Happy Birthday Lauren

Today is Lauren's birthday. We celebrated yesterday so Kristy and her family could be there (they left for home at a ridiculous hour this morning). I am posting this video, not so you can hear my lovely singing voice above everyone else, but because the giver of the flip video threatened yesterday to take it back because no one has posted video yet. So thank you daddy, and just remember, I was the very first to post video.

And...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!!

Ode To Joy - Big Rocks First

A few months ago I was feeling very stressed. I had way too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. I was so overwhelmed one day that I just sat down and wondered what I was going to do. Then I remembered a story I had heard once. I immediately got on the computer and googled it. I found the story told by Stephen R. Covey. Here it is:

In the book “First Things First” he describes a story that one of his associates experienced on a seminar. In the middle of the lecture the presenter pulled out a wide-mouth jar and placed it on the table, next to some fist-sized rocks.

After filling the jar to the top with rocks he asked, “Is the jar full?”
People could see that no more rocks would fit, so they replied, “Yes!”

“Not so fast,” he cautioned. He then got some gravel from under the table and added it to the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks. Again, he asked, “Is the jar full?”
This time the students replied “Probably not.”

The presenter then reached for a bucket of sand below the table, and dumped it in the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. Once again he asked “Is the jar full?”
“No!”, the students shouted.

Finally, he grabbed a pitcher of water and filled the jar completely, asking to the public what they could learn from that illustration.

One of the participants answered, “If you work at it, you can always fit more into your life.”

“No,” said the presenter. “The point is, if I hadn't put the big rocks in first. . . I would never have gotten them in.”

This story really helped me when I read it. I was trying to do too many little things. I wasn't making sure my "Big Rocks" made it into the jar first. I remembered this story today, as I was thinking about the new year that will begin in just a few days. I need to sit down and make a list of my big rocks. The things that are the most important to me. I need to schedule my time so that I make sure I get all those things in first, before all the little filler things that sometimes seem to dominate my life. Some of those things are my husband, my children, personal prayer, personal scripture study, temple attendance.

As the new year approaches, take a few minutes to write down your "Big Rocks" and make a plan for your life so that you can make sure they find their way into your jar.

Oh What A Day

Sorry to bore everyone with all the Christmas pictures, but I promised Sam I would post a lot of pictures of everyone together at Christmas. This should about do it now. These are from Christmas day.

Flashback Friday - Birthday In The Wild

Farrah, Allyson, Kristy, Marisa

Our family was camping with our friends, the Heits. I don't know where we were. It was Kristy's Birthday. We had cake.

T'was The Night Before

Steve and Zac got home from St. Louis just in time to celebrate Christmas Eve. That day my dad and my sister Lauren took all 5 of the older grandchildren to see a movie. Unfortunately they were not able to purchase tickets for the intended time, so they got to wait for an hour for the next one and there were so many people there, they had to wait IN LINE. We will see if that type of outing ever happens again. When they arrived home my father and Lauren were both visibly shaken. I would have been like, "Sorry kids. We can't see a movie today. Lets go rent one and watch it at home."

My dear sister Farrah planned a lovely program for Christmas Eve. She even typed it up and had the kids decorate the handouts with drawings. When she had asked the day before if she could plan a program for that night we all thought that sounded like a mighty fine idea. I didn't know that she had a secret meaning in her asking. Meaning that she was going to PLAN the program and DELEGATE all the tasks out. Like putting me in charge of the acting out of the First Christmas/Manger scene. I had 6 kids to work with. Ages 10, 7, 5, 4, 4, and 1 1/2. And none of them wanted to participate. And let me just tell ya. Oh, it was great. Very spiritual. Thank you Farrah for trying.

Bart and Farrah did plan a special surprise. It was a special guest of honor. My brother Sam. All the way from Mexico City in the form of a giant cardboard cut out. The kids loved it. My mother cried, of course. I think Sam will be hanging out for a while. I can just see my mom sitting at the table with his larger than life self, carrying on a conversation.

It was a very fun time. I don't think we have all been together for Christmas before. I think the last time we were was in 1996, the year of the Christmas I have been featuring in my flashback Fridays. Speaking of which-is today Friday???? Wow. When did that happen? I will have to get right on that....

To see the album click here.

Pre-Christmas

I promised my brother I would post pictures for him since he was not able to be here with the rest of the wild crazy bunch this Christmas. He is in Mexico City serving an LDS mission. We were able to talk to him on Christmas day. We miss you Sam!

Both of my sisters that live in select cities across the country came to spend Christmas with us. They also brought their husbands and children. We had so much fun with everyone all together, although it got a "little" WILD at times.


Steve and Zac were not here when we these pictures were taken. They flew to St. Louis for Steve's sisters wedding. They were there for 4 days. Zac had a blast with all of his cousins. They came home on Dec. 23rd. Here is a picture of Zac dancing with his cousin Reagan at the wedding.

Ode To Joy (I haven't done one of these in a while) - Enjoy The Life You Have

So it is almost 10:00 in the morning. Everyone in my house is still in their PJ's. Addison is upstairs crying for me to come get her. I can hear one of the kids banging on the floor right above me. My sister and her family are in town from far far away and they are going to the children's museum today and invited us to go. The thought of getting in my car and driving downtown and parking and then going to sit in a room with 100 wild children is very unappealing to me, but I feel guilty because I would like to spend time with them. My house is mostly cleaned up from our Christmas disaster but there is still a lot that needs to be done and I am expecting a surprise visitor some time in the next few hours. I just asked Zac to get Addison and play with her. He just got out of the bath and got dressed in clean clothes. But the clothes he got dressed in are pajamas. I am stressing out because I said I was going to put my house up for sale right after the first of the year and that is only a week away and I still have an unbelievable amount of work to do before that can happen. We are about to run out of milk and bread so I am going to have to go to the store sometime today. And really right now all I want to do is go get back in my nice comfy bed and stay there for the rest of the day. Just one day off. That is all I want. Just one day to not HAVE to do anything.


So I just went back and read what I just wrote and my goodness! I sound so ungrateful. Oh poor baby, I have such a hard life. I am sure there are plenty of people who wish they had my to do list. I really want to delete the above writing, but I am going to leave it. Because most of you reading this are stay at home mom's like myself and I am sure you feel the same way sometimes. But when you really stand back and look at the big picture, when you think about all the people in the world who struggle everyday of their lives just to have food to feed their children, well....being able to go to the store to buy bread and milk shouldn't be such a burden to me. I am glad I have kids healthy enough to bang on the floor incessantly. I am thankful I have a nice warm safe house to clean. I am thankful it is an option for me to take my kids and go do something fun. Some people don't have that option.

Ok, I feel better. I am all ready to go and do the things that need to be done. I just might get ready and go enjoy my life today.....

The Day After

I came downstairs, turned on the computer (which I haven't done in a while) and realized that it has been a long time since I have posted. I didn't even do my Monday Morning Musings. So I am going to pretend it is Monday, although I have mused on a Wednesday before. Here it goes:

I have eaten way too much junk in the past week.

If I think I have had too much junk.....I don't even want to think about what my children have had to eat....so let's move on....

I am so glad my dear parents decided to watch Oprah's Favorite Things this year because we had our own little favorite things show yesterday. My dad might pretend he hates Oprah, but I think deep down inside he has a little "O" crush.

One of the "favorite things" we all got was a new flip camera about which I am so excited to use. I took it out of the packaging and got it all ready to use but there ain't no way I am taking video and then posting it for the world to see right now. Every room in my house is filled with the day after Christmas disaster. Believe it or not, it was actually clean on Christmas Eve.

I bought my kids way too many presents. Is it too late to take them back?

Why is it that I only have 4 kids, but right now at this very moment I can hear at least 10 different toys/games/music going on in the house?

Poor Steve had to go to work today. I am trying to be OK with it by acknowledging that the more he works, the more house $$$ we have.

I cannot wait to take down all my Christmas decorations.

Does anyone want to come help me clean up my mess? PLEASE!

Flashback Friday - You Say Pajama

Allyson, Farrah, Lauren & Kristy

Steve, Lauren, Kristy, Farrah, Allyson, Sam, Baxter & Toby

I figured since this whole Christmas month I have been doing pictures from Christmas 1996 I would finish it up with these. Christmas Eve 1996 in Dallas Tejas. We are all dressed in our traditional Christmas Eve PJ's. This was also the night Steve and I surprised everyone with some exciting news.

I remember that day so well. We had only been trying to get pregnant for about a month and I thought, if I am pregnant it would be so fun to surprise everyone on Christmas Eve. Steve and I went to the store to buy a pregnancy test. We both went in the bathroom at my parents house and we were so excited. We examined that satiated stick so closely. We didn't think I was pregnant at first, but then we saw this very very faint second pink line and got out the instructions for the test, looked at the line again, looked at the instructions. It said even if the line is faint, you are pregnant. We were so excited. We made a card for my parents to open that night at my grandmothers house. It said to Earl and Kay on the outside and on the inside it said Merry Christmas Grandpa and Grandma Snow. My mom started screaming when she read it (imagine that). That was a fun time.

Preferences

So, let me preference this by saying.....Just kidding. I'm not that dumb 2 days in a row. My alarm went off this morning and I must have been dreaming about how brilliant I was, because I sat straight up in bed and thought, "I used preference instead of preface in my post yesterday!" And then I thought, "No I didn't. There's no way." So I hopped right out of bed and, well, sure enough, there it was. I did have a very active 12 month old crawling all over me when I was trying to type that post. And she was banging on the keyboard and trying to dive over the edge of the chair onto her already skull fractured head. So in the future, just know that I usually have about 10 other things going on as I type, and my full attention is not on the words that are coming out of my fingers.

Now, on to the good stuff. Does anyone else watch "The Next Great American Band"? Well, what is wrong with you? I am so excited because tomorrow is the season finale and I hope The Clark Brothers win because they have been my most fav-O-rite since the beginning. They are brothers (really now!) and they do bluegrass. And they are yummy. I mean that in a strictly musical way. Gosh! I am a very HAPPILY married woman with my own YUMMY husband (in an unmusical way). Here is a song they did last week. Click on it to watch. You're gonna watch it, right?

Current Song Stuck In My Head

I need to preface this by saying that I have no control over the songs that get stuck up there. As much as I love High School Musical 2, this song has been hanging around a little too long. Like over a week now. I am hoping that by posting it here it will help to purge it from my head. Kind of like when you have a reoccurring dream and you draw out the dream.....I'll tell you if it works.

It alternates between the above and below version of the same song

ATTENTION: Calling All

FREAKY PEOPLE OF THE WORLD

Gather round and listen up!

LEAVE ME THE HECK ALONE!!!!!!

It started this morning when I was looking at the stats for my blog (which by the way I know people are still here readin' even if you are not saying anything) and it shows me if someone finds my blog by doing a search. I get pretty normal searches. Except for yesterday. Some perv was on my blog and it really makes me ANGRY! And not just any perv, the worst kind of perv. So I promptly removed myself from search engines and blog listings.

Then just a little while ago I took myself down to the local WalMart (please read with a heavy hick accent) to get the last few items I needed to make my Christmas shopping complete. I took Aubrey up to my mom's work while I was there so she couldn't see what I was buying. My mom had to leave work to take Lauren to a doctors appointment so she brought Aubrey to Walmart to me just as I was leaving the store.

She pulled up at the front of the store and gave me Aubrey. Then I started walking to my car. When I got close (I was parked all the heck of the way at the end of the lot) my mom pulled up beside me and said I was being followed by a scary looking guy. We looked around and he was gone but my mom said he had just been right there behind me. There was a car waiting behind her so I told her to pull into a parking spot and I would get the girls in the car and talk to her about it. As soon as she stared to drive off, Mr. Creep-O materialized and started walking up to me. I looked over to where my mom was and he saw that she was just on the other side of my car and he asked me for money. I told him I didn't have any and he left. My mom said he was right behind me when I came out of the store and he stopped and watched everything we were doing when I got Aubrey out of her car. Then he started following me again. She had a really bad feeling about it so she also followed me to my car, thank goodness! She said he was right behind me and every time I would weave in and out of cars, he would do the same and he never took his eyes off me.

If you know anything about me you know that I am pretty much just normally freaked out anyway. That's just how I come. So this has made it so much better. I was going to go to the grocery store after I left there but heck if I'm gonna go now without an armed escort. It makes me mad because I am normally very alert when I am out like that (like all good freak-a-zoids should be) but I was so concerned with trying to keep Aubrey from seeing what was in my cart that I was paying no attention to anything else. And another thing that makes me mad is that I just stood there like an idiot when he came towards me (durka-durka-doo). I have seen plenty of Oprah's to know better. I KNEW I was being followed. I KNEW I should have faced him and yelled, "STOP! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!", and then jabbed my key in his eye. Is it silly to wish I could go back?

I am just glad my sweet little girls and I came out of it unharmed. I am so grateful my mother was there and was more aware than I was. And I wanted to share this story with all of you so you can remember when you are out shopping at this crazy time of year to always be aware of what is going on around you. And don't forget to yell STOP!

Monday Morning Musings - My Baby Poops Better Than Your Baby

So I stayed up 'til 1:30 in the morning to watch the Survivor finale. I was so glad my little Toddy won. He has been my favorite since the beginning. However, what was up with him during the reunion show. You would think given his lifestyle preferences he would have had a little more fashion sense about him. Thank goodness I didn't have any cookies in the house. I kept craving them the whole time because he looked like a Kebler elf. Seriously. The mullet? The vest? I couldn't find a picture of him but you can click here if you are just dying to see what I am talking about. You have to wait until you are about 35 seconds into the video.

Ok. I'm back. I just had to take a little "break". My dear sweet little Addison needed some major help. She has this talent for pooping and pooping BIG. Like the kind of poop where you are holding her out at arms length thinking, "Holy cannoli, I don't even know how to begin to clean this up". She is all nice and clean and brand new now.

It was so late last night and I just couldn't stop watching Survivor and a commercial came on and it was for The Nutcracker. I had another vampire moment (that is what I am going to start calling it when I try to make my real life and my fantasy life match up) because I thought, "Why are they advertising the Nutcracker after Christmas. Oh, this must be and old recording. No, I just recorded this tonight. They must still do the Nutcracker for a couple weeks after Christmas. OH MY GOSH!!!! WHAT IS MY PROBLEM? CHRISTMAS HASN'T COME YET!!!!"

So you know I have said before that I have little papers all over the house where I have written down blog ideas as they have come to me. Emily found my paper that said, "Emily-Oops I did it again". Now every time she sings a song she makes me a post it note with her name on it and the song she was singing.

I have a confession to make. My hypothetical opinion survey wasn't exactly hypothetical. We were all so lazy on Saturday. The kids finally got dressed because Zac got invited to play at a friends house. Then the girls got dressed except for Addy because she can't dress herself. I actually took a shower but I didn't put in contacts or do makeup or hair. When we went to pick Zac up from his friends we were all starving. I didn't feel like making dinner and so we decided to go out to eat. I picked the one place where I thought we would be safe. IHOP. Usually when we are there we are the only one's there. But just as we were sitting down at our table, in walks a girl from my ward. I am so glad she could see nasty me and my orphan looking children in public.

I know that everyone is busy getting ready for Christmas and getting ready to go out of town, but come on people! I feel so all alone her in blogger land. I feel like I am back to talking to myself again for a little entertainment.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Shanty Town

Gingerbread houses. What could be more Christmasy? My mother bought gingerbread house kits for each of the kids and my sister so they could have fun building and decorating them, and then enjoy their festive aura and spicy gingerbread scent all December long. We did have fun assembling. The proof is in the pictures:

AubreyEmily
Zac
Lauren
They turned out so perfectly sweet:
So then you might be wondering what would possess me to forever ban gingerbread houses from ever entering my happy little abode again. Our fun little works of art have turned into this:

Our own little gingerbread shanty town.

And this is the kind of stuff I have been hearing on an hourly basis for the last week:

(please read the following quotes in a high pitched, whiny voice)

"MOM!!! SOMEONE KEEPS EATING CANDY OFF MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!!!"

"MOM!!! NOW THERE ARE 37 PIECES OF CANDY MISSING FROM MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!"

"MOM!!! EMILY HAS CANDY IN HER MOUTH!!! I THINK SHE TOOK IT OFF MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!!!"

"MOM!!! NOW THERE ARE 42 PIECES OF CANDY MISSING FROM MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!"

"MOM!!! ZAC IS IN THE KITCHEN PULLING CANDY OFF THE GINGERBREAD HOUSES!!!!"

"MOM!!! NOW THERE ARE 49 PIECES OF CANDY MISSING FROM MY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!"

It has just brought so much fun to my holiday season. I think we are about to have a free for all, sugar mania, tear down the walls, shove it in your mouth as fast as you possibly can, gingerbread house distructo session, and what's left after that is going in the trash.

Flashback Friday - Christmas 1996

Allyson and Farrah

Steve and Allyson
We had to force Steve under the tree for this picture. You can tell he looks thrilled.

It's My Birthday Too Yeah!

Today is my 34th Birthday. In keeping with the blogging tradition of Farrah, Kristy and Coren (click on their names for their B-Day posts), here are 34 fascinating and totally useless facts about yours truly:

1. I have never had a haircut I have liked

2. Aside from the people and the ice cream, the thing I miss most about Texas is the rain

3. Most scented things give me a headache so I use unscented everything

4. I know that there are more than 50 ways to eat a pancake

5. I like my hot food to be hot and my cold food to be cold and my soup to be scalding

6. One of my favorite pass times is throwing things away

7. I could eat Frosted Mini Wheat's for 3 meals a day, everyday

8. I have a thing for music, I sing all the time, and I always have a song stuck in my head

9. My favorite song is Me and Bobby McGee (which I sing to my kids as a bedtime song), my favorite band is The Beatles, my favorite singer/songwriter is Carole King

10. My most favorite place to be in the whole world is in my husbands arms

11. I think old men are cute but they make me sad

12. One of my favorite foods is fried okra

13. Sometimes I shine my kids laser pointer in my neighbors windows

14. I drink water 99.9% of the time and I prefer it at room temperature

15. Cadbury mini-eggs are my favorite candy (please don't confuse them with the big nasty creamy ones, which most people do when I disclose this info. to them)

16. I check on my kids anywhere from 5-10 times a night after I put them in bed

17. I knew my husband for less than a week before I said I would marry him

18. I took Hebrew in high school for 2 years

19. I can't stand it when people put the toilet paper roll on backwards and if I am at your house and find it that way, I will correct it

20. I throw my kids school work and art projects in the trash as soon as I look at them

21. I love cemeteries and sometimes when I am alone I stop and walk around in them

22. I have always wanted to be a funeral director

23. I know all the words to the full version of American Pie by Don McLean, and that my friends is a long song

24. It freaks me out when people leave the lid off the milk when it is at the dinner table

25. I have this belief that everything is dishwasher safe and if I find out that it actually isn't, that's OK, I didn't want it anyway

26. The last movie I watched without falling asleep - ?????

27. I can make up a song about anything at the spur of the moment

28. I love American Idol in a very serious and sometimes scary way

29. I love musicals and my favorite is Fiddler On The Roof

30. I can quote the entire movie Dirty Dancing and I can do the dance at the end (well, I like to believe I can, if you saw me try you might have a different opinion)(which will never happen so don't even ask)

31. My favorite movie is The Big Chill

32. I would love to run The Amazing Race with my husband and I think we could win

33. I can't watch anything remotely scary and if a scary commercial comes on TV I must change the channel

34. Steve and I never fight

Monday Morning Musings - Hello Clarice

Current Song Stuck In My Head:

If you put rubber bands on your face like this:

You will smell and taste rubber bands for the rest of the night. I don't recommend it.

Does anyone else find it odd that this was my lunch yesterday and today and I was excited about it on both occasions?

You don't? Well then, clickity,click, click here.

Like A Bowl Full Of Jelly

The NIght The Lights Went Out In Georgia

OK, so I don't live in Georgia. And the lights actually went out in the day time. But this song has been going through my head all day long. It has been snowing since yesterday evening and it pretty much hasn't stopped. We have had a few brief pauses today, but not many. And it is coming down again as we speak. Or as I type and you read. This morning the power went out around 9 AM and didn't come on until 1 PM. So, what did we do to stay entertained while the lights were out????

• I showered by candlelight.

• The kids put on their snow suits, gloves, hats, coats, and snow boots and went outside for 2 minutes. Came back inside and took off their snow boots, coats, hats, gloves and snow suits.

• We repeated the above sequence several times until I said they could NOT go outside again.

• We had to smell our stinky gas fireplace that is in the basement. It still stinks in here. But I am VERY grateful we have it. It came in handy.

• We drove remote control cars in the house and chased the baby with them.

• We took great delight in knowing that our outside Christmas lights were actually off for the first time in 3 days and we didn't have to put forth any effort to make them that way.

• The girls got 500 games out and made a big fun to clean up mess.

• I added "can opener" to my grocery list. The electric one just wasn't doing the job.

• Steve, Keven (our juvenile delinquent neighbor) and I had push up contests. Steve won by a long shot. I tied with Keven.

Nut-Rageous

Ahhhh....It just wouldn't be Christmas without seeing the Nutcracker every day for a week. Well, OK. I'm exaggerating. A little. Emily and Aubrey take dance from Miss Margene, who we LOVE. This year was her 20th year to put on the Nutcracker. This was Emily's 3rd year to be in the Nutcracker and Aubrey's 2nd. They had practice Monday and Tuesday night and performances Wednesday and Thursday. And they do the whole show, no condensing. All 3+ hours. But it truly is magical to see. It is very well done and the costumes are beautiful. And so are the 2 dancers shown above. A special thanks goes out to my dear mother who took the girls to one practice and one performance so I didn't have to be there all 4 nights. We love the Nutcracker, but I am so thankful it has come and now it has gone. The girls did a wonderful job. They are such good little dancers. And they loved every minute of it.

Flashback Friday - Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic

Sorry Kristy

Allyson, Steve, Dustin (I spit in your general direction), Kristy, Farrah

Our server, Fred, and Kristy

I had a hard time finding a picture for Flashback Friday today. I looked and looked and nothing excited me. Then I came across these. I was thinking about this just the other day, so I chose this as my Flashback. It was December 1996. Steve and I were in Dallas for Christmas, Farrah was home from BYU for Christmas. We all went to the Magic Time Machine to eat. We had a good time dining on our "Roman Orgy". That's really what it was called. Don't believe me? Click on it and see.

Man Boobs, Britney Spears, and Nuts...They've All Got Me Thinking

My children are growing up. They have all gone up a size in clothes and shoes recently. But it is more than that. They are GROWING UP. They are not little kids anymore. Zac is so close to being a teenager, it freaks me out. And Emily might as well be a teenager by the way she acts sometimes. It is taking some getting used to. Like the other day when Zac and his friends were playing in the front yard and I heard one of them say, "Ouch! He hit me in the _____." I don't even want to say it because it sounds so vulgar to me. I don't talk that way, Steve doesn't talk that way, I don't want my kids to talk that way. At first I started to go into freakout mode, not an uncommon thing for me. Then I took a deep breath and calmed down. I thought to myself, "You know, he isn't a little baby anymore. I am sure he hears that all the time at school." It is hard for me because I have tried to protect my children from the influences of the world going on 11 years now. There is so much yucky in the world. But they are getting to the age where they are going to be going out into the world and I just have to have faith that I have done a good job in raising them and teaching them. I hope I have prepared them enough so that they can go into the world and make good choices and decisions without having me looking over their shoulders all the time. It makes me very grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ which plays such a prevalent part in my life and the lives of my children. I can't imagine life without it. I can't imagine what kind of mother and person I would be without it. I can't imagine how I would teach my children without it.

Wow. That got deeper than I planned. On a lighter note.....

Yesterday Zac brought home a book order flier and he showed the girls a book he thought they might like. It was entitled, "Oops, I Did It Again". So naturally I break into song, right? The thing that shocked the heck out of me was that Zac and Emily broke into song too. Right after I sang the first line, "Oops, I did it again", they finished it by singing, "I played with your heart, got lost in the game, oh baby baby". My jaw dropped open and I said, "HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT SONG???" Apparently it is on some computer game they play. Interesting. So you see what I mean? They are growing up and I am just going to have to get used to it.

Speaking of growing up, here is Emily's Christmas list she gave me (just in case any of you need to know what to get her):

i-pod

cat or bird

flat screen tv

candy

new clothes

new cell phone

Seven Things - I Know Y'all Have Been On The Edge Of Your Seats Waiting

Ok. I was tagged forever ago by 2 of my cousins to do this and I am finally getting around to it. Here is goes.

I was tagged for the Seven Things Meme by Kim and Candi.

The rules are:

-Share seven random facts about yourself, in your blog.

-Include these rules.

-Link back to the person who tagged you.

-Tag seven more people and list their names & blogs. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged.

I decided to share seven facts about my life right now at this very minute.

1. I have had a headache for 2 days now and it is really annoying.

2. I have little tiny holes in all my shirts where I carry Addison in her car seat and it rubs up against me. I have been trying to be careful lately but I just noticed that my new and most fa-vor-ite shirt I am wearing now sports my signature hole.

3. I haven't eaten lunch yet and I am starving. When they say Snickers really satisfies, they don't mean the mini size.

4. I have about 500 things I should be doing right now and none of them involve this here computer.

6. I just put the girls down for a nap and I don't think either one of them will actually be going to sleep any time soon. Too bad so sad. They are staying in bed.

7. I recorded ER last Thursday, started watching it Friday, and am not even 1/2 way through. I am about to go make myself a bowl of soup and finish it right now. So see ya, wouldn't want ta be ya!

I am tagging the following, so listen up!

Coren - You've already been tagged, I am just trying to get you to move along and do it.

Dianna

Marissa

Heather

Lauren

Diana - You don't have a blog but I think it is about time you did.

And everyone else I know has already been tagged so I don't have a #7

Monday Morning Musings

We went to the First Presidency Christmas devotional at the Conference Center last night. My father so graciously shared his tickets and my mother so graciously babysat Aubrey and Addy. It was wonderful except for the guy sitting behind me who talked through the whole thing. Except for the times when he felt it necessary to sing along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and if he didn't know the song he hummed his own little melody. I wanted to turn around and say, "You know, we all know this song but do you hear any of the rest of us singing it???? NO! There is a reason for that!" Then the guy sitting behind Zac gave him and Emily a pack of smarties. Hello! First of all they were sitting very quietly, it's not like they needed something to keep them quiet and entertained. Second, you are a stranger giving out candy to kids. And third, do you know how loud a smartie wrapper is when 21,000 people are being silent (minus the guy behind me) so they can hear the Prophet? Anyway, it really was a neat experience and I am glad we were able to take Zac and Emily.

Why is it that I hate onions but love onion rings?



I have been freaking out since Thanksgiving because I wasn't ready for Christmas yet. Then last week I realized that it wasn't even December yet.



Steve made fun of me because I want to buy Zac a CD for Christmas and I had to ask my neighbor across the street what kind of music boys his age listen to.



I got a little sad the other day because I realized this is the last time we will spend Christmas in this house. Now that I realized that, everything I do makes me nostalgic. Sniff, sniff.



My sister Kristy made a big announcement today. If you missed it, click here.



I had to explain to my kids this morning what man boobs are. Zac apparently heard someone talking about it and he was so using it in the wrong context.



You know how I always complain about not having spell check on the comment page? I discovered a quick easy way to spell check. I just type the word in my Google tool box like I am doing a search and it gives me a handy little drop down of words. Nifty.



Emily and Zac were fighting this morning and Zac hit her leg with his backpack. Oh my. I was in my room and from the sound that was coming out of her mouth I was sure we were going to have to make an early morning visit to the hospital. She was hysterical and screaming and crying saying she couldn't go to school. I calmed her down and put her in bed to rest before school (there was no way I was letting her stay home, especially if she was going to keep screaming like that) then I went to check Zac's backpack to see what he had in there. He is always carrying his encyclopedias around so I was sure he had 3 or 4 in there or his big huge marble that is bigger than my fist and would probably kill an animal or small child if you hit them with it the right way. What was in his backpack that hurt Emily so bad? A very small book and 2 pieces of paper.

Baby It's Cold Outside

I guess it finally decided to be winter. I am thankful for the extended warm weather we have been having. As sad as I am to see the warm weather go, I love how beautiful everything is covered in snow.