Shh, quiet please...

I love swaps. Cards, clothes, fhe packets, recipes. And now, quiet book pages. This is such a fun project. Cheryl came over today with her quiet book pages. So cute! Inspired, I went to work with my scraps and a simple pattern. The cousins played nicely together. And for a few hours I went to work figuring out Jonah and the whale. Really, I love this stuff. And this time I'm not radioactive.

In fact, my blood work came back and all is well. Yeah!!! Picture me jumping up and down like I just won the Price is Right showcase. I'm very happy with this good news. What a relief. And so Sister Carlson, you were right. Nothing to worry about. So why did I worry so much? Lesson learned. Stop worrying and stressing over things, especially things out of my control. And be a little bit more faithful & hopeful. Oh, I have so much to learn. I'm hoping I learned my lesson this time.

Memorable Day {Weekend}

Grandpa & Grandma Dana flew over for a visit. We’re so glad they did.














Where to go? What to do? There’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a year and we finally did it. We went up to Big Bear on Saturday in search of the largest lodge pole pine in the world. We found it and more.


When Cabrillo was sailing through California almost 500 years ago this grand pine was a little sapling.

Then we came upon a nice little postcard’isc scene.

or maybe it’s just the way Meagan posed for this picture. Who knew we had this in our own backyard? The beauty rivaled my childhood memories of camping in Eastern Arizona’s White Mountains.

When grandpa visits there’s always an adventure to be had…


I took that picture of Andrew while we were zooming down the hill on the sled. He was controlling the speed and I was trying to get the perfect picture of him by holding the camera out in front of us. It was a difficult and daring task, only a true mommy blogger would attempt. Then I looked up just in time to see us heading towards a turn and we were going really fast. Scary! I took over the controls. He was laughing all the way. Then I was chastised by the guy running the alpine slide. Dumb mommy moment. I just had to get a picture of it though. So don’t try that at home…

to be continued…

I Made It!

Imagine that! The things a mom can accomplish in a day by locking herself in a messy room with a year supply of crafts supplies and unfinished projects. That was fun. All my ribbon is wound or rolled up and organized by color. Is two drawers of ribbon too much? I didn't think so.

No more mending pile. I fixed 3 shirts, 1 pair of pants, 1 skirt, and finished a cute little purse that Meagan needed help with. And then I made the 'America' picture. Doesn't it make you smile?

I'm smiling...because phase 1 of my testing was completed today. My whole body scan turned out great. Nothing lit up which means no detectable thyroid cells or thyroid cancer. Now I'm anxiously awaiting phase 2: the results of the blood work. A few more days and back to my thyroid medicine and normal meal time, minus 90 % of the diary. It's just so fattening.

Going Nuclear...

That's right. For the next 24 hours I am so hot that you must keep a 3-5 feet distance from me. I've gone nuclear. I drove myself to the hospital and went down to the depths of the forbidden radioactive corner of it to take my nine, I-132 pills. That was a lot to swallow. Yuk!

All for the sake of testing for thyroid cells & cancer. Not fun. But not painful physically either.
So I can do this. Did you hear me Kristen? "I can do hard things." I love that quote from Sister Dalton.

So the hard part about this {there's a couple} I can't be around my family until tomorrow after my scan when the radiation has worn off. My face actually feels like I'm warm and glowing. I'm sure it is...

John and I have a plan. He was able to stay home from work today to be Mr. Mom. {scary in some ways} Don't get me wrong. He can do it all plus sew on a button, kill a gopher, change a dirty diaper, save me from extra laundry by having the boys wear what they wore yesterday. And I won't go into what I'm scared of...

My plans today is to barricade myself in the guest bedroom and organize, clean, and beautify it. Then I'm going to make this
So now I'm getting more excited about my next 24 hours. I'm rethinking my sadness of no-contact with the family to working on being grateful to have a day to do something that I enjoy without the responsibility of caring for children & others. Like, when does that ever happen? Never.

I'll admit it wasn't easy a few minutes ago when John was out of ear shot of Peter yelling for him for about 10 minutes. I almost failed the test. But I resisted and only poked my head out the door to tell Andrew to go help him find dad.

Now they're gone to do what boys do. What do boys do??? Don't tell me. I couldn't handle it right now. And I'll keep reassuring myself that I'm having fun too.

I can't seem to stop the words of Sting's song repeating in my head...Don't stand so. Don't stand so. Don't stand so close to me. Don't stand so . Don't stand so. Don't stand so close to me.

An Early Mother's Day Gift

Another monthly check up with good results. Peter is doing great, growing healthy and strong. His AFP was only 4.2. It needs to stay below 8.1 ish. Still cancer free. Of course he is - I keep telling myself. And what a happy Mother's Day gift I've already received.

Trying not to spend a lot at the Grocery Store?

Are you like me: scouring through all the grocery adds looking for the best deals, trying to plan your menu for the week, and wanting to spend less on your food bill? This is my weekly battle and frustration. I even love baking and cooking and shopping. It's the "trying to save a buck" and not feeling like I'm over paying at the store for our food. The worst is when I go to Stater's to get the strawberries that are on "bonus buy" for $4.99 for 4 lbs and I miss it because it's Wednesday and the bonus buy ended the day before. @###!!!! That always happens to me.

I just came across something that I'm really excited about trying out for free for the next two weeks. Take a minute to check out this give away.

My favorite part of this service is they offer a menu plan with the deals that you can get that week at the store and the recipes are given out too. Here are some of my favorites for this week: fettuccine primavera, pesto chicken sandwiches, honey lime chicken enchiladas, chicken alfredo soup, chocolate chip cake, boston cream pie, french bread. {okay, I can't have any of this except for the homemade french bread, because of my diet} but, Oh my goodness!!! I've checked out the recipes and they're the kind that I like, from scratch, less processed: canned & boxed.

Sewing Divine Seeds

You can count the seeds in an apple but you can't count the apples in a seed.

I love this quote I found on sugardoodle.net for a little speaking assignment in Young Women's on Sunday about our divine nature and the joy of being a women in all phases of our lives. Women are given great gifts and talents. So I did some reading and was reminded of why I love my life.

" One of your unique, precious, and sublime gifts is your femininity, with its natural grace, goodness, and divinity. Femininity is not just lipstick, stylish hairdos, and trendy clothes. It is the divine adornment of humanity. It finds expression in your qualities of your capacity to love, your spirituality, delicacy, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, charm, graciousness, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength. It is manifest differently in each girl or woman, but each of you possesses it. Femininity is part of your inner beauty." Pres. Faust

At times in my youth I was worried about my future and happiness. But I dreamed and prayed. I came to know that my future was bright. Not that everything that has happened was what I hoped for or planned. But I didn't compromise my standards. I lived as though to know what the Lord's will was for me. I've had peace and joy and much happiness.

Oh, {Baking} Goodness!

These are definitely not on my diet. Aren't they lovely though? Cussing Tarts. Yum.

So... Monday came and so did the beginning of my diet. Not just any old- fad, crash, no carbs, only lemon water or watermelon diet. I'm on the low iodine diet. It's a good one. The only diet I don't cheat on, because it would only mean that I would have to be on it longer. Torture!

Here's the real motivation why I can stick to this hard core diet. My endocrinologist (thyroid cancer doctor) ordered it for my post thyroid cancer testing.

I'm trying to pretend like it's a game. So if you want to play along with me here are the rules:

• no dairy {what else is there???}
• nothing from a can
  nothing with salt (because salt has iodine in it)
• no egg yolks
• no strawberries
• no potato skins
• no fast food eating
• no soy
• no deli meat
• no pork, bacon, bacon bits, ham {this might be a timely diet due to swing flu :0}
• nothing from the sea
• no milk chocolate

The no dairy is the hardest, hardest, hardest for me. I bake and cook with it all the time. Oh, I miss butter.

Okay here's what we can eat:

• fresh fruit
• fresh veggies
• oil
• Jiffy peanut butter
• salt with no iodine {i use Kosher}
• 6 oz of fresh meat a day
• no red dye #something???
• pasta {but not with a sauce made from dairy}
• flour tortillas & corn tortillas {but not with cheese}
• wheat bread
• real oatmeal
• rice {not rice-a-roni}

We do this for about 3 weeks. We'll loose about 12 to 15 pounds. That's exciting. It's been 5 days and I fit into two pairs of pants that I've recently out grew. That's a good thing because I've worn out two others. The causalities of stress and too much snacking.

Let me know how you do. I'm hoping to loose a few pounds and hope to never find them again.