Visit to the Arnolds

Back in June, I went to Jake and Lyndsey's for a couple of days.  We went to the Japanese gardens in Portland by the zoo.  It was really beautiful.  I had never been there before.  It is amazing how old you can get, living in the same place basically all your life and never see something like that!

They had this fun thing where you could hunt for different things and get a bookmark if you found them all.  Ruby and Miles got one. :-)  Miles is all boy, I love it.  We built a house or structure out of these cool Styrofoam blocks.

                   Ruby is growing up, watching Music videos on the computer!

Jake has chickens and built his own coup.  He grew a patch of different greens for them that he grew for 6 weeks or so, and I guess the chickens ate it up in a few days. 
We also ate out at a fun organic restaurant.   All in all a great and fun trip!

It's been so long...

I'm tempted to just blog pics.  I'm kind of brain dead right now.  When I went to Lizzie's in June I bought a new cupcake pan (I know shock that there is one I don't have!!) It was Snow White and the 7 dawrfs.  I also took my Avengers one that Lizzie gave me for Christmas or some holiday.  While I was at William Sonoma, we saw these cool decorating things.  It showed pics of 3 year olds using it and Lizzie and I read the reviews and it said that they were great.  So we bought some anc boy were they great!!!! Worth every penny.  A pain in the rear to clean up, but so worth it!  It is so much easier for the kids to decorate those detailed cupcakes. These are before we bought the cool things to put the frosting in.   Tanner and Kate 

                      Aliese and Anna after the new tools for frosting

 

Gracie

 Tanner

 Kate

 We decided that it would look better if Snow White and the Dwarfs were made from white or yellow batter, but the kids wanted chocolate!  I will post the frosting things tomorrow.  Well, I am tired, more tomorrow.

It's that time of year....

Steve went tuna fishing today.  His goal was to bring home 10.  Heavenly Father knew better, I could only handle 5.  I am trying to get the house ready and clean for the realtor to come on Saturday morning. I have been a little stressed to put it mildly.  So here I am sitting in the garage at 11:34 minding the pressure canner.  I am actually very grateful.  I love having a ton of canned tuna in my pantry.  It makes me feel very secure. I love sharing it with my family also.  i have a few close friends that get it also.  There is also a good 2 1/2 hours of set up and prep time to get the tuna in the jars.  It is much nicer at our other house because I can go back and forth from the house to the kitchen and do a few things in the early stages.  I have to admit, it is nice to not be able to leave the canner also.  I watched almost a whole season of a tv series one year.  It's one of those what I call guilt free zones.  You can't do anything else so you sit mind the canner and watch a movie or as I am doing now catching up on my blog.  Now if I weren't so tired I would probably do WW work or Beach house work, but a girl has to take a break once in a while!

Well, the last month has been a very busy one.  Almost one month to the day ago, Rebecca and Steve were sealed in the LA Temple.  It was very special.  The Lord blessed them with a wonderful sealer.  He was soft spoken and taught us some wonderful things. I had a hard time picking pics so enjoy... this is after the sealing.  They look so happy!!

 Here is Elle... too cool for school!We got to see Amy, Mike, Rebecca and Steve of course, the Leslie girls, Lizzie and Shad, and their kids.  It was wonderful. Lizzie's kids made their bed and put all their animals on there bed! Elle with Grandpa (Steve)Then I stayed for another week with Lizzie's fam and Rebecca and the girls came out for a couple of days also.  It was so fun.  Hours in the pool with me being the monster.  We made cupcakes -cool ones- Spider-man and the avengers and Snow White and the dwarfs.  Altogether we did them 3 times.  I bought the coolest decorating things.  If you decorating with frosting with kids you have to have these, they are the best.  The 4 year olds could use them.  One day later in the day Lizzie and I went shopping.  It was soooooo much fun!!!  I got some new clothes that I loved for the first time in 3 years or more!  I have felt so cute lately! The best part was that they were almost all on clearance or dramatically on sale.  I also got some cute wedges!  I wore them to WW's today and got lots of fun comments. WW's does alot for my ego.  Then when Rebecca was there the three of us went to get our nails and toes done.  That was heavenly.  Afterwards we went to dinner.  It was great!  Then home again home again jiggety jig.

After I got home I had 4 days to get everything ready for the family reunion.  It was my turn this year.  I figured out that because I traded with Megan, Steve and I won't be in charge again for 20 years!!! Is that too crazy or what!!!  I will be 75 years old.  That is just too crazy and hard to think about!!!!

The reunion was really fun.  There were 24 people counting Maddie.  Unless someone hid it from me, we had no fights or disagreements, it was wonderful.  We tried it a different way this year, we went much more simple with the food and it made all the difference. Plus we didn't do as many activities.  And most of the activities didn't start until after lunch.  It was so much more relaxing.  We had way more time to visit and hang on the beach.

We had a sandcastle contest.  That was really fun.  Way more fun than I thought it would be. We went to the spit and watched fireworks.  Had a bonfire, roasted hotdogs and made smores.  We then went further out on the beach and did our own fireworks.  We went to Strawberry hill to look at tide pools, but decided after the fact that it was a family activity, not a reunion activity..to dangerous.  But we did have fun there.We  had a fun craft for the kids one afternoon.  Someone had built a cool fort before we got there, I wish it would be there every year.  The kids had so much fun with it. Steve took all the grandkids out on his boat out into the ocean to pull up crab cages.  They all got a turn driving the boat. It was a great time.

Then they all came to our house for another night.  Sunday they all left except for Amy and Mike and Danielle and Clay.  They left on Sunday afternoon and late afternoon.

Then it was wash,wash, clean and try to put my house together and clean it so we can put it up for sale.  I have been hurrying because Megs baby is due any day now.  Pretty busy summer. But all good stuff!

I'm losing one of my counselors in Primary. That is always hard in a little branch like ours.  There are so few people that can do a calling like that.  But I'm sure the Lord will provide.

Well it is very late and I think my canner is cooled down.  So I will post more pics later.  Love you all!

Well, I have been sitting here trying to post for about 20-30 minutes and it wouldn't open up a new post! Now it is late so will be a short blog about my hair. I realized when the girl  was done with my hair that I had given her mixed signals.  But it's fun doing something different. Have gotten lost of compliments, lots of "oh my you're blond, I mean I like it, but wow you're blonde!"  Not sure about those ones.  The funniest one was like the comment I just made, and the lady standing behind her was mad at the lady for making such a big deal of my hair, she went on and on about how different it was. So the lady behind her mouthed "you look beautiful!!  I had a hard time not busting out laughing, I just smiled at her.

Love you all!

My cold didn't last long, that was nice.  It gave me a needed rest.  Gotta look at the positive.  Have been working in my greenhouse.  That is always nice, especially when I remember my music.  I forgot my music the last few times and it isn't the same, especially if the sun isn't out. The lettuce on the right hand side is volunteer from last year! Fun! The next pic is a before and after pruning Herbs. Happy me in my greenhouse!

The closer it gets to when we can put our house up for sale the more I ache when I'm down there at the greenhouse.  I always go in the house if it isn't booked.  It is always hard.  Then I read a conference talk and feel sad for not being grateful for what I have now.  It's a weird thing.
We have been talking about chickens ALOT lately.  I think when we go back to Idaho Street we are going to try our hand at chickens.  We are going to try letting them roam the property during the day.  We'll see if that works or if they get carried away by some bird or animal.  I hope it works I think it would be cool to have true range free, organic chicken eggs.  We would have to eat more eggs though!
The sun came out yesterday and today.  I hope it lasts, we have had more than our share of wind and rain this year.
I am going to start getting the house ready to sell.  Lots of sorting and giving away and throwing away.  It is amazing how many things you can disorganize and collect in 3 years!
Last month seemed like such a busy month.  I felt like I never got caught up. I watched more news than I think I ever have before. I feel more educated about my political choices than I ever have before.  It would be so amazing to have an active Priesthood holder in the White House, I hope it happens.
I have changed my exercise DVD's to a more intense set, and I overdid it and could hardly walk from Wednesday on.  I MEAN really truly could hardly walk.  My glutes were killing me.  needless to say I am going to back off a little.  I was shaking and almost throwing up after the workouts on Monday and Tuesday.

My fingernails are long again!  That is exciting. I got my hair cut and colored.  I finally had her dye all my roots.  My gray was showing up too much for my comfort level.  She got it lighter than I wanted, but that was my fault.  I really like it though, its something new.  Meg told me to have her put in more layers and it looked so good today.  I wanted to take pics but Steve was slow so we didn't have time.  I took some with my phone but they look darker than my hair really is.  Well, I'm tired, I think I will post more pics and info later. Love you all!

My visit to the California in February

I have the first cold I have had in a long time.  So I finished watching the Harry Potter DVDs, starting with the 3rd one.  I am amazed how after reading them so many times I have imagined the scenes in my mind so many times that I was wondering if those scenes would be on the screen.  I was surprised how many things I would swear were in the  movies weren't there.  Does anyone else see pictures in their mind as they read?  I assumed everyone saw things in their mind until I started studying Autism.  Anyway it was great fun and I cried at the end again of course and wanted to read the books again.  Don't know that I will, but the thought has crossed my mind.  After that I got out Avonlea and started watching those.  It's kind of nice to be too sick to do anything, but not so sick that you can't watch movies.

I read Pres Monsons opening talk the other day and it was soooo good. It talked about how one of the reasons for Conference is to gain comfort.  His opening talk did just that! Read it if you haven' already, it's not very long.

Seems like I am forgetting some things but that's what happens when you wait too long to post.  I am going to add some pics of Aliese's b-day and my trip to CA at the beginning of Feb. 

The first thing I did I already blogged about, that was going to Wish with them and seeing what that was like and watching Aliese and Anna sing.The next day was PE.  I loved it, watching a group of kids that aren't sports people, playing soccer, gotta love it!

We had a valentines party with all the SO Cal girls and kids. Aliese made these very delicious as well as beautiful chocolate covered strawberries.

 Making valentines

Do you think girls love babies?

 The valentine party table!

Heart Shaped Croutons

  Picture to put in some frames they painted.

Aliese's B-Day

Aliese is really good at this game!

Rebecca and Steve got her this great gift!

I think Steve was tired in this one.

The next day was time to go home and I realized there wasn't a pic of me, so Aliese and Anna took one with me.  I don't know where Gracie was.  The sun was very bright!
It was such a good time!  I loved every second of it!

Well, I have decided that the reason I have such a hard time posting is because I will take a ton of pics when I visit or someone else visits so it becomes overwhelming and I keep thinking I will do it the next day. Sooooo I am going to just blog as I go along and then add pics to the bottom of the post a little each time.  Hopefully I will catch up!

Lately my life has been filled with filling the callings in primary, (finally done with that one) and subbing in Primary, and learning about Autism.  We have two moderate to severe Autistic brothers.  They are one year apart, 6 and 7 going on 7 and 8 next month.  It has been quite a journey and I have learned so much.  I have had great compassion for them and their family.  As Steve has said more than once, "alot of your conversation when I talk about Primary is Alex and Xander.  I have grown to love them very much.  I have gone from wishing they weren't there to now being so grateful for this experience and being very grateful they are with us.  I won't even begin to say it is easy.  I am so grateful our Primary is small it makes it easier to help them and in the process teach our sweet junior primary that not all people are the same and that we don't have to be afraid of people that aren't like us.  That some people appear to be not smart and in reality they are very smart and just can't communicate their thoughts.  Today Alex who is in first grade and almost 7, read the word baptize before the primary counselor  could say it for him.  It blew us all away.  I can't imagine being trapped in a body that won't let me do or say what I want and need to say.  I am going to attach a video that one of our counselors sent to me.  It is something I think we should all know.  There are many misconceptions about autism, such as, they don't like to be touched, that they are all the same, etc.  Anyway I will stop, but it has been a big part of my life lately.  I have to say, one of the things that has made me very happy was yesterday at our Easter party.  They both talked in sentence style for the first time with me.  Most of the time, sentences are very hard for them. Alex came to find me when he wanted an Easter basket, I wasn't handing them out, I was doing something totally different.  In other words they know me, trust me and feel loved by me.  The huge turn around for all of us was when we started talking to them like we would any other 6 or 7 year old boy, and not overreact to their autistic ways.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4XMlhCfp3Q

I loved and was grateful for Conference.  I can't wait to read them all again.  One of the comforting things for me was that their was no talk of the economy, wars, the world coming to an end or anything like that.  Just keep the commandments, Jesus loves us and atoned for us, Heavenly Father answers our Prayers and etc.

I let my house get out of control and finally got it cleaned because we had company, and it feels sooooo much better.  I don't think I had mopped the floor since Christmas.  Pretty sad.

Besides thinking about the reunion and other things that I have to do, I have been realizing how soon we will be putting our house up for sale.  I need to start getting things organized, given away and cleaned up!  Steve wants to put it up for sale in July now.  So in other words I have the next two and a half months to get my house ready to be sold!  I will need to get it ready by the middle of June, because we are going to California for Rebecca and Steve's sealing, babysit Lizzie's kids, come home, 5 days later is the reunion, then at the end of July, Megan's baby is due.  Soooo I will need to be all ready before we go to California.  And you know something, I'm glad.  All the less time to stew an worry about it!

I want to start painting again.  I'm not quite sure how that is going to happen, I haven't painted much without a class. So I need to decide if I want to sign up for a class or just go for it!  I haven't put up my paintings that I did in Missouri. I realized the other day that I haven't put them up because I felt like they weren't just my strokes.  Then the other day I was talking to someone about my paintings and it hit me, they are all me. The teacher may have come around and put her brush on my paintings more than I wanted her too, but I realized that mine looked different than the rest of the class.  The others mimicked her work almost exactly.  When that came to my mind I realized they are me and mine.  I don't know if that makes sense but it has motivated me to want to paint and to hang up my paintings.

I also realized the other day that I need more moderation in my life.  I get on a track and go mach 1 with my hair on fire.  Then I crash, feel bad about myself and get up and do it all over again.  I had a few days this week where I actually did several different things throughout the day and it felt good.  It will be a trick for me to keep it up, yesterday I felt myself going back to the "lets play one key" thing and I realized how exhausting that is!  I don't' feel nearly as tired in the middle of the day when I vary my activities.  Wish me luck!

In February we went to Megans, we had so much fun!  Here are a few pics, the bag is my toiletry bag. 

 Love you all!!!