Things that make me happy right now

1. Exercise! For the first time in my life -gasp!- I have a regular exercise regimen. It's only been a few days, but I'm now walking 2 miles with a friend each morning before the rest of our families wake. And since we both depend on the other to go, I can't skip. It's a lot easier to get up than I thought it would be, and I like coming home and starting the day so full of energy. I get so much more done! And I usually take the dogs and kids on a 30-minute walk later in the morning, as well.


2. Primary children. I've been subbing for the Primary pianist for about 2 months now, and I'm really enjoying it. Yesterday they sang "Holding Hands around the world." At the chorus, they all joined hands and stood up as they sang, "We are children holding hands around the world. Like an army, with the gospel flag unfurled. We are led by His light, for we love truth and right. We are building the kigdom of God."

I get chills everytime they sing that part! I usually sing along just help out, but I can never sing that part because I get choked up and can't focus on what I'm playing. Just thinking about them singing it is making me a little teary-eyed.

(This is a random pic of kids that are actually singing the song at a ward campout here in Utah! I love the internet!)

3. My dryer! For a while, it wasn't working right and would take like 8 hours to dry one load. Then we had a power outage and it started working! That was 2 weeks ago and I still get a kick out my laundry being done so quickly. Simple minds, simple pleasures...


4. The Fourth of July. I absolutely love parades. And my kids are old enough to both enjoy it this year. Plus, my parents, little brother, and grandma are coming out from Kansas for TWO WEEKS!! I'm so excited for them to see my kids.

5. The Twilight series. Yes, I've read it a few times before and I'm reading it again. I'm about halfway through New Moon and I forgot what a compelling story it is!! The final chapter of the saga come out in just 32 days!! And the MOVIE will be out December 12th!! Levi's even going to go see it with me!


What makes YOU happy?

A first for me

Guess what I got for the first time today.

Does life get any better than this?

20 year tag

Thanks to Anna for this tag!

20 years ago I was:
1. 4 years old and going to preschool
2. Extrememly confident. My mom tells the story that one day I said that there were some girls in my class who didn't want to be my friend. Before she could say anything to make me feel better, I said, "They don't know what they're missing!" What can I say? I was pretty cool.
3. Best friends with my little brother, Alex.

10 years ago I was:
1. 14 and enjoying school. I made a lot of friends in 8th grade, and was a cheerleader. It was nice to finally have a niche.
2. Attending church dances and LOVING them!! I started developing some serious crushes at 14 (some that I look back on now and cringe)
3. I think this is when I met Levi. We both remember dancing with each other, though we didn't know it then. We each remember what the other looked like, and that a girl from his ward interrupted our dance because apparently our wards were having a feud. (I think it was over girls basketball. SO dumb...)

5 years ago I was:
1. Exactly 5 years ago today I knew that Levi and I were supposed to be together. (I looked it up in my journal.) I wrote that had fallen in love with him all over again and could see us together forever.
2. Getting engaged and planning a wedding in 7 weeks.
3. Starting a whole new life in Utah with the man God intended for me.

3 years ago I was:
1. Thinking about getting pregnant with my second child.
2. Going to my sister-in-law's wedding in Mesa, AZ.
3. Serving in the Primary Presidency and building great friendships.

1 year ago I was:
1. Celebrating the 1st birthday of my second child.
2. Scrimping and saving every penny I could because my husband was without a job. (The company he worked for couldn't afford to pay him, so he quit. Yeah, that was fun.)
3. Spending the days with my family who was out to visit from Kansas.

So far this year:
1. We moved into our first home.
2. Levi started a dog-training business that's almost going too well.
3. We have two dogs.

Yesterday:
1. I finished The Joy Luck Club.
2. I went to the park with a friend and our kids.
3. I watched one of my favorite routines on So You Think You Can Dance and the finale of Farmer Wants a Wife. And my girl won!! He picked Brooke! (Don't mock me. Wednesdays are the nights Levi's gone and I get the TV all to myself. And there are few things I love more than reality TV)

Today:
1. Walked 2 miles this morning with my friends.
2. Had my visiting teachers over.
3. Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. fun fun fun

Tomorrow:
1. I will read Twilght again.
2. Take the kids to play at a friend's.
3. Hopefully go to the ward party if my DH can get off work

In the next year I will:
1. Probably get knocked up.
2. Hopefully (cross my fingers, knock on wood!) have my best friend/sister-in-law move to Utah!
3. Read Breaking Dawn and see the Twilight movie. I am SO excited for those two things!!!

And I tag: Aubrey, Rachel W. and frumpy luv

Momma said there'd be days like this

Yesterday I was wasting time on the computer while the boys were watching Robin Hood. OOOH da-lolly! After a bit, I turned around to see what exactly the boys were doing - sitting on the couch, lying on the floor, etc. I see Eric on the floor with his little booty in the air. It kinda looks like he's licking something off the floor.

Huh?

I go over and what do I find but a half-empty bottle of ketchup that I had bought THE DAY BEFORE. It's contents spilled onto the carpet. Eric was presently licking the ketchup off the ground.

Are you KIDDING me?!

I know, I should've taken a picture for you all to laugh at. But it was in his hair, his shoes, and all over his clothes and legs. I didn't have time for a picture. Naptime and (more importantly) General Hospital were fast approaching and I needed to get him cleaned up quick. I tried to get all the ketchup out of the carpet, but I think I'm either going to need to rent a machine or just hire carpet cleaners.

Especially after Part II of the story.

Part II:
Later after naps, the boys wanted to go outside. After a while, Eric wanted to go inside and watch more Robin Hood, but Isaac still wanted to play outside. Okay. I let Eric in and only closed the screen door so I could keep an eye on him. (Understandably.)

I read my book and watched Isaac play with the neighbor kid. Checked on Eric. Then Isaac got into something, and I went to get him out of whatever it was. I decided it was time to come in, clean the dirt off his nose and start dinner.



I walk in to find Eric with the bottle of sunscreen. He loves to put it on himself and was doing just that. And it, too, was all over the carpet.



Seriously.

PLEASE tell me someone else has days like these!

Ode to Diet Dr. Pepper

Oh, sweet nectar of the gods,
You delight me.
Can I get you from the tap?
You're so savory.

Just picking up the glass with you inside
Fills me with great anticipation.
Your cool burn down my throat
Is my favorite sensation.

You taste more like regular,
You're sugar-free,
You taste SO much better than those other colas,
And you're fat-free!

This dark fizzy liquid
Makes everything better.
A sip of your scrumptiousness
and I'm suddenly a go-getter.

The best late-night pick me up
To ever be brewed.
ACK! I JUST SPILLED THE LAST OF IT!
Now what the heck am I going to do?

I'm so busy my head is spinnin

I'm posting now because I have a blog friend who needs something to keep her mind off not getting a phone call she's expecting. So be prepared for whatever enters my mind.....

I've had a pretty productive day so far, for me at least. We've all had breakfast, kids had a bath, I put in contacts and applied make up, posted a lot of pictures to a family website, tidied, washed a load of laundry, folded and put away another load, unloaded the dishwasher, vacuumed, took Resolve to some tough spots on the carpet, dressed the kids, deep cleaned the bathroom, made everyone's beds.

Wow! I didn't realize how much I'd gotten done! Very satisfying. (My days are never like this!!) Usually, I read a book or enter the blogosphere for an hour, maybe two. I make sure the kids are fed and changed, but that's about it!! I feel quite fulfilled.

Left on my list for today: Get myself dressed, do my hair, go to wal-mart and buy bread, a shovel, paint roller refills, a glue stick and "To Do List" notepad, fill the holes that the dogs have dug in the backyard, touch up paint on walls, walk the dogs, make lunch, make dinner, try not to eat too much chocolate (or cheese sticks!! I had NO idea how much saturated fat was in a cheese stick! And here I thought I was being healthy and getting my servings of dairy in a day. See, this is what I get for trying to be healthy!), go to the library and pray to find Toy Story since my kids are begging for it, finish scrapbook pages for the swap tomorrow night, clean sofa cushions, make brownies for friends coming over tonight, tidy house again before husband comes home, tidy house AGAIN before friends come over. Whew. I think that's it.

Oh, and blog and get like 25 comments from people who think I'm a hilarious wonder woman. Maybe I only have like 3 people who look at each day, and if so, it's cool. Whatever. But if I really have more and it's just people LURKING who don't leave comments, well, shame on you. :o) I measure my self-esteem by the amount of comments I get, and it's been sadly lacking of late! (Okay, I'm not that pathetic, but comments are still nice.) "Happiness is a comment box overflowing."

I think that's all for now, but stay-tuned. I'll probably give up on half of my list and post again. Just 'cuz I can.




subliminal message: comment comment comment

The new and improved model of me will have this feature

I got out and went for a walk today. Before you think it was a leisurely stroll, know I had the kids in the double stroller with me. And the two dogs. Who do NOT know how to behave on a walk. They do pretty good for Levi, but he also does not have a stroller with 65 pounds in it. And he actually knows how to work with dogs. He's tried teaching me, and I try training the dogs, but it never works out like I want it to.

I usually take about a 20 minute walk, because that's about all I can take between the 4 kids with me. But today I decided I wanted more exercise than that and went for 45 minutes. The dogs were pretty good on the last half, but that first 20 minutes was a constant battle! Our older dog just will NOT slow down. She's so excited all the time, and the leash is always taught. There've been a few times that my hand stays red and chaffed for hours following the walk.

So by the time they calmed down, I was thinking, "Ugh! I'm exhausted!" Then I realized that my body wasn't really that tired at all, I was just mentally exhausted.

Wouldn't it be great if mental exertion equaled physical exertion? Think about all times you focus really hard on something. Those mornings that your kids are in time out for 2 hours straight because they just won't obey and you can't back down or they'll never respect you. Or all the hard work you put into lessons for Sunday School or talks. The time you spend studying, trying to finish school and be a good mom and wife. Or all the time you spend thinking about serious, serious stuff in life, i.e. more children, contingency plans if your life is suddenly turned upside-down, whether or not your a good mom, etc.

I mean, would'nt it be AWESOME if all that brain power burned calories? Seriously! I'd be a heck of a lot skinnier!! So who do I talk to about this? What's the address for the patent office? 'Cuz I think it'd be a best-seller.

Take Five Tuesday

There's a site for bloggers that gives daily topics, and Tuesdays are Take 5. So here we go!

1. 5 of your favorite cookies, (or cookie recipes.)

Chocolate Chip

Chocolate Chunk

Lofthouse sugar cookies

Peanutbutter

Oreos

2. 5 things you’re afraid of:
Levi dying
Levi dying before he's 60
My children dying
My children ruining their lives
Rodents




5 things you would like to learn:
Belly dancing
How to fall asleep in less than 5 minutes whenever I want
How to cut my own hair
Frugality (that one's Levi's suggestion)
How to write a best-seller



5 things you wanted to accomplish at the beginning of the year, but you haven’t yet done (if you have 5.)
Lose weight (yeah, original. I know)
Get a hair cut
Refinish the hardwood floors
Teach my kids how to be good in church
Get pregnant (still not sure about that one. See previous item) LOVE this commercial

5 of your favorite things to do during the summer:
Swim
Get a tan
Spend time with family
Have parties
Go to parades/festivals (I LOVE the pipe bands and drumlines! I seriously get chills and get a little misty-eyed every time I hear a drum line. Weird, huh?)

The PAPAAAAA! The PAPA! --------- Tradition!!

My dad and I have had a great tradion since I was 3. Every year on my birthday, we would go out to eat at the same restaurant. It was a little place called "Old Mill's Tasty Shop," that was downtown and about a 3 minute walk from his work. I think it's been there since the 1920s! It's just oozing with character and charm.

We would only go there on my birthday, and we got the same thing every time. We split a club sandwich (cut into quarters with fancy toothpicks) and a chocolate-banana malt. (To this day drinking them reminds me of him.) Then we'd get a sundae for free since it was my special day.

I can't tell you how much I loved this. Every year at school, even through high school, I would brag on my birthday about going out to eat with my dad. It just made me feel so special. I will always treasure this tradition my dad created for me.

Thanks, Dad. Happy Father's Day.

Why do I do this to myself?

Why do people write books about husbands dying? Why are these books made into movies? Why do I read/watch them when I'm paranoid that my husband is going to die? Why do I read/watch them when he's out late and it's so easy for me to imagine he's dead?

And if he dies, who's going to kill the mice?! (They're not just mice, they're R.O.U.S's. And the do exist. To this day, I'm sure The Princess Bride is why I'm scared of rodents. Thanks a lot, mom and dad.)

But I still need someone to kill the ROUS's! Levi, you better not die tonight. At least come home and set the traps, please. Thanks, sweetheart.


P.S. I watched P.S. I love you tonight. Stupid wonderfully romantic yet achingly painful movie.

I give it 5 stars.

My review

I finished The Host yesterday. I loved it. It's different from Twilight in that the love story doesn't seem as concentric to the novel, but good nevertheless. There's so much that happens. By the time I was a third of the way in, I thought, This could acutally be the end, but it obviously wasn't. This is definately not a slow-moving book! There seemed to be mini-gospel themes, but this is not your typical LDS-author work of fiction. Probably as far from it as you could find.

And it's not confusing. While it's technically a sci-fi, it doesn't feel like one. Very easy to follow and understand. And while I'm sure SM did a good deal of research, she didn't set out to explain an alien species or their technology in great detail. There's enough for you to understand what's going on, and not much more. (Personally, I liked that.) It's more....imaginative, than it is technical.

I'm a fast reader, and tend to skim over paragraphs that have no conversation in them. Just a bad habit I've been unable to break. Consequently, I'm sure I missed details that add to the story. I mean, I know all the important stuff and most of the unimportant details, butI now need to take my time and read every single word! I want to cement more the the story into my brain. Now that I know the story and how it ends, I can focus on the more minute parts. By the way, you have to read to the last paragraph to know the conclusion! There was always the possibility of things changing, which I loved. I can't think of the last time I read a book where I got to the last chapter and didn't know how it was going to end! I loved it.

So. Now I need to read it again and grasp more of the underlying themes. I would most definately encourage anyone to read this book. I think men might enjoy more than Twilight, though I know it has a sizeable male following. But this has body-snatching aliens!! Though Twilight has vampires and werewolves. But again, The Host's plot doesn't center around the love story as much. At any rate, I highly recommend it.

And thanks again to Lori and Delaynie for sending it to me! You guys are the best!

Sometimes, just sometimes, you get what you want

A couple of weeks ago, I had a mini-meltdown. Not a big deal, really. I mean, I got over the the immaturity of the moment, though I do still want all those things. The mini-van, the chocolate, and The Host, in particular. I got to watch American Idol and was thrilled that David Cook won (it's his music you're probably hearing right now.) I also went and bought a bag of Raisinets that night to get me through the week, and Isaac doesn't mess with my cushions too much anymore.

But then yesterday, this was on my porch when I went to check the mail.

I was definately intrigued and opened it right away to find this:

WOO HOO!! Lotta choc-o-lotta!!!! And then, I saw this:

What?! No way!! I can't believe they did this!!

My aunt and cousin who live in Arkansas sent it to me!!! I was so touched!! Definately the best surprise I've had in months. So very sweet and considerate of them. I'm still in a state of wonder that they did this for me.

So sometimes, just sometimes, you get what you want. If you throw a big enough fit about it on your blog. :o) And have people in your life in your life who like to do things for others. Thanks again, Lori and Delaynie.

time out

Yesterday the boys were having a hard time getting along. They both needed to go to time out, but since we only have one time out corner, I put them both in their rooms and locked the doors. (I needed a bit of a time out, too.) About 5 minutes later, I let Isaac out. I didn't hear anything from Eric, so I let him stay in there, knowing he was most likely playing with toys, and opening the door would be a distraction he wouldn't appreciate. When he gets worked up, he really just needs to be left alone till he's all calmed down.

About 30 minutes later, I didn't hear him at all and peeked in to see what he was up to. I found this:


I put Eric in his room a little more than an hour before naptime, but I guess he was worn out! I really didn't expect to find him asleep on the floor with the light on! This was the best time out EVER!! (And yes, he's sucking on his blanket like a pacifier.)

wordless wednesday