Some much needed R & R

This past weekend was a fantastic one! Some of my friends from my new neighborhood invited me to go with them for a girls weekend down to St. George. My friend Michele owns a town home down there and so the nine of us were able to stay there. We left on Thursday morning so we could go to the St. George temple to do a session. What a beautiful temple that is!

Outside the temple. Lisa, Michele, me and Lara.


After that we went and got some dinner at Cafe Rio, then we headed back to the town home and waited for the other half of the girls who had to leave later on Thursday, to show up.

The next day the SHOPPING fun began!!!!

This is the before shot.
When I say shopping, I mean SHOPPING!! I have never been shopping with such 'PROS' before! LOL. Our first stop was T.J max. Some of these girls were in there for 5 1/2 hours! Not kidding! I lasted about an hour and a half in that store. It just isn't one of my favorites. Some of us needed to be rejuvenated with food so we went and grabbed some lunch at Wingers and then headed to the outlet stores. It was so fun to just wander in all the different stores and try on clothes.

This is the after shot! It was crazy!
At night we just hung out and laughed....
Played practical jokes. (one of the girls told a story about her college roommate pooping in the shower and putting it in the soap dish....I know DISGUSTING!) So we thought it would be funny to put some mushed up candy bars in the shower soapdish while the others were asleep.

Pretty gross....but pretty funny.
Contrary to this picture, we really didn't sleep much, each night we went to bed between 1-3 AM.
This is what Lisa looks like at 2 in the morning. LOL
We also did facials.
Lara, Michelle and me

Lisa rockin out to music.
I walked in the room and saw EVERYONE on their phone... it was funny, I had to take a picture.
Shopping, shopping, shopping. I love hats! Tosha, Lisa, Me, Michele and Angie
Me and Tosh.
At the mall we had makeovers at the Este Lauter counter.
Me and Lisa
Nicki, Nicole and Lisa
Lara sporting an Easter headband.
Angie after her makeover.
Me during my makeover.

Seriously soooooo much fun. I feel so thankful to these wonderful Ladies that have become such dear friends. They have opened their arms up to me and I truly feel so blessed to have them in my life. Thanks girls for a fantastic weekend, and thanks Michele for setting this all up!

Ski Bunnies!

ONE of the perks of my job is getting to use the companies free ski passes. Since Chris is out of town I took my friend Lisa with me. Boy was it a PERFECT day for skiing! Just look at the pics, the ski was completely clear and blue. It was around 50 degrees and was so warm we had to take our jackets off. Lisa had never been to Sundance before and I think she loved it. It was a great day with even better company.
At the top of the mountain is a fun cafe type restaurant that we had lunch at. Along the front of the cafe they had lounge chairs facing the edge of the mountain that people were actually laying out. It was awesome!
Lisa aka movie star!

On the first run down Lisa took a awesome spill. It was HILARIOUS! She couldn't get up... I just about peed my pants from laughing so hard. It was a great day!

A farewell to a long time friend

Dear Roberts,

We have had a long, loving relationship over the years. You were there for all my scrapbooking and crafting needs. Always there to greet me with a smile and a 40% off coupon. Oh how we had some fun times!
However, over the past year or so you have not been able to provide for my needs. More often than not I could never find what I needed. Your shelves were often empty, forcing me to walk away empty handed. I've felt so alone and confused....why have you become so unreliable? I've given you many, many chances. I'm tired of wasting my time and gas money on you. So I've found someone else.

Sincerly,

Me

Dear Hobby Lobby,

Hello friend! Welcome to the neighborhood. I can tell already that this is going to be a wonderful and oh so dangerous relationship. Your isles and isles of wonderful items makes my heart skip a beat, and oh the sales! Sale signs around every corner.....I can hardly stand it!!!

Thank you for filling the void that Roberts has left.

Love,

Your faithful crafter!

My latest attempt at craftiness

Last night I was able to go with my mom to a scrapbook class. At the class we made these STINKIN CUTE banners! They are double sided and on one side it says SPRING and the other it says SUMMER. I LOVE the paper that we used, it is from Close To My Heart and is DARLING.

A close up of the spring side

A close up of the summer side

Family Gathering

On March 5 we gathered the family for a get together. A few weeks ago we received some scary news regarding my grandpa. We thought for a bit there that he didn't have long left on this earth. The day that I got that news was a pretty dark day for me. I am very close to my grandpa and am just not ready for him to not be here. Luckily other tests were done and things seem to be getting better. I don't think that he is out of the woods yet, but at least we have some more time. After all this happened my dad organized this family party. He rented out a room at the Lehi Legacy Center and arranged for a 'balloon artist' to come and make balloon figures for the kids. Everyone helped contribute to the meal and brought games and swimming suits to go swimming at the pool. Those that didn't want to swim could play basketball or just visit with family. At the end of the evening my grandpa bore his testimony and we watched a family slide show that Chris had put together. It was a great evening. Just about everyone in this picture was able to be there.

When the balloon artist got there he brought in a HUGE golfing grandpa that he made and gave to my grandpa. My grandpa LOVES to golf. It was pretty amazing!
Seriously so cute! I wish that I had taken pictures of the other things he made for the kids, he was amazing.

Here is the slideshow that Chris made....pretty dang cute.

Grandpa Slideshow from Christopher Meek on Vimeo.

And this one is the video footage that Chris took of the evening, that he put to music.

The Gathering from Christopher Meek on Vimeo.

So happy with my knowledge that 'Families are Forever'!

Christmas in March??? Yep.

Since I have been a slacker at blogging I did not get anything posted for Christmas this year. Rather than go back and try to remember all the happenings from the month of December I will share one video. This is a video that Chris made of when we went up to temple square to see the lights with my parents. It is a fun tradition of ours to ride Trax up to Salt Lake, go see the lights and then walk down the street to Crown Burger. My kids really look forward to doing this with their grandparents each year. This really is a sweet video. Great job babe.

Christmas Lights in Salt Lake City from Christopher Meek on Vimeo.

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

Last week we took advantage of some 'deal-a-day' coupons and took the family tubing up at Soldier Hollow. We had SUCH a great time! If you have never done it before then I highly recommend it! What a blast! All the kids just loved it.... Chris took some video of our day and made a little montage of it. Take a look...

Afternoon at Soldier Hollow from Christopher Meek on Vimeo.

Faisal's first talk!

Today Faze gave his first talk in Primary! He was so brave and did such a great job. I was worried because when we practiced his talk this week he would almost whisper his talk and when I told him to speak up he would get so mad at me. But he spoke loud and clearly today! His talk was on "Heavenly Father speaks to us through the prophet". He was so excited to be able to talk in the microphone. LOL

My baby is getting so big!

Sorry about the fuzzy pictures...he was REALLY unhappy about posing for these pictures so he wouldn't hold still.

Some of my favorites

Since my last post was kind of a downer I decided to do a post on some of my favorite things. I dunno why....it just sounded fun. :-)

I love Sushi! Especially the Vegas roll...yum

I love fruity, chewy candies. I pick these over Chocolate, which just baffles my friend Amy
I LOVE to shop! Love it. Especially for clothes.

White roses are my favorite flower. Especially from my man.

The perfect food in my mind is POPCORN from the theater with three layers of butter. Oh how I love it!
Pebble ice. I actually call it 'Golden Ice'. This is THE BEST ice to eat. I actually crave it when I'm pregnant. It is just fabulous!

Game nights! I love playing games, especially with my family. We can get pretty competitive and I love it! FEED THE BEAR!

Yah baby. This was the first time I had ever gotten up on water ski's and I was so excited! I love to snow ski also....again not something that I am terrific at, but I just love it, especially with my hubby and our good friends the Jones'.

The happiest place on earth! I love Disneyland... it is just magical!

Date night with my sweetheart! Chris and I make it a point to go on a date night once a week. I love being able to spend one on one time with my favorite person.

Ballroom dancing. I love everything about this sport. I love watching it and I LOVE dancing it. One of my favorite times ever was when I was on the Ballroom tour team at UVU. I love being dressed in amazing dresses and dancing on stage.... such an amazing feeling!

Another favorite dish is Chicken Tikka Masala. DIVINE!

Any kind of girl scout cookie is wonderful, but a SAMOA?! Wowzers, they are good!

Last but certainly not least, FAMILY....I've got the best! Sure do love them.

Integrity

I know.... almost two months since my last blog post. What can I say, I'm a busy mother.

This week has been.... well, trying at best.

As a teenager in Young Women's my favorite value was always Integrity. I love people that have integrity. I am not perfect, nor do I profess to be, but I always try to live my life with integrity.

Don't you hate it when you find out people are not who they say they are? I have been treated pretty poorly this week by two individuals from my old neighborhood. The crazy thing is that BOTH of these 'friends' have treated me poorly in the past, really poorly. But I tried to do the right thing and forgave them, only to have them do it again.

The saying really is true "A leopard doesn't change his spots".

Both of these individuals have been publicly attacking my character and integrity, two things that I hold very dear. They are on a witch hunt and for whatever reason have chosen me to be the one that they are attacking. I've done absolutely NOTHING wrong to these women or anyone for that matter. But here I sit, a victim of online bullying... It's crazy to me to think that I am treated worse by ADULT women then I ever was as a teen-ager.

They have never spoken to me about the allegation that they accuse me of, they appointed themselves as the judge and jury over the situation and then took drastic measures to make sure that they cut and hurt me as deeply as they could. Again I ask, What have I done to deserve this treatment? Nothing.

Today at church I got the spiritual upliftment that my soul so badly needed. I was reminded that there is someone who knows exactly how I am feeling.... my Savior Jesus Christ. He has known the pain and betrayal that I am feeling and yet somehow was able to forgive his accusers.

Will I ever be able to do this? Right now the answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT!

The anger I have inside me is boiling over. I want to scream at them and publicly accuse them of things they are not guilty of. I want to call them cowardly and tell them that they are of low character-just like they did to me. But then I stoop to their level, so instead of writing them an anger filled email/phone call/text, I take the high road. Again. (sometimes I HATE the high road)

But instead I blog. I blog about my feelings because for some reason it is very therapeutic. I have once again deleted my Face Book account due to all of this and instead will turn to my blog to voice my feelings.

My dad gave me some good advice the other day when I called him to vent my frustrations, he told me a quote that I just loved. "People with integrity expect to be believed....but when they're not, let time prove them right"

*I am grateful for family that is there for you, no matter what!

*I am grateful for a dear husband that helps me feel loved and supported.

*I am grateful for friends, real friends that love you and your imperfections through thick and thin. Friends that know what is in my heart and that my intentions are pure.

*I am grateful for a ward family that today gave me just what I needed, love, lot's and lot's of love.

*I am grateful for courage, courage to have integrity.

*I am grateful to not live in that neighborhood anymore.

*I am grateful for the power of forgiveness and I pray that with time I will be able to forgive those that have hurt me, for I know that I would want the same from those that I have hurt.

*I am grateful for my Savior and his example.

*I am grateful for the atonement.

So I have two choices. One, to wallow in self pity and think "why are they being so mean to me?" (said in that whiney little kid voice)

or two, I can pick myself up, brush myself off and be happy that these two are no longer in my life.

I pick option 2.

My life is full of good, wonderful family and friends who know that I am a good person. A person with integrity AND courage.