New Blog

I did it! I opened up a blog dedicated to Thursday's Thumbs!  Check it out http://thursdaysthumbs.blog.com/ 
I just wish I could find that picture I used back in the day when I first started doing TT. 
Join me over there each Thursday as I rate products and items we've tried through that week!  Also feel free to drop me any suggestions.
Want to try something but are too chicken?  Tell me about it and I just might try it for you!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Gina!

I'm so excited about you turning 40 before me!

Don't light the house on fire!!

Make a wish! Oh heck, make 40 of them!

Grrrrrr

11:12 am
I have the grumblies.
I'm frustrated with spending my time doing stuff I don't want to do, so now I have the grumblies. I should be thankful instead I have the stuff I have to do, but right now my mind is in the wrong place. I was so busy getting Christmas put together, I didn't have time to play.
I want to be outside playing with my kids instead of meeting deadlines, when I called "vacation!". Can't help when babies are born, and I am glad for the images I got and the money I made and the family I met and hope I see again. So I should be thankful right?
I'm just grumbly.
One thing that got me excited today was the thought of reviving my Thursday's Thumbs. Thinking about it....

2:20pm
Now, I've almost single handedly gone through a bowl of M&M's as I've worked here today. I have laundry sitting in the dryer because I haven't folded the last load that came out. I'm contemplating tossing it all on the couch and sorting it out later when dh is at the job interview.
Oh yeah, have I mentioned he has an interview today for a temporary, part time job with an tax prep place? He does. Sometime around 4 I think. He has to be up at 3. Wish him luck.

We had a pretty good Christmas! The kids got a lot of fun things. We spent the evening at Joel’s sister Sarah’s house. The kids had fun sledding down the hill with their aunt, uncle and cousins. I had fun hanging out and talking to family.

I got something I’ve been wanting for several years. A big beautiful warm electric blanket. Every night for the last couple of years I have put on socks and warmed my side of the bed with a hot pad while I brushed my teeth before going to bed. My next big item on my wish list is a towel warmer. I found one at Bed Bath & Beyond but it seemed too small for our new big fluffy towels I got on Black Friday or I would have bought it right then and there. I wish it had been bigger. I bet it feels so nice to step into warm towels in the middle of winter!

I also was lucky and got to talk to several family members in the last few days for the holidays as well. I don’t have any family here in Minnesota, and sometimes I really miss them, especially on the holidays. I wish we could travel there in the winter, but my mom always insists that we won’t miss anything good and also I’m chicken to travel in the snow, especially in the mountains. I suggested to Joel that maybe next year we could go spend the holidays in a cabin somewhere in MN. There’s one that we found that had indoor plumbing and it would be really fun to spend a week there… I bet it would cost a fortune though.

Spoiler Ahead!

For Christmas I got the movie Julie and Julia. If you haven’t seen it yet, read no further. If you have, read on! I loved it! Mostly. I didn’t like that in the movie they said that Julia didn’t like Julie or her blog. So terrible! I appreciated the part at the end where Julie didn’t hold that against Julia and it didn’t keep her from finishing her project. I also loved the butter tribute she left with the painting of Julia. I did love learning more about Julia and watching Meryl Streep portraying her was fascinating. I loved the relationship between Julia and Paul. I also loved all the French words. French is such a beautiful language. I took a few years in High School, but I barely remember anything. I love listening to people speak it. I looked up her blog and read the last few entries and then later while looking up pictures of her I ran into Julia Powell’s current blog where she tells about reading at bars and such. I’ll have to look into it more. I wonder if she has any children yet, or if this whole thing has taken over her life.

-End Spoiler-

Jaeden lost a tooth last night while she was sleeping. I hate the tooth fairy. She’s just another reason why I feel like a big fat liar. Her and Santa are in cahoots with each other and they have it out for me. Forget my kids, I’m the one that’s going to need hours on the therapy couch when my kids are all grown! Joel insists that we participate in the deceitful tradition, but I have moral issues with it and my conscience bothers me so much, especially when the kids ask me questions and I have to come up with a spur of the moment lie.

_Can't L_ve W_thout "_"

_ love _. _ can do so many th_ngs w_th _. L_ke go on vacat_on, or go eat _ce cream. _ makes l_fe complete. Today wh_le _ was at Wal Mart, wh_ch surpr_s_ngly doesn't need an _ to spell, _ was text_ng Jacob w_th my new Blackberry, wh_ch also doesn't need an _ and all of a sudden my _ went out! _ texted to him "My eye went out!" _ thought maybe _t was a gl_tch _n my phone and turned the phone off and then back on aga_n, but the phone was dead. NOOOO!!!! _ have fallen _n love w_th my l_ttle record keeper, not_f_er, messenger, calculator, ema_l sender. How can _ l_ve w_thout _t!? Joel took the battery out and put t back _n aga_n. Slowly the phone came back on, but stll no _. Th_s _s not the worst of _t because Joel called the company we bought the phones from (we got 3 w_th our plan) and they probably forwarded the call to _nd_a because the serv_ce rep. d_d not speak very good engl_sh, wh_ch does need an _ to spell. Now they want us to send the phone back before they w_ll send us a new one. That seems k_nd of a r_poff to me. The last phone _ had the company sent me a new one and _ sent them m_ne back _n a bag that came _n the new one's box. That _s the last t_me we buy someth_ng not from a br_ck and mortar store! _ am so bummed about th_s because _'ve been watch_ng and wa_t_ng for a deal that our fam_ly could afford and now that we got _t, _t sucks rocks (_ know M_chelle, _t should only l_ck rocks, lol). So now we w_ll be w_thout our 6513 number for who knows how long. _f you are one of the people who th_nks you should have another cell # to get a hold of us let me know and _'ll get to you w_th a number.



Ok, I can't carry on typing without an I anymore.

This was really frustrating for me tonight because I realized how late it is in the month and how much I don't have done and need to get done in the next few days and also our family is going away tomorrow night and had plans for the day to spend at Macy's and also Jaeden has a talk to give in Primary and I have two sharing times to put together... AAaaargh!!! Also I had no stocking stuffers and also I have to get 4 more presents and I have to make at least 4 more batches of caramel... and... and....the list goes on and on... I feel a vein throbbing in my forehead.

Today was a huge reminder for me how precious life is and how much I take for granted. I don't want to take things for granted, I really don't. I want everyone in my life to know how much they mean to me and how much they enrich my life or my family's life. I'm so thankful for our ward members and for our families and how blessed my life is having them in it! Richard was only a year older than Joel. This surprised me. I didn't realize that until today at the funeral when I was reading the program. As I watched the Brooks family follow Richard's casket out of the chapel I thought about how young Debbie looked. Far too young to be following her husband's casket. I said a prayer right then, please let me be old with a cane before I have to follow any one's casket out the doors of our chapel. In the parking lot I had to let Joel know that I love him. I don't say that often enough and more so lately, because our relationship has been strained more so lately. But I do love him and I want him to know that. My life would have a very big hole in it were he to be gone from it.

The other day I turned 38. I don't feel 38.... I feel late 20's. I was soooo sick that day. I spent the day on the couch pretty much. My VT JoAnne was so sweet! She brought me home made chicken soup with home made noodles and home made bread. It smelled so good and was so hard to wait until the next day to be able to eat it! I've had a lot of people say to me, "If I lived closer I would.... " But she actually did! That gave me so much relief because I didn't know if I was going to be able to stand to make dinner or work with food, the way I felt. The family gave me a heavenly chocolate cake with chocolate frosting on it. I had to wait until the next day to even dare trying it. All day long Joy made me cards and wrote me love letters. She's so sweet. I just love that little girl! For my presents that night the first one I opened was a new smoke detector. We have a stupid one by the kitchen that is the wrong kind and goes off every time something burns even just a little. And once that goes off all of the ones in the house go off because they are all wired together. Poor Joel has been woken up once a week lately because of it. I think that was more of a present for him, hahaha. Then they brought out my real present which is a cute little black Dell Inspirion Netbook. It's so cute! :) And get this, it fits into my purses I made!

I love it! Thanks!

I'll just be glad to have this whole week over and done with. Which reminds me, I have a talk to write for Jaeden so I better stop writing here. Bye!

While I'm on vacation

I decided to take a vacation from photography during the winter. Pretty much the only people who want outdoor portraits in the winter are engaged couples.
Tonight at Jake's wrestling meeting for parents they were asking for another photographer to help out this year. They had another mom helping and wanted a second. I don't know what she's shooting with, and I would feel bad if the boys ended up with not so many pictures, or blurry point and shoot kinds. I've already decided to take off from portraits for the winter and thought, "why not?". So I volunteered myself for the other position. Who knows, it could be fun.
They didn't have very many of Jacob last year and that bummed me out, so at least I know I'll get some of my kid this time.
I need to be at all the tournaments and they want a couple of each kid, I think whether or not they are wrestling that day.