You Don't Understand....

Zach's been pretty sick lately.

I got a call from the school nurse Wednesday and she said he wasn't feeling well and wanted to take a breathing treatment.  He had started coughing with the change of seasons, and I told him to go see her if he felt he needed. 

By the end of the day, he was not feeling well and on Thursday, had had a very low grade fever.  He stayed home from school and I dosed him with cough syrup (a big no, no I know, but you should have heard him!) and ibuprofen.  He still wasn't better Friday morning, so he stayed home then too.

His fever broke Friday afternoon, but he still wasn't feeling better Saturday.  So I mentioned that I was going to take him to the doctor.  Apparently he really must not have felt good because that's all he wanted to do all day.  Finally that afternoon, I took him over to Ambucare.

The doc wasn't totally sure what was wrong with him.  He wasn't sure if he had some kind of whooping type cough that was manifesting in adults, or if it was just his asthma rearing up.  So he went ahead and put him on an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory, and some steroids.  He said Zach should probably start feeling better by Sunday afternoon.

Well, Sunday morning came, and he must not have been feeling better.  When I woke him to get ready for church, he starts sobbing....

"You don't understand what I'm going through."

"I can't handle this Mom."

Is it bad that I just rolled my eyes and kicked him out of bed?  Son....you have no idea how much I understand.

I can't handle this either.

Fiesta Friday-- Strawberry Instant Breakfast

I  got this recipe from a lady at our church.  She was sharing healthy weight loss meals at (at the time) Enrichment night.  She and her husband had gone on this diet and lost LOTS of weight.  This was the shake they had for breakfast every morning.

This shake has all the vitamins and proteins and such to make a really healthy breakfast or other meal.  I can't remember which diet or book they had read, but it worked for them.

I tried it when I was going through one of my weight loss periods.  I would have it for breakfast every morning.  I didn't lose much weight, but I fell in love with the shake.

Over time, I ran out of ingredients so my shake evolved.  I eventually dropped the gelatin and olive oil and found the shake just as yummy.  Not sure it has all the vitamins and such anymore, but it still tastes wonderfully and is VERY filling.

So, I'm sharing this Strawberry Instant Breakfast for this week's Fiesta Friday.

I hope you'll let me know if you try it and what you think.

Photo Perfect

I got lucky and won another House Party.

It's a yummy Philly Cream Cheese Dinnertime Dilema party.

All week on my blog, I've been working on things to get ready for the party I'm having next week.

Today, I made a photo booth.

I've seen these around in the party blogs and the props are pretty popular on Etsy right now. 

I have been looking for a party to be able to have this at.

For better or worse, I'm going to have one at my luncheon party next week.

I hope the girls will get into it and we'll have some fun.

Today, I needed a few pics for my blog to show off the tutorial, so I had the boys help me with pics.

I think they turned out cute.  Don't you?

Some days your the bird...some days the statue

So I hear this saying once from a friend's blog, and I've always loved it.  Becuase it seems so true in my life.  Some days you're just flying along enjoying the good life, and the next you feel like you're being pooped on by every one and everything.

This was my day yesterday.

I was flying high after Sunday.  I felt like everything would be okay.  I knew there were still going to be obsticles. I knew that things weren't even remotely on the right track yet.  But it was still going to be okay.

I don't know how I lost that so quickly.

Yesterday we found out who was getting the Assistant Warden's job.  It's what we've been waiting for.  We needed this information to figure out if they were going to take the open house out on the Reservation or not.

Well, the Oliver's got the job.  They were the ones that lived out on the Res two years ago.  They were Charles and Lorae's neighbors.  Then they moved to Florida.  Now they are coming back.

It's not a good sign for us.  It's still not 100% sure they will want to live there.  It's not their same house.  They lived in an amazing house in Florida.  They may want somewhere better here.

But not likely.  Most likely they will move back in.

So now what?

I don't know.  I don't know what now.  I wish I did because then I could move forward.  I could take a step towards what we are needing to do.  But I don't know.

Where's my faith its going to be okay now?  I don't know.  I'm trying to remember.  I'm rereading my testimony.  I'm hoping and praying still.  I just don't know now.

Fast & Testimony Sunday

Now, let me start out by saying that I am not a super religious person.  I'm not saying that I don't DEEPLY believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I'm not saying that I don't try and live it in my life and be a better person.  I guess I'm saying that I don't usually talk about it.  In most ways, I don't usually talk about myself much at all if I can help it.

But I wanted to share my testimony today.  Partly because I don't think I could really bare it outright.  Partly because I want my family to know that I do believe.  And partly for myself.  I don't have a very good memory these days.  (Something that frightens me a little...)  So I find myself having to "learn" the same lessons over and over again.  I keep having to relearn my testimony of certain things.

Today, for me, I wanted to share my testimony of fasting.

I have had in the past year more experiences with the power of fasting and prayer than ever before in my life.  I am a little ashamed to say that I used to HATE fast Sunday.  To fast for one meal was not a good experience for me, and I never fasted for more than that.  Two meals was way beyond my abilities.

Well, that's changed.  Remind me sometime to tell you my experience with fasting and the speeding ticket, or fasting and the Ward Break the fast.  Right now I want to share something that happened today.  In some ways, it's such a little thing.  Certainly in the scheme of my stress level, it's not as big as the ticket experience.  Or as "out there" as the Break the fast experience.  But I guess it was the little things and how they all had to work together to answer this prayer today.

Let me start by saying, I've been a little stressed lately.  You all know that I am having problems with our house and mortgage company.  We are on the verge of losing it.  I stress over it daily.  I dream of being kicked out.  I'm a little concerned right now.  (Hey, I've made 3 batches of No-bakes in one week if that says anything.)  I try not to show it but it eats at me.

After reading about how Ken and Sherry paid off their debt this week, I've been thinking alot about money.  I know we need to do better.  A little less eating out.  A little less luxuries.  A little less wants.  With having lost my craft money lately, we've been a  little more tight than normal.  I wasn't making a lot, but every little bit helps.

So when Fast Sunday came around.  I decided to fast about money.  Not really anything more than that.  I probably should have in the grand scheme of things.  But I was hoping for just some general inspiration.  Some idea of how to stretch things.  For peace in getting rid of our house.  For a cheaper, better place for us to go.  Just money in general.

I admit, as I thought and pondered my weekly goals during Sacrament, I made a goal to put every little bit I could towards paying off the dreaded American General loan.  It's our big monkey right now.  I felt at peace about it.  I'm not sure how to go about doing it since there really isn't extra money and I have lost all my craft business money.  But I felt good about the goal.

Now, let me take a side trip here and say that it was not a good night at the Elliott house last night.  Hank came down with some sort of food bug.  He was up all night throwing up and, well, you know.  It wasn't pleasant.  So neither of us slept well.  In the morning, I got up and ran to Walmart to buy him some medicine to help with...THE PROBLEM.  (Hope you aren't too nauseous now and he doesn't kill me for mentioning this to the world, but it really is essential to the story.) 

Yea, I broke the Sabbath this morning and bought some medicine.  I've been trying hard to not do that, but I did think it was a necessity.  My ox was pretty darn sick (if you catch my drift.)  Anyway, while I was at Walmart I went ahead and bought a newspaper.  I bought a local paper and an Indy paper.  Something I don't normally do.  I haven't been good at clipping coupons lately so I haven't bothered getting a paper.  And when I do get a paper, the Indy coupons are usually better so that's what I buy.  But today I bought both.

When I got home, I pulled out the front page to see what Hobby Lobby had on sale today.  Just curious.  Was just glancing through the front section.  So then, I left the paper there and we carried on the day.

Fast forward a few hours.

We went to church and came home.  I fixed the kids our regular lunch of Pancakes and Waffles.  After they were done, Hank came down and decided he felt okay enough to eat.  I made him some eggs.  While I did, he sat at the kitchen table and looked through the paper.  He read the classifieds.

He found a computer.  A good computer for a good price.

This may not mean much to you, but we had planned to buy Henry a computer with our income tax return.  The one that we got him at Christmas wasn't cutting it and had completely shut down.  So we were planning to go and get him a better one.  We had budgeted $500.00.  (I know you're probably thinking "what the heck?" when we are having money problems....but trust me...he needs this for school, and for my sanity.)  So we were going to purchase it anyway.

I almost told Hank to go buy it yesterday.  But the weather was so bad and I was already running kids everywhere.  So I didn't say anything (yea, a rare thing.)

So, when we found this good computer for 2/5 of what we had planned to pay for it, I was amazed.  Then, when Hank called the number, he got through quickly and the "Happy Fairy" on the other line still had the computer and was heading down to Walmart.  He could bring it to us.  We didn't have to wait until tomorrow and take a chance of losing it.

The only thing that went wrong was that I had been prompted to pull out money this morning when I went to Walmart, but I didn't listen.  I wanted to get as much money out of our account as possible so I didn't take a chance of spending it.  So I had thought to take it out and put it somewhere safe until we needed it.  I didn't listen.  I left it.  So when the "Happy Fairy" came, I had to run to the bank.  Not a big deal, but just something else I was prompted and blessed about.

I don't know if you caught the whole story here with all my rambling on (I tend to do that when I'm tired.)  But with all the little strange things that happened today, we were blessed to save $300.00.  This money can now go towards paying a little bit more off of the dreaded American General.  A little bit more towards relieving the stress and debt.  A lot more towards strengthening my testimony of fasting.

So I want you guys to know that I do have a STRONG testimony.  It's taken a lot of need and problems to get me to put my faith in this principle of the gospel, but now, I know it will help me in surprising ways.  And I know that my problems with money are not over.  We still will probably lose the house.  I'm not sure that miracle is in my future.  But as well as my testimony of fasting...my testimony of the Lord's hand in my life is slowly growing too.  And I'm thankful for that lesson, because it's one that is taking me a LONG time to learn.

Friday Fiesta-- Cheesy Ham 'n' Rice Soup

So I spend half my time worrying about the party that I'm currently working on, and half the time worrying about what party theme I will work on next week.

I know...I do alot of worrying.  (I'm sure if I didn't have something to worry about...I'd make something up...oh yea...I already do.)  SIGH.  Okay, I'm a little neurotic that way.

Anyway....I've been thinking alot about next week's party, and I'm going to have a Recipie exchange party.  So I've been thinking I need to update my Family Recipie book with some cuter and yummy recipies.

So I think I'll share a new recipie on Fridays for our Bryson Family Cookbook.

Hopefully my family (HINT HINT) will send me some new recipies so I'm not recycling the same old, same old recipies.  (HINT HINT)

This week's recipie is a new one that we got from our friends.  Hank and I love it, but the kids...NOT SO MUCH.  Hopefully you're kids are a lot less NUTTY than mine and will enjoy it because it really is YUMMY!

Now That's Funny...

Okay, so I must confess....I have a new hobby.  I feel like it's become a bit of an addiction lately.  Is that bad?  Or is it only bad when it causes you to lose time as you sit for hours doing nothing but WOTTING? (WOTTING: verb: a clever take on the verb blogging, which means a "Waste Of Time" ing.)

Okay, so maybe it is bad.  But I love to Blog Surf.  The fact that I can do it anywhere now is probably not helping the situation.  Now that I have this lovely app, I can even do it on my phone as I wait in those darn Customer Service lines at Walmart...for a whole hour (different story there.)

But I love to look at Linky Parties (hey, I even had to start my own weekly party!)  This is where a bunch of bloggers come together to share their crafty ideas all in one place.  What a great idea!  How can it not be?  Check that out?  Doesn't it just want to make you peruse their homes, their lives, their ideas? 

AWESOME!

Well, in doing that today, I stumbled upon Shanimal Cracker's blog.  Can I just say that's one of the funniest blogs I've read in forever?  And I've read my share...probably your share too.

Okay, so maybe that really doesn't say much....since I don't seem to have the same sense of humor as most people.  I don't like Slapstick comedy.  I don't laugh at people getting hurt.  It's just not funny.

But she makes me laugh...and I'm just saying...that's a good thing somedays.