Fun Family Videos

I learned how to use something called animoto to make some fun family videos. Here's one from Sienna's visit this summer:



Here's one I did Sunday at Paul and Kelsey's house for baby Winter

And here's a short one from our Disneyland trip last month.

Birthday Cake

Paul and Kelsey made this fun cake for my birthday. It's the island from A Change of Plans.

Well, kinda.

Winter wearing her Bat headband

Davey helping Papa make cookies earlier.

Disneyland and Heart Attacks

Ed and I are heading to Anaheim next week to visit Disneyland. Not for ourselves but because Erin and her family will be there because Spencer's got a work conference the first part of the week. Funny how flying to L.A, staying in a hotel, and going to Disneyland for three days costs about as much as it would to fly to Kaui'i to see them.

On a scary note, Grampa Hanson had what looks like a couple of heart attacks this week. He's in the hospital right now and sure he's going to be released every day. Erin and Spencer are going to rent a car on Sunday when they get to California and go see him. Dad's always been so healthy and is such an active person that this being cooped up in the hospital is driving him crazy. I'm grateful for his friend Hilde and his church family who are keeping watch on him.

Publishing Contract

I signed a publishing contract on Monday! Check out my writing blog for details.

Sienna's Trip Winds Down

We went to Sundance today and rode the ski lift. Beautiful today after all the rain yesterday.

Sienna had a real thrill when she recognized NieNie who was there and had gotten in line. I read Ed her book, so I pointed her out to Ed and, of course, he went up and introduced himself to her. She was so gracious and very sweet to Sienna.

Last weekend we went to the Colonial Heritage Festival at Scera Park.

Sienna's Visit Continued

Sienna's been busy between playing with our neighbor Kaitlyn, visiting Zoe in Springville, and Grace in Draper. She got to meet author Elana Johnson at her book launch for Surrender. I was going to get a picture, but forgot my camera.

Today Sienna got to meet author Cindy Hogan, who signed her two books--Watched and Protected--for Sienna.

We're heading for Gardner Village tomorrow to meet up with Kelsey and baby Winter. We're picking up Grace (I think) on our way. I hope to have some pictures them. I want to get up to Sundance with Sienna, too.

Summerfest

Sienna's been having fun with Davey who stayed with us for three days last week. He likes to pretend he knows how to make the bike work while Sienna uses Adam's old scooter.

This last weekend was Summerfest. I took her over for lunch, and we checked out all the vendors. I got some tickets for the rides. Ed, who joined us after an appointment, didn't want to go. One ride for me told me I'm too old for this stuff. lol So the little girls, Kelly and Allie, from across the street who happened to be at the grandmother's house across from City Center Park, helped Sienna use the tickets.

Afterward, Sienna went to the park with my coworker Bobbie and her family--Kaitlyn, Bobbie's oldest, is 13. They were having a water balloon fight at the park. The weather turned crazy, though, with the wind really kicking up.

I was going to take Sienna back to Summerfest for the fireworks, but it had gotten really cold outside. We were watching Winter anyway. Too bad, though.

Sienna's going to spend a couple of days with her friend Zoe. Ed will take her there tonight. The timing is perfect because Ed's got the Temple for a good chunk tomorrow, and I've got a city council meeting from hell: the first of the budget public hearings. The staff is proposing the first property tax increase since 1978. As you can imagine, many people are up in arms about it. The increase comes to about the cost of a movie ticket a month. But that can be huge when you're on a fixed income. Just ask Ed. But what do you do? We're literally at the point where services will be cut if it's not approved.

Sienna's Visit

Sienna arrived last Wednesday after a little adventure (like idiot airport people). Erin sounded really  stressed when Sienna missed her flight. Hmmm . . . I wonder why. But they finally straightened everything out and got her on another flight--and even put her in first class.

She's been helping Ed and playing with the little girls across the street. One of my clerks at work has a daughter (Kaitlyn) who's Sienna's age and has been really nice to invite her over to play.

Sienna's friend Grace (moved from Hawaii to Utah earlier this year) invited Sienna to come to a horse show Grace was involved in (she took 2nd place). Sienna not only got to be around horses, she got to ride one.

She's anxious to read the book I've been editing--the one where she's the main characters. Yes, both of them. I was hoping to be able to get through the first edit, but now I'm working on a revise and resubmit edit from a small publisher on another book. *sigh*

Kinslayer

Have I mentioned that Paul and Adam have a band? They're into Metal--not the screachy Death Metal stuff but the epic Symphonic/Melodic Metal. Adam writes most of the music and does the mixing, and Paul's the lyricist, and they have an really talented keyboardest who helps with the music. You can hear some of their music at their website kinslayerband.com.

Paul and Adam have been working on this for a few years now, with Paul being the driving force behind it. Well, they had their first concert last night. It was in bar, so their underaged drummer couldn't go. They built Robby the Robot to fill in (and had to use a computer to play the drum). Their next performance is on the 26th of this month and there's no age restriction. Ed and I plan to go.

Here's a picture from the concert last night. If Paul's wife Kelsey can get me some of the video I'll try and post it here.

Don't even ask me why Adam's wearing shorts.

Davey and Winter

My dang phone jiggles when I take pictures.

Isn't Winter getting big?

And look at Davey!

And Life Goes On . . .

We're still (kinda) doing the reboot. We've had a couple of challenges get in the way of the healthy eating, and Ed was bragging last night that he hadn't really had much of a salad in two weeks. Ugh!

He's working to get the yard squared away. It's a slow process for him, since anything physical really takes it out of him. I remind him--but he disregards me--that if you don't do anything, you hurt even more when you finally do. But he's been blowing me off for years about health issues, so why should this be any different?

We got to see Winter on Saturday. She's getting so big and giggles awesomely when you blow on her belly. Kelsey always dresses her so cutely, too. We'll have Davey this week while his mom is at a work conference. And then next week I've got the LDS Storymaker writing conference. Can't wait!.

Ed and the Reboot

I'm a little bummed because I didn't lose any weight this week. I'm doing P90X, so I can excuse it and say I'm really picking up more muscle which weighs more than fat. It's always so much easier to behave when it shows up on the scales.

We had a yummy Easter dinner (I weighed in the morning) of deviled tomatoes, carrot ginger soup, pralined sweet potatoes, and asparagus pasta. Oh, and dessert was a lemon poppy zing cake, made from white whole wheat flour and sweetened with agave. Very yummy.

The doctor was concerned that Ed's breathing issues might be more blood clots in his lungs, so he went to the hospital for an emergency CT scan. His longs look good, so they're thinking he's got something going on with his heart that's making it so hard for him to get his breath. He's got a special kind of stress test he's going in for tomorrow.

Easter and the Reboot

Whether you are into this kind of Easter

or

this kind of Easter

I hope you have a lovely day.

I've been accumulating a number of recipes I want to use for our Easter dinner. I may even make a soup. That'll be a first for this particular holiday.

I'm really glad we've been doing this although Ed's not been sticking to it 100%. But I think he is eating better. He always has a hard time breathing this time of year because he has so many severe allergies. He went to the doctor yesterday to see about maybe getting a different kind of inhaler. The PA said his lungs were clear, so they did an EKG. There might be some problems there, so he's going to be seen again today and could be making a visit to the cardiologist.

Religious Bigotry

This really troubles me:

http://nation.foxnews.com/nbc-news/2012/04/04/nbc-news-ridicules-mormons

If you have Mormon friends and you hear garbage like this, talk to them about it. Get the facts.

Reboot Update 4

I feel great! I lost another two pounds, so I'm now where I was in June 2010. I'll be able to wear that dress on Easter. 'Cited!

I made a smoothy today that was SO yummy! I was supposed to use a young coconut, but I didn't have one, so I use some cocoanut water and a little light coconut milk. It had fresh pineapple, a lime, a little agave, a touch of vanilla, and spinach. Seriously tasty!

My regular black skirt is getting baggy whereas in January I wasn't sure I could wear it. I also started P90X again. Man but those make me feel good!

Ed continues to eat more veggies and fruit, and he's not eating nearly as much bread as he used to. But he's got such a sweet tooth I don't know how much longer he'll go. At least his weight is steady.

Reboot Update 3

Ed's sneaking more and more things, but he says he's committed to eating better still. As he said this morning, he needs to get back on the wagon.

Time will tell.

I lost nearly 2 pounds. I was disappointed, but what can I say? I'm feeling great, and I'm liking what I'm eating and drinking. I'm not hungry, and my blood sugar level is steady enough. That's good, right? And I fit into a smaller size than I was able to wear two weeks ago. That's definitely good.

My goal is to be able to wear a dress I got two years ago for Easter in two weeks.

Cross your fingers!

Reboot Editorial

Um, yes. I told you so! 

What did Ed have for dinner last night? 

I'll let you guess.

Reboot Update 2

Okay, so today begins the new week of the reboot. Because of work limitations, I have had to tweak the 5 days of eating a veggie-fruit based diet/5 days of fruit/veggie juices. So far, I haven't hit the horrible sluggish day, although every day for Ed has been sluggish, and he's been in a lot of pain. Of course, Ed also has Fibromyagia (a pain condition) and two kinds of arthritis. He's also a prime candidate for amazing success when (unbeknownst to him) he's given  sugar pill. That old addage that our perspective control our reality is absolute truth--and for some people even more so.

I was excited yesterday when I put on a pair of my fat jeans, and they were loose. So, I was hoping for at least a 5-pound loss for the week. So you can imagine how thrilled I was with an 8.6-pound loss. And I feel great. I tend to low blood sugar, so I have to be careful how long I go between eating. This has been one of my biggest concerns about this program. The fact that I usually have a blood sugar crash before I experience hunger is also a problem, because suddenly I'm in trouble before I have any warning.

But it hasn't been a problem. I don't understand it. There are times when I know my blood sugar is getting low, and I need to eat/drink something. If that happens when I'm somewhere I can't eat, that's a problem. We went to the store yesterday, and I got that feeling just before we left. I grabbed some unsweetened applesauce, and we left. It wasn't enough to keep the feeling from returning--and we visited two stores. But the blood sugar crash never happened.

I'm thrilled!

Ed's already starting to cheat, so I don't know if he'll really give it long enough to see if it will help or not. He's a big boy. I'll leave him to his decisions.

The truth is, he wants his cookies.

And his Pepsi.

A steak wouldn't hurt, either.

Well, it would, but I'm not sure he'd see it that way.

Reboot Update 1

Ed's about saladed out, but he's lost about 5 or six pounds since we returned from Hawaii. He really wants some meat or eggs, and it's tough for him when I'm not there in the evening to help with the dinner preparation--like last night. The city council meeting went until 11:30 p.m. last night, and I'm dying today.

I haven't weighed myself, so I'll have to see how it goes when I weigh again on Sunday. Good thing: my blood sugar has been steady. I don't usually experience true hunger because my blood sugar crashes before I do. And so far, unless I've not eaten in many hours, I've been fine. I did eat a tortilla as part of dinner at the meeting (but I didn't eat the meat or the cheese), and it was so late I ate a cookie my deputy gave me. After listening to person after person get up before the council and say basically the same thing, my resistance was low. Hopefully it won't sabotage my efforts. And I've been good today even though there were still cookies leftover.

Because of my oral surgery last week, the hardest thing for me is drinking or eating things with acid in them. You know, like salad dressing (vinegar) or juices (even green juices have fruit in them). Today has been a pretty good day so far. Hopefully, I'll heal faster now, which should help.

The Reboot

So, I've talked before about trying different things to help out with Ed's health and my weight. While we were at Erin's, she and Spencer talked about a movie--Forks Over Knives--they had watched that changed how they looked on what they ate. So we watched it.



I commented on Facebook about it, and a writer friend mentioned another movie--Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead--so we all watched it, too.



So, today, Ed and I started a 10-day reboot, which is what was recommended for me. This is a bit different from Joe's 60-day juice cleanse. For one, we get to eat some of the days. Since Joe talked about a tough third day--and that writer friend mentioned that she also had a bad third day--I'm trying to schedule this so that third juice day is on a Saturday.

It's interesting for me, since I had oral surgery last week, and my mouth is still pretty messed up--both the inside and my lip. But so far, so good.

Hawaii Trip

We prepped for Aidan's birthday party on Friday. Erin had lots of fun stuff planned. Her recipe for Butterbeer was to die for. And it was do rich, I nearly died. lol



The boys entered via Platform 9 3/4



Then they were each sorted. Aidan was in Gryffindor. No surprise there.



Then they were got their wands.









There were lots of yummy things to eat after the pizza





Singing Happy Birthday.



Can't tell Lucy loved the Cauldron Cakes, can you?

Madelyn trying to work her magic.

Orem's Center for Story

The construction of the Center for Story is being funded with CARE tax revenues and donations.

Yuck and Sweet Winter

I came down with that creeping crud that's been going around here--a couple of people in my office have been fighting it and shared it with me. Nasty stuff. But talk about kicking me while I'm down! My back started throwing fits the second day I was sick (that was last Thursday).

Oh. My. Heck!

I keep having a popping sound in my lower left hip area, which makes me wonder if I'm pinching a nerve or something. It's fine when I sit down, but sitting down makes standing up harder to do. If that makes any sense. Anyway, we're flying to Hawaii for a short trip to be there for Aidan's baptism, but I'm dreading sitting on a plane for all those hours if I can't get this fixed.

Ugh!

But, we got Davey for a few days this weekend and Paul and Kelsey brought baby Winter over yesterday. Davey just loves her.

Davey, Papa, and Winter

And here are some Valentines Day pics that Kelsey sent of Winter.

 

Busy Busy Busy

Sometimes I feel like I'm running around so much that I'm going to meet myself coming around the corner. Ever had months like that?

Reflections

I was reading Melanie Jacobson's post over at Write Stuff and was really touch by her remarks as she marked the anniversary of her mother's passing. I started to post a comment that I realized was a dang blog post, so I brought it over here.

This is when we were finally able to join my father in Korea

I lost my mom when I was fourteen. It's because of a wish to tell her story that I decided to learn how to write two years ago. See, my children don't know her, don't know the woman that I loved and admired so much.. They hear occasional stories and recognize her in pictures.

It's not the same thing.

There are certain ocassions you go through in life that you expect you mom to be there for. Like graduating from high school and getting married.

But especially when having a baby. I was still active duty in the Army, when I had my first son. We were stationed in Germany, so it was just my husband and me there, trying to figure it all out on our own. I know my mother would have found a way to come to be with me, just as I've been there for the birth of every one of my daughter's four children.

Because Mom never got to experience being a grandmother, I cherish the moments I get to spend with mine. It's common for me to think about how I'm getting to do something she never got to.

In my faith, we believe that we existed before we were born, that we had connections with people, that we experienced love and family there before we experienced it here.

When I was in college, there was a musical that really went home for me. I found the music and the interweaving of stories to be just what I needed for encouragement and inspiration at that time in my life. I didn't realize it would mean so much more to me when I got a little older and began my family.

In the play Saturdays Warrior, one of the oldest siblings dies before the youngest is born. It's easy to think that because my mom died so young that she never got to see my children. But I prefer to imagine my unborn children greeting her when she died and passed through the veil.
 
When I get good enough at the writing thing, my personal history will finally be one of my projects. My hope is that I will be able to bring my mother to life for my children the way I knew her.
 
I hope she'd had been proud of me.

Winter

Kelsey said the dog licked her hair and made her laugh. She's only a little over 5 weeks old.

Kaua'i - Days 6 & 7

Saturday was another beautiful day (and my anniversary). We went to Waimea (Grand Canyon of the Pacific), took a short hike, and ended up having lunch at the beach and watching some whales play around (though I didn't get any pictures of them--dang it!).

Aidan's crying because Papa just sat on his hand.

We discovered that little Madelyn is deathly afraid of heights. She's four and when she'd approach the overlook, she'd crouch down and eventually turn away screaming.



Next we drove up to the Kalalau Lookout. It's at 4,000 feet above sea level--not that far below home (4,500), and it was a little windy and nippy up there.



Waiting for the others before going on our hike.

Aren't these ferns gorgeous? Oh, and the people, too.



Yes, I actually let them take a picture of me.



A trail of ferns.

Doesn't this just look like it could be rocks at Disneyland?



We ended up at Poipu Beach, thinking to do some swimming, but it was a tad bit cold. We ate the picnic lunch we brought and enjoyed watching some young whales that kept breaching. It was so fun to watch though I wasn't bright enough to get my camera out in time to catch any of it.



For our anniversary we went out to dinner with my daughter and son-in-law to a place called Duke's. Yummy food and very atmospheric. Behind us is a waterfall.

Sunday's really overcast, and it rained some while we were in church. We're having a quiet day at home. It's fun to do stuff, but it's fun to relax, too.