Oh no! Not my knee...

Last night as I was leaving my sisters house, and right after she closed the door, my foot caught the edge between the lawn and the driveway and I went down. Hard. Right on my bad knee. The one where I am working so hard rebuild cartilage and the one my orthopedic tells me I need replaced, first, right before the other one. The one that had finally stopped hurting once I started the HBP and glucogel.

Besides the pain, I was crying because with me, usually these things areserious, something is torn, need an x-ray, etc. And that stupid fall was WRECKING MY SUCCESS STORY! I hobbled to the car because it was late and I knew Lars would help me decide what to do. My knee was killing me all the way back to the hotel, I hobbled to the elevator and to my room, and could see and feel that my knee was HUGE and mis-shapen. When I got undressed to look at it, I had a nice layer of skin missing and and bulges in weird places, and stabs of pain as it was icing.

I cried, iced my knee, took my tangy tangerine with osteo, 4 glucogel (my final dose), and 4 EFA's (double my 3x a day dose) because I know EFA's are good for inflammation, lasted another 10 minutes before I took 800mg of ibuprofen (that Lars just bought because we haven't needed it for so long). Last but not least, after icing my knee for about 30 minutes, I rubbed some essential oils on my feet, on my neck and all over my knee and fell fast asleep, knowing it was going to be a long night.

And then I woke up, at 6 am completely refreshed and...my knee didn't hurt.

I am not kidding.

Lars and I stared at it. Most of the swelling was gone, layer of skin still gone, and I didn't even have a limp. Wha what???

Now I'm guessing if there was some kind of structural damage, my body would be telling me. But my body was not screaming at me. At all.

We iced again this morning, just in case, did the oils again, and I'll keep following my regular protocol with doubling the EFA's, but seriously? The old me had a body so weak that I tore my meniscus while turning my leg...just barely. Pop! Or had to stay in bed because my neck and shoulders would stop working...from stress! And I FOR SURE would have had to sign my life away for the next couple weeks with yet another knee injury. But not the new me!

I'm so glad I brought the things I knew I might need with me to Seattle. I can't imagine the cost of time and sleep and money it would have been to have to go to the ER or something last night. Because we don't go to the doctor anymore I am nowhere near my deductible and it ALL would have been out of pocket.

I am completely fine today. I chose the stairs instead of the elevator TWICE today already when I went down for breakfast. The old me would have never chosen that. NEVER. I feel like the molecular structure of my body and my brain have completely changed with Youngevity. It's crazy. Now I'M the crazy Kool-Aid lady pushing potion. Crazy, crazy...crazy AMAZING! ‪#‎ProofforLars‬

Welcome to Japan- 20 nen buri desu!

As you enter the Tokyo Airport, you see "Welcome to Japan" in English, Chinese and Korean, but if you can read Japanese it says, "O kaeri nasai" That's more like "welcome home", a greeting you get when you are returning to somewhere where you belong. Yeah. It felt kind of like that. : )

I am surprised at how relaxed I feel.  I am not exhausted, and I had the cutest little buddy next to me on my 12-hour flight.

This is Amaya and she was delightful.  We played with her plastic bugs and pretended that they were playing soccer with her detatched ear buds.  So...why don't I have an Asian baby yet?

And guess what?  Transcontinental flights have improved!  I was pretty amazed at how spacious the plane was the amazing little personal movie screens with lots of shows and movies to watch.

Unfortunately, these screens only worked for about an hour of the flight.  But United is going to give me some nice "gift" online if I put in the flight number.  Waiting for my flight to Fukuoka.  I'm coming Kyushu!

Rasmussen Routines

For 8 YEARS I have used the same system to help my kids remember to do their jobs and cultivate good routines and habits.  Previously we called it the stick system and I have helped lots of moms set up their own stick system.  I created something NEW last night, but employs the same concept.  It's just...prettier!  And for all of my Heritage Makers friends and wanna-be-a-heritage-maker friends, I created it in Heritage Studio.  This allows you to customize this system for your own family and still have it look classy!

Here are your basic job charts.  Now instead of the pockets that I used to create with felt, I will have these laminated and put on the fridge or magnetic surface.  Next come the tiles:

 

These will be cut out and mounted to one inch tiles with Modge Podge and a magnet glued to the back with tacky glue .  You'll notice that each child has their own color.  The black ones are for the different zones in our house.  Obviously, you family will have different routines, or you may want to borrow some of ours, but the beauty of having this in Studio is that you can change it however you like!

The last page (these are all 12x12) tells the kids exactly how to do each routine.  You can post this in one place, or cut it up and tape inside of cupboards closer to the area where the job is to take place.  I printed two of them: one to post in the kitchen near the charts and one to cut up.

So, how does it work?  Easy!  Hold a meeting with each of your kids individually and decide which magnets they want to incorporate into their routine each day.  10 is a good number.  Place all their magnets on the left "to do" side.  As they choose to work on a routine, they can place it in the "in progress" area (optioinal).  This communicates to you that they are working on it and has been shown to decrease nagging by 85%. : )

Then, when they have finished their routine, they slide their magnet to the "done" area.

My kids know that in order to have privileges like friends, media, special shopping trips, etc., I am going to ask them about their routines.  Before I used this system, I used to ask them about everything individually and one of us would always forget something.  For example, everything done but the bedroom.  Or everything looking super clean, but forget to read the scriptures...for a few months!  I have found this system to make the expectations very clear and if we ever need to modify what is on their chart, we have a Monday Mom Meeting and change it.  Simple!

Kathleen Lisonbee's Book

This is one of the most meaningful projects I've ever done.  Kathleen didn't even have an email address when she asked me to help her with her book and brought me her precious family photos in a department store bag.  She originally was creating the book to give to her siblings that are still living, but as we finished tonight she said, "I've got a problem.  I don't think I want to give anyone the book!"

Kathleen is a pure spirit.  I know that Heavenly Father guided me in helping her make this.  I've never made a cornerstone project in so little time.  I hope her family does actually receive their copies of the book one day and feel the joy that Kathleen and I felt as we made it tonight.

Christmas Ideas

I told you I would share some “C” things that I have published, and here they are:

CLICK HERE to see the Christmas Card Template I used last year from the gallery.

CLICK HERE to see what my card looked like.

BTW, if you have card credits left after you do your Christmas cards, you can use them for other cards all year long.  Here are some ways that I use my card credits:

CLICK HERE to see a silly card I made when I forgot my wallet and my parents bought me gas.

CLICK HERE to see a silly card I made for a friend.

CLICK HERE to see a funny birthday card I made.  I love to print lost of these to have on hand.

CLICK HERE to see the 20x20 Canvas Template I used from the gallery.

CLICK HERE to see what my finished canvas looks like.

CLICK HERE to see an example of the calendar that I make for each of my kids and give on New Years Day (from the template gallery)

CLICK HERE to see a perpetual birthday calendar so you don’t have to make a calendar for your mother every year if you don’t want to. : )  Love you, Mom.

CLICK HERE to see a deck of cards that can help you be a better parent!  These were designed by my friend and client, Heather Benson and are in the gallery.

Your Own Picture Bingo

If you want another great idea for your family reunion, here it is! I created a bingo game for my Ruff Family Reunion last weekend. Check it out!
Click here to see my Bingo Cards.

They were created on 12x12 pages. I used a template in the Heritage Makers Template Gallery. There are 24 spots for pictures and each card is different. I used 40-50 total pictures and put them on my Bingo Deck.

We played the game with Skittles. I shuffled the card and read the hint on the card deck and the grandkids marked the picture on their page. Even little kids could play as I showed them the picture on the Bingo Deck.

What I loved about this game the most was, as we played the game, my neices and nephews were learning the stories that went with the pictures. They had a great time. I think I will exapand the deck next year and add a few more Bingo cards so we can play longer. Everyone LOVED it!

The Heritage Makers Opportunity

Do you have a passion for preserving your family stories? Do you know someone who does? A rewarding career as a Personal Publishing Consultant may be just the thing!

I have been a Heritage Makers Personal Publishing Consultant for 18 months now. I became a consultant after I sold my previous business, because I LOVED the books and knew I would not be able to publish all the books I had in my head within our new one-income family budget!

My husband agreed to switch back to white bread so I could have my premier membership (I’m not kidding), but I knew I needed to share the idea with others here and there to be able to pay for my own publishing.

With my little business, I choose my own hours and go out one night a week for appointments and presentations. And I LOVE IT! Some of the people I talk to are inspired by the message of heritage, but choose to keep their memories another way. Many more are excited by the EASY software and our beautiful heirloom-quality books. No matter how people choose to keep their memories, if they are finally inspired to go home and do it, I have done my job.

And, yes, there is BIG money to be made in personal publishing. At Heritage Makers we choose not to participate in the recession! I am happy to say that we eat the BEST wheat bread now—and I don’t even bake! We have been able to live some of our dreams such as taking the kids to Disneyland and getting a new car---finally! And I have a stack of books that I have published over the last 18 months that are worth more to me than gold.

Did you know we are the only digital direct sales company? Some of you may have had an account with Heritage Makers longer than I have! But did you know that we are only BARELY out of the gate and ready for some explosive growth? One of my mentors who makes tens of thousands of dollars a MONTH with Heritage Makers said recently, “I feel like we have finally figured this out and we are just moving up to the starting line.”

This is still a ground-floor opportunity!

Please forward this postto anyone else you think might be interested, too!

Sincerely,

Debbie Rasmussen

Your Personal Publishing Consultant

801-489-8686 OR 801-360-0977

debber@gmail.com