We're Gonna Be Rich

J and I have just figured out The Next Big Thing. Forget P90X. Forget the Bowflex. Forget exercise balls, the Thighmaster, that thing that electrocutes your muscles into firmness while you lay on the couch watching tv. We have the perfect idea for total abdominal fitness. You'll see it soon on late-night infomercials.

Here it is: One simple inhaler. Just a puff or two every day that injects germs or an irritant of your choice into your lungs. Then just cough your way to rock-solid abs! You'll see results in just one week. That's right -- just one week! A flabby belly preventing you from fitting into that one sleek dress? Jeans a little too tight? A weekend of beach-volleyball coming up that you're not quite ready for? Just a puff or two a day and you'll have a 6-pack that is the envy of all who look at you!

After 10 days of coughing non-stop, J's abs are almost to their former glory. That core, 10 years ago, was a sight to behold. It went into hibernation under some squishy layers, but -- boy is it back! Who needs exercise when you can just get sick and cough your way back into that perfect body?!

For Erin...

Here is a super yummy recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Even though there are inordinate amounts of butter and sugar in it, it still feels healthy to me because of the oat flour.

Combine:
1 C butter
1 C white sugar
1 C brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/2 C oat flour (dump 3 C oatmeal in the food processor, turn it on, and voila!)
2 C white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
chocolate chips

Bake in 375 degree oven 8-10 minutes or until lightly brown

Today Is The Best Day of My Life

Yesterday in Relief Society (the women's meeting of our 3-hour block), someone told of a woman in our ward (congregation) whose daily saying was, "Today is the best day of my life!" She said it to herself everyday of her life up until, and including, the day she died. Something about that really resonated with me. I've decided to make it my mantra. I think I want my awesome friend Brooke to put it in vinyl for every room of my house. This morning I wrote it in my journal three times in a row. S read it and asked why I wrote it three times. I told him that it would help me remember it and make today the best day of my life. Cynical S muttered, "So far." Maybe it needs to become our family motto.

I just love all that that simple sentence says. I love that it can lift my spirit, change my perspective, and alter my attitude as I strive to make every day the best day of my life. It encourages me to make the most of each day by working my tail off for my family, smiling at the kids -- especially when it's hard to, reading my scriptures and actively striving to feel Heavenly Father in all that I do. I'm excited to begin this lifelong experiment of trying to make each day "the best day of my life."

Check This Out

I just found this funny article on Yahoo! It made me laugh!

Blogging Etiquette?

Are there blogging rules of etiquette? I've had people comment (which I love, by the way; keep 'em coming!) and ask questions. Do I reply in the comments or do I send an email and connect personally with the asker? I'm inclined to do the first, because it seems more polite and like a conversation between two people. Which is it? Are there any other blogging rules I should know?

Run

I want to go for a run. A nice long one on the Provo River Trail with a hill or two thrown in. I want to put in my earbuds and crank up my running music (RHCP "Stadium Arcadium") and go go go. I'll even run on the treadmill if I have to. One small problem:


















I just have to keep telling myself that it'll all be worth it once I can start running again. Patience...

A Weary Week

This week has not been stellar. It is looking up now, so I can (hopefully) objectively recap...

Monday:
I had a follow-up with the podiatrist who was very pleased with the surgery and very optimistic about the good it did. I am ready to kick off the cast; it's a cumbersome inconvenience that slows me down -- except for when I accidentally kick something and then I'm glad it's still on.

Tuesday:
I desperately needed to make many batches of peanut-butter cookies, so I did. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll deduce that Tuesday was not good.

Wednesday:
I went to S's school to watch the school spelling bee. He was #1 out of 18, the youngest and the tiniest. It took a little coaxing to get him up to the mic to begin, but when he finally did and spelled his first word, "glad," he was just fine. I expected him to be nervous and was proud of how he conquered his nerves, but I wasn't prepared for how nerve-wracking it would be for me. Every time he stood up to spell, I held my breath. Every time he completed the word, I'd let it out with a sigh (along with everyone else in the auditorium. It was so cool -- you could just feel everyone rooting for this tiny shy boy.) He stayed in to spell, "cartoon," "piano," "significant" (that was impressive -- I had no idea he knew how to spell that one), and "monarch," before incorrectly spelling, "scruple." As he explained to me later, "I thought it was a pole made out of screws," which explains "S-C-R-E-W-P-O-L-E."
Here he is before everyone started filing into the auditorium:














Wednesday night was bad for everyone, boys and mom. Yelling, crying, grumpiness all around. I went to bed determined to do better on...

Thursday:
3/4 of this day were great. I woke early for some quiet, spiritual rejuvenation and handled the morning grumpiness around me calmly and graciously. When we returned home from dropping S off at school, O and H painted. I was proud of myself for doing that since I rarely get crafty.














Thursday night was bad again. More yelling, screaming, crying. So bad that everyone was in bed by 6:30 (not happily) and I was very seriously considering abandoning my post as mother. My neighbor came over later to visit and buoy up my spirits. It worked. She's an angel.

Friday:
Today was great. Somehow a good night's sleep made me love my kids again and we passed a pleasant morning playing with cars and making chocolate cookies in preparation for J's homecoming tonight. For lunch we drove down to Springville and spent $2.34 on 3 kids' meals, a taco, a burrito, and 3 frosties. (Love those coupons!) We came home and rode bikes and now the younger two are settled in front of a movie. Life is good and my three little monkeys are fantastic, caring little people. I can't imagine a better trio with which to spend my days. And J will be home shortly -- hooray!

A Quick Random Post

I should have surgery more often -- I'm posting like crazy!!

Check out Jessie O'Neal's Photography Blog link to the left. She just posted some pictures from our session. Most of the pics there I've also put on my blog, but my mom will enjoy the one of her, my dad, and S. An interesting note about my sassy mommy -- this photo shoot was the first time in her ENTIRE LIFE that she'd ever worn a pair of jeans. She looks good, doesn't she?

Ward Conference was great today. I'm sure the 2nd and 3rd hours were terrific but I only heard the first. The theme was Joshua 1:9

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

This scripture is my motto for the year. I'd like to be stronger in many ways, but spiritually and emotionally foremost. Courage -- much needed. And to always remember that God is with me always -- how will that change how I act? How I respond to situations with which I'm faced? Will it give me confidence and faith no matter what I do? I have faith that it will.

And regardless of whether or not you believe as I do, this is a good scripture and promise to keep in mind. There is nothing to be afraid of. Most of the limitations we face are there of our own making. It's a good reminder that there are no limitations, nothing to be afraid of, if we have faith.

And now to sleep...

Day 5

I promise that I didn't go to church today with no husband and a big purple cast on my foot to get sympathy and dinner. I really went to church today to be uplifted and give me a spiritual boost for the week. I received sympathy and dinner because I have awesome friends. It may have been easier and more sensible to stay home, but I am not easy ;) and I am definitely not sensible. I've often thought that church is like an addiction. That said, I must be the addict. I need the weekly spirit that I feel at church on Sundays to get me through the Mondays-Saturdays. I need the interaction with the fabulous women at church since I tend to live in an isolated bubble the rest of the week. I need the 2 hours of my kids being taught by fabulous Primary teachers. That's really why I went to church today. I had my amazing, wonderful, incredible friend and neighbor help me with the boys during Sacrament Meeting. And by help I mean that she wrangled them all while I just sat and actually paid attention for once! Then the older two headed up to Primary and I went to drop H off at Nursery. One small problem: He would not be dropped off. This happened last week too. Last week, after 3 Nursery workers tried to calm him down and interest him in toys, they brought him to me in Sunday School where he fell asleep on my lap. Last week I had J bring him home so he could finish his nap in his own bed. This week -- no J. I gave H a choice: go play in the Nursery or go home and nap. He chose to go home and nap. After I let the older ones know that they would be coming home with our neighbor (and stumping up and down the stairs and through the hallways, running into curious, sympathetic people left and right) I put H in the van and drove home. As soon as I got him ready for a nap and he saw the inevitable course of events, he started screaming, "I want to go back to church! Take me back to Nursery!" and went down for a nap not as happily as I'd imagined he would. Oh well. Make a better choice next week, little H.

And so much for getting my spiritual lift. But I did get dinner. One friend wouldn't let me walk away from her without committing to a day and time that she bring me dinner and another just brought one over. With the dinner I cooked tonight, the one my friend brought over, and the one planned for Monday at 5PM, I won't have to cook at all this week! That's probably good, considering my foot is throbbing -- reminding me that yes, it is still there and still less than a week out from surgery.

The reason I didn't really want people asking me about my foot is that it's no big deal. Plus, it's not an exciting story. If only I was kicked in the foot while harnessing a team of wild horses, or if my foot was run over by a semi truck while I was rescuing a small, frightened animal about to be crushed by the semi's wheels, that would be an exciting story. Extraction of extra bones? Just confirms that I'm a freak. I'm still not sure I want to post pictures of my feet -- people may really think I am a hobbit and send me off on dangerous impossible quests. (That's ok if I get to go with Viggo Mortensen.)

Anyway, here's the official update for my mom:
No pain pills since Friday. The antibiotic and anti-inflammatory haven't made me sick. I can feel that I've been on my feet too much today, but nothing a night of ice and elevation won't fix. I don't have to make dinner this week. The doctor was right about me wanting to kick the cast off already. I feel a strange absence of discomfort on my accessory navicular bone, simply because it's not there anymore. (For those of you who wonder why I update for my mom on the blog as opposed to the phone: It's quieter this way. Anyone who talks to me on the phone during the day knows that you hear me and the boys.)

Day 4

Today was fine pain-wise. I slept pretty well last night and woke feeling good. I rested a bit in the morning and then we took the kids out to lunch. J is off to Idaho for a week starting tomorrow, so we hit the grocery store for some supplies to get me through the week. Before lunch I wasn't feeling so hot, and at lunch nothing tasted right, so I took a much-needed nap when we came home. My foot feels ok. I can feel some mild discomfort when I walk (still with one crutch), but it's not too bad. I am really slow, but that's ok too. I'm just worried about my stomach. What's making me feel so crummy? Is it the pills I'm on? I thought it was the Lortab, but I'm not taking any of those anymore. Can the antibiotic and anti-inflammatory really do this to me? And the big question: Am I going to survive this next week without J? I guess we'll find out...

More from the Surgery Virgin

Today was a good day pain-wise. I only had 1/2 a Lortab this morning and haven't taken a pain killer since. I've walked around a bit with one crutch and experimented with putting more weight on my left foot. I should've spent the day reading my scriptures or Hamlet so my brain wouldn't fall out of my ears and turn to mush, but I didn't. What did I do between naps today? I watched "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe" on Netflix. Yeah.

Old Friends

The first Saturday in January we headed up to Hyrum to attend the baptism of my friend Louise's second daughter. We were up about 1 1/2 years ago for her first daughter's baptism and decided that it was a good tradition to keep up.

Louise and I were roommates at BYU the year before we both got married. She is an amazing lady! She has a degree in Music Education, but is the Special Ed teacher at her daughters' charter school and is working on her Master's in Special Ed (I think. Is that right, Weaz?) Her husband Cordell is a police officer for Logan City and is my resource for the future when we get a dog.

When we pulled up to their house after the baptismal festivities were complete, O was scared that the police car belonged to someone who was going to arrest him. (Secret life of crime, O?) I spoke thusly to Cordell, "O is afraid of the police officer here. Will you reassure him that he is not a threat and there's nothing to be scared of?" Cordell replied, somewhat distractedly, "Uh huh," as he packed a handful of snow into a snowball to throw at a random dog running down the street. Thanks, Officer Hoth. Thanks a lot!


Me and Louise. We pretty much look the same as we did 12 years ago when we lived in that tiny apartment on University Ave. Good times.

Now she's out of kids to have baptized, but I've three coming up -- one this year. With the triathlon she's doing in American Fork and the Ragnar (which goes right through Hyrum) that I'm planning on doing again this year, we'll see each other again soon, I'm sure of it.

Happy Birthday, MaKayla!

On the first day of the New Year, we went sledding for our niece MaKayla's birthday.












The second we arrived at the park, O was off on the first hill he could find, grass and all!
















S was the only one brave enough to go down on the saucer. He caught some awesome air at the bottom again and again and again!











H and I made it down a couple of times, but he didn't like me braking with my feet -- it sprayed snow in our faces. I love his little half-excited, half-terrified smile in this picture!










J and O getting ready to race!













How're you doing, Good Lookin'?

















After we were all sledded out, we went to Pirate Island.












Aaarrrgh!

The Last Week of December

J had the last week of December off. During that week he helped O put together the model helicopter from Santa.

























He and S worked on the model airplane that S got from Santa.




























And H put his head on backwards:

Updates from the Surgery Virgin

Day 2 was not fun. Actually, starting at Day 1 1/2 was not fun, but Day 2 was really not fun. Thankfully I slept through most of it. The Lortab makes me feel nauseous, so there was a lot of laying very still so as not to vomit. Last night the pain subsided and I was able to make it through the night with no pain killer.

Now the fun begins...

It has been 50 hours or so since the surgery and now I need to start walking on it. I made two trips to the bathroom sans crutches and then decided to take half a Lortab. Now comes some holding still before I try walking again. Wish me luck!

A Judd (Brewer, Lundgren, Kim) Family Christmas

After our traditional Christmas Eve dinner by the tree, we all went to bed. Christmas morning dawned bright and not-too-early (my favorite kind) and we all ate breakfast before approaching the Christmas tree. Here is O with two Daniel Pinkwater books and a Tech Deck from Uncle Ernie. He's also wearing a watch from Auntie Eunice and holding a whistle-pop from Santa. Christmas doesn't get any better than that!

Grandpa and Grandma Lundgren brought over their gifts later which included a Playmobil castle for S, a set of foam disc guns for O, and construction toys for H.

When Grandpa and Grandma Kim arrived at night, the boys all had another Christmas celebration, complete with books, Legos, and finally...

the Leapster 2 that O had been quizzically receiving cartridges for all day. He was too tired to really appreciate it then, but it has become a favorite!

The Surgery Virgin's Random Notes

Yesterday I had surgery on my freaky left foot. I have extremely flat feet -- so much so that they don't look like normal feet to me, but more like hobbit feet (except not hairy!) The problem with having freaky flat hobbit feet is the excruciating pain I feel after running/walking/hiking long and not-so-long distances. I began seeing a podiatrist last October who took x-rays to confirm that I actually have 2 extra bones in my left foot. When I told my mom that, she laughed and reminded me that I had a couple extra teeth that had to be taken out of my mouth when I was younger. Now that explains a lot -- I have this theory that there were supposed to be two of me, but I ate my twin in utero and now she's trying to break her way out of me. It would definitely explain the crazy voices in my head!

I've never been under general anesthesia before. Even when my wisdom teeth were taken out I had local anesthesia and remember how odd it was that the oral surgeon was practically straddling me, yanking at my teeth with pliers, and how I didn't feel a thing. I wasn't freaked out by being put under, but I have seen J come out of surgery a couple times before and wasn't looking forward to that. But really, life is so fleeting -- anything can happen. I realized that I wasn't afraid to die, if it was my time to go and that's a comforting thought, I guess.

The anesthesiologist was funny. He was alert and confident, which put me at ease. The last thing I remember was him saying, "This one that I'm putting in now will feel a little weird, but you don't have to worry -- you're off to Never Never Land! Ha! Ha! Ha!" And sure enough, 2 seconds later I was out...

I woke up about 75 minutes later after having a dream about the podiatrist saying, "I'll come back when she's more awake" (really not a dream). Apparently I didn't amuse or entertain anyone while under or waking up. Oh well -- J's amusing enough for both of us when he wakes up.

The Surgical Center is like a factory -- they just pump people through. I laid there half-asleep watching everyone come out of surgery -- older people, people my age, little kids -- fast asleep, being wheeled by the OR nurse and anesthesiologist in their blue scrubs with their blue shower-cap-like things. Like a factory. Interesting.

So what are my thoughts about my first (and hopefully last) surgery?
*Not a fan
*General anesthesia is weird
*Ouch
*Better be worth it. I'm clinging to the hope that I will soon be able to "run and not be weary, walk and not faint."
*Lortab -- not a fan, but grateful, none-the-less
*I have the sweetest husband who is taking care of me, the kids, the house, and working from home all at the same time. He's amazing! Too bad I feel so yucky I can't enjoy being waited on!

Updates will follow.

Skiing

My sister came into town the Tuesday before Christmas with her two boys. On Wednesday we went skiing. My last memory of skiing was when I was eight. I've repressed most of the memories from that trip; all I remember is that I fell down and cried a lot. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I trust J and didn't have the heart to squelch his enthusiasm, so off we went.








That's my sister on the right. She is passing me. I am going very very slowly. To my credit, I didn't fall at all getting off the lift. I made up for it, though.











Near the end of the day when S's class went up the lift to go down the mountain, J took pity on S's teacher, who was trying to ski backwards down the mountain with S and his cousin M clinging to her legs.










The bunny slope was more to S's liking.














O, on the other hand, is a natural. We have a great little video of him flying down the bunny slope after being told by his instructor to wait at the top. The instructor caught him at the bottom but couldn't be mad at him, because O was obviously so thrilled and had exhibited perfect form. He's been asking to go again ever since.








Somewhere in J's head is the hope that, in addition to being a hiking, camping, exploring, 4-wheeling family, we will also become a skiing family. Hmmmm... Give us a couple years and a few more ski lessons -- then we'll see.