Easter Dresses

Service and Shelling Almonds

This year we watched General Conference in our pj's in Chico. Mikayla sat down to listen with the adults and we dumped a box of almonds on the table to be shelled. We have a friend in Chico who is battling cancer and her husband makes her fresh squeezed almond milk from almonds donated by a local orchard. We helped him by shelling the almonds since it takes over a cup of almonds to make just a 1/4 cup of milk.
Mikayla enjoyed helping us and I was especially intrigued that most of Sunday's talks were on service. She listened to the encouraging words for us to look beyond ourselves and find small and simple things to do to help others and said, "Wow, we're really doing something nice here. I like service."
I appreciate her attitude and willingness to sit for an hour and do something that was not to benefit or profit herself in anyway, but was a kind act for another in need.
There was an obvious message sent that morning to all of us. We need to be a little better, do a little more to help others, and know that in so doing we are truly serving Him above.

Spring Has Sprung!

Kendra was pretty happy (and surprised) that I let her fully discover a tulip in our flower bed. She touched it, picked it, smelled it, and tasted it! Can't get much closer to nature than that!

Spring in California means capris, flip flops, sunshine, flowers, and swimming in the outdoor pool. Mikayla has been swimming outside all week and Mom has been loving watching her while working on a tan. April in California is mighty nice!

WARNING: Disturbing Images!! Read at your own risk!

For the past 2 1/2 years I've been suffering in silence. If anyone else suffers from the same, then I hope this helps!!

2 little dots appeared on my big toe. Rather light, rather hard to the touch, and rather ugly. Well, turns out, those 2 dots were nothing other than 2 little plantar warts.

I started reading online about them and discovered that plantar warts interrupt the pattern of the sole of the foot and often go away on their own. Not mine.

I began using Dr. Scholl's wart remover pads with salicylic acid on them. I went through 2 boxes of them and-- nothing.

I used the liquid form of salicylic acid that you 'paint' on the wart and after it dries, paint another layer, peel off the next day and repeat. Did that for one month straight--nothing.

I let it go for a few months deciding that they weren't really that bad and I'd just see if I could live with them. Well, these warts are embarrassing, often painful, and well, just plain embarrassing.

So, new plan of attack: I decided to soak my foot in warm water and use a pumice stone and nail file to file those suckers off. Weeks of this and several times I scraped and filed them down till they bled, and-- nothing.

They came back--with a vengeance. One other little thing I learned, if you scrape them and expose the roots, they will spread. And spread they did. It was awful. 2 turned into 4, and 4 turned into 8.

I went to the store to purchase another expensive over-the-counter remedy: Freeze Off! This product makes it sound like they are supposed to be frozen with a cool liquid and swiftly die and gently fall off my foot. This darn solution would better be described as, "Burning Hot Searing Painful Nails Ground Into Your Nerves." It was awful. Trent did the freezing. And the laughing. He actually laughed at me writhing in pain on the couch, as I muffled my screams with a pillow. As if this wasn't bad enough, it had to be repeated in a week. For that much pain, something should have happened, and yet-- nothing.

Out of pure desperation and a strong desire to avoid major surgery on my big toe, I turned to a time-tested Internet method. Duct tape and Apple Cider Vinegar. I wore a piece of duct tape wrapped on my big toe to suffocate the warts for a full week. If it started coming off in the shower, I dried the area afterward and applied more tape. After a week of faithful duct tape wearing, I decided to see if ANYthing had changed and took the tape off. As it turns out, a lot had changed. I unearthed this: I nearly fainted from the sight. (I warned you it was graphic!) I removed a piece of dead skin over 1 inch long and 1/4 inch deep across my entire toe. Underneath was not only 8 warts, but a colony of 22. I had no idea there were so many! They were waiting under the surface of my hardened skin for a chance to poke their raging heads through and torment me more. Several times while cleaning the area and removing the skin, I had to take a deep breath in and out and look away to avoid passing out. There was no pain, but the sight was unbearable.

Step 2: Soak a cotton ball in apple cider vinegar and duct tape it to your toe for as long as possible. I did this at night, religiously, for a month. I would make it from 8pm till about 2am, before I awoke with a hot pulsing sensation in my toe and had to rip the thing off as quickly as I possibly could. When I awoke in the morning, I would duct tape it again and walk around like that all day, until the 8pm vinegar taping. Some days were great, no pain at all. Other days/nights, I thought it might be less painful to cut my own toe off. I persevered, however, and am so glad to say, that this is now my toe! In essence, the duct tape suffocated the wart and would peel off a layer of skin. The vinegar would attack the root and stifle the blood flow to the wart. Without blood flow, they die. Plantar warts are cellular, however, meaning if you don't kill every last cell of each wart, they will continue to come back. I continued treatment for a week just to make sure they were gone and I have had a beautiful toe for 3 weeks now! The second I ever start to see one of those pesky buggers again, I'm going straight to the duct tape!