Fun new dress and learning lesson!

I got this dress before I went to Lizzie's. I didn't have any tights or nylons to go with it so I couldn't wear it until today. I love it!!! I am getting used to my new makeup and am liking it a lot. I have boughten some "bare minerals" . I had buyers remorse right after I got it, but the more I played with it the more I like how it looks. I think it makes my eyes as Lizzie said, pop out.I spent part of today and yesterday at the hospital with a lady I visit teach. She is older and hasn't gone to the doctor in 10 years. They had to do surgery on her ankle and when they got in there she had a multitude of problems most likely could have been prevented. I am going to schedule a physical!!! Even though I feel healthy and look healthy I want to know I am healthy!! I don't want to be in a position like her and have my doctors have to stop a surgery get another surgeon to hurry and come fix a different problem, so they can fix the original problem. I even am going to (don't faint!!!) get a mammogram.

Well, I am tired. I have Jake, Ruby and Miles coming tomorrow. We are so excited! But I thought I would have time today and tommorrow to get ready. So I have to hussle my buns tommorrow and go to the hospital. The lady has no family within the state of Oregon.

I love you all!!!

Harvest

I just had to share this, today is November 18th and I picked these veggies from my greenhouse. Zucchini, onions, red pepper and an orange pepper. Pretty yummy and cool!!

Amazing and surprising weekend!

After reading Megan's blog about Volleyball, I thought "peer pressure"! It never ends! This weekend was my big Weight Watchers Innovation. It is a convention with awards and education. This year my boss asked everyone to dress up in evening wear and the glitzier the better. I really just wanted to wear one of my cute suits, or wear pants with the sweater in the above pic. But I caved in spent hours on my skirt (because I made two of them as you know if you read my previous blog) and bought some new shoes that I will hardly ever wear. I got to innovations and about half were dressed like me and the others were just dressed nice. I think next year maybe I will wear slacks. I may have to wear these great very impractical but fun shoes!Judy decided to do a photo shoot, I included just these three! The first one has a shadow that I wish wasn't there, oh well!Anyway, I had a hard time making a choice to go to innovations because it is always on Sunday. I didn't go the first two years and this year I felt like I really wanted to go. I talked to Steve about it and he felt I should go. That caught me off guard because in years past he felt I shouldn't. After we talked about it at length, I felt really good about it. I felt I should go. Later, I was in Presidency meeting and this weekend came up, I was supposed to attend my own ward as a representative of the Presidency for our Primary Presentation. I told them I had a commitment and couldn't go. They all accepted that and then I for some reason felt the need to tell them what my commitment was. It got very quiet and two of the three just said I needed to do what I felt was right with a tone in their voice like I shouldn't go, and the third one was pretty vocal about it being work. All of the sudden I wondered if I truly had felt the spirit tell me it would be good to go or if it was just me being worldly. Steve reassured me it was important to go to innovations, that it was training and I couldn't get it anywhere else. I felt peaceful about it again, but every so often would wonder. I went up on Saturday, stayed at Eddie and Judy's so I could go to church. I went by myself to another stake because they were having Stake conf. I came back got ready to go and then left. When I got there it was fun and it was great to get the training and see Polly (one of my receptionists who's is also a leader) get all of her many and I mean many awards, but at one point I asked myself if it was really necessary for me to be there. Then it happened. They showed a video about people that had lost more than a hundred pounds, it overwhelmed me. It reminded me of how I felt when I had the majority of my weight off. I remembered how I felt when I first became a leader-my great desire for others to feel as great as I do, I remembered what it felt like to care! I realized that I had become complacent about my job. I had become lazy, and wasn't doing all I could to be a great leader and member. I thought about my Patriarchal Blessing that talks about not being half hearted in serving the Lord. I realized all over this is a great service I am giving to our community and I am treating it very lightly. I was overcome with the spirit, and realized why I felt I should be there. I couldn't control my emotions. I was sooooo grateful I had come. I am excited and humbled to be a leader and to be a member and get my act together. I am so grateful for those people that worked so hard to make it so nice for us. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that knows what we need and cares about all our little concerns, because they are big concerns to us. Weight Watchers is coming out with some changes in December and so I am excited to read all of them and become the kind of leader I know I can be.

The other thing I learned is something that has been on my mind all year, and that is to not judge other peoples decisions, even if they looked to you like they are wrong. I think I started thinking about this when Rebecca said the Lord told her to go back to school with the possibility that He wanted her to teach. Because it was Rebecca and I know how she has a testimony I never doubted the Lord told her. In fact even though the Lord didn't need to I felt an overwhelming feeling to be 110% supportive of her decision. It caused me to ponder judging at a new level. We don't know everything about peoples lives and why they do what thet do. I have spent this last year thinking about grace and giving people the grace that I want given to me. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that teaches us and blesses us. I love you all and am so grateful for all of you!!!

Eco-friendly bags, and upcoming weekend

Well, a couple of months ago Amy made her cute grocery bags and bought some fabric for me to make some for myself. They have been haunting me every time I go to the store. Last weekend I went to Trader Joe's (the one Jake works at) and Jake was bagging my groceries. He said as he was bagging, "mom you really need to get some reusable bags". I said I knew and I had some fabric and just hadn't gotten around to it. Soooooo this has been my week to start working on projects that have been weighing on me and "draining me of energy" Rebecca will know where that one came from! I started with some shelves in the garage, then cleaning my sewing room. I then did some other things and finally my reusable bags. The pics below are showing the contrasting bottoms. I like them and am very excited to use them. I have to say I feel sorry for the people that have to bag the groceries though, they don't stand up, they droop. Oh well!This weekend I am going to a weight watcher convention, celebration, training meeting. The dress is evening wear/glitzy. I didn't really have anything like that, but one time when I went shopping with Lizzie and bought this sweater that had kind of an evening wear feel to it. I thought if I took the buttons off and put the Rhinestone buttons Darin and Rebecca bought me once in New York, it would look glitzy. You can't tell from the pics, but they look really cool. When I have the nylons and shoes I will take a pic with my outfit on. That left me with trying to figure out what to do for a skirt. I was going to just wear my rhinestones and heels and some slacks, until I talked to Polly and she said she was going to wear a dress. Uggghhh! Back upstairs to now make a skirt. I spent hours working on this skirt that in the end made me look 20lbs. heavier. I had this feeling deep down inside that it would but foolishly made it anyway. Well, needless to say I was very frustrated, went to bed, couldn't sleep, got up, cut the skirt up and made a new skirt out of the lining of the first skirt. I was a little insecure about it until Polly and Steve both thought it was really cool. So I am going to wear the skirt. Tomorrow on my way to Portland I am going to buy some new heels (mine are no kidding about 15 years old!) and some fun nylons.

Other than that life has been busy, but today I just crashed. I slept in, knitted, then went upstairs and finished my bags. Hope you all have a great weekend. Love you all!!!

Irritating hormones and a mostly Good weekend

Well, I have a love/hate relationship with my hormones. I have felt on the verge of tears and ripping peoples heads off and craving sweets for 3 days now. Lately the hot flashes have come back in full force. I can't hate them because w/o them of course I would never have had the 6 beautiful children I have. Right now it seems like its payback for all the good things my hormones have given me!!! I wonder if I am getting ready to start my period or if this is just dramatic changes in my estrogen levels. Oh the joys of womanhood.

Now for the good stuff. Friday I started to clean my sewing room, it's not done, but it looks a lot better! Saturday we were up at the crack of dawn literally(5:30) so we could get to the temple by 9:30. We took some stuff back to Target, and then we went to Rory's wedding. I know you don't all know who that is, but most of you know Marva who used to exercise at my house, it is her son. Anyway, we were 2 of the 4 people he invited to the sealing. I felt really humbled. It was wonderful. I think Rory and I were the only ones that got teary eyed.

We then went to Jake's. The kids and Lyndsey were in Eugene. We took Jake to Olive Garden. It was really nice to visit with just him. We had a great time. Then we all went to Trader Joe's and I stocked up. I was down to the last 5 lbs of flour and low in other things. I bought 160.00 worth of food. That is quite a lot at TJ's. We then left Jake and went on down to bed bath and beyond to take something back and then on down the road to Costco. We then went to the reception in Newport. We stayed way longer than we thought we would, but I was really glad. They showed pictures of them after they got sealed and they were so cute. I wish you could have seen them Danielle. You would have been shocked and blown away!

After we got home I was unloading the car and decided I couldn't stand my baking shelves any longer and cleaned and organized them. About an hour or two later, I finally went back into the house and went to bed. I was up again at 6:30 today so I could get to Corvallis by 9:00am. We had a ward conf to attend. Gina our President couldn't be there so I had to fill in for her. We always meet with the ward pres after the meeting. I was shocked at how scared I was. The responsibility I felt was a surprise to me. I understood why Gina always talks about how much she appreciates us. I felt so grateful I had our secretary on one side of me and the other counselor on the other side of me. I was so surprised because I have been in leadership a few times in the past, but this was different. We have to do a little training, and I had to figure that out myself. Plus I do the little spiritual message from the stake primary in the closing exercises of Primary. Now that might not sound like a big deal, but I sing for part of my talk. Gina gave the talk for the first year we visited wards and this year it is my turn. I prayed for many months about what I should do when my year came and I felt I was supposed to sing. It always makes me very nervous, and I have to talk to myself and Heavenly Father a lot before I get up to do it. I talk for a couple of min about the Savior and that I love him, then tell them my favorite song is Jesus once was a little child, then I sing the verses and ask them to come in for the chorus. I sing it acapella and you can hear a pin drop in there. Every eye in the room is on me and it is totally quiet. Then they come in on the chorus and it is so spiritual and reverent. I close with a very short testimony of how much I love the Saviour and how much He loves us. The whole thing takes about 5 min or less literally. I noticed that when Gina gave hers, she would read from the Ensign and the kids were restless, so my goal was to make it short and sweet. Today I felt better about it than I ever had, and after I sat down, they were so reverent for the last 5 min. The spirit was incredibly strong. I had that feeling you have after you do something hard and incredibly spiritual-tired and shaky. Then I knew I was going to have to give my little message to the ward primary pres. and a casual PPI. I must have prayed almost non stop until I did those things. I felt strongly I had to talk about something I didn't want to. I wasn't going to and Heavenly Father made it very clear I was supposed to. So I prayed that the Holy Ghost would tell me what to say and He did! I was led what and how to say what I needed to say, not knowing ahead of time what I was going to say. It was a very spiritual experience. I was humbled and learned a lot about Gina today (my Pres.)

Then I drove home and talked with Steve, watched a River Runs through It, cried during it, and now here I am blogging. I need to go to bed. I have a project I want to do very badly tomorrow. I will share it with you if I get it done or almost done. I love you all!

Lizzies - Disneyland, my b-day, halloween and fun

I went to Lizzie's on the 27th. It was really late when I got there, Meg was there also but asleep. The next day was my B-day! We had nummy scones that Lizzie made, I had more than I planned! They were Oatmeal, Kamut, Chocolate chip, nut, scones....mmmmmm!! We went out to lunch and that was good also, we had pizza, and salad. We all shared. Tanner and Kate loved the restaurant and the escalator nearby! Beautiful Megan and Lizzie!

Tanner and I made a tractor cake, he loved it!Then it was time for my b-day, Lizzie went all out. We had ravioli's, nummy bread, and salad. We ate outside by the pool with little candles. It was really nice and relaxing. It was a great b-day!!! I felt thoroughly pampered! Lizzie made me a delicious chocolate truffle cheesecake!Me making a wish, very important!Getting ready to blow out the candlesMe blowing out all but one. I take blowing out the candles very seriously, as you can tell by this picture. So a few nights later, I made sure to wish on the first star I saw! :-)The next day was DISNEYLAND!!!!Tanner checking out the map.Tanner decided he didn't want to ride anything he had ridden before. That was a trick. Amazingly the only things he had to do that he had done before was Peter Pan and that was late in the day. Beautiful Megan and Kate!I was in the car ahead so hurried as fast as I could to take a pic.Megan wanted a pic in front of the Haunted MansionWe went to watch the Pixar parade, and Lizzie got the kids cotton candy, I took about 20 or more pics of the following experience, it was really hard to pare it down.One of the great things about our family is our enthusiasm when we are talking to our children!The end of the cotton candy.The famous tea cups, Megan was afraid of motion sickness so she took pics. She took a bunch they were great, it is always hard for me to choose some, but I did.Waiting for the Princess ParadeKate with her Dumbo from the last disney trip, and pooh from this one.That night after we got home, at 3:30am I drove Megan to the airport. I am sure she was very ready to go home. I had only been with her for two days, so I wasn't quite ready. She didn't know, but after I pulled away the tears started flowing. I'm a boob!
The next morning was Halloween!! We made shaped pancakes and later went to a friends of Lizzies for a party and then trick or treating. It was great, Tanner would run as fast as he could way ahead of us. Kate was really brave too. It was fun. The pics below are at home later with the haul.I loved the following pics, they are alot alike but oh so cute in thier own way!Well, that is all the pics. We went shopping, ate outside another night, had family home evening, watched Tinker Bell (pretty cute) and just had a great time.
Love you all!!!!