Birthday pics

The kids wanted to take pictures with me on my birthday... I know they are a little blury, but a child took the picture so just deal with it!

Labor day weekend

We had a great Labor day weekend...Chris had a race in Las Vegas, so we spent the weekend at Lake Las Vegas.. If you have never been there then you really must visit...it is very family friendly and you don't have to worry about walking through a casino to get to your hotel room. Chris did an amazing job at the triathlon...he took 3rd! Not too shabby for running in 99* weather! The kids loved swimming three times a day and taking the ever popular traditional trip to the M & M factory. We were also able to hang with my brother, sister-in-law and my darling niece Addie, who live down there. Our good friends and neighbor the Barlow's joined us... Blake also was in the race and he did awesome! It was a great trip! Faze at the pool

Help, the Lions are going to eat me!

M & M factory

Eating Gelato....YUMMY!
Chris and Blake right after they finished the race

Faze and his buddy Dash

Lake Las Vegas and our hotel

Waiting for Chris to race by

Aye Caramba!!

First day of school....better late than never!

I know, I know.... school started a month ago, but like I said in previous posts, it has been a LONG month, so sue me! But it appears that I am back to blogging with a vengeance! The girls all go to Mountainville Academy and are dressed in their school uniforms and ready to go! The early birds

Sienna is in 5th grad this year

Taelynn is in 3rd grade this year

My little kindergartner....Ana just loves going to school. She is my most picky dresser, so I was really worried about her not going along with the dress code... much to my surprise she has NEVER complained and has made my life so easy, I never have to worry about her trying to wear some crazy mismatched outfit (she saves those for when she comes home from school)

Me and 'GYM' :0(

So I posted this comment on a friends blog and decided that it was definitely post worthy, so here it is! I recommitted myself to the insane asylum (aka gym) last week! It was pretty close to our 1 year anniversary (it had been a year since I had BEEN to the gym!) and I thought that it was only fitting that I spend it with 'gym'. He and I have a love/hate relationship and for a year now it has been in the hating phase. But the other day I took a look in the mirror at my naked butt, started dry heaving (sorry to be so graphic, but were friends, you can handle it :-) and decided that I needed to rekindle 'gym' and mine relationship. So I am back on the wagon (or treadmill) and recommitted to keeping 'gym' a daily (or at least every OTHER day) part of my life. SIGH.... goodbye cottage cheese!
Seriously though, I was so down in the dumps that my hubby (who has had an ongoing love affair with 'gym' for about six years) suggested that I go. I finally relented and it actually made me feel so much better. Today my gluteous maximus (sp?) is screaming at me, so I just yelled back at it "This is for your own good...so simmer down down there!"
So it has been two weeks since I recommitted myself and so far so good, I have visited 'gym' every other day. I have found that nap time is the best time to go, Chris stays home with Faze and I head off to see 'gym'.
Here's to not having to suck in my gut just to do up my pants!!

Trials

So as many of you know, it has been a tough few weeks for me and I have been really struggling with keeping myself upbeat. It is sometimes so hard to go through trials, and I have really HATED this experience and just kept wishing that it would end. I kept telling myself that it couldn't get any worse and then low and behold it would! I would get a mean spirited email from a former student or co-worker that was written with the intent to do nothing but cause me hurt and pain. My gut instinct was to react in a not very Christ like way and to some extent I am still tempted to do just that. Through all this, my mom has been such a great support...actually my entire family has been. My husband has been my shoulder to cry on during countless nights of endless tears. Even my brothers have called and asked what their names were so that they could go and beat them up. :-)
My mom wrote a post on her blog that was so sweet and kind and through her post, others have posted comments that have helped me so much. One in particular really hit home for me, it was a comment by Heidi. If any of you reading this post has ever gone through a really tough trial and ever wondered why this was happening to you then I invite you to read it... maybe it will help you like it helped me. Here is her blog address, the post was entitled Choosing the Right. http://rbseely.blogspot.com

Broken laptop

Yes, that is right! My wonderful children broke my laptop! Faze loves to pop the keys off and normally we just pop them back on, but a few keys got lost, so the keyboard was missing four keys, then the other night Ana was playing a game and got mad and hit the screen...at least that is what the kids have told us, Chris and I were not in the room when it happened. At any rate, it appears like she cracked the inside of the screen....AAAUUUUGGGGHHHH! Can I tell you how sick I am of our kids breaking our things???!!!! Our house is looking so ghetto due to our children, we have so many things that are broken, stained etc,, heck we even have holes in the walls were kids threw toys down the stairs and the toy punctured the wall. In several areas we have ruined carpet where Faisal decided to dump fingernail polish. Hopefully we don't need to sell our home anytime soon, because no one would want this dump!
A few years ago, my parents remodeled their home and bought all new furniture and I used to complain about the fact that they wouldn't buy new things when we were living there....now I know why, because children destroy EVERYTHING!
So my laptop is in the shop, which means that I can't post any pictures until it is out...dang! I have some WAY cute pictures to post to, maybe I can figure out how to download them to Chris'... shhhhhh, don't tell Chris, he blames me for the laptop getting broken, so he would be mad if he knew that I was posting this blog from his computer. :0)

My favorite season!

Yes! This is my favorite time of year! I love the months of Sept.-Dec., the weather is beautiful, the scenery is amazing and I just love that feeling in the air with all the upcoming holidays. I love it! So this background is a tribute to my favorite season!!! I am looking forward to being able to spend this time with my husband and children. I just can't wait!

Birthday time!

Yes another birthday has come and gone. It was a good one for the most part. Chris did his best to make it a special day for me. He made me one of his gourmet dinners and a fantastic homemade cake....too yummy! He gave me an awesome present... In October he is going to Paris on business and he is taking me with him!!! I am so excited! It has been a dream of mine to someday travel....anywhere, I am so excited, I can hardly wait! So the plan is to spend the first two and a half days in New York and then head off to Paris!!!! He was feeling bad that he didn't have any tangible gift to give me on my birthday, so I told him that the tangible gift would be the following: I want pictures of he and I in front of the Eiffel Tower....kissing, and then one of he and I in a horse drawn carriage in Central Park....kissing, hows that for tangible?!
Thank you to all of my family and friends that called or emailed me birthday greetings. I love you all!

Think happy thoughts

So in light of all that has happened this week, I decided that I needed to write about something that I am looking forward to... My birthday is this weekend (hence the background) and it is Chris' and mine tradition to spend the night in Huntsville. I know that that doesn't sound like a exotic location, but he has a Triathlon there and so we use that as an excuse to get away for the night and just spend time without our darling foursome. I wasn't going to be able to go with him, due to my job, but now I am free and clear to go with my hubby and just have fun. I am really looking forward to it! Huntsville is one of both of our favorite places and we hope to some day move there, if you have never been then it is definitely a place you should check out!

Win no matter what it takes...

Well, I am not sure how to write what I am feeling right now. Today has been a very tense day for me...actually it has been a tense few weeks. I have been working for a program that has MUCH different philosophies about how to uplift and encourage students to be all that they can be. I was told today that "I am not the one that can help them obtain their goal" that they would be bringing in two other directors and that I was welcome to work alongside them. The women that they are replacing me with are VERY talented and I have no doubt that they will create the colorguard that the band staff want...but I just don't feel like me working with them will work out. So I declined their invitation to remain at AF.
I have been working for a program that believes that you must win no matter what...and I just don't believe in that mentality. The past few weeks have been so awful and I have never had a job were I felt like I could lose my job if the colorguard was not clean enough. Really there is so much more to this whole thing...and I will spare you all the long story. I don't think that I have ever been so disappointed with my co-workers (well, maybe except for *****n) and their lack of Integrity or decency towards another human being. So as relieved as I am that my nightmare is FINALLY over, it didn't have to happen this way. In fact I can think of about a million other ways that this could have ended and the right thing could have been done. Needless to say that I have ZERO desire to ever teach colorguard again. You are not paid enough to have to put up with this kind of inhumane treatment. I will say this though, I will miss the girls...even the ones who made my job hard, and for the girls sake I hope that they have a great season...you girls deserve that, you are good kids, who work hard, and I just pray that the new directors will keep that in mind as they (the band staff) try to win that ever important trophy.
I KNOW that I am a good director...my confidence of that has not been shaken due to all of this. I simply wanted to help instill in young people, the same love and passion that I ONCE had for this sport. So the staff was right... this was a wrong fit......FOR ME. We both wanted two VERY different things and I hope that it was worth the price that they were willing to pay.
Here is the best news of all...when I told my children that I wasn't going to teach colorguard anymore they all squealed with delight! They are looking forward to having a full time mom again.... and so am I! :-)

******Name was removed because this individual thought that I was casting him/her in a bad light, to this person I say "the truth hurts doesn't it!"

Living in the moment

It has been a LONG time since I last posted...I haven't even checked out other peoples blogs, which is one of my favorite pastimes. The past week has been a pretty emotional for me. I have been pretty down with how certain things in my life are going. I got my test results back and it appears that there is nothing wrong with my gall bladder (which is great news) but I still have no explanation for my abdominal pain. I am starting to think that I have an ulcer due to my crazy, stressful job. The passion for my job is quickly fading away and I am starting to think that I don't need that kind of stress in my life. I would rather be at home with my family or friends then at work being yelled at (who wouldn't?). I have been so down with how some of my relationships have been headed, to the point that I literally get sick in the stomach when I think about it. I talked to my mom about it and, as usual, she gave me some great advice, which was, life is too short and I needed to live in the moment. If I am unhappy with something in my life then I needed to be proactive and change that today, rather than wait until tomorrow. This is great advice and I highly recommend it to everyone! Today I made the first step and did something that I had been putting off for MONTHS. I stopped by a good friends house to say hello. We haven't been in contact much for the past two years and I really missed her. It is so funny because I was so nervous to go over there....how silly! This was my good friend. My insecurities told me that she didn't need/want me as a friend anymore because I had been such a slothful friend lately. But as luck would have it she embraced me with open arms and we talked for a long time. I am so grateful that people can accept me for who I am and so grateful that my mom gave me such great advice... aren't mom's the best?!
So now I am back in the blogging world, so be prepared for some late posts that should have been done two weeks ago...oh well, better late than never, right?

Has the circus come to town???

I am sure that that is the question that our ward members ask after observing my family during sacrament meeting. Today I sat with my gritted teeth trying to remain calm while my son kept trying to use the bench as a balance beam, and my five-year-old refused to get off of the floor. My other two were busy having a pinching war.... I have NO idea what the speakers topics were or what the songs were that we sung. It was such a painful 70 minutes. After it was over, I noticed all of the ground up cereal that was all over the floor and the ripped up pieces of the program. We made a mess! HOW EMBARRASSING! The lady in front of us kept turning around and looking at us like "will you please control your children" I wanted to scream back at her "here you give it a go...good luck!"
And then for the icing on the cake I got to go to primary and do sharing time!!! Wow, how could life get any better? So I went from one awful experience to another...the primary room was on a sugar high, I am convinced! AAAUUGGHHH! Can someone just shoot me now?
Today I actually considered walking out in the middle of it all and NEVER coming back. Inactivity looks sweeter every week. I get ZERO spiritualness (is that even a word) out of going to church, sometimes like I feel like I don't even have enough spirituality to be qualified to teach such young impressionable little people.
Do you think that anyone would notice if I just stopped going??? Yeah, the rest of the primary presidency probably would. SIGH.................... aren't Sunday's supposed to be a day of rest? I AM NOT FEELING IT!

I finished!!!

Yes I finished breaking dawn...finally! I thought that I would be able to finish it at band camp, but no...it turns out that THIS band camp was ALL work and now play...or read in my case. Any moment that I could have spent reading I was sleeping instead! So as far as the book goes, I am left with an unsure feeling about it. I don't know how I feel about how things ended. Don't get me wrong, I am happy with MANY things about the book, but not so happy with other parts. I don't want to spoil it for anyone that is still reading so I won't go into details, but I would be interested to hear other peoples take on it. I did enjoy several parts of the book...chapters 4 and 5 were my FAVORITE and very much long awaited! LOL
Don't worry Stephenie Meyer...I am still a HUGE fan of your books!

I survived band camp!!!... barely

Well it was quite the week for me. I must say that I have never been to a band camp like this before. We worked from sun up to sun down...literally! All the time baking out in the sun. It was CRAZY! My nose is pretty crispy red, but the rest of me tanned up pretty nicely (definitely a plus). This band is pretty amazing and will have a fantastic show! My girls did great and worked their tails off. Many new memories were made (just ask Brianna about falling out of the shower...YIKES!) I am pretty happy to be home again! We tried to plan some fun things for the girls like having spirit days...the last day was crazy hair and make-up day, hence the hair-do, you should have seen my families face when I walked in the door looking like that.

Out of office

Sorry that I haven't blogged lately...any free time that I have is spent reading Breaking dawn. I will post about that when I finish it....almost done. I won't be blogging for another week. I leave tomorrow for Band Camp with the marching band. I will be in the fabulous land of DELTA (wherever that is) all week long. Wish me luck that I won't burn to a crisp!
I have been having strange pains in my upper abdomen for the past two weeks. I finally went in to have an ultra sound done to see if it is my gall bladder. I really don't want to have surgery. My mom thinks that I have an ulcer and I honestly don't know what is wrong with me. Hopefully I will survive band camp and not have to be rushed to the hospital :-). I should get my test results back sometime this week...hopefully it will be good news, keep your fingers crossed for me!

Cabins and baptisms and twilight....OH MY!

It has been a fun filled weekend for our family. I have posted several new posts for you all to read. A HUGE thanks to all of our family and friends that came and supported Taelynn at her baptism. I really do have the best family around! We love all of you!

Taelynn gets baptized!!!

Yesterday was such a great day! Taelynn, we are so proud that you made the choice to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We know that your Heavenly Father is so happy that you made this important decision.

It really was such a special day for our little Taelynn.

I feel so blessed to be married to a man that is worthy to perform such sacred ordinances for our family.

Dressed and ready to go (well after we fixed her jumpsuit, I guess I put it on her backwards at first...these things should come with instructions!)

Taelynn and Danka (my dad)

Our family (again Faze wasn't cooperating)

We had this at the baptism for everyone that was in attendance to sign. I thought that this would be a fun way for Taelynn to remember all those that helped celebrate this special day with her.

CABIN FEVER

My brother Joe has a sister-in-law that owns a cabin and miraculously it was available this weekend. Joe called my family up and asked if we wanted to go up there for the weekend, we of course said yes. The cabin is only about 40 minutes from home, so it would be easy for us to come down for the baptism and church today. It was such a fun time...my family loves to play games, so the bulk of the time was spent playing games together. We also enjoyed playing 'horse' and basketball on the sports court, swinging on the swing and lounging in the hot tub. It was such a relaxing time... hopefully we can do it again when my brother Nic is in town and could join us. My two brothers that did come have newborns so I LOVED getting my baby fix off of their little ones. It was a great time!Here is a shot of the cabin, it sits on 40 acres of land, so we had a LOT of area to ourselves!

Of course we had to get a family shot...Faze wasn't so cooperative.

My brother Joe, his wife Missy and their sweet baby Tyler

Ana swinging on the rope swing

Playing 'horse' on the sportscourt

The kids loved lounging in the hot tub

Did you get yours???

Yes, that blessed day has come! Breaking Dawn hit the shelves! I had planned to go and participate in the crazy parties that some of the book stores had planned but last minute our family decided to go up to a cabin that my brother has access to, so that plan was squashed. So come Saturday morning I still did not have my book and was WAY nervous about not being able to find it anywhere. Well after a quick trip to Costco I snagged not one but TWO copies of the much anticipated novel. I'm sure who I bought the other copy for, I figured that one of my family or friends would be interested in it. So if you haven't gotten your copy yet and need one, give me a call! Has anyone else started reading??? The first chapter is pretty fabulous!

STAMPIN UP

Last week some of my colorguard team were invited to perform at the Stampin Up convention. We spent several days up at the Salt Palace practicing and then had our actual performance on Thursday morning, BRIGHT and early! 6am to be exact, well at least they fed us breakfast. It was a really fun experience for them and really quite an honor for them to be invited (and paid!) I must say that I have never seen anything quite like this convention...this is the ONLY place where thousands of women can be seen wearing crazy things on their heads and seen screaming down the isle to get a close seat. Wow! What a site!