I really love our Temples and what they mean for Me/Us… I just thought that I would share this with you. I am a member of the group Mormon Messages on Facebook, this video is part of a message that they sent out and I really liked it.

It is in response to a recent show on HBO called “Big Love”… I’ve never seen it, don’t have HBO, but being in the “know” sometimes is a good thing. Here is the newsroom response too.

A sure sign that Spring is coming…
Chris got his first (of so many) Ouees!!

I’ve got to remember to go get stocked up on BAND-AID’S!!... they are a staple around here from start of Spring to the end of Summer… They fix EVERYTHING!!
As you can see from the smile :).
p.s. I’m so glad he was able to get out, it’s only 50* outside but he was out all day Saturday and played his heart out :)

**Jimmy was sick inside all day with a fever :( … Hope he get’s better real soon…

Post 3 of 11

I thought that it was fitting to get this one posted now, seeing that it's snowing and we can't play outside again. I have tried over the winter to think of different things that I could do with the boys. You know the ol’ cabin fever thing. We’ve done a few things, not as many I had hoped for, but we had a couple of really fun ones that was a lot of fun for all.

One was an idea my friend Stacie told me about, an indoor picnic… I loved the idea so here is what I did… I made pizza pockets, apple pies with my sandwich maker… yumm-o… packed that, drinks, and new movies (I’d had them for a while but forgot about them). We went downstairs put down a blanket had our picnic while watching 101 Dalmatians . It was a great “family day” as we like to call them.

The other favorite that has happened a few times are the ever famous blanket tents!!!... This is just one of the many creations that have developed here. :) as you can see the “whole family got into the action and had a blast with this one!!

Ok here goes :)
Post two of eight..now 11

When was the last time that you left the grocery store with a smile :)…

Do you hate giving them all your money and only walking out with a few things. I sure do!!... Well one of my new passions/necessities is COUPONS. I use to do them and enjoyed it when I had time, but it’s been a good 3 years since I’ve REALLY focused on it or have done anything with it. Well right now I can’t afford not to. I have some staples but it’s the “extras” that we have gone without for a long while now. So now I’m able to provide some of that. One of these days soon (I hope) it will be even more fun. Right now I have to still do it on a VERY tight budget so I have to work a little harder. Once I’m able to budget more it will be not quite as difficult and I still won’t be spending much.

So I would like to share with you a few of my results…
A few weeks ago I bought $60 of groceries for $8.oo... for real I promise!!
And then a couple of weeks after that I got $160 of groceries for under $40... YUP that’s $120 SAVED!!

There is so much out there to help you get these results. But here is one of the best helps I’ve found. She has a great program that really works and she does the big part of the job for you. My friend Amanda and I are going to her FREE class on Tuesday next week. I can’t wait to learn even more that will save us even more!! If you don’t live in this area I’m sure that there is something that does the same for you in your area. Really once you get “surfing” you’ll find so much out there. I'm not able to add the news paper into our budget right now, so I have a couple of neighbors and friends that don’t use their coupons and I get theirs . Then there are the ton that you can get online. I have another friend that told me that a friend of hers does this for her “j o b”. What she saves is what she made at a part time job. By the time you add it all up it is her job and she’s home with the kids and able to make a difference with her family.

After all isn’t that what we all want, to make a difference in our families. It might not be staying at home, but saving money is always good and leaves something for other needs. I know that we can all use that in these times.

Have fun and let me know if I can help :)

Ok so remember back here and I talked about having 8 posts that were started and not finished. I did one of them… so I should have 7 left right…well I added three more to the list, so before it gets crazy out of control I thought that I had better get started!!... It has been hard to keep up, first not having the internet, and then there has just been so much on our plates that I couldn’t even bring myself to do anything extra that wasn’t necessary. Like I’ve stated before, I’ve really missed blogging it is something that I really love and enjoy. I told myself that I can’t get caught up on reading all of yours until I get at least 2 more caught up on mine. So I’ll be checking in on yours VERY SOON!!...

p.s. They obviously are not in the correct chronological order but I will try my best to have some sort of order. Oh and I got a great link from a good friend to a site that you can turn your blog into a book (among other ideas as well), which is one of the two reasons that I really started blogging, before I knew how much I would love it and what it would evolve into. The first two reasons were:
1. A record for the Boys for their time here with us (ie: the book)
2. So that our family (none of which lives nearby can watch the Boys grow and keep up with them.

Now… I just really enjoy it for so many reasons and the fact that I can have a “written record”!!!... I can’t wait to put the blog into a book form. How fun will it be :)

Today Jimmy, Chris and I went to Jimmy’s school early and did the morning family reading program together and then ate donuts afterwards. It was a lot of fun.. then Jimmy and his class (along with many other classes) went on a field trip today. The got to ride on school busses and go to Salt Lake City to the Discovery Gateway Children’s Museum.

So as you might have guessed Chris didn’t take to that very well…. He wants to be in school so badly!! But he’s just not ready and still has another year to go, which is good he really needs that year as his Joy School “mom’s” would attests to. Well since he’s had some issues lately about feeling left out and such I decided this was a good time for us to do something just the two of us. So Chris and I went on our own field trip. We went to the Bean Museum and then the park to play and have a picnic “home packed” lunch.…GOOD DAY for all :)

p.s. It started out a really nice day, you know the one that let’s you know that Spring is in the air. Well that faded quickly and we moved the picnic into the truck. That wind just cut to the bone today. It was still fun and some quality time for Chris and I that we needed.

Well what can I say it’s been another month… It’s been a really long month for me and our family. It’s a little ironic that my “electronic journal” and my “written journal” reflect each other, in the way that when things aren’t going so well I have a difficult time writing. It’s not that I can’t find the positives because I normally can do that fairly well, it’s that I don’t want there to be a “recorded” record of what is going on. I guess it’s a way to not admit that everything isn’t “ok”, like you tell everyone. I took a class (that I really should have shared with everyone) and one of the things that we really stressed is that we need to be more honest with our feelings and how we really are doing like when someone says “how are you” you should tell the truth, not just say “fine or great”… you know all of our stand by’s.

So anyways… I’m still not prepared to talk about what we are going through, but give me a few weeks and I’ll tell you all about it (well what I feel like I can share), after all this is suppose to be a story of our lives for the boys and our family, and this is a big thing/time for us. In the mean time we also haven’t had the internet. Every once in a while around midnight I can get a weak signal. So here I am at midnight getting this out. I just needed to post and work my blog. I can say that I have truly missed blogging and all of my blogging friends. I am behind once again with all of yours, right after I had just caught up again…lol… go figure… I think in the next few days we will have a working connection. Then I will get caught up on all of your happenings and see if I can get you caught up on ours.

I do want to say that as far as Chad and I, we are really good, probably better than have been in a really, really long time. The same for the rest of us, it’s not anything like that. Health is good, THANK GOODNESS :), relationships are good, and best of all the boys are doing great!!!

I also would like to thank all of our family and friends that have been so supportive with us and the kindness that you have shown. How VERY blessed we are to have each and every one of you in our lives. I told a friend just last week that after nearly 20 years I finally REALLY feel that I have found my place, a place that I can call “home”. A place where we feel we belong, our friends, our church “family”, excreta. I’ve waited a long time to have that feeling again and I’m just thankful that we’ve found it. Again, THANK YOU dear friends for being the people that you are!!!