Total embarrassment....

For someone who lives through other people's blogs & Facebooks posts, I sure haven't done a very good job for the last five months in keeping people up to date on MY life! Maybe that's because there are occasions when I view my life as a Groundhogs Day kind of world. Get up, work out, go to work, come home, play ref/mom/wife/police, go to bed. Sleep & repeat.

Nonetheless --- I wanted to tell whoever might still be reading this about my latest battle of the bulge. In October, I joined up temporarily at the Sports Academy here in North Logan & took part in their 12 week weight loss competition. I got up at 5:30 every morning to have an intense one hour workout with a trainer & about 6 other tough ladies. We were a very close group & I absolutely loved working out with them! The competition ended on January 15th, and I placed 10th out of 40 contestants for % of weight loss.

Although I didn't even come close to winning - it really helped me to form the habits that I'll need to continue on. I lost 30 pounds on it and about that many inches total off my body. Working out is something that I get a real "high" from & have found that it suits my addictive personality quite well!

Here is the before picture:

Here is an after picture:

I will pinky swear to make a great big 'ol posting of my world, my kids, my schmoopy --- all in the next ... week or so! Ha!

Oh my....

I can't believe its already almost the end of September! Having the kids back in school just makes the time FLY by. Well there's that and the fact that the sun is gone behind the mountains by 7:00 each night now :-(
Carter is doing good in 4th grade - clearly the tallest kid in his class & just about an inch shorter than his teacher!
Mason is loving 2nd grade and is always out to do his absolute best while making a million friends along the way!
Jack is trying to get into a preschool program they have here at the elementary school (not the charter school that Carter & Mason go to though). He's gone in a few times for testing and will hopefully get placed in their 4 day per week program! They said he qualifies for it because he has a slight speech impediment. Instead of saying the word "club", he'll say "pwub" ... he has some REAL doozies... like replacing 'k' for 't' and saying - "Mom, do we not wike "(t)ittys at our house?"... You just can't help but giggle sometimes as the mature adults we are.
Charlie has surpassed Jack in weight and almost met up with him in height. People ask if they are twins every so often - which just makes Charlie seem like the giant dummy of the pair! Poor fella! He just turned three in June but most people think he's 4 or 5 years old! Thats what you get for having such midgets as parents kid! Sorry...

Life is moving along just fine at our house --- we have GRASS planted and hopefully it will make its presence known before snow falls on it! I'm not going to lie, I could stand to NOT have winter this year. Our summer was too short & I didn't accomplish ANYTHING I set out to do at the beginning of it!

I'll try to find some photos of our uninteresting life & at least post those so it looks like we are as fabulous as I say!

Cache County Fair

Shane & I went with the boys to the Cache County Fair & Rodeo this past weekend. I didn't manage to get any pictures of the boys at the Rodeo, but it was the first time we'd all been together & they loved it! I think we will sign them all up for MUTTON BUSTIN' next year (*spit*)
We ended up going to the fairground three times and other than complaining that "It always smells like poopey here", it was pretty fun for all of them! ..... maybe even me a little bit. But just a little.

A better wife...

There is a fabulous book store here in the valley - Jenson Books. Its on the south end of town & they have a giant warehouse sale once a quarter. We are all book nerds in my family so we LOVE going there. You can fill a "Walmart" bag for $7 and if you bring back a bag to resale, you get $2 off each bag! Its fantastic for kids books, church books, obscure farming books & the random book shopping that I've been doing lately.


I picked up a book at their last sale called "The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands", by Dr. Laura. I've heard of her as a radio host, but didn't know anything about her or her show prior to picking up this book. Honestly - I kind of did it in mockery. About 10 pages into the book I started thinking - this lady might actually be on to something!





It was mildly defeating to recognize SO many of my bratty behaviors in this book & then to read about how SIMPLE and pleasant my marriage could be with just a few TINY tweeks on my part.


I finished the book in a couple of days (it was a quick read and very interesting) and I honestly feel like I have a completely different perspective of my marriage and my relationship with Shane. I never thought we had a difficult or trying marriage or that our relationship was bad, but this book gave me some amazing insights on the simplicity of having a respectful and 100% loving relationship. Honestly - I would recommend EVERY WOMAN I know should read it - married or not. And include your husband on what you think, get his feedback on some of what you read. I've been sharing it with Shane and he will be the first to swear by this book. I've put a few of the highlights on this post - but seriously --- do your marriage/relationship a favor & go get this book.

• Men want THREE things from their wives. If you give them these simple things, there is nothing they won't do for you - usually without asking! Those three things are: ACCEPTANCE, APPROVAL & AFFECTION.


• A man needs to feel strong & needed as a protector to his woman


• A man wants respect, kindness & love from his woman


• A man wants to be put on a pedestal - to show him that he is the most important thing to his woman


• A man needs enthusiastic approval and appreciateion from his wife


• A man needs his wifes encouragement


• If you don't pick your husband as your #1 priority - that favor will, sadly, be returned


• Complaining is NOT a virtue - complaining does not lead to anything good


• The simple elimination of criticism will naturally lead to increased feelings of love


• Mens wives approval is as important as oxygen to them. Surviving their lack of approval is emasculation


• The husband who has a wife that supports him & praises him is the envy of all the other men who have to live with criticism, sarcasm & constatnt reminders of their failure


• You know what kind of man you marry. You cannot assume that you can nag, lie, cry and manipulate until he becomes someone else. He will only accept that for so long & then he WILL become someone else - your EX husband


• Wives need to remind themselves that when their husbands do something differently from how they would do it themselves - it does not constitute a breach of sanity or a display of contempt. It is merely a different way to do something.


• The basic male is a decent creature with simple desires. Men live to make their women happy.


• The cruelest thing a wife can do to a husband is to never be happy. Being happy is more an attitude than a reality.

All drama aside & all obviousness aside - I really do recommend this book highly to every woman. It WILL make a difference if you apply it!

Time FLIES!!!!

Its amazing to me that a month has gone by since my last post! AHHHH! How shameful! Its funny to me because I obsessively check my "blog circuit" every single day to see whats happening in the world around me. When people don't update their blog for months & months (no names will be mentioned here...) I think to myself - "Why can't they keep up on their blogging? Don't they have TWO seconds of courtesy to let me know whats going on?!?" Needless to say I can be a tad self centered at times. * NO COMMENTS HERE *

The summer has been flying by and I can't believe school will be starting in a month - Yikes! I love how Wally World is always one step ahead & has had back to school stuff out for weeks. *I say this with heavy sarcasm as my thoughts on the institution of WalMart are not kind ones*

The boys are all doing fabulous - three out of four now ride their bikes like a crazy kid biker gang without training wheels and all over our neighborhood. Jack just learned to ride without his training wheels the other day - if he ever slows down enough, I'll get a picture. Its pretty hysterical! Our street is perfect. Let me tell you why. It is not a through street so the only traffic are the residents (only 5 houses built so far) or people who are lost. And all of the residents have little kids so they know to go 2 MPH with the odds that there will be someone's child barreling down the roadway and NOT paying any attention. We've had more than our share of injuries due to biking - too many scraped knees and skinned elbows - they refuse to wear the protective padding I got them. HMPH. Carter had a literal run in with his handle bars & his lower torso that sent us on a quick trip to the hospital. But all is well & they still go out every morning to ride ragged until they break down & have to come in for water breaks or food. *Darn food & water is always trying to ruin my kids lives it seems*

We've also been up to Bear Lake several times in the last month - which of course resulted in sunburns for at least two members of our family at any given time. God did not bless me or most of my offspring with lovely tan-able skin - but pale, freckly and easily sunburnt skin. So lovely! Its one of our favorite places to go even with the burn potential and makes for a great day trip for us being so close!