Not a good Halloween.  I was running errands all the way up until it was time to gets the kids dressed.  We dressed, took pictures, and ran over to Grandma's to see everyone.  Carol, Heidi, and David were all stuck in horrible traffic so we decided to wait so we could see them.  Anyway, I was trying to be a good Aunt and take Halley trick or treating to a few houses so her parents could eat.  I did not communicate to my husband what I was doing, but had assumed he had heard that I was leaving and he was watching Emma.  There were 6 adults at Grandmas and Emma still wandered off.  We had sent the older kids trick or treating together around the block and apparently she was trying to find them.

I only went to a few houses with Halley and came back and realized Emma was gone.  I ran up and down every street yelling her name and asking people if they had seen a purple princess.  I did not know I could run that long... but everytime I was tiring out it was sheer willpower that kept me going.  I started to circle back thinking maybe she'd been turned in.  I ran into a tall banana who was also running.  He had heard me yelling for her on another street and had started running down the streets looking for her too.  Finally a lady found her at a haunted house with Errolyn.  Apparently, Emma caught up to Errolyn around the block on another street, so Errolyn just kept Emma with her and took her trick or treating.  I am SO glad she is safe!  Talk about panic!  I'm so grateful for so many nice people that were looking for her also and came and found me afterwards to see if she had been found.  That's it.  That's all I want to talk about.  I think I need to install a device on Emma so if she wanders more than 10 feet from us an alarm will sound.

So, this last week I was super, super busy and we ended up going out to eat a lot.  I've noticed that when I increase my sugar intake or processed foods/ fat intake (e.g. going out to eat) I get really cranky with my family.  Additionally, I'm not good at going hungry to lose weight so it's a huge effort to stick with a diet.  A ton of people at church have read this book called "Eat to Live" and lost an astonishing amount of weight.  Additionally, some of them had diabetes or were just sick all of the time and now they are fine and have tons of energy.  I decided to read the book and now I'm convinced.  Even though I don't agree with everything said in the book (e.g. I think you need a lot of protein for breakfast to have more energy), I do agree that in general people need to be eating a LOT more fruits and vegetables and way less processed foods, dairy, meat, sugar, salt, etc.  The cancer and heart disease studies quoted constantly in the book were very convincing.  The essence of this way of living is, you only eat foods that are high in nutrients, vitamins, or minerals.  If they're not high in nutrients, why waste your calories on them because they all seem to cause cancer or heart disease?

Mike and I decided we would eat as the book suggests for 6 weeks, and then we will see if we should continue to eat this way or maybe modify the plan a little bit.  I honestly believe, even before reading the book, that many diseases and problems are a result of our diet choices, so I'd like to eat healthier in the end.  Anyway, the first day was not a great success because everything tasted so bland, but the second day I finally got some good tasting recipes.  It will be a huge effort to find good tasting "nutritarian" recipes that don't require cooking for hours, but I will find them.

The first recipe I got from my friend, Candice, and I modified it a little bit.  I had this for breakfast and it was pretty good... it will probably be my staple breakfast, but I have some oatmeal recipes I want to try too.  Also, the ingredients sound gross... but they actually taste good all together and are super healthy... I don't eat gross things.  This is specific for my size blender, so proportions may need to be lessened for smaller blenders.  It is very filling and big, so cut in half or share for a smaller smoothie.

HUGE Green Smoothie
Fill blender with 16 oz. of water
Add greens to 32 oz. line (I used 2 lrg handfuls of spinach and 1 lrg handful of kale, but I will try even more tomorrow)
Blend
Add 1 banana (just added an extra banana and it was even better!)
Add about 2/3 cup white beans (I added for protein and couldn't taste a difference)
Blend
Add 3/4 of apple
Add small handful of frozen blueberries
Blend
Add 2 handfuls of frozen strawberries
Blend
Add 2 more handfuls of frozen strawberries
Blend
Add 1 Tablespoon Ground Flaxseed
Blend
Enjoy your super healthy, all natural, and still good tasting smoothie!

(On a side note, my land sickness after my cruise went after the day after I complained about it on this blog... lol.  I just needed to complain to heal; j/k.)

Oh my goodness... my friend Candice just sent me an e-mail about her cousin's family.  I get e-mails once in a while about people with cancer and what not and it just breaks my heart.  This particular family has two girls in the same family with the same rare disease.  I watched the video on their website and made it about half way through without crying and then I lost it and bawled the rest of the video.  It breaks my heart how much this family and these two little girls (and even their son) has had to endure.  It makes me extremely grateful for the small trials my family has had.  Anyway, just thought I'd share.  I think we'll be donating when Mike gets his Christmas bonus.

Blog: fishesformarrowwishes.blogspot.com

Fundraiser for the girls: seefishcreate.bigcartel.com/products

I'm pretty sure only Linda reads my blog now that we've switched from Xanga... but I guess it doesn't matter since this is my journal in a way.  I am DONE with my English class.  I got 100 in the class.  :)  I really enjoy writing.  I decided to withdraw from the Speech class I had registered for to start on Monday.  I just am too busy and need to catch back up on housework and my kids.  I looked at the syllabus and it was going to be three times as much work as my English class (which was a LOT of writing) and I just don't have time for that right now.  Additionally, it was not a required class, but an elective.  It's the same price to register for two classes as one class, and me not wanting to waste money registered for a 2nd class... yeah, not happening right now. 

I am teaching violin up at the middle school one day a week which has been fun and some extra money.  I'm also planning a Multi-faith Choir performance for next year so I've been busy creating documents, organization, and setting the frame work for that.  I'm also conducting the Messiah every Sunday and we just had two days of solo auditions that I had to judge.  We have some good soloists again!  We just did our family pictures, so I don't have to worry about that for Christmas cards anymore.  I really need to clean my house and start ordering Christmas presents though!

David and Heidi are moving here soon, which will be fun!  We'll definitely get to see them more, but how often will depend on where they buy a house since our city is very spread out.  Errolyn had a volleyball game yesterday and they didn't have enough players so they had to play the whole hour.  I've been working with her on her serves and she was so excited that she made most of her serves at the game yesterday.  Logan had a soccer game at the same time and scored the only goal.  I sold my ALJ stock this week and made some good money, but of course it rose way more after I sold it.  I need to be less conservative in my selling points... but at least I'm still making good money and learning the ins and outs of the stock market.

We went to the Updike's last night to catch up and play games; we had fun as usual.  :)

I don't know if I can ever go on another cruise again.  :(  I had a GREAT time on the cruise and wasn't sick at all!  But, since I've gotten off of the boat I've been very, very motion sick.  I've realized that if I move slowly or not at all, then it's not so bad.  But today, I went grocery shopping and with all of the quick turns to get food off the shelves and go down all of the rows, my head was spinning so fast and my eyes hurt so badly that I could barely open them by the time I left the store.  This has been going on for a week.

I've looked online about my vertigo symptoms and think I have Mal de Debarquement Syndrome, which is not well studied but happens occasionally after cruises or long term motion activities.  Apparently, the brain can become so adept at adapting to the motion that it thinks the motion is normal and so you become land sick instead of sea sick.  So, I somehow need to figure out how to snap my brain back into knowing that how I live now is normal.  There are no cures for this.  Everyone says it just takes time: days, weeks, months, years, and some people never get over this.  I'm hoping it will be over sooner rather than later.  But when I dream now, I dream of rocking back and forth or being on a boat... not good.

I called my ENT and they said I need to see an Ophthalmologist who says I need to see a Neurologist.  I don't think anyone knows what to do and after reading for a while online, I don't think there's anything they can do.  So, I will wait one more week before going to the doctor and pray.  Meanwhile, I feel like I'm drugged up because my world is in constant motion and everything is spinning.

And I have finished my final project for English!  Whew!  I also just completed two discussion postings today and one was quite interesting. 

"If you found a magic pen that would allow you to write something that would create a profound change in the reader, in other words, the person/s reading your text would, act, do, or be convinced as a result....what would you write and who would you address your text to?" 

Of course, what do you think I wrote about?  Haha... 

Only, when I wrote my answer, I tried to testify without being too religious in my answer.  I did not mention the name of my church in the post.  I was talking to Mike afterwards and I told him that I feel like I never tell people I'm Mormon.  For instance, in this class we had many discussion posts and if I offended someone I didn't want them to associate my church with perhaps my offensive words.  It's the same reason I don't have an LDS or BYU sticker on my car... if I'm driving badly, I don't want someone to say, "Those crazy Mormons."  And as I was talking to Mike I realized... I feel like I have to be perfect to testify of my church because I want people to think the best of it.  But, if I wait until I'm perfect to testify, then I will never testify.  So, I went back and edited my post to include the name of my church.  It's not the best testimony I've ever written, as I was trying to keep it low key since it's for a class, but I'm proud that I added my church name.  I'm proud that I'm a Mormon. Maybe I'll go buy a BYU bumper sticker now.  ;) 

"My letter would be to all mankind and I would write about God, Jesus Christ, and their teachings.  I would write about moral principles that have remained unchanged in God’s eyes even though society has changed them.  I would write about prayer and that prayers can be answered if a person has faith and does what they need to do to remain close to the Holy Spirit.  I would write about scripture study and how studying the words of the prophets not only teaches us more about Christ but can guide us in our daily lives for the better.  I would write that there is a divine purpose for us being sent to Earth, that we are all God’s children, and that his son, Jesus Christ, atoned for our sins so we can return to live with Him again.  I would write about how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the Mormon church, has changed my life for the better, and how happy it has made me.  I would write that part of God’s eternal plan is that families can live together forever, not just in this life alone.  

I don’t share my beliefs maybe as often as I should because I don’t want people to discount what I say on the basis that I’m some religious fanatic.  But, if I truly had a pen that could help people desire to act upon my words, I would choose the topic that is most dear to me and that I feel would help people the most, and that is to encourage a belief in God, Jesus Christ, and their doctrine."

Catching up...

Errolyn started volleyball and Logan started soccer.  Both are doing well and Logan is the star goal scorer as usual.  General Conference was wonderful, especially Elder Holland's talk about depression.  I'm not depressed or anything, but was at one point in my life and know many people who are... so I bet his talk was extra inspiring.  But honestly, Elder Holland could read the phone book and I would still feel extra inspired... lol.  Maybe not, but he's such a powerful speaker, no matter the topic.

So, three weeks ago, I was starting to worry that we would not have a 15 year Anniversary celebration because of some events we are planning for (we do something big every 5 years).  So, we decided to celebrate a couple of months early.  We found a super cheap cruise to the Bahamas and booked it.  We hired a young single adult in our ward to babysit the kids all week, and Carol came over a couple of evenings to help.

The cruise was SO wonderful!!  The first day, we flew to Orlando and then took a shuttle to Port Canaveral.  We sailed on Royal Caribbean and it was great!  The first night Mike and I started getting a little sea sick so we tried the sea bands we had brought and they did nothing.  So, we took some ginger capsules I had brought and they worked wonderfully.  We kept up on our ginger and were not sick the rest of the trip.  Actually, I'm more sea sick now that I'm home... lol.  I have been having vertigo ever since the cruise and still feel like I'm rocking... hopefully it'll go away soon.  Anyway, I won't go into every single detail, but we attended a lot of the live game shows or trivia games on board, we ate way too much (Windjammers, Park Café, and the My Fair Lady Dining Room were all free and had good food), and we relaxed.  The boat was quite large and it was so peaceful to sit on the top deck and watch the waves and talk.  It was very relaxing and fun.

The first day we took tender boats to Coco Cay, a small island owned by the cruise company.  We went snorkeling which I am not very good at.  We saw some really cool fish and jelly fish.  After that we walked along the beach.  We had been worried about the Tropical Storm earlier in the week, but it didn't affect us at all and the weather was just beautiful!  We found some hammocks and laid down and eventually fell asleep... but not for long.  I had just drifted off when a rooster (I had no idea they were on the island) walked up right in front of my hammock and crowed really loudly.  I was so startled from my sleep that I screamed and leapt from the hammock, getting my foot stuck and frantically trying to free it.  When I realized what had woke me up, Mike and I both laughed.  I'm convinced the rooster is either mean or has a good sense of humor because it then walked over to the next set of hammocks and did the same thing.  It was funny to see the other couple who had been sleeping leap up from their hammocks too... lol.  Then we played in a volleyball tournament which was fun and then got back on the boat.

We got dressed for formal night and had a good evening.  The next day we docked in Nassau and took a group taxi to see some of the historical sites there.  We saw a couple of forts, government buildings, this really cool 5-star hotel that had gorgeous gardens, Queen Anne's staircase, the Atlantis, and some local shops.  We didn't enjoy seeing the Cuban Cigar making room at the hotel... it stank and Mike and I left the group to wait outside.  We ate lunch on the ship and then came back and went shopping for souvenirs and I got my hair braided with corn rows on top and beaded braids in the back.  It was fun!

The rest of the trip was filled was a lot of relaxing, eating, having fun, and just spending time together.  Mike also did some bungee jumping thing and climbed the rock wall.  We had a wonderful trip!  We flew back with Mike's airline points and Carol brought the kids to surprise us at the airport which was nice.  I sure missed them a lot!!

Now that we're back, I'm in the thick of the Messiah and am now planning a multi-faith choir for next June.  I had to cram all of last week's English work into the previous work so I could take the week off.  This is the last week of my English class and then I begin my Speech class.  I also have started teaching violin lessons at the Middle School during the class periods one day a week, so that's been fun.  Cameron went on a big 5-Stake Scout camp-out this last weekend to celebrate 100 years in Scouting.  President Beck, the general YM President was there.

Saturday night we all went to Mike's company party.  They had booths all over the place with different kinds of food and games.  The three soccer fields were covered with moon bounces, rock walls, zip lines, etc. and the kids all had a great time.  Afterwards we drove to the roof to watch the fireworks.  Cameron went to a leadership meeting and fireside last night with Pres. Beck again and enjoyed hearing him speak as well as seeing his friends from the other wards.

I think that's it... whew.  :)

Lol...

Quotes for the day, both by Logan...

Logan: Can I have this orange?
Me: Yes, but that's a lemon not an orange.
Logan: I hate lemons, they're made of Warheads.

Me: Why are you watching TV without doing your chart first?
Logan: I'm sorry.  I'm watching General Conference and it's just so sacred.
Me: (I look at the TV and see he's watching the Relief Society Broadcast) Oh.  Well, you can watch this anytime you want.

I love my Logan!

This is a test for Dad.  ;)  I know the kids and I haven't written lately.  I just have too much going on right now.  David and Heidi came last week and it was good to see them again.  I loved, loved holding Miles!  And Carter was his cute usual self.  I don't know Halley very well yet, but hopefully I'll get the opportunity real soon.  ;)  I started teaching violin lessons today at the Middle School.  I'll be teaching each week while Emma is in Mother's Day Out and it will be a nice little income.  I had a dress rehearsal tonight for my concert on Thursday.  Logan and Errolyn started soccer and volleyball.  My first Messiah rehearsal went well.  I submitted a proposal for a multi-faith choir and it was approved.  Now I get to plan it... yea (half sarcasm, half real).  I have a research paper due for English that I need to start.  I have to go to the doctor for a sinus infection tomorrow.  My car's oil life is down to 5% so I have to get an oil change tomorrow.  I'm also over due for a haircut which I'm getting tomorrow.  Lots of laundry and cleaning to do.  The government is shut down and so my stocks are in limbo.  That's it.  I'm too tired.