Aaron's Golden Birthday: Updated

We had a Special Stake Conference with Elder Ballard. That was really cool and it meant that church was over at 10:50! So much time to go other stuff.

We went to my grandparents house for a BBQ. There was plenty of good food and people to talk to.

My family sang him happy birthday and we had cake (Aaron just wanted ice cream...but I ate cake).

We went home and played with the dogs and went to bed.

I took zero pictures.

Maybe we will do something really special today. I might go make him a cake or something...just so that I look like I'm making an effort.

Update:
Aaron's parents sent him a gift card for food so we went out to eat on Monday and it was wonderful. It was fun to snuggle and stuff our faces. :) Also, Aaron got himself some new jeans and Star Wars Legos! He thinks that it was a pretty good birthday.

Primary: Book of Mormon Olympics

Aaron and I got to go to a Primary activity at the church today! We were having a Book of Mormon Olympics!

There were different stations around the outside of the church where the kids would hear a Book of Mormon story and then play a game that had something to do with the story.

We were suppose to be in charge of the Samuel the Lamanite booth but Aaron ended up at it by himself. There were some kids who needed some TLC and special attention to feel comfortable. I didn't mind because I got to go to all of the booths!

This is Aaron at the booth! He did a great job telling the story and the kids had fun trying to build a wall for Samuel to help him preach repentance and tell about Jesus. They had to take a block with a spoon over to their teammates.

The kids were pretty good at it.
There was also a "Nephi's Journey" Obstacle Course. The kids....ummm....got a little stuck in the box tunnel because the box was just too fun. I remember what that was like....I mean...I still wanted to be included.
This is the only picture of me from the day. Can you find me?

Yeah, I'm the one squatting. I was playing a water balloon toss with a 3 year old. It was hard. I didn't have my camera most of the time because I passed it off to someone who was going to be in different groups so that more kids could get their pictures taken.

I'm so glad that we get to be in the Primary and play with kids! It is the one time a week that I can pretend like I have kids. :) And I like it.

Coming Up:
Did the Reinerts ever finish their roof?
Did they clean up that mess?
What did they do for Aaron's golden birthday?
Almond flour Paleo pancakes!

Paleo Diet: End of the First MONTH!

I did this diet for a full month!! After week one, it really didn't seem that hard. We've had our ups and downs but it has been pretty great. Things that have changed:

*I'm not a huge fan of grains anymore. My body loves the fruits and veggies! It doesn't want to deal with loads of grains.

* I don't miss milk...but I do miss cheese.
* I've become a better cook and I've had fun trying out new recipes and even inventing some of my own.
* I feel sexier and healthier!! I love being more active than I've been recently. I'm not getting old! I need to stop being stationary!
* The biggest thing: I lost 10lbs. No joke. I'm 127lbs. I didn't know that I had that much weight to lose and I can't even tell that I'm any smaller...so I think that I have more weight to lose. Weird.

I've loved this diet and I can't believe that 3 weeks ago I was saying, "You don't have to do this forever! Just get through this week!"

So if you are thinking about doing the Paleo diet, I would say that you should totally go for it. It is awesome!

I might make myself something yummy to celebrate!

Side Note: I bought some almond flour today (YIKES! So expensive!) and so I might try those pan-crepes again. :) I'll keep you posted.

Institute Classes

Even though Aaron and I have two callings in church (THAT WE LOVE!), we don't get a whole lot of....umm...church? Don't get me wrong! I feel the Spirit and I learn so much from Primary. I really do. But we read really simple lessons and break them down for the 4-5 year olds and it has been a great learning experience but there aren't a whole lot of "Ahhh-ha!" moments for me.

While I was walking out of my first class on Monday, I saw loads of activity coming from the Institute building and I thought about taking classes there before so I went to check it out!

It took awhile to talk Aaron into taking a class but he finally said okay! YEAH!

We took our two classes last night and it was so fun! It was great to talk with adults about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon.

After our Marriage Seminar class, there was a little eat and great. Aaron and I made some new friends! Which is exactly what we need. We have a couple good friends up here but more of our friends are still in Provo.

So far, it has been really awesome. Maybe I will keep you posted...maybe not. I mean....I haven't shown you any pictures recently...and so I might do something that I can SHOW you soon.

Paleo Diet: Can't Be Fixed

I learned something today.

If your pancake batter smells like green beans....stop. You ruined everything.

For starters, I shouldn't have been cooking with soy flour anyway. Aaron and I meant to pick up Almond flour but we didn't. And I can't have soy because it is a legume. And NO LEGUMES!

I didn't want to waste the money so I tried to use it anyway. Big fat horrible gross mistake.

The recipe I was using was an old friend's recipe for "Pan-crepes". They aren't pancakes and they aren't crepes...they are a flat pancake so we called them pan-crepes.

The recipe normally is delicious and so easy that I can't live without it.

1 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1 egg

a dash of sugar

That simple.

Well, I threw in the soy flour in place of the flour and almond milk in place of the milk.

While I was stirring it, I became aware that it smelled like green beans. I like green beans, don't get me wrong...but not for my pancake.

Long story short....they came out tasting NASTY! Like seriously awful! I haven't been eating a ton lately because my medication has made me nauseous and eating this has given me some taste aversion problems....like...thinking about eating a baked good makes me want to throw up right now.

So, moral of the story people, if it smells like green beans, you can't save it.

I'm going to try this again with almond flour to see if it comes out better....or if you want to try it with almond flour and let me know, go ahead.

Last Summer Hike

Since school started for me today, Aaron and I decided to spend the last Sunday of the summer going on a family hike (plus two friends). We were helped along with this decision by this one man in our ward and his 4 (almost 5!) year old son.

Side Note: This little boy is one of our primary kids and he is not a huge fan of me. Basically, every time he sees me, he thinks I'm going to kidnap him and never let him see his dad ever again. But he LOVES Aaron. I'm cool with that...he is a really sweet kid and I would probably try and kidnap him.

They were going on a hike to enjoy the wonderful summer Sunday and they invited us to join them. We'd never gone on the Birdsong Trail in Ogden and I'm so glad that we did. It was a very nice trail and I think they said two miles round trip. It wasn't too steep and it wasn't boring. And it was beautiful!

I didn't take any pictures this time. Not from lack of camera...but lack of memory card in the camera. So these will have to do.

It was so fun to hear this little guy being so chatty. Him and his dad had the cutest conversations.

"You aren't tall because I'm not on your back."

"We are in a cave now. There are monsters."-Son
"Will you protect us?"-Dad
"No."-Son

"Where do you think the goosebumps came from?" -Dad
"A goose. GOOOSE!!" -Son

The view was incredible and the company was great. I think that for a last summer hike, it was perfect.

Home "Improvements": Water Tight (Updated Pictures)

Our house has been water tight since Monday night thanks to some wonderful friends from our ward. They both came over to have a Family Home Evening of service. It was pretty nice visiting with them and getting the roof at least secure for the night, even if it wasn't completely finished.

Aaron brought a coworker home with him, {D}, so that he could help out a little. He couldn't get on the roof but he wanted to do something and so he helped get our front yard into a more... aesthetically pleasing arrangement.

Our front yard looked about the same as this Friday night before we cleaned.

It looked like this when {D} came to the house.

As you can see, there was still work to be done.

Our friends, {M} and {J} came over to help us later that night after {D} left. {M} and I mostly talked about different things...like her crazy relatives and her husband's crazy relatives. But I was hammering down shingles and she was supplying people with shingles as we talked. Don't worry, we aren't lazy!

The roof was completely tar papered by the end of Monday. What a HUGE relief!! Even though it didn't rain that night, it was amazing to know that our house was water tight for the night! At long last!

We still needed to finish working on finishing the shingles and stabilizing the swamp cooler but at least we could go to bed knowing that we were safe and sound for the night.

Tuesday, Aaron and I were back up on the roof together. It was pretty slow goings since most of the shingles needed to be cut to go around pipes on the back half. It was not going nearly as quickly as I had hoped that it would. We had quite a few of these to go around all over the back.

(Do you like how if looks like we put a plunger on the roof?)

On of our neighbors saw us up on the roof and brought us some cucumber from her garden (some of which we ate that very night). We chatted for awhile since Aaron could do what little we could do, on his own.

We ended Tuesday with things still water tight but not finished.

Wednesday we had scouts! That was a good break for us. We didn't have to start working on the roof till 5:30pm.

It was time to stabilize the swamp cooler. That took the longest time and I wasn't much help to Aaron at all. I couldn't hold the swamp cooler level long enough for him to screw it in and I wasn't able to screw it in place fast enough for Aaron. So I told Aaron to call someone, so {J} came back over.

They got the swamp cooler done in a ridiculously fast manner. It was awesome. Meanwhile, I was working on the ridge shingles! AT LONG LAST!! THE RIDGE SHINGLES!! For those of you not in the know, ridge shingles are the last things to go on the roof. They are the sign and declaration that you have nothing left on the roof to do!

Since it was Wednesday and we started later, the sun seemed to disappear rather quickly but it didn't really matter to us because WE ARE WATER TIGHT!

Seriously people, say it with me! WATER TIGHT! When you go to sleep at night, I want you to think about how awesome it is that your roof isn't leaking, because it is awesome.

Thursday night, guess what we did?

NOTHING! We didn't do a single thing on the roof or roof related that whole day and it was wonderful. I went to a friend's house to thank them with some food and they asked us to stay for dinner.

Oddly enough, the clutter from outside seems to be effecting the inside of my house. I don't have tar paper and ripped up shingles in the house but I haven't been working on dishes and the couch covers are clean...but not on the couch. Everything has kind of been left for dead in the house. I haven't been the best at making my husband dinners this week either so it was a welcomed invitation.

We got to stay up and talk with our friends about a ton of different things and to laugh a whole lot. And I love that. It was great therapy from a week of really intense hard work. It had been a week since we found out that this project was going to be bigger than we could have imagined. We deserved a break.

Friday night we were back on the roof. Working and trying to get this finished. Has it become tedious to anyone else? It has to me. We probably only worked for about 2 hours that night. I got another side of the ridges completed and that made the first side we started ripping up, 100% DONE!

The other sides are about 98% done. We are so close to victory!!!

Today was spent on the ground. Cleaning. So very very much cleaning. I wanted to get the back door cleared away so that we could get in and out of that door since our dogs like to use the bathroom out there.

Aaron got that part all taken care of and so life is good. We still have a mess and we are probably getting a dumpster to load it all up into and be done with it. This is our pile that has been moved out of the front of the yard and the side and is going into the dumpster.

And look! We can get out the back door!


I wish that the ending of this story was better and more interesting. It seriously started to drag on and on.

Just so everyone knows, we are leak proof and tired. We probably won't be doing any more big home improvements for a little while.

On Wednesday, some of the Elder's Quorum are coming over to help us get these shingles in the dumpster! Should be tons of fun!

Thanks for following along!

Who is still reading this? Arggggg....I'm so tired of this story.

STOP READING!

Okay, if you kept reading, you get a bonus picture.

Paleo Diet: What Will It Do To Your Budget?

When I started the Paleo diet, I seriously had no idea what I was doing. I read a good portion of the book my mother bought me to try and I decided to jump into it.

The first week, I had to sit down and write out a whole week of food before I went grocery shopping. The most fresh produce that we would normally buy was apples and a bag of carrots. How embarrassing is that? Seriously, we were starting from scratch.

As we were filling up the cart at the grocery store, I kept thinking that it was going to be so much money. I was so nervous that this diet was going to be this HUGE investment. Seriously, our cart was full of things that I'd eaten but hadn't really thought about getting. Kiwis...I mean, I like them but, they are hard to see as worth the effort to peel.

Here's the thing, when I get to the grocery store, I go to the produce section and we go to the meats. Sometimes I grab spices if I'm trying something new or almond milk if I'm out. Then I leave.

I'm not buying or even walking passed tons of stuff. I literally skip over most of the store. Most of the things that would normally end up in the cart, don't even get walked passed. The things that are in your cart are full of the nutrients that you need, aren't processed, and are easily digestible. But is it worth the price you pay for them?

Big surprise ending, it costs about the same as a normal week of food.

Yet, it makes you feel so much better when you know it is really good for you.

*An Aside*
In the book, it says not to load up too much on almond flour substituted recipes because almonds do contain a certain amount of fat that you don't want to gorge on. The PRICE of almond flour is what is going to stop you from doing that...it is expensive!!

Paleo Diet: End of Week Three

It has turned into a habit.

They say that it takes three weeks for something to turn into a habit and by jove, I think I've got one.

The first week was awkward since I kept thinking of things that I love and realizing that they aren't part of my diet. Bummer. I also wasn't used to the food that I was eating and it was weird standing in my kitchen completely drawing a blank trying to think of what to eat for lunch. It was kind of miserable but I just told myself, "You aren't going to do this forever, you just need to get through this week."

The second week was better. I cheated more than I cheated the first week which was bad...but kind of good because I got to eat what I wanted.

And this last week just felt like a breeze. It is so easy to look in the fridge and know what we have and say, "Hey, we should have this for lunch" or whip something up really fast for myself for lunch. I love it. I love that it has become second nature.

I kind of felt like a nutritionist or something after we worked on the roof Friday morning. We climbed down and I fixed some onion and spinach scrambled eggs that tasted amazing. The protein would get absorb pretty quickly since we had just been exercising by working on the roof. I knew it would help us recover quicker. At 3, right before we went back on the roof, I made hamburger helper. I know that that is against my diet and we needed something while we worked that had more protein in it and some carbs to sit in our stomach for longer. My plan worked completely and I think we all felt great.

Things I Cheated With:

1) Hamburger Helper

2) Greek salad (It had cheese on top and TONS of dressing...and it came with some little bread)

3)Italian ice with custard

4) Snickerdoodles(2)

Things That Have Changes in the Last Week:

* I realized this week, when I ate the hamburger helper, that carbs really do just sit in your stomach and take forever to digest. Sometimes that is a good thing, like on Friday. But most of the time, I hate that super full feeling that slowly turns into a bloated feeling. It is a wonderful feeling to know that when I put veggies and protein in my body, it is going to be worked on immediately and be used by my body. I don't need to carbo load every single day.

* My body has gotten used to the amount of food that I'm eating now and I've lost the feeling, that I get a couple hours after I eat, that I've famished.

* With all the work on the roof, I'm in the 120's! It is a high number in the 120's but I'm getting my pre-APX weight! I love that!!! I'm getting rid of all the stupid weight that I gained eating Twix for lunch while I was working a sit down job.

It has almost been a month since I started this diet! I'm hoping that some of the changes that have happened, are on the inside of me as well. Wish me luck!

Home "Improvements": The Epic Roof Adventure

Sunday:
When we woke up on Sunday, Aaron went outside to see the damage. It had rained. Not enough to really cause a huge problem inside the house but enough that we had to get everything on the roof dried off and some tar paper back onto the house since it had been blown off. The loose flying paper and the pile of debris made it look like we were the victims of a natural disaster.

We remembered later at church that we had painters tarps that probably would have been better than nothing. But it was too late now.

I was irritated. I didn't want to work on this project on Sunday. It was definitely not part of our original plan. None of this was.

While we were at church I went up to one of the only people who I feel comfortable asking to break the Sabbath with us. I felt so bad asking but his wife and him said that the ox was kind of in the mire because there was suppose to be a storm coming in that night (which I doubted since there was not a cloud in the sky). I felt so bad that I was making {J} do this but he agreed and came over at 4 to help us out.

He got to work putting down as many shingles as he could. We had to stop putting down shingles when we were trying to decided what to do about one side with a rotted board that was literally falling apart in our hands. Aaron and I had a discussion about whether or not he should go to Lowe's and get a new board now or the next day. We decided that since the forecast was for rain, we needed to get as much covered as possible (Even though there still were no clouds in the sky). We got the board and Aaron set to work putting it in place.
Meanwhile, my job wasn't standing around taking pictures. My job was removing the flashing from around the pipes which had been tarred into place...needless to say, it took a lot of my famous brute strength.

Success!!

Once Aaron was done putting in that new board, we put up the metal edging and it was time for more tar paper, and more tar paper means loads more shingles being placed down.

It was more or less at this point that a young family from our ward was taking a family walk and saw us while we were up there. Aaron and I don't really know them. We've talked to them a few times briefly and they are nice but we haven't really gotten close or anything. I was SUPER embarrassed that we were working on Sunday. Seriously.

They called over to us and said that they had a nail gun that we could borrow. We said that that would be wonderful and they brought it right over. Not only did they bring the nail gun but the husband, {S}, climbed up on the roof and the wife apologized to me over and over again that she had to go take care of her 2 month old baby. Ridiculously nice people.

And that is when we started to plow out the work. We had three sides almost completely tar papered and shingled by the time we all got off the roof that night at 9. That nail gun helped pound all those shingles into place so much quicker than we could have by hand.

Aaron and I got dinner and watched some cartoons to unwind from the day. At about 10:30pm it started to rain.

I don't know how to describe last night. Exhilarating, desperate, terrifying, intense, insane, tiring, courageous, stupid, genius...It was all a blur and every time I looked at the clock, times seemed to be moving too fast. And there will never be pictures of that night, unless Heavenly Father was taking them for me.

When we heard the rain we jumped out of bed, threw our work clothes back on and ran to the painters tarps we had remembered too late last time.

We climbed onto the roof with flash lights and these three tarps.

Let me tell you something. I don't like ladders. DON'T LAUGH MOM! I KNOW YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT MESA VERDE! I don't trust them and every time I climbed up one to get on the roof, I had Aaron stand at the bottom waiting to "hold it" for me. I had done it on my own for the first time that day when we had been working with {J} and got used to not being afraid. Well, doing it in the dark was so scary. When I got to the top of the ladder, Aaron was already on the other side of the roof since I had to take care of the dogs coming up. It was dark and I couldn't really see the roof very well. I was so scared and I had a thought put into my head, "You did it in the light, you can do it in the dark. You know where the roof is." And I climbed off the ladder and onto the roof (luckily this part was completely shingled so no fear of slipping) and scurried over to Aaron.

He needed me to climb out to the edge of the house and hold down a tarp while he threw shingles down to me to hold the tarp in place. I don't know if you have ever walked on a wet wood roof in the middle of the night down to the edge...but it is pretty scary.

What is even more scary is when you have tarped yourself into a corner and you need to climb up wet loose plastic that is sitting on wet wood.

It was scary but luckily I wasn't that far away from some solid shingles and pipes that stick out of the house.

It was also exhilarating. The wind was blowing and rain was coming down. Lightening would light up the work that we were doing and for a split second we could see what we were going with the tarps. Thunder would roll right after the lightening and the two were getting closer and closer together.

We laid down the three tarps we had the best that we could and climbed back down. We hoped that the rain wouldn't be any worse that it had been the night before and we were hopeful that no damage would be done.

We were in the house for 20 minutes before I found the first leak. It was 12:30am.

Monday:
I showed Aaron a puddle coming down from the swamp cooler vent...or as it would turn out, next to the swamp cooler vent.
He pulled the ladder in from outside to climb in the attic to see what is going on and he finds out that water is coming down from everywhere.

We start grabbing buckets and pots and pans and water coolers and anything really that I could get a hold of and bring it up to Aaron in the attic.

I knew that we had to go back on the roof. We didn't have a choice, we didn't have enough buckets so we had to go to the source of the problem. I told Aaron that if I cut up black garage bags, they could be big enough to help. He agreed and I started cutting. I scurried back up and down the ladder with the garbage bags...in the dark while Aaron worked on finding the holes to cover. The slates in the woods had to be covered.

The ladder was soaking wet and one time when I got on the ladder my foot slipped a little and I was back to being scared and then I had my mothers voice in my head, "When I'm scared of something, I say, "I'm not going to be scared of you, you stupid thing!" and then I do what I want!" So I said to the ladder, "I'm not scared of you, you stupid thing!" and I did what I wanted and ran over to Aaron with more bags.

It was 1:20am at this point and we were using plastic bags for everything. 4 bags, 8 bags, 12 bags...we didn't seem to ever have quite enough to cover every single inch. When we thought we had all the wood covered, we went back inside and Aaron climbed into the attic again.

Success!!! Only about 5 leaks still in need of a bucket. We redistributed buckets and I cut more bags. There was one piece of wood that was still being soaked through and we knew with at least 3-4 more bags, we could fix it.

It was 1:40am and once again, we were on the roof in the pouring rain. This last maneuver took the most time and energy. We had to move the painters tarps that we started with since they were the problem. We had laid them down to haphazardly in the beginning thinking that this rain storm wasn't a big deal. We had to start at the very tip top of the roof and make sure that everything was proper all the way down. By this time about 40% of the roof was wet plastic and 95% of the part we were on was wet plastic on wet wood. We had to work very very slowly.

At one point Aaron had what he was doing under control but a part of the tarp at the edge of the house was being blown off by the wind. I moved down there to fix the problem. I fixed it up and got everything in place. The only problem now was getting back to Aaron...or shingles.

I sat on the roof trying to inch my way up, too far away from my husband for help. I would try and push up to move and the plastic would slip down with me on it just enough to make me feel like I was going to slide right off the edge. I was cold, soaking wet, and most of all scared. I started to sing "A Child's Prayer" to myself like I used to when I was little. Slowly but surely, I inched my way to the shingles on the driveway side of the house. So much relief, but not time for feeling it. I had to get to another problem part of the roof.

Finally at 2:45am we decided that this was the best that it would possibly be.

Aaron went into the attic to check. The leaking had stopped. We could finally go to sleep.

At 3am, we crawled into bed and said our prayers and with our hands stinging from the fiber glass in the shingles, we fell asleep.

At 7am, Aaron was back on the roof with the man who brought us the nail gun {S}. They cleared off the tarps that took us nearly 4 hours to place and got to work laying down more tar paper and shingles. They worked until 10 and Aaron went to work. He is coming home in a couple hours and you know what?

I think that we might actually have a leak proof roof over our heads tonight.

Home "Improvements": Fixing a Leak or Making it Worse?

Aaron and I were told that we just had one layer of shingles on our roof. That was perfect, because it would make putting on a new layer so much easier.
The plan was:
Thursday Night- Prep the roof for laying out shingles. Meaning, we were going to rip off the ridge shingles really fast and lay down tar paper.
Friday- Start putting shingles up
Saturday- Finish the roof, happy day.

This is what happened.
Thursday night we climbed on the roof.

We started ripping off ridge shingles.

This picture makes it look like Aaron tore off all of those, but I want it to be remembered that it was ME! Anyway, Aaron is taking a look at something that makes him sound anger. I don't know what it is that is making him so angry. So he showed me.

I don't know if you are an expert on shingles but Aaron tells me that this is 4 layers of shingles. And for those of you who don't know, the max in Utah is 3.
So....we have to rip it all out.

Friday: Aaron and his crew of Clarise and myself get to work. We were so beyond slow. We did manage to clear an entire side of the house of everything. And we were the cutest crew that Aaron has ever had. Take a look at that hot action!

Our sweet neighbor Lou (If you have stalked me for any length of time, you know our biggest problem with neighbors is that they are too nice...Lou is a constant culprit) felt bad that he couldn't help us out, since he is 88 and we don't want him anywhere near a ladder, so he brought us cold apples to eat. That hit the spot since it was warm and taking so long and it was becoming clear that we wouldn't get this project done in weeks at the rate we were moving. I mean, I was so busy that I couldn't take pictures and not getting a picture of Clarise on the roof is one of my life's greatest regrets. Aaron was taking a break and asked me if he could get us anything and I said, "Go and call people. Call our home teacher. Call our friends. Go call anyone to come up here." He doesn't like asking for help but I thought that it was...very very necessary.

Aaron called three people and the two people who were in our ward were on our roof in a matter of hours...on a Friday night.

{B} wins the award for putting the biggest dent in our work load...and our roof.

He felt so bad. Or...our tiny leak went from being a minor inconvenience in our attic to...this.

While we were on our roof, we ran into our neighbor {N} and he offered to come over the next day to help out. When we went to bed Friday night we were feeling pretty good about where we were at. We had a little more than 2/3 ripped off which was so much further than we could have gotten with just Aaron, Clarise, and I. We spent a little time trying to clean up our yard so that the front door wasn't covered in debris.

Saturday:

Aaron got up at 6:30am so that he could be on the roof working at 7am. He tried to only do quiet jobs while Clarise and I slept. {N} showed up as promised at 8am and they set to work right away. Aaron came into our bedroom and said, "We are going to be working above this room...so...it might be noisy." Okay...yeah...I guess I can deal with that. At 9am I got up because I couldn't really sleep. And I was up on the roof with Clarise following close behind.

I worked on ripping out nails or pounding them in. That sounds like a stupid job but I have to make the wood go from looking like the side on the right to the side on the left. When we lay down tar paper, we don't want any random nails ripping through the paper.
{N} was working on taking out the remaining 1/3 of the old shingles and Clarise followed behind him with a broom to clear the path for him to keep stabbing with the pitch fork. Aaron ran around doing any task that was extra like, cutting wood to patch up the hole or taking the metal off the edges or putting it back on when an area was clean.

When the back of the house was too hot to stay there any longer, we moved to the front to all work on the nails. That was fun just sitting and talking while we worked.

Aaron let me hammer a piece of wood into place. The worst boards got replaced and I was so happy when Aaron let me put it up. That is how good I was getting with the hammer.

At 11:30 we all climbed off of the roof for lunch. Aaron and I took Clarise to lunch and dessert at David's and it was great to shove food into our faces and eat custard and Italian ice.

We got back at 2 and {N} was back on the roof...that guy can not stop being nice. We've caught him mowing our lawn and shoving snow out of our driveway on many occasions. The boys worked at clearing off the nails and getting ready to finally lay down some tar paper. When I left to go to work at 4, they were already laying down a layer of shingles on the driveway side of the house.

While I was away, {B} came back over to help out. This time he didn't go through our crappy roof, thank goodness. It was so nice of him to share his two weekend nights stuck on our roof helping us out.

By the time I got home at 8, {N} was finally in his own home and Aaron was trying to fix up the debris that was covering everything on the ground. They got the garage side looking like this

and they got a row of starter shingles down

and they rolled out a good amount of tar paper on the front.

The weather report said that there was a slight chance of rain and all of our tarps were on the ground catching debris. We prayed and I told Heavenly Father that if it didn't rain tonight that we wouldn't work on the Sabbath but if it did, we would have to break the Sabbath and we didn't want to.

And sometimes the answer to your prayer is to break the Sabbath.

Sunday Family Hike

Yesterday after church, I asked Aaron if he wanted to go on a walk with the dogs. He said he would think about it. A couple minutes later he came in the room and asked, "How do you feel about upgrading that walk to a little hike?" I thought that that sounded like an excellent way to relax and have fun with my little family.

It is so great that in Utah, you are always about 15 minutes away from a hiking trail. We are 5 minutes into this trail and look....the road. Don't worry, this is when the road and us part ways.

Pippen was really brave on this trip. Normally he is terrified of water but on this hike, he kept trying to run around in the river.
You might recognize this bridge from our first scout hike. We decided to go a little further passed this bridge to explore a little more. We decided to stop for some pictures while we were out. Nothing like happy family pictures with puppies.


The pups always have a good time keeping their little noses busy with tons of stuff to explore. We kept them on leashes most of the time since there were so many different people around.

Fun was had by all and we loved following Aaron anywhere he wanted to go. He is a good leader.

We were gone for 2 hours and I'm glad that we upgraded our "walk" to a "hike" but boy are my dogs tired! :) (MOM!!!! GO TELL DAD ABOUT THAT JOKE! I think he would like it.)

Paleo Diet: End of Week Two

The diet stage that I'm at right now lets me decide how many times I want to cheat and eat something that isn't Paleo. I thought it might be fun to tell you which things I cheated and totally snarfed down. Plus, it helps as a food journal. I'm on my hormone meds and they make me want to eat like crazy (But the other meds that I will take in a couple weeks make me feel sick so it evens out).

1) Cheesecake on Tuesday with Aaron when we were on a date

2) 4 Fun Size candy bars from a friend as a "thinking of you" present

3) A "real fruit" smoothie from McDonalds (we were in a hurry and had to grab something quick...I knew it would tide me over till I could get to my salad...which had cheese....arggg...)

4) One chocolate chip cookie at a friend's "after sealing" party (That's right! Only one!)

5) Tomato Soup with cheese and Fritoes (This was to get rid of some food without wasting it. I don't plan on cheating on my diet that much in the future. I mean, Fritoes?)

Things That Have Changed in the Last Week:

*I could only eat about 4 bites of the cheesecake before it was just too much sugar for me. That hasn't happened in 4 years (I was a lot healthier in Thailand).

*The day after the cheesecake, I had a mini break out. I still don't know whether my skin clearing up is a fluke or not, but this is pretty good evidence that the acne has something to do with my diet.

*I've started exercising more and going on walks with the dogs more. I'm loving running around with them. Aaron and I even went on a two hour hike together(It probably wouldn't have been so long if I hadn't insisted on stopping so much for pictures).
*My weight has stayed the same. I was in a more maintenance mode this week instead of a progress mode.

*I went out to eat with Aaron and managed to still eat Paleo! But I sounded like one of those people, "Can I have extra vegetables instead of the rice side? Can you not put too much salt on it?" I hate those people...and now I am that person.

*Aaron made cinnamon rolls on Sunday from the tube and I wasn't even tempted. I enjoyed the way it made the house smell but the thought of all of that sugar icing on top made me sick. I ate an apple.

New Foods:

*Spaghetti Squash - I'm not done experimenting with it. So far...it is edible but not...amazing in my mouth. There is SO MUCH in a spaghetti squash. I thought that it was just a little of it at the very center but No. The whole thing is spaghetti like strings.

*Halibut- Maybe my mother has made it for me at some point but I've never dealt with it. It was a sweeter tender fish and I quite liked it.

*Plum- I've had plums before....but this one was of note. It was AMAZING! I hadn't had a plum in awhile and this one was so juicy and so sweet. Love all the fruit I get to eat!

Forever Family

Today, Aaron and I got to go to a sealing of some of our friends. Usually a sealing is done at a temple wedding, but this couple didn't have the option of a temple wedding at the time. Today they got to go into the temple today as a couple married "until death do you part" and they walked out as a couple married for "time and all eternity".

I'm so happy for them! :)

It was really great to be there with my eternal companion and to share this wonderful day with my friends.

Recipe: Breakfast Banana Mash

That sounds like such a good recipe right? I know you are all dying to find out what I'm talking about!

Paleo Breakfast are basically restyling what you had for dinner the night before. (Side Note: There was this huge turkey breast in the fridge that I ate off of for 3 days...I kid you not. This thing was huge and delicious.)

It is a cultural thing that you don't eat cold turkey and salad for breakfast.

Think of your favorite breakfast.

Does it include tons of fatty meat? Bacon? Sausage?

Does it include a huge carbo load? Pancakes? French toast? Funnel Cakes?

Does it include tons of sugar? Kid cereal? Syrup? Jams?

How much dairy? Milk? Yogurt? Cheese?

Why do we do this? Are we getting ready for war? It is the most important meal of the day and I guess it must have made sense to someone to start the day off with food that takes all day to burn. But we don't need that much in our stomach all day because we also have lunch and dinner. I love those breakfast though. Crepes with Nutella smeared on top....mmmm....

Most everything that I love about breakfast is gone when I'm on this diet. Eggs and fruit are what's left for me.

Man this is a bummer. I totally revamp leftovers but...sometimes it is a bit of a morale killer.

Tonight I made something that I know I'm going to love for breakfast!

Do you ever get in this mood where you are hungry but not for anything hard on your stomach? I usually grab cereal. I don't know what made me do this but this is what I made.

Banana Mash:

1-2 banana (I don't know how hungry you are...I used one)

crushed almonds

almond milk

blueberries

I grabbed a banana and put it in a cereal bowl. I poured the almond milk on it. Just enough to make it liquidy and I mashed it all together. Then I threw the crushed almonds on top and put blueberries on it to add a little more to it (since we all know that blueberries are a super fruit).

It hit the spot just like a bowl of cereal. This would go great with an egg on the side or a spinach omelet. Also, I think tomorrow, I will try topping this with some cinnamon as well and maybe some chopped up apples since we need to eat those!

Happy eating!!

P.S. Since two people seemed to enjoy these food posts...I think that I might keep them coming since they make me feel like I have something going on in my life right now.

Recipe: Paleo Mint Ice Cream

People are going to start thinking that my diet is made up of ice cream if I keep posting these. I swear that most days I'm eating tons of fruits and veggies (For lunch I had a salad of spinach, tomatoes, and left over turkey and it was amazing).

Most foods that I make for dinner and lunch are boring so I don't share.

Anyway, I couldn't find a recipe online for mint ice cream that was paleo...or one that didn't include fresh mint plants so I winged it.

I made ice cream last time to celebrate going a week on my diet. This patch is because Aaron doesn't like chocolate banana ice cream apparently. He wanted to try one with mint out (with no chocolate chunks because I guess he doesn't like those either) so I made it for him. The first thing he said when he tasted this one was, "Wow. That is way too much mint. I feel like I just brushed my teeth." So he has moved himself into the make it yourself zone.

The Recipe:

It is pretty much the same as before as far as base ingredients go.

1 cup coconut milk

1 cup almond milk

mint extract

honey

vanilla

almonds

Mix it all into a bowl to taste. Apparently I put too much mint in. I like the amount that it is...but yeah...do what makes your taste buds happy. Honey is to sweeten it up a bit. Same with the vanilla. I hear the vanilla tames the taste of the mint a little but I don't know. Put it into the ice cream maker and let it do its thing for 30 minutes. Take it out and put it in the freezer to harden it up a bit.

(I added food coloring...if you couldn't tell.)

Enjoy!

P.S. Let me know if you don't care about my diet and my recipes. :) My goal is to kind of be a support to other people who are on weird diets.

Cub Scouts: Knots

Today we worked on knots. I hear that this is the best parts of scouts (sarcasm...I hear it is awful). To make it fun, we made the kids build a tent.

First Aaron had them practice 3 different knots.

The Square Knot:

(I know...I'm AMAZING at knots.)

Taut-line Hitch:

And the Two Half Hitches:

Yup, all of those were tied by me...because I'm amazing. Also, I think we taught the boys as well.

Once we got done, we forced the boys to build us a dining fly.

Aaron might have helped them a little. And now Aaron and I have somewhere to live if the economy gets any worse.