GOOD MORNING BEAUTIFUL

Good morning beautiful, how was your night, mine was wonderful with you by my side. Well, those of you who have not heard that famous song, it's a good one, but my night was just not quite as good. Does anyone else have these problems? yes, this is MY bed. It started with Presley at about four-ish, then by five we had three girls in, and by six Conner joined us And of course no one ever went back to sleep, how much fun would that have been? loads, i know. So, it was Saturday and the kiddos wanted something special for breakfast, and they wanted to make it. One of our fun things to eat on a Saturday is egg-in-toast. Simply stated, you butter both sides of the bread, cut a hole in the middle with a cup, and crack the egg in the middle. Sound gross? It's so good. You let it cook till brown on underside, then flip, carefully. All done, egg and toast all in one. less mess, and kids get a kick out of cutting holes in the bread.

After breakfast, it had snowed and the kids were soooo excited to go play in it. there wasn't much, but they had fun. Taylor was a little skeptical at first, but Conner showed her the ropes.

Snow angels, a classic. Kids, snow, hot chocolate, all so much fun. Hopefully we get more snow, so we can build snowmen. they tried, but it was a very little snowman.

Angels they all are. whether it's four, five or six in the morning.

DRINKIN AND DRIVIN

We have this car. All the kids love it. Thrift shop find, finally, best buy ever. It has endured many drives, and lately it's been presley's passion. The blue car resides outside, but we were having a problem with it's location. Every time I would go outside to the car, presley would kick and squirm, and yes, cry to get down. She wanted to ride in HER car. Then the same thing would happen when I arrived home and entered the house. I am on the go A LOT so, this was becoming annoying, and frustrating for poor presley. So, i broke down, hosed off the car, and hauled it into the house. Presley loved it, i am clearly her best friend lately, and she spends most of her play time in this car. The other kids try to play in it, but she is very territorial with her blue car. When i give her snacks, she eats them in the car. When i give her a drink, she carts it to the car, and so on.

It has been a great help to me as well, cause when I have some thing to do, I just get the car and she's set. I find myself getting more things done lately, weird. I have been reluctant to announce the great news we have had at our house. I know what yall are thinking, and NO I am NOT pregnant. Presley is walking, yeah!!! Life is so much more grand, except for when we are at walmart and she wants to walk. traffic jams with a slow walker. She is really good at it too, very steady, quite fast, and thinks she's cool. When I congratulated her on her new milestone this is the expression I recieved.

Priceless.

Our little presley is so proud of herself, and we are too. we were worried there for a minute. almost 18 months old, but she pulled through, at ther own pace.

Rascal flatts, one of my favorite songs, My wish. " My wish for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to. your dreams stay big, your worries stay small, You never need to carry more than you can hold. And while you're out there getting where you're getting to, I hope you know that somebody loves you."

Wherever she goes in her little blue car, and beyond i hope she always knows we love her.

HOW THIRSTY ARE WE?

So, as many of you know I had a little escapade last Sunday and got to take a nice little ride in the ambulance, with a good looking paramedic I might add, You never know who reads your blog anymore, so hopefully his wife doesn't read mine! Anyway, if you don't know about it, don't ask, and if you do, don't tell, and if you watched, I am truly sorry for having to expose you all, i know it was painful to watch, but just think it was much more embarrassing for me than for you! Anyway, with blood sugar out of whack, blood pressure out of whack and dehydration fixed, i feel almost brand new. not really, but better. So the blood sugar and pressure were easily fixed with medication, but as i came to find out in my stay at the lovely ER, there is no medicine, other than iv's to fix dehydration, which brings me to the meaning of my post. How thirsty are we? I mean, really I just don't like to drink water. I only like it when I'm sweating after workout, or if I vacuum the whole house and I'm wearing a sweatshirt doing it. I'm just not a big water drinker, in fact if i drink more than sips, it make me gag, weird huh? Well, anyway, after my little escapade on Sunday, i vowdged to take this problem under control, which in lighter terms means, I have to drink more water. I thought I was drinking enough, i usually drink 32 oz. or more a day, but clearly that is not enough. So the last few days I've been drinking ONLY water. No milk, no pop, no juice, just water. It's been gross, and hard. I filled up a 2 liter pitcher and decided to see how much I could possibly drink in a day. I am on the go a lot, a lot, so i have been filling up a water bottle out of my pitcher to get an accurate take as to how much I consume. The first day I didn't do so well. I felt like I drank a ton! But looking at the picture, ah, not so much.

I just keep telling myself it's half, but still, i need to do better. I just feel so full when i drink that much. Maybe that's why they tell you to drink more water and it'll improve your health as well as your weight eh? I do hear often that we often mistake our bodies hunger cues. often we are actually thirsty, not hungry. So they say when you feel hungry, drink first, wait twenty minutes, and if you're still hungry then eat. Wow, if I'm really hungry twenty minutes is a long time! But i am going to try to do better. So day two, I did much better.
I know this one is hard to see, but the water line is just under the handle, yeah for me! I have noticed though that I have to pee a lot during the night, which is cramping up my sleep time, so I figure I need to get it all in by about seven. That's a lot of water to get in by seven, at least for me. I am sorry I do not have a picture of an empty pitcher yet. I have been working on it for a few days, and almost had it last night, but felt like vomiting, I know TMI. I guess I need to get my body use to drinking all this clear, healthy, good for you substance we call water. So, i know there are you die hards out there who probably drink two pitchers a day!, but my challenge to myself as to anyone else who does not want to be exposed to people they have to see every Sunday, or to people who just plain out want to make a healthy change in life; my challenge to all of us is to drink! More water of course, cheers!

FOREVER CRAFT

So, last year, or the year before that, yes I think it was two years ago, at a super saturday they made these personalized clocks. My mother-in-law made some for her girls, and i wanted one. i have been researching these since then, yes two years. they use to get the clock part from walmart, they were tables and you just didn't use the legs, but of course walmart no longer carried them. I looked all over for these, could find no where. i also tried to find the fancy hands, but the distributor would not let out her secret, she sold these clocks and did not want me stealing business, understandable. I have been recently distraught because all of my friends have these, so whenever I visit, i have to covet, which we are not suppose to do right? anyway, i was killing time one afternoon and wandered into the senior center, i know, gotta love the senior center. well, after following a lady around the store for 25 minutes hoping she would ditch the shelving she had in her cart, she finally checked out, giving me no hope for getting it. So, I wandered around the back and in the back corner of the senior center was my beauty, my waiting for, my covet. I quickly looked around as if someone would if they were stealing something and then ran for it, i had this sick sense in my gut that there were all these other people running for it too, even though I was the only person in the room. I snatched the table, paid seven bucks for it, praised the senior center for their wide variety of items, and checked out. I actually tried to get them to discount it if i took the legs off, i told them i only needed the top, but the lady just looked at me weird and said " um, no." oh well, i still bought it. I quickly went to work on this two year long craft. I could not have done it without my friends though. thanks to bethany, who lent her clock to me for getting an idea for the hands, thanks to korbi, for her cricket cutter for my letters, and thanks to my hubby for his graphing skills, which got it all layed out! yeah. I of course picked out the paint, and crackled it, which was a first for me. After two long years, my clock is done, and is hanging on my wall, for the rest of time. I love my friends, my hubby, my eye for good buys, and my ability to be determined to do something, no matter how long it takes. Now all we have to do is get our own house so we can paint the walls! And good thing is, I no longer have to covet, yeah for me.

MY FETISH

O.k everyone has some kind of fetish in life, some kind of thing that is just their thing, it's just what they do. Some people love crafts, dining out, flowers etc.... Well, my love in life is shoes, yep shoes. love em' So ever since we moved into this rental, we have a small closet, and besides the fact that I moved my "summer" shoes into a tub in storage, the closet just still can't hold all my shoes. I have been threatening Brandon that i was gonna go buy a shelf to at least fit half of them, i was just so tired of all the shoes all over the closet floor, and it made it soooo difficult to find the mate to the shoe you wanted, our prime reason for being late to church! Being the handy man Brandon is, he just doesn't buy whatever he can build himself, and he gets a kick, as well as an ego boost when he does build it.So, Because it was a holiday yesterday Brandon didn't have school, and he was so nice to opt out of working and spend the day with us. it was very nice and much needed. Well, after a trip to Lowe's he was off to the saw and the measuring. He let me peek a few times and it was looking pretty darn good. i was assured this would work out. after Brandon informed me there were over 73 pairs of shoes, not including my tub in the basement, i knew i had to take charge here and part with some of my collection. I mean honestly, who wears 75 pairs of shoes, well i do, just not on a regular basis. So, after a lot of thought and consideration, i picked out my favorite pairs and put the rest in a sack for goodwill. the sack is actually still sitting just outside by bedroom door, just in case i change my mind on any! I will be strong. well, after Brandon got done, this is what our fabulous shoe shelf looked like. Sorry, you can't get the full affect. the closet is quite long, the doors just aren't wide, dang it. Well, i was impressed, but Brandon insisted we return to Lowe's he needed another shelf and a few more things, so we headed out. after he locked himself in our room for a bit longer, he once again let me in for the finished project. Now, when i first saw the shelves, they were just like this, but when i went in again, the doors were shut, funny i thought, but oh well. so he stood back and said go ahead, pull them open and take a look. well, i opened that closet door and WHAM! I stepped into wonderland!
Yes, all you shoe lovers out there, this is a LIGHTED shoe shelf! Brandon ran lights under the shelves so every time i open the closet, my shoes light up, for a quick find of course! This picture was taken with the lights off, but it is still awesome with the lights on, and the best part, it's a motion sensor, so every time i open the doors, Bing! lights on! ready to choose. Isn't my husband awesome? This is soo cool for someone who loves shoes! Today I sat in front of the doors and kept opening and closing them, just to watch the lights, so cool! I love my hubby, and his ability to build fantastic stuff, saves us money, and brings out creativity, love it! love it! love it! These pictures hardly give it justice too, so my closet is open to whoever wants to indulge their fetish of shoes as well!

LIFE

Sometimes, o.k. well, all the time i find how I'm feeling through music. some call it musically inclined, others fell like lyrics are just lyrics, it's what sells the song, but i have always been able to express myself through music. I have been thinking a lot lately, about a lot of things. life, trials, why's, when's, how's, can's, cant's. a lot. i heard this song a while ago, and it has really stuck with me. it's a great inspiration to me and the path of life I'm on right now. Sometimes we are given lemons, sometimes we make great lemonade, sometimes we can't remember how to make lemonade, and frankly sometimes we make crappy lemonade. But I truly believe that trials make us stronger, I am a witness to this, and I truly believe that Faith makes us stronger. without faith, we have nothing. so, this is my song for now, and maybe it will be someone else's song out there too.

Hurry up and wait
So close, but so far away
Everything that you've always dreamed of
Close enough for you to taste But you just can't touch
You wanna show the world but no one knows your name yet,
Your wonderin' when and where and how you're gonna make it
You know you can if you get the chance
In your face theres a door keeps slamming
Now you're feeling more and more frustrated
And you're getting all kind of impatient waiting
We live and we learn to take
[ Chorus ]
One step at a time There's no need to rush
It's like learning to fly Or falling in love
It's gonna happen when it's Supposed to happen
that we Find the reasons why
One step at a time

You believe and you doubt
You're confused, you got it all figured out
Everything that you always wished for
Could be, should be, would be yours If they only knew
You wanna show the world but no one knows your name yet,
Your wonderin' when and where and how you're gonna make it
You know you can if you get the chance
In your face theres a door keeps slamming
Now you're feeling more and more frustrated
And you're getting all kind of impatient waiting
We live and we learn to take
[ Chorus ]
One step at a time
There's no need to rush
It's like learning to fly Or falling in love
It's gonna happen when it's Supposed to happen
that we Find the reasons why
One step at a time

When you can't wait any longer
But there's no end in sight
It's your faith that makes you stronger
The only way you get there Is one step at a time
[ Chorus ]
Take one step at a time
There's no need to rush
It's like learning to fly Or falling in love
It's gonna happen when it's Supposed to happen
that we Find the reasons why
One step at a time
[ Chorus ]
One step at a time
There's no need to rush
It's like learning to fly Or falling in love
It's gonna happen when it's Supposed to happen
that we Find the reasons why
One step at a time

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This year we had a monster, a witch, and a flower. Funny cause Conner has worn this costume for four years! when i pulled it out of the box, he said "mom i wanna be sully again" ( sully from monsters inc.) I said " oh honey, i doubt this costume will fit you this year, it was almost too small last year. While I was retrieving Presley the flower costume, Conner came running back into the room, fully clothed as Sully and proclaimed that the costume in deed still fit, and he was going to wear it. So to say the least, each year I take a Halloween photo and each year everyone is something new, and then there's sully. we have definitely received our money from the purchase of this costume!
We went to the stake carnival, i took chili, but was 12 minutes late and was told they had just finished the judging for the chili cook-off. what ever happened to Mormon standard time? I was sad, but by the end of the night all my chili was gone, so that's what mattered. The kids had fun running around at the carnival, we won three raffle prizes, Conner won the costume contest for the 5-8 year olds, there was like 50 kids!, and Brandon won the fast pitch baseball game, 72mph, wow. The evening was great. The kids went out again the next night, but only for about an hour. we imposed on the Aho neighborhood for our trick or treating. there were a lot of kids and we got to catch up with some friends we have not chatted with in a long time. Taylor insisted I be a witch with her. She was suppose to wear the hat with the hair, but after wearing it to school, she said it itched her head and she wanted to switch me hats.
Funny thing was, i wore it to the stake carnival, and no one recognized me. hopefully i have long silky, shiny, grey hair when i get old, fabulous. Brandon did not want to dress up, but he did pose for a Halloween photo.
Scary, huh? Halloween is always fun, especially for the kids. pumpkins, corn stalks, candy, costumes, what more could kids have fun with. I was so disappointed when i went into walmart BEFORE Halloween and all the Halloween decor was shoved into one isle, and all the CHRISTMAS stuff has taken over! Isn't there another holiday in between, an important one? Oh yeah, THANKSGIVING! We will be celebrating thanksgiving, before we think about Christmas, apparently we'll just have to do it fast. Happy Halloween!