Time Out for Women

I had the opportunity to go to Time Out for Women this weekend. Can I just say WOW!

I laughed, I cried and enjoyed soaking in the spirit of the amazing speakers.

I went with my sister, Mom, daughter, niece and three sister in laws! We started the weekend with lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate Missy's birthday. Then we checked in our hotel in Phoenix. We stayed at the Wyndham which was walking distance to the Phoenix Convention Center.


Shortly after checking in we headed to the Convention Center to hear three speakers - Virginia Hinckley Pearce, Wendy Watson Nelson and Sheri Dew and an amazing soloist-Dallyn Vail Bayles. WOW, what a line up. Can I just say if you have never heard Dallyn sing you are missing out! He has the most beautiful voice. Check him out on Itunes or wherever you buy your music!


After being spiritually fed we went back to the hotel and got ready for another FULL day. We visited and laughed and ordered pizza. We were all in bed a going to sleep by midnight! (I thought this was pretty good!)

The next morning we hurried to get ready and get to Time Out. It started at 9am. The music was done by Mercy River. Three women who harmonized beautifully! I loved their music. I had never heard them before. We listened to DeAnne Flynn, Brad Wilcox, Mariama Kallon, Amanda Dickson and Merrilee Boyack. All amazing speakers, and I learned so much and enjoyed feeling like I was "normal" -whatever that is, and learning about how to be a better me. It was seriously hard to see it end.

I think we all wanted to bask in the fun, so we headed to Chandler to "Merchants Square", my brothers antique mall and browsed around. And then the exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks and all I wanted to do was go home and put my feet up!

When I got home only Heather was here getting ready to leave. That is pretty typical. She is usually getting ready to leave for somewhere! Vaughan and the other three girls were still gone. They had spent the weekend at Fossil Springs.

It was kind of funny when they came home. . . I think they somehow thought I hadn't gone anywhere. They came in all excited to tell me about their trip and all the experiences they had! It sounds like they had lots of fun. This went on for an hour or so. Then Vaughan went to get pizza and the girls and I decided to watch a couple of movies. When they were over I went to bed. Vaughan was already there watching a ball game of some kind. As I was climbing in bed Vaughan said, "So how was your weekend." I started laughing and said, "I wondered when someone was going to ask!" Hey, it only took 3 hours! So I shared with him some of the things I learned. Mostly, I told him Sister Mariama Kallon's story. If you don't know who she is (I didn't) you are missing out! Her bio says: "Raised in war-torn Sierra Leone, she saw many things as a young girl that might fill a person with fear and hatred. After witnessing the violent murders of her parents and the loss of her siblings, Mariama spent much of her youth fleeing from rebels. She was eventually introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ and was given a humanitarian kit by the Church, which became a treasured symbol of hope that she used to bless the lives of many as they again fled for their lives." She has a DVD that tells her story. A couple of my SIL's bought it, so I am going to borrow. She was pretty amazing and I think we could all use a shot in the arm of gratitude for being here (America) as she puts it, "the land of plenty".

So, all in all it was a pretty special weekend. Thanks to my sweet daughter, Mom, niece and sisters for sharing it with me!

General Conference Love

I can honestly say my two favorite weekends occur in October and April. This is when we have the privilege to watch General Conference. I LOVE listening for the messages that the Lord has for me. I LOVE seeing my family gather around the TV to listen to the words of our leaders. I LOVE the feeling in my home.

I'm so grateful for inspired leaders that lead and guide us today. I feel so blessed to know my Heavenly Father loves ME, to know of our loving Savior and the plan of salvation.

Now, I get to go forward and apply the things I have heard this weekend to MY life. To improve and better myself and help my family to improve too!

What a blessing!

Crafting with my daughter!

**Update: double sided tape works great to stick the candy on the tray! I will do this from now on!

It's been a fun weekend!

Friday night Hillary came over to START a couple of Halloween crafts. It was so fun! We didn't start until 9ish and I thought we would call it a night at about midnight.... but NO! Hillary is such a task master! "We are going to get these done!" Well! OK!

It was lots of fun and I'm glad she made me get them done! tee hee!

Here are the pics!



We got this idea from here. It was SO easy and fun! We got our frames from Walmart, paper, paint and wood letters from Hobby Lobby and we already had the glitter! If we didn't have to wait for drying time this would have taken like 15 minutes to make! It's definitely an Easy Peasy craft!




This was our next craft! I've had several people ask me HOW we did this, so I am going to explain here! We got the link from the above blog and it took us here. We changed it up a bit. Instead of cutting the strips like she suggests in her post, we used one paper (a black and white polka dot) as the base for our project. The cookie sheet (we got this at Walmart for $4) was longer than 12" and not as wide, so we trimmed the paper to fit and we corner rounded the bottom two corners. Then we cut another piece of the polka dot for our topper. We corner rounded the top two corners of our topper. After we sanded the cookie sheet we mod podged the paper down.

While that dried we cut our squares. (Our paper was made by Echo Park Paper Co. We got it at Scrapbook Etc.) The squares were cut 1 3/4 inches. We had 5 different prints. You can't really see them in this picture, but they will be very cute as the candy comes off! The paper we used was printed on the front and back. So we used both sides of some of our papers.

The next step was to mod podge the squares and the top of our tray. While that dried we worked on our numbers. At the blog we got the idea from she has a free print out of the numbers. So we printed our numbers out on white card stock and used a circle punch the right size to punch them out. We used hot glue to glue the clear glass stones on the numbers. If you don't have a punch you could just glue them on and then cut them out by hand. We got our clear glass stones from the Dollar Tree for $1!

We used the Cricket to cut out the Halloween Countdown header. We used card stock that matched our paper. The font is Lyrical Letters - Jack Sprat. I don't remember the exact size. Hillary kinda did this part - she probably remembers, so if you need that info let me know and I'll get it! (Better yet, maybe she'll leave a comment!)

We mod podged the letters down. We used a purple pom pom trim that we got at Scrapbook Etc. to cover the seam between the header and the count down! (SO CUTE!) We put that on with glue dots! We glued the numbers on with a dab of elmer's glue - cause it was on a plate in front of me from the first project! We put them in the upper left corner of each square so the candy would fit! I found a sticker sheet at walmart that I thought would match...and it did! It had spiders eating candy! I used those on the header and the number 31.

Now, the number 31 was treated special. We couldn't fit it on the tray... So we decided to make it longer. We cut the printed paper and mod podged it to a piece of chip board. We mod podged the top of it and then glued it with hot glue to the bottom of the tray.

Vaughan drilled holes at the top for my ribbon and then it's ready for the candy!

After everything dries really well just tape your candy on. I originally just used cellophane tape, but my candy is falling off some, so I am going to try double stick tape and see if that works better!

That's it! It was really fun and went pretty quick! I was in bed by 3am! tee hee!

Book Love

I LOVE this book. But I don't always "get" it! OK - I'll admit it. I hardly ever "get" it.

I was feeling especially frustrated with myself a few months ago - 'cause I WANT to read, but it's so hard to actually read when you know you aren't going to understand - and then there's the whole mind wandering thing. DUMB! It seriously discourages me and makes me feel SO stupid. So I avoid. Really.

Then my sister was talking to me about this book she was reading that was helping her with her scripture reading. It sounded really COOL! And she kept bringing it up. And bringing it up, 'cause you see, she was REALLY REALLY excited about it.

So, on one of our date nights I asked Vaughan if we could stop at Deseret Book and I showed him what I wanted to buy. It was kinda expensive. But so worth it. And I did. Buy it, that is!

And now I can say that this book

Is helping me love this book even more!

There are THREE books that cover the Book of Mormon. I bought number two, because I seriously think I have 1st and 2nd Nephi memorized I've read them so much. Book number 2 starts with Mosiah and goes through Alma. I already have book number 3 because my one and only bought it for me for my birthday! (I guess he thought I read faster!)

I am taking my time reading. Sometimes I read a whole chapter - which in this book is sometimes 5 or more pages. Sometimes I read less. Sometimes I read More! I try to read each night before I go to bed. Sometimes it's hard to put down. I LOVE the understanding and enlightening that is in these books. It has made the Book of Mormon come alive for me.

So, if you are struggling OR even if you aren't, check them out! It's like going to institute and this time I'm finally getting it!

An Update on our Update

So, in case you've forgotten, I decided that my kitchen needed some updating. And Vaughan agreed. Or I should say, he agreed to go along with my idea. We decided we would do it Labor Day weekend because we couldn't go anywhere anyway. *whaaaa*

By Monday afternoon I was wishing we would have just gone to the movies or something. Anything.

First off - it felt like we were moving in S L O W motion. We got started late on Saturday. Things ended up costing more than I had figured. (I never was good at math) My house looked like CHAOS. I don't do chaos very well. But I really wanted this beautification so I was practicing my deep breathing! LOL.

By Monday I was ready to be done. There was really only so much I could do, so I started working on my laundry room. I painted. And painted. And painted. But I have to say it is BEAUTIFUL! CLEAN! Now, I keep checking to see if there is any laundry to do - nope... Darn kids, can't they dirty some clothes?? (seriously kidding here - but I do go in there and bask in the loveliness!) I painted some cabinets in there that have been there forever. All I kept saying is "WHY haven't I done this already?"

(Here is the before... before paint or organizing)

(Let the painting begin...)

(White, clean and fresh! Oh, and a few decorations thrown in! Notice the cabinets painted white at the top of the picture!)

(I love the decorations...I want to come up with something laundryish to hang from the hooks on the dress. I already had the clock, I painted it black. The frame I updated by painting it black and rubbing some red paint around on the inside of the frame... you can't see it, but it's cute. I can not tell a lie - I got the picture from the internet and copied it on photo paper. I know I'm naughty. But I love it!)

After I had finished the Laundry room I attempted to help Vaughan. We were ready to remove the baseboards in the dining room. And that is when it happened.

Our kitchen update STOPPED because we discovered a leak from our bathroom was coming into our kitchen. Not so fun. After the shock wore off and we realized that we weren't going to be able to continue in the dining room we reconvened in the kitchen.

My husband is my hero. He tirelessly worked into the LATE night hanging the bead board on the back splash and around the bar. He knew I needed to get my house "put together" because I babysit on Tuesday.

It looked pretty good on Tuesday, but it wasn't done. My Dad - my other hero, came Tuesday afternoon and helped Vaughan cut out the damaged wall. He said it wasn't as bad as we feared. The next step is for Vaughan to tear out the shower. *sniff* Then we will assess the damages and see if we can close up the wall on the kitchen side and continue hanging the bead board.

I've decided it was actually a Blessing that we found the shower leak was actually coming into the kitchen sooner than later. This could have been SO much worse. And besides, who needs more than one shower anyway! LOL!

So every night this week, my sweet husband has been working late into the night either hanging bead board, trim or trying to demo a bathroom!

The kitchen got done on Wednesday. I LOVE it. And now I'm more than happy that we started this project. Vaughan finished demo-ing the bathroom Friday night. Ugggg. What a mess. It was pretty bad. But thanks to a sweet son in law - trained by my brother in flood damage - it looks much better and is drying nicely. James helped Vaughan on Saturday install a couple of new outlets and hang drywall on the kitchen side. Vaughan taped it and then we had to leave for a ward party so that is where we are at.

(my back splash before any demo)

(after demo - but before I realized I didn't need to remove the border! hahaha!)

(The finished back splash - same spot as the above picture!)

(More of the finished back splash - it's beautiful to me! I've already changed those canisters, but I'll post about them later. Let's just say vinyl and chalk were involved!)

(Last one for this post...but I'm not promising anything about later!)

This week we will finish hanging the bead board and I will paint, paint and paint!

And then the fun - decorate, decorate decorate.

I swear it's like taking an energy pill! I can hardly wait to get it all put back together! I'm not changing much, just using what I have and updating it! So, the next update on our update will hopefully be soon!

Did I forget to mention . . .

that I got a new calling? Yep. I. did. I was released as the 10/11 year old Activity Day Leader. *sniff* and called to be the compassionate service leader. Not sure why. Except I am sure I have some learning to do. I'm still looking for the "Compassionate Service for Dummies" book. Let me know if any of you locate it.

The problem is I'm following one of the most compassionate, sweet and service oriented people I know. (Yes, Krista - you know you are!)

I already had my first funeral - we ran out of ham.

I work with an assistant, who handles the new babies - she is ultra sensitive and I've already offended her and she called me and gave me an assignment that she didn't want to do and I still haven't done it. (See how compassionate I am?)

*SIGH*

Mostly, I feel like I'm supposed to be doing something, but I'm not sure what and so I do nothing. I suppose that is good - that there is nothing to do - that means everyone is healthy and well, right? I hope so. I would hate to think that I'm not doing my calling. Besides the aforementioned oversight that I really shouldn't be doing but I'm not really sure what it is I said I would do.

Well, that's it. That's my new calling. And now you know!

Oh, Happy Labor Day!

(I made this USA banner this summer - thanks to the inspiration of my friend Lyndsie!)

This year we are celebrating Labor Day in the literal sense!

While some of you are enjoying the fresh mountain air, boating at the lake,
or swimming in a pool, we will be LABORING.

I was feeling *sorry* for myself that I couldn't do anything FUN, so I decided to create fun.
OK, it's not that it's fun, but it will be rewarding.

It's time for home improvements!! So - here are the goals:

1. Paint and install baseboard and trim around closet door in the girls room.
(it's only been a year since this should have been done, but who's keeping track?)

2. Paint east wall in laundry room and cupboards which have never been painted and
have been hanging for like . . . 20 years? This will clean up and brighten said room.

a. Hang cute laundry-esc decor and paint clock black so it will match decor.
b. Paint top of chest freezer.

3. Install and paint bead board in kitchen nook, back splash and under the bar.

a. Install and paint new base board and trim in kitchen nook.


This will NOT finish the kitchen, but it's a start! I'm so excited to finally do some
much needed updating. There is nothing like a fresh coat of paint!

Vaughan and I went to Home Depot yesterday and made lots of plans!
My mind is whirling with all the home improvements I'm ready to start.
Of course, money is required to do them and that will slow me down some...
but at least I have goals!

Before and after pictures to come soon!