Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Jared!

We made it 14 wonderful years! (HA Mom!)

I love you so very much! I thank my Heavenly Father every day for sending you to my life! Thank you for being so patient with me and continuing to love me even with all my faults! I can't wait for eternity!

I LOVE YOU!!!!

(This is the picture that my kids don't know who I am standing with... when I tell them it is their Dad, they reply, "No Mom, the man with the hair!" Raegan, maybe I should rename my blog to the World Of Baldness)

Addicted

They say the first step to overcoming addiction is to admit it. I have become addicted to TV. Ever since we got a DVR and upgraded to "real" cable a month ago, I watch TV everyday, sometimes for hours at a time. Since we moved the TV downstairs this summer, our TV watching time dropped drastically. Now I have all these new shows to watch when it is convenient for me (unfortunately, not when it is convenient for my house cleaning).

My favorite show currently is Jon and Kate plus Eight. I hate the show, but it keeps sucking me in. I can't stop watching it. Kate annoys me, but their life is fascinating to me. I wish I had the willpower to just turn it off. Even my kids are tired of watching it with me. I keep telling myself I have watched about half of their episodes, so if I can just catch up then I will only have one episode a week to keep up on. UUGGGHHHH!!!

On another note, if you need to upgrade for the digital change next week, Comcast has a reception package for $15 a month. It includes all your local channels, plus Discovery, History, and Travel. Tyler called this our fake cable. It worked for us for a long time, but I finally needed a DVR.

Can I blame the DVR need on our callings? With all the nights Jared and I are at the church, we needed to record our shows, right???

2 Years, 8 Months

Emily: March 1998 (There are 8 teeth in there)

Emily: Seven Years Old

Emily: May 2006 9 years old

Emily: July 2006


Emily: Feb 2, 2009 10:30 am

Emily: Feb 2, 2009 evening


Emily with the caramel apple on a stick that she has been craving for 2 years 8 months!


Caramel dipped in milk chocolate and then rolled in Butterfinger!

YUM! YUM!

(she ate the whole thing!!!!)

Bargain Shopping

I love a good bargain, and I found lots of them this week. A kind friend stole Ainsley for an afternoon this week, so I went to Children's Place at Jordan Landing just for the heck of it. They were having a huge clearance sale. All clearance items were $4.99 or $5.99. Time I used my 15% coupon and 10% coupon from my card, everything was $3.82 or $4.75. Three trips and four transactions later I ended up with:
3 winter coats ($50-$60 each)
3 heavy spring jackets ($34.50 each)
2 skirts ($34.50 each)
3 dresses
2 bathrobes ($24.50 each)
2 pairs of shoes ($18.50 each)
4 pairs of school pants + 1 pair of jeans ($19.50-$24.50 each)
lots of shirts, comfy pants, jammies, vests, hoodies, church clothes

I purchased about 50 items, and paid less than 25% of the normal total for everything. (Of course, who pays full price for anything at Children's Place?) I almost can't wait for my kids to grow into some of their new clothes!!!!!!!

On a side note, Emily has officially grown out of the children's section! I am not ready to shop exclusively in the juniors section for her!!!!!

The high price of parenting

My brother sent me this email....and as a mother I greatly appreciated it. Read and enjoy!

This is just too good not to pass on to all. Here is something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice.
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about price shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.But $160,140.00 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:
* $8,896.66 a year,
* $741.38 a month,
* $171.08 a week.
* A mere $24.24 a day!
* Just over a dollar an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice is; don't have children if you want to be 'rich.' Actually, it is just the opposite.What do you get for your $160,140.00?
* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
* Glimpses of God every day.
* Giggles under the covers every night.
* More love than your heart can hold.
* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
* A hand to hold usually covered with jelly or chocolate.
* A partner for blowing bubbles and flying kites.
* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks
performed that day.

For $160,140.00, you never have to grow up. You get to:
* finger-paint,
* carve pumpkins,
* play hide-and-seek,
* catch lightning bugs,
* never stop believing in Santa Claus.

You have an excuse to:
* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,
* watch Saturday morning cartoons,
* go to Disney movies, and
* wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day..

For a mere $24.24 a day, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:
* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,
* taking the training wheels off a bike,
* removing a splinter,
* filling a wading pool,
* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and
* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat in history to witness the:
* First step,
* First word,
* First bra,
* First date,
* First time behind the wheel.

You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!
Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren & great-grandchildren!!!!!!!
It's the best investment you'll ever make!!!!!!!!!

Take time to enjoy being a parent!

Face Lift

I know, I am only 32, and I am not a movie star by any means, but I had a face lift last Thursday. Okay, not a real and complete face lift, but something along those lines. I had a non-cancerous lump under my ear that would keep growing if it wasn't removed. The lump was in my saliva gland. Because all the nerves and muscles to your face run through this area, the doctor had to do a surgery similar to a face lift to carefully remove the tumor. I am grateful he did this because I enjoy smiling and blinking, just some of the things these muscles help me do.

Don't I look so happy to be at the doctor the next day?

I had mentally prepared myself for pain, but not numbness. I still can't feel parts of my face, or my entire right ear. I have a four inch incision that is just starting to itch. The long surgery and recovery kicked my butt, and I spent four days after surgery not doing anything but laying around. (Too bad I wasn't more coherent so I could enjoy myself those days).

In case you are considering a face lift someday, let my try to dissuade you. Here are my reasons for not having facial plastic surgery:

*I still can't open my mouth very far, I have to shove my food in my mouth to make it fit.

*The drainage tube with bloody goo in it is GROSS!

*I couldn't shower for three days with my lovely bandage on my head.

*I think it will be weeks until I can wear earrings again.

*Because I am very right-eared while talking on the phone, I can't talk on the phone and do something else. My left shoulder muscles just won't hold the phone up. FYI: My right ear must have callouses on it for the phone....my left ear hurts when I hold the phone up to it for too long. Is this normal, or do I talk on the phone too much?

*My face is still a little swollen, and bruises are creeping up (at least the darkest ones are under my chin)

*Real moms don't get the same recovery/take it easy time that Hollywood stars get.

*I have to keep my hair pulled back so it doesn't itch my incision, which then scares anyone who comes near me.

*Dried blood is very hard to clean out of a swollen ear canal.

*I felt like I had an ear infection for six days straight....my poor kids who have had ear troubles...I have an whole new empathy for them.

*Talking wears you out when you have to think about making your numb lips move for four days.

*My top lip is very chapped because I can't reach to wipe the bottom lip's chapstick on it (my lips just don't move like that right now), and I keep forgetting to swipe the chapstick across my top lip also.

The incision is one solid line that goes behind my ear lobe also.

I do wish my tumor was found in about twenty years, when I could consider a face lift at the same time. Now I don't think I would go through this again even for my vanity!!!!!!

It Happened to Us

Before

It is one of those things that I thought we had outgrown at our house. We have never had a problem before tonight.....Ainsley cut her hair! She thought it was being crazy while she was dancing. She walked into the storage room, grabbed my sewing scissors and cut four inches off right in the front. I didn't even cry! She did when I yelled at her though. After I calmed down and looked at it, I figured it could have been a lot worse. Jared wanted me to leave it, but things like crazy uneven hair reflect on the mom in my book. I don't think that when I see it on other kids, but I know people think bad things about me when I let my kids look like trash. We marched down to Great Clips immediately. The whole time she was so excited to get her hair cut-the little brat. You would have thought she planned this the whole time. Just tonight I was commenting on Kim the girl's blog about my devil fourth child. She lived up to it! This is my baby who got her ears pierced at two and a half because I caught her trying to pierce her own ears after I told her she had to be five for pierced ears. Ainsley knows what she wants, and will get what she wants, no matter what I say about it. Three other kids who never tried to cut their own hair....and then comes Ainsley. That kid is going to drive me crazy. I think my blog is named after our house when she is creating mischief! Jared and I remind ourselves that it is a dang good thing she is so darn cute and funny and snuggly and sweet sometimes and happy and .....(Can you tell we have to keep reminding ourselves of her good traits?)

After

Look at that grin and tell me she isn't proud of her mischief!