SERIOUSLY!!!

OK, this blog was supposed to be about the awesome womens conference I attended last night.  It was SO SUPER awesome and I swear the talks were all for me.  I was thinking about all the neat things I learned and the spirit I felt and how I couldn't wait to get home and blog about it.  After the conference was over, I was standing with some girlfriends enjoying dessert and chit chatting about life and other important things like that when a topic came up (and I have no idea how this topic came up, pretty sure Cindy started it) that I was quite alarmed to find out the different views of.  SERIOUSLY, I had no idea how confused some women are about this particular thing.  There is really only ONE way of doing it!!!  Apparently there are some people (Breba and Cindy) who see things a little bit differently than I do!  I've decided to shed some light on the subject.  The topic is:

'The Proper Process In Using A Public Restroom'

The first rule in using a public restroom is NEVER TOUCH ANYTHING!!!  I really can't emphasize this enough!  HELLO!  It's a PUBLIC Restroom!  Germs and bacteria are invisible my friends!  Remember EVERYTHING is coated in something icky!  Some people (Bree) think it's ok to walk right in, I'm sure touching the walls and maybe even dropping something on the floor and picking it up, and sitting directly on the toilet seat!  I'm serious!  I really thought that it was common knowledge that you NEVER, NEVER, NEVER touch the toilet seat directly!  NEVER!  You have two options, cover the toilet seat with toilet paper or a seat cover, or two, hover.  That's right folks, there is no option three!  Here Bree is demonstrating the SO SO SO WRONG way of using a public toilet!  AAAAAAAGH!  This actually gave me chest pains just to take the pic!  

Here I'm explaining to Bree that she needs to WASH HER HANDS NOW!

Oh ya, she's smelling them to see if the hand washing thing is necessary!?!  This would lead me to rule number three.  (I know I skipped rule number two, I'll get back to that in a minute)  Rule number three is ALWAYS WASH YOUR HANDS after using the restroom!  ALWAYS!

What was rule number two?  That would be the flushing process.  Again there is only ONE way to do this....................WITH YOUR FOOT!  There is no hand involvement in the flushing of the toilet.  If you can't flush it with your foot, leave it!  There are no exceptions to this rule!

Now, Big Ash is demonstrating the hovering technique.  She's doing it wrong, but close enough that I can explain the proper way to you.  Ash didn't quite understand rule number one, DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!  Hovering is great in two ways, one, you're not touching anything (hence, Ash's hands definately shouldn't be on the rails), and two, you get a thigh work out while you take care of business.  The hovering technique is highly recommended.  If you absolutely can't hover, my Grandma for instance, than you're ONLY other option would be to line the seat with toilet paper or a paper seat cover.  Again, there is NO THIRD OPTION HERE!   

Thank you Ash, for washing your hands thoroughly, when we finished with our little demo. :) 

Now, this next one, some people might find a little strange.  Before I go over it with you I would just like to take a minute to give a little shout out to my dad.  He has most certainly made me into the raving germ freak that I am today, so, thanks dad.  This rule involves the self flushing toilets.  You know when the toilet self flushes, and you smell that watery smell.  Well, that is little fomites spraying into the air.  Yes Julia, that is a real word, look it up.  Anyways, fomites are the little particles of what's being flushed and I repeat, THEY ARE SPRAYING INTO THE AIR.  Ya, and if you breathe in while they are circulating around your head, you will BREATHE THEM IN!!!  This is true stuff!  So, my number four rule is, ALWAYS HOLD YOUR BREATHE when the toilet automatically flushes and you're still in the stall.  Julia is demonstrating this in the next picture.    

So I don't know where some of you are getting this FALSE information that it's OK to sit directly on the seat and other such nonsense, but IT IS FALSE!!!  I hope I've been able to shed light on this topic for some (Bree and Cindy) VERY confused people.  If anyone has any further questions, I would be happy to go into greater detail, because believe me, I could have added a lot more, but I didn't want to make anyones head explode with information overload.  I am also willing to give one on one lessons to those of you who just can't get it alone.  I'm ending this blog with great hope that I have inspired some of you to change your ways and come over to the sterile, nonfomite, proper way of using a public restroom.    

Family Togetherness

It all started out with good intentions.  We needed to go to Lowes and get a couple of things.  Being the GREAT parents that we are we thought we would make it a family trip.......................YA.  The drive over somebody touched someone else causing a horrible crying spell.  Aaron insisted that we TALK  and not put a movie in for the kids, so we spent most of the time telling our kids to be quiet and stop interrupting us.  I looked back and saw my oldest child thinking he was going to wear his wife beater tank top into Lowes......................some people might take issue with this, but I swear every mean boy I ever new wore a wife beater and so I'm pretty sure wife beaters have some type of evil influence on whoever is wearing them.  So I kindly explained this theory to my son and asked him to put on his scout shirt, which was in the car.....................oh ya, he was WAY excited, he gave me that look like, I'm so glad I got the crazy mom.  So now EVERYONE is frustrated or being EXTREMELY hyper!  We hadn't even arrived at the store yet.  We walked in and it began.  The baby started to cry, the kids took off in three different directions and I swear to you, Aaron TOTALLY DITCHED ME!  I followed the loud sound of our children who were trying out all the different toilet seats they had in the store, complete with sounds and facial expressions. I VERY CALMLY tried to get them gathered together.   They were having way too much fun to listen to their SWEET mother.  People around us are starting to stare.  Now my kids have all run over to the refrigerator section.  They opened EVERY single refrigerator.  Some of the fridges had fake paper food in them.................WHY.................my kids were taking it out yelling to each other what food item they had found and then fake eat it as LOUD as they possibly could.  The baby was still crying.  Aaron was very much MIA.  It seemed like I was getting eyeballed by everyone around me.  There was this nappy looking older guy with tattoos and a long dirty beard (not judging) that walked by and gave me this look like 'that is why people should only be allowed to have one kid'.  I swear that is what he said with his eyes!  The other looks were more like, 'Why doesn't she get control of her kids, man, if those were my kids.................'  So, now I could see Aaron was in one of the aisles nearby, trying his darndest to pretend he didn't know the crazy woman with the out of control kids.  I felt I had two options, one, grab all of my children by the ears, start crying and drag them over to their loving father, with my crying baby in tow....................nope, I didn't choose option one, I went for option two.  I turned around, and walked away.  I totally pretended like I didn't know my children.  I figured I could hear them no matter where I was in the store and Aaron would eventually HAVE to pass by them to get out of the section of the store he was in so I walked away.  I even looked at a couple of people like, uh, can you believe how out of control those kids are!?!  I went over to the Christmas section and checked out the trees and decor.  My oldest saw me escaping and ran over to be with me.  We walked the isles and enjoyed the PEACEFULNESS.  Then I saw my husband with other two children walking aimlessly around trying to keep them with him and looking all over for me.  I'm sure he was thinking something like, 'Why would she just take off, does she have any clue what kind of a struggle it is to keep these kids together and behaving!?!' :)  Option two was working out SO much better than even anticipated.  I slowly strolled toward my husband and saw him, very frustratingly, getting out his cell phone to call me, we made eye contact, and we, being seriously like one spirit, HE TOTALLY KNEW.  He smiled at me and didn't say a word.  I didn't even stand by them while he checked out, during which time my sweet little angels were opening and closing the gate they had to close the aisles off with and picking up every item they could and asking Daddy to buy it for them.  Oh what a great FAMILY activity that was.  Next time maybe we could take a trip to the DMV or something fun like that.  

Now, I know some of you will feel the need to judge me.  All I can say is come on by and pick up my kids, all four, and take them on a short shopping trip with you.  I guarantee you will totally understand and probably be very tempted to choose option one while with them.

   I also want to state that I love my children VERY much!  I'd just rather have shards of glass in my eyes than have to go shopping with all four of them.  Don't worry, I'm going to snuggle them and tell them how much I love all of them right now.

 

My Grandpa Steele

  Today is my Grandpa Steele's birthday.  He passed away ten years ago and I miss him terribly.  I have so many memories of my Grandpa.  He was so wonderful!  My cousin Danielle and I would stay with my Grandparents for several weeks out of the summer when we were younger.  When we would first arrive he would always drive us to the grocery store and let each of us pick out our own SUGAR cereal.  (Something we never got at home)  Then he would tell us not to tell Grandma, (HEE HEE :)  We would go back to his house and hide our cereal in a special spot he made for us in the cupboard. (I'm sure my Grandma knew we did this, but we sure thought we were sneaky!)  I loved these HEALTHY  Shaklee chocolate shakes he would make.  All I had to do is mention how much I loved them and within minutes I would hear the blender going.  YIPPEE!  My Grandpa was also famous for his fresh squeezed orange juice.  He'd go out back, pick the oranges, come in and squeeze them for us.  Oh how I love my Grandpa!  

  We loved to swim, so every morning he would drive us over to Uncle Jack and Aunt Ada's house to swim.  He would drive us home for lunch, then we would beg to go back, so OF COARSE, he would drive us back to the pool where we would swim until dinner.  Our toes would get SO raw from the pool floor.  Grandpa would pick aloe vera, cut it open and rub it on our toes to make them feel better.  I always knew my Grandpa loved me.

  Pretty much anything I wanted my Grandpa made sure I had.  Once, my cousin and I were watching t.v. and a commercial came on for some HEAVENLY CREATION made by Dairy Queen.  We said to each other how yummy that looked and never thought anything else about it.  Little did we know, Grandpa had quietly snuck out the door. Maybe ten minutes later he came walking in the door with one for each of us!  He never said a word, just smiled at us as we laughed and squealed with excitement.  

  He loved to TICKLE!  Oh man, I HATED being tickled by Grandpa!  He would tickle you until you literally thought you would die from lack of oxygen!  He brought the phrase tickle torture to a whole new level!

  HE WOULD SQUISH BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS BETWEEN HIS FINGERS!!!  UGHH!!!  He loved that we would scream in disgust when he did that! 

  I love that he loved my Grandma so much.  My Grandma's FAVORITE color was pink.  He made sure she had the PINK house of her dreams!

  He was so strong and he always had gingersnap cookies hiding somewhere in the house that he loved to SECRETLY share with you.

  When I think of my Grandpa I always smile.  I always knew my Grandpa loved me.

  My most favorite memory of my Grandpa............definately sitting on his lap with my head on his shoulder.  He had the best shoulders to rest your head on.  

  I love you Grandpa and I miss you terribly!  I tell my kids stories about you all the time.  I can't wait for them to meet you some day.  I SO look forward to the day when I will be greeted by you on the other side.  It will be so nice to rest my head on those big strong shoulders of yours again.  

  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDPA!!! 

Thanks Erin!!!

Whew!  I feel like a woman!!!  Dada dadada dada! (That was me singing the Shania Twain song)  That's right, I've got some wicked vocal skills!  I'm just celebrating that awesome feeling you get after just getting your hair done at the salon!  You know, when your stylist does your hair the way you can never get it to go!  You look in the mirror to see the beautiful sight of your roots matching the rest of your hair!  At least..........that's what I've heard people that dye their hair think.  Luckily, I was blessed with this natural, rich, chocolate brown color!  Lucky me!  Oh, and all the snaggley split ends get cut off leaving your hair looking silky, smooth!  But, my most favorite part of a day at the salon is.................................YOU KNOW IT, the head/neck massage you get when getting your hair washed!!!  LOVE IT!!!  So, I would like to give a shout out to my SUPER talented hair sylist slash baby sister, ERIN!  Thanks for the rejuvination!  Now, if I only had somewhere to go, to show off this doo................... 

Puffy Paint Art Project

OK, I found this super easy art project on the 'flipflops and applesauce' blog!  Check out her blog for lots of family fun ideas! 

Mix 1 tablespoon of self rising flour

1 tablespoon of salt

add water until mixture is a paste

Separate mixture and add food coloring 

use q-tips to apply the paint (or, if you'd like to use Colton's technique, use your fingers)

make sure you use thick cardstock or cardboard

when they are done with their pic put it in the microwave for 30 seconds to a minute 

When it's in the microwave it puffs up!!!  The kids loved it!  It was so easy and this project seriously entertained my kids for an hour and a half!  I had to make them stop!  I give this project two SUPER BIG thumbs up!!!  Happy painting!

Determined

I woke up this morning determined to be happy ALL day long.  I had nothing on my calendar during the day so I decided to do something I very rarely do...................NOTHING!  That's right.  While my kids were at school, I blogged, laid on the recliner with my Little Bean and read my scriptures, watched a show I DVRed and have been wanting to watch, and completely ignored the tornado that seems to have blown through my house.  I had dishes in the sink, clean clothes on the chair waiting to be folded, I even saw grass on my rug..........but did I lean down and pick it up.................NOPE!  It will still be there tomorrow!  It was wonderful!  Then I decided I wanted some quality time with my boys.  So after I picked up the kids from school, I dropped Ava Bean off at Nana's house (Thanks sooooo much Mommy!), dropped Bubby off at the studio for her dance classes, and I took the boys on a hike.  We had so much fun.  We talked about different things going on in their lives.  I told them a story about going hiking with my dad when I was a teenager and twisting my ankle.  My dad carried me on his back all the way down the mountain.  When we got to the bottom he took off his shoe and took out a rock that had been in it all the way down.  I told the boys how I still have that rock to remind me how much my dad loves me.  They loved it.  I told them how much their daddy and I love them and that we would do anything for them.  It was such a great opportunity to connect with them.  We laughed together, sweat together and really bonded.  

Then after homework and dinner, we whipped out the 'Friend' magazine and read a couple of stories for FHE.  We had great discussions about service and Heavenly Father hearing our prayers.  I COULD ACTUALLY FEEL THE SPIRIT DURING FHE!  It's always awesome to feel the spirit, but, if you have kids, you know why that is so SUPER awesome :)  I even made this scrumptious dessert!!!  Homemade cookies (and of coarse when I say homemade, I mean I bought the cookie dough in a tub at Costco, and I scooped it out onto the cookie sheet) and mint chocolate chip ice cream.  ICE CREAM COOKIE SANDWICHES!  (I totally made up that name for my unique dessert) (and Julia, I don't want any of your smarty pants comments, about how you're so sure no one else has ever invented an Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich before!!!)  I'm pretty much on creativity overload right now!  

Oh, and when Aaron calls me tonight and asks me how my day went, I'm not going to complain and tell him how hard it was without him.  I'm going to tell him it was SUPER!  I'm going to tell him how much I love him and how much I appreciate how hard he works to take care of our family. 

 I was determined to be happy all day today..........................it was a GREAT day.

My Colton

I can't believe my Colton is 9 years old.  I remember the day the Dr. handed me this perfect little baby boy.  You had strawberry blonde hair.  Your Pa loved that, he had red hair as a young man, so he decided you belonged to him when he saw you had red in your hair.  You had pale skin and great big eyes.  My heart melted.  You were the happiest little baby, always smiling and making everyone around you smile.  You still do that.  

Your big brother Logan could hardly wait for his little brother to get here.  Once you were born he could hardly wait for you to be old enough to play with and wrestle with.  It didn't take you long.  You started to walk when you were 9 months old and you haven't stopped since.  Even as a toddler your favorite things were riding horses and quads, roping, sword fights, sports, running, getting dirty, eating and laughing.  Not much has changed!  :)  You and your brother have always had a special relationship.  I can just see you in the pre-existence pacing back and forth asking when it was your turn to come down so you could be with your brother again.  I love watching you two play together and listening to your cute conversations you have a night when you're supposed to be asleep.  :)

You were the best snuggler in the whole world.  I loved hugging and kissing you when you were little.  I still do, I just have to be more sneaky about it.  Your dad would sneak into your room when you were asleep at night and get you out of your crib and just snuggle you.  Eventually you'd wake up and then he'd hand you to me to put back to sleep.  I would constantly get after Dad for doing that, but deep down, I thought it was so sweet.  (don't tell Dad)  

  

You've always had such a special gift of making people feel good.  I've had so many occasions when people have told me sweet little stories of how you touched their life or one of their children's lives.  You are always sticking up for the little guy.  If someone is ever hurt or crying, you are always the first to give and hug and help them to feel better.  Anytime your sister, Gracie, is upset, she is usually crying for Coco to come to her rescue.  I'm pretty sure it's because you make some inappropriate joke about poop or farts that makes her laugh.  Either way, you're a great friend and brother to those around you. 

You've always loved horses.  As long as I can remember you've been on a horse.  You would cry if Daddy or Papa got on a horse without you when you were little.  There have been a couple times when I've gone looking for you and found you in a horse stall just laying on a horses back.

You have the best sense of humor.  You can always make me laugh.  Usually when we're in a hurry and I need you to get ready for something is when you decide to tease and make jokes.  You definately got that trait from your Papa  :)

You love the beach.  You can body surf, skurf, body board and build a pretty impressive sand castle.  I love watching you enjoy life the way you do.

Oh, and we can't forget hunting with Dad.  Nothing like watching your face when Daddy comes home and tells you boys to get your guns to go shoot some birds.  Anything in your way is knocked over as we watch your body move at lighting speed to get you hunting gear together.  Oh how Dad loves spending time with his boys. 
 
We love you so much, Colton!  I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for entrusting me to be your mother.  You bring so many blessings to our family and we would not be complete without you.  I pray for you everyday and I know Heavenly Father loves you and is very proud of the righteous young man you are.    Thank you for being my son.  I love you to infinity and beyond!  Happy 9th birthday, Baby!!!

Colton's 9th Birthday!!!

Happy Happy Birthday, Colton, Dear!!!  Yesterday was Colton's 9th birthday!  Gracie was so excited to serve big brother breakfast in bed.  That's right..........toast and a chocolate chip cookie, breakfast doesn't get much better than that!  Good morning sunshine!

After church we headed over to Nana & Papa's house for birthday dinner.  Of course the boys had to have a FRIENDLY game of pool before dinner.  Mommy challenged Colton to a pool game earlier and totally kicked his butt!  He decided to take on some easier targets for his next game.  (I actually spent most of the game getting a ball in and then scratching and taking a ball back out!  Colton enjoyed making fun of me :)  RACK 'EM UP!!!  Oh, and on a side note, thanks so much Josh for teaching Colton his new pool lingo!!!  I can't tell you how many times a day I here the phrase, "Nice shootin' stupid" in Colton's heaviest southern drawl he can muster up!!!  

Time for birthday cake!  I totally forgot to get candles, so we found one black candle, sang 'Happy Birthday', and he blew it out.  Then pushed the cake over to Steve, (his birthday was last Sunday, so we were having a double birthday celebration!) relit our only candle, resang 'Happy Birthday', and Steve blew out the same candle.  Oh well, it worked.  MAKE A WISH!!!

Aunt Erin and Uncle Steve gave Colton this awesome bow and arrow set!  Colton was super excited and couldn't wait to try it out!

Logan on the other hand, didn't quite share Colton's enthusiasm for the new archery set!!!

NICE SHOT!!!  :)

So Cute!

These are some cute pic's of Ava taken by the super talented Julia!  She watched Ava for me while I went visiting teaching and took these while Ava was there.  (If you ever need a friend to watch your kids, ask one that's a photographer, it's a great way to get cute pic's of your kids :)  

The picture below is of Emma, Julia's daughter, and Ava.  Emma loves Ava so much!  She makes up songs and incorporates Ava's name into all of them.  She calls Ava, "my Ava."  She is Ava's PROTECTOR at aerobics, which means none of the other kids are allowed to look at her Ava :)  She even has her own pic of Ava that she carries around.  I think Emma was sent here to be Ava's guardian angel. SO CUTE!!!

Secret Love Affair

I have watched this secret love affair progress over the last year.  I've been a little leery of it, especially with them being different species and the same gender!  I love them both though, and I want to support their lifestyle choice.  They've made it pretty clear that they are going to continue their secret affair with or without my support.  I've decided that in order to keep the peace and keep them in my life, I'm going to except them just the way they are!  To prove this I've decided to blog  to the world their relationship!  That's right, I'm the proud owner of a dog and a turtle who are in LOVE and I'm proud of it!!!  Every morning you can find them out back snuggling like this.  They take their naps together, they share Koda's dog food together, drink out of the same water bowl, I've even seen them have little lovers quarrels.  The best part is, if you tap on the window, or go outside while they are snuggling, Koda jumps up so fast and looks at you like, DID YOU JUST SEE THAT!?!  I'd just like to end with a little song that we like to sing to them:

Koda and Crush sitting in a tree,

K-i-s-s-i-n-g

First comes love

Then comes marriage

Then comes a mutated little half breed dog/turtle thing!

 LOVE YOU CRUSH AND KODA!!!

Morning Ava Fix

This is what we do in the mornings.  When Ava wakes up, Daddy waits, patiently, for her to eat her breakfast, then he quickly steals her from Mommy to play with her.  Ava loves her Daddy so much and I love watching them together.  Ava is always so happy in the mornings.  We love Ava's morning smiles!!!  

Then all the kids get ready as fast as they can so that they can have time to snuggle Ava before they have to leave for school.  This is a great incentive to get them going in the mornings.  Logan got ready the fastest this morning so he gets Ava first. 

Then Gracie's turn.  Ava loves her big sis!!!

This is what's happening during scripture study and family prayer.  Pretty sure I'm talking to myself  :)

Colton has to get his squeezes in just before it's time to leave.  He asked if he could take Ava to school with him..... and he was dead serious.  I explained to him that the school has rules about bringing babies to class :) Hee Hee, he's so cute!  

Everyone leaves for school and FINALLY, it's my turn!  We love our Little Bean!  

I Will Not Forget

Today is a significant day in our history. Many innocent lives were lost on 9/11, 7 years ago. I remember exactly where I was when I watched the towers come down on tv that day. I held my baby in my arms and cried. It was the most sereal moment of my life. I thought surely this can't be happening, this can't be real. I will never forget the men and women that died that day. I will never forget the firefighters who gave their lives trying to save others. I will never forget. I will remember how our country came together as one nation. We prayed together, comforted one another, and rallied together to fight for the cause of freedom. I'm so proud to live in this great country. I'm so thankful to all the men and women fighting for my freedom. I pray for your safety. I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father for blessing us with this great nation. It truly is 'one nation under God'. May we never forget that. To see pic's of 9/11 click on the link below. I WILL NOT FORGET.
http://256.com/cgi-bin/pix?/gray/thoughts/2001/20010912/pictures/attack/003_m.jpg&nc&nb

Hangin' With My Homies

Yo Yo, callin' all my home girls! Oh ya, that's right, we're totally flashin' the morman sign! Word to your MUTHA! (that's gangsta for mother, in case you don't speak gansta)

Ava's Blessing

Ava Lynn was blessed yesterday by her Daddy. It was a beautiful blessing. We were so blessed to have all of our family and friends there with us to help celebrate the special day! We are so truly grateful for the constant love and support that we have in our lives. Thanks to everyone who came and helped make the day special!