My New Glasses

Okay, here they are, front and center.  They look black in the picture, but they are actually purple, which I thought was fun.  They also have some bling on the sides.  They are different, that's for sure.  My old pair were finally at their last life.  I got those just after Dallin was born and they were so scratched up and bent and bruised, I was surprised I could even still see through them.  Or that they resembled glasses still.  So, these are my new pair.  I like the shape of them.  I am still getting used to the darkness of them against my ever alabaster skin.  But, hey, I can see so much more clearly than I have in at least eight years.  So, that's a great thing.

I'll probably post a different picture in the near future when my hair and makeup are all done up so you can get the full effect.  Okay, on to other subjects: three things about myself that I like or appreciate.  I like that I am a "jack of all trades".  Usually I can try stuff and catch on to things fairly quickly.  Obviously there are always going to be exceptions to that, but for the most part, I have been blessed to have a sharp wit and to catch on.  I like that I do well in school.  That is something that I pride myself on: good grades.  Last semester, I didn't put as much as I would have liked into school and I was afraid that I would get at least two Cs and two Bs.  But, I wound up getting all four Bs, which I was pleased with.  Finally, I like my musical abilities.  I like my voice, especially when I am singing with my children, my mom, or my sisters.  There is something about the mixing of family voices that sounds so beautiful.  Everyone has the same genes or something like that which gives it a little extra mixing ability.  Does that even make sense?  So many times I have wanted to sing in church with my sisters, especially a capella, but since they are doodie-heads and are in Utah (either that, or I am a doodie-head for being in Texas) they can't sing with me. 

Okay, so those are the three things I like about myself today.  What are your three things?

My New Calling

It's been forever since I last wrote in this blog.  I am really going to try to change that from now on.  Before I start on my chosen topic, however, I am going to write three things that I like about myself.  It is part of a deal I have with my dear friend, Carina.  So here goes:  I like that I can cook just about anything and it won't taste too poopy.  Tonight for Father's Day, Mike requested Greek food and I have NEVER done anything like that.  But, I attempted beef souvlaki with a tzatziki sauce, lemon rice pilaf, and Greek salad, with Baklava for dessert. All of it turned out somewhat decently!  I was very proud of myself, especially for a first try.  I also like that I am a friendly person.  Even on my gloomiest days, I can usually perk up enough to get a laugh out of someone who may be having a gloomier day than me.  Lastly, I like that I am organized.  This is a skill that really helps me in my new calling as Compassionate Service Coordinator.  Not a bad segue, huh?

I am the Compassionate Service Coordinator in our new ward.  It has been my most challenging calling yet.  It is not physically or mentally demanding, really.  But, it is very emotionally challenging simply because getting people to give service can be a very difficult thing to do.  I understand now how all the other coordinators I have dealt with have felt.  It is a tough job!  I passed around a sign-up sheet to bring meals to people and to be with a sister in our ward for a few hours each Wednesday and Friday.  She is very sick and needs people to be with her just in case she has trouble.  It has been like twisting people's arms off to get them to be willing to do that!  It drives me nuts!  I have tried everything, and I am beginning to lose hope as well as patience.  But, I just have to have faith, I suppose.  They say that the Lord will qualify you for your calling as long as you have faith and try your best.  I sure do hope he qualifies me for this one!

My Best Intentions

Well, it's only been 8 months since my last post.  That's not SO bad, right?  Right...Hence, the name of my post.  I am constantly coming on here looking for posts from my friends in hopes I can catch up with them, but I never post anything myself.  I always think to myself, "I NEED to start writing in my blog again!"  Then something comes up and I don't do it.  For example, for the longest time my excuse has been school, then it was kids, then it was moving into a new house (which I also need to blog about, or at the very least, post pictures of), or one thing after another after another.  I am starting to run out of excuses, so I am not going to have them anymore. 

To fill you all in, it has been a crazy 8 months.  Christmas and all the great holidays came and went, and at the beginning of February this year, we found a new and bigger house that we LOVE!  I seriously couldn't ask for a better place.  It's beautiful!  Plus, I finally can have my doggie.  That's another blog post as well.  This one is about my intentions. 

I can remember conversations with my buddy, Kim, in Utah before we moved.  She told me that after much soul-searching through a class she had taken, she had come to realize that she was addicted to "starting things".  I thought about that a lot since then.  I even mentioned it to my sister-in-law, Penny, and we both came to realize that we are that way too.  I have especially noticed it about myself lately.  I am starting to feel very low, I think because of how I am feeling physically.  I am in the worst shape I have ever been, and the heaviest.  So, I think up all these plans in my head about what I am going to do to change that.  Yet, I can't seem to get myself to follow through because I am so unmotivated and tired.  Yet, I know that I am unmotivated and tired because I am not getting up and moving.  It's a mean and vicious cycle.  And, no matter how much I tell myself I need to change, and no matter how many people offer me advice and encouragement, I can't get myself motivated.  Again, hence the name of my blog.

Not to worry, I am not seeking advice--mostly I am just venting my frustration.  I know my AHA moment will come eventually, just like it did back in 2010 when I ran my half.  I would love to have it come sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, I need to just keep plugging away.  Don't we all?  I mean, everyone has their things they want to accomplish, but they can't seem to find the motivation to get it done.  Hopefully we all will, since none of us have the desire to fail. 

All right, I am done now.  Maybe now that I have written in my blog finally, and I can check that one off my list, I will start finishing all my other good intentions too!

My First Day of School

Well, my first day of school was an interesting one to say the least!  I left the house 45 minutes early to give myself plenty of time to get there and get into the class.  Keep in mind I was leaving Audrey in charge for more than an hour for the first time ever, so I was a little nervous and preoccupied.  I was driving through a school zone and I thought I was going pretty slowly, but apparently not slow enough.  I got pulled over and was given a ticket for going 30 in a 20 mph zone.  Then, traffic was absolutely crazy at the school!  I hope this isn't the way it will be all the time there!  It was bonkers!  It took me half an hour to find a parking spot which ended up being almost half a mile away from the building I needed to be in.  I'm not even kidding!  So, I literally had to run to get to my class and I was still about five minutes late.  I HATE being late!  Luckily the professor was late as well, so I wasn't marked as being tardy. 

I can tell that I am going to enjoy this Business Law class a lot more than the online one I took at SLCC.  For one thing, I am going to get more out of listening to a teacher than I did just from reading the book.  Plus, this professor is quite funny.  He is older, about 65 or so.  He has a very thick Southern accent and he has all kinds of funny words for things.  He seems very nice and very knowledgeable.  The class is huge!  I counted my half of the room and there were about 42 people just on my half!  So my guess is there are close to 75 people in the room!

Tomorrow is my management class and my math class.  I am most fearful of the math class.  I love math, but this will be business calculus!  I haven't taken calculus since my junior year in high school!  We will see how it goes.  By the way, Audrey did really well and everyone was safe and sound.  That doesn't mean I won't be freaking out tomorrow the same way I did today.  Let's just hope I don't get another ticket on my way to school!

My Paleo

So, I have decided that I am an addict to "starting" things.  I start craft projects, I start writing books, but mostly I am constantly trying new ways of losing weight because nothing ever seems to work for me.  I have heard over and over from everyone that the key to weight loss is just eating the right foods in the right portion sizes, and getting the right amount of exercise.  Easy enough, right?  Not for me.  I don't know why, either, and that is what is so frustrating.  Some might say that I have an addiction to sugar or some traumatic event in childhood occurred that caused me to have an emotional dependence on food.  Whatever it is, it is something that I have been trying to battle all my life.

 With that being said, I admit that I am not coming to some great realization that enough is enough or anything else like that.  Quite the opposite, actually.  Since I am admitting to being an addict to starting new things, I will tell you about my latest.  Maybe this will be "the one"...maybe this will finally be the end of my lifetime of dissatisfaction with my body, my lifestyle, everything.  Or not.  Either way, it is something I am enjoying so far and I have the whole family onboard as well which certainly helps.  It is called a Paleo lifestyle, which is basically a gluten-free, dairy-free, legume-free diet (as in way of eating, not an attempt to lose weight).  This focuses mainly on eating vegetables (and many of them, including sweet potatoes, but no regular potatoes, corn, or peas), fruits (less of those, but still a lot), nuts, seeds, healthy fats (like those found in avocados, coconuts, fish, etc.), and plenty of proteins like eggs, fish, chicken, and other types of meats (strict Paleos prefer grass-fed animals as their source of meat). 

If one is a strict Paleo follower, they would eliminate all grains and dairy, but I admit, I am not keen on the idea of giving up all of those.  Baby steps for me, please.  So, I am still allowing milk, butter (which strict Paleos also eat very sparingly, but they prefer "ghee"--google it!) and yogurt in the dairy category, and I am allowing oats, wild or brown rice, and air-popped popcorn.  All in all, I am pretty satisfied so far and I haven't had too many complaints from the kids about the meals I am making.  I have been going for four days.  Mike is even on board!  So, for that I am grateful.  As for whether or not this will finally be the "golden ticket" for me and my endless search for something I can survive with and still lose weight...well, that remains to be seen.  I will keep you all posted.  If you want to learn more about this stuff, check out everydaypaleo.com  It is a great website!

My Love/Hate Relationship

I am sure all of you have this same love/hate relationship as I do.  My relationship is with money.  I hate it.  I love it.  It sucks.  What's funny is that I am going to go to school to become an accountant and all they do is work with money constantly.  I guess the only time I really hate it is when I have to pay out more of it than I have coming in.  It seems like the last 13 years that I have been married, that is the occasion.  Granted, since we moved to Texas, our money problems haven't been nearly as severe which has been a welcome change.  But, because of that, I have gone a little overboard in the frivolous spending area which I never would have done in Utah.  I have become a bit more free with how I spend the money in our home.  That is starting to catch up with me.  Things are starting to get tight again and it is not a good feeling, especially when Mike has to work long weeks to make ends meet.  That's not the way it should be.  I really need to work harder to find a happy medium that we can all be happy with.  Plus, I really need to be careful with money so I can make sure I have enough to go to Utah in July.  That has to happen, regardless of what bills remain unpaid for a while.  I wish a money tree would start growing in my backyard.  But, since that won't be happening anytime soon, I guess I just need to start using my self-control that I know I have buried down inside of me somewhere.  Now if only I could just find it....

My Big Baby

It's kind of hard for me to believe, but my baby girl is going to be five years old tomorrow.  She has been counting down the days for quite a while now.  It seems like it wasn't that long ago that she was born.  Here, let me show you what a beautiful girl I brought into the world back in June of 2007:

See what I mean?  Beautiful!!  Tomorrow my very last child is going to be old enough to go to kindergarten (which she is also counting down to) and she is going to be able to hold up an entire hand to show people her age.  It's kind of crazy to me that I won't have any more babies like this in my house.  Even grandchildren won't live with me.  In some ways, it is a little sad, but in other ways it is very exciting to see what kind of fun things lie ahead for us.  I sure am grateful to have had four beautiful children.  I couldn't have asked for better ones and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father entrusted me with these beautiful spirits.  He must see something in me that I don't.  There's not much more I can say about Claire except that she is so much fun.  It's much better to show my beautiful girl in pictures.  So, here I go:

About a month old

Family Pictures, November of 2007



Lagoon 2008, about a year old

I always found Claire in funny little outfits.  She was about 2 here.

SO CUTE!!  I love this picture of Claire.  She was about 2 1/2 here.

About 3 1/2.  Again, so cute, always ready to give a big smile for the camera



She looks SO MUCH like Audrey when she was that age.  Crazy how much my kids look alike.



This is Easter of 2012.  See how grown up she is looking?  Hard to believe she is almost 5!

Oh, sorry, that's not Claire.  Heh heh.  I just couldn't resist, Slllllllamantha!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE CLAIRE BEAR!!!!