30

Yep. I'm thirty. I feel old. My body is a little more achy, my curves are a little more round and I have a few more wrinkles. Let's face it. I'm an old lady now. Okay, so maybe not an old lady, but I do feel older. It's weird how going from 29 to 30 can make you feel so much older. Anyways, every year on (or around) my birthday I like to do a post about me. Stuff I like, stuff I don't like, opinions I have, etc.

1. I'm obsessed with The Vampire Diaries. My close friends and family can attest to this. I'm especially fond of one vampire in particular, Damon Salvator. Oh my goodness, that's all I'll say.
2. I'm still working. I originally stated that I'd work for one year, but lets face it, we all knew that it would turn into a lot longer. Things never go as planned, right? I've been working now for 16 months. I like my job. It's really physical and I feel like a tough chick working where I do. I run huge machines. I can fix them (for the most part) when they're broke and I'm super good at my job. I'm the only girl on my crew which has it's goods and bads. There's less drama, but lots of sports talk (which I'm not too shabby at joining in on) AND lot's of sex talk. Hmmmm. I've kind of become immune to this sort of talk. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I have seniority on my shift, so when my boss is gone, I'm in charge. I know, it's pretty cool. I get to tell all the boys what to do. I'm nice, but I'm not afraid to tell people what to do and I can hold my own. People respect me, because I'm a HARD worker. I give the young guys a run for their money. I'm super tiny compared to them and yet my supervisor told me that I'm the hardest worker in my area. Made me feel good. I can see myself working there for along time. I can see myself being a boss, sooner than later. BUT, the big question is, is that what I want? There's a lot to think about. We'll probably buy a house this summer and then the question will have to be answered. Continue working where I'm at and move up the chain and an amazing company, or quit and open my daycare. To be continued...
3. Going along with the above, number 2 and I think I talked about this last year too. Here it goes. If you're struggling financially or want to get ahead in life, it's on you. I do believe there are certain situations that may need financial assistance, but for the most part people are irresponsible and lazy. Simple as that. If you don't have the money, don't spend it. If you owe money, YOU need to pay it back. If you rely on the government and/or church to pay your bills, get off your butt and figure it out. (Like I said before there are SOME situations that I completely agree it's okay to rely on the government/church.) Don't take the easy way out like so many people do. It's not fair. The church wants us to be stay at home moms, BUT they never said they would pay your bills for the duration of your children's childhood so you can stay at home. The fact of the matter is, in a perfect world I would do just that, stay at home. With my husbands income, I will always have to do some form of work. Inside the home or outside the home. That's okay with me. I like to contribute. It's so frustrating when I'm working my ass off to be self sufficient and so many other people are relying on other people to pay their bills/taking the east way out. I could go on for hours, but my rant ends here.
4. We're 99.9% sure that we're done having babies. Eeeeeeek. This makes me kind of sad. I've been getting rid of all my baby stuff. My baby is 2 1/2 and I am trying to enjoy every single phase with her, because she is my last:(
5. I'm a home body. Tim likes to always be going and doing and gets kind of depressed when he's stuck at home. He calls it being a, "Cooped up duck!" I on the other hand am perfectly happy being a hermit at home. I enjoy cleaning my house, organizing stuff and watching my shows. Don't get me wrong, I love to be social too, but there's nothing like chillin' at home.
6. My favorite thing to do is interior design. I LOVE LoVe love it! I often find myself daydreaming about my dream house and everything it would entail. People always ask me to help them, which makes me nervous, because I know what I like, but I'm not sure they will like it. I love to paint furniture most of all. I hate that my husband has such an opinion on house stuff. I wish he would just give me full reigns and let me do whatever. He's never sure of what I do. It makes me mad. I tell him that I know what looks good! LOL! I tell him that his passion is sports and my passion is home stuff! We'll see how it goes when we buy our new house. Wish me luck!
7. I hate that the world has become so attached to their phones and internet. It make me even more mad that I'm one of them. I don't even have internet on my phone and I still find away to be on Facebook or Pinterest or Draw Something or my blog. GAH! They need AA for these kinds of people. By the way, have you noticed that blogging isn't as popular as it used to be. Like 3-4 years ago everybody was blogging all the time. I notice that less and less people are blogging now.
8. I want to get healthy. That's the number two reason I want to quit my job. I feel like I have no time to be healthy working graves. First of all I get very little sleep. I eat horribly, because my eating schedule is so messed up. I don't have time to exercise. Yeah, it's pretty bad. Can't wait to be healthy again.

Well that's it for this year. Stay tuned for next years list!

AUGUST IN REVIEW

August is over and we're halfway into September! Even though I'm super busy, I feel the need to keep up with my blogging. Even if it's a recap of each month.

~I took the girls to an Orem Owlz game thanks to USSynthetic. Tim would have come, but Kendall had pink eye, so I got to go with Addi and Hally. They had an opportunity to get their picture taken with the Owl and the Owlette, but both chickened out. I guess giant owls are scary.

~Tim and I celebrated 8 years of marriage! My mom watched the kids over night and we went to dinner at PF Changs and saw the movie, "Crazy, Stupid, Love", which was a fun movie. This picture is kinda blurry, but it's a picture of us right before he proposed. The plan was to propose at Eagle's Landing at Zion National Park, but my knees would not allow me to make it to the top. I had a feeling he was going to propose, so I kept willing myself on. We could both hear my knees grinding and finally decided that I shouldn't go further. I was kind of disappointed and I'm sure Tim was too. We headed back down to the

bottom and I thought I'd missed my opportunity to get engaged. At the bottom of the trail, as the sun was setting, Tim proposed on a bridge. It was perfect and the rest is history. Tim, I love you so much!

~Addi started soccer. This is her first time playing soccer. She's had her ups and downs, but has kind of decided she doesn't really like it, however the whining and complaining has ceased somewhat now that we're 3/4 of the way into the season. I was never very athletic, so I wanted my kids to be sort of good at sports. I'm not so sure that's going to happen though. We might have to stick with gymnastics and music. Maybe I'll sign her up next year though and we'll practice lots on the off season so it will build her confidence and her skills and her aggressiveness. We'll see.

~First day of 1st grade!!!! It's back to school time! Addi's lovin' school so far. She's had fun seeing all of her school friends from last year and making new friends. She's also enjoyed eating lunch at school. Sometimes she takes a lunch from home and sometimes she eats school lunch. Once again, it looks like she's a model student. I ran into her teacher, Ms. Taylor at Walmart and she went on and on about what a great student she is and how cute she dresses. Her teacher also said she was blown away by her reading abilities and is going to move her to a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level. Smarty pants!

~Hally Bear is in KINDERGARTEN! Wow, my kids are growing up and I'm getting OLD! She was SO excited! Of course, mom was a little nervous for her little girl to start school and had to wear sunglasses to drop her off;) The principal was passing out kleenex's to all the moms. So far so good. We love her sweet teacher Mrs. Rigby and she seems to be doing well, liking it and making some new friends. GO Hally!

~Last of all, I wanted to give an update of me working. It's been almost 9 months and it's going great! We've already been able to accomplish some of our goals! I like what I do and the people I work with. I quit daycare a couple of weeks ago, because once school started again it was too much and too stressful and too busy. It feels so weird not having any daycare kids after five years of having them. It's for the best though. Many people say to me that I'm crazy for working full-time graves and it's something they would/could never do. Really, the decision was a simple one. We could have stayed in our same position and struggled financially for the rest of our lives, or I could go to work for 1 to 11/2 years and get into a situation where we could move forward in our lives. So yes, let me work my butt off like many other women do to accomplish a goal and make a better life for my family. Simple as that. I hope that people can be supportive, tell me to "keep it up" or "you can do it" and let me be to do what I need to do. I never want to feel like this choice I've made is the wrong one, or I'm a bad person or suffering spiritually because of it. I may not be the social, outgoing, bubbly person that I was before I started this schedule. BUT, don't worry, it's just cause I'm tired basically all the time and any extra energy I do have is directed towards my family. It's been really exciting to see the progress we've made thus far!

Thanks for all of your support! A special thanks to Tim for picking up where I leave off when he gets home so I can go to bed and for never complaining!

Any questions?? Please ask!

WOW...

So apparently I offended someone so bad because of this post that I was blocked from their blog and removed and blocked as a friend on facebook. The post wasn't even directed at her. It was just directed at people in general. I stick by what I say and just wanted to add a few things. If you're negative all the time, people will start to lose sympathy for you. No one likes a Debby Downer. YOU ultimately decide if you're going to be happy in life. No matter what life gives you it's YOUR choice. Even though depression is a serious disease, do you still think you have a choice to be happy if you're depressed? This is open for discussion people. Does depression take away your accountability? Your choice to be happy? Please discuss. No matter what trials life gives you, even the worst trials imaginable, do your trials give you a right to be negative all the time? To complain about every little thing every chance you get?

The BIG 29!!!

For my birthday, Tim made me a cake as usual. He's so sweet. I also got some way cute capri's (can't wait till it's warm enough to wear them). Addi picked out and bought me some cute earrings with her own money. Hally borrowed some money from her dad to buy me a cute bracelet. I have the cutest family ever! I love them so much!

I can't believe I've reached the last year in my twenties. I feel old. My life is passing me by. At work, I'm the second oldest person there. It's hard to wrap my head around it. I take six years off of work, besides daycare, and all the sudden I'm the oldest one. In my mind I'm still young, like all of my coworkers. There's about twenty other people in my department at work and they're all in their early twenties. Even my boss is only 21. Go figure. It's crazy having to answer to a 21 year old. I feel kind of like a mentor to all the youngin's I work with. All I have to say is, "They've got a lot to learn." About life that is. Here are a few random things I wanted to make note of:

• I've learned to operate gigantic machines. I'm a mechanic. I'm stronger than I thought. I feel tough and empowered in a way. My job is stinkin' hard and I work hard and try my best.
• I'm not opposed to cosmetic surgery. Especially after having three kids.
• I went on a cruise and it was awesome.
• I have a love/hate relationship with books. Once I start one, I can't put it down, but I hate how they take me away from the things I "should" be doing. You know, like cleaning, etc. I wish I was well read. I'm ashamed to say the grand total of books I've read in my lifetime is pretty sad and pathetic that I won't even give you the number.
• I lost two grandparents. One of which I was extremely close to and was privileged to speak at her funeral. The other one, I wasn't as close to, but I am extremely thankful to for always treating me so wonderful.
• I need to strengthen my testimony on life after death. It seems like if I did this, it wouldn't hurt so bad to lose someone I love. I know it will always hurt, but I worry. Worry about where they're going and if I'll see them again. Even though I've been taught my whole life about "The Plan", I still worry. I dislike death, strongly.
• I now have a 1 year old, 4 year old and 6 year old. I'm 99% sure that we're done having kids. My kids are growing up too fast and I hate it. I wish I could slow the process down.
• I'm bad at finding good deals. When I go to Target I usually end up buying the cute new stuff, rather than what's on clearance. Half the time I don't even check the clearance rack. *cringe* Most everyone I know loves to find good deals. I guess I do too, but only if I happen upon it. Having said that, I don't spend lots of money on stuff. I shop at cheap stores like Walmart and Target.
• People that complain about living in Utah drive me nuts. If you dislike it here so much then MOVE. If you're being kept here against your will, then be thankful for what you have and GET OVER IT.
• I made the switch from Dr. Pepper to Diet Dr. Pepper to Diet Coke. Some people may say that diet is bad for you, but lets face it. Soda is general is bad for you. I would rather save those calories for food anyways. I actually only drink it a few times a week.
• Here it goes, I'm getting on my high horse and I'm going to complain for a minute. Some of you may be offended, sorry. If you're struggling financially, figure out a way to solve it, by yourself. I'm going to guess that about 80% of people using government/church money to help them financially, don't really need it. It drives me nuts. If I need more money, then I'll find a way to get it myself. The church really encourages mothers to be at home. I completely agree with this. However, I don't think the church has ever said that they will pay your bills in order for you to do so. Please correct me if I'm wrong. When Tim got laid off a couple years ago, he didn't wait around for the perfect job to come, he took the first job that was offered. He hated it severely. But it was a job. No unemployment here. There ARE jobs out there, you just have to be willing to do them. I decided to do daycare from my house to supplement our income. Things eventually got stretched so thin that it was either, get a job or ask for money. That's why I got a job and I'm proud of it. It's temporary, but it's what I have to do in order to be self-sufficient. Believe me, I know there are times when church/government money is needed. I just wish people would try a little harder to cut things out/get a second job, etc. before they start relying on other people's money. If there's something you can do to become self-sufficient then do it. Go work a graveyard shift, then come home and do daycare. You have to do it to get to where you want to be in life. It seems like people are getting lazier and lazier. Okay, I'm done. Please forgive.
• I filled out my first bracket at work and I'm in second place out of 15 other GUYS. I feel pretty cool.
• I LOVE The Vampire Diaries. Watch it through season 2 and you'll see why.
• Favorites right now: Pei Wei, Subway, Rod Wroks, damask, sleeping, Diet Coke, Vampire Diaries, Modern Family, expensive jeans (they really do feel and look better, see for yourself), big purses, big earrings, big bracelets, American Eagle, Downeast, Target, painted wood furniture, BYU basketball, not excited about the Jazz so much anymore:(, 5 hour energy, Linkin Park, that's all I can think of at the moment. The End.

The Forgotten Man

I don't think all of the problems our nation is facing today are because of President Obama, but I do think this painting is pretty cool. All of the former presidents looking at the nation today and the turmoil we're in. I got goose bumps, did you?

INAUGURATION THOUGHTS

"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America." - President Barak H. Obama

I don't know about you, but I was very overwhelmed by yesterday's inauguration. I am not going to sit here and tell you who is right and wrong when it comes to the political spectrum. I can see both sides and have always been able to see both sides of every aspect of life. I am not saying that I am a Republican and I am not saying that I am a Democrat, all I am saying is that I can see both sides.  

Anyways, I just wanted to say that I am glad to have witnessed a part of history yesterday. It was pretty amazing for me to see the first African American president take the oath of office. It touched me to see millions of people, waving their flags, in the freezing cold, just wanting to get a glimpse of a moment in history. I sat in front of the T.V. for a couple of hours watching all of the people come in. It was neat to watch the past presidents, whom are still living, and the current president, be so gracious to each other. 

Barack Obama is the new president of the United States of America and whether or not you or I agree with him, he is still the president and deserves respect, just as President Bush deserved respect. President Obama is an amazing speaker and although I think he's got a lot of problems to fix and it's definitely going to take a long time to fix those problems, he really has a way of putting hope in the hearts of the American people and I guess if that's all he can give us for right now.... then I'll take it.

I am proud to be an American.

TRENT DUVAL

My friend Brittney posted about a little eight year old boy named Trent who is losing a long fought battle with cancer. Here is his blog that has kept everyone updated along the way. It's been 15 months since his diagnosis. Come to find out, this little boy is my neighbors nephew. I knew about his story, but had no idea that he had a blog documenting his time with Lukemia.

As I read his last post, I just cried and cried. His story is so touching. What a sweet little boy. Why does this sort of things happen to little kids? He has been such a fighter. Now he says he is ready to return to his Heavenly Father. Wow! You are such a strong little boy Trent and have touched so many lives.

The Chick-Fil-A in South Jordan is having a fundraiser for Trent's family today. Twenty percent of their revenue from today will be donated to the family to help them with their massive medical expenses. You can also just donate money by calling.

11494 South District Drive
South Jordan, UT 84095-5646
801/727-2697

MOTHERHOOD

Recently I signed up for a Facebook account. I have been able to see all of these people from my past that I went to high school and college with. Looking at their profiles, I have been amazed at their successes! Some have their graduate degrees, others have traveled the world. Some of the women have incredible paying jobs in corporate positions. Many of these people aren't married and most of the people who are married don't have children. Looking at all of this has honestly made me wonder about my own life and accomplishments. I haven't traveled the world and I didn't even finish college.... I am a mom.

Elder M. Russell Ballard

~Listen to his talk here.~

The talk given by Elder M. Russell Ballard yesterday at General Conference, is exactly what I needed to hear. (Every husband should read this talk!) He gave his talk on the importance of being a mother. He says, "No role in life is more essential and more eternal than motherhood." His talk was very funny and oh so true. He made me feel appreciated in what I am doing with my life.... being a mom. He says, "The family is central to the creators plan for the eternal destiny of his children."

At the end of Elder Ballard's talk he spoke to the children, telling them what they can do to help their mothers. He told them to pick up their toys, make their bed, help do the dishes and other chores, remember to say thank you after dinner or a story book is read, and always hug your mom and say, "I love you." Addi actually listened to this part of the talk. She was very excited that the man on the T.V. was talking to her. All day today she has been reminding me of what he said, "Mommy, remember what the Apostle said yesterday? He told me to pick up my toys and make my bed and say thank you and I love you." She knew that the man on the T.V. was an important person and without question she has been doing what he told her.

Indeed I have felt a little insignificant surrounded by so many successful people, but I do know that the choices I have made for myself are correct.... in God's eye and in my own eyes. I love being a mom and wouldn't trade it for the world! My kids means so much to me, I can't help but tear-up while writing this entry. No job, travel, or physical possession will ever bring me greater joy than being a mom. This is confirmed to me everyday when I look at my two beautiful and precious little girls.