Samantha's Fish

I love that I have an opportunity to go on Field Trips. Don't get me wrong, I've gone on several field trips with each child, but it has always consisted of me having to find a babysitter. Since Samantha is my baby, it's easy to attend these field trips.

Today the preschool kids went on a field trip to PetSmart. The kids had a great time, we were able to see a dog getting groomed and some very playful cats. Plus the birds are always a treat because they are always flying around and chirping. The kids had a great time.

Samantha has been looking forward to this field trip because each child was given a fish. Bret took Samantha out on Saturday (supposedly to Lowes) and came home with her very own fish tank. I was giving Bret a hard time, while he was putting it together, for buying her a fish tank, and while he was putting it together, Samantha was clapping her hands and said to Bret "I am so happy". How could I be mad about that?? I took a picture of her with her fish, and she wouldn't take the bag away from her face. So every picture looks the same, I guess this should remind us to take pleasure in the little things....

My Grandma Decker

My Grandma and Grandpa Decker / Me and my Grandma Decker

My Grandma Decker passed away today. My grandma hasn't been very healthy for some time, so there is a feeling of joy with her passing, I know now she is healthy and with my Grandpa Decker and with my Great Grandma Reed (her mother). But even though I know there is happiness in her passing, there is also sadness. I guess I just wanted to make sure I mention a few things that I will always remember about my Grandma Decker.


She made an incredible pot roast (literally fall apart in your mouth)
On Sunday's we would go to my Grandmas for dinner and she would have place settings with our names on them. (as a child, it made me feel very important).
She thought all my jokes were funny.
She was a nail biter, but she learned to overcome it, something I have not yet learned.
She loved to eat cottage cheese with fruit.
She loved Pepsi.
She always wore red lipstick, no matter where she was going, she wasn't ready until she had on her red lipstick.
She would let us play in her costume jewelry. (I loved that jewelry)
She would let me wear her amethest bracelet. (I thought it was the most beautiful bracelet in the world).
She had a purse to match every pair of shoes.
When we slept over, she would have a tray set up for each of us with coloring books and crayons, and card games. (again, it made me feel very important).
She loved the color green.
She would always tell me what a good mom I had, and that I needed to make sure my mom didn't work to hard. She loves my mom.

I'm grateful that I have these memories of my Grandma, even if some of these memories seem silly, they are all important memories to me.


I love you Grandma.

Which Austen Heroine are you?

Take the Quiz here!

I wish I was like Elizabeth Bennet!! Some of the questions were tough, and I personally think some of these questions should be answered by your husband or close friends.

Tender Mercies

In January I had to go off my thyroid medication because of some tests. It is ridiculous how much power your thyroid has over your body. For the most part I felt tired and achy, grouchy and sick. During this time that I was so sick, I was able to experience service, and in my opinion, the tender mercies of the Lord. I wasn't able to do "everything" around the house, and even though I don't actually do "everything", everything I did do took a lot of effort. Thanks to an amazing ward, young women, neighbors, family and friends, I didn't have to do everything. For the most part I didn't do anything...I had women cleaning my house and bringing my family dinner for weeks. While I was "radioactive", I had a friend come over every morning at 7 a.m. to make my girls breakfast and help them get ready for school. Everything was taken care of...my family and I were so blessed.

Since conference is coming up in April, I wanted to make sure and review all the talks from October, and that's when I came to the talk by Elder Bednar called "the Tender Mercies of the Lord". If you don't remember this talk...read it. If you do remember this talk...re-read it. I just want to quote a few parts from his talk:

"The Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ."

I know that because the people in my life listened to the prompting of the Holy Ghost, they helped me, and they willingly helped. They made sacrifices for me, and followed the Saviors example. I just wanted to tell them how grateful I am, and that I know that this is an example of the Lords tender mercies in my life. He also went on to say:

"We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord's tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. Truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance.

I am just grateful for the opportunity I have to recognize the Lords hand in my life. Every day I feel and experience the Lord's tender mercies. I am grateful for my experiences and hope that I will continue to learn and improve each day (we all know I have room for improvement). I hope that you will read this talk by Elder Bednar. I want to strive to always be worthy so that I will recognize the miracles in my life each day.

Migraines

For those of you who have never had a migraine....be grateful. I don't get migraines frequently, I typically get 3-4 a year, so I consider myself lucky, however....I did get one yesterday and it didn't feel lucky. Thursday's Kyle and Sadie have guitar in Orem, I had a small headache all day, but it was just annoying and could be ignored for the most part. While at the guitar lesson, my small annoying headache became a full blown migraine. I knew I was going to have a hard time driving home, so I informed Kyle that after we got to Lehi he was going to be driving the rest of the way home (never did I think I would be so grateful for Kyle having a learners permit). He was nervous driving from Lehi all the way home, but he did a great job. And for the most part, I was able to relax and occasionally close my eyes while he was driving (I closed my eyes because of the migraine, not because of his driving...I figured I better clarify). Once we got home I raced inside and threw up (that's what I do when I get migraines...I throw up), and I didn't stop throwing up for the rest of the night. I finally was able to sleep and about 2:30am, I was feeling better.

My point in telling this story is...I am so grateful that I feel better!! Since November (when I found out about my cancer coming back), I haven't been feeling all that great. I like to consider myself a strong person, and I like to think that I can handle more then most, but it wasn't until this morning with the cancer (knock on wood) and migraine behind me that I realize what a blessing it is to have opposition in my life. I would not be grateful for health if I didn't have to deal with sickness. I wouldn't be grateful for good times if I didn't experience bad times...you get the idea. Life is a blessing, and our struggles are also, if it wasn't for the struggles I know that I would take too much for granted.

StepMoms and Disney

Years ago when Sadie was 4, she asked me if I was Kyle's mom or step mom, I told her that I was Kyle's Step Mom, to which Sadies response was "Oh no mom, that is not good."

While I was getting ready for the day Samantha, who is 4, was watching Enchanted, for those of you who have not seen this movie, it goes along with some famous Disney movies like Cinderela and Snow White. These movies have something similar about them....all these movies include a "Wicked Stepmother". So while watching this movies Samantha expressed her dislike for Step-mom's and then asked:

Samantha: "Mom are Kyle's step mom?"
Me: "yes, I am Kyle's step mom"
S: "Step moms are bad....but you are not bad."
M: "No honey, I'm not bad, and in real life it's not bad to have a step mom, it's good." (Kyle would agree with this statement probably 99% of the time give or take a couple %, hopefully I'm close with my percentage).

So again, I would like to thank Disney for there in-ability to actually show a good step-mom. Thinking about it, there is only one Disney Cartoon that has 2 parents together the entire movie, and that would be Sleeping Beauty (my favorite). What does Disney have against Mothers?

Every Single School Day

Kylee loved Kindergarten, every once in a while she would ask if she could stay home and play, and I could easily convince her that she can play after school. Fast forward one year, Kylee is now in 1st grade and convincing her to go to school is now an every day conversation. This was our conversation this morning:

Kylee: "mom I don't feel like going to school."

Me: "I'm sorry you don't feel like it, but I bet you will once you get ready."

Kylee: "mom, can we discuss going to school today?"

Me: "Sure, what would you like to discuss?"

Kylee: "I don't want to go, can I please stay home just this one day?"

Me: "I know you don't want to go right now, but remember how much fun you have when you go to school, and remember if you don't go to school you can't play with friends all day."

Kylee: "That's okay, I don't need to play with friends."

Me: "You need to go to school."

Kylee: "But mom, can't we discuss going to school."

Me: "That's what we just did, we discussed it, and you are going to school."

To which Kylee gave me her famous disapproving look. I really am at a loss. I don't know what I can do more to encourage Kylee to go to school. I've been really good about praising all her work/reading, I've tried all kinds of rewards, I tried to reward her with $1 if she goes the entire week to school, I've tried talking to her teacher, I've tried talking to Kylee about what she doesn't like about school (she doesn't have anything specific, she just wants to stay home). If anyone has any brilliant ideas I would love to hear them.

I love my Mom!

Yes, I know that the subject of my blog is "I love my Mom!", so many of you are probably wondering why I have a picture of my pantry instead of a picture of my mom, I'll tell you, but I bet you've already guessed....My mom came to my house today and cleaned out my pantry!!

I am so thrilled that my pantry is clean, my kids are always getting in the pantry for snacks, mostly they are just looking in the pantry for snacks because in a house with 5 kids snacks don't last long, but no matter how many times I ask them to close the doors, 9 times out of 10 they forget. Today I have an open door pantry policy!! Leave my pantry doors open and I won't bat an eye.

Anyway, back to my Mom, I just wanted to let her know that she is great. She is always willing to help even though she has enough to do on her own. She has always been an example of what I want to be (except for the constant tears). Thanks Mom, I love you.

Mario is my hero

Not this mario, but I do have to say that I love this little Italian man who has to jump on turtles and defeat Bowser to save Princess Peach. Good times.

The Mario I'm talking about is my accountant. How can an accountant be a hero? If you have to ask, then 1) you have never been self-employed or 2) you have never had to pay money to the IRS.

I have decided that even though my Mario isn't a turtle pouncing Italian, he can honestly (because he is very honest) help us pay as little to the IRS as possible. And that makes him my hero. At least for today.

Battle Scars

I wanted to post a picture of my scar, but now that I'm looking at this picture my neck looks freakishly odd, it looks long and giraffe like, and what is happening on both sides of my neck? Why is it sticking out like that? Weird.....anyway, this post is not about my freakish looking neck, it's about my scar, I will try to focus. I haven't always loved my scar, but after 9 years it has become a part of me and I really like my scar. My scar has always been my second smile because it stretches from ear to ear.

After my recent surgery I received 6 stitches, yes only 6. My last surgery, 9 years ago, I had 50 staples in my neck, so 6 feels a bit wimpy, sorry back to my neck, once the stitches were removed I noticed that my scar was not as "scar-ish" as before. It seems thinner in the middle and just doesn't look like my scar. Why does this bother me? I'm not sure, what can I say...I'm strange. I like my battle scars, I'm proud of them, I worked hard and suffered long to get them. I really need to get over my obsession with my scar.

Learners Permit?!?!?!? Already?!?!?

I decided this is the best time of all to start a blog...Kyle just got his learners permit and it's not every day that you have the opportunity to spend 2 bliss filled hours at the DMV.

Kyle has been asking since February if we can get his learners permit. Unfortunately/fortunately we haven't been able to get his permit because of other more pressing matters. Today, however, was the perfect opportunity to acquire said permit. I checked Kyle out of school, only 15 minutes early, waking him from his nap in seminary (yes, he was fast asleep in seminary, he had to be shaken awake....I'm so proud), and we headed down to the DMV.

We brought the required forms of I.D. and started filling out the application, where I noticed that it asked for the "mothers maiden name", now for most people this would not be an issue, however, I realized that even though in every other sense of the word I am Kyle's "mom"....I'm not his "mother", so we wrote down his mothers maiden name. This got me thinking that I probably should ask if I am allowed to sign for his learners permit.....just so every other "step mom" or "step dad" knows, we are not allowed to sign for a learner permit, or drivers licence. Kyle was very disappointed. However, to make a long story short (too late, I know), Bret was close to 800 North and was able to come down and sign for Kyle to get his learners permit. Whew! Close call.

Once Kyle obtained his permit, the next thing out of his mouth was "Can I drive home?" To which I responded with a polite "nope". Are you kidding me??? He has only driven home from church, now he wants to drive on the freeway, he has played far to many video games where the object is to crash or dodge police cars. However once we were on SR 73, I let him drive the rest of the way home...thinking about it now, SR 73 is probably more dangerous then the freeway, but we made it home without any close calls.

On a side note.....I am terrified to have a teenager that can drive, not only am I NOT old enough to have a teenager who can drive, but I'm NOT brave enough either.