Year in review

*Liz thought all the pictures were a bit small and so she went in and blew them up, but that pixelated(sp?) them a little bit. Sorry.(But on a side note, doesn't the blog look wonderful!)

This month (December) Ryan gave us a real scare, he had major abdominal surgery and spent 5 days in the hospital. I am hoping this is the last of his medical woes and he can focus on getting out on his mission now. I also cannot find some of the pictures I took that I know are somewhere on the computer, so when I find them I will post again. I didn't put any Christmas pictures on yet, that is a whole nother post too.

Here is the rest of our year going backwards from here. It was a great year with some fun events. I forgot to put pics from Becka getting her Master's degree in here, and if I add them now they will be out of order, so congrats Becka! We are proud of you. So without further ado, and starting in November (drum roll please)
We took Scott and Ryan to the new Brick Oven restaurant in Layton. I couldn't get them to NOT make their poo faces.
Ryan had knee surgery in November, had both knees scoped.
I love it when we get together to carve pumpkins.

Alex started her first year in High School at Clearfield High. Part of Homecoming week activities (September) was some sort of activity where they got covered in colorful glop. Not sure what it was, but she had fun.
We weren't able to pull off a full on family vacation, people's schedules were just too busy. We did all get together for a day at Bear Lake in August. Lots of fun!






The summer was full of lots of fun in the pool. Aaliyah turned out to be a real pro at jumping in and swimming across the pool (aided by lots of floaties)

We got Lagoon season passes and had lots of fun going there. LonaMae and Bri were able to come with us during one of our visits.
We like to go on the moonlight bike ride out on Antelope Island. The ride starts at the Marina at 10:00 p.m. The ride is out to the Garr ranch (11 miles) where you are fed a snack and then ride back. The picture below was taken at the ranch, before a storm blew in that was so windy it made the ride back very difficult. Fun anyway...
At our yearly pit spitting get together we discovered that Aaliyah really loves cherries. I'm glad I am not the one left to change her diapers the next day.
In June, Courtney graduated from the sixth grade. She really raked in the awards, the highlight being the president's excellence in education award.
In May, Alex and Courtney (with cousin Bri) performed in their spring dance recital. Alex really had a blast with her Zombie dance.
Courtney was in her school's performance of the Aristocats. She really enjoyed being a part of this fantastic production!
Brian turned 50 and I was able to pull off a surprise party for him...meaning he was actually surprised!
We took Alex and Courtney on a Spring Break trip to Zion's in April. It was fun to just pile in the car and be spontaneous.
Conference weekend in April we went to a mission reunion for Brian's mission to the Phillipines (Davao). I didn't know anyone, but it was fun to go with him and meet some of his companions and his Mission President.
In March Audrey, Stephanie, Liz and I took our annual trip to the scrapbook expo. Here I am with my stash. I really don't need anymore stuff, but I keep buying it anyway. Killer deals though.

There is a chance I wasn't all that good at taking pictures during January and February, or if I was, maybe I used Brian's camera...or maybe I'm just lame. So I had an odd collection of pictures of Alpine and cross country skiing trips that I didn't actually go on but someone used my camera for. Here is Becka and Scotty.

Mother's day revisited

I spoke in a ward a week after mother's day, and was telling LM about the talk. She said I should write it out on my blog. I'm not sure how well a sacrament meeting talk (especially one I didn't have written out very well) will transfer into a blog, but here goes:
When president Kennedy was buried, his wife requested that an eternal flame be placed on his tomb similar to the flame of remembrance at the tomb of the unknown soldier in France. The concept of an eternal flame is the same as that of the Olympic flame, usually a propane fueled flame that is meant to stay burning through difficult weather conditions. The eternal flame does actually go out from time to time, however it is constructed with an ignitor that sparks when the flame dies out so that it starts again. It makes the flame appear eternal when it actually dies out momentarily, but it is sparked back immediately.
On Mother's day as I sat in church, I listened to our ward primary sing a selection of primary songs and was reminded of the song about mother's that always reminds me of my mom. "I often go walking" is a song most of you are familiar with but the words of the second verse hit me with an unusual understanding of their meaning as I pondered them. "O mother I give you my love with each flower to give forth sweet fragrance a whole lifetime through; for if I love blossoms and meadows and walking, I learn how to love them, dear mother from you". This verse talks about a lifetime of sweet fragrance and a legacy of love. An eternal flame, our flame of remembrance was lit by our mothers. During our formative years she sheltered and protected that flame and when we are older that spark that keeps our flame burning comes from the things our mothers taught us.
I have been richly blessed with many wonderful mothers and mother figures in my life. The things they have taught me are like the spark on the flame of remembrance. My own mother helped me build the housing for my flame and when it starts to dim from the stormy weather in my life I remember the things she taught me and am able to keep going.
My Mom was a quirky little thing...and I do mean little. She was only 5'4" and looked even smaller next to me. Not everything she taught me was exactly accurate but as irrational as I know it is I still hold on to these things because of her conviction. I know for a fact that popping my knuckles won't give me arthritis, but I can't help but think it just might every time I pop them anyway. I know my eyes won't stay crossed if I cross them too much but just in case... I have a mega phobia about my food touching and I'm pretty sure I got this from watching my mom eat the grossest food combinations you can imagine. She used to put all sorts of gross non mixies in her juicer and then proceed to drink the glop. She was the ultimate recycler, living by the words "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. When she had lengthened my pants as far as they would go, when they needed more she would sew a band of fabric at the bottom (not as stylish as I would have hoped). She saved every plastic container she ever got. I also learned that guilt is actually a handy parenting tool. I used to get so frustrated at how guilty she would make me feel, but as parent I totally understand. I have learned that if it gets the job done, it's all good.
However, the lessons about how to be a good mother, a good member of the church, to love myself as I am, and that God loves me, are the real truths that have stuck with me and ignite the flame constantly. My Mom was crippled with Rheumatoid Arthritis from the time I was 7 or 8 years old. Physically her body was battered and gnarled, but I think her spirituality was enhanced kind of like a person who is blind has a more enhanced sense of hearing. Bear with me as I share a few of the things I learned from her.
I grew almost 10 inches from the start of my 9th grade year until the end of my 10th grade year. Needless to say, I couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. I was left a gawky awkward thing who always felt out of place. In other words I wasn't exactly thrilled with my new found height. My Mom used to take her gnarled little knuckle and dig it into the small of my back and tell me to stand up tall. She also told me that she had always wanted to be tall, and how lucky I was to be so tall. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but now her words are a daily reminder to me to be proud of who I am. I do stand tall now.
My Mom took us to church every Sunday. She felt pretty lousy sometimes, but going to church wasn't an optional activity for her. This example has carried through to her posterity. She taught us to keep the Sabbath day holy.
When i read about Sariah in first Nephi I think of my mom. My mom was a worry wort and I'm pretty sure Sariah was too. Both women had plenty to worry about. My mom, like Sariah had many children and often had to raise them in strange and difficult circumstances. My father was LT. Colonel in the Air Force and she raised us literally all over the globe, and often alone as my father was stationed somewhere the family couldn't go. i saw her stress and worry when we would make poor choices. She never gave up on us or considered any of us a lost cause. The important lesson I learned from her, in my words, through her example is, "you take what you get and you don't throw a fit". She never complained about the constant agony she was in. She learned to adapt her skills to accommodate her disability. She and my father were able to serve a mission which was something she had never dreamed of. We all thought for sure they would be sent somewhere warm since the cold weather made her condition so much worse. but they were sent to the Peter Whitmer farm in upstate New York. We thought she would feel better, but she felt worse. What she was blessed with, was the knowledge that she had something to offer no matter the limitations of her body.
I learned form her not to complain, to take what the lord has given me and run with it. I was able to hold my mother's hand as she slipped the surly bands of this earth. As hard as this was, because she had taught me from the time I was very small that our Heavenly Father has a plan for us, I knew that her death was not the end of her journey. What a tremendous privilege it was to be with her as she continued on this journey.
My mother in law was another little itty bitty woman with a great big influence in my life. More sparks to keep my flame burning bright. She didn't have any daughters, Brian is one of three sons. I was to her from the moment I met her, and true and real daughter. The love and devotion Ruth felt for Naomi I felt for her. it was truly a gift the had to make me feel like a part of her family. Of all the sparks she has added to my life, the greatest one is the spark of remembrance I feel when I see my husband working hard, being a great father, and in general being the kind of man she raised him to be. That spark reignites my flame when I am tired and out of patience, to work a little harder and give a little more.
I learned from her to be selfless and never ceasing in giving service to my family and to others. Ruth's great tribute to her mother in law speaks to my love for my sweet mother in law: "for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God". I also learned from her that a couch is called a Davenport, that margarine used to be called oleo (a trend I would like to revisit, I really like the sound of the word "Oleo"), and that she couldn't say jalepeno. Big important sparks and silly little sparks, but sparks nonetheless. When she and my father in law were taken from us I was so grateful that she through her example taught me so much about compassion and forgiveness.
After my mom died, my dad was blessed to meet and marry another wonderful woman who is a great example of mothers and has added many sparks to my flame. Elaine had already been widowed twice before, and marrying a 78 year old man with prostrate cancer wasn't exactly a good risk, but I am so happy she did risk it. She has filled a void in my children's life and been a wonderful grandmother, and she puts up with my dad which is no small task. She also taught me that the guilt skill comes with mothering.
My friends, my sisters, my daughters, all add sparks to my flame. There was a time in my life when I don't necessarily appreciate my mom as much as I should. When I expected more than I should and gave her credit for less. My hope as you read this is that you will think of all the sparks your mothers, and those who serve as motherly influences in yoru life, and thank your Heavenly Father for giving them to you. I asked a few of my children if they could tell me something they learned from me. I mostly expected answers like "don't put your bicycle anywhere near Mom's car", or "don't put spaghetti down the disposal". The answers I got were actually quite astonishing to me because they were things that I learned from my mothers...Alex said she learned that I am always right! I know, who would have thought? But what she meant was, if I tell her to bring a jacket somewhere and she doesn't she always regrets it, if I ask her to do something and she ignores me, I am usually right in the end. Scott told me that he learned form me that life isn't fair, but that it always works out in the end. And Courtney said something much along that line, that even when really bad things happen, there is something good to find in it. This optimism is something that comes directly from my mom. Courtney cannot remember my mom, she died when Courtney was only one, and yet Court has a piece of her. A spark from her.
So if you love flowers and meadows and walking, if you love the gospel and tatertot casserole and camping. If you love gardening and cross stitch and wheel of fortune...we have so much to be grateful for. That our Heavenly Father in his infinite wisdom gave us mothers so that we could learn love from them. Keep your flame of remembrance burning bright by constantly reigniting it.

Wow, I sure do love and appreciate my sister!

I love my sister LM so much. She is the best sister anyone could ask for. She does so much for me, she fixes my email, my facebook, my blog, and she scraps with me whenever she can. I don't know what I would do without her! I know I give her a hard time, but mom really does love her best! And best of all...she doesn't make me a POOP eater, even though she knows all of my passwords! :) (hee, hee, luv ya marf!)

Things I...

Things I like that I am supposed to like:
spending time with my family, anytime, anywhere, I just love time with them. Watching TV (not sure if this is where this particular like belongs, because it could just as well fit in the "shouldn't like" category) but I like to have the TV on all the time. Dark Chocolate, my absolute favorite. Scrapbooking, love it love it love it! Grandbabies, the most fun I can imagine.
Things I like that I am supposed to dislike:
Cleaning the bathroom (more bang for your buck, the only room in my house I can clean from top to bottom in 15 minutes or less). Getting my eyebrows waxed (I love that rush I get when they rip off the wax). Spinach, especially the kind in the can, I can eat a whole can of it myself. Vegetables in general, yummy. Rainy days, I like the sound of the rain and the color of the sky, and the slightly melancholy mood they bring out in me. Math. High heels (6 ft tall + foot problems = bad idea) but I love wearing high heels.
Things I dislike that I am supposed to dislike:
Door to door salesmen, phone solicitors, pushy salespeople in stores. I generally like to do my shopping on my own terms, don't come to me, I'll come to you. Road ragers and aggressive drivers, seriously. Passive aggressive people. Mean texts and emails.
Things I dislike that I am supposed to like:
Sleeping, it just stresses me out. Even the thought of trying to sleep is stressful. I don't sleep well at night, and I never nap unless I am sick. Silence, just can't do it. I always have to have background noise. Milk, completely gross. Milk Chocolate, I'll eat it if that is all there is, but really prefer dark chocolate. Cartoons, animation in general. Never liked cartoons even when I was a child. I have enjoyed a few animated movies (Shrek, Up) but only watched them because I had to, I never voluntarily pick an animated movie.


Thanks for the idea Lizzy, it was fun!

5 more rules (sorry, I couldn't help myself)

Let the crazy in me roll on! I decided to give myself 5 more rules, but these are really important rules...really...I promise!
1. Don't put cinnamon in Chocolate, even a little, it's icky
2. Don't put chocolate in Chili, or any other savory dinner fare. Chocolate should never be "hidden" in your food. If you want to hide something in your food, make it spinach, or zucchini, something that needs to be hidden for your children (or yourself) to eat it. If you have to hide chocolate in order to eat it, seek help immediately!
3. Don't mix peanut butter and cheese (even if it's fake cheese, and possibly fake peanut butter (as in those unnaturally orange cheese and peanut butter crackers). If you want to combine crunchy and peanut butter, eat a nutter butter or a butterfinger. I'm trying to be reasonable here, so if you must mix cheese with sweet stuff, make it cream cheese.
4. On the "hiding" side of things, don't put things that clearly don't go together into a blender and call it a smoothie. Most fruits can be used in a smoothie, but don't go crazy and start adding peanut butter, or nuts of any sort. Don't hide veggies in your fruit smoothie. V-8 has successfully done this, but they are professionals with years of experience. You are a beginner, don't do it.
5. This one should go without saying, but apparently I need to spell everything out for some. If you have mixed your sodas together (very naughty, childish and bad idea) and the resulting color is gray, don't drink it. Don't eat gray food, this is a sign that something in the preparation has gone horribly wrong. Rainbow sherbet isn't my favorite and there is a reason why: when the sherbet all melts together, the resulting color is...wait for it...wait for it...GRAY!
alrighty then, I feel a little better now, and will try...try, to hold it to these. Maybe

My food touching rules

I will freely admit I am giving in to my OCD by actually taking the time to write these down. I personally feel that when you are alone you can eat however and whatever makes you happy (with the exception of eating people, that would just be wrong), but when in the company of others you should always try to follow some of these basic food touching rules:
1. Gravy is for Potatoes, it can touch meat, and also be poured over stuffing. That is it. Gravy is not for salad, rolls, or vegetables. Gravy should also not be allowed to roam freely over your plate. Make a well in the center of your potatoes and use potatoes as a wall to protect the rest of your plate.
2. Cold food and warm food should not touch. I prefer to enforce this rule by using a separate plate for salads. Baked beans touching potato salad is just plain gross. As a matter of fact, I'll go out on a limb here and say that baked beans should be eaten from a bowl where they are kept self-contained.
3. Milk should only be allowed to touch cereal that can stay crunchy long enough to eat it. This means LIFE cereal will always be eaten dry. LIFE tends to get soggy in the box sitting next to the carton of milk...so keep it away. Granola is good.
4. Jello is a food that can NEVER touch other foods. Jello deserves its own plate. Some jello can touch other jello, but not all jello can touch. Jello must be kept away from potatoes and rolls especially! Pink potatoes=bad
5. Saucy food should be kept separate from other foods (see gravy and baked beans rules) Barbeque sauce, runny saucy stuff etc. can touch accompanying side dish where appropriate (rice for example) but again, is not meant to roam freely over the contents of your plate.
6. A casserole is an appropriate example of food mixing, but don't let the casserole concept fool you into mixing things that just don't go together. It is not okay to put all your thanksgiving leftovers into a casserole dish, pour gravy over the top, bake it, and call it dinner.
7. Pasta salads can "lightly" touch each other as long as they have similar dressings on them. Ranch or mayo based dressings can lightly touch each other, but not italian dressing based salads.
8. When eating at a buffet, especially at a restaurant, make multiple trips. Do not make one pass through and put everything on one plate. They actually pay people to clean dishes, so lets keep these people employed by using lots of dishes. They also keep lots of little salad dishes around so that you can keep your salads separate.
9. I am always environmentally friendly, but even mother nature wants me to use 2 paper plates at a barbeque. One plate for warm food and one for cold food (keep jello alone though, even if it means taking a 3rd plate).
10. Bread, chips and crispy crunchies, should not be used to sop up excess runny food on your plate. I like to keep my roll off my plate as it wants to absorb any liquid nearby.
11. Dessert deserves it's own plate, or a napkin by the side of your dinner plate. Don't rush your dessert experience by putting your dessert on your dinner plate. It just makes your dinner feel less important, and risks dinner retaliation. Your dinner could actually jump out and smother your dessert!
12. Do not EVER pour milk in a glass that has had juice or punch in it, or the other way around. Wash out your glass before switching drinks. Don't put ice in milk either, that is icky (true, I don't drink milk, but the concept seems wrong)
13. Syrup should adhere to the same rules as gravy and sauce. It is meant to go over pancakes, waffles, and french toast. It should never be allowed to touch eggs or breakfast potato type foods.
14. Tossed green salad should be eaten cold. I know that isn't necessarily a touching rule, but if your green salad is close enough to your warm food that it absorbs some of that heat and becomes warm, that is a problem.
15. Section plates were an inspired invention. I love sectioned plates and use them wherever possible. The caution with sectioned plates is that you should make sure food doesn't spill over the sections and mix together. Ooh, and one more rant on this topic. Don't buy TV dinners that have a dessert in one of their sections, it is virtually impossible to keep the dessert separate when heating and eating the rest of the dinner. (see dessert separate rule)
16. Encapsulated snack foods can touch but should not be placed in your mouth at the same time. An example of this would be skittles and M & M's, they can touch, but don't eat them together. An exception to this would be trail mix, a delicious food touching adventure. If a snack could possibly melt or otherwise become unencapsulated, then you should not risk allowing it to touch other snack foods. (peanut butter cups, candy bars etc) Oh, and don't put jelly beans in popcorn or potato chips, or trail mix. Jelly beans could possibly be the jello of snack foods, allowed to touch other jelly beans but eaten separate from other snacks.
17. A chocolate fountain does not give you license to dip anything within reach. Do NOT dip pickles, potato chips, or other obvious poor choices. I don't understand the dipping mentality...keep your wits about you people!
18. Same goes for tempura batter and deep frying. A bowl of tempura and a vat of oil doesn't mean it's okay to fry just anything.
19. Another area where seemingly sensible people lose their minds is an ice cream sundae bar. Don't put all sorts of non-mixy foods together in an ice cream sundae and then pour chocolate fudge over all. Try where possible to keep ice cream saucy toppings separate. A little leeway can be given here, but not much. Use some caution.
20. Crackers can be eaten with soup, but I think it is unacceptable to crunch a whole package of crackers into your soup at once and then let them sit in your soup until they are just a mass of soggy ick. Crunch a cracker or two over your soup, eat that and then crunch some more. Cereal type rules apply here, crackers should be able to stay crunchy until they are eaten.
I promised myself I would stop at twenty. Any other food touching issues can probably be figured out by following the guidelines of these 20 rules. If you are in doubt about whether or not foods should touch, err on the side of caution and keep them separate.

Non-resolute resolutions

I already know I cannot change the nature of my inner beast. Any resolutions to try and do something every day, or try to be more organized, will quickly be broken. I am who I am, and that isn't really a bad thing most of the time. But I would like to take the turning of a new year as an opportunity to set some non-goals, really just a list of things I would like to accomplish during 2010:
1. Make my own yogurt. I know, this seems highly out of character for me. I won't even drink a glass of milk, so letting one get thick and sour might not make sense. Here's the deal, all yogurt has corn syrup and/or corn starch. I like yogurt and it is a good source of calcium, so I'm going to try making my own.
2. Knit a pair of socks. No real reason for this one, I just want to. I've knit probably 50 dishrags, I'm ready to move on to socks.
3. Run a 5k. I walked most of the Turkey Trot last year, and realized at the end that I probably could have run most of it without killing myself. So I'm going to train and run the next one.
4. Read 50 books. It was my resolution last year, and I think I did it, not sure because I lost track. I like the idea of it though, and I love to read.
5. Cook something from all the different countries on my DS personal trainer cooking. I can't afford to travel, so I'll tour the world through food.
6. Blog craftily
7. Write creatively
8. Learn to play the guitar
9. Sleep better (Not sure how I'm going to accomplish this)
10. Use a calendar. This is not a committment to be more organized, I didn't say how I would use a calendar, just that I would use one. It might be nice now and then to write something down so that I don't have to rely so heavily on those around me who are organized. I might just end up using the calendar as a coaster.

So there it is, 10 things to do in 2010. I might do them all, I might not, but I will certainly give it a shot.