Toddler for Sale....

At least that's what I was thinking during sacrament meeting at church today when Aspen wouldn't hold still for 2 seconds, was litteraly stealing food from other kids, climbing underneath the benches, and flopping herself down like a beached wale when I would try to hold onto her arm to pull her BACK into our seats. No matter what tactics we tried today, she was DETERMINED to drive us nuts. So I decided since it was fast Sunday and I needed to bare my testimony anyway, to start out my testimony with, "sooo, I just wanted to let you all know that we have decided to let our daughter go wherever she'd like during sacrament to make it easier on us. If you happen to look down and see a little one beneath your bench, under your feet, feel free to pick her up, point her in our direction, and we will do our best to catch her on her way back...We just might get to listen every now and then this way." Ha ha...seriously this is what happens anyway. The people at church reach under there bench, find Aspen, pick her up, let her eat whatever snacks they may have, and then she's off to someone else. Try as we might to feed her the snacks we brought, they just aren't good enough for her, and she lets us know in the very best LOUD voice she can. I really do bring the EXACT same snacks other people have...what can I say? She's a ham. If you can't read what that "funny" up there says, it says "The minute I find a decent spot on the beach, somebody drags me back onto the water!" That's how I imagine she feels sometimes when we make her come back and sit with us. So seriously...if you are looking for a toddler for sale...(You'll probably have to look somewhere else...who else is going to make us laugh at the end of the day?)

All About Me

Jobs I've Held
1-Secretary in Mary Kay Directors Homes (First real job)
2- Babysitter since I was 8 (Favorite kids to babysit was the Reeder’s Marissa, & Chelsea, and the little Jenkins girls in Newton)
3- Virtual Assisting Business I still currently run out of my home
4- Secretary for a short time in my brothers law firm office before I got married5- House cleaner – HATED this one with a passion
5 - Futures through Choices (taking care of Disabled children)

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
1-How to Lose a guy in 10 days
2-Raising Helen (I just love Kate Hudson in movies)
3- Friends
4- Count of Monte Cristo
5- Scarlett Pimpernel
6 – Gone with the Wind (Just love watching how catty Scarlett is)
(I’m sure there are lots more. I absolutely LOVE movies)

My Guilty Pleasures
1-Going to movies
2- eating out at fancy restaurants (except the bill part)
3- hanging out at the Ocean without a kid to watch
4- reading peoples journals or blogs – I love REAL stuff about other people, I like to read journals of people who have passed away
5- Reading a book while soaking in a hot bath
6- Eating desserts – especially anything with chocolate

TV Shows I Like
1- Super Why (Aspen and I love watching this kids show)
2-Yes Dear
3-Heroes
4-Oprah
5- friends

First Things I Thought When I Met My Husband (From the 21yr old stand point instead of the 12 year old stand point which is when I really first met him)
1- He has nice eyes, and the greatest curly, black hair when he lets it get a little longer
2- Will the families approve
3- Can I really get serious with my ex brother in laws brother? (it’s a confusing story)
4- Wow! Dumb move! I just hugged him without him expecting it, and he’s only been back from his mission 3 weeks! That was a stiff hug…(really all that did go through my mind, and then some…: 0 )
5- I wonder how long this is going to last (I hadn’t had good dating experiences in the past)

Places I've Been On Vacation
1-Mexico – just this summer! Awesome place
2- About every state – took a month long trip visiting all the states we could with my brother Sharik and his family (Haven’t been to Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Florida, or Maine…maybe one or two others…)
3- Canada
(Some day Europe hopefully! I really want to go to Ireland)

Favorite Foods
1-Cheesecake – Any and ALL – love the fat, love the taste, love it!
2- Ribs at Chillis
3-Sweet Pork burrito at Costa Vida
4- Alfredo Noodles at Olive Garden
5- Hamburger from Burger King
6- Turkey, broccoli casserole that my mother-in-law makes


Websites I Visit Everyday
1- Blogs
2- Unitnet for work
3- MaryKay Intouch for work
4- People – gotta keep up on what’s going on in Hollywood right? : 0 )
5- Our bank

Body Parts I've Injured
1- Dislocated my arm in 1st grade falling off a swing. The teacher didn’t believe me that I had hurt my arm. She thought I was lying and told me to quit complaining, until a lady in the lunch room saw that I couldn’t hold my lunch tray because my arm was twisted backwards. It was weird.
2- Almost broke my leg skiing in 4th grade and had to wear a half cast for a couple of weeks that came all up my thigh and I was on crutches. I remember wanting to go back to school because then people would ask what happened (I liked attention) and my mom wouldn’t let me because I wasn’t supposed to be up on my leg.
3- Slight “brain ramble” in a car accident that caused me to have little seizure type things for a long time. Interestingly enough, we went to Primary Children’s Hospital, they couldn’t figure what was wrong other than my C2 vertebrae was torked a little, and they did an angiogram to check stuff out, and after that I didn’t have any more problems. They figured that the tube may have straightened it out. Weird…
4- I always hurt myself one way or another exercising…shows you how little I do it
5- lots of injuries to my ankles and feet when I was in ballroom, those little shoes just don’t have a lot of support

Favorite books
1 – Gone with the wind
2 – All the Work and the Glory Books
3 – Love in the meantime (can’t remember the author right now)
4 – the Notebook

Now it's your turn! Put this on your blog and let me know when it's up! Have Fun!

First Hair Thingy!

Aspen's hair is finally getting "Long" enough to put in a little hair thingy. She HATES it. Because now mom wants to do it all the time, because she finally HAS HAIR! I put it in, she pulls it out. I swear - this happened about 20 times in one day, and I was DETERMINED to teach her to leave it in. (She hasn't learned yet) though I HAVE learned to put it in tight enough that she can't pull it out...poor thing. Yes, some parents like me DO torture there kids for the sake of hair thingy's so they can look like little girls. I love her so much. She is sooo cute! She just hasn't learned to play my way yet...I think I'll just keep working on her.

Fall is here!

It is starting to feel like that time of year. I'm actually pretty excited, because although I do hate the cold, I LOVE my sweaters and long sleeve shirts! And I LOVE to curl up in front of the fireplace, or under a big quilt, so I am feeling pretty good even if there is a NIP in the air.

It's starting to look so pretty up in the mountains. I love the colors and need to get out and take some pictures. Maybe I will finally get Ashton to get our family pictures done if we take someone to take our picture up by the trees. He likes the fall, and the colors of the trees. Because so far, I have had no luck getting him to keep a scheduled apt for family pictures. We don't even have one! It's so sad! What's worse is that I haven't taken Aspen in for her pictures since she was 3 weeks old, and now she is 18 mths! Talk about a bad mother! I always complained that my mom didn't have pics of me as a baby taken, and now I've done the same thing to my little stinka dinka (As we affectiontely call her - a name given by her grandma peck)

I better get back to work. Just thought I'd take a moment and comment on the beauty of nature. Too bad I'm always too busy at my computer to really enjoy it. So if your reading this, I think you should be outdoors enjoying the beauty...since some of us can't make it outdoors to do that!

Marriage Retreat???

Well, we just returned from a "Marriage Retreat" in Colorado that the army paid us to go to. After a deployment, they like there soldier and wife to come and be taught how to communicate with there each other. Ashton says it wasn't really a "Retreat" because they made us get up at 7 in the morning for breakfast, and classes started at 8am. We would sit through classes all day. They really actually did a good job teaching us how to communicate more effectively with one another, and had us practice. Ashton and I actually talked about more than just Aspen, school and Work. We actually were able to discuss things we would like to accomplish, and things to needed to get done that usually when we talk about at home we fight about. We had to use the speaker/listener technique, and as silly as it seemed, (And as much as we laughed about it) it actually did work to keep us from arguing.

The best part of the retreat for me was that they made us have "Mandatory date night" the rules were that you couldn't discuss everyday things, like kids, or problems, or things needing done. We were supposed to think of something creative and fun to do and just enjoy being a couple like before we got married. We haven't had a date like that seriously since before we got married. So I loved the idea. Though it was REALLY hard for me to not talk about Aspen. I missed her! She stayed at my friend Michelle Nilson's and was sick, so I felt bad.

Ashton and his friends Jim and Maggie and I all went together on our date. We all dressed up formally and went to the cheesecake factory to eat dinner. It was SOO yummy! I was sad I was too full to eat the cheesecake. Afterwards, we changed and went to an arcade place where we played lots of arcade games, and won tickets (It was a HUGE arcade place - can't remember the name. Dave and something...) we bought Aspen a present to bring home with our tickets, (A stuffed animal) even though we didn't talk about her : 0 ) It was 1 in the morning when we went back to the hotel. Now, I KNOW I haven't stayed out that late since before we got married. It was really a fun time.

The part Ashton liked the best was the Cadillac we rented for the day. He said it was a "Smooth drive and drives like a truck" it had a V8 engine, and a thing in the car that told us directions where to go, and satalite radio...it was a pretty cool car. Even if it did look like a grandpa car. He really wants a Caddi now. Ha. Of course I liked the romantic part, and he liked the car...that's just how it goes!

We are home now, and glad to be back with Aspen, who of course just wanted her dad and not her mom! But we are commmunicating better actually...which is great and weird to me! Things are lookin good here!

4 more years to go......

Having Ashton gone from 8 am until 9pm for school is a great routine! He wakes up with Aspen, gets her out of bed, feeds her breakfast, changes her diaper, and I pretend that I can't hear that she even woke up...I mean com 'on! The rest of the day I get the crabby Aspen, the nap time fusses, the million changes of clothes and diapers, the "daddy" cries, the feedings, the trying to ignore the whining times, the singing of the same songs OVER and OVER again times, the fisher price toys time, the read the book and listen to Aspen scream her head off if I don't turn the pages fast enough, if I turn the pages too fast, if the book ends, the throw myself on the floor and scream if you walk near that computer to work times, no peeing alone time (Ashton always gets to lock the door...but not mom), no showering alone time...And my favorite of all, he comes home right when it's time to put her to bed and she gets sooo happy to see daddy...he thinks I've had it easy all day! They snuggle, they play, we say prayers and she's off to bed. Only 4 more years...this is the best times of our lives!

Lovin' life here....Really he is the best in the world he still finds time to snuggle me at night before he says, your on my side. And he works hard for us, and he kisses my neck (which gets him points), and he is good at letting me roll over on sunday morning and sleep as long as I want before church. Good bonding time for him and Aspen. (At least that's what I tell myself when I'm laying in bed and he has to get up with her)

But oh I do love sleepin in...makes it worth it : 0 )

MEXICO

Finally a VACATION!! This has been our first vacation outside the U.S. together. And our first vacation alone since Ashton got home. It was so awesome. Mexico it's self isn't very pretty, but the Ocean is AWESOME! Ashton's Battle Buddy Jim from Iraq, has a cousin who owns a beach house, so they invited us to go with them for a weekend. We drove 11 hours, spent 3 days swimming and having a relaxing time, and turned around and came home. I missed Aspen, but it was also nice to just have some "Us" time. I even fell asleep ina lawn chair reading a book, overlooking the ocean. It was sooo nice! We swam in the Ocean for hours, and 4 DOLPHINS swam close by us. It was a little intimidating as they are rather larger than you think of them being. 3 days definetely wasn't long enough, but at least we got to go. I've been sick since we got home though. Too much junk food I am sure. I hope we can go back again...maybe on a cruise ship this time.