Odds and Ends...

Welp, we've had a few picture taking opportunities lately so enjoy the results!!

First, I got to go with Jensen on her class field trip to the zoo. We had a good time, even though we only had enough time to see a few animals. The zoo is just too big to see everything in 2 hours, especially when you have 6 kindergarteners to chase after! :o Luckily the rain held off until the last 15 minutes, so we had a nice, cool, cloudy day to enjoy!

Jensen riding on a bunny rabbit.

Jensen the pearl.

Jensen and two of her friends riding a warthog.

Next we got to see Beau one last time before he headed off to boot camp. In case you don't know, he has joined the Army and is going to be a Combat Medic. With all of his surgical tech training, he was really hoping to get this position. Basically, it means that he will be the medic for a group of soldiers fighting on the front lines. He will also get to help others, but his first priority will be his group. He will be their first medical response for anything that they may need, be that a sprained ankle, a gun shot wound, a land mine, a splinter, etc. It should never be dull, that's for sure! But he will love the excitement and the fast pace of it. Plus he likes things to be different, never the same, so he should be a perfect fit for it. We are super proud of him and we hope that he will enjoy all the great opportunities this will bring to him. Plus he will get to travel and see lots of amazing places. But we will miss him!!!

Uncle Beau and the Kiddies

Beau and his Mammy and Pappy!

Beau and his older, wiser, radiantly beautiful sister... :P

Uncle Beau and Cousin It...I mean Jorden! :)

Uncle Beau and Jillen (She really wasn't screaming and trying to get away! We must have caught her in mid-dance move!)

Uncle Beau and Jayden, who is modeling Beau's future Army apparel. So nice of him, huh?

Jensen and her Uncle Beau-y! She sure loves him!!!

Finally, we had Jorden's birthday celebration. He usually wants a lemon cake but this year he decided to change it up a bit and got for chocolate, so I didn't disappoint!! He ended up with a Chocolate Truffle cake, which basically meant a Chocolate Chocolatey Choco Chocolate Cake. He was happy!

Here's all the kiddies, posing for the obligatory birthday family photo before they can have cake.

Jorden and his cake. If you look closely, you can actually SEE the braces that we are paying a fortune for!!! :D

Jorden enjoying his Spark-ing Sparkler candles. It got a little exciting when they started sparking while we were still lighting them! :o

Here's our birthday boy!! He's officially a teenager. I think he looks so much older in this picture, he actually LOOKS like a teenager! And at this point I think I might actually be ready for the teasing phase to stop and the girl phase to begin! :o

What a handsome, big devil!! (Who, unfortunately, is almost taller than me!! :( )

Jorden 13.0!!!

Happy Birthday to You!!! (Cha-Cha-Cha!)

Happy Birthday to You!!! (Cha-Cha-Cha!)

Happy Birthday Dear Jorden!!! (Cha-Cha-Cha!)

Happy Birthday to You!!! (Cha-Cha-Cha!)

Wow!! I can't believe my little baby Jorden is 13 today!! Man, I am getting so old! :D He was always such a sweet baby, so mellow and easy going. And I am amazed on a daily basis with his ideas and talents. He is so smart, funny, creative, helpful, and responsible, well for the most part anyway! I seem to have put more and more responsibility on him this past year and he always tries his best to do what I need. I'm so proud of him and his accomplishments at school. What a sweet boy I got!! I sure am a lucky mom!!! I hope Jorden has a wonderful day and a terrific year!! It's a joy for me to get to be his mom!!! :)

Pretty, Pretty Bathroom...

It must be the end of the world because I actually got the kids bathroom finished!! I only started redoing it last year... And if it hadn't of been for Tim I doubt I would have even started it then. Good thing he has energy and likes to do that kind of stuff. :) Somewhere I have pictures of what it looked like with the old wall paper and what it looked like when we were taking it off, but I can't find them so you'll just have to imagine 3 wallpapers, one blue, one green, and one printed, that do not match in the least! And underneath those were a fancy Country Blue and Dusty Rose one from the 80's, a yellow one from the 70's, and some plastic/rubber one that must have been put on when the house was new. Either way, we battled through 4 layers of wallpaper to get to paneling that had no more finishing on it because the wallpaper glue had eaten through it. We had to resurface the walls, which was fun... And then we replaced most of the trim. We were going to do crown molding but yeah, that didn't work out too well. But the baseboard does look nice in it's place! :D The design idea came from the shower curtain and the fact that I wanted the room to be colorful and fun, without being for either boys or girls since the kids all share it. It's pretty bright but I love it!! I just want to sit in there all day and stare! I think I'll do some different pictures on the walls, but it's fine for now. :D

These are the lovely seems of the walls. Tim had to fill them all before we could paint. Darn bugs!!!

The walls are yellow. I didn't think it would be this bright but Tim was a little scared by it. He just kept saying - School Bus... School Bus... Oh no...

Then we added a darker yellow/gold to the bottom part of the walls and the cabinets.

And now the final result!!!

I like it, and Tim and the kids are excited about it. And Tim says now that it's not too yellow. :)

Valentine's Day Fun...

Looky-looky what I got for Valentine's Day!!! :)

So what did YOU get???

So, both of my sisters have done this fun little survey about their hubbies and I figured I would wait until Valentine's Day to do it, but Bri beat me to it!! Must be because she's 'younger and faster!' (I hope someone else remembers that line from Fried Green Tomatoes! :D ) Here we go!!

What is his name? Tim, although his birth certificate says Timothy. (but he NEVER goes by that!!)

How long have you been married? Oh gee, it's been so long my mind can barely comprehend that big of a number!! It's been 14 1/2 years now. :o

How long did you date? 1 year and 1 month. After seeing so many of my friends get married after only a few months of dating, I told myself that I would date someone at least a year before I married them. So I did. ;)

How old is he? 34, but don't tell him...he can never remember! And it's kind of fun freaking him out with it!! :D

Who eats more? Him, especially lately since I've been sick. Plus he wants to eat more meat where as I am fine with veggies and stuff.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me first.

Who said "I love you" first? He did. I was into this whole "The boy's gotta say it first" thing as a result of previous dating experiences.

Who is taller? Tim, although if I am standing in the right spot in the kitchen with my shoes on, and he is barefoot, I am taller. :P

Who sings better? Me, no doubt about it. Although he's not bad. ;)

Who is smarter? Depends on what we're talking about. I am smarter book wise while he is smarter common sense and mechanical wise.

Whose temper is worse? Probably him, or at least he loses his temper more often then I do.

Who does the laundry? Me, I think he has forgotten where the washer and dryer are. Plus he uses WAY too much soap when he does the laundry, although he does do it occasionally.

Who does the dishes? Me. He used to be really good about doing them but now that he works so much, it's pretty much all me. I sure wish someone would train these kiddies of mine to do them...

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? The right side? That depends. If you're standing at the foot of the bed, looking at it, then he does. If you're laying on the bed, then I do. Basically, my right arm is on the edge of the bed and his left arm is on the other edge.

Who pays the bills? Me, when I remember...

Who mows the lawn? Tim, I wouldn't even know how to start the lawn mower. Or where it is...

Who cooks dinner? Me, although he does do it every so often. He's actually better at some thing than I am, which sadly isn't hard.

Who drives when you are together? Him

Who is more stubborn? I would think it's me.

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Him, I don't usually give in that easy.

Who has more friends? Me, he has like one and it wouldn't be a bad thing if he dropped off the face of the earth...

Who has more siblings? He does, there are 10 kids in his family and only 6 in mine.

Who wears the pants in the family? Both of us. Neither of us rules the roost, although I usually get my way more often than he does.

Who gets up first? He does.

Who is the disciplinarian? Well, the kids listen to him a lot better than they listen to me, so probably him. But I think it's just because I'm so sweet, they aren't scared of me... :D

Who is cuter? Seriously? I don't know, I think we both do alright.

I hope you have a fun Valentine's Day!!!

12 Things I Love That You Should Love Too!!!

Okay, so this sickness has really taken it's toll on me...I completely forgot about 12 of 12 yesterday! :( It didn't even dawn on me until late yesterday afternoon, but lucky for all of you, you were spared the boringness of my school and homework filled day. So I decided that since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I would instead try and come up with 12 things that you should love about me, and then I would tell them to you! But I thing it's gonna turn into 12 things that I love, and that I think you should too, so I hope that's okay. :) It's all good...

1. I love lotion Kleenex!! After this darn cold I have yet again been reminded why I buy the lotioned tissues. They are so great and my nose is so happy!!

2. I love goody bags!! I decided that I would make up some little goody bags for the kids in my Primary class. They were all so surprised when I gave them the little bags filled with treats and toys. It was so fun to see their faces!!

3. I love Photoshop!! I am learning this program in my CAD class at school and I love it!! I can't wait to learn enough to do all the fun things I want to do with it.

4. I love sub sandwiches!! They are truly one of my favorite things! When I asked Tim what he wanted to do for Valentine's Dinner he said "Let's just get some subs and that will be fine with me." Oh, he knows me so well!! :)

5. I love warm weather! It has been in the mid 70's all week and I am loving it!! I have decided that 75 to 85 degrees is just about perfect for me. Any colder is too cold and any warmer is too hot. Now if I could just find someplace that had that kind of weather year round...

6. I love sugar cookies!! But they have to be the good kind, with lots of frosting! Homemade ones are the best! I'll take a sugar cookie any day over a chocolate chip one!!!

7. I love scented lotions! Bath and Bodyworks and Victoria's Secret have the best lotions, I just love them!! I use them every day, several times a day! I even use them when I go to bed at night, they just smell so good!! And my skin is nice and soft! ;)

8. I love movies!! I went and saw Juno a couple of weeks ago and I laughed so much!! It was really great! And I rented Stardust a couple of weeks ago and loved that too! If you haven't seen either of these you really should, they were both great!!

9. I love old Saturday Night Live skits. I always think of the one with Mike Myers and Nicole Kidman where they are little kids who have been strapped to the jungle gym by their moms and she starts singing and them offering him a chocolate bar. At first he refuses saying "You're the devil!" but before long he has chocolate all over his face and he is running down the street draggin the jungle gym behind him. It's so funny!! :D

10. I love YouTube!! I have spent WAY too many hours there watching silly videos and fan videos of my favorite tv shows, but it is so fun!!

11. I love hair dryers!! I never fully appreciate a hair dryer until mine dies, which it did last Friday evening just after Jillen and I got our hair cut. I was able to fix her hair but then when I went to fix mine the dryer was dead. I got a new one Saturday evening, but all day Saturday I worried about what my hair looked like because of how much I depend on my hair dryer. :)

12. I love Friday Night Lights!!!!! Oh. My. Goodness. This show is so amazing!! If you haven't seen it you really should!! The writing is great! The acting is amazing!! The storyline is incredible!!! And it is so real! It's about a small town and the football coach and players who live there. Coming from a small town and knowing how important football was there, I can totally identify with these characters! It's so fun to see the pictures of the stores in town where the owners have put up "CLOSED -- Gone to the Football Game" signs in their windows. I remember many a Friday night that Snowflake pretty much closed down because everyone was gone to watch the football game. If you have an extra hour every now and then you should really check out the little link on the side of this page, it's in The Places I Go part, click on Friday Night Lights Amazingness and then it will take you to NBC.com where you can select episodes to watch. They have the complete 1st and 2nd seasons available, well the 2nd season up until where they are currently. You have to scroll through the episodes using the arrows on the sides of the picture bar to get to season 1, but it's so worth it!! I really don't think you'll be disappointed!! This is truly one of the things that I LOVE that you should too!!!

Well, hopefully you have seen some things that you realize you haven't given a fair chance to, and now you will go back and try them again. Oh, and here are few pictures to get you in the mood to try a little Friday Night Lights!!! With the creators, directors, producers, and actors it has, you won't be sorry!!! :D

Hairstyles Galore!!!

Wow! It's been awhile! Even though I am still kind of sick, at least I think I know what the problem is--a sinus infection. Fun-fun!! I've never had one of these before! But then I guess that would explain why it has dragged on for almost 3 weeks now! What a pain!! Maybe I will actually break down and go to the doctor this week... I guess we'll see. :)

Things have been pretty quiet here except for all the new hairstyles we've been trying out. Hold on, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!!

Jillen has been begging me for months to let her get her hair cut like mine and so we finally did it last Friday, and she loves it! She calls it "The Liz" after Shiri Appleby's character on Roswell because she is the one that I originally got the idea from, even though she never wore her hair like this on the show. She had her hair this way for a movie, Everything You Want, and I have loved it ever since I saw it. If only I could get my hair to do what hers does... Oh well!!

Here's Jillen Pre-Haircut --

And Post-Haircut --

Can you say Drama Queen??? :)

And Jensen has been wanting her hair cut too, only she was a little nervous about it. She kept saying that she wanted a little bit cut and that she didn't want it all cut off because she wouldn't look very good bald, like the boys next door look during the summer. :D So since it was the first haircut she has ever had, other than me trimming it at home, we went for a straight cut just to even it out. It makes her look a lot older, or maybe that's just me...

Jensen Pre-Haircut --

And here she is Post-Haircut (her hair really is straight, she just won't stand that way for pictures) --

And as if that's not enough, Jorden has been experimenting a little too. They had Crazy Hair Day at school a few weeks ago and he decided that a mohawk would be perfect. Unfortunately his mom doesn't have the right kind of hair glue to do it, but we tried!!

Then he thought maybe the Pineapple Do would better suit him, but he wanted to try it out first...

Hard to believe in about 2 weeks he will officially be a Teenager!!! :o