Belated Halloween Pictures

I have been really busy this past month and so am just now getting the Halloween pictures up.

Dallin and Jaren were both pirates. Dallin may be the only pirate ever to drool on the face of the earth with a pacifier (see ZooBoo pic at the top):

Annie was a princess for ZooBoo (but changed to be a different princess on Halloween):

Ammon was Mr. Incredible or Dash (depending on the minute you asked him):

Aside from the baby's costume, all the costumes were just from the kids' dress-up bins. I wasn't going to buy new Halloween costumes when they had perfectly good costumes already. They didn't like it so much, but tough luck.

Another Tagging

Okay, so I was tagged by both Jessica and Alene (as you may have seen in my other tagging post). Since Jessica has a different set of questions to answer, I'm going to do it twice. But, again, I've got no one to tag so it's just going to be a question and answer session with myself. Here goes:

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago (1998):
1. arranging my housing for returning in the fall to BYUH (March)
2. meeting Mike (April) - out the window went BYUH plans
3. getting engaged (May) - cemented the nix on BYUH
4. getting married to Mike in the Chicago temple (October)
5. finding out I was pregnant with Jaren (December)

5 Things on my To-Do List:
1. finish quilling my Christmas presents
2. get an entire night's sleep without being awoken by a child
3. putting away laundry
4. buy Annie new Sunday shoes (I've been cramming her size 10 feet into size 8 shoes for about two months now)
5. work with Ammon on reading (he wants to be able to read - today - and is frustrated with the process and work it's taking him with his dyslexia)

5 Snacks I Enjoy (two out of five being healthy snacks ain't bad, the bad thing is chocolate is no. 1 snack - LOL):
1. chocolate
2. grapes
3. apple slices
4. animal crackers
5. cookies

5 Things I would do if I were a Millionaire:
1. Tithing
2. Invest
3. Pay off house and then build a custom one
4. Pay off student loans
5. donate to some worthwhile charities

5 Places I have Lived (I'm changing this one to all the places I've lived - there have been a lot):
1. Greenwood, Indiana
2. Beaverton, Oregon
3. Crystal Lake, Illinois
4. Rexburg, Idaho
5. Vernon Hills, Illinois
6. Helsinki, Finland (and other cities in Finland, but since I was a missionary and moved every few months, I'm not naming them all)
7. Laie, Hawaii
8. Hauula, Hawaii
9. St. Joseph, Michigan
10. Puyallup, Washington
11. Aberdeen, Washington (there are other places within Washington, but since I was a little kid when we lived there, I can't remember the town names)

5 Jobs I have had:
1. paper route
2. babysitter (steady evening job when I was 14)
3. KFC
4. BYUH library reference desk assistant
5. Business Analyst for Kemper Insurance (which went under a few years ago)

5 People I Tag: No one - and that's okay. I do have friends, but those who have blogs have been tagged already. I just have to recruit more of my friends to blog, I guess. Then, I can tag shamelessly.

Late in the Game Tagging

I've been tagged (a while ago, but haven't had time to check out anyone's blog - including my own). So, here goes:

Both Jessica and Alene tagged me so I'm passing it along (although I don't know to whom)!

1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the six "8" items
3) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV shows (although I haven't watched "regular" TV since the Olympics)
1) So you think you can dance
2) Survivor
3) Property Ladder
4) Biggest Loser
5) John and Kate Plus 8
6) America's Next Top Model
7) American Idol
8) CNN (I'm a news junkie - now I just get all I want from the Internet)

8 Things I did yesterday
1) Got up early
2) Attended church and actually got to go to R.S. instead of Primary (YEAH!)
3) Made cookies
4) Took a nap
5) Talked on the phone for a LONG time to a friend from Oregon
6) quilled a new nativity
7) Made BBQ babyback ribs
8) Cuddled with the baby

8 Things I look forward to
1) seeing Dallin walk (but he can take his time - I'm in no hurry)
2) Thanksgiving
3) Seeing the Lubshina sisters Saturday after Thanksgiving (it's been SIX years since we've seen each other in person)
4) more time for quilling
5) Seeing my kids grow up in righteousness and serve the Lord (go on missions, get married in the temple)
6) Going on a mission (or three) with Mike when we get older
7) Christmas
8) spending family time (most days I can't get enough - but, there are those other days)

8 Favorite Restaurants
1) Texas Roadhouse
2) Logans
3) Wendys
4) Dave's Famous BBQ
5) Red Robin
6) China Wok
7) Thai Spice
8) Olive Garden (in small doses)

8 things on my wish list
1) creating a website to sell my quilling
2) having the know-how to decorate my home as nicely as my friends' homes (anyone volunteer to help me out?)
3) having time to read all the books we own
4) being a righteous mother
5) having children who stay true to the faith all their days
6) going back to Finland some day
7) going back to Hawaii some day
8) managing my time more wisely and getting the most out of 24 hours.

8 People to Tag
1) dunno
2) dunno
3) dunno
4) dunno
5) dunno
6) nobody
7) nothing
8) thats all folks!

Confessions of a chocolate lover

Okay, so I have a serious confession to make. I love chocolate. That's not really any big secret, but when a person (ie, ME) is trying (sus-posedly) to lose weight, chocolate is NOT my best friend.

Take today, for example. A good friend was super kind and brought over two plates of treats for us - she wanted to make our family's FHE easier on me - wasn't that nice??? Well, of course it was, but since I am a sucker for chocolate, especially, the gooey kind, it became kind of a bad thing.

There were three brownie-type things on the plate (not really brownies, but can't explain what they were other than they were chocolate) - key word in that last phrase "were". So, I ate one. Yes, bad Brenda, bad! What was even worse was that I noticed after I ate it that there was chocolate residue on the plate where that piece had been. I tried to clean it off with my finger, but it just smudged it more. So, I (brace yourself) got out a Chlorox wipe and cleaned off that portion of the plate so that no one would be any wiser about my eating one of the pieces. For all my family knows (until someone in the family reads this or a friend tells) there were only two pieces to begin with.

I am shameless, I know. But, at least I admit my errors quickly (as I just ate the piece about twenty minutes and the guilt is setting in).

Rootin' Scootin' Cowgirl

I just found a long lost video of Annie when she was a baby. It proves that she was a "rootin' scootin' cowgirl".




I remember being told by some lady at the library as she was watching Annie get around, "That's innovative!" Yup, my children are brilliant!

Smiling is free

I just read an article about minding your manners and thought it was good enough to share.

After reading the article, I was reading some of the comments it received. One of the readers said, "I've been teaching my kids for years to hold doors open, say the magic words [please, thank you, you're welcome] and that smiling is free."

I love that little thought. Really, how hard is it to be sincerely kind? We can all make a difference in someone's life if we just smile.

Okay, so now I'm going to get a little personal. When my son Ammon was born, I had severe post partum depression. Why am I telling you this? Just hold on a second, I'm getting to that, I promise, but have got to spell out the history first...

Anyway, I was very depressed and felt like I didn't have any friend in the world - except for Mike and really, come on girls, we need girlfriends, too. Our husbands can and should be our best friends, but we need the girl power, right? So, I really was down on myself, but whenever I had a day at church when someone gave me a friendly smile, it was a real pick-me-up. It didn't cost that person a thing, but it was priceless to me.

So, remember the next time you're out somewhere, put on that smile 'cause "you're never fully dressed without a smile....SMILE DARN YA SMILE" - (from the musical ANNIE.)

*S*M*I*L*E*

Old redefined...

Last night we were playing games together as a family. One of the games, Apples to Apples (jr.), is all about finding the best, or funniest, fit for a definition. Each player takes turns being the judge who reads the definition and the other players submit their choices from the word cards they have.

The best match of the night was from Ammon who, when trying to find a great word choice for the definition, "old", submitted "dead fish." We asked him, "How is that a match?" With his infinite six-year-old wisdom, he said, "You can't get older than dead." So, there you have it, dead is the new definition of old.

From here on out, I won't be old until I'm dead. Pretty good for someone who wants to be 29 for the next 60 years.