Cyst

I had the cyst on my ear removed today. This is how big it was!! My friend said it looked like a goldfish! Lol.

There aren't any cuts on the front side it just has marker on it and looks like it has a divot in it.

It was an interesting feeling/listening to the procedure. They numbed it first which is never fun but it wasn't as bad as some I've had. By the third prick the first ones were already working and I barely felt it. Then they put a cover over the side of my face that had a hole in it to go around my ear. It was just tugging and uncomfortable at times but no pain. It was weird to listen to the sounds of them scraping/cutting on my ear. The doctor had warned me that it would be that way and some people didn't like hearing what was going on. She tried to make jokes but when I'm bracing for pain/discomfort I get in a zone and don't really respond much. She was a bit disappointed that I wasn't laughing. At the beginning she made some comment to remember to breathe it always turns out better in the end if you are breathing! Then she said I was supposed to laugh. :) She's a super nice and friendly doctor I really like her and she did a great job.

Cards

I've had a little bit of time again and decided to work on my birthday card stash. I made a different design and had fun creating little embellishments to go on them. Some are print and cut designs, some are paper cutouts on top and some are embossed! It's been time consuming but fun to try different things.

I'm not the best at matching up patterns, colors, and things. I thought several of these turned out ok and a couple of them I really liked. Tyler said they seem a bit too vintage for his tastes.

They will all have a label eventually I just haven't finished with them yet.

They will also have different things on the inside but just so you can see how it opens, here's the inside of one.

I made small tab dividers for my box so I could put finished cards that I know who I want to give it to in the month of their birthday and have it ready to go.

The rest are just at the back until I finish them and choose who to give them to or just have on hand for when needed. I'm really happy with my new little organization system. It makes me smile.

 

Card box

I've been wanting to organize my birthday cards with a better place than how I've had them. I will make several at a time and then have them on hand as birthdays come up I can choose one. They don't fit in my tote of card making supplies once they are fully made because they are just slightly too big. So I decided to make a little box to hold them. I was able to design it, cut it and get it glued together fairly quickly today!

 

school

It's been a crazy week for school this week. Since there was still snow on the ground and super cold temperatures on Monday they canceled. Tuesday there was still ice in some areas the buses would need to drive so it was canceled again. Wednesday still cold and they canceled again! It rained most of the day though and melted the majority of snow and ice. So Today we finally had in person school again they just started 2 hours late! The first half the week they still had online assignments but it has been a crazy week. 

Snowman

It's soo cold this morning.

It's still hard to tell that he has a hat verses it just looking like a tree in the background!

 

Rocks, snow, and turkey

During scriptures today we were reading in Moses chapter 6. Bransen said rocks were spiritual. In verse 63 it talked about how all things were created to bear record of Christ... all things in the earth, on the earth, and under the earth. Then we talked about how Christ is our rock. And as you climb them they can remind us of Him and we are getting closer to Him and we hold fast at times as though our life depended on Him. It was a fun little analogy and thinking about all the ways that Christ really can be the center of our lives no matter what our interests might be. He loves us and has provided us with so many wonderful things to bring us joy and happiness.

It snowed last night! We had home church again today. Then the boys spent a little time in the snow having fun making the base for what they hope to be a giant snowman. The snow is a bit powdery though and not sticking very well. So one would water it while the other rolled to help it stick together!

Then we came in for a turkey dinner. We had homemade wheat bread, turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy. We said, happy thanksgiving, merry Christmas, happy Feb. 1st!! :) We didn't end up doing a turkey for Thanksgiving this year and had planned to do one on Christmas but those plans were changed. We finally decided to cook it this week and I thought it was very fitting for it to snow for us today. :)

The snow was too dry and powdery to form a good ball so they started watering the snow in front of the person rolling the ball.

There were a lot of snow drifts this time. It was pretty cool to see it piled high in some places.

The boys went back out later this evening hoping the sun would have melted the snow a little so it would roll better. It didn't really get any better. They were still able to get a decent snowman but nowhere near as big as they were hoping for. It's hard to tell in the picture but there are a couple pieces of bark on top of his head for a hat to try to give it a little more height. Bransen said they are just propped against each other so they probably won't stay. I'll try to get a picture in the morning. The wind was blowing and super cold when they went back out so I didn't last very long with them. 

Bransen flew his new drone around for a few minutes until his hands were too frozen to keep flying. Then he warmed them up, put gloves on and helped build the snowman.

If you look close between the trees you can see his drone!

secret order

We were reading in the book of Moses about the secret works of darkness and somehow went into a discussion about what if we had secret bands of good. Tim said something like you could be of the secret order of priest of the house of Aaron. Or the order of teacher. Then the boys started doing the mission impossible theme song and getting into the idea. Bransen said their mission could be to infiltrate temptation and destroy it! It was a rather amusing and fun conversation. Unfortunately I was super tired and didn't have the energy or mental capacity to write it all down right away so I may have butchered what they actually said but it was along those lines and there was more but at least I preserved a snippet of the memory. :)

ice

It's been really cold the last few nights. Our valve split on the rain barrels. It leaks slowly so it has an icicle forming below from the drips but also freezes above as it's trying to drop down! 

 

Walk with me

The youth theme for this year is Walk With Me. I think I already posted a little about it but I finally finished the rest of the shoe tokens. There were about 250 total. This is only about half of them.

These were all the different colors of shoes.

I was thinking about our trip to Utah and realized I forgot to tell about a really cute story. My niece Kari is just under 2 years old. One afternoon when we were all together for lunch and they were asking everyone to fold their arms for the prayer one of her siblings asked her to fold her arms. She quickly folder her arms and closed her eyes and then opened one eye and peeked around! It was the cutest thing ever and I was impressed that she could just open one eye! :)

On the topic of prayer, Kaylise called distressed because she had gone to get her allergy shots and then her car kept stalling trying to leave the clinic. She had tried calling Tim but he was driving to work and wasn't very helpful. I listened and visited with her for a minute and talked through a few things. Not really sure what to do from so far away I suggested saying a prayer. She didn't want to but said that I could. So I said a short prayer asking for help for her car to be able to start and stay working while she backed up so she would be able to get back home to get the things done that she needed to and be able to get to work. I ended the prayer and then I hear her say, "hallelujah." I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who helped me think to pray and who helped her car to work. I know he loves us and wants to help us but we have to be willing to ask sometimes and be patient others. It's hard to know and understand at times but I am thankful that he helped her this morning and that I was able to visit with her as she drove home.

ice

We had threats of lots of snow early in the week but by the time the storm got to us it ended up being just ice. There was a good layer of ice everywhere though and they canceled church today since the roads were anticipated to be really bad. By this evening they made tomorrow an online day for the boys. Thankfully we haven't had any power outages or anything it's just really cold outside. Tyler ended up sleeping until almost 4 pm! He woke up a tiny bit a few times but would just go back to sleep. I had a zoom meeting so we ended up doing family church around 8 pm! It was a nice little discussion though. 

 

Ear dr

I have had a cyst on the back of my ear lobe for probably 15 years. It has grown and shrunk many times. It's never popped or had drainage but it would vary in size. Well about 6-8 months ago it really started getting bigger and wasn't seeming to stop or shrink. It's become increasingly more sensitive as well so I finally decided to ask my doctor about it since I was going in so much for my anemia anyways. He gave me a referral to a general surgeon because it was bigger than he was comfortable dealing with. After about 6 weeks and not hearing back we found out that they had denied the referral and said I needed to go to an ENT dr. So they gave me a different referral. Well that doctors office changed which group it was under at about that same time so my referral got lost. Long story short it took about three months to finally get them to call and set up an appointment. Which ended up being the day we flew to Utah so I had to reschedule it for another month out. Well I finally had my appointment this week and the doctor was super kind and very thorough with all of her explanations. Then she asked if she could look at it closer. She walked around behind me and then suddenly says, "Oh woah, wow, um that is very deceiving. Sorry I don't mean to sound concerned it's fine. It's just way bigger than I thought it was. From the front it just looks like a little thing but it is not!" I was just laughing inside. I was well aware of how people react when they see it from the back side.

For reference this is my good ear.

And this is my ear with the cyst.

They will be removing it in a few weeks. 

 

birthday cake

Tyler was enjoying snuggling on top of Tim tonight.

Since we were gone all day yesterday we got up early this morning and made him his birthday breakfast of sausage biscuits and then after church I made him an oreo cake before I had a meeting. It's hard to believe he is 17 now and a junior in high school. We love this kid and his quiet, thoughtful personality. He has spunk and humor as well. A deep passion for climbing and a love of drones right now. He has many gifts and talents and we are so blessed to have him in our lives. I love being his mom.