Thankful Thursday (yes, I'm a day late)

1. One week until I'm in Heber, in the mountains, in a cabin with the funnest friends ever doing a whole lot of nothing.

2. That I finally got my hair cut and colored last night. I was seriously starting to look like Courtney Love, minus the smeared black mascara.

***Sold***

I just took the post about the slide/play center down because it sold. I had three women racing to see who could get to my house first from Herriman, Lehi, and Draper. All I can figure is that there must be a shortable of kids play equipment in this area. That totally stressed me out because they all wanted it and I had to tell two of them that it had been sold and they thought if they got out there before the other person, I would give it to them. I should have posted it here first because my cute niece Angie wanted it, too, but emailed me after the lady from Lehi had already left her house to come and get it. Sorry, Ang. :)

Thirteen years ago today...

Mike and I dodged pedestrians on North Temple that were going to the state fair to get to the hospital to have this little dude. My contractions were two minutes apart and I told Mike just to run them all over or he'd be delivering Dallon in the back seat of our car.

Well, thirteen years have gone by in the blink of an eye and I am now the mom of a teenager. He's such a good kid that he's made it easy. It's been fun watching him grow into a young man.

Here's 13 facts that make Dal, Dal.

1. He has an amazing memory and remembers facts out of books, things he's heard on tv, or things that people have said.
2. When he was little, he loved to watch infomercials. He also loved to watch the history channel.
3. Women would pay big bucks for his long eye lashes. Man if I could just have half the lashes that boy has.
4. He is super smart in math and science.
5. He is very generous. If he has earned money, he buys everyone a treat with it.
6. Since he was little, he's loved to get into small spaces. If he came up missing, we would usually find him hidden under the cabinets or in the entertainment center cupboard.
7. He will not go without a shirt. It took him until he was 10 or 11 to even swim without a t-shirt on. As a baby, he wouldn't let me even hold him if I had a tank top on because my arms were bare. Weird!
8. He loves super sour stuff. (I craved lemon heads the whole time I was prego with him.)
9. He has a huge baby toe nail. Not long, just a big nail.
10. For the first four years of his life, he called his cousin Kristin, Dot Dot.
11. He hates to talk on the phone.
12. He's always been an early riser. I'm hoping the teenage years change that and he starts sleeping in a little.
13. He does a really good impression of Napoleon Dynamite.

Dallon had to hunt for his birthday present when he woke up this morning and then he got the good ol' birthday spankings. This is one of those stupid traditions that just doesn't go away in our house. These are Dal's legs, but I really couldn't tell you where the rest of him went.

Oh, there he is.

Happy Birthday, bud!

Thankful Thursday

Once again it's Thursday so here we go:

1. I'm thankful for a yard. I love to sit out in the shade under the trees. I love having a place for the kids to play,run, and terrorize our cat. All that good stuff.

2. I am thankful that I found out today that I can save 15% on our Family Plan with Verizon through my work. Wish I would have known six months ago, but thankful I know now. Little things like this just make my day.

3. Thankful for the relationship my girls have. Last night Mike and Dal were gone and I just enjoyed listening to them play and color together. Michaela was teaching her the song/chant, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", and that's the only line she knew so they were making it up from there. (We are not musically gifted in my home.) There's a five year difference between them, but Reagen just thinks Michaela is the best sister in the whole world and will do anything to please her big sis.

Sharing the Joy

You know how when you experience something really great and you just want to share that with someone else?  Well, I thought Mike would like to experience O.P.A.Y. (one project a year). He would really rather not experience that, but I really wanted to share that joy with him so I've been encouraging him (a.k.a. - nagging him) to work on a little project. 

We have had wainscotting for Michaela and Reagen's room for over a year. Of course it's been sitting out in the garage and then the shed, unopened this whole time. I've been thinking that if we, meaning Mike, doesn't get it painted real soon, it will be sitting there for another year. 

Imagine my happiness when he called me at work today and told me that we are going to need at least six more boxes. I wasn't happy that we obviously don't know how to measure a room, but that he had gotten it out of the shed and was working on it. He remeasured and cut for one wall. Once I get him going, he's pretty good about completing something, but we're right in the middle of the football season so I'll be encouraging him lots.

I took some before pics tonight and as soon as we, again meaning Mike,  starts making some progress, I'll take some more pics and post the before and after shots.

If you have an unfinished project, I challenge you to get someone else to finish it for you and then let's hear about it and see some pics.

Tagged

Thanks for the tag, Ade. Better late than never, right?



4 Things I Love About Mike:

1. He's an awesome cook.

2. He'd sacrifice anything for our kids.

3. He makes me laugh.

4. He cleans the toilets.



4 Movies I Can Watch Over & Over:

1. Home movies

2. Shawshank Redemption

3. Finding Nemo

4. Lonesome Dove (this was a tough question. theres not too many movies I watch over & over)



4 TV Shows I Watch:

1. The Office

2. Survivor

3. Heroes

4. Amazing Race



4 Places I've Been:

1. Cabo San Lucas

2. Jackson Hole

3. Florida

4. Erda (don't be jealous)



4 People Who Email Me:

1. My scrappin sistas

2. Kassy

3. Keysha

4. My sis, Amy



4 Favorite Foods:

1. Chocolate or cheesecake or anything sweet

2. Pizza

3. Steak

4. Olive Garden bread sticks w/Afredo sauce



4 Places I'd Like to Visit:

1. Italy

2. Hawaii

3. Holland

4. Australia



4 Things I'm Looking Forward to Next Year:

1. Getting some stuff done around the house, remember O.P.A.Y.?

2. Warm weather. (I'm w/Susan on not liking winter)

3. Any retreats with my friends.

4. A secret trip that Mike is planning for just me and him (this isn't really happening, but hint-hint, Mike)



4 People to Tag:

1. Whoever

2. Wants

3. To

4. Play

Thankful Thursday

I forgot to do this last week, but I'm going to try and do better.

1. For this cooler weather. Even though it means that winter is around the corner (yuck), I love fall and I can feel it in the air.

2. For laughter. Last week while Mike rested/slept in the recliner, Reagen clipped his toenails (what was he thinking?). A couple of times I heard him jump and say "owww!", but he didn't pay much attention to what was going on down there. When she finished it looked like someone had taken a weed eater to his toenails. Some of them looked like they had fangs on the sides. We laughed and laughed and laughed. It was quite a chore to get them evened out again because some were right down to the skin. I really wish I'd taken a picture. Poor Mike. It seems like laughter often comes at his expense in our house. This world would be a better place if everyone had a Mike to laugh at. :)

And I live to tell about it.

So, I had to speak in church yesterday.  It's been years since I've had to do this, and trust me, I was totally ok with that. I'm really not one that longs to do that sort of thing. I'd rather just sit near the back of the chapel and take in what everyone else has to say. They say that this is right under being attacked by sharks, as far as people's fears go. Hey, I'd rather take my chances doggy paddling around in shark infested waters than get up in front of a bunch of people I kind of know and talk. I had five weeks to prepare and I don't know if that was a blessing or a curse because it gave me five long weeks to worry about it and wake up with that panicked feeling over and over. It may have been better if they would have sprung the news on me the day before. 

I was asked to speak on prayer and I decided to narrow it down to family prayer. After writing this talk in my head for five weeks and going 10 different directions with it, I actually started writing a few thoughts down the week before. Finally, on Friday I pretty much had it prepared. I just had to clean it up a little and time myself. There were three people speaking including myself. I locked myself in my room and piled some pillows up on the end of my bed like a pulpit and timed myself with Mike's stopwatch. What a dork I am. It took me exactly 15 minutes and that's what they wanted so I was good to go...all except the nightmares to come that night.

Sunday morning came and we were suppose to meet 15 minutes before church. I found out one of the speakers wasn't going to make it. That's REALLY not what you want to hear! I'll just speak a little slower, right? I was so glad to see Janet Cook, a spirtual giant and a lady I look up to so much, was speaking with me. If my talk didn't go well, I knew she'd do great and she was speaking after me so everyone would remember her talk. Her talk was amazing and I really don't remember much about my talk. I was just so glad that my knees didn't buckle and my mouth worked for the most part. I'm pretty sure I only teared up twice. Once when I talked about my kids praying for Papa when he was sick and then when I talked about Reagen's bedtime prayers. I was proud of myself because usually all it takes is me stepping in front of the pulpit and the tears start falling. (I think my practice run with the pillow pulpit really helped.) 

Anyway, I felt such a sense of relief when I sat back down and my heart stopped pounding. I was going to have one of the members of the bishopric sign my talk and excuse me from talking for the next five years, but I thought that they might think that was a little weird. I did gain a greater testimony of family prayer by doing this because in those five weeks that I had to prepare, I made sure that every night we had it and I felt the subtle blessings that came from doing this. I guess the Lord knew that this was something we needed to work on a little harder. 

Fall is just around the corner...

...and life is in full swing again. I love this time of year. It's hard to keep up with everything going on, but I love seeing these three busy with the things they love.