Crafty Chicks

I have a new (to me) crafty blog for you to check out. so many cute ideas!!


They are also having a bunch of fun giveways. Check it out!

Prayer for the middle of pregnancy

Brooke has a very eloquent prayer for the end of pregnancy on her blog. I'm not as far along, but I thought I'd follow suit. Some of these are directly from her thoughts, some are mine. You can read her blog to see which are which because I'm too tired to differentiate.

I have 16 weeks left, so this is a prayer to help me survive the weeks to come.


Please bless me to find a comfortable sleep position that doesn't strain my back, worsen my congestion, or wake up my hubby.

Please help me to have something left that still fits that is not considered a mu mu.

Please let my house remain standing while I can hardly do anything to improve the appearance!

Please forgive me for yelling at my kids over stupid things. Thanks you for increasing my heart rate when I do to remind me to calm down.

Please forgive me for sneaking an extra donut every now and then. I'll try to do better.

Thank you for the hours I have spent in the rocking chair reading for relaxation.

Please make it so there is no reason for me to pick up anything off the floor, or get up off the floor for any reason.

(One of Brooke's that I wish I could use) Please forgive me for sneaking home from church and napping the second two hours while the kids and husband gain spiritual guidance.
Please forgive me for coveting Brooke's nap.

Bless me to drink more water and less diet coke.

Please help me to find a name for this child.

Finally, bless me to develop the nesting instinct so I can find the will to dig out what's left of the baby clothes, breast pump, and crib bedding.

amen.

Easter

Smitten

We had a great time at the Aloha Benefit Concert last night and it was even better knowing that the money we spent was going to a great cause!

The performers were all wonderful & it was fun to hear so many different people in one setting. On our way to the concert, the girls kept asking me if the performers would be outside after the show so we could meet them like they were after we saw our friend's play at the OBT (which will be its own post). I had no idea and told them as much.

On our way to the concert, we listened to Nancy Hanson's album "Drops in a Bucket." Again the girls wanted to know if they could meet the performers, especially Nancy.

Nancy & Peter Breinholt were the final performers of the evening and as soon as they were on stage, Aubrey kept asking if she could meet Nancy after the concert. I kept thinking "If you like her so much, be quiet and enjoy the music!!!!) Anyway...

Sure enough, at the end of the concert it was announced that the performers would be in the hall to sign autographs and sell CDs, portions of those proceeds also going to the families. A dream come true! We ran and got to the front of Nancy's line. Kat will be glad to know I bought my own copy of the CD, since we've had hers for years now. Nancy was super sweet and talked to the girls for a few minutes and signed our new cd. Now my girls are smitten! The whole way home, Aubrey asked when/if we could see Nancy again. I hope Nancy is ready for a 5 year old stalker- I mean groupie...

Aloha Benefit concert

Tonight at Jordan High School at 7pm there is a concert to benefit the family of Joe Massey. Joe was an amazing man and an incredible artist. He improved our high school with his amazing talents!

He passed away last month from health problems that started with his mission to the Philippines, leaving a young family.

The concert tonight includes great local artists like Peter Breinholt, Nancy Hanson, Jon Schmidt and many others. There is also a silent auction starting at 6 pm.

You can purchase tickets at the door- $10 for adults, $7 for kids 12 and under, $30 for a family pass. See joemassey.wordpress.com for more details.

I am doing it...

...my genealogy. And the reason why I am doing it is very clear to me!

Part of the reason I have been neglecting my blog lately is that I have been working on my family history when I have my computer out. The LDS church's site new.familysearch.org has made it so amazingly, miraculously easy to connect generations and get names ready to take to the temple!

My mom joined the Church after she and my dad were married and none of her family has joined, leaving us the opportunity to do lots of temple work. Using the new site, I have been able to work on my pedigree charts and print out the necessary paperwork to do temple work for my not-so distant ancestors. The very next time I went to the temple, I took the paper work to the temple and received 28 cards of work ready to be done.

Today, Tim and I are going to perform baptisms for the dead for 20 of these people and I am so excited! These people include my mom's grandparents, some of whom she knew in her childhood and some who passed away before she was born. I have heard stories about these people and wondered about them for years. Now to be able to do something for them that they can't do themselves is such a blessing!

If this makes no sense to you and you want to know what I'm talking about, I invite you to learn more about what I believe. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that families can be eternal if marriage is performed by someone with authority to seal (marry) you for time and eternity- not just for this life. To get to that point, one must make covenants and receive other ordinances first, including baptism. In the temple, the ordinances can be performed by proxy for those who did not have the opportunity to do so in this life. We also believe that each person has been given agency to choose for themselves in all things. As part of the eternal principle of agency, those for whom these ordinances are performed can accept or reject the work that has been done. I believe that we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father and He wants us all to return to Him after this life. I am trying to live worthy of that goal & want to help my ancestors to be able to do the same. If you have more questions, let me know. You can also go to lds.org, familysearch.org, or stop the missionaries and ask them.

I am so blessed to be able to go to the temple and participate in these ordinances for my family members & I feel especially close to them as I have researched them & learned more about their lives. I look forward to meeting them someday!

Grocery Smarts class

Back by popular demand, I am hosting a Grocery Smarts class on Thursday, March 4th at 7 pm. It will be at my church in the West Jordan/Kearns area. (Right by the Utah Olympic Oval.) It's not a church activity, it hold more people than my living room does. :)

Grocery Smarts is a free website that matches weekly grocery store sales with coupons from newspapers, mail, & printable online coupons. I have saved tons of money using this system and it is easy and not terribly time-consuming. There is no obligation and nothing to buy unless you want to get a newspaper subscription for the coupons. Even that is not necessary to save big $!

All are welcome & feel free to bring a friend. We will also be having treats of you'd like to bring something to share- totally optional.

Let me know if you are interested & I will send you the details.

To my friends- my cup runneth over

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is born. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

- James Boswell

Grocery trip

I haven't done a major shopping trip since the whole bed rest episode in December. I had no appetite & no energy to push around a full cart. Luckily, our food storage was well-stocked from previous shopping trips & buying things at the best prices when they were on sale.

I have noticed some things were running low, so I got brave & planned a big shopping trip to Smith's since my reward certificate for $26 came yesterday & they are having some great sales right now.

I used grocerysmarts.com & clipped my coupons and headed out. I won't bore you with the details, but here are my totals. My original total was $208. After my freshvalues card, coupons, discounts, etc my total was $87.48, plus I earned a 15 cent fuel reward & 500 points toward my next reward certificate!

This was for 67 items, including two bottles of Tide, dishwasher detergent, Solo plastic cups & bowls, meat, produce, enough Goldfish crackers to get us to St. George and back, a birthday gift for a nephew, 3 tubes of Colgate & much more.
Added bonus: I was at Smith's Marketplace in West Jordan, so I got a free hour of child care for Aubrey & Lydia.

It took a little effort, but it was so worth it!

After all that, we went to Harmon's for PTA day. The girls played the games & got ice cream, popcorn, cotton candy, & stickers. I also bought some cereal out of obligation for the small donation that will go to the school. I'm not shopping again for a long time!

Sleep, where for art thou?

I'm going to complain for a minute here. Shocking, I know.

Over the weekend I didn't sleep very well & I was exhausted. Monday night I took a whole Unisom and was semi-comatose for a good 12 hours. Next time, a half will suffice.

Last night I was looking forward to a normal night's sleep. Why do I even try?

12:00 A travel alarm clock the kids pretend is a flip phone was beeping. I was the only one who woke up and had to dig for it in their room in the dark. It took me probably half an hour to go back to sleep.

2:30 Aubrey woke up with a bad dream. Rather than just come into our room, she laid in her bed yelling for Daddy.

3:00 Lydia started crying in her sleep. Since Tim was holding Aubrey, I went to check on her. She was on the floor all tangled in her blankets. I put her back in her bed and went back to mine.

3:37 A phone beeped. I thought it was Tim's saying he had a new text. I was ticked! Turns out it was my piece of crap phone alerting me to a "new" voice mail. It was left January 21st. Thanks for the notice!

Now I was wide awake! I watched the first half of the Princess Bride and decided that wasn't helping me fall back to sleep. I switched over to a PBS special about the Shakers and finally went back to sleep around 5:00.

Some people hate mornings. I hate nights.