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Monday, March 28, 2011

The Event 2011

The pictures speak for themselves. I'll let Tanner tell you about it on his blog!





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Friday, March 25, 2011

Our month in a "blog"shell...

I have been slacking this month in blog posting. I have been waiting, then forgetting, for Tanner to download some pictures off his phone for the post. I finally remembered to have him do it. So here is our month in a nutshell:
Our Laurel advisor moved to Virginia this month, so Karen and MaryAnne had a going away luncheon for her. It was a surprise and so that was fun. We will miss Whitney. She grew up as a young girl/youth in the ward, went away to college, got married had two boys and came back. So that is always fun to watch someone grow and change.
From L to R: Andrea Shafer, Jen Hill, Angie Tanner, Holly Mitchell, me, Toni Thatcher, Anna Clark and her sister Molly who was in town visiting Anna.
L to R: Karen Sawyer, MaryAnne Thomas, Linda Borla, Barbara Zach, Tracy Bohl, and Whitney's brother's girlfriend (I don't remember her name).




Jay and Andrea had their annual (even though they took last year off) Mardi Gras party. We went to that.




It is always a fun night and there were lots of friends to visit with.
The food was so good. New Orleans food which I don't really know the names of, but I do remember Po'Boys. Jen made this festive cake for the occasion.








Taz cooked dinner three nights in one week to pass off a Duty to God project. He picked the meals and cooked them himself. The first night he made homemade Broccolli cheese soup (shown in pix below) and breadsticks. One night he made spaghetti and galic bread and one night Chicken Rolls. He did great and I loved having dinner ready on piano nights.

Cynjyn's activity days group had a Daddy Daughter night with a western theme. They had a great time! Garry and I watch Dexter. We love it. We are on season 4 and in the opening credits it always shows a blood orange. So we have wanted to try one for a long time. I went to Trader Joes the other day and they had blood oranges. So I bought a pack and we tried it. It doesn't taste much different than a regular one, but as least we can say we've tried one.




For FHE one Sunday, we rented Megamind Saturday and I bought everyone their favorite movie candy and some IBC root beer and we popped some popcorn and had a movie night! Cute show!



Found Taz on the treadmill the other day holding a huge bucket of cheese balls and eating them as he "worked out". Can you say oxymoron?






Cynjyn's school has had several dress up days and she LOVES them. Here she is on nerd day.




Groovy Day




Mismatch day

and St. Patrick's day.

She made the A/B honor roll and won first place in an onomonpia poem contest her class had. She took a test to see if she qualified for GATE (gifted and talented program) and got 98% and so now she gets pulled out for GATE weekly. She was so excited about that.


Tanner's been doing awesome in volleyball. Here are a few shots of him, one blocking and one hitting.




I don't know how Tiffany picks up stray dogs, but here is Talon with yet another one of her dogs she's agreed to babysit. It is Cujo, her brothers dog which she'll be watching for 6 months while he's deployed in Afghanistan. It's the first dog he hasn't been allergic to.




Garry has been much busier attending firesides and priesthood previews and various other church obligations. He even volunteered to bring refreshments to Priesthood Preview.




Tanner had a pretty lame spirit week this spring. It's never as good as fall, but one day was neon day and him, Preston, Amanda and Rachel made matching t-shirts.




They had their nicknames on the back in order: Strawberry Shortcake, Hot Stuff, Sizzling Bacon, and Muffins.


Tanner and Amanda ended up making them the night before.


And that's our month in a blog post! (I think).


Oh and it's March Madness, and Garry's officially done with watching it due to yesterday's outcome. But Taz really had Jimmer fever. He plays ball every spare minute now in the garage.



He made his shot...



...in his makeshift basketball hoop made from a laundry basket weighted down with weights and uses the swamp cooler as his backdrop. He also goes around the house singing "teach me how to Jimmer". If you haven't seen the video of it, look it up...on YouTube...it's good.











That's it, I promise, till next time!




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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Pain

I cried the other night.
It was 11:45 pm and I stood in my closet, my shirt over my head, partially off, and I cried.
I couldn't move.
It hurt too much.
I had been out with friends and hadn't taken my pain pill and therefore, I couldn't move.
Pain, from the tips of my fingers to my shoulders. Daggers of pain shooting through my arms.
And I cried!

I have been dealing with this pain for sometime now. It started right after Taz was born. The bottom of my feet hurt so bad, I could barely walk. When I got pregnant with Cynjyn, the pain went away. I was in heaven. Then, she was born and it returned. I actually wanted to get pregnant again just so the pain would disappear for 9 months. But I dealt with it. I prayed and I became addicted to Ibuprophen and I endured. Finally, about three years ago, I went to a Dr. and was officially diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis. It is a different type of arthritis in that in moves from joint to joint, place to place within the body. For the past few years, it has been mostly in my arms, fingers, wrist, elbows and shoulders. It is painful. My treatment was to be put on methotrexate which in a chemotherapy drug that slows down the progression of cells (mainly the psoriasis). I take 8 pills once a week. I also have a pain pill I can take once every 12 hours. When I was first put on this, it worked well and cleared up my psoriasis pretty well. I only took the pain pill once a day, in the evening and life was o.k. Lately, however, the pain has increased, the psoriasis is getting worse and the joints are very swollen. I now take a pain pill in the morning and in the evening and it only takes some of the pain away. I am still in constant pain and some days are better than others. I went back to the Dr. for my 6 month checkup and he agreed that clearly what I have been doing is no longer effective. So now he wants me to start a new treatment plan. Humira. Yes, you've no doubt seen commercials for it on TV. I will have to give myself a shot every two weeks and I am hoping it is a miracle drug and that it will start to control the arthritis better and I will soon be pain free. Maybe I'm too opptomistic, but I am really hoping!! I am also hoping that I experience non of the side affects and that it will truly help me.
I want the pain gone.
I don't want to cry anymore!

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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Today...Will I?

Will I put on these shoes and walk on the treadmill? YES I will because I am conscious of my One Little Word and I WILL IMPROVE! Actually, I've recommitted to exercising. I only watch one show daily, The View and so that is my time to walk on the treadmill and do some weights. It's been about a week and so far, so good! Will I sweep and mop the Dining Room/Living Room? YES I will. IMPROVE! Actually, I've been sticking to a pretty good cleaning schedule too. Monday's are my major cleaning day, I totally cleaned the kitchen (counters, appliances, swept and mopped, stove etc.) and I dusted the LR, but didn't manage to get to sweeping and mopping, so that WILL be done today!
Will I clean off this extra table? YES, I will. IMPROVE! I have been using Carol's cuttle bug and making lots of cards. This weekend, Cynjyn helped me and I just haven't put it all away yet. But, today is the day!


Will I eat too many of these delicious homemade bread sticks? NO! I will NOT! IMPROVE! Actually, Taz is passing off a Duty to God project this week and he's cooking three meals. Last night, he made homemade broccoli soup and these bread sticks. I had 4 for dinner!! I know, bad me! But today, I will be good and only eat one for lunch!


Will I read my scriptures? YES! I Will. IMPROVE! We have a challenge out to the YW to read the book of mormon everyday for the next six months and we should be done by September. I just did a three month challenge and finished it in three months in December, so yes, I will read my scriptures today!!



So, there you have it. My mental list of things to do for the day. I. WILL. IMPROVE! DO.


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Monday, March 7, 2011

Why I haven't been blogging.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am LOVING my digital scrapbooking class. These first two layouts complete the freestyle part of our course. I have learned so much!!


These next two are the first two of three in the Shabby and Ornate category of the class.



Some of you have asked for info on where I take the class. It is at :www.jessicasprague.com I started with "Up and Running v.02", then I took "Now we're Rocking v.02", then "Digi: in Deep v.02" and finally "Digi:in Deeper v.02". If you know a lot about photoshop, I'd suggest NWR as the starting class. If y0u relly know a lot go ahead with DID. So fun! I'll post some other layouts I've done practicing my skills later!!




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