Kinley and Teddy

Kit by Kris Myers, "Spring Blossoms"; white flower by Shabby Princess, "Dinner Party; white ribbon by Gina Huff, "Welcoming Spring"; brown torn paper strip by Jeanelle Page, "His Stuff"

I Have Missed Scrapping So Much!

Kit by Gina Huff, "Welcoming Spring"; Font is Dave's Hand

Kit by Scraphouse, "Simply Love"; Font is Dave's Hand

Tanner Eating Apple Slices

This is Tanner (before his big boy haircut) trying some apple slices. He really enjoyed them, which was so nice! We still struggle to get fruit down his sister!

Happy Conference Weekend!

I made a quick trip in to see the doctor this morning for my eye, thinking it might be "time" to rip it all off and start over, convinced the situation was status quo or worse. My naughty little eye was acting up again this morning, and I thought I'd better be safe and have it looked at. If I have to start all over, better today than Monday, probably. Anyway, it turned out that there is a teeny tiny loose flap that is irritating my eye, but other than that, it's actually STILL IMPROVING!! YEA!!!!! He hesitates to declare success quite yet, but we really might just make it!

So, Justin returned to work and Kinley and I enjoyed this morning's session of General Conference while Tanner napped. He's still getting over his virus; he does pretty well when we can keep his fever down. Anyway, this is the first year Kinley seemed to be congnizant of what was going on. She played with playdough for much of the first hour, but managed to pay much closer attention to Conference than I would have thought.

She'd be mashing her playdough into a pancake and look up and say, "what does murmur mean? I don't remember, but Laman and Lemuel always murmured." She came up with a few other gems regarding prayer and baptism to let me know that she was paying FAR more attention than it appeared. She was extremely disappointed that President Hinckley didn't speak in this morning's session. She was waiting anxiously for him during the entire meeting, and I had to assure her repeatedly that all of the speakers were worth listening to. But what can you say to a child who is so excited to hear from the Prophet? I get it.

Justin listened to Conference on the radio at work. He emailed me that I should always speak to him nicely, just as Elder Holland encouraged :) I told him I LIKE to be shrill :)

In other Bradshaw news, just 18 more days until the end of tax season... I think I can, I think I can...

19 More Days!

Only 19 more days until the end of tax season!!

Great Blessings

Well, I was already very grateful that I did not have to endure the surgery yesterday, but now I have a new reason. Tanner is sick and he was up much of the night with a high fever and a needy disposition. If yesterday had gone as originally planned, I honestly don't know what I would have done! I would have been heavily medicated through the night and I'd still be pretty incapacitated today, but because I didn't have the surgery, I could/can take care of him! I feel so blessed!

It's a Miracle!

I went in this morning to have the epithelial layer of my cornea removed (again), but I surprised Dr. Lewis by making an astounding amount of progress since landing in his office on Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday, almost the entire cornea was bubbled up. This morning, much of it had sealed back down under the contact lens, leaving only a small unattached patch in the lower corner.

Yesterday was a hard day and I wondered if I was going to make it until this morning, wishing I had just had the procedure done on Tuesday. I very nearly went in last night to have it done. But, when I woke up this morning, I was anxious to hear what he had to say because I felt such a dramatic, noticeable improvement. It doesn't feel perfect, or even great, but let's face it: we're dealing with relativity.

While I'm still making such remarkable improvement, he finds it hard to justify ripping the whole thing off and starting over. It may be inevitable, but this drama has been anything but predictable. We're giving it until Monday to see if the rest of it seals back down.

The truth is that he really doesn't think that this is going to work. Due to the nature of the remaining patch, he thinks there is a mighty big chance that I'm going to end up having surgery next week anyway. But he also didn't think that I'd make as much progress in the last two days as I have. We were both on the fence, weighing the pros and cons, but in the end he recommended playing the waiting game and relying on some faith to bring this one home without any additional surgical intervention.

So, I'm taking it easy for a few days, keeping my eye closed as much as possible, continuing with my strenuous regimen of artificial tears, antibiotic ointment, and anti-inflammatory drops.

Sometimes in Life We Experience Disappointment

Well... it happened. Late this afternoon, my eye reached the "point of no return"; It has been getting dramatically better and then worse, better, then worse since Sunday. Alas, today there was no choice but to pay Dr. Lewis a visit. The cornea has failed to attach. I have a contact lens in to lessen the pain (it serves as a bandaid of sorts) and to hopefully help it suck back down into place. He has no real expectation that it will work, but he is willing to give me 2 days so that I can try.

I am scheduled for surgery on Thursday morning, unless I can't tolerate the situation and decide to go in tomorrow morning instead. He'll remove the entire top layer of the cornea again, so that we may start the entire process from scratch. I should have gone in sooner (I received a gentle scolding for not calling him on Sunday morning when it started happening), but it may not have made any difference.

Once this heals completely (will it????), I will always be at risk for it recurring. Hence, the name... Recurrent Corneal Erosion Syndrome.

Bare Minerals Success Story

Well, the eye is functional for the moment, though it's been touch and go all morning. Wah wah, enough boobing about this blasted cornea.

Happy Lunch Hour -- I thought I'd take this opportunity to share a Bare Minerals Make-Up success story!

DeAnna has been talking about this Bare Escentuals make-up for months. Then I found out Heather W. swears by it too. So I started doing some neighborhood polling and I've been surprised at how many people have already discovered this stuff. Anyway, I bought it last week online and it arrived in the mail on Saturday morning. I put it on and it looked pretty good. Then I watched the DVD that it comes with, took it all off, started over and decided I had suddenly become a vision of loveliness.

**Now comes the success part:

Justin came home late in the afternoon. We were chatting in the kitchen for a few minutes. I mentioned for the first time that I had bought some new make-up. I was braced for the anticlimactic, grumpy, "Oh. Great." or the inevitable "WHAT? How much did you spend? When did you do that? Why did you get make-up; don't you have plenty already? What budget is this coming out of, and do you have a receipt?"

What I GOT was, "I noticed. Your face looks really pretty. I mean it. It looks awesome."

WHOA. My jaw dropped. That response alone was worth it.

So...

• It can be found on QVC, where DeAnna buys hers, starter kit and/or more
• You can get a starter kit at the Bare Minerals website
• You can call Sephora, where Heather gets hers, and apparently they'll even send you free samples sometimes (but you need a good brush from them). They are supposedly really helpful.
• Or you can get it on Ebay, where I ended up getting my starter kit. But you have to be sure it's the REAL Bare Escentuals brand. The listings can be (intentionally) misleading

**If you're in the neighborhood and want to come over and try it out first, call me. We'll totally play beauty shop, I don't mind.

Too bad my eye is dripping like a faucet down my face today; One side of my face looks lovely. The other fairly gruesome.

Yet ANOTHER Relapse

*&^%$#!

Crappy Sunday yields to a crappy Monday...

Eye..."sigh"...

Well, we endured a scary relapse this morning -- the worst one since my surgery. It was a healthy reminder that we're not quite free and clear of this monkey on our backs. I spent most of the day trying to get it and then keep it stabilized, so that it didn't reach the point of no return. I didn't want to have to call Dr. Lewis at home on a Sunday morning or go to the emergency room. After working 85 hours this week, the last thing Justin wanted to do was take care of the kids all morning while I nursed my eye. *sigh*... Back to the couch. I'll be up tonight keeping my ridiculously disobedient cornea attached.

Really. I hate Candyland...

Last Day of Tumbling Class

This was a few weeks go. These are the only two pictures that turned out. VERY unfortunate because she was SO ADORABLE!!

Believe It Or Not

Tanner actually BEGGED to get into this swing, and refused to get out of it. You can't tell how delighted he is by the scowl on his little face...

Egg Race

Kinley in an egg race last night at the park.

Pantry Cleaning

This morning's project was to reorganize the kitchen pantry. Yikes!

Well, I found not only the usual peace and giddiness that comes from a freshly organized pantry, but a second garage door opener tucked up in the very tippy top corner. This will come in VERY handy indeed! You just never know what treasures you'll find!

Funny side note... while I was reorganizing, I was trying to find a really nasty smell that was assaulting me. No rotting onions, no old potatoes. What COULD be creating such an odiferous funk? I searched high and low in that pantry, took everything out, wiped down what appeared to be perfectly clean shelves, utterly bewildered by what was creating such a stank! Finally I turned around and took a closer sniff at the little boy sitting about 3 feet away from me on the floor, enjoying his Apple Jacks...

Kinley (bless her) slept until NINE o'CLOCK THIS MORNING. She has been out late the last few nights and she didn't get a nap yesterday. She was a major crankipuss before bed last night; I'm glad she got a few extra zzzz's this morning!

Abusive Yoga

I went to a great mini-enrichment last night. Shannan taught a "Restorative Yoga" class, and I enjoyed it very much. Thanks to my previous experience with Slim in 6, some moves weren't as difficult as I know they could have been. In fact, most of it felt really great and I'm not even sore today. Many thanks to Hilary's husband for accepting treats as payment for watching Kinley and Tanner while I tried my hand at this mysterious exercise.

Anyway, back to the title of this entry: I woke up this morning with a 6-inch long dark purple bruise on my thigh, presumably from one of the positions I torqued myself into during class. It looks pretty grisly, but it doesn't hurt much.

Before and After Closet #2

Well, it sounds like Tanner has just woken up from his delightfully (and surprisingly) long nap. I guess this is the last closet that gets attacked today! Making progress! I feel so LIBERATED!!

Before and After Closet #1

Just "FLY"-ing through the closets! Love that Fly Lady!

Giveaway

I've decided that I don't like bumper pads, and I'm tired of packing this one around. If anyone wants a beautiful soft pink bumper pad, let me know. Otherwise, it's going to DI. The lighting makes it look like it's yellowing on top, but it's not. It's a perfectly sweet, light pink. Great condition. And it can be YOURS for the price of coming to my house and picking it up :)

If you want it, speak now, or it's outta here.

BBQ Meatball Recipe

Jamie brought us the most delicious meatballs when I had my eye relapse last month. They were a big hit around here; even the children went nuts over them.

Here's the recipe:

Meatballs
1 to 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
3/4 C. rolled oats
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 C. finely chopped onion
1/2 C. milk
1 tsp salt
dash pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients; mix well. Form into 12 meatballs, each about 2" in diameter. Place in casserole dish, cover with sauce (below). Bake @ 350 for about 30 min.

Sauce
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C vinegar
1 tsp prepared mustard
1/4 C barbeque sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Combine ingredients and blend thoroughly. Heat and pour over meatballs.

From Jamie: "This is the recipe; sometimes I add more brown sugar to the sauce to make it sweeter."

Rite of Passage

My family members (and mission companions) will appreciate this. Today, while cleaning out the laundry room, I uncovered dear old Teddy. I got him for Easter when I was 4 years old. This bear has traveled the world with me. Every time I've gone someplace new, Teddy has come along for the ride. He and I have cuddled in some wonderful places and we have a lot of memories.

Kinley has an enormous bin filled with stuffed animals of all varieties, but when she laid her eyes on my ragged (but beloved) Teddy, you would have thought the earth had stopped spinning on its axis.

She has spent the morning making major plans for this bear, birthday parties, Grandma's house, etc... She has been begging me to let her take him to the park tonight so that she can take him down the slide. She is currently sitting behind me in the rocking chair, singing him to sleep. She's anxious for me to get off the computer so that she can spin around with him in the computer chair.

Looks like another generation can appreciate the love this little bear has to offer. :)

New Laundry Room

This is my new laundry room. You can see the fourteen bottles of laundry detergent I bought last summer and fall when I was an avid couponer (you know, before tax season??). I got some raging prices on them (much cheaper than generic brands) and I still have enough to last me quite a while! It's so nice to finally have them all organized, dusted off, etc.

Spice is Nice

I rearranged the spice situation to two lovely cupboards. Here's hoping Tanner doesn't discover the changes right at his eye level...

The Sink

Still a pretty sink, don't you think?

Under Contractual Obligation

I received a proposal via email on Monday from the love of my life. Apparently "The Sink" impressed and inspired him so much, that he began to have rather colorful fantasies about what the rest of the house might look like given similar attention. The main body of our home is quite tidy and somewhat neurotically groomed most of the time. The cupboards, closets, drawers, and other hidden spaces are another matter entirely. I try to keep my tornados behind closed doors so as not to scare the neighbors.

Let's just say, when Justin asks where something is and I respond "in the hall closet", he groans like I've accidentally boiled his pet bunny.

So, at 6 in the morning when I thought he was working on someone's taxes, he put together a 3-page proposal of what he would like to see happen by the end of tax season. He included such gems as "declutter your hair basket", "take down winter decorations", and "reorganize the spice cupboard so that we can put more than just the salt shaker away." The list is substantial, and it is fairly hilarious to read his very specific requests. For example, he is anxious for me to find a more appropriate storage spot for Tanner's old car seat than underneath the kitchen table. And apparently the leaky bottle of soap on top of the washing machine is keeping him up at night.

So, am I offended? No, I am actually highly amused...

These are all things I planned on getting to eventually but lacked sufficient motivation. Let's face it. Tax season is rough for everyone, and so far this year has been particularly difficult for all concerned. It's just a "one foot in front of the other" time of the year. But, now I have some rewards to make the projects more enticing. Some of the rewards are funny things like "I'll buy you a new shirt" and "You may invite over two couples to play Settlers of Cataan", and my favorite: "I will be cheerful about you attending Women's Conference and abandoning me with the kids for 3 days."

So, that leads me to what I ended up doing tonight after work. The kids had eaten before I picked them up, so instead of scrambling to feed them, we were able to cuddle on the couch for a while reading books and talking, just the three of us. It was a really nice and surprisingly relaxing evening. Both of the kids were in a good mood; Tanner just wanted to turn pages and accept kisses, but that's the phase he's in these days. Kinley did her reading (which I'll explain more another day) and then we got ready for bed. The stars were just really well aligned tonight, I guess. Tanner fell asleep early and I let Kinley watch Peter Pan in the basement, waiting for Daddy to come home.

SO: My big projects of the night were cleaning out the infamous spice cupboard (which looks rather awesome, if I do say so myself), and scrubbing out the grungy microwave. Yes, I figured I'd attack that big hairy elephant right away, before I lost my nerve. I also scrubbed the kitchen floor, though Tanner will make sure that is undone by the end of breakfast tomorrow. Justin came home in the middle of that little task, but he didn't mention that his chicken tasted like pine sol.

Well, it's getting really late and I need to prepare my lesson for Joy School tomorrow morning. More on "Confidence and Uniqueness." Should be interesting. Good night!

Favorite Dish At Enrichment Night

I got the recipe from Rebecca for my favorite salad last Tuesday night. Here it is. It sounds disgusting, but I can assure you that it was a hot item!

Broccoli Salad
1 bunch broccoli, raw, chopped
1 lb. bacon, crisp and crumbled
¼ c sesame seeds
½ c raisins
1 red onion, diced (I never use as much as it says to)
1 package sliced almonds
3 c red grapes

Dressing:
¼ c sugar
1 c mayonnaise
2 T vingar

Mix dressing well and pour over salad mix. Toss and serve.

Joy School Tip

This morning I taught Joy School and the concept of the day was "Confidence and Uniqueness". We had a very fun, very creative activity that I just had to share:

I traced the bodies of each of the girls onto the back side of cheap wrapping paper. Then they used markers to color their features and fill in other details. It was so much fun! What a great rainy day activity for any child!

Now they have huge posters of themselves!

Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd

I'm so excited! It has finally been released to DVD and it's only $5.99 at Deseret Book!! This is the movie that has been playing for a long time at Temple Square, first in the Joseph Smith Memorial, and then in a smaller theater.

The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd

Teething Little Grumpus Revisited

Kit "December Rain" by Kimberly Giarusso (Digichick). Font "28 Days".

Just thought I'd mention...

I'm SO OVER tax season...

Only 4 more weeks, I can hardly wait!

Convert Courtney

My sister Courtney said she would NEVER EVER under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES become a scrapbooker of ANY KIND...she has converted to the very very dark side just this week...

Glistening Sink Update

My sink ROCKS! Want to come over and eat some cereal out of it? You totally could!

Now, I haven't gotten to the part in the book where I service trade with a neighbor to scrub out the microwave...

SWEET Retreat Success!

Hallelujah, ONE week down! I made it one full week with only ONE treat! It was (sadly) much more difficult than I had anticipated! But I did it, woo hoo!!

For my luxurious calorie splurge this week, I had one HALF serving of key lime pie and one HALF serving of tres leche cake, both from Cafe Rio last night. They were worth the wait!

Only 12 more weeks to go on the Bradshaw Babe Agreement...

Old Navy Winter Clearance

Looking for Winter clothes for next year? The clearance sale has begun at Old Navy. There are MANY things already on sale, but the items below are the very best deals I saw.

For Little Boys
Long sleeved sueded boy shirts for $2.99
Waffle Knit White Henley for $2.97

Bigger Little Girls
Long Sleeved Tees for $3.99 (limited sizing)
Short sleeve tees for $3.99 (great for now!)

Bigger Little Boys
Henley Sleep Shirts for $3.99 (limited sizing)

Women
Comfy green capris for $7.25

Men
Rugby Polo for $5.99

THANK YOU!

Thank you, THANK YOU for your help with the summer clothing dilemma! I have learned much! I am working on getting signed up for Gymbucks, I absolutely want to take a trip to Park City, Johanna, for fall clothes, I now have The Children's Place saved to my links, and I discovered the wonders of Tarzhay... I went first thing yesterday to Target and bought the most DELIGHTFUL t-shirts for Kinley and some adorable board shorts for the little man. I was very very pleased!

After shopping, I came home and did the Fly Lady thing. I was in the middle of a 27-fling boogie through Kinley's closet and I found...oops, I found some unopened Kinley-sized shirts for the summer. It seems that I DID buy a few things during the big Old Navy clearance sale last fall! Well, she's definitely set for a while. Hopefully they'll last through next summer. There are a few shirts from last year that we're going to be able to get another season out of. Still need to get her a pair of capris.

Child sizing is so strange. Kinley, who is now in 5t tops and 4t bottoms, is wearing a pair of 18-month shorts, and no, she doesn't look like a hooch. Tanner, who generally wears size 18-24 months, is wearing at this very moment an outfit that is labeled 6-9 months. Some uniformity please!

Wheeler Farm

Consider yourself FOREWARNED. THERE ARE LOTS OF PICTURES BELOW.

On Thursday, we took another Joy School field trip, this time to Wheeler Farm, in SLC. It's considered a historical farm, where we were able to visit at no cost. We spent most of the day there, enjoying good weather and good friends. I had never been there before. The kids (and moms!) had a WONDERFUL time!

This is Tanner chasing the geese. He was determined to catch himself a goose, but (luckily) he was unsuccessful!

There was a barn filled with old farm machinery, some of which were suitable for play.

The geese were plentiful!

They had several treehouses for the children to use their imaginations...

Kinley and Avery are playing house. Avery is the Mommy and Kinley is the napping baby.

These sure were cute little piglets!

Discovery Park

My fellow Joy School mommies took pity on me. I was supposed to teach this week, but with the quarterly enrichment night on Tuesday and the amazing weather we have been experiencing, they voted to make this last week "Field Trip Week". We had so much fun! On Tuesday we went to Discovery Park. Here are some pictures!!