8th Grade

I don't remember a lot about 8^th grade. There are a two main reasons for this. The first reason is that I had 5 of the same teachers that I had in 7^th grade. I had the same teachers for English, History, Orchestra, French, and Life Skills. In 9^th grade I would have the same English, Orchestra, and French teachers as well. This makes it hard for me to remember specific things about each year.

The second reason I don't remember a lot about 8^th grade is because one really big thing dominated most of that year. My mom was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the late fall of 1998. The doctors told her it was a simple type of cancer to take care of. All she had to do was have her thyroid removed and then drink radio active iodine to kill any remaining cancer cells. Simple enough right? Well it was a simple procedure, but that doesn't mean it was easy to deal with.

For some reason it never really sunk in that my mom had cancer and was going to have surgery. No one in my family seemed to comprehend what those things meant. So instead of reducing our commitments we increased the things we were doing. Around the same time as the diagnosis we installed new tile on our own and had new carpet professionally installed. My grandma and aunt flew in from out of town to help my mom recover. And to top it off this all happened around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in 1998. It was too much all at once.

Consequently I don't remember many specific things about eighth grade. A lot of what I do remember isn't very fun to think about. I felt like the world was on my shoulders. I had to be the mom a lot of times and so it was hard to be a teenager. I was a member of the Jr Granite Youth Symphony, but things going on at home made it difficult for me to attend every rehearsal. I felt like a failure when I quit the group after Christmas.

Of course it wasn't all stress and gloom. There were some pretty fun things that happened in the middle of all the craziness. For example when we had the new carpet installed in our living room and bedrooms we all slept on the floor of the living room. We stayed up late that night playing a game where we clicked our tongues in a song rhythm and everyone else had to guess what song it was. Another fun thing was when Grandma came out she stayed in a hotel. We were able to go swimming in the pool there and stay over night with her. (I also got food poisoning from some fast food hamburgers and spent the night throwing up in the hotel toilet)

Besides my mom's cancer there are 3 other things that I specifically remember about 8^th grade. Here they are in the order that they happened.

Arches with Vera

My Aunt Vera decided to take us kids on an over night trip to Arches National Park on Labor Day Weekend (This was before we knew about the cancer). She rented a van and drove us down to Moab. We thought the van was so cool because we were all able to have our own cup holders. On the way to Moab Lindsey sang the whole way through 100 bottles of Pop on the Wall. We'd all stopped paying attention to her so none of us believed her when she said that she had done it. So just to prove that she had she sang all 100 bottles again.

Once we got to Moab we couldn't find a hotel with any vacancies. If we had been with our parents us kids would have thought the vacation was turning out to be a disaster. But we were with Vera and everything that Vera is involved with is fun. So we didn't mind when we drove to Green River to look for a hotel. It happened to be in the middle of Green River's melon fest which is apparently a very big deal because we couldn't find any vacant hotels there either. Actually I think we did find a couple vacant hotels, but they didn't have any pools and we really wanted to swim in a pool. We were so dedicated to the pool idea that we were willing to sleep on the ground at a KOA just so we could swim in the pool. And that is what happened. We slept on the ground and then woke up and enjoyed our pool. We even got the pool to ourselves because we were the only people crazy enough to swim in the cold water.

When we were done swimming we took pictures with the pool.

After enjoying the pool we drove to Arches and saw Balanced Rock, and North and South Windows. We played at Sand Dune Arch and hiked to Delicate Arch. On the hike to Delicate Arch 5 year old

Hillary impressed us all by walking on the edge of the drop off trail and saying in a haughty voice, “I'm not scared.” Hillary also was wearing a hat with a floppy brim. It must have blown away without us knowing because later when we went down the trail it was sitting on a rock caren.

At one point Lindsey and I were leaning up against the front of the van. We after we got up we turned around and saw that the front of the van was covered in smashed bugs! Vera told us the joke, “What's the first thing that goes through a fly's brain when it hits the windshield? It's butt.”

We left Arches and drove straight back to Salt Lake. It was such a fun trip and we all have really great memories from it.

Lori's Wedding

In March my Aunt Lori got married. My Grandma Mary Ann was also married the day after Lori's wedding. So a lot of people came into town for the “double wedding.” All my Dad's siblings were together along with their kids. The day of the wedding all of us cousins were at my grandma's house while the adults were all at the temple for the wedding. Lindsey and I were the oldest cousins so we were technically in charge. All 12 of us pretty much entertained ourselves with the TV and Nintendo. That is until the power went out. Then we had to get creative. We ended up drawing pictures while sitting around the kitchen counter. We also had sandwiches for lunch (and hardly anyone ate their crusts). Soon the power came back on and everyone could go back to what we had been doing.

Not long after the power came back on the adults showed up. Then it was time to get ready for the reception. We all had new clothes for the reception. Me and Lindsey had matching yellow skirts and white knit tops. Emily and Mallory had purple skirts. Us four were the serving girls. We made sure the refreshment table was always full of refreshment trays. We also cleared off the tables. Hillary, Madison, Melissa, and Christy-Ann were napkin girls. They were supposed to give people napkins, but mostly I remember them walking around in their matching pink dresses and being cute. Martin, Billy, Alex, and Aiden were the present takers. They all wore yellow shirts and khaki pants. The reception was very pretty and I think it is where my love of weddings comes from. I loved every detail of that wedding.

Here I am cleaning off a table.

And here are most of my cousins.

Making A Teacher Cry.

Despite the craziness with my Mom's cancer I still did pretty well in school. It helped that I had a lot of the same teachers as 7^th grade. I loved all those teachers except my history teacher. For some reason she thought we would learn best by doing projects. She hardly every did any teaching, lecturing, or even worksheets. Instead she would assign a type of project for us to do and then send us out on our own to teach ourselves while working on our projects. Examples of the projects were to make a book, or a game, or a poster, or a puppet show about a certain topic. Grading was very subjective and basically the class was a farce. No real learning took place. I probably wouldn't have minded except I loved history. I read books such as a “Short History of WWII” “Miracle at Philadelphia” and my dad's college history books. I knew we were getting short changed in Ms S's class.

About the only consistent assignment in the class was to do “planner checks.” Each student was issued a planner by the school. We were supposed to write our assignments for every class in the planner. We were also supposed to have our parents check the planner each week and sign off that they were keeping track of us and we were doing our homework. I hated planner checks. I ended up talking my dad into signing the whole year's worth of pages in one setting. I still hated the fact that we had to show our planner to Ms S each week. At one point Ms S decided that we should have a mock congress in the class. We would write our own class constitution. This would teach us to appreciate the efforts of the Framers when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. I guess she never thought that anyone would think to abolish planner checks, but I did. My suggestion was seconded almost immediately and was passed unanimously. That was the day that Ms. S learned what King George III felt like.

But the best day was still to come. Towards the end of the school year we were given another inane assignment. I don't remember what it was, but I was sick of the class. I never even worked on the project. When it was due my dad wrote a note to Ms S. Basically it said that I didn't have the project done, I never planned on getting it done, and that he wasn't concerned about my grade in the class. Ms S called for my assignment and I handed her the note instead. She read it and then called me over to her desk. She asked me what it meant and I flat out told her that I thought she was a bad teacher. And then she started to cry! She said she felt like she had failed me. She sent me back to my seat and she had to go outside the classroom for a while.

I felt kind of bad about what had happened, but I was still convinced I was right. She must have known she wasn't teaching us much. Later in the day my English teacher, Ms M, called me over to her desk. Ms M was my favorite teacher. She was also Ms S's friend. I was concerned about what she would think about what I had said. She asked me what had happened and then she told me that she agreed with me. Vindication felt so good.

I still had to go to Ms S's class for the rest of the term, but I think she basically ignored me. I ignored her too and got an F in the class. My dad paid me $10 for the F. I guess it was a reward for not trying to please every teacher.

There is one other thing that I remember about 8^th grade. On yearbook day at the end of the school year I received lots of really nice complements in my yearbook. Many people wrote very nice things about me. I'm glad to know that even though it was an difficult year I still had really good friends.

Inspiration: No television - really

I never thought I would be one of those people who never watch TV, but it happened anyway. I have probably only watched about 20 hours of broadcast television in the past 4 1/2 years.

I kicked my TV addiction by moving to Logan where television signals are very weak. It was so hard at first to know that my shows were on and I was missing them. But then I started dating Brandon and project "get married" took up most of my time. After we were married we never signed up for internet or cable. We just enjoyed movies and tv shows on DVD that we borrowed from our families, the library, and redbox. When we moved down to Bountiful I was momentarily excited by the thought that we would be able to watch TV again. But then I remembered that we never bothered to get a digital converter box. So we still don't have TV.

I'm at the point now where I don't even think about what I am missing. People talk about their shows and I tune out. When we were living at the hospital I'd turn on the TV, surf through a few channels, and then give up. Nothing was on and I didn't want to wait for anything to come on. About the only thing I watched was the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Here is a story I read back in January of 2008. It is by Annette Candland Alger. This story helped me know that I was better off without broadcast TV. Here is the link to the story.

"When we were building our new home, our electrician wired the house for a satellite dish. But he wasn’t sure where to drill the hole for the cables, so he coiled them up and laid them on the rafters in the attic.

The insulation company came the next day and blew thick layers of shredded paper and fiberglass into the attic and walls of our home. The wires were deeply buried.

After we had moved in a month later, we began looking for the cables. My husband emerged from the attic covered with insulation and disappointed about his unfruitful search.

“I guess we’ll have to do something else tonight,” he announced.

I shrugged my shoulders, thinking of the boxes we needed to unpack and the towel rods we needed to install. There would be plenty of things to do that night without watching TV.

The next night we dusted off some of our board games and played with our daughter. I checked my watch. It was 8:00 p.m., and my favorite home decorating show was on. I was missing it. The night seemed to drag on.

For the next two weeks I spent my evenings completing half-finished projects from Relief Society enrichment nights, helping my daughter with her Young Women Personal Progress projects, writing letters to friends and missionaries, and even entering a recipe contest.

The weekend of general conference was coming up. Now more than ever we wanted to get the television hooked up so we could fully enjoy the broadcast. We finally got in touch with the electrician, who told us where we should be able to find the wires. Once again my husband scoured the attic but was still unable to locate the lines.

We listened to general conference on the radio. When I heard ElderM. Russell Ballard speak about the sleazy and evil entrapments of the media, I thought, “Maybe we shouldn’t hook up the TV.”

Another month went by without television. I finally read my ancestors’ journals. I visited the library and read more books than I had in years. I read the current issue of the Ensign well before the new issue arrived. I spent time visiting with my husband and daughter. I finished a quilt for my new grandchild. My husband and I did extra sessions at the temple. We made a pathway in the yard with our leftover bricks. We recommitted ourselves to daily scripture study.

I suddenly seemed to have the time to do projects I had put off for years because I thought I was too busy. Had television really robbed me of these important activities?

As I began to add the hours in my head, I realized the price I had paid. The television stayed off during the daytime hours, but it usually remained on the rest of the night. At four hours a day for six days a week, we watched 24 hours of television each week. At the age of 54, I had spent almost eight years of my life watching television. Eight years!

After I discovered this, one of my married sons said he thought he could find the cables. He rummaged around in the attic and reappeared triumphant, calling out: “I found them. I found them!”

I quickly reflected on my TV-free life for the past two months. My health had improved because I got the sleep I needed. My relationship with my family had improved because I was spending more time with them. My spirituality had increased because I was doing activities that invited the Spirit.

My husband and I looked at each other and arrived at an instant agreement: “Bury those wires!”

Who are you blogging to?

Today I thought I would write about my most obvious hobby - BLOGGING.

I started blogging in October of 2008. I'd been out of school for 9 months and I was trying to find something to fill the time I had previously spent on homework. My aunt suggested blogging and so I started posting stuff. It wasn't that interesting but it was a start.

Around the same time my mom was working at a job she didn't particularly like. She would spend her breaks reading blogs. I made sure that I posted things so she could have something to read. So at first I was just blogging for me and my mom.

Then family members started to tell me that they enjoyed reading my blog. That encouraged me to keep posting.

My blog became my journal. I loved posting things about my life because not only could I write about what I did, but I could add pictures! I was always thinking about what I could write on my blog.

And then I got pregnant - with twins - who survived what I thought was a miscarriage. I couldn't have planned a better way to attract blog readers. During our stay in the hospital this blog averaged over 100 page views a day.

After we came home to our internet-less apartment people started telling me that they missed my blog. I missed my blog too. It was a wonderful day when Brandon first watched the girls and let me go to the library with the laptop.

We thought about getting the internet at home, but I prefer to leave and focus on my blog without the girls. I type up the posts at home and then upload them while I am at the library. I even figured out (by accident) how to schedule posts so they can post on different days.

I use blogging to motivate me to do things. I've always wanted to write down my girls camp and youth conference stories. I never could write them because I felt they had to be written perfectly. Committing to post them once a week on my blog has helped me write them. It's okay if they aren't perfect as long as they are posted on time.

I also try to do a project a week so I can have something to post. This helps keep me busy at home, and is helping me rediscover my hobbies.

Right now blogging is my way of feeling like I am connected to the world. I'm so glad that I have this place to share my life. And thanks to all of you who read this blog. The Stats tab on my blog has become one of my favorite places to visit.

A (sort of) typical day

Last Saturday, February 19, was exactly 3 months after our first full day home from the hospital. On that first full day home from the hospital I spent most of the day feeding babies and crying.

I thought I would keep track of what I did three months later to show that I really have improved in this whole motherhood thing.

Here is what I did during 24 hours.

8:00 am I wake up to the babies crying. I get up and give them back the binkies that have fallen out of their mouths. I head back to bed hoping that I will be able to get some more sleep.

8:20 am Babies start crying again. More sleep is out of the question for the moment. I decide to go ahead and switch who is the bottle baby and who is nursing. I make a formula bottle for Lydia and bring her into bed so Brandon can feed her. I bring Charlotte into bed and nurse her while trying to fall back asleep. I start leaking.

8:45 am Charlotte is done eating and is wide awake. I change her diaper and the take her into the living room so I can entertain her while pumping milk.

9:10 am I finish pumping (4 oz) I decide today will be a good day to keep track of a typical day for my blog. I change my shirt and me and Charlotte rejoin Brandon and Lydia in bed. We all fall asleep.

10:00 am My sister Emily calls me seconds after Charlotte wakes me up. I take Charlotte and Lydia out into the living room while I talk to Emily. I eat cheerios. Charlotte cries and Brandon gets up.

10:30 am I nurse Charlotte.

11:15 am Lydia wakes up and Brandon feeds her the milk I pumped earlier.

11:30 am Charlotte falls asleep

11:45 am We have taco salad for lunch

12:00 pm Brandon gets ready for work. I pack his dinner.

12:20 pm Brandon leaves for work.

I decide that my goal for the day will be to clean the house so we don't have to worry about it on Brandon's day off on Monday. My second goal is to give the girls a bath.

I start cleaning by changing the bedding on my bed. I put on new sheets and a blanket. I go to get the new comforter, but I can't get to it because there is a small pile of stuff in the way. I put away all the stuff. Then I notice two bags full of clothes someone gave us.

1:00 pm Lydia has been playing on the floor with the toy hangy thing. She starts crying so I wrap her up. She falls asleep instantly. I go through the clothes, they are all toddler size so I box them up.

1:15 pm I decide now is a good time to pump so I go to do that. But their aren't any clean bottles. I can't wash out the bottles because the sink is full of dirty dishes so I have to empty and reload the dish washer. Then I wash the bottles.

1:30 pm I expect Charlotte to wake up at any time. She starts to wiggle. While I wait for her to fully wake up I notice that we are out of diapers so I grab another bag of 50 out of storage. I also designated a basket to hold toys. I notice I haven't finished making the bed so I go get the comforter out and make the bed.

1:45 pm I hear a baby crying and figure Charlotte has woken up. Instead it is Lydia. I give her back her binkie and she falls asleep.

1:50 pm Lydia wakes up again. I change her diaper. It's been three hours since she ate so I decide to feed her. I still haven't pumped so I mix up a formula bottle.

2:00 pm Feed Lydia. While I feed her Charlotte starts to wiggle. I silently hope that she doesn't wake up yet.

2:10 pm Lydia is done eating and she needs another diaper change.

2:20 pm Decide to pump – but first I start a load of laundry.

2:30 pm Stop pumping to wrap Lydia up because she is acting like she wants to fall asleep. She starts to cry, but quickly changes to a wimper that lasts about 20 minutes. Charlotte wiggles.

2:35 pm Charlotte finally wakes up and starts crying.

2:40 pm Nurse Charlotte while pumping other side.

3:00 pm Charlotte done nursing. I take a quick bathroom break and then pumpout the side Charlotte was on. I read “The 22 immutable laws of marketing”

3:10 pm Done pumping finally.

3:15 pm Eat lunch, change Charlotte's diaper. Play with Charlotte to wear her out so I can go take a nap.

3:35 pm Charlotte starts crying like she is tired. I wrap her up and put her in her crib. She falls asleep. Lydia starts crying. I check her diaper and then stick her in the crib too. She cries. I move first load of laundry to drier and start a second load to drown out the sound of crying.

3:40 pm Asleep on bed

4:00 pm Girls crying wakes me up. Re-wrap the girls, go to the bathroom, and then back to bed.

4:15 pm Wake up again to crying.

4:35 pm I give up on sleep again. Get up and nurse Charlotte while bottle feeding Lydia. For all her crying Lydia isn't very interested in her bottle. She takes forever to drink it.

5:10 pm Call my Dad and talk to him for a few minutes.

5:25 pm Diaper changes for both girls. I set them down with their hangy toy and play with it with them. Here is a longish video of the girls playing.

6:15 pm Girls acting tired again. Wrap them up. Lydia falls asleep right away. Charlotte takes a little bit of time.

6:45 pm Have dinner: grilled cheese sandwiches, veggies, milk and a banana.

6:55 pm Pump

7:20 pm Done pumping. Get bath stuff out for when the girls wake up. Decide to go lay down until they wake up.

8:45 pm I wake up from the nap. I can't believe it's been over an hour.

8:50 pm Charlotte wakes up. Before I feed her I make a bottle for when Lydia wakes up.

9:00 pm Start nursing Charlotte and Lydia wakes up. Give her the bottle.

9:30 pm Bath time for Lydia. Charlotte is very good while laying on the couch.

9:50 pm Give Charlotte a bath. Lydia cries but quiets down.

10:10 pm Put the girls to bed. Lydia is basically asleep but Charlotte is crying.

I sing to the girls and then pray with them. Charlotte is quiet by the time I am done.

I half expect one or the other to wake up so I straighten up the living room and kitchen while waiting. Both girls are still asleep.

10:40 pm Decide to take a shower and shave my legs. Usually I only get one or the other done before a baby wakes up.

11:05 pm Pump while I finish reading my book.

11:40 pm Blow dry my hair

11:45 pm Brush my teeth

11:55 pm Decide the girls are asleep for good and go to bed.

1:00 am Wake up when Brandon gets home from work. Quickly fall back asleep.

3:00 am Lydia wakes up. Get her bottle ready then Brandon feeds her. It only takes about 15 minutes to feed her, but I'm asleep before he is back in bed.

6:30 am Charlotte wakes up and I nurse her on the couch

7:10 am Put Charlotte back in crib and Lydia wakes up. I nurse her. Today she will be the nursing baby and Charlotte will be the bottle baby.

7:40 am Put Lydia back in crib and go back in bed with Brandon. He wakes up and we talk about our days.

Family Vacation 1998 - Wyoming

If there is a prize for the most embarrassing moment on a family vacation I think I could win. I was 13 years old, dressed in the ugliest pioneer dress on the face of the earth, pulling a handcart with my family. We were on the 3 mile long road between the visitors center and the campground at Martin's Cove. Our tent, blankets, and food for the night were in the handcart. It was August and 4:00 in the afternoon so it was very hot. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse buses full of teenagers my own age started driving passed us. I was certain everyone on those buses was staring and laughing at me. I could have died on the spot.

The vacation actually started out okay. My parents decided that we would go to Wyoming for our family vacation in 1998. They wanted to visit the places where the Willey and Martin handcart companies were rescued in 1856.

The first day we got up really early and drove to Green River ,Wyoming. We stopped and visited my Grandma's sister Nancy. While we were visiting her she mentioned that her Great Grandmother, Sarah Moulton, had been in the Willey Handcart company. This was news to us. We knew that my Dad's father's side of the family had ancestors in the Willey Company, but we didn't know that so did my Dad's Mother's side. Nancy lent us some family history information about Sarah's family.

While we were at Nancy's her daughter Holly took us kids on a car ride around Green River. She took us on a road that went through a little tunnel made out of rock. We thought it was so cool. We counted how many times we went through the tunnel. We also kept track of how many times we went over the Green River.

After we had lunch at Nancy's we drove on a bunch of dirt roads to the Rock Creek Hollow Campground. That is the location where the Willey company was rescued. It was in the middle of the week and it isn't a huge tourist destination anyway so we had the whole place to ourselves. That night my sister, Lindsey, and I slept out on some benches that we pushed together. I was able to look at the stars all night long and watch them slowly move across the sky. It was the first time I could really see the details of constellations such as, Hercules, The Herdsman, The Eagle, and many others.

The next day we hung around the campsite. We visited the monuments erected to honor the pioneers. My dad explained that on his father's side we were related to George Cunningham who was 14 at the time his family crossed the plains. George wrote that he had a dream about the rescuers the day before they arrived. On my dad's mother's side was the Moulton family. Sarah Moulton was 18 when they crossed. She ended up marrying one of the men that rescued her handcart company. (How's that for a blessing from adversity.)

We also spent the day playing in Rock Creek, cooking food, exploring the camp, and basically having a good time. That night we made a big fire and tried to stay awake until all the wood burned. Here is our campsite at Rock Creek.

The next day we woke up and took down the tent. We were heading about 100 miles east to the site where the Martin Handcart Company was rescued. We planned on pulling a handcart at Martin's Cove. My mom wanted us to wear pioneer clothes when we pulled the handcart. She must have known we would all refuse to change our clothes are Martin's Cove so she had us put the clothes on while we were still by ourselves at Rock Creek.

My dress was a costume from a road show the 5^th ward had preformed the year before. It was a play about the pioneers leaving Nauvoo. The dress was from probably the most ridiculous pattern on the planet. It was about two yards wide. All that fabric was gathered around my waist with nothing, but a small string and an apron. Here I am wearing the dress in the roadshow. I'm on the top left. This picture gives you an idea of how disgusting the dress was.

I know the pioneers would never have worn anything so impractical – I'm certain they wouldn't have wasted the fabric. But I was stuck wearing that dress – that bag to be more exact. My hair was braided too. I think the only consolation was that the rest of my family had to wear pioneer clothes too. We loaded up the van and started driving. Halfway to Martin's Cove the unthinkable happened. We all had to go to the bathroom. At the next gas station all of us kids were mortified as we walked into the store and used the bathroom. My mom joked that we should pretend we were Amish.

We got some pretty crazy looks at the gas station, but we figured that we would be understood once we got to Martin's Cove. However, we still got some pretty crazy looks at Martin's Cove. I don't remember even going into the visitors center. I think I was too embarrassed to be seen in that horrible bag.

The plan was to rent a handcart and use it to take our stuff from the van to our campsite. What we didn't know was that the place we would rent a handcart was 3 miles from the campground. Even after we found out that vital piece of information we didn't change our plan. We loaded up the handcart with our tent, blankets, and food.

And then we started pulling the handcart along that long, hot, treeless, road. There were 7 of us. My mom and dad, me, and my four siblings. I was 13, Lindsey was 11, Emily was 9, Billy was 7, and Hillary was 5. I really can't find the words to describe the ordeal. I remember threatening to turn around and sleep in the van. My dad later wrote in his journal that “everyone of our children had a major emotional meltdown at one time or another during our three mile trek.” Can you blame us? It was hot, we'd been traveling all day, we were in pioneer clothes, and we were doing something we had never done before.

Somehow despite the heat and the distance we made it to the campground. There were tons of people at the campground. They had all driven there (they'd been driving past us all afternoon.) But instead of being mocked we were envied. We had a handcart and no one else did. Suddenly it was fun to pull the handcart around. We gave rides to each other, to my dad, and even to some of the other kids that were camping near us.

The tent was set up and dinner made. After dinner my dad told us about a hike he went on as a teenager. The hike had basically been a disaster, but he remembered it fondly. He said that was probably how this camping trip would be for us. We all swore we were not having a good time, that we would never come back, and that we would certainly not make our kids pull a handcart.

The next day we had the challenge of needing to return the way we had come, but we had learned from our trip the day before. We got up at 5:00 and ate, packed, and started pulling the handcart. Things went much better in the cooler temperature. Also we were out of those stupid pioneer clothes. Everybody got a turn to either ride on the handcart or walk without pushing. Lindsey invented the handcart version of a Chinese fire drill. She would be pulling the handcart from inside the bar. Then she would duck down and let the handcart go over her head. Then she would stand up and start pushing the back of the handcart. Emily stepped on a cactus and for a while she rode on the handcart, but then she got off and started helping to push. We joked that there must have been something in the cactus that made her stronger.

We made it back to the visitor's center much quicker then the day before. We got everything back in the van and started home. It was a long drive but we made it home that evening.

I've often though about this vacation. Was it worth it? Maybe. We learned a lot of things about pulling together to get things done. We also learned about perseverance and that tough things don't last forever. A few months after this camping trip my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Perhaps the things we learned while pulling a handcart as a family helped us as we all worked together to go through that trial. I don't know. What I do know is that if I ever take my children to Martin's Cove I am not making them pull a handcart to the campsite – at least not in the afternoon while wearing pioneer clothes.

Inspiration: Peanut butter smears instead of power suits

Today's post is for all of us college graduates who are now stay at home moms. I first read this article a month before I married Brandon. I've thought about it a lot over the years. It is by Shauna Bird Dunn and was published in the April 2007 Ensign. I recommend reading the whole article, but here are the excerpts that I've remembered.

" . . . As I was finishing graduate school, I interviewed with a large international company for a position in their prestigious two-year training program. This program seemed to be the fast track to corporate leadership, my dream come true.

The compensation package was amazing—about four times as much as anything else I had been considering. The competition was fierce, so being offered a position would be extremely gratifying. The company had an even more enticing compensation and reward package to encourage graduates of the program to stay with them. If I were accepted, it seemed that once I completed the program I could design my own future. I envisioned someday wearing power suits to my penthouse office, dazzling my co-workers and employees with my expertise, and cashing paychecks that truly reflected my value.

After my third fly-back interview, I received a telephone call from corporate headquarters. They were offering me the position. There were so many reasons to accept this job. The money could be used to pay off my pending student loan debt. The recruiters’ views of my university might be tainted by a refusal. And mostly, this position seemed to be everything I had trained and planned and worked for during the past 15 years.

I figured that after completing the program I could work part-time while our children were young and then return to full-time work when I was ready to more actively pursue my dream of corporate leadership. I could have it all!

But just as the elation and excitement at being offered the position began swelling within me, a different feeling emerged: the sinking feeling that this was not what Heavenly Father wanted me to do.

Brent was supportive. He prayed and counseled with me, and he promised to support me in whatever decision I reached through prayer and counsel with the Lord.

I prayed that night and told Heavenly Father the unbelievable benefits of this position. But still the Spirit let me know that I should refuse it. I called back and turned down the offer. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I felt I was giving up my chance to make something of my life—that I was giving up my well-earned reward for four grueling years of graduate study, giving up my chance to be fulfilled in this life, giving up my dreams. Even though I knew it was the right decision, it was really, really hard.

Brent and I prayed to know what to do next. A job fell into my lap, and I ended up working with a company I enjoyed, with flexible hours. It wasn’t quite the high-powered career I had envisioned, but it paid the bills. Brent stayed home with Malachi and worked on his fledgling business on the side while I worked full time. While this decision may not be right for everyone, we had prayed about this new direction for our lives, and it was right for us. We promised the Lord we would try to stay close to the Spirit and always make prayerful decisions about our lives. As a result of these prayerful decisions, we welcomed our daughter Sophia into our family.

After four years with this company, I felt that I was not supposed to work outside the home anymore. After another long night of counseling with my husband and with the Lord, I told the company owner I would be leaving. This decision took a leap of faith because we still had bills to pay, including student loans, and we had recently welcomed another daughter, Aerie, to our family. But I had learned that I am happiest when I follow the Lord’s plan for my life rather than my own personal plans.

Three years after this difficult decision to leave my job, our daughter Aerie asked me, “Mom, if someone said you could have ten thousand million diamonds or your Aerie, what would you choose?” I told her, “I would choose my Aerie.” She went on, “If someone said you could have ten million hundred dollars or your Aerie, what would you choose?” Again I told her, “I would choose my Aerie.” She jumped up and down, crying with glee, “I knew you would say that! I just knew you would say that!”

It hit me then that I had chosen my Aerie. Had I taken the position with the large international company, I probably would not have her in my life. And she is truly a joy, as are our four other children.

. . . Over the past seven years since I made the decision to be home full-time with my children, I have stayed up many nights to comfort a sick or frightened child instead of staying up preparing a presentation for the board of directors; worn clothes covered in peanut butter smears instead of power suits; cleaned my home each day instead of enjoying a penthouse view from my office; bandaged “owies” and encouraged piano practice instead of handing out performance reviews; and enjoyed hugs and kisses instead of stock options as my compensation plan. In doing so, I have come to realize that a mother’s work is the Lord’s work. As a mother, I am not just a co-creator with God when children grow within my body; I am a co-creator with Him as I help these children learn to walk their own path and become the people He wants them to be.

. . . Motherhood isn’t easy, but it is worth it. Many times I have looked around and said to myself, “For this I went to college?” and then I think of the promise made to mothers by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are and better than you have ever been.”"

Recipes - Lasagna, Cookies, and chip dip

When I was growing up cooking was something we just did. It wasn't something to love. Then I married Brandon. He LOVES to cook. I've learned to enjoy it too. Here are three recipes that we have used this week.

Brandon's 4 Cheese Lasagna

1 box Uncooked Lasagna Noodles

¾ pound Mozzarella Cheese

½ pound Cheddar Cheese

1 large container Cottage Cheese

Sauce

½ lb Ground hamburger

Two 8 oz cans of Tomato sauce and 4 can-fulls of water

1 tsp Sugar

Spice Options (season to your own personal taste)

Oregano

Italian Seasoning

Parsley

Chopped Onions (fresh and/or dried)

Garlic or Garlic Powder

Paprika

Celery Seed

Parmesan Cheese

1. Make the sauce by first browning the hamburger. Drain off any fat. Add the tomato sauce, water, sugar, and spices. Simmer until hot.

2. Shred the mozzarella and cheddar cheese and mix with the cottage cheese in a medium size bowl.

3. Layer the ingredients in the casserole dish. Start with the sauce to prevent sticking. Then layer the uncooked noodles and the cheese with more sauce until all ingredients are used. Make sure cheese is the top layer. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ cup (on stick) Butter

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 ½ cup flour

½ cup rolled oats

1 ¼ cups chocolate chips (you can use semisweet, milk, white, or a combination of all three)

Optional add ins

Grated Orange Peal, Raisins, Cranberry Sauce (more about this one at the bottom)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease two baking sheets.

2. Combine the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat with a fork or electric mixer until creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

3. Mix in the salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the flour. Stir in the oats and the chocolate chips.

4. Spoon tablespoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheets. Space them about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies until lightly browned 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool for 1 minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

Adding Cranberry Sauce

1. Substitute about 3 tablespoons of cranberry sauce for ¼ cup of the butter.

2. After you add the chocolate chips add about 3 tablespoonfuls of cranberry sauce to the cookie dough. Lightly mix in the sauce until it breaks up into chunks about the size of the chocolate chips.

3. Spoon on to baking sheets and bake as normal.

7 (or more) Layer Dip

Order of layers

1. One can of refried beans (mix with taco seasoning or the following spices cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, chilli powder)

2. Sour Cream

3. One smashedup avocado

4. Finely cut lettuce

5. Two chopped tomatoes

6. One can of sliced olives

7. Chopped green onion

8. One to Two cups of grated cheddar cheese

Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day. It is my absolute favorite holiday. Last year we went all out romance-wise and created a restaurant in our bedroom. This year we had two little additions to our family so we did things that included them.

Brandon let me sleep in a couple hours while he took care of the girls. I woke up to a clean apartment and this on the counter. Brandon bought these candies when he got off of work at 1:00 am. I told him that all I wanted for Valentine's Day was something pretty and he delivered.

This is what I gave him for his present. We've had the railroad spike since a ward camp out 3 1/2 years ago. I've wanted to do something with it forever.
The weather was so nice we decided to go on a walk with the girls.
We went on a part of the legacy parkway trail.
It was so nice to get out. I didn't even need a jacket.
We saw cows.
We stopped and we all had lunch. (Next time I'll mix up the bottles before the walk.)
After the walk we came home made dinner and took a nap. When I woke up I decorated the counter.
We had lasagna for dinner as usual. (Check Friday's post for the recipe)
Then we all watched a movie in bed.
After the movie we had root beer and conversation hearts. There were no white hearts in the box!
Here are the girls in their Valentine's Day outfits. When I first saw these outfits I thought, "Oh darn the girls wont be newborn size at Valentine's day." Well I was wrong.
And here they are in their first matching outfit ever. They wore these to church on Sunday. (Charlotte got her sleeper dirty during church so that is why she doesn't have anything on her legs.)
And I realized I never got a picture of the girls in their super cute booties that my cousin knitted for their blessing. So here is a picture of the booties.

Second Year of Girls Camp

There are a lot of striking differences between my first year of girls camp and my second year.

1. It was hot instead of rainy. We were prepared for rain. We had tarps to go over the tents. We had also decorated 5 gallon buckets to function as water proof storage containers as well as seats. But instead we had to worry about heat stroke.

2. We were no longer in the Uintas. The story I heard was that the Uinta campground asked for $1000 a year in advance to reserve the site. We'd just been flooded and the stake didn't want to fork over money for a place that couldn't guarantee a stress free week. So this year were were on the shores of Utah Lake at a place called Willow Bay. There were lots of cottonwood trees.

3. The ward boundaries had been realigned. While I was still in the 5^th ward it was not the same 5^th ward as the year before. We had lost part of our ward to the 4^th ward and gained parts of the 11^th and 10th wards.

4. My first year of girls camp had been all about fun. My second year was all about rules. Rules such as: best friends couldn't share tents; no wearing pajamas to the 7:30 AM flag ceremony; breakfast must be finished before the flag ceremony; Sharron N was not allowed to come to camp; leaders must be referred to as Sister ____ not by their first names; no pranks; no going in tents during the day; no parents allowed up at camp on visitor's night even if they were in the bishopric; no one allowed inside tents except for the people who were assigned to that tent; and on and on and on.

These rules were levied by different people such as the camp director and the stake leaders. Some of these rules sort of made sense – the rule about best friends not sharing tents was meant to prevent cliques and to help us get to know each other. Other rules were reactions against rumors – Sharron should never have been banned from camp, but some people believed inflated stories about what had happened the year before.

In my opinion none of the rules resulted in the desired outcome. Instead there were a lot of hurt feelings and petty arguments. I spent a lot of time sitting around the fire burning cottonwood fluff and climbing trees to get away from the tension in our camp.

Despite the changes and the tension I do have several happy memories from my second year of girls camp. I'm going to focus on remembering those events rather than rehashing the misunderstandings.

The first night of camp all the wards gathered around to watch the annual “Biffy Queen” contest. I had heard rumors that I was nominated as the contestant for my ward. So when they called my name I thought that I better make it look like I enjoyed being nominated. I screamed and jumped in the air and gave what I hoped was a very convincing act that I wanted to be involved in the pageant. In reality I was very apprehensive about getting up in front of all the girls in my stake.

The first round of judging was a pajama contest. I guess it was our “evening wear.” Each contestant was escorted by one of the camp guards. My escort was “Gramdpa Dahl.” While we waited in the trees for my turn he told me to just think, “I can do anything.” He walked me to the area by the fire and then I was on my own. I took his advise and strutted with confidence. I was also saying jokes as the announcer read a silly little bio about my hobbies and things that I liked.

To my surprise I actually enjoyed the first round and I decided that I really wanted to compete in the silly contest. The second round was strike your favorite pose. I did a pose like a man flexing his muscles.

The final round was where I really came out of my shell. It was the talent contest. I rolled up my sleeves and started singing. “Da Da Da Da Da” and then I blew a blee right into the crook of my elbow. “phiph-phiph phiph-phiph, Da Da Da Da Da phiph-phiph phiph-phiph . . .” Everyone loved it! I was so sure I had won.

The scores were totaled and I ended up being first attendant. The “Biffy Queen” was a girl who had done back flips around the fire during the pajama contest. I was disappointed that I didn't win, but I was really proud of myself for having fun in the contest. Plus I got a sash that said “First Attendant.”

The next night I had another opportunity to be silly. Each ward preformed a skit. The theme was “Where were you when the lights went out?” Prior to camp our ward leaders came up with the idea to have our skit be about the Light family going out for the evening. I played the dad, Halogen “Hal” Light. My wife was Florescent “Flo” Light. We had kids with similarly clever names. I don't remember the exact plot of the skit (I think it went through several re-writes to appease all the creative minds involved) It was fun to preform and I got to wear a huge bright yellow tie.

At one point toward the end of camp we were given bookmarks that the leaders had written on. They each wrote something positive about us. Mine had some very nice things one it. Several leaders wrote that I had good leadership skills. I was surprised that they had seen this talent in me.

Other positive memorable things that year were the camping shower that we set up and used; the tree that we hung a bunch of mirrors on; the “hike” to the river; and looking at the stars. There were also several negative things that I will leave unsaid. All I will say is I learned a lot of lessons in “what not to do” at girls camp. Those lessons would come in handy over the years. All in all it was an okay year of camp. Sure there were a lot of thing I would have done differently, but considering we were three wards trying to become one ward it actually turned out really well.