...holidays...

Well, just to let you know, I am my Mother's Daughter!! What-you might ask? My mother is a fanatic when it comes to the holidays. Every room has a tree and is completely decorated.


"Every room? "


"YES!! Including the bathroom. "


As for me, I am definitely my mother's daughter. I love Christmas. It is one of my favorite holidays and I LOVE to decorate. I do not have a tree in every room, but I am getting closer. I know that when I own my own home, I will have acquired enough decorations to decorate every room in my home.

Anyway, one of my "most" favorite traditions is that I have been in charge of putting Mom's village together. She has hand-painted every house, market, church, and so on...that pertains to the village. I love taking each item out of their designated storage box and placing it somewhere in the village. The village is on top of snow and white lights.

(I had to turn the lights off to take a good picture).

You really can not see it, but it has a skating rink in the center of the village with ice skaters. There is an amazing church, school house, bank, stores,...and the list goes on. It is simply amazing. Okay, simple is not the word, it is AMAZING!!

This year, I found myself creating the village as I talked and acted out each item. My mother was busily decorating the tree in the living room--I am not sure she noticed that her daughter was going crazy. Okay, it brought back lots of memories (from a very long time ago) when I would play with my barbies in their AMAZING home. Yes, I had practically everything that had to do with barbies. Thank goodness that I was the only girl in the family--I think I would have hated to share my barbie dream home. HA HA!


...holidays...don't you just love them!!!

The Big Game

Saturday--the big game day!!! The blue against the red! The cougs against the Utes! BYU against Utah!! All in all--it is a huge game day, especially for my Mom. She is the most truest blue fan ever!! I, absolutely, love watching 'the cougs' play when Mom is in the room!!! Sometimes it is more exciting to watch Mom then it is BYU!!! She is definitely a crazy person when it comes the BYU.

For the past couple of years, we have watched the BIG GAME at Scott's home on the big screen!! I am not sure if they really invite us over to watch the game, or do they really want to watch Mom go completely crazy!! This year, Mom was definitely on camera--K-bugs was videoing her from my cell and BGG was recording her reaction on his cell. He said that he was going to forward the footage to his friends to prove he has a crazy grandma!!! All in all--thanks BYU for a job well done!!! Mom, thanks for just being YOU!!

the refrigerator and a tv

After an interesting and bizarre day at work (which should be an interesting "blog" all by itself), I arrived home around 7:00 pm eager to get my list of "to do" things out of the way-so, I could have the pleasure of scrapbooking on this Thanksgiving eve.

As I walked through the back door, I started to crave a glass of ice-cold milk. I could almost taste it before I even poured it into the glass. It has been over a week since I have had a glass of milk. So, I opened the refrigerator, took out the milk carton, poured me a large glass of ice-cold milk and started to drink. UGH!!! No, it was not sour--it was WARM!! I thought, "oh, how bizarre!" I opened the refrigerator again to feel the milk carton--it was warm. The orange juice was warm, the diet coke was warm--everything was warm. I opened the freezer--everything was thawed out. No more frozen Popsicles, no more frozen ice cream, the hamburger, the chicken--all thawed. So, a quick phone call to California (our landlords) and then a phone call to my dad and then it was off to do some refrigerator shopping.

Did you know that there are so many different kinds of refrigerators. There are the 3-door refrigerators, side by side, 1-door, the ones with water dispensers, the ones without, black, white, chrome ones, ones that monitor the temperature on the outside, and the ones that monitor the temperature from the inside. But, my most favorite one of all was the one with the television on the door. It was approximately 3500 dollars. Not too bad--for a refrigerator and a TV???

Well, after looking at the all different types of refrigerators, the one that was chosen will not arrive until next Thursday. Can you believe it? One week to wait for a refrigerator!!! Oh, I did not opt to purchase the one with the TV!! Even though it would have been a fun item to talk about. I can see the conversation now--

"why do you have your couch facing the refrigerator?"

"Oh, that is where I watch TV! See how cool the television is? The only problem is that we miss some of the best parts of the show-due to opening and closing the refrigerator."

Oh, how bizarre!!!

I keep craving that ice-cold glass of milk! What is a girl to do without a nice glass of ice-cold milk? So, as I ponder the event of refrigerator shopping, I am so thankful that Thanksgiving dinner is at Mom and Dad's home. Side note: they have 2 refrigerators--I think that my milk will be safe there!!!

Happy Thanksgiving eve!!

Chicken noodle soup & popcicles

This past week has been the most bizarre week ever!!! I received a flu shot and on Monday, I hit rock bottom. I, literally, felt like my muscles were pulling away from my bones, I had a horrific horrible headache, congestion in my chest & lungs, a tremendous sore throat and a blasted cough and lots and lots of tears. So, yes, I hit rock bottom.

For 5 days straight, I slept, drank Theraflu, slept, and took Tylenol, and slept some more--then, of course, repeated all of that many many times. It was awful!!! My Mom kept wonderful tabs on me. She supplied me with plenty of meds and Popsicles. OH, how grateful I am for the man that created the Popsicles. He is one of my hero's. Plus, is my mom is definitely my hero for delivering that wonderful cold treat to me. She knew that when nothing else will slide down the throat, POPSICLES definitely will. Then, my sweet sister-in-law, Melissa, dropped by Thursday night with the most delicious chicken noodle soup. She is an amazing sister-in-law and friend. She is always doing kind things like this. How did she know that her near dead sister-in-law definitely needed a pick-me-up. With popsicles and chicken noodle soup, things are looking much better.

Friday evening, I decided to take a gander outside. I stood in my driveway and just was grateful for the new scenery. Did you know that it has been sunny all week? I did not!!! I do hope that you enjoyed the sunny weather and took complete advantage of it. I did not!! But, I am grateful for warm quilts, a bed, my pillow, a humidifier, Theraflu, Tylenol, Kleenexes, chicken noodle soup and Popsicles!!!

"can't-put-a-book-down-itis"

Okay, I am hooked--that is "I am hooked on the Twilight series written by Stephenie Meyer!" I purchased the so-called book after starting to read Gerb's post on it. But, I can not finish reading her post until I have finished New Moon-which if I had it in my hands I would not attend any of my meetings for today. So, I guess, it is a good thing for me-at least, spiritually, to NOT have it in my hands today.

This particular book has been waiting on the edge of my desk to read since September 6th. I have this disease called "can't-put-a-book-down-itis". It was passed to me by my sweet mom. Anyway, I have had a huge mess in my scrapbook room. So, I made a deal with myself, if I clean and organize my scrapbook room, then and only then, would I be able to read Twilight. So, it is now two months later and I am able to partake of my reward.

So, for the book, I was hooked after the first few chapters-okay, the first few pages. I would have to admit that at first, I did not like Edward. But, now, oh, what an amazing guy!!! One day, I hope to meet this type of guy--oh, not the vampire part, but the other part. Most of my friends have wonderful husbands in their lives, but they helped create that amazing part. As for me, I am ready just to meet that amazing guy--all created! Oh, how I wished that I had New Moon in my hands!! I just have to know what happens!! Does Edward grant Bella's wish? What happens with Alice? What about Charlie? What about Jacob? Like I said, I wish that I had the next book in my hands!

just keep swimming

Tonight, as I was getting ready for bed, I turned on my television and the movie "Finding Nemo" was playing. I really enjoy this movie. One of my most favorite parts is:

"Hey Mr Grump Gills

You know what you gotta do when life gets you down?

Just keep swimming

Just keep swimming

Just keep swimming swimming swimming

What do we do we swim, swim, swim

OH HO HO How I love to swim

When you WAAAAAANNTTT to swim you want to swim."

So, my advice to you this day is "when life gets you down", all you need to do is "just keep swimming!" We surely do not want anyone to call us "Mr. Grump Gills".