Christmas Shopping Deals

Today I scored a great deal at Target. The Leap Frog Tag Reading System is "on sale" at Target for $39.99, but Target will price match a competitors price, so I took my Tag up to customer service armed with my Kohls ad which has it advertised for $34.99, but the ad said it was 20% off, which is what the customer service desk applied to my purchase, bringing the total to $31.99. I then gave them the $10.00 off Target coupon, found in the Target Toy coupon book and the $10.00 off Leap Frog coupon from their site, bringing the total to $11.99. I then gave them my $5.00 Target gift card which I earned from my purchase of 2 Chinet products, bringing my Out of Pocket total to $6.99. Such a good deal!

PlayOffs

Isaac's football team, the Barlow Blues, are heading to playoffs this weekend. They are 6 and 2 for the season. Isaac has had a lot of growth this year with many playing opportunities. It has been so fun to watch him get better with each game. He has carried the ball and played on offense a lot which is his favorite. But he is also great at defense. I can't believe how much fun I've had this season. I've become a football mom and both He and I will miss football when the season is over.

Lame

This year Halloween was pretty lame. All of our kids wanted to to trick or treating with friends. In fact, 2 of our kids I never even saw them in their costumes since they went over to friends houses so early. Jackson and Jon went early to their friends, Ellie got ready here and then went with a neighbor girl and Isaac decided not to go this year and watch the Oregon game with his dad and grandpa. I assumed we would take Gavin to a few houses, but he never got a nap that day and while I was getting Ellie ready, he fell asleep on the couch, so we just put him to bed for the night. To top it all off, we only had like 6 trick or treaters all night. I bought way too much candy for no trick or treaters, but Isaac was happy. It made up for not going out.

Woozy

Last Friday I was wrapping Jon up in a Mummy costume when all of the sudden he said he was feeling dizzy. I looked up and him and he was very grey. So I told him to sit down. While lowering himself to the ground he passed out. He was out for about 5 to 10 seconds. When he came to he was so funny. He said, "hi Mom". I told him to stay down and brought him some water and a granola bar.
I think he passed out from standing so long. I assume his legs were locked. Once he had his snack, he stood up and finished getting ready for school. I wasn't sure if I should send him, but he really wanted to go since it was his Halloween party and they were going to Skate World. He really was better and when he got home, he said he was fine all day.

Super Saturday Planning

I'm the Enrichment Leader in our ward (or whatever my new title is post Women's Conference), and our Super Saturday is coming up. We have a lot of great idea's and making them up for the display table. But some of these ideas aren't going the way we thought. But I will tweak them till they are perfect. Here's what we have planned.


Personalized Clipboards.


Gift Tags


Temple Tiles. Ours will have the Portland Temple


Christmas Countdown Blocks


Scripture Totes made from a place mat


Etching your name on your Pyrex


Glass Block Nativity Silhouettes

Baby Adam Is Here

I am an aunt for the first time (on my side of the family)! Amy had her baby on September 20th, 2 weeks after she was due. And she did it without any drugs. What a woman.

Baby Adam was born with Down Syndrome, something none of us were prepared for, but we know that he is so special. Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he sent such a choice spirit to be raised by such amazing parents.

I'm excited to meet him and have my children be around him. I'm sure we will learn so much from him.

Bullied

I am a facebooker, and I enjoy reading my friends status updates and see what's going on with them. But lately it hasn't been as fun. A lot of status updates are very political, which is fine, but then someone comes under that and disagrees with their point of view. Then it's a lot of back and forth and then bullying. It has made me sad to see people who are friends go into all out wars about differing opinions. Can't we just agree to disagree?
I don't comment on any of these, but the other day I had had it and made a status update about how I wish facebook would go back to cute, witty and imaginative status updates, all the other stuff leads to bullying.
Well that opened me up to attacks. I should've known better. Now these people are implying how stupid and empty headed I am with no political opinion.
I have an opinion, I just don't see facebook as the platform to state it. I don't believe I'm stupid, you may feel differently, but I do feel stupid that I opened myself up to be ridiculed. Lessons learned I guess.

Hug Point

This weekend, Andrew surprised us by ordering us into the car and took us to the beach. Very spontaneous of him. We had a great time, the weather couldn't be more perfect and was very un stressful. We just played in the sand and it was warm enough for the kids to be in the water. Gavin spent his day running up and down the beach and making sand castles. He loved it.

Kayakers

We spend lots of our summer at my Aunt and Uncles house on the lake. It is the best "vacation" and my kids get to have lots of fun learning to wake board, tube, kayak and improve on their swimming skills. Gavin even gets in on the fun.

Wanted.... Dead or Alive

Gavin is becoming a rock star, thanks to the game Rock Band.

Stress

(Andrew's Kanye impersonation)

The last month has been pretty stressful. Having 3 callings doesn't help. But the stress came to a head this weekend. Andrew came down with a sore throat yesterday which turned into chills and fever and by the afternoon, he was miserable. He said that it was the sickest he had ever felt. He would shake uncontrollably and shiver and sweat. He said the every joint hurt. Well today as he was resting on the couch, he woke up with chest pains. He said it felt like he had been punched in the sternum. The pain was so bad, on a scale of 1 through 10 he said it was an 8. He had the pain for about 20 minutes when he finally told me about it and asked me to take him to the hospital. Once we got there, I was impressed at how fast they saw him. I guess you should always say chest pain, you get in right away! They ran a bunch of tests and made him take nitroglisserin which made the pain go away. Once all the tests were ran, they could not rule out if he had had a heart attack. We do know that he has strep throat, his tonsils were covered in puss, but we have no idea if his heart is acting up. They talked about admitting him over night, but our regular doctor let us go home and wants to see us at 8:30 tomorrow morning. I hope once the doctor can look at his old test results and compare them, they can get down to the bottom of the problem. Andrew still feels like crap and is medicated. I hope he gets better soon. Keep us in your prayers.

My Fan Base

The other day I got an email in Facebook from a fan. Read below...

Are you the actress from "Wee sing together"???
Are you Critina, Betsy??
Yestreday i found at home the movie i have been looking for many years.
It was my favourite one when i was little!

I would like to know about you! Are you still an actress?

Hope you're well!
Your biggest fan from Argentina!


Isn't that hilarious? I just giggled after reading that. I mean, how did she found me? How did she know I was Christina? Did she watch the credits and memorize my name? So funny. I'm famous.

Sore Throat

On Friday Gavin had surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids. The surgery went really well, but after, when the doctor came to talk to us she said she wanted Gavin to stay in the hospital overnight for observation. I was a bit surprised, since we've gone through this surgery 2 other time and never stayed overnight. But since he is under 3, they say it is standard. So up to short stay we went. Immediately the baby starts climbing up and down the crib. He started eating like crazy, even taking Andrew's onion rings, which is a no no since he was only allowed liquids. The nurse could tell we wanted to go home, so she called the doc to tell her how good he was doing, but the doc was adamant that we stay the night. So we grabbed one of their wagons and wheeled him all over the hospital. Over and over again. We've seen every corner of the hospital. After the long night of nurses waking him every 4 hours, they finally discharged us at 10 the next morning. He was doing such a good job that I thought recovery was a breeze. Then day 3 came. Gavin woke up with a low grade fever, really shaking and refused medicine and anything to drink. He was miserable. Sometimes I can force the medicine down him and we have a good 4 hours, but the last 2 days have been rough. We've given him blessings and really watched over him, but I think we just have to ride this out, medicine or no medicine. As long as he gets enough fluids, the doctor says he will be fine. Hopefully he'll turn the corner soon.

Survivor

Last Thursday our ward had Enrichment night, and since I'm the EnrichmentLleader, I put on Survivor, Preparedness style. I was so great.
The women arrived and were led to the Primary room. Once they were there, the Presidency welcomed them while my board and I made a mad dash throwing a "fire" up in the breeze way (it was dry ice and celophane flames, and making a mud slide down the hall with falling fake ficus trees and boulders made of garbage bags and lunch sacks. Once that was done, I signaled the okay and all the lights went out in the primary room and thunder and lightning sounded. Then the radio came on with the Emergency Broadcast Message, recorded by Barry from our ward. It was great and told the women there was a disaster of Biblical proportions and they needed to evacuate the building immediately. The women grabbed flashlights and tried to find the nearest exit. They first headed for the closest exit, but that had our fire, then the tried for the west exit, but that darn mudslide blocked their path. So on to the east exit. On the way there we obsticles in the way, fallen chairs, more boulders, a tipped over couch and lots of caution tape. When they finally made it outside, I welcomed them to Survivor and had them draw their team color out of a bag. Once in teams we headed into the gym to start the team challanges. The challanges consisted of making shelter. This was who could put up and take down a tent the fastest. Then first aid where they had a victim they had to take care of. The team to do it the fastest and correctly won for that round. Then to the water station where they answered tough questions related to water purification. Then to 72 hour kits where they did a word scramble to figure out what items to place in their backpacks. And the last challenge was food. The women had to decide what item had the beans. There were 5 desserts, and the same desserts made with beans. Surprisingly, the bean desserts weren't so bad.
Now that the challenges were over, we headed to the Relief Society room for tribal council where the Bishop gave us a great talk on spiritual preparedness. Then we awarded our Ultimate Survivor team and had food storage desserts.
It was a fabulous evening and I think the women loved it. It was a lot of work, and I wish more had showed up, we had about 20, but it was still great.

The Hukilau

Last week, Ellie got to be a hula girl for the YW. They had an end of the year Luau so they recruited all the primary girls to learn a couple of dances. The girls were so cute. Enjoy.

Food Mysteries

It is so weird to figure out the things I can eat with the lapband. Some food that works good for me, really hurts someone else. Take rice for example. I have discovered that I can't eat rice. It hurts. Really hurts. I think because it swells once it gets in my tummy. But I know I can't eat it, or I will just throw it up. And bread is tough too. But one food I can't eat, which should be a good thing but just makes me sad is french fries. Every time I try to eat one I regret it. I also notice it is hard to have sugar.
Figuring all this out makes it kinda scary to eat since you don't know how it will make you feel. I do notice if I have no carbs and straight protein, I don't hurt at all. I haven't been brave enough for steak, but I assume if it is tender enough, I'll love it. And I seem fine with fruits and veggies. So what my body is telling me is that I can only eat healthy things. Go figure.

Hooray!

Thought you needed an update on the weight loss front. I weighed yesterday, and I have now lost 30 pounds!
I got my first fill about 2 weeks ago, but I was too cautious and didn't have enough put in, so I went back a week later and had more added. Now I have good restriction and I can't eat a lot. About a 1/2 to 2/3 a cup of food a sitting. Hopefully the weight will start coming off more consistently now. I lost 20 in 3 weeks and it took 3 weeks to lose the next 10.
That's about it. I'm loving having the band and would recommend it to anyone.

Amy

A month or so ago we got a package from my sister Amy with individual presents for each kid. The kids were so excited to receive something in the mail. So we decided to say thank you in a post.

From Isaac: I love when Amy comes and visits. She tries to spend one on one time with us, and bring crafts for us to do. One time we had clay that we could eat. It was fun. I love you Amy.

Jon: Amy always brings these chocolate eggs that have toys inside when she comes. I love that she brings them, and I make sure I ask her if she did right when she walks in the door.

Jackson: Amy always gives great hugs and loves to make gingerbread houses with us. I wish she lived closer.

Ellie: I love all the stuff Amy bring when she comes to visit. I love the chocolate eggs and making things with her. I love when Andreas carries me on his back. And I love to sing for her.

Gavin: Um.... I love you!

Thanks for thinking of my kids Amy. I love you and wish you'd live closer so I could see you more, but I know that you are happy, so I'm happy too.

Cute Car

Well he did it. He took the Mustang to get painted and let me just say, it went from junker to so stinkin' cute! I love it. This weekend I went cruisin' with him two nights in a row. It was really fun, but so weird how many people want to talk to us at stop lights. Everyone has an opinion. It makes you feel like you need to have perfect hair and makeup cause you get stared at so much. Now I'm not embarresed to have it parked in my driveway.

Women's Conference

Last week I flew to Utah to go to Women's Conference with my Mom and Leigh. When I first arrived, I wasn't feeling too pretty. My roots were really bad and I felt like I was looking dirty. So on the way to Leigh's house from the airport, we stopped at Target and bought a box of ash blonde hair color. I thought, no big deal, I can do this. Well.... it turned out orange and grey. Really. Orange and grey like a Tabby cat. So my mom's friend Debi grabbed another box of color she had in her house, a warm blonde. We thought this would take out the grey color and maybe lighten some of the orange. But... it didn't change a thing. Now it was 1 in the morning and I needed to hit the sack cause we were getting up early to head to BYU. So I went to the first day of Women's Conference with the ugliest hair there. And let me tell you, there was some butt ugly hair. So bad that we would sneak and take pictures of some of the big, sculpturous hair. But I think mine was the worst. I was so aware of how bad it looked. Especially in the sunlight.
The speakers that we saw at the conference that day were not the greatest. A bit boring. But the concert that night was FABULOUS. I haven't had that much fun in a long time. But you need the whole story, so here it goes. Before the concert, Leigh had to go and help out with all the artists, so the rest of us waited with all the other 18,000 women for them to open the doors to let us in. I thought that it sucked so I texted Leigh and asked if she could get us in. She worked her magic and told us to go in this side door, where all the artists enter. We walk in, and there is Alex Boye'. You know that black guy that sings in the MoTab and does all the spirituals.

So Leigh says hi to him, and I thought my mom was gonna pass out. She has a major crush on him. Leigh then leads us to the floor of the stage and says take a seat. Now the concert is in the Marriot Center, so the stage is on the court and there are only 2 rows of chairs for the artist families. So we sit right in the center. Then Hillary Weeks comes out to do her sound check. I loved it and couldn't help singing along. Afterwards she comes up to us and asked how we scored such great seats. We told her about Leigh and then she said she say me singing with her. I said yes, I love her cd. I have it in my car right now. Then she said she had a cold so could I step in if she needed me. I told her I was a fabulous back up singer. How funny. The concert started and I felt like a teenager again. We were screaming and dancing and giggly. It was a blast.
Once we got home, I grabbed another box of hair color to repair my hair disaster. Debi said it would take 2 applications to get it right, so I dyed my hair twice that night. If you are counting, that is 4 dye jobs in 2 days. My scalp was on fire!!! But I think the final product turned out great. It is way different from what I would normally do, but it is fun to change.

The second day of the conference was pretty good. We ended it with hearing from L. Tom Perry, who I love. He is great. I really enjoyed the conference and would love to go again next year.
The rest of the weekend we just hung out and had a good time. It was a nice break away from my real life.

Jackson Turns 9

This is the last birthday post, I promise, but what can I do. We have 3 birthday's in April. Jackson's birthday was on the 12 and he had about 8 kids show up to help him celebrate it. It was a very low key party. They jumped on the tramp, play basketball and played on the Wii. That was about it, besides the traditional cake and presents. It was great and low stress for me.

Lazer Planet Party

Yesterday was Jon's birthday and we went to Lazer Planet. The kids had a blast. They got to play 3 games, but the thing I liked most about it is I didn't have to do anything for it. The place provided the pizza, drinks and cakes. We just had to show up. That's how I like to throw a party.

Ellie's Birthday

Last Friday Ellie turned 7. She is getting too old. Crazy. We decided to have a tea (cocoa) party for her. It turned out so cute and the girls had a great time. Check it out.