Girls Weekend

This past weekend, we went to St. George for a much needed girls trip. My Mom, Kristi and I drove and met Tara in St. George. Kelly and Cherish were already there. They came to celebrate their anniversary and let us crash the party and stay at the house with them. Tara wasn't able to come until Saturday morning due to her boys being sick but we were so grateful she was able to make it. It wouldn't have been the same without her. Friday night, my Mom, Kristi and I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was so yummy. After that, we just went back to the house and chatted. Saturday morning, we got up early and went to the St.George temple. It was such a great experience and such a perfect way to start out the day. After that we all went to breakfast including Tara and Kelly and Cherish. Then we went shopping all day. I was surprised I didn't spend more money but I guess that's a good thing. We had a great time. In between all the shopping, we also got pedicures. We went to dinner at The Pizza Factory. It was really good also. Then we went and saw "Letters to Juliette". It was a cute girly, chick flick. We talked until 2 a.m. Saturday night and then got up Sunday to pancakes, courtesy of Kelly. Then we cleaned up, and departed. It went so fast but was such a great time. It was my Mom's birthday on Sunday so we treated her to her pedicure and dinner on Saturday. I'm glad I was able to go and bond with my sisters and Mom. I think we are going to make it an annual tradition. I wish I would have gotten more pictures but sometimes it's just a pain in the A to take the pics and drag the camera everywhere.

Just Keepin' It Real.....

Disclaimer....this post could be depressing and/or boring so be forewarned.

Where do I start? I have been doing this blogging thing for about 2 years or so, give or take and I have enjoyed it. I usually keep my posts positive and happy and about the good things going on in our lives....however, just because this blog is always happy, doesn't mean that occasionally things are kinda crappy. I've been a little down in the dumps as of late and can't quite pin it down to one thing but a few things.

-My weight...I put this first because this is probably the biggest downer with me right now. I really hate it and while I know I'm not ginormous (sp), I am definitely in the "overweight" category. It even told me that when I did a BMI assessment online. Not that I needed that to tell me what stares me in the face every night. I go to the gym pretty regularly and I try to watch what I eat but if I eat one bad thing, I'm doomed. All I seem to be able to do is maintain and as far as losing, I pretty much have to starve myself. Ewww I hate it. It's not fun for me to go clothes shopping because none of the cute stuff looks cute on me. It gets quite depressing.

-My life...I LOVE that I am a mom to Noah and he is my world so don't get me wrong but at this point in my life, I always imagined that I would have 4 or 5 kids and be happily married. Now I'm divorced twice and not sure that I want to take the plunge again after 2 bad experiences. I hate that Noah doesn't have siblings and doesn't know what its like to grow up with siblings and 2 parents in the home. I try to pattern things in our life as though we do have a family but our family is just the 2 of us. I still try and do things with him like FHE and family activities even though it is just us. I hate that he is growing up so fast. Please time...just stop and let me enjoy his childhood a little longer.

-My age...okay, I'll be turning 39 soon and then next is the big 4-0. I can't stand the thought of it. I think next year on my birthday, I will just want to curl up in a ball and die. I wish there were some way to stop it, to freeze myself in my current age..Why do we have to get old? Seriously, is it really necessary? Awww!!!

-My job...so I've been a nurse for 15 years and for all of those 15 years, I have had job security. I could work anywhere, anytime, work overtime,etc. Now suddenly, in the past few months, there is an overabundance of nurses and its harder to get my hours and shifts that I want. There has been talk of layoffs and it just scares the crap out of me!! I'm a single mom and I'm the bread winner. I just pray that I can keep my job and get the hours I need to make ends meet.

Well, I feel better now that I vented. I really didn't mean this as a "poor me" post but I know it sounds that way. I know I need to be grateful for the blessings that I do have. I know there are people who definitely have it worse than me. I guess I just wanted to blog about this because although we do a lot of fun things and are enjoying life, it isn't always that way. Sometimes I let my fears get in the way and I know life just isn't rosey all the time. So I figured I was just keepin' it real.

Bunco

Last Thursday night was Bunco night. Just to back track a bit last year, I attended my high school reunion and a couple of us from the reunion thought it might be fun to start a Bunco group. It's kind of a mixed group but it has been a lot of fun. The girls from high school are Ronalee Kimberlin, Lisa Foster, Jenny Buell and Christy Gates. It has been so much fun playing with them and getting to know them all over again. We meet once a month and take turns hosting at each others houses. Last Thursday, it was at my house. I was a little nervous due to lack of space but I think it turned out okay. Everyone seemed to have fun and liked the prizes. My mom even came and subbed for us last minute because Lisa hurt her foot and wasn't able to come.
This was the "biggest" prize and Jenny got it for getting the most Bunco's. She had like 6 Bunco's which is pretty unusual.

These were what we call the "booby" prizes. Everyone walks away with a prize so these were what everyone got that didn't win anything. I thought they were cute and they were filled with mini candybars.

Pinewood Derby

Another fun year of the Pinewood Derby. It was this past Saturday night. Noah always gets so excited for this event. He and Kent made his car and they painted it a hunter green with white stripes and put letters that spelled out Jazz for the Utah Jazz. It was a nice looking car. Kent knows someone that helped them do the car that knows hot to make one that is guaranteed to win. I guess the guy knows what he's talking about because Noah won again this year. I tried to talk to him and let him know it wasn't all about the winning but just trying to have fun. He said he understood. He also got awards for the "smoothest finish". They even gave out trophies this year that they are getting their names engraved on and what place they took.





Noah getting his trophy and awards

Spring Break and Easter

Noah got out of school last Tuesday for Spring Break. He had Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the weekend and then Monday off before he had to go back. It was nice to have the break although I think he has started to get bored and is ready to go back. The weather wasn't cooperative at all. We had a couple of pretty good snow storms so there wasn't a lot of playing outside, unfortunately. We spent Easter Sunday with Kristi and her family. My parents are on vacation in Hawaii. (We're all feeling pretty bad for them (:) Between Kristi and I, we managed to pull off an Easter dinner complete with ham, funeral potatoes, jello salad and rolls. Okay so I burned the rolls and they didn't raise and so I ended up buying some but everything else turned out great. We also had an Easter egg hunt in Kristi's backyard for the kids and they got tons of candy. It seemed odd not having my parents around but I'm sure they were enjoying themselves in Hawaii and we had a good time anyway.




We didn't do much while Noah was off but we did go and see "How To Train Your Dragon" in 3D. It was a pretty cute movie. We also dyed Easter eggs and went on an Easter egg hunt. We weren't going to go on a Easter egg hunt this year due to the weather but someone posted something on Facebook about there being an indoor one at the Hollywood Connection that didn't start until 1030 so we ended up doing that one. It was nice because it was inside and we were warm but it was pretty crowded and Noah didn't get very many eggs. He also got to have his cousin, Josh, sleep over and they had a great time staying up late playing video games and watching movies. They are such great buddies. Now back to the good old routine and hopefully Spring weather soon.

Bump Off!!

We have this game in my family called, "Bump Off". It's a lot like the game "Sorry". It's been in my family for as long as I can remember. I remember playing it a lot with my Grandpa Newman when he would come to stay with us. You can play with a partner or just be on your own. My dad made each of us siblings our own board so I have been playing it with Noah from time to time. It's a fun game. I figured since it has been around so long and that we all love to play it, it is considered "blogworthy" right? We all seem to play it a lot more around the holidays when the games come out of the closet.

Go Jazz!!

Last month, Noah and I went to a Jazz game. It was the free tickets we got for going to the Larry H. Miller sing a long in December. The seats weren't great but we had such a blast being there. The fans get so into the games and its such a fun atmosphere. I decided after that game that I wanted to try and get some tickets and sit in the "good seats". I've never been able to sit close and I knew Noah would love it. I splurged and got some tickets from someone off KSL. He game me a pretty good deal and we were just kiddie corner from the basket. We had so much fun. They played the LA Clippers and won. The game was a little iffy at times but the Jazz pulled it out. We got to the arena pretty early and the Jazz bear was signing autographs so Noah had him sign his jersey and then the bear asked me if I wanted to take a picture of him and Noah together so I did. I've started becoming a little more of a Jazz fan since Noah has gotten so into lately. They are fun to watch but so much more fun when you are actually there.

Deron Williams #8-Noah's favorite player