The Answer - Sen10r Year Edition!

The doorbell rings...

of course the dogs go crazy barking...

we live on a culdesac, so that is really bad for ding dong and ditching...

but luckily for any heathens seeking revenge, they get a huge running head start on us because because we have to put the dogs up, before we open the door.

Why we don't just allow the eating alive of potential heathens? Because sometimes it is actually a nice neighbor, and apparently the ol' saying "it is easier to seek forgiveness than permission" doesn't apply with big bad scary dogs AT ALL!

Too bad, because we could actually have fun with it... if anyone ever figured out what sweet fuzzy pushovers they really are.

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So the scene...

A burning candle and a box of Cocoa Puffs...

It's obviously for the teenager...

Yep, It looks suspicious...

Hmmm....

There is a note...

It's encrypted...

Okay now every one's curiosity is peaking...

Let's put our skills together.

Ha Ha! The Strong Silent Mysterious man walks back through the clues...

There has to be something he missed?

So while the teenager tries to decode the message...

The "Old Man" continues to search for more clues...

The teenager comes back on the scene...

after every piece of evidence had been ripped through.

He confirmed the Chinese character indeed says

"YES"

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As for the burning candle... well it was a Catholic candle "Prayer to the Holy Spirit" and from what we have learned so far, it is the Prayer of St. Augustine;

to help reveal to the soul the mysteries of heavenly things;

to give an answer to those things which have been asked through prayer.

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So there you go... the answer revealed... a very happy teenager!

Blackberry Pie...

Yesterday My Strong Silent Mysterious Man (bless his heart) got one of these from his job...

A Blackberry!

For just about anyone else... you would immediately think UPGRADE, sweet!!

But for him, stress would be the first word that came to my mind.

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He was excited for one feature it has... voice activation!

That will totally save his life!

(not having to find, read or punch those tiny little buttons with his big ol' paws)

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I first had to tease him when he was telling me all the cool things it will do... I said "Well that's great, I hope it can makes you dinner too"! I just couldn't hold back my sarcastic tongue. He knew I was only joking, and we can already laugh about the dinner drama, so it's all good in paradise.

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Needless to say, the teenager and I are pretty green with envy, but Jim seems like he is very determined to learn and know how to use this to the best of his advantage to make his job easier. I had to laugh when he brought it home though... he had only learned how to tell it "find google" and proceeded to show me that.... Google sure enough came up on the screen, but he didn't know how to get it to do anything else, like actually search for a business or anything... so funny. So when we were all separated last night going to mutual and scouts etc. we never could reach him after that... apparently google was just one step before figuring out how to answer it. Ha ha LOL!

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Technology is only as good as the one who is using it.

Yep, I hope it can at least make him a blackberry pie!

Dinner for One...

I do have issues with "dinner"... it has become this topic that tends to put me into the pressure cooker of emotions!

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I try to be organized in the kitchen and have a plan. I try and have a menu before I go shopping; and then try to have meals for my boys every night, because I really believe it makes a difference in our family when we sit and eat meals together at home. I am not great at it, but I really try.

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I know this sounds crazy, and it should probably be an easy part of my duties as Mom and wife... but there are allot of the things that have lead up to my "dinner breakdowns".

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I had a church meeting scheduled this afternoon and I knew it might run into dinner time a little, and I hadn't planned ahead far enough to get meat thawed out to make the meatloaf dinner I wanted to; so before my meeting started I threw in 3 sweet potatoes in the oven to bake for an hour and I had a yummy brown sugar turkey kielbasa recipe I wanted to try out... so I thought if the potatoes were in I could throw together a salad while the meat cooked and pull together a meal for my boys! It's a plan, I am all set... so one would think.

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I knew I might be taking a little tiny chance with the Strong Silent Mysterious Man by buying TURKEY kielbasa, but hey, he has switched over to turkey pepperoni now on our homemade pizza's, and I even made ground turkey in tacos once and he agreed to deal with it, so we could try and be a little healthier. So turkey kielbasa wasn't really a huge stretch from there.

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So as soon as I could get dinner going, they were hoovering and asking THE BIG QUESTION... "what's for dinner?"

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Much to my surprise the dinner discussion breakdown didn't end up being over the turkey kielbasa, it was over the sweet potatoes! My strong silent mysterious man doesn't like sweet potatoes??? REALLY?? We went all the way to the part where he asked ME "how long have we been married, and how many sweet potatoes have you seen me eat?".

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Okay now I am a loser mom/wife not only because I can't seem to get dinner on the table for my boys, but because I have been married for almost 18 years and didn't know my husband doesn't like sweet potatoes!! CAPITAL "L"!

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That wasn't the worst part, the worse part is that they actually left and went and got fast food for dinner! I KNOW!!

So I took my sweet potato and turkey and salad and ate my dinner for one.

In their defense they did come home and offer to share their meals with me.... they were nice about the whole entire thing, they really were, it could have gone much worse.

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But going forward, how does one recover from this?

I like to try new things, I am trying to make healthier choices for me and for US. My boys could eat a can of Nalley's chili literally EVERY night of the week. But I just can't go there! I have too much to do in a day to make two or three meals. I don't feel like a good Mom letting my family eat a can of chili. They are fine fixing for themselves, but how do I be everything I need and want to be (good Mom, good Wife, thinner healthier me) going in this direction?

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I don't know, it was a day I felt like I worked towards being all the things I aspired to be, and then got kicked in the stomach! I will have to sleep on this one.

Meet Monday...

Monday, the second day of the week, the first working day, it is named after the moon in many languages; the ancient Romans and Babylonians named the days of the week after stars and planets; Monday meaning "moons day".

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For me, there are no two Mondays alike! It is my catch up day... I should make it a ketchup day, I love ketchup!

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So yesterday, it was dishes and laundry. Letters and emails. Work at home. Return the really expensive golf shoes the teenager got for Christmas that were falling apart... I hate it when that happens... but they paid the shipping and were very accommodating, still a pain to take care of the details and get him shoes before the tournament.

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I haven't been able to do much couponing... and when you fall away, you lose touch.

So I got back out slowly and went for 4 different great deals... ended up actually getting only two of them.

Dawn .30 ea... we use this all the time, pretty good deal.
Mens razors, free + sales tax.... great deal!

I got in another walk, but the sun was getting pretty hot by 4pm... and with my newest adventure of experiencing hot flashes (yeah I know), it wasn't much fun for me (note to self get out early tomorrow).
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The Strong Silent Mysterious Man worked on getting the battery and cables changed in the teenagers car. I tried to step in and be "flashlight" girl... but he was grouchy, hot, tired and it was a very big pain... so I snapped a few photos and gave him moral support from just inside the house... so I could hear him hollar if he needed anything, but could "not"hear him hollar when things weren't going his way. It's a fine line!

We had a wonderful family night... we sang Hymn 98 "I need Thee Every Hour" (not quite like the Mormon Tabernacle does it, but it is still a very pretty Hymn) Jim played it on the guitar, and the teenager gave us his home teaching lesson he had shared with the families he visits from President Uchtdorf's talk "A Great Work of God". He shared his testimony with us of what he knows about personal revelation, and when we receive it from God, we need to act upon it, no matter how crazy it might seem at the time, or if we don't understand why - because Heavenly Father will bless us and often the lives of others when we follow His promptings. And how they come in different ways to us, sometimes just a thought, sometimes through others, sometimes in our dreams, sometimes in that still small voice, but listen to them, and most importantly act upon them. Of course I cried, the spirit taught me the truth of what he had said. And I am not always good about acting upon personal revelation that I receive from God, sometimes it seems like a hard thing to do, or that I might be too busy to set time aside to do it. I also cried because Jacob's testimony of the gospel is very sweet. And a treasure to me as his Mother!
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I heard a lesson in church on Sunday about journal keeping... and I thought it would be a great idea to keep a journal of our family home evenings... the hymn, the lesson, testimonies, and the treat. I know it is kind of late to start these now, the teenager is almost 18, but I am guessing it will be a neat journal to look back on when he is on a mission. No matter how few entries we will have between now and the time he leaves. I wish I would have started it much earlier, but it's okay... I will have the record from here on out! And Jim and I will continue to have them when the teenager is gone, so those could be interesting reading someday too!
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After our lesson... because I am not good at the whole family night treat thing (I think I am always dieting on Monday's and to make sweets just wasn't in the cards; it's a wonder my family ever even shows up for family night... sheesh) so I started out with a semi healthy treat last night... I had a fresh pineapple, Yum!

Then the teenager suggested we dip it in melted chocolate chips... that was a good idea, and really yummy!

Then we found the jar of Nutella (I had bought it for the crepes for a yw activity)... and oooooohhhh that was really yummy, but the healthy was then way out the window!

I recorded it, in what is now my Family Home Evening Journal, and a good time was had by all!

A walking we will go...

Taylor took me for a walk this morning... not really she is so much better since obedience training class, I am really proud of her progress.

It has been really hard for me to get back into some kind of activity, but this is my effort to start, so I am trying to make the best of it.

We saw some neat things on our walk... I love this painted mailbox!!



The trees are in bloom and beautiful (if you are okay with not breathing and watery eyes for a few weeks)

Tulips are so pretty, one of my favorites, except they don't last very long...

And this was really sweet...

I was glad I took my camera. It made me look around and think about something other than what a loser I am feeling like lately with my own health (one step at a time, right?). It was a good walk, and much cooler in the morning, than yesterday afternoon.

There is beauty all around!

This weekend, to carry out the birthday holiday weekend extravaganza the strong silent mysterious man pretty much just asked for some back rubs and head scratches.

He is too easy.

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The car the teenager has been driving had a dead battery, and when the strong silent mysterious man went to take it out and check it out... we found out it takes an act of congress to get it out of the car. So weird, you can't even see it from the top like in any other car? (really good thing I never had to jump start it... I can hear that coversation; "really honey, I am looking and there is NO battery"). So that really made his day... it was looking like he would have to take off one of the front tires to get the battery out, but by cranking it waaaaayyyy to the right you can manipulate it out under the car and out the wheel well that way??? Really? What is that about?? So he got to spend a big part of the day searching for the right battery, yep it was bad, and cables, they were really bad and needed replacing too. Four stores later, we managed to find all the parts. (he didn't even chew out the first young punky parts store worker kid that lives in an "ignorance is bliss" kind of bubble. He took his frustration and chocking shaped hands and walked out... the kid will never know how lucky he really was).

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He broke off another tooth and a big ol' filling came out (probably bad mojo for not saving that birthday money and spending it on a rifle; he he he... JK!). So the poor guy didn't get to finish up his weekend celebrating. He is okay, please don't send flowers.

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This morning I got up and decided to be a good Mom and make the teenager some ham and cheese and egg bisquits to fuel him up for a big golf tournament today. So the strong silent mysterious man got to benefit from those too. Then they were off... since the car is still out of commission he dropped the teenager off to meet the golf team to travel to the tournament.

Yeah, he is really loving having to give up some of his freedoms, and be driven around by his parents again, as you could imagine. But when we tell him what it really costs to keep a car running for him to just get in and drive; he does act appreciative! (good answer kid, you've heard the term easy come, easy go?).

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After they were off, I talked myself into going for a walk. I fell off any and all workout routines when I went into vapor lock and haven't done anything since. So when they say if you stop, you really don't stop, you slide backwards, IT"S TRUE!

I have been trying to talk myself into something... anything, and it was SO HARD!!

But I grabbed a dog and just went. It was only a 30 min walk, but I got out there.

I didn't feel great about the walk... it seemed such a little effort (maybe I have been sitting around watching too much biggest loser).

But I did feel a little better to see that other people have weeds too!

Why does that make me feel better? To know someone else is tortured by noxious weeds? I have just wanted (not really wanted, but felt the need) to get out and get working on mine and they kept getting bigger all weekend, I could almost watch them grow... and never did it. Ugggg. (I think I actually walked out and stood on the porch looking at them for a while yesterday... pondering what it will take to deal with them). So now they are haunting me! (one of those up hill battles for me that I tend to procrastinate). But there are tons of houses within a 30 min radius that have weeds to deal with too... so I am not alone. Phew!

Somehow that brings me a brief moment of comfort.

Go figure?

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We will see what the rest of Monday brings?