Birthdays

I had a birthday 2 days ago. Not a monumental one, nothing even to blog about really. However, that in itself has led me to the blog. I can remember some birthdays I have had in vivid detail. I know that when I turned 5 I had a birthday with all the party games: Pin the tail on the donkey, drop the clothes pin in the mason jar, musical chairs, all the fun you can have in ones backyard. When I was 10 I had a combined sleep over birthday party with my neighbor. It was at her house and it was a disaster. I went home at 3am but my mom didn't hear me knocking on the door so I had to go back. When I was 16 I didn't have a fantastic party or anything but the boy I liked came and picked me up and we had lunch - our first "real" date that was interrupted by a phone call that I got my first real job and they wanted me to come in that day. When I turned 18 I spent the day horseback riding with my on again off again boyfriend - we were currently off. And then the guy I had been dating a bit took me out but suddenly remembered he needed to get his car back home for his sister so we needed to swing by my house and get my car. Voila a surprise party was waiting. Many more birthdays passed that I can't recall but when I was 30 Stew was out of town and I had lunch with my neighbors and we had cake and then dinner at another friends with more cake. When Stew returned home after his business trip we went to Vegas. Six birthdays have come and gone since then. Not sure in 30 more years I'll remember any of them but I suppose I should be happy I keep having them.

I'm A Lazy Blogger - here's a meme!

1) What is your salad dressing of choice? Ranch - the occasional bleu cheese.

2) What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Anyone without my kids? Haha just kidding - claim jumper. Can't wait for The cheesecake factory to make its appearance here.

3) What food could you eat for 2 weeks straight and not get sick of it? Peanut butter - as I probably eat it everyday anyways - pb crackers/pb toast. It's the breakfast of champions.

4) What are your pizza toppings of choice? pepperoni and pineapple


5) What would you like to put on your calendar today? 2004 and I would go back and make that phone call I never made.


6) How many televisions are in your house? Three - one in the family room, one in the kids hallway with the play station and then one that isn't even plugged in in our bedroom.

7) What color cell phone do you have? Black - but I really miss my pink one.


8) Are you right-handed or left-handed? right


9) Have you ever had anything removed from your body? No - unless you count the pieces of road that were stuck in my chin when I crashed on my bike once.


10) What is the last heavy item you lifted? I would guess boxes as I'm still not completely unpacked but I move boxes from place to place as needed.

11) Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope.

12) If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? Absolutely not.


13) If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I would change my last name. LOL JUST KIDDING! I don't know - I've had this one for long enough I've sort of gotten used to it.


14) Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1000? I might entertain the idea but I doubt I could.


15) How many pairs of flip flops do you own? None - I really don't find them comfortable.


16) What’s your goal for the year? get all those boxes unpacked and my office organized. Organize the garage too.


17) Last person you talked to? My neighbor


18) Last person you hugged? My daughter.


19) Favorite Season? Spring


20) Favorite Holiday? Christmas


21) Favorite day of the week? Friday or Saturday


22) Favorite Month? March


23) First place you went this morning? The bowling alley - I had to prebowl since I'll be travelling to Utah on Wednesday.


24) What's the last movie you saw? Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - the night before it was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In the theater it was Bedtime Stories.


25) Do you smile often? I think so.


26) Do you always answer your phone? I have caller ID - if it is a telemarketer I do not.


27) It's four in the morning and you get a text message, who is it? A wrong number because the guy who had this phone number before me didn't tell his friends he changed it. It's usually related to something I do NOT want to know about.

28) If you could change your eye color what would it be? Maybe green? I like my blue eyes though.


29) What flavor drink do you get at Sonic? Orange Creme Slushie.


30) Have you ever had a pet fish? Yes - many. In college we had 4 - John, Paul, George and Ringo - you'll never guess which one died first.


31) Favorite Christmas song? I don't know that I have a favorite - I love them all.


32) What's on your wish list for your birthday? I better get thinking about this one since I only have a few weeks. Lyposuction and a tummy tuck maybe? hahaha


33) Can you do push ups? Yes, as I demonstrated to my Webelos the other day - those 10 year old boys could NOT do them.


34) Can you do a chin up? That would be a no.


35) Does the future make you more nervous or excited? A bit of both.


36) Do you have any saved texts? I have a ton on my phone but not saved for any particular reason except I just haven't deleted them.


37) Ever been in a car wreck? Nothing where anyone has been injured.


38) Do you have an accent? No.


39) What is the last song to make you cry? I Can Only Imagine - but sung by Wynonna because that's who sang it when I heard it the first time.

40) Plans tonight? Taking the girl to Gymnastics - that's it.


41) Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? No, I don't think so.


42) Name 3 things you bought yesterday. Nothing, it was Sunday.


44) Current hate right now? I don't know that I hate anything. I dislike when people do NOT use their turn signals.

45) Met someone who changed your life? Yes - I think most people influence your life one way or the other - it's all part of life.


46) How did you bring in the New Year? At my mom's neighbors eating jambalaya mmmmmmmm.


47) What song represents you? I have no idea - I guess I don't have an anthem.


48) What were you doing at 12 AM last night? I was sleeping.


49) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Wondering if the kids were up yet and if they took the dog out.

Seven!

Seven years ago my baby was born! Hard to believe it's been seven years and that she is still the baby. She is everything I ever wanted in a girl - I think I said that in my last post about her reading but it's true. She's kind and sensitive and she just has a joy about life. She also has a passion for animals. At Christmas she asked for a puppy. She wrote letters to Santa asking for a puppy. In fact at school she wrote a letter and whoever the genius was that wrote back to her focused on her request for a puppy. Seriously, who does that? She cried when she did not get a puppy for Christmas. So, February rolls around and what do you think this little girl wanted for her birthday? A puppy of course. I have spent the last two weeks looking in the newspaper and on craigslist in search of a puppy. Checking the lists of the dogs at the shelters. I have really no desire to spend 100's of dollars on a puppy. I also was picky about the age. I didn't really want a brand new puppy but I didn't want a DOG either. So yesterday we went to the animal fair. What better place to find a puppy than to go to 1 place where all of the rescues/shelters bring their dogs. We wandered around and didn't see anything. Too big, too old, too mean looking, not what I was looking for. Then we spotted him. A small black dog. The rest is history. He is 8months old and a chihuahua/jack russell mix. So far he's been absolutely wonderful. And my 7 year old is having the best birthday ever - and now she isn't the baby anymore.

Bragging!

I'm not big on bragging normally. In fact I come from a family that just doesn't do it very well. This comes from both sides actually - I married in to a family that takes pride in one another's accomplishments but they just don't brag about them. When we have family reunions with my husbands extended family we usually spend one night all hanging out in one big room and everyone updates on what is happening in their lives. Stew's dad is the oldest so he ALWAYS goes first. He gives a very matter of fact update on each of his children and grandchildren. It then moves on down the line, there are 8 siblings, and as it goes the accomplishments become BIGGER and BETTER. We often sit and think - well so and so has a 4.0 too and so and so conducted the Utah Symphony but it just doesn't occur to us to BRAG like that. And it does feel like bragging. In my opinion a family update is "Stew and his family live in Tucson- we're so happy to have them back from England." Not "Stew spent 4 years saving the world, his children are all merit scholars and his wife just wrote her first novel." Even though sometimes I think we should get a rebuttal at the end of the reunions so we can add all the things we didn't THINK to brag about being the first in line.

Well, anyways - the whole point of this post is so that I CAN brag! Yep, it is my blog and I'm going to do it. I have to say I love my boys they are fantastic and they are both very smart. Their interests and abilities are sometimes different than mine but this is to be expected as they are 1/2 of someone whose interests and abilities are also very different than mine. So this brings me to the girl. I really WANTED a girl and I am so absolutely thrilled how similar her interests are to mine. She is just so sweet and she loves school. Absolutely loves it. However, the thing that I LOVE that she loves the most is reading. I love to read, I have always loved to read. I can remember learning how to read and then that was it I was off. Jordan is the exact same way. She will be 7 next week and she is in 1st grade. She was retested for her reading level this week and her ability is 5.0. This means she is on a 5th grade reading level!! I absolutely am thrilled - there is nothing I DID to make her a good reader - she just IS. And I'm going to brag about it!

The Proposal

Over at Amazed she's having a little contest to gear up for Valentines day I would guess. I figured I would play along and tell about how I got engaged.

Of course when I met Stew I was not at all interested but those things change. We dated a while. We talked about marriage and we talked about rings. I told him exactly what I did NOT want and some of the things that I did want, being very materialistic obviously at 19. So, while at Rick's when a girl would get engaged she would announce it to her friends/dorm roommates through something called a candle lighting. We would all sit in the dorm lounge and pass a lit candle around the room. Everyone would say something to the lucky girl - without knowing who it was. When the candle would come to the newly engaged girl she would blow it out. So one evening my roommates and I all attended a candle lighting. The candle went around the room and when it came to me I leaned to my roommate Shelley and informed her that if Stew asked I wanted a ring JUST like the one on the candle. The candle was passed and it continued around the circle again. Strangely nobody was blowing it out. As the candle reached me for the 2nd time Shelley leaned over and whispered - blow out the candle. I was shocked. The door opened and Stew walked in and YES I blew out the candle.

Of course - I do enjoy another proposal story. A friend of ours took his girlfriend hiking up a mountain and when they reached a nice area they stopped and had a picnic. He then pulled out 2 ring boxes and asked her to choose one. When she picked he promptly threw the other box over a cliff. As she opened the EMPTY box and started freaking out he then pulled a 3rd box out of his other pocket. He's pretty lucky she didn't throw HIM over the cliff if you ask me - but it makes for a great story!

Making a House a Home

Yep, I've been busy lately and neglecting my blog. First we had Christmas which was great. Then we went to my mom's in California and we all went to Disneyland with my sister in law and her family. Her oldest Daughter turns 21 in May so this was the last family vacation for a while - as she hopes to go on a mission. Their 2nd oldest daughter got married right before we moved home from England so this was also the first time we met her cute husband. We all had a great time.

I've also been busy with the house. My mom came back with us after our trip to California and she was busy helping me organize and all of that. I do NOT enjoy hanging pictures on my walls so the 2 of us tackled that together. It took us almost a week to have to nail more than one nail to get something hung correctly. We should have stopped there because our last bout at interior decorating was disastrous. As was said by a good friend when I told her the story "they shouldn't be called window TREATMENTS they should be window PUNISHMENTS". This is after I first installed one part of the rod and it was crooked - and then fixed it and installed it upside down. After the rod was hanging and even we lifted up the curtains to begin putting them on and wouldn't you know it - TOO SHORT! We won't mention that my mom was ironing the creases out of the sheers and panels while I was hanging the rod. All that work gone to waste as we folded them back up and put them in the little plastic sleeves they came in. Fortunately the store was able to exchange them and order me the correct length so in a few days I'll tackle that job again.

So, if I'm missing in action for a while longer you'll know I'm tangled up in sheers in my living room!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy Holiday!