Smile!

Things that made me smile today:

Listening to some excerpts from my choir concert.  Check it out-click on this link and then click on the events tab.  (don't miss Old Man River-it's my favorite!)   I LOVE singing in that choir!!!  Have I mentioned that?  hehe

The neighbor boy (7 yrs old) talking to Blondie, who is wearing her "Battle of the Books" shirt.  He said, "So, you're in battle of the books?"  Blondie:  "Yep."  Neighbor:  "So, do you guys play volleyball or something?"  Too. Funny.

Getting stuff to make a new kind of homemade laundry detergent.  I dig that kind of stuff.  

Kissing my husband.  That makes me smile everyday.  :)

Watching my two boys together.  It pains me to see my baby growing up, but is a joy at the same time.  I love how my little guy is getting old enough to play with my older boy.  They are so fun to watch!  Funny how to boys, the world is their playground.  Everything is made to be climbed on, and then jumped off of.  yikes

This picture.  It makes me roll with laughter every time I see it.  Teeny Bopper made it in her photography class at school.  So. Stinkin. Funny.

Living in the midst of the orange groves.  This time of year when the blossoms are on, driving around with my windows open.  Heaven!

I joined a gym

Yes, I joined a gym.  I was exercising off and on at home, but I was frustrated because I don't have the space, don't have the equipment I wanted to use, when I am home I always find something else that needs to be done instead of work out, and mostly I just don't push myself when I am here at home.  I printed off a free 5 day pass to a local gym and tried it out.  I was DYING to try a Zumba class.  It was super fun!!!  Very much like doing Just Dance for an hour straight.  Then, I printed out a 3 day pass to the other local gym and tried it and some other classes there.  I tried a class called Body Flow, which is a mix of Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates.  I felt SO great after that class!  Seriously.  I just felt good.  I have to admit though, Yoga is not for fat people.  I do the stretches as far as I can, but my belly gets in the way of doing most of it.  Oh well, it will come.

So, going for a couple weeks made me really want to sign up, but I decided I just didn't have the money and thought I'd try something else.  I know a lot of people that use the church building and get a bunch of ladies together and work out there.  I checked into it at my church building and it was a big no.

This same week we got braces for Sweet G and the payments turned out to be half of what I thought they would be for the first 6 months.  The other half was the exact amount of a gym membership for me and the boys (in the kid's care), so SCORE!!  Sign me up, baby!!!

She's so cute!!!

I chose the second gym, even though it's a little farther.  (just a few minutes)  They have a pool and include family swim days.  And they are known for their fabulous classes.  The biggest reason was that the other gym had a lot more fees and the one I chose just had you pay the first month and start going.

So far, so good!  I have been going faithfully, the boys LOVE it, and I love it!!  I am more motivated to eat well after I have worked out.  It keeps good eating on my mind.

The other day I went and did my work out, promising myself a "treat" when I was done.  My treat was a soak  in the hot tub there.  Oh yeah, I did.  And then after the hot tub I floated around in the pool, without having to worry where any kids were or getting splashed in the face!!  It was AMAZING!  I left feeling so awesome.  Totally worth the membership just for that day.  :)

I have a concert, shout hurray! I want to sing to you today... :)

I have an upcoming concert, and really need some supporters there to cheer me on.  :)   Tickets are only $8 in advance if you get them from me.  Let me know if you would like to come!!

What is Easter?

My boys and I were driving past the Temple the other day.  Of course, we pointed it out and talked about it.  I also added, "And look!  The stage is up and ready for the Easter Pageant!"
Dr. D asked, "Oh!  What's the Easter Pageant?"
I explained that it was a play, or a show all about Easter.
He was very excited about that and said, "Oooh!  Who plays the bunny??"

Um...so I told him there was no bunny in the Easter Pageant.  He was a little confused, I could tell.  I asked him, "What is Easter all about?"
He said, "Bunnies!"
I said, No, that's not it.
He said, "Candy!"
Nope, not it either.
He said, "Eggs?"

I told him it was actually about Jesus.  He thought that was pretty interesting.

I think I know what we are talking about for Family Home Evening!! :)

Here are some of my old blog posts about Easter.  Some good ideas for teaching and celebrating.
Easter Ideas
Easter Tradition
Easter Sweets

Trick Question?

Dr. D:  Mom!  Guess what's in these chocolate covered pretzels!

Mom:  Ummm,  pretzels?

Dr. D:  YES!


As the kids are catching fruit flies and feeding them to the fish,
Teeny bopper:  Dr. D, we should have a code word for when we catch a fruit fly.  What should our "code word" be?

Dr D:  Fruit fly catch!!

Cutest music video EVER

This video was taken last October, and I may have already posted it, but it is so cute I didn't want to chance it not being on here.
Teeny Bopper was getting Tail Gunner to sing some of his favorite songs.   Talk about an adorable kid!!!

My favorite is at the end when he says he wants to sing "Popcorn", starts singing "Snowman" and part way through realizes he is singing the wrong song so does a quick correction.  LOVE these kids!!!  So much cuteness!!

No TV!

So, we had our month of "technology fast".  Last Sunday we got the family together to get everyone's input on how things went.  We went around the table and had each person tell how we felt about the month without tv, without ipod, without video games, and without major computer use/abuse.
The consensus was - with the exception of 5 yr old Dr. D - unanimously to keep things the same!  NOBODY wanted to bring the TV back!!  Well, Dr. D would be happy to watch tv and play video games 24/7, but he has been perfectly happy without them.  It was so cute that little Tail Gunner said he missed Blue's Clues!  Who knew he even paid much attention.  We didn't even watch it all that much- I guess that blue puppy leaves an impression.  :)  We made a few tweaks to our strict rules of last month and are going forward with these.
The rules:
No tv during the week.  At all.  For anyone.
On one weekend night we can watch one movie for family movie night.  We can split this up and put on a little kid movie in one room and an older person movie in the other room.
Mon is no computer day except for homework.
Tues and Thurs the older girls get 30 min to goof around on the computer, and Wed and Fri the younger girls get 30 min (each).
Dr. D can have 30 min to play video games on Tues and Thurs, as long as his room is clean.

I was surprised and pleased when Teeny Bopper said that when the "fast" was over, she put her ipod on (which she normally relies heavily on) and then took it back off because she didn't even want the headphones on.  !!!!  YES!    I loved hearing this!

It's weird, but I physically feel better without the tv on.  Is that possible?  I guess it does emit something-some kind of waves or something?  Anyway, I feel better, and I like that too.  My yearnings to put the kids in front of the tv have also disappeared.  Part of it is probably that they have stopped wanting it.  They don't ask for it anymore and have an easier time entertaining themselves.

Oh-another bonus for me:  my head isn't constantly filled with scenes from the shows I have been watching!!! I was watching some pretty cool shows, but they were in my head all the time.  Even in the temple, which was annoying.  That has drastically diminished.  I doubt it will never totally go away, because once stuff is in our brains, it is IN there.  But I will settle for improvement.

Buh bye, TV!