Ode to Punk

The Easter Bunny brought Mercedes a hair streaking kit and while I was making dinner, Mercedes streaked her own hair while Scott gave Aspen a new do.

I Have Been Tagged

Cristina tagged me so here it is:

TEN YEARS AGO -

1. Got engaged, planned a wedding and then got married in the Timpanogos Temple- Yes it's been 10 years!

2. I was getting through classes during my 3rd year at BYU in Health Promotion.

3. Conquered The Porcupine Rim mountain biking trail in Moab with virtually unusable front suspension only and came out with only a few minor injuries. I did get so mad at one point on the trail I chucked my bike off a 20 foot cliff and then had to go retrieve it.

4. Locked myself out of my Chevy Corsica twice in the same week. Once after a night class at BYU, the second time when I went to visit Scott at work after I'd been skiing solo at Sundance all day.

5. I was working in the Risk Management Dept. at BYU - I got to teach Van Driving and Forklift classes among other things.

THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST TODAY

1. Finish this tag.

2. Organize Mercedes room - it's a disaster.

3. Volunteer in Mercedes Kindergarten class and hopefully keep Aspen from eating crayons.

4. Master a new Pilates exercise.

5. Keep Aspen fed - it's nearly impossible to keep that girl full and she's only in the 5th percentile for height and the 10th for weight! She toddles around saying "Bi, Bi" which means she wants a 'bite' of food.

THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE SUDDENLY MADE A BILLIONAIRE

1. Buy a house with a yard so Scott and the kids have a place to play.

2. Buy Scott a Bell and Ross, a Zenith, a Hamilton and whatever else his little watch obsessed heart desired.

3. Put a ton into savings and give a bunch to the Huntsman Cancer Institute - they did save my life more than once!

4. Go on a trip to Mexico or the Bahamas so Mercedes could swim with the dolpins as much as she wanted.

5. Go the the ACSM Summit and IDEA World.

BAD HABITS

1. Picking at my nails when I'm bored or stressed - I've already regrettably passed this on to Mercedes.

2. Spending way too much time searching random and unimportant topics on the internet.

3. Being an impatient tyrant.

4. Ignoring my home and family when I get involved in a good book.

5. Pulling out my hair

PLACES I HAVE LIVED.

1. Dillon, MT - born and raised

2. Provo, UT - while going to college

3. St. George, UT - the post college early marriage adventure years and where Mercedes was born - then Sandy & Lehi, UT (for medical treatment)

4. Mission Viejo, CA - loved it!

5. Cedar Hills, UT - currently

JOBS I HAVE NOW OR HAVE HAD

1. Dusted furniture at the Dilmart (my Dad's business), delivered flowers, made sandwiches at Subway (all during highschool)

2. Around the Clock Answering Service and Claims Assistant at BYU during college

3. Personal Trainer at Ufit

4. Personal Trainer/Fitness Instructor at Red Mountain Resort

5. Current Title - Mom!

THINGS PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME

1. Scott does almost all my shopping (shoes and clothes) for me

2. When I was pregnant with Mercedes I kept rockclimbing until I was 8 1/2 months pregnant. (see picture below, but please avoid the large pregnancy induced back side)

3. I almost died; a few times.

4. I grew up on a ranch.

5. I respond to stress with anger

THINGS THAT MAKE MY LIFE SUPERFABULOUS RIGHT NOW

1. Being alive and fully functional!

2. Scott, Mercedes and Aspen

3. My Parents and Sisters

4. The Gospel

5. Freedom

oh, and Ebay!

Free Books?!

So I found this cool website; www.dailylit.com, where you can read books for free - like Pride and Prejudice, The Count of Monte Cristo, etc. Newer books they charge for - but alot of the classics are free.

The Rollover

This is my current favorite Pilates exercise - and no the picture is not me. It's called the Advanced Rollover.

Instructions
Difficulty: Moderate
Step 1:Lie face up on your Pilates mat. Stretch your legs to the ceiling as if you are trying to touch it with your toes. Extend your arms diagonally while pressing them into the floor.
Step 2:Use your abdominal muscles to pull your tailbone up from the floor. Don't use momentum. This is an abdominal exercise and it will defeat the purpose of the movement. As you lift your tailbone up, your legs should continue over your head in to a plow position.
Step 3:Hold the plow position and try to touch your toes to the floor. Don't support yourself with your hands. Your abdominal muscles should be the only thing supporting you.
Step 4:Come down slowly from the plow in a controlled motion. Use your abdominal muscles to pull your feet away from your head once your hips touch down.
Step 5:Lower slowly until your legs are parallel with the floor or until your back begins to arch. Pull your hips back up to repeat the Rollover Pilates exercise 3 more times.

Big Girl

Mercedes said to me a little bit ago, "I'm ready for first grade now; want to know why?" So I asked why. "Because I lost a tooth!" Yes, today was the day. She's been asking me for days to pull out her tooth but I couldn't get myself to yank that little thing out of her precious mouth (plus I didn't want to face the wailing aftermath yet). But tonight she couldn't take it anymore, so used a napkin to keep it dry and it popped right out. I told her that my Dad would pull mine out with pliers and several times she's gone out to the tool box and come back in with pliers.

We had a discussion when she was 3 about how our baby teeth fall out and we get grownup teeth. A couple of days later I was pulling her behind me in the bike trailer and she said, "Mommy, when I get bigger, will my little legs fall off and I'll grow big grownup legs?" I tried not to laugh hysterically because she was asking in all seriousness, so I answered her seriously and then laughed to myself the entire way home.

My big girl is losing her baby teeth while my baby girl is getting hers.

I Love Your Smile

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. I LOVE YOUR SMILE
Thich Nhat Hanh

The Refiner's Fire

Sometimes I need to be reminded that life isn't meant to be easy, but there is a purpose for our trials. Shortly after I finished my chemo, I compiled my journal, put it into book format, and gave it to my family members for Christmas. At the beginning of each chapter I put a quote or scripture that had special meaning to me. Here's one of my favorites that I needed to read again:

The following story is a great example of how the Lord teaches and molds us through life's trials.
There was a group of women in a Bible study on the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." (Malachi 3:3) This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study. That week this woman called up a silver smith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silver smith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot--then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.
She asked the silver smith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silver smith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy--when I see my image in it."
If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has His eye on you.

Author unknown