Now I understand

When I lived in Utah, one summer there was this big uproar when a lady was doing yard work in her bikini. (I am pretty sure it was her bikini-it may have been in the buff, which is understandably controversial, but I don't remember for sure.) I just remember hearing it on the news that her neighbors were all in a tizzy because they did not feel that she should be doing that. I think she was told by the police not to and she was interviewed, on the news, etc. Now that I think about it, she may have been nude and was arrested for indecent exposure. She was mad since it was her own property.....my memory is a little fuzzy....

Well, I can now understand....a bit, anyhow. NO, I did NOT do my yard work in a bikini-that would be downright gross, but I do have to confess that when I had been outside for about an hour in 95 degrees and sweat was dripping down my face and my shirt was sweat soaked, I took it off and continued my work in my sports bra and shorts. I felt so much better and worked for almost 2 more hours.

Now you may wonder why I make a point to blog about this. Because it is totally out of the norm for me. I was so worried about the neighbors looking out the window and seeing this fat lady doing work in her bra. I finally decided that I didn't care what anyone thought, and figured that my neighbors on one side are still out of town, and the old guy on the other side probably isn't in the habit of looking out the window to see if I am in my yard.

As for the other neighbors across the way who could maybe see my yard from their upstairs window, I decided WHO CARES?

It was LIBERATING. Not to worry what people thought, I mean. And the bonus was that I felt so much better since I was so freaking hot.

On a side note, I went to WW this morning and have really slid back a lot. I did not want to go, but I need to get back on track. So we are going to do it!! If I seem grumpy to you in the next couple weeks, it will be because I'm hungry. After a few weeks, I'll be ok.

After the enrichment we had this past week, which could be a post on it's own, I realized that I need to take care of myself more-to put more effort into becoming my best. I spend too much time wishing for things that may not be right for me, too much time wishing things were better and not doing anything about it. NOW I need to take control of the things I can. I lost 100 lbs before I got married, so there is NO reason I can't do it again. I will keep telling myself that and get rid of all the excuses.

Wow-nice rant, huh?

It has to be her idea

Jordan, I mean.

Jordan has always been a bit stubborn, but lately she shows how she will not do anything unless it is clearly her idea. Every since she was potty trained, she has had issues at night. She has not been dry at night, basically. We have tried a few different things to help her-just wearing undies and hoping she doesn't like to be wet, prizes, charts, etc. Nothing worked.

Until....peer pressure kicked in!!!

About a month and a half ago we went on a camp out with brownies. When it got close to bedtime, I pulled her aside and said we had to go put her pull up on. She said no, that we could go later. She finally refused to put it on and made me bury it in the bottom of the bag. See, she had a matching sleeping bag with a friend in her class who happens to be in her brownie troop, so they were all busy getting their stuff set up.

She's been dry ever since!

Amazing!

Such a relief!!!

So last week we went to a water park with our great friends the Price's. Jordan loves Sarah who is about 18 months older. She is a good little swimmer and showed Jordan how she could go off the diving board.

A little history is that last year Jordan refused to go off the diving board in her swim lessons-both sessions. She had a hard time even "diving" off the side of the pool. Just refused. Once she stood on the board, but that was it.

So we are all just hanging out in the water and out of the clear blue she says to me "mommy, I want to go off the diving board."

Off we went. I kept quiet and let her take the lead. Sarah went first, then Jordan did it!!!! She came up all happy and was quite proud of herself. And confident enough that she did it a few more times.

We celebrated by stopping at Dairy Queen on the way home. Woo Hoo Jordan!!


So you see, it has to be her idea.

Fun in Nauvoo

Behind the Nauvoo Visitors Center is a beautiful garden area with beautiful sculptures paying tribute to women are on display. It was fun to walk through and see them all. There was also a narration you could play as well.
Nauvoo is truly a swamp. We learned on the wagon ride about how the people were given a plot then had to irrigate it and fill it in. It rained while we were there and I saw this view on the wagon ride. Yup, still a swamp.


This is the beginning of the Trail of Hope. It is Parley Street where the saints made the trek down to the river to board the raft to cross the river. It happened to be flooded that day and there were lots of missionaries putting in drainage pipes and filling the trail in so people could actually walk down the street and read the plaques if they wanted. I would loved to have done that, but don't think the kiddos would have been keen on that
More of the trail later in the day after we saw the missionaries filling it in. I couldn't help but wonder what the saints were thinking and feeling when they had to leave the place they built and loved so much. How could they know what would lye in store for them. My gratitude for the saints just grew in leaps and bounds as we drove down this road. Mothers carrying tiny babies, kids in tow, leaving everything they loved behind. Could we do that now days?
Here is a reproduction of the rafts that were used to get the wagons and saints across the river. A little daunting if you ask me!!
Here is the Mississippi River at the end of the Trail Of Hope. I would be pretty nervous with the idea of crossing that huge river with my wagon on a raft!n The teamster on the wagon ride did say that the river is very far over it's banks at the current time, so maybe when the pioneers crossed it, it was much smaller. Nonetheless, a huge undertaking any way you look at it!!


We really loved the Family Living Center. There were different stations you went to that did demonstrations of daily how they did things in daily life during the 1840's. Jordan was VERY into it and talked a lot to the senior missionaries as they would do the demos. So cute. Spencer and Landon wanted to play with the old fashioned toys more than listen. But they did like the rope making. Some of the stations were: sheering sheep and making yarn, brick oven bread making, candle making, rug making, the loom, rope making, pottery, barrel making, and there were buggies on display. We had to keep Landon from climbing under the ropes-he desperately wanted to get in one of the buggies.

We got to keep the rope we made, tasted the bread, and got a little tiny candle, so the kids were thrilled with the freebies. Reminds me of their daddy and getting free stuff. Oh, we also went to a bakery next door to the Cultural Hall and got a free cookie.

They had a super fun musical called "Simply Anna Amanda" in the "Cultural Hall" The kids loved it and the performers were excellent. A must see if you go there.
We stopped at a play area after looking around a bit. Landon had fallen asleep, so Jordan and Spencer and I played a while and Darin looked around the Post Office building as well as the John Taylor House. Lanny finally woke up so he did get a bit of a chance to play.

We had such fun here-stilts, climbing teddy bears, a wooden horse and sheep to sit on, a table "bowling" type game, tops to spin, little pioneer houses to play in, old fashioned hand games, "roll" the wheel game, pull the stick,and much more. It was a blast.
Spencer didn't want to dress up, but he did wear a hat for a minute:)



The play area was so fun. We probably would have stayed a lot longer if we weren't super hungry and sweating buckets. It was so stinking hot and humid. They had a dress up area where you could put on pioneer clothing, but the Maney kiddos weren't down with that-I didn't blame them-it was soooo hot and we were already so sweaty.

Overall, if you can do it, I highly suggest a trip to Nauvoo!! There's a lot of fun things to do, but even more importantly, you can feel the Spirit of the Prophet Joseph Smith so strongly. It was a boost to my testimony and I feel it is a huge gift that I was able to receive!!

Joseph Smith Historical Site

Unfortunately all the buildings previously owned by Joseph Smith are now owned by the reorganized Church which is now called the Community of Christ. You can walk around, but don't get a tour unless you go to their visitors center. I wanted to do it, but it was over an hour and a half and there was no way the kids would have sat for that. But we did wander around and saw some things on our own.

We saw the Red Brick Store where the Relief Society was organized. It was actually a reconstruction, but was exactly like the first one. I chatted a bit with worker and found a couple things out about the reorganized church. Very interesting.

We went to the Smith Family Cemetery. We saw the graves of Joseph, Lucy and Hyrum. We learned that they Joseph and Hyrum were burried somewhere the mob wouldn't find them, then they moved them to the foundation of a little shed like structure on the property-the pic is under the following 2 pics. I don't remember when the finally made the permanent grave site where the bodies are now.

The bodies were once in the foundation of this building.
A few more pics. The one in the bottom right corner is inside the Homestead.

The Mansion house.

When I walked past the house, it was open. I saw some other people walk in, so I did too!! I was so excited-Joseph Smith's home...well, I know that the furnishings are probably not original, but the building is, so I was in a building where the Prophet once lived-where he ate, prayed, read scriptures, spent time with his family...where he lived. It was so amazing.


I think it's amazing that the stone is still there. And everytime I get lost in DC, I wish that they would have laid DC out like Nauvoo!! Well, what Darin and I really wish was that they had Brigham Young plan DC and the area. I wouldn't get lost as much.

The Nauvoo Temple

After church on Sunday we went by the Nauvoo temple to walk around. Before we did any other sightseeing. It is so beautiful. I can't imagine what it was like for the saints to have constructed this building!! What determination and persistence they had!!


I took a ton of pics, so here are a few.

One of the flowers around the temple. Our family in front of the temple. A cute senior couple took the pic for us.
I love the architecture of the spire. Such amazing detail.

And yet another angle.
More views of the temple. I love the sun stone. They had one of just a few originals left outside the visitor center. It is encased in what I imagine is bullet proof glass.
This statue is down the hill from the temple.

oops....

A few days before we were leaving for St. Louis, I was doing laundry and smelled something burnt in our laundry room. I thought it was the dryer. The next day I was doing more laundry to get ready for our trip and the dryer wouldn't start. So I figured that the smell I experienced the day before was the dryer dying. I called Darin and we decided it was time for both new washer and dryer. The washer has been acting up for a while now-doesn't completely spin clothes and the cold water setting just barely trickles cold water so it takes years to do a load. Oh, it would also get stuck and not advance in the wash cycle.

So Darin researched and found a washer and dryer that ranked the best in our price range and ordered them for me. They were delivered today, and like a flame doused with water my excitement was quickly squashed. Turns out the prior problem was not the dryer, but the outlet it is plugged into!!

What? The dryer is brand spanking new...that can't be the problem....

When the guy turned it on, it wouldn't work. He tried the breaker and that didn't do anything. He found a plug tester in his truck and plugged it in with the indicator showing the outlet is dead.

Just my luck. Seriously.

I Was all set to do laundry tonight and tomorrow. I can always wash a couple loads and go to my friend's house tomorrow but I don't want wet clothes to sit around all night and I'm doing a photoshoot while the kids are in Vacation Bible School tomorrow. Ugh.

So Hugo to the rescue. He is the great handyman we stole from our neighbor. Ok, we didn't steal him since he gave us his number. He is really great and Jordan is enamored with him. She follows him around the whole time he's here. He's coming tomorrow to fix it as well as put in a new thermostat since the person who fixed our air conditioner told us we have mercury thermostat and if anything happened to it we would all get sick. Nice.

My laundry fun gets put off until Friday. Ah well. Hope I have enough clean undies to last that long:)

The good news is that I got tickets to go see Mary Poppins at the Kennedy Center for Mother's day so my good friend Carla and I are going tomorrow night. I love the theatre:)

Carthage Jail

Here are the pictures that go with the previous post. I really loved going to Carthage. It was so interesting to hear more details about the last days of the prophet. To walk up the steps he did to the room where he met his death. Wow.

Oh I could just go on forever, but I'll just get on with the picture. The kids all loved this statue and Jordan would hold her dress up like this all day in every picture we took of her-or at least most of them.


The Smith Brothers. Such an amazing brotherly love between the two of them.
The kids loved this statue of Joseph and Hyrum Smith that was outside Carthage Jail.

Landon wants the scriptures:)

Having posted these pics, I wonder if letting my kids walk on, in, and around this statue was irreverent? Hmmm.....


There were many plaques around the grounds with quotes from Josepth Smith. This is a good one!!

The kitchen of the jail. The jailer and his wife raised their 7 kids while being in charge of the jail. Nice place to grow up, huh?

Steps leading up to the top floor of the jail.

Here is the window the prophet fell out of after he was shot. Look at how wide the window sill is-this is the thickness of the walls!

When the prophet was killed, he and the other me were not in the "cell". The were taken to a room belonging to the jailer to stay "safe" until they were released. It was more like a bedroom than a cell. Here is the door to the room showing a gunshot through the door.

Here's the view outside the jail. The top window is where the prophet Joseph Smith fell to the ground.
Here's another one of the plaques with another quote I really liked! I just love the imagery.

This is such a beautiful sculpture. I loved the hand holding the scriptures.