Soccer has started...

Or let the insanity begin :) Carson started her soccer season tonight with her first practice. We were a little bit late in signing up so everyone else actually started last week and we are just starting this week. She was so excited. Actually that is an understatement. She was thrilled beyond belief, this truly was the best day of her life. Until tomorrow when she has her first game !!!!

The Last Lecture

I saw this on Primetime last week, the story about Randy Pausch. It is extremely interesting and if you have the time, well worth it.

Here is his home page: http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/

From the Oprah show: http://www2.oprah.com/health/oz/oz_20071022_350_106.jhtml

His book, "The Last Lecture"...

and "A Love Story for Your Life"

A couple of my favorite quotes: "The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough."

"Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?"

Turning 38

I had my 38th birthday about a week and half ago - I'm well on my way to 40. My 20-year class reunion is this summer. All I can say, is where did the time go? It seems like yesterday, I was living in Logan with Michelle and fast forward ten years and here I am. When we had our ten-year reunion, it seemed like we had just turned around and ten years went by. That's again how this past ten years has felt to me.

My life has changed tremendously in ten years - I live far away from my parents, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. I watch Dora and Sponge Bob (see previous post about missing earthquake) and laugh at the appropriate times. One of my favorite meals is chicken nuggets from McDonalds. I have to check each shirt before I wear it for stuff from dirty little 18 month old and 3 year old hands. Once I do get dressed for work, I try not to let my kids touch me. When they do, I NEVER CHANGE (unless it's blood or throw up)! I am a mother, what do people expect? I don't drive a cool car that a single person would drive any more. We only go to the cheap theater to see family/kid movies. I don't know what cool is anymore. I probably never did, but at least I could fool myself better. Now I don't even try. I don't get to go on fun scenic vacations. By the way, what is disposable income and who has it?

So in the spirit of reminiscing, I thought I'd share a few pics of me growing up.

Me and my dad - I'm 12 months old.

2 years old

I remember this picture well, we just had Family Home Evening and our treat were those suckers. We though we were pretty cool. Me and my sister, Michelle.

I was probably around 5 years old, she was three years old

I decided to skip my awkward pictures of pre-teen in favor of big hair.

It's a pretty fair trade off I think.

Me in 9th grade - don't you just love my mullet hair cut. Yes, I'm from Idaho.

My senior year - I can't believe I could get my hair that high or big.

My high school graduation, me and my mom!

My hair just got bigger and poofier (is that even a word?)

Here is a stupid funny thing I remember about graduation, after looking at my pictures after so many years. I had to HAVE white shoes for graduation. My mom tried to tell me I didn't need them, but I insisted. I probably only ever wore them that once, but I had to have them. I just remember making a big deal about them. How dumb is that? I have one picture of me in the white shoes - yeah they were worth it.

Potty Training Part IV

Well, I think my girl finally has done it! She has gone for 10 days now, with no accidents during the day :) A special thanks to my friend Jenny for giving me the idea of bubble gum as a reward for going stinky on the potty! Carson spent a few days at her house and that was the great motivator.

Yeah, whew, finally, alright, yippie skippy, wonderful, great!

We are so happy. Now we just have to tackle the night thing. I'm thinking of all the money we will save not buying diapers for TWO. And since the price of almost every other grocery item has gone up in the past month, we won't even notice a savings.

New Game

Yes, we have a new game that we play at our house with our almost 18-month old.

I can give Morgan anything and tell him to go throw it in the trash and HE DOES IT! He knows where the trash can in the kitchen is and he actually throws things away.

Now if he could only teach the 13, 10, 7 and 3 year old the same, we'd be doing so much better!

A couple of weeks ago, I gave Morgan Carson's shoe and told him to go put it in her room. I then watched as he disappeared around the corner to her room, went on about my business and forgot I had told him that. I was running around later in the afternoon, and wouldn't you know, on her bed was that shoe!

I finally have a child who listens and obeys his mama.

Earthquake

Yes, we had an earthquake here this morning!

Yes, in the heart of the Midwest, far away from any place that you would think has earthquakes, we had one this morning around 4:30 a.m. I was out delivering papers so I didn't feel a darn thing. It was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake which rocked much of our state, clear up to Chicago. Our local news source, WANDtv.com, has a page dedicated to this rockin' news.

Funny though, Bryan called me this morning after the paper route (on my way home from Wal-Mart -early morning shopping) and asked me if the wind was blowing much this morning. I had to really think about it and realized it wasn't, so I told him so. He then replied that he had been woken up around 4:30 because our house was shaking. He even thought that it felt like an earthquake, but since I didn't feel anything, he decided he must have been snoring so loudly that he had woken himself up because the bed was shaking so much :)

Then my mom calls me this morning around 8:30 a.m. and asks me about the earthquake we had and to find out if we are okay. I didn't even know. We watch Dora every morning at this house when I am home. I don't listen to the news while I'm delivering papers, I usually listen to my iPod. Yes, I am a very uninformed person :)

Housework

This article states that husbands create 7 hours of housework per week while wives save their husbands one hour per week. Not fair!!!

See if you agree or not...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080404/lf_nm_life/housework_husbands_dc

99 Balloons

If you haven't seen this yet, check out this website:

http://www.ignitermedia.com/products/iv/singles/570/99-Balloons

Sweet and sad...

Something to think about...

As I was driving to work this morning, I passed by a little church out in the country with this posted on their sign:

"Is what you are living for worth dying for?"

Made me think all day!

Mark

Today would have been my brother Mark's 37th birthday. He has been gone from us for about 19 years now, longer than he was with us. He was a wonderful person, full of life, handsome, funny, kind, tall, and crazy! He was FUN! He also was stubborn, infuriating at times, a little reckless and had to deal with ADHD problems. So even through the stuggles, it was a great time.

He had the greatest smile and was a great friend to so many people. He never cared about what group you were in in school - he like everybody. Even as a teenager, he loved all people and some of his closest friends were not even close to his age with an age range from 6 months to 92 years old.

He loved to toilet paper houses and would steal the tp from my mom and dad's house and then his friends and him would go and do up the neighborhood. He would always get the girls he liked too! He was even known to go help clean it up the next morning and never complained about it.

He loved little children. Oh, how I wish that my kids were able to spend time with their Uncle Mark although I'm sure they spent plenty of time with him before they came to this earth. Sometimes, like today, I feel a little sad that he wasn't able to go to college, on a mission, have a family, and live this life that we all have now. I wonder what he would be like now, I'm sure still as funny as ever, just older and wiser.

So yes, today, I'm going to miss him a little bit more than I usually do but I'm oh so happy that I know someday we'll be back together again.

These are the lyrics to one of the songs sung at Mark's funeral. It's a Michael W Smith song and always reminds me of my little, big brother, my friend.

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
I can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter of your life is through

But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever

If the Lord's the Lord of them

And a friend will not say never

'Cause the welcome will not end

Though it's hard to let you go

In the Father's hands we know

That a lifetime's not too long

To live as friends

And with the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you live in
Is the strength that now you show

We'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways

Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

No a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

WE LOVE YOU MARK!