December Girls' Trip

Another fabulous, fabulous Girl's Weekend Away. This was one of my favorite trips. This time we stayed with Lynn in Cali and we had a blast. Steph and Lynn put together Picasa albums with everyone's pictures (read: TONS of pictures) so I'll just control myself and share a few of my favorites here.


















I can't wait until the next one!

Happy October!

Here's the latest in the Cook household...

Last month John received his Arrow of Light award. It was very exciting!

I really would like a different camera. Pictures on this camera come out so dark sometimes!

It was cute to see him cross the bridge. He had to salute his boy scout leader, salute the flag and step off and do the scout handshake with his leader. He was so serious about it. It was like watching a military man. Too cute.

I love that our ward gives the boys these arrow plaques in honor of their acheivement. John really did work hard for this award and I'm proud of him for it. We hung it above his bed.

Speaking of John's bed, I'm working on plans to get this kid his own room. I have all three boys in one bedroom. When they were small this was... okay. Now that they're getting bigger, it's starting to get impossible. John is getting to that age where he needs some quiet place to retreat to, and his brothers don't always cooperate on that front.

I've been using the other bedroom as an office. The office is stuffed full of furniture: a huge desk, a small desk for the kids, three bookcases, my great-grandmother's small upright piano and my other great-grandmother's cedar chest.

It took a little creative thinking to figure out how to get John his own room, but this is what I came up with.

I figured out if I got a small desk to put where the fish tank used to be (in the living room), then switch to a laptop so I can get rid of the huge desk and my ancient, semi-functional desktop computer, we'd make room for a bed for John. My mother kindly agreed to store the piano and chest at her house. I'm combining my books onto the one tall bookcase, leaving one in the room for John to use, and moving the third into what will be Ben and Chris' room for them to use. John has agreed to share some of the space in his room. The tall bookcase with my books will stay in John's room cuz there's really no where else for that to go. I'll put a small filing cabinet on the floor of his closet as well. Other than that, he'll be all set.

Because this plan requires funding, John agreed to having his own room be his Christmas gift this year. This took zero persuasion on my part. John is VERY excited about getting his own room.

So, stage one began last weekend.

I bought an inexpensive but (I think) pretty writing desk from WalMart, which I picked up after Brian got the kids on Friday. I didn't say anything to the kids about this, wanting to surprise them. I figured I'd put the desk together Friday night since we had conference all weekend (loved it!) and I had plans Saturday night.

Here's the before picture:

Here's after:

Let me be more specific. This is 37 parts, 93 screws, 52 nails and 6 hours later. You wouldn't think a desk like this could possibly have 37 parts, but it did.



My hands were pretty sore from tightening all those screws but still, I did it all by myself and it felt GREAT!

When the boys got home Sunday night they were so excited. Totally worth all the effort.

Other updates:

Christopher had his follow-up appointment with a new cardiologist who I really love. He's doing just fine, no more episodes. The plan is to keep him on the medication until he's a teenager and then do that relatively minor procedure to correct the problem. There's really no way to know for sure if he's outgrown it other than to take him off the medication and wait and see. I've never felt comfortable with that plan and this new doctor thinks it's risky too. The idea of his heart stopping one day just does not give me joy. Call me weird. Anyway, Brian and I both feel good about this new plan, so barring any new developments that's what it will be.

For those of you who are interested, I wrote a semi-personal post for the America Jane blog stating my intentions for the future of that blog. I really had to think about where that blog fits into the life of a single mother.

In general, we're doing fine over here. It's been six months since Brian and I separated and 2 1/2 since the divorce was final. Brian and I are very amicable and working well together to raise our children, for which I am grateful. They say it takes at least a year to recover from a divorce and I believe it. But the six month mark felt like a good milestone for me. While there's still healing and adjusting to do, I think the worst is behind me. John as well. Ben and Chris, being younger, are experiencing things differently. I think the reality of it all finally hit them last month. But all three of the kids are doing a good job talking about their feelings, which really helps. I'm proud of them.

Again, I just have to express my gratitude for the outpouring of support I've received from so many people. Your words of encouragement and comfort mean a lot to me. More than anything I have felt sustained by the Lord and I know I am in His hands. All in all, that's not a bad place to be.

To Answer Amy's Question...

A Few Things

I took a little excursion to California a few weeks ago. I pulled my camera out on the very last day just so I could prove I was there, LOL. It was when I'd walked down to the beach for a few last minutes with the ocean, but it was the only time I'd been alone. This was a mini girls' trip with Lynn, Polly and Leeann. Can I just say what generous, selfless friends these are?

Christopher lost his front tooth. Which I think is adorable.

The boys' at their desks on Meet the Teacher Day:

And ready to go on the first day of school:

I'm absolutely loving the normalcy and routine now that the boys are back in school. When they're not in school, they're home with me and that's just how it should be. I'm feeling more settled, which is nice.

I took the boys on a hike the other day. Afterward we drove out to the Superstitions for a closer look.


That was the first time I shared that special place with my kids. It was awesome.

This is from the pack meeting tonight.

John's in a tan shirt because he's officially a boy scout now, but he came to the meeting to get his Webelos award. He'll get his Arrow of Light next month (hooray!). He's already earned it, but they'll do the ceremony next month. I really didn't know if he should wear his cub scout shirt or his boy scout shirt. I still don't know.


Here is something John's Webelos den made over the summer. It was quite the project and I heard a lot about it as they were working on it. But it was a surprise so I didn't know what it was until tonight.

It's a hovercraft.



It actually hovers.

How cool is that?


So that is the extremely short version of events over here lately. It's time for bed! :)

How We're Doing

Well, it's been an interesting summer to say the least. We're adjusting to a whole new lifestyle over here. The summer started out okay, but the kids are getting worn out from going from place to place all the time. They spend their days with one of their grandmas when I'm working (oh hooray, hooray for grandmas!!!) and then go to Brian's every other weekend. My work days are very long so it seems like at least one day a week is spent just getting caught up. Christopher spent most the morning sleeping yesterday, he was so tuckered out. It's just not restful when you can't be home.

Leaving my children all the time has been extremely difficult for me too. And the long days are taxing.

For that reason, I'm looking for different employment. The job I have now has been a huge blessing. It practically fell into my lap earlier this year, for which I've been extremely grateful. However, I'm looking for something that will help me pay my bills better as well as give me summers off to be with the kids. The grandmas can't do this forever. Neither can my kids. Neither can I.

I've recently applied for some jobs with the schools. There are several secretarial/admin. asst jobs that are just during the school year. I'm also keeping my ear to the ground for virtual assistants. I hear tell these are growing in number. So if you know of anything... ;)

Other than that, I've been trying to make sure we're doing fun things this summer. We've seen a few movies at the dollar theatre (How to Train a Dragon is totally cute - Diary of a Whimpy Kid I could've lived without) and found our way into several pools (the water park at Anthem wins the prize).

I actually pulled my camera out for our excursion to Kartchner Caverns. Talk about a fun trip. I blogged about it over at America Jane awhile ago, but I'll put the family pictures here.

Getting these guys to take a serious picture was next to impossible:

Too funny. :)

At the Discovery Center:

The boys looking at a little friend they found outside:

When Ben kneeled down to take a closer look, this little guy turned to take a closer look at Ben.

"How cute," I thought.

Then this cute little guy opened his mouth wide and started raising his body up and down, up and down. I don't speak lizard, but I know a menacing stance when I see one. I told the kids to back off and I gotta say, they hustled to obey.


I also thought I'd share pics of our prayer flags. These were supposed to be prayer chains (again, from a prayer FHE I wrote for the America Jane blog), but we cut the strips too small so we had to improvise. Our flags got a little messy because the stapler doesn't reach as far as we wanted it to. It was a funny evening.

Ben declared my flag messy, so I made it official.

Then Chris decided his was "nedis." That means "neatest" in case you didn't know.

These flags were only semi-successful. They helped the kids remember morning prayers for awhile, but before they were half-way done with their flags they kept forgetting about them. Ah well.

Quite some time ago I made these little appetizers using zucchini from Kathy's garden. They were delicious. I took pictures so I could post the recipe on the AJ blog, but then realized I have no idea how to take good pictures of food. I've been seeing how Pioneer Woman does it. Need I say more?

Oh! But speaking of food. One of the many interesting things I've learned how to do at this job is make beautiful fruit and veggie trays and cheese and nut trays. We make these for our clients who are in town to observe focus groups and what not. The assistant manager happens to be the queen of these things.

The absolute QUEEN.

Her trays are unlike anything I've ever seen. And it took a bit of training for me to get the hang of it. Mine still aren't what she can do, but I did put together some trays I never could've done before I started working there. They were quite pretty. I was really wishing I'd taken pictures. Crappy camera and lack of photography skills aside, I would've posted those babies.

I'm looking for a reason to put this skill to use in my normal life. Surely I have some upcoming event that calls for fancy cheese trays. Surely.

On another note, I want to give an update on Christopher's heart. We haven't had any complaints from him since his big growth spurt in May. After school starts I'll take him in for a check up to see if maybe he's out grown it. Wouldn't that be awesome? But if not, that's okay too. He doesn't have side effects from the medicine and it doesn't bother him to take it, so if he has to stay on for awhile longer that's okay. He'll be fine either way. :)

Lastly, I just have to say that the support we've received from so many people has been huge. We've had a great home teacher take care of various fix-it type jobs around the house, a generous mechanic who has kept our van running, and several people who have helped with the upkeep of the yard. I'm grateful for good friends who lend a listening ear, for priesthood leaders who give blessings whenever they're needed, and for peace and comfort from the Lord. There have been difficult moments, but it seems help is never far away.

So, that's about that. I've been sporadically following everyone's blogs in my Google reader (private blogs have been completely neglected) but I haven't had time to comment. I just want you all to know I miss you and still enjoy reading about what's going on. Until next time...

Ben's Baptism

I meant to get this post up shortly after the last post, but I was without the internet for a couple of weeks. I got a few things done on remote computers, but this wasn't one of them.

Anyway, Ben's baptism! This cute little bugger finally got baptized and it was a great thing to see. Aunt Kelli gave the talk on baptism, I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, Uncle Nathan baptized him and Grandpa Cook gave him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

When I asked Ben what his favorite part of the day was, he said, "All of it!" Such a sweetheart. Congratulations Ben!