Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Angel of Remembrance

We had a RS presidency meeting tonight at my house. We are having a board dinner next week that we needed to go over details for. (I'm making the glazed carrots and a cheesecake - okay, Ryan is making the cheesecake :naughty:.)


They surprised me with a gift - a Willow Tree ornament, the angel of remembrance. And they brought a strawberry swirl cheesecake - :lick:! I am going to miss working with them so much! I can't imagine not serving with them.

I have another week of duties to take care of before I'm totally done though. This week is Home, Family and Personal Enrichment. Then there's the board dinner we're cooking next Tuesday. I might still be at the HFPE planning meeting next week - infact I probably will. But that will be it. Even if they don't have a replacement for me by then, I will need to transition over to the new calling. They will be on their own! :lol:

I am getting used to the idea. I didn't cry nearly as much today as I did yesterday and Sunday! I know its the right thing and I feel that comforting me and helping me to adjust.

Today we got alot of work done around the house. That is always nice. Tomorrow will be busy. I'm in Cadi's classroom, then dance and then girl scouts. Busy, busy!

Sights not commonly seen...














And my personal favorite...

Monday, November 29, 2004

Another funeral?

Acadia is mourning a hair that has fallen off her head.


No kidding.

She is clutching it and holding it to her, "weeping and wailing".

"I will miss you, my hair! Why did you have to fall off? I love you so much! When will my hair stop falling out?"

"Mommy, can we have a funeral for my hair?"

I guess I should count myself lucky that Ryan doesn't carry on like this everytime he loses one! lol

Closing one door and opening another.

I talked to my bishop and Relief Society president and told them that I would accept the new calling. I know its what I'm supposed to do. But I don't want to. I'm very sad and wish that I could just stay where I am. I love my calling so much! My heart is in Relief Society. This is going to be a very hard move for me.


I did tell the RS pres that she can steal me back whenever she wants! :naughty:

We've come up with a temporary solution to our scheduling problems and I am taking the leap of faith that things will continue to work out that way. I do see some really good things about being in the new calling. I believe that in a couple of months I will feel strongly about the new calling too. I'm sure that given time I'll feel just like I do now about my current calling. But right now that's hard to imagine.

Since I don't know if anyone here reads this (I doubt it, but you never know), I don't want to post my new calling until after I'm sustained on Sunday. I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats to find out what it is.:lol:

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Just call me Madame Pomfrey

Acadia asked if I wanted to play doctor.


I said, "Sure, I have a headache. Make it better."

She looked at me and asked what I wanted her to do. I told her she was the doctor, she should tell me. Then I told her that a hug would make me feel better.

She smiled sweetly, said "Okay", then hobbled over to give me a hug.

That's when I realized she was hoping I would be the doctor and "fix" her foot.

I thought it was sweet for her to be my doctor when she had wanted to be the patient, so we switched roles.

She had broken all the bones in her foot and asked me to grow her new bones.

I told her that it was a good thing she came to me instead of some muggle doctor because it just so happens I could grow her new bones. I asked my assistant if he knew where the bone growing pills were. He did!

I told Cadi that since we were growing 5 bones (yes I know there are more than 5 bones in the foot), she would need to take 5 pills. I warned her that they were really gross, but it was important for her to eat them all, otherwise her foot would never heal.

She bravely ate her nasty pills (cleverly disguised as "m&m"s). When her bones had grown and her foot was healed she said, "Now I think I need to grow new bones in my leg!" :naughty:

Nice try.:lol:

I hate growing!!!

I'm on a roller coaster today. I was asked to serve in a new calling - one that frightens me even more than the Relief Society presidency did. I cried and cried, but said that if the bishop was asking me to serve there, I would.


Then I get home and call my RS president to cry to her. She was shocked. She said that she and the bishop talked this morning. Bishop told her their plans and she told him my schedule and that it really wouldn't work well. Once the bishop heard that Ryan's work schedule and my having a 5 year old would interfere with the new calling, he agreed with her.

So, am I supposed to be called or not? Did the Bishop change his mind again after talking to the RS pres, and decided to go ahead with the change? Or did he just not talk to his counselor in time before the calling was extended to me? I have no idea which way it will go.

The new calling would be extremely difficult and very "heavy". It would be even more responsiblity and much more time and work. But, I do believe that if that is where the Lord wants me, it would work out.

I do feel like I've finally learned how to do this current calling well. I have learned to delegate and "let go". I am enjoying just serving the Sisters the way the presidency needs to. I love being in Relief Society on Sundays. I do not want to be released! And that means that I probably am going to. I was hoping to have this calling for at least another year or so.

Why is it that some people get "stuck" in their callings for 5 years or more, when others get changed up every year? And why is it that the ones people are "stuck" in are the ones that are least desirable while if you are in a calling you love it is for such a short time?

I know, I know...It's the whole growing process. Once you've learned what you need, you move on to another challenge which will help you grow some more.

I HATE GROWING!!!

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Look what I found!

I was cleaning out my junk drawer (The drawer in the desk by the computer where I throw all the stuff I don't want to lose but don't know what to do with.) and I came across my list of journal jar questions. And you know what that means...


What are your dreams? Have you reached any of them?

When I was very young my biggest dream was to be a killer whale and dolphin trainer at Marine World Africa USA in California.

The closest I got was working there in the playground watching kids play all day. But since I was employed there, I was able to volunteer with the dolphins whenever they needed it. I volunteered a few times when they had some baby dolphins. I fed the moms and documented the behaviors of the mom and baby.

Hand-in-hand with that was a dream to swim with dolphins.







'Nuff said.

I still want to go killer whale watching in British Columbia. (I'm really hoping to go for my birthday next year.) And I wish there was a way I could swim with one. That would be awesome! But not likely to happen.

Other dreams I have had...

I married the man of my dreams.

We have a happy, loving family.

I want to learn sign language and French.

I dream for all of our home improvement projects to be completed! :lol:

What about you? What are your dreams? Have you reached any of them?

1 tree, 8 nativity scenes, 9 candle holders/tealight houses, 4 Christmas countdown/advent calendars, 1 Christmas card holder, 4 music boxes and several stand alone holiday decorations later...

I love decorating for Christmas! It looks so festive and smells so good!


Ryan says he's going to put up the lights ouside this year. (There Landon, are you happy now?) I've got a couple outside decorations to put up too.

Today I'm going to unpack, do laundry, go to the bank, post office and store. I guess I should get going since the bank and post office close earlier on Saturday.

Friday, November 26, 2004

Deck the Halls

Yeah! It's the day after Thanksgiving and you know what that means!!!


Acadia and I put up our tree first thing this morning. Well, I guess first thing this morning was a little later than usual. We got home about 5:40 am after driving through the night from Sacramento. We all went straight to bed for a few hours.

But Cadi and I were so excited to decorate, we got up around 9. Our tree is up and trimmed and we even have a few gifts under it already!

Other GREAT news! We got a good look at Simon's neck today...it's healed! There are a few scabs that are almost off, but the skin is very healthy! Yeah! Our puppy is going to be okay!!!

Well, the tree's done, but we've still got 3 nativity sets, countless candles, and a bunch of other holiday decoarations (including about half a dozen Christmas countdown items/advent calendars to set out). I guess I should get around to unpacking sometime today too...we'll see. :lol:

Friday, November 19, 2004

Turkey Day Road Trip

We are getting ready to head out tonight. We're driving down to Sacramento to spend almost a week there, ending with T-Day. :lick:


We're mostly packed. I just need to throw Cadi in the tub then I can pack the shampoos, medications, etc. I think that's all that's left. We will then be waiting for Ryan to come home from work. I have no idea when that will be.

We are looking forward to visiting in Sac. Last time it was a last minute thing, going down for Grandpa's funeral. This time it is actually planned and all for fun.

If I don't get on before then...Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a tragedy I tell you!

I just can't believe it! How could they do this? Don't they realize how much we were counting on it?


The extended version of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won't be released until...JANUARY!!! WHAT?!? That's another two whole months! I can't wait that long. It's an incredibly mean thing!

2 months...that's 61 days!...1,464 hours!...87,840 minutes!...5,270,400 anxious seconds that must pass before we get to see the full and complete movie! And yes, by that I mean until I get to see more of Aragorn!

The only consolation is that they are probably going to be late because they are adding so much good stuff. And then it will be worth it.

But I just don't know what to do until then...I'm dying to see it!!!

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Hooray for E-bay!

I realize that nobody else cares about this, but I just won another stampable binder off an e-bay auction. This time it includes two packets of divided sheet protectors (also SU!). And I got it all for $6.50! (plus $4.00 s/h) This one is actually white and has the oval picture frame in front...just what I would have chosen if SU! still carried them! (But for far less! SU! would have charged at least $20, probably $30 just for the binder, plus s/h and tax.)


Some people have had bad experiences with E-bay, but so far we've gotten great deals and had good profits on most of our sales.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Good, clean, family fun!

For Family Home Evening last night, we worked together as a family. Ryan was closing up the coat closet (it's been floorless and had a wall open to the back of the bathroom shower since we first started our bathroom remodeling). Acadia helped him use the power drill...Ryan was proud! :grin: Once the pole was up, Cadi and I put our coats inside.


Then we worked together to assemble a bench to place in the entry. It has a drawer underneath where we plan on keeping hats, scarves and gloves. Acadia helped with the power drill again. She loved using it!

For our lesson, we talked about working together as a family. Why it's important, how does it make us feel, what ways can we find to work more as a family, etc.

Ryan chose the activity: a crossword puzzle. Acadia likes working on these because we let her type the letters. We tell her what word we want, she sounds it out and types. It is one of those fun, educational type activities that we all like to do.

Lots of fun! :thumb:

This morning (1:30am to be exact) I woke up thirsty, got a drink but couldn't get back to sleep. So, I worked on Christmas cards that I am actually almost finished with, well kind of. The most tedious part (for me) is over. I love embossing, but it takes so much time to emboss 100 cards! I have only a couple more images to stamp, one piece to glue to the card and then the bows. It's pretty simple stuff...it's just having the time to actually work on it that seems to be the problem. So, a sleepless night ended up well spent.

I know that tonight is going to be painful! Unless I get a nap today, but when does that ever happen? I can't usually sleep during the day. Well, it will be an early night. I have a meeting (sort of) at 7, but it shouldn't be too long. My Enrichment committee is getting together to make ornaments which we will be giving to the sisters at our December Enrichment. They are simple and we will have lots of people working together, so I don't expect it to take long.

I think that is it for my terribly exciting life. My life doesn't seem very dull as I live it and rush from one thing to the next, but when I put it down on paper (computer screen) it sure doesn't seem very exciting. Oh well. I am busy, and I usually like what I'm doing or am involved with so if it is boring and sounds dull, I don't care. I like my life and what I fill it with.

Sunday, November 14, 2004

To be or not to be...

Simon seems to be struggling with this question.


He can't decide if he wants to live or die. He has been scratching alot. The wound does not look as bad as when he first had it, but it is not getting better. We are almost out of meds. Does he really want to die? *FRUSTRATION!!!*:mad:

We had such a fun time tonight. We had dinner at the William's place. It was very good. (Ryan is more stuffed than he's been in a LONG time!) And we had a great time visiting. Acadia had lots of fun with Jack's daughters. They did each other's hair and played alot. I hear they are great babysitters... this is good to know. ;)

This week is going to be another crazy one. Lots to do as we get ready for our trip back to Sacramento for Thanksgiving. I have a meeting every day from now til then! But it's alright. Delegation is a beautiful thing. And I plan on exercising it!

Friday, November 12, 2004

There is hope yet.

Last night I held no hope for Simon. He had scratched during the day and I just knew he would scratch all night too. Imagine my surprise when I got up and saw no real evidence of scratching! His wound looks so much better than it has. I imagine he might scratch a little still, but this gives us hope that even with a little scratching, he is healing. I told Acadia as she left for school that he looked alot better and we just need to keep praying for him. She has been very sad at the thought of losing her dog. He is a stupid dog, but I guess we're stupider because we love him.


Yesterday Acadia met with an allergist and learned she is alleric to grass, dust mites, and cats. Surprisingly she is more allergic to the dust mites than the cats. She has been given several samples of medicines that she is on trying to determine if she has any side effects. We will still limit her exposure in California because we haven't learned which medicines will work best with her, so she isn't going to be "cat, dust, grass" proof yet. But we have some medicines that will help her tolerance a little.

Between thinking the dog was going to die and the allergy testing (12 needle pricks with half of them becoming irritated), it wasn't a pleasant day. So we rented a movie, got popcorn (the buttery kind), swung by Jack In the Box for milkshakes, egg rolls, and hamburgers, and had a lazy day. I did get one thing done...I wrapped most the Christmas presents I need to take down next week.

Today I think I'll start my annual video. Ryan reminded me that if I have it all ready, we might be able to put it on DVD at the Grundy's while we're in Sac. So, as long as everyone has a DVD player I'll try to send them out in that form instead of VHS from now on. Cool. But I have alot of work to do, I'm not sure it will all get done by then. We'll just have to see how quickly I can get going...so...BYE!

Thursday, November 11, 2004

He lives to see another day...

After talking and crying and not knowing what to do, we decided to put Simon to sleep today. Ryan decided to come home and be with him as well.


After I got off the phone with Ryan, I let Simon go outside. I untied his feet so he could do his thing. When he came back in he ate a doggy-treat that Acadia had offered him earlier and he had refused. So I gave him some canned dog food which he ate as well. He started to look more alert and we started to rethink our decision.

He still has problems trying to rest. He is in definite pain. Everytime he tries to lay his head down, his neck touches the floor or a paw and it hurts too much for him to stay there. He shoots up and shakes his head. The good thing is that it hurts so much he hasn't even tried to scratch since we untied his feet. And he is up and moving around which I'm sure makes him feel better. The bad news is, he is still really messed up!

We had a family prayer to help us know what to do then we took him out back to the park. We broke the rules and let him run without a leash (since the leash would bother his neck). We could tell he really enjoyed it. We've decided to wait and see. We realize that most likely we will wake up to the same scene as today. With him having scratched during the night reopening the wounds and making it even worse. But there is a chance that if we take him for a couple runs in the park and keep medicating him that maybe in a day or two it will get better.

This weekend is it. We will know either way how it will go. But for today, he lives.

Life

The past week has been crazy! We went down to Sacramento for Grandpa's funeral. There was alot to do to get ready for it. But in the end, the timing was good and we were able to spend a couple extra days while down there.
Unfortunately, we also had some set backs while down there too. Simon (the faithful, yet stupid dog) continues finding ways to injure himself and therefore making his and my life miserable. The newest attempt is with a large neck wound, most likely from the weeks of being in a cone to keep him from scratching his cheek and biting his tail. That neck wound became infected. Fun. I took him to the vet while in Sacramento and learned that dogs are money pits. Needless to say, to avoid the guilt of "putting him down", I opted to pay (I am now missing an arm and a leg) to have his neck and ears cleaned up. We now get the fun experience of flushing his ears...oh wait it gets better...and rubbing cream all over his infected neck wound. This would be fine as long as it made him heal and he would be back to his happy, healthy, still stupid self. But no. Simon is bound and determined to kill himself and probably me in the process.

He keeps scratching his neck. We can't put the cone on, it will cut the wound more. We've tried booties, he either takes them off or still manages to scratch with them on enough to do damage. We've even tried hog tying his hind legs. He can still reach to scratch while he's laying down, and his hind legs are starting to swell. I have no more ideas. I have to decide soon what to do.

Other than that, life is the same as always. I am taking Acadia to an allergist to get her tested. We want the medicine before we go down to Sac for Thanksgiving. Then I have a meeting tonight. We leave for Sac in just over a week. I am not ready! I need to get all my gifts ready, I'd like to finish my Christmas cards, I have a PartyLite show in a week, and I have my calling that is keeping me busy right now. We are planning our December Enrichment and a RS board dinner, both are pretty involved and take place within the first week of December.

So, I need to go get something done.

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

Wednesday's Whinings

This will be very short because my to-do list is very long...


I'm glad that the election is over, especially since Bush won. I am breathing a sigh of relief as I anticipated different results which I think would have been wrong for our country. I was also grateful that 11 states, including Oregon passed laws banning gay marriages. I really thought that Oregon was going to reject that law, but in the end they voted to protect marriage between a man and a woman.

Whew!

I helped in Acadia's classroom today. I did alot of stapling and making die-cuts. Plus I escorted a kindergartener to the office to check out a rash on her arms. It was fun to be there and eavesdrop on the class. And it really helped Mrs. Heideman. I will be in the classroom for 2 hours every other week from now on. :thumb:

I also closed out a show today. It was small with no bookings, but that's okay. Then I put it in the computer and learned that one of the orders (more than a third of the total show amount) had a credit card that was declined. :angry: I am trying to resolve it with the customer so not to lose the order, reducing the total even more and making it so the hostess loses all benefits.

Now I need to clean, cook, do dishes and laundry, pack, make arrangements for while I'm gone (I was supposed to be throwing a baby shower for a friend along with another friend this weekend! I'm just in charge of games so I'm getting it all together and giving it to my friend to take care of. At least it wasn't supposed to be at my house!). Cadi needs a bath and tonight is a parent meeting for Daisy Scouts (entry level girl scouts) that my friend is starting so I'm going to let Cadi do it.

I'm really not in the mood to do any of it...but where will not doing it get me? Just more stressed so like it or not, I need to get started...

Tuesday, November 2, 2004

We voted... did you?

Finally! Election Day is here! And not a day too soon for me. I am so sick and tired of all the phone calls we have been getting from the various campaigns. "Vote Yes" on this..."Vote No" on that...ENOUGH! I can make up my own mind and you calling my house every hour is not helping your case!!!


We're still getting the calls today, but at least we know that the end is in sight.

What really cracks us up is that Ryan has received about a dozen phone calls from the Kerry/Edwards campaign reminding him to vote, asking if he wants a ride to the polls(!), etc...how did Ryan get on their list? He is not registered as a Democrat. I took a phone survey a couple of weeks ago...in the end it said it was paid for by the Democrats. I laughed...yep, let it be on their dollar!

One of the girls who serves on my Enrichment Committee voted for the first time today. She turned 18 earlier this year. I heard she had a smile from ear to ear, so excited to have the privilege to participate in the election. It's too bad more people don't feel that way.

Make sure you take the time to make your voice heard by casting your vote today!