Some of my Favorite School Teachers

One of my all time favorite teachers while growing up was Mrs. Dunagan. I have often thought about the many lessons that I learned while in her class. I did not get the best grade, I was not the best student, but I learned a lot of things that I have carried throughout my life. I remember one day that she asked the class if we had a song in our heart. She wanted to know if anyone was singing a song in their mind. I thought it was a strange question and I was too afraid to answer that I always am singing in my mind because I thought that I would get in trouble for not listening. Well, since no one answered her with a yes, she was pretty saddened by this. I remember her face and I remember my thoughts of why did I not speak up when I had the chance. She said that one of her favorite group of singers is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We listened to a couple of their songs that day. Because of her I always try to have some kind of song in my heart.

I learned many more things, but won't go into detail with them. I was thinking about her this morning and found her Obituary. I did not realize that she had passed away. A couple of years ago I thought that I should write her a thank you note but I did not do it, so I guess this is it.

Here is her obituary for those of you who knew her:

http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.dunagan/283/mb.ashx

Another wonderful teacher was Mrs. Campbell. I have no idea why I liked her so much. When I worked at the District Office, after she retired, she would come in to say hello and she was always so friendly to me. She was my track coach while in 7th grade and I really grew to love her.

Who can not forget Mr. White? What a fun class. I remember on two occasion walking behind him and money fell out of his pocket. Each time I gave it to him or let him know that it was falling and he said that he was amazed how honest I was. With this happening twice I thought he must be loaded to have money falling out of his pants. :) I know that I will never need to know what a "rune" letter is again, but I learned about them in his class while reading The Hobbitt. He taught me to love reading.

Mrs. Ann Martin has to be my all time favorite teacher. She just had a special way about teaching that made me want to learn more. We always did fun things in her class and I was her "teachers pet" so that made things even funner for me. :) When I lived in Hanford, California, where she lived, I ran into her after I had children. I told her that she was my all time favorite teacher. She said that she always wanted to know what happened to me. It was neat to know that someone cared enough to wonder.

If I was to go back to school I would definately become a teacher. There is no other job, other than being a parent, that I believe, takes more time and dedication and love.Galileo has said, "We cannot teach people anything; We can only help them discover it within themselves." To all of my teachers out there, THANK YOU!

In Memory

I have never written before on Janessa's blog but this is a story that I wanted to tell. The picture above is of our sweet little toy poodle Peaches. She joined our family almost exactly two years ago from a family that we knew. They were looking for a family to take her and the girls wanted her to come live with us. She was eight years old and I was hesitant to take in a pet that was already that age. I have almost always raised pets from when they were puppies, so this dog seemed ancient to me. After a little buttering up by my daughters, I agreed that we would take her.

She was the cutiest little thing and just loved to sit on everyones lap. She caught on very quickly that I was the "Alpha Male" of the household and took a special liking to me right away. It was always reassuring to know that when I got home she would run up to me jumping all over the place wanting to be held and petted. At night, like clockwork, she would jump on the girls bed and stay with them until they fell asleep and then come and get into bed with us. I can't tell you how many times I would have nightmares that I couldn't breathe and wake up with Peaches sleeping on my chest!! It was amazing to me how anytime I called for her she was right there, sitting at my feet, waiting for any attention she could get. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but I taught her a few of them and she was great at them.
Three days ago we had decided to take Peaches into the vet. For a while she had started to slow down a little and would start crying for no apparent reason. After the vet had examined her, she informed me that our little dog had many health problems. She had a broken jaw, rotten teeth, a twisted spine, ect. I couldn't believe this! She seemed so healthy to me just last week. The vet told me that her jaw broke because her mouth was very diseased and that led to the other problems. The only way to fix everything was to have surgery and the cost would be over $2000. Of course, I told the vet to schedule the operation in the morning, that no expense would be spared on my Peaches.

When I got home, I explained to Janessa what happened. After a lot of thought, though, we decided that these surgeries would only be the tip of the iceburg and that there really wasn't a 100% chance that she would get better. So, we decided the only way to end her pain was for her to be put to sleep.

I took her in the next morning to the vet and they immediately took me into the back room. The staff was very kind and understood the emotions I was feeling at that time. Even though I knew it would be tough, I decided to hold her while they gave her the shot. It was so quick and she died in my arms. When it was over they let me stay in the room with her alone while I said goodbye. I stayed with her for 15 minutes and told her how much I, Janessa, and the kids loved her and how much joy she brought to our family. I then laid her on a pillow, told her that she was going to be ok, gave her a little kiss, and then walked out of the room.

The hardest part of this whole thing was telling our little girls what happened. Sometimes being the person to give bad news is the worst job. If anything, at least we got to experience what a true and loving pet does for a family. No matter how bad of a day you are having, they are right there, loving you as if you are the greatest person who walked the earth. We will miss her.

Mitchell

Easter Celebrations

“Easter is a sacred day, a day of thanksgiving and divine worship. It is not a day just for
rejoicing because of the opening of springtime, not merely an opportunity to display beautiful
hats and fine clothing—it is an occasion for the expression of gratitude to God for having sent
His Only Begotten Son into the world to be ‘the way, the truth, the life.”
(David O. Mckay)

I think that I love Easter more than Christmas. It is a time that I truly get to reflect on our Savior and not be interrupted with the worldly things of the Holiday. Easter is such a sacred Holiday that we wanted to make sure that it stays that way. I want my girls to truly know their Savior and what he did for all of us. I want them to have a strong testimony of their own. I want them to know the meaning of Easter is not the Easter bunny or the Easter Eggs, it is about Jesus. I am personally so thankful for all that he did for me. Through him, I can return to my Heavenly Father again with my family by my side. Through him, I can repent of my sins. Through him, I can know my Heavenly Fathers love a little more. Through him, I can see his example and be that kind of example to my children.

My all time favorite Easter Story is called The Three Trees. Since my post is already going to be long, you can read it on this link: http://www.javaforjesus.com/legendofthreetrees.html It is such a great and powerful story.

EGG HUNT

Now, on to our Easter festivities. Yesterday we went to my brother's house and had breakfast and an Easter Egg Hunt. It was a lot of fun. It was extra special because my parents were in town for my niece's baptism.

Ready, Set, GO!

Lindsay found a lot of Easter Eggs. Her uncle also hid bubble gum packs and Lindsay found 7 of them. She serisously thinks I am going to let her eat all of them too. :)

Hailey, Tavis (my nephey) and my mom.

I love this video. Listen to what my brother says in the beginning of it. Pretty funny because that is exactly what I had in mind, and apperently my mom did also.

Ashley playing at the park with her cousin Rachel.

We always have a great time when we are able to get together with my brother and sister and their families.

EASTER MORNING

The girls wake up to find their Easter baskets. This year they also received a special Easter Dress from Mitchell and I. I always try to get the same kind of dress for each girl, but in a different pattern. The pictures that are in my header were taken this morning with their pretty Easter Dresses on.

Here the girls are walking into the living room to find what the Easter Bunny left for them.

Ashley wants to be a soccer star so she received a soccer ball Easter basket this year. She can not wait until it stops raining later this week so that she can go outside and play with it.

Lindsay wants to be a basketball star. She has been bouncing it around the house all afternoon. I think I will hide it until she can play outside. (What a mean mother I am.)
Hailey is my princess so she received a princess basket. She has been wearing her dress up shoes everywhere she goes, thankfully she did not want to wear them to church this morning.

EASTER DINNER

After church we had a special Easter dinner. I had to make my Pepsi Ham. It is soooooo good. You get a ham that is NOT cooked and place it into a crockpot. You pour a 2 liter bottle of pepsi inside the crockpot and let it cook on high for about 5 hours. It is yummy. I tell myself that the heat cooks the caffeine out of it.

We have so much to be thankful for!

Our Life is Going to Change!

I am not one of those people who can hold something in for very long. I like to announce things as I know them. So, even though we just found out this morning, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY! I know that it is tacky how I am telling people, but hey, if you do not read my blog then you wont know my true feelings so I thought it would be fun to tell everyone (but my kids, they do not need to read my blog to find out :) ) the exciting news.

Our lives are going to change in so many ways. My doctors have told me that since I have C-Section's with all of my kids that I will only be able to have 4 children. This is due to how I heal from a C-Section. This has been something that has been on my mind for 8 years. I have always known in my heart that we will have that magic number of four, but I had to let Mitchell know that.

Right now things are perfect. When the girls are in school I have Hailey at home with me and she pretty much will play by herself if I need her to. She has been our baby for 3 years. She always tells me that she wants a baby brother or sister, but I do not know if she really knows what this means. This is all going to change.

My friend just had a baby a couple of weeks ago and it really touches my heart when I get to hold her and see her. I have longed for another child for about a year now. I have missed having a baby in the home. I have missed every bit of it.

The timing is so right! My body is getting healthier, my youngest is old enough to be a big help when the new baby comes, my older ones are SOOOOOOOOOOO excited. It is so right.

Now, on to 8 months of who knows what.

Out of this World

Within walking distance from our home there is a new Pizza Playland called Out of this World Pizza. They started building in July so my girls have been asking me if we could go for months. It was a lot of fun to see the progress and it was also fun watching the girls eyes light up every time that we drove by.

Well, the day finally came and it opened on Saturday. I had a coupon so we all went in for $8.00, this does not include food, but it was still a great price to me. I seriously want to take the girls there every week. It is so much fun. We were there for 3 1/2 hours and they wanted to stay longer but mom was done. I know that this is a place that we are going to visit often.

First we explored the bounce house with a slide attatched. They have one for ages 5 and up and one for 4 and under. It was perfect for Hailey to be able to play and not get bounced around by other kids. We then made our way over to the kids play area equiped with scooters for the kids to ride, a grocery store, a little jungle gym for toddlers and some toddler toys.
Parents are also able to join in so I played bumper cars with Hailey. She did not like it too much.



As you can tell, I spend most of my time with Hailey at places like this. Here she is trying out the rock wall.
Ashley also on the rock wall. Check out her new haircut.
They also have a huge play area with 30 foot slides. Hailey was too scared to go on one of the slides, but she enjoyed watching her sisters go down them.

Some things about Me

1. I hate having my picture taken. I hope that this will change once I become my goal weight, but for now I like to hide behind the camera. We have not had a family picture taken since Lindsay was a baby. This was 8 years ago. This coming Christmas it is my goal to get a family portrait taken that I can be proud of.

2. I truly enjoy taking a bath and I am fortunate enough to take at least one a day. At times, I actually get to take one in the morning and at night. There is something about it that gets me through the day.

3. I truly dislike cooking. I would rather go to McDonalds or to Taco Bell then cook a meal. It is not that I am not a good cook, I just think that when things are easier, why not do it. Believe me, I do cook for my family, but it is nice when I do not have to.

4. If I could I would talk on the phone ALL DAY LONG! I really enjoy talking to my family especially my parents. If I go a week without talking to my mom, she worries that something is wrong with me. :)

5. I have a obsessive compulsive disorder. If my children are out of my sight, I freak out. This all started when my brother Adam was 2 or 3 years old. He would go to a friends house and I would either sit outside their door to make sure he did not leave or I would scream his name every ten seconds to make sure that he was there. Well, I still do this with my youngest. It is something that I have to work on or I will give myself ulcers. I used to have an alarm on my front door so that I would know if Hailey went outside and it is finally off. It drives me crazy, but she has proven to me that she will not run outside without asking first. She does sleep at the foot of my bed though. I KNOW, I really need help!

6. I am TERRIFIED of flying. My husband has his pilots license and I truly scare myself to death when I go up in a plane. Last year he wanted to take me to Orca Island in Washington and the only way to get there is to fly or to ride a ferry. We got into the plane and started flying until I started bawling like a baby and made him turn around. This is something that I need to get over, but I really do not know how I can.

7. I actually love going to the gym. I really enjoy that time that I get to work on my body and my health. Mitchell has a membership to the same gym so we have our date nights working out every now and then. It really is the highlight of my week.

8. I am a freak about High School Plays. I have no idea where this came from but I LOVE them. The most recent plays that I have gone to are "Beauty and the Beast, Grease, Into the Woods and The Boxcar Children. I grew up in a high school that did not have the budget or the talent for plays like these. Into the Woods was absolutely amazing! Tomorrow night I am going to "Fiddler on the Roof" with a lady that I met at my aerobics class.

9. If I am in charge of something, I go all out. Mitchell was in charge of the Joint Activity for Young Women and Young Mens this week and he wanted to play Football outside. Well, I would not allow that to happen (it has been raining constantly for a week so they would get so muddy) so I looked up some fun ideas on the internet and found Faith Factor. It was SOOOOOO much fun and the kids truly loved it (all 70 of them YES 70 Youth in our ward). The next time he is in charge I want him to do Clue. I do the same if I am teaching the Young Women. I have to have a beautiful handout that takes me all day to make 30 of them because they have to be perfect.

The Perfect Day

This weekend Mitchell surprised us and took us to the beach. There is something about watching the waves that makes me so happy. The weather was perfect. There was no wind, the sun came out every now and then and it was about 60 degrees outside. AAHHH!

BREATHTAKING!

Hailey loves to put her feet in the sand.

Ashley really enjoyed making sand castles, she did not enjoy getting her feet wet though.

Lindsay went surfing.... :)

and walked with her dad on the beach. (She is Daddy's little girl and is proud of it!)

Check out the sunglasses.

We were even able to feed some birds.

My favorite part was relaxing with my family! My family is so important to me. I look forward to the fun little trips that I get to take with them. We were able to forget everything else and focus on our sweet girls. Isn't that what life is all about!?!

WOW! My 100th Post!

I am watching my nephew and niece this weekend so that my brother and sister-in-law can have a little get away. Since it will be raining I wanted to let the kids do something in the house that would be fun. My friend has one of these in her house so I had to make one for ours.

It is a storage box full of rice, buckets, shovels and little toys. These two have played with this for about 2 hours straight. You have to set rules right away. I took it away one time because they were throwing it on the floor, but since I brought it back, they are not having a problem.

One huge plus is it is really easy to clean up and you do not have to wash hands afterwards.

I like to rotate my kids toys so that when they get bored with something then I will put it in the shed and bring another toybox out. This is definately something that will go away in a couple of weeks, but when it comes back out it will be fun again.

Reflections

This past week I have thought a lot about all that has happened during this past year in my life and I realize how much I have to be thankful for. I have always heard people say that trials make you stronger but I have never really thought about it until now.

Our family has had two tragic deaths this past year. My Aunt Kathy, my dad's sister, died in a car accident in Bountiful, Utah. She had 8 kids and a lot of grandkids. As I drove with my daughters to the funeral I had a lot of time to contemplate about my life and my family. I wondered what if I died right then, would I be ready to return to my Heavenly Father or would I say, "I wish that I did this better, or if I could have said that differently." Even through this death, it brought me closer to my Heavenly Father and to my children.

About two months later my other Aunt's granddaughter, my dad's other sister, was on her parents houseboat on Lake Powell and her parents turned around for a second and she had fallen off the boat and drowned. She was found a couple of days later. I remember watching a news report online where my cousin was talking about how perfect and beautiful she looked and how at peace his sweet little daughter looked. His daughter was only 3 years old, the same age as my Hailey. You can view it here: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1969817 This is one trial that I would NEVER want to have in my life, who would. If you know me pretty well you know that I am pretty obsessed with knowing where my children are at all times. Austin, my cousin, was so strong through this and he really left an impression in my heart. I think about his sweet wife often and wonder what she is going through. How would it be to walk by her daughters room, to find her little shoes, to find a picture that she drew for her, to watch a video of her? What emotion would come.

I am not grateful for what happened, but I am grateful for the lesson that I have learned because of it. It taught me to hold my children a little tighter, to forget the petty things in life and concentrate on the things that truly matter, that families are eternal.

President Hinckley has said, "You have nothing in this world more precious than your children. When you grow old, when your hair turns white and your body grows weary, when you are prone to sit in a rocker and meditate on the things of your life, nothing will be so important as the question of how your children have turned out. It will not be the money you have made. It will not be the cars you have owned. It will not be the large house in which you live. The searing question that will cross your mind again and again will be, How well have my children done?

If the answer is that they have done very well, then your happiness will be complete. If they have done less than well, then no other satisfaction can compensate for your loss.

And so I plead with you tonight, my dear sisters. Sit down and quietly count the debits and the credits in your role as a mother. It is not too late. When all else fails, there is prayer and the promised help of the Lord to assist you in your trials. But do not delay. Start now, whether your child be six or 16."

These are powerful words to follow. I will strive to be the best mother that I can, even if it is hard at times. It will all be worth it in the end.

Recipies You Have To Try!

for an Enrichment Night our ward made a cookbook with Soups, Salads and Rolls. There was a recipe that really stood out to me because it had Pepperjack Cheese, that I love, in the recipe. I had to try it. It was excellent and really easy to make.

Simple Cheesy Cream of Potato Soup

1 pkg Bear Creek Creamy Potato Soup Mix
8-10 Russett Potatoes (I did not peel them)
1 C. Pepper Jack Cheese (If you like spicy then stick with the 1 cup, if not, I would put in 1/2 cup of another cheese.)
1 1/2 C. Diced Ham

Cut potatoes into small cubes (about 1/2 inch). Add to large pot containing 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Add soup mix stirring with a whisk until completely blended. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Add ham and pepper jack cheese. remove from heat and stir thoroughly.

I served mine with some potato rolls. It was fabulous.

THEN (Yes, there is more) since I had some pepper jack cheese left over I had to find a recipe with that in it. This recipe was found online at recipezarr.com. We just ate it and I was amazed how much my kids loved it.

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast

INGREDIENTS
1 (10 ounce) package fresh spinach leaves
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded pepperjack cheese
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
1 pinch ground black pepper
8 slices bacon

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Place spinach in a large glass bowl, and heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, stirring every minute or so, or until wilted. Stir in sour cream, pepperjack cheese, and garlic.
3.Lay the chicken breasts out on a clean surface, and spoon some of the spinach mixture onto each one. Roll up chicken to enclose the spinach, then wrap each chicken breast with two slices of bacon. Secure with toothpicks, and arrange in a shallow baking dish.
4.Bake uncovered for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, then increase heat to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C), or use the oven's broiler to cook for an additional 5 to 10 minutes to brown the bacon.

TIPS: I forgot to buy the garlic so I did not use that, but I put in some paprika and some curry powder. I also exchanged fresh spinach with frozen spinach. I had quite a bit of the filling left over, and I used 6 pieces of chicken, so you could cut this recipe in half if you want to. Enjoy!

Getaway

One of my favorite things to do is stay the night in a hotel. I have no idea why but, there is something about it that reguvinates me. We had a pretty free weekend so I decided to book a night at the Marriott downtown so the girls could go swimming and we could have a fun and relaxing time as a family.

Our hotel was right by a Red Robin so we started out our wonderful night with some fantastic hamburgers. I was eyeing the desserts, but I was good. (The day before I went to my first Spinning class and there was no way that I was going to put anything into my body to undo all of my hard work!)

We then went back to our hotel to jump into the swimming pool. Hailey loves the water but she would NOT let me let go of her even though she had floaties on. She was content just holding onto my hands. After an hour this became really annoying, but we still had fun.Lindsay is my little swimmer. She loves to swim under water pretending to be a duck. Ashley stays near the shallow end. She can swim, but she is still nervous. She stole Haileys floaties once she noticed she was not using them then she really enjoyed swimming.
I know that kids are not suppose to go into hottubs, but since no one else was swimming I let them come in for a couple of minutes. They really enjoyed making bubble beards with the bubbles in the water.

This morning we had a voucher for a free breakfast buffett. It was fantastic. I did try corned beef hash for the first and last time. :) We will make sure that we have another mini vacation real soon.

When we got home I realized something was wrong with my new camera that I bought the day after Thanksgiving. I can not get it to take pictures. I was able to download the pictures and I think I found my culprit!

HAILEY! I have no idea what she did but it was not good. I hope that we are able to fix it because I do not want to buy another one!