For Today

Today I am....

FOR TODAY Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Outside my window... It's dark outside.
I am thinking... about my working options.
I am thankful for... a wonderful Christmas spent with my family.
From the kitchen... nothing was cooked today by me but Emma made me Kraft mac n cheese for dinner with chocolate cake for dessert. It was delicious.
I am wearing... grey sweats
I am creating... a scrapbook of memories for my mom from the funeral.
I am going... to go to bed soon.
I am reading... Home For Christmas by Anita Stansfield
I am hoping... that this new year will be a better year for me spiritually
I am hearing...the quiet murmur of the TV in the family room.
Around the house... there are Christmas gifts that need to be put away and vacuuming that needs to be done.
One of my favorite things... spending time with Chris.
A few plans for the weekend: Snowboarding and skiing at Timberline while I sit in the lodge and read.
Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

I'm ready for Christmas

I'm ready for Christmas.

I may not have all my presents wrapped.
I may not have finished all the baking on my list
I may not even have all of my shopping done (this is true)
I may not have cleaned the house to my liking

but......

We had a great Family Home Evening last night.
We went caroling as a family
Today I went to the temple with my mom
I saw 4 ward members working there
and my heart filled with love.
I reflected on the Savior, my Savior, your Savior and realized

I'm ready.

Meanest Mom Ever

I was told today in a fit of rage that I was the meanest mom ever. This came because I told her to go to her room and work on her homework. She had been home for 2 1/2 hours and had not done what she was supposed to.

Hm, if I'm the meanest mom ever then why am I here? Believe me, i would have bailed a long time ago. My hours are terrible, I don't get paid at all and I certainly get no recognition. I'm here because I love you, dear daughter of mine.

This makes me think about a conversation I had two nights ago with a friend. She put forth the idea that all moms should have sweatshirts. With patches. And the patches would say things like , "my child may not be an A student but I help them everyday with their homework" or " I sewed on a trillion boyscout patches" What about, "I feed my family?"

I applaud this idea. We should all have sweatshirts and wear them on Mothers day. And then instead of the dumb plant or flower that is going to die (sorry, it's the way I feel) the men at my church could give us stripes, kind of like the ones the military wear so proudly on their uniforms. The stripes would say we survived another year of motherhood. And speaking of military, they get saluted.

I'd like to be saluted. Maybe just once.

Perhaps someone is reading this that has a husband and children that applaud them and express their thanks most profusely. To this person I say congratulations. I'm happy for you, but I need a sweatshirt.

Christmas Party

Emma came to me and said she wanted a Christmas party. At first I said no, thinking of all the other things I had going on. But then I decided it was a good thing. I really regret not having some type of get-together when Makenzie was in 6th grade. Here she was off to a new school and an entirely new set of friends. I had weird fears about having a party with that age back then. But now that I've been through that age with Makenzie I see Emma in that age at a different perspective. So having a party with her friends seemed so much less scary to me than it did a few years ago with Makenzie. So a party we had.

For invitations I used some vintage Christmas cards that I had purchased a long time ago. They came in a pack that you tear out and I had plenty. So I just printed out the information for the party, cut the paper the size of the postcard and glued it to the back of the adorable postcards. They made perfect invitations.

It ended up being small. I even invited a friend of Heidi's to come. The party was from 3-5 after school on Friday. It was a perfect time. Early enough not to interfere with holiday family evening plans. When the girls arrived they had a snack of pizza and apple cider and then we went to work on making "Reindeer Bark". The girls all helped and it turned out great. I had one girl who has a wheat allergy so I made her pizza with a corn tortilla and we made her Reindeer Bark with just the candy corn. It still looked very holiday and festive and she loved it.

Next we moved into the Living room for some games. We played Holiday Charades where the girls had to draw something out of the bag and act it out. They had to act out such things like 'getting your picture taken with Santa' and 'caroling door-to-door. They got some great laughs out of this game. I kept track of who guessed the most right and that person won a small prize.

Next up was "blow the snowflake" The girls each chose a piece of tissue paper and with scissors made a snowflake. Then they chose a cute santa or snowman straw and they had to blow their snowflake with the straw. The person who got their snowflake to go the farthest won a prize.

Our last game was hilarious. It was "Melt the Ice Cube." Each girl was given an ice cube in bowl and had to melt it without using their mouths. The person to melt theirs first got the prize. This was so funny and they were laughing during the whole thing. It was amazing to see how creative they got. The girl who won ended up breaking hers into small pieces with her bowl and then melting all the smaller pieces. Great thinking!

When all the games were over we sat in the living room by the lights of the tree and went around the room answering some questions I came up with. After all, part of my objective in doing this was getting to know each of the girls. They liked answering the questions and liked talking about themselves.

The last thing we did was watch the movie "Elf." We didn't have time to get through the entire movie but it was a great ending to a fun party. I'm glad we did it. I was determined to keep the costs down and I think I ended up spending about $25 on the party. I bought all prizes and paper goods at the Dollar Store, did Little Caesars pizza and bought the ingredients for the Reindeer Bark at Winco. A very inexpensive party and well worth the time.

Heidi Skip Day

Heidi and I during Cheerleading season '09

I believe in a good skip day. High School Seniors do it. College students do it. Mom's even do it occasionally. You know, the "forget it all, i'm reading ALL DAY LONG." But what about our younger kids? Yeah, their life isn't too difficult all considering but they are often going through things that we can't understand until we take the time to talk. So that's why I believe in a good skip day.

I knew that Heidi needed one when she came to me this morning and told me that she was feeling sad because some kids were talking about her behind her back. It was one of those, "Sadie said that so and so said the project was easier when I go to speech. Mom, do I have to go to speech?" She was sad and not in the book learning frame of mind.

I knew just the thing, "Heidi, would you like to stay home and help me today?" She got a big smile at that suggestion.

So this is what we did:

First off a call to the school to let them know she wouldn't be there today!

Dropped Dad off at work
Went to Party City to look for a couple things
Grabbed a sandwich for Dad at Subway
Took sandwich to dad
Doctor's appointment
Put gas in the car at Fred Meyer
Purchased some fun things at the Dollar Tree
Went back to Fred Meyer, this time for some serious Christmas shopping
Heidi bought a gift for one of her sisters
A grandmother asked Heidi what she should get her 8 year old grandaughter for Christmas
Went to Godfathers Pizza and had lunch with our BOGO lunch buffet coupon
Came home and wrapped presents

Pretty good skip day, huh?

I sure had fun and I loved spending the day with my youngest!

To create and giveaway

Several months ago I was one of the first to leave a comment on my friend Candy's blog and my sister, Krista's blog. In so doing I won for myself a homemade creation. These aren't just some scribbling on a piece of paper, although I am never one to turn up my nose at a good scribbling. I recently received both of my homemade gifts and here they are:

An adorable Christmas dry erase board from Candy

And this:

A necklace made out of vintage beads made by my sister.

I love love both of these gifts. And to think that all I had to do to get them is type away. How cool is that?

President Dieter Uchtdorf said the following about CREATING.

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.

Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty—and I am not talking about the process of cleaning the rooms of your teenage children."

Go here to read his entire address.

'Tis the season to be giving and in tradition with that season I would like to propose the following:

To the First 5 People that Read This Blog........

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make but I think you will. I really think you will. I like it.
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done in the next sixty days.

The catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!!

FYI: You can change the rules around for this to fit you better. Maybe you only want to offer something to 3 people. Maybe you need less time to give it or more time. Don't be distracted by the numbers people.

Merry Christmas

The addition to our family

We've had an addition to our home for the past 9 days. She is cute, funny and smart. The perfect addition to our three girls. Her parents are on a vacation to the Holy Land and since I couldn't go with them I decided to bribe them into sharing every detail of their trip by watching their daughter.




We absolutely love having her with us. Some of the things we have done is go to Winter Wonderland at the Portland International Raceway where we sung the "12 days of Christmas" at the top of our lungs. And while we were finishing up Alexis declared she was thirsty. I told her she would have to wait until we got home so then her, Heidi and Emma made up the words to "The 12 days of Thirstiness" . Their true loves gave them lemonade, root beer, eggnog, apple cider, hot chocolate and of course #1 was ice cold water.

Last Thursday was the Oregon Civil War college football game. We are duck fans around here but Alexis said she was for the Beavers. That was okay, we decorated and wore our duck stuff anyway. Then about five minutes before the game started Alexis says to me, "I think i got it wrong, i think my dad likes the Ducks, not the Beavers." I don't know who her dad likes but I think Alexis wanted to feel like she was on the right team, the Ducks team. So when the game started we were all cheering for U of O with our face paint and while eating our tacos.



On Saturday we inducted Alexis into the May family tradition of Portland Saturday Market. It was too bad we were in a hurry to get back for dance dress rehearsal because there was tons to see and we didn't get a chance to see everything. But Alexis did try on some fun stuff and we got some pictures of it. It was strange for me to have to watch a little one again. Heidi is only two years older than Alexis but it is a huge difference as far as running around touching things. For the most part Alexis only had to be reminded a couple of times to be "careful" or "not to touch." I was worn out trying to keep up with her. She loved everything she saw and even bought her mom a coming home present from the market that she picked out all by herself.

On Sunday we had another May Family Christmas tradition of decorating the tree. This isn't any old decorating the tree time, we have an all out party with lots of horsdouvers, music and the decorating. I bought a yummy brie from costco with pecans and cranberries wrapped in a phyllo crust. You bake it and serve it. The girls thought it was pie and it was hilarious to see them pick up a wedge and eat it like a pie. I told them it was cheese and they got the funniest looks on their faces. Alexis especially loved the brie.


Alexis goes home in a couple days and we will really miss her. She has been a perfect playmate for Heidi and it has been fun for Heidi to be the 'older sister' and for Alexis to be the 'younger sister' since Alexis is the oldest in her family. Nice for them to have the chance to switch rolls. And as I've heard Heidi gently boss Alexis around I have to say that I think she's enjoying it.

Sprint Reclaim

I got a new phone and I've never loved a phone like this one. This is what I love about it:

• It's made of 40% corn so that if I am ever lost in the wilderness and have my phone with me I could eat it to survive. I mentioned this to Chris and he very aptly told me that if I had my phone I wouldn't need to eat it, just use it to call for help.
• It's a cool color of green.
• It slides up and down, I just like this.
• It has a full qwerty keyboard for my texting delight. Not that I text very much but when I do it's so nice to have.
• It has a smiley face menu for my texts right on the keyboard. soo cool.
• It is easy to add contacts into.
• It doesn't pick up all the outside noise around me when I'm talking to someone on the phone. Anyone who has a Blackberry will probably know what I'm talking about.
• It has nice screen savers already included. Pretty waterfalls, oceans, fields, flowers and animals. It's an eco phone, remember?
• It has the coolest ringtones, ringers and sounds. I get a bird chirping when I have a new voicemail and my ring is a simple melody with crickets chirping. I love it! There are tons of cool ones to choose from.
• It has a great camera too.
• It came with a thin simple instruction book.
  
• It's so easy to use!
  

So if you can't have the iPhone like me because you are with a provider that doesn't offer the iPhone then I recommend this one.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving day this year was started with the annual Springfield Turkey Stuffer and this year our whole family did it including Ross, Chris' brother. Our good friends, the Cox family joined us as well. It can't get much better than that.

This is us before the race:


Hey, where's Julie?

Here she is...

We are getting ready to start running.

After the race we traveled in our cars down to Coos Bay to share tons of good food with family and friends.


Good times!

Annual Springfield Turkey Stuffer

I did it. I finished my 5K on Thanksgiving morning. It felt good, really good. I'm still in shock that I did as well as I did. I did stop to walk twice. Once at mile one for about 90 seconds and then again at mile two for again, 90 seconds. And that was it. I probably would have stopped again but when I had about a quarter mile left my brother in law, Ross, saw me and ran the rest of the way with me. That was a blessing because I was feeling so tired right then.

I thought I was the last runner to come in. There were walkers that beat me, a lot of them. But looking at the results there were ten more women in my age category that came in after me. I don't know where they were because nobody else was running anywhere near me. Walkers were passing me by. But I didn't care. I just wanted to run the whole thing. My Emma ran the whole thing and beat my time by 11 minutes. What a rock star she is. I'm proud of all my family. Even Makenzie said it was a fun way to start Thanksgiving, I about fell over with shock when she told me that.

So what's next? Not sure. I need to find a 5K to work towards in January I think. I need to keep going. When I crossed the finish line my good friend Julie said I could now cross this off my list. When I told her it wasn't on my list she said I should add it real quick! I laughed and then seriously thought about it! But what I do have down is running a 10 minute mile and doing the Fairbanks Midnight Sun Run. I will work towards both of those. It would be super cool if I could be ready to do the Midnight Sun Run this next summer.

We'll see. All i know is that today I got on the elyptical and did it for 30 minutes. Three months ago I couldn't even do 3 minutes on it.

Tonight on "The Biggest Loser" one of the finalists was wondering how she became a "runner" and wondering if she really was one, she had never seen herself as an athlete before. I wonder the same thing. Will I get to the point someday where I will say, "I'm a runner"? Not sure, but I do know that in the process I'm becoming more physically fit and being the kind of role model that I want to be for my family.

In the spirit of giving....

I just won a giveaway on one of my most favorite blogs. Homebased Mom. If you haven't heard of it you should check it out. She has fabulous recipes, great party ideas and I love her party decorations. One of the things I love best about her site is that she does it all on a budget and it looks fantastic.

She also just started an online business where she will help plan your party. And there are different levels. Basic is her helping plan the menu and it goes on from there with a deluxe package being that you get her for the whole event, start to finish. And her prices are reasonable.

So check her out.

If you go right now you can see my name as a winner of some darling personalized recipe cards. I hope this is a day that my mom doesn't read my blog because I'm having them personalized for her. She will love them.

Yay Me!

Blame it on the trees

Outside of my local grocery store there are Christmas trees. I went to the store today to pick up a few things and when I approached the front of the store the trees cast their scent on me.

They did.

I swear.

It's like they said, "here, have some of this."

And you know what? In that moment when the smell of rich Noble Firs permeated my body....

It was CHRISTMAS.

It's here, it's here.

Yes, I know Thanksgiving is not over yet but it's not my fault. The trees did it, I am blaming them for my early decorating.

What are YOU thankful for?

I Am Glad

Thanksgiving is around the corner and I'm glad. I love the way families and friends gather together and share food and memories. I love the planning of the menu, making the assignments of who is bringing what and then devouring all the yumminess. This year we are going to Coos Bay to be with my mom. Although it will be sad to have our first holiday without Ben, my stepfather, who passed away recently. It will also be a great time to think about all that we have to be thankful for. My sister will be there and we also have some good friends coming to spend the holiday with us as well. I am in awe that they are willing to drive so far to share a meal. It says to me that we are important in their lives and it makes me feel good. I am grateful for good friends like that.

I am also grateful for my mom's stuffing and rolls but that is a different story entirely.

I will be running my 5K on Thanksgiving morning. I talked the whole fam into doing it. I don't think Makenzie is too pleased about it either but peer pressure is wonderful at times and since her good friend will be there I have a feeling she will show up at the starting line. I am not ready to run the whole thing. Yes, I'm a bit sad about that. Having someone close to you pass away and then acquiring a urinary tract infection the next week and the swine flu the week after that put a hold on my gym attendance. But I have been in full force at the gym since then and doing great. I'm so happy with my accomplishments. I am not going to be upset about having to walk some if i need to. I figure I am way farther along in my preparedness than if I hadn't trained at all. And that counts for something. I am so happy that I get to do this and share the experience with not only my hubbie and kids but my mom in law, brother in law and close friends as well. I can't wait!

I want to hear what you are all doing for Thanksgiving. Shout it out!

Judy & Giles

Giles with his "Coos Bay Youth" and their spouses and children
This was taken this summer at our reunion.

Marilyn (my mom), Sabrina, Judy, Eva, Leah, Naomi, Michelle, me

When my family and I were in Coos Bay for my stepfather's funeral we stayed with the Parkers. We were thinking that my mom would have a full house and so when Judy offered to let us stay with them we took them up on the offer. We stayed there for four nights and it was wonderful.

One night the girls were in bed, Chris was working on his computer in the bedroom and Judy was asleep. As I was getting ready for bed myself I heard music coming from the family room. It was Giles playing the Ukulele. I listened to him play and sing along for a little while and then quietly went to sit down in the chair opposite of him. In the dim lighted room he told me about the songs, their history and how he learned to play. I have always known that he played but I didn't know how much a part of his life it was. It was beautiful and and made me happy that he has found opportunities to play and continue with his talent. He told me the story of receiving his bass ukelele from co-workers when he retired as supertintendent. I sat there listening to him play and sing. It was great. He admitted later that he doesn't play for very many people. I felt extremely blessed and special to have had that moment with him. I count him and Judy as two of the most special people in my life and I know that the other LDS girls I graduated with will all tell you the same thing. Giles was our bishop and a bishop like no other bishop I can guarantee that. We are all still very close with him and Judy and count them as extended family and they count us as the same. Also while I was there I was able to read his account of the events leading up to their move to Coos Bay. Wow. I now know that Heavenly Father meant for him to be our bishop and for their family to be in Coos Bay during that time.

Naomi, Giles, Me and Makenzie

During that same trip I went up to our barn and got some of my things out of a storage bin to bring home. One of which was my personal progress book from Young Womens. I thought it would be fun to show my girls, especially Makenzie who just completed hers recently. As I was flipping through its pages I found some certificates of completion that had been signed by my YW leaders as well as my bishop. There was an area to leave comments and when I read the comments from my Bishop (Giles) I was dumbfounded at how well he knew me at the time. Way better than I knew myself. I remember feeling so frustrated at times with his advice to me and thinking he just "didn't know." Now, looking back at my life and the things going on in my life at the time I have no doubt that he was praying for each of us, his youth, his kids, his girls as he calls us. I am grateful that Heavenly Father sent Judy and Giles to us in Coos Bay. Fourteen young youth were baptized during the time he was bishop, most of which are still active in the church, amazing. A large part of who we are is because of the inspiration of a Bishop who knew how to reach and teach each of us.

So B. It

I just finished one of the best books I've ever read. I don't typically do book reviews on my blog but this is one that I have to share with everyone. I just finished reading

So B. It
by

Sarah Weeks

I picked it up at the library because it's on Emma's Battle Book list. The short summary on the back of the book sounded like something I'd like and the length of it looked like something I could actually finish. The main character is a girl named Heidi. That alone was intriguing since I have a daughter named Heidi. Heidi is one of those names that everyone has heard but you don't actually know too many of them. It's not used that often. She is even called Heidi Ho in the book by one of the other main characters. That is what I call Heidi as well so I loved that. The characters are warm, intriguing and deep. The story starts out in Reno Nevada where 12 year-old Heidi lives with her mentally disabled mother and her next door neighbor. Heidi eventually goes to take a bus ride across the U.S. by herself in search of who she is and where she came from. There are many questions in the book that unravel themselves as the story progresses. One of the main questions is, What is Truth? And it's very interesting to find out what Heidi discovers about the truth.

I could not put this book down. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it.

What's in Eugene?

On Friday night Makenzie and I packed up and headed to Eugene to do a Pampered Chef show at my sister's home. It was a fun evening. I got to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones. It's the kind of thing I love about my business. My sister had yummy food for everyone and we made a loaded baked potato chowder as well. Yum.

Before the show started we ate some pizza from the Coburg Pizza Company. It was so good. One of the best pizza's I've ever eaten. In fact, it's number 2 on my list. Number 1 goes to this pizza if you will remember. But since I don't live in AZ its kinda difficult to get number 1 pizza. So how glad am I that number 2 is only 2 hours away? Very Glad. This is my smile.


One of the best parts of the evening was that my mom came up from Coos Bay to be with us. She thought it was really good pizza too.

After a night of rolling over on top of my sister because I forgot I was sleeping with my sister and not my husband we got up for a fun morning. I said to my sister, "did I really roll over on top of you or just fling my leg over you?" She said it may have just been the leg, she wasn't sure. Now you know something about me that is weird. I don't know why but sometime during the night I start missing chris and so I fling my leg over him to show him I'm still there.

My mom, Krista and I got up, got ready and headed out to The Glenwood for breakfast

and then on to three antique stores. First up was Glory Days in Springfield.

I found a few treasures.

Then we went to a darling place called Cedar, Sage & Roses that was just around the corner from Glory Days. During our quick walk there I gasped when I turned the corner and I saw this:

I've been wanting one for about a year now. They are hard to find. I had to go in and sit on the seat. It was lovely. I wonder how good Santa will be to me this year.

Our last stop was to Bradley & Englert. This was my favorite stop of the day. I loved the new mixed with the old and the bistro and Patisserie inside was adorable as well as yummy. I saw some cookies that I just had to have a taste of. A lemon ricotta cookie. Are you kidding me? They were so good. There were so many parts to this store that you could spend hours admiring. And there was something for the young as well.

This was my find there:


I have a project I've been wanting to do and this was just what I've been looking for.

Thanks Krista and mom for a fun weekend. I love spending time with you.

A well thought out dinner

Today we had conference at church and it filled my soul. It filled my heart and soul with love for my family. So I came home and decided to show them my love my cooking for them. I spent three hours in the kitchen making Pioneer Woman's Ranch Chicken, Amanda's Rolls, a fruit salad, steamed cauliflower with a homemade cheese sauce and in just a bit I'm going to get up and make Aztec Chocolate Lava Cakes in preparation for a Pampered Chef show I'm doing this Friday.

I got out the china for todays dinner and everyone of my girls asked what the occasion was. I told them the occasion was that I love them. Something interesting happened. They started helping me more. They just pitched in to help set the table and didn't complain when I asked them to help clean up afterwards. Nice.

Maybe I should cook more often. I laughed when Heidi said to me, "Thanks for making dinner mom." I really don't cook enough. Not like I used to. Meals nowadays are quick, simple and nutritious, nothing fancy or thoughtful. It felt good to follow recipes and try some new things today.

This is what I'm doing

I have a confession. I don't know why I'm calling it a confession. It's not like its a secret or anything. I just feel a tad guilty that I've been doing something big and important for 63 days now and I haven't shared it. So here it is.

Are you ready?

Are you sure?













I've become a Pampered Chef Consultant!

So there it is.

Why? Is that what you are wondering? Well, there is this girl I know that loves to Irish Dance.


And her parents didn't know what they were getting themselves into. Wait, back up, that's not true. They knew what they were getting themselves into but they thought they would have more time before this girl advanced to the level where it got expensive. But now she is there. And this mom, that's ME, decided to do something that she loved in order to make money for the costumes and competitions. I decided to cook and have parties. I'm good at that. I like to cook, eat, talk and have a good time so I'm perfect for my job. And the people that go to my shows will probably tell you the same thing, that its a good time all around.

So far in my first 60 days I've reached all my goals I set for myself. Not only have I earned money in my paycheck I've also been given $300 from The Pampered Chef to spend on anything in the catalog that I want. And that's just for doing so great in my first 60 days. It was easy. Just in time too. Emma just got moved to the Novice/Prizewinner class for Irish Dance. And Makenzie made the ballroom dance team. I had to buy character shoes. I had no idea what character shoes were. I found out and Pampered chef paid for those shoes too.

I just finished setting up my Pampered Chef personal website. If you want to check it out you can go here.

So if any of you would like to have a cookie exchange party, an impressive appetizer show or a show on how to get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes then let me know. I'd love to get together with you and your friends.

I can't wait to make Aztec Chocolate Souffle Cakes, a flourless rich cake with a dash of cayenne pepper.

I'll let you know how they turn out.

Chicken Noodle Soup & the Dr's office

This morning I woke up and thought I should go see my doctor. I thought I should at least see if it was the H1N1 strain of the flu that I had been suffering with. On the way I had the thought to call my friend Tori and ask her to bring me some Chicken Noodle Soup. Immediately I brushed it aside thinking that there was no way I could call my friend and ask her to make me some of her homemade goodness. But the thought came again. So I called. I got her voicemail which is not surprising, she rarely answers her phone. I left a message that said this:

"Hi Tori, this is Darilyn and I was wondering if you could call me back. I have something I want to ask you. If I don't answer it's because I'm at Dr. Hicken's office and have my phone turned off. But leave me a message and I'll call you back. Talk to you soon."

So I proceeded to my doctor's office and checked in. I had been sitting for a few minutes in the waiting room when the door to the patient rooms opened and out walks Tori. I couldn't believe it. I told her I had tried to call her and then gave her my request as I burst into tears. I just couldn't help myself. I felt so pitiful asking for help, and it truly was that, a request for help. My dad and Ladda were supposed to be arriving today and i couldn't tell them to eat cereal like my own children had been eating for dinner for the past 3 days. I needed something more. My body needed something more. And I realized in that moment with Tori that I was really in need. That's why I had the tears. So then Tori tells me that it was already made and that she was going home to grab it and would bring it over shortly. Wait, I thought. It's already made? Yes, she says, I made it last night and we had a bunch left over.

Now I know why Heavenly Father wanted me to call her. It was all ready to go! I love it when I listen to the spirit. And it showed me how mindful Heavenly Father is of me and that he loves me.

By the way, I did not find out if I have H1N1. Apparently the only place you can get tested for that is in the hospital. My doctor said you have to end up in the hospital or die in order to be tested. I told Chris that and he said, "let's try to avoid both of those." That made me smile. All I know is that I haven't been this sick in a long time. I can't even remember the last time I was this sick. It's bad. But I feel a tad bit better tonight than I did this morning or last night so I am hopeful that I am on the upswing of this.

12 on 12 for 12

Yes, this is late. But not really. See, I did actually do all this and take the pictures on the 12th. But they were on my mom's and sister's camera and I had to wait to get the pictures. Because we've been a little busy around here.

On the 12th of October my sister and I were at my mom's helping out knowing that it would be a matter of days before Papa passed away. He ended up passing away the next day.

So here it goes:


I made soft boiled eggs. Ben wanted a soft boiled egg for breakfast that day and I had never made a soft boiled egg before. It turned out just the way he liked it.

I took the garbage out.


I looked in my Entertainment Book to see if there were any coupons good in the Coos Bay area.
I read this book, Coos County the Early Years. I love reading about the early days of Coos Bay, back when it was called Marshfield not Coos Bay.


I went to UPS to mail the Star Wars concert tickets to Chris. I had won them on the radio and was hoping to surprise Chris with them and go together. I was in Coos Bay the night of the concert so I mailed them and he went on a man date with a friend.


I had to go to a Chase bank to make a deposit and the nearest one was in Myrtle Point, 25 miles away. So we went.

On our way back home we stopped in Coquille at this little place to buy some baked potatos for lunch. Odd place to buy a baked potato but I was assured that they were fantastic.

We bought a head of cauliflower while we were there.

I made grilled ham and cheese for lunch. I made it for mom but Ben ended up eating half of hers and I had to make another. He ate really well for a dying man!

The cat and I took a nap.

We met with Hospice. Two social workers came and a nurse.

We went to Penny and Robin's house. They are good friends with my parents.

Surrounded

A small group of family and friends stood around the casket sitting atop it's burial plot with their heads bowed in prayer. The dedicatory prayer began and a few seconds into it I heard it. I wondered if others had heard it as well; the spirits floating through the trees. It was a beautiful sound and not one I will soon forget. I knew in that moment that we were surrounded by not only Ben's spirit but his family and our family as well. Maybe some would not believe what I know I felt. But if you had been there you would know it was true. Why would they not want to be somewhere as beautiful as this place?

Mom, Krista and Me on Papa's burial day.
Allegany Cemetery
October 20th, 2009