Two weekends ago, in Ohio, and West Virginia

At the hotel, on Friday night, the day before the wedding, Isabella lost her first upper front teeth

Aiden, who was already in bed, had to get up and join in the picture-taking fun

Two weeks ago we went to Ohio for the Wedding of one of Jared's USU Friend. We had a great time. It was all very nice, and I danced. I danced for 4 or 5 hours, non-stop. Yes I did, and later my calves hurt for 4 or 5 days, non-stop. And yes, it was worth it. I hadn't danced that much for...ever!
I don't have any pictures of the wedding yet, or of me dancing, but I do have some pictures of our trip which included a stop at Melody's in West Virginia.
Enjoy!

Fishing at Melody's pond

At the water fall

I love those three

With Melody, who took us to the falls (Carlie is behind the camera)

Beautiful West Virginia

By Inspiration

Today I found a blogger following my posts, which are not many, and I decided to check her blog.
I am amazed. The Lord works in wonderful and unimaginable ways. I read the Silver Strands' post about being cured from MS. How she and her family searched the Word of Wisdom, being healed by food, etc. This post was inspiring, and exactly what I needed to read right now.
For a few weeks now Jared has been toying with the idea of cutting meat and animal derived products from our diets. He suggested that we watch "Forks over Knives"...But every time I would ask to see it, he would say "not today." Last weekend, on Sunday actually, we watched "Forks over Knives" Jared just turned it on.
Following the documentary we read the word of wisdom. We talked about it for a while. I don't know why we have been so worried about our diets. We are pretty healthy, except for Jared having a relatively high cholesterol, we are active, and exercise at least twice a week. We don't have any health problems as far as we know, yet lately Jared has been worried.
After discussing the changes that we must do to our diets, I made up my mind. We will try to go vegan, as much as possible, as soon as possible. So we started on Monday, I'm quick like that.
To eat more vegetables is not a problem, the kids and I already eat a mostly vegetarian diet except for eggs, and dairy. Jared on the other hand is having some trouble, on Monday and Wednesday he went to a Korean Barbeque for lunch where he ate mostly meat. He is weak when it comes to eating meat, I know this is why he made me watch that documentary, he wants me to help him.
At home, I have been doing my best to follow through with our plan. I already bought soy milk, the chocolate and vanilla flavors, and I have cooked a vegetarian dinner everyday. (Aiden is already tired of beans, while Bella is enjoying them.) But so far, I have had a couple of things that contain milk and today I had a bite of cheese. So I was wavering. This is why reading her blog couldn't have happened at a better time. I need support, I need to be strong, the Silver Strand's blog was exactly what I needed.  I need to be strong because Jared is weak. While I am not sure how strict we should be on following a completely vegan diet, whatever we do I want to do for life. I don't want to do a fad, temporary diet, I want to improve the way we live our lives, I want to improve our health, I want my children to be strong. I already pray for them to be strong, now we need to do what we can to be just that. In Spanish there is a saying that goes something like this: God says "take care of yourself and I will take care of you".  He already helps us by giving us the Word of Wisdom, now all we need to do is study it and follow it.
I sound a little preachy, I know, but this is all for me.
Next week there will be no cheese at all. I know I can do it.

Lost and Found, A Tooth Story

This all started when I called the kids to the table. After working all afternoon on it, Isabella's bottom tooth is ready to fall/be pulled out. So I asked her if we should pull it before we sit down to eat.
"No," she said, "I don't think it's ready".
"Dang", I think, I know what's coming.
After the first bite she starts crying.
"Is it your tooth?" I ask. "Do you want me to pull it out?"
"Uh hum" she mumbles, still crying with a very bloody mouth.
"Ok", I finished chewing and move over to her side of the table. I tried and failed a couple of times. She wants me to stop, so I move back to my chair. Another bite, more crying and wailing. Again I move to her side and after a few more tries I get it out.
Happiness on her part, I'm just wondering if I'll be able to continue eating.
With her tooth in hand, I go to the bathroom sink to brush it. Our tooth-fairy is very picky, she wants the teeth to be very clean, thoroughly washed, before we put them under the pillow.
Uh oh! If you are thinking "bad idea, she could drop the tooth in the sink", you are right. I did!
Wails from the kitchen, "mom, why did you had to wash it?"
I said, "Don't worry the tooth-fairy will still give you money!"
Bella, still crying like it's the end of the world, "I wanted to see it!"

What to do next? I know, maybe I should go under the sink and check the pipes to see if for some miracle it is still lodge in there, and not on its way to the ocean. I proceed to loosen the pipes. Lucky me! Problem solved, everybody's happy, but now I'm sickish. That was disgusting. I hope I don't have to check for anything inside those pipes, ever again.