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briankimberlyandthekids.blogspot.com

Day 4

Today we went to Ichiban to eat with Brian before he played with the Curnow band. After eating, the kids and I played Scrabble Slam while Brian was setting up.
I tried to finalize the schedule for the kid's chores, but Brian came up with a new idea and so I will work on it tomorrow.
I really wanted to go to Disneyland more so than normal. I started thinking about when we are going and I got really homesick for Disneyland.

Journal Day 2-3

Today has been great! Brian and I laid in bed until around 9:30. I was awake since 8:30 or so but he was asleep until 9:30. Around 9:00 I decided to get up and get ready to go for a walk/run, but I didn't. Around 9:15 I got up and got dressed and almost ready to go. Then Brian turned over and reached out his arms for me. I really can't resist that- a time that he wants to cuddle - so I laid back in bed and cuddled with him for a few minutes. I asked him if he wanted to go on a walk with me and he said sure, after he had been up for a while. This is when I found out that he had watched West Wing until 2:30am... no wonder he stayed asleep so long! We then went upstairs, looked through the kids hair for lice and had breakfast. Yes, I said lice. Elijah brought it home from school about a week and a half ago. We though we were in the clear and then we found out Wednesday when we picked Quianna up to go out for dinner that she had it too! Elijah has come home from school every day this week with it. We checked his hair in the morning and found that he was ok. Then he would come home with eggs in his hair. Last night Quianna came to live with us for about a month and we found out that she still has it. Brian went off to play in Annie Get Your Gun (he is subbing for the bass player) and I got to deal with looking through and treating long hair. I got desperate and looked on the internet for some other tips and solutions. I read that vinegar dissolves the lice and it's eggs. I had Quianna use it in the shower last night and she complained that it got in her mouth.

This morning Brian only found 2 in her hair but I found 5 or 6 in Elijah's. He was clean last night! I don't understand it! I have washed his sheets/pillowcase every day AND sprayed his mattress and pillow. We thought school was the source since we would always find it when he came home.

I just have to say- I am tired of lice. I have done at least 3 loads of laundry every day since Saturday- sometimes 5 because regular laundry needs to be done. I am tired. Just go away lice!

So this morning I gave them vinegar rinses. This time I had them lay on their backs on the counter with their heads in the sink and I washed their hair. Quianna kept wiggling which made it hard to do but Elijah did great- he just giggled. Hopefully the vinegar helped because I am getting to the crazy.

We went to Riverfront park today. The kids got to ride the rides and Brian and I played catch with the NERF football and the frisbee. Running around was a part of my exercise.

Day #3
Today I subbed in the nursery today. It was fun, I just really miss Relief Society. We also had Family Home Evening today. Since Quianna will be living with us for a while it will be easier to start a schedule with it for the kids to teach the lessons today. I created a FHE chart with ice cream cones. I printed it out, I just need to put it together. That's a tomorrow project.
Tomorrow is the first Monday for a long while that I don't have to go to school. It's wonderful.
It's been a long day. I've gotta go put the kids to bed.

Jounal #1

So far today I have said my morning prayers (2 points), exercised for 45 min (20 points) ate 5 fruits/vegetables (10 points), had 7 hours of consecutive sleep last night (5 points) and had 5 glasses of water(1 point each) and now I am writing in my "journal"- which is 2 points. Tonight I will say my prayers (2 points) and read my scriptures for 5 points.

I am doing a "competition" thing with some girls at church. It's called "A New You" and is to help with establishing healthy and spiritual habits. For everything you do on the list you get a certain amount of points and we are divided up into teams. The team with the most points at the end of the 6 weeks wins. We are ending our 6 week program with a celebration and a 5k.

It has given me great motivation today to get out and exercise, to eat so many fruits/vegetables, and to drink so much water. Although after exercising it wasn't so hard to drink a bottle of water.
There is an option between tracking weight loss (1 pound lost= 10 points/week 1/2 pound lost= 5 points/week) or Journal writing. Since I am not trying to lose weight particularly, just trying to get fit I am doing the Journal writing. I am excited because one of my goals has been to do better at keeping this blog going and so this will be good motivation.

In doing all this today I have thought about goals that I want to accomplish- especially in the area of exercise:

• I want to be able to run a mile. I have NEVER been able to do this. I have always had a problem with breathing every time I run- no matter how short of distance. Even walking fast makes me short of breath so my goal is to be able to run a mile and not have my chest pound and feel like I am going to die.
• I want to be able to touch my toes without bending my legs. Again, I have NEVER been able to do this- maybe when I was two, but since I can remember I have always struggled with this. The "sit and reach test" in elementary P.E was always my nemesis. Ok, so not that I rocked at Pull-ups or running the mile but you would think "sit and reach" would be the easiest of the tests.
• I would like to build up my back, core, and arm muscles. I haven't figured out a measurable goal on this except for keeping track at how many inches in my arms I gain but hopefully by building up my core muscles it will help my back gain strength back from my many car accidents.
• This is not on the point system, but I would like to start taking multi-vitamins every day. I'm hoping that getting the vitamins that I need it will help with my breathing problems I have been having.

These are my goals so far. Also in the point system you chose a goal at the beginning of the program- something you want to accomplish each week- and then you receive 15 points for every week that you accomplish it. One of the examples is to organize a room each week in your home. Almost everything on my summer's ToDo list is organizing a room of the house- including the garage, so I though that my personal goal is to cross off one thing on my Summer ToDo List each week.

This week since it is only Friday-Sunday (we started this last night) I am choosing something off of my to do list that is easy- clean our bedroom. I figured organizing it isn't a priority right now because it's already pretty well organized and as the rest of the to do list (like organize closet, office, and turn office into closet) our bedroom will become reorganized.

So I just have to say that I am really excited for this program. Not only for the points and doing it as a team but for the habits I will establish in the next 6 weeks.


Extra note: I am done with school for the year! After my last final on Wednesday I had an appointment with my endocrinologist. I was really worried because I hadn't been logging my blood sugars and carb/insulin intakes in my book since my last appointment. I thought that I would be getting a scolding from my doctor because of my lack of records.... but it was the opposite! I passed my diabetes final for the quarter! He told me that he wanted me to leave the appointment feeling that I have my diabetes well controlled. He then told me that my A1c was 6.7! In the beginning when I first started my appointments in January my A1C was 8.0 and now it is 6.7! I was so excited I had to give a "WooHoo!" right there in the middle of my appointment. I then couldn't stops smiling. Yeah me!

The Health Care Issue

Not to start any political debate, but I have been reading some stuff on the internet about the health care issue, and I don't understand how people believe that health care is not a right. I know that being a diabetic is not the worst of things. There are a lot of people that have it a lot harder than me. If I take care of myself, I can have a normal healthy life- when in other cases no matter what people do, they aren't as fortunate. But it just irritates me to hear people put up such a stink about health care reform and how health care should not be a right. Here's a quote from an article I just read:

" (quoting a representative)"I am committed to working with President Obama to pass comprehensive health care reform. High quality, patient-centered, affordable health care is the right of every American and the time to act on this mandate is now," Polis said.

No, health care is not a right. We have the rights to free speech, to keep and bear arms..."

-http://media.www.collegian.com/media/storage/paper864/news/2009/09/11/Opinion/Pros-And.Cons.For.Health.Care.Reform-3769142-page2.shtml

That's like somebody walking up to me and saying, "No. I'm sorry, you don't get your insulin. Your blood sugar will rise to dangerous heights, then you'll go in a coma, and eventually you'll die. Oh yeah, but you can have a gun instead because bearing arms is a right but living isn't."

I'm not a very politically smart person so I really don't know if the Obama plan is going to work- and I don't completely understand it, but I gotta say, at least someone is trying. At least someone is concerned about this issue.
It scares me that Brian doesn't have insurance and with him being in the artistic world we see people with out insurance all the time. Brian was setting up for a gig at a place that had a lower door frame with a sharp edge. He saw someone carrying in sound equipment walk into it and gash his forehead open. He hit it so hard that he fell back and he was bleeding a lot. The people around had asked him if they could take him to the emergency room or a doctor and he declined because he didn't have health insurance, so he kept on doing his job with a rag to his head.
There is something wrong when people can't go and take care of themselves in an emergency because they are afraid of not affording it. Somebody should do something about this.
I just wanted to record my thoughts.

I'm engaged!

Brian took me out on a date last night and he proposed! Amanda and I made a skirt right before my date because I had been trying to figure out what I was going to wear all day and 2:00 came around and I wanted to wear the polka dot skirt that I had been planning on making. So finishing the cutting and starting the sewing a little before 3, I stopped working at 4:50 so Amanda could finish up the hem while I did my hair and make up to meet Brian at 5:30.

Brian took me to Mongolian out in the valley. During dinner he asked if we could go to the church bookstore. I said sure and mentioned we should go walk around the temple grounds since it is close to the bookstore. The bookstore was closed, but we went to the temple any way. On our walk he mentioned as we looked up at it, "this is our temple, not the one that we are going to get married at, but the one that we will go to on a regular basis- together." We had walked around once and I was cold- it being 7:00 and me wearing a skirt (who's idea was that?) so we were going to go back into the car but at last minute I decided I could brave the cold one more time around. On that time around the back of the temple, we stopped and he pointed out the sunset to me. It was beautiful! My one regret about this night is that I had left my camera out in the car and I want pictures to be able to show this night. Anyways, while looking at the sunset he said, "I love you so much" and I replied with "I love you so very much." Then the truth came: "I didn't really want to go to the bookstore, in fact I knew it was going to be closed. I wanted to bring you to the temple though, and so I am glad you suggested it." and then he got down on one knee, held out a box with a stunning ring and asked, "Will you marry me?... I want you to be my wife" I had a huge smile on my face and was shocked- not at the question, but at the ring (it was eye capturing)- and then I said, "Yes". He got up and I looked at the box and said, "that's a pretty box" which Brian thinks is comical that I mentioned the box and not the ring. I looked at the ring and said, "Do I have to put it on myself?" and he put it on me and I kissed him. The funny thing about smiling a lot and really big, is it's really hard to kiss someone. It was one of those happy blissful kisses. He told me that he wanted to propose at the temple because that is where he wants our relationship to be centered and built off. It was perfect.

We walked back to the car and said, "7:41" and I thought, 'you know what time you proposed to me?' and then he continued, "is when the sun sets in Spokane". He planned that whole thing! It was perfect, He's amazing. After our night, we had returned home and watched an episode of Commander and Chief with Amanda who was babysitting for us that night.

When Amanda and I got home, she wanted to take a picture of me because she said I looked "hot". so here I am:

and here's a picture of the ring:

It's absolutely brilliant. I woke up at 6:00 this morning and couldn't get to sleep because I was so excited. I kept on thinking, "I'm engaged, I'm engaged" Then around 6:30, I texted Brian, and then I waited for a couple more minutes and I went into Amanda's room who was half asleep and I kept saying, "it sparkles.... I'm engaged..... I'm going to marry Brian- and I have proof." For the last couple of weeks when I would say "I'm going to marry Brian," Amanda would always say, "prove it" and I couldn't, but now I can. this deserves a big smile because I am so excited.

I'll Cast All My Cares Upon You

I’m at a point in my life where I don’t know exactly what the Lord wants with me. I have so many options in front of me. I haven’t been the best at reading my scriptures or saying my personal prayers on a regular basis so I have a new plan of scripture study. Last week was ward conference and the week before, we were challenged to read Moroni 10 every night. I didn’t read it every night, but I read it a couple of times. Then during combined relief society and priesthood, we shared our treasures that we had found in our studies. It was a really cool experience. As I’m up here at the cabin, I’ve been reading my scriptures a bit and sitting and pondering and an idea that President Lee shared with us popped into my head. The quote is “Studying a segment of the scriptures for an extended period of time is like attending the temple, where we study the doctrines of the temple over and over, for the rest of our lives.” The last couple of days I have been wishing I could go to the temple to receive revelation and be closer to Heavenly Father but then I thought of this quote and I thought that if I study a segment of the scriptures and get into the habit of making the scriptures a bigger part of my life it will give me greater faith to receive the revelation I need in order to follow what the Lord has planned for me.

Side note: Remember in the Doctrine and Covenants when Heavenly Father chastises the church for not using the scriptures more and so in return they weren’t ready for more information? I guess that’s kind of like that, I need to better utilize the tools I have before I receive more in the temple.

This week I have decided to study Mosiah 2, because I like King Benjamin, he tells me how to be happy. Would you like to know some of my findings so far? If you want, you can read the chapter too and post your treasures as a comment, but if you don’t want to I understand because some of my jewels of revelation can be too personal for me to share. I’m really excited for my little “project”- it’s like a journey through the scriptures, to know the doctrine and stories better for my profit and learning.

In vs. 9 it says “I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me…” After reading that, I thought how simple that is and how I have looked over that in the past, but when I have thought about that phrase I remembered all the general conferences and stake conferences that I went to be spiritually edified and I learned great things but then I didn’t apply them, or maybe I didn’t listen with the spirit as much as I should have. Mosiah 2 is where King Benjamin calls his people for a stake conference to give him his last words of counsel.

Vs 14 I have always read that and thought “Cool! The king has labored along with his people” but if you look at how the sentence is phrase it continues to show the reasons and benefits of King Benjamin’s actions: “that (1) I might serve you, and (2) that ye should not be laden with taxes, and (3) that there should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne”-which makes sense because if you’re the king and working beside you people, you’re not going to make them do something that you would not be able to do yourself. King Benjamin was a smart man.

In vs 17 (scripture mastery) the word wisdom reminded me of a couple of weeks ago when Brian and I were having scripture study with the kids and we read this verse. He related finding wisdom to the Super Mario Galaxy video game that they had been playing: In the game you have to find all 5 pieces of the star to pass the level, SO Brian told the kids that finding wisdom is like finding the pieces of the star all throughout the scriptures. It was really cool and so I wanted to mark it in my scriptures so I knew that was a piece of wisdom.

In Vs 34 it says to “render to him all that you have and are”. He says this after he goes through the explanation that we will always be indebted to our Heavenly Father, but we need to give him all of ourselves because it is the only thing that we can give.

There’s more but I’ll skip to the last vs 41. I’ve always liked this verse, which is the reason why I chose this chapter to start with. It’s so clear and simple of how we can be happy. Obey the commandments and you will blessed, hold faithful to the end and you will be received in heaven- It’s never ending happiness.

Now here comes the Reading Rainbow challenge….But don’t take my word for it…Budum bum!

Brian has a cd of “God songs” that the kids like to listen to along with the primary cds and it has a song that’s been going through my mind all day, it goes like this:

I’ll cast all my cares upon you.

I’ll lay all of my burdens down at your feet

Any time I don’t know what to do

I will cast all my cares upon you.

I firmly believe that in this difficult decision time in my life that if I cast all my cares upon the Lord that He will straighten them out and help me know what it is he has in store for me in my life. I know this to be true, now I’m just taking that leap of faith to do my part so I can hear His voice more clearly.