J's a little punk with a potty mouth. That boy's world is gonna get rocked. I'm puttin' the smackdown on him soon. I just need to work up the nerve.

Tiff

I was looking through the little photo album that my friends in CA gave me when I moved away, and there were all these cute pictures of our kids and they were SO LITTLE! There was one of you and I, Tiff, but it wasn't very flattering of either of us, but it made me happy, so I found another, more flattering, happy picture to post.

I also found one of both of us looking like whales in white T-shirts, you having just had a baby, Tiff, and thus well-endowed, and me with a huge belly and fat face, being nine months pregnant. I promise never to put that one on my blog, unless

you don't call me for like three weeks, and then I might, just to see if you'll ever speak to me again.

I especially like the flourescent green gum in our mouths in this picture.

Tiff took me to get my first pedicure. I was pregnant and fat and feeling ugly, and she dropped by and picked me up. She treated me, as I remember. The cute little Vietnamese lady who was scraping all the nasty calluses off of my feet asked if I wanted the hot oil massage, and I said no thanks, but Tiff insisted, and I was too shy to say "NO! I don't want the stinkin' hot oil massage!"

I have very sensitive calves and forearms. My roommate Allison, who used me as her guinea pig all the time in beauty school, had me come in to get a manicure, and part of the deal is getting your forearms massaged. I just about went through the roof. It tickled, it hurt, it made me CRAZY!

My shins and calves are the same way. Just leave them alone.

Tiff thought I was being polite, not wanting to spend the extra $5 of her money, but really, why would I want to pay an extra $5 to get tortured?

It's all I can do to not kick the gal in the face when she's scrubbing the bottoms of my toes with that pumice stone.

Ah, what I wouldn't give to have a pedicure right now! My heels are so cracked and dry that I wore a hole in my sheet last week. I used to blame it on Eric when that happened, but this time it was my side of the bed.

I miss you, girl.

Have you ever been sitting there in church and thought, "Wow, those kid's sure are being good! I guess the new sticker book I bought them is doing the trick!"

Deep thought by Lydia Ellis

You may or may not know that when I run in the mornings, I listen to conference talks on my Ipod. Today I listened to "Remember, Remember" by Pres. Eyring from last fall, and his talks always really, really teach me something I need to know. He talked about writing down each day the way the Lord has touched our lives.

I had one of those hectic, crazy days yesterday, you know the kind where you run around like a crazy person and end up accomplishing precisely nothing. Those days always make me grumpy. As I was leaving Costco, the guy at the door checked my receipt (I think they all know me by sight, I'm there like twice a week) and asked me how I was. I said, "Well, I'm at Costco at 8:30 with 2 kids, what does that tell you?" And then he started singing "Count your blessings, name them one by one..." Okay, I was way humbled.

I'm grateful for my awesome kids, for their health and their cute individual spirits. I'm grateful for my incredible husband who doesn't bat an eye when I didn't make dinner or do the dishes for two days. Right then, I felt grateful that the Lord put this silly man at the door to check my receipt and my reality.

My New Accidental Calling

So, we moved to this ward a little over a year ago, and in that time, I have never heard much in the way of food storage. Around November, I started really feeling strongly that it was time to get serious about our family's food storage. In asking around, I found out that a)nobody had been called to be the food storage person in our ward, or b)two names were mentioned, but no one was sure if that was the food storage person, c) our stake owns a mylar bag sealer, but d)when my friend tried to find it, she called 20 different people, and finally gave up when #20 told her to call #1 again.

So, needless to say, if I was going to buy long term storage for my family, it was going to be left entirely up to me. I did what anyone would do, I called my big sister and asked her for help. She lives in Columbus, and I figured she would know how it was done "in the mission field". She told me that a lady in her stake puts together a giant group order from a place in Idaho called Walton Feed, but they had just received their order for the year. So, I called Walton Feed, and they referred me to another group in Dayton (about 1 1/2 hours from here) and I was welcomed into their club, so to speak. I invited my Gourmet Divas friends (recipe group) and some of them ordered with me. I also had a few other people add on through word of mouth.

A short time later, I was called to be on the Activities Committee. A few weeks ago, the bishop asked our committee chair to put food storage under her banner, and I volunteered to take that over for the ward. (It gets me out of other activities responsibilities.) A member of the bishopric said to me today that they were glad to find someone with a passion for food storage, and I explained to him that I would NEVER say I was passionate about it, only that there are many things I would rather watch than my children starving. I'm glad to do it if no one else wants to, and I think there are many people in our ward who want to get their food storage, but like me, don't know how or where to start. I will learn so much by doing this, and that part does make me a bit excited. I also feel very peaceful, knowing that our family is on it's way to being a little more self-sufficient.

Moab Boy's Trip Slideshow

Here is a slideshow from the boys trip to Moab. They had a blast playing in the dirt and exploring Grand Junction and Moab. C and J got their first exposure to white-water rafting. The river was running high and water temperature was 42 degrees. J caught one wave full in the face and decided early spring rafting was not for him.

The boys also got to shoot pistols for the first time, and J got a bottle from 15 yards. Not bad for a 5 year old. The biggest hits of the trip were the hotel swimming pools and Taco Bell.