This Is The Year

FINALLY! Here's a picture of my fabulously creative friend Heidi's "1,000 cubes" Heidi homeschools her daughter who has struggled in the regular public school system. She amazes me and inspires me. She is always building and creating new tools to help her daughter learn the concepst she needs to know. She made the 1,000 blocks by mod podging "beaded" paper onto 4x4 cubes. The cubes represent 10 layers of 100 beads. Each cube represents 1,000 beads. The cubes are used to teach place value, and eventually multiplication. Thanks Heidi for allowing me to share your project with my blog friends!!

Y'all didn't really think we were gonna party seperately did you? Not when we have so much fun TOGETHER! And it's better this way, because it means you have TWO chances to win an awesome Blogiversary giveaway! One year ago today, Tanielle and I both started blogging. For me, I thought it might be a good way to promote our hairbow busines. But I quickly learned that the true value of my blog was in the wonderful women I've met and the wonderful friends I've made - some who have even become close friends outside of Bloggerville. I've laughed, cried, been inspired, and received the best comments from some of the smartest, funniest, kindest ladies I've ever known. Thank you all for all of it! And thank you Tanielle for partying with me, and for being one of the people I've had the most fun with in my life. Ever. 10 things I love about Tanielle 1. I love that she shares a maturity level equivalent to mine (in it's near non-existence!) 2. I love that s...

Okay Tanielle, I know I said I'd never tell people who your secret love is. But all bets are off now. Mr. and Mrs. Horatio Caine

Tomorrow is MY blogiversary so back off! Tanielle 's not pregnant any more, so I am totally not afraid to throw down with her! Come back tomorrow and party with ME!

ACK! I have had some craziness going on this weekend that I may share at a later date. So sorry for the lack of posts and the lack of visiting...but I'll be back tomorrow! Stop by to celebrate with me okay?

Wanna hear what a freakin' idiot I am? MiMi says I should share with you then link up to her! I think she's exploiting her friend's (my) misfortune for her own amusement...what do ya think? So, I'm going to a Luau tonight. It's a girls' night with some of our neighborhood/ward friends. We get together every so often and just have fun and relax. Have I ever mentioned how much I love our ward and my friends here? Yeah...it pretty much rocks. ANYWAY.... My assignment for the party was to bring tropical slush. My mom has this fabulous recipe (for real, it is SO GOOD), but it makes a HUGE batch. Like a 5 gallon bucket-full. I've never made it before. When I called to get the recipe she invited me to come over since she had the 5 gallon mxing bucket, and the smaller containers to freeze it in. So I armed myself with my ingredients and headed over. The process includes disolving 12 cups of sugar in water, and boiling it before transferring it to the bu...

There are 2 things that draw my little monkey's attention like no other: candy and television. Case in point: The other day I instructed Monkey to take her jammies off, and I put her shirt on, then handed her some jeans and asked her to put them on. I made the mistake of doing this in the living room, while the T.V. was on. When I came back in I found that she had become distracted by what was on T.V. before she was able to finish putting her jeans on! I seriously could not stop laughing! That girl seriously keeps us in stitches all the time! Hope everyone has had a great week so far!

Okay...remember I told you about Due West back here ? I told ya I'd keep you posted....just saw on FB that they are performing at the Sundance Film Festival...and although I'm not a fan of Redford or the festival (go ahead, I know some of you wanna boo me), I AM a fan of Due West and really, really wanna go! Anybody live in the area that wants to go with me? It's on the 30th and tickets are $20. I think it's in a lodge or something, but ticket includes dessert bar. Doesn't that sound yummy? And the dessert sounds good too! If you missed my post the first time around and are curious about these guys, check this out: So who's in?

Well, in reviewing my past few blog posts, I realized that they have all been pretty much me whining! Why did't y'all slap me and tell me to knock it off? Today I'm going to blog about something joyous! Meet my 2 friends Matt and Andrea . Matt and Andrea are seriously two of the best people to ever walk the face of the planet. For real. I've mentioned them before here . Andrea is the Young Women's President in our ward, and I serve as the Young Women's secretary...so I've gotten to know her even better. Matt and Andrea have been longing for parenthood for many years. They have been trying to conceive as well as go the adoption route. I know it has been a long, frustrating journey. Friday they found out that they would be blessed with a little girl who had just been born. She was waiting for them in Florida! They headed out Saturday morning for sunny Orlando! We (friends and family) have been receiving updates in the form of texts and FB with picture...

That's what my Aunt used to always say when she got mad "Oh, Cuss Words!" Today I'm linking up my cuss word moment with my hysterical, adorable, fabulous friend MiMi . She. Is. A. Riot. So if ya wanna laugh really hard...start reading her blog! Here's the lowdown: Recently my husband received a new calling in church. Kind of a heavy one. The day he was to be sustained , and set apart was the first Sunday after New Year's. My girls had all received beautiful new church dresses for Christmas. They were going to get to wear them for the first time on this Sunday. It was going to be a really special day for our family. That is why I was DETERMINED to have a peaceful, lovely Sunday morning. With the start of the new year, our ward 's meeting time switched from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. I would be getting everyone ready by myself since my husband always has meetings before church. We could NOT be late on this Sunday. No. matter. what. I refused to go to bed until...

Dear Fox, I loathe you. I cannot BELIEVE you pulled a stunt like this. Seriously? No SYTYCD Season 6 tour? I want you to know what a crappy, low-blow I think you have handed out. Not just to the fans who watched faithfully all season and phoned in their votes to make sure their favorite dancers would make it on the tour, but most especially you have screwed the dancers over. The whole season they work their hearts out trying to move ahead. Their first short term goal after making the show, is to make it through all the cuts into the top 10. Because this means they will be part of the tour. They will be doing what they love, night after night, gaining more exposure and experience to help them further their career in dance. Do you need any help pulling the knives out of their backs? It would be one thing if you had announced from the beginning that the Fall season would not be followed by a top ten tour as the summer seasons have been. But to wait until the season is over then just say t...

I'm so glad to be once again partying with my lovely friend Amanda . Each month she hosts a Decorating Dilemmas party . It's a chance to ask advice on some decor delimmas you may be facing, as well as give some ideas to help others with their dilemmas! So head on over and party with us! What I am currently needing help with is the accessorizing of my fireplace. And I'm sorry I'm too lazy to take new pictures, so you get recycled pics from some past posts, but I hope you'll get the general idea of what I'm working with. Here is my fireplace in it's entirety all decked out for Christmas: Now that the holidays are over, I'm left trying to decide what to do with it. Here's a partial picture of what it looks like without all the Christmas trimmings (yes that is a stray blanket lying on the hearth): Here is what I had done with my mantel before the fall and winter holidays. I know it needs more, I'm just not sure exactly what to add. But I am pa...

Hello friends! Welcome! It's time for Friend Makin' Monday hosted by the fabulous Amber . FMM is a wonderful way to learn more about your bloggy friends, and meet some new ones! So head over and link up! This week Amber asks us, if we were to cut our hair tomorrow...what would we want it to look like? I actually got my hair cut not too long ago. I had grown my hair REALLY long to donate to Locks of Love, but since it had been highlighted, they wouldn't accept it. I got it cut above my shoulders. It's grown out a little, but I miss my long hair. I recently found a new stylist that I LOVE...I went to her to get it shaped a bit, and especially my bangs. I LOVE how it turned out, but still, I'm working on getting my long locks back. My absolute favorite celebrity hair belongs to this lady: Nancy O'Dell For years I have coveted how her hair falls loosely, yet perfectly around her face, and I LOVE her bangs! So I am aiming for this style. I have a short...

Hello my long lost bloggy peeps. I haven't forgotten you. Truly I haven't. I have just been overwhelmed with life as of late! But I'm missing my bloggy BFF's to share it all with! Are you ready for one giant blog-share? Okay...you asked for it! First - it's coming up on my 1 year blogiversary! Unbelieveable! I feel like I've known y'all forever! In my first blog post, I spoke of my goals for the year. I talked about my desire to become more organized, more fit, and more prepared (food storage specifically). At this point my food storage is much more substantial than at this time last year. I have slacked off the past few months due to finances...but still feeling good about the progress I've made! I have lost just over 40 lbs (yes, you all now know that I was super fat!). I'm still not where I'd like to be, and am attacking it again with a vengeance! Organization still eludes me. Although the pantry and bathroom cupboards I organize...