All my "blah". Actually... this is about the blessings in life

Man! want to know why I haven't blogged in a long time? let's start:
I've been traveling like crazy: In May and June we've been to Las Vegas, Alabama, Salt Lake, Idaho, Blanding, Santa Fe, and Salt Lake again.
Lost my $200 camera, hence I seem to think blogging won't work without pictures
Someone got my card info and started making purchases, we were $200 in the hole for a while
We have NO money, so I started editing again ... all day every day.
Therefore, everything else I need to do, isn't getting done
Nate's been on 3 scout campouts in 1 month
Nate also has 4 home study college courses to finish in the month of July, he took 15 credits this summer
I'm incredibly lonely, and I wish Joey had friends too.
I have been sick as heck, so tired I can hardly function, I'm emotional, and feel like I'll passout most moments.
Been doing all sorts of things to loose weight for 3 months, haven't lost a freakin' pound. I've really had to work through my anger about that one.
We completely rearranged the house, it has been quite the process and I'm still not done organizing.
Not to mention, everything else.

I have come to believe that every experience we have is one we chose so that we could learn the lessons we needed, overcome what we came to earth to overcome, and, in turn, become our best and highest selves. I also believe that every once in a while we are affected by the bad choices of others, and in those times, if we are doing our best, God takes care of us and uses it for our good.

Well, here I am:
Although the traveling is what made most of the messes, it has been the only fun I've really had in a long time and I'm very grateful for them.
My camera is still lost and I am still praying I'll find it, or that a magical $200 will show up so I can buy a new one.
The bank took care of the fraud, and we got our money back today, now we have $50 in the account! Woo hoo!!!!I was inspired to look at my account online and noticed it just after it had happened. I think we were able to cancle the order they made. I am grateful because the bank frooze the card, the person tried to make 3 other large purchases. And, I was paid early for piano teaching, so now I can cash the check and go buy groceries for the first time in a month.
The past two months, no editing jobs have been available, but since I've needed to make money, I've had jobs all week.
Who cares if my house is a mess, and if I'm a mess? well, I do. I will have to take Wednesday off!
Nate is graduating in December ... I thought this would never happen. But now I wonder: Do I want it to happen?
Nate will soon have the money to take his certification test and will become and energy/holistic therapist. Send clients his way!
A friend invited me to go to a movie with her and her friends. It felt good that at least on person in Cedar City thinks I'm not too detestable to have around. (I know, everybody loves me :) I just still don't know many people here).
We finally figured out what's making me sick, and are learning more. I inhaled green algea while living in England. That's right, I have mold in my body. It has attacked my nervous system and is making me dizzy, tired, light headed, confused, tipsy, weak and shaky, on the verge of siezers, not getting a lot of sleep (I could lay awake all night), and that's just some of it. I remember when Joey was first born I was afraid I would drop him, or drop a cup of water when drinking. I am SOOOO excited, I'm taking stuff and it is leaving my body. It will take about 2 months, and I am looking forward to it. My one frustration is that I'm told I may also have Lyme disease and the agenda for getting rid of that, right now, feels like hell to me (yes, I did just say that).
I finally got to let go, and am now learning to just love my body, as is. I hear that loving your body is the best way to heal, but I am trying not to love it just so it will change, but to just love it even if it never does... It's a work in progress. Now, if I just had pants to wear; I will save money to go buy some non-maternity pants (yeah, it's embarrassing), because I only have one pair. I use to have pants, but they got too big and I'm grateful that I'm at least not where I used to be. I have gotten smaller since last year.
Our apartment is awesome, I've gotten rid of stuff, and it's just a good thing.
Now if I could just go to sleep and not wake up for a week. Or at least stay in bed for a day?

Meanwhile I have the most wonderful Angel kids and an incredible husband. I also don't know what I would do without my mom.

In other words, life has been a very big, hard, wonderful struggle for me recently. But I think that's because I'm on the verge of some major breakthroughs. I'm glad God loves me and is making this all good! If nothing else, I do know that God loves me and he has always taken care of me. When it comes time to pay the rent, we will have the money; we always have some how. And, I think learning to love myself is the most important thing I can do here on earth. I am reading a book called "you can heal your life" by Louise Hay, and her main purpose is teaching you how to love yourself. I love it and recommend it. She believes that the route of issue is not loving the self, and I'm starting to agree. I'm also reading Elder Uchtdorf's talks on hope from a few years ago and his last conference talk on patience, among other things, which I also recommend.

If you remember, pray for Nate to be successful, and for me to just make it. I'm glad I at least have you, whoever you are.

Exploding Pyrex Dishes

Have you ever heard about exploding Pyrex dishes? Well, I've received a few forwards about them. You can "Google it". For like a day I was afraid of my pans, but I really haven't thought much of it. Well, when we were in Twin Falls, visiting my brother, Mom took a pie plate out of the oven and set it on the stove top. Luckily, it didn't explode. No, it just broke into pieces for no reason.

There's no place like home

So now we are home and the boys have been up to all sorts of fun. We love home, but it's so small after spending three weeks on other people's houses. Daniel is SO happy to be home, while Joey keeps telling us he wants to go home and won't go to bed. We finally started to get settled and use to the idea of being back when my Grandma passed away and we got to pack up and head out again. It was a good weekend though. The funeral was in Blanding; my parents and my brother Brian's family came. Joey loved getting to play with Ben and Lydia. I have to get the pictures from my mom later. We've also been able to have BBQs with our friends, the Johnsons, and on a seprate occasion, the Barneys. We are glad that we now feel like we have at least two whole friends in Cedar City ... We're sure breaking records!

Daniel has really started doing this a lot: 

He also started doing this. He walks, too, but he is just now starting to actually realize that he can do it and has now done it on purpose a handful of times, but only a few steps. We may be in trouble by the end of the week.

Three Weeks of Travel, Part 3: Twin Falls and a new nephew

Twin Falls, ID is America's best kept secret. I hate to give it away now, but I am going to show you all the fun we had! We mostly spent the week taking care of Katie. It was wonderful to be there. We cleaned, cooked, took care of the kids, and ran errands. Joey and Ruth became best buddies right away; they absolutely love each other. Nate helped Brad fix up things around the house; they just moved there a few weeks ago and it was a fixer-upper foreclosure. I got to scrub their down stairs bathroom to death before leaving. It feels so good to work hard! We also got to watch some good movies like "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Ponyo". My cousin Kelsey recommended Ponyo and then my brother had them too, so we had to watch them. I now recommend them.

On one of the days, Brad took us around the area to see the awesome things. We went to Shoshone falls:

The Twin Falls:

Yes, there is only one ... I guess they use to be Twin falls, and now there's only one. They blocked up the other one to build some mining building or something .... pity.

Balanced Rock:

1000 Springs: 

Niagra springs:

This should give you an idea of how blue the water is. My brother thought it was because it was it is so cold: below freezing point, but because it's moving so fast it doesn't have time to freeze.

Katie and William came along and sat in the car for the strenuous stuff:

Katie got to take it easy and let us take care of her. It was wonderful to serve and help them and I was very grateful that I had the opportunity to get to know Katie better. I had prayed that she and I would become more comfortable with each other and feel more like sisters and God sent me an opportunity. Nate also helped Brad fix some stuff up. One of the projects they started was this closet/hole in Ruth bedroom. Here is the before picture:

Nate wasn't able to help finish it completely, but here is the after picture:

Three Weeks of Travel, Part 2: Salt Lake City

We got back from Alabama on Monday night, the 11th, and went straight to bed. I had the next day to do the laundry and get everything ready to leave again. Nate was going to stay home and have a scout campout while I went to hang out with my mom in Salt Lake City. She was going to the The Emotion Code Seminar. She had an extra ticket but I couldn't take it, and I didn't have any where to take the kids. Well, Nate's scout campout was cancelled and so on Wednesday night, the 12th, he decided to come with me and take my mom's extra ticket. We left the next morning, the 13th. We picked my mom up from the airport and went straight to Au Natural for lunch with Mandi. I always love seeing Mandi, she is one of my most wonderful friends! 

We stayed in a hotel where I took the boys swimming while Mom and Nate went to the seminar on Friday evening. My Grandma, Aunt Catherine, my Aunt and Uncle Annette and Nile, and our friend Jules, were all there too. I got to spend time with Adri, another one of my most wonderful friends. We went to lunch with Shelly and Rachelle: friends from college.

The plan was to take Mom back to the airport on Monday then head back to Cedar City, but my brother Brad's wife, Katie, had her baby on Saturday, the 15th! He was 10 days early, he must have wanted to see us because since Mom was only 2 1/2 hours from them she changed her flight and we all went up to Twin Falls Idaho. We ended up being there for the whole week.

To be continued ...

Daniel's 11 months old

Here are some 11 month old cutie shots:

Dottie Laws

My grandma. She would have been 93 years old in September. On Monday, May 31, 2010, she got to go home to be with her husband, her three children, all her siblings (some 25 of them), and everyone else who knew her here on Earth. I know she had quite the welcoming party. About 2 months ago I felt like sending a card to my grandma. I'm glad I did. I told her that I loved her and was grateful for the life that she has lived, Joey drew her a picture, and we sent a picture of all my dad's grandkids, her great grandkids. The one thing about Grandma for me is that she never seemed in great health (from my perception) but she made it to almost every special occasion in our lives. I don't think traveling was easy for her, but she came to everything! I am one of her youngest grandkids, so my older cousins probably remember her differently (my great grandma on my mom's side just died last year at 99, somehow my mom and dad were close enough in age to get married). I'm grateful, too, to my Aunts Reah and Dorthea who took care of her, and are taking care of all the funeral plans. I loved my cousin Kelsey's blog about her.

Thank you Grandma for being you. I'm glad to have you on the other side now, free of physical pain, working in our behalf.

Me and Grandma, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, 1987. I am 2 years old. 

At my baptism, Aug 1993:

Her with her 7 surviving (out of 10) children:

These are at my wedding, Nov 2006

Grandma with 1 week old Joey, just before her 90th birthday party.

I didn't get to come with a new baby, so she stopped to see us.

4 generations!

Love you Grandma!!!!!!!