Here is the story

Here is the link to the story about the Christmas lights, I think they are going to put the video up too!

We are going to be famous!

Well, at least in Idaho Falls...Yesterday the kids and I were lucky enough to be able to come to Idaho and give an interview to the local news about my grandpa's Christmas lights. If you are in IF check it out it will be on Sunday at 10 pm on channel 6. Hopefully I didn't say anything too dumb! They said it would be on their website, so I will post a link!

...and then there was one

We have two computers...one of them is working...unfortunately for me it is Steve's. Fortunately for me, Steve was the one to call HP today and tell them that it is broken. So, in 24 hours he gets to call them again, and re-hash everything and get them to send out a pack to get the computer sent in. Luckily I transferred most of my docs to the external hard drive a month or so ago! Wahoo for me! Hopefully they will be able to fix it quickly and get is back, the one computer thing is not cool!

Interesting Quip

So, I was working the other day, and a lady asked me if we had this certain flower that she saw in one of our decorated Christmas trees. I was up on the main showroom floor at the time. I told her we were out of that particular item, I knew this because EVERYONE wants it and I get asked several times a day for it. So, I go back down to the floral desk. I am there working away. Same lady comes down and asks if we have the flower! Yeah, so not only did she not believe me the first time, but she didn't even remember that I WAS THE PERSON SHE ASKED BEFORE!!!! Lesson from this...if you don't believe the salesperson, make sure you ask ANOTHER person, not just the same person twice. Also, why would I lie to her? Am I not there to sell things...?

What I did over Thanksging break...

Sounds like a paper you had to write in school, huh? Well, I just wanted to share what we did over Thanksgiving. If you follow my blog you know that my grandpa passed away this spring and at the funeral we all got together and decided that we would love to put up his Christmas lights one more time in honor of him. If you knew him at all you knew that Christmas lights were one of his passions, and he did it in a big way! Kellyn and I made a sign (mostly Kellyn and her float building knowledge). Derek and Andrea even made the trek to help, and it is a good thing too, because we were lost with the electrical! The Taylors were out in force, Devin and Kellyn told Grandma our plan and got the ball rolling, Scott was AWESOME, because he is tall, which is a very necessary physical trait to have when decorating with Christmas lights. Basically we all rallied and got everything done in a few hours. Here are some pictures my Mom took, I stole them from her Facebook, thanks Mom!!!

55%

Well, it has happened, my poll has closed, and oh, yeah the game is over. Only 55% of you were right, if we were in school we would have all failed... Fs for us! Seriously though, thanks for playing along and for voting so much, it was exciting. Let's face it, the best possible outcome happened with this game, everyone is a winner, the U won and gets to go to a BCS bowl, and the Mountain West (including the Y) gets a BUNCH of money. Maybe that was what Hall was thinking when he kept throwing the ball to the Utes...

Please, just one night!!!

I don't know how many of you know, but the past week or so I have been working more, a lot more. Like, pretty much full-time, which I am not used to. It is HARD, it is Christmas at Modern, so basically I run around up and down the 3 flights of stairs, answering questions, finding product, and trying to get some actual work done. Plus I have some terrible shoulder problem, we think it is tendonitis or something, so my right hand is not very useful. I get home at about 9ish every night and I am TIRED! I eat something and basically go to bed. What I want, though, is to be able to sleep one night ALL NIGHT without a little person. I have had either Carsen or Raegan in my bed the past 2 nights, and I need that sleep!!! I think I am going to have Steve try to wear them out so they will have NO choice tonight!

Ok, now how can you resist?!

I have realized that there should be some reward for voting on my poll. This was brought to my attention by Steve's mom, Judy. So it is now officially unveiled... Yes, it is an "I voted" button. Created by me, in MS Paint (because Kellyn needs to give me lessons in the photoshop and illustrator) embarrassingly enough...Ok, I know the suspense must be killing you, Here it is....



So here is what you can do, you can copy the image of the badge and post it on your blog with a link back to me....Fun, huh?

True Confession

So, I was thinking I would put up my Christmas tree this weekend. I am not sure where this surge of Christmas spirit has come from, but it is interesting to me, and I think I may see it through. We have already put up a dozen or so people's Christmas at work, so I know i am not the earliest. Also, I am thinking of getting a RED tree for in my kitchen for the kids to help decorate and put fun ornaments on. Any thoughts?

Here is a picture of the red tree

I am calling you out!

So I have a poll going on the left side of my blog, and it has been going for awhile....I just have one problem with the poll. Apparently all my BYU friends are either not reading my blog or not voting, or they think they are going to lose, not sure which it is. Usually U fans and BYU fans fight to the death, but there has been no fighting, the Y has not even put up ONE vote...So here it is, I am calling you out, U fans and Y fans...VOTE! Vote on the poll!

We have the force

Here is photo a recap of our Halloween...



Carsen got to wear a costume to school, he wore his last year costume, and so Raegan had to wear hers too!


We went to a cute pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins!







Pumpkin carving, Carsen concentrated A LOT! Raegan wanted a Raeggie pumpkin, she thought it looked like her!









Carsen was Luke Skywalker, or "Luke Walker" as Raegan calls him. Raegan was Princess Leia, and Steve was Darth Vader. Carsen and Steve had light saber fights all over the neighborhood!











Derek gets the award for most creative costume. He was a black and white guy, like a black and white person in a world of technicolor...it looked so great! Good work D!

Rocket Launch

So on Saturday we went with some neighbors (Grandma Crandall and Company) and went to the Skull Valley to launch Rockets. I threw this together...

My Grandma

I was just looking through some pictures and came across these. This was when Raegan was about a week old. My Grandma and Grandpa came down and stayed at the Little America and we went and hung out with them for a few hours. I am so lucky to still have both of my grandmas. I was also lucky enough to be able to live minutes away from them when I was growing up.

I love my Grandma and she is such a role model for me. She is the most giving, caring person I know. Hopefully someday I can be like her!

Back by popluar demand

Well, not really popular demand, I just feel like it is time for another installation of random things I love...

1- Hot apple cider on a cold fall day
2- Following someone on the freeway that is going 10(or more) mph over the speed limit
3- The fact that cold fall nights kill most of the bugs :)
4- Disney Channel movies (except HSM..YUK!)
5- How excited my kids are to see me every morning!
6- I can occasionally get a perfect score on Guitar Hero on HARD!!!
7- Watching all the farmers harvesting as I was driving home late last night
8- Grandma Bailey always has a cold coke for me
9- The New Hong Kong in Idaho Falls
10- The kids and their ipods
11- Tulips
12- I got gas for 2.90
13- I can have a pony tail now...almost
14- Oxyclean laundry spray
15- Night lights
16- Central vacs
17- Real popcorn (not microwave, although I love microwave too!)
18- Remembering how my friend and I used to save our money for Lee Press On Nails...
19- The amazing power of the baby wipe
20- Kellyn dropping one of her classes because the sillibus looked terrible visually!

How does he learn this stuff?

Carsen was playing with his Jack Sparrow toy earlier today and he said to me, "Mom, I am playing with my Jack Sparrow action figure and his weapon (which happened to be a quarter...?)." How does he know it is an action figure? And weapon? He uses the word weapon a lot! I just think it is funny at four he knows he has action figures and they have weapons!

Carsen Strikes Back or Return of the Carsen

ENJOY THIS RARE AND EXCITING POST FROM STEVE!!!

So I came home from work yesterday to see the most lethargic little boy I've ever seen. If you looked him in the eye and asked him a question he'd just stare at you like he was in some vegetative state. It was scary. After consulting our Medical experts (thanks Dad and Mamie)Melissa and I decided it was best to take Carsen to the ER. Grandma Marcia had come down, so she watched Raegan while Melissa and I took Carsen to Primary Childrens.

I have to say this about that hospital. We're exceptionally lucky to have a place like that near us! They really took care of Carsen and did everything they could to ensure that he was comfortable.

After an initial triage, they took us back to our own room. The things that would normally get Carsen excited, a bed that moves, cartoons, all sorts of medical equipment meant nothing to him! He had a few nurses come in and a doctor all tried to talk to him and still there was nothing

The Doctor suspected that he had the stomach flu which was making him throw up, which was making him dehydrated, which throw up more which was making him throw up even more...nasty little cycle there... so the doctor prescribed an IV to get him out of the cycle.

Now if you know Carsen you know that after a particularly bad experience at the Doctor, he has an extreme hatred of Doctors and needles. Now we have to explain to him that he's going to get an IV...I was so impressed with how well they explained to him what was going on. We told him that he'd drink through his hand. He thought that was cool, we held on to him and tried to keep his hand still while they gave him an IV. Other than a little yelping...he did okay. Then he was just curious about this thing sticking out of his hand. He thought that the cool feeling in his hand was "kinda cool." The first picture is Carsen showing his IV just after he got it.

What happened next could best be described as watching a deflated balloon re-inflate. Slowly but surely Carsen came back. He started having interest in what was going on around him. At some point after some self inflicted injury humor, I was able to get Carsen to smile and even laugh! I did it over and over again because the relief of watching him laugh FAR outweighed any pain I might have felt!!

After a several hours of getting rehydrated, Carsen tried to eat a popsicle and though he downed it, it didn't stay down long. It was a setback but he really wanted to go home. We asked the doctor if he could have some anti-nausea medication and let him go home and sleep. She thought that would work, and seemed to believe that since he was given this kick start that his system should be able to fight the flu effectively, and a nights rest in his own bed just might do the trick. I believe that it was at this point that Carsen said he was hungry for a gummy hot dog (you know those disgusting little candy that you get at the Gas Station). This was a major clue that I had my Carsen back!

The nurse came in with another syringe with the Zofran (an incredible drug). Carsen cringed at the sight of it. It was only after we reminded him that he had an IV and he could get the medicine through his hand that he felt okay, and said, "that's cool." What he was really excited about was that the nurse gave him some IV stuff to take to school for show and tell!

I had my little boy back! He wanted to walk to the car and not be carried. He showed us all the things that he had noticed on the way in but didn't have the energy to point out. On the way home he asked for a slurpee. It was on the Doctor's approved list to start so we thought why not.

We brought him home and put him to bed! When I woke up this morning...this is the face I saw...

So if you were worried he's back, and he can't wait to show everyone at his school where he drank through his hand!

If you heard screaming it was us

Last night I was catching up on some work and some Hillary Duff and Jessica Simpson movies, and Carsen came into the kitchen wanting a drink. Yeah, except I didn't know wanting a drink was code for going to puke ALL over the kitchen....that was exciting. So I got him and the kitchen cleaned up and he was back in bed. I thought the worst was over, Raegan had something similar Friday night and she threw up 2 times then just wailed for about 18 hours. I thought he can tell me what is wrong, I can explain to him, it will all be good. There was one flaw in that thinking, he was not fine after that, in fact that was only the beginning. He was consistently throwing up every 20-30 minutes until NOON!!!! We were about ready to take him to the hospital for IV fluids. Now he is a curled up little ball of sick on my bed. The best thing about Carsen when he is sick, is that he screams at the TOP of his lungs every time he throws up, so if you heard screams in the night, it was not an early Halloween prank, it was Carsen puking his guts out.

Disturbing?

I was at Smiths this weekend and I walked by the meat counter. There was a speaker set up and it would randomly moo and oink, like the cows and pigs were behind the meat counter? Ummm....Is is just me or do you not want to think that the cow and pig are right there when you buy your bacon and hamburger? It made me kinda not want to eat meat....

Listen Mosquitoes

I understand you need my blood. I also understand that you will bite me more than any other human...apparently I have amazing tasting blood..I get this. Here is the problem I have with you, some of you are mean, some of you choose to bite me in RIDICULOUS places.

Yeah, here is a list of where you can bite me, arm, leg, shoulder, etc... Just not in between my toes, seriously. I am doing you a favor by giving you my delicious blood, at least be courteous enough to bite me somewhere that is not THE MOST ANNOYING PLACE EVER!!!


And yes, I did redo my toenails before taking this picture...

I'm tagged....

So my friend April tagged me. Actually this is the second one she has hit me with, and I really did have every intention of following through with the first one, but it just didn't happen.

So, apparently I have to give you 7 random facts about me, and I get to tag 7 of my friends...

Here are my 7 random facts.

1- I eat nothing that comes from/lives in water. I am allergic to shellfish and so I steer clear of all the fishyish stuff, it just freaks me out too much.

2- I am more like a guy when it comes to movie choices, I will go see a Die Hard or Van Damme movie every time, I will NEVER choose a "chick flick" they just don't interest me, give me karate and guns over love any day...

3- My friend Andria and I had a pet snake when we were in college, he was a ribbon snake his (we think he was a he, but we really have no idea) name was Spaz, because that is what he was..
sadly, he died and we buried him in the dumpster in a shoe box...

4- My favorite flower is a lilac, I know it is kinda weird, but I guess I love it because we had a big bush in my backyard when I was growing up and it was always blooming around my birthday.

5- Going back to food things, I hate, mayo, mustard, any salad dressing but ranch, balsamic vinegar, basically ANY vinegary thing, peppers (red, green, yellow, etc), milk, ice cream, mushrooms, chocolate cake, sour cream, avocados, and sweet meat (any kind of meat and sugary/sweet combo, sweet and sour chicken, pork from Cafe Rio, honey glazed ham etc...).

6- If I am ever having a hard day, I whip out my copy of one of the Bunnicula books and read it in a night. I love those books, they make me happy! If you haven't read them, they are amazing. Don't expect anything groundbreaking, just pure entertainment.

7- Finally, I am secretly, well, not too secretly addicted to the SoapNet channel. Not for what you think though. I have two shows, one is The OC, which is amazing. the writing is awesome and witty and they don't take themselves too seriously, if you are a fan of Chuck on NBC, you should check it out, same guy did both of them. The other one is Beverly Hills 90210, which reminds me of when I was in Junior High and I watch it because it is so ridiculous and contrived, plus there is NOTHING else to watch that time of day and I am usually puttering around the kitchen and I like to have something on.

There they are, seven things you might not know about me...

Here are my tags (in no particular order...)

1- Becky who survived college with me and still likes me! Her blog is private, so I only get to see what she says, sorry!
2- Catherine who just moved into her first HOUSE and is a super cute sis-in-law!
3- Patricia who lives far away and we miss her SOOOOOO much and I hope she will blog again soon? :)
4- Melissa who married one of my good buds and has an awesome first name!
5- April who is a good friend and is married to one of Steve's paint balling buds
6- Ann my cousin who is amazing and takes cool pictures of the leaves in Logan
7- Judy who my kids call grandma Judy or Dudy (Raegan) because I think she has some cool stoies I haven't heard yet!!! :)

Seriously...this day.....

Simply put, today was TERRIBLE! I was in Idaho with my parents it was the end of the weddingness. We got the news that my parents friend "Wayne Richards" who is a local radio host died while vacationing in Hawaii with his family. Bam! That was out of left field, and he was young, 54, my Mom's age!

Then I went to see my Grandma to say goodbye and check-in on her one last time, she opened the door and I could tell something was wrong, her cousin had also died and she had gotten the call this morning, then about 30 minutes after that call came in, she got a second call. Her best friend had died unexpectedly. I texted my mom, who replied, that my uncle had had a stroke and was in the ICU in a coma with pneumonia... SERIOUSLY???!!!

WOW

I have done it! This is blog post number 56! I missed 50, but I am pretty proud of myself!

Blog reading withdrawl

I am having a problem, several of my "favorite blogs" have gone MIA! It makes it really hard for me to snoop and see what everyone is doing! Plus, when I check blogger it only takes me like 2 minutes to read, then I can't justify not doing my housework or laundry or something... PLEASE HELP!!! Update your blog! I miss reading about you and seeing what's up!!!

Summer Zoo fun

Here are some pictures I took when we went with my friends Becky and Jill and their families. It was lots of fun!

Soccer pics

As promised, here are some pics of Carsen's soccer game!

Thanks Catherine for the awesome pictures!!!

Blue Knights Soccer Schedule

Several have requested Carsen's soccer schedule. So here it is:

Tuesday September 16th 5pm
Tuesday September 23rd 6pm
Tuesday September 30th 6pm
Tuesday October 7th 5pm
Tuesday October 14th 5pm

Come on see Major League Soccer's newest and greatest prospect. (We cannot confirm or deny any ongoing negotiations with MLS).

I made dinner last night

I know, it doesn't sound like anything special, but it has been about a month since I made some legit dinner. We have been doing so much work on the house everything has been torn us and destroyed! We had grilled chicken, veggies, rice and watermelon! It was pretty good and the kids were good! Oh, also, we had PURPLE and ORANGE cauliflower! The kids LOVED it! It is crazy, you should check it out in the grocery store! I got mine at Smiths!

This is a video of Gov Palin's daughter taking care of their baby during her speach last night...thought it was worth sharing...

First day of preschool

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It has finally happened. Carsen has gone to school! He was so excited and has been looking forward to going to school all summer!

Here he is



Raegan was a little confused, she thought she was going too...




I felt bad when she felt bad!



Carsen never looked back!

Beckham's got nothin on us

Pics to come later, but I just have to let you know that tonight Carsen had his first soccer game and he made 5 goals, 4 of them for his team! I watched him kicking the ball around, and he was really good. I have NEVER played, watched or liked soccer, so he gets none of his soccer prowess from me. Steve played when he was little, but told me after Carsen made his first goal, "Carsen has done something I never did in soccer, made a goal." So, we are not sure where he gets it, but we are excited! I guess I get to learn about soccer...

In case you wanted to know

Yeah, I love the TV show the OC. I know it is not even on anymore, except re-runs...but it is amazing! Carsen sings the theme song, and I think that is awesome!

My candy coated life

I am not saying that I have a cushy life or anything. I just have had to, over the years put up my guard, or my "candy coating". For most of my life I have not been able to trust people with my feelings and emotions, my "friends" time and time again betrayed me, or hurt me. So it is hard for me to let people in, and I am extremely wary of people I do let in. I only have a handful of friends I completely trust.

I feel like sometimes people in my life want me to be something I am not, they want me to fit into a cookie cutter that I don't want to be a part of. I am happy with the shape I am, I like being a plain round sugar cookie. I will never be am oatmeal raisin, I will never have nuts (although I am nuts sometimes!). I can only open up and let those people in who love and appreciate the sugar cookieness that is me, if you try to change or manipulate me, you will get nowhere, in fact you will probably take two (or more) steps back.

Another thing that I wish people would know about me is that I am EXTREMELY loyal, and if I got your back, I got your back, no question. If someone makes me defensive about the people I am loyal to, that spells TROUBLE!

I guess what I am saying is that I just want people to love me and appreciate me for who I am, not worry about who I am not.

List of things that we did/saw/or happend to us yesterday plus random insights

1- Raegan got head-butted by a baby bull
2- We attempted to rip up our tile floor
3- We challenged the mental fortitude of some Lowe's employees
4- Carsen climbed a tank
5- Carsen was very upset that the "X's on the tile were going away!!!"
6- Raegan rode a pony and LOVED it!
7- Sledge hammers (of any size) DO NOT effectively break terracotta tile
8- Terracotta tile is the hardest surface known to man, besides diamonds
9- Grandpa Steve got gored by a bigger baby bull, we'll call him an adolescent bull
10- Carsen watched a guy make a "sword," or knife
11- Carsen ate more than Raegan
12- Everytime the car starts to go Carsen screams "FULL STEAM AHEAD!!!" but wonders where the steam is
13- Our house got swarmed by these HUGE disgusting striped beetles
14- We watched the last Flipping Out of the season! SAD!!!!
15- We discovered that floor model air compressors don't have all their parts
16- Customer Service at Lowes thinks that the customer is responsible for ensuring all the parts are there on a floor model air compressor
17- Big Dog Boston Dynamics is RAD! Google it, seriously, and watch the whole thing
18- It sucks when your shop vac doesn't
19- Carsen and Raegan will try to consume a WHOLE box on fruit snacks in about 10 minutes
20- Today I am very tired

It's that time again!

I always loved the Olympics growing up, so when the opportunity to volunteer for the Salt Lake Olympics came up I knew I wanted to sign up! I ended up working on the Snowbasin Women's Downhill course, so did Steve...yeah, that is where we met. The Olympics are a special time for both of us! Here are some pics of our Olympic adventure!

So all the pictures wouldn't fit on one slideshow, so here are the rest!

Hopefully she's not mad...

Hey everyone, recently my mom and dad were in a little accident, here are some pictures of the aftermath. Hopefully my mom won't be mad, but this is the most wicked bruise I have ever seen, I HAD to share it with you all!

New fad diet?

I have great news! I lost 5 pounds this past week. I would like to say it is because I have been eating better, or, working out, or something like that, but I can't. I can say that I have not done anything, I haven't starved myself, I haven't taken any drugs, nothing. Yeah, it has been great, except for the constant nausea and frequent bathroom trips that are associated with Salmonella....I have 3 things to say about Salmonella, 1- It is NOT worth losing 5 pounds (maybe 20...), 2- DON"T EVER GET IT, 3- stay away from potato salad at church functions...

Father's Day

I know, Father's Day is in June and it is now nearing the end of July, but, we got to celebrate it twice! We gave my dad and Steve's dad tickets to the Journey concert! It was so much fun to be there all together! I have to give my sister Kellyn and her friend Leslee props for giving me the idea, and also getting 30 people there! Here is a picture of everyone they got to come!


If you look closely you can see that I am the person who brings her kids to a rock concert. If you want to get weird looks trot around the USANA Amphitheater with a 4 year-old and a 22 month-old!





We discovered two things at this concert, one, Carsen can sleep through a concert, and most of the hike back to the car,




and two, Raegan is a PARTY ANIMAL! If you don't believe me ask her! She ROCKED OUT! If you weren't rocking hard enough she would kick and bounce until you rocked harder, or she would move on to the next person!





Here are some more fun pictures, oh yeah, I also got my hair cut that day, thanks Terica!!!






Oh, yeah, one more thing, Kellyn's friend Alex had just, a couple of days earlier, gotten home from his mission in Madrid Spain! Welcome home Alex! Carsen missed his friend Alex!





More fun pictures!