The best kept secret about planter warts

I will spare you the picture for this post.

I have to share this tidbit of information with everyone because it changed my life, well maybe not exactly, but it did change the comfort of my foot.

I had a planter wart for over 4 years, (gross I know) on my foot, and to put it mildly, it had gotten big and gross. I had not really done anything about it for the first few years because I was lazy, I guess, and it was just little. Then it got bigger, I started working on it, I got pregnant, and the treatments that I were using said not to use when pregnant, so I stopped. After having Brooklyn I decided that I needed to get rid of it before it took over my foot. I tried everything from liquid wart remover, to duct tape, to trying to burn it off myself (seven times). I tried patches and I even went to the doctor and he put something on it. I even tried digging it out a few times, and that really hurts. I don't recommend it. You name it, I tried it. For a year I consistently tried something. It may have gotten a little smaller... maybe. I was getting frustrated and disgusted with the wart on my foot. I was talking to my dad about it and he mentioned a website, www.peoplespharmacy.com, that has a lot of home remedies for different ailments. So I checked to see what they had for planter warts and I found this idea. Use ground turmeric root. Get about a 1/8 teaspoon and mix it with a few drops of water, just enough to make a thick paste. Put the paste on the wart, and cover with a band-aid. (This stuff stains really bad, so I covered the band-aid with packing tape so when it got wet from the shower it wouldn't leak out and stain the floor, socks, etc. I do have a few socks with yellow spots on it.) I just replaced the turmeric every few days with a new band-aid. My planter wart was completely gone in 1 month!!! I first thought that this wart was going to be a permanent part of my foot but at last I was wart free!! This stuff really works.
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Our family is growing

I recall a conversation I had about a month ago about having a dog for a pet. I grew up with dogs, and enjoyed it, but I thought that it would be a few more years before I even thought about getting a dog... at least until I was done having babies, my youngest was potty trained, and my kids were old enough to help take care of the dog.

With that being said, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family.

This is Peaches. She is actually my sister Lacy and Ben's Chihuahua. They are going back to school, and could not have a dog in their apartment, so we are babysitting it for two years. I guess she is not technically ours, but we just might decide to keep her. She is a great dog, and our kids love playing with her. I think Brooklyn likes her the most. She would spend all day outside with her if I let her and Peaches is so good with the kids. Peaches is great, and I have even found myself attached to her already.


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I did it...

without even crying!! Hannah went to her first day of Kindergarten today. She loved it. Hannah had been so anxious all day to go. As soon as she woke up, she got on her new school clothes and kept asking when it was time to go and so I told her after lunch we would go to school. About 10:00 am she was ready for her lunch so we could eat it and be off to school. I held her off until 11:30. After lunch we went to her school, about 30 minutes early and we played on the playground. She has been so excited to start school and I have not once heard her say anything about being worried or scared... until on our way to school she said, "Mom, I think I am a little bit scared to go to school." I told her that it is ok to be a little bit scared, and that she had friends and a nice teacher to help her. She then said, "I am a little bit scared, but I still want to go." She did such a great job.
I was with her on the playground until the teacher came to get all the kids. All of the kids were lining up and walking into the classroom when Hannah looked at me with her big eyes and a look on her face that said, "mom, don't leave me." I just gave her a big smile and waved, which must have given her enough courage to turn around and go into the room. It was at that moment that I felt a little tear in the corner of my eye, but that was it. Just one little tear. I have come a long way since Kindergarten registration.

I am very excited for Hannah to be learning new things, and getting new friends, but there is a part of me that is sad. I loved having all of my kids home. I loved the freedom of not being tied down to any schedule, we could do anything we wanted, go anywhere with all of my kids, enjoy all of my kids at home, knowing where they were and that they were safe. I guess I am like a mother hen who likes all of her little chicks under her wings. Thinking about how I would miss having Hannah at home made me think a little about homeschooling her... but only a little. Hannah is ready to move on, and to learn, and begin to become her own little person, and I am excited about that. I know she will do great.


Hannah is in a class with two of her little friends, Gavin and Chelsea.


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Yellowstone, August 19th - 23rd

On August 19th we left to go to Island Park near Yellowstone for one last vacation before school started. We were able to go with all of the Proctor side of the family, and we had a great time. We had a great place to stay, (thanks Taniel) and there was so much to do there. Jake loved the fishing, and caught a few big ones. We went canoeing, floated down the river, went swimming, went to the show, The Secret Garden, and just enjoyed being around everyone and eating good food.



Heber, Hannah, and William canoeing with Martha and Jared.



Yellowstone was a lot of fun. Would you believe me if I were to say that we didn't see any Bison? Well, we didn't. We did see some Elk, and Canadian Geese, but that was all. We also saw Old Faithful...


Yellowstone Lake...
Jake's family has a tradition of stopping at Yellowstone lake and seeing who is the best rock skipper. I am not sure who won, probably Jared. Michelle got the prize for the most improved rock skipper. Me? I think I got the booby prize. The kids loved playing in the water and William tried really hard to skip rocks.





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Stay-cation

The week after the 24th we left our three kids in Nevada with my parents, and Jake and I had ourselves a little vacation. Jake took the week off and we did the things we have wanted to do together, but can't with kids.
We started out our week hiking to the top of Mount Timpanogos. Jake had done it once before, but I had never gone to the top. It was awesome. I love the mountains in Utah! It is amazing the beauty that we have in our backyard.

The wild flowers were incredible. They were everywhere.

This was at the very top. The view was amazing.



During the rest of the week we...
went and saw the movie "Up", went to the temple, went to see Casey and Clint in Ogden, hung out with friends, went for bike rides, went running together, had quiet meal times, slept in, went to temple square in Salt Lake City, and the Museum of Church History and Art, had dinner at the Garden on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, had desert night with my siblings with a little WII, had a group date with Jake's parents and siblings, ran the Highland Fling 5k, then went to the Highland parade,


hiked up to Timp caves,


played tennis, (or attempted to)


and went float tubing and fly fishing at Silver Lake. We went up at 5:30 in the morning and it was so quiet and peaceful. We were the only two there. While we were there, there was a deer that came down to the waters edge and stayed there almost the whole time we were there.

We had such a great time. It was nice having a week to spend with each other. We did miss our kids though. Our kids came back on Saturday, and it is nice to have them back.


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24th of July Weekend

We had a great little vacation to Nevada for the 24th of July. I love going out to Lund and enjoying everything there is to do. I love that the kids can run free and there are no busy roads or other worries that come with living in the city. I love the wide open spaces. I love being able to go running in the hills and through the fields and smell sage brush, manure, and fresh cut alfalfa, instead of car exhaust. I love sitting outside and watching thunderstorms roll in and enjoy the smell that it brings. The most remarkable sun sets and sun rises that I have ever seen have been over the desert mountains in Nevada. I love going down to the garden and watching the kids run through the corn, chasing each other and remembering what it was like when I was a kid playing hide and seek in the corn. That is just the beginning of my list...



Yummy!! Fresh peas from the garden.

On Thursday I was able to go to my 10 year high school reunion and it was great to see some of my friends I went to High School with. There were only seven of us there, but considering there were only 14 in my graduating class, it was a pretty good turn out. It was fun to catch up with everyone.

On Friday we played with cousins, I helped my mom with a few things, we played in the garden, and then after some yummy hamburgers we went up into the hills. The youth in the stake were doing a 27 mile pioneer trek that same weekend. My parents and Lacy and Ben were involved with that (My parents were the grandma and grandpa, and Lacy and Ben were a ma and pa) and they were camping a mile or so out of town at the Big Ledges. Me and some of my brothers and sisters went up and provided a little bluegrass music for them to dance a little Virginia Reel to. When we got back we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing a little Wii tennis and laughing at each other as we each tried all of the different Wii fit games.

On Saturday we went to the parade where Hannah and William were able to ride on my families float with cousins and my 104 year old Grandma. Then we went to the program. For the program all of my brothers and sisters decided to surprise my mom and all play together in our bluegrass band. (fiddle, guitar, bass fiddle, mandolin) It had been almost 10 or more years since we had all played together. My mom did such a great job teaching us music, and then after leaving home, we just never got together to play, not that my mom didn't try to get us together. It was fun playing together again, and Hannah also got to play a song on her fiddle. We then went to the town BBQ, and watergames for the kids, got a quick nap, and then headed for the rodeo. I have not yet convinced Jake that rodeo's are fun, but I had a good time. After that we had a cook out in my parents back yard and watched the town fireworks from our back yard.
I love the 24th weekend in Lund.

Here are a few pictures from the Lund parade so you can see just how awesome the parade in Lund is.


Grandma Hendrix... going on 105 in September.


William and Makenna on the tractor with Christiann.



Do you see the fire truck behind the little horse and cart? The parade is so good that everyone wants to see it twice. The parade goes up one side of the street and back down the other side.



On Sunday after church and lunch we left to come back to Utah, without our kids. Jake and I had a little staycation the week following the 24th, and that deserves a post of its own.

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June

Wow! Is it already the middle of July? It seems like I only get around to posting about once a month, or longer.

My goal... to post more often. So here is my catch up post.

The month of June has been filled with swimming suits and popcycles.


... and the slip-n-slide at Grandma's house on the fourth of July weekend.


Hannah and William enjoyed swimming lessons and they did great. I was a little concerned because last year when we took them swimming they clung to our necks the whole 2 hours. So I was surprised when they went right in the first day and there were no tears. One of the first things that William's teacher taught him is what she called a bob. (Going completely under water and then coming up again) She would have them do it a few times at the beginning of the lesson to get completely wet. William loved this, and for most of the half hour (unless the teacher was helping him learn something else) he was bobbing up and down, up and down. He would come up sputtering, get just enough air and then go down again. It was fun to see him lose his fear for the water. Hannah on the other hand looked like she was enjoying the lesson, but after the last one she informed me that she was never going to take swimming lessons again...EVER. We will see about next year.





RAGNAR

On June 19-20 Jake and I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. This race is a 188 mile relay from Logan to Park City. It is split into 36 different legs and 12 people, so each person has 3 different legs. Our team was made up of people from Jake's work, and it was fun to get to know some of them better.

We started at 11:45 am on Friday. Jake was the second runner and I was the third. So we were running that afternoon about 12:30 - 1:30. Jake's first leg was a hard 6.7 miles (each leg was rated easy to very hard). He then passed off to me and my first leg was a moderate 5.6 miles. Our team was split into 2 vans, 6 people in each. So when all of our team was done running which was about 6:00 pm we had some dinner and tried to rest a little on the grass before our next set of legs started. We started running again around 9:00 that night. Jake's second leg was a easy 3 miles and my leg was a moderate 4.9 miles which started about 11:00 pm. After I got used to the idea of jogging in the dark, with a head lamp that kind of worked, totally by myself, and not knowing where I was or if I was going the right way,(until an occasional jogger passed me which let me know at least I was on the right road), I really enjoyed it. The peace, quiet, coolness of the night was nice to jog in after a hot day. At this point I was jogging through a rural farming community, there was little moon light, and a big open sky, and I could see millions of stars. It was beautiful. One of the reasons I love running is that you have quiet moments like these when you get to enjoy the beautiful world that has been created for us, whether it is 6:00 in the morning, or 11:00 pm.

Our van finished up our runs about 3:00 am and we headed to a high school near by to see if we could sleep a few hours before morning. The only open spot we found on the floor was right near the bathroom doors. After settling down to sleep, we discovered why the spots by the bathroom were the only ones left. Between the bathroom door screeching open and slamming shut whenever someone went to the bathroom, toilets flushing, and the hard concrete floor our sleep from 4:00 am to 6:00 am was very sporadic. After we got up, and packed up, we drove to the next exchange point. We met up with Van 2, who had been running since 3 am, at about 9:00 am. Jake's last leg was a "easy" 3.3 mile run. My last leg was a HARD 7.9 mile run, which included herding cattle (which made me feel right at home), running in the rain, and running up one big hill, but it was probably my most favorite run. I love running in rain, and the view was spectacular! At one point while I was running up this steep hill, all I could think about was just trying to keep my two feet moving, when I hear these foot steps coming up behind me, fast. Soon, this guy comes, sprinting beside me, says, "nice job", and flies right by me. I just laughed and thought ...aauuh... yeah sure. Then as he left me in the dust, I noticed on the back of his shirt were the words U of U cross country team.

At that point I turned it into high gear, ran with all my might, and passed him. I couldn't let a Ute beat me!... actually the truth... I was hoping that I would see someone from the BYU cross country team come up behind him and beat him but they never came. They must have already passed him. ;)

By the time my run was over it had started to rain pretty hard. We had just missed the heavy rain and the van 2 on our team had some hard runs that afternoon and had to do it in driving rain. They did a great job though. Our team finished about 6:00pm that night. It took us 30 hours and 52 minutes to run 188 miles. It was such an amazing feeling to finish this race. It was nice to have a goal to get us into shape, and it was so much fun to do it with my wonderful husband.
We had such a great time (or maybe we are just crazy) that we decided to run the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay in October. This race starts in Overton, goes by Lake Mead and around the bottom of Vegas, ending in Vegas.


Here is a picture of our whole team. Go Vector Engineers!!

Wells, Mark, Jake, Laralee, Annie, and Steve.... in Van 1


During each run, the Van would drop the runner off at the exchange, pick up the runner who finished and then drive ahead a few miles and wait for the runner to see if they need water. Jake was the one who gave me my water during my runs and it was so nice to see his smiling face. When I felt like I could just not go any further, I would see Jake just up the road waiting for me with his handsome smile. It gave me a little extra boost to see him and helped me finish. That is kind of how life is. Your running along, exhausted, wondering when you are going to get a little relief, or a break, or finish everything that you need to, and then Heavenly Father sends these tender mercies at just the right time to give you an extra boost and you know that even though it is hard, Heavenly Father loves you and is helping you. You know that you are not alone. During this race, Jake was my tender mercy. Actually... he is my tender mercy in my life.







Hair Cuts


Hannah and I had a girls afternoon and went and had Laura cut our hair. Hannah loves her new hair cut, and I love mine. This is a rare picture of me with straight hair. I love having straight hair but there is no way that I would do it every morning. So it only happens once every couple of years when some else wants to do it for me. Then I go for as long as possible without washing my hair (until the greasiness in my hair starts to make it curly. Yes... that is gross but if you had natural curly hair you would understand). I enjoy having straight hair.

Thanks Laura, we had a great time.




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