Mother's Day

Hope all you mother's out there felt loved and appreciated on Mother's Day. I had a pretty good day. Dustin got up with the kids and let me sleep in which is always so very appreciated. He also cleaned up the kitchen that was left in a bit of disarray from the day before which was sooo wonderful. He and the kiddoes got me a DVD with three chick flicks on it and some chocolate covered dried cherries and flowers. Dustin had to go to a church meeting before church, so I fed the kids lunch and tried to keep their church clothes clean. I think I was more or less successful in keeping them presentable. At church all the primary children went up front to sing there mother's a couple songs for mother's day. This was Logan's first time to be included. He was in the very front row during the songs. He turned his face to the side and kept a scowl on his little face the entire time he was up there. He did not sing a note. He gave me a good laugh though! As soon as he got back to his seat, Ashlynn says, "Now it's my turn to sing!" She started to sing by herself. I felt bad having to "shush" her. Logan's teacher sent him home with a pretty red rose to give to me which he did. We then joined my family for a dinner prepared by the boys. It was very nice to not have to lift a finger and be served and have the kitchen cleaned for you! I think that Mother's day and my birthday (usually) are the only two times of the year that I receive such royal treatment. Not that I'm complaining! Or am I????? (haha) All in all it was a very nice day and I really appreciated all the special effort.

Never-ending projects!

So, all the projects floating around my head are growing rather numerous. I am really wanting to tackle the back yard and get it finished ASAP. We had built a retaining wall on one side of the backyard and it butts up to the chain link fence. We have had a lot of the dirt wash away through the chain link fence, surprise, surprise. So I have dug out the dirt along the fence in preparation to finish off the wall. I dug two whole along our picket fence for some bushes. Dustin started chipping away at the rock in what is going to be the kids play area, which we are filling with pea gravel and hopefully putting in a wooden play center/swing set thing. We then need to bring in the pea gravel for the play area and the topsoil in preparation for sod. I also want to build myself a wishing well with a built in planter to cover up our actual well. I am contemplating hiring our neighbor to brick one up for us or attempt to build one myself out of wood to match the play ground. It will be quite the project, but the finished project should be nice. I'd also like to simultaneously bring in topsoil and sod for a small part of the lower yard (to ease the mowing of this area which takes a beating from our steep driveway which guides rain water to this area like a raging river.) I had to cut a bunch of limbs off my trees as a mowing precaution, I usually am watching the ground as I go to make sure there is not a rock or stump in my way and about take my eye out on a low limb. I woke this morning with a very sore wrist and arms, so today was all about the legs at the gym! For the inside of the house, I have planned some projects. I have some wallpaper to put up in my bedroom. I plan on painting my living room some shade of yellow, I am currently narrowing down the choices. For some odd reason I find this to do list quite exhilarating and can't wait to see the finished projects. I'll take some before and after photos for all to see!

A Sad Night in Hail!

We had quite the storm come through last night. We got hit hard with Hail. It was pelting our house like crazy. It was so loud we had to shout to one another to communicate. I closed all the blinds and curtains just in case our windows shattered, none did, surprising enough. I had put the children to bed about 45 minutes before the storm hit and went to check on them. Logan's room was filled with the sounds of hail ricocheting off the windows. I looked on his bed, in his closet for him, and finally found him huddled up in his tent with all his pillows surrounding him, he was holding his ears with both hands. Poor little guy. As soon as he was with mom and dad it went from scary to exciting. He was so excited to see all the "snow". Ashlynn was sleeping soundly when I looked in at her. Her window is facing the right direction and was shielded from all the raucous. We let her sleep as she was not in any danger of flying glass. In the pictures, notice the beautiful Amaryllis flowers in the bottom left corner. They are now gone, along with every other plant/bush/tree on our property. Not really gone, but pulverized. It looks like we are in the middle of winter, everything is stripped bare. My yard was looking so nice and filled with the beauty of spring, now it is a vast sea of fallen leaves and flowers. All my solar path lights are busted up, we had 16 on the hill that twinkled like stars, says my neighbor. Oh well, we are OK, our house is all in one piece, my car seems to be OK (we may need to replace the windshield because the seal was pulverized.) Truly we came out pretty well for what we went through. I am just heartbroken by all the damage to my yard as we've devoted so much time and effort into making it beautiful. I know I sound like a baby, but I am heartsick about my poor plants and some of the wildlife we've grown attached to. Between mine and my mom's house there was a mama bird who made her nest on the ground. Her babies just hatched yesterday, just in time for the storm. Hopefully she got them under cover.

I've been tagged!

Kristina tagged me!!! So, here is some tidbits of info about me!

Where was I 10 Years ago...
I would have been married for almost a year and going to school at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. These were the days in which I did not take school at all seriously and reveled in being a newlywed. Dustin and I missed more school then we attended. What a waste of time and money! We enjoyed Logan though. What a beautiful city. We loved hiking in the mountains that surrounded us, and frolicking in the river. We camped a lot and brought our little cocker spaniel, Anya, with us. That is about all I can recall at this point.

5 things on my to do list today...
1. Go workout at the gym.
2. Go grocery shopping.
3. Make a main dish for a friend's friends wife funeral.
4. Pick weeds and burn my stack 'o' sticks and branches.
5. Entertain my wee ones.


My bad Habits...
I am sometimes a bit negative toward myself.
I sabotage all my hard work during the day by treating myself to junk at night. (sometimes)
PROCRASTINATION!!!

What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire...
I would not tell anyone except those I really trust. I would try to help out those that are in need as much as possible anonymously, especially my siblings who may be struggling. I would make Dustin retire so that we could spend as much time together as a family that we could stand, and then I'd have him go back to work!! (haha)I would love to help out those families that have had sickness in their family and have accrued a ton of hospital debt by paying it off.

4 places I have lived...
Jacksonville, FL
San Diego, CA
St. Louis, MO
Ft. Worth, TX

5 things people don't know about me...
~I am a klutz.
~I have freckles on me butt, I am nice. (haha)
~I am a wanna be perfectionist.
~Dustin is the only man I have ever kissed.
~I played Basketball, Tennis, and was on the Swim team in high school. I was not good enough to play high school volleyball, surprising to some, because now I can hold my own fairly well.

It's a miracle!

I am so excited! I guess I bugged Dustin enough about wanting to cut my hair that he finally agreed to love me regardless of the length of my hair(ha ha)! I went this morning and got a really great cut, at least in my opinion. I am totally thrilled with it. I think I lost about five pounds from the time I sat down at the hairdressers to the time I walked out! BONUS!! I think Dustin is still in mourning but he was able to put on a happy face and pay me a compliment about the new do!

I Can't Hear!

Dustin and I watched Conference on the Internet today. We at least attempted. We got bits and pieces of the talks between the constant peppering of questions, arguments, crying the kids were giving us. At one point toward the end of the Conference, Logan was saying something to Dustin. Dustin said, "I can't hear!" So Logan repeated his statement, only he said it louder, again, he gets the same response from Daddy. So Logan again gets even louder. At this point Dustin and I just cracked up laughing. Of course Dustin was referring to his inability to listen to the conference talk and Logan was thinking that Daddy was deaf as a doorknob. It was pretty funny, but you might have had to be there to appreciate the humor!

Adventures with Thomas!

Dustin and I took the kids to Grapevine this past Saturday to see Thomas the Train who was in town. We met up with Dustin's cousin Melissa and her hubby Jim, and baby Alex. There were several tents filled with fun play things, lots of train sets the kids could play with. We took a short but super expensive ride on Thomas. It was a first for the whole family to ride on a real train. There was a fun little track with individual trains that the kids could make move by pedalling with their hands. Logan had a blast. He had a huge smile plastered on his face the entire time he was going around the track. I had to remove him from the train when his turn was over. The kids also got temporary tattoos on their hands. Logan wanted Percy on his hand. He had to show everyone his percy tattoo. The only problem came with his pronunciation. He would stick out his hand and say, "Look at my Pussy." Please forgive the language, that's how he say's Percy. It made for a bunch of awkward glances and questions. On our way out we had the kids go on a pony ride. This time it was Ashlynn who had the smile plastered on her face. Logan kept saying he was scared but he stayed on. We had a fun day together as a family.