DISNEYLAND HERE WE COME!!!

HERE WE GO!!!!

Cam was so excited he wore his Mouse Ears almost the entire trip!

Circus Circus, Las Vegas NV

We stayed our first night at Circus Circus. It was kinda the low end of Vegas we found, but the kids STILL had a blast! Caleb still keeps saying "I wanna doe to Sirtis Sirtis! I wuv Sirtis Sirtis" LOL!!

In our rememberance book Caleb said the best part about this first day was the "icetream wiff the 'prinkles dat my Papa gots me" - we can see that! Bwahahaha!
They loved the buffet of anything and everything they could eat!

We slept fast, as it finally sunk in that we were indeed going to Disneyland! (They seemed more in shocked the first day) They even skipped the Buffet breakfast for cereal in the room - just so we could GET there! Tee hee

Eat faster!! Let's go!

I know. You are all waiting for Disneyland updates... but alas, it is 12:30 am, the camera batteries are dead, and well, I am too tired to go charge them, yet too awake to go to sleep! Ugh. It has been a rough day and there are some things I need to resolve tommorow... and so... sadly... sleep is not coming... so you get my midnight ramblings! You lucky, Lucky blog readers! *giggle*

Have you ever...
Have you done any of these?...Just copy and paste this to your blog and highlight or Bold the ones that you HAVE done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (last week! *sniff*)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (do my pups count?? LOL)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight.
22.Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke.
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46.Been transported by ambulance (ugh!)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51.Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (never could! :( )
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67.Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78.Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86.Killed and prepared an animal for eating
87. Visited the White House.
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94.Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Tagged

8 TV shows I watch:
1. Good Eats
2. UnWrapped
3. The Dog Whisperer
4. The News
5. Mythbusters
6.
7.
8.

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Slept until Noon (my sweetheart loves me! The trip caught up with me!)
2. Did 2 loads of Laundry (exciting eh?)
3. Sanded both porch chairs and repainted one of them
4. Helped Jess clean out his truck
5. Planted my tulip bulbs :)
6. Went to the pumpkin patch with the family (SO FUN! More pics to post! LOL)
7. Went to Arctic Circle and got the kids their traditional Square Pumpkins for dinner
8. Worked on the Primary Program until after 1:30am

8 Favorite places to eat
1. Melting Pot - though I have already been there for my once in a lifetime experience, I will lament it forever! YUM!!
2. Red Lobster
3. Sizzler
4. Olive Garden
5. Marion's Variety Lunch. MUST HAVE a BBQ and a hotdog whenever I am in Roosevelt! LOL
6. Pizza Factory
7. Anywhere on a date with Jestin
8. Dinner at Mom-in-Laws. For some reason it always feels like coming home...

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:
1. The Primary Program to be over. Sad I know, but true. I will sleep for a week I swear! LOL
2. Getting busy selling homes again! I miss showing homes!
3. Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) This is my FAVORITE day of the year. I love shopping in the crowds and getting huge deals. The plotting and spreading Christmas cheer is great fun too!
4. Going to Disneyland again!
5. Painting more of my house.
6. Emma's Birthday. She is going to LOVE her present! LOL!
7. Completing my BOM reading before the end of the year like I would like!
8. Tommorow. I have much to do! LOL

8 Things on my wish list
1. More self control with money & a budget I have happily written. I am rebelling against writting a budget... yet I know it would make my life easier!
2. More time with friends.
3. A better connection with my Heavenly Father... though I know it my fault and not His. :)
4. Lose 25 pounds... or even the 10 for now I gained right after surgery from the steroids! ugh!
5. Finish the backyard
6. Pour the concrete pads.
7. Jess' work to be steady and strong again. I promise I won't complain this time! LOL!
8. Completely house broken puppies!

8 Tagged People
1. Mardi
2. Steph
3. Nicole
4. Autumn (welcome to the bloggin' world!)
5. Jenny
6. Ma
7. Cindy
8. Lori

President's Scholarship Ball

WOW! What a fun evening Jestin & I enjoyed last night! We were invited to join our good friend's John & Kim at the new UVU's Presidential Scholarship Ball.
It was SO out of our element and quite fun! We dinned on a 6 course meal of food we couldn't pronounce, but throughly enjoyed, and were entertained by the Ball room dance company, very talented musicians and speakers, including Chad Lewis, whom was so generous for the Charity Auction for my heart surgery! (It was SO neat to go and shake his hand and thank him in person for helping make that possible! & it was fun to be awash with gratitude all over again when thinking that just a short year ago I never could have gotten ready for and attended such an event on the same day!! Oh! I am so very blessed!!)

Jestin looked absolutely fabulous and Oh! so YUM! in his suit and such. *SIGH* I really did marry well didn't I?? Aside from family weddings this was the first opportunity we have had to dress up and go out like this since highschool! SO FUN!! We were greeted by vallet parking, and a red carpet. It was awesome! I wish I could have snuck a better camera in! *giggle* My cell phone's photos aren't so hot!

After the amazing meal... we danced to grand band stand type music! It was a hoot! None of the 4 of us really knew what we were doing... but it was fun nonetheless! Kim mentioned she sure could use a Guns-N-Roses ballad about then!! Bwahahaha!!

Thank you you two cute people!! We love ya to pieces and it was a complete ball!! Literally!

DISNEYLAND!!!

YEP!! That was our surprise vacation!! I have lots more pics to post...just no time to do it! I will get to it soon! I promise! *grin*

IT WAS FABULOUS!!!!!!!! We have never had so much fun!!

Words cannot explain

the myriad of emotions. Caleb & his bestest buddy (we call them "Kick" and "Sidekick") were left alone downstairs while I curled my hair for a meeting with friends. I was up there maybe 15 minutes. Maybe.

I could hear them running through the kitchen. I figured it was a super hero game. It wasn't.

In the corner where two couches meet in the family room I have a table. They had stacked it clear to the top with anything and everything they could find:
All the pictures from the wall that I had taken down while Jess re-wired the A/C, including the kids school pictures in frames, the new camcorder Jess found for me at pawn shop to use for our trip and all the film and cables etc for it, the dishes from the table, including one of the kids cereal bowls that still had stuff in it, Cameron's camera, all of Caleb's trucks and cars, a bunch of the vegetables from my garden that had been in a bowl on the table, a couple of storybooks, my Proclamation on the Family, can after can after can of food from the pantry, ketchup bottles, legos, other toys, my pillows from my living room couch, the Wii remotes and a game, 2 DVD's, the TV & DVD player remotes, all the dog toys, glass bottles I had canned and more. And it was all laced with a broken quart jar of homemade tomato juice, a broken quart jar of homemade applesauce and a shattered glass bottle of A&W cream soda, and topped off with their cups of 100% grape juice... and they had THROWN all of it. There was a large can of pears that was deeply dented for how hard these little stinks threw it!


I did not think of taking a picture until I was over half way done cleaning it up.

If you look closely & you can see the two cups full of grape juice where they hit the wall at the top of the pile of stuff...that's how tall it was!


This is the remnant of tomato juice. I cannot believe how blessed I was to get it to come out of the carpet!! There is barely a pink tint along the wall.

I yelled, I screamed, I swatted butts, I cried and cried some more as I threw things away that could not be saved. Those two little men sat quietly in time out for over 2 hours. They were shocked to see me so un-corked I think. And I told them if I had to sit here for hours cleaning it up (because once I got half way through the pile I realized there was glass shards everywhere and they could no longer help me) then they could not play and had to sit there and watch me. And they did. They both kept saying sorry over and over. Caleb's BBF even called me from home with his mommy's help to tell me again... and it took a couple of hours for me to stop crying.

I know they are only things. I know that. It was just so disappointing to miss seeing my friends I haven't seen in months, and to spend over 3 hours shoveling out such a mess when I had so much other stuff I had to do to get ready for our trip!

Alas... I am the mom. That is my job. Damage control. And like it or not... I love these two boys with all of my heart and soul! And after all... if you think about it... Caleb said "We was jus' buildin' a tower"... maybe one day he will be a grand architect and he will take care of my messes as an old grandma! Bwahahahaha!!!

1st day of Preschool (finally posting)

And the 1st day of Mom home alone with all the kids in school!! WOW.

He was SO excited to go!

He didn't even wait for me! He was gone! Not a tear shed for Mom! LOL!

He LOVES Teacher Lynda, and he loves having his best friend Jesse there even more!

Jesse's Mom brought him home to me like this...

"Jeeeeeesssssseeeeeeeeee.....I wan' Jesse!!!"

He cried for almost an hour! He didn't believe me that he could go again in just a couple of days! *giggle* He LOVES going to school!! And Mom is so thankful for a few hours twice a week of echoing quiet (... it is getting better! LOL! That 1st day I was LOST! The silence was weird!)

Our garden is dying... and with the hard freeze forecast for this weekend... we decided to give in and gather all the produce this week. After placing it all on the porch, I felt overwhelmingly blessed! Not only did my garden provide a chance this year to experience the law of consecretion, by sharing with Sorensen's, but it provided well for both of our families. What a huge blessing! It had challenges (ie; plants that wouldn't produce, or died, tomatoes that would not turn red f-o-r-e-v-e-r, and wicked squash bugs...) but it was truly a miracle. And I have learned many things from it:
* Friendships endure hard things...and become stronger.
* Planting from seed does not mean better plants. Sometimes God invented greenhouses for a reason... and that reason would be me, Mrs. Black Thumb.
* Seedlings grow faster in warm oven now and then, unless your sweet husband tries to set the oven for you. Then hot dirt kinda stinks.
* Children can-not be convinced that tomatoes are fruit and therefore tasty.
* Other children will pick up on food avertions from their friends...even if they used to love it!
* Baby squash bugs look like Halloween foder... white with black legs! eewww...
* Nothing beats a BLT with tomato and lettuce from your garden (and homemade french bread! btw Aim I want that recipe! *wink*)
* No matter how much you like it...after the 5th or 6th batch of cucumbers in vinegar and cucumbers on your salad...well there is only so many ways to eat fresh cucumber! And after just so many they loose their appeal...BIG TIME! LOL!
* Zuchinni on the other hand has more uses than you can throw a stick at... and with squash bugs you don't get to enjoy as many as you'd like.
* Speaking of Zuchinni - Grilled Zuchinni will never get old. 'nough said.
* Peppers as well - you really only need one plant. We were at a loss as to what to do with the dozens of jallepenos and anaheims! Yikes! And with no red tomatoes salsa was lamented...
* Do not grow herbs if you dont know how to use them and don't take the time to learn. They grow much too quickly and go to seed even faster!
* Watering for 20 minutes inevitably means I will forget it's on, flood the garden - and the neighbors, and no one can set foot near it for 3 days.
* Home grown cantelope is DIVINE! Now the store bought stuff has a store bought taste to us! We will definately try that one again!
* Tomato cages are not for us. They just do not work out. We are going to try and different method next year!
* Picking your own food and eating it, vs. picking it out at the grocery store, gives you so much more joy than I ever thought possible!

Thankyou Amy for a fun year growing a garden! We will miss you guys next year!!

And I thank my Heavenly Father for the blessing and counsel of growing a garden. :)

We had a little incident...

This is Sophie. She is one of my "babies". She is a Daddy's girl. She is the biggest sweetheart you will ever meet. And we almost lost her.

Caleb was being a good brother and sharing. Sadly it was half a pint size jar of M&Ms he was sharing. And she was one happy pup! Sadly.

Within half an hour she was drooling and hanging her head and licking like crazy. I ran her to the vet, along with her sister Zoey, and the vet had to empty out the contents of both of their tummys (Zoe ate a few once I caught Caleb and Soph), give them both charcoal, and a shot, and some meds for here at home.

Zoey is no worse for wear. Sophie on the other hand seems a little "off" now. She has a more vacant look about her. She gets confused when you call her. She is just slow. It has been almost a week. I feel so horrible!! My poor baby!! They said chocolate effects them neorologically... *sigh* We are hopeful it will improve... but time will tell.

Sophie - Your mommy is so sorry she left the jar of M&Ms down where your brother could get them. She is sorry she was slow to respond to that prompting to check on you two sooner. She loves you very much and prays that you will recover fully.

Love ya Pup!!

Picture Tag

Here's what you do:

Go to My Pictures on your computer.
Go to your 4th file.
Post your 4th picture in that file.
Here's mine:


Kind of appropriate for October huh? Not one I would have loved to share as they are all ingrossed in a small hole at the bottom of the haystack... but hey! It's candid! LOL!

Randomness

So...here is some randomness rolling about in my head.

We are taking the kids somewhere very special and they dont even know about it!! They wont know about it until we load them in the car following an after school scavenger hunt. They are completely clueless...and I am completely E-X-C-I-T-E-D!!! I can barely contain myself!! I feel like am trying to keep myself from jumping out of my skin most days!! We have 8 days to departure. I think my closest friends are SICK of hearing about it... but keeping it bottled up is t-o-r-t-u-r-e! I have barely been posting because it consumes my mind - and not that any of you would - but having it out there for common knowledge makes a slip-up-of-tounge all the more likely - and it has been too well planned for it not to succeed in making the yells and shouts and cries of sheer joy missable! ACK! After the family life we have lived, having a sick mom day in and day out, I am SO SO SO excited to give back some childhood to these little ones of mine!! I am so excited to have a good long PLAY! I am excited to finally follow through with the vacation we have planned 4 times now, only to have my health take precidence over it. I am so excited to have it be about them... and not about me. This will be the vacation of a lifetime for my little ones... and credit card charges for gas and food aside... it will be WORTH EVERY MINUTE!!

I have been cleaning my house like a mad woman. Not just the surface weekly cleaning, but the deep-down-make-it-shine clean. On the 13th it will be 2 years since we moved into our new home. I love this house. I feel so deeply and unexplainably blessed/spoiled to have this home be ours. We consider this our lucky home. We moved in on Friday October 13th. No bad luck there! LOL! We have 13 stairs. We had barely recovered from the unemployment years when this opportunity came up! And after a home that made our children super sick and suffer - we jumped. And we will never look back!

And so I am cleaning...

I used to deep clean ('cause it was easy) every week for the first 9 months we lived here! Never a week went by when my shower wasn't washed and the bathrooms weren't clean! I touched up each paint knick when they happened and the baseboards were washed weekly too. I was able to keep up really easy. After a solid year of the kids & Jess doing most of the cleaning after I started having heart troubles again - well you can imagine the deep dirt/ damage there is. Not to say I am not grateful for their help... it just has not been to "Mom's Standard" - and Mom could do nothing about it. *sigh*

And so I have been cleaning...

5 hours yesterday carpet cleaning the stairs. (no wonder they charge so much to do them professionally! (though they dont have only a little green machine! LOL- ugh!)) They were disgusting.

Next on my TO-DO's:

• Moldings & walls to scrub
• Touch up paint throughout
• Floors to hand scrub
• Fridge to pull out and clean on, in and behind
• Counter-tops and cupboards - done!
• 3 bathrooms to DEEP clean... and they are disgusting! LOL!
• Windows to wash - inside and out
• Bedding for all to be washed and re-made
• Clothes to rotate through (summer to winter and clothes that don't fit = out!)
• Front porch to spray down
• Lawn to mow, weeds to pull etc
• Oven to clean - cleaning as I type *wink*
• Major dusting to do from floor to ceiling
• Clean fish tank
• Wash couch coverings and vacuum them
• Wash all rugs throughout home
• Carpet clean the hallway and the boys room
• Carpet clean the livingroom
• Carpet clean the Master bathroom
• Clean mirrors throughout home
• Clean Laundryroom, wipe down machines
• Blinds, blinds, blinds.
• Ceiling fans
• Furnace filters changed
• Smoke alarm batteries changed

I like this list! *grin* Granted it looks merely like a fall/spring cleaning list...*giggle* but I have a week or so to accomplish these and I am going to inlist help from Jess and the kids (obviously) but having our home back to new feel will be divine! Plus it will keep me DISTRACTED!! TEE HEE HEE!! Off I go! I have much to do! *wink*

Fall Spoils

I have had an awesome time this fall!! My heart has stood up quite well to some marathon canning/preserving sessions and with the help of Amy & Zuli we have accomplished much!!

(notice the date on the lids: 1986)
Thanks to my Great Grandma's old shed I ended up with multiple bottles and lids, an old strainer that works wonderfully and a desire to learn more about her by emmulating her...

I have two dehydrators... found one at DI!! The extra trays are a life saver! I have dried multiples of peaches, pears and apples,

and made pear leather!

We have made enchilada sauce (yum!) Pearsauce, spiced peach jam, tomato juice,

Apple Pie filling and my all time favorite... Pear Honey!!

I have also been hitting the sales... and my pantry is bursting with goodness!


I used coupons from http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/ and got 8 bags of cereal for free! YIPEE!!

As I went to the store today I noticed that prices on everything are inching higher and higher. Makes me all the more grateful for the deals and work I have invested in my little pantry.

I can't wait to start apples again next week! Jess wants more dried apples and peaches. *grin* We love them!