We managed to pull of smores for the first time in our outdoor fireplace after we got home from church activities tonight.  Yay!  While Jackie and Ally were in music classes, Erica and I ran over to Walmart for chocolate, marshmallows, graham crackers and firewood.  I was impressed we were able to actually get in there, find what we wanted, checkout and pick the girls back up within 30 minutes!

After dropping off Erica at Grandma and Papa’s house, the rest of us girls ran the smores fixing’s home and made it up to the church just in time for Mutual.  It was a pre-camp activity, so all the girls took turns learning proper tent care, CPR and first aid.  From the few moments I got to watch my own girls, Jackie seemed to actually be paying attention (which made me feel a little more comfortable with her starting to babysit Erica here and there), but I’ve got to figure out a way to motivate Ally to be a little more quiet, less dramatic and actually pay attention to the person who is talking and teaching.  It actually worries me about what kind of behavior she will be on at Girls Camp.  Not that she is a bad kid.  That’s the furthest from the truth.  But she has a tendency (especially with sugar) to be a little bit hyper and not quite as aware of the things actually going on around her.

After Mutual was over, we ran back to Mom and Dad’s, grabbed Erica and headed for home.  When we pulled in the driveway, Eric was still on a webinar.  I was so disappointed and was really looking forward to some fun quality family time.  So I threatened to make my own fire.  And I sure did give it a try, but not quite so successful.  Thankfully Eric’s side was muted for quite some time as it was a multi-speaker webinar, so after many different creative attempts, he got us a fire going.

So we were finally able to roast our marshmallows and make our smores and I figured as we were having an end of the school year celebration, that maybe it would be fun to talk about the girls’ favorite part about this school year and what they were looking forward to next year.  Ally’s answers to both were I don’t know.  Jackie said her favorite thing was everyone writing notes to each other today.  The thing she was looking forward to next year, was school being out again. 

Oh well, we still spent some quality time together and ate more roasted (some flaming) marshmallows than you can shake a stick at.  We even had enough left over to repeat again at another date.  But we did decide we needed to be more aware of the wind next time. 

After the older girls were done with the whole experience, Eric and I sat outside watching the fire die down.  Then out comes Erica dressed in her pink little sleeper with a bucket in one hand and shovel in the other.  Eric about had a stroke when she started digging at our beautifully landscaped yard.  She came over and pouted at us and said, “I just wanted to make a dark bus sand castle.”  I was slightly confused.  Maybe she wanted to make a sand castle that looked like a bus?  Then it dawned on me she meant a “bark dust sand castle.”  It was too cute.

It made me think back to some of the other Erica isms that she has outgrown.  Like bus used to be boosa.  Hotel, ho-entell.  I miss them.  The older girls used to have theirs too.  Like spaghetti was spsghetti.  Sigh, while it’s so exciting to watch them grow into these magnificent young women, it makes me really miss the toddlers they used to be…

The end of the school year is finally here.  Which officially now makes me the Mother of two middle schoolers!  Yikes!  When did I get old enough for that?

Really though, they are very well behaved girls.  That is assuming you don’t give Ally any sugar.  But they are so not into boys yet.  And from what I gather from their report cards, pay more attention to what the teacher is saying than those around them.

I am really proud of the progress Jackie has made this year.  When we made the decision to stop homeschooling her and put her back into public school we thought we were going to need to put her into 6th grade.  But the school insisted that with her age they wanted her to go into 7th grade.  And boy did that girl blow our socks off!  As she enters her last year of middle school she will be taking Challenge Social Studies and Challenge Science!  I am so proud of her!

She is feeling a little weird about this being her last year of middle school.  I think it is becoming a reality for her that she really is growing up.  That high school is just around the corner and it won’t be long before she is driving and then on her way to college.  And it is scaring her a little bit.  Which I don’t blame her, as that reality terrifies me when I stop to think ahead just a couple years.

As for Ally, she is so excited that she will be finally going to the same school as Jackie again.  And she thinks it is pretty cool that her sister is an 8th grader.  She will be taking Orchestra and she was able to get into Challenge Math.  I am so very proud of her. 

It amazes me how quickly she is growing.  In just a couple short weeks she will be celebrating her 12th birthday and entering into Young Women at church.  And she is the girliest of girls.  She picked out this pretty necklace and earrings out of the National Geographic magazine that she really wants for her birthday.  So guess what?  I ordered it for her last night.  She doesn’t know it yet. 

Off to accomplish some things around the house.  I at least need to clean up whatever mess Erica has created while I’ve been busy on the computer for the past couple of hours.  Then it should be about time to head out for the evening with the rest of our Thursday night activities.  Hoping that I can find some wood and some long roasting sticks and maybe we can have smores when we get home later tonight in the outdoor fireplace and celebrate the end of the school year.

So as soon as I wrote my last post, Eric came home and told me it was time to leave for our date.  So I quickly did my hair and make-up and got dressed up, and off we went.

We first went to the driving range like I actually wanted to.  On the way there Eric told me I could just use one of his clubs or we could rent one.  Figure out if I even liked Golf before buying my own set of clubs.  I’ll admit it, I was a little bummed, but knew I would be okay, and told him as much.

So we get to the driving range, I switch to my golf shoes and then Eric asks me what in the heck happened to the back fender.  So I go around to see what he is talking about and there standing behind the car was a new set of pink clubs!  I was so excited. 

I remembered five years ago having so much fun at the driving range and that the small bucket of balls that we got to hit was just enough to get into wanting to hit more.  So I told him to get us each the biggest bucket.  Which was 180 balls each!   Seemed about right to me.  After a refresher from Eric on how to hold the club I was good to go.

About 20 balls in, I ended up with a blister.  A quick correction on my grip and I was doing better.  And then a few balls later I realized what a workout just hitting balls at the driving rang it was.  Needless to say, I only got about halfway through my bucket before I was done. 

So we headed towards Briarcliff.  Figured we’d go into Tivols and look for next year’s anniversary present.  It was so much fun!  And I found the sparkliest, prettiest wedding set that will be perfect for our 15-year anniversary.  While we were there the saleswoman told me if I wanted to take my ring off, they would clean it for me.  Which I then told her I hadn’t taken it off in almost 12 years and it won’t come off anymore.  So she told me when we get ready to buy my new ring, they could cut off my ring and weld it back together to pass on to one of my girls. 

After clarifying, I decided to have it done now and re-sized so it will be more comfortable until next year.  Not to mention, a cleaner ring is an added plus too.

After the jewelry store we walked over to Trezo Mare.  It was so good!  Such a nice dinner too.  It’s one of those places that the food quality is really high without giving 10 times more food than you can possibly eat.  And I didn’t think the prices were too bad either. 

From dinner we caught a movie.  Another thing we haven’t done just the two of us in awhile.  We watched My Baby’s Momma.  It was very funny!  Loved it!  Laughed alot! 

And now after an evening of just the two of us celebrating the day we were married, we are back home in the happy arms of our girls.

Since I married my best friend.  Okay, maybe we hadn’t really had time to become best friends yet.  But we truly are best friends now.  For those who don’t know our story…

I went into the Air Force an engaged woman.  While I was in Tech school, I found out I was not going to be stationed at a California base like I really wanted, I was going to be stationed in Great Falls, Montana.  Was that even in the United States?  I thought that was part of Canada.  Okay, not really.  But to a newly engaged, just out of high school Young Woman, it was terribly far away from my fiancee. 

But as with everything Heavenly Father has a plan.  Because just a few months before that.  Eric had switched bases with someone else at tech school as he didn’t care where he was going to be stationed, so he ended up in Great Falls, Montana.  He was seriously involved with someone, had just proposed probably about the time I found out I was going to be stationed in Montana, but it didn’t work out so well for him.  Again, another place where Heavenly Father was involved.

Shortly after arriving in this strange place in the middle of winter where it looked like a place right out of a Science Fiction movie where everyone’s cars where plugged in, I had an opportunity to become independent.  For the first time, I was on my own in a wide open world, and I quickly began to realize the young man I was engaged to, was not quite the person whom I wanted to settle down with for the rest of my life.  I was ready to be free.  To take my time in being an independent woman, and I began dating new people.  I wasn’t going to do serious for awhile I had decided.

Well, again, Heavenly Father’s plan came in the picture.  I went to go meet up with my date for the evening up at his dorm room and then we were going to go to a Dining In together.  And then I met his room mate, Eric.  I could feel the connection as soon as our eyes met, as corny as that sounds.  I remember looking at him and being blown away by his eyes.  And yes I must admit, he carried himself in a way that made me think, this man is going places in life.

But that’s not quite when we became an item.  I wandered into the NCO club a few days later for the first time, dressed in something I would lock my children in their rooms for a month if I ever caught them wearing something so short.  I had braved going to the club on my own.  I knew I would end up hooking up with friends there at some point in the evening.  As soon as I walked in, Heavenly Father raised Eric’s hand (against his conscious will) and I took that as a friendly hello and walked over his way.

We sat there and talked about our plans and dreams for our lives for several hours.  We decided we would go out on a date soon.  So we went for our first date just a couple days later.  It went well and we planned another one.  At this point Eric decided we were an item.  I just assumed it was just a date.  I didn’t realize until the next date we were an item.

The next few weeks were a whirlwind.  It was just 6 weeks from the time we met before we were engaged.  And then another 6 weeks until we were married.  It was a small military wedding.  But it was beautiful nonetheless. 

Since then we have gone on and joined the church and been sealed forever in the temple, had three beautiful daughters and have had quite the journey thus far.   Now I would be lying if I told you they were all blissful years.  We have certainly had our share of issues.  Most of them mine.  But I have married such a patient man, and we haven’t both wanted to give up at the same time.  But, as with everything, anything that is really worth it takes work to make it work.

Not quite sure what we will do today.  We wanted to keep it simple as we just moved into the house that we are still furnishing and decorating, and we decided when we got the Escalade that would be our Anniversary present to each other.  But we will still celebrate today.  There will definitely be a nice dinner.  Debating between The Melting Pot, Piroppo or Trezo Mare.  I’m sure I butchered the spelling of the last two.  Still can’t decide between catching a movie afterwards or going to the driving range.

The first and last time I’ve been to a driving range (probably 5 years ago when we lived in Oregon), I loved it, and have been really wanting to go again and maybe even learn how to golf.  So I’m really leaning towards the driving range.  But, that would require buying clubs for me.  Pretty pink ones maybe?  So, we will probably end up at the movies…  Which I will be happy doing that too.  The important thing is we will be spending time together.

My blog is back up now!  When I first woke up, which granted was much later than I care to admit, I had such a huge desire to blog.  So I quietly booted up my laptop, in an effort to make sure my sleeping angel next to me remained sleeping and went to my blog.  And it was GONE!  I think my neighbors even heard me gasp.

So Eric immediately went to work on figuring out what the problem was.  At first it was assumed maybe we didn’t switch it over to the new card for renewal.  But as he looked further into it, that didn’t appear to be the case.  But he did something for almost an hour and now everything is back to normal.   Thank goodness.

It made me realize how much my blog really means to me, even though at times I’m not very good at keeping it updated.  And then I thought about what if all my entries were gone forever, which that thought alone made me sick. 

It was certainly the longest hour ever.  It was as if I had lost a limb.  But it’s okay.  I can sigh a sigh of relief.  It’s all good now. 

I took the longest nap this afternoon with Erica and I am finally feeling more like myself.  Now to just keep myself on track and get to bed at a decent time and stay rested.

We finally made it to the pool yesterday.  I wasn’t sure we were actually going to make it as the day started off pretty yucky.  But it turned warmer and we braved it anyway.  It was totally freezing!  Oh my word.  I’m surprised when we got out we didn’t have icicles dripping off of us. 

Not much exciting for the past couple of days.  I am looking forward to tomorrow night though.  Our 14th Anniversary is tomorrow and Eric and I will get to be a couple all by ourselves out on the town.

Before Eric and I went to bed last night, he looked down at Erica and noticed her eyes were gooping up.  Of course he tried to wake her up and make sure it wasn’t something serious, but that little girl would have no part of it.  I told him not to worry about it.  It was probably just a cold in her eye.  Which he had never heard of such a term.  I remember being told as a kid a few times that I had it.  But it mellowed him out and he let her sleep.

So we woke up this morning.  Which happens to be my sweetie’s birthday.  Happy 34th birthday!  Anyway, when we went to wake up Erica her eyes were both completely crusted shut and she was getting a little frustrated that her eyes wouldn’t open.  So using a warm, wet washcloth after about 10 minutes we finally got to see her beautiful eyes.  I was relieved that she could see just fine.

So instead of us going to church as a family.  I took Eric to church.  It was his birthday AND I knew he had been extended a calling and was being sustained today.  He is serving in the Sunday School Presidency as the 1st Counselor.  So, I dropped him and the older two girls off at church and then took Erica to The Urgency Room. 

They checked her out pretty quick like and came to the conclusion that it was Bacterial Conjunctivitis.  Which is the official term for pink eye.  So with a prescription of antibiotic eye drops and instructions to keep her away from others until she has used the eye drops for 24 hours, we were on our way.  This also meant she couldn’t swim that long either.

Which is kind a stinky deal in her eyes (no pun intended).  We tried to go to the pool yesterday, but it was closed due to inclement weather?!  Whatever.  But today it was hot out and a dip in the nice cold pool would have felt so nice.  Although when we did drive past it today, it was really crowded.

Since today was Sunday and we didn’t want to break the Sabbath, we celebrated Eric’s dinner with an amazing home cooked meal.  Eric grilled Filet Mignon topped with a bleu cheese mixture out on the new grill (first meal to be cooked out there) and I made my infamous twice baked potatoes.  Other favorites that were served tonight was cream corn and flaky layer biscuits and Diet Vernors to drink.  And for dessert we had lemon birthday cake ablazed with 34 candles.  It was all so fabulous.  Eric even said the potatoes were the best yet.  Even better than the first time I ever make them for him.

Ally left with Grandma and Papa to spend the night over there.  She’s going to help them do some painting and other work like that around their house.  She is such a sweety.  Jackie was offered the opportunity first.  But working for money wasn’t something she was very interested in.  So Ally willingly went in her place.  She said she would have even done it for free.  After all, she didn’t want them “breaking their backs.”  

We’ve been pretty much playing on the Wii since.  I finally tore myself away from the new Skiing game as I felt myself becoming a little too obsessed with it.  So I gave Erica her medicine and Eric took over on the Wii with his shooting game.  Now Miss Erica is tucked into bed next to me and sound asleep and I’m thinking I’m not too far behind her.

Just really wanted to blog tonight.  I feel like I’ve grown a whole new appreciation for blogging.  The more I look and stalk other people’s blogs, the more I feel like I really need to do better about keeping mine updated.  At first when I started blogging, it was a way to keep friends and family updated.  Especially the ones that weren’t local.  Now that I think back on my entries and look at everyone else’s blogs, it’s a form of journaling too.  And it really is so therapeutic.  There might be days I bore everyone to tears, and I apologize in advance.  But, I think to myself as I keep this maintained, it will give my children and future generations more of an insight of who I am/was.  Kind of cool to think of it that way… 

Those two words pretty much sum it up for me.  I slept in until 9:30 this morning.  It’s funny that is sleeping in to me now.  I could out sleep anyone.  Of course it helps that I can’t keep my eyes open past 1am anymore.  I wanted to give up even sooner than that last night, but was really enjoying spending time watching Grey’s from Thursday night, last night.

I had some things I had to update on the computer for my church calling, so I got that taken care.  Need to make a couple of phone calls later this afternoon and it will officially be completed.  Afterwards I finally got my email box cleaned out, and sent an email to an old high school friend.  That’s another thing about me that has changed.  I used to be so on top of checking my emails, responding right away and clearing them out of my inbox.  It used to be one of the best ways to get info to me.  Not so much the case anymore. 

I ate peanut butter balls for breakfast.  I don’t think those were real Weight Watchers friendly, but I hate for Erica to get into them.    Yeah, that’s it.  Actually the reality is she knows those are off limits and can hurt her and she is very mature about steering clear of them.

I’m now realizing lunch really needs to become a reality for my family.  However, I am really craving Mexican food right now, and we don’t have anything in the house that resembles that.  Think I can convince Eric to go to Jose Peppers (“Hot Peppers” as Erica calls it)?  Thinking, probably not.

I really need to drag myself to the shower and get dressed and hit the road.  Jackie and I both desperately need nylons for church tomorrow.  And I need to make up some folders for the YW roll sheets today too.  And dinner dishes are sitting out in the kitchen still undone.  And anyone who has been in the new house since we moved in, knows this just doesn’t happen.

But Eric had a webinar last night as soon as the last bite from dinner was put in his mouth.  And in an effort to get out of the house so he could have a quiet house for it, we just cleared the table and Erica and I left while Jackie and Ally went down to the basement promising that if they got to stay home they would be perfectly quiet.

So Erica and I left the dishes undone and ran a couple of the Southern Living orders to Denise and then met up with Nora to give her her order.  Nora then decided to go scrappy shopping.  So we hit JoAnn’s first where I bought way too much DCWV sparkly summer stuff.  It was just too fun looking and I could totally see myself maybe actually using it.  And they had sparkly cardstock in the big pad like Doodlebug’s sugar coated cardstock.

Then we made it to Archiver’s for a short shopping trip before they closed.  I got these cool little metal flowers and corners.  Of course I was excited about those as I thought it would be fun to alcohol ink them.  And I picked up an idea book that I almost bought last time I was there.  It’s by Autumn Leaves, and is call The Designing With Recipe Book.  They had some neat layout recipes in there. 

I’m trying to get back into designing my layouts again rather than depending on page packets and classes for my scrapbooking.  Not that I’ll stop using those all together, as they are so handy to have for crops.  But I feel so much better while I create something of my own and I have gotten so rusty in that aspect.  So I’m looking forward to Eric finally buying a play structure for the girls, so they can play outside and maybe I can play in the scraproom.  As it doesn’t work very well for me when Erica wants to play in the scraproom with me.  I end up getting sucked away from my project and she ends up sucking me into her projects and cleaning up the messes she leaves behind her.

Kind of was hoping it was going to be warm enough to go up the pool today too.  Erica has been asking since September when the pool was going to open, and now that it has finally opened, it’s really not all that great of a day to go swimming.  Especially since the Golf Club has decided they don’t want to heat it.  Which really frustrates me.  This whole big dramatic thing between the Golf Club and the HOA is really getting on my nerves.  It really is looking more like the HOA is really looking out for the residents while the Golf Club is caught up in a I’m right kind of deal and just too much into making money.  I could be wrong.   When we first moved in, I was totally on the side of the Golf Club, but now after hearing more from both sides, I’m feeling a little ripped off.  Between what we pay the golf club and dues to the HOA, I would expect so much more. 

Oh well, I just have to put it out of my mind.  It just puts me in a bad mood, and I so don’t want to go there.  I just want to continue enjoying my lazy day and focus on what on earth I’m going to do for Eric’s birthday tomorrow!  I was hoping our grill was going to be hooked up and we could have made his favorite meal.  Steak and twice baked potatoes.  I guess I’ll have to figure something else out.  But I really don’t want to spend much time on it.  Not that I don’t think he is worth it.  I’d just rather not spend hours in the kitchen stressing about making everything perfect, but spend that time with him.  Plus I’m usually so tired by the time I get home from church.  Probably should get him some kind of cake that we can light on fire too. 

Okay, with all that said, I better get off the computer!  If you made it this far, you so deserve a medal!  I didn’t realize how much I went on.  Sorry!

I know both the David’s did so well during the American Idol competition.  Eric and I had told each other that each one equally deserved to win.  But I really deep down wanted David Archuleta to win.  I have been a fan of his from the first time I heard him sing.

I just loved the innocence and purity in his voice.  And of course we had a softer spot for him as he is a member of the church.  And after his performances Tuesday night, I thought for sure he had it.  He just sang with more emotion than David Cook.  As Randy would say, I just wasn’t feeling his performances Tuesday night.  And Cook has had some awesome performances.

But, I do wonder if maybe this is Heavenly Father’s way of looking out for Archuleta.  One thing I did worry about from the beginning is how fame seems to completely change these young talented performers into something they aren’t.   Know what I mean?

Now granted he will without a doubt have a phenomenal singing career.  And I know everything worked out the way it was supposed to for him.  I did watch an interview with him last night on the computer through Fox Utah and he really was upbeat about the whole thing.  No signs of sadness.  Nothing but joy for the experience he had and joy for David Cook. 

He just totally amazes me with both his voice and attitude.  I can’t wait to buy his first CD!

Let’s see, most importantly, Erica is feeling better and doing fine now.  Thank goodness because she is the hardest kid ever to try to get to stay still and get better.  Not to mention the fights over getting her to take her medicine.

Thursday and Friday were busy.  We had a fundraiser dinner and auction for the Young Women for camp.  It was very successful!  It paid all the girls’s camp fees.  Woo Hoo!  We came home with way too many desserts.  And I just love the church activities as it provides such a wonderful opportunity of getting to know more people in the ward better. 

Saturday was an amazing day.  Erica had her first T-ball game.  It was the second game for the team, but since Erica had her recital the weekend before, she had to miss that one.  But she did very well.  And it was so much fun sitting out in the sun watching all the little kids grasping the concepts.

Then that evening we had the privilege of taking the missionaries assigned to our ward to the club house for dinner.  It always gives me such joy to be able to take care of a meal for them.  They are just barely out of high school and out serving Heavenly Father full time for two years away from their family.  And they are just such a joy to be around. 

Sunday was church and then after a quick nap, a Young Women’s Presidency meeting.  It is amazing to be a part of a wonderful group of loving women who are dedicated to encouraging the young women in our ward to be the best they can be spiritually.  And this is such a spiritual group of young ladies too.

Yesterday….  Okay so we bought something yesterday.  So anyone who thinks I’m shallow when I talk about spending any amount of money, look away.  Well, Eric and I have been talking about this day for some time now, but we’ve been just waiting for the right day to do so.  But we went out last evening to look at upgrading our car when we stumbled upon the perfect one.  We knew we wanted an Escalade, and really preferred black. But we were open to anything.  Well, we found ourselves a black Escalade with very few miles.  It’s the ESV and was exactly what we were looking for.  So of course our “just looking” turned into buying.  I’ll have to remember to take pictures at some point and post them.

Oh!  I have been looking for a Wii for the family since just a little before Christmas.  Every time I walked into a store that would carry them, I would look for one, but hadn’t been very successful until yesterday.  I went into Toys R Us with Eric to look at a possible play structure for the backyard.  And there was a sign right inside the door that said they had some in!  The girls were very excited when they came home from school.

Today we ran around finishing the details on the car deal.  Bought a new TV to go with the Wii.  And Erica had another T-Ball game tonight.  She really hustled out there.  She made a run for every ball hit.  She hit the ball really well.  And ran as fast as her little legs could carry her.  Of course all of us were very proud of her.  Ally would run over to her between offense and defense breaks and give her water.  Wanted to keep our T-ball star hydrated you know.  And Jackie treated everyone to snacks from the snack stand.

It has definitely been a fun week.  Such great memories created.  Until later…