Eric's Birthday

So a happy belated birthday to Eric. The reasons for the delay will be on the next post. :) Eric had his 5th Birthday! I can't believe how fast time flies! He had some neighbor kids, cousins and my Dad and Grandpa Powell over for his birthday party. We started at our house with some cake and ice cream, then headed over to Jump on It for the rest of his party. The kids had tons of fun! Luckily, it was right before bed time so after jumping around for an hour, they were definitely ready for bed! Eric won the lottery with some water guns, he is ready for summer!

So, I haven't posted these pics of Eric playing coach pitch yet. He absolutley loved playing this year. His last game was this past Saturday, and already he is asking when we will sign him up again! But this time he wants to play of the "dirt field" like the grown-ups.

And last but not least, Zac wanted me to post a picture of the retaining wall that he is currently working on. He still needs to build two more rows of cinder block before it's done (which hopefully will be tomorrow.) After the cinder block is finished, he is going to put matching stone on top of the cinder block to coordinate with our house.

I know, I know...

I haven't blogged in a long time. Sorry. I have been so incredibly busy that the thought of blogging hasn't even come to my mind. But after five different people called asking if I was okay...I probably should start blogging. I don't even know where to begin...

Eric started coach pitch (a month ago) and LOVES it! He does really well hitting the ball and running around the bases. Zac has taken pictures, but I don't have the camera with me to load them. Next time. :) He only has 2 more games left in his "season".

Zac's sister Barb moved in with us about a month ago. Zac hasn't quite finished the basement yet. We passed our second inspection, and he has been hanging drywall most nights trying to get it done. In the meantime, we had to put Eric in Aubrey's room, and Barb is sleeping in Eric's room. The kids are FINALLY starting to go to sleep alright. Bedtime usually took me about 5 minutes, but since they are in the same room, it has been 1-2 HOURS. On the weekends, Zac and I try to work outside as much as possible to try to get our backyard in. Zac is currently working on another retaining wall out back. He is actually pouring the cement today. We have transplanted a big tree in our yard, and my garden is looking wonderful! I even have the yellow flowers on my tomato plants. I'm pretty excited about that. My neighbors all had their "view" of how well my garden would do this year, so I'm glad that my tomato plants have almost grown out of their wall o' waters, while theirs are only 2-3 inches high.

I went to South Carolina for a week for a seminar. This was the first time I was gone that I didn't have to find babysitters for the kids every night while Zac was in school. (on a side note, Zac got straight A's this semester.) While I was in SC, I ended up going kayaking again. It was wonderful! We were out on the river for about 4 hours, and at the end it was getting dusk, and the fireflies came out and were flying around us while we were kayaking. I had never seen them before. Everytime I am in South Carolina, I want to try their BBQ. So we took off to the "Best BBQ in South Carolina". I ordered my plate, and the food came and the BBQ sauce was yellow. Hmmm...I knew there was a mustard base BBQ sauce, but I thought it was just colored yellow, and still tasted like BBQ. No. It was the nastiest thing I have ever tasted. (i am not a fan of mustard) It was like they just poured French's Mustard all over my pulled pork. GROSS. I will not try South Carolina BBQ again. When I came home from SC, Barb told me that she never realized how much I do with the kids. I guess one of the nights the kids rooms stunk so bad because Zac hadn't given either of them a bath. In the morning, he just took some baby wipes and wiped down both of the kids and sent them to school/daycare. Are you kidding?

So Barb went to her friends ranch this past weekend. His family has a "buffalo farm" where people pay them money to hunt their buffalo and elk. Barb came back with a cooler full of buffalo meat. Hmmm. Zac was really excited about it. I decided I should try it. We made buffalo burgers last night, they actually were pretty good. (Although I made Zac chopped up an onion and put tons of seasoning salt on it before he made the pattys.) We have 14 more pounds of ground buffalo left, some steaks, and roasts. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for eating the entire burger, it just grossed me out to think about what I was eating. Mind over matter.

I am still trying to run 4 miles every day at lunch. It is getting difficult. I am starting to getting a little big...it is now more walking than running. My problem is I get charlie horses in my calves at night, so when I go out at lunch, the first half is uphill, and my calves are already rock hard and aching from the charlie horses the night before. I have definitely popped out now. 2 maybe 3 weeks ago, people still didn't really know I was pregnant. Now, the whole world can tell. :) I almost have to retire the "rubber band trick" on my jeans and just suck it up and start wearing maternity jeans. This little girl is completely in my ribs all the time. I honestly think my ribs are bruised. It really hurts when she kicks. So that is a big recap of the last month. :)

Las Vegas Week

I spent all of last week in Las Vegas for work. I didn't really do much while I was there besides go to work and out to dinner with some co-workers. I'm not much of a Vegas fan. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. Wednesday night, my co-worker drove some of us out to Lake Mead and we ran 6 miles. It was a wonderful run! We were able to run through the old railroad tunnels that ran along Lake Mead. We went up to the Hoover Dam after and did a little tour, etc. It was great running in tunnels...who knew? The kids had Dad or Barb babysit them during the night while Zac was in school. When I came home Friday, I had put my luggage in my bedroom and headed back downstairs to go through some things. Aubrey was very quiet upstairs for about 20 minutes. Then she came to the top of the stairs with some of my makeup and Aubrey was asking me if she could open it. I came unglued. I thought that she had been playing in my expensive makeup, and she knew better. So I ran upstairs and she starts bawling. I went into my room and she had COMPLETELY unpacked me! She put everything away in the right spot. AMAZING. Between sobs she said, "Mommy, I really missed you, and I don't want you to go again, so I unpacked you!" I felt SO bad for jumping to conclusions about the makeup, etc. What a doll.

Sunday we went up to Zac's Aunt's house for conference. They had a lot of little dogs running around, and Aubrey got nipped on the hand by one of them. They had a great time playing. Monday night, my Grandpa Powell at his assisted living community were holding a "celebration" of sorts in honor of him. He really wanted all the grand kids and great grands kids to be there. we showed up and saw Dad, and he took Aubrey around with him. Little did we know, but we all had a part in the program. Dad had to give a biography of sorts of Grandpa, my Uncle ended up playing the harmonica, a cousin did a dance, and all the great grandkids sang 4 songs, led by myself. I had a hilarious 90 something year old sitting next to me who was feeding me one-liners throughout the entire program. At the end, the director was telling everyone how many comments she receives about how nice Grandpa is. The lady next to me (and not quietly) says to me, "Your Grandpa is really pleasant. The rest of the men in here are mean." Aubrey has lately become REALLY attached to my Dad lately. Everytime we leave she goes nuts! Last night, she again started bawling that we were leaving my Dad, and as we were driving, in between sobs she is YELLING "I want Grandpa, I love him SO MUCH." over and over and over.

Speaking of Dad, he came up to my house on Saturday and we planted my peas, carrots, beets, and tomatoes. (I already planted some onions). Hopefully the tomatoes won't freeze...I have some extras in the house just in case.

Pink or blue?

We had our ultrasound today and we are having another.......GIRL. I guess it's the season for girls! :) I am still being induced on August 8th, everything is looking great, and the baby is completely healthy. Aubrey was really excited, Eric is really disappointed. I knew only one of them would be happy. He will get used to the idea.

Just before they announced what gender the baby was, Eric was sitting quietly in his chair, watching the t.v. with the ultrasound, Aubrey was running around screaming wanting to go home. They said it was a girl, and Zac and I just looked at Eric and Aubrey and said, GREAT. Granted, when Eric was three, I'm sure he would have been running around screaming too. We are excited to finally know. My neighbor told me that she had a couple dreams that I was having a boy, and Zac felt like I was having a boy this entire time, so we were a little surprised.

I took Aubrey to Great Clips and had them cut off 4 inches off her hair. She has never had a haircut, and the ends were looking straggly. They cut some layers into her hair and it turned out great! It is still goes to the middle of her back. I would post pictures, but work has banned that, so I will have to wait until the weekend at Dad's house. ;)

Aubrey turns three!

For about six months now, all Aubrey has talked about is how she is going to get a Cinderella cake for her birthday. Luckily, Bobby's Mom is very talented, and created this wonderful Cinderella cake for Aubrey. She was absolutley thrilled! She took princess cupcakes to daycare/school in the morning, and when I went to pick her up, her teacher said, "Aubrey has been really excited it's her birthday today, and I REALLY hope you have a Cinderella cake, because that is all she has talked about." We just had her best friend Katelyn come over for some cake and ice cream...nothing fancy. Maybe next year I will actually do a party for her, they are just a lot of work.

I have been really excited to have my garden this year. Dad has been helping me get the right seeds and roto-tiller for the garden, and we went shopping around for some good top-soil. We found a great garden blend soil for an amazing price, so I went ahead and ordered 15 cubic yards of it. Zac, being the frugal guy that he is, found out the delivery price to Eagle Mountain, and decided he wanted to pick it up himself. The problem with this is that our truck only will hold 1 1/2 cubic yards per load, and Zac is going to have to shovel it out by himself. He took off the entire day to do this, I called him in the morning asking him what load he was on, and he said, "Um...they are going to deliver at 2:00" Thank goodness! They delivered the load right where I wanted the garden, and Zac was able to smooth it out for me before I got home. Dad came over and we rototilled in 10 bags of compost and some fertilizer. I am just waiting a week or two to let the soil settle a little before I plant. The garden ended up being ~20 ft x 15 ft. This picture does not do it justice for how big it looks. Dad came back and measured his garden, and mine is bigger...I hope it won't be too big. :) Dad has started my tomatoes and onions in his greenhouse shed, so hopefully my crop will be great this year. I'm not sure what kind of border I want around it yet, but I have some very "helpful" neighbors who let me know their opinion of what would look best.

The building permit finally came in for our basement yesterday, so Zac is busy again in the basement. He has finished the framing and electrical, and today he is working on the plumbing for the bathroom. We have to have the 4-way inspection, then we can put the installation in, have another inspection, and finally get the drywall up. Zac has already installed the pocket door from the bedroom to the bathroom and it looks great! He was able to get a great deal for a steel door for our cold storage. And good ole Zac, he "found" a roll of carpet pad on the freeway. So what does he do? He pulls over and shoves it in my car. It is enough for the bedroom. Does this really surprise anyone? I swear, just when I think Zac couldn't get any more frugal, he finds things on the side of the freeway. The only thing we've had to buy for this basement so far is the doors and the plumbing. He had all the wood, electrical, and can lights for the basement already from his "finds". He found a great deal on dry wall also. They are normally $7-8 a sheet, and he has been going around Lowes and Home Depot for weeks now, and they sell the sheets that have a corner damaged, etc for $2 a sheet, so he had picked up enough now for our entire basement. Our neighbors tease him saying that we could build something today, but if we wait a week or two, Zac will figure out a way to get it for free.

New Endeavor

So along with my new federal job, I got a call from EOUSA (Headquarters in Washington D.C.) asking me if I would join a working group. They told me that they consider me an expert in the field of asset forfeiture, and would like me to train around the nation. I would also being writing manuals and attending meetings twice a year with the other 5 members of this group. After getting more info from them, I decided that I couldn't pass up this opportunity. It is great experience and huge networking for my career and Zac's future career. I will be going to D.C. a lot to train and get to be in some important meetings. I hated to ask this, but I needed to know what the bare minimum I was required to do, since I am having a baby in August. The bare minimum is attending two meetings and train at least once in the year. So they are letting me do the bare minimum for this year (and hopefully next) before I really get into this. It is a HUGE compliment to me to only be doing asset forfeiture for three years, and have them consider me an expert. I talked to my office about it, and they were thrilled, especially my asset forfeiture attorney. Hopefully it will work out for the best. :)

So Aubrey had a little bladder infection a couple weeks ago, so I got her on some antibiotics. She broke out into a terrible rash, fever, etc. It was on a Saturday, so I took her down to an Instacare by our house, and 5 hours later discovered that she is allergic to her antibiotic. She is better now, but she sure did not feel good.

We signed Eric up for T-Ball starting in April. He is really excited, he tells pretty much everyone he sees that he is playing T-Ball in the Spring. I am definitely ready for Spring. I went with Dad to the garden nursery and bought all my seeds for my garden and a roto-tiller. I will have some top soil delivered to my house as soon as this darn snow melts and my ground is dry. Every day when I get home I get a little excited to see that the snow has melted some more. I started grow some herbs indoors, and the kids wanted in on the fun, so I let them start some watermelon and sunflowers indoors.

Zac is getting closer on the basement. We went to Lowes to grab the rest of the wood and a pocket door kit, and they had 80 lb bags of cement on sale. We need 100 bags for our retaining wall. So we inquired a little more, and come to find out, the bags that were outside were only 50 cents!!!! They were originally ten dollar bags. What a steal! Zac was able to load up the truck, but we had to do a couple loads to get the cement. The bags did have little rips on the top, etc., but we were able to stack thems to that nothing leaked out.

Eric's Ski Race

On Tuesday Eric had his big ski race. Zac and I drove up to Park City Mtn Resort and watched him and the other kids at his daycare ski. He did amazing! I could not believe how fast and good he was! He went around all the flags going down, and even got a medal at the end. He was cracking us up, because he was wanting to go faster so he would bend all the way over to get more speed. It was great to spend the day up with him and Zac in the mountains. It was beautiful with the temperature in the 50s.

STRANDED

This was the worst commute I have ever experienced in my life. I couldn't even make it home. They closed EVERY road going into Eagle Mountain!! Nobody could go in or out of the city. Zac went home at 3:00 yesterday, and said it was horrendous, then he attempted to go to school an hour later, and couldn't! There were tons of accidents, and they completely shut everything down. My work let us out early also, however, I decided to stay to try to wait out the storm. I stayed till 5:00, but the news was saying there was another 2 good hours of this. It took me 3 hours to get to the point of the mountain, by which point they still hadn't opened up the roads to Eagle Mountain, so I called Dad and told him we were heading his way. He finally made it down to Dad's around 9 ish and the kids were SO READY to get out of that car. I had Eric complaining for the past hour about him needing to go potty, but there was absolutley no where to stop! So we spent the night at Dad's (thank goodness I HAD a place to go!), and we heard that they finally opened up the road at 1 am but only for a moment. I woke up at 4:30 this morning, and the news said that it was STILL closed! So I couldn't even run home this morning to change. It's going to be a great day! :)

Baby No. 3

It's true. You may have heard the rumors. We are having Baby No. 3 on August 8th. How do I know? The doctor has already scheduled me for induction on that date (unless it comes earlier, which I am not counting on, my babies are always LATE!) Back when I didn't know I was pregnant, Aubrey jumped on me while I was laying down and Eric screamed, "Aubrey! You're going to squish the baby!" I told him, "Eric, Mommy doesn't have a baby in her belly." He would comment to me several times after that, "Mommy, your baby grew a lot last night!" etc. I was starting to get a little upset. I didn't want him going around telling people that I'm pregnant when I'm not. But, sure enough, I finally took a test after being almost 2 weeks late, and it immediately came back that I'm pregnant. I just gasped and Eric said, "what mommy?" I said, "You're right Eric, I DO have a baby in my belly." Then he said, "No mommy, you have TWO babies in your belly." So I have been just a little concerned that I might have 2. It would be shocking considering that twins don't run in either of our families, I wasn't on fertility drugs, etc. But reading into it, there is about a 1 in 85 chance that you have twins without having those other factors. I finally heard the heartbeat, and THANK GOODNESS there is only ONE baby. :) Unfortunately the doctor's office only takes one ultrasound, so I don't get any early pics of the baby. I will have my ultrasound in March to find out the gender, etc.

I have been SO SICK. I think I forgot how sick I get. I throw up at least 2 times a day on a good day, on average about 8-9 times a day. Dad was able to find some of Mom's zofran, and I take that during work hours, but I try not to take anything at night or on the weekends. If you are one of the lucky ones that don't even feel quesy during pregnancy, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!!!!! I am trying my darnest to NOT throw up all over you while you are gloating about how amazing your pregnancies are.

Zac dropped a headstone on his hand on Friday and broke 2 of his fingers really bad. It completely smashed his ring finger, it looks nasty, so I will not post pictures for the squeamish. It is his right hand also, so he is learning how to do things differently. The doctor told him it would take about 5-6 months to heal. That seems like a LONG time for some fingers! He is doing alright, he even took a contract law test later that night and scored a 100% while taking percocet. That's about it for us this week!

I am federal!

So a handful of people know that behind the scenes story about me becoming a federal employee. Back in August, FBI pulled me out of court and told me that they wanted me to be their head paralegal for the chief counsel at FBI. A week earlier, ATF came and wanted me to join their team as well. I wasn't looking for a new job, but they were saying that they better get me before somebody else does. I am currently a CONTRACT paralegal, which means that I work at the USAO, but I do not get the same benefits, pay, etc. So my ultimate goal was to eventually become federal. So I went ahead with the application process with FBI and they gave me the job. I told my current work about it, and they "freaked" out. They immediately posted a federal paralegal spot the next Monday, and I applied. I told FBI that I couldn't accept the position quite yet, etc. This was all in November. I wanted to stay where I was, I hate change. So FBI kept on coming up with better offers, higher recruiting bonuses, a higher step, etc. I went and talked to my boss here at work, and asked him what they can guarantee me. I needed to know if I turned down the FBI if I pretty much had this position. They said they can only 98% guarantee me the position. So I official turned down FBI right after Christmas. I felt bad that I kept them stringing along for so long. I knew their background checks were extreme and long, so I wanted them to start on their other person.

In the meantime, I don't know if my work was mad at me for thinking about leaving or what, but they made me jump through HOOPS to get this position. I was used to FBI jumping through the hoops to get me on board, not the other way around. Up until yesterday, I really thought I shot myself in the foot, I was really depressed and frustrated, Zac was ready to sell our house and go to law school out of state, etc. They finally called me in and told me that I have the position. WHEW! Come to find out, the other candidate that was giving me a run for my money, ended up accepting the position at FBI that I turned down. What a small world. I am just grateful that I got it. Zac is quitting his job in a couple months, and we really need good benefits, so we will finally have it. :)

Idaho Weekend

I know it has been several weeks since my last posting. I completely got out of the habit of taking pictures too. I left the camera at home this weekend while we headed up to the cabin. We didn't get up to the cabin until 11:30 pm on Friday night. Luckily Nathan had rigged up the snowmobile with the sled so we could bring everything up quickly. The kids had a wonderful time playing in the snow and sledding. Since we didn't have much gas for the snowmobile, we made the kids walk up everytime they went sledding. They still did it. It snowed nonstop while we were up there. Zac, Nathan, and Devin were constantly shoveling. :) There was a pile about 8-12 feet high of snow, so they decided to make a snow fort out of it, complete with a window where Devin could have someone pass him mountain dew.

This past week I lost the diamond out of my wedding ring. It just slipped out. I noticed that it was gone while I was at work, and absolutley could not find it. We called the jewelers, and luckily they told me that they would replace it for free since it was guaranteed to never fall out. It only took them a couple days, but they got it in and it looks better than ever! Eric started skiing a couple weeks ago with the daycare/preschool. He goes up to Park City Mountain Resort every Tuesday and Thursday. He absolutely loves it! It counts how many times he falls, then gives me report when I pick him up after work. Aubrey can't go until she's three, so she will start next year. I feel like there has been so much that has gone on, but I just cannot remember any of it right now. I guess this is why I should post every week. :)

A brand new year

What a busy Christmas! We started it off by having Zac's Dad, brother, sister and her boyfriend stay with us to celebrate Christmas. Zac's brother Matt is being deployed to Qatar in a couple weeks. The kids were OUT OF CONTROL the entire time Zac's family was here! I think they could feel the excitement of Christmas in the air. They definitely got spoiled this year for Christmas. I think they got every toy they ever wanted (except for a flute and a toy bunny which they surprised us with that on Christmas Eve while sitting on Santa's lap). I think I over did it while everyone was out, because as soon as I got back to work, I immediately started to have the fever chills, etc. I was sick with a cold before they came out and it never went away. So I have laid around the house this entire holiday weekend. It was actually really nice to not HAVE to move. :) Zac kept the kids away from me for most of the time.

I just want to extend a special thank you to Zac's family. They all have finally made him see the light of how much of a PACK RAT Zac is! All weekend he was cleaning out the basement, and we have a good truckload to take to D.I. and several to the garbage. Then Barb called and let us know that she was hoping to move to our house in April. So now, Zac is REALLY pushing on getting this basement finished! HURRAY! I have told him so many times about his horrible pack rat habit, but until he heard it from his family, it didn't sink in.

Work has been pretty laid back. I was suppose to be doing a big trial this week, but I just found out that the defendant decided to plead! YES! Zac is wrapping up the loose strings on his law school applications. GET THOSE IN!!!!

On a side note...I am SO GLAD we didn't go to the cabin this year. Sorry for those who did. I heard that the sledding was great though. ;) Also - I saved pics from Barb's blog from Christmas, but for some reason the only one the will show up is Aubrey's picture....

Christmas a little early

We celebrated Christmas at Dad's house yesterday and opened the cousin presents and presents from Dad. Eric was SO EXCITED. He has been asking for magnetix every time we've seen Santa this year. Guess what he got. Aubrey got a Dora bed set, and she made us break it out as soon as we got home to sleep on it. Eric played nonstop last night with his magnets. Devin got us a movie and came over to watch it last night. Eric stayed in the kitchen during the entire movie playing with those magnets, and loading and unloading them into it's carrying case.

Thursday night was an awful commute home. 3 1/2 hours!!!! I'm guessing there was a bad accident or something on Redwood Road by Camp Williams, but by the time we finally started moving, there wasn't even a cone anywhere. We had been stopped for hours. I would have turned around, but I kept on thinking that it takes a 1/2 hour extra to go the other way, and we will start moving in about 10 minutes. Then after 3 hours I decided I've already invested way to much time in this, and there is no way I'm turning around now. It was so bad that a lot of people were out of their cars walking around in the freezing weather.

I am almost finished with Christmas shopping, just the Idaho cousins left, which I have to get before Saturday since that's when Dad is going up to see Justin & Lisa. It will be a great feeling to be finished! We are sending out our neighbor presents tonight. Zac is making treats hopefully as we speak. :)

Temple Square

After work last night Zac and I took the kids up to Temple Square to look at the lights. As most of you know, Eric is obsessed with trains. So we parked at my work and took Trax for 1 1/2 blocks so that Eric could ride on the "train". He was SO excited. He had a smile plastered on his face the entire ride. The lights were absolutley beautiful. Aubrey thought the temple was Cinderella's castle. We went into the vistor's center and saw the Christus. I have to say I absolutely LOVE the innocence of little children. As pretty much everybody who reads this blog knows, that there are murals of Jesus' life on the walls as you walk up to see the Christus. Eric was just looking at it and stopped at the one where Jesus is being crucified. He just stared. Then we made our way up to the Christus and he was really confused as to why Jesus had holes in his hands and feet. I explained it to him, and he took off running back down to the mural of the crucifixition. He looked at me and said, "Why were they so mean to Jesus? I love him SO much!" He just stared again at the picture while I was talking to him. This morning during prayers he thanked Heavenly Father for Jesus to not feel the pain of the nails anymore.

After Temple Square, we let the kids ride TRAX again back to my work, and then headed up to the Pie Pizzeria. They were extremely good the entire night, even with it being SO COLD.

$50 please!

To be honest, I don't recall how we got from point A to B so quickly. After Sunday dinner, all of us were sitting around talking. Nathan's mustache got brought into the conversation, about how he curls it smaller during work hours to make it more professional and such. Here's the part I don't recall, if we talked about if he was ever going to shave it, or if Devin volunteered to cut his for $50 dollars. I asked Zac and he couldn't remember either. It all happened so fast. One minute we were talking, the next Devin says, "I would cut my hair for $50." and Nathan stated that he would too. The next thing we knew Dad was gone and back with $100, and handing Nathan and Devin $50. So everyone headed out to the garage and Bobby cut Nathan's mustache off, and Dad cut Devin's hair off.

Before pictures:

Nathan wanted to save the "curls" from his mustache.

Norma was so cute, she kept on looking at Nathan weird and rubbing his face.

Devin's hairy arms. Eric and Aubrey were at the bottom of the chair sweeping up all of Devin's hair.

the AFTER pictures:
For some reason, they both wouldn't really smile for me.

AHHHHHHHHH. They look normal again. :) (And $50 richer.)

Another Meet & Greet

So on Thursday I got to meet the new U.S. Attorney Michael Mukasey. I had another photo op, and again, I am a whole head taller than the U.S. Attorney. There will probably be another U.S. Attorney with the new president, here's hoping that they pick somebody who is a normal size! :) I'm not really that petty, I just thought it was weird that the U.S. Attorney's are so SHORT. Usually men in power are tall, at least that's what I thought the standard was.

We got up our Christmas tree and decorations, etc. Those dang cats keep on sleeping in the tree though! They have broken almost all the branches in the center of the tree, and keep on taking the ornaments downstairs. I only have 11 more christmas cards to make and then I will be sending them. I am BEHIND this year! I usually send them off the day after Thanksgiving! Nothing really went on this week. I got to interview people for the data analyst position in my unit. Luckily there was someone that I thought would be good, so I had her interview again with the U.S. Attorney, and he liked her...so in 6 months I will finally have some help. It's ridiculous how long those background checks take! That's about it for us!

Newspaper Article

So the Deseret News got wind of our lawsuit against the HOA, and ran an article about it. The link is:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695230156,00.html

They left out a lot of information about the case that would be very applicable to the story (like they never put anything on our title, we never signed anything, etc). The only problem is that now the builder is aware that we will be going after them if we lose this case. (Which the Judge has been on our side so far.) The HOA never filed an Answer to our Complaint, so we filed our Default Judgment last week...we'll see how that turns out. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

The kids got their school pictures back finally! Last week I was in South Carolina for work again. There really is nothing to do out there after work. It was actually colder there than in Utah when I was out there. I was really disappointed. I didn't bring a coat or anything since it's usually in the high 70s this time of year. It was kind of an interesting trip this time. I was with the same people that I've been with for the past three years out there. At night we went to a mexican restaurant, and it was "Tequila night". So one of the instructors bought me some shots of tequila. I looked at him a little weird and said, "You know, you don't need to use me as an excuse if you wanted to drink more." And I handed him the shots. They had absolutely no idea that I was LDS?! We then got onto the topic of our church, and everybody with our group completely thought that polygamy was a choice, and that Zac has just chosen for the moment just to have one wife. WHAT?! They also had no idea about the word of wisdom, etc. We talked for about 3-4 hours about this (granted, by this point they were pretty drunk). Then we went outside because the city was having their "lighting" ceremony where they turned on the lights on the big Christmas tree. It was freezing outside, so they wanted to head inside a bar/grill. I had six different guys buy me drinks while I was there. The group I was with was loving it because they got free drinks. Zac on the other hand said, "Wow, I guess there isn't much selection in South Carolina!" RUDE! The next day some of them came up to me and said they felt so embarassed about how ignorant they were about our religion, etc. At least I got to clear some things up. They didn't even know who those "young guys wearing an Elder tag" were. My flights were awful to and from. There was so much turbulence. On my way home, my flight didn't even leave until 6pm (usually I am back in Utah by this time). I was able to get on an earlier connecting flight, and got home at 12:30 am instead of 2:30am. Zac said the kids were really good for him, and we had a lot of babysitters step in as well at night while Zac was in school.

We had Thanksgiving dinner last night. Justin and Lisa stopped in on their way down to St. George, so Dad decided to have it one day early. Lots of great food and always fun to see everybody in the same place. I don't think I saw Eric stop running the entire day. He was hooked to Andrew's hip. Andrew really does a great job of playing with the kids.

"This is so gay!"

So Zac turned the big 30 this weekend. I decided to throw him a SURPRISE birthday party on Saturday evening. Adults only--I didn't want a bunch of kids running around everywhere, and not being able to enjoy the evening. We had so many close calls with Zac finding out that I'm surprised he didn't know about the entire party! On Friday I went to a party store and bought a lot of balloons, decorations, etc. As I'm driving home, I see Zac coming the other way! The entire front seat is balloons. So I hurry and pull off the road, call him, and he tells me that he got off work early for lunch. YAY.......I call my friend and tell her I am stopping at her house to drop off the balloons. The kids were really excited. After we dropped them off I told them not to say anything to daddy or they will be in "big trouble". So Eric runs into the house and goes straight up to Zac and says "Daddy, I'm not going to tell you!" Zac goes "Tell me what?" Eric "I'm not going to tell you that we stopped at Karen's and gave her your balloons!" Then I walk into the house and Eric is SO PROUD of himself "Mommy! I didn't tell Daddy about the balloons!" I was able to lie my way through the balloons on the spot. On Saturday, Zac decided that he needed to go to school to work on a paper all afternoon. GREAT! This couldn't be more perfect! So he left at 1 pm the party started at 6 pm. I was working on his birthday cake (which is a recipe I had never tried before) and when I went to flip the cake out of the pans, the cake CRUMBLED! So I grabbed both kids and ran for the car to go to Smith's to buy a premade cake. No carseats. Zac had left them in his truck. So I run the kids over to a neighbor's, get the cake, and finished cleaning the house. The kids went to a friends house for the evening. Zac calls me at 4:40 and says, "Hey I wasn't going to call you, but I'm almost home and wanted to talk...." WHAT?!! I tell him to hold on, I've got another call. I call his sister, Barb, (who is the decoy for the night) and tell her to call him NOW! he's almost home! So I hung up on Zac, and he called back a couple minutes later telling me that there has been a change of plans, his sister is stranded at the mall. Then Barb calls me saying, "We're not there yet! We are hitting every red light, and the guy in front is driving really slow with his hazards on!" So now Zac could make it to the mall before Barb. Luckily she got to the mall, ran inside and Zac called her a minute later. Whew! Now it's 6pm, and only 2 people are there. WHO SHOWS UP LATE TO A SURPRISE PARTY?! Apparently almost everyone! I am frantic calling everybody, and they all told me they were running late, or waiting for the babysitter, etc. Zac then calls me and tells me that he is stopped on the freeway. WHEW again! Pretty much everybody shows up, and we see Zac coming up the road. We all hide and when he opened the door we did the corny jump up and yell "Surprise". The first words out of Zac's mouth, "This is so gay!"

We had a great time playing games and eating, etc. At the end of the night Zac said it was a great party. He was so funny though because I told him that Barb was the decoy and he said "Oh man, I kept on teasing her saying, do you know what tomorrow is? It's the most important day of the year..." And she played dumb. Then I told him that they were suppose to stall him by talking about Garit's new projector in his apartment. Zac's smiled and said "We did! We talked all about the projector. In fact, when I called you and said I was stuck on the freeway, I lied. I thought that you would be mad that I stayed so long talking about a projector!"

In other news, we finally got Aubrey a big girl bed. We got the bed Friday night and she loves it! She has even gotten up in the middle of the night all by herself to go potty. That's about it for our family this week!

So Tender

So this past weekend, Dad was coming up the stairs are heard this:

Andrew: "I miss Grandma"
Tucker: "me too"
Thad: "me too"
Eric: "me too. She would always hold me on her bed and play with me."

I couldn't believe it that Eric remembered that! He was only 19 months old when Mom passed away. There weren't any adults around (as far as the kids knew) when they were talking. They didn't see Dad until he rounded the corner.

Halloween's coming!

I'm really sad I can't find my camera still. Eric and Aubrey look so cute in their costumes. :( Today is their Fall Festival at the daycare, so the kids get to dress up in their costumes and play games, etc. Zac and I will meet them later on today for the parade and such. Eric is Peter Pan this year and Aubrey is Tinkerbell. She actually let me put those rollers in her hair that you sleep with. Her hair had such tight curls this morning, but I threw it into a pony tail and it looks great with the tight curls.

This past weekend Lisa came down from Idaho with her kids. We went to Ikea and I took her to Tai Pan. She had never been to Tai Pan, I couldn't believe it! I get addicted to that store. Zac hates it when I go there. I had never had Ikea's meatballs, but they weren't that bad. We went to Dad's after and ALL of the kids slept over. By all, I mean ALL. Nathan and Bobby dropped their kids off that night. They were going to work on their house Saturday morning, and I was suppose to watch them, but since the Idaho cousins were down, we wanted to make sure they got some great playing time.

So if you haven't heard, wheat is going to be tripling in price in January, and it won't be coming back down. So Zac went a little crazy and bought 1,000 pounds of wheat. WHAT?! I told him to buy 50 pounds, but I guess we definitely have our 1 year supply of wheat now. I guess the next purchase will need to be a wheat grinder. Zac's really into food storage. We just got the water barrells about a month ago as well. Usually we would just buy a case of this and that, etc. Now he is really starting to get us bulked up. I think dehydrated onions are next on the list.

That's about it, the week wasn't very eventful, which I'm grateful for. Although at work my secretary quit, and the other paralegal that helps me is on military leave. I am so incredibly busy I haven't even had time for lunch. It gets frustrating because I work constantly and I don't even feel like I put a dent into my paperwork. Hopefully we get someone new hired on soon. (Which the soonest would be 6 months after the background checks, etc.) So at least at my home life it is pretty easy going right now. :)

The Court battle continues...

Zac got his LSAT score back yesterday. He scored the best he ever did on any of the tests that he had taken. So we are pretty happy...he doesn't want me to post his score though so don't ask. :) We had a big hearing on our lawsuit with the HOA. The HOA was trying to dismiss our case, I filed a memo in opposition, etc., they wanted an Order signed, I requested a hearing, so we got our oral argument hearing going. I had a feeling that they were going to try to change their motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment, so we came prepared with our rebuttal. Sure enough, they tried to do just that, we argued it (kindly) and the Judge saw it our way and told them that we were not having a Summary Judgment hearing, etc., that the papers they filed with the Country Recorder and completely ambigious, so we set it for trial in the Spring. I'm actually pretty happy with the results. Zac did a great job presenting our case so far in Court. I prepare all the paperwork and he can do the talking.

BUSY BUSY!

On Thursday I was playing volleyball. I spiked the ball and landed on my foot weird, twisted my ankle, etc. I survived the pain, went to Idaho, went to Zac's Uncle's funeral, then finally went to the doctor on Monday evening. I had this constant throbbing on my foot. If I tilted my foot slightly, I felt like my whole leg would give out and it hurt like crazy. I had x-rays taken, and my foot is not broken. However, I apparently snapped the ligament in two that runs from the back of my ankle to the side of my foot. I also have a lot of soft tissue damage that has been causing it to bleed internally....that was the throbbing that I felt. The bleeding has stopped, and I have to wear this "air cast" for a couple weeks. If the bleeding starts again, then I will have to have surgery, but I will be careful to make sure I don't do anything to make it start bleeding. I look like a dork though wearing this cast with a dress, etc. It is not very flattering.

Idaho was fun while we were there for that short period of time. Justin and Lisa's new house is beautiful! I'm so glad that Andrew got baptized. He is setting a great example for his neices and nephews. Eric wants to do everything that Andrew does, and he is now really excited to get baptized. We got into Idaho late Friday night and stayed with Tammi. Devin drove up with us so we got to listen to some great music all the way up. Tammi, I completely forgot to thank you for letting us stay. We were in such a rush to get back to UT after the baptism that I forgot to come find you and thank you!

Zac's Uncle Randy passed away on Thursday. He was 59 yrs old. Nobody knows what happened. They had an autopsy performed, but the results won't be back for several weeks. Zac's Dad flew in on Saturday, the viewing was Sunday, and the funeral on Monday. Zac's Dad flew out Monday night after the funeral. Eric became quite attached to Grandpa Nielson. Last night he refused to sleep in his bed, he wanted to sleep in the same bed that Grandpa Nielson slept in. We were really glad that he could stay with us this time. Eric has told me several times that we need to go see Grandpa Nielson's house now.

On another note, I have no clue where I put the camera. I wanted to take lots of pictures this weekend, but couldn't find that stinkin camera. I came to work today hopeful that I left it here, but it's not. So until I find it, you will be without pictures on this blog.

The LSAT

So the big day came and went. Zac finally took the LSAT. I think the waiting for his score is almost as rough as taking it! Zac figured out that his brain doesn't "click" until about 2 sections into the test. So before he has been taking any practice tests, he will take 2 sections, then go into the testing center. So the day of the test, he got there 2 hours early to do his sections. He was the only person there. So he started. He got to question #9, when a guy came and sat down RIGHT next to him and started talking to Zac about how nervous he is, etc. Zac kindly told him, that's great, but I'm actually taking a section right now so..." Anyways, he didn't get the hint, and then a group of people got around him and were talking. So he moved. By then there were so many people there, that he couldn't concentrate and finish the 2 sections pre-test. So here's hoping that he did great! :) It's hard knowing that this one test will determine our future. Zac will only apply to BYU and the U of U. Neither of us want to move, etc.

So I started my new calling this past Sunday as relief society pianist. I am just so lucky to ALWAYS work with weird people! The chorister never gave me the list of songs that I needed to play, but I can pretty much sight-read anything, so no biggy. However, I do like to practice it just once before to make sure I really can play it. So during Gospel Doctrine, she pulls me out and states that we are going to sing hymn number 1.....3......9 (it took her forever to tell me this number) I ask her what hymn is that? She had no clue, but she had a dream about that number the night before and she was inspired. Oh dear. She later came to me and said that 139 was a bad choice for today, how about a different hymn. I tried very hard not to laugh. I am now curious as to what hymn number 139 is? I should have looked, but forgot. Anyways, I asked her about getting a list of songs for the rest of the year that are relevant with the topics, etc. She told me that she is still waiting on inspiration for ALL of the songs and she will get back to me. This actually doesn't annoy me (which is unusual for me) I actually find it hilarious, and I am quite anxious to see what hymn "inspired" her for the next Sunday I play.

I got released!

I know I shouldn't be this excited, but I am. I already feel the stress leave me. The Bishop called me in last night and told me that I am being released as Primary Secretary. But my new calling is......Relief Society Pianist (which is wonderful!) I love the Sunday only callings, especially right now with how busy we are. Take that Steph! :) (And congratulations to your releasing from the presidency as well!)

ZERO CAVITIES

Remember that post back in March when I went to a new dentist that stated I had 12 cavities and that he was only going to fix 4? Well, I never got them "fixed" because I felt like I didn't have 12 cavities, not one of my teeth hurt. I have only had 1 cavity my entire life. So I went back to my old dentist yesterday. The verdict? ZERO CAVITIES. What? Was my intuition correct? I am SO GLAD that I didn't have him fix those "cavities". My dentist that I have been going to all my life has new technology everytime I go in. They had this tooth density digital thing that went over every bit of my teeth and stated exactly what condition my teeth were in. I told my dentist after the finding of zero cavities about my last visit with the new dentist and he was floored. He told me that I didn't even have any "problem areas" to keep a close eye on, that everything looked great.

Eric on the otherhand really does have one cavity. He called it a "sticky spot" so he is going to have to get it drilled next month. Eric is excited to come back though. They did such a great job at making the dentist's office "fun". They took pictures of him during his exam and are mailing them to me.

Not playing by the rules

I know, I know. I haven't updated in a couple weeks now. I have been EXTREMELY busy at work, where I haven't really even had lunch breaks. A quick sum up of the last couple weeks...Zac's Dad came to Utah and spent a Sunday afternoon with us. The kids wish they could have seen him more. They kept on asking to see him again. Later that week my work had an "office retreat" in Park City. They invited all of our families to come up, and we stayed 3 nights at the Silverado Lodge at the Canyons. We lucked out and got a beautiful suite with a full kitchen, laundry room, etc. While I was in meetings during the day, Zac took the kids swimming (A LOT) and did some shopping at the outlets. It was nice to get away for a little bit, even though it wasn't very far.

This past week I was informed that I am getting an award at work, where the President of my company is flying into Utah to present it to me. I don't really care about the whole hoopla that they are making it out to be. I would rather they just put the award in my mail slot and call it good. This past Friday Zac and I went to the temple and Zac's sister babysat for us. Our Primary Presidency goes to the temple once a month as a presidency, and this time our spouses were invited. We were to be at the 7:00pm session. Because of traffic and other reasons, we almost didn't make it. We basically ran into the temple, hurried and got dressed and told each other we would meet in the chapel. When I got to the chapel, it was packed full, and they escorted me to 1 of 3 overflow rooms. I saved a seat for Zac and waited for him. This sweet sister came into the overflow and calls out "Is there a Sister Heather Nielson here?" I raise my hand and she tells me that we need to hurry. She starts taking me through all of these places in the temple that I've never seen as we make it to the chapel in no time. As we are walking extremely fast she's asking me, "Didn't you hear us call for the guests? Your husband has been waiting for you." I am now VERY confused. I tell her I think that maybe there's another Heather Nielson that needs to be called, that we weren't with anybody. Well wouldn't you know that Zac went in with the wedding party! The girl was getting her endowments and sealed in the same day. After talking to Zac he stated that he didn't remember where the chapel was, so he just followed this guy (who happened to be the groom) and sat down right next to him in the chapel on the front row. (which is reserved for people who are doing their own temple work) Anyways, when we got into the chapel, the primary president and her husband were the witness couple, so luckily we got in the same session as them. After I sat down, the next people who walked in were my cousins, Cody and his wife Michelle, who I haven't seen for years. Michelle came and sat right next to me and said, I knew it! I knew I had seen your husband before! Apparently they had kept on running into guys that Michelle had dated while Cody was on his mission, and when she saw Zac, she told Cody, I know that guy from somewhere. Cody got annoyed and goes, GREAT! Now we're running into guys you dated in the temple! Zac's friend from high school was also in the same session as us. To back up, earlier in the day I had fed our cats. They were completely out of food, I don't know for how long, so they ate too much and started throwing up in the basement. I cleaned up everything, then came back 1 hour later, and it looked like I hadn't done anything, they had thrown up again. I ranted to Zac about how these cats need to live outdoors, I don't want them inside, etc. Now back to the temple. We are sitting in the celestial room, and I have been hiding my shoes with my dress. Zac looks at me and asks what am I doing with my shoes. I slowly show him and told him that those cats peed on my shoes. The tops of them were all yellow. We were so late getting to the session, that I just put them on. I didn't have enough time to rent some new shoes. Zac was trying as hard as he could not to burst out laughing.

We decided to go to the "Purple Turtle" for ice cream after. Our friends hadn't been there before, so they followed us. We see it, and see 2 great parking spots right next to each other, so Zac makes a left hand turn off State St. into the Purple Turtle. Well, we go over the curb, and basically bounce into the parking spot. Our friends do the same. They came out of the car and told Zac, "I've learned something about you tonight. You don't like to play by the rules."

The Primary President got released yesterday! Her husband got called into the Bishopric so they released her. BUT they left all the rest of us in the Presidency?! What! I didn't know you could do that! I thought once the President was released, we were ALL released?

Aubrey woke up with a bad cold yesterday, so Zac stayed home with her from church. I had Eric stay home as well so I could run Primary without having to worry about him. (And I was able to sit through Sacrament without having to leave once.) During the middle of church, I see this boy running towards me in shoes with no socks, shorts, and a tank top. Sure enough it was Eric. He had run to the church without Zac's knowledge. He ran straight for me and said, "Mom, can I go to my class now? I want to learn about Jesus." He sure knows how to play the game. I can't really punish him for wanting to learn about Jesus. Although he did get in trouble when he was home about leaving the house without Zac knowing, crossing the street without us, etc.

Our costumes are ready to go....

We had a pretty eventless weekend. It was really nice! Zac came home from Illinois safe and sound, I guess there were some pretty bad windy weather out there. His flight was only delayed an hour or two. Saturday morning I watched Tucker and Thad for a little bit, then we headed out to Eric's soccer game. Zac was the ref for Eric's soccer game. Zac told me that there is nothing more frustrating than being a referee for a bunch of 4 year olds. You are constantly calling something on the four-year-olds. After the game I headed down to Orem with my friend. She wanted to check out the costumes at Hale Center to rent for Halloween. I found the costumes that Zac and I wanted to be, so I already reserved them. The lady looks and me and goes, "You know it's only August right?" I am just PREPARED is all. :) Zac and I rented a movie later than night, then the whole usual Sunday thing. It was a really relaxing, nothing happening weekend! I have been looking forward to one of those!

Canning with a little bit of Soccer mixed in

I started out the weekend by canning 60 jars of strawberry jam. The grocery store had strawberries on sale, and I got 24 pounds of them. I didn't realize it would make so much jam! As soon as I finished canning the jam, I got a call from Dad and he informed me that he had 3 five-gallon buckets full of tomatoes that were ready to be canned.

Saturday morning was Eric's first soccer game. Zac was taking a practice LSAT, so I ended up being the one to coach the team. They actually did really well! The kids didn't touch the ball once with their hands, AND they were really good with the boundary lines. I was really surprised! Our team dominated (although we weren't suppose to keep score). But the other team only scored when the kid would kick it into OUR goal. There were some pretty upset dad's out there when their kids kept on scoring for the wrong side. Eric was doing great. He was just about to the goal when the opponent kid kicked the ball away from him. Eric ran over, pushed him down then kicked it hard into the net. I didn't know whether to be proud that he got a goal or mad that he pushed a kid. Either way he had a great time, and has been wearing his soccer cleats everywhere he goes. His bestfriend Zack is on his team also, which helps the fun!

After the soccer game, I went down to Dad's to can the salsa. We ended up making 3 batches of salsa (hot, medium, and mild) which canned 57 pints. It turned out a lot better than our batch a couple weeks ago. The hot actually IS hot, etc. I was at Dad's from 11 - 8pm canning though. It took FOREVER! (But so worth it!) He told me that he will have another 10 gallons of tomatoes in 2 weeks. I think he saw the horror on my face, and then asked Bobby if her Mom wanted them.

I passed a couple jars of jam out to some of my neighbors, and last night I had my neighbor run over as soon as she saw I was home and told me she just bought a flat of peaches and wanted to make jam tonight. So I ran over to her house and told her I would only show her how to make the first batch, then I needed to get home make dinner, etc.

Zac is in Illinois this week for work to train on all of "Caterpillar" equipment (backhoe, trackhoe, bobcat, etc) I ended up staying home from work on Monday because the daycare couldn't take the kids (they're not normally there on Monday). I'm glad I did though because some guys came over and started breaking up our driveway. They were suppose to do this in February and they are finally doing it. Everytime it rains our garage floods, so they are ripping up the driveway, digging and putting a grate at the bottom so the water drains into the ground not our garage. Zac was a little annoyed though, the ONLY time he goes on vacation/work they came to our house. They haven't repoured the driveway yet, so hopefully it gets finished soon, and not in 6 months.

1/2 Marathon!!

I did it! I ran the Provo River Trail 1/2 marathon on Saturday! Friday, Eric and myself both had a fever of 103, along with nausea and diarrhea. I tried to rest as much as I could on Friday. I had to get up at 3:30 am to get to the race in time on Saturday morning. I still had my fever, so I loaded up on Advil and Pepto and took off to Provo. The buses took us up to the starting point at 5 am and it was FREEZING up the canyon! They had the sprinklers going as well and at 2 points, there was no way for me to avoid the sprinklers and I got wet. My neighbor came with me, she's been training for the 1/2 with me. Before the race even started I was still very nauseated, I could only eat about 1 orange slice and a few bites of a banana before I felt like I was going to throw up. It was miserable! The race didn't even start until 7am. So when they sounded the horn, we took off. I immediately felt like all of my energy was zapped from me. The fever still hadn't gone away. After what felt like we had been running for awhile, I got a HUGE sideache. I never got ONE sideache the entire time I trained. So I told my friend I needed to walk it out. So we walked for about 2 minutes, and we started to run again. Right then we came up on mile marker TWO. WHAT!! I hadn't even ran 2 MILES? I seriously felt like I was coming up on mile 5. The frustrating thing for me on this run was they didn't mark all of the miles, so you never really knew exactly how far you've ran. About mile 3 I finally told my friend to go on. It wasn't about a getting a good time for me anymore, I was just trying to survive. I had to stop and use the horrible port-a-pottys twice during the race, and then sprint to try to catch up to people, all while trying not to throw up. I even got the "fever chills" while running. I could not stop shaking while I was running. Then about 1/2 mile before the finish line, I felt my throat closing up. I couldn't breathe. I tried and the air wasn't going in. I literally stopped running, and freaked out for a second, then decided that if I relaxed it would probably open up. I was right, as soon as I relaxed I could feel the air going into my lungs again. Is this what asthma is like? I've never had asthma... Anyways, the race itself was beautiful, and it had a consistent breeze for the entire race. 13.1 miles later and I finally crossed the finish line at 2 hours 15 minutes. My goal was to do it in 2 hours, but my realistic goal was 2 1/2 hours. So I am actually pretty proud of my time considering my 2 detours to the bathroom, the horrible way I was feeling, etc. When I crossed the finish line, Eric and Aubrey were cheering and hugging each other. HOW CUTE!

They had tons of food, etc., after the race. I could not even look at the food. I just grabbed Zac and the kids and told them that we needed to go home. I didn't even stretch..oops. I felt horrible though. My fever finally broke after we got home from the race. Our neighbors were putting in their yard, so Zac ran over and helped them for several hours while I took a nice long bath and rested with the kids. Later that night we went to Larkin's open house reception and saw the Couch's, Bub's family, and Grandpa Parry. We didn't stay too long, since I was still not feeling myself yet. Yesterday I paid big time for not stretching. My quads and calves are on fire. I can barely walk. Even this morning while I was walking down the stairs I was hobbling. I will never run this race again! Lisa tells me it is like labor though, you forget the pain...

Salsa Weekend!

On Wednesday the primary president called me twice, came over once, and finally I answered her (I was running at the time, I wasn't trying to be rude) She was hysterical. I guess the Bishop forgot to ask the Stake for permission to split the primary...oops. They will not allow it. So he made us the new primary presidency for the entire primary. Right after that Zac just sang "Happy birthday to you" Let's just say I am a little discouraged...I am really trying hard to have a good face about the entire thing, but our primary is HUGE! 5 Sunbeam classes with the smallest 15 kids, 7 nurserys with the smallest 18 kids, etc. So I talked with the president for hours that night trying to figure out who's doing what, etc. Then she wanted to have a 4 hour meeting on Saturday, we had 3 baptisms in the morning, and I had a stake primary meeting on Thursday night. I finally asked for an assistant. I am the ONLY one who works full-time (which are extended hours), I am coaching Eric's soccer team, Zac's in school full-time at night so he's never home to help with the kids, I'm training for this 1/2 marathon, I do all the cleaning/cooking/laundry/grocery shopping, etc. I just can't do it all, and this calling is the only thing my friend has to worry about and she calls me 3-4 times a day DURING work to tell me what else I need to do. I am just trying to keep my head above water, not go above and beyond. Maybe in a month or two things will settle down and I can do those extra things.

On Thursday Dad e-mailed me and said that he had a lot of tomatoes to make salsa. So I called Lisa and she and Justin arranged to come down Friday night to Dad's. Dad and I made a batch Friday night and I made another batch with Lisa on Saturday. Dad and I really don't like things spicy, so we only added 1 jalepeno and 2 anaheim peppers to the batch. It was WAY to sweet of a salsa. SO on the batch I made with Lisa, we added 4 anaheim peppers and 5 jalepenos with full seeds, and it still was pretty sweet. SO in 2 weeks Dad will have another 25 pounds of tomatoes ready to make salsa with, and we will be adding 10 jalepenos to have at least a little spice to it. I had asked the primary president if it was alright if I missed the 4 hour meeting on Saturday since Justin and Lisa were coming down, I already knew what they will be discussing...so at least I got out of one meeting. The kids had fun seeing their NY cousins again...I mean ID cousins. :) It's great that they were able to make it down so fast, I just called and they came the next night.

Later that night Zac took me out for my birthday since we weren't really home to celebrate it on Wednesday. Zac's sister Barb came over and babysat for us while we went to the new Harry Potter movie. After the movie we headed over to Winger's and then home. It's nice to have a night out without kids.

Another Idaho Weekend

After we got back from the Lovell Reunion, I had 2 days of work (with pioneer day off) then off to Idaho again! On Tuesday, Pioneer day, in the morning was the quarterly primary/ward activity. They decided to feed the entire ward breakfast, then have the kids come inside to do pioneer games. It worked out fine, however my games were the biggest flop. Later that night we went down by the lake to do our fireworks since they were completely banned from Eagle Mtn. We had 4 our families with us, and I made Grandmas orange/banana/pineapple icecream. Yum! The kids were loving the fireworks, but the last one that we lit, Zac didn't know what it did. We got our fireworks in Wyoming, however, we got the S&S (Safe and Sound) pack to make sure we weren't lighting off anything illegal. Well, this last firework definitely was NOT legal! It just kept on going shooting fireworks up high in the sky. Now the other problem...because we were at the lake in Saratoga Springs, it was pitch black, no street lights, etc. SO everybody miles away could see our fireworks. Within 2 minutes, we had the police show up. It was a mandatory $500 fine this year with no warnings, and a Class B misdemeanor. This officer drove about 2 feet away from our chairs very slowly, then turned around and went back out. One of our friend's families works as a police officer. We were asking what that was about. I guess they had a big meeting stating that they absolutely cannot give out warnings, however, by them driving by slowly like that, it was an "unofficial" warning...more like they are watching us so stop lighting fireworks. So we packed up and went home.

Wednesday I went up to Idaho after work. Zac bailed out on me the last minute because he forgot about a presentation he had to give in school. It was pouring rain in Utah. I witnessed the grossest thing driving. This car came zooming past me on the Malad pass, and a little girl stuck her head out the window and threw up all over. It was airborne. NASTY! Luckily it didn't hit our car. We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's while up in Idaho.

Thursday morning was Larkin's wedding. I was lucky enough to get Katelyn and Camille to watch my kids and Lisa's at the temple grounds during the sealing. When we got to the temple Eric asked me if he could go inside. I told him not until he's bigger. Then he got very sad and said "But Mommy, I LOVE Heavenly Father and Jesus too!" So sweet. The sealing was beautiful, and when I came out of the temple the kids were having a good time. After the pictures were taken we were walking back to the car and Eric said, "I had so much fun playing in Heavenly Father and Jesus' yard! I want to do this again!" That kid cracks us up all the time. The luncheon and reception were beautiful, but my kids became very restless. So I invited myself over to Justin & Lisa's to go swimming in their pool. Justin got in the pool with the kids and at one time had all 5 of them hanging off of him. My kids LOVED playing over at their cousins. Eric told me that he wants to turn 8 just like Andrew. Andrew played SO GOOD with Eric, he will be a great babysitter one day! :)

The kids were pretty good over at Grandma and Grandpa's. Eric and Aubrey were coloring, I was working on a puzzle and Grandma was taking a cat nap on the couch. When I looked over and Aubrey (who had stickers in her coloring book) stickered Grandma up her arm, on her shirt, on her legs, etc. It was so cute. Aubrey just pointed and said, "Pretty!" Aubrey finally warmed up to Grandma. When we were leaving to go back to Utah Aubrey kept on shout "Grandma I love you!" On Saturday when the kids got up Aubrey asked me if we could go to Grandma's house. They had a great time! Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa for letting us come stay with you!

Friday night my friends took me out to dinner for my birthday. We went out to Zupa's in Draper, then headed over to Tai Pan and they got me some decorations for my house. YEAH! I love the friends I've made in my neighborhood. Last night, one of them had made a birthday cake for me and brought it over...so thoughtful!

I painted our bedroom on Saturday and Monday. I wanted to paint our room a dark taupe color. Zac found almost the exact color at Lowes where somebody had brought back the paint, and they resold the gallon for $7.00 (which this gallon normally goes for $40). So we got some white paint and I painted all the base boards white, and the walls this brown color. When we were finished Zac and I looked at it and it looks PURPLE! WhAT? We decided we needed to let it dry, so the next morning we looked at it again and it looks like a Dark RED! It definitely was NOT the color they had painted on the lid. We decided that it is a brown with strong hues of purple and red depending on what time of the day. It's better than the light taupe that we had in our bedroom, but definitely a different color.