Quick update

We have a realtor friend coming over to look at our house so it can go up on the market. He says he MAY have investors interested in buying it. My house is so NOT ready for him to look at...huge mess! Been working on it all afternoon and evening, still not even close to done. He will be here at 1:30 in the afternoon so I have a few hours in the morning to work on it. Wish me luck! We also picked up some boxes so we can get busy packing. I see that the size of the new house surprises a lot of you. To be honest it surprises me too. My house now is 2600 square feet and it's the biggest one I've ever had. We've lived here for 4 years and have really loved it. I have a feeling I'll be cleaning the new house all the time just to keep up, but it will be fun to decorate. I'm not loving the flat white builders paint, but it's not my house so I'll have to live with them. Hopefully cute stuff on the walls will make them look better.

Before we knew that we were moving we signed Cody and Cole up for baseball. Cole got a call tonight and he made the majors. He was SO excited...Until he realized that he wouldn't be here to play. He cried the rest of the night and was in a horrible mood. I feel so bad for him. It was such a big deal to him that he made the majors, since most boys on majors are a little older than him. Poor kid!

Chad called me this morning. He was sent to the hospital with bronchitis. I knew he was getting sick. They gave him some meds and an inhaler to help him breathe better. He's on light duty for now. Please keep him in your prayers so that he may have a speedy recovery. He also found out he will be going to a town called Farah, It's on the west side of Afghanistan, close to the border of Iran. He will be stationed there with the air force and the 82nd airborne. Sounds scary to me.

It's 12:30 and I'm headed to bed so I can get up early, shower and finish cleaning up endless messes before the realtor gets here..
Okay...so that update was not so quick....I miss not having a picture in this post. :o)

We found a home

We have weighed many options and have decided on renting the house out in Maricopa. I feel at peace with that decision even though change is very hard for me. I forgot that I took a few pictures the first night we drove out there. Here is the kitchen and the loft, which would be my new scraproom. This one is big enough for me to share it with Mark's office and even have a TV up there for the boys to play video games or watch sports. Plus I can have people over to scrap. In my room now I only have room for 1 guest, so it will be fun to have a few at a time over. Here is a link to the floorplan so you can see the layout of the house. Here is also a link to a virtual tour. It doesn't show 2 of the bathrooms, the laundry room, the large pantry or the garage but you can see where they are on the floorplan link. This house is almost $1000 less a month than my house now. Wev'e discovered that it's much cheaper to live out of town. This will be a huge blessing to us. It's going to be strange living in a town that doesn't even have a Wal-Mart, but it does have 2 grocery stores and plenty of fast food places. Brek, Brittany and the babies were going to live with us again, but tonight they decided to live with her parents for 2 more months then get an apartment. I can't blame them for wanting a place of their own. So now the 3 boys will each have their own bedroom. They have never had this before so let me just say that they were SO excited at the thought of this. It was pretty cute!

Now to start packing. This is move #32 for me. It never gets any easier. In fact I think it gets harder because we have way more stuff. It's a bit overwhelming!

Happy mail

In the midst of all my sadness and turmoil, I received the sweetest package in the mail from Briana. She made these adorable taggie blankets for baby Mark and his little brother or sister, and she made the cute little container filled with strawberry kisses, that I had never tried, but discovered that they are quite good, plus a beautiful handmade card. When I gave one of the blankets to baby Mark his eyes lit up and he started kicking and smiling. He loves it and so do I! I am truly touched and more appreciative than one could possible know. Thank you so much Briana! Brek and Brittany wanted me to pass on big thank you's from them too. :o)

I wish I had good news on the home front. Right now all I know for sure is that we have to move and soon, but to where is a whole other issue. We have a realtor friend that has a nice house we could rent, but the problem is that it's out in the town of Maricopa so Mark would have to commute in everyday. 45 minutes with good traffic and between 1 -1 1/2 hour in bad traffic. I understand that people commute all the time, but when you run a business like ours that has emergency calls all the time, that could be a lot of driving to and from town day or night and our only employee just quit and went back to school so we have no one in town to cover for Mark, so he has the whole burden on his shoulders. He already puts 150 miles a day on his van. Plus we would keep Kyle at his school so he can graduate, but that would mean that Mark would have to leave the house at 6:00 to get him to school on time. We still have that house option available to us, but been looking at houses here too, but haven't found anything that is big enough, in our price range, or isn't out of town the other direction. I'm still waiting on a clear answer to my prayers. I just want to feel some peace to know what is right. It's the worst feeling not knowing where home will be. I love my friends and my ward here. I love the schools and the boys have great friends. It's all just so hard.

On top of that I talked to Chad and he doesn't get the 2 week pass before leaving for Afghanistan. He will only get a 96 hour pass, but they really don't want the soldiers flying home. Last night I started bawling as soon as I found out he wasn't coming home. As it stands right now, Sandy will be flying out to Fort Bragg to see him. How on earth can I handle not seeing my boy for such a long time. I just don't know how much more I can take. I have cried for most of today too...still am in fact. I'm all for being tested with trials, but not so much into this whole bombarded with them. I feel like I keep getting knocked down before I even get a chance to stand all the way back up again. Not much of a fair fight in my eyes. I do know after I get through all of these trials, there must be some pretty big blessings at the end. Looking forward to sharing those with you. Your loving support and words of encouragement have meant the world to me. Thank you all!

Home.....

I wasn't going to blog tonight...in fact I was already in bed, but felt guilty for not blogging last night either, so here I sit at 11:35 p.m...so tired, but my mind is racing. There is a lot going on here. A lot of stress and a lot of emotions. We have decisions that have to be made, one of which is the possibility of moving from the home that I love. I know in my head that it's just a house, but as you all know, I very much think with my heart, so I'm really struggling with all the sacrifices that each member of my family will have to make if we decide that this is what's right for us. Right now I pray for comfort to know in my heart what to do and for peace and strength to be able to handle it, because my stomach is such a mess. I will fill you in more when I have a better idea myself. Just know I never stop thinking about my dear blogging buddies. Please don't be upset if I can't get around to everyones blogs right now. I'll do what I can. (((hugs)))

Another tag and 911

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I didn't get to talk to Chad and I'm missing my boy, so I wanted to see his cute face. :o)

I was tagged by Pam and I'm suppose to tell you 5 surprising or secret things about me. I've done one of these before so I'll try not to repeat any of those answers. I'm still not exactly sure what I'm going to tell you because just like Pam, my life is an open book since I became a blogger, so here's hoping things come to me as I type....but more than likely the really good things will hit me while I'm sleeping

• I have a real and genuine fear of death. I don't want to die. The mere thought of it gives me anxiety. I know things on the other side are wonderful, but I'm not done with this life yet and I don't want to miss any of it. I want to be the one to raise my boys, see my grandkids grow up, and grow old with Mark. It's not just me...I don't want any of my loved ones to die either. It's just to painful and my heart can't take it.
• I consider myself a good safe driver, but with a few driving phobias of things like bridges, high freeway overpasses, being boxed in by semi trucks, construction zones where the cones are so close and I'm sure my big old suburban is going to knock out every sign. Mountain passes with cliffs next to me totally freak me out and I'm sure if I lived in the snow I would never drive in the winter.
• When I got married almost 21 years ago, 1 week before I turned 18 I weighed a mere 105 pounds. Now 5 kids later, by body rebelled and I'm a whopping 175 pounds...down from 180 since I "released" those 5 pounds. Yes...I admit my true weight...every stinking pound. I never want to be the stick I was, but to be under the 150 would be great..I don't care if it's 149, just so when I go to the doctor I don't have to flick the thingie over on the scale to the next level. I hate that so much!
• I have zero musical talent. I so wish I could sing and play piano. I use to sing in the car when my kids were little, but they would request that I not do that. I'm sure I'd be one of the rejects on American Idol with Simon saying "Jolene, you really didn't think you could sing did you because that was just awful" I envy those with beautiful singing voices...I know, I know...thou shalt not covet...so I will rephrase and say I really admire those who are musically gifted.
• The first thing I think about every morning is my blog. I'm seriously addicted. After I go to the bathroom, wash my face and brush my teeth I have to come read comments and read the blogs of my buddies before I can do anything else. It will eat away at me if I have to leave the house early and I didn't have time to read....and to think I had to be talked into starting my blog almost a year ago by Amy and September. I get so much pleasure from it. It's emotional to me and I can't imagine not having this outlet and so many dear new friends. It's just a wonderful thing.

I'm tagging anyone who wants to share things about themselves on their blogs.

Now to the 911 part of the title...After I picked up Kyle from school today I took him to the new subway to turn in a job application in the grocery store plaza a mile from my house. Just before I was to where I needed to turn in I saw a white tahoe hit a boy on his bike and launch him into the main road. Thank heavens there were no cars coming at the time or he would have been run over too. The car was coming out of where I was going to be pulling in. The guy that hit him got out and pulled the bike out from under his car, patted the boy on the back as if to say are you okay...walk it off kind of attitude, then got back in his car and drove away. I couldn't believe it. I got his license plate number before he got out of sight. I pulled in and asked the boy if he was okay. He had a friend with him and he was walking his bike because it was not able to be ridden and he was clearly shaken up. He said he was fine and kept walking. I think that was the adrenalin talking and he is probably hurting pretty bad tonight. I called 911 and reported it because it's NOT okay to hit someone and leave...this is coming from a mother who has had 3 of her 5 boys hit by cars who also left the scene. Makes me so mad! I feel good about getting the plate number and I hope they find him and press charges. It scared the heck out of me!

Love at first sight

Chad's birthday is March 25th so I am making him an 8X8 album to send to him....mostly containing pictures of him and Sandy with some family ones too. Here is the first page. I scanned it a little crooked...sorry. It's pretty and simple, but I didn't want to take attention away from the picture. I know he loves this picture and so do I. Plus there's not a lot you can do on small pages. We got to talk to him tonight, during that time they brought in his care package from Sue and set it on his cot. It was neat to be on the phone with him while he opened it. He loved everything and wanted me to express his gratitude to Sue and to Brooke who sent him a package last week.

They are now sleeping in large tents instead of the barracks and has no way to send mail right now otherwise he would mail you both a thank you letter. They have him busy with different trainings. He's been doing night firings, learning how to do IV's on each other. The guy that did Chad's was not good and poked the needle all the way through his vein. It's just scary to me that they hand these guys needles and say poke each other till you do it right. Hello...that's just crazy! Today he sank in the swamp up to his head 3 times. He was freezing and was so glad to get back to camp tonight so he could shower and put on some warm clothes. He's been sounding stuffy. I sure hope he doesn't get full blown sick. Happy mail really cheered him up, so thank you ladies for being kind enough to set this up for him. We all appreciate it!
I got some happy mail today too. Lara, a very nice blog reader sent this for baby Mark. As soon as it even remotely fits him, I'll be doing a photo shoot with him and grampy Mark on the motorcycle. Can't you just picture it...cute outfit, sunglasses, bandana on his head...so cute! Thank you so much Lara. Big Mark thought it was very cool too! I don't know why the small version of this picture is so blurry when I attached it in here, but you get the idea.

Soup recipe...hmmmm...I'll be honest and tell you there is no measured recipe. It's more of a dump it in kind of thing, but here's how I do it....

Cheesy potato corn chowder

You can either peel and dice up potatoes into teeny pieces and boil them until tender and drain or cook up a bag of cubed hash browns. Yesterday I used the hashbrowns because we were hungry and didn't want to take the time to peel and dice. I put them in my soup pot with some oil and butter. Seasoned them with salt, pepper and onion powder and cooked them until they were hot and tender and a starting to brown. Dump in a can of corn-drained, a can of cream corn, about a cup of velveeta cheese, cubed up (it melts best) whisk together 1/2 gallon of milk with1/3 to 1/2 cup flour and pour in. Stir together until hot and cheese is melted. Can season more to taste. At the end add cooked crumbled bacon. (optional, but good...everything's better with bacon, right?!)

My weekend

Here's my weekend update....Mark and I went for our normal Saturday morning breakfast. I was foolish and let Mark talk me into taking the motorcycle. It was FREEZING! I'm so dumb! While waiting to get a table we made new friends with everyone around us who were also waiting for their tables. For those of you that know Mark, you know he talks to EVERYONE! I think it's a George thing. We had a great breakfast with yummy hot chocolate to thaw me out. We came home and worked around the house. Went to Sam's for groceries and got my nails filled. Saturday night Mark asked me to pick up Chinese while I was out. I don't love it but he begged. Kids were happy and fed, and I didn't have to cook. sounds like a win win for me. When I got home I started working on our primary lesson. I made these cute handouts for the kids in our class. A "chewsing" the right bubble gum theme. :o) They loved them...I'm so glad! We came out of church to it pouring rain. Had to run to by suburban with my arms full of stuff. I was sure that I would slip in the parking lot and end up laid out in a puddle wearing a dress. I really wish I had parked closer. Mark took a separate vehicle to church and raced me home, ran in the house and locked the door. He stood there at the window teasing and doing some funky in your face kind of dance until he finally let me in the house...he's such a dork!

Sunday after church I made cheesy potato corn chowder for lunch because it was cold outside then Mark and I took a short nap...mine was shorter than his. I learned my lesson from last weeks too long of a nap. :o) Tonight Brek, Brittany, baby Mark, Sandy, Brittany's mom, brother and niece came over for dinner. We grilled flank steaks, made baked potatoes, green beans and rolls with cheesecake for desert. Everything was so delicious! Flank steak is known for not being so tender, but if it's seasoned, cooked and sliced correctly it's tender and juicy. We love it! Let me just say that it was so fun having 2 cute babies in the house...too darn cute! Tonight we got very strange weather...it really wan't snow or hail. I guess you would call it sleet...very cool for Mesa anyways. The kids were so excited about it. As you can see I haven't had much computer time, but I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with your families.

Just a tip...never be the last one in line for a shower on a Sunday morning...especially with a less than cooperative water heater. My shower was seriously fridgid today. I don't get those people who willingly go do that polar bear swim...their just crazy!

My poor trees!

This weather has been so crazy. We had a hard freeze a few nights ago and every tree and plant we have are severely damaged. You can see the before and after in the color of my 2 big trees. They WERE a beautiful bright green, now they are black and brown....so ugly! The tree lover that I am is soooo sad about this. It's never happened before, so I don't know if they will come back or not, but they look just terrible...makes me sick!Back in February of 2005 we had a huge amount of rain, which is really unusual for Arizona. My next door neighbor's cactus had taken on more than it could handle and fell over in the night. We herd the big thump. The next morning I had to take pictures. I had Chad stand next to it so you could get a better idea of just how huge this cactus was. I'm always amazed by the effects weather has on our life's. Some people lose their homes to weather, so I really shouldn't complain about trees, but I do love them so much!

Susie Q posted pictures of Chad's care package on her blog. It's packed FULL of wonderful things he is sure to love. You'll have to scroll down a bit on her blog because she is a very busy blogger. :o) Then you'll HAVE to go check out Andi's M&M's! I can honestly say that this is the first time M&M's have brought me to tears....seriously...just so sweet! I really do have the dearest friends! Thanks you ladies!

I was reading Heidi Swapps blog this morning and had to giggle when I discovered that she is pregnant again with her 5th child. The reason I giggled is because Capri and baby Mark are only a few weeks apart in age and Heidi is due July 15th...Brittany is due July 18th. They are both having VERY close in age babies. I'm happy for her growing family. Stop by and congratulate her.

This feels so strange blogging in the afternoon instead of late at night, but I've got work to do then we're going out on a date with Mark's brother Rodney, his wife Cam, Brek and Brittany. Should be a fun night. I LOVE date night!

I just wrote this whole thing and blogger ate it and went down for a while...sheesh! Crossing my fingers this goes through when I click publish.

phone repair and salt & pepper

I went to Michaels today to pick up some jewel-it glue because my friends daughter dropped my phone a few times, so I had to do some repair work and glue back on more swarovski crystals. Now looking at the picture I see that I still have a couple more to do. Mainly the corners were really messed up. It should be dry and ready to use tomorrow.While looking for glue I found this way cute salt and pepper shaker set that was 30% off, so of course I had to get them...so cute and cheap...plus it's a nice addition to my collection. I seriously love salt and pepper shakers.
Here is a little better picture of my wall. I re-took the picture in the day time. Still dark, but better. I sure love it!

Mark called me up today to tell me that him and the guys (biker friends) were going to Tia Rosa's for dinner. He did it just to rub it in and get to me. He's such a stinker! I showed him and took Cody and Cole a half an hour before they went. It was fun to visit and eat with my little boys. Kyle was at a basketball game, so he didn't go with us.

What does one watch on TV when American Idol isn't on? I watched Reba....yep, I like it...just a cute show! Now I'm headed to bed to with the remote to watch the food network. If I can't eat this late at least I can watch people making good food. I'm down a total of 5 pounds...slow progress, but still progress. It would help if I'd stop eating these candy cane kisses. I have quite a nice stash of them....so good!

I'm not sure why exactly, but I've been in a good mood today. I just chose to be happy and had a smile all day. Mark did fix my toilet today, so now I don't have to stick my hand in the tank all the time...so glad about that. Blessings come in strange ways. :o)

It's done :o)

I finally finished my altered family picture wall. I ran out of printer ink and had to run to Wal-Mart to get more so I could print the pictures. I never leave the house without makeup, but I thought I could run in and out quick and no one would see me, but NOPE! I ran into a girl I haven't seen in a long time...perfect! ...sigh...oh well...

Anyways, I printed and matted the pictures in red, white and blue then cut them down to size so they would fit in the window panes. (11X11) I also decided to flip the whole thing upside down because it's hanging in a spot right off the stairs and I was tired of Mark saying

"someone's going to put an eye out on that thing"

So we removed and flipped the hardware and re-hung it. Now you can walk downstairs with out the fear of losing an eye. I know it looks crooked in the picture, but it's straight, I swear! I also don't know why the pictures are so dark. It really looks so much better in person. In the first pane it's me and Mark, then Brek, Brittany and baby Mark, then the whole family, then Kyle, Cody and Cole, then Chad and Sandy. I also hung 2 rustic stars on each side that I got on clearance the day after Christmas....so dang cute! I love it!

Now about American Idol....Oh my crud! It's both hilarious and painful to watch. I laughed so hard the past 2 nights that my face hurts. I don't know about you, but I wish I could do that cowardly lion thing that girl did on Tuesday night....it was just too funny!

Off to bed...early!

Remember in my last post when I said that I'd pay for that Sunday afternoon nap...well I sure did! I couldn't fall asleep, then I laid there for hours with my legs freaking out. I think it's that restless leg syndrome...pretty much stinks! I finally fell asleep around 4:30 in the morning and slept until about 9:00. I got up and took a shower....which by the way I can now take a shower in record time. I'd like to say that it's all for water conservation, but it's really just a race to do everything quickly before the water turns to ice. :o) Then my sister Coleen came and picked me up and we went to McDonald's for lunch with 3 little kids under the age of 5. With it being a holiday McDonald's was crazy packed with kids. Serious chaos! Funny part is that she knew I've been under a lot of stress and she wanted to help with that. I had to laugh as I thanked her for that lovely 2 hour attempt at relieving my stress. LOL! Love you Coleen!

Off to bed and look forward to being refreshed for a brand new day!

We have fire...

It's cold here....well cold for Arizona. Actually it's 33 degrees right now and suppose to get down to 26 or lower, so we had our first fire this winter. Ignore the mess please! Gathered around it is Cody, Cole, Sandy, Brittany and baby Mark. Every Sunday night we have all the kids over for dinner. We look forward to it every week. Since it is so cold, I made chili, chili dogs, corn bread and banana cream supreme pie. It hit the spot! They have all left and Mark is asleep. The little boys and their cousin are downstairs making paper cup towers. I know this because I just heard it come crashing down and by the sounds of it I think it was quite large. I'm so NOT cleaning that mess up. For some reason boys cannot be entertained unless there is some form of destruction involved....or is that just my kids???

Mark and I had a great time playing with baby Mark up in our room while Brittany took a little nap by the fire. We just love this little boy to pieces. He's getting so much personality and it's so fun to watch him develop. Can you believe he's already 4 1/2 months old?!
How can you not love that face?!
Miss Sugar cracks me up. Here she is all stretched out on her back sleeping on Marks legs. She is the only one that will let you rub her tummy. She has the loudest purring motor, unlike momma kitty who NEVER purrs. I love my little princess. She's not the only one who got a nap...I had a great one today after church...by the way, I LOVE my new primary class...such great kids! I can honestly say that I love primary now...so fun! :o) Long nap=me not being able to go to sleep at a decent hour. Weird thing...came home from church today with the front door wide open....kind of creepy to me!

Saturday I had a photo shoot of Brittany's best friend Megan and her husband Joe. Meghan is pregnant and due this Friday. Poor girl just wants to have that baby already. It was freezing outside. I wore my slippers in an effort to keep warm. They were glad to get some pictures with her at her biggest.

You all have to go see what Brooke is sending to Chad. No words can express my appreciation of such wonderful generous new friends.
MLK day=no school for kids which=no peace for me....perhaps we'll bake cookies.

Babysitting and stuff

Today was NOT a productive day at all. I took care of my niece Olivia and my nephew Carter today. It was a wet cold day so I had them cuddled up with a blanket watching the Incredibles. The second picture of Olivia is from when she was here on New Years Eve. Doesn't she have the best hair? If she was my girl she would hate me because I'd be wanting to play with it all the time. Who knows...I may get a grand daughter. I bet I have like a 20%/80% chance. (that George gene doesn't allow for a 50%/50% shot) I totally forgot what it's like having little kids around. You don't get anything done, and they were both really good. I can't imagine if they'd have been bad. I guess I really got use to my freedom and forgot how to juggle and multi task. Big high 5 to all of you moms out there with babies and toddlers. You're my hero's!

I really really miss my truck. I miss it's small size, I miss it's good gas mileage, I miss the AC, I miss it telling me what song is playing and who sings it. I am just terrible with that kind of stuff. I won't miss the payment!

I like that my suburban is paid off and it's a big safe vehicle to drive. I'm grateful that I didn't let Mark sell it last month, even when a guy was on his way over with cash that we really needed. I just had a feeling and I stuck to my guns. If I hadn't listened to that feeling, I wouldn't have anything to drive now. I told you I'd find positive things.

So glad I'm not the only grown up who breaks out and who deals with a dirty house and mountains of laundry.

I can't believe I've cried everyday for a week...it's SO NOT like me!...and I've been a whiney blogger and you still come back and offer your friendship to me. Things are still really rough, but I'm not going to let it consume me. There really are blessings in every trial and I won't ever see them if I have a negative attitude. It's all in how we handle the trials, right?! It felt good to take dinner in to my friends family. I made lasagna, salad, garlic bread and vanilla chip cookies for them. They are the neatest family and I know they appreciated it.

My 2 day job of cleaning up my scraproom is going to be crammed into Saturday so that Sandy can come over and scrap with me Sunday after church. She is so excited...so am I...not only to scrap, but to have a clean room!!!

Terri....I saw that you have Chad's care package in March. I wanted to let you know that his birthday is March 25th. He is also going to Afghanistan that month. We still don't know when exactly, so I will let you know as soon as I hear.

I promise to catch up on blog reading and emails. I haven't had a lot of computer time. I feel terrible when I get behind. Have a great weekend ladies!

Weekend Crop

It's been a couple of years since I went on my last weekend crop. (2004) We use to go every year to a gorgeous resort in Tucson. It was so fun and I always got so many pages done. The first year we had a whole 6 foot table each to ourselves. Each year our work space got smaller and smaller until this last year when we had to squeeze into a workspace of 18 inches by 3 feet. Didn't get nearly as much done that time, but we had fun anyways. It was a 50's theme and the group of friends I went with ordered custom pink bowling shirts with Chatty Scrapper Chicks on the back and our names embroidered on the front....really cute! (in the picture the s is cut off) That was the last year they held these in Tucson. The reason I bring this up is because I really miss going to my yearly weekend crop. I was thinking that when my finances are back on the upswing that I'm going to organize a SMALL crop with maybe a dozen girls...probably up in Payson. I will let you all know when I get my plans firmed up, so that if any of you local girls are interested, we could have a fun scrapbooking weekend together in the Mountains.

Susie Q and Andi are the ones organzing the monthly care package mailings to Chad, so if any of you would like to sign up for a month, you can let one of them know on their blogs. I would really love to see a picture on your blog on the month that you send to him. I talked to him about it and he was so excited! He really isn't too picky and would be thrilled with whatever you came up with to put in his boxes. Thank you so much for your huge hearts! I know some of you are sending him cards and writing him letters. They will mean the world to him and just so you know, he never throws them away because he likes to read his mail over and over. You girls are the best...seriously! :o)

Nothing to blog about...

I really have nothing to blog about. How sad is that?! I found this picture when I was looking through my stuff. It certainly wasn't taken during the golden hour, but I like it. I like seeing my "big" kids together with their girls. Their cuteness makes me smile. My moods have been running wild this week. I can honestly say that I'm emotionally spent. It's not just Chad being gone, which is really tough. I feel bombarded with so many things, so this post is just going to be some random stuff that's going on around here (not everything)...

• Chad had all of his dental work done yesterday and had 6 shots today for things like typhoid, anthrax, small pox, etc. Pretty serious stuff if you ask me. He said guys were passing out all over the place and most of them didn't get all of them done today. His arm is sore, but he did fine with them. He said that on one of them he has to change the bandage everyday for the next 3 weeks, but can't touch it or bad things will happen. He has to wear gloves to change it. That scares the crap out of me.
• Please tell me I'm not the only one who still gets pimples...I'm almost 39 for petes sake. What's up with that?
• Still don't have a final figure on how much we'll owe on the truck. I guess it really doesn't matter because we don't have the money no matter what the amount is. I so miss my truck. :o(
• I had a really emotional bad day yesterday and broke down crying in the afternoon. I totally missed Cole's parent teacher conference. What kind of mother does that? I've never missed any of my boys conferences. I feel just terrible about it.
• My house has a lot to do with my moods so I've been working around here while the kids are at school. If I can get this place clean I know I will be happier. I've been working on Mount Washmore and got 4 loads done today. My bedroom is looking better and my bathroom is clean...really clean. Not just wiped down...we're talking scrubbed, swept and mopped too. It looks great. Working on the downstairs tomorrow, then my scraproom on Friday and Saturday....yes it's going to take 2 days to clean up this mess, but it will be worth it to feel peaceful again.
• Praying for money to come in so I can pay my bills. I know we have some out there. It just needs to come in. It really wouldn't hurt if we could get some more business too. I hate that owning your own business is either feast or famine and I'm really not enjoying the famine end of it. I'm sure it will get better. It always does.
• Taking dinner in to the sweetest family of 7 Thursday (tonight) night. The mom is pregnant and on bedrest. This one is 2 fold. I can count it towards my service resolution and it gets me to put my attention on someone else instead of my own problems. That always makes me feel better.
• Mark is calling me to bed now. He hates it when I stay up too late. Night all!! Boy that was a whiney blog. I'm so sorry! Next one will be much better....honest! :o)
  

Thank you!

***EDITED*** Sorry about blogger being down all morning and part of the afternoon. They had a two hour block scheduled for maintenance, but went way over. I hope you come back and comment.I want to offer my most sincere thank you to all of you for your love and support. Your loving words of encouragement humbled me and brought me great joy. I was brought to tears by your kindness to me and my family during this difficult time. I really didn't want to share such un-flattering pictures, but they did capture the emotions and feelings we had and I always want to remember that day. I'm still struggling with my emotions. I broke down a few times in church and today as well. Chad does have more freedom at Fort Bragg than he had at Fort Benning, so I've been able to talk to him at night during his free time...for now anyways. Right now he is also struggling with his emotions. During our two weeks together he got use to being home with his family, so leaving again is very painful for him. He knows he has a job to do and just hopes time passes quickly so he can return home to us and to Sandy. I hope for the very same thing. The selfish protective mom wants him home right now. It's just too hard. I wanted to share Chad's mailing address in case any of you would like to write him. Happy mail is such an important thing to keep him motivated and I know he would LOVE to receive mail and it would mean a lot to me as well.

PVT George, Chad

2125 GSU-Delta Co.

1-158 Inf. Azarng

3238 Butner Road

Fort Bragg, NC 28310

Thanks in advance to anyone who does choose to write my son.I didn't have time to post about this before now, but I didn't want to forget. Cole was in his schools spelling bee on Friday. He didn't win, but he did great and his good friend Jason did win so we were very happy for him. Cole won in his class so he got to compete. They chose the top 2 kids in each class from 4th, 5th and 6th grades. He's in 4th grade. I'm so proud of him.

Thanks again for everything. I sure love you gals!

****EDITED****

I was just catching up on my blog reading and I see that some of you dear blogging buddies are organizing a monthly care package to send to Chad. Now I'm crying all over again, but they are happy tears because of the love you have for me and my family. I can totally see the look on Chad's face each month as he opens a package from people who believe in what he's doing and want to make his time there just a little bit easier. He will have the biggest smile. My heart is so full tonight and I am deeply grateful. Thank you so much!

((((((((HUGS))))))))

Really hard, yet proud day!

Friday night I fed about 45 hungry people here at Chad's farewell party. It was such a nice evening with family and good friends. Chad felt loved and we feel so appreciative of everyone who came on such short notice. My good friend Paula helped me out and made a batch of the frybread for me to help ease my burden. She saved me with that so people could eat as I was frying up the second batch. It worked out perfectly. I'm going to be honest and tell you my kitchen is still a mess. I was too tired to clean it up. Mark woke up at 3:00 in the morning and took Chad to check in and came back to wake me and Sandy up at 4:00. I t was so hard to get up because I had a hard night and only got a couple of hours sleep. We got there around 5:00 and the ceremony started at 6:00. There were over 500 soldiers deployed,with lots of families to see them off.
We had a stranger take this one of all of us after the ceremony. It's far away, but I'll crop it later.



We got to spend about an hour with Chad before he left. Sandy and I had been crying off and on, but trying to keep a smile as much as we could. Chad did pretty well until I asked him how he was doing and what he was feeling. He got emotional, so of course I was crying again. I'm just so proud of him. The time passed quickly...too quickly. The busses were ready and so was the patriot guard ( probably 100 motorcycles with flags on the backs) who escort the busses to the airport. It was a really neat thing to see. Our final good-bye's before he left were the hardest. I held him tight and said I love you my boy. Sandy had her emotional good-bye and Mark hugged him and told him he loved him and to return with honor. When his bus pulled away my whole heart hurt more than I ever thought possible. It's been a really rough day. We came home and Sandy and I slept for several hours. When I woke up Brek and Brittany brought baby Mark over for me to take care of while they went on a date. We got to talk to Chad when he got there. He is settling in and doing good. Sandy cried pretty much all day. Chad asked me to take care of her...of course I will. I was strong while I talked on the phone to him, because I know that crying only makes it harder on him. I'm just exhausted...both physically and emotionally, but I know it will get better.

Sorry...:o(

Sorry I didn't blog last night. I wanted to, but didn't want to be a downer. My emotions have been a mess. Chad leaves for Fort Bragg Saturday morning and the closer it gets here the more my stomach hurts. Why can't I be stronger? He's been at the base for the better part of the past few days, in trainings and briefings...just getting his stuff ready to go. I feel robbed of what precious time we do have with him. Really all we have left is this evening and that's it. Tonight he wants frybread for his last dinner and his favorite pudding cake, so I will gladly make it for him. I have LOTS to do today, but I will share more with you all later. Time to hit the showers...in speedy fashion since we still don't have a new water heater. It stays hot long enough for me to take a quick shower, but not long enough to shave my legs...and shaving off goose bumps just doesn't sound good to me.
P.S. If you've emailed me and haven't got a response yet, I haven't forgotten about you....honest!

Goodbye sweet truck!

Today was the day I had to say goodbye to my truck. The claims adjuster came early this morning and the tow truck soon after that. The body shop had a good look at it and have decided to total it because the frame is bent and tweaked all the way down. I'm so sad about this. I love my truck and I can't afford to buy another one. Another problem is that more than likely they will value the truck far lower than the pay off amount and we'll have to pay the difference. I don't even have the deductible money let alone a few thousand dollars to pay off the difference...so thanks to the un-insured red light runner we will be taking it up the back side financially and be without a much needed vehicle. I will find a positive spin on this tragedy....give me a few days to think about it.
Let me give you a little George wrecked car history...not every car we've owned, just the wrecked ones.

• Ford escort...first car...rear ended by an un-insured taxi cab while being 6 month pregnant with Brek.
• Ford LTD...wrecked that while on our way to Colorado for a family reunion. Brek and Chad were very little.
• Oldsmobile silhouette mini van...was t-boned with me and 7 kids in the car, started to roll over from the force of the impact, but Heavenly Father was kind enough to place a school bus in our path to stop the roll just as 2 of the kids were on their way out of the van. We were blessed that day.
• Ford F-150 pick up...in a several minor car accidents mostly involving Brek or our employee Eric driving it...two of which were scraped down the side of my suburban. Brek drives that truck now for work.
• Ford F-350 extra cab...Was hit in the drivers side while Mark was driving then later totaled by Eric.
• Suburban...Mark backed into someone...only had to replace the back doors. Still alive and kicking, but has lots of scars...poor baby! (that's what I'm driving now...AC is out. Big problem when you live here)
• Toyota corolla...Chad totaled that on homecoming with it loaded up with teenagers that were on a group date.
• Chevy Astro work van....Totaled by Eric as well. This time it wasn't his fault....again an un-insured driver....lost lots of money on that one.
• Concourse (one of Marks motorcycles) wrecked by Chad while we were on our 20th anniversary cruise in March.
• My Chevy Colorado...Totaled by Chad...not his fault...another un-insured driver...so sad!
• We use to have 9 vehicles at one time. (2 years ago) 6 parked in the driveway, 1 in the street and 1 at Eric's. Now we have 2 in the driveway and 1 at Eric's. It looks so weird outside.

Tonight I lost my brains momentarily and decided to go on a motorcycle ride with Mark, Chad and Sandy. We rode up to Globe, Arizona...it's 77 miles each way and 10 degrees colder than Mesa. MUCH colder on a motorcycle. I froze my butt off! By the time I realized it was a huge mistake we were already half way there and committed. I can't figure out why I'm the only one who froze. I had on jeans, ski pants, 2 shirts, a ski jacket, 2 pairs of socks, snow boots, and a full face helmet....frozen to the core I tell you! We went up to this little restaurant called El Rey's. They have great food and the sweetest employees, but to be honest if I were driving past I would NEVER pull in there voluntary because it's a dive, but the people who know it love it, so they get lots of business. You know when you're cold it makes you have to pee really bad, well I had to go there so I head to the bathroom and peel off my layers of clothing...keep in mind I'm a shorts and t-shirt kind of girl who doesn't have any experience in that layered clothing department. I finally get my ski pants undone and go to unzip my zipper on my jeans and you guessed it...stuck on my shirt. I'm standing in this little bathroom vigorously trying to shimmy the zipper up and down in an effort not to wet my pants. I found myself talking to my pants as if by some crazy magic my words of encouragement would some how free the shirt from my zipper. What was I thinking? After a huge struggle with my zipper winning the fight with my shirt, finally my torn shirt was free and I was...free to pee....just too much drama. I felt so dumb! UGGG! Then I had the even colder hour and half long ride home...just horrible! I'm now thawing out in pj's, slippers and my new robe. So glad to be home! Please tell me I'm not the only one who has had the zipper battle.

2007 Resolutions

I wasn't going to even have a picture on this post, since I want to talk about resolutions and I have no pictures to go along with that...plus it looks naked without a picture of something. So, I threw this one in because when I look at Kyle it makes me laugh. He's just a funny boy!

I am a girl who LOVES resolutions/goals/check off lists, you name it. I like that feeling of accomplishing things....big things...small things...just so I can say TADA! It's done! I know...juvenile. I don't care...remember, simple girl here. I love the feeling a new year brings. It's refreshing and ...well...NEW! I'm ready to take on 2007....how about you???

Here is my list of goals both short term and long term.

• "RELEASE" 30 pounds..last time I lost them the darn things found their way back home, so I choose to let them go.
• Get and KEEP my house to a place where I'm not embarrassed by drop in guests. The humiliation of a messy house kills me everytime.
• Clean out 1 cupboard or drawer each week in an effort to reclaim the storage I have and make it useful organized storage instead of the tuck and hide storage it currently is.
• Exercise a minimum of 3 days a week...uggg... I hate to exercise...it hurts!
• Work on being a better wife to Mark, mother to my kids and to my daughter in laws and a better Grammy too!
• Write to Chad at least once a week while he's gone.
• Read the Book of Mormon this year.
• Scrapbook or do something scrap/photography related at least once a week.
• Be a GOOD primary teacher this year. (new class-kids 6 turning 7- Mark is my companion teacher this year...YAY!)
• Do not take on more than I can handle. This is a hard one for me.
• Be a good blogging friend to all of you. I cherish the friendships I've made and always have room in my heart for more.
• Do something service or RAK related at least once a week...can be big or small. Service is a huge thing to me. They is no greater gift than the feeling you get from serving from your heart.

Okay....now what about you??? Do you set goals? What are they? If you hate resolutions/goals, tell me why.

P.S. Yes, I have a Canon Rebel XT. I used my 18-200 lens. The remote is cheap and very handy. I can't afford a professional photographer, plus I don't know anyone who would wan't to take on my crazy bunch. :o)

P.S.S. I can finally post on typepad blogs again!!!! but I won't till morning...off to bed!

More pictures and Happy New Year!

Probably the best of the 104 pictures we tookI would really like this second one, but it's too dark. I need photoshop!Me and my cute girls...so fun to finally have some girls!

Glad my boys have great taste!

Mark CAN cooperate on occasion. :o)


Cody, Kyle and Cole...love my cute boys!
Chad and Sandy...they just don't take a bad picture. Brittany, Brek and baby Mark (and baby in tummy too) CUTE family!

I haven't printed any pictures yet. I'll show you what it looks like once I get them in the window frame. Jen...I take all of our family pictures. If I'm in them we use the tripod and remote. Chad did take all the ones of me and Mark though.

I hope you all had a fun and safe New Years Eve celebration. We chose to stay home and celebrate as a family in an effort to avoid the stupid drunks on the road. We ate, watched a movie, took the tree down, ate some more, played bingo...yes bingo!, ate some more, drank some caffiene free pepsi and some crystal light, played settlers of catan, rang in the new year with all of my kids, grandbaby, a few of the kids friends and my niece and nephew that we were watching while their parents were brave enough to be on the road with the drunks. I went to bed at 1:00. Yep! We're hard core partiers. LOL! Brek and Brittany and the baby spent the night over here and fell asleep at 2:30 and the niece and nephew still hadn't been picked up yet. We have no idea what time they came to get them. I woke up to Mark cooking breakfast and now him and 9 kids went target shooting. They do it every new years day. The boys are pretty good at hitting those clay pigeons. So now I'm home alone and plan to clean up my bedroom...then start on my scrap room...both are a huge disaster...honest...it's pretty scary. I may not even be able to finish the bedroom today.

This is how my brother in law Steven spent New Years Eve. He is a truck driver who was stuck in Kansas with a truck full of de-icer to take to Denver, but the road's were closed down for a bit. Ironic, huh?! What does a truck driver do while their stuck??? Build a snowman in front of their truck! I think he did a great job! The lady truck driver next to him built a snow woman, complete with boobs. I would have loved to have seen that...too funny!

I've got to stop avoiding the work ahead of me, so I'm out of here....I almost forgot...Chad and Sandy were driving my truck Saturday night and were in a car accident. They were hit by a car that ran a red light. They're not hurt, but my truck is not drivable. We had it towed to my house. Our insurance company hasn't come out to do the claim yet. The other driver had NO insurance! Hello people...it's the law! I hope it's fix-able. I love my truck....I need my truck! Trying to stay positive. 2007 is going to be a great year, right!

I still can't comment on Typepad blogs...sorry!