Halloween 2014

Halloween this year was truly memorable for us.  The first part of October, my husband started riding the frontrunner to work. From the front runner he catches trax and then from the trax he rides his bike for about a mile to get to work. He stores his bike in a locker. This has been working out really well and he is enjoying having less stress, some time to do other things while traveling, and getting some exercise. Two days before Halloween, he was riding his bike from work to trax. He was a little late and so trying to go pretty fast through some construction. He didn't see that there was some construction tape strung across an area he was going to go through. When he saw the tape all he could do was try and stop and instinctively grabbed the brakes.

Unfortunately, he grabbed the front brakes a little too hard and immediately flipped over the handle bars and landed pretty hard on his left side. Luckily he was wearing a helmet. My husband said, when he first crashed, he picked up his bike and in his dazed state thought that his brakes, wheels, and pedals were all pretty messed up. Then he realized his handle bars where just facing the wrong direction. All was right when he turned them around and his bike seemed to not be damaged. My husband soon realized that something wasn't right with his shoulder. He was able to ride his bike with one arm to the trax where he put his bike in the locker and luckily was there in time to catch the front runner. He said this was a pretty long ride. 

My husband wrecked the night we were setting up for the ward Halloween Carnival. I had to leave things in our oldest capable hands and go pick my husband up from the front runner and take him to instacare. Our local  instacare was pretty busy, so based on their recommendations we ended up going to a Community ER where they took x-rays and determined he had a AC separation in his left shoulder. They gave him morphine, a sling and a referral to see an orthopedic surgeon in 3 days.

The next morning, we determined the surgeon they had referred us to wasn't covered by our insurance. We found one that was and I called to see if they needed a referral. The receptionist said that they didn't need a referral, but the surgeon in that group who specialized in shoulders was going out of town so he was pretty packed. At that time the earliest appointment was over a week away. We explained the situation and how we really didn't even now if he would need anything more done. She decided to have the surgeon look at the x-ray and then get back with us.

That afternoon she called back asking if we could come in right then. The surgeon then let us know my husband had a complete AC separation which means he tore all the ligaments that connect the collar bone to the shoulder. We hadn't seen the x-rays before this point and could see that truly his collar bone was sticking up just like we thought. My husband wasn't too fond of it when the doctor pushed down on his collar bone to see how much he could reduce it. The surgeon recommended that he have surgery. He was operating the next day (Halloween) and would fit us in if we wanted to or else we would have to wait about two weeks. It really was good timing for it was on a Friday, thus my husband would have the weekend to recover and hopefully not have to miss more work.. We truly felt blessed for my husband didn't have to start healing for two weeks and then have surgery and go through all that recovery again. Since he has to wear a sling for six weeks after the surgery it would have been that much longer in a sling. Everyone we interacted with at the surgery center was amazed we were able to get in for surgery so soon. So were we and so grateful. The surgeon was Wayne Mortensen. I can't tell you how many people we had tell us that he had operated on their shoulder and how wonderful he was and what a great job he did. We truly felt blessed that the surgeon our insurance covered came so highly recommended.

The surgery for this involves putting what was described as a button through the collar bone and the shoulder bone (we will just stick with lay man's terms). These are then connect together with a string ( as my husband puts it). This all holds the bones together and in place until the ligaments heal. My husband did really well with the surgery. Much to the kids dismay, he didn't say or do anything when coming out of the anesthesia. Just asked the same questions over and over and slept. He had a nerve block so wasn't in much pain, just numb (Think epidural for those who have had this). My husband hated this feeling and wasn't too happy when this wore off in the middle of night. He, of course, couldn't sleep either, probably because he slept quite a bit after the surgery. The doctor had prescribed Perocet which He didn't like the way it made him feel and he felt like ibuprofen helped just as much. He basically slept the weekend and was feeling pretty good Monday and able to head back to work.


We were blessed that it was his left shoulder, since he is right handed. My husband is now, once again, driving back and forth to work. He sports a sling and foam block for support so things stay in the correct angle. He currently has to wear this all the time, even to sleep. He hates it and will be grateful when six weeks are up. For the most part he's not in pain, just gets achy.  Personally, I think he just wanted to get out of the yard work that we had planned to prepare for winter.

I must give a big thank you to my parents who stepped in so my kids could go on with their Halloween plans which involved my oldest attending a school dance and  Jolly J hosting a party at our house. I'm sure we were quite the sight as I brought home my zombie husband. Like I said, truly memorable!

So, What Do You Store?

For the last couple of months my life has been consumed with food storage. Making strawberry jam. Drying apricot leather, pears, peaches. Freezing peaches. Canning peaches, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, beans. I even tried canning some apricots this year. It's also case lot shopping time. I was pretty excited and have waited anxiously for the ads to state case lots have arrived. Why? because we had run out of, literally completely used up, many items while we lived off our food storage for 6 months.

I have gotten asked quite a few times, when people hear about living off our food storage, what we have in our food storage. This question has always surprised me a little. What we store is what we eat. That's right, food storage means getting out your recipe books, figuring out what ingredients you need to make those meals and then keeping those supplies on hand. Now granted it does take a little thinking outside the box because fresh food doesn't store long term. Occasionally it means making things a little differently or going without a certain ingredient. But really what I store, is what we eat. It was so nice to really not feel like we had to make major changes in the way we eat  to live off our food storage.

I must also confess that we didn't completely live off our stored food. For the six months my husband was off work I had a budget of about $100 a month for food and other needed personal and household supplies. That was because I hate drinking powdered milk so I still chose to buy milk. Also, I still liked eating things like salad (pretty hard to store that)  yogurt, eggs, cheese so as long as we were able I would buy these when I found a good deal.   We could have lived completely on our food storage but it would have meant going without some "luxuries" which I'm grateful we didn't have to. Thank goodness we could mostly eat what we had stored for it made things easier to handle on such a tight budget. We were truly blessed.

Okay, so back to what we store. If my kids had a say it would be spaghetti, pasta, cold cereal, pizza and cookies. So of course I make sure we store ingredients for those things. I must say that after lots of months of practice I think my husband makes better pizza than you can buy.

So, as you can see the usual, beans, rice, wheat isn't my focus. In fact I only store a few cans of beans because my family doesn't really like them. I store just enough to make chili a few times a year.

Wheat, on the other hand I store a lot of this. If you store wheat you also need a grinder. Need a way to use that wheat. Also you need recipes for how to make bread. Here's one I like. Then make sure you store the ingredients for this. I also store white flour since I still use this in a lot of my baking. I just buy 25 lb bags. Put it in a large black garbage bag and then put into a 5 gallon bucket.We have six buckets. For my family, without limiting how we use it, lasted about 6 months.  It would have been really hard on my kids to have to have wheat in everything. They handle wheat bread and really enjoyed having pizza the way they are used to-with white four.

This is probably easiest done in a list so here's what we store ( in no particular order, just as I thought of it):

• Cold Cereal
• Pasta-all types
• Sauces-Spaghetti and Alfredo
• Oats-for oatmeal, granola, cookies
• White Flour
• Wheat
• Rice
• Canned chicken (Put a star by this one for used a lot and should have stored more).
• Canned and dried fruit. I have also bought freeze dried raspberries and strawberries. These are very similar to what you get in Special K. They are a little expensive and store forever so we only intended to use when we had to, not day to day. My kids loved eating these. They put them in cereal or ate them as they were. You can reconstitute them with water but my kids preferred them dry. We also used them in Jell-o.
• I also store a lot of frozen fruit. (Buy from the dollar store)
• Canned vegetable (we do corn, green beans, mushrooms).
• Freeze dried/dehydrated carrots,peas, onions. These work great in cooking. You can reconstitute them ahead of time  but I just add them as is and let the moisture from what I'm making soften them. Works great!
• Canned tomatoes, sauce and paste
• Olive, pickles, ketchup, salad dressing (mix with canned chicken for sandwiches), mayo, mustard, BBQ sauce, soy sauce, vinegar
• Pantry staples-spices, baking powder, soda, salt, oil, shortening, honey, sugars- you get the picture.
• Oh don't forget yeast pretty hard to make bread without it.
• Chocolate chips, marshmallows, coconut (my son loves it).
• Powder eggs. I don't like to eat these straight (Hence why I bought eggs) but love to use these for baking, even cookies. Here's a link for info on them and how to use them.
• Butter. I freeze it. I do have some butter powder but haven't really tried it yet. Would have had to if we went longer than 6 months. Thank goodness for a freezer. I also substitute oil and shortening when I need to.
• Meats-store in a freezer. We definitely limited how much we ate meat and used a lot more canned chicken. 
• Powder milk-I really prefer not to drink but love for baking and cooking. I have also done this when needed to help stretch a budget.  Works find to mix with 2%
• Cheese-This is one area I struggled with and often bought. I do buy grated cheese and freeze. I usually have about a 2 month supply. I do have an container of freeze dried. I need to figure out how to use this. Didn't really ever get to trying this.
• Canned soup. My kids love spaghetti-O's, tomato or chicken noodle soup for lunch. Just fill a thermos with boiling water. Warm the soup, dump the hot water out of the thermos and fill with boiling soup. They claim it's still warm at lunch. Of course store crackers to go with the soup.
• Cream Chicken and mushroom soup for cooking.
• Chicken broth
• Frozen go-gurts.
• Peanut butter-we did a lot of homemade wheat bread and peanut butter sandwiches.
• Jell-0.
• Potato flakes-for mashed potatoes and baking.
• Juice-kids love to make smoothies.
• Granola bars, crackers, chips, pretzels. I stock up when on sell. I really only store about a 2 month supply tops so this is one thing we just went without after awhile.
• Cake and muffin mixes
• Tortilla shells-freeze them.
• Not food but I also store toilet paper. A lot of toilet paper. Also, other household and personal supplies. You know soaps, toothpaste, sanitary items (I do have 5 girls), cleaning supplies, etc. Really saved us to not have to buy these.
• I probably should add we have a generator. Wouldn't want my food storage, in the freezer, to be lost just because the power went out. Incidentally we had that happen for about 3 days a few years ago. Was the main reason we bought a generator when we got a freezer.

There you go. I'm sure I've forgotten something. The main thing is store what you eat. That way you can rotate it and it's really not a big adjustment to have to live off of it. 

CLUE

I am privileged to work each week with a group of girls ages 16-18 known as the Laurel group.  We were recently in charge of combined young men and young women. They decided to do a live CLUE game. I was pretty hesitant for I couldn't imagine how they were going to do this. It's a good thing they are creative. We spent the week before planning out the evening. They came up with the idea that they would each come dressed up as a character. They then picked a room and decorated it accordingly. I couldn't believe how excited the girls were for this night to happen. They really got into their characters.

Colonel Mustard in the Billiard Room

Mrs. Peacock in the Library

Professor Plum in the Ballroom

Ms. Scarlet in the Kitchen

Mrs. White in the Dining Room

Ms. Green in the Observatory

Just for fun we even had a Conservatory which was uninhabited

and a couple of secret passages. Curtain divided rooms come in real handy.

We decided we would start the evening with a dessert. The leaders, dressed a butlers, grouped all the youth into six groups while the dessert was being brought in......

 But alas, we find out the dessert has been stolen.

The groups are each given a tracking sheet (we came up with the possible answers the week before). They are to find out. Who, What (dessert), When (time),  How,  Where (from what room), and Why.

The leaders randomly decided beforehand the answer for each category. Each Laurel only knew one answer. Their answer was delivered to them by way of a sealed envelope which they opened up in their room right before we started the evening.

The rules of the games where:

• All members of the group have to travel together. 
• They go into a room and can ask only three yes or no questions. 
• They must then leave the room. 
• They may come back but only after they have gone into another room. 
• Once a group thinks they know all the answers they come find a butler. 

When a group found all the answers they were then sent outside to find the get-away-car. This was marked by a giant question mark in the car. They had to return with the type of car and the license plate.

The winner got first choice on the dessert, which of course was the dessert discovered as they played CLUE.


By the way Ms. Scarlet stole cheesecake from the Ballroom at 5:42 AM by throwing it out the window because she needed to ask someone out on a date.

Oh and we learned putting fresh fruit on top of the cheesecake is not something we would do again. Not fun to clean smashed fruit out of the carpet. Although, it did give a pretty authentic blood trail if we really were solving a murder mystery.

Dr. Seuss Night

I work with some pretty amazing girls. I love letting them come up with ideas to do for our young women activities. It is fun to see their ideas and how they  put them into successful activities. We were in charge of a all young women activity around Dr. Seuss birthday (March 2). They decided to have a Dr. Seuss night. They teamed up and each group picked a story, a principle or value they wanted to get across, and an activity. We had 5 rooms. We broke the rest of the young women into 5 groups and they did 10 minute rotations.

To begin with, while the Laurels were setting up, we did this worksheet.

One of the rooms was The Lorax. After watching a short video from the movie about Truffula trees they related this to the choices we make. The girls then wrote down good choices on Truffula trees.

The girls were then given Truffula seeds ( Nerd jelly beans) with this quote attached.

Another room was Horton Heard a Who. You can guess the value-Individual Worth. While  listening to the book,  they made speck pens. This was a small pom-pom attached to a large pink pom pom which was then attached to the top of a pen (thank goodness for hot glue guns). The pen was then wrapped in green flower tape.

(sorry blurry picture)

The next room they ate a variety of green treats while reading Green Eggs and Ham.  The principle is pretty easy to guess-Being willing to try new things.

After we did this activity I came across a cute idea of taking a mini marshmallow. Flatten this out and put a green skittle in the middle. Then attach all of this to two mini pretzel sticks. Or you could use melted white chocolate instead of a marshmallow. Something like this

                                                                                                  image source


Another room was a book I personally had never read but become one of my favorites after this night. I wish that I had Duck Feet. After reading this book they then talked about the importance of finding out what makes each of unique and being happy with our own talents and abilities.

Amazing artists these two are

In the final room was the book Fox and Socks. She started her presentation out by acting like a bully by saying un kind things about the group. She also included challenging girls to an arm wrestle. Then, after reading the book, they talked about how much better it is to be kind.

We ended the evening with treats related to other Dr. Seuss books.

Five in Three and One at Home

My kids have now been in school for over a month. Yep, this is the traditional back to school post, just very late.

Karebear is in her last year of high school. To make her last year fun she has chosen to take two photo classes (film and digital) and do a photography internship.  She also gets to interact with preschool kids as part of the child development class she has. It's a good thing she has these classes to balance out her Calculus class which she swears "will be the death of her". I'm so putting that on her gravestone; died doing calculus. She is staying busy with teaching a class every other day as part of the freshmen mentor program. She is a co-vice president for the NHS. They worked hard to try and have an induction ceremony "that wasn't lame"

Karebear was elected  a senator and has taken on setting up for and participating in a lot more school events. I'm just glad to see her stepping out of her comfort zone and trying some new things, such as participating in the Powder Puff football game. She is finding out just how much fun high school can be.

Jolly J is a Sophmore. I can't believe she will be 16 in just a few months. I love that she is very diligent to get her homework done. She rarely asks us for help and has fantastic grades. She is also a senator. She decided to continue with ASL this year and hopes to learn more with this new teacher. Last years teacher checked out pretty early in the year and unfortunately nobody learned much. She continues to stay busy with karate twice a week and private flute lessons.

J

Jolly J  is also taking a photography class. I think I may not have to take another picture this year. I don't know why but love this recent photo she took.

Minnie is glad to be through the first couple of weeks of 7th grade. It's always hard to adjust to not having classes and lunch with many friends.  She is trying out playing the flute and has been making quite a few items in her sewing class. Her latest creation was a neck pillow. She brought this home and said how at first it didn't seem very comfortable, then she realized she had forgot to stuff it.

Tator is in 3rd Grade. She was excited to get the teacher she wanted and loves the class rewards system, especially since she recently got  a timer. She carried this with her on recent school wide 1K run. The first thing she said, when she finished was, "I ran it in 8 minutes."

Bud Boy is in first grade. He is in the same classroom as last year. School seems a lot longer but playing basketball  (joys of the big kids playground) at recess makes the day go faster. His teacher rewards different tables each week by letting them eat lunch in the classroom. Each week he has been anticipating when it was going to be his tables turn and was pretty excited when it finally happened.

That leaves just Princess at home.Each morning she has to pack a backpack, too. If you're really lucky she will even help an older sibling pack there's as well and brings all sorts of items for them to eat for lunch. Much to her sisters avail she has taken a liking to some old cassette tapes (yes you read that right) that are filled with songs all about colors and shapes. Since this is the only thing our van will play, expect the radio, she insists on these tapes played over and over and over as we run errands and drive siblings places.

I get asked a lot how it is with just one at home. I am learning how to entertain a toddler again. I REALLY enjoy nap time. My house is quiet and I get a few hours to do something uninterrupted.

Every Other One

When our second daughter was 18 months old she fell while dancing in our living room and broke her arm.

Then, just before starting Kindergarten she fell while doing the monkey bars and broke her leg. It was pretty bad and she wasn't allowed to walk. She was thrilled to go to school in a wheelchair.

She then ended her Kindergarten year, once again in a cast. Broke it when she fell off a slide.

Our 4th daughter, when she was 16 months old, fell off a step stool and broke her arm.

I guess our 6th daughter felt like there was a pattern she couldn't mess up. Accidents always seem to happen at the most unexpected times and ways. We were at Bud Boy's soccer game. Tator and Princess were playing on the toys. After going down a slide Tator brought a very upset Princess to us. She stated that they went down a slide together and when they got off Princess started crying and wouldn't stand up.

We went the weekend with her unwilling to stand or walk. Sure enough, come Monday, after "taking pictures of her leg" it revealed a very slight crack on her left tibia. She is more than thrilled to tell people, I boke a leg and  a PINK! cast.

Right after the Dr. visit

 For the past week Princess has scooted or crawled around. This sure brought back memories of Jolly J scooting around the house for 6 weeks.

Most of the time she prefers to be carried. Pretty hard to refuse her request when she comes up and asks,   "I carry you" whenever she wants to be picked up.

Loves to carry a purse, too, wherever we go

Luckily, she is allowed to walk. After about a week she was willing to try and is now getting along pretty good.

Forever Mine

A few weeks ago we attended the Ogden Temple open house. This past weekend, all but the youngest two, were able to attend the re-dedication of this temple. In the session I attended, we were reminded what a remarkable thing it is to be able to dedicate a temple. The speaker commented that the church isn't building as many temples so this is a special experience for us to participate in. I needed this reminder for it seems lately that we have been privileged to attend a lot of temple dedications. I think I went into this dedication with a commonplace attitude in regards to the temple but left the dedication with a renewed sense of how special they are.

My husband and the four oldest girls went to the 1st session of the dedication. The girls then babysat and my husband was good to go again with me to the 2nd session. Upon returning home, we saw this surprise when we opened the door. A little treat after "our date" What a great bunch of kids I have!

I have been extremely busy lately. I have to constantly remind myself to enjoy this stage of life. Since time is going so fast and I have so many demands on my time I worry I'm not appreciating the good parts of life and I will regret it when my kids are gone. I worry I'm not taking enough time to talk with my kids, just be with them, laugh, be in the moment. Sometimes being a mother of 6 is frustrating and I worry that I let that attitude show through too much.

I have many fond memories of  past ages and stages. I also remember a lot of days that I wondered if they would ever end. How was I going to make it until nap time, let a lone bedtime? Now those days are gone. Hard to believe that stage of life, that seemed never ending, is over. I'm still just as busy and physically taxed, it's just in a different way.

I already feel like my kids are so grown up.  I just finished potty training our last child. Won't miss that process but how did she get to be a big girl?

I have started dropping my two elementary aged kids off at a different spot this year. It is the same spot I used to drop off my oldest for first grade. The last few mornings I have been  flooded with memories of her friends lining up outside the chain link fence to greet her each morning. I used to watch them interact for a few minutes before heading home.

My oldest is now a senior in high school. She is doing a photography internship where she comes home a couple days each week to work from home. This gives me a glimpse of what college life will be like. Seeing her occasionally throughout the day or maybe only once ever few days if she moves out.

During the re-dedication I heard Elder Holland speak of a time when they took their son through the temple to receive his own endowment. Sister Bonnie Oscarson  shared things she had learned while serving with her husband as temple president. I found myself reflecting and getting a little excited for what my life will bring. While I have fond memories of days gone by I'm looking forward to the new relationships I will have with my kids as adults. I look forward to growing old (well maybe not the old part) with my husband. Being one of those old couples I see out walking as I make 3-4 trips each morning getting my crew to various schools. I look forward to maybe serving in a calling together.

It was good to be reminded this weekend that no matter how much and how fast our relationships change that I was married in the temple and able to have my family with me eternally. That truly is one thing that makes temples special. I needed this reminder  to enjoy my family and have peace that they will always be mine.

Best of the Best

I know these two amazing people. You might know them by a different name, but to me they are mom and dad. And they are the Best of the Best!
My parents are the most amazing people in the world! I don't know what I'd do without them. I for sure wouldn't be where I am now without them.
I know that I can always talk to my parents and that they will always be there for me. I can turn to them any time and that means a lot to me. They have truly been their for me from day one, and that means everything.
My parents are so smart and dedicated. They can work through anything and I can always depend on them. They are my rock and my example. I look up to them in all I do.
My mom is the most gorgeous lady I know and she is so fun. I've loved being in young women's with her and having her there to help me always. She is so creative and always patient and willing to help. I love that!
My dad is truly amazing and of course, the most handsome man I know. :) He is extremely smart and easy to talk to. He is a wonderful example to me in all her does and I look up to him. I love him so much!
I'm so grateful for my parent and all that they do. I can never put into words just how amazing and wonderful they are and I love them beyond comprehension. Thank you mom and dad for being so amazing! I love you to forever and beyond!

Love, Karebear