Road Trip!!

Some friends & I just got back from our quick road trip to be on the Ellen show. Being down in California around the Disney animation studios, the WB studios, NBC & ABC studios made think that if I were a young college student again, I would have forgone college & worked there. I think that the 'behind the scenes' stuff is sooooo cool. We basically made fools of ourselves dancing & one husband remarked that we looked as if we had come from the eighties. (Ya....don't you know that's when all the good music & dancing was born?) Our friend, Lisa won a mere $2500.00 playing a grocery game. She took us out for dinner, my steak was $40.00, ahhh...the life. She got to go back down today to try to win a car & see Patrick Dempsey....yum. Watch Friday's show to see if she drives away with it.

Earth day!!

I am going to turn off all my lights, unplug all of the phones, ban the use of all appliances (washing machine, dryer & stove), park my SUV and curl up & read a book. It's a mother's dream....I love earth day.

No. It's a complete sentence.

I'm getting better at saying no. Just this week I said no to becoming the Regional Secondary Council PTA president (that one was hard to do), I said no to myself when I wanted a bowl of ice cream at midnight (that was near impossible) and I'm getting up the nerve to say no to the next person who asks me to sub in primary (I've gotten called every week for about 3 months now)....this one is the hardest since somewhere in my brain there is this unspoken rule that if I say no to anything church, I will somehow be sent to hell. Basically, what I am saying is that I am learning how to take care of myself. I always thought that by doing so, I was being selfish. My new thought is this...the more self-care I provide, the less I fault the people around me when they don't do it for me.

A work in progress...

I loved Carol's idea of posting funny conversations on a sidebar,SO much so that I am stealing it. (Hope you don't mind.) Keaton is at the age where most things that spill from his mouth are funny, so enjoy....

Ahhh.....St. George in the Spring!!

The BEST two weeks of the year!! We are the first Utahns to experience it. Droves of people travel from the North country to get a little piece of it...

And for a second, on a perfect day, at a perfect park....you can forget what lies ahead...

the update I promised....

It may seem like I am bragging, that is not my intention. Here is my disclaimer: SINCE I am trying to record simple historical moments and BECAUSE grandparents will be viewing this blog, every once in awhile I might post things about the kids that make a momma proud.
A month ago, Tanner decided he wanted to try out for St. George Musical Theater's production of High School Musical. The auditions were intense to say the least, 10 hours of dancing and singing in front of 4 directors, over 80 kids auditioned, he was the only one there under 14. I sat in wonder at his abilities to 'hang' with the big kids, & his guts to even try. Well, he made it in and we are all so excited to see how the show will turn out. The cast is awesome, the director and choreographer are the best, so it should be great!! If you are visiting in June or the first week of July, be sure to check it out...



Shay was also able to collect on a few of his dreams this year. Last summer, he made a decision to give his all to basketball. The boys his age are extremely talented & he knew he was going to be up against a lot to even make the freshmen team. (45 boys came out for the team) He made it and I couldn't have scripted a better experience for my son. They went undefeated & everyone got to play in every game. The coaches were awesome and had the kids participate in making quilts for less fortunate kids and the best part, the teams average GPA was 3.7. Next year, these boys will be split up because the are building a new high school by us so it was nice to go out with a bang.




As I am writing I am thinking "I am such a hypocrite...didn't I just blog about parent pressure?" I have to say that I only post this because both Tanner & Shay found something they love to do and I am proud of them for setting the goal and reaching it.

Just what I needed

I am back from another awesome (thanks to the Arizona girls....you guys did great) quilt retreat!! I have cute things to show off and got to spend the weekend with some of my favorite people. But, the best thing about quilt retreat (Ok...any kind of retreat) is that it gives me a chance to step outside of my hectic life and re-evaluate. EVERY time I come back sleep deprived, yet energized. I realize that I am a creative person, I NEED to create things, I am HAPPY when I am creating. I have now buried myself in my craft room and I am in the midst of cleaning, organizing and adding the finishing touches to the decor that has stared at me for the past 2 years. Late last night I decided I needed some more color and made these little poppy pictures!! They just make me happy!!
The hope is that as I organize my room, I will also organize my life so that I will actually USE my room for crafting & such and not as a big huge junk drawer!! Gotta go....(I guess the kids have got to eat sometime)....

For the love!!!

I don't think peer pressure ended after high school. I like to think of it now as PARENT pressure!! I was reluctantly sitting, watching Baylee's cheer tryouts tonight wondering if I really wanted to continue the madness (my checkbook & schedule would agree) when the ladies next to me started having a conversation. This is what I gathered from it....One of the ladies has, I'd say, at least 5 kids....the daughter that we were currently watching was trying to figure out how she was going to juggle the cheer, gymnastics (5x's a week), dance (4x's a week) and piano lessons she was taking. (The daughter was 10 and very impressive with her round off back handspring, back flip.) She had one son on a mission who had turned down a scholarship to some ivy league school and another one who will be a Senior superstar in football, basketball and baseball.....you get my picture? I finally turned around and said "Man, you are making me tired!!"

This is what I figured out...
1. she MUST have a whole lot of money
2. she MUST have a maid
3. she MUST not accept church callings
4. she MUST be covering something up & what is she going to do when her kids leave
the nest?

My mind tells me all this is CRAZY but my insecure self starts to think that I should try to be like her.......WHY????? When do I get to grow up & NOT be influenced by others??? FOR THE LOVE!!!

On a much more pleasant thought, It is 10:50 pm the night before quilt retreat, I am packed and ready to go....I came home to a clean kitchen (bless Dale's heart) and I might actually make my goal of getting to bed by 11:00!! That is if I can sleep, my mind finally caught up to what my body has been doing the past 2 days and I realized that I'm really going in the morning....I am so excited!!

(P.S. Baylee isn't going to be the only child I talk about on my blog...some brag-able things have happened to my other kids as of late but I am super slow at getting pictures on the computer to upload....so next week...a huge update!!)