6 miles....

Is how far I jogged this morning! Yah me!! I know some of you are marathon runners, and 6 miles is a warm up.... but for me, this is a long ways! For a year I have been real comfortable with 3 miles. About 2 months ago i decided I needed to step it up a notch and work harder to get some of this extra poundage off me that I have gained back. I thought that since I can't seem to control my eating, that some harder exercise would help. No such luck! I have been working my tail off and have lost like one pound! I guess you have to do both! I hate that. (I put out of my mind all that I learned in Weight Watchers and tried to do my own thing) I am SO TIRED of watching what I eat. Why can't I be one of those natural skinny people and eat whatever I want!!!

I guess I better go to my Weight Watchers meeting next week and face reality! depressing.... 

After a long winters nap....

One of the turtles finally woke up today. Our two turtles have been in hibernation all winter and the big one moved around and ate some lunch! (I forget his name, how sad) I think Tanner named him long neck??? I was beginning to worry that maybe they were dead and not hibernating.... I miss watching them out my kitchen window. They are funny little creatures and little things entertain me! It's our first winter with them, so I haven't experienced this hibernating thing yet and I don't know what to expect... I had no idea they would sleep this long! They snuggled down for their nap in like November, that's along time to sleep. I wonder how long a bear sleeps?? Anyway he only woke up for like an hour and ate some lettuce and then went back to his favorite spot and went back to sleep. I hope the other little guy isn't dead... he's still out. I wish I could nap like them!!

Look at his cute little tongue in the second picture. Love my turtles!! Oh, my hummingbirds are back too. I think there are some new little babies too! They are so cute!

3 Tickets in 1 day!

This is John. You know, Allison and I are pretty safe drivers. We're not very ticket prone. But today, Allison and I got 3 of them--all in 1 day! It started this morning around 7:30 as I was riding by bike, going for what I had hoped was a long bike ride. About 1 mile into my ride I was approaching an intersection. I slowed down but did not fully stop at the stop sign. I saw a lady in a car pulling up to the intersection as I was entering it. If she stopped, she stopped quickly and started even quicker. She hit me and knocked me off my bike, sending me flying about 10 feet into the other lane of traffic. It took the wind out of me, cut my knee, arm, hand and bruised my shoulder. I laid on the ground in pain. A doctor stopped at the site and told me to stay in that spot. He called Fire Dept. paramedics, an ambulance and the police. They also called Allison.

The paramedics cleaned me up and I was feeling better. I canceled the ambulance because I didn't feel like I had broken anything. The police came and decided I was at fault because I admitted that I only slowed down at the intersection and did not stop completely. I don't think the lady who hit me admitted to a rolling stop or she would have been cited. So I got a ticket for hitting a car with my bike. Really. The scratch on her car was nothing compared to my messed up bike and body. Aren't cars supposed to yield for pedestrians on foot or on bike? That's how I always drive.

What made it worse (for Allison, not for me) was that she forgot her camera, so she couldn't get a photo for her blog. I could have been badly hurt, but the only pain Allison had was that she wished she had her camera.

Allison has never had a ticket. In 24+ years of driving, she's had 0 tickets. None. Perfect record. Until today.... Ticket Day!

This afternoon, Allison was driving up Westcliff Dr. and thought the speed limit was 45, when it was really 35. She says my car makes her go faster. Hmmm. She was trying to call me in the process. The cop clocked her at 49 in a 35 and gave her one ticket for speeding and another for talking on her cell phone while speeding. Really. He was the type of cop that did not give her a chance to defend herself--just wrote out the ticket and handed it to her. Westcliff Dr. is wide enough to be a 6 lane highway. The wider a road is the faster most cars go.

What a memorable day this was. We felt like victims of wide roads and unwise cops. We may need to cancel our kids' college funds to pay for these 3 tickets. Anyone know a good lawyer?

JB

growing too fast....

I've been meaning to write about what happened on Sunday. Ashley received her patriarchal blessing. What a neat experience that was. I can't believe my little girl is old enough and mature enough to get this special gift. It was such a neat thing. What a special patriarch we have in our stake. He was so sweet and you could feel the spirit so strong as you walked into his home.

It just added to the spirit that we felt all weekend watching conference. I loved conference and felt such a wonderful spirit as I sustained our new Prophet. What a great man. I have always loved listening to President Monson speak and this time it was different. I knew without a doubt that he was a prophet of God and he now carries that mantel. How lucky we are to be able to receive that confirmation.

Funny blog...

While I was in Seattle, my sister told me about this silly blog. It's about a puddle in New York City. If you start at the beginning it's pretty funny. I know, I need to get a life....

Our Saturdays are now busy again with Mitchell playing soccer and Tanner playing flag football. Can you believe I forgot to bring my camera to their first game of the season??? oh well. They both played great. Mitchell's game ended in a tie, they should have won, the other team cheated by putting boys in the game who weren't really on the team. This club team has and A & B team and the b team was playing and at half time they had a few boys change jerseys from the A team and they went in and scored.... not fair.

Tanner's football league has been very unorganized this season... they didn't put him on the same team he was on last season and the new team they put him on doesn't have a coach, so the league organizer has been coaching them this week. I think John and a few other dads are going to take over the coaching. The good news is that there are only 5 kids on the team so they will get lots of playing time. His old team had like 15 kids, so not much time on the field. But we do need to recruit a few more kids so they can have a break. Tanner played quarterback today and did a great job! They won 30-23. Go Colts! I think John is reliving his childhood. His mom didn't let him play football until his senior year and I think that still bugs him. So now is his chance to play through Tanner!

check this out..

Check out this website. It is absolutely beautiful. I sure hope that when we go to Mesa in May that this event will still be on display. Be sure to look at all the tabs on the website... the blog has some neat stories about how they found different sites for the photographs and stuff... very spiritual...

A few random things....

While I was in Utah, I got scans of all of my Grandma Verhaaren's old pictures.... they are so COOL! Here are a few of them. This first one was taken at a picnic in South Africa where my Great Grandmother is from. She is the one in the middle without a hat on. It was taken in about 1913.
This next one is my Great Great Grandparents wedding in South Africa in about 1885!
I think this one is my Great Great Grandparents in South Africa in the late 1800's. I was so excited about getting these scans. Thanks Julie & Cindy for doing all the scanning!

I learned how to make these really cool chocolate covered marshmallow eggs at an enrichment activity. They were so yummy that I came home and made more with Ashley. Would you believe that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product!!! Crazy. I will post the recipe at easter time next year!
The night before I left for Seattle, John won tickets on to see the band Chicago at the MGM. It was amazing concert! Things are always better when they are free....

Here are a few photo's from my Seattle trip....

I got a little teary eyed flying over Mt. Rainier. Oh how I miss the mountains and tree's and lakes. It was breathtaking!  It was a little cloudy out, but I could still see Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams all in a row. Seattle will always have a special place in my heart!! I had to remind myself that I love my family, home and friends in vegas when it was time to go home! otherwise I would have stayed.
Dad, my brother David and his daughter Tiffany picked up Scott and I at the airport and we headed straight to Dick's. This is the "boys" favorite place to eat in Seattle. Nothing like a good greasy burger! 
Saturday night we went to my favorite teriyaki restaurant. So good! We need a good in Vegas! 

2 nights in a row we played some serious hearts! Fun times!

Happy Birthday Johnny! It was my Brother John's birthday on March 24th. He died almost 11 years ago. So I think he would have been 36. It was nice to be together as a family on his birthday. We tried to get out to the cemetery to put flowers on his grave, but we couldn't fit it in. But, we did take a picture in front of the Johnny tree at the Seattle Temple. (when he died, some friends of our family gave my parents a little tree for us to plant in his memory and we got permission to plant on the grounds of the Seattle temple.) So we took a family picture in front of it. (Dad, I'm still waiting to get your pictures) I will post it when I get it. Here is a picture of Johnny as a baby. I'm sure he loved being in my pink doll seat!

Now I am home and my cousin Craig is here with his wife Mauri and 4 kids. Mauri was one of my high school friends and college roommates and she married on of my favorite cousins! So we've had a fun few days. Our kids all get along and have a great time together! We had the Taylor's over last night for dinner because Rene'e, Mauri and I were all high school friends and roommates. It's so weird that we are all in our 40's now with kids that are almost in college!! Freaky...

The kids have had a great time swimming!

How much is my time worth???

Have you ever made a decision thinking you were being smart, saving money and it turns around and backfires on you? Well, that’s been my day today. It actually started early last night…. I called the airlines to see if I could catch an earlier flight home and they said I could fly standby, but it would cost $25. So, being the money conscious person that I am, feeling that I had spent enough money this weekend, decided I should wait to fly out at 11:00am and go home via San Francisco and get home at 4:30 as planned. (the earlier flight was a direct flight at 8am and I would have been home by 10:30) Everything went smooth in Seattle… got through security fast, had enough time to grab a snack for the flight and got on the plane and landed in San Fran on time. I get off the plane to see that my flight that was supposed to leave at 2:50 is now leaving at 4:00…. I was a little upset, knowing that I have a camp meeting tonight at 6:00 that I was planning to go to and I would be pushing it. So I walk around a bit and did some people watching and got back to my gate to find out that it is now leaving at 4:30… hmmm now I am going to miss my camp meeting. Dang it. I really wanted to go to the first meeting to visit with all of our newly called level directors. But I know that they are in good hands with my camp director and I was really just going for moral support. Back to my story, the little man behind the counter asks if anyone wants to wait for the 5:29 flight and get a free United ticket for sacrificing an hour of their time. I decide that an hour of my time would be worth a free ticket…. The kids would survive one more hour without me? Right?? I call John (who left for Atlanta this morning) to tell him that I just got us a free ticket and thought he would be excited… (Especially since I just spent a lot of miles to go to the funeral in Seattle) then he reminded me it was Mutual tonight and what would Tanner do? Oops. I made a few calls and got something figured out for him. Thanks Abby! Then I got some dinner and ate it too fast and ate too much (nothing new), so now I have heartburn and feel like a whale. Once again I get back to my gate to find out that the 5:29 flight is now leaving at 7:10!!!! Ugh!!! I was so mad!! I went up to the counter and complained (the whole time thinking about the RS lesson in my sisters ward Sunday that was on controlling your anger, so needless to say, I was too nice and they did nothing for me) I would not have given up my seat for a free ticket to get home this late…… so now I am sitting here in the airport contemplating my day… I think 10+ hours of my time would have been worth the $25 dollars that I chose not to spend on the flight that left this morning. And I have now spent $5 for my snack in Seattle, $10 for dinner and $4 on candy and water, the car that John left at the airport when he left this morning is adding up by the hour, so it looks like I should have spent the $25 this morning and I could have been home hours ago and spent less money. But, trying to be positive I will look on the bright side and think about somewhere fun to go with my free ticket! I am now rambling,... (I do that when I am bored) I will post this when I get home, since I am too cheap to pay for the airports wireless internet : ) and hopefully I will have nothing more to add when I get home!

Edited at 7:38 Notice the time, my flight was supposed to leave at 7:10… I am on the plane and they just announced that there is a flat tire and they have to change it…. So another 45 minutes they say! I might get home tonight??

10:47pm…. Just climbed in bed… It took me 12 1/2 to get home today. I left my sisters house at 10:00am…. Long day… good night

Aunt Dorothy

I was waiting to write this post until I found a picture to go with it, but decided I better hurry and write it without it. One of my favorite Aunt's died on Wednesday... I am so sad. It was totally unexpected. My sweet Aunt Dorothy was serving on jury duty in downtown Seattle on Tuesday and she was on a break and took a walk outside and had what they call a "brain bleed".  She had been taking a lot of  asprin to thin her blood because of her arthritis, and I guess her blood was too thin. They say that the brain will bleed from time to time, but because her blood was so thin, it couldn't clot. So she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital and she was brain dead by the time they got there. She was 75. Technically she isn't my Aunt, but we always called her one. She is my dad's cousins wife. She was my mom's best friend and our families were very close. Her daughter Krisse was right between Julie and I in age and we were the best of "cousin" friends growing up. Slumber parties at their house and many many days swimming at their house. Dorothy was one of the kindest, sweetest people you could ever meet. She always made you feel so important and special. I have so many wonderful memories of her. She will be missed. The last time I saw her was about 2 1/2 years ago when I was in Seattle for my class reunion and I went to the temple while I was here and she was there! It was a great experience to sit by her at the temple that day. A memory I will cherish.

So, I flew to Seattle with Scott yesterday for the funeral on Monday. All of my sibling will be here for the funeral! So fun. It's been 4 years since all my brothers and sisters have been together. My parents were able to sneak away from their mission for a few days... sh... don't tell anyone! Mark gets here tonight and everyone else got here yesterday. We had so much fun together yesterday. We went to the boys favorite hamburger joint downtown called "Dicks" and had greasy hamburgers. Yum! Then we had great teriyaki for dinner and went to visit my Aunt Doreen. After we got back we played a killer game of Hearts! That's our family game.... it's a sad occasion, but so fun to see all my family. I love them!

Happy Easter! I feel so bad that I am away from my kids and husband today! I miss them! 

I will write more late.... got to go eat Easter dinner!

Spring Break!

I'm in Utah... The boys and I drove up to Utah on Friday afternoon. We are staying with my sister Cindy and we are having a great time. Saturday I got to go with Cindy to their Stake Relief Society conference. It was great. Then My parents came down from Salt Lake and we went to the dollar theatre. We saw Enchanted and the older boys saw I am Legend. Enchanted is such cute movie! We wish we had dollar theaters in Vegas!! Only in Utah...

Sunday morning we got up VERY early and drove up to Salt Lake to go to my parents ward. church starts at 7:30am... so we got up at 5:45 to leave at 6:30 and this is all Utah time, so it was an hour earlier for us! yuck... but worth it! They meet in the Joseph Smith Building with all the Temple Square missionaries. It was pretty amazing. There were about 200 sister missionaries from all over the world and 100 senior couples. It was an amazing sight and the spirit was very strong. I can see why my parents are loving their mission so much! It is always fun to hear them talk about all the sisters, they love them so much! All the asian sisters sang "I am a child of God", a verse in Korean, Japanese and Chinese then the first verse again in english. It was so sweet. After the meeting we walked over to the tabernacle and watched the "Spoken Word". It was great. The boys weren't real excited about it, but I enjoyed it.

Then last night Todd and his family came over and so did Katherine and the kids. It was fun to visit with the family! We are sad that John and Ashley couldn't make it with us! The kids had fun together.

We are off shopping today and then up to Heber to see Todd's family and play in the snow! Tanner is dyeing to play in the snow. happy spring break!

Best and Worst..

Every night at dinner we go around the table and tell each-other the "best" thing that happened that day and the "worst" thing that happened that day. So I thought I would share a few of those things with you all from time to time....

Here is my best and worst from yesterday...

Best: It's spring here in Vegas! Look at what I jogged through yesterday. I had to stop and look up and enjoy the beauty! It was breathtaking.

Worst: I looked down at my wedding ring and one of my little diamonds was gone! So sad... I love my ring! John picked it out all by himself 20 years ago on the 18th of this month. John proposed to me with this ring almost exactly 20 years ago! The "worst " for today is that it's going to cost $400 to get it fixed!

Spokane getaway!

John and I spent the weekend in Spokane, WA. A few weeks ago John won 2 round trip tickets on a radio station anywhere Southwest airlines flies. We thought about going to New York, Florida and many other cities.... but decided it would be a blast to go visit friends in Spokane. John hadn't been back since the summer after we moved. So, it was a big change for him. Our little city of Liberty Lake, Wa. has changed a lot in 4 years! We flew in on Thursday night and spent the night at our good friends the Julians. It was so fun to see Stacy & Geof and their cute kids. Stacy had just gotten back from Simple Scrapbook magazine meetings in SLC and they had taken personality tests (click on this link to take it)... so she had us take it and then we spent the evening evaluating what the answers meant! It was fun. Mine was right on, Johns was a little off, but pretty close.

Friday morning we went up to Mt. Spokane and went skiing. It was a Beautiful day! They've had a yucky winter, so we got lucky with a blue sky day and lots of snow. There was hardly anyone up there, so we got on every chair lift without waiting for one person! Some hills we went down, we didn't see a person! It was so peaceful and fun. I can't tell you how many times we said "it's so pretty". We miss the mountains and green. My digital camera ran out of batteries after 4 pictures and the little store didn't have any batteries, so we had to settle with a disposable camera!

We got home from skiing and spent some time at Stacy's and she made us some yummy salsa! Then we went to dinner with our good friends Dave and Sheryl Demars. It was fun to catch up with them.

Saturday I got up and went with Stacy and Donna Downey to a scrapbook class. For my non-scrapbook friends.... Donna and Stacy are huge celebrities in the scrapbook world! They both fly all over the world teaching classes. I remember when Stacy first called Donna to publish her work in Simple Scrapbooks... that was the beginning of a big career for Donna. It was a great class and I realized it was the first time I ever had to pay for a class.... I usually went as Stacy's assistant and got in free! It worth the money and I made a fun album.

Saturday afternoon we went to see Sheryl and Dave's new house out in the country. It was so pretty out there. They have deer and moose that roam their property! crazy...

We went to dinner with the Gummersall's Saturday night. We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and had had delicious Carne Asada. No one makes it like them in Vegas... we miss it!

Then that night our friends the Guinns had a little party for us. It was so fun to catch up with so many of our old friends! Thanks Megan for hosting it!

I made a little video of our weekend... enjoy. I made it in iPhoto and the titles weren't so big there... now they are huge and you can barely see the pictures... I will try to redo it later...

It was so great to getaway with John and spend some quality time together! We love & miss our dear friends in Spokane, but as we flew into Vegas, we knew we were home! The kids survived us being gone... they even cleaned the house before we got home!

Good Company!

Two of John's sisters were able to come to visit this weekend. It was so fun to catch up with them and see our new nephew Caden. Cathi came up from Mesa to go to The Phantom of the Opera with our niece's Sam and Stephanie from Idaho. John's sister, Barbara's daughters. Since they were going to be in town for the show, John's sister Edie and Husband Luke came up from CA with their 2 boys, Carter and Caden. They just adopted cute little Caden a month ago. So it was our first time seeing him. What a cute little boy! We fought over who was going to hold him. Tanner begged all weekend for a little brother or sister. He kept telling me that we needed one more! I told him I am way too old!

We were happy that Sam and Stephanie were able to come over for a few hours to visit. They have another aunt on the other side of their family that they stayed with. We begged them to come over on their way out of town because some of us were at Youth Conference all weekend and didn't get to see them, when they all went our to dinner on Saturday night.

I love having family visit! Late nights playing games, catching up on what everyone is up too and lots of food and fun!

Wow...

Youth Conference is over.... I am feeling very overwhelmed today. I feel so full with happiness that it went so well. I just got home from testimony meeting and WOW. We are in good hands, the youth that will lead the church someday are amazing. They are so strong, they have such a strong understanding of the gospel at such a young age. It blows me away. I am so grateful that my kids have such strong friends and good examples in our stake. It is such a privilege to work with such amazing kids. I am lucky. Yes, it's a lot of work, but so worth it. Sometimes I feel guilty that I have this calling and others are missing out on so many wonderful experiences that I get to have. 

Friday night we had Brandon Doman speak to the kids. He is the quarter-back coach at BYU and a great speaker. He spoke about being Steadfast and Immovable in the gospel.  He told some great stories about his football career and how important it is be "good mormons" and to follow the real "sports stars". He pointed to the posters hanging of all the bishops and stake leaders and told them that they are the ones to follow, not the people who are usually on the sports illustrated covers.

It was great. Then we had a dance and the kids had a good time. I realized that I am getting old, the music was so loud!

Saturday morning things didn't go completely as planned and we had a little stress and drama, but it all worked out. We had invited over 4000 foster families to bring the foster kids to a "Field day" put on by our youth. We only had 2 families respond to our invitation. It was so sad. The committee was very disappointed. But it turned out to be ok. We still met at the school that had a big field and we spent the morning picking up trash around the school and making sack lunches. (we had planned on feeding all the little kids lunch, so we had bread, chips, water, and fruit to make them sandwiches.) So we used all the lunch makings and made lunches and sent a group of kids downtown to feed the homeless. They said it went well. It felt good to do some service. Then we split the kids into 4 groups and played all the field games that we had planned to play with the kids. It was a blast. Many of the kids brought friends, so it was a good missionary opportunity. We got all the leaders out to play with them and the kids enjoyed just playing with each other and their leaders. It was fun for the kids to see the stake president and his counselors out playing kickball with them. The kids got to see that they are fun, great men and they don't live in their suits. We actually had one foster family show up for the field day. The youth saw them walking up and quickly got name tags on the two boys and had them out playing games before the leaders could do anything!!! it was so cool. Then the leaders had a great conversation with the man that brought them, he stayed all day and he was so impressed with the youth. We said he would like to go to church today... i hope he does.

Then last night we had "stadium food" for dinner. Hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos, chips and cookies. It didn't sound real healthy to me, but it was sure easy to clean up and the kids planned it and loved it. After dinner we had a talent show and it was great. Some amazing talent in our stake. 

Overall, it was a great experience. I learned a lot from my leaders, both the youth and the adults.  My leaders have been teaching me that we need to let the youth do the leading and we are there to help and advise them. Not take over... that is a hard one. It's so hard to let go and see them make mistakes.  But that is how they learn and become great leaders. I guess that is how we all grow, by learning from our mistakes and learning from others. Sorry, I don't mean to be preaching today, just feeling the spirit and feel like I need to write down my thoughts.

swimsuit edition....

So, youth conference is this weekend and the theme is SI (Steadfast and Immovable) and the SI is the abbreviation for Sports Illustrated. The whole conference has a sports theme to it. So, Jan Hodson (the wonderful wife of our Stake YM pres.) is making some posters to hang in the gym during the conference. She is making a SI magazine cover of each of the Bishops doing a sport. They totally look like a real magazine cover, she has the right font and it says Steadfast and Immovable across the top, it looks just like a sports illustrated magazine. So, she emailed me yesterday and said that the Stake YW presidency needs to be the swimsuit issue! There is no way we were going to put on swimsuits, so we made it funny! I have the best presidency! Nathell was cracking us up! She wanted to wear the coconut bra and we told her we would get fired! and she said "good, then we don't have to go to girls camp this summer!" So, you can see in the pictures that she wore it, but it was hidden a bit! It was a fun afternoon! here are some pictures of it. I will take some pictures of the posters this weekend and post them next week.

Trying not to laugh to hard!

Nathell trying to act like a real swimsuit model.
Heather with goggles marks on her head!
I have the best counselors ever!! Love them!

Presidents day, family day?? & snow day...

John and I had high hopes for a fun "family day" on Monday. We thought that with no school and no work that we should do some fun family things, since John had been gone for almost 2 weeks. So we thought we would get up and go to breakfast and then head up to Mt. Charleston to play in the snow..... well, we should have known by 10:00 am that things weren't going as planned. We couldn't get Ashley out of bed (thanks to early morning seminary) then when she did get up she was really happy (not! see the look on her face in the picture).





We went to I-Hop and everyone else in Vegas decided to go to breakfast for Presidents day... so there was a 20 minute wait. Then Ashley informs us that she has her personal trainer at 2:00 (that's another story) then Mitchell said he is suppose to go to Guitar Center with the drummer in the school band at 1:00. So it is now 11:30 and we are finally getting our food... then it took forever to get our check, so now there is no way to get to Mt. Charleston and back by 2:00.... hmmm... Dad is sad, he really wanted to spend the day with the whole family. I guess we could have just gone and they could have missed their things, but then you have major grumpy kids to deal with. So we decided to just take Tanner up to the snow. He really wanted to go and we thought he could use some mom and dad attention. We got up there and found a fun place and had a great day!! Ashley and Mitchell missed out! The sky was blue and it was about 50 degrees out! Perfect sledding weather for us Vegas wimps. The snow was a little old and crunchy, but it was very slick for sledding. It didn't turn out how we had planned, but that's how life is sometimes.... especially with teenagers!

Happy Valentines Day!

John is in Orlando at the National Home Builders Show.... bummer. So it hasn't been a normal valentines day. That's why we went away last weekend and we will have to go out to a nice dinner when he gets home.... But I have still been thinking about how much I love him today! He is the best husband. I came downstairs this morning and there was a card on the counter and a dozen roses. He had Ashley go out and buy roses last night and she hid them. I had no idea that she got them. It was a nice surprise. He is one romantic guy. He has never forgotten an anniversary, b-day or valentines day. He always goes above and beyond. I wont go into detail or you will get mad at your husbands. Lets just say that being raised with 5 sisters, he learned how to treat a girl right. He writes poetry, picks a theme for all my Christmas presents to revolve around and all sorts of stuff. I am one lucky lady. It's been a long week and I can't wait for him to get home! I miss you and love you John!

A surprise weekend!

This is John. My turn to write. Work has been exceptionally busy for me lately. After spending 5 days at our store in New Orleans (including Superbowl Sunday), I got home Thursday night late. Friday was crazy at work, not only because it was my first day back in the office all week, but it was the only day I'd be in the office for 2 weeks. On Monday, I'm going to Orlando for 6 days for a trade show and some marketing help for our 9 Florida stores.

So, back to Friday. I wanted to spend time with Allison, but I didn't have time to plan a hot date. Never fear... Allison planned a surprise getaway for us. When I got home, she threw me in the car and we hurried off. I was not told where we were going. Even during dinner, she wouldn't give me clues. I like figuring things out--that's what I do. After dinner she just told me where to drive--north on I-15. The suspense ended when she told me she got us a hotel room in St. George, UT and we were just going to relax for the weekend. What a perfect surprise. I needed alone time with her and we needed a break. It was a wonderful time. Peaceful with nothing scheduled. Let's just say Allison knows me so well and makes me so happy. What a wonderful weekend. JB

Bad Mother Award....

I feel awful! Ashley had the flu real bad about 3 weeks ago... After about a week, she got better as it ran its course. Except for her cough. It has been lingering. She often has allergies and has this obnoxious cough, so the good mother that I am, had her take some old allergy medicine that she got prescribed to her last year. It didn't help any and did I think to take her to the doctor?? NO. The old allergy medicine ran out a few days ago, so I figured that she needed more, so I finally took her in today. I told her in the waiting room "I bet ya 100 bucks that it's just allergies". The doctor comes in as she is coughing and looks concerned. I said it was much worse and it sounds a bit better and she looked at me and said, "she's really had this for 3 weeks? Most people bring their kids in after a few days with a cough like this". oops. I knew I was the bad mom, by the look on the doctors face. Who by the way had to be only about 25 years old... I swear, she was young! Ashley liked her, she was hip. Anyway, after examining her, she told us that she has bronchitis! And has had it for a few weeks and IS contagious. SO if any of you out there have been sick, it could have been passed along by Ashley. The doctor asked if she needed any kind of Dr.'s note for the school that she has missed, she looked a little surprised when I told her that she hasn't missed any.... because the bad mom made her go! good thing I didn't tell her that she was way worse the week of finals! Maybe she could write a Dr.'s note saying she was sick the week of finals and she could retake a few of them! I swear, when I take them in right away, it's just a virus and needs run its course, but when I think it's just a virus and I should save time and money by not going to the Doctor, it is something bad!!! Parenting is tough... we need a medical degree, a psychology degree, teaching degree and so many more!

3rd Place!

This week was spent working on Tanner's pinewood derby car. Growing up, pinewood derby races were a HUGE thing. I think they were more important to my Dad than the boys. He had six boys to get them perfected. The cars were truly pieces of art. I remember the shiny metallic paint, the sanding and hours of work put into it. John gets into the cars, but not like my dad.... probably a good thing. John helped Tanner cut it out and then made Tanner do all the sanding and painting. He worked really hard on it. I took him to the craft store to pick out his paint. I saw the little bottles of model paint and got those... so it was nice and shiny, just like I remember! John ended up having to work late on Thursday, so I had to put the wheels on. I guess I did a good job because he won 3rd place!! Yah Tanner. I think that is the best we have ever done. It was a nice pinewood derby race, very under control. Kids were calm and quiet. Very enjoyable. Our primary is shrinking, we have combined with the Monte Cristo ward. It's fun for Tanner to get to know more boys!

I just got done watching President Hinkley's funeral. It was so nice! I am going to miss him. He has been such and amazing Prophet. I was a bit emotional at the end when they showed a little video of him. What a great example he has been! I hope we can always remember the things he has taught us and stay strong and do a little better!