She said "YES"

Bekah started to say the best word ever today, "yes." She has been using the word 'no' to answer all yes or no questions. We had to play interpreter and try to decide what she really meant. In spite of much encouragement to use the word 'yes' in conjunction with the word 'no,' she has not been interested to do so. Today she decided otherwise.

There is nothing sweeter to mommy's ears than the sweet voice of her child responding with a yes to a question about wanting something! Such sweet music was heard all day long. Bekah would smile real big when Mom giggled because she said her new word so well. It is a lot of fun to share learning experiences with my children.

Going to School

Last week Benjamin went to class with me. He did an awesome job of making appropriate comments (Wow, That was cool!) without meaning to (he was totally off sunject, but had good timing.) My photography teacher found him entertaining and was okay with Benjamin coming to class with me.

Today I will attempt to...

...make bread one handed. Yesterday I was able to trim and file my fingernails by myself so I am gaining confidence and we will see how today goes (I mix everything by hand.)


Success! We did it! I say WE because I couldn't ave done it without Benjamin's help.

Tagged in Groups of 8

I like the tags that come around on blogs. They have more variety than the "getting to know you" tags/forwards I get in my email.

8 shows I like to watch
* CSI: Las Vegas
* CSI: New York
* The Biggest Loser
* Knight Rider
* Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?
* Super Why
* NCIS
* Curious George

8 favorite Restaurant's
* Olive Garden
* La Vigna
* Pier 49 Pizza
* PF Chang's
* Applebee's
* Chadder's
* IHOP
* Golden Corral
I think this accounts for 8 of the 10 times or so we eat out each year.

8 things that happened yesterday
* I unloaded most of the dishwasher
* I delivered a care package to a lady who is having a baby today
* I talked to my doctor and made an appointment for next week
* Updated my blog
* Had family home evening
* Left ghost treats for some families in our neighborhood with the help of my family
* Ate cookies and milk for breakfast
* Took a nap

8 things I look forward to
* Being able to use my left arm again without a sling
* Christmas
* Naptime
* Being able to take a bath to relax
* Taking my children trick or treating
* My photography class each week
* Spring
* The Biggest Loser on Tuesdays

8 things I love about fall
* the end of summer
* sweaters
* snuggling with cozy blankets
* cute, warm socks!
* the color of the leaves
* Pumpkins - for decorations and making goodies
* Christmas shopping
* needing to turn on the heater instead of roasting

8 things on my wish list
* being out of debt
* Nikon Coolpix P5100 with all of the accessories (doesn't coincide with #1 very well :D)
* having my family come to my house for Christmas
* travel
* that my children will continue to be healthy and happy
* a patio in the backyard and a fence
* white, closed toe dress shoes with wide heels
* a house that is spotless all of the time

8 people I tag
* Amme
* Sarah
* Becky
* Dawn
* Kelly
* Shara
* Monette
* Alisabeth

Halloween Activities

I am not a big Halloween fan so it is ironic that I have been blessed with a child who loves Halloween. In lieu of this interesting situation, I am trying to come up with positive, non-creepy things to do for Halloween because I really hate scary movies and creepy monsters.

I encourage my children to choose unique things to dress up as that do not involve scary or cruel monsters. We color pictures of friendly looking ghosts, bats, witches, etc. Every year I try to make sure that we cute out Halloween shaped sugar cookies and decorate them. This year a ghost has left cookies at our house a couple of times and asked us to pass the ghost to our neghbors and secretly share a treat with them.

Tonight for family home evening we colored Halloween pictures to decorate our house with and pass the ghostly treat on to some of our neighbors. Above is one of the pictures we colored as a family along with ghosts, pumpkins and haunted houses. My children are opening my eyes to a whole new way of looking at things.

Good News Minute

Every week in Relief Society (the women's meeting in our three hour block at church) we are asked to share some brief good news with the other sisters in our ward. Today I feel like I have more than one minute worth of good news.

• Bekah went to nursery for the first time today and other than being a little tired at the very end, she was fine the whole time.
• My pain killer is working.
• Our furnace got fixed so we now actually have heat in our house. A valve or something was plugged and our home teacher found someone in the ward who works for Questar to come over and look at it. Heat feels wonderful!
• We had our home teachers come and visit for the first time in a year.
• Today it was announced that our huge ward is going to be split in two weeks. That will make it easier to get to know people and we will hopefully have callings soon afterwards.
• Benjamin was given the chance to bring home the snack bucket and he was excited that it was his turn. He wants to take raisins!
• It snowed last night and we actually have winter coats that fit our children. The other day I was shopping for a a light weight, dressy jacket for myself because my sweaters are getting worn out when I passed a rack of coats for toddlers. Even though it was still warm outside and we weren't expecting snow for a few more weeks I felt the impression to buy the coats now. I sure was glad that I listened to the promptings of the Holy Ghost when I woke up this morniing to discover that our first snow fall was a month earlier than expected.
• The Holy Ghost is a powerful and wonderful gift that I'm grateful to have as part of my life.
• I was given a visiting teaching assignment today and I know most of the sisters my partner and I are assigned to visit.
• I had the opportumity to bare my testimony today in church about the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of Christ's Atonement, and that the Holy Ghost can have significant influence in guiding our lives if we live worthy and listen to its promptings.
• I was able to make it all 3 hours of church today with the help of my husband, an ice pack, pain killer, and a pillow to elevate my arm on.

Today the Relief Society lesson was on trials and tribulations and the one thing that stood out to me was that we have to experience pain to know joy. And, the greater the pain we feel now the greater the joy we will be able to feel at the end of our trials and tribulations. I am grateful for trials and tribulations because they provide me the opportunity to grow, to realize all of the things I have to be grateful for that I did not realize I had until that trial or tribulation, to allow others to provide us with service and be humble enough to ask for help, to look for positive reasons this particular trial came into my life, and to attempt to find new ways to solve my challenges.

Surgery

Yep, yesterday I had surgery. The doctor recommended I have surgery to put a plate now instead of waiting a few more weeks to see if it slips more and have surgery when the bone is harder to fix. It was outpatient surgery so I am home now. Everything went well and as usual, I was really loopy coming out of anesthia. I was actually awake when I rode out to the car which is more than I can say formy last two surgeries. I am coherent this morning and able to get around by myself. The pain is localized to my elbow and I'm really tired.

Michael has been a great help even though I know he is not enjoying all the extra work and my being in pain I am in. I really appreciate all of his help and concern. I am also greatful for friends who watch my children and cut my hair anf the relief society for being so responsive and bringing meals in.

Recovery will be slow, but steady and Iam grateful for competent medical personnel. I am also grateful for pain killer, ice packs, heating pads, lots of pillows, and my wonderful husband who insists that I take care of myself and is willing to stretch himself yo help meet our family's needs. We are greatly blessed even with our current challenge.

Mommy's Helper

Benjamin has been awesome since I broke my elbow. He still has his usual 3 year old antics, but he has been more cooperative lately. This is what Benjamin has been helping me with.

• Picking up toys
• Vacuumung
• Put a scrunchy in Mom's hair
• Dumping ingredients
• Unscrewing lids and cups (he holds the containers while Mom does the twisting)
• Being good at Mom's class (he wanted to go to school with me and he did an excellent job of listening and being nondisruptive)
• Buckling him in his carseat
• Opening doors
• Carrying things
• Getting himself dressed
• Helping entertain and keep track of Bekah
• Informing people of how Mommy hurt herself
• Turn pages in books while Mom reads stories
• Sorting the laundry
• Putting clothes hampers away
• Cutting out cookies
• Staying in his bedroom for naps and bedtime
• Reminding us to say prayers and scriptures

He is a great helper even though he doesn't understand how bad Mommy's ouch is.

Blog Hopping

I love to look at blogs and see what other people are up to and what they are blogging about. I usually stick to the blogs of people I know, a variety of which I link to through mutual friends blogs. It is a lot of fun to catch up on people I haven't heard from (or about) in a while or people that I admire and would have liked to know better. I feel more connected to people around me especially when more current occupation allows for limited types of interaction.

I also enjoy getting ideas for decorating, activities, recipes, and other information links from other people's blogs. I am grateful to have discovered this new world of blogging and all of the interaction that comes from the blogosphere. It is also nice to know that other people find joys in the simple things I do as well as facing similar challenges. I love to see how the children of friends and family are growing and developing and everyone's new adventures. I also like to leave comments on the posts I find interesting if I know the blogger. This helps me to expands my circle of interactions.

Blogging has been so good for me and I am grateful for this free service. Thanks to everyone who blogs and shares their blogs with me.

Tigers and Piglets

Benjamin wants to be a tiger for Halloween. When we went to the fabric store we couldn't find any orange and black fabric that Benjamin and I could agree. I finally convinced him that some soft, more golden colored fabric on the condition that I find him a picture of a tiger in similar color. When I googled images of tigers I came across this picture. The tiger matches the fabric perfectly and I found the idea of tigers raising pigs (and vice versa) intriguing. For more pictures and information follow this link Tiger & Piglets.

Today for story time they talked about tigers and Benjamin was so excited I thought he was going to bounce through the ceiling. Tigers are his favorite animal right now. When he came with a tiger mask for homework mom was grateful because the mask will go great with his costume (and we can make it orange and black.

Gotta Love That Hair

Bekah has the most voluminous curls I have ever seen. I never knew that so little hair (it is still thin and getting thicker all the time) could be so big without ratting or teasing. This is Bekah's bedhead look. All she has to do is sleep on it to get this volume.

Bekah's curls do calm down with the help of a squirt bottle and comb so that she looks preciously pretty.

Desperate Times Call for Drastic Measures

Yesterday I did something I swore I would never do again. I did something I haven't done since the 3rd grade. After 5 days of struggling to come up with an alternative, I came to the conclusion that there was only one thing I could do to help me feel better about myself. Nevermind that I have been working this particular project for over a year. It was so drastic that I had to go to a friend for help. I still can't believe that I did it, but I was so uncomfortable over the last few days that what I did feels fabulous.

What did I do? I cut off my hair so short that I can't put it in a ponytail. I swore that I would never cut it that short, but since I have done it I feel more like a person instead of a poof head. Since I can't pull my hair out of my face and off my neck into a ponytail I decided to be brave and try a really short haircut. Thanks, Shara, for rescueing me from my predicament. I love it! And, thanks to Mom for perming it back in March so that I have more controlled curls that make this hairstyle easy to do and maintain. The downside is that my hair was not long enough to donate to Locks of Love (that is the project I was working on and your donation must be 1o inches long).

This a before picture.

This shot shows my new fashion attire. Quite the statement, ehh?

My assistant photographer, Benjamin, took this picture for me. I didn't think it did my new change justice, thus resorted to the bathroom mirror.

Award!

Yay! My first award! Thanks, Sarah! I proudly proclaim that I'm the winner of the Brillante Weblog Premio - 2008 Award! It is also apparent that a lot of peopole know of my blogging addiction, this is my third tag this week. I don't mind at all because it gives me something to blog about. :D

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only! Then I must pass it on to seven others.

Here are the questions:

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Where is your significant other? downstairs

3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? Robynn

5. Your father? Tim

6. Your favorite thing? books

7. Your dream last night? weird

8. Your dream/goal? organized

9. The room you're in? family

10. Your hobby? crafts
11. Your fear? unacceptance

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home

13. Where were you last night? recliner

14. What you're not? unbroken :)

15. One of your wish-list items? benches
16. Where you grew up? southwest

17. The last thing you did? searched
18. What are you wearing? splint
19. Your TV? on
20. Your pet? none

21. Your computer? vital

22. Your mood? content

23. Missing someone? sweetheart

24. Your car? Durango

25. Something you're not wearing? shoes

26. Favorite store? Ross

27. Your summer? fun
28. Love someone? absolutely

29. Your favorite color? purple

30. When is the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? yesterday

I pass the award to....
Janice

Charmaine

Jillian

Monette

Victoria

Amme

Natalie

I Verb

Phrase starts from Proud Mama Blogger

I search: new ways to save time and money
I wonder: what each new day will bring
I regret: giving in to the pressure to do something because someone else thought it was the "right" thing to do.
I love: to bake
I care: about the environment
I always: do things to the best of my ability.
I worry: that I am not doing enough.
I remember: when gas was $0.99 a gallon.
I believe: that tomorrow is another day.
I sing: along with the radio.
I dance: whenever and wherever I feel like it, especially with my kids.
I don’t always: remember what I needed to get at the store.
I argue: when I know I'm right
I write: to clea nout my mind and organize my thoughts.
I lose: my keys on a regular basis.
I wish: on stars.
I listen: to a lot of things and make since of a few.
I don't understand: violence and persecution.
I can usually be found: at home cleaning, creating, or being with my children.
I am scared: that the end of the world will be here too soon.
I need: to slow down and not do so much all of the time.
I forget: that not everyone else knows me and my needs like I do.
I am happy: to be of service.
I tag: no one this time. I have been doing too much tagging letely, but please feel free to do it if you want to. It was kind of fun!

Changing Nap Time

Bekah has decided that she will only take one nap a day. The hard part about that is that she takes a morning nap and Benjamin takes an afternoon nap. This week we tried to push through the morning naptime so that both children take naps in the afternoon. Today Bekah didn't quite make it to being put in her bed, she fell asleep during lunch. Changes are good, yet challenging at times.

Twilight Personality Quiz

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and appreciate the kind way you always handle things.

Tagged Again

Rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you're tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag.


Here we go!

1. I can remember at least 20 moves (different houses or apartments) in my life.
2. I have now broken the elbow of the same arm I broke 14 years ago. The last time I broke it I was running backwards in P.E. Can we say accident prone?
3. I like peanut butter cookies, ice cream, and candy but strongly dislike peanut butter sandwiches.
4. I have flown on an airplane at least 3 times (twice that I remember, the other time was when I was 1) and I wish I could afford to fly everwhere!
5. I have never been to Disneyland but we are planning a trip soon.
6. I usually have at least 5 projects I am working on at one time, though I work on each sporadically.

I tag Megan L., Meagan R., Ali Mae, Tarmy, Brittney C., and Tamara B.

The Pros and Cons of a Broken Elbow

Wednesday night we went rollerblading around our development which meant new challenges of cars, people, more ups and downs(driveways and sidewalks), and traffic. I was doing great and enjoying myself until we got back to our block. Then in an effort to avoid a car backing out of the driveway, I skated to the gutter by the sidewalk (yes, I was skating in the road) and totally miscalculated the rate of incline and ended up falling on my arm. After rolling on the ground in agony for a minute, I got up and tried to straighten my arm and successfully popped the bone back into place. I thought that I had just dislocated my elbow and when the pain became worse over the next hour I decided I had better go see a doctor. Three hours later, a visit to the clinic and the hospital, and one splinted arm it was determined that I fractured the end of my humerus and chipped the bone. Amazingly enough, I was able to find the good things about this accident instead of catastrophizing it. There are some downsides, but the pros outweigh the cons greatly.

Pros:

• We have insurance under which I am covered, which was not the case for most of the last year.
• I am mostly done with the garden and canning.
• We have automatic cars instead of manual.
• We have neighbors close by that were able to come watch our children while we went to the hospital.
• We live within 15 minutes of the hospital.
• Bekah is walking.
• I am not nursing. Can you imagine trying to nurse with your arm in a sling? No fun.
• My husband works from home so he is here to help me during the day.
• A broken bone is easier to deal with than a job loss or death of a family member, which is what happened last year this time.
• I won't be able to change diapers for awhile.
• I get to wear my hair down all of the time because that is the only one-handed hairstyle I have mastered.
• My husband gets to help me finish the flower beds and garden boxes.
• We keep enough in savings to cover emergencies like this.
• We were in and out of the emergency room in less than 1 hour.
• I broke my left elbow. I am right-handed.
• My husband took time out of his work day to drive me to class.
• I am creative enough to find new ways of doing things.
• I have started on my Christmas projects, and most of them only require the use of one hand.
• Maybe this is a blessing from the Lord to encourage me to slow down and ask my husband for more help around the house.

Cons:

• I have two small children that require a lot of lifting and holding, which is hard to do with my arm across my chest.
• I never realized how much you use your arms for lifting and bending and taking care of yourself.
• Using the chicken peck method for typing takes forever.
• I get to wear my hair down all of the time because that is the only one-handed hairstyle I have mastered.
• I am not done going to the doctor for awhile.
• Having to wait in the clinic for 1 1/2 hours only to be sent to the emergency room.
• Taking pictures is really awkward and I have to use the tripod which doesn't necessarily give me the angles I want.
• I won't be able to take Bekah anywhere by myself for awhile. Her carseat is a little too complicated for one hand.
• Making bread and Benjamin's Halloween costume will be interesting.

There, it only took me about two hours over the course of two days, but I finished this post. I needed to make this post so that I can remember the good things about this over the course of the next two months when things are bound to be tough from time to time.

Picture Tag

OK so my cousin, Jillian,tagged me and this is what you do. Take the 4th picture from your 4th file and post it and then tag 4 people.

This is a picture of an infant car seat wrap that a friend from work made for me when Benjamin was born. It is great because it fits around the straps of the car seat so the baby can be buckled in and wrapped up without having to buckle around the blanket. I have it on my computer because I was trying to sell it online since I have been getting rid of all of my baby stuff. If anyone can use it let me know. I also have a blue and green one and I absolutely loved having these for my babies.

I tag:

1. Becky J. (now H.)

2. Margot B.

3. Mallory H.

4. Dawn F.

Library Fines

After our library closed for inventory, they decided to be more vigilant about giving fines for damaged items. I have been using the library for over 20 years and had library fines like twice. Since August I have had 3 fines and only one of those has been for something I actually did (late book return because I forgot to return it before I went out of town for a couple of days.) I understand that someone has to pay for damage to library items, but I do not understand why I have to pay for returning the items exactly as I checked them out (which was the case in the other two fines.) If they are going to fine me for returning items in the same condition I checked them out then the people at the checkout counter need to be more vigilant about inspecting the items before they are checked out.

Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that I won't be using the library for awhile, other than story time, because I am tired of paying for someone else's misuse of library material. Why is it that people cannot respect borrowed items and take care of them? I guess I will be going to Deseret Industries for the next little while so at least I will have something to show for the money I am spending and have books in the same condition as the library books I check out. It is very depressing because I love the library and usually check out ten to twenty books at a time. There, I've expelled my frustrations for the day and now I can try to focus on something else more productive.