IT' S OVER??????

From Collages

What......it's over? Already? How can that be?

Weeks of preparation, endless shopping trips,

returning, exchanging, buying it again, wrapping.

And it is all over with.....

Christmas has come and gone.

Although our kids made out like pirates with their loot

it always seems so sad when it is all over.

All the hype is over in such a short time.

I love putting up my decorations.

It makes it feel so festive and so fun around the house.

For some reason any other season I decorate for

doesn't quite have the same feeling.

I dread taking it down.

It is so much work and it makes my house

feel so empty and so boring.

I wonder if I kept them up all year if that feeling would continue?

Naaaa, probably not!!!

So another year done and gone.

Where did it go?

Today was not a day I was necessarily looking forward to.

I hate birthdays - well my birthdays.

I do not like the idea of getting old.

Yet it keeps happening, faster and faster.

My husband is out of town

My kids didn't even remember when they woke up

nor did they say Happy Birthday when I did tell them.

I had a full day scheduled, hopefully to keep my mind off "the day".

Volunteering in Kate's class room

Deliver a few treats.

Clean the downstairs so that I can walk without sticking to my floor.

Finish teacher gifts and friend gifts.

THEN..... my phone started going crazy!

Texts, voice mails, emails, phone calls,

all for me! All my dear friends and family were thinking of me.

Not how old I was but just thinking of me on this day.

My dear girlfriends rearranged their schedules to eat lunch with me.

And oh was it good. mmmmmm!

I came home to numerous bags on my porch,

numerous messages on my machine.

Again all for me! More friends and family thinking of me.

My birthday night plans were mocked a bit by many,

but I was trying to make the best of it.

My kids wanted to take me to Carl's Jr. for my birthday.

I had several offers to watch my children so I could go out.

But I thought a lot about this,

who am I am going to go out with?

Who is going to be able to be pulled away from their family?

Of course I want to go to Carl's Jr with my kids.

They were so excited and

I was excited to be with them, ALL of them.

Life is so crazy and so busy,

I don't have them all to myself very often.

This dreaded day made me realize a lot of things.

I have A LOT of people that truly care about me and love me.

I will take Carl's Jr. with my kids on every birthday.

No one really cares how old I am anyway.

They say age is only skin deep and

my girlfriend was telling be about this anti aging product. (he he!)

So bring it.

Bring on the wrinkles,

bring on the grey hair,

bring on the not so toned body.

THANK YOU to everyone who delivered birthday wishes, in all forms.

I felt very loved, very humbled and very blessed today.

So it has been awhile since I have blogged .....uh ya think? The busy season is upon us and I can feel the anxiety creeping up my chest into my throat trying to choke me with stress. I try every year not to get myself in the same position I find myself in AGAIN this year. Too many cards to make, to many neighbor gifts to put together, the teacher gifts, the kids' friends gifts, gifts for my parents, gifts for Jake's parents.......... it never ends. I really really really was going to try to enjoy this time with my kids and try to have everything done. Yet here I am up until midnight every night making crap that no one really cares about anyway and "creating my own crisis" as my husband tells me. So it is December 10th and I have exactly 8 days to be finished with EVERYTHING because I AM going to enjoy Christmas break. I feel my children's childhood slipping through my hands and I just want to sit down and cry and make it all stop. So I guess I better stop blogging and get going....8 days and counting!

From Collages

HALLOWEEN! My absolute favorite holiday of the whole year! I love dressing up, yes even I sport a costume, but especially my kids. Kyle informed me that last year was the last time that he was going to do a "group thing". I was so sad,I had great hopes for the Scooby Doo gang this year, but he wasn't having it. So we rumaged through the dress up box and this is what we came up with. Not that anyone will see them...... it is 47 freezing degrees here. Seriously, what's up. Your coat is not suppose to be worn over your Halloween costume. This is also the one time of year that I truly loath Idaho. Never fails, Oct 31st it turns cold as a witches....umm....a witches...how does that saying go? Anyway it's COLD. While my family in California is running around in the 73 degree weather with their kids trick or treating, I will be sulking and freezing with my children trick or treating. Good thing we have a small neighborhood.

When black cats prowl
And Pumpkins gleam
May luck be yours
on HALLOWEEN!

From Collages

Sundays are rather "boring" around here, so my kids say! Every Sunday we go through the same thing....I'm bored, there's nothing to do, why can't we do this, why can't we do that. So in my effort to make Sunday a different day, I make a list that the kids can choose from of "appropriate" Sunday activities. So this Sunday was Rock Band, minus the Wii! Kennedy even got in on the action! No tour dates yet, but I will let you know!

I did it! I made grape juice! I am so excited! I have been really trying to domesticate myself and try to get some sort of food storage going. We have a food storage group at church that I try to go to, but I get so overwhelmed between the cost, the rotating, using it, storing it, that I just gave up and did nothing for a long time. My wonderful friend suggested I start with a 2 year supply. Which has helped tremendously. So I have enough beans, wheat, powder milk and cereal to last my family for 2 years!!!!! I have slowly been trying new things with food storage. Grinding my own wheat, freezing peaches, and now grape juice. It may sound silly to some of you but for me this is a huge accomplishment. When I was little I remember drinking grape juice all the time. But for some reason my kids have never had grape juice! We have always just drank apple juice, oh the money I have spent on apple juice. So they are excited as well to drink the grape juice. I am going to try applesauce next, another thing I spend a lot of money on!

I am totally obsessed with coupons and how much of a deal I can get. I guess you could say that my husband has rubbed off on me. And for those of you who really know Jake, know that that man can drive a bargain. I have become completely enthralled with clipping coupons and scanning the ads every Sunday. It is a ritual that my kids now know not to interfere with. Don't bug mom when she is coupon clipping. Kate is a good coupon cutter, though! I am not as nearly as obsessed as some of my friends, some of them get FIVE papers just to get duplicate coupons. My Wal-Mart days are over. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Wal Mart is like Costco- you always walk out with 2-3 things you don't need. I have graduated to the finer retailers such as Albertsons, Walgreens and Fred Meyer (like Albertsons and Wal-Mart put together) So every Sunday night I plan out my attack on the stores. Find the ad, clip the coupons, make the list and paperclip them all together. It has become sort of a challenge now. I do have some learning to do because my friend Pam, who's claim to fame is "never pay retail", always seems to beat me on getting "the better deal". She is teaching me and I am learning....slowly. Every week I am going to post my deal of the week, so scroll down and see what I got this week!

BUSTED

You have to know how much of an "issue" snacks are at our house to truly appreciate this picture. It all started with Cole ( as does all trouble around here), who would go into the pantry and dump cereal boxes on the ground and then proceed to stomp up and down on the cereal that was on the ground. Kennedy started to do the same thing and it didn't take us long to change the door knob to a locking one. It has helped a lot but on the rare occasion that it gets left unlocked...... she helps herself to a snack! There are 11 cookies there, just so you know!

Cole and Kens locked in the pantry! She is eating Ritz Crackers

still in the wrapper!!!!!

Sand Mountain, for those of you who do not know, is in the middle of Nevada (just outside Fallon) or in the middle of no where. It is the Lake Powell of sand goers! And for those of you who know me, know that I HATE sand, unless it is boardering an ocean. So the boys, Kyle, Cole and Jake loaded up the quads, the dirt bikes and the toy hauler (well I loaded the trailer - who are we kidding) and left for a 3 days all boy adventure. Jake meet two of his brothers and some old friends out there. Cole rode his quad from sun up to sun down and even fell asleep on his quad. Kyle stayed busy looking for kangaroo rats!

Kate woke up Friday morning and said "aaahhh, isn't it nice not to have Cole here" and as much as I hated to admit it, it was! Just the girls.... we were going to have a fun (quiet) weekend! While the boys were off getting dirty, which included sand angels, "swimming" in the sand, and rolling down the mountain, the girls dropped by the Woman Celebration in downtown Boise, went to dinner and a movie. Needless to say, both sides, girls and boys had a great weekend full of lots of fun memories. Cole asked me if I would sand camp with him next time because girls can come and he would not let the kangaroo rats get me. I told him I would have to get back to him on that. Maybe next year!!!

Okay so I finally gave in and started blogging. It took me a little bit to figure it out, thus the long history below. That was NOT suppose to be a post, it was suppose to be in the "about me" column. Apparently you can not "un"post a post. So there ya go, the love story of Jake and I (cough, gage,cough)! I am hoping that this will help me get through these child rearing years, can't afford therapy, so my sister suggested blogging. Here we go..........

Jake and Tessa

Jake and I met in 6th grade. My family moved from Utah to Sacramento, California and we were in the same ward, lucky guy, got to see me on Sunday and everyday of the school week! Of course he was smitten at first sight! We dated briefly when we were sophomore's, but I changed High Schools and that was pretty much the end of that. We would see each other on and off at church dances and other activities. After college I moved to the Bay Area for a job and unbeknownst to me, so did he. One weekend while in Sacramento my mom and dad ran into him at a restaurant. So the story goes, my mom and dad all but browbeat him into calling me. Which he tried and tried, and tried again. Finally I agreed to meet up with him in Sacramento on a weekend we were both there. We starting dating (again) in October of 1998 and were married in August of 1999. After a year in the Bay, Jake got a job opportunity in Boise, Idaho. He came home to tell me and my response was, ummmm where is Boise, Idaho. Never heard of it and didn't know where it was! Do they have a Nordstrom there? Needless to say we packed up and moved. 9 years later with 4 wonderful children, a great job, and many, many wonderful friends, we absolutely love Boise (never thought I'd hear myself say that!)