Why oh Why...

... is it so hard to blog?? I'm stumped. Believe it or not, I love to blog. I love to read them and I love to update. But for some reason, I'm averaging about 6 months between posts!! I think what happens is I just get so behind that I just get overwhelmed. So here's my attempt to get back on the blogging train.

It's Mother's day. Every time Mother's day comes around, I feel so honored and grateful to be a mom. I am a mom to a wonderful 11 year old boy. I really thought I would have more children. I didn't want to stop after one child. Apparently Heavenly Father had other plans in store for me. When I divorced, I thought my dreams of more children were over. I have since been blessed with two beautiful step daughters. Although I have no idea if more children are in store for me, I am grateful for what I have. A family who adores me.

I have had a wonderful day. Time spent with family. At church I watched as Nate sang with the primary for the last time on Mother's Day. Yes, I practically had to push him out off his seat to go up there, but when I asked him to go up and sing for me the last time, he did it. And he did a great job. It seems like just yesterday I was so excited to watch him sing on Mother's day for the very FIRST time!! Watching him, I realize that he is the reason I strive to be a better mom every day. He needs me and depends on me, and even though he may not realize, he motivates me to be a better person.

Nate's Recital

It's that time of year again- Spring Recital!

Nate participated in his 3rd recital. I remember back to his first recital. He had only been taking piano lessons for 6 weeks. It's amazing what they learn in a couple of years!! I even watched his this year's recital vs. last years, and can really see the improvement a year makes.

This year's recital was at Riverton music again. Nate's had a lot of support from family. Charley and I were there as well as Dave, Dayna, Dayna's 3 kids, Grandpa R, and Grandpa M.

He looked so handsome, and he did awesome!!

Birthday Weekend...

36. Not a milestone birthday, but I did have a wonderful one. My actual birthday was on Monday, so it was more like a weekend of celebrating.

Friday started with these. Charley ordered them to be delivered on my birthday, but I guess the place messed up and delivered them early. Either way, they sure were yummy!!

Friday night we were able to go to the Grizzlies Hockey game. We bought these "Pass of all Passes" from Groupon. They are season passes to Raging waters, select Real Salt Lake games, Select Hockey games, Season passes to the Blaze (indoor arena football), Rocky Mountain Raceway passes... and some other fun things. All for $39 a person. It was such a great deal.

Anyway, back to the game. Michelle's family went with us and she had an extra ticket so we were able to bring Tyler. They boys had so much fun. They made a poster for one of the radio DJ's that was there in the luxury suite. They were trying to get an invite! The other side of the poster said "The guy behind me can't see" Which was such a true statement! Who wouldn't invite these cute boys to the suite?? Well, no invite, but they sure had fun trying!

They had this Quick Cash place there doing a "Spin the wheel" promo. You got to spin the wheel and if it landed on "BOX" then you got to choose one of the 8 boxes. 1 of the boxes had a ring in it, the other 7 were empty. Charley spun the wheel and won a marquis diamond ring. Then Nate goes and spins... lands on box, and can you believe he chose the correct box too? He also won a ring. Me, what did I win? Oh-- $5 of my next cash loan. Guess I'm not as lucky! We actually took the rings to the cash store the next day and sold them for cash. Nate is going to use the $30 they gave us for his ring to buy a DS game.

Saturday was the George Strait/Reba concert. I was SO excited for this!!! A friend at work, her mom works for Larry Miller and was able to get us presale tickets-- so in other words we had awesome seats. I have been waiting for this concert for so long. When I found out that they were coming to Salt Lake the weekend of my birthday, I told Charley that was all I wanted for my present. So like a good husband, he took me :)

The concert was awesome!! It was over 4 hours long. With two HUGE stars, how could it not be though. Reba came out first. She was beautiful as always. George closed it out. But as I always say, it's a good thing he sings well, because he's not so entertaining. He doesn't get into it much. We actually left during his encore because it was 11:30 and we were starving. And on the way home, it was a blizzard.

When we got home, our car looked like this:

And yes, that was on April 2nd. What a crazy spring we are having!!

Sunday was conference. Have to admit, it's my favorite Sunday of the year. I love being able to lounge around and watch conference on TV. And, it's always the weekend of my birthday. So, if my birthday is ever on a Sunday, I don't have to get up and get ready! I get to relax all day!

And Monday-- finally after a weekend of celebrating, the day had arrived. I did have to go into work at 6 AM which was not so fun. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a morning person. But when I arrived at work, this is what greeted me:

Going in early does have it's benefits. I did get to leave at noon! I went and met my family (Mom & Dad, Erin & boys, Tyler & Bryan, Michelle & Kelly and Charley) for lunch at Applebees. It was so nice to be off work early, and visit. No rush to be anywhere. After that, I went home to relax. Soon after, a knock at the door-- It was Heather & family bringing me yummy cupcakes:

Aren't the Mickey sprinkles adorable?? And Rocky Road Ice cream. Boy, do they know me, or what?? After they left, I met some friends (Stacey, Denise, Carlos, Christian, Ellie & Janine for dinner at Mandarin. Love that place. But it's kind of pricey and far, so we don't get there often. About once a year on my birthday!! LOL.

So, as you can see, I had a wonderful birthday & weekend. So much packed into it, filled with my wonderful family and great friends. Thank you to everyone who sent me cards, called me, text me, and sent FB messages. You all truly made my day brighter!

Pumpkin Carvin'

It's already that time of year... Fall! Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all around the corner. Charley and Nate love to carve pumpkins with those patterns in those carving kits. But as you can see from the pic below, pulling the GUTS is NOT Charley's favorite part...

So he quickly turned the job over to Nate.. who doesn't so much mind it. I just laugh at them both, because i don't really get into the carving...

But they do a great job! Here's Charley getting ready to light it...

And I had to take this picture just so you could get an idea for the size of this pumpkin!! I think Nate chose the biggest one in the lot... Good thing they were only 8cents a pound over at Winco!

And here's the masterpiece! Didn't they do a great job??? We do always leave them inside because I'm always afraid they will get smashed or kicked or something. But for sure we will take it with us to the trunk or treat and put it out on Halloween...

Arrow of Light...

Nate had his "Arrow of Light" ceremony on Tuesday, October 12th. This is the highest award that can be achieved by a cub scout. I'm so proud of him and all the work he has put into scouts. He really enjoys it, and it's such a good program for the boys. He also received his "Heavy Shoulder" award which means he earned all 20 pins in Webelos.

Charley and I have been the Webelos leaders. Nate was the only Webelo for 5 months, but after that, several boys turned 10 so they officially called us to be the den leaders. Gotta admit though, I know nothing about scouts, so Charley has done most of the work. He's great with the boys, and he loves scouts and watching the boys pass off their requirements.

The leaders are great about making the boys feel special when they earn this achievement. Our ward does a "skit" to recognize the scout, and Nate chose the "Outlaw" one. They pretty much had a warrant for his arrest, a trial, and the whole 9 yards.

The leaders also dressed up for the parts.. everything from Sheriff, to baliff, to Judge. They were awesome. All had parts and it came together perfectly!

The pretty much put him on "trial" for "earning his arrow of light." They questioned Nate himself, the den leader (Charley), the mom and the dad (Dave). Just asked us questions to make sure they had all the "facts" before finding him "guilty" of earning his arrow of light.

Afterwards, Brother Pryor presented him with all the awards & certificates.

As part of the ceremony, it's customary for the cub scout to cross the "bridge" to boy scouts. They have all the cub scouts (blue shirts) on one side of the bridge. Nate had to untie the square knot, step on the bridge and re-tie the square knot. He was so nervous about messing this up, but he did great! As he goes across the bridge, the cubs say "goodbye" to Nate. This was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Almost brought tears to my eyes to see Nate so grown up.

Then he crosses the bridge, unties the knot on the other side and the boy scouts (brown shirts) are waiting on the other side to welcome him into "Boy Scouts".

Nate had awesome support from family and friends there. My parents came. Heather and Craig and their kids came. Nate's dad came, as well as his aunt Niki (Dave's sister) and his Grandpa Richards (Dave's Dad). We also had a few neighbors there. Chris Kerner even was there at young women's and was able to pop in for a few minutes.

Here's a close up picture of the arrow of light award and the heavy shoulders plaque. The plaque is engraved with his name and the date.. such a neat thing to have. They also presented me with a lanyard that I can put all my mother's pins on and keep them in one place. The yellow/blue side is for the cub scout pins, and the red/green side is for the ones that he will earn in boy scouts.

I'm so proud of Nate and all the work he has put into earning these. I hope he continues to enjoy it and is motivated to earn is Eagle Scout award! It's such a great program and teaches the boys responsibility and committment... Congrats buddy!

Potato Harvest!

It's that time of year again... Potato Harvest! We love potatoes in our family, and nothings better than FRESH potatoes! Hilary's husband works on the farm where these potatoes are grown, and we love to go get them and bring them back.

This year we took our swingset up to Charley's parents house, so we rented a trailer. This meant we could bring back more potatoes on the way back! Our family and friends love them as well...

I never thought we would get this HUGE swingset on the trailer and that it would make the drive. But guess what, It did! Took 5 guys to load it onto the trailer, but they made it. (Good job guys!).

It was such a short trip up and back. We left home around 10 PM and made it to Filer at 2 AM. We were up early that morning to unload the swingset & rebuild it at grandma's house. Charley and his dad rebuilt the whole thing that morning.

Then it was off to get potatoes. Nate really wanted to come this year since he missed it last year. He was in "awe" at the size of the potato cellar. And yes, those are potatoes in the background.

I think this potato that Nate's holding here was bigger than my shoe!

And I don't think this picture even needs an explanation as to why I took it? LOL. It was so cute.. had a body, and even a tail on the back. But, of course, I focus on the three circles :)

We put all the kids to work bagging... It took us about 3 hours to bag 50 bags that are approx. 100 lbs each! Here's all the kids chillin afterwards... Aren't they so cute? This is what the load back looked like.

It was a short one day trip. I always wish we had more time to stay and visit everyone. Nate loves to go up and visit the cousins.. in fact, one of them wanted to come home with us for a week! LOL. We left Filer around 7 PM, and went to get some dinner at the first place I ate in Twin Falls when Charley took me up to meet his family. A chinese restaurant called Wok n. Grill. After that, it was on the road again.. We arrived home around 1 Am, and had to unload all the bags so we could get the trailer back before 7 AM. Whoa... Talk about a long day, and a lot of manual lifting!!

This is what our garage looks like now. Time to deliver potatoes so I can park the truck in the garage again! (And thanks Hilary & Charles for letting us come up every year!)

Red Ribbon Week...

It's Red Ribbon week at school! Nate loves to be involved in the activities, and Tuesday was crazy hair day. I had no idea it was crazy hair day, or I would have waited for his haircut.. He was starting to look so SHAGGY!! So, since it's super short, this is what Nate came up with for his crazy hair... Gotta love his creativity :)

Well Hello Blog....

... Long time no update!

Not that I haven't wanted to update, just lost interest after my memory card crashed in May. I got a new phone with such an awesome camera on it, that I mostly used it as my camera. Well, when I went to Long Beach in May, before getting on the plane, I powered my phone off. Then in Salt Lake, it wouldn't turn back on. So I took it in to Verizon. When they took my memory card out, it wiped out the entire card. I tried eveything to restore the 1200+ pictures, videos on it. Luckily, the card has gone from phone to phone, so most of those pics I did have a back up for, but there were a good 300 or so that I had taken from Dec-May that the only back ups I have are ones that I texted to Charley or uploaded to facebook. UGH. (I even took the card to Inkleys who has 90% success rate for recovery. Of course, I fell in the 10% that was unsuccessful. They said the card was completely empty, it didn't even have sectors on it).

So, ANYWAY-- Well, we have had an eventful Spring/Summer, and I do want to have those memories somewhere, so I think I'll start catching up the 'ol blog. I'll probably catch it up monthly, but at any rate-- I'm BACK! And ready to get back into the blogging mode...

Some of the significant events since February:

• Nate's Piano Federation (Feb)
• Nate's Talent Show (Feb)
• Easter (April)
• My Birthday (April)
• Selecthealth Moves Buildings (April)
• Nate's Piano Recital (April)
• Sarah's 2 Surgeries (April)
• Short trip to Long Beach (May)
• Master Bathroom Redecor (May)
• Disney (June)
• Jetblue Summer Party (June)
• Nate's Webelo's Badge (June)
• Overnight trip to NY (July)
• Raging Waters (July)
• Nate's First Day of 5th Grade (July)
• Lagoon (August)
• Blackwood Family Reunion (September)
• Charley's & Sarah's job promotions (September)

See you soon!