Here i am

So a lot has happened between here and now, i just kinda got burned out with the blogging and needed a break. So Its July and were in the process of refinancing our home and of course these things take longer than anyone would hope but if were lucky in the end we will have a smaller mortgage payment. Konnors crawling all over the place... its an army crawl but he is super fast with it... and of course he thinks he should eat everything he comes across, i feel distracted all of the time and I'm pretty sure he has a guardian angel following him around because I'll come across things on the ground that shouldn't be eaten so I'll pick it up and it'll be wet with slobber but not ingested so hopefully that angel doesn't mind picking up where I'm obviously failing!

I got this crazy idea that i wanted to take some classes, specifically some art classes and i thought the college would be a good place to learn and so i registered for fall semester at Weber state and today i got my acceptance letter! Hopefully all will go well with financial aid because last time i checked i didn't have 2 grand in my back pocket. So I'm registered for 13 credit hours and I'm taking 2 nutrition classes, 2 art classes and a health class. All of the classes are online except for one drawing class which will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I'm still trying to square away where my children will be at that time because driving back and forth from Ogden to pleasant view and Weber state will be a booger. I don't know that i will be blogging much once classes do start, hopefully i can focus and get decent grades, right now I'm pretty excited about it all.

My triathlon went good, the weekend it was on was a horrible weekend and because of the cold i had a cold and was wishing that i didn't need to blow my nose every ten minutes. The water was a cool 59 degrees and i was a dork and didn't test ride my bike before the race other than to make sure the seat height was okay so i learned some valuable obvious lessons. The run was fine and we were all really lucky that we didn't get rained on.

Thats pretty much all for now, have a wonderful day!

Fashion Challenge

I would like a few new outfits for the summer and since i feel like I'm far from the fashion scene and knowing whats in style and I've developed a weird relationship with money I'm gonna be extremely creative with how i go about getting these few outfits. First off I haven't yet picked out the wardrobes i like but I'll be scanning the Internet and sites that i like to pick out a few got to have getup's. But instead of ordering or running to the nearest department store I'm gonna update what i have and then hit some thrift shops and favorite discounters for the rest. All of my looks will be modest and appropriate but hopefully very trendy and something different from my everyday jeans and a t-shirt look. I haven't come up with a price limit but I will be posting what everything cost, how and where i found it and maybe it'll stir up some creative juices for you also. Who doesn't like a challenge? FYI if you've seen something that you think would be a great summer look send me a link I'm completely open for suggestions :) (if you want to join in and find an outfit too be my guest and let me know and I'll post a link to your page also)

My Thoughts

For some reason the past few days I've felt like I've accomplished all of the major milestones in life and now I'm just filling in the blank until grandchildren... who thinks that way? Graduate from High school, Check; Go to school and get a trade in something you like, Check; Move out, Check; Get Married, Check; Buy a house, Check; Have babies, Check; then what comes next? I know the options are limitless but as far as milestones i feel like I've hit all the big ones. Raising children doesn't always have milestones that you can just check off, each day is a new rendition of the last and i seriously need to make some more goals or I'm gonna lose my mind. I'm no where close to perfect, but i look at what i have and i pretty much have it made, the potential to have an influence for good is there and i obviously need to be more busy and involved in life. There really is so much to learn and to practice that I could honestly be actively engaged in something all of the time, I just want to shift my focus from myself to those around me and share the good that i have in my life so that others may have the same comfort, stability, and truth that brings about a personal peace. For starters I'd like you all to know that I love my religion which is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I know that it is the only true church on the earth today, It is headed by a Prophet namely Thomas S. Monson who receives direct revelation from a loving Heavenly Father and he leads and guides the church with this modern day revelation, I believe in personal revelation and I know that when I am in need of any help, comfort or direction in my own life I am able to pray to my Heavenly Father who listens and answers my prayers. I know that the Prophet Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and he restored the Gospel to the earth by their direction. I've read the Book Of Mormon, I have a testimony of it and know that it is true and offers so much guidance for us in this world today. I have a desire to read the Bible cover to cover and I'm working on it, I don't know everything and I've got a lot to learn, but as far as the basics of who I am and where I come from and hopefully where I'm going, I am at peace with all of those questions because I've known the answers most of my life. If any of you out there are struggling with where you fit in and how to find joy and peace I'd love for you to either ask me or better yet check out any of the websites that the church has set up for all of these questions. Here are some links to direct you there -
http://www.mormon.org
http://www.lds.org/
They are both great websites with gobs of information and resources, Thanks for letting me share something so close to my heart.

a picture update

I promised some pics and now I'm finally getting around to it, we did a really bad job of taking pictures for Easter... well we took pics but most of them were not very good. Thanks for all the suggestions and comments about my last post, Coleton is surprisingly doing better and now has plans on going to mission prep every Sunday morning which is way cool. He never went and got his ears pierced because my husband told him that they (the plasma place) wouldn't let him donate plasma for quite awhile if he did, so that kinda took some wind out of his sails. We all think he needs to be surrounded by positive people who can let him know how great he really is and what brings true happiness in life.

So the following is a small assortment of all that I've been working on

some Easter pics

our backyard with a view and a lawn that needs to be mowed

flowers that are also just weeds that occur all on their own but i think they are pretty so i leave them alone

starts of my spinach

peas, one of the few things i grow well

onions (started last year from seed) they look better this year

so here are some pics of my daughters dress, it was actually quite fun to make although i need so much more practice.

Coleton

You know whats incredibly frustrating? Little brothers that make my mom cry. If I may speak freely about how I think hopefully you'll understand. My brother since he turned 18 feels that he is now granted the right to be an angry ungrateful jerk, my parents have been walking on eggshells trying to understand what his problem is. I took him to dinner Thursday night hoping that he would relax and maybe tell me why he is so upset all of the sudden and of course he wont open up, I'm not 18 i don't understand. We were all wondering if he had done something bad or wrong and he was feeling guilty and doesn't want to talk but the more and more i talk or am around him i don't think that is the case, although he would love to find someone to get him in trouble and prove that he is in fact his own person and can do stupid stuff all on his own. He wants to move out of the house and i totally understand that feeling but he doesn't need to be such a jerk to the people who gave him life. He thinks he is going to go pierce his ears this week (like a little girl) what he doesn't understand is that i cant think of one "cool" white guy that has his ears pierced... honestly in the end they are all just creepy looking "use ta be's" that grew up and are scar'd from previous rebellion and stupidity. SO if he hasn't been doing drugs, hasn't been messing around with girls, hasn't been stealing things then what gives? The reason i think he is so backward is that he is 18 and Satan knows it and he is working really hard on getting him to mess up his whole young life. Coleton cant sleep, he cant find any peace, he cant talk to anyone who's been there done that, he's got it in his mind that were all hypocrites and liars when in fact he is just struggling against the biggest hypocrite and liar there ever was. We all want to take him down a dark ally and beat some sense into him but that's apparently not the best way to go about it (although I'd like to reason that it would be the quickest most effective way). I want to be his buddy and be able to know whats going on in his life so he doesn't cut ties with the whole fam, other than that i know that we'd all be open to suggestions... good grief.

Cache Valley Triathlon

June 12th is my first triathlon of 2010 and i'm pretty excited about it. I really enjoyed the variety of stuff to train for... not that i don't enjoy running but honestly this is more fun, plus it works muscles that i don't use when i just run. I'm gonna be doing the sprint version which is a 750 meter swim, 12.4 mile bike, and a 5k run, which makes this tri shorter than the first one i did so i'm hoping to knock off some time. I've been slacking with the posts because i haven't had the time to do them, but to update you I'll post a list of the things I've accomplished lately
- moved the dog house to the corner of the backyard
- started my warm weather seeds inside, transplanted the tomatoes into Dixie cups (I've got like 12 tomato plants, what the h was i thinking?)
- made makayla an Easter dress which she wants to wear everyday so i hid it also. (i'll post some pics someday) it was a fun project.
- planted my cool weather veggies outside and now i'm waiting for them to come out of the ground.
-mod podged some letters cut from cardboard to spell my kids names above their beds (not perfect but i like them)

so ya that's whats going on, and i really should get to bed cuz i'm apparently going to teach/talk at my little bro's adult roles class tomorrow about marriage (those poor kids)

i need a vaca

pics from our last vacation, its been awhile

while my son attempts to eat my hair and after watching old people who get paid to tour cities on the TV, I've decided i need a vacation. the only problem is that I'm not made of money, so my plan is to save ten dollars everyday that i work and stash it away for a decent get-away. I figure that by the time my anniversary comes around (in January) I'll have a fair amount to plan a trip. I don't think I'll let Jared know it'll be more of a surprise and there is less pressure that way too. Now i can fantasize about the best place to go :)