Three Things

Here is what is on my mind:
1. We were driving home late last night from a fun weekend in Portland with Berkeley asleep and Carlie eating her McDonalds. All of a sudden Carlie started yelling, "My pee is coming out!" I wasn't sure what she had said so I asked her if she was peeing her pants and she screamed, "No mommy, my pee is coming out!" So I yell for Corey to pull over. We were on I-84 traveling through the Columbia Gorge. He pulls over and grabs Carlie. As I look out the window there is Corey holding Carlie's outstretched arms (Carlie was facing Corey) as her bare bum was leaning back for all to see (it was starting to sleet outside too). I can not describe how funny it looked. After she proceeded to pee all over her pants, we took her pants and boots off outside before she got back in the car. As soon as they were back in the car it started sleeting super hard!! Oh how lucky it waited for our poor girl to let her pee out!

2. Today on the way home from church
Carlie said, "I don't like that guy!"
I said, "What guy?"
Carlie: "Daddy"
Me: Oh Carlie why?
Carlie: He is old
Me: Mommy is older than daddy, do you not like me?
Carlie: You are not old
Me: How old am I?
Carlie: 5
Me: How old is daddy?
Carlie: zero

3. I had a great weekend. I have not been to Portland since September for a doctor's appointment. That is a long time when you live in a town were the best shopping you have is a Fred Meyer. Aunt Kimmy watched our kids Friday night and all day Saturday. We went out to eat with Corey's brother and sister and their spouses to a Thai restuarant and then Papa Hyden's for dessert. Corey and I stayed in a hotel that had a beautiful view of a river. We slept in and went out to breakfast with beautiful views. We went shopping and then to the temple. It was so nice to slow down and not do my homework, grade papers, or worry about cleaning my filthy house. Granted I was not too happy last night to come home to that filthy house and wonder when I was going to get my homework done, but it was nice....

Berkeley's Hospital Visit

Berkeley has been wheezing and having coughing fits for awhile. We were concerned so we took him to the doctor on Thursday. After 2 breathing treatments and a chest x-ray they decided to admit him to the hospital. They said he had bronchilitis caused by a virus (RSV maybe) and he was in moderate respiratory distress. So Berkeley spent Thursday night in the hospital with daddy (mommy went home to get sleep since she has NO sick days!) and got lots of breathing treatments, steroids, and a ton of attention while hooked up to the monitor with cords he LOVED to pull off of himself and chew on. Poor Corey had to sleep on a not so comfortable recliner. He is much better and home now. The final diagnosis was a lower respiratory tract infection. As you can see from the pictures he was still a happy kid even though he was pretty sick! What a good little guy!

Cancer News

Hooray!

It is fantastic news. I went to my oncologist today and he said the scans came back free and clear. He said it so matter of fact, like it was so expected. I told him I had been super nervous and he said he would have been shocked if I had another tumor. He said the reoccurance rate of GIST on Gleevec is about 10%. I told him I figured knowing my luck lately I would have

been in that 10% group.

So everyone can breathe a sigh of relief for now. He only wants to see me every other month now since I am doing so well and we will do another scan in 6 months.

So here's to SIX MONTHS CANCER FREE!!!!!!

Now it is time to concentrate on losing all the extra post surgery & baby belly weight

(after I finish my celebratory Chocolate Heath Bar Blizzard)!!!

Nervous

Tomorrow morning at 8 AM I am going to the hospital for a CT scan, chest x-ray, and blood work. It has been a little over 6 months since they found my watermelon sized GIST tumor in my abdomen and my life changed. My oncologist said he would be surprised if I had any tumors, but I am still nervous. I feel absolutely blessed that I have had this "cancer" experience. It has taught me to appreciate every single day I am on this earth, to enjoy every minute I have with my beautiful children and hubby, and to rely more fully on the power of my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ to help me through my struggles.
So here is to a week that is either going to be FANTASTIC or EXTREMELY CRAPPY - let's pray it is fantastic.....

Snow Fun

Carlie LOVES the snow (and so do I!) with ALL her heart! Here she is playing on the snow pile in front of the house from the Artic Blast we had back in December.

She is playing with her cousins Jordan and Andres in these pics.

Here is Jordan and Carlie with their grandma.

Just Stuff

Here are some random pictures of my kids being the super cute kids that they are.

I love them so much!

New Do

I know am a big cheese ball, but here are some pics of my not so new hair do (I got my hair done back in January, but as usual I am behind in my blogging!) The cheesy part is that I took pictures of myself while looking in the mirror. I was pretty excited because it had been a super long time since I had done something to take care of myself.

Carlie's Favorite Toy

Much to the delight of Corey, Carlie has discovered the wonderful world of the I-Phone! She has learned how to use it all by herself. The good news for Corey is she got a Leapster for Christmas and has become obsessed with her new Princess game. Now Corey doesn't have to share his precious friend with Carlie as much.

Facial Hair & the Man

What is it with facial hair and my man Corey?? Here are two of his latest creations.

Christmas is SOOOO Tasty!

This year I made a BUNCH of yummy treats for some of our friends - don't you wish you were on that special list! :).
Here are the recipes (all recipes come from my fantastic mommy & sister)....

Homemade Oreo Cookies

2 Devils Food cake mixes
4 eggs
1 ¼ cup soft butter
8 Tbsp flour

Mix all ingredients together. Bake on cookie sheets. Make drops of dough as close to same size as possible. Don’t make too big – the cookies are rich! Bake on 350 for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.

Filling
2 ½ cup powdered sugar small cool whip 8 drops of peppermint oil (optional)
8 oz cream cheese 1 tsp vanilla

Mix all filling ingredients together using hand mixer. I added some green Wilton's coloring to half & red Wilton's coloring to the other half. Put spoonful of filling in between 2 cookies. Keep in refrigerator.

White Chocolate Mint Popcorn

1 -2 bags of microwave popcorn
1 bag of Wilton melting chocolate (about 16 oz) - white
4 drops of peppermint oil - not extract

Pop the corn. Put in a large bowl and make sure you remove all the unpopped kernels. Melt chocolate in microwave (just follow directions for melting that are on the bag) Once melted - pour over the popcorn. Stir until well coated. Spread on a wax paper covered cookie sheet to cool. If you want to make it not look like plain popcorn (red and green for Christmas or red for Valentine's Day). Melt some of the colored whitechocolate (Michael's carries all the colors) or using Wilton food coloring - color some of the melted white. Use a decorating bag and plain tip make a design on the coated popcorn. I also added the peppermint oil to the colored chocolate. Break into pieces and serve on a platter or put in individual bags and give as a visiting teaching treat.

Millionaire Fudge

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
8 oz Hershey bar 1 large can evaporated milk ½ cup butter
1pt marshmallow topping 4 cups sugar 2 cups chopped walnuts 1 Tbsp vanilla

Mix together sugar, milk and butter. Boil 10 minutes and only 10 minutes – stir constantly. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir until dissolved.Pour into a well greased pan – greased with butter. Let stand for 12 hours in refrigerator.

Butter Crunch

½ cup water 1 pound butter 7 oz sliced almonds 2 cups sugar

In a heavy pan combine the water and sugar. Melt butter. Add the almonds. Put the lid on for a few minutes to steam sides. Cook on medium heat stirring constantly until the color of a paper bag or 300˚. Pour immediately onto greased cookie sheet. While cooling put some Hershey bars on top – when they are soft spread and add chopped nuts if you want. When cooled break into pieces. I think this is very much like Sees California Crunch. This is my VERY FAVORITE!

Holiday Pretzel Treats

Bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels
M&M's candy
Rolos or Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug

Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Set bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels in a single layer on cookie sheet. Top each pretzel with an unwrapped Rolo, Hershey’s Kiss or Hershey’s Hug. Turn oven on its lowest possible temperature for 5 minutes (just to get warm) then turn oven off. Bake for 4 to 6 minutes (the white chocolate will melt more quickly), until the chocolates feel soft when touched with a wooden spoon. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and quickly press an M&M's candy into the center of each Kiss. Allow the treats to cool for a few minutes, then place them in the refrigerator to set, about 10 minutes. I also melted white chocolate and drizzled it on top!

Brownie Pops

Visit my sister's blog (it was her creation)
http://abunchofboysandme.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-treats.html

Part of Christmas

Well I am trying out this digital scrapbooking thing, so here is what I have so far for all my Christmas Pictures! There will be more to come. This was such a wonderful Christmas.

Carlie was hilarious - she was obsessed with all Santa Claus. She referred to him constantly

as "My Santa".

YM/YW Christmas Party

Every year for Christmas I throw a party for the youth on mutual night. This year we had a contest where each team created a santa, elf, and a snowman from a bag of supplies provided by me. It was a riot to see what they created. We also played name that Christmas tune, ate yummy goodies, and had a White Elephant Game. It was a blast.

Believe it or not the most popular item in the White Elephant Game was a mini crockpot. Silly teenagers! I love these kids and will miss them terribly since I just got released as YW President. This was my last activity, but it was a great one to end on.

Artic Blast 2008

The last week before Christmas Break some Artic Air decended on the Columbia Gorge and we got snow and then more snow and more and more. It was so fantastic. We had late starts for school 3 days in a row, then they cancelled school the last 2 days before break. It was wonderful. Carlie LOVES the snow. She would have played in it all day long if I had let her. There was so much snow they shut down the gorge (I-84) several times and Corey put chains on my car. Now I know that a few feet on snow seems minor to those of you from places it snows regularly, BUT in The Dalles this is the most snow we have seen in years! The grocery stores ran out of essentials like milk, bread, butter, etc. It was pretty crazy. A lot of the snow has melted now and the streets are clear in town, but the snow stayed around for about 3 weeks. I love driving on snow packed roads. Usually Oregon gets this wet, yucky snow. This snow storm was the dry, fluffy, powdery stuff you get in Utah - love it!

A Night in Bethlehem - Corey Style

Corey is the activities director in our ward. This was his very first activity in his new calling. He changed up the old and tired eat dinner and see santa ward tradition and took a chance and did "A Night in Bethlehem". Everyone dressed up in Biblical wear, got gold coins to spend at the booths (that Corey built), and ate dinner while sitting on a blanket with their family. They also had a simple nativity program with everyone singing all the favorite spiritual Christmas carols. It was a really nice evening and got me feeling the true spirit of Christmas. Thanks to my hubby for all his hard work! We didn't even miss Santa!

The Fruit booth was the young women's booth - It was so much fun to decorate a booth and I think us ladies did a splendid job. My favorite booth was the music booth (this is where you got the sheet music for the program to be able to sing along). Paul Ferguson and the missionaries were singing and acting like real street vendors - such fun personalities.