When you think Taylor Swift…..

 

I hope you think of me!

This little girl has been begging for tickets to the Taylor Swift concert.  I heard about it everyday.  She would ask if we would buy them for an early birthday present.  I had heard the last concert sold out in 4 minutes so I knew the chance of us getting any would be slim and none.  So I just warned her not to plan on it. 

After talking to my sister about us both trying to get 6 tickets and then if one of us got them we would be set and we could easily get rid of the others.  9:50 this morning sitting by the computer ready and my sister on the phone ready and my sisters friend also trying to get some too, we thought one of us should get some. 

Well 10am hit and I got right through, I knew I had some.  But then, I got a HUGE error notice and I freaked thinking I just lost them.  Which I did.  So I went back on and could not get 6 tickets.   So I decided to try for less, I went for 3 and I got through and got some.  My sister and her friend both got 6 tickets right by each other.  Whoooooosh!  We were set.  We do have extras but will have no problems finding them a home and my girls will be so excited to go to the concert.  I am actually excited to go too.  So May 21st is the big day and I am going to take alot of pictures. 

Thoughtful

thought·ful [ tháwtfəl ] adjective

Definition:
1. considerate: treating people in a kind and considerate way, especially by anticipating their wants or needs

I love that I have thoughtful friends. Today on Facebook Laurie mentioned she was eating jello cake. I responded to her post say that I had never had it but it sounded soggy. So what did this thoughtful friend do?

She sends over a piece for me to try!

It was very yummy and yes a little soggy but not in a bad way. I would definitely eat it again.

Thanks Laurie!

where is my camera?

I am forgetting to get pictures of everything.

Yesterday we had a small girls night out for a friends birthday. It was so good to get out and talk and talk and talk, and eat and eat and we did go to a movie too. The movie we saw was "he is just not into you". I did laugh out loud at many things in this movie but was finding my eyes bulging out at many inappropriate things and shaking my head a unnecessary cussing. Why do they do that. Oh well, I got home late to all of my kids in bed which was a good thing because they, well one of them let me down while I was out. It is nice not having to get a babysitter anymore, but need to work on my kids being alittle more responsible while I am gone.

Today I was heading to Costco, so I went and picked up my 3 yr old nephew. My sister had surgery on Tuesday and will be down for awhile. So I had a tail following me around most of the day. He didn't want to go with me until I told him I would buy him a "crabby patty". Oh the bribery we do as parents to get kids to do things. Again, I wish I had a camera because he had so much fun helping me feed animals and water all of the trees in the yard. I am very glad I am past the stage of having a full time toddler in my house but it is fun to have one to hang out with once in a while.

I took TJ to the mall to get some new shoes. That is always fun, because even though he can truly be a pain in the butt sometimes he is not embarrassed to hang out with me at the mall. We found some shoes and then ran to Kohl's to buy him some socks. I was looking in the women's section while he ran to the sock department. While I was browsing I was almost run over by a stroller. A girl very rude said "excuse me". Well I gave her the "Heather Look" you know the one that says "I know you did not just say that rude to me". Anyways there ended up being 2 women with strollers being ESCORTED out of the store. After they left I over heard the cop and the store manager talking about all the goodies they had been stashing in the diaper bags. GRRRRR. Who steals, and who steals with kids? You don't have to answer that, I already know the answer.

So on to watching American Idol tonight, I hope that creepy headband guy is gone.

I knew this day would come

What do you want to buy that for?   Oh I remember Thayne asking me that question when we were moving into our first new home.   I wanted to buy a piano.  Thayne didn’t play, and I could read music but had no experience in playing the piano.  I wanted to buy one so that my kids would play.  Thayne, being the nice guy that he is, went with me to buy a piano for our kids so they could learn to play when they were old enough.  Until that time came it was a nice piece of furniture.  When the kids were young they would play, well not really they would pound on the piano all the time.

TJ started piano lessons when he turned 7 and then Samantha started when she was 7.  They took piano from my friend Kaye.  They loved taking piano from her.  When we moved to Arizona, one of my first priorities was to find a new piano teacher.  I found Shere.  She has been teaching all of my kids for 6 1/2 years.  She is patience and rewards them with a ton of candy every week.  TJ has been begging to quit for years now and I would not even consider it.  The last few months Sam has been asking to quit.  They really just need a new teacher that will take them to the next level.  I have been thinking of letting them quit, when TJ came in one day from school and said he was picking his classes for next year.  He asked if he took piano in school if he could quit lessons.  Sam asked the same thing.  Well, I was going to let them quit anyways but I didn’t tell them that.  So I said, sure if you take piano is school I will let you quit your weekly lessons.  So I figured I win all around.  My kids will still be learning piano, instead of a half hour a week they will take 1 hours a day and I don’t have to pay for it.  CAN IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THAT? 

So today is the last day of TJ and Sam’s piano lessons only I still haven’t told them today is the lucky day.  I think it will be a nice surprise when I finally tell them.  Jess and Wyatt will still be taking from Shere.  I love hearing the music being played in the house.   I am really looking forward to the piano bill getting smaller next month. 

So congratulations to TJ and Sam for graduating from piano lessons.  What a great day.

summin it up

The last 4 days have been a blur. Thayne has been home from Kentucky so I didn't blog so that means catch up. To keep it short and sweet this is what has happened at our home.

*Jess had her 13 birthday. She had friends over after school and then they headed to a school production of Annie that they all wanted to see.

*While Jess was at the play, Thayne and I went to Enrichment night for couples. It was a "he said, she said". It was informative but I walked away knowing my husband is pretty great and probably could have taught most of the class.

*Friday was filled with alot of small dates for Thayne and I and after school our kids went all different directions. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of where everyone is and where they are going.

*Saturday I had a baby shower which was nice to go to, but I didn't know alot of people so it was nice to see Tammy, Shantell and Stephanie show up. I snuck out early and then headed out with Thayne to lunch and errands.

*Saturday night we decided to go buy a movie and watch it at home. We bought "Lakeview Terrance" and popcorn and we each bought a 2 liter bottle of our favorite soda and went in and watch the movie in bed. The movie was slow but so nice to just relax and watch it in comfy sweats and cuddle with Thayne.

*Sunday was Stake conf. I was singing in the choir so I knew I had a comfy seat reserved for me. Thayne took the kids to the other building to watch it on satellite. I just happened to be seated right to the right of the speakers so I guess my ugly mug was on the tv the whole stinking time. I am so glad I didn't pick my nose or talk the whole time.

*The rest of Sunday I just relaxed. Thayne was trying to get his things done before he had to leave again. He painted our bedroom, well it is almost done. He is not happy with the color because it is boring and just like the rest of the house. I am just glad to see the 5 different colors of trial blues covered up.

Thayne is now on a plane back for Kentucky and I should be cleaning up. I am going to shower and plan out my week. I did take some pictures and may add some later. I do know that we decided I eat way to much when Thayne is home, but luckily didn't gain any additional weight this weekend. Well back to life and hoping to get my butt to the gym this week.

Officially 13

Jessika Maree Harris

Today is the big day. What do you get a girl for her birthday when she asks for a dog or a laptop? I say NO to anymore animals and a laptop is not in the budget until she is 21. Jess has always been beating to her own drum. She always does exactly what she wants and never cares what anyone else thinks. I could never keep her neat and clean as a toddler because she just wouldn't have it. The first year of her life she would sit for hours in her car seat without making a peep. I could take her to meetings or to the store and she would sit so good. She then learned how to walk and she learned what freedom was. I would find her on top of the fridge digging in the bowl of candy. Each year brought new excitement. One year she threw a huge rock though our sliding glass door. One time she needed stitches in her leg for.... well we will never know what for because she was to young to tell us and so we never found out what she was doing. She was always a mess, and a laugh a minute. When she had heart surgery she never complained. She didn't want pain medicine, all she wanted was to play in the nursery with the toys. Now that she is a teenager she is adding to her sense of humor alot of SASS. She can be the sassiest thing when she wants to be. She is a loyal friend and never tells a secret she shouldn't, which stinks when I really want to get info out of her. She is a typical 13 year old girl who is completely boy crazy about one certain boy who shall remain nameless, but she really is daddy's little girl. She knows how to get her dad to do anything for her. Her quick wit keeps us on our toes never knowing what may fly out of her mouth. She is definitely one of a kind and that is exactly how we like her.

hmmm

Today when Thayne and I (yes he is home) were waiting in the car for the kids to get out of piano, Thayne was thumbing through my "prevention magazine". This magazine is really neat to read, it is full of health articles and information. Anyways, Thayne closed the magazine and said he was going to open the book and whatever page it was on I would have to buy or do what it says. Me, I was hoping for some kind of facial or skin treatment.


Well this is what he turned to..

Scary that it is exactly what I need right now.

OH Tuesday

I woke this morning to the sound of rain. I know most people hear it and love it, but not me. I am not a rain person so I did not want to get out of bed. My morning stayed very easy and simple. I took the two older kids to early morning school and when I got home Wyatt asked if I would drive him to school instead of having to take the bus. I always say yes because I used to always take the kids to school everyday. Since this year they started the bus I take advantage of the few times they let me drive them. When I got back from taking Wyatt, Jess asked me if I would drive her. Of course I said yes. I did a little bit of cleaning throughout the day but had a very uneventful day. When the kids came home from school, THINGS GOT CRAZY!

Well not super crazy but alot of driving around. Took TJ for a hair cut, oops I mean hair trim. I did carpool for Wyatts scouts, and then tonight is YM/YW so I had to drive the kids to different locations for that. I sure wish they would keep it to one location and the same time every week. I am not complaining, just wishing.

Thayne comes home tomorrow. This trip was 16 days so it has not been fun waiting for him to come home. He always comes home with interesting stories from his travels, I just wish he would take more pictures so I could see. I am hoping to make a trip out to Kentucky to see him this year, but I am going to wait until it warms up.

Yeah for tomorrow and yeah that Thayne will be hear to do early morning carpool. That's one of my favorite parts. Ü

I survived

This weekend was an absolute blur. I woke up at 4:30 this morning with a ginormous monster headache. I took some Excedrin and went back to bed. The headache is almost gone but still lingering a bit, but I survived a very busy weekend.

With 9 kids in my care I managed to still...

*go to a baptism
*get all of us to 8am church on time and even early.
*go to a church meeting after church
*go to stake choir practice
*put on a Great to be 8 meeting

Now what didn't survive..

MY HOUSE!

I am not sure today will be the day it gets back to normal since the kids are off school today. My house really isn't the disaster I expected, but I have alot of floors to scrub and small messes to pick up. I am so glad Rachel and Stephen came back in one piece. The kids were really easy to watch and well behaved but I am not sure I was ready for me taking care of that many kids to be a full time job. I know this is hard to believe but with my camera sitting on the counter the whole weekend, I did not get one picture to document anything. I wanted to get a picture before church and even though we left early enough, my brain was fried and I forgot. Oh well.

Oh Sweetness

Today on Valentine’s Day,

My Heart is in

Kentucky!

I can’t wait until Wednesday when he comes home.  I just love Thayne so much and love spending time with him.  I am not a huge flower girl on valentine’s day so that makes it easy, but I do miss not having him here to spend time with him.  don’t feel sorry for me!  I am looking forward to next weekend!

making more progress

Another First

NONE, NOTTA, ZILCH

We made NO Valentine Day cards for school this year.

YIPPPPEEE!

I asked Wyatt if he needed to make Valentine cards for school. He told me he was not having a party and could bring Valentine's if he wanted to, but he didn't want to. I am not about forcing the issue on this one since I don't think Valentine day is a school holiday anyways. I love having older kids for many reasons but getting over making 30 Valentines is my new favorite reason.

This is Wyatt this morning leaving for school with no hearts in his pockets.

LOVE IT!

For those parents who still need easy Valentine ideas for school and hate hearing their kids cry about writing their names 30 times. My tip is print out labels with their names on them and have your kids stick them to airhead candies (Costco) or any other candy you want to buy, but Airheads are cheap. Your kids will love doing stickers and they will not cry about writing their name over and over and over and over AND OVER.

I can be a softy

8:30pm

Teeth should be brushed

PJ's should be on

Should be getting ready for prayer

BUT....

How do you interrupt when memories are being made in the front yard of your house?

need ideas!

Good Grief.  I have volunteered to take dinner to a family in our ward for tomorrow night.  I don’t get asked very much so I like to take the opportunity when I am asked.  Since I don’t do it very often I am not sure what to take.  HELP!  It is for one of my neighbors so it will be nice to take it over and finally meet them.  So I am looking for suggestions.  Just remember I am not a fantastic cook, so keep it simple. Ü

where I stand

There is just so much all over the news right now that I just can’t keep quiet about how I feel.  So I am going to puke it all out right here and now.

Let’s start out with what I know least about…

Stimulus plan

I am not sure I have kept up with all the details of this.  All I know is that every time billions of dollars are given out to companies, the very next day I get to listen to the billions that were handed out in bonuses or on stupid things.  I wish I had the perfect plan but I don’t, but with all the smart people in this world this should not be so hard to figure out, right?

mother of 14

who in their right mind does this.  Ok that sounds harsh but really! If you already have 6 kids (3 with special needs) and live in your parents 3 bedroom house do you not think this may be a bit to much.  HER POOR PARENTS!  I say that literally to.  I think this young mother is living in the land of OZ right now.  Maybe someone should have sat this girl in junior primary one week to give her a wake up call.  I have teachers who know that 8 sunbeams is more than you can handle for more than 2 hours. ok I can’t say anymore without getting hate mail.

Hudson River plane crash

What an amazing story.  I still stare at the tv when they show the picture of all those FREEZING cold people standing on the wings of the plane in the middle of the river.  Every time I see it I want to go grab a blanket. 

Ok on to the good stuff

The Bachelor

First off I think Jason is a good catch for someone but someone needs to tell him he looks freaky when he smiles really hard.  I am so glad Naomi got the boot last night.  Her family is well….. strange.  I didn’t see the connection between the 2 of them.  I really like Molly and Jillian.  I didn’t think  this season was super exciting.

American Idol

BON Voyage BIKINI girl!  Gag a maggot!  She had to go.  SniFF sniFF that the Osmond boy got the boot.  Still not sure if I like the new judge but she is so much better than Paula.  And I just need to put this out there once and for all… someone needs to tell Randy the I am sick of him calling everyone Dog, Dawg, Daug, not even sure how to spell it the cool way but I am tired of hearing it.  Whoooosh that feels good.

Ok that is enough for now I feel so much better venting alittle bit.  With all the crazy stuff on the news, I have never been more determined to start, yes start my food storage.  On a side note, I am so excited that the new season of Survivor will be starting soon. 

what I’ve been up to

Thayne reminded me yesterday that I haven't updated my blog for a few days. I forget that he likes to read what happens at home when he is gone.

I have actually been kinda busy so not sure where to start. I really hate the weekends when Thayne is out of town.
Friday I was up in Gilbert and decided to stop by my sisters and we ended up going out for a quick lunch. It is always nice doing that in the middle of the day because usually I am by myself all day long when my kids are in school. Friday night I did a whole lot of nothing. I was going to put in a movie to watch but ended up just watching 20/20 and Dateline. I know I am a blast to hang out with.

Saturday I had a baby shower on my calendar and that was it. So I got up early and took TJ to his Young Men's activity. They are getting ready for a 3 day horse outing next month, so Saturday morning they went on a short horse ride up in the mountains by our house. Ok I use the word mountains lightly because they are actually the size of hills. Everyone who lives here calls them the San Tan mountains, so I am going to go with it. I remember when we were moving to Arizona and we were looking at houses. On many of the home flyer's it would say "beautiful mountain view" and Thayne and I would laugh. So just so I make this completely clear, we live in a home with a "beautiful mountain view". I will have to post a picture soon. So I got TJ out the door and then went out and shopped for a baby gift. The outfit I got was so cute if I do say so myself. Thayne is convinced that the best gift to give is diapers and I agree, but they are not as fun to shop for. I had fun at the shower with all the girl talk. and can I just tell you that I had the yummiest cupcake ever. I seriously picked the one with the most frosting and was licking it off of my fingers to make sure I got every drop. DELICIOUS!

Saturday I night I decided I was going to go out and not stay in again. I took the kids to the mall. Well, Jessika wanted to stay home and TJ was already there hanging out with the guys looking for babes. Ü I took Wyatt and Sam. I really just wanted to buy a new pair of jeans. Not the jeans that I won from a bet Thayne and I made, I will go back and get those another time. I had a gift card from my kids for Christmas I have not used and decided last night would be the night. I dropped Sam and Wyatt off at the Apple store and then headed straight to BUCKLE. I like the jeans there but holy guacamole they cost so much. Anyways I think it is fun to get nice jeans once in a while. After explaining to the pushy sales guy that I really can handle shopping on my own I was on my own to find a cute pair of jeans. With a stack in hand I went to the fitting room. As soon as I got the first pair on " RING RING". Ugggg who is calling me now. It was TJ and his friends telling me they were in the store and wanted me to come out of the fitting room. Did you hear me? They wanted to see me at the mall. Remember Jessika avoiding me at school? This is a boy with his teenage friends and they weren't embarrassed at all. They were even nice to tell me that my jeans looked good. Well they aren't the jeans I bought but I did find some I like. When I told Thayne how much they costs he proceeded to remind me of how many Costco jeans he could buy for the same amount. I just love that even thought he doesn't understand why people pay so much for clothes, that he lets me splurge once in a while.

So this is what happens when I wait days to post something, it turns into this ginormous blog of nonsense.

Today is Sunday. We have church at 8am. TJ said he wasn't feeling well so he stayed home. Not sure if he really was sick but he was convinced. So we went without him. It was kind of a different day. Julia was sick. I really missed her, she helps so much. I am not sure where my secretary was but we missed her. I can't say it was a crazy church day, but I definitely let things frustrate me more than I need to. I won't get into it but I need to learn patience and need to learn to understand that everyone else will not do things the same as myself, but it sure would be nice if they did. After church I had ward council meeting. It ran longer than usual which means it was to long. I like sitting by the men because they laugh at my jokes. I know I should be more reverent in the meetings, but come on, if they last for over an hour and a half I need to entertain myself to make it through the meeting. Hey, by the way, I sat by our High Council guy who played with silly putty the whole time. He said he has to keep his hands busy. I say next time he needs to bring enough to share. After my meeting I was able to go home and try to nap. Then, off to stake choir practice. I got home and started making spaghetti and after making the sauce realized "NO NOODLES". Grrr. I called my trusty neighbors the Smiths and she gladly gave me a box. I love having neighbors that I don't feel weird asking them to borrow something.

Well that has been the last 3 days of my life and not a single picture to go along with it. I am now going to go watch the Grammy's that I tivo'd. I can skip through all the crud and just see the parts I want to watch.

I am counting down the days until Thayne comes home.

10 to be exact.

choices

Today I volunteered to work at the Book Fair at the Jr. High school.  I really should help out at the school more than I do but as my kids get older the teachers don’t like parents to help out as much.  I have learned that each time I go to the school to help I walk away thinking I should help more often so I can stay in the loop.  Today I walked away learning that teenagers don’t go to the book fair to buy books. 

I sold 3 of these…..

 

and about 50 of these

Now either parents are not giving their children enough money to buy books or teenagers just don’t read enough.

I also had 3 classes come in during their class time to shop.  One of the classes was Jessika’s English class.  Jessika knew I was working at the book fair today so when she walked in I waved at her.  She looked at me and walked to the library to hang out with her friends.  Now, either she didn’t have money on her to buy a book or she was embarrassed that I was there.  Sniff Sniff.  Either way she gave me the cold shoulder.  I kinda felt sad, but then the boy who lives up the street stood by my table waiting for me to notice him so he could say HI.  Thanks Colton.

I am thinking of becoming the lunch lady at Jessika’s school just to torture her. 

More fun

Ok this is continued from the previous post.  I wanted to see how easy it was to add pictures.  PRETTY EASY!

Here is just a few samples of different designs you can use for your pictures. 

This one just has a white border.

This one has a drop shadow.

This one looks like Polaroid. 

There are more to chose from.

Oh the possibilities!

Something new to try

This is so exciting to me.  I am trying out the window live blogging program.  I still need to learn how it all works, but LOOK I can pick different fonts to write with.  I love variety. 

Now I don’t think I can write each post in a bunch of different font but it is fun to try in this one. 

It does not let me choose from all the font in my font Microsoft font list, but it does let me choose from a lot of them.  It is a much better selection than blogger. 

If you think you want to give it a try, You can Download it by clicking on Windows live in the first paragraph. 

I can’t take credit for it.  My brother Ethan and his wife Shannon have been using it for awhile.  I just decided to give it a try and so far so good.  It seems really easy.

up and at em.

Every morning I get up at 5:15 to make sure my older kids are up and getting ready for school. Well, every morning Thayne is gone, he drives them when he is home. Sam is always up on her own at 5. TJ is a slacker and I usually have to go back in his room several times to make sure he is getting up. I am not an early riser, I hate getting up before the sun. We then leave for school at 6:10am. My kids have seminary during the school day but the school offers a zero hour so they are in actual school classes at 6:30. Well Sam does not have zero hour but she goes early with TJ and sits in the cafeteria and studies for an hour. Every morning I always see 4 ladies jogging together and they must run far because I see them in a different spot every day. I must say they inspire me to run early in the morning.

Today I decided after I dropped them off at school I would stop at the middle school and try running. Man was it cold. I only did 2 miles and averaged about 12 minute miles. Totally sucks. I thought my lungs were going to freeze, but I did it. It was so peaceful running and watching the sunrise. I downloaded new running music so that was really nice. I am now totally awake and ready to start my day.

Julia wants me to run in the run on Valentine weekend but I am not sure I can do 6 miles. I guess that is not the positive attitude I should be having but I am being realistic. I think if I did 6 miles right now I could possibly die. Besides I did not refill my blood pressure medicine and have not checked it lately. I might want to check that out first. So anyways I am being my own cheerleader this morning and saying "yeah for me" for getting up and running this morning.

just jump

What do you do when you have early day and everyone else is still in school? You go to Subway and get lunch with mom. Then when you get home and are totally bored you....

JUMP!!!!!

a time and a place

Today Samantha and I had a quick and fun conversation in sacrament meeting.

Samantha- Mom, Hannah told me if you cross your legs to much you will get those gross ugly purple veins in your legs.

Me- I don't think that is true. And... I think it is a hereditary thing and it does not run in our family.

Samantha- It doesn't?

Me- Nope I think you are safe.

Me again- We do have the thing where when you get mad the veins pop out of your head.

Samantha- no comment but a very scared and shocked look.