OUCH!!!

Ok-

I think it must be the age or something. I have had the worst luck the last two weeks. First of all, I got planter fasciitis on my left foot. For those of you that don't know what that is: {which would be me included except for the fact that I had it on my R foot a few years ago} it is:Plantar fasciitis refers to the syndrome of inflammation of the band of tissue that runs from the heel along the arch of the foot. So that was painful enough-you have to ice it down every 3-4 hours with a bowl of water and ice cubes sticking your foot in it for up to 5 min. at a time -if you can stand it that long. Then it gave me a shin splint-so I put a commercial ice pack on my shin and wrapped it with an ace bandage for about 10-15 min. When I took it off - the whole front of my leg was BURNED! Yes that is right-burned. It was swollen within hours and I was putting solarcane on it...what a dork!!! I have never used these ice packs directly on my skin. I usually sit on it while driving or use it when I lay down to calm the leg pain, nerve burning pain, etc... NOW, if that isn't enough {that all happened on a Sunday morning} so I had to go to church at 9 a.m. and by 9:30 a.m. I was dying and left the kids alone, Nef was out of town for the rest of the week. Then I had BUNCO at my house on Thursday night, so I was getting ready and cleaning up a little. I was washing my favorite vase, the one in the birthday pictures with the roses Nef gave me, when it slipped out of my hand and shattered on the counter. This is at 5:15 p.m.-Nef was coming back from being out of town at 6 p.m. and people were coming over at 7 p.m. So being left handed I was holding it in that hand and when I tried to stop it-glass was stuck in my finger-I pulled the glass out and realized that I had sliced open my ring finger. It was throbbing and gushing with blood. I got a cloth-called Christian in to help me and sat down so I wouldn't faint. I'm not very good with blood and gore. I faint easily. I held it up above my heart for over 20 min. and every time I let go it would still bleed. So I finally called Nef and told him to get home quickly so I could go to the Urgent Care and get it looked at...sure enough I needed 6 stitches. Crazy!!!! I got home at 7:05 p.m. to a house full. Luckily my finger was numb and I had a great time playing Bunco. Just about the time everyone left, it started to gain feeling, throbbing again, and burning every time I put it below my heart. That was a week ago Thursday. I just took the stitches out myself last night and about fainted again. I had to sit down and put my head between my legs to keep from fainting. I was told my finger could lose sensation in part of it because I sliced it right where the nerve is and in the most sensitive part of the finger! It is a little numb on the side by the pinky; but not horribly numb.....Is age really catching up with me that fast? I'm scared about what I have to look forward to in the next 10 years. Here is a beautiful picture taken on my cell just after having it stitched up. I thought this was suppose to happen to kids-not moms-or old folks??? Do I fit into either of those categories? NO NO NO!!!

Isn't this what we all hope for:

Girls Camp

Ok-I know I am a month late in posting these; but I have so many photos and had to go through them all. I picked a bunch of photos because I just couldn't decide which ones to do. We had such a great time. I felt great the whole week and I know it was because we were out and moving all the time-no time to sit and do nothing...Even though we did quite a bit of playing-we sure did a lot of work too. The leaders did most of the work and the girls reaped the rewards. I'm not sure I can really call it Girls Camp-I keep telling everyone that it was "Girls Retreat." It really was. We had the beach to go to each day-Bear Lake-which they say is "The Caribbean of the West!" It was absolutely breathtaking to see and the colors were amazing. I can't believe how blue it was. We went boating on Thursday-and I was out on the tube for over 4 hours. I could really get used to a life like this. We need to get a family cabin somewhere by the water, mountains, and country like this. The house was nothing fancy-in fact the family that lives in our ward that let us use it said it has been a work in progress for ten years-but it was wonderful and we relaxed and had so much fun. I think the girls know how spoiled they have been the past few years and are going to hate it when Stake Camp comes and they have to really camp, in tents, use latrines, cook over a fire and sleep on the ground. They have been coming to this camp for three years-lucky girls that they are. I spent Tuesday night to Friday morning there. Thanks goes out to The Jones Family for providing this wonderful opportunity for us. We had many spiritual moments too-the graduated Laurels (3) came up and did devotionals each night-WOW! I get chills just writing this. They are such strong young ladies-these young girls are so lucky to have such strong examples to look up to-each one of them you know will be fine out on their own and do well in the gospel. Two of the three get up once a week at 5:30 a.m. and go to the Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead. They have been doing this for two years-since they started driving. We also had a great speaker come up on Thursday night, Abby Stevens, who was a dancer, singer, etc... and was ready to be married in a week-in 1996-who was in a tragic car accident and lost use of the right side of her body. She is in our ward and talked about how she was guided through each day of recovery and has made astounding recovery-more than any doctor ever hoped or wished for. She now has her voice back and can sing again-not quite like she used to-she also got married a year later instead of a week later and has 4 cute kids. She totally touched our group and then we had a great testimony meeting. It was awesome to hear each of the youth let each other know that they have a testimony and are strong young women. They are a great group of girls and I'm grateful I get to work with them. I love it-even when I moan and complain because I have a million things to do-I still hope that they all love it too and are learning from us. I know this is a huge group of photos-but look what fun we had!!!!
These are the girls Ashleigh's age-the ones I work with.
Look at the BIG group of beehives. They are so funny!
The Jones Cabin that we stayed in.
Each girl got a set of dishes and put them in a cute mesh bag. They had to use them for each meal and then wash them-that's about as close to real camp as it got.
The big thing at camp is for the girls to do each other's hair in braids for the week and then at the end take them out and have BIG hair...cute.
Here is another one-Liz Quigley-cute!!
Sleeping quarters were tight-but who cares when you are having this much fun, right?
These are a crazy bunch of little "bees-"
At night they sang songs and this was hilarious.
Here are some more actions from some of the camp songs.
We had the theme of: The Amazing Race and didn't really carry it out but we did do a series of activities that were fun and the girls had to pass off each station to get to the next one. This activity was trying to get beans into a 2-liter jar. It's tougher than it looks.

After we were done with the beans we went behind the cabin and the men had set up a shooting bench with cans on it. Em did a great job of aiming and actually hit one!

Another activity was trying to memorize 30 items on the tray and then they had one minute to write them all down. We put them in groups to do several activities like this and they all teamed up and did great-it is amazing to me how well they all get along regardless of age, personality, interests, etc... so much fun to watch!
The leaders all took turns helping the girls polish their toes and nails-I'm not a big foot touching person-but I did it. I even had to help one girl get a humungous blister off the back of her big toe-that was disgusting but I did it anyway because I love this girl-she is amazing! A fabulous girl who has battled cancer, had to have two hip replacements, a joint in her elbow replaced and is a wonderful oboe player. Just amazing...
Ashleigh and Carly Parsell-just hangin' and relaxing at the beach...
We actually went down to the beach each day for an hour or two just for a break in between activities and then on Thursday it was a designated BEACH DAY! Awesome sun and fun!!!
Yes-several of the leaders got in a canoe and went out for a quick ride-they said that every time I paddled I leaned and it would make the boat tip-I beg to differ; but nonetheless we had a group of girls come to rescue us. It was quite funny. I had shorts on and my cell phone and watch on and didn't want to tip and get those items ruined...the girls were laughing histaricly at us-
One of the families have this banana boat and the beehives loved being pulled on it. I had never seen it before and loved it-would be fun to have if you had a boat.

So this is a story in and of itself-KC Willmore is a gifted girl. She is an amazing artist and created this mermaid on the beach-she is holding a flag that says, "Girls Camp" because about a week before we left for camp we had this flag that I made that we put in someone's yard and each girl going to camp had to find it and steal it out of another person's yard and put it in their yard and sign it. By the end of the week all the girls needed to get it and sign it-just a fun way to get the girls excited about camp.


This is Emily Holbrook-who is the MM advisor with me and then Carly Parsell who is a good friend to Ash. She is fun and has a great personality and is a free spirit! I really enjoy her-wish she was in the same group, grade and gang as Ash-she is a Jr. and so she doesn't really interact much being a Laurel already too. She too is an amazing artist.
We were tube addicted-we had so much fun on these tubes-but afterwards we were sore for days and I was pretty sunburned-all worth it, though.
The leaders of the group pretty much hung out on the beach most of the time that we were down there. A couple of them were sunbathin' addicts! It was nice to just chill and chat.
What a great bunch of girls! Can't wait for the next time we get to go-

DAVIS DARTS Football-

Darts-yep, that would be the mascot for the High School here-ask me what that is? Not quite sure; but football is a HUGE family tradition here. Families that don't even have students in HS go to the game and they all go together. Every person from the city of Kaysville seemed to be at that game and we are definitely out of the loop because I think we were the only family without "Season Tickets." I am not quite sure what they see in it, other than it is a tradition and this is a Family town. The Davis HS Marching Band is known for its talent and is quite good from what we hear. We haven't actually heard Ashleigh play in the band yet-they sat in the stands here and we did get to listen to them but it wasn't a Marching Show yet. We have Parents Preview this week and get to see the hard work that has gone into their show. They march 3 hours a day, 4 days a week and just this past Saturday had a SUPER Saturday and marched for 8 hours. They compete in several band competitions throughout the school year and in Las Vegas they usually take 1st or 2nd out of over 30+ bands.... So they are pretty good. Ash told us not to bother coming on Tuesday night for the preview-but I will anyway-Nef is out of town. I think the social aspect of it is more enticing than the actual playing. She has made some pretty good friends and hangs out with them on the weekends quite often. They are a great bunch of kids and we have enjoyed having them over. They all came over and had lunch at our house during practice on Saturday and have also come for Smores after a game. So it is good for her to finally feel like a part of a fun group of kids. She really hasn't had that since moving up to UT 2 years ago. We'll keep everyone posted through the year as to how those Darts are doing! To top it off and make it even worse the school colors are brown and yellow!!!! Isn't that lovely?

DRIVERS BEWARE. . .

Yes, it is true-Ashleigh is a student driver and has her permit! Yes, you do need to be careful when you see our van on the road. I let her drive us around last weekend for errands and she had a meltdown in the Great Harvest parking lot. It was not a pretty site. But I did save us and our new car from crashing into a sidewalk and another car from almost hitting us. She threw the keys at me and said she didn't want to drive with me any more...BUT I slowly talked her through it and got her to realize that I wasn't really yelling or getting angry with her-it was just the fact that if I hadn't loudly said something and helped her through a wide turn she and I would have easily ended up in the hospital with a large bill and a crashed new van. She calmly got into the driver's seat and we made it safely to the other three stops and she was fine by the time we made it safely home. I told her from now on we will be taking dad's 1999 Honda Civic with 125,000 miles on it to practice turns and parking in lots and backing out of parking lots also. So I think it will be easier next week when that is the rule.....haha!!!! She is doing good and loves driving and knows now that it is harder than you think to concentrate on 20 different things at a time while driving and that singing to her favorite song probably is NOT a good idea to do until she can drive correctly in HER lane of traffic and turn left or right without going into the other 2 or 3 lanes at the same time...... This will be a challenge; but she really hasn't had much driving time and with practice I know she'll do fine. These are such funny pictures. I took her on a Friday to get her permit and they were CLOSED! We didn't realize that the state offices in UT were already beginning the 4-day work week that passed a few months ago. So she luckily took pictures for me because NO one else was there and it wouldn't be embarrassing then. We actually got the permit the next week when they opened-but this works. WATCH OUT UTAH DRIVERS-ASH IS ON THE ROAD!!!

BEST Birthday ---

Yesterday was a great day! I can't believe how many people sent cards, flowers and fun gifts. I had to work and even with that I can still say that it was a great day and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting on the phone with friends, reading lots of cards through email, and in the mail and receiving flowers. Thanks to everyone who made my day! LIFE IS GOOD. I just have to say that to myself each morning when I wake up and do my positive affirmations too. Can't wait to use my gift cards - I am way into positive thinking and doing and saying positive things each day. I have to make the best of this pain that I have been given and I will do it one way or another! My family is so supportive and they put up with so much that I owe it to them to be positive in return. I try and some days the drugs take over and make me so loopy I don't think I know what I'm doing. We'll see how long I can go without them. Some days I make it and don't take them just to prove I don't have to and others I give up and in too easily and just say, "the heck with it, I need to feel good-bring 'em on!" Today is one of those days. I'm trying to get caught up on my scrapbooking and sitting is killing me. I hate that I can't sit and enjoy what I want all the time. I need to find a good table I can stand at to work in my awesome room. Anyway, here are some fun pics of my birthday gifts. We also went to dinner at Chili's and it was soooo good. Ash and I shared the White Chocolate Molten Cake w/ raspberry sauce-It was divine. I had also already eaten a piece of cake that my friend Emily made (in one of these pics) and it was awesome too-I'll be needing to watch my intake now for a few days to get all those calories gone. Enjoyed every bite though. Getting old really isn't that bad. If every year gets better I'll be happy that I'm getting old...maybe everyone just felt bad for me so they went above and beyond-whatever the case -THANKS - birthdays ROCK!!!
This is Leslie Pett, Angie Arbon, and Emily Holbrook. I work with them all in YW and they are great. They brought the cake, Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream and a Tia Pan (home decor store)Gift Card-wow! That was a fun surprice. Emily is the one who is my advisor and she is always a lifesaver-she is the best-I'm so glad they put her in with me and I have been able to get to know her. I love her-as well as Leslie and Angie-they work with the Behives-you guys make being their way fun!


This was sent from two of my wonderful friends from Las Vegas-Patrea and Suzanne. They were teachers at the school where my kids went and we have been friends ever since. It has been almost 10 years since we started there and they were 2nd and 3rd grade teachers for Ash. Then Christian had Patrea in 3rd. You guys also surprised me and they are beautiful potted flowers that I can hopefully not kill and eventually plant in our yard. I will try to keep them alive so I can think of you often. Love 'em.
Lisa, Nef's sister, came up to school and totally surprised me and made the class I was teaching sing Happy Birthday. She was so nice to do that. I got quite the reaction out of a few of the little 2nd graders: "Mrs. Garcia, you drink diet coke!" "Oh my gosh."-You know that 99% of the kids at our schools here in Kaysville are LDS and that probably threw them for a loop. "Yes, I do-and the reason is that I need to get through my day after being with 200+ sweet, little angels like YOU!!!! "
These are the flowers that Nef and kids gave to me when I woke up in the morning. I love them-the smell of them is fab! Nef is always quite thoughtful.
These bracelets represent each of the kids, two gold for the girls and the silver for Christian. They are fun and different. I just told Nef that now that I wear silver all the time he'll have to get me a gold necklace and earrings to match so I have a full set to wear to work-I know that he'll get right on that one.
Carol-my fun teaching partner, created this fun box for me. She filled it with fun treats, note pads etc. and it even has binder rings that I can make pages to include inside. I was totally taken aback when I saw it. I immediately fell in love with it and the cute vinyl that she decorated the front of it was way too cute. All the ribbon-anyway-I was totally surprised at that too. I will try to keep up with that and find cute sheet protectors to put in it and maybe make that my birthday book. That would be fun! She is so creative. She has a booth at The Quilted Bear and it doing some fun new stuff with vinyl. If you ever see anything cute that you need done-she is the one to go to. Just let me know and i'll have her do your vinyl for you! I am in hog heaven with all my fun surprises today. Thanks again to everyone who made my day one to remember. I wasn't really looking forward to getting another year older-just to getting another year wiser. But if every year is like this one. Bring 'em on!!! Maybe turning 50 in several years won't look that bad after all...

Look how FUN!

Just had to share how cute our room at school is. Carol Ferguson who is teaching with me this year also has a vinyl business and so she made these cute trees from a font and we put them up on the wall... She also did the cute lettering for our door. Isn't she great? Love it-we always get compliments on how cute our room is. Of course, it is the best in the school....-jk

DOG COLLISION

I have to document this and I can't even believe this happened...I am getting all uptight just thinking about the crazy dog that "ran" out in front of me tonight. I know you are all thinking that I am the one that hit the dog-that statement would be totally incorrect. Especially if you were an insurance agent from All State. Any animal that hits a car is the fault of its owner for not keeping it on a leash or behind a fenced area. Got to say that made my day and I'm quite content with the outcome of this. Even though, my brand new van just got dinged up by a dumb dog, I'm okay with not having to pay the deductible [they will go after the homeowners] or any points accumulating on my insurance policy. I now have a nice big dent in the front right bumper along with a nice 8 inch tear in the plastic {which came all inclusive with dog hair stuck in it.} SICK!!! I didn't even notice it until Christian pointed it out. I thought at first I had run over the dumb dog and then got out of the car all in a panic and ran up to the door to apologize to the owner for hitting the dog. She stated that it ran out in front of cars all the time to chase bikers that are riding by and she knew this was coming eventually. She was quite shaken up; I think for the mere fact that she knew her kids were going to freak when they saw it. He was bleeding and they needed to get the dog to the vet right away. I paid my respects and then went on my way to the church to help clean the building. See it doesn't pay to give service.....jk  It wasn't until after we were in the church cleaning that Christian informed me of the damage. I just can't keep this van out of the shop. It only has 750 miles on it and has been up to the dealer more than it has been parked in my sweet little garage. Is this an omen? are we in for a lemon? I don't know but I sure don't hope so.

Odyssey-A New Look!

I can't believe we actually made the plunge!!! What were we thinking....OK we do love it. But I still miss my BLACK van. Just to make a long story short-we have had so many people lately asking to purchase our van-why? we'll keep it forever....then we got to thinking about the economy and what it was worth and how they can't sell a big car for the life of them at dealers... SO we ended up with a NEW 2008 Dark Cherry Red one. Love it. Our 2003 had almost 120,000 miles on it and we were going to down size to a Pilot and just couldn't do it. We love the room and the features on this new van are amazing. I don't even think I know what it does...I seem to discover new things every time I drive it or the kids do while riding in the back. I love that it fits 8 people now and all the extra storage room is awesome. We have had it for two weeks and have put 600 miles on it.......where do I go you ask-nowhere! I have no idea where the miles come from-we just run kids around and before we know it we have gone 100 miles in a day. That is scary... It had 3 miles on it when we took it off the lot. Here are some fun photos of it. Our interior is tan though. This is our 4th one and I don't know if I'll ever give it up! I love them.

These next ones are our actual van: I took it up to the dealer the other day to get the paint, leather, carpet and undercoating protection done on it-which by the way they threw in the deal for free-for 5 years!!!!