Swollen Bambi

This morning, I woke up and my puppy dog looked like this:

At first, I thought that a bug must have bitten her. And that there was nothing to be done. Pippen had a similar swollen nose once but more concentrated on the front.

When I got back from class and work, it was worse. Her cheeks were super puffy and she had accident while I was gone. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to deal with it and so I put her back in her room as I ran out the door to my "second job". When Aaron and I FINALLY got home for the night, her eyes were all puffy and swollen...along with her cheeks and nose...and another...intimate area. I called the vet as quick as I could. They said to give her Benadryl and wait an hour to see what happens.

She threw that up...so Aaron and I got to wash the sheets and blankets a little a head of our schedule. On the plus side, some of the swelling has gone down.

Anyone have any idea what could have triggered this? We don't have anything new in the house. I can't for the life of me think of what it could be.

Any help would be appreciated.

Foam Shapes

Aaron and I have 60+ sheets of foam. While I was in the shower (where I do my best thinking) I thought of an idea for at least some of it. I could cut out some shapes and make a shape "puzzle" for the children we sit next to at church.

Have I told you how much I love sitting by them? They make the meeting go by so much faster and I have a reason to have a bag full of toys...without people thinking that I'm going to steal children.

This was my first attempt.

I thought that the shapes AND colors would make it a little too easy to solve.

I also had some left over paper from when I made the flip book for Primary so I thought that I would use those to make the boards.

At least when they are all the same colors, it presents more of a challenge.

But this didn't even make a DENT in my foam stash. We got a good deal at Michael's.
Luckily the kids at church seemed to like them. Foam makes for a very quiet toy so I'll probably keep making stuff to play with.

A Tragic Part of Neighborhood History

Who knew that when the year started and I said that we would have lots of adventures, that this shooting would be one of those things that will make up 2012.

On Wednesday night, around 9pm, I was looking on Facebook and saw that someone in my ward had remarked about the amount of sirens they had been hearing. I had wondered about that and as I scrolled down the comments, I saw that someone wrote that a shooting was in progress. I quickly googled KSL News to see what was going on. All they knew was that a shooting was in progress on the other side of our church building, about two neighborhood blocks from our house.

I went to the back door to look out the window and saw police flashing lights. Immediately I thanked Heavenly Father that this hadn't happened hours earlier while we were having scouts right next door to where the shooting was. Unfortunately, a Relief Society activity was going on in the building. I had completely forgotten about it and I've never been happier that I missed an activity but I worried about the ladies that were in the building. The women were basically locked in the building by the SWAT team and they couldn't leave until the SWAT team came back and gave them 10 minutes to get home.

Ambulances were going passed. Helicopters were flying overhead. All I could do was refreshing the news station page trying to find out what was happening.

The next morning, the first thing I did was read the news page. One policemen, Jared Francom, had been shot and killed by my church building. 5 others were injured and in the hospital. The gunmen was also shot and in the hospital.

This really could have happened in any neighborhood. It was an unstable man with a gun. He made some very horrible choices and ruined his life and ended another man's. This isn't a bad neighborhood, just like Virginia Tech isn't a bad university. Wednesday night, I was scared by what was happening so close to my home. But by morning, I realized that no matter where you live, stuff like this can happen. There are unstable people everywhere you go. You can only trust that Heavenly Father has a plan.

I want to record this because, this is an online journal. This happened in our lives, near our home that we have created in Ogden. It breaks our hearts that this could happen anywhere but it makes it hard knowing that it could happen to our town.

Hopefully the stories of 2012 will also include some extreme joy along with the tragedy. Our prayers and our thoughts go out to the families of the officers who fought to keep our neighborhood safe.

If you want to read news about this event, you can go here.

Reusable Flip Book

I'm having lots of fun coming up with things to make my Primary class better. A couple months ago, I thought of this idea, but I didn't have time to work on it until this last week.

All last year, while I was telling a story, I would try to draw it really fast on the white board but sometimes we got off topic because I took too long...but it helped to have visuals to go with the story.

One time, I made a flip book for a story that I thought would be useful to have. It was "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man". But what about all of those stories that I don't want to make to keep forever?

Well, I got some heavy duty paper and I cut out squares and decorated the border.

Then I got it laminated at a place called Utah Idaho Supply/Map World. They had a ton of cool stuff that made me wish that I had my own classroom.

I cut these out and punched holes at the top and VOILA! FLIP BOOK! Then I got vis-a-vis pens so that I can write the story of "Warren" without wasting paper for a story that I only want for a class period.

Now I can tell this story and erase it right after class and draw out the next story that I will need.

Can't wait to try it out this week!

Fresh Mint Tea

When Aaron and I were in Texas, we left our herb garden in the kitchen...alone. Yeah, it was a bad idea but I was out of sorts when we left. We only had mint and chives when we left.

After we got back, the chives were totally fine but the mint was VERY thirsty. I was sad because...what was I going to do with the dried up leaves?

This is the part that is still hydrated.

These are the dried up leaves that I pulled off.
I got this tea ball and I decided to try it out. Shoved it full of the dried up leaves and soaked it in the heated water.

Best tea of my life!!! Now I need to start growing mad amounts of mint so that I can dry some AND keep some for other stuff.

I highly recommend you trying out your own teas. I'm in love with my fresh teas. And...it is PALEO!! Because yeah, I'm still trying that out.

New Years Day

Aaron and I started a new year, for 2012, by going to sleep early on the last day of the year and waking up early to watch the sun come up.

We went to sleep at 10:30pm on the 31st. At 6am, Aaron woke me up and helped me get in the car with the puppies and blankets and some breakfast things. We drove into Eden and parked in our favorite lot that gives us a great view of the reservoir and the mountains.

We sat in the car while the stars started to disappear and talked about what we wanted to get out of the next year.

Light started to creep over the mountains and we started to drink hot chocolate that Aaron made that morning and eat some yummy bear claws.
It was beautiful watching the light push all of the stars out of the sky. Since we were out in the middle of no where, there were tons of stars to look at and watch disappear.

And I loved being with my little family.

When the sun came up, we jumped out of the car and did a little jig and celebrated the new day...maybe with some kisses.

I'm super excited for this new year. Aaron and I are going to have a ton of adventures, I can feel it!

Happy New Year 2012

This is my annual letter to myself and another one of my favorite things that has "officially" become a tradition since this is the third year in a row that I've done it. Man, being married has been great for me looking back on my life and being consistent with my growth. Probably a great decision. You can read the other letters here and here...though it might get confusing. It is so fun for me to read back a year ago and see how much has changed.

Dear 2012 Katrina,

This is 2011 Katrina...well, the last day of 2011 Katrina. The Katrina that has been through all of 2011....if that all makes sense.

First off, I'll answer 2010 Katrina's questions about what 2011 was like.

The first question was if I thought that this tradition was going to be awesome...and yeah. It is probably the best thing ever. I really love it so far and I can't imagine ever wanting to stop.

The CTR4 class was INCREDIBLE this year. I loved it so much. It started off a little rocky. We had 10 kids in the class that were showing up on a regular basis and even though we were able to maintain control most of the time, it was a little much for us when a new boy moved into our ward. They ended up splitting the class and immediately we were able to feel the benefit of one on one time with the children. A smaller class meant more time to get to know each of the kids in the class. Aaron and I had so many great moments with the class this year...even though I got bitten by one of the kids (not AT church which is good). I'm going to miss them being in my class so much. But Aaron and I are so excited for the new kids to come into our class.

Last year I wrote that this was the longest that I've ever had a calling...well it has been two years now...so it is officially the longest calling I've ever had by a TON. I've been so used to my life having a very fast turn over time. There is something so calming and reassuring about the consistency in my life right now but I do miss being on the move.

We have also LOVED being Webelos leaders. It was a blast this summer going on hikes with the scouts and going to day camp. They, seriously, made our summer awesome. We get to do so much stuff working on activity pins and I felt so proud at the Arrow of Light ceremony for one of our boys a couple months ago. I almost started to cry because I felt so happy that we were able to help this boy get his Arrow of Light.

2010 Katrina asked me if I like who I'm becoming. The answer is yes. Last year, I was in a pretty dark place by the end of the year. So much stuff had happened and I was so discouraged about not being able to have kids and the way other stuff went down. I was so sad most of the time and so serious. Last year I wrote about how I felt like I'd calmed down so much from the year before. I mean, I was feeling pretty beaten down by life.

This year, I'm proud to say that I've been looking at my life with greater optimism. I'm going to be a mom someday. I know that. I have so much to do with my life. I don't have to become completely obsessed with this one part of my life. I'm a strong and capable woman. I fixed our roof. I ripped out nails and laid down shingles. I started working again. I'm working at a preschool and I love it so much. I made homemade presents for people this year. I've grown spiritually and I feel closer to God. I've gotten healthier. I don't feel nearly as "calm" as I did at the end of 2010. I feel alive again and happy all the time. I'm very proud of who I am becoming and I'm glad that 2010 Katrina asked me that.

My last question to myself was what my travel wish-list for 2012 is going to be.

Thailand is my DREAM destination. I'm not going to lie, I've been pretty home sick the past year and I want to show Aaron where I grew up. We are going to Ohio for another wedding! I'm really excited about that! Other than that, we don't really have any other travel plans at the moment. I would love to do a couple small trips here and there throughout the year. Maybe to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We will have to see.

In other news about 2011:

• Geoffrey and Clarise totally got married. WHAT?!?! YES! Last year in my letter I wrote that he was coming home soon and I hoped that "they can pick up where they left off and live happily ever after" and guess what? After a couple hiccups, they totally hopped on that and I couldn't be happier for them.
• Aaron and I redid the roof and the garden in the backyard. We got rid of the railroad ties in the backyard and I'm so happy about it. The garden was LAME this year but whatever...it looked way cuter than last year. The roof almost killed us but it makes me proud every time that I look at it. Seriously, Aaron and I against mother nature, fighting to save our home. Such a great bonding experience. Plus, our appreciation for our friends up here grew so much.
• Bambi and Pippen are doing great. Bambi is learning so much and actually got her CGC (Canine Good Citizen) this year! I never think about getting rid of her anymore which is a total blessing. I love both my dogs so much and Aaron and I have so much fun with them that I can hardly stand it. Training, the dog park, and hikes are some of the things we like to do together, not to mention the snuggles we get to enjoy from them. I'm so glad that we have them in our family!
• I still love photography. I've been doing a lot more work for people lately and it has been great. I love giving my talents to the church to use. I use my talents all the time for the Primary. I got the opportunity to take pictures at the Halloween party and the Christmas party. After a year and a half of taking pictures, I'm still in love. We did a couple fun shoots with friends where they dressed up and we played around. And I got to take pictures at Clarise and Geoff's wedding.
• Aaron got to meet family in California this year! I'm so happy that I got to show him off. He is such a kind and wonderful man and it is perfect when other people can see that too.
• We went to Mexico and had an amazing time! I still can't believe all the stuff that we got to learn and lay on the beautiful beaches.
• We recently returned from our trip to Houston, TX. Aaron got to meet more of my relatives from Louisiana and I hadn't seen them in a really long time so it was great. Luckily Clarise was getting married in Houston so we saved on tickets! Kind of a slower summer of travel than last year but still good.

Goals for 2012:

• Actually look at this list from time to time so that you remember what you are suppose to be working on.
• Epic garden next year (This years garden was lame. Raspberries, cherry tomatoes, wild green beans...end of list LAME!) There better be an herb garden...it will help with the Paleo diet!
• Read the whole Book of Mormon with Aaron and the New Testament by yourself.
• Go to a new state with Aaron...like Wyoming.
• Go to the temple at least once a month.
• "They are doing the best they can."- Live by this and say it to yourself every time you want to judge somebody.
• Stay on a Paleo diet...hopefully you will get pregnant (but getting pregnant is out of your hands and so that part is not a goal).

Questions for 2012 Katrina:

Did the world end? Just curious...How long did you stay on the Paleo diet? I hope well into a pregnancy but again...that is all in God's hands. Did you get to travel more than you expected? Do you have more friends in Ogden? Were you able to take some couple retreat trips with Clarise and Geoff? Are Bambi and Pippen the best dogs ever now? Are you still hopelessly in love with Aaron? Why is he such a wonderful guy and so hot at the same time? It makes it so hard to get stuff done.

A year is such a long time but it seems to fly by. Embrace every day this year. The more you enjoy it, the faster it goes by and so I must have really loved 2011. 2012 will probably go by just as quickly.

Katrina, you are loved. You are stronger than you think. No matter what 2012 throws at you, you can take it. We have proved you in days that are passed. Good luck with school and work and your personal life.

Don't forget to write to me next year! This is one of the best personal traditions!

See you on the flip side!

2011 Katrina Reinert