The dreaded Shot!

I promised. I did. I told her that it was going to hurt but that it would be worth it when she was feeling better by tomorrow. She didn't want to believe me because she hates Shots!

I am talking about my 8 year old daughter. Today we had to take her to insta-care because she had a pretty high fever (Again) and her throat was hurting her pretty badly. They were busy, busy, busy. We looked at magazines and she played on my phone while waiting. Finally after waiting for over an hour the doctor came in and told us that her culture had come back positive for strep throat (totally what I expected to hear). She then gave us the options...... 1. Take a liquid medication for 2 weeks OR 2. get the shot, one time and don't worry about it ever again.

Here are the things I know. 1. The medication works! IT does, however it takes a few days to kick in well enough for you to start feeling better. 2. The shot works. I know it does, same concept. However you start feeling better THAT DAY or THE NEXT DAY!

As I explained it to my daughter, and I told her that if she wanted to feel better quickly that she should choose the shot over the medication, she looked at me and finally said. Okay mom, I believe you.

As she got the shot, she wasn't very happy with me and she screamed! However after a few minutes and some crazy off the subject conversation and a yummy popsicle from the nurse, she was fine. She came to me this evening and said her throat still hurts a little but it feels a lot better.

It felt good to know that I was there to assure her that even though it would hurt, that it would help her feel better faster. She still loves me, even though she hates shots :)

Spending time with mom

I don't get a whole lot of time with my mom as we live in different cities. Today my mom took me to the Salon and I got my hair cut. I love to go there with my mom and we have turned it into a tradition. Every few months we go and get our hair done, or pedicures, or manicures, etc. It is so much fun!

I got my hair cut today. It feels so good to get all the damaged ends cut off. My head feels lighter. I just love the feel of healthy hair.

Even though my poor daughter isn't feeling well (which was the cause of all her beastly behavior last night) I was still able to go with my mom to the salon and enjoy some time with her. That really makes me happy :)

Cynthia

Child of God

Today has been a very hard day for my dear daughter who has epilepsy. She is on a medication that makes her restless. She takes the medication and she tosses and turns all night long. She is super Hyper in the mornings, does good during school, then is super mean, angry, and Tired in the evenings. Today was one of the worst days since she was diagnosed. As the day progressed she got mean and angry but more than usual. I started to get upset but then I remembered. It isn't her fault and no matter what she is a Child of God.

Remembering that helped me to calm down and work with her and help her get it together. She is now in bed and sleeping but it won't be long before she is tossing and turning. Hopefully we can find a good amount of medication that helps to keep the seizures in control and not make her so angry and tired. Here's Hoping!

I Am A Child Of God

I am a child of God and he has sent me here, has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear, lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way, teach me all that I must do to live with him someday.

I am a child of God and so my needs are great, help me to understand his words before it grows to late, lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way, teach me all that I must do to live with him someday.

I am a child of God, Rich blessings are in store, if I but learn to do his will, I'll live with him once more. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way, teach me all that I must do to live with him someday.

I can't get this song out of my head!

It is a great thing and it makes me smile, and I can't get it out of my head!

The song is from Michael McLean's M2B:) soundtrack. It is called Paul and John. I love it and OOOOOOOO I am having a good time with it today. I have had several OOOOOOOHHH moments today. Tonight is the best one. I got ready to go to the gym and I walked outside and it was really foggy. The first thing that came to my mind was A foggy day (Frank Sinatra) I started singing it and realized that my town would fit in this song really well. I sang it all the way to the gym and then I sang it again as I left the gym! I was having so much fun. Anyway I like to sing OOOOOOHHH with Michael as he sings on his cd. I love it. I am always happy when I am singing that song. My kids look at me funny when I sing along as loud as I can, but it is worth it!

I am looking forward to many more OOOOOOOHHHHH moments in my life!

When I sing OOOooooOoOoooOOHHHHhHHHhhh!

Cynthia

Running!

I used to be a runner. I would run a few miles a day. I loved it. well that is until I got pregnant with my first kid. (Now if my parents are reading this they are probably wondering how they didn't know I used to run, well mom and dad I started running when I was in College and I have loved it since). About 4 months into my pregnancy I started showing signs of Toxemia. They put me on bed rest (as if I listened, and my parents didn't know that either because if they would have known they would have made me stay on bedrest) I tried to slow things down and I quit running. It was hard to go from running a few miles a day to NOTHING! I had to sit on the couch or rest. I tried my best to keep from doing things but I just can't sit still that long. ANYWAY not the point of the story, the point is that I like to run.

Yesterday as I was at the gym I thought to myself, hey I am overweight but I am feeling good. I turned up the treadmill speed and I began running.....IT FELT SOOOOO GOOD! I ran for 5 minutes before I had to slow down. I wasn't running really fast but fast enough to feel that wonderful burst of energy.

I am looking forward to running more often, as a matter of fact I am going to go running on the treadmill tonight....IT FEELS GREAT!!! :)

Have a happy day!

Beginning of the week blues

It seems that as every week ends, a new one begins. Life just keeps going on. Sometimes I wish we could just stop time long enough to grieve and then move on, but that isn't the way things happen. We have to continually go through life as we learn to deal with grieving amidst everything else. I still have to get up in the morning and get my kids ready for school and take care of the baby and do chores and pay bills. I can't stop doing those things because if I do then my family suffers with me. I have found a few ways to deal with it though. I have been going to counseling which really helps, I have a couple friends who I can talk to when times get tough, and I have learned to do fun things with my kids. Sometimes I have days when I just don't want to get out of bed and I miss the ability to have more children and I miss the baby, but I try to remember that I do have such wonderful family and friends. I have 3 precious children that I have been given the blessing to have here on earth. I have a wonderful husband who tries his hardest to understand what I am going through. I hope that with time things will get easier. My counselor issued me a challenge to allow myself to go through the emotions I am feeling and remember that it is okay to feel that way. I try to remember that as I am going through this.

I have found many ways to get through each day, one of them is to write on this blog, which I haven't done in a while. Another is to read the blogs of other people on a M2B:). Their links are on my sidebar so please feel free to check out their blogs as well. As I said before I have good friends and family who are willing to listen. Some days are harder than others but I am doing my best. I am on a mission to be happy despite the tragedy that has happened in our life. I strive to be happy each and every day.

Happy day to you all!

Snow, Groceries, and Posters

There are days when Happiness is hard for me to find. Today wasn't one of those days.

I LOVE SNOW! I woke up this morning and I looked out the window and it was coming down! LOTS and LOTS, and I thought wow, if we lived in Washington or on the East Coast, Schools would have been cancelled, but we live in UTAH! Most schools don't shut down unless you can't get to them, he he. So I got up and got the kids ready and took them to school.

I then went shopping with a friend. I really enjoy grocery shopping much more when I have a friend to talk to while doing it. Today was just such a day. It was nice to have her there. We had a good talk and enjoyed each others company all while getting that nasty Shopping chore out of the way. (Have you caught that I hate shopping yet?)

Tonight I got together with other members of the PTA as we are preparing for a big event. The Elementary Winter Olympics! It is going to be our big activity/fundraiser. We are excited to be putting this on and we want to get the kids really excited about it, so we got together tonight to make posters. We made 8 posters and point cards for the judges. It was a lot of fun to sit and visit with the other ladies and make posters. It was like being in High school again :) So much fun!

Have a happy day!

A great opportunity

In November my oldest daughter, age 8, was diagnosed with Epilepsy. When things happen to us like this I tend to lean towards serving to help me get through the tough times and to learn more about the situation that I am in. Well this time was no different. I got online and I researched a lot about Epilepsy and what causes it and what treatments are out there. I also researched support groups and associations and found an association in Utah.

It is called the Epilepsy Association of Utah. It is located in West Jordan. I contacted them through email and told them I would be very interested in learning more about Epilepsy and that I would be interested in starting a support group in Northern Utah because there wasn't one North of Salt Lake City.

Today the Executive Director came to my home and met with me and decided I would be a great candidate for starting a support group. We talked a lot about the problems people with epilepsy face and the laws that protect them. We talked about the things that my daughter may one day face.

I am excited to become the support group leader and I can't wait to learn more about Epilepsy and how I can help others know that they are not alone. I know how scary it can be to be alone in things and I know that if I can just help one person, then my job is worth it.

Cynthia

Tough Day....little miracles

Today I was having a pretty rough day. I was thinking a lot about things and it was one of the hardest days I have had since the surgery. As a result I spent most of the day sitting around and doing nothing. I am sure the kids noticed I was having a hard day and so they kind of stayed upstairs and let me have some alone time. Yes they had their fighting moments but it was still mostly peaceful. I was still having somewhat of a hard time tonight so I told my husband that we needed some things from the store so we could make something quick for dinner. He decided to take my five year old son with him. They were gone for about 20 minutes.

All of a sudden I heard the clunking of my sons snow boots running down the sidewalk to the house. The door FLEW open and there he was at my side with some Pretty pink roses. He told me that he wanted to get me some flowers and daddy helped him. That made me very happy. What a sweet little 5 year old miracle I have. He may be small but he sure made my day!

Cynthia

Twister and Tic Tac Toe

This weekend we decided that the Television had taken up way too much time lately and so we chose to turn it off! I Know what a shocker, there is actually an OFF button on it! The kids were amazed. Then they were, of course, bored. What should we do they say.....well then Mommy got a crazy awesome idea. WE HAVE TWISTER!!! Twister, the good game of our youth. To make it better the one we have is one that My husbands Grandma had for a very long time. Anyway we pulled it out and the kids wanted to play.

First my brother got to spin while The kids and I played. Right hand, Red. Left Foot, Blue. Etc.

We had so much fun playing twister. We figured out that my daughter is VERY bendy that night too. She could literally twist herself into a pretzel! It was amazing.

After playing Twister we decided to play another game. My son got Toss across tic tac toe, for Christmas and so we had a competition. The winner played the next person. It was also a lot of fun. The game soon turned into a bean bag fight and we fought with those bean bags for Hours. Still haven't found the missing 6th bean bag....maybe it is under the couch ;)

Needless to say we had a good time playing the old time games (well at least to us) and we will definitely do that again!

Have a happy day

Cynthia

My Heavenly Father Loves ME!

HE LOVES ME! He really does! Just look at the beauty of the earth, the majesty of the mountains, the amazing oceans, the Sky, the clouds, the trees and flowers, The fruits and Vegetables, the colors. He must really love us to give us such beauty. Most of all he must love us because guess what!? HE gave us Hands, eyes, ears, to touch, see and feel all these wonderful miracles! I am continually amazed with the Creation of the earth.

I haven't had an opportunity to teach a lesson for Sunday school for about 8 or 9 months now so when the Sunday school president called and asked if I could teach tomorrow I happily agreed. I really enjoy teaching and I was excited to have the opportunity again.

Tomorrow I am going to get up in front of everyone, something I couldn't do a year and a half ago without nearly passing out, and I get to talk about the Creation. When I think about the Creation my favorite Primary song comes to my mind

My Heavenly Father Loves Me
Whenever I hear the song of a bird,
or look at the blue blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face,
or the wind as it rushes by,
Whenever I touch a velvet rose,
Or walk by a lilac tree,
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world
Heavenly father Created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see
the color of Butterfly wings,
He gave me my ears that I might hear
the magical sound of things
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart,
I thank him reverently
For all his creations of which I am part
Yes I know Heavenly Father loves me.

This has always been my most favorite primary song. It shows the love Heavenly father has for each of us. He created this earth, he created the flowers and the trees, he created all the beauty of the mountains and he created us. He made us so that we could feel pain, anger, and sorrow, but he also made us so we could feel happiness, joy, and Love. He gave us eyes that we can see the beauty of the earth, he gave us hands so we could feel the textures of things, he gave us our hearts that we could feel.

I am continually amazed at the beauty of the world. I can sit and stare at the sky for hours and ponder the wonders of the earth. I look at the mountains, valleys, and formations of the world and have no doubt in my mind that Heavenly Father loved us enough to make them.

I can't wait to teach tomorrow.

I know Heavenly Father loves me every time I see the beauty of the world.

Cynthia

Rockin' Out GNO!

Tonight was Girls Night Out. I have a group of friends who try to get together once in a while to do a GNO. TONIGHT we went to a friends house who hadn't been to the GNO's in a while. It was a lot of fun. We visited, ate yummy GOODIES and caught up. Then it was off to DOWNSTAIRS where we pulled out the ROCK BAND. We each took turns playing DRUMS, Singing, and playing the Guitar. We had a BLAST. I really ENJOYED playing with the girls. AFTER we played ROCKBAND we put in a movie and WATCHED it.

TONIGHT really helped me. I needed a night where I could JUST sit and RELAX and not worry about the things of the WORLD. It is FUN to be around FRIENDS and I really enjoy BEING with them. I hope that my FRIENDS really understand how GREAT they really are.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

So this movie just makes me happy. It is funny, has a good meaning and has some catchy phrases. I have watched it several days in a row with the kids! My kids love it and that makes me happy too. Some of my favorite phrases are

"STEVE"

"You did it Chicken Brent"

"A scrunchee, Wow I haven't seen one of those since 1995"

"You and I both know how you get around Gummy Bears"

"Peanut brittle, if either one of us touch it we will go into anaphilactic shock"

"you thought having allergies would make you more attractive?"

"Uh-Oh"

"I can't believe I am gonna be a temporary professional weather person!"

"Our towns hero and my metaphorical son"

"Who Am I?"

"I need a Celery, Stat"

"come on Steve, We've got Diem to Carpe"

"Flying Car II Now with wings"

"NO SCHOOL!"

Needless to say there are a lot of funny phrases that just make me giggle and for a few hours I laugh and don't think much about the world.

If you haven't seen it, You need to. FUNNY!, and seriously it really makes my day.

Cynthia

Exercise exchange :)

I have not been very good at making a lot of friends in the ward I live in. I have one really really good friend that I do a lot with. It isn't like I am not friends with people, I just don't do things with them very often. Anyway I need to branch out. Anyway I volunteered to watch one of my friends kids and we got to talking and we have quite a bit in common. We are around the same age (she is 3 years younger, lucky her). We decided that we should exchange babysitting so that we could go work out. Well so far so good. She watched my kids yesterday so I could go work with my physical trainer and I watched her kids this morning.

I love the little moments in life, the kids were so cute, and you can tell that they love their mommy very much. My daughter loved playing with them and thought it was neat to have some kids in the house when her brother and sister were at school.

I enjoy being a mom. I love the ups and downs and the neat things I have learned. Being a mom makes me happy, Exercising makes me happy and New friends make me happy. Have a great day!

Cynthia

Miracles in Music

Music has a most fabulous way of making my day. Today I decided I was going to put in a couple of cd's I hadn't listened to in a long time. One of them was Michael McLeans Hope Hiding album. The first song on the Cd is "You must believe There are Miracles". Amazing song and it applies so much in my life, especially in the last few months.

Well while the song was playing and I was thinking about all the great miracles in my life, I looked out the window and it started Snowing! Snowing! It was coming down and literally as soon as the song was over it stopped. I don't know about anyone else but I sure needed that little miracle today.

God has an amazing way of showing us how much he loves us. Today I believe it and thank him so much for that small little miracle.

Cynthia

Things that have made me happy this year! (a quick recap of the 1st 10 days of the year)

Okay so since I didn't start this on the 1st of January, here is a quick recap.

January
1st- Spent the day at my dads and with lots of family. Had yummy Mexican food.

2nd- went to my Grandparents and had a yummy lunch with the family. Good to see them again.

3rd- went to church and made an appointment for my daughter. Had a good rest and recouped for the week.

4th-went to the gym and signed up to work with a personal trainer. So excited to get into shape!

5th-Had a consultation with the physical trainer

6th- Went to the gym, worked out, slept the best I had since the surgery in October! That made me very happy

7th-Took the kids to school, got some PTA things done and had a very good day :)

8th-It was my daughters 8th birthday today! She is so excited to get baptized and that makes me happy!

9th- My family came up to go to lunch with my daughter for her birthday. She wanted to go to Golden Corral and so we did. She loved it! That makes me very happy.

10th- My daughter had her interview with the Bishop for her Baptism.

Today is January 11th. Here I am. The things that have made me happy today are nothing short of amazing.

1. I decided to do this blog. I met Michael McLean after going to the Forgotten Carols in December. I told him a little bit about my life and he suggested that maybe I needed to be on a mission to be happy. And so I thought about it for a while and here I am. Thank you Michael!

2. I am sitting on my bed in the warm sun. The warmth I feel is amazing. It feels like a big hug from the Sun. I love it!

3. I have been getting warm sticky kisses from my doughnut faced little girl. I love them.

4. I just have to share something that happened yesterday that made me really happy and then I will be done for today.....

I was sitting in Sacrament meeting and thinking about the things that had happened in the last 3 months. As I pondered the things that happened, we started singing the sacrament hymn. Thy will Oh Lord Be done.

As I sang the song, I was thinking about the words and it struck me that I had been asking our Heavenly father to stop giving me trials for a while, but as I continued to sing that song I realized that He knows what I can handle and will only give me what I can handle at that time in my life. The things that have happened in the last three months have been tragic, scary and unthinkable. I wouldn't wish them on anyone, however I would not change my situation for the world. I am glad they happened to me and they have increased my knowledge and faith in the Lord. I am ready to do his will. It is his not mine. If it means that I have to go through trials then I am willing to do so. Jesus suffered through all of these trials just so we could live with God again. If he can do it and not complain, well then I at least need to try.

I hope you will all join me on my mission to be happy. Please feel free to leave comments, I love comments, and I love all of you.

Cynthia

On a Mission to be Happy

Okay I know that some of you might think that I am absolutely insane.....well I am but that isn't the point. I have decided to do a blog for my Mission to Be Happy. Inspired by none other than Michael McLean. I know it has taken me some time to get this blog up and running but it makes me happy to do it :).

So today is going to be my first post. I am going to do my best to blog something that makes me happy every day :) I hope you all enjoy reading and welcome to my Mission to be Happy!

Cynthia