Guest Blogger: Temple Name Sorter by the Dog Walker

My mom is having a little bit of writer's blocks right now, so she asked me to guest blog for her. Are you sometimes fond of coming up with unique projects that might help a family with something that might be disorganized? Well, some of you may not know about this, but my family and I always love going to to the temple to make sacred covenants that would help us become better people living in the world and to set good examples for others, who might be searching for their Gospel in their lives.

For instance, we have a few cards that are set up as ancestors who lived on this earth in the previous centuries but never have received the Gospel from the time they lived on earth. According to our religion, we go to the temple to make covenants that are kept sacred from the outside world, because they help us understand how to be good people and wanting to live in heaven once again. We kept a bunch of names of the ancestors that we have in envelopes, and even Bossy and Gamer have ancestor names too. However, the envelopes have been wearing off for quite some time, and it got me into thinking of an idea that could help.

I went to Walmart to buy some cardboard to build a name sorting model into the shape of a beautiful temple. At first, I thought I would make it like little mail slots on each side for the names to be sorted. I thought I could make the exact amount of the names that need some things that need to be done in the temple. But, the slots were too small and I had to make some readjustments to make it easy for people to stick their big hands in to pick a name to take with them to the temple. It was hard to try to get enough glue stick in the right glue gun to make the cardboard on the inside to stay up and steady with sorting. 

 After that was done, I had to put a lot of strong packing tape around the box and seal them up so that they stay on. Then I thought of make a good looking steeple with an Angel Moroni on top that would make it look exactly like a temple. After I put it in the right shapes and sizes on top of the sealed box, I spray painted most of it white and spray painted the top gold for the Angel Moroni. It took a lot of coating just to make it look exactly white as snow. After all the paint was dry, I printed some fancy windows and an Angel Moroni to pack-tape onto it.

I got it done just in time before the rededication of the Jordan River Temple that was near our home. It was a great project that I ever made in my life and that it helped my family who go to the temple to make sacred covenants that would help them in their lives. I'm hoping that someday, the Gospel will be spread to everybody throughout the world and that they understand that what we're teaching them is true and that it leads to eternal happiness. I hope you enjoyed this project that I made.

Awards for Sport

Last Friday was the Awards Assembly for the 9th grade class at South Jordan Middle. I didn't want to miss telling you that Sport is an amazing student!

When did he get so tall?

He received several medals, including one for being an NJHS Officer and another for having a 4.0 GPA for all 3 years of middle school. When he was in 7th grade, SoJo started a new award called the Spirit Award. It was for academics, but also for school involvement. This year he received the Gold Spirit Award and then because he had earned the award for all 3 years, he received the Platinum Award.

NJHS Officers

I'm so proud of how hard he works to keep his grades right where he wants them to be. His cute friend was also awarded all of the same awards as Sport and then she received an overall excellence in French award. I guess Sport has some work to do to catch up. A little healthy competition is good, right?

Memories and Love

I love Memorial Day. On Sunday we visited 2 cemeteries, one for our sweet angel baby, Calder, and the other for my sweetie's half-brother who died in an accident while serving a mission for the LDS church. Then we left early this morning and stopped by 9 cemeteries on our circuitous course down through the middle of the state. Our first stop was Nephi where Grandpa's parents are buried. He grew up there and has such strong roots. His grandfather settled that area, but Grandpa wasn't with us today because he is off traveling in Europe with my oldest sister. (I know, but they didn't invite me...)

The second stop was in Gunnison. Li'l Brother and Li'l Sis were both there with their families to talk about several of our ancestors who lived in that area. I love sharing family history with my family! Then it was on to Centerfield, Axtell, Aurora... we stopped for lunch at a little park before starting the trek back toward home.

My mom is buried in Ephraim and I ran into a high school friend while we were there. I hadn't seen her in years even though I've watched her family grow and change via Facebook. Then it was Spring City before we met up with my MIL in Mt. Pleasant. The kids always love visiting with Grandma!

Finally! A rock they would let me stand on!

Of course we had to run to the Mt. Pleasant cemetery before we crawled through the canyon on our way through to Spanish Fork. An accident put us way behind schedule. Our last stop was Lindon for a quick minute before dark to place a flower on a tiny stillborn niece. You might think it was a sad and melancholy day, but it wasn't. It was beautiful and full of family and hope, memories and love.

Happy Memorial Day!

The Perfect Celebration

On Saturday night, Beauty and The Beast took my sweetie and me out to dinner. It started as a late Mother's Day dinner since they were both out of town then, but morphed into a Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Special Day for my awesome son! He is finally getting the promotion he has been promised at the bank effective June 1.

This is a big one and we are so proud of him! The restaurant he chose for us (and Little Warrior, of course) was Fleming's Steakhouse in the Gateway. I've never been to such a fancy place before, not even when we were on the East Coast. I thought it might be fun to step outside the box, so I got the special Steak and Lobster tail. I had never eaten lobster other than the lobster roll we had in Maine (delicious!), but honestly, it just wasn't my thing. I convinced my sweetie to give it a try and he wasn't impressed either.

But the steak and the salad were both amazing as was the carrot cake we had for dessert. The carrot cake came with my meal and was accompanied by a small bowl of whipped cream. I have never seen Little Warrior so excited in my life! He was pulling it in with both fists until the bowl was empty.

It was definitely the perfect celebration.

Girl Scout Sleepover 2018

Yesterday was our annual Girl Scout Sleepover. Some of the girls were missing because of the holiday weekend, but we still ordered pizza and ate goodies, and tied two more quilts, one for Primary Children's and one for Bossy. The kids had a great time watching the new Jumanji movie and then they drifted off to sleep to something a little less exciting.

Teach asked me if Twizlet could spend the night before she left. It had been the last week of school for her and a rough one. We had Twizlet spend the night once before and it was no big deal, but she was not happy this time. She threw a major fit for about an hour before she finally fell asleep on the couch. Less than an hour later, she was awake again, but this time a few snuggles put her back to sleep.

She was up before me and she loved the waffles!

Thank goodness Drama Queen was here to cook the waffles for breakfast, because I was still busy sleeping until she had them all done. The boys were even back from their party at Bossy's house! But all worked out well and we can move on to the next activity. I vote it's the last week of school...

Almost the Weekend

I've been working on our Grant Proposal for South Pointe Ballet today. It's been hard to concentrate on The Nutcracker in the middle of May, but if I don't get it turned in by June 1, then we will have a difficult time securing funding from the city. I'm so glad the last one just came off the printer.

We had a nice down day today, which was good since I wasn't feeling very well and I've been putting off some of these very important things like the grant proposal. The Girl Scout Sleepover is on Friday night (which is tonight!) and we always tie a quilt for Primary Children's Medical Center. Bossy also had several quilts she wanted to tie, so we set up early and got two of them done tonight.

Love this one for Bossy's new baby!

Tomorrow it will be back to the busy and crazy.... sort of makes me want to not go to bed.

It Came!

I was so excited to see this little black box arrive in my mail this week. Oh, I know Mother's Day is over, but I didn't mind waiting a little longer for Mama's Jewelry to send me my custom made Tree of Life. Actually, they were really fast considering I didn't even manage to get it ordered until about a week ago.

My girls absolutely love it. In fact, Baby Doll has made off with it a couple of times since it has been sitting on my desk. She is so excited to tell everybody that her stone is the "pink" one. They start at the top with Bossy's topaz and make their way down the trunk in order until the last one belonging to Baby Doll.

If I were super rich, I would have had it set with real jewels, but these are the less expensive but still beautiful version. Mama's Jewelry does give the option of real, but then I might have to lock it in a safe and I would much rather wear it.

Today I  put it on with one of my favorite t-shirts. Imagine how good it will look when I'm all dressed up on Sunday. Maybe I will even take another pic for you. But seriously, check out Mama's Jewelry. It will make your mama as happy as it did me.

***I received this beautiful pendant for my open and honest review.***

Lighting Up Memorial Day

Ever since he was little, the Dog Walker loved lights. He is in charge of changing out all of the burned bulbs and brightening dark corners. Headlamps, flashlights, lanterns, all kinds of lights really, but his favorite seems to be the holiday lights.

You already know that he goes all out for Christmas and Halloween every year, transforming our house into something magical. This year he spent some of his hard-earned cash (I hope he asked his wife first...!) to display our patriotic spirit for the summer holidays starting with Memorial Day.

I hope you all love red, white, and blue!

Happy Birthday, Bean Dip!

Today was the temple dedication for the Jordan River Temple. We had some of our family members attend each of the 3 sessions.

At 5:00 we had a barbecue for Bean Dip to celebrate his 16th birthday. The cloudburst at 4:00 put a damper on things so we set up the tables and the food and ate in the house, but the rain smelled amazing!

Bean Dip is usually pretty camera-shy, so I was excited to get a pic while he wasn't paying attention.

Just Another Saturday

We had a great day today! Curly went to the Tracy Aviary with his Cub Scout den and they sent us a bunch of cute pics, but this is my favorite.

Treehugger

While they were off having fun, my sweetie and I took Scout and Baby Doll to their softball games. Sadly, the games were right over the top of each other so I ended up watching Scout since she volunteered me to keep score, and my sweetie watched Baby Doll on the opposite field.

Scout's game was late getting started which was a big problem since she had to be at the church at 11:30 for the carpool downtown to the Conference Center. We made it with about 4 minutes to spare.

After the game, I took a nap for about an hour and got up just in time to watch the Cultural Celebration on TV. We had some great views of Crafty, but technical issues during Scout's part of the show, so I'm going to have to watch it again when I can really concentrate on finding her.

A quick trip to the store after that so we could be prepared for Bean Dip's birthday party tomorrow (that boy is turning 16!) and then we gathered the kids up and took them downtown again, but for the Bees game this time. These were our last 10 tickets from the Sing-a-long and we had just enough to take Taco and Burrito with us.

It was a good game. The Bees were down by 1 point when we left at the beginning of the 9th inning, but the kids were tired and it had been a long day for all of us. I just checked the score and they actually lost by 4 points in that final inning.

Getting an autograph.

I finished embroidering the last of the hankies for the dedication tomorrow and I'm excited to get a little sleep tonight. Maybe...

Are You Ready?

I forgot to tell you that yesterday Princess and The Frog and Tadpole all came up and took me to lunch for Mother's Day. We enjoyed sandwiches and salads at the Village Baker. I think Twizlet had more fun playing with my food than she did eating it.

Tonight we had to pick up the girls after their rehearsal downtown, so we decided to make an evening of it. Unfortunately, my phone was nearly dead, so I didn't get to take any pics for you, but we parked near the Conference Center and then walked about half a mile to a little Chinese/Thai place. The food was good and we had enough left to keep the girls from starving on the way home. We couldn't stop and buy them anything because Crafty had a homework assignment that was due at midnight. We rolled in just after 11:00 and since I didn't hear any wailing or gnashing of teeth, I'm assuming she got it turned in by the deadline.

Tomorrow is the big day of the Cultural Celebration and then the rededication of the Jordan River temple on Sunday. I'm excited to see it all come together! We can watch it streaming at 2:00 MST at www.jrtready.org If you get a chance to tune in, look for Crafty in a gold dress and Scout in a foam green one.

Multitasking

I survived! You probably figured that out already. It was one of those days that look impossible and then miraculously, the end of the day comes and everything works out one way or the other. With Curly's day, we got the pictures all done, and they even managed to win their baseball game 15-4. (And his haircut looks terrific if I do say so myself.)

Today wasn't quite as difficult although it wasn't a cake walk either. Sport had his end of year concert at the high school at 5:30, right in the middle of the softball/baseball practices. Scout and Crafty managed to get downtown for their rehearsal for the cultural celebration and my sweetie went to work until it was time to pick them up. By 10:00, I had all the homework done and the younger kids in bed. Sport is taking his first AP test tomorrow, so he went to bed early as well.

I spent the last 3 hours multitasking. First I loaded up the washer and dryer and got them doing my laundry for me, then I put in a DVD about President Hinckley's life, and I started embroidering hankies for the temple dedication. I did half of the 24 I have to do while also piecing a quilt top for the baby quilt we are going to tie at our Girl Scout Sleepover next weekend. It was nice to have a few productive hours.

Tomorrow should be a relatively quiet day. I'm looking forward to easing into the busy weekend.

My Crazy Schedule

I always tell people that May is busier than December in so many ways! Maybe if we didn't have softball/baseball games 4 nights a week, not including practices. Or the end-of-year stuff... you know, concerts, tests, pictures... things like that.

Tonight I have an absolutely impossible schedule.

Here is just Curly's:

3:45 Home from school
4:00 Get a Haircut
5:15 Jazz pictures in full costume (at least I found the missing Jazz shoe at the studio yesterday!)
6:00 Scouts (this one we had to beg out of)
6:15 Ballet pictures in full costume (I hope they are running early...)
6:30 Baseball pictures at the park with his team (I hope they are running late...)
6:45 Warm-ups
7:30 Baseball game
9:00 Homework and late to bed... again...

Somewhere around that schedule, I have to get Baby Doll to dance and pick her up, Scout to her 6:30 softball game and home again, Sport to work and home again, and Crafty to the Conference Center downtown to her rehearsal for the Cultural Celebration on Saturday.

Little Warrior went home with his mom last night, but I will have Twizlet with me for most of the afternoon as well. I don't have a single piece of bread in the house and only about half a gallon of milk, so I probably should be shopping instead of complaining for you.

I did get plenty of sleep last night and I do love a challenge. I'll let you know how this one goes...

Surviving and Thriving

We had a lot of fun today, but not much sleep. Little Warrior sleeps at daycare and at home, but NOT at Grandma's! Thank goodness Drama Queen came over this morning on her day off to make sure I was surviving and thriving.

After a quick trip to the dentist so I could have my new crown seated, we went out to lunch at Chick-fil-A. (She felt bad because she missed our celebration on Saturday...) It turned out to be the 10th Birthday Celebration at CFA and we both won free breakfast entrees so we can make another trip later on.

We also stopped at Penney's and I bought Twizlet a shirt, Little Warrior a pair of pants and a shirt, and a pair of pants and a skirt for Baby Doll and I paid less than $5 with my $10 reward. I always love getting a great deal!

Who needs sleep? Let's play!

The rain started up this afternoon and it turned out that all of the ballgames and practices were cancelled, but not until we had spent almost 2 hours on the road trying to get to all of them. My kids are finally in bed and my house is pretty clean thanks to Drama Queen, so I think I'm going to try to climb into my own bed before Little Warrior wakes up and decides it's time to play.

A Day for Moms

It was a beautiful Mother's Day. We went to church this morning where we were spoiled with treats and goodies. Crafty and Prima Donna joined me in teaching Curly's class and Scout and Curly sang to us along with the rest of the primary in Sacrament Meeting.

After church and lunch I enjoyed a nice nap while the kids made dinner and cleaned the house. The Beast dropped off Little Warrior for his fun time with Grandma. He is definitely a busy boy! And I know his parents say he sleeps well at home, but he doesn't really like to sleep here. Too much excitement, I guess.

We had a big family dinner with most of the family. Princess called me to tell me that she wasn't feeling well, so they would come up later in the week, and of course we missed Beauty and The Beast. This is the only pic we got and Little Warrior, Twizlet, and I were not even looking at the camera.

I hope your day was sweet and full of family and love.

Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day

Such a nice Saturday before Mother's Day! Scout, Crafty, and Sport all went on the Temple Walk this morning. It was cold and rainy and an amazingly beautiful sight. Sport sent me this pic, and I watched the event on YouTube. Scout told me they thought there were about 2000 kids + leaders. I saw a bunch of them walking back toward the church afterward. South Jordan had officers directing traffic to make sure everyone was safe.

Bossy came by and took Curly and Baby Doll with her family to Chick-fil-A to pick up her free mom's day meal and enjoy crafts. They all came back about the same time and we enjoyed lunch of nuggets, lemonade, and cookies. We even made our own fries to stretch the nuggets to feed everyone plus Teach and Twizlet.

Then Baby Doll headed off to a birthday party and I took Scout to her softball game. It was cold and drizzly and all the boys' games cancelled, but the girls were still playing. Scout made a couple of great plays at 2nd and her team won 11-2.

When we got back, I was freezing, so I crawled into bed and turned on my electric blanket. It wasn't long before I drifted off. When I woke up about 6:00, Beauty and The Beast were here. Beauty is flying to New York with her mom tomorrow and I get to keep Little Warrior for a couple of days. They were just dropping off some things for me. I'm super excited to spend some time with him!

While I was snoozing, my sweetie made me my favorite Wisconsin Cheddar Cauliflower soup and Drama Queen took Curly to the store where he bought me a dozen "roses" that really turned out to be RockStars. My kids are all so awesome!

Did I even tell you Curly got glasses a few weeks ago?

 Happy Mother's Day!

Chick-fil-A Murray Loves Moms

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Chick-fil-A? Oh right, only about 100 times! 😋

Well, let me make that 101. On Tuesday, Bossy entered one of those Facebook contests about moms on CFA Murray's post. Honestly, she said such nice things about me, I asked her to copy it over so I could share it with you.

My mom, Sandy Christensen, is an amazing role model. She has encouraged all 12 of us to be the best we can be. All of her adult children have achieved some level of secondary education, four of her daughters graduated high school with their Associates. She is service-oriented and has helped with countless Eagle projects and  Girl Scout Gold Award projects for neighbors and strangers. She has served in many functions for her church and community. She helped my autistic brother achieve his dreams (drive, obtain his Associates, get married). My brother didn't speak until he was eight. She still has 10 at home including my newly married brother and his wife in her basement apartment and my grandfather. So a small nugget tray would not feed them all. She supports everyone and runs a household full of love. And in her spare time she writes an uplifting blog on family life. Twelvemakesadozen.blogspot.com

Whew! Just that amazing write-up was enough of a Mother's Day gift for me, but imagine my surprise when she called me this morning to tell me about this.

Wet hair and all...

Fwd: Thanks for sharing about your mom with us.
You are the lucky winner of a small nugget tray, small cookie tray and gallon of lemonade.
We can also make the nuggets in our reheatable option if you’d like to eat the nuggets on Sunday.
Please let us know what time and if you want hot or cold nuggets. Thanks! 

It doesn't get any better than this; an amazing daughter and CFA nuggets. Thanks, Bossy and CFA Murray!

See Scout Cook

Scout has been learning to cook. On Tuesday night she made us a nice dinner with tilapia, rice, salad; the works. It was difficult to get her to commit even though she had an assignment for school that required her to cook and then clean up the entire meal. It's a good thing we had basketball or I'm not sure she would have done it. (She will do almost anything to get the opportunity to come to basketball.)

Then yesterday I was at Sam's Club and I got a great deal on pancake mix. When Scout got home from school, I asked her if she wanted to make pancakes for dinner. I was surprised by her quick "Yes!" Her pancakes turned out delicious! Fluffy, thick,and quick to soak up plenty of syrup. Only one problem.

She had absolutely NO desire to clean up when she was finished.

Crazy May Days

It seems like I keep forgetting things I want to share with you that are happening every day around here. Like last night after chasing people off to practice or work or whatever, I got a chance to go to the Dance Concert at Bingham and watch Crafty perform for the last time. No, she isn't a senior, but she is not planning to dance at the high school next year. I'm a little sad about that, but happy to see her making more room in her schedule for classes she loves like AP Statistics...

Crafty on the left

Crafty right in the middle

Or tonight when Grandpa, Scout, and I went to Baby Doll's softball game and we witnessed her putting on the catcher's gear for the very first time. She admitted afterward that she really didn't know what she was doing, but it was fun trying. Sadly, they lost their game 2-1 in 5 innings.

And even later tonight, playing 2 hours of basketball with some of my favorite people. May is always a whirlwind of activities and fun. I love the warm weather and the sunshine.

Happy 40th, Gamer!

Oh, we have had so much fun with this birthday! Gamer turned 40 today and we celebrated yesterday with family and friends by having a big barbecue in the back yard.

We hadn't planned to have a pinata this year, but at the last minute, Bossy broke down and bought and filled one. The only problem was that I guess it was filled a little too much because after a few swats with a baseball bat, the wires came out of the top and it hit the ground. But since they bought it at the Mexican Market, of course that wasn't enough to make it break. So instead, they spent the next 10 minutes trying to tie the pinata itself to the rope.

Yeah, right....

Then Bossy decided we could simply "pitch" the pinata to the holder of the bat! Burrito and Taco did most of the swinging and soon we had candy everywhere.

Gamer loved his gifts, most especially the new pair of SouthPole jeans and the tiny Green Bay Packers rattles and baby clothes. It was a fun and happy day before he became an old broken down man of 40 today.

Just kidding, Gamer...

Sort of...