Thankful

Gratitude, is a feeling of thankfulness for blessings or benefits we have received. Grateful people are quick to acknowledge the kindness and help they receive from our Heavenly Father and others around them. Where there is gratitude, there is courtesy; there is a concern for the happiness and well-being of others. www.lds.org

This Thanksgiving I want to focus on the many blessings that I have. For the kindness that has been given to me and my family. I'm thankful for the help that has been graciously given to us throughout the year. For the support and love that I feel. For the new friendships that I've made and for the friendships that I've been so blessed to have over the years. I'm am so thankful for good health. Thankful for the gospel in my life, and the gift of prayer. Grateful to be blessed with wonderful family, parents, siblings, in-laws, extended family. Thankful for a loving husband. Blessed and thankful to be a mother.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

So Long Baby

It's been a while since I've done a post on how our little Joe is doing. But first of all, as Joe's parents we are having such a fun time with him. I think that it is absolutely true when people say, you will love every stage of their lives and you'll want them to stay that way forever, and then they grow into another one that is just as great. Right now I've loved this stage that Joe is in. He is more independent now, and I'm afraid to say that my baby is now a toddler.
Joe is a little helper. From the pictures of my post below he is always wanting to be where we are and do what we are doing. Whether it's yard-work, dishes, cooking, laundry or brushing our teeth...Joe wants to do it too. It's funny sometimes, and sometimes it drives me nuts! I'll leave the room for a few moments and he'll have an entire drawer of socks, clothes or even kitchen utensils on the floor. I'll come back, help pick up the mess leave the room and within seconds we have a mess again! He always keeps us on our toes!
One thing that is so great about the toddler stage is watching Joe incorporate all the many things that we've tried to teach him or he learns himself into his little routine. When Joe was about seven months old, we checked out some signing books from the library and started to teach him basic sign language. It's not been until the past couple of months he has turned into a little signer, which totally surprised us! It's soooo nice when he's having a tantrum, we can eliminate a lot of the stress on both sides by asking simple questions like "Joe what do you need?" and in return he'll sign something like "eat", "drink", "more","milk", "dog", ect. It's so helpful, even when he really doesn't know what he wants, he knows that if he can sign something we'll pay attention and try to help him as he tries to communicate rather than be a "wet noodle" on the ground.
He's started to talk a lot as well. Here are some of his favorite words he can say:
"Duh" -Duck
"Dog" -Dog
"Dat" -Light (with finger pointing up to the light)
"Mama" -Mom
"Hi deed" -Dad
"Up" -up
"A-Duh" -All done
"Baaaw"- Ball

Joe tries copies what we say, in the tone we say it. He's always is speaking his jibberish language. It's especially cute when he tries to have a converstion with us and he truly understands what he's saying. Like I said before, I have a toddler now on my hands in a favorite stage of ours. Even though he's a rambunctuous toddler, he'll always be my little baby.

Little Helper

Four More Years!

Congratulations to my dad for having yet another successful campaign. He is currently serving his third term as Orem, Utah's mayor. "Family City USA" has chosen him once again to serve them for four more years. This year Tyler and I did what we could to help out with the campaign. And although we would've loved to help more, there is only so much we could do living one state away. My mom and sister Marianne were the real campaigners this go around. Helping my dad organize the "troops" (grandkids, family and friends) that would put up signs, pass out thousands of flyers, etc. In the end their hard-work and dedication certainly paid off.

It was fun, as always, when we gather as a family on the late night November voting days at the Orem City Center to watch the votes come rolling in. My parents were patiently waiting as the different voting districts were tallied and entered in.

After all said and done, my dad won by 76% of the votes. The news was set and ready to interview him. Congrats Mayor Washburn!!

Monkey Business!

It's everywhere

Do you think you could go a day without hearing about this crazy flu season? How about a half day? Not over here in my neck of the woods. It's everywhere. From the media blowing it out of proportion, to chatting about it online with friends, hearing that this guy or that guy, this family or that family, this High School closing, or even the coughs and sniffles at church, grocery stores, etc. It's everywhere. Yuck. Just the thought of the flu is on the top of everyone's mind even if you are sick of it...no pun intended. Are you as annoyed as me? I just wish it would go already and leave us alone. Too bad it's just the beginning.
Whether you have already had the shot, waiting for the shot to be re-stocked, or on the fence about immunizing, here is an article that is very interesting and could be very helpful. (Thanks to my sister for sharing.) It's simple daily things to do. The number one thing is to wash your hands, really? Have you ever been in a public restroom and seen someone do just "the rinse" after they do there business. Do you think that really kills bacteria? Come on people...common sense use soap and warm water. Here's the list. Hope you stay healthy and have a happy flu season. To those who've gotten sick hope you feel better soon.


Prevent Swine Flu - Good Advice

Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital ,Bombay Hospital , Saifee Hospital , Tata Memorial etc.. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

The following message given by him, I feel makes a lot of sense and is important for all to know

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it's almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. "Hands-off-the-face" approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don't trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected o ne. Don't underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*

5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, hot cocoa, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

Marriage Agreement

I guess you could say you would call me a thrill seeker. I've bungee jumped a few times. I like the thrill of a crazy theme park ride. Been repelling, and gone on several zip lines in the jungle while in Mexico. I was talked into cliff jumping at Lake Powell. When I was younger, we'd visit family in Georgia and would go fishing and swimming in swamps filled with alligators. And this time of year I love a good haunted house. However, there is one thing I do not enjoy, a scary movie. Call me a wuss, it is what it is.
When engaged to my husband, I made an agreement (probably to impress him because we were still in the courting stage) that in the month of October I would watch scary/horror movies with him. Ever since, he has held me to that promise. Big mistake on my part. I'm still trying to figure out what it is with guys and their scary movies. You better believe that when the first of October comes, Tyler is planning out the month with horror flicks.
The other night, we started watching a movie that freaked me out so bad that I had to leave five minutes into it and go to bed, hoping to not have nightmares!

Ah, the things we do for those we love, right?

Oh, I forgot to mention that part of the "movie agreement" was that he would watch chick-flicks with me throughout the year. Uh-hum, he has failed his side of the deal. Oh wait, I think he watched maybe five minutes of the movie Ghost with me, during the fight scenes, last week because it was on TV, does that count?

Anyway, I've got three more weeks in October to fulfill my promise to him, filled with many torturous hours of horror flicks.

Wish me luck and no nightmares.



Do you think I'm being taken advantage of?



Please don't come tapping on my windows late at night,
you will get maced in your face! he he he

Where's the pumpkin?

 

 

 

 

We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. Joe had a blast stomping in the dirt and mud, climbing on the haystacks, and riding in the wheel-barrow picking out pumpkins.

And yes, it's a wheel-barrow not wheel-barrel in case you were wondering.

Fall Football

 

If you were to ask my husband what his favorite season was out of the year it would be fall, for football season of course. When we found out that his home team from Missouri would be coming out this way, meaning this far west to Reno, we jumped on the chance to get tickets. We invited Tyler's brother and his wife, Travis and Taryn to come along with us. We left the children behind with the best babysitters, and headed out on a road trip last weekend to Reno. The trip was a ton of fun filled with laughter, craziness and a lot of inside jokes for many years to come I'm sure! The game was a blast, a nail-biter for most of it, but we pulled out a win making the trip worth the long drive. We lost our voices cheering and yelling M-I-Z Z-O-U about a hundred times, yelling D-FENSE, and taunting the opposing team by howling like wolves, their team mascot. Our trip was great and thanks to my sister for watching our little boy we had no worries, this was our first time leaving him for more than a day. Looking forward for an awesome fall football season! GO MIZZOU...and my hometown team BYU!

The results

 

 

 

 

The results came back from my allergy blood test that I blogged about right before this when the nurse "popped" my vein. And although I had a hunch of what the results were going to be, I was very sad to have them be confirmed by the doctor and written in black and white right in front of me. I'm officially allergic to wheat, melons, apples, oranges and my worst food allergy is bananas. The doctor says that these stem from a lot of seasonal allergies. Which they did a skin test, horrible if you've never had one. They poked my back 59 times with different possible allergies ie: trees, animals, molds, weeds, histamines, etc. Then I waited with for about 30 minutes to see if any flared up, which a lot did. Then gave me 13 shots in my arms with more tests. The verdict: I am allergic to lots of weeds and trees, which are especially dominant in Idaho and Utah. The bad news, I have to take a lot of allergy meds, always carry an epi-pen, and stay away from the above foods, the food part being extremely difficult. The good news, with the help of medicine in the next few months to a couple years my body will be able to tolerate the foods I am allergic to, hopefully.