last ones i swear...L

and yet more...L

more pics...L

first--a few pictures...L

well i am back! yeah! i will save my trip stories and pics for when i can get them all down! let's just say that my daughter is a college graduate and as of today has a full time job with benefits!!! woo hoo such a relief for her because good paying jobs with benefits are hard to come by!

but--kerry asked if i had looked at my blog because i was tagged by one of my favorite, talented uber-scrappers karla.

so the rules are 7 random facts about myself then tag 7 other people. OK--do i know 7 other people? yeah--that's a tough one. so here goes.

ONE: I love peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwiches. now it might sound gross but i absolutely love them and when nothing else sounds good that will do the trick.

TWO: I have to have a blanket on me when i sleep. winter, summer--it doesn't matter--i cannot sleep uncovered!

THREE: I was approached by McDonalds to do a commercial for them when i was in Kindergarten. went out to LA with my parents and everything. My parents said no--and there went a lifetime of free mcdonald’s coke! :(

FOUR: I wanted to be a writer when i grew up. Sadly i found out that i am a much better reader than I am a writer. but i can write a mean english term paper!

FIVE: I love everything to do with astronomy—I love full moons and eclipses and stars and stargazing, etc.

SIX: I don't think of myself as crafty. merely as someone who can learn how to do crafts. i don't think it is innate in myself. rather that i can study something to death and learn how to do it.

SEVEN: I wish i was still in college. I could see myself as a life time college student. one that has like a billion credits and no degree! i love learning and reading and i can research a subject to death. in fact if i get hooked on something i can be a little OCD. i find out everything i could ever want to know about my obsession at the time.

OK--more pics and stories to come later. when i catch up on laundry and kids and husband and more. although the laundry was done and house clean and dinner fixed when i got back! thanks, honey.

ok--now i am tagging care bear, shanna, Christine, maddy, beth, michelle and Nicole.


i promise pictures (i took 250!) and stories after--suffice it to say i had the best time with my daughter...L

i love alanis. here's proof. my humps

enjoy...L

sick, sick, sick. that has been me since sunday. i wish i could say it was over but today was probably the worst. i have had the worst migraine i have ever had i think. so not a good day. but hopefully it will be over tomorrow. i feel like i have lost a week. on a good note it is only 4 more days til i am cropping with my girlfriends and lots of other peas. happy about that. staying with kerry and i get to see her cute new puppy piper! as far as puppies go our little jake is at the vet hospital tonight. he was not himself when he got up this morning and just layed there not moving or wanting to eat. we do know it isn't parvo and i hope that tomorrow the vet calls and has good news and our pup is back to normal. don't know what anyone would do without that sweet puppy here.

lot of things have been on my mind--especially since i have spent probably the better part of 2 whole days in bed. first the horrific shooting in VA. it makes me sad and makes my heart ache since i have a daughter graduating from college next week.

my son will be home in about 3 weeks from italy. i can hardly think about anything else, except for maybe a wedding coming up!

my sweet girls and husband taking care of me these past few days. what a joy to have such a blessing in my life...L

i put a hold on reading and made some layouts--ok, technically only one layout, but i did start a little mini album for david's aunt! almost done with it too! brianne and jeff sent the flowers to thank us for a great weekend. i love flowers. they're just so, well, flowery! ha ha

3rd child down sick. now it is carson's turn. i think she is better now but david took me to dinner and then shoo-ed me out the door to get a break. i ended up at joann's buying material to make me and the girls skirts. it was so bizarre to be looking at fabrics again. i used to sew all the time when brianne was little. easter dresses, christmas dresses, rompers, etc. even when taylor and carson were babies i still sewed some. then it got too expensive to sew and was just cheaper and easier to just buy dresses and such. and also see earlier blog post about scrapping--not enough time for all my hobbies! but i saw these cute skirts on etsy and just had to make some myself. i definitely will take pictures when they are done...L

OK--more pics!

on another note--i have just finished my fourth harry potter book. i just started reading them a couple of weeks ago. don't know why it took me this long to read them-dallas got hooked on them when they first came out. then haley wanted to watch the first harry potter movie and when i took the girls to the library over spring break anna picked up the first harry potter book and i ended up reading it and was hooked. i have to say that each book keeps on getting better and better. can't wait to read the next 2 books before the final one comes out this july.

funny thing is i used to be an avid reader until i got obsessed with scrapbooking. then my reading kind of fell to the wayside and i didn't read near as much as i had in the past. so these books have shown me how much i have missed reading again. i hope i can keep it up. and learn to balance both of my hobbies...L

aren't they cute? I took some pics of them today trying to get a good engagement picture. i think they should go with this one! brianne wanted jeff to pick her up and sort of have her fly in mid-air. instead we got this. but it was fun to take their picture together. they are so cute as a couple!! and jeff is wonderful! love him and glad my daughter picked him. he is very patient with her!! ha ha the girls love him too--probably too much since they won't leave him alone!

so we have had some fun while they were here. we went to the easter pageant last night and it was wonderful. met up with brianne's friend ashley and her husband and got to visit with them. ashley lived right next door to us in mesa and has come up a few times to watch the girls so dave and i can get away. ashley lives right by the temple and actually got us seats! i have never sat in a seat at the easter pageant ever! always on the grass!

today jeff and brianne colored eggs and hid them with the girls. after that we went and took pictures. everyone except anna and i are at the hockey play-offs. anna has a fever, earache and threw up this afternoon. poor thing--right at easter! and brianne and jeff leave tomorrow to go back to Utah.

i hope everyone has a great easter and celebrates what it means to them...L

It's official!! they're engaged! I am so happy for both of them! love you both...L

this is for my daughter--who had an emotional filled day. just want her to know how much i love her and how wonderful she is and how proud i am of who and what she is. oh yeah--the layout is from shanna's
page kit. look up her site if you wanna get one!

also--those two in the picture above may or may not be getting married June 28th. that's the word on the street...L

more layouts...the first two are scraplifts from Keisha--a scrapbooker--love to look at her work! and i still have 2 more layouts to upload. stay tuned for more pages--later-L...

layouts and projects and haircuts, oh my...L

spring break here--for another week. taylor is back in school but the rest of the girls have this week off. we went camping this last week and had a blast--as you can tell from the pictures. oh yeah--no pictures--cuz my camera got turned to the wrong settings and i wasn't aware. so sad. nothing came out. but believe you me--it was good times. my cousin and his family went with us and our kids had a blast.

now let me tell you why i love camping sooooo much. there are two big reasons. number one is that david does pretty much everything. he packs it, unpacks it, sets it all up, cooks, cleans, packs it all up again and unpacks it. i do help--but mainly he is a one man camping machine. it dawned on me that the reason i like to camp is because for a few days i get to be the husband--you know the one that kicks back and watches tv while the wife is slaving away--I LOVE IT!

reason number two--and really the best part about camping. peeing in the woods. nothing like it. i love it. how easy is that? need to pee? drop trou and pee away. no waiting in lines, getting stuck w/o t.p., no kids banging on the door or just coming in, no driving like a madwoman to get to a place to pee. nada. i need to go--i do. my favorite part. not so much my kids though. they don't enjoy it like me. except haley. she would just pull down her pants and go anywhere--didn't matter who was around either! in fact when we got home she told me she needed to go to the bathroom and when i went to take her inside she told me she wanted to go outside! ha she gets more and more like me everyday!

so some highlights from the camping trip--david got a dune buggy. the girls drove it around--taylor loves it. her and her cousin practically lived in it. the other fun thing we got was a rhino--david traded my motorcycle and another quad that never got used for it. that thing is pure unadulterated F-U-N. we had a blast! the best part is that it is street legal so i can drive it around town. and yes--wish i had pics--but they will come later. oh--and taylor and her cousin Brielle got stopped by a sheriff and he followed them back to our camp and my cousin got an earful of how he could have been ticketed and fined. a little excitiement. i think taylor and brielle were pretty shook up. of course that provided the rest of the jokes for the duration of camping. lots of dirt, a lack of sleep and s'mores=good times. and oh yeah--mexican food. there happened to be a little mexican place that we slipped away to for not one but two dinners. so cool not to have to cook at night and have some chips and salsa. and i am sure they haven't seen dirty campers before!

glad to be back home now and spend the rest of the week with the girls--haircuts tomorrow and hopefully pictures...L

can't sleep .not fun. but while i was lying in bed trying my hardest to go to sleep i kept thinking of all the funny phrases that have been used in our family. sayings that just sort of became part of our daily lingo. so here they are in no particular order (cuz i know you're just dying to find out!)

1. show me the money
2. peace out
3. i' m gonna have to bust a cap in yo ass with my nine
4. gimme some knuckle
5. say hello to my little friend
6. no touchie
7. escoppy (escape)
8. go
9. bloody hell
10. shalom

now everyone go to sleep...L

this was a layout i did for a challenge on beyond appearances. it took me a while to get all my stuff together to do this layout. the funny thing is that when i saw this challenge it really spoke to me and when i was in the car one day waiting to pick taylor up from school i thought of all the things that faith meant to me and wrote them down in my notebook. weeks later i finally had the picture that i wanted to use and the idea that i wanted this layout in all neutral tones. there were a lot of mistakes on this page--mistakes that i left and worked around. i was a little unsure if i liked it or not but when i showed it to david he said that it was one of my best works!! so that made me happy. so that is that. faith--it's what gets me through a lot of things--what makes me hang on through the rough times or accept things that i can't really understand with my feeble mortal mind.

happy sabbath...L

check it out. go commando

L

so--first off--to respond to my daughter's comment below--hello--you didn't tell me it was a SECRET and only 2 people read my blog besides you! ha ha

so i am happy to say that since yesterday i have been eating healthy, drinking lots of water and exercising! me and max have walked twice now and the pic above is him cooling off after our walk this morning. yeah--it's so hot here at 60 degrees!

carson took the pic of me and jake--she took some of max and i too but i had my camera on the wrong settings so they didn't turn out. isn't jake da bomb! i kid you not--he is one spoiled puppy!

so now the last pics--anna's drawings. the first one is of jake that she did at school. the last one is one she did at the restaurant the other night--i notice david snickering and then he asked anna to share her drawing--she holds it up and says--it's you mom. oh yeah--couldn't figure that one out--then of course they (my family) all laughed it up good. nothing like having a bunch of wise a$$es in the family.

oh--and kerry went to the scrapbook store the other day and DID NOT buy the new heidi swapp idea book. where's the heidi love k-dog? i had to guilt her into going back and getting it and buying one for me. i was like--k-dog--bust yo ass back to that store and get me that book--and go ahead and pick one up for yourself! ha--i'm just kidding kerry--you got me the book, right? love ya!

i also picked up some much needed pictures from costco and hopefully i will finish a layout tonight and start another.

oh--and in case you heard a "rumor" about my daughter getting married--keep it on the low down--down low--no doubt...L

well--they are unofficially officially ENGAGED!!! There isn't a ring yet but they have set the date--AUGUST 14 in Salt Lake City!!! woo hoo! i am so excited!!! poor brianne--she called me yesterday to tell me and i was so sick--all i could say was yippee! When what i was really feeling inside was YIPPEE!!!! so happy for both of them. you know what that means to me--yep, grandchildren can not be far behind!! HA HA

in fact last night as i was lying in bed i could remember when brianne was little and running around and how dang cute she was as a little girl and how fun she was. how funny she was when she was about 4 and she knew what my christmas present was from les and she was dying to tell me but she wouldn't tell me but when i guessed it she gasped and covered her mouth and then made me swear i wouldn't tell les! so cute. then the time she got up on the roof and started throwing dishes off and i spanked her--although i have no recollection of this and i am sure that there is no way she could have gotten on the roof, let alone have a stack of dishes and i KNOW i would have never spanked her!! or the time she washed my DRY CLEAN only sofa slippers and they shrunk about 2 inches or the time she made pecan pie and thought corn syrup and corn oil were interchangeable!! ha ha

and now she is getting married. my little girl. and graduating from college in 2 months as well. i am so very proud of her and so happy for her. i love you brianne...mom

i have 2 new babies! yeah--the first is an iMac! Yes! so cool, so techie looking, so clean. now to figure out how to use it. i had one eons ago and when david came into the picture so did his pc. then i had to learn to use that which i still have never figured out. yes, i am blaming my non-computer skills on the dell. so this is already easier and it has a lot of cool features. one being that it will store 250,000 photos! of course i haven't had much time to play with it because first, i was not feeling good the past couple of days and second...

JAKE! That is our brand new puppy as of today! is he not the cutest little thing? and i mean little--david said if he lies down in the grass he might be mistaken for one of max'es doo--doos! he is about half the size that max was when we got him. he is 5 weeks old and man he is just too lovable. we picked him up in glendale this afternoon and took him to pick the girls up from school. yeah--they weren't excited much. this is how the decision process to get a new puppy went: we talked about getting a puppy about a week ago. i come home this morning from taking the girls to school. david says we should look in the paper for lab puppies. we called a number that had chocolate labs for sale that looked like it might be close to us, called, took a shower and jumped in the truck to go pick him up. yeah--the ubnoske's are just a tad side on the impulsive. :) so please remind me of how cute he is in a few weeks when i am pulling my hair out wondering what possessed me to get a new dog!

peace and dog biscuits...L

oh yeah--happy march 1.