Hi there!

I haven't forgotten you, just been super-uper busy! I just got home from the book fair at school, and I am trying to inhale some chili (I don't reccomend that...just eat it slowly and savor the flavor)

Gotta run...leaving for Enrichment night in a few minutes

Be back soon!!!!

I AM AN EVERYDAY FOOD STORAGE FANATIC!!

7 days of thanks

Today I am thankful for the Relief Society. We were able to go help paint for a Sister who just moved into our ward from out of state, it was very fun and rewarding!
I love that we are always there for each other and can be counted on whenever there is a need. We as Sisters in Zion have a job to do, and we do it to the best of our abilities.

7Days of Thanks

So I guess I shouldn't call this 7 days of thanks anymore since I missed yesterday too, but like Friday, I will just post 2

I had every intention of posting this one yesterday.

I am thankful for the Temple and the ability that we have to go whenever we want to. I have heard so many stories of people who have had to travel 100s of miles and even some who have sold their homes to go to the nearest temple in neighboring countries. I am thankful to know that more temples are being built to make it possible for even more people to enjoy in the blessings of the Temples. I am thankful to have the power of the Priesthood in my home and the blessings that it has brought to my family. I am thankful that I was able to be sealed to my amazing husband and my kids for time and all eternity because families can truly be together forever!


This is today's:I am thankful for blogs and the wealth of information they provide. You can find everything on blogs! Some have recipes, organizing tips, scrapbook layouts, card ideas and even freebies! I love it! There are so many more things, I only listed a couple of my favorites

7days of Thanks

I am thankful for Creativity.

The creativity of whoever wrote the Seussical Musical, The teachers and helpers that designed all of the costumes, and the people that donated their time and money to create the hat cookies for the intermission snacks, and the set designers.

The creativity of my kids who inspire me every day and the creative minds that continue to post scrapbooking ideas and cards to inspire me to create my own.

And I know this was supposed to be 1 thankful thing every day (at least in my mind that was gonna be how it worked) but I just can't stop there.

I am thankful for everyone that worked behind the scenes of the musical who made it possible for the kids to participate in this experience.

I am thankful that my daughter has the desire to be involved in school. I know I get cranky about it sometimes because I feel like I am having to do 1000 things at once some days to be able to get her to where she needs to be, but I wouldn't change it for the world! She has such high hopes and dreams and if she can continue to stay on this path, she can accomplish anything! I love that she is in FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and FCCLA (see post below) and the musical and I know she will have plenty more to do since she tries out for EVERYTHING and that makes me happy. Coolest thing of all is she is keeping straight A's and is very involved in her Young Women's program as well!

Seussical Success!!

Tonight was the final public performance of the musical. (they will do it again for the school on Monday) IT WAS FABULOUS!! The kids did a great job and the casting was perfect, and after stressing out Friday at work and using my lunch and breaks to finish her costume, Sierra looked great along with the rest of her Who family. This was such a cute play, I highly reccomend seeing it if it comes to a school near you! I didn't get to take any video(except a short one in the hallway on the way out, I took it with my digital camera that I didn't think I about until the play was over---duh!) since I don't have a video camera anymore (I broke mine when I dropped it on our boat, which we don't even have and haven't had for a couple of years, so yeah, I have been without a camera for quite some time now) They will have dvds available of tonights performance and I couldn't be more excited! I just hope you can hear everything on the dvd.

by the way, the video clip has NOTHING to do with the actual musical and I am really getting aggravated with YouTube because for some reason I can't copy and paste the whole embed code GGGRRRR

Ooops I did it again...

No this isn't gonna be a post about Brittney. I just realized it has been over a week since I posted last. I really had every intention to do my 2 page Tuesday this week and with that said, ok, I will not try to make excuses, I just didn't do it. I had a WW Wednesday post running through my head all day Wednesday(I lost another 1.6 lbs which has me at over 20lbs lost!), unfortunately, I had about 100 other things running through my head at the same time and with the exception of sleeping from 12am to 5:45am and then the 45 minutes to get myself ready for work and the kids ready for school, I only saw the inside of my house for about 30 minutes all day! This whole week has been like that. Sierra's play was tonight and tomorrow. This week was dress rehearsals, every day, just adding to everything else we had going on. Tomorrow is looking to be just as busy. We have Scouting for Food pickup in the morning and Moms and Muffins at the school. Then Steve and I are going to the temple together in the afternoon, then we have to pick his mom up and make it back home in time to get Sierra to school for hair and makeup before her performance tomorrow night. Just sounds crazy huh?!
I also wanted to do 7days of Thanks, which should have started yesterday with the last one being posted on Thanksgiving. So here you go, all of you lucky people, you get twice as much Thanks tonight to make up for yesterday!

1) I am thankful for my kids, as busy as they keep me and as stressed out I have been all week, they have been extremely patient with me and all of my crabbiness. Isn't it amazing how a simple smile from a child can change your whole perspective on things?

2) I am thankful for allowance points in my WW program. (and for chocolatechip cookies) I don't think I need to elaborate on this one

Stay tuned for tomorrows Thanks!! (it may be late, but I WILL do it!)

Whew...

Ok, so I have really been slacking, sorry. I had every intention of doing my 2 page Tuesday this week, but Monday night I went to a friends house to make Christmas cards and we used the last of my adhesive. Bummer. I still haven't made it to the store to get more, so no new layouts.

Wednesday's WW meeting was great, ok to tell you the truth, I missed most of the meeting, but the weigh in was great! I have now lost a total of 19lbs! I hope that anyone I have inspired to do this is also seeing great results!

This has been a REALLY busy week! I have barely had time to breathe!

I had a StampinUp workshop and we had a blast with it! AND to make it even better, I got lots of free goodies! Can't wait until it all gets here! It has already shipped...come on UPS!!!

Sierra's musical/play is getting closer and I am getting excited about it. The paractices are beginning to run late though...

WW Wednesday

YAY!!YIPPEE!!YAHOO!!!YEEHAAWW!!! Can you tell I am excited!!!!!? Todays weigh in was pretty good :) I am finally back under 200 again!!! I have now lost a total of 17.4lbs!

So today was really busy and I am super tired so this is gonna be short

Tonight was my last Cub Scout meeting as den leader, I will be released this Sunday. It was bittersweet, we had a great meeting, we got a new scout and we made some really cool, really creative scarf slides. I brought treats for the boys and wasn't even tempted to have any, and I gave all of the leftovers to the young men so there was nothing left to bring home to tempt me later.

I am off to bed, I have a busy next few days too

We have survived!

Ok, before you all get nervous thinking something devastating happed for us to have had to survive it...stop worrying, it was probably only devastating for me. Well, ok, it wasn't that bad.

Sierra had a FCCLA conference this weekend, and actually it wasn't even the whole weekend, she left yesterday morning and I just picked her up from school about 20 minutes ago so she was only really gone 31 hours, but it was plenty long enough for me.

Yes I was nervous, I mean, what mom wouldn't be nervous sending her 12 year old daughter off to some crazy hotel hours away from home with 22 other teenage girls, knowing that there were gonna be hundreds of other kids there too!? Well, I would. Then she informed me they weren't even in a hotel, they were in a cabin by the lake! Even better!

So you are probably shaking your heads wondering why I would do such a crazy thing? Right? I know I am. So I will explain. First of all FCCLA stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. This was an ACCESS Conference which involves classes on teamwork, leadership and speech etc. Sierra LOVES to be involved in school and is a natural born leader, not really sure where she gets it. When the opprtunity for her to go to this came up, I just couldn't tell her no, it meant so much to her and I knew it would be a great experience for her. She wanted to prove how responsible she could be too, and what a perfect opportunity!

She proved it alright, she went to bed at a decent hour...even though the rest of the girls in her room stayed up almost until dawn, so her 11:30 seems pretty responsible . She earned $8 last Thursday by babysitting for a friend, and we gave her $45, so she started out the weekend with $53. They were going to be stopping by the mall when they got to Osage Beach for the conference. She was responsible for all of her meals while she was there too, so she went to the mall, bought 2 meals and and still managed to bring home a WHOPPING $36!! I was so impressed!! So when I picked her up and she asked if she could buy dinner for us with the money she had left over, I couldn't tell her no, besides I really didn't feel like cooking tonight even though I know I really should.

Card Challenge

This is my card creation for Challenge #1 for Seriously...So Cute

The plan was to choose a vacation photo and use the colors in the picture as your inspiration for a card. I had a lot of pictures from our Yellowstone vacation that I absolutely LOVED! Choosing one was difficult. Putting those colors together, well now that is another story. This was really hard for me but I am satisfied with the end result!

This was my photo:

And this is my card:

What are you doing to make a difference?

Today is Make A Difference Day! Did you know that? So, what are you gonna do about it? I am getting ready to leave to go to church where we will be making lap quilts for a local nursing home. We did this last year and it was so much fun! I will post some pictures tonight when I get home. Steve and Sierra are contributing by sitting out in the woods all day, freezing their hineys off so they can hopefully put a deer in the freezer and save us from spending so much at the grocery store. Maybe not the ideal way to make a difference but it sure will make a huge difference in our house! I hope she gets one...it will be her first!

WW Wednesday

This was a much better week! I lost another 1.2 lbs this week and have lost a total of 15.2!!!

Ok, I found this amazing blog called A Year of CrockPotting and can be found here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

She posted a super simple recipe for apple butter. I love apple butter but I have never known how to make it. This is her recipe:

--apples. 14 large apples fit in my 6.5 quart crockpot

--2 tsp cinnamon

--2 cups white sugar (see note below)

--1 cup brown sugar (see note below)

--1/2 tsp cloves

--1 T vanilla

Well, I followed her recipe for the most part, I did tweak it a little bit. I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of Splenda instead of the regular sugar. Not sure how many points this would count for in my WW but it sure is tasty!!

Before and After

This is my kitchen before and after, these were the only pics I could find that actually showed my kitchen before, notice the ugly blue and peach backsplash before, and the newly painted, yes painted, pretty backsplash and the ugly wallpaper

Well. I am done....ok well kinda, I really need to do another coat of paint, but I just don't feel like it. So for now I am done. Steve says he doesn't care for it, the kids LOVE it and I am still undecided. I do like it better than the nasty outdated wallpaper that was there, and the whole kitchen seems brighter and cleaner, but it isn't quite the color I was thinking, I think maybe I should have gone a little bit darker. Now I just need to get my new concrete countertops...and new flooring, new sink, faucet....ok that list just keeps getting longer

Color inspiration 26

I love these challenges, they are so much fun! I find myself looking forward to them and I spend a lot of time thinking? about what I can do, then the colors come out and my mind goes blank! What is up with that?! Well here is mine for this week

WW Wednesday

Had a rough week this past week, I took the kids to McDonald's last week and I thought I did pretty good, I only ended up using 2 of my allowance points, the real kick in the pants was this weekend. See, I was babysitting for a friend and between her 3 kids and my 3 picky eaters, I figured easy stuff that can please kids. We had pizza Friday, which is one of my favorites, but I didn't count my points, Saturday I didn't do much better and Sunday was even worse...I even had dessert...and a lot of it. So thinking back, I wasn't very smart in food choices and I have learned from it. I did manage to lose some though. I am now sitting here typing this 14lbs lighter than when I started. Didn't quite get my goal this week, so I am just gonna have to work that much harder for next Wednesday, and next week I WILL be under 200 again!!

2 Page Tuesdsay

Ok, so this one is a little late tonight, but I almost forgot it was Tuesday because I had yesterday off work. Yep, that's right, Columbus Day...who ever actually gets that day off? Well, we do now. This is the first year my work has given us that day off. It was nice...except that I spent most of the afternoon in a doctors office, but that is a whole other story. I have to confess, I had this idea for a weaved look on these pages but it didn't even come close to what I was thinking and I am not exactly happy with it, but here it is anyway because I don't have time to do 2 more pages tonight.

Kristina's color challenge #25

I designed this card for the KWerner Color inspiration challenge. A friend from work LOVES tie-dye so I made this for her by giving the edges a tie-dye look. I had to substitute the blue and green since I am still fairly new to StampinUp products and I don't have a whole lot to work with --YET (sorry Honey, I love you!)

Fire Prevention Week

This week is fire prevention week, sorry I am a little behind here seein as how it is Thursday already and the week is more than half over now, but here is a really cool website that I wanted to share http://www.sparky.org/

2 page Tuesday

Well, I am gonna kind of cheat this week. I am actually using 2 pages that I did a couple weeks ago, but in my defense, I did get something done. The kids and I spent about an hour tonight ripping the wallpaper out of the kitchen. This is the ugly mess that was underneath it all. I do have new paint picked out and ready to go up this weekend.

Ok, now here is where I cheat. I LOVE the way these 2 pages turned out, so since I didn't take the time to do my pages today I am gonna share these instead.

Seussical Musical

Sierra is going to be a Who in her schools production of Seussical Musical. She is excited about it and I am too, but in a way I'm not. She has to stay after school 3 days a week all through October and 4 days a week through November! That seems like an awful lot of practices all at 2 1/2 hrs each! I guess it's not so bad though...I work 1/2 mile from her school and I get off at 3:30 so I can hang out at the scrapbooking store between the two or I can get my shopping done at Walmart, or I can go home, sit down just long enough to get comfy then have to get up, run back to town and pick her up....this could get expensive! :)

Flashback Friday

Hunting season is in full swing again. This is a picture of Sierra sleeping through her first deer hunting trip with daddy. Ok, she didn't sleep through it all, just most of it. This year she was drawn for a managed hunt at Weldon Springs and we are all so excited! The place is HUGE! Shouldn't be too hard to find somewhere for her there. She was sooo excited when she found out she was chosen :) She says she will stay awake this time.

Color Inspiration Challenge

I am gonna try this again. This weeks colors are so pretty together and I couldn't help myself. Color Inspiration is brought to you by Kristina Werner over at http://kwernerdesign.com/blog/2008/10/color-inspiration-23-1.html

This is just a quickie I came up with after work today

Sierra and I will be making some more tonight or tomorrow hopefully

Weight Watcher Wednesday

It was all about looking back and seeing what kind of mistakes we made in the past and how we then took those mistakes and dealt with them. Are we now doing things better or the same or worse. For me I think for the most part I have learned to do things better. I am no longer a stress eater or a boredom eater. I don't realy do much excercise, but I have been trying to get on the treadmill more often. I have made small steps in the right direction though. I lost another 3 lbs this week!!! AND I had strawberry shortcake to boot!!!! I have now lost a total of 10.8 lbs. I am halfway to my 10% goal. So looking back on last week, the thing I need to improve on is actually getting on the treadmill because I didn't do it at all last week...not even once.

TPT (Two Page Tuesday)

Sorry it took me so long to get this up. I had a good friend of mine come over to join in on the fun and it took us a little while to really get started. We did manage to get a few layouts done though and this is one of mine

Flashback Friday

Bowling with the kids. We used to do this on a pretty regular basis. Unfortunately it has been a while. With Steve working nights our weekends are so busy. We just haven't had time. Sad. We are gonna have to do that again soon. Would write more, but I have to leave for work now, so I will be back! :)

Weight Watcher Wednesday

Well, week 2 has come and gone and speaking of gone...I lost another 4.6 lbs this week!!!!!!!!! I am sooo excited!!!!!! So I never touched my allowance points this week. Which in my opinion is great! I kept right at my daily points and I am not bored with the foods yet. I am still eating a lot of soup, but I love soup so it's all good. I also found Healthy Life bread.

It is super yummy and only 1 point for 2 slices!! Load it up with turkey, lettuce and tomato and you have a healthy low point lunch!! I am so glad I don't have to give up things I love! I just have to be smarter about it, and I really feel like I am grabbing onto the concept and running with it. Ok, not actually running, I am way too outta shape for that. It's more walking than anything. Simply parking at the far end of the parking lots, taking the long way through Walmart, walking to the end of the road to get the mail instead of driving there, it is the little things and they all add up. I am excited to see how I do next week. I will keep you posted!

Two Page Tuesday

So I came up with an idea at work today to do a weekly post. I am calling it Two Page Tuesday and the point of it is for me to make 2 new SB pages and post them on Tuesdays...makes sense right?! Well, I figure if I try to make a habit of this I might actually be able to get some pages done. So, here is what I came up with for today! Enjoy!!

I just need to figure out the right place to take the pictures because if I take them on my kitchen table there is a glare on the pictures....hmmm....

Weight Watcher Wednesday

Well I made it through week one of my weight watchers program and I must admit it wasn't quite as bad as I expected. I have had to change my eating habits drasticaly (no more late night candy bar sneaking or wait until the kids are in bed so I don't have to share my ice cream) ((Not that I have EVER done that before or anything))

So I have been doing the Flex plan where I have to count points, but I have actually been careful about what I am eating so there have been a couple days that at the end of the day I had to go grab a small snack to use up my points. The goal is to use them all, so it's all good. I had no idea just how unhealthy the food was I was eating. I mean, I knew it wasn't the best, but WOW! I also realized how much I was over-eating. I started out dinner one night with a little less than half what I would normally have on my plate...and I didn't go back for seconds because the little bit I had actually satisfied me. So no more "stuffed can't move quick unbutton my pants and kick my feet back" feelings

The best part of all....I LOST 3.2 LBS!!!!

Girls Scout Camp fun!!

color challenge #23

So I found this really cool blog and she does color challenges. She posts a set of colors and you are supposed to design something like a card or SB page using those colors. So this challenge is fall colors and I have a few ideas running through my head, so I am gonna see what I can come up with. These are the colors:

Ok, so here is one idea, but I am not sure I like it. Sierra loves it so I guess it can't be all that bad

This isn't the best picture, but I used So Happy and Artfully Asian stamp sets with Chocolate Chip cardstock. The flower is done with the rock and roll technique in So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie. I didn't have any Bravo Burgundy except the button. I am gonna try to come up with another if time will allow

Flashback Friday

It amazes me at what a difference 3 yrs makes. This was taken at Meremac Caverns in September 05 as you can see. The kids have grown up so much. We took them there a few times before, but we haven't since. It is an amazing plaze but the prices keep going up and with 3 kids it is almost impossible to afford it anymore so we will just enjoy the pictures that we have

Flashback...Saturday?!

Ok, so I missed out yesterday, but I had to do it. Last night was crazy! Tyler had another DARE dance. So he was gone for most of the night. Sierra is now away at Girl Scout camp. This year they are here at Camp Tuckaho which is awesome because she is only 20 minutes away instead of 2 hrs away. So last night I took her to camp to drop her off and stuck around to play a quick game of volleyball. After that I got the job of running back into town to buy some bottled water, snacks and pick up chairs for the campfire. So I did a bunch of running around. Fun fun! Well this morning I have some more running to do, but I plan on going back to camp to hang out some more. I would have stayed if I didn't have bronchitis. So anyhoo, my pictures are from camp last spring that I was able to go to with her. We had ablast! We stayed in a cabin with their "little sister troop" as they call them.

Flashback Friday

Well it is that time of year again. Every Labor Day weekend Steve's family has their reunion. These pictures are from 05 (as you can see by the date on the pictures) The first picture is of the kids with Steve's grandparents.

left to right: Michael, ?, ?, Sierra, Tyler, ?, Austin, Desi (in the stroller) Is it bad that I don't remember the names of the ? girls? Yes, I think it is. I will have plenty of time to figure that out tomorrow. In my defense they are like 4th cousins or something like that.