4th of July 2008

I'm not a big fan of watching the fireworks in the 100 degree weather so this year we went up to Kanab, Utah. I lived there my junior and senior years of high school (go Cowboys!) and absolutely love their 4th of July celebration. They have a breakfast and parade in the morning, then vendors and booths for lunch at the park, and a BBQ dinner and show before an amazing fireworks show.

We invited our friends Josh and Joy and their little boy Landon to come with so we loaded up 4 adults and 2 babies in their Honda Pilot and headed north for a 6 hour car ride...

Jaxon is excited about all the snacks!
Here are the boys watching the parade. BFF's!
The splash pad at the city park was tons of fun for the boys to play in.
Here we are eating dinner and watching the show.
Daddy and Jaxon:)
The fireworks were awesome! They play patriotic music for about 3/4 of the show and then at the end they keep it quite so people can hear the echo off the mountains. It really is amazing! Jaxon was scared of them at first, but by the end of the show he was definately a fan!

We headed to St. George to see Devin's grandparents after the fireworks. We stayed in their 2 bedroom condo. The grandparents, of course, were in one bedroom and we gave the other to Josh and Joy so Devin and I were left to the pull-out sofa bed. I think that thing is actually like 50 years old...I knew it wasn't going to be very comfortable, but I didn't know it was going to be THAT bad! Because of the growing baby belly, now I can only sleep on my sides. I could feel every spring individually under my ribs and hips! Luckily Devin made plenty of jokes about it and we were so tired we fell right to sleep and slept relatively good!

The next morning, we played some cards with the grandparents before they headed back to Salt Lake. I think Josh is Grandpa Miller's new BFF because their card playing style is very similar: play to win no matter what how mad it makes your wife! Haha...j/k...the boys always play "meaner" than the girls, but they also always win (says the score, but who really wins when the wife is upset?)!

Anyway, after that Joy and I went for a little shopping time. The original plan was to go to Roberts (my favorite craft store ever! if only we had one in AZ!) but we stopped at the outlet stores first. We found awesome deals on clothes for our little guys and before we knew it, all our time was spent shopping for them and we didn't get to go to the craft store. It was okay though. Joy and I realized that we really are moms becuase we were so excited about the great deals we got for our boys and didn't really mind that we didn't get to go to the craft store. We also realized that we are married to some pretty great men who were so willing to watch our kids so we could have a fun break with just us girls.

We really wanted a cold treat so we picked up all our boys and headed to Iceberg for some "thick thick shakes." They really were thick. I don't know why they don't just call them frozen yogurt...anyway...they were really yummy too! We drove around looking at the huge homes in the area. I think we all found our dream home on Foremaster ridge...if only we had $800,000!

We ate at Basilla's for some yummy Mediterranean food and stopped in Devin's favorite grocery store ever, Harmon's "just for old times sake" oh, and I did need a few snacks for the ride home.

K, so we were going to stay another night in St. George and drive all the way home Sunday morning, but Josh came up with a brilliant idea: we would load up the car and leave after dinner and drive until we got to Flagstaff and stay the night there. That way, the boys would pretty much sleep the whole way rather than trying to drive Sunday morning after they had gotten a full night's rest. Then, we'd only have about a 3 hour drive home in the morning, instead of 7.

So, we got to Flagstaff at about 11:00 and both Landon and Jaxon woke up and wanted to play! They were in their pack & play beds watching each other instead of going to sleep...after about an hour of fussing/playing they both finally fell asleep.

The rest of the drive home went good. We had a great weekend, but were glad to be out of the car and home!

We had a few very memorable, hillarious moments...put Josh and Devin in the car for 7 hours and you'll probably laugh for about 6!

Devin: Man, there's Dick's popping up everywhere! (Referring to Dick's sporting good store.)

Devin said that he didn't even mean for it to be a joke, he was really just thinking, "Wow, I'd never heard of this store, and now they seem to be building them everywhere!"

Ruthann: What's Noni Juice?
Devin: You know, it's juice made by little men called Nonies. (said known-ees)
Josh: Noni is singular. It's made by the Nones. (said knowns)

These are probably some of those moments where you had to be there, but if you were there, you'd be laughing like crazy!

Happy Birthday America!

Recent Happenings

Here is an update on some recent events in the Miller family:

Ruthann went to Tennessee last week to see her new baby cousin. Jaxon loved playing with the other kids. He was pooped every night!
These cute planes were outside the Nashville airport.

Here is the family: Aunt Micah, Uncle Jeremy, Charlie, Maddie, Jace, and new baby Jacob.
Jaxon reading a bedtime story to Granny.
We were sad to leave; we had a great time! TN is beautiful! We saw Reba's house, and Tim & Faith's house too. The homes were so pretty and it was green everywhere!

One thing that was so cute when we were loading up the car to leave, Jaxon was waiting in his car seat and Jace climbed into the car and they gave each other a kiss goodbye! It was adorable! No one told them to do it, they just did it!
Jaxon & Mama just playing...
Jaxon & Mama laying down to rest...
Daddy has renewed his love of root beer and Jaxon discovered he likes it too. (We put Gatorade in Jaxon's bottle, hence his purple mustache.) When Daddy drinks, Jaxon drinks; when Daddy sets his bottle down, Jaxon sets his bottle down; when Daddy burps, Jaxon burps...it's so cute!
With some help from my friend Joy and my mom, we made the new baby crib bedding. Jaxon likes to climb into the crib and play.
Jaxon loves chocolate, especially when he bakes with it in Granny's kitchen.

Daddy and Jaxon are so cute!
Jaxon loves corn!

Father's Day 2008

I don't have any pics to go with this day...but I wanted to say what a great husband I have.

I met Devin when I was 15 and knew right away I wanted to marry him! Crazy, huh? That was the best insight I ever had! I won't lie...it was his cute butt and nice toned body that first caught my eye! I would walk behind him to seminary because he was in such a hurry to get there before the bell rang. He wanted to set an example because he was the seminary president. I knew he was different from other guys because of so many qualities he had and he has retained those qualities to this day, plus gained many more!

Devin honors his priesthood and is the best father to our little boy. He keeps me striving to be better. He makes me laugh and I love that! He listens to me and is sensetive. He cooks, cleans, does yard work, and so much more for our family! He keeps me from being too serious and reminds me it's fun to be a kid even though we're grown up. Devin is always willing to take over when I just can't take another minute of the craziness (or long before it comes to that too)! Jaxon and I are so blessed to have such a special man in our home. Jaxon wants to do everything he sees daddy do and I never worry about that because I know Devin is always doing something I want Jaxon to see for an example. It will be so fun to have another boy in our family to learn from a wonderful daddy!

Kids-in-mind.com

My uncle sent this to me and I wanted to pass on the info:

http://www.kids-in-mind.com

It provides parents and other adults with objective and complete information about a film's content so that they can decide, based on their own value system, whether they should watch a movie with or without their kids (or even at all). It's like a food labeling system which tells you what a food item contains. It is the only reliable, content-based alternative to the confusing MPAA movie ratings and I highly recommend it.

I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and getting it done a little less

Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/
0,5232,23-1-851-37,00.html

I already posted about this talk by Elder Ballard when I wrote about Oprah's Challenge, but our lesson was on this talk in Relief Society 2 weeks ago and I a related experience.

I like things clean and in their place so I worry about the "getting it done" quite a bit. But after that lesson, and especially this experience, I am definitely going to try to change that. When a moment comes along, I want to live in it and not have to look back at what experience I might have had with my children.

I think it was Thursday last week when Devin came home from work and started cooking dinner. I was sweeping the porch and Jaxon was running around out there with me. I decided to spray the porch off with the hose. It was getting close to dinner being ready and I wasn't really planning on playing with Jaxon. I was going to finish the porch and go inside to help finish getting dinner ready.

As soon as Jaxon saw the hose, he wanted to get wet. He kept trying to walk in the jet of water I was spraying. At first I thought, "I don't want him getting all wet. We're about to eat and I don't want to have to change him and I just want to hurry and get done with this so we can eat." Then I thought, "Wait, so what if he gets wet. I can change him and it's not a big deal. He'll really like it."

So, I let him run in the water and we played and he absolutely loved it. I spent the next few minutes spraying Jaxon while finishing washing off the porch. Those were such sweet moments listing to my boy laugh and watching him have fun. I want to remember how cute he looked running soaking wet toward the water, how he couldn't stop laughing, and most importantly, how I could feel his sweet, innocent spirit. What a blessing he is in my life.

I am thankful for that lesson and the experience I had to remind me to enjoy the moments of motherhood. I don't want to look back when my kids are grown and wish I had spent more time playing with them, teaching them, and having adventures with them.

San Diego Trip

Who doesn't love the beach? We had such a great time! Devin's parents have a time share right on the beach. We went with them for a week and absolutely loved it!

As soon as we got out of the car from the long ride, we wanted to go right to the beach. Here's Jax soaking up his first time seeing the ocean.

Since we came all the way to San Diego Devin and I wanted to do a session in the temple. It was beautiful!

We spend the next day at the beach. It was sunny and perfect:) We rode some waves and found a few shells. Jaxon liked to walk in the water as long as the seaweed didn't wash up onto his feet.

Cute toes!

The next day, we went to Old Town San Diego. We looked at some of the sites and shops.
We visited the Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Town. It's really amazing what those men did for our country and faith. I had no idea.
In Old Town, there is a little root beer shop. We all got root beer floats...yummy!
The next day was Sunday, so after finally finding the church, sitting through sacrament meeting, and coming home, we went for a walk down the pier and boardwalk. It was fun to watch the surfers.
Monday, we went to Sea World. Since Jaxon loves Nemo, we thought he'd love all the fish there, and we were right! We fed the dolphins and every time I asked if he wanted to touch one, he said no, but he did touch a starfish!
He loved the helicopter in the Arctic movie/ride. Devin & I went on the roller coaster and got all wet. It was really fun! Since going to Disney World in December, I have grown a love for roller coasters! I wasn't sure if I should since I'm pregnant, but my belly barely touched the safety bar the baby and I were good!
Our last day we wanted to go to the beach again. It wasn't quite ideal weather for that, but we went anyway. Jaxon helped daddy build a sand castle. It was so cute to watch them together. Devin is such a good daddy!


Here is the view off our balcony (at night). Yep, that's the ocean:)
I love this pic. I think my husband is such a hottie and I absolutely love him!!!
Oh yeah, we saw Pauly Shore at the beach...hahaha...

If we ever move there (not that we are planning on it, but still) I will open a running store with everything anyone needs to run...shoes, clothes, strollers, etc. There are so many runners there it is awesome! I love to see people keeping their bodies fit. I really wanted to run on the beach or boardwalk, but my growing belly prevented it of course.

Little Bro Graduated!

My little brother Joshua graduated this year from Desert Ridge High School. He got a leadership scholarship to ASU. We are so proud of him!

Joshua & Mom & Dad

So proud of my brother!

Oma & Joshua

My & Joshua's friend Kathryn

Marriage Tag

How long have you been married?

3 1/2 years.

How old is your spouse?

His is 24...almost 25 then hopefully our car insurance rate will go down! :)

Who eats more?

Well, we both really like food. When I'm pregnant or nursing, I do. But if I'm not either, he usually does.

Who said I love you first?

Devin

Who is taller?

Devin, by a comfortable 6 inches.

Who sings better?

Devin, he did honor choir in high school and really does have a good voice.

Who is smarter?

I think this really isn't a fair question, but...he's smarter at some things like cooking and miscellaneous facts, but I would say I'm smarter when it comes to Jaxon. He's got his degree in mathematics (crazy math they have to learn), but I usually beat him at mental math.

Who controls the TV remote?

It depends, b/c since we got DVR (LOVE it) it's just a matter of who's gonna fast forward the commercials. I can watch my shows he doesn't want to watch when he's busy or not home and vice versa.

Whose temper is worse?

When I'm pregnant, mine for sure...even though I'm aware of this problem, I still don't control it as well as I should sometimes. When I'm not pregnant, I'd say we're about the same.

Who does the laundry?

I do. Always. I don't think he's done a load since we've been married. He'll help fold sometimes. But...I never iron. Luckily, he doesn't need much ironed besides his church shirt and if I take it out of the dryer fast enough, it doesn't even wrinkle.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?

If you are laying in the bed, he does.

Who cooks dinner?

Devin. I have been trying to do as much as I can before he gets home, but I don't really enjoy cooking and he does, so I'm glad to let him do it!

Who is more stubborn?

Depends on the situation...sometimes I can be really easy going and other times I have to have my way. Same goes for him.

Who is the first to admit when they're wrong?

Devin. He easily does and I take a little longer to come around.

Whose parents do you see the most?

Mine. His live 45 minutes away and mine only live 20, so we see them more.

Who has more friends?

I would say we are both very blessed with lots of really good friends. I think I get to do more with my friends since I stay home everyday, but SINCE I stay home everyday, I NEED to do more.

Who has more siblings?

Devin, he's got 2 sisters, 1 older and 1 younger. I have 1 younger brother.

Who wears the pants in the family?

Hmm...I don't know...I go to him about everything and I think he comes to me...so...I'd say we share the pants in the family.

I tag: Joy, Brooke, Becca

People foods that are bad for pets

We have dogs, and many of our friends do too, so I thought I'd post this interesting info about people foods:

Found at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/24544541/?GT1=43001

Avocados
They contain a toxic component called persin, which can damage heart, lung and other tissue in many animals. This fruit is very toxic to dogs, cats and most animals.

Beer
Alcoholic beverages can cause the same damage to an animal's liver and brain as they cause in humans. But the effects can be deadly on animals since they are much smaller than us. The smaller the animal, the more deadly the effects can be. Even a small amount of alcohol may cause vomiting and damage the liver and brain.

Nuts
Walnuts and macadamia nuts are especially toxic. Effects can be anything from vomiting to paralysis to death. Within 12 hours of eating the nuts, pets start to develop symptoms such as an inability to stand or walk, vomiting, hyperthermia (elevated body temperature), weakness, and an elevated heart rate. These symptoms can be even worse if your dog eats some chocolate with the nuts. The effect can cause kidney failure, often leading to death.

Chocolate
Chocolate contains theobromine, which can kill your pet if eaten in large quantities. Dark and unsweetened baking chocolates are especially dangerous. Giving your pup a piece of chocolate cake or even letting him lick the chocolate icing on the cake could cause him to become ill. Theobromine can also cause a dog or cat's heart to beat very rapidly or irregularly, which could result in death if the pet is exercising or overly active.

Candy
Candy or anything containing Xylitol (a common sweetener found in some diet products) can cause a sudden drop in an animal's blood sugar, loss of coordination and seizures. If left untreated, the animal could die.

Caffeine
Coffee, tea or any product that contains caffeine stimulates an animal's central nervous and cardiac systems. This can lead to restlessness, heart palpitations and death, depending on how much the animal consumes.

Grapes and raisins
Grapes and raisins can lead to kidney failure in dogs. As little as a single serving of raisins can kill them. And the effects are cumulative, which means that even if a dog eats just one or two grapes or raisins regularly, the toxin that builds in his system will eventually kill him.

Onions
Onions are another common food that can be highly toxic to pets. They can destroy an animal's red blood cells and lead to anemia, weakness and breathing difficulties. Their effects are also cumulative over time.

Medicine
Hide medicine from your pets just like you would from your children. The most common cause of pet poisoning is from animals ingesting a medicine or drug normally prescribed for humans.

And this is not just because furry pals are getting into their pet parent's medicine cabinets. In many cases, pet owners give their feline and canine friends an over-the-counter medication to ease an animal's pain. But acetaminophen and ibuprofen, the active ingredients in many common pain relievers, are extremely toxic to dogs and cats. They can cause gastric ulcers, liver damage, kidney failure and sometimes death.

UT Trip

This past weekend Devin, Jaxon, my mom & I went to St. George for my friend's wedding. It was a beautiful sealing. One of the things the sealer commented about was that in the church we are divided into wards which can be split or dissolved. But, in the temple we start families that can last forever if we do what we are supposed to do. What a blessing that is!

We stayed with my Great Uncle Keith & Aunt Carol in Fredonia Friday & Saturday night. It was so fun to see them. Jaxon was attached to my mom the whole time. Here are some pics from the trip...

Devin & Jaxon sleeping on the drive.

We stopped to see our neighbors when we lived in Johnson Canyon. Jaxon wanted to see their chickens.

Lacie's reception:)

The Kanab City Park with Granny.

Jaxon's 2 favorite things: Granny & Slides!

Devin tickling Jax.

SOOO CUTE!

Eating ice cream:)

Temple

My Relief Society sent this quote out in an e-mail to remind us of ward temple night. To me, as a mother, the world is a scary place for my sweet children to grow up in. The part I highlighted brings me comfort with that concern--such a powerful promise!

"President Ezra Taft Benson counseled us to 'make the temple a sacred home away from our eternal home.' He then explained the power the temple can generate in a morally deteriorating world: 'This temple will be a standing witness that the power of God can stay the powers of evil in our midst. Many parents, in and out of the Church, are concerned about protection against a cascading avalanche of wickedness which threatens to engulf Christian principles. . .There is a power associated with the ordinances of heaven-even the power of godliness-which can and will thwart the forces of evil if we will be worthy of those sacred blessings. This community will be protected, our families will be protected, our children will be safeguarded as we live the gospel, visit the temple, and live close to the Lord. (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 256) - quoted from House of Glory, S. Michael Wilcox.

Along similar lines, President Monson announced 2 new temples in AZ, one is in our area! Hooray! (That's what the pic is of.) It will be located at Greenfield and Pecos. Here's what he said, “It is my personal priority to make sure members of the Church have access to the blessings of the temple. It is here where members learn of their divine origin and destiny, where they are strengthened spiritually as individuals and as families. Temples are sanctuaries from the storms of life.”

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-
stories/president-monson-announces-two-new-temples-in-arizona

Husband & Wife

I forwarded an e-mail I got to Devin. Some of the content is below.

WOMAN'S REVENGE
'Cash, check or charge?' I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase. As she fumbled for her wallet, I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse.
'So, do you always carry your TV remote?' I asked.
'No,' she replied, 'but my husband refused to come shopping with me, and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally.'

THE SILENT TREATMENT
A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight.
Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, 'Please wake me at 5:00 AM.' He left it where he knew she would find it.
The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, 'It is 5:00 AM. Wake up.' Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.

This was his reply:

I hate these types of e-mails. It is always about husband and wife fighting. I do not think that it is funny becuase it is never relevant between me and you. So if you get these type, please do not send them to me. I love you sweets and I hope that you have a good day and are not so tired.

I thought the e-mail was funny, but I see what he means. It really isn't funny for a husband and wife to do those kinds of things to each other. I am so thankful for a sweet husband who is helpful, hardworking, honest, and patient with me (especially my crazy pregnancy shenanigans).

Gossip Girl

Like I said, Devin's watching the game so I'm not doing much other than posting random things that come to my mind. So, I was watching the season premier of Gossip Girl last night and I didn't like it very much. I have been watching the show since it started last season with a couple girl friends of mine. I know, it's not the best quality show on television, but us girls have a good time watching it together. Anyway, this week there was so much backstabbing girl drama that I didn't really enjoy watching it.

Plus, it's ridiculous how much money these kids have and what they spend it on. So much worldly priorities and it doesn't have good consequences for them. This isn't the case for all the characters, it's just hard to watch the ones where it this is the case. At the end of the show, there is a good lesson and there are good people doing good things too...but I don't know if that outweighs it enough. Since I'm not in school anymore, I have more time in the evenings and therefore, have gotten into a few shows (The Office, American Idol). Gossip Girl was one of them on the list, but I don't know if it will be for much longer...

This is a different topic, but to avoid posting 3 times in 1 night, I'll just add it here:

I've started going on morning walks usually everyday. Normally I would run, but the little baby growing inside me makes it tough to do that. So, to get at least some exercise, I have been walking. Jaxon loves riding in the stroller and if we go close enough to his nap time, he'll fall asleep! Almost every time he sees a car go by he makes his car noise and wants me to name it car or truck. So, we were on a walk last Friday when the garbage man was picking up the trash. Jaxon LOVED the garbage truck! The whole rest of the day he wanted to go outside and see the garbage truck and he told Daddy about it when he came home from work. It was really cute. He is even still talking about it!

Today, Jaxon got his first helium balloon. He played with it in the car and when we got home, I opened the door to take him out, and it flew out of the car and away into the sky. He watched it disappear and then cried about it for 20 minutes! I felt so bad he was devastated! Of course, he told Daddy about his balloon when he came home from work and kept talking about it until he went to bed.

From these 2 events, I can see he is growing and getting excited about a lot of things. His little personality is really shinning. He is such a sweet spirit in our home. We love him so much and are so blessed to have him as our son.

How Many of Me?

I found this info on: http://howmanyofme.com. I know it's not 100% accurate, but I thought it was fun (and my husband is off watching the Suns playoff game, so I didn't have much to do...) so I wanted to post it :) It's our first and middle names.

• There are 6,078 people in the U.S. with the first name Ruthann.
• Statistically the 2,397th most popular first name.
• More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Ruthann are female.

• There are 569,836 people in the U.S. with the first name Frances.
• Statistically the 91st most popular first name.
• 98.67 percent of people with the first name Frances are female.

• There are 48,626 people in the U.S. with the first name Devin.
• Statistically the 800th most popular first name.
• 87.5 percent of people with the first name Devin are male.

• There are 832,720 people in the U.S. with the first name Scott.
• Statistically the 51st most popular first name.
• 99.64 percent of people with the first name Scott are male.

• There are 0 people in the U.S. with the first name Jaxon.
• This name is not found in our database, this means the name is relatively uncommon.

• There are 0 people in the U.S. with the first name Judd.
• This name is not found in our database, this means the name is relatively uncommon.

• There are 1,288,589 people in the U.S. with the last name Miller.
• Statistically the 7th most popular last name.

It looks like Jaxon's name isn't common enough yet to have it listed and our last name is really common!

Oprah's Challenge

K, I really don't watch daytime TV very often, but yesterday I caught a little bit of Oprah. It was a great show. She gave this challenge to a couple families:

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200804/tows_past_20080417_b.jhtml?promocode=HP34

Dear Family,

Thanks for agreeing to live with less for a week. Your challenge starts now!

This week, you will be eating at home every meal. No more eating out, no more takeout. And you have to eat your leftovers. If you throw food in the trash, you've got to 'fess up.

For one week, you're going to give up the bottled water habit. Get a water filter—time to get to know your tap.

No more disposable plates, cups, napkins or paper towels. Try cloth—you might like it!

For entertainment, you'll have to rely on each other. For one week, I'm asking you to give up your iPods and video games, and your computers only get turned on for homework. TV is limited to one hour per night—one TV only.

That thermostat is going way down…to 69 degrees. If you get cold, put on a sweater.

Give your washing machine a break—try to wash only clothes that are TRULY dirty.

When you leave a room, lights out. Ditto for fans. When you're done using an appliance, unplug it. Don't forget your computer and cell phone chargers too.

Showers are going to be shorter—eight minutes max. Use a kitchen timer to help you keep track.
Want to go shopping? Head to your closets. That's your wardrobe for the week. The mall is off-limits.

You final challenge—no buying anything other than food for seven days.

Good luck,
Oprah

I was surprised how taking this challenge impacted these families. One of the little boys was "suffering withdrawals like a drug addict" when he couldn't play on the computer and video games. Both families said they wouldn't go back to how they were living before the challenge and it was embarrassing to see the things they were doing before.

One family said it was probably $700 in savings a month, just in food! Besides all the money they saved on not wasting food, electricity, and other resources, I believe the most important thing they learned was how to spend time together.

It brought the families closer. They spent time doing activities together rather then having individual forms of entertainment. One of the dads said they used to climb into their bed with their kids before going to sleep and watch some TV. He said he was embarrassed to admit it, but he would normally shh his kids because he was more interested in the TV program than listening to what his kids wanted to tell him. Now, he loved listening to his kids and treasured those moments. It's great that he recognized it and decided to change. The families went on bike rides, they read to each other, and ate dinner together.

Not only did Oprah challenge these families not to be wasteful, she asked all the staff at her company to conserve as well. The company's annual budget just for cups was $41,000! Oprah installed hidden cameras at all the coffee stations in the office to see how wasteful people were. Some people used 4 or 5 cups a day,m just for water. So, Oprah made a new rule for all the full-time employees that they were no longer allowed to use the cups; they have to bring their own mugs from home. I'm not a huge Oprah fan, like lots of people, but I really think it's great that she's trying to do something to help too.

I want to be less wasteful. These families Oprah challenged were very wealthy and didn't have to conserve for financial purposes. I feel like our family does our best to conserve, partly becuase we have to stay within a budget, but, I know we can always do better.

All this reminds me of the talk by Elder Ballard in conference when he said that we only have our children at home for 1/4 of their lives and the time they are the most impressionable is only 1/10 of their life. Something like that. He said it much better of course...so I found the quote:

If a child lives with parents for 18 or 19 years, that span is only one-fourth of a parent’s life. And the most formative time of all, the early years in a child’s life, represents less than one-tenth of a parent’s normal life. It is crucial to focus on our children for the short time we have them with us and to seek, with the help of the Lord, to teach them all we can before they leave our homes.

I will try to treasure every moment with Jaxon, and our children to come, becuase I know in a few years, I will have no idea where the time went and I want to have no regrets about how I spent that precious time I was given to care for them.

Having family here on this earth is such a blessing and having the opportunity to be with them forever is truly the greatest gift. I am so thankful for a loving Father in Heaven who gave us the knowledge of how this is possible and teaches us what we need to do to partake in these eternal blessings.

I didn't quite mean for that to sound like a church talk, but it sorta does, oh well...those are my random thoughts I guess! Hope you enjoyed!

The Office...Again!

So, this week's episode was so funny! I don't want to give too much away, in case people haven't seen it yet, but I am so excited for Jim and Pam! He adores her and it's so cute! A week after they started dating? Wow! I hope it happens!