Shar the Star continued.....

Shar had an article in the Deseret News yesterday. I tried to copy and paste it here, but it wouldn't let me, so here is the link. Hopefully it works for a long time. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700229312,00.html?pg=1
Great article Shar!

Mother's Day Gift

I'm a little late here, but half of my household was sick on mother's day, so I didn't get my annual mother's day picture with my boys until a week later, and my gift has been a work in progress, so I am just finally posting the pictures.

Sean asked me for weeks what I wanted and finally, the day before Mother's Day, I said I wanted a garden. We had just opened our last jar of salsa and we haven't had a garden since we moved to this house, so I figured that would be a good gift. Sean, Travis and Tyrel (Trevin was sick) worked really hard that Saturday before mother's day to get it ready, but the garden shop was out of top soil, so they didn't get it finished. but we did get it mostly done yestereday. We got tomatoes, zuccini, yellow squash, rhubarb and strawberries planted. We still need to get some cucumbers and peppers planted this next weekend. THANKS GUYS! It was so cute on Saturday when we were working on it. The boys were out working on it and I was doing the inside chores. Trevin came in and said "Mom, can you come help me grow a garden?" I had to drop my work and go help him plant. He was pretty excited to get things in the ground.

Odds and Ends

We had my dad's retirement party on Friday. It was fun to go and see how much everyone looked up to him and respected him. Some of his old bosses flew in from out of town for it. Me, being the dork I am, brought my camera, but didn't find out until I got home that my memory card was not in it. So, I have no photos. Maybe someone will feel sorry for me and email me theirs.
I spent the day on Saturday working on Andrea's baby shower gift and invitations. Sean, Tyrel, and Trevin went on a scout campout/fishing trip over the weekend. Only 1 fish was caught so with the price of gas to get the trucks and boat there, Sean said it was $200/lb worth of fish. The boys did have fun catching and eating crawdads though.
We had Stake Conference yesterday. I especially enjoyed President Trevort's talk. He said that he used to teach his kids "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Later he learned a lesson and they changed their family motto to "If you can't say something nice, think of something nice and say it." I need to live by that motto also. We all need to look at the bright side of things and try to find something good in everything.

Mother's Day and Dad's Birthday

I wanted to take a minute to tell my wonderful mother how much I love her. I appreciate all she has taught me through the years. My top 3 things I am most grateful she has taught me (at least at this point in my life) are:

To be organized - my mom is the most organized person I have ever met, she has lists and plans for everything. I'm don't keep as many lists as she does and I don't plan things out as well as she does, but I have learned to keep things on a calendar, make a menu so I don't have to go to the store so often, and stuff like that.

To serve others - my mom is always taking dinner to others and helping others out any way she can, I also love to take meals in to others and try to look for other ways I can serve others

To cook - I am so glad that I know how to cook. I have learned this from my mom also. We spent many years in 4H and I also cooked at home a lot under her helpful eye. Sometimes I wish I didn't cook well, then maybe I wouldn't eat so much and I could lose some weight, but I am thankful it is a skill I have.

I love you mom!

I also have to thank my wonderful mother in law for the things she has taught me. I don't know why people don't like their in laws, mine are wonderful. Top 2 things my mother in law has taught me:

To be spontaneous - this balances out my organized side, I have learned that it is okay to do things spur of the moment and it is even fun to do things you hadn't planned on. This was really hard for me when I first got married, but I have loosened up since then.

To Scrapbook - she got me started on scrapbooking and it is one of my favorite pastimes now. I love it.

Love you too!

I also want to say happy birthday to my dad. I'll save my top 3 things for him for Father's Day.

I also want to tell my husband how much I love him and my boys how much I love being their mother! I love all of you. They got my garden almost put in on Saturday (that is what I wanted for Mother's Day this year). I know it was a lot of hard work and you are all tired and sore, but I am grateful for your work!

Books continued......

I was asked to rate my books. Obviously 5 stars are the books that were my favorite. Some have no stars at all because I thought they weren't worth the time. All of the books with 1 star I sold back to Amazon because I have no desire to read them again, except for the teen books with 1 star, I kept them because my boys liked them better than I did. I put a "T" at the side of the books that are middle school/teen type books. Hope this helps.

Read a Good Book Lately????

Well, Bookclub is at my house tonight. I still don't have a clue what I am making for treats so I'd better hurry and get this done so I can figure it out. My book pick for this month was Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. It was a fast and easy read and it was a pretty good book. Travis just read it in his English class so it was fun to discuss with him because he and I don't really read a lot of the same books. I am a firm believer that if you are a good reader, you will be more successful in all of your subjects at school. So, I make my kids read a lot, especially during the summer.

We have had our bookclub going since September of 2004 and I started thinking about all of the books I had read since then. I loved to read in high school and college, and then dwindled off when I got married, so I was excited when this bookclub started because it gave me a chance to read some good books and I am hooked on reading again. I love curling up with a good book.

Anyway, with quite a few emails back and forth with Tracie M, our master list keeper and email reminder, we were able to reconstruct the list of books we have read since then. I also made a list of the books I have read on my own and with Tyrel (he and I read a lot together). It is quite an impressive list if I don't say so myself. So, here goes....
Bookclub Books
Books I Read with Tyrel

Books I Read on my own

Shar the Star

I know I already posted today, but I had to post the picture of Shar. She just called and said to go to http://www.24hourfitness.com/ because she "Is the Website". We love you Shar. Her commercial is on tonight on Chanel 13 during "House". Go to stories on the website and check out her story and video. She is the one right below Shaquille O'Neal.