Sizzlin'

It got to 91 today. I can't believe we are still in Feb and getting such high temps. I sure hope it isn't a sign of what is to come!!!

Spotlight

Supporting Fisher House™ and Hero Miles
Following their volunteer efforts, San Antonio-based staff stand with a house guest in front of the Lackland Fisher House
When wounded servicemen and -women return home for treatment, they often face weeks and months of rehabilitation at a veterans or military hospital. During this time, having family members close by is essential to their recovery. Fisher House™, one of the firm’s long-standing nonprofit partners, provides military families a place to stay, free of charge, via ‘comfort houses’ located at most major military and veterans hospital campuses.
Booz Allen’s partnership with Fisher House™ offers staff a variety of ways to help. Last fall, Booz Allen volunteers in the San Antonio office cooked dinner for residents, packed boxes in preparation for an upcoming renovation of its facilities, supported the organization’s major fundraising event, and helped with holiday decorations.
“One soldier told me that he knew of Booz Allen’s work as a government consulting firm,” says San Antonio-based Associate Bethany O’Day, “but he was unaware of our commitment to relationship-building within the community. It was great to demonstrate another side of the firm to him.”
In addition to onsite volunteering, staff also can participate in the Hero Miles program. Administered by Fisher House™ for the Department of Defense, Hero Miles allows individuals to donate frequent flier miles with participating airlines—enabling families to visit their wounded heroes. Starting March 2, staff can choose to support Hero Miles by voluntarily donating their unused airline miles.
“I’m sure many staff members are like me and have unused miles that are set to expire or a small number of miles with a little-used carrier that may go unused,” says McLean-based Principal Joe Suarez, community relations director. “What better way to use those accumulated miles than to donate them to help someone in need?”
Participation in Hero Miles—a joint initiative of Community Relations, the Armed Forces Forum, and the Travel team—is easy. Visit the Community Relations iShare site for frequently asked questions and instructions for donating unused miles.
Annually, the Fisher House™ program serves more than 10,000 families, and has made available nearly 2.5 million days of lodging to family members since the program originated in 1990. Read more about the San Antonio office’s volunteer efforts with Fisher House on the Community Relations iShare site.

Sorry, here are some more pics I wanted to show from our dinner with my parents.

Only in Texas

I just want to preface this entry with this: it seems like in Texas we have every rodent and bug and just plain yucky and harmful thing. Seriously, we have well over 100 different types of snakes, with like 1oo of them being poisonous. We have scorpions and spiders and tics and lizards and bats and roaches and and and...... you get the point.
Okay, so I think this is hilarious, mind you gross and disturbing, but hilarious. So the other day I put something in the microwave to heat up. When it dinged, I opened up the door to get my food and out crawls a roach!!!!!!! I KNOW!!! I guess it is true what they say about roaches being indestructable.

Happy Anniversary!!!

My parent's anniversary was Feb 18th. It was their 35th anniversary, and they wanted to have a nice dinner with their family. We all went to a restaurant in San Antonio called the Rainforest Cafe. I have heard a lot about it, but it was sooooo much fun! It is themed after its name. They have done such a good job with the atmosphere of the place. They have a thunderstorm every 30 minutes and every 10 minures all the animals come to life. It is such a kid-friendly place to eat and have fun. While we were waiting for our food we walked around and took a million pictures. Our kids loved it. Anytime any one of you comes for a visit, we will definately have to take you there. The prices are a little high, but the food was good and the fun time with our family was definately worth it!!

Flowers, and Flowers, and More Flowers...

My mom owns a flower shop here in our small town. She stays fairly busy throughout the year, but there are definate "peak" seasons, one being Valentine's Day. She ordered her flowers quite a while ago, and just picked them up this past weekend. I think my dad said something like 70 dozen roses, and like 40 dozen carnations, then all the baby's breath(white small flowers) and the greenery to go on top of that. My mom commented and said that is actually quite a small order for a flower shop, but she is a very small shop and not a huge chain like a lot of companies. Anyway, the first two pics are of the flowers crammed into one of her coolers, just the way she picked them up. Then the next two are what she creates with them. She is actually quite talented, and I am a bit sad that I did not obtain any of her creative genes when I was born.

***Disclaimer***Sean wanted me to show all these pics and tell you all that this is what he did for me for Valentine's Day:) He is such a joker.

New Beginnings

Tonight our Young Women had their New Beginnings. I was so proud of them! They did everything themselves, start to finish. They came up with all the ideas, practiced, and the end result was fabulous!

I love so much being back in with the youth of the church! They amaze me every time I am in their presence. It really gives me comfort as a parent of future youth to know that they will have a network of friends that will be unmatched by any other.

A Few Months Ago...

The other day Sean and I were talking about our friends back in Utah. Before we moved down here to Texas, our friends put together a little going-away party. It was sooooo nice! Our neighborhood consisted of 3 blocks of homes and then another side street. I would have to say that we had anywhere between half of our neighbors to 3/4 of our neighbors there. It makes me feel so good knowing that we were/are loved so much. Friends are so important in everyone's life, and we just hope that we are the kind of friend to others, that others are to us.

Dress Size

I know I just submitted a post about how much weight I have lost over the past few months, but I have had a lot of people ask me how many sizes I have gone down. I haven't been really paying much attention to it, so I thought I would go and check. In pants, I have gone down 3 sizes, and in my skirts it has been 4. I feel so good and am so happy with my results. It is also such a great example to my kids to be active and they love exercising as well.

Sean's job

Everyone always asks what Sean does for work. Here is a little snippet that was in a paper explaining what his company is.

Booz Allen Hamilton has been at the forefront of strategy and technology consulting for more than 90 years. Every day, government agencies, institutions, corporations, and infrastructure organizations rely on the firm’s expertise and objectivity, and on the combined capabilities and dedication of its exceptional people to find solutions and seize opportunities. Booz Allen combines a consultant’s unique problem-solving orientation with deep technical knowledge and strong execution to help clients achieve success in their most critical missions. Providing a broad range of services in strategy, operations, organization and change, information technology, systems engineering, and program management, Booz Allen is committed to delivering results that endure. With more than 20,000 people and $4 billion in annual revenue, Booz Allen is continually recognized for its quality work and corporate culture. In 2009, for the fifth consecutive year, Fortune magazine named Booz Allen one of “The 100 Best Companies to Work For,” and Working Mother magazine has ranked the firm among its “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” annually since 1999. To learn more about the firm, visit www.boozallen.com.

A Dream Has Come True

What an amazing day! How far this country has come! I don't care what your political views are, today was a day for all of us to remember and to be proud of. I like to judge whether the things I am doing or not are good by the things my children say or do. Tonight Benjamen prayed for our new President and his family. He also thanked Heavenly Father for the first brown man to be president. You cannot get more honest and true than a child. Benjamen does not care where a person is from. He does not care what color skin they may have. He doesn't even care what religious affiliation, if any, one may have. All he cares about is what he is hearing is good and nice. We hear a lot of ideals. We all have them, but I think when they are spoken of on a large scale, most of us tend to be cynical and shoot them down. I love how children rejoice in goodness and have hope for a brighter tomorrow. I wish we could all embrace that as easily as our kids do.

I also wanted to make mention of how gracious the Bush family seems to be. This is a great photo of how sincere I believe it to be. Just look at the girl's faces as the former President is speaking to them.

Home For Sale

Well we finally put our home on the market. It sure is rotten timing, but we are hopeful, and VERY prayerful. This is the ad I ran. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please give them my info!

Beautifully updated 1957 Rambler on a .21 acre lot in a family friendly neighborhood close to BYU. 2700 sq.ft. with 6 bedrooms, with one having built in desk and built in shelves. 1 1/2 baths up and 3/4 bath down. Two car garage with extra built-in storage. Bright and open interior with full-size windows throughout, including basement. Spacious kitchen with tile, granite and updated appliances. Basement is 100% finished with R1.6-A zoned mother-in-law apartment. Large covered deck with fully-enclosed backyard. Fully-landscaped with automatic sprinklers. A Must See! This is great for a professor, parents looking for a place for their kids, and for a new homeowner needing the extra income from the basement to help pay the mortgage. By appointment only--(801)-885-0405. No agents please.

Matthew--fast asleep

Every day after lunch, I put Grace to bed for a nap and Matthew and I come into my room. This is the time I usually check emails and do blogging. I read my scriptures and do calling things as well. Usually Matthew will play or read for a while and then he will fall asleep. Today I couldn't get him to go to sleep though. Finally, after about 2 hours, he quieted down and fell asleep. He had slept in our room the night before becuase he wasn't feeling well, so I just assumed that he was sleeping on the floor again. When I got up to go out of the room, this is what I found...

Can you tell what this is? He is in our laundry basket!!! Hilarious

3 more pounds

I am so excited. I weighed myself the other day at the gym, and I am 3lbs shy of losing 20 pounds since I started going to the gym. I can't believe that! That is a lot. I actually would think that I would look quite stick-like with a number that big(pounds lost), but I guess I had quite a few pounds to shed when we moved here. But I will say that I look pretty good. My body is very in shape and very firm. Sean is actually quite impressed with my bicep size:) I feel great too. This really is quite exciting. And I know I have more to lose, so I will let you know when I get to the "ideal".

Grace is a Girl

OK. So Grace is going through a stage of burping. She has learned this wonderful habit from her brothers I have tried and tried to break them of this habit, but nothing seems to have worked. That is until tonight maybe...
Grace let out his really loud belch(I wasn't aware such sounds could come out of such little ones). The boys of course were laughing so hard and Sean and I were trying to keep our smiles in check. Well Sean gave Grace this stern look and said "Grace we don't do that." Upon which she immediately stuck out her lower lip and started crying these huge crocodile tears. Sean felt soooo bad, andI just had to turn my head and laugh. So I guess this is what our friends have warned us about when it comes to girls:)

Are You Prepared?

Most of you know that I am big into preparedness. I found this link on my facebook page and wanted to post it on my blog. It looks like you can do simple things each month to have your name placed in a drawing to win preparedness things from this company. I checked out their website and am impressed, so please feel free to do the same. It is blog.TotallyReady.com

Sean's Company is Doing Well

We got this note from Sean's CEO at work. We felt very blessed when we got this job, and after reading this, we feel even more blessed. We always have known and know that Heavenly Father will take care of us, but I just find it such a miracle to have gotten this job when we did and to be working for such a great company, especially in these trying times. It is a long note, but worth reading. If any of you have questions about the company, please let us know and we can pass on some info.

Dear Colleagues,
Last year at this time, with the impending separation of Booz Allen’s core businesses and the change ahead of us, we naturally wondered how things would turn out.
Our tremendous success this past year — evidenced by 18% revenue growth, strong brand recognition, and industry-leading benefits programs —attests that Booz Allen Hamilton today is stronger than ever. In 2009, as we enter our 95th year in business, Booz Allen’s place in the world is significant and secure, and our institution exemplifies the spirit of service.
Significant — Booz Allen is front-and-center helping clients solve the most pressing issues of the 21st century — securing our homeland, combating global terrorism, providing vital citizen services, and protecting the environment. Our ideas on topics such as cloud computing, cyber security, and health reform are having broad reach in the press and at major conferences, and recent books by Booz Allen authors on Megacommunities and Wargaming for Leaders have received critical acclaim. In recognition of our impact and stature, Booz Allen was named Contractor of the Year in the government services sector. Again in 2008, we were named a Best Company to Work For by FORTUNE, Working Mother, Business Week, and many others.
We take pride in this external recognition, but what you tell us matters most. To me, this quote from a staff member captures why we have such impact year after year, “No matter what level, you never stop improving at Booz Allen. The talent is amazing to start with, yet people are always trying to get even better.”
Secure — Reading the headlines and stock tables, it’s hard not to worry about the economy, but I want to assure you that Booz Allen Hamilton is strong and secure. Our performance this year, in both revenue and profitability, would be exceptional at any time – but in these days, it is nothing short of astounding.
You’ve made this success possible by selling and delivering important, high-value work, and by ensuring that we manage utilization and expenses. As a result, Booz Allen has a backlog of sold work in excess of $2 billion and a cash position that enables us to easily fund all of our business costs as well as ECAP and investment programs. The Washington Post, not known for flattery, called us “a jewel of a company with proven management, steady cash flow, and a valuable brand name. “ Over the past two decades, Booz Allen has done even better in years following a change in Presidential administrations. This isn’t surprising because we’re in the business of change. As a result of our growth and success, Booz Allen is hiring in many areas and I hope you’ll refer others who are looking for a rewarding career with a company as secure as ours (see https://erp.bah.com/hotjobs.htm) .
Spirit of Service – This isn’t a marketing slogan at Booz Allen — the words come from our founding partner James Allen, and it’s how we conduct our business and serve our communities. During the past year, Booz Allen’s service and impact have reached a new level, even by our high standards. We were honored by the Points of Light Institute with its coveted Excellence in Workplace Volunteer Programs award, just one of the dozens of recognitions we received in 2008. We established a major partnership with USO and launched a program in 12 cities called “FIRST Robotics” to support science and technology education. In 27 locations across the country, we fixed homes for the poor and elderly through Rebuilding Together, and we sponsored 48 Relay for Life teams, raising over $100,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Those of you who live in the Washington area may have read the recent news story which said, “Among the hundreds of submissions received from non-profits for this annual column on corporate philanthropy, one name came up time and again: Booz Allen Hamilton.” Well beyond the Beltway, Booz Allen is making a difference in Colorado Springs, where we won the Outstanding Corporate Philanthropic Program award, in San Diego, Atlanta, Dayton, Southern Maryland, Rome, NY, Charleston, SC and so many other places.
How will we ensure that Booz Allen remains significant and secure, and committed to the spirit of service in the future?
Every day, each of us needs to do excellent work and perform it with integrity. We’ve seen too many people in the news who have not done so. Our profession is vitally dependent on excellence, ethics, and compliance by every individual. At the institutional level, we will continue to invest leadership attention and funds in our people programs, market development, and thought leadership. We’re responding boldly to the needs and opportunities ahead – in financial reform, health reform, cyber security, and infrastructure programs, to name just a few. In this, our 95th year, Booz Allen brings clients the wisdom and experience of age combined with the creativity and energy of youth – ensuring that we, and those we serve, will always be ready for what’s next.
Today, when so many people are facing hardship, Booz Allen’s success brings both reassurance and responsibility. Thank you for your extraordinary dedication to our clients and the firm, and thank you for your generosity to others. I wish you and your loved ones health, happiness, and success in 2009.
-- Ralph

Christmas Clothes

Here are some clothes Grandma and Grandpa Eldredge sent the kids. Oh, and they sent a really cool hat for Sean too.

Clarification

I feel the need to clarify something. A few posts ago I spoke about some things going on in my parent's home. Like I have said before, this is my form of a journal, which isn't always meant for the world to see. I do not feel I said anything terribly wrong or bad, and if anything, it really made me look bad. The point of it was to poke fun at our situation right now and my reaction(s) to it. Apparently my mom took offense to it, and by that, some other family members as well. I want to make clear, without a doubt, that Sean and I are extemely grateful for my parents letting us stay with them. I know it isn't easy for either of us, but I think moreso for them. We have expressed this many times, but I think becuase we are all still in the middle of it, it gets forgotten. I want all who read this to know that we are grateful for them, love them, and will hopefully do this for anyone in our family or friends who would need such a huge favor done.

Santa's Presents

Here are my kids with their Santa gifts. They sure loved them. This is the first year that they absoluely loved it all. It made me so happy to see them so happy:)

Twas The Night Before Christmas

Here are the pics after Santa came to our house last night, but before the kids got up this morning. Grace got a HUGE stuffed doggie that she absolutely adores. Matthew got a Thomas Train Set that he has not stopped playing with yet. And Benjamen got a spy set with his own binoculars, walkie-talkies, rope, multi-tool set, compass, gloves and camo outfit, and the coolest thing, night vision goggles.

A Continuation

Just adding to my last post...My dad just told Sean that we need to spank our kids.
Enough Said.

Funny Story Involving Our Families' Issues:)

So I know that most people have "issues" within their family, whether blood or extended, but over the last 20 years or so I have come to determine most families don't have to deal with the issues of my family. When you think of the word 'mother', you think nurturing and loving and do whatever for you kind of thing. So over the last 30 years or so my mother and her mother(my g-mother) have formed that sort of relationship. They are to the point that they go to each other for everything and talk all the time and depend on each other to lift each other up when they are angry or down. You think, well that is great, good for them. The only problem is, they do this at the expense of everyone else in their family, namely my mother's children. You see, my mother and g-mother like to gossip, and not just about the town's folk, but about their own flesh and blood. Since living with my mother, I have spoken to her a couple of times about this and told her it really isn't the best thing to do. I have even gone so far as to say maybe that is why none of your kids want to come and visit you or offer to pay for a cruise for you or whatever else. My hope in talking with her is that she would discover she is doing no one any favors by being mean, and just hurting herself and relationships.
OK, so that last paragraph was an intro to why I am REALLY blogging tonight:) So we have family in town, which is always good to see. Well last night my family(hubby and kids) went to a Christmas Party we were invited to, and when we came home, the rest of my family(parents, 2 brothers and their families) were just getting home themselves. Well I find out that they had just gone to visit my g-ma, and while there, just out of the blue, my mom starts raggin on me, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. She starts saying this lie about how I called her all nasty saying I was going to clean up some food she left on the counters. (side note)--My mom tends to bend the truth, even so much as to make it a complete lie.--Well it wasn't true what she was saying, but yes, I did put the food away to make room to fix dinner. Anyway, now this is the good part, when I heard about this, I started taking all her food out of the cupboards and off the shelves to put it back on the counter so she could put it away herself(I know lame, but whatever). There was a pile of oranges she had laying around, so I had put them in a bowl earlier, so I just started dumping them out. CLASSIC, I know:) but I didn't say I was being mature about it.
Anyway, that is the end of my story, but I thought it was a pretty funny one and I wanted to make you all laugh. So if you too have a classic story to tell about the issues in your family, please share them so we can all laugh and know all families have "issues"

My Journal Entry

I must admit, that once I started bloggin, I put my journal away, and apparently for good. I wanted to pull it out the other day to write in it, but I cannot seem to find it anywhere. You see, there are some things thta I think should still be put in a journal, just so the whole world doesn't read it. Anyway, so I am going to post something that I would rather put in my journal simply for my posterity's sake, and not for the world's knowledge, but since I can't find my journal, and since I very strongly need to write this down before it goes out of my head, I will share it here.
This past week I received a new calling in church. Now for those of you reading this that aren't members of my church, please feel free to ask me about anything you read here and don't quite get. I will be using terms that probably won't make a lot of sense, and I would love to explain them to you in more detail. So back to this calling... I got a call Wed night to meet with the Bishop later that night. I knew what it entailed becuase I didn't think I had done anything wrong:) But I also kinda wished he would have just called me. You see here, members have to be pretty dard committed to the church. I live 45 minutes away from our church building, so to be making extra trips each week is a little burdonsome and time consuming. But back to my story... So I went up there and saw another lady saying that I was probably going to be moving up with my Nursery kids to be teaching Sunbeams next year, becuase she, the current Sunbeam teacher, would be moving up with her kids to teach them next year. So i thought I knew what I would be doing.
Well we get in there and he says that they are reorganizing the YW, so I got excited! I have worked with the YW before, and I love it. But he continues on to call me to be the YW President. My mouth dropped open, my eyes got all bug-eyed and my heart sank to my stomache. Oh, and I started crying. Then I felt a little silly cause I thought I must have looked a littlelike Miss America when she wins, but I couldn't help it.
I am always willing to serve. I find great joy in serving, and I have always desired to serve as a President of an organization, I even thought it would be cool. But over the past few days I have grown leaps and bounds in my testimony. It has nothing to do with me. I am actually nobody, I am just a body to fill in so Heavenly Father can continue on with whatever he needs for these girls at this time. At first I was so scared about how it all worked with picking counselors and all. I felt, and still do a little, quite a bit inadequate. It is an overwhelming feeling, but also surreal. I am still trying to take it all in. I have never been the President of an organization, and haven't even been in a Presidency before(well I was in college, but I had someone to hold my hand the whole time then). It really has been quite a bit for me to digest and get through, but I have to tell you, Heavenly Father is real! I have felt His power in my life and my testimony in Him and how His church runs has strengthened to a level I have been striving for for a long time. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve His beautiful daughters, His strong and faithful daughters. I am grateful that I have been forced to rely on my Father in Heaven in a way I never have before in my life. I know this will help me for the rest of my life.
Now I want to remind you all reading that this was simply for the sake of my kids. So they can read this later in life and see what it was like when mommy got this calling and all the things she felt and went through, and maybe it will help them in some way with their callings. Thanks for allowing me to share this with the rest of you.

OK, a little obsessed:)

OK, so my parent's washing machine kinda broke last week, so we decided we would go out and buy a washer and dryer. I have been wanting one of these front-loading machines since they came out, but they are quite pricey. We found this set on sale for a great deal through HOme Depot, so we decided to go ahead and get them. Now I posted earlier this week about how I like quality things and am willing to spend the money for good things. This was definately the case! We could have purchased a different brand and type of washer/dryer for a fraction of what these cost, but we know these will last us and are good quality and energy efficient, another plus. So we had them delivered today and I started my first load in them. I litterally knelt next to the washing machine forlike 10 minutes or something just watching it work:) I am a little crazy, I know.

A Cute Pic

Here is another picture from our Ward Christmas Party. I think it is a cute one of Sean, Grace and I.

Texas Weather

You have got to love the weather down here! Yesterday we were 85 degrees. I kid you not. It felt like it was the middle of the summer with the sun blazing down on us and the clear hot sky. BUT THEN...
We went inside for a nap, woke up maybe 2 hours later, went outside to a very windy, dark clouded sky and chilly temps!! By last night we had a cold front move in and it was supposed to get down to 31degrees. And get this, just 40 miles from here, IT SNOWED. Now not like snow up north or anything, I don't it actually stuck. But for there to be snow down here is amazing.
I just can't get over the fact that we had a 50+ degree change in the course of 1 day. Crazy weather we have here:)

Not Worth the Money

Okay. I love purchasing quality items. I have found over the years, there usually is something to spending a little more to get name brand items, especially in certain places and with certain things. Anyway, over the last couple of months I have been not enjoying using saran wrap becuase it doesn't seem to work on half the items I need it on. I have seen commercials on this Glad Press'n Seal product, and I think I even have a friend who loves it. So I thought I would try it out. So of course the first place I buy it is at SAMS, where you get everything in bulk. I thought to myself it will be worth it cause it is only a few more dollars here than I would spend at the grocery store, and I am getting way more. Plus, it is name brand and it will work. I was wrong! This stuff works even less than saran wrap. I am totally not happy with it and will not be buying it again(although I do seem to have enough to last me another couple of months:)

But there is something out there that I will put a plug in for. It is aluminum foil sheets. They come in a few different sizes, but I like the size that is 12X10. It is big enough to cover most dishes. I use two sheets to cover a 9X13 pan. Anyway, it is so handy. It comes already cut up for you and you just pull one out at a time, kind of like a kleenex box. Hope this helps some of you out there!

Funny Poses

Grace LOVES posing for the camera. She says 'cheese' and everything:). These are a few pics from last night. Then there is one from Matthew. He fell asleep listening to his radio in his room:).