Real Men Wear Skirts

Today Bunny announced to the entire Primary, Stake Primary Presidency and the Stake President, himself, that her daddy, in fact, wears a skirt....we ought to teach her that those kinds of skirts are called kilts.

An Attitude of Gratitude....

Many great men and women have given sermons encouraging the cultivation of an attitude of gratitude. I've had every intention of elaborating on this very subject all weekend, but unfortunately, events of the past few days have left me feeling grumpy and a little more like Ebeneezer Scrooge than I'd like to admit. It is now when I probably most need to count my blessings and express my gratitude to all my loved ones....so buckle up all of you, you know how I gush and quite frankly, since I'm a little grumpy I'm going to be cheerful about being grumpy and unapologetic about gushing...

I am grateful that even with all my many flaws, my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ still love me. I have so many lessons to learn still and I'm so grateful for the patience God shows me. I'm grateful for my religious beliefs, for the direction it gives and the fear it erases.

I'm grateful for my husband, affectionately known as He-Man on this blog. Interestingly, I just rediscovered our He-Man/ She-Ra Christmas special on DVD. This is actually a movie. I'm totally serious. Anyway, I digress, I sat down and watched a few minutes with my fascinated little girls (They both want to be She-Ra, fly on a Swift Wind the Pegasus and stomp on Skeletor's foot). I noticed something that I may get beat up for. He-Man is kind of a sissy. My He-Man could soooooo beat up the cartoon He-Man. Plus, I betcha he would look better in a loin cloth too.

I'm grateful for my sweet daughters. Growing up, I could never polish the toes of my very manly brothers. I only got away with dressing my brother, Joey, up in a dress once... Even then, it cost me $50 and my favorite dress. Nor was I ever allowed to play Barbies with them. These little girls let me do all of that and love it! They bring sunshine to my morning and give me strength when I'm at my weakest. They remind me of what's important and have taught me to live life in the moment.

I'm grateful for my family. I'm grateful to be half hippie, half straight-lace, to have the most amazing brothers, built-in best friends/sisters-in-law and in-law parents, grandparents (some of whom actually carry around dearly departed great-grandmas in boxes), aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.

I'm grateful for Oregon. It brought me cherished friends, Kirstin, Jen, Michelle, Carina, Chrissy and Jarrod, Jorgan, Shelley, Dedra. It brought us berries, Saturday Market, knowledge of how to pronounce 'Willamette', and put a lot of green in our step.

I'm grateful for Dugway. I'm extremely grateful that we don't still live there. It was a great place to grow up and has afforded me lifelong friendships with men and women who have become so much, who have embraced their potentials and have allowed their lights to shine, Heather, Kelley, Mel, Mary Ann, Laura, Jamie, Carey, Eric, Erin, Diana, Jeffrey.

I'm grateful that Chrissy and Jarrod are having a baby girl. They went through so much to get to this point, shed so many tears. Words can't express the elation that this hope is coming true for them.

I'm grateful for my calling in Primary. I'm so grateful that I work with three incredible women who feed my soul, make me laugh and appreciate my quirky sense of humor. Tricia, Marianne and Christine, my friends I admired from a distance until we were pulled together, will always mean the world to me.

I'm grateful for Carol and that hardly a day goes by when we don't talk to each other, laugh at each other's experiences, share Jamba Juice or help each other with the girls. I'm grateful that I'm surrounded by beautiful neighbors/friends on every side, Deanna, Becky, Carol again, Joanna, Ruth, Serena.
I'm grateful for our adopted brother and sister, Eric and Abby, who we will clobber at Mille Borne when we play again.

I'm grateful for my ability to run, to feel the wind in my face and for legs that keep me going.

I'm grateful for getting a full night's sleep for the past six nights and that Bunny's hasn't awakened sreaming in pain.

I'm grateful that so far, there has been no sign of food borne illnesses since we ate our Thanksgiving turkey 4 hours ago...

I'm grateful that my kids are funny, that Bunny knows how to tell a joke, Sunshine can make hilarious faces and our sweet, little one and a half year old, Button Nose can leave a room in stitches by dumping a bowl of food on her head, sticking her finger in her nose or her latest, tooting (not from her mouth) on command (she thinks it's the funniest thing she's ever done).

I'm grateful for our gaurdian angels, Jeanette and Jeanie who have shared so much of themselves with us and have shown us the true meaning of charity and unconditional love.

Although they count as family and have already been mentioned, I'm grateful for my Jamie and my Heather. I'm grateful that we get to raise our families together, nuture our husbands together, share the same last name and populate the world with little web-toed, neandrathal fore-headed, kilt wearing, gorgeous looking children.

I'm grateful that I cry whenever I watch "Enchanted", hear Hampton the Hamster or see those inspiration billboards on the freeway. My family can do incredible things too!!

I guess I'm grateful for more that I have blog space for plus, I'm getting really tired. :)

Itchies, twitchies and ugly rashes...

Many of you know our sweet, wonderful second child affectionately known as 'Bunny' on this blog. What you may not know is she's had HORRIBLE eczema since she was about 3 months old. During particularly aggressive flare-ups, it will get hot, itch and bleed. Her body usually has random patches of dry, itchy skin but recently the area affected the most is where she wears her pull-up at night.

We enrolled her in a study which required us to document her eczema and record how often we apply medicine and moisturizers. It's been a good, educational experience and has taught us a lot about how to help her. About a month ago, I was informed the study is ending because they aren't getting the results they were hoping for. Upon closing her case, she was given a blood test.

We receiveed the results about two weeks ago. As I understand it, IGEs are a specific unit of measuring allergic response in the human body. Normally, a person without allergies has between 1 and 33 IGEs. Bunny's blood measured 298! I find this a bit disconcerting although I have no idea what it means. Her blood was also tested for allergic responses to eggs, wheat (which would make since because of my allergy), dairy, fish/shellfish, dust, nuts, etc.-all the usual suspects. All came back negative. This basically means her immune system is going berzerk. Something internally or externally is causing her blood to fight againt itself.

We have tried everything we could think of: elimination diets, vats of lotion, taking away all perfumes and scented soaps, among other things. Our latest effort has been to potty train Bunny at night. I found some old training pants in our rubbermaids of girl clothes and started about a week ago. We take her to the bathroom at about 11:00 and hope that by 7:00 she's still dry. We've had 2 dry nights. In the meantime, I feel like I've done about a bazillion loads of laundry.

Adding to the laundry pile when Bunny wets the bed, she comes to sleep with He-Man and I. Lately, we've been so tired that niether of us notices she's there until the morning and we need to change our own sheets. This morning, not only were the sheets wet, but so were we. She's trying so hard to keep her bed and sheets dry.

Does anyone have any ideas for eczema? Bed wetting? I would love some advice!

Walking Down Memory Lane...Part II (an unabashed, ebarrassing glimpse into my past)

I, being of a sound but completely freakishly over-organized mind, pilfered through my memory boxes a few weeks ago. I was stunned at what I found. I went on a journey through time, as it were, to discover that I have indeed, come a long way, baby!

Exhibit A: A Kmart ad saved from the day I was born. Wow! Who knew how NOT sexy a horizontal striped tank top and trousers up to a man's nipples would be 30 years later? (I'd like to hope I would have) Also, there are black socks for 68 cents!! Pretty darn cheap, huh?! Too bad I limit my husband's use of black socks...

He-Man and I made a pact with each other when we got married...He is allowed only to wear black socks with his suits or the dress slacks he wears to work. Under no uncertain terms is he allowed to wear black socks with shorts or jeans, pajamas or sports gear. This stems from a traumatizing image from my childhood, burned into my brain, of a very old man in his undies and black socks with garter belts around his calves. Right now, if I close my eyes for too long, I'll give myself nightmares....In return I vowed to never wear a bikini if I weighed over 400 pounds (stemming from a traumatizing memory from his mission).

Exhibits B: One of my favorite 'stuffed-up friends'. Perhaps becoming a completely, over-the-top, all frills, girlie girl was not entirely environmental. This was one of my first animals so maybe this confirms that I was born overtly girlie. Notice the use of permanent eyeshadow in the form of bright pink nail polish and of course, the lip stick. Maybe that's why we didn't own a real cat!! Now that's wisdom on the part of my parents.





Bunny so generously offered to model my favorite dress for this picture. I remember feeling like a movie star in this thing. I wore it to first grade at least twice a week before it's retirement. Of course, the shoes were stunning too. I chose a good soled tennis shoe that I could run in, while chasing boys.













Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but there was a time...I actually found this stuffed in my stocking on Christmas morning one year. My brothers were snickering and trying to steal it to make a boomerang and my mom was tearing up and saying something about how her little girl was "becoming a young woman".

Exhibit C: My treasured Barbie magazine. During the summer of 1986, I carried this everywhere. I read it over and over. I wanted to be Barbie on that deserted island, with the erupting volcano, saved by Helicopter Ken, in her fabulous multi-colored bathing suit. The last page of the magazine is a mail-in order for like 1,001 jelly bracelets. the girls on the advertisement were wearing 999 of them. I wanted those bracelets soooooo bad because I was convinced my arms were long enough to wear all 1,001.













Exhibit D: 3 years later, Johnny Depp and Corey Haim were my HEROS and I wanted to be Debbie Gibson (Johnny Depp was my secret hero though, because I wasn't allowed to watch 21 Jump Street). I coveted my friend, Julie's, New Kids on the Block paraphernalia and I stole my mom's bright blue eye shadow to wear at school.


















Exhibit E: What do you get when you leave a perm in already naturally curly hair 30 minutes too long? Answer, my eighth grade year and a rat tail (Please don't hate me!!) I would have forgotten this misfortune had my mom's best friend not decided to cut my hair to resemble the back side of a duck a year later. Considering that was my ninth grade year, it was cruel and unusual punishment. The lady was never allowed to touch my hair again after that.



Exhibit F: A picture from my first overnight girl's camp experience. Since I haven't gotten permission to list the names of the girls in this picture, they will remain nameless.













Exhibit G: The reason my smile doesn't currently scare small children.
These totally grossed He-Man out. I actually relented and threw them away right after this picture was taken. Notice part of the retainer is missing. It was eaten by the dearly departed Cocker Spaniel, Cinnamon as revenge for forgetting to take her outside for four days while her family was on vacation.

Exhibit H: My very favorite shirts from high school. Evidence that having a tasteful sense of fashion doesn't always come easy. Notice the brands? Gitanoe and Bonjour...yikes! And I thought I was high courtier with those!

Instant poll: What do I do with these? Should I keep 'em? Burn 'em? Donate them to science?




Exhibit I: My best high school picture. I struggled with photogenicness. It's a struggle (perhaps it was what I was wearing--see Exhibit H), but I loved this picture. And, since I was exploring memorabilia around Halloween, I tried on my cheerleading uniform from the picture and actually fit in it! Not like snugly either! Like I-can-exhale-and-inhale-comfortably! Wahoooo!












Exhibit J: Behold, the coolest, most important piece of clothing you needed to own during our high school years in Dugway....



Ready? Scroll Down...you may want to put your sunglasses on...

























Seriously. I'm not even joking.

Question: Who, on this earth, looks good in a jersey gray, intentionally enormous sweatshirt? I wanted one so badly, I swiped this from my older brothers closet since all my extra funds were spent on poms-poms, bloomers and uniforms. Unfortunately for me, I mustered up the courage to raid Peej's unmentionables AFTER I graduated and moved out of my hometown. Apparently, no one outside of Dugway understood the gloriousness of this incredibly unflattering article of clothing and considered it simply a ratty old sweatshirt. Sheeesh!! IT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE SPARKLES!!

Exhibit K: This one isn't so old. A card from our first anniversary. I still want to be Barbie. Maybe not living on a farm or, actually, maybe. I just want to look fabulous doing it.

So there you have it. Would I have taken away any one of these things to somehow, erase past faux pas? Not a chance.

Hilarious!

There will always be a special place in my heart for the Muppets. They are good, clean fun. Our friend, Eric, posted this on his opera website. I'm reduced to a fit of giggles every time I watch it.

Perhaps it's because the Swedish Chef's eyebrows are like my Daddy's. Maybe it's because Beaker's shrieking is at an Octave that makes all the dogs within a 2 mile radius howl and bark. Or maybe it's because I can relate it his sincere, out of pitch crooning.

Our choir sang this song during our senior year. I'm convinced that I sounded a lot like Beaker and probably made dogs howl, cats flee their homes to find refuge and mice scurry out of their hiding places as if fleeing for dear life from a raging inferno throughout my hometown the night of the 1994 Christmas concert....

Check it out. It will atleast make you smile!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU

And the winner is...

I held my bi-annual Scentsy party this past Thursday. It was a princess themed get-together and it turned out great. Thank you for all your support!! I have the best local and long distance friends and family a gal can ask for. (I'll keep you posted when the next one is because ya'll are always invited!)

Last month my friend, Deanna held a drawing for some 'Blog Candy' (thanks Carol for putting us in the-know on what to call it) and I won! Yahoo! I thought it would be a great opportunity to pay it forward so I decided to have a drawing of my own at the princess party.

So, with other princesses present, we drew a name from my lovely blogging super heroes. It took us three takes to film it correctly but we finally got it right. And the winner is...

Ug! The video isn't working! The winner is...
Dedra Cheney! (Can you email me your address...which would be good for a holiday letter too!)

Since one of my goals in this life is to randomly endow people with happy gifts, I plan to do this regularly. It's so much fun!

Love you all!

Trish

Walking down Memory Lane...

I truly love it when past experiences and long lost friends converge with the present. It makes me so happy because my only long term regrets in this life have been from losing contact with people I care about. Recently, my family and I have been blessed by reconnecting with long lost friends. Each experience has filled my heart with happiness because seeing them again makes us realize how much we love them...

Reconnection #1: Eric and Erin

He-Man met Eric when they were 12 years old. I met him when I was 13. Funny thing is, I met He-Man later and we owe our relationship, in part, to Eric. One thing we've both appreciated about Eric, is his loyalty. Seriously, I don't know about He-Man but I can attest to my own personal dorkiness...and he hung in there! When he met his wife Erin, the first thing we both noticed was that he was really happy. Alas, in the intervening years, school and geographical relocation found us losing contact. I always regretted not getting to know Erin better.

BUT then, Erin and I recently caught up with each other through blogging. Although we hadn't had much of an opportunity to get to know each other previously, I discovered that she is an easy person to feel a kinship with. It was quickly recognizable that she is a woman of great love, strength and compassion not to mention she has this amazing movie star hair! It was so great to get reacquainted through cyber-space. Even better, we met for dinner.

After catching up, it was like no time had past. The kids had a blast with each other and made fast friends. It was really a wonderful evening, reminding me of how I imagined the sons of Mosiah and Alma's post-mission reunion must have been (in the Book of Mormon). After years of not seeing each other, Alma and his friends reunited. Adding so much to their joy was that they were filled with goodness and could share in joy and the love they felt for their Savior.

It's a wonderful thing to see the people you care about so incredibly happy, making life together meaningful and joyous. To see someone with their absolute match, complimenting each other in the very best ways has got to be one of the most beautiful things to behold in this life.

The hours past too quickly and it was time for them to go home. (Early school hopefully wasn't too tricky after that late night) Lucky for us, we are holding one of their books hostage so we're going to have to meet up sometime soon for the trade-off. :)

Check out these darling pirate children and their funny little pirate faces...
















Reconnection #2: Diana (one of my best friends in high school)

Diana and I met in the seventh grade. I thought she was the coolest kid in school. Not because of her fabulous fashion sense or her witty sense of humor (although that helped) but because she was one of the sincerest people I'd ever met. She had a way, even when we were young, to be fair and good to others around her. I quickly learned that she got this gift from her parents, who are people who have no idea how remarkable they really are.

Last weekend I finally had an opportunity to visit my hometown for Diana's son's birthday party. Walking through the front door gave me that old, familiar feeling of being among cherished loved ones.

Catching up was wonderful. She's discovered a new talent in her life as a yoga instructor and will do well by incorporating it with her gift to heal others. I was sad to hear about some of the obstacles she's recently had to face but proud of her for rising above it, proving her strength of spirit. There is still a goodness in her eyes. It just reminded me that true friends, no matter how far or how long they are apart, will always be connected.

Reconnection #3: Beverly and Boyd

As I drove home, I decided I was going to attempt to track down our old seminary teacher. She and her husband served a mission for the LDS church in Australia years back and with our move, I lost contact. I didn't hear much about them until my sister-in-law in Japan got their phone number. Funny thing, I had to call JAPAN to get a local number!

Beverly and Boyd meant a lot to me in high school even though I had no idea just how much until they were far away. We spoke briefly on the phone and even planned to visit when we were in their town in July, but we just couldn't work it out.

But, I finally had the opportunity to attempt a quick visit. I drove around, a little lost for about a half an hour. It was almost 9:00 Sunday morning and I saw signs of people loading up in cars for church. I finally stopped and asked someone for directions. Turns out, they were neighbors and I was only a few feet away.

I pulled into their driveway just as they were pulling out. I couldn't help it, I put my car in park and jumped out to see them. They got out of their car too and we spent a few moments hugging and catching up. I can't explain it because I was overcome with emotion but there is something so incredible about seeing someone who has impacted your life so positively after such a long time. They are just as beautiful as I remember them. Bev still laughs that wonderful laugh of hers and Boyd still has that twinkle in his eyes.

These experiences have just reminded me of how interconnected we are. No matter where our adventures lead us. No matter how much time we spend away, we will always have friends and loved ones, somewhere, who care about us...and isn't that a wonderful thing?!

Tonight's the night...

Tonight is my Princess Boutique! I will be selling Scentsy, Flutterbugs, homemade chocolate truffles and those fabulous little bath beads. My friends will be setting up and selling booths with hair bows and vinyl lettering and home decor.

We will be munching on veggies and hummus, cupcakes, brownies and sipping Bubble Tea.

I will also be drawing a name of my beauteous blogging friends to win a care package of bath beads. I will keep you posted...wish me luck!