Braggin' Wagon Wednesday: Journaling

This isn't so much a braggin' blog as it is a wake-up call to myself.

When I turned 13 years old I received a journal for my birthday, so I started writing in it. I got hooked. I kept it up pretty consistently for the next 13 or so years. I started a ridiculous collection of small journals filled with my scribbled ramblings, and was very proud of them.

The first page I ever wrote...It's pretty embarrassing.

There are embarrassing moments recorded, and lots of spelling and grammatical errors, and so many things that make me laugh myself sick. I also have some wonderful memories in the pages of those journals, like meeting Scott, marrying Scott, and having my first baby. These specific pages are precious to me, and I hope someday might be precious to my kids and grandkids.

Then I had more children and life got crazy and busy and other things seemed more important....like sleep. I stopped writing in a journal. It started out slowly, by not writing for several weeks, but then weeks turned to months, and now the months have turned to years. I didn't even think about it. Not even for a second, there was just too much going on. But then last night as I was lying in bed struggling to fall asleep, I had that familiar urge that I haven't felt for a long time. I want to write again. It made me feel a little sick to my stomach, thinking of everything I've missed. I'm so disappointed in myself for letting it fall between the cracks.

I decided that I have to do something about it. The longer I go without doing it, the more stuff I will miss out on recording. I'm a little nervous since it has been so long and I have a lot of catching up to do, but I think I'm up for the challenge. So starting today, I'm going to catch up and then try to write once a week again. I just have to find the journal I left off with first, which may be quite difficult, since while looking this morning I discovered how unorganized I am because I only found 9 books and I can think of at least 3 that are missing. The search continues.....Wish me luck!

These are a few of my favorite journals...I like to get the cute ones.

Cute to Evil in 2 seconds FLAT!

This is Dexter. He is three. He is as cute as cute can be. He is cuddly and affectionate. He totally loves his mamma. He's silly and funny and makes us all laugh. He's daring and crazy, and makes my heart race. He makes me happy.

This is Dexter. He is three. He is as evil as evil can be. He is grumpy and emotional. He totally knows how to push his mom's buttons. He is mean and angry and makes us all cry. He picks on his siblings and makes my heart hurt. He makes me mad.

All that being said, I have a little secret. Dex and I have something that I don't have with the other two......he takes after me!

Cute and evil- he gets it from his mamma!

Braggin' Wagon Wednesday: A Birthday in Lava Hot Springs

This year for Scott's 29th birthday, he and I took a little vacay over to Lava Hot Springs. Grandma Marde came to Boise and babysat the kiddos for us so we could get away, and it was awesome. Thanks Grandma, the kids miss you already!

Anyway, while were in Lava we discovered why we have such a great relationship. We are DORKS! And we aren't afraid to make complete fools out of ourselves as long as we do it together! We seriously had a blast, and will look fondly on this trip for years to come. Enjoy some of our highlights, and don't judge us too harshly!

I gave Scott new stickers for his cube, it was getting pretty disgusting after nearly a year of use, and you can't just get a new one, since its the insides that count!

The newly stickered original rubik's cube

Scott's "cubes", he got the 4x4 for his birthday also, and can already solve it!

Hanging out in the surprisingly hot, hot pools. Okay, it wasn't a surprise, it is called "LAVA hot springs", and they totally warn you about the temp before you get in, so.....pretend I never said that.

Inside the hot pools, you can't even tell that its like 110 degrees!

Cooling off after a dip in the hot pools

Cooling down, being a dork

Having too much fun with bubbles in our jetted tub!

What do you think it used to be? Drinking fountain, or toilet?

I think you know what we think!

Being silly with the bull statue

Okay, Scott turned 29 on this trip, but he's still a teenage boy on the inside! This is why I said don't judge us.

The make-out worthy sunset outside our motel room

The river that people can tube down....we didn't, I was afraid.

"L" Mountain. We wanted to hike up to it, apparently there isn't a trail. LAME!

"L" Mountain at night

Check out the "Rochelle Salt" we found in the pharmacy section of the tiny little museum. Apparently used as a laxative, not "Rochelle Repellent" as Scott guessed.

If you need a vacation, and want to go somewhere unexpectedly fun (and not rediculously expensive), I'd definitely recommend Lava. It was such a cute, teeny, tiny, little town, with lots of fun stuff to do!

Braggin' Wagon Wednesday: Cubing skills

Today I wanted to brag a little bit about my newly improved cubing skills. I probably shouldn't brag about it, because it is quite a geeky skill to have, but who cares, its cool! My best ever time is 51 seconds with an average of about 1 minute 15 seconds. Here's a quick video of me solving it in about 1 minute 11 seconds.

Now here's Scotty with his even more amazing cubing skills. He's getting dang fast with an average speed of47 seconds, and best of 41. I am envious! Check him out and be amazed!

Ps.....Happy Birthday Van!!!

Having a sense of accomplishment, when I didn't do a single thing!

We only had two plans for Memorial Day. Finish our patio, and visit a cemetery. It rained off and on all day. We kept our plans anyway. We went to the cemetery and walked in the rain and looked at all the old head stones. The oldest we saw was from 1901. We would have gone to visit loved ones passed, but all of them are buried in Utah, and its a long drive, so we did this instead so the kids would understand what memorial day is about. I thought it was cool, but Corbin was BORED out of his mind and kept asking to go home, plus it was pouring rain after about 15 minutes. We didn't last very long and didn't get any pictures because I didn't want the camera to get wet from the rain.

The second half of the day was spent in the backyard. Also in the rain. It'll be two years in August since we put our grass in our backyard. At that time we left a big open space to extend our patio, and said, "Maybe next summer." Well that summer came and went and we didn't put in a patio. The kids played in the dirt constantly, and we couldn't take it anymore, so last month we got on the ball and started working on it. Yesterday we finished.

NOTE: By "WE" I mean "SCOTT" because I didn't do a darn thing except yell at the boys every two seconds for almost two years to get out of the dirt.

Check out his hard work!

August of '08 (AKA, Before) Look how amazing the grass looks!

Today (AKA, After) Doesn't it look fantastic!

The beginning (April '10)

He got halfway done last month, now he's getting ready to finish.

We had to put up the camping tent thing because of the rain. Didn't want to work in the mud! (I actually helped with that part)

Underway, Corbin was a big help most of the time.

Almost done.

We had to replace some grass because the weed killer stuff we put down ran into the grass.

looking good!

And done! Nice job, Babe. You are my hero!

Braggin' Wagon Wednesday: Meeting a Celebrity

Have you ever met a celebrity? Well, I have to brag that this past weekend Scott and I did! A celebrity right here in Boise, Idaho. Who'da thunk it?! This is a person who has been in the news a lot lately. He is the only good guy in a huge television scandal. He lost his job, but had an unbelievable following of supporters. He just got a new show on TBS. Are you on "Team Coco?"

That's right.......

Wait for it...........

Ladies and gentlemen........

It's Conan O'Brien!!

Admit it, I really had you going there for a second!

The End of an Era

If you read this post you are going to think I'm nuts. It sounds cheesy and crazy, but Lost is over and I'm sad. I started watching Lost back in 2006 after hanging out with my friend Dawn, who made me watch an episode on DVD with her. I still remember the episode was the one where everyone thinks Sawyer stole Shannon's asthma medication so they are torturing him and he tricks Kate into kissing him. After that day, I was hooked. I forced Scott into watching the first two seasons on DVD (although, for the record, he didn't need much forcing after an episode or two), and we watched it on tv from the third season on. We both loved it. Even when Charlie died we still watched, even when it got pretty sci-fi for the last couple of seasons we still watched. The only time I ever claimed I would stop watching was if they killed off Sawyer, who was probably my favorite character.

Now here comes the really crazy part. Lost got us through some tough times. When Ivy was born Scott and I brought all our Lost DVD's to Salt Lake with us (we have all of them), and made his parents watch the entire series up to the end of season 4. Every night when we'd get home from the hospital, visiting Ivy, or they'd get home from the hospital, visiting Stacy, we'd all sit down and watch an episode or two (or three or four), and relax. It was really comforting to have something constant and entertaining during a really tough time for all of us. I know that sounds really weird, but that's really how it felt. And now its over, at least we will always have the dvd's there if we need them, but its a little sad that there is no more mystery. Besides the questions the writers didn't feel were important enough to answer, but that's a whole other story.

So thanks, Sawyer, Hurley, Jin, Sun, Sayid, Kate, Jack, Locke, and all the rest for comforting us during a troublesome time, and entertaining us for the last several years!