Photo Tag...Phinally :)

I got tagged by my friend, Wendy, to play photo tag over a month ago. Here's how you play:

You go to your 1st photo folder, then to the 10th picture and do a blog post about the picture! I'm going to change the rules a little and let *you* pick the folder and then go to your 10th picture. You then pick 3 people to tag and don't forget to mention the person who tagged you...

First Attempt: First Folder, Tenth Picture...

Ahhh....the day I graduated from BYU-Idaho with my Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Science Education, December 20th, 2006. What an interesting experience....the day itself doesn't stick out in my mind so much as the new shoes and new dress that were both too tight did...there was nothing too out of the ordinary of the day, even with my parents, in-laws, and husband there, because they've always shown their loving support...I believe Elder Monte J. Brough spoke, and he is the individual who my dad and uncle and my grandpa bought part of the Robertson Wyoming ranch from in 1990...I remember tucking my lip gloss up the sleeve of my sweater because I forgot to put it back into my purse...I also remember getting lip gloss all over my graduation gown. I will be ever grateful for the encouragement from my family, as well as my parents for instilling in me the desire to gain an education.


Second Attempt at something a bit more random: Second Folder (because I figured there was bound to be something random in the year 2005), Tenth Picture...

I don't remember the date, but I DO remember the occasion. My parents' stake did a commemorative musical about the Prophet, Joseph Smith, and my younger siblings tried out for parts. My brother Clay, is seen here as the young Joseph Smith, telling the 'doctor' that he won't take liquor for a leg amputation, and preparing to tell his 'mother' to leave the house. My sister Katelyn, is seen as the last on the right, as Lucy Mack Smith, Mother to the prophet. I don't remember the part that Deseret got, though I am sure she was in it, too.

My loving, patient and talented mother made both of their period costumes, along with several other costumes for the production. (this picture would be great, if it had a quilt that had period colors & pattern!) Many of the participants wore our family's period clothing, and it was fun to see it all on stage.

One more memory...I remember that when I was about ten, my mom took a few 1800's clothing classes at BYU. She had to have just had Clay, because I would go occasionally with her and sit in the foyer of the building her class was in so she could come out and nurse the baby...her classes were SOOO long! My mother sewed many things for many people when we were little, including most of our new school outfits (Kellie and Megan and Rachel, I was SOO thankful for your hand-me-downs!) I remember a dress she made for a Miss Utah contestant, and another for my cousin...

When it came time for me to find a wedding dress, I BEGGED my mother to make mine...she convinced me that it would be easier and less headache for her to buy one...we ended up splitting the cost...but alas, when I someday have a little girl, I would LOVE for my mother to make her blessing dress. My mom has a rich heritage, and an even greater posterity that would LOVE to have some of her work. As it is, my mom has made both my boys' blessing quilts, which are each unique. I hope that I can somehow pass some of her legacy down to my own children!

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I tag:
Kellie L., Rachel L., and Megan T.
...just because! :)

Summertime Finds

Raspberries in ginormous jungles

Sudsy revenge and soaking brothers

Pesky wrappers and dribbling icies

Patient ladybugs trying to escape

What do YOU find in the summertime?

Refurbished Frustration

In the last two and a half weeks I have been through four phones. Bear with me. There is a lesson to be learned, and it has nothing to do with cell phones.

My original (and first EVER) cell phone, which we purchased in September of 2008 died. It's a Red Razor, and the pin holding the top and bottom together fell out one day. Ryan took it in and my sweet secretary at work got me a loaner phone from her mom over two hours away so I would have a phone while a refurbished phone was sent to me. No biggie. I can handle a few days without all my info on my phone.

WRONG!

A week later refurbished phone numero uno arrived, and my sweet husband took it in to get all my info switched over from the dead phone, with the kids in tow. Sweet. I am connected to the world again.

WRONG!

Refurbished phone numero uno had a key pad that DID NOT WORK, which made dialing any numbers, finding a contact so I could just call from Ryan's phone, or texting virtually impossible. No, just impossible. After two days of that nonsense, my sweet husband took it in and we started the process over. Great. I'm going to have a new phone.

WRONG!

Even though the manufacturer's warranty was not expired, they sent me refurbished phone numero dos. Okay. I can deal with that. Now I have a phone that works, I can call all my scouts and their mommies and tell them what the plan for den meeting is.

WRONG!

Key number "6" in addition to letters "m, n, & o", which are kindof an integral part of the alphabet and perhaps the most frequent letters next to "e" and "r, s, t, & l" did NOT WORK.

geesh. I am just about to blow a gasket...when at work this nice old gentle man goes on and on about how Ace Hardware might have more business if I worked there, or if they had somebody with my charisma testing pressure gauges for them...How am I supposed to go chew out a helpless sales associate and a measly little cell phone company after receiving such a complement? Well, I was determined to do it anyways.

WRONG, again!

I just about cried...pleading with the annoyed customer service rep, who couldn't do anything for me anyways because of policy, to GIVE ME A BLASTED NEW PHONE and take $30 off my bill because I hadn't been able to call or text for two weeks.

Poor guy. He just sent me down the street to the corporate store. Okay. I can do this.

I end up with another annoyed, but nice gal who promptly ordered MY THIRD REFURBISHED CELL PHONE in TWO WEEKS. *sigh* What's the world coming to?

Today that phone came. I took it and the other dilapidated-non-functioning phone in to get all my info transferred, and then I find out that they CAN'T TRANSFER MY PICTURES? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? and yes, I feel like shouting. Maybe I should just put my caps-lock on. NO? fine. There IS a happy ending to this...




After three refurbished phones, they'll give you a new one. Yup! And you know what? Third time's a charm, because so far I haven't noticed any problems with the current phone. Yet. Maybe as soon as I go back to the original store and find out the latest phone wont take my pictures, just maybe, they'll get me a new one.

Beat the system. That's what I keep telling myself.

As we attended the temple tonight, I was sitting, thinking, and a thought came to mind. "In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter?" I tell myself, "no, it doesn't really matter, but now I can look back and chuckle at all I went through over a measly cell phone, that I've survived quite successfully without for 25 years. hmmmm...something to think about." Too bad it took getting to the temple to get me cooled off about that.

Returning with Honor

This was a fairly big weekend for my family. My second brother, Reed, returned home from Phenom Phen Cambodia serving a 2 year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We were all so excited to see him after two years! Here's how the weekend went...I'll try to keep it short. :)

I took Friday off to do (mostly fold) laundry so when we returned home we would have a clean house. My sister, Katelyn, who life guards at Lava's "Olympic Swimming Complex" invited us to use up some of her free passes, so we of course took advantage of that! We arrived around 5 pm, which is when people start to leave, and we literally had the whole pool and all four slides to ourselves. Granted, it was a windy 65 degrees Fahrenheit, but we had a blast! The little boys and I stayed in the pool while Katelyn, Clay, Deseret and Ryan hit the slides. Ryan commented that his behind was SOOO sore from going down so many times! We spent the night at my mom and dad's (Thanks for the bed, Katelyn!) and was able to visit with my Grandpa Wright, my mom's dad. Can I just say, it must be hell to get old. My parents brought him up from Springville after going down for Tricia's (my loverly sister-in-law) graduation from BYU.

Saturday morning was filled with prepping food in the kitchen, setting up the galley tent on the lawn for Sunday dinner, and music. Home isn't home without some sort of a jam session, and we sure rocked the house! Stephanie on her violin, Katelyn singing, and me jammin' on the piano was just the release we needed. The boys helped immensely by staying out of the way and jumping on the trampoline throughout the day.

In addition to all the fun we were having, we got word that Reed's flight had been canceled, but was reassigned to a different airline to fly into Salt Lake. He was originally scheduled to fly in at 9:35pm, but plans changed to 11:57pm. We were all a little put out by this change, but my Aunt Camille was gracious (along with her sons and husband) and let us leave the little boys home with her family. We drove down with my family, attended a fun and spunky reception where we inappropriately stuffed our pockets with pop-rocks and cotton candy from the refreshment table to keep us awake, then went to Keith and Tricia's new flat in Salt Lake (10 minutes from the airport) to get a cat nap in before heading to the airport at 11pm.

Meanwhile, Tricia and Stephanie picked up Keith (who was flying in from CO from another cousin's wedding where he was the best man) whose flight was late getting in. By the time they got back from the airport and Keith showered and changed clothes (he still had his suit and boutonniere from the reception on) we sped to the airport and got parked at 11:55pm. We made good time, but cut it close, nonetheless.

We arrived at Terminal 1, set up our sign, and had a moment to visit with the other family whose missionary was also returning home. At precisely 12:05am, Elder Crandall walked right into our arms!!!


We wasted no time in getting fancy pictures, just enough to wait for luggage.

We were in our cars with homemade cinnamon rolls for the ride home (thank you, mom!) in less than 30 minutes.

Ryan and I rode flew with Keith and Tricia in his BMW and we all arrived at my parents house without incident at 3:00 am. We. were. exhausted. But wait, there's more; our angelic children, specifically Taylor, was up every 23 minutes until he took a 30 minute nap that ended at 7am. Tanner woke up at 3:45 screaming that he didn't eat dinner, and we just could not get either one to sleep soundly. Uggggh!

Sunday was quite enjoyable, despite the lack of sleep. My brother did a fantastic job reporting in church, and my little "Crayon Cozy" did have some magical powers. The boys did pretty good sitting through the meeting. I was proud!

Church was followed by a myriad of family and friends, food, laughter, catching-up, roaring laughter (Kellie, your mom's stories of Gavin were hilarious! & Kim, Kathy's stories of your darlings were great, too!) and did I mention food? I think I gained at least 10 pounds Sunday (and my mom sent us all home with MORE food!).

After everyone left, we begged Reed to show us the 'trinkets' and fabric he brought home, and the poor kid relented. He was EXHAUSTED after being awake for nearly 48 hours straight, but since us older kids were headed out that night, we just HAD to see his stuff.

He had some beautiful silk pieces for my mom, other interesting cotton pieces for us girls (that I think we all gave back to my mom so she could make him a quit...where were we going to wear it?) and silk ties for the boys. He tried to give us other 'treasures', but he finally agreed to keep them for he and his future wife. Tricia landed a darling pair of sandals, since the rest of us wear a size 10. :) He brought Tanner a silk wallet with coins, and Tanner LOVED it!

He brought Taylor a woven soccer ball...which I think was the coolest thing!

It bounces and is pretty hardy. The boys had a ball (ha ha!) with it, and are still fighting over it at home. I took Tanner's silk wallet and coins and put them in a 'safe' place. :)

We of course had to have a family picture, with Tricia and Taylor added to the family since the last picture, but alas, we waited too long to take them, none of us were in Sunday clothes, and by that time, the sun was down so far it cast shadows on our faces...none of the entire family turned out, but we got a fun 'girls' picture.

Oh, it is so good to have Reed home. We received so many blessing by him being out there and serving. My heart is full of gratitude for he and the men in my life (my father, my husband, and brothers, and others) that have served missions faithfully, and honorably. I pray that as we teach our sons the importance of serving missions, that they, too, will someday be willing and wanting to serve.

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My ♥ is full.

...breathe...

So much has happened in the last two weeks, and you know what? I don't even think I'll play catch-up with pictures, though for journaling purposes, I'll fill you in. We had our county fair (a mere 1472 pictures)...I think I put in a good 70 hours that week. I saw my kids and husband twice? Maybe three times all week. It was CRAZY! I really enjoyed it, and it was fun, most of the time.

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We followed up the craziness with a relaxing family reunion on Ryan's side...we went to Rigby Lake in weather so cold I didn't have to worry about my children getting lost, run over, or drowning. We all wore sweatshirts, jeans and darn-near wore wool socks. It was so cold for August, whoever brought the crock-pot beans was my favorite person! They warmed my heart. The children's activity was decorating cupcakes...it pretty much babysat Tanner for a good hour. He LOVED it! hmmm....birthday party ideas coming to mind...

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Got a fabulous hair cut...still no pictures of it...I'm sure after the weekend I'll have some. Marci at Defining Line did a GREAT job...I highly recommend her. :) I keep saying it is so short she had to shave my neck...yeah. Be ready for pictures!

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Tanner has woken up dry for over a week. We did have a tiny accident that he didn't quit make it, but I take responsibilty for that one...I didn't have him go potty right before bed. I'm so proud of my baby who is growing up so quickly!!

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I hosted a Pampered Chef Party, which I was fretting over for two weeks, but ended up really enjoying it. I sardine'd 10 people in my gigantic apartment kitchen (sarcasim intended) and we had a riot. It was great, and the response was positive. I have to admit that the best part of the whole shindig, was that our apartment, minus our bedroom where I shoved everything, was spotless!!! Thanks Rachael!

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Santa's workshop called. Christmas is DONE!

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As I type this, it's nearly 1 am, and Ryan crawled inbetween the sheets on HIS side of the bed, and EVERYTHING I put on my side, including the floor, is right where it has been for days. I guess I know where I'm sleeping tonight...Scootch over, hon!

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I will indulge you with some fabulous pictures (not - I have no photoshop to spruce them up right now, as Ryan re-formatted the hard drive...) of what I just finished for our HUGE weekend. Ready? Because I know you'll all want one!

Drumroll.....

This, my friends, has a life expectancy of 25+ years. However, due to the nature of my children, I expect it to last all of 3 minutes in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday...
I must say I'm pretty pleased it turned out as well as it did. I just kinda flew by the seat of my pj pants and went for it. I will admit that the one pictured is my SECOND attempt. The first one is one inch shorter, so when it's folded the crayons kinda mesh in the fold...it will be PERFECT for the broken and chewed-up crayons, though! If you're wanting to make one, they'e SUPER easy and really quick...I just tend to start projects after 11 pm.

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An awesome weekend is waiting on our doorstep, literally. I plan to walk out the door no later than 1 pm...unless of course Ryan's suit is not done at the cleaners by then.


We're headed to my parents for Friday's accomodations, to drop off POUNDS of fresh fruit, and all of our clothes for Sunday's festivities.


Saturday we'll go to Springville to take pictures of my cousin's new arrival...our first newborn shoot...We aren't counting the fake ones Ryan and I attempted with our kids. :) Then we'll proceed to Salt Lake to check out Keith and Tricia's new flat, and FINALLY we'll make our way to the Salt Lake International Airport where we will anxiously await the arrival at approximately 9:30 pm, of my little brother, Elder Crandall - who is returning from his two-year service mission in Phnom Phen, Cambodia!!! ...breathe...

We are all so stinking excited we don't know what to do with ourselves!

We'll probably get home to my parents around 2 in the morning, and then head to church at 9:30 (so we have decent seats) to hear him report about his mission. The poor kid will be awake for a good 22 hours...it's going to be one wild and exciting ride!!!


And who can resist a good ole' traditional family gathering afterwards with food coming out your ears? It's going to be so fun, so awesome, and so sweet to have our ENTIRE family together again!


I think I'm most excited the Reed will get to meet Taylor, as well as Keith's loverly wife, Tricia.


I can't stress how much fun we're going to have!!! I do hope I'll have some great pictures to share with you in a few days. :)

2009 Bonneville County Fair

I survived. I made it out alive, without any incidence, but it's only the first day!

After getting up at 5 am to donate plasma, I headed into work to roll up my sleeves and dig in to our county fair. By 11 am, my straightened hair had curled on the bottom layer because of all the groady sweat...I must have been working hard or something (more likely, running laps :P)

Twenty-five percent of my job deals with 4-H. If you don't know what that is, check HERE.

I was honestly a bit nervous taking the job last year and knowing that I'd have to do a lot with 4-H just because I didn't really excel in FFA (honestly, I was just along for the ride and the cute boys) and I never did 4-H as a kid (read two posts ago...we did other things, like "increasing our talents"). It is really a neat program...

However, more of my life experiences than just being raised on a cattle ranch helped me to be a good leader and enjoy what I do.

Maybe by the end of my week of 12-hours in an arena and barns I'll have time for some pictures and some "tails"...meanwhile, check out the schedule by following the link HERE.

You might be suprized to know that the county fair is more than just cows and cookies...to see and experience for yourself, stop on in if you're in the area! It's free (and if you DO get food, it's TOTALLY worth the few bucks...like the giant cup of nachos for a dollar...yeah, that was dinner...and I couldn't eat it all). It's located behind the Tautphus Zoo, at 2925 Rollandet. You can't miss it!

Keeping it Real

Thank you, Sara, for your inspiration. We each have our days, right? Maybe we shouldn't shout it from the roof-tops, but I'm going to get it off my chest through writing....I'm thinking maybe some of you can relate.

Tonight I'm keeping it real, though I like to think that I'm always keeping it real. I like to focus on the positive, but tonight I'm cutting loose. Buckle up or jump off. I understand it could be MUCH, MUCH worse, but right now it's a bid deal to me. Even if it shouldn't be.

Today was long. I went to work at 7am and didn't get home till 6pm and only saw my computer for 10 minutes total...it was a long day. My family and home SOOO could have benefited from me being home during that time. Although I got quite a bit accomplished, and probably walked at least three miles, I'm tired, cranky, and where my oven attacked my arm last Sunday is really itchy. I just want to pick at the one-inch scab and see what happens.

I have a wart on the bottom of my left foot, in line with my fourth toe, and when I walk, my that toe and pinkie toe go numb. Should I be concerned? That was pretty annoying today, especially because I was on my feet all day. As if I wouldn't be on my feet all day if I were home...maybe I would have at least gotten to lay down with Tanner for nap time. Maybe.

Whining is my specialty right now. Unless you're seeking negative feedback, don't warrant any comments from me. You just might get what you didn't ask for.

I am wanting to start a fabric project right now, but because someone didn't account for my paycheck correctly, and pay me for my holiday on July 3rd, my crafty neurons are just going to have to wait until next week to get their fix. By then, I just might not be motivated enough to start it.

While Ryan took the kids for a walk (bless his heart, because I almost ripped it out), I went to get groceries. I walked out with two gallons of milk, grapes, and four cans of peaches, which really irritated me...why? Because I don't know if I will get to replenish my stock of home-canned peaches that has been non-existent since December of last year. Yea, I ate nearly all of them. They were too good.

I suppose it's a plus that we were able to commission Santa on a Christmas project...aka: we ordered it Friday and it should be in next month so we can store it in our garage for the next four months. What is it? DON'T ASK! IT'S CHRISTMAS! All I can say is, I hope Ryan and I can refrain from setting it up before Christmas Eve. Period.

Speaking of which, I can't keep track of it to save my life. Why does it have to fluctuate so much? TMI? Okay. I'll stop.