Gluten Free and Other Weekend Happenings

So this weekend was way super busy, and I don't know if I like it that busy to be honest. But here is what happened!

On Friday we had Caroline and her family, along with Kristen Green Valentine, and Dann Fry and his girlfriend Heidi over for dinner and dessert to say goodbye to Dann who is going on his mission! We are so excited for him! Caroline made this amazing fried rice meal with chicken and squash, oh yum! She also made amazing peach cobbler, and I helped make some really yummy pumpkin cookies and everything was gluten free! For those of you who don't know Dann, he is allergic to gluten. Anyway, it was tons of fun to see everyone and catch up and enjoy everyone's company.

On Saturday I met with my upline for a little bit and had all my questions answered. So now I am even more excited about Close to My Heart. Then at 3:30 I went with Carolline and some of her friends from her ward to the Relief Society Broadcast, and dinner. It was so good and really enjoyable. So thanks Caroline for the ticket and ride etc. I really enjoyed the talks and felt like the music was really important as well. I was just touched by the Holy Ghost and learned a ton of really good and needful things. Amazing! Now I am way excited for General Conference next week.

Sunday I made 4 dozen of the best muffins ever! Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, mmmmm. I love them. Then we had church and then home teachers came over, then I went with Creed to deliver some of the above mentioned muffins to the people he home teaches, they just had a baby, hence I went too! Then we had dinner and did the dishes and it was off to the Young Men and Young Women's standard night, I went because I was playing the piano for them. It was actually really insightful. The bishop had this book that I just might need to get, The 25 Mistakes that LDS Parents Make. I think. Anyway, the author had done a study about dating age and watching rated R movies and the % of those willing to have premarital sex. This is a little hard to explain, but needless to say that if you wait till you are 16 you will be less willing and same with if you don't watch rated R movies, SURPRISE, the prophet was inspired! I just love hearing things like that. Anywho, it was good.

Here are a few pictures! These are a few things I was able to do with the Close to My Heart Notebook papers. The first two pictures are of a 2 page layout I did in 5 min, seriously, I timed, using the Notebook Level 1 Paper Pack, meaning that the layout is preprinted and I just added the background paper, pictures, and stickers, super fast and easy and it looks amazing! The last two pictures I used the Notebook Level 2 paper pack, stickease, and the Classmate Alphabet. This page took 30 min. I also got the layout ideas from the Reflections book, 1a and 8e. If you like what you see and want to know more, just ask!

My website!

Hey everybody, I just finished setting up my website, so feel free to visit and look around. Also tell all your friends! The webaddress is www.sharesa.myctmh.com

And the joke is on.....ME (and 19 other people)

So some of you may know and others may  not, but this is the funniest story of my life from last week, so get ready to laugh, especially if you scrapbook!  This last weekend was the Scrapbook USA Expo in Sandy and Robert's Arts and Crafts was the huge sponsor and they held a scrap-booking competition and my team won from the Provo store, WAHOOO!  So we were asked to come down on Friday for a scrap off.  We were told that we would be given a bag full of goodies to do the comeptition with and that we just needed to bring stuff as if we were going to a crop.  So our team brought a few papers, a little ribbon, some buttons and our cutters and glue.  We show up and there sitting on the table is a shelf, yes a shelf made of wood, you would hang it on your wall, and some really ugly paper and ribbon, that didn't match the paper they gave us, a few craft jars, some 2 inch candle holders made of wood and absolutely hideous, an apron, and a few hooks.  We were given an hour to decorate the apron and the shelf.  Then we were told that we could use whatever we had brought.  All the other teams were excited because each member had a suitcase full of stuff, we looked at our little bags and went, um........HUH?!?  Needless to say we lost.  Here are the winners, the team that had paint that matched the ugly paper, ribbon that matched the paper, wood and a saw (we think that they knew what was going to be happening!), the team that didn't use anything that they gave us except the shelf and the apron (go figure!) and a team that did a Halloween theme, once again they didn't really use what we were given.  The losing teams, oh yes us, we used everything they gave us (BIG MISTAKE!) and so did the other team.  We laugh about it but really, a scrap off where you have to paint a shelf?!?  So the joke was on us!

I did it!

I took the plunge, I am now a Close to My Heart Independent Consultant! WAHOOO! I am so excited about this company and what it has to offer in product and opportunities. I may start another blog that handles just scrapbooking stuff, with dates of when I am doing things etc. So if anybody wants to buy some product let me know! I don't have a personal website yet, still working on that, but you can check out the idea book online at www.closetomyheart.com. If you have questions let me know! For those who are looking at the price and going WHAT!?!, let me explain a few things. If you buy the paper packets it averages to less than 50 cents per page, and I priced the embellishments before I even signed up and they are the same price or LESS than at your local scrapbooking store, at least around here in Utah. The My Acrylix stamps are amazing! I love being able to see where I am placing the stamp and how much ink is on the stamp. Also for those of you who thought you could never scrapbook, CTMH has what you are looking for, everything is coordinated! Paper, ink, markers, ribbon, stickers, brads, eyelets, EVERYTHING is coordinated. Also CTMH has a few books that are amazing, they tell you exactly how to make layouts and cards, how much paper you need etc. These books are sooo great! Anyway, just let me know what you are thinking, if you have questions or would like to host a home gathering (for those of you who live far away I might, big might, be able to schedule one and come out if it is far enough in advance and the flights are good and if Creed let me!)

Recent Adventure and Pictures

So for our most recent adventure Sarah and I flew to San Jose where my parents and Chad picked us up. We spent a few days with Nate and Shelly and their little family in San Luis Obisbo. Here we were able to witness the blessing of little Cooper, he is so cute and getting to be so big already! Then we all headed to.....DISNEYLAND! Sarah and I were able to enjoy a few days hanging out with the mouse and family, what a wonderful combination! Sarah and I were not planning to go on this trip, hence Creed wasn't able to come with us, but in the end it was an amazing trip and a wonderful opportunity to chat with Chad and to figure out some things. It has been decided that Chad is coming to live with us. This allows him the opportunity to go to school, get out on his own and figure out some things mentally. I don't know how much everybody knows, but Creed has OCD and so do a few of his siblings, John has some depression issues and so we thought that our house might be a great place and a safe place for Chad to be able to explore his mind and figure out why he gets such bad headaches in stressful situations. Plus we are firm believers in psychology here and feel that there is nothing to be ashamed of, so it looks like our house is in need again, I am so glad the basement is finished!

When we were looking for a place to live after selling our condo we felt very impressed that we would need a house with the potential for 5 bedrooms. At the time we were hoping that we would be able to fill the house quickly with our own children. It seems the Lord has a different plan. We are still working on the having more children, but feel that our house is the Lord's house and those that are in need are welcome. It is weird to think that four of our bedrooms will be in use daily. We are just so thankful to the Lord and rely on Him for so much. We are so blessed and feel so happy about the prospect of helping another one of His beloved children!

Now for the pictures, hope you all enjoy them!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Chad

Many of you many know my younger brother Chad, for those of you who don't you can skip this post if you really want to. Anyway, Chad has been serving his mission in the Baltimore Maryland mission until tonight. He had his appendix removed not to long ago and they were hoping that this might help with his migraine headaches, but it hasn't and some other complications have come into play. Needless to say he is on a plane to Boise right now. If everyone out there could pray for him and his leaders and the rest of our family that would be wonderful, we could use the extra faith and strength right now. He will be honorably released with the option to go back once he is healthy if he feels it is what the Lord wants him to do. He did get to serve 6 months though and has already changed. Sarah and I are going to be going on a trip with him and my parents this weekend and next week, and yes Disney is involved, as well as getting to attend the baby blessing of Nate and Shelli's new little guy Copper, I think that I forgot to post about that birth, it happened the same weekend as the wedding hence it was forgotten, SORRY! Anyway, just pray for all of us to be able to help Chad. We love him and are so proud of his service and we pray that the Lord will be with us all.

Close to My Heart

So the last couple of days I have been researching about becoming a Close to My Heart consultant. I really like their product, I am just not sure if I am the salesperson type, or if anybody I know would buy from me. So here is the question: If you like to scrapbook, would you be willing to buy product from me sometimes? If you live by me would you be willing to get friends together and host a party? (Don't worry I won't be offended or anything, just wondering!)