It's All Relative

Believing gets you there...
Knowing keeps you there...

Live like you believe...
Live like you know...

It's one sure way your faith will grow.
Listen to your heart
Search in your soul
And you'll find the strength that you need
When you live like you believe...

We celebrated Thanksgiving with 29 of our closest family and friends. Everyone had a wonderful time and stayed until 10:30p.m. My brother in law even said...You need to say, "We need to go to bed dear, so these fine folks can go home now.." The food was delicious. I'm so grateful for my sweet husband who worked so hard getting things ready for our guests. He transformed our garage/man cave into an inviting space for our family. He set up tables and cooked the turkey and carrots and onions in the dutch oven. (Ricardo's brother gave us onions and carrots from his garden and they were delicious.) I couldn't have done it all yesterday without him. I prepared the gravy, stuffing, yams, green bean casserole and a carmel apple salad. I should have doubled the carmel apple salad, that went fast.... Others brought homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, green salad, Dixie salad (a family tradition), pies and yummy pumpkin bars. The kids all worked so hard getting ready for our company. Getting our house ready is quite a task. We worked in the house and in the garage/man cave making sure everything was clean and organized. It was a wonderful day full of fun memories and togetherness. I am so thankful...my heart is full.

We celebrated our annual Girls Weekend Getaway this past weekend. We left Thursday morning and got home Sunday evening. We rented a gorgeous home in St. George for all 13 of us to fit in. It was a 5 bedroom 3 bath home with a ping pong table and a pool. We loved every minute. We stayed up until 3 or 4 each night (morning) talking and sewing. We stayed up later than the girls did. They konked out around midnight each night. We wore them out.

Our ward is doing a Celestial Ward project. I'd never heard of it before, but it's a pretty neat goal. Each of us are responsible for finding names to take through the temple from baptism to sealings. Our ward goal is 400. The size of an actual ward, but "celestialized". So my Mom sent me three male and two female names for us to do. "A" and I thought we'd start our girls weekend by going to the Temple. "A" did the two baptisms and confirmations. Our ancestors were her 5th and 7th great grandmothers on my father's side. They were born in the early 1700's. "A" got all ready and we headed into the font. We were the only ones there. Right after we were done a huge group came in so we were grateful we had gotten there when we did. I had the opportunity to witness the baptisms and I was so overwhelmed at the wonderful feeling of the spirit that was there. They had been waiting about 300 years to be baptized and they were there to accept those ordinances. It was a wonderful experience.

We met up with the rest of the girls afterward and went shopping to stock our rental home for the weekend. We were so happy to be together to spend some quality time. It was me, my four cousins who are sisters, a cousin's mother in law and then our daughters. We laughed until we cried all weekend. We enjoy each other's company so much. They are not only my cousins but my dear friends who love me no matter what! I'm so grateful for our close relationships. There wasn't any drama this weekend. The girls loved spending time together and didn't want the weekend to end.

We made scripture bags, bracelets, rings, headbands, necklaces and earrings. We took pictures of every activity. We took the girls to the beauty college for up do's and manicures then we went out to dinner to show off their awesomeness and attractiveness. We ate late, stayed up late and only REALLY slept in on our last morning together. We decided to do a service project and made 7 blankets and got two more cut out to donate to the local hospital. They turned out so cute. We all wanted to keep the blankets, but we knew that the hospital desperately needs them to have for the new babies. Well, at least 9 of the babies. We are going to do a service project each year from now on. We also decided that next year we are getting up do's and manicures while the girls are getting theirs. We wondered why we were just waiting for them and not doing it along with the girls.

So now it's back to life and back to reality....Until next year....

We woke up to 6 inches of snow today. And I'm not April Foolin'. I'm so glad we didn't try to go camping. For a long time we didn't trust the weatherman. If he said 40% chance of rain it wouldn't rain at all. And we would go about our plans without hesitation. Lately, if the weatherman says 20% chance of rain, it not only rains, it snows or hails. I won't look at the forecast for tomorrow. I'll tempt fate. We want to enjoy this "spring" weather while we've got it. We're getting cabin fever. Come on Spring....we're waiting...patiently.

On Saturday A and I attended Especially For Youth that was hosted by our Stake. I was able to go last year with a few of the girls and we all loved it. So when they advertised it this year I wanted to get as many of the Young Women there as I could. I bribed my Mia Maids with a pizza party afterwards. One of my girls told me later, "Sister S, you don't have to buy our love with food." I told her, "It's lunch time. And everyone eats lunch."

Anyways, back to EFY. It was wonderful. The most touching part I felt was when John Hilton showed a video of a song I'd never heard before. It's called "I Am" by Nichole Nordeman.

We went to Fish Lake for our annual camping trip. I had so much fun with my cute little niece. This is the way she wanted to eat her licorice. I couldn't convince her otherwise. I thought it was funny, her mother on the other hand was not as amused.

This is Potato's first fish.

Rico discovered he likes to take the camera without our knowledge and take pictures of himself. We find self portraits all the time now. Little bugger.

We took the kids to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House on our way up to Lagoon. We had our camp trailer with us, so we parked it in the overflow parking. We looked like hillbillies. We were however, able to change into our Sunday clothes and out of them as well. It's the best way to travel. The Temple was beautiful. A said she wants to get married there. They handed out free cookies and water after the tour. The kids loved the sealing room with the eternal mirrors.

GIRLS CAMP 2009!

I have had SO MANY people ask me how Girls Camp was. I honestly wasn't sure how I would feel after four days in the wilderness with 40+ women, young and old. And that was just our Ward. There were 331 girls at our Stake Camp. Crazy, I know.

But I TRULY loved and enjoyed every minute. Besides an idle threat to slash my tires....we bonded with the girls. We were truly blessed by a loving Heavenly Father and were able to reach girls I wasn't sure I'd be able to connect with. We laughed so hard. The girls asked crazy questions that we actually answered. The only time I heard any complaining was Saturday morning when I got to the parking lot and the girls were waiting there, waving their arms, flagging me down. They were in my car ready to go as soon as I opened the door. (Yes, I came home each night. Not because I wanted to necessarily :-), but it actually turned out to be a good thing....foodwise and YW wise.) They survived the last night without bathrooms and water.

I am continually trying to follow promptings no matter how small and insignificant that fleeting thought can be...I had the thought to bring a case of water when I left my house Saturday morning and I didn't. It would have brought great relief to those girls who were still waiting for the other Mom's to get there. But I didn't. And I'm trying to learn from that experience.

So now we look forward to next year. Our husbands don't. But we do.....

We'd like to introduce the newest member of our family. Daisy Mae. She's 7 weeks old and will live in the backyard as soon as we get her accustomed to her new surroundings and her "brother" Spencer. Spencer is my brother's name and when we first got Spencer he asked us to please change his name. We didn't choose that name, it's the name he came with. It was really funny when the kids started calling the dog Uncle Spencer. But I digress.... So when we were thinking of names I thought Nicole would be appropriate for our new dog. Nicole happens to be my sister in law that is married to Spencer. We laughed about it and then decided that if we wanted them to keep talking to us we'd better not. So Daisy Mae it is....

We blame Ricardos brothers for our new puppy. They both chose puppies from this same litter and A wanted/begged for a puppy too. I am not in the mood for a new puppy and we kept telling her no. Ricardo and I talked about it and decided to just go take a look. Wouldn't you know it Daisy came running over to us. She chewed on the hem of my capris and she untied Ricardo's tennis shoes. It was love at first sight. I guess it's hard for puppies to ignore anyone, but I was hoping that would be the case so that we could leave empty handed. She suggled with me on the drive home.

A couldn't wait to get to the store to get toys and a collar for Daisy. She now has a pink leash and collar. We resisted getting her dog clothes which WERE on clearance. She is tiny now, but she is going to be huge. I'll post some pictures of her as soon as I can get the kids further than one inch away from her. Sidenote: My favorite dog growing up was Daisy. She was my grandparents dog and we'd get to keep her when they went out of town. Then she ended up living with us. She put up with everything. We rode her, tugged on her tail, sat on her. You name it. And she NEVER EVER growled or bit any of us. Let's hope our new Daisy lives up to her name.

We all smell like puppy and we're loving it. Well, at least for now. She slept downstairs with A last night and I didn't hear her whine once. It'll be a different story when she sleeps outside with Spencer.

1. Don't offer unsolicited advice about my eating or other aspects of diabetes. You may mean well, but giving advice about someones personal habits, especially when it's not requested, isn't very nice. Besides, many of the popularly held beliefs about diabetes ("you should just stop eating sugar") are out of date or just plain wrong.

2. Do realize and appreciate that diabetes is hard work. Diabetes management is a full-time job that I didn't apply for, didn't want and can't quit. It involves thinking about what, when and how much I ea, while also factoring in exercise, medication, stress, blood sugar monitoring, and so much more - each and every day.

3. Don't tell me horror stories bout your grandmother or other people with diabetes you have heard about. Diabetes is scary enough, and stories like these are not reassuring! Besides, we no know that with good management, odds are good you can live a long, healthy and happy life with diabetes.

I love #3. I can't tell you how many times people off the street give unsolicited advice about Potato's condition. Unless you are living in the situation you cannot fully show or express empathy regarding Diabetes. We REALLY don't want to hear horror stories. If a family member had cancer would you tell them all the stories you've heard about people being diagnosed and whether they survived or not? I sure hope NOT! The same goes for Diabetics, and their parents.

I found a killer deal on two piece suits for our boys and decided it was finally time to get them for Church. They look like little missionaries. It's hard to believe that in about 9 years B will be getting ready to leave on his mission.

I'm preparing my lesson for this coming Sunday. It's on Honoring Your Parents. I found this and had to share....

Last night I made a new recipe. It's called Pork N Bean Casserole. It was yummy. My pickiest eater wouldn't even touch it. We all thought it was good and I'll even make it again. As Mr. Picky left the table he complained of a major stomach ache to get out of sitting at the table with us. He cried and moaned and complained for quite a while. I was not feeling sorry for him. I was upset he was being such a turkey. Then he said his head hurt. Ricardo felt his forehead and low and behold he was burning up. He laid on the couch for the rest of the evening by my side moaning and miserable. Fast forward to this morning. "Mom, I'm ready to go to school" He was dressed and ready to go. Today they are coloring easter eggs and he didn't want to miss it. Then he threw up. Why did he have to throw up BEFORE school? You can't send a puking child to school and feel good about it. You can send a "he might puke" child to school and not feel guilty though. Now, he is arguing with his brother and complaining that I won't let him go outside. What? It's 10 after 9. He just might end up going to school before he drives me completely crazy. Don't judge.


A few weeks ago we went to the store and Rico saw a policeman. He was telling his friend that his Dad carries a gun all the time and his Mom (meaning me) doesn't know. (Well, I actually don't most of the time.) Then he said. "Mom, Dad drinks Energy Drinks when you aren't around." I called Ricardo immediately to let him know that he was in big trouble. Ricardo said that he had said that over a year ago, so he couldn't be in trouble. He couldn't believe that Rico would remember to tell me NOW and not a year ago.

This past week I was sick with the flu. I got sick on our way home from getting Potato his insulin pump, (which ROCKS by the way). I had a 104 fever, cold chills...the works. I finally feel better today. I'm still a little dizzy when I stand up. I wish I didn't have 5 days worth of Mommy stuff to catch up on.