Beautiful is......

Lastnight I picked Shaylee up from Activity Days. Let me just start by saying that Shaylee is awesome. I'm not saying that because I am her mom-she really is-I believe Heavenly Father sent her to me so I can learn from her. She has so much to offer. She is completely selfless. Very thoughtful. She makes birthday banners for everyone in our family on their birthday-she even made one for herself one year. Pathetic-I know. I totally felt like mother of the year that year! She's like a 10 year old social worker. She loves to be a helper to kids at school that have it rough-she's always befriending a foster kid or the handicapped kids. She blows me away. Family Night when Shay is in charge? Watch out-she's over the top. Truly amazing girl.

SO...back to picking her up from Activity Days....here's our conversation:

Shay: "Mom-I love my Activity Day leader. She is so so so beautiful."

Me: "That's cool Shay. She really is pretty."

Shay: "Ya. You are pretty too, mom. But it IS way more important to be pretty on the inside. That's what you are."

Take that.

I already feel like I am looking at a fun house mirror every day-what the crap happened? Little chubby? Gray hair? Hello!? Now I know what my 10 year old thinks....

I still love Shay. I really do. I might just add a few minutes to my morning treadmill time-maybe get a pedicure even though it FREAKS ME OUT to have people (especially ones that don't speak a language I understand) touch my feet-and even though I am SUPER CHEAP about keeping up on my hair color maybe it's time to splurge. Any positive suggestions are welcome.

What True Love Looks Like.....

I am not a photographer. Never have been-never will be. It's the whole paying attention to details-I don't have the patience for that. This little beauty was at the Tooele Demolition Derby that Casey & I attended Saturday. The car drove away as I was snapping the picture so I didn't get what I wanted in my picture. If someone else-anyone else-took the picture you would be able to see that this fella painted "I Love Rach" on the side of his car with a huge yellow heart. Sweet....

For sure he loves her. A lot.

I've been married for almost 15 years. Casey is awesome. He works hard. He loves his crazy wife and his 4 kids that make us tired. We are so lucky to have him. He does a lot of sweet things for me. He's not the kind of guy that thinks to randomly bring home flowers BUT if he knows I've had a rough day he'll grab me a diet coke and a treat. He's super fun and comes to the grocery store with me and helps me cook dinner so he can visit with me. I love being married to my best friend. He makes me laugh every day.

My question is this-what does Rach look like? What does "fella" look like? I'd like to see this reality show. I know relationships are different and there are all kinds of good marriages. Being at ANY fair makes for great people watching-being at a demolition derby increases the quality of the people watching atleast a few notches-we sat by some doozies! I had a hard time watching the cars crash into eachother because there was too much entertainment in the stands...Pretty sure watching Rach & fella could be kinda fun. Not every guy paints the love of his life's name on the side of his car-especially when it's about to get crashed into. Does he love Rach or is it a joke? Do you paint your ex's name on your car if it's gonna get crashed into? The whole thought just makes me laugh! I'm positive Fella & Rach have been photographed at Walmart together.....

KiNdErGaRtEn for the 4th time.......

Jaycee with some of her cute friends in her class-it's going to be so much fun for her!
Jaycee with her super cute friend Kennedy-I love this kid almost as much as I love Jaycee! ;)
Jaycee sporting her brand new Twinkle Toes-they're the latest thing! ;) and her super huge back pack.

Ahhh...the baby of your family is always such a life changing experience. I remember the day Jaycee was born-it was the last time I would ever meet my new baby and spend precious moments in the hospital staring at my new miracle. She has represented lots of lasts in life. There was NOTHING sad about the last time I bought a package of diapers or the last time we went for kindergarten shots. I wish the last time I sent a child to kindergarten was like buying that last package of diapers! ;)

I knew this day was coming and knew it would be bittersweet. I know Jaycee will thrive in kindergarten. I know it's going to be so good for her. Her kindergarten teacher told me when she took her baby to the 1st day of kindergarten she sobbed in her car for a few minutes and realized she could go to the mall by herself. I know that a-ha moment will hit me also. Right now it's just weird and lonely-I miss my buddy! The school provided cookies & kleenex and I was super grateful for them! The only other thing I needed was a diet coke! haha I have to admit I cry on the first day of school for each of my kids. I'll probably do the same thing when they go to college. I think they are awesome and it makes me emotional to see them start a new grade and realize they are growing up. It's all happening so fast!

As for Jaycee-she's super ticked right now that she can't have Mrs Karren. She loves her. But I know she has an amazing teacher and will change her tune with time. She's got spunk and loves to learn and is surrounded by so many fun friends from our neighborhood! It's going to be a great year.....

The other kids 1st day of school pics? Didn't happen. Alyssa left for Oakcrest on their 1st day of school and had our camera. Dangit. They are loving school & have amazing teachers, also. Here we go!

Midvale Justice Court

I know you think just the title of this post sounds like fun. I did, too. It's where I had to go to pay my ticket. The ticket I got on my way to girls camp. Not anywhere glorious like Heber where camp actually was...I got my ticket in beautiful Midvale just trying to get to the freeway. I was super thrilled. So were the 2 young women in my car. One of them even told me she always wanted to be with someone when they got a ticket-so glad I was the one to fulfill her dream! ;)

SO I had to call after 5 days but before 14 days or I could have a warrant for my arrest. I made a phone call Monday to pay my ticket-I had my Visa all ready as I dialed the phone-I found out from that conversation I had to COME IN TO THE COURT to pay the ticket. Seriously???? And if I wanted to sign up for traffic school I could do that at the same time...it will only cost $25 in addition to the $90 I got to pay them for my speeding episode.

Alyssa is away at Oakcrest and Shaylee & Sawyer are in school so I decided that I would take Jaycee and get this taken care of today. We drove to Midvale-found the court-as soon as I entered I felt really weird. There had to be 75 people in the room and Jaycee & I were the only English speaking people there. That's sort of an exaggeration because there was a translator for the cop who was instructing the heard of people how to go thru the metal detector on their way into the courtroom. I waited in line to talk to a super sweet hispanic clerk-she was really nice-she laughed with me about my ticket and the opportunity I have to attend "Drivers Awareness School" any Tuesday in the next month. Jaycee for whatever reason decided to show off her Spanish skills she learned in preschool and started to count (of course not quietly) in Spanish. The sweet clerk said, "You go girl! You know Spanish!" Jaycee said, "Ya-I learned it in preschool." Super funny. My interpretation of the whole thing is I felt out of place because I couldn't understand anything anyone was saying and couldn't talk to any of them like I am known to do when I am around strangers....Jaycee took care of it for me. She had it all under control. What a funny girl!

Can't wait to return to Midvale to learn how not to speed. It's gonna be a blast. I hope they have an translator for me because after today I am sure I am going to need one. ;)

Another Not So Great Mom Moment....

It's always great when you feel like you are failing as a mom to your own kids....then you have someone else's kid in your care and you mess up....not so good!

Yesterday Shaylee had her cute friend Kylie & her cute friend MaKena playing. Infact, all of my kids had friends coming & going. The momentum of the day was cRaZy and I had to have Kylie home at 6:30. We dropped Kylie off just in the knick of time and MaKena wanted to come school shopping at Kohls with us. We shopped for a little while, Shaylee found the perfect first day of school outfit, and we started to head home. When we got into the car MaKena said, "Do you think we could have an eatover?" I looked at the clock-it said 8:00. P.M. Oops! Thank goodness Casey had made some ramen for the rest of our neglected kids and there was a little left over for Shaylee & Makena.

When the rest of you moms that have it all together are making your dinner plans please text me to make sure I didn't forget. Thanks.

Dear Awesome Sister In Laws

I am FINALLY participating in the recipe blog.....what a dang slacker I am! My recipes are all the chubby kind but I'll try to be better about posting recipes~it really is fun to have them all in one place! Love you all! ;)

Ensign Peak

We hiked Ensign Peak with our incredible young women Wednesday night. It was raining when we arrived-stopped for our hike-and then there was a complete downpour as we reached the parking lot. Small blessings!?

The view of the beautiful Salt Lake valley....
Our amazing young women~I think they are just awesome!!! Even super windblown they are beautiful!
SO grateful I get to work with such amazing women-I have learned so much from each one of them and still have a ton to learn from them. They have been such a blessing in my life! ;)