Arizona Forever

Cub Scouts- Bear Necessities/Call of the Wild

2018-04-11T10:06:00.003-07:00

I created this worksheet to help us go through the things we need to cover for Bear Necessities (Bear) and Call of Wild (Wolf). We have a combined Wolf/Bear den right now. I wanted to make sure we touched on each of the things we were going to cover. I figured a worksheet will help me keep focuses.

Next week we are going "camping". Not actually camping but we are going to meet at a local picnic area. While there we are going to set up a ten, use the grills to roast marshmallows, and having a short campfire service. We are also going to tie knots, look for wildlife, and clean up using Leave No Trace.

Letter to the lady who berated me at the park:

2016-06-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Lady who berated at the park:
As I said multiple times in the calmest toned voice I could muster as you yelled in my face, holding onto my daughter, "I appreciate your concern but there are circumstances here that you do not understand." In the moment, I would have been happy to explain them to you, but you were so angry and yelling so loud. It was an embarrassing scene you were making in front of probably 50 people from our small community. I was trying very hard not to lose my temper at you. I was trying so hard to refrain from yelling back at you. You had jumped to conclusions of what you and your friend "think" happened and were not open to listening to the truth. I eventually did lose my temper, but I didn't lose it in the way that you told the police. Instead of yelling obscenities and calling you volgue names, as you told the policeman, I took my child back from you- can you blame me, you said you are a parent too (and that is why you said you were an authority of raising children), what would you have done if a angry women berating and yelling at you was hold your child away from you. I then took my children and went and got into my car and left. The only thing I said to you in anger was "fine then call the police", which to your credit you kept to your word and did. Considering you had 50 witnesses around you I don't know why you felt the need to lie to the police. It was probably because you had already built the story up in your head, after all you "knew" what had happened. You "knew" the "truth".
Now that the moment is past, would you like to know the truth? My children had got separated from me while I was getting my produce at the community produce day. They saw that mama was distracted and had full arms and although they were given permission to play on the playground a few feet from where we were as long as they stayed together, they took advantage of the craziness to get out of my site. I found my eldest son covered in mud when I was done through the line, and asked him where his sisters were. They were not together nor were they on the playground like they were suppose to be. He told me they were on the other side of the park playing in the mud. Again my arms were full of lots of heavy produce (remember that was they say we got 3 mellons each and 3 cantelope). I told him to get back to his sisters. I then took my youngest (who had stayed with me the whole time) and my produce to the car and buckled him in. Since I can't leave him in the car and dragging him around the park further would have been disastrous (I know my physical limits), I started the car up and started to move it to the other side of the park where my eldest had told me they had run off to, only to see my eldest running around scared in the mass of people. I stopped in the middle of the parking lot and run up to my son, I saw he was worried, I even thanked your friend who was with him, he being a smart kid had asked an adult for help when he realized he couldn't see me. That was when you started yelling at me with one of my daughters covered in mud. I would have expected some charity from you some relief that a mother was reunited with her child. I was a worried mother, who had been separated from my children and was grateful that they were fine. I was still worried because I was missing another child, instead of charity from you, I got yelling and hate from someone under the disguise of caring that I was being a neglectful mom. Every mom has a moment of bad judgement or helplessness as the actions of their children were out of their control. For your information I have never yelled obscenities at anyone in my entire life. Ask anyone who knows me. Ask my children. My children don't even know any obscenities, because I don't use them. The closest I have ever come is yelling da*n once when I dropped something super heavy on my foot. Most of the time, what is used as obscene words in my vocabulary is "oh heck" and on a super rare occasion "crap". None of which I did I even use in front of you. I could see how angry you were, how much of a scene you were making. I didn't want a scene, I didn't want you to be angry. I just wanted all my children back with me safe. Have you never had a lost child? Have you never felt that worry and panic of where did they go? In a community like ours, small, full of faith professing Christians, and patriotic military families- I expected that in a moment like that for those around me to pull together and help me find my children and rejoice with me when we were all rejoined safe. But you took what could have been a sweet community moment and turned it into bitterness and hate as you yelled at me about being a neglectful mom and leaving my children. You assumed that since you had my child in your custody for a short minute and you saw me get out of my car that I had left them at the park to fend for themselves. You told the police I had left them there for at least 20 minutes. You told the police that I yelled at you. You told the police I had showed an unChristian example in front of my children, and worst of all you made my children cry, cry because you were calling the police, and yelling that I shouldn't be a mother if I treat my children that way. You scared my children into thinking that the police where going to take their mother way from them. Was that your intent? I don't think so. I think in that short moment you had my children around you, you were worried for them. They were scared and you worried for them. Whatever your experiences are, this made you lash out at me- a scared and worried parent.
I have had many crazy people berate me in public. I am sure this won't be the last time. Most of the time about how I have no business having so many children (I only have 4 and believe me that isn't that many). why people unprompted feel the need to lecture people on their choice to have children is beyond. me. It is now my turn to show you the Charity you did not show me. I am sure you are a good person. I believe that in the moment you honestly thought you were trying to do a good thing. Out of all the people who have treated me unkindly I am having the hardest time feeling that charity and forgiveness. I think it is because you made my children cry, and because this time I had to explain myself to a police officer- who by they way totally understood and dropped the whole thing on hearing what actually had happened. With all done and said, I am hurt. I am hurt that someone who does so much in the community to try to help others, would have treated one person who needed some love and compassion at that moment with so much anger so much hate, so little Charity. I admire the charity work you do for the community. I know you want to be a good Christian and serve those in need. Please Please Please remember that there are those in need who what they need is Charity- pure love and forgiveness. I am trying to forgive you. I am trying to have Charitable love for you. Please forgive me for my shortcomings, and the perceived shortcomings you have of me, and please have Charity for me.
Sincerely the Lady who got separated from her children at the product day on Friday at the park.

Please everyone, you may think you "know the truth" of what happened or what is going on in someone else's life, but you don't, most of us will never know or understand the truth when it comes to another person. As a society we need to have more Charity, more love, more forgiveness, more understanding. This one word, if implemented would solve so many of our Country's and World's problems. Charity is the answer.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. -Moroni 7:46-7

Teacher Gifts

2016-05-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do something that was simple but also affordable.

I started on pinterest. Here are some I was considering

Then I started thinking about how they were all food. I started thinking about how teachers probably appreciate things that aren't going to go to their hips. But at the same time last year I did mason jars and we included Peach Herbal Tea with a note to enjoy their summers.

But if teachers not multiple of these, it is a lot of keep around- clutter.

So I started looking for things that aren't food, but once they are used there is no reason to feel the need to keep it.

then I found this one

I asked a teacher friend of mine which would you rather get, a Sharpie or a candy bar. She very quickly said "Sharpie" then asked her friend she was with (we were talking on the phone) and her friend said "Sharpie" without missing a beat.

I bought a pack of Sharpies at Costco. It came with 25 Sharpies. It was $14. Maybe not the best deal but I needed them by tomorrow and it was a set of super fun colors.

I made these tags for the Sharpies

(full size image, ready to print, please "save as" and print)

I'm giving the teachers 3 Sharpies each, the aids 2. I tied a ribbon around them.

Current feelings on the Presidential Primaries

2016-03-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted her much lately. I am involved in so many pursuits right now that personal life blogging of this sort is not what I spend my time on.
If you want to catch up on our family life check out my instagram.

I feel weighted down by this year's election. There are so many things going through my mind. For the first time in my life I am looking at the prospect that come November I will be voting for a Democrat in a presidential election, and not because I like the candidate, but because I would feel that the Republican candidate has no business being the President of the United States.

I am a supporter of people voting. Even when they choose not to vote the way I want them to. However, I am becoming increasingly anxious about how a certain candidate could be gaining any traction in the first place, let alone in the state where I live. Yes, who are these people who are voting for this person? I personally only know one person, that is openly stating that they are supporting this candidate. They don't even live in my state. I am baffled. Completely flabbergasted. Now to be fair I'm not impressed with any of the other candidates for president. At this point I could careless which of them wins the primary as long as it isn't this particular candidate. How is this possible? I know I live in a State and I embrace this about my state, that we aren't going to let anyone tell us how it is suppose to be, but I also figured I lived in a state of responsible people who when they saw that an unreasonable person was going to get elected they would join together and tell the unreasonable person to shove off.

This started my mind thinking, on what is my primary criteria when I am considering a candidate, for any electable office? How do I decide who I am voting for? So much of my decision making is internal done, so quickly, that pin pointing sometimes why for another person is hard. But I have it.

Article of Faith 13 is the answer...
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

I look for these qualities in the person I vote for. That and them being a God fearing person who when they come to a choice is going to call upon the name of the Almighty to guide them in making what is will be the BEST choice for our Nation. That is first.

Second, after they have these qualities, I start looking at what political stances they have. I know there will be those who disagree with my process, but I have always felt that no matter of their politics, if they possess the majority of these qualities then they will lead with humility.

For years, I have read in the Book of Mormon in the book of Helaman, how the Nephites had just gone through a huge war and civil war, and had been humbled and granted peace, then in a few short years allow corrupt and murderous leaders to be their rulers (their judges). These people had become complacent/comfortable in the gospel and their worship. They were also shocked when Nephi revealed the corruption in their government, even that their Chief Judge had just been murdered. Many would not believe Nephi, even it was proved true that the Chief Judge was murdered. This was in the same lifetime of the people who had cleaned up the government before and had rid it of all corruption prior. How did they get to this point? I see similarities to now. Maybe they had seen that corruption and decided that a new set of people needed to be the politicians because the old set had allowed corruption to sneak in among their ranks, only to find that those they brought in promising to be the agents of change were more corrupt than those they voted out. Maybe the new candidates promised to fix all that they saw were wrong with the current government, again only to find out that these new elected officials were even more evil. Maybe they wanted to teach the establishment a lesson, only later realizing they had let in the worst corruption of all, that was about to bring about the complete destruction of their civilization. Maybe these new officials had come in under the guise of being part of the establishment. Or maybe saying they do or do not belong in the same group with those other guys. I feel so many similarities between our Nation and what may have been the pivotal moments that let do the Nephite government being controlled by a gang of sophisticated robbers.

I see nothing honest in someone who shrouds their words in hate and speaks to of himself in loftiness with no humility. I see no trueness to his character his word has never been his bond. His life has never been one that is chaste in word or in action. There is nothing benevolent or kind about this man. I see nothing virtuous or moral in how he has lived his life, and I have not heard one mention of any good he has done to any man or woman. He openly detests God in his words and actions. Takes the name of the Lord in vain often. It can not be said of him that he follows the admonition of Paul. I can not believe a him at all, I can not find hope in him, I pray that I will only have to endured him until the end of the election, and hope to be able to endure this as long as I must. For he is not virtuous, he is not lovely or loving of anyone but himself, and there is nothing of good to report or praise him about, I pray that our society wakes up and no longer seeks after this person.

You want to see someone different but someone with no morals no God is not the answer.

I beg all my God fearing friends, no matter what religion you associate yourself with that you evaluate the character of who we elect. For my heart aches and yearns for the atonement of Christ's grace to bring my soul peace. I can not control the votes of others, but I fear that we are no longer concerned about being a God loving and fearing nation and that has scary consequences. I pray for our Nation.

Little Pioneer Children CSB Ou216

2015-07-19T21:03:00.001-07:00

Next weekend our stake is having their pioneer day event. Our ward was assigned to preform Children's Songbook hymn 216, "Little Pioneer Children"
I had heard it before but never sung it. I teach a CTR 6 class so I am no longer the chorister. But as the chorister tried to teach it today (for preforming it Saturday). The thought came that this would be tons easier if she has a flip-chart so all the kids even those not here today could just slip right into the song. Then the next thought was, I could make her some pages.
After Singing time I stopped our chorister in the hall to ask if she wanted flip chart pages made for her to use. Now she almost never uses visuals to teach her songs to Junior primary. (I have no idea what she does for senior). Now that isn't my style, but each person who is called is given inspiration and the allowance to do their calling to the best of their ability. So I didn't know how she'd respond. But she seemed relieved by the offer. I also said that any time she would like a flip-chart made all she need to do is facebook message me or call me and I'd be happy to make something up for her.
Thought I would share this with all ya'll.
Right click on the images to download each page
OR click here to go to a download link

Hope this helps someone. Happy Pioneer Day.

Our Money Makeover

2015-06-21T22:26:00.001-07:00

Part of me is really uncomfortable talking about this but it needs happen. My husband and I recently came to some realization about our goals and how the way we were living our life was going to keep us from ever actually realizing them. As members of the LDS church many of us have this and we hide it like it is going to make us outcast lepers if the truth is learned. And at General or Stake Conference when we are counseled to "GET OUT OF DEBT" we sit there like they are talking to someone else. I actually believe that many of us think they way I was at those moments "we're good, we're working on it" but saying we're working on it isn't going to fix it unless we are actively making changes in our lives.

We are in Debt!*

There it has been said. The second half of that is we now have an actually plan and resolve to put that plan into action. For anyone in the same boat we are- there is a plan and a path and you can join us on that journey.

Read more at my new blog: Arizona Girl Goes Thrifty

The short story for anyone who doesn't want to move their reading over to the long version on my new blog is- we decided it was time to make changes, we read Dave Ramsey's book "Total Money Makeover" in order to learn how and find that hope, We are now working on our baby steps. It is going to take some time.

*I feel it is important that we are not so in debt that we have ever or would ever consider bankruptcy. We were just making bad assumptions about how to spend our money and bad choices that would keeping our goals forever just out of reach.

Just another week

2015-06-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

Summer is out and it has been hot. We've been sitting around the 103 F around here. Normally we are 10-15 degrees F cooler than the Phoenix Valley (where I grew up), and this week was no exception, they were sitting around 115 F all week. So it is hot.

Tuesday was interesting. We had the LDS (because if any of you didn't know yet- yes we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints aka the Mormons) Sister Missionaries over for dinner. They were sweet but not the annoying sweet that made me dislike sister missionaries growing up and made me never want to be one (funny story I was a sister missionary, but I was a cool sister missionary who even to this day had a reputation that I was an elder hater, not because I actually hated the elders but because I wouldn't put up with anything from them-grow up). One was from eastern Washington and the other from north of Chicago. So after dinner, they leave to go to an appointment with a family they are teaching, and we put our children to bed- followed by I go grocery shopping (adventure in and of itself- we recently started a new budget). When I get home from the grocery store they are 4-5 vehicles parked on our street down by where the sister missionaries live (yes they live in a house owned by some members down the street from us). One, at least, was obviously shaped like a police car but no lights were on, I decided to turn into my drive way and not get in the way by going over and trying to snoop to find out what was going on. Later I learned from their neighbor, that it were police cars. There had been a scary dude hanging around the sisters' house looking into the windows, when confronted he kept trying to find out who lived at that house, and was seen back later that night. So the police were asked to drive by occasionally and then made a big deal of it when there was another reported siting of the creeper. Crazy. A story of this type would make more sense if we lived in some big city with lots of crime and people, but we don't. We live in the middle of almost no where. If those sisters' parents here about this please know they have neighbors who are looking out for them and have their back. We live in a very safe place.
On Wed. our power was out for about an hour. I feels like a funny story when you piece all the stories together. The power was out for a large part of the unincorporated county land we live in, and for a smaller area up in town. The story is that a semi was in an accident and when it rolled it caught a power line going over the street. They were able to get the power up in town on quickly but there were sections of county land that were without power for 2 1/2 hours. In addition there were a bunch of people who lost their Cox internet for a few hours. We didn't exactly loose internet (while the power was off there was no way to tell) but it did wig out a few times, were it would disconnect everything and be off for a few seconds. So that was all fun. I was fingertips away from saying we were going to have ice cream for dinner. darn it went back up before I could make that call.

Thursday I hit my mouth with a glass baking dish. I don't even remember why... but it hurt and later I realized I chipped my tooth. Not really noticeable or anything but it annoys me. I am going to call my dentist and see what he charges just to file it smooth.

So we just finished week 4 of summer. One more week down and we'll be half way to summer break being over and school starting. How are we surviving? With the free summer movies at the local theater, spending lots of time at the park (even in this heat), and eating lots of otter-pops. It is rough. I am just being up front here. My kids are crazy and get destructive when they don't have playmates. WE NEED PLAY DATES! It frusterates me to no end that all my kids want to do is watch TV (we don't even have any TV for DVDs).
So that is life. Father's day was nice. I made lasagna for my husband at his request. Hope ya'll had a great Father's Day too.

Happy New Year

2015-02-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

This is how we spent our new years eve.

I got new glasses for the new year.

I always feel guilty spending so much money on glasses but a friend once pointed out that "how much would you spend on a really nice full outfit from head to toe" When you think about it shoes+ shirt+ skirt/pants+ accessories = $100+ "So why not invest the same love into your eyes on something you wear everyday?" so wise. So now I remind myself of that and pay up for my favorite pair.

Who wears them best

Law turned 9 months in January

The twins are now in Sunbeams

Normal life for us is what others would call chaos

Happy New Year

Its Confday!

2014-10-04T09:15:00.002-07:00

the Twins first Haircuts

2014-05-22T08:56:00.001-07:00

Grandma decided it was time for the girls to get their first haircuts.

She arranged (and paid) for the girls to get their hair done by Grandma's stylist.

Nellie

Rosie

They look so darling! And they are so proud of their new dos

Thanks Grandma

Our New Baby Boy

2014-05-22T08:52:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I never actually posted on this blog when our son was born. He was born April 10th. It was a crazy slow-quick birth. For me it felt like it went on forever. But from the time the doctor broke my water to baby out was 4 1/2 hours. But that was my longest labor yet.

We went and were induced.

This is my one and only baby bump photo for this pregnancy.

We named him

Lawrence Howard

9 lbs even, ante 19.25 inches long

And oh my goodness he was born with RED hair!

All the kids are handling the new baby just fine.

They are all happy he is here

Law makes the cutest bug eye baby faces

He is now over a month old. Has grown more than 2 inches in that time and is 10 1/2 lbs.

Updating our lives

2014-03-11T22:38:00.005-07:00

I am been so busy trying to prepare my life for a new baby. For most people this means "nesting" for me it means that I have been spending a lot of my personal time trying to get my digital scrapbooking stuff ready for the next couple months.

So here is our life since the beginning of the year.

1. Al drew a picture in primary if you look closely you can see the baby he drew in my tummy.

2. Yes we are expecting. We are due in April.
We are having a boy.

3. On New Years Day we were able to go to the Fiesta Bowl. It was fun until our children were just done and we went home.

4. Al started preschool. He goes 5 days a week and loves it.

5. My Christmas present was to do to the Palm theater in Mesa. It is a dinner theater, and the play was "Fiddler on the Roof" Very much enjoyed it.

6. While Al is at preschool we have spend a lot of time at the park

7. We have been potty training again. The girls are doing really well. Not perfect but well. This pic of Nellie has her on the couch playing with the toy phone. Hope that isn't how my children see me.

8. boo I'm gestational diabetes again. Eating that way is a pain but doable. However, my doctor is again sending me to do once a week NSTs. GRR its just annoying. I'd rather be doing something else and staying away from the hospital. Dealing with the hospital is the bane of being pregnant for me.

And that is our lives in a nutshell.

Hope ya'll are doing well do.

Our family Cruise

2013-12-18T12:44:00.002-07:00

My husband and I love to cruise. We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and found out that we LOVE it. We then went on our second cruise when we'd been married 2 1/2 years and it was fantastic. Now we've been married for 5 years and we were itching for another cruise. After looking at our options we decided to go as a whole family this time and take our children. My friend Amber (from music camp, college, she's been my friend for a long time) and her family came with us.

After weighing our options of reviews verses price and on board options we decided to go with Carnival- it was by far the cheapest for 5 people, had rooms for 5 people, and take 2 year olds at the kids camp- no other cruise lines starts at 2 (EVERYONE else starts at 3, they may offer paid babysitting but not inclusive kids camp) and with two two year old girls that was a HUGE deal.
We had heard a lot of things about Carnival being the "booz cruise" and being how any cruise line in the Caribbean is the "party" destination. But we had also heard that it isn't as bad as the rumors say and we hoped we made the best choice considering all our needs.

We choose a 5 day cruise (that way if the children didn't handle it well it was shorter), out of Galveston, TX (because we could drive there and stay in budget), with two stops Cozumel and Progresso, Mexico (so we could see Chichen Itza).

We loved out shore excursions, Chichen Itza was awesome and in Cozumel we did a private island called Passion Island. It was awesome. We were a little concerned about the "all you can drink" alcohol but there was only one person who was obviously drunk when the shore excursion was over. The awesome part of Passion Island was the kids section. They had activities, and a play area and children supervisors that were great with the kids. We didn't fully leave our children there (although we could have) we sat up next to the play area were we could watch them play. Our daughters discovered water color painting and did that for over an hour.

Our children LOVED it. They had so much fun. The loved their time at the kid's camp and would beg to go.

Our steward had fun with our children's toys and kids loved seeing it and the fun animal towels.

So its a good thing our children enjoyed the kids camp because there was nothing else on ship for us to "safely" do with our children. If we weren't at the kids camp, we were in our room using the laptop to watch a movie.

Here comes the downer side of everything....

1. Carnival bills themselves as "family friendly" not just that they have a kids area but they advertise that everything is family friendly for the entire family.

FALSE it was such a drunken party all over the ship that we would avoid walking anywhere near the pool or the casino with our children. I didn't want to expose our children to that atmosphere.

On top of that I didn't want to be in that atmosphere. We didn't go swimming once because we didn't want to be in that area.

Compare and Contrast- On our other two cruises we would go to the pool, participate in the different on board activities. Never once did I feel like the fact that I wasn't drinking anything but soda ever make me self continuous or even aware that I was the only one not drinking. Every activity focuses around alcohol.

In addition, even the shows said they were family friendly. We went to one of them that said was rated "PG for costumes". I would have given the costumes a PG-13 rating and the show as well. NO way would I have taken my children at any age to see it. After that we skipped the other shows.

2. Our room was a lot smaller than on the other ships we've been on. It ended up fine, but it was tight for 5. I think if we didn't have a balcony it would have been much more difficult. The TV channels were a joke. There was never anything to watch, especially for our children. And our room was two floors above the "broadway" shows theater and we could hear EVERY word and note through the whole show. Either the boat was not constructed with sound proofing or the show is way too loud, or both.

3. Besides a few super stand out employees the rest of the service was below par- way below. We love to do the "unlimited" soda. One thing we LOVED is they had Coke ZERO and Sprite ZERO as part of their soda options. If not for this options I wouldn't have done the unlimited soda. I am not a huge soda drinker- but when I do drink soda I only drink diet soda. I do not drink my calories (except for milk or juice in the morning for my breakfast). So here is the complaint. The soda was done in cans that they poured into cups with ice for you. It was never already cold soda, and often was flat because it doesn't take a whole can to fill the cup and the rest of the can would just sit out until someone asked for that soda again, then they would get what was left from the last can before they would open a new can. It created a lot of flat soda. Then there were the bar tenders where you had to get the soda. Besides the bar tender in the main lobby with the guest services desk, all the bar tenders acted like your were imposition them to have them get you a drink. Yes we aren't making any more money for them, but we did pay for it and that makes money for them.

Shout outs---- Regina in the dining hall was AWESOME!!! and so was Daniel the dining hall drink server!!!

4. The food was... okay. It wasn't anything amazing or even special. I really liked the hot chocolate in the buffet area that was inclusive, and the soft serve ice cream always available. And my favorite was the chocolate molten cake in the dinning hall. But when it comes to meals, nothing was so wonderful to brag about. And the same food was available at the dinning hall as were the at the buffet.

Our biggest problem, was that we learned that the world's definition of "family friendly" is - 'there is a safe place to drop off your kids while you go get smashed'.

It was a good cruise for us at that moment in our lives. Having to take the girls everywhere with us would have not worked and the girls had so much more fun at the kids camps. But we will probably NEVER do that particular cruise again.

Overall we did have a great family vacation.

and everyone was happy to get home again.

Get out the Bugs- Reveiw

2013-08-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

One of the ladies who was the chorister before me in this area always did this activity for the end of the year- program reviews. She had large plastic bugs she had bought at the dollar store and would either put them in a large garbage bag or would put them on the board and use the garbage bag like a sheet. I got back from visiting my sister late Saturday and was trying to think of something to do the next morning. I even debated running to Walmart (being the only place open) and seeing if I could find large plastic bugs. My husband assured me that construction paper laminated would work just as well. They did. I found bug silhouettes on the internet. Enlarged them and printed them as large as I could and traced the outline onto the construction paper and cut it out. I then laminated them so that I can write the titles of the songs.

I grabbed a sheet to use to cover the bugs. Then the children have to search under the sheet to find a bug (song). Since it was a sheet (and this came to me while I was standing in front of children), we were "getting the bugs out of our bed" because we don't want bugs in our bed.
The children were all about this. I had my Junior primary singing better than they have in months and singing songs that I wasn't even sure if they knew at all because they wouldn't sing it for be before. They were also so worried about the bugs still in the bed when our time was up. I promised them that we would finish getting the bugs out next week. I made a note of which songs were left (we got 4 of the 8 out). Senior primary were less enthusiastic about actually getting the bugs out. But they sang well to pass off the song, they all wanted to be picked to find a bug, and they enjoyed identifying the various types of bugs pulled out. The completed 6 of 8 songs.

I would call this one a success. If it works this well every time then no wonder my friend used this activity for her review EVERY year (and she was the chorister for 7 years in her ward).

instructions: have enough bugs for each song. if you have more or smaller bugs make some of them specific verses of the songs.

Tell the children we are getting the bugs out of their songs so that the songs are Program ready. Warn them that if they don't sing the song well enough then the bug is going to go back into our bed and will have to be found again. I gave them singing the song twice through before I placed the bug back under the sheet. If it was *just* one verse they were having problems with I would give them the chance to redeem themselves by re-singing that one verse before the bug went back.

I placed the bugs into my primary folder when they were passed off, but you could put them in a jar, a box, display them, or put them away.

the Twins turn TWO

2013-08-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

The girls turned two a week ago on the 11th. I didn't know how to make their birthday special. It was a Sunday and we were up in Mesa. So I got them birthday muffins. We also had cake and ice cream after dinner with their cousins. They also got a few gifts- a magnetic drawing pad, a water drawing pad, big girl underpants, and a Little Einestine DVD (which my brothers have decided were missed named and should have been called "little mozart"

They were adorable for church in their new Sunday dresses. I hope they enjoyed their birthdays and that it felt more special than just any other Sunday.

Our time in Mesa

2013-08-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

We spent the last two weeks in Mesa. The premise of being there was that I could be a help to my sister. And I believe we were a help. But we did take advantage of being up there to enjoy ourselves.

One day when we had my sister's daughter with us we went to Sonic and everyone got their own Strawberry or Cherry Limeade. The twins were suppose to share but Nellie didn't want to share so Rose ended up with my Route 44.

Tues we went to the Arizona Museum of Natural History. I remembered they have dinosaurs there and knew that would be a huge hit with our four year old. Of course it was. Wish I took more pictures. I didn't know that there were so many dinosaurs that have been found here in Arizona. I hadn't been to the museum since I was a in elementary school. I am so glad we went.

When we left the Museum on Tues, Al then announced that he wanted to go to the place with the live fish and sea animals. I knew he was talking about the aquarium but I wasn't going to take him 2 places in one day and going there in one trip would be expensive. When I mentioned his request to my brothers they suggested the Bass Pro shop in Mesa. They have fish there. So that is what we did for our outing on Wed. Well Al, although found the place interesting, was very keen to point out that it was no aquarium.

Al finally broke me down and on Thursday we went to the Sea Life Arizona Aquarium at Arizona Mills mall. It was a larger aquarium than we had visited previously but I didn't feel like it has as many interactive activities. Al was in heaven the girls really enjoyed it too. The first time through we didn't see the octopus, and after a lot of tears we went back in and asked if they had an octopus. Turns out they do and they told us where we'd find it. So we went all the way through again. I need to remember that on thing like this that my children will regain interest again and do it all over if we just take a break and come back again. Each time through it took us about an hour with my children's short attention span.

Friday we hang around the house and then their cousins had a sleep over with them that night. First one of its type.ll

New Nibbling and time in Mesa

2013-08-18T17:53:00.003-07:00

My sister had her baby on the 5th. His name is Theodore and we are calling him "Teddy".

We went up to Mesa to see our new cousin and to help my sister out in any way I could.

his cousin (on the other side of the family) Maggie was born the same day at the same hospital

NOT TWINS

As they were getting ready to be discharged from the hospital he has what we started calling "breathing attack episodes"

It was scary. He would stop breathing and turn blue.

Many theories were given why this was happening

eventually they moved him to Cardon Children's Hospital.

He still hadn't been home yet. They monitored him for seven days and found nothing.

Finally after being 13 days old he was release to go home for the first time. They are going to have to keep a monitor on him for a month but at least they are home. I think my sister handled the whole thing very grown up. I am grateful that prayers have been answered and they are now home as a family.

Singing Fish Review

2013-08-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Singing Fish was one we did a few Sundays ago as a review.

The idea is to have "mama" fish and "baby" fish and have the children return the baby fish to their mama. Our children really enjoyed it, especially JR primary. When you match a baby to the mama you sing the verse that is written on the baby fish. Our JR primary were so upset when Singing Time was over and they were so worried about the babies that didn't get back to their mamas.

Here is the instructions and songs we used. I know that not everyone picked the same songs we did. But that means you only have 2 songs to pick lines from those verses.

Here are some sihloettes of fish that you can use as a guide to cut them out. I just free handed mine out of construction paper (oval with a triangle tail) then I drew on eyes and mouths.

Here is a picture of what my fish looked like.

Have fun reviewing and playing with singing fish.

*It doesn't have to be fish. It could be any animal or even people. It is just really easy to cut out fish.

2013 Arizona Monsoon Season

2013-08-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Monsoons are in full season here.

As a reminder here is a picture from about a week before Monsoon season started.

See what my backyard looks like in the height of the heat of summer.

Now take a look at these photos from this year's monsoon season

see how lush and green it is

pic of the waterfall on the mountain behind our house

Where did our mountain go? Almost wouldn't know there was a mountain there.

And take a look at that rain fall and that uncut overgrowth.

It is time to get that push wacker out.

Review activity "I HEAR with my little EAR"

2013-08-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have a sub this Sunday. I have created a guessing game for her to practice the songs with the children.

Each song has a set of clues. Each clue was written to be given in the form "I hear with my little ear... a song that we........."
Here are the clues that I used. I know that many of you didn't pick the same two "you choose" songs as our ward did, but that means you only have two songs to make your own questions for. Use my questions as a guide. Ignore the (notes) those are for my sub.

Feel free to "Save Image As" my notes and use them for your Singing Times. Or make up your own specific to your primary. I hope this idea helps at least one Chorister out there.

I'm a serious designer

2013-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

I know that my Singing time visuals are not up to store quality. Most of them a rush and put together in about fifteen minutes total and they look like 15 minutes of work.

Back in February I started my hand and creating digital scrapbooking kits.

I opened my first store in April. And a second store last month.

I had no plans of opening any other stores until two weeks ago I saw a Designer Call to one of the larger stores that also has a forum. It has been my goal to get into a store like this (I was thinking it would take me at least a year or maybe two). I couldn't let an opportunity pass like this and applied.

I then got word that they were accepting my application and sent me a contract.

So the last two weeks has been CRAZY insane getting a store ready to open Aug 1st. There were times that I didn't think I could make it. I had already been working like CRAZY to get my daisies and dimples store open and days after that opening I am starting out preparing for a another store opening.

Opening at a new store is a lot of work and opening at Stuff to Scrap has been even more so.

With all stores you have to package your product for their stores. Each store has their own outward packaging requirements and size restrictions that can be uploaded. In addition to that, STS requires that you have EVERY product that is put in their store to go through an intense Quality Control process. For the most part I like that I know it was looked over by someone not me. Sometimes they catch stupid things that I have been looking at for weeks and didn't catch because I was just burned out. But it also creates a ton of stress and extra work. All the extra work is worth it- just very time intensive. And as my husband points and when we talked about the pros and cons for us- once you do all that work its not like you have to do all of it over again. Doing my responsibilities on the site will be more work too. But I have wanted to work at a site with an active forum. This is a big step for me. For the time being I am going to be managing three stores. A some point I will close one of the other two, but we'll see. I don't even know which one I am going to close yet. That is about six months down the road. I am loving designing. Selling your designs is not a "get rich quick" way of life. It will be a while before I'm in the black, as long as I can keep my own habit of buying things curtailed. I am excited to see where this is going to lead me.

Teaching "A Child's Prayer"

2013-08-01T16:57:00.002-07:00

I created visuals, the song by itself is hard for the younger kids. About half of our Senior Primary already knew and remembered the song. I guess that tells you when the last time our ward did this song for the program was. I'm out of town this Sunday so I taught the song last Sunday. Our SR primary is learning both verses and we are only teaching (mostly due to time) the first verse to JR primary.
This is my favorite primary song and in all my years of primary I have never had the opportunity to teach this song. Maybe that has been for the better because this song was *really* hard for me to teach.
tips from my mistakes-
1. Have them hum the melody to each song first, then learn each verse with ONLY that melody. Our pianist kept playing everything while they were learning it and it was really making it hard on the younger children.
2. Start introducing the song by having another adult come and sing the two parts with you. I tried to sing it by myself and it didn't go so well and then I couldn't do two parts at once. (or have two of the older children sing it for the primary).
3. Focus and the melody and then the words. If I had to do it over again I would encourage the children to hum each note if they weren't sure of the word yet.

I love this song, I just feel that it is a hard song to have as the last of the year. We have only this month to focus on reviewing because our program is the 22nd and all the Sundays in September are going to be used to practice for the program. We need to have the song Program Ready by then.
Here is a link to download my visuals as a zip file or you can "Save image as" each of the following.

I had a request for a copy with "no words" for use in other languages.

link to download no words version

I hope my visuals help someone. I do them in black and white to make it easy on your printers. (I can only print in b&w) and you can color them yourself your have children in your primary color them for you. Note: most of my clip art are from the Church's webside coloring pages for Primary children. I do not have the copyrights to those pages. The rest of the image I found on the internet under public domain clip art or I made them myself. You may not use my visuals for any purpose other than personal or church use. Any uses that result in you making money is prohibited.

Teaching "Families Can be Together Forever"

2013-07-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

I made up some quick visuals using MOSTLY coloring pages from the church website.

You can download them by right click and saving as

download as a zip file {here} at box.net

Sick all week

2013-06-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

We get home from spending time up in Mesa and I was looking forward to spending time with friends from around here and such, we went to the park on Monday morning (we were visit teaching one of our sisters, we find the park nice because we all have children and our children can play and life is good). After naps on Monday Rose woke up with a fever. It is now Saturday and that fever hasn't fully gone away. Nellie has had a little bit of a fever.
I just want our lives back!

Singing Time Jeopardy

2013-06-30T00:04:00.002-07:00

picture stole from pinterst if it is yours sorry.

These are my questions and points. Over all I tried to make the questions more hard or more personal as the points increase. Instead of calling it a "daily double" I called it a "double dare" if they complete the dare they get double the points. You can split them into teams or as I like to do we as a primary are a team together to see how many points we can collectively get before our time is over. With the "double dare" if they will not complete the dare another child an do the dare for the points on the card. Another way to help sing more as part of this "singing time" is have the primary sing the verse the question goes to, then have the child answer the question. I do not make the children answer the question in the form of a question.

Each song is its own category.

I am a Child of God

100         You are a child __ ___
200         Sing song while standing on one leg (3^rd verse).
300         Which verse says: “help me to understand His words”
400         Double Dare: Sing first verse all by yourself
500         Sing song without saying the word CHILD
600         With parents ____ and dear.
700         Sing the whole song while patting your knees to the song’s rhythm.
800         How do you feel Heavenly Father’s love for you being His child?

My Heavenly Father Loves Me

100         Feel what on your face
200         Sing second verse while rolling your arms “do as I’m doing” style
300         Sing first verse while facing the “back” of the room
400         What creation are you thankful fore?
500         He gave me my ____ my ____ my ____
600         Double Dare: Sing first verse all by yourself while touching your nose
700         Sing second verse while covering your eyes (or you the chorister can choose their ears)
800         Which verse is your favorite part of this song. Please sing it for us.

If the Savior Stood Beside Me

100         Would I ___ the things I do?
200         Sing first verse while touching your elbow
300         Would I try to share the ______
400         Sing second verse while swaying arms like an elephant (reverently)
500         What do you do to show HF you love him
600         Sing third verse while scratching like a monkey (reverently)
700         Even though you can’t see Him you are in His ______ ______
800         Share an experience where you felt close to our Savior/HF?

The Sacred Grove

100         Morning sun shone _____ and round
200         Sing second verse marching quietly in place
300         Double Dare: Sing the first verse just your class.
400         Who appeared to Joseph Smith?
500         What were the fears Joseph had?
600         Sing the whole song while “leading” the music
700         What was the message that calmed Joseph’s fears?
800         What age was Joseph when he went to pray in the sacred grove

We Thank thee o God for a prophet

100         Sing song with a BIG smile
200         The gospel _____our minds with its rays
300         Double Dare: Pick one friend to come sing the song with you
400         Who is our prophet currently?
500         Pleasure to do what?
600         Who is your favorite prophet in the scriptures –why?
700         Sing song with your hands on your head and your legs crossed while standing.
800         Share an experience when you felt the Holy Ghost testify about a prophet? Scriptures, current, general conference, while someone else bore their testimony….

When I am Baptized

100         Double Dare: Sing first verse just you and the class across the isle from your class.
200         Ponder on the beauty of what made clean again?
300         Sing song pretending to reverently hula hoop
400         What washes away when we are baptized?
500         Sing second verse hold your neighbor’s hand.
600         Why are their rainbows after rain?
700         What does “Improve yourself each day” mean?
800         Share how you felt on your baptism day? Or how do you feel about being able to be baptized?

Extra bonus

100         What is the name of the primary president?
200         what Holiday is this week?
300         What is the bishop’s name?
400         What is the prophet’s first name?
500         What magazine does the church produce/print for children?
600         What do you get to decorate for Thursday’s ward party
700         What has been this month’s sharing time theme?
800         Share/Bare your testimony to us