An early Christmas Present

I've been meaning to post this for a month now and just haven't gotten the pictures taken until today as I'm putting them away. When Kent's parents came for a visit in September, they brought an early Christmas present with them. It was a set dishes for 12 people including the plate, salad plates, and bowls. So the dishes sat on my highest shelf in the kitchen, just waiting for the time to be used. It kind of reminds me of Corduroy the little bear sitting on the shelf forever until the little girl buys him.

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we invited our friends, the Hinckleys, over for dinner and we finally brought down the Christmas dishes. After I had brought them out, I just felt festive! We hadn't planned it, but we decided to bring out the nativity as well and have Family night with them and then we sang Christmas Carols. I even brought out my dusty flute because I rarely have someone that can accompany me! I was rather rusty, but we had a good time anyway. Katrina even sang with us a little, even though she said it was too early for Christmas carols.

Before the evening was over, we had to play a game of Settler's with them. It's quickly becoming our family's game for any get together. So now after a wonderful month of using these dishes it's about time to put them away. I've been gathering them up as they come out of the dishwasher. It makes me kind of sad. I never would have spent the money on something like this for myself. But it is truly something that I have enjoyed so much, and I look forward to using them next year. The great thing is, not one of them got broken!

Online Education

I wonder what is like to have an online education? How do you pick the university or college that you want to go to? How do you know the online education programs are accredited or simply a scam?

I have thought about enrolling online with a university and working slowly toward a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy or something similar like social work. Kent and I have talked about working together in our own clinic one day and I don't want to just be an administrative assistant! If I did want to start, it would have to be some kind of distance learning because the university here doesn't offer any degrees in the field I need, unless I want to go into another education degree.

I have heard of a website and it matches you with all kinds of universities and colleges with the type of program you are interested in. For me the most useful thing is that they have a list of accredited programs. Kent and I have seen how difficult it can be for others that attended programs that weren't accredited. They can't even take various positions in the Federal Gov't! It seems to be a very useful tool...

A new idea I've been playing with

I've been thinking about doing some blogging for extra income. I found out you can just do posts on your own blog and then they pay you for it. It can be like 5 bucks for a post or up 25. The main company I've heard of is Pay Per Post. It sounds simple enough and it's stuff I like doing anyway. You can also do it on the advertising side. If you want people to blog for you, you can set the guidelines, such as it can't be an obvious advertisement and so forth.
Any of you heard of this?
Would you do it with your family blog?
Do you hate reading people's blogs that have paid blogging?
Or do you just ignore the posts and go on?
Let me know what you think....
If you want to see what it's about I have the link on the sidebar.

I started a new blog

I've started a new homeschooling blog, to kind of keep track of what is working for our family and the inventive ideas we use to corral our young'ns.

For those of you that remember our bean jar idea, we have finessed it a little and have found it to be even more effective. We've also switched to those decorative marbles that are flat on one side. They are prettier than Lima beans :-D We also have papier mached the jars. I haven't painted them yet, because it's too freakin' cold in MT to stay out there long enough to paint them! Will paint even dry in subzero temps?

Anyway, if you want to take a gander here is the link... What was I thinking - Homeschooling? The latest post is about the bean jars.

The kids had to post both dances, the country is my favorite

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

And a special thanks to Heather and Sarah! We loved their dances so much we had to do our own :-)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ode to Facebook - OK not a real ode but at least a devoted post!

I can't believe I've taken this long to get a Facebook account. I finally signed up when a dear friend of mine from Hungary invited me to open one. I've had other invites, but always put it on the back burner. But because it took so many years to get in touch with Gica (love you, girl!) I knew I had to sign up to keep in better touch.

Now after, oh, I don't know, a week. I have FRIENDS! Who knew? OK, half of them are family, but still I'm so glad to just chat with everyone and seeing us all grown up - some with a kid or two (and some with lots)! Has it been so long since high school? Since college? Since my mission? Since leaving St. George? I guess it has been! I'm so happy to see a glimpse of the awesome people that have influenced my life over the years.
Just a look at a few...

Amy with her kindness for everyone.
Nichol, with her happy smile.
Adam with his good heart.
Rebecca, who was always so happy and bouncy.
Holly, who always treats me like I'm her favorite friend!
Jenny, who when we chat it seems like we are still Jenny's From the Block!
My cousin Gavin, who always made me laugh and feel good about myself.
Lisa from Idaho Falls, who was always up for doing something fun!
Monica, who invited me to that Lake Powell trip that is one of the best memories ever!
Janet, who could always bust out in a some song that fit the situation you were in. The Pickles who are some of the sweetest people I know and I'm lucky to be related to!
And not to mention all my bloggy friends that let me have an even more in depth peek into their lives!
I could go on and on, but I just want to say thanks to all my "friends" for the examples that they've given me through the years and I hope to learn a lot from in the years to come :-) Thanks, Facebook!

(You're right Sarah, it is another time waster, but I can't keep away!)

OK, so I thought it was a little chilly yesterday.... Now I know better.

Right Now for
Havre, MT

Clear
-24°F
Feels Like
-45°F
Updated Dec 14 05:05 p.m. MT

UV Index: 0 Low
Wind: From SW at 10 mph
Humidity: 59%
Pressure: 30.40 in.
Dew Point: -32°F
Visibility: 10.0 miles

Nice Weather We're having - How about your neck of the woods?

Right Now for
Havre, MT (59501)


Light Snow and Windy
-6°F
Feels Like
-30°F
Updated Dec 13 12:45 p.m. MT


UV Index: 0 Low
Wind: From NNW at 21 mph
Humidity: 76%
Pressure: 29.98 in.
Dew Point: -11°F
Visibility: 0.8 miles

Blizzard Warning for Havre, MT (59501)

This is exactly what I needed to hear today!

What LDS (Mormon) leaders REALLY teach.

A thought

Nana Carol, Kayleen and the kids on Halloween

So this thought has been going around in my head since my visiting teacher shared it with me a few weeks ago. For those that don't know what a visiting teacher is...in our church we, as women, are given assignments to visit each month (if possible) certain sisters. They become women that are friends and are there to help when you need it. It's just a way of making sure people have what they need, be it monetarily, spiritually, in times of illness, in friendship, etc. Well, one of my visiting teachers is Nana Carol. She is a cousin to Kent's grandma and she was one of the first people that we met in Havre (as well as Kayleen, her daughter, and Jeff, the mighty hunter). She is our adoptive grandma here and we just love her.

Each month we are asked to share some spiritual thought with the women we visit and Carol shared this with me. She says she has it written on a little notepad by her sink.

"Why do we do the things we do, when we know the things we know."

It's just sounded like a quote from someone. Well, I can't find it online anywhere so I think it's a Nana Carol original. I just can't get it out of my head. How many times do I say I don't have time to do something, when I really know that I do and I spend my time unwisely. Why don't I learn that about myself and overcome it? I know I have the ability to change my habits...Why do I continue to make the choice (because it is a conscious choice) to not make the change?

Jesus Christ

I just found this on a blog I follow and I had to share it.

Jesus Christ the Savior of us all. I am so thankful for His love and sacrifice for me.