No More Surprises

John and the boys have been busy the past few weeks building this fence and rose arbor. I think John should start his own blog and call it Crafty Dude. He amazes me with his self taught abilities.

I know that I didn't marry a carpenter. The first year of our marriage we lived in a little basement apartment with little shelf and storage space. He's a problem solver and bought the supplies and a few tools {that a poor college student/husband could afford} to build shelves for our school books and sweaters. He worked all day and into the night. This was the first time I heard what he sounded like when he got frustrated. I learned quickly to leave him alone in these situations and not ask questions. He finished and we had new shelf space above our bed, the only wall space for shelves we had. I was impressed with my husband and he was proud of his new found skills.

The next day while we were eating Sunday dinner we heard a loud crash. Then I heard the newly familiar sounds of frustration again...##!!*@##!! Our newly constructed shelves had collapsed. I remember being relieved that it didn't happen while we were sleeping because of those heavy text books.

Now, 18 years and 11 months later, he has turned out to be quite the fix-it, build it, all around handyman. I love the rose arbor. I can even image the red fragrant roses that will be climbing up the sides of it next year.

Notice the Boy's job: they are testers of the finish project. They get to try it out to see if it will stand up to Boog, the {gentle} giant. Only Boog doesn't know that he's supposed to be gentle. The other problem and hence the reason for the new fence around the garden...Boog has left little, okay giant size, surprises in the potato plot. All I can say is that we won't be harvesting and eating the potatoes this year. They are going straight to the compost bin.

It's timeless

These make me happy. Silly but practical glass jars. My little job on Saturday mornings. Garage sale shopping; finding deals for everyday necessities, scratching the collecting itch, and rescuing the timeless artifacts of my childhood and the pre-plastic era.


Today's finds:
* one very adorable whimsical glass elephant jar with original tin cap: .50 cents
{it so turns out that it was made in the 1950's and is being sold on eBay for $50.} It actually has a slot in the cap that makes the jar turn into a penny bank. Love it! That just makes me want to save my pennies.

*a pair of Ugg look alikes for Meag & Addie to fight over {Peter likes them too}: $2

*6 or 7 embroidery hoops of all sizes: $2

*8 light green linen napkins in perfect condition. Classy. Can't wait to use them for Christmas or something girly: $1

*a small Longaberger basket -collector's edition {i love it when people don't know what Longaberger is so i can steal it, i mean buy it cheap from them}don't expect this to happen often: .50 cents

Last week's find was a nice buttermilk yellow oval Fiesta platter, flawless for $1. Now, that was a rescue. What would have happened to that sweet platter if I hadn't found it? It hurts just thinking about it. I used it this week when me and the girls made double battered buttermilk/breadcrumb fried zucchini from our garden. Yum. I love that platter.

I love Saturday mornings. See you out there.

More on Memorial Day Weekend

Eating breakfast at the Malone's Oak Glen Apple Dumplings Restaurant on Memorial Day is a new family tradition. We took Dad & Corinne up there for a good country, mountain breakfast. So good. And then stopped in at their bakery and couldn't resist the pastries. Yum. Don't you just love that store front picture?

I loved the soft snikerdoodle cookies. We all did.

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.

Reminders from a Scar

Lately, I catch myself thinking of Peter's cancer journey and amazed by how well he's doing. It's as if he never went through chemo or had cancer. When I get him dressed for the day or change his diaper I stare at his scar that takes up most of the right side of his rib cage. I'm reminded of many things: pain, praying hour by hour, uncertainty, suffering, and miracles. I'm reminded of how precious life is. I'm reminded of what's really important. The scar helps me focus and chill out about the things that stress me out during a normal mother's day.

I'm also reminded of Raul. We met Raul, a seventeen year boy, during Peter's fourth round of chemo in November. I was on my way to the oncology clinic with Peter for routine lab work in between chemo rounds. I was surprised when I got a call from the nurse on my cell phone making sure that I was bringing Peter's things to be admitted to the hospital that day. Some how I thought Peter wasn't due to start his forth round of chemo, which always began with a 4 - 5 day stay in the hospital, until the next week. After a confusing conversation with first the nurse and then the doctor, I was somewhat convinced that Peter was ready to start the last of the chemo. I was reassured by a peaceful feeling that all would be okay.

Then when we arrived at the hospital a few hours later to find the "clean" unit under construction. They wanted us to bring Peter around to the normal pediatric unit. I was freaking out inside because of Peter being immune compromised he shouldn't be around all the sickies. Peter was never allowed in that part of the pediatric wing before. So once again I tried to reason with the nurses and the doctor about the confusion in the schedule. But they insisted. And I once again had that reassuring, calm, peaceful feeling saying that it would all be okay.

Peter was admitted and the hydration was started. After a few hours the charge nurse came in to tell me that we would be getting a room mate. What??!!! She explained that it was another cancer/chemo patient and there was nothing else they could do. With the closer of the front unit and how busy it was we had to share rooms. Peter hadn't even been around his own cousins because of his low immune system how could he be around a total stranger and his family? I started loosing it again. The nurse continued to explain about Raul. He had just found out that he had cancer and would be getting his first dose tonight... She promised that as soon as a room opened Peter would get it. Once again I was calmed down by a reassuring feeling that all would be okay. Maybe this was happening to help Peter be more entertained through his last round of chemo. Maybe it was Heavenly Father's way of making things easier for Peter. This is what I told myself.

Chemo was started and the roommate had not shown up yet. Four hours went by and his nausea hadn't started yet. Wow. He was perfectly normal. Who would've known he had just been given chemo? And it was the heavy duty one that always makes him so ill. I was pleasantly surprised and counting our blessings. Peter was sleeping through the nausea. Amazing.

Late at night our room mate and his parents arrived. I can remember the nurses being relieved that he finally showed up. After the nurse talked to him and left the room Raul came over to our side of the room and opened up the curtain to introduce himself. When he saw Peter he got very emotionally and asked about him. I told him Peter's story and he told me his.

Six months ago Raul started lifting weights. After a month of doing that his shoulder became very sore. He thought he did something to it by lifting weights. He continued to weight lift. Finally after six months the pain was so bad that he went to the emergency room and after x-rays, then a MRI he was told he had cancer in the muscle and bone of his left arm. This all happened just a few days before meeting us.

I'll always remember how sweet Raul was after hearing Peter's story. He was touched and his heart went out to Peter. He had tears in his eyes and expressed how sorry he felt for Peter being so young and having to go through something so hard. We cried. I tried to explain that Peter was so young that he would never remember any of this and that we were sorry for him being 17 and how tough this must have been for him. We talked about religion and our faith. We talked about growing stronger through adversity. We talked about our prayers and love of Christ.

The next day Peter continued to do well. Raul would tell the nurses, techs, doctors, anybody who came into the room that if Peter could do chemo then he could too. I thought he was so brave.

I learned about Raul's dreams of the future. His parents were from Mexico. His father worked on a dairy in Norco. Raul wanted more for himself. He wanted to be a sheriff or fireman. He had already job shadowed with a sheriff. And that's why he took up weight lifting. We wanted to be strong.

When the doctor came in to check on us I heard the conversation she had with Raul. She explained all the procedures and why they were doing what they were doing, "We're doing all of this and hoping that we can save your arm..." Raul didn't hear that. He was listening but he didn't get it. I did though. As a mother I understood what she was saying. And then I understood how lucky Peter was. Peter was going to have half of his liver taken out but it would grow back. But an arm doesn't grow back. Raul remained youthfully optimistic.

Peter ended up getting really sick and we got our own room.

I never saw Raul again.

I asked about him the next time we were in. Cynthia, a child life specialist, was helping us out with Peter when he was admitted for a ct scan. She helps the children in the pediatric wing in all different ways. She told me that Peter made a huge impact on Raul. Raul was inspired by Peter. I was really surprised by that. A two year old inspiring a seventeen year old. Then she told me that when Raul first heard that he had cancer he was in denial. He didn't want to come to the hospital. He didn't want chemo. Nobody knew how to reach him. That was the night when he finally came to the hospital and was assigned to be our roommate. I guess seeing Peter asleep and resting peacefully that night gave Raul the courage to face cancer. So when he said, "If Peter can do it. So can I." He really meant it.

A scar can be a painful reminder of an injury but for me it's a reminder of blessings received.

New Adventures

This week was the first week of

"mommy preschool."

A long story.

So the brief version is Andrew, like Meagan and Addie, have gone to the Parent Participation preschool through Redlands Adult School, where I am actually the student. It's a parenting class. The parents learn about parenting while the preschoolers learn the joy of learning. Every body's happy. Another benefit of this wonderful program was the cost. Only $175 for a semester for the Monday, Wednesday, & Friday class, along with working one day in the class a week and attending a monthly parenting class.

This is turning out to be the long version. {sorry}

The funding was cut because of California's budget problems, and the program had some changes. Now it cost more. So we opted not to re-register Andrew for the next two months. {there's only so much money, you know} And now he has mommy preschool. Which means mommy is his new preschool teacher. Let the adventure begin!

Every day we work on things he should already know or at least that Meagan & Addie knew at his age. And it's really stressing me out. I don't know how my sister-in-law, Kristen, who is a preschool teacher of 20 or so does it. And she does it happily & well.

I'm not blaming anybody but myself and cancer. Peter's had a lot of my attention this past year and now it's Andrew's turn.

I'm grateful for new adventures.

We're playing a lot of alphabet & number games. I'm coming up with some fun ones all on my own. Then we went on our morning walk and discovered that the ladybugs had come to town. They are all over the place. So we started collecting them and ta-da, new game: count how many ladybugs we can capture.

I feel an art project coming on.

This Week's Buy

...was found at Costco today. These great t-shirts for the modest at heart.

You get 2 for $25 and they have black, white, yellow, and pink. Hurry over there because they'll be gone on Sunday.

Easter Celebrations

{Easter 2009}

Homemade Goodness

Let the bidding begin!

Last week this time, the Hallen home was a homemaking, baking, sewing mad house. It was a race to get all the projects finished for the Young Women's camp fundraiser - Ward Dinner/silent auction.

Mission complete. Meagan earned all her money for girls camp. Yeah!

If any of this looks good to you, we're taking orders. Name your price. Free delivery to Redlands area. Also, free delievery on a limited basis to Arizona for the weekend of April 18th.

Homemade butter garlic rolls, the perfect chocolate chip cookies, strawberry jam, a sampling of homemade cards, and embroideries by Meagan.

A Young Women's Weekend

"One virtuous young woman, lead by the spirit, can change the world." Pres. Elaine Dalton
I always want to remember this: mother/daughters only, weekend away. We started off in a rented car. It wasn't much to brag about but it worked, despite the audio tech problems. And it saved us a lot in gas $. { More money for shopping.} That was motivation enough for us to drive the smoker rental. Smoker because it smelt of cigarettes. I'll try not to complain any more about that. Anyway...

We finally arrived at Laura's on Thursday after dinner. We drove through wind, dust, and a little snow, singing & talking the whole way. We all feel in love with Harrison. What a sweetie pie. He never cries. Never. I've never had a baby like him. Laura is one lucky mother.

Friday, after spending the morning babysitting Harrison, we started the shopping. So fun. The best deal of the weekend {of our lifetime} was found at the outlet mall in Park City. Meagan bought three pair of skinny jeans for $1 each. Unbelievable! That was a success. Addie found some really cute green converse type shoes & outfit to match.

We visited Uncle Monte & Aunt Diane. I love visiting them. They always make me laugh. They gave us YW Conference tickets- A big thank you to John's cousin, Debbie, for that.

Saturday went by so quickly. We started with a tour of the Prophets grave sites at the SLC cemetery. (Meagan is working on the Faith value for personal progress and learning about the prophets is part of her project)Thirteenish of them are buried there. I loved the site at Pres. Hinckley's grave. Fresh flowers were on display with one big snow ball with sunflowers coming out of it. So sweet. We could picture grand children or great grandchildren bringing him & his wife flowers and playing in the snow. We stopped at Brigham Young's grave, which is at a different location. Then we toured the Beehive house. B.Y. was a very busy man. He was the prophet, the governor of the Utah territory, the superintendent of the Indian Affairs, had 25 wives, and who knows how many children. At the very end of the tour the sister missionaries told us something that has stuck with me. "Out of all his important and busy duties, he said that his most important responsibility was his children and family." I loved that.

Then to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, one of my favorite places. We had lunch in the Garden Restaurant on the 10th floor, overlooking the Temple. Beautiful day and view and delicious food. The girls loved it.

I took the girls to our old little home on Windsor Street. I loved living in Salt Lake. It was a simple, sweet life. We visited with an old neighbor, Brother Eldredge. He doesn't remember us anymore. He's 91 yrs old. He has 119 great grandchildren. He remembered that. He was such a good neighbor.

After a short rest at Laura's we were off again to the conference. We had to park half a mile away and walk fast to get to our seats. So much traffic. Poor Addie had to take off her shoes and walk barefooted because her shoes were not the best for race walking in. We made it. We had wonderful seats and found John's other cousin, Mindy, and her daughter Meghan. There's always family around.

What a great opportunity to attend YW Conference in person. To see the Prophet walk in to the meeting. A quiet reverence settled over the congregation. It's great to feel the spirit so strong and hear in person the message that Heavenly Father has for us.

Every one spoke of Virtue. A return to Virtue. So the girls and I are working on Pres. Monson's challenge. He spoke of three things. Having courage to refrain from judging. Sounds easy, but it's harder than one might think. Can you make an observation about someone or is that still judging? See it's hard. 2. Have courage to be virtuous, 3. have courage to stand firm for truth & righteousness.

We returned home on Sunday, uplifted and united. The only thing I would change next time is to make sure John comes along. Boy, we missed him and his driving ability. It was such a long way home. It took forever. Twelve hours. Not fun to drive through Las Vegas on a Sunday.

How nice to come home to a house full of boys.

And We're Off

These three ...

are taking an all girls weekend trip to...

to do a lot of kissing & holding with...

and do a little of this...

minus the dog


and a lot of this


oh, and most importantly to go to


Be back soon.

Treasure Hunt

How to get your visiting teaching done on Spring Break:

Feeling Lucky

I feel like we're coming into the light again. Life is getting back to normal.

Then came the good news from Monday's ct scan that Peter had done. No signs of any cancer. And the AFP is at an all time low: 3.3!

I know it's more than luck. It's more prayers answered. We're grateful parents to have more beautiful days to enjoy and love our children in the now.