Long Time

Sorry, for the few people who still check my blog, that it’s been such a long time! I’ve been unbelievably busy, almost overwhelmed at times. Things are still busy, but things are slowing down a little and I thought I’d check in.

The main reason that I’ve been so busy is that James and I started a business! We’re designing apparel. We’ve set up an online store and all that goes into starting up a business. It’s mostly screen printed t-shirts, but soon we’ll also have hats and shorts and other things. Our company name is ‘Braddahs’ and our site is here:

http://www.braddahs.net/

It’s mainly an MMA targeted audience, but we’re not doing all the skulls and grungy wings and stuff. Anyone can wear it. We’ll be doing a kids line and a Ladies line. It’s been fun designing and my favorite part so far has been getting the art in the final stages and placing the order for the shirts. We have a great printing company we found that also will drops ship the shirts. Here’s out latest shirt:

So now we just have to get the word out and we’ve been ’sponsoring’ fighters in that they wear our shirts when they walk in the ring to fight and that helps get us exposure. We’re looking to do that with some other fighters who would be in a televised event. We also set up websites for a couple of our fighters that there’s a link to in our store. I’ve been learning Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator from scratch by myself and it’s been interesting.

And then I’ve been in the process of remodeling our upstairs bathroom. About a month ago, Jarom or Ethan was cleaning the downstairs bathroom and finds me to say that he felt a drop on his head! I run in there to see that it looked like there was a lot of water dripping form the ceiling.  Our upstairs bathroom is directly overhead so I then run upstairs to see a huge puddle around the base of the toilet. I turn off the water, and begin to drain the toilet to take it off. Got it off to see that, thank goodness, there wasn’t a huge puddle but that there was a nice big gap between the flange that the toilet bolts to and the drain. The flange was never bolted to the floor correctly and through time it get wobbly and then started to leak.

It’s a nasty bathroom and I’ve always wanted to redo it, but it just wasn’t a huge priority. So now is the perfect time. Well, as good a time as any anyway. But actually, if I had redone it and not noticed the problem with the flange, I may have had to rip out a new floor. So this is just fine. And someday I’ll post all about it. For now, here’s a few pics of the before and the gap around the drain:

Of course, I am documenting it all in pictures, so there will be detail when I’m finished. And of course, when I’m all finished, it’ll be fabulous! But it’s been a painfully slow process since I haven’t been able to work on it for just a few hours on Saturdays. But now, I’m determined to set aside more time to get it done!!

Happy Easter!

It’s one of the two days of the year when you see churches filled with patrons going to give their respects to their Deity. It’s the day that our Savior rose from the tomb and freed all humankind from the bonds of death. It’s the day that some will also remember the Atonement with the power that gave us to repent and live with our Father in Heaven again.

On this day, the world reverences Jesus the Christ.

Our day has been a quiet one, as usual. With no immediate or extended family around, Easter at least, has always been a casual family affair. After finding the baskets with candy, we got to enjoy hearing our Prophet, an Apostle, a president of the Seventy and a counselor of the General Primary President speak to us for our Stake Conference. We came home to enjoy our new Easter meal tradition of Kahlua Pig (thanks Candace!)

Our egg hunt was good fun. And interesting. For the second time in 2 years, we didn’t find all the eggs! I’m the one who hides them and I can never remember where I put them all, since I hide 48 plastic eggs. We don’t mow our lawn until after Easter so that the grass will be really long and so better for hiding the eggs. Well, one was hidden too well. I’m sure that we’ll find it as last years’, mowed over, broken in bits and pieces.

We ended our day with a viewing of “The Lamb of God”, which instead of “The Ten Commandments”, which I’ve never seen completely, just small parts, is our Easter tradition. It’s hard to sit through the parts where we see the Son of God being whipped and then nailed to the cross, but it always gives us a better appreciation and remembrance of what this perfect man went through for us. We owe him so much.

Talk

Ruta gave her first talk in Sacrament Meeting today. She did a great job.We didn’t write it for her. We just guided her as to what sources to look at and helped if more details were needed or to help the flow. the first story really is completely on her own. She’s an amazing writer. She was having a hard time figuring out how to start her story and I came up with a beginning, but then she came up with this one and it was 100 times better than what I had said.

Here’s what she said:

Good morning. I appreciate this opportunity to talk to you today about prayer.

After a tiring day of school I came onto the bus, chilled to the bone from the cold and happy to go home. My friend sat down next to me, feeling the same. Everything was fine until a 7^th grader sat behind me. A few minutes later, all of his friends were laughing at the names he was calling me. I got off the bus feeling horrible. After three days of the bulling, I knelt down next to my bed praying for him. I prayed for his troubles- if anything was bothering him. I also prayed if our Father in Heaven could soften his heart. The next day he didn’t bother me. He didn’t even talk to me. He hasn’t troubled me since. That experience strengthened my testimony about prayer a lot.

In the “True to the Faith” it says, “In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ counseled: “Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6) Personal, private prayer is an essential part of your spiritual development.”

Privacy in personal prayer is very important. It says in Matthew 6:5, “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.” It also says in Alma 34:26, “But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets and your secret places, and in your wilderness.”

In President’s Monson’s talk in the March 2009 ensign, he recalled a memory with a young missionary. “There sat in my office one day a newly arrived missionary. He was bright, strong, happy, and grateful to be a missionary. He was filled with enthusiasm and a desire to serve. As I spoke with him, I said, “Elder, I imagine that your father and mother wholeheartedly support you in your mission call.” He lowered his head and replied, “Well, not quite. You see, President, my father is not a member of the Church. He doesn’t believe as we believe, so he cannot fully appreciate the importance of my assignment.”

Without hesitating and prompted by a Source not my own, I said to him, “Elder, if you will honestly and diligently serve God in proclaiming His message, your father will join the Church before your mission is concluded.” He clasped my hand in a vise-like grip, the tears welled up in his eyes and began to roll forth down his cheeks, and he declared, “To see my father accept the truth would be the greatest blessing that could come into my life.”

This young man did not sit idly by hoping and wishing that the promise would be fulfilled, but rather he followed the sage advice that has been given of old: “Pray as though everything depended upon God. Work as though everything depended upon you.” Such was the missionary service of this young man.

At every missionary conference I would seek him out before the meetings and ask, “Elder, how’s Dad progressing?”

His reply would invariably be, “No progress, President, but I know the Lord will fulfill the promise given to me through you as my mission president.” The days turned to weeks and the weeks to months, and finally, just two weeks before we ourselves left the mission field to return home, I received a letter from the father of this missionary. That father wrote:

“Dear Brother Monson:

“I wish to thank you so much for taking such good care of my son who recently completed a mission in Canada. He has been an inspiration to us.

“My son was promised when he left on his mission that I would become a member of the Church before his return. This promise was, I believe, made to him by you, unknown to me.

“I am happy to report that I was baptized into the Church one week before he completed his mission and am at present time athletic director of the MIA and have a teaching assignment.

“My son is now attending BYU, and his younger brother was also recently baptized and confirmed a member of the Church.

“May I again thank you for all the kindness and love bestowed upon my son by his brothers in the mission field during the past two years.

“Yours very truly, a grateful father.”

The humble prayer of faith had once again been answered.”

“A prominent American judge was asked what we as citizens of the countries of the world could do to reduce crime and disobedience to law and to bring peace and contentment into our lives and into our nations. He carefully replied, “I would suggest a return to the old-fashion practice of family prayer.” –“Come unto Him in Prayer and Faith” By President Thomas S. Monson.

Family prayer is important also. When my family and I say our family prayers, we take turns saying it. We also like to bless each other by name. In the “True to the Faith” it says;

In addition to commanding us to pray in private, the Savior has exhorted us to pray with our families. He said, “Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed” (3 Nephi 18:21).

If you are married, make family prayer a consistent part of your family’s life. Every morning and every evening, kneel together in humility. Give each family member frequent opportunities to say the prayer. Unite in gratitude for the blessings Heavenly Father has given you. Unite in faith to plead for the blessings you need and to pray for others.

Through regular family prayer, you and your family members will draw nearer to God and to each other. Your children will learn to communicate with their Father in Heaven. You will all be better prepared to serve others and withstand temptations. Your home will be a place of spiritual strength, a refuge from the evil influences of the world.

Testimony

33

Or should I say 29 and holding…. I turned a year older on Wednesday.  Ruta baked me this cake! James got me one of my favorite ice creams, mint chocolate chip, which went along perfectly with the dark chocolate cake, which I ate about half and and it’s now showing on the scale. Good thing it’s just once a year!

Keila

Keila just lost her first tooth! It’s been wiggling for a while now and I felt it and it was almost there. I tugged on it a little and pulled it right out. I’ve never been allowed to take out any of my kids teeth, so it’s a little exciting. Here she is!

And to always remember one of the many funny things that Keila says…here’s it is.

I saw last year’s Parkade (the kids elementary school) yearbook on a table in the girls’ room. I remembered that I had never looked at it and that it’s the only yearbook I’ll ever have that will have all 4 of my children in it. Ethan, Keila and I were looking at it. There was a random snapshot of Keila and a friend on her field trip to the Pumpkin patch. Kiela leans over and asks how old she was in that picture…I respond that she was 3. Then she states “I was really young in that picture”

What?! Excuse me?! The girl is 5 and she thinks that she was young! I had a really good laugh over that one and love to share it. So there you go!

Temple adventure

So I went to the temple this past Saturday with a couple of women in my ward, Wendy and Joyce and it turned out to be quite an adventure. I was driving the Corolla and it was feeling funny on the road. Slipping around and just not handling right. Then it happened….pop…the tire blew. Okay…slow down, put on the hazards, pull over. Then we brace ourselves to get out. It was COLD!! It was about 27*, but with the blasts of wind that came from the cars and truck flying past us, it felt much, much colder. And we’re dressed in skirts and heels. So I pop the trunk and get out the never used spare that had the wrench packed in the foam still and went to work.

I was on my hands and knees on the wet pavement getting the jack in the right spot on the frame and was just finishing cranking it up, when a man came up to help us. He said that he was hearing on the CB radio about some girls what were on the side of the road with a flat tire. These truck drivers were saying this as they were passing us by! This man had the decency to then find us and pull over, while he was going the opposite way, run across 4 highway lanes and give us a hand. So he finished what we started and took off the nuts and tire and then put the spare on and tightened down the nuts. We thanked him profusely and clambered back into the warmth of the car.

Turning into a long story and now making it short… we ended up going to Sears to get 4 new tires(of course) and then getting to the Temple for our session. We came home about an hour later than we normally would, so really not to bad. Now all is well with the car and we won’t have to worry about the tires for a long while. It was an adventurous day, but a really good one.

Mormon Messages

Mormon Messages

Check it out!

My oldest turned 12!

Ruta has turned 12! On Valentine’s day. Yeah, this is a little late. It’s been busy around here

She had a party with her friends where they came for ‘cake’ and presents and then we went to the mall for a scavenger hunt. It’s getting tough trying to figure out what to do for birthday parties for tweeners. I expect that it won’t get easier. And since her birthday is in February, it limits what we can do outside. She would love to go on a hike, but it’s either too cold or rainy or snowy. I may just have to plan one for the summer for her.

The scavenger hunt went really well. The girls all loved it, which was great since they didn’t look as if they were loving it! We went to a few stores and had a list of what they were to find. Pretty easy. 2 hours in the mall took it’s toll on our feet and at the end, we lounged in Target with popcorn and drinks. And then I took the girls home.

To then come home and make Ruta omelettes. That’s what she wanted for her brithday dinner, omelettes. She had never had one before, since the times I had tried, many a year ago, they didn’t turn out well. So to my own amazement, I made 3 perfect omlettes 2 for her and one for Keila, time, experience and lack of fear helps. Then I botched the one I made for myself. Oh well, still tasted good. I made James a thick steak for his Valentines gift, which then stunk up the house because I was too lazy and tired to go out in the cold and grill it!

So it was a long, good day. She got some fun stuff for gifts. A couple of Webkinz, a gift card to Barnes & Noble. She was as happy as can be.

And now it’s the beginning of her teen years. She’s officially in Young Women’s now. *sniff, sniff*. My baby is almost grown up! She’s off to discover the land of The Youth. She’ll experience so many firsts, it’s almost like starting over. First YW lesson. First YW activity. First YW/YM combined activity. First Temple baptism trip. First Stake YW activity. First year at Girls Camp. And that all just in the first 6 months! Then it off to other frontiers that we’ll grown into. First dance. First time a boy will be interested in her. Sigh. Time goes so fast!!

Ruta’s ‘cake’– Cake-pops.

The inside is made with crumbled up cake mixed with a can of frosting. then shaped, frozen, stuck on a stick, dipped in Almond Bark and topped with a candy heart. Oh so good and fun.

See http://bakerella.blogspot.com/search/label/cupcake%20pops

Her friends and family. I had to poke the candles into the pops!

My Beautiful girl!

Fellowship camp

We went camping!! I can still hardly believe it!

So last week during Cub Scout Pack Meeting, James was talking to a couple of guys. Somehow they got to talking about camping and said they should go sometime. That turned into going in 2 days. It was going to be a nice weekend, so why not. Then the morning of, James said why don’t we all go. Umm…maybe……and then more I thought of it, the more I got excited. I haven’t been camping since I got married and before that my family would go camping almost every year. Not to mention the Church’s Girls Camp every year from when I was 12. Let’s go!

We have a tent and enough sleeping bags. I threw everything else I could think of in a bag. Mostly just stuff for cooking and some flashlights and band-aids. The other guys were going to bring the firewood. We stopped at the store to get some food and we were off!

We didn’t get to the camp till after 7, so it was already dark and the other guys had gotten there first and were getting the fire going. The campground wasn’t far, just a few miles off the Ashland exit, was free and had toilets. Just perfect!

The evening was fine. We had hot dogs, canned stew and frozen burritos. And of course, marshmallows and smores. The kids played with the fire. Ruta tried to explore in the woods. And we just talked. We set up the tents, which thank goodness one of the other guys brought another tent. Ours is a 4 man and there’s no way we could all fit in there. Ruta and I got in the little 2 man and James, Jarom, Ethan and Keila got in the together. And then sleep was supposed to happen. We really didn’t sleep much. Hard, cold, wet ground. Though no fault of anyone, we happened to pick the ONLY campground that was muddy! And so it seeped right up through the bottom of the tents and our little sleeping bags were horribly inadequate to handle it. Of course we didn’t know that the bottom of our tents were damp until the morning, so we all shivered through the night with Keila waking up shivering and crying and slept with James. I heard something sniff at the tent sometime during the night, and ended up with bruises on the side of my hips from the hard ground.

Morning came and the poor sleep was mostly forgotten with thought of fire and food. Eggs and sausage was on the menu for the morning. Short walk up to the unbelievably clean, toilet paper stocked, outhouse. The morning brought light and vision of what our campground looked like. Not pretty. The kids tramped around in the woods and we cleaned up, put the fire out by having the kids run back and forth getting water from the spigot with little water bottles. As we were leaving we saw that a neighboring camp had a full fire blazing in the pit, so we stopped and put that out too. This time using our cooler as a bucket.

We got home, took showers, started laundry and crashed! We were all so tired. But it was such a great time. The first of many. James calls it Fellowship camp because we were fellowshipping and getting to know someone of another faith.

Yum-o hot dogs. Actually I can hardly stand them, but by then I was starving.

Mud puddles

I don’t think Jarom moved from that spot all night!

Breakfast with Jeff and Douglas

Keila found pinecone and 2 were still attached to the limb. She was so proud.

Ready to go home! With Antwan, Douglas’ son.

Another Backlog

The day after Christmas, I was doubly blessed with no day care kids as well. Prepared, I took full advantage of planning the day. We went shopping and returned some things. I haven’t been to the after Christmas sale in years! It was quite nice. After that I gave my kids some options on something fun to do and they settled on Bonkers. We went Bonkers and then went home to get dinner going and to wait for the best Christmas gift…my brothers.

I have 2 younger brothers-well full brothers, and they decided to make a road trip to visit my dad in Iowa and then me. My youngest brother, Matthew left from the CA coast and stopped on Utah to pick up the older brother, Alex. They decided to go snow boarding the morning they left my Dad’s house…instead of rushing to see me…so they didn’t get here until just after 9:30 pm. We were all waiting in anticipation! And then they were here! Hugs all around. Oohs for the new kitchen and living room, and ‘the kids are huge’ talk. We settled in for the rest of the night, but sadly after the first hour they were here, I was already mourning their loss. 2 days just wasnt’ going to be enough time!

We did thoroughly enjoy the 2 days we had with them. They are outstanding men and a good example for my kids…..and now I’m getting all melancholy so I’ll have to leave it at that. I love my brothers to pieces and always treasure every moment that we can spend together. Even after 13 years being away from my family, it’s still as hard as the day I realized what I had to leave. *sniff, sniff*

horsing around

Matthew in white, Alex in grey/blue

Alex, me, Matthew