Christmas is coming!!!

There are so many fun traditions at Christmas time. Clam dip, egg nog, and peppermint... yes foods are traditional. And I love driving in the snow! Hanging lights and decorating the tree are such great memory joggers. I always feel a nostalgia when Christmas time comes. A longing to be small again and feel the magic wonder of Christmas. I sometimes can breathe deep and catch a snowflake as I walk through the parking lot of a grocery store to pick up my favorite Christmas snack (there are so many fun snacks for Christmas) or I can watch the tree with all the lights on it in complete darkness, snuggled in a blanket with.. yes hot chocolate another favorite snack! We always watch "ELF" at Christmas time and we play carols on the piano while everyone sings. This is truly a beautiful and connecting time of year.

      This year we are making presents, long boards to be exact. Everyone is getting one, even me! I am so excited and even though we can't ride them until the snow clears, I am going to practice in the garage until it's warmer.  Sean is cutting out the wood and I am painting some of them (in a house full of artists, their work is better than mine) and sanding them all. I am thinking this will be an amazing Christmas! It's always better to do something for people than just shopping for them, in my opinion. Also at 300 bucks a pop from Zumies...times nine, equals no thank you!


      If you need an idea for recycling white shirts, here ya go! I love this idea, but I have no babies or white shirts... lol...

I hope your skies are blue as blue can be!!  Much love to you all..

always sick of eating Gluten free at Restraunts....

I love eating out... Lunch with mom is awesome. I love spending time out with my sweetheart, and friends and whomever wants to dine outside the home is a friend of mine... however... I hate people telling me what I can and cannot eat because I have Celiac disease. Today a waitress told me that I couldn't eat olives and I was blown away.. why? I asked... Because the stuff they are soaked in does something to the gluten , she replied. As to not raise a fuss, I said, can I please get the olives on the side? and then I ate them. They may have been soaked in some kind of alcohol, but there was no reason that I could think of why I shouldn't eat them. It might have been barley that could have, but didn't send me into stomach spasms. I really am a stubborn woman. I know this about myself. The fact that this very nice, but unaware, waitress did not know was that it either has gluten in it, or it doesn't. Olives do not have gluten. If they are stuffed with bread or soaked in barley, malt, or some other gluten source, I understand... I will not eat them. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHY YOU ARE TELLING ME TO NOT EAT SOMETHING.. GO FIND OUT!!!! This makes me upset. If you are in business to sell food. Educate yourself and your staff on food allergies, or get out of the kitchen! This public service message brought to you today by me.. Yeah.

SO many reasons I love my husband.... here are my top 20!

• My sweetheart is one of most thoughtful people that I know.
•  He is kind to those he loves almost to a fault.
•  He is a great chef, he can make any ingredients into a wonderful dish that makes you lick your plate clean.
•  He serves people, everyone he can.
•  He works really hard and loves his job.
•  He is funny, so funny! I laugh with him daily.
•  He is honest and always expects honesty from others.
• He doesn't ever yell...ever.
•  He will always try to see your side of things, especially if he doesn't agree with you.
•  He is handsome and used to have a fan club in high school (he is still embarrassed about it).
• He is very strong without even trying.
• He is modest about his many achievements, and there are too many to count.
•  He is 100 percent devoted to me and our children.
•  He is kind to his ex-wife and her husband.
• He loves animals-so we have 2 dogs and a kitten and over 50 fish.
•  He snuggles like a champ, especially that snugly kitten.
• He is warm, both in body temperature and spirit. Everyone who meets him, likes him.
•  He is spontaneous and loves to just get up and take a drive to nowhere.
• He has an amazing voice- even though he thinks he can't sing.
• He will always open my door for me, and others.

So, here are the top 20 reasons that I love my sweetheart. I don't tell him enough that he means everything to me, but he does!

Life, one day at a time...

So my clothes were wet today as I drove to class because the dryer hadn't finished, and I do not like to be late for class, especially when I am the one teaching. By about song two, they dryed and the sweat began, so then they were wet again. It seems I can't stay dry today... Because from that class I went to teach Zumba/strength at a different club... sweaty again! Now I am blogging in soppy clothes. Oh well, I can remedy that when I finish this entry.
     School is wrapping up for the Thanksgiving holiday and I am excited for the break. I took a week off teaching, so I may jump into some strength classes of someone elses for the holidays. It would be nice to be in the back row!! ;) I also want to start cycling with my husband now that I am stronger. I always have liked cycling, but my endurance wasn't what it is now and I never made my goals which was always upsetting. He doesn't like classes, so we will probably do the cycling on our own.
     This has been such a busy month already and my blogging has suffered, but I will tell you why... I have moved to a new club, everything is in place and the new classes start December 2nd. I am thrilled to be making the change. I will still teach three classes a week in the morning at ten am, but it will be at Body & Soul fitness on Ustick and Cole. I am hoping that I can teach more as time demands. I still teach monday mornings at Axiom and T/Th evenings at the YMCA. I was loving training for Bodyattack, but my leg started acting up and I had to tone it down. Boot camp is entering its last week and I am a little afraid to not keep up my momentum as I enter the holiday food season. I love to eat , but I love working out too... Finals are December 13th and then next semester will start in January. I have a big chunk of time where I can get my house back to clean and orderly!! yay!

I'm just blabbering, but Im getting cold, so off I go!!

Happy Monday!

I love my crazy life!

Doesn't seem like I have ever been in a different place than I am now, a loving husband, seven kids, a nice home, wonderful in-laws. So I won't dwell in the past. I just want to express how grateful I am for the joy in my life... my husband and family are my joy. Without them I would be one sad mama.

School school.. school is cool!!

OK.... school is starting in the morning, for the kids. It started for me and my sweetheart TODAY! We both were at BSU at opposite times. I was there from 12-2pm and he went in from 5-9pm. I also taught 2 Zumba classes this morning, went and got my hair done at 4pm, took the "twins" to the mall for last minute school shopping, took the little guy on a date to Sonic and am finally able to blog. I am so tired.  SO. TIRED. did I mention that my little baby dog woke up at 4am to bark and bark and bark until finally I got up to find him soaked in his own urine and when I let him out, I stayed up to clean out his kennel? There was that. I love my baby dog, but I wanted sleep so badly. Good thing he is so cute.
     This week is going to be awesome... and by awesome, I mean busy! I have to get six kids to five different schools in the morning, before 8:45am. Lucky for me, my bonus kids can catch the bus right in front of our house.

and now I am off to sleep.

Hand stand party...

This week there have been a lot of fires in the valley. The inversion is overwhelming at times, but if you look straight up, you can still see the blue in the skies. I love Idaho. There is always a place you can drive to where those skies are amazing and blue.
     Tonight three of our kids came home. I am so glad! We played settlers of Catan (Sean won.. again) and then we had prayers. After prayers we had a headstand contest... It was amazing. and hilarious. I wish I had taken pictures, but I was on my head. So no pictures today, but imagine in your mind...

Three skinny kids and two adults thrusting their, no flinging their bodies into the air so they could be upside down for a moment, then crash landing in most cases back to gravity and its brutal pull.

We also had eaten no bake cookies and I think the sugar rush had a lot to do with our excessive energy. Gluten free of course, cause I made them. :)

Stake conference was this weekend. I was strongly reminded of what a christian is supposed to be like. I feel that most of the time I try to be Christ-like and I try to be patient and loving to those around me. I have my shortcomings and my pride and imperfections. I was in a bit of a state when I came home. I think it all hit me how important this gospel of Jesus Christ is to me. I want to be better. I hope that I can increase the good in my life and the lives of those around me. The gospel is true. God lives and loves us... and I know that... and no, I am not crazy.

 Much love to you tonight. May your skies be blue, Keep looking up.

I am trying to post once a week.. we will see how I do.

So this is our first week with no children in the house.  I have bitter sweet feelings about this. I am so attached to these sweet kids. I haven't been away from all the kids for this long in quite a while and as nice as it is to spend some time with my sweetheart, the house feels empty and quiet. On the flip side.. I get to spend time with my swettie all the time.. because he has the flu, or something. I think he will try for the third time to go to work in the morning. He is amazing. I don't know how he does it.

School is coming up quickly and we all have started gearing up for the final days of summer. For my birthday we spent the day at Eagle island in the sunshine. It was a magical day. The kids built sandcastles and buried each other in the sand, went swimming like fish in the lake and ate yummy snacks and sandwiches. I love summertime. This is a better life than I could have imagined.

Oh my splitting toe!!

A week and a half ago, I was late for class.. so I danced barefoot. Yeah, not a great idea on wooden floors! Now I have a cut on my pinky toe. So what you say?! I say it hurts.My pinky toe rests sideways so the cut is right along the same path as my toes nail bed, and every step brings pain to it. it cracks open and bleeds every day. I have put band aids and ointment on it to no avail...so my husband cut it off.

no seriously.

What!!!???

We took a drive today and looked at beautiful houses and talked about winning the lottery, took some amazing pictures of us as if we were suddenly transformed into owls and enjoyed nature and all things good.  It was a nice day.

This morning my cousin had her mission farewell. She is going to be a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Uruguay for the next 18 months. I am excited for her to have such and exciting and adventuresome time ahead of her. She will be a great missionary. 

I hope you are all having a great weekend and I am praying the skies are blue for you...