A Shot in the Dark

Shad has to have a shot 24 hours after his last treatment with each round of chemo. Yesterday the doctor didn't want them to have to wait around in the hospital until 8:00, just for the shot, before they could go home so the oldest daughter was given a couple of options:

A. she could come back Friday morning by 9:00 and one of the nurses could give him the shot or
B. she could take the shot home and give it to him herself.

The son-in-law would have most definitely chosen option A, since he isn't a big fan of needles, but he was on an underway and not available to consult or to be a possible shot shooter. The oldest daughter knew she didn't want to give the shot either so she chose option A.

When the youngest daughter and I got to the hospital and the oldest daughter shared her decision with us, I said, "Well you know your sister has given your dad his insulin shots on occasion and she is pretty good at it. Maybe she could give Shad his shot."
 She chimed in, "Yeah, I could do it."
 "Really?"
 "I think so."

We threw the options back and forth for a while.  None of us really wanted to come back to the hospital the next day, and the youngest daughter was willing, so the nurse was informed that mom had changed her mind and the shot would leave with us.

For some reason, when the shot instructions were actually given before our departure, the delivery time had changed from 8:00 to 11:00 PM. We decided that maybe this was better since there was a possibility that Shad would even stay asleep until the shot had been administered. Obviously Shad doesn't enjoy getting the shot, but the anticipation is usually worse for him than the actual delivery, so we were hoping we could perhaps make a quick, surprise attack and then it would be over with before he realized what had happened.

Shad went to bed around eight and when the time came for the shot the youngest daughter got out the information sheet to review the directions. There was even a handy-dandy picture to show her exactly what to do.

It was determined that the shot would go into his thigh and we all quietly went upstairs and proceeded to carry out "Operation Shot in the Dark".

Unfortunately things didn't go quite as we had hoped. As soon as his mom started to pull down his pajamas to expose his leg Shad woke up and wanted to know what she was doing. Believing that honesty is the best policy, she informed him that we had to give him a shot - the doctor said. Shad started to cry. The oldest daughter started to cry. I grabbed his arms, his mom grabbed his legs, and the youngest daughter inserted the needle, pushed the plunger, and was done. A band-aid was quickly applied as Shad and mommy continued to cry. The youngest daughter and I quickly exited the room while the oldest daughter stayed to console Shad.  He was mad at her, since he assumed that she was the one who had administered the shot, and let her suffer for a few minutes, but it didn't take long for him to go back to sleep.

Fast forward to today.

Shad seems to have survived the middle of the night adventure and isn't holding any grudges toward any of us. I am adjusting his pants and he informs me to be careful because the band-aid on his leg might pull.  Curious about what he remembers, I ask, "Why do you have a band-aid on your leg?".  He thinks for a minute and then says, "Why do I have a band-aid on my leg?"

We all plead ignorance. Honesty may be the best policy, but in this case we felt the less said, the better.

The youngest daughter and I are both happy with the Option B choice.  The oldest daughter is still undecided if it's the route she will go with next time. I guess only time will tell if there will be an "Operation Shot in the Dark - Take 2". The youngest daughter is going to be around for a few more shots though, so at least it's an option.

Today I am thankful that

Shad is home from the hospital and doing well.

the youngest daughter is willing to attempt new things and has a dad that lets her practice giving shots.

I got to fly home from California instead of drive.  The actual trip is a lot quicker.

Catsup Cooking at the Cannery

Today the youngest daughter and I volunteered at the Mesa Cannery. It's always exciting to try to guess what product we are canning by the smell that wafts out at you as the door opens. Our cannery only produces a few items including salsa, ketchup and syrup so it's  usually pretty easy to narrow it down. My canning sessions with salsa are always followed by an intense desire for Mexican food and the last time we did syrup I had to make pancakes for dinner.  It's sometimes nice when we do ketchup because, since I'm not a ketchup fan, it doesn't bring any food cravings with it.  (However, the hubby did take me to Culvers for a Butter Burger tonight.  I had mine ketchup-less).

As we entered and sat down by a gentleman from our ward I said, "Smells like we're doing ketchup today" and he replied, "Unless we're doing cat-sup."  Now I grew up in small town Utah and we (most people, but not me) ate ketchup.  Sometimes it was spelled ketchup and sometimes it was spelled catsup, but it was all the same thing and the names were interchangeable.  According to this gentleman there is a difference.  Of course when I got home I had to google ketchup vs. catsup and I am still pretty sure they are the same thing.

This is what I learned:
 ketchup was what it was called back when it was first introduced to the world pre-1700.
The British called it catsup somewhere along the way.
Southerners seem to prefer catsup.
Some people say catsup is spicier.
Ketchup is the most accepted name today and is what is printed on most brands.
Also, if you type catsup it shows up as a mis-spelling on the computer.

If you are interested in more info (and some ketchup/catsup pictures) you can go here.

Well, back to the cannery.  Today we canned (or bottled) catsup.  See Exhibit A below.

I got the job of putting lids on the bottles after the catsup was squirted in.  This is my most regular cannery assignment.  I must look like I have good manual dexterity or something. The bottles come out 4 at a time, pretty quickly, but there are usually 3 or 4 people in this area, so if you are at the front of the line and you miss a bottle someone else will catch it later.  If you are at the end of the line this is a REALLY BORING job and you spend most of your time spacing the bottles evenly to go through the machine that sucks the air out of them.  Today I was 2nd in line, a good spot to be.

The youngest daughter got to remove the bottles from the cooling tunnel and place them on the conveyor belt to get labeled and boxed.  I worked this area once.  I liked it because it is a loud area, I got to wear ear plugs and I could sing my entire repertoire of songs, at the top of my lungs and no one could hear me.  (The daughter says she thinks they could still hear me and that is embarrassing, but I asked the man who was standing next to me and he said no, and I trust him. He was reciting a 2 million stanza poem that he memorized and I only know that because he told me, not because I could hear him.)

We worked the afternoon shift and luckily we only had to work for about 2 hours. I got to man one of the clean up hoses when we were finished and squirt catsup off of all the equipment.  I managed to get a lot of hot, catsupy water all over me, but it was fun to spray everything.  I enjoyed spending some time giving service with my daughter, but I'm glad I don't have to work a production job everyday.

A final note concerning catsup.  Even though it is spelled catsup and the pronunciation dictionary says to say it cat- sup.  I was raised to call it all ketchup (catch up).  Cat sup sounds like something I would give my cats for dinner.  However, they might actually like some catsup on their cat food.  They have been extremely interested in the shoes that I wore to the cannery since they got marinated in catsup water.

Today I am thankful for

the opportunity to do service with my daughter.  I am enjoying having her around.
cheap and yummy wholewheat raisin bread from the Alpine Bread Bakery Outlet.
lentils.

Today I am grateful that

the youngest son didn't burn up in the burning building he practiced fire fighting in today.


photo by David H. Barehand

my youngest daughter remembered her grandma's birthday by putting flowers on her grave as she and her dad drove past.

my oldest son owns lots of movies that I can borrow when I am in a movie watching mood.

Family Night Farewell Picnic

Tonight we all enjoyed a picnic at the park in honor of the youngest daughter leaving the big city to return to small town Idaho. It was such a pretty spring evening and we had fun just hanging out together.

We ate lots of yummy food

and played on the swings.

The youngest daughter thought it would be fun to drink out of the doggy drinking fountain.

Perhaps that's how they do it in the country. I thought it was kind of gross though.

We attempted a group photo on the slide before we left. We laughed and laughed and laughed and took lots of funny shots, but this was the best pose we ended up with. The son-in-law had a class tonight so he didn't get to join us and the extra is the former roommate who is still occasionally a member of our family.

We are going to miss you youngest daughter. Don't have too much fun without us.

Today I am grateful for

a daughter who organized our family picnic.
laughter.
my family.

Mother Daughter Date

Today the youngest daughter and I went to the movies and out to lunch while all the less fortunate family members went to school or work. It was fun to get to spend some one on one time with this daughter. We went to see the movie Julie & Julia.


From the moment I first saw the preview for this show I have wanted to see it. The 2 1/2 minute trailer made me laugh, it made me cry, and I could relate in many ways with both characters. Although I have never professed to be a cook and personally think most of the recipes in Julia Child's French cookbook sound disgusting, I have always been intrigued by Julia Child, the person, especially since I learned that she was a spy during World War II. I felt like this movie really made her personality come to life and I learned a lot of things about her that I didn't know before. I also loved Julie Powell's idea to cook every recipe in the Julia Child cookbook and blog about her experience. I will admit that I love blogs and would love to come up with a blog project that I could really get into like this one. Something that other people would be interested in reading, that would eventually turn into a book and then a movie... I'm still looking for that elusive idea, but keep your eyes peeled. You never know when it might happen and then you will be able to say, 'I was with her from the very beginning".

Now, for my thoughts on the movie. I really, really enjoyed it! It was definitely not full of action- packed adventure, but lots of subtle humor, retrospection, self-discovery and lessons about life. I was pleased to find out that both characters were married to the significant men in their lives rather than just living with them. This doesn't happen too often in today's movies. The only thing I didn't like about the movie was the language, but after quickly perusing Julie Powell's blogs and a preview for her book, I have discovered that the language could have been so much worse than it was. To quote Julie Powell "I happen to believe that curse words are vital parts of the language, and I write accordingly." Everyone is entitled to their personal opinion (although I still believe that my opinion is the right one) and I would personally like to thank the movie writers/editors who chose to leave most of her colorful words out of the film. My daughter wasn't as big a fan of the movie as I was, but she is still young enough to enjoy non-stop action and adventure. She felt that there was way too much cooking going on.

After the movie we went to PEI-WEI for some of their yummy spicy chicken salad and it was definitely still yummy. While we were there we got to participate in a "Chinese Fire drill". Apparently a belt on some type of machinery broke and although there was no fire, the restaurant filled with smoke and we all got to jump up and find new seats on the patio. Unfortunately there were fewer seats outside than there had been people inside and some people opted to just abandon their food and leave, but the daughter and I stuck around to enjoy every bite. Fortunately it was a cooler day than most of the ones we have been experiencing recently and eating al fresco was rather fun. Thanks daughter for suggesting such a fun day!

Today I am thankful for

a daughter to have fun with.
$5.00 matinees (who would have ever thought that $5.00 for a movie would sound like such a good deal) and a movie gift card that made the movie only cost us 50 cents.
something to look forward to. In just a couple of hours I am off for a getaway with my friends.

One year ago today - Family Life Merit Badge

Personal Shopper

The youngest son decided that he wanted clothes from us for his birthday this year. Since he has gotten taller and also thinned out I wasn't too sure what size clothes he really wears anymore so I determined that he needed to be included in the shopping experience. However, this son and I don't necessarily see eye to eye on what looks nice and I wasn't looking forward to this event. I was very happy to give his sister some cash and let her take him to the stores. They did a good job purchasing items that met my criteria and came home with quite a few bags of clothes for him.


He was so excited to model for those of us that didn't get to go on the shopping excursion, that he dropped his pants right away when he got home(or so it appears in this picture).
They discovered today that the son is apparently a "pants square". He wears size 34X34 jeans. The most exciting purchase of the day, in the son's opinion at least, were a pair of LeBron James shoes. He bought those with his own birthday money.

Today I am grateful for

a daughter that is willing to take my son shopping and has good taste as well.
Ross - where you can dress for less.
peach shakes from Chik-fil-a.

One year ago today - Boogie Boarding at the Beach

Twins

I've heard that in interracial families when fraternal twins are born one can resemble one race and the other one can resemble the other. I guess this is what happened in this case. The youngest daughter has the light toned phone and the youngest son has the darker one.

I guess it's nice that this son has an older brother who believes him when he says he needs a new phone. I personally think his old phone was just fine. Ditto on the daughter's new phone.

Here the two of them are texting each other with the other one's phone. I think they could have just talked since they are sitting across the table from each other, but once again, I'm just the mom and what do I know?

Tongue Rolling

My kids like to make fun of me because I can't roll my tongue (bring the sides up toward the middle - see the son's example below).

They like to have me try to do it and then all laugh because I can't. I think it was in a biology class in college where I first learned that this is a hereditary trait. (There is some question as to whether or not this is true, but true or not it's fun to see who can and can't do it.) We traced my inability to perform this supposedly simple trick to my Grandma Christiansen on my mom's side. She couldn't do it either. We would both try and try. It just doesn't happen. Since this is a recessive trait, there has to be someone on my dad's side who couldn't do it as well. We never discovered who that was.

My kids like to show off their tongue rolling ability. Even the son-in-law was trying to get into the act.

So, can you roll your tongue?

Yasmine's Baptism

Today we attended the baptism of our great niece, Yasmine. She is the daughter of our niece, Sylvia, who passed away about a year ago. The missionaries have been teaching her and she decided she was ready to be baptised. We are proud of her for making this important decision. Her uncle baptised her. Her dad and the elders (or part of the elders) are in the picture also.

This is her with her brother and sisters and her Auntie (that they live with).

These are some of her cousins at the baptism.

My oldest son gave the talk on baptism and my oldest daughter gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. They both did a great job. The daughter got a little emotional while she was speaking. When she was finished, her cousin, the smallest one in the picture above, climbed on her lap and asked her why she was crying while she was talking. She told her it was because she was scared. I personally think it was because she felt the spirit or perhaps because she is pregnant. This cousin was really concerned about the tears and kept asking my daughter questions about her emotions.

After the baptism we went to my sister-in-law's house to eat dinner. This same cousin sat down by my youngest daughter and rather than calling her by her name kept referring to her as "the one who didn't cry". It was pretty funny. She also told us some other funny things that aren't very blog appropriate. We enjoyed her entertainment.

Today I am grateful for

dinner cooked by someone else.

baptisms and the spirit that I feel during them.

the support and love of an extended family.

One year ago today - Has anyone seen my son?

Last Day of School x 3

Yesterday was my youngest son's
last day of school.
I was surprised that
he wanted to get up early today
and go spend the day
with one of his sisters
at her last day of school.
She works as an instructional assistant.
Today was the oldest son's
last day of school as well.
He is also an instructional assistant.
Then tomorrow is
the oldest daughter's last day of school.
She has almost completed her 1st year
as a second grade teacher
and her third year as a teacher.
No more school for a couple of months.
Hooray!
I love the slower pace of Summer,
at least for a couple of months.

Today I am grateful for

a break from making school lunches.
a break from early morning wake up service.
the smell of rain.

Pink and Black Skull Quilt

My youngest daughter is a fan of the colors black and hot pink, especially together, as well as designs which include skulls, so when I saw this fabric, a couple of years ago, I knew I needed to buy it and make something for her.

I had wanted to make a rag quilt for quite awhile, ever since someone demonstated how to sew one in an enrichment meeting, and I decided this fabric would work well for this project. I couldn't just have one fabric however, so I bought a variety of other fuzzy materials and cut a bunch of squares. Each square had to have a skull block attatched to the back with a sewn criss-cross then the squares had to be put into rows and the rows finally combined into a lap quilt. Once all the blocks were sewn together, with the raw edges showing, those edges had to be clipped to make fringe. This fringe frays and curls when the quilt is washed and makes it look cute and fluffy.

I had no idea how long it would take to clip all those squares on all 4 sides. It took FOREVER. Then when that was done I realized I had no idea how to edge the quilt, so like so many of my projects, it got put away in a cupboard for quite awhile - maybe a couple of years.
When the daughter got accepted to BYU-Idaho I decided a warm, fuzzy, flannel quilt would be just the thing for her to take with her and I pulled the project out again. I just sewed a binding on, with the raw edge showing on the top, and did some more clipping, which went alot faster this time. Then I washed the quilt, to get the fluff, and ta-dum...
Unfinished project #2 - FINISHED and delivered.


Perhaps I'm on a roll here.

Baptism

Tonight the sons, my youngest daughter and I attended the baptism of one of our friends. This young man started out as a friend with my youngest son when they were in middle school together. He enjoys playing basketball and he and my son connected on the basketball court. The son and I also enjoyed sitting in the stands with his dad and his uncle watching him play on the middle school basketball team. Then he started playing on the church basketball team (Deacon) that my older son coached several years ago. He has continued to play church ball each year and played on the team the youngest son was on recently.

He is #14 in this picture. (Unfortunately I didn't take my camera with me to the baptism.) He lives in the ward that we share our building with and he has attended many of their Wednesday night activities over the years and became close friends with many of the boys in that ward, especially one young man, who was also his neighbor and whose family have always welcomed him into their home.
Not too long ago the boy who was baptized tonight lost his dad unexpectedly. His mom has never been a part of his life, at least not for as long as we have known him. After his father's death he ended up moving in with his much older brother, but that ended up being a less than positive situation and a change needed to be made. The neighbor family invited him to live with them just after the start of the year. Since then he has attended church every Sunday and recently decided he wanted to take the missionary discussions and things progressed from there.
Whenever someone I know decides to be baptized I stop and ponder what kind of an impact I personally had on this decision. Did my interactions with this person give him a desire to know more about the gospel or did he decide to join the church in spite of my example? I think it's good to have opportunities where we really stop and think about the influence we can have in other people's lives and the difference we can make. We really never know who is watching us.
In this situation I don't really believe that anything my children or I did made a huge difference in how things transpired. Perhaps we were all cast in the supporting roles in this life story, not as one of the main characters. I am happy to say though that I can't think of too many moments when our choices might have actually stood in his way of joining the church, except perhaps those few times when my youngest son or I got a little too emotionally involved in the drama of an exciting basketball game. Could we have done better? Most definitely. Are we glad we did what we did? You better believe it.
This young man is such a great kid, who has faced a lot of challenges in his life. It was a very sweet experience to see him enter the waters of baptism this evening, surrounded by his new church family. I love baptisms and the spirit I felt during this one tonight.

Tonight I am thankful for

the Holy Ghost.
individuals who open their hearts and their homes to others.
my oldest daughter who rescued her father when his car died on the way home from work and none of the rest of us would answer our cell phones because we were at the baptism

Pima Tacos

This morning I got a phone call from my sister-in-law inviting our family to her house for dinner. About a year ago one of our nieces committed suicide leaving behind 4 children between the ages of 11 and 2. She had kind of distanced herself from the family and her children a few months prior to her death and the children, along with the father of the 2 youngest, were living with this sister-in-law when this all transpired. The father of the 2nd child eventually decided he wanted his daughter (who is 10 now) to come and live with him. She wasn't excited to be separated from her siblings and this turned out to not be a very positive situation in a lot of ways. This sister-in-law went to court to get custody of this child and today she came back home. She loves Pima Tacos and so we welcomed her back with food.

My oldest sister-in-law showing off her popover patting skills.

The hubby can cook with one hand in his pocket.

The kids waiting patiently to partake.

Today I am thankful for

dinner cooked by someone else.
my vacuum.
relatives who work hard to make life better for the kids we care about.
the chance to watch things grow in the fields around my in-laws homes. Right now it's a crop of wheat.

Water Fight

This afternoon I was attending a bridal shower for one of my friend's daughters when I got a phone call from my youngest child. He wanted to know what had happened to the big bag of water balloons we had. I told him where they were and thought "water balloons sound like fun on a warm March day."
By the time I arrived home though they had tossed all the balloons and moved on to buckets and hoses. The sons, the daughter and the roommates all seemed to be enjoying themselves. It's hard to believe that it's still cold in a lot of the USA right now. I love Tempe, Arizona in March!!

Today I am thankful for

children that enjoy doing things together.

happy occasions to celebrate with my friends.

opportunities to sleep in.

BYU Idaho

My youngest daughter has been accepted to attend college at BYU Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho this Fall. She is very excited and we are excited for her. BYU Idaho has specific tracks that determine the months when you attend. I think they are based on your major, but I'm not sure. Anyway, the daughter found out today which track she is on. I don't remember the name of it but she will attend school from September to December, then be off from January to April and then return the end of April through August. I think this is definitely the best of both worlds for an almost Arizona Native (we moved here when she was 8 months old). She gets to miss most of the cold Idaho winter and the hot Arizona summer. I wonder if I can apply to BYU Idaho too? I could really enjoy cooler summers.

Español

Tonight I had the opportunity of going to the temple to see one of my youngest daughter's good friends receive her own endowments. This young woman will soon be known as Sister Zarate and will be serving in the Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission for 18 months.

We are all excited for her. Some other members of the family would have gone to the temple with her as well, but it just so happened that tonight was also the beginning of the church young men's basketball tournament and the youngest son's team, which is coached by the oldest son, had a game at the same time. It was hard for many of us to decide where we wanted to be the most. I finally decided that since the tournament is double elimination and the team was only playing one game tonight that I would have another opportunity to watch them participate and so I chose the temple. I was glad that I did. (The son's team lost and listening to the recap, I think I was lucky that I wasn't there to experience it.)
Since English is this sister's second language she chose to go to a Spanish speaking endowment session. My family and I had discussed ahead of time whether or not I thought I could follow what was going on if I had to do it only in Spanish. Pondering this question reminded me of a trip I took to a Denver Albertsons grocery store a couple of years ago. I was getting ready to check out when I received a phone call from my oldest daughter informing me that she had just been offered a job teaching Kindergarten at Fuller Elementary School. This was her first teaching job, school started in a week and we were both very excited. After I hung up I went to the self check out to purchase my groceries. I was still a little distracted and accidentally pushed the Spanish button instead of the English one. I tried to go back and choose English but couldn't figure it out. I decided I could check out in Spanish. I know a little Spanish and I use the self check out all the time, I could probably do it with my eyes closed so I thought a foreign language would be no problem. Scan the item, drop it in the bag. Pretty much the same in any language. I was rolling right along until I got to the produce. Even though I didn't know what a cantaloupe was called in Spanish I scrolled through the pictures and managed to find one that matched my item. Success! Then came the green pepper. I found the picture, entered the code but then the number keyboard popped up again. I thought the code hadn't gone through so I entered it again. I figured out what it was actually asking for about the same time I pushed the enter button. I was suppose to enter the quantity. Instead of one green pepper, or whatever it is called in Spanish, I said I was buying 4035 or some other ridiculous number. My grocery tab was immediately over $2000. That was when I finally decided to call for help. The employee was very confused about why I was checking out in Spanish, when I obviously was speaking English. Luckily for me he stood right next to me for the rest of the transaction. I think I needed his assistance at least 3 more times before I was done and thoroughly embarrassed.
So, as I thought about the temple ceremony, my first thought was that perhaps I could manage most parts, I mean I've heard it all a number of times. However, I quickly reconsidered.
The temple was very accommodating and supplied headsets for all of us who couldn't understand Español. I enjoyed hearing English in one ear while I tried to figure out what they were saying in Spanish with the other. I could actually understand a few things. However, I did find it somewhat disconcerting having Satan whispering directly into my ear at times. He seemed a lot more menacing when he was piped right into my head. Kind of like the devil sitting on my shoulder feeling.
I love being in the celestial room with someone who is there for the first time. My sweet friend was so happy to be there and I was equally happy to be there with her. It was such a wonderful moment. Lots of Love to you Sister Zarate. You're moving in the right direction and I wish you the best in life.

Today I am grateful for

hugs.
modern technology.
the temple - in any language.

Tying it Together

The oldest daughter and I decided to continue to be ambitious during her Spring Break so we borrowed some quilting frames and tied the quilt that we finished Tuesday.

We didn't want to just work during her "vacation" however, so the other daughter and the roommate-girlfriend came over and we went to lunch together.


I chose to take them to Iguana Mack's.

A fun restaurant that my visiting teachee introduced me to that has a reasonably priced lunch menu and some really funky interior decor.


We had a lot of fun. The youngest daughter enjoyed taking lots of random photos and the oldest daughter got to drink rootbeer "shot right out of the gun".

It's nice to have a quiet day and take time to smell the "roses".


Today, while we still had the quilting frames we put together some other fabric I had lying around and tied another baby quilt.


This one was to appease the baby if he's a boy. Plus it has little airplanes on it in honor of the son-in-law.




Now we just have to get them bound and they are done!

Stiffnecked

I have had a sore neck for the past couple of days. It never fails to amaze me how frequently and relatively painlessly I turn my head every day and then one morning I wake up and "Ouch". If something is not directly in front of me I don't need to see it. My neck it not moving.
I asked my youngest son what I should do about my neck and he said I should stretch it. I have been doing my giraffe imitations, but they don't seem to be helping.
I decided to ask for my youngest daughter's opinion. She used to really be into anatomy and read medical dictionaries for fun. Maybe she would have a helpful suggestion. I told her "I have a stiff neck. What should I do?" She thought about it for a minute and replied "Perhaps you should pray to Heavenly Father to soften it." While that wasn't quite the response I was looking for I thought it was a good one.
Sometimes I can't help but think how totally right on discriptive words in the scriptures are. When someone is called stiffnecked I know exactly what is meant. I can relate with that condition, physically and yes, probably even spiritually once in a while.
Now if I could just figure out how to say the word stiffnecked I would be all set. Is it stiffneck-T or stiffneck-ED. I know it's repent-ED, repeat-ED, and post-ED. I know it's search-T, ponder-D and pray-D. I would say it is stiffneck-T since it is kick-T and cook-T, but then when the word is stiffneckedness that just doesn't seem to work. It has to be stiffneck-EDness not stiffneck-Tness, doesn't it?
I admit to being a hick from a small town in Utah who doesn't always speak correctly, in the opinion of some people, so can someone please help me out here?

Pay Back

So, all you parents out there, have your children ever said something or done something and in the back of your mind you think, "I hope someday you have a child just like you and then you will realize just how I felt today."? I know I have and I would guess a few of you have as well. I am definitely sure my mom felt that way about me on more than one occasion. Take for instance one particular circumstance I have been thinking about for the last couple of days.

My third year at BYU I had a couple of roommates who were from Las Vegas. Well, Thanksgiving was fast approaching and I was invited by these roommates to go to Nevada with them for the holiday. Now, I might not have been as tempted to accept this invitation, except at the same time I found out that my sister and her family were going to be in Las Vegas visiting her husband's brother for Thanksgiving. I was excited to have an adventure, as well as have the opportunity to see my one and only niece, my nephews and my sister and brother-in-law, of course. I informed my mom of my decision and she didn't seem to be nearly as excited as I was. At the time I couldn't really understand why she didn't think it was a wonderful idea. I did go to Vegas and had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing family and hanging out with friends. It is a Thanksgiving memory that stands out in my mind, probably because it was out of the norm.

Well, this year I am getting pay back from my youngest daughter. She decided that she wanted to go to Snowflake, AZ with her roommate for Thanksgiving rather than spend the holiday with her somewhat routine family. I probably wasn't nearly as excited about the idea as she was (I might have been more excited if she had actually told me). I don't necessarily begrudge her the chance for new adventures, but I will miss having her here with me for the day. As I have gotten older and had my own children, I have come to better understand how my mom probably felt on that long ago November day. It is somewhat bitter sweet to watch my children grow up and begin to prefer someone else's company to my own. I think also, as the years pass, I begin to realize that the "family" holidays, that I have pretty much taken for granted, are going to be fewer and farther between. This year not only is this daughter missing, but the other daughter has gone to Gallup, New Mexico to spend the day with the husband's family there and the oldest son is visiting his fiancee's family dinner before he makes an appearance at his aunt's house for our Thanksgiving. Add to that equation a husband that can't walk without groaning, a head cold that won't go away, and a son who also has a cold and is ready to boycott Thanksgiving this year and I would say that the part of our family attending our "family" festivities has less than a festive attitude.

Does this mean I am not thankful? Not at all! I am so grateful for all of the many blessings which are mine. I am so lucky to have all of my children living close to me (or with me) so that I get to see them all of the time, and not just on special occasions. I am so blessed to get to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's large extended family because that means there will always be lots of food and I only have to cook a little bit of it. I am grateful that in this time of economic termoil that I have enough and to spare. I have wonderful memories of lots and lots of past Thanksgivings spent with family and friends. I have a telephone and the internet so I can communicate with the family members I can't be with today and share my gratitude for them with them. It truly is a very Happy Thanksgiving, even if I don't feel festive.

Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

Girl's Night Out

I am so lucky!
I have had a girl's night out.
with my daughters and
my pretend daughters
two Saturday nights in a row.

Last week
we all enjoyed Pork Barbacoa Salad
provided by the Stake Relief Society
and then watched the General Woman's Broadcast.
It was a wonderful meeting
and even better because
I got to share it with my girls.

Tonight we all went out to dinner
at Charlestons
while the boys attended
the Priesthood session of General Conference
and went out to dinner afterwards.




As you can see, some of us take our eating
a lot more seriously than others.



We laughed a lot
at things that weren't
all that funny.
We ate a lot
of garlic mashed potatoes
and glazed carrots,
although we all agreed
that the carrots needed
to be "burned" a little bit more.
We drank a lot
of nothing stronger than
water or diet Coke.
We had a really fun time.

Thanks girls for including me
in your Girl's Night Out.

Today I am thankful for

the females in my life.
a living prophet on the earth.
a loving Heavenly Father who knows who I am and the counsel that I need to hear.