3 Docs

We went to 3 doctors on Tuesday.
Monson and I went to the dermatologists for mole and skin issues.
Truman went to the Dentist for wisdom teeth and canker issues.
Then at 5:00 that night -- Laila said, "Mom, look at the weird stuff on my tongue." I screamed as I gazed at the large red bumps on the back of her white tongue.
We raced to First Med and found out that she has major Strep....

We went to 3 doctors in one day! What is up with that. This is not planned into my monthly budget. These equal 4 co-pays and $160.00 in prescriptions, add Wayne's bills and Laila's bills and Landon's bills to that, and ..... and all I can say, is thank goodness for Insurance.

Insurance is my friend.
I pay a little bit at the beginning and a little bit more in the middle, then my insurance kicks in and pays the rest.

I wish there was other insurances in life, like Food Insurance or Diet Insurance.
I eat this now, and even though I eat the rest, someone else gets to have the calories.

I Know I'm always reaching for a food or fat analogy....but it would work. All those people starving in Africa can have some of my extra calories and poundages that I don't want to pay for.

The problem is...I'm always searching for analogies as an excuse for not doing what I know I should be doing. MODERATION and EXERCISE.

3 docs in one day....

My Foodie Friend

My foodie friend has a birthday next week, and we went to lunch to celebrate it this week, since I'll be in Asia. ... sounding like a world traveler makes me so happy.

I love this woman-- I have won the friend lottery and she is in the POT.

Reasons why I love SI

She knows her way around a kitchen!!
I love her eccentricities with germs and with food places. Where she will and will not eat is fascinating.
She knows how to do everything just "so." (Except she doesn't sew....interesting?)
She is a huge U of U fan and wears red the entire week before a big home game.
She makes the best dinners. There is always a loud cheer from my boys when Si brings the food, or when we get the occasional invite to her home.
I love her recipe blog-- it inspires and infuriates me all at the same time.
I love how she tells a story.
She has a great memory for details.
She has self control...Si can actually order a decadent tiramisu and only eat a few bites, "because it's too rich" and save the rest for later.
She is a giver-- time, talents and food.
She has amazing patience and grace with her children and with the G-man.
She is spiritual and has a strong testimony of the gospel.- she is my tissue supplier for the "weepy" Sunday meetings.
I love how she dresses--she looks great in Black. (seriously)
She knows how to eat all day long and still stay thin. ( This is a mystery to me.)
Si puts up with my weirdness and even laughs at what I say.

So, while SI is celebrating her "Holy Holidays"-- Thanksgiving and Birthday combined,
I'll take a moment of silence and pray and say "thanks for great friends," then I'll eat something weird in her honor.

Sun worshiper

Went to the Dermatologist today to have a hard crusty mole on my chest and a weird wart something on the side of my nose checked out-- taken off to be exact. Both appear to be skin cancer--- what? Skin Cancer. That cancer word conjures up all sorts of scary images.
The Doc said it was good I came in when I did. Biopsies will tell us more. Stay out of the sun.

I love the sun.
I'm not a sun worshiper-- but I love the sun.

I'm not a lay-in-the-sun-with-baby-oil- on-my-body-holding-a-piece-of-tin-foil-gal -- but I love the sun.
I love to be warm.
I love getting into a stifling hot car.
Summer is my favorite time of year.
My birthday is in July.
I love closing my eyes and turning to the sun and letting it warm my eye lids . (I love the orangey colors it produces in my head.)
I love swimming and being around a swimming pool.
I love weeks spent outside in Bear Lake and Lake Powell.
I love Beach vacations and Cruises.
I think you are probably getting how much I love the sun......
So just thinking about the "staying out of the sun" directive by my Doc., is kil-ling me.

It's so interesting how past choices affect current situations.
Past sun choices make it so I have parts of my body cut out.
Past food choices make it so I have parts of my body chub out.

The sun isn't all bad-- being in the sun in moderation and sun screen will help out a lot.
Food isn't all bad either-- eating in moderation and not having food be my dr- ug of choice will help a lot, too.

The choice is up to me.

Early Thanksgiving

Our China buds had Thanksgiving dinner yesterday for their families. They didn't want to miss out on Thanksgiving while in China, and have their children all sad-- so they did it early. We did not. Thank goodness I have an extended family that will take care of it for me, while I'm away having fish heads and scorpion on a stick.

(My kids weren't too sad to hear that we wouldn't be here for Thanksgiving because we told them we were going to China over Christmas, which caused a big hallabaloo-- so when we said, "Just joking, we are going over Thanksgiving instead," they didn't complain too much.)

We are having Thanksgiving tonight -- which means leftovers at Belnap's , so I get my Thanksgiving dinner after all, by default.

I love Thanksgiving.

I love the pie part ( of course) and the grateful part and the food part.
In the spirit of the season.....
Here is my SICK OF CHUB THANKFUL list:
1. I'm thankful I don't have to make Thanksgiving dinner-- no 60 pounds of mashed potatoes this year.
2. I'm thankful I've only gained back 3 pounds.....okay 4, but who's counting, since September.
3. I'm thankful I have my Wayne who keeps me on track with my crazy "bribes."
4. I'm thankful for my kitchen. I don't have to cook in it, because it's not remodeled-- and it's not remodeled because I haven't lost my final pounds, and I'm not losing my final pounds because I don't like to cook. Circular reasoning is great!
5. I'm thankful for....legs to walk, and arms to wave and a face that yawns, and a body that moves and choreographs.... and sleeps.
6. I'm thankful for my computer that I can get on and blog to my hearts content.
7. I'm thankful Laila is doing great-- and is almost back to "normal."( this is a relative term-- and none of her relatives are normal.)
8. I'm thankful for my sweet life.
9. I'm thankful for chocolate.
10. I'm thankful.

I'm off to have my left over helpings of turkey and yams. I'll be thinking of you all next Thursday. BE THANKFUL!

Extrinsic Rewards

I fear I've rained on my weight-woed blogger chicka's parade.

She is trying to be extrinsically motivated, by setting the self-bribe of getting a lap top if she loses her final 25 lbs.
It sounds great!
I'm excited for her if it works, but I know from my past experiences that this doesn't work for me.
Oh, I've promised myself all kinds of things; trips, outfits, massages, pedicures. Then I find that I just go on trips, buy outfits, have massages and get pedicures whether I lose weight or not. I even had Wayne bribe me with a kitchen remodel last year if my scale showed 140 pounds by January.
I still don't have a new kitchen.......hmmmm??
Why can't I do it?
I get all excited for about 20 days, then just wear out. Then, I get mad at Wayne for even suggesting a kitchen remodel reward, when it was all my idea in the first place! I tell myself, "I deserve a new kitchen if I weigh 140 or 160!!- Why is Wayne being so rude? Can you believe him?"
Crazy town!
I hope that the reward system works for other people but it usually ends up feeling like a punishment for me.

Cooking almost killed me!

I'm reflecting on the GREAT ROAST BEEF tragedy of 2006.
What is this, you ask? Well, this could be one of the many reasons why I gave up cooking and look upon cooking in general as painful....hmmm?

I'm reminded of this tragedy because it happened in November and my friend Si spoke of it recently-- she is either psychic or psycho.
I easily forget about unpleasant experiences, hence, I went through childbirth 4 times, before I got smart and adopted. But this unpleasant time....is not easily forgotten.

Cue the spooky music and swirly tv screen as we go back in time....to 2006...

I had just returned from a fun filled weekend to NYC with friends ( Farleys and Fowers) and I was trying to be a "Mom" again and have my children love me by cooking a real Sunday dinner. I raced home from church to get my roast beef out of the oven. My house was smelling just like heaven-- I had some early Christmas tunes on....I had changed into my velour jammies and I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Afterall, I am the "Ultimate Mother of Zion" -- just look at my License Plate.

I opened the oven door, took out the big pot of roast beef with boiling hot au jus-- and kicked the oven door shut. I had done this maneuver hundreds of times. I happen to be very coordinated....but not today. Today I was tired. I hit the pan on the lip of the stove and tipped the contents of the roast beef and juice all over my thighs----- Did I tell you it was boiling hot?

I shiver in pain just thinking about this.....hence, my not thinking about painful experiences motto.

SCREAM!!!!!! SCREAM AND MORE SCREAM!!!!

ANYWAY.....

No one was home.
I had left church early. I knew I was too tired after the NYC trip, and would have slept through SS and RS anyway... so this was the searing punishment I deserved, right?

My being alone was probably a good thing-- I would have scarred my children for life had they experienced their crazy, pain-filled screaming mommy. I didn't know what to do. How to help
myself. I ran over the hot au jus to the carpet , ripped off my melted velour pants and ran up to the bath tub; filled it with cold water and knelt and screamed in the water as I tried to splash it up onto my thighs.
Anyway... my family got home from church, one ER trip, morphine, bandaids, tears, salve and knees filled with 2nd and 3rd degree burns later and I was back home. My garments saved the rest of my legs.  I have distinct garment lines on both legs right above the knee where I AM NOT BURNED.  It doesn't make any sense, except for the promise of the garment.  

I would post my burned knees pictures, but they are just gross. I had to heal and salve and scrub and drug myself for about 6 weeks before my bandaids finally came off.

I got a lot of RS dinners because of my pain.....and my house cleaned a time or two, and I had some faith-promoting experiences along the way. My knees are mostly fine but it took awhile before I wanted Roast Beef in my home again.

Can you believe the lengths I will go to, to not cook?

Grandma Butters

My Grandma is 93 years old....93! I know I've been writing a lot about age lately, but people around me keep having birthdays....what's up with that?

Anyway, she turned 93 this week.

Grandpa passed away 16 years ago and Grandma still lives alone in the home they built in the 1950's. It's a beautiful home with a swimming pool in the back yard that I have played in, all summer long, for my entire life! We always shared the greatest food around the swimming pool, especially at the 4 summer holidays: Memorial day, 4th of July, Pioneer day and Labor Day. These are the "Holy Holidays" for me, and they wouldn't be the same without Grandma and her pool.
A fond memory I have as a child, is swimming in the pool on a hot summer day and Grandma bringing out hot ,out of the oven, raisin oatmeal cookies. I recall eating as many of these as I wanted, standing in the pool with the chlorine water dripping into my mouth, mixed with the hot cookie. MMMM... it just makes me smile, even now.

My Grandma is an amazing woman. I know she had an entire life before I was born, but this is what I know about her.

Grandma has always been a great dresser! She sang in a quartet and had traveled all over the Mountain-West putting on shows. She wore sparkley, glamorous costumes. She always looked so put together with the perfect hair, makeup and jewelry. Grandma also danced with my Grandpa and did floor shows and put on dance festivals for the church. I loved watching them waltz around and laugh and gaze at each other.
I inherited these quartet/dance costumes about 20 years ago. For one of our cruises, we (Me, Karen and Christine) wore her 60 's outfits for the formal dinner time. -- it was so fun.

Grandma was choir director in her ward for over 40 years-- talk about a life time calling. She had a grand ward choir. Every seat was always filled and extra chairs added in. They would totally do productions at Easter and Christmas time. She had special lighting installed in the chapel, that was built while she was in charge, so they could do mood lighting for the programs. The choir even had individual lights that clipped on the choir music folders, so we could see to sing. I say we, because she invited me to sing in her ward choir for about 10 years. I loved singing under her. She was so expressive and a great musician. Grandma has always been a great support for my singing and drama endeavors. One of my biggest fans.

My grandma is a marvelous cook. She makes the best shredded roast beef and homemade rolls. Grandma has always loved roast beef, strawberries, ginger cream cookies and almonds-- oh, and "sweet aloha." ( Diet Pepsi) These are the foods that I relate with her. She cooked a lot when she was raising her 7 kids and 60 some odd grandkids. Now we take turns cooking for her. It really is an honor to do this. She is so appreciative and welcoming. She will even turn off her FOX news or Matlock and sit and visit.
Grandma will tell it like it is. She doesn't mince words and has an opinion about the world around her and what's happening with current events. She loves the Jazz and a good football game too.
I always wanted a daughter to name after my Grandma.... after 4 boys, I got my wish when Laila blessed our family. Laila is just as much a spitfire as the woman she is named after.

My Grandma has taught me to love-- always-- unconditionally.
People are more important than things.... and...
Gratitude is the key to a happy life.

I pray I can be as healthy and Happy as my sweet Grandma when I turn 93!