The Itch

Its this time of year for the past several years that I am so anxious to garden. I have yet to produce a decent garden, last year even my pumpkins totally sucked. My real problem is probably a combination of knowing next to nothing about gardening in real life (I've read magazines and online articles) and by the time summer hits I'm so unamused by my pathetic plants that I give up and don't water or weed like I should. My mother hated gardening because that is what she grew up doing and so we really never had a vegetable garden. My mom also hates cooking and canning and so why grow something that is gonna take more work to use. I always have such huge expectations about how beautiful my flower garden will be and how impressive my vegetable garden looks. Its all yet to happen. Talking with some of my neighbors they after many years finally have good soil and good producing gardens, I just don't know if I have the patience to wait so long. So tonight I got a movie from the library called yardening and its a VHS so its a little older, a guy who's pants are held up by suspenders and has a full beard walks you through the whole "how to plant a garden". Now I'm up and I can't sleep because there are so many things I need to do to prepare for the spring planting season. So to bore you out of your mind I'm gonna share my mental to-do list :)
1. see if my dad has a working chain saw and would want to help cut some logs for me
2. make my big raise garden into two skinnier raised rows (big project)
3. move the dog kennel again, possibly up against the fence that the stupid dog keeps ripping apart
4. see what scrap pieces of wood i have in my basement that i could rig up a nicer more organized compost pile.
5. Make Compost bin
6. Put leaves and straw and grass from the yard into the bin.
7. see how much a drip hose and timer cost
8. buy more pet pots to start seeds in
9. figure out what needs to be planted in the spring and get seeds started
10. consider building more raised beds
11. change mind because you can't even get one bed to grow good.. maybe next year
12. figure out a way to get more earth worms.. possibly flooding the backyard.. or paying siblings to round some up.
13. look for sales on seeds and buy more
14. figure out a way to do all of this with two children.

When all is said and done I'm completely in awe of the pioneers and people who lived before there were home improvement stores or online help, they produced food for their whole family for both the growing season and the winter. I would be skin and bones if I had to rely on what I could produce, how in the world did they do it? and do it so well? hmm maybe I'll look it up online.

recap on Experiment

I told you guys that I would let you know how my "experiment" worked, originally I was just gonna have Jared take the K-48 and see if it helped him at all, but I decided that I wanted to give it a try also. For me I wanted to see if it helped my energy levels, being a mom of a 3 month old is pretty taxing on your sleep and I have yet to get a full nights sleep since I've had my baby boy. The first month after he was born I would try to get in a nap but it wasn't always happening. Being so tired I was almost always cross with my 2 year old and my husband (not a nice mom or wife at all). I'm still not getting as much sleep but while taking one K-48 in the morning and one at night I don't feel like I desperately need a nap and I've been able to make it through the day feeling like a normal rested person. The biggest difference I noticed is when I forgot to take it in the morning, it was a Sunday and by the time I got home from church I was wiped and the kids didn't want to sleep (at least at the same time), so I took one K-48 and a short time afterward I felt like I got my second wind. My nails have felt stronger and have been growing better on it and I've had several headaches that went away after taking one K-48. When I start training hard for my my races I'm hoping that these pills will help me with the day after soreness, (I can't wait to start training again).
I asked Jared if he's felt any difference and he said that both his shoulder and knees don't hurt as bad they used to. He had shoulder surgery before we met and he's always complained about his shoulder, so that was really cool to hear. We ran out the other day and he keeps asking me to order more, I think you really notice the difference when you've been off it and things start hurting again. Because I want you to get an idea of the studies that have been done on omega-3 and what it helps I'm gonna type a list of the actual areas that have been studied with documented improvement
ADD, ADHD, Allergies, Alzheimer's, Anti-inflammatory, Anxiety, Arrhythmia, Atherosclerosis, Arthritis, Asthma, Autism/Asperger's syndrome, Blood Pressure, Bipolar, Bone Metabolism and Bone Joint Diseases, Bowel Diseases, Brain Development, Cancers: Breast, Colon and Prostate; Cardiovascular Disease, High Cholesterol, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, COPD, Collagen Production for both Skin and Tissue, Crohn's Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Depression, Diabetes, Endometriosis, Eczema, Epilepsy, Glaucoma, Heart, Insulin Resistance, Immune System, Joint pain, Kidney Disease, Kidney Inflammation, Lupus, Migraine Headaches, Multiple Sclerosis, Osteoporosis, Painful Menstruation, Pregnancy and Postpartum support, Psoriasis, Raynaud's Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Schizophrenia, Skin, Skin Photosensitivity, Stress and inflammation problems, Ulcerative colitis,
To view the studies go to http://www.pubmed.com just type in the condition your researching along with omega 3.
I truly believe that everyone should be getting their Omega 3's and after trying the K-48 Plus I know for myself that I feel better on it and it works.

Valentines Day

so the whole post pictures are in the opposite order than i wanted but i guess you can get the idea.

I made a valentines book/card for Jared using an idea i saw on studio 5, although theirs was much prettier

I also decided that i love cream puffs and it would be fun to try to make them for Jared and you know what they are not as hard as they look to make the recipe is simple and they are just a yummy fancy looking treat.

powdered sugar frosting

filled with whipped cream

(before they were filled, these guys are just cooling on the rack)

Sir Rocky Road

I started on this post last week but my computer has been so slow and i wasn't able to do much. So I'm catching up today. Last Monday was the last time anyone saw my family dog Rocky, he is 11 years old and was possibly going blind. They say that labs tend to leave their family to die, which is so sad because we would all love to know that he didn't suffer and we all wish that we could bury him. We got Rocky when we first moved to Pleasant View, I was in the 7th grade at the time and he was our first male dog in a long time since they tend to be more wild then females. We had another chocolate lab that we brought with us from Roosevelt and her name was Sammy. They were best buddies and kept each other happy and in their younger years they kept each other in trouble. They had 2 batches of puppies together. Sammy in her later years and while I was pregnant with my first child had kidney problems and became blind, Rocky helped her up until we decided that it was way sad to watch her be in pain and had her put to sleep which was devastating. Rocky was so sad without his Sammy for a long time but he was still a good family dog. He greeted us every time we came to visit, although he was getting slower in his older years. Last Wednesday I took pearl with me to my parents house to see if we could track down Rocky and unfortunately we weren't able to find him. This post is for all of us who have loved and lived a long time with our family dogs, there is certainly nothing like an old faithful friend and he will be missed by all who got to know him.

giving makayla a kiss


such a mild tempered dog

our family

in search

Makayla loves dresses and wont wear anything else at the moment she even wants to wear mine!

i thought this was so funny, he looked like he had a lions mane with this bib on

its kinda starting to feel like spring, the temperatures are getting slightly warmer and today i feel like i need a project to work on. I'm not quite sure what to do, i'm thinking about re-arranging everything in my house and i'm also thinking about valentines day projects. My computer is especially slow lately and i've been wanting to look at everyone elses blogs to see what is up but for some reason my links wont pop up in a timely manner. i have a ton of furniture that i want to paint lighter for spring and make pretty so if i have enough paint i'll start with that. If i do something cute for valentines i'll be sure to show you, I dont feel very creative with scrapbook paper i have to copy others ideas because mine always looks like a child did it. So if you've seen something cool or have an idea for me or if you just want to hang out i'm up for all of that!

The Blessing

Hey all, Konnors blessing was very sweet and special and thanks so much to everyone who was able to make it out. We have a ton of sloppy joes and buns left over so we'll be eating that for the next month (thank heavens for freezers). I love these days because they are so special but i get pretty happy when they are over because they are stressful up until the point. I worry about having the house and everything perfect and I have to remember so many things, (that is a hard thing for me to do ever since i had babies who took most of my brains with them when they were born). So its really nice to think ahh Monday is tomorrow and all my plans are is reading my e-mail and swimming at 6:30 then rushing home to watch whats left of the bachelor. I didn't take a ton of pictures which was dumb so tomorrow i think I'll dress him up and try to get some cute pics of him in his blessing attire. The pics i have are of us and my in laws so you can see Konnor in his blessing outfit, and Makayla with her really short hair (i think I'll leave it alone for a couple months)(although its not so bad when its been styled and she has a flower clip in). I want to share my mind about my visibly unhappy mother in law but I wont just because i don't know who all reads this. All I'll say is that if i keep up the stressing about how she feels i will lose sight of the sweet memories today and just remember the things that don't and wont matter in the future. I'm a pretty easy going person and i aim to please but i cant please those who wish to be miserable. okay I've said enough :) sorry about the vent.

Reminder

This weekend we are blessing Konnor, It will be Sunday at our ward house which is 770 15th street in Ogden. Our church starts at 9:00 but our Sacrament Meeting is last so to be there on time you'll want to be there at 10:40. We'll be having lunch after at our house and your all invited to come. If you want to help with the lunch we'd love to have you bring a dessert. Thanks and we'll see you there!

The Experiment

Alright if anyone knows me they know that i really dont go to product parties, i have no desire to sell anything, and honestly I am constantly refered by lots of people to host or do such parties and I never do. The reason being that whenever I go to a party I feel obligated to buy something and that would be all good and wonderful if I felt like I had money to spend on myself (I have yet to feel that way since I've been married). So if you've noticed my new side bar you've realized that I must be a total sell out! But i'm gonna explain to you why I am not, and how it all happened....

This weekend I went with my mom and siblings to Idaho for my Nana's 80Th birthday party, and also one of my cousins "farewells" for his mission. While up there I was invited by my Uncle Geoff to come with my mom and some aunts and uncles to here a shpill about some fish oil pills at his home. Gag yep, I completely hate sales and my husband has been screwed multiple time in the past year because of sales companies, so of course it doesn't sound like fun or something that would ever benefit me or anyone i know, but i still went. So I got there and met several other people who are IBO's (independent business owners) for JD Premium and a guy named Roger Ball and the sales guy Patrick. They talked about the product and how it has helped them individually, Roger talked about the process in which they get the krill and the manufacturing of the product and how much the company has grown since its started (Oct 2008) and put out a challenge for all of us to meet in a year to see how much has changed. I honestly did not know who the guy was other than he was a guy from my Uncle Geoffs ward. It turns out that he is the founder of JD Premium and he is also a billionaire from previous ventures. So that was kinda cool meeting a billionaire but not knowing it. The way that this company is different from other multilevel companies is that it only wants 10 percent of what it retails 90% of its sales actually goes to the people selling and promoting the product. As a sales person you can work your way to get up to 70% but it honestly does take some work to do so (its not a get rich quick scheme). Your not required to keep a stock of the product and there is not a start up fee, to be a preferred customer that gets product at a discount you just have to join, to be a distributor there is a one time $25.00 activation fee, the website is free. In order to be paid you have to have someone below you ordering and you yourself have to have a 40 point order which is equal to about $50 with shipping. So that pretty much means that they want you using the product your selling which makes sense. That is the only catch.

The Experiment is seeing if this product makes a difference. Jared is my patient, he has pain in his shoulder from his surgery years ago and he also gets pain in his knees when he has been working out. The K-48 has Omega-3's that help with inflammation and so many other illnesses and problems it truly sounds like a miracle drug but yet its an essential nutrient that everyone should be getting in our diet but most people don't. The list of all the problems that omega-3's help is overwhelming and extensive, but it includes depression, cancers, stress, pain, acne, PMS, and I'm gonna add the link of the studies and what it helps. The fact that it reduces your risk of getting cancer by 70% and helps those with cancer is promising and that is why i think this will be a very well known company in the near future. Everyone knows someone in pain or just in need of extra energy so its definitely something worth trying. So that is what I'm doing I'm trying it out and if it turns out to not help all i have to do is send an e-mail in saying I no longer want to be a member and I'm not obligated any further. if you click on the link below and go to "learn more about this product (pdf)" http://corp.jdpremium.com/products/nutritional-care/ it will show you the research that has been done and a list of all the things that k-48 helps (very interesting).

If any of you want to try it for yourself or know of someone who could benefit from it, I can order a months worth (a bottle) for you just let me know or visit the link to the side of the page. If any of you are interested in joining or curious about how the pay works take a look at either my website or the main website jdpremium.com its really not a bad idea for extra pay or part time job.