{Time Out For Women} 2012

My sister Katelyn and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend Idaho Falls' Time Out for Women.  It.was.a.blast!!!

Next year we're all going to go...Mom, Me, Tricia (you're invited, too!), Stephanie, Katelyn, and Deseret.

I'll update more on the talks when I can locate my notes.  LOL!

Friday Evening, No makeup for me! But I could TOTALLY
see the stage, even in the top of the balcony! 

Saturday...in better seats! 

Met up with some good friends that I love dearly. ♥

Rub-a-dub-dub

***Disclaimer:  I've scrubbed the grout in this shower so hard, that I've nearly ruined it....I claim that the nastiness does not reflect my house-cleaning abilities, rather the stupidity of someone that sealed in the nastiness, trying to prevent more nastiness.  After elbow grease, A bleach pen didn't work, and a grout brush didn't work.  Just shy of using the wire-bristled brush we use on our car battery, I think I'll try a grout drill next.  Or the landlord will...because it's. just. gross.  and black.  and nasty.***

Having fun with some silly pictures of the boys in the tub....oh.my.goodness.  They are so silly, and they need haircuts in the worst way.

New Eyes

Today was a big day.  A monumental day!  I've been waiting for three years to have my vision corrected so I can not worry about contacts or glasses.  To prep for this day, I have worn only glasses for 4 years.  And it paid off!!!  I didn't have the ghost veins in my pupils and corneas that my optometrist thought I would have which makes having LASIK near impossible.

I'm not gonna lie....I was a little nervous. 

Don't you think the hair-net suits me?!  LOL!

I BEGGED Ryan to stay and take pictures of the procedure so Tanner and Taylor could see it, because Tanner insisted that "You won't look like our mom if you aren't wearing your glasses!"...And he was able to see a few minutes of it before heading off to work....even if it was only on a tv screen. :)

I'm under the black machine and the bed pivots
back and forth under the white machine....spiffy stuff!

This is what you see when in 'the chair'.  I had to look only at the green light in the center.  The yellow lights had to stay lined up, in a square.  The white and blue lights were SUPER bright!!!

This is after my 3 hour Loratab-induced nap on Taylor's bed in the boys' dark bedroom.  I felt terrible and wanted to cry.  Not because I was in pain (uncomfortable, yes) but because I was scared to open my eyes!!!  Can you say "sissy"?!  I would compare it to the feeling of not wanting to use the bathroom after having a baby.  I kid you not.

This is what Hell looks like.  

I can take off my bug eyes to put drops in, but will have to sleep in them tonight and wear them tomorrow.  I'm so cool!  I also cannot don't have to wear makeup for at least a week.  And then only light eye makeup for the next three weeks....I think I can handle that.  I am not sure my teenage-skin will fare well without concealer though.  Who knows...maybe it will clear up. :)

Now, at 8:30pm, nearly eight hours after having a laser and amazing doctor correct my vision, these are going to be my BEST friends!  I am using them like one eats chocolate on a bad day.  :)

Thanks to my mommy & daddy for taking the boys for the weekend while I recover without children under foot and quite possibly become VERY productive with some reorganizing that's been put on the back burner.  :)

_____

@ Kate:  I was really afraid, too.  I had Ryan and my dad give me a priesthood blessing the day before and that helped calm my nerves immensely.  There was lots of pressure from the suction thing....and it probably wouldn't have hurt too much except I popped the suction thing off twice with my eyelids (the lights were bright at that point and I wanted my eyes closed)....Not intentionally though, because I didn't really know I was doing that....they totally numb your eyeball.  LOL!  And I was also worried about looking at the green light....but it's not for long and wasn't that hard...when the suction is on, you can't really see anything....so looking at the light was much easier than I thought.   The nurses were amazing...gave me a Loratab and when my sweet friend Karen dropped me off at home, I walked straight to bed and slept so good. :) This morning (day after) I feel GREAT!  My lashes are a little gunky from all the eye drops, and the back of my throat is nasty, again from all the eye drops, but I laid in bed and could see the alarm clock across the room!!!  It. was. fantastic!!!!

{Last Chance} Meet

For all the 'hard core' swimmers, Saturday was their last chance to get qualifying times for winter championships...

...so I signed Tanner up.

Not because he is going to winter champs (although he qualifies because he's under 8 - not because he has fast times.  LOL!), but because it was a close meet and he needs the experience.  And Ritalin.    He used more energy bouncing off the walls than what comes in a can of pure caffeine.  I wish I could bottle his energy and give it to him RIGHT before he swims...or when I have a big project to work on.

That's Tanner...in case you couldn't figure that out. 

Checking the Heat Sheet for the next swim...

Oh, look!  An arm out of the water!  LOL!  

My mom has been doing this 'swim meet' thing for TWENTY YEARS.
I kid you not...I started swimming when I was 8.
...so yeah.  She's the REAL CHAMPION here. 

Check out the ages of these boys he's up against...10-16-5-15-10
He rocked it.  And brought up the rear!!!  

My baby sister - Deseret.  She qualified in the 100 Breaststroke for Winter Championships!  WAHOO!

25 Backstroke
Seeded at 1:22.73 - Final Time was 51.61 !!!  Took off 31 seconds! Placed 6th out of 9.

50 Freestyle
Seeded at 2:12.63 - Final Time was 2:14.41.  Added 2 seconds.  Placed 6th out of 8.

25 Freestyle
Seeded at 1:00.28 - Final Time was 57.92 !!!  Took off 2.5 seconds!  Placed 6th out of 9.

50 Backstroke
Seeded at 1:46.00 - Final Time was 1:53.69.  Added 7-ish secondes.  Placed 3rd out of 5.

No DQ's for this little guy!!!  Although we REALLY need to work on listening skills....the added time on the 50's was because he didn't listen when I told him ninety-two times to go "down & back", and instead waited at the wall trying to figure it out.  Good things he's got a few years to do so.

Service with a Smile

If this isn't it, I don't know WHAT is!

We had a beautifully windy snowstorm today. It dumped a few inches.  And while I was looking forward to beating the landlord and shoveling the walk myself, I admit, to see Tanner be EXCITED and WILLING and EAGER to run outside and actually do a really good job tackling such a feat made me smile.  

My {heart} is full.

We had a special stake conference today, and while I expected a new stake presidency or new stake/ward boundaries to be announced, I was pleasantly surprised, and my heart is full.

The only talk I was able to take notes on, and really hear (it's tricky to hear everything when three boys are being less than reverent), was that by our stake president, Kay Christensen.  His message was simple and one our home desperately needed to hear.

He posed a question for us to think about:  "What are the things we do that strengthen our family?
Specifically, how can we pattern our homes after the temple?"

• Soft voices
• Appropriate music, movies, and reading material
• Activities:  Service to others
• Building relationships

Our home and the temple should be our favorite place to be.

It is better to be kind than to be right.  Sadly, entertainment has taken the place of communication...something even our 20 month old has started doing...(Kortlen knows 3 words (mama, mom!, and uhhhh!), and how to play on the iPod.)

He also asked the following questions...something to "Think on, Speak of, and Act on" :
1.  What do you want?
2.  What are you willing to do?
3.  How far are you willing to go?

My heart is full.  I needed a little reminder.

Guess Who Won!?!?

...i did.  and here's why...

Tanner had a swim meet in Bountiful this morning.  For various reasons, I decided to go despite the severe pain I'd had in my neck for a good week.  I'll get to that later.  Tanner first.

See this...

Yeah.  I'm pretty sure he was the youngest swimmer there.  If you aren't familiar with how meets are run, kids are seeded according to age, and their time (boys race boys, and girls race girls).  Tanner competes in the "boys 10 & under" age group, and is usually seeded last, because he's just a tad bit on the slow and inexperienced side.  That's okay. You have to start somewhere!

He ended up taking off 7 seconds from his 50 backstroke time....yay!  Progress.  And he took a whopping 49 seconds off of his 50 freestyle time.  SUPER YAY!  I'm confident he could have shaved an additional 30 seconds from the 50 free if he hadn't gotten silly and just bobbed up and down the last 4 yards.  Regardless, he is now using his arms and legs simultaneously...instead of separately.  It's a good thing.

Despite his placing last (not including those disqualified and no-shows) in his category, I won, because I got the see the standing ovation that every spectator and swimmer gave him after swimming both events.  I got to hear the "how old is that kid?!" and all the "Gooooooooooooooo!" from the people around me and in every corner.  It was hilarious!  I'm not sure if they were excited he finished because he didn't drown, or that he finally finished so they could go on with the next event.  Either way, it was awesome.  And he was a trooper!

I also won because I had my neck worked on....I don't think I posted about it here, but I did something stupid while lifting weights last week, and thought a disc slipped or something.  I had terrible pain radiating up the back of my head and down my left arm, and at times debilitated me from doing the things I need to do.  I have lived in constant pain for the last week, and was just about in tears at the meet.  I don't even remember half the drive down, because the pain was so sickening and I thought I'd throw up at any moment.  I would compare it to Kortlen's natural birth (pain at a 10, being the highest), with this being about a 12....a constant, sharp-shooting, tingling, hot, sickening & nauseating 12.  At least giving birth is over after a few hours.

ANYWAYS, my dear friend Karen asked how I was doing, and she could see I was almost in tears.  So she grabbed another swim mom who is a massage therapist to come and look at me...and then she worked me over right then and there, so painfully, that I burst into tears in the bleachers!  I was so embarrassed, yet SO RELIEVED!  I could move my head! Magic fingers!!! I think I was also crying because for the first time in a week, I had felt relief from the pain.  Throughout the course of the meet, my new friend Debbie worked on my neck about every 30 minutes.  The pain was still there, but subsiding.  Each time it felt better and better.

Turns out, the pain wasn't a disc (although I did go the the chiropractor Friday morning and it sorta helped).  Apparently my neck muscles and nerves were fighting each other and causing muscle spasms.  Ice helped IMMENSELY (I'd been doing heat....face-palm), and simply understanding WHAT was going on made me feel better.

Despite crying half the way home because the pain returned to be more than I could handle, I am even more excited to see Debbie again this week and have her work me over...I don't care how much she charges, I NEED the pain to be gone!!

And I'm tired of wearing the bag of frozen cranberries around my neck.  LOL!  It's kindof getting old.

Yup...I'm a winner.   


Note to self:  Don't do dead lifts and then check your form in the mirror.  That's just stupid.  

Life Lessons

This three-day weekend was a welcome get-away....We had a fun and entertaining visit with Mitch & Heidi in Bear Lake (and I am always having too much fun chatting it up to take pictures)...then stopped in Lava at the Hot Pots (we stayed for a record one hour!!  Usually it's more like 20 minutes for me)...then spent Sunday and Monday with my family. 

This morning we went and watched my dad feed the cattle.  He was really brave and put the boys in the truck while Katelyn and I scrambled for our coats and shoes.  It was a beautiful crisp morning!

The kids thought it was funny how the truck rocked back and forth while Grandpa was loading the bales of hay on the flatbed...this morning's load was a double-deck-er.

See?  Gorgeous morning.  Usually there's miles of five foot snow drifts in this field along the road....not this year...yet!

"FINALLY!  We've been waiting since sunup!"  ...so we got a late start...

"Neyummm, ummmmm, ummmm, ummmmm."

At one point, Tanner said to Taylor, "Yup - Taylor!  Those are bulls.  There is steam coming out of their noses!"

I thought Katelyn and I were going to die laughing in the feed pickup.  When we told my dad what Tanner had said, we had to have a little lesson on cattle ranching:  Bulls are boys, and cows are girls.  THE. END.

There were all kinds of questions...like "What are the big poky things for?" and "Why is Grandpa pulling off the string" and "Is Roxy a predator or is she prey?" and "How does she know how to track us in the snow?"  Oy.  These kids need to get out more.  

Kortlen couldn't take his eyes off of the beautiful beasts!  And I must admit - Roxy was pretty entertaining, taking charge of the whole morning.  

See...I told you we scrambled....I was in the middle of a grueling workout when I was hollered at to grab some boots...stylish boots meet worn-out yoga pants.

This is going to sound nerdy, but my favorite part of feeding is pulling off the bailing twine.  Yup.  Nerdy.  It's just so....cool.  Especially when it's frozen to the feed.  Definitely "cool".

Speaking of cows licking...What am I going to do about Taylor's double cow-lick?

We all learned to drive at the ripe ole age of about 7.  (But I'd NEVER let Tanner do that....he's a city boy.  LOL!)  Katelyn had the pleasure of driving us over frozen ruts down the road to the pasture this morning....lucky we didn't lose a load!  Though we did swap stories of the loads we DID lose growing up.  Talk about hilarious!  I so glad our dad survived us.  :)

Needless to say, we learned some life lessons today that I've taken for granted.  And then we played hard....in the snow.   Because you know, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.