Lucky Change by Susan Law Corpany

I ordered a ton of books and this one was the only one that I almost paid full price for, because I really wanted to read it!  It's about Karen, the "ward's charity case," who buys a lottery ticket and wins $230 million!  She quits her job, buys a new car and proceeds to help others!  Every church needs a Karen:  a loving, forgiving and awesome example of a true Christian.  Although the world would be so much better if we all were like her!  She helps humble some people, but mainly she enriches the lives of others through being a little nosy and giving what is needed!  I loved it when she gave gift cards to people!  It reminded me of all the times we have had anonymous (and not anonymous) givers help us when we desperately needed it and I'm looking forward to the day when we can better pay it forward!  Those that helped us in the past, you have no idea how much we appreciated it!  It was always amazing to me how generous people are, especially when I don't let people know how we're really doing!  Obviously those were people who listened to the Spirit and followed His promptings as Karen does.  I would love to read more about things go with her, and her kids! 

Spring Break

Be forewarned there's a TON of pictures, and not of all of my kiddos.  Sorry!  So, we started off spring break with the trip to Olathe and then a few days later planned to go to Louisiana as a family.  That didn't happen!  Emma and Leah got chicken pox with Scott having Shingles and then the day before we were going to leave Ben threw up.  That was pretty much it for me!  Luckily, my parents were willing to let Cecilia and I ride with them.  I wasn't risking taking Kira with me and her getting sick (though she was fine the whole time I was gone, of course).  So, first thing on Wednesday morning I headed to Olathe to ride with my parents and my sister to Louisiana.  Cecilia did pretty well on the long trip!  The last three hours she got mad!  She wanted out of that seat and now!  Poor baby!  But, we made it safely!  We got to stay in my cousin's travel trailer.  I really like it!  It had three beds, a bathroom, a little fridge, stovetop and microwave and such.  Very nice!  Anyway, we got to spend time with my Aunt Jan, Uncle Kenneth (Cecilia LOVES him), cousin Tommy, and Mamaw in between the viewing and funeral (my Uncle's brother died), the Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding!  Wow!  Though mainly I hung out at Aunt Jan's house with Cecilia watching the DIY Network.  Someday when I have my own house...  After the wedding and reception we got to hang out outside in the nice 80s air.  Ahhhhh...  We came home after Sacrament meeting on Sunday to snow.  Bummer!  Scott has a virus, but everyone else is well!  Hurray!  Now, on to the loads of pictures!

                        On a walk with my sister and cousin

                                Sitting all by herself in a little rocking chair!  I want one!

                                       Four generations!

                               My cousin and his new wife

                                 Hanging out in the warm air!

                              She couldn't drive it, but it was still cute!

                         She really did love her, I just didn't get the good pictures!

                                   Taken on the walk.  I think it's beautiful!

Love it when I win stuff!

I love winning cute hair things!  So, when I got the supercute hat that I won today, I put it right on Cecilia (after I took a picture with her holding it in the wrapper)!  I won it a week ago and I got it today!  It came wrapped in plastic with a cute bow around the top and with tissue paper in it, to make it stay in shape!  So, I get to make a bow from the ribbon I got (if I can find it again)!  I took lots of pictures.  I really wish I could afford a good camera!  Maybe I can make and sell more crafts and earn my way up to a camera and a Cricut machine.  It will take a while!  In the meantime, here's pictures of my cute 2-year-old and my 14 pound 8 ounce, 23 and 3/4 inches long baby girl (her appointment was yesterday) wearing her adorable hat!

                                   Leah and her birthday cupcake (she preferred the phone)

                                                         Isn't that a super cute hat?
If you want your own, you can like her page "Bow Momma" and this hat is only $15!  Which is awesome for how incredibly cute it is!  The flower has beads sewn in!  And it fits her great!  There's more options for the older girls too!

And the sickness goes on!

Good grief!  So, Monday night I started to worry that I had Strep.  So, the doctor called me in meds.  Phew!  For some reason I'm having chills and fever with it.  So, I'm taking ibruprofen and antibiotics.  Yum.  The good news is that I'm not hungry at all, so I'm drinking a lot more water and eating fruit.  Here's hoping I can lose weight!  I'm still impatiently waiting for my Wii!  I NEED to lose weight!  In the meantime, today Leah turns 2!  She's such a cute kid!  If only she could stay in her bed all night!  I had to sleep very awkward this morning, because she finally went back to sleep (She, Ben and Emma were up at 3) at my feet!  Then I wake up to find the bathroom sink full of almost everything that was in the bathroom mirror cabinet, covered in diaper rash ointment!  Sometimes I think Emma H-A-T-E-S me!  Luckily, it's not all of the time!  She's hiding again, so I should probably check on her!

Another day

Well, poor Scott now has Strep Throat.  Will it ever end?  I'm a whole lot tired of him sleeping half of the day, even though I know he needs it.  So, I feel bad!  Oh well!  The good news is that I managed to get a B on the huge test a couple weeks ago that I was super worried about, and on the test last week after I missed three days of class!  Phew!  Heavenly Father obviously loves me enough to help me with my tests, because there's no way that I did it on my own with hardly any sleep and not studying much (if at all)!  Yes, I'm such a good student (said with sarcasm).  I think my biggest problem is that I find things at school so easy that it's ridiculous.  So, I have a tough time remembering to do things beforehand, because I don't even think about school outside of being there for the most part.  I did just register for Summer and Fall!  Woohoo!  If only I could take more credits in the Summer!  I wanted to take five classes, because they are all short and I would only be taking one at a time.  But, no, I can only take 12 credits, so I'm taking 11.  And in the Fall I'm taking 14, depending on Scott's schedule.  I really don't like how this school schedules classes.  And the lack of class times variety.  I need to be on a Tuesday Thursday schedule and can't because so many of my classes are only on Monday or Wednesday.  We'll see how it goes, because it's always quite the production to get our classes worked out together!  More good news in that I have started some Spring Cleaning.  In order to swap out my old computer desk for the new desk, I got rid of a lot of junk!  It's always so nice to get rid of stuff!  And now that Scott has a new laptop, I got his old one.  So, it's the kids' computer desk now.  Mostly.  I built it with Scott.  We make a pretty great building team!  We built it in about an hour before we took the kids to the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  It was really quiet!  The only noise came from the motorcycles and there was one Irish band.  So, Cecilia had no problem sleeping though it!  Always good.  Now I'm waiting for a phone call from the Sweet Granada.  They have some double dipped cherries and I'm hoping to get some white chocolate cherries custom made.  They're going to call and give me an estimate!  Yum!

Journey of Honor Book Review

Journey of Honor by Jaclyn M Hawkes is a very enjoyable read!  From the back cover:  Disowned, she came to America anyway.  Attacked and left pregnant by a vicious mob, she still pressed on.  Finally, in spite of being accused of theft by the vilest of her attackers, Giselle tries to remain as upbeat and uncomplaining as a prairie wildflower as she travels on to Zion.  Thoroughly disillusioned with the ugliness and cruelty of slavery in the South, Trace Grayson leaves his young medical career to go west, hoping to leave bigotry and hatred behind.  He begins taking goods by teamster train to sell in the territories.  However, this fourth time across, in July of 1848, he's stuck in St. Joseph, Missouri, waiting for enough wagons to join the train so they can leave.  Knowing that if they don't start west soon, they'll be caught by snow in the mountains, Trace is thrilled when the final wagon signs on.  Then, when the beautiful, young Dutch girl traveling with the last wagon is falsely accused of stealing and is detained, the whole trip is jeopardized.  Thrown together by circumstance, Trace and Giselle team up to begin to figure out just how to make this epic journey across a continent a success.  With a deep sense of honor and an equally strong sense of humor, together they learn to deal with everything except the one trial that neither of them can overcome. 
I found the relationships discussed in this book to be very satisfying!  There is Trace and Mose (his adopted brother), Trace and Giselle, and Giselle's grandparents.  I enjoy reading about the loving family ties that really do bind!  Trace and Giselle are quite the couple.  They love each other, but are scared the other doesn't feel the same.  Pretty common when a relationship is new.  Their trials were also very common for the trail west.  I won't say what they were and kill the story for you!  I thought it strange that a doctor becomes a teamster and is so Christian that he has no problem doing all that Mormons do, without knowing about them.  Interesting.  Either way, a very enjoyable read that makes you laugh and cry.  I hope to hear more about them and maybe a book about how Mose does...  
You can buy it here!

Miracle Monday

Though this could have been another moaning post, with Leah now having the Fever and wanting me to constantly hold her, Cecilia "starving," Ben being sick, and Scott having his heart pounding out of his chest.  So, we had the opportunity to bring Scott to the ER.  My mom and sister Sam came to the rescue!  So, I only had to entertain four children for two hours!  There was a guy in there waiting for one of his employees and he bought the kids a Skittles bag and they all shared so nicely!  How nice!  Then they sent a woman up and she watched the kids while I went back to check on Scott.  She even brought coloring pages and crayons.  How nice!  My mom and Sam showed up and took all the kiddos, but Cecilia (since she needs me).  Then I got to hang out in the back room with Scott and see what was going on!  Due to their not having a cardiologist and with Scott's crazy looking heart rate, he was ambulanced to Topeka!  Next miracle was Sister East texting me to find out our address for her daughter's upcoming birthday party and I told her what was up and she volunteered to watch my kids!  So, my mom got Kira from school and dropped off the kiddos!  Another miracle:  Somehow, between Scott and I, we had the exact amount of money needed for the toll for two trips back and forth, which is perfect since I'm not leaving until he's coming home tomorrow (I hope!).  I followed my mom to Topeka (she has a GPS) to find that they weren't going to do anything today, because he came too late, but will start tests first thing in the morning.  I did get to meet with the heart doctor.  The parents and we agree that he's a very nice doctor!  The next miracle was the fact that his mom was able to come and stay the night with him, so I didn't have to leave him alone (that would have broke my heart)!  Jes is so sweet for giving up her help!  Since she just had her baby and their mom was helping her.  I feel bad for taking her away, but I'm very thankful!  I'm so overwhelmed with everything today!  Poor Scott!  But, we're lucky that things are going so well!  Scott's a fib regulated (or converted)!  Woohoo!  Thanks for Priesthood blessings, home teachers and Missionaries!  I think that made a WORLD of difference!  Our God is a God of Miracles and that's how I made it through this day!

Life is much better!

Since we're staying in Emporia, I "found" an extra $1000 in our budget.  So, I talked to Scott and we agreed to get a Wii and Wii fit in order to start exercising regularly.  I spent exactly the budgeted amount on Ebay.  I'm so excited to get it!  Of course, I also had to get a Zumba Wii game and extra belt, so I'll be having a great time when we get it and set it up!  Of course, then we realized that our tv isn't going to work, because we don't have a place to plug into!  So, after I picked Kira up from school (now Ben's sick), we went tv shopping and I managed to find one that will work for $10!  I also found a whole bunch of books for 50 cents each (I LOVE books)!  And my second best buy was 4 throw pillows for our 2 couches!  They actually match our curtains and couches and I got them for $4.00 (all of them)!  Woohoo!  Happy days are here again!  On Wednesday when I picked Ben up from school (when Kira was sick), we went up tot eh college and he went back through the "museum" and he loved it!  Then I took him to my Field and Lab Biology class where he got to see everything I'm growing and all of the animals.  It was a test review, so I was busy trying to remember everything I was looking at.  Aaahhhh!  That was a HARD test!  Back tot he good news:  Scott's healing pretty well too!  Good times again at the Westhoffs'!

I CAN do it!

I think I can!  With Scott having Shingles, he's miserable!  And today is my long day at school.  Luckily, my first class was short, so I was able to come home and feed the baby in between classes and Scott didn't have to feed her.  Then during my next class, I forgot to turn off my phone and it started ringing.  I didn't answer and it turns out that Kira had a fever and Scott had to go get her, with all three kids!  So, Scott and Kira aren't well!  Luckily, so far Cecilia just has the stuffy nose.  And she's had that this whole time!  While I'm trying to figure out how to write a paper for my next class I started singing "my" song.  This is the song that I sing whenever I feel stressed or upset:  "The Lord is My Shepherd."  So, if you ever hear me humming it or singing it, it's usually not a good sign.  Sadly, we hardly ever sing it at church, because I would love to see the looks on my kids' faces when they hear everyone singing it!