Embarrassing Moment #387

Seriously. Could this really happen? It did, it really did. I was in the new and improved local Walmart and I went to take a potty break right before we left and I used one of those thin toilet seat covers to keep away from those tiny, ugly germs. You know those thin paper covers that you pull UP and then DOWN, with the directions there to see because if you don't do it that way the seat cover rips in a weird way. By the way, I'm really glad Walmart has upgraded to having the seat covers and the foamy soap. Ok, so all was well, my daughter and I were walking out of Walmart and out of the corner of my eye I see these two hoodlum brothers and they were a bit on the creepy side. As I walk out the skinny one says, "Excuse me." I keep walking, picking up the pace and ignoring the request. My daughter and I were becoming a bit nervous. The guy repeatedly tried to get my attention and I was afraid they were coming after me. I finally turned around and said, "What?!" He then proceeded to tell me that I have toilet paper coming out of the back of my pants! Ha! I reached around and sure enough, there really was remnants of the lovely toilet seat cover! So embarrassing. My daughter was like, "MOM what in the world!" The guy then reassured me that not that many people saw it. I hurried and got into my car and the two guys were parked right in front of me and were laughing and then they left in their getaway van with no windows. For some reason, I felt like I was in a Far Side cartoon, like the one where the guy leaves the bathroom and a huge sign flashes, "Didn't wash hands!" Such a random thing that now makes me laugh. Good thing I can laugh at all the random and funny things that happen to me!

The One Thing...

To be an entrepreneur, you have to stick with it and see it through. You can wish it to be easy, but it usually isn't.

-Donald Trump

In starting a business together, my husband and I want something better for ourselves. Layoffs, traveling out of town, being under paid, and not having passion for your work are just some of the reasons we are taking the plunge into the unknown. I saw the above quote on Facebook and wow, is it ever true. My oldest daughter is old enough to realize that we don't have quite as much as we used to. She has a hard time with not being able to get a lot of the things that I would normally buy for her. And it. is. hard. Something to learn for our family during this time is being able to distinguish between our needs and our wants. I realize kids stuggle with understanding this concept, but I will do my best to teach them the value of things. For example, we aren't doing much school shopping this year. We are using some of the clothes that the kids have from last year and only provide them with the needs.

Some of the best lessons that can be learned while going through this time with our kids are happening right now. Instead of daddy going off to work every morning and then coming home at night to be with us, they see a much different picture of business and work. They see how hard we work for our business and how we are making it grow. Instead of wondering what dad does at work all day, our kids know exactly what he does and that is making pizza for people and the passion he has for doing what he does. We visit the farmers markets where daddy works and see him in action. Over these years we will watch the business grow and turn into a restaurant, a place for families to come and eat together and love the pizza we cook for them in our brick oven.

Through our conversations my older kids are picking up on what it takes to run a business. They were playing with Lego's and they created this brick oven pizza restaurant complete with a pizza oven, cash register, dough maker, and seating for customers. My oldest daughter was engaged in pretend play at it's finest and having her younger brother stay back and manage the restaurant while she and her other brother went on "vacation." Well, my son didn't want to stay back and "miss" the vacation with her so she gently told him that it was important for him to stay back and take care of the business while she was "gone." This very scenario had just happened with our business. We, as a family had gone on vacation and had one of our trusted employees run a couple of events for us while we were gone. Isn't that the whole idea and luxury of owning your own business? Have all the systems and people in place so you can go and come back and things run on their own. But in reality, that take some major work, time and planning to make that happen. So worth it though.

The STORM

Wow, what a week this has been. When it rains it pours I've once heard. That would be the case for me. Up in the night last night, I couldn't sleep. At 2am there were many tears and much prayer being offered. Listening to "How Great Thou Art" my grandmother's favorite hymn, I couldn't help but think she was watching over me in my time of need. Life just keeps moving along and there are so many obstacles along the way, a test, a struggle. A test to see if I will be faithful to what I know is true and right. There are attacks, personal ones from some we love. It hurts and cuts deeply. What would Christ do in situations such as these, I ask myself. I realize He would just take the blows, and let it pass. My thoughts turn to him this Easter season. I must remove myself from the situation and know that those who attack are hurting inside, the anger bursts out in ways unimaginable; for we were friends...


Amidst one trial, another is in the background of my mind. I had been holding it together until, it all came out, last night when I was alone and it was quiet. My precious father is sick, very sick. And I am very far away. I love him, deeply for he has given me so much and taught me so much of how to serve others and what real love is. I found out this week that he can hardly walk. He is so weak and tired from the cancer that is on attack. As I was up in the night typing a letter of thanks and love to my dad, through my misty eyes in the darkness I glanced over at our desktop computer to see this:


Lindsey. I love her. She is hilarious. Amidst the tears came laughter. Lindsey had put this as the wallpaper on our desktop last night before bed. I am so thankful for her. She is such a wonderful daughter. I feel so blessed. She really cracks me up. Thank you Lindsey for brightening up my dad, I mean my night. : )

Weight LOSS

BEFORE

My birthday 2010

AFTER
My birthday 2011

So some of you have inquired about my weight loss. Yes, I have done it and I'm loving it! My baby is about to turn 3, so I have no excuse of keeping all that baby weight.

My quest began last year in March. I wanted to know how many my calories my body needed each day to maintain itself. I subscribe to the school of thought that if a person is continually overeating, even with exercise, the weight will not come off because they are eating more calories than their body burns. So with that said, how many calories did I need to sustain myself? At this time I had been studying in the scriptures, the Word of Wisdom found in the Doctrine and Covenants. This code of health contains things that we should not take into our bodies to be healthy, but also things we should be partaking to be in optimal health. My mission became just that. To be in optimal health so I could serve my family and others and have energy and vitality. I started with a 10 day cleanse, the lemonade cleanse. The one where you drink Smooth Move tea at night, Celtic sea salt water in the morning and then fresh lemonade with grade B maple syrup and ceyanne pepper. Wow, it was hard and I only made it to day 6 because I got the worst headache in America. I couldn't finish it out, but I felt really good afterwards. I lost 7 pounds at that time.

In April of 2010, I started thinking again about my personal calorie intake and really wanted to know how much I really needed in a day. My good friend Lolly told me about the Weight Watchers points and how the system counted calories for you. It sounded like a game to me. So since she was going to the Weight Watchers meetings she bought some points books for me and points slider scale and I was ready to begin. The first two weeks were so hard. It made me realize just how much I was overeating. I never thought I was an overeater until I started points. My experience has been amazing. I was loosing 1-3 pounds a week. Steadily. I've now lost a total of 35 pounds and I love how the points have taught me portions. It's actually really easy to do points. I really treat it like a game for myself. A challenge.

During the summer, my husband and I also started eating less meat. Especailly red meat. We have meat every other night now for dinner. But my meat portions are cut way back. About 3 oz is all my body really needs. We have tried many vegetarian recipes and we love this way of eating. Our son has autism so he is on the gluten-free, casein-free diet. Because of this, all of our family dinners are GFCF, which has also helped change the way we eat. No more cream of chicken soup. No casseroles. Really simple food and yummy food, fresh veggies! I have some GFCF Recipes here. I love the not-so-heavy feeling after a dinner. So awesome.

Here are some links to get you started with the points. Have fun with it. Write down everything you eat! Everything that goes into your mouth. It doesn't take a lot of time to have a food journal. Think all the hours of your day. You are only spending a fraction of that time writing down your foods and calculating points.

1. First, figure out how many points per day you get.

Points Calculator

2. You get 35 extra points in the week called Flex points. So if you eat over your points in that day, they count as flex points. (I don't use all mine in the week) Keep track of these daily.

3. You can get activity points for working out etc. You can choose to use these points to get extra points in the day. Calculate them here. Also, on the same website is a points calculator. Just type in calories, fat and fiber content on any food label and it will calculate the point value for you.

4. When I started I didn't have the points values books so I found it all here.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions. I have lost my weight without going to a meeting or paying for the website etc. Just the initial $25 for the books and a digital kitchen scale from Walmart is all I have put into this. I'm sure it would be helpful to go to the meetings, but I just decided to do it on my own. And it worked. Really. Good.

Super Mario Brothers Volcano Cake

With the help of the hubby I made this fresh Super Mario Brothers Cake for my son's 5th birthday party. If the kids weren't impressed, well the adults were. It's fun to come up with an idea then make it and have it done and have a new fun creation. My husband came up with the tea lights as the different levels you have to pass in each world...great idea! I really love making birthday cakes. The volcano is made with a barbie dress cake pan and I thinned out the frosting and dripped it right on. The green cake is actually a gluten free/casein free cake for my other son who can't have wheat or milk products. We try to include him in the fun as much as possible, so he doesn't feel left out. Awesome!

Chore Sticks

I've been trying to motivate my almost 5 & 3 year old to do simple chores around the house. I was looking for some sort of chore chart on the web and I came across this fantastic idea for CHORE STICKS from this blog: Make and Takes. So simple and easy to use. Eli's sticks are blue and Leah's are purple. When they get done with their chores they just flip them over to the colored side up.

I got the clip art from The Idea Door, really cute.

Thank you very much, and I sized down the clipart to fit on the sticks. They turned out super awesome. I was very crafty today I must say.