New workout dvd

Oh my gosh! I got this new WW DVD, and is it ever challenging. As you can see it says intermediate level, and it is! It takes cardio and weight training to a whole new level. She is younger, and looks like a body builder. Polly my receptionist told me it was hard, and she does heavier weights than I do, soooo I bought it and tried it this week. Steve was wincing one minute and laughing the next, because I was saying things like, "I can't do this, this is killing me, agghhhh!" You've got the picture. Anyway for the first time ever I actually liked doing weight resistance training. I guess it has to feel like its killing me for me to like it. What does that say about me?! I think I needed a challenge and when you actually make it to the end it gives you that high that makes you feel good about yourself.

The sun is shining!!! I hope it lasts. I am soooo tired of gray skies and ocean. It was cool for a while, then it became so depressing. I think this is the longest winter in years we have all had!!! I am ready for it to be over.

I started a scarf out of this thread Danielle left here and after I had knitted for quite sometime on it, I realized I was going to run out of thread before I finished the scarf. Danielle bought that when she was in high school to make a scarf for me. I am pretty sure without going to the store that there isn't the same thread there today. So I took it all out!!! and rolled it back up. I decided I will do it again later but make it not as wide. So instead I made another dish rag! Speaking of the wonderful and useful dishrags, you need to tell me if you would like a white one, or colored ones if one were to show up at your houses? If you would like a surprise, let me know what color! The advantage of the white is you can bleach it, but I have to say the colored ones are fun!

Megan and Greg are coming today, I am excited. Well, love you all and hope you have a great weekend!

Weekend , Steve's b-day and dish rags!

Well, from the stack above you can tell what I have been doing!!! I have been watching a lot of TV. My sister and Patty say if I am knitting while watching TV it is not wasting time, and my sister jokingly said if I was watching the History Channel then I am definitely not wasting my time. I told her that I actually was watching the History Channel part of the time. I actually have been doing less sitting and more doing. But I have definitely caught the knitting bug. Steve's says I look like a grandma when I am knitting in my glasses, I said,"well I am a grandma!"

Yesterday was one of those amazing day's that at the end of the day you feel very tired, but great. I did a little of everything, including working in my greenhouse for 40 min. I washed clothes and actually folded them, did the dishes, cooked meals, read my scriptures, worked on my calling, read out of Jane Eyre (which I am reminded why I always feel a soft spot when I think about it), watched Ellen while I folded clothes, knitted, watched the last Little House the movie with Steve and last but not least watched American Idol.

Speaking of American Idol, it is getting harder and harder to vote people off. I am anxious about tonights show.

Sunday was Steve's b-day. It was just the two of us. I had meetings all day, I felt bad for him, he went to church alone, came home to an empty house until I finally got home at 5:00. I made him cubed steak, mashed potatoes, gravy and salad. I already made the chocolate pie the night before. He ate so much at dinner he never wanted his pie. Finally as he was about to go to sleep, I said I have to sing to you! So I got out a candle, lit it held it up in front of his face, while he was laying on the couch and sang happy birthday to him. He took his sweet time blowing it out. Finally the next day he ate some pie. I had some on his b-day.

Well, that's about it, Saturday was just busy getting ready for Sunday. I did have a neat experience on Saturday. I have been very negligent in my calling. I think fear of the whole scouting thing made me paralyzed. I lost something that was very important to me that had to do with the 11yr. old boy day camp. I had searched the house over. Well, after I had put in several hours on Saturday working on getting ready for my Pres mtg. and brushing up on my handbooks, I found the thing I had been looking for while I was looking for something entirely different. I almost started crying. I knew that HF was displeased with me for ignoring my calling. After putting in just that little bit of time, I felt like he handed me that gift for finally doing my job. He is amazing, I don't think we are quite that quick to forgive!

Well, I am loving Jane Eyre for the 3rd time. If you have never read it, put it on your list. Oh we also watched Dan in Real Life, it was cute, we enjoyed it. Dad would like it mom. Well, hope you are all well!
Love you all!

Beautiful Sunset, new shoes, new hobby

I can't resist a beautiful sunset!!

About a month ago I was watching TV and saw the cutest shoes I had seen in a long time!!!! I had to have them. But I waited too long to get them in Newport. When I went to Danielles, one of her presents was a gift cert. for Payless Shoes. I looked for the shoes and they were there!!! Soooo you know what happened, I HAD TO HAVE THEM! Cute huh?! ( The shadow off the wall makes my legs look bigger than they are! :-( I had a friend teach me to knit thinking I could rationalize my tv watching. Hee Hee. Well here are my first projects. They are looking pretty good, but I am still dropping stitches, so no important projects for me yet. These are dish rags. They were different sizes on purpose! I 'm serious!Well, that's about it. Love you all!!!!

Help!!

Well, Steve and I went out to dinner tonight and started to talk about his b-day and mothers day. We decided what we wanted, I am excited about his present as well as mine. He is going to get another ocean crab cage!!! Yummy, that means big crabs during the off season!!! He told me he will match me dollar for dollar for my new dishes!!!! Yea for me, I will get them a lot faster that way. Sooooo my need of help. I am trying to figure out how many to get. They are going to be my everyday and good dishes. The set comes with the above pieces. Which is way cheaper than buying them separately. The only thing that is near the same price separately is the salad plates. Sooooo as I write this I am thinking I should just get sets even though I don't need the same amount of saucers and cups as the rest or pasta bowels for that matter, or do I? I was thinking that it would be nice to have at least 14 place settings because I have 6 children, and if they all came it would be nice maybe to have nice plates for them at a nice meal. Or would I really use the real dishes or just paper. If that is the case 12 would probably be plenty for when a family or company comes. Or since I am planning on keeping these for a long long time, maybe I should just get 4 sets and the cereal bowls and gt it over with. Ahhhhggggg!!! Tell me what you think! I will have to buy serving bowls and platters from different dishes that coordinate, because they don't have serving pieces, bummer. Well, I am sure I am making much to much of this, but I am not going to do this soon again. So tell me what you think!?

Tagged

I think everyone knows these answers, but maybe not. It been a great weekend. I went to Amy's and helped her get some muffins and bread made to put in the freezer, made dinner for them and Meg and Greg. Went to Penelope definitely worth seeing!! Spent the night, got up went to Stake Women's conf, that was wonderful, then drove home. I am excited to be home and don't want to go anywhere for a while! The weather was gorgeous yesterday, but is gone now. :-( Oh well, someday the sun will shine for more than a couple of days. I am hoping to plant some veggies this week. One of the classes I went to talked about doing more of the thing you love and finding a way to share that as a gift to others- getting rid of things you really don't do and don't really want to do. I am going to ponder those thoughts. Church was great, I hate to admit it, but it felt good just to be loved and with my friends. Well, here goes, hope it's not too boring.

How did you meet your spouse? We met walking home from school at BYU, a bicycler almost ran Steve over behind me and the noise made me turn around. I said something about how annoying the bicycler's were and turned back around. Steve caught up to me and started talking to me. We asked the typical BYU questions, what's your major, where you from, etc. When Steve said Rexburg I immediately look down to see if he was wearing cowboy boots. He was wearing platforms. He looked really young to me so I tried to see if he had garments on and it looked like he did so I asked him about his mission. We started talking about Rexburg and I was whining that all my friends lived there, he then invited me to go with him and his roommates the next weekend. I wanted to go, but was scared to go with a stranger. Long story short, I ended up going alone with him and fell in love on the way up. Steve was much slower, he didn't fall in love with me until 4 months later.

Where did you go on your first date? well, that is tough, I would say our first real date was to the movie, we saw The Strongest Man on Earth, with Kurt Russell. We got popcorn and the works, I had never had the works so it was pretty cool for me.

Who eats more? Steve eats way more! I probably could out eat him in the treat area in one sitting though.

Who's Taller? Steve

Who sings better? I can read music and Steve can't and he would argue with this, but I think we both have nice voices.

How long have you been together? 33 years

Who said I love you first? Steve in a note. He had drawn a flower and wrote in little kids handwriting that he couldn't get me a flower so he drew me one. He then said he loved me and did I love him? I had one of my roommates drive me over and told him the same day that I loved him.

Who is smarter? Steve definitely, although he would argue with that.

Who does the laundry? I do, Steve says he doesn't know how. I always wonder how his clothes got clean when he was at college....

Who does the dishes? We both do, he cleans off the table and sometimes the counters, I do the rest.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Steve does.

Who pays the bills? Steve, he couldn't handle it if I did it, and I don't want too!!!

Who mows the lawn? Steve

Who cooks dinner? Me, Steve says he doesn't know how to do anything when I am home!

Who drives when you are together? Steve does most of the time around town, I drive most of the time out of town.

Who is more stubborn? I am, I have way more pride, which is no shock to anyone.

Who is the first to admit when they’re wrong? Steve, back to the pride issue. Although, I have greatly improved this year.

Who kissed who first? Steve kissed me.

Who proposed? We lived back in the dinosaur age, so it was definitely Steve at the Provo Temple outside the gate. I hesitated, so he told me I could think about it. I thought about it prayed and fasted about it and said no. He said he couldn't be around me if I wasn't going to marry him, I thought I was going to die. But the next day he came back and said he would wait until I was ready. I say he waited two weeks, he says he waited one week, but anyway, the second time was in the park, I had rollers in my hair. He proposed again, and I said I needed to walk around the park. I realized if I didn't say yes he would never ask me again, so after a twenty min. walk I said yes.

Who is more sensitive? Me! But Steve says he has emotionals now, so who's to say!

Who has more friends? Wow, that depends on the kind of friends you are talking about. Steve is way more friendly than I am, everyone in Rays, the bank, and the Post office knows him.

Who has more siblings? Steve has a 4 and I have 3.

Who wears the pants? We both do, it depends on the issue.

Grandma's in the hospital, Danielles and Gracies b-days

Well, I am sitting in my bedroom watching Idol Gives Back, it is very humbling, and I wonder when Heavenly Father is going to ask us to go on a mission. I realize it will never be convenient, I really do want to go, that in itself is very scary, I didn't want to go before but wanted to be obedient.

Well, my mom is in the hospital. She has been there since Monday night. I wanted to find out what was wrong before I worried everyone. She started to faint, and her pressure was really low, so they took her to the hospital. They did tests on Tuesday and Today. It is interesting they don't really know what is wrong, but they think it will help to put a defibrillator on her that also has a tiny pacemaker in it. That is the simple explanation, Darin you ought to call her you would find it very interesting. It is a new thing. It shocks her heart if it stops beating. The pacemaker part helps regulate her heartbeat. They think that is what her heart is stopping temporarily. The doctor is only 35 years old, but amazing they say. They are moving her to Sacred Heart tomorrow, I will post the phone # when I get it. In the meantime, my dad seems to be at the hospital most of the time so you could call his phone,541-554-4175. The surgery should be Friday, but may be next week. She is actually very good right now, but they don't want to take a chance that these episodes will continue. One cool thing is if it works, she will be able to walk without getting out of breath as easily, so therefore she could exercise more and make her heart stronger. Pretty cool. I don't want you to worry about her, but obviously keep her in your prayers. I will let you know when I know when the surgery is. She will be in the hospital until next week sometime, so those of you in the valley might want to take turns going into see her so she won't go berserk with boredom. I will be in town on Friday. I am going to help Amy with some cooking for her freezer and hopefully if Meg has time, get my hair cut.

While I was in Idaho, I got to spend Danielle's b-day with her, first time since she turned 17. I was really glad it worked out coincidently to be coming home from Disneyland just in time for her b-day. I got cheated in having her home for her 18th b-day, so it was nice to be with her this year. We had a lot of fun. Rebecca for the 3rd year in a row fixed her dinner and a cheesecake. I am so grateful to have the wonderful children that I have. If I say I need one of you, you are there. That means more to me than you know. I brought Gracie's b-day presents also, so the pics of her are her opening her b-day presents. Her b-day is the day after Danielle's.

Beautiful DanielleClays family came, it was so nice to be able to spend some time with them.Clay's beautiful sistersGorgeous Clay and DanielleCute GracieGracie loves Aliese and Anna's "Baby Alive" so I got her things for Baby AliveI got her preemie size disposable diapers, same brand as hers, she was pretty excitedHere she is feeding baby alive a drinkIt was a great night. I loved every minute of my trip. I appreciated Steve being so willing for me to have that experience, he's the GREATEST!

Message from Dad's Bed & Breakfast Resort

Megan,
I enjoyed reading your post about your's and Greg's time out here with me at the coast. I have a question. Don't all bed and breakfast resorts make sure their guests have buttery popcorn and a bowl of chocolate chips? And this after they have dined on a halibut steak, tuna steak, or salmon steak? What can I say, I offer a full service program out here and I believe in providing only a complete quality experience.
I loved having you guys and Amy and Mike out here while your Mom was gone. Thanks for the very good company.
Dad

Conference

Yesterday and Today was amazing. Pres. Monson was so wonderful. It is amazing how you can see the difference of him being the prophet. You truly could see the mantle! If you didn't get to hear Elder Ballard's talk about women, READ IT!!! I love you all, I have seminary tomorrow, so gotta go!

Finally home, Easter, Disneyland

Well, I was gone 12 days!!! That is a long time. It was a great 12 days though. I took approximately 456 pictures, after cutting out the blurry, eye's closed and repeats, I now have 270 pics to choose from! I will try to pick the best and ones that will make the trip flow. I counted the pics there are 72! I figure if you don't want to see them you can scroll fast. It was hard choosing!

I packed two large suitcases because I had presents and two different seasons of clothes. I can't believe how many comments I got from people about them. You would think I had taken ten suitcases!

I flew out on a Friday, got to Rebecca's about 10:00. I made a nummy hummus dip all core for our vegetable dish and then went to bed.Aren't you impressed! We ate very healthy on the way down! (Catch the word down!)
We got up and left about 8:00.The s couldn't have been better. They watched moviescolored and slept. Gracie had a hard time being that she was sick, but other than that the trip was great. We drove all the way to Lizzie's in one day. We got there about 10:00pm I think. The next day was Easter, here's Tanner coming down the stairsThey found their baskets!
The Easter bunny brought all the s an autograph book for Disneyland, here's Anna's.Another thing that Rebecca had the s do was make a list in the back of their books of all the things they wanted to buy throughout the week. Then at the end of the week they could choose what they wanted most. It thought that was a great idea. Here's Gracie and Tanner enjoying their treats. Next of course is hunting for Easter eggs. Tanner was true to being a boy, he was very quick to hunt and very quick to start eating! The first pick is when Lizzie told Tanner he was going to have to share his eggs.Kate woke up and as you can see she was center of attention!!! It is hard to resist that cute little face and hair!
Lizzie who accuses me of wanting to be the favorite grandma and person in particular, wants to be the favorite aunt-she bought cocoa puffs and pop tarts for breakfast!We all went to vacation church except Tanner and Shad. Lizzie bless her heart, was sick all week and still prepared us a wonderful Easter dinner.After dinner the kids wanted to go out and swim, and of course since the grandkids wanted me to go, we all got in. We left much later than we planned, so got to our motel very late. To make matters worse, they reserved the wrong room (not Rebecca, the motel got it wrong) We got moved 3 times before we got to the right room. The poor s kept falling asleep in every room. Rebecca did this cool thing called Ridemax, it was a program that you download and then plug in what you want to do and it tells you what time to get to the park, where to go first and then you don't wait in line or barely wait in line. I have to tell you it worked! Since we had gotten there so late we decided to not to get up early and just pick up the plan the best we could. Amazingly enough it worked and we did pretty good the first day. Well, here they are in from of the big O in California Disney. We did a few things, one being the 3-d show a bugs life, Gracie started crying as soon as we got in there so Rebecca and her left and did the slowest ride known to mankind, you will see it later. Aliese and Anna and I went in it was great, they thought it was scary, but made it through. This is them in their bug glasses.After we walked around a bit, we went to lunch at Ariels Grotto. Rebecca had reserved us a place at the princess luncheon. They promised you would get to see at least 4-5 princesses. We were hoping all their favorites would be there. And thankfully, the only one we didn't see was Sleeping Beauty. The princesses and all the characters were amazing, they never hurried, they hugged each child, if they were a real person and not an animal, they talked to them. If they were an animal they did the most amazing job of communicating. I was so impressed. You will see the typical thing that all the princesses and characters did in this first experience with Ariel, after that I just put in the group pics. I probably had at least 7 poses or more with each person talking and getting hugged. The cool thing about the lunch was that we didn't have to stand in line, we just sat and waited for our lunch as each princess would come out and around to our table. They would hug the s individually, then together and again just before they left. Here's Belle!CinderellaJasmineGracie's favorite was Snow White, the first picture is when Gracie saw Snow White come out from the back room.The next pic isn't me being creative, I turned the lever the wrong way. I should have let you thing I was being cool!After we got done eating we were walking down the street and we could here high school musical music, we turned and looked and it was a parade sort of thing, we started following them and got in the front row. They asked for audience participation several times but the s were too scared. It was fun.Next we went over to Disneyland. But Gracie was just too sick and tired. Rebecca and her went back and the s and I walked around trying to pick up the schedule the best we could. But instead took advantage of things that were open. Amazingly enough Pirates had a small line so we got in line and I convinced the s it wasn't scary. I kind of forgot about the first "down" as Amy used to call them, and the s got really mad at me. Then the next down, wasn't as scary and they told me that was fun, by the time we got to the end they wanted to do it again. By then the line was way too long so we went on the Mark Twain, it was perfect for when you are tired!We then went over to the Pooh ride, it wasn't crowded at all so we did that ride, some shopping and some picsDid some castle picsWent to the Tiki roomI think Rebecca met us at this point we ate at Ihop, our first of 3 meals there. (across the street from disneyland) Aliese was tired, Anna and Rebecca wanted to keep going, so I took Gracie and Aliese back to the motel. Rebecca and Aliese did the Jungle ride and the fire works. It was a great first day.
2nd Day
We got up at 5:40 am literally grabbed our breakfast ate it on the run and on the bus, got to disneyland by about 6:30. I ran ahead to get our place in line, a common ritual for the rest of the week. We were about 20 people back from the front. There were about 8 lines but still! When they opened the gates Aliese and I took off running, we were the first ones through the castle that morning and the first one's in line for Dumbo, we waited for Rebecca, Gracie and Anna though. Next we were off to Dumbo, Gracie's favorite ride she rode it I think 9 times with Rebecca and I trading off! Aliese and I flying through the air!Next to the tea cups, here's Rebecca and GracieWe went to the canal boats next, it was the longest wait we had-30minutes. Anna got to ride on top with the guideOff to toon town to see Mickey!Gracie was afraid to hug Mickey so he pretended to cryThere was a cute little park that Gracie loved that we found. Gracie loved this pumpkin. We then went on the Go-Coaster, the most fun easy going roller coaster and the shortest! The s ended up going on it about 9 times over a three day period I think. I think we then went back to Ihop for lunch. Back to the room for a nap and swim. I think we came back and went to Fantasmic, I think it is called. It was soooooo amazing. I am getting tired and so am going to start pasting pics. That night Lizzie and Tanner came, they stayed with us 1 1/2 days. After the first day, Rebecca decided that we all needed hats, so she bought us all hats. Waiting for Nemo! We basically walked on! Pretty amazing considering it is a min. of 90min wait.Next we did little kid rides, Tarzans Treehouse (yes it is very sad, Swiss Family Robinson tree house is gone!)Tom Sawyers Island: The first pic is us walking to a cave, Gracie and Tanner panicked, so the s and I went alone, we went to this spot where there was a piece of gold and you were supposed to pretend you were trying to steal it. So I did, a skeleton hand with an eyeball came down and said something to us, then it raised made a crunching sound, the s were grosed out, I thought it was funny, then I tried to steal it again and a skeleton head popped up and said something to us, the s were not happy with me. I thought it was funny. We ate lunch at this cute place in fantasy land, we learned that the food was really quite reasonable, and delicious.We went on the Train that was in Dumbo next, me pushing the wrong buttons again! Back to Pooh land (Critter Country)To Buzz Lightyear!! We shot with laser guns, they really worked!Next to Autotopia, I tried to get pics but this was the only one I got. We went again later in the week and Anna and Aliese did a lot better the second time.Somewhere in here we went to toon town and Tanner went to see Mickey. He loved Mickey and didn't want to leave, so we watched after our turn for a few minutesWe then all got to see Minnie Mouse she was a big hit with Gracie and the s, Tanner wasn't as impressed.Off to main street for the parade, we bought candy and ice cream on main street on two different days, pretty good stuff! This is Gracie with her choice, we ran into Mary Poppins and Bert, they were pretty funny. after that it is us sitting on the street watching the parade
This is the parade where Ariel talked directly to Gracie, it was amazing!At some point in the day, Tanner conked out, the following pic is him when it was time to go home to bed!The next day we went to California Disney again we went first to bug land and did all the little kid rides there. It was pretty fun, very laid back, the first ride was the slowest ride in the world!The slowest bumper cars in the worldThe most relaxing rideAt lunch that day Anna, Gracie and Tanner, were having a great time by the water, talking about who knows what.Anna and Rebecca went on the Ferris wheel while Aliese and I shopped and she threw a coin in the water and made a wish. The location was very important to her.Gracie feeling betterRebecca and the s finishing PiratesChip and Dale had to go, but they still hugged the s and did something that really made Aliese laughThe last day we ate lunch at the Blue Bayou, it was the resturant in the Pirates of the Carribean. We reserved it ahead, worth every penny! We loved it the atmosphere was great, the dishes beautiful, cloth napkins and tablecloth, the s loved it. The food was fabulous, we would have done it again in a heartbeat!While I ran to California Disney to get a fast pass, the s took there time going down main street and low and behold, there was Sleeping Beauty!While they went on their last ride in Calif. Disney, soaring over California, Gracie and I danced and danced and danced, sad to say noone to take the pics. Then we went back to Disney land for the Fireworks and to buy our souvenirs.It was a truly magical last night we got to see amazing fireworks, listen to Snow white sing and the wishing well respond, and last but not least we went on the Jungle cruise. I think Rebecca and I were the only ones that laughed at his corny jokes, we were tired and quite frankly thought he was funny. Well, if you read this far, it was the most amazing week, enjoyable beyond imagination. I am truly the most blessed Grandma ever!