Things that make me happy...

1) Driving in the car listening to the radio and looking at the person in the next car who is singing what you're listening to.
2) Wrapping a gift in wrapping paper that has a pattern to it, and having the pattern match up perfectly when you wrap it around the box.
3) Figuring out what's wrong with your car BEFORE you leave on vacation.
4) Driving 700 miles with 4 kids, and having less than 10 minutes of crying (It's a festivus miracle!).
5) Seeing friends and family I haven't seen in a long time.
6) Playing Wii for the first time (and kicking some trash at bowling).
7) Having a free place to stay in California.
8) Seeing the Oakley building (one of the coolest buildings I have ever seen--seriously...more pics to come).
9) Knowing our house and cat are being taken care of.
10) I am truly on vacation. I can relax, and I even have time to blog!

Christmas Creations

Here is a sampling of some of the things we have made to enjoy the season! First is Warren sporting his snowman hat. He started by wanting to cut out circles. When he had cut out three he made it into a snowman. Then he wanted to draw the face, arms, hat, and scarf and place the snowman on a bed of snow. Then he said, "Now I need a band so we can make it a hat". So we made a band to secure it on his head. Here is the finished product:
He had so much fun making it that I decided to have his preschool friends do the same project at my house. (I'll add pics of those cute kids later).
We also made a gingerbread house for Family Night. We had a lot of fun, and were joined by Julie (Joo-ee as David would say) and Lily. Good times!
Before:
After:

Christmas Shopping

Last week I took the boys to the store. Sean really wanted to buy a new watch. I told him he could take his own money to buy one. I wondered where this sudden urge to buy a watch came from, until he said to me, "Mom, don't worry. I know right where the watches are." Then he turned to Warren and said, "Warren, make sure you don't tell mom what dad bought her for Christmas." I promptly put the puzzle pieces together. Darin had taken the boys shopping earlier in the week and they bought a present for me. My watch has been missing for over 6 months. Sean suddenly knows where the watch section is. Hmmmm. I wonder what I'm getting for Christmas! Just call me Sherlock.

As a little side note, this was the most refreshing shopping trip I have had in a long time. Even with the holiday hustle and bustle, we were met with smiles and kindness all over the store. Our cart was heavy laden with kids and stuff, so it wasn't easy to steer. Several times I almost ran into other people, and without exception, they smiled and said, "That's o.k. I totally understand." (Well, I guess they didn't all say those exact words, but you know what I mean.) As our shopping trip came to an end, the boys were asking all sorts of questions about the checkout procedure. It was the first time I had had them pay for their own things (normally I just have them pay me to eliminate any hassle), and I wanted it to be a positive experience. I was hoping that the person who helped us would understand what was going on. I was not dissapointed. First Sean, then Warren, put their goods up on the counter. She talked to each of them about their cool purchases, smiled, gave them their receipt and said, "There you are, sir. Thank you for shopping at WalMart." (Yes, I said it. I shop at WalMart. Frequently. And I'm not ashamed.) As I left the store, I felt holiday cheer consume me. I actually got a little teary-eyed knowing that with all the crud that goes on in the world, people are mostly good. It made me happy.

Friday night I was telling Darin about the watch conversation I had with Sean, which led me to wonder where in the world my watch could be. The last time I remember having it I was on the couch downstairs. I have taken the cushions off the couch and checked in the cracks more times than I can count. With renewed determination, we went downstairs to look one more time for the missing watch. Darin was reaching in the cracks, then he pushed down on a little bar (with all his might), and opened a whole new world! He used a shoe to hold the bar down while he pulled stuff out. We were laughing so hard with each new thing he discovered. At the risk of embarrassing myself, I'm including a picture of the treasure trove. If anyone has valuables they would like to store, I have the perfect hiding place! I cannot believe all this stuff was back there! Even with the cushions removed, none of this was visible. It was really quite amazing. Sadly, there was no watch in the midst of the treasure, but I have a feeling my wrist will only be bare for a couple more weeks!

I'm now a member

And it could be dangerous! I had my first shopping trip as a member of Costco yesterday. It took a lot of self control, but I managed to get out of there spending only $50.00. I got fabulous snacks (jumbo pack of go-gurts, granola bites, skinny cows (yummy low-fat ice cream sandwiches), mandarin oranges, apples), a gift for a baby shower, and a gingerbread house kit. (I think that's all). I ate lunch there (a delicious chicken caeser salad), and saw about 10 people that I knew. I didn't realize that Costco was the hang out! I felt pretty cool when my mother-in-law went to check out, and I said, "She's with me".

It snowed!

And we LOVED it!

All of us except David. He was not such a fan of the snow. Maybe next time. (And for the record, we did have gloves for him, and he wore them most of the time. When he had had enough, he pulled them off and threw them in the snow, and spent the rest of the time cuddled up with Darin where his hands stayed nice and warm)

The Holy War

We spent Saturday at my parents' house watching the best game of the season. We always root for the Cougs, but this year I was hoping extra hard that they would pull off a win. Darin's neice, Christa and her friend, Jared are avid Utes fans, and were kind enough to create a song in honor of the BYU/Utah game. The last few minutes of the game my palms were sweaty, and my heart was racing, but the Cougars DID NOT disappoint!!! After the game, Jared called to "take his lumps". As if we're going to let them take them over the phone. We are in the process of creating a "Sorry your Utes let you down (again) package", and we're taking suggestions! So far the package will include a box of kleenex, "Cougar Bucks" (that we will make up) that can be used at the creamery to fill their emptiness with some ice cream, possibly a purple shirt that will make their transition to blue a little easier, and it will be signed, "We're so sorry for your loss. You will be in our thoughts and prayers. Love, Your friends in Cougartown".
Yes, I realize that in the event the Utes win next year, we're asking for it, but there's nothing like some healthy competition, and we can definitely take it just as well as we dish it out. GO COUGARS!!! (I'm working on getting a copy of the song so you can all hear it!)

Reasons not to move to Idaho

Before I get any hate mail from any Idahoans, let me assure you that I have nothing against Idaho--at all. In fact, I have heard it's a great place to live; so that's why I feel like I have to work extra hard to talk my good friend, Steve, out of uprooting his family and leaving a gaping hole in our neighborhood. So, here's my post, dedicated to Steve.

1) If you leave, undoubtedly Keri will feel obligated to go with you, and that's just not fair (to me).
2) If Keri leaves, I will lose one of my workout buddies, and possibly fall off the bandwagon of exercise. Could you really live with that?
3) Despite the fact that there is a BYU in Idaho, true COUGAR fans don't live in Idaho, and let's face it. If you paint your face blue and yell, "GO Cougs!" people will just laugh at you.
4) Jacob 2:18 "But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God." (in this case the kingdom of God=Orem, UT)
5) Do you really want Mikayla and Megan to wear potato sacks for dance costumes?
6) You will lose the best home teacher ever.
7) Spuds don't buy AFLAC
8) Dams break in Idaho
9) It's cold
10) They need Bishops in Idaho (specifically Bishops who are salesmen)
11) On average, rodents are 22% bigger in Idaho
12) In Idaho, your neighbors go deer hunting from their front porch.
13) There are more swear-mouth people in Idaho.
14) It would be really hard to get freshly baked cookies to you.
15) You would miss out on all the mosquitos.
16) Mason couldn't ride his bike to our house without serious injury (oh wait, that did happen once here, but what's a few stitches in the chin?)
17) On the night of the annual Scoresby Christmas party, we will all be sitting around crying instead of celebrating.
18) Potatoes at every meal, really?
19) It is a REALLY long commute to the dance studio.
20) I don't think they have cable in Idaho.
21) Ticket to Ride is illegal in Idaho.
22) If you move to Idaho, you'll need to get Utah plates on your van.
23) The communist party's headquarters is in Moscow, Idaho (I'm pretty sure).
24) We don't live there
25) I don't have a good feeling about it. I just don't.

Ok, so if you decide to disregard this post and move anyway, we will be very happy for you, and I will survive (but barely). After all, I was willing to call people to get their input, make up statistics, and bend the truth a little bit, and that proves that I feel like our friendship is worth a lot...even a drive to Idaho to visit. Just know that, all kidding aside, I will be very, very sad, along with lots of people.

If any of you would like to add to my list, feel free to comment!

A conversation at the Dr.'s office

Last night I took Olivia to the doctor because she was complaining that her ear hurt. (Just a little side note here; our doctor thinks our children are the healthiest kids on the planet. Our kids seem to get sick only after hours, so we always see the on call Dr.) Anyway, we were sitting in the office and here's how the conversation went:

NURSE (to Olivia): So, your ear hurts?

OLIVIA: Yes

NURSE: Which ear is it?

Olivia doesn't realize the nurse is talking to her.

ME (to Olivia): Liv, she wants to know which ear it is.

OLIVIA: Oh. Um...2007

After we all laughed and the nurse left, she turned to me and said, "I'm so embarassed!" I told her she shouldn't be. After all, she was there for ear pain, and I'm sure it affected her hearing. Sure enough, it was infected. On the bright side, she happens to love the taste of the medicine that was prescribed, so I won't have to fight her on taking it twice a day for ten days!

Tag X 3

A while back Camille encouraged me to write about a current struggle, Maleen encouraged her readers to write about things we're thankful for, and now Stacey has tagged me to write 6 interesting facts about me. So, since I have been wondering what to blog about, this gives me the perfect opportunity to fulfill my "tags", and give you something new to read!

1) I can't eat oatmeal without gagging. I've tried many times because it smells so good and is so good for you, but I can't get it down. I love oatmeal cookies and granola bars with oatmeal, but not oatmeal. It's a texture thing.

2) When I was little I was mistaken for a boy more times than I can count. When I told my friend, Julie this, she said, "I'm sure you're exaggerating". Then I pulled out my pictures, and she proceeded to laugh hysterically.

3) I love my house. I love everything about it. I love the cul-de-sac, the neighbors, the friends, the house plan, the constant ringing of the doorbell asking if my kids can play, the yard, and most importantly, the people who live in it. I used to complain incessantly that it didn't have enough storage space, that the train was too close, that little kids were constantly ringing the doorbell, that everyone moves out of our neighboorhood to bigger and better houses, etc. Then I watched a clip from the Humanitarian center, and realized how incredibly blessed that I have a roof over my head, I have the opportunity to meet lots of new people, I never have to wonder where the next meal is coming from, my kids have clothes, friends, an education, and so on and so on. I have nothing against people who move. In fact, I will be one of those people one day. I'm happy for people who are able to "move on up", but for right now, this is the perfect place for us.

4) It bugs me a lot (too much) when people don't like me. I hate confrontation, and am learning how to stand up for myself without offending people. I hate to hurt people's feelings, and it bugs me when I can't fix a problem. I am trying to learn to live my life the best that I know how, and not worry so much about what people think about me. The thing that frustrates me the most is that I say things to my kids and sometimes speak to them in a tone of voice that I would never dream of using with anyone else. Guilt is my worst enemy.

5) I love the mountains. I have taken them for granted, as I have lived here my whole life. My brother moved back here from Las Vegas for a brief time, and was constantly looking at the mountains, and enjoying their beauty. I love how they change with the seasons, they help me know where I'm going (a lot of times I can tell which direction I'm going because of the mountains), and they make me feel safe.

6) I have never seen E.T.

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone's Halloween was as fun-filled as ours was!!! I slept very well the night of Halloween. It was such a busy day--full of adventure. Here are our costumes this year:

Darin as "Super Darin" MY HERO! (we didn't have a costume, so we improvised. This shot doesn't show the boy's red cape. It really added to the costume.) And me as a hippy chick. This shot also doesn't show my sweet bell bottoms. I cut a slit in some old jeans and sewed some floral material in them. It was fun to be a blonde for the day!

Here's Olivia, also a hippy chick. Thanks for the costume, Mikayla!
Sean showing some of his stellar Ninja moves... don't mess! Even though we bought Warren a Red Power Ranger costume with muscles, he chose to wear the Spiderman costume with no mask the day of Halloween. He had just woken up right before the Trunk or Treat festivities, so he was still a little groggy. I got him to smile by saying, "Stop smiling! You're going to ruin Halloween!" and he would giggle every time. And here's my cute little bear. I realize this shot doesn't show his face, but it does show his cute little waddle. I think that may have been my favorite part!
Our neighborhood did Trunk or Treat this year. In years past I haven't even tried to decorate my trunk (mostly because it's been full of junk), so this year I decided to give it a shot.

After trunk or treat, we headed to a nearby neighborhood with the Scoresbys and Adams'. This neighborhood was decorated to the max! I can't believe some of the decorations we saw. This house took the cake:

David just stood there and stared for several minutes saying, "Whoa. See?" This is what he looked like staring at the house:
It was such a great day! Happy Halloween, everyone!

Birthday Boy

Before I jump into all the Halloween fun, I wanted to give a belated birthday shout out to my better half. I haven't done anything spectacular for the last few birthdays, so I thought this would be the year to make up for it. Last Monday (his actual birthday), we did a family party. We went to Krispy Kreme to have birthday donuts and open presents. Our neighbor, Lily, was able to participate in the festivities, too. I was impressed with the kids' ideas for his presents. Olivia got him football gloves, Sean bought him a game set that had a whole bunch of family games, Warren got him a NERF football, and David went practical and got him a new pair of jeans. My present to him was a new pair of glasses. This deserves a post of it's own, so more on that later. He was satisfied that his birthday was sufficiently celebrated, but there was more coming! I love surprises...especially when I'm in on them. My original intention was to have a surprise birthday party for him, but he doesn't really care about that kind of stuff, but I didn't have to think hard to know what he WOULD like. He still calls his friends on Friday nights to see if they can play Saturday morning flag football. I think it's cute, although I'm confident that's not why he does it. The turnout to Saturday morning football had been scarce the last few weeks, and I knew he would be itching to play again, so the Saturday before his birthday I delivered invitations to his buddies in the neighborhood for a game of flag football on Tuesday. Tuesday I wrapped his football clothes up in a gift bag, and delivered it to his desk, via his brother, Don. Under his clothes was a typed note that said:

CHURCH FIELD 5:30pm BE THERE!

I put a banner and birthday balloons on one of the benches (as if any of the guys noticed), and I was pleased that the perfect amount of guys showed up. Not too many, not too few. While they were playing, I went to get the food. I got chips and salsa from Chiles, sweet pork from The Smokehouse, and rolls. After the game, we all ate dinner together in the pavillion, then sang "Happy Birthday" and had cake. Darin loved it!!! I was so glad it was a successful surprise. The only problem is, I don't know how to top it. Maybe I don't have to. Maybe a game of flag football, not organized by him, would be o.k. with him every year.

Krispy Kreme:

Football festivities:
(Thanks, Tyler, for running over to the bench to get the banner and balloons)
And thanks, all the boys, for being torn away from your food long enough for me to take this picture...twice. When I tried to take it the first time, it said, "CANNOT RECORD". Apparently I hadn't put the memory card back in from the last use, so Chad (Dion) let us borrow his memory card.
The balloons escaped, and ended up on the ceiling of the pavillion.
Lily decorated the football cake:
And Olivia decorated the cupcakes:
I love how they are both wearing the football eyes in honor of Darin's special football day.
Happy Birthday, Darin!

Be Prepared

This is a two part bad news/good news post about the importance of being prepared.



First the bad news. We had a scary experience Friday night as we were playing games at my parents' house. The adults were playing cards upstairs and the kids were downstairs playing and watching TV. As we were playing, we heard a LOUD series of crashes and glass breaking followed by screaming. My heart sank, I threw my cards on the table, and ran downstairs as fast as I could. I saw my parents' three section entertainment center on the ground. The TV, VCR, DVD player, all the DVDs and videos were on the ground, broken glass everywhere. Sean, Olivia, and their cousin Kirsten were all underneath. I did my best to lift enough of the entertainment center up so Sean could get out (Darin was there at this point. He lifted it up the rest of the way, and I pulled Sean out.) Olivia was able to crawl out. I heard Kirsten from the other side. I couldn't see her so I didn't even realize that she was there at first. She, too was able to get out safely. Other than being a little shaken up, all three kids were fine. As I sat on the rocking chair with Sean, and saw the aftermath I shook my head in disbelief, knowing that we were definitely protected from serious harm. My mind went to stories of kids being killed from falling TVs, and I knew that this could have easily been fatal. I felt so blessed that they were all safe, and I know that it wasn't just luck. Also not just luck was the fact that David was sleeping safely in a bedroom down the hall, and Warren had just come upstairs a few minutes before it happened. I also feel SO grateful that my parents' one and only concern was the safety of our children. After I knew everyone was o.k., I turned to my dad and said, "It looks like we owe you a TV." to which he replied, "You don't owe me a thing. I'm glad everyone is o.k, and it's much less expensive than a new barn." (When my dad was 5, he hosted a hot dog roast in the neighbor's haystack and started the barn on fire. It was destroyed.) Thankfully, we now have three little witnesses who will remind the other grandkids to follow the rules. (There are two little doors on each side of the entertainment center that are much too tempting not to play in. That proved to be the culprit of the fall.) We continue to feel very blessed, and feel like it is our responsibility to share our little story so it doesn't happen to you! Please talk to your kids about not climbing on or playing in entertainment centers, bookshelves, etc. and if you have tall furniture that could potentially fall, please secure it to the wall. The bad news portion of the post is over...on to the exciting portion of my post that still has a valuable lesson in being prepared.

Here's the background story. Thursday night we went on a date, and a girl in our neighborhood babysat for us. When she got here she told us that Benji, winner of "So You Think You Can Dance" was at her house. (Her dad was a mission president in Mexico when Benji was on his mission. Benji spent three weeks at their house recovering from an illness and got to know the family very well.) I was so excited, and we tried to go to their house to meet him, but he had just left. Joe, their son, assured us that next time he was over, they would let us know. Fast forward to the next evening. I had spent the day babysitting and cleaning, and it was the first and only time in over a month since I started exercising regularly that I didn't change out of my exercise shirt. I had also just waxed my eyebrows and upper lip, and my skin was bright red and it was stinging like crazy. In an attempt to soothe my skin, I put baby oil on the sore parts of my face. Paints quite a picture, doesn't it? I was talking to Keri on the phone, asking her if Jamee had had her baby yet and telling her that I doubted if the redness on my face would ever go away. I was just ready to hang up and get in the shower when Olivia ran up to my bedroom and announced that Amy had brought Benji by for us to meet. I panicked. I was not in a condition to meet anyone, let alone a celebrity. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have taken 30 seconds to wipe the greasy baby oil off my face and throw on some make-up, but alas, I was not thinking clearly, so I ran downstairs and outside. I was so embarrassed!!! He was so kind. He got out of the car, shook our hands, and chatted for a few minutes. I wanted to ask him all sorts of questions like what he had been up to, his coolest experience so far, will you show me some moves, etc. but my brain was so focused on the fact that I looked the way I did that I just stood there and let Darin ask the questions. AARGH!!! We got our picture taken with him, and he left. The moral of this story is...Be prepared, people! You never know when a celebrity will show up in your driveway! It was fun afterward to talk to Darin about his celebrity sightings. He said he has met Marie Osmond and Chuck Norris, and we sat next to Steve Young at Stake Conference when we were first married. I really don't have any other celebrity sightings to share, but I would love to hear yours! If you haven't seen "So You Think You Can Dance", you can go to YouTube and search for Benji Schwimmer. There are a ton of videos. The boy can move! Here is (some of) our family with Benji (Sean is hiding behind Darin's legs, and Warren was playing in the backyard).

Family Pictures

I was reading Jenny's blog yesterday about the inevitable scrapes and bruises that seem to magically appear just before family pictures. This reminded me of an unsuccessful photo shoot from two years ago (I was 5 months pregnant with David). My sister, Jodi, was taking our pictures for a family book. My main concern was that the boys wouldn't be looking and smiling, so naturally her attention was focused on them. Bumps and bruises had nothing to do with the fact that we couldn't use any of the photos for our project; rather it was a silly six year old girl who felt the need to sabotage the pictures for some reason. We didn't know she had done it until we got home and viewed the photos on the computer. This is what we saw:




Apparently she sensed the fact that she was being ignored. Lesson learned. For the record, we did have a picture to add to the family book for my parents. It was taken a few minutes later in a different location. I guess she just needed to get it out of her system.
p.s. Our original plan was to crop out the power lines and the big cement slab. As it turned out, we didn't need to worry about it.

Three Words

There are three words that describe what I'm craving in my life right now:

Priorities

This one is self explanitory. Work before play and all that good stuff.

Balance

As I attempt to juggle all my responsibilities and add some fun, it seems that one ball is always weighted a little heavier than the rest, and I seem to drop the rest, and end up scrambling to get them up in the air again. For a while, the blog ball was heavy, and my kids and my house suffered from lack of attention. Then I realized that my kids and my house needed the attention, and I failed to take proper care of myself (and post on my blog!). Then I realized that my body needs me to take care of it , and now that ball is the heavy one...but in the meantime, I have begun to learn that it is possible to give a little bit to everyone and everything, it just takes prioritizing! I have begun to see the beginnings of a balanced life as I have let go of striving for perfection in a given area, and have settled on the idea that just a little better is more than enough.

Consistency

I'm getting there! This is surely a process that will take a lifetime (and beyond). I am learning that there really is no magic in consistency. It's as simple as continuing to do the things that you want to have as a part of your life; day after day; even when you don't want to.

So there you have it. That's what's been on my brain lately. These three words are key for me.

If I start to slip into my non-balanced, non-consistent, non-prioritized life, it's back to the drawing board. But fortunately for me, the drawing board already has the answers, I just need to remind myself! It's good to be back on the blog, and to realize that it is now a more evenly weighted ball in my juggling act.

What do you get...

when you combine a big sister, her friend, a willing participant, and a box of dress up clothes?

Liv

Here are some of the recent adventures of my Liv:

This is her personal flag. Her class has been learning about different country's flags and what they represent. They were also assigned to make their own flag. The colors on her flag are her favorite (with pink in the middle as her very favorite). Mint chocolate chip is her favorite flavor of ice cream, the DANCE represents her love of clogging, the bone and paw represent her love of animals (dogs especially), the heart represents all the people she loves, and the seahorse is her favorite sea animal (I didn't know she had a favorite sea animal).

Here she is with her hot dog and fries cake for the school carnival's cake walk:

Here she is sporting the latest hole in her mouth:

This tooth was stubborn. She asked me to pull it out for her, and it seemed like it was loose enough. I tried to wrap floss around it, but it kept slipping off. I tried to pull it out with the aid of toilet paper, but it stayed put. I told her we should wait it out, but she said it felt weird, and she wanted it out. So, knowing she wouldn't rest peacefully until it was out, I tried the floss trick one more time, and VOILA! It didn't quite pop out, rather, it rested in her mouth and she spit it out. (Sorry for anyone who has an aversion to teeth pulling. It gives Darin the heebie-jeebies.) I have to include the note she wrote to the tooth fairy:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I know you don't have a lot of money, but could I have 3 dollars or at most five?

Answer here _____________________

Love, Olivia

(I don't even have a penny.) p.s. leave me my tooth and note and bag please. (You can leave it under the pillow.)

When she woke up the next morning I asked her what the tooth fairy said. She replied, "He said 'I regretfully decline' and gave me ONE dollar." (How observant of her to realize that the tooth fairy must have been a "he". In his defense, giving $3 or $5 now would only cause inflation to go up faster in our house). I think she has recovered, and I told her that I'm sure the only reason he (the tooth fairy) only gave her one dollar is because he knew that her loving parents would always provide extra chores for her to earn extra money.

I love my sweet girl. I know that I am much too hard on her most of the time, and it's good to take a step back and realize what a blessing it is to have her in my life. She cracks me up! I think frequently about the time she had me, Jodi, Rylee, and Kamryn crying because we were laughing so hard. It was one of those "you had to be there" moments, but my child (who was 7 at the time) was relaying the story of Dee-Wayne, who showed up at one of Olivia's friend's dad's cousin's wedding (phew!) drunk and holding a garbage sack with a snake in it. The highlight of the story is when she says, in a drunk southern accent, "Dee-Wayne, you get dem snakes outta here right now." (Ok, I know I just said you had to be there, and then went ahead describing it anyway, but it's something I haven't yet written down for posterity, and I want to remember it.)

Spinning

I can describe my first experience with spinning in 4 words...It kicked my trash. I have been hearing so much about spinning, and I've been looking for different exercises, so today I gave it a try. Holy cow! My muscles didn't see that coming! Brother Hawkes is the first person that told me about spinning since we both have the same ailment, and it has been beneficial for him. When I told him Sunday that I would be coming today, he saved me a bike, helped me adjust it, gave me some pointers, and even brought me a water bottle! It made my day! Kari and Julie also accompanied me, but they were on the other side of the room (it was packed). I think I've discovered muscles that didn't exist before, and I'm fairly confident I pushed it as hard as I could. It hurt so good!!! As I was hobbling down the stairs, clutching on to the railing so my jello legs wouldn't give out, my good friend Julie says to me, "Ya, I think I'm going running later." Serves her right for being in shape. (I'm not bitter.) I am so happy that I have found TWO things that I love, and that I am able to do without my joints hurting. (I have also been going to water aerobics) Yay!!! I am so grateful to have a physical body, even if it doesn't always work the way I want it to. I love exerting myself, and feeling proud when I choose to make good decisions about my health. I am visualizing how my body will look and how I will feel as I continue these exercises, and it's a good thing, because I'm pretty sure that's going to be the only thing that will get my sore body out of bed tomorrow morning!

Nighty Night!

Yesterday afternoon the neighborhood troops were headed my way, sporting their swimming gear. I asked what they were doing, and they informed me that they were coming swimming in our pool. (For those of you who don't know me well, I should explain that the pool that we own is inflatable.) I quickly nixed that idea, knowing that their desire to swim would be short lived, and my effort in filling the pool would be in vain, but graciously offered to turn on the sprinklers to let them enjoy what is sure to be one of the last heatwaves of the year. They had a great time, and apparently it was exhausting, because about 10 minutes after the neighborhood kids went home, we found Warren like this...

Looks comfy!

Injured, injured bad

As I was looking through our files to find some videos, I stumbled across a few of our favorites. Here's one of them. Enjoy!

Deadline

I know you've all been on pins and needles wondering if I have accomplished my goal. I am pleased to report that I have completed my task! Here are the pictures of the new and improved packages:

Package #1: MTC bound


Package #2: Montana bound

Package #3: Japan bound
And of course, I couldn't have done it without him...

I asked this guy if he was a good sport, and he said, "yes". I think he wished he knew why I wanted to know before he answered. I told him I wanted to take a picture of him. He replied, "That's a little bit weird, but o.k." When I explained that it was for my blog he said, "Sweet. I'll be on the internet as the curly-haired postal boy!"
I felt so good to have my goal accomplished that I thought that it would be a good idea to declare every Friday "Take Action Friday" or "Get 'er dun" Friday. Then I remembered my title as the Queen of Good Intentions. If I carelessly jump into declaring Friday as the day to get things done, undoubtedly there will be a blog post in September of 2008 that is titled "Good Intentions", and it will begin something like this...About a year ago I decided that Friday would be the day to get things done...(you get the picture). For now, I will just be proud that I followed through, and hope that it inspires me to "Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, with a cheerful heart." (One of my favorite quotes from Marjorie Pay Hinckley)