A little Christmas...

Despite everything Anth and I did what we could to put on a happy face, and make Christmas great for our kids. We started out with opening gifts from Santa at home. My living room looked liked we hadn't cleaned in a year, because there was paper and toys everywhere! After the kids played for a little bit, and we got ready and went to my parents for our traditional breakfast casserole and orange julius' and presents. The kids got spoiled from them as usual. Syd got a Super Mario game for her DS, and I think I have played it as much as she has if not more lol She didn't get a whole lot of toys this year, because she is starting to be more grown up. She cared more about the clothes and purse and all that kind of stuff than she did the toys. My mom let us use her car to go out to Sandy to visit with Anth's family, so we ate dinner and did gifts with them too. All in all the kids got everything they wanted and practically a whole new wardrobe! I hope you all had great Christmas' with your families too. Tomorrow it is back to the real world dealing with insurance, cleaning out our car and starting our search for a new one :(

P.S. Today is my nephew Gabe's 7th birthday, so happy birthday buddy! We hope it's a great one. We love you very much!

I can't believe he is alive...God must be watching over him

You know how they say that God will never give us more than we can handle...well he must have a hell of a lot more faith in me than I have in myself. Guess what God, I have had more than I can take so PLEASE quit putting more on my plate!!!

Anth was on his way home from Grantsville Wednesday night when he hit some ice, and slammed into a tree going 45 MPH!!! He hit so hard that the steering wheel bent in towards the dashboard. A cop had someone pulled over just down the road, and as soon as he saw it happen he left that person and hurried to help Anth. He was unresponsive at first, and as they were about to start cutting him out of the vehicle he came to and was able to tell him he was ok. He walked away with nothing more than some bruising and a mild concussion. He has very little memory of it, but they aren't surprised by that. Just last night he remembered that when he hit it felt like someone hit him with a sledge hammer. Getting that call to meet them at the hospital was the worst call a wife could EVER receive. I swear to God after seeing my car on Thursday I don't know how he lived through it. He got extremely lucky!!! I wanted to puke when I saw it, and I have been having nightmares about the wreck over and over again. I can't tell you how thankful I am that my husband lived through something like that. We went to the accident site yesterday, and the tree didn't even sustain any damage. It was our only vehicle, so we are kind of SOL for a little while. I have already called insurance to get things processed as quickly as we can, but it won't be fast enough. My mom has helped us out by giving us rides the last few days and letting us use her car, but that's not something that's going to work forever. I contacted the company where we got our Trailblazer, and they have some SUV's with 3rd row seats that we might look into getting. We are kind of at a stand still though until we know what is going to be paid on our current loan. I really think I have prayed more in the last month than I ever have, and probably in the last couple days more than anything. I kept just thanking God that my husband was alive as I drove my mom's car to the hospital that night (she kept my kids, so they didn't have to see Anth in the hospital). I refuse to let my kids see this picture of our car, because I think it would freak them out worse than it did me. God and some guardian angels must have been watching over Anth that night. There is no other explanation of how he came out of that wreck. God believes that there is a reason Anth is on this Earth, because if he didn't he would have left us on Wednesday night :(

Merry Christmas

I just want to tell you all I hope you have a great Christmas! I'm not much in the mood this year, but am definitely doing the best to not let my kids see that. We will be spending the day baking cookies for Santa and decorating our gingerbread house :)

Lack of sleep and a 20 year anniversary

I have not had a good nights sleep in almost a month, and it's really wearing on me. Most nights I lay in bed in the dark and a million thoughts run through my head. If I happen to be lucky enough to go straight to sleep, it's a restless sleep. The other night I didn't get to sleep until 12:30, and when Anth's alarm went off at 4:50 I felt like I had had about 2 minutes of sleep. It's really wearing me down, and it's making me not much in the Christmas spirit since I have no energy. I am still doing activities such as decorating a gingergread house and baking cookies with my kids, but I just feel like I am not into it this year. I have tried taking Advil PM, because I heard it doesn't give you that horrible can't wake up feeling the next morning like Tylenol PM does. It didn't even work at all though. I still lay awake forever trying to fall asleep. Does anyone know of any OTC suggestions I could try? I don't want to have to go to a dr for it, but if I don't find something soon I'm going to have to because last night I laid awake crying because I was so frustrated. A friend of mine suggested some night tea they have at GNC, and if it comes down to it I will try that but I hate tea so I would have to literally gag it down :(

On a completely different note, it has been 20 years ago today that my Grandma Busico passed away. She is another testament that you NEED to go to the dr. She didn't believe in vaccinations, or going to the dr for anything routine. She would only go if she was extremely sick. She started with cervical cancer which we all know can be caught if we do our yearly exams, but since she didn't, before they could catch it it had spread through her entire body. So again, PLEASE do your routine check-ups for everything you should. I remember my Grandma Busico passing away being one of the 3 times I have ever seen my Dad cry. The second was when I told him I was pregnant with Syd, and the 3rd was when my Grandma passed away just recently. It reminded him a lot of his mom. I don't remember my Grandma Busico a whole lot, unfortunately. I lived in Ogden my whole life until I was 14, so I only saw her a couple times a year when I would come spend time with my Dad. I do remember that she was a neat freak big time. I'm sure that's where me and my dad get it from. She was a loud person. She was German, so even when she spoke it seemed as though she were yelling. She lived for her kids and her grandkids. In her eyes, us grandkids could do no wrong. Although I didn't know her, I still miss her. I hope her and my Grandma Lue are hanging out together keeping an eye on all of us, and hanging out until we can all be together again someday.

Most amazing picture EVER!!!

My Uncle Jerel took a photo of my Grandma from my wedding, and photoshopped it to look like the most amazing picture I have ever seen. He had one framed and displayed it at her services for us, and just sent us the link to be able to share it with everyone (and print one out for ourselves!). I can't wait to print mine, and hang it in my house for everyone to see :)

Santa video

My friend Erin made a post about this site...www.portablenorth.tv/home/. You can upload info so Santa will send a personal message to your kids. I checked it out, and think I'm going to do it for my kids. It looks pretty neat, so I wanted to share it with you guys to do for your kids if you'd like to.

Happy 101

Hayley at Gone with the Twins kindly gave me this award, so I am going to keep it going. Everyone could use a little award once in a while to make our day right!

Here are the rules... list 10 things that make you happy, and try to make one of those things something that happened for/to you today, and then tag your 5 bloggers that make you smile to win said award and keep the awards going!

1.The thing that made me happy for today was waking up next to my hubby! Anth leaves for work at 5:30 most mornings, so on the mornings he doesn't have to work I love rolling over when the alarm goes off and seeing him laying next to me!

2. I love seeing how much my kids have grown up! The last few days I have noticed that Syd seems to be growing into her body, and becoming a really beautiful pre-teen. She cares more about how she looks, and what she wears lately and although that scares me a little I can't believe how much she has grown just this year. Dominic is learning more and more everyday. I was watching him read this morning, and I couldn't believe some of the words that were a piece of cake for him to read. I'm not quite ready for him to be so big yet. Then there is my little Tasia. My little spitfire attitude child. I love her death! She is going to give us a run for our money, but she amazes me everyday with the things she says and does.

3. I am unbelievable thankful for my entire family. They have all been SO supportive with my Grandma passing away, and I don't know how I could have made it through without them. We all sat around and talked about memories of my Grandma. There were constant text messages from each other asking how we were doing. My Aunt Dolores made a big meal for all of us, and sent my mom some pretty flowers. Anth's mom kept the kids while we were in the hospital that last day with my Grandma sitting by her bedside while she passed, and she also kept them overnight so I could have a night to relax. That helped so much! I couldn't ask for a better family than the one I have. On the same note, I am also thankful for the friends who have been there and supported me through such a rough time!

4. I love getting my hair and nails done. Thank goodness for my sister doing my hair for free, or I couldn't do it as often as I like. I feel like those are the things I can do for myself to make myself feel girly and pretty. Also I feel like taking care of myself is a good way to keep my hubby happy. A lot of times I think we let ourselves go, but I think in order to have a happy family and happy marriage you have to take care of yourself sometimes too. You have to feel good about yourself, and not down about how you look. That may sound snobby, but think about it...if you don't like they way you look and are feeling bad about yourself you aren't in a very cheerful mood and your bad mood will rub off on your family or people around you. So taking care of ourselves is definitely a must!

5. Italian food definitely has to be on my list! I love when we have our Busico family Christmas party, and my Grandpa Tony makes his famous Italian meatballs. NOBODY can make meatballs like he can. I love all the other dishes too! The lasagna, the spaghetti...there are so many to name. My mouth is watering just thinking about it all lol

6. I love quiet rainy days. I love the calm that seems to fall over things when it rains. I love when it is warm enough during the rain to open my windows, and let the smell of rain into my house. I love that rainy days are the perfect day to just lay on the couch and watch a movie or read a book.

7. I love waking up to a clean house. It seems to start my day off so much more relaxed, because I don't feel like I have a million things I need to do. Then I can spend more time with my kids.

8. I love listening to Tasia and my nephew Havyn play with each other. They say some of the funniest things, and they are really lovey and nice to each other when they think nobody is watching or listening lol Today when Havyn got here Tasia walked up to him and told him she had missed him. I love their sweet innocence!

9. I love hugs and kisses from my kids and my husband. I hope that as my kids get older they won't feel like giving me hugs and kisses is dumb anymore, because it will make me sad. I love when they come up and just want to sit in my lap and cuddle with me while we watch TV or while I am reading to them. I think that kisses and hugs from Anth show more affection than anything else in the world can.

10. Last, but not least I love alone time with Anth and my kids. It doesn't happen very often for any of us, but I love when we can just hang out and spend some one-on-one time talking to each other. Dominic almost always wakes up about half an hour before he has to be up for school, and we have had some of our best talks during that time. Sydney and I usually get our time in after school for a little bit, and I love to hear about all the things she did at school that day. Or even the things that she considers "drama" with her friends. Tasia and I get our one-on-one time during naptime. A lot of times she doesn't fall asleep, so she will come cuddle on the couch with me and we will watch a movie together. Anth and I try to make it a point to get that one-on-one time after the kids go to bed each night even if just for a short time. Occaisionally, we get a sitter and will just go to dinner then come home to just spend some nice quiet time without the kids. Life is hectic, so it's all those times with each of them that I cherish the most :)

Now I hope that those of you I tag will keep the award going. I would love to hear all the things that make you guys happy! I tag....

1. Bethany at The Grundvig's
2. Melissa at Enjoy...for these are the days (I know Hayley tagged her too, but oh well lol)
3. Angie at R & A Curtis
4. Erin at Derek and Erin
5. Joanna at The Carter Family

Have fun guys!

P.S. I took out my extensions today to give my hair a break, and I feel completely bald!!!! I need a trim, and we need to dye my hair again to make it match the extensions because my hair has faded.

It happened...

One of the things I have dreaded most happened last night. You will probably think I am crazy, but oh well I don't care lol Dom came in last night after we had gone to bed, and said Tasia had gotten the scissors and was cutting a bunch of paper. I went in to take them from her, and I could see hair everywhere. I kept looking for a doll hoping she had cut it's hair, but I eventually had to look at her and unfortunately it wasn't the doll's hair she cut :( I love Tasia's hair! It's down to her waist, thick and pretty, and I didn't want to cut it at all (just trims)! I have always told her that only Aunt Stephy is allowed to cut her hair, and that she is only allowed to use scissors with mom or dad's help. Apparently no matter how hard I tried it was going to happen anyway. I know all little girls do it, but I was hoping to prevent it with her. Luckily it's just in the front, and I think my sister can just do some layers to fix it. I will literally cry if we have to take any length off the back. I got teary-eyed last night when I saw it at first. You can think I am crazy if you want, but like I said I really love how pretty her hair is!

I must be losing my mind :)

It's official I am losing my mind!!! Anthony has talked about doing the Ultimate Combat fighting since I met him (For those of you who don't know what that is, it's the Salt Lake version of UFC). I have always told him NO WAY!!! It's ok to watch other people do it, but there is no way I could watch my husband be up in that ring. Well lately he has been bugging about it more and more, so I finally gave in...well kind of. I told him that if I see him put in a good effort to train and workout for at least 2 months that we would talk about it after the 2 months is up. I don't want him to go in there clueless like some people do, and think that it's just like street fighting. It's way more technical than that, and I want to know that he has at least the basics to know what to do in the different circumstances he could be put into. He wants to lose more weight before he does it, so that he is in a lower weight class too. I don't want him starving to lose weight, so I told him he has to do that the healthy way too for me to consider giving into him doing it. That kind of makes me sound like a psycho wife, but really that's not what I am doing. I just want him to do things the right way, and not just jump into it because it looks like fun. I wanted him to stop after the first time if he loses, but he wants to do it at least one more time if he loses so he can try to improve on the things that caused his first loss for the second fight. I don't know where this is going to go, but I know I am going to be a nervous wreck if he does end up doing it!

Christmas program

Sydney and Dominic had their Christmas program at their church last night. It was really good! They got to be little angels who came down to see the birth of baby Jesus. They both did really well, and I was definitely proud of them. Dom would sing really loud until he noticed one of us looking right at him, and he'd get shy and put his head down. When the girl who played Mary came out holding a baby Tasia was convinced that it was the real baby Jesus and she wouldn't stop freaking out, because she wanted to see baby Jesus! We had to track the girl down after the program, so that we could show Tasia it was just a doll lol

Taking a que from Hayley...

Once in a while Hayley posts some random thoughts she is having, and right now I have about a million of them running through my head so I'm going to post mine too.

*Why is it that I can clean all day long, and by the next day or even within hours you can't even tell I cleaned???

*I feel like I have so much to do to get ready for Christmas still, and I don't even know where to start. We have been a little sidetracked, and although I had every intention of having my shopping done by now I don't. I have 1 gift for Dom and Tasia, and 2 for Syd. We haven't even started on stockings. I want to go shopping this weekend, but I don't want to put up with the crowds. Syd wants some shirts from Aeropostale though, so I may just have to suck it up and deal with it because they have their stuff 50-70% off right now. I'd be crazy to pass up a deal like that.

*Money is seriously the root of all evil! If life didn't revolve around who could afford to do what or get what with their money I think people wouldn't be nearly as stressed out or depressed, and the world would be a better place.

*I am sad to go say goodbye to my Aunt Jeri tonight. She is the last one of my mom's siblings here from out-of-state, but she leaves tomorrow so we are going to go over there and visit with her before she goes.

*I need a vacation!!! I need to just get away from here and focus on having a good time with my kids and my husband. When I am at home I stress so bad about everything, and I think getting away to a different environment would do us all some good.

*I love Christmastime!!! I don't like that it is so cold, but I love all of the traditions and the lights and spending time with family. Some of our traditions are: Christmas Eve pjs (just like a lot of other people), baking a cake for Jesus' birthday to remind my kids that Christmas is about more than just presents, breakfast casserole and orange julius on Christmas morning at my parents...there are a ton more, but I will stop there. I would love to hear about some of everyone elses traditions too!

*This holiday season is going to be a hard one, but I know if we are all there for each other we will make it through it. My mom is used to going to Ogden on Christmas Eve to pick up my Grandma, so she can come out here and spend Christmas with us. She even buys my Grandma a new pair of Christmas pjs like the rest of us. I want to try to think of something to keep her busy, so that she doesn't get too depressed on Christmas Eve thinking about all of that :( We bake the cake on Christmas Eve, but that doesn't take very long. Any ideas???

Stupid computer!!!

Aren't computers suppose to make our lives easier??? Well 2 days ago I got a message saying I had a trojan virus (thanks to limewire!). No big deal right. All I have to do is dump my computer which should be easy since I have a disc I just put in that does it for me....WRONG!!!! The dumb disc wouldn't work. I tried it for 2 days. Then my aunt told me she had a link for a program that you download and it does it for you. No such luck with that either. Finally this morning I decided to give my disc one last try, and if it didn't work I was asking Hayley (yep I said you Hayley) to ask your tech savvy hubby how I can do it another way. Low and behold the last time it worked, and now I don't have to bug Hayley and her hubby for help. Then when I get it all up and running the stupid arrow for my mouse is missing. It would move across things, but I couldn't tell where it was until something lit up because I couldn't see the arrow. I had to shut it down again, and it finally magically reappeared! I was ready to throw this stupid thing through the window after 2 days of fighting with it.

Trip down memory lane!

Obviously we have been going through my Grandma's stuff trying to get rid of things we can, and keeping things we want. Well my Grandma had a ton on videos, and since my girls have a VCR (I know old school right!) in their room my mom let us take them. There's a lot of Disney movies and stuff in there, but I also found some of my old dance tapes. I watched them, and all I could do was laugh. My very first performance from when I was like 5 or 6 was on one of them. There were dances to Can't Touch This, Good Vibrations by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and also The Right Stuff by New Kids on the Block LOL I laughed so hard watching them! Of course there was the crazy makeup and hair that contributed to all that laughing. I needed that laugh too. I'm sure some of my friends from Ogden will read this, and remember those days as well as I do!

We had services for my Grandma on Thursday, and it turned out really nice. She would have been proud! My Uncle Jerel took a picture of my Grandma and photoshopped it so that it looks like Jesus is standing next to her looking at her, and putting his hand on her shoulder. It is the neatest picture I have ever seen in my life. He is suppose to email us a copy of it, so as soon as he does I will post it. I hope you all had a great weekend! We spent it putting up Christmas decorations, and decorationg gingerbread men cookies :)

Going through the motions

Things have been so crazy busy since my Grandma passed away that I don't think it has truly hit me yet. On Sunday I was a walking zombie (I don't remember the drive to and from Sandy to get our kids), but since then it has been nothing but getting together with family and trying to get things figured out. Yesterday was hard, because everyone but me was in Ogden cleaning my Grandma's house. I was really on the fence of whether or not it was something I even wanted to be involved in, but I did want to be there to have the comfort of being around family. I was tending and when the kids laid down for a nap I felt really lonely. I had a bit of a breakdown last night at bedtime too. Tomorrow is my Grandma's "celebration of life". She didn't want a funeral. She wanted us to do a get together, and celebrate her life and how she impacted each one of us rather than sit around and cry for hours. After that when everyone leaves and I don't have stuff to do every single night I am scared that it's going to get even harder :(

"Holes in the Floor of Heaven"

I am the type of person who relates music to life events, and right now this is the song that seems to fit best with my life.....

Holes in the Floor of Heaven by Phil Vassar

One day shy of eight years old,
when grandma passed away.
I was a broken heart little boy,
Blowing out that birthday cake.
How I cried when the sky let go,
With a cold and lonesome rain.
My mom smiled, said: "Don't be sad child.
"Grandma's watching you today."

Cuz there's holes in the floor of Heaven,
And her tears are pouring down.
That's how you know she's watching,
Wishing she could be here now.
And sometimes if you're lonely,
Just remember she can see.
There's holes in the floor of Heaven
And she's watching over you and me.

Seasons come and seasons go,
Nothings stays the same,
I grew up, fell in love,
Met a girl who took my name.
Year by year, we made a life,
In this sleepy little town.
I thought we'd grow old together,
Lord, I sure do miss her now.

But there's holes in the floor of Heaven,
And her tears are pouring down.
That's how I know she's watching,
Wishing she could be here now.
And sometimes when I'm lonely,
I remember she can see.
There's holes in the floor of Heaven,
And she's watching over you and me.

Well my little girl is 23,
I walk her down the aisle.
It's a shame her Mom can't be here now,
To see her lovely smiles.
The throw the rice, I catch her eye,
As the rain starts coming down.
She takes me hand; says: "Daddy don't be sad,
"Cuz I know Mama's watching now."

And there's holes in the floor of Heaven
And her tears are puring down.
That's how you know she's watching,
Wishing she could be here now.
And sometimes when I'm lonely,
I just remember she can see.
Yes, there's holes in the floor of Heaven,
And she's watching over you and me.

The power of God

Most of you know by now that my Grandma passed away on Saturday afternoon. It was extremely hard and I miss her more than I ever could have imagined. This is a long story, so sit back and relax. The ending is nothing short of amazing though, so it's worth it.



On Friday my Grandma had been having pain 10 times worse than it have ever been before. The dr decided to run some more xrays to try and figure out what was going on. He also put a feeding tube in her nose, because she still wasn't eating anything at all. When they got the results of her xrays there were multiple hip and pelvic fractures that hadn't been there that hadn't been there when they took xrays on Wednesday. Obviously they needed to look into it more, so they had to run even more tests on her. Saturday morning my mom called me at 6 in the morning and said it wasn't good at all. My Grandma was diagnosed with blood cancer that was going through her body and braking all of her bones :( Their options were to keep her on pain meds and since her body can't metabloize it she would go fast, or take her off of the meds and she would suffer but her life would be prolonged. Obviously we aren't heartless, so we chose to keep her on pain meds. She had also started having what they call the death rattle. It just sounds like when you have a rattle and need to cough. I went right away to the hospital with my parents, so I could be with her. When I walked into that room it wasn't my Grandma I was looking at. She was scary thin and yellow. She was moaning in pain and struggling to breath, and she had that ugly tube coming out of her nose. The dr and a nurse came in about a half an hour after we got there, and told us that lab results showed she only had hours left to live. They wanted to know if they could take the tube out of her nose, keep her on pain meds and agitation meds to just keep her comfortable while she went. We agreed that would be best for her, so from there on out that's what they did. We called all our family, so they could come say goodbye. I even called Anth, so that he could get a sitter and come be with me because I knew I couldn't go through it without him. Even though she had been sleeping all day I like to think she felt us there with her. Anyway...all day long she had been struggling to breathe and moaning while she slept. It was really hard to listen to her, but the dr and nurses all said she was comfortable and fine and all of us continued to sit with her all day long. About 4:15 in the afternoon 2 of my cousins husbands came to give her a final blessing. I sat and held her hand as they did and just watched her. You could feel everything get really calm about halfway through the blessing, and my Grandma's breathing even started to calm down and become quieter. Once they finished the blessing I continued to sit with her. I rubbed her hair and told her I loved her, and my mom laid on her and cried. I felt so bad for her. I tried to comfort her, but I knew nothing I said would. My mom and I both looked at my Grandma and one single tear came out of her eye, and then she took her last breath. It was nothing short of amazing! She had been struggling all day, and within minutes of that final blessing she just had that one tear, and then she was gone. I know it's sad, but God was there with us. I don't care how religious you are, or even what religion you practice that was a very spiritual experience. I will miss my Grandma like crazy for as long as I live, but that experience helped comfort me, because she was so peaceful and I know God was there the entire time!

It's really hard

I know right now everyone is trying to be all positive and uplifting, but with the situation at hand I just don't think I can. I'm just going to apologize right now for all my negativeness (if that's even a word). Yes I am thankful for all the great things and people that I have in my life, but one of the most important people in my life is not ok right now so it's taking it's toll on me. My grandma ended up being admitted to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. They have ran tons of tests and poked and prodded at her nonstop. They took away all of her dignity, and they continue to use her as a pincushion. Her sugars were scary low, and that was what was causing her dilusions. They have to poke her every hour to check her blood sugars. We were told yesterday that she has advanced liver failure. Her liver is dying, and she is too old for a transplant. Unless one of us can donate to her (if it's even an option) then we are losing her. We don't know how fast it's going to be, but she is in pain. Apparently your liver dying is a VERY painful process. Since her liver is dying toxins are being released into her body which is causing her to feel sick. Since she is sick she doesn't want to eat, and since she isn't eating her sugar levels are low. She is dehydrated, and no amount of water is helping. She is retaining water in her legs and hands which just baffles me since she is dehydrated. I'm confused and upset, and I just keep hoping and praying that when the specialist comes in today he can give us good news about one of us being able to donate. As far as I know many of us are willing to. Anth and I have talked about me possibly donating. He was surprised that was something I would do, but my grandma is like my second mom and I can't stand the thought of losing her. Please continue to keep her in your prayers, because really at this point it's all we can do :(

Prayers needed again

My Grandma is going downhill fast, and I would really appreciate prayers from anyone who is willing to help. Since her recent diagnosis she has slept for days at a time. She doesn't know what day it is even, and since she doesn't know what day it is she will think she has taken her medication when she really hasn't. My Aunt Jennifer is out here for the week to help her. She just text my mom and told her that my Grandma can no longer be left alone. She is too nauseous to eat and she isn't taking her meds, and she has asked my Aunt multiple times where she is. My family and I are extremely worried about her, and we don't know what is going to happen. When my Aunt leaves on Friday my Grandma is going to have to come stay with my parents, but we are just going to have to play it by ear from there on out.

I want, I want, I want!

Anthony and I have been talking about buying a house a lot lately, and I have been getting online to look at houses available and I WANT one now lol That sounds really bratty of me doesn't it. I would love to stay in Stansbury, but I don't know. Anth wants a house that needs a little work done to it, so that he can fix it up and make it our own. I am ok with that. I would love to take a HUD home (depending on the shape it's in), and fix it up. I found one house on utahrealestate.com. It's a HUD home for only $114,900. It has 5 bedrooms and 1 and 3/4 baths. It needs some work in the yard which is great because Anth really wants to do our landscaping himself, and some definite painting done to it (the kitchen is flourescent green!!!), but other than that it looks great. Anth says to call on it, so we'll just have to see I guess. My friend's uncle actually use to own the house and she says it has a big basement. Sounds perfect for Anth's "man cave" that he wants! Now is such a great time to buy with the first time home buyer tax credit being extended until June too. A lot of things point to it being a great time for us to buy, so we'll just have to do a little more research to make sure we are ready!

Not at all what we were thinking!!!

My Grandma finally went to the dr yesterday to get the results from her CT scan, and to figure out why she is still in so much pain when she pulled her muscle a month and a half ago. They had originally thought she was having problems with her pancreas and that she had a pulled groin muscle, but that's not the case at all! She has a swollen liver from bile stones. She has osteoporosis, and she has a broken bone in her back! No wonder the poor lady can barely move. They won't do surgery on her back, so I don't know what they are going to do for her besides pain meds. They gave her other meds to take care of her other problems, so basically she is a walking pharmacy now.

Today I am thankful for...

*The sweet text messages that I woke up to from my husband.
*Self-control
*Grandparents who are willing to tend, so my hubby and I can have date nights
*Heart-to-heart talks with good friends
*Cuddling with my babies
*All the "spunky" little attitudes in this house that keep me laughing

I love my hubby!!!

I just had to get on here and brag to all of you about what a great husband I have! Anth knows I have been stressed lately about keeping everything perfect for inspection, and he also knows how much I LOVE the Twilight series. So today he calls me on his break to surprise me and tell me that he arranged for his mom to tend (Thanks Cindie!), so that he can take me out to dinner on Saturday and to go see New Moon. I can't wait! I'm sure New Moon will be packed, and we will have to buy our tickets early but I don't even care. I couldn't ask for a more thoughtful husband!

2 down and 3 to go

Syd woke up with a really sore throat today. She has been exposed to swine flu and strep throat, so it could be either or it could be nothing. Obviously I am hoping for nothing, but you never really know. THIS is one reason why I hate the cold seasons. Everyone gets sick, and unfortunately there aren't many ways to avoid it.

Today I am thankful for...

*Warm baths to soak in
*Church for my family to learn
*Plants to bring life and color into our home
*My nephews who, although wild, know how to give us all a good laugh!
*Juice to give my family vitamins to help them get over sickness
*Innocence...it's rare in kids anymore, but I am so glad that my kids still have it

7 stitches later

Anth, being the nice husband that he is, was cleaning the house for me today while I was at my purse party. While he was cleaning a mirror that we have somehow a big chunk broke off, and it sliced his finger! That man is SO accident prone. I swear as soon as he gets over one injury he is on to his next. We took him to the ER, and luckily they weren't too busy. The nurse that cleaned him up and got him ready for stitches wasn't exactly bright though. She didn't numb him before she cleaned the cut, so the poor guy had to deal with the pain of the soap and her scrubbing. Then she couldn't figure out how to wrap it once the dr was done. I really think Tasia could've done a better job wrapping it lol Anyway...the dr said the skin won't make it, so it will eventually shrivel up and fall off. Gross huh! For now it is serving as a protective layer to the exposed tissue underneath until it can heal. The nurse who checked him in said she thought his visit should be free since he was cleaning the house. Wouldn't it be nice if that were really the case???

Swine flu

Yes folks, the swine flu has started it's rounds in the Quintana household. Saturday night we all went to dinner then my oldest sister got it, my little sister got it, her boyfriend got it and now my baby has it :( She has had a horribly high fever that has her laying around doing nothing. It takes motrin and tylenol a full hour to bring the fever down. Once it's down she is ok, but it sure kicks her butt when it is up. Her dr also told us we need to watch for signs on pnuemonia, because she doesn't have a booger nose but she is coughing stuff up (gross I know) which means it is in her lungs. Poor girl doesn't want to eat, but she is drinking fluids and her dr said as long as she is doing that we don't need to worry. We started her on her tamiflu last night, but she is contagious for 7 days!!! I will be VERY shocked if none of the rest of us end up with it.

Today I am thankful for great health insurance! We only paid $15 for 2 prescriptions, and I have a friend who with insurance paid $50 for the Tamiflu alone.

Waking up early really can be productive

I have been up since 5:30, because my mind is going a million miles an hour with all the things I need to get done around here. We have inspection AGAIN, so psycho clean mode HERE I COME! I have already done 2 loads of laundry, cleaned my kitchen and picked up my living room today though and it's only 7:19 in the morning. It's going to be a productive day...if I get myself off the computer lol Just kidding! I would go crazy if I sat on here all day. There is only so much you can do on the computer before you start repeating things and you get bored.

Now for my list of things I am thankful for...

*Good health
*Quiet time in the morning before my kids get up
*Computers and internet to google things I am clueless about!
*Weekend breakfast that my hubby cooks for us
*Making new family traditions with my kids
*Decorating for the holidays to get everyone in the spirit of things

Time to get kids ready for school. Have a great day everyone!

Just call me slacker...

I know I am suppose to be posting everyday about things that I am thankful for, but this weekend was so hectic I never even had a chance to get on the computer. Saturday night we went to Benihana's for my grandpa's birthday dinner. It was SO yummy, but SO expensive!!! Definitely not a dinner you do all the time with a family of 5. I'm glad we got to go though. The kids were amazed at the cool stuff the cooks could do. They were all very good, and I was definitely pleased. So I guess one thing I am thankful for is well mannered children :)



Sunday I decided to go help my mom do all the things she does to help my grandma. My mom goes up every Sunday after church, and takes my grandma grocery shopping for the last few years. Recently my grandma pulled her groin muscle and within 2 weeks pulled it again, so she can barely get around. She is walking with a cane, and since it hurts her to move she doesn't move much and it is causing her muscles to become stiff. She can't clean her house, and laundry is out of the question because it is in the basement and she can't do stairs at all. My poor grandma hasn't left her house in a month, because she can't walk very well. On top of all that she has been having some major stomach problems. Her favorite foods (like milk and cheese) kill her stomach. They think her pancreas is going out, so she has to have a CT scan done on Wednesday.
My uncle Mike will be here today from California, but she was stressed about her house not being clean enough for him so while my mom did all the grocery shopping I did all her cleaning and laundry. I came home feeling like a horrible grandaughter, because I don't get up to Ogden to see her enough and she isn't getting any younger :( Anth and I have decided that we need to make it up there at least once a month. I would hate to lose her and have that regret that I didn't get to spend time with her when I am perfectly capable of getting up there.

My 5 things

I just got done reading Hayley's blog, and she challenged everyone to list 5 things you love. There are stipulations though. It can't be your family, and it has to be something strictly for you. Be a little selfish, because sometimes you need it! So here are my 5 things.....

1-Reading a book in the bath. I love reading period, but to be able to shut the door and just relax and get lost in a book while in the bath is completely different.

2-Going dancing. Yes I know the only place to do that is a bar or club, but I love getting on the dance floor with my sister and my friends and having a good time. My legs aren't always so happy with me the next day, but it's worth it.

3-Watching my shows uninterrupted. It doesn't happen often, but I love when I can focus my attention on it and not miss something because I had to go take care of something else.

4-Purses!!! I LOVE purses!!! They don't have to be designer. I don't care if they are from Walmart as long as they are cute. Anth says I have too many purses, but I think I need more (Guess that's why I am having another purse party in 2 weeks lol)

5-Shoes. I think shoes make an outfit. I wish I had more money to spend on shoes for myself, because I definitely would. I prefer high heels of any type (boots, sandals, heels etc.). I don't know why since Anth is only about 3 inches taller than me, but I think heels can dress up just about anything.

I hope all of you will list your 5 things too, so I can read them!

Today I am thankful for....

*Inspections, because they keep our townhomes in great shape (We have another one coming, so I have to keep reminding myself of this since I stress so much!)
*Parents who give me a break when it is very much needed
*In-laws...without them I wouldn't have the great husband that I do
*Movies...to bring our family together for a nice, relaxing night
*Mr Clean Magic Erasers...They seriously take everything off!
*Recipe books and blogs...So I can learn new things when my family and I get sick of the same meals all the time
*Social networking sites....It's great to reconnect with people that I haven't talked to in years!
*Naptime...My quiet time!

There are lots of things I am thankful for, but we have a whole month left still so I will stop there. Did any of you see my grandpa in the Tooele paper the other night? It's going to be his 85th birthday on the 9th, so my dad and aunt put his picture in there. I hope that when I am 85 I am in half as good shape as he is! That man still goes golfing constantly and even dancing. He is also an avid visitor at the senior center for all of their events. I think just last year he was their president. He probably has more of a social life than I do lol I only have 2 grandparents left (him and my mom's mom), so I am thankful that they are both in fairly good health. I am so glad that my kids get the chance to know them, because that isn't always the case. I lost all but 1 of my other grandparents before Syd was even born, so she never knew any of them. My great grandma passed away when Syd was almost 2, so Syd doesn't remember her. She used to always say that she loved Syd's little spunky attitude. She thought kids who listened were too boring lol, but kids that rebelled were fun to her. Not your general point of view from an adult, especially from an older generation :)

Positive, Positive, Positive

I have been having a hard time thinking positive lately. I have been kind of overwhelmed with trying to get things done, and dealing with Syd's hormones and my own lol So I have decided to jump on the bandwagon of listing things I am thankful for this month in hopes that it will help me to remember to be positive even when things are a little tough.

For today I am thankful for.....

*A roof over our heads
*Wild children....because it means they are healthy and happy
*Clorox wipes
*Amazing and supportive family members
*Good friends to talk to
*A husband who works hard, and is a great father to our kids!
*Random strangers who brighten your day by giving you a smile and saying hello for no good reason :)

Halloween pics

We had a great Halloween! We started by painting pumpkins, playing the doughnut game (where you eat the doughnut off the string with no hands), having cupcakes and munchies. Then we went trick-or-treating in Overlake for a bit with my sis, and had dinner at my parents. My mom and I took the kids out trick-or-treating a little longer while Anth and my dad watched baseball. It was a long, but fun day!


Tasia didn't want to walk anymore, so she hung from Havyn's stroller and let Stephy push her lol
I threw this pic in, so you could see my extensions from the back. HUGE difference from my short hair!

Syd and Dom playing the doughnut game

Dom and Gabe

Havyn...him and Tasia had a little help since they are younger

Tasia...she gave up after a while, and said she didn't want to do it anymore because she thought everyone was laughing at her. My poor sensitive baby :(

All the kids before we left

Tasia and Havyn painting their pumpkins

Dom and Gabe

Orphan

Has anyone seen this movie? Anth and I watched it last night, and I was seriously creeped out!!! Anth started to fall asleep at first, but then this creepy little girl did something so off the wall that he ended up sitting straight up. It was one of those jump out of your seat, cover your mouth in disgust kind of creepy shows. To top it off it had a crazy, don't know how someone could think of that kind of twist at the end. If you watch it, or already have let me know what you think. Maybe I am just a sissy, but I really don't think that is the case with this. I had to watch something funny when it was over to get out of the dark mood it put me in!

On a brighter note...I hope everyone has a great Halloween! We are going to my sister's to paint pumpkins with the kids, do a few games and then go trick-or-treating. Can't wait to see everyone's pictures once they update their blogs with their fesitive nights events :)

Goofy kids

After playing outside for a little bit, and getting wet and cold Syd, Dom and Gabe came in to drink hot chocolate and warm up. This is how the little goofballs drank it....

LOL you would think it would be easier to just pick up the cup, but apparently not!

Are you kidding me???

I can't stand snow, so I am definitely not thrilled that it snowed the last 2 days. The first day it didn't stick out here in Stansbury, but last night it did. I love Christmas and all the other great holidays during winter, but I would prefer to still be looking at the green grass during those holidays. I know I am in the wrong state to complain about winter, and I would do something about that but there's one tiny problem...I won't leave my mom! Yes I am a mommy's girl. I won't even move to Salt Lake, because as far as I'm concerned it would be too far from my mom. Nope, Stansbury is plenty far for me. So needless to say I am stuck in this disgusting, cold weather that I can't stand. I think snow is pretty before it turns all brown and slushy and gross, but I could admire all that prettiness in a picture and be perfectly happy!

Raking leaves = fun for kids

Saturday morning we went to my parents house to drop off some glasses that Anth had picked up for my dad. While we were there my mom offered us breakfast, and my dad somehow convinced the kids it would be really fun to rake leaves lol He made a contest out of it, and rewarded them with money, treats and a new big glitter bouncy ball each. In the end my dad had 4 bags less of leaves to rake, and in their yard they have some many leaves that EVERY bag counts (My mom said they do at least 50 bags a year). It was a win/win situation for them all! Dom keeps asking when they can go back and rake more leaves, so they can get more prizes from Papa.

What a rip off!!!!!

Last night there was a little bit of an incident....Dom was at my sister's house playing with my nephew and apparently SOMEONE threw rocks at her back window in her car, and it was shattered. The frustrating part is that neither of them have the same story, so we are both having to pay for it. While we were there helping her clean up she called a company called Safelite about fixing it for her, and the original quote they gave her was $409!!! She put him on hold for a few to talk to us about it, and when she got back to him she said that was a lot of money and we were going to check around a few other places. So what does the guy say..."Well I can give it to you for $370" Um excuse me if it's that easy to lower the price why don't they just start off with that! They think that they can just screw people out of an extra $40 basically, and that nobody is going to question it. Unfortunately this crooked company happens to be the least expensive, so we are going to go with them but I think it's BS that companies can screw people like that! Maybe we should all start saying things cost too much, and we can get a lower price that easily.

Looks like someone is getting smarter

I heard today that the government is considering having sex ed classes available that the parents can choose whether they want their kids to learn abstinence or safe sex. It's a definitely a good compromise since everyone has their own opinions on the matter, so I really hope they follow through with it.

Pumpkin Walk

Me, Anth and my sister took the kids to the Pumpkin Walk out here this past weekend. They all had tons of fun, and loved getting dressed up. We also went with Anth's Aunt Tammy, Nikki and her 2 girls. The only part I didn't like was when someone stole Dom's candy bag :( It had his candy the booths were handing out, the stuff he won paying games and a few extra little treats we bought him. Some people are just rude!!! The kids were all nice and shared their candy with him, and Anth went and bought him a new whoopie cushion so he wouldn't be sad though. Afterwards we went to La Frontera to eat. YUMMY!!! Here's a pic of all the kids dressed up. Syd is a honeybee, Dom is the Demon of War (his eyes light up red), Gabe is Jason and we decided to dress Tasia and Havyn up together this year so they are both pirates. Tasia says she is a princess pirate. We got tons of compliments on how cute they all looked :)

Proud mama!!!

I got a phone call from the kids principal yesterday, and apparently she asked all the teachers to nominate someone in their class to receive a special call home from her and Dominic was nominated by his teacher!!! She said she loves having Dominic in her class. He follows all the rules, and reminds his peers to do the same. He is always on task, and does what he's asked as soon as he's asked. There was a bunch of other positive stuff, and she is going to send the note home for me to have. I am so proud of my little man for doing so good! When he first started school I was a little worried, because Dominic has a bit of a temper but I guess I don't need to worry anymore. Anth and I must be doing something right in raising these kids. Keep up the good work buddy! Mom and Dad are very proud of you :)

It's going to be one of THOSE days!

Tasia woke up at 630 this morning, and she's my sleep in until 10 child. She has done nothing but cry and whine. She doesn't want to do anything for herself when she is perfectly capable, and usually doesn't want anyone to do anything for her. It just so happens that all of this has been going on while I am trying to get the house cleaned up. I've done quite a bit already, but I think the rest is going to have to wait because my baby wants me to cuddle with her and that is definitely more important. I just hope the whining stops. I don't care very much for whining and crying when kids are old enough to communicate without it. Hopefully she will take a nap after lunch, and she will be my happy little sweetheart again.

Just me rambling again

Going to the haunted house this past weekend has really put me into the Halloween spirit. I loved it! Of course I was freaked out (especially when my husband left me in the maze!), but it was a lot of fun. I decided to keep up the spirit a little and make some Halloween cupcakes. We did them last year too, and the kids had a lot of fun so I'm thinking it's a tradition I am going to keep up. Just like last year though my eyes were bigger than my stomach, and I made WAY too many. I wanted chocolate and vanilla ones, so I now I have 35 cupcakes sitting on my counter waiting to be decorated. Anybody want some lol Hayley and Melissa I know neither of you are very far away, so come on over and take a few off my hands!

Now for the interesting haunted house story. I guess it's not that interesting, but some parts were pretty funny. Like when we pulled into the parking lot and my sister tells us all "I am NOT going in there! I will wait for you guys in the car, but I refuse to go in there!" Obviously we weren't going to let that happen. It felt like we were never going to get in there, because there was like 3 different areas that were lines waiting to get in. There were probably 4 mazes which I hate. One of them happened to be in the area with clowns, and my poor sister is scared of clowns so since she was acting freaked out of course they targeted her. Then there was the maze in the insane asylum where Anth left me!!! It was this really close closed in maze that was just a bunch of white walls with white sheets hanging down and people hiding in corners, and Anth turned off from our group and went another way so I lost him. I attached myself to his friend until we found him, because I wasn't about to wander through that thing alone. We had lost my sister and a few others from our group in there too. When we finally met up with Anth again Kass's girlfriend got scared by one of the people and shoved all of us backwards. My hand was being ground into the corner of the wall with the weight of 3 people on it. I seriously thought it was going to break! It hurt really bad, and still does. They had the infamous chainsaw, and those freak me out the worst. I don't know why, but just something about that thing coming at you is creepy! Oh and lets not forget about the very end where they walls were like squishy balloon type things that you had to push through, and you felt like everything was closing in around you. I am claustrophobic, so I didn't do so well with that. If there had been any other way out I would have taken it, because I didn't think I was ever going to get out of it and I couldn't breathe! Kass's girlfriend actually got so scared she took him down in one of the rooms. It was a room that was suppose to be based on the exorcist. Reagan was hiding in the corner, and she jumped out at Ginger. When Ginger grabbed Kass they both fell to the ground and she was freaked out so bad it took them a minute to get up LOL I could probably go on forever about it since it took 45 minutes to get through, but I am sure you've heard enough already.

Oh and I did get my extensions on Friday, and I love them! They are a little more high maintenance than I thought, but it's worth it. They are long!!! They are almost to the small of my back when they are straight. I have to curl them though to blend them in with my hair since my hair is so short. I will post pictures soon. I just suck at taking pictures of myself :(

Random thoughts about the next few days, and a little about crazy toddlers

Oh to be a toddler again lol At the moment I am watching Tasia and Havyn play with my skeleton hand towel. They are pretending it's biting them, screaming and then laughing their little butts off. How would it be to be so easily entertained! I think these 2 have a love/hate relationship with each other. They play together really well until (like just now) 1 of them gets mad then they beat each other up for a minute until 1 of them decides they've had enough. Then they cry it out, tell each other sorry, give each other loves and continue playing. Yes I refree them so neither 1 really gets hurt, but if I jumped into every fight they had I would be doing nothing but breaking up fights. Plus I am one of those parents who thinks kids need to be able to solve their own problems without me jumping in every time. Like I said I don't let it get to the point where they really hurt each other or anything, but I don't jump into every little tiny issue.

I am currently sitting here waiting for the mail to come, because I am anxious for my extensions to get here. My sister said if they come she will do them tomorrow for me! The last 2 packs we ordered were here on the 3rd day from when they were shipped which for this order would be today. I can hope right! It's going to be a long process to put them in. We have to dye my hair to match the extensions (we went with a dark brown), and after that's done we have to attach 200 little things of hair to sections of my hair. From what I have heard it takes like 4 or 5 hours. So that will be my whole Friday night if we do. Anth gets the exciting task of keeping track of kids while we do it. He's thrilled lol

Saturday night we are going out to dinner with my sister, her friend Stephanie and Stephanie's friend Jeremy and then heading to the haunted house. I think we have decided to go with Nightmare on 13th. It's suppose to be ranked 1 of the best in the nation, so it better be good! To be honest with you though I am such a chicken that it could probably some ridiculously cheesy haunted house and I would get freaked out. Wish me luck!

On another note we have an extra day this weekend to relax, and I am excited. Anth gets Monday off for Columbus Day. I love his days off! I love just relaxing and spending time with him doing absolutely nothing. It doesn't happen very often, so I like to take advantage of it when it does.

October is...

...one of my favorite months, because I LOVE Halloween and fall. That's not what this post is about though. October is also Breast Cancer and Domestic Violence awareness month. My mom recently had a scare with breast cancer, so it made me realize even more than before the importance of getting your mammograms religiously. I'm not at that age quite yet, but I will definitely make sure I do what I need to so I can make sure I am safe. I hope all of you do the same. Don't gamble with your life by not having your checkups.

I know there isn't any checkup you can do to be aware of domestic violence, but you can watch for signs that people you know might be being abused. You can also step in if you see something happening in public. I can't tell you how grateful I was when people would stop and ask if I was ok when "neighbor boy" was threatening me in public. It always scared him off enough that at least for the rest of the day I was safe from whatever he was doing to me. Some signs of domestic violence are...

*Becoming withdrawn from the people you used to be close to
*A major change in personality
*Only spending time with the "abuser"
*Withdrawing yourself from family
*Wearing clothes that hide bruises (long sleeve shirts in the summer for example)
*A change in confidence
*Giving up activities that are important to you

....I'm sure you can probably think of more, but that's good for now. Please don't hesitate to confront someone if you feel they are being abused. They might not tell you the truth, but at least they know you care and that if they do ever want to talk to someone about it they know you are there. Don't ever give up on someone who is being abused either. All that will do is make them feel more isolated and worthless. I want everyone who stuck by my side, even though I wasn't such a good friend through all those years, to know that I love and appreciate every single one of them. The fact that they were there for me no matter what is what gave me the strength to finally get out of such a horrible situtation.

Extensions!!!

That's right I am getting extensions! I love long hair, but unfortunately my hair is way too thin to be able to wear it long. My sister needs to pratice some different kind of extensions they have that are held in with micro links, and I have been her guinea pig with new hair styles and stuff for as long as I can remember so I am going to be again! I'm pretty excited. We ordered the hair at an outlet online, so it didn't cost me very much at all. The 1st 2 packs I ordered came yesterday, but they didn't seem like very much so we had to order some more. They should be here by the end of the week, and then we are going to schedule a time to put them in. It'll definitely be a big change, because I have had short hair for a few years now. The only time I can stand change is when it's with my hair, so it'll be good lol I will post a picture once we get them put in :)

Haunted Houses

This coming Saturday Anth, myself and some friends are all getting together to go to a haunted house. The dang things freak me out, but I think they are fun and since I haven't been since Syd was probably a year old I figured I can suck it up and go. I don't even know what ones they have anymore, or where they are. Has anyone been to any good ones that they can suggest??? All I can say is that I will definitely be making Anth walk in front of me, because I really am a big chicken. I don't want to be at the back of the group though lol I am very picky about it. It should be interesting! My sister is freaked out by them too, so we should be lots of fun to go with :)

My funny little Tasia

So obviously since I am the one who stays home with the kids Tasia and I spend ALL of our time together. You never really know how much they pay attention to the things that you say though until they repeat something out of the blue. The other day we went to a carnival at the swimming pool park, and the kids were eating red snow cones. Tasia accidentally dumped hers down the front of one of her new shirts, and I gave her that "uh oh" kind of look to which she responds by saying "It's ok mom. We have Oxyclean!" LOL Yes my child spends too much time with me, and yes I live for Oxyclean because it takes everything out. I just love her and her funny little comments she makes :)

Just thought this was funny...

I got this email today, and just thought it was funny! It just goes to show that you don't be hateful, because some people are 1 step ahead of you and you may turn out to look like the idiot in the end lol


Jennifer's wedding day was fast approaching. Nothing could dampen her excitement - not even her parent's nasty divorce. Her mother had found the perfect dress to wear and would be the best-dressed mother- of-the-bride ever. A week later, Jennifer was horrified to learn that her father's new young wife had bought the exact same dress as her mother. Jennifer asked her father's new young wife to exchange it, but she refused, 'Absolutely not, I look like a million bucks in this dress, and I'm wearing it,' she replied. Jennifer told her mother who graciously said, 'Never mind sweetheart. I'll get another dress. After all, it's your special day.' A few days later, they went shopping and did find another gorgeous dress. When they stopped for lunch, Jennifer asked her mother, 'Aren't you going to return the other dress? You really don't have another occasion where you could wear it. Her mother just smiled and replied, 'Of course I do, dear. I'm wearing it to the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding.'

Deeter Family

Some of you already know this, but my parents weren't married when they had me and they split up when I was 8 months old because my mom felt that the best thing for me would be to move back to Texas with my grandma. That way she could help her take care of me (my mom was only 17 when I was born). When I was 2 we moved back out to Utah, and a year later my mom met Mike Deeter. He was quite a bit older than her, but he was good to her and me and so they built a life together. Mike had been married previously, and had 2 kids from that marriage (Stephanie and Brian). I loved them, and grew close to them as I got older. Things between my mom and Mike didn't end up working out, so after 10 years of marriage they got divorced and shortly after my parents ended up back together...14 years later!!!! Crazy huh! Anyway...over the years I have kind of lost touch with the Deeter side of my family. Stephanie and I still talked occaisionally, and her oldest daughter Kallie texts me once in a while but that was the extent of it. They all came to my wedding 2 years ago, but still not much communication with them until recently!!! Stephanie, Brian and I have had the chance to reconnect and talk on a daily basis thanks to good old facebook. We were finally able to get together this past weekend for a BBQ. It was my family, Stephanie, her husband and her 2 girls, Brian, his wife and their son Kayden and my step-dad Mike. It was nice to sit and catch up with them. I miss all of them so much, and I hope we can all continue to stay in touch better than we have over the last few years :)

Mama Bear

Syd and one of the little neighbor girls have had some catty ongoing fued the last couple of weeks. Everyday Syd would come home, and I would expect to hear that something had happened between the 2 of them at one point or another throughout the day either at school, on the bus or during the walk home from the bus. It was getting really annoying, but I figured they are pre-teen emotional girls so they were going to have to deal with it on their own. That was until yesterday! Yesterday my daughter walked in holding her cheek. When I asked what happened she proceeds to tell me that the girl had come up to her with some smart ass remarks, and then she punched her in the face!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?! So I make Syd tell me 3 of 4 more times exactly what happened as I am staring at this lovely red mark on her face, and I tell her this has gone WAY too far and we are going to have a talk with her and her mother. As soon as I got there her mom knew why I wanted to talk to her (she has heard all the catty crap going on too). She didn't know about the hitting thing, and seemed to be quite pissed at that fact too. I'm not one of those naive moms who thinks their child never does wrong. I know my child had her fair share in all the ridiculous things going on. I just explained to her mom that it had gone too far, and that I don't care if they don't want to be friends but that I'm sure she would agree that whatever it is needs to stop now. They both needed to stop talking crap to each other and they didn't need to talk to other people about each other. Luckily I got a decent mom and she agreed completely! She had had enough of hearing about just like I had. Her daughter did get in trouble for punching my kid (which definitely needed to happen), but they both kind of agreed to either work it out or just leave each other alone!

Turbo Jam

I am considering buying the set of 5 Fat Burner Elite DVD's, and I am just wondering if any of you have tried them. I read the customer reviews on the site, but I don't know those people from adam so I want some input from anybody I do know who has done them. I love to dance, and I know dancing has always been great for my body so I figured it was worth a shot right. Plus it isn't too expensive which is a major bonus!

Family Pics 2009 by C Miller Photography continued...

The photographer (Carrie Miller) had 369 images on our photo CD. She did them all in black and white, colored and edited some to look a little different. She was VERY inexpensive too! She only charged us $22.50 per family. That's insanely cheap I think! I think I will go to her for all our pictures from now on :)

Family Pics 2009 by C Miller Photography

There are so many pics that it's hard to just post a few, so I am going to have to do these in 2 different posts so they don't get completely wacky. I think they turned out really good!

Exciting!!!

We finally got our family pictures done! The lady said she was hoping to have the cd's ready for us today, so I will post pictures as soon as we get them. Taking pictures out at the Great Salt Lake was stinky, fun and stressful! She was smart and did all of the pictures that involved kids first, because we were standing in the water and obviously it was tempting for them to not play in it and throw mud at each other. The last picture she did she had them all drawing in the sand and it went all downhill from there. My OCD self thought I was going to have a heart attack. There were my kids dressed nice in new clothes for pictures (plus we had a party to go to afterwards), and they were rolling around in the salt water and throwing mud everywhere. Tasia had it in her hair and on her face. Syd and Dom were soaked from head to toe. Needless to say we came home and cleaned off before we went to the party.

My mom and I took the kids school clothes shopping yesterday, and I have to say I LOVE KOHLS! Our savings from that place was $157. Insane huh! The kids each got some very cute things, and couldn't wait to wear them. We also went to Famous Footwear and found them all some shoes. Dom and Syd got some DC's, but they didn't have Syd's size in the ones she wanted so they are shipping them to our house free of charge. Isn't that great?!?! How many stores will do that...none that I can think of. I love that store too, and the fact that they do something like that makes me want to continue to give them my business. While we were shopping my cousin Craig's girlfriend was at the hospital having their cute baby girl!!! She had been pushing for quite a while, so they did an ultrasound to see where things were and they thought they saw an extra head. Yes folks they thought they were trying to deliver twins and hadn't known it the whole time she was pregnant! My cousin turned green at that fact, and Noelle worked twice as hard to push so they could figure out how many babies they had in there lol They only ended up with one baby, so now we have Miss Madison Kaye Day in our family. She is a healthy 8 lb 8 oz baby girl with a full head of dark hair!!!

UGH!

Saturday we are suppose to attempt to do family pictures again. I sure hope it works out this time. If not I give up, because they obviously weren't meant to be taken if they fall through twice!

Does anybody else have problems getting their kids ready for school everyday? Sydney and I fight like crazy, and Sydney and Dominic fight like crazy. Maybe it's just that Sydney isn't much of a morning person, so she doesn't like to be bugged. Every single day we fight about something. Today it was that she didn't want to wear the shoes I told her to wear, and in her words "her new school is STUPID, because they can't wear flip flops!" Yes I agree (although I see their point a little more after Haley's comment), but I still agree it's a dumb rule. However, I am not the principal and didn't make the rules, so she was directing her anger at the WRONG person! Then she freaked out, because they can't wear tank tops and I had given her a tank top but had also given her a short sleeved white shirt to put under it. Maybe it's just hormones. I have no idea, but I am sick of fighting every morning and really hope this isn't what the rest of the school year is going to be like. It kind of makes my day start out horrible, and the rest of the day I am not in a very good mood. Any suggestions???

Dumb rules!

Both of the kids had a great first day...well except when the principal stopped Syd and said they aren't allowed to wear flip flops. What kind of dumb rule is that?!?! That's all my kids own really. They have a couple of other pairs of shoes, but the majority of their shoes to match their clothes are flip flops. Other very interesting rules Syd told me about are...no binders, no folders from home unless they are kept in your backpack and no pencil boxes. All of which (besides the binder) I bought for Syd. Next year I'm not buying anything as far as school supplies until after the first day, because obviously I didn't need to waste my money this year.

I am on my 2nd day of cleaning for inspection, and I have decided I have a love/hate relationship with inspection.

*I love that someone is coming to my house to inspect it, so that I have to do nothing but focus on cleaning (mostly anyways) until it's perfect

*In the same sense though I HATE that someone is coming to my house to inspect it, because I feel like I am being evaluated

*I hate that I only get about a week (if that) notice to clean for inspection, because once I see those papers I am on a rampage! I organize closets, clean walls, clean blinds, scrub floors, clean carpets, clean out cupboards, clean out and organize my fridge...I do a whole spring cleaning, and to be honest I would love if they gave me at least 2 weeks notice so I could spend one day focusing on each room

*I love having inspections, because although I am a clean person I don't have time all the time to do all this deep cleaning that I do for inspections and I love having every little thing in my house clean and organized!

First day of school...

Yep the kiddos are officially in the 4th and 1st grade! Syd was a little nervous this morning about remembering where her class was, so I talked to her about it and after picturing it in her head she remembered. Dom couldn't remember his teachers name, but we got that taken care of too lol I still can't believe how big they both are. It makes me sad that they are growing up so fast :(

Hoedown Throwdown

Miley Cyrus - Hoedown Throwdown

Last night Dominic slept at my sister's house, so we decided to do something fun with the girls. We rented the Hannah Montana movie and ate popcorn and goodies. Then afterwards we put Syd's movie soundtrack on, and the girls put on a concert for us. Syd was even pretending to sign autographs. It was a lot of fun! They dressed up in Syd's Hannah Montana Halloween costume and danced around. Anthony and I even got up and tried to do the Hoedown Throwdown that's shown in this video with them lol It was quite interesting, but we definitely made some memories with them last night. I wish I had a video camera, so I could show you all the fun dancing and singing the girls were doing!

FYI

Dominic lost his second tooth yesterday. I told you this tooth fairy was going to go broke!

My little man!

Dom lost his first tooth last night! I just barely noticed how loose it was while we were at my parents, and on the way home we were talking about him loosing it. I told him he'll have a hole for family pictures, and he said he wanted to lose it so his teacher would see it tonight when we go meet her. I thought it was wishful thinking on his part, but as I am driving he yells "My tooth came out!!!" I didn't believe him until he showed me. The tooth fairy came to visit, and he was super excited this morning. He has another one that is really loose next to the one he lost, so I'm sure if he messes with it enough it will come out soon too. He better slow down, or the tooth fairy is going to be broke LOL

Change in plans

This weekend we were suppose to go to West Haven for my step-sister's wedding, but my sister had to schedule my nephews baptism around his dad's 2 week trip here from Iraq so there has been a change in plans. Since Anth and I are his Godparents we definitely have to be there! I'm really excited that we get to be his Godparents, and I am so touched that my sister trusts us enough to be his Godparents. I am a little nervous for the baptism itself. I don't know why. It's not like we have to do a whole lot, and there is a book that you sit there and read during the baptism that says Godparents say: (insert saying here). It really is step-by-step, but I am still a little nervous. It'll be a good thing though. I have to figure out when I can get to Salt Lake to get him a cross, and take it to the Father to have it blessed, but I am Superwoman so I'm sure I can figure it out between tending, cleaning, birthday parties (tonight and Friday) and school shopping lol

On a different note...we have decided not to send Tasia to preschool this year. The class for 3 year olds is kind of a waste of time. They teach them colors and how to say the alphabet (all things she has known for over a year now). So I am going to be doing a little "preschool time" with her at home everyday, and we will send her to an actual class next year. Does anyone know where I can find some good books with ideas for preschool lessons and activities I can do with her?

We didn't...

...get to do family pics :( I am quite sad! I have stressed about them for so long, but we did reschedule for the 29th. Maybe it will give everyone time to get back to normal from all the peeling and injuries lol

The kids start school a week from today, and I can't wait. They are starting to get so antsy and they are constantly fighting, so it'll be good for them to get out of the house and around other kids (besides just neighbors). We get to go meet their teachers on Thursday. They are both a little nervous, but also very excited! We have to go school shopping this week. I know I am slacking big time. I just never have time anymore. We are constantly on the go with something!

Swimming fun!!!

A couple weekends ago my sister Steph and my nephews came over, so the kids could swim and we could all BBQ. I got a few action shots of the kids jumping in that I thought were kind of cool, so I wanted to post them.


Tasia and Havyn jumping into Tasia's pool (our big pool is WAY too big for them)

Gabe showing off his jumping skills

Dom diving in

Syd was a little more graceful than the boys. They were just crazy LOL

Starvation pictures

My little Tasia throwing mud



My parents...we all lived in sweatshirts all weekend :(

My cousin Mike and his girlfriend Karen

My little sis and her boyfriend Mike (we have a lot of Mikes in the family)

My mom and all the grandkids besides Havyn and Tasia

The kids heading out for our boat ride

Sister and Steph Walters aka Steph-Dub on the taco

Dom, Von and Gabe on the taco

Me and Anth on the taco

I took a lot more, but none that I really wanted to put up here :)