Young Women Birthday and Beehive Gifts

I've been working on gifts for the Young Women the last few weeks...

The first one is a birthday gift for each of the girls that they will get on the Sunday following thier birthday. The youth theme this year is the scripture Docterine & Covenents 115:5 Arise and shine forth that thy light may be a standard for the nations. I when I saw these on Pinterest I thought they were so cute and would be perfect to go along with the theme. I knew I could come up with something similar. Thanks to Lis and Megan for helping me put them together. Some have a big crystal and some have a smaller one.

The second gift is for the new beehives. Each ruffle is a different value color. I put the lyrics to a song that explains the meaning of each of the colors since the new girls won't know what the different colors stand for yet. I found the tutorial here and adjusted for the different colors.

"Promoting Peace in the Bedroom"

I gave these sheets to Brandon for April Fool's Day. I got them off this website. No need to have an imaginary line in the bed.... now there really is a line! To be fair... It's usually me being the bedhog and coming over to his side of the bed because he's so warm and I'm always freezing. If you're looking for a funny gift for a spouse I definitely recommend these!

What A Day!

Brandon's perspective while in a performance review meeting with one of his employees...

Ring Ring (cell phone)....... hits ignore.

Ring Ring again...... hits ignore.

Ring Ring again..... "ummmm, must be important"

"Hello sweetie"

[Carter] "Hello daddy, Max fell out of the chair."

"Okay.... daddy's in a meeting"

[Carter] "Max has a bump on his head"

"Okay..."

[Carter] "And there is drops of blood"

"Can I talk to mommy please"

Now flash backwards from my perspective....

Carter and Max were playing in the front room (I was in a "different" room... okay I was in the bathroom). Luckily I was just standing up and pulled up my pants when I heard a big thump and then... silence. I looked out of the door and said "what's going on! (knowing that they had tipped over the chair and I was frustrated that they were playing when I had asked them to put on their shoes because we were just about to leave). Carter said "oh no mom" and Max stood up and all I saw was a dark black spot on his forehead and blood dripping down his face. I ran back into the bathroom and washed my hands and grabbed the towel Max came walking towards me and his shirt was covered in blood. I was trying to put the towel on his head to apply pressure (of course he is freaking out and screaming and not wanting me to touch it. Every time I moved the towel or if he moved, blood was spurting out of this cut onto my shirt and the floor. Carter was such a little hero. He was obviously in a little shock and kept saying "oh no... oh no... there's blood on the floor.... oh no.. oh no...". I told Carter to go call dad and he went and got my phone and called Brandon like a pro (see above dialog) luckily we had just recently taught him how to use my phone and how to call dad and 911 in an emergency. While carter is trying to get a hold of Brandon I can't take pressure off of Max's head so I run upstairs with him and get the gauze pads out of the medicine cabinet with one hand and rip the packages open with my teeth. I replace the towel with two gauze pads and run back downstairs.

Carter has Brandon on the phone at this point so I am holding Max in one arm and use my cheek to apply pressure to his cut so I can have a free hand. I quickly let Brandon know what's going on and let him go so I could figure out what to do.... I can't drive because I have to hold on to his head but I didn't want to call an ambulance. Luckily I have a friend that lives just down the road from me and she came and picked the three of us up, dropped me and Max off at the urgent care and took Carter back to her house (thank you so much Amy!!!! What an awesome visiting teacher you are!) When I was waiting for Amy to come get us and Max was still squished against my cheek I realized that I never buttoned or zipped up my pants! This is very hard to do with one hand while holding a crying child in the other arm... luckily I realized this before I got to urgent care! On our way to urgent care I called them to let them know we were coming and they got us in quickly. What a day!
Here are some photos:

When we got there they put some numbing stuff on a cotton ball and taped it to his cutMax got treated to two cherry Popsicles

Brandon left work right after I got off the phone with him and met us at urgent care
They wanted to make sure he could walk straight. He kept saying "owee" and patting his head.

Getting ready to get the numbing shot and then the stitches He got 5 stitches Back at home with brother. When we were at the doctor he kept asking for "brother"Our little tough guy

His head dented the molding!

Running Free (well sort of)

Yesterday my awesome running partner and I ran a half marathon. Yay us!!
One of the reasons why I started running years ago was because it was basically free. All you need is a pair of shoes and out the door you go... right? What I didn't realize at the time is that the more you run the more expensive it gets...
You need more expensive:
shoes (bought alot more often!), insoles, running clothes, fancy socks, race entry fees, protien drinks, reflective gear, etc...
Now don't get me wrong, all of these things are still less expensive than other sport hobbies but after paying a few race fees already this year and being due for some new shoes I didn't feel like paying anymore for my "free" running hobby. Luckily my amazing hubby got me a GPS watch this summer (which I LOVE) so we met early Saturday morning and just ran for 13.1 miles. There was no race energy in the air, portapotties, gummy bear stations, or medals. But we did it! My big finish line was driving home and seeing my boys run out to me with a hand written sign that said "Great Job". I'm totally keeping that sign and putting it on my board with my other race bibs.

Franklin Falls

We took the kids hiking on Saturday morning to Franklin Falls. Whenever we go hiking the primary song "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" continually runs through my mind as we meander down the trail. Here are the words:

Whenever I hear the song of a bird

Or look at the blue, blue sky,

Whenever I feel the rain on my face

Or the wind as it rushes by,

Whenver I touch a vevlet rose

Or walk by our lilac tree,

I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world

Heavenly Father created for me.

.

Franklin Falls is a beutiful hike and great for kids! It is 2 miles total and isn't too steep (note to self: 1 mile takes alot longer than normal when you have young kids with you). The trail follows the river up through a forest and when you get to the top of the trail the view opens up and there is a 70 foot waterfall cascading down right infront of you into a very calm river bed. The kids were able to throw rocks and play for a while and had so much fun. But, because we went in the morning it was still a little cold (and we are awful parents and forgot to bring shoes for Max!!) On a warm day, by about noon or so, when the sun is straight up in the sky, the mist from the waterfall would feel so refreshing. There is no doubt in my mind that this Earth was created by a loving Heavenly Father.

I've been trying to find heart shaped rocks everywhere. I mentioned it when we were there to Brandon and I kidd you not... he didn't even move, looked down and said "here's one". How sweet that my lover found me my first heart rock!

50.1 miles later...

We did it!!!

Yesterday, June 5th I ran in the Rainer to Ruston Relay. The total relay was 50.1 miles. It started at the base of Mt. Rainer Nat'l park and ended on the water front in Tacoma. We put together two 4 position teams (two teams with 8 people each because we ran in pairs so a total of 16 women there are 3 people missing from the photo).
My awesome running partner Rachel and I were postion 2 and we had 3 legs to run... leg 2, leg 6, and leg 10.
Our first leg (leg 2)- This leg was described in the course description as isolated rocky and muddy trail. Rachel and I normally run on a gravel trail and it is often muddy after it rains so I wasn't too concerned. When we arrived at the check in point the guy incharge of the race said that leg 2 was very muddy all the way down and to just take it slow and it's best to run through the puddles. "what"? did he just say "run through the puddles"?? Yep... run through. Still in my mind I was thinking "how bad could it really be"???......... Calf deep mud puddles that covered the entire trail (no way around), running through streams, If there wasn't a puddle there was thick sticky slippery mud, rocks, tree ruts,.... Insane! A picture that will be forever in my mind is when I went to forge through another muddy puddle and I looked down and saw shoes in the puddle! I stopped with one foot in the muck and looked up to see Rachel running with no shoes on! There they both were filling with mud and water! Luckily my shoe only came half off. 6.1 miles of wet muddy squishy shoes and the most crazy conditions. Luckily I brought an extra pair of shoes, pants, and socks to change into our our next leg.
Our second leg (leg 6) - 2.7 miles on a paved trail. Thank heavens!
Our third and last leg (leg 10) - 3.2 miles on a mostly sandy trail. Below is a photo of Rachel and I at the end of our last leg.

Brandon brought the kids down and they were there cheering for me at the end of this leg. It was so nice to see them! We then drove to the finish line to meet the rest of the team and cheer on our runners in the last leg. The two photos below are of me and my support/inspiration. If you look close in the last picture you can see Mt. Rainer (where we started) behind us!!

My kids are going to be SO smart....

if this is true.

If only I had a picture of them "helping" me pull weeds as we got the garden area ready for planting yesterday.