love it!

Head on over to house of turquoise

to check out some new photos taken by my  extremely talented sister in law - Ashlee.  

Her photos are divine!

Frozen Cookie Dough Exchange

I have been wanting to do one of these for quite some time now...

We had one this past week at church.

These were the guidelines:

Sign up for as many dozen cookies as you wanted to exchange - bring them a dozen packed to a freezer bag.

"Please label EACH bag with the type of cookies and cooking instructions from a frozen state.

Example - label each bag:

  
Name of your cookie

Cooking instructions

Your name & phone number 

(just in case the baker has any questions)"

We had some tables out and had each person just line up her freezer bags in a line.  Everyone walked around and picked out what they wanted (understanding that you could only take as many dozen as you brought).

Now my freezer is stocked with cookie dough.  My only problem - my kids all know it's in there!!!

This could be really fun - you could do a potluck with this, or have everyone bring a baked dozen of their cookies so everyone can taste test - also copies of their recipe (or better yet - have everyone email you their recipe and share the file with all who attend)...

Here's a picture of one of my bags 
(missing name and  phone number :)

Ho!  Ho!  Ho!

Friends are the Bacon Bits in the Salad Bowl of Life

The kiddos and I headed down to Louisisana to vist my friend Tifani and her family.  
They have experienced some culture shock having moved not so long ago from 
the far away state of Washington. 

It was WONDERFUL to spend some time in her presence again.  She and I were companions as missionaries  for church (mumble, mumble, mumble) years ago and haven't seen each other in wayyyy tooo loooong!  It was a comfortable feeing to pick  right where we left off oh so long ago.  Don't you love having friends like that :) 

Our kids were all fast friends soon too.

I want to post more and some pictures - but - my technical advisor is unavailable at the moment (and the computer is not cooperating!).  

As soon as he has some free moments, I'll snag him and have him work his computer magic.


P.S.   Okay - after having viewed 
Tifani's blog - she is the MASTER of blogging, 
I think I will link you over to her blog.  She tells and shows it much better than I ever will :)


Click here and you'll see what I mean.

I Get by with a little help from my friends

Aren't they darling!? This is my friend Angeleah...
(I was thinking about how much I learn from my friends - what would I do without them!? So I thought I would periodically share some of the things I have learned from them and then you can learn them too :).

I have always struggled with my weight - and tried SO many diets. I guess you could say I yo-yo with my weight. Angeleah shared some great thoughts with me, and I thought I would share them with you :).

Here is an email she sent. Enjoy!

Hey,
I thought that I would write down a few of the things I have learned over the past few years so you don't have to try and remember it all.

1. There is no " bad " food. If I really want to eat something, I just eat a serving of it and move on.

2. If I notice that I am picking at something a lot ( like a pan of brownies ) I'll just move them to the top of the fridge or put them on a top shelf in a kitchen cabinet. It is amazing that " out of sight, out of mind" really works!

3. If I've made something that nobody in the family but me really likes, I'll just keep out a portion for myself and throw the rest away. It saves me from feeling like I have to eat all of it in order for there not to be waste. I also do the same thing at Christmas. If people bring over a plate of treats and my family doesn't love it, I just throw it away instead of thinking that I have to eat it just because it is there.
( My health and happiness are more important than a pan or plate of food )

4. I had to remind myself that I am an adult now and that if I really want something I can always get in the car and go buy it at the store the next day. I don't have to eat it " right now" before it's gone. I would tell myself that I am lucky to live in the U.S.A. , be a member of this church, and I have a lot of friends, family , and neighbors. This means that I will never starve or never have enough food to eat. It will always be available.

5. I drink a lot of water all day long and I rarely drink anything else. A glass of orange juice is a treat to me.

6. I stay away from white flour as much as I can because I realized it didn't make me feel very good after I ate it and I wouldn't feel very satisfied. Eating whole wheat and whole grain products make me feel more content and satisfied.

7. I started to realize that I had more energy and felt better if I didn't eat very much at one time. I pictured myself like a truck making deliveries all day. If I load the truck down with a bunch of cargo ( food) at one time than I would be so weighed down I would drive very slow for a while until all my cargo was dropped off ( food digested). If I kept just a small amount of cargo in my truck all the time than I would never be weighed down but still have enough cargo to keep me busy and going.

8. If I find myself mindlessly eating than I ask myself - Am I hungry or bored, anxious, tired, depressed? If I realize that I truly am hungry than I get myself something to eat and sit down to eat it so that it registers as a meal in my brain. If I realize that I am not hungry, than I do something else that makes me feel better.

9. I used to try and keep a schedule like this:

8:00 am -- 250 calories
10:30 am -- 250 calories
12:30 am -- 250 calories
3:00 pm -- 250 calories
5:00 pm -- 600-700 calories
8:00 pm -- 100-200 calories

This trained me to eat more often and at the times I found I was most naturally hungry. I never felt deprived and always felt in control because I knew that the next meal was only a couple of hours away. Also, If I wanted to have a 250 calorie Snickers bar as one of my meals I could and I didn't feel a bit sad. Sometimes, it was actually really fun to see how much food I could eat for just 250 calories. You'd be amazed !! I never worried about counting fats or carbs or sugars. I do eat in moderation because it makes my blood sugar levels steady and makes me feel better and have more energy.

10. Exercise has always made me feel better in so many ways but I knew I couldn't have any rules about it. Some weeks I would work out 5 times and next week just once. I learned to be okay with that. I also realized that there are lots of ways to get exercise besides working out. From the beginning of time people got their exercise from working hard and playing hard. I definitely do that a lot more now. I rarely ever sit down longer than a few minutes at a time during the day and I try to take my kids outside a lot more, dance around with them, and just stay busy.

I hope this helps!! It's really exciting to make a few small changes and see how much they can help.
Remember, you have to change your brain before you can change your body.

P.S. I always weigh myself once a week - not to beat myself up but to keep me in check!

Eric come to visit!

We had the most wonderful family living here - and then they moved...
Cooper's best buddy was Eric. Cooper has talked about him pretty much everyday since they left ...
Not too long ago we were in the basement and I came across a picture frame and Cooper asked if he could have it. I asked him if he wanted to put a picture in it, like a picture of Jesus. After a bit of thought he said, "No, a picture of Eric."
Well, we had a surprise visit from Eric last weekend. Needless to say, Cooper was thrilled :).