A little bit of this and a little bit of that

It is another frigid day in the midwest. But within another 6 weeks we should be breaking 40 degrees with some regularity. At least I hope so.

I spoke in Church yesterday. I ended up speaking on keeping our eye on the mark and staying on course. I felt it went fairly well. It seems like I never get to say everything I have planned but maybe that is a good thing. I also did some hometeaching interviews yesterday. In my mind, this is where the action really takes place. I got to know a couple of the men that I really didn't know very well and we had what I felt were some meaningful discussions. I feel very fortunate to be serving with a great group of men. It is also very interesting to see the humility of such an educated group of men. Although I have a Master's degree, I am in the bottom third in terms of formal education. It is very gratifying to see a group of men who make their living largely by relying on emperical evidence discussing faith and hope and the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am indeed fortunate.

I am also acutely aware of my aging. Don't get me wrong, I am still a young man (no laughing!) but the other day when my baby lost his first tooth, I realized that I really don't have a baby anymore. I really don't like these landmarks much. Scott has another loose tooth and this morning was telling me that he couldn't eat his cereal because he couldn't chew. What a thespian. Oh well, life goes on.

Whether you like him or not

These are fabulous pictures I came across through my sister in law Adrianne's web site. I was on there today, and there was a link to a website called Rookie Cookie, and then a link to these pictures. Whether you voted for him or not, it is great that lots of different people out there took these.


http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.html

First lost tooth

Scott lost his first tooth. He is super excited about it. He loved putting it under the pillow for the tooth fairy to snatch up. When the tooth fairy actually went hunting for it to replace it with money it was super hard to find since it was extremely small like a piece of chipped sidewalk chalk.

Today he announced there's another one loose. Any volunteer fairies out there cause this one is broke?

I was sleeping

I took these pictures yesterday of the children while they were sleeping at the time when they should be waking up for school. I love sleeping children. It is so peaceful to watch them.

Scott

Here is Alyssa.

I didn't quite get her sleeping.

Brenden

Jared

And here's my favorite two pictures. Daniel. The reason these are my favorite, because he has his head gear on and I'll probably never get another picture of him with that on, so I had to sneak these shots. Notice him waking up in the 2nd picture. He said, "What the heck are you doing?" I said, just getting a couple shots of you for your yearbook!

Updates with Pictures

It's been a while since I've posted pictures of my handsome boys and beautiful daughter, so here are a few updates:

Caleb took a picture of us. What a great looking couple.



Top of picture is Daniel, age 13

In the orange shirt, Brenden age 11

Caleb, age 15, is in the brown striped shirt being silly with his eyes. He was crossing them on purpose.

In the Hawaiin shirt is Scott age 6. He loves that shirt and wants to wear it all the time.

Alyssa age 9 is next being cute as ever in the red sweater, and then Jared is in front and he is now 12.

Thank goodness for small favors

The wind isn't blowing this morning. It is 23 degrees below zero and if the wind was blowing, it would be in the neighborhood of -40 to -50 degrees. School is closed for the third day in a row. This is about as close to absolute zero that I ever want to come. In another 2.5 months this will all just be a bad dream. I am really looking forward to spring this year.

There is nobody here at work yet today. It is very nice. I am trying to finish up a project that I have been working on for a while and hopefully today will be the day. It all depends on this one experiment. Having said that, I need to get back to work.

I found my keys and other crazy things

Finally, finally finally I found my van keys. Two whole months. Two long months and they are now in my possession once again. It took until I didn't care anymore, isn't that the way it goes, seriously. I had searched everywhere, asked around everywhere, turned my house upside down and then one day just gave up. I actually came to the point of not caring anymore.

Today I was at the post office mailing invitations for someone. The post man says, "Hey do you have a business card or brochure for your Pampered Chef?" I didn't have one with me, but knew I had something he could have in the van. Thank goodness for this experience. I went to the van and couldn't find a Pampered Chef magazine anywhere, then I couldn't find a business card anywhere. What kind of consultant am I to not have any literature with me? The post man wants a pan, and I couldn't even give him a business card. So back to the searching. I'm in the van searching all over, under the seats, in the glove box, in the pockets. And then there it was

MY KEYS!!! As I'm literally shouting a big Wahoo!! I see something else. A letter I thought I mailed over a month ago stuck under the seat. No wonder why the check inside that envelope never cleared. I was wondering about that. And then there it was . . . a single business card. YES!!!

Then there's the story of the mail back home. Today the mailman comes. Not sure how he even drove to our mailbox with the nearly 7 inches of snow that arrived during the night and morning. He delivers a stack of mail. A huge stack. I was so excited when the children brought the mail in. So I start going through the mail. Not one piece was for me. Not one piece was for Jason, not one piece was for anyone at our address. It was all for our neighbor. Even the big box. Is that sad or what? Then I thought that maybe our mail would be at the neighbor before us. So I walk to their mailbox and go through their mail (totally illegal) (now remember this part for later in the story) anyway I go through their mail to see that none of it is mine. Bummer.

I wait and wait for the mailman to get to the other side of the street so I could have a nice long talk with him.

I told him what happened and asked him where our mail was. (See we haven't missed mail in years, we always get at least a junk flyer, always) he said, well maybe it's at the neighbor before you, did you check? (funny he asked if I checked someone else's mailbox) Isn't that illegal?

I told him I did check and it was all for them, then he said he'd check around, but to just expect that I probably didn't receive anything for today. Bummer

Double bummer, I went to donate plasma and my hematocrit was too low. Maybe Friday will be better.

Good things going on:

Scott, my youngest child came to me today holding his newly lost tooth. He is so cute with a tooth that is gone.

I went to go make chili and had all the ingredients in the house, this never happens.

My cold is gone and everyone is well right now!!!!

I have a presentation to give tomorrow and have been putting the finishing touches on it since lunch. I need to take a bit of a break so I thought I would write something.

It is a beautiful day today. Not a cloud in the sky unless I look to the far West where we have another storm approaching. We had a storm yesterday that dropped a few inches of fresh Utahesque powder on us. About two hours after the snow stopped falling the temperatures began falling and the wind began blowing. When I came into work this morning, the bank marquee said that it was -12 degrees outside. It is on days like this that I am glad I have an inside job. I am sitting here on the top floor of my building looking out a huge window to the North and watching a couple of Bald Eagles wheeling over the river. Very nice.

I just found out on Sunday that I am speaking in Church as part of the Elder's quorum presidency in a couple of weeks. I have been thinking about appropriate subjects but have not come up with one yet. I taught a lesson last week about learning to desire the things the Lord desires (see Neal A. Maxwell's October 1995 conference talk), so that subject is out but I am leaning on speaking about keeping our eye on the mark. In other words, staying focused on the gospel and not allowing ourselves to be led astray by things that don't really matter much in the long run. I'm not sure yet. We'll see.

Well, back to the presentation.

old I guess

I'm up early because it's my day to get Caleb off to seminary.

I'm still sick, have a little voice and it sounds like a smoker and on top of that, yesterday I FELL down the stairs. Thank goodness I didn't have Bella in my arms. Bella is the baby I watch 3 days a week that is now 5 1/2 months old. I had set her down on my bed to go get her milk downstairs. I was wearing socks and apparently they were too slippery on the stairs or something, I don't know how it really happened, I just remember one or two regular stairs and then I was falling and I couldn't stop. I must have fell down 8 or so. I hurt now.

Daniel was home yesterday because he claimed he was sick in the morning and since we all have been getting something I believed him, plus he was acting very sick, but by 10a.m. he was running around like a crazy Dan, should have sent him to school, but at the same time it was nice to have him home and have a day with just one child.

Anyway he heard me fall, and said, "Mom WHAT HAPPENED, Are you alright, Did you fall down the stairs?" I told him I did and the next thing he says is

"I THOUGHT ONLY OLD PEOPLE FALL DOWN THE STAIRS"


Nice

Guess I'm old.

Nothing is broken, I'm just so incredibly sore. I hurt so bad on one side of my body and the bad thing is, I have to teach Zumba in just 3 hours. Zumba is a Latin Dance aerobic class and I think it's harder then Step because I have all these twisting moves and I have to think more in order to teach it. Not sure how I'm going to pull that one off.

Annual Movie

We recently went to a movie as a family. Marley and Me. It was awesome. Everyone enjoyed it and I'm really glad they did since we only go to the theater once a year.

This movie was very well done and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to see a great movie!

While watching the previews we were all excited to see that Night of the Museum 2 is coming out in a few months. We all saw the first movie, Night in the Museum as a family a couple years back and this preview for the sequel looks even better than the first one, if that is even possible.

We might just see a second movie in the theatre this year!

New Goal

Every year for the last 8 years in Pampered Chef I have earned a free vacation. The vacations are always fabulous and you can bring a guest of your choice. I always pick Jason. We have traveled to Cancun, Hawaii, Disney World, Alaskan Cruise, Caribbean Cruise and most recently London! I have loved every trip. Mostly because they are completely paid for, you only need to bring money for souvenirs.

Daniel, my 13 year old, came into my Pampered Chef office a couple nights ago and asked me where my trip was going to be this year? I told him I didn't earn one. He said, "Of coarse you did, you always do, where are you going this year?" I told him that the trip was to Riviera Maya, Mexico, however I didn't earn it. He was shocked and said, "Mom, what happened, and why did you take your goal chart down?"

I explained to him that this last year was super tough with the huge ice storms last February and then the major, National Disaster Floods in our area and surrounding areas this past June made it tough for my business, plus it really comes down to it that I quit trying.

Daniel seemed mortified and said, "Why didn't you stick with your goal?"

He has a point, Why didn't I keep trying and stay with my goal?

You can't change the past, however you can make a positive change for the future. The next trip is a family trip to Disney World in 2010. When I earn it the entire family gets to go to Disney. I am determined to earn this trip.

Since I have decided that I still want to do Pampered Chef and I want to take my children to Disney, I will need to go back to holding 2 shows a week or 6 a month to earn the trip. If holding a cooking show in your home is something you would rather not do, then a catalog or e-mail show is a great way to earn products for free. In January Pampered Chef is giving away up to $100 in extra free products when you do a show of any type, so this month is a fabulous time to have that show you have always wanted.

Here are a list of dates and if any of these work for you for a cooking show, e-mail me right away at pamperedmichelle@juno.com .

January 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th,20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 27th, 28th, 29th, or 31st

Looking forward to working with you all soon!