Katrina gets her ears pierced!!

Last year we thought that one of the most perfect Christmas gifts for Rebecca would be a gift certificate to get her ears pierced. We were in the mall and went into a store that offers ear piercing and we were surprised to hear Rebecca adamantly say that she never wanted to get her ears pierced. Katrina on the other hand, started talking about how she wanted to get hers pierced. Hmmmm. We thought Katrina was a little young, but when this Christmas rolled around and she was still talking about it...

We, her parents, talked it over, and decided that we would let her do that. And, as it happens, shortly after our decision, we were visiting with family and our 7 year old niece had her ears pierced at 5 years old, so that solidified it.

So, Christmas Eve Katrina opened her presents and was thrilled with her earrings and a gift certificate to get her ears pierced! She asked us every couple of hours for the next two days when she could go get them done.

Monday morning we took her to the mall. We had talked this over with her and warned her that it would hurt, but not for very long. I told her that I would be right there and I would help her to keep it from hurting as badly. (I learned a trick when I got my ears pierced for the second time: right after the ear is pierced, pinch the edge of the ear, right above the ear lobe. This keeps the blood from rushing to the wound, and keeps it from hurting as much!) I also gave her some Motrin before they did it. We told her she would have to keep the same earrings in for several weeks and then she could wear some of the new ones she got for Christmas.

Katrina decided on the 3mm cz studs and we filled out all the paperwork. Katrina told me that she would be brave. I was so proud of her!

The two store associates worked together to pierce both Katrina's ears at the same time (thank you Claire's!!) and as they counted down and SNAP!! there was a few seconds of hang time, and then the pain started to register!! Katrina started to cry! I held her ears and told her what an amazing job she had done!!



I tried to take a picture of her with her new earrings, but she was still hurting and didn't want to smile.

We paid for her piercing and by the time we had walked out of the mall and to the van, she was smiling and telling us that it didn't hurt any more! She was so happy and is telling everyone she can to check out her new earrings!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This was a wonderful holiday weekend!! Absolutely wonderful!! A few weeks ago my brother Jordan -- who lives in Alaska with his wife, Sioux-z, and their two daughters, Isabel and Ivy -- called and said that they were going to be in Palm Springs (actually, La Quinta, a town a little bit to the east) for Thanksgiving, and he was hoping that we could come down to spend it with them. He was also going to call my youngest brother, Jeremy -- who lives in Castaic with his wife, Renee, and their twins, Lily and Zachary -- to see if they could be there too. It worked! The last time we were all together was five years ago. I was pregnant with Katrina, Sioux-z was pregnant with Ivy, and Lily and Zachary were not even a twinkle in their parent's eyes yet.

We left Kerman on Wednesday afternoon and drove out through the high desert and then down to La Quinta. As we drove through Tehachapi it was 29 degrees and there were mounds of old snow that had been plowed off the parking lot of the gas station where we stopped. It was cold, but the sky was clear and the moon was bright! We got to La Quinta very late and quickly unpacked and got some sleep.

On Thursday morning we had breakfast and then went to one of the community pools. It was a heated pool, and the girls had a great time! Jordan and I got to sit and talk and we had a great time. Usually when we are getting together it is for an event of some sort (wedding, graduation, etc.) and the event is the focus, but this time we could just sit and talk and relax. It was so nice!

When Jeremy and Renee arrived all the cousins were so excited to be together!

We started getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a ham, a turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing, vegetables, sweet potatoes and rolls. We brought the large patio table in and, together with the dining room table, we had a perfect tablefor all of us. We set the table with the place cards that the girls made with Gma Kathryn while she was here visiting a few weeks ago.

Dinner was lovely! As we began to eat we offered a Thanksgiving toast and then Jordan asked everyone what they were thankful for. Most of us said how grateful we were to be together this Thanksgiving! After dinner we had pie (I made the pecan and pumpkin), checked out the deals for Black Friday in the newspaper (nothing enticed us out early), and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

We also tried to Skype with Dad and Mom. There were 13 million people on Skype, so we had a bad connection with Dad. Later, we got to talk to Mom on Google video chat. (I forgot to take a photo of that one.) It was great to be able to have all seven grandkids waving in the camera for each grandparent to enjoy. And for all three kids as well. Technology is pretty cool!

On Friday morning we all went for a hike up the Indian Trail. When I say up, I mean UP!! The trail went up the hills behind the community. Sioux-z, Amanda, Rebecca and Isabel forged ahead and got to the top long before the rest of us. Katrina did not want to hike up, so she and Kevin stayed at the bottom. Jordan, Jeremy and I, along with Lily, Zachary and Ivy, worked our way slowly to the top. About 3/4 of the way up, the rest passed us on the way down. Sioux-z took the little kids, and Jordan and Jeremy and I finished the climb together and spent a few minutes at the top of the climb.

In the afternoon the kids went on the boats with Jordan, Jeremy and Sioux-z and then they went to the pool again while Kevin and I went to see what was in the area (we hadn't left the community the whole time), and Jeremy and Renee drove around so their kids could get a nap. Kevin and I found a few caches and then drove back.

Friday night, after the kids had gone to bed, the six adults sat in the kitchen and played Go Fish and War with Hello Kitty playing cards. We all laughed and talked and laughed and laughed and laughed some more! It was so much fun!! We wished that could have lasted forever!!

Saturday morning we packed up and headed for home. It took us seven hours to drive down, and we had a few other stops to make along the way, so we started how at a little after 10am. We all waved and yelled good-bye and waved some more! It was hard to leave after such a great few days!!



As we headed for Riverside, Katrina suddenly yelled out that she could dinosaurs on the side of the road, so we stopped in Cabazon to see the dinosaurs. It was incredibly windy, so we snapped a few photos and then got on the road. In Riverside, we went to the Riverside National Cemetery where my grandfather, Donald Caman, and his wife, are interred. The last time I saw my Gpa Caman, was when Amanda was 18 months old. I have a photo with me and Amanda, Jordan and Jeremy and Gpa Caman together. We found their headstone and took some photos.

We travelled back towards home, stopping here and there to find some geocaches. We stopped in Tehachapi for dinner, and we had sleet on the window. There was snow on the hills surrounding the city. It rained on us all the way down into the Valley and on and off all the way home. We got home before 9pm and were happy to be sleeping in our own beds! It was a lovely, lovely vacation!!! It was so nice to be together with my brothers and their great wives! The kids had a great time together and had a wonderful time!! I hope it won't be another five years before we all get together again.

Amanda and the Kerman Middle School 8th grade girls basketball team!!

Amanda decided last year that she wanted to play basketball this year. She talked about it all last spring and all summer. We didn't want her to get her hopes too high, as she is still fairly short and she does not have a lot of practice at playing basketball. (She would pick a sport that neither mom or dad are very good at.)

So, last week practice/try-outs started. Amanda went to practice and enlisted the help of our good friend, Camille Fox, who played basketball all through high school and college, to help her learn some of the skills she would need to make the team. We still didn't want her to get too anxious about it, as there were so many girls trying out for the team that the coach decided she needed a few more days of try-outs to decide who was going to make the team.

Wednesday morning we got a call from Amanda to tell us that she had made the team!!! Woohoo!! I went to talk to the coach to find out what kind of shoes were the best to get these days. When I saw Coach Chappell, I said, "Yea! Amanda made the team!" She laughed and said, "She works so hard. How can you cut someone like that?!" She said that she couldn't guarantee that Amanda would get a lot of playing time, but that she had learned so much this last week and a half, so who knows!

We are so proud of Amanda and how hard she has worked to get this place on the team! I went in today and took some photos of Amanda and the team as they were practicing.










(Amanda got new shoes the day before this practice, and as she made the basket, the coach yelled, "It's the shoes!")

Go Kerman Lions!!!

Get it done ladies!!

Today I went to a funeral for Kerrie, a woman my age who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer three months ago. She bravely battled it, setting an amazing example of strength in adversity. She left behind her husband and three children. So, here's what I have to say to all my women friends out there. Get your exams done regularly!! So your boobs hurt (bad!!) during a mammogram. Deal with it and get it done!! So a pap smear is uncomfortable. Suck it up and get it done!! So you don't like needles and getting shots. Too bad and get an HPV vaccine!! Do your breast self-exams every month!! Do whatever it takes to be here!! Men, remind the women you love to get it done!! Cancer doesn't care who you leave behind. (I am in no way suggesting that Kerrie didn't do any of these thing.) We want you here ladies!! : )

Wreck This Journal - Week 2

Wreck This Journal - Week 2

More fun!! This week I did some great stuff. Some things are in process, so I am mostly just showing things that I have completed. My favorite was "trace your hand". It is hard to see on the video so I am going to include a photo.

Keri Smith has also come out with a book called "Mess" and "This Is Not A Book." Both very cool!!

To see all the photos of the things I have done this week, click HERE.

I have found the most wonderful book!!! It is called "Wreck This Journal" by Keri Smith.

I was looking online for journalling prompts for teenagers, when I came across a link to a blog about "Wreck This Journal". Interested, I clicked on the link, which directed me to a gallery of photos of different pages of the book. It seemed to be from an art class project. I was fascinated. I enjoyed looking at all the creative, artful ways people had "wrecked" the book.

I clicked on the Introduction and Instruction links and the more I read the more intrigued I became. Then I realized that I could actually purchase the book!!! I immediately went to Amazon.com. I ordered two, as I knew my Mom would love this book too! I waited anxiously for the books to arrive!! Thankfully it only took two days to get here!! I started right away, and sent the second book to my Mom.

It has been so much fun having this book to stimulate my creativity!! I am having a great time, and even more fun, my girls are enjoying it as well. When we went up to Mom and Dad's in Auberry this weekend, I took Amanda with me out to the bridge over the gully. She had already read most of the instructions, so she said, "Is this where you are going to drop it?" I said, "I am going to throw it." Her face got an look of wondrous fear on it. "Can I throw it too?" she asked. "Absolutely!!" So, we took turns throwing the journal down the gully. It got all banged up and there are leaves and grasses in many of the pages now, but it was fun and that is pretty much the point!!

My Mom was thrilled and excited to receive her book. We are going to compare notes as we go along. Here are some of the things I have done this first week:


Wreck This Journal - Week 1

To see photos of the things I have done so far this week, click HERE.

Pencils? Check! Breakfast? Check! Backpacks? Check! Pictures? Mom!!!

This year is a special First Day of School, as ALL three Nehring girls headed off to school today!!!

Amanda is in 8th grade at Kerman Middle School. She has all honors classes again this year and is in percussion again as well.

Rebecca is in 5th grade at Liberty Intermediate. The school is right across the street, so she is out of the morning car pool and walking this year.

Katrina starts Kindergarten this year at Sun Empire Elementary!! She has been waiting for this day for a long time. She was so excited!! She has her brand new backpack and she is in Mrs. Gragnani's class. There are a few kids that she knows already from Church in her class. It is amazing to think that Katrina is old enough to go to school! She has grown up so fast!!

And now, Lora is at home alone. : )

It's been three years now, so I guess we could start to call it a tradition……

Each year, on the last weekend before school starts, we go on a family adventure. This year we decided to follow the route of the Climb to Kaiser. We started by driving through Burrough Valley and stopped at the top of Wildcat grade to do some maintenance on our WIldcat cache, which turned eight years old yesterday!! We traded the plastic cache for an ammo can. That should last another eight years, at least!!

We then headed up through Tollhouse and up the mountain! We stopped and took a photo of the view!! All the way along we told the girls stories and information about the bike ride.

We drove into the town of Shaver Lake and stopped at the Sierra Historical Museum. The lady at the desk answered a few questions and then asked if we knew about the caboose that was being restored next to the museum. We told her that Kevin's dad was one of the volunteers restoring it. Turns out the lady knew Kevin's family from when he was young and used to live around the corner from them. Small world.

At this point we started adding in information about the hydroelectric projects in the Sierras, as we were driving past much of it during this trip.

We drove down into Big Creek and looked at the Powerhouse there. As we started to climb out of the town of Big Creek, we stopped for a cache and while we were there, we saw a deer very close to us. That was pretty neat!

We climbed up Big Creek, which takes you up underneath the dam at Huntington Lake. None of the lakes in this area of the Sierras are natural. They are all man made with a series of dams and power plants that provide water and electricity to the Valley. We stopped at the Billy Creek Guard Station Museum. They have a beautiful museum and a great display about the WWII bomber that crashed in the lake, but you are not allowed to take photos in the museum.

We went around to the head of Huntington Lake and stopped at the Portal Powerhouse there. It is pretty impressive.

We drove up to the top of Kaiser Pass and the girls got out for a while to climb on the rocks and stretch their legs. We wished we had time to go for a hike. Next time.

We headed down Tamarak Pass back down into Shaver Lake. We stopped at The Hungry Hut for dinner. We sat at the counter, at Katrina's request.

The sun was setting as we headed from Shaver down through Alder Springs into Auberry. We stopped at Mom and Dad's for a few minutes and then we headed home. It was a lovely day! The weather was gorgeous and we learned a lot!

To see all the day's pictures click HERE.

Summer Fun!!

This summer has been pretty busy, but mostly for the girls. This was a fun summer for birthdays. Amanda turned 13, so she is officially a teenager. Rebecca turned 10, so she is in double digits. And, Katrina turned 5 and gets to start school this year! Kevin, Lora and Katrina spent the summer at home, while Amanda and Rebecca took turns doing all kinds of things and going all kinds of places.

It began June 26th, when Amanda boarded a plane for Alaska to spend a week with Gma Kathryn and Gpa Herb. It was her first flight all by herself and she had a great time! While she was in Alaska she got to spend time with her grandparents, her aunt and uncle and cousins. They made candles, food, went to museums, to a musk ox farm, and the zoo, where Amanda got to help take care of the wolves for a few hours. We got to talk to her frequently on Google video chat and got to hear about all the fun things she was doing.

Amanda returned home just in time for Rebecca to start Literacy Camp, which is put on by the Kerman Branch Library. The kids spent the week writing and reading and in the end they received a beautiful book about animals. One of our favorite librarians, Miss Rita, was retiring at the end of the week, so we were glad Rebecca got to spend the week with her. (And, we did not get even one photo. Sad face!)

Then it was Amanda's turn to be off again. This time she headed up to Girl's Camp as a First Year. Girl's Camp is healed at Green Meadows in Fish Camp near Yosemite. Gorgeous area!! Amanda had a wonderful time! She loved being there with all the girls from our ward and she made a lot of new friends. Including a girl named Meredith, whose dad went to school with Amanda's dad. She took hikes, practiced archery, and her favorite part was the Faith Walk. Amanda did not stop talking about it for a week afterwards.

Every year when the Nehring grandchildren turn 10, they get to spend an entire week with their Gramma and Papa in Auberry. This year was Rebecca's turn. She got to help feed and brush horses, sewed a skirt, went to an unexpected funeral in Bakersfield, made a birdhouse and went swimming. She enjoyed her week very much!!

It was a busy summer!!

Sunrise and Moonrise

I got some amazing photos recently of an amazing sunrise and moonrise.


Sunrise - 11 July 2010


Moonrise - 25 July 2010

Blogging my weight loss journey - Food

Remember back a year or so ago and I was blogging my weight loss journey? Well, it's still a journey, and I am still working on it. I managed to gain back all my weight, and then some. I started again in October 2009, when my friend Camille introduced me to Body for LIFE. It was the perfect time and the perfect program. I also continued to do my favorite Turbo Jam workouts! I worked hard for eight months and lost 31 lbs. I was getting so frustrated, because for a long time I was only losing 2 lbs a month, and sometimes no lbs a month. I was trying so hard and having so little to show for it! Other people I know were losing weight like crazy and I was just sitting there.......

So, I decided to take a week break from dieting and exercise and see if it would shock my body into dropping the weight again. Well, that week has turned into a month and a little more. I have gained back at least 8 lbs and I have got to get my act together and get back on track.

There have been several things that have helped to do that. First, I was reading my friend Diana's blog and she was posting pictures of the food she was eating, and I thought, if I have to take a photo of the food I eat, then I will be accountable for what I eat! Great idea! So here is a few photos of the food I have been eating this week so far:

My staple breakfast - Oatmeal with PB2 peanut butter powder and dried blueberries

Lunch - Chicken and bean burrito (with lots of veggies) and watermelon

This is the protein powder I use for between meal shakes

Dinner - Lean ground beef and cheese tortellini with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese, green beans with butter sprinkles and pepper, and garlic bread on a whole wheat sandwich slim

There were also a few things that I found and saw that really hit me. First, was a quote from Chalene Johnson (the creator of Turbo Jam - I follow her on Twitter @chalenejohnson) where she said, "Take joy in being who you are. God doesn't make mistakes, but we sometimes mistreat what he has made."

That was a serious reminder of what I have been doing. Mistreating my body. I need to stop doing that!! I deserve to take better care of myself!

Next, I saw a part of a Conference talk by Sister Julie B. Beck (I love her!!). She said, ". . .It is not possible to make real change all by ourselves. Our own willpower and our own good intentions are not good enough. When we make mistakes or choose poorly, we must have the help of our Savior to get back on track." That is exactly the wording I use! Get back on track! I know I can't do it myself. I have proven that many times over the years. I just have to figure out how to get help in the right way. I need to rely more on the help of others and not just plod along by myself.

Last was another quote from Chalene Johnson: "You don't have to be perfect. Just don't give yourself the option to not finish what you started."

That's the thing. I need to not give myself that option. I don't want to be out of shape. I don't care about being skinny and whatever, I want to be healthy and fit. That is what I am working towards. And I am not giving myself to option to quit!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!!

To see all the funny Father's Day photo shoot pics, click HERE.

The night before Father's Day we had the Fox kids over while their parents were on Date Night. We made Father's Day cards and the kids had a great time and did a beautiful job!!

Amanda's card

Rebecca's card

Katrina's card

To see all the pics of all the Father's Day cards (inside and out), click HERE.