Another new nephew!

My sister, Kiki, had her third child Thursday morning--Wyatt Eli at 8 lbs. 5 oz., 20 in. A friend of mine and Kiki's, Jamie Garner, took these pictures at the hospital:
I am very sad that I wasn't able to be there for the birth and that I can't hold him and see him in person. I'll see him in December, though, which won't come fast enough! :)

Home decor advice needed

My mom and I have been talking about doing a painting for my dining room. I finally bought a huge canvas (3' x 4') from Hobby Lobby last week--used a 40% off coupon, woohoo! The idea I have is to just add some color (I'm thinking orange) in there by doing some sort of abstract art piece. Something like these, maybe:

I really want something more like layers of color, all blended into each other. I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for online, so I just went and painted this on cardstock with acrylic paint:

So tell me what you think. Keep in mind that this was done in about 2 min.--the real one would have more depth of colors and shading. Is it too bland? What else do you think it would need? Or should I just leave it simple like that? Or do you think I should use shapes (squares or circle)? Do you like any of the ones above better? Your opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Civility

I watched a show last week that Oprah did on civility and it has really made me think. It does seem that civility has all but gone out the window these days. They had a list of questions that the audience answered with one of those hand-held voting mechanisms. Here are the questions to show whether you are a rude person or not:

• Are you chronically late? This is rude! They mentioned that someone else's time is just as important as yours so why would you make someone else wait on you?
• Have you ever typed an email while on the phone with someone? I used to do that all the time when I worked (multi-tasking) and I've done it from time to time here at home but I will try not to do it anymore.
• Have you ever interrupted a face-to-face conversation to take a non-urgent cell phone call? I don't think I do this but I will definitely make sure I don't now.
• Have you ever gone through the supermarket 10 item express lane with more than 10 items? Nope, I always count my items and make sure I don't have over 10 if I want to use the express lane.
• Have you ever let your dog "go" on your neighbor's lawn? No. We hate when other people do that to use so we don't let our dog do that to others.
• Have you ever stolen a parking spot from someone? No, I'm pretty patient and would rather just go and look for another one than make someone else mad at me.
• Have you ever gossiped? Uh, yeah, and I don't personally know of anyone who hasn't. The audience poll showed that 97% of them had gossiped and one of the people who answered no said she hit the wrong button so really 98% of the audience has gossiped. This is something that I really try not to do but it is very hard!
• Have you ever taken someone else's food or drink from the office fridge? No, I never did that when I worked. I wouldn't have the heart, plus that is stealing.

A really cool quote they stated on the show is: "We never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace." --Peggy Tabor Millin

This is so true! We really need to think about the way we treat others. Think about how you feel when people do things to you, like in the list above. Why would you want to make someone else feel that way--whether you know them or don't know them? Even if it's just a 2-minute interaction with someone at the check-out counter, we can make an impact on that checker for either good or bad. There's just no excuse to be rude to others just because we're in a bad mood or whatever. Just food for thought.

Some pics of Brenna

Here are some pics of Brenna that I took when I babysat her on Tuesday:

{Such a smiley girl!}

{Ya gotta love a chubby baby! :) }
{I could look at this beautiful, angelic face all day.}

LSU beat South Carolina last night, yay! I went and watched the game at my brother's house after going to a wedding reception. The first half was a little nerve-racking but the 2nd half we did much better and pulled off the win. We're at #11 now. I'm hoping we don't lose anymore games but that would be EXTREMELY tough with Georgia next and Alabama a couple weeks after that. I'll be pulling hard for my Tigers!!

Sheri Dew

So I went and saw Sheri Dew Saturday night and she was amazing!  She said so many things that I really needed to hear.  Here are just a few of my favorite parts:

·        She told a story about how she went and saw the male ice skaters at the 2002 Olympics.  All of the skaters looked beautiful as they were warming up/practicing but when they did their actual skate for the competition, almost all of them fell—21 out of the 24 top skaters.  Obviously, they could do the jumps, etc, but not when the pressure was on.  Her point was “can you do it when it counts?”  My thoughts on this:  It’s easy to live the gospel when everything in our life is going good but, when things are hard, we tend to want to give up.  I want to prove that I can do it when it matters—follows the teachings of Christ, even though I am struggling a lot right now.

·        She mentioned that a lot of people talk about how the Lord doesn’t give us more than we can handle.  But she disagrees and said that He gives just a bit more than we can handle so we will turn to Him for help. 

·        Heavenly Father speaks to each of us differently.  We each need to pray and ask Him to help us know how we personally receive answers to prayer—we need to learn how to speak the language and we need to practice often.  We will continue learning throughout our entire life.  This is definitely something I need to work on!

·        We spend too much time acting like we’re here on Earth to stay when we can’t and we won’t.  We worry too much about mortal things, not thinking enough about the big picture, about eternity.  So true!!

 

So I said in my previous post that I was gonna go straight home after the Sheri Dew talk to watch the LSU game (even though a bunch of my friends were going out to eat afterwards).  Well, I called Jared  as I was leaving the church and he told me I should just go out and have fun eating with my friends because the game didn’t look good and I would just get ticked off if I went home and watched the game.  So I went out to eat and I’m so glad I did!  First of all, I had so much fun!  I got to really catch up with an old friend and the food was great (Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro). Secondly, LSU ended up losing 51-21.  So sad.  I was half expecting LSU to lose but I really thought it would be a better game, that we would give Florida a run for their money.  And now we’re out of the top 10 at #13 (we were #4).  Oh well.  I’ll still root them on for every game left in the season and hope that we make it to a good bowl game.

 

Sunday, we went to my SIL’s parents’ house for a steak dinner and cake to celebrate my brother’s birthday.  The birthday boy made the steaks and they were delish!

 

I get to watch my 4-month-old niece today.  My SIL just brought her and she’s sitting here with me now as I type this.  She is such a good baby—so happy and smiley.  And, of course, over-the-top cute! J  I’ll take some pics and post them later.

 

 

Quick update

I got the results for the MRI on my neck on Monday. The dr. said I have a ruptured disk. There's not much that can be done for it--just keep doing physical therapy and see if that helps and take meds and use a TENS unit (electrodes) to help relieve the pain. Very frustrating, since I'm always in pain! He also ordered an MRI on my back and pelvis, which I did yesterday (took 2 hours!). It will be a couple of weeks before I get the results. In the meantime, he ordered another 4 weeks of therapy--oh joy; going there 3 times a week is getting really old! But I'll keep doing it if it helps me feel better in the least bit.

Not much going on besides that. Jared is in Houma today (south Louisiana)--lots of people from our stake went down there to help with the hurricane clean-up effort. I can't help, of course, because of my back and neck so I'm home until I go see Sherri Dew speak tonight in Baton Rouge. Then, I'm coming straight home to watch the LSU vs. Florida game. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

Oh and a huge congrats to LSU's Golden Band from Tigerland for winning ESPN's Battle of the Bands. Seven schools (Florida, Univ. of Texas, Auburn, Clemson, USC, Georgia, & LSU) each played their own version of the theme from Indiana Jones. You can see the video of each band here: http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/indianajones/index They announced this morning that the Tigerband won! The prize isa $25,000 donation from Paramount and Lucasfilm Ltd.--which they REALLY need since they are in the process of building a very badly needed new band building!! You should see how small and old the current one is--way too tiny for a 360+ member band. So congrats to Tigerband. I'm a very proud Tigerband alumnus! :)

Picture Personality

My mom sent this link to me in an email. I've done something like it before but had fun doing this:

If you do one for yourself, let me know!

SCATTERGORIES

I got this in an email but thought it would be fun to post it here.

Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things.. nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.


WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Dana
BOYS NAME: David
4 LETTER WORD: Dang
GIRL NAME: Danielle
OCCUPATION: Dietician
A COLOR: Desert sand
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Denim
BEVERAGE: Dr. Pepper
FOOD: Dill pickle
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Dial soap
A PLACE : Denham Springs
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Drying my hair
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT OUT: Darn!

Put your answers on your blog and leave me a comment telling me you've done it! :)

LSU vs. Auburn, high school football and volleyball

So besides the usual (physical therapy 3 x's a week and a few piano lessons), my last couple of weeks have included the following:

A wedding shower for a family friend. It was fun! It was in Hammond and I had to drive from the church to my parents' house in the rain, though, and that was NOT fun! I waited around for a little bit to see if the rain would subside but I figured I would have been waiting there all night so I just bit the bullet and drove.

We watched the LSU vs. Auburn game at my parents' house that night. We had Louisiana sausage (had to oven bake it because of the rain but it was still delicious) and ordered pizza. There were about 15 people there (if you count the kids). Here are a couple of pics:

Jared with the girls (he always steals Brenna from me!):

LSU made the winning touchdown with ~1 minute left!:

LSU 26, Auburn 21! GEAUX TIGERS!

I stayed that night at my parents' house because I played a special musical # in their ward the next morning.

I was in charge of a Cub Scout pack meeting last Thursday. It went really well and the boys had fun. I went to a high school football game Friday night. I went to see one of the young women in my ward--she made drum major and it was their first home game. I stood on my feet too much Thursday night and sitting in the bleachers (even with a bleacher chair) was too much for my back so I lay in bed all day Saturday and watched college football all day. I was supposed to go up to the church that night to watch the Women's Conference but I didn't feel up to it so I Tivo'd it and watched the LSU game, instead. They beat Mississippi State 34-24. LSU is now #3! Last night, I went to a high school girls' volleyball game to see another couple of young women in my ward play. They finally won in the 5th set! The game lasted much longer than I thought it would but it was fun and worth the back ache I have today from sitting in the bleachers (once again with a bleacher chair).

So that's what been hap'nin'. Not too much going on this week. The weekend will be calm because it's General Conference weekend--we'll just watch it here at home--and LSU doesn't play this weekend. :( I'm looking forward to hearing the prophet speak, though!

Fun Quiz

I got this from my friend, Becki's, blog. I would love to know your answers!

Here are the rules: I have to answer the following questions with one word answers and one word only!
1. Where is your cell phone? here
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? eccentric
5. Your father? hard-working
6. Your favorite thing? LSU
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? stay-at-home-mom
9. The room you're in? scrapbook
10. Your hobby? scrapbooking
11. Your fear? wrecks
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? mom
13. Where were you last night? game
14. What you're not? healthy
15. One of your wish-list items? Blackberry
16. Where you grew up? Louisiana
17. The last thing you did? typed
18. What are you wearing? clothes
19. Your TV? BIG
20. Your pet? gorgeous
1. Your computer? fun
22. Your mood? average
23. Missing someone? family
24. Your car? Intrigue
25. Something you're not wearing? bra
26. Favorite store? scrapbook
27. Your summer? humid
28. Love someone? Jared
29. Your favorite color? any
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? yesterday

Post-Utah

So I got home from Utah Friday night (9/5). Our electricity had come on Thursday afternoon so I got home to a nice, air-conditioned house with all the modern conveniences, except internet (which came on the next Monday night). Unfortunately, Jared had given away or thrown out our freezer food so we didn't have much "real" food in the house and electricity was still out through most of Baton Rouge and around our town so it wasn't worth braving Wal-Mart. Then, we heard about Ike maybe coming our way so we put of major grocery shopping even longer. I don't know how many times we've eaten canned soup the past week & 1/2!

The day after I got home, I enjoyed my day by watching college football. The only let-down was that the LSU game had been post-poned due to all the damage and power outages around Baton Rouge and damage to Tiger Stadium. Church was cancelled on Sunday because there was still not power at our building yet.

Monday night, Jared's sister, Michelle and her family came to visit us. I had dinner ready for them when they got there. Tuesday, we went and ate at Waffle House (the girls really wanted to eat there), then we drove to Ponchatoula to go to the alligator farm but it was closed due to damage from the hurricane so we took them on a swamp walk, instead. Here are a few pics:

After eating dinner that night, I played dress-up with the girls (they tried on my clothes, ha ha!)--they had a blast!:And Jared had fun playing with the baby:

On Wednesday, we just hung out most of the day, then Jared took them all to Bass Pro Shop and to Wal-Mart--I stayed home because my back wasn't feeling up to all that walking around and standing. We had pizza for dinner, then I scrapbooked with the girls; we made a few pages of pictures they had taken on their trip so far. They left at 3:30 the next morning and we really miss them! It was so fun having them here!

Other than that, the only thing I've done (besides physical therapy and teach piano lessons) is go to my brother's house to watch the LSU game. We smashed N. Texas 41-3. My nieces were extra cute in their LSU cheerleader outfits:

Not too much on the agenda for the rest of the week, besides physical therapy and piano lessons. I'll be at my parents' house watching the LSU game Saturday night and I will stay the night there because I was asked to play a special musical # in their ward on Sunday. TTFN!

Videos of Carma

Here are a few quick videos of Carma that I never got around to posting before I left Utah:

Here she is trying to do a hula dance:

Aunt Nikki teaching her some ghetto talk:

This one's for Ben:

She is one very cute, very funny girl!!

Baptism, Utah, Gustav

Well, it's been fairly uneventful here in Utah. Between Kiki being pregnant and on semi-bedrest and my back and neck problems, we both haven't been able to do very much so we've spent most of the time here at her house. Kind of sucks that I haven't been able to go out and enjoy this awesome weather and beautiful mountains. My back just hurts too much to do anything. I even opted out of playing putt-putt with everyone (except Kiki and Carma, of course) and I haven't made one trip to a scrapbook store--so you KNOW I'm in bad shape! :) My parents' flight here was cancelled in that big airline communication break-down so they decided to drive. So, instead of getting here the same day I did, they got here 3 days later (on Friday).

Judson's baptism (along with his twin cousins) was Saturday morning. They were so cute! Here's a pic of Juddy:
There was a luncheon after the baptism at Michael's parents' house. Because of the hurricane, the LSU football game was moved up to the same time as the baptism so we missed the first half. It was supposed to be televised on ESPN but, because of the time change, it was on ESPN Classics, instead, and we didn't get to watch it because they don't have that channel here at their house. Oh well. At least they SMOKED them!!!

I also took pics of Carma in the Southern belle dress. She LOVED wearing it!! She was so excited! I just have to say that she is SO sweet and funny! Every minute with her is either entertaining or good for your ego. :)


On Labor Day, we BBQ'd ribs (SO yummy!!!) and had pot roast, baked potatoes, homemade bread, and corn on the cob. And we played games and just had fun together.

And here are some other random pics from the past few days:
I have some really funny videos of Carma I want to post but I've been sitting here at the computer waaaaaay too long and my back and neck are killing me! So I'll try to post those tomorrow.

About Gustav:
I spent Monday worrying about Jared and our house, and Ben and Becky. Jared worked most of the weekend, even staying overnight, so he was home all day on Monday, the day Gustav hit. Becky had to work at the hospital so Ben decided to stay there with her and they sent Belle and Brenna with Becky's parents, sister, nephew and my brother, Tim. They were supposed to go to Memphis but ended up going to Montgomery, AL, instead. Everyone is OK, and all of our homes are good. I am so grateful that it ended up not being as bad as initially predicted! Now we just all need to get our electricity back. Ours went out at 10am Monday morning. If it doesn't come back on by tomorrow evening, I may try to have my ticket changed to fly home later. We'll see. I hope the power comes on soon!!! But if that is all that happened from the storm, I call us all lucky, lucky, lucky!!!

Southern Belle

Mom & I took Belle to a plantation on Saturday to take pictures of her in the same dress that I wore for pictures when I was 4. Here are some of them:

And here's pic of smiley little Brenna on Sat.:

If I have a chance later, I'll post the picture of me in that dress. I'm off to teach piano lessons, then I'll make last-minute preparations tonight to fly to Utah at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning!

Edited>>

Here's the picture of me:

Update, Tim's Master's party

We have really enjoyed watching the Olympics! We're pretty much addicted to watching it--we Tivo everything and fast forward through commercials and some of the stuff. Our favorite sports to watch have been swimming (it's been thrilling to see Phelps win all his golds!), gymnastics (even though we get ticked at some of the scoring that seems to favor the Chinese gymnasts but we are so proud of Shawn and Nastia!) and beach volleyball (May & Walsh rock!!). Other than watching the Olympics, pretty much all I've done is go to a Cub Scout swim party (I was in charge and thankfully other people helped a lot) and to a party at my parents' house, as well as a wedding open house.

As far as my recovery from the wreck, the real pain started a few days after the wreck, after the stiffness went away. It's been hard to find any relief at all and to get any sleep. At some points, I've been in so much pain I've cried. I went to see an orthopedic surgeon last Monday and he had me take lots of x-rays (didn't see anything, of course, since any real damage would only be seen in an MRI) and he sent me to physical therapy. I started the physical therapy this Monday and am going three times a week. Fun stuff, let me tell ya'! I'm happy to report that after only two sessions, the horrible pain I felt around my right shoulder blade, with referral pain in my chest, has lessened. I only hope I continue to feel better and better. I will defintely do all the exercises and stretches I'm supposed to!

I want you all to know how great Jared has been. Since I haven't been able to do much around the house, he has really been a huge help, coming home from working all day to do stuff around the house plus keep up with his yardwork. He really takes great care of me and is being so sweet and understanding (although he doesn't usually know what to do or say when I start crying because I feel bad for not being able to do very much). I love him so much!

Another side effect of the wreck--post traumatic stress disorder! We went to my parents' house on Saturday for the party to celebrate Tim getting his Master's degree. It was the first time I've ridden in a car in the rain since the wreck. I was petrified! I started breathing heavy, almost to the point of hyperventilating and I actually started bawling from being so overwhelmed with fear. Jared felt so bad--he said seeing me like that ripped his heart out. He had to stop at the first exit after we got on the interstate and wait for me to calm down. Then, he made me lay my seat back and close my eyes, and he turned the music way up, for the rest of the drive. I'm sure I will eventually get over that fear, or least mostly over it(it has to since we live in Louisiana and it rains so much here!), but I'm not looking forward to facing that fear again.

Here are some pics from Tim's party:

{Jared and Belle taking a rest from playing--love that outfit we gave her for her bday! :) }

{Tim and Brenna--dontcha just love that outfit, especially the shoes?! It's an LSU shirt, BTW}

{Belle changed into this adorable outfit to go to a friend's birthday party} {Brenna is smiling a LOT--it doesn't take much to make her smile! She is such a sweet, sweet baby!}
{Best buds Brandon, Tim & Greg--Tim wearing an SLU shirt, even though this party was to celebrate getting his Master's from LSU!}