"Looks Like Someone's Got a Case of the S'posed'as!"

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should,
Just because you should, doesn't mean you will,
Just because you will, doesn't mean you did,
Just because you did, doesn't mean you should have....

I can talk myself out of just about anything. For instance, I've talked myself out of sleep in order to finish typing this. :) I regularly talk myself out of blogging for all kinds of distracting reasons. They're very good reasons, but there are things that, since they can't argue their side of things, end up spending a lot of time on the 'back burner.' I'm sure you're wondering what some of those things could be...

Cleaning my own room. I regularly force my children to clean their rooms, meanwhile moving stacks around in my own room in order to sleep. Granted, I don't have clothes covering every inch of carpet like they do, but I could be WAY better at making my resting room a lot more restful.

Being creative. I have a creative soul which I regularly suppress with mundane household chores. "I'll sew once I catch up on the dishes," I think to myself, fully realizing that dishes are a job that is never all the way done. "I'll write on my blog once I've sewn that dress for myself I've been meaning to." I think it is safe to say that I will eventually sew my 50s inspired dress, but if I wait until then to blog at all, my writing abilities will leak out of my ear as a dark, sticky ooze.

Reading and doing extra spiritual things during the week. I shouldn't even admit to this one, but this is easily one of the things I feel the guiltiest about as I shift it to the ubiquitous back burner. I don't mean to... I really want to read my scriptures and work on my Personal Progress goals and read extra Conference talks and I do, but not nearly so often as I should!

Taking time for myself. It's no accident that all of the things I just listed fall under this category. I am the #1 thing I neglect in my own life.

I've just come through a dark couple of weeks. You may not have noticed even if you're close to me because I hide it pretty well. The strings on my little bag of marbles have slowly been loosening and I'm pretty sure I lost a couple of them. Luckily, I have an incredible support network that helped me find them and said just the right things to help me not to feel alone and to know that I can make it. The most important revelation I had, though, was during a very tearful prayer one night. As I poured out my heart and soaked the corner of my bed, it all felt very random and hopeless and chaotic until... until I had the thought that I needed to take more time for myself. The tears slowly calmed and peace sent from a loving Heavenly Father confirmed that I needed to do more for me and not just everyone else. I was sent here to have my own experiences, not just to facilitate others'. I need to have my own joy while making joy for others. I need to remember why my husband thought I would make a good wife and pay attention to the ways that he still tells me that every day. I need to put on my own oxygen mask before I can strap one to my kids.

I am incredibly grateful for a husband who really does value who I am and what I do for my family. For my Mom who is always there with a shoulder and a cheerful "You can do it!" For two unbelievably awesome sisters who each have a unique way of encouraging and commiserating and following promptings to call me. For my brother who only has to look at me with that "Oh, really?" look in his eye that tells me I'm not fooling anyone. For friends who totally GET the disability thing and not only don't judge me for the disparaging thoughts I have sometimes, but have had them, too and it's okay. For a new day every day in which I can try new things, attempt to accomplish my goals, hug lots of people (especially little ones) and eat lots of chocolate!

Here's to trying again tomorrow to talk myself INTO doing something that is just for me!

The Game of Life

Miss Green drove her own car, until (at eight years old) she married her Prince Charming and let him drive. He has black hair, by the way, jet black hair and sparkly blue eyes. He likes to wear T-shirts and shorts and shades. Miss Green became a Travel Agent after college, but unfortunately many of her clients stiffed her and she didn't make very much. She was able to afford a nice Cottage in the country and lived a quiet, uneventful life with her husband and beautiful blond daughter with brown eyes who likes to wear purple polka dot dresses.

As an Accountant, Mrs. White made most of her money off of other people's taxes. She used this to buy a beautiful Dutch Colonial house in which she raised one boy and one girl with her husband who is blond, but doesn't have a beard or a mustache. Like most accountants, she spends a lot of time with her calculator counting her "monies" and is much more concerned with how many bills there are than what is written on them.

Handsome Rob was the last one to add children to his family car, which was red, but not Ute red, just red. His color-coordinated wife has long, red hair, blue eyes, red lips and always wants to wear... you guessed it! Red! At first, he saw the advantages of not having children right off when he declared, "It's okay that I don't have any kids, cuz then I don't have to go to the grocery store for them." All of his friends' families increasing caused visible pressure on him as he soon lamented, "I don't have a very good life cuz I don't have a child." He was overjoyed when all of a sudden his family size doubled with the arrival of twin boys! What a relief they were not girls! They must have been fraternal twins, however, because one has brown hair and blue eyes and the other has red hair and brown eyes. And not only that, but they defy all rules of time as by the end of the game, the red head was 7 years old and the one with brown hair was 16!

Bella Blue really liked to go on cruises and trips, which was just fine with Miss Green since, being the Travel Agent, she collected the money every time she did. Bella Blue amassed her fortune by being a police officer and playing the stock market. Who knew there was so much money in catching speeders and chasing after a bull market? Her husband shared her love of blue by matching his eyes to his pants, both blue, while his shirt was yellow. Oh, and his shoes were black, in case you were wondering. Their daughter, named Rosie likes to wear a pink dress with black polka dots. Not surprisingly, their son Philip likes to wear blue head to toe. They live in a gorgeous Victorian house with their white cat with black stripes named Rosabel.

I think this troupe must have met at college, not the Ute one, probably Utah State. Handsome Rob's salary of $100,000 per pay day was coveted by all other players at the table. The miraculous thing was that he was able to get it back twice before losing it the final time to his sister. His ultimate claim to fame, though was that, as the doctor, he removed tattoos from Miss Green and Mrs. White! They're keeping mum as to what the tattoos looked like exactly, though.

I think that we can all agree that, when you have cousins over to stay the weekend, Everyone can be a winner at the Game of Life!!

Winnah! Winnah! Winnah!

Okay, WHAT?! I won something? For reals? I really never do. And although everyone says "I never win anything," I'm the only one who can truly say that. I mean, the last thing I probably won was a game of Chutes and Ladders with my kids in which I tried to win by the tiniest margin possible. :D So, it's no surprise that...

This apron makes me feel like a million bucks!!

It wasn't actually my first choice (she's become so awesome, they're flying off the shelves! :D) but THIS is the one that was meant to be mine. It has my nickname on it and it is even more fabulous due to the out-of-the-comfort-zone-ness that it represents. I super love it! I wore it all day on Sunday like it was part of my outfit. :D I'm wearing it to the Ward Christmas party while I go find something to stir to feed my friends on Saturday morning. I'm wearing it to the next family party whether there's something to stir or not! I'm the new...

Glamazon Mom!

I love it because I won it and it makes me feel lucky! I love it because it's aqua and has dots! I love it because it has the most wonderful shape and makes me feel perdy! I love it because I never ever get to sew for myself and someone made it just for me! It's like tying on a burst of self esteem!

And that, my Friends, is a very welcome feeling to me! ;)

Aprons by Amy

I almost never take the time to sew for myself as I always have stacks and stacks of things planned to sew and tons of ideas that never even make it out of my head. When my good friend and fellow Special Needs Mom posted this on her blog, I decided to go for it! You should, too! Start out by going over to Positively Organic and see a pic of my beautiful friend in her awesome apron. The gal that sews the aprons is from Tooele... yet another Awesome person from Tooele... coincidence? I think not! :D Enjoy!

UPDATE! Wanna know if you're a winner or not? When the envelope looks like this!

Making a Mockery

Mock
adjective

1. constituting a copy or imitation of something; boys in mock battle;

noun

1. the act of mocking or ridiculing; they made a mock of him;

Diana and Geoffrey used their green tomatoes to make fun of raspberry jam.

Actually, we used green tomatoes, sugar and Jell-O to make some mighty fine jam. The seals are up there popping as I type. So, here's what happened...

We cleaned and de-stemmed our green tomatoes. Ours were mostly romas.

Then we dumped them in the food processor.

Voila! Green tomatoe puree. Looks tasty, no? :D

Then we got it boiling with equal parts sugar for 15 minutes.

Added a 6 oz. package of Jell-O for every 4 cups of puree.

Then we gave them a hot water bath for 15 minutes.

It actually went very smoothly, aside from one of jars not being able to take the mocking. He blew up, took his soccer ball and went home. :D

We made raspberry, strawberry-cherry or as we like to call it "strawcherry", a purple batch with 1 raspberry and 1 berry flavor that was blue and a tiny batch of cherry. YUM!

I Never Knew I Needed You

This is not the computer my Dad had, but I do remember having some like these at school. "You turned it off without typing the proper command?! It's going to explode now!"

I remember living with very little technology. I remember my Dad having a gigantic computer in his office in the basement of our house in Rose Park. Not very many of my friend's Dads had computers yet. We weren't allowed to touch it until years later with the advent of 'Sticky Bears Math' and 'Typing Tutor.' (Side note: I took bits and pieces of that computer to college with me, if I'm not mistaken. A certain monitor that said "Casper" on it sat on several desks in several of my college dorm rooms.)

Look, Laura and Angela!! I actually found a screenshot from Sticky Bears! Bring back memories?! :D

I remember when we got our first microwave. It was HUGE! It had an orange button on the brown woodgrain handle in order to unlock and open the door. We had to buy a little turn table to rotate the food around inside and things still always had really hot spots and really cold spots.

This is just like the phone we had in the hallway in Rose Park, only it was yellow or tan.

I remember when all phones were hooked to the wall and had varying lengths of curly cords that kept the part you talked into and listened out of connected to the wall. I never remember once losing the phone. Never did I hear my Mom call out for someone to call the phone so that she could find it. It was always where it was supposed to be. I even remember having an old rotary phone in the first house we rented when we moved to Pinetop, AZ. My Dad's friend (and my friend's Dad) Doc Flake called and my Dad wasn't there. I told him he was at the Roundhouse Resort, where he worked. After hanging up with Doc, I thought I'd call my Dad and tell him Doc had called. 3-tick-tick-tick, 6-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick, 9 (oh geez! The LONGEST one!)-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick, 4-tick-tick-tick-tick, 8-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick, 4-tick-tick-tick-tick, 8-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick... busy signal. Oh, right, Doc Flake probably has a push button phone. When was the last time I heard a busy signal? That nice lady that answers everyone's voicemail for them, sure!.. but no more busy signals.




And so, welcome to my world new iPod touch. I didn't know I needed to update my Facebook upstairs before I went to bed until you came. I didn't know I needed Pandora to play me music in other rooms than the office. I didn't know I needed to watch Netflix movies away from home... Landon would probably tell you he knew that all along! And who knew I needed an app to make a game out of my neverending list of chores? You did, Epic Win and I welcome you! I'm sure you are not the last app that will find its way into my heart.



Now, has anyone seen my phone?

Book Review: Great Ideas For Primary Activity Days by Trina Boice

This isn't so much a book with a plot as a book with an action plan! I am the Activity Days Leader for the 10 and 11 year old girls in my Church/Ward. Activity Days actually encompasses girls from age 8 to 11 and we do fun activities that teach and uplift and foster friendships and positive peer pressure. Through a series of events, I am currently alone in my calling. Whew! Deep breaths! I think I can! I think I can!

I remember being this age and the activities that we did when we were called the Merrie Miss. So, I feel a fair amount of pressure to get it right and teach good principles while having a lot of fun. I went to Seagull Book looking for one book and came out with this one! I thought I wanted the one that has lessons, handouts and games that you just copy right out of the book and use. Instead, I was inspired by this book by Trina Boice. It is FULL of all kinds of ideas for games, craft projects and service projects, but I also love the way that she presents the ideas. I feel so encouraged reading this book! I feel like I really can be a role model for these girls. She is so positive and uplifting and, dare I say, cute in the way that she presents ideas. And not only that, but she has organized her ideas into the categories of the goals that the girls are working towards to earn their Faith in God awards.

There, I fixed it!

Landon has a favorite pair of sandals. They have Buzz Lightyear on them and he can put them on himself... they're my favorites, too! All they really are is flip flops with elastic around the back. When they started getting too small, we tried to replace them with actual flip flops that had Lightning McQueen on them. Let's just say that flip flops and three year olds, at least my three year old, don't really mesh very well. So, taking a cue from Buzz, I rigged up ol' Lightning with fair success. I was going to cover them with fabric and sew it with the elastic stretched and all that "fancy" stuff, but then I realized that he is 3, he doesn't care! And all I really care about is that his shoes stay on his feet. So, without further ado, here's my project in pictures.

Buzz is actually in very good condition considering he wears these just about every day. I should re-phrase that... he wears these for several minutes in a row several times a day.


The white's a little bright, but I'm sure he can take care of that in short order.


Here's his cute feet. His feet really are that blurry in real life, they're hardly ever still!

P.S. If you ever need to waste some time (who doesn't have WAY too much time?) here's a site from which I borrowed the name of this post that is very entertaining.