Time for some changes. . .

I don't exactly know why we feel compelled to make new years resolutions. How many of them have you made AND actually kept through the years?

I can think of only one that I have made AND kept. I gave up chocolate as a new years resolution in 1990. Seventeen years later, I still don't eat chocolate because to me, I didn't just eat chocolate, I lived for chocolate. I couldn't buy gas without buying a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. And I couldn't eat just one piece of chocolate ever, I had to eat until there was just no more left anywhere.

The funny thing about it is, even though I don't eat chocolate, I still have the same destructive eating habits. I just substitute everything else for chocolate. Especially caramel, peanut butter and well, pretty much anything sweet that doesn't involve chocolate. I cannot open a bag of red licorice without eating the entire bag in pretty much one sitting. And I've learned to eat around chocolate in lots of things too.

Anyway, I digress, this was suppose to be a post about new years resolutions, not about chocolate or my destructive eating habits.

The new year is several days old now, but with all the chaos of travel, etc, I didn't take the time to commit myself to some resolutions. Heaven knows I will likely break them in a few days time, but if I commit to it here, maybe it will actually happen:

1) Gain control of my destructive eating habits. All that weight I lost 3 years ago is coming back fast. I think our trip was really bad for me this way. There was a lot of sitting around and eating and I have no one to blame but myself. I am not setting a goal to shed 10 lbs, but rather to stop all the never ending snacking. If I did that, the 10 lbs would take care of itself.

2) Kill the clutter that has taken over my home. In the past few months as I have focused on my businesses, the clutter has moved in and overwhelmed me. I find myself moving piles around instead of addressing the stuff that is in the pile. Gotta do something about it before you see me on one of those Oprah shows about hoarding.

3) Build up my spiritual self. In my adult life, I have mostly had callings where I teach gospel principles, causing me to focus on them. But now I've been called to work in Cub Scouts. (Another topic for another post I am sure). Not much spiritual about that. So I am setting a goal now to read the Book of Mormon each week for gospel doctrine class (even though we just finished it a few weeks ago as a family) and read and study the Teachings of Joseph Smith.

4) Continue cultivating my talents but not let myself get burned out. I have a tendency to do something (like paper crafting) very intensely for short periods of time and then get burned out and lose interest or stop doing it because my space gets to cluttered. Gonna try and fight that burn out and organize my space so it in conducive to creativity!

5) Be a better mom. Oh wait, I already blew that one by ignoring my son while I write this post. I guess I'd better leave that one for another day and go see what he wants.

Cheers!

Spoil Fest '07-08!

Geesh. I said in our family Christmas letter that one of my new years resolutions would be to blog more often. And it has taken me five days into the new year to actually do something about it.

But I do have an excuse. Probably not a good one, but one nevertheless. Thursday night we returned from our two week "A.J. Spoil Fest 07-08." We left in the very wee hours of Saturday December 22 and drove to Reno to meet Grandma Lori and Grandpa Richard for breakfast. LET THE SPOILING BEGIN!

Grandma Lori is my very good friend Tara's mother. She has always treated me like another daughter and has always treated A.J. like one of her grandchildren. We love Grandma Lori -- especially when her and Grandpa Richard treat us to breakfast at the Black Bear AND get A.J. a much desired Optimus Prime Transformer for Christmas. Whoo Hoo!

Then we drove three more hours to Grandma's and Grandpa's in Yuba City. Time for some more spoiling! James' mom has A.J.'s favorite treats and there in even a fun cousin (Danielle) to play with! And Grandma even camped out with the kids on the living room floor. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning there too. Did I mention that Grandma bought an 18 lbs ham for us to eat? A.J. was thoroughly spoiled Christmas morning from Santa, mom and dad and of course Grandma and Grandpa. More transformers, lots of movies, a new Leapster and lots of other stuff.

On to the other Grandparents on Christmas day for more presents and more treats. Christmas day also found us going to my Aunt Mary's and Uncle Mark's in San Francisco where they and my brother Eric and his family join in on the spoiling. Mary and Mark's daughter Carol is also one of A.J.'s favorite people and he had been talking about seeing her again for weeks. I tell you what, A.J. is well loved and well gifted.

My parents also spoiled A.J. over the next several days with lots of stories and indulged his endless desire to play Sorry! over and over again. (Can't believe how fast he picked up on that game.) Grandpa even took him to a really cool park to play in Concord.

We finally came home on late Thursday night. But not before another stop by Grandma Lori's and Grandpa Richard's for a little more spoiling. She let A.J. watch whatever he wanted to even when he changed his mind about five hundred times. And let him have all the treats he wanted.

Fortunately for us, A.J. is finally starting to understand that things are different at Grandmas' houses then they are at home. Last time we indulged him like this for several days, he was impossible to deal with when it was over. This time he seems to be taking it in stride. We do appreciate all the spoiling that was done by everyone. Thanks Grandmas and Grandpas.

But the trip wasn't all about spoiling. James' grandmother passed away the day before we left to go out there. She had been very ill for the past couple of months and had gone down hill fast in the last week. She was such a wonderful woman who was so generous with her time, resources and talents. We miss her tons and our trip wasn't the same without Grandma Great there too. But it was a blessing that we were able to be there for the services without having to plan a special trip from Utah.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that your kids were just as spoiled as mine. And I hope your 2008 is off to a great start!

Salt Shaker or Snow Shaker?

Today the salt shaker looks more like the snow shaker. We've had a storm that has just kept giving and giving and giving. Actually, the storm hit on Thursday with a pretty constant stream of rain for about 24 hours. It turned to snow last night and just kept coming. We got about eight inches just today.

I can think of nothing that makes A.J. happier than snow. He can play in it for hours. All he requires is a little hot cocoa afterwards. And if it is Steven's Chocolate Raspberry, all the better.
He especially likes it if our neighbors will come out and play with him too. Addison and McKenna always make everything more fun. And their dad, Ken is just a big kid at heart too and loves to play in the snow the way James and I just don't.
We had a similar storm last Saturday and they played outside for a couple of hours and made this ginormous snowball. Today, they turned that into the a snowman ready to play lineman for the Aggies.James even went out and helped A.J. build a snow fort. Me? I will go outside long enough to take the pictures, than I come right back in to sit by the fire and stay warm. I am just a big wimp!

But I do have to say, there is nothing like fresh Utah powder to put you in a holiday mood. It's so pure and white it just sparkles. Of course in a day or two, it will be ugly, but today I am looking at it and my son playing in the snow shaker.

Giving thanks, A little late

Today our family celebrated Thanksgiving. A little late I know but on the actual Thanksgiving we were traveling to visit our friends the Butlers and just ate dinner at the Cracker Barrel on our way to Boise.

But Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. A chance to eat really good food and to reflect on the things that we are most grateful for.

So today I cooked up a turkey breast, my famous stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls and my favorite thing this time of year: PUMPKIN PIE!!!

And now for the reflection on what I am most thankful for this year:

1) My little family. A husband who loves, supports and spoils me and a son that has been nothing short of a miracle in our lives.

2) My extended family. My parents who raised me right and my brothers and their families who put up with me. And my in laws and aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents.

3) My friends. I know it is a little corny but you know the saying, "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold." In this instance, I am rich.

4) The Gospel. Goes without saying right?

5) My Country. I worry that it is getting a little less popular to be proud to be an American again. But I am proud to be American and I am thankful for the freedom it gives me.

6) Access to great medical care. Don't know where we would have been this year without some great doctors, Primary Children's Medical Center and an insurance plan that took care of our little boy.

7) Being a SAHM. So grateful that James' employment allows me to be home with A.J. and pursue my interests without putting a huge strain on the family finances.

8) My hobby and little side businesses. Grants me a little sanity and a connection to people. I keep saying it is cheaper than therapy, but not sure if that is really the case. I think our insurance would cover a good share of the therapy.

9) My home. It may not be a mansion, but it suits our little family just fine.

10) Modern convenience. While I take a lot of this for granted, I am thankful for technology and how it makes our lives more convenient.

Really, I love to Blog

I know you would never guess by how infrequently I've been doing it, but I really do enjoy blogging. I've mentioned before that I love to write, and now that my boutique is over, maybe I'll have a little more time to do it!

Speaking of the boutique, it is finally over. It was almost exactly three months from when I first had the idea until we pulled it off, but we did it. And in my estimations it was a success. My partner Jen (the J of "PJ's Cozy Creations") isn't so sure yet because we are still totally up how much we made after expenses. But for me, it has been so great to have this creative outlet. I was in such a funk for about a month before we started this project and now I feel like I have accomplished something. And all of a sudden it hit me today that people actually pay me to do something I love!! How amazing is that!

And several customers have placed special orders with us so we still have some creating left to do. Just today, a wonderful woman in our ward asked us about putting together three scrapbooks for each of her daughters. Wow!

The hardest part has been pricing things though. We live in a humble area of town, not poor, but most of the people in this area either work for the church or work for the government. (Lot's of police officers, fire fighters and teachers). So they don't have a lot of money to spend on extra things like home decor. We didn't want to price our stuff so high that no one could buy it, while still making enough to make it worth while. Several people told us they thought our stuff was very reasonably priced so I feel a like we hit it pretty close to right, maybe a little low but we decided we'd rather not have tons of stuff left at the end than stuck with a lot of stuff.

But we do still have quite a bit. So if you are on our Christmas list this year, you know what you can be expecting from us!

Now I need to get back to my life as a mom and homemaker. A.J. has been so ready to have this behind us. As a reward, we are going to Hollywood Connection tomorrow afternoon with Jen and her kids and then taking our families out to dinner at Godfather's Pizza.