Gaining a testimony of the Word of Wisdom

I feel I want to write about something that has become an important part of my life.  I want to share how I began to gain a testimony of the Word of Wisdom.
As a child I never had to worry about what I ate and as a teenager I was very active in sports and was very lean ( a mere 100lbs) so I never even thought about food.  Food was something you ate to satisfy hunger, and also to enjoy as a treat once and a while.  My mom tried her best to feed, us as healthily as possible.  I grew up in the 70's-90's and fast convenient foods were becoming the fad of the day so that is what my mom fed us.  I remember Mac-n-cheese, frozen burritos, and banquet meat pies, with a nicer meal on Sundays.  She would use whole wheat bread, and we did have fresh fruits, and she would usually make a frozen vegetable for dinner.  So we were eating healthier then our friends families.  I remember some of our friends wouldn't even have fruits of veggies in their diet, and ate lots of white bread, white crackers, and anything else white they could get their hands on.  Needles to say, nobody was eating very healthy back then, at least not the examples in my experience.

I grew up, got married and had to take on the responsibility of feeding my own family.  I began to cook for my family the same way my mom cooked for us.  We ate a lot of processed foods, and quick meals.  We Would go out to eat often and ate treats often.  I started to gain weight, I stopped exercising and became caught up in life of being a busy mom.

When I became pregnant with my third child Brynn I tested high on my glucose test.  I didn't have gestational diabetes, but I came within 4 points of having it.  This was a wake up call for me and I realized if I wanted to have any more children I needed to get healthier.  When she was about 2 years old I decided to start running.  I started by doing a run/walk 5 days a week.  At first I mostly walked with a little running in between, but as I was consistent I began to get stronger and I began to mostly run with a little walking in between.  I had more energy and I started eating less. I lost 12 lbs in 1 1/2 years just by this one small change.  When I got pregnant with my fourth child Drew, my glucose test was normal.

To be continued....

Bread! Bread! oh my aunt Bonnie's WONDERFUL homemade whole wheat bread. My Aunt Bonnie has made the most delicious homemade bread for as far back as I can remember. I always loved to go visit their house in Torrence California because I knew I would get to have some of her bread. My mom was never a baker and getting homemade bread was a real treat.
My Aunt gave me her recipe a few years ago, and I was never able to make it as good as she does. It would either be too dry, or too crumbly, or it wouldn't rise properly... there were plenty of failed loafs.
I moved to Colorado about three years ago, and with the elevation and stuff it is pretty tricky to bake here. I again had many failed attempts.
One night we had a young women's activity where a woman in our ward showed us how to make bread with all the tricks and secrets that come along with baking homemade bread in Colorado.
After only a few attempts, I was able to make a good loaf of bread. Though the recipes I received from the ward and other places were good they were never as good as I remembered my aunts bread to be so I tried her recipe one last time ( this time with all the tricks) and lo and behold I had a loaf almost as good as hers. The reason I write about bread is because as I sit here, the wonderful aroma of fresh baked bread is permeating my nostrils. I love it and I give thanks to my aunt Bonnie who inspired me in this way, and many others. Thanks aunt Bonnie. Everytime I make bread I think of you. Love you.

Don't have much to say except this summer has gone by in flash. I have had struggles and blessings along the way. I have had learning experiences and teaching experiences and have been enjoying the journey that is life.
In May Eric, Diana, Scott (di's man) and Colin went to Disneyland. It was Colin and Scott's first time and we had a blast. A memory that will last forever.
In June I was asked to be a part of the Stake girls camp committee as the Assistant camp director would be moving the week of camp. It was a good experience, but it sure takes a lot of energy and time to serve in a calling like that. It took me a few weeks to recover after the fact.
We have had a lot of family visit us this summer. Eric's parents came to help us put up a swing set for the boys, and Eric's sister Becca came with her family for a week. That was a real treat, because she lives in Tennessee and we don't get to see them as often as we would like to.
My sister Cassie and her daughter Josie came for a week and we will be expecting Erics parents and my brother Nic before the month of August is over.
Colin starts 1st grade in about two weeks and I can't believe how fast he is growing and how smart and sweet he is.
Life is busy. I just wanted to give you a little update on the goings on around here. Thats all:)

Yeah I know it has been way too long since my last blog entry. What can I say I suck at blogging.
But I had to write this one down today. Colin has been getting 8 cavities filled, one root canal, and a crown put on in three separate dental visits over the past month. He has had to take a Valium pill one hour before his appointment to help him relax. Anyway, so today I picked him up from school early so he could take his pill, and on the way to the car we were talking and I said " Colin we need to hurry and get home so you can take your pill" he said "What pill?" I said "The one you always have to take before the dentist" he then said "Nooooooo! I hate taking that pill IT TASTES LIKE SPIDERWEBS AND DUST" I said "SPIDERWEBS AND DUST? How do you know what spiderwebs and dust taste like?" He said " I don't know, but I KNOW that's what the pill tastes like SPIDERWEBS AND DUST YUCK!"
I started laughing. He is so cute and smart and weird all it one. I love him, and I love these precious moments in my life because of Colin.

P.S. The appointment went well, we had about a dozen crying spells throughout the rest of the day as the Valium wore off, and hopefully he wont have to taste "SPIDERWEBS AND DUST" ever again:)

Finger Painting

This little stinker decided to use Colin's toothpaste to do some finger painting all over my house on the eve of his second Birthday. I was upset, but he is too, too cute to be mad at, so I took pictures instead :)
He just had to remind me that he is 2.

He is 2 and I love him!


Oh yeah. The toothpaste did come out of the carpet (thank goodness).

Swing Picts

My basement after the first day of work.


Grammy, Pops, Jodi, Chase's head, Eric and Colin at our traditional Christmas eve Italian dinner.

The Hansen family in Sun Valley Id for Christmas

Me, Becca, and the cute, cute kiddies.

Gettin into the swing

Has anyone else had a hard time getting back into the swing of things this year? Man I feel like i'm creeping along. Though if I think about it I have done a lot in the last month or so.

We went to Sun Valley Idaho to be with Eric's sister Becca and her family for 4 days... as she is a caroler up there at Christmas time.

Then we went to Utah for E's littlest brother Daniels wedding on the 19 the of Dec. So we have a new sister in law named Rachel.

And E's Parents and Sister Jodi came back to Colorado with us for Christmas. We had a great holiday, and I actually was able to rest for a few days after Christmas bacause Chase got sick shortly there after.

I have spent two saturdays down in my basement chopping wood, hammering nails, and framing the walls in an effort to add more square feet to our house and a guest area for family.

I also cleaned our carpets last night with my parents bissell cleaner.

So I guess I have gotten it to the swing of things a little. Maybe my problem is having too much swing for my own good. Thats ok...... one step at a time right?

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2008 was fun. We had my niece Josie with us and I was able to make her a butterfly costume. She was so cute. I also tried to get chase to wear the lion hat that went with his costume,but he refused so he trick or treated as half a lion. And of course Colin had to be Bumblebee from transformers. He is obsessed with transformers.

It is a tradition that we have a Spooky Halloween dinner before we go trick or treating, and this year we were able to have my parents and the missionaries over to join in our spooooky dinner.
On the menu:
Mr. Bones Ribs (baby backs)
Eyeball salad (grape salad)
Witches fingers (yam and regular fries)
Pirates teeth (corn)
orange goo (orange punch)
Quite delicious if I do say so myself...And the missionaries agreed.





Cutie pie butterfly.

We hiked St. Mary's Glacier the first week in July with my mom, dad, and sister Diana. We were above 10,000 ft. and the temp. was in the 60's. Not bad for the middle of summer.

My mom in front of the Glacier and lake.


Our family On the trail going up.


The Mullen boys resting on a rock.

This is for Krys

I' ll start by sharing the pictures of my house that my sister Krysta has been waiting about 8 months to see. When we moved into this house it was very 1984. This room was a dingy blue-gray with a border of country houses around the room. The couch and chairs are "hand me downs" that I recovered about 5 years ago. I'm not about to recover them again, and it will be awhile before I will get new furniture, so I decided to paint and decorate the room around my existing furniture.

This room is my living room. It was dingy white with a midnight blue accent wall when I moved in. I thought I'd go a bit more neutral. My parents sold us their old furniture so once again I thought I would decorate around what we had. It has turned out pretty nice so far... I still have some touch up work on the paint, and a chair rail to put up.



I made the curtains for this room, my dining room, and recovered the dining room chairs in the same striped fabric. I will send pictured of my dining room at a later date.

I hope you enjoy these Krysta, this post is dedicated to you. I think the house has come a long way. Though it has even further to go. My next big project is finishing our basement.

Wow. It has been way too long since I wrote, and I have a ton of pictures and things to share with all of you that we did this summer, but it is almost too intimidating to start, because there are so many. Anyway, I was reading my sister Krysta's blog and was inspired to write, because I have two new little nephews, Ashe and Ronan Fecke. They are so cute and I am grateful they are here and are doing so well. Ill have to admit, I still worry about them since they are so small. Krysta is a trooper and is recovering well.
With that said...Im a new auntie.

Memorial Day

On Memorial day we finally went to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. I've been wanting to go there for a while and every time I would bring up going, my dad would always say "what is so great about garden of the gods?" I would say "nothing necessarily, I just haven't been before". It became a joke because when ever we had time to do something I would always say lets go to the garden of the gods, and my dad would roll his eyes. Anyway, It was great and beautiful and a perfect day to go. A little overcast and cool. We also had Diana and Josie with us it was nice.

Chase Eats Dirt

So I was out planting my roses the other night, and Colin and chase were having a blast digging and playing in the dirt. Chase loves it. I can't keep him away from the dirt. When ever we go outside he makes a strait shot right to the dirt. This night, he was wet, muddy and had made a muddy paste in his mouth with all the dirt he had eaten. He just smiled at me and let me know how happy he was to be outside. Crunch, Crunch, Crunch was all I herd throughout his bath, jammies, and nigh night time. Eat dirt, eat dirt, eat dirt...Yummmmmm. You have to admit, He is pretty cute.

Five Years old!

Well Colin had a Birthday week! His grammy came to visit him for his birthday, we had a family party and took Colin to Casa Bonitas (one of his favorite places to go) it is like the Mayan in Salt Lake, but Casa Bonitas is the original....And I mean original. I don't think they have done one thing in 36 years to change or update it in any way. Oh yeah and the food is terrible. But he had fun and both grandmas and Bapa, and cousins were there to celebrate with him. He Opened presents that night and got a bike, scooter, and a helmet. He loves them!






























Then on Saturday he had a friend party. We had a lot of fun. We played water games, and duck duck goose, hit a pinata, went through an obstacle course, opened presents, ate cake and ice cream cones, and played. They had a great time. I hope Colin knows how much he is loved. He is a great person to have around.

Oh yeah... His theme this year was transformers. And he was very specific about having an oreo cake with bumblebee ( the transformer) on it. I did the best I could, and it tasted really good!

Denver Botanical Gardens

In April The DBG has a free day. We had never been so we thought we'd go and check it out. It was Awesome. Granted there were only a few spring flowers and blossoming trees out, as it is barely spring in April here, but it was a beautiful day and we all loved being outside in the sunshine. It will be nice to go back "in the summer time when all the world is green" and every other color you can imagine.

Colin made a daisy hat, and chase kept eating the sunscreen. They were very happy.

A Whopping 8 !

On May 6th Eric and I celebrated our Anniversary. It has been a wonderful, happy, stressful, hard, easy, great, short, long, and every other adjective you can use to describe a positive, and worthwhile journey through life together. I love my husband so much. He is the best thing in my life. He loves me unconditionally. He encourages me to be the best person I can be. He supports me, he provides for me, he makes me laugh, he helps me. Heavenly Father knew what kind of man I needed, and blessed me with Eric. I am a better woman because of him. And, I am Happy. Here's to 8 years!

Bookit

As a kid I remember the "Bookit" days when we would have the chance to earn our Bookit button and free mini pizza from Pizza hut. We had to read a certain number of books to get our reward.
I recall many a time going with my family to Pizza Hut in American fork, Utah and each one of the kids who had earned the Bookit award would have a mini pizza in front of them ready to devour. My parents would always order a Large size pizza for those who didn't get the coveted minis. We thought is was cool to pop a few quarters in the Juke box and listen to our favorite tunes while we ate. What a good tradition and memory I have with my family growing up.

And now the Tradition continues........
Colin read 15 books in the month of march and received his bookit bookmark (much more useful than a button if you ask me) and a free mini pizza. There are few remaining Pizza Hut sit down Restraunts around, and tonight we are going to Pizza Hut with Grandma and Bapa, Mom and Dad, and brother Chase to celebrate Colin's achievement.
Isn't Colin....SO......STINKIN.....Cute?

Tag! I'm It!

Well My sis tagged me, so here goes...


1-Where was I 10 years ago?
I had just arrived in Anchorage Alaska to serve my mission. I was in a dirty apartment with moose living in the parking lot. It was quite a new experience for me.

2- 5 things on my to do list?
1 Get in shape...
2 Take my kids to Disneyland...
3 Update my house...
4 Get out of debt...
5 Read Harry potter book 7.

3-What would I do with a billion $?
Get out of debt, travel, and share it.

4- 5 places I have lived?
1 Utah
2 Idaho
3 Nevada
4 California
5 Alaska
6 Arizona
7 Colorado ( I know I did 7 but these are all the places I've lived)

5- Jobs I have had?
A bagger, a youth camp counselor, an alterations specialist, a gift shop girl @ bridal veil falls, a custom dress maker, a bridal dress maker, a secretary, and a mom.

6- 5 things people don't know about me.

1- I gather cups on my nightstand. Sometimes I will have 6 or 7 there before I finally take them to the kitchen.

2- I hate doing laundry. The gathering and washing of the clothes is fine, It is putting away clothes that I have a hard time with. I will have baskets of clean clothes all over my bedroom until it is time to do laundry again. ( I am working on it OK?)

3- I am passionate about finances and home decorating, and sometimes my mind won't stop thinking about the best ways to work on these and I have to force myself to stop thinking about stuff.

4-I would like to go to England, Japan, Africa, and the Netherlands one day.

5- I don't like ham. I don't think I ever did. I just ate it and didn't think about it much. Then one day I realized I don't like ham. So this is something I didn't even know about myself until recently. I don't like shrimp either.

Dedicated to Shauna

What's this?
It can't be.
A dead cat?
I think it's staring at me.

Black, dangling,
feathers, noose
in memory of
dear mother goose.

ceiling, tacks,
hanging free
can't forget hot dogs
suspended in plasma
in a Ziploc baggie
Ah, yes, now it's
coming back to me.

Our house in the middle of our street......

Well after many months waiting for pictures of our new house, I've finally delivered.
We love our new house. I can't believe the difference in the amount of space. It is so nice to be able to go into the living room and read a book or talk on the phone, and have the kids or Eric in another room playing or watching TV.

The trim color could be better, but a coat of paint is easy to slap on and we have plans to paint the house this summer or fall. We will keep you updated on the new house

color.

Here is a picture of the porch on the front of the house and the flower beds in front of the porch, which I look forward to improving and filling up with colorful flowers this summer.

Here is a picture of the back of our house and a portion of the yard. We have a nice covered patio, and yes the lattice is coming down.

Here is a picture of our tree and my little garden area
(under the window).

I can't tell you how nice it is to finally have a back yard. I have been waiting for one for 8 years. Hip hip hooray...The time has finally come!