Thursday, November 8, 2012

Liebster Award

I was tagged in a post for this by my friend Trisha and thought it might be fun to answer some questions for a change.
Rules:
Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
Answer the questions the nominator asked,
and create 11 questions for your nominees to answer.
Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
Go to their page and tell them.
No tag-backs.
11 Things about Me
1.      I can’t go more than 6 months without changing my hair color
2.     I crack my knuckles….like all the time
3.     I can’t begin to describe my obsession with Peanut Butter Captain Crunch.
4.     I thought I was a dog person……turns out I’m also a cat person and love my cat more than is probably healthy.
5.     I’m a hypochondriac but I hate going to the doctor. I pretty much think everything is wrong with me. Slight pain? Why yes it was just a heart attack. Oh a headache? No it is a brain tumor. But if something really is seriously wrong I’m in trouble because most the time I refuse to go to the doctor and say I’ll tough it out. It’s a problem.
6.    I could eat Zupas any day of the week. It’s a problem considering I live hundreds of miles away from the nearest one. I have withdrawals often.
7.     Going back to school terrifies me and I have an extreme fear of failure. But not going back to school and regretting it and feeling useless (not that people who didn’t go to school are useless, just knowing my personality I make myself feel that way) years down the road terrifies me more, so I will be going, eventually, hopefully, soon, maybe?
8.     I absolutely hate politics but am SO grateful for the people who can stand it. It is extremely important but I just hate it and it drives me nuts. So I’m so glad there are people out there who can stand to do it.
9.     I love the smell of fresh cut grass. Every time I walk outside and smell it I know it’s going to be a good day. And if it’s raining? That’s even better, fresh grass+ rain=happiness and a flood of memories that rush back and make me smile!
10.  I absolutely hated it when I was there and couldn’t wait to leave, but some days………I actually miss High school and want to go back. Can you believe it? Some days though only some days haha.
11.   I am currently obsessed with the show Greys Anatomy right now. I found it a few weeks ago on Netflix when I was sick and now I can’t get enough of it. I’m going through withdrawals now because I watched the last episode they had on Netflix last night……it’s a problem.
 
My Answers to Trisha's Questions
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
This is a hard one because there are SOOO many places. I’ll have to pick two, one that is tropical, and one that is not. So for a tropical place I’m dying to go to Fiji. Eric and I have talked a lot about it and have put it on our bucket list. My Mama and Papa Simons scuba dive and were scuba instructors. They have been to all sorts of places on different trips and have said that Fiji is one of their favorites. So our goal is to sometime get scuba certified,….one day maybe, and then go to Fiji! For my second place I would have to say Europe. I know I know I’m sure most girls say this, and I know it’s a little unspecified but it’s hard to pick one place. I mean I would love to go to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower and go to many other place in France, Italy pretty much see everything, London, Scotland, Ireland…..getting the picture? It would be super hard to pick one place. Haha so I guess dream trip would be to have endless amounts of money and to go all over Europe bahah yeah right.

Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging because Eric and I moved away from most of our friends and family and I wanted to keep people informed if they wished. I mean only like 4 people read it, but hey those 4 people know what’s happening in my boring old life.

What do you enjoy doing on your weekends?
Not working. Hahah not that work sucks I just hate waking up and then sitting at a desk all day trying to stay awake. No it’s a problem actually because I always have such high hopes for weekends, and always intend on getting something cleaned or organized, but most the time it ends up just being me and Eric lounging together. We really love to go see movies if we go out and we really like being home bodies too! Monopoly and Skipo often take up hours of our weekend’s as well.

Who inspires you the most in your life?
Hm…that’s another hard one. My Mom, hands down. I mean I could name several other people as well but the first one that popped into my head was my Mother. I adore her. I have not always been very nice to her, and for that I'm sorry! But now I consider us closer than ever and I can tell her anything. She has always been there for me and is such an awesome example. She has been through so much and yet is so strong. I'm so proud that she is a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and because of her strength and steadfastness in the gospel I now get to have the riches of the gospel in my life!

What is your favorite post you've written?
Heck I don’t know. I’m not sure I love any of my posts. Hahah I kinda feel stupid every time I post, and a lot of times feel like I’m grasping at straws to write about something.

What is your favorite holiday, and why?
Halloween,…..or Christmas, it’s a tossup. I don't know why with Halloween. For some reason I have just always loved it. I loved dressing up, I love the decorating I just love it!. And Christmas is just awesome. I have such fond memories of Christmas and just warm feelings of being with family and thinking about Christ.

If you could re-live any moment in your past, what would it be?
Another hard one. My problem with this is I often can look at the past and get really happy and get really sad. I get sad for the moments I wish I could change, I get happy thinking of the good moments, and then I get sad again thinking about how I wish things were still like those good moments. For me I can’t say I would re-live or change anything because I wouldn’t want to change who I am or where I am in my life now. I can’t live a life with regrets you have to move on and learn from your decisions and know that everything happens for a reason. But if I had to pick one moment it would probably be my wedding day. I feel like I took it for granted. I was so stressed and flustered that I didn't take a breath. I was probably really mean to people and now don't remember much of it. I didn't even taste my cake for heaven’s sake. I would love to go back and relive that day and appreciate it more and not get so stressed over the small stuff. And also to have focused more on our time at the temple.

If you could choose any career, what would it be any why?
Party planner, event coordinator easy! Because I love it like seriously adore it. I love the brainstorming, the planning, the organizing, the setting up, I love it all. If I could get paid to plan parties and weddings all day I totally would!

If you could have 3 wishes, what would they be?
1. Be able to move back home and Eric and I still be able to find really awesome jobs, but we get to be with our family.
2. For Eric to graduate with His Mechanical Engineering degree with honors and find any job his heart desires.
3. To be able to be a party planner and have it be a successful career.
When you met your better half, was it love at first sight?
More like love after 3 days (Even though I refused to admit it at the time). At first I didn’t even remember who he was. We met at a LDSSA council thing really quick, but I met like 20 other guys as well and we all had about 5 minutes in total to spill random facts about each other. The next weekend I had a bunch of them add me on Facebook and Eric started chatting with me and got my number and we started texting for a few days. The WHOLE time I was thinking he was a different guy. I had paired him with different facts and a different meeting time. Haha so he asked me out and we planned a date. We went bowling and to dinner and had a lot of fun, but when he picked me up it was quite different than I had expected. Once we started talking and learning facts about each other I figured out when I had actually met him. The next day I was giddy with excitement and had the weirdest feeling. I didn’t really know what love was at the time but it had only been one date and for some reason I had this calm feeling in my heart and this idea in my head that he would be my husband. And about 8 months later he was. So love at first site? Eh m maybe, maybe by heart knew that but it took my head a few more months to come around and KNOW I loved him.
What is your biggest fear?
Hm….um probably the death of a loved one. I don’t really fear death for myself, but I do get scared thinking about losing people I love and being alone. Also exorcism movies. I use to LOVE scary movies, it was my thing, but then my sister convinced me to watch Exorcism of Emily Rose. Don’t get me wrong it really was a good movie, but I have had trouble with stuff about that ever since.
My Picks
I'm suppose to choose 11 peeps but the problem is like 3 people read my blog haha and I'm pretty sure only 1 has a blog or at least a blog they update so I'm only going to be able to pick a few.
1. Melodee Cooper Cooper Chronicles
2. Julianna Blake A Hermits Ranting Tantrums
3. Anna Simons Janes Stories
4. Lacie Boulter The Boulter Brood (hasn't updater her blog in like a year, so probably not happening)
5. Dianna Boulter The Boulter Bunch (hasn't updated in 2 years haha yeah....)
6. Leah Jones Leah's Latest Adventures ( Also hasn't blogged in a year)
7. McCall Cloward Musing and Losing ( Again has not blogged in a year)
8. LaNelle Simons South Carolina Simons
Okay can you tell I was grasping a bit to even find 8? Yeah I'm that awesome in the blogosphere
My Questions
1. What is your biggest pet peeve?
 
2. What is the scariest thing you’ve ever done?
 
3. If you could have any super power what would it be and why?
 
4. If you could live anywhere but where you live now where would you want to go and why?
 
5. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?
 
6. If you could have dinner with anyone in the world living or dead who would it be?
 
7. What is your favorite TV show or movie and why?
 
8. What’s the #1 thing on your bucket list?
 
9. What’s your favorite thing about yourself?
 
10. If you could switch lives with someone else who would it be and why?
 
11. Who is your idol?
 
 
 
 

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Halloween!!!

Well Eric got me this new toy a few weeks ago as an early birthday present
 
needless to say I have been sewing non stop ever since.  I love it!
 
But considering I have been sewing non stop I have kinda let the dishes get a bit out of hand.  So you want to know what I did on Halloween?  Oh yeah, three hours of dishes. Exciting, I know. 
Felt a little like this little man. Only I didn't have any magic to swoop in and finish the dishes for me!
 
  I did stayed late after work and helped my friends daughter with her costume. I made the costume and did her make up.  She wanted to be a zombie so that equaled A LOT of fake blood.
 
Photo: Me and Kairah going trick or treating !!!!!!!!!!
 
And that was pretty much the only essence of Halloween I saw all night.  Pretty lame I know.  Sad too since Halloween is my favorite holiday :( oh well better luck next year right?  Luckily we had done some Halloween things earlier that week.  We carved pumpkins yahahaha here are our finished products
 
 
I did an owl
 
 
Eric did Skelvis....haha get it? Awesome I know!
 
I even decorated a little bit!
Yeah I know it's not much....like at all... but its something.
 
I made the wreath a few weeks ago, just in time to have it up for about a week. That's about all the Halloween we got but oh well. 
 




So Halloween is gone and we are moving onto November. I made a fall wreath tonight out of some of the left over burlap I had from a shower. Here is the finished project
 

 
I guess not finished project actually because I might add a few more things.   I want it to actually look more like fall so we'll see what I come up with!
 
Happy November everyone!




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 
 

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Womens Luncheon


My Grandma and Aunts church has a women’s luncheon every fall.  They have about 30 tables and all of them are decorated by women who volunteer.  It’s all a fall theme but you are free to interpret that how you feel.  They have an awesome brunch and then a guess speaker.  I was able to go last year and help my aunt with a few last minute decorating things.  She did two tables so I was happy to help.  We had just moved to Midland and I was looking for anything to pass the time.  I loved it so much that I was able to help again this year.  My aunt again had signed up for two tables and we picked a zebra theme and a peacock theme.  Ha Ha can you tell we like to be different?  It was fun to see all the tables.  They were all SOOO gorgeous and so different, its fun to see all the different personalities come to play.  The funniest part though was walking into a room of orange and browns and then right in the center are our tables.  There they were, our bright turquoise and purple table and a black, red and white table popping out for everyone to see.   It was great!  The speaker was the Author River Jordan who wrote the book “Praying for Strangers.”  She was really great and heard a lot of awesome things I can apply in my life.  Here are the tables that we did complete with table settings and favors that we made.  I was pretty happy with them.  The peacock table was my baby haha not really I just already love peacocks and those are my favorite colors, so I had the most fun putting that one together.  It was suppose to be the more elegant of the two.   The zebra one was the fun spunky table that we got to play with and make wild and crazy.











 

Ready for Fall!


So life lately…..hm well I have a bad attitude ha ha so I probably don’t see it clearly nor describe it with fairness.  No really I think lately I have just been letting myself be depressed about things that are totally in my control.  I can sit here and list all the things I’m upset about or not happy with, but probably at least 80% are things that I can change.  So with that being the case I will not sit here and bore you with my saga, but will commit to you that I’m trying to change them.  I’m SO imperfect and will probably fail at my many attempts, but I’m determined to better my life, myself, and my attitude.  So I’m committing to take control of my life and try to fix the things that are in my power to fix.  Hopefully I can stay committed and actually get off my butt and do these things.  I’m just ready to be a little happier and a little more productive, and I know Eric is ready for that too!  Yeah life has it’s hard things but my life really isn’t that bad, I just make it bad over stupid things that don’t matter.  So in that case I’m going to try to be be a little more positive,  nicer, spiritual, healthier, love more, have more patience, be more understanding, and just all around try to improve in all the areas of my life I can.  Wish me luck, and forgive me in about a week when I start complaining again and lose my motivation ha ha.  It’s like the song goes “I get knocked down, but I get up again” ha ha oh man cheesy did I just quote that? Why yes, yes I did!   Any who in the real news of life, I’m just working.  That’s about all I ever do.  Eric took a spill yesterday and fractured his ankle. OUCH! Poor baby!  He's now hanging out in a big ol boot and loving every minute of it....not.  Sadly he also loss his job today too.  They were just too slow and didn't have enough for him to do so they let him go! Could life get better?  I protest that it CANNOT!  His classes are a piece of cake this semester which I know he is happy about at least.  So he has school going for him.  Plus he is working really hard on lots of applications for his engineering degree.  Hopefully things can look up for him in that department. Other then work I’m just trying to get organized and start working on things for Christmas so I feel on top of it this year rather then procrastinating.  I’m pretty excited though, because thanks to my amazing In-laws we get to go to California for Christmas and be with family!  AWESOME!  I hate holidays not spent with family.  Other then that life continues as normal.  I CANNOT believe we have lived in Texas for over a year now.  Where did the time go?  In most instances I still feel like we just got here, but in others I feel like I have been away for WAY too long.  I can’t believe I have already been at my job for a year. It’s really mind boggling.  But then again I’m doing that with the fact that it’s October....correction in an hour it will be November.  Man I am behind!  How am I still thinking of new years resolutions and it’s OCTOBER? Didn’t the year just start?  How can it be almost over? Man oh man I need to get my butt in gear and start running my life before it runs over me!.  On a happier note of it being October, today it FINALLY felt like fall to me.  Though I’m missing these beautiful sights and colors

 
At least outside feels and smells like fall, which I’m thankful for.  I wait all year for fall, for boots, jackets and scarves, for pumpkin ice cream and apple cider!  Now with how time has been going, I know it will be over WAY too fast so I’m going to make sure and enjoy it!  Perhaps I will have to do a bunch of pumpkin inspired meals this next week and do all sorts of fall crafts to get it out of my system before it’s too late!  Pumpkin carving anyone? I’m in, that’s for sure! 
 
Isn't this pumpkin cool?  I aspire to always make cool pumpkin's, but they always turn out awful.  Ha ha hopefully this year I can accomplish a masterpiece.

 
If only Midland had haunted houses like Utah did, I’m have a hankering to go to one! Ha ha not that I would be going to one, Eric's not really a fan.
 

 
On another happy note, I just got a 7 minute message at work from a lady who sounded EXACTLY like this lovely little creature!
 
Made work worth while that last hour and made me smile!

Utah Finale

We had so much fun with the Simons and didn’t want to leave, but needed to head to our next adventure which we were excited for as well.  My Dads side of the family was having a reunion at Fish Lake so our plan was to head there and spend Friday and Saturday there before we headed back to Texas. Well Friday we got kind of a late start and then wanted to eat lunch with my sister and brother in-law.  Well that turned into lunch plus 4 hours of talking haha and then my sister Julianna had forgotten her contacts, so we had to break into her house to get her some contacts. Then we never had gotten to see Eric’s best friend and we wanted to make sure we got to see him and his wife before we left so we stopped by their house for a quick visit.  I was sad we didn’t have much time with them!   I really wish we could have stayed and hangout with them longer, but I’m glad we got to see them at all.  Well after this we finally hit the road to head to Fish Lake.  Just 6 hours late, no big deal.  We didn’t get there till late and it was really dark and Rango was having a panic attack, but we made it!  We got to sit by the fire and chat for a little bit before everyone went to bed.  I’m glad we got a chance to see everyone again even if it was only for a short time.  We didn’t have a ton of time on Saturday but we did get to go on the boat for a bit, take a nice walk and play down by the lake and play a few games with the family. It was sad leaving, but we wanted to get on the road.  We left that afternoon and headed back to Texas.  We only made it as far as Moab that night but Eric was tired and ready to sleep.  TOO bad every stinking hotel was full.  It was crazy we finally found one little hole in the wall with one room left that we snatched up.  We had a good nights sleep and drove the rest of the way on Sunday.  Out of all the drives we made, it was probably the most peaceful and didn’t feel like it took too long.  I’m sure to Rango it felt like an eternity but he made it.  Lets just say he was happy to get home and back on the ground.

This is where Rango hung out for a bulk of the trip!

Hanging out in Matt and Nicole's tent trailer

Eric playing hide and seek with Kyle

 
Oh yeah and I had forgotten to show you guys the invites I made for all the parties I did, here they are.
 
Here is the one I made for McCall's shower
 
Here is the one for Stephanie's shower
 
 
 
And here is the one for Nicole's.  I was pretty happy with them!
Well that wraps up our trip to utah!

Utah Part Three

After Nicole's baby shower we moved right on to the next event.  Mel and Stephen left the next day for a trip to San Fransisco and the boys got to stay with Granna and Gramps for the week!  I'm so glad I got to spend some time with my adorable nephews.  Saturday was Amy's final day at EFY so we were suppose to pick her up.  After getting home so late from the shower and being exhausted, Eric was a doll and picked her up and gave me a few more minutes to snooze.  We ate a lovely breakfast prepared by my awesome papa and then headed out and spent the day with Amy.  Sunday the rest of Eric's family got home from California, and we met up with them at the blessing for our new niece.  I'm so thankful that David and Stephanie were able to work it out so we could be there.  It's hard for me to sometimes not be apart of all the family events happening in Utah, so it was so nice to be able to participate in that.  It was so good to see the rest of Eric's family! I couldn't believe it had been nearly 7 months since we had seen any of them! FAR TOO LONG if you ask me!  After the blessing we went to have family dinner at my parents house for the last time to be with my whole family together.  Talk about jumping around much? um yes! Dinner was awesome as usual but probably my favorite part was sitting outside in the backyard after.  We all just sat around on the grass and watched all this kids play.  It was seriously one of those moments of bliss where it feels like the rest of the world has stopped and this is the only moment that matters.  I know cheesy right? But I got to hang onto these moments to get me through the ones that are not as great.  Ryan and Paisley were HILARIOUS eating the sour apples off the tree.  My favorite is to see Paisley, who is a year younger, trying to feed and boss Ryan around.  It was sooo cute.  All the kids were so fun!  It's so crazy to see how different they all are.  They are different kids every time I see them.  It's so fun to be able to watch them grow up!  After that we head up to Mom and Dad Simons house for a fun night of playing games!  If was so fun to finally get to spend time with almost the whole family.  Unfortunately Steven, LaNelle and Kinsely couldn’t be there, but they were there in spirit!  The whole rest of the week we got to spend with the Simons family and it was awesome.  It was the first part of the trip that things finally slowed down.  We got to just spend every day with family doing fun things and enjoying our time with each other!  Later that week I did shower number three for Stephanie and her gorgeous new baby!  With the help of my amazing Mother in-law and sister in-laws Amy and Anna we were able to pull it off!  We did a Milkaholics theme.  It was black and pink with cow prints and we did a milk and cookies bar.  We had all sorts of different types of cookies, a make your own fruit pizza station, and thanks to Anna’s amazing idea had like 8 different flavors of milk to choose from.  She found these cool milk straws that made it so everyone could pick their own flavor!  We also did a decorating Onesies station and a hair bow making station.  Amy and I had pre-made some bows for those who are not very crafty and just wanted to glue it on and also had all the supplies for the more adventurous people.  Unfortunately with it being summer, not very many people were able to come.  But we had a lot of fun with the people who did make it, and over all had fun just being close family there so that we could talk and enjoy each other’s company.  After that in a last minute decision all the siblings got together to go see a late movie.  The movie was sooo bad that it then turned amazing and we all had so much fun together!  I got to hold the baby most of the movie too so that made it extra awesome!  It was so fun just being with all the siblings together!  I hadn't laughed that hard in awhile! 

here is part of our decoration station set up.


I had just about anything you could imagine.  Paint, buttons, jewels, ribbon, fabric and anything else crafty related.










I had mason jars as the milk cups

MILK STRAWS!!!!!





Annas AMAZING cookies.  Pretty sure I at twelve.....not really....but I could have!

Fruit pizza!

Some of the head bands that were made


 

Here is one of the onsies I made.  I ended up making like 5 but I guess I only took a picture of 1.

Adorable Amy!

Grandma with cutie!