What do I Know...

Don't buy the expensive stuff! Recently we had our dishwasher door repaired. I spent about an hour before the repair guy came scrubbing, unsuccessfully, the grime in the dishwasher. I was feeling pretty embarassed about it, after all, I am a clean person! I had been wondering, for the longest time, why it was such a problem. I figured it was the water around here. Good thing I couldn't get it clean, because the repair guy saw and told me it's cascade dishwasher detergent. He said all the expensive brands of detergents are full of additives that collect on the inside of your dishwasher and dishes! He recommended I start buying the cheapest generic brand of detergent. Boy, was I skeptical, but it worked. You should see my dishwasher and dishes now. They are sparkling clean, no more icky film. So don't buy the expensive stuff!

What do I Know...

Ok, I love it when people share their little secrets of success or such. I am going to start sharing mine.

I think Downy, April Fresh, fabric softener is the best. But, if you're like me and crave change, Snuggle exhilarations, peach blossom & sunshine swirl is one of my new favorites. So try it out.

Also, The Children's Hour in slc is my new favorite shopping spot. It's about 900 E. 900 S. in Salt Lake City. They sell clothes, books, toys, and boutique type treasures. My girls were entertained for 2 hours with the little girls section of toys, books, and clothes. We bought Tay some boots, me a cook book, and some cute socks.

Christmas Pee

We went shopping for our Christmas Tree today. The girls were running around the tree lot, while Chris and I followed. They were having the time of their lives hiding in trees, seeking out the perfect tree. Taylor quickly made us aware that she needed to go to the bathroom. We found a port-a-potty for her to use, by this time it was dark and scary. She refused for a while and then had to go so bad she had to succumb to the dark and scary port-a-potty. She came out crying because she didn't realize she needed to put the lid up and went pee on the lid and all over herself. Chris and I are still trying to understand how you can sit on the toilet and not realize you haven't put the lid up. hee- hee- hee. We were laughing about the poor succor who will use it next and wonder why the toilet is all wet. We had a big laugh about this afterward. As this year will be remembered as the year we picked out our tree and Taylor had a Christmas Pee.

New York in October

Here's some pics of Chris and my New York trip. I'm putting all of them on facebook if you want to take a look. Central Park
Subway
Times Square
right outside our Hotel
Shopping on 5th avenue
My dream apartment, if I lived in New York.

Brooke loves Garbage!

This is Brooke loving garbage. A few weeks ago I wrote about this in a "Peek at Our Week."
Here's the picture! Now that we have a new camera:)

Gym Guru Says:

A trick to shrinking your waistline. All through the day try sucking in your abs. Belly button to spine. As I like to say... "zip and hollow"! Try this while cleaning, cooking, folding laundry, driving, reading to your kids, anywhere really. It will help strengthen your stomach muscles and create a smaller waistline as well. A two for!
-Gym Guru

Opening Night

After Thursday night's performance Taylor came home to this.
Thanks Mindy, Quinn, Grandma and Grandpa:)
Check out the scarf on the gingerbread in the background. They were decorated so cute!

Ballerinas will be Ballerinas

Nutcracker Extraordinaire




This has been a busy week, but Taylor and I have had so much fun together! A great mother daughter experience!

Gym Guru says:

Just so you know there is a new disease taking over women everywhere. I have just discovered it! I call it Sciborea (aerobics spelled backwards). After my workout I stretch out by the aerobics room and there is a big painted AEROBICS on the wall vertically. As I stretch I stare up at that word and see SCIBOREA. Year after year I see the same women, some old veterans to Golds Gym and some newly recruited and some inbetween, doing the same classes over and over again. They never change. They still look as fat as ever, as medium as ever, as untoned as ever...what possesses them to go on. I've decided it's the new disease Sciborea. So let me define Sciborea for you so you can beware!
Sciborea-
An undying love for repetitive, unchanging, resultless workouts. Cardio feasters. The feeling that the more goofy positions you can move your body into quickly the more weight you will loose. Listening to music that will deafen you one day. Making animalistic cheering noises to motivate ones self. Taking directions from a leader who really has Sciborea worse than anyone and cannot be trusted. The fear of metal, especially that it may expand your width.

Beware Sciborea, it is taking over many of our loved ones. Don't be afraid to pump iron, and change up your cardio a little bit. Get out of the Sciborea box and live, dang it, live:)
-Gym Guru

A Peek at Our Week November 10-16

This week we had a lot of time. I don't really know why, it just felt like we had time. We didn't do anything very productive with it either. We just took it easy and relaxed a lot. It was nice! Sometimes when you have a lot of extra time you start getting bored and cook up crazy ideas. Like moving rooms around, painting, reorganizing, crafts...thinking about these types of things. We even thought about painting a wall black, we're still thinking about that one. It could be really good or really awful. I'm a little afraid of black, how many coats would that take. And how many to cover it up if it was terrible?

We watched "Home Alone" together. I never realized how many naughty things/words that movie can teach your kids:)

We went grocery shopping, never a fun thing for me, and after an enduring walk through the aisles, at the check out my girls opened a big pack of chapsticks and started trying them all on. I was somehow oblivious to this, and when realized, it was too late. We had to purchase all the chapsticks, most without lids, because they were taken off and thrown all over. It's actually been a good thing for my lipsticks however, they are glad to have a break from little kid fingers and spit. We did purchase some really tasty pears and oranges, they must be in season.

The girls have been extra wild this week. Running around a lot. Screaming a lot. Fighting a lot. Must be the lazy extra time thing. I also think they are getting Christmas hyper, it happens earlier and earlier every year.

Taylor has been thinking a lot about her eyes and how you should be careful not to roll them too far back, too far to the right, or too far to the left as they may get stuck that way! She has also informed us she has her dance completely memorized for the nutcracker. She's been dancing her little heart out.

Brooke is the master negotiator in the kid bunch. She is always saying things like "If you don't do it my way, then you can't be on my team!" This really works for her, the other two really want to be on her team for some reason, and will do practically anything she wants to earn that honor. I am still trying to figure out what the team is and what the team does.

Presley is her sisters shadow lately. She loves to be a part of the action and fun. She has a mermaid barbie who's tail falls off easily. She has spent most of the week looking for this tail, actually making me and Chris look for it. She also had a little freak out when tuna spilled on her mermaid blankie. It was cute, and hard not to laugh at.

Chris found his keys. Attended a funeral. Wore his new coat (even got a compliment on it). Saw James Bond twice.

I didn't realize Chris had found his keys and had been looking all over for them. Took a few naps. Made some invitations for Relief Society Erichment. Saw James Bond only once.

We all went to tithing settlement. Our kids were wiggly and giggly and the Bishop just adores that about our girls. He was asking each of the girls if they were full tithe payers. When he got to Brooke she said "NO!" very loud and sure. We all burst out laughing, Bishop included. After that, everything anyone said seemed funny. It's the first comedy tithing settlement I've been to.

And that's a peek at our week.

8 Tag

8 things I'm looking forward to:

A new camera.
My hives going away.
New James Bond movie.
Reading my book "In the Woods."
Chris getting home from work.
Wearing my new boots.
Getting my Christmas shopping done.
Getting my new Checking Card-going crazy w/o it.

8 things on my wish list:

A new remote control for our fan, we haven't been able to use it for 2 years.
Chris finding his keys. They've been lost for 2 days, and I can't find them anywhere.
A driveway pad on the side of our house, it's just so ugly over there.
More time!
Someone to clean my house.
Snow.
Taylor to be done memorizing her times tables, it's been quite a struggle for both of us:)
Brooke's bangs to grow out, they're hard to manage.


8 TV shows I like to watch

The Office
Pushing Daisy's
Prison Break
The Late Show
Dr. 90210
Live with Regis and Kelly
Paris Hilton's my new BFF
Smallville

8 things that happened yesterday

Went to the craft store and decided to make blankets for my girls. Figured out how much it would be ($300) then decided to watch for a sale!
Looked at fake Christmas Trees.
Got a visit from Mother-in-law, right after I got out of the shower. I looked awful.
Tried to call my Grandma and a guy answered and I said "Grandma?" He said "No-no Grandma here!" Felt dumb!
Called Mom to get Grandma's new phone #.
Researched Chronic Hives, going to buy a book on it.
Helped my girls cleanup their playroom.
Watched a movie with Chris, and fell asleep.

I tag YOU!

What is it with Cardboard Boxes?

My kids love cardboard boxes. I heard a loud noise and went to check it out. My girls were making a little cottage out of a cardboard box. Cutting out windows and a door with a knife (loud sound), and cute paint (crayon actually). All these toys everywhere and the cardboard takes the prize! Taylor even said "Mom can I get some cardboard boxes for Christmas?" Looks like her Christmas dreams will be filled with ease this year! Wish I could post a picture, but we haven't purchased our new camera yet! I am planning to get one in the next few days! So pictures are coming!

Gym Guru says:

If your feeling headache y try drinking some water! Our body tries to talk to us and we need to listen. If we don't drink enough water our body may bring on a headache, muscle aches, or fatigue. So before you pop that Tylenol try some H2O.
-Gym Guru

A Peek at Our Week

November 3-9
We had a great week. The girls and I did some shopping at Pottery Barn, Tai pan, and Target. We had so much fun together, and they're getting good at helping me decorate/design our house! Chris even approved of all our purchases.

Chris and I finally got a book shelf for all the books he is reading! We also enjoyed some Swedish meatballs at Ikea after. Got our dishwasher door repaired, a $24 part that cost $190 in labor! Go figure. Another reason we don't jump on the dishwasher door like it's a trampoline.:) Lost another camera, that's the second camera lost this year! We're still debating who's fault it was. As of late, it was the janitor at Chris' office?!*^%** Actually we just feel bad for Pictureline and so we are keeping them in business, ya that's it.

We had a lovely family dinner with Trump side, everyone was delightful and cheery.

Taylor is celebrating Miley Cyrus' Birthday today! Brooke is playing sea creatures and princesses. Presley is loading up on milk. I guess she thinks the current state of our economy may take a toll on her milk consumption, so she's getting it while she can!

Chris is bugging us all by saying "Yes We Can" all the time. He had a Daddy Daughters night out and took the girls to Madagascar 2. They didn't stop talking about it for 24 hours after. And we discovered he can steam carrots quite well!

I went to Texas Road House (restaurant) with some girlfriends. It was good so go check it out, I had ribs. I almost finished all my laundry, but it is attacking again. Oh and the Office this week was one of our favorites, you can probably check that out at hulu.com!

One last thing! We were in the car and Chris kept turning up the music really loud, this was really bugging Brooke. So she said, "Dad if you keep doing that then I will have nightmares and I will come wake you up tonight!" Another last thing. Brooke ate some candy and I told her to throw the wrapper away and she said, "No, I love garbage!" and then gave the wrapper a hug. She's the first person I know of who loves garbage, I'm sure she'll have a way less stressful life than her mother. Due to the fact that, she loves garbage.

And that's a peek at our week.

To Tell a Lie

I've been thinking about lying. Why do people lie? Is it pride, intimidation, insecurity? Kids do it because they don't want to get in trouble, but why adults? We know better-right! I know we aren't perfect and that it happens, but I was recently in an interesting situation. I told a friend (friend A) something about another friend (friend B) in casual conversation. Not gossip just a response to a question asked by friend A about friend B. Then later (not in my presence) Friend B lied to Friend A and I looked like the liar! How funny is that! Any way I've decided to always tell the truth no matter how painful or embarrassing. It always turns out better that way. People just loose respect for you if you lie. In my case the true liar was revealed in the end, lucky for me!
But are there times when a lie is the best idea? What if someone asks you, something like, if you think they look fat, and you do think they look fat, what then? What if you know your friends husband is doing something terrible behind her/his back, what then? What if someone tells you something and tells you not to tell, no matter what, what then. What are the rules?
The rules are as follows:
1. If you are in contact with a person at least 5 days of the week you are allowed to tell them they look fat and work on a solution together. If not, it's not worth it, just lie.
2. Always tell the wife/husband what she/he doesn't know. Anonymously if you have to, like a letter.
3. Never tell someone something private! It will get out! Keeping secrets is self destructive, no one should be asked to do it. So don't tell until your ready for people to know about it!!!

You Belong in 1991

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

A Peek at Our Week

We had a very fun Halloween. Got dressed up, got food, got candy-lots of candy, got wet, got home. Still eating candy. We Voted, nuff said. The girls are off track till December 2. We're already getting a little stir crazy around here. Chris is busy reading like 12 books. I asked him to clean up our dresser and put all the books he wasn't using away, and he informed me he is reading all of them! I think he just didn't want to clean up/jk. Chris also got his checking card stole, so that's been fun:/ I still have hives, guess it's chronic now, which means no cause and no cure, just have to wait it out for an undetermined amount of time. Taylor is proud of her clean room. Brooke is proud of her stories she's been telling the girls on the way to the gym. Presley is proud of a huge poo she did and made me come look at. BTW thanks for the new toilet Scott it makes us very happy! We are seemingly well and just being the Mayfield Five.