Thanksgiving

We got back last night from spending Thanksgiving with Tyler's family in Monticello. It was so nice to get out of the house and away from our worries, if only for a few days! It's kind of sad to be home again. The kids played with their cousins, and were excited to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa! Here's the pictures!!!

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Oh, and those truffles? They were chocolate chip cookie dough truffles! They were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy (and FUN) to make, and so good! You can find the recipe HERE. What have I said before? I'm obsessed with her site! Sorry such a short post, but I'm exhausted. Just got home from grocery shopping and I'm gonna go hang out with the kids and watch a movie! haha

The joys of stress

I'm always fascinated with how stress manifests itself in people. For me, well, the list is pretty long. BUT I didn't realize how stressed I must be (subconsciously) until I developed a canker sore. A big one. A REALLY REALLY BIG ONE. It's at the bottom of my gums, right in the crease of my mouth and gums. Make sense? A few inches above my left jaw bone. It is about 1/2 inch long. And (according to the dentist) DEEP. So deep, in fact, that the pain is radiating into my jaw bone. And it hurts to even brush the skin over my jaw. Pathetic! Here's hoping this Thanksgiving trip is stress-free and I can lose my canker sore before it swallows me whole.

Grown up

Cameron was talking about playing with a dog and what the dog would do when he threw a frisbee to him. Cameron said, "And he run as fastest as his legs could carry him!" When on earth did my child start saying adult things like this?! So fun!

Crazy 8's

8 Favorite Foods

• Hash browns
• Avocados on toast
• Domino's pepperoni pizza
• Cafe Rio (pork tacos & pork salad)
• BIG SALAD! (only with buttermilk ranch dressing)
• Cheese fries!!! Although I can't eat them without getting SO sick. But sometimes it's worth it!

8 Things I Did Today (yesterday, since it's early!)

• clean
• read books with the kids
• clean
• cooked
• clean
• read more books with the kids
• clean
• clean

8 Favorite Restaurants

• Joe's crab shack (best crab EVER!)
• Spaghetti Factory
• Sampan
• Thai chili gardens
• Z'Tejas

(these aren't really 'restaurants')

• Kneaders
• Taco Bell (I LOOOOOOOVE TACO BELL!)
• In & Out

8 Favorite Stores

• Target
• Hollister
• Plato's (thanks Helen!)
• Famous footwear
• Gap Kids
• Urban Wear
• Pier 1
• Trader Joe's

8 Things I look forward to

• eating breakfast
• going to Monticello for Thanksgiving
• playing games with Tyler's family
• going to Festival of Trees
• trying Coconut Chicken Curry
• making a homemade gingerbread house
• Tyler finishing his cabinet job
• seeing Kung-Fu panda (random, I know but I can't wait to see it!)

8 Things on my Wish List

• rectangular pizza stone
• silicone bread pans
• Brian Regan "Standing Up" & "Epitome of Hyperbole"
• Tickets to Brain Regan in Feb.!
• Take a photography class
• Have more time to experiment with cooking WITHOUT my kids!
• Tyler to get into the radiology program this year
• A rec. center across the street so we could go play & swim all year round!
  

8 things I love to do with my family

• singing songs
• playing games (I just taught Cameron 'pictionary'!)
• reading books with my kids
• playing outside/having water fights
• going swimming
• watching Tyler wrestle the kids
• having some peace while Tyler wrestles the kids!
• FHE

I'm supposed to tag 8 people, but I hate that. So do it if you want, and if not, whatever!

WOW!

I just got home from the premier of TWILIGHT! YES! My sweet friend Tammy scored us a couple of tickets and treated us to one great night! First we went to IHOP (since it was the only place open that late!) I felt bad: we only ended up ordering a drink at first, and then later had some fries. But the waitress was so nice and didn't make us feel like crap for sitting there 'wasting' her table. Hey, we tipped her good! It was funny because there were at least 2 other groups of fellow Twilighters eating too! One group had these shirts on that I FELL IN LOVE WITH! I've seen A LOT of Twilight shirts, and haven't like any of them. But these? I love how simple and classy they were. So I risked looking like an idiot (hey, it's nothing new, so why not?) and asked them if I could take a picture of their shirts! One girl in the group confessed to designing and making them. UGH! SO JELOUS!




Luckily our seats were reserved so we didn't have to worry about getting there way early to just get any seat! When we arrived, there were people dressed as Alice (she had a freakin' cardboard box-of-a-yellow-Porsche around her waist like a ghetto Halloween costume) and long hair. Boo! If you're gonna dress up, do it right! I know, I'm harsh. Whatever, I'm a Twilight purist. Someone else dressed as Victoria with leaves in her frizzy hair. That was kinda funny.

"So anyways, let's get down to the nitty gritty" (<--- Anyone?)

I really liked the movie. I was REALLY surprised I liked the movie. I REALLY liked Edward. I was even more surprised I didn't want to vomit the entire time because of him. He was smooth, sexy, classy, all the things he should be. The clothes? Eh, could've been better, but I was still too stunned that I wasn't boo-ing the movie. I was screaming like all the teenagers. Bella was amazing. I was very happy with her acting. There were parts I loved, and there were parts that were ridiculous. Many times, Tammy and I had to put our hands over our mouths to quiet our own laughter. And they weren't funny parts of the movie. The cinematography was terrible. I was so disappointed with their special effects. There were obviously a lot of things left out, and some random things that were added. Does Al Gore have a hold on this entire nation? There was a RIDICULOUS scene about going green and recycling. Recycling is great, but don't even get me started on all that environmentalism. GR! That ticked me off. Oh and Stephenie Meyers makes a small appearance in the movie. I mean, if I wrote a book that turned into a movie, you better believe I'm gonna be in it! But it was kinda random. That's about it for now. I am SOOOOOOO glad I got to see it opening night. It was fun to be part of something that I've really enjoyed. That book was what got me interested in reading. I always hated reading and since reading Twilight I have read 15 books. That doesn't sound like a lot, "but it was tough for me so BACK OFF!" (<--Anyone?). So even though I had tons of issues with Breaking Dawn, I will always appreciate Stephenie Meyer's ability to get this anti-reader excited about reading!

I realize that was a lot of random ramblings, but cut me some slack. It's 4:00 a.m.! WOO-HOO FOR TWILIGHT!

Anyone? Anyone?

Hey everyone! So we are finally selling the truck. Does anyone know anyone who might now anyone who might want to buy a truck?! ;) I just created a blog for it. I don't have any interior pictures yet. These are the rough draft pictures we took last week just go get it on KSL. If you can think of anyone, please send them to the website.
CLICK HERE to see the blog. THANKS!

I'm inspired!

So, I've been really uninspired to blog since I've made it private. I hardly had any comments to begin with, and now it's just plain depressing! BUT I had to tell you about Melanie. I just discovered her blog today and I AM OBSESSED!!! I'm always looking for yummy recipes (that are my taste, and my hubby's too) and have scoured blogger for good recipe blogs. Oh my, I hit the jackpot today!!! I was seriously "Oh my gosh!"-ing every single one of these recipes. Some are, how shall I say, out of my league? If there are too many ingredients, I just don't even bother. BUT so many of them look fairly duplicatable. (<--BTW, that's not a word? Apparently not in blogger spell check!) And did I mention DELICIOUS looking? I just had to share this gem of a site with all of you. So check it out HERE!

P.S. I've gotta do a plug for both recipe blogs that I participate in. Come check us out at Good Stuff Maynard HERE and Keen Cuisine HERE. Happy cooking!

Blessings

I have a few RANDOM things that I was so grateful for today! First, Cameron is just the best big brother EVER! If I ask him to pick a movie for him and Alexis to watch, he'll ALWAYS pick something that she likes. He'll pick Word World because it has a puppy, and he knows she loves puppies. He'll run the cover up to her and say, 'See Alexis! Puppy!' Same goes with books. He'll pick the one with the duck because she loves ducks. Then he'll say, 'Where's the duck? What does a duck say? Good girl!' He's ALWAYS willing to share with her. What a great blessing!

Oh yes... My water softener! Hey, I warned you it was random. So when my in-laws were here last, they noticed our AWFUL looking drinking glasses. We ran out of salt for our water softener and they bought us enough for a whole year!!! Our glasses are beautiful and sparkly once again. The best part? I don't have to pre-wash everything. Normally I do. Habit, I guess. But my house has been a wreck for about 2 weeks, and this morning I threw in SPAGHETTI dishes from last night. I didn't even rinse them off. Just scraped off the big chunks of food. When I opened the dishwasher I was sure I'd have to re-wash them. Nope! They were all perfectly clean! THANK YOU MIKE & JULIE!

I'm so lucky that my sweet husband will eat whatever. He came home from work tonight and said, "So what's for dinner?" I had been attempting to clean, and do laundry, etc. all day. I said, 'Uh, I don't know. Want a tortilla with meat & cheese?' "Sure! Sounds great!" AND he's willing to eat left-overs. I know, I'm such a lucky gal!

Back by popular demand

And I couldn't help posting this. It's Cameron's very first sentence, written (and sounded out) all by himself. It says, "dad has a pet"! =)

Halloween

I've realized something. I must think my kids are the cutest on the planet because I take a LOT of pictures of them! And then I can't decide which ones to post because they're all so darn cute, so instead I post them all!!! Oh well. Here's a few Halloween pictures. My mom gave Cameron a 'lite brite' kit for a pumpkin. He had fun hammering the pegs into his pumpkin and it turned out pretty cute! The other pictures of Alexis are from last Sunday. I had just done her hair and it was still wet. I came in from the other room and Cameron had 'straightened it'. We laughed so hard. I'm sure you will too when you see how silly she looks. And finally, it was raining after church and Cameron was DYING to take his new umbrella out into the rain. What a cutie!


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Cameron's song

On a much lighter note (thanks for letting me WHINE earlier), this is a song that Cameron made up on Sunday. He was changing his clothes in his room and started to make up this song. I wish I would have got my camera sooner, but I still got some good lyrics. Hahaha.. Anyways, below are the lyrics since it's kinda hard to hear and understand. Anyways, the noise in the background is me trying to contain my laughter. At one point I think I was slapping my thighs. Me and Tyler were laughing sooooooooooooo hard! (But quitely!) Oh, and I had to film the wall or else he wouldv'e had 'stage fright' and stopped singing!




...If I can be like Heavenly Father and Jesus. And I love everyone too. And my friends are dawson and nate and jack. And nate and, um, Jack are too far away. And they all love me too either I love Ethan. and all of his bru-tters. Brothers. And they all love me too. And they all love me too. And that's the end of... The end.

P.S. The quote was from 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'. How did no one get that?! =)

"Ohhh... Woe to me"

First of all, if anyone can name this movie, you will have earned yourself cool points in my book. This has been a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad week. Now, I thought I'd throw myself a bit of a pity party here. Anyone wanna come? It might get a bit gross, though. This is all stuff that has happened to me this week. IN. ONE. WEEK. (probably not in order, though)

~my tooth is still hurting and I'm waiting for insurance to kick in to get a root canal
~bronchitis
~thought it might be pnemonia since I felt I was drowning in my mucas (and I've had bronchitis my whole life, and it was nothing like this)
~turns out to be just bronchitis
~fluid behind my ears, so naturally some loss of hearing and popping EVERY time I blow my nose
~burning with urination-possible bladder infection
~doc. says yes, bladder infection
~takes me 3 days to get my meds (since we're trying to share one car)
~within this time, my kidneys start hurting and I have a low-grade fever and ZERO energy (possible kidney infection)
~doc. says no kidney infection, but is concerned that I can feel my kidneys. runs blood work. blood work fine, and says my bladder infection has passed on it's own
~within 3 HOURS of being home, I'm sitting cross-legged and notice I have a lump on, well, the most sensitive area of a women's body? (are you with me?)
~the lump is tender. i watch it for 2 days
~go to the doc. because, well, lumps are NEVER a good thing
~doc. says he's not completely sure what it is, but it's not cancerous, and to put hot compresses on it and that should help
~put hot compresses on it (oooo, fun) and it gets MUCH MUCH WORSE!
~now it hurts to sit, lay down, move, not move, EVERYTHING! and it's a whole lot bigger
~on my way to Adam's funeral and get a flat tire
~on my way home, stop in and ask the instacare nurse what to do. says it sounds like it's abseessed and I'll need it lanced. (uhhhhh.... excuse me?)
~says the instacare doc. isn't always comfortable with that (it's saturday) and to just go to ER to have it done
~go to ER and the doc. and nurse are scratching their heads. They have no idea what it is. but they feel the need (of course) to push on it and poke it and move it around
~doc. goes to find the OB on call at the hospital since she has NO IDEA
~thinking it will have to be lanced, she orders morphine for me ahead-of-time
~i have a reaction to the morphine. my neck goes completely stiff, and I get the shakes that feel like post-labor
~they give me benadryl
~OB doc. says he thinks it's an extension of a yeast infection but to come back on tuesday (today) to check it out again
~(Monday) not sure if it's from the morphine or a stomach virus, but I have stomach pain/cramps and constipation, then diahrea
~go in for my sedated root canal (since I tried having this tooth worked on before and kept dry heaving- stupid gag reflex of mine!)
~Instead of just working on one tooth (to save money) i had to have THREE worked on because my bottom tooth started hurting just 2 days BEFORE! UGH!
~turns out I have to go BACK in in a week for my permanant crown (yeah, I keep calling the office to find out WHY it wasn't permanant to begin with)
~I have to go in today and have them file down all three fillings. They are overlapping my gums, and my gums are SO swollen. I can't even bite down, because my swollen gums hit each other first.
~And last and NOT least,,, I woke up with a sore throat. (and NO, I'm not over my bronchitis)

Okay, I think that's about it. I'm sure you're all done hearing me complain anyways, but there you have it. NEXT WEEK BETTER BE BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1