What Did You Say?

Bear and I stopped to get gas the other day. It was freezing even with the sun shining. After pumping the gas I hoped back in the car and said, "I was scared I was going to turn in to the abominable snowman out there." Bear looked at me and asked, "Why would you turn into the bottom of a snowman?"

What did you say?

I got a bouquet of flowers from my girlfriend Jen for my birthday. Bear would point at each flower and ask what kind it is. He pointed at a Carnation, I told him what it was. He moved on to the Gerber Daisies and said their name. Bear then looked at me for a second and said, "That sounds like a booger flower."

What did you say?

I was helping Bug with her homework. We were adding suffixes to base words. There was a list of base words and a list of suffixes. We had to go through and see which suffixes worked and which didn't. We came to the word "empty". Bug asked me if "emptier" was a word, I told her she should look it up in the dictionary. This was the answer I gave her every time she'd ask me to just give her the answer, she was getting a little tired of this response so she concluded it was a word, without looking it up. I knew she was just guessing so I asked her how she knew. She said, "Because when I go to the restroom and you don't, I'm emptier than you."

What did you say?

Friend or Foe

I stepped on the scale this morning, first my scale said 172 lbs,



I went and got my camera and then it read this, 173.5 lbs. Trust me when I say, my camera does not weigh that much. A little while later I stood on the scale again and it said 171.5 lbs.



Then I went to the gym and stood on the scale and it said 167 lbs. I don't which one to trust. Either my scale at home is going crazy or it's dying. But I also think that maybe the gym scale is one of those "feel good" scales to keep people coming back to the gym, if for nothing else then to stand on their scale.

No matter what it is, I really am confused as to how much I weigh today.

Plus, what am I suppose to do on weigh in day to see who won the bet? Am I suppose to drag my husband to the women's locker room at my gym for the official weigh in?

If nothing else, I think my scale at home is my enemy, and it better watch its back.

Goal #1 Run 1 Mile Nonstop

I didn't think I could do it this soon. I've been working out at the gym for three weeks and today I thought I'd try running a quarter mile and see if I could do it.

After I was done with the quarter I still felt pretty good so I thought I'd keep going and see if I could make a half mile. Before I knew it I'd done three quarters of a mile and I was on the last leg of the mile. I was getting a little tired but I kept telling myself that if I quit now I'd have to start all over.

Once I hit that mile mark I felt so good for pushing myself.

My best friend, C, asked me if I wanted to run a 5k with her in May. I told her that unless 5k means 1m I don't know if I can do it. Who knows, it's still a ways off. It would give me something to work toward, even if I didn't end up running with her.

Oh Deer

Heading out to my dad's to pick up my three oldest, we ran into (not literally) a herd of about twenty deer just before going through the gap. They were so beautiful! Bear was in the back seat asleep and missed the whole thing.



We were thinking about waking him but then Kinnzi leaped out the window and chased the deer. I was so ticked she did that, we didn't get along the rest of the day.



If the deer and Kinnzi weren't drama enough, slowing down to see the deer made us lose momentum and about half way through the gap, which was solid ice, we lost traction and no longer continued to go in a forward motion. There is no cell service in the gap nor on the back side. I was seriously thinking about walking back out to the front of the gap and calling my dad's house, but we wanted to try to push first.

The really funny thing is we just got done listening to a story by Glen Rosson about a boy and his dad on a hunting trip when they came upon a slick hill they needed to climb. They were up in the mountains and on one side of the truck was a pretty steep embankment. Half way up the mountain their truck lost traction and the dad was flooring the gas to get the truck to do something but sliding all over. The young man was scared and asked his dad to stop but his dad just gave him a reassuring smile. Something happened and the dad had to let off the gas and the truck started sliding backwards toward the embankment. The young man thought they were going to die but the dad got back on the gas and eventually made it over the mountain.

Now back to us. We were in the middle of the gap with a huge mountain of rocks on one side and a steep embankment down to a creek on the other side and we start spinning out going no where.

Big D, who is wearing shorts at this time, drives while I get out and push...a Dodge Grand Caravan...up hill...on solid ice. Who said chivalry is dead, actually I voluntered since Big D wasn't dressed for the blizzard raging outside.

I pushed the van about fifty feet then it would go no farther. We were sliding everywhere, there was no room to turn around, and it would've been too dangerous to try and back out of the gap.

We switched places and I tried to drive and Big D try to push, but to no avail. I put the car in park to switch Big D again and the car started sliding backwards.

A car came through and just passed us without a look back, that's always nice. We saw a strip of gravel in the middle of the road and figured if we could just get our wheels to that strip we should be able to get some traction.

Big D got back behind the wheel and I started pushing again. We finally pushed the car sideways enough to hit that strip and it worked. Thirty minutes after we went in the gap, we finally came out the other side.

That night on the way home we decided to go the long way out and around the mountain instead of trying our hand at the gap again. I looked at Big D and thanked him for the drama, but I confessed I'd had enough for one day. Yeah, we made it home safely.

Snow Beautiful Snow

It is snowing big beautiful juicy flakes at my house right now. I love love love it! Except, both Big D and I are trying to do homework and the only thing we can think about is going snowmobiling. Darn the snow.



I had to venture out to take a picture of my house in the snow. It is so much more beautiful when it has a thick blanket of snow don't you think? But wait, am I coming or going here? That is the question. Wow, I probably just have a weird foot problem, I need to get that looked at.



This is the house across the street that Big D says I am covetting. Isn't it beautiful? And I'm not covetting it, I just know that some day it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine. I've already landscaped the yard and redesigned the house in my head, but that's not covetting, is it?

Oops! My Bad

I posted our weight updates yesterday and boy did I get some numbers mixed up. I posted that I went from 173 lbs to 701.5 lbs. Wow, I thought I had a horrible week last week. I don't think that is possible, is it?

When I got on this morning I saw what I'd done and changed it. I really am doing a lot better this week than last week.

However, if you look at how much Big D has lost and what his goal is compared to me and my goal, we are about neck and neck. The thing that really sucks is I have to wake up every morning at 5 a.m. to stay neck and neck with him. The only work out Big D gets is typing on his computer as he sits on his butt at work, that is so not fair that guys lose weight so much easier than women.

Wow, I sound like a whiner. I am very proud of how far we've come. We haven't given up yet and that is great to me. I love that I have my best friend who's willing to suffer right along with me and keep me motivated. Thank you my hunk-a-hunk of burning love!!!

My Birthday

I was sick as a dog on my birthday. I was sore from an extreme workout the day before and I had a nasty cold. We had invited some friends to go snowmobiling with us to celebrate both me and Bug's birthdays. I thought I wouldn't be able to go all the way up until the last minute. I drugged up with some Echinacea and Sudifed and got dressed to go.

I wasn't able to play much, I just didn't have the energy. I didn't want to over do it and make myself more sick so I stood on the mountain and took pictures of everyone having fun.



Big D did a great job getting the kids back up the hill. I think every time he came up he had more kids than before. I was shocked the rope didn't snap.



Look at all those smiles, too bad they didn't last all day.



I know you can't see very good because I was on the next mountain over, but Susan, Hailey, and Beaner hit a jump and flew fifteen feet before flipping and crashing. Too bad I didn't get the size of the jump in the picture, darn it.



Needless to say they weren't too happy. I could hear them screaming they wanted to go home all the way over to where I was on the next mountain.



Beaner got a little bit of a fat lip, that was gone before we got home.



Hailey got a few scratches. The funny thing is Hailey didn't start crying until Beaner started. Susan did a good job shielding them from too much damage.



While we were checking on the girls the boys decided they needed a little snack.



It's a good thing they are such good sharers.

I love to see people smile and laugh. I guess that's why after we were done on the mountain I took my mom up on her offer to watch my kids while Big D and I went out. Surprise to Big D I invited my brothers to come to dinner with us. I love being with my family I laugh so hard when we are together. I figured it was my birthday any way I should be with the people who make me happy.

I felt bad for dragging Lowell and Rae out. They'd already eaten so I said they could come have dessert with us. I was so happy to see them. If I could have all my family live with in a mile radius of my house it would be my Utopia. I guess that is a bit selfish of me. I just love them all!

Goal #17 Make Contact w/ Emily

I finally made contact with Emily, after two maybe three years. It was not from lack of trying on my part. The first time I tried to make contact she was detained. The second time I tried to find her she'd barely moved a week before I showed up. The third time I was at her apartment and I reached for the door handle to get out and my cell phone rang. It was my girls reminding me to pick them up from school, right then.

Needless to say, I've taken it as a sign from the Lord. I knew he wanted me to be ready but then I had to be patient for her to be ready.

I feel like I owe her one. It wasn't too many years ago that the roles were reversed. I was off the wall being rebellious and when I'd decided I'd had enough of the smoking, drinking, and partying I didn't have any "good" friends left. I was now a bad influence and no one wanted to be seen with me, which I don't blame them.

Well, Emily was the only one of my old friends that didn't judge me. Her mom was pretty cool too. Her mom didn't tell Emily she couldn't hang around me because I was bad, she invited me over to their house for Family Home Evening and dinner. Their whole family was very welcoming, I even ended up dating her brother for a bit.

One day on the bus coming home from school Emily said something that really stuck with me; she said I was lucky because when I get older and I tell my kids not to smoke or drink I will be able to give them real reasons why because I'd experienced it. She said all she'd be able to do was say, "Don't do it because it's bad". I wonder if she remembers saying that and I wonder how she feels about it now?

I am excited to have Emily back in my life. I know it's not going to be like old times. I know she's changed in a lot of ways, but I also know that she has many people who love her and I know she can come back from this. I believe it will only make her stronger, if she lets it. I know I'm a better person today because of all I've been through. No one has a perfect life, every one has a past. It's how we let that past affect our future that matters.

I just hope I can help Emily the way she helped me, if nothing else I hope I can be a good friend to her.

2nd Day of Frost

I know these aren't the best pictures. I haven't quite figured out how to make my pictures crisp yet. But Oh how I love to take pictures of beauty.



I love it when the Lord gets out his paint brush and changes tall evergreen trees to a crisp white. The contrast is amazing.



I really need a macro lens so I can get really close to those delicate frozen spires and capture their true beauty.

Frosting

We woke to a beautiful frost this morning. I wanted to capture the beauty but didn't quite get it. I get so frustrated when I can see how I want a picture to turn out in my mind but I don't quite know enough about my new camera to get it to read my mind.



I loved the little spikes on the stem. It looked so forbidding yet majestic. The Lord is truly the ultimate artist.

One of these days I'm going to take an amazing picture and every one will say, "Oh, that is the most beautiful picture...who took it?"

Bug's Birthday

Bug chose to go to Pizza Hut for her birthday. Then we went over to the mall to play on the toys, and to buy Bug another "Bones" book.



She got one from Grandma Ellen and wouldn't put it down. We had to beg her to put down the book long enough to eat her dinner.



Bear wanted to try his hand at driving. I think he's going to be my extremist. He loves any thing with a motor and goes fast.

Bang Boom Slide

Beaner had a bit of an accident this last weekend. Big D took all the kids snowmobiling and Beaner fell out of the sled and slid down the hill on her face. The funny thing is I have a similar picture of me from when I went sledding with my dad around that age, maybe younger. I will have to hunt for the picture and post it next to this one so everyone can see: like mother like daughter. Of course, I wasn't doing a rabbit impression in my picture.

I Got Released

I received a new calling this morning, I am going to be Primary Secretary. I am excited! I had a feeling they were going to put me in Primary, the current presidency has been in for about six years. I was a little nervous where they'd put me because I didn't want to be the teacher over Bear's class.

It is funny that they put me in Nursery as soon as Bear was old enough to go and now they put me in Primary the very first Sunday Bear is going in there. I think they are trying to tell me something, maybe they're scared of Bear.

I could understand that if Sweeton was still alive. Having two identical boys with that much energy, that would be a challenge. But with Bear by himself he isn't too bad. He does take a lot of attention though.

I'm glad I will be in there to help if needed but Bear isn't going to be able to rely on my for every thing. I think this will be good for the both of us.

I've been trying to prepare him for a couple weeks now that he wasn't going to be going to class with me any more. He will be going in with the big kids, not mommy. Mommy has her own class. He wasn't too happy about that until I told him he'd be in there with Bug, Bud, and Beaner. I think he was getting used to the idea. Now, I guess we won't have to worry about that anymore.

It will be nice to be able to watch all my little ones that just left Nursery and see how they do in Primary. I like watching. I've always been comfortable being a wall flower.

Being in the presidency will also allow me to be creative again: planning activities and opening exercises. I do well in the planning but not necessarily in the teaching. I hope I have fun.

I am excited with who the president is. She is a very high energy woman, but she can also be a bit erratic. I am a very organized person who likes things in order. Some might call me uptight even. She is a little flippant in her thinking. Who knows, maybe she will help me dislodge this stick I've been carrying around my whole life.

Scripture Study At Our House

Every night we do scriptures and prayer before bed time. The boys like to take advantage of their audience. It makes scripture time fun, but not very spiritual. Of course, I don't know how you can be spiritual with two monkeys living in the house.



Bear and Bud like to play off of each other, try to out do each other.



Bear kept getting closer and closer to the camera. I had to ask him numerous times to scoot back.



Isn't he cute!?!



Bear would crowd in front of Bud to steal the spot light. Little stinker! You can see Beaner and Big D in the background trying to read. I think they gave up on the scriptures though.



Bear is our stand up comedian. He loves to make us laugh. Bug wasn't any help. She was sitting back by me watching the boys laughing and egging them on to be funnier, like that's possible.



And when we do laugh it just fuels the fire.



I think they get the poser genes from their Uncle Lowell.

My First Day At The Gym

I have never liked gyms. I never know what I'm doing and I always feel so self conscious that I never go back.

So I was a little nervous about how I would react last night. I was going all by myself, with no buddy. I walked in like I owned the place. I had to keep telling myself that I am already beautiful, that helped.

I worked out for an hour and a half and I still didn't want to leave. It was eight o'clock, I had to get home and put the kids to bed. Plus, I felt a little guilty that I left Big D home with nine hungry kids.

Maybe that's why I had such a good time at the gym and didn't want to leave.

It's been fun, Big D and I are getting in to the competition part of the wager. That really helps because I am so competitive but I never feel like I can let that side of me out - it's not pretty.

Today I made a huge banner that said, "I am going to Disneyland" and put it right where Big D can see it when he comes home. He's going to get a good laugh out of that one.

Big D was telling me yesterday that he started his diet off with a fast to get the Lord on his side. He said he had a hard time all day at work yesterday but then he'd look up some snow machines on the internet and feel so much better.

I told him that was cheating getting the Lord on his side, so today I'm fasting to even things up again. Ha Ha!

Man am I hungry!

Me and C

My best friend, C, and I love to take pictures. So we decided to try our hand at taking one picture a day and sharing it with all of you. You can see our pictures at:

ct1000words.blogspot.com

Fill free to take a gander and comment, but please remember we are both amateurs and are doing this for fun. Be gentle.

We will not be posting pictures Saturdays or Sundays.

Picture Perfect

Big D was snowmobiling with Mike, my brother-in-law. He came across this place that he knew I'd love. He took me back there the next day and he was right. I spent the next hour and a half taking pictures of every thing. I think I ended up taking over a hundred pictures.

Needless to say, I am still trying to get used to my new camera so not many of the pictures turned out, which really ticks me off. I think this is actually the first time I've actually got to play with my camera. So hopefully I'll get better.

We showed up at this spot right in time. The lighting was perfect but it was fading fast. There was so much to take pictures of that I couldn't quit saying how awesome it was.

Once again I was very giddy.

Here is some of the pictures, enjoy:

'79 Is A Good Year

We woke up this morning and it was about twenty below zero. Brrrrr! I was cold all night, which is probably why I kept waking up all night. I'd done the motherly thing and given away my big blanket to Bear so he wouldn't be a bear the next day.

My sister-in-law and her husband had to leave back to the real world today. They drove their truck so they could pull our snowmobiles for us. So Big D and Papa Ray went out to load the machines to be taken home. It took a little bit to get them started, every thing was frozen. Once they did get them started they had a hard time getting them to move because they were frozen to the ground.

After about thirty minutes every thing was loaded and on its way home. One of the guys down in the loading area started laughing when they saw Big D driving his 1979 snowmobile to load it on the trailer. He said he had about six brand new machines and they couldn't get them running for nothing, but here are these ancient machines and they are the only ones in the area driving down the road.

Big D said all the big sexy trucks in the loading area had their hoods up with dudes hanging out the top. No one could get anything started this morning. I was so happy that my in-laws decided to extend our vacation by a day. We weren't part of the mad rush to get loaded and checked out.

I don't think the people in the cabin next to us ever got their truck started. They had to be towed out.

It is funny, out snowmobiling we get a lot of funny looks and some snickers because our machines are so old. Practically everyone we passed had brand new big dog machines. We were the ones smiling today as ours are the only machines that would do anything. Big D puts a lot of time into pampering his machines and I think it really paid off for him today.

Hazardous Snowmobiling

Yesterday the weather was over cast but warm. We all spent hours on the snow machines, even the tiny tots. Today, not so much.

I woke up to a beautiful crisp blue sky. I was so excited because I tried taking some pictures yesterday and they were all blah. So when I saw that bright sun reflecting off the snow like tiny diamonds, I got a little giddy.

We decided to take the kids over to a hill we saw the day before perfect for sledding. We pulled the kids to the hill, about a mile or two, with the cruel air biting any exposed skin it could reach.

We got to the hill where Bug went first and hit a huge jump and biffed it, I was so happy I didn't go down with her I was about to jump in with her. Surprisingly, Bud decided he wanted to go down next. Grandma Ellen was helping Bud get all ready to go down and I asked her if she was going with him.

Mind you, we just got done having a conversation with how conservative she is. She never takes risks, and yes she saw Bug just biff it on this same hill.

She climbed on the back of Bud and away they went. Thank goodness she missed the big jump, however, she did hit the little one. She landed right on her back and didn't move. I felt so bad for not talking her out of it, maybe even pressuring her into it with my little, "Oh are you going with Bud?" comment.



She didn't get up too quickly and not at all until she had help. She sat on the machine the rest of our adventure watching and trying to enjoy herself. Let's face it when you've broken your coxsis, like your butt, you really can't enjoy anything else.

It's a good thing my sister-in-law just had surgery on her shoulder, she gave her mother some of her heavy duty pain killers.

I told Grandma Ellen that I hoped she didn't decide to cancel our annual snowmobile trip just because we abused her once. That got a laugh but let's face it when your bum is broken the very last thing you want to do is laugh.



Big D and the boys pretending like they are at Disneyland.



Papa Ray did a great job at taking the kids back up the hill. In my day we had to walk up hill both ways to get to sled down again. Spoiled little tikes.



Bud on his last run down the hill. He barely made it into the sled before it took off down hill.



Big D is apoligizing to Beaner for throwing her off the sled when Papa was pulling them up the hill. She didn't get hurt she was just really pissed.



Papa called last run of the day and Bug ended up losing her sled and having to acturally run down the hill. I laughed and told her that Papa wasn't being literal.

New Year's Resolutions, Yuck!

I have made a lot of New Year's Resolutions in my life, as I am sure many people have. Out of all the resolutions I've made in my thirty plus years I can count only one that I've seen all the way through.

Back in 2006 I resolved to read the entire Bible. It was hard, and it took me a long time, but I finished it before the year was over. I was so proud of myself, I felt a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

Despite my success in 2006 I really dislike resolutions. I feel like I'm setting myself up to fail before I ever begin. Then I feel even worse when I finally admit defeat, which usually means I feel so guilty that I haven't done anything toward my resolution by April I push it completely out of my mind. Every time I think of my failure after that point is like twisting the toothpick under my finger nails.

Needless to say, Big D and I are not making any resolutions this year, mainly because I really don't want feel like a failure.

However, we have set up, what I think, is a very interesting wager.

This is the year for taking back ourselves. We've been whining about our weight for quite awhile now. We are both at our highest weight that we've ever been, excluding being pregnant with twins - but I have been asked if I'm pregnant (that's bad).

We are giving ourselves a time limit and a carrot. By July 17, 2009 whom ever loses their desired weight: Big D = 35 lbs Tiff = 30 lbs, wins the carrot.

If Big D wins he gets to buy new snow machines. He gets to pick any machines he wants and I can't give my opinion, unless asked.

If I win we get to take the family to Disneyland, and I get to look sexy on the beaches of California - not that I will touch the water, I've seen 'Jaws' one too many times.

I figure if I hold myself responsible by posting both our progress once a week then I won't be able to just give up when it gets tough. That and I'm on my blog so much that I will constantly see my progress and it will always be on my mind.

We've laid out our game plan and we are ready to start as soon as we get home from vacation.

I am excited and I hope this helps keep me motivated. Have I mentioned that the only thing I hate worse than resolutions is diets?