Heaven or also known as...

Michaels. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

I finally had a reason to go to Michaels...thank you Christmas (your the best). I seriously have not been inside a Michaels in over a year...I know...I can't believe it either. Sometimes it's physically painful not to go and just look around (hahaha I know, how can you go there and just look and not buy) but I finally had an excuse to go and I enjoyed every single second of it.

The second I saw the sign my heart started racing. Why does a craft store bring me so much happiness??? Someone needs to explain this to me.

OH MY GOSH!!! The paper....
I almost hyperventilated.

Thankfully I'm pretty much cured of my love of paper...sort of...

ok not really but I'm still on a paper diet...sadly, especially since they have some awesome new paper stacks...cry.

It totally got my crafty side to jump out...I like my crafty side. BUT I did go for a purpose and I'll share later the super cute idea that my friend Carrie shared with me. It's a cute idea for teacher gifts. I'm so excited to make them with the girls...it even uses scrapbook paper...eeeeeeeeeek.

I did get a little crazy eyed but luckily there were others like me.

This year I have mostly home made gifts planned since we are on a forced money diet. I've been scouring the net for ideas and now am completely overwhelmed with ideas but I'll share later...obviously AFTER Christmas since I know a certain 9 year old reads my blog...Hi Sara!. I'm kind of excited about it...at least now. Just don't remind me how many days I have left till Christmas k?

pfft November is like so over

Time is like in super fast mode right now and I don't even feel like I got anything accomplished...weird.

I just wanted to post a post Thanksgiving thanks.

I missed the big Thanksgiving dinner because of a sick Bub but luckily I have the sweetest hubby in the world who saved me a plate of the best Thanksgiving dinner on the planet...seriously, I am never so glad to be best friends with Beth then I am on Thanksgiving. She's AWESOME!!! She's awesome in so many ways but mostly because she has never forced or pushed me to cook anything. She totally loves me. So I'm totally thankful for friends who know and love me! I'm talking to you too Carrie!!!

I'm so thankful for LM, he puts up with my emotional ups and downs, he tells me how much he loves me EVERY SINGLE DAY, he treats me like a Queen and pretty much worships the ground I walk on...ok...maybe not the last part but he is a sweetie.

I'm truly thankful for my 4 rugrats. They each teach me something everyday, they bring me the most joy, frustration and pure love. I'm thankful for them and want to be more like them and I'm sooooo thankful that I get to be their mom and watch them grow up. I'm so lucky!!!

I'm thankful for the best sister on the planet who knows me, loves me, makes me laugh, makes me cry and helps me grow, understand, learn and reminds me of the important things in life. I'm the luckiest! There is nothing more awesome then to watch my sister, she is amazing and I've gotten to stand back and watch this amazing women become who she is today.

I'm even thankful for my coodie brothers. I love you guys!!! I hope to have Chad's strength and Clints easy going personality someday.

I'm thankful two loving parents who've taught me lots and lots and lots and etc. I'm thankfulf or my Dad especially his sense of humor...it reminds me of someone...hmm...oh yeah...ME! I'm thankful for a Mom who gets excited about the same books as me and has relearned the joy of reading...FINALLY!!! It's fun to talk to books with her.

I'm thankful for awesome In-laws...seriously, I have THE best In-laws in the world...no exageration. I'll forever be grateful to my mother in law who taught me to quilt especially at a time that I really needed something to get excited about.

I'm thankful for awesome nieces and nephews!!! I love you gize!!!! It wouldn't be the same without you!

I'm thankful for books, computer games, cards and my kids imaginations. I'm thankful for my renewed love of my sewing machine. I'm thankful for a home that I can complain about. I'm thankful for this years "learning" experiences. I truly think that they are making me into a better person...whether I like it or not. I'm thankful for good music, it motivates me, calms me down, makes me sing my heart out, gets me moving in the morning and makes the world a better place. Last but not least I'm thankful for peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies...3 awesome cookies in one. It really doesn't get much better than that.

Money is awesome but...

Earning my first paycheck in 12 1/2 years is awesomer. Unfortunately it'll be the last paycheck until I find a replacement job. I quit after 5 days. I decided that unless I'm getting hazard pay, I won't bother risking my life everyday with a crazy 15 year old...so not worth it. Let's just say, they never taught me how to deal with a 17 year who is coming at me with 2 forks or a 15 year old running around with a butcher knife, and even though it's easy to get out of the way of a kid throwing a big heavy rock, it's best not to get into the situation in the first place. I'm just saying... I spent a whole Monday realizing what the term "flight or fight" means. I'm definitely a flight person....

Thankfully, this has taught me wonderful lessons.
1). I love paychecks...I do...it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
2). Cleaning up after other peoples kids isn't so bad when I'm getting paid.
3). Working in a group home with psychotic kids is not for me.
4). Down Syndrome kids are my favorite...especially C who makes me sad that I won't be going back. Luckily for me he left a lot of voice memos for me to listen to over and over and I'll always think of him while listening to "I gotta feeling" by Black Eyed Peas.
5). I enjoy working and it's nice to miss my kids.

I FAIL!!!!

I thought I would FINALLY update since it's almost November. I started thinking about all that happened this month and realized I didn't post Emily Wembily's birthday. I'm a failure...a blog failure.

Little Miss Emily turned 6 years old!!!! sniff sniff I can't believe my baby girl is getting soooo oooold.



She wore that crown for 5 days straight. The week before her birthday, I kept asking her what she wanted for her birthday and all she would say was a crown. I was like "ok" then when I picked her up from school that Friday, I finally realized what she meant. All the kids in her class get to wear a birthday crown and she couldn't wait to get to wear hers. Her teacher came up to me and said that she has never had a student so excited about wearing the birthday crown in the history of her teaching....awww that's my Emily!!!!
My 6 most favorite things about Emily:
1. She makes my heart sing every time she smiles.
2. She lets me hug and kiss her as much as I want.
3. Her laugh is contagious.
4. She loves everything girlie.
5. She loves that birthday crown.
6. She's the most like me and gives me a new perspective of myself.

Now random pictures.

In other news. Today I start my first day of work. I'm pretty nervous especially after I spent the past 2 days in training learning how to get out of strangle holds, bear hugs, arm holds, pinches, hair pulls (which by the way, there is no safe way to get out of that, it's more of a sit and wait) and learned how to do a 1 person, 2 person and 3 person holds....very exciting...I'm just hoping to keep my teeth. I guess working with the mentally disabled is a much more hazardous job then I thought.

I'm the luckiest

I have THE best Mother-in-Law in the world and today is her birthday! We love you Grandma Clubb!

Not only is she beautiful but she is sweet, loving, talented and a wonderful grandma.

I so can't believe I didn't tell you gize....

but we have a new member of the family.
This is Nakita Banana Carter. We loves her!

Best dog EVER!! (for us)

She's awesome gize, she has all the qualities that we wanted in a dog.
1. likes Hyrum
2. obediant (does everything that Hyrum tells her to do)
3. isn't yappy.
4. likes all of us
5. helps the kids feel safe so they stay in bed (totally working btw)
6. potty trained
7. awesome.
8. she's super good at herding the kids and getting them out of bed in the morning. It's so cute. Right when we get home from our walk, she runs into all the bedrooms, jumps on the beds to get the kids up then runs downstairs to eat breakfast.
9. We love her.

After Boozer the chilala passed away, our friends Jay and Carrie let us borrow Nakita during the day. We would have her all day then give her back at bedtime. She helped us not be as sad and gave lots of love. I was on the hunt for a new dog and the more time I spent with Nakita the more I wanted a dog JUST like her. Well...our friends got the hint and gave us Nakita...don't feel bad for them...they have spares. They seem to be turning out to be our dog suppliers since they gave us Bruiser too. They find awesome dogs then give them to us. It seems to be working out well for both of us.

Anyway, I think it's fitting that she's our dog now since she was the love of Bruisers life.

Forever is like a really long time.

At 6 am this morning while I was sitting on my stairs looking across the street at Carries house, waiting to see her and Sawyer (aka sweetest dog EVAH) walk out so we can meet up for our daily morning walk. I realized really for the first time that this is my life now. That I'm never going to be one of those people that doesn't have to work out to keep weight off. I'm going to have to workout for the rest of my life.

I mean, I've walked every day since May 18th except for one day last week (I twisted my ankle the night before so I took a day of ) and I enjoy walking but...but...the last few mornings have been FRICKIN FREEEEEEEEEEZING!!! My bed has never been more comfy and warm then it has the past few days. I don't wanna get out of bed any more, plus the days have been cooling off, it hasn't been as sunny and I feel like hybernating. This has never been so hard. I need to come up with new motivation. Right now, I get up every morning because I don't want to be the one to say "let's not walk today" and I know Carrie feels the same way. But it's frickin COLD!!! and it's really hard to keep that motivation going when compared to how much I dislike being cold. Maybe I should move...

To top things off, since I twisted my ankle I'm not even walking half of what I have been...actually let me go back a little farther. We had been walking 5 miles a day then because of business and other things getting in the way, a little over a month ago we stoped our evening walks so we were only walking 2 1/2 miles a day and that is when my weight loss stopped.... Now since my ankle is still hurting, we're walking even less then 2 1/2 miles plus we're not doing OMG It Burns because I can't do hills right now....AND this week I've gained 2 lbs. I'm frustrated. I was ok with maintaining...I never once thought that this was going to be an easy process for me, I expected to lose, then maintain then lose then maintain but this week has really put me over the edge. I need to come up with new goals and a new 12 week program to get me motivated and going again. I just hate feeling like I'm starting over, but with my new injury, I have to start all over doing less then what I was...sooo annoying.

So for the next few days I'm gonna think about what my new plan will be and I know you gize are super interested in knowing what I'm gonna do so no worries....I'll let you know....your welcome.