Sickness

I started getting a sore throat last night and woke up with a nasty head cold today.  Trevin also woke up with an upset stomach so he stayed home from school today.  I hate being sick and hope no one else gets it.

Tree Trimming

We decorated the tree for Family Night tonight.  The boys decided they just want to set up this tree this year, they don't want to do the "kid tree" downstairs.  It's kinda sad when they grow up and don't want to do all the same traditions anymore.  They did at least humor me and wore their Santa hats while they were decorating and we had a good time.

Sad Day

It was a sad day for the Nielsen's today.  We all got toether at Todd and Haylee's to watch the BYU vs UofU football game.  BYU lost but it was a very good game.  We love it when they are exciting.  We think they got some bad calls that should have been different and we should have won.  We had good food and good fun and lots and lots of cheering for a great game day.

Tyrel and I had a Guitar Hero competition for 3 hours when we got home for our November date.  It was fun.  I even played one song on Expert and got 51%, he said I did well, but I thought that was pretty bad.  I don't do well with that 5th finger (the orange button).  I just can't seem to get my act together to be able to play with that finger.  We had fun though!

Another Week

with no blogging from me.  So here I am playing catch up.  Saturday Heidi and I had a home party in Draper.  We decided it's maybe the wrong time of year.  People are so busy this time of year.  Sunday was church, Trevin had the scripture for Primary sharing time.

Monday Trevin had the Family Night lesson and then Sean took us all to the dollar store to get our own treats.

Tuesday was Pack Night and it was also the night we were supposed to get the "blizzard of the century" but we only ended up with a few inches of snow.  Travis was bummed that we didn't let him drive to school though.  We were worried that it was going to be crazy and he hasn't ever driven in the snow before.  He is not loving the bus.  Trevin has been studying Ancient Civilizations in Social Studies this year and they put on a Temples and Tombs program at the school and it was really cute!  He would have made his Grandpa Nielsen proud with his acting skills.  He got to leave school when it was over and come home with us.

Wednesday we just kind of chilled around the house doing nothing.  My mom didn't want me to bring anything for Thanksgiving except a pint of whipping cream, so my day that is usually full of pie making was totally empty.

Thursday we went to Leamington for Thanksgiving.  The food was great.  We got into a conversation about our favorite Thanksgiving food.  My Thanksgiving is not complete without celery stuffed with cheese.  Sean loves the jellied cranberries.  Heidi and Brett both love crinkled potato chips with onion dip.  My boys all love ham more than the turkey.  Dad and Andrea love pecan pie and all my boys plus Sean love pumpkin pie the best.  Me, I had to try slivers of 3 different kinds of pie because I can't decide.  The kids watched a movie and played some games and the adults watched a football game and sat around and visited.  It was a fun day with family.  Oh, I forgot to mention that Jaron's favorite thing was the olives.

Friday was my normal set up the tree day, but Sean had traded some pest control for some carpet cleaning and the carpet guy only works on Fridays and Saturdays, so we got the upstairs carpet cleaned plus the stairs.  The house was freezing because the door was open for a couple hours but it was nice to de-junk the rooms upstairs that we had to move stuff out of the way so he could clean the carpets.  I'll have to put my tree up tomorrow I guess.  The boys and I played Wii sports and watched Elf.

First Overnight Campout

Trevin is going on his first overnight campout with the 11 year old scouts tonight.  I guess it is technically his 2nd since they camped out at Scout camp over the summer.  He was pretty excited to be going.  They are headed to Goblin Valley with the deacons and lots of leaders.  I hope he doesn't freeze, there is supposed to be a storm coming in tonight.

Sean was kind of bummed he couldn't go with Trevin on his campout, but he has been busy doing his mining certification in Salt Lake.  He was there all day yesterday, today, and will go up again tomorrow to finish up his hours.  He got the bid for pest control at the cement plant and they are requiring him to be mining certified in order to do the work on their site.  Hopefully it will open up some other contracts with other mines for him also.  Did you know that 24% of the industry in the state of Utah is mining related?  Interesting fact, I know!

Home Party in Fillmore

Heidi and I had a home party in Fillmore today.  Actually, it was at the library instead of at someone's home.  There was a fair turnout and they had lots of questions and all showed a lot of interest.  In fact, we sold out of the programs we ordered to sell to those interested in learning and will probably be teaching a class there very very soon.  There were quite a few that wanted to learn to use Photoshop and between them and the ladies in Scipio from last week that want to learn, we should be able to have a pretty full class.  The library has a big room that we can teach in and the price is very reasonable.  We are going to do it all in one day - 8 hours of instruction and fun!  Heidi had to leave a little early, so it was kind of crazy with everyone filling out order forms and stuff.  I hope they keep the enthusiasm until we can get down there to teach them a class.

When I got home, I had about 5 minutes before Travis and Tyrel got home with their ASL lab group.  Their little group of three has now grown to five.  It seems that they are the only group that actually does anything, so they are having people jump ship from other groups and joining theirs.  They sounded like they had fun again.

Busy Day

What a busy day.  You won't think so when you read this, but it seemed like it was a totally crazy busy day for me.  Probably mostly because I was still trying to get caught up from being gone on Saturday last week and had to get my house back in order and laundry done.

We had visiting teaching appointments set with two of our ladies that we teach and had nice visits with both of them.  I also had to make cake because I had book club with our ward book club at my house tonight.  I made pumpkin cake and got some taco soup ready and on the stove to simmer before I left to go visiting teaching so we could eat quick when I got home and get the kitchen picked up before the book club ladies arrived.  They all seemed to like the book "Good Night Mr. Tom" and we had a fun discussion.

Scrapping with Liz

My cute little neighbor and her husband are hoping to adopt a baby and I got to spend some time with her this evening working on her scrapbook pages to get their packet submitted.  It was fun to help her out and to get to know them a little better through all the fun pictures she used.

We also had cub scouts today.  The called a new co-leader for me to work with on Sunday so this was our first time working together.  The boys made gifts for their family for Christmas and we also talked about nutrition.  The planned a day of balanced meals and we had quite the discussion on the difference between a fruit and a vegetable.  Do you know the difference?  I thought I knew, so I didn't look it up beforehand.  Our little scout Mason raised his hand with the answer and I thought he was wrong, so we looked it up and he was right, I was wrong.  Way to go Mason!

Cleaning the Church

We cleaned the church again for Family Night tonight.  This will probably be our last time for the year.  Sister Ross was there with her tasks all ready for us.  The Archibalds were also there to clean with us tonight.  We left Trevin home because he has been home puking all day.  Actually, he only threw up once and he said he is feeling much better, but I didn't want to risk it.  Sean was late because he had a job in Fillmore that he couldn't go do until 5 tonight.  But we had most of it done by the time he got back.  He had to mop all the bathrooms.

I cleaned all the classroom door windows.  Liz and I cleaned all the entryway doors and I also cleaned all the metal plates on the doors in the chapel and cultural hall.  Sister Ross cleaned all the bathrooms.  Roger and Travis and Liz did all the vacuuming.  Tyrel cleaned all the chalk boards, then I'm not sure, but he probably dusted stuff after that. I forgot to ask.

Holy Ghost Lesson

We had a great lesson in Relief Society today with an even greater discussion.  The teacher was talking about the Holy Ghost and about doing things that invite the Spirit so the Holy Ghost is our constant companion.  Sister Gunnell brought up an excellent point that made total sense and I'm glad she finally got called on so she could tell us her opinion.  She mentioned that the Holy Ghost is ALWAYS with us since we received that when we were baptized.  Unless we do something bad to make us not worthy of that gift, the Holy Ghost is our constant companion.  The thing we need to work on is being able to do those things that will bring us closer to the spirit so that we can recognize it in our lives.  I love that!  Yelling at our kids once in a while or forgetting to say our prayers or read our scriptures here and there don't make the spirit of the Holy Ghost go away, it is still there, but it will make it more difficult to hear or feel the promptings.

Super Saturday

I was going to just run down, take my food item and pick up my craft, but I ended up staying for an hour or so.  I totally spaced that Ashley Taylor was doing a photography workshop and she was in the middle of it when I got there, so of course, I had to stay for a bit.  She did a great job and it was very interesting.  I learned a lot, now if I can just put it into practice.  I think I need to buy some of those silver car window reflector things for my next photography purchase.

I applied the vinyl on my craft and then headed out to Scipio as Heidi and I had a digital scrapbooking home party to do there.  Not very many people showed up, but we still did a fair amount of sales.  I think the key there is just introducing them and then they are very excited to have a class to learn how to do it, so we need to get a class scheduled for there.  I think we are going to try to find a place in Nephi to hold an all day, lunch included, 8 hour class for the Scipio and Delta people to attend.  Hopefully enough of them have laptops that we can make that work out for us.

Lunch Date with my Sweetheart

I got to go on my lunch date with my sweetheart today.  I love that we are able to have a weekly date together.  Tyrel stayed home from school sick today, he has a headache and stomach doesn't feel good.  I'm sure he'll feel better once the weekend hits though.

It's also my mom's birthday today.  Hope your day is awesome mom!  It was fun to talk to you on the phone this morning.

Annual Shopping Day

Veterans Day has been our annual Christmas Shopping day, but since Sean is no longer in the banking business, he has to work on Veteran's Day now.  So, I asked the boys what they wanted, and Travis said, "what I really want is some consecrated oil for my key chain."  Isn't that so cute!  I have awesome kids.  I didn't get any shopping done, I'll have to wait until a bad weather day because I like to go with Sean.  There's still plenty of time!

The boys brought their friends over for their ASL lab today and I made them donuts. They wanted donuts and hot chocolate for their lab.  I heard lots of laughing and talking, not sure how much signing got done although I did see some when I was still in the kitchen cooking donuts for them.  I'm pretty sure they are all going to have belly aches because I made 3 dozen donuts and there were only 5 or 6 left when the boys were all gone.

Oh, I forgot

I forgot I also used Heidi's quick pages for our Disney kit and made these cute layouts of my cute boys when they were little and we went to Disneyland for the first time with them.

Vinyl and more Vinyl

I got a call from the Charter School where my father in law is Headmaster to do some vinyl work for their walls.  I got it cut out on Monday during the day and Sean helped me Tuesday night put the transfer paper on it because they were really long.  Two of the pieces they had me do were 10 feet long.  Then I also did a couple that were only 3 feet long. 

Today, I went over and got it hung up for them.  It looks great and it sounds like I'll be getting more vinyl orders from them.  It was fun to do.

I'm getting started on a new scrapbooking kit today.  It is a dance/drill team/cheer kit and I'm having a hard time getting started on it.  I'm not feeling inspired.  I googled other similar kits for some inspiration and got NOTHING.  There are no cute drill/cheer kits out there in the paper or digital world.  Hopefully that means if ours is good, it will sell well because it will be the only one in existence.

Bowling Cub Scouts

We took the cub scouts bowling to work on their bowling belt loop this week.  They released Kelly and I'm going to miss her.  They haven't called me a new co-leader, so Tyrel is filling in until they get someone called.  He was more than happy to fill in with this activity.  He has been going bowling every Monday after school with the bowling club because they get a discount.  He is getting pretty good.  So, he and I bowled on one lane and the scouts bowled on the other one with bumpers.  I felt bad because Stockton was sick and missed this fun activity.  Tyrel beat me the first round and I was beating him until the last frame on the 2nd round and I choked on my last frame and he beat me again.  Mason won out of the cub scouts.

When we got home we hurried and ate dinner and then the boys had Young Mens.  Tyrel's group went swimming and he said he had fun. 

School and Work

Just a normal day of school and work.  Heidi and I are trying to get ramped up for more home parties and shows plus the company I process for called me in last week because they are getting rid of their corporate processing center and just going to a  panel of contract processors that all of their nationwide branches are required to use and I get to be on that panel, so hopefully that means a lot more processing business for me.  Sean is still working on his huge termite inspection contract he got on a bunch of apartment units in Salt Lake.  He will be busy with that most of the week.

For our FHE activity tonight, we watched Toy Story 3.  When it was over, Travis said, "Did that ending kind of make anyone sad?"  He was feeling a bit emotional.  I'm so glad my boys are a bit tenderhearted like their dad.

Baby McKynlee

We had a great time at McKynlee's baby blessing visiting with family and getting to see her again.  I got my camera out to take her picture after we had eaten, and they had taken her to change her out of her blessing dress, so I don't have any pictures of her but Troy promised he would send me the ones they had taken early so I'm holding you to that Troy.  He did a great job blessing her and we are so thrilled to have a new baby in the family.  She is such a cutie. I cleared off some of the info on this layout, but you get the idea

Such a bad Blogger

I have been so good about blogging every day this year and now I've missed a whole week.  Life is crazy and I know that isn't an excuse and I was going to go back and make a post everyday and backdate it, but I decided to just do it all in one post instead.

Sunday we went to church and then just had a lazy day at home hanging out.
Monday I did the family night lesson, we talked about the importance of temples and temple work and how the kids can participate in those things now (great Ensign this month)
Tuesday Travis and Tyrel had Scouts and I had Cub Scouts.  We talked about keeping our bodies healthy and safe.  It actually went pretty well for a kinda boring subject.
Wednesday Heidi and I had our first home party for our scrapbooking and it went way better than we expected.  We thought it would just be good practice - and it was - but it was fun and sales were great too.  Our days have been filled with getting ready for these and we are so excited that we are pretty much "there" now.  So, if you want to host a party, get signed up because it is going to be a popular thing and the before Christmas party dates are going to fill up fast.  So call me!  I also taught my last scrapbooking class for this session tonight.  I need to figure out how to advertise better and get bigger classes for my next session.
Thursday Trevin had Scouts
Friday Tyrel had a friend over for the evening.  Another friend introduced to having to help make Pizza's on Friday night at the Nielsen's.
Saturday Heidi and I did a booth at the craft fair in Delta.  It was busy and went really really well.  We have close to 50 people signed up to take lessons, so we need to find a place and get times set up.  We got the name of who Heidi needs to talk with at the high school to use the computers, so hopefully we can get it figured out and start teaching.  We will have to break that up into 2 or 3 groups though.  That is way too many people to teach at once.  We sold some stuff and had lots of good conversations with people, so it will be fun to see what comes of it.  We also have 6 or 7 people that wanted to schedule home parties so we are looking forward to those because it gives us more "face" time with small groups to get them excited and hooked on digital scrapbooking.  I had to slip out in the morning for an hour to host BINGO for a bunch of digital scrapbookers since it was international digital scrapbooking day.  It was fun but I had to sit in McDonalds to get internet to host it.  I'm kinda sad I missed out on all the other great festivities of the day.
Now it's Sunday and we are going to McKynlee's baby blessing, so I'll have to update ith pictures later today.