What's Today?

Well, it's March second and Bon Jovi is somewhere in Sacramento awaiting my arrival tonight. LOL! I'm practically giddy with excitement:)

Concerts like this aren't usually my thing. I like smaller venues like the one Collette and I saw this past Saturday. We went and saw a local bluegrass band perform. Super fun! And the only other concert I've ever been to was when I was at Ricks College. Yes, when it was still cool and not BYU Idaho. NOT that I have anything against BYU IDAHO, but it's just not the same.

I digress.

So when I was 18, fresh out of my parents home, set up for the first time on my own and hanging out with the girls 24/7, we decided to go see Boyz II Men in Pocatello. Yes, it was as lame as it sounds. This was the first concert, and the last.

However, I have always said that if the Bee Gees or Bon Jovi ever came to concert I would DEFINITELY go. Unfortunately with the passing of Maurice, I think my dreams of seeing the BeeGees will be unrealized.

BUT NOT BON JOVI!!!

I can practically hear him singing right now. And when he sings "Never Say Goodbye" I will hold up my lighter and sway with the rest of them. Maybe even shed a few tears.

NOT!!!!

SOOO don't get the crazy crying fans that swoon and are so OVERCOME with emotion. It's hard to resist an eye roll. I mean REALLY.

But, I will put on my 'dork' and have a good time! Tara, hopefully we won't embarrass ourselves too much, though there's probably not much hope for that. Rochelle, hope to see you there!

And if I can't hear in the next couple days, it will be well worth it:)

ps. My sweet quirky husband told me to not go to the bathroom alone, that Tara and I need to go together so nothing happens. I so have to laugh! I love you babe! It's nice to know you're worried about me hanging with the crazies:)

Early Birthday Present!

It just occurred to me that I've been posting something once a day for the last three days. That hasn't happened since I first started blogging.

Huh.

My amazing and sweet mother-in-law got me an early birthday gift. How awesome is that! It's early because she couldn't wait to give it to me:) So technically my birthday isn't until the 16th, but whether it be on my birthday or before, it made my day nonetheless!

SHE GOT ME BON JOVI TICKETS!!!!!!!

I'M GOING TO SEE BON JOVI IN CONCERT!!!!!'



(I'm thinking that this will be way cool cause there most likely will be people my age and not a lot of youngsters. I'm also thinking I can act like a 34 year old dork and yet blend in quite nicely. Know what I mean???)

Free Actions!

I was reading Confessions of a Pioneer Woman yesterday, something that I haven't done in months, but thankfully so cause I discovered that she was giving away some really cool actions in Photoshop. So I downloaded the one cause for some reason I couldn't get the second one, but they are really cool!!! You just take your photo, and instead of playing around with the different functions, well, other than cropping and such, you just hit play and voila! you have amazing color. It's so much easier than doing it all by hand, though you'll still need to play with the opacity and such.

Just wanted to share that. Gotta love free!!

Maybe now I'll actually use photoshop more. I have CS3 and I really should learn how to use it.

If you're like me and photoshop scares you, then you're going to love this. Click on the link below to download the actions. You're going to love it!!

Pioneer Woman Free Acitions

Enlarging Photos

Okay, so here's the scoop on enlarging photos, and it's super easy!!! I found this tidbit on a blog but for the life of me can't remember what it was called and how I got there, but I'll share the info anyway.

After you've uploaded your photo on the post page it shows a bunch of numbers and words that make no sense where your photo is right? So you just scroll down to the photo that you want to enlarge and look for the words that say width and then 400px. Then there's the word height and then a number after that. Just below that there's something that looks like s400/img. You just double these numbers. All THREE numbers. So if you're height is 286 then it will be 572. The 400 turns into 800, see? Sometimes this isn't always true, and then you'll have to play around with the height and width, but for all intents and purposes, this works every time. Hope this helps!

Under Construction

Trying to find a new blogger layout that will allow for bigger photos. I'll come back to this as I have to leave for middle school carpool right now. Hopefully I'll have time in the next couple of days to fix this:)

Our Pics are In!!

I have been waiting for my CD of pictures taken at christmas and they arrived today. YEAH!!! Thanks Amy of AMY HILL PHOTOGRAPHY for these great pictures! We really truly love them!

There are so many that I like that I'm just going to have to make a photo mural on my wall. Can't wait! Here's some of my favorites I wanted to share. Gosh I love getting pictures taken!

Our Overnight Getaway

Doug and I went to San Diego Saturday and Sunday. We flew down Saturday morning and came back Sunday night. I can't tell you how fun it was!! It was awesome just being somewhere different if only for a day, and really, who doesn't love San Diego??? The weather was beautiful, we toured the USS Midway that took us 3 and a half hours (Seriously, it was AMAZING!), ate Alaskan King Crab- which if you haven't, you don't know what you're missing. They don't call it KING for nothing:), and saw Avatar in 3D. SERIOUSLY COOL!!!! That two and a half hours zoomed by without my wondering if my rear end was hurting. Which, btw, it was when I stood up. I bought a book in the airport and had it almost finished by the the time we landed. While we were away, we read a book titled 10 things couples do to mess up their relationship by Dr, Laura, and I was relieved to find that Doug and I are doing pretty darn good. Gosh there are some messed up people out there! Seriously!! She puts excerpts of callers from her radio show in the book. For nothing else this is worth the read:) You come away thinking, "I'm pretty darn great." Just kidding! THough you realize that you're not nearly as messed up as some people:)

All in all, a fabulous time! We actually felt like we'd been gone a week, we crammed so much in.

Thanks babe for an AWESOME time! I really had fun!

Pictures are In!

While we were in Arizona for Christmas, we had our family pictures taken, extended family and individual families. She is a local Phoenix photographer, and a friend of my sister in law. I've been waiting to see the pictures and they're finally in. And they are amazing!!!

I can't wait to see all of them!!! Just click on AJ Photography if you want to see!

AJ PHOTOGRAPHY

Thanks again Amy!

FLABBERGASTED

This post is devoted to my electric bill and the absolute astonishment, or, (and I'm going to create a new word here), "flabbergastedness" at its amount.

Here it is.

I can hardly even type it.

$.18

EIGHTEEN CENTS!

When has anything been eighteen cents?!? Um...maybe in the 1950's???

I am astounded.

Confounded.

I need a thesaurus to look up more words to describe my state of being at that moment Doug asked me to guess the size of the bill.

I knew when we bought the house that the solar panels would be built into the roof. I also knew that it would cut our electricity by quite a bit. But eighteen cents?!?

Really truly, EVERY home should have solar panels, whether it's a new one or not.

EIGHTEEN CENTS!!

Just wanted to share my amazement with you:) Thanks for reading:)

New Year Resolutions

Yes, I realize that I haven't posted in a while, thank you to those of you who reminded me so lovingly:) And no, I didn't take any pictures this christmas. I just enjoyed the morning of frenzy. Gosh how I love christmas morning. I think I love it even more as an adult. And that's saying a lot.

Okay, if I'm really honest with myself, I should just title this post 'New Year ResoluTION.'

Just ONE resolution.

I can't seem to stick with more than that. It's sad, I know. But it is what it is, and I'm finally over having guilt for not always doing more. It seems like there's always 'MORE' to be done. The 'MORE' never goes away, it's always there hanging over me like dirty laundry.

So I've decided to love my job more. No, I didn't go out and get a job. I already have one, and it's been the same one for the last 14 years.
(Oh, btw, Doug and I had our 14th anniversary on the 27th. But we hardly ever celebrate. Too close to christmas I think. We're usually traveling or some such nonsense, so it always gets overlooked. But we're really not that upset. I know we should be, but we're really not. However, I do wish he hadn't been so stodgy when I suggested we get married in February around Valentines and my birthday. The guy just slamdunked that idea SOOOO fast. I guess he didn't want to wait two more months when he'd already waited 8 months as it was. Yes, we had a long engagement. But what's two more months:)

So I digress. This is why I have only one resolution this year:)

So back to my job. I am going to be the best darn mother/wife/woman I can be this year! (Okay, so this encompasses a lot, but in my defense I have to say that there has to be room to breathe in any New Year Resolution.) This means that I will

1. appreciate being able to stay home with my children and not have to work another job.
2. I will love the sometimes/always crazy schedules because I know that this will not always be the case.
3. I will try to learn to love to cook. (This one may be a stretch.)
4. I am going to glory in being a mother to 4 BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING kids this planet has ever seen!
5. I am going to see the small things they do for me and each other as a gift from God, sent to me to remind me that I'm loved.
6. I am going to CHERISH this time that I have with my children because each day that goes by is one day I can't get back. Someday they'll be grown and won't need me like I'll still need them.
7. I am going to appreciate and love my husband even more this year. He's not going to know what hit him:) Well, hopefully! JUST KIDDING. The best thing parents could give their children is happily married parents.
8. I am going to learn to love dropping Zak off at preschool even though he is pitching a whale of a fit.
9. I am going to love the craziness that ensues when all four of my children play together. Either that, or I will just get ear plugs. And to think Doug and I were thinking that we needed to get the kids to bond more with each other.
And 10, I am going to try to see the good in myself. This one's the hardest.

I hope that by doing this I can draw closer to that loving Father and Savior. After all, I can't do it alone, as sometimes I am wont to do. Too much pride I suppose.

So there you have it. I'm going to find the 'amazing' in every amazing day, even though I have middle school carpool this week.

Send good vibes this way. PLEASE.

New Moon

Don't worry, I'm not going to give away any secrets of the movie. Feel free to read on:)

In no way am I a crazy Twilight fan. I love the books, well, two of the four. Okay, three of the four. Having said that, Meems and I went to the midnight showing of New Moon this morning. (I almost wrote last night:) Normally I would never do this, but I thought, "what the hay. It'll be like I was back at Ricks keeping regular hours of not going to bed before 2 in the morning. How did I ever survive that?

I have to say that I actually did enjoy it. Maybe because the bar had been set so low with the first one, that truthfully there was really nowhere to go but up, but I thought there was a lot of great dry humor. Gosh I love dry humor. But the thing that really had me laughing was the audience. An audience full of young girls and women. But mostly I'm targeting the young high school crowd. There was so much screaming and cheering when Edward first came on the scene. And boy did they stage that one. I had to laugh at how he enters, with his hair blowing in the breeze (how they managed that with the amount of hair gel to keep his hair up is anybody's guess) and his coat flapping in the breeze as he comes toward Bella with his best bad boy look in his eye. The audience practically swooned. There was so much screaming and then shushing that the first two sentences out of Edward's mouth couldn't even be heard. And don't even get me started about what happened when Jacob took off his shirt. Had to admire the boy's bronzed physique however:) Hey, I'm not blind! I was just noticing:)

There were a couple of cheesy parts (look for a quick 10 second run through the meadow scene. It's true cheese that scene), but all in all I liked it. Apart from the fact that the reel MELTED as we were at the height of the climax, where they were standing in front of the Volturi, it was good. That small detour added an additional twenty minutes that I could've used as sleep this morning, but it was a pretty decent show. The free movie pass for melting the movie strip in front of our eyes was pretty decent as well.
I finally got home at 3:30 this morning and wondered if I should even bother going to bed. However I did, and I have to say I've been pretty darn alert for having woke up at 7 ish. Too much on the brain I suppose. Maybe I'm in hyperdrive.

Hmmm.

This move is going to be the death of me. I'm happy to say though, that our house is all painted and we're ready to move in tomorrow! Well, as ready as you can be I suppose:)

A Slow Down? I don't think so.

Even though I've been released from my calling as RS President my life has yet to slow down. Apparently I've been living enough for 2 different people in the last year and now that I'm down to one life again, I still have not transitioned the brain to get a clue. The new President emailed me some questions she had and as I was answering I realized that I needed a phone number. I jumped out of my seat to go grab my binder before I realized that I DON'T HAVE IT ANYMORE. I gave it to her!

Like I said, Brain hasn't realized I've been released.

When you give your whole self to something, it's hard to let go, even if it is something of a relief:) I've got all sorts of conflicting crazy emotions about being released, but mostly I'm just grateful for the experience.

We're still moving in, and still in between houses. It's really annoying when you need something only to find it's been boxed up. Can't wait to finally be in one location, even if it will look like World War III just occurred. Seriously, I hate moving. At least I can finally get rid of stuff I've been meaning to get rid of for some time now. Anybody want any floor rugs? They're in really great shape!!

Our vacation was amazing!! Came home more tired than I left. There's a bit of irony. Went ziplining in the mexican jungle, though the guides' said that the canopy wasn't technically a jungle, but glory, it sure felt like it!! Mexico is hot! However, since you sweat from every pore I have to say that my skin loved it. Every time we went outside while we were there it was like getting an instant facial. And for free!

We ate dinner at a beach front restaurant called La Palapa. GORGEOUS!!!! I can't say that enough. They set up our table 10 feet from the beach with tiki torches and candles on our table for light. And the food, ahhhh the food.... We ordered 4 desserts just to sample them all.

(sigh)

Lots and lots of shopping in Mazatlan, and then some much needed beach time in Cabo. We took a water taxi out to a popular beach and stayed there for a couple of hours just enjoying the water, and then we ate lunch at a local place. Kind of scared to eat outside of the boat, but it really was fine. And the food was better!!

That catches me up, but now we're heading into the holidays and it just feels wrong. Maybe because I was sunning on the beach not 2 weeks ago??? Does time feel like it's being sped up? Seriously, I feel like we just had Christmas!! Not that I'm a bah humbug cause this really is my favorite holiday, but sheesh- it's a lot of work! I don't even think we'll be completely unpacked by Christmas. Poor sweet hubby, can you get on installing those closet organizers before Saturday? I know you're putting together so many pieces of furniture right now, and your knees have blistered from kneeling on the tile, but it would really help with the unpacking of clothes.

Did I tell you how much I love you!

I'm moving Saturday officially and seeing New Moon at Midnight on Friday. I'm crazy. I'm downright crazy. I don't even know if I'll be awake to even watch the movie. It better be good or I'm gonna be a-snoozin!

Gosh I'm going to miss Mather. Somebody buy my house!

Where oh Where?

I've lost my brain. I think it's hiding. I think I've abused it long enough.

It's worn out.

It just can't take anymore "STUFF." Maybe I'll find it underneath the junkyard that is my boys' beds. I swear, they throw everything under there to avoid actually picking it up. Yep, that would be the perfect place. My brain "KNOWS" I avoid the junkyard at all costs.

Gosh I miss my brain. Mostly because it took my mind along with it.

Relief in Sight

21 days till Doug and I sail off on a cruise to Mexico. I feel fairly safe as I have already had the swine flu:)

I can almost smell the salty air. I can almost feel the wind blow through my hair. And yes, since it is Mexico, I can almost taste the chiclets that I know I will inevitably buy. How can you not? Those people sure know how to play on sympathies.

Suffice it to say, I am in need of a much deserved break. And I refuse to feel any guilt over it.

So there.

Hopefully I'll believe those words by day 3 on the boat.

Hutspah!

Doug emailed me this link today to You Tube and I thought it was so good that I'm going to share it with you. I wish in America that we could say this sort of thing on a school answering machine, and make parents responsible for their own children. Really...you have to listen to this. I think I stood up out of my chair and shouted hallelujah!!!! Someone finally got some hutspah!

So whether it be fake or not, it surely makes sense. Love it!

Click here