I am thankful for....

Lately I wish I could hook the computer up to my brain and share all the great blogging that goes on inside my head. Unfortunately that is where it stays. In my head. I would be ungrateful if I didn't take a minute this Thanksgiving week-end to write a few thoughts about what I am thankful for.

I have to say that this time of year was changed for our family two years ago when we lost my brother-in-law Bob to menengitis the day before Thanksgiving. I still remember eating Thanksgiving dinner in stunned silence wondering if there really were things to be thankful for. I think we were all still in shock not quite ready to accept that he had been taken from us way too soon. I think about him every day. He was a great "brother" and I still feel a little ripped off that Roo will never get the chance to know him. Then again, I think they would have gotten into way too much trouble together. They say time heals all wounds but I am not sure I agree with that. I still miss Bob as much today as the day he died. I can say that I think we learn how to deal with things over time and for that I am thankful.

I have to say I am thankful for my family. I couldn't have found a better husband for me. He puts up with an aweful lot being married to me. Then again, that goes both ways. Our family pics we had taken are a great example. The caption for this particular photo should be "He loves me not???"
This is the face he pulls when told to act like he likes me. He thought it was hilarious. I am glad he got a good laugh. I am also glad he has a good sense of humor. What good is life if you can't sit back and laugh every once is a while.
And to be able to laugh with him is a blessing indeed. He does things every day to show our family he loves them. He even went out with me for a while on Black Friday. We did NOT go early in the morning, but we went and had fun. I'm thinking that needs to be our new tradition, but I am sure he is hoping it was a one time thing. He also put the Christmas lights up outside this week-end. He does it every year and the girls and I love it. He even lets them help. He is a great dad and I am thankful for that too.



I am thankful for good girls. I watch them making good choices when it isn't very easy and am thankful I was sent these good, sweet spirits. They are an adventure and we don't always see eye to eye, but I need to take a little more time to let them know how proud I am of them. I missed B's birthday blog. I was probably trying to deny the fact that I am the mother of a teenager. Yep, the big 1-3. So far we are surviving, other than the fact that I am the meanest mom in the world and she gets nothing she wants. (and for the record, she gets plenty of things she wants and although she claims she will die without a cell phone, she seems to be doing just fine)

I also need to make sure my parents and my in-laws know I am thankful for them. Hubby and I would not be who we are today without them and I like who we are. Not only are they good parents, but both of our parents have stayed together. What a great example of marriage. I know it hasn't always been easy for them and I am thankful they have been the great examples that they are.

I am thankful for my amazing friends. What would we as women do without friends? I believe if I surround myself with great women, they will help me become who I want to be. And I hope that something good in me can help them in some small way. I do know I gain much more from them than they could possibly get from me.

I am thankful for my faith. What would life be without something to believe in? To be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a great blessing. It brings me strength. It gives me a great support system, and I hope it makes me a better person. I know who I am, I know that I have a purpose. What more could I ask? There are people who don't know who they are and wonder what the purpose in life is, or if there is any purpose at all.

If you haven't already take a few minutes to be thankful for the good in your life.
I could go on and on but I won't. I will save that for the ongoing blog in my head. Hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving!

Back to School

We are now well into the swing of things. We have a month of school under our belts. It has been good so far.

B started jr. high and was definately more ready for it than I am. I can't believe how well she is doing. I swear she has grown up since school started.


M&M is in 5th grade and thanks to the 6th grade moving to the jr high she and the other 5th graders are the big wigs at school. She is having a great time. She has some good friends and a good teacher and I think this is her best year yet.


Roo started pre-school two days a week. Can you hear the hallelujah choir in the background?.....I sure can. Four hours a week to do whatever I need or want to do is pure bliss. She is loving it too. She talks more about the boys playing pirates than what she is learning. I hope that is not a glimps into the future.

They all start school at a different time which means no more back to bed for me. That has been a little depressing. I am on morning car pool duty. It is nice to be out and done with all my errands so early in the morning but sure makes for a long day. I am ready for bed every night by 9. Makes me feel like an old lady. It's all good though. I am having a good time watching the girls. I am really proud of all three of them.

I have put stamping to the side lately to pursue my newest "hobby". I have discovered beaded watch bands. You know the ones inspired by the "Bumble" brand. I am loving it. Today I finished up on the few I was having trouble with. Who knew you could have beaders block. I am still trying to decide if I need to change one of the bands, but hopefully I am done for a while. One of these years I will have to post some pictures of what I have done. I think that I will get back to stamping.

For now I am off to bed. Tomorrow is another day.

Vacation part 2

The second half of our vacation is definitely we will never forget. We started off the day at the Applets and Cotlets factory. My great aunt used to buy them and it was fun to see where they were made. Not sure hubby appreciated it, but the girls and I had fun. The next stop we decided to make is to Lake Chelan. We got there without any excitement. We pulled up to buy tickets for the "Lady of the Lake" boat tour. The girls were very excited. We went thinking we were just in time. I went up to the desk. "We would like to buy tickets for the lake cruise" I said to the girl sitting behind the desk. She asked me when we would like to go. "Today" seemed like a good response. She looked at me funny....."yes, it would help me book your ticket if you told me today when you want to go." Hmmm. That was a strange response. So I tried "Right now." I am at that point thinking we are standing here with our whole family, jackets in hand, obviously ready to go. "Yes, I need to know right now if you want me to book your tickets." By that point I am thinking it is the blonde leading the blonde. I explained to her that we are not from the area and saw the cruise in a brochure and would like to go out for the afternoon. Oh.....we only have one cruise, it leaves in the morning and gets back in the afternoon. It would be nice if they said something about that in the brochure.

We headed back to the RV looking for something else to do. We drove around the lake for a while. It was beautiful. We decided to try and find a water slide park we read about. We finally found it on Water slide Road (who would have guessed)? It was a great. We all had a good time. I didn't have my camera so you will have to imagine the water park overlooking the lake. We stayed until closing time and headed over to the RV park we saw while we were driving around. There was a new sign out front. Full. Not good. We couldn't find anything in town so we headed on down the road. WAY down the road. I was starting to get worried. We finally found a spot in a rodeo ground rv park in Omak Washington. Have you ever been to Omak? I don't recommend going. We were thankful for the place to rest, but happy to get going again in the morning.

Up and going again we headed toward the Coulee Dam. Wanted to go on a dam tour. It was hot at the dam. Too hot. The ol' rv didn't like it there. Started lurching again. We pulled into the dam parking lot just in time to take the tour. We walked across the dam with the tour guide explaining it was probably over 110 degrees on top of the dam right now. No kidding.....let's get on with the tour. We went to a shelter on the edge of the dam and listened to the guide for a while. She got my attention when she said, "this is the point we usually go into the dam, but since the elevator is broken, we can head back now." So the tour existed of walking across the very hot dam, peering over the edge, and walking back. We went to the visitors center for a while and back to the rv. This was the worse day in the rv. She broke down about every 20 miles or so. The rolling hills and the heat were just too much for her. We limped her into Spokane that evening and stopped for dinner. After dinner I spotted a KOA sign and told Nate he had better follow that sign. When we got there, I ran in to see if we could get a spot. I got quite a scare. No spots left. I wanted to fling myself on the counter and cry, beg, bribe, anything to not have to get back into that motorhome. It had been a very long stressful day. Then suddenly they remembered they had just had a cancellation. Hooray! Kissing them would have been inappropriate, but I sure wanted to. We lurched around the parking lot a few times. Felt like the Griswald family pulling in. I am sure our neighbors were thrilled when we pulled up to the side of them. All we were lacking was a backfire. KOA was our refuge that night. Swimming in the cool pool, movie on the lawn, and to bed. I would have been happy staying there for a long, long, time. Unfortunately we only had reservations for one night.

The next day was Sat. I was ready to go home, but we weren't supposed to be home until Sunday. So we headed toward Cour D'alane. We wanted to see if maybe we could get that lake cruise in yet. We made it there with no lurching. Drove right into the middle of the biggest street fairs I have ever seen. We had to walk a LONG way to get to the lake. Saw lots of stuff in the booths lining the street. We grabbed some lunch and finally got tickets for a lake cruise. It was very relaxing. Roo instantly made a friend and didn't leave her side the whole time we were on the boat. She has the tendency to be a stalker that way. I am glad Zoe's mom humored her. Then we headed to Cataldo. It would be our last hurrah. A little Idaho history the next morning and then home. I didn't know the greatest adventure with the RV lay ahead that night. We pulled into the rv park and hubby says he is going to drop the fuel tank to see if he can figure out what the problem is. OK. I have no idea what that meant. Now I do. If you have never had that experience, I hope you never do. We couldn't get the plug out of the bottom of the tank so we had to drop it full. Right onto Nate's hand. Ouch. Then we had to figure how to get it into the 5 gallon buckets we had. Not enough buckets. Hubby couldn't see anything wrong so we had to try and lift the half full tank back into place. It involved a jack, and lots of language I didn't think the girls should hear, but we did it. That is a feeling of accomplishment. Don't know many people who can say they have done that. Then Hubby made friends with the rv park owner and got a tour of his garage. Turned out to be a drag racer and hubby was happy to have met him. Even stopped on the way out Sun. morning to say thank you.

Sunday I was ready to be headed home. We held out breath and hit the road. Only broke down once. Coasted into a little gas station that claimed to be running out of gas. Sold us $10 worth of gas. Thank goodness it was enough to get us to the next exit. Hubby didn't want to chance it so we came home with the windows open and the heat on. I was sooo happy to get home to my air condtioned house and my kitchen, and my full size bathroom......I could go on and on. We can laugh about most of the trip now. It was a good time. I might even want to do it again after hubby fixes the lurch. The girls have a story no one else will have. I would definately say we bonded. Maybe a little too much.

I left the Roo factor out of the vacation. She was something else the whole time we were gone. I was proud of hubby not killing her when she told him to just turn the key and get her out of there when we were broken down for the 6th or 7th time of the day. If it were only that simple. Or her repeated requests for fruit snacks and gum. If nothing else I learned patience. For now I will just be happy hanging out at home enjoying all those little luxuries we take for granted.

Oh the memories...

OK. I promised to revisit our family reunion/vacation in the state of Washington. We have known about this for about a year so hubby dear decided to buy a motorhome in the salvage auction. It was soooo stinky and yucky. With a whole lot of work and tlc it is really nice. We were so excited. The girlies couldn't wait to get going bright and early the first morning. This is Roo the first day as we were happily driving down the road.
We were driving a long about 5 hours into our adventure when the motorhome started to lurch a bit. Hubby looked over and asked if he should pull off or take a chance. Hmmm.....stranded in a town where we can maybe figure out what's wrong or stranded on the side of the freeway. Tough choice. I think the look I shot his way made his decision easy. We pulled off the freeway and just at the end of the ramp the motorhome died. Once again, hubby came through. New fuel filter, new spark plugs and wires and only a few hours behind schedule we were back on the road. I have to say that being stranded in a motorhome is a much different experience than it is in a car. We had a bathroom, food, and a generator to run a tv. I have to say it wasn't horrible, just stressful.

Anyway, we arrived in Washington about midnight. The reunion was a lot of fun. My aunt and uncle live in paradise.
This is a picture of the waterslide they made. The kids would hit a bump on the way down that should have put their bottom end in their forehead, but they loved it.

My uncle took us out on the ocean in search of orca whales. It was AMAZING. He got us right in the middle of a pod that were coming right at us. The rules are pretty strict about getting up close and personal with the whales. You can't just drive up and see them. You can however cut your engine and hope they come to you and they did. There were whales everywhere. My camera was too slow to get a good picture, but I got what I could. I have to say it was a lot of fun and definately a highlight of the trip.


My aunt and uncle also have cherry trees. The girls had a blast picking cherries and we enjoyed them for the rest of the trip. .

On Monday we headed out on our own. We toured Widbey Island. We went to Fort Casey for a while. I have been there once, when I was a kid and it must have had quite and impact on me because it shows up in my dreams periodically. It was really fun to go back and visit.

We stayed at Deception Pass that night and this is where the adventure truely began. We drove under the bridge when my uncle took us out and it is really pretty. Here is the view from the boat.
There is a really nice state park there with rv hook-ups so we got settled in and decided to walk to the beach. We didnt' realize the beach was so far away.
One blister on M&M's foot and a lot of whining later we were there. On one side of the parking lot is the ocean. On the other a fresh water lake. It was very cool. The only problem is we forgot to have the girls change into their swimsuits. Oops. Roo made it known she did not like the ocean side. She walked around with her hand on her mouth screaming that is smelled and she was going to throw up. Nice. We let them play (Roo safely off the beach on the freshwater side) and then we walked back. M&M on her daddy's back and Roo on my back or B's back. I must say we slept very well that night.

The next day we headed down the road to Levenworth. Levenworth is a charming Bavarian town just at the bottom of Mt. Baker. I have always wanted to go and we were all excited to get there. One thing I havent' mentioned is that it was HOT the whole time we were there. Really hot....record breaking hot......and humid. we were headed up Mt Baker in the heat and just at the top, the lurch was back. Uh-Oh. The motorhome died at the top and we literally coasted all the way down the other side of Mt. Baker. Best gas mileage we got the whole trip. Hubby got it started at the bottom and we were off to explore the town.


We stayed at the Isicle River Rv park that night and got to camp backed up to the Icicle river. It was very pretty and the girls had a good time playing in the river.

That is the first little bit of our trip. Stay tuned for part two. It gets much better....or worse depending on your point of view. I can say that the adventure has just begun.

What ever happened to summer?

I have been sitting here tonight straightening the house wondering where in the world summer has gone. I sent B to her first day of Jr. High. (I do not recommend to ANYONE to go in there....still wondering what kind of mother I am) Seems like just yesterday M&M walked home and dissolved in a puddle of tears because she was going to miss her teacher, and her friends, and the bus driver......she can be a little bit dramatic, but the girl loves school. I even took Roo to her pre-school open house. She was miffed she didn't get to stay longer, and wants to go back as soon as possible. I hope her teacher feels like that after a couple of days and Roo is comfortable in her class. I can say that we have had a very full and adventurous summer.

The first highlight that I missed is Roo turned 4. Poor thing was sick for her birthday, but she put on a good show. I can't say she didn't share anything from her birthday, because that night I got the same crud she had been trying to get rid of for a week. Thank goodness none of the party guests got sick. I always try and say a few things about my girls on their birthdays. I have to say Roo is giving us a good run for our money. She is the most determined 4 year old I have ever met. She is way too smart and does everything she puts her mind to. Life is a song for her. She is singing a medley of tunes all day ranging from her favorite primary songs from church to the Mama Mia sound track with a little radio Disney and some Christmas songs thrown in for balance. She is in trouble more than not, but always says something that breaks the tension and gets herself off the hook. I am sorry I missed it, but Happy Be-lated birthday Roo.

Roo also took swimming lessons this summer. I have never in my life sat and listened to anyone tell thier swim teacher no so many times in an hour. She was a stinker. Then she would come home and try to practice in the bathtub to prove she had been listening. Little stinker. Her swim teacher is a saint and I appreciate her patience with Roo. She said it was her last year teaching, and I feel some responsibility for that. Even if Roo did give her a hard time she surely does love you Lisa!

July flew way too fast this year. I got to go to girls camp and then we headed off to the beautiful state of Washington for my family reunion. Both were an adventure. I was so glad to get to go to girls camp with B. We had a great time. This year we had some people who generously offered to let us stay in their cabin for camp. It was heavenly. No coolers, real showers, flushing toilets, no camp stoves. I have never gone to girls camp without tents in the whole 15 or 20 years I have gone to camp. It was so nice. And to top it off we had a fabulous group of girls. There was no drama. Like I said, it was a heavenly year.

When we got home we left the next morning for the family reunion in the motorhome Hubby bought. May I suggest if you are going to buy a motorhome in a salvage auction and refurbish it, you may want to take it for a trial run. Just sayin'. I will leave that story for another day. It's a good one too. I will say after 10 days in our own personal version of the rolling turd, I was glad to come home, and I am never glad to come home. I am so glad we went and it's a trip we will always remember. Now if we can just get Hubby a real vacation maybe he will feel a little better.

Aug. has rushed by and spent recovering from July and trying to cram everything we were going to do this summer in. It didn't work. We didn't get it all done. But that is not because we didn't try. It has been a good summer but I have to say it does feel good to get back into a routine. My house did not get trashed today like it has been all summer. I now have three girls in three different schools with three different schedules. It will be much more exciting this year. I have taken full advantage of sleeping in this summer and the days of rolling out of bed at 9 am are gone for another school year. In fact I am thinking it is getting pretty late if I am going to survive my 6:30 alarm. I am very sadly wishing another summer goodbye and looking forward to all the adventures this new school year holds.

Belated Father's Day

Last sunday I had very good intentions of getting on here and paying tribute to my father whom I adore. I also need to let the father of my girlies know how fabulous I think he is.....which is why I didn't get anything posted. I was busy making breakfast, lunch. homemade bread, and dinner for my hubby. They say the way to a man's heart is through he stomach, but I am not sure about that. Anyway, with all the time in the kitchen, I just didn't want to sit in there any longer and spend time on the computer. So I am taking the chance, almost a week late to make up for my laziness.

I have always considered myself a daddy's girl. I love my mom, don't get me wrong, but I would always rather be outside helping my dad than stuck in the house. I grew up mowing lawn, helping haul hay, working in the garden (that one was not something I did willingly), just about anything I could do to stay out of the house. I used to LOVE when my dad would drive us to "the lake" on hot afternoon's. We usually went in our old Willy's Jeep. It was a hoot to ride in. I think my girlies would rather walk than ride in that old Jeep, but I loved it. My dad would steak out a place in the sand and settle in for a siesta. Jeans, long sleeved button up shirt, cowboy boots and all. He would put his hat on his face and just hang out until it was time to go home. We could spot him from anywhere. I hope my kids can back and remember some of the things their dad does. Anyway, I love my dad and have always tried my hardest to make him proud of me. That respect for my dad kept me out of a lot of trouble. My dad waited up for me every time I went out. I knew that no matter what I did, he would be waiting up and I would have to face him when I got home. I am sure I did some things he would not approve of, but nothing that I regret, or that would surprise him if he found out. I am so glad that I got to have the dad that I have.

The other dad in my life is the father of my sweet girlies. He is an amazing dad. He lives in the estrogen ocean and nothing ruffles his feathers. He humors the girls with almost everything they want to do. He spoils them dang near rotten. Roo reminds me on a regular basis that her dad would do whatever I won't for her. He is an amazing man and I am so glad that we can be a family together. For Father's Day last year he told me all he wanted to do is go to Vegas for breakfast at a buffet. Since that wasn't going to happen, we made him his own buffet here at home. Now it seems to be a tradition. The girls love it and he fusses over them and makes them feel like a million dollars. I am so glad he is such a good dad.

This week has been another long one at our house. Roo has been sick most of the week. Poor thing hasn't kept much down. Hubby has been out of town so I have been on sick kid duty by myself. She was soooo glad to see him come in the door this afternoon. Then M&M had an alergy attack and her eyes started to swell. We ended up at the doctor with her. She was sure that she had pink eye, but she didn't. We did find out that she weighs 50 lbs. and is 50 inches tall. (she's 10....and a pip-squeek). Three years ago at her last visit she was 47 lbs. and 45 inches tall. I would love to have only gained three lbs. in three years. She didn't get that from me. Anyway, I am hoping for a quick recovery of Roo and spending some time as a family this week-end.

Catch up

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I am quite a slacker these days. I have been up to my eyeballs in summer and not taken the chance to sit down and blog. Shame on me. I have been thoroughly enjoying NOT getting up at 6:30 a.m. In fact I should get up earlier than I am. Maybe next week. I have been very good about getting my exercise. It is so much fun to do with three little girls heckling me the entire time. This morning I was down on my elliptical machine with Roo (formerly known as my baby) telling me to get off because it was her turn the entire time. As soon as I was done, she wanted nothing to do with it. Go figure. Little stinker. So far summer has been good. Rainy, but good. The fighting amongst the natives is at a minimum most of the time. We have Movie Monday, library Weds. and they and trying to fit as many friends in between that as they can.



Roo started swim lessons this last week and it will be quite an adventure. Their poor teacher has three little stinkers in this class that do not want to do anything....including Roo. I do a lot of coaxing and a little bit of threatening. She is now much less afraid of the water and I am hoping by the end of lessons she will actually put her head under. She is cracking me up by randomly plugging her nose and sinking just up to her eyes in slow motion. I was glad I took my video camera the first day to catch her in action. Her sisters are feeling quite ripped off that they don't get lessons but have come along and cheered her on. They are such good big sisters.



Tues. night I had my card swap meeting. (can you hear the hallelujah choir in the background?) As always it was awesome. Cute cards, great time to wind down. I am loving it. I forgot to take a pic of my card before I gave them away. It wasn't my favorite card, so I didn't make one for myself. The project was a lot of fun. We made Father's Day card with clear scraps. It is this really cool clear plastic stuff you can cut on your cricut and then we colored it and it makes a very cute, quick card. Did I mention I just love to go to swap nights?

Now we need to figure out what to do for Hubby for Father's Day. He is so very hard to figure out when it comes to what he needs. Last year he wanted to go to Vegas and eat at a buffet for Father's day. Since that wasn't something we could do at the time, the girls and I made our own buffet and called it the "Lost Wages" buffet. I would love to do it again, but church is at 9 and in order to get that all done I would have to get up WAY too early. I will have to figure something else out. I will have plenty of help because the girls like to spoil their daddy.

Maybe I will take the time to play today. I haven't even taken time to do anything fun. Maybe I will just sit back and enjoy not having anything much to do.

Silence

There is one thing I treasure in the middle of the day that I never even thought of before I had children. It is to sit in my house with silence surrounding me. No tv, no radio, just the sounds of the birds outside and the kitchen fan that is always running. I dropped the children off to spend the week-end at grandma's for the cousin slumber party and am now sitting at home thinking about all the things I could be doing. (it should not involve time on the computer, but it is way past time that I catch up my blog). I have not had much quiet at our house since school got out a week ago. My baby is not happy that her life has been interrupted and she has spent a good part of summer break so far "lelling" at her sisters for all the things she thinks they should, or should not be doing. They don't want to watch "her size" on tv and she doesn't like "thier size." They think they need to spend time alone in their rooms. She doesn't think that is very fair. They want to have their friends over and she wants to be involved in every possible second of what they are doing. It is a hard job being the baby, just ask her.

Anyway, since I haven't posted since before school got out I need to catch up just a bit. We had the end of school awards assembly. B just happened to get the Hope of America award. This is a big honor. It is sponsored by the local Kiwanis club. One girl and boy in each 6th grade class get this award. I asked B if she was surprised and she said, no. Humility is not her strong point. The qualifications are that the student must demonstrate leadership, ethical and moral character and outstanding academic accomplishment. B said she realized as they read the award, she fit all those catagories. I can't argue with her but the though that she and her blonde brain are the hope of America scares me just a little bit. I am proud of her for being a good girl and hope she continues on her course, blondeness and all.

M&M came home the last day of school broken hearted. She does this every year, and every year I forget until she comes in the house sobbing. She is going to miss her teacher. I think this year is especially bad. She had an amazing teacher that M&M loves. The fact that she will still see her next year doesn't matter to her. It just won't be the same. She's is right about that, but we all have to move on, it's part of life.

Now I get to wait for my dear hubby to come home. I hope he is not as late as he thinks he is going to be. On the other hand, if he is, I can get some stamping done and maybe have something to post. I do know that I am going to savor every bit of quiet until I go pick up the girls tomorrow.

Happy Anniversary/Memorial day week-end

Friday was Hubby and I's anniversary. It was a good one. We weren't lacking for adventure though. Thurs. afternoon the pump to the well went out. No water. Not a drizzle. So we were very glad we had made reservations for our anniversary and were headed out of town to a hotel with running water. Since we did not know how long we were going to be out of water, I ran to the laundra-mat before we left town. 6 loads of laundry in a little over an hour. That felt good. Major accomplishment. If it weren't so creepy there, I might consider doing that more often.

Friday afternoon we left our waterless abode and headed north. Dropped the girls off at grandma and pa's house and enjoyed the sweet silence. No one griping they were bored. No screaming because someone is doing something someone else didn't like. Just a nice quiet ride. The hotel was beautiful. First thing I did upon arrival was turn every faucet on and flush the toilet, just because I could. That should not have been the first thing on my mind, but the fact I could shower or bath anytime I wanted was very exciting. I definately wanted to stay one....or twelve more nights please. It was the perfect place to spend our anniversary.

Saturday we decided on a whim to go see if we could get a massage. This is way out of our comfort zone. I didn't think Nate would actually go through with it. When we made the appt. he made it VERY clear that he did not want the male massage therapist. He had visions of Seinfeld going through his head. Silly boy. I wasn't sure I wanted someone named Ben that up close and personal with me either, but we went for it anyway. It was a very wise move. I couldn't believe an hour had actually passed. Ben is very good at his job. I am thinking that needs to be a regular date night activity. Nate enjoyed it so much he asked the girl that worked on him if she was married. Very funny dear.

Time to go pick the girls up always rolls around way too fast. I love my girls, but I also love having a little break from them. Especially when I get to spend time alone with my hubby. The fact that when we got home there was still no water didn't help much. Thanks mom for doing the girl's laundry. I am not quite so far behind now.

As of today all is well. The water is back, they finished up about 15 minutes before we got home from church. I swear I have never been so thirsty, or needed to use the bathroom more than when we didn't have water. I have always been very good at wanting things I know I cannot have.

Today we are spending some time at home catching up. We need to go visit the cemetary, but don't look forward to that task. It is very daunting and it is still hard. It is a day to reflect those who have gone before us to a better place. Especially those who have given thier lives for the freedom we enjoy. Hope you take a moment to remember those in your lives who have gone before you too.

Now it is back to school tomorrow to finish up the year of school. Only three more days. That is a very good thing.

Happy Mother's Day

To all those Mother's out there in the trenches I wish you Happy Mother's Day. This is a day of reflection for me. I think about my Mom and all the things she has taught me to do. She has helped shape me into the person I have become. I am so thankful for the great example that she has set for me. I hope I can be an example for my girls so they want to grow up and be Mom's too. I also have to give a shout our to my Mother-in-law. Without her, I would not have my hubby dear and who knows where I would be without him. I am in-debted to her for raising a son who spoils me rotten and is an amazing Dad.

Today in church we had several Mom's speak about mother-hood. I admire every woman who spoke today and think they did a great job. I will do well if I use them as examples. It makes me feel good to know this is a journey we, as mother's, take together. No one is perfect, no one has perfect children. We all have our ups and downs. I had to laugh as one of my friends reminded me of the first time one of her children lost their lunch all over the carpet and she realized she was now the mom and she had to clean it up. I am so glad I am done with dirty diapers, and only have one more kiddo left to help learn to ride a bike. I love the little every day things my kids do to let me know they need me.....and I know I need them.

Motherhood is definately a privelidge and a great adventure and I wouldn't trade it for the world. It isn't easy, and sometimes it is the hardest thing I have ever done. But no matter what these girlies throw at me, I am glad I am thier mom.

Blessed

It has been one of "those" weeks at our house. One that I just want to sit in a corner and cry....perferably with a diet pepsi in one hand and some form of chocolate, or another diet pepsi in the other. I have shed more than a few tears (no, I was not it a corner, but I wanted to be) and now it is time to move on and just be thankful for all the things I have been blessed with. I even have a few examples...

This is a picture of my baby's latest form of tantrum.
She sure showed me. She gets mad, tells me off a little, or a lot depending on the mood and then puts her little self right to bed. She thinks it is a punishment to me, and by golly I will suck it up and take that punishment. It gives me a few moments of quiet which I will gladly accept.

I got to go to my stamp group Tues. night and it was amazing as always. I havent' taken a picture to show the treasures I got, but I will. I always feel better after our meeting. I should pay my sister-in-law who invited me go.....the therapy is good and I feel like I can conquer just a little bit more after I have spent some time playing.

My class supplies didn't show up in time for my class on Weds. morning. Yes, it is a blessing. My Monday and Tues (up until Tues night's meeting of course) were pretty rotten, and I couldn't have handled a class Weds. morning. By the time I got my supplies Weds. afternoon and I threw the kits together the world was looking better and it gave me something else to think about. Plus, I got my new paper in my order and love it. New scrapbook paper always makes me happy, even if I have enough to last probably the rest of my life.

My girls piano teacher picked up their gold cups they earned from festival. She rocks. I didn't know if we were going to get them or not. She has only been their piano teacher for a few months. Our previous teacher got them to festival, but has quit teaching piano due to other opportunities that have come up. We miss her, and wish her well, but it has been a positive change and the girls are loving the new teacher too. It made my day when she emailed me and told me she had their cups. It was just a very thoughtful thing to do.

I have had a great time with my classes the last two days. I have such good friends who are so patient with me. I hope I can return the kindness to them when they need it.

My biggest blessing is my sweet hubby. I do not think I would be able to acomplish the things I do without his love and support. He is always watching out for others and serving them even when it isn't necessary. He is a great example to me. He is an amazing Dad and I really hope that he knows how much I love him. (and no dear, it has nothing to do with the Mother's Day present you let me order myself)

Every once in a while I need to just take a step back and be thankful for what I have and it makes everything else just a little easier.

Hot Lava

Tonight we decided to take the girls and head on down to Lave Hot Springs, or as the girls refer to it "hot lava". I forget that is not what it's real name is. I don't know why but it always intrigues me to sit and watch people at Hot Lava. LOTS of women wearing bikini's that probably shouldn't be, girls who are wearing board shorts and t-shirts, who could probably get away with a bikini, but I applaud their modesty. The teen's running around trying to get noticed. The mom's like me doing what ever they can not to get noticed, which is really hard to do when I hang with a 3 year old that stalks other children. (long story) I am always glad I am a woman when we go anywhere that swimwear is required. Thank goodness we didn't see any speedo's tonight. I always get a kick out of the girls when they see a guy in a speedo. I don't care how good looking you are.....no one looks good in one of those. And I would love to not know exactally what you are packin' if ya know what I mean. There is not a lot of variety in men's swimwear, and I am really glad to get to be a little bit more covered up.

Makes me think back to when my Dad used to take us swimming at the local watering hole. He would settle in on the beach in his jeans, button down the front long sleeve shirt, boots and then he would put his hat on his face and take a nap. There was no missing where he was. We just looked for the guy that was way overdressed for the beach. Back then I didn't even realize that he never came in with us. Now I am wondering what he would have done if we would have drowned.....or if he would have slept through the whole thing. All I know is we were just happy to be there and there is no way I would ever, ever let my kids get in that water. Ewwww.

But tonight was a good break. The girls watched a movie on the way there and back, and were ready to go to bed when we got home. I just hope I can pry their tired little selves out of bed at the crack of dawn to go to church. No matter how hard it is, Hot Lava was definately worth it.

Happy B-day M & M

10 years ago today, right at this moment, I was in the hospital getting ready to welcome daughter number 2 into the world. I had just spent the evening before watching the news as the Columbine trajedy unfolded wondering what was going to become of my little ones in this world of ours. I was telling her just yesterday what Columbine is, and what happened there. I have always been thankful for a little bit of joy during the aftermath of such a terrible thing.

M & M hasn't changed much since she came into the world. She has always known what she wanted, and usually figures out a way to get it. When she was little people told me she should be the new gerber baby, or go to hollywood. She is definately dramatic enough to do that, but like her father, she does not like people telling her what to do. I don't know if hollywood could handle her or not.

I am proud of M and the person she has become in these short 10 years. At home she is a little trouble maker, always pushing buttons. (thus the reason for the large age gap between her and the baby) Away from home she is a sweet girl who is very aware of those around her. She tries to do what she thinks is right and spends a lot of time by herself because she is not willing to change her values to go along with the crowd. She is a great example to others. I feel like the luckiest mom in the world to have such a beautiful 10 year old today.

On the downside, that means I have 2 children in the "double digits" and means I am getting older. I do not like to be reminded of that fact even thought the image in the mirror is a constant reminder. The grey hair I try to hide, the wrinkles, and all the other loverly things that happen as we get older. I am thankful for my health, and my family.

Anyway.....we are going to enjoy the evening taking her to eat anywhere her heart desires and then home to watch Bigget Loser, her favorite show. And since it is her birthday, she will probably get to stay up and watch the whole thing. Then we will have to brace ourselves for her party with her friends over the week-end.

So M & M, have a great day and know your mom loves you and thinks you are fabulous.

Where does the time go?

I logged on today and decided I should update a little bit since it's been a while again. I should change the name of my blog to Week to week life of a stay at home mom, but oh well. With Easter and a stampin' class this week I haven't taken the time to sit down and blog.

Easter was a good one. Same annual easter egg hung the neighbors have. It is awesome. No pushing or shoving. No crying kids. And everyone leaves happy. It is a very good thing. I appreciate all the hard work they put into it every year.

The Easter Bunny was a bit delayed coming to our house this year as we have 9:00 church and I really wanted my girls to focus on the true meaning of Easter. I showed the kids a movie in Primary about the life of Christ and it is always surprising the things they come up with. One scene of the movie shows Christ walking on the water and I hear a little voice in the back say "He's walking on water that is really deep. He must be magic." If only they could truely appreciate the magic. Anyway, Easter Bunny came during church and the rest of the day was spent bordering on a sugar coma. Dang jelly beans anyway. Due to a case of procrastination, the girls did not get their Easter dresses on time and I will have to post that picture another day.

My stampin' class was a tag class and it turned out pretty good. Attendance is down, but I am very thankful for those who come and support me. I have one more class next week and am really looking forward to it. I always feel lucky when I get to spend time with my friends. Here is a picture of the tags. I had a really hard time figuring them out, but am pleased with how they turned out.



I am really glad that tomorrow is Friday. I am looking forward to sleeping in on Sat. I really thought I would outgrow the desire to sleep till noon,or at least nine or ten, but I guess I still have some growing up to do. Hopefully it will be a little bit warmer and we will get to enjoy some time outside. I just don't know how much more snow I can take.

April Card Swap

Well, it has happened once again. A fabulous night with my card swap group. I look forward to swap night every month. I feel a little spoiled to be able to spend some time with such a great group of women. This month's theme was You've been Cased. The challenge was to find a card we like and then make two changes to it to make it our own. I love the cards everyone did.



The tin in the picture is actually the project that I brought to make. It turned out pretty cute. I have to say I cased it off of splitcoaststampers. I had to change mine because I bought the wrong size tins...twice, so I just figured out how to make them work. The round card that my very talented sister-in-law did is a hinge card and it slides open when you pull on the ribbon. It is very cool. The green card has a beautiful glass embelishment on it that has a velcro closure attatched to it. The music card has actual music on it. How cool is that? And the card with the flowers on it has dimensionals under several of the flowers and the saying. These women are so talented. My card is the one with the big pink flower in the middle. I have wanted to try to make one and it was a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of the tin on the inside and my sister-in-law's card open so you can see how it works.




Next month we are doing a one sheet wonder template where you take one sheet of designer paper and cut it into 16 pieces to make 16 different cards. I tend to struggle with this challenge but I say bring it on. Gives me a chance to go play with my papercrafting toys and unwind.

Now I need to go cut tags for my tag class next week. Soon as I get them finalized and am happy with them I will post a picture. Hope you get a chance to do something you love to do today!

A Case of the Blah's

This is definately one of those days I would like to have crawled back in bed. Mostly because it is still cold and snowy outside. I am so ready to be warm. I tried to get hubby to take me away this week-end, I thought about begging. I just want to be warm and somewhere quiet. I could use a break. I am sure we all could. I am sitting here blogging, instead of figuring out what in the world we should have for dinner on this lovely Friday evening. Hubby is on his way home from a meeting and will be arriving in about an hour. I also have to figure out exactally where M&M has wandered off to and get her home without a major break-down.

There are a lot of underlying issues going on, none of which I care to blog about. I am thinking my hubby has some of the same issues as I can see how I feel reflected in how he acts. I'm pretty sure he could use a long vacation in a warm place too. All we need is the time, and the money.

For now I will just be thankfull for the things I have. A beautiful home full of healthy, headstrong children. An amazing husband who give us his all every day just to provide for our needs and as many wants as he possibly can. The knowledge that all of this is worth it in the end if we can just endure. I read a plaque in a flier the other day that said something like: Sometimes the Lord calms the storm around us, and sometimes he calms his children while the storm rages around them. I am hoping for the latter, because apparently it is going to keep on storming and I can use all the help and support I can get.

Now on to dinner.......

Spring Break?????

This week is our spring break. We were so excited to get things started. Oh the adventure that may lay ahead. Then things started going terribly wrong......first M&M came down with a fever of almost 105. Scary. Saturday night she started losing her lunch. Not good. She still isn't feeling better, but she doesn't have a scary fever anymore. I am hoping she is on the mend. I can hear her coughing upstairs right now. Poor kid.

Yesterday we woke up to Christmas. Two or three inches of snow on the ground, and a blizzard. Not what we had in mind. More snow today. Brrrr. I have been freezing since November. We almost hit 70 degrees last week and now snow again. We should expect this in our neck of the woods, and I am very thankful for the moisture that these spring storms bring, but I would prefer it in the form of rain, and warm. It is supposed to snow through tomorrow so I guess we will spend spring break hanging out in the house trying to keep warm.

We are hoping my hubby doesn't have to go in for Jury duty on Friday and maybe we can take a day trip somewhere. I know he is crossing his fingers and so am I.

Honda vs. Ferrari....

This week-end our family stopped for dinner on the way to a birthday part for my nephew. My hubby thinks it is funny that I just can't get what happened out of my head. It's not even that big of a deal, other than I now know that my sweet hubby is respectful and not a slimeball.

Let me explain. We got seated in one of those horse shoe shaped booths with the full circus going on. The baby popping in and out of the bottom of the table, swinging on the nearby rail, anything but sitting quietly. I am always a little nervous about her tripping the unsuspecting servers on thier way by. The other two do pretty good, but it's always and experience to go eat with the kids in tow. As we were sitting there, a very pretty girl, I would say in her early/mid 20's walked by. She even got my attention and knowing that, I checked to see if she had gotten hubby's attention. She had (he later rated her a 9 1/2....which is not something I have ever heard him do outloud before, but I would probably agree). I made it very clear that I understand him taking one good look, but any more drooling would not be accepted. Then we entertained ourselves as we watched the reactions to several men in the restaraunt. One even left the side of his wife, to sit by his friend and get a better look. This guy wasn't even "sneakin" a look, it was an all out stare. Creepy. The manager was over there quite a bit too. Hmmmm.
Then I got to thinking. Because we are a car family I told hubby my analogy. He came into the restaurant with a perfectly good Honda (that would be me). Nothing out of the ordinary, just a good reliable Honda. He appreciates his Honda, but when a newer model Ferrari walks by, of course he is going to look, even though he knows he still has his Honda. Sure the Honda would LOVE to be that Ferrari, but without the $50,000 or more it would take to overhaul the Honda, he will just have to be happy with what he has. I was however very glad to get back to the car and away from the Ferrari. The conversation going on at that table was less than kid friendly. The Ferrari's friends talk like they came out of the county dump if ya know what I mean. Like I said, I don't know why I have been thinking about that, but it really made me appreciate my hubby and the love and respect he shows me on a daily basis. I will keep trying to be a little more like the Ferrari, but I will always be the Honda, a good reliable wife who may need a little tuning up every once in a while, but will always be there when he needs me.

On a side note, anyone who wants to take advantage of sale-a-bration, time is running out. I got some new stuff today and hope to get time to stamp so I can post some new stuff soon.

Have a good one, and don't forget to appreciate the ones you love.

Card swap, sweet card swap

This has been a rough week at our house. I don't know why, just can't put my finger on it. I have been trying to get a minute to sit down and share my treasures I got at my monthly Paper Chain meeting (card swap). I look forward to this every month. I have even been known to dream about what I might create.....or recieve from our monthly swap. This month it was scheduled the same day as my older girls piano festival. I knew I would be late, but my dear sweet hubby saved the day and stayed in town to work so I would only be 15 minutes late instead of 35. The girls ARE more important than stamping even if at times they might feel otherwise. By the way, they both got superior's, earned the coveted "cup" and I am hoping we are done with festival. Now, back to paper chain,

The theme this month was "anything but a card". I decided to make a small scrapbook I saw Roxy make on splitcoaststampers. Although I have neve met Roxy, and probably never will due to the fact she lives in Canada, I think she is very talented. Here is what I came up with.
The top picture is picture of the book closed. The bottom picture is a poorly taken picture of half the inside open, and half closed. I just couldn't figure out how to make it look right.

Here are the pictures of what I got from the very talented group of women I swap with. I always feel like I hit the lottery.

One of the boxes is full of treats, the other has bath salts that have been colored with Stampin' Up! reinker's and scented with essential oils. The little white box has a beautifully embossed seashell scene on it and inside is a sand dollar and a poem about sand dollars that is amazing. I love the new way the notebook is covered. May have to be my new place to keep my scedule or something. The red square is actually a canvas that has been painted and then designer paper glued on top. They are meant to have a picture modge podged on top and used as a wall decoration. The project we made is the little book with all the ribbons. It is made from name badge holders and we decorated a front cover and back cover and the middle one's are meant for those store cards you can never find in your wallet but always need. I have to say the women out did themselves again and I have all my treasures still sitting on the table where I can enjoy them.

Now I need to start thinking on my next months project. Let the creativity begin :).

The new do's

Yesterday we went up north to see my sister and take the camcorder to Best Buy. I needed a haircut desperately and my sister is a saint and takes very good care of me and my family's hair care needs...thanks sis. B has been thinking about cutting her hair for quite some time. She has had really long hair for her whole life. She wanted to cut it for lock of love, which means so long to 10" of hair. She went back and forth all day. Yes, I am cutting it, well, I need to cut it, I don't want to cut it, I think I can cut it.....you get the idea. M&M has been wanting to chop hers again for a while. Silly girl. She loves her hair short. Daddy doesn't like short hair so much but was a really good sport yesterday. I told him it would grow fast if B didn't like it and by the time she starts jr. high in the fall, it will be pretty long again. So we took the plunge and chopped the main.....and she looks fabulous. I am hoping she will let me play with is a little bit today. We left it A line becaus it would have been really short in the front if we hadn't. Anyway, here are some pics of thier adventure,





I am hoping to get some better pics today or tomorrow, you know how freshly cut hair is less than cooperative, but I think they sure look cute. But then again, I am thier mom and I will always think that about my girlies!

This week-end the hubby and I attended a Luau at the church. He was asked to be part of the "syncronized swimming" team. He said he wasn't real happy about it, but I know he was secretly excited about it. He has this hidden party boy inside. Not many have seen it, but it's in there. Anyway, he ended up leading the swim team....and did a fabulous job. I don't think I have ever seen a group of sync. swimmers do the "bicycle" so well. I took the video camera and got it all on tape. (I was secretly going to post it here.....but don't tell him that.) Just before the swimming, there was a hula hoop contest. I thought that would be fun to watch. A bunch of grown women up trying to hula hoop.....what a kick. Then I heard my name called. Who me???? I do not hula. I can not hula. Are you kidding me? Next thing I know there I am standing there wondering how I am going to pull this off. The music started, I took a breath and spun the hoop. Holy cow, I can hula hoop. Never have been able to keep a hula hoop up in my life. But I ROCKED. Never dropped the hula hoop. I had the contest in the bag....but due to the fact I was sort of hiding in the corner the MC didn't notice and the award was given to the woman who was right in front of him. I was robbed. But not really. I was more in shock that I had just hulla'd for that amount of time. Plus my friend had thought to pick up the video camera and get it on tape. Now I had proof.

After the swimmer's were done I went to watch the replay and the dang disk won't play. I know it recorded. It just won't play. What the?????? This is the second disk the camera has done this to. I went on line last night and the Sony peeps said I have to send it in. After much searching for a reciept and no success, I called Best Buy where my husband bought the camcorder for me. Not only do they have the reciept, but he bought the extended warranty. He is amazing. Now I just need to take it up north and see if they can fix it. Hopefully we will be able to prove to our girls that their mom and dad rock.....or that they should be really glad that they were not there to claim us. Did I mention Nate should have won the best leg contest? I am sure he definately had the best legs of all the swimmers. Either way it was a great night and we had a great time hanging out with our friends and neighbors.

Hmmmmm......

This week is one that I am not sure how I feel about. We got to go for a ride with my hubby Monday. He had to work, we got to play. It was fun to spend the day strolling around Jackson Hole for the afternoon. Just wish he could have strolled with us. I think it is the best day we have had with the baby ever. Knock on wood, but the little sweetie just might be growing up.
Anyway..... Lots of time a school this week. Sat through another "girl" talk gone horribly wrong with B. Still not quite sure how to approach the school on that one. Very inappropriate....needs to be addressed. Don't want to throw the teachers under the bus so to speak, but that needs to never happen again. When someone who has been married 15 years comes home with new information about the more intimate details in life, that's a problem.
Weds. bread making with M&M's class at 8 am. Awesome classroom activity but I have made it clear how I feel about being anywhere at 8 am. I would be happy if there were legisation passed that makes it illegal to start any kind of activity before 9 am. 10 would be better, but then you are burning daylight and things tend to get away from me.
Teacher appreciation week planning meeting this morning. For some reason I just can't resist volunteering for a fun paper craft project. I get to make gift card holders and candy bar wrappers for teacher appreciation week. Since it is in May, and I have some time to think about it, I am thinking it will be a fun project.
I have also been elbow deep in a project for church. I got to make paper bag albums for the nine 8 year olds who are getting baptized this year. It was a lot of fun and they turned out really cute. I should have made one for me too, just to stick in my file. (not that I can fit much more in there....so many cute ideas out there, so little storage space).
My favorite part of the week so far was lunch with my hubby today. We haven't been to lunch without all three girls for a while. It was really nice. I am so thankful to have a hubby who will take time out of his day to take me and our baby to lunch. (not to mention the patience he has to have to take the two of us out in public). I enjoy the opportunity to chat with him and just connect a little bit in the middle of the day.
Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. I don't know what it will bring, but I am hoping a little bit of peace and a quiet week-end.

The lipstick miracle

I had the strangest, coolest thing happen to me today. Hubby came home this morning with Valentine flowers in hand and asked if we wanted to go out to lunch. (no...that is not the strange part, but it was very cool). We decided to go to the taco bus. This is a great little mexican restaraunt that used to be a bus, and after much community debate, had the opportunity to move into a permanent building. I did not have the privelige to go to the bus. I try not to eat places that may not be there the next time I have a hankerin for a good taco. But we do love the restaurant. I have to admit I don't even know how to pronounce the real name of this place, we jsut call it the taco bus, because that is what it was. I just know I love the #1 with an extra taco. The kids even love it there, and there are very few places that can make all of us happy.

Sooooo, we were sitting at the table and the owner's wife came to the table and held out a tube of lipstick. She asked if it was mine. I looked and it and, it looked familiar and then, HOLY COW! I have been looking for that lipstick since November. I LOVE that lipstick. I finally broke down and bought another one. Mary Kay couture pink. Love the star and the glitter on the side. I mourned the day I lost it. The miracle part is I lost it 2 or 3 months ago. I was baffled. How in the world did she figure out it was MY lipstick? This place is packed every day for lunch. Granted it is a lot of men, construction workers, business men you know the kind of place. But there are women like me who love to eat there. The owner's wife just smiled and said "I think I know you, and thought it might be yours." I was reunited with a long lost friend. Granted it did get a little hot sitting in the kitchen and the end is a little melted, but she's back. Taco bus now has a new best customer. What great customer service, not to mention honesty. Most places would have thrown it away without a thought. So if you are ever in my neck of the woods and you need a great place to eat, let me know and I will give you directions to the taco bus and I might even meet you there for lunch. Thank you taco bus for my lipstick miracle.

Who is that masked girl?

I got the "opportunity" to go to school at the crack of dawn this morning to help B's class with the art mom program. I don't think I have kept it a secret how I feel about this program. It is great....as long as I don't have to do it. I do have to say my heart has been softened just a bit today. I am still not happy with having to be there at 8 A.M. How in the world to people get to thier jobs every day? Anyway, today was mask making day.
B has been talking about this day for a long time. It is a right of passage of the sixth grade at our school. Then reality set in and she wasn't sure she wanted to do it. I have to say, once they got settled in the kids were awesome. And the masks turned out really good. I am sure that the teachers would like them to have to stay on longer.....like most of the day. B thought she would have time to take a nap, but the plaster was pretty quick to dry and she may have been disappointed.
I was glad I thought to grab my camera to document the occasion. I wish I would have been thinking when there was a group of boys huddled around her and she was laying on the floor oblivious to the attention she was getting. Cracks me up to watch my little girl turning into a young woman.


After today I am thinking if they are still doing masks when M&M gets to 6th grade, I will go in for the day to help. Don't know if I want to be an art mom, but I would love to go help her class. It is fun to watch the excitement as they pull the masks off their faces, not quite sure what to expect.

Now I need to go clean up after my very sad open house I did for Stampin' Up! last night. I am grateful for my sister-in-law and one friend who came so I didn't feel like a total loser. On the bright side I am the proud owner of all but two of my door prizes. Score for me :).

Swap club treasures

Last Weds. was my swap club meeting. I look forward to this evening every month. The talent in the group is amazing and so are the women who create the projects. This month the theme was ATC card. Here are the cute cards I recieved.





My very talented sister in law was in charge of the project for this month and taught us how to make this cute file box with 3 X 3 gift cards. She is amazing and always comes up with great cards and projects. I loved this one so much I came home and made some as door prizes for my open house tomorrow.





My favorite part of card swap is coming home feeling like I am a little bit of a better person than when I went. I am so thankful to belong to a great group of women who inspire me while we do what we love to do.

Let the Sale-a-bration begin

Feb. and March are two of my favorite months in Stamp' Up! It's Sale-a-bration time. For those of you who aren't familiar with this phenomenon, it is the time of year that Stampin' Up! gives it's valued customers a free stamp set, ribbon bundle, or paper pack out of the sale-a-bration mini catalog for free. No strings attatched. That means no tax, no shipping, just your choice from the mini catalog. Plus there is no limit. Every $50 equals a free item. I will definately be taking advantage and ordering from my open house. I love being able to get free stuff. If any of you want to take advantage of this sale, check out my website, juliarice@stampinup.net. The other promotion that is going on is if you order through my online website in Feb. you also get a free catalog. That is another $10 value......for free. Makes me giddy just thinking about it. If you have any questions, go to my website and leave a message, or if you know me call me if you have questions. Otherwise, I hope you can take advantage of this great time of year!

I read a blog today that pretty much summed up the way my day was going. It said "did you ever feel like everything you did had a little bit of poo poo on it?" My first thought was "How did you know?" Then she went on to tell how she was feeling just a little bit whiney. My first thought was "Me Too! Me Too!" It has been a rough one today. I am not sure how single mom's, or dad's do it. If you are a single mom or dad, kudo's to you. My hubby has only been gone since yesterday and I am falling apart at the seams. (Are ya feeling the whiney part yet?) Thank goodness he will be home tomorrow. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.
Anyway we did have some good things happen. M&M was in charge of a project at church and we made bracelets. They turned out really cute.
The top bracelet is the sample and our first attempt. The bottom bracelet is the one M&M made while she was teaching the group. The other girls loved it. I am thinking I should have been wearing one of these to remind me to behave myself today. For those who don't know CTR stand for choose the right and is a reminder that we should always make good choices in our lives. Anyway, on with some other positive things....I found some very cute scrapbook paper at Costco....gotta love Costco and I still had Christmas $ to buy it. My baby told me she had a broken heart and couldn't sing because I wouldn't turn the tv on downstairs. If only that was why we get a broken heart. You have to give the girl credit for knowing how to try and get what she wanted. The broken heart mended quickly and she was off playing. It was really cute.
Now that the kids are in bed and the house is quiet I am hoping tomorrow will be a better day....in fact I know it will be. Hubby will be home and everything will be right in the universe, or at least in our universe.

The case of the missing knee pads.

Have you ever lost something you know you have but just can't seem to find? Well I have spent the last week trying to find my knee pads to go play volleyball tomorrow. Last week while I was playing, I didn't have enough self control, or knee pads and banged my knee up pretty good. Well this morning I had success, kind of. I found ONE knee pad. What the heck? I would have thought that I would store them together, but I only found one. I have gone through every box in this house, including removing the Christmas stuff from under the stairs.....twice. I can definately say I got my exercise lifting things today. Finally tonight I found the other one. I had just about given up. I hate when people say it was in the last place they looked. Of course it was, you found it and you don't keep looking, but this dang knee pad was in about the last place in the house it was possible to look. My brother thought it might be worth it to just go buy new ones, so I did, and I don't like them, They will be going back to the store tomorrow. I wanted my good ol' broken in knee pads. My hubby will appreciate the fact that the storage room got straightened up and I can now tell him where just about anything is in the house. I am just happy I was able to solve the case of the missing knee pad.

Happy Birthday Sis!

Today I got to spend the day with my sister and my niece for her birthday. It was a really good day. Can't believe she is the big 4-0 (sorry, I just couldn't resist). The not so good thing is I am not that far behind her. Anyway, I love when they come to hang out and I hope she had a really good birthday. Her husband dropped her off on his way to the ag show that is in town and I took her back over this afternoon.
My kids were in heaven. Candy and free-bee's galore. Plus they could climb on all the giant tractors they wanted. Since they are pretty much city girls getting raised out of town (not quite the country) they had a good time. Anyway, I hope you had a good birthday Sis and I look forward to spending many more with you!

Road Trip

Yesterday my hubby had a great idea that we hit the road and go to Salt Lake City. We had a pretty good day. We toured the conference center, watched the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith memorial building, ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry, walked around temple square and went to the Museum of Church History. We would have stayed longer but my baby decided she was done and decided to fall down the escalator along with B. They were at the bottom, but it scared all of us enough that I was ready to call it a day. I have always wanted to eat at the Lion House Pantry. I don't know that I would eat a whole meal there as it was pretty spendy to take the whole crew, but we will definately be back for desert. It has been a long time since we have done that and it was a quick trip, but we all had a good day together. I even got to stop at Tai Pan Trading Co. on the way home. Didn't buy much but I love to look. I just don't know what to do with it. Anyway, I did manage to take some pics. thanks to the handy new camera my hubby got me for Christmas. I love it when you take the family out for the day and everyone comes home happy.

One Cute Blog...

Sometimes I wonder if I can get any blonder but apparently I can. I have this really good friend, Kris, who is the only one who ever comments on my blog, and she has the cutest dang blogs. I have always looked at it with addoration, but thought I could never be that talented.......until I discovered she designs them and shares them. Where have I been. Sorry it took me so long Kris. She mentioned in her blog she has been featured in a real book. How cool is that? So now if my blog is really cute, I give all the credit and thanks to Kris on One Cute Blog. Thanks for the inspiration.....sorry it took me so long :).

ATC cards and friends

Last week I said Weds. I was going to stamp. Didn't happen. Ended up on the Wii a lot of the day. Anyway, for my swap group we are supposed to make ATC (artist trading cards) with a Valentine theme. I have never done any of these, so it was fun to try. You can put them on the front of a regular size card and have a quick card to give to someone, or leave them small and use it as a tag. It was good to get back in my "room" and create something fun again. I don't think my hubby likes it much because of the time and the lack of attention for him, but he puts up with it and is a good sport.

Anyway, yesterday I had a nice surprise. I walked around the corner and there stood a very dear friend of mine that I didnt' think I would see for another year. I was so glad to see her I started to cry. I am sure that surprised both of us! I got to have a good talk with her after church and before before she had to go again. I am looking forward to her coming home in a year. She is so wise and I always feel like I am a little bit better person after I spend time with her.

Today I got to go to lunch with another good friend. It is always so nice to get some girlfriend time to decompress and talk life through with out being judged in any way. I am so blessed to have several of these friends who I count as my "sister" friends. I hope they feel the same. I also hope my girls are learning the importance of having good friends who stand behind you and give you the support that only a friend can give. I know my baby enjoys our lunch dates as much as I do. I am not so sure I should be teaching her this young, but she just cracks me up trying to act like one of the girls.

Now I am back at home and facing the realities of life. Laundry, housecleaning, all the fun stuff. The joys of being a stay at home mom.....and I am so glad that I can stay at home.