Everyone wants luminous, natural, beautiful looking skin...am I wrong? All throughout high school this is what I longed for most. However, I was cursed with oily/acne prone skin. My senior year, my complexion was a mess! Sometime, during that year, my skin calmed down, but the emotional scars left on my memory of those days will forever haunt me. Since then, it has been my life-long quest to find skincare and beauty products that leave my skin feeling refreshed, healthy, and beautiful.
Read On...
My sister and I have a new fitness blog. Visit often for more fun and fitness tips.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Riding The Bus to School
I recently signed up Luke for preschool and discovered that both schools end at 3:30. Although I am a total SuperMom (yeah, right), there is no way I can be two places at the same time.Solution: Taylor must ride the bus to school.
Problem: She is new. She has never taken the bus to school before. She doesn't have very many new friends yet.
Solution: Older cousin, Caleb, can help her not feel so nervous.
Problem: Caleb is 9. He is a boy. Emotions and little girls feeling nervous aren't his expertise!
Solution: To ease Taylors anxieties about riding the bus, I will drive and follow the bus all. the. way. to. school. the first day.
Side Note: I never knew a bus could make so many stops in such a short amount of time and had no idea how fast bus drivers drive through, somewhat, rural/residential areas.
Problem: Now I have to get Taylor comfortable riding the bus home from school.
Solution: Go to school. Pick Taylor up from class and show her where the bus picks up and wait with her in line.
Problem: Caleb and Taylor want me to drive them home. Too bad I say!
Solution: Follow bus all. the. way. home. from school.
Next day: Taylor and Caleb rode the bus together. I didn't even have to follow in my car this time. And, even though Taylor was nervous, she made it home on the bus without me!
Problem solved!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
JAWS
When I was 5 (or so) years old, my dad was some kind of Scout Leader. While entertaining these boys with their weekly scouting activity, I would stand by and watch and mingle. There was one scout, in the group, who, for no reason (at least not that I'm aware of) would call me "JAWS."Yes. Seriously! He called me "JAWS." Who knows, maybe it was his fascination with the movie or maybe it was his immature way of flirting with a 5-year old girl. Whatever his reason, look at me...how could you call that sweet, cute face "JAWS!!!"
Every time he said "Hey, JAWS," I imagined a combination of the scary JAWS man with the ugly sharp silver teeth from one of the James Bond movies and JAWS (the shark) himself!
Looking at this man's picture still gives me chills!
So. As a child, you can imagine my disgust and total dislike for scouts across America! Every time I would hear the word "scout" I would associate it with the word "JAWS" and picture my 5-year old self with ugly silver sharp fangs hanging out of my mouth!
Yes. I know. Some of you may be thinking that I have two sons and I need to gain an appreciation for scouting since they will be scouts. Well, my world has just been turned upside down! Yes, indeed!
I am now in charge of weekly Bear (cub scout) activities. Thank goodness the scouting program doesn't have anything called "sharks!" First of all, I really don't know what these leaders were thinking by asking me to do this?! I am a girly girl! I don't camp. I don't tie knots. I don't know the first thing about merit badges. I don't wear scout shirts...there is nothing feminine about them! I have never attended a pack meeting. I don't play sports. There is not one ounce of tom-boyishness in me at all!
I enjoy pedicures, trips to the mall, buying makeup, reading celebrity gossip magazines, dancing, watching Musicals, singing, etc.
So, like it or not, I am going to do it. I have to admit, these three bears are kind of cute, they like my pumpkin bread, and they don't call me "JAWS."
I think this scouting thing may work after all. However, I am considering changing a few of the activities in the handbook to learning how to paint your moms toenails, cook her breakfast in the morning, or learn Pilates (I'm thinking the whole mind & body thing could be good for them). You know, the kind of stuff all young sons, husbands, and fathers-to-be need to know!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
What Makes Me Smile!
Little Blakey...whenever we tell him to "smile" he says, "CHEEEE!" I can't help but laugh every time he says it!
Watching my babies love each other, play with each other, and explore the outdoors.
The mountains, the fresh air, and the beauty.
Watching my boys grow up. They are two little men on a mission to explore, discover, and enjoy life!
Laughing and smiling at the amount of dirt their little hands and faces collect during the day. Smiling even more when I wash it off and watch it go down the drain at the end of the day!
Watching these two little boys have more fun playing with water and dirt than playing with sand in a sandbox!
Watching their determination as they build their stream.
Looking for Blakes shoes ALL DAY and finding them in the fridge!
Watching Blake sleep. This is nice because he hasn't been doing much of it lately.
Other things that make me smile:
- Ice Cold Coke in the fridge (even though I'm not currently drinking it, man I could really use a sip!)
- Swearing off sugar for a week and (so far) sticking to it!
- Taylor coming home from school with a smile on her face
- Finding a preschool for Luke
- Taking the kids to see Star Wars
- Cost Vida (YUM!)
- Naps (for me)
- Teaching my first Step Class
Thursday, August 14, 2008
I LOVE Salt Lake City
Yesterday, we decided to spend our final official day of summer in Salt Lake. Devon had some business to attend to and I jumped for joy at the idea of leaving our small town, for a day, and adventuring into the BIG CITY.
My heart sang as I started to feel the hustle and bustle of cars buzzing around us. Although our visit was short-lived, it was a blast!
While Taylor, Luke, and Blake played with their cousins Parker and baby Avery, I got to hang out with my favorite sister, Robyn! Oh, there's nothing like a sister. I arrived unshowered and with no makeup and knew she wouldn't care.
After our short visit, we spent the second half of the day with my favorite BYU student, and brother, Michael. The kids splashed and splashed and had a blast at Seven Peaks.
Michael is such a cute Uncle. No picture would be complete without a traditional "thumbs up" Michael style!
We played until the kids eyes were red from chlorine, their stomachs were full of "community" play water, and they were exhausted enough to fall asleep on the way home. It was a great way to spend our last day of summer!
This morning, Taylor started the 1st grade! She was nervous and cried a bit. I held back my own tears to be strong for her. However, once she sat down in her seat and made some friends she was ready to start her day. I just can't believe my baby is in the 1st grade...amazing!
My heart sang as I started to feel the hustle and bustle of cars buzzing around us. Although our visit was short-lived, it was a blast!
While Taylor, Luke, and Blake played with their cousins Parker and baby Avery, I got to hang out with my favorite sister, Robyn! Oh, there's nothing like a sister. I arrived unshowered and with no makeup and knew she wouldn't care.
After our short visit, we spent the second half of the day with my favorite BYU student, and brother, Michael. The kids splashed and splashed and had a blast at Seven Peaks.
Michael is such a cute Uncle. No picture would be complete without a traditional "thumbs up" Michael style!
We played until the kids eyes were red from chlorine, their stomachs were full of "community" play water, and they were exhausted enough to fall asleep on the way home. It was a great way to spend our last day of summer!This morning, Taylor started the 1st grade! She was nervous and cried a bit. I held back my own tears to be strong for her. However, once she sat down in her seat and made some friends she was ready to start her day. I just can't believe my baby is in the 1st grade...amazing!
Friday, August 8, 2008
Seriously?!?!
Okay, many of you know we make and sell personalized baby onesies on Ebay and our website. In the past, we have had some odd requests. More often than not, people will email us their desired phrase before buying the shirt. In this case, the woman bought the shirt before requesting the phrase. At first, I have to admit, I laughed. Hopefully this isn't for real and is some kind of, sick, inside joke or something. But, now I feel extremely sad for the baby that will wear this shirt. I mean, seriously, who are these people???
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Directions from where I've been to where I am now...
It will all begin on January 15, 2008. Not only is this the day you were married, or Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, or the anniversary of the day that your husband's grandma passed away, but also the day you will receive the most life-changing phone call of your life!
Your husband will decide to take the day off work to celebrate your 8-year anniversary. After spending much of the day "hanging out" and "catching up," the husbands cell phone will ring. He will ignore the ring and pick up the voicemail later. Without realizing the magnitude of this voicemail, he delays picking it up...until a friend from work calls and tells him the message is urgent and he must listen to it at once!
Immediately, the husband will retrieve the voicemail where he will listen to a recorded message informing him, along with 3,500 other employees, that his service is no longer needed.
A gush of emotions will rush through your body and mind as you try to digest this news. You will cry, you will worry, and you will wonder why? You will have so many questions and also feel very sad, confused, frustrated, unprepared, and unable to see a clear path of what to do.
You have always been a woman of faith, and, yet, this experience will try and test your faith and testimony of prayer unlike ever before. You will often find yourself on your knees, begging, asking, and praying for comfort and enlightenment of what to do.
One day, the answer will come and you will fight it because it is not what you want to do. This answer will require much sacrifice and continued hardship, but will also bring joy, peace, and comfort.
After spending 6 years in an area that you love, a place where you have made life-long friends, delivered babies and watched them grow, while also developing many roots of your own, you will follow the instructions of that tiny little voice (in your heart and in your head), and despite your better judgment, leave it all!
You will quickly put your house up for sale. You will secretly hope it doesn't sell and pray that by some miracle you can stay. However, the house will sell quickly, but not without a struggle. In a poor housing market, you will find yourself paying $9,000 to sell your home and relieve you and your family from a short-sell or foreclosure. No matter how painful it feels, you will also feel relief knowing it sold, and in some weird way, know there was someone greater looking out for you.
You will spend weeks packing boxes, cleaning, crying, carpooling kids from house to house to be looked after, crying and cleaning, packing up the moving truck, crying some more, saying many goodbyes, crying, and then walking out the door, stepping foot into your car and heading out of state to live with your in-laws.
Your husband has decided to go back to school. You have decided that two years isn't much of a sacrifice. When you arrive, you put most of "your" things in storage and "try" to make this "new" home "feel" like home. You will long for what you miss most and, often, cry because it is so far away. Talking on the phone to friends and family, as well as blogging and emailing will bring you comfort.
You will immediately start looking for part-time work. You will do this so you can help your family financially, but also so you can socialize and make friends. You will interview for group exercise instructor positions and accept them. You will also sign up to substitute teach.
You will immediately be asked to sub a dance class and accept. On your first day, you will be extremely nervous and start to feel very sick on your way to the gym. To avoid embarrassment at the gym, you will stop at the nearest gas station and be stopped outside your car, by a stranger who is curious about your license plate. Not wanting to be rude, although you are feeling very ill, you will politely answer his question about your personalized license plate and how it came to be. After a quick explanation, you will turn to go inside, and this stranger will begin to tell you the story of his life. With only ten minutes to spare before your class starts and an upset stomach, you will begin to sweat bullets about your time schedule, but feel unable to interrupt him and tell him you need to leave. Ten minutes later...you make a quick exit out of the conversation, run in to use the restroom, and make it to the gym two minutes late. Despite the stress of getting there, the class loves you, has a great time, and it really uplifts your day!
You will spend most of your days, with your husband working, subbing classes here and there, signing up your daughter for dance, taking the kids to the park, taking the kids swimming, teaching yourself new step and dance routines, planning out new menus for the family to try, and entertaining play dates for your two older children.
You will marvel at how quickly the summer has gone by, and hope the next two years are the same. Yet, that means each child will be that much older. You want to bottle them up and keep them just the way they are right now forever. In two years, you envision your family stronger, closer, and more secure and prepared for the future. You know that if this were easy, it probably wouldn't be worth it. And, it will be worth it!
Your husband will decide to take the day off work to celebrate your 8-year anniversary. After spending much of the day "hanging out" and "catching up," the husbands cell phone will ring. He will ignore the ring and pick up the voicemail later. Without realizing the magnitude of this voicemail, he delays picking it up...until a friend from work calls and tells him the message is urgent and he must listen to it at once!
Immediately, the husband will retrieve the voicemail where he will listen to a recorded message informing him, along with 3,500 other employees, that his service is no longer needed.
A gush of emotions will rush through your body and mind as you try to digest this news. You will cry, you will worry, and you will wonder why? You will have so many questions and also feel very sad, confused, frustrated, unprepared, and unable to see a clear path of what to do.
You have always been a woman of faith, and, yet, this experience will try and test your faith and testimony of prayer unlike ever before. You will often find yourself on your knees, begging, asking, and praying for comfort and enlightenment of what to do.
One day, the answer will come and you will fight it because it is not what you want to do. This answer will require much sacrifice and continued hardship, but will also bring joy, peace, and comfort.
After spending 6 years in an area that you love, a place where you have made life-long friends, delivered babies and watched them grow, while also developing many roots of your own, you will follow the instructions of that tiny little voice (in your heart and in your head), and despite your better judgment, leave it all!
You will quickly put your house up for sale. You will secretly hope it doesn't sell and pray that by some miracle you can stay. However, the house will sell quickly, but not without a struggle. In a poor housing market, you will find yourself paying $9,000 to sell your home and relieve you and your family from a short-sell or foreclosure. No matter how painful it feels, you will also feel relief knowing it sold, and in some weird way, know there was someone greater looking out for you.
You will spend weeks packing boxes, cleaning, crying, carpooling kids from house to house to be looked after, crying and cleaning, packing up the moving truck, crying some more, saying many goodbyes, crying, and then walking out the door, stepping foot into your car and heading out of state to live with your in-laws.
Your husband has decided to go back to school. You have decided that two years isn't much of a sacrifice. When you arrive, you put most of "your" things in storage and "try" to make this "new" home "feel" like home. You will long for what you miss most and, often, cry because it is so far away. Talking on the phone to friends and family, as well as blogging and emailing will bring you comfort.
You will immediately start looking for part-time work. You will do this so you can help your family financially, but also so you can socialize and make friends. You will interview for group exercise instructor positions and accept them. You will also sign up to substitute teach.
You will immediately be asked to sub a dance class and accept. On your first day, you will be extremely nervous and start to feel very sick on your way to the gym. To avoid embarrassment at the gym, you will stop at the nearest gas station and be stopped outside your car, by a stranger who is curious about your license plate. Not wanting to be rude, although you are feeling very ill, you will politely answer his question about your personalized license plate and how it came to be. After a quick explanation, you will turn to go inside, and this stranger will begin to tell you the story of his life. With only ten minutes to spare before your class starts and an upset stomach, you will begin to sweat bullets about your time schedule, but feel unable to interrupt him and tell him you need to leave. Ten minutes later...you make a quick exit out of the conversation, run in to use the restroom, and make it to the gym two minutes late. Despite the stress of getting there, the class loves you, has a great time, and it really uplifts your day!
You will spend most of your days, with your husband working, subbing classes here and there, signing up your daughter for dance, taking the kids to the park, taking the kids swimming, teaching yourself new step and dance routines, planning out new menus for the family to try, and entertaining play dates for your two older children.
You will marvel at how quickly the summer has gone by, and hope the next two years are the same. Yet, that means each child will be that much older. You want to bottle them up and keep them just the way they are right now forever. In two years, you envision your family stronger, closer, and more secure and prepared for the future. You know that if this were easy, it probably wouldn't be worth it. And, it will be worth it!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Sleeping Beauty???
You Are Aurora! (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.)
Thoughtful and loving. Authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. Thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.
Out of curiosity, I took this quiz.
I was surprised to find how much it is true. I do consider myself to be a thoughtful and loving person (actually, doesn't everyone?) and I am, for the most part, "very tranquil and content."
Being the oldest child in my family, growing up, I was very submissive and eager to please. I was always the "mother hen" or leader of the group, very organized, and avoided trouble. To this day, I am still very much a "yes" person and have a hard time telling people "no!"
So. What do you think (ahem. mom and dad)? Am I Sleeping Beauty and...Which Disney Princess Are You?
Friday, August 1, 2008
Happy Birthday To My Sista!
It's Robyn's birthday today. We all know life just wouldn't be the same without her. Here's why:
Nobody does a sleepover like Robyn!
She can't stand to miss out on a minute of fun!
When we were younger, we shared bunk beds, and I would sneak out of my bed, quietly peep my head over the edge, and wait until she turned to look at me. It would scare her EVERYTIME and I LOVED it!!
I loved her and mothered her from the minute she was born. She always (well, most of the time) did everything I told her to do. No wonder why I liked her so much!
In H.S. she was obsessed with Rap Music. Actually, I think she still likes it.
Nobody does a sleepover like Robyn!She can't stand to miss out on a minute of fun!
When we were younger, we shared bunk beds, and I would sneak out of my bed, quietly peep my head over the edge, and wait until she turned to look at me. It would scare her EVERYTIME and I LOVED it!!
I loved her and mothered her from the minute she was born. She always (well, most of the time) did everything I told her to do. No wonder why I liked her so much!
In H.S. she was obsessed with Rap Music. Actually, I think she still likes it.
Once she has her mind set on something she wants to do, there is no changing it!
She is my best friend.
She is the first one I call when I am having a good or bad day.
She loves me despite my flaws and all the teasing she endured as a child.
She is very complimentary and makes me feel like the best sister in the world!
She is an avid runner and gym-goer. She keeps me motivated to stay in shape!
She is the sweetest mom to two very sweet children.
I am so glad she is my sista! Happy Birthday, Robyn...Love ya!
She is my best friend.
She is the first one I call when I am having a good or bad day.
She loves me despite my flaws and all the teasing she endured as a child.
She is very complimentary and makes me feel like the best sister in the world!
She is an avid runner and gym-goer. She keeps me motivated to stay in shape!
She is the sweetest mom to two very sweet children.
I am so glad she is my sista! Happy Birthday, Robyn...Love ya!
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