Video of Vets in Sun Valley

Daryn Kagan did a video on the vets in Sun Valley. If you want to watch it, click here

Great Website

I found a great website this weekend as I was searching for Sharing Time ideas. My class has to do Sharing Time in Primary next week. Anyway, the website is www.sugardoodle.net. It offers great ideas for Relief Society, Primary, Young Women's, and just general activities for parents. Check it out and see what you think.

Easter Weekend Round-up

We had a quiet but fun weekend. Friday afternoon, the girls and I went over to my parents house and spent the night. We played games and had a lot of fun. They are leaving on their mission soon so it was good to go and spend some time with them. We hope to see them a few more times this week before we have to say good-bye for six months. Paige had a ball playing with her cousin Josette all day Friday and Saturday morning. My sister and her husband have moved into my parents to house sit while they are on their mission.

Saturday morning we were up and running as we had two Easter egg hunts scheduled. I also discovered Saturday morning that both of my girls are sick AGAIN. Here we go with Round 2 of the cold bug. Twice in 2 1/2 weeks. Will it ever end?!?

Our first Easter egg hunt was with Joseph's parent's ward. They put on an Easter egg hunt every year and invite the community to attend. Joseph took Paige last year. I was pregnant in the hospital in pre-term labor so I wasn't able to go. This year I took the girls because Joseph is gone with the Marine Corps. Paige is pretty passive so she only ended up with about 10-12 eggs. Some kids had baskets that were overflowing. Maybe one day Paige will figure out that the faster you go, the more eggs you get.

She made up for it at the second Easter egg hunt. Joseph's parents had one in their backyard for the kids. Since she didn't have as many kids to compete with, she walked away with 41 eggs. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures. I will have to get some from my mother-in-law. After the Easter egg hunts, the girls and I spent the afternoon with Joseph's parents and sisters. We got home late afternoon and just had a quiet evening at home.

Easter was especially lonely. Since the girls were sick, we didn't end up going anywhere for Easter since we didn't want to infect anyone. My mom came and watched the girls so that I could go teach my Primary lesson. I made a not-so-Eastery dinner of One Dish Mexican Dinner (family recipe), fresh strawberries, and corn. The highlight of the day was the phone call from Joseph. He didn't think that he would be able to call but he did and it was so good to talk to him for ten minutes.

Now the week has begun. Lexi had a rough night last night so I am a little tired but there is a lot to be done. Hopefully I will get a few of my plans accomplished. Some had to get cancelled with the girls being sick but that will just give me more time to accomplish all that has to be done at home. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Daryn Kagan

This last weekend was incredible. I am waiting for pictures to come in from everyone who took pictures of the weekend so it may be a few weeks before I blog a lot about our weekend in Sun Valley, as I want to have pictures to go with the blogs. It was inspiring to say the least.

There is a non-profit organization called Sun Valley Adaptive Sports. They focus in helping people with disabilities through recreational therapy. You can find out more about them at their website (which I am going to include in my website links), www.svasp.org. They are a phenomenal organization that do a lot for the community. One of their programs is called Higher Ground, which is an injured veteran's program. They bring injured vets from all over the country to Sun Valley for five days of sports and recreational therapy for FREE. I am talking plane tickets, lodging, food, equipment, lift tickets, etc. Everything is absolutely FREE. Joseph and I were first invited up there in March of 2006. We had a remarkable time and it was inspiring to see these injured Marines, all from Joseph's unit, experience a new will to live and a new lease on life. Many of them are amputees and one is a paraplegic.

After Joseph attended the event last year, he was invited to sit on the Board of Directors. This has been an amazing experience for him and a wonderful opportunity to give back to an organization that has done so much for not only our life, but lives of others who suffer with life altering disabilities.

This year there were 10 injured vets at this event. There were some from Florida and Georgia. Another woman by the name of Daryn Kagan was also invited to the event. She used to be a CNN reporter but now runs her own website after her contract was not renewed with CNN.

The majority of the news covers things that are depressing. We live in a world where crime, war, and general evil prevails and the news stations choose to have their coverage focus on those stories. However, Daryn's favorite part of news is uplifting news stories. She has dedicated her website to inspiring news, news that uplifts and encourages people to live better lives. About a year ago, she even featured an article that Joseph had written about his life changing experience with Sun Valley Adaptive Sports. If you want, you can read it by clicking here.

I recommend that Daryn's website become a "bookmark" or "favorite" for all of us. It is encouraging to read about the good and inspiring in the world, especially amid all the coverage of war and hate. Check out Daryn's website and let me know what you think. The address is www.darynkagan.com. I know that Daryn's website will now be on my daily list of sites to check.

Vacation Exhaustion

I just got back from a wonderful vacation in Sun Valley with Joseph and other injured service members. It was absolutely amazing! However, although I feel mentally and emotionally well rested, I am physically exhausted!! I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation to get caught up on sleep and energy. Oh well, I guess I will be going to bed as soon as I get the girls in bed tonight.

Sun Valley was wonderful. The girls did great while we were gone. More details and pictures to come!

Where do you get cute blog layouts?

Everyone BUT me has a cute blog layout. So I ask you.....WHERE do you get them? I am tired of my BLAH, OLD Google template. So share where you go to make the cute ones that all of you have! (I know that I am procrastinating some more!)

When I Grow Up

Everybody remembers what they wanted to be when they were little. Well if I can judge by these pictures............

Lexi is going to be a wrestler (look at the arm hold she has her cousin in!)

And my sweet Paige is going for the rock star occupation

Week in Review

I know that the week isn't over and that if I posted EVERY day then I wouldn't have to review, however, I have major weekend plans starting tomorrow so I will have to update today. And if any of you wait by your computer in ANTICIPATION (read with heavy sarcasm) for my sporadic posts, I will have lots to post at the beginning of next week!

This week has been trying. First off, I had finally had enough of Lexi's wheezing and "death look" eyes that I took her to the after hours clinic at the pediatrician's Monday night to find out that my daughter has RSV. I was bummed and I felt so bad for her. She was having to struggle to breathe. They said that it could be worse and that I needed to watch her breathing. They tried a breathing treatment-which didn't work-and sent us on our way telling us that if she had to work any harder to breath or if she got dehydrated that they would put her in the hospital. Oh and fun side note.....on the way to the doctor, she had a coughing fit in which she coughed so hard that she gagged, which means she threw up on herself. I pulled over to wipe it up as best I could but we went to the doctor's in puke covered, stinky jammies. I am RACKING up the gold star mom awards (however, I don't like to brag so I hang them on my SECRET wall that nobody sees). So, I cancelled my weekend plans. :(

I have been pretty busy in the last week and a half with real estate. On Tuesday afternoon, I showed houses to a friend of mine whose parents are moving to town. In the middle of showing houses, we stopped by Costco so that I could pick up Pull-Ups for my daughter who won't ever be fully potty trained and we enjoyed a quick bite at the exclusive, mouth watering "Costco cafe". Nothing that a huge, GREASY slice of pepperoni pizza won't help. After that we saw a few more houses, then headed to her house to hang out for a little bit before I went back home.

Tuesday night and Wednesday morning SUCKED so we don't need to mention any more about that. Wednesday afternoon, I went and hung out with my parents and then a friend of mine took us out to dinner. Oh, and Lexi showed marked improvement so I rescheduled my weekend plans. Dinner was at Red Robin. Let me tell you how fun dinner is with two moms and four little girls. I think next time we will let our husbands have the kids while we go out to dinner by ourselves.

So, here we are at Thursday, with me franticly trying to get ready for my weekend plans. Nothing like procrastinating what needs to be done by blogging! I just knew that my faithful readers would DIE of boredom had I not quickly posted before I will be on yet another blogging hiatus.

I will tell you all about my fun weekend adventures next week!

Lexi's First Time Being Sick

In the past, Lexi has gotten mild colds. Nothing that ever made her smile disappear or made her grumpy. However, she has gotten the nasty cold that Paige had and boy is she (and I) MISERABLE! My poor baby has an ULTRA runny nose, a CONSTANT never-let-up cough, and a fever. Last night we were up from 1:00 until about 4:30. I finally had to let her cry herself to sleep because I couldn't do anything more for her and she was SO tired. I had given her medicine (both Motrin and Tylenol). I had rocked her (she cried then too). She had sat with us on our bed. We had done everything. So finally, she cried (more like screamed) herself to sleep.

Needless to say, she is tired this morning. Although you wouldn't know it by the short nap she is attempting to take. I hope she starts feeling better soon. She hasn't wanted to even eat very much and Lexi likes to eat. Good thing she has some rolls on her so that I won't get too worried if she doesn't eat much for a day or two. It makes me miserable to see Lexi Loo so sick and miserable.

Come back soon Lexi!

One Down, One To Go

I finally finished the crib bedding website. I still have a ton of products to add but I think what I have on there is a good start. For anybody interested in seeing it, the web address is www.creativecribcouture.com. I am pretty pleased with it. Although I am a little frustrated because my merchant account (the process by which I need set up to take payment) didn't get finalized today like I thought it would so I can't really advertise the site since I don't have a way to take payment right now. A little aggravating since it is the weekend and it won't get finalized until Monday. That's TWO days of nothing. I have a goal of what I want to make with the website in the month of March but it's a little hard to make money when taking payments is not set up. Oh well, Monday it is.

Hopefully, I will be able to get my wedding accessories website finished this weekend. I have gotten a little behind schedule. Paige has been sick with a NASTY cold. I have never seen her look so lifeless. She just laid on the couch and didn't really move for 2 days. Today she is getting back to her normal self. Boy am I glad! I was really starting to miss my little girl. Now, it looks like Lexi is starting to get the cold. Fortunately, colds don't seem to hit her as hard as her big sister. I am crossing my fingers that that will be the case this time. In other fun illness news, I have a stupid, painful, can't-wait-for-it-to-leave urinary tract infection. I woke up about 2:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep until about 5:30. Needless to say, I am exhausted. Fortunately, I had some medicine that hadn't expired here at the house that I can take for it so I don't have to go see the doctor. I can't wait to feel better.

Other than that, the week has just been busy with work, work, work! I am sure my daughters wonder where their mother is because all they have had is a work-a-holic. Things shouldn't be so stressful and busy once the wedding accessories website is up. That's what I keep telling myself at least.

Hopefully, if our kids and our friends who are watching our kids are feeling better, next weekend Joseph and I will be getting away for a weekend trip to Sun Valley. There is an all expense paid injured servicemembers reunion trip going on then. You can't beat a completely paid trip (meals, lodging, skiing, gas, everything). Joseph is on the board of directors for the non-profit organization that puts it on so we get to go to Sun Valley quite often. We love it up there and would love to be able to move there someday! I am in desperate need of a vacation!!!!

Crazy Weekend

I didn't get any more posted yesterday and there is so much that I want to post. I really shouldn't be taking the time to post now but I haven't scheduled out my week yet so I thought that I would quickly blog about our weekend before I figure out how much I really have to get done.

This weekend was pretty great. Joseph watched the kids for me a TON so that I could get some much needed uninterrupted work time. Then on Saturday, I went to the Redbox and rented a movie for Paige and a movie for Joseph and I. The movie that I got for Paige was Barbie. She loved it. Problem was, she loved it so much that she never told Joseph and I that she had to go to the bathroom. We had made her go before the movie started so I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. She can usually go two or three hours in between bathroom breaks. However, I didn't realize that she had had two full cups of milk and one full cup of juice. By the time the movie was over, she had peed so much that it had come out of her pull-ups and through her jeans and left a nice big wet spot on my carpet (at least it wasn't the couch). I wasn't very thrilled that she was too busy watching Barbie that she didn't PAUSE the movie for a bathroom break. This is just one of our many potty training frustrations. Thank heavens for a little green machine called a SpotBot. WELL WORTH the money!

So Joseph took her up for a bath and I cleaned the carpet. Then I went upstairs to take over on the bath and Paige's cheeks were pink and her ears were bright red! Temperature read? 100.5! What?!? She had been normal all day and she said that she felt fine. Of course, this is Saturday night and we have church at 8:30 Sunday morning (which I LOVE, will write about that fun, exciting day in a minute). Joseph thought that it could be a fluke thing so after I got her out of the tub I took it again.......99.4. Then in another half an hour, right before she went to bed, I took it........98.6. So we decided that she was well enough for church.

So Sunday morning we get up and get going for church. Did I mention that I LOVE our 8:30 time slot?!? Before, we were at 2:30 PM and by the time we got out of church and home, dinner consisted of cereal or a jelly sandwich. I felt like we waited ALL DAY for church to come and then I was so tired by the time we got home and the kids were so CRANKY.

We were 2 or 3 minutes late to church but I was so glad that we had done baths on Saturday night so that we didn't have to worry about them Sunday morning. Sacrament was great....then Primary started. I was sitting with my class in opening exercises and Joseph had Lexi in the hall. All of a sudden, I hear her screaming. I go out there and she had PUKED EVERYWHERE!! All done the nicely upholstered church chair, all on herself, all on the diaper bag, everywhere EXCEPT...........Joseph. Somehow, she completely missed him. Honestly, I wish she would've puked on him rather than the chair. I scrubbed the chair but I don't think that I was able to get it all out. I better pay some money to the building fund so that they can get a new chair. My mom made me feel a little better when she said that Lexi wasn't the first to puke on a church chair and probably wouldn't be the last. GROSS but comforting.

So Joseph takes Lexi home and I teach Primary. After I get done teaching, I go hunt my parents done (they are in the ward that starts at 10:30) and pull my mom out of Sacrament to find out if my dad can take Paige and I home after their Sacrament is over and after our church is over. I love that we overlap with my parents. Thankfully, they could and have a car seat. So after church Paige and I go wait in the foyer for my parents to get out of Sacrament. Paige decided that she wants to run around in the foyer. I warned her not once, not twice, but THREE times that she couldn't run and that if she continued she would have to sit on my lap. Did she stop running? NO. Did she just nicely and obediently sit on my lap? NO. Instead she started screaming and physically fighting against me to put her down. She has NEVER thrown a fit like that. I was SO embarrassed. I just kept whispering in her ear that she was getting a spanking when we got home. So she screamed for about five to ten minutes while we waited for my parents, fighting to get off my lap the ENTIRE time.

After we got home and she spent a good three minutes with her nose in the corner and got the talking to of her life, she went down for a nap. Joseph had cleaned the kitchen while we were still at church so I came home to a clean house!

The rest of the day was pretty fun. I pulled out a tupperware of toys for Lexi we had when Paige was a year old. Lexi thought they were all great and so did Paige. That kept the girls playing happily for several hours. We didn't turn the TV on all afternoon (big accomplishment for us since my kids watch WAY too much tv). We did watch the last hour of Extreme Makeover and the series premiere of Oprah's Big Give. I will have to write more about that later. The Big Give was amazing!

However, I really need to get back to work since the girls are still sleeping and my to do list is ENDLESS. I have pictures and my thoughts on the The Big Give to post later. This will have to do it for now.

Still Alive

I know that it has been awhile since I posted but this week has been HECTIC! This week has also been full of incredible blessings. I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and knows of the things that I am in need of-even when I don't ask for them or even know that I need them. This last week has just been amazing!

Thank you to all those who cast your vote for naming my website. I have decided to go with accessorizemywedding.com. The website will hopefully be up and running by the end of the week or beginning of next! After I get it up and running, I will let you know so that you can go see it and tell me what you think.

The other website that I am doing right now is one selling crib bedding. The website for that will be creativecribcouture.com. It should be up and running the middle of the week. Let me know what you think of it when it is up and running!

This weekend has been crazy and this week is looking like it might be more hectic than the last! I have lots to blog about so I should be posting some more throughout the day!