Sweet Potato Puff
3 yams/sweet potatoes
8 egg whites
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbs. flour
1 cup brown sugar
4 Tbs. butter
6 Tbs. flour
1 cup chopped pecans (I don't measure, I just use a bunch to cover the top)
Mini-marshmallows
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with no-stick spray. Peel yams and cut into 1 inch squares. Place in a bowl; add about an inch of water, cover with plastic wrap and microwave until tender then drain. OR Use the plastic microwave steaming bags. (I mash the yams with a fork before adding them to the mixing bowl.) While your yams are cooking, beat egg whites until stiff. In a large bowl mix cooked yams, egg whites, sugar, vanilla, and 2 Tbs. flour with an electric mixer, until smooth. Put mixture into prepared 9 x 13 pan. In a small bowl mix brown sugar, butter, and 6 Tbs. flour with a fork. Sprinkle on top of yam mixture. Then lightly cover with pecans, as desired. Bake about 30-45 minutes or until golden brown. Pull out 5 minutes before done and cover with mini-marshmallows. Return to oven and bake just until mellows melt and turn golden brown. Makes 12 servings.
I used to HATE yams growing up. My mom used to make me eat them every Thanksgiving. But she never made them this way!! My little sister, Tricia, got this recipe from her Introductory Foods Class in College. I have taken Sweet Potato Puff to a couple of parties and EVERYBODY has LOVED them!!! I'm making two batches for Thanksgiving this year!!!
So my family and I are totally in LOVE with these cookies!! And the best part is that they are healthy!! I love to make a double batch and have them handy for those crazy mornings, just grab a couple cookies and go. If you've ever had the oatmeal breakfast bars they are similar, but much better!!! (I like to add a few white chocolate chips, I know, not healthy, but yummy to have a little bit of that in there...just a few, don't over do it!!)
Healthy Oatmeal Cookies
1 Cup flour (I use 1 1/2 cups because of our higher elevation)
1 1/2 cup Oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon (use 1-3 depending on how cinnamony you want them)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup Oil
1 Tablespoon Molasses
1 egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1. Mix all dry ingredients
2. Mix all wet ingredients
3. Mix wet and dry together. Add raisins and chopped nuts to the mix.
4. Cool mix for 20 minutes in the fridge
5. Preheat oven to 335 degrees
6 Scoop cookies onto creased sheets and press down lightly with a fork
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden on bottom of the cookie
This is from allrecipes.com. I found it when I was looking for something to make to take to a friend that doesn't like to eat meat. It is YUMMY. You can also do it traditional lasagna style.
8 lasagna noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
or 1 to 2 bags fresh spinach and then cook in pan till lightly wilted
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
1 pint part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
21 ounces Alfredo-style pasta sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add lasagna and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Rinse in cold water and drain well.
2. Meanwhile, in a large sauce pan over medium heat add oil and cook spinach and green onions until tender, stirring frequently. (I also like to add some pressed garlic.) Remove pan from heat and stir in ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, salt and egg.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
4. Place noodles in a single layer on a sheet of waxed paper. Evenly spread some of the cheese mixture on each noodle. Roll up each noodle from the short end, jelly-roll style.
5. In a 8 x 12 baking dish, spoon about 3/4 of the Alfredo sauce on the bottom and spread evenly. Arrange the rolled noodles, seam side down, in the dish. Top with mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce. Cover loosely with foil and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly and the cheese is melted. Serve.
I found this recipe on cooks.com and we LOVE it. To make it even easier we use bottled alfredo sauce.
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast
4 slices Swiss or Provolone cheese
4 thin sliced smoked ham
1/4 cup flour
1 egg beaten
1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
4 tablespoons butter
for sauce:
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream
Place one chicken breast in between plastic wrap and pound to 1/4-inch thickness. Repeat with each breast. (Don't use the spiky side of your pounder, use the flat side or your chicken will fall apart.) Sprinkle each piece on both sides with salt and pepper. Place 1 cheese slice and 1 ham slice on each breast. Roll up each breast using toothpicks to secure if necessary. Dredge each in flour, shake off excess, then in egg and finally in bread crumbs. (You can use plain bread crumbs and then just add some Italian seasoning mix.) Place seam side down in baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam. Place 1 tablespoon butter on each piece of chicken.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes until juices run clear. When done, place chicken on plate and pour sauce over the top.
If you are making the sauce: In a saucepan, combine broth and whipping cream; season to taste (salt, pepper, garlic, oregano). Simmer on low stirring until thickened.
I created this recipe one day when I had some apples and cool whip that needed to be used.
Apples cut into bite size pieces (I use 2 per person. I also first cut them with my apple cutter and then cut them down to smaller size.)
Cool whip
Toffee bits (You buy these in the small place in the grocery store as the chocolate chips)
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve.
This salad does not keep overnight, so only make as much as will get eaten that day. This is never much of a concern in my family, cause we all love it so much!
1 (14 oz) bag of coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
melted white chocolate (or I guess you can do regular chocolate if you really want to)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix coconut, condensed milk, and vanilla together. Scoop cookies onto a well greased cookie sheet. ( I press mine down a little bit.)
Bake for 10-15 minutes. Cookies will be golden brown on the bottom. Remove cookies from pan promptly, as they will stick to the pan if you don't! The bottoms usually spread out a bit and so as I take them off the pan I push the cookies back together to make them look nicer. (Which only matters if you are taking them somewhere.)
Once cool, drizzle the melted white chocolate over the tops of the cookies.
These are yummy and easy! A couple hints: use thinner tortillas, they roll better. Place the filling off center and start rolling from that side, that way when you finish rolling the seam will be in the right place to keep it from unrolling. And I usually at least double the batch.
2/3 cup salsa
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 oregano
1 1/2 cup shredded chicken
1 cup grated cheese
6 flour tortillas
1 Tablespoon melted butter
Mix first five ingredients. Put 1/2 cup of mix on tortilla, fold sides in then roll from bottom. Place seam side down on cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Brush with melted butter. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. They will be a light golden brown and nice and crispy. Enjoy!!
My recipe for my homemade granola bars! The original idea was from Rachel Ray, but I've tweaked the recipe and everyone loves them. I am constantly getting requests for the recipe and so I'm now finally posting! If you have questions, ask! And ENJOY!!!
Alicia's Homemade Granola Bars
2 Cups rolled oats
1 Cup Honey Nut Chex
1 Cup Rice Chex
1 Cup Corn Chex
1 Cup dried fruit bits (I use a 7 fruit blend from Sam's Club)
1/2 Cup white chocolate chips
Add the above ingredients to a large bowl and mix up. Then in a sauce pan over medium-high heat add the following:
1 stick butter/margarine
1/3 cup Honey (if you spray your measuring cup with pam first then the honey comes right out)
1 Cup brown sugar
Stir mixture and continue cooking until it starts bubbling. Then continue stirring and cooking for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and pour over mixture in large bowl. Stir to completely cover mixture. Spread into a 9 x 13 greased pan and gently push down into pan. Put pan into fridge to cool until set. Cut into squares and enjoy! Store in air tight container.
I always have little pieces that have fallen off into the container. I save them and have them for breakfast with some milk, like granola.
It's August already!? It feels like summer just started and yet on the other hand I am really ready for the boys to go back to school. The days of sleeping in will come to an end and we will have to get back on a routine. No more staying up late and watching cartoons till noon. I'll be glad for the boys to get back to seeing friends, without having them come to our house. I have a hard time planning play dates with my fibro and never knowing when a good/bad day will come. No more trying to decide what to have for lunch! School lunch makes my life easier!! The boys are excited for their new teachers and to be 3rd and 4th graders! It will be a little weird for Kaleb and I not be going back to school as well, but will be ooohhh soooo nice!!! And maybe with the boys back in school I'll get my turn on the desktop computer that has all the pictures on it and I can blog about all the fun things we did this summer!!!
Sorry it has been soooo long since I last posted about my fibromyalgia study. I am still plugging along and some days are still better than others. We had graduation and a cello concert and family came and we rearranged our little apartment and lots of other stuff that has kept me from posting. Things have slowed down a little bit since we got graduation over with.
Last Thursday the Dr took x-rays with my weights on to determine what needed to be changed and to monitor the progress. Unfortunately he couldn't show me the x-rays because it is for a medical study and showing the patients the x-rays could positively/negatively affect the study through pschological lines. But I will get to see all of my x-rays as soon as the study is over in the first week of July. So my progress is going good. Of course I do not have the perfect curviture in my spine yet, but there is a change. The Dr said that if you started with ligament damage and a negative curve that it would take longer to achieve the desired results and I am so lucky that I have 2 torn ligaments and a negative curve. With the progress that I made I do get to change my weights! I no longer have to wear 8 pounds of weight around my waist, but I do have 1 extra pound on the right side of my head. So I lost 7 pounds of weights, which makes my bag a lot easier to carry!!
So I'll just keep plugging along, doing my exercises. I'm tired and I do still hurt, but it is different pain. And really whose body wouldn't hurt if they were trying to change the position it has been in for years! The study will end the beginning of July, but the Dr has said that he will continue to treat us if we are not at the point he wants us to be at, for free. Also, he has contacts with a Dr that can cure food sensitivities and the treatment is covered under most insurances with chiropractic coverage....so if Kaleb gets the contract position with benefits I will be visting this Dr very soon! Wish us luck! We could really use some good health insurance!
Last week was a CRAZY week and right in the middle of it all the boys had Crazy Hair Day at school. So I gelled and sprayed and tadaaaa........
Graduation is only 3 weeks away!! We are sooooooooo super excited to be done!!! (Really I am already done and my diploma is hanging on the way in a super cool frame that my in-laws gave me, but I haven't done the whole walking thing yet.) So we decided to order announcements that had both of our names on there, since we get to walk together. And we decided to have a Graduation Lunch. And of course we needed to take a picture to include with that and our awesome upstairs photographer neighbor even agreed to take some one evening for us.
The only problem is that the weather has been so up and down that we couldn't really schedule a day. So one day it was kinda warm and not cloudy, so as soon as Kaleb got home from work I made him, yes I made him, shower and change so we could go take pictures. One of the electives in Cub Scouts is photography, so I thought Maxwell could try taking some pictures and he did pretty good for his first photo shoot. With digital pics we could take them and look and teach him how to make them better and always just erase the ones that didn't work. And if all else failed we could use the little tripod and the timer.
In front of Old Main...an okay picture but we were squinting a little and I don't really like the open door in the background.
A fun spot to take pictures, but the lighting just wasn't right and neither were the looks on our faces!!!
Every year we have wanted to go to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center. Every year it seems to be yucky weather on those days, but this year is wasn't too bad and the boys were on spring break so we went. We bought a family pass, good for a year, so we can go all summer. Our next trip is planned for this Saturday and the boys want to ride the ponnies and the train. Hopefully the weather will be good!
We started out at the billy goats.
Then we saw a calf and some piglets.
Went on a treasure hunt where they had to read the signs and then answer questions about the history of Cache Valley.
Another calf and a lamb. All of the volunteers either had on a black shirt or were dressed in pioneer time clothing.
A bunny and then we went to stand in line to see the baby bears.
The bear cubs were from Yellowstone Bear World and had been born in January. There were three cubs and three workers from Bear World. We didn't get to touch the cubs, but we were pretty close and it was still pretty cool to see them.
Jensen was telling me where he wanted to go next and when I turned back around to find Maxwell I saw him holding a baby lamb. So Jensen hurried in to the pen also. 
Then Maxwell handed the lamb to Jensen and I really wasn't sure he would be able to hold it.
But he did and it's almost as big as him!
As we were leaving the boys saw the old farming equipment and insisted on having pictures taken up on them.
Maxwell enjoyed it so much that he wanted to volunteer there!
Hopefully the trees will start to get some leaves really soon. We are all ready for spring here!
Yes, I missed last week. It was the boys spring break and we tried to do as much as I could. We also went to Salt Lake on Saturday and Sunday so I didn't get a post up. But I am just plugging along. I do my exercises and I get very tired, but I just keep going. I have noticed the hump at the top of my back is getting smaller, YEAH!! Now I'll post some funner stuff, pictures from the boys spring break!
My neighbors have certainly had something to talk about this week! It gets boring really fast, walking around a 900 square foot apartment for 20 minutes. So when the weather is nice I go outside and walk around our apartment complex. I saw a few neighbors one day and they looked at me weird. So I walked around in circles while I explained to them what I was doing. The boys have enjoyed it though. I let them come out and ride their bikes while I walk around. Too bad they are forecasting more snow for tomorrow and Tuesday. I really thought spring had come, since this week is spring break for my boys, but I guess not.
Ideally I should be doing traction, wobble, and weights three times a day. Some weeks the ideal can't happen. I have managed to do what I can and I am feeling better today, so next week should be better. We did find out that when I wear the posture strap it applies pressure in such a way that my hands go tingly. The Dr said that wasn't good and had me a do a couple things, took the strap off, said is the tingly/numbness gone, and yep it was. So I don't wear the posture strap for now, might wear it again in the future, we will have to wait and see. A few years ago I did physical therapy for numbness/tingling in my hands and arms and the posture strap seems to irritate the same nerve.
Below is my new favorite quote that I heard in a talk today during General Conference. As soon as they post the text on-line I can find out who said it. I was listening while I did my hair and heard this said. I hurried and wrote it down, but didn't get the name.
Never let an earthly circumstance disable you spiritually.
Its the end of week 15 and nearly the end of the day. Today was a busy day! I had to get up at 6 am so I could do traction, wobble chair, and weights before we left for Salt Lake for the day. We hunted eggs with Kaleb's family, went to an 80th birthday party for Kaleb's grandma, and stopped by my sister's house to play with the cousins for a little bit and pick up a bag of clothes. We got back home around 7:30 pm. It was a long day and my knee started hurting by the middle of it. I played the piano for about an hour at the 80th b-day party, and that may have started the knee pain; however, I really do enjoy playing the piano and since we don't have one I take all the chances I get to play. It really isn't too much fun to ride 2 hours home in a car when your knee is hurting. :)
So this week on Thursday I started the weights. Someday I will post a picture of how I look when I have all of my weights on, but for now you will just have to image how funky I look. The first night I put them on Kaleb said that we should take a picture so I could see how I look. I quickly reminded him that we have a full-size mirror in the hallway so I can already see how "cute" I look with them on. First, I strap on 8 pounds around my waist. They are in two pouches that hang from a belt that I buckle on. Next, I put on a posture strap, no weights attached to this. The strap is supposed to keep you in the correct upright posture while you are wearing the weights. Then, I add what looks like half of a vest on my right shoulder and buckle it around my chest. In the front part of the vest is 5 pounds and in the back 3 pounds. Last, I put a strap on my head that holds two 2 pound weights. These stick up above the strap, making me look like I have metal "bunny" ears. The strap sits right above my eyebrows and wraps around the head. Once I have this all on, I set the timer for 20 minutes and then have to walk around. I can walk in place, which gets boring really fast, or I can walk around and around my little 900 square feet apartment. I have to try and keep my eyes and head level and look out level in front of me. Luckily, the time doesn't drag too bad. At the end of the 20 minutes I sit down and unbuckle all of the weights. Wow! It sure does feel good to take off 20 pounds in less than a minute.....sure wish I could take off 20 pounds of extra body weight that fast!!!
So here is my new daily exercise schedule:
Morning = traction, wobble chair, weights
Mid-day = traction, wobble chair, weights
some time during the day = 6-way dorsal stretch, 20 thoracic rolls
Just before bed = traction, wobble chair, weights, blocks
Traction = 60 pulls for 7 seconds each
Wobble Chair = 4 warm-ups with 10 reps, 1 warm-up with 25 reps, 100 front-back, 100 side-side, 75 figure 8's w/down first, 75 figure 8's w/up first
Weights = 20 minutes walking
Blocks = 20 minutes
It really is quite a work out!! It takes me about an hour to do traction, wobble, weights. On Monday and Thursday I also go into the clinic. There we have to do traction and weights and then get adjusted as needed. I had planned to complete tons of half finished projects after I graduated in December. But then we found out about this study. I was so blessed to get into the group of 11 that get all of their care fully paid for. I was soooo excited to get the opportunity to get to change my life and get feeling better and hopefully cure my fibromyalgia. They told us it wouldn't be easy and that it would take a lot of work. I don't think I thought it would take this much work, but I'm not complaining about that. I'm excited to be learning how to heal my body and how to care for it for the rest of my life, but all those half finished projects...?.... Well I have finished a couple.....but the rest will have to be patient. Eventually I will finish all of them, but right now the most important thing is that I take this opportunity to get better!!!
Yes, I missed week 13...that's what happens when you have fibromyalgia and a cold...your brain doesn't always work right! I totally forgot about posting! So anyways....
Week 14
The cold is getting better, but it is still lingering around. The weather has gotten warmer and that should help me start to feel better also.
Up till now the study focus has been to align the neck and strengthen the muscles to prepare to start the head weights. And now, we are ready for the head weights. On Thursday we are having a meeting and the dr is going to explain it all to us and what other exercises we will still need to do. Supposedly when you start the weights you start to see bigger changes in how you feel...I am really hoping this is true!! I've been very tired, but really when you look at all I am putting my body through right now it is understandable. My knees and elbows have been hurting and the dr checked them and put them back into place, not necessarily a very fun thing, but now they are feeling better. I just keep going because I've been in pain for so long, that I figure that what is some more pain.
End of week 12
--- good news -- I don't have to do the turtle exercise any more. The muscles it was working are now strong enough. Dr says I'm almost ready for the weights.
--- bad news -- Major fluctuations in the weather! Nice and sunny one day, snowing the next, makes my fibro hurt tons more. Add in the lovely time of the month and you get Alicia in lots of pain.
We'll I learned something this week that didn't make me the happiest. I really wish it wasn't true, but it is, and even though I may get better in this study, this thing will never heal. Turns out that torn ligaments don't heal. Once you've torn it, its torn for good. So I have two torn ligaments in my neck that will always be torn and weak. The exercises will strengthen the muscles around them, which should help. But having torn ligaments means that my neck will always be susceptible to getting out of place, even by simple things like hitting a bump while riding in a car. So this all means that I have to keep my neck muscles strengthened and be careful of bumps. Now there is a medical reason for Kaleb to avoid the potholes on the roads! lol!
It's official!!! I got my USU dipolma in the mail today!! I am officially a graduate with a BA degree in Liberal Arts and I graduated Cum Laude.....hey wait where is my minor? great I guess I will be calling the university on Monday to see why my minor isn't showing up on my diploma! I didn't do all that work for it not to be there!
Another week has gone by. This week we added another spinal molding block to lay on at night, at the same time I am laying on the other one. Also, I have to drink 2 oz. of Himalayan salt water, followed by 12 oz. of water, every morning. How does it taste? Just like salt water. Not too bad if you just hurry and drink it. The Himalayan salts are supposed to provide all of the minerals that my body needs. They also are supposed to act completely opposite from regular salt and instead of dehydrating you they are supposed to hydrate you. I've had some bowel problems like week and I'm not sure if it is from the salts or from a bug. I just hope it gets better soon! Found out that I am supposed to be doing traction and wobble 3 times a day now and not just 2. Some days I feel overwhelmed with it all. I just want to go back to bed and go to sleep. I keep trying to tell myself that I need to do the exercises if I want to get better, but it sure is hard when you feel so tired and feel so completely unmotivated. I think if the weather would warm up it would help me out a lot! I am so tired of the cold and the snow...and the weather man said we have a chance of snow this weekend. Wish I could get out of this depression and stay out!
Week 9 of the study brings doing y-traction for 4 days. 2 down and 2 to go. The y-traction is where the dr puts a strap around the back of my head and then pulls on it. He pulls for 15 seconds two times and then for 45 seconds once and at the end gives a tug. Doesn't feel very good at all! Makes my neck hurt and I have to ice it off and on for 20 minutes all night long. The dr did it yesterday and this morning I felt better, hopefully I will feel better tomorrow morning too!!! The bonus of the y-traction is a funky hickie looking thing on my neck. Since he has done it 2 days in a row so far I have two of these. By the end of the week I may have four. Here's a picture:
It's the end of week 8 for the Fibromyalgia Study that I am in and boy has my brain fog been bad this week! Tonight I can hardly type! Drives me crazy when I can't remember things that I've known for years! The other night I couldn't remember my friends name and she was sitting right next to me. I've been so very tired lately too! I've been making some hats, 4 for my friend and her kids, and then as many as I have yarn for for the humanitarian basket at church. I will be working on the hat and fall asleep and it's only 11 o'clock in the morning. I can't seem to get rid of this cold that I've had for a month either. On a good note, my joints have felt a smidgen better.
I thought I would share with you all what I have to do everyday for the study.
Twice a Day:
traction - 60 pulls
wobble chair - 4 warm-ups with 10 reps of each, 1 warm-up with 25 reps, 100 front to back, 100 side to side, 75 right side first figure eights, and 75 left side first figure eights
Once a Day:
thoracic roll - 20 reps
praying mantis exercise - 3 reps of 45 seconds each
turtle exercise - 3 reps of 45 seconds each
6 way stretch - 45 seconds in 6 directions
neck molding block - 20 minutes, right before bed
Any day that I go to the Dr I also do an extra set of traction and wobble chair. Right now I have to go in three days a week. The dr also adjusts me almost every time I am in. There is more to come, when my muscles and spine are ready for it. It may not look like much in the list, but you should see how tired and how much it takes out of me to do all of that. I had Kaleb try the praying mantis exercise and he was done after just one rep! And now....I have to go do traction, wobble and the molding block so I can go to sleep.
I turned 34 a couple of days ago and decided I would make a list of 34 things that have happened in my life since my last birthday.
Wow, I didn't realize that I totally missed a post last week. So anyways, last week went pretty good. Did my exercises, didn't start anything new. Felt ok. Sunday started to feel like my cold might be coming back, but then the dr said it was probably allergies acting up with the inversion. So I started back on my allergy nasal spray and I do seem to have less of a scratchy throat today and less congestion. Let's hope that it will clear up soon!
Week 7 - Started two new exercises. First one is what they call the praying mantis. You stand up againist the wall with your heels, bum, back, and head touching the wall. Then you raise your arms to a 90 degree angle and then touch your elbows and hands together and hold it for 45 seconds and do it three times. By the middle of the first 45 seconds my muscles are shaking like crazy! But I keep going, it is an exercise to strengthen your muscles. The second new exercise is the thorasic roll. They gave me a 7 or 8 round and around 24 inch long styrofoam roll. You lay on the floor with it just under the end of your ribs and slowly walk it up to the top of your shoulders and then back down. You are supposed to start at 8 and work up to 20. Eight was plenty for me yesterday! It relaxes the muscles in your back, but it really works your abs as well.
Today, after doing the wall traction and the wobble chair at the dr office, he checked my range of motion in my neck. He said that I have about 100% going left and right, but not full motion tipping my head back. So he said he was going to do the y-traction on me. He had me lay down with my upper body slightly elevated. Then put a strap around the back of my head and over my ears. The strap continues out to a handle that the dr pulls on, which basically feels like he is trying to pull your head off! The first pull I closed my eyes and the room started to spin and I felt like I was going to pass out! So I waved my fingers and he stopped and asked what happened. He adjusted the strap and then said to keep my eyes open. The next pull went a lot better. Each of the first two pulls is supposed to be for 15 seconds, then the last pull is for 45 seconds and then he gives a tug and releases your back or neck. I felt it in my neck, but he says as we continue I will begin to feel it further down my back. And now, my neck hurts and I am going to go lay down and ice it!
Maxwell has had the awesome opportunity to be a part of his elementary school orchestra. He decided he wanted to play the cello. So we went to the meeting and they measured him to see what size he would need. The cello is as big as he is and it is only a half-size cello. He goes early to school twice a week for practices. We try to get him to practice every day at home, also. We think he is doing awesome!!
For Christmas this year, Kaleb and I decided to give the boys loft beds. They already had bunk beds, so we just needed to make the desk part. I found a picture of a loftbed that we liked for the idea. We planned and then Kaleb and his dad drew it out and figured out how many of what pieces of wood we needed. Then Kaleb and his dad, and a little help from the boys, got the pieces all cut and part of the desk put together. Then we brought all of the pieces home and moved most of the stuff out of the boys room, so Kaleb could sand and finish all of the pieces. The boys had to sleep in the living room for a few weeks and we had saw dust everywhere, even though we tried to cover and contain it! We almost have the house back together now, just a few more things. Merry Christmas boys!!
Maxwell, Jensen, and Kaleb putting together Maxwell's desk.
So I think I'm a little off in my week counting...I think I didn't count the week I was in New Mexico. Kaleb looked at the calendar last night and said I had been doing my exercises for 5 weeks now, so there you go.
Last week and this week have been a little rough on me. To start off we have had horrible air in Cache Valley, with the inversion and we've had lots of red air days. Then with my "time of the month" last week and having a cold this week has made this hard. I have really tried to keep doing the exercises twice a day, but somedays I have just hurt too bad. The dr did tell me that this is not a no pain, no gain thing. If it is hurting too bad to stop. So I've done what I could.
I am up to 60 pulls on my traction unit. I've been doing good on my neck molding block, so the dr said to try turning it over where there is no cut-out for my neck. Wow, that hurt! I only made it 3 minutes and then turned it back over to the cou-out side for the rest of the 20 minutes. Kaleb asked me last night if I could tell a difference and I said it sure is hard to tell with all that has gone on in the last couple of weeks.
I can hardly believe that Kaleb and I have been married for 11 years! The time has flown by and we really don't feel like it's been that long until we think about how old are kids are getting! We had a great friend take the boys for a sleep over, so we had a night to ourselves. We went to dinner at Chili's and then saw the movie "The Blind Side". We loved the movie, but it reminded us that we are supposed to be working on adopting. The Lord has a way of hinting things at you! This last year has brought us some great things and we are hoping for a bunch this coming year as well. Last year I graduated from college and this year Kaleb will graduate! Jensen will be getting baptized this year. Maxwell started playing the cello and is doing great! I started my fibromyalgia study and we are hoping that it will make a great change in my ability to live my life. Thank you Kaleb for being such a wonderful husband! Love, Alicia
This is my third week in the fibromyalgia study. This week I have to go in three times. I already went once this morning and came home and rode my bike for 20 minutes and went 3.4 miles. I felt pretty good, but tired. I iced my neck and then took a nap. I think I have been feeling a little better, but the weather is so cold right now that it makes it hard to tell. I am up to 40 pulls on the traction unit and have to work up to 60. Somedays I'm not sure I can even do 10, but I keep going. I'm still doing good on the molding block and only had one night that I couldn't do the full 20 minutes so far. I'm getting faster on my wobble chair.
