I'm just itching for the new school year to start!

This weekend I decided to clean, organize and re-vamp our home school room. No painting or re-decorating was done (not that it doesn't need it, I just can't afford it right now!), but I feel so much better about how things are looking. I went to a yard sale Saturday and found another bookshelf that nearly matches the other I got at a yard sale a few months ago. They both match the tall storage cabinet I got at yet ANOTHER yard sale. Gotta love good deals! I've spent some time online this weekend, ordering a few things I'll need for the girls and trying to decide how much of other things I'll need that I haven't purchased yet. Now that all this is done and books are on the way, I'm just itching to get the school year started. Our summer started a bit early (when I took off to CA for a week in mid-May), so I'm more than ready to get things 'back to normal'.

Here's what the school room looked like, as of last night!

Only 9 days til Maegan is back home!

Last Tuesday, we drove to Las Vegas and I personally walked Maegan to the gate to see her off on her big adventure! (was SO grateful the airport allowed me to with all the added security!) This is the first time she's 1) flown on an airplane by herself and 2) been away from home and family for such a long time (two solid weeks!). So far she seems to be having a lot of fun with her friends there. In fact, we don't hear much from her...she must be too busy playing, swimming and goofing off with her buddies! They are really like a second family! Here are a couple pics taken at the airport just before she got on the plane.

Amazingly enough, I'm surviving having her gone. We all are. But, it will be nice to have her back home next week!

Our rural property!

Eventually, we'll be living on this gorgeous piece of land, located in rural central Utah. We will have an excellent view of mountains in all directions from the property. Its pretty much just "raw" ground right now, planted in alfalfa. We are in contract right now with a wonderful mid-aged couple from our area here. She is an herbalist and natural healer, and I know it was divinely inspired for them to come into our lives! Once we close on their lot, we'll have the funds to get the road graded in, have the fire hydrant installed, as well as the water well which will be shared between 4-5 families. Most of us on the property plan to be "off the grid", which will be quite interesting, I think! There are another couple of lots to sell, and once those are done, we'll be able to move forward with starting our home and barn!! YAY!

These first two pictures were taken this past weekend. The others were taken last summer, but I wanted to be able to show more it than what I captured recently (which wasn't much!)


A view of the prettiest mountain! Its extra pretty when covered in snow!The creek, that will run alongside the back of our property. Jason hopes to build a little pond with this.


Alfalfa!! We are planning to keep a few acres just in alfalfa, so that we'll have food for our farm animals.These trees will also be on the backside of our property. Its been quite the chore to cut down and burn all the old dead wood and brush!

Our simple, CHEAP vacation this summer!

OK, the economy is down. Money is tighter than its been in past years. So, our vacation this summer was kept simple and affordable (aka, CHEAP!) It just so happened that some of our friends in Spring City were out of the country for 3 weeks in July. They invited us to come stay in their home for any amount of time we wanted while they were away. It worked out that we had exactly one week to stay up there. We went from July 12-19. Most of the expense of our trip was GAS (of course!), and we did spend one day at Lagoon. However, we managed to not eat out at all (not even at Lagoon!), except for meals on the way up and back during our travel. We packed alot of food from home, bought grocery store food and I brought my cookbook. This alone saved a ton of money, and we were able to eat healthily as well!

The days we weren't at Lagoon, the girls and I mostly just hung out around our friends' home...they jumped on the trampoline, went down the zip line, played with the cats, fetched chicken eggs, watched movies and rode their bikes a time or two. I hung out, relaxed, got my photo albums caught up (I'm caught up until 2007 now...I had 7 years worth of pictures to do!) and cleaned so that we left the place as nice as we found it.

Jason, the poor guy, worked his tail off "on the farm". He looked at this as a good opportunity to get work done on our property so that we can eventually start the process of building our second home "in the country". The girls and I did help him on Friday, burning brush and old dead wood from along the creek. He wore himself out. I vote he take a real vacation and not do WORK of any kind next time. (we're hoping to sneak away for the weekend on our 15th anniversary next month)

Here our some Lagoon pictures!

Riding Rattlesnake Rapids! This was one of the only rides we all got to be on together. And, we all got SOAKED!!!

Later in the day, we went to Lagoona Beach, the water park part of Lagoon, so the rest of the day, most of us had swim suits on with our shorts/capris. I'm so not used to being sleeveless, it felt quite weird!

A few more pics from our 4th of July!

I just now uploaded the rest of the pictures that were on my camera. In the evening of the 4th, the girls and I went over to the park in town and watched the fireworks there with some of my cousins. It seems that the city is buying better and better fireworks every year, there were some really cool ones this time! Jason had gone on to his class at Frontsight by that time, so it was just me and the girls the rest of the weekend.


These pics of the girls with the sparklers were actually done on Saturday the 5th. Each of them got several boxes of sparklers to themselves and had a ball with them. Sadly, my camera battery died just as I was taking a picture of Maegan!

Wow...essential oils worked their charm tonight!

I wasn't really planning to do any posting here for another day or two, but I had to share this experience we had tonight with some essential oils. Our family has been away for the past week on a vacation up in Spring City. We arrived home tonight, and a couple hours later (just as I was heading for bed, no less!) both Maegan and Emily came to me (a few minutes apart) and said their tummies were hurting and they thought they might throw up. GREAT! Isn't that what every mom wants after being away for a week and desperately wanting to sleep in her own bed?

I'm sure their belly aches are a direct result of over indulging themselves in things they don't normally have. For our day at Lagoon two days ago, I'd bought a giant box of Nutrigrain bars, along with a box of fruit leathers. They also had some Twizzler licorices, and because we were desperate for food by the time we reached Cedar City tonight, they had some chicken nuggets from Wendy's. (I did give them mandarin oranges too, and they had nothing but water to drink!) I think they oinked out on the Nutrigrain bars and fruit leathers in the back seat, because they are now gone and two of them have sick bellies.

So, I got out the essential oils. I am still using Young Living's oils, because that's what I have, but I do plan to make the leap to DoTerra in the near future. At first I just put peppermint on Maegan's tummy. (that was before she told me how yucky she felt, and before Emily had come in) She continued to complain, so I got out the Patchouli, mixed it 50/50 with some coconut oil and put it on her mastoids (behind her ears, for those who don't know what mastoids are). She was like, "mom, that smell is making it worse! Wipe it off, quick!" Patchouli does have a unique scent! I got some Kleenex and wiped it off. Well, something must have worked, even after removing part of it. She stopped complaining about her sick stomach and has been asleep ever since (going on two hours now). Maybe just breathing it in helped.

Onto Emily.

With her, I went right to the Patchouli. Did the same thing to her with that oil. Then I got out the agave nectar, and put 2 drops of Di-Gize in (a blend of digestive oils), and had her drink it down. She continued to complain for several minutes, and I was ready for an all-nighter. We had the barf bucket poised and everything. Then she said she thought a bath would make her feel better. About 10 minutes later I hear, "Mom, I'm all done now. My stomach feels fine."

So was it the bath, or the essential oils?

I'm leaning more towards the oils, since both girls were given them and both have since gone to sleep. No barfing. Hopefully we won't. OK, I think I'm off to bed now. Nighty night!

Happy Birthday, America! Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

Today is Independence Day, the 4th of July. It is also my Grandma Arletta's 80th birthday!! This day is really special. No one really knew if Grandma would live to see this day. Almost 12 years ago, she suffered a debilitating stroke. The doctor (who had terrible bedside manners), said she'd be gone in 5 years or less. Well, she's surpassed that time mark and then some! She is still here and seems to be doing well, despite her stroke symptoms and other areas of aging. Grandpa has been such a saint to have cared for her himself all these years.

We had a big family gathering today, at our home. Normally we would have had an evening get together in the city park, but due to health issues of both my mom and grandma, we decided to have it earlier and indoors. Everyone brought their own main dishes, then pot-lucked all the salads and desserts. It was quite the spread!

Here are a few pictures from our day!

Grandma, with all the grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (well, those who were in attendance, several were missing)

Family group picture! This would have been MOST of Grandma and Grandpa's posterity, but my one aunt and uncle (who shall remain nameless) decided it was more important to get on the road to Reno, instead of waiting 5 more minutes to be in the picture. But, its still quite a group!!

Grandma had just opened one of her gifts, and was very emotional. Actually, she was emotional over almost everything. But this one really set her off! My mom put together a bunch of beautiful old photos of my grandmother when she was young. What a special gift!

Emily, Maegan and Sarah outside this morning. I wonder how long I'll be able to get them in matching shirts for these holidays?
The girls and I, after the party was done, and right before Jason left town. He has a class at Frontsight this weekend. Had he been dressed in patriotic colors instead of camo gear, I would have insisted on him being in the picture!

Have a great 4th of July!!

Salad.....

Wow! Who knew that I could actually have a big salad twice a day and actually survive?! Today was day nine of my cleanse. That means I'm nearly to the half-way point! My initial weight loss must have been water weight, because I haven't lost any more since last week. Boo hoo!!! I was really hoping for more, but I guess they say a healthy weight loss is actually just a couple pounds a week. So in that sense, I'm doing alright having lost three pounds or so. Hopefully I can lose three more this week.

I did enjoy my lunch today at the Pizza Factory with friends. Since it was a celebratory day (my friend Lisa's birthday), I decided to go ahead and have my salad the way I usually do it ....complete with a slight amount of shredded cheese, ranch dressing and a breadstick. (hey...give me a break! I only had half of the breadstick and the rest of my large salad was veggies!) I've been a good girl all day, before and after lunch, so I think I'll probably live.

Here is a sampling of the salads I've been having:

(hint: for anyone trying this, the real key to living on 2/3 of your meals as salads is to have a variety of toppings and homemade healthy salad dressings)

The dressing I had for this came out of Traci's Transformational Kitchen cookbook (her website is listed below as Best Foodist).

Italian Dressing

1/4 cup red wine vinegar or raw apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 T. real maple syrup
1/2 t. sea salt (or to taste, optional)
1 T. fresh minced red onion, or 1 t. dried onion powder
2 cloves pressed garlic, or1 t. dried garlic powder
1/2 t. dried basil, or 1/2 T. minced fresh
1 t. oregano

Whisk or blend together all ingredients, flavor improves upon standing.

Variation: Replace some or all of the other vinegars with Balsamic vinegar

Bon appetit!