This week is "sweet" and I have this big white bucket in my pantry. I love this bucket. Why? You ask? Well...

Cause it's filled with M&M's, skittles, nerds, licorice, smarties... you name it, it's probably in there.

Now, you may be asking yourself : WHY?? Why in the world do you have a big ol bucket filled with THAT MUCH CANDY?? My answer: We just don't eat a lot of candy. So, we buy some, eat a little and then it just sits around. Eventually, I throw it in the bucket. Then, when we need a little sugar high, we pull it out. Sometimes I will pull it out to decorate a cake or something like that. But mostly, the big, white bucket just sits in the pantry. "Sweet" don't ya think?

We're Back
You didn't even know we were gone, did ya? :) Hubby's brother and his family came down to spend a little time in Southern California. They had the opportunity to stay in a house overlooking the ocean in Oceanside. And lucky us, they invited us along! The first night the kids wanted to do this... rather than play in this... Crazy kids. It was a little cool, but really, the water felt great! This was the view from the front window... I wanted a shot without the cars, but they were there all day. Baby Girl did not want to be in the water AT ALL. Last time we went there was a rip tide. She was knocked down by a big wave - which had happened several times that day, but this wave drug her out a little ways. It scared her and it scared me. A few minutes later the life guards came and asked everyone to move to a different part of the beach. Anyway, I think she remembers that experience -vividly- she screamed every time we tried to get her near the water... so... she did this all day long....(I know there's a sunbather in the back ground... you should have seen the lady that would have been in the pic if I had taken it from another angle... she had almost taken her top off...not what I was looking for in a picture of Baby Girl...) Little Bug played in the water, but then he went and wrapped himself in a towel, curled up on a chair and sat there. We couldn't get him to play in the water again or get in the sand. I don't have a picture of that... but, I do have a picture of myself I'd like to share. First, you need to know that I am TERRIFIED of the ocean. I'm afraid of the rip tides (especially after feeling how hard they pull on you) and I am terribly terribly afraid of sharks. I'm just sure that they are lurking in the water waiting just for me... ready for a little snack. I know... I'm paranoid. I don't REALLY believe that they have a personal vendetta against me, but you never know. Well, I decided to try and conquer that fear just a tad... That's me on the boogie board riding the wave in! I had so much fun! I spend almost 4 hours in the water. When I first got in I was scared out of my ever lovin mind. But, I got past it, a little. Of course, it came with a penalty of learning that the sunscreen we used was NOT waterproof. I got something called "sun poisoning". Ever heard of it? It's where the body is exposed to too many UV rays and it causes a bad sunburn, dizziness, fatigue and fever. Last night I had all the symptoms including a HORRIBLE fever... it was not good. It felt like someone was shaking me. I just couldn't stop. I'm better today though. ANYWAY, I would love to say that I conquered my fear of the ocean completely, but that's not true. I still freaked out every time I got to a spot that I couldn't touch, but for the most part I had a great time. And I might even do it again... as soon as this sunburn heals up just a tad.

Random Conversations with Baby Girl
Baby Girl: Will you get my toys out?
Me: Just a minute

Baby Girl: But I want the horses and pigs. Please Mom?
I cringe - the farm box has lots and lots of little animals... I offer an alternative.
Me: How about getting out the Weebles?
Baby Girl: Evils??

Me: No babe. The Weebles.

Baby Girl: Weevils???
Me: Sigh.
Baby Girl: Can I have the horses and pigs now?

Later in the day...

Baby Girl: Daddy and I are going to go feed the ducks. You ... stay... right... there... (as she slowly backs out of the room)

Just a few minutes ago...

Me: We get to go to the beach tonight and play in the ocean! Won't that be fun?

Baby Girl: AWWW!! I want to feed the ducks! I don't want to go to the ocean!

Just now...

Baby Girl: We are going to the ocean? Do they have ducks there?

Me: I don't think so babe

Baby Girl: But there are ducks in the desert and they want to share my muffin (speaking of the muffin she requested for lunch) I can't eat my muffin or there won't be any left for the ducks.

Me: Go eat your muffin.

Baby Girl: Alright, but there won't be any left for the ducks...

Whose child is this???

Bloggy Goodness
So, I've been the recipient of some Good Mail and I haven't blogged about it yet. But today is the day I share my goodies with you (aren't you THRILLED!?!)
First, I took part of a Great Gift Exchange that Kailani, over at An Island Life, organized. There was an odd number of people, so I did two exchanges. I did one with Kailani and I got this amazing package in the mail full of all things Hawaiian. Good treats, a mug, some super smelling soap and the most adorable hot pad! Baby Girl thinks she should have the mug... but I'm gonna put up a good fight! Thanks so much Kailani!!!

My other Great Gift Exchange was with Laura at The Seabird Chronicles. Again filled with yummy treats, a bath fizz ball (that I can't wait to try), some lotion, and some little tissues with flip flops on them! Such a fun yummy package! Thanks again Laura!!!

I actually don't have all of this next one because I drank part of it... :) From the Good Mail Girls, Amber at Crazy Bloggin Canuck sent me a pack of gum (that's actually the empty box in the picture), 2 packages of Crystal Light Lemonade (um... yeah, the kids and I loved it) a sweet little note card, and a letter just reminding me that she can escape to the nice cool mountains and I'm boiling my brains out here in the desert. Such a sweetie :) Thanks Amber!!

Next on the list is another sweet treat from Kathleen at So Grateful to be Mormon. She sent me peanut M&M's (which were consumed in about 10 seconds FLAT!) and a funny card! So sweet!! :) Thanks again Kathleen (hope you're enjoying your trip)

And last, but not least, another Good Mail Girl, SoDak Angel at Can't ya just. It had CUTE address labels, directions for folding a whale out of paper and paper to do it with, a heart she had folded out of paper (SO CUTE!), a little notebook to help me get organized, a cute little note and feathers :) So much fun!! Thank you!

So, there you have it. Good mail abounds at my house! I have really enjoyed being part of the Good Mail Girls! So nice to open the mailbox and see notes, letters and packages mixed in with the bills, credit card applications and letters from some guy who wants to buy our land (not sure what that's all about since we're RENTING... but the letters keep coming). Anyway, thanks again girls! You guys are the greatest!!!

I'm a Big Kid Now
Baby Girl doesn't want to grow up. She wants me to do everything for her for the rest of eternity. From feeding her to dressing her to chewing her food for her - she wants it all. I've decided that if I can't have a personal servant, neither can she. So, I'm forcing a little independence. Now, she's not quite 4, so, after much deliberation, I've decided not to make her move out, yet. What I did decide is that she can do a few simple things - like scrubbing herself in the tub, drying off after baths, getting herself dressed, and, of course, chewing her own food. You see, I've been an enabler. She will most likely be my last child. I thought I wanted her to be little for a long time. So, I was doing everything for her. And she was enjoying having her own little Mommy slave. But, I've changed my mind. I'm just gonna let her figure a few things out on her own. So far, she's not enjoying her new found independence. Poor kid. Life is tough. Even when you're 3 1/2.
(PS - for those of you who are a little too literal... I don't REALLY chew her food for her)

It's a HP Kinda Thing
So, y'all know that I'm crazy. But do you really know how crazy I am? Let me give you a small example : I looked at my side bar today and saw how many days are left till the new Harry Potter book comes out. My heart did a little happy dance and I smiled... a strange sort of smile that will probably be on my face for the next 25 days... yes. I'm crazy. Crazy about Harry Potter. Anyone else out their counting down the days? Or is it just me? (I know it can't be JUST me... I didn't order 500,000 copies from Barnes and Noble... what I'm really asking is : Are you willing to ADMIT that you're counting down the days?)

So tell me, if your blog were a movie, what would be the rating?

I had a tough time finding something "shiny" for this week. I thought of a few different things, but didn't really feel like it fit what I was looking for. At first I thought of mirrors, cars, lights, water.... but nothing really hit me as "shiny" Would you like to know what did come to mind when I thought of "shiny"?


Yep. Shiny Happy People laughing. So, here are my pictures for "shiny" -


Well, maybe they aren't shiny, but they are laughing :)

The AC is fixed - YEAH!! My kids are more than excited... the grumpy momma has vanished and is replaced by a much cooler one ;)

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! You cursed brat!
Look what you've done!! I'm melting, melting.
Ohhhhh, what a world, what a world.
Who would have thought that some little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness.
OHHHHHHH!!! NO!!! I'm going...ohhhhhhh..ohhhhhhhhhhhhh....

Still can't get ahold of the land lord. Can't have any work ordered till we do. Oh what a world!

Inconceivable
Do you remember the guy in the "Princess Bride" who said that everything was inconceivable? Every time something went wrong you could hear him say the word. Well, today was a day of things going wrong over and over and now... for the icing on the cake. Murphy's law is in full effect tonight. Some of you will remember that we lost our A/C back in May. It was only in the 90's in May and cooling down into the 70's during the night. Today it was 114 and is supposed to cool down to 90. And guess what? The A/C went out again. We can't reach the land lord. We have company coming next week! Sigh... honestly, I'm in tears. Hot, miserable, sticky tears. I'm afraid that the landlord will be on vacation or something. You know, just to make Murphy's law complete. There were so many things that made today a bad day, but I think tomorrow will be worse. I don't mind the heat... but 114 is a little much... even for me. Inconceivable.

Cranker Sore
Do you ever get sores in your mouth? Every time I bite my lip I get a cold sore or a canker sore. And sometimes, they just appear of their own free will. But, we don't call them cold or canker sores. We call them "cranker sores" because whenever someone has one it turns them into a cranky beast. And who can blame them? They sting almost constantly. They make talking and eating almost impossible. They take forever to go away. And, if you are part of this family, cranker sores show up ALL THE TIME. And usually they manifest themselves as twins or triplets. At Thanksgiving time I had at least 7 sores in my mouth. Cranker doesn't even begin to cover it. Right now I have two on my bottom lip. They have gotten so big that it looks like one big sore. And it feels like someone it jabbing a hot poker into my lip. Am I in the best mood at this moment? I would have to say, "No." The Cranker strikes again.

More Decor

Okay - I have this fabric in my collection that might work in here... I would make another panel and just take the center pink one out?? Would that work? And Tammy asked for a few more pictures of Baby Girl's room. It's small... so I can't get a lot in each pic... I had to lay on the bed to get the window in... and there is another window in here that I will probably replicate the exact same look on... once I decide what that look will be.

This first picture is of her bed, then a chair that I got at a yard sale. I'm going to repaint it in white and it will go with the little table (that I'm also going to paint). The next picture is all the odds and ends I'm wanting to find spots for and the last picture is some hooks in her room. Lots of pink, purple and green in the room. The colors look lighter on her quilt on her bed, but they are really bright and vibrant. So, thoughts now? Any more ideas??


So, tell me... is it a lost cause? Have I tried to pull too many things into the room and now it's just a crazy mess? What do you think?

It's Curtains for You!

Okay, now before you start thinking "This girl needs to learn to IRON!" I haven't ironed the curtains because I might be taking some of them back. And I hate to iron. Almost as much as folding laundry. Anyway, I need your help! These are the darling curtains I got for Baby Girl's room. I was going to do either pink, purple, pink, purple, pink OR pink, green, pink, green, pink. But now I can't decide which I like better. And the longer I leave it up there the more I like it just as it is... but is it too weird? I don't want her room to look like a circus... even though that's what it usually is. Help bloggin buddies! I need your opinions and thoughts FAST! The curtains are on clearance at Lowes... and if I need to go back and get more of one color or another, I should do it soon! Thoughts, comments, ideas? They don't even have to be relevant to this post :)

Shout Out
Gotta give a shout out to my cousin Mandy! She's just started her own blog and you really should check it out. She's very creative and just all around awesome. And her girls are darling! So, my friends, go give her some bloggity love. You know you wanna...

Quick Recap & Pics
I'm not gonna talk too much about the trip... mostly pictures in this post. And since it's my blog, you'll just have to put up with it :) We got to St. George and I went to the wedding in the LDS Temple (the tall white building against the red rock...)

Went to the reception and had lovely food

My friend was BEAUTIFUL!! So glad we made it!They had the reception at this amazing house - Baby Girl decided to take a dip in the pool... Hubby grabbed her before she made too much of a scene.

Because of child induced craziness, we left before the dessert... so we stopped at Arctic Circle for ice cream.

Played at the park the next morning for awhile and then dropped Red off with friends. He's now in Idaho with family for the next month!!

Then we went to Zion's. Beautiful. Fun hikes. Lots of water for the kids to throw rocks in. Great scenery. Long tiring days!

We did have a few troubles with a pinched nerve in the neck (Hubby - you know, I could make a lot of "pain in the neck" jokes here, but he was hurting to bad it just wasn't funny) a tick bite (me) and all around crankiness from lack of sleep (everyone). But the ride home was uneventful and pretty calm. We just played around and listened to "Charlie and the Glass Elevator". Baby Girl started to recognize a few things as we got closer to home and she said, "Oh! We're almost ready to find my bed and my pillow!" Yeah. We were all pretty tired!

We're glad to be home. We have family coming next week and possibly a day on the beach with them. Should be a lot of fun!

I'm BACK!
Hey y'all! How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? I'm looking forward to catching up on blogs... don't know how long it will take me, but I promise to get around to it soon! Thought I'd break the trip bloggy stuff up into 3-4 parts... start with the drive there. First of all, I'm a moron. I'm not sure how many times I've said that here, but it's still true. You see, I had it all planned out - we would leave at 5:30a.m. and get there around 12:00 - wedding is at 2:00. So, we'd have plenty of time to eat some lunch, hopefully get situated in the hotel and then get me to the Temple on time. So, um, here's the part where I'm a total dork - we are in California - Pacific time. The wedding was in Utah - Mountain time... so, it was 6:30 their time when we left. There is a reason there are no pictures of our trip there. I was crying too hard. I was a horrible Mom and an even worse spouse on the trip there. One of my children has the smallest bladder on the earth. Another one threw up all over. Stop after stop was made and I freaked out a little more each time. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE NEED GAS??" "YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM AGAIN!?!" "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA THROWING UP BACK HERE"... oh, it was horrible. I was horrible. I've known the gal who was getting married for 26 years. I was NOT going to miss this. We got there in time because Hubby put the pedal to the metal. We stopped at Wendy's really quick for food and then off I went. I got there on time. And then the ceremony actually ended up being delayed for awhile. It was stressful, but it all worked out. I'll post more tomorrow. Right now my eyes are being sucked into my brain :)

Why Every Girl Should Have a Bead Stash
Okay - I'm taking a quick break to show you what I did today. I wanted to have some fun bracelets to wear with my new skirt, but I really didn't have anything that matched. Bring out the beads! I pulled out my bead kit - found 2 bracelets in there that might work, but not quite. So, I spent 45 minutes and made 3 others that work really well! I might actually end up wearing all 5 just to mix things up a little. Every girl needs a stash of beads so that she can accessorize at a moments notice!

Another "What was I thinking" Moment
AACK! Do you remember how I said I wanted to get gift cards for my kid's teachers, but was afraid it would be too spendy? Well I could have done it! For the last couple of years I have been involved in a thing called MyPoints. They send me emails for different retailers and if I visit the site in the email, I get 5 points. I don't have to buy anything, don't even have to spend a lot of time on the site. Just visit and the points are mine. I can also buy things from a list of retailers and get points. And guess what you redeem those points for? GIFT CARDS! They have gift cards for all kinds of places! I wanted to do cards from Barnes and Noble and guess what... they have them. It wouldn't have cost me a thing! Sigh... well, maybe I'll redeem my points for Hubby's birthday or for Christmas. I've got almost 10,000 points... so I should be able to get some pretty decent gift cards. That's almost $75 at Barnes and Noble. If you're interested in signing up, let me know! Email me and I'll send you the info. I think my email address is in my profile... It's an easy way to earn gift cards for yourself or friends and family. And, if you use me as a reference when you sign up, I get points too! It's win/win I tell ya! ;)
Oh, and thank y'all for your fashion advice on the skirt... looks SO much better now! I'm done bloggin till Tuesday - then I'll be back with lots and lots of pictures... aren't you excited? Enjoy your weekend!

Help!

I am about to exhibit how fashion backwards I am...sigh. I bought this skirt at WalMart today - cute, eh?

It's not really that pink... it's a cream back ground... not a great shot, but I'm in the middle of packing so I have to hurry... ANYWAY, at the bottom of each pleat is a stitch....Is that some kind of decoration? Or do they just put those in to keep the pleats looking nice during shipping? I'm such a dork. HELP!