We're back!

As nice as it was to be on vacation, it's always nice to come home. Miss J was throwing up all last night and had a fever and I'm still not feeling myself, so we're trying to take it easy today. I did mop the floors and do dishes when I had a moment of relief, but now I'm feeling cruddy again and I want to go lay down. I promise to get a post up about our vacation soon and maybe include some pictures. :)

As nice as it would be...

I wish we could stay in a condo or in a vacation rental, like those with Outer Banks, for our vacation. I know how nice they are and one of these days, I’d like to rent one. To be honest, I think it would be a vacation just staying in a condo let alone doing anything else. lol But staying in a hotel this time around, will be fun and I know the girls will like it, so it's fine. One day though. :)

Good news!

We are able to take our vacation after all! Everything didn't work out perfectly, but at least we can go. We're not sure if we will be able to attend the baby blessing, as that would require two trips, but we'll see. I'm so excited to go! With all of our day to day busyness and craziness, the four of us need a break. It's rare we get time with just ourselves, so it should be fun.

Sorry to run, but I need to go finish cleaning the house. I can't stand coming home to a mess. :P

Bye bye recliner

So we’ve had this recliner, given to me by to my brother. I loved how comfortable it was. Even though it was bulky and awkward to move around, I haven’t wanted to get rid of it. That was until we got our piano and everything became a bit cramped. I love having space, so I decided to get rid of it. But now that it’s gone, my living room is awfully bare. While it opened the room up, the walls are pretty sparse. We don’t have any type of wall sconce put up, only a few pictures. None the less, I like the openness. It will probably just take some getting used to.

Funny girl I have

My eldest daughter often cracks me up. Today, out of the blue, she says “mommy, do we have a trampoline?” To her disappointment, I told her no, we did not have one. It’s been a long time since she’s actually jumped on a trampoline so I don’t know where this came from. I figure she just has a really good memory. Not something she gets from me I might add. lol

It's been a long week

And it's only Monday! We're on Spring break and should be relaxing, but instead, I'm stressing.

First, I have an awful stomach ache, which could probably be remedied with some Pepto-Bismol and a nap, I hope.

Second, my husband's job messed up his schedule this week and if he can't fix it, we can't go on our vacation. We need a vacation badly and I pray they work this out.

Third, I sort of got accepted in my major for this Fall. They accepted me but I'm on their alternate list. I won't know for sure if I got in until a week prior to Fall classes, in August. Not knowing messes up somethings.

Lastly, Miss J starts soccer this week. We were planning our vacation to start after her first practice and returning home before her first game. But, we just found out we have a family baby blessing/bbq this weekend which conflicts.

So here I sit, trying to figure it out. Happy Monday to me. lol

Mmm popcorn

I don’t know why, but the past few months my husband has been on a popcorn kick. I swear he’d eat it all day if he could. lol I’m thinking it might be time to buy one of those popcorn machines. Isn’t it cheaper to do that than buy the stuff you throw in the microwave? The girls would get a kick out of it and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at caramel corn, so maybe we will get one. :)

Troubled times

I was talking with a friend recently, and she mentioned that a family member had an addiction to prescription drugs. My heart sank for her and her family because I can’t imagine having to deal with something like that. I don’t know if there are any drug treatment centers available for this kind of thing, but I do hope and pray my friend and her family are able to get through this. Addictions are always so hard, on everyone.

Hello bloggy friends

Just wanted to pop in and give a quick update on us. This past week has been good and crazy. I can't believe it's Saturday already! The girls went to two Easter egg hunts and now have enough candy to last until next Easter. lol The first egg hunt was one that we put on every year for our apartment complex. After the hunt, we put out a bubble blower and chalk and the kids loved it. Our second, and last, egg hunt was this morning with our church. Only 12 kids came to pick up, get this, 600 eggs! I won't be buying more candy anytime soon. :P I went running with my SIL today which I hope helped to burn all the extra calories. (Who's idea was it to have Easter candy around the holiday I'm trying to lose weight? lol)

Along with some extra babysitting, a temple trip yesterday, and time spent with family, that was our week. Busy, but a lot of fun. :)

Now, what to do?

Deciding where we wanted to go for our little vacation this week, was harder than I thought it would be. I really wanted to go to Spokane, but that was over our budget, so we decided on Utah. There are a few places we’d like to visit, but we're still looking for more family activities. I did a search for horseback riding because I would love to do that. Although I haven’t found much information, I’m still looking. We don’t own any type of equestrian clothing so if we do end up going, we would need to rent some. It’s been a lot of years since I was on a horse last. It would be fun to do it again.

Where to stay?

This week is our Spring break and we couldn’t be more excited! We’ve decided on a trip to Utah, but we’re still working out the details. One thing we haven’t figured out yet is where we want to stay. I know one night we’ll be at my brother-in-laws, but the other two, I think getting a hotel would be fun. Don’t you love looking for hotel rooms? Seriously, there are so many to choose from! You have the hotels that are in certain cities only, like Branson hotels, and then you have others you can find most anywhere, like the Holiday Inn or Marriott hotels. I better make a decision soon, we leave in a few days!

Monday Movie Review

Here's my latest list of movies we've seen over the past few weeks. I'm going to keep my reviews a little shorter to save us all some time. Let me know if you have a recommendation of your own too!

"Ocean's Thirteen" - This is the third movie, I've only seen the first not the second, and we liked it. I like watching how everything tied together. Clever film. Minus the swearing, I would recommend it.

"27 Dresses" - Had a GNO and saw this. I like Katherine Hiegel and she kept me laughing in this movie. A TVGuardian would have been nice to bleep out some of the language and I could have done without the sexual innuendos. But I did like it other than that and so did my girlfriends.

"Darkwing Duck" / "Gummi Bears" / "Talespin" - We got these for the girls but watched them too. I remember watching all but the Gummi Bears, while growing up. It was fun for the girls and fun memories for us.

"We Are Marshall" - We've seen this before and watched it again with friends. Such a good movie! There are a few swear words, but other than that it's clean. This movie is based on a true story and I love those.

"Touching Wild Horses" - A cute family film starring Jane Seymour. Just watching the previews it didn't look all that interesting. I'm glad I gave it a try because it was really good.

"A Walk in the Clouds" - From what I remember, the movie was relatively clean (sorry, it's been awhile since I watched it). It had a happy ending but I wasn't too into it. A one time watch for me was good enough.

"Mansfield Park" - Another movie "loosely based" on Jane Austen's novel. Not my favorite and not one I will watch again because of the sexual content. I do wonder how much of the movie was out of context from the book, the book may be better.

"The President's Man" - Growing up, I liked Chuck Norris and was interested in karate. It's been quite a few years since I've seen any of his movies so I tried this out. Even though the fight scenes were karate based, I fast forwarded through them. Guess I'm not into that anymore. lol It was an okay movie otherwise.

I'm in love!

I just got home from getting my hair done and I LOVE IT! Thank you so much Jill! If anyone is in Idaho and needs their hair done, you have to go to her because she is incredible. Even though we're swapping babysitting for hair, I still feel like she's getting jipped because of how great my hair always turns out. I love, love, love it and so does my husband. You're awesome Jill!

*You all know how I don't post pictures of me or my family on my blog, so if you want to see my new do, you can IM me. :)*

Still around

We've had quite a busy week and thus, my poor blog has been neglected. But I'm around, just hardly at my computer. What have I been up to? Not much, just the same old, minus a few extra kids to babysit and having a friend over for dinner. Today I think it hit us all how much extra we've been doing. The girls are already in bed and it's not even seven and I'm headed that way soon myself. It's been a long week and I have another busy day tomorrow. In the morning I may babysit for a friend then I'm getting my hair done. (I've been babysitting for one of my friends in exchange for highlights, a cut, and layers. I'm so excited!) After that, Kara will be in town, so we'll have a quick get together with another friend. Then we're off to dinner with more friends. Then I'm going out with some girlfriends to see the movie "27 Dresses." It will be busy, but should be fun, especially with my new do. :)

Having insurance

When I hurt my back a few days ago, my husband asked if I needed to go to the hospital. I really didn’t think it was that bad but at the same time, I don’t have health insurance and the thought of trying to pay off and ER bill wasn’t too appealing. Yes, we would have gone if my accident had been worse, I wouldn’t let a bill stop me from getting the medical attention I needed. I need to look around and see about getting insurance just in case something similar to my fall, but worse, were to happen again.

"Don't step on a crack..."

"...or you'll break your mothers back!" Or in my case, "Don't wash both feet, or you'll fall out of the tub!" Sad, but true. Yesterday while showering, for some dorky reason, I washed one foot but didn't rinse it off before washing the next. As foot number two was being washed I slipped and fell backwards out of the tub. Thankfully I didn't hit my head, so I'm grateful for that. But I did land pretty hard on my lower back.

I spent most of the day alternating heat and ice which did help. Walking and sitting hasn't been too fun and it's hard to pick up the girls, but today isn't as bad, which I take as a very good sign. But a lesson to everyone reading this, wash one foot, rinse your foot, then move to the other foot. Oh, and make sure you stop cleaning your tub, it only makes it more slippery.

The whole thing was so stupid. I feel like some old lady that slipped and fell. :P

Friday's Feast #182

Appetizer

If you could be any current celebrity for one whole week, who would you want to be?

*Jane Seymour.

Soup

On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how much do you enjoy talking on the phone?

*0 if I'm talking to someone who can't carry a conversation. A 7.462 otherwise.

Salad

Name a charitable organization to which you have donated (or would like to).

*The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Main Course

What is a food you like so much you could eat it every single day for a month?

*Ice cream. :)

Dessert

Have you or anyone in your family had the flu this year?

*Nope.

He's a keeper

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we do relatively the same thing. I wake up at 7am and get ready for class. Lately, the girls have been getting up just before 7:30, so I grab us all some breakfast. Husband gets up right before I head out the door and I catch my ride to school.

I recently discovered that after I leave, my husband usually goes back to bed. Lucky goose! lol I can't blame him, he's up so late doing homework that it's hard to get up so early. So after his little nap, he gets the girls ready (this involves clothes and a coat) and comes to meet me at school about 9:15. He gets out and goes to class and I drive home with the girlies.

But today was different. When I jumped in the car for our swap, Miss J said that daddy made cookies. (We have a deal where he makes the dough and I bake them.) I had yummy cookie dough waiting for me, mmmmm! He tells me that he got the girls ready early, did Miss J's hair (which is not easy for him but it looked pretty good), and made me cookies.

Isn't that sweet? He totally gets brownie points, er, cookie points, today. How did I get so lucky. :)

I love all the green

If you’re looking for some great property to buy, let me tell you about land for sale Branson, Missouri. I was just now looking at pictures around that area and it is beautiful. I love the lush, green look. The homes, villas, patio homes, and lodges are truly stunning. Other than being located farther East than we want to move, we would really enjoy it there.

Smart purchase

Prior to purchasing bunk beds for our girls, we were apprehensive about a few things. First, we had only one mattress instead of two. Then my SIL called asking if we wanted an extra mattress she had and we were thrilled to not have to buy one. So we bought the beds and the girls loved them. But we worried about them playing on the top bunk and possibly falling off and getting hurt. Other than one small accident, they’re doing really well. I’m glad we have them, because it saves so much space!

Money, ooh la la

In military fashion, everyone repeat after me!

"It's that time of year again,
When we get our tax returns!
So excited, loads of fun,
Here we go, run, run, run!"

"In the bank the money goes,
See it there and jump for joy!
Out the window it then flies,
Wipe a tear and say goodbye!"

"Sound off...1, 2, 3, 4..."

It's true isn't it? Anytime you get extra money, it tends to fly out the window. We don't even have our return yet and it's practically gone. Where is it going you ask? No, it's not going to my dream vacation in Ireland. No, it's not going to buy a new car. No, it's not even going to buy me deodorant, as practical as that would be.

The largest chunk of our return will go towards getting hubby braces (paying half this year, the other half with next year's return). Did you know that the cost of braces has almost doubled since I had them 6+ years ago? It's true! Our logic is, as the children get older, more of our money will go towards them. (We don't doubt that all of our kids will need braces and paying for more than one at a time is insane.) So while we *have* the money now, we thought the timing was better. Plus the extra rebate-thing from Bush this year will help compensate. So that's the first thing on our list.

The second purchase will be for a new vacuum. I mentioned that we bought this one from Wal-Mart but it's a pain. Plus, I need something with attachments and our current one doesn't have any. You don't realize how much you use them until they're gone.

Third, will be flatware. Yes, we're buying yet another set. Thankfully our current set has lasted so long and hopefully the next one will do just as well if not better.

Fourth, we want to take a mini vacation over Spring Break. I think we've been cooped up a little too long and it will do us a world of good. After this, the rest of the money will go into savings. As small as it may be, it will be nice to have a savings at all.

So, what are your plans for your tax return?

It's oh so good

When it comes to buying shampoo, in the past we’ve always gone with the least expensive brand. Why you ask? Well, as college students and a family of four, money can be tight at times. Plus I’ve never really put that much emphasis on my hair so it has never bothered me to buy an off brand of shampoo. That was until just recently. I think my hair is starting to go a bit crazy and the shampoo I have isn’t working like it used to.

So when I received a sample of naked naturals shampoo and conditioner, it was a nice surprise. It worked really well on my hair and I loved the citrus smell. The only problem I had, which wasn’t really a problem, was that the shampoo took longer to lather up. Other than that, it was great and I must say that my hair has never felt softer. I think it may be due to the fact that this natural shampoo is an all natural product, thus the name, and it has Keravis in it, which increases hair strength.

For more information be sure to check out their website at www.nakednaturals.com or look for these products in well known stores like Walgreens and Bi-Lo. I would recommend it!