the one about my Holly-day

So, I am official. I am a substitute teacher. Cool huh. I got my "Welcome to the School District" letter today. I can start as soon as I get a call. I am so excited!

Today, I had such a great day with my dear friend Holly. About a week ago, she asked me to help her make a baby quilt for her new baby niece. Her name is Sydney and she is quite a little miracle. She was born 3 months early (on September 27th and wasn't due until January 27th) and is doing surprisingly well. Holly found some cute material and asked if I could machine quilt it for her if she put it all together. Well, I love machine quilting, so I was super excited. My friend Robyn has a quilting machine, so we went to her new house and quilted. I got Quayd off to school and then Holly came to pick me up. Holly, Spencer and baby Jacob came along too. Robyn is so sweet and a total blast to be with so I was glad to hang out with her. I need to get my butt sewing again and go play with her. Anyway, after we sewed, she brought me home. We sat in my driveway and visited for awhile. I looked at the clock and saw that is was time to get Quayd so I asked her to take me to the school so we could get him and still visit. Then we decided that we hadn't had enough of each other so we went to lunch. We talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked. It was GREAT! Once we left lunch, we ran a little Christmas shopping errand then she brought me home. Baby Jake was hungry, Holly needed to potty and Quayd and Spencer were having fun playing, so she came in for awhile. We talked and talked some more while Jake had a bottle.

Holly is such a special friend to me and I appreciate her more than she will ever know. She is a wonderful example to me. She is a great listener and I love hanging out with her. We haven't seen much of each other for awhile, just busy lives I guess, but I really miss her. She has four great kids and Spencer is my little buddy. He yelled "Hi Mandy!" in sacrament meeting yesterday because he was so excited to see me. I don't think he stopped talking to me this whole day. He told me knock-knock jokes, all kinds of stories, songs and he told me how he kissed Baby Jake in the library. He was so much fun. I think he was about to drive Holly nuts, but I loved it. When Holly was running her errand, I stayed in the car with the kids so she wouldn't have to haul them in. Jake started to cry and I asked Quayd to look in Jake's carseat for a binky. Quayd found it and put it in his mouth. He stopped crying and Quayd was so proud of himself for helping the baby. Of course, Jacob started to cry again, so when the binky wouldn't work, Quayd talked to him, played peek-a-boo, touched him and danced for him. It was so cute. I hope he grows up to love babies and kids as much as I do! Holly is going out of town for a couple of days and I get to help her with Scott a little. He is such a good boy and I am glad he and Quayd are friends. And I am glad that Holly and I are friends too!

Speaking of friends, I went with Holly, Kandice and Janice to BINGO Saturday night. Brett, Gleneita, Talia and Kandice's mom Julie came too. We had a blast. Seriously, it was so much fun. My only wish is that I could have looked a little bit more stupid in this picture. I don't know what is wrong with me that I take such a bad picture lately. Or maybe I am just realizing what a dog I really am. Interesting. Janice won Bingo once, and almost another time! Right, Janni? ;) and Brett and I won a turkey in the turkey raffle. But that was our only winnings. It was still fun though. Brett, Gleneita and I go every year. And we always see Tara and usually sit by her. It was no different this year. She was there with Shae, the spaz that broke her collar bone playing football with some friends. Not cute BOY friends though. (Duh, Shae!) We have so much fun every year, and one thing is for sure, we NEVER EVER win!!!

the one about playing catch up

I have been so busy this week and I haven't had time to blog. I am amazed at the people that have called or written to make sure we were ok. Thank you, my faithful friends, for being concerned. I say that i have been busy, yet I don't feel like I have accomplished anything. Well, I guess I did accomplish something sorta big. Big for me. Something I have been wanting to do for awhile now. It happened on Thursday. But I won't tell you that easy.... I will go through my week and you can find out when you get there!

Monday: We had a little family home evening lesson about working and helping out around the house. Lately I have felt like I am all alone in this department. Quayd is old enough to do his chores, but he somehow finds a way to get out of it. So we started an allowance program and we talked about tithing. So far so good. We will see how it works. Then after FHE and dinner, Quayd and I went with some friends to see Bee Movie. Brett doesn't just love the movies so we left him home. The movie was cute. Quayd loved it! Morgan was all over me the whole time, and I loved that. She is my little buddy and I just love her to death. She wanted to sit with her BF, me and her BoyF, Quayd. It was great. Janice and Greg kept apologizing about it, but seriously. I loved it. It means a lot to me to have a 2 year old that loves me that much. Kandice said she thought the movie was dumb, but I kinda liked it. I know the kids loved it, but Janice, Tari, Tara.. what did you think?

Tuesday: I did my usual... helped in Quayd's class. This has turned out to be my favorite time of every week. I love the kids in his class. I love his teacher and I just love being at school. A little known fact about me... I wanted to go into Elementary Education when I "grew up." I have one year of college under my belt and since helping in Quayd's class, I have realized how much I really love it and have actually started to consider going back to school. Shhhhhh....... don't tell anyone.

Wednesday: BUNCO! It was at Marcie's house this month and it started out great. Marcie always makes super good food. She had Chicken enchiladas and chips and salsa. She has 3 different kinds of yummy salsa and finished it all off with orange rolls. So good!!! Well just as we were getting ready to start rolling, Brett called my cell phone and told me that Quayd started throwing up EVERYWHERE! Well we all know how weak Brett's stomach is. (For those of you who don't know, he passed out during my C-Section because he couldn't handle the smell.) I could hear Quayd crying for me in the background, so I thought I better go and help out. I came home, rubbed Quayd's little back as he leaned over the toilet and watched Brett dry heave as he cleaned up the mess in the bedroom. We just got it all cleaned up and I rocked Quayd in the front room, and he puked all over me! This went on all night. He threw up hard until aobut 11:00 pm and at least once an hour until 5:00 am. It was a long night. He really moped around on Thursday, but he started feeling better that evening and was able to go back to school on Friday. Now he is back to normal. Brett also got some new teeth since his got all busted up after his motorcycle accident in September.

Thursday: This was the day I said I did something that I have been wanting to do for awhile now.... I built it up to be a big deal, and it's really not, so I hope you aren't dissapointed. I have been thinking about becoming a substitute teacher for quite sometime now. I metioned how much I love being in the classroom and I though it might be a good way to decided if it is something I would really like to persue. Quayd is getting older now and I need something to do, so I thought a part time job where I can make my own hours is a good idea. Anyway, they offer a substitute orientation at the school district office about 3 or 4 times a year. I have been planning on going for a few weeks now but then Quayd got sick. I called the office to see when they might do it again but it wasn't until February so I knew I needed to go. Quayd hadn't thrown up for awhile, so I called around, and everyone was very willing to help, but he decided he wanted to go to Ga and Pop's to be rocked. They said he did fine, and my orientation was about 3 hours long. I had to go to the jail to be fingerprinted. It was super scary. I have never been to the jail before. And I hope I never have to go again. I passed all of my stuff off and as soon as my background check comes back, (24-48 hours) I am good to teach in the district! For now, I just want to stay at Quayd's school. Then maybe next year when he is full day, I can do some more. We will seehow it all works out. I am actually pretty excited to start!
Later Thursday, I had volleyball. We lost both games. But it sure was fun!!!

Friday: Friday was my catch up on crap around the house day. I cleaned and worked all day. As I was vacuuming with my 30 year old vacuum, the bag broke and I had dirt flying EVERYWHERE! I ran to the store to get a bag. They didn't have one, so I went to another store, and another. Apparently, they don't make those bags anymore, because I am the only one in the U.S. who still uses this piece of &%$^ vacuum. So i had to buy another one. I just got a $50 one cuz I didn't really want to spend money on a vacuum right now. I got home, started putting it together and had major buyers remourse. But what was I supposed to do? So I called Brett, thinking he would be so mad that I bought a new vacuum, but he said, "Oh, it's about time. We needed one bad." So I got it all put together, still having major regrets. I plugged it in, turned it on and..... I THINK I AM IN LOVE!!!!! It really sucks! Like, REALLY sucks good! I couldn't believe how clean my carpet looks. It almost looks like I shampooed it. So my buyers remourse is gone. And I have a new best friend.

So that is my week. Not to exciting. In review, we had the stomach flu, substitiue teacher orientation, new teeth, and a new, super sucky vacuum!

the one about my sick obsession

Is there anything cooler than searching your skin and finding a huge white or black head that is ripe for the picking? I sure don't think so. I love it when I find such a treasure and when I squeeze it, GOOD STUFF comes out. I get a little freaky sometimes and I can't stop myself so I will have a scabbed face for a week. I BEG Brett to let me get a hold of him because he always has some good ones. But a word of advice, don't try to be sneaky and pick at Brett because he has a hot temper and a low pain tolerance. He occasionally lets me get a big juicy one, but it comes with a hefty price tag. I won't go into details.

My poor family and friends know what a freak I am, so they allow me to get my fix when I can. When we were on our cruise a month ago, we got a knock-knock-knock at our state room door. I opened it and it was cute little Talia. She said she had a present for me. "What could it be?" I wondered. Candy? Roses? A new shirt? No! To my surprise, it was a HUGE zit! She let me pop it and it was wonderful. And one time this last summer, Cory called me and told me he had a real beauty on his nose and that he would be down in a while for me to pop it. Sweet!

My mom got me the coolest mirror for my Birthday that magnifies 8 times! She has one and knows I have been coveting it for a long time. It has a bright light and I just adore it. Janni bought me a sweet tool that estheticians use and I love it. It brings me so much joy. It is my prized posession. I also have some super pointy tweezers, sharp cuticle trimmers and the Pampered Chef orange peeler tool, and I use those for all sorts of picking. I love this Neutrogena deep cleaning astringent and Germ-X. If a product says, "Deep Cleansing," "Anti-Bacterial," or "Sharp Pionty Devil Tool," then you can guarantee I will buy it. These are a few of my favorite things!!!

Yesterday, I started picking at myself with my tool, then convinced Brett to let me get some blackheads on his nose. Apparently I got a little rough and he wanted to pay me back, so he took the tool to my neck. He noticed some monsters in between my chins but he couldn't get them. I knew that Kimmie Gibler would be so excited, since we share the same obsession, so I headed off to her house. She turned on her big spot light, layed me down on the couch and picked away. It was great. We both got our high.

So anyway, that is another little fact about me. I know, kinda gross. Don't be discusted, embrace it! If you find a pesky clogged pore, CALL ME! I'm yours. I will drop anthing to get a hold of it. So it might hurt a little, but pain is temporary. A flawless complexion is forever!!!!

the one about ice skating

Last evening, Gibler and I went to Maurices to spend my Birthday gift certificates. (Thanks Janni and Talia!) I got two pair of pants and two shirts. Gibbie got pants, a shirt some lotion and perfume. When I got home, Brett got a wild hair to go ice skating. He had already asked Brayden and Brennen and they were ready to go! I really pretty much hate ice skating. I did skate a lap though, then I got behind the camera. I am much more comfortable there. Uncle Gary brought Eli and Amelia. He doesn't skate either so I sat and visited with him. This was Brayden, Brennen and Quayds first time on the ice and I have to brag! They all three did AWESOME! The two little boys got skates that attach to your shoes and they have two blades. They worked it! I was so proud. The other Braden was there too and he helped all of the boys. It was so much fun. I have to tell a funny thing that Quayd said, though. He had come off the ice by Gary and I and took off his ice skates. Instantly, he wanted them back on. Brett had come over too, and Quayd asked dear old dad to re-attach the skates. Brett said, "No, I'm going to skate." So I told him to come over to me and I would put them on. Gary and I were just talking away as I did my work. Suddenly, Quayd said, "Thanks mom. You are the best mom ever." I thanked him, loved on him and told him that he was the best son ever. Then he looked at Gary and said, "Gary, you are the best Grandpa ever." Gary is totally not a grandpa yet. It was so funny, but so sweet. Ok, now I will let the pictures tell the story.




It was a huge change from the days earlier activities. We took Quayd's four-wheeler and let him ride for a few hours. It was so nice and sunny. It was t-shirt weather, then we had to bundle up to go ice skating. What a fun day, though. We are so blessed to live in a time and place where we can take a whole day and just have fun. Besides being a Mother, being an Aunt is my greatest gift.

the one about Ga

Not much excitement around here today. But that is a good thing. I slept in and went to Curves around 10:00 am. (Nice change from 6:00 am) Then when I got home I went to check on my sweet grandma and next door neighbor. She just got home from SLC last night after having back surgery. She is doing well. She is in quite a bit of pain, but all in all, doing well. She has struggled with lower back problems for so long, so I hope this will help her out. Infact, she will make a great blog topic today.

My Grandma Doris has been one of my closest friends for as long as I can remember. My brother was the first grandchild, and he started calleg her Ga. He is 34 now, and the name has stuck. Everyone calls her Ga. Several years ago, she commented that she would walk through the grocery store and from every direction people would be saying, "Hi Ga!" Brayden started calling her Da a little bit, so now the little boys call her that sometimes. Ga wasn't really the bake cookies kind of grandma, but she is the most nurturing grandma ever. She makes us all feel so loved and special. I remember her always scratching my back and I see her doing the same for her great-grandsons. My brother and I have one cousin, Brooke, and we are the only grandkids. I am the baby, and I am the most loved. (But I am sure she tells the other 2 that they are the most loved too, so that is probably not true.) Ga worked forever as the county historian and she has some huge accomplishments under her belt. One being, she is the author of many history books. Everyone around here knows and loves her. I could go on and on about how great everyone else thinks she is, but this is my blog. So I will tell why I think she is great. I love to help her out. She helps me all of the time so I love being able to pay her back. Today, I went over and helped wash her hair and get her dressed. Then I changed the bandage on her back. We all knew that my sweet grandpa, Pop, would probably pass out if he had to see it, so I gladly stepped in! It is a pretty small incision so dangit, there wasn't even any good stuff. Then she said she was hungry and some soup sounded good. I made soup for dinner the other night and had some leftover, so I brought her a bowl. She was in too much pain to really sit up, so I told her to relax and I fed her in bed. I loved it! We just sat and talked and laughed at how much of the soup didn't make it into her mouth. I hope I can continue to do those things for her for many years to come. I just love her so much. For a few years while I was in Jr. High and High School I lived with her and Pop. I treasure that time. We had lots of fun. She taught me how to paint, sew and opened up my love for art and crafts. She is so creative and talented and I am grateful that a little bit rubbed off on me. For years and years, we would go to a local mexican restraunt every Saturday and order the "special burrito." Then we would go to town and get groceries and stuff. It is harder for her to get around now, so we don't get to do that as often, but I love it when we do. I usually help her get all of her Chirstmas shopping done and sometimes we even venture out to the city. I took her to her first Jazz game, and we have been to plays, musicals, quilt shows, art shows, movies, concerts, about every craft or fabric store on this side of the Mississippi, DisneyLand, Phoenix, Las Vegas and tons of places in between. She has helped me through some rough times, and has been there to celebrate my good times. I am very proud to be her grandaughter. I hope she is proud of me too.


I also want to mention today that Brett took Quayd and Brennen four-wheeler riding this afternoon. He snapped some great pictures that I would love to share. They went to some of Brett's uncle's farm property. Later, Brandon, Danette and Brayden came and rode the big four-wheeler for awhile. The little boys were hilarious. They laughed, screamed, and squeeled the whole time. They were so cute! They had a blast. Sometimes little boys just need to be little boys!

the one about my father-in-law

I totally forgot to post this picture yesterday. It is Talia. Is she hot or what?
She was having a crappy day yesterday and I was super worried about her. Then I got sidetracked and forgot to put her hot picture on my blog! She was having a bad "Dad" day, as we call it around here. That brings me to todays blog topic...

My Amazing Father in Law, who I miss so much. He was a great man, and I love him so much. The things I will talk about, are my experiences and opinions. This is MY relationship with Mike.

He was born 2/28/1956 and passed away recently, August 29, 2007. He endured many health trials in his 51 years. Much more than any person should ever have to deal with. I met him probably about 11 years ago, and he filled a huge void in my life. We had a very untypical father-in-law/ daughter-in-law relationship. Possibly on the verge of inappropriate! Besides my husband and maybe my mom about 29 years ago, no one person has ever grabbed my butt so much in my life. And vice versa! Or called me out of the blue to ask, in a sultry voice, "What are you wearing?" We talked about everything! He knew more about me than almost anyone. He also knew a different side of me. A side that nobody knows or understands. After I had my baby, I had a pretty tough time. It is a long story and I have to be in just the right mood to talk about it. Someday I will share all of the details on my blog, but not today. Anyway, when things all started going down that day (September 4th 2002) Mike was the one who was there for me. Not because nobody else wanted to be there, but because HE knew what was going on. He stood up for me and made sure I was getting the proper health care. He took care of my baby while I was being poked, prodded and tested to hell and back. He drove my husband and son to SLC while I was being lifeflighted. He got them there safely, comforted my husband, and knew just what to do and say once they arrived. His was the first voice I heard when I was in the ER at the U of U. The most wonderful, warm, beautiful, comforting sound I could have heard! I was in a drug induced coma and the doctors told Brett that I wouldn't be able to hear him, but that they could take a few moments to see me. Well I heard them! I heard the doctors say those words and I will never forget it. (I get a little teary-eyed talking about it.) I was on a ventilator and I couldn't move. I couldn't even open my eyes. But Brett and Mike walked in and Mike said to Brett, "She can probably hear you. The doctors don't think so, but she probably can. Tell her the things you think she wants to hear." And he told me exactly what I needed to hear. That they were there with me, that my baby was there and that I was going to be ok. That was all I needed to know. I was super frustrated that I couldn't give them a sign to tell them that I could hear. And then a tear trickled down my face, and Brett said, "Look, I think she can hear me." Mike told him that I must have been trying to give them a sign and that must have been it. I know that sounds like nothing, but to me, it was huge. It was one of those "life" moments that I will NEVER forget! Mike was so in tune with me and my spirit at that time that he was able to communicate to me the things I needed to know. I am forever grateful for that. Brett was one of the speakers at the funeral and he made the comment that because of his dad, he has a wife today. It is so true. I know that Mike saved me. I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for him. I hate saying this because I hate to freak anybody out, but Mike and I both had near-death experiences. It is a very private thing to me and nobody really gets it. But Mike did. We had that in common and we could talk about it for HOURS! I know that Mike was not afraid of death. I know that he had a choice to make and he finally made the choice to rest. I find a lot of peace in knowing that he is finally out of pain and that he is perfect. I don't feel like he is all that far away from us. Quayd told my mom that he still talks to Papa. I love that. I love knowing that my son feels like he has somebody he can talk to anytime. Quayd and Mike were super close, and I know that Papa is watching out for him.


A couple of years ago at Lagoon, Mike and I decided to go on this ride, and we HATED it! Well, I hated it and Mike did too, but he enjoyed hearing me scream like a little baby.
Oh, we had so much fun. He was a total nut! And he somehow made everyone feel like they were special. I could tell him a story and he made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. But he did that for everybody! We all felt special around Mike. And we felt like he was special too. I try to be strong for Brett but sometimes it really hits me. I metioned how Talia had a bad "Dad" day yesterday. Quayd did too. When I picked him up from school, he was crying a little. I asked him what was wrong and he told me some story about how he had lost some game at school or something. Then he said, "and I am just really sad that Papa died." Sad. Brett has a bad "Dad" day occasionally and I am kind of having one today. It's weird. I miss him like crazy.

the one about Halloween

Well, here he is. The Crimson Chin. Along with his trusty sidekicks, Captain America (Kasen) and Wonder Woman (Kenna). Are they cute, or what?

Halloween was great. Since there was no school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Quayd has gotten really used to sleeping in. So we just relaxed all morning. My Grandma is having back surgery in SLC today and they had to leave yesterday so we Trick-or-Treated them around lunch time. Then I made some chicken salad sandwiches for my Grandparents, my mom, Brayden, Brennen, Quayd and myself. I used white bread and cut the sandwiches in the shape of a ghost. I used sliced olives and pimentos for the faces. They were super cute, and they tasted great too. My cute grandpa always gives the boys one of those HUGE Hershey's bars for Halloween and that is Quayd's favorite thing. He looks forward to it all year. At their house yeterday, he couldn't get into it quick enough! As he was stuffing it in his cute face, my mom asked all of the boys what their favorite candy was. Brayden said Twix, but soon changed to 3 Musketeers. Then back and forth for a few minutes. Brennen liked what ever Brayden said. (I am sure most of that was the annoying little brother in him copying whatever his big brother said!) They finally settled on Twix and my mom asks, "What about you, Quayd?" He looks at her with chocolate all over his face and says, "Big."

We had Trunk-or-Treat and Bread and Soup dinner at the Church starting at 5:30. It was fun, but we had TONS of people so it was super hectic. Then we did the usual running to the grandma's, teachers, and close friends. We stopped at Quayd's old pre-school so he could see Mrs. Young. She and her husband were Dorothy and the Scarecrow. Our dorky, cross-dressing friend, Jay, was the Wicked Witch. They were so cute! I had to go out and get my camera for a picture. I told them that they were definately blog-worthy! Here they are! And their little dog too!

Speaking of witches, my mom has dressed up as a witch for so long! I cant really remember her being anything else. She loves to be a witch for Halloween and sometimes just to be weird and dress up. She has proudly been size 9 witch, size 20 witch, glitter witch, black hair witch, granny witch and my personal favorite, slut witch. When Brayden was little, my mom was, of course, a witch and he was petrified of her! He went around calling her Granny witch for YEARS! Well she was so sure yesterday that she was going to dress up and scare the boys. She got all witched up and walked to our houses. She came to see Quayd first. Not scared. Then went to Brayden and Brennen's. Not scared. I laughed at her today when she told me that they all three just looked at her and said, "Hi Granny." She was so disapointed.

Today I hit the "after-Halloween" sale at Wal-Mart and got Quayd some super hero costumes for dress up. I found Superman, Spiderman and a Ninja Turtle. He was thrilled!

Now it is November. Time to start preparing for my favorite time of year, CHRISTMAS! Hip hip horray! Quayd went back to school today, the Halloween decorations are coming down, and after we get over the sugar high, life can get back to normal.