this is my GOOD friend beth. as you can tell in the above photos. i missed her birthday last week and i feel bad. especially since beth is so good at remembering my birthday and a million other things. she is superwoman! no lie. i think she is the only person that has more on her to-do list than oprah. really. and oprah doesn't even have kids. so there. those pictures make me laugh because, hey--you can really tell how much beth wants me.! shhh, don't tell her husband. beth--it's ok to have a girl crush. really. seriously--if i got the chance to get married again--i'd marry beth. i'd have no worries. except she would have to teach me all about sports. like how come the superbowl is in AZ again after it was just here a year ago! sheesh.

beth--happy belated birthday. next time i see you i will lick your ear again. i promise...L

shout out to k-dawg who took these lovely photos!

you know why there is a cliche "sick and tired?" because it isn't a CLICHE! it's solid gold truth. wha' happened? i turned 45 and my body shut down on me. i am so not kidding. i haven't been feeling well since around saturday night. i am complaining non-stop to dave about how i am falling apart. our conversation went something like this yesterday:
me: i have to start taking care of myself. i only have a few short years left.
dave: i heard that if you haven't done anything before you are 40 that it doesn't matter--the damage is done.
me: shut up! who was talking to you anyway! ( i deleted a few swear words for my young readers!)
then i thought about it and realized--dave doesn't read, he doesn't watch the news. all he watches on tv is "Dog: the bounty hunter" and "Cops". so i'm pretty sure my get healthy plan will still work and i might live to see my grandchildren. {insert big sigh here}.

another reason dave is slipping on my popularity list is because he dared to ask IF I MIGHT BE PREGNANT! i dared to ask if he had a passport because if i was pregnant {insert trademarked maddy intake of breath here} i would kill him dead. then i would kill him all over again. just to make sure the first killing took. then i would kill him again. just for the sheer fun of it. then i would chop off his head, hang it on a pole in town square and attach a note that this is what happens to men whom refuse to get a vasectomy and then their 45 year old wife gets pregnant. BE AFRAID!

in all of these very traumatic {and i am not one for the drama usually} events i have at least tried to accomplish some goals. no exercising but i am eating healthier--i went off soda AGAIN, for the 100th time, i have taken some pictures--note the very lovely and animated haley--and I SWEAR she is a double in that top photo for brianne. it gives me chills. i finished a layout. at the moment though i can't remember my other goals. that is probably the alzheimers beginning to kick in. well, i must sign out now and go take my geritol and eat some prunes. later...L

happy birthday to me. and it's been a good one so far. breakfast in bed (buttermilk pancakes with apple cinnamon syrup) and turkey tacos for lunch. just trying not to think that 45 is about a half century old. bloody hell. i'm old. i think we might go to sedona for the rest of the day. and maybe look around for a wheelchair. peace out...L

just a few images from some random things last week. first, went down to mesa on friday to "scrap" with my girlfriends. which really was just a cover for a surprise baby shower for shanna. we went with the traditional "balls and nuts" theme. HA we did get a little carried away with decorating the gingerbread men. and embellishing them. and using them for our entertainment. my favorite was the napkins--which showed a pic of a baby with the saying "you're kidding! i get both nipples?" (brianne--i saved some for your shower!) of course no scrapping got done and when i went to leave my car was filled with balloons. crazy girls. they always do something fun for our birthdays--and since i don't live close they always get creative. i drove all the way home with those balloons. i wanted to show my girls. about 15 minutes from my house one of the balloons popped and gave me a heart attack. so i opened the back windows to let the balloons go and instead they all got sucked to the front of the car making it terribly hard to see out. i am sure if i would have studied the law of physics back in high school i could have avoided that. but then i let my windows down and balloons just flew out of my car. i wish i could have driven behind myself to see that.

this week has not started good for me. i came home from church at 2 and went to bed until 5. then i went to sleep again around 9. i have just been struggling with being tired this week. it is killing me.

but i have a few funny things to post. things my girls have done. tonight for example. carson shows me a beautiful drawing of new york, complete with the statue of liberty. i comment on how lovely it is. she tells me that "the eiffel tower" is a little crooked. i say "it's the statue of liberty." carson''oh, whatever." yeah--cuz the two are very difficult to tell apart. LOL then anna is working on apostrophes and possession. she is supposed to re-write "the queen of the colony is very important." so i ask anna how she could write this with a possesive noun. anna's response--The queen rules!. i love it. how very true.

and the card--one i did for a challenge on a website. it helped fulfill one of my resolutions. to make a card and a page a week. i actually made two cards. plus our family has had family home evening, read scriptures and had family prayer. love it. the only thing killing me right now is the diet/exercise. and i got a little scared tonight when i called my daughter and she told me she had gone to a step aerobic class tonight. i need to get my butt in gear. now it's time to see if american idol has ended so i can get my girls in bed. later...L

happy new 2008. we spent the last weekend with the girls in flagstaff. where it snowed all day. we had a blast. we found a sledding park and went and had a great time sledding down all the hills. taylor and i caught some air on the big hill. but anna is destined to be a snowboarder. she literally didn't want to leave, even though she was soaked to the skin. i didn't get many pictures because it snowed the entire day on us. but we did drink lots of hot chocolate and watched movies in our hotel room. we ate really well too.

i really don't make new years resolutions. they're so cliche and just something i don't do usually. but this year i changed my mind. i decided i needed some concrete goals and what better time to set them into place but january. so here goes. my new years resolutions.

1) eat better/healthier.
2) get kids and husband to get on board for goal #1.
3) get in shape. i want to lose weight too, but my main goal is to get in shape through exercise and eating healthier.
4) read at least one book a month. (this goal has been accomplished already as i just finished "twilight" last night.)
5) be more outgoing/socialize more. I am such a hermit/loner/nerd.
6) scrap a page and a card a month.
7) enjoy my other hobbies: reading, beading, sewing, photography.
8) read my scriptures daily.
9) morning and evening prayers.
10) do #'s 8 and 9 as a family also.
11) get a grandbaby!

so i will be doing a monthly check on myself as i try to focus on keeping these goals. i also have others but those are little things that i can do monthly. feel free to share your goals with me and your progress also. i do have a really good incentive for getting in shape. when brianne left at christmas time we challenged each other to lose weight and i told her that the loser has to get pregnant. so as i am SO NOT going to get pregnant i figure that if i get goals #1 and 3 done then goal #11 will happen! peace out...L

i hope everyone had a very merry christmas. mine was fantastic. all my kids here for the first time together in a long time. needless to say we had a blast. anna got baptized by dallas, we ate good food, played games, saw christmas lights, drank eggnog, played wii, opened gifts, took a hike, dallas pooped a D. yes, my 22 year old son came running in one day asking where my camera was. later when i asked what he needed it for he told me he had pooped his initial D. lovely. i won't post a pic. other than that it was probably the best christmas i ever remember. i will post some highight pics later.

saturday i took carson down to the valley to stay with her good friend McKenzie. shanna's husband and kids are gone so i spent the rest of the day with her. we had a good time. we went to lunch at the cheesecake factory. i talked shanna out of a pink cotton candy looking maternity shirt. we drove to apache junction to pick up her pictures. wait--i think it was PAST AJ! lol then we stopped off at scrapbooks, etc. then headed home to scrap. which we did. the picture above is one of the four that i did. the rest need journaling. later we headed out to the scrapbook barn and ate dinner at serranos. scrapped some more then i headed home. a fun day for sure. and one that won't be happening after shanna moves. sniff, sniff.

i hope everyone has a great new year!!!!! smooch...L

this has been one crazy, busy week. haley turned 5. five years old. my baby. unbelievable. dallas will be coming home tomorrow. can't wait. i watched my friend's 7 month old baby today while she went to work. all my girls love him and couldn't get enough of him when they got home from school. taylor told me that she wants a puppy or a baby for christmas. well that would be nice but that's crazy--AND WE'RE ALL FULL UP HERE!

some really funny things happened here as well. not to me. that's what makes them funny. first of all dave met me for lunch the other day. and i picked the place. one i have talked about going to for like, 6 months, and one that dave never wanted to try. so we go into this place and you order at the counter. and the menu is really small and dave can't read it so he asks me to order for him. so i see a sausage sandwich and order that. and i order a muffaletto sandwich and some bruchetta. which come to around $30. for lunch. so when we get the bruchetta dave remarks that it tastes like a tostino's pizza roll. but hey, he says, those are good. uh-huh. then we get our sandwiches. mine is a ginormous italian sandwich. i look at dave's plate and there is the tiniest sausage sandwich i have ever seen. it looked like a beanie weenie in a biscuit with some red sauce on top. i look at dave's face and the sandwich and i just start laughing. i mean i can't stop laughing. when i do stop to eat a bite i start to look at his plate and get the giggles all over again. i eventually snorted sandwich down my windpipe i was laughing so hard. for the rest of the day i would just uncontrollaby start laughing when i saw him. needless to say i won't get him back there for sure.

while we are laughing at other's misfortunes, i must say that brianne called me today. she went to the jewelry store so they could fix a diamond on her ring. she went during her lunch break at work. so she knows some people that work in there and while she is talking to a woman about getting her ring fixed she notices that everyone is looking at her. the woman then tells brianne she has a post-it note on her. brianne looks down and low and behold she does have a post-it note stuck on her. ON HER BOOBIE! LOL that was a good one. i'm just glad it didn't say something like "file this immediately!" brianne--love ya and can't wait to see you in a week!!!

the girls decorated the tree tonight and it looks great. i played james browns funky christmas and worked on some christmas presents while they put on the ornaments. i loved seeing and hearing them find all the ornaments that they have made and cherished over the years. christmas is almost here...L

yesterday.i can't begin to tell you how much fun yesterday was. friends, gifts, food, scrapping, snow, shopping and pictures to remember it all. just a great girl's day. love these women. they are all unique and fun in their own way. and i have known them all for four plus years. and yesterday was our annual christmas scrap. and they caravaned up here to prescott to spend it with me. loved it. love all of you...L

and another treat for me to top the night off. brianne and jeff sent this to dave and i. you must click it and enjoy some holiday fun...L

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1253525347

best break dance ever.........

this is awesome!

so the bloody flu bug hit me hard early monday morning. i'll spare you the gory details. still not 100% better but hopefully tomorrow will bring full recovery. before i got sick i had started sewing again. i decided to make my girls christmas dresses this year. because nothing brings me more stress, i mean joy, than to sew up not one, not two, but FOUR satin/taffeta dresses. let it be known--taffeta and satin rank right up there as the worst materials to sew. slippery little bastard! reminds me of the time that i let brianne pick out her easter dress pattern and material when she was 8. it was pink and it was lace. 2 things that shouldn't ever be brought together. because i literally had to sew that thing twice. once for the lining and then the lace dress. i learned some new words during that time. but of course this time i have no one to blame but moi. so haley's dress got done before the illness. one down.

so while i was at the fabric store i picked up some material to make me a skirt. this beautiful grey wool flannel with loopy cream stitching. i decided i would give myself a break from the girls dresses and sew my skirt. no pics yet. but it turned out fabulous. and only $6 to make it. i kid you not. dave was impressed.

that's all for now. back to taking it easy and pouring over magazines. and scrapping a little...L

(sorry for lousy pics!)

on this thanksgiving day i just wanted to name a few things i'm thankful for. (a shout out to carson for taking the picture of me!)

ipods
the moon
my children
cool nights
good hair days
email
friends
good food
the color green
flowers
sense of touch
babies
my husband
wind
music
art
puppies
creme brulee
love
inside jokes
tattoos
fresh bread
massages

i hope everyone has a great thanksgiving...L

that's my baby--you know, some people take halloween a little too far. that picture cracks me up. so here's the story. brianne got sick, she threw up, she threw up so hard that she burst the blood vessels in her eyes. right before halloween. end of story. i used to joke about her having the evil eye!!

so brianne called me tonight and we had a good talk--it cheered me up since i haven't been in the best of moods or health. anyway she told me about how the bishopric (male leaders in the church) came to visit her. they asked brianne about her job (in real estate) and asked if she had a license. brianne then unleashed her loathing of real estate agents, their hours and pay, and yada, yada, yada. then the men started chuckling. brianne asked what was funny. turns out her bishop is a broker and the counselors are real estate agents. that girl is a chip off the old block. just like something i would do.

if you want to see some funny things take a look at their blog: http://jeffbrianne.blogspot.com/

make sure to start thawing those turkeys. it's not much longer...L

since i can't upload all my layouts at once i have to do them in batches...L

a layout that i scraplifted from cari...

a few layouts...L

david took the girls to cali for the weekend. they all returned this afternoon. i took the opportunity to get a lot of things done that are difficult to do with everyone around. the first thing that got tackled was my girl's dresser drawers. if anything would make me stop and think about having any more children (i'm not) it would be the fact that those cute, sweet babies grow up and turn their rooms into a landfill. the trash and items under the bed would make a grown man cry. whenever my girls go missing things the first place i tell them to look is under the bed. of course that is the last place they look because even they can't stomach it.

and their dresser drawers. as much as a mess or worse. i mean, i could understand if they had no dressers or even if they had only one drawer. but there are at least 4 drawers. and this is how they should roll--underwear and socks in one drawer, pajamas in another, shirts in yet another drawer and pants in the last one. my girl's drawers looked like the apocalypse had taken place in them. coats with hangers and sweaters and tops all crammed into one tiny area. pants and dresses living together in sin. dresses go in a closet on a hanger--am i wrong?

so i cleaned it all up and i have a bet with myself--i give it one week before it is all helter skelter again. although i would be happily surprised if it remained in any semblance of order for longer than that. and kerry challenged me to scrap this and put it up on my blog by friday. so i will take her up on her challenge and challenge any of you that read this to scrap their kid's mess. peace...L

what a week. and it's barely wednesday! oy. i took haley to get her haircut today and she wanted it cut like dora's. so that's what she got. a lot of hair got chopped off. she looks pretty dang cute.

my kids have been cracking me up with their funny stuff they have been telling me. haley went over to play at a friends house the other morning and told me to come and pick her up at "9 1/2 o'clock--thats a really long time mom." got it. then the other day carson wants to know if i like the "foo foo fighters" hello--only one foo please. then she wants to know if i like the band "inks" um yeah--that is INXS!

anna started brownies on monday and loves it. i am so happy. they have a lot of fun things planned. a trip to out of africa and an overnighter at some cabins in prescott with sugar cookies and hot chocolate--no kidding--that is the description in the brochure. i think i want to go to that one. and anna also is running around telling me every other hour that she has a brain freeze and that some one gave it to her. tonight she told me that haley had given her a brain freeze and therefore she could not sleep with her. i told her that you get a brain freeze by eating something cold--she then informed me that she had eaten something cold earlier in the evening. ahhh, that explains it.

taylor is hooked on the stephanie myers books--the vampire ones. i gave her the first two books on saturday and she is already ready for the 3rd book. i want to read them now. speaking of books--everytime i call dallas he is in the library studying. (at least that is his story! ha) so today i called him and at the end of speaking i said i love you--then he said i love you too. then i told him that after he got off the phone he should say loudly "that was my mom--i'm still availabe!" LOL
and brianne just got a promotion at work. she is now in charge of marketing and advertising. i think that's awesome!

tell me how you would feel if you came home to this...


the other day i was just plain worn out. and i came home to folded laundry and this note on my bed (which she had also made) from carson. i love that girl.

now i am off to bed. i have a busy week still left ahead of me and i need sleep...L

halloween. it's over. well, it was a good one. i tried to get more photos up but it wasn't happening. i will try to put more up later. and that was my costume. nasty curves. it has a story--it wouldn't be halloween if i didn't have a story to go with my costume.

first of all, i had a costume--dorothy. but the dorothy costume was meant to fit toto so the night before halloween i left in a panic for the spirit store to find a costume. i grabbed about 4 costumes and was waiting in line when i see a sales person folding a baseball looking costume. i asked what it was and they told me it was a referee costume. i asked what size it was and asked to try it on. it didn't have a package they told me and came with a baseball cap. i glanced at it thinking it was a cubs shirt.

so i finally get in to the dressing room and they only let you take 2 costumes at a time in to try on. ok. changing my clothes and putting on costumes and i try on a fairy costume and know that i need to take my "underwear" off to try it on. no problem, just put all my clothes in a pile on top of my shirt. after trying on costumes i throw my pants and shirt on so i can hand out the 2 costumes i tried on and get another 2 to try on. so i gather up all the stuff and hand it out and get the other costumes to try on. a minute of me starting to try on a costume i see my underwear bottoms being thrown under the dressing curtain--INSIDE OUT! oh yeah--i just said that. now any normal person with a shred of dignity would have bolted right then and there. not me--i need a costume!!

so yeah--i have to give the girls credit--i didn't hear them giggle once. and i even came out with my ref costume on to ask if they liked it. so after coming home with my costume dave asks me to try it on. i come out with it on and he says "nasty curves" and i'm like what? and he says--nasty curves--on your shirt. WHAT? oh yeah--not a cubs shirt like i thought. so that's the halloween costume story for this year. stay tuned for next year and some more pics.

but enough about costumes. let's talk halloween. so my girls had cute costumes. taylor was a harajuku girl, carson--some sort of twisted fairy w/o the $30 wings i bought special for her, anna was a pirate and haley was tinkerbell. usually we have a lot of costume switching goin' on but this year was good. then we had our 2nd annual halloween party. this year it was soup and bread. yummy. we had lots of friends show up and hot dogs for the kids who played outside. then people left to go trick or treating and we let taylor and carson go with their friends around the neighborhood. we left with another family and our little ones to take them around. we went to two neighborhoods before i remembered a cool historic district downtown that i had heard was really cool at halloween time.

so we drove over and it was not disappointing. cool decorations and everyone dressed up and a gazillion kids everywhere. one house had 20 buckets of candy and every kid got one candy from each bucket. after that we came home and took all the kids in the hot tub. i'm telling you it was good times here. i think taylor and carson's loot weighs about 5 lbs. each. so that's it for this halloween. go find some good sales...L

woo hoo! i think disney pics are up! finally. blogger is so slow. but i don't even know how to change my template anymore. i wish i had computer skills. less than a week before halloween! i have been a glittering fool tonight and hopefully in a few days you will have pictures of all my halloweeness on this blog. happy early friday...L

so i got tagged by care bear and since i love her i will oblige. :)

1. What is your spouses name? david. but his street name is fruit loops.

2. How long have you been together? married for 13 years.

3. How long did you date? 9 months

4. Who eats more? him

5. Who said I love you first? don't remember but i bet it was me.

6. Who is taller? that would be dave for sure

7.Who sings better? that's funny.

8. Who is smarter? me--shhh, don't tell him though.

9. Whose temper is worse? him

10. Who does the laundry? me

11. Who does the dishes? me

12. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? is there a wrong side?

13. Who pays the bills? him for the last 4 years

14. Who mows the lawn? he does

15. Who cooks dinner? me mostly, but he cooks like once a week. he's the master griller for sure

16. Who drives when you are together? usually him because he says he doesn't have a death wish.

17. Who is more stubborn? i'm gonna say me, but he's a close 2nd

18. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? I always admit i'm wrong, even though i'm not!

19. Who kissed who first? he kissed me

20. Who asked who out? he asked me after months of me calling him

21. Who proposed? no one. i don't know how we ended up married

22. Who is more sensitive? he is

23. Who has more friends? i think he might have more friends but i do stuff with mine more than he does.

24. Who wears the pants in the family? neither--we both prefer skirts

i'm not tagging anyone--just look to question #23! peace..L