Growing Up

I should be taking advantage of the fact I have one less kid today, and cleaning my house, but I realized I haven't blogged in over a month. I started having the kids update their blogs for their writing assignments on Friday, and so I would feel like a bit of a hypocrite if I didn't take some time to get something down too.

Allen is involved with the 11 year old scouts in our ward, and he had the opportunity to go camping with the big boys this weekend . . . in the mountains, in the snow. All the boys 11 to 18 in our area were able to go. I had no idea that it was that big before he went.

Allen was so excited. He packed 2 days in advance. He had such a tough time concentrating in school because he was so excited. Hubby was asked to come up as one of the chaperons. As they were getting into the car to leave, we saw that Allen had packed his stuffed woolly mammoth named Cludge. He sleeps with it every night. On his first camp out, he forgot Cludge, and he was not able to sleep well. I let Allen take him for the next several camp outs. When hubby saw that Allen had packed a stuffed animal to sleep with, he let him know that he could not bring Cludge. We had a little meltdown, and Allen cried all the way over to the drop off point. (Allen also decided to wear his footie pajamas that glow in the dark. Hubby wasn't delighted, but he allowed it.)

I told Allen that we have to learn to do things differently our whole lives. Allen turns 12 in a couple of months, and hubby and I have decided to let him start staying up later. I was talking to my mom, and I told her that I feel very much like I did when Allen gave up his naps. I was used to having a couple of hours to myself every day. I had a tough time adjusting to having two less hours of kid free time, but after a while, it wasn't such a big deal. I really enjoy my time at the end of the day when I don't have to be mom for a while, and this change will pretty much eliminate that time. I know that it will be an adjustment, but I know that eventually I can make the best of it. I guess you never stop growing up and adapting.

I hate being the bad guy. It broke my heart seeing Allen melt down like that. I hate it when I have to be strong and I have to be the mean guy when all I want to do is hug my kids and give them all the love I have to give them. I know that if I give them everything they ever ask for and everything to make their lives easier, they will never grow. I hate seeing my kids struggle, but I love seeing them succeed. I love seeing the confidence on their face when they accomplish something they didn't think they could do. Being a mom is really tough, and really awesome!!!

The things I have done.

I was tagged by Mimi.

Bold the items you have done:

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a Praying Mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Been to the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa at the Louvre
20. Slept on a train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud- and mom has the pictures to prove it. :)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Tied a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a Bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Visited Italy

Ab-Fab Sweetie Dahling

Here are the rules for receiving the fabulous award:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.
   

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget. Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

Mimi tagged me a long time ago to do this blog, but it has taken me forever because she already tagged everyone I know that blogs. So I am sorry, but I am not passing this on, but I will try to post my fabulous addictions.

1- I am addicted to many new thing I try. When I am losing weight, all I can talk about are the new meals I am cooking, and the new dress size I have reached, and how much I exercised that week. When I began being an instructor for a Coupon Company, I was addicting to being the best. I ended up having workshops every night of the week, and sometimes two on Saturdays. I burned out pretty quickly. When I began Flylady, I was addicting to sticking to my routines until I burned out. I don't do things halfway, and so I usually don't have the stamina to keep up with them.

2- I am addicted to TV. I don't watch it a ton, but I have tried to stop watching it completely, and I just can't. I especially have a hard time when I get hooked by a series.

3- Chocolate.

4- Facebook. I am loving seeing what all my old friends are up to.

5- Learning. I love discovering new things. I have loved homeschooling, because I am learning so much. When I was going to college, I really did wish I could stay there forever until I had taken every major there is. I would love to learn more about just about everything.

Faith and Hope

I've had something on my mind for a while now, and I have resisted posting because I didn't want to offend people close to me. I can't get it off my mind, so I have decided to go ahead and get my thoughts down.

Lately, I have felt like people have been judgemental of my dedication to my religion. I have some fantastic friends who have different views than I do. Some are wonderful, and tolerant, and some are very kind, but treat me like because I center my life around my religion, I am not capable of thinking for myself. It seems to me like the "popular" opinion has become to doubt everything that comes along. I think most people do believe in God. I think many people deny that there is a God simply because it seems that that is what Hollywood is doing, and it seems to be hip or cool. I am really annoyed by this.

I know that I have a Heavenly Father, and I know that he loves me. I also know that he loves every one of his children, and he would love to have every one of them enjoy the blessings that come from living a righteous life. I also know that he cannot bless them if they will not follow the commandments. It amazes me how many people try to find happiness everywhere except in living the way they should. I had my independent years where I had to find out everything for myself. I rebelled against the way my parents raised me thinking it was "old fashioned." I went through a lot of misery. I knew that all I had to do was live the way I knew I should, but I was afraid of what my friends at the time would think. I spent some time being unhappy. I thought I was mature because I was making up my own mind, but I realized that a lot of times, maturity comes when you humble yourself to realize you can learn from other people. Especially wise parents who tried their best to raise you the right way.

I think for most of my life, my religion has been a guiding factor in my life. It is not just a place I go to meet people, it directs just about everything I do in my life. Is this because I am not smart enough to make up my own mind? Is it because I am simply a follower, and I think that "acting" like I am being righteous will make me look better to other people? Nope! It is because I have faith, and because I have hope. I have never regretted following the counsel of the prophet. I have definitely regretted NOT following his counsel. I had a friend once who said, "If I die, and find out everything I believe in is not true, I would not regret they way I have lived for a second." I do believe in my religion, but I also believe the life that I live because of my beliefs is a much happier life.

I believe that happiness does come when we follow the counsel of the prophets. If the prophet stood up and said that every Tuesday we should wear a green shirt, I would be happy to follow the counsel. I wouldn't understand it, but I believe in President Monson as a prophet, and for me that is enough. I don't need to fight against his counsel every time. I do work to gain a testimony of the things he asks us to do, but I don't need to decide each time if I will or won't follow his counsel.

My life is happier because I am a religious person.

Christmas Gift Exchange

In our family, we started a new family tradition a few years ago.

When I was growing up, we used to draw names for Christmas gifts. We would each have a sibling or parents name, and we would pick a night and we would all go down to a store. I think it was called Grand Central, and later the name was changed to Fred Meyer. It was similar to today's Wal-mart. We would divide up into two groups, with Mom and Dad each being in charge of one of the groups, and we would go through the store finding gifts for each other. I remember many times when we would see the other group, and we would rush to run away from them so they wouldn't see the gifts we were buying. Everything was covered with coats in the cart anyway, but we would still run. Many times there were complications and we couldn't split up the groups so we divided all the givers and receivers, and so Dad would devise a game plan so we could pass some kids off from one parent to another so we could all get our gifts in one night. We would all go home, and mom and dad would help us wrap our presents and put them under the tree. My parents never put out the gifts that they had bought for us until Christmas Eve. In our house, Santa was a very minor part of Christmas. Our stockings were filled by "Santa," but we always knew the rest of the gifts were from our parents, they would just wait until Christmas Eve to put them out. Now that I have my own kids, I see how smart they were. The presents that we bought for each other were usually the only presents that made it under the tree until Christmas. I can't remember if the tradition of drawing names stopped for a while, but I know that we drew names after I got married.

After I got married we began drawing names for Christmas presents, and I think we tried many different things until we finally decided that each sibling/couple would buy for another sibling/couple, and each child would buy for another child. We exchange our family gifts at our family Christmas party. We did this for several years but soon some of our families became large, and some only had a couple of kids. A few years ago, as we were getting ready to draw names, some of the siblings asked to not be included because it was a little hard on the budget, and many others agreed that finding the money for the gift exchange added to the stress of the holidays. We all hated to have this fun tradition be a strain to anyone and so we started the tradition that the gifts all had to be homemade, and there had to be a $5 limit on kid gifts, and a $10 limit on couple/sibling gifts. I have to tell you that at the beginning, I was terrified. I am not a crafty person, and I am not that creative. When I have an idea, it is usually a pretty good one, but coming up with those good ideas is very hard for me. I was worried that the kids would be getting a 2 year olds crayon drawing, and they would think Christmas was lame. I do have to say though, that I really love this tradition now.

This is my Dad at 21. Isn't he handsome!!

This year we drew my sister, Mimi's, name. Mimi loved watching our home movies when we were growing up, and I had been wanting to burn our home movies onto DVD for her for a very long time. We bought the software a while ago, and I finally sat down and figured out how to work it. It wasn't very smooth, and we had a lot of trial and error before we got something I was happy with, but I was really happy when we were done. It was so overwhelming, but so great to spend that much time with our movies. I found many that I had never seen before. All of my grandparents have died, and so it was great to go back and watch all the movies of them. My favorite movie that I downloaded was a pretty long clip of all of us girls (there are 6 of us) and my brother playing baseball in the back yard with my dad. While we were playing, my Grandparents came out and started playing with us. I just sat there and cried as I watched it. It was wonderful to completely immerse myself in the movies. I had to watch each clip several times to get it ready to put on the DVD. It felt like I was watching a familiar movie. One where you know the ending, and you know the character development of each person. I watched the movies from the last year before my Grandma died, and I felt the panic as I watched it, and I saw us all having fun, but not savoring every last moment with her. I learned to love myself like I love one of my kids. I wanted to be able to talk to that little girl, and reassure her, and tell her she was a pretty neat kid. I loved putting the DVDs together for my sister, knowing she would love watching them, as much as I loved putting them together. I really loved putting something of myself into them. I know that I could have gone to the store, and picked out a present that my sister probably would have loved, but it felt great to give her something that came from me.


Mimi also had drawn my name. Mimi is an incredible gardener. She loves to make things grow, and her cute little yard is amazing. A few months ago, I read on her blog about her indoor herb garden she was growing, and I thought about how I needed to have her help me. I have wanted an herb garden for forever, and I even have a little spot in my backyard where I plan to put one when we get our yard in next year. Mimi had these cute pots she had planted her herbs in. Well that was my present. She was so excited when she talked about her herbs in her blog. I asked her if she had any left, and she told me that she had some seeds, and so she could start a new herb garden. She transplanted some of the herbs, but she ran out of pots. She even gave me all the cute little pots!! I love my herb garden. I am sure that I would have loved an herb garden that I started on my own, if the herbs lived, but I love this one so much more because it has part of Mimi in it.

My kids each LOVED their gifts too. Allen got a collection of Perler beads that glow in the dark, and some candy. He carried his Perler beads around all night last night, and then got them out first thing this morning. Michael got a very cozy pair of pajamas that he put on right away. Makenzie got a pink, heart shaped rice bag that she microwaved several times last night, and had to take to bed tonight, and Morgan got a blanket that is kind of a mix between a blanket and a scarf. It is perfect to keep him warm, but not trip him as he runs around the house. He loves it and has to sleep with it.

I have gone on long enough, but I was just thinking how much I love our new tradition, and how it hasn't turned out anything like I thought it would. I thought at best, it would be a way to save money, but it has really been a life changing experience for me. It sounds so cliche, but it is really true.

Husband Tag

Husband Tag (Kell)

I got tagged by my sister, so here is a little information about my hubby.

1- Where did you meet? We met in college. I heard about hubby before I met him. The first day I moved into a new apartment for summer, my new roommates and I all sat on the floor in one of the back bedrooms and shared all the juicy details on our latest crushes. One of my roommates had liked hubby for a very long time, and so the first time I met him (at FHE), although I thought he was incredibly good looking, I knew he was completely off limits (We even elected my roommate to be MOM and hubby to be DAD of our group). Two weeks later, another roommate moved in and she had also had a crush on hubby for a long time. Thankfully, the one I actually cared about moved out halfway through the summer, and the other roommate moved on to many other guys. We got to know each other, and the rest is history.

2- How long did you date before you got married? 10 months.

3- How long have you been married? 12 years.

4- What does he do that surprises you? I guess it doesn't surprise me anymore, but my husband is brilliant!! I'm not just saying that because I am biased, he has the IQ score to prove it. He is such a goofball. Most of his brainpower goes into making clever jokes, or coming up with new and unusual words to songs. He never thought he was all that smart, and he was even put into resource classes when he was younger. I don't think he even knew how brilliant he was. He is so goofy (see above picture) and adorable it comes as a shock to most people. I definitely got the whole package.

5- What is your favorite feature of his? I love his hair. Everyone loves his hair. It is gorgeous and curly. Everywhere we go, people comment on it. His co-workers have told me that they hold daily discussions about it. He, of course, is very embarrassed by it.

6- What is your favorite quality of his? I love that he is such a great father. He is definitely the favorite parent. He often will just stop whatever he is doing and tell me what fantastic kids we have. He is fun, and loving and our home is always a happier place when he is home. His mom raised one of the kindest most compassionate families I have ever met.

7- Does he have a nickname for you? He calls me babe. I love it! It makes me feel special.

8- What is his favorite color? When you ask him this question, he struggles to come up with one. Often it will change. I think his favorite color most of the time is Orange. He grew up in the desert, and he loves the browns, rusts, and oranges of the desert. I personally hate orange. I was trying to be kind, an find an orange that I could live with to paint the bedroom. I have not been able to do it. Our bedroom is still unpainted.

9- What is his favorite food? I really don't know. He likes almost everything, but he is also picky about things. He will eat whatever I put in front of him, but he rarely really loves it. He has worked in restaurants, and is a fantastic cook. I know he appreciates eating whatever he doesn't have to cook (He is definitely the cook here) but I think he likes experimenting to get just the flavor he likes. Whenever we go to a restaurant, he almost always orders something he has never tried before. I always order the same thing, and he always makes fun of me.

10- What is his favorite sport? I don't know. We had a volleyball court at our apartment when we were dating, and we had a lot of fun playing. He will watch football, but it definitely isn't an obsession. He is left handed, so many sports didn't come as easily for him. We had a ton of fun watching the Arizona Diamondbacks win the world series a few years ago, and we have also followed the Utah Jazz.

11- When and where was your first kiss? End of August 1995. My sister was visiting me, and Jayson and I had been flirting all night. I told my sister to go take a walk so we could make out in the apartment. She still hasn't forgiven me. (Sorry Mimi!)

12- What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? This is so lame, but we love to watch TV and movies together. We have a couple of series that we follow. Hubby was gone for a week, and I tried to watch The Office and it just wasn't as funny without him. We have a Netflix account, and we go through movies pretty quickly. We definitely get our moneys worth.

13- Do you have any children? Yep, we have 4.

14- Does he have a hidden talent? He can create amazing new witty lyrics to any song. It always rhymes, and will make you laugh almost every time. At the end of my first pregnancy, I was huge, two weeks overdue, and annoyed by everything. He was always coming up with new songs, and I was always wishing he would stop. My mom came out to help us, and she kept pointing out how funny his songs were. Once I stopped being annoyed, I was pretty amazed. He also has an amazing voice!

15- How old is he? 35, almost 36

16- Who said I love you first? I think he did, he thinks I did. When we first started dating, I wasn't expecting it to last very long. Hubby was kind of known for going through a lot of women quickly. I tried to keep it really casual, and I would often ask myself if I loved him, and I would always answer that I didn't. One day, I realized that I couldn't say I didn't love him anymore. I couldn't necessarily say that I did, but I couldn't say that I didn't. I told him, and he counts that as me saying it first. He actually said the words, "I love you," first.

17- What is his favorite type of music? According to his iTunes, it is Alternative, Pop, and Rock. Of course they classify U2, Erasure, and Depeche Mode as Rock.

18- What do you admire most about him? His ability to love unconditionally.

19- Do you think he will read this? Eventually. He rarely reads my blog.

I tag Nicole.

Birthday Outfit

Makenzie's Birthday was yesterday, and so she wore her "most beautifullest" outfit. Usually I let her wear whatever she wants when we stay home, and she often comes up with an outfit like the one above. Yesterday, we went out in public. She loves pink, and stripes, and hearts, and balloons, and checks, and so why shouldn't she wear all of them together. It is also the best way to maximize the pink factor.

I am not sure if I should start quelling her fashion sense, or if I should just rejoice that she is with us all day, and so her individuality won't be humiliated out of her by her peers. I know I need to break the news to her somehow. I don't think a prospective employer would take her seriously in this.