Give a family tree a shake and a few nuts fall out

crafty make-over...

2011-01-08T11:29:00.002-07:00

Okay...since moving from Maricopa and my most awesomely beautiful enormous house, we are back to Mesa into a teeny tiny cozy house so that the boys can be in the schools they want. In that process I lost my americana family room, and didn't want to lose my way cute picture frames made from half a french door and an old window frame. I taped them off, painted them black and sanded and stained the edges.

I matted the newest family pictures on some scrapbook paper that I cut to fit the glass openings. Looks pretty darn cute in black {I think} and it matches my outdoorsy living room to boot.

I still need to take individual pictures to put in the old window frame. It got too dark on the evening we we're taking family photos. Couldn't possibly be because my family was screwing around too much...nah! I'll be sure to share when I get that one done.

under construction...

2010-12-31T11:02:00.002-07:00

Okay...so YES I am going to start blogging again, but in the process of trying to make my blog look cuter, I had to change templates because my dashboard is from the dark ages and had no "design" tab, so I had no choice. Now I have a background that is cute{ish}, but a template that I hate. Plusalso it deleted my banner, my slide shows, my site meter, and my huge list of blogging buddies. So sad about all of that. SOOO I will continue to work on the appearance and functionality of my blog while getting back into the swing of things again. Lots going on in my life, as always! Fun stuff!

test blog post...Cody's gets his braces off

2010-12-30T16:51:00.003-07:00

Cody just got his braces off after 30 long months. His orthodontist is simply amazing! He said he was one of his toughest cases. Cody said it was the best Christmas present ever. It made such a difference. His self esteem is now soaring. Him being this happy...not to mention, so handsome makes every single payment worth it!

blog alert

2010-01-05T10:06:00.003-07:00

I have tried and tried and TRIED to update my blog. Every. single. time. I upload a picture it shuts down the whole blog dashboard window. Frustrating! I need to have my computer dude friend come fix what's wrong. Surely these sweet angel teenage boys couldn't have given me a virus, right?! As soon as it's working, I will write my 19 and growing blog post topics to catch me up and have a regularly updated blog again. For now, the girl is willing...the computer is not!

family night AKA-family home evening...

2009-08-20T12:09:00.008-07:00

We've been trying really hard to have family night every week. We gather as many members of the family as we can, because it's near impossible to get all of them at the same time. This week we took the two youngest, Cody and Cole to Tia Rosa's for dinner {my most favorite Mexican food restaurant on the planet} Then we went to the Temple and watched the Joseph Smith movie and walked around the grounds. We decided to take a bunch of pictures while we were there because it's so darn pretty, plus Cody and Cole wanted updated pictures for their facebook profiles. The good mom that I am will gladly take pictures of my boys. :o) Suprisingly the boys really look forward to our time we spend together, no matter what we've got planned. That makes me feel really good because most, {not all} older kids don't like spending time with their parents.

grand-kids...a whole new life...

2009-08-19T10:56:00.003-07:00

My life is not the same with grand-kids living in the house. So many things I've forgotten {or deliberately shut out of my mind} from when my boys were little. My boys shower and and dress themselves, brush their teeth, can feed themselves, get in the car all by themselves. put their shoes on the right feet, Heck even matching ones. etc. Mark and John obviously cannot. I've been reintroduced to baths, cutting up food in bite size pieces, naps, diapers, car seats, sippy cups, Buzz Light-year and Woody, toys and puzzles, Sesame Street and other fun stuff like that. There are plenty of trials with adding a whole family into the house, like not being the one to make decisions because they are not my children can be frustrating. Getting use to each others quirks and stuff. Learning to bite my tongue when necessary to keep the peace. Overall it's a blessing to be a bigger part of these little guys lives.

Mark showing me he put his shoes on himself. They do not match. Ones a crock and ones a batman sandal. But he did it himself. LOL!I was walking through the family room and noticed that not one, but TWO Elmo's are keeping watch over everyone. They add a little something to the decor, don't you think?

How could you not love these sweet faces?

They are always there for a hug and an I "wuv" you! Can't beat that!

what NOT to do...

2009-08-17T10:38:00.006-07:00

This is what happens when you dive head first into a shallow pool.

On Saturday, July 11th, Kyle was swimming with friends at one of the neighborhood community pools here in Maricopa. We were at a birthday party in Mesa when we got the call that he smacked his head on the bottom of a pool. As you know, heads bleed A LOT! He got out of the pool on his own and his friends and a lady that was a nurse tried to stop the bleeding as it was pouring down his face. They took him to urgent care. They called an ambulance and took him to Chandler regional hospital. We met him there. Mark asked him how deep the water was. He said 5 feet. And how tall are you Kyle? ummm...5'9". Do you see the problem? :o) After spending several hours there, the CAT scan showed that he broke is neck in 2 places. #1 was a clean break and #7 was crushed. Kyle was devastated!
Poor boy was crying because he was on the back board so long. His head felt like mush! Kyle nver takes pain pills for even a headache so when he begged for medication I knew he was hurting bad.

He's left with a scar that looks like an X or a wiggly K on top of his head. The hair still isn't growing back there.

After they saw how serious it was, they transferred us in an ambulance to Scottsdale Osborn hospital. Before we left, Mark and my dad gave him a priesthood blessing.

Kyle's new room at Scottsdale Osborn. We had to wait a few hours before they let us up in his room in the ICU. The first thing he said when we saw him, was "This place is messed up! They put something in my tool and it's still there!" LOL! It was funny the way he said it. Apparently they put in a catheter, because he obviously couldn't go to the restroom on his own.

On Monday afternoon his neurosurgeon scheduled his surgery. Our best friend, Hal came down to the hospital and him and Mark gave him another prieshood blessing before they took him in. I do believe in the power of the priesthood.

The surgery went perfectly. They did nothing for the number 1, but the crushed number 7, they pulled out all the broken bits and fused them together in a thingy then put it back in and put a metal plate over it to hold it in place. We were in the hospital for a total of 5 days. He has to wear his collar for 3 months-24 hours a day. We were grateful that he didn't have to wear a halo brace that screws into your skull. My sister, Coleen had to years ago and it was horrible! My normally happy, joking boy didn't smile the whole time he was there. It's a hard thing to face that a stupid mistake can cause such huge damage.

He finally smiled when we got home.

Here is the scar from surgery. We took the front part of his collar off so Brek could shave his face. I have to log roll him over to change him in and out of his shower collar then back into his everyday collar. It's kind of scary.

A few weeks later Kyle's girlfriend discovered a bald spot on the back of his head. It wasn't there the day before. He was mad...I was mad! We couldn't figure out how it happened. So he asked Brek to shave his head bald...to the skin.

This picture is after it was shaved and his hair started growing back....everywhere but in the spot. So weird! We discovered it was from being on the backboard for all those hours. It damaged his hair follicles and they just fell out. He's finally starting to get a teeny bit hair growth in there, but not nearly as much as the rest.

Kyle was Mark's employee and he obviously can't work so Mark's been putting in crazy long hours to keep up with the business. So, my house is very full. Kyle is with me everyday, so is Cole because he's still doing online school. I have Brek, Brittany and the boys. Plus Kyle's girlfriend is here everyday as well as his other friends that stop by to visit all the time. Mark goes to work and Cody goes to school. I've forgotten what a quiet house is like.

We went to have a one month check up with the neurosurgeon. They went on and on about how lucky he was and were shocked that he wasn't paralysed. They showed his X-rays to all the other doctors and nurses in the office. These people deal with this kind of serious injury all the time and really couldn't believe it. I told them it has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with God. My boy obviously has important work still to do. We count our blessings everyday.

4th of July...

2009-08-17T09:52:00.007-07:00

Mini Mark with Buzz and Woody. He loves them!

We went to Pacana Park for our 3rd annual 4th of July celebration here in Maricopa. We LOVE it!! It was really HOT! We were all sweating buckets just walking from our cars to out perfectly picked out spot on the grass. We were there with the Koozer's, Neals, Williams, Eagan's, and us, of course PLUS Brittany and the boys. {Brek had to work}They just moved back in with us, so our house grew from 5 to 9 people. The only one NOT living here is Chad. He does still live in Maricopa and we probably see him the same amount as before. Mark calls the grandsons the twin tornadoes because their path of destruction is swift. :o) I do love having those boys here. They are very sweet.
Little John

Tony and Jenny

Brittany, Mark and John

Mariela and Angel

Kaden

Chad and John Ray

Brittany and the boys

Mariah and Silvia-Michelle

Cody and Mark

Angel begged Chad to keep tossing himwoah! {note the huge smile}

Nice catch, Chad

Cole handing out cookies

John attached at the ankle

eating cookies...more like sucking the frosting off first

Coleen and Kaden dancing to the music

Cisco with blue teeth...still a cutie

Sydney performing head stands

Hal and Missie...Hal was there on duty to keep the peace. Mostly he just socialized with everyone.

Me and Cole {my baby...sniff sniff}

Me and Mark...hot, sweaty, sticky and totally worn out.

Let the fireworks begin. I took probably 100 pictures of them. Only shared a few.

ooohhh

aahhhh

ooohhh

aahhhhh

ooohhhh

Fireworks are over. It's time to go home.

Cabin time with the extended family...

2009-08-16T22:47:00.009-07:00

At the end of June we took most of my side of the family back up to our friends cabin in Strawberry. Actually about half of them. Lots couldn't make it for whatever reason. Those of us who did go had a GREAT time! Mark, Chad and Chad's friend Jason rode their motorcycles up there. The rest of us took cars and trucks. Cole snapped some pictures of them riding on our way up there.

Chad and Kindra

Kayce

throwing a football.

Chad and Mark

In cabin C, where the boys slept, they made a fort with the tumbling mats.

Don't you want to play whack a mole when you see this picture? :o)

Kyle slept A LOT while we were there....anywhere he could.

Basketball...Kindra girly-ing it up...so it's not a real word....whatever.

Mark stringing the bows. He was scared to death he was going to fling himself. Then he did them all wrong and Cody re-did them all the right way.

How scary is it to have a bunch of boys with weapons?

Cody/Robin Hood George...the professional archer

Cole...Struggled in the beginning then got really good. His arm got sore.

Mark did great and got it in the target all the time.

Kayce...being the goofy boy that he is. He's always very entertaining.

We didn't have a volleyball net so Mark got creative and made a custom net so we could all play. Kindra really wanted a net. Mark said "What Kindra wants, Kindra gets!" Now do you see why it's good that we don't have daughters. He has no self control. Can't say no to a girl.

My parent showed up with Julie's dog Turner.

Cody and Cole with my dad...big smooch!

Mark and Kindra

Rene' and Dale

Rene' and Candice

My dad and Marlon {Candice's boyfriend}

Mark cooking fajitas. We cooked ALL the time! We all ate very well.

Lots of volleyball games. More of us played the second night, but I didn't get pictures that night.

We ate outside every meal. Only place we could all eat together.

Miss Kindra

Dang cute little squirrel

Kyle...actually awake and playing with us.

Julie and Rene scrapbooking

Me and Mark on the last night. I was so tired!

We sure loved spending time with the family, but wished they all could have came.

some of June's activities...

2009-08-16T21:33:00.007-07:00

We went bowling for a family activity one night. It was lots of fun, but we only had 2 boys...which is strange...but still fun.
Cole and Cody...blurry, but cute boys

ummmm....foul!

Cody did awesome that night.

These are cucumbers...I'm honest! Disgusting creepy huge cucumbers, but cucumbers none the less. We will never grow those again. totally creep-ed me out. We will also not be growing zucchini again. That stuff gets out of control. We did have fun with our community church garden.

Mark surprised me and came home from work with this fabulous shelf. Only problem was...it was naked and needed to be filled. He so kindly took me to Rustic Hutch and we found cute things to fill it. I hung it below the window in the stairwell. So love it there. Makes me happy when I'm going up or coming down. Perfect!

Chad on his new R1. That thing is scary fast and that boy has no fear. Right now it's in the shop getting custom painted. Can't wait to see what he designed.

We met Chad and some friends at Joe's BBQ in Gilbert. Such a cute place. Love the baked potato with pulled pork on-top. Yummmm...

Kyle and Mellie

Cole

Cody

Mark and Jolene

We went to the movies together several times as a family. These picture were taken outside the Cine-mark in Mesa. We love that theater because it's not the popular hangout for the annoying kind of teenagers.

My niece Kindra came in town from Tennessee. We all met up at Organ Stop Pizza to hang out. She is a fun girl with an adorable accent.

As you all know I don't have any girls so you can bet I jumped at the chance when my sister, Coleen asked me to help her decorate girl foster daughter, Mariela's bedroom. Holy crud! I was in cute girl stuff heaven! It still needs some delicate little window treatments, but I love how it turned out.

memorial weekend...

2009-08-16T20:01:00.007-07:00

For memorial weekend we borrowed our friend/dentist's cabin up in Strawberry. Not the whole family...just a little get a way for the two of us. The cabin was great! {and free for us} We spent so much time shopping and browsing antique store and the arts and craft fair they had in my most favorite little town of Pine.

We did a little photo shoot while we were there with the tripod and remote. Got some cute pictures as well as some cruddy ones. Isn't that always the case when you take pictures.

Y'all know I'm a girl who loves barns...fabulous!

One of the days we drove over to to Flagstaff. Anytime we can drive while being in the pine tress is a good day for me.

I loved Lake Mary. Most the lakes in Arizona are in the desert surrounded by ick, so this was a refreshing change for me.

While we were in Flagstaff they had a craft fair in the park as well. The weather was perfect and the kettle corn was amazing! They made it extra sugary...just the way I like it!

I swear I visited more porta potties this weekend. Not my favorite thing to do, but was absolutely necessary. I drink lots of water...enough said! :o)

Outside Nifty Fifty's Diner just after a huge breakfast where the pancakes are as big as the plate and so dang good!

Check these guys out! Turkey's just walking around the street. We pulled up beside them and Mark gobbled at them. The didn't like that at all and gobbled very loudly back at him. Good thing the guy serving turkey legs at the craft fair didn't spot them or they surely would have been lunch for some hungry shoppers. :o)

This is the Randall House Restaurant and by far our favorite place to eat up there. So full of country charm and great food to boot.

One of the many antique stores we visited.

Mark got me so many way cute crafty things AND he happily and creatively carried them all over town. These things we got at Carol's Country Store. Totally my most favorite store. We stop in there now every time we go up there to see what new things she's made that I must have.

This old barn is a quilt shop. Attached to the side is Carol's little store.

More fun finds at antique stores. The little light bulbs are nice addition to my salt and pepper collection.

This antique phone I did NOT purchase because of it's $300 price tag....however, I LOVE it and it's been on my wish list for as long as I can remember. It's at the last antique shop on the left before you leave Pine on your way up to Strawberry. I only say this, so later if I have big bucks, I will remember where I saw it. :o)

Our time together was so much fun. Shopping, eating, playing games, going on walks, eating, long talks, eating, seeing beautiful things etc. We ate entirely too much and never ate anywhere twice. Discovered good and bad restaurants. Whenever I eat at a bad place I immediately want a do over and wish I could take that meal back, have an empty stomach and try again with something better.

power blogging...

2009-08-14T09:28:00.002-07:00

This weekend I plan to do some major power blogging to catch up. I feel horrible that I've neglected my poor little blog. Wish I could do it today, but tonight I'm hosting scrapbook night at my house, so I have to make treats and tons to do to get set up for that.

SO MUCH has happened around here...seriously! Details to come!

good stuff...

2009-05-14T12:29:00.009-07:00

Look what Mark got me! I think that boy likes me or something. How flippin' cute is this coffee table? I know...way cute! I totally love the door knob on it too. This shelf was made out of the other part of the door. Way too cute too!

I re-did the downstairs bathroom. Very outdoorsy and country cute.

Yet another old door used in a way cute way. It has a great mirror and rusty hooks and the seat lifts up for storage too. I added the bear crossing sign, the tree, the pillow, the fishing basket and net, and the rusted lantern. The moose lodge sign say "where shooting the bull is expected." The wreath has rusted tin moose and trees on it.

Yes, I made this. Love it...love the whole bathroom!

Brek, Brittany, Mark and John came over for mother's day. They even went to church with us. I was SO HAPPY!!! Mark fixed dinner and dessert AND cleaned up for my whole side of the family. It was delicious and much appreciated by all the mothers who didn't have to cook this year. Such a great day!Cole and Cody playing with baby Mark (who is not a baby anymore)

da da da da da da da da da batman! aka John...so funny!

Grammy and the boys

Grampa and Mark

Grampa and John

We are still working together on our family garden. Chad didn't make it last week though. It actually fun when we do it together. Just don't ask me if it's still fun come July. For now we are loving it!

After weeding and watering and a teeny bit of harvesting we went to Carl's Junior for a quick dinner. Kyle made a "cat" out of his box. {well, what he considers to be a cat} After he made it he salted it and called it Chinese food. LOL! That boy has a strange sense of humor.

Cole got this oh so cute heart shaped scab playing baseball. I know boys think scars are cool and manly, but not necessarily when they are shaped like a heart...poor boy! LOL! In my eyes it's still icky...especially when I saw it full screen on my monitor....shudder! He only has to get 2 more home runs this season to earn a new outfit. He has 8 so far. That boy is motivated. Who knew boys liked clothes so much. :o)

Late mother's day night I caught myself a nasty cold and was in bed for 2 solid days. Mark made me take NyQuil. I hate that stuff! Plusalso they left off an important part of the description. "the night time sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever so you can rest medicine." It should also state that it will leave to lethargic and comatose the next day without the ability to wake up at a decent hour. I was seriously worthless and slept ALL day! Mark got me those awesome puffs plus with Vicks tissues. Ironically when you really need those kinds of tissues you can't breathe, therefore you can't smell them. Today I can breathe so I've been totally enjoying sniffing the box of tissues. Smells so darn good. Little things make me happy! :o)

A glimpse of my month....

2009-04-28T09:15:00.012-07:00

I've had lots of comments and emails asking me if I'm okay because I haven't posted in over a month and it's not like me to go so long. To be honest, I have been through A LOT of emotional stuff. Actually I'm still going through it. It's been really tough, but as most of you know I'm always very positive and optimistic and I have done my best to look for the blessings in my trials. So far so good and since I'm buckled in tight to this wild ride called life. Jumping off in the middle isn't an option, now is it?! There have been plenty of good things to keep me busy as well.

I got to spend time with my very cute grandsons. They have both had haircuts since the pictures below.
I drove Cole to town every day for a week for AIMS testing and sat in the hall on the floor for 3 hours while I waited each day.
I've been to lots of Cole's baseball games. No pictures since they're all at night and apparently flash photography affects their game. Cole has his 6 home runs so far, he pitches and plays 3rd base, and he's at least a whole head taller than everyone on his team. He is an awesome player!
I got to catch up with my good friend Robbie after 25 long years. That guy has the best memory of anyone I know. It's scary and fun how much he remembers from way back then.
I went to way fun luau with a bunch of girlfriends from church. I won the hula hoop championship. I even beat out all the cute young skinny girls. I was actually impressed that I did so well. I'm thinking of buying my own hula hoop today, because it was great exercise.
Made cute garden signs for ours and Koozers gardens. Been there weeding every Monday night as a family. It's been surprisingly fun to do it together.
I bought "cute butt" pants, shorts, and capri's in 3 sizes smaller than I wore last year at this time.

Had two group dates...first one was another round of office chair hockey. We totally kicked butt, but it wasn't without injury from being slammed into walls and other people at high speed, not to mention being thrown from the chair multiple times and had a real hard fall that took major time to recover from. I laid there in a puddle for a while in pain on the floor. It was lots of fun so the pain was worth it. Second was kickball. Very fun, but discovered that I'm really not a good runner. Only made it as far as second base. Mark did awesome of course. We played for a long time...until the sprinklers came on and we called the game. I did run fast to get off the field that time. We really do have a great bunch of friends we hang out with. I love them all!
Had the funnest enrichment night where my friend Chelsea was the game show host. She was hysterical! I've never laughed so much in my life. So much in fact I cried and my stomach hurt. That girl has so much funny material that is just naturally in her head. Only pictures I have of that was on my phone.
Went to a high priest group party at the Koozers. We had dinner and games. We discovered that some people in our ward can totally lie with a straight face and others are not so good at it. Another night full of laughter.
I helped bottle 9,500 bottles of catsup-ketshup. It really was fun FAST work. Very much like the episode of I love Lucy....minus tossing chocolates in my mouth and down my blouse to keep up with the the machine. I don't think that would be so good with catsup. LOL!
Mark and I cooked breakfast for 120 people...we made 144 breakfast burritos, homemade salsa to go with them, and too many pancakes to count.
Went to the fair with Jenny and Tony. Bought a pig, had it butchered. It's now neatly stacked up in my freezer!
Ate lunch with my parents, Aunt Judy, Mark and Coleen at Tia Rosa's. That is by far my most favorite place to eat.
Had sisters night with Rene', Julie, and Coleen. We ate at Toby Keith's new restaurant and saw the movie 17 again. Fun time with my girls.
Had a ward party with a 50's theme. I did the twist and my body still hates me for it. Even Mark and my boys danced. Mark totally kicked butt in the limbo and was pretty much the only one that did it correct. I can honestly say my body doesn't bend like that anymore. Fun night!
Had my whole family over for a very yummy dinner Sunday night while Aunt Judy was still in town. Great time visiting with all of them. I wish everyone would have came.
Had family night with the Koozers last night since our BBQ was still at their house. It was a good excuse to spend time with our bestest friends. Got on the trampoline...big mistake! Mark played crack the egg with me against my wishes. There was screaming involved. That guy can still do a back flip! I can't even jump without peeing. The joys of being a mother of 5!
That's it for now. Promise not to stay away anymore! Disclaimer...there will be lots of typos. No time to edit. Heading to town and running late.

A multi topic update...

2009-03-18T23:49:00.003-07:00

March is always so busy in our family. It's full of so many fun things....too many to mention. but I will mention that it is my birthday MONTH. In fact I had my birthday on Monday and I was spoiled properly for many days of gift giving. Mark even got me a new scroll saw because mine died. I've already used it too. Love it! Our 23rd wedding anniversary was on the 8th. I woke up to roses, balloons and breakfast in bed. So nice!I thought I'd share a little blast from the past. These are our senior pictures, which is also the year we were married. I know....babies! Fun to see though....even with the permed hair and blue eye shadow. I loved the 80's! Ahhhh...Good old days!
These signs for girls camp is what I got to use my new saw on. Cute stuff, huh?! I cut, Missie sanded and base coated, then I did the words and all the detail painting then pt them together. We made a good team. Going along with the bee theme, each level is a different color and name. I haven't finished all of them yet. The stake staff (I'm one) are the "queen bees" the priesthood men are the "bee keepers" then I have to make signs for locations around camp. I can't wait to get them all done. I did get these ones all finished and put on stakes so that the girls would know where to go tonight during our first aid clinic. Missie did an excellent job putting the whole night together so the girls would be certified before camp. They all went to different classes. Some taught by nurses and others taught by firemen. As you can imagine, teenage girls really like having the firemen around. Missie did all the hard work. I just brought the signs and cutely packaged up brownies that she made as thank yous for the firemen....you know...the frivolous fun stuff. :o)

After the classes they had rooms set up as "save a ycl" (youth camp leader). Each room had girls who were pretend suffering from different problem that the girls had to help with. I had to laugh when I saw Caitlin had been attacked by a bear...as you can see by the size of him, it must have been quite the fight. I don't know if she'll fully recover. LOL!

The Skousen family was kind enough to offer plots of their farm land to families in our stake to plant a small garden. Best part is they plowed the land and they water it. All we have to do is plant it, weed it and harvest it. So great! Each family got 5 rows deep by about 10 feet or so. We planted watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, tomato's and strawberries. I can hardly wait to see it grow. We did end up with 2 plots because the Masters wanted to share a plot with another family, so now we will share our garden with Brek, Brittany and the grand babies.

Most of what we planted were from seeds except for the tomatoes and strawberries.

Mark working hard to repaid the first row. Koozer familyHal taking on the roll of supervisor/spectator. :o) Just kidding Hal. Your whole family did a great job working together to plant your garden.

This picture makes me laugh, so I had to include it. It's like he's all pumped up or something. Tough guy! LOL! There will be more garden updates to come. I did buy wood so I can make cute garden signs. The morning we planted it was freezing. I'm sure to remember that day come this summer when we're weeding in 115 degree heat here in Satan's summer home. I also got to enjoy a fun sisters day of lunch and a movie with 2 of my sisters, Coleen and Julie. Rene' always misses out on the fun because of that darn thing called a job!

Well...it's 1:00 a.m. and I don't get nearly enough sleep as it is, so I'm outta here! :o)

Birthday boy and Bee's....

2009-03-03T22:17:00.004-07:00

My Cody boy turned 16 today. It seems so strange because he's always been one of the "little boys" Brek, Chad and Kyle were always the "big boys" and Cody and Cole were the "little boys" It's really hard to re-program my brain to think otherwise. He's now of driving age, but has yet to really push the issue and I'm sure as heck not going to bring it up. I'm holding out for as long as possible because I'll be danged if he's going to drive my car. Isn't that a terrible mother thing to say?! I've been through it enough times now so I've earned the right to be concerned and protective of my car. Before I went to town I took him lunch at school. He was thrilled! Who knew taco bell and gatorade could make a kid that happy. :o) We got Cody a pair of converse shoes because he requested shoes that "didn't talk". Translation...One's that weren't split open so you can make it appear to talk with your hands. We also got him a quiver to hold his arrows, finger tip gloves for shooting and an arm guard. A few months ago Cody made his own long bow in scouts. He worked so hard on that thing and he's so proud of it. Archery quickly became his thing. He practices all the time. Last weekend he went on a big scout camp out and one of the competitions was archery. Out of 500 boys he was #1!!! How freaking cool is that?! He ended up coming home with a kids watch and another kids hatchet. Turns out he bet them he could pierce the ear of the deer on the target. Sure enough he did it both times. I felt bad that he took their things, but I wasn't there to make him give them back. He said "it's okay, mom. They were going to trade them anyways."....Whatever!

Anyways...I love that sweet TALL boy that still hugs me and tells me he loves me every single day. Makes me happy!

Happy 16th birthday Cody!

I totally forgot to post about the camp kick off meeting. I so love this years theme.
"Bee the One"
Don't you love it!
The scripture we are pulling from is 1 Timothy 4:12
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity."
Really think about that scripture. It contains a pretty powerful message. I just love it. We want each and every one of the girls to know and believe that they have the power and ability to make a difference in this world. ONE person can indeed make a positive impact in the lives of others. I've always tried to be that kind of person. I certainly make mistakes, but I feel horrible when I do and I try to be better. We have a terrific group of girls in my stake and I know the spirit will be strong at girls camp this summer. Their testimonies will grow and their desire to grow and make a difference will be a wonderful thing to watch. I can hardly wait!
For the meeting I made the poster and set up a table scape in a cute bee theme. They all loved it. As you know, I'm the craft director again this year. My next task is to come up with 3-4 craft projects EACH for up to 150 girls that go along with the theme that I can teach at camp. Plus come up with decorations for the entire camp. It's a BIG job on a LITTLE budget. I'm going to have to be really creative! I've been looking for my creative mojo. Have you seen it? I'm sure I'll find it around here somewhere. Perhaps I need to clean up my office to find it. Hmmmm...

Ugly dress party...

2009-02-27T09:54:00.008-07:00

Last night was our ugly dress party. It was a serious blast! On Wednesday I met up with Mark in town and we hit 4 of the thrift stores (two of them twice) in search of a truly ugly dress. I found some awesome ones. My favorite one being a lovely sherbet orange with really bad bead work and weird puckers. It was perfect...until I went to try it on and I couldn't even zip it up. I was so sad! That was the same fate with numerous other hideous dresses. Oh to be a size 2...if only for one night. The dress I ended up getting was a purple one that was a little less than modest so I had to wear a shirt under it to keep myself contained. Mark said it was ugly enough, but at that point he was so sick of shopping he would say anything to get me out of there. In his own words "this is the worst day ever!" I did make it up to him and went to dinner and a movie. Poor guy! LOL! When I put it on at home my boys all said..."Mom, that's not an ugly dress." LOL! Dangit! It's the only one that fit me. At the party we played several games (with prizes) ate ugly wedding cake with the traditional nuts and mints, and watched the movie "27 Dresses". I had to leave before the movie,so I'll need to rent it so I can see it.

Jeanette

Emily
Both these girls got there late after the group picture was taken.

Sarah W

Terry

Cheryl

Leah

Shannon

Yovonnie
Yovonnie in the bridal dress

Jen

Jolene

Diana

Sarah L

Chelsea

The winners...Ms.Poofy, Ms. Flashy, Ms. Ugly Color, Ms. Congeniality, Ms. Ugly DressI'm totally thinking girls should get to wear a tiara at least once a week. Perhaps Tiara Tuesday! Who cares if we're doing dishes or scrubbing toilets. We'll be rockin' it in style! LOL!

Thanks Jen and Leah for hosting a fabulous fun party! and thanks to the rest of you girls who made it extra fun. Love you all!

Sweetheart Dance...

2009-02-19T08:55:00.004-07:00

The Georges and the Koozers

Mark and I were in charge of the Stake Valentines Sweetheart Dance. We recruited the Koozer family, the Betts family and a few of the young single adults to come help set up Saturday morning. We strung hundreds of hearts across the room, blew up 300 balloons, both with helium and with lung capacity for the ones we wanted on the floor. (that's what the kids were for because blowing up balloons would make me pass out) We set up a picture taking area, food tables, DJ Area, and small intimate tables around the room. It's always amazing to me that you can totally transform the church culture hall from boring to beautiful just with decorations and turning down the lights. I set up my tripod and took pictures of all the couples that were there. We had close to 100 people there so I didn't want to pick favorites by only sharing a few on here so I'm not including any of them. Trust me...they were all so cute! Everyone had so much fun dancing, visiting and eating the yummy refreshments that the guests brought to share. After it was over we stayed late to clean up. Hal sent a big bouquet of balloons to heaven for their daughter Jesse who passed away when she was 7. I think it made her smile! Over all the dance was a huge success and it will probably become an annual event.

I got home that night with my body aching so bad. I couldn't even get undressed. I ended up sick with fever and chills all night. I had to go to church the next morning because my assistant librarian was sicker that I was. After church I came home and went back to bed. I only got up to make Kyle his birthday dinner and dessert, then I was back in bed for the better part of 3 days. Which by the way....can you believe my sweet handsome middle child is now 19 years old?! Time sure does pass too quickly! Yesterday was my first day up. I thought I had knocked this cold, then I woke up this morning and my glands are swollen huge and they hurt. Dangit! I surely don't have time for this. I have the way fun camp kick off meeting tonight. SO MUCH to do to be ready for that. I'll share what I'm working on in my next post. I love this years theme!

hmmmmm......

2009-02-13T13:32:00.007-07:00

Does this mean they really like us or hate us???

I'm undecided since it's not just toilet paper. We have loads of shredded newspaper and a dried up Christmas tree and all it's lovely pine needles too that was so gently decorated and put at the front door. What does one do with a dried up tree? Too big for the barrel and we need that space for real garbage. I just don't know.Cole is not a happy camper trying to clean it up.

Wouldn't it have been better just to drop off a whole package of toilet paper at my door, knock and run? Then we could have at least used it to wipe our bums. Or perhaps even pull my weeds while you're here. That sounds great to me.

Revenge will be ours! :o)

Gotta run...SO MUCH to do these next 3 days. Hosting scrapbook night here tonight. Also taking dinner to a family in our ward because the mom is way sick. Tomorrow decorating the church and baking treats for the stake sweetheart dance tomorrow night. Then Sunday is Kyle's 19th birthday. He's requested spaghetti and meatballs and chocolate cake. All fun stuff so I can't complain.

***Edited to add***

Mystery solved! It was ladies in our ward! LOL! Goofy women. One came by with her daughters to help clean up and bearing gifts. She confirmed it was out of love. :o)

It's about dang time I updated...

2009-02-05T21:38:00.007-07:00

My sister Julie called me today and the first thing out of her mouth was "I'm so sick of looking at your fun weekend post." So here I sit updating my much neglected blog even though I've been in a cruddy mood most of the day.

Missie had a birthday and I decided to make her a centerpiece for her kitchen island. I also made myself one so that I wouldn't covet hers. :o) I bought wood fencing, cut them down to the size I wanted, sanded the edges and nail gunned them together. Then I filled the boxes with foam blocks and spanish moss. I couldn't find my wire cutters to cut down the flower stems, so I ended up using these huge bolt cutters. It was awkward, but it got the job done. I thought I had bought enough flowers to finish both centerpieces but I miscalculated because they required way more stems, so I finished Missie's then went back to buy more a few days later so I could finish mine. I think they turned out real pretty and so did Missie. I left the wood natural, but I can always stain or paint them later if I so desire. For now, I do not desire. :o)

On Saturday morning Mark and I drove up to Clints Well camp ground to pick up Cole and Dane early from their scout snow camp out. It was a 5 hour round trip. They had a basketball game that afternoon and would have lost if they hadn't been there. They were both tired from staying up too late so they didn't have their normal energy on the court, but they still won and remain undefeated so far.Sunday after church we all went over to the Koozers house to watch the Superbowl. Cole was the lone Steelers fan so they set up an table and chair outside by himself and gave him a chip with dip, a peanut and 1/4 inch of water in a cup. It was pretty funny!Missie and I made SO MUCH food! She made these fabulous homemade pizzas that beat take out pizza hands down. The crust is amazing! (and doesn't she look so cute!) She had an assembly line with all the different toppings and I also made alfredo sauce and grilled chicken for white sauce pizzas. So dang good! We ate and ate. My only regret was not wearing stretchy pants.Wills, Bailey, and Hal
Hunter, Dane and Cody

Cade

Mark and Emmett

Kyle went to a friends house to watch the game. Buddy was in Hawaii and watched the game 6 hours after we did. Chad came and brought the guy he watches over in the disabled home. I took a picture of them, but Chad just told me that I'm not allowed to take his picture for privacy reasons, so I deleted it. Cole and Hal

(switched shirts for a few minutes)

At one point we had stopped to rewind to see commercials we missed, then later Hal would disappear upstairs to see the game in live time since we were delayed downstairs and he would come back down wearing a different shirt depending on who was winning at the time. He saw the steelers make a touchdown so he came down wearing black just in time for us to see the play. He'd be cheering "That's my team!" He must have changed from red to black a half a dozen times. He's such a goofball.

After cooking and eating Missie and I enjoyed our seats in the way back row and even got to prop our feet up, but you can't see that in this picture.

I always love watching the commercials. My families favorite one was the magic snow globe one. I happened to like the potato head one. How could you not laugh when Mrs. Potato Head put in her angry eyes?! Too funny!

Fun weekend...

2009-01-20T21:25:00.006-07:00

Friday Mark took the day off and we went to the home and garden show with my sister Coleen and her husband Eric. We started out at Bill Johnson's for breakfast to fuel us up for the long day of walking. Yes, I realize Mark's eyes are crossed in the picture. One day maybe he'll wish that he didn't look like a goofball in the majority of our pictures together, but I doubt it.
Every year we sit in these swing things and have yet to buy one even though they are really comfortable. To be honest we are so busy all the time, who has time to sit outside and relax in a swing. One day I hope to do that...but I hope when that day comes my backyard will be beautiful so I can enjoy it instead of looking around thinking those boys really need to get out here and clean up this mess...or it sure would be nice to have grass and flowers and perhaps even a tree with leaves and everything. ahhhhhh...one day.
Now this my friend is THE reason to go to the home and garden show. Seriously! I go for the Indian fry bread and we earned it from the many miles we walked. This pretty one is Mark's. Mine was just bean and cheese. Less pretty, but very tasty.After the show I met up with my girlfriends from the star group for scrapbook night. I didn't get to work on scrapbooks though because I had to make 4 posters for a sweetheart dance. Miss Mindy let me use her Cricut machine to cut out the letters. Very fun tool indeed!Saturday night was our good friend Hal's birthday party. We ate and played fun games. Hal got a little pie to the face at the end of the night. LOL! In total there was at least 7 or 8 couple. A few left before Missie took the group picture. I forgot my camera so these are from Missie's.

Me and my bestest buddy Missie

I swear his face is gonna stick like that. Dork!

Hal is a lot like me in the way his birthday is a big deal to him and mine is to me. I consider all of March to be my birthday month. Hal would count down the shopping days till his birthday, so we decided to play along with him and do a birthday rendition of the 12 days of Christmas for him. So every night he would get a delivery on his doorstep with a note and a gift. Here are what the notes said. I really wish I would have taken pictures of them. It was really fun to do.

On the first day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...a partridge in a pear tree...Sorry, but I couldn't find the partridge so we're giving you some pears from the tree the partridge flew away from.(Although your friends are true, they are late to start your days)

On the second day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...two turtle doves....unfortunately, I don't have any. Will candy turtles and a bar of Dove soap do?

On the third day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...three french hens....The french hens were not available, so we're giving you some chicken noodle soup, compliments of the three french hens.

On the fourth day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...four calling birds....I can't find those calling birds, so here are those 4 messages they left for you before they flew away.

You are the funniest person we've ever known. Humor comes so natural and genuine for you. It makes you so fun to be around.
You are the coolest darn Maricopa cop. So cool in fact, you got us out of a ticket. Not to mention all the people you help with real problems.
You are an awesome friend to us and so many others. You give of your self so freely. We are happy to count you as one of our dearest friends.
You're a great husband, father, seminary teacher and Priesthood leader.You lead by example and you're loved and respected. I think that is enough gushing. We can't have your head getting all big and huge.

On the fifth day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...5 golden rings....what, do you think we're made of money? We thought to give you pineapple rings but remembered your tongue swells up if you eat it, so ring pops were the way to go! (He did in fact wear one of his ring pops)

On the sixth day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...Six geese a laying...you don't really want those messy geese running all over the house do you? How about some of the eggs they left behind? (We gave him cage free brown chicken eggs. That was as close to geese eggs as we were gonna get)

On the seventh day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...Seven swans a swimming...All of the swans have flown south for the winter.You know...Mexico! Here are the bubbles they used while they were swimming. (bubble bath)

On the eighth day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you....Eight maids a milking.....Here is some of the milk we got from the maids. We're thinking they must have been milking some brown cows. Perhaps we should call Jimmy and ask him. (we gave him a gallon of chocolate milk)

On the ninth day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you....Nine ladies dancing....those ladies danced the night away, but told us they keep up their energy by drinking this emergen C junk. Thought you'd give it a try.

On the tenth day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...Ten Lords a leeping....Those Lords were a bit too ambitious and pulled some muscles doing all that leaping around. A little Bengay will fix them right up.

On the eleventh day till Hal's birthday, your true friends gave to you...Eleven pipers piping....We know how you like to get all involved and be in the spotlight, so here's a pipe of your own. I'm sure you'll impress us with your skills. (We gave him a flute/pipe. Poor Missie had to listen to him practice on that thing. She's such a good sport.)

On the twelfth day till Hal's birthday your true friends gave to you...Twelve drummers drumming....sorry, no drummers. We thought you could use some quiet time, so here's a special treat we drummed up for you, so relax and enjoy! We hope you had fun with this and also hope you know how much we love you! (We baked him cookies, gave him a gift card to Chili's and an IOU on a Koozer family name board. I have it painted up, but my good friend Kim who does my vinyl had her sister pass away unexpectedly, so it's not the right time to ask her.)

Hal and Missie and even their boys had a good time during the 12 day of Hal. We really had fun doing it and we sure do love their sweet family. Our family had fun improving their stealth stills each night as we took turns dropping at their doorstep and running.

So much stuff....

2009-01-15T17:19:00.007-07:00

We took down the frame and stuff when we painted the walls and it never got hung back up since it was full of old pictures. I finally printed the most recent family pictures and put them in the frame. Boy is that thing a bear to hang. It's so heavy! The wall sure does look good now. I was so sick of looking at a naked wall. Anyone who knows me knows I have NO naked walls in my house. They are all FULL!...Just the way I like it!

Look what I baked today!!! It was SUPPOSE to be a mondo huge 6 layer cake. It's the Chocolate Motherload cake recipe from the Claim Jumper Restaurant and it lives up to it's name. Problem is the frosting only made enough to cover 4 of the layers and I frosted it very thin in between each layer. The boys have been picking at the two left over naked layers of cake. Let me just say that boxed cakes are so much easier and TONS cheaper, but I'm excited to have me a big ol' piece of this cake tonight. I made it for a visiting teaching conference at the church. I hope the ladies love it!Cole had his first game of the season on Saturday. He ended up with two friends on his team, Preston and Dane. They won 13 to 12. It was a VERY intense game. I'm pleased to report that Cole grew tired of his bleached out hair and ended up letting Chad dye it back to brown the other day. It looks lots better, but has a slight silver highlight to it. I think it's from too many chemicals in his hair. It's still better than the blond. These 3 boys are the only tall boys on the team. When I take pictures at the next game, I'll get the rest of the team. They are all so little.
Mark and Hal giving Emmett some some basketball pointers.

Oh my crud! It's almost time for me to leave and I'm so not ready. We have another way fun weekend ahead of us so I plan to bring the camera along.

Typos are a given in this post. No time to edit!

Ta-Ta for now.

belated update...

2009-01-06T14:54:00.004-07:00

Chirp...Chirp...Chirp! Is that crickets I hear from a severe lack of posting to my blog? Is anybody still out there in blog land?

WOW! Christmas and New Years came and went so quickly. It felt so abnormal to me. I didn't take many pictures at our annual family Christmas eve party and the ones I did take were not great. We still had a really fun time with my parents and my sisters families. We ate tons of food, played the white elephant game and exchanged gifts. Mark was almost late to the party and had to be brought home by the police. :o) Just kidding! Well actually it's partially true. Hal did bring him home in his police car because Mark left the work van at their house so their son could steam clean out their suburban before their trip to Mexico. We bought the grand babies noisy toys to take home. (hee...hee) Brek said he would not be replacing the batteries when they died.

Christmas morning the boys got us up at O dark thirty. I was so tired! They opened their presents (which they loved) They all got clothes, scriptures, and stuff to make them smell good. We splurged and got them the Wii this year. I decided it was okay since it's an active game system. I have yet found time to play it, but I'm looking forward to kicking butt in wii bowling. I got Mark all kinds of good stuff, like a new set of scriptures, clothes, a GPS system and lights for the motorcycle. He got me some beautiful jewelry and tons of new watches to match different outfits.

Later that morning we had the Koozer family over for a big breakfast. We so love their company! While the boys played games and watched movies Mark and I drove to Casa Grande to visit his mom. His dad was working but we still had a great visit with his mom.

New Years Eve we hosted a party because we don't like to be out on the roads when the amount of drunk drivers is higher. It was us, the Koozers, The Munns and the Mixes. The Mixes left before the picture was taken. Most of all our combined kids were home with the exception of a few that wanted to go to a youth dance. We had tons of finger foods and a chocolate fountain going so we could graze all night long (and we did) Hal had to work, so he kept coming and going all night in between police calls. The neighbors probably thought we were having one crazy party or something. LOL!

She loved the chocolate fountain!

We played games all night. Some were games at home, but the funnest was office chair hockey at the church. Since I have a key to the building and nobody was using it, we decided to jump on it. We loaded up all the kids, 2 office chairs, brooms, and a ball. We lined up on opposite sides of the gym in even team, then paired up with a partner. Missy and I were partners. Two teams face off in the middle with broom in hand. One person pushing the other around in an attempt to score a goal. After each round they would call out team numbers for the next round and you have to run to your chair fast so you could get first whack at the ball. We did pretty darn good and it was dang good exercise to boot, so I have no guilt for all the junk I ate. This really was the funnest game. We all laughed so hard. My good broom ended up broken. Next time I'll have to bring cruddy brooms. At midnight we celebrated with sparkling cider. I smooched my husband and hugged my friends. We visited for another hour or so, then headed to bed around 1:30 only to get a 5:00a.m. wake up call for the New Years Day charity ride...sleep is not something I've been getting much of.

Oh, guess what? TODAY I finally went to the gynecologist. I haven't been since my last baby was born, so my feet haven't been in those awful stirrups in over 12 years. So not fun but long overdue. Won't have test results back for 2 weeks. I have to get an ultrasound of my uterus on Thursday. Yay me!

Okay...gotta run. I started typing this blog this afternoon. I managed to squeeze in a doctors visit, the pharmacy and grocery shopping in between. Now I'm going to go make breakfast for dinner at almost 8:00 at night

Let me tell you that when you dont have time for the computer you totally lose your typing skills...seriously!

I have no business blogging...

2008-12-24T10:56:00.006-07:00

Had to pop in to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! I honestly have no time to be blogging, but guilt has set in, so I thought I better post. Everything is great here...just clearly not enough hours in the day. I've even cut back on sleep and I still can't get it all done. Crazy!We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday night. Mark is high counselor over the 7th ward and they asked him to be there Santa. Actually our ward asked him too, but their party was the same night and he already told them yes. We did skip out of our ward party early to go help him get suited up and so the boys could make fun of him, as teenage+ boys like to do. I know you probobably noticed a blonde haired Cole in the picture. While I was in the shower, Chad was highlighting his hair and Cole decided to use the rest of the bottle on his whole head. I hate it. He loves it...of course!I even got to sit on Santa's lap. He said I could have anything I want. Isn't that nice?! :o)Yesterday I baked 21 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and cutely packaged them up with some little candy canes on top. It's a tradition that where ever we live we deliver treats to all the houses on our street. We know loads of people in Maricopa but we still don't know hardly anyone on our street. Hopefully our neighbors will become a little more social. My not so little elves getting ready to go deliver.
Our good friend Jimmy had a birthday and they happen to be moving this weekend, so I got him a gift. He works at the dairy and knows more about cows than anyone I know. When he moves to snowflake he is going to teach agriculture at the high school, so I thought the cute farm animal stack was a perfect gift. The quote on it says The sky is the limit when your heart is in it. I also liked the letter blocks and thought his sweet wife would like their last name spelled out. (and she did) We had their family and our other home teachers family over for dinner on Sunday night. It was so much fun visiting with all of them. We are sure going to miss the Crosby's.

I've really gotta run now. Mark just called wondering why I'm still in Maricopa and not in town getting my errands done before the whole family come over here for the party tonight....So much to do...so little time!

insomnia...

2008-12-16T01:28:00.005-07:00

I finally got my wallet sized pictures in the mail for my Christmas cards! Yippee!

What??? You ask if I've even got my cards done yet? ummmm....well no!

I've been running ragged for far too many days in a row and sheer exhaustion got the best of me. At least everything I've been up to has been way fun and totally worth it. I haven't even been home long enough to do any of my chores. Do you think that ANY of the boys have done their chores either? and big NO on that one too! The house is starting to suffer from neglect, so someone had better step up the the plate around here.

Got cramps...took midol...midol has caffeine...who knew?...not me! Should read the labels first.

Wide awake emailing, blogging, printing pictures, writing a letter from Santa to my nephews, looking for girls camp craft ideas, etc. Everything but sleeping at 1:42 a.m and we have an 8:00 a.m meeting at the school. I'm a lucky girl, I tell ya! Off to bed to stare into darkness in hopes I fall asleep soon.

For the love of family...pictures...

2008-12-09T18:48:00.003-07:00

John and Mark...so darn cute, but far too young to even fathom cooperation for pictures. They were running all over the place and rolling/falling down hills. How could they possible sit still when they were green hills to conquer?! Let me just say, that the big boys were NO BETTER!! I'm not exaggerating when I say that they were goofing off in 97% of the pictures. I'll only share a few of them.
Mark

John-the tree hugger

Brittany

Brek

Cody Chad
HunterCole
Kyle-yes, this is what I got out of Kyle.

and this...

and this...and this...until I got this! The apple sure doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?!

Jolene (me) and Mark

Didn't you know nice boys fondle each other? Sick sick children. :o)

In this pose Kyle would move to a different position for every shot and the other boys would pull faces. Cole is doing his Doctor Evil pose. This is one of the best. We're also not centered, but beggars can't be choosers.

This one the babies actually smiled. I love this picture! This is the one I chose for our Christmas cards. I did print some goofy ones for the wall too, only because that is mostly what I got, and lets face it...that's who they are.

Cookie exchange...

2008-12-07T19:19:00.004-07:00

Saturday morning I hosted a cookie exchange at my house. We had 2 dozen girls with 6 dozen cookies each adding up to a whopping 144 dozen cookies! So many tasty treats to be shared. Many girls were up baking till the wee hours of the night. All for the love of cookies and friendship. :o) Mark and I cooked everyone a great big breakfast. We all got to visit while we ate, then everyone got to go around the table to get a sampling of everyone's yummy cookies to take home. I ate my fair share of them later that day and now I'm really feeling the need to go to aerobics. I missed all last week because of this darn cold. It will feel like starting over. I will be made to suffer.

I want to thank all my sweet and beautiful friends and sisters for coming over to share some laughter, friendship, food, Christmas spirit and cookies! I sure do love and appreciate you girls!
Next post will be a "peek" at our family Christmas card pictures that we took today. I don't really think we got even one good one, but we did get plenty of goofy boy pictures. You know...standard George boys type photos.

Thanksgiving stuff...

2008-12-01T16:22:00.004-07:00

This year we had Thanksgiving up in Payson at Mark's brother Rodney and his wife Cam's house. They have a beautiful home with a gorgeous view. It rained pretty much all day. I loved every minute of it.
I think we had 32 people there total. This is only some of us. Even with that many people we still had loads of leftovers. I made 5 very yummy pies and other people brought pies, cakes and mini cheesecakes, so there was no shortage of desserts to eat after the feast. Why do I always forget to wear stretchy pants on Thanksgiving? Plus we ate Thanksgiving with our friends the Koozer's on Wednesday night. I'm totally afraid to get on the scale, so I'm choosing not to until I have at least a week of aerobics under my belt. By the way, the Koozer's oldest son, Charl got his mission call. He's going to Rome, Italy!!! How neat to get to learn Italian and share the gospel in Italy for 2 years. It will be an amazing experience for him. We are so excited for him!Me and my hubbyOne of the funniest moments was after we had been there for over 2 1/2 hours, Cole says out loud..."Hey mom, there are 2 Cam's!" LOL! We all laughed so hard. I had no idea he didn't know she had a twin sister. And how did he manage to go that long without seeing them together. It was just too funny!
We were suppose to do the turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning, but I haven't been sleeping so I was too tired to get up and do that and still be able to function the rest of the day. I was really looking forward to it. Me, Mark, Chad and Hunter ventured out for some black Friday shopping after a very hearty breakfast at Bill Johnson's to keep us going all day. I got my Christmas tree up and decorated, but none of the other decorations yet.
We had family home evening last night about free agency and choice and accountability and also discussed household chores and responsibilities. Everyone was assigned new chores, so I'll be less stressed trying to do too much around here by myself. We even assigned dish nights, and since there are 7 people living here I only have to do dishes on Monday's. I'm so dang excited!
So how was your Thanksgiving? Are you busy getting ready for Christmas? I finally gave in to the Christmas music. I refuse to listen to it until after Thanksgiving.

I woke up with a cold this morning. I feel ick! I ran up to the store to get some zicam in hopes to knock it down speedy quick. There's NO time to get sick.

I have a strong testimony of tithing. We pay our tithing faithfully. I write a check every Sunday whether there is money in the account or not. I have faith that by the time the check clears, I will have money in the bank to cover it and I always do. Not paying it just isn't an option in my head. It's been a tough year financially for us due to some properties that choose not to pay us the MANY thousands of dollars they owe us. Plus we were suppose to get a $3,000 tax refund in October, but the IRS decided that instead, we owe them like $5,000. How could that be??? So we've been fighting them on it because we knew that we were honest in our dealings with them. So, today in the mail I get a check from them for over $4,000!!! How cool is that?! and who EVER win arguments with the IRS? I actually cried as I sat there at the mailbox because I knew we were going to be able to get all of our bills paid. I know you receive blessings when you do things that require faith, but I surely didn't expect this. I am deeply grateful to my Heavenly Father for watching over my family and blessing us for being faithful when it was so hard to do. Oh happy day!

FYI...when a boy leaves a pen in his pocket and runs it through the laundry, it tends to explode in the dryer resulting in ink stained clothes and ink stained dryer drum. Magic eraser with nail polish remover does a semi-okay job, but the fumes may very well kill ya.

boys and eggs

2008-11-29T13:00:00.001-07:00

Is it ever a good day when the police are at your door early in the morning? I think not!!! It's especially not good when the neighbors are complaining about having their houses egged and you just so happen to be missing a dozen eggs. Dumb boy with a dumb friend! Grrrrr!!! There's been plenty of power washing of houses happening today as well as sweeping up egg shells. Thank heavens they got it all off without any permanent damage. Eggs have the magic ability to remove paint. (which is criminal damage, in case you were wondering) Being a mother of boys who choose not to use their brains is no picnic, that's for sure.
Back to working on the "pre-lit" Christmas tree that is now only partially pre-lit after numerous years of use. I just added 600 more lights and it still isn't as bright as I'd like...dang!
Thanksgiving re-cap to come...

best friends, sisters, wrestling, cards...

2008-11-25T01:38:00.003-07:00

When one can't sleep...she blogs, of course! Darn restless leg syndrome has me up, plus I knew I was in trouble this morning when the aerobics instructor announced she had some pent up aggression she needed to get out. We all paid for that with an extra hard work out. As hard as it was, it's kind of nice to be challenged like that. The weight is coming off SO SLOWLY now. I'm down 25-26 pounds depending on the day. I've gotta get through the holiday eating fest and at least maintain.

We had out best friends, the Koozer family over for dinner the other night. It was so much fun. We just love their whole family. I made chicken cordon bleu lasagna casserole. It's so dang good and it makes a ton so I only make it for company and parties. I also made the garlic bread and Missie made a normal lasagna (for those non alfredo sauce loving people) and salad. We had such a great time visiting. We laughed so much. Hal is the most genuinely funny people I've ever met and it's so nice to see how much he loves his sweet wife. While we were all talking we discovered that I am good friends with Missie's sister Carrie and didn't even know they were sisters. Such a small world. Crazy thing is, they look so much alike and often times talk alike too. The first time we saw them in church Mark leaned over to me and said "she looks like Carrie" I said, "I guess she kind of does" After that I never thought about it again until the other night because I got to know her just as her instead of as Carrie's sister. Now that I know, so many familiar things just pop out at me. It's just too funny!

I posted the recipe a long time ago and I don't know whee so here it is again...

This is the recipe from memory...I'm not big fan of measuring. I'm more of a dump it in, that looks good kind of girl.

Chicken cordon bleu lasagna casserole

6 chicken breasts cooked and diced or shredded (I bake them with water in the jelly roll pan. Olive oil on top and season with salt, pepper, lawrey's, onion powder, garlic powder. They stay moist that way)

2-3 cups of diced ham

2-1 pound boxes of pasta Whatever shape you like. I use penne or bowtie

1-16 oz container of cottage cheese

1 container of ricotta cheese

1-6 oz container of shredded parmesan cheese

1 pound block of mozzarella cheese-shredded

1 pound block of swiss cheese-shredded

Alfredo sauce

2 sticks of butter

4 oz. of cream cheese

1 quart of heavy cream

1-6 oz. container of shredded parmesan cheese

2 tsp. garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

If you are making alfredo sauce to eat on pasta make it normal, but for this recipe add in 3/4 to 1 cup of milk. It helps keep it moist and saucy.

Simmer butter, cream cheese, heavy cream and extra milk. When melted add parmesan cheese garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Simmer until cheese is melted. Cook your pasta until tender and drain. Dump everything into a large bowl and pour the alfredo sauce over the top and mix well. Pour into a large pan or two 9X13 pans. Reserve half of your mozzarella and swiss cheese to sprinkle on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Friday we had our "sisters day"...minus Rene' who had to work. We met up at Coleen's house and went to Bill Johnson's Big Apple for breakfast. It's my FAVORITE place to eat breakfast! I love it! Plus it's such a hearty meal, we're set for a long day of shopping without getting hungry. Notice the picture of us girls together. I'm 5'4" Coleen WAS 5'2" and Julie WAS 5'3". They shrank! I'm honest...they really did! I look huge compared to them. Then there is little Rene' who is only 4'11". I tower over her and I'm not a tall girl.

Did you know that I have mean sisters who play slug bug with like real hard punching and everything? They don't even care when you say "I don't play those kinds of games and I bruise easy." My heart was racing because they have trained eyes too look for those stupid cars and I just knew they'd see them before me. It made my stomach hurt. After being punched HARD in the arm twice I opted to sit in the back seat and let Julie and Coleen smack the crap out of each other as they called out "yellow slug bug...white slug bug" My arm still hurts! Dumb girls! We did had a great time shopping all over town. I'm looking forward to black Friday shopping. Not so much the getting up at O' dark thirty or standing in line in the cold, but the excitement of the day is pretty fun. To me it's the kick off to Christmas.

Cole had a wrestling tournament this past Saturday. He had to be at the school at 3:30 in the morning to be in San Manuel in time. I've never even heard of that town, but it's far. Mark went there to watch and take pictures. Most of them were really blurry because he was sitting so far away. They competed against 16 schools and Cole came in 6th in his weight out of 36. Not too shabby for his first tournament. They didn't get home until after 8:00 at night....and that was early compared to the kids who had to ride the bus home. Cole rode on the back of the motorcycle and left 3 hours before the others. Talk about a bunch of tired kids.Some of you have been asking about Christmas cards. I didn't think I was going to be able to make them this year because of lack of time and budget. I normally start on them October 1st and already have the family picture taken. Plus I normally make 300. I just don't have it in me this year. I was forced into only making 125 of which only 50 are done so far. My friend Cathy invited me to her house on Saturday to scrap so I worked on them there. It's been a long time since we've gotten together. We had a lot of fun visiting while we worked. Her kids are so big and her girls are beautiful! Makes glad to have boys. My stomach would hurt thinking about them dating boys. We still haven't even taken the family picture, but it will be printed in wallet size and stuck in that white spot on the front. These are the most simple cards...kind of boning. With time being an issue, fancy just wasn't going to happen. The quote under the family picture says
"The best things in life aren't things.
Share the gift of love this year."
I printed the family message on the inside of the card. I'm hoping to gather my children and grandchildren this weekend for a little photo shoot. Wish me luck!
Well...it's going on 3:00 a.m. and I won't be able to survive aerobics or even function tomorrow if I don't get a few hours of sleep.

photo shoot, bike, layout, craft instructions...

2008-11-18T20:19:00.005-07:00

My sister Coleen wanted me to take her family pictures. Let me just say that it was NOT an easy task to do. There are far more bad shot than good ones. Her oldest son is autistic as well has having other issues. He is smart and funny as heck, but doesn't always cooperate when he should. The 3 younger are all foster kids and boy do we love them. They were all born with some sort of disadvantage. For the most part, premature deliveries and addicted to drugs, so they have been a bit delayed, but Coleen works really well with them and they are all such good kids....Just don't sit well for pictures. I did take 118 so she'll have plenty to choose from. I think she needs to print some of the ones where their goofing off. It demonstrates real life. :o)Mariela and Angel didn't smile in most of the pictures, but look how happy she is when she is trying to rip off Eric's nose. LOL!

Cisco isn't paying attention to anything, but I love this one anyways.

The girls

The boysKaden

Cisco

Mariela

Angel

Aren't they the cutest little kids?!

This past weekend, Mark sold one of his motorcycles. I actually cried because it's such a pretty bike, plus I know how much he loves it. Mark rode with the guy who flew in from Texas to buy it to Casa Grande then gave him instructions on how to get home from there. He said it was hard to see it ride away. Makes me sad. The guy called when he got home and said how much he loves it and how every place he stopped a long the way he got compliments on how nice it is. I think that kind of made it worse in Mark's head. He is glad it will be taken care of by someone who really wanted it.

I actually got to scrapbook on Friday night. I went to my friend Stacie's house and got ONE whole layout done of me and my goofy man. It's way too hard to be creative when you rarely scrapbook. It's true that if you don't use it you lose it. This layout was created from stuff that was part of a page kit, then I added some of my own things and tweaked it till it was my own.

Instructions....Finally!!!!

Yes, these are the glass blocks you buy at home depot or Lowe's. To drill a hole in the bottom use a glass bit--also found at Lowe's or home depot, $15.00 ish --it looks like a cylinder...no tip--does that make sense? Put in sink, turn water on cold to a steady small stream on block. Drill hole, be firm but don't push it too hard, let drill bit do the work!!! Only takes 15 sec or so. Let the water drain out and dry. Carefully shove a 20-35 count strand white lights in the hole leaving out a long enough end to plug in. Apply the vinyl, which can be bought here. She has a real cute blog with lots of crafty ideas. It's actually cheaper than where we got ours. Wrap ribbon around the block. Tie a big bow and hot glue to the top. You're done!

Priesthood and cotton pickin'...

2008-11-11T17:59:00.010-07:00

Last Thursday was a special day. Mark ordained Chad to be an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood. He gave him a really wonderful blessing that touched my heart. It's pretty neat when you can see your kids take these big steps in their lives...especially when they are decisions they made on their own. Our good friends Missie and Hal son, Charl also became an Elder. It made it extra special to be able to do it together and share the experience with such good people. These are such good boys. I am so proud of both of them. Afterwards we had a house full of family and friends over for dinner. (like 40 people) It was so fun to visit and laugh with them. We really had a great evening. Aren't my guys so handsome?!

Ummmm...is it illegal to pick cotton from a cotton field? A few things come to mind like trespassing and theft, but I don't know.

On the other hand. Taking railroad spikes out of the train tracks on the way to the cotton fields I'm pretty positive is illegal.These dang boys are always keeping me on my toes! They are all at the park, otherwise I'd be sending them back to the tracks right now with a hammer to put them back in. Looks like they will be doing it in the dark by flash light soon. They did say that they only took ones that were really loose or ones that were already out due to vibration from the trains. I've heard trains all day so I think the track is fine.

My pictures are STILL ginormous! What the crud!!! I can't stand it!

Taking Brianna's advise with the click and drag method to reduce the size of the pictures. Seems to work, but some end up a little distorted and you can't get them all the same size. What a pain in the rear.

Halloween fun...

2008-11-02T18:25:00.006-07:00

This year for Halloween we went to our wards "trunk or treat" party. It was so nice to be able to sit around and visit with our good friends. Mark and I bought costumes. We were planning on being the SNL Spartan Cheerleaders, but Mark decided that because we didn't have time to practice the all the goofy cheers, that we'll have to wait and do that next year. We can so do goofy so I know it would have been a lot of fun. He ended up being really late to the party, so I went out on a limb and dressed up as a biker chick since I wasn't about to run out and buy another costume. I did however break out my way cute pink leather chaps now that I can finally fit into them. It's hard to tell what's on my do-rag, but they are pink pigs flying. I told my boys that would be the answer to most questions they had for me. Question:"Mom, can I go over to Erica's house?" Answer: "When pigs fly!" LOL! I do need to be careful because they did threaten to toss some pigs in the air and count that as flying.Cole passing out candy. Cole and Cody. Don't ask! Boys are just weird! Me and my good friend Missie, whom I love and adore! I'm so glad her family moved out here. We have SO MUCH in common and we truly love their family. We clicked instantly. Plus she is my aerobics buddy with a common goal not to jiggle anymore. :o) She even said I had a cute butt with my levis and chaps on. Now THAT is a good friend! LOL! Gotta lover her! :o) One day last week aerobics was cancelled so we were good girls and walked the "loop" which from my house and back is 3 miles. Her house is a little closer though but it was a good walk.

Shannon, Me and Kathy - two of my other good friends. I do aerobics with Shannon too and she went to girls camp with me. Such a sweetie! Kathy is Stacey mom. (Chad's girlfriend) She is a sweetie too. We sure love both of their families. Just real good people!
Hunter, Chad, Stacey, Jennifer. Happy Birthday Sweet Jennifer! Don't ask what Hunter is doing...dork!

Jimmy and Shannon...they are so cute together. Fun people!Stacey, Carly,& Jennifer (sisters)Me and Miss Elizabeth. She is one of the cute young women that I dearly miss. She is daughter to Jimmy and Shannon. Missy ended up with my calling in young women's. I was thrilled because she is so much like me and I knew the girls were in good hands.

After the party we went over to the Maricopa High School homecoming football game against Globe. Just look at how gorgeous that field is! Holy Crud is it ever beautiful! I realize that we should have won the homecoming game. We were ahead for a while then lost it in the end. It was still a good game though. Hopefully we will have a better season next year. Before the game was over the high school had a fire in building 200. Lots of fire trucks and cops. Makes me sad since they just rebuilt the old school just in time for the new year. You can see the smokey haze over the field in one of the pictures. I hope the damage isn't too bad. Missies husband, Hal hung out for a little while at the game then he had to attend to police business. I'll have to find out from him just how bad the damage was.

Some of you had crafty questions that I haven't forgotten about. I'm going to call my friend and get details about the glass blocks and the nativity vinyl for you. I know there is a special technique when drilling the hole to put the lights in to keep the block from breaking. Details on next post or I will edit the bottom of this one, so keep your eyes open.

I so wish blogger would fix this ginormous picture problem. It makes my blog look ugly. Can you believe it's November already? I'm a little (lot) scared how fast the holiday's are upon us. Get this...we're still in the mid 90's here. Sure doesn't feel like fall.

Craftyness and the birthday boy...

2008-10-30T19:19:00.005-07:00

Apparently blogger is still having big picture issues. I don't get it and I can't do anything about it. Oh well!

Has it really been a week since I've posted? My life is not only really busy, but highly stressful lately. Certainly not a good excuse, but an excuse none the less. Forgive me.

I had some vinyl cut for my kitchen above my sink. It say "No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes." I didn't apply it completely straight, but once it's down, it's down for good. I totally love it and it seems to fit this house that I'm completely out numbered by men in. Lets be honest here...has it given any of them a strong desire to do the dishes? NOPE! I'm lucky that they unloaded the groceries when I got home from the store. At least they all do their own laundry.

Saturday Mark and I spent the whole day together. We had lunch at Chili's. We always share a meal there and we shared the chocolate molten lava cake too. (which was free for his birthday) Dang, that was good! After that I went to work with him so he could finish up a flood he'd been working on. He loves it when I go to work with him. Then we did a little shopping. I love spending time with my handsome hubby! Happy Birthday honey...I love you!

We've had a crazy busy week since then. Too many things to even remember....some of which I'd rather not and others that were pretty fun. We are looking forward to our ward Halloween party. Should be a lot of fun! I hope you all have a great and safe Halloween!

I have a new love...

2008-10-23T09:59:00.010-07:00

Beep...Beep...Beep!

Interrupting this regularly scheduled program to bring you an important commercial break. A few months ago I bought this pumice scouring bar and I haven't used it until today because I kept forgetting to buy gloves. Anyone who lives in Arizona knows we have hard water and it leaves a real ugly hard water ring in the toilets that makes it look like you never cleaned it when in fact it is and you scrubbed the heck out of it. For some reason I didn't really have this bad of a problem when we lived in Mesa, so Maricopa's water must be really icky. Look at the difference when I was half way done and it didn't take long at all. Its a flippin' miracle!The grinding sound it makes is not pleasant, but the outcome is worth it. I've been needing to clean my filthy house all week, but I've been dealing with some emotional stress lately. I can't clean when I'm sad. It just sucks the life right out of me. However I clean great when I'm mad and a few of my children (which shall remain nameless) have given me all kinds of motivation to clean like a mad woman....Grrrrr...

Pumice stone + gloves + a little elbow grease = one happy girl!

Run...don't walk to the store and get one of these bad boys! Okay...you can drive if you must. So freaking awesome! I love it! love it! love it!

I'll answer crafty questions next. Promise!

What the heck is up with blogger?...My pictures are ginormous and I can't make them small for the life of me. Oh well, I can't deal with it now.

Back to work!

Super Saturday....

2008-10-20T22:20:00.006-07:00

This past Saturday was the day I taught the magnet board craft class at our Super Saturday at the church. All but 4 of the girls who signed up for my class were there so that wasn't too bad. People brought things to share for breakfast. Wouldn't ya know it...not one savory dish. It was a whole entire table full of yummy sweet stuff. We were all on a sugar high all morning. It didn't help that I bought chocolate for each of the tables that day. Everyone had a pretty fun time and got a lot done. Bt the time we were done there i was more than ready for some real food.
Here are a couple of the projects I got done. Well actually Chad helped me get them done being the crafty boy/assistant that I taught him to be while I taught my class. You can see him in one of the pictures above in the orange shirt. The original glass block class had only the middle one with Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus and had a plain red ribbon. I have connections and my very cool friend Allison let me buy the whole set of vinyl and I used my own sparkly ribbon. I love how it turned out!
I couldn't decide which quotes I wanted to order so I got all 4 that were offered. Sticking the vinyl on the tiles was pretty quick since Chad did all of these too. So cute!

Then I drove clear the heck out to Queen Creek to take Cody over to our good friends house because he was going to homecoming with their daughter Brooke. The theme was "Grease" I thought they looked so dang cute! Since they live an hour away and the dance didn't get over until midnight I let Cody sleep over at their house on the couch and I picked him up the next day. I know...letting a boy spend the night at a girls house doesn't exactly demonstrate my parenting skills at their finest, but I do trust the parents and everything was fine. :o)I tried to get Cole to take a picture of my legs so you could tell me if you think they look too big to wear cute zip up boots but he mostly just got the shoes....which are very cute shoes but after wearing them for 8 solid hours...not so much! Anyways...I've tried on so many stinking pairs of tall zip up boots and I can get them on but zipping them up just doesn't happen and it makes me so stinking mad! I'd also like a mid calf boot with furry edges that I can tuck jeans into....like that will ever happen. Sheesh! To me, my legs don't look that huge, but apparently only skinny girls with stick legs can wear cute boots. What a shame! If you happen to be one of those skinny girls with stick legs, please don't think I'm being mean. Just wishing I could get some cute boots for myself.

It's far too late for me to proof read tonight so you'll have to live with the many typo's this post is sure to have. Night all! :o)

birthday boy and big head...

2008-10-14T23:14:00.006-07:00

Today is my sweet boy Brek's birthday. I sure love that boy/man and I'm proud of the husband and father he has become. I know it's not easy at such a young age, but he stepped up the the plate and took on the huge responsibility. He really has a sweet little family. He is 22 years old now! Can you even believe it? It's crazy I tell you. I went to town and took him, Brittany and the boys some lunch. It was nice to see them. Brek said it's kind of my day too since I was there and all on his actually BIRTHday all those years ago. Goofball! Dang straight I was there and by the time he was there I was exhausted and so dang happy for him to be out of my tummy. I just don't do that whole pregnancy/labor/delivery thing very well....yet I decided to do it to myself 5 times and each time it got harder. I'm not sure if I was just really strong or crazy. Lets not dwell on that question too long because I may not like the answer. I am however grateful for all of my boys...even when Cole comes to me at 8:00 at tonight and says we need to go to the store to get modeling clay for a project AND write a report on Sargon the king of Mesopotamia that is due TOMORROW! Yep! I still love him, but I'm not real fond of him right now. The good mom that I am took him to the store and helped him with it. He finally got to bed at 11:00 so I'm sure he won't be worth much as school, but at least it won't be turned in late. That's the one class he is really struggling in so he can't afford any more slip ups.

Anyways, Brek had kind of a rough day so please take a minute to wish him happy birthday. I know he'd appreciate it. Thanks in advance!

This is totally not the images I was looking for and the pixels are terrible. I wanted a picture of this silly doll I saw on good eats with Alton Brown on the food network a long time ago. When you squeeze it the brain get huge. Totally makes me laugh. but these pictures will do in a pinch. Ya'll remember pinky and the brain. I had to use brain because after reading all of your flattering comments on my last post I got myself a big ol' head! LOL! I just can't believe how nice everyone is and I have to say that Mark agrees with all of you. He tells me every day how good I look...which is a nice self esteem booster. It's always a good day when you receive a compliment. On days that I don't get one I can always come read your comments and give myself a big head all over again. :o) I hope you all know I'm kidding. I am deeply grateful and flattered, but I'm not the kind of girl that lets things go to her head. That whole modesty thing is deeply embedded. For those of you that felt inspired to get yourselves in shape, please share your story with me. If you are doing great or struggling I want to hear it so I can be a source of support to you because I know it's not easy. It's a daily battle for me. I had a rough day last week and dang near drove myself to Krispy Creme to buy a whole box on doughnuts that I had no intention of sharing with anyone....I'm honest! It was bad! I got over it and I didn't cave, but let me tell you that your sweet and supportive comments made a difference in my decision. Women need to be a source of support to each other.

Oh my crud! It's almost midnight and I had pictures I wanted to share but my camera battery died. Dang it! I guess that will be my next post.

Before and After(ish)...

2008-10-08T17:43:00.007-07:00

Miss Angie over at Angieinshape has just ended round two of the get in shape challenge and she has asked for all of her participants to share their success stories and pictures. Angie will not be doing a round 3 right now because she is now expecting another baby. I am thrilled for her and her family and completely understand. However, I have yet to reach my goal so I will continue on with round 3 on my own and round 4 and 5 if necessary. I am a determined girl! The above picture is my exercise mat that I use for aerobics, my massively huge 1 1/2 pound weights. Impressive, huh?! :o) Baby steps people! The weight of my own arms is plenty heavy so even these little weights are a workout and I have lost an inch off my arms already, so they must be working. Then there is the all important 52 oz QT jug that I use to fill up daily with oh so good pepsi (sometimes twice) and now it's filled with equally good ice water and it's better for me. I can not get through aerobics without my water. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or I'm just that out of shape, but I dehydrate really fast.

I never thought I'd ever, and I mean EVER share this picture, but I surprise myself everyday. No, I'm NOT pregnant in it, but I sure do look miserable in it and I was.. Remember my baby is 12 and he took this of me back in April. I remember that day very well because I sat here and cried as I looked at it. It's still painful to look at. It's the same one I printed and put on my bathroom wall so I was forced to look at it several times a day. I'm always honest on my blog so I'm not going to sugar coat over numbers. I was 185 pounds there and even though I knew I was a great girl with lots to offer, I had serious self esteem issues. Even now I do, but I'm gaining more confidence every day and if it's possible, I'm even more outgoing.

This picture was taken today at 163 pounds. I've "released" 22 pounds so far. I try not to say "lost" because I would prefer that those pounds don't come looking for me just thinking they've been misplaced. So instead they have been released in hopes to never return. I have 18 more pounds to go to reach my goal of 145. I was a mere 105 pounds when I got married and I have no desire to be that thin again even though I was still shapely at that weight. I chose 145 pounds as my goal because I think it's a healthy weight for my age and when I go to the doctors office and step on those awful scales I don't want to be standing there as the nurse humors me by starting out at the lower weight and I have to watch her slide it all the way up before she has to move the big weight up another notch and start over. It's humiliating! Last time I just told her "No honey...you need to start and the 150 and go from there. I haven't seen the 100 in a real long time."

I'm going to be honest and tell you I don't eat healthy foods, frankly because I don't like most all of them. Salads are beautiful! Love to make them, but will NOT eat them. Gross! Life is too short not to enjoy good food, so I eat whatever I want, only smaller portions. I don't feel like I'm depriving myself, which only makes me grouchy anyways. I still have a pepsi every once in a while for the same reason. I know I couldn't do this whole thing without exercise because the icky before picture is no exercise. So in 18 more pounds I hope not to jiggle anywhere and for my thighs not to touch and for my tummy to be flat! I will post another update once I get there.

Thursday is a happy day! (tomorrow) QT/QuickTrip in Maricopa is having their grand opening in the morning! Guess who will be there bright and early filling up her ginormous QT cup full of yummy ice?! ME!!! I'm so dang excited! AND my cute Kyle is a clerk there so I'll get to see him. I'm thinking I need to bring my camera. :o) I've been looking forward to Thursday for a while now and it's finally here. I've been going to QT in town twice a week and that's just not enough for my liking. Today I went and the good ice machine was down. I was devastated! The dude said he broke it on purpose because he's trying to help me over come my habit. Dang him! Little does he know I just went to another one a few miles away. Don't get between a girl and her soft ice! :o)

My baby is 12....

2008-10-05T22:04:00.004-07:00

Cole turned 12 on Friday. I can hardly believe that my baby boy is growing up so fast. And no, he doesn't like being called my baby boy,especially sonce he's bigger than me but that's just what happens when your born last. His only request was he wanted to go bowling with our family and invite a few friends. You know a nice small scale party. Then it snowballed quickly and it turned out to be such a way fun party with lots of silliness. We reserved 3 lanes so up to 18 people could bowl. I didn't bowl because I wanted to make sure everyone else got to , plus I forgot to bring socks to town and the thought of bare feet in bowling shoes makes me shudder. Ick!Cole with Erica Mark and Cole...so cute!

Mark had all kinds of love to share. He was pure entertainment for everyone all night.
Mark got lots of strikes. I don't know how he does it since he never puts his fingers in the holes.Wrong on so many levels. :o)

Really Mark just tackled Hunter because him and Chad kept messing him up. It was pretty funny.

Anytime Cody and Brook or Cole and Erica got too chummy, Mark was there in a flash to stir up the pot. You have to keep a close eye on teenagers ya know. :o)Brek, Brittany and the boys came too. I was so glad to see them join us for some fun.Little John and his way young Grammy. :o)

Baby Mark even got to bowl with some help from the ramp and Grandpa Mark.
Mark and John loved the arcade. What boy doesn't like to drive, afterall?Cole had a really fun party. I sure do love that baby boy of mine!

tag...you're it!...

2008-09-28T15:58:00.011-07:00

Miss September tagged me so I decided to post this before my Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona post since I just got home and I'm too tired, dirty and sun burnt to pick through a bunch of pictures. Yes, the pasty white girl got fried again and yes, my boys teased me about it again. Also, my camera battery died last night so I have no pictures of today's fun...and I looked kind of cute and now there's no proof. Well Mark thought I looked pretty cute. Does that count? :o)

7 Things I Plan To Do Before I Die

1. Be debt free.
2. Have a grand daughter and a bunch more grand sons
3. Reach my goal weight (impressive goal date, huh?!)
4. Learn all the things my camera can do
5. Be up to date on my scrapbooks
6. Live a life on service, love and fun
7. Learn to ride a motorcycle (maybe) :o)

7 Things I Do Now

1. Play on the computer way too much.
2. Clean up after and cook for piggies
3. Exercise even if I don't want to
4. Have fun with family and friends
5. Make other people happy
6. Take lots of pictures
7. Apparently burn and peel

7 Things I Can't Do

1. Smile without bells palsy showing up in my face
2. Get enough sleep
3. Keep my house as clean as I'd like it
4. Please everyone at the same time
5. Eat most vegetables
6. Remember to bring my camera battery charger
7. Tan

7 Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex

1. Twinkly eyes
2. A cute smile
3. A great personality
4. Sense of humor
5. Charismatic
6. Loves unconditionally
7. Compassionate and kind

7 Things That I Say Most Often

1. Are you honest?
2. I'm honest!
3. Say honest! (do you see a trend?)
4. You have got to be freaking kidding me!
5. Oh my crud!
6. Can you not put the pop tart wrapper IN the trash?
7. Yes, of course I can do...(fill in the blank!)

7 Celebrities That I Admire

I'm totally not doing this part because I don't admire celebrities. I admire people that personally touch my life and no I'm not naming names because I don't want to hurt any ones feelings by leaving them out. Plusalso there are way more than 7 people.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

7 Favorite Foods

1. Mexican
2. Steak
3. Potatoes
4. My alfredo sauce
5. Bread
6. Loads of sweet treats
7. Good home cookin'

7 People Who Need To Do This

...again with the only picking 7 and leaving out others who may want to play along too. I just can't do it! If you want to play then consider yourself tagged by me and tell me in the comments so I can go to your blog to read your answers. If you don't want to play you can still leave me a comment even if it's just to make fun of my answers. :o) If you don't have a blog then feel free to email me your answers.
Hope you're all having a fabulous weekend. I know I am!

Who's suppose to be updating this blog?

2008-09-25T20:24:00.004-07:00

I guess that would be me. Okay, I admit it! I stink! I was doing so good at maintaining my blog as well as keeping up with my buddies blogs and now I'm just terrible at both. Of course I've been crazy busy as usual and my head has been elsewhere, but you don't want to hear my lame excuses so I'll just say I'm sorry and try to do better.

Saturday night we were heading to town to watch the eagles concert on DVD at Gene and Desiree's house. Apparently we had to have a full appreciation and be worthy of the music before we go to the "standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona" celebration this weekend. We knew all but 2 songs so we passed the test. :o) Well, just as we were leaving Maricopa we got pulled over by a cop. Just before we got pulled over we spotted our friend Hal who is a Sergeant on the police force. I kept saying to myself, "come on Hal, come back up this dude." So the officer comes over to talk to us and informs us that our tags are expired. I had no idea they were. The ticket for that is HUGE! Sure enough Hal drives up and totally saves our butts...but not before Mark tries to get him to arrest me. Nice, huh?!
Back to Hal in a minute. I've still been really good at going to aerobics, but I wrangled my friend Missy into going with me because I didn't feel I should be made to suffer alone as the only newbie in the class, so we go together and feel the burn together and share each others misery during class. We are both feeling really good about doing it though so it's been worth it. One day we are going to look totally fabulous! Anyways, Missy is Hal's wife and today Hal and his partner/best friend did a stranger danger program at one of the elementary schools dressed up as Sergeant Pepper and Gooburr. Missy and I went to watch them after our aerobics class this morning. They were so dang funny! The kids loved them as well as the adults. It was such an entertaining and none threatening way to teach them about stranger danger. This afternoon I baked Hal some cowpie cookies as a thank you for bailing us out of a ticket. I thought cowpie cookies were fitting since we would have been in deep crap! :o) They are really good cookies with a gross name we came up with because of the rings they get while baking. I know I shared the recipe for them on here before. I just don't remember which month it as in and I'm too tired to look right now.
That's all I've got for now. I had more pictures to share of other activities, but some of them turned out blurry and I didn't want to leave anyone out so I'm not posting any of them. I will have a fun post on Sunday night.

Rams fans, parents and running...

2008-09-11T20:15:00.006-07:00

Chad and Hunter are the BIGGEST fans for girls volleyball team. They spent hours designing their shirts today as well as painting their faces and arms to show their true spirit. I helped out with the painting to show my support for Stacey because I'm a cool mom like that. :o) Chad painted his arms black and I did the lettering. The boys look pretty cute and believe me when I say that the girls LOVE them cheering them on.
It's been crazy around here as usual, so most of the house have yet to be put back together. I did however get the front room done. It took some time but I figured out where everything had to be hung and I'm partially done with the mess in the kitchen. There is less chaos in my head if things are clean. Problem is I think my boys like to see the chaos in my head. I went to my first aerobics class at the church this morning and totally got my butt kicked! The girls said it was the easy day...yeah right! I'm getting scared for next weeks classes. I thought I was doing good with my own evening exercise routine at night, but they showed me muscles I forgot I had and my the way those muscles are feeling right now I'm sure they are wishing I would have let them be. They've were perfectly fine being left undisturbed and now I'm going to make them mad for an hour every Monday -Thursday.

What have I been doing you ask? Well....both of my parents have been in the hospital. Yes, BOTH! My dad started out in there with some problems with arthritis and diabetes and ended up getting several units of blood. Then my sisters were sneaky and got the nurses to look at my mom when she came in to visit my dad because she is in worse shape than my dad, but in denial about it. They got one look at her and she was admitted and shortly transferred to a different hospital that could handle a higher level of care. She has several things wrong with her. Along with her diabetes she is not getting enough oxygen. Her lips are always blue and her coloring is off. Her legs are purple and cells are dying. They have no idea how she was even alive. I believe it's a miracle. In the air that we all breathe there is about 21% oxygen that keeps us in the normal levels in the 90's on the thingy bobber that they have her hooked up to. They are giving her 100% oxygen to keep her at a level we all stay at only taking in 21%. Her red blood cells are making too much blood and it's really thick and dark. They have a hard time getting it out of her. During one of the numerous tests they discovered a hole in her heart so she had heart surgery yesterday to repair that. I've been spending my time hospital hopping. My dad was release, but in my mind he was clearly not ready. Then he had the nerve to drive himself to her hospital so he could be there for her surgery. He would totally lie to his doctors and say he was feeling great just to be with my mom. I was with him for most of that time and he wasn't walking well and his speech was a little off. I could tell his head was still be bit foggy, but he had to be a trooper! Oh! and they both have sleep apnea. Why can't my parents just behave?! I love them to pieces but they sure know how to worry their daughters!

Last but certainly not least, My niece Camille who is very close to Nicole is trying to raise money to send her and baby Karlee to help them get on their feet after losing Western. She was talking to me about how great my blog readers are and asked if I could spread the word to all of you. Of course I said yes! She is dedicating September 15th-October 15th to them and plans to run 100 miles. I commend Camille for doing this because I can't even run across the street let alone 100 miles. She is amazing! She would love it if any of you could help by pledging a dime, a quarter, or whatever you want per mile. It's not really the amount that counts because a lot of littles can add up to be a lot. If you don't want to pledge per mile but still would like to donate something, any help would be appreciated. I now things are tight for everyone right now so if you can't help at this time that's okay too. If any of you are interested please click on her blog here and show her some love and support. It would mean the world to their family. Thanks in advance! You guys are awesome and I love you! Hopefully I will be able to return to normalcy soon and catch up with everyone. Hugs and love!

Billy and Courtney's wedding...

2008-09-08T11:03:00.011-07:00

Saturday was painting day. My house is in total disarray. Everything is off the walls and pulled to middle of the rooms. Everywhere I look I see "kapoosh!" (my definition of total disaster, said by cheeks puffed and fingers making exploding motions)

After painting Mark and I got cleaned up and headed to town for the wedding of Billy and Courtney. Billy is Chad's best friend and he served in Afghanistan with him, just on the opposite side of the country. The wedding was beautiful. Chad was the best man and looked very handsome. He is with Stacey, his un-official girlfriend. They have to take things very slow because she is younger, but her parents love him to pieces and we equally love her.

I can't get a good picture of me and Mark without getting one like this. I need to make a layout of all the times I get the retarded face pictures. Only problem is I have too many of them.

*Weight loss update*
I'm down 17 pounds now...maybe 18, plus several inches. I've been working really hard. The more I see come off the harder I work. It's exciting to see changes. Mark can see the changes too. Still have a long way to go, but for the first time I actually think I can reach my goal.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers for Western and the family. It is deeply appreciated.

Western...

2008-09-05T08:39:00.002-07:00

I'm sad to report that Western passed away this morning after a long 15 hour surgery. Between massive infection, loss of blood and the extent of his injuries, it was just too much for his body to handle. Nicole's ward in Houston is currently packing up her house and loading it all on a truck and sending it on to Missouri. Her and the baby will be staying at her parents house. (Mark's oldest brother and his wife) Please continue to pray for them. Nicole will need strength to get through this difficult time.

Prayers Please...

2008-09-02T10:05:00.004-07:00

My niece Nicole's husband, Western was in a roll over car accident Sunday night and a 3-4 inch diameter tree limb went all the way through his body. He was in surgery for many hours. They had to remove a kidney and most of his liver as well as try to repair the damage to his chest cavity. It's the worst the doctors have ever seen. They said he probably wouldn't still be alive if they hadn't called in a liver specialist. They will keep him open for the next 2-3 weeks as he will need several more surgeries. It's very very bad! Western has served 3 tours in Iraq, but is home now and he is the father to a beautiful baby girl who needs her daddy. Please keep him and Nicole in your prayers.

***Edited to update***

The doctors have been working on Western all day trying to clean all the tree debris out of his body such as bark, dirt, bugs a pine needles. I've been told that they removed 409 needles so far. Their biggest fear is him dying from infection caused by all the foreign things in his body. He is in a coma and they will probably keep him in that state for a least a month. Prayers are definitely needed and appreciated.

Are you ready for some mud football?

2008-08-31T17:09:00.005-07:00

There's nothing like some good clean fun. LOL! Welcome to our 2nd annual mud football event. Once again we went out to U of A farms where they were kind enough to till up and flood a field for us. Now that Mark is a High Counselor one of his duties is being over stake activities. This is the first one for him and he had a great time helping plan and see it through. The Maricopa Stake consists of 7 wards and 3 branches (too small to be a ward yet) We were not sure how many people would come to this one since it was on a holiday weekend and lots of people go out of town. We still have several hundred, so it was fun. Towards the end of the "big guys" football game Chad got hurt pretty bad. Someones head nailed him in the throat with his head and his larynx popped back and down and stuck there. He fell to his knees and couldn't breathe. He grabbed on to his larynx trying to pull it back out. After a minute or so he could breathe again. He came and showed me his neck and he could wiggle his larynx back and forth really far. Scary far...like your neck shouldn't be able to do that far. Ick! He couldn't eat last night and hasn't eaten much today because it hurts too much. He's a trooper though. He is giving a talk tonight at Stake Priesthood meeting. I know it's for the guys, but since I'm his mom I plan to go and stay long enough to listen to him. ***edited to add*** I just got home. Chad did an awesome job on his talk. I was so proud of him and I knew he talk was enjoyed by all who attended. They also had Hunter go up to the pulpit and tell his conversion story and share his testimony. I know he was nervous because he had no warning, but he did such a wonderful job. We were proud of him too. When I walked in the Stake President greeted me with a hug and told me how nice it was to see me at Priesthood meeting and asked if I was there to hear Chad talk. I told him yes and that I was going to try to blend in by putting on one of Mark suits but I thought the pink purse would be a dead give away that I wasn't a man. LOL! Gotta admit that I'm glad to not be able to pass for a man....shudder! :o)

Check out this next sequence of pictures. The pretty blond woman in the nice clothes standing on the berm is Brother Malan's wife. (the seminary teacher I did his classroom for)Cole is walking towards her. He wanted Cole to go push her in. He didn't want to until Mark said he'd pay him $10 bucks to do it, so of course what kid wouldn't do that for money. LOL! Watch as he takes her down. She puts up a real good fight and gets him back in the end. We laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. I'm so glad I got it all in pictures. It was just too funny! She's a great sport.

After everyone rinsed off in a water retention pond we had a big BBQ Picnic. They had been smoking pork roast for several days. It made the BEST pulled pork sandwiches I've ever had. Mark had each ward bring different food assignments. I made pasta salad and pink fluff. There was so much food. It was awesome. They has some extra roasts and we got one. I shredded it up today and reheated it in my crock pot and we just ate that for dinner. So good! My hands still smell like smoked meat even after washing them several times. It was such a great day full of fun memories with good friends and family. I love those kinds of days.

Braces and painting...

2008-08-22T09:10:00.014-07:00

This week Cody got new braces. He is so happy! He is a kid that has a lot of self confidence, but is very insecure about his teeth and I can't really blame him for that. We don't have any medical insurance, but we did find Dr. Coles here in Maricopa. He is an excellent Orthodontist. We were able to put down $500 and make monthly payments to him for the next 2 years while Cody is in treatment. Braces are SO expensive, but Cody is worth it. I did take a not very flattering picture of him with the jaws of life keeping his mouth open, but I decided to be a nice mom and not share it, but don't think I won't use it against him if need be, for blackmail purposes. :o)

Okay...so yesterday I started painting my house. I just couldn't take the gross flat builders white paint with fingerprints that you can't wash off anymore. I painted for 8 long hours. All of my muscles and bones hurt and I don't have much to show for it. I PLAN to paint the living room, family room, formal dining room, kitchen, eat in dining room, both big halls down stairs up the stair way, the loft and the huge walk around hall upstairs. The boys want their bedrooms painted too, but I can't even think about that right now.

Do you want to know what 8 hours gets you when you paint by yourself? Half the stairway and not even all of my 2 big halls downstairs with their threshold beams. THAT'S IT and that's just with the roller. I haven't even started cutting in the trim yet and I can't do that until I wash all the baseboards. Even the thought of moving furniture away from the walls and taking the enormous amount of decorations off the walls is overwhelming. If you look on the floorplan from my moving sheet, if you walk in the front door there is the living room/formal dining room. The first hallway on the right goes to the kitchen. From the front door you look straight back into my scrapbook room. The hall back there is HUGE! (Ignore the colored scribbles. That was to color code boxes for each room) All day yesterday I was singing little made up songs to myself having to do with I really hate painting but I sure do love this color. Speaking of color. There are SO MANY neutral colors to choose from. Most of which looks great on the little swatch, but not so great on the wall. My good friend Stacie shared with me her paint color that I LOVE, which is Ralph Lauren's "linen", but mixed in the Behr interior eggshell enamel. It has such a nice sheen to it and it has superior scrubability. Perfect! This paint is not something I would have picked off the swatch, but it is by far my favorite neutral color I've seen. I really LOOOOVE it. If there was a better word than love I would use it. It's just so clean and pretty. ahhhh... (Not my house, the paint...hee..hee...house is a mess.)
At the pace I'm going, I hope to be done by Christmas, because not only do I have a lot of square feel to cover, but I have my normal busy life to keep up with too.
Time to jump in the shower. Cole wants me to come to school to talk to his counselor about changing his schedule. They gave him performing arts instead of PE and he hates that kind of stuff. He feels stupid doing drama but loves anything athletic. We'll see if the counselor will let him change.
I can't believe it's Friday already, can you?!

***Edited***

I took off my floor plan picture just in case there are creepy people reading.

Olympic Party...

2008-08-20T21:36:00.005-07:00

Saturday night our ward had a party honoring the Olympics. It was so much fun, from the food, the games and the decor. Don't you just love the cupcakes in the shape of the Olympic rings? CUTE! Each table had to pick a country. Most of them were make believe countries. We had to draw and color our country flag and we as a table had to decide who would represent us in each event. Chad signed me up for the javelin....which turned out to be a peacock feather. There are no pictures of that, but I did have a stylish approach. There was the 50 foot dash where they literally has to walk 50 feet heel toe heel toe. They had a relay that you carried a hard boiled egg on a spoon. Jumping exercise, which was jump rope, and for the gymnastics it was the ever popular ribbon dancing. Mark represented us on that event. Let me just say that I never laughed so hard while watching him ribbon dance. I had tears streaming down my face. He cart wheeled all the way down. I didn't know he could even do a cart wheel. I don't think he knew he could. He danced and twirled with such style....such grace...with an attempt at a knee slide finale. Only problem is he didn't slide. He hit the ground and stuck...hard. LOL! They made the top 3 do a dance off to the song dancing queen and Mark won the gold! It was hysterical! Everyone had such a great time and I appreciate the activities committee for all their hard work. We did bring lots of food to share and came 2 hours early to help set up, but there was SO MUCH work that they put into it before hand and that's what made it a successful party.

Crafty(ish) things...

2008-08-18T09:38:00.004-07:00

Our ward is doing a Super Saturday craft day in October. We had to have the sign up display table done this past Sunday to give a few weeks to sign up as well as a few weeks to prepare kits for that day. I was asked to make and teach one of the crafts. They wanted a magnet board so I created one that is 12" X 24". I painted the wood black, sanded and stained the edges. Glued on the custom cut piece of sheet metal and attached bazzill flowers to the top with upholstery nails and put a saw tooth hanger on the back. Easy peasy! The cost for making this craft is $9.00. Pretty cheap I think and WAY CUTE! I'm really looking forward to Super Saturday. We are doing lots of cute and easy crafts. It's sure to be a fun day.

On Friday night I went to town for scrapbooking night with the Ladies of Star. I got 2 easy layouts done. It's hard to be too creative when you're at someone elses house and don't have all your own things. Done is good in my book. It really was a fun night with my friends. In total there were 10 of us. Mindy is the one who hosts. She cooks us all a fabulous dinner and dessert and she sets up tables and lights in her living room and raffles off fun things. 10 people can work perfectly in there. I sure appreciate all the effort she puts into our monthly scrap night.Seminary started today for the kids in our church who are high school age. (9th-12th grades) We have 3 seminary teachers that teach every morning here in Maricopa before school starts. Brother Malan is one of them, but he had foot surgery and had been in so much pain. Obviously he was unable to get his classroom ready. I had brought Chad and Hunter to the church to set up his tables and chairs and I was talking to him about his class. The other two teachers classrooms look so cute. He told me "I can teach the class, but I have no idea how or the ability to decorate a room". I told him "this is your lucky day, because I CAN'T teach a class, but I CAN decorate a room". LOL! He was thrilled! I spent a day and a half setting up his room. They are studying the New Testament this year. I printed upthe names of all the books in the New Testament and tore the edges and inked them for an aged look. I had Hunter and Chad put them up high on the wood beams in order. The kids have to memorize the books in order. They look really good, I think.

I also got all his students binders with their name labels on them and included a pencil pouch with a black pen, blue pen, pencil, red scripture marking pencil and a scripture mastery card. The each have a composition book with their name label as well as this years manual.

His classroom doesn't have big bulletin boards so I utilized the back of the double doors. The girly side of me had to cute it up a bit. He wanted something to do with knowing the Shepherd, so I found a really nice picture of Christ as the Shepherd and found sheep in my clip art. They were facing left, but I thought they should be looking towards Christ so I flipped them and then put the students names on them. The quote I used says..
"We should each ask,
Am I loving enough, am I studying enough,
am I serving enough to know the Shepherd?
May we all come to know the Savior through
obeying his commandments, so that when we
meet him face to face, we each can say,
I know thee, thou art my Shepherd."
I can't tell you how much I love that quote. If you really ponder on it, there is so much power in it. I hope the students this year really strive to know the Shepherd.
I'm getting ready to head to town to get a few things. I'm not quite done with his room yet, plus Mark forgot his wallet and needs it.
Happy Monday Everyone!

1st birthday and spaghetti sauce...

2008-08-14T08:24:00.002-07:00

We all met Brek, Brittany and the boys in town for a birthday dinner celebration for John. The birthday boy slept through most of it. He woke up in time to eat a little bit and to get his presents from us. We got him a big boy car seat so he can sit facing forward like baby Mark does, a couple of outfits and the cute little cars. I got them because they came in a two pack knowing full well the boys are too young to really grasp the whole sharing and wait your turn to play concept. Less fighting that way. It was really fun to spend time with them.

On Tuesday morning I volunteered to work at the church cannery. It was spaghetti sauce day.The sauce itself was made earlier that morning. When the volunteers arrived we all sat through a quick safety orientation, scrubbed our hands and arms, put on gloves and a lovely hairnet to make us all look fabulous and got set up on different stations. Some would load of the clean empty jars. Then they would go through the tunnel that filled 4 jars at a time. When they came out people would put the lids on as they passed by.
This is where they enter to be processed. This person had to wear special heat gloves because the water is very hot.They would come out the other end and be placed back on the conveyor belt.Sent through the hole where the jars got their labels. We would take them off quickly and put them in boxes. Sometimes it was so fast it reminding me of that I love Lucy episode in the chocolate factory. If it was a chocolate factory you can bet that I would have eaten my share of them. I traded off between 3 jobs. One was filling the boxes and testing the lids to make sure they were sealed properly, one was folding down the top flaps and having boxes always ready for the filler then shoving it down to be taped. Then we were running low on boxes so I had to make them up and put their divider inserts in as quick as I could to keep up with demand. It was feverishly fast work.
This is the tape machine that tapes the top and bottom and the same time after the boxes have been filled with the jars.

Then they were stacked on pallets and fork lifted out and we'd start a new pallet. In all we bottled up 12,000 jars of spaghetti sauce for the church welfare system. The whole process was so interesting and I really enjoyed the work even if my arms felt like limp noodles by the end of my shift. I feel good about serving in any and all areas of this church. It's good and important work.

I found out Tuesday night that I had to go to court on Wednesday morning to testify in a child support lawsuit for one our family members. They have been divorced for 12 years. It was very difficult because I've been friends with both of them for almost 23 years. It's just so sad that it has come to this. I did what I was called to do. I told the truth of what I knew. They ran out of time in court to present their whole case so they have another court date in December to finish it up. It's pretty much in the hands of the judge and our Heavenly Father on the outcome. All I pray is that the truth prevails, whatever that may be and that all parties can move on with their lives because even though the kids are now grown, it's still very hard on them to have their parents going through this. I feel so bad for them.

After I was done at court Mark had finished up with his schedule early so he took me to lunch at the Olive Garden and to a movie and we went and bought baby Mark some birthday presents. He will be 2 on September 2nd. Then we met up with the star riders for dinner. It was such a long day and I was in a dress and heels for all of it. My feet still hurt this morning. I'm so glad to finally have a day at home! I think I'll get some cleaning done then relax for a bit.

Back to school and baptism...

2008-08-11T10:59:00.008-07:00

Back to school checklist for the youngest George boys...

Immunizations - check
haircuts - check
lunch with mom - check
clothes shopping - check
school supplies - check
registration - check
sports physicals - not yet
bus schedules - check
father's blessings - check
boys dropped off for their first day of school - check

It's hard to believe school as started. It feels strange. I have yet to decide if it's strange good or strange bad. I don't like the fact that Middle school/junior high starts in 6th grade instead of 7th like I'm use to. It feels like my baby has been robbed of his last year of elementary school. He's excited. Why can't I be?

A bunch of us mom's are going together to have a back to school lunch in town one day this week. I'm really looking forward to it. I have some great friends out here that I love.

By the way...I included a picture of me and Cole at his last basketball game so you can see that over the summer he went and out grew me....dang kid! It happened so fast. I'm now the shortest one in the family. Cody is the tallest in the family.

Hunter was baptized by Mark on Saturday. It was such a special day. You could feel the spirit so strong. A while back the missionaries had stopped by our house to refill their water bottles and Hunter told them he would like to start taking the discussions. The missionaries started coming over to see him twice a week and he had prayed about it and decided he wanted to become a member of the church. He has been attending every Sunday with our family since he moved in here. We have watched his testimony grow. He has made good friends who are great examples to him. The Turley family in our ward have been so good to him. They've had him over for family home evening several times and truly befriended him. We love that family. Actually we love so many families out here. The ward mission leader gave Hunter a new set of scriptures that have his name engraved on them. He loves them! We know this is where we are suppose to be. Sadly Hunter's parents are very upset about his decision to be baptized. They disowned him, changed their locks and told him not to contact them or his brothers as well as several other hurtful comments. it broke my heart that they treated him so bad over a choice of religion. They hate Mormon's, yet their only knowledge of our religion comes from Mormon bashers who don't believe in telling the truth. It's so sad. We pray that their hearts will soften over time as they see how much he's grown through making positive choices to live a good life. He knows in his heart he's doing what's right. I'm so proud of how strong his testimony is. He is a great boy.

The ick update.

I had gotten BAD sick Monday night and spend the next 4 solid days in bed. I finally managed to get up on Saturday, but it wasn't easy. I knew I had to be there for Hunter as well as take the boys school shopping and to get refreshments for after the baptism. For the first time, nothing was homemade. I just didn't have it in me. It was a really difficult day physically. It's a dang good thing boys are fast shoppers. I don't have any of the protruding ick, but I still don't have my strength and my stomach has a lingering, yet constant dull ache. Sometimes sharp pains. My appetite is half of what it was and every single thing I eat makes me feel sick. I dread eating now and only eat out of necessity.I just want to be 100% again. Not that my 100% is awesome, but I'll take it at this point. I'm telling you right now, that I'd rather go through labor and delivery that go through this crud. It's been horrible! I am so grateful for a couple of the young women who came over during the week and helped clean up my downstairs for me when they knew I couldn't and it had to be done before everyone came over Saturday for refreshments. I love those girls!

got the ick...

2008-08-07T09:05:00.003-07:00

Just poking my head in so you wouldn't worry and to let you all know I'm so so so sick! Real bad stomach bug and all the creep and crud associated with it. I've been down for days. My whole body hurts more than I ever thought was possible and I have no strength. Hoping to attempt a shower this morning, but have yet to be successful with that. I look and feel gross. Only good thing is I'm down 4 pounds, but that is sure to come back when I can eat solid food again. Be back on when I can walk standing straight up and free of this darn bug.

They believe they can fly...

2008-08-04T18:38:00.003-07:00

When I look at these pictures I can't help but think of the song "I believe I can fly...I believe I can touch the sky..."

Boys are fearless! The pictures speak for themselves. :o)

The little guys first haircuts...

2008-08-02T17:16:00.004-07:00

On Friday Me and Brittany took baby Mark and little John to Snipits for their first haircuts. I brought Cole along for kid wrangling purposes. It's a real cute salon for kids. Expensive, but cute. Glad my boys are big and will sit still in a regular cheap salon.Before picture of their long locks.No amount of cute was going to make Mark think this was a fun thing to do. He was scared and cried through most of it.John on the other hand did really well. I guess he's still too young to be scared...or he's just brave.Both Mark and John have been making that "OH" face a lot lately. Cracks me up! John does it just to be cute, Mark does it try to hide his smile behind it when he's being bashful.

They both loved the little wheely thing. They would have stood there forever spinning that thing if we would have let them. I think they look adorable with their new hair cuts. Brittany says she likes it too, but in my gut I think she is also a bit sad to see their hair gone.

What kind of Grammy would I be if I didn't take them to McDonald's afterwards for lunch. They both had chicken nugget happy meals and we all had a great time together. Then it was time to take them home for much needed naps. I sure love those little guys!