Catch Up Four A Fruit Tip

Yummy Fruit 

You might look at this and think "That looks a little yucky!" Well it's not. My son, Dallas works in the produce department at Fry's. Since working there he has taught me the proper or easy way to cut fruit. He also has passed on how to tell if things are good or ripe. This watermelon would be considered super sweet due to this mark. It is wear the ants have much on the sugar that was released.

 As the saying goes " the proof is in the pudding" or in this case the melon. This was a super sweet and yummy watermelon. And everyone since I learned this trick has been the same. 

Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Catch Up Three

On Memorial Day weekend we went camping up a little past Pinetop. Coco, Kyle, Talmage and Naima decided to join us. The weekend turned out to be sooooooooo windy that we had a hard time enjoying the beauty of the area. We ended up going back to Coco's to cook dinner the second night. 

This is Naima going into the girls tent to visit.

 Coco sits with Talmage as he tries out his cool Toy Story sleeping bag. 

 Talmage

 Coco being a dork. Love this picture it makes me laugh

 Gabby sitting in the tent and Naima wanting me to hold her

 Naima got her way so of course I had to take a picture

 Sweet little Nie Nie and her snaggle tooth.

 Naima was having fun with her Aunts playing in Coco's tent

 Talamge chilling

 So much love for this little girl (Faith, Naima & Gabby)

 Elyse giving me the "Really Mom" look

 Alan catching up on some hunting reading

 We had a good time regardless of the wind. But we did come back from church Sunday morning to find that the girls tent had a stinky problem. One of the guide lines came loos and knocked over their potty. EWWW so gross. It was not fun to help get the tent put up to take home so Alan could clean it or toss it. It turns out he is amazing and was able to get it all cleaned out and sanitized. This was a great thing considering the tent had only been used one time prior to this.

Good stinky times at the Nichols Camp!  Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Catch Up Two

So all of the sudden Gabby realized that since I am the Queen she IS a Princess. She wears the tiara well.

 Faith enjoys playing on the computer listening to her songs. 

 Faith is giving a big thumbs up for her cuteness!

 This is Gabby after sitting and playing Farm Ville for 3 days. She is a goofball.

 I made homemade play dough for the girls. Gabby & Faith helped with the coloring of it.

 So squishy and fun to play with and I love the colors.

 Gabby's snowman...she must be thinking of cooler weather.

 Look it is happy play dough! 

As they say on the infomercials......"But wait, there's more!"  Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Time To Play Catch Up ONE

It has been a month to the day of my last post on my blog. Man have I been a neglectful blogger. Life has been complicated for me. But more on that later. It will take me several posts of what I have been up to since my last post.

As part of my complications I had hit a major depression  cross roads in my life. I have been working on getting myself out of it. I am finally seeing a light at the end of the dark tunnel  with starting to get back to the old ME! Cooking and doing the domestic things that I enjoy and LOVE doing.

I decided to make our dogs some good for them organic dog treats. 

 Then of course I had to pull out the cute little bone cookie cutters that I bought some 6 years ago.

 Faith came out and helped me to get them cut out and put on the cookie sheets to bake. 

 Belle started to smell something.....

 Then Nellie conquered that something yummy was cooking 

 These are the doggy treats cooking in the oven

 Nellie enjoyed them as she rolled on her back with a full belly of yummy organic doggy treats.

Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Give Away On a FUN Blog

 Giveaway on some good friends blog. Go check it out and you could win a beautiful flower. Besides that the blog is awesome!! The blog is Knocking It Off  .

  These beautiful ladies,Brandi-Lee's and Mileka, have a fun and helpful blog for decorating your home without selling one of your children. Check it out here Knocking It Off. You can get some fun, easy and may I say CHEAP ideas to make your house beautiful! Hugs, Bobbi Jo

On My Mind

 Today as hubs and I are driving to meet up with his brother at a Home Depot he is driving and I am thinking. I tell him " You know 2010 was not only a year of testing us but I think it took some of my spark away. Between the stress of worrying about Gabby, you and school finals I think it took it out of me." He tells me he is not sure what I am saying but he noticed that I am not as tolerant , even of the little everyday things like I use to be. Does this mean that the year had beat me down and sucked the life out of me? MAYBE!! It was a tough year. I held up pretty good with going to school full time, Gabby in and out of the hospital, Alan having cancer and 2 surgeries along with finals, starting the Masters Body Worker Program, having 2 girls living with us and trying to do my best to stay UP, Positive and happy I think I did okay. Now I feel like I am falling apart.
 I am not sure why. Is this my mid life crisis? Not sure what to think about all this that is going on.
 On my health blog I posted about the feelings of letting people down including yourself. Do any of you feel this way? Feeling stuck and not sure how to get out of where you are at? Wanting to live up to that potential that people say you have but you feel so tired.....worn out.......beaten down....that you can't or don't feel like it.
 What do you do in this case? Take the NIKE approach and just do it! Would love some feed back.
Hugs, Bobbi Jo

What A Week

  I know the week isn't over yet but what a very LONG week this has been.(this post was started on Wed. late at night mind you.)  But first let me back up to last Thursday. We finally got to go camping. It was much needed and wanted. Dallas had to work so he didn't get to come with us. I was bummed I was hoping he would get to go. So we went camping up to a place called Forest Lakes. This place we use to camp at with my brother Mark and his family many years ago. Many fond memories of it so it was nice to go back. By the time we got to set up camp it was dark and a bit chilly. We survived and got camp set up. E'lyse was a big help with unloading and setting up tents. We had a fun time. At the site we found there was a tire swing in the huge tree. Gabby found it so much fun to spend a good portion of  her time on it spinning and getting dizzy. This is a picture of Gabby on top and Faith on the tire part.

 This is E'lyse on the swing checking out the area. 

 This was a much needed get away for all of us. Alan had a turkey tag so he did a little bit of hunting in the morning and one of the evenings.

On Friday we drove up to visit with Coco and the grand babies. We had lunch with them. It was fun to see them all. 

On Saturday Alan took Gabby fishing. So while they were gone E'lyse, Faith and I started to break camp. We got a good bit done by the time they got back. We headed back home at noon so we would have enough time to prepare for Easter Sunday.  

I took this picture after we got home from church. E'lyse, Gabby and Faith. They are growing up way too fast.

On Monday Gabby woke up in the morning hurting and not wanting to go to school. It was hurting for her to put pressure on her legs. Alan and I had errands to run so we took her with us. As the day went on it got harder and harder for her to get out of the truck or even walk. I called her specialist and while waiting for her to call us back we decided to take her to our primary care to see if they knew what was going on with her. After waiting to get in to the doctor for almost 3 hours he says he doesn't know what is wrong and we need to take her to the children's hospital emergency room

By this time it is now after 7:30 and no one has eaten dinner. Hubs goes and gets pizza at Little Ceasers while we get Gabby some things to take with her. We eat dinner and are off to the hospital. Long story shortened A LOT she was admitted at 4:00 a.m. 

We get her settled in to her room and crash at almost 5 get up at 6:05 and hubs heads home to take care of the kiddos at home. 

Great news is that all of the blood work and x-rays they took were completely normal. Even the markers for the ulcerative colitis. I was thrilled but what is wrong with her??? 

Turns out that there were 2 other girls being treated for what seems to have been an elimination problem. This lack of being able to go to the bathroom was causing such severe pain that she couldn't even walk. CRAZY!!!

They started her on meralax   (sp?) and some other pills to help her and she started to feel better. I think this is the oddest thing I have ever heard and believe me I have heard a lot of weird things. 

This is Gabby in her wheel chair at the hospital. 

She was finally released and we got to come home. I was so happy to get home with her felling better.

This shot is of the first of my sweet peas to blossom. I was so excited I cut them all and put in a vase on my bedside. Love sweet peas, this is the first flower my husband brought me when we were dating. Melted my heart! 

 Gabby is still doing better after being home 2 days with a good attitude. I am so thankful for the blessing that was given to her in the hospital. I am grateful that it wasn't the UC causing the problem and her blood levels are all normal. I am so thankful for the caring people that work with her at Cardon Children's Medical Center. It was great to see everyone again but wish it was under different circumstances.
 Hoping this will be a wonderful weekend, I am going to try and make it that way. Hugs, Bobbi Jo

I Need

 I think I seriously need another 30 Days of Blogging challenge to keep up on my blog. Life has been moving along with a lot going into a day.
 Alan and I have been working together on getting the house looking the way we both want it to. Deciding to start the massage business at home started the ball rolling back in November of last year. We got the room massage ready and the front bathroom.
 We worked on the landscaping of the front yard two weeks ago. Pulling out plants that the frost killed off and putting in some beautiful new plants. With me helping to pick out, of course I got a lot of pink coloring in the flowers. Love my pink!
 I got the second garden planted with the help of my Grandson Talmage. He helped me plant onions that are doing beautifully. Picture borrowed from Coco's blog (my daughter &Tal's mommy) Thank you Coco!

   I love this little guy. He is my buddy! He was so eager to help out and did a wonderful job.
 Alan and I have been working around  the house this past week. We have owned this house a little over 6 years and decided it was time to repaint. So in the high traffic areas we decided to paint in a semi gloss. We still have the great room and the down stairs hall way to paint. Hopefully we will have this done in the first part of this week.Although it will be a busy week I think it is a good chance of it happening.
 On Friday night we took Faith and Gabby out to dinner at MiAmigos for dinner ( so yummy!) then we went shopping for dresses. They have grown out of most of their church dresses. The girls had so much fun trying on clothes and got some super cute dresses at 55% off. Then we went to get ice cream. It was so much fun hanging out and just having a good time.
 I have joined Coupon Sense again. The last time I tried it I didn't fallow it the way it is suppose to be done. So this time I am doing it full force and working on getting our year supply built up.
 In church today Alan gave a talk in Sacrament from a conference talk of What Did You Do With My Name? He did a really good job. I was also given a new calling last week. I am now the Valiant 8 teachers. I have to say I feel so unworthy to teach this class. I really struggle with this feeling. Trying to work on this.
 We have also decided to get rid of our TV/cable due to the cost and time. The prices are crazy high and getting higher and we only watch a few shows every week so we decided this was a good decision. Actually we had talked about it but then I went to a womans conference and one of the speakers said something about how the media damages us and our self esteem. At that point it was like I was being told this was something that needed to be done for myself and my daughters. We get all these images pushed on us daily to be thinner,  we aren't beautiful unless we have certain products and this is just a vicious cycle. On top of all the garbage that is on TV that really doesn't need to be seen or heard. This is just my opinion so I hope no one gets offended by this.
 I have been working at Encanterra when they need me. I worked the Good Life Festival last week. The band Chicago was there and I got to give chair massages while I listened to them playing. It was fun and met a lot of wonderful people.
 Currently I am working on some changes in my life. I need to get back on the healthy track. I have fallen off so BAD it isn't funny. With Alan being home we go to eat with coupons, drinking soda almost all day and I am feeling it. So this is something I need to get back on. I also am working on becoming more organized.
 So this is what has been going on in my life. I am looking forward to this coming week.
 Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Backing Up

 Events since Thursday March 17th. Where do I start.........we were to go camping on Thursday the 17th we had been planning this for over a month. I got a call about 5:20 am or so from Alan's Mom to tell us that his sister had passed away. This sister Barbara, lives about 3 hours away from us. We didn't know when the funeral would be so we changed plans to going on Day trips instead of our 3 day camping trip.
 We went to the funeral on Tuesday March 22nd. It was a very nice funeral. I wasn't close to Barbara so it was nice to hear from those that were about what she did and who's lives she had touched. The viewing started at 9 and we got done about 2. There was a nice luncheon put on buy the church. It was good to see Alan's family members too. I don't see them that often but always nice to visit with my sweet nieces and see how everyones families are growing and changing.
 On Wednesday I found out that my sister had put my Mom into a nursing home but no one told me. Needless to say I was upset. Then I found out it was on Feb. 28th when she was put there. WHAT? No one contacted me about it. So I got even a little more bitter and I had to step back take a bunch of deep breaths and pray for help in the process of getting over this. It wasn't that simple.
 I finally got the information with the phone number and called my Mom. I feel so guilty that she is alone in a nursing home. She said she is lonely and that makes me so sad. I know she has Alzheimers but I hate the thought of her feeling alone. She said she doesn't remember anyone asking her to go live with them. I had wanted to but was told by people that it wouldn't be a good idea. I don't know still if it isn't the best thing to do. I wouldn't want to be alone in a place where I didn't know anyone. This just makes me so sad that I can't think about it too much or I cry.

 Thursday Coco called and asked us if we could meet up with her, her children and in laws to pick her up in Phoenix so she could stay with us for a while. Of course I jumped at the chance to have her & my sweet grand babies here. Love having them here.

 This is Naima loving on Talmage as he takes his afternoon nap. 

 On Friday Alan flew to Atlanta, Georgia to be best man for one of his brothers weddings. He went with his Mom and they had a good trip. Enjoyed meeting the new bride and her family. He came home on Sunday. It was good to have him back home.
 So this has been going on in my life. I haven't worked much in the past 2 weeks but not to worried about it. I have had enough on my mind to keep me busy.
 If I haven't left a comment don't think I haven't been checking in I have. Love looking at all the wonderful blogs and getting motivated, ideas and hearing how everyone is doing. Hugs, Bobbi Jo

Proud Momma

I am once again a proud Momma. Today Faith came home from school with this

 She and we didn't even know she was getting this award it was a total surprise!
Faith has done a few things this year that has not made her the most popular with all the kids at school by doing what is right and trying to help others to not make stupid mistakes. She has made great choices and her Father and I are so proud of her. She has such a strong testimony and spirit it is amazing.
 Way to go Faith, we love you so much and are so proud of your choices. Keep up the great work and stay close to Heavenly Father and you can't go wrong.
 Hugs, Bobbi Jo