Sunday, March 21, 2010

Spring Break 2010

This year for Spring Break we didn't do anything super spectacular! Just stayed close to home. (which I must say....staying home, laying low, was spectacular for me!) Highlights of the week were:

*Missionaries coming over for FHE (they had just come from doing service, so we got to see them in regular clothes) The kids had a bunch of jelly bellies they were feeding them. They would find the most disgusting flavors and have them try them. Elder Moli was hilarious with the faces he would make! The kids look forward to seeing the missionaries...having FHE....and eating yummy desserts! They are awesome!

*Another fun thing was Paige opening her Cotton Candy machine. She has had this for awhile, but the kids decided to break it out and give it a try. They were pretty amazed and impressed with themselves that they could make their very own Cotton Candy!I'm sure Cody could live on this stuff!!!!!

*This week was full of softball for Jordan....one day she had a 6 hour practice and the next day an all day tournament in Corsicana.

*The little kids and I enjoyed going to see the Tooth Fairy....cute show!

*Finally.....what is spring break without a little of this!!!!WAIT!!! Isn't it suppose to be SPRING! Yes, this is spring in good old Texas. Last night I was waiting up for Jordan to get home from a church dance. It was a little after 11:00. She came walking in and said, "It is like a Winter Wonderland out there." I thought she was kidding until I got up and looked out the front door. Everything was white!!!!
Most of church was cancelled this morning....only sacrament meeting. CRAZY! Who would ever think we would have this in late March in TEXAS....well you know what they say....If you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait a few minutes. We go from snow today to in the 70's on Tuesday!!!
Spring Break is over and back to school tomorrow......we enjoyed the time off so much, we have found ourselves counting the days until summer!!!

Catching UP!!!!

It's amazing how much life revolves around the computer. All communication seems to stop when the computer isn't working. How did we do it back in the days of no computers, cell phones, ipods, etc??????
During the "winter" months, life turned to basketball. This was Cody's first year playing basketball and he did GREAT! Chase had a great year as well. His team finished third (or fourth)in the tournament. Chase played so well. I was so proud of how much more aggressive he was this year. He was awesome on defense and when he had the opportunity wasn't afraid to take the shot!

If you read some of my previous posts, you knew that I had started running and was looking forward to a 5K run in Ft Worth. Well, time came for the run...whether I was ready or not, I was going. Myself and a couple of girlfriends decided to make a weekend out of it. We headed towards Ft Worth and stayed in a hotel. We went to dinner that night, raided the candy counter at CVS, stayed up late, and did all the fun stuff girls would do at a "sleepover." The race started the next morning at 8:15, but we needed to pick up our packets by 7:45. We decided since we were only 15 minutes from downtown Ft Worth if we left by 6:45, we would have plenty of time. We woke up, strolled out of bed, and made it out the door. We were feeling pretty good and ready for our big run! :) We came up to our exit and came to a complete stop! Oh my gosh, there were so many cars EVERYWHERE! I don't even think we moved but a few feet in 30 minutes. Passengers were getting out of their cars to walk...it was crazy! I finally got off the exit and began crossing a bridge. At that point, my friends decided they should probably walk to atleast get us checked in. About 20 minutes went by and they called letting me know they had gotten our packets and we were good to go. They asked where I was, sadly - I had hardly moved!!!! Come to find out - they had expected about 20,000 people for the race! You would have thought they would have had someone directing traffic! By the time we finally parked and was headed to the race it was 9:00! We had missed our race, but an Adult/Kid 5K run was starting at 9:15. We figured we would just run that! We got ourselves ready and warmed up and we were ready to go! The run started...we were in the back, but moved our way closer to the front. It was a little hard dodging all the kids. Some would be walking, some would dart right in front of you, and some would just stop right in front of you. BUT....I was focused and ready to do this! We started up one hill, and luckily there was a downhill after it. I was feeling great, then we came to another hill, and the end of this hill, I was starting to feel it - but was determined to keep going. As we turned the corner, I heard a lady tell her little boy - "LOOK, there is the finish line!" Wow, I thought.....this went by faster than I thought! I started sprinting to the finish line and felt GREAT! Once I crossed I noticed the time said 10 minutes and a few seconds. My first reaction was WOW, I ran that fast! But quickly realized that would have been impossible. I found my friends and we were a little confused! Come to find out - one of the policeman that was directing the race, stopped to direct traffic and directed us the wrong way - so really we only ran 1.8 miles! Man, what a let down!!!! We were so bummed! They were handing out bags of goodies, serving ice cream, smoothies, and different things to all the runners. We looked at each other and felt like we didn't even burn enough calories to deserve eating ice cream! Eventhough, we didn't get to run the full 5K, we had a great time!I have already looked into another run over Mothers Day weekend! Hopefully that one will turn out a little better! Thanks Melanie and Kendra for spending the weekend....I had a great time! Already looking forward to next year!

Later that night, Paige and I were able to attend moms play she had been working so hard for. She was the narrator in the play at church, "The Ten Virgins." She worked so hard to memorize her lines....I had no idea that she was pretty much the main character! She was awesome! So good, in fact, they did the show again last weekend. I was able to take Jordan this time, and bring some friends along. Mom was just as great....even better the second time around! Mom was amazing, but did I really expect anything less. I love that story, and have now been listening to the songs everyday! Mom, I'm so proud of you!

Friday, March 5 was a night to party! My friend, Cindy is getting married in April, so we partied - only as we know how!!!!! We had yummy fruit drinks and enjoyed watching her open all her fun "goodies." BUT, the highlight of the night was when we busted out in our "Single Ladies" tribute!!! Yes, we are crazy! Black tights with swimsuits....oh my gosh! And my friend gave me a body suit type thing to wear! Not sure I will ever be wearing that again :) I LOVE my friends!!!! There are only a few people I feel comfortable enough with to dance in a bodysuit and tights.....(anything for you Cindy!) While the others were jumping in the hot tub, Aprille, Nissa, and I had way too much fun with the camera! We were like 12 year old girls, giggling and taking TONS of pictures of ourselves! Sorry - I was sworn to keep some of the photos in the private vault! :) The ones above, should have probably been in that category as well :) We had a great night with the girls! To all my girls....thanks for being crazy with me and for a night of fun and never ending laughs!!!

Saturday was a bit of a busy day. I wanted to share something Jordan had the opportunity to do! Some of the youth in my ward took on the challenge of walking 22 miles to the Dallas Temple. The kids met at the church building at 5:00 in the morning, then were dropped off at their starting point. It was kind of a chilly day, but the sun was shining. All the kids had such a good time and had the best attitudes. Jordan said it was definately very hard. A lot harder than she had thought it would be. She even had a HUGE blister on the back of her heel to prove it. From the pictures you can tell this is a great group of kids. The had a blast spending the day together. I'm sure it was torture for Jordan to hang out with the boys! :)It wasn't all boys....Jordan had some of her very best girlfriends with her also. The walk took about 7 hours. Can you imagine! Wow! The walk was full of fun times and memories for all the kids. I'm sure there was a lot of adventure as well. Jordan said when they finally got to a point where they could see the Angel Moroni on the top of the temple - it was an amazing feeling! The kids were so proud of themselves and were so proud to reach their goal. I'm sure they all ran to the temple grounds so excited to be there. I'm sure the day was full of many lessons Jordan will be able to look back on and use throughout her life. We have already talked about different symbolisms of things and difficulties she faced on the walk. Kind of like life! I'm so proud of her for wanting to take on this challenge! I am thankful Jordan has the church and such a strong group of friends to help her stay on the right path.

That night - even though Jordan was exhausted, we headed to Ft Worth to watch the BYU mens basketball team play TCU! We love to support our BYU Cougars!

Well, that should just about catch me up on the blogging! Lots of fun things have come our way! We stay busy and enjoy every minute of it! One day we won't be so busy and Rick and I won't know what to do with ourselves :)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Let Me Count the Ways!

How can I even begin to count how very lucky and grateful I am for my friends, family, and especially my sweet husband! There are occasions that come along that remind you how lucky you are. My birthday was last Friday and I was reminded how very lucky I am. I was able to start my day at the gym. At the ripe old age of "35" I am grateful to be healthy. Grateful to be able to run on the treadmill and lift weights. Following the gym, I met my mom where we got our hair done, followed by having lunch together. My hairdresser curled my hair super cute! Had to get a picture of it, since I'm not sure I will beable to do it myself like that! :)I love that my parents live close by. I love the time I get to spend with them. I haven't always lived close by my parents, so I feel very blessed to have this time with them. While the rest of the day was filled with the kids activities, it was a great day! When I got home from Jordan's softball game, the kids and Rick had made birthday cookies and had presents and cards waiting for me! The kids LOVE cookies and cookie dough, so they couldn't think of anything better! Cody was so cute! He insisted that we have decorations and my age on the wall in streamers. It was a great night! Rick let me know, he and I would celebrate the next evening. Saturday night came and it was time for us to head out for the night! I knew we were going to dinner, but didn't know where. He took me to Japon! I had only been there one time before, and LOVED it! It is a Japanese Steakhouse. He surprised me with inviting a bunch of our friends to join us! They brought me my very own "birthay hat" to wear. The food was so good, and it was fun to be with good friends. After dinner, I thought the night was coming to an end, so I said goodbye to my friends and we got into the car. I wasn't really paying attention, but before I knew it, we were pulling into the parking lot of WHIRLY BALL!!! I was so excited! I love playing WIRHLY BALL. Rick had planned for everyone to meet there and play with us! Yes, I felt silly, saying goodbye to everyone at the restaurant, not knowing I would see them in 10 short minutes. Once we got inside, we were waiting for our turn and my sweet husband told everyone he had some games for us to play! WHAT!! He planned games!!! Oh my gosh, he was so cute....he planned games and had wrapped prizes for everyone. I couldn't believe it! He had put so much time into surprising me for my birthday. Whirly Ball was a blast (as always). I think everyone made a plan to attack my car! I can't even count how many times my car was RAMMED!!! One time I was hit so hard my gum flew out of my mouth - into my hair!!! It was so fun....I even have the bruises to prove it!
So let me count the very many ways I feel blessed!!!! I'm not even sure where to begin. At this particular time, I am so very blessed for my husband. Thank you Rick for making my birthday a great day! I appreciate so very much the time you took into thinking of what I would enjoy. Thinking what would make my day special.
Thank you for thinking of me! Thank you for being my best friend! Thank you for making me feel so special!I love you Babe!!!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Monday Night!

Okay, it has been awhile...wow how time flies. I have a little bit of an excuse though....my computer has officially stopped working. We have had a few episodes over the past few years and months, however; Rick has always seemed to beable to revive it. But I think this time it is gone for good. So I have resorted to working from the spare lap top, which I am getting used to. I realize I am very behind on my entries, and I do have a lot to write about, but I need to skip that for now and write about tonight!

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. Elder Wood and Elder Moli. They are so awesome! The kids have been asking when we could have the missionaries over for dinner, so when I saw them sitting on the couch a couple of Sundays ago filling out their calendar - I took the opportunity and put us down for dinner.

The kids warmed up to them immediately. They are so fun to be around. They just have that fun, loving spirit about them. We have a tradition in our family that whenever we have the missionaries over we play the memory game "I Spy". AND we usually have Pazookies for dessert. When the kids told the missionaries what we were having for dessert, Elder Moli yelled out.....pazookies!!! He is the only person we have known that knew what they were. We had a great dinner, then moved into the family room for a lesson they prepared. It was perfect! We started with playing a "how well do you know your partner game." We all paired off and had to answer questions about our partner. Then the Elders talked about family and how important families are. I loved how they talked directly to the kids. They reminded them how they need to love each other, help each other out, be best friends with each other. What a great message! We followed our message up with a game of "I Spy". Paige, as usual kicked everyone's tails.... then into the kitchen for dessert! Elder Moli also played some songs for us on the piano.

What a great night! I am reminded why it is so important to have the missionaries into my home. My kids loved it! When the missionaries left, Chase sat down to the piano and pretended to play...(he never does that!) Jordan thought about friends maybe she could invite next time they come. Paige and I had a great conversation when I tucked her into bed. And Cody, just wants them to come back very soon!!! The feeling that was in my home was awesome....tonight I realized even more than before that I need the missionaries in my home, so my boys can see what they have to look forward to as missionaries. I could tell my boys look up to the missionaries! Some of my kids favorite family nights are when we have the missionaries over. They were remembering stories of times we had the missionaries over that I had totally forgotten about.

I love the churh for so many reasons....but tonight I am especially grateful for the missionaries and the closeness that we felt as a family having them here with us!