RHS & Missionaries

The past few days I've had a throat infection, which hasn't been a lot of fun. It's getting better, though. Right now I am working on making a blog for my Red Hat Society group. Well, it's actually my mum's group, I'm just the member who lives 2 hours away and never makes it to anything, ha ha. It's giving me something to do, though, so that's nice. It makes me wish that I had something like that here, other than enrichment, I mean. I kind of lost pretty much all of my friends to other wards or to inactivity from the church. Thank you for staying with me, Amber!!! It's been pretty tough going through all of this with not much of a social group, I guess. If I thought anyone would actually do the Red Hat thing up here, I would TOTALLY do that. It would be nice to hang out once a month and do fun stuff and dress up in things that can look tame and pretty much normal or look totally ridiculous, whatever you're in the mood for. I really need an actual social life.

Anyways, working on being grateful for the things that I have right now. Kind of hard to remember in the moment, but I'm definately working on it.

So...Today was missionary Sunday. I didn't stay for the talks, I was falling over on John I was feeling so sick, so we left as soon as we took the sacrament. However, I just wanted to express my gratitude for missionary work. Without it, I would be a very different person. I wouldn't have the husband that I do, or the kids that I do. I wouldn't have the strength I've gained from the gospel. I am so grateful for two wonderful young men who took 2 years out of their lives to come and help people like me discover the amazingness of the gospel.

Bad News

The boys are heading back down to Magrath again. I really wish that we could find a treatment that works for me and that the boys would be able to stay here. At the same time though, I'm so grateful that we have people who are able to help us out when we need it. Keep us in your prayers, please.

He's Back!!!

Exciting news here that Ty is back home again after 2 weeks in Magrath. He was SO happy to see Daddy. He's such a Daddy's boy and was attached to John the whole weekend. Not too much else is new here, but I just wanted to let you know that things are getting back to normal around here. Ty is walking so much now and has gotten really speedy at it, too! Caleb was so happy to have him back, he wouldn't stop trying to touch Ty's hand or feet or whatever. He wasn't so happy the next day when he realized that he had to share the attention again, but he's dealing with it a lot better now.

So here's my thoughts from the talks in church the other day. The first one was on family unity and the second one, John's talk, was on the importance of children and how we treat them. I loved the part in the first talk about how we need to spend less time in front of the television and stuff like that. So important. John also talked about how we need to see our children as precious instead of things that we tolerate until bedtime. So many people in the world have lost sight of how Heavenly Father wants us to treat our children, and it's so important for us as His saints to set the example. Just my thoughts. What do you think?

Update on the Last Post

John and I have decided that I will keep taking the proper dose of EMP and not take the new meds. Keep me in your prayers, I'd love to not have to be on meds that mess up my body.

Great Weekend

I had a doctor's appointment on Friday, and it encouraged John and I to find a place that sells a newer med that the psychiatrist prescribed me back in November. This med doesn't have the weight gain side effect. Because I'm switching meds, I've gone the last 3 nights without either the new one or the old one. Instead, I took the dosage of EMPowerplus that Truehope originally told me to take instead of meds and a half dose of EMP every day. Over the last few days I have felt SO much better. So John and I have decided to give this new medication a shot, but that if I go back to feeling the way I was on the old one, then we're just going to bite the bullet and pay the $200 a month for the right dosage of EMP. So I guess in the next couple of weeks we'll know what our game plan is. Personally I'd rather just take the EMP, but John wants me to try the new medication at least for a little bit, since the pharmacy had to order it in just for me. However, this weekend has made me truly grateful to the two men who discovered this amazing supplement. I know a lot of pain and heartache inspired this miracle, and I truly feel for everyone it touched. Thank you ladies for your comments last time, it helps to know there's people out there rooting for me during my battle.

On another note, we had a talk from our high counsellor yesterday about spending more time with our families and treasuring them and the memories we build with them. I think John and I really needed to hear that talk. It makes me glad that I've decided that we're going to take a family camping trip this year and to carry on a tradition my brother and I have started by going to the Calgary Zoo together the last Saturday in May. We've done so the past 2 years, and I've really enjoyed going and taking Caleb (and Ty last year) to see all of the fun animals. We're also thinking of taking the boys to the Royal Tyrrell museum this year. If anyone has any ideas of cheap fun ideas for families to do together, I'd love to hear them. I really want to focus more on building happy memories with our family.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I know I did. We had a Ukrainian dinner and games at our house on Saturday with some family and friends, and it was a blast.

Think Positive

Do I really even have much to talk about? It's been a very rough week for me. I haven't had my kids at home during the days because my bipolar flared up again with a vengence. It's been slowly getting better the last few days, but it's been a very tough time. I am so grateful to the people who have been watching my kids for me. I miss Ty like crazy as he's been with my in-laws since Friday. I'm going to the doctor again tomorrow to see what we can do about the flare up, so hopefully that will help out. So anyways, trying to stay positive, here's a small list of some of the things I'm grateful for:
John
Caleb and Tyrell
The Atonement
The Gospel
The Church
Sisters Closson, Barrett, Prassad and my SIL Heather
That I live in Alberta, Canada (no PST, no rats, and the best country there is)
My mum
My brother
My dad

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Not too much is new here, I mainly just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas. Yes, I say Happy Christmas. I'm a Harry Potter geek, which should be explaination enough if you've read the books and/or seen the movies. My gift from John won't get here in time for Christmas, but I already know what it is. Here you go:

















Again, have a great Christmas and a wonderful new year.

PS
This new year's eve will be 4 years that John and I have been married for. I've been blessed with such a wonderful eternal companion. I just want to say how grateful I am for the temple and the strength it gives to my marriage that we chose to be sealed in the temple right from day 1.