Blessings vs Gratitude...

Have you noticed how everyone always talks about how "blessed" they are. "oh I'm so blessed" or "yes we're blessed to have (fill in blank). It seems to be the popular thing to say but comes off as boastful? We hear this among the rich and famous. but I also hear it from regular people like you and me. Yes it's true...they are blessed, but aren't we all? I'm not rich and famous but I realize and acknowledge the blessings in my life. Count your many blessings name them one by one and all that.

But where does gratitude come in for those blessings? Why not say "I'm so grateful for my home and career, talent, children etc, or " I feel so much gratitude to God for (again fill in the blanks)

That sounds so much more humble doesn't it? Gratitude is the acknowledgement that everything we have, everything that means anything to us, comes from above.

So please...for my sake, stop bragging I mean telling everyone how blessed your are, and start telling everyone how grateful you are. We'll start a new trend!! I'd be ever so grateful :)

Holiday Pics of the Fam...

So I decided to go to Oregon for Memorial Weekend to see the Folks and to get away for awhile, but wasn't really looking forward to driving the 8 hours by myself. I asked my girls to go with me...Coco had other obligations so Meagan decided to go and she invited her husband, Callin, which was great cause " I DIDN'T HAVE TO DRIVE"!! No not even for a moment. In fact I slept all the way there and pretty much all the way home. Niiiicccceeeee.

My brother Mark and cute nephew Matthew came up from Arizona and we also got to see Kerri and Gary. (above pic...sorry about the profile pic sis but it was all I had :)
Here we have Matthew intently listening to all of Grandpa's words of wisdom....wait...maybe he's just wondering what in the world dad is saying.
The first day Mark came he ran out to buy Mom and Dad a flat screen, wall mounted TV. This pic is Mark and Callin trying to figure out how to mount the TV on the wall...luckily for Mark, Callin has put a couple of these up already...Pretty slick system...Can you believe I didn't get a pic of the TV? (i have issues with remembering)
Do you see how excited Tami is for the TV? She can barely wait to take over the remote.
Notice the lamps and pics above the couch? Mom Tami and I went to a new boutique in town and she fell in love. ( I have already called dibbs on the lamps) just putting it out there....
And a sneak photo of Fat Cat....He's the reason for the holiday weekend...Thanks for serving this great county Dad! It was a good weekend with lots of family ...which I am rather fond of :)

May Events and Happenings....

So there are always a lot of things going on in May for our family. I forget to take pictures of most of them but I did manage a few pics here and there. Here we have Chase above with a lit cupcake in his hand (watch out for your curly locks Callin). We had a dinner for he and his Grandma Thayn who also has a May birthday.
Can you all believe that this cute baby is the afore mentioned 22 year old man?
Here we have Granny Thayn blowing out her cake...No idea how many candles there should have been on that cake...not asking...
Then there was Mother's day and the girls wanted to do pedicures. That of course is Meagan and you can also see Coco's toes...I love pedi's!
And so does Coco. Can't you tell by the look on her face?
Then Meagan, Callin and Coco took me my PF Changs for dinner. Oh man... I'm still drooling over the honey shrimp with honeydew and candied walnuts. Sooooo Goood
Courtney is giving the thumbs up because she got her vegetarian lettuce wraps for free. The first dish they brought her were chicken, so we ate those "on the house" and they brought out new ones for her "on the house.... We love that house!
I'd forgotten how good PF's was...going again soon..
The very next night Blaine took me to Red Robin and Robin Hood the movie. (is there a theme here). I do love dinner and a movie, one of my favorite activities... then the kids made me two cakes...(I don't think they talked to each other :)
Did I mention that Tyler had a birthday in there also. Did I mention that the masked man is Tyler. Coco is feeding him cake in the mask....don't ask....

We took the boys to Ironman 2 for their birthday's....so all in all it's been a lot of birthday's, mother's day's... movies and eating....All the things I like to do the most :)

Thank You Family for being so supercalifrigginawesome!

My Mother's Day Wish list...

Well it's that time of year again. Where our husband's and children feel obligated to honor us for our many hours/ hard labor that is" motherhood". I for one am all about this...so just to help them out and get cool gifts that I've been eying, I thought I'd come up with a list of possible gifts that might trigger their little imaginations. After all...that's what mom's do, make life easier for our loved ones. So here goes...

1. A Kindle. You know those electronic books that hold about 1 million books....My sister's kids loved her enough to get her one sooooooo.

2. A small and skinny digital camera. I do have my iphone camera but I'd like one with zoom and video etc.

3. Diamonds....but that's been on my list for 27 years.

4. I love white pottery

5. A new lamp bulb for our big screen TV that our wonderful son in law gave to us.

6. Diamonds...wait I already said that

7. Flower pots...all of my terra cotta pots broke over the winter

well that should take care of mother's day...now my birthday is a week later....I'll have to think about that list :)

Just one more task that we "mothers" do. List making!

(yes I'm holding my breath)

Updated Again

Hypnotized or Just having too much fun?

Kasey and some friends went to a hypnotist last weekend and he claims that he went under. I however have my doubts :) Kasey is the one in the middle with the black sweatshirt and his head back. Looks like an unnatural position doesn't it?
But wait...then there is this position... hmmmm
This is Kasey A.K.A Michael Jackson. bustin a move
Not even sure what's going on here...
Yes...it's feet touching time. ewwww

So now you can see why I'm a little skeptical as to whether he was really put under or just having a little too much fun. :)

Driving, Shopping and Painting...

That's what I did this weekend...Driving, (well riding really) in the backseat of my niece's car with a book and a dew...to Oregon. Was a pretty nice way to go actually. Anytime you want me to ride in your back seat Afton and Michael, you just let me know :) So just some random pics to highlight my time with the folks.

Above you see Dad watching New Moon with Mom and I :) He loved it!!
Here we have Mom sporting her cool shades. She claims the light bothers her eyes but I think she's just trying to boost her image.
Mom and Dad watching New Moon. He wakes every 5 or 10 minutes :)
Whenever I go home I ask Mom if there is anything I can do while I'm there. This go round she wanted me to paint a stove she had gotten from a rusty white to this almond color. It was a messy job but she liked the result so she was happy. And a shout out to WD 40. We used it to clean the stainless steel and it worked great! So the above pic is the finished oven.
Here we have me using WD for the finishing touches.
Here is Afton using divot (dog) as an excuse to not help with the oven...jk
The oven in process...spray painting in the house is never a good idea by the way :( Lot's of clean up...
Saturday was a girls day out. Shopping all day long. Here we have Afton and Tami at the restaurant where we are trying to replenish ourselves for another go round of shops.
Sister Kerri telling mother some important story...by the look of it.

We had a very successful shopping day and I did not spend a dime :) I did however dress Kerri, Tami and Afton, which I find as satisfying as buying stuff for myself...(almost:)

Good Weekend...feeling rejuvinated

Silver Lining...

They say there is always a silver lining in the cloud cover...I think I see a glimpse of it...

Light at the end of the proverbial tunnel..whew

Courtney's new house and helpers

So Courtney and Tyler bought a home in December and we have slowly been bringing order from chaos. It's a cute fixer upper that when it's done will be stunning. It has three bedrooms, wood floors, good size dining room and a great backyard. Their little rat by the name of Tobin, (dog) loves his new digs. Courtney is hosting a baby shower for a friend today so last night Meagan, Callin and myself went to their house to help organize things a bit more. Easier said than done when your house is under construction :) So since Tyler has recently had back surgery and can't lift yet...he ordered us dinner and played some video games... :)
Here we have Meagan watching Courtney work...she did sweep! I was taking pictures of Meagan watching Courtney work...worked out nice for Meg and I
This is a picture of the dining room. Callin had just hung the curtains for the back sliding glass doors. We took a lot of equipment and tools out of the room and it looked so much bigger!
Here is Courtney working while Meg and I are watching. The former owners covered all these wood floors with carpet so she's taking up the tack strip. Why cover wood floors?

Below we have Meagan and Callin hanging the curtains . I have to say that Callin is a pretty handy guy to have around. I think Tyler is officially in love with him :)

I love that my girls both have homes to settle into. It's been fun helping them come up with ideas for their homes and make curtains and pillows and paint.

Oh and Thanks for the T.V Tyler!

Random Pictures...

I saw this table in a magazine and loved it. I think I can do this to my end tables in the living room. Don't you love it!! I just don't want it to be too silver if you know what I mean, more of a tarnished silver...so I'm thinking how to accomplish this...any ideas?
So this is a quilt I'm working on for Nicki who is having a baby boy in May...Not done but should be soon. I know her colors are tan and brown but I felt the need to spice things up a bit and went with green and brown and orange. You can't see it but the prints are so cute. I had fun picking out the fabrics :) It is mostly about me you know...
And these are the flowers I got for Valentines Day this year. I love the orange color and think they look really good in my dining room. Guess once these die I'll have to get some silk ones to throw in the vase...

Fun Times in the ER...

So guess where we were this morning? yup the local ER. Blaine has been having acid reflux issues off and on for quite a while now and it all came to a head this morning. He drove himself to the ER and because I work at the hospital I met him there. He was in so much pain...almost delirious with pain. Did I mention that he is not a nice patient? When the nurse wanted him to put the gown on and lay down so she could put in the IV, he started yelling at her and told her "this is ridiculous"!I could put an IV in someone standing on my head if I had to". I didn't know what to say to this outburst...so I just smiled at the nurse and said he wasn't usually like this :) Anyway the Dr. looked at him and thought it was his acid reflux and gave him some pain meds and a reflux medication. He's been pretty loopy today but at least he's been nicer :)

Wedding Days...

Well here we are...post wedding.  Interesting place to be...much relieved, happy and much relieved :)  Several of my family members could not be there for a variety of reasons so this post is mostly for them.   We had carmel apples at the reception and my sister in law Nancy volunteered to do the apples.  She is an apple wizard!  I came over to do any grunt work I could to make it easier on her but she had me dipping and drying and stirring right along side.  I think I could actually make them by myself if I ever wanted to...(not sure I would want to cause it was a long process) but they turned out soooo good.  I've never eaten so much caramel in one sitting.
My feet were so tired that day from hours of apple making that when Meagan suggested getting a pedi I jumped at the chance.  She needed cute toes and nail for the pictures.
So here we are on the actual wedding day.  We are waiting for Blaine to gas up the truck and it's getting  pretty close to the wire.  We were a little worried.
Here are the girls outside of the temple.
I don't know...I just don't know what to say about this picture but he kept doing the same thing over and over so I just went with it.
Girls in the truck on the way to the temple.
And finally...here they come, legally Man and Wife...  First part of the day is done. Now on to the rest...
Just a few snapshots of the reception.  We had a wonderful dinner right after the temple and then had 1 hour to get ready for the reception.  whew...we were still lighting candles when the first guests arrived, but we got er done!  Here is a picture of the apple...which were the hit of the night by the way!
The flower arrangements on the tables.  We loved the way they turned out...looked like snowballs for our winter wonderland theme.
Apothecary jars with candy.
And the baddest boys in town....along with their mother.

There are more pictures to come.  These are just a few I took with my iphone.  But it really was a great day.  The ceremony was wonderful.  We had a great turnout at the reception/mission reunion :)  And I can't wait to see the real pictures.  I need to thank Nancy, Julie, Afton and Jenny/Syd  for helping so much before, during and after the reception.  I don't think I could have asked for a better day for Meagan and Callin.