the weekend

b's birthday was good. i spent all day grocery shopping...since we live 30min. from EVERYTHING...it takes me all day to do it. but the kids had a great time playing with dad before he left for utah yesterday. it's forgot to use my flash so it's blurry.

bought f another words shirt! i love it. he's so stinkin cute. i love buying these kinds of shirts for my boys. they remind me of 'chad' from hsm. love them.

oh my gosh! i just finished season 6 of smallville...loved it! just in time for season 7 too. it starts this thursday. i can't wait. so exciting.

b is out of town again and we miss him already. he'll be back at the end of the week and i have lots of projects planned for the house. finishing the curtain rods, painting the baseboards, making cards for utah card swap, painting the bathroom, and much much more.

today i found the cutest little scrapbook store about 15min. from my house. loved it. i told the owner that i was glad she was here because i just moved here and the closest michaels is 30min. away. i got some cute paper for my cards for october's card swap which i am really excited about. we'll see if i can keep up via mail.

now it's monday and back to school and normal everyday chores. gotta love the weekends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, B!

b was not looking forward to his birthday this year because it just means getting older. i tried to tell him we don't care how old he is but that he's here and we love him.

i am the worst at trying to shop for him. whenever he sees something he wants...he buys it. so that doesn't make it easy for birthdays and christmas. but this year i think i did okay. for the past 6 months we have been waiting to watch the 6th season of smallville. so i bought it...and a gift card for dicks sporting goods store in utah...he'll be their next week....and some shirts from old navy.

a friend from work, who happens to live in new jersey i think, called his current team in tahoe and told them it was b's birthday on saturday. so they used aluminum foil to wrap his entire office and right before a conference call they all sprayed him with silly string and sang happy birthday. what fun! he kept saying that he almost went unnoticed but i think he really thought it was cool. thanks nune. (sorry for the spelling)

happy birthday honey! we all love you!

computers! ugh!

okay so i have this clicking noise on my computer and the clicking speeds up over a matter a minutes. when it clicks really fast the whole thing shuts down. so i took it into best buy for them to do a 3 day hard drive diagnostic. 3 days turned into 5 then 7. after getting the run around i went into the store to get my computer. they gave me some kind of crap line as to why they couldn't find out what was wrong. great! so you had my computer for 7 days and you couldn't find out what was wrong. i am so glad i paid 60 bucks for you to tell me that.

i brought it home, called my brother and noticed the supply fan was not working. thus the clicking. so now i can call dell and tell them exactly what is wrong and hopefully they can help me. never take your computer to best buy. their geek squad is a joke!

book tory day

every wednesday is storytime at the library. this was our second time and f and m just love it. f calls it book tory time. so cute. they love listening ot the stories and singing songs AND doing the little art project after reading. then we go into the library where they get to choose their own books.

last week they listened to stories about baseball. we sang 'take me out to the ball game' and put popcorn on our paper for the craft. it was really fun.

this week we read stories about ducks. the kids got to hold up paper ducks while we sang '5 little ducks went out to play'. then we put feathers (crumpled tissue paper) on our own paper ducks. f loved using the glue and telling me to hurry and put the feathers on. bossy.

it's a nice break from the house and right across the street from the school. and everybody knows everybody.

the ER

friday evening we got a knock on our door from a family in the ward. the heusser family had come to introduce themselves to us and bring us otter pops! then they invited us to the balloon races in reno for early saturday morning. b was still in palm springs but it sounded like fun so i said count us in.

we woke up at 3am and met the larkins at the heussers to caravan up to reno. we weren't on the road 10 min. when b started having cramps in his upper abdomen. i asked him if he was okay and he said yes.

he continued to groan and i told him to pull over and i would drive. he continued groaning...then came the chills followed by hot flashes. he started coughing so i pulled over...he jumped out and started dry heaving. i was really scared. he never gets sick! when he got back in the van i asked him if he wanted to turn around and go home or to the hospital. he could barely say the word hospital.

so i told him he would have to direct me there. he could hardly speak. just then my cell rang and it was the heussers wondering where we were. i explain what was happening and if they could lead me to the hospital. we all caravaned to the ER. i took b in and got him admitted while the heussers and larkins emptied my van of blankets and kids in to their own cars. when i came out everything was in order and they said they were taking the kids with them to see the balloons and not to worry. gary and shawn offered to give b a blessing before leaving and i was just speechless.

they left and b was given morphine to ease his pain then it was off for a CAT scan. we waited and waited. it came back negative. they wanted to do another. so he drank some iodine fluids of some sort that COULD kill you then do the CAT scan. after hours of waiting...the test came back negative. i was so happy that there was nothing wrong. i was so scared that he was going to die in our van. i told him that and he said he'd save that for next year. i told him he better save it for another 60+ years.

we missed the balloon races but caught some of it on the news during our wait in the er. when we got home the kids had so much to tell us. i was so glad that they were still able to go and that they went without hesitation. there was no crying for mom or dad. they all went happily. even f. what a blessing. i never could have handled this without these two wonderful families. they were miracles to me this day.

b is fine. he said when the doctor gave him a rectal exam he started feeling better. gross. he said the same thing but whatever works. he hasn't had any relapses and we don't know what caused it but are happy he is still with us. we love you, b.

finally home

holy cow it's been a LONG time since i have been able to keep in touch with all my friends and family via blog. i am so happy to have my internet up and to be able to share with you some of our adventures this past months. so here we go...

we left utah....sooooooooooooo sad....and stayed at marriott's timberlodge resort in lake tahoe. all i have to say is WOW! it is so amazingly beautiful here. i just love tahoe. it's much prettier than park city. anyway...we basically swim, eat out, swim, watch the disney channel, and swim some more. the kids LOVE the pool. we got m and f some arm floaties and they love just floating around in the pool. m has learned to do the cannonball, twist, spread eagle, and belly flop off the side of the pool. a and k have always loved the water and so now i have my very own 'school' of fish. love it.

on our way out of town i was reading the last book in the harry potter series. while we were getting gas in some small town i got to a section where my mind recalled something i'd read and normally i would have gone back in search for a particular section but i couldn't cause b was done filling up my car...so i immediately called angie fox. it was nice to ask her about that part...and just chat. thanks ang. loved the book byw!

we have seen some sights while we've been here. we went to swim in lake tahoe, rode the gondola, drove to the 'top of the world' as b calls it, and looked out over emerald bay and lake tahoe.

august 17th was a very important day in the disney world and to young viewers all over the world. it was the premier to high school musical 2! kennidy went back to utah for a premier party with her friends and had a BLAST! while the 3 younger ones and i had our own little bash. the girls wore their high school musical shirts and we pigged out on pizza, chips, cookies, candy, and soda. it was a good time. but the best part was that in the villa we got 2 disney channels...which meant that we could watch the premier TWICE! then twice the next night and twice the night after that. m's favorite song is 'bet on it' sung by the hottie zac efron. he plays troy...for all you none HSM watchers. he's so cute. anyway we had a great time.

b has been going back and forth from park city to tahoe and we don't see him a lot. it will be nice when budgets are over! park city has just hired someone to take his place so by the end of october we should have a dad and husband again. oh the joys of moving. gotta love it.

our house is coming along nicely. i have to say that from the outside our house is quite plain...ugly even.

but on the inside it's ten times better. we have a ton of painting to do and i can't wait for that. i love to paint. we tore out the cream carpet in the great room and the vinyl floor in the kitchen to put in wood.

and it looks so nice. i love our granite countertops in the kitchen and our new black faucet to match. my craft room is about a 3rd of the size it use to be so we had to get rid of my drafting table. we have a massive master bedroom where all the kids come to watch movies and hang out.

this much space should have been put somewhere else in the house to be of better use for the entire family. it's way to big for b and i. our backyard has lots of potential.

and you all know what that means...WHEN and WHAT do i do with it? luckily our neigbor has the same exact house plan as us and same backyard. she's given me the name of her landscaper. but that will have to wait for now. here's a pic of the kids bath. almost done in here.

the kids are all in school and love it. they all love their teachers and have met some new friends. that makes me happy. k will be tested for the gifted and talented program this next week. it is very sad to go from a phenominal school to an okay school. the kids were pushed and challenged so they would excell and they just don't have the same aspirations for learning here. don't get me wrong...the kids will be learning but there is no excitement in pushing kids to do their greatest.

i have been keeping busy with unpacking boxes, cleaning grimey faucets, doing loads and loads of laundry, picking up after kids, helping with homework, changing addresses, setting up insurances, and the only thing getting me through all this and more is my morning walks and scripture reading at night. why do we keep doing this to ourselves. just when we think we have settled down...

we miss all of you...in fact on sunday as we were raising our hands to sustain members in various callings i thought...it's official. we are part of this ward now. we are here. it good to have a place to call home and make new memories but it's always been a very hard thing for me to start new and make new friends. i am grateful for all of you...my friends.