Super Ab Workout

I have found the perfect ab workout. This is how it goes:
- Cough until it feels like you are going to hack up a lung.
- Repeat Step 1 until your whole body aches - eventually you will feel those ab muscles every time.
- When you have finally felt those long ignored muscles hold those muscles every time you cough so you don't PEE your pants. (Did I mention I'm getting old)
- After weeks of this you will have a flatter and tighter stomach without ever leaving your house or wasting money on exercise equipment.

**This workout is not guaranteed to work for all people. Consult your doctor when starting a new workout routine as this workout can cause serious illness. Etc., etc., etc.!!!

Useless Musings...

Do you ever wonder what goes through a child's mind when you ask them to do a chore, practice piano or any task you might need them do around the house? What possesess them to throw a tantrum, stomp their feet, slam doors and basically go through a routine that begs for a spanking, but after going through all that not 2 seconds later they ask you for a treat or when is dinner ready? Is it just me who feels like stomping into my room, slamming the door shut and giving myself at least a 30 minute timeout, maybe more?

I am serious, I ask one of my children to do something and the list goes on about how their life is terrible, so and so gets allowance for doing chores, but why doesn't the other sibling have to do it. I think that kids should come with a mute button and auto pilot, just tap a few buttons and they are doing chores with no complaining. I will have to consider this when I create my world.



P.S. Did I mention that I have two little angels who would never behave like this and do exactly what I ask them to do without any whining or complaining!

Personal Progress

I am currently serving as the secretary in YW, I have had this calling for 2 1/2 years. This year I have decided that I am going to obtain my Young Women medallion. I could go into all the excuses of why I didn't get it when I was younger, but the bottom line is that I was lame and didn't put forth the effort.

We have been in our ward for almost 9 years, and one of the things that I love about our ward is the youth are wonderful. They are so talented and have such a strong testimony of the Gospel, they are way ahead of me when I was their age. As I have had the chance to serve in YW I have developed a real testimony of the Young Women program, I have watched the young women of our ward and they are truly choice daughters of our Heavenly Father. They are at times frustratingly "girly", which is way opposite of me, but they have strong testimonies and are great girls. It is because of their examples that I want to earn my YW medallion.

My first goal is faith, I have been working on the three main value experiences and my ten hour project will be to read "Jesus the Christ" by James E. Talmage.

Pres. Hinckley Challenge

I was on sugardoodle today and noticed there was a website called The Hinckley Challenge, basically you sign up to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days as a tribute to Pres. Hinckley. The Challenge starts in 2 days, on Feb.4. When I signed up there were over 1000 people who have signed up. What a great way to honor Pres. Hinckley.

O Christmas Tree!

Every year we head up to the mountains to cut our Christmas tree, this year we went over to the Arbon Valley up Knox Canyon. I think it is so beautiful up there, it feel like I am "walking in a winter wonderland".

Since, we never get snow that lasts for more than a couple of hours in Pocatello, (I am saying this in bitter tones) this is a chance for the kids to play in the snow. I think there favorite is making snow angels.

Although, Payton found a new activity he would jump up and hang on the branches and all the snow would fall on him. He loved it.

After searching we finally find our perfect tree, Michael heads up with the chainsaw and cuts her down.

We even saw a bunch of deer right off the side of the road there were about 13, before I could get a good picture they were scared away.

I love days like this because it reinforces your knowledge that Heavenly Father really loves you and wants you to be happy, he created these wonderful, beautiful creations so that we can have joy. The most important thing at Christmas time is spending time with your family and this is one of our favorite traditions because it is Christmas at its purest, no crowds, no presents just enjoying all of our blessings and remembering that we have a loving Heavenly Father who loves us.

This is my pure JOY!

Thanksgiving in Las Vegas

This year both Michael and I are in school and had the whole week of Thanksgiving off, we packed up our kids and went to Vegas. Here are some of the things we did...

Bellagio, this is one of our favorite places between the gardens and the fountains we spent a lot of time here.

I wish you could see the background of this picture better, they had a table and chair all covered in moss. It was so pretty.

This was a face in the trunk. If you look closely you can see the eyes and the limbs stretched out our actually arms.

I always take lots of pictures of the Bellagio gardens, but this year they didn't turn out as well.

M&M World and Coke

I think the only time Payton smiles is when he is not standing by his sister.

Golden Nugget has this amazing waterslide that goes through an aquarium it was a blast!

Look at those sharks!! It was crazy the only thing between you and rows of teeth were a pane of glass.

A picture with blue man group. Or is it?

Hoover Dam

You can see in this picture that they are building a suspension bridge that will span across the dam. I think that is too scary.

Look how low the water is.

Eryn rock climbing?

Payton the Strong man

MESA GRILL

Yes, I said Mesa Grill, we took in lunch at the MESA GRILL. It was DELICIOUS!!

HEY, Lauri, did I mention that we dined at MESA GRILL?

FAO Schwarz

This spongebob is entirely made of LEGOS, how cool is that?

Oh! Lauri, did I mention that the food was delicious at the Mesa Grill?

We did have thanksgiving dinner at the Wynn hotel, it was pretty good. I only got one picture because I was eating.

Those are real mangoes.

Nana Piles

This is an example of a "nana pile".

However, I have perfected and made the "nana pile" a true art from, is it not beautiful.

Crystal, I know you are jealous, but it takes a lot of practice to get this balancing act just right so everything stays in one place. This is NOT for amateurs, so don't try this at home unless you are confident that you have perfected the small "nana pile". If you are careless, things will fall and this could possibly be hazardous to body parts, so I repeat, THIS IS NOT FOR AMATEURS! I will not be held responsible for damaged limbs or appendages.

WOE IS ME!!

Saturday night we had our 3rd annual Halloween late night party. I had 18 six and seven year olds at my house, making their own mini pizzas, making crafts and the finale of watching the Haunted Mansion. I have popcorn scattered in every crack and corner of the house. My camera out ready to take some pictures so I could show you how insane I was, but they never got taken. I am blaming this on my sister who slept till 1 in the afternoon, didn't check her phone messages and never came to my rescue.

Then, you would think that I would have all Sunday to recover from my idiocy but noooo, Young Women in Excellence was last night, which I had to be there at 4:30 it started late and ended late, which made me miss my favorite show, The Next Iron Chef.

So, now I have to wait until Thursday to see the rerun. Yes, my life is T-U-F-F, TUFF!!

Halloween Traditions

The other day I was listening to the radio and the DJ was talking about Halloween traditions. He was going on about what his favorite traditions were and on of their favorite family traditions every year was to go to ARCTIC CIRCLE and get a SQUARE PUMPKIN. I thought that was hilarious having some connection to Arctic Circle.

So, last Saturday I took the kids to Arctic Circle and we purchased SQUARE PUMPKINS. This was lots of fun and I am going to add this to the list of my favorite Halloween traditions.

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is our annual Halloween Chili night. I make a big pot of chili and some other soup and some desserts and all my family and anyone else who stops by, if we like them, we ask them to join us for a little Halloween dinner. I think I have done this for about 4 or 5 years and it is one of my favorite traditions.

Survey

Can life get any more HECTIC?? I hate being sick or laid up it puts me way behind schedule. My house is a mess, laundry is piled to the ceiling, it gets pretty bad when Eryn has to ask, "When are you going to do laundry?" is that pathetic or what?, church callings, homework, and PTA are just put on hold until everything is back to normal, or at least my normal. It feels like I will never get there.

** There is a survey to the right of this message. I am writing a paper for school and would love it everyone would vote. So tell all your friends to visit and vote.**

The First Snowfall

"Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things,but just look what they do when they stick together"~~By Verna M Kelly, (American writer).~~

I love winter!! I was so excited when it started to snow on Saturday. It was so beautiful.

Eryn immediately went outside to play in the snow. I couldn't believe there was enough snow to build a snowman.

It Happened on the way to Math...

As I was sitting on the grass waiting for all official-type stuff to be over. I kept thinking of the line from Tommy Boy where Chris Farley is saying "Fat man in a little coat", (I tried to upload the video clip couldn't figure it out, Crystal you must show me the ways of the blog force). Anyway, I am sitting there and thinking that big ladies should not be hit by little cars. The windshield will shatter, I am thinking it must be a law of some sort. The next thought that popped into my head was, does anyone ever get hit by a car gracefully? My immediate response was, UM NO, I DON'T THINK SO! So, it seems, I still have a little confidence issue that is lurking in the back of my brain saying YOU ARE A BIG DUFUSS, NO ONE GETS HIT BY A CAR WALKING ACROSS THE STREET, IN A CROSSWALK.

Yes, I was in a crosswalk (that's all I needed was to get hit and get a ticket for jaywalking),
heading north to math class, when a small red car starts going really fast heading south, starting to turn east. All I could think about was that car is going fast and I don't think he is going to stop. Sure enough the next moment, apparently as I am a little sketchy on the details, I am flying through the air hitting the windshield and flying off, landing on the road on my, now severely scraped and bruised knee, and my left hand. I got up immediately and walked over to the side of the road with the aid of my friend, Nema. Thinking to myself, I just got hit by a car. Needless to say I was a bit shaken' up, but I am doing remarkably well, considering that yes, it could have been much worse, as I and others keep reminding me.

I immediately went to find nurse mom to see if I actually needed to go to the hospital or not. I went and had a head scan and x-rays. Miraculously, I walked away with no broken bones, no head trauma, no neck or back injuries and no broken ribs. I owe this miracle to my backpack, which I think was in between me and the windshield, and heavy duty sweats, I could not find my flimsy little capriesses (Eryn's name for capri pants), which irritated me because I had just done laundry the day before and I knew I folded them and put them away. I had searched all morning for them. So because Wednesday is tennis class I put on the hot, heavy sweat pants.

So, in a nutshell that was my fate on Wednesday, September 19th at approximately 8:53 or so.

I would again like to thank all my friends for the dinners, visits and phone calls. Yes, Lauri, they even brought me some much craved for chocolate chip cookies.

I am blessed by a loving Heavenly Father, who protected me from more severe injuries and has allowed me to have such great family and friends to help me.

Thanks to all, especially Michael, who picked out the red onions.