My Four Best Friends

Growing up the 2nd to oldest of 5 girls was quite the experience and it took me a long time to appreciate them as I should. We are all really close in age (29,28,26,25,23) and wear about the same size in clothes, so life was basically one big girl fight. We love each other a lot, but we all had to grow up before we knew how lucky we were to have each other.

My older sister Becky is the book brainy one. Her bishop challenged her to read the BOM before she got baptized and she did, and was also the type to ask her teachers for extra homework. She's far away in Indiana going to Purdue and I think she may win an award for spending the most on a degree to become a teacher. ;-) Becky is a real survivor that loves the outdoors and her 3 adorable boys.



My sister Kristal, whom most of my friends here have met, didn't join our family until I was 10 and our parents married, but I don't know what I would do w/o her. Other than Mike's family, she's the only family I have here and am grateful I get to see her as much as I do. She was always the peace keeper growing up and it wasn't until we roomed together as college roommates that we had our first, and I think only, fight. (I hadn't remembered it at all until she reminded me not long ago) She took a five year break from school, but is going back to finish her teaching degree at the U.



Jessica is the freakishly smart one that is also the best sales person I've ever met. She's getting a math degree, and for those of you that are interested, I had to take bone head math my 1st year of college because it was never my thing. She was tutoring calculus when I was taking basic college algebra. When we were teenagers we worked for a telemarketing company and the only reason they kept me around was because I was her sister. She's a bubbly free spirit that loves to live life by her own rules.



My baby sister Ashley got all the looks. Lucky for her she also has brains and will hopefully finish her electrical engineering degree in the near future. She's one of the most caring people I've ever met, almost to a fault. She puts every one's needs before her own and is a 2nd mother to all her nieces and nephews. Growing up she was the typical spoiled youngest, so we all picked on her, but now she's taller than me so that doesn't work anymore. ;-)


Last week Mike and I drove eight hours with our kids to visit two of my sisters in Colorado. We stayed with my baby sister Ashley in her house in Fort Collins. Ash lives there so she can attend CSU and my other sister Jessica lives about an hour away in Boulder so she can attend CU. I don't get to see them very often, so it was a real treat for me.



We went to help Ashley prepare her house to sell, but we didn't seem to get a lot done due to socializing and a lot of little kids running around. My sister Jessica has a daughter that is a week younger than Sarah and a little boy 4 months older than Steven, so sleep time was a welcome event. :-) The kids had a lot of fun getting to know each other better.



We also visited my grandparents that live in Fort Collins, since they hadn't met Steven yet. I moved away from home a week after I graduated and have gotten used to not seeing my family a lot, but having kids has made me want my family closer. I wish we were wealthy and could fly out once a month. :-)



I don't get to see my sister's a lot, but I love them all very much. Sometimes our only similarities are our looks, but it's nice to know that where ever I go I have four best friends I can always call and talk to.

Ode to my husband

I know every wife is biased to her own husband, but I just wanted to dedicate a blog to the wonderful man I am blessed to be married to. I really think I hit the marital jackpot 4 years ago when we eloped to the Kissime courthouse in Orlando, Florida. He has made me so happy and I feel lucky to be his wife every day.

I found this survey on a friends blog and thought I'd use it for mine:

1. What is his name? Steven Michael Starley. He is named after his dad Steve, which is of course where our little Steven gets his name.

2. Who eats more? Hmmm, it depends on what food. Mike definitely eats more during meals, but I have him on sweets.

3. Who said I love you first? This is debatable. Funny story actually. While dating he had fallen asleep on my couch and I guess I was dreaming about him. (a clean dream of course) I woke up right as I was saying "I love you" to him in my dream. I pretended to still be asleep and when I "woke up" later he told me I was sleep talking and if I wanted to know what I said. I of course said no since I already knew. It wasn't too long after that when he said it.

4. Who is taller? Mike thankfully.

5. Who is smarter? Mike has more general smarts than me. I have him on a couple subjects, but he knows a lot about...well a lot.

6. Who is more sensitive? I am unless his kids are involved. His kids somehow cause giant sand storms to get in his eyes on special occasions.

7. Who does the laundry? Mike isn't allowed to wash my clothes, so I do. He is always welcome to fold it though.

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you're looking at the bed, he does. We are both particular about our sides unless we're snuggling in the middle. :-)

9. Who pays the bills? I keep track of the finances. He makes it and I spend it. ;-)

10. Who cooks more? Me. Cooking isn't one of his best talents.

11. What meals do you cook together? He usually makes the salads, but that's about it.

12. Who is the first to admit their wrong? Unfortunately, Mike is. I'm stubborn and that's something I need to work on.

13. Who is more stubborn? Refer to above. :-) I am. Thankfully I married a very even tempered person to offset my uppityness.

14. Who has more siblings? Me. I have 4 sisters and he has 2 brothers.

15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? Both. We like pants. j/k We each have our areas of control, but try to always make decisions together. (ok, stop laughing mom)

16. What do you like to do together? We love to talk to each other at the end of the day. We stay up way later than we should every night because we have a lot to say. I'm glad we're best friends. We also like to do family things with the kids of course.

17. Who eats more sweets? I have him beat by a landslide. I love sweets!

18. Guilty pleasures? Mike likes to play XBOX and fly when he can make time and I like to read and eat. :-)

19. How did you meet? He hired me at Wells Fargo as a teller, but it definitely wasn't love at first site. I thought he was immature and he called me "no fun Liz."

20. Who asked who out first? We invited each other to hang out with friends, but he invited me out the first time we really hung out.

21. Who kissed who first? We both went in at the same time. Best 1st kiss ever. :-)

22. Who proposed? He did. When we went to Orlando he gave me a set of scriptures with my soon to be married name and then proposed. We were married within 48 hours.

23. His best feature? He has an amazing smile.

24. What is his greatest quality? He is an amazing father. He comes home exhausted from work, but gives all his energy to whatever Sarah wants to do. He is also a very hard worker and I never have to worry about our family being provided for.

25. Tag, your it. :-)

OK, this survey wasn't very exciting, but I really am married to the most handsome and wonderful man alive today. Happy Father's Day!

Our fun week

We've had a fun week filled with lots of activities, so this is going to be picture overload. Feel free to skim it all quickly. :-)

On Monday I went to Hogle Zoo with my sister Kristal and her kids. The kangaroo's were finally out and Sarah had fun saying hi to Kanga and showing off her joey.




On Friday we went to Wheeler Farm with Miranda and the boys and enjoyed the "free" activities they had. ;-) The kids had a lot of fun riding pony's and playing on the bouncy things.




On Saturday we went to the pool for the first time this year. We went to the Kearns rec center, which is the coolest pool around. I was stupid and didn't wear sunblock and now look like a lobster. I just wasn't thinking. Oh well, it was a blast and Sarah didn't want to leave.







Here is just a cute pic from yesterday. Sarah was riding her horse and said that Steven also wanted a ride. She is such a good big sister.

Are We Not All Mother's?

On Mother's Day our Bishopric, through cancellations and miscommunication, ended up giving the talks. The 2nd counselor, who is about my age, based his whole talk on a talk given by Sheri Dew titled "Are We Not All Mother's?" He likes the talk so much that he keeps a copy in his scriptures. I thought that if a guy likes a talk on motherhood that much then I had better read it.

It is a great talk that I would suggest. I love reading talks because they are short, but give you the spiritual kick you need in a small amount of time. Here are some of the highlights I liked most in the talk.

- It focuses a lot on our fore ordination to become mothers even if we don't have children of our own. Eve was given her name, meaning "the mother of all living" before she had ever born a child.

- "men have to have something given to them in mortality to make them saviors of men, but not mothers, not women. They are born with an inherent right, an inherent authority, to be the saviors of human souls...and the regenerating force in the lives of God's children."

-As daughters of our Heavenly Father, and as daughters of Eve, we are all mothers and we have always been mothers. And we each have the responsibility to love and help lead the rising generation. How will our young women learn to live as women of God unless they see what women of God look like, meaning what we wear, watch, and read; how we fill our time and our minds; how we face temptation and uncertainty; where we find true joy; and why modesty and femininity are hallmarks of righteous women? How will our young men learn to value women of God if we don’t show them the virtue of our virtues?

-"As mothers in Israel, we are the Lord’s secret weapon. Our influence comes from a divine endowment that has been in place from the beginning. In the premortal world, when our Father described our role, I wonder if we didn’t stand in wide-eyed wonder that He would bless us with a sacred trust so central to His plan and that He would endow us with gifts so vital to the loving and leading of His children. I wonder if we shouted for joy at least in part because of the ennobling stature He gave us in His kingdom. The world won’t tell you that, but the Spirit will.
We just can’t let the Lord down. And if the day comes when we are the only women on earth who find nobility and divinity in motherhood, so be it. For mother is the word that will define a righteous woman made perfect in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom, a woman who has qualified for eternal increase in posterity, wisdom, joy, and influence."


It really is humbling to think of what a great gift it is to be a mother and to be motherly to other peoples children. I loved my calling in Young Women's because I felt I was able to make a small difference in the girls lives. (not that they always listened to my "wise" council) ROSE! j/k;-)

Here is the URL if you would like to read it. There were also a couple talks in the notes that look like good reading.

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=291c8c6a47e0c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

Have a great day to all you wonderful mother's out there.

Update on Sarah (and Steven)

I just wanted to let everyone know, after our scare, that Sarah is fine and will be doing better in a couple days. Her fever and cough weren't going away so I took her to her Dr. today and it turns out she has mild pneumonia. He put her on antibiotics and said she'll be fine in a couple of days. We're glad to know what was causing her fever and cough since she wasn't getting better. Thank heavens for modern science and medicine. I was definitely born in the right century. :-) Thank you for all your nice comments.

I asked the Dr. if I should keep Steven away from Sarah, because although he's been all smiles, I didn't want him to catch pneumonia. The Dr. said that infants don't seem succeptible to this so he's not in danger. Mike and I have been fine as well and we've all been in close contact, so thankfully once Sarah's fine we won't have a problem with it here. She's been sleeping for over 12 hours with only waking up for a bit between 5:30-6:30, so hopefully her body is getting the rest it needs.

Scariest moment of our lives

Last night Sarah had a Febrile Seizure and although they are fairly common, it was the scariest thing to ever happen to Mike and me. She had a small fever and cough, but had been happy and playing all day and then her body temperature rose really rapidly to 105 and it sent her into a seizure.

When she started seizing I was wondering what was causing the seizure, but that wasn't the really scary part since I'd been around people having seizures before and know they aren't life threatening. She got really stiff, started to twitch and her eyes were open, but rolling back into her head. The really scary part was that she stopped breathing and started turning blue. We were scared that she'd swallowed something before she'd started having the seizure. Mike checked her heart beat and it was normal and then checked her airway by breathing on her nose and it was clear, so she wasn't choking. After the seizure ended she started breathing again and then started crying. She was suddenly so hot.

Mike's brother and sister-in-law had been over and called 911 for us and when the EMT's arrived they said we needed to take her to the hospital. They gave Sarah a "prize" of a little yellow bear for riding in the ambulance. When we got to the hospital they explained everything and then checked her to see what was causing the fever and cough and determined it was just viral.

I learned a lot about febrile seizures that I didn't know before. They are more common when there is a family history, and there is one in our case. I found out that Mike had one when he was Sarah's age, and in his case his temp jumped to 106 and he stopped breathing during the seizure as well. His mom told me how terrifying it was for them. They didn't know what it was either and his dad even kicked in their door trying to get inside to call 911. It's also more likely to reoccure once it's happened. I had given Sarah some Tylenol in the morning, but since her fever wasn't high I just let her body try to heal itself, but I'll have to be more aggressive with my kids fevers in the future. It was scary, but at lease we know it's normal in case it happens again.

I'm sure most of you have heard of them, but since I hadn't I wanted to mention it. Sarah is fine and they are all sleeping in our bed right now. Her temperature is down and she's just resting from all the excitement.

Here is a link that explains a little more about them:
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_febrile-seizures_1439481.pc

Kid update and Liberty Park (again)

I wanted to give an update on Sarah's self potty training. We had an accident a couple days ago on the kitchen floor, but other than that she's gone in her toilet every time. I put away her diapers and diaper holder for good.

Steven just went to his four month check up and is healthy. (big surprise I know) He weighs 14 lbs 5 oz and is 36 3/4 inches. (~40%weight and 90% height)The nurse said she felt bad giving him his shots because he was smiling the whole time until he got poked. It's so sad when they cry for real reasons.

Here are a couple pictures from our latest Liberty park trip.



Sarah jumped up on a rock and said she was a Puma and I was a scared Tapir. (she loves Diego) Her cousin Caden joined in and they made fierce puma's. :-)


In case you're wondering, the water was freezing! :-) Sarah insisted I join her. What can you say to an adorable two year old.


The ducks and geese have hatched and they had fun feeding them bread. I know I've said this before, but I love Liberty Park. There is so much to do and it's all either free or cheap.



We're going to Hogle Zoo next Friday if the weather is nice in case anyone is interested. Have a great week!