It's what I'm good at….

Some people are skilled at making the Turkey. Others make to-die-for-yams. (I wouldn't know because I never eat those things.) Still others are known for their melt-in-your-mouth rolls.

Me?

I am really good at making Jell-O.

Yup! It's my one true talent. I am special like that. But my Jello isn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, boil-dissolve-refrigerate Jell-O.

I make Rainbow Jell-0. Like this-is-the-pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow Rainbow Jell-O.

I because I am a giver, I would like to share my recipe with you!

You're welcome!!

Rainbow Jell-O

INGREDIENTS

Small boxes of Jello, in rainbow colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, or whatever colors you want)
Cool whip 
sour cream
water

DIRECTIONS:
 1.Put the prepared pan in the refrigerator to chill. 

2. Add one packet of Jello to 1 cup of boiling water. Dissolve completely. Pour 1/4 cup of the Jello into a bowl and add 1tbs sour cream and 2 tbs cool whip. Whisk together until it has melted the cool whip. Pour into the chilled pan, spread evenly and put back into the fridge for 15 minutes. 

3. After 15 minutes, pour the remaining jello into the pan, spread evenly, and place back in the fridge. 

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all colors of jello. (The set up time will decrease with each layer.) 

5. Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

Seared might not be strong enough of a word...

People say that there are moments in each person's life that are so emotional that, when one looks back, they can remember where they were and what they were wearing.

A few of those memories for me are:

The day Challenger exploded.

Sept. 11, 2001

The day my Grandpa died.

Thursday November 5, 2015 will forever go down as a day I will never forget; neither what happened nor what I was wearing.

What happened on Nov 5, 2015?

It started out as a normal school day. My older kids had just gotten off to school. My younger kids were piddling around getting ready, as was I.

I went into my room, shut the door and laid my clothes for the day on my bed. **

** Side note: Does anyone else think it's weird that my master bedroom door doesn't have a lock?? I mean, if ever there was a room that needed a lock.... Right? Apparently not. **

So with my clothes on the bed, I proceeded into the master bath- which, thankfully, does have a lock- and took a shower. I stepped out, dried off, put my hair in the towel and went to put on my clothes.

I opened the bathroom door and looked up at my bed, which directly faces the bathroom.

To my horror, there sat my innocent 11 year old son…

1-2-3… Eyes on ME!!!

Yup. That day will be forever seared into my memory…down to the clothes that I was NOT wearing!!

He may need counseling.

I need to get that lock!!

The Power of Prayer

We have always taught our kids that they can pray about anything and God will answer them.

Help. Comfort. Guidance.

On our travels home from visiting family, my daughter was feeling frustrated because she was feeling like she wasn't getting an answer to her prayers.

As we were discussing this, my 9 year-old pipes into the conversation.

"Well, Kyla. I think I wasted all my praying power on my Lego. I lost it and then I prayed and found it. And then I lost it again and prayed and found it. Like 10 times. But then the last time I lost it, I prayed and I couldn't find it. I think my praying power is all wasted."

I guess we need to teach him that the power of prayer is more like the energizer bunny....

...it just keeps going.

It happened in the water

There are times when things happen in our lives that cause such terror that no matter what, they will never be erased from your memory.

This was one of these times.

I will call it, "The Time Dad Tried to Drown Me."

As you can imagine some of the details are very vague or have been repressed to some degree. I was really small and I remember a hotel and a swimming pool.

 

I do remember a brown water slide very clearly. It wasn't a big slide. Just the size of your regular, everyday brown water slide. But I remember wanting very much to go down it.

Problem was, I couldn't swim.

I watched as sister after sister went down that chocolate slide. Sherri. Angie. I remember Michelle and Tammy going down it together.

And there I sat. In the shallow end. On the cold steps. All alone. (As alone as one can be with 7 siblings also in the pool.)

 

My dad must have noticed my longing.

He came and got me and together we walked to the source of the ultimate in swimming pleasure: The Slide.

"Now, you hold on to my neck real tight. And I will hold on to you," Dad explained.

Seemed simple enough.

Up we climbed. I sat on him lap. And down we went.

If you have ever been little and tried to hold on to a wet man's neck while crashing into a wall of water you will understand that it is near impossible.

If you have ever been a grown man and tried to hold onto a slippery, wet, squirming child while crashing into a wall of water, you will understand how my dad tried to drown me.

Okay, so technically I slipped out of his arms. But from my perspective, he didn't hold up his end of the bargain...quite literally. Neither did I, but from my perspective, it went like this:

 

HE LET GO!!!

In the deep end.

And I couldn't swim.

Deep down under the water I went. It was an eternity to the surface of the water...an impossible distance given the amount of oxygen I had in my lungs. (Yeah, I know hotel pools are only 6 feet deep, shhhhh. You're ruining the story. Whose side are you on anyway.)

I kicked. I flapped. I believe I screamed.

And then I breathed.

BIG MISTAKE.

Then, just when I thought all was lost, all hope was gone, and I was ready to surrender to a watery grave.... a pair of strong hands grabbed me and brought me to the surface.

Sweet oxygen filled my lungs. I had survived. I was alive!!

 

I turned and looked at my dad with terror in my eyes.

"Wasn't that fun?' he asked. "Do you want to go again?"

The shallow steps never sounded so good.

What's your water story?

Testing 1 2 3

Ahhh the joys of sate-wide testing.

You know you love them. Especially these new ones.

Our newest one is the PARCC. And it is just plain glorious....the best there ever was.  Eight weeks of testing for the high school. Yes, that is 2 months of testing. They spend 3 hours on 7 questions and aren't allowed to read or do anything except sleep on a keyboard when they finish their test. Genius!

Even better is making our elementary kids type timed essays on subjects not discussed in class... because all 3rd graders are proficient at typing. Also awesome is requiring that they show and explain their math work on a computer...because what 3rd grader doesn't know how to make a number line on a computer and then use it to show their work and then explain how they came to that answer....seriously awesome!

Oh yes. I love them!

But what I am looking forward to most at the end of all this testing?

I can finally STOP making sure my kids get a good night sleep and a healthy breakfast each day. It's just so exasperating and wares me out.

They told me to and so I have no choice...I have to...

Wait. Shouldn't I already be doing this?

Like EVERY DAY???

And if I wasn't already doing this, do you think that I will start now simply because it's a testing month (or two)?

What about you?

Do tell if you love testing as much as I do....

All tubes are NOT created equal

Hello all!

We finally had snow! Enough to get a two hour delay but not so much that it wasn't melted by the end of the day. Gotta love NM weather.

Last week, Hubs had to travel for work for 3 days. When he arrived at the hotel, he realized that he hadn't brought any toothpaste. No biggie. He ran to Wal-Mart and grabbed a new tube and a few other things and hurried back to the hotel.

Well, as he got ready for bed, he pulled out his new toothpaste and began brushing his teeth. But something didn't feel right. "Meh," he thought. ('Meh' is deaf for shrugging one's shoulders.)
"Meh," he thought, as he grabbed some water and went to bed.

But as he was brushing his teeth to leave the next morning, he knew something wasn't right. His mouth felt extremely thick and sticky. His lips began sticking to his teeth. "What the...what?" ('What the...what' is deaf for Why are my lips sticking to my teeth!')

He decided to take a closer look.

"Adhesive Gel."

You know that stuff people use to keep their dentures stuck to their gums...yeah...that is what he was using to brush his teeth. Hahahaha.

That's one way to get lock jaw.

A Blue Wal-Mart car cart

It happened in a Wal-Mart parking lot....a full parking lot.

My oldest at the time was about 20 months and he LOVED riding in the carts that look like cars and are super hard to navigate through the store. You know those, right? If not, well, you haven't lived is all I'm saying.

If that's living, then living is overrated. Just one person's opinion.

But in the mind of my son, there was nothing else to live for.....only that very large blue car cart that had for the last several weeks been avoiding him.

But this morning, he was determined that the blue car would be his!

As he begged me to promise that he could have the car, I told him that maybe he should pray that Heavenly Father would help the cart be available when we got there. Yes, I know, sometimes God's answers are no and there was a high chance that the cart wasn't going to be there. But he prayed nonetheless.

As we pulled into the parking lot, my heart sunk because, like I said, the parking lot was FULL. As I put the van in park, I said a little prayer in my heart that there would be a cart so that my son could know for himself that God cared about him, that God had heard his prayer.

We made our way to where you pick up your carts, sitting there on the side was the biggest, most awkward blue car cart every known to man....okay, that's a little exaggerated. I guess a better way of saying it would be: Sitting there on the side was the biggest answer to my son's prayer...his heart's desire...the blue car cart.

Maybe is silly that I remember this. But maybe it isn't. I believe God gives us those tender mercies, those answers to the little things in our lives....at times when what we ask for are not live changing or life or death. But He recognizes our need to know that he is there.

Some may say, "Oh, well. That was just a coincidence." or "You were just lucky." Maybe so. Maybe so. BUT I don't believe that. I know that God heard both our prayers and felt to bless us in this way.

Prayer works, people. I know it does.

And that's that.

Thanks for listening.