The Collins Clique

I've Moved!!!!

2010-04-29T22:45:00.000-06:00

No silly... not out of my new house! I have moved my BLOG!!!! Visit my new blog at http://donuts2crumpets.blogspot.com/ and don't forget to update your bookmarks! All my past posts are there along with your links and your comments, so come and visit! Hope to see you there. :)

Mr Fix It...

2010-04-21T14:30:00.001-06:00

Parts $0

Labor $0

Knowing the leak under your sink is 100% fixed for free... Priceless. :)

(Plumber crack excluded!)

I ♥ this man! :)

My Name Is Petra, And I'm A Farmaholic...

2010-04-16T15:14:00.002-06:00

I have started my own intervention. I have been completely addicted to Farmville on Facebook for several months now. Have you ever played? If you haven't, DON'T DO IT!!!! It is a completely useless, silly game that you will become COMPLETELY addicted to. I thought I would be immune when I decided to take a look at what all the hype was about. I was soooooooooo wrong.

I don't know what it is about this game... you know it is a time waster, you know it is completely stupid and that it doesn't require any skill or brain power at all, but you CAN'T STOP YOURSELF!!!! You have to go every day and harvest your crops before they die and earn fake money so you can buy fake stuff for your fake farm... but for WHAT??? I don't know! You just can't help yourself! Think I am over exaggerating? Farmville has over 23 MILLION fans on Facebook. Insane? Why yes, yes it is!

I, Petra, have wasted way too much precious time on Farmville, (I am talking sometimes hours at a time!), so I have had to stage my own intervention. It has been approximately 12 days since I farmed on farmville. I have let a whole field of cabbage die! I did not collect the Easter eggs that were all over the place. I have not collected from any animals or harvested any trees. My name is Petra, and I'm a recovering farmaholic!

13 Year Old Advice...

2010-04-14T00:01:00.001-06:00

Mike Jr (Running in to our room from watching TV in his bedroom): Mom, did you know there is a new birth control that lets you have your period just four times a year? You only have to have one every three months instead of every month!

Me: (Insert chirping cricket sound here!)

Flashback Friday, September 2000...

2010-04-02T15:03:00.001-06:00

This picture came up randomly in my google sidebar today and I was flooded with magical, fun memories.

We had decided to drive down to Disney in Orlando Florida again to celebrate Mike Sr & Mike Jr's Bdays. It was an amazing trip as we got to meet tons of the characters at all four of the parks, open up the Magic Kingdom park on Mike Jr's Bday, eat at Cinderella's castle and get front row seats to all their shows. In this pic Dee and Mike Jr are dancing with Cinderella and Prince Charming in the parade. I can't believe how little they are! :)

Happy Birthday To My Baby Girl...

2010-03-29T17:55:00.000-06:00

My baby girl turned Sweet 16 last Monday. I cannot believe how much she has grown up! She is amazing in so many ways and I am so proud of her. Within the last few weeks she has gotten both her Patriarchal Blessing and her Drivers License which have been BIG steps. Some parents might be distraught thinking of the new found freedom their teenager has hitting this age, but she is so honest and trustworthy, I could never doubt her word.

Here are a few other things I love about her:

She strives to be a righteous person and follow EVERY rule and standard set. She is a much better youth than I ever was!
She is absolutely beautiful on the inside and on the out.
I often find her with her light on way after bed time reading a scripture before she goes to bed.
She is a super cook and often bails me out when I just don't have the energy.
She is an amazing sports fan and knows much more about sports, (especially football), than many boys her age.
She is so good with children and will consequently be a much better mother than I am.
She sings like an angel and plays the piano. (And yay, she is back in voice lessons after a six month hiatus!)
She is a VERY good, safe, relaxed driver. She drives the speed limit constantly and doesn't mind sitting 5 minutes at an intersection until she feels it is clear enough to cross. (Of course, this might bug the people behind her, but I don't care!)

Happy Birthday to my dear, sweet Miss Dee!

May this coming year be just wonderful for you!

(If you want to see some pics of Dee growing up, you can check out last years post here.)

What Does One Do When They Aren't Blogging?

2010-03-19T00:01:00.000-06:00

I haven't blogged here in 10 days! Sometimes I worry I spend too much time on the computer and so I make a conscious effort to live life more than I blog life. That has been me the past 10 days. My family had stomach flu for the first three days, but as I was taking care of them all I had time to think and reflect. I had time to write things down... WITH A PEN... and I really enjoyed it. You see, sometimes I am sooooooooooo caught up on the computer that I miss some of the things going on around me. So here are some of the things I enjoyed doing the past 10 days...

I actually looked at some real recipe books that had pages
I scrapbooked with some super cool ladies
I have watched a couple of odd movies with the fam
I hand made a couple of cards... yes, me
I went to the Library with my son
I sat quietly and snuggled with the puppy
I accompanied three ladies, (one of which belongs to me), for Women At The Well, which was performed by a group of sisters for our Relief Society
I outlined the next 8 chapters of a book
I spent a night out with my daughter at Olive Garden, the Middle School play and then shopping while the boys were at a concert
I went to dinner with a good friend to celebrate her birthday
I have played the piano... A LOT
I have watched the fam play with the puppy each and every day and realized how much happiness she has brought in to our home
I have read several magazines including Woman's Day, Time & National Geographic
I have been to Classic Skating with the YW
I have laid on the couch and talked with my hubby for an hour at a time

So even though I haven't blogged other than posting a couple of coupons on my other site, my life has been full and I have to admit, it has been wonderful. :)

Menu Plan Monday...

2010-03-08T19:00:00.001-07:00

One of my new organization goals I just set was to menu plan on Monday's. I was sure SOMEONE had to have already started a meme I could join up with for this and so I googled it. Turns out a lot of people think this is a great idea! Immediately I was taken to this cute site that I am soooooooooooo happy to have run across this month. Laura from I'm An Organizing Junkie, (I have always had the handle "techjunkie" on the web, so it was fun to see her known as "orgjunkie"), has over 300 ladies link up each week to Menu Plan Monday and I am excited to join up with them for the first time this week.

So here is what is going down at my house:

Monday: Well I am obviously late planning for this week and my entire family except me has the flu today so I'll probably be eating a can of Progresso soup and some nice crusty bread for dinner by myself in just a few minutes.

Tuesday: I have been dying to try this Lemon Chicken recipe from a friends new cooking blog but have not had any fresh parsley, so I'm gonna pick it up tomorrow on my way home from work and try it out with some rice and veggies. Yum!

Wednesday: My own quick "can of this, can of that" recipe for Sweet Spaghetti. (I've been debating on posting the recipe for this but there aren't that many things that I make that I am certain people are going to enjoy, and my two secret ingredients make this an anything but normal pasta dinner that I love to serve to company!)

Thursday: Baked Potato Bar. I just wrap the pricked potatoes individually in foil with a smidgen of butter when I get home from work and stick them in the oven an hour to an hour and a half before we want to eat. (400 degrees). Our favorite toppings are any combination of sour cream, butter, cheese, chopped ham, (the lean lunchmeat kind), chopped green onions, broccoli and those McCormick Salad Toppins, (that perfect combination of crunchy sunflower seeds, soybeans, onion, carrots and bacon bits with all kinds of seasoning mixed in that look like this...)

Friday: The Boys are going to The Devil Wears Prada Concert and Dee is going to a Sweet Sixteen Willy Wonka themed party, so I will probably treat myself to some yummy take out! Any suggestions for the Salt Lake County Area?

Happiness Project... ♣ March ♣

2010-03-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Did February seem very short to you? I mean, I know it is the shortest month of the year, but sheesh! That flew. I did pretty good with my goals. I made lots of extra efforts in the "♥" category. I spent a lot more time with my fam, (as can be evidenced by my reduction in blogging and facebook activity), and you know what? It was awesome!

Hubby & I did quite a few things together... a couple of dinners out and I even met him for a late lunch one day where we ran in to D-Will from the Utah Jazz. We also did a couple of shopping trips together including buying the kids something nice for Valentines day.

I spent time with both the kids. DeAnna is easy because she just likes to go clothes shopping ALL THE TIME and Dad won't take her, so I do. We never lack for Mother-Daughter time. Mike is a little more difficult, (though he remains my snuggle buddy on the couch), but one day that Dee stayed after school, he and I did a little Walmart trip together because HE wanted too and it was good fun.

We visited Nana and Pops for an evening (she had been reminding me that we hadn't visited her house since New Years!) I also met Nana at Costco after work one day to just hang out. I spent quite a bit time with one of my sisters... scrap booking, weekly lunches at work and a couple of random walking the dog to her house trips. I have texted my nieces on a couple of occasions to check in with them. We even went as a family to the Salt Lake temple with Nana, Pops and three of Carole's kids to do baptisms.

We have more family fun planned for the next month already, so I am excited. This week Mike and I are going to my Mum & Dads to work on Genealogy for our date night on Friday. Jenna and I now have a standing lunch date on Tuesday's. Now if my other sister will just come over when she is invited! (Yes, Carole, that is a hint to YOU!)

For March, I originally chose saving money as my focus. Well, I have changed my mind... I am pretty frugal minded already, (see my other blog, http://frugalityville.blogspot.com/ ), and I have been really feeling the need to get more organized... so I am focusing on organization this month... specifically, my home and family.

This is one of my favorite scriptures, and one I always think of when I think of my home and family:

(Cute graphic from http://ldshandouts.blogspot.com/ )

So with that in mind, here are my goals for this month:

Family Prayer & Family Scripture Study every morning/night (we are great at prayer, not so great at SS)
Fast for help in making our home a place of peace and love
Have Mike bless/dedicate our home (we haven't done that yet since moving in)
Make house cleaning more of a family effort... ie, spend time TOGETHER doing it. (Put on music, have a treat after... make it fun!)
Spend 2 hours each Saturday Morning in my basement sorting, clearing and preparing it so we can get someone in to drywall and paint it. I want the basement finished! (Not this month necessarily, but I want to start getting it ready.)
Steam Clean the carpets... they need it and I already bought a super steam cleaner!
Make a list of things that need doing that I can work through as I find myself with an extra few minutes
Everything a home and everything in it's place... everything else out the door!!!!!
Menu plan each week so I'm not scrounging for meals last minute

What is your focus for this month and what have you set as goals? Leave me a comment!

What's For Dinner Wednesday... 5 Minute Ham...

2010-03-03T00:01:00.004-07:00

You ever had one of those days when you don't feel like cooking at all? You start watching the clock knowing that at some point you HAVE to put something on the table for the starving mouths you feed... but you just don't have the energy to spend hours in the kitchen. Look no further! This is definitely a recipe you want to have on hand. Not only is it fabulously quick and easy... it is super budget friendly too!

Here's what you need:

The ham comes already pre-sliced and this is only half of the package... I had already taken out the meat I had used for the evening. The whole package of ham costs around $7 at Walmart.

Stir together a generous half a cup of the peach preserves with 1 to 2 tbsp of spicy brown mustard then layer the bottom of your pan with ham!

Spoon about half the mixture over the ham:

Add another layer of ham:

Spoon the remaining mixture over the top.

Bake at 350 for 20 mins or until it is bubbling and the edges of the ham are just browned. Serve with mashed potatoes (potato pearls or the ones in the red carton from Sam's Club) and corn or your favorite sides. Voila! Dinner is served!

If you want it even faster or don't want to turn on the oven at all, just throw it in a large frying pan on top of the stove and cook till bubbly and warmed through. Sometimes I add a small can of pineapple chunks over the top with juice for variation. The fam gobble it up!

Do you have a 5 minute meal you go to in a pinch? I'd love to hear about it! :)

The Trampoline...

2010-02-24T17:46:00.005-07:00

My Family Trampoline

My Dad is the net keeping us safe
My Mom is the springs, keeping us going
My Sister is the canvas. Without her, I could not have fun
My Dog is the support bars
We build our love on her
I'm the spring cover. I help people not fall.

-A Metephor by Michael Collins Jr

Now that being said,
This is what our trampline looks like right now...

Ironic? I think not!

Wordless Wednesday... Puppy Lovin'...

2010-02-17T16:07:00.002-07:00

Join with 5Minutes4Mom and link up.

What's For Dinner Wednesday... Homemade Cafe Rio...

2010-02-17T16:00:00.001-07:00

I actually served this LAST Wednesday for dinner, but it has taken me this long to get the post together. This is my all time favorite recipe for pork loin... The Cafe Rio Sweet Pork recipe (seen above served with citrus almond rice, sour cream and salsa):

1 good size pork loin
1 2 liter bottle coke (I use caffeine free)
1 16oz jar of your favorite salsa
2 cups brown sugar

Put the pork loin in your crock pot and pour enough coke in to just cover it. Cook the roast on high for about 6 hours. Drain off the coke and shred the pork. Mix together about 16oz fresh coke, the jar of salsa and the 2 cups of brown sugar. (I throw it all in the blender to get rid of the chunks.) Put everything back in the crock pot and cook an additional 1-2 hours on high till it is all delicious looking. Put the crock pot on low until ready to serve.

Serve on tortillas with rice, salsa and sour cream... or go the whole mile and make all the salad toppings. Did you know you can now buy the tortilla strips they put on the top at Smiths? They come in Regular and Santa Fe flavor!

Here is the recipe for the Cafe Rio Creamy Tomatillo Salad Dressing. (I have tried many variations of this recipe, and this is by far the closest to the actual dressing. It is heavenly and the one I use every time now!):

1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayo (not miracle whip)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 pkg dry ranch buttermilk dressing
2 medium tomatillos (remove outer leaves)
1 tsp crushed garlic
3/4-1 bunch of Cilantro
2 to 4 tsp green Tabasco sauce
Juice from 1 lime
Salt & pepper to taste

Blend all ingredients together and refrigerate until ready to serve. (At least one hour.)

The Love Of My Life...

2010-02-14T06:23:00.001-07:00

Hard to breath

Feels like floating

So full of love

My heart's exploding

Mouth is dry

Hands are shaking

My heart is yours

For the taking

Acting weird

Not myself

Dancing around

Like the Keebler elf

Finally time

For this poor schlubb

To know how it feels

To fall in lub.

(-Mr. Deeds)

Happy Valentines Day to my dear, sweet, HOT Hubby! :)

I love you more today than the day I married you. ♥

To Be Healthy or To Be Yummy, That Is The Question...

2010-02-08T17:36:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that I have always kind of believed that there are two kinds of recipes. The yummy kind and the healthy kind. Don't get me wrong, I know that when I cook healthy, within a few days my body adjusts and healthy food can taste good, but lets not kid ourselves that carrots taste as delicious as chocolate, eh?

Anyway, this weekend I tried out a couple of new recipes for a friend that has recently found out she has high cholesterol and while they were all pretty good, one stood out to me as really yummy. Yummy AND healthy? I stand corrected.

This is the recipe for Zucchini-Carrot Bread. (I'd post a pic, but it is all gone... I'll try and remember to snap one next time I make it.)

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup oat bran (after going to two stores and not finding this, I substituted another 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded zucchini (about 1 good size zucchini... I peeled off the green skin with a potato peeler before shredding it so that I don't have dark green stuff in the bread, which puts my family off of eating it.)
1 cup shredded carrots (about three good size carrots)
2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional, but I added them.)

Preheat oven to 350 and spray 8x5 loaf pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, whisk together honey, oil, egg and vanilla. In another bowl combine the flours, oat bran, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add dry ingredients to honey mixture with zucchini, carrots and orange peel and stir to blend well. Add walnuts. Spoon in to pan. Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

I found this bread to be super moist, which surprised me with the amount of wheat flour that I put in there! Also, because I shredded the veggies on the finest side of my grater, you really couldn't tell they were an ingredient and it is always good to be able to get a couple extra servings of veggies in my kids! The orange flavor was divine. If you wanted to go the extra mile, I bet a handful of craisins would be nice in it too. Anyway, this recipe is definitely a keeper. :)

Romance on a budget...

2010-02-04T19:04:00.002-07:00

Love this blog... such cute, fun ideas... just in time for Valentines Day. ♥

Blog Design Fun...

2010-02-03T17:34:00.002-07:00

So I recently decided that I was going to change up my blog design. I wanted it similar to my Frugalityville website... more simple looking. (No more cutesy backgrounds... I wanted to just use a few embellishments instead.)

For my blog I decided to use the Minima Stretch Template... it stretches my columns across the whole page instead of putting them in a smaller column down the middle. I then designed a header with the graphics and fonts that I liked using photoshop. I created a signature that will automatically post on new posts, I added a graphic to the front of my Blog Post Titles, I put a cute divider between my posts and then changed my font colors to match my header and other graphics. I am pretty pleased with how everything turned out... for now anyway! ;)

It occurred to me that there might be some of you out there who would like to know where you can go to get information on how to do some of this stuff, so here are some of my favorite sites that will get you on your way:

For really cute scrapbooking type graphics for your web pages that are free for non-commercial, personal use, Summer does a fabulous site with lots of scrapbooking kits to choose from. Visit http://summertimedesigns.blogspot.com/. (I used the Happy Mothers Day Kit to make my header, my line dividers and the little graphics at the front of each post title.)

If you want a ton of new, extremely cute free handwriting and scrapbooking fonts, Amanda offers a brilliant selection at her website. Just visit http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/ and look for the buttons that let you download the entire collection in one swoop. These fonts will work in your graphics programs as well as Word. (If you don't know how to install them on your computer and you live near me, I would be happy to come over and show ya! Creative I am not... Computer literate, I actually am!)

So once you have gotten your graphics and fonts, how do you put everything together? What size new graphics do you make for each element? How do you upload them or change the HTML code on your page? Well, there are some really good tutorials out there to help, (as well as a lot of free already made stuff if you don't want to make it yourself!)

The girls at Cutest Blog On The Block not only have tons of free backgrounds, but they have a section called "Blogging Secrets". Here you can learn how to make your own background, how to add a cute signature to your posts, how to add an image next to your sidebar and post titles, how to remove those pesky border lines that never line up properly from behind your header and much, much more!

Megan at Shabby Blogs teaches you how to put a divider between your posts instead of that boring line! Need a cute header or divider but don't want to spend the time making it? Check out her EXTRA's page which lets you download some really cute ones. Need to know how to install them? She tells you HERE how to do it.

There are lots of sites out there that have free backgrounds and headers if you just want to upload pre-made one's on to your blog. A couple I like (other than the ones mentioned above), are:

What are you favorite sites to help with Blog Design? Do you have a graphics program that you love to help you create your backgrounds and headers?

Happiness Project... ♥ February ♥

2010-02-02T20:50:00.001-07:00

January has come and gone. Really? Can you believe it? We are a twelfth of the way through the year already! I think the older you get, the quicker time goes by... at least it seems that way to me.

My January focus was Health/Fitness/Beauty. I had a fun month and did some things that I wouldn't normally do... I spent a lot of time on the Wii Fit, tried to eat healthier, said no a lot more to treats than I usually do, painted my nails all kinds of wild colors to try and make them prettier... but there is so much more I need to do. For example, a very good friend of mine lent me the Slim In Six DVD. I almost DIED doing this!!! I seriously couldn't walk for like three days afterwards, and stairs??? I whimpered all the way up and down them. So I gave up on that way too quickly. I need to do other exercise other than just the Wii and I need to be less lazy and stop eating out so much and be better at cooking dinner. Anyway, that is why I picked this as my focus for January, because I have to keep on focusing on it the whoooooooooooole year. :)

So February is the month of Valentines and so I picked LOVE as my focus for this month. (As in improving relationships.) I am guilty of spending way too much time wrapped up in frivolous things... especially on the computer... like facebook and yes, even blogging and blog stalking. When I think about what I really want in life, it doesn't include being a virtual farmer or the high scorer on bejeweled blitz. And it certainly doesn't include me spending hours reading and commenting on the blogs of people I don't even know! I really want to be a good wife, a good mother, a good daughter, a good sister... and all of these things require nurturing relationships... the most important relationships... people I do know and love. They deserve the best of me. So here are some of my ideas on things I can do for this month:

Have a date night with my hubby every week... one of those weeks at the Temple. (This is actually quite easy for us since my kids are old enough to take care of themselves.)
Consciously think of little ways to make my hubby feel special each day. Make an effort to greet him when he comes through the door each night
Have a mother/daughter date and a mother/son date at least once this month. (Mike Sr can take the other one out each time for father/child time.)
Try to keep calm and keep my voice down when the kids are arguing or being ornery... only yelling if there is a fire! :)
Plan a family day trip for one day this month.
Have my mom and dad over for dinner once and go to their house to have a genealogy night.
Temple Baptisms with all the extended family on Feb 12th at the Salt Lake Temple.
Lunch with my two sisters who live in Utah once this month.
Some kind of contact with my Brother & Sister who live in England this month, whether by phone, email, or letter.

Well there it is. I have also been considering closing down my Frugalityville blog since maintaining a second blog is simply time draining and that is more time away from my fam. My thought is to just post "Frugal Friday's" here on my personal blog where I can post the coupons, Smith's deals and other tips I have. I haven't made a final decision about this though...

What is your focus for February? If you post, leave me a comment with a link so I can come visit. :)

Thursday Therapy... Breast Cancer Awareness...

2010-01-28T17:50:00.000-07:00

The employees at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon put together this cute video to increase Breast Cancer Awareness. I just wanted to share...

Puppy Magic...

2010-01-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's a miracle. Things I have been trying to get my family to do for years are suddenly getting done and I don't even have to ask! Here is why EVERY family should have a small dog in the house...

Dishes are no longer left lying around
Granola bar wrappers are put straight in the trash
The vacuuming gets done every other day
The kids don't try and give you the "what? you are going on another date and leaving us home" crap because they want someone to be home with the pup
The kitchen floor is swept regularly
They no longer walk by ANY small items on the ground such as trash, paperclips, pencils... you know, stuff they would usually just step over and leave for me
Bedrooms are staying tidy so they are puppy proof

We should have got a dog a long time ago, but shhhhhhh, don't tell them that... Since I "allowed" them to have a dog, I don't have to do a thing! ;)

House Cleaning 101...

2010-01-18T11:35:00.005-07:00

I told my kids last week that from now on, Saturday mornings we are going to work as a family to clean up the house. (I know, meanest mom EVER!) The thing is, the chores just aren't getting done during the week. We have WAY too much going on... (you know, like blogging and facebook and watching football!)

DeAnna found this completely unacceptable as Saturday morning simply does not exist to her. (She sleeps till at least noon!) So on Friday night while Mike and I were on a date eating Chinese Food and browsing the stores she decided to do her part of the cleaning. She chose the vacuuming (the entire house) and sweeping the entrance hall. After finishing up, she thought she would go the extra mile and give the wood floor in the entrance hall a deep clean. She went searching through the cleaners and found this which had a picture of some wood on the front of it (so naturally, it would be perfect to clean the floor with):

I am not sure which is funnier... watching Mike Jr fall on his rear about ten times since then or watching the puppy go sliding across the floor every time she runs to the door or comes down the stairs. LOL :) Love ya Dee! ♥

Scrap Booking? Me? Bahahahah...

2010-01-15T17:08:00.008-07:00

So I am most definitely the most uncreative person in the world... (not crafty at all!), but I decided to try my hand at a scrap booking class/club... first, because some ladies that I think are really cool do it and I thought it would be a blast to do it with them... and second, I thought it would be a great thing to do with the tons of boxed up pics I have... that would be just for me!

I was completely lost at first... I don't know what ANYTHING is. (Seriously, I had to ask what everyone else must have thought were really dumb questions.) But Brandie was very patient and showed me everything I needed to do and know, so basically I just had to follow her models! I was very pleased with the results and found it super therapeutic. I can't wait to do some more! :)
Here were my very first projects. My first card (I've always wanted to make these!):

...and my first page! (I obviously haven't attached the pic on it yet, just threw my fav one on there for the pic!)

Can't wait to get next months kit and get started! :)

Happiness Project Blog Hop: Your first set of resolutions!

2010-01-12T18:45:00.001-07:00

I am so happy to have had some people sign up for the Happiness Project Blog Hop! It helps so much to have people to be accountable to and to know I am not alone in this mission to become happier! :) If you haven't started yet, it is NEVER too late to join us!

We are on week two. For this week, if you haven't already, post your goals for the month and then tell us how you are doing on them. Also include any thing you have learned and any changes you have made! Then LINK UP by adding your post to the MckLinky List at the bottom of my post.

You can also add this same list of links to your blog by clicking HERE for instructions and code! This means any time anyone adds themselves to the list on any one of our blogs, we will all get them added to our list too and that will enable us to hop around and visit other people participating in this project and give them support too! :) (Thus the name, BLOG HOP!)

Remember, the core of a happiness project is to...

identify elements of your life that you want to change
find concrete, measurable resolutions that, if kept, will help you bring about that change
hold yourself accountable for keeping your resolutions
decide whether you want to adjust, toss, or re-commit to a resolution

I think that last point is important to note, because it allows us to make changes as we deem necessary!

A tip from Gretchen is that resolutions work best when they’re very specific, so you know whether you’ve kept your resolution or not. Accountability is key!

She also has some great examples of specific goals you can set under different categories:

Attitude: Give positive reviews. Don’t talk about my irritations.
Clutter: Put dishes in the dishwasher immediately. Make my bed each morning.
Creativity & Writing: Write a novel in a month. Keep “morning pages.” Take notes.
Diet, Exercise & Health: Take a 20-minute walk each day. Eat protein at breakfast.
Family & Children: Make my children dissolve in laughter at least once a day. Read a chapter out loud every night.
Friends: No gossip. No “topping.” Show up.
Fun: Try a new restaurant each time I eat out. Go to a game instead of watching it on TV.
Gratitude: As I stand in the shower, count my blessings. Sincerely thank two people each day.
Helping Others: Volunteer at the thrift shop. Sign up for the breast-cancer walk-a-thon.
Memories & Traditions: Organize all the photos in tidy boxes. Take a five- minute video of my kids each Sunday night.
Mindfulness: Put up sticky notes to remind myself to “be.” Don’t listen to my iPod on the way to work.
Money: Pay down twice the minimum on my credit card debt each month. Buy needful things.
Relationships & Marriage: Don’t expect thanks. Think of small treats.
Religion & Spirituality: Read the Bible every day. Meditate each morning.
Work: Go to a professional conference. Sign up for training on the new computer program.

For more information about The Happiness Project 2010, visit Author Gretchen Rubins Happiness Project Blog.

For more tools to help you with YOUR Happiness Project, visit Gretchen's Happiness Project Toolbox!

It's A Girl...

2010-01-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

Meet the newest member of our family... Miley. (You probably think she got her name from teen pop star Miley Cyrus, but actually, it is after the awesome Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, Miles Austin.) She is a miniature shih tzu puppy who weighs about 4 pounds and is almost 12 inches long. This picture doesn't do her size justice at all... she is so tiny and cute and she is incredibly playful and loving. She doesn't shed at ALL and has captured our hearts immediately with her snuggling and playfulness. She is an absolutely perfect fit with our family and is already spoiled rotten. We love you Miley! ♥

Christmas Break...

2010-01-04T22:06:00.009-07:00

I took two weeks off over Christmas & New Year so I could spend some time with my kids while they were out of school. It was an amazing holiday filled with fun activities and Mike Sr even got to take off a few days. First, my Mum & Dad started a new family tradition by having us all meet at temple square to see the lights...

My Mum took us to I-Fly in Ogden where you can do indoor skydiving...

I forgot my camera (idiot), so these flying pics were taken on my cell phone and therefore aren't great, but you can match up the person by the color of their outfit to the pics above. :) If you want to get a REALLY good idea of how fun this is, ask me to see the I-Fly video my mom purchased of them the next time you are at my house. It is AWESOME! :) (Who knows, when I get a bit of extra time, maybe I'll post it to YouTube!)

New Years Eve Jenna and Erik took us all tubing at Gorgoza Park in Park City. The worst part about sledding/tubing is that you usually have to climb the hill before you can go down it. That is not the case here! They hook you up to a pulley that drags you up the mountain... that part is almost as fun as coming down!

I had my very first spa experience when Jenna also treated me to a spa day at the Grand America Hotel in Downtown Salt Lake two days before Christmas, (for my Birthday), We got facials, massages, and manicures as well as sitting in a eucalyptus steam room. It was heavenly! Every mom should get a spa day right before Christmas... it was soooooooo relaxing! :)

We also went to see this movie, which we really enjoyed! If you like mysteries that keep you guessing till the end, you will enjoy this... not to mention the relationship between Holmes and Watson is well developed and entertaining!

Is it any wonder I didn't want to go back to work today??????????

The Happiness Project Blog Hop... January Goals...

2010-01-02T20:11:00.004-07:00

All right! I am going to try and start a weekly Happiness Project Blog Hop which means I will post a suggested weekly topic/discussion (to do with the Happiness Project) that we can blog about each week, and once you have posted, you can add your link on the MckLinky Blog Hop below so we can all find each other easily and participate together! I sure hope you will join in! For this week, all you have to do is decide on and post your monthly categories for 2010 and then post your specific goals for your January category. Once you have posted, come back and link up! I can't wait to see what everyone else has chosen to work on for the year!

Fitness is my focus for January... for me that includes Health, Fitness & Beauty. I know, it sounds a bit shallow, but when I make an effort to look better, I feel happier. Here are my specific goals for this month:

Exercise 6 days a week (with Sunday being the day of rest.) As a side note, our family has made a rule that we are not allowed to watch TV, play on the computer or touch video games until we have done at least 20 mins cardio for the day... of course, once you have started you just keep going! :) So far this has been working really well for all of us!

Track myself on the Wii Fit as well as do some of the activities on there as extra calorie burners and for fun.

Eat more whole foods, less processed foods. I will buy more fruit and veggies, lean meats and cheese and more whole grains... less white flour products and less carbs. (I am a carb addict!) Less junk food for sure! I am enjoying trying new fruits for snacks... for example, I have found that I love Fuji apples, where as usually I am not an apple person at all!

Drink plenty of water! This is actually not hard for me since it is the only beverage I drink. :)

Moisturize my face and body and lips daily. It is so dry where I live!

Put a little extra effort in to how I look as far as my hair, clothes, make up and jewelry each day... for me and my hubby. :)

Take my vitamins and other daily meds that are needed for health and well-being

Wash my hands frequently to fight off germs and illness and keep my hands away from my mouth!

Stop biting my nails and keep them looking nice instead of all chewed up all the time!

Don't forget to check in on The Happiness Project Blog for daily inspiration and ideas. Also, check out the Happiness Project Toolbox which has eight different tools to help you on your journey! :)

(You can also add this MckLinky list to your own blog so that when one person adds a link, you will automatically show it on your blog too! Grab the HTML code below and paste it below your blog post content using the "Edit HTML" tab. Let me know if you need help!)

A Fabulous Read...

2009-12-30T21:17:00.004-07:00

Looking for a fabulous book to read? I highly recommend "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. My family bought me books one and two of this series for Christmas and I haven't been able to put it down. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE it! (As much as I like Twilight!)

"In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love." -Scholastic Website

If you are thinking that this sounds too gruesome or barbaric, think of what you thought of Twilight at first when you heard it was a "Vampire Book", and give it a chance. It is tastefully and cleverly written and I don't think you will be at all disappointed. It catches your attention from the very beginning...I seriously just could not put it down and had the first book read within a day! Let me know what you think! :)

My Happiness Project 2010... JOIN ME!!!

2009-12-29T15:16:00.002-07:00

I have been working on my Happiness Project for 2010, (see this Woman's Day article, "C'mon, Get Happy" by Gretchen Rubin for an overview), and have come up with my 12 categories to work on that will make myself a happier person. The idea is to have one area per month to concentrate on, but you continue concentrating on each one so by the end of the year you are working on all 12! (There is also a really cool blog that you can check in on to give you ideas and keep you focused... http://www.happiness-project.com/.)

Here is what I decided my happiness project will look like:

January: Fitness
February: Love
March: Saving
April: Spirituality
May: Parenting
June: Cleanliness
July: Writing
August: Friendship
September: Home Improvement
October: Music
November: Thankfulness
December: Service

So Each month I will be setting goals and focusing on these categories. January I will be working on exercising, eating right and health in general. Wanna join me? Develop your own Happiness Project and post about it, then let me know in the comments so I can come read about it. I would love to have a group of us working on this together! If there are enough people interested, we could start a Monday Blog Hop or something where we all post about our Happiness Project accomplishments and Goals! :) We can all use a little more happiness in our lives!

Merry Christmas...

2009-12-28T20:18:00.007-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I enjoyed my Christmas immensely. We spent the morning at our house, (the first year ever in our OWN home), opening presents, cooking and laughing together, then we went to my Mum & Dad's for Christmas Dinner and some extended family fun. I can't imagine Christmas without family. It just wouldn't be the same. (Though my heart does still pang for my brother and sister in England and their families as well as Mike's Mom & his brother and his family. I miss them all a lot.)

This year we had an amazing spread that started with DeAnna's homemade mini-quiche, cream cheese covered in raspberry chipotle sauce with shrimp, artichoke dip, crackers and cheese.

My Mum puts out the most incredible feasts for any dinner, but she really outdoes herself for the holidays. The main course brought roast beef, ham & turkey with ALL the trimmings. Roast potatoes, parsnips, horseradish carrots, green bean casserole, funeral potatoes, stuffing with cranberries & pecans, sweet potatoes with brown sugar, pink salad, broccoli salad, cranberry jello mold, bread sauce (traditionally made and simmered over a three hour period by my pops), gravy and rolls.

For dessert there were mincemeat pies, jam tarts, all types of cookies/bars and we even had a traditional English Trifle with real Birdseye custard on top. Oh, just thinking about it all makes me hungry for it again! In fact, I swear I can smell it all right now!

We had a fun day playing, chatting and watching a movie together. We also had a family talent show where each of the families had to do something together. Our family did "The 12 weeks of Football" where we changed all the words and acted out some amusing entertainment. It wasn't your typical 12 days of Christmas... I'll just say that, and give thanks that no-one got it on video. LOL.

I hope each of you had a very Merry Christmas and that you too enjoyed your time with your family. God bless you all!

Do You Feel What I Feel?

2009-12-22T13:36:00.004-07:00

Today I woke up different. I don't know what directly caused it... maybe it was because I knew I was almost done with Christmas preparations... maybe it was because we spent a fabulous night with Mum, Dad, The Hansen's and The Santizo's at Temple Square last night looking at the Christmas lights and Nativity together... maybe it was because it started to snow... I really don't know, but I am glad it has happened. I can feel it... the true Spirit of Christmas. It is kind of hard to explain, but my heart feels full of gratitude and peace. Today I feel a bounce in my step and a glow in my face. I can't help but smile at everyone I pass. I literally feel like... like my heart has grown three sizes overnight!

If you don't feel the true Christmas Spirit yet, take 1 minute & 50 seconds and listen to Linus explain what Christmas is all about.

Do you feel it yet? If not, you need the big guns... watch this one, and go share your Christmas Spirit with everyone you know! Merry Christmas Friends. :)

A Candle for Bryson...

2009-12-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

My heart was sadly touched when I read about little Angel Bryson on a blogging friend's site. Click HERE for more information and if you feel so inclined, post a candle and say a little prayer for the Ross family.

Family Fight Night?

2009-12-16T00:01:00.001-07:00

I don't remember EVER having a more peaceful Family Home Evening than we did this week. We usually refer to FHE as Family Fight Night because there is always some kind of trouble. However, I was literally shocked that this one went so well... so much so that I haven't been able to stop analyzing what we did because I want it to always be like that! (Don't worry, I'm not holding my breath!)

We ate dinner around the table together, went to Gardner Village to see the Elves and then had a 1/2 hour lesson/discussion patterned around 'The Happiness Project' post I did last week. There were no arguments, we had a ton of fun and even got to eat yummy chocolate at the Fudge Shoppe at Gardner Village. I definitely could do more Family Home Evenings like this one. :)

Julie & Julia

2009-12-09T21:59:00.002-07:00

Oh my goodness. I absolutely LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this movie.

I took Miss Dee to the Dr this morning and she has strep. :( When I grabbed her prescription I saw the redbox machine and thought I would grab a movie for her to watch since she wouldn't be doing much of anything else. Well Dee LOVES cooking and we had talked about this movie when it first came out and how cute it looked because it was based on two true stories... the story of Julia Childs and the story of Julie Powell, an office worker who wants to be a writer. Julie who feels overwhelmed with the mundane-ness of her life, decides to cook through every recipe in Julia Childs cookbook (524 recipes) in one year and blog about it.

Well, about 4pm I started puking and wasn't feeling too good all afternoon/evening so I did something I don't often do... I actually sat down and watched the movie with Miss Dee while Hubby and Mike were out. It was so dang cute. I found it inspiring and heartwarming. I don't know if it was because I felt like I identified so closely with Julie Powell, or because I fell in love with Julia Childs and her bubbly personality, or because I found the relationship between Julia Childs and her husband so romantic. But the combination of all these things and more made it climb up to the top of my chick flick list. :)

The Happiness Project...

2009-12-08T21:16:00.002-07:00

I subscribe to Woman's Day Magazine. (I know, it's an old lady mag, but I am pretty much addicted... I love it and I got three years for $10, what can I say... plus, it is awesome bathroom reading!) This month there was a fab article entitled "C'mon, Get Happy", (click on it to read it), by Gretchen Rubin that has made me really think for the past few days. Basically it has you think about what is stopping you from being happy and has you create your own "Happiness Project". Gretchen suggests coming up with 12 resolutions... things to work on that make you happier... and then working on one for January, then adding the next in February, etc. Some of her goals include making time for friends, remembering love, pursuing a passion and paying attention. At the end she gives you a list of questions you can ask yourself to kick-start your happiness.

Reading the article definitely made me want to set up my own "Happiness Project" for 2010, so I have to figure out what my goals are gonna be for the year. The first question Gretchen recommends asking yourself is "What makes you feel good?" I'm still working on it, but so far my list includes:

Cuddling with Hubby
Spending time with the fam
A night out with good friend(s)
Playing the piano
Listening to loud music and dancing all around when no-one is home
Chocolate, mmmmmmmmm, especially Cadbury's
Saving money
Hugs
Helping someone do something they can't do themselves
Eating well and exercising (I don't do this, obviously)
Reading a great book
Writing stories
Sitting in a hot, bubbly jet tub
Having manicured nails
A clean house!
Days off work
Seven hours sleep

So I am curious... What makes you feel good???

I never thought I would see THIS...

2009-12-07T14:57:00.001-07:00

Take a close look at Santa... heeheehee...

That is my cute Hubby entertaining the kids.

If that isn't the sweetest thing ever,
I don't know what is... :)

Deck The Halls...

2009-12-03T19:23:00.001-07:00

Last year I managed to put off putting up the decorations in the house until around the 13th of December. That was when my daughter decided to try and shame me in to doing it on her blog, (see here).

Well she hasn't blogged in a LONG time, so I thought I might get away with putting it off again this year, but NOOOOOOOOOOOO! DeAnna decided we were going to put up the trees for Family Home Evening this past Monday, (Not even December... November 30th people!!!!), whether we wanted to or not and drug all the decorations up from the basement after school. She even "paid" her brother and some friends to help her by making them brownies. Seriously??? It's not like you can ignore a room full of boxes for a week!

So I got to spend my entire Monday afternoon/evening decorating my house for Christmas. Thanks a lot guys! ;)

Thankful...

2009-11-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

This year I am thankful for so many things, but especially...

Family, family, family :)

My husband graduating and getting a job that he loves

Teenagers... even with all their attitude

A hubby who isn't afraid to do laundry or whatever else needs doing

Finally buying our own home

My parents deciding to stay in Utah after their mission

Being able to visit my home land for the first time in 17 years, even though it was for a sad occasion

A fabulous ward with fabulous friends and neighbors

The Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Scriptures and Prayers

Both of us keeping our jobs through a lousy economy

Trampolines and jacuzzi tubs

Dinner on the deck

Filtered water straight from the refrigerator door... mmmmmmm

Starting a food storage

Not living paycheck to paycheck

Living, Laughing & Loving :)

You know you are getting old when...

2009-11-25T19:41:00.003-07:00

Lifting a frozen turkey into your cart seems like a good workout
People notice when you wear purple eyeliner
Shaving your legs becomes a once in a while thing
Your mom shares a video of you as a teen and then proceeds to tell you the video is 21 years old
You take ibuprofen with your vitamins every day
Your sink has eye cream, wrinkle serum AND moisturizer on it
Unless you are wearing make-up, you look like a raccoon
You have to limit your liquid intake at night
Bed time is before 10pm
You consider 7am sleeping in
Your kids think it is funny that there was no Internet or cell phones when you were their age
Your daughter begs to text for you because you are too slow
You are checking the amount of fiber in everything you buy
Your purse looks like a pharmacy exploded in it
You buy face powder that has "botafirm" in it
You have to do your roots every 2 weeks to cover the WHITE
You can only count three couples in the whole ward that are older than you
Your birthday seems more of a commiseration rather than a celebration

Sticky Note Saturday...

2009-11-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Thursday Therapy...

2009-11-19T16:04:00.008-07:00

I remember being a teenager...
I remember the ups and downs of what I thought love was...
I remember having my heart crushed and thinking life was over...
I remember thinking I would never find love again...

I wish you could see your future...
I wish you could know what it is like to truly fall in love...
I wish you could realize they aren't worth the heartache, that there are others much better for you out there...
I wish you could see how insignificant he will be five years from now...

I hope you will continue to open your heart...
I hope you have a life full of as much love as I have had...
I hope you will look at your true love years from now and remember, that all this heartache didn't matter...
I hope God grants me the lifespan to be there to see it...

The price of being a woman...

2009-11-18T18:34:00.002-07:00

Men have it great. A two minute shower, throw on whatever is clean, fingers through the hair and they are out the door. That's it? Seriously?

We women go through WAY too much to try and make ourselves beautiful. We spend about an hour every morning getting ourselves as pretty as we can... shower, body wash, shaving, make up, curlers, straighteners, perfume, six different outfits before we find the one that is "just right" for the day. Then there is the shoes, the purse, our finger nails, toe nails, lotion, jewelry... when does it end???? And heaven forbid we go out anywhere that evening because the morning beautification has been obliterated by then and we have to pretty much start all over. It's madness I tell you!

Does a man ever turn to you and say:

Does I look fat in this?
Which pair of shoes looks better with these pants?
I am having a terrible hair day!
Dang it, I chipped my nail.
I can't wear that to church, I wore it last Sunday!

It's bad enough that women go through sooooooo much to try and look prettier, but there is one thing that I seriously question our sanity over. WAXING. Why oh why do we allow ourselves to be put through this dreadful psychotic ritual??? It is torturous! Putting hot wax on our bodies, spreading a cloth over it and RIPPING it off when it starts to dry??? I would like to know who thought of this and what on earth made them think that it was a good idea at the time...

And THAT is what went through my head while I watched my daughter get her eyebrows waxed today at the salon!

Marriage Monday...

2009-11-16T21:00:00.005-07:00

Thank you sweetie for:

Packing me breakfast AND lunch this morning
Texting me through the day to let me know you were thinking of me
Fixing the toilet paper holder in the bathroom
Throwing in a load of laundry
Going to the store with me even though you just got home from work

I LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURVE YOU :)

Sticky Note Saturday...

2009-11-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Flashback Friday...

2009-11-13T00:01:00.004-07:00

December 17th, 2002. I was YW President of the White Oak Ward in Silver Spring, Maryland. (This was the same ward I had lived in since I was 11 years old.) We lived just 20 minutes away from the Washington DC Temple, and so we took the Youth down annually to see the Christmas lights. Talk about Deja vu... I still think about these girls so often and peek in on them on Facebook. :)

Thursday Therapy...

2009-11-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this song.. It is a song I can dance around the living room to when I am needing a pick-me-up or BLAST in the car and sing along to when I want to feel happy. Do you have any songs that you use as therapy to lift your spirits???

I just recently saw the video and it is soooooooooooo cute... especially the end. :)

Enough Already...

2009-11-11T15:02:00.003-07:00

I am SO sick and TIRED of all the ILLNESS in our HOUSE!!!!!

Flu, stomach bugs, colds, sinus infections, knees, backs, ankles, strep...

I am SO sick and TIRED of buying lysol and gatorade and going to the doctor...

I HAVE HAD ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

Thanks, just needed to get that off my chest. :)

Down With Holiday Stress...

2009-11-09T00:01:00.001-07:00

Christmas is right around the corner. Has the economy got you a little stressed this year? Please come and visit my other blog, Frugalityville. We are just beginning a 6 week journey of tips and tricks to help you shave off some dollars from your spending this holiday season.

There is no catch to this website. There is no advertising, no hidden agendas. Just come and be a part of the movement to live on a little bit less and stash that saved cash for rainy days.

Don't start the New Year with "now due" credit card bills that will put tremendous strain on you and your family. With a little pre-planning you can have a beautiful Christmas that will be heavier on the "Merry", but hopefully a little lighter on the wallet.

I really want to help as many people as I can, so please link up and share this website with all your friends! :)

Sticky Note Saturday...

2009-11-07T10:33:00.001-07:00

Flashback Friday...

2009-11-06T00:01:00.001-07:00

I love Flashback Friday's! I came across this (obviously very old) pic this evening while I was trying to find something and just love it. This is me and my little sister Jenna in our home country, England, YEARS ago... don't you love the dresses? I'm so glad we are still such good friends... :)

Thursday Therapy...

2009-11-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

BFF's forever...

2009-11-04T16:25:00.001-07:00

Directly across the street, there is a house that looks exactly like ours (except for the color).

This is the house where Kayla lives. Kayla is DeAnna's best friend. They met the summer we moved here to Utah at church. At that time we lived down the road in a different set of houses, but they still bonded and walked back and forth spending lots of time together. When we bought our own house this past April, an added perk was that Kayla lived right across the street. The last seven months have brought them even closer, although I would have never thought that would have been possible. DeAnna and Kayla have become almost inseparable! You may or may not have seen them on youtube doing a music video together. While we only posted that one video, we have HOURS of video of those two doing funny stuff together. I love to see the two of them run across the street to each others house... not caring what they are wearing... make up or no make up... shoeless... at 1am... It is friendship in it's absolute finest form.

Kayla has also become like another daughter to me. You will even see her on my facebook as part of my stick figure family because we always joke that she practically lives at my house. :) The fact that I am also their YW president has only added to my connection with them. They can talk me in to just about anything, including driving them to outrageous places like Kaysville and Provo for sophomore football games. :) I love these two... I love what their friendship represents. It has become so that if they disagree on something, they just sit down and work it out... it is absolutely amazing.

So you can imagine what a blow it was on Saturday to find out that Kayla and her family are moving to West Valley this week. I know, it is not that far away. But it is out of our ward boundaries, and it is definitely more than a quick shoeless sprint across the road. :( It has been a really tough few days at our house. I try not to burst in to tears every time I see the two of them. They have both had some pretty major breakdowns and feel like their world is coming to an end. I know better... They are old enough that their friendship will survive this... within a few months they will both have full blown drivers licenses that will allow them to drive back and forth between their houses... and they will easily talk me in to doing it until then, because I know this friendship is definitley worth it.

So Dee & K... I love you guys very, very much. Everything is going to work out just fine. You will still be best friends forever and ever... Jannalee and I will make sure of it. :) Here is a tribute to you two!

Happy Halloween...

2009-11-03T19:32:00.002-07:00

This is the first year that I actually spent Halloween by myself! Mike and the kids went to the Utes game thanks to some VERY generous friends. I was glad they got the opportunity to go... they had an absolutely FABULOUS time! It was a hard decision for me not to go with them, but I had been making plans for the little kiddies in the neighborhood for weeks and wanted to be home to hand out candy.

I spent the afternoon fixing up the house for the trick or treaters. It took me almost 45 minutes just to do the spider web, but I was really pleased with how it turned out. I also fixed up the lights, put together a small graveyard, turned on the fog machine, put some spooky music on the front porch and dressed up like a witch. It was so much fun! I enjoyed "performing" for the kids and was surprised how many of them would come up to me even though they were small and a little hesitant at first... after all, even the little ones who I have spent LOTS of time with didn't recognize me! By the end of the night I had over 100 kids come by, so it was well worth it. :)

I did miss sharing all the festivities with my family, but we all had a great evening and kept in close contact thanks to cell phones! Hope you guys had a HAPPY HALLOWEEN too. :)

Sticky Note Saturday...

2009-10-31T05:30:00.000-06:00

Nightmare On (A) Maple Street...

2009-10-30T15:01:00.001-06:00

3am I woke up to a horrible charley horse in my leg but I have never been so grateful for a twisted muscle. I was having a horrible nightmare. It wasn't the gory, dying, death kind of nightmare... It was the "my husband doesn't love me any more and there is nothing I can do about it" nightmare.

Have you ever had one of those? They are horrible! I wake up totally sad and my heart literally hurts!

Anyway, since I was practically screaming from the charley horse, Mike woke up too to massage the cramp out. I told him about my horrible dream and fell back asleep in his arms. When I walked in to the den this morning to start work, I found several post it notes in various places with the simple message "Love Ya" on them. Since this morning I have found no less than 25 of them (and I still keep finding them in cupboards and bathrooms.)

Thanks sweetie. What a wonderful way to reassure me you love me. :)

Thursday Therapy: Why should my heart weep?...

2009-10-29T15:56:00.000-06:00

Brandie has inspired me to be a better blogger... She has a great blog that she updates frequently and it has such an assortment of information, that I really look forward to seeing what she comes up with next! One thing I love that I have noticed that she does sometimes is to use memes on some days.

A meme (rhymes with cream, or ironically... theme), is an idea or pattern of thought that can replicate or evolve as it is passed from one thinker to another. In blog world, it translates to fun posts that can be repetitive like "Tuesday's Tip", "Wordless Wednesday" or "Thankful Thursday"... (you get the point). A reader can read the post, then if they choose they they can evolve the post in to one of their own, linking up to the original post if they want to. Sometimes it can be a thought, sometimes a picture that doesn't need any words. Sometimes it has questions associated with it to get the readers thinking and responding. I think it is absolutely fab, because if you can come up with one or two cool memes that you love, then you sort of know what you are going to post about for at least a day or two of each week.

Thursday's is one of those days that I don't often post... probably because I always have Young Women's the night before, so unless I put on my thinking cap and stay up really late, it just doesn't happen. So when I was thinking about what I could post about on Thursday's, I grabbed the dictionary and looked under words that started with "Th" for my Thursday's meme. The word "therapeutic" immediately caught my eye because it was defined as "curative, healing, good for personal growth and health"... does that sound as appealing to you as it does to me??? So without further ado, here is this week's "Thursday Therapy"...

DeAnna was asked to make a mormonad in seminary last week. If you don't know what that is, it is where they take a scripture and turn it in to a poster so that it sticks in your mind. Since they weren't bringing it home, (they were going up on the wall) she took a picture of it on her cell phone and sent it to me.

I loved it so much that I asked her to make me one which I have put on my desk at work.

The simple message of this mormonad has really set me thinking and touched my heart very deeply... With all that I am blessed with and all that I have, "why should my heart weep?" It has reminded me to focus on my blessings and the good things in my life rather than just constantly feeling sorry for myself when I have trials. It also reminds me that I have the ability to help make other people's hearts smile by serving them when they need it. It was a message I really needed to hear and has made a BIG difference in my attitude this week.

How do you remind yourself to have a happy heart?

You know you are in Utah when...

2009-10-27T15:34:00.000-06:00

... it snows the week of Halloween. :( Really? Are you kidding me? I had to fight the urge to get out the Christmas music today...

Seriously!

Who said nothing worthwhile is ever easy????

2009-10-21T00:01:00.000-06:00

I'm not the craftiest mom in the world... I usually just buy stuff instead of making it. I am not the most festive mom in the world... Dee and Kayla put up the decorations outside our house for Halloween. I am definitely not the most creative mom in the world either, especially when it comes to Holidays... but I am pretty sure I can do this...

It's called Ghouls in the Graveyard and I am seriously excited to do this for my teenagers. Pathetic isn't it? If you are as lame as me, you can get the recipe here, although as lame as we are, I think we can pretty much do this just from looking at the picture! :) I might even upgrade and make my homemade mac and cheese... that'll shock em! ;)

Bubble bubble toil & trouble...

2009-10-16T18:03:00.000-06:00

This week we took a trip over to Gardner Village with our good friends the Hottons and our adopted daughter K-la to see the witches. If you have never been, you should definitely take your kids. It's not scary, it's just fun. The witches are everywhere, and it makes for some adorable Halloween pictures. :)

I could have seriously walked around there for hours and just enjoyed the atmosphere. Hopefully we will get to go back again before Halloween is over. As much as I protested, I was really happy that we finally got a pic with both of our complete families (above, center) thanks to a stranger who offered to take it for us. (A couple of us had eyes closed... maybe we all have our eyes open in Ruthy's.)

Afterwards we went to Maceys to clean out their soft serve ice cream machine, much to the disappointment of the line of customers behind us! Good friends at good locations = good times! :)

I'm a grandma!!!!!!!!

2009-10-14T00:01:00.011-06:00

Ok, not really. But I was, (sort of), for almost 4 days.

Friday, DeAnna became the proud mother of "Baby Dee". (She named it of course after herself.)

Baby Dee is what they call in her child development class a "Real Baby". She has a computer chip in her that makes her cry when she needs a bottle, needs a diaper change, needs burping or is just generally fussy. She came with a bottle and two diapers, both of which also had computer chips in them. DeAnna also had a non-removable bracelet on (they cut it off on Monday), which made her the "mother".

Every time Baby Dee cried, DeAnna would have to respond to her within 2 minutes by chiming her with the bracelet. She then would have to figure out which of the four things the baby needed to stop her from crying. If it was a bottle, she had to sit and feed her for at least 20 minutes. Diaper changes were easy, she just had to switch them. Burping, however, could take up to 30 minutes and fussiness could last for however long the baby decided. It was indeed like having a real baby in the house!

The baby had a sensitive neck which needed good head support at all times, and was also sensitive to any trauma to the body which would make her cry. (It was possible to kill your baby by giving it shaken baby syndrome or if it received excessive trauma to her head.) She also woke up several times during the night needing attention. (Just like a real baby!)

It turned out that we had quite a lot on this weekend. Baby Dee had a trip to the mall, attended Mike Jr's football game, went to Golden Corral for lunch with us, accompanied DeAnna to a sweet 16 birthday party and came to church to name a few things. The trips out in public were definitely an experience. We did have a car seat and stroller which she borrowed from Ruthy to make it a little easier.

Anyone not paying a lot of attention didn't realize it was a doll she was taking care of until they got right up on her. Though there were many people who knew exactly what this was, I found myself explaining to a lot of people who obviously didn't, that this was indeed just a school project. As I watched various people whisper and pass judgement on my daughter who is only 15 and obviously not old enough to have a baby, I was disheartened by some of the lack of humanity that was shown. Comments passed, dirty looks and judgement that was aimed at her and then shot over to me and Mike made me feel a little sad. I was especially disturbed with one lady in particular who was verbally bothered by the fact that Little Dee was black. It really disturbs me that there are still people in the world who can't get past the color of some one's skin. :(

I was very impressed with DeAnna and how well she took care of the baby. While feeding the baby on the sidelines of the football game, the tackle came in our direction and the QB got thrown right in to DeAnna. As instinctive as a real mother, she turned the baby away and took the brunt of the hit herself. She was very protective of the baby's feelings which I found interesting. Many times when we were out she mentioned that she was glad the baby didn't hear all the rude comments and have it's feelings hurt. She really didn't complain the entire weekend. She got up with the baby at least three times a night by herself and talked to it almost like it was real. She even dressed it in a Cowboys dress, Copper Hills hair bow and sporty socks.

Although I felt kind of stupid feeding and burping the baby, I did give DeAnna a little help while she was trying on clothes in the dressing room or getting ready for church etc. I have to say that by Sunday afternoon I had kind of become a little attached to the baby myself. :) The best part was when she cooed after you finished doing something right. I will tell you this much, while I am definitely not ready to be a grandmother yet, I have a feeling it will be a wonderful thing when it comes time.

All in all it was a good experience. Little Mike even got attached to Little Dee and although he laughed with his football buddies at the baby, he kept cooing at her when they weren't looking. :)

DeAnna who has always loved babies soooooooooo much DOES realize that she is not ready to have her own baby yet, although, she still wants twins... and though we were sad to let Little Dee go back to her drawer in the school, it has been nice to have a bit of peace and quiet around here the past couple of days. Now if I can just get her to wait at LEAST 10 years before making me a REAL grandma... :)

Happy Birthday To My Two Boys...

2009-10-06T16:44:00.003-06:00

I have been slacking on the blogging the past couple of weeks and during that time Mike Sr & Mike Jr had their birthdays. Mike Sr is 38, (haha... you are two years older than me... at least for the next couple of months...), and Jr is finally 13. (I am getting old... I have two teenagers now!)

I can't believe how much these two are a like.

They both love football, (although much to Mike Sr's chagrin, Mike Jr is a Colts fan).
They both would choose McDonald's or Pizza over a sit down restaurant any day.
They both like screamo music. (Thank heavens because I would not be taking Jr to one of those concerts!)
They both play drums. (Sorry neighbors.)
They both like the Utes.
They are both mommas boys.
They both like to play Madden 10 together.
They both like to push my buttons (and neither of them can take me!!!!)
They are both teddy bears under their tough exteriors. :)

If you want to see last years photo story of Mike Sr growing up, click here. Mike Jr, click here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE & MIKE!

I love you guys. :)

Seeing the cup half full...

2009-09-25T00:01:00.002-06:00

Mike has had a rough couple of weeks with his knee injury. (BTW, this mom thinks that dads that want their sons to play football should be the ones to take them to all the doctors appointments when they get injured... just sayin'!)

Anyway, despite not being able to do all the things he is used to, (walking in general for the first few days, playing outside, jumping on the tramp, running around the neighborhood, playing football etc., etc.), we were able to find one thing he enjoyed thoroughly:

Thanks to everyone who has kept him in their prayers. The good news is that he hasn't torn his ACL as they originally thought he might have. He has "Patellar Tendinitis" which is also known as jumpers knee. They have given him a new brace which basically becomes part of his skin flexing with his muscles while keeping the inflammation down. Much to his dads delight, (and his moms chagrin), he is allowed to return to football as the pain allows. Hopefully they will both be smart about this one. :)

2009-09-23T18:30:00.002-06:00

Does anyone else have a problem with

ordering a burger called a "fat boy"?

I guess at least they can't be cited for false advertising!

How To Get The Dr To See You Faster...

2009-09-21T18:32:00.002-06:00

Ain't he just adorably cute?

Look what was hanging above my front door today...

2009-09-14T21:23:00.001-06:00

I am glad Miss Dee is completely paranoid about everything including walking through doors... I would never have looked up and seen this if she hadn't been with me:

That is a genuine female black widow spider. (Well it was!) I used half a gallon of bug spray to kill that sucker. That dang thing just WOULD NOT DIE!!!!

Gotta love living in Utah in the hills. :)

We will never forget...

2009-09-11T00:01:00.005-06:00

For the year 2001 I had decided to try something new and keep an electronic journal. I was a stay at home mom living in Silver Spring Maryland, just 20 minutes from downtown Washington DC. Here is my journal entry for September 11th, 2001:

Today is a day that will forever remembered in World History, and I thought I definitely should write about my feelings of today. I dropped the kids off at school as I would any other day, and went to Giant to do some shopping. I came home, and immediately got a phone call from Carole, who sounded quite panicked. She asked if I had been watching TV, to which I answered no, and she told me to turn it on. Thus started a chain of events that I just can’t believe is happening in this Country. There was news on every channel. It turns out that a plane had crashed right into one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. As the news was showing the coverage of this “accident”, all of a sudden, out of the sky another plane came smashing into the world trade center as the entire world watched it. Terrorists were attacking America. Very soon after that, a plane crashed into the pentagon in Washington DC. I was terrified at this point as I thought about what was happening. We were being attacked here near our home.

The FAA for the first time in History grounded all planes in the United States. Other countries did the same thing. Another plane crashed in a rural area of Pennsylvania. This was a plane that we later found out was also taken over by terrorists, and was heading back to Washington DC to perhaps take out the White House. The whole world came to a stand still as all federal buildings were closed. All museums, all sports cancelled, all the schools in our area closed. Less than an hour after the twin towers were hit, the first one came tumbling to the ground. It was a horrific sight.

I felt sick as the news reported that the fire and rescue workers that had gotten to the scene, and were desperately trying to help people out of the building were buried under thousands of pounds of rubble, adding to the already large amount of dead and injured people. I came to a horrible realization, that many people who were trying to get out of the building suffered a horrible death. One of the most heart wrenching scenes, was that of people jumping from the top of the Twin Towers. These were people who were trapped by fire. There were shots of people jumping holding hands, and I cried and cried thinking of the horror they were living through, and the awful death that they had no choice of. Then about 20 minutes later, the second tower collapsed. It was like watching a really horrible movie, but the thing was that it was really happening. And we were watching it happen live on TV. I have never felt so sick inside as I felt the awful truth that life in America, life on the earth, life will never ever be the same.

I was relieved as I got to the school to get the kids. I just wanted to have them close to me. I felt like the world was coming to an end. I called mom and dad who were in England. I found it hard to keep myself from panic, but for the good of my children, I restrained myself from crying as much as possible. I wanted them to feel safe, not terrified like the rest of us. When I picked them up from school, I explained to them that some “very bad men had crashed planes into some buildings, and that in order for everyone to be safe, they wanted the kids to go home with their parents.” I tried to keep it as brief as possible, yet let them know what was happening, as I was sure that they would see or hear it at some point, and I didn’t want someone else to be the ones to tell them. I just kept praying in my heart that we would all be safe, and that they would feel safe with us.

All activities were cancelled for this evening nationwide. They said that there were thousands of people working in the World Trade Center Twin Towers. They are hopeful that many people were able to escape, and it will be weeks before a death count will be available. Meanwhile, we are making sure that our kids do not watch TV, because the coverage of this event is on every channel, and it is graphic, and sickening. They have already cancelled school for tomorrow. They don’t know when flights will resume, and so we have no idea how long mom and dad are going to be out of the country.

Today is a dark day for the United States of America, and all countries of the world that are affected by terrorism. It is an evil thing. It is a nightmare for our children. Life will never be the same again. :(

Today, September 11, 2009, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the terrorist attacks and the families who lost their loved ones. I also am thankful for those who continue to fight for our freedom and give their lives for us. My prayers are also for them and their families.

I love you this much...

2009-09-09T17:11:00.004-06:00

Some of my favorite people...

2009-09-08T19:40:00.001-06:00

Last week our youth had the opportunity to go and do baptisms for the first time in our new temple... The Oquirrh Mountain Temple (which was just dedicated on August 21st-23rd). I was so excited to see 11 of them show up... That is the most youth we have EVER had go to the temple on one night. (Aren't they a great looking bunch of kids?) It was one of the BEST experiences I have ever had with the youth in the temple in my whole life. (It probably didn't hurt that my hubby and two kids were both there too!) I couldn't help feeling elated the whole time we were there and for many days afterwards.

I am so grateful for temples and the eternal blessings they offer to families. If you want to learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the blessings the gospel can bring to your family, please visit mormon.org. :)

Dear Utah Drivers...

2009-08-27T19:10:00.001-06:00

Did any of you get stuck in traffic this morning or get detoured since a major part of Bangerter was closed down from 4am to after 8am? I thought it was weird that the police had Bangerter closed down when I went to work at 6... there is not usually ANY traffic at all that time in the morning... but I didn't truly start wondering what had caused it until one of my co-workers came in around 8 and said he too had been on the road for over an hour trying to get in.

A quick look at KSL and we were informed. A black Jeep traveling along 90th had run a red light and was hit by a HUGE Semi-truck that was traveling around 60mph along Bangerter Highway. The Jeep was drug for 150 feet until it stopped and the guy driving it was killed.

In the two years I have lived here I keep reminding myself how lucky I am not to be driving in the DC Metropolitan are anymore! I do not miss those overly aggressive drivers. Utah drivers are almost too nice sometimes. Where else would you see someone hold up an entire street of traffic to let someone out. Still blows me every time I see it! :)

However, one thing I have noticed over and over since I have been here is the immense number of Utah drivers who run red lights. It is absolutely terrible! I mean seriously people, when your light is green and you should be able to go but four more cars go through the red light crossing right in front of you, that is a major problem!

One thing I appreciated in Maryland was the presence of red light cameras. I believe that they made people think twice before running that light. Cities here should definitely give some thought to installing them. When people know that they will get a hefty ticket for doing it, much of the red light running could stop.

Why am I so bothered by this suddenly? Maybe it is because I have a 15 year old permit holder in the house right now which makes me more painfully aware of the stupid drivers around me. People have cut her off, sped around her illegally and done other stupid things that have honestly made me want to go after them! I don't want her injured because someone was ignorant and ran a red light or... (another HUGE pet peeve of mine), someone was TEXTING while they were driving. I can't tell you how often I see people doing that even though it is now against the law.

Do you remember the two men that were killed two years ago in Cache County by a 22 year old who was texting while driving? If you text while you drive and/or think that you are careful enough to avoid causing injury to anyone, you must watch this video from Utah's Zero Fatalities Website. Please, please watch it and see how many lives were affected... devastated in fact, by a 22 year old who made a very bad decision to text while he was driving.

I know there are many other things that can cause distractions while we are driving that we need to be careful of, but these are two easy decisions every driver can make right now. DON'T run red lights... you can spare the extra 2 minutes, and PUT THE PHONE DOWN while you are driving... no text or phone call is important enough for you to risk lives over. (If you are dumb enough to think it is, then at least pull over first before looking/answering it.)

The decision to run a red light cost that driver his life this morning. I can't imagine how many people will be affected by his death. Please, let's all take care while driving. Our vehicles truly are LETHAL weapons.

Just a spoonful of sugar...

2009-08-25T15:07:00.004-06:00

YIKES...

Look how much sugar

is in some of the drinks we enjoy!!

I'm thinking I will have to be looking at labels

a little more carefully!

http://www.sugarstacks.com/ has some other foods

you might be interested in seeing...

...like these small portions of bbq sauce & ketchup!

There are a selection of other foods there too.

How much sugar am I feeding my kids? :(

Miracles do happen...

2009-08-23T20:32:00.003-06:00

This is my son...

doing dishes!!!!

...this would NEVER happen at my house,

ONLY at Grandma's.

Maybe I should send him there for a week of training???

Everybody needs a holiday...

2009-08-19T16:38:00.002-06:00

This year was the first year in a few that we have been able to take a family vacation away from home. (Unless you count the Summer we moved to Utah... nope, not a vacation!)

We chose to go to California since we have never been there, and Mike and the Kids picked San Diego (while I was in England) because there are lots of Theme Parks near. :) I am not a big Theme Park fan myself but we compromised with Sea World, The San Diego Zoo, The San Diego Wild Animal Park and Coronado Island. (Personally, I could have just hung out at the beach for the whole week and not minded at all!)

Let me first say that we would have never gotten ANYWHERE in California without "Jeeva", (Mike's GPS, the feminine of Jeeves). The highways and roads are interlaced like a hammock and it is CRAZY trying to drive period. Jeeva made it simple and easy to get around and find restaurants, entertainment, shopping... you name it. I HIGHLY recommend one for EVERY family... especially if you have a husband like mine. (Even with Jeeva, we heard "recalculating" or "make a u-turn here" WAY too many times.)

I really enjoyed Coronado Island which wasn't too busy and had a bay side and an ocean side. I loved riding the surrey bike around the Island, (which brought back memories of a vacation in Majorca, Spain many years ago with my parents where we did the same thing). I also loved sitting in the Sun eating Cold Stone Ice Cream, a treat I have been introduced to since I have come to Utah. :) (Have you tried the "Founders Favorite"? It is to die for!)

My favorite part of Sea World was going to all the different shows and seeing the clever animals. We always got wonderful seats because no-one likes sitting in the splash zone, but we took $1 ponchos and so we didn't care... but loved seeing the animals up close and personal.

We skipped around from place to place, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves the whole week. If you are interested, here's a little slide show you can check out. :)

You say tomayyyyyyto, I say tomahhhhhhhto...

2009-08-06T20:15:00.002-06:00

Driving home from the Dentist yesterday...

Mike: Mom, why do you have a tomato on the floor?

Me: What? I don't have a tomato on the floor!

Mike: Yes, you do... look!

Me: That's a home grown tomato! Did you leave that in here DeAnna?

DeAnna: No, why would I have a tomato in your car?

Me: I don't know... who else would put it in here? Are you guys messing with me? You seriously don't know where the tomato came from?

Both: (Laughing) Mom, we didn't put the tomato in the car!

Me: Well I don't know how that got in here... maybe someone gave it to Dad!

A quick call to Mike Sr confirmed that this mystery tomato somehow turned up in my car out of nowhere. Are you the culprit? Or did someone give me this tomato from their garden and I am so senile I cannot remember?

If you have seen this tomato before or recognize it from anywhere, please, call 801-555-1234. Or better yet, just leave a comment!

Here come the MIB...

2009-08-05T16:13:00.002-06:00

We were sitting on our deck with some friends when this huge UFO shaped cloud started moving towards us. There have been no color corrections or changes of any kind to this photo... it is the raw file. This is NOT the mountains. (You can see the mountains about mid-right.) I wish I had some video to give you a better idea of how strange this cloud looked. Don't you think it looks a LITTLE Men in Black-ish???? :)

Driving Miss Dee...

2009-07-30T16:50:00.001-06:00

DeAnna got her learners permit just over a month ago... it sure has been an adventure to say the least. She is the first to admit that driving is not as easy as it looks. Here are some things she had to learn quite quickly:

You really need to know which is the brake and which is the accelerator pedal.

You have to put the car in to park before you get out of it or it will start rolling when you take your foot off the break.

You can't go round a corner at 45 mph... well, not safely at least.

You have to wait to turn in to the turning lane until there actually IS a turning lane... otherwise oncoming traffic may get agitated easily.

When you are turning left across lanes of traffic, you don't generally have the right of way.

If you are driving, it is your responsibility to turn off the car and remove the keys, not to leave it running in the driveway.

When going round a round-a-bout, you cannot stop every two feet, even when there is no-one behind you.

40 does not mean 20 and 20 does not mean 40 mph.

The lines of the parking spaces are not meant to be parked OVER, but rather IN BETWEEN.

If you want to go backwards you must first put the car in reverse.

Braking is a slow, gentle process. Or at least, it SHOULD BE!!

If a dragonfly flies in to your car, you should definitely not start screaming, swatting and twisting the wheel all around while still driving. The best bet is definitely to pull over, stop the car, and then get out.

Of course, you never get the BEST clips on video, but for anyone who is interested, I put together this little movie of her first driving moments... (don't forget to turn off the music at the bottom first.) Enjoy! :)

Till We Meet Again...

2009-07-24T00:01:00.002-06:00

Love ya Grandad. I am so glad I know that I will get

to see you again one day. Say hi to Granny for me. ♥

A good read...

2009-07-02T14:21:00.000-06:00

I have read the Twilight series so many times that I can probably almost quote the thing. But I loved the romance and the adventure and I haven't been able to find anything comparable to it... until now.

My mum recently lent me a book called "The Hour Glass Door" by Lisa Mangum.

It hasn't got any vampires in it, but it has got characters that are believable, an intriguing love story and an original plot. I really enjoyed it immensely and if you liked Edward, I have a feeling you will find yourself easily attached to Dante.

I am warning you ahead of time, the next book doesn't come out until the Summer of 2010, but I don't think you will regret reading it one bit. It's an easy read, and if you're like me, you won't want to put it down. :)

$20 Target Bribe...

2009-06-30T17:43:00.008-06:00

Are you saving money YET? Don't you think it is time to start?????

I'm having a $20 Target gift card giveaway on my other blog... Frugalityville.

Don't be shy or proud! I'm paying YOU to learn how to save money!!!! ;)

Mousey mousey, won't you come out of your little wee housey housey?

2009-06-24T16:20:00.002-06:00

That is the first line of a poem that my mom used to recite to me all the time when I was little... I LOVED that poem. I'm not such a lover of actual live rodents however. My dad, the prankster, caught a mouse in a trap once in our very first house in the United States. He took the mangled, dead, bloody body and put it in a sandwich baggie, then placed the sealed baggie in my older sisters bed for her to find when she went to sleep. I still remember hearing her scream. Good times.

Mike & Mike went to a camp out this past weekend with the boy scouts. Before they went to sleep for the night, Mike Sr noticed that the trash bag was right next to the boys tent, so not wanting them to have any uninvited visitors during the night, he put the trash bag in to the trunk of his car. (Aw, what a good leader!)

The next morning when he opened up his trunk, to his utter amazement he saw a big fat mouse scurry away under the piles of junk he had stashed in there. (I hear he screamed like a girl by the way!) He pulled everything out, but alas, the mouse was no where to be found.

Hoping that the mouse had somehow escaped, the boys loaded their stuff in to the back seat of the car with themselves and traveled home with the music blaring trying to petrify the mouse if he was still in there. They shook everything out vigorously to make sure they weren't bringing the little booger into our home and then Mike shut the trunk and hoped that if the mouse hadn't escaped he would at the very least die of starvation or of lack of oxygen.

Four days past and still no sign of the mouse. There was no smell indicating that an animal had died. There was no sound of rustling through the trunk. Mike blared the music every time he drove to stop the mouse from running across his feet and causing an accident.

I myself was hesitant to believe that the mouse had gone knowing that there was enough dirt and crumbs in Mike's trunk for that little thing to live for at least a month. Then yesterday a sign of the inevitable. Mouse droppings on the floor. Mike rushed to Target to get mouse traps and set them all with peanut butter in various places through the car. DeAnna moaned and groaned about killing the "cute little mouse" but I noticed she hasn't driven in that car since they got back... so we weren't overly worried that she would be traumatized.

This morning, success! Ding dong the mouse is dead. The car is being vacuumed and disinfected as we speak... Hurrah for leather seats!

The only thing we have to fear...

2009-06-22T16:58:00.000-06:00

Happy Father's Day...

2009-06-21T16:39:00.003-06:00

God took the strength of a mountain,

The majesty of a tree,

The warmth of a summer sun,

The calm of a quiet sea,

The generous soul of nature,

The comforting arm of night,

The wisdom of the ages,

The power of the eagle's flight,

The joy of a morning in spring,

The faith of a mustard seed,

The patience of eternity,

The depth of a family need,

Then God combined these qualities,

When there was nothing more to add,

He knew His masterpiece was complete,

And so, He called it ... Dad

-Anonymous

Happy Father's Day

to the TWO best Dads!!!

I love you both :)

Photo Software...

2009-06-19T04:56:00.001-06:00

I ran a couple of posts about photo imaging software on my Frugalityville blog that some of you may be interested in. Check out this post on Google Picasa which is completely free and this post about a good deal on Photoshop Elements 7 (as well as information about where you can get free online classes including ones on digital photography!)

Do you have favorite photo imaging software that you use? I have an old, but complete version of Adobe Photoshop that I have used for a few years, however I am looking to upgrade and have downloaded the free thirty day trial of Photoshop Elements 7 to see if it might be a little simpler to use than the full blown Photoshop. I have heard good things about it, and with it available for about $60 right now... well, that is a steal for anything Photoshop related.

I am interested to hear comments and reviews on various software from people I know though, so let me know! :)

Love is...

2009-06-17T16:33:00.000-06:00

giving someone your heart, knowing that they can destroy your whole world when you do that, but trusting that person not to do that. - The I-conscience

everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it...It really is worth fighting for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk everything, you risk even more. - Erica Jong

an ideal thing. Marriage is the real thing. - Goethe

like war: Easy to begin but hard to end. -unknown

an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. - Peter Ustinov

like a violin. The music may stop now and then, but the strings remain forever. - unknown

friendship set on fire. - unknown

like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties -Jules Renard

the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. -Robert Heinlein

the harmony of two souls singing together. -Gregory J. P. Godek

being stupid together. -Paul Valery

saying 'I feel differently' instead of 'You're wrong.' -unknown

when the other person's happiness is more important than your own. -H. Jackson Brown

pride in a job well done.

knowing everything is all better

time spent out of the house, together.

All Clear...

2009-06-13T09:47:00.002-06:00

We got the all clear from the Dr yesterday. We are officially out of quarantine and everyone is 100% healthy. Luckily none of the rest of us got it. I attribute that to my husbands tireless Lysol-ing, washing all the towels and sheets, and even going around daily with Clorox wipes and wiping all the door handles etc. Thank you honey :)

So no need to leave a 50 foot radius around us if you see us. (I feel like we have big scarlett letters on us right now. LOL) I promise, we wouldn't have left the house unless we were sure! And we have worked really hard to keep it contained, so if you do get the swine flu, it won't have been from us :)

I also just want to say a huge thank you to the wonderful ladies who left dinner, games, books and treats on our doorstep. I was deeply touched by the show of love we received from you. Thank you so much. :) You made a very tough time a little brighter. :)

I SWORE I would never do it again... Am I totally insane???

2009-06-10T17:49:00.000-06:00

Where will you be on September 29th? I will be at the Miley Cyrus Concert at the Energy Solutions Center. :( I tried everything to keep the news from my daughter that she was coming to concert. I even begged my dear friend NOT tell her when she was dying to, but dang that Miley World Fan Club. They emailed her about the concert tickets pre-sale which took place this week for members of her fan club.

I tried with every ounce of passion to get my hubby to take her. He wouldn't. But sure, he will take Mike Jr to the Warped Tour and to see Blink 182. :( Am I completely nuts? The only good thing is they are making this a paperless ticket concert which means you get in only by swiping the credit card you purchased the tickets with... that means tickets cannot be sold on Ebay or scalped which means everyone who goes pays only regular ticket prices... plus they won't have the money diggers buying up all the tickets and trying to resell them. They are genius!

We did get excellent seats in the section just to the left of the stage on the front row. She is way excited. Oh good... a whole night of screaming little girls to look forward to AGAIN.

If you aren't in the fan club, I believe tickets for the Salt Lake City concert go on sale to the general public this Saturday, June 13 at 10am. I sincerely hope you have to go too!!!!

On second thoughts... STAY AWAY!!!!

2009-06-09T16:08:00.002-06:00

Ironic that one day after inviting you all to come over and hang and be part of our "clique", we have to write another post shunning you away... at least for this week!

Mike Jr came down very sick Saturday afternoon. All of a sudden he had a fever of 103.5, (that was an hour after taking Motrin), a nasty cough, a splitting headache and all he wanted to do was lie down and sleep.

Mike Sr decided to take him to the instacare where they said they had seen 50 people with similar symptoms that afternoon but they went ahead and tested him for swine flu just in case. I was 99% positive that was not what it was if that many people were showing similar symptoms in one day. It must be a 24 hour bug! They put him on Anti-Viral Medicine just in case, sent him home and told us to keep him home and away from people for a few days as a precaution, but told us not to panic or to raise panic in anyone else. They would have the results of the test by Monday. By the next morning he seemed almost good as new, still, I felt very strongly that we should stay home from church. Our ward has close to 200 primary kids and I don't think that includes all the nursery kids either. I didn't want to risk getting any one sick with whatever it was.

Monday rolled around and I felt I should work at home even though he was doing fine. School is out for the summer so I just had him rest. We didn't hear anything all day so in my mind I was telling myself that no news was good news. Come 6pm we called to double check but were told that they were just starting to make the phone calls. At 7:23pm we received a call from the instacare. Mike Jr tested positive for the swine flu.

I was absolutely speechless. Where on earth did he get this from? After receiving all the instructions from the nurse, I put down the phone and just stared sat the wall for a few minutes. I haven't heard much about the swine flu on the news recently, so I really hadn't thought about it much. Now here we are having to deal with it.

Luckily for us, Mike Jr got on Anti-Viral medicine the first day he showed any symptoms. That medicine seems to be working great, because to see him you wouldn't think he was sick! They have asked us to keep him away from people for 7 days. We also have to watch for any respiratory duress in which case we take him straight to the ER. Dehydration is another big issue to watch for, however, my little guy hasn't had any problem eating or drinking.

Mike Sr works in the health field and contacted his work straight away. He will most probably be on mandatory leave for the next week. I too am advised to work at home this week. DeAnna has cancelled three babysitting jobs as well as her music lessons. Basically we are quarantined to our house in an effort not to pass this on to anyone. If none of us are showing any symptoms by Saturday, we should be in the clear.

What has concerned me however is information we have learned since Mike has gotten his diagnosis. Apparently there have been quite a few cases of the swine flu at the middle school my kids were attending up to Friday or last week. We had two girls who were here at our house on Friday who I later found out were not well... one of which had been out of school for most of the week. Why would parents send kids to my house who had been sick all week? And then there is the issue of parents sending their kids to school sick because they don't want to take a day off. Another thing mentioned in an article that I read this morning is that many people who are diagnosed with the swine flu are not heeding the doctors orders to stay away from people. This is not the time for any of us to lack in our precautions when our children or ourselves are showing symptoms of being sick. Our family is living proof that the swine flu is alive and right here in West Jordan. I am so glad we listened to the spirit on Sunday and kept our family home. I would have felt awful if we had exposed our ward to this.

At this point I am praying that we didn't pass this on to the family we saw Saturday morning before we knew anything. I am also praying that Mike Jr will continue to recover at the rate that he is and that none of the rest of us get it. It is completely driving us crazy to be home bound. Today is the 4th day we have been stuck inside. However, we are trying our best to do our part to keep this epidemic from spreading.

My friend Ruthie just sent me over the hymns for Sunday. I had to giggle when I saw she had chosen "Count Your Many Blessings" as one of the songs. But it is times like these that we need a good reminder. I'll make sure my next post is about all the good things that have come out of being quarantined to my house :)

The Collins Clique, where everyone is welcome...

2009-06-08T14:42:00.003-06:00

"The Collins Clique"... it's pretty ironic that this is the name of my blog and you too would think it was funny if you were inside Mike and I's heads. You see, it was sort of an inside joke when it was named. We have always abhorred the idea of cliques. Personally, I have always felt they were childish... immature... so High School! Maybe it is because of my ever increasing age but they just seem so silly to me! Why would you limit yourself to just a few certain friendships? There are so many absolutely wonderful, totally cool people out there. I would never want to limit what I could learn or how much fun I could have. :)

I remember certain cliques in my high school. The self proclaimed popular kids who either accepted you or tormented you. I was very blessed never to be tormented, but I knew kids that were and I saw some of the damage that was caused to their self esteem through the cliques cruelty. :( Mean nicknames that stuck with them through high school, reputations that never left them though never true to start with, practical jokes that were only funny to the offenders and beautiful girls who never saw themselves as such because of snide comments and remarks.

Cliques are not always deliberately formed. Sometimes they are habit, sometimes just the safe thing to do. In my previous ward, (of which I was a member from the age of 11 to just two years ago), we had a large overturn of military families. Because we were so close to Walter Reed Army Medical Center many families moved in and out ever year (serving in our area 1-3 years before they were reassigned.) Very early in my marriage there was a time that several Army families that moved in together over the summer. The wives became very close and had their own so called "clique" which got together to do all sorts of things quite frequently. There were some sisters in our ward who felt they were excluded from this group because they weren't doctors wives. They were bitter towards this group of friends because they felt that the women thought they were better than them. I have to say that I never felt that way. I actually, (though probably mostly because of my Relief Society calling), put forth an effort to get to know these women and found out quickly that this was simply a group of several women who moved in to a new place and found easy, instant friendship with other women who were in the same situation as them. No one was meant to feel excluded or inferior. I enjoyed my friendship with these women who accepted me (even though my husband was not a doctor, lol), and I got to know and love their children too, many of whom I taught piano to.

During the past few weeks, three separate women in our current ward have mentioned the clique factor and their genuine efforts to make friends with women who are either insanely oblivious or so caught up with their own friends that they ignored/passed up the opportunity. I hope for the sake of all the women involved that it was obliviousness because knowing these three amazing women as I do, I would say that the other women have definitely missed an incredible opportunity.

Perhaps I have a heart of stone because I have never been offended that I wasn't invited to something. Maybe it is because in our former ward there were not many couples our age and we became sort of self sufficient in providing our own entertainment. In our current ward we have both served in the youth program pretty much since we moved here which means frankly that there are still a lot of people we really don't know! Additionally, we are actually within the minority of couples who don't have kids in primary. (I think we may actually be one of the 10 oldest couples if you can believe that!) It's all A-OK with me, but I know that not all women are as "cold-hearted" as me.

It can be hard not to hurt peoples feelings when it comes to activities and social events. I am not naive enough to think it is possible to include every woman in every event that you host... but I will definitely be more aware of sisters that don't feel included. I also will tell you right now that if you ever want to come hang out, you are always more than welcome. I know we don't have little kids, but we love them! We have a enclosed trampoline and a b-ball hoop that we are happy to share. I am also not opposed to some one letting me know that they heard I had people over for smores or a BBQ and to give them a call next time we do it. Or if you see people at my house and you want to come join the fun... come on over. More than anything, I don't want anyone to ever think that I am deliberately excluding them from what they think may be my "clique". So if you are feeling alone, left out, or just want to hang... come on over to the "Collins Clique"... where seriously, everyone is welcome! :)

Choose your battles...

2009-06-02T20:09:00.004-06:00

My sons hair has been driving me crazy. I admit it... I like a clean cut boy. This long hair stuff has made me have to bite my tongue. The only reason I have endured it is because my wise mother told me I needed to choose my battles. "Hair can be changed, tattoo's can't... be glad his rebellion is his hair."

They are wise words. Still, I couldn't help do the happy dance on Sunday when I heard him say he wanted his hair buzzed. Really? Today??? BUT IT'S SUNDAY!!!! What if he changed his mind before I could take him to the barber shop on Monday?

Thank heavens for friends with clippers. Dad did the honors. Here are the before and after pics:

Hitting golf balls with Dad on Friday... this is what was left

of Dad's club when Jr got a hold of it. LOL

Today... My cute little boy is back. I just want to pinch his cheeks. :)

Nothing is as easy as it looks...

2009-06-01T16:20:00.005-06:00

I have always had short nails. I sometimes try to grow them out but all it takes is one nail biter of a movie and mine are literally ripped as low as they can get... ALL OF THEM!!! Well about three weeks ago I was tired of having short stubby nails so I figured, what the heck, i will treat myself to tips so my own nails can grow out underneath and I can, (for once), have neatly groomed finger nails and not hide them in a fist every time I am sitting next to someone.

Let me start by saying I have NEVER had tips put on in my life, so I had no idea what I was getting myself in to. So off I went to the nail salon with DeAnna... a perfect mommy daughter date... pedicures and manicures... what a fun, relaxing morning! I told them to make the tips short since I play the piano, but even as short as they were, I left the salon literally feeling like Wolverine. Here I was with these big, indestructible prongs sticking out of my fingers. I even had trouble getting my bank card out of my wallet to pay for the dang things.

In fact, I have had to get help doing a variety of things that I usually have no problem with. I wasn't able to rip the top off the bag of shredded cheese or open other packages of food to cook with... and don't even talk to me about cans with flip tops! If something flat fell on the floor it had to stay there because no matter how hard I tried i could not pick it up. The piano was frustrating... but Sunday was a nightmare trying to play the organ and I had an even harder time typing at work. Usually I can type about 80-90 words a minute but I doubt I got above 65 and I kept hitting the wrong keys!!! Trying to load and unload the dishwasher was painful to say the least. I have nearly cussed about 20 times when I catch one on something and it threatens to pull my finger off. And I have sliced my own body several times just trying to bathe.

I am telling you I do not know how women function with these things on their hands!!! How does the housework get done? How are their little children not scarred from head to toe. At one point I even tried to get them off myself. THEY DON'T COME OFF!!!

Well, at the advice of friends I am giving it a little time to see if I can get used to them, but I am not hopeful... I don't think I am the glamorous lady type. I am a short, stubby finger nailed, put your shoulder to the wheel type of woman. So unless by some miracle I can learn to function with these things on, I will probably be back to holding my hands in fists when sitting next to you glamor gals. Just please don't judge me! ;)

If at first you don't suceed, do it the way your wife told you (part 2)...

2009-05-27T16:31:00.004-06:00

So for the past several weeks my dear hubby has been trying to figure out how to turn on the sprinklers. I kept telling him to read the manual and follow it step by step but although he got the front going once or twice, he could not for the life of him figure out why the back sprinklers weren't working.

I can't tell you what he was or wasn't doing, but I can tell you that I read the manual and had them up and running in ten minutes. My grass is thanking me.

Love you sweetie :)

Are you saving money yet????

2009-05-20T15:26:00.005-06:00

Lots of my friends have been catching the bug to save money... WOO HOO! With the economy as it is, let's face it, we have to! If you aren't doing little things to save yet, what are you waiting for?

If you haven't visited my other blog, Frugalityville, I'm inviting you to do so now. It is not for profit. I don't try to sell you anything or get you to buy anything. I don't even have any ads posted on it! I just want to pass on what I have learned in the past 17 years of living frugally to anyone and everyone I can. If you have never couponed or learned the tricks of the trade, start over on the right where it says "Are you new to Frugalityville?" I am confident that you will learn something there to help get you on your way. I update it when I can and always try to post links to coupons or savings that I think people might be interested in.

It bugs me to no end to think that there are people that are flushing their hard earned money down the toilet. START SAVING TODAY!

All the world's a stage...

2009-05-14T17:09:00.004-06:00

Miss Dee and her friend KayKay decided to have some fun with the video camera. The music is from Kelly Clarkson's "Walk Away", but the lyrics are DeAnna's own. (The girl is amazing, she can literally sit down and write a song in like 20 minutes.)

If you didn't get to see it on Facebook, here is their tribute to the Dallas Cowboys:

Better late than never...

2009-05-12T17:05:00.003-06:00

So four weeks ago when we moved in to our new home, we had basically no food storage. (We had quite a lot when we lived in Maryland but used it and gave it away before we moved to Utah.) Knowing that we were only temporarily in our rental home, it was hard to think about stocking up and moving it all again. Well, we have been thinking a lot about food storage since President Murphy came to our ward and counseled us quite firmly to get started on it. So, as soon as we moved in to our permanent home, we set up shelves in our basement and I have been buying a few extra items each week to fill them. So far we have this...

Now granted this may be quite puny, but considering a few weeks ago those shelves were empty, I don't think we have done too badly. (Bear in mind this is EXTRA food, not my pantry.) Now EVERY time I go to the store I pick up AT LEAST one item for my food storage. It has become fun to find deals that I can stock up on. :) Next stop, the cannery for all the long term stuff! Anyone interested?

Dearest Daughter... :(

2009-05-04T14:16:00.010-06:00

Dear DeAnna Michelle Collins,

If anything is removed from my room again and not replaced, I just might SCREAM!!! This is including but not limited to:

My hairbrush (you have one)

My big round brush (you have one)

My hair dryer (you have one)

My hair clips (you have some)

My blush (you have one)

My eyeliner (you have one)

My Chi (ok, you don't have one, but PUT IT BACK!!!!!)

From now on it will be $5 PER ITEM that I have to retrieve Missy!!!!! (You better hope you get a LOT of babysitting jobs!!!!!!)

With lots of love, ♥

:) Mom

Why not to take three teenagers shopping...

2009-04-22T15:31:00.008-06:00

With a 15 year old and a 12 year old, life is rarely dull, but add another 15 year old in to the mix and life becomes even more amusing...

While Mike and I were shopping for a new TV for our bedroom, the three of them amused themselves in the computer department. Innocent enough we thought. However when we came back to retrieve them, every computer screen in the entire dept (about 20 or so?) looked something like this...

Funnier still was the reaction of the passers by... the women all rolling their eyes in disgust as the men snickered in a "why didn't I think of that?" kind of way. :)

I won't post the ones where they put humongous bra's over their clothes in the women's lingerie dept. I do have SOME pride.

You can't keep a good girl down...

2009-04-20T21:35:00.003-06:00

The week of our move, DeAnna didn't feel well at all. It seemed like a cold, but by Sunday she was complaining about her chest feeling heavy which worried me. Anyway, the next morning at work I felt prompted multiple times to call the Dr, so I did and since they didn't have any appointments left for the day, I left work early and took her straight to the insta-care.

After x-raying her chest, it was determined that she had pneumonia. Luckily we caught it early enough that it just required antibiotics and a week or so of good rest. (Ha, ha... the week we were moving a week of good rest???) Being the fantastic mother that I am, I couldn't resist taking pics when she was asked to hug the x-ray machine... the x-ray technician was tickled... DeAnna, not so much...

She missed a week of school and got out of most of the move, but she is up and about now... back to her normal ornery self. :)

And... I'm back! :)

2009-04-14T16:35:00.004-06:00

So obviously I haven't posted in a couple of weeks... ok, so it has been more like three weeks or so... but that is what happens when all of a sudden you have to move within a short period of time and nothing is packed... and then everything is packed away... and then you are living out of two houses and trying to find things you need while kinda living out of boxes... you catch my drift!

Anyway, we are not completely unpacked yet, but we ARE now living in just ONE home, (and it is finally our OWN home), and we are positively, absolutely over the moon about everything.

First, I want to thank everyone who prayed for us to find a home in our current ward. Prayers were answered in miraculous ways and we got to stay. On top of that, we ended up directly across the street from DeAnna's best friend, and just a few houses down from Mike's friends, so they are happy to say the least. (Although it feels like I have a heck of a lot more kids all of a sudden ;] )

To us, our new home is the most beautiful home in the world. It was very well taken care of by the previous owners, and is so perfect for us as far as paint, rooms and fixtures go that we don't have to do a thing to it right now. It met and then surpassed all of our requirements, (basically we just wanted it to have a big master bath tub for hubby and room in the yard for a trampoline for the kids). If I have things my way, we are NEVER moving again. EVER. I honestly feel that I can be content here for the rest of my life. :)

One of the perks of this house is that when you look out the master bathroom window, you have a perfect view of a triangle of three temples... the Jordan River, the Draper and last night was the first night that we actually noticed that the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, (which will be our new temple), is now lit up too. In just a few weeks the temple will be open up to the public before it is dedicated. Since we live in the area, our stake will be one of many assigned to help out with the open house. We have been super lucky to be here to witness the Draper Temple finished and dedicated, and now this one too! All in all we have FOUR temples within 25 mins driving distance in each direction, (the three aforementioned as well as the Salt Lake temple) and then not too much further are the Ogden, Bountiful, Mount Timpanogas and Provo. Having only seen a handful of temples in person in my entire life time, living so close to so many is just overwhelming! I find them to be constant reminders of how I am supposed to be living my life. I LOVE it. :)

Anyway, I am so relieved to be settled and while we are still working to get things sorted, I am very happy to be back in the blogging world and I look forward to catching up with all of you! Happy Tuesday everyone. :)

Happy Birthday DeAnna!!!

2009-03-22T23:02:00.002-06:00

March 22, 1994 seems like an eternity ago. I was only 21 years old at the time and I was on the way to Shady Grove Hospital in Gaithersburg to give birth to my first baby. I was two weeks late, (what is it about my kids and being late?), and so I had been brought in to be induced.

Would it be a boy or a girl? We didn't know. The baby had been way modest through both sonograms keeping it's legs crossed, so it was going to be a surprise. We had a list of six girls names and six boys names but as soon as she came out we both knew she was our "DeAnna".

There are so many things I love/make me laugh about DeAnna. Here are a few of them:

She is in EVERY way a drama queen. I love to watch her perform on stage. She has no fear whatsoever... but she "performs" quite frequently at home too. Give it up girl... I know every trick in the book. :)
She always says "I love you" at least three times on the phone before she hangs up with you.
She is a total girly girl. I don't know how she can be my daughter. She has purses and shoes for every outfit.
Even though she is a girly girl, she LOVES sports. Especially football. And she will try just about anything.
She works hard to act like nothing bothers her... no matter how hard we to try to get under her skin.
She cooks dinner for me quite frequently... and lots of treats too. What mother wouldn't love that?
She is a hard worker and gets amazing grades... even if she hands in ten assignments just before the end of the quarter to bring her grade up.
If you kiss her on one cheek or touch one arm she insists you do it the other side too. How quirky... it makes me laugh.
She hates lotion... to the point where I have to go in late at night and rub it on her hands while she is sleeping to help heal her dry skin.
She has it down to a fine science how to work her brother up and she excels at it on a daily basis!
She has amazing musical talent... she plays the piano and sings every day. (She also plays the flute although to my chagrin she never practices anymore.)
She is for the most part pretty responsible and she has never done anything to break my trust... that I know of!!!

I cannot believe my little girl is 15 years old. Consider this your official warning to stay off the roads... she gets her learners any day now. Thank heavens she still has a year before she starts dating... my heart can't take all of it at once. It seems just like yesterday that she...

...was born

...got sunburned at the pool

...started posing

...began walking

...puddle jumped with Nana in the rain

...hated Santa

...started kindergarten

...had her first piano recital

...made her first loaf of bread

...got baptized

...got her ears pierced

...was bridesmaid for her Auntie Jenna

...sang in her first professional choir

...I just thought this was funny

...went to girls camp... finally!

...started making dinner for us

...met her best friend and grew up way too fast :(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEANNA!

You have turned into a beautiful

young woman and we love you :)

An apple a day keeps the doctor away???

2009-03-17T00:01:00.002-06:00

Maybe. But I'm not convinced. :( I have been trying to eat healthier the past week or so and I have to be honest. I am pretty dang miserable. Apples certainly don't taste like chips, chocolate, bread or anything yummy for that matter. And if I eat one more orange I think I might just turn in to one.

I know, I know... My body will adjust and I will start to appreciate all the fruits and veggies for their natural flavors... but for right now I just want carbs and sweets dang it!!!!

My biggest challenge is getting back in to exercising. When we decided to move here from Maryland I was walking for 30 mins a day and doing cardio and weights for another hour every day and I was in much better shape and felt amazing. I don't know WHY I don't have the motivation here. I think it has something to do with going in to an office every day... ok, really I am probably just lazy... but regardless, IT NEEDS TO CHANGE! For some reason I am just SOOOOOOOO unmotivated right now and the pounds are just creeping on.

So give me your tips ladies. What do you do to motivate yourselves? How do you resist snacking? Or what are your favorite low calorie yummy snacks? How do you work exercise in to your day and what do you do to make it fun? Helllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllp :)

Happy Birthday Ruthie...

2009-03-15T17:59:00.013-06:00

So today is my good friend Ruthie's Birthday. She just turned 33. Woohoo. (I can't even remember what I was doing when I was 33.)

Anyway, I am not going to name 33 things that I love about her, even though it would be pretty easy, but here are a few things:

She is a super duper cook... she even taught me how to make rolls & cinnamon rolls from scratch.

Even when she is on a diet, she is not too "stick-in-the-mud" to share a piece of chocolate with me. You gotta love friends like that.

She motivates me to want to exercise and be healthier. (I swear, I am gonna start any day now.)
She texts me out of the blue... it makes my day.

She is a super shopping buddy... we both like to dream shop (look at all the stuff we want to buy for our homes.)

She is a constant example to me on how to be a wonderful wife and mother.

She is not fake. She is what she is, and she is awesome. :)

So...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUTHIE :)

Hope it's a great one for ya. ♥

And the winner is...

2009-03-11T22:46:00.011-06:00

Sorry I was a bit late drawing. We found our house today, (so excited), so I have been caught up with all kinds of housey things. :)

I used a random number generator and here are the results (duplicate entries were deleted, and DeAnna stood as witness... hoping she would win.)

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers: 10
Timestamp: 2009-03-11 10:47:22

That means R Clan wins

Congratulations!
I will deliver your basket tomorrow :)

Thank you everyone for the AWESOME ideas.

I am excited to try EVERY one of them.