Monthly Archives: May 2008

Building A Strong Family

Posted on by
1

Remember the days when families used to sit together as a family for dinner. Talk about their days and bring laughter into their lives. Our society has cut this out of their lives and it’s sad. It’s sad that families are so busy that they don’t stop to appreciate what God has given them. A beautiful family that should be providing each other with unconditional love.

Bringing families close and together is a very important thing to the Mormon church, as it is to most religions. We implement something into our homes that strengthens our families and all it takes is one night a week.

It’s called Family Home Evening. Monday nights, the majority of the members of the church are gathered together in their homes strengthening the bonds that God has given us with our families. It’s a date and time that’s a guarantee in each of our homes that we will be together as a family, without media, without stresses, just us, God and the ones we love.

The way Family Home Evening is typically organized is as follows:

Opening Prayer
Sing a church song together
Quick lesson on any of these topics
Family Activity
Special Treat
Closing Song
Closing Prayer

You don’t have to be a member of the Mormon church to practice this. You don’t have to even give lessons or sing songs. Just having a set day a week to do some family activity together will do amazing things. Even if it’s just playing a board game and eating some ice cream afterwards.

Today is Monday, which means “Family Home Evening Time” We are going to be giving a lesson on Honesty. Our family activity will be planning what decorations we’re going to do for Papa Norm’s new studio at a nearby Retirement community. He should be arriving on the 1st and I already have the keys. So, we’re going to have it decorated when he walk in, so it feels like home. Tonight we’ll have Jayden draw some pictures and we’ll plan out what we will need to go over and decorate – then next Monday night our activity will be doing the actual decorations. Our special treat will be Cookies N’ Cream Pie…. mmmmmm I definitely can’t wait for that!

I hope that I get some of you out there to join in with me. I’ll try to update every Monday with what he have planned. If you have ideas for great lesson ideas or activities, or even a yummy treat recipe you’d like to share please leave a comment and share it. Remember, you don’t have to be Mormon to have a Family Home Evening. It’s the perfect opportunity to have your entire family together to talk about any family topics that need to be discussed also 🙂

Watch out little kids – a Security System is coming to YOU!

Posted on by
Reply

I have an opportunity today to talk about a company called Barcode Discounts. I went to the website for a quick review and was pleased to see that they sell security systems!! I was just talking with my Grandma about getting a security system put in the mobile home park that I manage, which is located in Nevada…. and I’m in Oregon. We’ve had situations where the park has been vandalized by kids and a security system is exactly what we need.

This company offers things from wireless hand held computers to zebra thermal labels. It’s a fun little website to check out. They offer same day shipping AND low price guaranteed.

It was a total Southwest Airlines moment….

Posted on by
1

You know those moments when your kid says something that makes you want to crawl into a hole and never come out? This was a total “Need to get away” moment that Southwest Airlines advertises for.

A couple of years ago we were at my mom’s house when some of my sister’s guy friends showed up. One of her friends was a relatively large guy. Jayden walked up to him and tapped him on his belly and said, “Did you eat all the foods.”

I so wish I wasn’t standing there for that moment, but then again it’s something that we all still laugh about.

FOR THE BLOGGY GIVEAWAY CLICK HERE

Cha Ching Isn’t So Bad

Posted on by
1

I started this blog last year to start making a record of our family history. I wanted one solid, concrete place to keep everything that is important to me. After I started my blog it became a place that my friends and family from California could go to see pictures and videos of the kids. From there my blog turned into a place where I began to meet other bloggers and I found this community that is different from any that I’ve ever experienced. The advice that I’ve received from these bloggin’ mamas has been a major asset to my life.

Like I announced before I’ve started to use my blog to also start making money. I’m going to be paid to advertise on my blog and some might think that what I’m doing is wrong. I’m exposing my children more and I’m taking what was supposed to be a blog for my family and turning it into a cha ching site. That’s okay with me. I thought long and hard before I made this decision and I found more pros than cons. This is a way that I will be making extra money for my family. I most definitely will still be blogging about my family, my faith & everything else I was blogging about before I started advertising on my blog. There’s nothing wrong with doing things that will help out your family financially.

I have found a community for advertisers and bloggers that I am excited to have come across. It’s called SocialSpark. They have opportunities that they post that you can write about certain products and get paid for them. The owners of Payperpost (IZEA) have made this community and it is the best place to be able to make a direct connection with advertisers out there. I joined this community yesterday and have had a great time going around and viewing other people’s profiles and seeing how they go about advertising on their blogs.

The only flaw that I have found is that it takes a while for your blog to get verified. I’m hoping that my blog verification is approved soon so I can start taking advantage of the opportunities that I’ve seen on there.

To see what the profiles look like CLICK HERE. That’s my profile and if you browse around you might actually like it and want to take advantage of this cool community that I’ve found. Think about the things you could do with the extra money you make. My plan is for the money to go straight into savings and put some towards family vacations and some towards the kids college funds. Maybe you have something you would like to advertise. Then go there and you can get people all over the blog world to advertise what it is that you want everyone to know about… even if it’s your website.

Ella Gettin’ Down

Posted on by
Reply

Here’s a video of Ella dancing. She’s been doing this really hilarious face and we caught it on video!! I wish I did this with Jayden. I know we have some video of him, but sadly I don’t even know where the tapes are. Hopefully when I start going through the boxes in the garage I’ll stumble upon them.

Note to Ella:

My beautiful baby girl, you dance better than J Lo, baby ~ you go, girl!

Ella Gettin’ Down

Posted on by
1

Here’s a video of Ella dancing. She’s been doing this really hilarious face and we caught it on video!! I wish I did this with Jayden. I know we have some video of him, but sadly I don’t even know where the tapes are. Hopefully when I start going through the boxes in the garage I’ll stumble upon them.

Note to Ella:

My beautiful baby girl, you dance better than J Lo, baby ~ you go, girl!

Planning Our Trip to Vegas

Posted on by
Reply

I’m actually getting pretty serious about this trip to Las Vegas. I’ve almost got the entire trip planned. I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, and that is a MUST do on my list. They have a Pirates of the Caribbean show that Jayden would go CRAZY over.

The only downfall to the whole trip is the heat, but there’s a Wet N’ Wild right on the strip. Jayden’s never been on a water slide before…. he’s going to LOVE IT!!!

I thought about driving, but let’s face it. I don’t want to take that long of a trip with Ella – the trip coming home from Sacramento on Easter took us 2 hours longer than usual. So I think if we go through with this trip we’ll fly and rent a car. There’s so many car rental companies, but I found one that has some awesome specials! Advantage Rent A Car is a lot cheaper than the company I used (I don’t even remember what the name of the place was) when Ella had to be admitted into the hospital in Portland. They would have saved me a lot of money! If you’re planning on a trip or need a car rental, make sure you check out Advantage Rent A Car and see if they’re in your area.

GIVEAWAY For Baby & Mom

Posted on by
19

The winner of this Bloggy Giveaway will win a $10.00 Enfamil Check (if you don’t use Enfamil you could always give it to someone you know) and a Body Wash & a Body Cream – THEIR CHOICE of fragrance from Bath & Body Works what mom doesn’t love a little smell good, feel good? I’ve been reading a lot about mom’s getting shafted on Mother’s Day and I thought this would be nice for some mom out there.

Leave a comment and then I will do a random drawing on Thursday. You have until 11:59pm Wednesday (5/21/08) night PST to get your entries in. I will email the winner as well as post the winner on my blog. So, make sure that your email is provided. Good luck to all!!

GOOD LUCK!

Jayden and Pets

Posted on by
1

On Friday we bought a little aquarium kit for Jayden. He wants a pet. I’m just not a pet kind of person. We’ve had some pretty interesting episodes with pets, and it just doesn’t work in this house. Here’s a little background on our pets…..

Molly was our kitty. She was a tuxedo cat and we found her at the bottom of our stairs at our apartment building. I fell in love with her, so we ended up keeping her. Little did I know that I was inviting the spawn of Satan into our home. This little ball of fur kitty made her way into our home and then into our hearts. Then she turned. I was scared to death of her, and I would have to shut my door at night to keep her out of my room. It brought her great pleasure in attacking my face while I slept. Jayden still has scratch marks on his arm from her.

There is one image that will forever be embedded in my mind. Jayden was only 2, actually probably even younger. He got ahold of Molly’s tail and took off running. He was doing laps around the couch and Molly was flying behind him. I started to chase him to save the poor little demon, but I couldn’t stop laughing and Jayden probably got a good 10 laps around the couch in. We ended up giving Molly to an old friend of mine, and Molly ended up in the pound.

My friend had told me that Molly was pregnant when the pound picked her up, and a couple weeks after that we went to the pound to see if we could find a puppy. We walked past the cats and there was Molly and her litter. There was no mistaking that it was her, she still had the same evil eyes staring into my soul.

Then we got Baxter. Baxter was a beagle and was such a sweet, friendly dog. I really did love that boy! One day I was in the shower and when I came out into the living room Jayden was watching cartoons and Baxter was nowhere to be found. I finally asked Jayden and he told me, “Baxter wanted to buy a pie, so I let him out to go to the store.” We never saw Baxter again.

Jayden doesn’t have a very good track record with pets, so hopefully we can’t do any wrong in going with fish. There’s not much he can do to them, right?

Ramblings On Me

Posted on by
3

It’s the stake conference at church today and we’re not going. I really did want to go, but I really didn’t want to make Jayden sit through that for 2 hours. Not to mention, 1 hour of Sacrament meeting with Ella is hard enough, 2 hours is unthinkable. I am sad though that I’m missing out on all of the great talks they’ll be having today.

Lately, I’ve been struggling with this whole hormone issue that I’m having. I’ve lost all patience and I know that it’s effecting my family. Yesterday I freaked out on Gino for the mere fact that he didn’t get Jayden’s new fish aquarium ready the prior day so that we could go get the fish. Then I freaked out because Ella was whining and I needed a break. He chose to go and get the fish aquarium ready instead of take Ella and that made me even more mad. That is psychotic. I’m flipping over the stupidest things and I just want to feel normal again. This was all on his lunch break, which he should have been able to come home and relax, instead he had to deal with his hormonal wife. I did end up taking Gaba Ease as soon as he left and it was like a reformation…. you’d think I was bipolar.

I’m on day 2 of taking my progesterone, and I think I might feel a little bit different today. Gino’s been playing GTA4 all morning, and I’m not feeling the normal fury that I do feel when he plays. So, we just might be having some progress here.

I don’t want to get irritated with everyone the way I have been. I want the patience that my family deserves, and I hope that we all see a difference in me soon. If these progesterone pills don’t change the way I’ve been, then I’m probably going to have to make the decision to take out the Mirena IUD. I’d hate to do that, because at this point I don’t want to be prone to having any more kids. I’m not very good at taking other forms of birth control, and an oops baby just wouldn’t work.

I think today I might need to do some major scripture reading and prayer. Going to church always makes me feel so much better, but since we don’t have that today I need to do some personal scripture study. That probably means that the BOM blog will be updated today.