The Walgreens Chronicles

If you don't have a clue as to what you just viewed, you need to read this.

Trying To Solve The World's Problems, One Post At A Time

I am not at all trying to be political here, but I do have a few questions I would like to pose.

#1. How seriously do you think other countries would take us if our Presidents name was Huckabee? Hey Pres'dnt Hu-K-A-bee watchall doin up thar in that big o Wite Howse?

#2. Honestly. How stupid do you think people are? I am not going to run my negative ad campaign because I'm such a nice guy, but here, all you media type people, here it is. Come on. I think that :

a) You came up with a great way to save some campaign money and still get your ad to run.

b) If you are going to be a "nice guy" - be one. Don't just say you are going to be one and then do exactly what you were not going to do in order to be a nice guy. Cause that makes no sense to me what so ever.

I was half asleep last night and Steve was watching some news show on TV and it showed him when he said to the press that he wasn't going to run his ad and then he said, Here it is if you want to see it. And they laughed at him. And he said to whoever was interviewing him at the time, like I said-I was 1/2 asleep, I knew they would laugh at me for deciding not to run it. That woke me right up. Does he honestly think that is why they were laughing at him? Seriously.

And while we are in such deep discussion, there is another burning question I have. Whenever I go to Walgreens drive thru to get a prescription filled the same thing always happens. They have 2 drive thru lanes. They have a big red sign, one arrow pointing one way, one arrow pointing the other way that says, "BOTH LANES OPEN". The lane that is next to the window always has 2 or 3 cars backed up in it. The other lane-wide open. So I drive myself right on up to lane #2 and get my RX and drive away. I always look back to see if the last car in the other lane will back up and go to the second lane. But they never do. I don't understand that.

Hmmmm.....maybe Huckabee's right. Maybe there are a lot of not so smart people in the good old US of A.

(and I mean no offence to those of you who choose to wait in lane #1)

(but if you are one of them, could you please explain to me why you do it. i mean there might be a very valid reason and i just am not aware)

(like maybe they spit in the medicine bottles in lane #2 or something)

Here I Am, All Mixed Up And Musing On A Wednesday Again

Check the new digs people. My dear and ever so talented sister Farrah was irritated by my last header (which she created so it is ok that it irritated her). She surprised me with this new one this morning. I love it. Thank you! Thank you!

I have 3 very sick girlies. Two with ear infections and one with what sounds like RSV. Again. I really am praying I don't end up in the hospital with her. Again. I am feeling a little deja vuie. Anyway, we leave for the doctor soon.

Today was different. We actually had to get up and get dressed at a decent hour and get Zac off to school. We have all become very accustomed to sleeping until 9am the past week and a half. Even babycakes. It really confused me when my alarm on my phone went off at 6:30 this morning. Seriously. I had no idea where I was or what day it was or why this fandangled contraption next to me was making such a horrible noise. It took me a while to turn it off. After which I promptly fell back asleep and woke up at 7:53. Maybe tomorrow....

Poor Steve. Yesterday at our house was the kind of day all men dream of. Big screen plasma hanging on the wall, football all day long, and a fridge right there in the living room. Unfortunately he was unable to enjoy the new living arrangement because he spent the whole day tearing out our kitchen floor (thank you to his friend Ash for volunteering to help).

After Zac "showed" my brother-in-law his turtle (it was kind of hard to identify him in the water) we decided to clean out the tank for fear of being reported for animal cruelty. During the whole LOVELY process we lost said turtle under the fridge. Which at the time was located in the kitchen. Which at the time had not been moved in I don't know how long so you can guess what it was like under there. It took some doing, but we were able to rescue the turtle and put him safely back in his nice clean home. However, I was able to convince Zac that it was time to find the turtle a new home. YIPPY SKIPPY! Anybody want a turtle? I will include a year supply of food. And I will pay you $100.

I wasn't serious about the $100 thing. Just in case.

There is a very valid reason why my children don't have pets so everyone can get off my back about it!

All the cuts on my fingers are almost healed. You know, the ones I sustained while trying to remove toys from their packaging last week. I almost took the tip of my left pointer finger off.

Zac came back from St. Louis and told me that he knows what he wants to be when he grows up. A combat engineer. Just like his father before him and his father before him. And just like his Uncle Ed who is in Iraq right now. And just like his cousin Josh wants to be. Ahhh... just what a mother dreams of....we'll see if he ever gets to visit Missouri again.....

OOH! I almost forgot. I decided to go green for the new year. I actually turned my outside Christmas light off for the first time in...several weeks....(don't tell Al).

A New Year, A New Resolution, A New Blog

I love New Years Day. I always have. I love the fact that it is BRAND NEW. I always use this time of the year to look back and evaluate my life and what I accomplished in the previous year. Like many others, I also use it as a time to set goals for myself.


Something that has been weighing on my mind lately is gratitude, or the lack there of, in our world today. We live in a time so richly blessed. We have every conceivable comfort available to us. But unfortunately most of the time we are so busy running around we don't take the time to recognize these blessings.


I used to be very good about showing gratitude to others when they did something nice for me. But I have become very bad at it over the last few years. I have been too busy, but frankly I don't think that is a very good excuse at all. I decided that this year I am going to do much better at showing my gratitude and saying thank you.


I realized that my lack of gratitude is a very bad example for my children. I don't want them to grow up to be ungrateful adults. Or adults who do not know how to say the simple words, "Thank You". I don't want them to grow up and have people look at them and say, "Steve and Allyson must not have taught their children how to say thank you." I want them to grow up able to recognize and express their gratitude and thanks freely and eloquently.


This brings me to my NEW YEARS RESOLUTION. I have a new blog called 365 Thanks. Every day this year I am going to post something that I am thankful for. I am going to encourage my children to find something every day to be thankful for. I am excited and hope that it will help to bring an attitude of gratitude into my life. So visit me there. And share with me the things you are thankful for.

Happy New Year!
-Allyson

My new blog address is http://www.365thanks.blogspot.com/

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.