Slice of Life # 45 ~ From Scratch

This weeks Slice of Life is From Scratch....mmmm when I think of from scratch, I think of homemade pumpkin pie, homemade ice cream, dress sewn for Easter, stockings made for Christmas, art drawn, quilts made, homemade pizza....many things come to mind.  Here is a collage of things made by me or members of my family that I had pictures of.

Oh, when I make waffles and pancakes, and some of my cakes I make from scratch not a pre-mix box.
Each of the outfits and blankets my children are wearing and laying on for their blessings was lovingly made for us by either Nana Dillon or Grandma Burke.  The quilt was done for my Grandpa and Grandma Dillon's 60th wedding anniversary, each child and grandchild got a square, and on the back is hand-prints/footprints of the great-grandchildren.  The stockings and Pooh animals were made my my sweet mother-in-law.  The tiny baby is me in an outfit that my mother made for me since I was so small, she used a doll dress pattern to make it.  The chocolate suckers I did for Valentine's day this year.  Dan did the drawing years ago, I just scanned it into the computer.  And a Car Seat cover I made.

I am sure we all have memories of things that have been made from scratch for us to eat, wear, or just enjoy.  I am glad I have these pictures at least so if something ever happens to the cloths, blankets and such at least I have these to remember them by!

Before Birds could Fly

"Before Birds could fly there were two birds playing football...one bird kicked the ball over a nearby cliff and the second bird, while trying to stop the ball fell over...while he was falling to his death he held both wings out and found to his surprise that he could float on the air... he flapped his wings and discovered he could fly.  He picked up the ball and flew up to the top where he told his friend what had happened...the second bird would not try to fly so the first threw him over the cliff...where he held out his wings and flew.

The next day it was Fast and Testimony meeting...and the first bird stood up and told all the birds in the congregation what had happened...the second stood up and confirmed it also...soon the chapel was full of birds flying all over the building.

At the end of the meeting all the birds picked up their scriptures and walked home."

I like this short story as it reminds us that we can received a testimony of something and then not apply it in our lives.  Let us all live our lives to the fullest and apply the lessons we learn to better ourselves.

Slice of Life # 44 ~ Famous Places

This weeks Slice of Life is Famous Places that we have visited.  How Ironic that this was the prompt for this week, as I have been thinking about this trip, and had just sent a request to some of my family asking for pictures, as I seem to have lost mine.


It is July 2001, I had just come home from my mission a few months before and the "Jack Dillon Clan" set out on a adventure of our life.  This is one of my most memorable family vacations.  You see most of our family vacations were camping or going to Washington to visit family, we did go to Disneyland when I was 14, but that is the only time I have ever been there.


Back to July 2001.  My parents and my 4 sisters and myself headed to Buffalo, New York on an airplane and then we rented two mid-size cars, to fit all of us and we started our driving tour of the East Coast.  We then ventured to Niagara Falls, going over into Canada and raiding the Maid of the Mist right up to the falls, oh that was so worth the trip!  We then traveled to Rochester, NY and the next day spent the day in Palmyra, NY and saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  We then traveled to New York City, our hotel was on the New Jersey side, and we were running late to get to our Broadway play of  Les Misérables, wonderful play, we took the subway from New Jersey into the World Trade Center, and since we were running late we decided not to ride to the top of the World Trade Center.  This was July 11, 2001, just two months before they fell.

The next day we went to the Statute of Liberty.
The line was so long to get into it and then it was so long to wait for the elevator to go up.  But here is the kicker, you can ride the elevator up, but you had to walk the 23 flights of stairs down, unless you had some kind of disability that would let you ride it down.  Well my family decided we had had enough of waiting in line as we had already waited for about 2 hours just to get inside by the gift shop, we decided to climb the 23 flights of stairs up and then the 23 flights of stairs down!  We still made it to the top before some of the other people we had been waiting in line with did.  


We also went to Elise Island and then we made our way to Gettysburg, Washington DC were we saw the sights, some of my sisters spent a lot of time in the Holocaust museum.   Then Jaclyn and I left everyone else at the National Scouting Jamboree, and we went and saw Williamsburg, Bush Gardens, and the Washington DC Temple before we went home. And Mom, Dad, Emily, Wendy, and Alysha visited those sights before they came home three weeks later.  Emily ended up meeting her husband to be at the Jamboree, so I think it was more memorable for all of us because of that!


I still want to go back to New York and see some of the other sites that we just didn't have the time for and get in another play, maybe one day Dan and I can do this type of trip with our kids.  It will be one that I will never forget.  Of course I can't find any of my pictures from this trip as this is before I got a digital camera.


I want to say Thank You to my Mom and Dad for taking us on this grand adventure to so many famous places!  The best part I think is that since we were all ranging in age from 23-16 that we will all remember this trip!
Thanks Again Mom and Dad for all the wonderful memories from not only this trip, but other family vacations.  

Those Silly Americans!

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that those ballpoint pens would not work in 0 gravity.  To combat this problem, NASA Scientists spent a decade and $12 Billion developing a pen that writes in 0 gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including Glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 degrees Celsius.


The Russians used a pencil.

Slice of Life # 43~ Illness

I can say that illnesses have been in my life a few times.

When I was 4 I tested positive for TB, but never really had all the symptoms of it.  I did spend some time in the hospital just to make sure.  I remember receiving a pretty pink doll to keep me company.  I then had to take medicine for 6 months when I went to go on my mission, just to make sure.

When I was 12 I missed two weeks of school because I had a bad case of bronchitics.  I remember my dad taking me to the doctor and they couldn't get a blood pressure reading.

When I was 14 I started getting really sick and tired all the time.  I would sleep all day be up for two hours and then sleep all night.  We found out that I had mono, and no I didn't get it from kissing a boy.  They told us  I could of picked it up from a drinking fountain at school.  It got so bad that by Oct, I was pulled out of school and did home school until we went back to school from Christmas break.  I remember my doctor at the time wanted to give me shots to help my energy.  I had to have a really big needle in my bottom every two weeks.  It seemed to help.  I was told I will always have mono, just it may not be active.  As a result most of my sisters also ended up with mono, just not as bad.

There have been more, but I think the one I will remember the most was 5 years ago.  In March 2006 we found out we were pregnant with baby #2.  Dillon was just 4 months old.  I went to Spokane, WA in April 2006 to spend two weeks with my in-laws, and then go to Utah and spend two weeks with my parents and attend my baby sister's wedding in the Salt Lake City Temple.  While I was in Spokane, I stared cramping and bleeding.  I went into the ER and they said I was miscarrying, but couldn't find the baby during the ultrasound.  After a day the bleeding stopped and everything seemed fine until one week later, I had gone onto Utah and the day before my sister's wedding I started to hurt and have a bad case of diarrhea, I thought I had eaten some bad Chinese food when we had gone out to dinner.  During the night, I was staying with my friend Jamie, and I was cramping so bad, I got up to go talk to Jamie and I passed out onto the floor.  Dillon was sleeping on some blankets made into a bed on the floor, I am lucky I didn't pass out and fall on top of him.  When I came too I went into Jamie's room and had her call my dad.  Dad and Grandpa Alcorn came and gave me a blessing.  I then was able to sleep, but by morning I was in so much pain.  My dad came back and took me to urgent care.  They took my blood work and said my white blood cell count was sky rocket, I had internal bleeding, which is why I had passed out.  They sent me straight to the hosptial.  I was told I had a ruptured tubal pregnancy.  I had lost one of my tubes.  We called Dan, but he was in New York working, and it took us a while to get a hold of him.  By the time it was done there was nothing he could do, so he stayed and continued to work, so we didn't miss out on the income he was providing.  My dad stayed with me until he had to go to the wedding, and then came back until he was needed at the wedding reception.  They moved me to surgery just after my dad left.  Jamie stayed with me and some family friends had Dillon with them.  As they moved me to the operating table I passed out from the pain again.  When I came too after the surgery, I looked at the clock, and told Jamie, well we missed the wedding.  I ended up staying with my parents for two extra weeks before I went home as the doctor wouldn't clear me for travel until then.  I made it back home to Dan after having been gone for 6 weeks just a couple days after my birthday.  We have gone on to have 2 more pregnancies since this happened.  We now have Dillon, Jennilyn, and the twins Ruth and Irene.  It is a miracle that I had twins since I only have one tube, but I am grateful for them.  When I recently had a miscarriage a month ago, my new doctor was being very cautious because he didn't want me to have to go through this ordeal again.  I am glad I found someone I could trust and who is looking out for me.

Well this is one long post for Slice of Life, but I am glad that I have recorded it, and if I have have my post printed into a book, at least it is recorded for my children to know about my life.

Happy 38th Birthday Dan!

Today is Dan's 38th Birthday!  Here is his cake with all the candles we had in the house totaled exactly 38 candles!  For his birthday we have decided to get a Wii for our family to enjoy.  To start that out, we got a game of the 25th anniversary Super Mario All Stars game.  This has all 4 original Mario games.  I remember playing the original Mario as a kid, and now my kids will get to play it.

Here is a video of Dan's forest fire of a cake!

Happy Birthday Dan!  I hope you had a great day!

Cookie Cutter

I forgot to take my camera with me, but today we went to Cookie Cutter Kids Hair Salon.
They have these fun cars for the kids to sit in while they get their hair cut.  They also get to watch a movie of their chose while their hair is being cut.  When they are done they get a balloon tied to a cookie cutter and a sucker.  The girls did great!  No crying or fighting about getting it cut.  I am taking Dillon on Friday, so maybe I will remember the camera and get more picture.

Ruth

Jennilyn

Irene

Irene side view

Balloon and cookie cutter with Dillon's teddy bear

I loved how Jennilyn's and Irene's hair turned out.  The judge is still out on Ruth's.  I can always take her back another day since I bought a booklet deal, which they allowed me to use three of them today and still have some for future hair cuts.  It did cut down on how much I would pay for all of the kids' hair cuts in one shot since I do have so many kids, but a word to the wise, make an appointment to go.  They do accept walk-in's but I found they didn't have the time for walk in's!

Slice of Life # 42 ~ First Aid

These are pictures of my first experience taking one of my children into urgent care for stitches.  Ruth is still the only one of my children that has had to have stitches.  At least now if we can't tell the twins apart, we just look for the scar.

I know more times will probably happen, but so far we haven't had a lot of first aid problems yet!

This is written for Slice of Life feel free to join us!

Slice of Life # 41 ~ We're going to the Zoo

"We're going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo, how bout you, you, you?  You can come to, to, to.  We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

We use to sing this song every time we went to the zoo growing up.  We use to take the kids to Como Zoo in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I think when it warms up Dan and I will have to take the kids to the Hogle Zoo here in Utah.

My sister in law Sarah sitting waiting for the next seal show!

Dillon and cousin Nathan getting ready for lunch while we were at the zoo.

I think I have lost some of my pictures, as I can't seem to find the ones with them and the animals.  Maybe this spring will be better, as now I have 4 kids that I think will enjoy the zoo!

Now I have that song running through my head and am singing it too my kids!