Random Blogging

I keep forgetting to post about Emma. I loved having the Jane Austen Masterpiece on again! I wasn't able to watch it Easter night but I did the next day and I have watched it again since. I loved Kate Beckinsale in this role. She was beautiful. Did anyone else watch it?

I have also been wanting to post about this upcoming movie. It opens today here in Mesa and looks like something I would really like. Watch the trailer and see what you think.

Today I read a blog post about prom horror stories. There is a give away attached for people who submit their own prom stories - I did comment with a story and even though it is not really a horror story - more of a tragedy I guess - I am going to copy it here with a few additions.

My Junior year prom was great fun. I went with a boy I really liked - my mom made me a beautiful pink dress that I loved. We went to the lake during the day and jet skied and had a picnic - I had the most fabulous tan in our prom pictures. My date wore a pink tuxedo jacket, black pants and pink converse high tops (it was 1986) and it was the best time. This boy now lives in our stake. I see him occasionally - he has twin daughters the same age as my twins - they are good friends. His girls were in my group last year at girl's camp - there was much ribbing about our prom pictures along the lines of "you had huge hair"!

That has happened twice. I actually went to two proms my Junior year. The one with the pink dress was for Mt. View High School - that is where the boy attended. My prom at Mesa High was pretty low key. My mom made me a red dress for that one - she was still finishing it up when my date showed up. We sat there nervously talking (me in my bath robe) while waiting for it to get done. He was a senior and a really good friend. We had a great time but lost contact after High School. My kids attend a Montessori school where kids come from all over the valley to attend. When my oldest daughter was in 2nd grade, she really been wanted to set up a play date with a girl from school, when I was talking to the mom of this girl we figured out that her husband was my prom date. We see each other all of time at school functions now - his wife and I are good friends.


My Senior prom was going to be even more fantastic. My mom and I had taken a trip to Los Angeles during my Spring Break and I got a fabulous Adrienne Vitadinni dress in the garment district. I felt so mature in it - it was black! I never wore black back then. My date was the Student Body President and we were going with the funnest group. The boys had planned a day activity and were keeping it very secret. They just told us to wear good walking shoes (of course I wore by high top Reeboks!) and be ready at 6:00 in the morning. Our parents knew what was going on but wouldn’t tell us.


They came to get us and we headed to the airport. This was 1987 and Southwest Airlines was just growing and moving in to the Phoenix market with incredibly low fares. You could fly round trip to the L.A. area for $29 dollars - sometimes they went on sale for $19. Our dates took us to Disneyland for the day! We couldn’t believe it - we flew over, took a shuttle bus and spent the day at Disneyland. The plan was that we would leave Disneyland at 3:00 to catch a 4:00 flight (no security or anything back then) and be home by 5:00 to start getting ready for dinner and the dance.

Can you see it coming? We missed the 4:00 flight, the next one was at 5:30 - it was full. The next one was 7:00 - two of the couples got on that. The last one was at 10:00 and it was full. We were stuck at the Orange County airport. We were so scared and didn’t know what we were going to do. We had been in contact with our parents the whole time but it was just devastating that we had missed the dance. My dress was not going to get worn. We were three couples - six teenagers - on our own in a strange place. My dad got us a hotel room and paid for it over the phone but he made us swear that the boys would sleep on the floor. Then I guess he got nervous and started driving. About 4:00 in the morning someone was banging on our hotel room door. It was my dad - he came to drive us the 6 hours home to Mesa. He said that he didn’t want us to miss church - we all put on our prom clothes and went to church together that afternoon.


My only prom picture from my Senior year is of me and my date wearing mickey ears in a photo booth at Disneyland. It was not what I thought my Senior Prom would be but it was very memorable!

Back In the Day

I was cleaning out the closet in our spare bedroom, we usually call it the den or the junks, it really is a junk room with a bed, a tv, the playstation, all of my scrapbooking stuff, our Christmas tree and most of our books. I came across a box of cassette tapes. The box itself is a silver gift box from Dillards that we received some of our wedding china in. We had several of those boxes and in the first few months of our marriage, they were our bedside tables. I didn't realize we still had so many cassettes. A lot of them were from our missions - tapes we made for our families etc... But I ran across a couple of other good ones. The bad thing is that we don't have a single cassette player in this house.

I'll bet there is not a single person who reads this who remembers the Sparks. I loved that song. I have some awesome 80's cassettes; Tears for Fears, Dead or Alive, Sugar Cubes, and the soundtrack from My Turn on Earth. Alan had a much broader collection including Midnight Oil, The Oak Ridge Boys, Neil Diamond, U2, the Police and Marty Robbins. I found tapes that we taped from the radio (KZZP 104.7 fm) including several Sunday nights worth of Dr. Demento.

So, in honor of the mix tape I found that my 11th grade boyfriend, William Ferris, made me that consisted of mainly Journey songs, I am posting this mix tape for you all to enjoy!

I Really Hate When People Don't Update Their Blogs Regularly!

I don't know what my problem is. But I do have one!



Cheryl game me an award on her blog! I started stalking Cheryl and her blog maybe 3 or 4 months ago. I don't even know how I happened upon it but when I did - I discovered we had a lot in common and I left her a few comments. She is great and she posts everyday even though she has four young kids and she is in the process of moving! I've never really understood these web awards but I am totally accepting it with the following speech. I would like to thank Nicole, my blogging mentor. After giving up our family blog, Nicole urged me to start a personal one. I would also like to thank Kelly B who is way funnier, smarter and prettier than me. When I see on my google reader that she has posted, I can't get there fast enough. Of course none of this would be possible without bloggers like C Jane, Dandelion Mama, D-dawg, Celia Fae and Kristy Glass - all of whom I managed to stumble upon during my early blogging adventures. And thanks to the academy.



Our spring break was uglified by sickness but totally redeemed in the end with a visit from friends. Our Easter was enjoyable - my mom came to church with us, which was nice. It seemed so strange because our Morgan was with a friend in California until Sunday night. I didn't take any pictures of the other kids in their Easter clothes because it would have seemed weird with just the three of them. I tried real hard to stay on my diet but I am ashamed to admit to all of the chocolate I ate. And the left over funeral potatoes, and the banana cream pie - well, you get the idea. After I weighed in today (I lost one pound) I vowed to be enthusiastic about weight loss again right after my Paradise Bakery breakfast.



I am buying a three month trial membership to a local gym. I'm a little bit nervous, I have never set foot in a gym before. I don't know how or why that is the case but I think I have always been intimidated by the hot bodies that will be there showing a lot of skin. I really think that doing this will help re-motivate me with exercise.



I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult recently, it is about school bullies and a school shooting. It scared me a little bit. I don't like sending my kids to school. I really love sending them to school but it scares me to think what is really going on during those seven hours they are away from me. This book really made me think about what I would do if someday I sent my kids to school and one of them did not come back. I have had a few nightmares because of that. I heard John Bytheway speak shortly after the Columbine shootings and the counsel he gave was so amazing. He wrote a book about the talk he gave to the members there called 'When Times are Tough: 5 Scriptures that Will Help You Get Through Almost Anything'. In that book he quoted Boyd K. Packer; "Do not suppose that God willfully causes that which, for His own purposes, he permits. When you know the plan and the purpose of it all, even these things will manifest a loving Father in Heaven" I have been thinking about that quote a lot while pondering some of the tragedies of this world.


To less serious subjects. I love a good blonde joke - I am blonde - I have always been blonde - I think I am pretty smart so they don't offend me. My brother sent this one to me yesterday: The local sheriff was looking for a deputy, so a blonde went in to try out for the job.
"Okay, honey," the sheriff drawled, "What is 1 and 1?"
"Eleven," she replied.
The sheriff thought to himself, "That's not what I meant, but she's right."
Then the sheriff asked, "What two days of the week start with the letter 'T'?".
"Today and Tomorrow," she replied.
He was again surprised that the blonde supplied a correct answer that he had never thought of himself.
"Now, listen carefully, who killed Abraham Lincoln?", asked the sheriff.
The blonde looked a little surprised herself, then thought really hard for a minute and finally admitted, "I don't know."
The sheriff replied, "Well, why don't you go on and work on that one for a while?"
So, the blonde wandered over to the beauty parlor, where her buds were waiting to hear the results of the interview.The blonde was overjoyed.
"It went great! First day on the job and I'm already working on a murder case!"

Happy Easters!

I have been battling infection and sickness for a long time now. I think I am finally over it. I haven't blogged much about our boring Spring Break but lets just say it has been boring. Morgan got her wish to go somewhere - she left Wednesday to go to California with the family of one of her good friends. We miss her a lot around here, she wont be home until Sunday night - so our Easter is going to be quiet without her. Devon got to go riding all day today with Alan, so he is happy. It seems like my kids have spent very little time at home or with me this week - mostly because I have not been feeling well and have not been very fun.

I really love the Easter ideas posted at Tales today. I remember reading that post last year and wanting to institute more spiritual traditions around here at Easter. We do make the empty tomb rolls every year and we have a special Easter egg hunt on Sunday with the 12 eggs that tell the story of the crucifixion and resurrection. Next year I really want to try a few new things. My kids no longer believe in the Easter Bunny but they definitely expect Easter baskets full of treats and presents. I love doing that for them, even if it really doesn't have anything to do with Easter.

I hope everyone has the opportunity to reflect on the miracle that is the resurrection this weekend. Enjoy a chocolate bunny too!

Monday Morning Meltdown

Happy St. Patrick's Day. Today would have also been my parent's 40th wedding anniversary. I must go call my mom!

Today is the first day of Spring Break - What am I going to do all week?!! We had big plans to go to California but that didn't pan out. Now I have four kids home for a week with no great ideas to keep them busy. Last night I asked them what one thing would they really love to do this week. D said he wanted to go riding. Check! We are doing that tomorrow afternoon. C wants to go to the mall. Check! We can do that today! M wants to go camping. Sorry Charlie, not going to happen. She amends it to say she wants to get some money so that when we go to the mall she can buy something. N wants to go to Disneyland. Nope - try again. Knott's Berry Farm? Nope - try again. Can we see a movie? Check! My kids know their limits!

I taught the lesson in Relief Society yesterday. It was about the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon. I was pretty excited to teach that lesson and then I lost my voice. I sounded like the Bass section of the Mo Tab. I shared some things that I had from my mission, a 60 day reading program that I do at least once a year and a memory system that my mission president came up with where you can memorize the Book of Mormon. Well, you memorize what every chapter is about. I was amazed at how many women came up to me afterwards and wanted copies of that program!

One of my favorite quotes about the Book of Mormon was found at the end of the lesson. It was taken from a letter that the Elders of the church in Kirtland wrote to their brethren abroad. The prophet Joseph had been telling them that the Book of Mormon is a stream of knowledge that we must all drink from and that "those who have tasted the benefit derived from a study of those words, will undoubtedly vie with each other in their zeal for sending them abroad throughout the world." That wasn't my favorite quote - this is:

"He that can mark the power of Omnipotence, inscribed upon the heavens, can also see God's own handwriting in this sacred volume: and he who reads it oftenest will like it best, and he who is acquainted with it, will know the hand wherever he can see it; and when once discovered, it will not only receive an acknowledgment, but an obedience to all its heavenly precepts."

I love the Book of Mormon!

Things in my house are breaking every where I turn. My computer is totally done. It will only stay on for about 10 minutes. My brother is coming to look at it sometime this week. I'm hoping he won't be able to fix it and I will have to get a new one. Our MSN has a virus so I have been doing most of my e-mailing etc... from my phone.

My washing machine broke on Tuesday. That is serious trouble around here. We do a LOT of laundry. It cost me $300. to repair. It was worth it but the wrath of the mother almost exploded when I found out it broke because the pump filter was full of sunflower seeds that a certain boy had filled the pockets of his shorts with. Found that out the same day the same boy broke a large living room window while golfing in the back yard! Poor boy has felt the wrath of mother a few times this week.

I have been married to my husband for almost fifteen years. I know he is a cool cat. Nothing really ruffles his feathers. But during the window breaking episode he was sitting on the couch talking to a member of our Stake Presidency and a make shift golf club comes barreling through the window right where he is sitting and his voice never even changes. He looks at the broken glass everywhere and just keeps talking. I think the whole world is ending and I am running around frantic trying to figure out what has just happened and Alan is acting as if this sort of thing happens every day. I wish I could be more like that.

I ordered a cute dress from shabbyapple.com (at Jill's recommendation) to wear with my green shoes! I'm so exited for that to come. I wore a suit to church yesterday that I have had for about 8 years. It was so out of style and dated and dowdy but it fit! And I was so excited that it fit that I wore it!

Conversation With a Six Year Old

A friend sent me a new kind of meme survey - one that you ask your young child the questions. So, I really only have one "young-ish" child - she is almost seven, but I am interested in her answers:

How many teeth have you lost? two

What is your favorite thing to eat? spaghetti, lasagna and pizza.

What is your favorite sport? volleyball, except when it is outside and then I hate it.

What are you best at in sports? roller skating

What subject do you do best at in school? math facts

What does mommy do while you are at school? I don't know, party? (true)

What do you like to do after school? play with my friends

How old is mommy? (answer omitted because she really knows!)

How tall is mommy? I don't know, maybe 25 inches

What time does mommy wake up? 3 something, like 3:10 or something.

What do you love about mommy? she is nice and pretty and she kisses me all the time.

What would you change about mommy?I don't like that she has to eat different food than us.

Why did God make mommies? for us, because if we didn't have mommies we would be all alone.

Why did your mommy marry your daddy? cuz Daddy was nice and handsome.

Who is the boss at your house? Mommy and Daddy

What is the difference between moms and dads? Dads are boys and moms are girls.

How old is daddy? 36 (True, and I don't care who knows!)

How tall is daddy? 27 inches

What is daddy’s favorite sport? Basketball and oh! Golf!

How strong is daddy? ummm a hundred!

What does daddy do? Play golf and work and go to meetings.

What do you like best about daddy? That he is strong and really nice and that he is always nice to me and plays with me and he puts me in bed when I fall asleep downstairs.

What is the movie that our family likes to watch together the best? Nacho Libre

What is the best thing about you? hummmm a lot of things, I'm pretty and I'm nice to my friends and I am nice to Devon.

What is your favorite cartoon? SpongeBob

What is your favorite color? pink and yellow

What is your favorite dessert? root beer floats

What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

Where is your favorite place to go? Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm

What is your favorite restaurant? The Chinese Super Buffet

What is your favorite song? I Am a Child of God

What is your favorite time of day? lunch and recess

Where would you go on vacation if you could pick anywhere? probably Disneyland

What is your favorite toy? The rabbit I sleep with

What is your favorite book? You Read to Me, I'll Read to You

What do you want to be when you grow up? a teacher

How tall are you? four foot

How much do you weigh? 51 pounds

How much does daddy weigh? I don’t know probably like more than 100 - maybe 205 (175)

What do you eat for breakfast? anything except for chicken pot pie

If you could decorate your room any way you wanted, how would it be? pink with Barbies on it.

If you are afraid or scared, what do you tell yourself to make you feel better? that there is no such thing as aliens

What is the funnest thing our family has done lately? we went to the desert to ride motorcycles and got muddy

What have you done that has made you proud? going upstairs by myself

If you could have an unusual pet, what would it be? a lion that was nice

What would you do if you were invisible for a day? sneak in Morgan's drawers and see what is in there.

Who are you most like in the family? Courtney, she is beautiful and skinny

100th Post

I don't really have anything to say today. I just felt a lot of pressure that this was going to be my 100th post. I was trying to scheme up something crafty and funny and sophisticated. But decided on Lego instead. Have I really had one hundred things to say?

Four Things I Have Learned in the Last Few Days

1. Ear infections are painful. No wonder little kids are so grumpy when they have ear infections! They hurt! I was pretty sure I was near death's door, fever raging, head swimming, grumpy with a capital G - went to the Dr. this morning and found out I have an ear infection!



2. There exists in North Scottsdale, a pediatric gynecologist. Who knew there was a need for such a thing? She is the only one in this huge valley and she takes emergency appointments. Nicole (my 6 year old) met the hook that hooks the swing to the chain in a bad place. Lots of blood, late night visit to Phoenix Children's Hospital Urgent Clinic (on Higley and Southern - highly recommend to people in this area, they were great) and then a follow up visit the next day to the kiddie gyno. What could have been a very traumatic ordeal has turned in to funny anecdote as Nicole told everyone at dinner that she was glad that the doctors in both places were women because she "doesn't ever want man hands touching her pee-pee".



3. Laundry does not do itself, dust accumulates quickly, dirty dishes stink when left in sink overnight, hair from the carpet will stick in your toes if not vacuumed and given certain monetary rewards, children will do all of your chores for you and probably do a better job than you would do. Which is such a good thing since there is an enrichment activity scheduled to take place here in my house in the morning.



4. If you want to work at the emissions station for the MVD you must either have at least two teeth missing, artistically styled facial hair, more than one tattoo, an eye patch, disturbing facial piercing, or all of the above. In a place that does not take credit or debit cards (they want cash and even have an ATM on the premises) they employ the scariest people who get in your car and rev the engine. I'll admit to being a little scared of them.

Speaking of Church.....

I have reached the 20 pounds lost point! I am pretty excited about it even though most people who know me would not notice a difference. I made a deal with myself that 20 pounds would get a reward! So I am currently on the lookout for something very specific - and I am asking my bloggy friends for help!

A few months ago I got a fabulous pair of shoes on the Macy's sale racks. For some reason, I couldn't live without them and shelled out more than my conservative nature would normally pay for shoes. They are olive green heels with gold accents. I will go and take a picture.

Actually, I sent Courtney upstairs to take the picture and she took two - one on the bathroom floor and one on my bedroom carpet.

So, what I need help with is this: I can not find a single thing to wear with them. For my reward, I would like to buy myself a new dress or skirt or cute jacket or something with which to wear these beauties. Ladies, with all of your online shopping skills, mall shopping skills and overall fashion skills, HELP!

If you see something cute and and you think to yourself, 'this would look great with some shiny olive heels', call me!