Disneyland 12 year old style

Derick was turning 12 years old in 2 months and not motivated the slightest in finishing his Faith in God for boys goals. I decided it was an important thing for him to earn and tried many different things to encourage him to want to earn this award. When he turned 12 on April 16th there would be no more opportunity to earn this award. After much fighting I finally decided to give him something he wouldn't want to pass on. A trip to Disneyland on his birthday with 3 of his best buds. When I told him this idea he was fully supportive of the idea and began that very second setting goals and passing off requirements for the award. It was marvelous how quickly the attitude changes. He went from completely against anything Mom and Dad asked him to do, to basically doing everything he knows he should do all on his own. He completed the requirements about 2 weeks before he turned 12. Whohooo! I was one happy momma. We loaded up and drove to CA on Thursday afternoon. We spent all day at Disneyland on Friday, and on Saturday we spent all morning at the Beach and then headed home. It was such a fun, fast paced time. Did I mention fast paced??? I'm used to walking through Disneyland with a family. Usually pushing a stroller and dragging slow walking kiddos. With four 12 year old boys it was almost impossible to keep up with them. They would go from ride to ride clear across one park and then back to the other side. I think I walked an equivalent of 30 miles. Eric and I are both sore, sore, sore. We feel about 40 years older than we are. But we are glad for the experience of a life time.

LIBERTY

Zach's school class had a vocabulary word parade. Each student needed to pick a word and figure out what it means and then create a costume that symbolizes their word. Zach was assigned the letter "L". He looked through a dictionary and didn't know what Liberty meant so we decided to do that word. Thanks to Susie B. for helping us figure out how to make the project a success! The Liberty Bell is a symbolism of our Freedom as citizens of the United States of America. Here Zach is all dressed up ready to show his vocabulary word.

Notice the Gold glitter Zach wrote on the top of each letter. Pretty spiffy if I do say so myself. Way to go Zachary!

On Tuesday Olivia was invited to a birthday party. Her kindergarten teacher was also invited to the party and was in attendance. When Eric went to pick her up from the party Olivia's teacher said come give me a hug Livie. So Liv went and gave her a hug. Then Eric remembering something Olivia has been telling us piped in, "Olivia, I thought Miss Killian didn't like you? Olivia getting all embarrassed said nothing. Miss Killian said Olivia, I love you! Come give me another hug. We as parents think it's so funny that children sometimes develop untrue thinkings about various things. I guess it's the same as us adults. So after that ordeal was over, Miss Killian told Eric something so funny about Big O. She said they were practicing rhyming words at the rug at school. Miss Killian said who can tell me a word that rhymes with "map". Olivia was quick to raise her hand and Miss Killian called on her. Olivia spouts out: "CRAP". That's my girl!

Scriptures & Satan

So as a family we are trying to be more diligent in reading our scriptures together. It was so hard to keep a regular schedule of studying scriptures as a family because we have too many schedules. So I decided that I would have to sacrifice my most precious commodity and get up at 6:00 am. UGH! I hate mornings but I love reading and studying the Book of Mormon with my family. So up at 6:00am I go every morning. I have noticed some very significant changes in our family life through this regular study of scriptures. First there is less fighting amongst the children. There is a sweet spirit of peace and love that we can all feel each and every morning. What a wonderful way to start off our day. Second I have seen a greater love for reading the scriptures, and other books for that matter. I have found our children curled up on the couch or in their beds reading both the scriptures and their own choices of books. Third, I have noticed a more powerful force of Satan in our home. Why is it that such an awesome powerful book and effort read by our family would cause Satan to increase his temptations among us individually? I am not sure why, other than we have some children that are reaching some very important stages in their lives. I feel very strongly about keeping up with this special time even if it is in the wee morning hours. For the mere fact of teaching our children that we as a family can withstand the pressures and temptations of the cunning one. We can learn to command him to leave. We can learn to choose to be best, closer as a family and individually stronger.

I love MOVING.....

only when I get to move back into my home. I never thought I'd say I love MOVING, but the closer it gets to our moving back HOME date the more excited I am to load up these boxes. If any of you want to lend a helping hand or two, we would LOVE it even more! We'll keep you posted on the exact date.

Change.....

It's been a long time since I've written about our families hustle and bustle so I figure it's about time. A lot has happened since my September post. We enjoyed the wonderful fall that Colorado has to offer. We enjoyed spending time with one another and making new friends. The one thing that we as a family didn't enjoy was being soooo far from home. We missed all of our Arizona friends and family so much while we were gone. I couldn't continue working as a police dispatcher for Littleton PD after my car accident. Things just weren't working there for me. So I quit my job and found myself in the job hunt. Having found nothing there I decided to go for a visit with the children to AZ just in time to celebrate the one year anniversary of Jeremy's passing. I couldn't bare the thought of missing out on that special time. Eric was still in school and working at a mortuary so he stayed behind in CO. I opened up a can of worms while in AZ and the children expressed great desire to return. They stated how much they didn't like leaving AZ. I was a bit worried on how Eric was going to take the news. It turns out that all was well and after prayer, and family council we realized we needed to move back to AZ. We did have a few hurdles to jump through in order to do that. First we needed to break our lease and pray new renters would take over (which they did) then we needed to scrounge up some money which we didn't have any of. The move to CO broke our bank. Thankfully we have family that love us and help us enough to get us back on our feet. I moved back to AZ with the kids in November and Eric stayed in CO to finish off his semester of school and his two weeks of work. He joined us the beginning of December which I was forever grateful. Life as a single Mom is NO fun at all. My parents were gracious enough to let us live there with them. In the meantime I began looking for work. I was lucky enough to land a job at an Elementary School so I have the same hours as my kids. We found a good home to rent and are able to rent month to month so that whenever the renters move out of our home we can move in. It's a whole lot of moving in a short amount of time. I don't recommend it at all. One more move and we will be done for good! Our home in North Mesa is just the right size for our family. We have remodeling plans for the home as soon as we get back on our feet. We are all thriving here in AZ. The children are enjoying being back in their old schools. We all just love being home and back with our ward family. Eric has found himself with a full load of school and doing really well at it. He is really enjoying this new phase in his life. He has found a love for learning and is really looking forward to a job in the mortuary industry in the near future. Eric is back working with the deacons in scouts. I am serving in the humanitarian area of our church. I have decided to set some new goals for myself. I HATE doing it, to be really honest but it needed to be done. First I am NOT wasting anymore seconds of my day on Facebook or any other forum like it. I have a very addictive personality. With that addiction comes a very lazy attitude about getting any task done. It was just easier for me to sit in front of this silly computer and play games and chat than to be a Wife, Mother, homemaker, and friend. My marriage went to pot, my mothering went to pot, my house was seriously a pigstye, and my friendships went to pot as well. It is hard for me to admit all this but it's true. True enough that I hated myself for doing it, but didn't have the will power to do it. So yesterday I did it. I am having myself a much better day already. So here is my first blog post of the new year. A new beginning for me, for my family, with lots of CHANGE!

PS Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad, I think that's 36 years worth! :) I love you both!

In Loving Memory of.......................................................

Due to inflation costs I must say goodbye to my dearly beloved. I've always proclaimed to be a "Tide" girl but I must say that money and referrals talk! A good friend of mine told me that her cousin makes her own laundry soap. I thought at the time, ya right, like I'm going to be a pioneer in the 2009's. Well I'm here to say that after talking to people about this home made laundry soap it is WORTH it. My sister in law Cicily is the one who gave me the recipe and she told me it's great soap, clothes come out clean and they smell good. So I decided I have 10 bucks to loose if I don't like it. Instead I now have a 5 gallon bucket FULL of soap that should last me at least 6 months, maybe even more!

So for under 10 buckaroos Eric, myslef, and the kiddos made our own detergent. First you have to go to Home on the Pot, otherwise known as Home Depot and invest in one of their posh orange buckets with the lid for 2 dollars! I know it's quite expensive. Then you go to your local grocery or Wal-mart store and buy Arm and Hammer Washing Soda, Borax, and Fels Naptha.
Then you follow the directions: I just grated the bar of Fels Naptha into some water.Once the bar of soap is dissolved you add the other ingredients:

Then you pour mixture into the orange bucket! You have to wait 24 hours before you can mix the soap. I found mixing the soap the funnest part. It feels WEIRD! But it smells CLEAN! The next day you can use your soap. I use the regular tide cap and fill it full and my clothes are just as clean as they were with the Tide. Hooray! I'm a pioneer.

Here is the real recipe:
Ingredients:
1 whole bar of the Fels Naptha grated ( I just use an old cheese grater)

1 1/2 cups Arm and Hammer Washing Soda

1 1/2 cups Borax

All of these can be bought at Food City, or Walmart on the detergent isle (down low on the shelves)

Directions:
Mix grated soap and 12 cups of water until melted. Remove from heat. Add other ingredients and mix until dissolved. Pour 8 cups of hot water into the 5 gallon bucket. Now add soap mixture and stir. Next add 2 gallon plus 12 cups of cold water and stir. Let sit for 24 hours and then mix up. After 24 hours the mixture forms a gel like consistency that needs to be separated. You can use a whisk or spoon but the best way to do it is get your hands in and break it up. It will look like egg drop soup when it is done. Very weird consistency but it really works great!

Give it a try my fellow bloggers, you just might love it too!

Labor Day Fun!

We decided to start a new tradition for the "YoungLowes". While Eric was growing up his family always went to Devils Head and cooked an early morning breakfast and then went on a hike up to the lookout tower. So since we just moved to CO we decided to give it a go for our little family. Our kiddos love to hike and climb so we knew they would love it. We found many surprises along the way.

First the drive up to devils head is about 40 minutes from our house. It is a dirt road that is curvy and so Olivia got car sick. Any time we are on curvy roads she gets sick. Poor little girl! She didn't throw up, luckily, but complained about her tummy hurting.

When we got to the picnic table area we were surprised that on a labor day weekend there weren't more people there. We went ahead and got set up for cooking a yummy breakfast, while Derick our "piro" son started a little camp fire to keep us warm. It was a whopping 48 degrees when we first got there. We made bacon and eggs, had orange juice, hot cocoa, and apple cider. It was all delicious!

After cleaning up breakfast we loaded everything back into the truck and began our hike. Eric and I hiked this same hike when we went to CO on our honeymoon. Neither of us remember the hike as being difficult at all. Man, what 14 years of marriage and 4 kiddos will do to your body???? The beginning of the trail tells you that it is 1.4 miles up to the top. That doesn't sound so bad now does it? Well let me tell you, it isn't bad, it is TERRIBLE! I want to do this hike once a week so that I can keep myself in shape, it is a gorgeous hike but dang, when you're out of shape you can't even enjoy the scenery.I think we have more pictures of me parking my rumpous on the benches and rocks than we have of me hiking but I'm here to tell you I hiked the whole thing! It was refreshing to make it to the very top. Scary climbing the stairs to get to the lookout tower, but awesome being up on top and seeing the whole mountain range below, it is breathtaking.Another big surprise was the infamous, "You're half way there sign"! Let me show you how I look at halfway, don't forget that I was barely recovered from the auto accident, and I was developing a nice cold, ugh!On our way up to the tower the kids started finding ladybugs, not one or two of them, but MILLIONS of them. They were on the rocks in big clumps so it actually made the rocks look red. They were also covering a camera post and shrubs. The kids had a good time playing with them and carrying them. Climbing down the stairs was scary for me, but I just kept telling myself there was glass surrounding me. I'm a bit of a chicken when it comes to heights.Here we are at the very top of the look out tower. Can you guess whose missing? She didn't want to be in the picture. Kids will be kids!

The hike down was a BIG surprise! It wasn't hard at all, you pretty much just start walking and next thing you know you're at a slight jog because it's so downhill! It was funny hearing little Zach right behind me saying, "Slow down Mom it's hurting my tummy". Poor kid!

All in all it was a great Labor day, we labored much and enjoyed the day!