Wow

OK, now it really has been forever since I have posted. Ray and I have had a busy couple of months. We listed our house for sale on Sep 12 and had accepted an offer within 1 week. We closed on the house on Oct 16. We put brand new carpet in the entire upstairs and the stairs to the basement, we also re-tiled the upstairs bath and painted the whole interior or the house in two-tone paint, off white on the walls, and super white trim. We also did a bunch of stuff with the yard. I have to say that Kimi has a very handy husband Jesse did an amazing job helping us with the yard and helped us to fix the sprinkler system that hadn't worked since the fist winter we lived there. We still owe you guys and Shane and Anngee a steak dinner. Thank you guys so so much we never would have gotten every thing done without your help.

I painted some cute pictures on Suzan's windows that I need to get pictures of posted. The Halloween painting was probably the best painting I have ever done, I loved it. The thanksgiving one is cute and I am just getting ready to paint the Christmas one. I am grateful that Suzan has allowed me to use her window, I would be very sad if I didn't get to do any holiday paintings.

We had a nice thanksgiving, I had to work but I got double time so that was nice. I also got a two hour break to go have dinner with the fam.

Raymond has wanted an E-reader for quite a while so I finally got him one for his birthday this year and he has been reading non stop since I showed him how to download books on to it. About a week after his birthday I got home from work and he surprised me with one of my own, I asked him why he didn't save it for Christmas and he said that he had been looking for something for me for a while but he couldn't find the right gift for me, he said that I just deserved it for being such a good wife and mother and he already had plans for something else for my Christmas gift. What a sweetie huh?? Love him!!! After I got that I finished the rest of Sword of Truth series in 3 days. I absolutely loved that series but now I am sad that it is over and I don't know what to read next. Suggestions???

I have been having a lot of upper back pain for the past few months and I honestly think that I probably just need to lose some weight, OK a lot of weight (mostly from the front of my chest, B-cup Oh how I miss you!!) anyway I finally went to the doctor because I just couldn't move anymore. He ordered 2 MRI'S and blood work, turns out I have two herniated discs in my low back (congenital defect, FYI family members suffering from back pain) and my upper back pain is caused by my muscles, I will be starting physical therapy this week, my doctor appreciated that I don't like taking medication so he didn't make go on any regular anti-inflammatory regimen, hooray. Hopefully the physical therapy will help quickly. I also have personal training and nutritional assistance provided at no cost to me through my employer so hopefully by this time next year I will be wearing a much smaller pant and cup size.

My kids got school pics done and they turned out super cute I will post them and mail them out as soon as I get a chance. We were able to get Alex and Soren's pics done as well and I have to say that I am fairly certain that I have the cutest kids in the entire world.

Well that is all for now, happy blogging everyone.

Wow I haven't posted in forever...

So Rayden did get baptised, here are a couple of pics.













We have had a busy month. Raymond went to Montana for a week to try to find a job in Kalispell or Misoulla, so far no luck. A lady at work said that means that we aren't meant to move, I guess that also means we aren't meant to stay here because he has had no luck finding a job here in the last 6 months. Very frustrating.

We have been applying for pretty much any maintenance job we can find. There is one in Boise, Id that seems promising but I don't know if I want to go to Boise, I would like to end up in a smaller community than we are currently in. I did some research on population in Salt Lake County vs. Ada County (weird that Boise is in Ada county instead of Boise County) Salt Lake had 1,000,000+ and Ada had 100,000+, so it is quite a bit smaller. I talked to Chelle and she said it is a lot smaller, full of Llama and Alpaca farms and there is never any traffic.

Kimi and Jesse came over while Ray was gone, Kimi made some super yummy enchiladas and Jesse fixed my sprinkler manifold, thanks guys you are awesome.

Raymond's cousin Joelle watched the kids while I was at work and even slept over every night to ensure that I wouldn't be late the next morning, she is so nice, I just love her.

Raymond's uncle Urcle and his son Heath were in town for about a week and we had fun getting to visit with them.

We all went swimming as a family last week and it was so much fun that we are thinking about making it a weekly event. I guess that is all of my updates, hopefully I will get more chances to post in September than I did in august. Thank you to everyone who helped out while Raymond was gone it was much appreciated.

Rayden is getting baptized

Rayden will be baptized this Saturday, July 11 at 10:00 am at our stake house located at 8950 South 1300 West West Jordan, UT 84088. This is our invitation if I don't have your e-mail address. I am not good with fancy invitations so this is short, sweet and to the point. We hope to see you there.

Kelly Clarkson Concert

After I picked Ryan up from school, I grabbed a couple of rain coats and an extra sweater for her and then we were off to Provo.

We got to Grandma's work to pick up the tickets and Grandma asked her who her favorite singer was, Ryan of course said Kelly Clarkson and then Grandma asked if she wanted to go see her and Ryan was jumping up and down saying yes so she gave her the tickets and then we backtracked to Ogden to the Brent Brown Ballpark on the USU campus.

There was a bunch of pre-show stuff and Ryan was starting to get very irritated that Kelly wasn't on stage yet. We were the sixth row of chairs back from the stage, so when her van finally showed up and people rushed the stage Grandpa threw Ryan on his shoulders and rushed the stage with the rest of them.

He was such a good sport because he kept Ryan on his shoulders jumping along to the music the whole time up until the last 3 songs when Ryan was ready to sit down, she was cold from all the rain so I wrapped her up in a blanket,sat her on my lap and bounced her up and down with the music so she could still feel like she was jumping along with everyone else.

While she was on grandpa's shoulders she threw her arms up and held up the peace sign with both hands, Kelly Clarkson smiled at her and gave the peace sign right back to her. She was copying everyone else so I have a bunch of pics of her doing the rock on sign and clapping her hands above her head, all in all I think she had a great time and is something she will remember her whole life. Anyway here are all the pics, Enjoy!! (Sorry there are a lot of them.)















And the pretty Rainbow that I just had to take a picture of,

A surprise for Ryan

Ryan has loved Kelly Clarkson since the breakaway album, and every time she hears a girl singing on the radio she asks "Is this Kelly Clarkson?" if it is Kelly Clarkson we have to listen to it while Ryan sings along.

Yesterday I got a phone call from Suzan asking me if there was anyway I could get off work at 6:00 tomorrow, I had to remind her that I have this week off, and then she got really excited. She got Ryan VIP tickets to the Kelly Clarkson concert tonight at UVU. It is outside and general admission but their is a small roped off area just off the stage and that is where Ryan will be, she doesn't know yet and she is going to be so excited when she finds out. Last night big Ryan dropped off the new cd so that she would be able to listen to all of the songs before the concert. she was repeating some songs, listening to them over and over and reading the cd leaf so she would know the words. I am going to have her listen to it one more time when she gets home from school before we go to provo.

I am so excited she gets to go to her first concert while she is young, I know most people are embarrassed by who their first concert was, hopefully she wont be, I think she is really going to have fun. I will take tons of pics and post them tomorrow.

Fluent in computer-geek?

Saturday when I came home from work I logged onto my computer and found a ton of pop up ads on my desktop that said that a Trojan file had hacked my computer and was trying to send personal info via the Internet, all of the ads were from winpc antivirus and it was installed on my computer, it kept asking me to register the product so that it could scan my computer and get rid of the Trojan, luckily I was not stupid enough to click on any of that crap, I knew I hadn't installed that program and that it must be the virus, but when i tired to get on line to look it up I had no Internet access because of the stupid thing so I booted up into safe mode with networking and that at least made it so I could access the Internet. I researched winpc antivirus and found that it is a rogue Trojan virus or something like that, anyway there were all of these instructions to manually remove it that you have to speak computer-geek to understand, I am not fluent in computer-geek but apparently I am better than I thought. I learned how to delete files from my registry by creating a new text file and I learned how to kill a process tree and delete hidden files, the thing was a pain and it took me two days to get rid of but I did it all by myself and then I added spy ware doctor by PC tools to make sure it couldn't get back on, which it did attempt at the next reboot during the start up. I was so proud of myself, Ray kept telling me to call Scott and I almost gave up and called but I told myself I would give it one more try and I finally got it.

Ryan's straw straight hair

I remember when I was younger I used to wish that I had straight hair, I was always frustrated with my very thick hair and it's natural curls/waves. Now I have a daughter that has straight hair and it makes me appreciate my thick curls. Trying to curl Ryan's hair is a joke, the curl is seriously gone within 20 minutes. She had a perm last spring it lasted for maybe 2 months. A few months ago I bought some rag curlers (pieces of cloth with sponge and wire stitched inside)because Suzan told me that is how her mother got her hair to curl when she was little.
















Anyway I have used them before when Ryan still had long hair and they actually worked pretty well but I had put them away and forgot about them. Yesterday as we were getting ready to go to the drive-in with to see Night at the Museum with Shane and Anngee I found them and tied Ryan's hair up (I wish I took pics with the curlers in, they look so cute!!) she wore them from 7 pm yesterday until 11 am today, here are the results.

Spring School Pictures (deja vu?)

We just got school pics back today also. I love lifetouch, they do such a good job, especially on the spring pics.

Ryan


Rayden












I didn't know there were other poses I wish I could have picked the pose I didn't even know they had a picture day, I guess I am just lucky that their hair is combed, I'm just kidding I always comb their hair.

8 Things Tag

8 Favorite Tv Shows

1.Friends
2.NCIS
3.House
4.Bones
5.Monk
6.Legend of the Seeker
7.American Idol
8.Cold Case Files

8 Things I did Yesterday

1.Went to work
2.Bought some oatmeal pies
3.Went and saw Kimi, Jesse, Anngee, Shane and all the kids
4.Got a suprise from my husband (Clean house, flowers and a card)
5.Watched some episodes of NCIS (I love my DVR)
6.Ate some food
7.Tried to teach Soren to walk
8.fell asleep on the couch watching NCIS

8 Things I am Looking Forward To

1.Spring
2.April 10 ( I found out if I made it through another round of layoff's)
3.losing weight
4.Easter
5.Conference
6.Spring Break
7.learning new things
8.Tomorrow (I can record conference and sleep in, yeah)

8 Favorite Restaurants

1.Chili's (Mmm, Southwestern Eggrolls, yummy)
2.Cafe Rio
3.Morelia's
4.Famous Dave's
5.Texas Roadhouse
6.Oive Garden
7.Spaghetti Mama's (Thanks Anngee)
8.Appolo Burger

8 Things on my wishlist

1.Losing 45-50 pounds
2.to own a WII and WII Fit
3.Rust orange Honda Pilot
4.Be debt free
5.My treadmill being fixed
6.overhead microwave
7.changing my hairstyle
8.Go to a Simon and Garfunkel concert

8 People I tag
1.I
2.think
3.everyone
4.got
5.tagged
6.already,
7.Oh
8.well

Pleasant Surprise

So it has been 23 days since Raymond lost his job with dunford. I had mentioned in my post about his job loss that it is hard to lose weight when he brings a dozen donuts home every saturday, so I weighed myself for the first time in about a month and a half the other day and I have lost a whopping 27 pounds!!! I didn't know it was possible to lose that much weight without even noticing. Anyway I am super excited about it, if I can lose that much weight without knowing it then imagine what I can do when I am trying. Hopefully I will be able to get my treadmill fixed next month and finally lose this pregnancy weight that I have been packing around for nearly 8 freaking years.

Oh, how I loathe dishes....and laundry.

Today is a chore day and as I was washing every single freaking dish, bowl, pan and all the siverware we own I started getting very irritated and then I move onto the laundry and it seems that every article of clothing in the house except for the ones currently on our bodies is dirty. I hate dishes and laundry they are my least favorite chores in the world (not that I particularly enjoy any chore). It sucks to be in charge of making sure that 6 people have clean clothes to wear every day and clean dishes to eat on every day and on top of that cooking the food that they eat, urgghh. OK, I am done whininig now.

Do I live at a theme park?

Because it seems like my life has become a roller coaster ride, up and down all the time.

Raymond lost his job today. Due to our current economic situation, his boss told him they could no longer afford him. So, what do you do when people can't afford you anymore? If anyone knows of someone needing a maintenance mechanic please let us know.

Luckily this job loss was not as hard on me as the last one was. I am hopeful that we will find something more permanent soon. I am grateful that he had the job while he did, I am also grateful that he wont be bringing home donuts any more, it is very hard to lose weight when he brings home another dozen every saturday.

I don't want to jinx myself so I will knock on wood as I type this, I don't think things can get too much worse so hopefully things will start looking up, of course I guess I could lose all of my teeth and have to become a recluse, j/k mom.

Tagged

Okay so here is how it works, for those of you who are lucky enough to be tagged by me...

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell 6 things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 other bloggers by linking to them.
5. Go to each person's blog and leave them a comment to let them know they've been tagged.

Thanks to Rochelle for tagging me.

Six things about me,

1. I love both of my jobs. I absolutely loved being a sahm but when I had to go get a job I was lucky enough to get the best job in the world. I love my job. At first it was really hard being on my feet 12 hours straight, my feet hurt for about the first 3 weeks, now they are completely used to it and I can wear my croc wanabees or tennis shoes. I love that I only have to work 3 1/2 days a week so I still feel like I get to be a sahm during the rest of the week, plus even on the days that I do work I come home for an hour at a time, 3 times a day. So I still get to make my kids breakfast and lunch and pick my two oldest up from school and that makes me feel better about having to work.

2. I enjoy all types of craft stuff. I love to crochet and draw. I love doing ceramics, though I haven't done that since high school. I enjoy scrapbooking and I also like to sew custom decorative blankets, they aren't the best looking in the world but I like them. I am currently working on one for My mom and m-i-l.

3. I like learning about alternative medicine. I do not like rx medicines, they all have side effects and I just feel that people become too dependent on them. I am lucky enough to have 2 in-laws who have studied holistic healing extensively. My husbands grandmother has her docotorate in holistic healing and his uncle has studied for about 35 years. I still have a lot to learn about it, but I do get phone calls from several different people who ask me what they can take for a cold or how to increase their breastmilk. I have even been called a guru by Rochelle.

4. I used to have the cutest in-betweeny belly button and I just loved it. Now I have a deep dark cave. It is very ugly to look at and I try very hard to make sure no-one sees it. It stays a cave even through my 9th month of pregnancy. Kimi once wanted to do an uncovered belly pic of our bellies when She, Rochelle and I were all preggers at the same time and I refused simply because of my belly button.

5. I love pigs. I think they are sooo cute. I have always said that someday I will own a little black pot bellied pig and he will be named Ferdinand. I still plan on that, it will have to wait until I have a bigger home and more land, but someday it will happen.

6. I love bubble baths, it is the only time that I have to myself when I am home, even then I get the door knocked on at least 3 times every time I take one. I always think of the old calgon commercials when I am in there and they come knocking. "Calgon, take me away!!"

Okay, your turn. I tag:

Anngee of The Floyd Family
Kendra of Kendra's Korner
Ricki of The art of Warr
Maxine of Inane Dribble
Nadine of Nadine's Blog
Leanna of Jackson Family Happenings
Natalie of N & N Ashby Family

Popcorn anyone?

K- I don't know if this is for real. I am thinking there must be some heat source under the table but I could be wrong.

Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondes
Uploaded by sassiere

See yourself 20 (or more) pounds thinner.

Ok I know I am a total dork but I was looking through one of my fitness magazines and I saw that they have a virtualme weight loss simulator. You can enter in your current weight, goal weight and customize the model. It shows you before and after side by side so you can see what your body will look like when you get to your goal weight. I have mine in my side bar though I am not sure that it is working, I think you can click on it to create your own. Anyway I thougt it was pretty cool.

Here is the link so you can create your own virtual me,

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/app/virtualme

have fun.

The phone calls have gone out, and.....

I didn't get one so I guess I still have a job, yeah!!!

I am so relieved and grateful. That is all for now I just wanted to post the update.

Layoff calls come in tomorrow

So tomorrow by 4:00 pm I should know if I still have a job, I am so nervous!!! On saturday when I got to work I learned that my boss was laid off at 3:00 pm the day before. None of us knew. I was sad, she was a very good boss, she was always very encouraging and really made the job fun. She had worked for the company for 34 years years and just a week ago had come to talk to me and ask how I was doing, she told me then that the layoffs are not done on a seniority basis, now I can see that she was right about that. here is how it will work, people who recieve a phone call tomorrow between 1 and 4 pm are laid off, if you don't receive a phone call then you still have a job and are expected to be at work on wednesday. So here is hoping that I don't get any phone calls tomorrow.

Soren is Hannah Montana, and so freakin' cute.

Ryan got a Hannah Montana wig for christmas from her grandma so we tried it on her but it really didn't make a difference since she already has long blonde hair and bangs so we put it on Soren, she hated it but she looked so cute!!!
Here are the pics.

First we put it on Ryan,



Then Soren,









In this one she has finally had it and is ripping it off.