Friends

I am so thankful for my friends.  I have been so blessed over the years to have made some really great friendships.  That's one of the best parts of moving and one of the hardest parts, too.  I've certainly learned about loneliness and that if you want to make friends you have to actually put yourself out there. When we lived in Cedar City, our bishopric came to visit us when we moved in and Bishop Callaway gave us some great advice that has stayed with me ever since.  He said not to be offended or hurt if the person sitting next to us in Relief Society or Sunday School, didn't introduce themselves to us because, chances are, they would be newer than we were.  So, I bravely took his advice and introduced myself to people who were by me and pretty much every time, the person really WAS newer than I was. 
Since then I just always introduce myself to people I'm sitting by at church and I've made some really great, lifelong, friends that way.  Sometimes, Heavenly Father just knows our needs so well and matches us up with "kindred spirits" to visit teach us or for us to visit.  When we lived in Pleasant Grove I was SOOOO lonely.  Just painfully lonely.  So, I decided to pray that I would be able to make a friend.  And that's when I met my awesome friend, Melissa.  I just love Melissa so much!  We actually both needed a friend so it was really great that Heavenly Father just happened to put us right next door to each other.  I also made contact with my friend Shani, who I met in high school, and she introduced me to blogging. I WAS SOOO EXCITED!  I LOVE BLOGGING!!!  I started Facebook then,too.  It has been such a great way to renew contact with friends.  I LOVE my friend, Tara B's blog, it's my favorite! And she is amazing and such a great example and hilarious!  It's been so much fun to get to know her better through blogging.
I haven't made any effort to make friends here.  I just haven't really wanted to until  the last few days. Yesterday, I felt so lonely.  My friend, Anna, from Price, called me and we talked for a long time and it was great!  We used to have girls night out once in a while when I still lived there. I've missed her and it was really fun to catch up with her.  I felt so much happier after we talked.  It just made my day!

Easter clothes, girl's day out, and cute stuff my kids did...

I've been thinking lately about how much I hate to move. Today, though, I have been thinking of all of the different people I have met over the years, in all of the different places we have lived. We have truly been blessed. We have lived in some of the best wards in the whole wide world. Some weren't so great but they have just helped us to realize how wonderful it is to live in great wards. I am so grateful for Facebook and blogs! My wonderful friends are just amazing and I still can have them in my life, even though we've moved away. I have also been so blessed to be able to see Heavenly Father's wisdom in sending my children to me when he did, instead of when I WANTED him too!!! They are wonderful kids and I'm so blessed to be their mother! I know, without a doubt, that if I didn't have my children to care for each day, I would have just stayed in bed when I was in so much pain, instead of getting up and doing what needed to be done.

~I couldn't wait all the way until Easter for my kids to wear their new church clothes! They all look so nice! I don't know why Max's tie is so small, but whatev'. It's really hard to take pictures of 4 kids at the same time! I am so proud of Gracie's dress! I don't think the pictures does it justice. It.is.beautiful! Every bit as lovely and well made as any I have ever had for her from The Children's Place. And can you believe it...I got it from KMART! AND, they had so many pretty dresses to choose from that it was kind of tough to choose which one to get! I got the cute little knit shrug at The Children's Place. It was so much fun buying her pretty little Easter outfit. Gracie and I went to Spanish Fork on Friday night for Steph's daughter's 2nd bday party. The boys all had other things going on. Saturday, we just had a wonderful time. Just the 2 of us. We went to lunch with my parents and then she and I went to the mall and had so much fun buying her little earrings, shrug, and pretty pink bracelet. We needed some girl time! I just love her! Max broke her little bracelet right after church today. I was NOT happy! When I was in the kitchen I heard Gracie say to him, "It's ok buddy! (She got the buddy part from Steph's son, Josh. He's SO cute!) It was an accident. Just say, I sorry, DeeDee." She calls herself DeeDee still sometimes cause that's how she pronounced Gracie for the longest time. When Max said he was sorry, she said, "It's ok buddy." She is THE sweetest little girl! Yes, I'm biased, but she melts my heart.

~Max cracked me up on Friday. I noticed his shirt was on backwards and I told him he needed to spin his shirt around. He said, "I'm wearing it like this because the other side is dirty." I guess he figures that if HE can't see it, NO ONE can. LOL!!! I just love each of my kids so much! I don't know what I would do without them!

Good Quote!

One of my friends on Facebook posted this and I liked it so I thought I'd share.Yes I'm going on Facebook more. I just can't seem to stay away. I just love the interaction with friends and family who are far away or even in my neighborhood.  Anyhoo, Here's what she wrote...

If life is a highway, I wish someone would finish with the construction already. I'm tired of the detours, road blocks, and pot holes.

I needed this one...

My friend Holly posted another good thought on facebook. I really needed to read this one!

Don't lose hope. When you are down to nothing, God is up to something. Keep your faith strong! ♥

Yeah, right! In your ever lovin' dreams!!!!

So, I'm officially old and all. It's my 20 year high school class reunion in August. I already have trepedations about attending the reunion anyway because of things like:

~my fatness

~the cost of attending (especially the dinner...WOW 50 bucks a couple at the Country Club)

~my fatness

~not sure if any of my friends will attend anyway

~my fatness

~what if nobody even remembers who I am because I only attended school with them for 2 years since I       moved from Kansas just before my Junior year. That would be so humiliating!!!

~my fatness

~what if nobody recognizes me because of my fatness and all and even if they would remember me they just don't recognize me because I weigh like 100 lbs. more than I did in high school. (not quite but it sure feels that way!)

~and oh yeah, have I mentioned my fatness?!

Imagine the laughter that ensued as I read the schedule of events for the reunion and saw where they are planning to have us all meet at the pool that Saturday afternoon and swim....I honestly cannot think of anything more humiliating than showing off my flab-alanche, farmer tanned (mostly ghostly white), stretch marked from having 4 babies, 38 year-old, "booty"licious, boob hangin' low, body at the POOL at my HIGH SCHOOL class reunion!!!! WHAT can they POSSIBLY be thinking?! I know there isn't much to do here for entertainment but PUHLEASE! I'm thinkin' I'll take a big ol' pass on that one. Thanks anyhoo though! "major rolling of eyes"

It's exactly the way I pictured it!!!

Today is wonderful! I feel fantastic! The kids are having tons of fun! They played in the mud with friends. I mean PLAYED in the mud, mud from head to toe. It rained today, whatchya gonna do?! They rode their bikes. Our back "yard" is just dirt and weeds. I think it is ugly but I also think it's a really cool "boy" backyard. There is a big dirt circle drive kind of a thing that the kids like to dig in and ride bikes on and stuff. There is a big area that is like an acre that they can ride bikes on. They catch lizards. They get super dirty every day. They have a couple of adorable little neighbor friends to play with. I have a friend who comes over sometimes to play  and our kids like to play together. They have the 2 little kids to play with that I babysit. I'm so glad because I had to FORCE them to play outside last summer! They hated it and I felt so bad for them. So now they are happy and I am just so glad!
As I was hosing them down and we were laughing and they were having so much fun being hosed down, it occurred to me that THIS was exactly how I always pictured motherhood being. Everything about today just feels...GREAT!! It's great to feel good and to feel like I'm able to keep up today. I have felt really rotten for like almost 3 weeks now. So-much-pain. Yesterday pretty much sucked!!! No other way to put it! It was painful and I had to take 6 kids with me to the vet to see what is wrong with my poor, sweet, dog. More about my dog later. He's a mini schnauzer. I LOVE HIM!!! He ADORES me! He's been with us since January and has been my little pal through all the good days and bad. They say he's bleeding internally and they think he got into poison. He's on vitamin K and an antibiotic. After that I had to take Gracie to the doctor because she has an ear infection. Thankfully I only had to take Gracie and Tessa, they are both 2. They are adorable! But every time I turned around it was something. It just kept getting worse and worse all day. So it's amazing to feel so much better today! It's great to feel like I'm more "together" today. I really just love being a mom today!!!

Tomorrow is a new day.

Hopefully it's a pain free day.

 Hopefully it's another day where things just flow and everyone is happy.

Hopefully it's another day that is exactly like I always pictured it being.

I just always pictured the house being a LOT cleaner so hopefully tomorrow it WILL be!!

     ;)    

I'm hoping you are having a really great day too!!!

Hooray for great days!

My hair before...

My hair after...

I'm loving this deal I made with a lady in our church. I watch her sweet as pie little kids for a few hours a week and she does my hair and my kid's and Brian's too. Our kids all love each other so it's almost like she's doing me this big favor by letting her kids come play with my kids so my kids don't fight with each other all day and complain about how bored they are. I love it!

Randomness...

~There is a chick in our ward named Nicki who has the cutest hair! I asked her who she goes to, since I'm still trying to find someone to do my hair. She said she does it herself and that she works at a salon here in town. I figured if she can do her own hair that well, she must be GOOD!  Well, you can imagine how thrilled I was when she called me a couple of weeks ago and asked me if I would like to do a trade. I would watch her kids 1 or 2 days a week and she would do my family's hair.

Ummm, yeah!!!!

 To  be honest, I was a bit worried. I mean, you never know what you're gonna get when you watch other people's kids. But they are so well behaved. Ty is 8 years old and Max and Matthew LOVE playing with him. Tessa is going to turn 2 in July and she and Gracie get along really well too. I do have to save poor Tessa from my bully daughter, who has a hard time with this whole sharing thing, from time to time. But other than that they are getting along really well. Ty has great manners too. So far it's going great and everyone is happy!  It's been fun getting to know Nicki as well. I finally found a picture of what I want my hair to look like and I can't wait to have it done!

~Between having Zack on a Cal Ripkin Majors team, Matthew on a Cal Ripkin Pee Wee team, and Max starting T-ball this week on a city league team, we go to a LOT of baseball games! We have 9 this week alone. Tonight will be #7. It's been a lot of fun watching the kids having such a great time! It's been really fun to see the different ability levels too. T-ball and Pee Wee are just so remedial compared to Majors. Everyone cheers for both teams and are just so positive and nice. There are a few overzealous (crazy) parents who expect super great things out of their poor kids at this level and are continuously disappointed when it just doesn't work out the way they want it to. It cracks me up to listen to them! Then you go to the Majors and h-o-l-y  c-o-w! The parents REALLY get into it! Last year was really fun to watch but this year is AWESOME!!! All of the players finally really get how to play and they make some incredibly awesome plays! It's exciting to watch and I don't dread the games like I used to. I think a lot of why I dreaded them so much in the past was the way I felt physically. It has been so incredible, the contrast between how I feel this year as compared to how I felt last year. It was bad! It just makes me so grateful each and every day that I feel better. I still have some sporadic pain here and there most days but most of the time I feel great! It's truly a blessing!!! An answer to prayer for sure!!! 

~I have finally started trying to lose some weight. I have gained 20 lbs since November and I can't fit my fat butt into any of my jeans except my maternity ones and ones that have that stretchiness to them. Definite low point!!! And I saw some very cute, thin, girls I went to high school with and I looked like the stay puffed marshmallow man. So humiliating!!! So, I decided I have to do something about it! I've been trying to exercise and I have made some minor changes with my eating habits. I lost 10 lbs!!! Which inspired me to keep at it! Brian has lost some weight too. We both need to be healthier for sure!

~My kids have finally figured out that it's so much more fun to play outside than it is to stay in the house, which is a huge plus! Last year I had to force them to play outside.

~We were able to find Matthew's backpack that he left at school on the last day of school. It had his inhaler in it and some other medicine equaling about $70. I was totally freaking out. We looked in the lost and found 2 different times before we found it.

~I feel like we live at the dentist office. Matty and Zack both have retainers. Both of them have broken them twice. They have only had them since like April or something. Matthew even threw his away at school and the super nice janitor spotted it on his tray in the garbage can and took it out. Thankfully! Course, about 3 hours later he broke it. I tell ya, this could drive a mom to drink!

~So we all know it's not good for us to eat fried foods. I rarely fry. Maybe a few times a year. I found another reason not to do it a few weeks when I was frying some chicken for my family to have between baseball games while I was at a Young Women's barbecue and homework burn. I placed a wing in the front of the pan and reached over it to put another one on the other side of it at the back of the pan and right when my hand was about an inch above the first wing, it popped. Oil splattered on my wrist. It burned it bad! It blistered up and has gone through some interesting changes over the past 2 weeks. Not fun! There is one part that I can't get to heal and it was the most blistered. So frying is not my friend! I feel so bad for people who are burned in accidents.I can only imagine what they must go through!

~Oh, and for those of you wondering, the Essure thing has been wonderful!Just make sure you get everything worked out with your insurance company and your drs office before having it done.

Ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble...

So, yesterday was Max's 5th birthday. I let him invite some friends for the first time. He was so excited and anxious for his big day. One really nice thing about having a birthday in January, in a small town, is that Walmart has some super sweet deals on toys they've marked down that were left over from Christmas. We got him a scooter for 15 bucks!!! We found some other great things too and he was happy with his loot. I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for 2 days. I had a Dr.s appointment and a dentist appointment and I've had to run Brian to work all month because we need to register his car but can't until February 1st (UGGHH!!!!), which means back and forth to take him, to get him at lunch, to take him back and pick him up if I need the car in the afternoon, if not he drives back after lunch. I had to run some errands, visit a new young woman in the ward (which was the highlight of my 2 days of crazy and turned out really well!!!!), run Max back and forth for preschool, wash a million dishes and clean frantically every extra minute I could find, all one handed while lugging around my adorable 20 month old little Gracie who is getting over a cold and NEEDED her mommy. Yesterday morning I made a batch of strawberry cupcakes (yes, pink, I know, I tried to talk him into chocolate but he's stubborn) and a chocolate cake. Of course my stupid pain was terrible all day both days because stress makes it worse and I was more than a little stressed! So, I'm at my dentist appointment that took an hour and a half and I get this phone call from the school saying Matthew threw up. SUPER!!! I go to pick him up after my appointment and I'm asking him on the way out to the car if he was sick to his stomach or what and he completely fell apart and says, through his tears, that he was choking on a piece of chicken and tried to drink to make it go down but it wouldn't go down so he started puking and it finally came out. SCARY!! He did that once at home and I had to do the Heimlich on him. He needs to chew his chicken better! I was sad for him that he was obviously so traumatized by the whole experience but relieved that he didn't have a stomach bug that would cause me to cancel the party or anything. So, it's getting down to crunch time. 2 hours till the party. I still needed to pick everything up and vacuum, make frosting in at least 4 colorful options so the kids could decorate their own cupcake, wash a bunch more dishes (they never end!!!), clean the bathroom, dust my adorable Ikea shelves, decorate for the party, wipe off counter tops and stove...I'm only ONE woman needing 14 more hands. I decide a prayer is in TALL order. I called the boys together and we thanked Heavenly Father that Matthew didn't choke to death at lunch and then asked that I'd be able to get everything done in time for the party. I was frantically trying to do my best at that and running out of time when my angel friend, Sherelle, drove up in her chariot (mini van) and offered to help me out. Bless her!!! She really saved my tail! And she stayed and helped me with the whole party too! Thank heavens! We didn't quite finish all the tasks on the list but we did get all of the really important stuff done and the rest didn't really matter in the end anyway. I don't think I'll ever do another midweek party again. It was fun but just too CRAZY!!! Once the party was over I still needed to make the chocolate cake I made earlier in the day, into a football. I was definitely channeling my inner Paula Deen yesterday with all the butter and shortening I used in making two kinds of frosting and a chocolate cake from scratch. And it...was...good!!! Sherelle showed me the super fun little comment thing I added to my blog. I am so excited about it! Then when Brian came home from work he made a pizza crust and homemade pizza (that's what the birthday boy requested) and I got to work looking for scrapbook paper for our little Y.W. activity. It was so fun! I'll post about that later! Then we ate and sang Happy Birthday to Max and then Zack and I were off to pack meeting at 6:30. His leaders were nice enough to give him his awards first thing so I could be there for it before I needed to go pick up a couple of the YW for our activity at 7:00. When I got home I CRASHED!!! I am exhausted today! Oh to have the energy, focus, and cleverness I used to have before my pain started sucking it all out of me. I'm starting a different medicine combination today and I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that it does the trick since the pain seems to be worsening and the ibuprofen doesn't seem to be doing anything for me anymore. Crazy days! Crazy life! That's what keeps it interesting, right! I hope you all are having fun with your interesting lives too!!! Have a good one!!!

 

 His cake that kinda, sorta looks like a football....I'm NOT a professional!!!  ;)

Another of Holly's thoughts...

There comes a time in life when you have to let go of all the pointless drama & the people who create it & surround yourself with people who make you laugh so hard that you forget the bad and focus solely on the good. After all, life is too short to be anything but happy....

For more of her the great quotes she posts on Facebook, that I just love, check out my post entitled Loveliness on March 31. 

It's a gorgeous day here!!! Yesterday the wind blew like MAD!  It was cloudy and gray.  Today...blue sky, no wind, warm and lovely.  Enjoy the day!!! Be HAPPY!!!I'm gonna!!!

IT'S ROUGH!!!

So when life gets really rough I have to count my blessings so that I don't let the negativity take over, so, here goes (in no particular order)....

I am thankful for:
blue skies
HOT summer days
seeing friends for the first time in 5 years
brown eyed baby girls
watching my kids run through the sprinklers
having a clean bathroom
the rubbermaid tote we found in our cellar that is FULL of novels
bbqs
Max's big blue eyes against his green tball hat
feeling the spirit
being married to my best friend
my wonderful brother in law, JJ. All I can say is I'm sorry you had to get hurt in this after you were being so generous and kind and thoughtful and good.  It breaks my heart!!!
ice cold Cherry Coke
Mississippi Mud Cake
AND...
last but not least
air conditioning!!!!

Rocks

Our boys LOVE rocks!! They have very extensive "rock collections" that consist mainly of random river rocks they have found in our yards over the years.  I finally convinced Zack that he needs to try to stick to "special" rocks for his collection like geodes or a rock that is shaped like something cool or that he found somewhere fun or that has some sort of meaning to him before we ended up with 10 tons of river rock in our house.

When we went to Zion's National Park a few years ago with our friends John and Jan, they let their sons each pick a special rock while we were there to have as their souvenir for the trip.  She said they pick a rock everywhere they go and they write the place and the date on it to remember the trip.  Now that's my kind of souvenir...FREE!!! 

Well, yesterday they were having a FREE "Rock and Fossil Show" at the college.  We decided to take the kids to it.  They LOVED it!!  We actually enjoyed it a lot too.  It turned out it was really a sale. It was set up like a craft show is where tables are set up with crafts to buy but there just were tons of rocks and fossils for sale.  It was still fun to see all of the neat different types of rocks and fossils. 

Zack really enjoys geodes.  He used his allowance to buy a geode. It was actually quite cool!! You buy the geode as a solid rock (his cost $4) then the guy puts it in some sort of hydrolic jack that has blades on the top and bottom and it breaks the geode open and you get to see the coolness of the inside. Of course each one is different on the inside.  His is really neat!  My Grandma Zickefoose liked geodes and rose rocks and things and I just couldn't help but think of her and how neat she would have thought that was.

 Matthew is totally into sharks so he bought a large shark tooth with his money.  Max got a star fish.  Anyway, it was fun, free entertainment that the whole family enjoyed.

Randomness...

~So, Brian and Zack spent the morning moving stuff from our storage unit to our house. It is such a tedious process seeing as how we don't have a truck and have to use the van with the back seats taken out. Well, they put everything on the driveway under the carport thinking we could look through things there and decide whether it needed to be taken in the house or stored in the cellar.  After a while we got sick of sorting and decided to go to Walmart for some much needed supplies. When we got back home we discovered that the STUPID wind had blown over my "special" box of memories from high school, etc.  Most of the contents had blown all over the driveway and across the street into the big open field that is surrounded by a barb wire fence. Luckily Brian was able to carefully lift Matthew over the fence and he collected everything he could find and Brian carefully lifted him back over the fence.  I am SOOOOO incredibly sick and tired of WIND!!!  First it was super cold wind. We have watched most of Zack's baseball games from the van where we wrestle Gracie. I don't want her out in that bitter wind!  Now it's fierce wind that's warm. I don't care what the temperature of the wind is....I...HATE...WIND!!! It reminds me of growing up in Kansas. I loved growing up in Kansas but I don't miss the wind!!! 
~I feel I should offer my condolences to my friend Emily. I hear her super fun, fellow Santaquin resident, Gary Coleman, has passed away. I am sure she'll miss his tirades and all that positive publicity he brought to the community.  ;)  HeHeHe  May he rest in peace...
~I'm wondering if the chick I saw today in town that rats her hair up in the back so that it makes sort of a tiara shaped ratty mound on top of her head, thinks she's a princess.  I think I would rather see her walking around with an actual tiara on her head than that mess. I know I am no beauty queen and certainly no princess but even I know that that looks ridiculous!!  I do think it is an improvement over the ratty, box on the head shaped mess people were doing for a while there, though. 
~There are tons of lizards (or maybe just the same creepy one) in our back yard. The boys are in HEAVEN!! They have had more fun chasing lizards the past few days.  I'm cool with them chasing them, touching them, holding them, whatever, but I about jumped out of my skin the other day when my nephew brought one in the house!!!  And when I took the garbage out and one scurried across the ground in front of me.  Shiver, shiver!!
~Just a little tip for the people at the dentist office...if you have like 12 patients in the building at the same time and there is only one dentist working...you MAY have overbooked.  I'm just sayin an hour and a half to glue Max's crown back on was a bit excessive!!!
~Have I mentioned how much I HATE moving?! We move so much you would think it is our favorite pass time but, no we really, really hate it! It's GLORIOUS to be in our own place again but I can't stand the state of disarray the house is in while we are trying to figure out where to put everything.  All the craziness going on in our lives right now and the every day duties of a mother with 4 kids that are all home for summer vacation keeps me busy enough!  This putting the house together thing feels like it is taking FOREVER!!!  Especially with my kids destroying all progress I seem to make as soon as I make it.  I told Brian the next time we move we better be able to eat out a lot because trying to cook for 6 people and clean up after 6 people with no dishwasher while trying to get a handle on this place is just TOO much!!! 
~June is going to be very interesting around here. It will be fun too but more than a little crazy. Zack is in baseball and has been since April, Matthew is in soccer, and Max is in Tball.  There is one game or another almost every night of the week in June. Sometimes there are 2 games a night. Sometimes both at the same time. I know many of you deal with the same thing.  My sypathies...jk.  It really is fun to see the kids having so much fun and progressing and succeeding at something they love so much. I just hope the weather in June is better than the weather in May has been so the games will be more fun to watch!!  I think May and June are busier than November and December are for us at this point in our lives. Crazy times but oh so fun!!!!  We love it and we LOVE our kids!!!  I'm planning to post some fun pictures on my Word From The Zoo blog soon. If anyone doesn't have an invite to it since it's a private blog feel free to request an invite from me.  Just give me your email address.  I just like to control who sees it so some wierdo from some crazy far off land isn't looking at pictures of my babies.  I once had several of those show up on my feedjit and that made me go private with the blog.  Anyway, I hope everyone is having a fun summer vacation so far. Hopefully soon the weather will actually act like summer so we can all enjoy all the really fun parts of summer!!!