Bits and Pieces

Did you know that the reason people get sick more often in the winter is because people spend more time inside, together and in close quarters with the windows shut. It's like a breeding ground for disease.

Did you also know that Cupcakes originally called for a cup of each ingredient and that's how it got it's name originally. It wasn't because they are mini cakes.

Here's a brain teaser for you: A rich old lady died and left a precious diamond to her family, but first they had to find it. She gave them one clue: "it is inside a cylinder surrounded by a thousand squares." Where did she hide it?

Why do we say "slept like a baby" when babies wake up every hour and a half?
Why do we yell "heads up" when we should be yelling "heads down"?
How do you throw a garbage can away?
How can something be both "new" and "improved"?
How did the "keep off the grass" sign get there in the first place?

Looney Laws:
It's against the law to slap a man on the back in Georgia

A train conductor in Illinois may not collect fares without wearing his conductor hat

If you're in a meat market in L.A., do not poke the turkey to see how tender it is

Minnesota forbids women from impersonating Santa Claus.

Unrestrained giggling on the street is illegal in Helena, Montana

Newark, New Jersey forbids the sale of ice after 6pm without a prescription

In South Foster, Rhode Island, any dentist that extracts the wrong tooth must have a similar tooth pulled by the village blacksmith

I thought these were pretty funny so I wanted to share them. More will come in later posts.

Do you ever wonder

Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you had chosen a different path or made different choices? I do. I don't regret my choices in life and I am grateful for the things I have learned along the way but when I look back at my life, I wonder why I thought certain things were important at that time in my life. Or I wonder what I could have done differently to make me love my husband more easily, sooner. I knew I always loved him but it hasn't been until this last year that I have realized just how much and how deeply I love him. Why didn't I feel that way before? Was I so hard hearted that I couldn't see what was right in front of me? Or why did I put my foot in my mouth when expressing my feelings to someone recently and now the relationship isn't the same. Why couldn't I have just kept my big mouth shut? Why couldn't and can't I be more forgiving? Why do I feel so inadequate to do anything in my life right now? Actually to be blunt, I feel worthless and under -appreciated. Why is that? I feel so vulnerable and doubtful of things. I use to be sure of a lot of things but now, a lot of those things that I use to be sure about, I feel unsure about. Here's what I know for sure: That Matt and Tanner love me totally and completely unconditionally, that tomorrow is a new day, that I have the most amazing, wonderful friends I could ask for. I don't have a ton of those best friends that you just want to be with all the time and hang out but the ones I do have, I cherish completely. I know that tomorrow I'm doing laundry. I just got this new amazing smelling laundry detergent and I love it! Seriously, who actually can say that they LOVE the smell of their laundry detergent. It's just detergent right? Wrong! If a detergent smells yucky or unpleasant, I don't like to use it. It doesn't make me actually want to and look forward to doing laundry.
I also know that I have a testimony of the gospel. It's much easier to live the gospel than not to. If you've ever been off the right path and get back on the right one, it's easier to stay on the right one because you never want to go back to the "dark" side.
I just feel like I'm being raked over the coals or something right now. Like I'm on this emotional roller coaster. I don't think I've cried so easily since Tanner was born and in the Hospital. And I really don't like to cry. I don't mind the puffy eyed look....whatever. But it physically hurts my eyes to cry. It's like I'm allergic to my own tears, and let's face it, who's ever heard of being allergic to their own tears?
Maybe I feel like this because I haven't really been focusing on any certain goals. The only one I can think of that I've really focused on, is reading my scriptures. I'm totally bad a praying (personally. We are super good at family and companion prayer), which is so odd for me because I know (just like staying on the right path) it's much easier than not praying. I'm just not doing all the things I should be and it's really affecting me lately.
Life is just hard right now and I believe it will be worth it at the end of the year when I look back and see where I was a year ago.
When I look back at where I was a year ago right now, we've come a long way. We had just moved to Raymond and we had gone back to Calgary for Christmas and we were getting ready to come back to Raymond, with Tanner for the first time, and unpack. I was so nervous and excited at the same time about everything. Being so far away from my family for the first time (okay, well I lived in B.C. for a summer with the family that I nannied for but I took the bus home every other weekend for the weekend, so that doesn't really count), being so far from the hospital and all of Tanner's doctors. I was most worried about that because I thought we wouldn't be able to see them anymore but thank goodness, we can. Worried about if Tanner would still know his relatives who he use to see twice a week at least. Worried about what the family I nannied for was going to do for child care. Worried that Matt wouldn't find a job. Excited for making new friends. Excited for being on our own. Excited for having our own place that we didn't have to share (even though I LOVED sharing a house with Erica) or worry about music being up too loud in an apartment. Excited to have a garden and our own yard. Excited to be able to walk everywhere without feeling nervous or afraid. Excited for that small town feeling. Excited to actually get to know our neighbours.
I have had a wonderful year. Amazing, in fact. My life, up until about a month ago, was, I would say, perfect. But now, it's not so perfect. I wouldn't call it a disaster or a failure, but just trying and unsure. Hard, is a better word. I know for sure, without a doubt that this is exactly where me and my family is suppose to be. Right here, in Raymond. I know that for sure. And honestly, you couldn't pay me enough money to move back to Calgary. I wouldn't do it for all the money in the world. I know I've said that before, but I still feel that way. The city is not a good place to raise a family, in my opinion. I've posted about this before, so I won't repeat... at least not for now.
It's hard to believe that we have already been here a year! It doesn't seem that long ago that we were pulling our super huge semi truck load of crap onto the driveway and unloading it all. It wasn't really a semi truck but it was the largest moving truck you can get and it was packed top to bottom, back to front full of stuff. We had to fill our car and the front of the truck to get all our stuff down here. That was crazy! I've gone through some of the stuff and got rid of some of it, but you know how it is, for however much you throw out or get rid of, you accumulate about 2x as much.
Well, I guess that's it for now. Happy New Year and I hope everyone stays safe.

A little bit of this and that

I just got off work (yes, I know it's 1am) and I can't sleep. I have things to say but they are all kind of jumbled up and random. First, Christmas. We had a great Christmas. It was actually really nice not to have the big to do with everyone and just have it small and intimate. My family tends to be the type of family that overspends every Christmas, even though everyone promises to stick to budgets and we limit the dollar amount on how much you can get your person. It never sticks. This year Matt and I spent a total of about $25-30 dollars on gifts. We, okay I, made 90% of the gifts I gave because we couldn't afford to buy anything much. I think it helped us appreciate more the wonderful things we received from people because we know it was in the true spirit of giving and not because people had to get us something. The one thing I really wanted, okay 2 things, were a queen size duvet and lots of food storage. I got some food storage and I got my duvet. I didn't want that much this year. Which is kind of weird for me. I usually have a list of about 10-15 things so people have a choice. It's so hard to buy for someone when they only have a few things on their list. And that was me this year. I think I had 5 or 6 things. As I get older, I realize, I don't really want "things". I want food storage and money for food storage. Things are not that important to me anymore. There are things that I'd like to have but they are not what's important to me. Books are also something that I really enjoy. Especially Church books. I want to know everything there is to know. I am just not as excited about getting things that clutter my place even more. It is so hard to find places for all the stuff that I have. It may sound like I'm ungrateful, but I am definitely not ungrateful. I'm very grateful, in fact, for everything that I got. We had a feast of food for about 4 days. On Friday, we had this Jerusalem dinner. We had fish, pita bread with different cream cheese spreads, grapes, oranges, cheese and "wine" (which was actually just grape juice). And we had it by candle light. It was nice. Then on Sunday we had a big turkey dinner. As well as on Monday at my Aunt's house. Then on Christmas, I did a roast with Thyme and fresh parsley with baked potatoes and all the toppings and a field salad with this yummy raspberry/honey vinegarette. It was a lot of food for the 4 days. Plus we had people coming constantly to our door with treats. I have treats for a whole year almost. It's insane! Maybe next year I'll tell people we are allergic to chocolate. It's just so much for just 3 of us to eat.

I'm already thinking about new year resolutions. I don't have a lot because I feel like I really want to focus on a couple of certain ones. I'm looking forward to working on the ones that I have.

Tanner has really enjoyed this time off. He won't be going to school that much in January because of Allergy testing and then Surgery. That's okay by me. I need to have the time with him. He is doing really well and actually likes when I go to work. I think he gets away more with Daddy.

Work is good. For Matt and I, both. I'd like to do more card making and try to sell them. Maybe I'll find a place in the new year that will sell them.

4 of my friends have announced that they are pregnant and due the same month. So that's exciting for them.

So, life is pretty busy and that's good. I think that's it for now.

Warning Labels

When I was at my Sister and Brother in laws this last week for Tanner's appointments (which were good for me but not so fun for Tanner, I'll explain later), I was reading this "bathroom" reader that they have. It's basically a book about random things and lists. One of them that I came across was a Warning Label page.

On a can of insect spray: "Harmful to bees."

On a life-saving device: "this is not a life saving device"

On children's cough syrup: "Do not drive or operate machinery"

On a motorcycle mirror: "Objects in mirror are actually behind you"

On garden furniture: "Keep away from damp and sunlight"

On a box of sleeping pills: "May cause drowsiness"

On a milk bottle: "After opening, keep upright"

On a bag of peanuts: "This product contains nuts"

On a water heater: "If building which heater resides is on fire, do not go into building"

On a mattress: "Do not attempt to swallow" (WHAT!!!! This one is the funniest of them all)

On a T.V. remote: "Not dishwasher safe"

On a garden hose : "May cause cancer in California"

On an iron: "Never iron clothes on the body"

On a graduation gown: "Do not wash or dry clean"

On a video came console: "Do not attempt to stick head inside deck, which may result in injury"

On a bottle of aspirin: "Do not take if allergic to aspirin"

On a chainsaw: "Do not attempt to stop chain with hands or genitals"

On a birthday card: "Not suitable of children aged 36 months or less

On a wristwatch: "This is not underwear. Do not put in pants"

On a hammer: "Do not use to strike any solid object"

On a curling iron: "For external use only"

This is a laugh for me to read these again. Who thinks of these things.

So about Tanner...we went to speech and he was doing good for about 10 minutes. Then he was kind of fooling around, pushing himself up against the table and his arms buckled and he fell. I caught him but I didn't notice until later that he had scraped his back down the chair when he fell. So he was crying and crying and he fell asleep. It's the first time in all the times of speech that he's done that. So Allison and I discussed his therapy and how I felt about things etc, etc. I'm at the point now where I'm doubting that putting him in the PUF program was the best decision for him. Even though I know it's good for him socially and probably even mentally, he has come home with negative behaviour problems such as hitting and screaming. His hitting we have got to a minimum but his screaming and yelling is out of control right now. I know he gets it from the PUF program because a lot of the kids in his class do the same things. That's the reason they are there. Plus I am a little concerned with his speech because there is no way in my mind that he is getting sufficient amount of one on one speech therapy. His class is 75 minutes and there are 5 other kids in his class as well. So he's most likely getting only about 10-15 minutes one on one time and that, in my eyes, is not enough. He gets at least 40 minutes with Allison at ACH and I could see that he was improving a lot more with that. I am partly to blame because I haven't been working with him at home as much as I was when we were in Calgary. I have resolved to be a little more strict in working with him and being more diligent about it.
I also feel like I'm being pulled in several different directions where his speech is concerned. Plus we haven't been followed up by with the O.T.. I know she has come to the school once but to me, I feel like if they are saying that he has a moderate delay, he needs more consistent O.T. So when the new year comes around, I am going to have a meeting with the program leaders to find out what to do.
I was also asked to watch carefully if Tanner gets headaches. This from his Neurosurgeon and Plastic Surgeon. He hasn't complained before so I'm not anticipating a huge change but they asked me to be more aware of it because it most likely means that there is tightening of things in his head and that means surgery. I'm am positively hopeful and sure that things with his head will be fine. If he needs surgery, then we'll do it. I've done it before and I can do it again. So that's the story with Tanner.
While we were up in Calgary, our car had it's first official vehicle accident. My sister was backing out of her driveway and hit our car. There was barely any damage and I drove it around the city and back home the next day without incident. I know my sister felt bad but it was fine. We've had the car for 5 years and we have had minor bumps and scrapes but no official vehicle to vehicle accident. So that was "exciting".
Well, I think that's it for now. I'll be back in a few days with more "bathroom" randomness.

My Husband

I know, Sarah, this was titled "My Man" but I decided to re-name it.

What is your Husbands name: If you don't know by know, then you don't know me very well. It's Matthew but he usually goes by Matt.

How long have you been married: It will be 8 years on January 28th/08

How long did you date before you were married: We dated a month before we knew we were getting married. But from the time we dated to the time we got married was just a couple weeks short of 5 months.

Who eats more: Matt does. No questions asked.

Who said I love you first: Me

Who is taller: Matt

Who sings better: Me

Who is smarter: Like Sarah and her husband, Matt and I are smarter at different things. I'm WAY smarter in the common sense stuff...lol. But Matt is really good at math (mmm..maybe Matt and Todd should get together sometime and have a math battle or something), and yard work

Who does the laundry: Me, but Matt does know how to do it as well

Who does the dishes: We take turns. We don't have a "real" dishwasher

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed: We don't have left or right sides of the bed that we choose. It goes like this: I always sleep closest to the door and Matt sleeps on the inside (if that makes sense). So it depends on where the bed is in the room.

Who pays the bills: Matt. I used to but when I had Tanner, I didn't want the additional stress of doing it while we were in the hospital so I taught Matt how to do it before Tanner was born

Who drives when you're together: Matt only drives our car on Sunday's. Any other time, I drive.

Who is more stubborn: I use to think I was the most stubborn but now that Matt "fights" back, I have learned that he can be pretty stubborn too. But overall, I'm more stubborn.

Who's parents do you see the most: My family, hands down.

Who proposed: Matt did on Halloween

Who is more sensitive: I'm more emotionally sensitive and Matt is more socially sensitive

Who has more friends: Me

Who wears the pants in the family: I really try to let Matt, but sometimes I have to take over in order for things to get done

Where did you meet your husband: At a break the fast potluck after Church

Where was your first Date: To a fireside and then to play games at my house

Where was your first kiss: Either on his front steps or in the car (I can't quite remember)

Where did you get engaged: At his Mom's house in her living room with her and Matt's brother there (not really what I expected)

Where did you get married: Cardston, Alberta Temple

Where was your honeymoon: In Alabama a year after we got married. We couldn't afford to go right away.

Now I tag Juliette, Bobbi-Jo, Jen E, Christal, and Christine M

Be thou learned

Today I have realized that I am in a very hard learning curve in my life. It is not easy at all and I feel and know that I am being tested and humbled greatly right now and it is so very hard at this moment in my life. The lessons that I am learning right now are as follows:

1. To be patient. Especially when it comes to being patient with the Lord. I am having a super hard time with that right now

2. That I need to let go. I need to let go of feeling like I'm burdening people if I ask them for service, especially when they offer that service...like babysitting Tanner when I need to go to work. This has been an especially hard thing for me these last 2 weeks since I've had to be working 4-5 nights a week and Matt isn't always home when I need him to be. I just always worry that I am infringing on other peoples lives when I have to leave him somewhere for an hour...or the one night I had to leave him for my whole 4.5 hour shift until closing at 12. Thank goodness for a wonderful, understanding, caring friend who saved my life at that moment. I need to stop feeling so guilty.

3. I'm learning that feeling heartache for something that is a blessing to someone else, still doesn't get me the thing that I wish I had so badly.

4. What I thought once would be a sensitive subject, isn't. I realize that I was worried about Tanner being accepted into a normal life by other people but he really is. People genuinely think that he is a cute boy. I use to think people just said that so they didn't hurt my feelings but I realize that people truly mean it when they say that he is cute or adorable.

5. Whoever said being a mother is equal to having 2 full time jobs was wrong! Being a mother is easier right now that having to work part time. It is EXHAUSTING! Fun, but very tiring. I guess I was blessed to have such a great, independant child. Don't get the wrong idea, I do stuff with him and play with him and take him places but if I need to have a quick 30 minute nap, he plays on his own for that little bit of time. Quite often when we are watching a movie, I'll fall asleep for half of it and then my body always seems to know when it's the end because I always wake up at the end. Weird. I know, I'm such a slacker...napping. I guess that's a blessing that comes with having an only child.

Those are the things that are at the forefront of my life right now. It's a lot for me. Plus there is always things that happen within a family, plus it's the holidays. So that's about it for me right now. I'm just ho humming along right now.

Well, I should go to bed now.

Part 3 of Holiday Randomness

Here are some more ideas for Christmas:

-Have a Santa's workshop day. Set aside a day at the beginning of December and sift through all the toys and gather up the ones in good condition but haven't been played with for a long time. Wash them with soap and water and take them to good will or a local shelter.

-Personal Ornaments. Buy your children an ornament signifying what they had an interest in for that year. They can take them with them when they leave home.

-Christmas Eve Books. Choose a special book that perhaps focuses on a hobby, tells a story you want them to experience, or a specific book they want. Write a note in it and on Christmas eve, let them open up the book.

-Three gifts. Give only Three gifts to each of your children to represent the three gifts the wise men brought the savior. It can cut down on your expenses and keep the true meaning of Christmas in your Children's minds.

-St.Nicholas Night. This is a German tradition where you gather on Dec 7 and leave your shoes outside the front door. Sometime during the dinner, the shoes are magically filled and everyone gets a treat.

-spend the money you would on presents on a trip to take with your family.

-Invite people over to sing Christmas Carols and have treats. This one is a great one for empty nesters.

**ALSO***please don't forget to leave a comment in the comment section of my blog if you have ever read my blog (if you haven't already) for my own personal Christmas wish. If you just let me know how you came across my blog, I would really appreciate that. Thank you.

Holiday Randomness Part 2

I've kept Tanner home today from school because he has a cold...AGAIN! This boy seems to always have a cold lately. Oh well. So as he's resting, watching a movie I thought I'd post some more holiday randomness. I just have to say, though, that I attended our ward Christmas party this weekend and it was by far, the best Christmas Party I have ever attended. It was amazing!
Anyways, back to the randomness;

**DISCLAIMER** these are NOT my ideas, they all come from the magazine LDS Living

Christmas Charities (I didn't know they had such things)

Christmas Spirit Foundation
christmasspiritfoundation.org
Help needy families in the U.S. during the holiday season

Holiday Project
holiday-project.org
Brighten the days of people confined to nursing homes, hospitals, and other institutions

My Two Front Teeth
mytwofrontteeth.org
This organization offers personalized online gift giving experiences to aid underprivileged children who get to choose their one holiday wish

Toys for Tots
toysfortots.org
Donate a new toy or give a donation to help the Marines make a merry Christmas for a needy child in your community

Christmas Card Aid
cardaid.co.uk/catalog
Purchase your Christmas cards here and one hundred percent of the profits will be donated to charity.

Ideas for Christmas:

-take goodies to the firefighters at the local fire station.
-Have a "Jerusalem Dinner". Dress up in simple biblical costumes, play music from the Messiah and eat simple biblical foods by candlelight-foods like fish, pita bread, hummus, cheeses, grapes oranges and grape juice. Do this on Christmas Eve so that your children think about the Savior instead of Santa on Christmas eve.
-Do a Christmas around the world. Explore the Christmas traditions of a different country. Throughout the season, read about what families in that country do to worship the Savior, who the "magical gift giver" was and what he did, how the families decorate for the season and how the celebrate New Year's. Experiment with recipes from that culture, make decorations to reflect what you've learned (which can sometimes mean no Christmas Tree) as well.
-Sleep under the tree (we've done this one ourselves)

So that's all I will give you for now. There are more, so stay posted and I'll give you more. While you're waiting, enjoy the holiday's.

Holiday Randomness

I subscribe to this magazine called "LDS Living" and the new one just came in the mail last week. I LOVE LOVE this magazine. It has really great ideas and great information. The current one has a lot of holiday stuff in it (well, Duh!) and I thought I'd share some if it with you.

There are several towns with 'Christmas' type names.
-north pole, alaska
-santa claus, indiana
-santa claus, georgia
-noel, missouri
-roudolph, wisconsin
-dasher, georgia
-snowflake, arizona (now there's an oxymoron)
-holly springs, mississippi
-mt.holly, north carolina

In a book titled "The Merry Book of Christmas" the author, Larry Wilde, says "Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of your children, they are all 30ft tall."

Facts and Figures
Candy

24 pounds of candy the average American consumes each year
55% of candy are bought on impulse buys
$84 is the amount the average American spends on Candy annually
100 punds of chocolate are consumed every second in the U.S.
1896 is the year the tootsie roll was invented
20 million Hershey kisses are produced daily

My Christmas wish

So I have been tagged again by Christal. I have to write 6 things that people don't know about me, so here goes nothing...lol

1. I LOVE maple flavored Mini-Wheats. They are my favorite. I also love the brown sugar ones. They are my second favorite kind.

2. I am, right now, completley stressed out with life. I feel burnt out and over stretched

3. I get to have an early Christmas with my family in Calgary on the 18th. I am excited about that.

4. I can't find our Christmas Tree stand. I have the tree but can't find the stand for it so we might not be able to put up a tree this year. Which is really sad because I spent about 3 months making a beautiful tree skirt for our tree. I'm totally bummed out at the thought that I might not get to display it this year.

5. My theme for Christmas is snowmen. I don't really like the whole Santa Claus thing and I am not going to encourage Tanner and future children to believe in Santa. I'm not going to discourage him but I'm not going to encourage it. I personally believe that it is dishonest to force your kids to believe in something that isn't even real. I will tell him the story of St.Nicholas but if he doesn't want to believe in it, I am not going to tell him he has to. I don't believe in lying to your kids. Snowmen are a real part of winter. I thought about doing a Nativity theme but I wanted to do something a little funner for when our kids were little. Plus, they didn't have a lot of Nativity things when I startred looking. Tanner knows about the Nativity and he knows the story of the Savior's birth.

6. This one isn't so much about me but it affects me...Tanner is having surgery in January. This one will be the last one for about 5 or 6 years. I am SO happy to have been able to get to this stage.

Now, for my Christmas wish. I would love for all of you who read (or ever have read) my blog to let me know that you read it. Weather you have ever commented or not, I would love to hear from those who read this. Just a simple Hi in the comments would be awesome. If I don't know you personally, tell me how you came across my blog.That is my Christmas wish this year. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and for commenting when you do.

That's it for now.