Popcorn Popping

So Kira and I were trying to mess around with our blog. We weren't sure what we were doing, but we stumbled across this template called popcorn popping (think someone mormon made it?...lol) Anyway, we thought we'd try it since it was befitting for springtime. :)

The Perfect Evening

So last night was great!!! It's stake conference this weekend so Wayland and I went to the adult session at 7:00 (very good by the way) and on the way home we made a pit stop at Wal-Mart. We bought pizza, soda, chips, ice cream...a cart of junk food. We took it home to watch a movie with our kids. We pulled out all the mattresses into our upstairs family room for a sleepover and ate junk while we watched August Rush together. It was so much fun! Is there anything better than moments that can never be recreated....just spur of the moment fun. Perfect Evening!

Tag....I'm it

Me and Way in Hawaii. I love my hubby....He's still

a hottie after all these years :0)

Well, I'm such an open book that I don't think I have anything interesting to all of you...but here we go :0)

Tagged

1. Post the rules
2. Answer all the questions about yourself
3. After you are done posting, tag 5 people


1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

Well let's see. I was married, had three children, and was teaching full-time science in junior high school. We were living in our first house in Las Vegas and having lots of fun with 3 kids under the age of 3 :0)

2. Five things on your to do list today.

*give a talk at church
*start family scripture study for the 95th time :0)
*help Trajan feel better...he's got the stomach flu
*enjoy the sabbath day with my family
*see if we can get the pilot to light on our hot water heater. We have no hot water in our house and can't get it to work. Southwest Gas will come tomorrow.

3. Snacks I enjoy.

Weight Watchers Answer: celery with peanut butter, smart pop, frozen yogurt, diet soda
(It's been working :)
Non weight watchers answer: ICE CREAM!!!! anything salty...popcorn, chips, sunflower seeds

4. What would I do if I was suddenly a billionaire.

*pay my tithing
*get out of debt for good
*Pay off the homes of my parents, mother in law, and all of Wayland and my siblings
*Move to Utah and build a home perfect for our family...not too big, but with all the goodies in it
*put all the money I need for the kid's missions/college
*invest for the future....make the money work.
*Serve....I would love to anonymously give money to people who need it. A house payment, grocery trips...anything. I have always wanted to just help lighten someone's financial burdens. it would be awesome.

5. Three bad habits.

*overeating...eat if I'm stressed...eat if I'm happy....lol...
*unorganized....my house can never stay tidy. It's clean, but often crazy.
*putting clean laundry into a huge pile instead of folding it right away. This becomes a nightmare when folding time comes. I try to make it a "fun party" where me and the kids can visit with eachother and fold....they don't think it's that great.

6. Five places I've lived

*Carson City, NV
*Provo, UT
*Las Vegas, NV
*That's it..........pretty boring huh?

7. Five jobs I've had

*veterinary technician (through all of high school)
*bartender at the Ivy Tower (Utah kind of bartender)
*waitress at Beeno's casino...the non-gambling side :) It's a little podunk place
*supervisor for YMCA's children's summer programs
*TEACHER!!! Still love teaching :)

8. Five things that people don't know about me.

*I would much rather work outside than inside. I like fixing things, gardening, building, and power tools. I think I spent too much time with my Dad growing up. If I could have a shop in my backyard and have all the tools organized and everything I needed to build stuff, I would. I do all the fix it chores here at home because I think I can do it better than Wayland. That's probably not true, but I think I can. I am one of those people that uses duct tape and WD 40 too.

*I was a spaz in junior high and high school. Okay, so that's probably not a shock to most of you. My favorite joke was "Ask me if I'm a truck".....then the person would ask me and I would say "No". Then I would laugh like I was the funniest person in the world. I told it to every teacher and everyone I knew for about three years. yep....dorky.

*I am completely and totally afraid of the dark. My brother and I used to take care of a family's cat that lived down the street. There were no street lights down by their house and my brother would freak me out to the worst degree possible. He took great delight in scaring and torturing me about the dark. To this day, I cannot sleep with my closet open and I have to run when I have to take the trash outside and it's dark. If I'm getting in my car in the dark....I'm sure there's someone hiding under or in the car. My brother told me there was a guy that would slice the achille's tendon of women by hiding under their car and then they'd attack. He called him the "Achille's Tendon Killer". It's so dumb....I truly freak myself out.

*I love nature. I am sort of weird about unusual animal fact knowledge and information about how our world works. When I taught junior high, the kids thought I was crazy because I would get so excited about any of the subject matter. Heavenly Father gave us this beautiful world and I love learning about it. I would go campings a ton if I could.

*My favorite place to go when I was young was my Grandpa's farm. It was in northern California and my Grandma's family had come from Portugal to this dairy farm. Although the state had bought all of the land...they were allowed to stay there because they were the original founders. It had a creek that ran behind it and a donkey named Cookie. It was old and rickety, but I loved it so much. We could run all over the place..catch lizards...and pick fresh blueberries. My Grandpa would make the perfect hot chocolate for us....I miss him.

That's it guys....so who will I tag? Hmmmm.....how about Jamie, Leslie, Ginger, Heather, and Katie. Plus....any of my blogging buddies...join in. I love learning more about all of you!

Our One Snow Day

I was getting a little jealous of my friends who were posting pictures of the "spring snow" they were getting (I miss the snow) . So I thought if I posted a couple of pictures from our sledding day here in vegas, that I would feel better. We went up to Mount Charleston this winter...it was really fun. Keenan and Logan were especially die hard about getting up the hill. We weren't weather equipped with our shoes (slippery tennies) and Keenan would spend 20 minutes just getting up the hill every time. Logan would quit half way and just come down. They were so cute. Keenan and Logan are so funny because they will fight one second and be best of friends the next. They're both very protective of eachother and yet very competitive. It's pretty cute. Anyway, I will keep reminding myself that I have seen snow this year and that we loved being cold. Those of you who have snow right now...be thankful for the water. Wish we could get some here....

Love My Girls!

My friend Jamie took this picture, not planned, just out of the blue. I love how it captured the two of them. They are my sweethearts....The funnest thing with girls is watching how my traits come out in them. Kira is 100% my personality. I can remember thinking and doing exactly what she does...it's very cute. Celine is a little more demanding, but I think that comes from being the last of the mohicans. I can't help but spoil her. I look at my girls and just think...they're my angels...what can I say?

Where Does the Time Go?

I can't believe Trajan has grown into a "youth" in what seems like just a few years. He is 13 now and as you can see from the picture is my height (5'10"). I was talking to a friend a few days ago and I was telling her how quickly time goes by. For those of you with small ones...enjoy every single minute because all of the sudden, they grow up. I guess the neat thing is that your relationship with your child grows too. But it's very strange. I'm not sure when I reached this stage of life. When did I turn 38? When did I turn into a mother that could give out "helping" advice to others? I remember when my mom was 37 and I thought she was ancient. I look at myself and inside feel like I'm 20...of course the sagging body must disagree....lol...It all just goes so fast. As for Trajan, I love watching him pass the sacrament or "hang out" with his friends at games. I like watching him make good decisions and being a good example. I do understand now what my friends with older kids used to tell me about prayer. I definitely pray even harder for my children as they get older and are faced with extra trials at school/ sports etc. But I'll tell ya what...I gotta say it....Trajan is a wonderful son. We were truly blessed to have him as our first because he is an amazing example to all of us.

Spring Has Sprung

So for those of you who don't already know ( I talk about it all the time), I love gardening. I didn't even know I liked it until we moved into this house and we had a yard big enough to do something with :) So I thought I'd post my "new plantings" in my garden and later I'll show you how it looks full grown. I've planted corn, squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, serrano peppers, zuchinni, cilantro, rosemary, snap peas, green beans, and mammoth sunflowers. I know it's weird, but a garden grows well in Las Vegas from March to June and Sept. to Nov. I have a lot of fun with it. Plus I posted some pictures of the flower garden I have growing in the front of my house. There is nothing more relaxing to me to go outside and water my plants...I know, I'm weird. It smells so good on my front porch because of the jasmine and the roses. The kids and I really have a good time with it all.

So anyway, I was sitting out there yesterday, smelling my flowers and watching my kids ride their bikes. It was a perfect moment...those kind that just make you so grateful. I was thinking about a friend of a friend of mine who lost her battle to cancer and left behind her husband and four year old daughter. She had battled cancer for quite a while and I wondered if she had any of those perfect moments like that. Her love and zest for her family and life were evident in her blog. You could tell she would stop and smell the roses life had given her, despite her adversities. On my porch, I have a rock I won at Bunco that says "hope". As I sat there contemplating all of this, the rock took on a different meaning. I hope I can remember to take nothing for granted and to cherish all of life...ups and downs. I hope I will pause and take note of the perfect times. And I hope I will remember that we are never alone....Life is so very wonderful!

On a lighter note....I hope I will be able to make it through giving a talk this sunday :) It's me and the bishop. I've been thinking about it all week and it just hasn't come together yet....hope it does soon!

Celine's First Day of Soccer

So Celine had her first day of soccer practice last week. As you can see, we started out quite happy and even went onto the field. Of course, you notice the hands have never left her hips. The rest of that practice and the two after have been spent crying on the sidelines. Celine gets so excited thinking about practice and the second we get to the field, she begins hysterically sobbing. She also just informed us that she does not want to go to her game tomorrow. All she can tell us is that she is too shy and that she's "just too nervous". Her friend Mae held her hand one practice and that went better, but by the next time, all hope was gone. As for tomorrow's game, works out for us. We have two football games and two basketball games between everyone's sports, plus a birthday party, and the guys have the priesthood seesion of conference ...so we can live without soccer. :) We'll just have to see how the drama unfolds....lol...

Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day

If you've every read the book about Alexander and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day...then that would let you know what my day was like today. I will not bore you with details, but it has been a long time since I've had a "a day like today". It seemed like just one little thing piled upon another and another and another...until BAM...Cruddy Day. Luckily for me, Heavenly Father blessed me with some very sweet children. Let me back track for a minute...I do not watch much T.V., but I have three vices--E.R., Grey's Anatomy, and any kind of doctor progrom on the Discovery Channel. Yes, I too wonder why I didn't become a doctor...probably because I wanted to rake in the big bucks as a teacher. :0) Anyway, I've watched E.R. since it's inception, got hooked on Grey's Anatomy two years ago, and am obsessed with watching surgeries. Now to continue with my no good day.

So I'm marching around the house this evening, venting on everyone and everything and finally decided to just go get in my pajamas. I change my clothes (still quite irritable) when in comes my youngest daughter Celine. She gives me that look like she completely understands what I'm feeling and sweetly says "Mommy, you're my best friend. Do you want me to watch a doctor show with you?" And that was that....the end of my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. One sweet little smile and everything melted away.

*Was anything that bad today that I couldn't go on? nope
*Were any of my children injured or sick? nope
*Am I healthy and strong -- able to do laundry, do chores, and drive a car? yep
*Did my husband come home from work safely and did we have food 0n the table and a roof over our head? yep
*Am I blessed with a knowledge of the atonement, my life on earth, and my eternal life? yep
*Did I get to stare at the faces of my beautiful children as they played in the backyard? yep
*And the real question, did I know whether or not someone in my family had a day that they felt was just like mine? no......quite sadly, no

I obviously got a little bit too wrapped up in my own day. :( I will have to remember all of this for when I experience another day like today. I am blessed beyond measure--in more ways than I can count and am truly grateful for the gifts Heavenly Father has given me. So for now, I'm going to say family prayer with the people I love most and make sure I know exactly how their days went. I'm going to kiss my "hot hubby" good night and let him know I appreciate his patience. I'm going to snuggle in bed and watch a doctor show with my beautiful little girl. Then I'm going to count my blessings until I fall asleep.

And to all of you....thanks for being my friends. I forgot to mention that I have all these great people who will listen to me gripe and gush all in one posting......Isn't life wonderful? Truly Blessed!!!!