what a beautiful mess

which is far less interesting than you would think... 1. checkbook 2. notebook for those all too important thoughts and well, notes.  3. two rolls of old film. Its the last of all my old film that needs to be developed. It's at least 6 years old.  4. wallet 5. first aid kit 6. keys 7. bill that needs to be mailed. 8. pen 9. sunglasses 10. three tubes of carmex.  11. compact mirror 12. an old ring I no longer wear 12. a Sonic mint wrapper Now turn off your screen and try to write down everything you can remember seeing. You only get 30 seconds.  Ready???? Set???  GO!  I'm kidding.  But now you all no longer have to wonder "what in the world does Sarah keep in her purse?". You're welcome. :)  

Tonight, I caught Joshua playing with the soda boxes.  I'm not quite sure what he was doing but it looked like a lot of fun. We bought our Christmas tree and I think it is the smallest tree we've ever had. It is now taking up lovely space in the front room  until we decorate it tomorrow.  Trevor thought it would be fun to play with Emily's recorder.  He then told her (as he was playing "love one another") that he was trying to seduce me with it.  His face went bright red and he stammered out that he meant to  say he was going to put me in a trance.  And then he had to try to come up with an  answer appropriate for a nine year old  when she asked what seduce meant. Anna asked Trevor if it was good to be skinny  and if she was or if she was just medium.  I'm glad she asked him cause he gave a great answer.  I'm not as good at those questions as he is.  He said it's good to be healthy no matter what size you ...

My wedding ring makes me very happy.  I love it more today than I loved it 12 years ago when Trevor and I would walk by the jewelry store in the mall and I would tell him how much I loved it~ I'm sorry for the ugly hand shot though.  My hands are very dry and my fingernails are  brown cause I didn't have any gloves the last time I colored hair.  You'd think I'd keep a whole bunch of them around.  Or that I could at least remember where I keep them.  Which happens to be the case this time. 

1.   I like owls. But I don't like birds. I almost got attacked one time while I was out running and I haven't liked them since. It doesn't help that I grew up with Paco. Paco squawked louder than any bird I've ever heard and he liked to bite. I didn't like Paco very much (sorry Mom and Dad). 2.  I am afraid of rubber-bands. My older brother, Stephen, liked to flick them at me and anyone else around. I seriously hate them. He threw Chinese stars too. So I don't like those either.  3.   I wish I spoke with a British accent. Or at least could speak with one whenever I want to. Usually when I try I sound like a mixture between a southern accent and an Australian. I just love British humor and think that Hugh Grant is the greatest (except the whole arrest thing he went through~nasty) 4. I could be a nudist. I'm so much more comfortable naked then I am clothed. No worries though. I'm extremely proper. I'm only naked behind the close...

Here is our lovely spread with our homemade centerpiece, hand turkeys. The girls also made our place mats, names in the center of construction paper and a little note of what they loved about that person.  If you'll notice, we used an ice cream scoop for our potatoes~  Genius!  Trevor made an awesome turkey.   I'm just not sure what to say about this picture.   A photo of our wonderful guests.  We loved having them here!!!!!  And really, Asa was the guest of honor.  We all just couldn't get enough of him.   These three girls fought over Asa most of the weekend.   Joshua only ate his cranberries but he still got pie.  And the only pie he ate wasn't even pie, it was chocolate cheesecake and he LOVED it.  The pies were our favorite; pecan, pumpkin, apple and chocolate cheesecake.  And we only have half a pumpkin left.  I think we gained a tad bit of weight this weekend but it was soooo ...

Taking his first bite:  He's not at all sure if he likes it at first.   And the wasabi kicks in and his face goes bright red! Last year for Thanksgiving, he tried an anchovie for the first time.  This year it's sushi.  I think our tastes are improving. 

Please excuse the mess. It's Thanksgiving weekend and I have better things to do besides cleaning~

I'm pretty tough skinned. I try not to get easily offended and I don't hold grudges. So honestly, I've been sitting here for the last ten minutes trying to think of someone to write a letter to and I can't come up with one single person. But can I write a letter to the real estate market who is making our house sell for probably not what it's worth? Or is that too broad of a "person"? How about to the realtors who just can't seem to see the potential that's in our house for future buyers? :) No? Dang. This could have been really good too.

My journal makes me very happy.  It's definitely not your typical journal.  There's not much of my own personal writing in there,  although I do write in it once in a while.  But it's my special place where I keep all the love letters and pictures drawn and Mothers Day cards, and birthday cards that I receive from the 5 people who make me the most happiest.  I also keep all my personal mementos like numbers from races  and letters from other special people in my life.  My mom has told the story many times of when I was a little girl and I had a box where I kept all of my special things. One weekend my Aunt came to visit.  She went to get her high heel shoes  (am I right that they were red?) and couldn't find them anywhere.  They looked all over, through the whole house.  They eventually found them in my special box, hidden under my bed.  I like that story. I like shoes. A lot.  I guess my journal has become my special box...

(day 20) I change my blog a lot. Like a lot, a lot. But I have only changed the name of my blog once. It used to be "one big happy family". I liked it but so did about a million other people who had the same blog name. I do not like to have the same things as other people I know. There's a fact about me you may not know ( I should save that for the "15 facts about me you don't know" day~ oh well) We were on our way home from a trip and Diamond Rios "what a beautiful mess" song came on. I love that song. Trevor loves that song. And as we were singing along, I was thinking about what a great name for my blog it would be. For example: my house is messy more than it is clean. If you add up the hours in the day, there are more awake hours that the house is messy than it's not. But while it's messy, my kids are drawing pictures and notes to their mom and dad about how much they love us. Or writing a letter to their best friends that they ...

It's been going on for years now. It seems as if every time I would make chocolate chips cookies, they would turn out flat and greasy. Yuck, yuck, double yuck. One of the cookies above has a weird hole in the middle. Like a cookie doughnut.  Emily and I decided to make cookies today and the same thing happened. I was so close to getting frustrated when a little voice said "Add some more flour". Do you want to know who's little voice that was? Derrick. Trevor's brother Derrick. I had mentioned my cookie problem last summer at Bear lake and I just remembered today his "prescription" (ha) for flat cookies. And lo and behold, I added another half a cup or so of flour and they turned out! I am so happy to be able to make good cookies again. Trevor is even more happy but in a not happy kind of way cause we have this little thing called "weight" we have to worry about. Oh, but hallelujah , I can make cookies again!!!!!!

So I added a picture of me and Emily.  Cause she looks so fun in this picture.  If you ever have a chance, play Catch Phrase with Emily. You will not regret it! "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:5-6. That has nothing to do with the picture but it's been going through my head for quite awhile and if I find myself doing something monotonous, like kneading bread where I tend to think of stressful stuff, I practically chant it so as not to forget. It has given me much comfort.

Does it have to be food? Cause the only thing that qualifies as food that I ever crave is Diet Dr. Pepper. And I think you all know about that. But I do crave a really clean house. Oh, I get a clean house every morning when I do my morning rounds, picking things up, making beds, doing laundry, vacumming, dishes (this all after i have gone to bed the night before with a clean house). And I even get a really clean house the one time a week when sheets are washed, bathrooms scrubbed, floors also scrubbed and everything dusted. But I want my really clean house to last ALL day long and maybe into the next day also. Ten minutes after I have cleaned the bathroom, a little three year old decides to use the toilet and it's all over after that. the little three year old I'm talking about...

This was taken last night during nacho movie night. It was quite the chore trying to get everyone to sit still.  This was the best one we got out of about 6~ We watched the Karate Kid for the second time last night and I think it was about ten times longer than the first time we saw it........ Seriously, it was sooooooooooo long. 

The one and only Ricky Gervais! and that is all I'm going to say about that. 

There's lots of things I don't leave the house without, like, for instance, my keys. But I am always cold. I always have socks on and a sweater/cardigan and I never leave the house without my jacket I love my jacket. But more importantly, I NEVER leave the house without Joshua. Or my sunglasses.

Addicted is a pretty strong word, don't you think? It implies that I couldn't live without t.v. which I could cause I've done it before and would (maybe) do it again. But I do have shows that I love.... love so much that I plan my evening around them. We read scriptures and say prayers and do showers earlier than usual. My kids are allowed an extra half hour of reading (bedtime at 8 instead of 8:30) and chips and salsa are ordered. Or something like that. I may be addicted. Lets just say it's an evening we look forward too when our fav shows are on. My favorite shows are: The best show on television. The next best show on television. (don't tell Trevor- he'd think me a traitor) The best thing is that we can watch these shows on Hulu almost immedietly   (okay so I can't spell that word and spell check is not getting it) comes up and we can't watch them, we don't have to have a freak out.  Which has been known to happen.  Trevor gets pretty...

Do you like to laugh?  Do like books that make you laugh? Do like it when your children look at you funny and think something is wrong because you are laughing so hard while reading? Do you like books that don't make you think too hard  but are totally relate-able? Then you should read this here book.  I'm still reading it so it may be a bit premature but it is one of the most entertaining books I have read in a very long time.  I plan on reading many more of Laurie Notaro's books.   By the way~  a blog I really enjoy reading cause she makes me laugh  out loud kind-of recommended this book to me.  I am not on speaking or emailing terms with her unfortunately. But I read her "complete profile" and figured I would probably  like her favorite books cause I like her so much.  http://oinkledoinkle.blogspot.com/ Just some good info I'm passing on to you... .. You're welcome. 

The girls Pine Wood Derby cars.  Nachos from last Friday night.  Our house tonight at 6:00. Wish you were here. 

This one is really hard for me..... I want to say someone very classy and sophisticated.. but to be honest, I like country music~ generally the opposite of classy and sophisticated. Hmmmm... Does it count that when I was a little girl and all alone I would dance to Yanni, particularly his Reflections of Passion song? Or that my sisters and best friends would video record ourselves while singing to Bryan Adams and Mariah Carey? (not at the same time, that would be weird) Well, if those don't count, then I would have to say my most favorite musician is Michael Buble (classy). And then I would say that my real favorite musician would be.... wait for it..... wait some more..... Blake Shelton. I kind of only chose him cause I already have his photo uploaded to blogger but I could go with many different ones like Toby Keith, Taylor Swift, Gary Allan, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, The Carpentars (you weren't expecting that one, right). Oh and someone who's n...

The top photo I stole off the internet, the second one I took myself while driving. I love the top one, not so much the picture of a snow storm! I am starting to get use to Idaho Falls. It's been hard, probably because I loved Boise so much. It has two super walmarts although I try to avoid those as much as I can. Unfortunately, thats the cheapest place to buy soda so I have to go once a week or so. I like Winco. The best grocery store in the west!( cheesy) I told someone that you couldn't see mountains here but you can and they are beautiful. We are really close to Yellowstone which means we are that much closer to Jenna and Chris ( can we come visit you guys soon? please?) We have a mall (but we are missing Anthropologie, Forever 21 and a few other favorite stores), a cafe rio, and a DownEast Home. So not too bad. Shopping is all I know so far because we've been here only since it's been cold. We will be out in the snow much more this year though. Especially th...

Well, thats a little personal, don't you think? Okay, not really. I've been putting this post off because it's kind of a lot of work so I'm simplifying it to what I think is essential for me to be in my makeup bag or caboodle as the case may be. (photo of the same kind of caboodle I own except mine has a cool mirror) I have to use Neutrogena Sensitive Skin Facial Bar followed by Neutrogena Toner followed by Neutrogena Face lotion.  And I do love St. Ives Sensitive skin Apricot Scub. The love goes back to High School where I would take off the top layer of my skin with the old, really harsh, gritty stuff. I suggest only ever using the sensitive skin version or maybe something that costs more than 4 dollars and can't be bought at Wal Mart.  I have to have mascara but I can't wear mascara without eyeliner.  I use Cover Girl Lash Blast mascara in Black (very black). I use a pointed tip black sharpie for my eyeliner. It works and it's non toxic. And it's...

I will be back to doing the 30 day challenge on Monday and I wouldn't normally be blogging right now but I have something to say or ummm, write. I/we had a great night. Yes, we actually did. It really is close to amazing which, if you had been at our house for the last two days, you would totally agree. Let me just put the last two days into one simple word. CHAOS. (let me add that there have been good moments, like nacho movie night where we watched Ramona and Beezus~my new favorite kid movie) The kids have been out of school, which you all know I love, but they have been fighting, pretend and not so pretend, tattling, hitting, jumping~on everything, crying, yelling, etc, etc. Trevor and I split the children up tonight, boys with him, girls with me. And it was a huge success. We (the girls) went to Cafe Rio, Despicable Me, Cold Stone and Target. The was laughing and hugging and talking and giggling. It was a remarkable evening. And tomorrow morning I'm going t...