Today was Zane's walk a thon, and since I voiced my opinion about this when McCall had his, I won't say anything else about it, other than I went and supported Zane:) 1st graders just don't know how to walk, they run, which is something that Zane is extremely good at:) He is getting to be such a great reader too, I am so proud of him! I get a little choked up when I see him out with his class mates - he is such a tiny guy still, and I want to just hug him close and never let go. I get that way with McCall too. I see these little glimpses of what McCall will be like as an adult, and as his momma it makes me very proud:) I have the best kids ever, and every mom should say that about their own kiddos;-}

The weather is still perfection here, but the weather forecasters say that this is about to change, unfortunately:( Tonight we are going up to Silver Lake for a picnic style dinner, and I am so excited!:) Silver Lake is one of my favorite places to go, but we haven't been there in a long time. Actually, the last time we went was when my friend Lisbeth and her family came to visit, back in 2009. Sad that it's been that long, but it just goes to show how incredibly fast time goes by. They were here at the beginning of May, and we couldn't walk around the lake because of all the snow that was there still - CRAZY!

Friday last week, my mom bought some flowers for Jake's grave. We went there yesterday cause we were sure that they had died and looked awful, so we wanted to remove them, but wow! they are still looking pretty! I am going to post a picture.

I am also going to snap some photos at Silver Lake, and I will post them as soon as I can.

Happy Birthday to Nicklas in Norway! He is 8 years old today:)

I want to comment again on this weather - it is just beautiful! The colors are so bright, it truly is a testament to me about our Savior and His love for us, I cannot deny His hand in this spectacular world. Awesome!

My mom is here:) and has been for almost a week. We have been shopping and visiting and doing 'girlie' stuff. I just wish my sister had some time off work to be with us... She didn't have to be at work until 10:30 this morning, so she came over with some delicious salt bagels and chai - mmmm:) Life is good!

I know I said that I am only going to say nice things, but this is my blog, so I am going to say that there are a couple of people I really wanna smack, and leave it at that... ;-}

My friend Lisbeth in Norway, has a son that will be 8 on Friday, and I need to go and send him his present - it will be late, but he'll get it:)

McCall's team won 18-0 yesterday! It's their first win so this is HUGE! It's fun to watch them, and even more so when they win, even though it's more about having fun than winning:)

My mom arrives tonight, so excited! I hope they won't 'lose' her luggage again. What a royal pain in the rear that is. She is coming, she is coming - WOOT WOOT!!!

It's such a beautiful day! Yesterday was too. It's so pretty to look at the mountains, the colors are changing so fast.

I decided to write down things that make me happy. Of course, my family is ALWAYS at the top of that list of what makes me happy, but I'm going to list things now, not people;-}

Coconut Vanilla body wash
Coconut Vanilla lotion to put on after the body wash;-}
Washer and dryer
Dry basement
Super Saturdays where I can make crafts without the mess in my house:)
Nail polish
Smiles
Silence
Noise
Ice cream
Parties
My comforter (LOVE IT!)
Books
Great movies
Empty laundry hampers (this only happens for a few short hours at a time...)
Plants (even though Derick thinks I am purposely not watering them)
Flowers
Hot chocolate
Slippers
My pictures
Clean car
My lime green kitchen curtains
Flip flops in many different colors

This list could go on and on and on into infinity, but I'll stop here. It's awesome to be able to reflect on things in your life that makes you happy. Try it:)

I have decided to take my own advice, something that I tell my kids all the time, and that my mom has told me my whole life. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Now, let's see how long I can actually go about doing this - I might not be talking any more... ;-}

Last night Derick and I went to a wedding. I have to say that the wedding dress was extremely pretty, actually a lot prettier then some I have seen in a while. The colors that they had for the people that were a part of the wedding were very nice too.

Our kids stayed with my sister and her family while we went, and we didn't make it home until almost 10:30 pm. Because of that, we let the kids sleep in this morning. It was so funny to see McCall do a double take when he realized what time it was when he finally walked out into the living room:) They actually ended up being only 30 minutes late for school both of them, which considering how they like to take their time in the mornings, is awesome:)

I am so happy that it's the weekend! We are going to a family B-B-Q at Derick's dad's and Carol's tomorrow. Anytime we are invited some place for dinner is great, since then I don't have to cook;-}, and we also love spending time with our family - they are all great people that we love a ton!

My mom comes in 5 days - YIPPIE!!!

Zane has been on a roll again lately:) Sunday night McCall and Zane were in our room watching TV. There was a commercial on for some princess show, and Derick of course, had to start teasing them about it:) Zane said that he had a couple of princess shows that he liked, and one of them was 'Snow White and the 7 Bores'! LOL!

Zane has had a cough for little over a week now, and I thought he was getting better, but he got worse over the weekend:( He went to school on Monday, but I kept him home yesterday and today. He lost his first tooth a couple of weeks ago at McCall's first football game, and then he lost another one Sunday night. He did not want us to yank it out, cause it kept hurting him. Finally, Derick was able to help that tooth along, and what a shocked little boy Zane was when it came out painless - priceless! So yesterday, we were talking about tooth fairies, and Zane was telling me that girl's have girl tooth fairies, boy's have boy tooth fairies, and animals have them too. Well, I told him that animals don't need them, to which he informed me that yes, the African goose does! LOL! There was something else he's said too, but I can't think of it right now, I'll have to write it later if I can remember...

McCall is still playing football. They had their 3rd game yesterday, and it was a home game, which was nice since his 2 first ones were down in Orem. Next week is their last game in Orem, they play the remainder up here. He hurt his ankle during practice almost 2 weeks ago, and had to skip some practices because of it, but thankfully he is all better now. They have lost all 3 games:( They almost won yesterday... They have not had cheerleaders while playing in Orem, but yesterday they did up here. I can't say that I like cheerleaders, but I reeeeally don't like peewee cheerleaders! It was a little painful to sit through... I guess it gave us a little comedy relief - hehehe;-} Why anyone would want to be a cheerleader is beyond me, but to each their own.

If you don't want to read about my weirdness, now is the time to stop reading and just go about your business, cause I am writing out some feelings and thoughts - don't come and tell me that you haven't been warned if you do go ahead and read...;-}

I have felt annoyed lately. It seems that I get like this every now and then where I just can't stand to be around people. My family is the only exception, thankfully! I feel so frustrated when I get like this. It just might be my way of dealing with life, I don't know, but I know I was like this as a teenager too. I just want to go and shake people into not being idiots, but that's forcing them to think like I do, and who died and made me God, right? OK, I am rambling, and you might think I need to see a professional, but writing this down makes me feel so much better! I think one of the reasons I am feeling like this now is that last Friday, McCall's school had their annual walk a thon. It's a fundraiser for their school, and each kid is given an envelope to take around to friends, family and neighbors to beg for money. First of all, I/we don't allow our kids to go knocking on doors for this, it's just not safe. Second of all, almost all of our neighbors have their own kids that are wanting money for this. Third, they give kids prizes for however much money they collect. Really??? Anyway, so I go to the school to walk laps around the baseball diamond with McCall. They encourage parents, siblings or any other family members to come walk/run with the students, which is great cause it gets people moving. OK, so like I said before, McCall hurt his ankle and it was kind of bothering him still that day. So I went and got him an ankle support thing and insoles at Walgreens. Well his shoe wouldn't fit with the ankle support, insole and sock, so he walked without a sock on, until he started getting a blister on his heel. Then I told him to just walk with one shoe off. All of a sudden there are a bunch of kids that take their shoes off, who knows why, they're 10 and 11 year old kids. Well, the principal tells one of the PE teacher to tell the kids that they can't walk or run around with no shoes on, cause it's a liability! Are you flippin' kidding me??? They are in the sun walking or running around, they are allowed 1 water bottle per student, and they can't flippin' take their shoes off??? I would like to see their principal walk or run as many laps as those kids did, and just get 1 water bottle, and not being able to take her shoes off to cool down a little. There is no way that she could even try to do it, cause she's a pretty big lady. Yea, people annoy me. I feel so much better now that I have vented!!! Maybe I can be around people again today?;-}

Just because I feel like this sometimes, doesn't mean that I do all the time, thank heaven. I am extremely grateful for everyone in my life, even if I do have to take a time out from you every once in a while:)

I also feel frustrated at times because I miss Jake. He should be here with me asking questions, making me laugh, figuring out new things and so on. I don't second guess Heavenly Father's plans, but it feels like I am missing something or I should say someone, which I am. I just have to work on being patient and wait until the time comes that I can see that precious boy again. I am enjoying McCall and Zane and all the big and little things that they do. They are such awesome kids, and I am such a fortunate woman to be the mom of such amazing kids. Derick is pretty awesome too:)

Today it's one week until my mom comes!

Derick's ice cream cake. There's supposed to be
whipped cream on top, but not everyone likes
that, so I serve it on the side. It is sooooo good!

McCall, Mary, Emma and Zane.

Mary, Emma and Zane.

Last week was busy. Or, maybe I just made it seem that way. Either way, it was the first full week of school for the kids, and McCall's first football game. They lost:( but he had a lot of fun. Julie and her cute girls, Emma and Mary came and saw us last weekend, along with Bryce, Maria, their cute baby, David, Barbara and Brent. We had a nice time with them. We went to the cemetery so that they could see Jake's headstone, and it was Julie's first time being there, she had just gone back home to Maryland when he passed away last year. We had dinner and dessert and just enjoyed:) It was pretty funny too, cause we have candy here and there, our kids are so used to seeing it that it's usually left alone. Well, Emma and Mary loved it, their mom not so much. She kept telling them that they had to eat dinner first, I guess they haven't eaten that great while being here, and Derick played the devil's advocate with them, saying - want some candy? here, have some candy. One time Julie thought all the candy was 'gone' and then I went in our bedroom to get a band-aid for Emma, and both her and Mary followed me, and there on our chest was some candy leftover from Derick's suit pocket that he had emptied out. They came out of our bedroom with more candy, and a confused mother:) LOL!

Julie and her girls were also able to come to McCall's football game, they left the day after. Grandma Barbara, grandpa Brent, grandma Carol and grandpa Doug also came to McCall's game, and we appreciated that so much, he loved it that they all came for him:)

I kind of started this exercise thing last week too, called P90X. I'm probably not doing it in the order that I should, but I'm moving around, and that should count for something.

One day I had to go down to Orem to find something for Derick's birthday. I left my house at 9:30 am, and didn't get back until 2:30 pm. I picked up some clothes for him, since he is in need of that, and then I 'had' to go to Costco, my home away from home;-}

Friday was the start of Swiss Days. It's a 2 day affair, Friday and Saturday. What is Swiss Days? Well, it started in the 1940's, and it's a giant craft fair. There are booths that sell anything from paintings to home made crafts, like jewelery, plaques with sayings, slippers, Santa's, garden decorations, wrapping paper, etc, etc. And, of course, there are food booths too. Swiss Navajo Taco's, Swiss hamburger's, Swiss pie and ice cream, Swiss scones. You get my drift, they put Swiss in front of everything! The reason it's all Swiss, is that the first settlers to this valley thought it looked so much like Switzerland. Our little town of about 3400, is invaded by as many as 60000 people over 2 days. That's a lot of people for a town that doesn't have a stop light! It is insane, but so much fun:) I like to go and volunteer in the scone booth, and this year was no exception:) We were having some dude come and look at our basement at the same time, so Derick told me to just leave the door unlocked when I went to Swiss Days. I did. Well, I got home a little over 3 hours later, and the door was locked! I didn't bring anything with me, just my phone. So I called Derick and he was able to come home and help me out:)

On Saturday, we had family over to celebrate Derick's birthday, which was yesterday. I love it when we all get together, I think I might have mentioned that before, but I wanted to repeat myself:) Yesterday we just hung out at home and did nothing. Sometimes that is the best thing to do:)

Since it's Labor day today, there is no school and even though they just started school, it's nice that they are home. I need to end now, I have to go and switch over the laundry and do other chores:(

My mom comes in 16 days!!!