Fancy Smancy Hair...

We had our team pictures for drill today and they do your hair and makeup and everything so it was pretty fun - it wasn't like that when I was in school! Anyway, the coaches got done up for free and it was fun to play around so I thought I would take some pics of the cute hair. (Sorry, this is at the end of the night and it was getting a little messy by then)

P.S. The girl who was doing my hair was about 19 or 20 years old and she thought I was one of the girls on the high school team until I started talking to my kids on the phone - that made my day!

Jeff & Sara have a rally...



Kristine, me, & Amy get a little silly...



Kristine, me, Amy, & Shani...



My sexy man...I love you!

My 30th B-Day Bash! 6-26-08

Hurry! Blow it out before a fire starts!



Brent & Anna rock out on Guitar Hero!



Amy & Shani try their rocker skills!



BJ & Raelene have a husband/wife battle!




I forgot to post some pictures of my fun B-day party. My hubby was a sweetheart and with the help of my awesome friends, Kristine & Shani (also my family), we had a great time and delicious food! Thanks to everybody who got to share in the day with me - it was great!

Rhett's First Day of Preschool 2008!

This is Rhett on his 2nd day of school. He looked so handsome - I just had to take another picture!



Rhett could hardly wait to get to school. He asked all day when it was time to go and then it finally came! He also had to wait an extra week after his brothers and sisters went, so it was a great day when it was finally his turn! I love my little Rhetter - he is my little buddy and I will miss him!

Tagged by Raelene!

4 random things I like about my husband:

He is very sexy, rugged looking

He has great integrity

He works harder than anyone I know

He genuinely wants to do good



4 movies that I would watch more than once:

The Wedding Singer (drives Richard crazy)

Pretty Woman

Romi & Michelle's High School Reunion (TV Version - the real one's rated R and swears too much)

All of the Bourne Identity series


4 tv shows I watch:


I really don't watch TV, but here are some I like

King of Queens

Friends reruns

News (I am getting so old!)


4 places that I have been:


Bahamas

Florida

Hawaii

Ohio


4 people who e-mail me regularly:

Amy B

Kristine

Raelene

My parents



4 favorite foods:


Italian food ( I love pasta and bread) SOO BAD!! (me too)

candy (too much)

Almost anything pumpkin

Salads...lots of 'em


4 places that I would like to visit:


Alaska (going next summer!)

Australia

Switzerland

Italy


4 things that I am looking forward to in the coming year:


Not having surgery for at least a year!

Christmas

Snuggling around the fire

Our next cruise


4 people that I have tagged:


Amber

Sherrie

Shani

Jaime

Back to School 2008!

Trista on her first day...so cute!



Isn't she beautiful?



Ethan & Mrs. Gubler...He is my lady's man!



Kayle & Mrs. Meikle...He looks so handsome in his new glasses!



Alayna & Mrs. Stevens...My little princess!




The kids were very excited to go back to school as well as their mom (too much fighting going on) and they all looked adorable, I must say. Rhett doesn't start preschool 'til next week and he was pretty bummed he didn't get to go when his siblings did. Oh, and our day was even cooler because Mom (me) decided to go the back way to school in order to avoid traffic and ended up getting the car stuck in the mud because they had irrigated the field next to the road...Oops! It was quite the site seeing the kids and I (on crutches) hiking out of the mud to the school. Luckily we were only a soccer field away and my sister-in-law gave me a ride home. Richard was able to drive it out later that day when the mud had dried. Good times, my friends, good times...Anyway, how are you going to remember the first day of school if you don't have something awesomely exciting happen, right?

Anyway, it was a great day. The kids all loved their teachers and made new friends and saw their old ones. They are all great kids and I love them dearly!

Mohawk & The Lizard

Remember, Grandpa is a barber...so this was only temporary!

Knee Surgery

Last Thursday I ventured into my very known world...Surgery...Yes, Again! Usually when I tell my friends that I am having surgery that is what they say - AGAIN!? It has become a sadly common thing, but I am hoping to wrap things up because I have been feeling so well lately. Anyway, I have had a hurt knee for awhile and I have some necrosis in it so it tends to hurt me and give out sometimes, but they thought that I tore my meniscus also. Thursday, I was scheduled for surgery to come in at
3 p.m. which was very late when you have to fast, but then they called me and told me to come in an hour later because the doctor was running behind. Then when I got there, I waited and waited and waited and finally went into surgery around 8:30 p.m., that's right 8:30 p.m. Lots of waiting...they really got behind. So I ended up leaving the hospital at around 11:30 p.m. I was so happy to be done. When they got into my knee, it wasn't as bad as they thought and they ended up just cutting out some excess synovial tissue and cleaning things up a bit. I have to stay off it for a few days and then I can slowly start to put weight on it. Hopefully my recovery will be really quick because I cannot wait to get back to my classes! Anyway, just a quick update, but I am feeling great and my family has been a big help!

Visit With Grandpa

We try to visit my Grandpa each weekend. A couple of weeks ago, I took my Mom with me. She is staying with us for a bit. Rhett came too and thought it would be fun to share his 3-D glasses with Grandpa. I thought it was so cute! Grandpa's face is healing wonderfully and he has been doing really well!

Pioneer Day Weekend...Zoom! It was Gone!

Pioneer Day is usually not that big of a holiday for us, though we do enjoy Richard's time off and spending time together doing SOMETHING...usually last minute planned. This year was a lot more fun. Thursday morning, we took the kids down to the parade and watched them ride the little hay trailer down the road and then participated in the races at the park. After that, Richard and I packed the kids, took them to our family's (Mike & Kristine's - who are wonderful by the way), and packed ourself for a fun weekend. We decided to go to California with some friends and they were going to show us around and take us to see Wicked in LA. They use to live there so they knew their way around very well.

Let me tell you how wonderful it is to visit somewhere when A) You don't have to drive B) You don't feel lost because you aren't driving C) You get to see all the cool things you probably wouldn't have seen if you were driving because you were too worried you were going to get lost!

Anyway, it was a blast. Thursday night, we shopped a little and drove through Beverly Hills and around town and then went and got some really awesome icecream smooshed between cookies at a fun little shop. The next day was jam packed full of fun stuff. We went to the Garment District in the morning and spent a few hours shopping and looking at all the cool stuff. Let me tell you...that place is AWESOME! I could've spent a few days there. If you've never been there, you should definitely go. Next, we (they) drove us out to Malibu to Zuma beach and we spent a few hours hanging out and knee boarding in the water. This was a blast. Trent and Richard went out to the bigger waves and were getting the crap beat out of them, but when Misty and I finally made it into the water, we decided to ride the smaller ones into shore. We had a lot of fun sliding all the way up the sand and I even accidentally wiped a little boy out once...not my finest moment. It was a lot of fun, though. We left there and headed back to the hotel so we could get showered up and dig all the sand out of all the places that sand gets to when you are playing in the ocean. It is crazy how much sand a swim suit can actually hold!

That night, we headed to the Pantages Theater and watched Wicked. It was fantastic and we got to sit on the 3rd row which was really cool! We loved the play and we will definitely have to come back and see another one there. That theater was beautiful! After that, we drove down Hollywood Blvd and went to the Chinese Theater so we could take a picture of John Wayne's boot prints to bring home for Kayle. We then went over to Universal City Walk and tried to find a place to eat that was actually open at midnight. We were starving! We finally decided to go to the Saddle Ranch which was kind of a club/restaurant thing and we ate some really bad food and watched all the drunk people trying to make their way around the place. It was quite entertaining I must say. We got back to the hotel REALLY late and had no problem falling asleep!

The next day we drove through Beverly Hills (this time in the daylight) and then down to Venice Beach to check out the sites. We walked...a really long way...down to the street vendors that perform and sell and do crazy things and then to Muscle Beach where they work out in the gym outside (which I think is crazy in the middle of the hot day). Let me tell you how crazy these people were. There were people preaching, performing, selling paint splattered peace sign rugs, dancing up on their decorated travel trailer with drums and incense burning, skating with signs taped to their head, flipping over peoples backs, giving tattoos right on the street, and any other weird thing you could imagine. I mean these people are nuts. There was even a guy holding a sign that said "I want to become a porn star - need audition" Is that cuckoo or what? These people are in their own little world. We saw the Muscle Beach gym and there was a Nickelodeon slime truck which was kind of cool. We then walked...a long way...back to the car and headed out of California. We stopped in Primm, Nevada, and did a little shopping. Misty and I found some fun gifts and then we headed the rest of the way home. We were tired when the weekend was over, but it was well worth it and we had a blast! Hopefully we'll get to do it again sometime!

Dance Camp...Ahhh the Memories!

The week before Pioneer Day was Basic Dance Training Camp for my Drill Girls. I did not recall the long tiring days that came to bite me in the behind as they did in my past! That was a tiring few days...and I didn't dance even half of what the girls did. They did have some fun coaches classes and Anna (the head coach) and myself would work out with the girls a few times in the morning class. It was a lot of fun. Our team ended up walking away with the Hardest Working Team trophy which was a great honor. They all did a great job and we all had a blast! I was a tired lady when Saturday rolled around!

4th of July Fun!!!

We had a great 4th of July! Trista and I got to go to the Stadium of Fire, while the rest of the crew hung out here. We spent the morning with them at the park enjoying the races and the games, but then we took off for Provo. Trista and I went shopping at the mall and then joined some friends up there and went to the show. Let me tell you...if you haven't met Trista, she is the biggest Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fan there ever was. She has LOVED her for the past 2 years and it is even her nickname at school so she was pretty stoked to get to see her in person. It was a great show and I took some video with my camera. It didn't turn out super great because we were pretty far up in the stands, but Trista was excited to have record of her trip! The fireworks were great and then after we drove up to Murray to stay the night at my sister's house. The next morning, we stopped at IKEA and Cabellas and had fun browsing around in those big beautiful stores! Richard and the rest of the crew enjoyed staying in Hurricane and doing the home run derby and the annual softball game. We missed them and we'll be happy to stay home next year!

Saying Goodbye to Jon...

Well, we finally had to do it...we had to say goodbye to Jon. He left June 25th, and we have talked to him a couple of times since then, but we sure miss him. Here are some pictures of us in Vegas before he left. We took the kids to the MGM and had fun staying there and swimming in their awesome pools and lazy river. Early the next morning, he flew home.

This is how this story goes...Little man wanted SO badly to jump off the diving board. So I took him over there and Dad assured little man that he would catch him. Little man walked out on the diving board very slowly and with great caution, only to get very very nervous. Even after all of our persuasive talk, he decided he just wasn't into it anymore and walked off. The great thing...he did this two more times and still had the same outcome. So, Dad decided to jump off the board and do a cannonball...Yay!!!!

Back to Life!

Hi Everybody!
Sorry we have been gone for a bit, but it has been crazy! We got back from our family trip and we had quite a time on it. We were pulling two trailers behind our truck and one got a little fishtaily and almost flipped us which was crazy, so we drove VERY slowly the rest of the trip. While we were fishing, a guy got stuck in the mud with his car and we helped tow him out and we only caught 1 fish, but we had a fun time. We actually made our own fun by hitching the fishing boat up to a raft and a log and towing the kids around on the lake with it. That was a good time.

The day after we got home was Trista's 11th birthday! Can you believe I have a child that old. That is crazy! Anyway, she and a friend got to go to lunch and a movie and have a sleepover. We also all went swimming up to the city pool as a family. Trista was very excited when she opened up her presents and realized she had tickets to see Hannah Montana at the Stadium of Fire! That girl is Hannah Montana through and through. Anyway, I'm going to take her up and we will have some girl time so it will be fun. She's a great girl and so beautiful!

My Grandfather had to have emergency surgery on some skin cancer in his cheek and they did it over a couple of days, so four of my days were spent at doctor's offices and the hospital. He is doing well in recovery. The cancer had spread into some facial nerves and into his salivary gland so that was the need for the surgery.

Father's day was nice. I fixed a fun breakfast and dinner for Richard and we went and visited our Dad's. It was just a nice relaxing day.

All last week, there were parties almost every day for Jon because he was leaving. Monday night, we had a BBQ with a whole bunch of family, Tuesday the scouts through him a party, Thursday his work through him a BBQ out at the lake, and Saturday night he had a party with all his friends. He really is a loved kid.

Tuesday, we went down to Vegas and stayed at the MGM Grand with all the kids. We had a lot of fun swimming in the pools. They even have their own lazy river there! We took the kids to the M&M Store and down to the Bellagio to watch the water show. In the morning on Wednesday, we had to get up super early to take our exchange student to the airport - Yep, he had to go home. It was a sad day folks. We didn't expect to send him off in such a hurry, but when he got to security, they rushed him through and we didn't really get to see him very long. It was pretty sad. We will miss him so much.

Wednesday was also Rhett's birthday, so when we got home from Vegas, he got to have his buddy over and have a sleepover. We ate pancakes for dinner (at his request) and watched a movie. It was a good time. I can't believe my baby is 4. They grow up so fast. I sure love that little guy.

Well, today I am afraid to say that I am venturing on the loss of my 20s. Yes, I am officially 30 today and I am not really sure if I am okay with it or not yet. I guess we will see! I know that some of you are beyond this point, but for me it is new territory so bare with me folks!

I hope all of you are doing well. Life is crazy for all of us, but I sure enjoy reading your blogs and keeping in touch. Have a great day!

On a Leave of Absence...

Just lettin' ya'all know that we are leaving tomorrow morning for our family trip up through Bryce Canyon and up to Fish Lake and a few other spots. We will be gone for a few days, so I will post pics and updates when I get back. Hope this weekend finds you well and happy! Love you all!

Back to Life...Thankful as Ever

Sorry about the break. Last week was a hard week and now I am even more appreciative of the moments I have with my beautiful family. My younger sister's husband was killed in a car accident on the 17th so a few days were spent with her planning and helping with the funeral and burial. It was very hard to see my sister become a widow at the age of 27. I had never been through an actual funeral planning that intimately before, it was very humbling. Amy asked me to sing at the funeral which I was honored to do, but frightened to death because I knew how hard it would be to sing while my sister was in tears. The funeral ended up being beautiful. Amy even spoke and so did Toby's mother and it was a great celebration of his life. I know she's going to have a hard road ahead, but she is being stronger than I thought she would be. I pray for her continued strength and peace, especially for her boys. The evening after the funeral, my stepmom's father passed away so my parents left first thing the next morning to fly back East to bury him. To finalize the week, this past Saturday, my father-in-law borrowed our 4-wheeler to go out riding with some friends and ran over his leg, breaking his ankle in a couple of places and having to have surgery Sunday morning. Thankfully, he is doing okay, but it is very hard for that man to sit still so we will see how the "resting" part of the plan goes!

Needless to say, I am thankful for this new week - school's out, new beginnings, and happier endings I hope! I have just finished checking in on some of your blogs and it's so wonderful to see some happy pictures and beautiful spring/summer weather.
We have been spoiled with not having to run the AC too much yet because the weather has been hot/cool back and forth lately. I believe it will start warming up for good now...

It is wonderful school is out and activities are wrapped up for now. I have this week and next week left for T-ball/machine pitch/softball games and then we will be done for good. We are going to leave on our family trip up through Bryce Canyon and to go fishing next week so I am busy this week preparing our trailer for takeoff. I need to sew new curtains and cushion covers and put new shelf liner in all of the drawers as long as organize all of the storage situations in there. I love camping in our trailer. It makes life a whole lot easier when you have a crew of children to pack/unpack/and go to the bathroom at night! It should be a great time and I will post pics when we get home.

I'm posting some pics of Trista's field trip to Zion and our family trip to the Grand Canyon. We went out with Jon and the other exchange students and it was beautiful! The kids really loved it and it was nice to get away for a day.

I also wanted to mention that I was hired down at the gym to teach a couple of aerobics classes along with substituting when they need me. The great thing about the classes - they are Silver Sneakers classes, which are classes specifically designed for senior citizens. When I went today, there were over 20 in the class and we had a blast. You would be surprised how well some of those seniors can move. Anyway, it's been a great time and sometimes more fun than the younger groups! Maybe they'll let me take some pictures of them and I'll post them. We'll see! Well, that's about all for now. It's good to have a break from school, from dancing, and from grief! So seize the day, my friends, because you never know when it's your last! (Seriously) Love you all!