The last few weeks

I read other people's blogs and feel bad that I don't have anything terribly exciting to talk about. I also used to think that I took quite a few pictures of my girls but yet, I don't really have a lot to post on here. Oh well, here goes nothing.

I went up to Mackay with my Mom a few weeks ago to spend time with my Grandpa. We did a little bit of house cleaning and then I tried to take the girls sledding. I have fond memories of going sledding by the cow trough. The trough would spill over and then freeze up and it made a great sledding hill. But, I took the girls up on the mine hill this time but the snow wasn't good. And, we didn't have sleds and were trying to use trash bags. That didn't work at all and so they rolled down the hill while I took pictures. The pictures aren't of the girls but of scenes from around Grandma and Grandpa's farm. It is the first time I had been back to Mackay since my Grandma died in October. It was obvious something was missing there and I can see why Grandpa gets lonely there. It is funny how much someone fills your life with light and you don't notice it until they are gone.

Grandma and Grandpa's house

Scenery from Grandma and Grandpa's
Chimney where we used to "bake" our mud pies.

I would post a lot more but these pictures are taking a long time to load so I'll just keep the rest to myself. But I did get some nice pictures and it was a fun walk through memory lane.

I have been busy with Primary stuff for the last few weeks. We had a Primary Activity on Saturday which went really well. We filmed the kids doing a talent and then they decorated boxes to look like cars. They decorated heart shaped sugar cookies and they watched their talents on the TV in their "drive-in" cars. It was cute and we had a good turnout.

I had to teach the Senior Primary boys how to sing "How Firm A Foundation" today. That was a heck of an experience. I have a greater respect for Primary Chorister and there is one 10 year old boy in our ward who is lucky I didn't smack him on the head a few dozen times.

I also got to attend Achievement Days for their Mother/ Daughter party. We have some great A.D leaders and I am grateful for all they do.


We had Elder Ballard come to our Stake Conference last week. That was a really neat experience. He told a neat story in the Adult Session about the power of the Priesthood and the power of family. It was really neat.



My girls have been really sick the last 2 weeks with really awful colds. Tayla usually suffers through a cold pretty well but this time it kept her up at night coughing. And when she doesn't get enough sleep, everyone suffers. And of course, Ashtyn is miserable when she gets sick. I bet you she has asthma and she really coughs a lot when she gets sick. Poor kids. (And of course I have a cold now too. It was inevitable I guess.)

My list of favorites this week are Favorite Websites:

• Check out www.topsecretrecipes.com. This guy duplicates restaurant recipes and they taste so good. Some have weird ingredients but for the most part they use common items. I love the recipes from the Macaroni Grill and the Reses Peanut Butter Cups. This is such a fun site. You can also sign up for an email to be sent to you once a week that has a free recipe. It is a great resource for great food.
• Need help in almost every church calling? Check out www. sugardoodle.net. This has fantastic sharing ideas, singing time ideas, visiting teaching ideas, YW ideas, etc, etc. There are also links from here to other sites that also have great ideas. This is a wealth of information.
  
• Hate cleaning your house? Try www.flylady.net. She presents house cleaning in a whole new way. I have adapted this method and I love it. I will admit that I don't do EVERYTHING that she says like getting dressed to the shoes and I have yet to become a dishwasher Nazi; but I do take 15 minutes a day to do some deep cleaning. I really feel like I stay on top of things that way. I love this method.
  

Anyhow, I hope you find some of those useful. Until next time.....