Random fun stuff...

On Friday I went out with two of my sisters, Julie and Coleen. We went to park and swap and did a little shopping. Got this way cute purse and matching wallet. I paid $44 for the purse and $22 for the wallet. I broke my normal rule of never spending more that $35 for a purse, but I didn't go over it by too much. Mark should be thrilled that I don't have to have the beautiful purses that costs hundreds of dollars. No offense to those of you that have those kinds of purses...and I know several of you that do. I have to pick my battles and purses isn't one of them. :o)I also picked up the grand babies a couple of t-shirts. After walking forever at park and swap we headed over to Cafe Rio for lunch. It's a dang good thing there isn't a Cafe Rio in Maricopa because I'd be eating pork taco's several times a week. I LOVE them! After that I went over to visit with my parents, who I don't get to see nearly enough. It was go good just to sit and talk and catch up with them. I need to make more time for my family. I had an awesome day followed up with a dinner and movie date with Mark. We saw National Treasure (the second one) and loved it!



I got to go see these sweet guys on Thursday. Baby Mark and Little John make me so happy every time I see them. I love those babies so much. They are getting bigger by the minute and I miss a lot of those minutes. I plan to spend more time with them.

I taught the young women's lesson today. Whenever it's my week to teach my stomach is upset all week. I think I did okay, but can see many areas for improvement. I was too nervous to even think about taking pictures of what I prepared, but the girls said it was a good lesson, so I got the thumbs up.

For now the kitties names haven't really changed....with one small exception. I still call Franky by his name, but I call Sunny Scaredy butt. He is such a wimp. He'll finally come out at night when I go to bed and decide that while I'm sleeping is the perfect time for me to pet him. He's slowly trusting me a little more each day.

I hope you all are enjoying your long holiday weekend.

Name that kitty and binder covers

Actually there are 2 kitties. They look almost identical and they are huge! I only have a picture of one who is currently named Franky. The other one, Sunny has been residing under my bed since Sunday night. He comes out at night or when nobody is around. As soon as I open my door he's right back under the bed speedy quick. Poor thing is traumatized. Franky is very lovey and will lay on his back and let you rub his tummy. He likes me the most so far because I give him the most attention. His eyes are not that icky red color. They are a beautiful blue. Why are pet eyes all creepy in pictures? Anyways...we have yet to come up with names for the new additions to the family, so I'm open to suggestions if you have any ideas.
I went to the scrapbook store while I was in town yesterday to get stuff to make binder covers for each of the young women. I love the spa colors mixed with chocolate brown, so even though I had no design plan I couldn't go wrong with those colors. The pattern paper is Autumn Leaves and the cardstock is bazzill, of course. For you local girls...Scrapbooks Etc is expanding their store AGAIN! So exciting! It was under construction while I was there. So neat to see it in progress. Such an awesome place! Here is the design I came up with. Simple clean lines. I hope the girls will like them. Going to finish them up and give them to them on Sunday.

Off to bed...my night with the clicker (remote). I like to watch a show in it's entirety. Mark on the other hand likes to watch bits and pieces of 3 shows at the same time to avoid seeing any commercials. Makes me nuts! Love him to pieces, but seriously crazy!

Busy times

Do you see my problem? Chad bought another motorcycle! Not just any motorcycle. A Rocket! I hate rockets. They are too fast. He promises to be safe. I'm hoping when he gets home and he spends some time on both that he will realize that the cruiser will be way more comfortable and he'll sell the rocket. A mom can hope anyways. My garage is so FULL! This Saturday we are planning on pulling everything out of it and re-organizing it. It's a mess, plus with the addition of 3 bikes, it needs a new plan. Not to mention the freezer needs to be relocated so it doesn't get unplugged again. It will be a lot of work, but I'm actually looking forward to it. Chad's mean machine
Chad's green machine

Mark's red monster

Kyle's-yet to be named :o)

This baby is 26 years old and runs great with lots of power

I swiped some more pictures off of Chad's myspace. They got snow in Afghanistan for the first time in over 10 years (at least where his base is) They didn't get a lot, but it was enough to show the locals how to have a snowball fight. I will use his captions he had on them. This is a picture of Chad and Castro

Reza and Chad

Snowman?
or snow cone?

Snow Angel

Packages from Chad have started coming in. They told him to send home anything he isn't using or things of value to prepare for coming home. Seeing the mail lady delivering them over the past few days makes it feel like his homecoming is right around the corner. He really doesn't get home until the very end of March which is close, yet far at the same time. I'm hoping time passes quickly. For now his boxes wait for him safely tucked in his bedroom closet.

Mark and I had dinner at Grandma's Kitchen in downtown Mesa on Friday night for the monthly Friday Night out on Main Street. There are other restaurants open, but since we know the owner (grandma) we like to support her business. She's normally only open for breakfast and lunch and does dinner once a month.

I thought this car was so cool!

I have a huge love of old brick buildings. They are so beautiful!

For the shoe lover in us all. :o) Main street has statues all down the street on the sidewalks. Mark got there late so I only got a few pictures before it got dark.

On Saturday we took the bike to town for brunch and Famous Dave's BBQ. (which explains my helmet hair) Love that place! Nothing like eating a feast for 2 atop a garbage can lid. LOL! In our defense we did NOT eat it all. I don't know how people could possible eat that much in one sitting. What we did eat was dang good though. I also love the decor in there....full of country goodness.

On Saturday night Kyle hosted a back to school party (semester) He helped me make food all day. He requested chicken salad sandwiches, veggies tray, chips, homemade salsa, chips, dip, crackers with cheese, brownies, stuff to make smores and soda. I think we had like 14 kids here. They ate, played games, played music, roasted marshmallow's, watched a comedy special and just had a great time together. They were all gone by 11:30 and the neighbors didn't call the cops, so I guess it was a success. :o) These kids must not have scrapbooker moms because ALL of them were very camera shy. Made my job difficult. Most pictures were terrible. Looks like I'll have to train them to just smile and get it over with.

Gotta go get ready to go. Cody has another dentist appointment, so I have to pick him up early from school. He has one appointment a week all month. sheesh!

Roast is in the crock pot...smells like Heaven! AHHHH! I sure hope there's roast in heaven...and steak and potatoes and chocolate...yummm :o)

plaques and pizza

I made two plaques for our young women's room at church. Since it's a new building the walls were almost bare in there...besides one picture and a clock, which were both new additions. One plaque has the young women values on it and the other has this years theme. "Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works" I can't tell you how much I love that quote. It's just so powerful to me. How can you not want to strive for such a thing...love it love it love it! I ordered the vinyl from my friend Kim and I cut, painted and sanded the wood. I hung them...totally level and everything, just eyeballing it. :o) I also re-vamped our ward bulletin board. It may not look like anything special, but if you had seen the before you would totally appreciate the after. Why didn't I take a before picture??? Dang! Well I'm honest...trust be..it was terrible! Oh wait. That isn't very nice to whoever did the before. so sorry. There is a certain amount of stuff that has to be there that doesn't necessarily make it cute, but it is informative none the less.







Last night we had a joint young men/young women activity. The youth all made their own individual pizza's. Some were thick, some were thin. Of course they all know exactly which one was theirs when it came out of the oven because they each had their own character. I don't know what most kids would do with left over pizza dough, but ours play "dough ball" with it. They had a blast! I sure love this group of kids. They all get along so well. I made a bunch of brownies for dessert. I made them extra yummy by swirling on hot fudge and caramel before baking. So dang good! They were devoured in minutes! I would love to make some more, but I'd be tempted to eat half the pan while the boys are in school. I've lost a couple of pounds and I don't want them to find me again so soon.

I've been cleaning :o)

Don't laugh! I know I shouldn't be happy about cleaning, but today was the first day I've been able to get my rear out of bed and do something productive. Kyle and I got ALL of the Christmas decorations boxed up and put away. The tree takes forever! We cleaned the living room, formal dining room, family room, kitchen, dining room and bathroom. I know that doesn't sound like much for a whole days work, but keep in mind that there has been no cleaning done around here since Christmas and this house is over 4,000 square feet. It's like cleaning 2 houses and I can't do it in one day even when I feel 100%. Earlier today this room was filled with tons of boxes and junk everywhere. The table was piled high with stuff too. I feel at peace when I can see progress being made...even if its just a few rooms at a time. It just feels good to look at hard work completed and see the sun shining in to make it all warm and cozy. I hope to tackle a few rooms every day this week. I love it! AHHHHH! I will sleep good tonight. Id show you picks of the family room but Cody walked all through it with muddy shoes. Kyle is going to steam clean it for me. It looks terrible.

...and yes, I have done the vicks vapor rub on my feet with socks several times. I think it may world for a common cold cough, but not so much for the nasty cough of bronchitis.

P.S. I know there are little trees still in this room. I left them in there on purpose. They fit in with the outdoorsy furniture.

Bronchitis Sucks!

I decided I needed to check in since some of you were worried about me. This has been my life for way longer than I thought it would be. Medication, inhaler, bed rest, the remote control, magazines, vicks vapor rub, Valerian root, water and lots of sonic ice. The coughing continues to beat me down. I cough all through the night too, so sleep is minimal at best. Poor Mark has to listen to it. He's a better sleeper than I am though. I've actually coughed a rib out of place. Sometimes I think my head will explode. I am doing a little better, but still have a difficult time catching my breath after I've walked upstairs or done anything remotely physical. It takes a lot out of me, then I go into a long coughing spree. My friend Carol said that everything around me would make me crazy and she's right. I hate that I haven't been able to clean my house. Every bit of filth makes me nuts, but I physically can't do it yet. Kyle is staying home from work tomorrow to help clean around here. I'm so happy about that. We need to get Christmas decorations taken down. They have never stayed up this long. I hate that I've missed the whole first week of the new year. Here are a few things I've missed while being sick...

• New years eve


• New years day charity ride with Mark


• Church


• Mutual


• Kindra and Cisco's birthday party


• My presidency meeting


• George family dinner


• Lunch with Carol


• Lunch with Paula


• Haven't got to exercise yet because I can't breathe


• Grocery shopping -boy do we need groceries!


• Haven't seen my grand babies

I honestly thought I'd be down for a couple of days, then I'd be back to my normal routine. I'd tell people "sure, I can do that"...then my body would say "no you cant" so I've have to cancel. I did have some very sweet friends bring in dinner a couple of nights. That was very helpful and appreciated.

This is a glimpse of Chad's new bike. Mark was taking it for a little ride up to the school. Yes, I did yell at him for not wearing a helmet. Chad calls it the green machine. I think it's funny that he bought a motorcycle while being in Afghanistan and has only seen pictures of it. Him and Mark have been looking online for months trying to find the perfect one. He is so excited to get home and go for a ride. Here is Mark on his and Kyle on Chad's. Actually Kyle was feeling the need for his own bike, so he went out and bought himself one tonight. I don't have a picture of it yet. since it's dark outside. It's an older bike, but he loves it and it will be a good one for him to learn on for his first bike. The guy was shocked he paid for it with his own money. He had to go show his boys who have never bough anything on their own ever. He was very impressed. :o)
The only girl in the picture is my beautiful niece Kindra who was in town from Tennessee for a few days. I only got to see her once, then I got sick. I miss that girl so much. I'm going to have to go shopping for a fabulous birthday present and get it in the mail to her.

So sorry I haven't really been able to blog visit. I truly have spent 95% of my time in bed. Hope to kick this nasty bug outta here soon!