room). Well, she helped, but we still have dishes that aren't done. And she didn't touch Jill's room at all. It's not that I expect a maid. But we had an agreement. And now she is here. She was 45 minutes late, and Mom didn't bring syrup like she was supposed to. Does that mean I need to supply that? And throw-away dishes? And a drink? I'm feeling unappreciated and taken advantage of. Honestly, if this were the first time something like this for thrown at us by Jeremy's family I wouldn't complain. But it's not. It happens on a regular basis, and it'll happen again, I guarantee.

Saturday

I've been thinking as I've been copying, pasting, and aligning things in the book I'm working on.  And last night I looked up at the wall above my recliner at the three diplomas that are hanging there. They are all Jeremy's. There's actually one more (an AAS degree) in a box somewhere, and all four of those degrees happened after Jeremy married me.  Do you know what that says?  That says that we as a family have lived through a lot of Papa in school!  Now, before you think that I'm saying that in a snide manner, just know that I'm not.  I don't resent it in the least.  Papa going to school has been a blessing in one way or another or 10 kijillion others to all of us.  I'm thankful for the experiences we've had that came from it.  He's also talking about getting his doctorate, but right now he's still just in the talking about it phase.  It all gets me thinking - I supported his decision to go to school.  So wouldn't he support mine?  Of course, he would!  Sometimes I forget that.  I want to get my bachelor's degree.  I hope I'll finally just do it someday.

Jeremy and Hyrum are off to Thatcher to go to youth conference.  I feel bad for Jeremy.  He was kind of stressing out last night, which always means he gets to bed late.  And then Brom wouldn't stay asleep, and Timmy has a habit lately of waking up at 2:30 with a tantrum, needing to go to the bathroom, even if he went at bedtime.  And when that happens he inevitably wakes up Brom, and then I'm taking care of Brom while Jeremy tries to get Timmy to go potty, and Timmy gets mad about that and sometimes he won't go.  He just wants his mommy, and Papa is not the Mama.  Last night Jeremy stood him in the bathtub after he didn't go potty, and he just stood there crying and wet his underwear.  What in the world?  So then Timmy came and got in my bed along with Brom and me. (After his underwear got taken away.  He's still laying there naked under a blanket.) Jeremy ended up sleeping on the floor, and before the night was over Jill was there with him.  Yeah, I feel pretty bad about that. I have to remind myself that it's not really my fault. 

I also feel bad because Jeremy was volunteered and really has no choice but to go.  They needed some more people from our ward, and the Young Men's leaders can't go, so the scoutmaster was automatically nominated.  Weekends are a bad time for this because he needs to prepare lessons for his college classes then.  Of course, the stake leaders are very grateful that he'll go, but man!  After last night I didn't want to send him!  Went to bed late and got up early.  And I'd rather he stayed home with me all the time. ;) Well, it ought to be a good day anyway.  He took his book with him, so he ought to be able to get some work done anyway.

I'm excited for Hyrum, though.  This is his first youth conference.  I don't think he really understood at all what it was going to be.  He got signed up without hesitation as soon as we heard about it.  He wasn't at all unwilling to go.  I'm just not sure that anybody took him aside and explained what a youth conference is.  Last night I told him, "Hyrum, you're going to LOVE youth conference.  It's like all day seminary."  His eyes got wide with delight, and he was all excited.  I think he'll have a great day. :)

And, to tell the truth, I'm glad Jeremy gets to go with him.  Not everybody gets to have their dad go with them (and not everyone has an awesome dad like Jeremy), and, besides, we were living there in Thatcher when Hyrum was born.  We have all sorts of history there.  It's where Jeremy and I met, and there are lots of places there around town where we have little memories.  We lived really close to the college after we got married, and I often took Hyrum on walks in his stroller through the college campus to pick up the mail at the Post Office. I remember pushing him along, feeling so proud as I looked down at him.  I could not get enough of that little guy.  Hyrum was just 8 months old when Jeremy graduated.

The conference today is at the Institute.  That is also a place full of memories for us.  We went to so many classes there.  I put together a bunch of puzzles and ate lots of cookies from the cookie jar and listened to lots of people play the piano there.  I put up lots of notes to Jeremy on the note board there.  I sat in the library there and studied in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism all sorts of things about the Temple as I prepared to go to the Temple.  I even got a blessing there at the Institute once, and it was just what I needed.  And it's also the place where I went to church every Sunday in college.  I was in at least a couple of Relief Society Presidencies, and the wives of the members of our bishopric worked with us.  I love those ladies a lot.  James and I both bore our testimonies there at church one Sunday, and he said he was proud of me.  That is something I'll never forget.  And it's where I received my recommend to go to the Temple for the first time! :D I love that place!

I've got a sore, achy throat this morning.  It's aching all the way down my sternum too.  I started to lose my voice last night.  I don't like losing my voice.  I think I ought to take some more Vitamin C and go back to bed while I still can.  It's just so nice being up while everyone's sleeping sometimes. :)

Benji

Benji has been wanting to cook a lot. Well, the boys all have. Today Benji got his job and school all done and even did a bit extra stop he could make dinner. He picked steak, which Timmy calls snake, and scalloped potatoes. I helped him with the potatoes. They came out so yummy! I think I would make them more often if they didn't take so long to make! Benji cooked the steak himself. He did better this time. He cooked it slower so it got mostly done in the middle. :) Improvement! Jeremy likes his steak still mooing a bit, but I don't!

Anyway, yea for Benji! One more thing he can make.  :)

And since it's throwback Thursday for one more minute,  here's a picture of Benji and Michael back in 2009 or so. :)

Wednesday

Today turned different from how I expected. I went shopping in the morning and it kind of threw everything off. I left my phone in my purse after the shopping trip, so I didn't get the reminder to take Benji and Michael to scouts until 20 minutes after it started. At the time I had the two little ones in the tub. And soon after I saw we were late I got a call from their den mother. She wondered if the boys were coming. I said I forgot, and by the time I got everyone loaded in the car and drove over there scouts would be almost over. She told me to please bring them anyway because it was really important for them to be there that day. (We're still not sure what in the world was so important.) So I got the little ones dressed and got over there. I decided to just stay there since it was almost time to go. We ended up playing on the grass while we waited. That was fun, and I took pictures on my phone. (I'd upload them, but they're on my phone.) My favorites were of Jill holding Brom's hand as he walked down the sidewalk. :) We ended up being there long after time to go, and I'm still not sure why. But then there was no Boy Scouts. That made the schedule feel weird.

I also didn't go to the gym. Last night my heel was hurting way more than when I wrote. I decided I'd better take a day off, and it made me sad. I might should have just gone and done upper body. Oh, well. Tomorrow is another day.

Speaking of the gym, Benji has been coming with me most times. He plays around a lot, but he does use the cardio equipment a bit. Sometimes Joshua comes too, and he and Benji have a great time joking with each other. I like that. I think Benji likes the extra attention. I like the company, and I also hope I'm setting a good example.

Brom still doesn't want to be weaned. I'm having a hard time finding things he'll easy instead. He does like peaches, bananas, applesauce,  and yogurt, but not every time. He likes Graham crackers with milk, but Graham crackers are of limits for me because they give me the runs. I need to not even buy them because I like them do much I eat them anyway if they're in the house. Anyway, so he's still nursing a few times a day. Oh, and waking up at night, refusing to sleep in his own bed. Jeremy wants me to go cold turkey. Well, for one thing, OW! For another thing, I feel like I'm getting to little sleep as it is, and when I have to be up at five to take Hyrum to Seminary every morning I just can't bring myself to put myself through the long nights of crying. That obviously means it needs to happen anyway, right? Maybe I'll try on the weekend, but then I won't be able to keep my eyes open in church. :P Frustrating! Well, I'll figure it out eventually.

Two in a row - I'm on a roll!

We've been fighting sickness for about 2 1/2 weeks.  It really shows on my chart on the wall that tells how many miles I've run.  After that week where I ran 14, I only ran 10.  The next week I ran 4, and last week I only ran one. :( Between Brom and I feeling yucky it was hard to leave the house at all.  Either I'd feel too yucky or he'd feel too yucky and fuss all day, and you can't really leave the house when your baby is feeling yucky.  He's feeling a lot better now, though, and I'm feeling better except for the infection in the back of my nose.  (I hate those!  I am cursed with them every winter. :P) So this week I'm already doing a lot better.  I have already run 6 miles, and I'm hoping to make it 15 by Friday. :) My bum and my foot are complaining.  My hips were complaining, but they stopped when I stretched them.  I'm not sure how to stretch my heel or my bum.  Ha ha!  But I feel so good!  This is exactly what I needed! :) It feels good to be back on track, and now I'm trying to take a look at our menu and see how I can be sneaky and decrease calories at the same time.

I said yesterday I think that I'm working on a book again.  This one is the summer of 2012 when Jeremy was in Paris.  It's actually kind of a fun book, and I'm excited to have it done.  I'm putting in Jeremy's pictures and the emails we wrote back and forth.  It'll be awesome!  I'm not looking forward to the next one as much because it will have the part about a certain someone I've been trying to forget, and I feel like I failed the test of being kind and loving while she was here.  I was way too whiny.  I don't like remembering what she did to us or how I reacted.  Well, for now I'll just finish this one and then hurry through the unpleasant parts of the next.

This is totally out of nowhere, but I really like the herb basil.  I've had a hard time with it, though, because it goes bad in the fridge before I can use it (I like it fresh).  But yesterday I found chopped frozen basil.  It's like a little ice cube tray, but it's little cubes of basil, about 1 teaspoon each.  Cool!  I'ma put some on some chicken tomorrow. :)

Here are some picture just for fun. :)

Jill picked these roses at the park and then planted them under the playground. :)

Hooray!

Jeremy and I were able to go to the Temple together on Saturday.  It's been a long time since I was able to have him go with me.  He hadn't seen any of the new videos, but he got to see the first one now. :) It was heaven having him there! :) I thought that he'd want to go to our new Temple, but I guess that the Mesa one is home still in a way, so that's where we went.  You can't tell, but that's where we are in the picture.  We just needed to turn around so you could see the Temple. :)  I think he thought I was silly for doing a selfie.  I agree it's kind of silly, and most of the time I wouldn't do one at the Temple, but this was kind of a big moment for us.  I decided it needed a picture of us to go with it.

Anyway, I'm so thankful!  It was beyond description.  It was beautiful!

And afterwards we were both starving, and we didn't really have a plan for where to eat.  We got as far as Signal Butte on the freeway and Jeremy said, "There are lots of places to eat on Signal Butte."  So we went that way and ended up at In-N-Out Burger.  That was the second time I've been there.  Oh, my goodness!  So yummy!  It's surely super bad for you, though, so it's a good thing we never go there!  Jeremy ordered a double double with extra grilled onions.  That was a lot of onions!  I thought they grilled those onions a little too long, too.  I didn't like it much.  But I did love my regular double double with regular onions. :)

Yesterday Hyrum led the Priesthood as they sang in Sacrament Meeting.  Did I mention how proud I am of him?  Ha! :) Anyway, they sang Called to Serve.  He has been leading the music in Priesthood every week since sometime soon after he turned 12.  He's getting good at it!  I asked Jeremy how Hyrum ended up doing it, and he said that just one day Brother Brown (from the bishopric) asked Hyrum to lead the music in Priesthood, and then he asked him again, and now he just gets ready to do it first thing when he goes in there.  It's funny to me how a lot of responsibility is placed on his shoulders by our ward as well as our family, but kind of appropriate as well since he is who he is.  He does it all so well.  And they're all proud of him as well.

And speaking of which, I feel so proud every Sunday watching him and Joshua pass the Sacrament.  I have felt an increasing need for my family and me to stay strong, to stay in the church.  Of course, we do quite happily and willingly.  It's not something I resent, but I do feel a sense of urgency about it that wasn't there before.  So anyway, seeing them passing the Sacrament and watching their testimonies grow is a huge blessing on my head every Sunday.

And speaking of testimonies, for the last few years every time we have Conference I look at that huge audience and think how cool it is because every one of those people, or at least a huge portion of them, represent a testimony.  Every one of them represents God speaking to man on an individual basis.  So in a way, they all represent that God cares for each one of us individually and loves us as we are.  Also, I've learned as a parent that I love my children BECAUSE of how they are.  Yes, they all have their own individual struggles, but I love them!  And I would even go so far as to say that when Timmy is acting autistic (how else could I possibly say that and mean that it's not intentional but is part of who he is?) my heart swells with love for who he is.  That was a surprise to me!  I knew I'd love my children even if they had disabilities, but I never realized I'd love them because of them.  (I have a hard time with that word - disabilities - too, but I'm not sure exactly how else to say that.  Just know that autism is not something that I feel needs cured in my children.)

So anyway, that was a long tangent, but my point is that I think God loves us BECAUSE of how we are just like how I love my children.  Not that that is the only reason he loves us, but I feel certain it's one reason.

And this is certainly off-topic, but yesterday at family dinner somebody was talking about scary movies.  They said that so-and-so's kids have seen every one of the Lord of the Rings movies and every one of the Harry Potter movies, and that those are just too scary and they would never show them to their kids.  I just sat there playing a game on my tablet and stifling a chuckle.  (No, we are not into horror movies, and we do try to be selective of what we show them.  Yes, we are into movies that go along with good literature.)