tagging can be fun

okay, sorry kelly that it took me forever and a day to respond to being tagged. but i must admit, i forgot. so thanks to jocelyn for reminding me and tagging me again. so, here it goes:

8 things i'm passionate about.

1: sleep!, i serioiusly sleep way too much, but it never seems like enough. is this some kind of disorder?
2: date night. hello, i either can't get enough of my husband, or i like to get away from the kids-you be the judge...
3: not getting too busy. i really believe that when we get too busy we lose the flexibility to follow the promptings of the spirit.
4: creating: it has been so long since i have had a place to set things up for my creative outlet, but i finally rearranged some things and made myself a spot to stamp, card make & scrapbook again. feel free to join me.
5: ? i honestly don't know. do i really have to be that passionate about 8 things? passionate is pretty strong.
6: family
7: good friends, oh so important.
8: um, seriously.

8 words or phrases i say often.

1: seriously
2: yuck
3: you stink (i have 3 boys...)
4: stop, i'm going crazy!
5: what's for dinner?
6: finish your homework
7: is anybody listening to me?
8: seriously!

8 things i want to do before i die.

1: finish our house
2: more travel
3: see my grandchildren (born to stable, caring parents)
4: shopping spree
5: sleep uninteruppted for as long as i want
6: go to disney world?
7: i don't know
8: are you sensing the frustration of coming up with 8 things over and over?!

8 things i currently want or need.

1: finish our house
2: move into our house tomorrow
3: move into our house today!
4: move into our house yesterday?
5: more sleep
6: a good book
7: a fun trip
8: craft supply $

8 people to tag.

do I know 8 people who even read my blog?
i think i'll skip this 8, it's been fun girls!

um, what?

a few weeks ago ethan & eli started doing tricks with their pj's. they think that it is so funny and i just hope that the pj's shrink back down to size in the wash. can this possibly be comfortable? i have e feeling that these pics will probably cause them pain when they are older, but for now they sure are funny. i am thankful to have goofy children who make me laugh!

boys are dogs?

okay, so my boys are probably pretty typical of their ages and genders. i am a proud mama, who thinks that her children are adorable and oh so fun. i realize that men are often referred to as dogs and whether you agree with that or not, at what age does this sentiment become more realized? i hope that these pictures aren't representative of their future...

time out

friday night was the beginning of Time Out for Woman in Springfield, MA. a friend of mine had bought tickets for both Friday and Saturday but ended up not being able to go on Friday. so, she gave me her ticket! i was not planning on going because i just went to education week and felt like i needed to help build the house on saturday. but i was thrilled with the chance to go on friday night. one of my long time favorite lds musicians was performing that night and it was awesome. Michael McLean is just the best. i have always been able to feel so good when listening to his music and friday night was no disappointment. he is just an amazing man. when you get a chance to hear him tell where his songs came from and listen to him you can really feel the spirit. he sang several of my favorite songs and some new ones that i haven't heard before. we also got to hear Kenneth Cope, which i enjoyed. he has some good songs, but will never be my favorite compared with the feeling i get from Michaels music (yes we are on a first name basis now!).

Some of us girls with the handsome & talented Kenneth Cope!

Before things got started that night one of the presenters by the name of Kim Nelson, came up to Allison Cowden, Sarah Hall and me. He introduced himself and chatted with us for a few minutes. He asked us to pray for him because he was so nervous to sing with Michael McLean. During the break he came to see if we had and to talk with us. He was a very dear and funny man. If you ever have the chance to hear him speak you should. He is a marriage and family therapist, a member of his stake presidency and a great guy. after the program was over he told us to stick around and he would introduce us to Michael and we could get our picture taken! I have been to several of Michael McLean's concerts before. Once in Provo I was even picked out of the audience to pick a song. he had me come up on stage where i sat with him while he sang the song and then he kissed me on the cheek! it was great, but for some reason getting a picture with him was awesome to me. i have never been a groupie before, but i guess things have changed. i wish so many of you could have been there with me, but since you couldn't just enjoy (& be jealous of) my picture and one of my favorite songs (just click the play button on the right to here it, it's beautiful & it might make you cry, but listen up!).

here is the great picture! Brother Nelson even snuck into the back!

i'm back!

okay, i'm back. i realize that this blog is mostly for my own entertainment, but for the few of you that do check it i know it has been a long time. i am home from my travels and all my visitors have left me. things are settling into a fine routine. so, that means i can blog again. i am thrilled with this because i use my blog in place of my journal. does that mean i should actually print out my entries and save them somewhere? for now i'll just have to be happy with having the time to blog...

okay, so to catch up. the boys started back to school on Sept. 2. I am traveling back and forth everyday to take them to the schools in the area we are building our house. i just didn't want them to have to readjust in two months to a new school, new friends, new teachers, etc... this was especially important to me this year because Benson started 5th grade and at his new school that means Middle School! yep, lockers, changing classes, band, sports and all that good stuff (including sex ed in health class. shocker!) Here are a few pictures of them on their first day of school.




my friend Cindy came to visit!

we have been friends since we were both newlyweds. we moved into the same ward the same week. it seemed only natural for Cindy and Mindy to be put together as visiting teaching partners and we became fast friends. even better was that our husbands became friends enabling us to do just about everything together. so a few short years later we moved to Cincinnati and when they were done with school a year later they moved to Arizona. we try to get together at least once a year and have managed to do at least that. but this is the first visit to Massachusetts for Cindy and the first time that all of our children were able to get together.

they all had so much fun, you would think they had known each other all along. we tried to do some fun things with everyone while we were together, but ended up with an even longer list of more to do the next time.

well, this has become the longest blog posting in history, maybe we could use this post for book club (even though it's not quiet Jane Austen). so, for today, this is enough. i'll post more soon.