32 Things

I recently celebrated my 32nd birthday and thought I'd do a post about me...something I'm not very good at doing. I hope someday someone in my family might me interested to know some random things about me at this time in my life. So...

32 Things (you may or may not know)About Me

1. I am the proud mother of 2 beautiful kids and the wife of a wonderful husband.
2. I love gardening and getting my hands dirty trying to grow things.
3. I love being domestic and keeping a home, cooking, cleaning, canning, and all that kind of stuff.
4. I love being creative and usually have some crafty project I'm working on...scrapbooking, paper crafts, sewing, or other.
5. I'm very organized and love a clean and organized home. I've recently become a little famous or infamous for these skills and have helped others organized and clean their homes.
6. I love giving and receiving homemade gifts.
7. I got stung by a bee for the first time in my life this year.
8. Although I'm not the most graceful person in the world, I have avoided ever breaking any bones in my life.
9. I love classical and other more modern instrumental music...I've never really been into popular music much and my husband loves quizzing me when were listening to the radio to see if I know the artist...9 times out of 10 I don't.
10. I have been teaching piano lessons as a means to help my family financially for the past 5 years and love it.
11. My favorite dessert is warm, soft chocolate chip cookies.
12. I have a major sweet tooth and love treats...my figure kind of tells that...I have a hard time saying no!
13. I love autumn and all that goes with it...harvest, Halloween, leaves, Thanksgiving, sweaters, hot chocolate, cooler days, pumpkins, warm colors.
14. I once dreamed of being a doctor and traveling with the Peace Corps to Africa.
15. Instead I graduated from the U of U in Recreational Therapy and loved working with children at Primary Children's Hospital before I quit to stay home and raise kids and teach piano lessons.
16. My favorite holiday is actually Halloween...not the gory, scary stuff but the cute, whimsical stuff.
17. I hate fish and seafood...can't stand the taste of smell.
18. I've been married to my sweetie for 11 years...time flies when you're having fun. We were pretty young when we got married and it's fun to reminisce about how things have changed since our newlywed days.
19. I love family vacations...somethings I inherited from my Dad.
20. I'm a big Disney fan and have loved taking our kids to Disneyland now 4 times.
21. I have 6 siblings...2 brothers and 4 sisters. I love them more than anything and treasure the times we spend together.
22. I have wonderful parents...they did an amazing job raising 7 kids. I'm thankful for their dedication and the good things they did to help us become who we are.
23. I love work...I love being busy and have a project going.
24. I love the climbing into a well made bed with clean sheets in clean pj's...it's very refreshing and relaxing at the end of the day.
25. I love lemon...fresh lemonade and lemon bars...but not lemon Jello - Yuck!
26. I am addicted to Scenty wickless candles and burn them everyday in my home!
I can't stand food smells in my home and avoid it if I can...I'm known for plugging my crockpot out on the back porch!
27. I lack confidence in my fashion sense...I want to look good and be a little trendy but have no confidence in knowing what really looks good...so I'm pretty conservative and basic when it comes to clothes.
28. I love a good, warm bowl of soup.
29. I love the mountains and though I don't do it a lot now, I love hiking.
30. I love our little neighborhood and our friends and neighbors.
31. I have terrible eyesight and got glasses in 2nd grade after my Mom took me to the eye doctor and I couldn't even read the big E!
32. I am a member of the LDS church and am so thankful for my testimony of the gospel and the peace and comfort it brings to my life.

Catalyst

Do you remember learning about catalysts in science when you were in school.

Catalyst:

1 a substance which causes or assists a chemical change in another substance without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change.
2 someone or something that helps bring about a change.
3 something that causes an important event to happen.

For some reason that word keeps coming to mind when I think about my life the past few months. An interesting catalyst presented itself in my life and caused me to evaluate the "good, better, best" elements taking up my time. I was worried that maybe the good, better and maybe even some bad were taking time away from the best things in my life and it was refreshing to put away some of those things for a while to make more time for the best.

So, now after some time has past I want to keep up this blog. I think it falls into the better category since it is a journal and a form of scrapbooking for me. Although my attention to it may wax and wane depending on how well I'm doing with giving attention to the best things. So...on to more blogging!

I'm Taking a Break

I'm going to make my 2 family blogs private for a little while...I need to take a break from it for a bit....

Just wanted to let anyone who might read it, that I'm not shutting anyone out on purpose...just need to simplfy my distractions right now...

15 Books

Several weeks ago a few friends posted a list of 15 books that impacted their life for better or worse on Facebook...since I never post anything on my Facebook account, I decided to do it here. Anyway, the instructions were a list of fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you for better or for worse. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes...

Maybe I thought about it too much but here's my list

As a child/preteen:

1. Ramona series by Judy Blume
2. Little Women
3. Anne of Green Gables
4. The Box Car Children
5. Little House on the Praire

As a teenager/college student:

6. Native Son
7. To Kill a Mockingbird
8. The Diary of Anne Frank
9. Don Quixote
10. Les Miserables

As an adult (recently):

11. The Poisonwood Bible
12. The Secret Life of Bees
13. These is My Words
14. The Kite Runner
15. Midwives

The Holy Ghost and the Haunted Mansion

So this week for FHE we were having a little lesson on how we can keep the Spirit in our home. I started out by asking my kids what the Spirit was and Ben replied "it's the Holy Ghost." Natalie then adds..."Yeah, he lives at the Haunted Mansion!" (We're big Disneyland fans and have listened to the haunted mansion ride music a lot lately...a ride Natalie did not enjoy at our most recent trip.) I try to correct her that no, the Holy Ghost does not live at the Haunted Mansion but does can be in our homes to comfort and help us...etc. "No, he lives at the Haunted Mansion, Mom" she insists. I continue to try to correct her that we want him to be in our home and help us. She concedes..."Okay, but he'll have to stay outside!"

The Happiest Place on Earth!

A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a trip to Disneyland with my family...seven siblings and their spouses, 12 grandkids and my parents...27 of in all. It was a great trip and we so enjoyed being with all the cousins and family. We're huge Disney fans and have loved the two recent trips we've taken with extended family (we went in Oct '07 with Bryan's family). Here's some highlights and tidbits:

1. The day before we left, I was packing and getting things ready when Ben came in to talk with me. He was so excited to be going. I think anticipating and planning for the trip is almost as much fun as actually going! Anyway, he says..."Mom, you know how you sometimes have tears running down your face but you're happy?" I respond with a yes.... "Well, that's me Mom. If you see tears on my cheeks they're tears of happiness Mom!" So I asked him if he was going to cry right now and he said "Not yet but almost!" So cute!

2. With such a large group to coordinate schedules with, there ended up being only one full day that everyone was at the park together all day. On that day, we arrived early to the park to be one of the first people in line. One of my sisters was first in line and asked one of the workers if they had a family to open the park yet. If you've never been, they have a little count down right as the park opens and they usually pick a family to come into the gates first and help count down for the "magic to begin". Anyway, they ended up letting our big family come in first to do the count down. We all got badges and were the first people in the park. I cried some tears of happiness I must admit!


3. We arrived early each day at the park to beat the crowds a bit and get on as many rides as possible before it got too busy and crowded. We had so much fun racing from ride to ride...we were definitely exhausted by the end of each day but we packed a lot fun in! Some favorite rides for Ben...Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, the Teacups, and Soaring over California. Natalie wasn't sure about any rides at first but ended up loving Small World, the carousel, and Dumbo.


4. As I said, we're huge Disney fans and have been many times at different seasons and with different groups, but being a parent and taking your kids to see it, really makes is so much more magical. We've been lucky enough to take our kids 3 times in the past 2 and 1/2 years. They're already talking about our next trip!


5. By the end of each hot and busy day of fun and battling the crowds, we were all exhausted and ready for bed. Tuesday night, Ben and Natalie fell asleep before I even finished reading them stories and Wednesday night, Natalie fell asleep during the fireworks and didn't wake up til the next morning...she slept through the noisy fireworks, the walk/drive back to the hotel and me wrestling her into her pajamas!


6. The beach...so nice to sit and relax on the beach after being in the hustle and bustle of crowded Disneyland! It was a bit cool and cloudy so we didn't really get in the water other than to walk in the waves washing up on the sand. Ben and Bryan built a fun sand castle together and Natalie snuggled with me on the beach towels. It was very relaxing and we wished we have more time to spend there.


7. The only thing we really had to complain about ...besided wishing we had the park to ourselves...was dealing with traffic on the drive to and back. We got stuck in traffic in Nevada with the crowds returning from Las Vegas to CA. It took us 2 extra hours to get there. And then on the way home, we got stuck in construction traffic in Las Vegas. Again...another 1 to 1 1/2 hours added to the trip. The kids were troopers though and we played many games of 20 questions and I Spy!

Rain, Hail...and Tears

We have had quite a stormy June so far. After a week or so of unsettled weather, clouds, wind and threats of rain, I commented to Bryan that I wished it would just pour. I was tired of the stormy skies and no rain. It had rained in other areas but missed Herriman for the most part. Well, I wish I could take that back now. Yesterday we had rain on and off most the morning and then about 6pm it started to hail...large pea size hail for about 15 minutes follow by a down pour. My rain gutters were filled with ice and so the water pour off my roof like a water fall, filling my window wells, drowning my flowers, and frightening my 2 little children. I tried to take a few pictures but every time I opened the door, the screaming and crying increased, so the pictures don't do it justice, but I had a good inch of hail on our back patio table. It looked like it had snowed. Later in the evening, after pumping water out of window wells, and getting two kids to bed, I went out to survey the damage. My yard literally looked like tossed salad...like a deranged Edward Scissorhands had attacked my flowers and vegetable garden.
After:

Before...taken 1 week ago.

Now it was my turn to cry. Overwhelmed, I went inside and called my sister and cried about my loss...I thought for sure I was going to have to replant my entire yard. Just when everything was starting to look good and grow...just shredded. Well, my sweet sister came out this morning and helped me clean up debree and fertilize. There is hope for my flowers and vegetables...hurray! I will no long beg for down pours! While we were cleaning it up, I just kept thinking well at least I'm not a farmer and these vegetables are not my livelyhood...just a hobby! I'm hoping for 80 degree weather and have new sympathy for those that have been through tornadoes and lost everything!