just a quick layout i did before we head off to the Oregon coast for a week of family fun before school starts. this layout of my girls is a scraplift of desiree swanson's layout that i loved. also in the good news--Old Navy finally opened up here. yes--Prescott is in the BIG TIME now...L

forgot to add--my son just got made a trainer!! woo hoo--he now gets to train new missionaries in his mission!

chinatown and diamond head...

sunset beach...

these were in Kauai!

hawaii pics!

well, i tried to load some pics from hawaii, but you know the drill. anyway--what a blast! I had such a great time with Brianne. nonstop fun from begining to end. just a few of the things we did and saw: kauai, matsumoto's shaved ice, haliwea, the north shore, valley of the temple, diamond head crater, ala moana shopping center, ted's bakery, leonards malasado's, giovanni's shrimp truck, secret beach, sunset beach, waimea bay, hilton royal hawaiian village, bishop museum, hukelau cafe, crouching lion inn, snorkeling in shark's cove, chinatown. that might be it!

big thanks to my honey for keeping all the girls while i went and played/bonded with brianne. not only that but the house was clean, laundry was done and he grocery shopped and cleaned the refrigerator, freezer, haley and anna's room and the laundry room. now that's a keeper...L

ALOHA! greetings from Hawaii!!! I am over here with my lovely daughter Brianne having the time of my life! yesterday we flew over to Kauai and drove all over the island--we hiked up the Kalalau trail--two miles of serious hiking--overlooking the ocean with some sheer drops down. strenuous but incredible views and extremely beautiful. we saw waterfalls and some serious waves crashing against rocks and beach. then we drove over to the other side of the island and went up to Waimea canyon--the grand canyon of the pacific. so beautiful. took lots of pictures. had lots of fun. then we ate at the Beach House on Poipu Beach and that was an incredible dinner. Of course we totally looked like we had been hiking all day and were the most underdressed and smelly of the bunch, but we didn't care. the food was to die for and the view was incredible. Surfers all along the beach surfing right in front of us. then we drove back to the airport and flew back to Oahu. The best part--our rental car was a convertible mustang! so fun!! Miss my hubby and kids. hope everyone is doing great. aloha...lisa

i just had to post some pictures of my missionary son before I left. I got this in the mail the other day--his memory card with over 300 pictures on it! like manna from heaven. so proud of him and all he has done with his life thus far. so here are a couple of pictures--one that is so sweet and one that is oh, so Dallas! Aloha...L

so i have a really great husband. this post is gonna be all about him. you know marriage is a tricky thing--I know--this is my second marriage. it's a lot of hard work and there are definitely some bad times in all marriages. if both people aren't always working at it it can go bad pretty fast. in the past I have been pretty quick to blame things on David. then by chance i bought a book that my girlfriend recommended. it's a Dr. Laura book so I was pretty hesitant to purchase it as I'm no Dr. Laura fan. the book is "the proper care and feeding of husbands" and I did end up buying it. I have to say that in the first few chapters i was hit hard by the realization that some of the problems in our marriage were my fault. It actually made me cry when I realized some of things that i had been doing wrong. hopefully i'm learning to be a better wife.

anyway, my husband has really, really been taking care of me in some of the nicest ways. so I needed to just say thanks in a big public way--cuz you know thousands are reading my blog! HA
we had a great weekend. went out to dinner friday and shopping. bought some music for my ipod and i got a pair of pants. then yesterday he took me to lunch and then we went and drove a mustang. that was some fun. today we are all going on a picnic. but it's the little things that David is doing that really mean a lot to me. bringing me a soda, letting me sleep in, taking me out of the house. just because i've had a bad week and haven't felt that great. and i appreciate it--tremendously!

but the nicest thing he is doing for me is sending me to Hawaii this week. yeah--that's right. Brianne is over there right now attending BYU Hawaii for the summer and David told me to go and visit her for a week. he's staying here and taking care of 4 little girls. pretty awesome i believe. so i'm excited to go--i know i'm going to miss him and the girls but I get to see my other girl and Hawaii. we already have plans to go hiking on Kauai. some definite fun is going to happen. so thanks honey--love you and appreciate you and think you are the best...L

Hey! I need a bit of advice or help from you guys. There are two less active women that have been divorced for about a year and Iwas wondering what could I do to help them and to help them come back to church. I would really appreciate your guys input and I know it will help. Well love you all so much and Iam thankful that Heavenly Father let me have a family like you guys that guided and protected me in my life. Thanks for everything: It means soo much to me now.
Love,
Dallas



the latest email from my son. i love that boy. i miss that boy. i'm very proud of that boy...L

here is my ad challenge. yeah--mine didn't turn out the way i envisioned but that is the way it goes. so good luck to all! can't wait to see your layouts. Happy 4th to all...L

i did this layout today. I had this idea in my head of the paint behind the photo and this tag that i wanted to use. actually i have done almost 12 layouts in 3 days. not bad. of course i am missing half of my family! David took taylor and carson with him to CA on thursday so it has just been me and anna and haley hanging out. it has rained everyday as well. not a lot but enough to make it cool and breezy. i'm holding out for an all-out rainy day though.

the fun part of just having the little ones is that they are easily entertained. all i had to do is buy them a toy at target, drive through burger king (anna's latest obsession) and let them play on the computer. not once did i hear--I'm bored! there's nothing to do! I don't want to watch a movie! and both of them play really well together. so i got that going for me...L

so this is my new hair cut. yes there was one that was closer up--two words--scary! so, the hair is still long and sort of brown with highlights.

and this is my backyard--currently up for sale. sort of sad about it. i mean, this was the first house that david and i owned and bought together. anna was born in this house. well, actually at a hospital, but you get the drift. brianne walked down the stairs in this house for prom. dallas ate his nacho's in the kitchen every night at midnight. we played in this house, laughed, cried, yelled, sang, danced, had parties, had a funeral, renovated, SCRAPPED, we even had a friend's daughter's reception in the back yard. it's a beautiful backyard. David did some good work here. now it goes to the highest bidder. but i still got the memories...in my heart and in my scrapbooks...L

so my good friend K-dog ripped this ad out from the doctor's office. then she told me about it, then i coerced her into making this a layout challenge. Anyone wanna play? I loved how mine turned out. the orange cardstock does go around the whole layout. my scanner likes to leave things out!

Major rain/hail here today. so nice. we desperately need it--so does Sedona with the fires that they have been having. It also dropped the temps down to 60. can i just say--windows are open, sweatshirt is on. another tidbit--last night David and I were up late--neither of us could fall asleep. we are talking, laughing etc. and out of the blue he tells me how much he loves my scrapbooking. that he was is proud of me and my pages and that he loves it. that was just so cool. you know i love this hobby, but sometimes you wonder if you are the only one who loves or appreciates it. good to know.

more good news forthcoming. David sold his house. So excited. It's been on the market for about 4 months so we are happy about that. Plus we are about to put our house in Mesa on the market. mixed feelings about that. We were down on Monday working on it and I ran over to see an old girlfriend and talked with her for about 30 minutes. i was sad when i left. i miss my friends. I really do. don't miss the heat or traffic though. so if you are my friend down in the valley--miss ya...L

so this is what i worked on last night. i needed to do this for a challenge and the challenge included scrapping a goal and using stamps on your layout. i love stamps. not sure how to use them though. i guess i need to take a class (shhhh, don't tell my husband!) this happens to be one of the few pics that i actually like! Thanks to Dennis for snapping it and making me laugh. thanks to my hubby whom took me along on "his" trip to Cali. it was a lot of fun and a well-needed break. i am off to mesa today after church--a late father's day gathering with my dad and a haircut and cleaning a house to get it on the market awaits me...L

YES! I won the raffle at my lss today and Heidi Swapp scrapped my pictures!! So fun. I never win anything so that was killer! I had actually won a smaller prize earlier and they had told everyone that you could only win once. If your name got called again you could trade your prize. Well they called the name of someone to get their pictures scrapped and she wasn't there...so the next name they called was mine!! LUCKY! So she scrapped them right there in the store. and i got a pink album to put them in! I love these pics of Anna. I have done a few of these pics of Anna. the one on top is the one I did last night. Well, that was a lot of fun. Heidi told some stories of how she came up with some of her ideas for product and then demonstrated how to use a bunch of them. plus they gave away a ton of prizes!! But winning the pictures scrapped was the icing on the cake. that definitely took some of the edge off my PMS!!

on a side note--called Shanna to see how things were going with her Mississipi boy and also to tell her my pics were getting scrapped and she was on her way home from VEGAS! Hello??? I about had a heart attack. She did assure me that she wasn't married though!! Um, can you fall in love, meet that person and then tell your friend you are coming home from Vegas and not have said friend almost suffer a nervous breakdown? geez! Sounds like she is happy though. but you'll have to stalk her blog to get an update...L

well, I'm home. Good to be home but also sad to leave. We had a blast with Debbie and Dennis and I got some really good pictures to scrap. Ate a ton of yummy food too. I went and watered my plants tonight and was so happy. Some of them had been looking a little, well, dead. I asked our good neighbor Dan to water them while I was away and all of them look sooo much better. Have to find a way to keep Dan taking care of my plants! It's nice to have flowers during the summer here. in Mesa you could just forget anything flowering or growing practically except for some cactus. just too dang hot. but i planted some blackberry bushes here and have actually eaten a few berries off said plants. that was too cool. so i included some pics of my lovely berry bushes. Anna and Haley eat them with me but Haley refuses to call them anything but strawberries. if i correct her she tells me very forcibly that they are strawberries. well, back to normal life tomorrow. did i just say normal? you know what i mean...L

just in case anyone was wondering--I'm in Cali having some fun! will post later when i am home.

having a great weekend...L

what a week. a horrific cold has come upon me in all it's loveliness (thanks beth--for the word lovely, not the cold!) been dragging my arse out of bed everyday at about 10 or so. and you know what that means. you wake up from what seems a drunken stupor, literally force yourself to walk upright and by the time your eyes get adjusted to the light this is what you see; the remains of your once clean home. 4 little girls ranging in ages from 11 to 3 have been left to fend for themselves for roughly 2-3 hours. not a pretty sight. but instead of throwing yourself back in bed again, you eventually start to put everything back into a state of normal. ugggg. sickness is a double whammy for a mom.

speaking of normal. carson gave me a quiz today to see if I was "normal". Um, i could have saved you 5 minutes. the answer was no. she didn't even give me a percentage of how "un" normal I was. just a quick little look with a roll of her eyes to inform me that i wasn't normal. c'est la vie.

even with a day of nothing seemingly good. i did have some things to be grateful for today. 1)Jack-in-the-box. Thank you for putting a fast food restaurant not far from where I live. 2) The eagle. it's about the only radio station that comes in half-way decent here. While driving they played "canary in a coal mine". Just one of my all time favorite Police songs. ever. 3) Barnes and Noble. took the girls there this afternoon and bought some cool magazines and my girls some books. love bookstores. 4) David--yesterday when I was in sick/kids are home from school mode he told me to leave--I did and went and got a manicure and pedicure. pure heaven. 5) my girls--even though they technically create a lot of work for me--they pretty much let me sleep in, give me head rubs and even cleaned the kitchen for me. 6) this layout I did last week of anna. still loving it. 7) Haagen Dazs Mayan chocolate--sheer heaven! 8) talked on the phone today with a few friends. nice. 9) got an email from my son--he has been transferred to Monza--looks like it's not too far from Milan. 10) great weather here--breezy, 80 degrees. perfect.

thats all for now. hoping this cold will go away shortly. later...L

you know--my husband is a pretty sweet guy. not all of the time, but a lot of the time he is. sometimes I take it for granted. one thing he always does though is compliment me. ALL THE TIME. he always tells me I'm beautiful. he calls me his "trophy wife" even when i explain that a trophy wife should be 20 years old...not 43!! he makes me feel good about myself.

so today when i left for church he told me I looked like a guess model. and when i got home from church he told me he wanted to take a picture of me so he could have one. so i let him. now, I'm lookin' at the photo and i don't see a guess model in sight. i see all my flaws. i see a body that's given birth to a lot of children. wrinkles. laugh lines, you name it. but behind the camera there's a man who sees my beauty and who praises it and never lets a moment go by that he doesn't tell me how lucky he is. funny, i think i'm the lucky one...L