Friend Makin' Mondays

So I'm hopping on the wagon and joining Friend Makin' Mondays, which is hosted by Amber. It is 20 questions, for the nosiness in us all. So here are the questions...

1. DO YOU COOK EVERY NIGHT?

Unfortunately, yes. I really don't like to, but if I must.

2. WHAT KIND OF LAUNDRY DETERGENT DO YOU USE & WHY?

I seriously had to go to my laundry room to find out the answer to this question..I use ALL. I don't really have a specific reason...maybe the packaging was pretty!

3. DO YOU DO LAUNDRY EVERYDAY OR LOADS AT A TIME?

I do laundry as needed. When I have enough for a load of colors, then I do them, etc.

4. HOW OFTEN DO YOU EAT OUT PER WEEK?

Well that varies, depends on what I'm out doing and if I'm out long enough. I'd say it's approximately 2x per week.

5. WHERE DO YOU USUALLY EAT OUT?

If it's fast food, then we do Taco Bell, Mcdonald's, KFC. If it's a restaurant, The Olive Garden, a really yummy mexican food restaurant called Valle Luna.

6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RETAIL STORE?

I guess that would be Target.

7. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DRINK?

That would be some tea with my sugar please. Reeeeaally sweet tea.

8. DO YOU TAKE VITAMINS? WHAT KIND?

I really don't like to take much of anything, but sometimes I take the sublingual (under the tongue) vitamin B-12 for energy metabolism....I'm tired an awful lot of the time.

9. WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE HOUSEHOLD CHORES DO YOU DO?

I'd say about 70% or so of the inside chores...and my husband does about 50% of the outside chores...I don't know who's responsible for the other 50%.

10. DO YOUR CHILDREN DO CHORES?

Umm, yep. I'm not doing it for them. They make the mess, they clean it up. They are each responsible for their own rooms. Alyssa does the dishwasher and washes what can't go into the dish washer and she does the dusting part time....we both have bad allergies, so we split this task. And she also takes the garbage out. Taylor is responsible for cleaning the sink in the kids bathroom and for keeping the table in the kitchen washed. And Jayce washes the kitchen chairs and helps put away the cans and boxed goods after grocery shopping.

11. DO YOU GO TO CHURCH?
No.

12. DO YOU HAVE A HOUSEWORK SCHEDULE?

No. I clean it as it gets dirty. The only spot in my house that has stuff piled/not taken care of, would be my computer desk usually has a small stack of papers/books/whatever piled on it, and my scrapbook desk is kinda in a disarray also. Other than that, I don't like messes, so I keep it clean as we go.

13. DO YOU KEEP A WORKING BUDGET?

No. I don't have anything that keeps track of the budget. Most of the time try to spend as little as possible. Try to always "pay ourselves first" by putting into savings. We spend a little, save a little and pay the bills on time, so it works for me.

14. WHAT DO YOU DO AT NIGHT AS A FAMILY?
I guess we don't specify night at family time. By the time my husband gets home from work, it is time for the two youngest to get to bed and the oldest stays up for 1 hour more. Each night they say their goodnights' and then they take their books to their room and read (in Jayce's case, look at the pictures) until they feel they've done that enough, and then lights out. So it's pretty much, homework, eat dinner, baths, goodnight and reading. When it's not so hot we go for walks.

15. HOW DO YOU PREPARE YOURSELF FOR A NEW WEEK?
I celebrate! While some people dread mondays..I celebrate them. That's when everyone goes back to school/work, and I get some me time. LOVE IT!

16. WHAT DO YOUR MORNINGS LOOK LIKE?
They look early to me. You see, I am NOT a morning person, so I like to be able to sleep in, atleast until 8 a.m., that would be good enough for me. But..here's the reality of it. I get up at 6:50 a.m. to get my oldest off and going. She has to leave the house at 7:20 to catch the bus. So I make sure she's done everything she needs to do. When she leaves I get the youngest two up and going to get them off to the bus at 8 a.m. Once they leave, there's always something different that I'm doing...either off to run errands, or relaxing at home and blogging, or cleaning house, or visiting shortmama, or cursing at my exercise video while working out...the list goes on.

17. WHAT TIME DO GET UP IN THE MORNING?
I get up at 6:50 on weekdays/school days. And I can only hope to sleep in until 8 a.m. on the weekends. You see, my husband is an EARLY morning person. I. Hate. It...but atleast he's nice enough to try to go back to sleep so I can sleep in.

18. WHAT TIME DO YOU GO TO BED AT NIGHT?
Anywhere between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. And then I lie there and read for a while before lights out.

19. HOW DO YOU MANAGE ALL OF THE PAPERWORK THAT FLOODS INTO YOUR HOUSEHOLD? (Bills, School Work, Magazines, Ads, etc.)
Well I have a bill holder on my computer desk to place all of the bills that seem to keep finding their way to us. School work, I look through their stuff, throw out their days work unless it's a memorable drawing, etc. and have them get started on their homework. Any school activity letters that get sent home, I mark the dates/events on my calendar and throw the papers out. I don't like clutter. Magazines I read through as soon as possible so I can get them thrown out too. Hmm, I'm starting to sound like a clean freak here...did I mention that I don't like clutter? I do have a filing system, and while it is set up pretty good, there is definately room for improvement, I'm just waiting on myself to buy a 4-drawer filing cabinet to replace the 2-drawer that isn't enough.

20. HOW DO YOU KEEP YOUR HOUSEHOLD ORGANIZED? (Calendar's, Chart's, etc.)
I mainly have everything on the calendar. My computer desk has an erasable white board attached to it...that's where my honey do list is located. And I have to say that my honey do pretty good at getting it done...well, most of the time anyways. No charts or anything like that. Just a do it and get it over with mind set. Cause' ya know if I let it go for too long, then it escapes to that far away distant place in my brain that says "what are you talking about, I don't remember that".

Family Funnies

Everyone has some crazy funny family moments hidden in there somewhere.

Oh how I remember when...

Umm, something's wrong with mah teeth

Umm, naked here! I know I still look like my brother, but I've still gotta hide em!

Quit chasing me with the camera!

Oh fine, if you must have a picture of me!

But grandpa lets me pee outside at his house...

Sure Jayce, get off the couch and do something crazy like this out of the blue, no problem!

"He gets that from you Rose..that's all you"

Vacation Dreams

So I know summer is over, but I am still dreaming of the vacation that we didn't really take. While we can't really afford an expensive vacation, I always dream of the expensive places.

So here are a few of the places I dream of going on vacation to...

The first place is Bora Bora



That just looks like heaven to me. I'm not sure I would ever return home if I got to go there. So besides the finances, there's one little issue...my husband doesn't want to go there. And why not? He says because it's. in. the. middle. of. nowhere. A tiny spec in the middle of a vast ocean. He says one bad storm could wipe us out. I'm ok with this, atleast I would've died happy!

And where else do I want to go? I want to go to Atlantis in the Bahamas.




Again, another piece of heaven. I think I'd go clean hotel rooms just to live there.


And the third place that I like to dream about would be Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

This place just looks absolutely beautiful.

And then there is this place that I heard about and figured the kids would just absolutely love it..

This is a tree house hotel. It would be the tree house the kids never had all packed into a vacation adventure.

If I got the chance to do atleast one of these in my lifetime, then it would definately be Bora Bora. I'll just have to figure out a way to get a prescribed medicine for my tough husband so he will be a willing participant...

And Today..I Really Have Nothing

So I don't really have much to talk about today...there was a family tragedy and I had to go and be there for my dad. Other than that..I have nothing today...

Where has summer gone?

So I have been wondering where my summer has gone. All the things we do each summer have been absent from this summer. Camping? Haven't gone this summer. Boating? Haven't done that either. Ok, so that is due to our boat being broken down since last summer. What's a summer without camping and boating and swimming...and of course my favorite, roasting marshmallows by the camp fire at night.

So my husband doesn't want to go camping anymore until we get a travel trailer...I may forget what camping even is before we get one of those. I can't say I blame him much though. We can do the whole tent thing, but it really does feel like we're moving our whole house each time we go. Add to that a bad back for my husband, as he is a veteran. Our kids say they miss camping too, but really, I just have to give them THAT LOOK when they say this. I think our kids don't know what to do with themselves when we are camping. They tend to whine and complain and drive us crazy and end up just sitting there staring at us. It's like they don't know how to run around and play and have fun.

So, I'll just reminisce for a moment about our past camping and boating/swimming occasions, and maybe that will make it better for now...

Here is our boat. I call it the dragonfly since it likes to bounce and flit across the water.

This is when my husband and I camped overnight on the boat.

I slept as snug as a bug in a rug.

My husband on the other hand...he didn't think we needed to bring the other sleeping bag..he was gonna fish all night you know...so sometime in the middle of the night I woke up and heard a loud crinkling noise..I think he changed his mind, but now had to use the tarp to keep warm..I'm not so sure that he slept so well..

I miss the view..

I miss the serenity of being on the lake..

I miss taking the kids for walks in the woods while camping.

Front to back: Taylor, Alyssa, Siara

And Taylor and Alyssa learning how to fish..

And Mr. Jayce learning how to fish..

And looking back on the boat and seeing the kids giddiness..

Oh yes, those were the days...

My Husband Drives Me Batty

I think my husband may have his priorities bass ackwards. This past Sunday morning it was just myself and the kids home, my husband left out early in the morning to go out quad riding with my great friend shortmama's husband.

So I get up in the morning and everything is just fine and normal. I'm up and dressed, the kids are up and dressed, breakfast is done and the kids are outside playing. So I start to clean up the kitchen. One of my husbands cowboy hats is sitting on the counter so I go to take it into my room. And what do I come upon when I get into my room? There's a freakin' bat flying around all over the place in there.

So I calmly, yet quickly, shut my bedroom door. I head out the front door and around to the back door, which leads into my bedroom. I open the back door and see the bat still flying around like crazy. So I close the door again and get into a better position instead of standing right in front of the door and right in the path of its exit. I open the door again and see the bat hanging on the recessed lighting in the hallway. It sees its exit and goes about its business.

So of course I have to call shortmama and tell her what happened.

My husband got home around noon and I met him out back to tell him about our visitor. My first words to him were "Guess what I had to chase out of the house this morning?". He said "a bat". I said "Yep, you must've talked with shortmama already". And he said yes. But then it took him a few more minutes to tell me that the bat was actually in the house this morning before he left. He said that he didn't know how I didn't wake up because he had all the lights on in the room and was trying to catch the dang thing...with two of his cowboy hats. Oh, to only have seen what he looked like while doing this.

But...he couldn't catch it...and he didn't want to be late meeting up with shormama's husband...in which shortmama's husband was still in deep slumber anyways at home and was late for their meeting by 1/2 hour...so he left the rabid bat in the bedroom with his wife whom he loves so dearly...and that's when the fight started...

What Will I Be When I Grow Up?

Holy sheeet, sometimes I drive myself crazy when I can't make up my very own mind. So what would be my dilemma this time? Well, it's actually one that I've had for a while now. Now that all of my kids are in school I am trying to determine what my career choice will be.

Let's start with what I have already done. I have been a sales associate/supervisor for a few different retail stores, such as Carter's Childrenswear, Docker's, Nine West, etc. I have been an emergency medical and fire dispatcher/supervisor, and for a short period of time was a volunteer EMT. I have been a police dispatcher. And then my career got put on hold when I had a high risk pregnancy with my last child, my son. So this is what started my stint as a stay-at-home mom.

I love how I got to watch my kids grow and didn't have to place them in someone else's care. For placing them in someone else's care I have learned can really piss a mom off. You know, like when the sitter isn't home when you arrive to drop your child off, but all her little kids are home and one of them offers to watch your baby for you. Right. Or when you go to pick up your child, obviously from a different sitter cause the last one didn't work out for some crazy reason, and when you arrive you find that your baby has just been given a hot bottle straight out of the microwave. Some people really should come with "I'm stooopid" tattooed on their forhead, save the rest of us the trouble.

Yet on the other hand I have missed the working world. I know, it may sound crazy to some. My friend shortmama says I'm crazy to think that way...but she says it's probably because I actually found a job that I loved. I guess I have to agree with her. I LOVED being an emergency dispatcher. Loved it...miss it.

So, my dilemma is that there are two career choices that I am seriously considering. But in order to do them, I feel my kids need to be a bit older. I would like to either go back to being an emergency dispatcher...or I would like to go to school to be a nurse. If I were to be a dispatcher then I would just have to sit tight for a few more years until the kids are older that way I don't have to worry about the hours that would be required of me. They would be more capable of taking care of themselves and my oldest would be in high school by then and would be able to help more. As for the nursing, I would atleast be able to start the schooling now, something to help fill the day now that all the kids are gone. I love to learn also, so that would be a benefit. But I don't know how interested I am in incurring a bunch of debt from school loans. This option would allow me to atleast be working toward my career option before I have to start working the hours of a nurse.

So this has been my internal conversation with myself for a while now...and it will probably continue to invade my thoughts for a while now until I decide to make a move.

2 1/2 Hours Too Long

Every year I get my kids pictures taken professionally. This year is no different, other than I'm a bit late getting my girls' pics done. Oh yah, and this is also the first time that it has taken so freakin' long. Our appointment was at 3 p.m., in which we got in on time. But..we didn't get done until 5:20 p.m. And me and the photographer had a little talk when she told me that the enhanced photo would cost $80...WHAT?!, did I just go to France or something for our pictures???...Yep, that was my response.

So here is a little taste of what the pics turned out like...

Miss Alyssa...although the photographer kept calling her Taylor.

Miss Taylor..though the photographer kept calling her Alyssa. Hmm.

Taylor and Mom

Alyssa and Mom

Other than the pictures, I spent the day helping out my great friend Melissa. She just moved back out here near me again after years of being away. So she is desperately trying to find a job in this bad economy...and I'm deseperately trying to help her get one so she doesn't have to move back to Tucson which seems a world away from me.

Ooh, and today I got to take a tour of our new fire station that's being built. I'm one of the board members of the department, which is great for the learning experience, yet public speaking scares the hell out of me. Great combination! Our current fire station looks like an airplane hanger. The new one is nice and spacey and I cannot wait to see it all finished.

P!NK Concert Here We Come

Holy hippie I am so excited!!! This morning I went online and bought some concert tickets for my friend Charlene and I to go and see P!NK! So the concert isn't until September 20th, but I'm still really excited nonetheless. I've never been to one of her concerts before, so it will be a fun first.

So, what concerts have I been to before? Well, I've been to an Aerosmith concert. That was really cool...minus the boyfriend that followed my friend Jen and I there and tried to ruin it for us but it didn't really work. Let's just say he had some issues.

And I've been to a few concerts that had a variety of artists singing. Been to a few that were called "That Damn Show". Word from the wise...if you go with a group of friends and you split into two groups for a small amount of time...don't plan to meet at some big blow up thingy...it just may be taken down in the short amount of your time apart...and then you're screwed on where you were supposed to meet up.

I've also been to a Lollapalooza. That was also very interesting. Cyprus Hill was one of the artists there. Now while I can actually sing along to some of their songs...I don't smoke...anything...so it was kinda weird when they started throwing joints out into the crowd...and the people next to us were nice hippies I guess and were willing to share theirs with us...umm, no thanks. The other most memorable part of this concert was someone that I didn't know and still don't know got up on the stage and started to sing The Thong Song...and he was only wearing a thong...a skin colored thong...eewww. And he also decided to run through the crowd like this.

And of course there was the American Idols concert that I just recently took my girls to with one of their friends and a grandma. It was the first laid back concert I have ever been to..guess it had to be with kids there. Well, minus the sex act movements on the mic pole by Adam Lambert. Yep, you could just imagine the thoughts going through my mind when I heard my oldest daughter and her friend giggling through this...mmm hmm...chastity belt...grounded for life...keep your legs closed, it helps prevent stretch marks.....

So..can't wait to see what kind of an adventure this concert brings.

Whiskey Row

What a fun day today was. All the kids were in school and I was originally supposed to go with my man to the dentist. Well the dentist's office was kind enough to call him as we were leaving the house to cancel his appointment. This was a whole 15 minutes before his appointment. This is the second time they have done this. Great customer service!

So..instead of the dentist my husband decided to still take the day off of work and we took a trip up north the Prescott instead. We had a nice drive up there, and it was a good 10 degrees cooler than home.

We had a nice time looking through the shops and laughing at the funny sayings on some of the signs for sale. We bought a few things...my man bought a new cowboy hat and I bought a picture of p!nk.


And then we stopped in a shop that takes those old time photos. Oh what fun! While I couldn't get my husband to play along and take two of the poses that I thought were the funniest, which was one of him splayed out on the bar table passed out drunk with me standing behind him like I had just whacked him with a whiskey bottle, and the other was him shirtless in a tub and me sitting beside the tub with him looking like he's hollering and raising heck and me again giving him a look like if ya don't shut it then I'm gonna whack you with this whiskey bottle. So while we didn't get those poses, here is what we did get...

I believe that these may be the only pics like this that we ever get taken, as it costed us over $70 for the ones we purchased. Probably not though, because I really do like doing this. I get them taken every year at the state fair when I take my kids.













Once done with the pics we stopped for lunch and then hit DQ on the drive back home. Yum. I'm like a psycho hunting dog when it comes to spotting DQ's. HEY. DQ. STOP. TURN. NOW. NOW. NOW! AWW...GOT IT!

Pre-Teen Bra Machine

Woohoo, meet the teacher nights are all done and over now. Last night was the night to meet my oldest daughters teacher. He seems to be really nice with a funny sarcastic personality and an obvious caring for the kids. He sent home a letter at the beginning of this year that describes what they will be doing in class and also a little about himself. He stated in the letter that along with boxing and other things he likes to do...he likes to take naps. Ok, that's automatic cool points. I LOVE NAPS. Love them. Something great about my comfy bed and squishy pillows that I really love.

So on to my oldest daughter, Alyssa. Alyssa is almost 13, and I'm not likin' it. Not at all. For one, I had her when I was way too young..was pregnant and married at the age of 17. Yep, there's a reason why your parents (in my case my grandparents) tell you to wait. Mmm hmm. So while my first marriage is done and gone, I have this beautiful daughter. I keep trying to tell her to quit growing, but it doesn't seem to be working.

I have to say that I normally love clothes shopping for my kids. But..not anymore. Now there are bras involved. OMG. And it's not like I can just buy her a bra and get it over with. Nope. The girl thinks she needs a new bra every time we go to the store. She needs a white one, a black one, a skin color one and all the cutsie ones.

Alyssa has a sweet sensitive and caring side to her. She's a socialist yet still enjoys her alone times. She can be a bit bossy, I think she gets it from her great grandma. Actually, she may get it from me, but I got it from my grandma...so that's where she got it from then!

And last, but not least, here are some of the many faces of Alyssa:

"Do you like my boobs?!"

Ok, really now. This is how bad it really is. I ordered a swimsuit by mail and the cups came stuffed with paper. I took the paper out and went to try the swimsuit on and then got re-dressed. When I came back out of my room this is how alyssa was standing and that's exactly what she said. Yep, she actually stuffed her bra with the paper stuffing. As hard of a time as I am having with all of this growing up stuff, I couldn't help but crack up over this.

My colorful marshmallow puff

Here I am!

Holy Hippie..It's Raining!

Yep, I'm the type that gets completely excited when it rains, like quite a few other people that live in sunny AZ. It's like getting a new present. We'll take all the rain we can get especially since our state has been in a drought for years. I think my skin is in a drought too from all the sun.

Well last night was meet the teacher night for my youngest daughter Taylor. There wasn't anything spectacular that went on, just the teacher explaining what they do, etc. So I had Taylor give me a tour of her classroom, her desk, her cubby, etc. I figured these would be good times to introduce my children and their different personalities to go along with the different meet the teacher days.

Taylor has a very fitting nickname that I have handed to her: Gabby Grace. Oh yes, very fitting. She could talk for days. About anything. About nothing. I think I hear her in my sleep. Her mind is constantly going and she believes she has to speak everything she thinks.

As for Grace..she is completely not graceful. Very clumsy indeed. A few examples...while running away from a friend's dog at her house she bonked right into the wall, she was playing ball outside at this same friends house and she fell right onto deer antlers and it poked a small hole into her leg, she's been to the hospital for falling off her bike and banging up her cheek. Now those were some of the bigger incidents, but just in general she can just be walking and there will be absolutely nothing on the floor, and she will trip over her own two feet, slide on pea gravel and hit the ground, just pretty much falls on anything..or nothing at all.

As much as I don't want any of my kids to get hurt, she is definately the one that takes it the best. She heals really well, she doesn't freak out, and it only hurts for the first day and then she doesn't have any complaints even though she still looks like she should be really hurting. So good thing for high pain tolerance.

Taylor has many aspects to her personality, she is sensitive, she is happy-go-lucky, she is mostly laughing all of the time even if there's really nothing to laugh at, she cares about others, she is sneaky when it comes to wrongdoing, definately not the one that will do it in front of adults since she reaaallly gets upset when she gets into trouble, so she will quietly do/say something and then smile at you like she'd done nothing wrong. I believe that she is starting to pick up her older sister's pre-teen 'tude. She is the girly girl of the family.

Here are some of the many faces of Taylor:

Cool Chick

Crazy hair day at school last year

Umm..don't really have an explanation for this!

Hilarious and creepy all at once!

That's my boy!

A good morning to me. It's always a good morning waking to the sound of my son hollering Mooommmmyy! Hmm, what is it this time? Maybe he woke with a migraine? Maybe he fell off the bed? Nope, he had a morning "accident". As I stumble through the house I realize my oldest daughter is already in his room and is helping him get undressed, and talking really sweetly with him. Hmm. Maybe I'm actually dreaming. That's not normal for sure. But nope, not dreaming, gotta get the bath started and the bed changed.

Jayce, to say the least, is quite a character at the tender age of 5. I got the priviledge of attending meet the teacher night for his class last night. I received a paper of one of his drawings. Of all things it has to be of tarantulas. Great. I am HIGHLY afraid of spiders. The one on the back was titled "baby tarantula" and the one on the front was titled "big daddy". Nice.

I saw he had perfect 10's for his behavior on the chart on the wall. Hmm..wonder how long it will take for that to change and for me to have to go to a school conference. Jayce's personality is very black and white, he's either just the sweetest thing, or I really just don't want to claim him at all. His sweet side: always telling mommy and his sisters how pretty they look, holding doors open, cracking us up with his many phrases and faces, asking what he can help clean, etc. His we don't really want to know you side: telling strangers some not so nice things about themselves (even though it may have been factual) and making mom want to crawl under the nearest anything, throwing screaming fits in public or anywhere for that matter, pulling out his youngest sisters hair and using her as a punching bag while she just laid there defenselessly, though this I believe has thankfully come to an end.

Here is just a small taste of the many faces of my little boy:

My little ethiopian

"I drink too much"

Wild eyed cowboy

It's too cold for this Ranger ride

I'd like to give a quick thanks to the girls that have popped on over and left me comments. I surely would've responded back to you by now, but I am still in the learning process here and haven't actually had the time to sit down to learn about it all yet.

Goodbye Colorado

Ok, yep, it's official...I LOVE COLORADO! So very beautiful it is, and the temps are definately different than here in AZ. I wore shorts/pants in the daytime there and sweats at night. The low's there got down to the low 40's, our lows here in AZ I believe haven't gone lower than the 80's for summer.

It seemed like it didn't take any time at all to get to Pagosa Springs in Colorado, but realistically it took just over 8 hours. Time really can fly when you're having fun. We had three kiddos in the back seat, my two daughters and my friend Charlene's daughter, Chantelle. They were absolutely excellent for the trip. We took many things to keep them busy...and it didn't quite work out like expected though. Alyssa forgot her charger for her DS game and it died about half way there. Taylor has a DIDJ handheld learning game, it has to be hooked up to the computer sometimes to be updated. Well wouldn't you know that it would require this about a half an hour into the drive. They also had a portable dvd player from our friend Chelsea, but it also lost charge, but atleast that wasn't until the trip home. So Chantelle's little learning computer is the only thing that survived the whole trip.

We didn't really do much sightseeing since we weren't there for very long and had the baby shower to attend. We did take a little tour of the shops in Pagosa Springs. We really would have enjoyed going to the Hot Springs, but just got a picture of it instead.

The baby shower was good and different at the same time. It's the first baby shower that I have ever been to where we ate first, and then Cassie opened her gifts for the baby boy, and then...we all went to the lake.

Miss Cassie Mack opened her gifts

Mother/Daughter moment

Elaine and Cassie

My daughter Alyssa, niece Chantelle and daughter Taylor

The kids were the only crazy ones to get into the cold water!

My friend Charlene and I bunked together in the same room, and I tell you we were like little school girls all over again. I think part of it was due to our exhaustion. That and Charlene's ears were plugged up the whole time from the elevation change, so we all had to get used to her hearing a completely different conversation than what were we actually talking about. It was very amusing. I think while everyone else was completely exhausted and went directly to sleep, the kids included, Charlene and I were the only ones laying in bed (actually a palette on the floor, but let's just pretend it was a fluffy bed) and talking for a while more. We ended up laughing so hard we had a constant stream of tears running down our faces. Now I'd like to share with everyone what we were laughing about, but I really don't remember. I think it was delirious laughter that was telling us we needed some sleep.

Myself and Charlene, this was at Sonic on the way home

So we all had a very good trip. I would love to post a pic of my friend Alison that went with us, but she really hates having her pic taken, she literally got mad at me since I kept snapping some of her, of course, that still didn't stop me. Memories...Hellloooo!

Goodbye to Colorado.

The lovely view from Cassie and Shane's front porch

Goodbye to silly Shane and all the laughter and smiles he brings

Goodbye to Taylor and Chantelle running around together...

Goodbye to Chelsea and Alyssa telling Taylor and Chantelle to go and hide for some good old hide and go seek...and then Chelsea and Alyssa going and hiding themselves...and then about 10 minutes later Taylor coming out to ask where Alyssa is and me telling her that Alyssa and Chelsea are hiding...and Taylor giving me this look and stating "but we're supposed to be hiding". Very funny moment there. So the adults had approximately 10 minutes of quiet time while the kids were hiding and not seeking.

Goodbye Colorado, until we meet again!

My Very First Post

So here is my first post ever, it's only been about a month in the making. After being a stay-at-home mom for over five years now, all of my kids are now in school, which is how I am finding uninterrupted time to do this. They started school yesterday, Alyssa is now a 7th grader, Taylor a 3rd grader, and Jayce is now in Kindergarten. Ryan and Siara are my husbands children from a previous marriage, so I won't have a lot of information on them since they live in another state, other than we miss them and wish we were closer to them. I have a mixture of emotions regarding the kids starting school, part of me says WoooooHoooo it's finally happened!...the other part of me says BooooHooooo I miss them and don't want them to grow up.

So my kids go to a year round school and that gives only 6 weeks during summer break, which is great all the way around, less boredom for them, less stress for me! So what have we done over summer break?

I took my girls to an American Idols Live Tour along with a friend and one of the many grandma's. We all enjoyed it. It was my girls first concert that they have ever been to.

My daughter Alyssa and I waiting for the concert to begin

My daughter Taylor and I waiting for the concert to begin

Me and my (other) mother-in-law after the concert

I was previously married, but still claim my mother-in-law

We took a day trip to Bartlett Lake. We all love the lake and would live there if we could. Maybe not at that particular lake, but at a nice lake nonetheless. We even took our car sick dog along for the ride. She is a very sensitive dog, that's the nice way of saying wimpy.

Me and my honey

Jayce, Alyssa and Taylor

We took a trip to see where a Meteor Crater had crashed into the earth in Northern Arizona. It was neat to see, but not very budget friendly to pay to see a Huge Hole in the ground.






We took a drive to Jerome AZ. It is a little town on a hillside and it has a lot of artist shops selling a variety of many different things from paintings to jewelry, you can watch glass blowing, etc.

We took a drive to Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well. Very historical trips we took here...though I can't really tell you that I paid much attention to the history side of these places. Montezuma Castle has Indian Ruins in the side of a mountain, and Montezuma Well is a large well that also has some Indian Ruins. It was very interesting to see, and it made me thankful to be living today instead of back then.




We took a trip to a lake in northern arizona with our friends Amanda and Levi and their kids Rhiannon and Layla to go crawdad fishing. It was a really good time, up until we had to pack up and leave early...our son Jayce gets migraine headaches and he got one that day, so we had to head back home.

My husband Jason and Me

All the kids and my honey in the background

Gotta love your friends! Amanda and Me

We filled in the rest of the summer visiting family and friends, going to the movies, etc. While browsing in the mall one day I found a wonderful (wonderfully hilarious) game to play with friends. It is called "Would You Rather...." I LOVE THIS GAME. Provides lots of good fun and tearful laughter.

Now as for tomorrow...my girls and I are off to a baby shower in lovely Colorado. What a trip that will be. There will be six people in my truck and three people in another vehicle, for an 8 hour drive. I may not want to come back. I haven't been to Colorado since childhood and I still hold very fond memories of the week that I was there.

So this is it for my first post (novel)..can't wait to report on my trip to Colorado once I'm back.