BLAH-HUM-BUG...

I think I caught a bug this weekend. Not the cold bug that my husband got on Christmas eve, or the love-bug that my daughter seems to have caught recently. No, the bug I caught usually only comes around once a year, and always the same time too, it's the BLAH-HUM-BUG! I try to avoid it each year by eating healthy. I eat from all 4 food groups, by that I mean chocolate, carmels, nuts and toffee. I try to stay in shape by running around from store to store, I do aerobic wrapping and hiding before the kids get home. I try to supplement my 6 hours of sleep each night by sleeping in church, while waiting in long lines or while stuck in traffic. Symptoms are usually extreme fatigue, followed by crash and burn, extra hours in the day you don't know what to do with, followed with boredom and laziness. It usually comes after I've experienced a wonderful Christmas, a jam-packed December filled with work and church parties, choir performances by my daughter, school programs for my son, get togethers with family. Baking, candy-making, quilt making, gift making, and not enough time-taking! Seriously though, Christmas was great this year. I'm just grateful the snow storm held out long enough for us to travel to Bountiful for our traditional Christmas-eve party at Mom and Dad's. It snowed us in Christmas day, so our dinner party was small this year, just us and lot's of left-overs. What takes a full month to prepare for, within a few hours it's all over. Just empty boxes and torn wrapping paper left under the tree. The games have all been played, the movies have all been watched, the toys assembled and broken. The work day awaits, the laundry piles up, the storage room still needs organizing, and the family still needs to be fed dinner, everyday, for the rest of my life. Is it any wonder I love December so much? It's a light at the end of a dull-drum tunnel. It breaks the monotomy of everyday life. For one month we think less of ourselves and more of others. We create, we inspire, we share, we give, we dream, we hope. And if were lucky, we make it through the season without catching the BLAH-HUM-BUG...

My Favorite Things...

So as we've already established, I love Christmas Music. It's on every minute that I'm in the car or at home. But there are a few songs that just make me wonder why they're considered Christmas songs. Just because Dan Folgelberg meets his old lover in a grocery store when the snow was falling Christmas eve, doesn't make it Christmas song worthy. And do the words 'Snowflakes' and 'Sleighbells' sung once in the song carry enough weight to make "My Favorite Things" (sung by at least 3 different people I've heard thus far) also a christmas song? Well, who am I
to question why, it's a good song from a great movie that I just happen to not have and would perhaps love as a christmas gift, hint hint, and it's also caused me to pause and think about the things I love at Christmastime. So, put the tune in your head and sing along to "My Favorite Things"

Snowflakes on white trees and whiskers on Santa,

temple square lights, time with poppa and nanna,

bright christmas packages, smiles that they bring,

these are a few of my favorite things.

Cream colored fondants and crisp peanut brittle,

carmels and turtles, we snitched just a little.

Time spent with sisters, it makes my heart sing,

these are a few of my favorite things.

Gifts that are homemade and fun decorations,

music and choirs make for great celebrations,

Christmas Eve dinner, acting the na-tiv-i-ty,

these are a few of my favorite things.

When the snow blows, when the cash goes,

when I'm feeling stressed,

I simply remember my favorite things,

and then I will feeeeel....so BLESSED!

21 years ago...

I was in the hospital, having my first child. We didn't know what we were having, a baby of course, just didn't know what kind, and were pleasantly surprised when out popped a little girl! Our little Chelsea Breann. It's a good thing she was a girl, we didn't even have a boys name picked out, but ever since I was a young girl and saw "On Golden Pond" with Jane Fonda, her character's name was Chelsea and I fell in love with it, I knew I wanted to name my little girl Chelsea. Her middle name came from a song I liked from Fleetwood Mac. It wasn't until years later that my husband clued me in on the fact the song wasn't named "Brianna" it was "Rianna". Huh, not my fault you can't understand those dang rock singers half the time. Besides, Chelsea Riann doesn't sound as good.

Hard to believe it's been 21 years. Am I that old? Funny how I can remember that day like it was yesterday, but have a hard time remembering what she was like when she was little. Good thing for pictures to help us remember. I wish I had a picture of the day she decided to finger paint, with DESITIN ! Have you ever tried to wash Desitin out of carpet, clothes, toyboxes, the wall, her hair! It's waterproof people, it doesn't wash out! I also wish I had a picture of the day she decided she wanted to become a hairdresser, she practiced on herself, and boy was she proud! She cut her bangs all the way to her scalp! Rest assured, she's much better now.

So, listen up all you mothers out there with young girls...if they're driving you crazy cuz they change their clothes 5 times a day, or leave barbies all over the floor, or bobby pins, or spill make-up all over the floor, and they're moody and sulky, or giggly and silly, and you just can't wait for them to grow up! Well, they will, and they do. You'll wish you could go back and dress them in frilly dresses, cuz now it's t-shirts and flip flops. Instead of sponge curlers saturday nights, now it's flat irons and hot dates saturday nights. Instead of barbies and dolls, it's IPods and Guitar Hero. Instead of clothes and stuffed animals all over the floor, well, it's still clothes, and stuffed animals all over the floor (somethings will never change). If there's one thing I've learned in the last 21 years its this: Kids do grow up, faster than you ever expect them too. And one day you'll stop and realize, did I teach them everything they need to know to survive in the real world? Does she know how to make gravy from scratch or cook a roast (ok, still learning that one myself). You just hope that somehow along the journey, they watched, they paid attention, they will want to have a child of their own someday, and when they do, they'll finally realize how much they were loved by you...

I remember when you were my little girl,

as much a part of me as my right arm.

My every breath and step

held you in my mind.

Then suddenly, one morning, you were grown!

I was not finished with you.

But we must love our children

enough to let them go.

But in my heart, you'll always be...

...my little girl!

Happy Birthday Chelsea! I love you! Mom

My Tale of the Three Trees...

not to be confused with the story that always makes me cry about the three trees that were cut down and used for the savior. My story isn't that deep, and doesn't have too much meaning to it, but I did feel like crying by the end of the third tree. My story goes something like this:

Up by 5 and wide awake,

decided to shop for the childrens sake.

I hustled and bustled and stood in long lines

with car loaded down I was back home by nine.

A little tired I laid down in bed,

but visions of sugarplums kept filling my head.

So jumped to my feet, to my team gave a whistle

and we found all the boxes, trees and toe-mistle.

In the living room went tree number 1,

from Chelsea's wedding, it sure was fun.

Thanks to friend Mindy a new wreath on the wall

a new look for this room made decorating a ball.

In the kitchen went tree number 2,

a cute little thing that looks good in there too. it brightens my corner, adds just the right touch,

it's not very big so it isn't too much.

At last in the basement came tree number 3,

it has the most stuff on as you can well see.

By now I'm just dragging and thinking, "what the heck!

With all this crap no wonder I'm a wreck!"

I spend all year just making more stuff

to hang on my walls, and it's never enough.

Why put myself through this year after year

and drive myself crazy till I'm almost in tears?

What do decorations have to do with the reason

why we celebrate Christ's birth this holiday season?

The answer to that, though I'm not sure you'll agree

has something to do with the gifts he's given me.

With all he's blessed me with, I feel it a pleasure

to make my home a place my children will treasure.

And with these gifts I try to give back to Him,

a place where love resides and his spirit will never dim.

kids say the darndest things...

If you have a child between 8-10 years old, you'll know what i'm talking about. Trey loves to talk. and talk. and talk. I try to absorb it all, and pay attention, and really listen, but sometimes it's all I can do to get in the "oh yeah" and "uh-huh" and "really?" in just the right places, while my mind is wandering to 'what am I going to make for dinner tonight', and 'what kind of pie should I make for Thanksgiving', while of course folding a load of laundry and watching Dr. Oz on Oprah talk about PMS and ways to avoid it. I admit I don't listen as well as I should sometimes, and I should, cuz he usually makes me laugh when I really stop and listen. He's a funny kid. The other day we were going to Kohl's, just for one thing, really, just a rug to put in my entry way. But, if you've ever been shopping at Kohl's with me, you know it's never going to be just one thing. I started looking at the clearance racks, I didn't need anything, I just can't help myself, and Trey said "Mom, do I need to get you those things they put on the horses so you only see what's in front of you and you can't look around!" Yes Trey, I think a pair of blinders would come in handy, not only for Kohl's, but for looking at you when you talk to me so I don't get distracted with the mundane things that control a mother's life. In a few more years when your a teenager, will you want to follow me around the house and tell me about your day, will you keep talking even when the bathroom door is shut, will you still give me hugs and kisses and climb into my lap and sing the Barney song "I love you, you love me". Can I give you a pair of blinders too, so when other boys are trying to act cool and tough, and swearing up a storm, you won't see that, so you'll always stay sweet and kind and loving, and you'll always be my Trey-babe. Yes Trey, I do need a pair of blinders. And now we know what to give each other for Christmas!

Organized Chaos

So I like to watch Oprah while I'm on the treadmill cuz it helps me exercise longer, AND I don't feel so guilty taking an hour to watch TV, it's a win-win situation. Today her show was, 'Oprah's Clean up your messy house tour' which has really inspired me, and help light the flame the kinda sizzled out since I last tried to clean my storage area. Actually, the storage area looks much better, do you have to ask where all the stuff went? I don't think I cleaned it as much as I shifted it from room to the other. So here are pictures of my craft/sewing/scrapbook room, and pretty much my "don't know where to put it, i'll find a home for it later, for now put it in my craft room". Anyway, my personal organizer Peter (the clean-up guy with the nice english accent on Oprah) will be e-mailing me everyday my daily to-do chore that should take no longer than 10 minutes, and at the end of 6 months, EVERY room in my house should be clutter free! How cool is that! The only thing that would be better is if their cleaning crew stopped at my house and did it for me. Oprah, if your looking, come on by, my door is always open (that's because I have to much stuff in front of it and it won't close)!

Kayla's 15 seconds of fame...

well, maybe not fame, I mean her name didn't even appear in the credits. And you'd have to add up all the glimpses of her to get 15 seconds, but heh, she's there, I saw her! Sat through the whole 90 minutes of the movie to get to the last 5 minutes to see her, but it was so exciting once I did! My daughters in the no. 1 movie right now, "High School Musical 3". She was an extra, cast in the graduation scene at the end of the movie. She's wearing a man's shirt and tie, and a skirt. Why she's dressed like a guy, we're still not sure, but it makes her stand out better so we could see her, for a second, then again, for a second, oh look, there she is again, there she goes. It's a pretty fast paced movie, so you'll be sure I'll be buying the movie when it comes out on DVD so I can push the pause button, (if I'm fast enough) and say, 'Look! That's my daughter! She's a movie Star!"
Did she get to meet Zach Efron? well no, they weren't allowed to approach the actors, but she did get to look at him for 3 days, and get paid for it too, lucky girl. So did I like the movie? Yes, I did enjoy it, if you can get past the cheesiness of it all, the music's catchy, the dancing amazing, Zach and Corbin are pretty cute (if I was 30 years younger I'd totally have a crush) and the last 5 minutes of the show is particularly awesome!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

I love the first snowfall of the year, unless it falls on Halloween. This year we have been blessed with an indian summer, which has been wonderful, but once Halloween was over, I was ready for the white stuff to fall, and fall it did! I love to cozy up on the couch with a blanket and a good book and a cup of hot chocolate nearby and watch the snow fall out the window. But the best part of the snow, is that now I don't feel so silly listening to christmas music when it's 70 degrees and still green outside.
Hi, my name's Linda, and I'm a Christmas musicolic. I've been addicted for about 10 years now, ever since Amy Grant came out with her Breath of Heaven CD. Sometimes I sneak in a listen as early as July as I'm getting a jump start on my christmas crafts or quilts. Sometimes when I'm grouchy or in a bad mood, like when I'm paying bills, my children turn on christmas music to give me a fix, they know I don't stay in a bad mood when Amy singing 'It's the most wonderful time of the year'. It works everytime too. I love christmas music. It always puts a smile on my face. I know I'm not the only addict out there, why else would cozy 106.5 and FM100 start playing it nonstop the day after Halloween. So if your an addict too, I would love to hear from you, I need all the support I can get. My family and co-workers think I'm crazy and don't support my habit. I think they're embarrassed by my addiction, and my actions of dancing around the kitchen to jingle-bell rock certainly doesn't help my case. I have tried to break free from my addiction, I've even gone so far to store my christmas music along with the decorations, but unfortunately it just made the situation worse knowing I couldn't get to it, I craved it more and gave in soon after the kids started back to school. So I don't fight it anymore, I embrace it. I love Christmas music, and I don't care who knows!

My new living room..

So, for those of you who haven't seen my new living room...

ta-da! The colors were inspired by the quilt that's hanging on my wall. When Tary started putting that gold paint on my walls I thought, 'oh boy, what have I done', but of course you can't say that out loud, especially in front of your husband who said 'you want to paint the living room what color?' So I was second guessing myself, but once the second coat of paint went on it looked much better. And once we got rid of the mauve carpet (not a good look with yellow) I felt much better. Notice the teal couches are gone too. Out with the pastels, in with the bold! Faun made the beautiful clock above the piano and took all the pictures, including the bridal picture of Chelsea in the corner. She's so talented, Thanks Faun!

Surprise Faces!

So I had to wonder how a camera disk that can store 500 pictures doesn't have enough space for little ol' me to take just a few, until I started looking at her camera to see just what she's filling it up with. Oh, there's a few good pictures of california and yellowstone that we should probably develop, but the majority of her pictures are what she calls, "Surprise Faces". It's a game they play when they make all sorts of funny faces, not knowing when when the camera will take their picture. Unbelievable! I don't think there's a single picture of her and her friends just smiling! When I was her age I would have been mortified if someone had a picture of me looking so ridiculously uncomposed, not so anymore. The crazier the better! Mouths gaping open, tongues drooling out, eyes crossed, noses scrunched, well, you get the picture. I should get a few of them developed to use for blackmail purposes later in life when she's come to her senses. I can hear her children now as they're looking through her scrapbook, 'Grandma, what was wrong with my mom when she was girl, didn't she know how to smile?' And I'll just tell them it was temporary insanity, and let's hope it skips a generation!

The best Halloween by FAR!

I usually dread halloween. Every year it's the same routine. Get home from work, try to make a nutritious meal before the kids load up on candy,
clean up dinner, apply scary makeup, find candles

for pumpkins, try to light candles in pumpkins

without burning myself, try to find burn oinment,

try to talk kids into wearing coats under costume

because mom knows best, and yes it's too cold to

go out without a coat. Find camera for pictures,

answer doorbell for children who's mother has her act together, try to remember where I hid the halloween candy . I'm exhausted before I even get out the door. Then for the next 2 hours, walking up and down the streets, freezing my toes and nose and trying hard not to act like a witch, even though I might look like one.

But this halloween was different. This year we joined in the festivities at my sister Wendy's house! It's my other sisters Cindy's birthday on Halloween, and since all my family lives up north, they all get together on this night. We all gathered for pizza dinner, then the cousins had a great time, (especially Trey who usually just has me tagging along) trick-or-treating together while the adults casually strolled behind, eating fresh home-made donuts and pop-corn balls. The weather was so warm, we carried our coats. Then after their bags were filled, we went back to Wendy's for yummy birthday cake and brownies! It was wonderful! I think for now on I'm going to look forward to halloween!

Too bad I don't have my own digital camera (hint hint) or I would have taken pictures of our fun night and posted them. I have to rely on using my daughter Kayla's camera, and she doesn't have many pictures left on her memory, but that's another blog in itself. Stay tuned...

I wasn't sure we would carve pumpkins this year since we wouldn't be here halloween night, but Trey wouldn't let me break tradition. This year he cut, cleaned out, and carved his pumpkin all by himself, I thought he did a great job! Kayla did a good job too!

28 more days and counting...

...and I'm not talking about the turkey and mashed potatoes. The hot rolls and 10 different types of pie to choose from. No, I'm counting down to the day my storage room WILL be clean! 21 years worth of stuff has accumulated all in one spot. If ever we didn't have a place for something, it went downstairs in the "junk" room, which is also my food storage room. My goal is to eliminate the junk, and add more food, but in order to do that, I need shelves built for my food, which meant the junk had to go to find room for the shelves. These pictures were actually taken after 3 days spent de-junking, so you can imagine how bad it looked before, but it's getting there. I've set the deadline for Thanksgiving, because traditionally I set up christmas the day after, and I can't get to my christmas boxes under the stairs with all the junk in the way. Besides, I figure that will give me more incentive to get it cleaned out if I tell myself the same thing I tell my kids, "I'm not setting up Christmas until your rooms are clean!"

Our house is now haunted...

Ask Trey what his favorite holiday is, and he'll tell you. It's Halloween. And it's not just the candy, or dressing up, or watching Halloweentown on Disney for the umpteenth time. Trey loves to decorate (i don't know where he get's it from), if he doesn't think I have enough decorations to go around, he steps in and makes his own. He's getting pretty good too. This is what I came home too from work today, bags of leaves disguised as ghosts, skullatons, frank, drac, and mummy. I think he did a great job, now our home looks much scarier...but for me, it's all about the candy!

...much ado about nothing

So, here's my dilema. I love to blog. Problem is, I don't have anything to blog about. I am the most boringest person I know. I don't travel, (except to work and the supermarket, and due to recent events, I now work in the supermarket, so travel is really limited these days) I don't rub shoulders with the rich or famous, (although I help a member whose last name is Reeve and he claims to be a cousin to the late Christopher Reeve, but he made have just been kidding) so celebrity gossip is out. I don't even own a digital camera to take cute pictures with (the family and wedding pictures posted are thanks to my wonderfully talented and un-boring cousin Faun, whose blogsite is posted, check it out!) So, if you ever need a boost of creativity or a good laugh, you've come to the wrong site. But if you ever just want to read much ado about nothing...
Welcome to my World!

Whew!

All is not lost, except for a few hours of sleep that I lost worrying about my precious blog! As for me, I have learned to leave well enough alone. Sorry, I guess the cute seasonal backgrounds will just have to keep until I learn better how to use my blogsite, I've had enough scare to last me for awhile, tis the season!

what the heck!

this is what I get for thinking I'm all that...so I thought it would be fun to change my background to a fall or halloween background. Found a cute one that I liked and tried to download it, but it didn't work. Changed it to the plain one, thinking maybe that was where I was supposed to change it from, the minima, next thing I know, I have a plain blog, and the layout tab is gone!
Along with all the cute pictures I downloaded! So now I have no pictures, this lame-o background, and no way to get in and add the pictures! My layout tab is missing. Help me out oh computer knowledgeable friends, where did I go wrong and how do I get my tabs back! Help!

I'm having fun now!

I must admit, I feel guilty! I have the house all to myself...Kayla is camping with friends, Tary and Trey are on the deer hunt, and today was the day I was going to get down and dirty in the basement. I have 21 years worth of STUFF to get rid of, organize it, or donate it, and it must be done by Thanksgiving, otherwise I'll never be able to get to the christmas boxes. And yet, as you can see by the blog dates, I have spent all day at the computer, but boy am I having fun!

Chelsea's wedding

It was a year ago I was busy planning the wedding of my firstborn, Chelsea.
I had alot of fun planning her special day, she didn't have much of an opinion,
she just wanted to get married! I guess years of being on the homemaking
committee and planning super saturdays paid off, cuz boy did I have fun
decorating the church, trying to make it look like a Winter Wonderland...
here's to great memories!

I am feeling pretty darn good about myself...

Wow, who would have ever thought I could have made myself a blog! Just yesterday Tary and I learned how to e-mail pictures, (all by ourselves, no children were present) so while I was feeling so good about our progress, I thought, 'what the heck, I'll try to blog', and here we are! I still don't have any clue what I'm doing, or how to get all the cute-sy stuff to go on it, but it will be fun trying! Now if I can just figure out how to load pictures onto my blog...Help!