I Took A Risk!

Yep, I sure did.

Even though I am known as a 'Fearless' person (after all, I took the test), there is one thing that terrifies me . . .

Getting my hair done.

And I know I am not alone in this. And it's not that I worry if I will like it or not . . .

But will my HUSBAND like it? He Who Does Not Like Change!

But I just need to know, did the risk pay off?

What was the risk, you ask?

The risk was letting my 16-year-old daughter help me color my hair! With hair coloring from a box! (My hairdresser is rolling in her grave! And she's not even dead yet!)

Now those of you who know me know that I usually go to my beloved hairdresser when I have an inch or so of salt and pepper showing at my roots.

But the economy being what it is, and since I had about 2" of those lovely buggers, with more gray than ever in it, what choice did I have?

And since my hairdresser is so worth the money that I don't have right now, I decided, what the heck! Just try it! I have lots of friends who color their hair 'out of the box', and they all look great!

Here is color on the box...

And here it is on me...

(my little guy loves me no matter what my hair looks like. . .)

So what's the verdict, girls? Should I leave it?

or QUICK! Go and get it fixed before my husband sees it!

(I know I still need to get it cut, but I'm not letting Rachel do that! Sorry, Rachel)

Tell the truth - I promise I won't cry. . .

Weekend Wafts of Wackiness

My Favorite!(I have a stupid computer)

What to blog on, what to blog on. I made Lamingtons today! They're these cake things from Australia. That's boring though. I guess there's only one thing left to blog about,(Finally! I've been waiting for a non-busy week to blog about this)

TWILIGHT!
I have this account on thetwilightsaga.com, and it's awesome!



You can get different applications like Buddy Poke and music things. You can join discussions about the books and clubs for various things. There was someone who sent me this, which I signed immediately.


~TWILIGHT OATH~
I promise to remember Bella
Each time I carelessly fall down
And I promise to remember Edward
When ever I'm out of town
I promise to obey traffic laws
For Charlie's sake of course
And I promise to remember Jacob
When my heart fills with remorse
I promise to remember Carlisle
When ever I am in the Emergency Room
And I promise to remember Emmett
Every time there's a huge boom
I promise to to remember Rosalie
When ever I see something that holds pure beauty
And I promise to remember Alice
When I'm at a mall and a cute outfit spots me
I promise to remember Renesmee
When I see that beautiful bronze hair.
And I promise to remember Esme
When someone tells me they care
I promise to remember Jasper
Whenever my stomach isn't curled
And I promise to remember the Volturi
When someone speaks of dominating the world
Yes I promise to love Twilight
Wherever I may go
So that all may see my obsession
Because I know what the Twilighters know.

I have no idea who wrote that, but it's amazing! So, on Friday my mom got my sister and I (though I claim it's mostly mine because I've been asking for it for a month) the 2 disc special edition Twilight movie! :) My walls are covered with posters, clippings, and articles about Twilight. Today I am adding more from the newspaper, including a The Host clipping, which is a book by the same author, Stephenie Meyer.



Stephenie Meyer was just a normal stay at home MORMON mom, until she had the dream the would change her, and many, many others lives. She dreamt of a gorgeous vampire named Edward telling his true love Bella that it was hard to resist the temptation of her blood. For those of you have read the books, this become the meadow scene in chapter 13 Confessions. I still can't believe how good these books are! The Twilight series won the nick choice award for favorite book. It beat Harry Potter 6, Diary of A Wimpy Kid, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself. I knew it would win, it is the best series in the universe!

So I promised I would have riddles on some of my posts a few weeks ago, so here they are:


Riddle: A man is found dead in a field with nothing besides a backpack. How did he die?

Riddle: A man is found dead in the middle of a forest with nothing but a cabin and a bunch of trees around. How did he die?


Here is my signature I made on the same website my mom made hers on.



(My handwriting is a lot sloppier in reality)

p.s. computer is being goofy and will not let me italicize, change font size, change font color, or anything extra awesome, LAME!

Paper Vs. What Makes Mom Happy . . . and the Kiss of Death

This involves Dinnerware.

And a teenager's dirty bedroom. . .

First, Dinnerware.

As in, to use it or not to use it. And after that, where is the glassware? And why is it not in the cupboard?

My husband swears by the paper plate, and on both end of the extremes. He will use a paper plate for a sandwich when a napkin will suffice.

Then he'll suggest paper plates for family gatherings, but he'll never win that war.

For now.

Not unless I'm deathly ill and having no business doing a family dinner anyway.

Since our family gatherings still are within a manageable number - 12 people plus 2 babies with their own baby stuff to eat and drink from - I still have enough glass plates and flatware to set a proper table.

And until the number exceeds the number of plates (they're Walmart glass plates, for Pete's sake, nothing fancy or too scary to use for fear of breakage!) I will sidestep the requests for paper. I do have a dishwasher, you know, and plenty of people helping to eat the meal are present, so I have help (in theory) cleaning up after the meal that I spent HOURS preparing. You gotta see where I'm coming from on this one, can't you?

The glassware is another story. I will go and buy a 16 piece set of heavy glassware, unbox it, rinse it, and place it in my cupboard. Such a beautiful sight! 16 matching glasses (or more, depending if I could find the same exact size and style as the last set).Then, before you can sing "Plug it in, plug it in. . . " (huh? Where'd that come from?) all but two or three have disappeared! No amount of begging and pleading and wondering where in the world did they all go to makes any difference.

No one takes them.

No one uses them.

They must have gotten broken.

(Funny, I didn't hear any glass shattering on the floor repeated times. All 13 must have crashed unluckily to the ground when I didn't happen to be home).

(This is what we are using now - daily use and the family dinners. Pathetic, huh? )

So, the dig begins. Lately they have been lounging about in an 'unnamed' daughter's windowsill, under the bed, and on the bookshelf in her closet

(it's a spot that can't be seen unless you push aside the clothes. There was a virtual penicillin farm going on in there. And a plot to kill me, apparently, since I am ALLERGIC to penicillin, though if in it's rawest form, how dangerous it is to me we'll never know! Gross!)

This reminds me of the day my dad got so fed up with the state of my room (when I was 13) that he scooped up everything into my unrolled sleeping bag; dishes, garbage, dirty clothes and underwear - everything, and dumped it out in front of me and my friends. That shamed me into keeping my room clean. (Good for you dad. It worked wonders for me).

Noelle, demonstrating my embarrasment

Wonder how my teenage daughter would take it?

About as well as I would take using paper plates for Christmas dinner, I think. . .

I REALLY Need (weight-loss) Motivation!

. . . and what better way to get it than a little self-humiliation?

. . . A visit from some friends I haven't seen in a while (with plenty of warning), or a really great vacation that includes lots of beach time would really be preferable,

but hey, I have to do what I can do!

I have gained about 5 pounds a year on average since I got down to my pre-seventh-baby weight

(which was significantly higher than my pre-1st-baby weight!)

Now I know that 144 pounds isn't exactly gi-normous on the obesity scale, but who says you have to be obese to embark on a serious diet?. . . and you have to realize that I am only 5'2", and 5 pounds on me looks like 10 on an average-height person. So imagine what 20 extra pounds on me looks like to me!

Also, if you do the math, if I keep gaining 5 pounds a year, I will be 100 pounds overweight by the time I am really old. And that really scares me.
'cuz I really really want to be able to run and play with my great-grandchildren!
me with my kids and granddaughter (who's hiding her face - that's what I wish I could do when I get my picture taken!)

So this is in complete desperation, to have others (my friends and blogger pals) hold me accountable for my progress

(since holding myself accountable hasn't been working so well)

I will post my progress on the blog sidebar, in full view, where everyone can see.

And, I'm telling you, this is so scary and humiliating (I already said that, I know)

and so not what I am comfortable doing.

And give me heck if I delete it! I really need to make this work!

So my progress 'report' (located under my Profile) will include a daily note of what I did for exercise, and a weekly update on my weight and total tae bo time/mileage progress

So, here I goooooooo!!

P.S. For those who might think I woke up one day this week and started working out for about an hour every day, think again! Working out has been routine for me for the past 20 years. Even pregnancy didn't slow me down!

That's why it's so discouraging that I have been gaining weight anyway. . .

I am a stress eater, and these past few winters have been very stressful. My diet plan this week is to not have dessert every night. Yes, I have been having cookies, brownies, or cake, etc almost every night of the week! No wonder I have been putting on weight! Once I have that dessert addicition mastered, I will cut back in other areas.

I just have to remember that exercise is only 20% of the weight loss battle - The other 80% is how I eat!

So . . . I'm trying, I'm trying!

It's Only A Comment Away!

Recently I hopped onto Shelle's blog at BlokThoughts.

She was having a really great book giveaway. . .


. . . and I only needed to leave a comment to win!


And I won! Woo Hoo!

This lovely lady sent me a signed copy of The Tower of Strength, written by Annette Lyon.
(if you'd like to visit a really great blog written by a real live published author, visit her at http://blog.annettelyon.com/ )


Now I know it wasn't actually my comment that won, because Shelle used one of those random number picker thingys, (and for sure there were many more entertaining and humorous comments) but, ya know, what I wrote, even though pretty trivial, brought back a really great memory of my dear sweet grandma . . .


And so today, now that I have already reached chapter 4, have to say thank you thank you THANK YOU! for the moon and the stars lining up just right so that I could receive this book.

Because it's captured my attention, and I just want to finish this post up and get back to reading it . . .

Weekend Wafts of Wackiness

Bums, Birthdays, and Bad Grapes

Last week (though a little late) I posted some riddles on my blog and asked you to answer them. The first person to answer one of them correctly would receive a prize. And the winner is...

SUSETTE!!!!!!!!!!!

She was the first (and the only)person to answer not one, but both riddles.

Let's see what you've won. It's, it's

... A new car!!!!!!!

(You wish)

Really, it's this:
SUSETTE is the best riddle solver in the world! Go SUSETTE!!!!!

!SUSETTE! SUSETTE! SUSETTE! SUSETTE!

I'm cheap, but not that cheap. Don't worry I'm going to sew you a pillow. I just need to know what your favorite colors are. I'm actually a really good seamstress, if I do say so myself.

Let's see, what did I do this week. Oh! We went to a play this week at the high school. It was called When in Rome. It was about this peasant who falls for a princess and he and his two friends need to sneak into the palace to get closer to her. He and one of his friends (the other was already a girl) had to dress up like girls. So the guy who fell for the princess had to put balloons In the dress to make him look more like a girl, if you know what I mean. Then one of his balloons popped! Good thing it was after the princess found out he was a man, or it would have ruined everything.

So today we celebrated Rachel's sixteenth birthday. We had carrot cake and it was delicious! So after cake and ice cream and such, we sat around the table talking.

About mooning people. I'm serious. And that's all my mom will let me say...

So all this time as we were laughing our heads off, Evan, Kayla & Shawn's son (my nephew), is downstairs. I walked down there to see him and he's sucking on a purple marker and his face is covered with it. I bring him up stairs and said "get the camera." So while my Mom is taking pictures, I said "I call blogging about this." So I am. Kayla was helping me experiment with some names for him and I decide on 'purple marker eater'.

I picked my nephew off a grape vine

So. . . Spring is Here!?

When I looked out into my backyard this afternoon, this is what I saw. . .

Still quite a bit of snow on the ground, but the good news? It was 59 degrees today! Warm enough to soften up the snow enough so that Bailey left footprints ( I mean pawprints!)
The heavy snow this winter piled up on my raspberry arbors and broke them all down. Another spring chore!

Just a hint of some buds breaking out in my forsythia! Yay!

And the best part? Teensy weensy daffodil shoots sneaking their way out into the sunlight!

This season reminds me of one of my favorite Primary songs:

Whenever I hear

the song of a bird

Or look at the blue, blue sky,

Whenever I feel the rain on my face

or the wind as it rushes by,

Whenever I touch a velvet rose

Or walk by our lilac tree,

I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world

Heav'n-ly Father created for me.

Sometimes the Apple DOES Fall Far From the Tree. . .

Generally speaking, I frown on boasting.

However, there are some personal exceptions, especially when it comes to my own kids.

Especially when I have confirmation that they are super-smart.

Especially since I have this blog to get the word out, because I wouldn't normally just go up to people and tell them . . .

Especially since we are parents of barely average intelligence (I am only speaking for myself! Husband is very intelligent, wise, and full of common sense)

I know ya'll can understand where I am coming from. . .


Yesterday I went to meet with Noelle's new S.T.R.I.V.E. instructor. We had been notified several weeks prior of her acceptance to the program, which is our school district's Gifted and Talented program.

The name is an acronym for:

Strenghtening
Talents,
Reasoning, and
Intellect through
Varied
Experiences.

We talked a little bit about how the program works, its goals for the children, and how they will be taught learn more effectively, and also do projects, puzzles, and other have experiences that will help them figure out what they want to do with their life . . .

Another thing we talked about was how she was picked to be in the program. It requires that she be nominated by 3 people, including teachers, parents, school counselors, and administrators. She also had to be tested and found in the 98th percentile or higher, in individual intelligence measures, achievement tests, and creativity assessments.

(Here is where the real boasting begins)

She easily qualified. She scored a 99.6 in Math and 99.8 in Language. That, with her combined scores in the other areas, put her at an average of 99+ percentile. (You statistics gurus know that there is no such thing as 100th percentile - I learned that only yesterday!).

We have always known she was very special. This is a kid who spoke her first word (hello) at just over 2 months old, and kept adding words and then sentences from there.


We didn't feel the need to send her to preschool because she had always been such a quick learner, and so when she started kindergarten, (as a brand-new 5 year old; her birthday is Aug 30) she didn't know ALL of her shapes and ALL of her numbers and the sounds of ALL of her letters (she knew most of them, trust me, and isn't that what they're supposed to learn in kindergarten, anyway?).

So, they put her in the Title One program! A great program, don't misunderstand me here, but I couldn't understand why she was there. . . but by the end of the semester, she was acting as a teacher's helper. I let her continue in the program because the teacher said she was so effective with the other kids, and it wasn't hindering her other classwork.

I feel we have been given a great gift, and an awesome responsibility to give her the opportunities to make the most of herself. . .

advice, anyone??

I would love some!

Weekend Wafts of Wackiness

Not So Weekend Post

This post is written by Noelle, because . . .

Here's another by Noelle. . .

I was lazy this weekend and didn't start writing this post until Monday. I didn't get to finish it because it was my sister-in-law Kara's birthday. (We had triple chocolate cake with delicous frosting and m&ms :D)
Then my Mom decided she didn't have time to proof read it until today.

(It wasn't really a winnie the pooh party)

Here's a quiz I made. It's to see how much you know about your best friend, or if you don't believe in having best friends, a really really good friend.


1. What is her/his favorite color?

2. When is her/his birthday?

3. What is her/his favorite thing to do?

4. What is her/his favorite food?

5. What is her/his favorite season?

6. Without looking at any pictures, what is her/his eye color?

7. How many siblings does she/he have?

8. What is her/his favorite movie?

9. What is her/his favorite book?

Riddle: A cowboy rides into town on monday, stays three days, then leaves on Monday. How is this possible?

I am going to start putting a few riddles on each of my posts. You can leave your answers on the comment wall.

Riddle: A woman shoots her husband, dunks him in water for five minutes, then hangs him. One hour later they go out and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How is this possible?


The first person to answer one of these riddles correctly will win a prize. I'm not going to say what it is, mainly because I don't even know yet, but there will be a prize.

Great GiveAway!

For anyone who is interested in blogging (I think I have the right crowd here!) and/or advertising your business, go to the link below to read about and enter to win a couple of really great books. You'll be glad you did! And when you make a comment to enter, please mention that I sent you! I will be glad you did!

http://daisycraftdotcom.blogspot.com/

The Good (. . . and The Bad)

~Ever notice that when a good thing happens, there is a flip side to it? Or if something bad happens, if you try hard enough, you can find the good in it, somewhere?

This has been my March, so far-

My Computer.

It Crashed.

Again.

That's the Bad...

. . .the Good is that we Finally got a new, beautiful computer that runs at the speed of light. With a beautiful new monitor. (Our old one was a 10 year-old beast). And I will do my best to keep it from getting all messed up again.

I promise.

The Missoula Children's Theater

This is an organization that travels all over the world organizing local grade school children and getting them ready to perform (in ONE week!) updated adaptations of fairy tales. Super fun story of Hansel and Gretel, and what a great experience for the kids. Noelle posted about it here in her 'Weekend Wafts of Wackiness' post.

. . .the Good is that both Issac and Noelle got parts in the play. More good is that I had quiet evenings the week that they were at practice. Gone from 8 am to 7:30 pm. aaaahhhhh.

Isaac, standing, first person on the left

Noelle, kneeling, second from the right.

. . . the Bad is that Noelle didn't get the lead! (To her, the lead was the Witch, in Hansel and Gretel). But she still had a great time and would do it again in a minute. More bad is that I really did miss them!

...and it was also good that one of her best friends got to be Gretel!

Casey & Tami

These two are one of the cutest couples ever! They just got married about a week ago. Tami is a good friend of ours; have known her since she was in preschool. Casey is the super crazy brother of friends (and neighbors) of ours.

. . . the Good is that they are from two really great families.

. . . more good - they were married in the temple. They had a great reception. What a fun party it was!

. . . the Bad is that uuhhhh ummmm, well, I can't think of any bad! (But that's good!)

The Home in Kellogg

The one that we remodeled. Bought it almost 2 years ago.

. . . the Good is that we finally have someone who wants to BUY it!!! Wooo Hooo!

. . . the Bad is that we finally have someone who wants to buy it After we dropped the price like a rock, like, to less than what we have into it. But we ARE grateful, for sure!

. . .and the other bad is that we have to wait and see if the buyers will qualify for a loan. And these days, the deck is stacked not in our favor, if you know what I mean.

SO - We Need Your Prayers! For Real! Thank you so much. . .

My Sick Friend

My friend called me yesterday.

. . . the very Bad is that she told me, in a nutshell, that she would have her son call me later if she had a mini-stroke. The back story on that is she had had one just before giving birth to her second child, and was in danger of having another during the pregnancy and birth of her last child. So it was wise to have someone be alerted when exhibiting symptoms, since her husband was several hours away at the time. So after calling my husband to give her a blessing, I went over and sat with her until her husband arrived home.

. . . the Good is that by the time I got there, she felt well enough to chat, and chat we did! We had some great girl-bonding time, uninterrupted only by the occasional phone call and text! (Gotta luv those cell phones).

This Necklace.

Tanner made this cute foam block necklace for me at preschool on Thursday.

. . . the Good is that he asked me to wear it yesterday, which I happily did. (He said "I made this for you, mommy, cuz I love you so much". How could I not wear it?!)

. . . he also put it on me this morning, and I left it on all day. (I wasn't planning on going anywhere too public)

. . . the Bad is, well, I'm kinda worried that he will ask me to wear it tomorrow.

To Church.

Well, I'd better go and pick out my outfit. . .

Take the Test: What's Your Word?

My Word is "Fearless"

"You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it! You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing. Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities. And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary".

So I thought at first it must have been the mood I was in when I took the test...

But i got to thinking, and these are the fearless things I have done:

~Got married for eternity. . .

~Gave birth seven times. . .

~Bungee jumped off a crane sitting in a sling-thingy. My brother Josh and I did this tandem. Way cool!

~I did this - down at Coeur d'Alene Lake

~Thought about doing this someday - until I had kids. . .

~Never want to do this! I love my front teeth too much!

http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyourwordquiz/

So, take the test and comment here on what YOUR word is, and what you have done in your life that would explain it...or do your own post about it!

Weekend Wafts of Wackiness

Pretzels and Plays

Hello! Sorry I didn't post last week, our computer crashed. Because it's dead, I'm writing this on my sister's lap top.


So yesterday I was in the Missoula Children's Theater play of Hansel and Gretel. Some of my friends were also in this play. My friend Caitlyn played Gretel! Her first play and she's the main actress! My other friends played cooks, I was cook #3. The girl who played the wicked witch, Annika, (hopefully I spelled her name right) is a great actress. I don't know her very well yet, but I'm starting to. Everyone in the play was great. We had one week to learn all of our lines, songs, and dances.






So after the play yesterday, I went insane and made a video on my mom's phone called 'A Pretzel's Life'. I made two pretzel men, Bob and Bill, and a whale named Flipper. Bob was happy but an evil little girl played with her food and !Destroyed! Bill. I will post it when our computer is fixed. So today I made a sequel, but I won't give anything away.

Where, Oh Where, Can My Large Extended Family (and Friends) Be?!

Recently I wrote a post about how I love to read my family and friend's blogs.

And I do. I still really really do.

And in it I mentioned that I liked to read blogs of virtual strangers that I have found on Mormon Moms Who Blog and Mormon Blog Stalker, etc. You might find that strange, but I have found quite a few that I have a lot in common with and share the same viewpoint, etc. It's fun...

But - and you know that there would be a 'but' here

- I was in shock and awe (well, maybe only just surprised and confused) that I received quite a few comments on that post, and that 9 out of 10 of the comments were from bloggers who I had become friendly with via our blogs. (The 10th was Kathy. Thank you Kathy!)

Not one of my family members and only one of my friends read or commented on it. To keep in contact with them better was the reason for creating it in the first place!

Which makes me wonder - maybe I gave the impression somehow that I didn't care whether or not they made a comment (if they read it) and also maybe none of my family members who don't have blogs never read it! Or commented on it!

Well, I think that Mariann said it best awhile back in her post that she called 'Things That Annoy Me'. She makes some very good points there.

While I would love it if you would all create a blog of your own - lots of you are on FB and I love that - it would be nice if you guys would read mine and maybe comment on it once in a while! I do post new stuff on it once or twice a week. Just go to the bottom of the story, or post, and click on the link that says 'Tell me about it.... It's that simple!

And for my loyal blog-friends and commenters - I know many of you feel just like I do.

So f.y.i. I am going to email the link to this post to my non-blog family and friends. AND PLEASE feel free to comment on this...just in case no one else does :~D

I know everyone is busy with the stuff in their lives, but keeping in touch with one another is important - don't you think so?!