Things that make you go hmmmmm...

When my mom (I use her as an example because I have never personally purchased carpet, or chosen paint for any place we have ever lived in seeing as how we have always rented) buys carpet, paints a wall, or buys new furniture she goes through this big process. She might find a picture in a magazine or see an idea at someone else's house. She ponders. She plans. She looks at lots of furniture stores and many, many swatches of carpet. Many, many paint sample cards. She brings them home and ponders and plans some more until she finds JUST.the.right.one! My mom would NEVER just walk into a store and buy the first carpet she came across. So you might understand why the "unique" interior of the house we are in might cause me to wonder WHAT was going on in the mind of the dear, sweet woman that lived here. Were these conscious decisions? Or did she swing by the carpet and wall store on her way home from having cataract surgery and make her choices with her eyes covered in bandages, clearly obstructing her vision. Or did her colorblind husband decide to "surprise" her with these decorating wonders? It truly makes you go hmmmm...

They thought this formica counter top was so fantastic that they decided to use the same material on parts of 3 of their walls in the kitchen.

They liked these paneling front cabinets so much that they decided to...

Put the same paneling on one of the sections of one of the walls...

And, while the paneling and formica are lovely wall options, it's true, I might like this fancy sparkly, pink and gold snowflake patterned wallpaper better. It's a toss up really!

I think the floor is the best feature in the kitchen, really. I mean, what mother of 4 wouldn't dream of having carpet in their kitchen. And not just ANY carpet. But this carpet. The carpet that SOMEONE presumably put a lot of time and contemplation into before actually purchasing it. It's obviously very "special" carpet! I know you're jealous!!

I know that this green carpet didn't have holes in it when it was purchased, I just thought I'd throw that in so you can see the super fun carpet we have here, but seriously, this may be the ugliest green carpet ever! Even the parts that are still in one piece. 

This carpet is Matty's dream carpet! He was so mad at us when we didn't let him have the room with the orange carpet. He says it's lava and he likes to play with his dinosaurs on the lava floor. That room is smaller and we wanted him and Max to share a room and Zack to have his own room and Gracie has the room closest to us so we can hear her at night and that left poor Matty without the lava room. Poor guy! He still complains every couple weeks that he wishes HE had the room with the orange carpet instead of Zack. Zack doesn't know how lucky he is! It is pretty SaWeeT!!!

The paneling in Gracie's bedroom is especially nice since it has a nice scallop border. FAAncy!

Her carpet is just beautiful. If you are blind or colorblind or your taste is all in your mouth then it.is.bEaUtiFUL!!!

The bathroom HAS to be our favorite part of the entire house! It is just lovely. And everything is very conveniently placed within arms length of each other. It is really nice! Not sure if you can see the baby blue tiles on the wall. So super pretty! Occasionally you do bruise your knees on the gargantuan cabinet when sitting on or standing from the toilet but that is just all part of the 'charm' of living in an old house.

This is the beautiful floor in the laundry room that is right next to the kitchen. I would rather have this ugly floor in the kitchen than the ugly carpet in there. At least it can be swept and mopped! UGH!!!

I'm sorry ladies but I don't think they make this front door anymore. It is a beaut but I think they bought the last one. Shucks!!!

On a cute note, I finally found Gracie's little purse I made for her. And I found my camera so I thought I'd post it, too. It's straps are skeewompus but I learned my lesson and the next one I made had perfectly placed straps. She didn't notice.  :) 

My new favorite thing...

I used to just add a bit of taco seasoning to ranch when I would  use it for taco salad but I noticed this packet of Spicy Ranch dressing mix a couple weeks ago and decided to give it a try. It is DELICIOUS!!! The other day I decided I was sick of sandwiches, mac n cheese, and frozen burritos for lunches and I wanted something different. I threw together a taco salad using lettuce, tomato, chunks of cheddar cheese, canned, drained black beans, crumbled tortilla chips, and lots of this delicious ranch. It was SOOO yummy!!! We have TONS of canned beans and we seem to always have the other ingredients around so we have ha d this salad for lunch several times now. Brian, Gracie, and I LoVe it!!! It tastes as good as any salad you might spend a fortune on at a restaurant. It's a fun, easy, cheap treat for those of us who can't afford eating out all the time but want to awfully badly!!! Just thought I'd share in case you were wanting to try something different, too...

phones...

K, so, we were in Utah County on Friday and we went to Walmart and signed up for their new cell phone service that somehow runs through T-Mobile but isn't T-Mobile. We were with T-Mobile already and didn't have a contract with them. So, through Walmart's service we pay $45 for our first phone to have unlimited talk and text and $25 for our additional phone to have unlimited talk and text. We thought it was a super smokin deal that was much cheaper than having one phone and a home phone or 2 cells with any other company so we did it. I didn't have my T-Mobile account # with me so I had to get a new number. I was so excited for Brian to have a phone again and I just kept my old phone and changed sim cards on it. They worked wonderfully when we were up there.  We drove back in time for Zack's 10:30am game Saturday morning. Our phones didn't work here. Clearly it has something to do with T-Mobile towers since it has happened with 3 different sim cards and 2 different phones.  We contacted them online Saturday and they said we should know what's wrong by Tuesday. UGH!! It sucks not having a phone!!! So we're back to square one. Well, maybe square 2 since Brian can at least text now.  :) 

Matthew had a birthday Friday but I can't find my camera so I don't have actual evidence of it but it did indeed exist. I even made him a Wii controller cake that I found on parenting.com   Of all the ADORABLE, FANCY cakes to choose from he chose the easiest one so that was nice!!  He had a great day and it was a lot of fun celebrating our sweet boys day! He was BEYOND thrilled!!! He has counted down for at least 2 months! So cute and fun!!!

I'm good. It's all good!

So my phone has been on the fritz for 3 days now. I can text, receive texts, and I can receive phone calls and make phone calls. The problem is that I can hear people but they can't hear me. We never changed our phone number or service when we moved from Salem so we still have T-mobile. There aren't any T-mobile stores here so we have to wait until Friday when we go to Spanish Fork, to get my new sim card. Apparently mine malfunctioned. Yesterday's craziness (read last nights post for more info) was even crazier without my phone. I had to run to Brian's office for a few minutes to call the rec center, the coach, and to make an appointment with Dr. Bailey since my tooth was killing me. Then, when the secretary from the high school called me to tell me she knew where it was she had to just tell me but I couldn't thank her. Thankfully she understood since I had explained my situation to her. Well....this morning gave me a heart attack!!! Matty is going on his first field trip of the school year with his new teacher this morning. We discussed his peanut allergy and epipen needs the week before school started but I don't think we talked about field trips. I start panicking! Especially since they are sending all the students with peanut butter munch-ables from the lunchroom for their lunches except Matty and the other boy in his class this year who is also allergic to peanut butter or if you just planned on sending them their own lunch. I can't call the office to ask the secretary to PLEASE remind the teacher to take his epipen. We shut Brian's phone off a couple weeks ago since we couldn't afford it so I couldn't text him to call. We don't have a home phone because our local phone service is ridiculously expensive to hook up and have!! Thank goodness for instant messaging on the computer! I messaged him and thankfully he got the message and called the school right away.  She was very helpful and promised she would tell the teacher right away. I was so relieved!!!  PHONES ARE NECESSITIES!! I've gotta have one! How did we ever survive before cell phones?! Really! I can go without a lot of things in life but contact with the outside world is not one of them. Phones and internet are NECESSITIES!!! I can live without cable. I can  live without eating out (it's difficult but I do it!!!). I can actually live without a lot of things but phones and internet are just too important in my life, I've realized! Not for frivolity but for NECESSITY!!!

Umm ExCUSE me light lady, we're not finished here thank you very much!!!

K, so last night Zack had a football game at the high school football field. This was only his second night game most of them are on Saturday morning. Well, he had to be there at 6:50 and his game started at 7:30.  It ended at 9:00. His team won so that was awesome! We had all 4 of our kids with us and it was an hour past their bedtime and we..were..DONE!!! We immediately stood up when the game was over and collected all our crap and shoved it in Gracie's stroller. Not sure what I'll do with all our crap when we outgrow the stroller. Anyhoo, not 3 minutes after the game ended the MORONIC light lady turned the lights off. Yeah! She just turned the lights off. Apparently once you turn hallogen lights off they won't come back on for like 30 minutes or so. LOVELY! My 4 year old son had gone down to the field to congratulate his big brother.  The coaches were conversing with their teams. Most of the little kids were playing on the track and their parents were in the stands. There were really old people there to watch their grandkids and great grandkids play. People were there with tiny babies and all their crap to carry. And all of a sudden it's mostly dark with just a tiny bit of light from a far away light in the parking lot. Of course we're on the grass bleachers way south. There were no openings to the stairs. Just a constant railing that you have to go over or under to get to the stairs by our car. So I hurried all the way over to where I thought I might be able to find my boys. Zack was on the stairs getting ready to head down our row and Max was still down at the bottom of the stairs TERRIFIED crying out for Zack so I yelled for him to follow my voice. Poor baby!!! It scared him to death! Then Zack says, oh I forgot my inhaler. NICE! So we stumble down the stairs, Zack fell at one point. We start trying to see a dark blue inhaler on dark grass in the dark and some how we can't find it. Go figure! I hear the head coach yelling that he can't even see if any of his kids are still on the field or if they had hooked up with their parents. An assistant coach saw us looking and tried to help but there was no way to see anything. He said that he saw a coach from the team that played before us pick up an inhaler. Great! Well, we gave up the pointless search and headed to the van. Meanwhile poor Brian had to put the stroller full of crap, Matthew, and Gracie over the railing, up the stairs, and in the car, in the dark. I was LIVID!!!  .Can you imagine all the things that could have happened with that many people scrambling to get out of dark stadium. So CRAZY!!! So, today I called the rec center and asked for the coach from the other team's name and number so I could ask about Zacky's inhaler. Then....I issued my complaint. The guy was so nice and concerned and apologetic. Apparently not only was she supposed to leave the light on but she was supposed to clean up the trash after everyone left too. The coach dude said one of his kids DID get an inhaler and he'd call the mom just to be sure it was his. He calls back and says that the kid realized it wasn't his and dropped it on the grass on the field. Seriously?! So, the kids and I head to the field to look for the inhaler (which by the way the bleachers and field were covered in garbage) and can't find it anywhere. We talked to the secretary at the school and she said the coach dude had just been there looking. How nice was that! She paged about it and said she'd repeat the page in the morning and took my name and number and email address. When I was almost home she called me and told me that a student told her that it had been turned in to the rec center. WHEW!!! So relieved!!! Inhalers are expensive!!! I just had to share this super fun experience with you all. I'm glad we live in a small town and all the running around wasn't as bad as it could have been! Isn't it amazing the affect that ONE crazy light lady can have on so many people. I wonder what other stories there were to tell from the situation. Crazy light lady!!!

I posted some really cute pictures of Miss Gracie and our boys on Word From the Zoo

A calling and show and tell...

A Calling



I have served in Nursery and Sunbeams and other Primary callings for the better part of the past 15 years. I LOVE Primary! It is awesome! Exhausting! But awesome!!! However, this part of my life has become much like most other parts of my life. Rather monotonous and repetitive. The Relief Society president in our ward asked me a few weeks ago if I had received my new calling yet. I said, no. She said she wanted me in Relief Society but someone else had already requested me. I have been SO nervous ever since then wondering what my new calling would be. Honestly, just the mere thought of serving in Nursery or Sunbeams again brought tears to my eyes. Brian and I taught Max in Nursery and in Sunbeams and he is still in Sunbeams. Max is the child that causes me the most stress and frustration these days for many reasons, one main reason being the fact that he almost NEVER listens to me. You might imagine how much fun it is for me to be his Primary teacher. When the member of the Bishopric called me in FINALLY on Wednesday I could hardly stand the suspense. I was dieing to know what my calling was. I was THRILLED when he said they wanted me to be the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's presidency!!! This is EXACTLY what I need right now in so many ways. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's guidance and direction in my life. I have been thrilled ever since Wednesday and look forward to all the fun activities and getting to know the wonderful young women in our ward. I am more than just a little bit scared. As I mentioned it has been 15 years since I served in Young Women and my life has revolved around little boys for the last 10 years so I'm scared but also thrilled. If you have seen Groundhog Day the movie, the day he finally wakes up and realizes that something is different he is like ANYTHING different is good. That is how I am feeling. It is like FINALLY... SOMETHING in my life is different!!! I am really, really excited for this change and just really, really happy. I haven't been this excited about a calling since I was in the Primary presidency in Cedar. Once again it was different than teaching nursery or Sunbeams but so much fun and I LOVED that, too! The Young Women's president is AMAZING so I am beyond thrilled to be working with her too!!! I was so anxious to be set apart after church today. I have such a strong testimony of being set apart for your callings. What a wonderful gift the priesthood is in so many aspects of our lives!!! Anyway, I think it will be great fun!

Show and Tell

Sewing usually really hates my guts! I have tried to like it many, many times and always come to the same conclusion...I HATE IT!!! Well, I've been really wanting some sort of hobby lately. Some sort of creative outlet for me. Scrap booking doesn't really work for me at this time in my life. I just don't have the space for it. I decided to try sewing again. I bought the fabric to make Gracie a quilt last year around the time she was born. I started to sew it together but we moved and I never finished it. Well, my first project was to finish sewing that together. I only finished the top. I need to get more fabric to make it a bit bigger and I need to buy fabric for the back. She won't be in a big girl bed for quite some time so that project will be on hold for a while. The top's cute though. :)  I made a quilt for my sister, Stephanie's baby, Emily. Yes, she's 6 months old but better late than never, right?  :)  I totally loved it! It's very bright and a bit crazy but I like it. I finished another baby quilt yesterday. I fell in love with the fabrics Tara B. used in her quilt she recently posted about. I HAD to use a couple of them. It is the CUTEST fabric!!! I'm not very good at sewing so there are tons of mistakes but oh well. Practice makes perfect. I'll just have to keep practicing!!! I had been promising Brian I would make him a denim quilt for about 15 years or so. I had saved the old jeans and we have lugged them around every time we have moved. I bought 2 bolts of flannel about 10 years ago for $1 a yard. I decided to finally break down and make his quilt. It turned out great and I was pleasantly surprised that my sewing machine had such an easy time sewing denim. I tried to avoid using the parts of the jeans that had big seams just in case so it made it easy. I wanted to buy Gracie a purse for her birthday in May but couldn't find one. I started thinking about some of the bags I've owned in the past and decided to just try to make up a pattern and go for it using the scraps from Emily's quilt. It turned out really cute and it was so easy to make. I can't find it right now to post a picture of it so I'll post a picture later.  Matthew's teacher sent home canvas bags for the parents to decorate with whatever subject the kids wanted us to and then we send them back and he uses them to put things in that pertain to that subject. I made up a dinosaur themed bag. He'll put puzzles, books, games, stuff like that and then the kids get to bring them home sometimes for a couple days. Well, I decided it turned out cute enough that I would make one for Steph's son, Josh's bday in October. He LoVeS dinosaurs!!! I had decided to make Matthew and Max each a little bag for church. They had chosen some fabric from my scrap box. After I made the ones for the school and Josh, Max wants one like theirs now but Matty still wanted the one out of scrap material and canvas letters. I haven't made Max's yet. I have been having so much fun sewing stuff and haven't had to spend money because luckily I am a HUGE procrastinator and have enough unfinished projects laying around to keep me pretty busy.

Gracie's quilt top...

Baby Emily's quilt...

The other quilt I made...

Brian's queen size denim quilt FINALLY...

Matty's class bag

Josh's bag. I forgot to put something inside the bag to keep the paint from leaking through so I had to add a tree to the other side to cover up the paint. I'm a spaz sometimes haha...

Matty's bag...



I'm in love...

with this time of year!!!

I never thought I would be one of "those" mom's. You know the ones that just couldn't wait to have her kids go back to school after the summer. I always thought I would be super sad when they went to school. I am always a bit nostalgic, especially when my kids go to kindergarten, of course, but this year I felt PURE JOY when they went to school and it just gets better every day.  The kids were so restless by the end of the summer. I had started a schedule with them because they really thrive on knowing what to expect and having stuff to do. They made lots of science projects, played outside lots, played in our little swimming pool, had very little t.v. time, read books, made crafts, I taught them to sew pillow cases, they drew lots of fun pictures. They loved it! They were very excited for school to start. Matthew is our sleeping-in child and he is usually a bear every morning when he's getting ready for school.  He cries and begs not to go to school many mornings.  So I was getting nervous about the first day of school with him.

Usually I take them to school the first day. Take a picture of them in their new classroom. Sometimes I take a picture of them with their new teacher. Zack's getting older and this ritual embarrasses him. Matthew and I met his new teacher the week before school started in his classroom. He was very nice. Matthew found where his backpack would hang. Took a little tour of the classroom. It was great. So when they wanted to ride the bus (which picks them up in front of our house  HOORAY!!!) instead of having me take them to school that first day I went with it. I felt sad I wouldn't be taking their picture at school and stuff but I figured it would be better for Matthew to not have me there.  They LoVeD their first day of school!!! It was only half a day for the first 2 days. Matthew started begging to stay home the 3rd day of school.  He's such a little home body. He loves being home!! But he loves school while he's there. He just doesn't like the going part I guess. Probably hates the waking up early part most. Max started preschool last Tuesday.  He is a bit timid about it this year because he only knows one of the kids in his class. She was on his t-ball team this summer. It's a pretty big class too.  Once he makes some more friends I'm sure he'll love it even more. I am really enjoying the 2 hours, 3 days a week thing. Who knew that 6 hours a week with only one very quiet child could be so rejuvenating.  I all but did a happy dance the other day in the kitchen when I was telling Brian how great it had been having the kids in school again. It's wonderful!!!  I thrive on having my own schedule back again. It helps me be a better mom to have a bit of a break once in a while. They love interacting with friends and learning new things and the whole school thing.   

And don't you just love everything about this time of year.  The weather is PERFECT!!! It's not too hot, not too cold.  It smells like fall. The food gets so super yummy and comforting.  I love it when I can start making soups, stews, and casseroles again.  And...apple pie!! So delicious!!!  No air conditioner. No heater.  I get to wear my light jackets or long sleeves.  I just thoroughly enjoy each of the seasons.  I love that we live somewhere that has all of the seasons.  There are places that don't really have much of a fall.  Who doesn't love the beautiful colors as the leaves change?!  I so enjoy the decorations and holidays of fall.  And the smell in the air and in the house.  It's just a wonderful time of year!!!  I feel so happy and so grateful for all of our blessings and to be living on such an amazing planet that our Savior created for us.  What marvelous gifts he gives to us.  How blessed we are to have fall.  To have seasons.  To have apples.  And pumpkins.  And the smell of cinnamon.  And such a gorgeous state to live in.  To have such great family.  To have the gospel in our lives.  To live in a free country.  To have shelter and transportation and food and clothing and shoes.  We are truly blessed!!!!!  I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this time of year!!!!

(A More Real) Love Story

Super blessed...

So, we have been going through some pretty tough stuff the past few months. One of the problems on their own would be a challenge but going through both trials has been really hard. We have been constantly amazed at the love of our Savior!!! We are so grateful for the many blessings He showers us with. It is sometimes hard to recognize the blessings when there are difficult times but we have been reminded of our blessings over and over these past months and we are grateful. It seems like when we have reached the end of our rope He throws us another line and we feel so blessed again to see His hand in our lives. It's been hard not to murmur and complain and feel discouraged and totally not blessed but we have tried so hard to remain positive throughout the hard times. We have good days and bad. The bad days are especially bad and thank goodness we have loving, supportive family members and friends to help us get through the really low times and then we can pick ourselves back up, dust ourselves off, and face the next day with a smile on our faces and a determination to be happy, even in our trials. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father. I am grateful to know that He knows me and loves me and hears and answers our prayers. Not usually in our time frame but always in the time frame that is best for us. I know He lives and loves each of us. I know that He wants us to be happy. I know that He wants us to talk to Him. To pour out our hearts to Him and ask for His help, love, guidance, peace, and comfort. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and for my precious little family! I feel blessed each time I hear them laugh, see them smile, get loves and kisses from them. They are the greatest gifts and blessings in my life! I am happy to be Brian's wife and to be parents of such amazingly wonderful children!!! I also feel so very blessed to live in our country. So grateful to all of the people who have fought for our freedom and for the freedom of others. So happy to know that all of my blessings come from my Heavenly Father!!!!

A great quote...

In Relief Society today there was a quote on the board that is by Elder Samuelson that was WONDERFUL!!! Just thought I'd share.

"Worthiness and perfection are NOT synonyms."   

The lesson was about how we are just too hard on ourselves. Our teacher was talking about how we often tend to look at ourselves as satan and the world want us to look at ourselves. Like we aren't good enough, we aren't skinny enough, we aren't good enough mothers, we aren't good at this or that. Like we aren't worthy. She was saying that we should, instead, look at ourselves as the Savior looks at us. We don't have to be perfect at everything and in every way but we just need to do our best to be good and faithful and not let the negativity of the world come through.

So I say, pat yourselves on the back...feel like a beautiful daughter of God...smile...and find joy in the ride.

Skunkville

Living on the outskirts of town is kind of nice in some ways and really annoying in others. The kids love catching lizards, trying to catch the cute little bunnies that hop through our yard daily, watching the horse in the neighbors yard, the openness of our back yard area, and I love the beautiful view of sunrises and sunsets.
                            HOWEVER......
waking up from a dead sleep every couple of weeks by the unbelievably strong stench of skunkiness is NOT my idea of a good time!!!  It smells like the stinkin thing is right in our bedroom. It doesn't just spray and go on it's merry way. Oh, no! It sprays...and sprays...and sprays...for AT LEAST an hour. Sometimes HOURS!!!  It will start to subside, just a bit, to where you can breathe through the stench and then it sprays again. Sometimes it happens at around midnight. Other times around 2 a.m.. This morning he waited until about 5:30. Seriously NOT cool!!!  Anyone up for some target practice???

So exciting.

clean
wash laundry
wash dishes
change diapers
Coca Cola
cook
back to school
sleep-ish
read
vacuum
Gilmore Girls
feed fish
clean
baths 
cook
football practice
cut kid's hair
scouts
vacuum
sew
Coca Cola
cook
put laundry away
clean
change diapers
sleep-ish
wash laundry
football games
baths
Coca Cola
wash dishes
wash dishes
wash dishes

ADHD

So, football season has begun for Zacky and we watched his second scrimmage last night. I have decided that I have extreme ADHD issues!! Sitting there for 2 1/2 hours(2 for the game 1/2 hour to warm up)  is like pure torture for me. It's like baseball season all over again. I LOVE watching him play and he looks so adorable in his little uniform. It's the sitting in the same spot for that long that gets me. I NEVER sit in the same spot for 2 1/2 hours besides church and that is extremely difficult!! Even when the kids or Brian talk me into a movie I get up to change loads of laundry or I paint my fingernails and toenails while I watch or plan my next grocery list and menu or something to keep me busy while I'm sitting. I read books when I can't sleep at night or when the kids aren't awake yet in the morning and then the rest of the day I'm running around like crazy trying to keep up with everyone and everything. So, sitting there for so long is just too much for me.

At Zack's first scrimmage we had no idea how long it would last. He had to be there at 5:00. We figured we would be home by 7:00 and we'd eat no later than 7:30. I loaded the kids full of snacks before we left the house so they would be fine until dinner and thought we were in great shape. We had no idea it was going to go until 7:30 and then we'd have to actually make the dinner which would make it at least 8:00 before we actually ate dinner. Well, you can imagine the complaining, moaning, and begging that poor Brian had to suffer through. And the kids were starved, TOO!!! Last night I was prepared with sandwiches, chips, fruit snacks, and yogurt sticks. Of course we had to eat in the car so none of the health food junkies glared at us for feeding our kids chips and stuff.

I want to be a supportive, wonderful mother that never misses a game and is always there to cheer her children on but I just don't know how much of this stuff I'm going to be able to endure. I mean, really. I have 3 sons and a daughter. This is just the beginning for me. Maybe I could take up cross stitch again or maybe I could learn how to knit or crochet. Then my hands would be busy and people might not think I'm as big of a jerk as they would if I whipped out my book and started reading it like I want to. What I really want to do is have Brian take ALL the kids with him to games and I could use the opportunity to have some alone time to clean, scrapbook or just enjoy some peace and quiet for a couple of hours. Maybe at least once this season he'll do that. I could live with once....

Weeds, Stones, War, School, and Football

~Our back yard is a large open area that is dirt and weeds. It's so large back there that the cost of watering grass back there would be too much for the people who own the home so they just left it open and dirt. Well, it's being overtaken by weeds now. When Brian tries to mow it it flings dirt and rocks all over at him  cutting his legs and arms and face, and they fling at the house, the windows, everywhere. So we decided to spray weed killer on them. I sprayed some cheap weed killer from Walmart all over them a few weeks back...NOTHING happened!!! It was as if I had sprayed fertilizer on them instead of weed killer. The other day I decided to spray some Round Up on them. I mean it's ROUND UP!! That will kill anything right?!....NOTHING happened again!!!! It looks like a jungle of weeds out there!! The kids don't even want to play out there anymore because of the craziness of the weeds. Any suggestions?! I'm going to put on some long pants and a long sleeve shirt and mow them again but doesn't there have to be some kind of killer that actually KILLS weeds? If you have a tried and true brand and particular type please enlighten me!!!
~So about 4 years ago, on Memorial Day, Brian passed his first ever kidney stone. Between that day and Labor Day of that year he passed 36 kidney stones. UNBELIEVABLE!!! And he didn't experience much pain at all. He has an incredibly high threshold for pain!!! Well, the last one had spikes and got stuck and he had EXCRUCIATING pain and ended up having to have a lithotripsy to break it up so he could pass it. The anesthesia made him very loopy which made for some great entertainment for me! :) 
Since then he has passed about one kidney stone a year. None of them being very painful at all. Just a bit uncomfortable for him. Well, last Thursday he woke up in the middle of the night feeling very nauseous from the extreme pain in his back. He said it felt like he had a knife stabbed in his back and realized he had another stone. He had a lot of pain with this one Thursday and Friday as it tried to leave his kidney. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday he just had a small amount of pain sporadically throughout the day but not bad at all. Finally, Tuesday at around 3:30 am he finally passed the darn thing. I felt so bad for him! Those things aren't fun!!! I have been lucky not to have those. I may have just jinxed myself! But I'm sure that I would have been much more whiny if it were me. I would have had to use much more medication and would have milked it a lot more than he did. He's awesome!!!
~For years now people have suggested The Children of the Promise series to me. Even Brian read them and he's not a super big reader. He enjoys reading but doesn't often commit to a series of books that big. I always say NO WAY!!! I get so freaked out about war. I just can't take it. It's so hard! We don't watch R rated movies but I wanted to see Saving Private Ryan when it came out because I felt it would be good to see the reality of that war and appreciate the things people went through to ensure my freedom and the freedom of so many others in this world. Well, it was HORRIBLE!!! At the time my little brother Nathan (yes he's 6'4" but he will always be my "little" brother) had just joined the Marines. My brother in law Richard was in the military as well. I can't remember if he was in Special Forces in the Army yet or not but he has been for years. It was too close to home for me. It made me so sad and sickened to think of what these soldiers had endured. And it scared me to wonder what my relatives might have to face if anything bad happened while they were in the military. There was one particular scene that has haunted me since I saw that movie. I woke up with nightmares of that scene for at least a good month after I saw that movie. It was horrifying!!! To this day when I hear the name of that movie my mind immediately goes to that scene and I feel sick to my stomach.
Since watching that movie September 11th happened and the war broke out. Nathan spent a month in Iraq. Richard has been there many times for long periods of time. War terrifies me and I just don't do well seeing stuff about it or reading stuff about it. I finally caved and decided to read that series because my mom let me borrow a whole bunch of books and I realized they were all extensions of that series. I figured what the heck...I'll give them a try.  I finished the first one this morning. I couldn't put it down. It was really good but also so hard to read at the end when the Japanese soldiers began the Bataan Death March with our soldiers. It's just disgusting to me!!! What those poor men went through and what their families went through. It's just horrible!!!
I have been watching my Gilmore Girls Series boxed set again lately because it makes me HAPPY!!! I catch an episode when I'm folding laundry in my bedroom. I like to stick a disc in the computer and watch an episode while I do dishes. As many as I've watched you would think I would dream about them but I haven't done that at all. Not until I read this book about war and now I'm having nightmares about them. I'm debating if I should keep reading these or not if they are going to affect me so much. There are still 4 more books in this stories and a whole bunch more in The Hearts of the Children that is an extension of these books from what I understand. If I keep going I won't want to stop I'm sure but can I handle the stress these books cause in my heart? Have any of you read them? What do you think? Are they worth continuing?
~Only 12 days til school starts!!! I'm so very excited and worried. The kids are going to love being in school again but I'm wondering how Max will ever manage without his brothers around. How will I ever manage without Max having his brothers around?! It should be interesting that's for sure!!!
~Football practice has begun for Zack. It's his first year in tackle football. He is very excited! He's so cute in his football pads!!! He has a scrimmage tonight and his first game in a week and a half. We're excited for this fun new adventure for him!!! Baseball about puts me to sleep but I really get into football so I'm excited to watch his games!!!

Logan, Utah

These are the fancy sliding bathroom doors. One had the shower and sink and the other had the toilet and another sink. I don't get out much!!!  :)

I had fun taking these pictures of the Logan Temple.........

Brian had a work thing in Logan and the college was putting him up in a hotel so we decided to tag along again. I hadn't been to Logan for 20 years so I was so excited to go. It is just so beautiful there. And the drive there is so pretty, too. I took some fun pictures of the gorgeous Logan Temple Friday morning. So very beautiful!!! We had fun swimming at the pool at the hotel and sitting in the hot tub. Our hotel room was GORGEOUS!!! The prettiest we've ever stayed in!!! I highly recommend the Marriott Springhill Suites in Logan!!! My friend Melissa would have LOVED it!!! I took a few pictures but you HAD to be there to truly appreciate it! It was a fun weekend! Thank you Utah State University!!!!!

Happy Anniversary to US!!!

17 years ago today we were married in the Manti Temple. Sealed for time and all eternity. What a great day it was! This morning we remembered driving to the temple that morning. Later we drove by the college and remembered having our luncheon there in the alumni room. And we drove by the church where we had our reception. It's been fun remembering that special day and so many special days since that day. We've had a lot of fun. A lot of happiness. A lot of pain and sorrow. A lot of success and disappointment. A lot of joy and a lot of sadness. But through it all we have grown stronger. I can confidently say we love each other more now than we ever have. The last year and a half have brought a new level of love to our relationship. Sure we aren't perfect and we drive each other crazy some times but we love each other so much and we are so grateful to be together and hope to be together forever!!!!!

Our Zacky made us chicken fettucini alfredo for dinner. The sauce was from scratch. So delicious!!! What a sweet boy to ask if he could do that for us. Brian helped him with the sharp knife stuff and he did the rest. I love that boy!!!

Randomness

~Swamp coolers don't work very well in 90 degree weather with 60% humidity.
~Why is there 60% humidity here?! I think that must be some kind of record. Or at least it has to be a record for most continuous days with 50-60% humidity. Seriously!! I've lived here for 21 years and I've never experienced this. It's like living in Kansas again. Especially in the town we live in. Maybe up north where there are lakes and stuff but where we live is usually dry as a bone! Our skin was cracked and bleeding this winter from the incredible dryness. Usually when we come visit for a weekend our skin dries out so badly that we itch like mad. So humidity like this is unusual. The nice thing is we aren't bleeding from the dryness anymore. The bad part is...we're MELTING!!! Our swamp cooler is not working well at all. All of our chips, cereal, and crackers are grody mush! Not good!!! Oh well, whatchya gonna do?! At least it's hot and not snowy. That is definitely a good thing!!!
~International Days was so much fun this year! The kids were in the Kid's Day parade. They got to go to the Kid's Day activities and had so much fun on the climbing walls, bounce houses, getting their faces painted, winning stuffed animals, getting snow cones. The best part for me is that it was ALL....FREE!!! (FYI: Nice looking men in their 70s look weird with earrings in their ears!!!) We walked over to the fun craft booths and I bought a super adorable hat at the place De got hers last year. They are so fun and cute and I can't wait to wear mine! It's too stinking hot now to wear it but some day I will wear it and it will be so cute! I never buy myself fun stuff so I am so excited!!! Saturday Zack was in the grande parade with the scouts. He had so much fun! And he looked adorable in his new Webelos scarf and slider. He's the cutest scout ever!!! Later he got to help out at the Scout Expo. They had a fun rope bridge to climb on and they got to make rockets and shoot them off. They LOVED that!!!
My FAVORITE part was that they opened up the log cabins at Pioneer Park and let us walk through them. That was so neat! And I got to look at the incredible quilt that the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers made to raffle off. What talented ladies! It was such a great day! The heat and humidity made it horribly hot and sticky but we still had a lot of fun! Brian missed all the fun since he was picking up jet skis in Wahweep Friday and picking up a boat in Bullfrog on Saturday. So grateful for his willingness to work so hard for our little family!!!
~To finish off our great weekend we went to church. What great meetings! Testimony meeting was wonderful and Relief Society was just lovely! Our bishop's wife taught the lesson. This was her third week teaching in a row for various reasons. Her husband has cancer and is going through chemo now and I think she works. How many of us would have said, NO WAY!!! I'm too busy, or I have already taught 2 times before?! So glad she taught because I totally needed to hear her lesson! What an incredible lady! The spirit was very strong in that meeting. I felt truly uplifted and edified as they say and ready to face the new week. So glad for a great ward!!! After dinner we walked the Helper walking path. That was nice. We hadn't done that in years! The kids hadn't been except Zack and he was too little to remember. They had so much fun climbing the fun steep staircase, walking through tunnels, watching the water run over the little water fall, and eating plums they picked from the tree. It was such a fun time!

My cute flashy hat. Won't I be cute when I'm having a bad hair day and I throw this on my head! I can't wait to wear it!

Spiritual Pictionary

I've always wanted a dry erase board but never bought one. I found one Saturday morning at a garage sale for $1. Yesterday I was trying to decide what to do for Family Home Evening and decided a game of "Spiritual Pictionary" would be fun. Brian and I thought of words and phrases to draw. We had things like:

Love at Home

Jesus

Temple

Family

Missionaries

And harder ones like:

Noah's Ark

Jesus touches the stones for the brother of Jared

Daniel in the Lion's Den

Samuel the Lamanite

Nephi slays Laban
The Holy Ghost

We made enough so that each person could draw 3 times. It took longer than we thought which was kind of nice. It was a lot of fun! We laughed a lot! The kids had never played pictionary of any kind so it was such a fun time for them. I've always LOVED Pictionary!

Stephanie and I used to play Pictionary for hours on end on many a lllooooonnnggg Sunday afternoon as we desperately tried to entertain ourselves since mom had banned us from watching tv on Sundays except for The Wonderful World of Disney and Little House on the Prairie. We took turns drawing for each other because no one else liked playing Pictionary so much, but we totally did. We had so much fun doing that and I was so excited to play again.

The boys liked it so much that I had to bribe them to stop playing it last night by promising to write up a bunch of random words for them to draw this morning. Brian finished off the night by scooping us up some ice cream cones. It was a fun night!

I'm glad I found the dry erase board. I just LOVE a good garage sale!!!!!!!

GRODY!!!

So, I decided to tackle the pile of laundry I had on my dryer that needed to be stain treated. I picked up one of the shirts Max wore camping and I found one of these crawling around...

A tick!!!

When I was a little girl I had a "scab" in my ear. One day, Dana and I were opening a can of dog food to feed our dog and Dana saw my "scab" move!!! My parents were like, that is not a scab, that is a TICK!!! I remember Stan holding a match to it and taking it out of my ear with tweezers very vividly. Been a bit freaked by them ever since.

Ever since I found the tick this morning we're all a bit jumpy. Brian checked the kids for ticks when he came home for lunch. Thankfully they were tick free. He had checked them all over when we came back from camping but he decided to double check just to be safe. I'm so not a fan of creepy crawlys and ticks are so GRODY!!!

A Confession and fun...

I confess.......I DON'T IRON!!! I hate ironing! I am terrible at it! Things look worse when I get through ironing them than they did to begin with. If you can't put it in the dryer with a damp towel to get the wrinkles out of it ... you don't need to wear it!  A few months ago I got a wild hair and decided to iron one of Gracie's skirts and my shirt for little Emily's blessing. Emily's mom (my sister Stephanie) irons  EVERYTHING!!!  I think she might even iron her underclothes but I can't be sure! HAHA jk Steph! Anyway, I thought I'd try my best to look nice...BIG mistake!!! Gracie's skirt turned out perfect which is amazing but then I burned a whole in my shirt. My BEST and most FAVORITE shirt! My only shirt I really felt like was stylish, cute, and nice enough to wear to church or nice places. It was white and had cute, girly, short sleeves and cuteness on the front that made it so cute! And it went with EVERYTHING! It looked especially adorable with my cute black, white, and red skirt that I LOVE! And..it was FREE! Last year a friend in our ward in Salem brought us bags of clothes she was planning to take to the clothing exchange. They fit our family perfectly and were WAY cute! And that shirt came from her. Brian is the ironer in our family and I just should have let him do it instead of trying to be all domestic and stuff. WHAT WAS I THINKING?! 

So last night Brian saw the iron cooling on the washing machine and said, Did you actually iron something today?  I said, why, yes, yes I did iron something.  This....

It's really the only thing I should be trusted to touch with an iron!!!

OUR SATURDAY DRIVE

As I mentioned in a previous post, a couple weeks ago we had a free weekend. We caught up on a bunch of things that desperately needed attention around our house and yard and then Saturday afternoon Brian suggested we take a drive up Huntington Canyon. We LOVE doing that! When my family first moved here this became one of our favorite places to be. We enjoyed just driving up for the day and picnicking and enjoying the beauty of everything about it. I remember many hours spent fishing, hiking, playing, and just relaxing and visiting.

When I was 8 months pregnant with Matthew my family decided that the family get together that summer was going to be a camp out at Old Folks Flat in Huntington Canyon. One of my favorites. Well, what 8 month pregnant woman in her right mind would want to go camping in a tent, in the woods, without a bathroom!! (Yes there is one in the campground but I'm also a chicken and would NOT be walking to a bathroom in the middle of the night thank you very much! I moaned and groaned about going but went anyway. I was in PURE HEAVEN!!! We didn't have air conditioning in our apartment and it was at least 20 degrees cooler in that canyon than it was in our house. And I slept so well because the air at night gets COLD in that canyon. It was glorious!!! We even stayed an extra night because it was just so wonderful!!! When we lived in Spanish Fork area we had Payson canyon we could escape to if we wanted to take a beautiful drive and "get away from it all" for a few hours. In Cedar City we loved taking drives to Cedar Breaks. What a spectacular drive and destination that is! We would picnic along the way and it was just wonderful. When we lived in Pleasant Grove I missed having a special place like that to escape to. I hear that American Fork canyon is beautiful but I also hear it's WAY crowded and you have to pay to drive through it. I missed our Huntington Canyon days so much!

I was so happy when Brian suggested we take a drive up there. It was so beautiful! The kids had never been except Zack when he was 3 years old and they had such a great time! I was sure to point out how brown and beautiful it was when we drove through Emery County on the way to the canyon and then pointed out how green and beautiful it is in the canyon once we were up there. WOW what a contrast!!! We let them wade around in the lake a bit. We all had fun skipping rocks. We drove through the camp grounds showing them the fun places there are to camp up there. We drove up to Mammoth Lake and got out and walked the little path to where the display of information is about how the Mammoth was discovered and how they extracted it. It was so interesting to the boys. 

Once we left the canyon we drove on over to Castle Dale and visited the Zebra farm and the long horn steers. 

We had such a wonderful day and enjoyed spending time together and being in such a gorgeous place. So glad we live close to Huntington Canyon now and can share our love for it with our little family.

 

Yes I look freaky, deaky! I didn't put makeup on that day. And, yes, I'm fat!! But it's rare for us to have pictures with us in them, especially together, so I thought I'd throw it in...

The zebra farm..I'm glad we went that day because zebras are Zack's favorite and there weren't any at the zoo when we went.

Camping

My parents decided it would be fun to take our kids camping last weekend. The kids were so excited! I couldn't bring myself to let them take Max with them. He is one wild and crazy boy that hasn't learned to listen and I didn't want to put that kind of strain on my parents!! My sister Steph invited him to come to her house and play with Josh while they went camping. He LOVED it!! They all had so much fun! I enjoyed being able to relax a bit! The first night (Wednesday)  I made a delicious and super easy chicken scampi and Brian and I watched Better Off Dead. We hadn't seen it in years and got a good laugh out of it.  I even painted my toenails and fingernails!! Thursday night Brian, Gracie, and I went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Spanish Fork. We slept over at my parents since Brian had a delivery in Wahweep Friday. My parents and the boys came back to Spanish Fork Friday morning and they took us all to Hogle Zoo. Steph, Josh, Emily, and KayTee met us there. We hadn't been in a couple years and it was a lot of fun! We always have a great time at the zoo! Our most favorite part was the adorable baby elephant that followed it's momma around and played with it's own trunk trying to figure out how it works. It was adorable! It was 100 + and we were hot but I wasn't complaining because I was just so happy it isn't snowing anymore!!! There were a few freaks that had their poor little kids dressed in fleece hooded jackets or long sleeves and long pants or can you believe...SNOW BOOTS!!! Seriously!!!  Other than that everyone was so nice!

After the zoo we headed to Wendy's for lunch and then back to mom's for a few hours then we went back to the campground in Hobble Creek and camped for 2 more nights. The kids had a lot of fun going for walks, swimming in the creek, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, eating smores, getting dirty, and spending time with grandma and grandpa. We got up bright and early on Sunday and drove back home for church but missed getting here in time. We had good intentions! We had a lot of fun camping. We don't camp nearly enough because I hate tent camping but my parents took their camp trailer so it was great! We NEED a trailer and a truck so we can do super fun things like that!

The misting fan!!! Gotta love those in 100 degree weather!!!

This is a group shot! Mr. "I'm not afraid of anything, Max" was terrified on this! He's a funny kid! Josh was simply adorable with his "yee haw's" as his hippo went up and down! He is so dang cute! Sorry Steph! I know you aren't a big fan of having your picture on my blog but you look GREAT!!! Can you believe she just had a baby in March!!!

The water globe is always fun!

And of course the train is a must do!

Cute little Emily!!!

 

Gracie was so filthy and LOVED it!! She likes eating dirt. She and my cousin John would get along swimmingly! HEHEHE

Grandma and Grandpa set up a movie outside the camp trailer at night. Matty is behind Max in the picture. Gracie's poor stroller was brown at this point. I was afraid it would never be the same but after some stain spray and a good washing it is good as new!!!