Merry Christmas

It was a beautiful Christmas morning here. Snow on the ground and screams of happiness from the moment the kids awoke. I worried a lot about Christmas this year. I didn't want to disappoint the kids, but I knew we couldn't spend our money on frivilous gifts.

Today I am grateful for the dear loving Santa's in my life who supplied our Christmas. My husband and I bought 1 gift, the rest of our generous Christmas was donated to our family by loving friends and family.

I'm not sure people can comprehend how overwhelming and wonderful and humbling it is to be helped out in time of need. I'm not good with words, so that is about as good as I can explain it. I'll leave it at that and just put out a huge THANK YOU to all of you for your prayers and love.

Its not about the gifts... its about Christ. I think my kids "got" that this year more than any other. So did I.

It can always be worse...

and don't you forget it.

My mom was taken to the hospital yesterday by ambulance. She was having chest pain... A heart attack took my grandfather at a young age, and my uncle as well. Without modern medicine, I would have lost my mom today too. Within one hour of feeling symptoms she was at the hospital in surgery. They were able to clear the blockage and she is at the hospital today recovering. I thank heaven for this miracle.

We've had alot of things going "wrong" in our lives recently. Its really hard to stay positive through all of it. We are doing our best, but I admit I've had to supress the thought that "it really couldn't get any worse" more than once. I'm officially renouncing that thought forever more. I've been proven wrong a thousand times over these past few months. It could always be worse, and I'm grateful for all the things going right. I still have my Mom. Today there is no greater blessing than that.

Sticks and stones

What's that saying? Sticks and stones may break my bones. well, how about trees? Sweetie was sledding on Thursday and met a tree with her foot first. She was in a lot of pain, so we took her to the (not so) convenient care where they took x-rays and told us it looked fine. So they gave us this women's size shoe to protect the foot (the smallest size they had) and an ace bandage to help with swelling. She refused to walk on it, so I was carrying her around everywhere on Thursday. Friday morning she woke up and still refused to walk. Sure enough, the doc at the conv. care called with the official report which showed a small fracture. They even set up an appointment with an orthopedic doctor for the same day. So.... the appointment went something like this:

Doc: So, what happened?

Me: She was sledding and rammed into a tree foot first.

Doc: ahh. well, it looks like there is a small crack in the bone.

Me: ok, that's what they told us...

Doc: So, the best thing to do is to keep it wrapped, rest it, ice it and use that shoe to protect it.

Me: That's what we've been doing. The shoe is kind of huge for her foot.

Doc: Yea, well, it would take us a week to special order the right size, and she should only need to wear it for a couple weeks anyway.

Me: Ok.

Doc: So, thanks for coming in.

Yea, and thanks for taking my copay and running with it. I had to carry her out of the office. When I got home, I was mad at myself for letting him get away with not doing ANYTHING and still charging me for the visit. When we got home from the doctor, she was in a lot of pain. She asked for a priesthood blessing. So, we went to my parents house and my dad and Benson gave her a blessing. While we were there, Benson also whipped up this make-shift crutch for her to use. The blessing made a big difference for her. Today was better, she was willing to hobble around on it. She can't put any weight on the front of her foot, but she can walk on her heel. She was hobbling all over today while she played with her cousins, and its quite swollen tonight, so I think we learned that even if she can tolerate the pain, we need to make her take it easy.

She's a tough girl! Every day is an adventure.

maybe next year

Amazing. and funny. :) and just so you know, Kim, this totally made me think of you. :)

oh my...

8 months old and look at him go! Its a bit bitter sweet. I love watching him learn and grow... I just wish I could keep him little a bit longer. :) I guess cherishing every moment will have to do.

Holiday Greetings

I just sent our our Christmas card via email. If you didn't get one, and you want one, send me your email address. :) Its super exciting and reveals my kids real names and everything. lol! If you want the shortened version here it is:

Happy holidays!

Our kids are the best and cutest in the world.

Cheryl is working hard at her flower business.

Benson is looking hard for a job.

keep in touch!

Love to you all,
us

A little blah

That's how I feel... a little blah.
Progress on the house seems stalled because there's been only 1 person working on it for 2 weeks.
Twister got his first ear infection.
Goose came home sick today.
The tire on the van blew out.
Our phones don't work.

sigh.

It could be worse.

We still have heat in our house.
The fridge is cold.
Twister is on the mend thanks to modern medicine.
My business has made enough money to buy us Christmas presents.
We have good friends and family near by.

Trying to keep perspective here. Anyone have an umbrella? :p

Progress

woah.

Its all about networking

So, I'm learning lots of new things these days. Unfortunately some of it includes how awful the economy is right now. The show was a total bust. Over 2 days I made $30. Unfortunately the booth cost $95. Crummy huh. It was tempting to go over to the promoter and yell at her about how hard times are for my family right now and I can't afford to lose money because she didn't advertise effectively. I restrained myself, but other vendors didn't. Is it bad for me to secretly enjoy that other people did it?

Anyway... even though I didn't make money, I actually enjoyed most of the show. I've made some craft show buddies to keep in touch with, and I made an awesome contact with money making potential for the future. Let me explain... I had this conversation with someone 2 weeks ago. The exchange went something like this...

Nice lady: "Your work is beautiful, have you ever thought of illustrating children's books?"

me: " ha! I really haven't thought about it. I don't know how someone goes about doing something like that."

Nice lady: "I don't know either, but they would be adorable."

Good fuzzy feelings follow. :)



Now, at the show this weekend, I had another conversation, it went something like this:

Nice lady #2: "Your work is beautiful, have you ever thought of illustrating children's books?"

me: " ha! I actually had someone ask me about that at my last craft show! I really haven't thought much about it. I don't know how someone goes about doing something like that."

Nice lady #2: "oh, well, my husband owns a publishing company, let me get out a business card... you really need to submit your artwork, I think he would love it."


So, this was very exciting. She even bought a couple cards to take home and show him. AND, it gets better, she even emailed me later that night to say that he loved them and to submit my art directly to him ASAP. I about fell off my chair. I'm realistic enough to realize that this may not lead anywhere. But I am flattered that someone thinks my art is publish-worthy. She especially liked my fairy. :)
I'm realizing that networking is the key to finding opportunities. As Benson job hunts, the most promising leads are the ones where we have a friend on the inside vouching for him. We're trying to make and follow as many leads as we can. So wish us luck on our networking leads, and feel free to pass on any leads YOU may have for us too. :)

Help me prepare for my upcoming craft shows

Hey everyone... I've added a poll to my sidebar to try and get a sense of what people might like to actually buy from me. I have a big show coming up this weekend and another I'm trying to decide about for the first weekend of December. I know you all love my things, :) but I'd love to see what you would actually buy if you had the money.

Thanks!

If you're not sure what one of the items is, you can look on my website designs in floral.

Toothless twister

no more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twister got his first tooth yesterday. He's such a good natured baby that he didn't give us any clues. Except biting Dad's finger. lol. I wish I had a pause button for this boy. He's growing up much too quickly. We love him to pieces. :)

I actually paid to waste the day away...

I decided at the last minute to participate in a craft show yesterday. The previous one went really well, so I thought more is better, right? wrong. I spent all day at this show and earned $6.75. Yes there is a decimal in there. six dollars and seventy five cents. I spent plenty more than that on the table fee and raffle prize donation, so in essence, I paid to waste an entire day away. So disappointing. Not that it really helps, but no one did well. I left an hour early, and everyone was packing up. There must have been about 40-50 vendors. Unfortunately, I think that's about how many customers there were through the whole day too. mark that one off as one *not* to do again next year.

and if you need Christmas cards

My latest computer graphics project has been christmas cards. If anyone would like to order custom Christmas cards from me, just send me an email: cherylanne [at] designs-in-floral.com

Here are a few of my "protypes"
They can be any size: ( half paper, 5x7 flat, 5x7 folded, 9x4, 9x4 folded...) They can include your family photo (as long as its not copyrighted, legal issues with that). I'll even include personalization if you like. Prices vary by size and details, but should be near $2 per card.

(the "snowflakes" are actually digitalized queen anne's lace. Isn't mother nature amazing?)

Something got finished!

woohoo!
And the brick is looking awesome I LOVE IT!

So, things are moving forward on the house. I've *tried* to relax this week and enjoy the company of my husband. He worked on several in the house projects and I've been able to work on my flowers to prepare for more craft shows. So, all in all, we are good.

I guess I'm ready to talk.

I could hardly bring myself to say it, but I guess I'm ready. Benson was laid off on Thursday. The banking industry isn't doing well right now, and I guess it finally hit our home. We have a severance package that will get us through a few months. He was unhappy at work, so hopefully this is a blessing in disguise and he finds a great job that he loves. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers. They are truly appreciated.

Thankful moment

I've been impressed by reading some other people blogs about what they are grateful for and feel like its time I focus on the positive. There's lots and LOTS and more than I can handle going wrong, but here is what is going right.


I'm grateful for my husband. I know I can trust him completely, and he works dang hard for our family.

I'm grateful for Goose. He brings challenges with him, but I wouldn't change him for the world. I'm grateful that Goose likes to pretend play karate with me. :) It makes me smile.

I'm grateful that Sweetie is so loving. She is always the first to give me a hug and try to make it all better. I'm grateful that she is so artistic, its something we will always share.

I'm grateful for my pink Tank, who is soo girly and soo tough. She recently has started to ask me to tell her stories about when I was a kid. I think I've been asked 10 times today to tell her about when I was a kid and wore tights. lol. Tell a kid once that you slipped and fell on your bum, and it will never be secret again.

I'm grateful for Twister who is so innocent and curious and anxious for life. His smiles and kisses melt my heart.

I'm grateful for a knowledge about my Savior. I would be completely lost without Him. I know that He knows ME. He knows my name and he knows MY struggles. He will get me through this.

I'm grateful for my parents and my in-laws. They have always supported me in all my endeavors.

I'm grateful for our prophet. I'm grateful that I can receive instruction from my Heavenly Father through him.

I'm grateful for good friends who are willing to go out of their way to pick up my favorite drink at the fast food restaurant on her way over to say hi. Friends who will pray for me when I'm feeling overwhelmed, even if I am over-reacting. Friends who I know will let me cry on their shoulder if I need to.

I'm grateful for frozen pizza. (gotta lighten the mood a little... and really, I don't know if I could live without it)

I'm grateful that our house will be warmer this winter. (Not to mention cuter!)

I'm grateful that when it seems like I can't take anymore, but more is put on my shoulders, that I can receive strength from above to make it through.


I'm not quite ready to talk about it, but prayers are needed in our home. Please ask Heavenly Father to strengthen us and help us through this latest trial.

wordless Thursday?

Sorry, busy busy getting ready for a craft show. Just wanted to show an updated house pic...

Wordless Wednesday

He comes by it all naturally

Fuzz head and tongue out. Gotta love this kid :)

Benson as a babe

Me as a babe (not age 1... my dad always adds text to photos and I didn't feel like cropping it back out. I don' t know how old I was, but I'm guessing close to Twister's current age.)

Halloween pics

Oh my, aren't they cute? The first pictures are from the kids Halloween parade at school, and the last one was taken just before we went to HSM3... I was so proud of myself for taking them all out trick or treating. You should be too! lol. When we got back, I set up a trick-or-treat station so that no trick or treaters would have to stumble over our construction. The kids were SOO excited to sit at the "post". I think we only had one person stop by... typical for our neighborhood, but the kids were happy. We had a gorgeous day for it, an "indian summer" type of day if its still politically correct to say so. You can see some progress on our home in the final pic too. We're getting there! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, I really appreciate them. I'm going to make it through all this!

HSM3

Ok, I can't seem to upload any pics off my camera for now. Working on that. In the mean time, lets all enjoy a little Zac. :) We went to go see HSM3 last night. Apparantly halloween night was a good night to go, we almost had a private viewing. We all LOVED IT!!! We've been dancing and singing to the soundtrack ever since. What a great distraction. Totally recommended!!!!!

A better day.

Or maybe a better perspective. Yesterday was interesting. They decided to take off the siding in the morning since the roof had frost on it and they didn't want to slip. The good news was that the north side of our house (which we expected to be horrible since the siding itself was rotted) was actually in good shape under the siding. Since that was easy, they continued around to the west side of the house. Not so good there.

As my contractor put it, the insulation board was crumbling away. It was disintegrating into nothing. Even the regular wall insulation had turned into dirt. He said there was NO R value to the old stuff and the only logical thing to do was to replace all of it.

Now that may seem like a not so good thing, BUT... the room on the inside of where they found all this was ALWAYS cold in the winter and HOT in the summer. We thought it was the windows. Little did we know there was only minimal protection from the strong Chicago elements. So, the GOOD news is that my craft room will be nice and cozy this winter. They found a problem, but it is FIXED.

Ironically, my sliding glass door half fell out while they were taking off the siding too. You may think that sounds like a bad thing too, but with the help of a friend, I was able to laugh pretty hard about it. :) Go figure. AND, they got the new door in the same day.

We even got an extention to get our permits since we have to get a survey redone.

So, even though we still have some rainclouds following us around, I can see the rainbow. I am grateful for great friends who will pray for a girl who is a bit overwhelmed with things... that, and the promise of an awesome house, is getting me through.




For today.
:)

How do YOU turn your luck around?

What do you do when you're in a funk? This house project has given me more grey hairs than my children! The latest joy...the brick arrived! Only problem is it's not the brick I want! Not only that, but we can't get all the permits we need until we get a plat of survey. We should have received one when we bought the house, but we never got a copy. The mortgage company says they don't have it and the title company says the mortgage company should have it. I feel like pigpen, with a cloud of darkness following me around. Now we have to pay for a new survey. I'm getting more and more depressed and pessimistic. Everything that can go wrong, is. HELP!!! I need to see the lighter/happier side of life. Any advice? I do still find joy in my family, so its just the situation. Feel free to send some good karma or simple prayers our way. :)

Trunk or Treat Activity

Nuff said. :)

A few pics of the project.

Found the camera. It was in the car. Go figure. Anyway, this was the state of the house when our friendly county inspector stopped by.


And this is our house today. A lovely shade of pink, however, I won't be sad to see it go.

Thank heaven for a sick hubby

Yes, I did say thank heaven my hubby got sick today. This may be the first and last time this is ever said by anyone anywhere. Today I had a much needed classy mom's lunch date. 2 of my friends and I have started getting together to chat and share a lunch... because that's what classy moms do... they do lunch. :) Anyway, shortly after lunch, we were sitting around talking and my hubby called me. My poor poor hubby wasn't feeling well, so he called to tell me he was heading home. ok. continue chat. 30 minutes later, the phone rang again.

"um, Cheryl, the kids had early release today. They are home. Don't worry about it, I've got them." (begin total internal turmoil and ginormous mother guilt)

Isn't that HORRIBLE! I cannot believe I didn't know they had a half day. No note from the school yesterday (at least not one that made it into my hands)... and no one said a word about the lunches my kids brought to school, and for some reason, it never made it on the calendar. My 2 oldest were home alone for about 30 minutes. I actually didn't lock up the house when I left, so at least they were able to go inside. If it weren't for my hubby's sickness, they probably would have been home alone for about 3 hours or so. I had an afternoon planned full of errands. Though I am grateful he felt sick and decided to come home, I am aware enough to recognize the obvious divine intervention as well.

As for the house project, its still going. We're in limbo on the permits, but moving ahead on the few things that can be done without them. Can I just say the stress is overwhelming!? I can't find my camera right now, but when I do, I'll post a pic of my house. Lets just say it tried pink on for "size", and its not its color.

Horrible, rotten, no good day

UGH!!!!! Ok, I've got it out of my system. So far, not so good on the house project. Last week they tore the deck down and took off all the brick.Apparantly, when you build a deck, its a great place to hide old gutters, bricks and other garbage underneath. Nice eh?

Anyway, over the weekend, our mailbox was randomly smashed to bits. Nice huh. Benson's observation was that it didn't look like a baseball bat had hit it. Or a car for that matter. We were irritated, but went on with life. Until this morning. Our contractor came to the door and asked if we had moved his tools inside. Uh, no. He said he had a couple shovels, a sledge hammer and a few other random tools that he left by the dumpster that were now gone. (lightbulb moment) Yea, someone stole his tools, but that wasn't enough, No, they had to hit our mailbox with the sledge hammer to make it more fun. Thanks whoever you are. We needed that.

On to the rotten part of the day. (yea, as if that wasn't horrible enough) The nice mexican workers were busy taking out the sidewalk in the front of my house, when the doorbell rang.
"Hi, I'm here from the county, do you know you need a permit to be doing this work?"

Uh, no, we're just re-siding and replacing the brick.

"yea, you need a permit for that."

We're taking down brick, and putting up brick, we're not changing the footprint of the house, my contractor told me we wouldn't need a permit.

"He's wrong. I'm going to have to give you a stop work Violation, and I'll have to look around to see if you have any other violations on your property."

The not so polite lady proceeded to walk around my property and apparantly the shed in the backyard never got a permit either, from before we moved in. But that is OUR responsibility. So work stopped with my front sidewalk half torn out and in a dangerous state, the deck in the back is gone, so its all mud and a giant step to try to come in that door. I'm not so happy about all this if you couldn't tell. The contractor went to the county building to try and take care of it, but I haven't heard back from him yet.

As for the no good... Well, I published my updates to my website, only to find out that I had broken paypal links. So you could look at all my gorgeous stuff, but you couldn't have bought it. I spent the afternoon fixing that mistake. The absolute best part of my day was thisand this
What would I do without them. Anyway, sorry for the long rant. You can make me feel a little better by visiting my updated website and telling me how great it is. :) http://www.designsinfloral.com
(if you find any broken links, PLEASE let me know!)

Changes in Store update

Go figure... I make the announcement, then have trouble uploading to my server. keep the mental image of my website in your brain, and hopefully by the end of the week, I'll get it up.

As a side note, this is a good time to buy cards from me... I have a wholesaler *very* interested in my cards (hip hip horray!!!), which means I may have to raise my retail prices to keep the wholesaler happy. Its complex but basically a wholesaler doesn't want their customers to be able to get a better deal from me than they can offer (since they double the wholesale price to cover retail expenses). Does that make sense? If not, just know that now is a good time to buy my cards. I have some fall and christmas themed ones that may be just what you are looking for, or shop early for christmas gifts! Click here to go to the store

In the mean time, we have other changes in store . . for our house!!! Here's the before picture. We are changing a LOT. The brick will be a different color, we are adding a small porch and replacing the siding. We kept putting the projects off, and now its sort of gotten to the point of NEEDING it. The siding is beginning to rot, our windows have large enough leaks to let in bugs and the gutters are about to fall down. So, big huge house project, here we come...

Changes in store

I've been working really hard this past week to give my website a stylish makeover. I have the changes almost done on my local computer, but they are not on the web yet. So....


please please please go take a look at my website so that you can oh and ah over the changes when I get them posted. You don't have to stay long, just enough that you can tell me how awesome I am when I get it changed. LOL. :)

Here's the link: Designs in Floral

Postpartum Thyroiditis

So, I've been thinking that I wanted to share a little about this unknown, but not too uncommon disease. It is often mistaken for other common postpartum conditions including depression and just plain ol' motherhood. Here's my experience...

After I had my first child, I was working at Alpha Plasma Center. lol. Good memories. Anyway, I was a phlebotomist which is a fancy way of saying I stuck people with needles. Goose was about 3 1/2 months old when I started noticing that I felt "weird". I started losing weight, I was horribly tired and my hands shook. (not a good symptom when you have a needle in your hand). I figured it was probably nothing and went on with my life, however, the symptoms got worse. The weight kept coming off, I was 15 lbs below where I got pregnant at, and I was never overweight to begin with. My face was gaunt, my eyes were dark, and my hair was falling out by the handful. And I still felt awful. I couldn't sleep, but I wanted to. I was grouchy, depressed and I felt like I was constantly running a marathon. The best analogy I can think of is to imagine when you're pregnant and you *HAVE* to eat all the time... You know how you feel shaky and sort of out of control-grouchy when you hit that wall, of "I have to eat something NOW!". Imagine feeling that way pretty much all the time, and food doesn't make it get better. I finally made the appointment with my doctor one day when I felt really shaky and realized my pulse was 140 (while I sat doing paperwork).

I'm grateful the doctor was up on his postpartum possiblities. He did some blood work and called me later to tell me I had postpartum thyroiditis. I'm not sure how good I am at explaining all this, but I will try. When a woman is pregnant, her immune system is suppressed so that she doesn't fight off her own baby. This is a good thing. However, when the baby is born, the immune system rebounds back into full gear. I have read that up to 10% of women have overactive antibodies that then, for unknown reasons, attack the thyroid. The "injured" thyroid releases its stores of hormone in response to the attack, causing the symptoms I described above. Some women go on to develop hypothyroid symptoms when the body uses up the released thyroid hormone and the thyroid is still inflammed or "injured" and doesn't make more.

After I had Sweetie and Tank , I had a similar but less extreme experience. I lost a little weight, still had extreme fatigue, lost hair and felt icky. I would probably compare those experiences more with what postpartum depression must be like. I've actually read that thyroiditis is often mis-diagnosed as depression and I can sure tell why.

In fact, I had someone tell me about their postpartum experience, her symptoms were actually similar to many of mine. Her doctor diagnosed her over the phone with post-partum depression and wanted to start her on medication. DON'T LET YOUR DOCTOR DO THIS!!!! He could not possibly make a proper diagnosis without doing blood work and a full consultation. Insist on an appointment.

Back to the topic. By my third round of postpartum thyroiditis, my thyroid was damaged beyond repair. After the thyrotoxic phase which I described above, I went on to have hypothyroid symptoms. My endocrinologist started me on Synthroid. What a miracle drug. I felt SOOO much better on the medicine. I stayed on it through my next pregnancy as well.

Well, true to form, after having Twister, my thyroid went bezerk again. I'm guessing that since I was on medication this time, the symptoms were worse. Not as bad as when I had Goose, but definetly worse than when I had the girls. Finding the right dose of medicine has been hard and I still don't think its quite right.

The hardest thing about postpartum thyroiditis is that there is very little that can be done for it. If you are symptomatic like I was the first time around, they give you a beta-blocker to help reduce your heartrate. That's it. Our society's obsession with being thin is hard to handle too. Like I said before, I went 15 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight the first time I went through this. I was seriously sickly thin. And yet, people still made comments like, " I wish I had that disease". "Well, you look great!" "It can't be that bad if it helps you lose weight" . Feeling decent is a heck of a lot more important to me than being thin, and I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

Knowledge is power, right? I had never heard of it and still have never met someone else who has gone through this, but , hopefully this post can help someone out there, even if its so they know they are not alone.

Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family tree outline - Ancestors

I did that look alike meter for all the kids, but didn't want to post all of them.

Goose looks more like his dad by 3%
Sweetie looks more like her dad by 4%.
Tank looks more like her dad by 3%
Twister looks like both of us 50/50

I thought Twister looked more like me, but apparently its just that he looks a little less like his dad. Go figure.

In followup

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Apparently this is not an exact science. lol!!

New Alias

So, all my kids have great nicknames. Goose, Sweetie and Tank.... Goose actually began as silly goose, but that was way too long. Sweetie could have been sunshine, sweetie or darling, but Sweetie is what stuck. Tank had the nickname stinker for a good long time, but we thought we'd better use something she didn't hate us for. My mom doesn't think Tank is any better, but it sure fits her. Anyway, we've been getting to know our baby for the last many months, looking for his nickname. I think we've found one. We'll see if it sticks with him or not, but for now, the babe will be known as

Twister

:)

He has started rolling over. He is actually able to move around quite a bit with all his back and forth rolling. Not necessarily where he wants to go, but moving. We are still debating whether Hurricane is a better fit for him. Since a hurricane was named after him this year and all, but it doesn't roll off the tongue as quickly as twister, unless you say it with a utah accent (hurric-in). Besides twisters and hurricane's are totally related events anyway.

So, the baby is twister.

This notice is subject to change. :)

So, I found this hair blog

...and I've had way too much fun with my girls hair! May I first say that I have a good friend, Devri, who has an AMAZING talent for hair, and a hair blog, and 5 girls with amazing hair. I haven't kept up as well as I should (sorry Devri) because my daughers hair is SOO different from her daughter's beautiful thick, long hair. Anyway, when my sister in law sent me the link for http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/ I checked it out and got some great ideas and went from there to a link on her blog for short hairstyles: http://shortyrocksitshort.blogspot.com/ I kept linking through more hair sites, and guess who I saw there. yup Devri. What a funny blogging world. She rocks too, check out her site! http://hairsourlife.blogspot.com/ I'm now addicted to checking out these hair blogs. So fun, and so cute! Best part, my daughters are old enough to sit still (mostly) and they LOVE to look cute. Alright, I'm sure I'm rambling now. Skip anything else I write and go check out these great hair blogs. :)

101 posts

I noticed on my dashboard today that my last post brought me to the magic number of 100 posts. wow. So for my one hundred and first post, you get to learn 100 things about me. If I can think of that many...

1. I have 7 siblings

2. 5 of them are brothers.

3. I live within 5 minutes of my parents.

4. I thought I would hate living that close.

5. I love it.

6. I named my first born after a street that I often passed growing up.

7. I met my husband when I was 15 years old.

8. He was a return missionary at the time. (21 years old)

9. We met while performing in the City of Joseph pageant in Nauvoo IL

10. We were both dancers in the pageant.

11. While dancing in the pageant I tore the ligaments in my pinky toe. I can bend my toe sideways because of it.

12. I love the smell of morning dew.

13. I love the sound of crickets and other night creatures.

14. I've never had my own room.

15. I like my house to be clean.

16. I hate cleaning my house.

17. laundry is my nemesis.

18. I love cheesecake, put cherry pie filling on the top and I'm in heaven!

19. I love babies.

20. I love how babies smile at strangers, but then need to look away and snuggle into Mom.

21. I've only been in one small fender bender. (knock on wood)

22. One of my favorite things is to be kissed on the forehead by my husband.

23. I never hiked up Y mountain during my 4 years at BYU.

24. I enjoyed my first 2 pregnancies.

25. Third and fourth about did me in.

26. Migraines suck.

27. I was never 9 months pregnant. Longest pregnancy lasted 38 weeks. Shortest: 35.

28. I get thyroiditis after having babies. It sucks. that's a whole post in itself.

29. I tend to get obsessed with whatever project I'm working on.

30. I hate my wardrobe. I wish someone would nominate me for "What not to wear" so I could replace it.

31. I like the smell of defrosting freezers. It started at Alpha.

32. I wear t-shirts way too often.

33. I have great ideas, but have trouble carrying them out.

34. I can do amazing things with pressed flowers. :)

35. I was captain of the varsity gymnastics team my junior year of high school.

36. That year I broke my back.

37. I wore a back brace for 6 months.

38. I'm not a good swimmer. Ocean's scare me.

39. I never played with tanks as a child. Now I have my very own. :)

40. I'm not as good at gardening as my pressed flowers would make you think.

41. I like to rearrange my furniture. I think its my way of really deep cleaning.

42. I do it about every 3 months when possible.

43. I have a love/hate relationship with the TV show Heroes.

44. Sylar makes me feel physically ill.

45. My husband cooks almost as often as I do. *gosh I love him*

46. I love High School Musical.

47. I think Zac Efron is cute. Ok, ok, so I think he's hot.

48. He's not why I like High School Musical.

49. I still love Belinda Carlisle. I turn it up and sing at the top of my lungs whenever I can. (not often, but still.)

50. I'm allergic to cats.

51. I'm thinking I'll never make it to 100, I'm just not that interesting!

52. I want to go back to school and get my nursing degree.

53. I fear getting stuck in my crawl space during a tornado, then having it fill up with water.

54. I love garage sales!

55. ...and salvation army. I love to get a good deal.

56. I've torn all the hair out of a cabbage patch kids head and put new hair in. That was one obsession that didn't last long.

57. One of my pet peeves is when my kids pull the pillows off the couch. It has the potential to make me go bezerk.

58. I lose my temper way too often with my kids.

59. I'm not a salesperson. (hows that for politically correct)

60. I love to create my artwork, but have trouble marketing it myself.

61. Word of mouth has been my best advertising.

62. I **LOVE** the way my husband's face feels after he shaves with a razor.

63. I probably check my email about 50 times per day.

64. Then I have to check facebook, my blog friends and my etsy shop.

65. I have an abnormal amount of flexibility.

66. I can still put my foot behind my head.

67. This is the longest I've ever been home full time since I got married. (going on 6 months!)

68. I actually miss working.

69. I will never regret staying home.

70. There is nothing better than a big slobbery baby kiss.

71. As long as its from my baby and not my older kids.

72. Baby giggles can cure any ailment.

73. I like to watch real ER shows, and Grey's anatomy. I'm fascinated by surgeries, that type of blood doesn't bother me.

74. Fight scene type shows and blood make me feel ill.

75. I don't make friends very easily.

76. I feel intimidated by moms that I perceive as classy.

77. I hate being told I look too young to have 4 kids.

78. I hate it even more when I'm told I look like I could still be in HS or college.

79. I have a hard time sharing what I believe.

80. I don't like shrimp. I used to hate all seafood until I tried my mom's lemon peppered salmon.

81. I promised a missionary I wouldn't get married until he got home.

82. I dear john-ed him 3 months later.

83. The Lord knows a lot more than me.

84. I want to be like my older sister.

85. My weakness is for Dr. Pepper. Except, during my last pregnancy I hated it.

86. I'm scared of spiders. Except daddy long-legs. I don't know why.

87. Most nights I'm asleep before 10:30pm.

88. I don't like to cook. I think this stems from getting negative feedback from someone at nearly every meal.

89. I think I have food issues.

90. Someday I want to go white water rafting again.

91. I don't like reading. Or I don't get enough time to enjoy reading? I'm not sure which. I don't read much.

92. I can't sleep when Benson's not home. I stay up really late avoiding going to bed. Ironic since when he's home, he rarely goes to bed as early as I do.

93. My mom is my hero.

94. I have a hard time being creative straight out of my own head.

95. I'm often inspired by pictures, ideas, photos and crafts of others.

96. I couldn't copy any of them exactly, even if I tried.

97. I have awesome friends.

98. Yes I'm talking about you.

99. I love yogurt, but I don't eat it often because I leave it for my daughters who also love yogurt.

100. I sang a solo exactly once. First and last time. I don't like to be embarrassed.

wooHOO! I did it!