Happy Birthday, Kimberlie!

My sister, Kimberlie, turned 35 last Wednesday. I am hoping she has been even busier than I have been this week, and has not noticed I did not wish her a happy b-day on my blog, yet.

As we were growing up I wanted to be just like my sister, like most little sisters do. I vividly remember sitting in our room (The "7 Eleven" room, I was seven, she was eleven at the time) trying to convince my mom that I needed glasses, just like my big sister had. My mom and sister sat with me on the bed and asked me what the certificate on the dresser said. I told them that I could not read it. My sister handed me her glasses, and suddenly I was able to read the certificate. It said my sister's name.

Either my mom was really nice, or really gullible. She took me to the eye doctor and much to my dismay... 20/20 vision, and not only that, but the doctor said I would probably not need glasses my entire life. Ugh! I so wanted to be cool like my sister.

Well, sometimes she let me play barbies with her and, even more exciting, as we got older, I got to sleep with her in her water bed. I loved that. I loved the water bed, but I loved staying up talking with my sister even more.

Talking to Kimberlie is still one of my favorite things to do. There are not many days that I don't call her just to ask her how to cook something, to vent, to tell her a funny story I just heard, or to ask advice on how to discipline my children.

She is an amazing mom. I am a better mom because of her example. She probably has no idea that I learn from her interaction with her children that I hear over the phone. Her daughters are sweet, smart, good girls. I wish we lived closer so I could know them even better.

We have a lot of fun together. I am glad she is my big sister!

Happy birthday, Kimberlie. I love you. I hope you had a fun day!

ConGRADulations, Dusty!

Today was Alphabet Club graduation. Dusty had such a fun time this year learning his letters. He loved being a part of something that was only for him, and not his brothers (we middle children are like that, we love it when it is all about us.) :)

We reserved the storytime room at the library for our graduation. When we first got there Dusty was nervous to sit on the front row with all of his friends. He did eventually sit with all of the other children and was excited to be there.

These are the little diplomas they got.

Each week Dusty got a letter to add to his caterpillar he had on his door. It has been fun to see the caterpillar grow.

A big THANK YOU to all of the other mommies that helped Dusty learn his alphabet this year! Actually only some of these mommies taught Dusty, we split the group because there were so many of us that wanted to participate. There are more than a dozen sunbeams (the kids that turn 4 in 2008) in our ward!

I am so proud of you, Dusty. Congratulations! Pre-K, here we come!

My Weekend in Numbers

1-Beautiful funeral for grandpa.

29-Hours spent in the car, airport, or airplane.

66-Hours I was gone from my home, missing my boys. (Which means I spent almost 44% of my time away in a car/plane/airport, and only 18% of the time sleeping, no wonder I am so tired.)

2-Parents that helped make it possible for me to even make this trip. :)

4-People that made it possible for me to leave all of my children home so they did not have to spend all of that time traveling too. (Thanks, Mrs. Morty, Sarah, Adriann, and El Guapo)

15-People on the phone with their moms, wishing them Happy Mother's Day, in the airport.

1-Sweet email from my children (husband), with this picture attached.

2-Fun sisters to spend time shopping, laughing, and crying with.

2-New dresses I bought myself for Mother's Day!

5,623-Extra calories eaten after saying, "I'm on vacation, I don't have to watch what I eat." or, "I am on a road trip, I need to buy those HUGE chocolate chip cookies they are selling at the gas station." or, "The Relief Society went to all this work to make these yummy funeral potatoes, and delicious desserts, I don't want to offend them by not eating one of everything."

20-Cousins that all made it to the funeral. It was the first time we had all been together for a very long time. It was great seeing all of you! (Once someone that had a camera there posts a picture of all of us I will add a link.)

21-Gun salute for Grandpa. (The photo on that link was taken by my very talented Uncle Mike.) This was one of the most awesome things I have ever seen. I was so touched by the respect these men had for my grandpa, even though they had never met him. (More pictures on my cousin's blog and my other cousin's blog.)

If you were there, and can think of anything else you want to add, please comment!

Found

I found my ring today. It was in the game closet in our computer room. What a relief! El Guapo's is still missing. I am afraid it is lost and gone forever. :(
I may have another dry spell here on my blog. I am leaving very early Friday morning to go to my Grandpa's funeral in Idaho. Thanks to my great husband and some awesome friends, I will be going without children.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

You are invited...

...to a treasure hunt!

In the last couple of weeks El Guapo and I have both lost our wedding rings. I know, crazy, huh? (I have no idea what we are supposed to be learning from this. There must be some sort of lesson here.)

We know they are in the house somewhere (or in our toddler's tummy). So, I was thinking... treasure hunt at my house. Sounds fun, right?

Big Helper

A couple of weeks ago I was looking for something in my freezer and noticed that there were some leftovers that had been in there for over six months...gross! So, I threw it out. Well, I actually put it down the disposal, don't ask me why I didn't just put it in the trash, it would have saved me a lot of trouble. I broke my disposal, oops.

I tried everything to get it working again. I knew there was a reset switch, so I pushed that and it at least started making noises like it was trying to work. I just could not get it to work properly.

El Guapo told me he could fix it. When he got home from work he told Ned that he needed his help. He put goggles on Ned (you never know what can happen while plumbing, right?) and got to work.

Within 10 minutes the thing was working again. Hooray! What a relief. I was really worried, I have no idea what I would do without my disposal.

Ned was so cute doing such a big job, I just had to share the pictures. He was so proud of himself, and so was I!

Thanks Ned and El Guapo!

My Husband

In 1999 I started working at a place called Partyland, there was a girl there that had been married just over a year and had just had her first baby. I was a month away from getting married. It was fun working with someone my age since the rest of the girls were 16 or 17 years old. We go along pretty well and had a lot to talk about. There was one thing that really bothered me about her though, whenever she would talk about her husband she always said, "My Husband" rather than his name. It always bothered me, I don't know exactly why. I think I kind of felt like she was trying to gain respect by showing off the fact that she was married, I don't know why she did it.

Anyway, I can't help but do the same thing she did on this blog because I do not use our real names. So, I have decided to give my husband a name on my blog. From now on he will be called El Guapo, Spanish for handsome one. Of course it is a character in Three Amigos!

Now I just need to decide what to call myself. I can't think of a time that I will have to refer to myself by name, but I might as well be prepared. :)