I'm doing great

Hi. The weekend is over and the whole thing was fine. Saturday day and night was the worst and it really was o.k. I decided I rather enjoy Loratab! The haze Loratab put me in made me quite o.k. with the pain. Strange, but good. Anyhow, I'm starting to feel normal again and I'm ready to get back to my life feeling good. Thanks everyone for your concern!

Tips for pumping gas, sounds boring, but read it!

Nephi was forwarded this in an e-mail. It is actually very interesting. I wish I'd read this a long time ago....

I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon..

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money. One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

Raking snow

I am going crazy inside the house and the kids are going crazy thus driving me crazy. :) It is slowly getting less cold and the snow is beginning to melt. In some places that get a lot of sun it is melting really well. We've been dreaming all winter about the phantom trampoline we've planned to get this summer. One of the things that I loved about our backyard in the summer I don't love in the winter. The area I live in is forested and I've got a ton of shade in the backyard. In the summer it makes for an awesome woodsy backyard but now that it's spring I've got 2 feet of snow that's not going anywhere fast. I am bound and determined that I'm going to have an area of grass to put a trampoline up so I rake the snow every day on to the dry spots under the evergreens. Nephi thinks I'm a little pathetic but I don't care! I ordered a trampoline that will be here in a week and by golly, I'm going to have a 14 foot area of grass if it kills me! Of course, If I successfully bring spring to that 14 foot area it still may be too cold most of the time for jumping. hmm....coats.

Darn it.

Well, I officially had a miscarriage. There was no heart beat at the 8 week ultrasound (also my first dr visit) so they made me wait out two weeks to come back for a final decision. It was no better at 10 weeks (yesterday) so now I get to go through an aborting process. They gave me two shots in my backside of some thick stuff -ow, and this weekend I have to take some other medicine that will cause heavy cramping and force it all to bleed out. Sorry, too much info, but that was the cleaned up version! :) I am doing fine. After the 8 week appt I could see the writing on the wall so I mourned my disappointment then. At this point I am past that and can not wait to get this over with. I am sick of feeling nausiated and tired for nothing. I was so ready for a baby but after this I need a break. I am going to enjoy the summer. I'm going to run, jump on the trampoline, paint the house some more, just have a good summer.
So anyhow, this weekend is the last hurdle to get through I guess. I have pain medications ready to go and I plan to max those out. Hopefully I will be able to report that it was no big deal! You don't know how bad I hope to report that.....

Laci's joy school

Laci's joy school class.

The Entrepeneur of the Family

Well, for some reason Brigham got it in his head today that he needed to have a lemonade stand to make some money. It was 28 degrees. Enough said. I could see that once again he wasn't going to shake the idea (I will have to post the pictures of when he sold "guys" (Action figures) last fall in the rain.) So I tried to help him think of something he could, ahem, sell, for very cheap and still get his fill of sales. By the way, he decided to sell door to door to the two neighbors that we're friends with and we know enjoy the kids. Brigham ended up cutting play doh with cookie cutters and arranging them in his tray. I figured if he sold them for 10 cents the neighbors would find the humor in them and enjoy the visit from the kids. Above is the "before" picture as he is ready to head out the door. Laci went with him, I wanted to take a picture of them heading towards the neighbors with their box but my camera died, of course. As you can see in the "after" picture they did quite well! Both neighbors bought some and they made a total of $4.oo! I was a little embarrassed because I had hoped they would just scrounge some change for the kids at the most, but they are always generous. The kids came dancing home. It is important to point out that both of these neighbors have no young children and there are no other children on my street, thus the tendency to be especially generous.

Anyhow, I have to admit it is these funny little experiences that make being a mom so fun. I think I get to live a little vicariously through them too. I would've loved selling stuff to people who always overpay me!

cool new feature...

A note to fellow my bloggers..... did you notice the map I have on the right side of my page? It is cool! I can click on the map and it will show me a list of all the places that my blog has been viewed. It's fun to figure out who I know in the particular towns/cities and also fun to see some of the completely random places people are. I mean, seriously, who do I know in Germany? If you want to add one to your blog then just click on the link and you can easily add one to yours.

Laci's new cut!

A few days before this, she decided that she wanted a haircut. She was very specific that she wanted it short, "not bald", but short. I couldn't believe it because she's been so protective of her "long princess hair" for so long. But she clearly knew what she wanted. She wanted hair just like mine. I thought it was really sweet but I was really worried that she'd regret it two days later. I took to her a salon and I was so proud of her she got right up in the chair and said she wanted a haircut like "my mom" and she pointed straight at me to make no mistake. The poor stylist though, Laci scrunched her shoulders up the whole time and was WIGGLING a lot. Thankfully the stylist was a sweet girl who could roll with it. The cuts a little choppy compared to my intricate version (different stylist) but considering the work conditions I thought it was fine. Anyhow, Laci still loves her cut 3 days later and has absolutely no regrets. I still stare at her when she's not looking. I just can't believe it.

Mesquite Slide show

Happy Birthday to me!

Yup, it's my birthday. 31 years old. I would have preferred to stay at 29 forever. That was my perfect age. I was at the height of my twenties. Mature and young all at the same time.... Well, at least early thirties aren't so bad are they?! Sorry to all of you much older, I know that I sound ridiculous. But I'll bet everyone can relate to some degree.
So today for my birthday I did a lot and nothing all at the same time. Brigham and Laci both had school at the same time. I managed to squander all of that free time by chasing ALL over town running pointless errands. oh yeah, I took myself to lunch at Bajio with mom's birthday money. Thanks mom. In the morning I had arranged for the kids to play at friends' homes after school so I could hang out at home by myself and read or do WHATEVER I want. Well, I started reading, fell asleep, woke up twenty minutes later thinking I'd been asleep for hours, called Marta, took some laundry out of the dryer before they wrinkled, cleaned up my kitchen quickly so Nephi wouldn't think I was a slob, and my time was up! I had to go pick up the kids! Dang, that didn't feel like a very long break. oh well. Tomorrow we are going out with friends, Kim and Matt to Chilis. That will be fun. Happy Birthday to me....

By the way, I had a thought about holidays and birthdays in general.... Does anybody else always feel let down on holidays even just a little? I've always had this false notion that birthdays and I suppose any holiday should feel magical or special to some degree. That the world around me should be "electric" because it's a holiday. It should be a day full of happiness, fullfilment, good will, excitement, and of course they always feel incredibly ordinary even mundane at times. I've come to the conclusion, mostly from some of the books I've read that the only way you can come close to the laundry list of expectations is if you are extremely wealthy, maybe even powerful, and you have people beconing to your every whim, creating a magical experience (that was most likely over the top and expensive). I've been reading The Other Boleyn Girl and it is interesting how there were always a LOT of people behind the scenes creating perfect magical experience for the royalty that were anything but reality.... anyways, I'm just rambling on...... :)

ESCAPE TO MESQUITE - playing at the river

Well, I had to get out of Idaho for awhile. I woke up Friday morning, the weather looked good and decided to take the kids and head to Mesquite. The kids were so excited and more than willing to jump in the car for the long ride. Nephi had to stay behind to work. I was nervous about driving the whole way myself but I was willing to try it.
At about 4pm we hit the road. We stayed at my Aunt Suzanne's in Orem for the night, and then drove 4 more hours on to Mesquite in the morning. An 8 hour drive and the kids were great! The roads were clear and there was barely a cloud in the sky. It couldn't have been much better. In these pictures we are playing at the river after geo-caching (look at next set of pics). It was so fun to enjoy WARM sunshine and dirt. Dirt never looks as nice as it does until you're coming from Idaho in the middle of winter. John also took the kids on a little ride in the back of the truck. All of the kids loved it but seeing Laci squeal with the warm wind blowing through her hair I had to ask John to take them on a longer ride. I jumped in the back to police the situation and John took us on dirt roads. They enjoyed it so it was worth getting bumped around.

Geo-Caching in the desert

Before playing in the river John took us geo-caching. I had never even heard of it before but it's pretty cool. People literally all over the world hide little containers with miscellaneous things in them, mostly junk I figured out. On the internet you can find out their general location and get their gps coordinates. Then you type the coordinates into your GPS tracker and you go find it! The kids thought it was pretty fun. Like treasure hunting. They all got some little trinkets they liked. Laci got a mardi gras type necklace at one stop and Brigham took an animal figure at another. We were out in the desert and we found 3 within walking distance of each other! You're supposed to take something and replace it with something that you've brought. Many of them have a notebook inside that you sign and date so the person who originally placed it can see how much "action" they're getting. John showed me online that there are even geo-caches hidden within a block of my house in Idaho Falls! Wierd! I had no idea. He says that anybody could get online and find some not far from where they live. Apparently this is a huge thing and I had no idea.

Laci and Brigham were both stuck by cactus so they got a genuine desert experience.

I will have more pictures of our trip coming soon! Possibly not until I get back to Idaho Falls at the end of the week.

Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines was fun this year. It really is such an overrated holiday, purely commercial, but I love it. I've always loved it and I probably always will. It has nothing to do with romance for me. I just love the whole commercialization. When everything's covered in red and pink hearts in the stores, I'm happy. I always have to bake Valentine's treats too. I spend as much time contemplating this as much as I do at Christmas.
For my primary class on Sunday I made HOMEMADE cupcakes with HOMEMADE frosting covered in what else, red and pink heart sprinkles. Dude, I NEVER make homemade cake and frosting. I even had a special valentines cupcake box that I've literally been saving for 3 years for "just the right moment". I realized this year that I'd better just use it. It was effective though, my (12 yr olds) primary class thought they were very exciting coming out of that box.

Today is Valentine's Day and I wrestled all morning whether I was really going to go through all the trouble to make cut out frosted sugar cookies. I was tired just thinking about it. (By the way, Laci and I helped at Brigham's class party today where we also ate giant frosted sugar cookies!)
I had to do it. I knew it just wouldn't be Valentine's Day without my own. Of course we couldn't eat all of them so I made plates up for our neighbors across the street that plow my driveway all winter and a particular family in our ward. I'm too shy to actually deliver them though so I make Brigham do it for me. He complains the whole time but the dad of that particular family was excited to get the cookies and I could tell it perked brigham up. While Brigham was feeling good about it still I made sure to give a teaching moment on service. He didn't say "I KNOW mom, you don't always need to me that" (That's a common reply I get). So I think he was feeling the simple joy of service for a moment.
Anyways, had a good day. It ended with Brigham and I at his gymnastics class (Laci was home with Nephi). He did his thing while I sat for the first time all day and read a book, stared into space, whatever. It was good.

Learning piano online

I am learning the piano! I took piano lessons as a kid and basically hated it. One of the parts I really hated was having to learn to read music. BOOORING. And I wasn't very good at it. I am now learning how to play by ear! Believe it or not, those of you I already told will believe it, I am learning from pianomagic.com! Online lessons! Who would've thought it was possible! I started in the first of January and I can already play many nice simple tunes with left hand accompaniment. In fact I am quickly becoming proficient at some pretty "fancy" left hand decoration. I have passed up in a month of online lessons what I did not even achieve in at least a year of traditional lessons. And I'm having FUN!

Okay, so I think I might have the hang of this now. This is going to open up a whole new world to me..... :) By the way, I spent a lot of time on the phone with Dell tonight, so I was literally talking to Harrish in India to teach me how to work this stinking Windows Vista Program that I regret ever getting. Stick with XP! I am literally have to learn how to use a computer again in a lot of ways.

Anyways, when I first got my camera at Christmas I had to take a ton of little video clips to try it out and also because the kids became obsessed with filming themselves. The two below are of Brigham telling a little about himself. Of course he mostly talked about toys and grandma ( I don't know which grandma, I figure they're both interchangeably great so I didn't ask).

This clip of Laci is of her describing how her and Brigham are growing. It is cute. Especially when she stops to take a candy break and then changes her mind to keep going. She is always funny. I'd heard Brigham and Laci discuss this whole growing up thing a lot so I decided to get Laci to demonstrate it on film.

This is purely a nerve racking test to see if I can get video to work. It is uploading as I'm typing and I'm sweating over it. Since all grandparents live out of town this is so important to me that I figure it out and this is the closest I've ever gotten........Hey! It worked!!!!!! I don't even know what this clip is! ha ha! I can take video on my camera, my camcorder seems to have died anyway so we'll see how this goes. I'm going to post this now and test the video.

Going Public for awhile....

I decided to make my blog public for a while. If you're visiting and especially if you're an old friend please comment in one of my posts and leave me your e-mail so I can invite you to my blog when I go private again in the future. Thanks! Lillian

A visit from Marta

Marta flew to Idaho Falls to visit this last week. It was so great to have her here. This has been one long winter and I was ready to have some fun! We did have a great time! We shopped, hung out, cooked, watched Christian Bale movies, and tried cross country skiing out. It's been 6 years since I first tried it and we got the hang of it pretty fast. I live one street over from this park so we literally skiid, skiied, (how do you spell that?) from my front door to the park. It was cool. We explored the park since it's a pretty good size. We skiied (?) past the penguins in the zoo, up and down different roads, cut across open fields. It was fun. Like Marta said in her blog, not a thrilling kind of fun, but a relaxing, invigorating kind of fun. I think Nephi and I might buy some x-country skiis when we can find a good deal.