My Gorgeous daughter

I took this picture of D1 and it just turned out so cute, I had to share it with everyone...

SPRING IS HERE..... or is it???

I have to say that of all the seasons spring is my favorite, and the one that I look forward to the most. Who can deny that after a long season of clouds, and snow, wind and cold that the chirping of birds and the sight of grass and flowers does not lift their spirit even just a little bit?? The best thing is watching the snow melt off into the gutters, and the grass slowly peaking out from underneath it, and then once the snow is gone the grass quickly turns green. When you look out your window you see Children playing and riding bikes, people walking their dogs and conversing with their neighbors, it is like everyone suddenly woke up!!! These are just a few of the reasons that Spring is my favorite season of all... Especially after the long Wyoming winters that can last up to 8 months!!

So, last week the good feelings were starting all over again, the snow was quickly melting as the mercury in the thermometer slowly rose, in fact we may have hit 60 degrees!! The snow was mostly gone, there were a few patches left in the shade that sometimes takes until June to melt completely away. Birds were chirping, kids were bringing their dusty bikes out of the garages and running and playing, laughing and screaming. Everyone was starting to feel as though it was time to "wake up" again and enjoy the outdoors...

Then this huge stupid storm blows in... and it is supposed to be nasty for at least the next 10 days. Do you know what that does to people's moods?? It is called "Seasonal Affective Disorder".... People get grouchy with one another, and start to feel like things are hopeless. It's almost as though you can feel it in the air, this feeling of hopelessness. They mumble and grumble as they get out their snow blowers, shovels and winter gear. Complain about having just washed their car and for what???

Throughout all this I try to push the positiviness out and tell myself and everyone else within a shouting distance that sure it is beyond crappy right now, pulling the snow shovels back out, and digging the cars out to get to work early in the mornings, BUT its only for a few more weeks, maybe a month at most, then we will have our spring weather back permanently, at least for a few months.. The nice thing about Kemmerer is that even though we do have harsh winters, the summers are gorgeous!!

But all in all I have to say that Spring is still my favorite season of all... I love the rainstorms when it cleans all the dirt and mud from the winter before, off of the sidewalks and roads, and homes. I love to see the new flower buds starting to bloom. But most of all I love to see the people out, young and old, "waking up" to enjoy what God has given us to live on. Our beautiful Earth!!!

HAPPY VALENTINES (not valentimes)

Okay, so normally I celebrate valentines day... But this year, after having previous years of Mike telling me, I'm not getting you anything... I decided to protest, and was not planning on celebrating at all.. Infact, I didn't, the night before I got 2 boxes of valentines for my kids tossed them on the table and told them to fill them out.. I think Mike helped them fill them out and get them ready to go.. Valentines day nothing real special happened, we had pizza and watched a family movie.. Well on Wednesday the 17th, I came home from work and my dear, wonderful, loving husband presented me with an ipod nano (which is something I have wanted for over a year) and said Happy "late" Valentines day.. I was "fall on the floor" suprised.. I completely loved it, but after playing with an ipod touch I decided I would upgrade...

I COMPLETELY TOTALLY LOVE MY NEW IPOD TOUCH!!! I have had it for one day now and am 'in love'... I love my husband for making it possible.. Maybe my faith in valentines day has been restored...

PS..One of my pet peeves is when people call valentines day Valentimes day, there is no M in valentine people.. Get it right!!!

Bear Lake!!!

Bear Lake is Awesome!!! I guess we had forgotten how much fun we had last February when we went to Bear Lake, because we almost didn't go... But after much coercing from my sister Katie we decided to take the trip. Its only about a 45 minute drive for us from Kemmerer, and well worth it.

(this is as we were driving down the mountain back into Lake Town a beautiful view of Bear Lake)


We drove into town about 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday, to our amazement Bear Lake was not frozen over, last year the boys rode their snowmobiles out onto the lake, this year that was not about to happen... We got to our Resort and checked in. This time we only rented a 1 bedroom, that gave us our own room and a murphy bed for Kayla and Jess and the couch for michael (that is what we thought anyway we ended up having several cousins stay over so it was a little more cramped then we first thought). Shortly after we got there the family converged.. My mom was there, my oldest sister Tracy w/ her family, my brother Curtis with his brood, my brother paul with his, Carla came with a few of her kids, and Katie with her kids. After a quick lunch we hit the pool then had dinner and some games..



(the inside of our condo)

The next morning we got up about 10:00 to head to the hills... Actually it is called the sinks, but it is the perfect place for sledding, these are pictures from last year, because this year I had so much fun riding and sledding that I forgot to take pictures... I rediscovered how much fun sledding is, as long as you have a snowmobile to drag you back up the big hill.







After the day of snowmobiling and sledding almost everyone went home. My brother Curtis and his wife Brandy, my sister Katie and her husband Paul and us were the only ones left, so we fed the kids and left to go have an adult dinner at the local steak house..




After dinner it was one more night of swimming... We had so much fun swimming, the dad's all played and rough housed with the kids while the mom's soaked up the water and just enjoyed some good conversation..







The next morning it was time to clean up and head back home.. We had fun and are completely worn out, but it was well worth it... I can't wait until next year!!!


Goodbye Bear Lake...

This is how us Wyomingites go swimming, all you need are your cowboy boots!!!

It has happened...

Wow... So it has happened. My eldest, beautiful daughter Kayla has turned 12... Now what??

She had a big party with some friends about 3 weeks before her birthday because her BF was moving and wouldn't make it to her birthday.. They watched movies ate lots of cake and food (my goodness can a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds put away a lot of food).. I made some little mini pizzas which totally crashed and burned, the kids hated them, so did the family... You know the biscuit pizzas (I love 'em).. Oh well. We decided to give Kayla her "big" present then so she could use it, which was a really cool, red, digital camera.. Which she totally loves!! Anyway the girls all spent the night and had a lot of fun.. (besides the dinner part)...

For her actual birthday we invited our "family" friends Kenny and Janie.. We ate spaghetti and then had cake and ice cream.. They gave her a big bottle of BBQ sauce, which is kind of an inside joke, (kayla LOVES BBQ sauce). Janie made a label that said "Kayla's Sauce" and then put flower gems all over it, it was really cute and Kayla totally LOVE IT!!! (in fact the other day when I made BBQ ribs she got really mad when I told her I used it (which I didn't) and she claimed it is "her sauce" and nobody is to touch it!!) So that party went well too. The best part was singing "happy birthday" to her in our most loudest, most obnoxious voices ever..

But back to my baby being 12.. The agreement was when she turned 12 she would be allowed to wear some very light makeup, very conservatively.. It worked well for the weekend and at church she looked very nice, then she went to school on Monday.. After her friends got a hold of her (and her make up bag) they decided she wasn't wearing near enough, she came home in a heavily made up face that I had dreaded.. She looked beautiful, don't get me wrong... Just a little too much too fast.. So we had to sit down and discuss what was okay and not okay. Her friends (who have been wearing make up since 4th grade) are still trying to convince her that the make up needs to be seen from across the hall, but I think we found the happy medium...

So now that I have written a book about her.. I just want to say how sad I am that my firstborn is growing up so fast, where is that sweet little innocent girl that we called Lollipop?? But on the other hand, I am also very proud of her, and the young lady that she is becoming. For the most part we can always count on her to make the right choices. And even though she does get moody every now and then, the road hasn't been to bumpy, and she makes our life a joy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLA!!

Then next 8 years are the scariest!!!

How We Met

How We Met
1. Where did you meet?
We met working at McDonalds.. He worked in the back as a "grill person" I was in the front as a "counter person".. We were both left in charge of our "areas" whenever the manager went on breaks or back to his office. We ended up fighting a lot over who was in charge overall, (I think our manager was playing games with us).. Anyway in the begining we did not like each other very much, okay really we HATED each other.. But the arguing slowly turned into, playful taunting, which turned into flirting.. Then I decided to ask Mike out to a Valentines dance.. It must have shocked my mom, becuase I was always coming home from work complaining to her about this guy that I totally hated, then all of a sudden I was dating him..

2. What was the first thought that went through your head when you met?
Who the heck is that new guy working back in the grill?? Where did he come from??

3. Do you remember what he was wearing?
That one is easy, he was wearing a McDonalds uniform...

4. Where was the first time you kissed this person?
In his car as he dropped me off at the Career center at school, I think it suprised both of us.. We had been dating for a few weeks by then.

5. Where did you go for your first date?
It was a valentines dance at school. But he was really worried becuase one of my friends that had been dating him before dumped him during the homecoming dance (I had talked her into it, as this is while I still hated him) so he was a little worried that he was going to get dumped at this one too..

6. How long did you know this person before you were a couple?
I'm not really sure, probably around 4-6 months.

7. How did he ask you out?
He didn't... It was kind of funny actually, I had told my friend (the one that I had talked into dumping him at the first dance) that I thought I was starting to like him, and she said she was too. After school that day we both were on the look out for him and luckily I saw him first... I ran up to him and asked him to the dance, she was right behind me and asked after I did. He said yes to me becuase I asked him first..

8. Has this person ever purposed to you?
Well we are married now... We had talked about it alot so it wasn't really a suprise.. We had been dating for about 1 1/2 years before we got engaged, we had gone shopping for the rings and stuff... He told me to pick out a few that I liked and when he proposed he had bought my favorite one.

9. Do you and this person have kids together?
3 Beautiful gorgeous kids..

10. Have you ever broken the law with this person?
Yeah I'm sure we have.. Its pretty easy to break the law really, speeding is breaking the law..

11. When was the first time you realized you liked this person?
I had a dream about him one night and that is when things started changing for me. I woke up and didn't hate him so much anymore. Yah I know thats corny..

12. Do you get along with his family?
Yep, I love his family.. they live in California and it is so much fun visiting them..

13. Do you trust this person?
Usually I do.. But let me tell you, watcho out when you are in the shower and there is a cup sitting on the counter, you will be drenched with cold water in seconds.

14. Do you see him as your partner in the future?
Absolutely, He is going to have to put with me for a long time coming.. Who else is going to make me laugh, and not let me sleep on the wrong side of the bed??

15. What is the best gift he has given you?
Right now besides himself and my kids, it is Gizmo... He is the best doggy in the world. He has given me a thousand other things over the course of our years together, but right now that is what stands out in my head..

16. What is one thing he does that gets on your nerves?
He is a perfectionist... and he watches way to much Forensic files, and 48 hours, and cops, etc.. ....

17. Where do you see each other 15 years from now?
By then it will probably just be us, the kids will all be out of the house and going to college or starting their new lives with their spouses. So it will probably just be us sitting at home arguing with one another about what we are going to watch on TV... Not quite retiring but almost there.

18. What causes the most arguments?
Money... His famous saying is "go pick the money tree"... I Like to spend, and he doesn't..

19. How long have you been together?
Our first date was February 19th 1994 so 15 years..

20. Are you married?
Of course...

25 Random Things (from facebook)

The deal with this is after you read mine you have to copy and paste this onto your own site replacing your 25 Random things with my 25 Random things... Get to know me better man!!

1. I type an average of 90 words per minute.
2. I have 3 beautiful children who are always getting compliments whenever we go out, especially on their eyes.
3. I am 3 months older than my husband.
4. I am the 6th of 7 kids with 3 sisters and 3 brothers.
5. I have always wanted to write a book, and still see it as a possibility, but….
6. I wouldn’t be surprised if my daughter Kayla is a published author by the time she is 20, she has already written several children stories and has started on a chapter book, and she has written many songs also (she is 11). That is what she gave everyone for Christmas this year, a story for them written by her..
7. Sometimes I am still afraid of the dark especially when Mike is working graveyards.
8. My father died when I was 5 yrs old
9. I love to scrapbook, but don’t have much time to do it.. If I had a week, or even a day with nothing to do, I would love to pull out all my stuff and get busy..
10. I love selling scentsy and what it has done for my self esteem.
11. I have social anxiety disorder, diagnosed by a doctor…
12. I love going to the movies..
13. I love reading, I will read anything once.. I have read the harry Potter series 3 times, and am currently reading the Twilight series for the 2nd time.
14. I have 29 nieces and nephews with another one on the way.
15. My husband is a cop, and most of our friends are cops (officers, deputies, and highway patrol) and their significant others…
16. I love the Internet and could spend hours on it. I love it that it has helped me to find and keep in touch with my old school friends and other people I have met along the way..
17. I am grateful that I live in America and have the freedom of choice.
18. I love Kemmerer Wyoming, and even though we may move in the future, I will always love Kemmerer and the people here, even though there is no walmart and our grocery store is the most expensive one I have ever shopped at!!
19. I love more than anything hanging out with my brothers and sisters and their families, and my mom playing games and just yakking it up, remembering the old times and going through the new experiences with our own kids, I don’t know what I would do without any of them.
20. I like eating way too much, food has become a passion for me and you can see it just by looking at me…
21. I love my job, I kind of just fell into it, but it seems like it is my calling… You would think that sitting in an office all day typing up Doctor’s dictations would be boring, but I love it…
22. I have the best boss in the world… I am free to come and go as needed, if my kids need me at school no problem, I just take off and come back when I am done..
23. My kids are the most important thing to me in this world...
24. I hate trying to work 40 hours a week, I would rather be at home with my kids..
25. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by social anxiety that I could hide under the covers in my bed and never come out, or hide in my room, and not ever be seen again… But for the most part I have learned to overcome this feeling (that will never go away) and get out into the world and love life and what it has to offer….