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So far our summer has been very productive. Not busy, just productive. We are homeschooling our kids in the summer, and it seems to be going well this year. We have been doing it consistently for 3 summers now and I see a big difference in how well they retain what they have learned as well as keeping them busy so they don’t get bored during the long summer months.

If the kids get there chores and school work done by noon then we like to go and do something fun. Yesterday we went to the pool. It was our first pool trip of the season and they had a blast.

Sissy is off at girls camp, so it is a little lonely around here without her. We do have lots and LOTS of house guests so I am pretty busy. Some days it feels like we are running a hotel, but I love it.

You may have noticed the lack of photos on my posts for a few months now. This was all because someone talked me into upgrading to a newer version of wordpress. Since updating I have not been able to get anything to work especially posting photos. My wonderful hubby kept telling me if I would just switch to Firefox the problem would go away. Yeah I’ve heard that before. That is what caused the problem in the first place. Never mess with something thats working.

Finally I gave in and converted to Firefox and so far so good. I was able to upload photos without much trouble (the photos still won’t center).

Since I haven’t been able to post photos for a while (or blog for that matter) here is some of what we have been up to.

We moved, from here…

to here. It’s a long story.

Sadie and I went to the Scrapbook Expo

We met my friend Dev and a few of her friends their.

We had a suprise birthday party for big guy

Little man graduated

 Aren’t they so cute!

Not to flip subject so abruptly, but a good friend of mine is at a children’s hospital with a very VERY sick baby girl. Go over and wish her and her little girl well. They could use all the good thought and prayers we can send there way. Many of you may know her as chezadria.

Today was our youngests big day. He graduated from preschool. This is bitter sweet since he is my youngest and last baby and will now be in kindergarten

We are definitely starting a new phase of life, and I’m not sure I’m ready for it.

They had a magician come and entertain. The kids loved it.

Mrs. Rebbecca gave a little speech and said “goodbye”.

I have never participated in a swap before, and I’m very excited to give it a try. I found a post here about a garden swap and thought that it sounded like fun so I signed up. You can go here if you would like to join in the fun.

I am not a TV watcher (I know that is weird). I used to be, back in the day I was a full blown addict but I gave it up.

When we moved to Utah, I just decided to not hook up cable, and it has been wonderful. We only own one TV and it’s 27 inches (I know I know really weird). I spend very few hours a week watching TV, and can’t say that there is even one show that I am hooked on. I probably couldn’t even tell you what night of the week any given show is on.

Life this way has been wonderful, until my sister brought over her unused cable box that she pays for and hooked it up to my TV. Long story short she has two boxes, but now only has one TV. Since she just moved in next door she decided to let us test drive the second box just in case we decide we want cable.

I now find myself compelled to sit in front of the TV and “catch up” on all the shows I used to watch. The truth is I really didn’t miss them so why am I so compelled to watch now? The shows I find myself really enjoying are the ones where they buy a house and fix it up and resell them. I’m totally hooked.

Another great question is why is it when you have like, I don’t know, 500 channels there still is nothing on? I can spend 30 minutes just flipping through them all trying to find something to watch.

Now with my newly rejuvenated obsession with TV I have totally neglected my blog, my Google reader, my work, and of course there is that pile of clean laundry just screaming to be folded. I guess I’ll have to just ask Sadie to fold it because my show is on.

Go over and check out my post at Fight the Fluffy, and help me figure out my numbers problem.

I just did my very first ever guest post over at Fight the Fluffy. (who am I kidding, it isn’t really a guest post if you ask to join ;0) Go check it out.

I just realized I never posted the kids Halloween pics, and they are so cute. Sorry. Here you go.

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Cole=Firefighter and Dallin=The grim reaper

Sis just loves getting her picture taken can’t you tell.

Especially when her friends are at the door waiting for her.

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How cute are these kids. The tiger is Aden (Ben’s son)

and the Kitty is Hailey (Ben’s daughter). I volunteered to get

there Halloween costumes this year because Ben couldn’t. I

think they turned out pretty cute. They both told me what they wanted

to be then I hunted down the costume.

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I told Ash that I was dressing up for Halloween so he had to.

He went and bought a great Pirate costume, and didn’t think it

was funny when I put on devil horns.

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MIA for a few weeks while we are on vacation. I’ll post pictures later.

4 jobs I’ve had –

• Bally’s Total Fitness
• Wild Waves water park
• Porter’s Craft (teaching scrapbook classes)
• JCPenny catalog store (inside porter’s craft)

4 movies I’d watch over and over –

• 10 Things I Hate About You (it was filmed at my high school, and my sister is in it)
• Pride and Prejudice
• Pirates of the Caribbean (the first)
• Work and the Glory

4 places I’ve lived –

• Tacoma WA
• Bellevue WA
• Rexburg/Parker ID
• Cedar Hills UT

4 favorite TV shows –

• SCRUBS!!
• Grey’s Anatomy
• Law and Order
• The Closer (scrubs and closer on Netflicks)

4 places I’ve been on holiday –

• Hawaii (did I mention we are going again in 2 weeks YEAH!)
• Belize
• Palm Springs
• Grand Cayman

4 favorite dishes –

• Kalua Pork (from Bob’s in Waikiki)
• Clam Chowder (from Market St Grill)
• Spinach Artichoke dip
• Italian (from Johnny Carino’s) (I know- I’m a food snob)

4 favorite websites –

• www.dwlz.com
• www.hatchpatchcreations.com
• www.ksl.com

4 places you’d rather be –

• Once again- Hawaii (can you tell I’m excited)
• I’ve always wanted to go to Israel, and Italy
• In bed still
• On the mountain with the 4 wheelers, hubby, and kids

Today while reading a mile in my Birks blog I found out that I had been tagged for this meme which originated at Christy’s Coffee Break. So here it goes:

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When did I start Blogging?

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Well I started blogging about a year ago for work, and started my personal blog about 3 or 4 months ago. Blogging on my own personal blog is harder than I thought it would be. Trying to decided what is blog worthy or not, and trying to remember that I can say what I want and not have to worry about making a client mad.

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What is my best quality?

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Wow, these questions are always hard for me its not that I’m shamefully modest its just that my mind draws a blank. I can think of a whole list of qualities that I wish I had. I guess I would have to say that I am a positive person, very optimistic, and always try to see the good in others. (that wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be)

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What is my worst quality?

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I don’t think I have enough room to type it all. I’m a girl so obviously there is a lot I would like to change. I think the biggest one would be I wish I was better at showing my appreciation for others, especially remembering to tell my kids and husband how great they are. I can be a bit of a task master.

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What makes my blog unique?

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Not much, I think that I use this more as “blog therapy” more than anything else. It’s a place where I can rant and rave my crazy A.D.D thoughts.

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Now I’m tagging Devenie (welcome to blogging), Lucky Red Hen, Caroline, and just for fun my hubby Ash (because he hates these girly things).

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Today is one of those days that was really draining. I tried to balance being a good mom, with doing what had to be done, so here is a list of things that made me a good mommy, and a bad mommy today.

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I’m a bad mom because I didn’t even know that my son’s tooth had a cavity until he came to me last night and showed me that it had abscesst.

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I’m a good mommy because I spent 2 hours trying to find a dentist at the last second, and went with him first thing this morning and held his hand while they pulled the tooth and drained the abscess.

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I’m a bad mommy because I was late to my four year old’s preschool graduation, and he was the only one there who’s mom wasn’t there supporting him.

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I’m a good mom because I did finally show up (after the before mentioned dentist appointment) and took lots of pictures and told him how proud I was.

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I’m a bad mom because I then had to rush both kids to a babysitter and drop them off with my older son’s mouth still bleeding.

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I’m a good mom because I called twice to check on him and make sure he was OK.

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And all of this so I could make it to Salt Lake on time to be a good wife and support my hubby with his Seth Godin conference he was helping to put on today. (more about that later)

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Most of all I’m a bad mom because I completely forgot to find a sub for carpool, and my daughter was sitting at the school waiting for someone to come and get her and I was in Salt Lake, not answering my phone.

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I guess all we can do is the best we can do, and try harder the next day. Over all I feel successful today, because it all got done.

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Related:

• Queen of my Castle
• A Glorious Day at the Zoo
• I don’t mean to brag…

I’m not a really political person, but I’m a little irritated and need to vent, so if you are offended easily by others opinions this post is not for you.

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I feel that if you haven’t been to Iraq/Afghanistan, or don’t have a close family member who has been or is currently there then you do not get to have an opinion about the war. Don’t get me wrong I understand that this is America, and everyone has the right to have an opinion, I just don’t think you should have the right to share it.

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I am sick and tired of hearing people spouting off opinions about what we should do in Iraq, and thinking they are an expert just because they heard some politician running there mouth on CNN. Politicians know the very least about what is truly going on in Iraq. If you want to know the truth ask a soldier.

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My husbands youngest brother has been living in the middle east and fighting for our country for the better part of 5 years. It is an insult to him and all the other brave men and women that are fighting to say that we are waisting our time there. Any way you want to spin it you can’t say that you support our troops, and say that you don’t support the war at the same time.

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I don’t think that we should be in Iraq forever, and I would love to see our troops come home, but not until the job is done, and our troops feel that they have been successful. I (unlike other loud mouths) will admit that I don’t have all the answers, no one does.

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This has always been “The land of the free, and home of the BRAVE” now is not the time to put our tail between our legs, and run. We as a nation have been to war with other countries, and continue to have a military presence in those countries and I don’t see activists out in the streets complaining about “occupying” those countries. We are not an occupying country we are a liberating country. Think of what would happen to all the innocent people in Iraq if they were left alone to defend themselves against those who are standing in line to truly occupy the country. It is morally wrong to tear apart a country through war and walk away without a stable government in place. Imagine what would have happened in Germany if we walked away and let them figure it out for themselves, we would still be dealing with the next tyrant who wanted to take advantage of a desperate people.

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Okay I’m done talking about this and will now get off my soap box.

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I’m not a TV watcher, I go out with friends and they are all talking about what happened on American Idol last night, and I have no clue what they are talking about because I don’t watch much TV anymore. I’ll admit I’m a recovering TV-aholic, I used to have the TV going all the time for “back ground noise” while I am home during the day. When we moved into our new house I put the only TV we own downstairs ( I know, who only ownes one TV? That’s a subject for a whole other blogpost.) so I wouldn’t watch it as much.

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I only have one or two shows a week that I watch on a regular basis, and even these I miss because I forget what day they are on. Last night one of my favorite shows Grey’s Anatomy was on and while I was watching it, I also had a passed episode that I had missed playing on my laptop between commercials. I love that ABC has old episodes online that you can watch whenever you have time to catch up on your favorite shows. I know this is what tivo is for, but we don’t even have cable, so we can’t get TV. (I know who doesn’t have cable? We don’t that’s who, and its to help with the recovering TV-aholic thing. If I had it I would watch it all the time, without it I don’t miss it.)

Now let me start off by saying I am an eternal optimist, and my husband is a pessimist or a realist I’m not sure which one fits better. His opinion is “why try and plan a vacation, It’s just going to get ruined anyway”. I wish that the universe would stop proving him right all the time. We have not had a good vacation in forever. Our last major trip to Seattle for my sisters wedding was not a pleasant experience, but this last trip topped them all.

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We left for California to go visit my mother-in-law who was just diagnosed with breast cancer (now this should have been my first clue that this vacation was going to suck). We arrived on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning on our way home from church I get a phone call from my mom that my bio-dad died. This came as quit a shock because I didn’t even know he was sick. Needless to say this totally ruined any idea of a vacation. I spent the next few days trying to salvage a few days of our trip for my kids sake, before my hubby drove me to Las Vegas to catch a flight to a funeral.

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The few days we did have in California the weather turned cold and the wind blew hard, so we were stuck with not much to do. The highlight of our trip was while in Vegas we took the kids to see Lance Burton the magician who was amazing.

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I got on a flight to Spokane WA and had the misfortune of sitting next to a guy that would not shut up. Even with my ipod on, and my laptop open watching a movie he didn’t catch a clue and leave me alone. Instead he felt it necessary to tell me his whole life story. In the process of telling me his life story he mentions that he is on his way to a funeral, and all I can think about is “Oh please don’t let it be the same one”. Lucky for me it wasn’t.

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At the funeral I walked into a room full of people who I didn’t know, but who obviously new exactly who I was. Every time I tried to introduce myself they would say to me “I know who you are”. It was a very surreal feeling. I found out from other family members that not only had my bio-dad died at the young age of 51, but his dad died in his 50’s, and his mother died at 43. So if history repeats itself I got about 15-20 good years left. I don’t really believe anything will truly happen, not just because I’m a total optimist, but because my life style is completely different from how they lived.

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On the radio today the DJ was talking about a 24 year old that was told he had 6 months to live, so he sold his house and cashed everything in and lived it up for 6 months. Now it is 2 years later, he is still alive and broke. This made me think, what would I do if I knew I only had 6 months to live. I think I would have to travel the world, and spend as much time with my kids and hubby as a can. Of course none of us knows how long we will live so we should take the time now to live big. Like the song says live like you were dieing.

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So my question is What would you do if you knew you only had 6 months to live?

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If it wasn’t bad enough that my husband is going to have his head shaved at the end of the month for Seth Godin, now my car is plastered with Seth’s name and info on the conference.

I came home from BYU Women’s Conference, which by the way was amazing, but that’s something for another post, and found that my husband had covered the back windows of my mini van in Seth Godin advertising (without warning me of course). So now I’m driving all over town as a rolling billboard and getting countless questions about who Seth is and Why I have his info on my mini van. I must confess that I’m getting pretty excited myself to meet him in a couple weeks, but I’m still not happy about my car.

On the bright side at least it will all be over in a couple weeks, and I can focus on worrying about my husbands hair growing back in time for the July wedding show in Hawaii.