Passing the torch....

I'm a bit of a music geek. I have always memorized music. Whenever I would get a new CD (or tape for that matter), I would lay on my bed and study the insert with the lyrics until I had every song memorized. Well, I've always been proud of my song knowledge until the last few months. There has been TWICE in just the last couple months that Maddison has said a song had certain lyrics, I thought they were different, in fact... INSISTED they were different and she ended up being right!!!! First off, I'm so proud. Second off, I will miss the days when I can brag about knowing song lyrics and challenging anyone to knowing them better than me. My 9 year old daughter is kicking my trash. So, the last, and final time I will challenge her lyric knowledge.... several months ago, Coldplay came out with a song called Viva La Vida, she told me one day that she thought the artists were Mormon because they didn't swear in this song and talked about missionaries. I laughed because I didn't think they said "missionaries". It was before the album came out, so I went on a Yahoo chat and asked what the lyrics were, someone chimed in with the WRONG answer... they said it was something else, "I'm wishing they were here.....something, something" so, dumb me, took that as the right lyrics. Fast forward to last Sunday, I was telling my SIL about how cute it was that Maddison thought it said "missionaries". Amy agreed with her, and her sister did too..... uh ohhh, I'm in trouble. Looked it up, and sure enough MISSIONARIES!!!! So I officially am passing the torch to Maddison. I would probably still challenge other people, but not her. I've learned my lesson. She is the queen!!! As Randy would say right now, "Are you proud your daughter is just like you?" and my answer, "OHHHHH YEAAAAA!!!!".

Yea, I'm one of "those girls"!!!

What were you thinking? Geesh!!! So, I've seen some blog posts where the blogger takes pictures of her loot after a shopping trip to show the savings she just had. I think it's really cool to see how much money people are saving by doing this coupon thing. I had my friend, Heather teach me the system (and there is a system) to saving so much money. I've been doing it for a few weeks now and haven't had a HUGE promotion to brag about UNTIL YESTERDAY!!! I am so excited!!! I went to Alberston's and on a promo they are having, plus using the coupons (strategically) that come in the Sunday paper, I saved a BUTT LOAD OF MONEY. For those of you that are confused about how much a butt load is, trust me, it's a lot. Here are the stats:
I got:

2 packs of sliced cheese
2 64 oz. Hawaiian Punch drinks
2 bags of chips
2 loafs of bread
3 Reece's PB cup hearts (clearance from V-day)
25 boxes of cake mix
5 tubs of frosting
8 boxes of fruit snacks
10 boxes of yummy brownies
15 boxes of cereal
5 tubes of refrigerated cinnamon rolls
4 tubes of refrigerated crescent rolls
8 cans of soup

That's 91 items
it cost me $62.70
with a total savings of $194.38

Imagine me skipping out of the grocery store!!! I was so happy, and still am!!! It took me an hour to organize stuff online and clip coupons. Another hour to shop (and I'm new at this, so I will get faster as I go). Essentially getting paid $97.00 an hour to shop like this!!! I am totally hooked. I had to trust Heather enough to buy the Sunday newspapers to get this going, and I am so glad I did!!! If anyone wants to know about it, I will gladly teach you how to do it, although there are people out there that are better at it than I am. I'm all about making the dollar stretch as much as we can right now!!! I think my dollar is stretched!!! Now if only my pants would do the same. I guess I can't have everything!!! Happy shopping everyone!!!

Our Valentine's party

We have the coolest friends in our neighborhood.
For Valentine's day, the boys decided to plan a party, dinner, games and EVERYTHING!!!

This is Randy's cake he made for the party... he made me laugh right before Ronni took the picture.

So Saturday came, the husbands were all busy cooking, organizing, ect.... I was so excited to see how it was all going to work out. Who was coming? What were we eating?
Then Saturday night rolled around.
Randy did the cake.
Paul made yummy ribs and homemade mac and cheese for the kids.
The Moss' brought delicious twice baked potatoes.
The Reynold's brought veggies.
The Rinlisbacher's brought warm rolls.
The Blair's supplied the drinks.














So if you are keeping score, that's...
Me and Randy and our 3 kids
Paul and Heather + 4 kids
Jeff and Chanieca + 4 kids
Brett and Tiffany + 2 kids
Kurt and Kristie + 1 kid
Cam and Ronni + 3 kids (1 was sick at g'mas)
Pete and Angie + 2 kids

I'm not good at math, but I think that's 14 adults and 19 kids!!!! Fun huh? We had a blast!!!!













Paul and Heather were the hosts of The Newlywed Game and we all sucked!!! Just kidding, Jeff and Chanieca broke the tie with Randy and I in overtime. They are the winners!!! We wont say who the losers are, because it's all about LOVE (Pete and Angie).














We had a great time and this was Tyler's room at the end of the night, kids watching a movie and Tyler asleep in his bed, using Lexi's butt as a pillow while she's asleep too!!!

I love having our friends over. I hadn't been feeling great all week, so I was nervous about having friends over. Once they all started to arrive, I realized that it didn't matter. Our friends are comfortable at our house. I could just have fun!!! Great times. Great people. Great food. It was a fabulous night!!! I hope you all had fun on Valentine's day too!!!!

Ooey, gooey love post

That's right, in the spirit of Valentine's Day, I'm gonna post a sappy post about how much I love my husband!!! Why? Because my name is on this blog and I CAN!!!! So there!!! I think I'm a pretty lucky girl to be married to Randy. I never knew life could be this good. He is exactly what I needed in a husband and I'm glad that cupid shot us 13 years ago. I thought it was weird that a dude in a loin cloth was chasing us with heart shaped arrows, but the outcome is great!!! I knew right away that there was something special about our relationship. I love that he tells our kids that he thinks I'm pretty. No matter how HUGE I am, he is still attracted to me. I love that he lets me make fun of him. I love that he can make me laugh so hard I can't breathe. THAT'S real love if you ask me. I think our kids are gonna have a good understanding of how happy people can be together. On Sunday's, we don't see him a lot, but I have to admit that when I see him for the first time in the hall, my heart skips a beat like he's my boyfriend and I'm in High School. I feel so lucky to be his wife. I don't deserve any of the perks that come with that title, but I'll take them!!! I am glad that I get to grow old with him. Happy Valentine's Day everyone, especially Randy. I love you!!!!

I don't hate this part....

So a few mornings ago, Maddison and I were watching Jumpstart on VH1 and the newest Pussycat Dolls song came one (currently the top song on my playlist when you log on to my blog) and Maddison (9 years old) said, "mom, can I watch her fingers on the piano to learn this song?" I told her that because it was a music video, she probably wasn't even playing the real notes. So I got online to see what I could find. The first thing I could get my hands on was just the letter notes. Not the sheet music, just... right hand.... GGGAFG.... ect.... so I printed it out, she sat down at the piano and played it like she wrote it!!! I was so excited!!!! I called her fabulous piano teacher (who happens to be my best friend) and shared that moment with her. After the kids went to school I was able to find the real sheet music online, so when she got home, she got to play the whole song and not just the intro. I love that Maddison LOVES music like me, and she's pretty good at playing it too!!! So, when you listen to the intro of this song, think of how lucky I am that she plays it on our piano every time she gets the chance!!!!

CDH Awareness

On Wednesday, Feb. 11th, 2009, there will be a big thing happening in the lives of us who have had kids born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernias. There is a group called "Breath of Hope" that is trying to trademark the phrase "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness" making it impossible for any other group to have that phrase in their description. It feels a little like they are taking away my right to belong to whatever group I want to. We belong to Cherubs and we love that group very much. If Breath of Hope wins in court tomorrow, Cherubs and every other CDH awareness group will have to stop using that phrase or they will suffer negative consequences. I know it probably doesn't mean much to most of you. But if you will just keep those law makers in your hearts and prayers tomorrow, we would appreciate it. If this passes, it will just make it harder for us to raise awareness about CDH and thus slowing down the great progress the professionals are making. Here is the link to sign the petition, if you wish to sign it

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cdhawareness/index.html

Thanks for letting me rant... by the way, do you like the ribbon that one of the CDH moms in Mexico made for me? Pretty cool, huh?

"YOU'RE SITTING ON MY MAGNA DOODLE!!!!"

See these cute, little, innocent faces? Who would ever want to hurt them? MMMMMEEEEEE!!!! This year at church our block starts at 12:20pm and Sacrament is last, and did I mention that my husband is in the Bishopric, so that means I wont ever have his help this year with my unruly children. Well, every week we sit somewhere between the Neely family and the Brey family. And every week when we sit down, they both giggle just a little. Having sacrament last is such a challenge to our youngest 2. Tyler and Cambelle just want to kill each other for some reason during that hour, which in turn makes me want to kill both of them in no particular order. Don't get me wrong, most weeks they will sit like little angels sent from Heaven to teach other kids in the ward how to act, but some weeks......... Today was one of "those weeks". I could not keep control of them. I'm sure to most people, they would think I am overreacting, but they made me want to check myself into the loony bin and that was before the opening prayer!!! Before we could even get into the Sacrament today, Cambelle was pitching a fit because Tyler was sitting on her magna doodle. How was she pitching a fit? By yelling it as loud as she could, "YOU'RE SITTING ON MY MAGNA DOODLE!!!!" Not such a big deal, right? Not like the Stake President was sitting one row in front of me FACING US!!! It's good to have Heather and Karen giggle because like me, I'm sure they have had these problems and I can tell they have survived without actually taking someone's life. It gives me hope that I wont be serving a life sentence any time soon. In closing I would like to thank Heather and Karen for finding comic relief in the happenings of my family. Thanks again girls. Amen.

Jetettes!!!

I am so excited. When I was in High School, I was on the drill team (Jetettes) and loved every minute of all 3 years. Well, a bunch of us are on Facebook and we started playing around with the idea of a reunion... well, before we knew it, we had all planned a get together for the Jetette Review in March. We'll be partying with my junior year team. It is the 15 year anniversary of that group. I can't wait!!! Those girls were so much fun. It was a time of my life that I have some of the best memories. I haven't scanned any of my photos yet, but I just got all of my videos ready for Randy's brother, Cory to convert to DVD for me!!! It is going to be such a blast. When watching the videos, I came across one where I rolled my eyes at my dad in disgust. After making Randy watch that part, he said, "I guess some things never change"!!! I'm pretty sure he was talking about my attitude and not so much about my smoking hot body!!!! Anyhow, after listening to the thump, thump, thump of all the dance music, I got all nostalgic. It's weird to think it's that long ago. I still feel 17.... WHATEVER!!! Some people are just dancers at heart. I am. Even though I haven't stayed dancing, other than country dancing, I still choreograph dances in my head and love hearing new songs just to have that dancer in me. Randy and I used to go country dancing a lot, then we started teaching a bunch of classes to groups and we haven't done anything for a while now, I'm starting to get that itch again!!! I think I'll be this way my whole life and I'm ok with it!!!

I'M DDDOOONNNEEEE!!!!

All done. I finished the Twilight series on Monday!!! Let me just say... WAHOO!!!! I loved those books. I think because I saw the movie first and was able to picture the characters, the writing style was very easy going, and I just love the "forbidden love" part of it all!!! So, let's tally,

Book #1, 498 pages
Book #2 563 pages
Book #3 629 pages
Book #4 756 pages

Total 2,446 pages!!!

I'm not good at math, but I do know, that's more reading than I have done since high school combined. I'm into reference books, parenting magazines and the Ensign. Not so much into novels of any kind. Anyhow, and if you're keeping track, I read all of those books in less than a month (that averages about 81 pages per day)!!!

So what took me so long to get to it? I had absolutely NO desire to read the books, but a movie? Why not? I fell obsessively in love with the movie. Still no interest in the books. Christmas day, Gina had me read "just one part" of book one (when Bella sees Edward in the sun, in the meadow for the first time) and I was hooked. I couldn't stop thinking about how descriptive it was, so on New Year's Eve, I called Anna to get Twilight from her. It took a few days for us to meet up, which was ok ... I didn't know what I was missing. After I finished that book, I was fine not reading the rest, UNTIL.... I read the first chapter of the second book (conveniently located at the end of book #1). UHGGGG!!!!! Now I had to keep going. Book #2, done in 3 days. When I finished book #3, it was like a heroin addict, I needed book #4 NOW!!! And when I mean now, I really mean YESTERDAY!!!

I am glad she wrote those 2 beautiful words at the end of Breaking Dawn THE END because if I had to keep reading at that rate, I would be in a lot of trouble. There were MANY days that my sweet Randy would come home to me, in my robe, not showered, the house a mess, and Cambelle eating Pop Tarts for breakfast and lunch. Only to be greeted with a, "will you please fix dinner? I'm busy". He's a good sport, and he knew there was an end to the madness when I finished the series!!!

My favorite parts....

Book 1- the relationship between Edward and Bella, isn't that what every girl wants?
Book 2- the relationship between Jacob and Bella, isn't that what every girls wants?
Book 3- the "tent" part.... that's all I'm gonna say. I was laughing so dang hard.
Book 4- the banter between Rose and Jake.

Those are the parts that stand out to me. I didn't say I wasn't going to become obsessed about these books, I just needed to do it on my own time. What was the worst parts of the books? For me, the Vulturi . I hate their unpredictable nature. And their just freaking scary!!! Except, I have to admit that I can't wait to see the part in movie #2 where the tourists are taken down to the Vulturi!!! Morbid, huh?

So I have to tell you about my Grandma Albrecht. The first time I saw the movie was over Thanksgiving with my Aunt Iva, Danielle and Grandma. On the way to the theatre, my Grandma was saying how she didn't like the obsessive nature of the relationship between Edward and Bella (she had read the first 2 books). On and on and on she went about how teenage girls shouldn't think that it's ok for a guy to wait for them at every class at school, or driving to and from school and she REALLY hated that Edward watched Bella sleeping at night. "It's just too much for girls to think it's ok." SOOO , we get in, get seated, the movie starts, I'm sitting next to Grandma. The first few minutes, Jacob comes on screen. My 71 YEAR OLD GRANDMA, grabbed my hand and breathlessly uttered, "THAT'S Jacob". I laughed SO hard, what happened to "obsessed" and "not good"? Oh, jeesh!!! I hope I never forget that moment!!! The DVD comes out the day after her b-day. I keep teasing her that she can have a slice of Jacob for her birthday!!! Her response? A shy little giggle!!! I love my Grandma!!!

So, some of the lessons I learned while reading Twilight:

1. A 3 year old can survive on granola bars and Pop Tarts for almost a full month.
2. You still are the mom, even if you yell, "LEAVE ME ALONE, I'M READING!!!".
3. My husband doesn't mind a little vampire loving.
4. Don't bite too hard, it just hurts and no one turns into a vampire.
5. The house is ok with less cleaning.
6. I'm not the LAST person on Earth to read Twilight.
7. I'm in love with a fictional character (or 2!!!).
8. Reading in bed isn't easy.
9. Even when I'm into books that I'm loving, reading is still VERY boring to me.
10. You don't have to be just Team Jacob or Team Edward. It's ok to love them both!!!

I'm sure there is more that I learned, I will just stop there!!! If you haven't read the books.... DON'T, you'll be sucked in just like I was. If you have.... aren't they fabulous?

BOO!!!!

So, I don't get it. I get startled really easy. I get the crap scared out of me just from Randy walking around a corner when I didn't know he was there. Thank goodness he is now in the habit of tapping the walls when he walks down the hall to prevent me from dying to early. Anyhow, the problem with being spooked so easy is that I LOVE scary movies and TV shows!!! I can't watch them alone, even if Randy's asleep on the couch with me... I'm still not alone!!! I was watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre one night, really late and there was about 20 minutes left and I needed to go to the bathroom SO BAD, so I proceeded to wake him up to go to the bathroom with me... you never know when there's gonna be a man waiting in the potty for you with a chainsaw!!! He wasn't annoyed at all (another reason I love him so much). So, last night he was sleeping on the couch and I was laying on his lap watching Paranormal State (one of my favorite scary TV shows), it was about 1am and at a pretty scary part of the show when out of the blue I heard this CRASH come from the kitchen. I about peed my pants. After I threw him off the couch, I told him to go and investigate. He found that the lid had fallen off of the garbage can!!! I thought for sure there was a naughty ghost coming to haunt my house!!!! It took an hour to get my heart to slow down!!! I love that adrenaline rush. I hate it and love it at the same time!!! Ohhhh, isn't it fun?