I'm Back!

Wow, it has been awhile since I have been here, and so much has happened!
First, my computer crashed! The hard drive went to the big drive in the sky! Lucky for me, I have some incredible computer geeks that were able to save all my pictures and music. Now I just have to back everything up so I don't have this scare again....
How to tell everything that has happened in the past few weeks will take till June!!!! So I will just break it down into small bits and pieces...

This is Jeff's shirt. Jeff is learning to be a pilot. He had his first solo flight on March 16. It is a tradition at the hanger that on your first solo they cut the back of your shirt (Lost your shirt on first solo on...) and sign it and put it up in the shop. Very big deal. There is so much to learn to be a pilot! He could be a weather man now with all he knows about conditions for flying. He will never look at a plane coming in for a landing the same again. It is fun when he comes home and shares all his adventures of the day. He had a big flight the other day where he had to plot stops and air speed and fuel...big time stuff. He is also able to work on the planes to learn them inside out. Best ever!
Next...
I have had fun being a chaperon for Klaira's Drama and Choir the past month.
The first adventure was the drama kids took a train from Fresno to Bakersfield, in Bakersfield we took a bus to Los Angeles and then we got on another train to Anaheim where we got on a VERY small bus (packed to the max!) to get to the hotel.

Most of these kids have never been on a train. It was so fun! (Well, except for lugging all our stuff up and down the stairs to get on and off...that was difficult..)
Our hotel was just within walking distance to Disney Land.

The kids were GREAT! They had a workshop at Disney Land that was a great opportunity. All I will say about it is that even if the kids never pursue drama, everything they learned there they can use in daily life. Way cool!

I had a fun group of girls that I was over! It was really hard to go back to work on Monday and not see them all day.

Then two weeks later....Klaira's choir went to San Diego! (Lucky for me, we got on a bus and stayed on the bus all the way down. )

We started out trip at Mission Beach. I found my happy place!

Again, I had a great group of girls! So much fun!

Later that night we went on a dinner cruise. I know that I had never been on one and none of the kids had ever been on one. It was kind of funny to see how the girls dressed. You would have thought they were going to the prom.

The next morning the kids got up early to go to their competition. After the competition we went to Sea World. That was a fun day.

The next day we packed up and headed home, but on the way....stopped at Six Flags! YES WE DID!

The sad story to this day is that I had one of my girls get the stomach toss and we spent the day in the first aid station. Klaira was such a trooper to sit with me all day in the first aid station, both girls never complaining! Very impressed with these girls! I am so happy to be home!

Look What I Made!

This weekend was our youth/ward auction. What a great time to come together as a ward to support our youth for all the activities that they have planned, to be able to fund them. I am so impressed with all the talent that we have in our ward. With that being said, it makes me stretch to see what I can come up with that will be even a smidgen close to the talent that I know will be shown. THIS WAS TOTALLY FUN! The dinner is free but you pay for the desserts. Then tons of stuff was donated for auction! I made these "Flowers" that are totally edible, except for the sticks. The main part of the flower is a brownie, the peddles are gum paste and there is a raspberry candy holding the peddles on the stick with a dollop of melted chocolate to hold the brownie on. All of them were sold very quickly!

How am I going to top this next year?

What your car color says about you?

Today was a very important day for my truck. In April, I will have owned my truck for 5 years. When I drove to work today, I found that my odomoter said....

Yikes! But I do a bit of driving!

Then I thought, what does my vehicle color say about me? Well of course I googled it and I found this article. It is a bit long, but fun to read. How close is it to you and your color?

What the Color of your Vehicle Says About You (Or the Character in Your Book)March 23, 2008 — Pat Bertram
In my green article for St. Patrick’s Day, I wrote, “Owning a dark green vehicle supposedly means that you are traditional, trusty, and well balanced, but what it really means is that you are thrifty. Who makes dark green cars anymore? If you own one, it’s probably been a while since you bought a new vehicle.”
So for all you smug people who don’t own a green vehicle, I thought I’d tell you what the color of your car says about you.
Yes, your fiery orange-red sports car says exactly what you think it does: you’re sexy, speedy, high-energy, dynamic. Before you preen, go out and look at your red car. Most red cars on the road are more of a kidney bean color. Is yours? If so, it means you are dynamic and energetic but are losing your fire. You really want to be have that orange-red sports car personality, but you just can’t quite make it. You’re too busy, too old, or too tired. For all the good your red car does you, it might as well be brown.
A silver car supposedly says that you are cool and elegant. The only problem is that since silver was the most popular car color for several years, almost everyone owns one, like your neighbors who don’t mow their lawns and don’t put their garbage cans away after the garbage has been picked up. Real cool. Very elegant.
White supposedly means you are fastidious, but what it really means is that you wanted that fiery orange-red sports car, but you drive like a bat out of hell or like batman in his batmobile, (depending on your age group) and you were afraid that you’d get too many tickets so you chose the less conspicuous white. Good thinking. On average, while drivers in red cars do not get more tickets than anyone else, orange-red sports car drivers do, and let’s face it, they deserve them. Who drives the speed limit in a car like that?
A light blue vehicle supposedly means that you’re calm and quiet, but what it really means is that you went to the showroom to buy a sunshine yellow car to show how joyful and young-at-heart you are, but they only had marine blue, and since you really are a calm, quiet person who doesn’t like to make waves, you bought it.
A purple vehicle means you are creative, individualistic, original, and perhaps it does. It could also mean you’re too old to care what anyone thinks of you.
A black vehicle says you are empowered, not easily manipulated, love elegance, and you appreciate the classics. It’s also says that you are mysterious or that you have two sides to your personality; it’s the favored car of both clergy and gangsters.
A dark blue vehicle says you are credible, confident, dependable. And you drive too much because you always get stuck with the carpool.
A gray vehicle says you are sober, corporate, practical. Boring. But if that gray car is charcoal with sparkles, you still have flashes of brilliance and charisma.
An orange vehicle says you are fun loving, talkative, fickle, trendy. A yellow-green one says you are trendy, whimsical, lively. And you know it’s true. Only fun and whimsical cars come in these colors: Volkswagen bugs and little sportscars.
A tan vehicle means that you’re timeless, basic, simple, but it also means you have something to hide. Maybe bad driving habits? Or that you never wash your car?
A gold vehicle says is that you love comfort and will pay for it; it also says that you’re intelligent, and you must be — you were smart enough to come read my article!
And a brown vehicle supposedly means you’re down-to-earth but who are you trying to kid? If you really cared about the earth, you wouldn’t have bought that big old gas-guzzler.
So what color of car do I drive? I’m sorry, but I don’t know you well enough to answer such a personal question.

Valentines Day

I don't have any pictures of today, but what a fun day.
LuvLump and another young lady from our ward sang in church today. Their voices blend so nice together and both of them are in choir at school and have been taught well! (Not to mention the proud mommy moment!) We had a really nice Sacrament meeting and then....
Off to the Nursery! Today was my day for lesson and activity! I had the day planned. (As I was waiting for Sacrament Meeting to start, I was informed that two of my helpers were not going to be there today...Need to have a talk with those two! Don't they know that Nursery comes first? With a brief moment of panic, two of our most incredible brethren said that they would be happy to help in nursery today! I LOVE THESE MEN!) The first part was our usually playing with toys, getting the wiggles out after sitting in Sacrament Meeting for an hour. It was warm and sunny outside, so we let the kids go outside in the little play area with slides and other toys. It felt so good to stand in the sun and soak up the warm! Then we had snack time! I had made strawberry cupcakes, with coolwhip/frosting/strawberries dip, and apples. I am finding out which kids have very picky tastebuds, which ones are into dipping and which ones will not try new things. We have lesson time during snack time since they are really happy to hold still and eat. They do a good job of talking too! Then Sister Bitton came in for song time. Can I tell you how much I love Sister Bitton and song time? I LOVE SISTER BITTON AND SONG TIME TO THE MOON AND BACK! She is so fun with the kids and the little ones really seem to love song time. We do have a few movers and groovers, but for the most part, the kids are really good about staying on their chairs and do the hand actions and sing what parts of the songs they know. Then we had our activity. I had printed out pages with hearts all over it and we had chocolate and vanilla pudding to finger paint with. Again, you find out the kids that are into getting their hands in and having fun, the others that do not like to be messy and the ones that are there just to eat. The little containers that I had put the pudding was just big enough for hands but it was really challenging for one little one who really thought he could lick the pudding at the bottom of the container. (His tongue was just that much too short!) The brethren were perfect helpers. When we were playing, they played with the kids. When it was lesson time, they listened and made comments, when it was song time...you just have to see very tall Brother Boyer as we are singing and doing the actions to "Once there was a snowman"...priceless! How wonderful to have support from loving adults that will get in and be interactive with the kids and I don't have to direct them on what to do! This makes my calling that much more the best calling ever! (And I can not do this calling without Deanne! I would not even try!)
Then I can home to a steak dinner that my Sweetheart had cooked for me. He knows the way to my heart! Then a three hour nap! Yep! Today is a wonderful day!

Uncle Milo

When I was a kid, I had a Uncle Milo that would talk backwards. He was so fun to sit and listen to. I found this skit, that was posted on another friends blog that she found on youtube, that is one of the stories that Uncle Milo use to tell, done by some other faces that the older generation will remember...I miss my Uncle Milo. (Remember to go turn the music off on my page before watching the clip.) ( I moved the clip to the side bar! Go see it!)

January

So how did I do this month...I have been sick ALL month! I finally gave in and went to the Urgent Care. I don't go to the regular doctor's office any more since every time i go it is: 1. hard to get an appointment, 2. filled with cranky people, 3. the last 2 times I have gone to that office I have waited OVER 2 hours past my appointment time to be seen. The last time I was in and I had waited in the waiting room for an hour and then another hour in the exam room, I had a very loud discussion with the doctor about how rude he was for keeping me waiting. It is hard to even leave your house when you don't feel good and then to sit for two hours and have a simple "Sorry"is just not ok. So, now I go to Urgent Care and the reasons: 1. it cost less, 2. I am in and out within 20 minutes, 3. there is usually only a few people waiting, 4. they fax my perscriptions right to my choice of pharmacy. LOVE IT, I mean if you have to go see a doctor, and you need meds, that is the way to go.
Ok so getting back to the fact that I was sick this month...I just could not clear up this cough. It turns out that I had a secondary infection in my lungs and my sinuses were swollen shut with it leaking into my ears. The doc put me on all kinds of stuff...I am better but still not up to snuff. The sad part is that I shared the gunk with Jeff and Colton. They have both been on drugs too. Needless to say, I am not ready to give up my soda. (I know it was a long story to get to the point of how my soda addiction is goin..)
So the good thing about being sick, if there is one, is that I have had time to read. I love to read. I usually have a hard time picking out books so I contacted a friend of mine (HEY JEN)that I know is in a book club. She gave me her group's list..I am so excited to have books to read.
The books that I have read so far this month is:
The Book Theif by Markus Zusak
Uglies
Pretties
Specials all by Scott Westerfeld
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

I don't think I would have chosen any of these books on my own. I am thankful for Jen giving me this list so that I could read books that are out of my norm so that I could read different writting styles and topics that are so diverse from each other. The past couple of years I have really been into the "Popular" teen books and have gotten into the wizard, dragon, vampire type books. These books are not even close to those books in topic which really was quite refreshing. I did have a hard time with two of the books until I was in the middle of them and then really wanted to finish them. I am so glad I did. I have two more books on this short list that are again very different from the rest. Then I hope that Jen will have more books for me to read! Keep it going!

Quote

I love this quote from Erma Bombeck:

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me."

What have I done today to be able to say that I have used the talents that Heavenly Father gave me?
What will I be remembered for after I am gone? Will I be remembered? Will they say I was a nice person? Will I be remembered as someone that tried everything and loved it?!?
A friend asked me today if I could make posters for the youth auction that is coming up in a few weeks...she said that I made the cutest posters..That made me feel good. Of everyone that she could have asked (and there is some impressive, talented people in this ward!) she asked me. Tomorrow I am using my poster talents....