The Power of the Human Mind

Our minds are so amazing!

I found this online and the human brain and body just amaze me!

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the human mnid aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a word are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amazing huh? Could you read it successfully?

Apron!

Me wearing the Apron.

Halter Apron.


The pattern I used to make the Apron.


This is the apron I recently made. There are so many cute apron patterns out there. I really like the halter style dresses, but because of modesty's sake I don't wear them, so I made me a halter apron instead!

The pattern I used was a Simplicity one. It's the one in the lower left of the pattern, I think it was style A on the pattern. The directions were quite confusing, but in the end it all turned out.

The pattern didn't call for the pockets that I put on but I put those on because I'm reading this book:

Project Organization by Marie Ricks.

I'm really enjoying this book as I'm working on becoming more organized. It is a really good book. A couple of points that she makes that really stuck out to me were that you need a launching pad -- a place to put things while you are waiting to take them somewhere else, like something you need to return to the store the next time you go. And another good point was that you need a landing pad, where to put things until you can put them away permanently. These are 2 of my personal problem areas.

And this book was the rationale behind the pockets on the Apron, above. She (Marie Ricks - the author) talks about how when you tidy up the house in the morning you should put on a "house cleaning" apron with 2 pockets, one to put trash in and one to put toys and miscellaneous small things in so you can keep on working in the room you're in instead of leaving the room to put the small items away and then getting distracted and not getting back to the room to finish it.

Spring Break

This week is Spring Break for my kids. So we are trying to get as much enjoyment out of this week as possible!

We've had friends over, went to a friends' house, had a picnic lunch and played at the park. And there's more fun in store as the week rolls on!

Today I'm making a bunch of (red) Pasta Sauce for 40 women for Enrichment. Someone else is making the pasta and carbonara sauce. We're also having cheesecake and rolls.

This morning I went in and helped set up the tables and brought in stuff to help decorate the tables. The topic is: Oil in our lamps. Since I don't have any oil lamps, I brought some ceramic porcelain statues of Christ and the children, some deep red roses and ivy on a vine, some easels with scriptures place open in them and a vase of daisies. So in other words, I focused on things we could do to fill our lamps with oil. They turned out rather nice!

Blogging: either I have way more to say than I have time to say or I have nothing to say at all, lately it's been the latter!

Happy Spring Everyone!

Pillowcases

I don't have them all quite done yet, but here is a picture of one of the pillowcases I made when my Mom was here.

Alyssa's Pillowcase.

We downloaded this font off from this website and my Mom embroideried her name on it using her embroidery machine. (That is the "Love" font.)

A close-up of the pillow.

A picture of my Mom and me.

Nuggets Game and Easter Egg Hunt, New Bike

After hardly blogging in the last couple of weeks, I'm finding it hard to get my groove back. My Mom just left today, so maybe it will take me a few more days yet?

Last Friday Laren and I went to the Denver Nuggets game. It was good in that they won, but it wasn't a good game because we blew the opponents away -- winning by more than 30 points. But more importantly, Laren and I had a good time and so that was the most important factor!

Pregame Hoopla

Laren and I at the game, in a very blurry self portrait!

On Saturday my Mom and I went to a quilt shop (any quilt shop is one of her favorite places to be) and went to JoAnn's Fabric to pick up a few things. We also stopped at Deseret Book. Then we headed home for the Easter Egg Hunt for my kiddo's.

Laren had spent all morning at baseball tryouts with Kyle (hooray that he is actually able to help drive the kids to their activities now!).

A man on stilts at the Easter Egg Hunt.


So he met me at the park for the Easter Egg Hunt. There were hordes of kids at the Easter Egg Hunt and Alyssa was disappointed that she only ended up with 1 egg!

Rilyn at the Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday.

We didn't realize until we were at the Easter Egg Hunt that they were having a drawing to give away some free bikes. We entered our kids to win, but we didn't get our hopes up. The drawing was at the very end and amazingly Kyle WON a bike! He was SO excited when they drew his ticket number! And then they showed him the bike he won...

Kyle wouldn't even look at the camera and didn't even want to stand with the pink girl's bike he won initially!

It was a pink, girls bike with a white basket and pink and white streamers. The first thing they asked him was, "Do you have a Sister?" I guess they were implying he could give the bike to his sister. He was in shock and felt disappointed. Then they suggested that we take the bike to Walmart and have them exchange it for a boys bike.

A short while later they drew the last ticket out of the hat and it was a girl who won. They asked her if she wanted the boys bike or the girls bike and thankfully she picked the girl's bike, even though it was a little small for her! Kyle was elated to get the red boys bike instead! It was also a better quality bike from Costco.

Kyle with the red boys bike he won!

Of course Kyle winning the bike added to Alyssa's disappointing day. I consoled her and reminded her that we all get things at different times.

Tyler has a big interest in police cars. So he was excited when a policeman gave him a police badge and offered to show him a police cruiser. Whenever he see's one he will tell me that the police car is going to get the bad guy.




He was happy to get to go and sit in a police car and the officer even turned on the lights and sirens for him. Kyle got off on it too. Rilyn wasn't so sure about it, and hesistated to sit in the back seat.

Tyler sitting in the police car with Kyle looking on. Tyler is pretty bashful when it comes to strangers so that is why he is looking at his bag of Easter Eggs instead of the car!

RECENT HAPPENINGS

Just to recap a couple of things...

Last week I did a one on one date with my second oldest daughter, Alyssa. She was so hilarious, she even picked out what she wanted me to wear before we went. She picked out a pair of jeans and a chocolate brown long sleeved v-neck t-shirt with a white short sleeve t-shirt over the top of that. Kids can be so funny! I definitely felt like I was wearing something a teeny bopper would wear!

Alyssa and me last Friday.

We went and had lunch at Gunther Toody's, a 50's type diner restaurant. We shared a Shamrock Milkshake and burger and fries. I think I gained a couple of pounds at least by eating there, but it was fun.

After that we went to JC Penneys, which was nearby, and looked at all their clothes. Alyssa is quite the fashionista always wanting to see what else is out there in the way of clothes. We also looked at prom dresses, just for fun. (She is WAY too young for that, but girls love to look at the pretty dresses anyway! So we did.)

Some of the cereal I bought last week at the sale! I ended up getting 50 boxes total. I guess this is what happens when you pray for opportunities to increase your food storage!

Also, on Monday, we celebrated Laren's 37th birthday! That was a lot of fun!!

And probably the biggest reason for my absence in blogging is that my Mom came to visit starting on last Saturday and we have been visiting and sewing and hanging out and so I've been preoccupied.

Grandma Linda teaching Rilyn (5) how to embroidery. Notice the sweatshirt Rilyn is wearing. Grandma got that for her and let her pick out what Disney scene she wanted on there and then embroideried it for her using her embroidery machine. She did this for all the kids. It is so fun that she did that for them!

My Mom has been teaching my 3 girls how to embroidery since she's been here and surprisingly they are loving it! I would've thought Rilyn was too young, but nope she's getting the hang of it!!

Also, I bought some cute Springy Fabric to make some pillowcases for each of my kids and some fabric and a pattern to make an apron for me. I've seen so many cute aprons, I wanted to try my hand at one myself!

I just love all the great fabrics that are out there and I haven't been able to get my hands on them as much as I'd have liked to in the recent couple of years. I'll have to post some pictures of that later.

Girls Night Out

Yesterday was another crazy, busy day, it involved running a bunch of errands going to 3 different stores, getting Laren's temporary handicapped permit for our vehicles, driving the kids to school and piano lessons and things like that. But, for the first time in 6.5 weeks Laren could drive himself to and from work! Hooray!!

I had a Girls Night Out at a friends house last night and I almost didn't go. The day had been so busy and I was getting my appetizer made at the last minute, and then it didn't go as well as I'd hoped and I had to run to the store and remake part of it. But in the end I ended up going and it was so nice to go and socialize a bit! (Even if I did miss American Idol again, to go!)




And hey, Safeway has Cheerios (14 oz) on sale for $1 per box if you buy 5 boxes at once. I bought 10 and I'm hoping to go back for more to stock up!! Cereal is a staple at my house and it is one of the most expensive things I buy so when I see a great deal I want to stock up! They also have Captain Crunch and Life Cereal on sale for $1 per box this week, I believe. Hurry down and get some before they sell out. They were already getting low on quantities when I was there yesterday.

Snow isn't fun in March...

We woke up to more snow this morning. Thankfully all the snow from Sunday melted by Sunday afternoon/Monday morning. I've got Spring Fever, doesn't Winter understand he's not welcome here anymore?

My morning started at 2:43am, what is up with that? I've been up ever since. Sleep has eluded me. Today is another doctor appt. for Laren with his leg and parent-teacher conferences. Why is it that I loathe Parent-teacher conferences? My kids are good students and get good grades, but there is something about it that I don't love and I can't quite put my finger on it.

I'm sitting here at the computer trying to muster up the energy to get my tired self down to exercise on the elliptical. Oh, and I was surprised to wake up and find that Hillary Clinton won the states of Texas and Ohio in the Democratic "primaries." This election really is a crazy one!

Nice Weather!

It was so nice and warm yesterday! I'm not sure what the official high was, but we were supposed to hit 70 degrees!

Kayla and Kyle ended their basketball season, Kayla's team won and Kyle's team lost. Kayla had an end of season pizza party with her team and they all got trophies. Kayla's coach told her that he had coached her 2 years ago and he is very impressed with her basketball skills, that she has become a very good basketball player!

Kayla's self portrait.

Kyle's team party is this coming week. And speaking of this week, Kayla and Alyssa are going to start intramural basketball at school. They are excited for that. I don't know if I'm quite as excited with more running around, but I thought it was a good opportunity and the school is close by.

Also, later this week, my Mom is supposed to be coming for a visit. We are looking forward to seeing her. She lost her husband in December and I know life is still difficult for her. I'm sure it will be a switch being the only one at home to a houseful of five kids and two other adults!




Yesterday the weather was so nice that after basketball we told the kids if they got busy and did their chores (rooms cleaned, each folding and putting away their own laundry, and one other chore like vacuuming or dusting or cleaning a bathroom) that we would go on a picnic for dinner.



The kids were very excited about that! And so they played beat the clock to get their chores done and listened to Radio Disney on the XM Radio while they worked.

Laren and Kyle playing catch at the park yesterday.

I was feeling a little achey and yucky. I think I've mentioned having the Mirena IUD. Well, after having it for 15 months I decided to have it removed this week because it made me feel blue-sy! I noticed a marked difference in my moods when I had it in. The nice thing about it was that my bleeding was almost nil while I had it, after the first 3 months when I had continuous spotting. But I'm not characteristically depressed and I didn't want to continue on that route if there was a way around it. After 15 months of feeling like I had a cloud over me, I finally had it removed! So, I'm hoping that helps.

Kayla and Tyler at the park yesterday.

Despite feeling under the weather I sucked it up and made a picnic dinner with sliced oranges and a big huge Sub Sandwich made of French Bread. (Something quick and easy!) We took a few other things as well, like Lemon Girl Scout Cookies, snack crackers and Soda Pop.

Two of my kids and I at the park yesterday. Notice I'm wearing my jacket, I'm a little bit of a wuss when it comes to being cold and there was a slight breeze so I kept my jacket on!

It turned out to be a lot of fun to get out of the house! It was just what we all needed! The sun was about to go down as we were leaving the park. We came home and got our kids bathed for Sunday and Laren and I sat down and watched National Treasure for our date night. He had seen it previously with the kids and I hadn't. But it was a great movie, pretty intense! Now we need to go and see National Treasure 2 at the theatre.

After yesterday's great weather we woke up to snowy and windy conditions this morning! And I realized that we had signed up to have the Elder's over for dinner today and I had completely forgotten! Since it's Sunday, we won't go to the store to buy anything but I'm totally kicking myself for not checking my calendar ahead of time!

And to top it off, one of the Elder's (who has served in our ward for 11, yes eleven, months asked me if it's okay that they invite another set of Elder's who don't have a dinner appointment. I told him that would be fine and of course panicked on the inside!

So as soon as I got home from Church I got busy trying to figure out what to fix for all of us! I'm sure you're wondering what happened to my monthly menu....I went back to doing it every 2 weeks and I was just due to do another menu! So tonight we are having Spaghetti (with a homemade sauce I cook in the crockpot), Homemade Bread and I'm not just sure yet what else?!!

UPDATE:
We ended up having just one set of Elder's over but I had to go and pick them up and bring my husband along. They wanted him to do it, but he cannot drive. Luckily my kids are old enough to be home if at least the oldest one is home with them! But it was quite busy to spend all afternoon in the kitchen and then have to turn around and go and pick them up and then turn around and drive them home.

They have a car, they just wanted to save miles...they live about 3 miles from us. Oh well. It all turned out very well! And we ended up having the Spaghetti Sauce over Angel Hair noodles (I prefer Angel hair to regular spaghetti, I just wish I could find it in whole grain.) We also had the homemade bread and green beans and lemonade and eclair cake for dessert.