My Turn

While Dave gets his ski trip each year, I get my turn to get away a few weeks later. This past weekend (Thur, Fri, Sat) was our scrapbook convention. Four friends and I spent three long days scrapbooking a lot, eating a lot, laughing a lot and sleeping a little. You can't imagine how fun it is to sit in a room full of hudreds of crazy women and glue paper and pictures to various pages. While my friends and I love the weekend it is amazing how some groups truly get into the spirit of it all. Many groups have creative names such as "Cajun Croppers" "Scissor Sisters" and "Creative Juice" They dress up in tiaras and boas and matching shirts. So, fun to laugh at! As are a lot of their scrapbook pages. I know that's mean, but really buy a magazine!

I did get quite a bit done. I worked on a Halloween mini album with a page for each halloween since Bryce was a baby. And I think I finished up my 2007 pictures. Brett got the most attention as I had so many cute picture of him! The above picture is the first day of preschool. So, sad I could hardly take him, He was afraid he didn't know all he needed to know. Rest assured he does like school, just worried about the first day.

The weekend was so fun I can't wait till next year!

What you may not know about me

Laura has "encouraged" me to post a few things that noone knows about me. I am sure that some of these things my family knows and some of these things my friends know, but one may not know what the other knows. Does that make sense? Anyway, don't expect too much. Here they are:

1. Pets: My kids have not know the "joy" of having a cat or dog, but when I was a kid we had lots. A few I can remember are: a golden boxer which I, as a toddler, named Alice after my favorite book, Alice in Wonderland. A manx(no tail) cat named Minus. At least three other boxers one named BoBo and 2 white ones named Spooky and Boo. A Cat that "followed my brother and sister home, it had extra claws, and huge feet. We named it Thumbs. A cat named Smoky, Dogs, named Tag and Bud. And at least once we had pet rabbits.

2. Dates: I didn't date much before college and most of the guys I went on dates with at BYU were not American. They were from such places as: Korea, Phillipines, Mexico, Peru, and various other Central and South American countries.

3. Surgery: The only surgery I have ever had was Day Surgery about 14-15 years ago to have a fiberous cyst removed from a breast.

4. Walnut Tree: When I was growing up we had a Walnut Tree in the front yard. It was perfect for climbing, not too tall and lots of places to climb to. From the time I was about 5 this was where I spent my summers. That tree was a house, a school, a firestation and headquarters for "Charlie's Angels" to name a few. It was great!

5. Jobs: When I was at BYU I worked for one of those questionable companies that put classified in the newspaper that says things like, "Make thousands working from home!"

That's all I can come up with for now, How did I do?

3 Things

3 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

Changing diapers
Working in the nursery at church
Storytime at the library

3 Things on my to-do list today:

Pick-up Paige from sleep-over
Get some negatives put on a disc
Laundry (always)

3 Bad habits:

Sneaking chocolate
Games on the computer
Basic procastination

3 Places I have lived:

Katy, TX
St. George, UT
San Diego, CA

Sunday afternoon walk

Before I tell you about our walk...some background. Last summer on our way home from vacation we spent 2 nights with Dave's brother Wayne. Uncle Wayne and Aunt McKenzye live in the beautiful mountains of Flagstaff, AZ. Literally, right out their backdoor there is a great hiking trail. The kids hiked back there at least three times in the two days we were there. We came across a baby racoon and we got drenched by an afternoon rain shower. The kids loved it.

Back to Sunday afternoon. The kids complain constantly that we won't let them do anything on Sunday. I once mentioned taking a walk in the neighborhood and they have been bugging me about it for weeks. So, Finally, we took our walk. We walked to a corner of our neigborhood where there are some "woods" and followed a trail. These woods are between our neighborhood and a trailer park to the north. You can hear and usually see the streets to the east and west. There is a lot of trash back there and there were some teenage boys riding there bikes in the mud. The house next to these woods still has what is left of a blue tarp from Hurricane Rita. Get the picture? Can you guess where I am going with this? As we are walking Brett says, "This is just like hiking at Uncle Waynes." I wish!!!

I'm so glad when daddy comes home

Dave made it home from his ski trip. He had a great time. The best skiing in years. Tons of new snow everyday. His sister Robin happened to be in Utah at the same time and they spent a fun day snowmobiling and watching the arial ski jump competion at Deer Valley. He didn't get to visit everyone he wanted to, but enjoyed the visits he did fit in.



You may wonder about how I feel about Dave taking a vacation without me. I will admit the first year we sent him alone I felt a little resentful. But, now I am fine with it. It is too hard to fly with all the kids and on past winter trips they always got sick. And it is very good leverage for just about anything I want to do the rest of the year.


After six days of just me and the kids I am always so glad when he gets home. No matter how good the kids are it is just exhausting when he is not here. To add to it the kids were out of school for Mardi Gras and I have been just a little bit irritable. But, they are back in school today, I made it to the gym for the first time in a week, and Dave is back. Whew!! Now to get ready for my turn!

The kind of shirts I never buy

These are the kinds of shirts I never buy. Well, obviously they are wearing them so I did buy them, but I try to avoid it. I am not a big fan of "attitude" type shirts, but these had enough truth and irony to make them funny and I was talked into it by the boys.

Ty's shirt says "Tough Guys Wear Pink". For a while now Ty has claimed that his favorite color was pink, with nothing really to show for it. I asked him if we got it would he wear it in public. He of course agreed, but tried to change it before we went to the movies the other day. I wouldn't let him change. The humor for me is that Ty really thinks he is tough and in some ways he is, he won't tell me about an earache until it is so bad he can't stand it. But, he easily gets his feelings hurt and loves to snuggle up when we watch a movie.

Bryce's shirt says "I'm a freakin' genius". Not language that I am thrilled about, but he thinks it is hilarious. Bryce really is smart academically. He does very well in school, has a great memory and gets good grades. But, ask him to get something from another room and he gets lost. He has no clue what he was supposed to do. I can't give him more than one instruction at a time because he only listens to the first thing I say, then his mind is off who knows where. For a smart guy he is pretty clueless.

Paige's shirt says, "Little Miss Chatterbox". I will admit that I bought this one on my own and I wasn't convinced that she would even wear it, but here she, she loves it. At home Paige really is a chatterbox. She is as talkative as any girl her age, but most people never see this side of her. She is very quiet at school, church, etc. She will whisper to her friends. The first time a friend comes to our house they are always suprised at how rowdy Paige can get.

Brett's shirt doesn't really fall in the same catagory. It is a boxing shirt, not a sport we follow or enjoy, but Brett wanted it because he is soooo good at Wii boxing! Really, he just didn't want to be left out of the picture. Who can blame him.

I Love Clearance

Can I tell you how much I love to find a good clearance deal? It seems no matter what store I go to I know where or how to look for the clearance stuff. Stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby tend to group it all together. At places like Target you look for the red tag. I made a trip to Target today, and if you didn't know they have the best clearance deals. I bought 7 items and 5 of them were clearance priced, including a cute new t-shirt for me at $2.24, pants for Ty at $3.98 and even new sheets for my bed. I just love to get stuff I "need" at a great price.