New Years Resolutions ?!?

Well happy new year everyone!!! I guess I should think up some New Years resolutions before midnight tonight, so here goes:

5 New Year Resolutions I want to keep:

1. Pray more.
2. Go to church more.
3. More family time.
4. Read more books.
5. Getting some family portraits done!!!!


5 New Years Resolutions I don't intend to keep:

1. Go to the gym / excersize more.
2. Lose 20 lbs.
3. Less caffeine. (I honestly don't even plan on attempting this one)
4. Less facebook time..... (ha!)
5. More cleaning & cooking. (Facebook souffle for dinner tonight honey?)


So happy 2011 everyone!! Hope next year is a better one!

Why I LOVE our neighborhood.....

I love our little "country" feel neighborhood. I really do. I especially love it this time of year, with the other side of the street decking the outside of their houses with all of the Christmas lights! Our "tinsel town" neighborhood has become a drive by neighborhood for people to come with their families, just checking out all the lights. I love that! ..... Even though our side of the street isn't as elaborate with the Christmas lights, we still have that neighborly feel.

I love how in our neighborhood everyone waves and says hi when driving by, and people come outside to talk to each other on the weekends or weeknights. How our neighbors get together and have bonfires in their driveways or BBQs in the front yard. And of course, how can I forget the amazing 4th of July fireworks spectacular our neighborhood put on, that had the cops driving by telling us, "all done now!" LOL! It really, truly is the best neighborhood ever.

I love that next week one of my awesome neighbors Nada, (who is my Mom's age) asked me to come over so we could wrap gifts together and watch Christmas movies and she would help me keep the gifts hidden from my kids until Christmas.

I love that our entire neighborhood has been invited to a Christmas BBQ block party in the cul-de-sac, while waving to cars driving by looking at lights. I love that you can buy homemade peanut brittle and kettle corn from the people sitting outside wishing you a Merry Christmas.

I love The Johnson Family, a few houses down, who help remind us what the holiday is all about. They are an amazing example of a Christian family who strives to follow the word of God and they live their lives with so much love, integrity, and compassion for others. They have truly blessed our neighborhood and brought a lot of us closer by their examples. I can feel how much closer our neighborhood has become just by their presence.

I love that Michael's best friend lives just a few houses down and that his daughter and mine have known each other since birth and are still great friends.

I really am feeling the Christmas spirit this year and God's grace. Happy, happy birthday Jesus and thank you for so many blessings you have given me including this awesome neighborhood.

That's Gwen for you....

Okay, so I am trying to sell some stuff on Craigs list, but the last time I took some pictures it said the card was out of memory which I thought was kinda odd. I thought I had plenty more pictures left on the card. Oh well...

So, low and behold I went to save my pictures tonight and when I popped open the file for the camera card I found a fun little treasure. :)

Apparantly Gwen had got a hold of the camera and had quite a good time with it. LOL. I couldn't help but smile as I scrolled down to find about 50 images with many close ups she had taken of her nostrils, ears, lips and a few random pictures of feet, toys, a clock, bathtub and yet again more pictures of close up kissy faces, sad faces and all kinds of other strange expressions. I think these are some of the best pictures I have seen in awhile!! ha! It is so fun when their little personalities really come out. I still love to see some of the pictures Kori takes with her DSI too. It just shows off their personality. At Kori's age right now she is always flashing peace signs or making goofy faces with her friends and making homemade videos or audio of them singing. So much fun! I love it when I am reminded by them what it's like to be a kid again cause I sure do miss it!

Well anyway, I thought I would share just a few of the little treasures I found on the camera card tonight! Enjoy!! :)

To my Moscow reader .... HI! :D

So... I think it is pretty interesting that I have a blog reader from Moscow! I thought I would give a quick "shout out" and say HI! I wonder how you found my blog.... but think it's pretty cool.

Ok, that's it! Just wanted to say hi.

I miss the 80's......

Even though I was in high school in the 90's, it was such a boring decade. .....I mean really the 90's didn't have too much going on. Baggy pants, grunge style, and the whole goth thing. Eww...... Dull and boring. I don't miss too much from the 90's... but man I miss so much about the 80's!! The 80's were awesome! It was such a fun decade to grow up in. I think if I had to come up with a list of the things I miss most about the 80's it would be something like this:

1. Colorforms! .....Oh man! So simple, but I loved these things as a kid! Mork and Mindy colorforms, Smurfs colorforms, and of course the completely awesome Barbie Dreamhouse colorform!! That one was special!....The Holly Hobby one at my Grandma and Grandpas house was also super cool since you only got to play with it when you would visit them, and I think that one even had glow in the dark house lamps. COLORFORMS ROCK!

2. Olivia Newton John. You can't get much more awesome than ONJ. I remember my sister and I playing her record over and over again (of course there was always that skip on the record in the same part of the song). Olivia was especially cool in Xanadu ... rockin the roller skates and the shoelaces in her hair. That chick had style.

3. Punky Brewster. I wished that girl was my BFF.

4. The store GREAT NEWS! .....Oh man I miss that little shop! This place was the most awesomest store ever!! Half an aisle full of all kinds of awesome candy that you can hardly find anymore. Like gum cigarettes with real puffing smoke, cinnamon toothpicks, candy buttons, bit-o-honey, Abba Zabba etc. They also always sold those awesome NEON lights, like the pink flamingos and neon green palm trees. So trendy. I think I always got my favorite cabbage patch & smurf figurines there too. What a store! I wish that place never went out of business! :(

5. Latchhook. Remember these things? I loved getting a brand new box of latchhook!! (probably got them at Great News too). I don't know if I ever really finished an entire latchhook rug though. It was always fun at first, but it would get boring after awhile. It was always exciting when you finally got to switch yarn colors!

6.MINI ARCADE GAMES! SO much fun. Qbert, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Frogger. SUPER HIGH TECH for the 80's!

7. Choose Your Own Adventure books. What an awesome idea!! Why don't they make these anymore?? Your best bet with these books was to choose the scariest option and face your battles head on. ...If you chose the "run away from the scary monster" or especially the "run and get help" option, you were almost certainly going to die some horrible death by a freak of nature accident on your way to go get help. Go figure.

8. Jelly shoes! ... On second thought, maybe I don't really miss these things or the the nasty blisters these shoes would leave on your heels. But you HAD to rock a pair of jelly shoes if you wanted to look cool! And there was no way at my age that my parents would have allowed me to rock the MADONNA style. So neon colors and jelly shoes was about as far as I could go with the 80's fashion statement. (And of course maybe the side ponytail).

9. George Michael, Faith Video. Self Explanatory.

10. John Hughes movies. They just don't make em like that anymore. It was definitely was a sad day when he died. Some Kind of Wonderful, 16 candles, Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Thankfully his movies can be watched over and over again, but the 80's (thanks to John Hughes) was definitely a great movie making era.

SO many great things from the 80s!.... Rubix Cube, Big Wheel, Pee-Wee's playhouse, mixed tapes, shrinky dinks, Merlin, Simon, INTELLIVISION (yes even before the Atari) , Big hair, Gemco, bangles & loads of bracelets, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince.

Man I miss the 80s.

A Few of my Favorite Things....

OK, so I am in the mood for writing a fun blog. It's a little "shout out" to some of the many things in life that make me happy. If you haven't tried any of these things on my list, I highly recommend it.

1. Mango Fruitista from Taco Bell!! YUM!! (A little piece of vacation in a cup.) I think I even hear reggae music in the background when I drink one of these.

2. LOVE LOVE LOVE driving in my new car with the top down. Traffic is not a bad thing anymore and I look forward to driving. It just makes everything better once I get in the car with the top down and radio up.

3. The Robert Pattinson Pandora station. Trust me on this one.

4. Which brings me to an obvious favorite. My Ipod. (*thank you Ami and Justin!!) I didn't know what I was missing before this thing!! :) Life is just better with great tunes.

5. Lemon pie and sweet tea at Chick-Fil-A. 'Nuff said.

6. McDonald's sugar cookies. Best. Cookies. Ever. (which then brings me to my next favorite thing)....

7. Embarrassing as it may be.... every woman needs to know about this little secret called the "SQUEEM". (Especially after eating all those Lemon pies and sugar cookies.)

Yes, my best friend, the Squeem. (model 26J to be exact.)

Yeah... um... so when I was online researching body shapers and came across a review that said this thing sucks in your tummy so much that it might even make you pass out, I was like, "BINGO!!" 50.00 later and I wonder how I ever lived before without this thing. Hey ladies.... BEAUTY IS PAIN. Are you with me?.... One day I might actually do some real exercise to get skinny, but as for now, I will embrace the laziness that is THE SQUEEM.

8. Facebook. I love you facebook.

Lets face it, once we become a Mom, our social days are history. Hanging with the girls can be hard to squeeze into our busy schedules. Trying to balance work, the home, getting the kids to school, helping with homework, grocery shopping, etc... it feels like there is never a time to just hang with our homies. At least facebook gives me some sort of way to socialize and keep a little bit of sanity.

9. Books!!

Facebook has taken some time away from this love of mine, but when I do find a really good book it makes me happy. ♥ Some of my absolute favorites: Lolita, Chang and Eng, The Host, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter series, Twilight Saga (more of a guilty pleasure), and just recently getting into The Hunger Games series. And the best website to keep up with my book habit is www.goodreads.com (love this site).

10. Dance Parties with my kids! Okay, so once in awhile I have to force myself to get off my butt and try to squeeze in some exercise. I mean, I think I can see a definite trend above with my favorite things. Most of them involve me sitting on my happy butt, or scarfing down some sugar loaded goodies that are sure to add a few more bulges. No more bulges thank you, my SQUEEM already fits tight enough!

So...... what better way to exercise than in the privacy of my house, with my kids, who are the only ones that can appreciate the awesomeness of my white girl dance moves? I mean, I do have some MEAN robot skillz!

Alright, well anyway... I guess 10 things oughta do it for now. Just thought I'd share. Back to reality again and time to go do one of my not so favorite things and start some dinner I guess. Peace out!

Hole in my heart

Well.... it is nearing 11:00 pm and my brain is swirling with anxiety and since I am unable to sleep, I thought I would try to blog. It feels like longer than a week ago that my Grandpa passed away, yet it has only been 4 days ago. It is weird how sometimes you will be going along okay and then other times it hits you again like a wave in your stomach. Tonight was one of those nights. I was lying there reading my book and was actually starting to fall asleep and then, "Wham"... from out of nowhere I got this dropping feeling in my gut knowing that his viewing is tomorrow and funeral services the next day.

It really is like each person close in your life has this special place in your heart or like footprints they leave in your soul. When they are gone you get these panicky feelings once in awhile thinking about how things are going to be different without them. Like there are these holes left in your heart and soul....

Like a part of you, is also going to change without them. Each person that I love so dearly in my life makes up who I am as a person. Without these people, I would be a completely different person.

Although my heart has more of a hole than it did before, I know that because of this amazing man, our family has been blessed with the lessons he taught us. He was a man who even when he made it big and had a successful business that was making a large amount of money, never let it go to his head. He became well known in the racing industry, but remained humble and generous. He never forgot about the people that weren't as fortunate as him. He would donate money, buy gift cards for food to those who were in need. He would tip big, smile big and talk to strangers. He genuinely cared about people and was such a likeable man because of his warmth. He was always thankful for the blessings in his life and so many times would talk about what a great family he had and how proud he was.

Death can be a wake up call to remind you that life is a constantly changing thing and that you never know what will happen next. That it is out of our hands and that we need to let God guide us, so that we can make the best choices in life to stay a good person and do things according to his will. I am so proud and thankful that I was able to have such big footprints in my heart that helped mold me into the person I am today. Thank you so much Grandpa. You will be missed, but never forgotten.

Inspired to Blog again...

Yes, it has been awhile. I have been inspired to blog again due to a new friend's most AWESOME blog site. ( http://traceygjones.wordpress.com/ )

Her blogs make me smile, some make me get choked up, many are inspiring and heartwarming, some are just plain silly, but mainly they are just HONEST and so well written! They inspire me to write blogs again, but in a different way.... Not just about what happened in the past week, but about my random feelings or thoughts. Not about the specific things that I did, but more about the crazy stuff that goes on in my brain. I think I will try to blog a little more often about that.

I wonder sometimes if people take as long to write a blog as I do. So many jumbled thoughts that run through my brain, but they never seem to come out right when I do finally decide to write one. I always feel like if I could paint pictures of what I see in my head, or write down the things that I think about, I could have written some awesome books. But nope. I start writing a story, and half way through, my brain freezes up. I am impatient and ready for it to end, and I find myself rushing through a great story to finish up with a sloppy ending..... Kinda like the movie, "IT" by Stephen King. (What on earth HAPPENED in the last half of that movie anyway?)

Anywhooo... where was I? ...Oh yeah. - I guess that is why when I was younger I stuck to just writing poems instead. (And some very lame, rushed diary entries that are too embarrassing to read over again.) When I write, it has to be short and sweet or I will bore myself. So I guess I will see if I can try this blogging thing out again. I want to get in touch with my creative side and know that art is NOT an option for me. (didn't get that gene). My theater days are in the past now, so maybe I will just blog once in awhile.

Peace out for now.