Catching Up

I have so many posts to catch up on.  It feels like it's been a whirlwind around here.  I still have so many things to report on: four wonderful days in New York with my parents, an anniversary trip with my honey, vocal chords, sleepovers, a close call with in an FBI sting, Amanda's Walk, Thanksgiving, surgery plans, Black Friday fabric shopping adventures, pillowcases, and dry cereal blues.  It's possible I'll get it all in.  But just as possible that I won't.

In the meantime, how about a picture of the kitchen now that the floor is done?  I am sure I never posted one, and that's one more thing to check off the list. :)

And also, check out this adorable picture I came across lost in the files of our computer.  From the winter of 2005.  I love the girls' faces. There is nothing like sledding as a little kid. This was on the little hill behind the middle school near my parents' home in Pleasant Grove.  I think it was the first time the twins had experienced sledding and they loved every second.  Cute. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Focusing on the things that matter most today.  The Lord has truly blessed me. 

Hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving Day!

Amanda's Walk

While King and I were out of town at his conference and celebrating our anniversary, the girls went with our good friends to Amanda's Walk, to earn money to help with Amanda's cancer treatment.  There was a good turn out and organizers deemed it successful.  Snow White started out running the 5k, but after a fall, decided walking might be safer.  Cinderella walked with her friends R and M, and Sleeping Beauty also walked, which may be a miracle.  (She doesn't really like to walk, unless it's at the mall.) :)  Thanks to our wonderful friends for taking the girls. The girls had a great time!

Fatty Blobs

I have this cyst on my arm.  Near my elbow.  It's been there nearly my whole adult life, but has never caused me any trouble.  Until the last couple of months, when it sometimes pressed on a nerve and caused me pain.  I showed it to the doctor.  He said, "It looks like it's just a fatty blob.  Maybe we should take it out.  I'll refer you to a surgeon."  And I thought, Could this surgeon take out all my fatty blobs?  Like the ones on my stomach and around my thighs?

So I went to the surgeon consult this morning.  He looked at it, said it should come out, and asked me how soon I'd like to be rid of it.  I told him any fatty blob on my body that could be surgically removed, I was more than happy to part ways with as soon as possible.  He (sadly) said nothing about my thighs and stomach, but said that if I did not want to be put out for the surgery , then he could remove the cyst immediately.  "It depends on your pain tolerance level," he said. 

Considering I walk around in pain all of the time, I figure if anyone knows much about pain tolerance, it's me.  So I told him to go for it.  Slice me open and remove the fatty blob.  So he did.  And it was kind of cool, in a grody sort of way.  No problems.  Tidy little stitches.  And now I have one less fatty blob on my body.  If only they were all so easy to lose. . . 

Daylight Savings?

Last Saturday night, when Daylight Savings time rolled around, we decided to not mention it to the girls.  Everyone was tired on Saturday.  And by tired I mean that I could barely stand anymore, the girls were fighting and whiny, and King had worked hard helping a few families that day and was exhausted.  I decided, as 9:00 rolled around, that everyone needed to just go to bed, and reminding them that it was really only 8:00 would just prolong the grouchiness.  So, off to bed we went.  (It took forever, but it always does.)

The great thing about Daylight Savings time being on Saturday night is that I always wake the girls up on Sunday, so we didn't worry about alarms and changing the girls' clocks.  And King was really relieved to have an extra hour of sleep before Bishopric Meeting.

But, we did not count on our girls being ultra-responsible that morning.  At five minutes after five in the morning, Snow White cam into our room, dressed for church, and said, "Dad, why aren't you up yet?  You said you were leaving at 6:15.  I am going with you for BYC."

Oh dear.  Two things wrong with this.  1) She's an hour early.  She thinks it's 6:05, because we didn't set her clock.  And 2) it's not BYC this week.  She confused BYD (Bishop's Youth Discussion--like a mini-fireside/Bible study--which we had been talking about the night before), with BYC (Bishop's Youth Committee--which she serves on as president of her age group of girls to help plan activities and fellowship youth).  BYC is held in the morning, before church, at 7:45 a.m., and BYD is held in the evening, at 6:30 p.m.  She had asked King the night before what time BYD was (remember, thinking it was BYC) and figured she needed to be ready at 6:15.  Such a responsible and nice girl.  And now a tired one that got up at 4:40 in the morning.  We sent her back to bed.

Then, at 5:45, King gets up and ready, then leaves for his meetings.  Just after he leaves at 6:15, I hear an alarm go off and Cinderella get in the shower.  What?!  She never gets up on her own on Sundays.  But today, of all days, she sets her alarm for 7:20 to get up and shower.  Only, her alarm clock is not set ahead either, so it's 6:20.  Such a nice and responsible girl.  And now one that is up too early on her only day to sleep in. 

Needless to say, I was not able to get that extra hour of sleep.  Oh well.  At least the girls proved that they can be responsible and nice.  Unfortunately, everyone was so tired from getting up early and the confusion that we ended up being five minutes late for church.  Well, next year we'll do better!  Everyone will be setting their clocks ahead right after dinner.  Sheesh.

Obligatory (But Sort of Sad) Halloween Post

We had a nice Halloween.  Cinderella's friend E was spending the night with us because her younger sister Amanda was recently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and is in the hospital.  We wanted it to be fun for her so she could kind of forget about her stress and relax.  Thank to a few friends joining us, we kept E fairly distracted and had a great time. 

We had our traditional "Dead Man" Meatloaf, Green "Brain" Casserole, and "Ghostly" Mashed Potatoes with three families from our ward.  (Of course no pictures.  But, I assure you, it did not look very appetizing.)  ;)  Then it was time for costumes and a few pictures. 

Ceiling Fans, "Mexican Dude", and Little Red Riding Hood

Snow White's, Sleeping Beauty's, Cinderella's

Princess Peach, Red Riding Hood, Mexican Dude, "Tangled", Mario, Cutest Doggie Ever, and Ceiling Fans

I felt the girls were too old for trick-or-treating this year, but they didn't think so.  In the end, I figured they might as well do it if they wanted to.  What better distraction for E than running around the neighborhood begging for candy with some of our darling friends?  They came home with quite the haul.  We ran into more friends while out in the neighborhood.  It would have been impossible not to, there were so many people out and about!  It was a pleasant evening. 

And our "punny", sarcastic ceiling fans had a good time puzzling the crowds with their clever costume.  (Thanks to a suggestion from our friend Susan that morning, and her sufficient browsing of the web for easy costume ideas.)  :)  I just was happy to make it through the day in one piece.  I dressed as a worn-out mother.  The costume was spot on, if I do say so myself.  :)

Honestly, it was a little hard to do something as menial as "celebrating" Halloween with E's family having their lives sort of crashing down around them with Amanda's diagnosis.  Prayers for Amanda's recovery from surgery would be so appreciated.  She is having a hard time recovering from the brain trauma during surgery, with complications in eating, speech, and double vision.  They have a long road ahead with this recovery and chemo and radiation to come.  They'll need all of the prayers they can get.  I know the Lord is in charge and "that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28) but it sure is hard to watch someone else we know struggle with this terrible disease. 

Anyway, thanks to our friends for joining us and making our day fun.  It's so great to be with friends and be festive.  And I must say, it's also pretty great to steal good candy from my children's Halloween buckets.  (Did I just type that?  Whoops.)  :)