Finally!!!

It is always exciting when your kids get put in the newspaper. This week my son, Todd, was in the newspaper. He finally finished his Eagle Project. It has taken him over a year to start and complete it. He presented 15 backboards to the Cedar City Community Response Team. It is so hard the older that they get to actually finish their Eagle project. Now all he has left to do is to do some paper work and he will actually receive his Eagle.

You don't know how excited I am for this. It is so hard to try to keep encouraging without nagging your children. I am a big believer in scouting. I believe that it has helped my boys and my husband to be better men and has taught them many things that they need to know in life. The last few months I was wondering if this was ever going to happen, but IT DID!!!!

Todd is such a great kid. He actually still likes me even though he is a teen ager. I know he will go far in life.

Congratulations Todd!!! You are awesome!!!

A few different recipes

Just a few yummy recipes with whole wheat in them.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Bars
1/2 c butter or margarine
1 c oil
2 c brown sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 c whole wheat flour
2 c quick oats
1 c nuts
1 c chocolate chips
Cream together margarine, oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add nuts and chocolate chips. Place in 9x13 cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles
1 c shortening, butter or margarine
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 c whole wheat flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 T sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Cream together 1 1/2 c sugar and shortening. Add eggs and beat well. Combine flour, cream of tartar, salt and soda. Add to sugar mixture and mix well. Roll into approximately 1 inch balls. Combine 2 T sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough balls in cinnamon/sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Slightly flatten. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies
1 c softened butter
1 c peanut butter
1 1/4 c honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
Blend butter until smooth. Add peanut butter and blend again. Add honey and blend again. Add eggs one at a time and beat until well mixed. Add vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Roll into balls and put onto ungreased cookie sheet. Use a fork dipped in cold water to flatten and make a criss-cross pattern. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes on the top rack of the oven. Remove from pan immediately and cool.

This is just breathtaking

This picture is just so beautiful that I had to share. It is taken on a day with a great amount of version, but it sure made this picture beautiful.

I just can't believe how beautiful it is and it makes it even more special because I was married there.

A bit of advice

There are a couple of things that I would leave as a bit of advice, so listen up.

First, Don't EVER call someone at 1:30 am in the middle of the night. This happened to me last week. Someone called and when the phone rang, I thought I was going to have a heart attack because I was wondering what awful thing had happened. When I lifted up the receiver there was noone on the other end, other than a lot of commotion and noise. HOW IRRITATING!!!

Next, don't cough or laugh with your mouth full of cooked oatmeal. It is not a good idea, just saying in case you might need that bit of advice in advance. It probably gets all over and makes a mess.

Last, If you decide to send your husband, sweetheart a love email, make sure that you are sending it to him. Don't just think that you are but make for SURE that you are sending it to the right person. It would be awful if you sent it to one of your friend's husband instead, hopefully they are understanding but you will NEVER feel sane again around them. It would probably be very embarrassing, so just be careful when emailing anything to your husband.

I hope you take these bits of great advice and remember them in case you ever need them!!! You just never know!!!!

Well I guess RED is not my color

This year at Christmas time, Mike was trying to decide what to put in my Christmas stocking, because we actually fill each other's stocking with candy, cologne or perfume, jewelry or anything that we think the other person might like. It was getting closer to Christmas and I knew that he had forgotten stocking stuffers and I told him that I was going to get his. Then he said that he had no idea what to get me. I gave him a few ideas and left it at that. Usually he has no problem with this so I don't know why he did this year.

Well on Christmas morning when we were opening Christmas we actually had our own "Christmas Miracle", if you know what I mean. Something showed up for me that he had no idea where it came from and I had just bought it and put it with my stuff. It was our joke for the day.

Well back to our stockings. When I opened my stocking, there was the normal candy, and no perfume because he had bought me three boxes of it last year, but there was red fingernail polish, red fingernail polish again, red lip gloss and then red lipstick. He told me to try it on. I told him I didn't think it would look good on me and that I never bought red for lipstick. He insisted that I put it on. So as you can see RED really is not my color at least for lipstick. I think I look hilarious. The whole family teases me and laughs at me when I put it on.

Well hopefully next year, either I won't get lipstick or if I do it won't be RED RED. What do you get in your Christmas stocking?????? ( Sorry about the picture, it definitely is not my best and you are probably laughing at me right now, but that is ok because I am TOO.)

Can I just say

that I hate DIETS and I love food.

It feels like my whole life I have had to watch what I eat, and it is no fun at all. In the block(classes for my degree) there are always treats and I am always turning them down, bummer.

At times I think it is worth it but for the most part it doesn't make a difference.

I am excited to say that I have started running again, a little at a time. Hopefully, it will get easier and my back will be ok with it. I really love the sense of accomplishment that I feel, but it is not easy. Today it was so nice outside I just couldn't stay inside any longer. It was so nice to get some fresh air and actually run. ( very slowly)

Last year I was running, but then I had something happen to my back and I had a hard time even doing anything, but hopefully I will be able to get back into things again,(definitely not that extreme that is for sure)

Change

This year is definitely going to be a year of change. My husband retires from his job that he has worked for the past 20 years and then he needs to find a new job. He has his Master's in business. The problem is that I am still going to school and the kids don't want to have to move again. If we stay here I have two of my kids that can graduate from high school with a two year degree in College. We just don't think he will be able to find anything here.

Another thing is that I will be doing my student teaching in the fall and so I will be graduated. We are hoping that I can find a job teaching but that will probably be hard too and that won't be enough by itself to live on.

One other thing is that my oldest son will be leaving for a mission some time this year. I am very excited for this but it will be a very big adjustment not only for me but for all of us.

I don't do very well with change and stress and there is going to be a lot of both I am afraid. I am not ready for my children to grow up. You always think that they will be small forever. I can't imagine my life without my kids around me. They are the greatest.

I guess I just need to have a little faith that it will all work out...

Randomness

Ok, ok, ok. Yes I have been plagued with a thousand notes about 25 random things about ME. I figure I will answer these questions here on my blog even though some of them have been asked on facebook. I know you are all just dying to know more stupid stuff about me. NOT!!!
But here it goes, so hang on and smile or just leave and go take a nap, whatever suits you.

1. I love to run. I was running about nine miles a day last year until I hurt my back and now I am so busy I am trying to find time to walk.

2. When I grow up I want to be an Elementary school teacher.

3. I am not a great swimmer, but I am scuba certified. My husband was ecstatic when I became certified.

4. I have gone on three cruises with my husband and friends or family. We have gone to Hawaii, Caribbean, and Mexican Riviera. I love cruises, once you go you are hooked for life.

5. I live in a family of redheads, they are definitely the cutest redheads I know.

6. I grew up on a farm( you name it, goats, pigs, mink, almost everything). I wouldn't change it for anything.

7. I received a ticket once for reckless driving. Don't ask...

8. My husband and I are often mistaken as brother and sisters because we look a lot alike.

9. I am the romance lady, I know it is surprising.

10. I won a spelling bee at Region when I was in 6th grade. My husband kids that he married me because of that.

11. I have lived in Georgia. We really enjoyed the time we had living there when our kids were little.

12. I am always baby hungry, don't think I will ever grow out of it. I love to enjoy any of my friends babies.

13. I am a very fast typist. I did data entry for ten years at home on my computer.

14. I play the piano, but I am not too good at it. I would be better if I had more time to practice.

15. Many of my friends are 20 or so, because I have many friends in my classes at school, that I have made through school. They make me feel young.

16. I worked at KMart for five years at the service desk. That is where my husband saw me for the very first time before our date.

17. I met my husband on a blind date and I knocked him off of the front porch on our first date, at least that is his story.

18. I helped my husband build our dream house, but we had to move and leave it.

19. I love to bake, but I shouldn't.

20. I have been kidnapped before, Ok it was on my sixteenth birthday. My friends kidnapped me and took me to a surprise birthday party for me.

21. I had to give mouth to mouth to one of my children to get them to breathe. He was turning blue and not breathing. Yes, he lived, but I had nightmares for months.

22. I am a stress case. Yep, I get stressed out very easy, maybe not too easy but my life is very stressful most of the time and I probably make it worse because I want everything to be just right.

23. My husband has a lot to put up with.

24. I have the BEST children in the world, well I think so. Don't we all.

25. I love people. I enjoy talking to people and making their day.

Sorry it got a little crazy towards the end but I was running out of ideas.

CAUTION!!!!

I thought this was very funny, I saw it somewhere and laughed and laughed. No I am not leaving but sometimes I sure do feel like the light is off at the end of the tunnel.

Due to economic crisis in the world,

the "Light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off until further notice""

SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE!!!!!

Happy Birthday to someone special

Many years ago, after my son Todd was born, we were trying to decide if that was all of the children we were going to have come to our home. My husband felt like three was definitely enough. I wondered and wondered. I was awake many nights praying to know if there were any more for us. I had the very strongest feeling that without a doubt in my mind there was a little girl still to come. In fact I had this feeling even before Todd came and was born to our family, we just figured he was going to be that little girl, but no Todd knew what was going on and decided if he didn't jump in line and come down first we would decide to not have any more children.
I didn't know what to do because I knew that we still had a little girl to come to our family.

Needless to say, Angela was so important to our family that I became pregnat and Angela was born 18 months after Todd. It was definitely not planned that way or was it...(I think the Lord has his own plan) Angela was loved so much and we were so happy to have her in our family. I know that she was supposed to be here. When she was born, because I have all of my children Cesarean I was given the opportunity to have her born on Valentine's day or the day after. We decided that she needed her own special day, instead of having to share it with Valentine's day. She will always be known as my little valentine baby, my ANGEL.

She is so great. She is sweet, caring, loving, bubbly and fun. She is always worried if someone is unhappy or sad. She tries to do everything that she is supposed to do and she always sticks up for what is right around her friends. We are so LUCKY to have her in our home. We can't believe how beautiful she has grown up to be, and often wish she was still our little Ang, but I guess she will AlWAYS be our little ANG.

Happy Birthday Day Ang!!! We love you very much. You are great!

Treats to die for

I just received this recipe and tried it last week and I must say they are to die for. They are so yummy. I hope they are as good as they seemed to me but I have been without sugar for three weeks except for one evening on the weekend so anything is yummy to me.
Try them out, they are very easy too.

Chocolate mint cookies

1 package of Devil's Food Cake Mix
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 package Andes mints
When I made these I doubled it, because the batch is quite small.

Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs by hand. Blend in chocolate chips. Shape into balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Take cookies out of oven and let sit for 2 minutes. Place one mint on top of each cookie and swirl to make frosting.

Here are a few last minute Valentine ideas for your sweetheart if you don't have one yet!!!

1. Make a questionnaire about the two of you and when you met, kissed, what dates you went on, when he said he loved you, what your favorite treat is, color, etc.
2. Make a candy bar poster. Men love it.
3. Decorate his car or office with candy or anything that he would love.
4. Leave him a message that you are meeting him in your bedroom during the day at a certain time for a picnic. Have white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate melted and have some strawberries, nuts, carmels, pretzels that the two of you can dip and enjoy and just enjoy the time together...
5. Send him on a treasure hunt with him picking up certain things in the house along the way with you at the end of the treasure hunt.( Mike loved this one)
6. Make your own coupons and give them to him with candy, in his car or with a card. Some ideas might be a massage, candlelight dinner, movie night, anything that would be something that he would just LOVE.
7. Send him a singing telegram.
8. THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO DO SOMETHING!!

I hope this helped any of you that need ideas. Have a great Valentine's day and enjoy spending time with your sweetheart if possible.

Way back when

Today in one of my classes we were talking about children and teachers, imagine that. As we were talking about the crazy things that we did as kids I was reminded of a funny crazy memory of mine, that you all might be surprised about.

When I was in first grade, I had quite a hard time with a certain girl that was in my class. She must not have liked me too much because she kept bullying me and my friend around. She would say mean things to us and push us around. She even came to my house once when my parents weren't home and I had even told her that she couldn't come over because that was a rule at our house and I would get in trouble. Well, I explained it to my parents and they didn't get mad at me but I just kept having problems with her.

One day, I finally had enough. I was so tired of being picked on and my friend being picked on that I got in a fight with her. Can you believe it? I punched her and she ran inside to tell my teacher and was crying. Everyone was cheering me on. I thought for sure I was going to be in trouble, but my teacher was totally on my side and I didn't get in any trouble for it. After that I didn't have much more problems with her. I still can't believe that I was in a fight in first grade, but when Kathy has had enough she has had enough!!!!!

You just never know

I was reading this book that I have and I came across this poem. It is very true and I love it.


You never know when someone
May catch a dream from you
You never know when a little word
Or something you may do
May open up the windows
Of a mind that seeks the light

The way you live may not matter at all,
But you never know--- It might.

And just in case it could be
That another's life, through you,
Might possibly change for the better
It seems it might be worth a try
At pointing the way to the right
Of course, it may not matter at all,
But then again--- it might.

Helen Lowrie Marshall

This really made me think. I hope that I can be the kind of person that makes a difference in someone's life, rather it be my blogging friends, my close friends, family or just an acquaintance. I hope to be the one that makes that difference.

Just one more thing

Today I have been feeling a little overwhelmed. How am I supposed to do everything???

Today I had school, and then I had a Stake YW presidency meeting, then I had a dentist appointment, and now I am finally home and guess what. I get to fix dinner and clean the house and do homework. Today I didn't even have time to get my own lunch. When am I going to work out, and what about FHE???

I just think it is almost impossible to get everything done that we are supposed to finish each day at least it is for me!! Wish me luck. If you have any ideas let me know, I would love to hear them.

I do have some good new for the day.
I went to the dentist office and I actually don't have to go back.
NO CAVITIES for me!!! I was just thrilled. Any ideas for dinner, I have none.

Ideas for your Sweetheart for Valentine's day

If you are still trying to think of something to do for your sweetheart of valentine, here are a few ideas and I will be posting a list this week if you don't like any of these.

idea #1
Every hour on the hour( make sure to set a timer) Give your sweetheart a kiss or some token of love. You could give him different kinds of kisses, or a massage, or a hug, but every single hour on the hour. This works best when it is the weekend but will work in the evening if you only have an evening. I did this once for my sweetheart and HE loved it.

idea #2
Give him a heart attack. You could put hearts all over your bedroom, or decorate his work office with hearts, or a bathroom. Then write you have just been given a heart attack. When I did this I even put kisses all over our mirrors with lipstick and wrote something sweet or sexy on the mirror. You can also add some treats (candy kisses or something else too when decorating).

idea #3
Burn a cd or tape music on a tape with all of your love songs and songs that have meaning about something important in your lives. Then type up a list of the songs and write the importance that they play in your lives, such as your song, or a song about when you had your first child etc.
Mike did this one year for me and as I listened to the songs and read the list, it had me crying. I will always cherish that tape because it came from him and the songs that have meant a lot to US.

idea #4
It is kind of late for this idea but you could still do it but end it up after Valentine's day. Do the 14 Days of Valentine's, this is the same idea as the 12 days of Christmas but you do something special for your valentine or sweetheart for 14 days. It can be anything, a candy bar, a kiss, coupons, a sweet romantic email, etc.

In one of my wards, I gave a Enrichment Meeting on Romance and ideas, I was called the Romance Lady. If any of you are interesetd I will post a list with more ideas, just comment and let me know. There is so much you can do and so often we use the excuse that we don't have time but we can do these fun things if it is important to us. I know in my own marriage, these little things have MEANT ALOT.

Oh what a night!!!!!

This month I have been thinking about the many fun things that Mike and I have done together through the years and I was reminded of one of my fondest memories of the two of us.

At the time we had pretty young kids, and we had just returned from a date just the two of us and had taken the babysitter home. When we were coming in the house, Mike said I need to go and get something out of the car and I will be back in a few minutes. I went inside and a few minutes later I hear a knock on the door.

I opened the door and it was Mike and it wasn't just any Mike, it was Cowboy Mike. Yep, he had rushed out to our shed and had put on his duster( cowboy coat), a cowboy hat, and cowboy boots. Well, I couldn't believe it, because Mike is really no cowboy. He never has been and doesn't like country music whatsoever.
He said" Howdy ma'm , I've been watching you and noticed that your husband is gone. Do ya mind if I come on in??" The whole time he was using the cowboy drawl. He continued," I brought you some flowers that I picked out back in my pasture, that I thought you might like. I also brought some cider and cheese that we can share" By this time I was eating this up every minute of it, because if you don't know I am kind of a country girl myself. I love country music, even though I love other music, I have always enjoyed country music. ( I think because of some of the romantic lyrics)
I let him in and we started to talk. He asked if my husband would be comin home. I said not for a while. He asked me if I would mind dancing a couple of tunes with him. He turned on some slow country songs, some of my favorites. Well by this time I was melting in his arms. I love country slow music, masculine cowboys, and to get flowers and cider too. Wow. We danced and danced and danced.

What a night for me to always cherish. more to me. I couldn't believe that he would do something so awesome for me, especially when it just wasn't him. He was doing something that he knew I would totally love and I did. I am so THANKFUL for our memories.

No More Glasses among other things

Two days ago we took Ang into the eye doctor and she has decided that she wants contacts, so they fit her for contacts. We wanted to wait until it was something that she wanted. I am sure it is going to take some time for her to get used to putting them in and taking them out but I think she is real excited.
She just keeps getting older and older. Her birthday is coming very soon but I will wait to blog a little more about her then.

Mike and I both started physical therapy last night, and I don't know if it will prove to be helpful but I know one thing it is sure a pain to try to find time for when you have NO TIME anyway.

I also taught my first lesson yesterday, where I had my professor evaluate me. If you know me you know I am a stress case anyway, so of course I was even more stressed. After I finally calmed down, I felt real good about the lesson. The professor said so many great things about my teaching. That made me feel like I CAN do this. What a nice day to have over with!!!

Just a quick post about my schedule right now. Some people have asked a little about it so I thought I would post my schedule. I have to remind myself that this is also my journal and even if you don't care what my schedule is, some day I will want to have a record of this time in my life.
Monday: 5:30- wake up and get lunches made and kids off to school
7:00 - get ready for day and eat breakfast
8:30- 1:00- Go to Math class
Tuesday: pretty much the same in the morning
8:30-1:40- Help teach at South Elementary in 3rd grade
2:00-4:30- Do homework
5:00 fix dinner and help kids with homework
Clean house if I ever have time
Wednesday: 8:30-12:00- Language Arts
12:00-4:00- Management class
4:00-5:00 - fix dinner, errands, pick up kids
Homework homework homework
Thursday: 8:30-12:00- Social Studies
12:00-4:00- Science
4:00-5:00 fix dinner, run errands, pick up kids
Homework homework homework
Friday: 8:30-1:40- Teach and help at South Elementary
2:00-5:00- do errands, grocery shopping, pick up kids, try to do homework
Homework, Homework, Homework
By Saturday I am pretty tired of school and I try to get caught up but all I want to do is crash. There you have it.

My " Lola" romance story

Ever since I was young I have been a romantic. My brothers still harrass me about Romeoing them, that is what they call it. I would chase them around the house and tease them and call " Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Rome......" I would corner them and try to kiss them, well I don't know if I ever did but I sure had fun scaring them enough that they thought I was going to kiss them.
I love romantic movies, romantic letters, flowers etc.
About ten years ago I decided to do something to jazz up my marriage. I left a letter on Mike's seat of his car that said "Meet me at the bar at TGI Friday's at 5:00 pm," signed Lola.
That day during the day Mike called me and told me that he was going to be late getting home because he had a meeting. ( He was going along with the whole idea) During the day before I met him there, I had a good friend do my make up, and do my hair. She also watched my kids and I looked real made up. I arrived at TGI Friday's a little early and watched him come in.

What a night. This was one of the funnest things that we have done. We acted as if we were just meeting for the first time. We made up conversations about meeting there and not eluding to our real life at home at all. Neither one of us had our wedding rings on, we also had stashed them away. After visiting for quite a while we decided to be seated and had dinner together. It was a very fun night. At the end of the night, Mike said I guess now we have to go home to OUR kids. Yep, our fantasy night was over but what a fun night it was pretending. My kids were real small and it was hard for us to make time for the two of us so it meant even more to us.
I guess it is important that we remember we can make time for what are our priorities in life. If any of you like this idea, go for it try it out.

Yeah, I know I am a little crazy. Some of you may not realize that I can be a little spontaneous, but we only live once.

Two Valentine treats and the frosting recipe too!!

I know so many of you are on diets and watching what you eat just like me, but there are some of you lucky few that can eat whatever you want or those of you that still want to make great Valentine treats for your family even if you don't eat them yourself. These are two favorites of my family and have been for a long time.

The first one is my favorite sugar cookie recipe. I have many sugar cookies recipes but everyone I make these for rave and rave over these because they are so soft so give them a try and let me know if you like them.

Sugar Cookies
6 1/2 cups of flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter( or margarine)
1 cup sour cream(I usually use 16 oz of sour cream)
Sift flour, baking soda, salt. Cream the rest of the ingredients. Add flour and mix. Chill. Bake 8 min at 400 degrees. Do not brown. ( ROll 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick)
Frost. YUMMY

My other favorite that is already on my blog but I must repost because I don't know how many of you have seen it earlier is my Red Velvet Cake. This is a tradition in our family. My husband still has friends from previous places of employment that call and ask if he has red velvet cake where he is on Valentine's so they can go over and get their piece. It just isn't Valentine's day without our RED VELVET CAKE.

Red Velvet Cake
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp cocoa
2 ounces red food coloring( you can find in the spice department in little bottles, you need 2)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups flour
Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs and mix well. Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring in very small bowl or cup. Add paste to creamed mixture. Mix together thoroughly. Mix salt and vanilla with buttermilk in small bowl. Add buttermilk mixture alternately with flour to creamed sugar mixture. Mix baking soda and vinegar together and fold into mixture don't beat. Grease and flour 2- 9 inch cake pans or a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min.

I hope you give these a try they are great.

Recipe for Frosting for cookies or cake

2 cups powder sugar
1/4 cup margarine or butter( or cream cheese if you want cream cheese frosting, you could use instead of margarine or add some besides the margarine and then add the milk)
warm milk

I add the warm milk to the consistency that I desire for my cookies or cake. If I am making cake frosting I would probably double the recipe. I hope this helps. You can make the frosting for the cake with cream cheese or without it is up to you. Good luck