A Thought....or two.

I went to choir rehearsal last night and enjoyed it thoroughly of course. It is very surreal to listen to Merilee Webb (the director)and remember 8th grade. So much of her is the same....her stories, her thoughts, her actions.... anyway. She doesnt just get up there and lead the music. She offers us spiritual thoughts and ideas. Its almost like getting a lesson taught along with singing the music. I love it.

She said some things last night that are still on my mind so I wanted to share them here. I would add them to my favorite quote section but Im not sure they are hers to quote or if she got them from someone herself. The first thing she said was

"remember, you make a difference everywhere you go...either for the good or for the bad, you make a difference."

The other one I liked was...

"when you walk into a room, your energy either adds to the room or takes away from the room...what do you want to do?"

Then she quoted something from Brigham Young which was long but the basic idea was to please keep your negative thoughts to yourself and then she added...

"whenever you open your mouth, you drop fruit and everyone partakes of it. Choose to only drop desireable fruit. Keep the rotten fruit to yourself."

Something to think about......

My Music.....

I know there are a few of you that like listening to my playlist so FYI, I added a couple of new songs to the bottom of the list. One is called "How Beautiful", which just so happens to be one of the songs that the choir I am in is singing in the concert. It was written by the woman singing it, Twila Paris. You cant imagine just "How Beautiful" it sounds being sung by 354 women. It is overwhelming. You must come to the concert if only to hear this song....well, Ok ALL the songs are worth it. I just happen to LOVE this one.

The other song is the "Dark Waltz" which you will recognize if you were as obsessed with So You Think You Can Dance as I was/am. The two things I love more than anything in this world are Music & Dance. When I am participating in either one of them in ANY form, I feel whole. This may sound strange, but some of you will understand fully what I am talking about. Both art forms can and do bring me to tears frequently. And, when the two are combined such as this particular song was with a beautiful dance like the waltz....well, its just crazy how it moves me. It is one of few regrets I have in this life that I did not more fully participate in these 2 art forms. That I am not exceptionally talented at either eats at me sometimes. But, I can and will continue to appreciate them to the fullest. Of course I have other playlists that have more modern, "hip" (thanks dad) music...but lately I just feel the need for quiet and so I will stick to this playlist for now. Enjoy.

There's No Turning Back.....

Evan has officially started 1st grade this morning. He was very excited and I think a little nervous. He wanted me to come into the school and help him find his class which I very happily agreed to do. Im sure it wont be long before he would rather I park around the corner to drop him off at school so Im taking advantage of what I can when I can...... Evan's teacher this year is the highly sought after Mrs. Lindsey. She is teaching "veteran" so to speak and has won the prestigious Huntsman Teacher award 4 or 5 times.... Supposedly she is brilliant with shy children so I think Evan is really going to enjoy 1st grade. Not that he didnt love Kindergarten too....but now he is in "REAL" school, and there is no turning back, at least not for the next 11 years! Addison and I will miss having him around during the day, in fact Addie was very distressed when we left the school and kept crying for "dee dee"..... she loves her brothers.

Good Luck Evan....I hope you LOVE the first grade!

Its Official.....

This little girl is officially potty trained....at least as far as going pee pee is concerned. The other part is still a work in progress. It was that way for the boys too. All I know is that even if she has a diaper on she still asks to go "pee pee" instead of just going in her diaper. She is able to wear underwear all day now without going in them. YAY! We are so excited.....Of course, there is a trip to Vegas coming up next weekend so we'll see how she does. Im bringing the potty seat so she should be good to go! What a champ, and she did it pretty much on her own. Mommy has a hard time being consistent with this kind of thing so, I just kinda let her do it when she wanted and voila!

Elated.....

Im so happy today. I love my new job. We are going to Las Vegas next weekend. Im totally excited about this choir thing. Oh.....and I lost 4 pounds this week! And, to add to that little tidbit, we were in Old Navy today and I actually bought a pair of jeans that FIT ME! This may sound like a strange thing to be excited about, but to me it is a HUGE thing. Im so sick of not being able to walk into normal stores and buy cute clothes. This was a major milestone for me in my quest to lose weight and get healthy. Not to mention that most likely, in a few weeks, I will need to go a size smaller. These jeans fit a little loose already but the next size down was a still a bit too uncomfortable. But hey, they were on sale for $12 so if I only get to wear them for 3 weeks... WHO CARES!

Ok.....just wanted to share my joy. Its been a great week!

We Also Sing.....

Last night was the first rehearsal for the choir that I joined a few months back. Its a long story but to recap, I was looking for information on my Jr. High School choir teacher and found that she was directing this choir which just so happened to be accepting people at the time that I found it. I joined right away and am so glad that I did. There were 364 women at this rehearsal last night and you should have heard the sound! Wow. Im going to have to work on singing without crying because it was so powerful. I think this is going to be an amazing experince for me and I really feel like it wasnt a coincidence that I found it.

As for my choir teacher.....I talked to her afterward and Im sure she doesnt remember me but thats OK. She has taught thousands of students throughout the years and, HELLO, its been nearly 24 years since I was in her class....WOW. She was true to form and everything that I remembered too. She always chose songs that we thought were impossible to sing, but then of course we could in the end. There are some songs on the program that I was blown away by and Im thinking Im never going to be able to get it. But I will and it will be great! Our concert will be held in the Tabernacle on Temple Square which is exciting in and of itself...... I cant wait!

Bella's Lullaby....

So I was browsing some other blogs today and found this song! If you have read the "Twilight" series books by Stephanie Meyer (who hasnt right?) then you know that Edward writes a song for Bella that he plays for her on the piano. He calls it her Lullaby. I am assuming this song in going in the movie ...... which by the way has been moved up to Thanksgiving weekend replacing the new Harry Potter film which has been moved to July 09'....boo hoo. But, at least we have this movie to look forward too!! The song is the first one on my playlist so have a listen, its beautiful.

Sunday at Grandmas.....

Well, I committed the ultimate blogger sin and went somewhere today without my camera. I cooked a meal and took it to my Grandma's house to eat with her and my aunt Debbie.... it was so nice to sit and visit with them for a while without any kids! Yes you heard right. Addison slept right through it all in the back room.....Ian was at a friends house and Evan spent the day at Lagoon with his friends family. So, it was just some good food and adult conversation. Something I dont get very often. I had planned on taking some nice pictures to go along with this post and also some pictures of our meal for my food blog. Oh well. Guess you cant capture everything! It was a really nice evening and Im thinking I should do it more often.

I ran again last night and plan on going later this evening as well. Surprisingly my body is handling it pretty good considering! There is some soreness of course but it isnt enough to keep me from it. Im feeling stronger and running a little bit longer each time. My neighbor has offered to run the 5k Turkey Trot with me in November.....that is if I can make it by then. That is my goal anyway. Ever since my friend Alisha trained and ran in some races I have had the bug in my head to do it too. It would be something I never thought I would do and I think that is the reason I need to do it. Im going to try my hardest to complete it......I'll keep you posted!

My first day of work was great and Im actually looking forward to going to work again tonight! The job is fun and something that I really enjoy doing.

Today was day 4 of getting up at 5am and walk/running. I am able to run a little bit more so I can see progress which is great. The scale hasnt reflected anything yet but Im being patient.

Ian has moved into the 2 shot catergory for his allergy shots. He was not too happy upon hearing that news today..... but he took them like a champ and didnt shed a tear. Im very proud of him because I know it isnt much fun! You can see how much he enjoyed it by the picture....

Addison finished up swim lessons today. I think she learned a little although she seems more afraid of the water now than she was before. Im not sure what that is about but we are planning to go to Vegas for Labor Day weekend and hopefully when she gets in Gma and Gpa's pool she will remember how much she really loves the water!

We went school shopping for Evan this weeks and found great deals at Old Navy. 40% all kids clothing. I love sales like that. We came in under budget because of it and that is always a plus! Evan is so excited to start 1st grade he can hardly stand it. Unlike Ian, he gets to wear regular clothes to school....no uniform and its a good thing because Evan is very picky about how he looks. I think he must take after his uncle Nate......oh boy. His favorite piece of clothing is a zip up hoodie with stars on it. He cant wait for it to get cool enough outside for him to wear it.

Addison is not far behind Evan. Everytime we go to the store and pass the kids clothes or shoes, she goes nuts. She pulls out boxes of shoes and trys them on and models for everyone. Thats a bad sign of things to come! Little does she know how bad her mothers shoe fetish was at one time. If you had told me 12 years ago that I would one day only own 2 or 3 pairs of shoes I would have laughed in your face....those were the days.

Run Forest Run!.....

Today is my 2nd day getting up at 5:00 in the morning to run/walk....or rather walk/jog. If you know me then you know how much I hate running. Hate may seem like a strong word but seriously....if I had to run to save my life, well lets just say that I would probably end up meeting my maker pretty quickly. Even when I was thin and in better shape, I felt like a drunk elephant whenever I ran. My body is just not built for it. However, I decided that I was going to attempt it again because it does help me lose weight quickly. Keeping in mind that I havent run a step since, Oh.....about 1996, then you can understand how miserable this must feel to me. Right now I obviously cant run for very long at all. But, I walk for the long sides of the block and run on the short sides. Eventually I hope to be able to run the entire block.....but lets not get ahead of ourselves! Baby steps.....

Identity Reclaimed.....ALmost.

I FINALLY received my birth certificate today. Although it was a little touch and go there for a while since I was not at home when UPS tried to deliver it. I had to go to the center to pick it up this evening and encountered a problem...... they sent it in my dad's name and of course, UPS wants my ID in order for me to pick it up. Long story short I convinced them to give it to me...I was even prepared with my high school report cards which showed me as a "Ries" and had my dad listed on the bottom. So, it looks like I will actually be able to go back to work tomorrow night (thats after I get my drivers license and social security card tomorrow). Whew!

Help!.....

Addison has tested my patience at every turn lately. She is definitely the most mischevious of all my children. Ian was the angel child (arent all first-borns that way?)..... Evan was my quiet but injury prone little one.....Addison is just plain naughty, AND injury prone. Double whammy. She has decided she likes sliding down the railing of our basement stairs and found out today how badly it hurts to fall off and straddle the wooden casing along the bottom. She got hurt in a place that we wont talk about. She also went head first into the canned food isle shelving at Walmart, causing her cheek to turn purple and blue. I was sure she would have a black eye but looks like we might avoid that....thankfully. Tonight I was doing homework with Ian and I heard her making a choking/gagging noise and when I ran to her aid, I realized that she had eaten a packet of sugar free Kool-Aid....just the powder! It took her breath away and I thought she might throw up, which probably wouldnt have been a bad thing. Gross! Here is what you look like after "drinking" powder from a Kool-Aid packet! Her hands are completely stained too so I dont know how long it will take to fade from her face. No wonder it doesnt come out of carpet.

Put to Work....

We have put Ian to work officially....at his own request I might add. He did a pretty good job too considering the size of our backyard. Denver had to help him turn it but overall he handled it! Im sure Denver cant wait for the day that Ian can truly do it all by himself! What are sons for right?

Meanwhile, Addison smiled and cheered her brother on....literally. She kept screaming "Dee, Go! Woo Hoo! " She calls both of the boys "dee" and if they are both in the room she calls them "dee dee" collectively. Not sure where she came up with it but its cute. Evan enjoyed the evening with the neighbor friend, dancing and playing the willow branch "guitar". I love summer nights!

We had a CRAZY day today. It started this morning at 11:30 with swim lessons for Addie. They got out at noon and then I had to run her and Evan home to Denver (who came home early) and then back down to Ians school to pick him up at 12:30. I had to rush Ian over to the clinic to get his allergy shot because the allergy dept closes at 1:00 on Friday's. I had an eye appointment at 1:00 as well at the same clinic (different dept) so after the shot we ran downstairs for that. When that was over with we ran home to drop Ian off and pick up Addison who then had an appointment at 3:00 for her 2 year checkup. By the time I got home, I was ready for bed. Funny how its now 10pm and Im still up. I never learn I guess. Addison got a shot today too and was not happy about it. She is growing though and despite being 5 weeks premature, she is in the 97th percentile for her height and the 80th percentile for her weight.

I havent been back to work this week because I still havent received my birth certificate (another long story).....its very frustrating but I should have it by Tuesday, hopefully.

My friend Linda came for a surprise visit Wednesday. We dont see each other much because she lives in Provo and, like me, is busy being a mom. So, I was excited that she took the time to come and visit us. The kids loved playing with her boys and it was nice to just sit and talk for hours. I wish we lived closer to each other. We have been friends for a very long time....18 years or so! Wow. Just typing that made me feel really old. Here is a picture of her from way back when. I think this was taken in 1993..we were in Vegas, trying on funky clothing at a store in Caesars Palace. And another of her and her family (minus Gibson who was in her belly at the time!)

Well thats my update. Not too exciting but Im glad the week is over. Now Im off to read a few chapters in "Breaking Dawn"... yes Im hooked too.

Identity Crisis......

Wow. I never thought I would have a problem proving who I am. The past couple of days have been insane. Monday was my first night at my new job. I was told to bring my drivers license and social security card....to prove my citizenship and ability to work in the U.S. No problem. I found my SS card the day before and stuck it in my wallet, so I wouldnt forget it. Monday afternoon, I took Ian to get his weekly allergy shot. This was 3 hours before I had to be to work. To make a long story short, my wallet was apparently stolen. Off the seat of my car or off the seat in the doctors office, or I could have dropped it on my way in. Either way, it's gone. I cant work without proof of who I am so I intended on spending yesterday getting a new DL and a new SS card.....didnt happen. Apparently you cant get one without the other or at least a birth certificate (my BC was in our jeep which was stolen a few years back...along with our marriage license. Thiefs like me I guess) So, I tried to see about getting a BC online and you cant get one of those without a DL or a notarized signature....which incidentally you have to have picture ID to get a signature notarized. Are you getting the gist of my problem here? Talk about a vicious circle. I truly thought I would have a nervous breakdown yesterday. Dad saved the day though. As a parent, he can request a copy of my BC and since he has his DL, it was no problem. Once I get the BC, then I can get the license which in turn will allow me to get the SS card. Whew! Meanwhile, I dont think Im going to be able to work tonight. My supervisor is checking into it but thinks that they have to have that info in order for me to work. I will find out today. What a mess.....I couldnt even get money out of the bank without my ID. Luckily there is a guy in my bank that knows me and gave me a temporary ATM card while I wait for my new Debit card to get here. Life is pretty complicated when you cant prove who you are!

In other news, Addison has finally peed in the toilet 3 times! Im sure this is TMI for a lot of you but if you are a mother, then you understand just how exciting this news is. For now, we cant put underwear or a diaper on her because if she senses that there is something down there, covering it up, she will pee in it. However, if she runs around in all her natural glory, then she panics and yells "pee pee!" and we know she has to go. Very exciting.

Girl Overboard!......

So, Addie started her swim lessons today. All in all it went pretty well once they actually found her registration. I should have known something was amiss when I saw that I was the only mother out of 9 wearing a swimsuit. I was getting some pretty strange looks...as if I werent uncomfortable enough. Then of course the instructors start calling out kids names and it was pretty obvious at that point that we were the only ones there for the "parent/tot" swim class. Problem being.....there was no parent/tot swim class today. Apparently they only hold that class on Saturday mornings. I explained of course that the confirmation I received through email stated that Addies class was indeed today at 11:30....I know Im not crazy, I looked at it this morning. Then she tells me that Addisons name isnt even on the full roster, meaning they have no Addison Shannon registered for any class at all. Im trying to keep my cool here but Im standing there exposed, in all my whale like glory, and Im starting to get a tad bit irritated. I tell them that although Addie is only 2, she has been exposed to the water plenty and loves swimming so can I just put her in level 1? Sure, they say, if we find that she is actually registered. Which she was and so she went to level 1.

Now, if any of you know Addie, then you know she doesnt do well with strangers. Although she has gotten better, it still isnt her favorite thing. I got her in the water and she thought it was great until I walked away and the girl teaching approached her......she did however, warm up eventually to her and let the teacher pull her around in the water. The best part of course was when the teacher had them get out of the pool and line up along the side. This section of the pool is about 4 feet deep so well over Addie's little head. The teacher went over to the other side to get a straggling student and.....splash.....there goes Addie, feet first right into the water. She has no fear of the water. All the moms freaked out except me because I knew she was fine....the teacher hurried over and pulled her out and Addison just looked a little stunned at all the mom's who lined up to jump in after her. They must think Im a monster for not jumping quicker .... Addie just smiled at me and threw her little fist in the air like she had just won the gold medal in Olympic diving. Gotta love my little fish.

An Update....

I forgot to post results of my week in trying to lose weight and eat more healthy. Ive come to the conclusion that I have a serious addiction to all things starchy and sweet. In fact I have found myself obsessing over homemade rolls and doughnuts. How sad is that? Although I dont necessarily like a lot of the "DIETS" that are out there, there is one that was particularly interesting to me because it addresses the problems caused by insulin production.....or too much of it rather. It is called the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet (CAD). I truly believe that insulin imbalance is my problem and so I decided to try this out and see what happens. So far, other than the obsessing, it is working. I have found that I am less hungry. I have found that I am able to resist eating the sweets. And the best part, I lost 5 pounds this week. The part about this plan that I really like is that for one meal a day, I can eat what I want as long as it is balanced with veggies, a salad, and protein. That means if I want dessert, or rolls, or potatoes, I can have it. Just not a lot. During the day I eat only protein and vegetables and for my dinner (reward meal) I incorporate carbs. I am hoping to break my addiction this way because I believe that sugar especially is what is killing me.

So, I am still working on my goals that I set a couple of weeks ago, which include less pop and more exercise. I am still struggling with the exercise part but I am trying to work on it. Hopefully, now that the kids are getting back into school, I can find some more time to walk. Until then, I will continue cutting out the sugar and the pop. Last year at this time my doctor told me I was pre-diabetic. I am hoping when I see him this year, those statistic will have changed for the better.

2nd Grade......

Today is Ian's first day in the 2nd grade. He hasn't been too excited for it and was convinced he was going to hate the 2nd grade. That was until we bought him some new Sketchers. Apparently having the right shoes can make or break your attitude toward school. Luckily we were able to change his attitude and he was excited and ready to go this morning. His new teacher is Ms. Burt who seems wonderfully nice and organized. In fact this is exactly how Ian's first grade teacher described her in an email to the parents.....after meeting her this morning, the description was very appropriate! Hopefully she will pass on some organizational skills to Ian this year.

I wish I could join all the other moms out there that are sad to see their kiddos go back to school. I was sooooo ready for this day. Not because I dont adore my sons, but, this has been a rough summer full of constant bickering, arguing, teasing, and full on fighting which at times had me worried that they might actually be losing limbs, eyeballs, and hair. They are so close in age and ever since Evan turned 6, he has started to exert some independence from Ian....which includes sticking up for himself. That hasn't made for a harmonious household. It is going to be nice not having to play referree all day long! Its also nice to be able to get back into a schedule again. Getting up early is not exactly something I love doing but I always get more done with my day when I do so I am looking forward to it!

Good Luck Ian! I hope you enjoy your first day back to school.......You are growing up so fast :(

Blog Issues......Resolved.

I figured out what the issue is with my blog and others like it. If you keep getting an Internet Explorer error that says "cannot open internet site: Operation Aborted", it is because of Sitemeter. As soon as I removed the 'sitemeter' counter from my sidebar, everything was fine. Then this morning I tried to go straight to the Sitemeter website and I got the same error so obviously Sitemeter is having issues with their website. I Googled it and apparently it is crashing in Internet Explorer but not other browsers. Im trying a new stat meter at activemeter.com......we'll see how this one goes.

Blog Issues.....

Im having some technical difficulties accessing my blog. If anyone else is having these issues please email or comment so I know its not just me. Im going to work on figuring it out......