Why do I always get the Wierdos???

Here are a couple of stories to let Katie know that she isn't the only one who gets wierdos at Wal-Mart...

The other day I was walking around Wal-Mart with just Trevor in the cart. A man dressed in just a grubby sweatshirt and jeans with a baseball cap on stopped me and asked me if he could ask me a question. I said "Sure". He said: "I hope you don't think this is wierd or anything but I saw you and I just thought you were so beautiful and I was wondering if you would let me take you out sometime." ...What the HEAK?! This might have been flattering if it weren't for the fact that I had Trevor in the cart and my wedding ring was clearly in view since I had my hands on the cart. Do I look like the type of person that would do something like that?! I was actually pretty offended. I said "Sorry, I'm happily married", held up my ring finger and walked away...what a sleeze!

Another story...

A couple weeks ago an older man randomly stopped me in Wal-Mart and said "Hey, do your kids eat a lot of cereal?" I said "Not really." He leans in closer as if to tell me his fasinating conspiracy theory and then says in a hushed voice: "Well, you better stock up because the prices are gonna jump sky high because of the flooding in Iowa and the wheat shortage!" I said "Oh...thanks." and walked quickly away. I realize that he might be correct on the smallest level but it was hillarious because he was acting like the world was coming to an end and we all needed to be prepared.

Why do I always get the wierdos??? It's like I have a neon sign stamped on my forehead that pulls these types of people to me!

My Baby is going to School Already!

My sweet little girl had her 1st day of school today! She was beyond excited and I was SO emotional for some reason. I didn't expect to be so emotional but once I entered the classroom and saw Anna, one of my good friends up here, I lost it and she had to console me a bit while I pulled myself together.
Today was orientation and the next 4 days are reserved for testing each individual child so that the teacher can asses them and get an idea of what they need to learn still or if they need to be challenged more.
I'm so excited about this teacher. She is a warm person who, I can tell, really wants to teach these kids all that she can while they are with her. I can see that she really has a genuine concern and love for these kids already.
Last night, I sat contemplating so many things...wondering if I had done all that I could have done while I had my sweet Lizzy home with me. Did I teach her all she needs to know? Does she have good memories of being at home with me? How will she establish herself in her little mini-society? Did I really do my best??... and on and on. Flashbacks of giving birth to her and watching her grow as a little baby kept flashing through my head as I made her pancakes this morning. I still don't know the answers to these questions but I just hope that my best was good enough and pray that Heavenly Father will help me in the rest of my journey as well as hers. She is such an intelligent, funny, loving little girl and I know that her potential is so amazing. I just pray that as I release her out into life, out of my home, that I have given her the foundation that she needs to make the right decisions. She has been blessed with an amazing spirit and I take comfort in that and in the fact that our Heavenly Father loves her and is watching out for her as well.
My heart breaks today for the moments that I won't get back during that precious time that has already past with her but it is quickly repaired by the hope and anticipation of wonderful and bigger moments and memories that are to come...
And can anyone please tell me how we went from this to THIS in such a short amount of time?!!

Watermelon Party!

A couple of months ago, my Lizzy got it into her pretty little head that she wanted to have a 'Watermelon Party'. She started mass producing little invitations and everything all on her own. I guess I had no choice but to comply. :) We had a Watermelon Ring Toss with real watermelon rings ( I just cut out the flesh and saved the ring...Lizzy and Ryan are "wearing" them in the pictures) and we also had a Watermelon Eating Contest. The poor kid that won got a trophy and...what else?...a watermelon for his prize. He looks like he's gonna puke in the second picture on the top row! It was great. So many people showed up. I made some watermelon cupcakes, but I forgot to take a picture of them. Lizzy was thrilled. Now I can stop hearing: "Is it summertime yet so I can have my Watermelon Party?" I have been hearing that for about 3 months now! Just as I finally thought that this would be over and she would be so happy to finally have her Watermelon Party, we were at the store getting the last of the supplies needed and she exclaims, "Mom! Next time I'm gonna have a Cherry Party!"....I've created a monster!!

My Sister...the Master...

For those of you that know me, you know that I have many sisters...all of which have oodles and oodles of talent. One is a Cake Master (my hero) one is a Photography Master, one a videographer/movie-maker, one a hair and cake master (among other things), and one is an awesome artist.

Here is a story of the talent of one such sister:

Not only is Rebecca an insanely gifted and talented seamstress (you should see the blessing outfits she makes!) but she is also the Genealogy MASTER. She is a teacher at the local college in Maryland and also lectures at genealogy seminars. She came to visit about a week ago and we got to go to the Family History Library for 2 days straight. It was like a one-on-one Genealogy Conference! Rebecca is an amazing teacher with the ability to inspire, motivate and have you retain the information that you have been given. It was a blast! Who thought genealogy could be a blast?! It really is exciting. It's not just genealogy, it's American history and it's detective work. It's amazing to be able to take the clues that you have found on this person and piece them together to find where and who they were what they probably did every day.

Thanks Becca, you are the best. I wanna be just like you when I grow up! :)

FHE at the Lake

Last week, a bunch of us friends got together and had Family Home Evening at the Lake. It was so fun. We swung off the Rope swing, wake-boarded, knee-boarded and my crazy husband and a bunch of his friends jumped a bike off of a bike ramp that our friend, Rich made. The first black and white pic at the top is the rope swing ramp. We all had a blast and are already planning more lake trips. (I lost a ton of pics from the last lake trip, darn it! I even had some of me wake & knee boarding) This is what I love about Utah...awesome lakes only 45 minutes away that we get to play at all summer long.

"The Host" Book Review...

I just finished Stephanie Meyer's "The Host" this weekend.

Don't worry, I'm not saying anything that isn't already said in the inside of the book's cover. No spoilers, I promise! However, if you want an unbised view of the book while you are reading it, I would hold off on reading the rest of this review...I'm pretty opinionated...:)

The premise of the book was that aliens or "Souls" had come to earth and taken over the bodies of the humans that inhabited it. They did this because, evidently, earth was too violent and there was too much beauty in it that they didn't want to see it go to waste. What they didn't expect were the overwhelming emotions that came with these bodies.
The story focuses on one Soul, in particular, that invades the body of a young girl named Melanie, who has been on the run with her young brother since she was very young. Melanie is not ready to give her body up just yet and this is the plight of the "Soul" that inhabits it.

THE UPSIDE: I actually really liked the storyline and premise of the book even if it did have to do with aliens. I'm not really a "Sci-Fi" kind of girl, but I actually found it pretty intriguing. I think MEYER did a good job creating the "Soul" species. She has quite the imagination!
I also thought it was interesting how MEYER describes the complexities of emotion that us, as humans, have from an outside prospective.
The love stories were compelling but not good enough to carry you through all 619 pages. My favorite parts were Melanie's flashbacks of being with Jared. I felt that there should have been more of those. I thought Melanie could have been a bigger character. I wanted to see more from her.

THE DOWNSIDE: There was an insane amount of unnecessary detail that you had to read through to get to the real story. Granted- in the Twilight series, I admired and enjoyed the detail that MEYER could produce. It was just enough to be able to have a good image in your head of what you were reading about without overdoing it.
In "The Host" I found myself glazing over a good part of the book where nothing really happens because she's describing the surroundings so much and the same events seemed to happen over and over. (How many times can you talk about someone being hungry or being beaten or disliked??) It seemed she was forcing an image into your head instead of giving you a little and letting your imagination do the work. There was so much detail that I was just getting confused (granted, that not hard to do with me but...) A lot of the time I found myself reading pages and pages at a time, waiting for something to happen. The stories that the "Soul" tells about her previous lives on other planets seemed a little strange and far-fetched and I didn't really care to read about all of them. Some of them were interesting, but most of them were unnecessary (and downright weird) for the storyline.

The last 1/3 of the book finally got going and became pretty entertaining. I even really liked how it (finally) ended.

IN A NUTSHELL: I don't LOVE it but I don't hate it... It was an interesting read and I enjoyed most of it. I suggest you rent it from the library or borrow it, don't buy it. I thought MEYER was extremely creative (perhaps a bit too creative at times) but it was just drawn out by too much unnecessary detail and weird alien stories. I enjoyed the love stories. I won't read it again but I don't regret that I did read it. It makes you think and ponder things, that's for sure!

DISCLAIMER: I am, by no means an author and I admire MEYER for her insane amount of talent...this is just my opinion.

Despite the fact that I totally wasn't IN LOVE with this book, I can't WAIT for the 4th book in the TWILIGHT SERIES! I loved the Twilight series. Just a couple more weeks!

HAPPY 4TH!

We had a wonderful holiday right in our own neighborhood with all our awesome nieghbors and friends ( I know that I say this all the time but we really do have the BEST group of friends up here!) We had BBQ, potluck, ultimate frisbe, illegal fireworks, vollyball & go-carts. It doesn't get any better than that!A HUGE thank you to all the men & women oversees that sacrifice so much to serve this wonderful country. We appreciate all that you do for us but also can't wait to have you back home!

Waaaaal-EEEEE

I know, I know...this is turning into a cake blog rather than a family blog (so sorry!) but really, this is ALL I do...all the time! I wouldn't be posting anything if I couldn't post cakes so you will have to all bare with me.

This was for my neighbor's little boy's 6th birthday. Jacob built me the stand that this stood on and fastened a PVC pipe to the cake board so that I could then attach more PVC for the arm and head supports. This cake was SO FUN to do. The best part was whenever I asked my little Trevor who this cake was, he would scream: "Wa-E"!

*P.S. To see how I built the cake, go to whitmansugarmammas.com