YeStErDaY...

I had a dental appointment yesterday. For those who don't know, I am SCARED TO DEATH to go to the dentist. Last summer I had extensive work done. I was in the chair for 6 1/2 hours. My dentist is awesome. He now has sedation available for us weaklings. :O) So I was sedated last time. On Tuesday this week, I had a cleaning. I had two fillings fall out since last summer. One of my teeth also had the enamel buckle, and a chunk came out, so it needed a filling. Weird stuff! We also found that one of my back upper teeth needed a root canal/crown. So I had that and three fillings to do. I started with all the pre-meds at home. When I got to the dentist, none of them had kicked in. So they gave me some fast acting knock out drugs. Nothing. Na-da. Three times later, they went ahead and started. I felt each and every shot, cried through some of them, felt the drilling start and then blacked out. THANK THE LORD! It took an hour and half longer than planned, prolly because the time it took to get the meds to sink in. When we got home, I remember NOTHING after the shots and drilling. But I do remember walking up into our yard in the back and hearing Jeff yell, "NONONONO!" at me. I then proceeded to fall in mud. Or....was I PUSHED? After 18 1/2 years of marriage, your guess is as good as mine. :O) I then remember DH fed us supper. I should have him make it more often. It tasted amazingly like KFC, which is a long standing family tradition when someone gets their teeth worked on (Mashed Potatoes, gravy, mac and cheese). Only usually everyone else eats steak (eat your heart out!!!). Anyway, I ate and went to bed. I think. That is MY take on the day. I have also been suffering from a spinal pressure headache for almost two weeks now. These are the pits because NOTHING takes away the pain. I have to start taking my Diamox, which is a tablet I take twice a day to decrease spinal and ocular pressure in the brain. Basically the spinal fluid pressure is squeezing my brain when it gets that bad. Now, as of today, the headache is in the back ground, looming, which tells me I am on the winning side of it. :O) YAY!

CiTy BeAuTiFuL...Post #2

These pictures are no where near in order. This program loading these is a pain to use so it may take too long to put them in order. :O) So here are random pictures from the trip.


Jeff and the kids in front of the Mississippi River. This was at the end of Parley Street and one of MY personal favorite places to be.

This is the bedroom at the top of the Carthage Jail. This is the room where many were killed. Hyrum was shot through the door and died near where we stood. Joseph Smith was also shot along with John Taylor in this very room. John Taylor survived, along with another person or two. Joseph and Hyrum, brothers, both died here.

Sorry for the randomness, this was the Rendezvous musical. The sister playing this part was SO FUNNY. I am still laughing at seeing her climb the column. LOL!

This is a bronze statue of Hyrum and Joseph with the jail in the back ground.

This is across from the Nauvoo Temple. We had 9 children in our party. Not all of them were here.

This is the picture of the door in Carthage Jail. This is presumed to be the hole that the ball was shot through that killed Hyrum Smith on that fateful day. It really brings the story to life and feeling the spirit that is IN that jail, really brings it home to you. Below are the grave stones of Joseph and Lucy Smith in Old Nauvoo.

In this room, the Spirit was so strong. It truly testified to Matthew. He was so sad, so touched by what had happened in this room. I felt sad for him because it was actually painful to him, but it was an experience he really needed to have. I am so proud that he had it, so glad that he felt it.

Some grave sites of Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Smith and some of their children in Old Nauvoo.

This is one of the buildings we went to. It is the Printing Press. Matthew was copying a newspaper using an original press of that time.

One of the funnest things we did was the night before we left. We went to see the musical Rendezvous. It was performed at the Cultural Hall in Old Nauvoo and it was performed by the Sr. Missionaries there. It was SO CUTE!

Nauvoo Temple in the day.

Matthew and Bethanie made a rope at the Family Living Center. This place was neat because there were 7 units to visit, and each one taught us how the Pioneers made

Here is Bethanie and me in the Seventies Hall. What a neat place!

There were lots of homes to visit in Nauvoo. Several were of the Prophets. Brigham Young, Joseph Smith (office), John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and so many others. Some of the belongings were original and several of the buildings were original. Other places I loved going to was the Blacksmith Shop, the Brickyard, the Family Living Center. It was all so much fun. With just two days to travel and two days to see everything, there just was not enough time to do it all. :O(

The Christus at the Visitor Center in Nauvoo (this is where the garden of women statues are, directly behind the Christus).

The Temple at night. We really loved being at the temple so close. We rarely get to go to the Temple because of distance, and especially with our children. They loved being there and could feel the Spirit.

The trip was short but sweet. We had fun and are now home trying to recover from packing it all in in four short days. :O) I was sad to leave Nauvoo, partly because I knew the trip home was looming. I still hate traveling with the kids (in the car). I could do without it. But there were lots of memories made. I can hardly wait for Bethanie to take the souvenirs to school and share it with her class.

CiTy BeAuTiFuL...Nauvoo Post #1

For Spring Break, we decided to "get away" from it all. I am not (NOT!!) a big fan of road trips with my family. It isn't because I don't like going, but it is always very stressful, especially for one of us in particular. I really DID NOT want to go. I dreaded going. But I knew that once we made it to our destination, it would be fun. I was right! The road trip was just so-s0, but we made it to Nauvoo, Ill in just 8 1/2 hours. That included stopping at tons of bathrooms and stopping to eat out. We went with another family from Church so we sort of did a caravan. Timing potty breaks between thirteen people was interesting...but we did fine.

Bethanie took her camera on the trip to Nauvoo. She had a great time with it and took some great pictures of herself and the trip. Some of the pictures from the trip are hers (and yes, Madison took some too). We just made it to Nauvoo here. Bethanie was very happy to get out of the car.


This is the kids right next to the Mississippi River at the end of Parley Street in Old Nauvoo. We collected drift wood and Bethanie fell in the river (just got her foot wet).




This is the drive into Nauvoo. The road was very winding and ran directly along the river. This area is heavily populated with Bald Eagles. I was fascinated to see so many out in the wild!



Bethanie and Madison took turns taking pictures of each other with their new Pioneer Bonnets. The one of Madison CRACKS ME UP!



The hotel we stayed in had a great pool and hot tub. The kids had so much fun playing in the pool for first time this year. I can hardly wait to get the pool pass this summer and swim with them! I love seeing them have fun!

Madison was really a Martha's (Carlson) girl. Martha is the oldest kid of the family we went with. She is WONDERFUL with her younger siblings, and Madison loved her too!

After the first day, we went to visit some of the sites in Old Nauvoo. It was really cold most of the time we were there, but the kids were a good sport about having their pictures taken (constantly). :O)

Our hotel room was really neat. It was a family suite and it slept 10. Two of the three bedrooms had bunk beds, one also had a full bed in it. The other bedroom had a queen bed. There was a living room, kitchenette (fully applianced) and two bathrooms. It worked well for us because we cooked in the room each day and saved some money, plus we could eat healthier than if we ate out all the time. It also provided us time to sort of decompress and just be comfortable for a while. It helped that we were on the third floor next to the stairs, so we ended up with plenty of exercise. LOL!

March Madness!!!

It's MARCH! That means, SPRING TIME! Oh the weather has been SOOOOOOOOOO nice. We have had some windows open in the house the last few days and I can just tell the difference in air quality already! The kids have been able to get outside and play for a change! Anyway, nothing important or interesting is going on. Oh, one thing though, we did family pictures today. Look at the top of the page to see some of them. Other than that, life is nothing more than homework for me. I have about 2 months until graduation. I am working on my two last classes still. I will be working on them for a while. Nights like this, I am just too tired to do much, to be able to concentrate, especially when the rug rats wont go to sleep and I get interrupted. :O) KIDS!