Home and Garden Update!

Sometimes I feel like I say everything that's on my mind on facebook so I never blog! but I think I'll still try to post stuff about the house and about my garden on here :-)
Here's a few new pictures of things in the garden and around the yard. I've tried to do organic seeds this time, just to see how it goes. I will try to give descriptions under the pictures.

Our Cats Claw vine! We have heard that it is extremely invasive and that we have to really keep our eye on it because it will start to creep under window panels and doors and that it will start to grow all over the floor of our balcony if we don't keep it trimmed! Kinda looking forward to all that!!

Our Cats Claw's claws, haha. Its so cute to me how it has these little claws that help it climb up the wall!

Our Chamomile! I'm very excited about this! It smells so good. I harvested a bowl of it today and I'm going to try to make a tea out of it later...we'll see. Not a big fan of tea, but maybe if I make it myself, I'll like it more.

Mmmmm Yellow Squash! Lots of little blooms all over this little square foot! Excited to see what it brings this summer and fall!

Parsley! This is doing great! Some flowers were sneakin up on me, but thankfully I snipped them off before they went to seed. Once they go to seed, the leaves turn yellow. Thats what happened to my Cilantro and I ended up pulling it up.

Thyme!! Its growing a ton! This Thyme originally started from one little clipping off of someone else's garden. It took a while to mature, but now its doing fantastic! Its so good in some Italian recipes!

Pumpkins!! I really dont know a whole lot about pumpkins but as soon as I get some growth, I will flop them over the side of the garden bed and give them room to grow! I'm hoping to at least have a few to carve this Fall!

YUMMY Zucchini! I LOVE zucchini! Especially when its freshly harvested. I cant always tell the difference in flavor from things at the farmers market, but zucchini is one thing that I believe tastes significantly better. I barely have to cook it and I love it!

Crisp Cucumbers! This is growing so rapidly!! I LOVE cucumbers not only in salad, but also as a delicious tangy and spicy snack! fresh squeezed lemons or limes on top sprinkled with salt and chili powder or Pico Pica! YUM!

Lettuce! I have a few different kids of lettuce growing. Mixed, romaine and good old iceberg! It did well the last time I bought it about 4 inches tall already developed a little bit, this time I did it from seed! Excited to see how it goes! hopefully my neighbors trees and the tall cucumbers in front of it will protect it from the hot summer sun!

Juicy Watermelon! I CANT NOT WAIT for this to grow! I'm really hoping that by mid August while its still hot, I can harvest and chop it up during a summer BBQ!

SWEET CORN!! Oh this is growing so fast!! I cant believe it!! My research shows that I should be able to harvest some of this by July! Again, CANT WAIT to eat these during a warm summer BBQ!

Onions, Oh onions! Why do you make me cry! Literally! I don't know whats going on with them. I think they were a bit crowded so I thinned them out in hopes that they have more room to expand and turn it to yummy round ones!! The ones I thinned were actually looking pretty good! They are in my fridge ready to get chopped up!

Carrots! This one is the tallest so far. I had to plant more seeds this time because the previous batch just didn't want to germinate!! BOOO! Lets see how these do! We eat A LOT of carrots in our house some I'm hoping to master these little stubborn brats :-)

MINT! Holy smokes mint! You are a champion!! Today I tried to make some mint iced tea....not sure how much I liked it. going to try and perfect that. If anyone has any ideas about what to do with this or if you love mint and want some, please let me know!!

MORE PUMPKINS! I wanted to plant a few things in different sunlight so that I can see what the best results are for next time!

Heirloom Tomatoes! I am PRAYING that these will figure out how to grow! they're taking their time, but I LOVE these kind of tomatoes and I am really wanting to make salsas and sauces for canning! Wish them luck!

Peaches! My peach tree is so dinky for now but it has a little handful of peaches on it! Looking forward to standing out here on a warm day eating fresh peaches! ALSO preserving them in jars like my grandma does! OH they are so good! We don't even like normal canned peaches anymore because we've had the real deal! Andrew said..."Thanks a lot grandma for ruining all the other peaches for me! I'm too spoiled now to eat anything else!" hahaha. Excited to make fresh cobbler and peach pie as well!

Apricots! Cant wait til these are overflowing too! We'll throw some in the dehydrator, can some make some jam and whatever else we can! Oh and of course we will enjoy eating them straight off the tree!

Itty bitty little cherry tomato growth! Again, these little guys are taking their sweet time, hopefully getting nice and sweet.

My lonesome little pomegranate! It is the first and only thing we have planted in the front yard. It was given to my by a friend at church. I think he actually got a branch from his own tree growing in a pot! He gave it to us during the winter and I left it in the pot on a sunny part of my house until a few leaves were sprouting from it. As soon as spring came I planted it and its doing fantastic! I'm sure by next year, we'll have some awesome growth!

Homemade compost bin! Below you will see a few detailed pictures. I found this food grade 50 gallon drum on craigslist for $20. The rest of the supplies cost close to $40 because we hardly had any of them. It cost way more than I thought it would, but it was a fun project (not sure Andrew would agree, lol). The boys go out and roll it all the time. Its getting quite heavy. Every once and a while, we add some left over soil to it and we add all of our fruit and veggie skins, pits, leftovers and garden clippings (NO WEEDS)

Fun little solar powered lantern hung from the patio! they are so cute!! I'll take a nighttime picture soon too!

A couple different views of my new and improved kitchen! Over the Memorial Day weekend, Andrew and I busted out about 10 hours of taping, painting and touch ups! It was long and daunting, but SOOO worth it! I'm in love!! The windows in the kitchen will also be spiced up with some funky yellow and white damask curtains (once I can buy the fabric!)

So this tall connecting wall looks kinda funny right now but soon I will put a tall vase with tall iris' in the corner of the cabinets on top and it will more softly separate that paint. Then on top of this wall will be a couple long narrow rectangle pots where I will have vines and flowers growing and lanterns of different shapes and sizes will hang from the ceiling. Its all in my head for now :-) Pictures to come later on!

Workin in the yard!

Gardening!

I was so in love with the weather today! It was 75 degrees and gorgeous!! By 9:30 this morning I was outside working and hardly came inside until 4:30!!. Yesterday, someone from my ward in church who is very Vegas garden savy, came over to take a look at my yard & garden and he had so many pointers for me! My yard is ALL rock! Just small rock covering the entire thing! BLAH! So today, I was raking and shoveling rocks to make room for more creations, pulling weeds and placing stone in between my garden beds. I am feeling it already and I will be so sore tomorrow! But in my opinion, Id rather be sore from being outside in the yard then inside working out...thats just me!

Yesterday I did some work and all three of my boys were out working with me! It was so nice to just be outside spending time with them teaching them about gardening. I'm one of those crazies that truly believes at one point, we'll be needing to live off of our home garden so I wanna learn now. You never know what will happen with the economy and I wanna make sure I know what I'm doing when and if the time comes.

I needed to do some transplanting. One: because I am still learning what is good next to what. And two: to make room from my spring garden. I learned that for some reason, some herbs dont like growing around mint, but mint helps other veggies such as tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, cabbage and a few more so I decided to move my mint to a different box. My sister in law Amy told me a while back that mint is super invasive and will grow crazy roots....but I had NO idea they would be like this so soon! After only 5 months the root system was 2 feet long!!! This mint is so delicious smelling too! If anyone in my area needs any mint....please stop on by :-)



Las Vegas Garden

Yesterday in church, Jordans amazing sunbeams teacher gave a lesson to him and his class entitled "I am thankful for plants". She gave each of this little plastic containers with soil and a couple packets of seeds. So is so good with them!! Jordan was struggling with primary and having to leave me in general and the past 2 weeks he has done so good! This week, he just walk right in a waved bye to me!! It actually made me tear up! So anyway, when we got home, I made sure that he planted his seeds right away. He was so gental with his seeds and watered them so lovingly. We will show the growth soon!

Las Vegas Garden

Last week, I found a food grade 50 gallon drum on craigslist for $20. I've been wanting to build a compost tumbler for a while and that was the start! Andrew and I went over to Lowes and found all the extra things we needed to put it together and went home and finished building it! I forgot to take pictures of it during the day today, so I will take pictures today and hopefully give some measurements. All together we spent about $60 because we did everything stainless steal, but I think it'll be worth it and its still $50 cheaper than the cheapest at the store. Pics to come.....

The other thing I did with gardening today was create space for vines to grow up my wall. I have 3 column type things holding up the balcony in the backyard and eventually I want some sort of vines covering them. Any kind of plant life helps shade the house, keeps things cool and of course creates beauty and promotes birds and bees to help cross pollinate! I took thick fishing string up to my balcony, tied it to the top, and threw it down. Once I went back downstairs, I tied the string to some rebar that was conveniently sticking out of the ground at the base of the column. I repeated this 3 times going up in slightly different directions each time. This will give my vines something to grab on to when they first start growing! I love morning glories, but I'm also considering doing grapes so that they'll be beautiful and provide food! Again....pics to come.

I was gonna go one about different things, but I think I'll close with gardening too! I am so thankful for what I have learned about this. I want to be able to share with others and maybe one day, I'll have a strickly gardening blog.

Thanks for reading!

Dreams this week.....

This has been one of those weeks! Very trying, very testing, very strengthening. Interestingly enough I had a dream last Friday night/Saturday morning and I didn't know it at the time, but it seemed to be foretelling of my week to come.

Dream Friday/Saturday February 10th/11th

I dreamt that I was standing near an interesction  (Elkhorn & Durango) and I was brushing my teeth or something...lol. This intersection is near a freeway that separates a large part of Northwest Vegas. I looked off to one side where I could see these pink clouds starting to rapidly swirl around, and then to the other side where the same was happening. The clouds started to look more like vapors coming up from the ground off in the distants. I kept telling myself that I must be having some kind of vision and that it just couldnt be real because I had never seen anything like it. The vapors then changed to a dense liquid matter, splattering up from the ground (somewhat like lava, only not red). I still could not believe my eyes. That liquid began to rise in the distance on both sides of me and began to devour the land and everything on it as it rushed over top of everything towards me. I had nowhere to turn so I just stood there hoping that this vision would go away. At one point, I even thought "I must be dreaming!" but that still didn't make things any better. I knew that this flood of somesort had already wiped out my house, my families houses and most of my friends houses and was coming right for me. I watched as it poured over top of the freeway sound barier in front of me and finally got to me. I was screaming and crying. The matter was dense enough that I was able to stand on top of it if I moved fast enough. It was hot and sizzling and rising while I was on it, popping like lava would be in the rim of a volcano. I knew that I would die unless I got some sort of help from above. I looked up to the sky screaming for Heavenly Father to help me because there was nothing I could do to help myself. This was out of my hands. At that point, I woke up. Even in my waking life at 2:30am, I felt like my soul was being attacked. I had to pray for help and comfort, because I couldn't fall back asleep. My dream left me feeling very volnerable, weak, scared and disterbed.  After my prayer, I quickly fell back asleep and I was on to my next VERY strange dream, but I will get to that one later.....lets talk about this one a bit....

The next night I got the stomach flu...boooo! I was up all night. I still got up and went to church because I thought it was just food poisoning and I wanted to sing in choir. Jordan is having separation anxiety and did not want to go into class. My frustration was getting the best of me and my family. Without going into detail, over the next few days, my faith was challanged from many different direction. I got to a point that it was more than I could handle and by Tuesday I was crying and praying for help and guidance. Over those few days I saw that challanges were rushing at me from different directions, more than they've been in a long time. At many points I realized that it was out of my hands and I felt helpless. All I could do was pray for help. I began to see that my dream was preparing me for the week to come. I will continue on with is after telling of my next dream.

Another Dream Saturday Morning, February 11th

Now unless you are very interested in the meaning of dreams and dream interpretations....you might wanna skip over this one cause its weird, but I know there is definitely more than meets the eye....

I was driving with my mom and my sister. We were not in any place I recognized. We passed by this hill that had these tall gargoil-like gravestones, and the sun was setting behind them and they looked pretty cool all silouetted (good picture op). We continued driving down this path that turned into a riverbank, but rather than being all rocky and bumpy, it was smooth! We quickling glided over it as if we werent even touching the ground. All of the sudden, my mom had to quickly stop the car because there was a strange circular shape warped into the water. By the time we got close enough to look, the water rushed over top of it and it was gone. We decided to look around because it seemed to be a really old, untouched land. There were lots of cool rocks and petrified wood. We kept going down the river and in the middle of this wide river stood a tall solid giraffe! It was as if it was frozen solid and not living and next to it, was a wooden tree-ish thing that was shaped like the giraffe. It was kind of prehistoric. Of course being a photographer, I took out my camera and started snapping some pictures while my mom and sis were looking at some other stuff up ahead. I started to get closer so that I could check it out, and get this.....there was a tall skinny dead blue alien sitting in the chest cavity of the giraffe as if it had been controling it like a spaceship! Yes you heard me...what the heck! So then, I was like..."OH MY GOODNESS!! We have made one of the most amazing scientific finds ever!" I got even closer and realized that there was another smaller toddler blue alien near the other!! I thought it was dead too, but then it started stretching like it was waking up! I freaked out and ran to my mom and sister to tell them to come check out what I had seen. When we got back over there, the toddler alien had turned into my oldest son Tony...But the alien version of him. He was acting shy and not talking to me as I asked him why he's here and how did he get here. Then I woke up. Um weird. For some reason this dream slightly continued a few nights ago....

Dream Tuesday, February 14th

This dream was really interesting because it had some similarities to the one a few nights earlier. I just have to start by saying that I asked for a meaningful dream that I could interpret in my prayer the night before, so when I get a good one that I can remember, I really try to think a lot about it. Ya, I'm a total hippie, WHAT? You got a problem! Anyway :-).....

Once again my mom, my sister, and I were on a river, but this time we were on a raft. It was a beautiful, really green area. The river was nice and smooth. We were just relaxing and hanging out but all of the sudden, we hit some rapids. The water got really rough and we started getting really scared, not sure what to do. We were having a hard time holding on and then Shelsi (my sister) got thrown off and landed really hard on her tailbone on a boulder in the water and then rolled off onto the ground. There was a 30ish year old women near by and this person wasn't lifting a finger to help Shelsi while we were struggling to get to her. I was screaming at the lady to "HELP HER PLEASE, HELP HER!!!!!" I kept screaming and when I got to Shelsi on the ground, I knelt down and picked her up in my arms. She wasnt really moving. I was crying so hard and I was yelling at the lady still saying "She is fragile! She's been through so much! Why weren't you helping her? She's fragile!!" The lady never replied, but Shelsi ended up standing up and being fine. She was limping a bit cause her back was hurt, but other than that she was fine. Then I woke up.

If you know my sisters history, this dream was a bit unsettling, but the fact that she ended up fine at the end of the dream was quite a relief.

The next day (yesterday) I got a text message from her to our family saying that while she was at work, her hand, arm and left side of her mouth went numb for 5 min. She immidiately went to the doctor where they did a few tests and said that she could go home, but would need to make sure and go to the ER if it happened again cause it could be very serious. She is for sure in our prayers and hopefully it was just a fluke migraine or something.



So anyway, I thought I was going to write about more things on this post, but this took up a lot of time and energy, lol. Until we meet again!!

Multiple topics!

Work!
This week has been incredibly productive! I have blogged so much for my Kandylane Photography Blog! I still have quite a bit to totally be caught up, but it is really coming along!

Cleaning & Kids

Yesterday I had a thought come into my head about cleaning. We have been doing pretty good, but we just cant seem to stay on top of some things. My kiddos are great and they do help out a lot, but I don't feel like anyone is ever offering to help out without being asked. I want them to learn how to willingly contribute as they grow up. I want to make sure that when they are married, they know that asking if their wife needs any help or even just to start to help without asking could make her a very happy women. We decided to switch things up a bit yesterday. I cleaned their (NASTY) bathroom from top to bottom and they cleaned the entire kitchen, living room and entryway......I promise it was a fair trade and took about the same amount of time. Even though we were all working, they were SO grateful that I did that for them and I was SO happy not to have to do down stairs. They both gave me big hugs and told me how amazing their bathroom looked and I did the same for them.

Changing things up a bit really helped us all see and appreciate the work each one of us does normally for each other. I am a big believer in teaching kids how to be active members of their family rather than just observers. Sometimes its easier to do it ourselves and get it done right the first time, but that's not doing them any good. It normally takes a lot of motivation and reminding....over and over and over and over again, but it'll be well worth it when we watch them grow into helpful, sustained, service oriented, hard working members of society and of their families!

Nutrition!

Some of you may know that over the past few years, I have become very interested in health and nutrition. Having many chronic issues like post nasal drip, aching bones, hyperactive nerves, irritated bladder (sorry, I know, TMI!), and a few more things, I have made it a goal to to figure out why I'm having these issues and kick them out the door!  I am definitely not perfect and I often fall back into bad habits, but overall I think I have been much better off. Those issues have significantly reduced since I have been more cautious of what I put into my body. I don't go totally crazy on organic stuff, although I know there are many benefits, but that can get very expensive....so I figure until I'm makin bank or have a large fruitful organic garden....I'll be sticking to the usual.

Back in September, after we moved into our new home, Andrew and I built a garden! I used the points I earned from using my Chase debit/credit card and was able to get $125 worth of Lowe's gift certificates! Boo-ya!! That was able to help with a the majority of my cost! Although its been 5 months and still have nothing large enough to harvest besides herbs, I have learned a ton and think I will be much better off this coming season. Unfortunately I bought treated wood (bad advise lumber guy!) and one day I will trade it all out. Composting has been on my mind for a while now I just haven't done anything about it. This week I have started to throw food away separately, and I'm determined to get that going soon. I think my garden might just be malnourished. Please don't send me to GPS (Garden Protective Services)! Haha....I'm a dork.

Las Vegas Garden
September 16th 2011

Las Vegas Garden
September 28 2011

Las Vegas Garden
November 23rd 2011

February 8, 2012- The Latest

Las Vegas Garden

Las Vegas Garden

Las Vegas Garden

Las Vegas Garden
Giant Peas

Las Vegas Garden
Nappa Cabbage Flowers

Las Vegas Garden
Romaine Lettuce

Las Vegas Garden
Marigold

Las Vegas Garden
Parsley

Las Vegas Garden
Cilantro

Las Vegas Garden
Mint

Las Vegas Garden

Las Vegas Garden
Broccoli

I have really become a fan of juicing!! I drink all kinds of weird juice! Right now I'm drinking, romaine, cucumber, celery, carrot, apple juice. Its really good, I promise. I cant wait til I'm using my own garden for it! but for now, I buy most everything in bulk from Sams Club. I did some of my own research today to help figure out the cost and amount of a couple good-juicing fruits and veggies. I'll throw it in here just cause.....

Pricing based on Sam's Club prices Feb. 8, 2012. (Not held responsible for prices changing)

I added the amount of pulp in there so that you can see that quite a bit can be wasted. BUT you can save a lot of it in freezer safe bags and use them in breads, muffins, cakes, lasagnas, sauces, salsas, etc! OR if you don't want to get all fancy with it, you can always put it towards your composting. I have found that spinach does NOT juice well. It spits almost everything back out. I will be updating this chart as I to more of my experiments :-).

OK I'm sure I could go on forever about this stuff, but I will save it for later :-)


Thank you so much for reading! Be back later!

Bringing in the new year!

So here it is, 2012, and I am really ready to make some new big changes in my life. So far we are doing great! We've hardly missed a night this month of family scripture study, family prayer and we haven't missed doing one Family Home Evening! The reading is tremendously helping our kids learn how to be faster readers and even Jordan (age 3) wants to get in on it every night. They are comprehending so much and that makes me so happy! Since the beginning of the year, I have prayed and read a chapter in the scriptures each morning and wrote in my journal each night. For 2 weeks now, I have done a vigorous 10 minute workout each day of the week along with an extra 10 minutes of warm up, cool down and stretching.

I've always had a hard time finding out how to live a balanced life, as with all of us. I always make up excuses that there isn't enough time in the day. But I have really begun to grasp the idea that there are 24 hours in a day for a reason. I can honestly say that I highly doubt we'd do any better at accomplishing more if there were 34 hours in a day instead. We'd just have another 10 hours to goof off and procrastinate. My goal is to accomplish my life long goals every day before anything else and since I have began to practice this goal, life just seems easier.

"Give us this day our daily bread......" Matthew 6:11. As I read in January's issue of the Ensign my eyes were really open to the simplicity of life. It doesn't say...."Give us this month our monthly bread" or "yearly" or even "weekly", it says "daily". ONE STEP AT A TIME! Editing pictures, facebooking, mopping the floors, doing laundry, scrubbing toilets, grocery shopping, paying bills, etc are NOT daily tasks! They may be frequent tasks, but they aren't something I want to do everyday for the rest of my life. BUT there are a few things that I can say I'd like to do almost everyday if not everyday for the the rest of my life. Those things for me would be: Morning prayer, morning scriptures, making my bed, quick exercise, being of service to someone, nightly family scripture study, nightly family prayers, nightly journal writing & nightly personal prayers. For some reason when I focus on just completing these morning and nightly routines, everything else falls into place. My house stays cleaner, my work gets done, my errands get done, my social life is still active, my brain is more clear, I'm happier, I feel better all together, my marriage is stronger than ever and my kids are behaving better. Its pretty miraculous! My morning prayers are focused more on the day I have in front of me and my nightly prayer is focused more on giving thanks for the day I got through and asking for guidance on how to do things better tomorrow. Stress seems to be almost entirely alleviated because all I have to do is get through today.

The moral of my story today is that yes, we can and should plan for the future. Get those goals and tasks down on a paper. Know where you want to be in the future and have that in your head, but today, live as if you were being tested on today and today only. Past issues will begin to be resolved and the future will begin to smoothly unfold with the grace intended. I cant say that I will always be able to take this advise myself, but I CAN say with a surety from past experiences, that this is the best way to live.

Tony- 10, AJ- 7, Jordan- 3
Taken December 26th 2011

Doggy Tales

I know that it has been ages since I have written but tonight I figured I would start up again with my unexpected turn of events. I had just gotten done with a photo shoot and I headed home. Home is not very close to the bank so I decided to stop on the way. As I left the bank, I noticed a very worried lady starring towards the busy street in a panic. When I asked her if she was ok, she pointed to 3 stray dogs running around, a big, a medium and a little. They came back over towards the Vons parking lot and weaved in and out of cars to get through. A couple of us followed behind trying to herd them into safe areas while I called animal patrol. They circled around several times in and out of the parking lot acting like this was the last place they saw their owner. So sad :(. They were all nice and fairly well behaved but the midsize one seemed very friendly but scared. I ran into Baskin Robins and asked for some bowls of water which they kindly provided for me and I got all 3 of them to drink. The big one and the little one ended up wandering off but the middle fella, or gal was sticking around. The other sweet lady with me had to leave, so there I was...a parking lot away from my car, sitting on the curb in front of a nail salon sitting with a stray dog. Then I had the idea of asking if someone would grab me a leash from target or Vons so that I could actually walk with him and keep him with me, so I began to ask..... "excuse me, could you help me with the stray dog....." I truly expected someone would quickly help. I mean, I'm on an iPhone, I'm in nice clothes, my hair is done ok, I don't look threatening, but instead of helpful hands, I got several people glancing over and completely walking past me. Tears actually filled up in my eyes realizing how so many people do the same thing every day of their lives, but not in the same situation as me. Unfortunately their situation is a lot worse. Finally I got up the courage to ask another couple who gladly came over and pet the dog and went to the store to get a leash. Great! Now they're really gonna think I'm nuts cause their Christ like generosity made all the tears start fallin. At this point I had already called animal patrol again because 45 min had passed. They again told me someone would come as soon as possible. This same nice couple went in to get their ice-cream and when they came out they said that they would like to bring it home for the night and bring him to the shelter tomorrow to see if he has a micro-chip. Im obviously being a total big baby today because when they said that, i totally started crying again! We exchanged phone numbers and will both make sure that it gets taken care of.....possibly take him myself :). I hope those others have found their way somewhere safe too.

Dream Morning of March 16 2011- Finding Christ...

The past 5 mornings I have woken up around 6:30 am or before to study the scriptures. A wonderful friend of mine inspired me to do so....along with Heavenly Father obviously. After reading yesterday, I visited several other scriptures relating to riches and money. I often battle with this in my head because I don't ever want greed to be part of me, but during this day and age, saving, planning, living, etc. requires money. So how do I find the balance in desiring wealth and financial abundance while still maintaining my humility.

In Psalms 62:10 it reads: "Trust not in oppression and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your hearts upon them."
Ecclesiastes 5:19: Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God" 
And in the Book of Mormon...Jacob 2:18: "Before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom."


Trust me...this is leading into my dream, I promise!

So I can see here that yes, many times in the scriptures, money and riches caused a lot of problems, but they have also been used for good and have been given as gifts from God.

In my dream, I was taken to this underground excavation of what looked like a VERY wealthy ancient society that had been buried underground over time. It was the largest collection of gold ever found. there were golden statues and tons of other things made of pure gold. This women (I have no idea who) secretly led me to a path that had a secret, off limits gate at the end. We went in and it was like a shopping mall, but there was artwork everywhere. Most of this artwork was ancient and special drawings or paintings of Christ. I looked around in amazement and with a small but humble feeling of pride and honor to be in the presence of something so sacred. The collection of gold had left my mind as I entered into the presence of something worth more than anything else.

Preserved, more than the largest collections of fine gold & riches ever found, was Christ. He took first priority over all else.

When I woke up and was review and journalling this dream, I felt as if I had subliminally passed a test. I felt like Heavenly Father testes me in my weakest, most revealing, unhindered and truthful state.....(dream land). Was I going to be able to look past all the gold, and blindly follow someone I didn't even know to the real sacred treasure? Yes. I did. I truly know that God heard my question and revealed to me my own personal answer.

Dream- Night of nov 6th

I had a dream that I came outside to a beautiful sunset. On the horizon was what appeared to be a large hand imprint in the sky. We all gazed in wonder as we spoke among ourselves wondering if it was a sign that Christ was coming! People started coming out of their houses bringing their cameras wanting to capture this moment. All of the sudden under this handprint in the sky, a huge cross lit up on a hill. We again thought this must be it! A man stood near by the cross and with a microphone began to preach. My heart was all of the sudden filled with fear. While he was talking, he was walking around almost flirting with the women including me. I quickly realized that he was a false priest trying to sway believers before the coming of Christ. I woke up pretty quickly after.....

The Ducks from the Block (by Kira Sanoja)

I wanted to once again give a little book shout out! The Ducks from the Block is for sale!!!

PLEASE support it and buy a copy for yourself, friends, family, teacher, co-worker, etc!

I would be happy to come read it to your child's class or share it at their school's book fair!

You can find my book at www.authorhouse.com

Author Preview:"Betty and Chuck have it made hanging out in this beautiful neighborhood. Fun kids to play with, green grass to rest in, and refreshing sprinklers to cool off in. Take a walk with Betty and Chuck in this real life picture book as they explore and share our block with us."

Dream of the Attack of the killer hotdog!

Dream September 6 2010

Ok so this one totally blows my mind. Usually I have some sort of philosophical explanation for my dreams, but this one...I don't know! Please have at it if you have a clue :-)

The earliest part of the dream I can remember is standing in my kitchen talking to someone. There were others around and someone yelled that there was a mouse by my feet. I could feel it run over my foot and then my foot began to burn in pain. I picked up my foot and saw that there were these nasty blister looking welts on them and another person told me that the sores were not from the mouse. We went looking around and found the big cracked open rotten wiggling hotdog, hiding. Yes, I said hiding. We grabbed it with a kitchen towel and I begin to remember that we had put a bag of trash in the attic to keep the smell out and it must have falling out and due to the attic temperatures, its cells began to multiply and it had began to come alive! I remember thinking in my dream that I could understand evolution a little more if an old hotdog could have intelligence. [OH!!! as I am writing this, I think I have figured out why I dreamed this! I will explain at the end!!! FHEW! I thought I was totally crazy!...I guess I still am a bit :-)]. ANYWAY... My mom realized that if I were to eat this nasty, rotten, old, smelly, living hotdog, it would heal the venomous bites it had left on me. So....she prepared it for me (like a good mother would) in a bun with ketchup and mustered and I reluctantly took and bite! The taste was the most horrific taste I've ever tasted and I gagged it out of my mouth. I figured I would rather live with these bites and have to be rushed to the hospital than eat it....and that was the end!

WTH ('what the heck')!!!! So the boys have been watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. At the end of the movie, some of the food has become "superfood" that can think for its self. This is the only explanation I can come up with, but I'll take it!

Dream of a New York rumble

Dream September 3rd 2010

I was walking around in New York I think, where there was a lot of big buildings. Not like Las Vegas (they were not hotels, the were tall office like buildings) I had my camera with me and I went with this person (don't remember who) up to one of the buildings were there was very artistic photography going on. Lots of models, some dressed, some painted, just kinda weird. It was almost like they were going to try me out as their photographer. As I was explaining to the boss lady what kind of equipment I had, the building began to shake. All the girls started to scream as the building began to tip. I remember thinking that there was no way of surviving a fall like that, but I calmly asked the girls if they believed in the power of prayer and they kind of looked at me like they didn't know what I was talking about so I began to pray. One of the girls cut in and began to pray with me. The building stopped shaking and tipping and Im pretty sure that was the end, or all I can remember at least....weird...