Friday, September 26, 2008

LSAT

We are getting down to the wire for Jeff and his LSAT preparations. He has 8 days til the big test. His practice tests are really good around 164 to 168 and if he can get that kind of score on the real test we are totally staying here! I am trying hard to not get my hopes up and put to much pleasure on him but it is hard. Every time he tells me his score I almost jump for joy...it is hard to act like it is not a huge deal. Jeff is the only one who is allowed to put pressure on him, everyone else just stresses him and makes him mad. So, if you all see him around don't say to much about the test, including wishing him luck...in fact don't mention it, it is better for ME that way :) But, we are going to change the party house to Mandy's house because the house we will be able to afford will be tiny! So if you see Mandy congratulate her on being the new and improved hostess of the ward formally named Country Lane.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Sad Days

Well the dreaded day has arrived, our amazing ward is being broken up and divided into a bunch of different wards. The worst part is that I am out here all alone in BFE while all the people I love the most are going to be together in a ward. I told our bishop (the amazing Bishop Howell) that I would be going to the same ward as him and all of my other BFF's (Seibolds, Limbs, Howells and of course Chapples) no matter what. Jeff and I are just going to have to sell our house fast so we can find some place over by them. I know that our Heavenly Father has something great in store for all of us with this change, the hard thing is getting past the sadness in order to see the greatness that is waiting for all of us. I remember when the Country Lane ward was first put together. I hadn't been going to church here very long and I was very excited to meet new people. The great thing is that because of the amazing CL ward my fantastic husband became a member of this TRUE church. The new ward boundaries brought about that little miracle for my family, I can only hope that the same miracle is awaiting another wonderful family! The good news is that we are all still neighbors and can bug the crap out of each other when ever we want. So Country Lane keep your chin up the future is waiting to bring you further blessings....Stay strong and know that I love you ALL!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Running in the Rain

Yesterday Jeff and I took the kids into SLC on the train to go to the planetarium with his cousin, Jenny. She is wonderful and takes all of the nieces and nephews to do stuff all the time. So, we get into Salt Lake and it starts to sprinkle a little. We hop on the trax train and take it about a block and a half. We have another 2 blocks to go to get to the planetarium so we start walking. Of course then it starts to down pour. We all are in shorts, tee-shirts and flip-flops. We begin running from one awning to another trying to make it to the planetarium without getting completely drenched...well we run out of awnings, so there we are downtown Salt Lake all huddled under a little tree trying to avoid the rain. Man did we look funny! Emerson decides that we are getting to much wind so he runs for it about 100 ft to a little awning and seems pretty happy there. The rest of us decide to make a break for it. So we stand there for a bit and continue with our "run...stop...run...stop" until we finally arrive. The kids had fun laughing and sliding as we ran and Jeff and I enjoyed just watching it all unfold. it was fun to just deal with life. I hope that we can always remember how fun that was and to always learn to make lemonade when we are handed lemons!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Slide Show

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

So Chloie and Lauren started dance and gymnastics. Their schedule is crazy but luckily one of my BFF's Holly is helping me get them to dance. Her little girl Jayden is in the same class as Lauren. I can't wait to see the 2 of them on the stage dancing. It should be hilarious. Dariell, Holly and I are in the middle of getting ready for our 3rd annual Halloween murder mystery party. It is going to bigger and better than ever. It is crazy how excited people are to come. We decided to write it ourselves this year. It has been a lot of fun but at the same time harder than we all thought. We have 30 parts to come up with and that is 30 different personalities and secrets to create. It has been great for me to get back into writing though. I always wanted to be a writer, this isn't what I had in mind but it sure is a good time. I am working on taking pics so I can get more on here. My family is so amazing so I should have more pictures of them.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Great Fun Doing Service

I had the opportunity to go with some of the young women in our ward to serve dinner to the high priests in our stake. It was cool to see how many high priests there are in our stake! But after we did our service and ate the wonderful dinner (roast beef, tatos and gravy, cucmbers, tomatoes and apple pie with ice cream) Jessica C. and I were hanging out talking in her drive way. Her sister Jamie came out and we were all just chatting when Jess screams that an animal just jumped at my window. I was way freaked out because one of my neighbors had told me that there was a large raccoon wandering the neighborhood. After some major panic Jamie says it was just her dumb cat. (I hate cats!) So we are all laughing when we saw Jodi H and her family arrive home. We all decided that we wanted to scare her. We jumped out of my van and sneaked over. Tanner (her son) sees us and just sits there staring...he knows we are weird. So Jodi goes in through the garage and we sneak through the front door. We first try to hide in the closet by the front door... to much stuff so then we hide on the stairs...too obvious, so then on to the bathroom in the tub. Well Tanner comes in and says she will never look in there so we need to hide in her room. We run in there and Jamie and Jess climb on the bed and start to get in under the sheets...did I mention that Jodi is the Bishop's wife? Anyway; I have a small issue with this that gets vetoed so in we all go. Tanner comes in and tries to hide with us.. no room so he lays on the floor. Jodi is taking to long to come (BATHROOM #2 we think????) and so Tanner goes down and tells her there is a surprise for her in her room. She finally comes up and flips on the light. We all yelled SURPRISE and scared the crap out of her. It was awesome but we did wake up her sleeping 7 year old daughter (sorry again Tyler!) She took pictures to commemorate our funny! Needless to say if you here rumors of a Bishop having 3 girls in his bed that are not related don't think the worst! It is all in good clean fun...and his sense of humor is just one of the many things we LOVE about our bishop!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Children

My kids have been trained by THE master of all arguing! It makes me laugh when Jeff gets so mad at the kids for arguing with him when they are just following his example. Adison is the worst..or the best depending on how you look at it! He just keeps going until we literally have to tell him to shut his mouth. It will serve him well if he ever decides to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Liar...I mean Lawyer.

Emerson is getting pretty good at it as well but he has learned at least when to stop. It is fun though to sit back and watch him argue with Jeff. He gets his dad all twisted in to a frustrated mess. It is good to see him like that it helps me remember that he is beatable...at least sometimes.

But it is wonderful to see that they are smart enough to think ahead during a discussion. I hope that they develop and use that talent for good and not evil. I think it is very important for people to be able to argue but in a productive way. I am not saying that they are learning the good argument from their father but at least they are learning the basics that I can manipulate later!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Let the fun begin!!!

I was so excited when school got out in May, all I could think was...ahhh, finally a little down time. Then the craziness of summer started with kids going everywhere and little mini-trips planned keeping us crazy once again. So then all I could think was...ahhh, finally school is starting. I was excited for routine and bedtime. You know, all the stuff that goes down the drain the day school gets out. But just like everything there is really no green grass on the other side. Now we have dance, gymnastics, soccer, pre-school and as many other things as we can possibly fit into a day. Wow...I am so glad I went down to part-time at work! I don't know how full-time moms make it work

But I have found a little piece of heaven on Tues. and Thurs. mornings from 8:30 til 11:30. All my kids are in school at that time and I get some ME time. It is amazing! I highly recommend it to everyone! I am finally tackling all those projects you never can get to...and LOVING IT.

Jeff and I are finally on the same page. We had a little ruff patch where we were both suborn and unforgiving, luckily we were able to YELL our way out of it. (jk). I always thought that we would be the couple that never really fought. I has been hard to realize that we aren't the perfect couple I have always imagined in my head. It also gives me hope when I realize that all the other perfect couples out there might be just as imperfect as us. Basically we are all human no matter what we lead other people to believe at times. Well Jeff is making me a sandwich, (yes at 9:00 at night) and i am going to eat it and hang out for a few quiet minutes...until tomorrow when the craziness starts again!