friends...

Here's a big ol' shout out to my friend Mary. You made me feel like a million bucks! I LOVE my PERFECT flowers!!!

it IS the little things

I keep wondering to myself if I am the only person over the age of 10 who doesn't get this concept yet. It is the little things that matter. In case anyone else is having trouble with this the answer is prayer and scripture study. When life gets harder than I think I can handle, that is not the time to "forget" prayer and scripture study, it is the time to dive into to it full force!!!! Get yourself into a habit so your at a place where you just do it, and don't have to think about. That is where I am trying to get! In all honesty, I think more people know what I'm talking about than would rather admit it.

Prayer and scripture study, how simple is that. But, I'm sure I'll need to remind myself of that during my next stressful day.

Spa Day!!!

I think I have the best calling in the church. I am the Achievement day leader for the 10 & 11 year old girls. The girls I have are so completely opposite in every way, but they mesh so well when they are together. The beginning was a little hard so I decided we needed to have a little talk. At our next activity we gathered around the table and I asked the question "Who is the most popular person in the room?" All of the girls looked at me like I was crazy and didn't say a word. My response was "I am!" Then I started to name each of them also. I told them that achievement day was equal playing field, no one was popular or unpopular, no one was better than anyone else we were all children of God and that meant we were equal. I also said that if anything mean was "accidentally" said I would hurry and say equals and the offender would promptly apologize, and it actually worked!!

The lesson I had chosen to give was on having good hygiene. Because they are coming to that dreadful age of puberty i thought this would be important, but I didn't want it to be a "take a shower everyday and use your deodorant cause your startin' to stink girls!" I wanted it to be fun. I started by talking about all the hygiene stuff, and then moved to how it's really your inner beauty that makes your outer beauty shine. Then I gave the girls a cute bag with deodorant, chap stick, body spray, face wash, lotion, mouth wash and I think something else, but they were so excited to have all of the fun stuff in their gift bags.

For the activity part I called it a Mother/Daughter Spa Day, so the moms were there for the whole day. We had a station for painting toenails and fingernails. Mom's painted the daughters and then the daughters painted the mothers (I only saw a few mom's redoing nails while the daughters weren't looking.) A pool with warm water and citrus fruit cut up inside it (we cut up lemons, limes and oranges to make the water fun, and the smell with them in the warm water for so long was AWESOME!!) We also had a station for a facial table where the girls could put on blue mud masks and they LOVED that.

At the end of the activity we had hand and foot shaped sugar cookies with flesh colored frosting and small jelly belly's to put on for the colored fingernails and toenails. It was a huge stress getting it set up and everything bought and made, but so worth it to see the girls and their mom's together and having fun.

The Remodel

I realized that most of the pictures I have taken of the remodel have been on my phone and not on my camera, but this is what I've got. We replaced all the leaking roof, insulation, shingles, windows and doors. This is the front window being replaced and oddly enough, when it was taken out there was flood mud in it.

After the windows and doors they started the siding. Look at the horrible paint above and the beautiful siding below.

The siding is almost done and then we are tearing out the driveway, sidewalk and stairs. Then I think all we have left is the painting the doors and the garage. It is so nice to get all the problems with our house taken care of.

Fathers Day

I think all of the firsts this year are just going to be dang tough! I was really dreading fathers day. I was being really jealous of every who got to celebrate with their dads and I was trying not to be sad and just deal with it, but my anti-sadness turned into slight anger and of course being so hormonal that just made me start to cry. Then Diana called with the perfect idea. She invited us to meet he family at the cemetery and we all gathered around my dads grave and ate chocolate chip cookies and shared our favorite memories. We had a great time. Lots of fun memories were shared. But, I think the best part was when Sam and his friend saw all of the flowers from memorial day down by the dumpster. Well, Sam went down and got a HUGE armload of flowers to decorate the grave with. He brought back all kinds of plastic flowers, a plastic sign that said "DAD" and as soon as the grave was covered he went down for another arm load. But, Diana kindly told he that that was plenty. Sam is such a tender hearted kid. What a sweet act of kindness for an 8 year old.

Memorial Day

Memorial day was a pretty good day. It was fun to get together as a family and enjoy the memories of my dad. It was great to see how many people love my dad and shared some experiences they had with them. I had more experience than everyone else because I think I went to the cemetery about 10 times that day...call me obsessed, it's true! And I think all my pictures are just the same, maybe I changed where I was standing a few steps :D

My favorite memory is still when we had family prayer
at night and towards the last year he was really struggling with names.

On many occasions we would hug and I would tell him how much

I loved him and then he would say to me, as sincere as he could be,

"I love you Shirley"

Back to blogging...

I have been in a very weird place for the last two months. I have been going through heartache, self-doubt, menopause hormonal crappy stuff, physical pain, severe side effects from menopause crappy stuff, stress, crying myself to sleep every night....the list continues. But, I'm gettin' a little better and I have a lot to blog about. THIS IS NOT TURNING INTO A DEPRESSING BLOG, JUST SO YOU KNOW! But, I do have things to share, like I am typing this on my BRAND NEW LAPTOP!!!!! And crazy mother nature, my wildflowers came back this year, but only the orange and blue ones, last year I had every color. Good things are too come! 2 posts down, lots to go!!!

Uncle Dennis

This is my Uncle Dennis. My mom's brother. A TRULY GREAT MAN.

When my dad passed away, he was a great comfort to my mom. I was so

grateful for his love and support during the first few months.

On May 8th we got a phone call from his son Derek saying

he woke up with horrible stomach pain and was in the hospital.

They found he was bleeding internally and no matter how much

blood they gave him, they just couldn't keep up. He passed away later

that evening. 5 months to the day my dad passed away.

We were able to make it to Colorado to the funeral and it was a great tribute!

My uncle also served in the military so he had a military burial.

this was amazing to witness. The folding and presenting of the flag,

the gun salute, hearing taps played, I am so grateful

for the way we honor our soldiers!

Uncle Dennis, your presence will be deeply missed!!

Motivation

*For the facebookers looking for my BIG CHANGE scroll down a few posts.*

I don't know about the rest of you, but motivation has always been an issue for me. I decided to do something about it. Knowing my love of books I decided to find my answer on amazon. And find it I did. This beauty right here has all the answers, and like it says right on the front it will "Change Your Life Forever"

Well, I got this 2 years ago for Christmas and still haven't read it yet...I'm sensing a problem

My first menopausal incident....

Chocolate REALLY helps!

(Feel free to send some or LOTS)

I was in Wal-Mart and in a huge hurry trying to get some material for my achievement day activity which was in 2 hours and I was WAY behind. Well the fabric lady was on her lunch break so I waited 35 minutes for them to find someone to cut the stupid fabric! Well I was getting angry and starting to cry so I walked around the counter, laid out the fabric, got the scissors and was ready to cut my own fabric! With scissors in hand someone came up behind me and said can I help you (in a mean and irritated voice). I said "well, it's about time someone did I been waiting for 35 minutes!" Then I started to cry (I don't like these hormones)!

So, I would like to apologize to Brittany, and say I'm sorry you were the first victim of a hormonal incident. But the doctor said the first week is going to be the worst and then my body will adjust to all the changes and things will get better...I sure hope he is right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or, heaven help us all for the next 9 months...