Happy birthday

I can't believe my little punkin head is 5 months old!!
(Everyone says that but I really can't.)

I guess he's really not so little anymore.
At his 4 month check up he was
26.5 inches and pushing 19lbs.

Happy

Halloween....

Somebody learned a new trick!

I don't know who's more proud...me or him.

In my hilarity (induced by my sleep deprivation) yesterday I became a twitterer.

Follow me to see how funny I think I am.

Or don't.

more joy

On suffering

"To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the 'size' of human suffering is absolutely relative.

It also follows that a very trifling thing can cause the greatest of joys."

Viktor E. Frankl in Man's Search For Meaning


Sometimes I think people (usually me) shouldn't whine about their problems so much because someone always has it so much worse. But last night Carter decided it was perfectly acceptable to wake me up every hour and a half.

Do people have it worse? Yes they do.
Would I choose this problem over about 17 billion other problems I could think of? Uh huh.
Am I still suffering? Yup.

And yet...when I look at this face?

No Soup for You

Do you read NieNie? I do on a fairly regular basis.

I thought today's post was particularly fun...

She canceled dinner.

That struck me as laugh out loud funny

They had marshmallows instead.
What a fun house.

And then there were none.

Yup. I got the flu too. So that's where I've been.

But on a much happier note, my new hard drive arrived last night so I can start posting pictures again. That is, if I can find my camera!

Turns out...

teething might not be SO bad.

Carter has the flu.

Teething....

makes everyone in the house feel like this.

FYI this picture is from 3 months ago. He's much fatter now!

daddy

Li hasn't been around Carter for 2 days since he's been sick.
I miss these moments.

Also, I just read this in the Book of Mormon...
...and our women did bear children in the wilderness.

Ew.

Where are we going?

While my super cool brothers are off being missionaries in Japan and Brasil I have their ipods.
This equals lots of fun new music for me.

Right now I can't get enough of this song.

Okay...so that link didn't go where I wanted it to
you have to click on "to watch videos, please click here"
and then select "At the Bottom of Everything" from the menu


So, that's a lot of work. But it's a yummy song so I think you'll like it.


P.S. the video is weirdish, so maybe just listen.

:(

Li's downstairs with a fever and a cough.

Bummer.

Thanks Columbus

#1 Angels Landing
#2 yummy dinner in Springdale
#3 Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3d at the IMAX

Yea for bank holidays!

En Espanol

There is this adorable woman in our ward who just turned 90. She has the most amazing giggle and is very hard of hearing. She is always making loud comments and asking the people next to her to clarify announcements.

A few months ago, during a discussion of talents and the gift of tongues, I heard her "whisper" to her neighbor that she has always wanted to learn spanish. I laughed so hard and couldn't wait to go tell Li.

Fast forward to today. She got up to bear her testimony and her first words were, "Es verdad." She proceeded to tell us that she is literally learning spanish.

Why?

So she can share her testimony with the spanish speakers that she meets.

Please tell me that I will be that rad when I am 90 years old.

Appetizer

We've had a lot of requests for pictures of the small child. Someday soon I will make enough space on my computer to upload some. Here is something to tide you over. This is from the 4th of July, right before he slept through all the fireworks.

Broken promises

I promised Carter I'd be a better mommy if he'd let me sleep for 20 more minutes.

He gave me an hour.

I think I lied.

Take a hike

I forget how much I love hiking until I go.

I LOVE it.

Carter and I are off to get our hike on,
call in the next hour if you want to come with.

P.S. I promise I am wearing a swimsuit and a tank top in this picture.

Another cool one from Craigslist

iPod (Cedar City)

---

Date: 2009-09-14, 10:51AM MDT
Reply to: sale-9sq2u-1373902100@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

---

I have an iPod that was stolen last December from somewhere in Cedar City. I realize that it's been a while, but it's really eating me knowing what I did.

It's yours if you can tell me where it was stolen and from what. If it's yours, you'll know what I mean.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT KIND IF IPOD IT IS [SIZE, COLOUR, ENGRAVINGS, ETC] SO I KNOW IT'S REALLY YOURS.
If the right person doesn't respond, I'm giving it to charity.

I moved far out of the area, but I'll ship it back to you, all for free, including the case it was in.

I'm sorry.

My #

I have a new phone number as of next Friday. If you think you should have it and don't, let me know.

P.S. Don't be offended because no one has it yet.

Correction

I have TWO crushes.

Veggie Spaghetti

Yup. It's a spaghetti squash. Gold stars all around. A friend that my mom and I visit teach gave it to us and told us that it's stringy so you can eat it like noodles. I decided to give it a try. I went here and here and here for help.

The verdict? I thought it tasted okay, just healthy. Li said noodles are bland anyway so why not eat squash instead since it's good for you. And my mom said it was terrible. Try it out and let me know what YOU think.

Our friend also gave us some of these.



Remember my last post about these?

This time I decided to take an easy route and make bread. I tried this recipe. It tastes more like cake than bread and is thus UBERDELICIOUS!

Gold star...

...to anyone who can tell me what kind of squash this is.


And 10 points to all the marathon runners! When I woke up at 2:30 this morning to feed the baby I had flashbacks to that nervous/excited feeling. But at 9am I was very happy to be laying lazily in my bed. What an accomplishment! I'm proud of you!

And finally...thumbs up to all the conference watchers today. Aren't Saturday sessions the best?


I don't really know how to compare those units. ...
Check to see if there is a conversion chart in that notebook.
I really doubt it, Michael.
Please just check. ...

2 awesome things in 1 night

#1 I dusted off my yoga mat and went to a class for the first time in probably a year or so.

IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD.

If you're in my town you should join me next week.

#2 I saw a commercial for $20 "cardi coats" at Old Navy. I stopped by to get one and they were also having a 50% off clearance sale. Let me clarify. That's 50% off the stuff that's already marked down. They were practically giving stuff away.

Very few things make me happier than a good deal.

Here are the goods.

I have a crush.

Li thinks it's creepy when I say that. But I can't help it. He's irresistible.

Serious inquiries only.

Ever heard of the best of craiglist? I hadn't until last night.

I'm very happy I stumbled across it.


best of craigslist > phoenix > Wanted: Taxidermist who watches a lot of Kung Fu Originally Posted: Tue, 26 May 17:37 MST

Wanted: Taxidermist who watches a lot of Kung Fu

---

Date: 2009-05-26, 5:37PM MST

I am looking to hire someone with the means to obtain and stuff animals in fashions I choose, which will be Kung Fu for now. When I was younger I convinced a friend of mines dad to create two squirrels Kung Fu fighting. I still think about it from time to time and have decided to get my own Kung Fu animals, I understand this is a bizarre request. Serious inquiries only, please E-Mail me the species of animals you commonly hunt or can obtain and your rate for taxidermy of each in various Kung Fu poses. Mounting preferred. Once again I feel I must state this is serious. If you can show any of your previous work it will probably give you an edge on the competition. Please respond via/e-mail. Thank you.

• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
• Compensation: There will be payment, decent pay. Depends on quality of work and product which will vary.

PostingID: 1190484174

Dear Carter and Li,
Thanks for hanging out together so I could go to the movies with the girls.
I hope you had fun.

Love,
Mommy/Jen

The long and short of it

If you just want the short story and the pictures here you go....

We had a fairly long labor, then 2-3 hours of pushing and topped it off with a c-section.
Recovery has been a blast.

Sorry to the rest of you mothers,
but there never was a cuter creature on the face of the planet!

His dad is an expert swaddler.

He IS rad like dad.
EVERYTHING about him is just like his dad.

His first trip in the stroller.
I don't think he was as excited as I was.

If you are interested in a few more details....
I came home from my appointment Wednesday night in tears. I had a pretty intense cervical exam that left me in a lot of pain, my doctor said he wanted to induce me the next day because he was going out of town, (which just scared the crap out of me) and he also told me that my pubic bone has a weird angle, so there was about a 10% chance I'd need a c-section. Yippee skippee.

I started having contractions around midnight that continued all through the day. They weren't close enough together or regular enough to go to the hospital. Just bad enough to be painful and obnoxious. I also had some back labor pains, which should have been my first clue that this whole thing was going to go badly. The hospital was supposed to call at any moment so I could go in to be induced. I was already dilated to 3cm and I figured the contractions had done some more work, so I was praying for the hospital to just call already so I could get my epidural and breeze through the rest of this delivery!

The blessed call came around 3:30 in the afternoon which was perfect because Li had just finished his training at work. I went in and they said I was at 5 cm. My doctor came in to break my water and apparently it had already broken, which means I could have and should have come in earlier. I got my epidural and found it rather hysterical. I could still feel stuff, just no pain. I had some pretty bad shakes, but thought that was a rather small price to pay.

I continued to dilate, not as quickly as I would have liked, (I was hoping he'd be born the 18th) but I didn't really care because I wasn't in pain. The baby's head was facing posterior so I had to lay with my leg on a table for a few hours to try and turn it. I think it was around midnight when the nurses said I could start pushing. Which we did for an hour or more. Again, I thought this was HYSTERICAL!! I couldn't feel anything, but here I am pushing my brains out and I can't tell if I'm doing any good, except that Li and my mom keep getting all excited that they can see his head. (It was hysterical except for the part where I threw up.)

At this point I'm thinking, "Yea I made it to 10cm and we are pushing...no c-section for me!" Then they determined that his head was still facing posterior. So we stop pushing and my leg goes back up on a table. Then on the other side. Then back to the first side. And so it goes for hours. My doctor also turned the epidural down so that maybe I could feel better where I was pushing. Around 5am my parents had gone home, Li was asleep, no one had checked me for awhile, nothing was on TV except infomercials and fake gospel, and I just laid there staring at monitors that weren't doing ANYTHING!! I was incredibly frustrated.

I finally got Li to wake up and shortly after that my doctor came in and suggested we start pushing again. I was really hoping that this could work and we could end this misery. But it was looking doubtful. We pushed for another hour or so and this time it wasn't so funny. The nurses were not nearly as fun as the night before and one kept shaking her head like, "This is never going to work." Which makes pushing a lot of fun. My doctor came back in and said it was up to me, but basically it wasn't going to happen and I needed to get a c-section. At which point I had been through so much I did NOT want to go through major abdominal surgery as well. So I asked to push for a little while longer. Am I stupid? The nurses left with the doctor (I think he basically told them to convince me to give it up) and returned for about 15 more minutes of pushing. Nothing. So I agreed to a c-section.

They got me all prepped and Li gave me a blessing. I threw up again on the way down the hall. I felt like I was on ER when they wheeled me into the operating room, all these people in scrubs and bright lights in my face. They hung a curtain, pumped some more drugs into me and cut me open. I heard a baby cry and they said they wanted to present my son to me....what I saw was a yucky mess of something that didn't really resemble a baby and if it did it belonged to a Samoan and not to me. I might have been more enthused about seeing him, except that at the very moment he came out I started having a really intense pain around my belly button. I asked if it was supposed to hurt but no one could hear me except Li. So here they are showing me my son and I'm thinking in my head, "I'm going to die right here on this operating table. I am actually going to die in childbirth." Finally someone heard me and they pumped me full of something that they said would make me sleepy. That was a ginormous understatement! I immediately felt my whole body go limp and I could not keep my eyes open. It was a little freaky; I couldn't really tell if I was falling asleep or passing out. Plus I was super dizzy. When they moved me from one bed to another I thought the room was rocking and I grabbed the doctor's arm to keep from falling off.

But some time later (NO idea how much later) the nurses and Li brought him into the recovery room so I could feed him. I was still shaky and afraid to hold him. But he was ADORABLE!!!

We spent the next few days in the hospital. It was pretty frustrating to have this precious little new baby and not really be able to do anything for him. But it was amazing to watch Li step up and take care of everything. He even got excited about poopy diapers! I'm so glad Carter was born on the weekend so that Li could stay with me in the hospital.

It's been great staying at my parent's house too. Recovery is happening MUCH slower than I would like and it is nice to have so many people always anxious for a turn to take care of him.

Okay, so that was a quite a lot of details. The important part is that he is here and we LOVE him!!!!!!!!

Li loves Jen MUCHO

Introducing....

Carter Likeke Kane

He showed up Friday June 19th, 2009 at 8:29am
weighing 9lbs and 2ozs and was 22 inches tall.

And while he didn't exactly arrive in the manner we would have picked...
we have loved having him here!!

P.S.

Hey Baby Kane,
We are now scheduled to induce this labor sometime between midnight tonight and midnight tomorrow.

Please try to cooperate.

Love,
Your mother

The Nest

Dear Baby,
I know I begged you not to come out until your room was ready and I appreciate your obedience. But I guess I neglected to tell you that it is done.

Your dad painted the walls blue and then he painted these shelves and displayed these books.

Dad and Grandma endured a thorough scouring of two fabric stores before green accents and this fabric were deemed worthy. Then the chair was finally recovered.


Your mom sewed some pillow covers.

Dad destroyed Mom's old dresser to turn it into a changing table and great Grandma Campbell helped cover the changing pad.

Three sets of curtains were purchased and returned and every shade of green ribbon in the St. George area was considered. (Even though your dad insisted bows were too girly)

This thing used to be pink and even Mom knew that wasn't right, so Dad painted it and we stocked it with books and toys and such. And yes we even bought a water bottle to match. Your mother has gone a little crazy.

Granted there are still some projects. Like how we want to paint your name on here and add some pictures. But you don't have a name yet, and you are going to have to get used to some unfinished projects around here.

So you see, we are all ready and waiting.

Although your dad is training this week for his new job, so he probably wouldn't mind if you waited until the weekend.

Just let us know when's good for you.

Still ticking.

Yup.

Jack-in-the-box

I'm tired of feeling like a ticking time bomb!

Happy birthday to me!

Last weekend my sister Tina came down and my mom took us all to get spa pedicures for my birthday. The cute little girl doing my nails convinced me that I needed blue footprints for my baby. And so I present to you...my toes!

On Sunday we had cake and some presents. (My mom let me pick out some new clothes...Tina tried them on to see if they'll fit me later and my mom paid. It was a pretty funny shopping trip.)

Monday morning Li woke me up to breakfast in bed and more presents. I was pampered all day and then we went to dinner at Pasta Factory.

As for our son....we still don't know when his birthday will be. I hit 40lbs yesterday and now weigh more than Li. I'm dilated somewhere around 3cms. Any day now.

Not yet.

I haven't posted in awhile mostly due to 3 reasons.
1- I couldn't find my camera cord and didn't want to look for it.
2- I've been constructing a nest. (More to come on that later.)
3- I just don't care.

But everything is going well. The still unnamed baby has dropped some and I am actually quite a bit more comfortable now. The new arrangement does make me have to pee a bit more, but frequent urination is the story of my life.

EVERYWHERE I go people give me these sympathetic looks and tell me that they feel sorry for me. They like to reminisce about how when they got this far they were willing to do anything to make it go away. I DO NOT feel like that! I'm quite comfy and dreading the thought of labor. I keep telling this kid to give me a couple more days and so far he is happy to oblige.

Although after inheriting everything from my aunt's attic, a great baby shower and an awesome shopping trip yesterday I am feeling a little bit better. The nest is almost ready. (Li swears that it will NEVER be ready, and that even after we finish my list of things to do I will still have more. He is probably right.)

People have been so generous and wonderful. Thanks to all of you!! But probably my all time favorite present is the one my little cousin made for us....

I almost don't want to put a picture in it, because his instructions are so adorable!

Tales

At my appointment today they told me I was 1 cm dilated. Being the google nerd that I am I came home and almost immediately started reading forums about how long women were dilated to what point and other silly things like that.

But I came across a gem....a blog called Tales from Labor and Delivery
It's written by a girl who works in Labor and Delivery and her stories are hysterical. The link is itsababynotbrainsurgery if that gives you any indication. (Mikensi if you don't go read this blog right now I will be really disappointed!)

Also I ran into someone at the doctor's office today who was due after me, but was on the way to the hospital to give birth. Scary.

Last impressions

This is one of the last images I have of Hawaii.
Yes, that is a wild boar chillin' in the middle of the street.


It reminded me of the time I was privileged to participate in this...


Hawaii is a place like no other.

So it turns out...

I'm still alive.

Shocker huh?

Mikensi said I haven't posted because Utah is boring. Not the case.
Utah is lovely and I am lazy. And loving it.

So many things I'd love to post about but I'm not sure where to start.

For now here is a picture of my still unnamed baby...
Isn't he cute? This time around in the ultrasound even I could tell he was a boy, but out of respect for my unborn child I won't post that picture!

Snowing in Utah?!!?

I might accidentally miss my flight.

Seriously.

Our table is full of things we can't take with us, and there are several boxes worth underneath.

PLEASE come over and take somethings.



please.

Rad like Dad

Alysha's mom came to visit and she brought these ADORABLE clothes for our baby!

I was SUPER excited because we haven't bought anything for the baby.
So excited, in fact, that I carried them around all night like they were real.
And I got mad at Li for squashing the baby while we were watching TV.

He decided to play along and turned the clothes into the creepiest child I've ever see.

I was laughing so hard I very nearly peed my pants.
And the poor kid's head keeps falling off.

Everything is amazing, nobody is happy...

I loved this. Especially the end stuff.

Good turn daily.

Lately I've been clicking here everyday.

You should too.

Then if you do NOTHING ELSE you can feel like at least one thing you did during the day mattered.

F.R.E.E. that spells free

Hey we have a bunch of stuff that is not going to the mainland with us so if you want it come get it before it goes to the freebie bin.

Stuff like a lamp, rugs, books, clothes, baskets....you know, stuff.

Come check it out!

(This is us packing last time we moved to the mainland.
We HATE packing.
This is not the stuff we are giving away. Trust me, that stuff is much better.)

Did I ever show you...

...this "tree" that Li and I made one day?

Fatty

Here are a couple of shots to help you get an idea of my pudginess.

For the most part I enjoy being pregnant these days, it's so fun to feel him moving around and to wonder what he'll be like when he come out.

However, I have recently lost the ability to digest my food properly. And that is NOT FUN!
Also, I wish we had some idea what to name the kid.

Suggestions?

April Rules

Do you remember when I wrote this post about this article? You know the one where people did small things every day and got BIG results.

Well this is my mom.

On March 1st she did one push up (the "boy" kind, if you will) and was spent.

She kept at it every day and on March 31st did 15 push ups!!

That's amazing if you ask me.

This month she is working on her vertical jump. And I want to play too. I'm thinking I will pray out loud every day. It's either that or else red lipstick every day....but I don't have any, so probably prayers.

Who else wants to join in the fun?
Leave a comment if you want to play.

16 more days

We leave Hawaii in 16 days. Weird.

Right now it's looking like we are leaving our apartment in 11 days so we may have to actually take some of you up on that offer to come sleep on your floor!

I finished the Book of Mormon last night at 10pm. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE reading it all at once. It is such an awesome story. I find myself wanting to read just one more page and then one more and then one more. It makes me so happy. I started the Doctrine and Covenants today. So far so good.

I don't post pictures anymore because Li doesn't take them anymore. Ever since he became infatuated with our new video camera we don't have any pictures to document our life. Maybe if he ever comes home from the library/class I'll convince him to take a few so you can all see how pudgy I am.

Disregard that....

props to Anna for her record setting blog post response time!!

Does anyone have a teaspoon of cumin I could borrow?

Last time I tried to make hummus I just used the spices I had = bad idea.

Funny Story

Last night I found cheap tickets back to the mainland on the 10th and the 13th. We are supposed to be out of our apartment by the 11th so I wanted to buy the earlier tickets but knew there was a chance Li had a final that day and wouldn't be able to go.

I didn't want to miss the deal so I considered buying the later tickets and finding somewhere else to stay for the other 2 days. But I didn't.

This morning Li found out that he did indeed have a final and couldn't leave the 10th. We sucked it up and went online to buy the tickets for the 13th. Now there were no cheap tickets until the 16th.

Instead of finding somewhere to stay for 2 days we now have 5.


Sleep over anyone?

Camping trip?

Still here.

Yeah, my parents are gone, so no more vacation. But it is Spring Break at the high school so no work for me for 2 weeks.

If you need me I'll be at home...reading the Book of Mormon. (I got about 130 pages behind while we were off partying.)

Good news....I passed the diabetes test!

Vay-cay

Sorry no posts these days....I'm on vacation at home.

My parents are here. We just got back from Maui and now we are partying at home.

Good times.

oh yeah

I recently went here and typed in these 4 letters...MIKA.

What a happy thing that has come into my life.

No sugar tonight

I've been dreading today for about a month. This morning I was supposed to do a blood glucose test to find out if I have diabetes....at least I think that is what it's for.

I was supposed to fast 8 hours, drink this sugary orange drink and then get my blood drawn within an hour.

I had been hearing all these horror stories of how the hospital here is slow or registration took so long that people went over an hour and the test was no good. I did not want to be one of those stories. I borrowed a car so the bus couldn't make me late and made sure to drink my orange sugar right before I left. Registration did take forever and I was getting really nervous.

After he took my blood I noticed it had been 1/2 hour since I drank. I mentioned this to my doctor and she says that they aren't supposed to test early because there is a really good chance I will fail.
Awesome.

The next test is 3 hours instead of just one.

Can't wait.

A veggie tale

Well we survived our week as "parents." And many things were learned.

In other news....
I've been wanting to eat a zucchini since we had pizza with it a week or so ago. I determined to make pasta with zucchini and some other veggies. Then I went to the store to buy one.

I saw lots of different kinds of long, skinny, green vegetables....but none with signs above them that said zucchini. Feeling like a vegetable imbecile I paced up and down the rows of produce. Finally I decided to buy what I thought looked the most like a zucchini and enjoy it, whatever it turned out to be.

I eagerly opened my receipt to see what I had purchased and knew I was a moron. I was now the proud owner of an Italian squash.


I ran to google to find out what in the world that was and felt a little better/worse.

Turns out Italian squash and zucchini are the same thing.

Family Circus

Li and I have taken over a house of 6 kids from 4-17 for a week.

It's 8:15am on Day 1 and already I am so tired.

Glad our kids are coming one at a time.

As promised....

Here is another reminder to start reading 17 pages in the Book of Mormon tomorrow.

And here is the schedule....
day 1 page 17
2 34
3 51
4 68
5 85
6 102
7 119
8 136
9 153
10 170
11 187
12 204
13 221
14 238
15 255
16 272
17 289
18 306
19 323
20 340
21 357
22 374
23 391
24 408
25 425
26 442
27 459
28 476
29 493
30 510
31 527 + a couple extra :)

Okay, so I didn't make the prettiest schedule you'll ever see....but read anyway!!

You'll be glad you did.

If anyone is going to Costco, or Sam's or Wally's or anything of the sort and would love to pick up a few things for us, or let us tag along....that'd be peachy.

Let me know.

Engrish

My brother Brett is off being a missionary in Japan. He read the following on a packet of sugar....

Sweet and delicious sugar live a life rich.
What tea, coffee, etc. "are drunk for as it is" tends to be considered to be stylish. However, the drink in which sugar are not contained is not a thing which the taste and a scent assert too much and everybody can not necessarily drink deliciously. Then, flavors are increase and the thing which becomes much more delicious in putting in the sugar of one cup of spoon. Furthermore, sugar relieve tiredness and give energy. Delicious sugar are your allies, when it is tired with work, or when energy does not come out.
Don't you read so far and doesn't a slightly sweet thing become wanting?


I want to visit Japan.

Counting Hams

Do you ever find yourself in the middle of counting and you don't remember starting? I was somewhere around 19 or 20 when I realized that I was counting every slice of ham I put on my pizza. With pizza this could be explained by my days as a Papa Murphy's girl, when we had to count, measure or weigh everything we put on a pizza. But with things besides pizza....I just think it is weird.

In case you are wondering there were 70 slices of ham on this pizza, and it was yummy.

Also, in case you wondered, this pizza was really easy to make. It's the easiest recipe for pizza crust I've ever seen, it doesn't even have to rise.

It is as follows:
1 T yeast
1 T sugar
1 C warm water
-----proof yeast
-----add
1 t salt
2 1/2 C flour
-----mix
-----press into a pan
-----cover with sauce and toppings
-----bake @ 375 for 12-20 minutes

The first time I made this Li was asleep. When he woke up he thought I was a miracle worker.

March is coming

It's almost March again and that means it is time for... March Madness-Book of Mormon style. Okay, so I've yet to come up with a good name for this event/activity, but it is pretty simple. Starting March 1st everyone is invited to read 17 pages in the Book of Mormon. On March 2nd you do the same thing. You keep doing this until March is over and you will have read the whole book in one month! Not only that, but you will be happier, your testimony and faith will be stronger and you will feel pretty good about yourself.

Don't worry, I'll post more info. later, including a schedule in case you get behind (I usually do). I'm posting this today so that you have a little while to toss the idea around in your brain and let it sink in until you realize that you really CAN do this and you WANT to give it a shot.

The Book of Mormon will change your life.

Leave a comment if you're in.

One o'clock and all's well

It is nearly one in the afternoon, we ate a yummy breakfast and went back to bed. Li is snoring beside me, and the occasional kick to my bladder from inside my belly reminds me that these days won't last forever!

Happy Hearts Day.

My cousin's wife Becca (what does that make her to me...besides cool?) has a website called Store & Style. It has great ideas on how to get organized, cool craft ideas, yummy sounding recipes, (I don't know, I've never gotten brave enough to try one, but if someone makes the pumpkin cookies I'd love a taste!) fun giveaways and other neat stuff like that.

For Thanksgiving Li and I made the Thanksgiving Tree that is pictured above. I liked it so much that for FHE last week we turned it into a Valentine's Day tree.

St. Paddy's Day is coming up...maybe you could try a green one. But I'm not too sure what you'd write on your 4 leaf clovers or pots of gold. Any ideas?