Dinosaur Museum with the boys

On Thursday, my sister invited me to go to the dinosaur museum with them on Saturday. We had already made plans with Dallon & Natalie for Saturday evening, so I declined because I was worried I wouldn't be able get everything ready for our dinner.

 

Then on Friday morning, I decided I could make both work. I worked extra hard to get my house ready, talked Josh into getting the crockpot started on time (and a few other pre-cooking things), then I talked Vanessa into going over to Vernal earlier then they had planned.

 

It all worked out perfectly. I had a great morning and afternoon with my family and a super fun evening with Josh's. It felt like the best of both worlds.

 

 My grandma was supposed to go with us too, but she ended up staying home with the flu. So it was my mom, my sister and myself to chase two little boys. We may have out numbered them, but they have endless amounts of energy that can be hard to keep up with.

 

The boys LOVED the dinosaur museum. We spent most of our time in the first room since it is the most kid friendly for little bodies. They have several stations for learning and playing and we visited each station a few times.

 

I think the favorite was a little room they had with cushions and a small table with toys on it. Every time they seemed to get bored with something else, they would head back to that little room and play some more. That's why my pictures look out of order, but really, I think I just took new pictures every time they went back in there.

 

 



You might notice in a few pictures that Daxsen has a fat lip. That's because he fell off my mom's tall entertainment center, TWICE, that morning. That kid is a climber, just like we all were as kids. Like in the picture below. He saw his brother climb on the table, so he did too. The only surprise was that he didn't climb up there first.

 

After the first room, we quickly walked through the rest of the museum before heading out to the outdoor area. 

 

The weather was gorgeous, so we spent quite a bit of time outside. 

 

Before we left, we ran into the gift shop so I could buy each boy a gift.

 

After leaving the museum, Vanessa took the boys to the park while my mom and I ran to get some lunch. When we got to the park, I found they were all exploring the old steeple. When Valex saw me, he yelled "I'm coming!" and took off running.

 

 We ate, and then we were off again. Or its more like, the adults take turns eating so someone could chase the boys around.

 

 

It was so much fun and I am so glad I found a way to do everything all in one day.



Saying Goodbye to Facebook

December 29, 2008 "I really don't get all the hype about facebook."

But apparently, after that, I got sucked into.

But over the last few months, I have questioned why I waste so much time there. I tell myself, I'll only check it once a day. But like an addiction, I can't stop myself. Every time I have a second at work, I'm on it. Even though nothing has changed since I was on 20 minutes earlier. At home, every time I walk by the computer, I find myself logging on. I went through a phase where I played games, like Farmville. There's a time waster like no other. Even the hubs has mentioned a few times I don't need to be on facebook. I think that was his kind way of saying, I waste too much time there. And he's right; when he's online, I get mad that he isn't spending time with me. I just need to remember that works both ways.

And don't start me on the drama! I have several friends that should have "unfriended" me based simply on the fact I never commented on their stuff when they said "going through the list, comment if you don't want deleted." And yet, the next day, we were still friends. Weird.

Here's a secret I've been trying to keep to myself; I'm been fighting depression for a few months. I'm hoping its just the winter blues and everything will get better in the spring. But one day, when it was bad, I noticed, it always got worse when I got online. Then I noticed a pattern. The more time I spent online, the more depressed I got.

This is true of both Facebook and Blogger. So I thought about quitting all online activity. Immediately, my heart cried out "not your blog!" And I think its right. Sometimes, it doesn't feel worth it because our family is small, but this blog was a lifeline for me through our infertility. Being able to blog about what we do makes me feel important. One day, my mom mentioned I don't blog as much and she misses that. That made my heart soar. Its hard to feel important because we didn't give our families grandkids, but to know that my mom enjoys my blog helps take that sting away. So the blog is safe.

But Facebook....

One particularly depressing day, I threw a fit and deactivated my account. But then I didn't want to miss pictures of my nephews, so I set up a different account and only sent out 2 friendship requests to the 2 people I didn't think I could live without. Then I got a request from another dear friend. That made me realize, there would be more requests, and if I was going to accept them, I might as well go back to my old account.

So I did, but only after my friends list had a massacre. I hacked my list from 180 friends to a mere 43. I'm not the kind of person that accepted every single request, but still, I had people on there I didn't know. So I cut them. And I cut the ones I wasn't close with. I thought, if we could be good friends in real life, they are worth knowing just online. Not that the people I cut, I didn't like. I just realized our lives were different enough, that I don't know we would be great "real friends".

I thought this would be good enough. But, it was still too addicting, therefore too time wasting. I got sick of all the posters, or memes, or whatever they are called. I felt like people don't even update anymore, they just share political posts, funnies, and other such things. When they do an actual post, its just drama.

So I decided I want off. For real this time. Not even a dummy account to see nephew pictures. Besides, they are much better in real life. My sister and I have grown closer the last few months so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything anyways.

So once again, I shut down my account.

Then 3 days later, I get a phone call at work. That isn't a big deal. The big deal was, I almost missed out on a baby shower I really want to go to, simply because they couldn't find me on facebook to invite me. I'm so glad she remembered where I work. But then I worried about what else I might miss out on.

For me, the solution was to log on, one last time and send a message. I didn't want to do it on my wall because I didn't want it to feel like a cry for attention. Of those 43 friends, I only message a couple to let them know how to contact me. I didn't send it to everyone because I know most know how to track me down through work or family. I just wanted to leave quietly.

And I wasn't going to blog about it because, again, I don't want this to be a pity cry like those that drove me nuts on facebook. But I feel like I need to officially say goodbye to facebook or it will always haunt me. Even now, I question myself "can I really quit forever?"

I guess I have no way of knowing. I can see the benefits of it. I tracked down people I hadn't seen in years and was able to reconnect. It was easy to give an update on life or other happenings. I even had friends ask me to send a message to family members because they themselves, were not on facebook.

But overall, its just not a place I want to be anymore. When I shut it down this last time, I noticed just how addicting it was. Every 20ish minutes, I found myself thinking "oh, I should check facebook."And its not because I hadn't been on for a day. Its because that had become my daily lifestyle.

Facebook, its not a life changing thing for me. I don't need it in my life. It might be harder to keep in contact with some people, but I need to leave to make my life easier and happier.

Besides, this blog isn't going anywhere. And I've always shared more of myself here then I ever did on facebook.

Good bye Facebook. May you rest in peace. Or not, I've seen the drama that goes on there.

Josh's 1st Raccoon

Josh has stayed busy this winter trapping. This weekend, he caught his first muskrat AND his first raccoon. He forgot to take a picture of the muskrat, but he did get a picture of the raccoon. He was pretty excited.

 

 

We have some crazy cold weather this winter and that has made trapping a little harder. The ice is either to thick to bust through, or too thin to walk on. He's caught a few beaver now and hopes to catch a few more before meeting up with his fur buyer.

Scrapbook Retreat 2013

Ever since the rush of the holidays ended, I had thought about nothing else but the scrapbook retreat that I had signed up for. I even started packing the weekend before it.

Gaby helping me pack.

 

Then the morning of, I texted Janel to see if we could come earlier. She texted back and said that 9:30 was still the check in time. So I waited. Then I got lucky. She called shortly after 8:30 to say we could come now. So I jumped in my car and headed that way. The retreat was at Hidden Springs in Altamont, so it wasn't that far for me to go. I knew I would be up late each night, so I planned to spend the nights there too. Scrapbooking until 2 am and then up and back at it by 8 am, I was one happy girl.

 

Last year, I was the 1st to sign up and I was able to get a room upstairs and only had to share with one friend. This year, I was too late for that. But I actually liked it down stairs more. We only had 4 people in our room so I was able to get some good sleep. Last year, I could hear ALL the noise going on and I didn't sleep as well. But I did miss having my own bathroom. So I guess its a toss up of what I liked most. Also, we ended up sitting in the same area this time, which I loved!

 

I think my one of my favorite things, this year, was the first 25 to sign up, were able to preorder some of Janel's adorable kits. Karen and I each joked about the amount we would limit ourselves too. End the end, we couldn't decide if the winner was the one who spent the most, or the least, since we were both way over our budget. But it was all worth it.

 

I ordered some kits I knew I would use immediately. Then I also ordered some that were just too cute to pass up. I spent all day Friday, and most of Saturday, scrapbooking the pictures I had brought with me. I got so much done! In the end, I created 39 pages total (using 17 different layouts). Most of them, were from the stuff I bought there, but I also ended up making a few pages from scratch so they would better match the pictures I had.

 

 I loved the coloring of this kit, but didn't know if I would use it. Then Janel reminded me of how cute I looked on my horse. I don't have any pictures yet, but I'll take some this summer.

 



 This kit was another one too cute to pass up. But as I was putting it together, I asked where the stamp was for the "make me" part of the title. Turns out, Janel had drawn it on free hand. I am not that kind of artist. I was sad, until I remembered I had some rub ons, so I used those instead. I love how it turned out!

 

Of course, my FAVORITE page(s) were the ones that I bought to use with my nephew pictures. I had so much fun making these pages because of all the happy memories that flood in when I look at these pictures. I was able to make 3 of each of some of them, so now I'm set for Mother's Day's gifts. I wasn't going to blog these so I didn't spoil the surprise, but they are too cute to not share now. My mom and sister are just going to have to be patient and wait. But hopefully, that will mean I get a few more made between now and then too. ;)

 

1st time painting was one of the kits I ended up making on my own.

 

The Christmas pages, were premade kits from other workshops. But I only had one of each. So I had to measure everything out and make 2 more sets.

 

Valex's 1st hair cut was another one I made on my own. I even left a spot, on the page for my sister, where I can attach the hair she saved from it. I also learned something. I LOVE my nephew's names, but when using cut out stuff from an embellishment kit, they only come with 2 letter "x's". So when I need to make 3 pages, I don't have enough. I ended up borrowing my friend's Cricut to do the last one. And this was a problem with only one name. I'm really going to come up short when I need to spell out Valex and Daxsen. Not that I really mind. Cute boys deserves cute names and those cute names deserve cute embellishments.

 

I had planned to just work on the kits I had pictures for all weekend, but everyone in my area kept having problems with pieces missing, or not knowing how to do something that looked complicated. So Saturday evening, I switched gears and just worked on the other kits I had bought. I didn't get them all done, but I tried to work on the ones that looked complicated. Until I got tired, but was too stubborn to go to bed. Then I worked on the easier ones.

 

 Late Saturday night, my friend closed out her account to prevent from spending more money. I thought it was a good idea, so I had them add up my stuff. But my wallet was in my room, so I decided to pay in the morning. When I went to bed that night, I checked my cash and realized I had just a little bit more. Probably because even though I told myself, I will only spend this much, I took twice as much. You know, just in case. The next morning, I wanted to scrapbook one more page of the boys, so I looked at her kits again. She had a couple Mickey Mouse pages, but I'm not a fan, so I hadn't bought any when I did my preorder. But I got looking at the colors of this one Disney page and decided it would work. I added a few more spots for photos, gave the Disney cutouts to someone else, and viola, one more adorable page.

Can't wait for next year!

Janel's Blog

Janel's CTMH website

Mickey Mouse and a Star Cake

 Last week, a friend mentioned she was in need of a couple birthday cakes. Within like 7 days, the family has 3 of their birthdays. So I volunteered to help her out by making a Mickey Mouse cake for her 6 year old. I was going to make the cake the night before, and then Josh would deliver it the next morning.

Tuesday night, I was getting ready to decorate the cake and her husband contacted me to see if I could make a 2nd cake for his wife, since her birthday was the day after their son's. He wanted a rose cake. I told him his choices were a dinosaur or a star, I didn't have a rose pan. So he told me her favorite colors were purple and red and we settled on a star cake. I hopped online and looked a few designs, and found one I really liked. But by the time I got Mickey done, I was worried I wouldn't have enough frosting for the design I had chosen. So in the end, I went with something very simple.

 

When Josh dropped off the cakes, he said there was some very excited kiddos. One of them said "Oh, Mickey IS the cake." Wish I could have seen their faces. I have so much fun decorating cakes and I'm glad I'm gaining the confidence to do them for family AND friends.

Love Boat Night

Every year, the local USU branch does a Love Boat Casino night the weekend of Valentine's. This year was our first year going. It was fun. A lot of people dressed up in formal wear, but at the last minute I chickened out. Next year, I want to dress up fancy like everyone else.

 

Dinner was catered by the Golden Corral. I am not a fan of their buffet restaurant, but I LOVE their catering. Dinner was chicken cordon blue that was out of this world delish. Then they also had someone catering dessert, which was a wide assortment of cookies, cakes, brownies, cheesecake bites, etc. Then another company came in and had free smoothies. It was all so delicious.

 

After dinner, they hand everyone some fake money and open the gaming tables. Josh and Andrew tried their luck at Blackjack. They both did pretty good. At one point, Josh even made me come get most of his winnings so he wouldn't loose them.

 

 

At the end of the night, they had a ton of prizes they auctioned off with the money you won. Most of them didn't look that interesting, but Josh did bid on a fishing pole until the bid went outside of his winnings. After that, nothing looked good, so we gave our money to Andrew & Jessica. Then a few other people gave us money as they walked out. In the end, Andrew had just enough to win the 3 pot crock pot Jessica really wanted.

 

My favorite part of the night was when Josh asked me to dance. Twelve years of bliss and he is still a romantic guy. ;)

Valentine's Day 2013

After coming off the high of our anniversary, Valentine's just isn't as big a deal for us as it seems to be for the rest of the world. My roses were still blooming like crazy and smelling amazing, so I hinted to Josh I would love some Ghiradelli chocolates. Which he choose perfectly! Then I decided to get us each a Strawberry flavored Chocolate orange and some iTunes gift cards.

 

 

 We also decided it would be more fun to stay home for a romantic dinner. We tried eating out on Valentine's years and years ago. It was insanely busy and we ended up crowed in a dark corner of our favorite restaurant. Since then, we've decided its not worth going out on that night.

 

Instead, we decided to make Olive Garden Alfredo, a drink and dessert. It all turned out delish!

 

Dad's Hip Surgery

There is a lot of things I know about my dad.

He has a great sense of humor.

He loves to garden.

He is full of service.

He loves collecting tractors of any shape and size.

 

 He has always (for as long as I can remember) walked with a painful limp.

To say he has needed a hip replacement for years would be an understatement.

 

But finally, that is what he did. On Wednesday, he went in for surgery. One of the nurses in the surgery said his hip was one of the worst she has ever seen.

I think my dad was pretty nervous going into the entire thing, but his spirits have remained high and he is doing amazingly well. The day after his surgery, they set a goal for him to walk halfway down the hall. He made it all the way to the end and back. When his dr. saw him, he said he was good enough to move onto the next stage of recovery.

 

So today, he moved into the Villa Care Center. Hopefully, in a week or two, he'll be able to return home.

 

Its been hard to watch my parents age and go through their own health struggles. But its also an amazing feeling to see them do so well afterwards too.