I HEART Macey's

Friday night is a special night in our house. It's always a date night with or without the kids. This past weekend just happened to be a date night with the kids. And what better activity to do with kids and let your significant other know how much you care for them then a date night at Macey's. Now before anything else I have to express my endless love for Maceys. Besides having the best produce, meat and awesome prices they have this thing called Customer Service. See Wal-Mart here in Tooele seems to be the center of the universe and everyone and I mean Everyone shops there as if it were some sort of High-end mall. The only problem with the overshopped box store is that the people that work there have this problem with helping people. I know we really shouldn't bother the people there to help us with any questions we have and heaven forbid they even make eye contact with us or greet us with a hell-o or even a smile. I mean honestly why should they do that. Well call them Crazy but Macey's has the best Customer Service ever. I can't walk around a new aisle without running into their cute staff in their blue aprons with a smile and asking me if I need help with anything. I'm sure with three kids in the cart jumping everywhere and me singing some sort of song I must look crazy and in need of serious help but they are always there. In the check out line if it ever takes too long the checkers are stocked with candy bars (full size ones mind you), Smarties and balloons. They always offer to help me out to the car with the groceries and will load my car while I wrestle my kids into their car seats. Yes, I HEART Macey's with giant bold letters. Thus my little weekend trip is even more embarassing.
After looting the store for as much stuff as our cart could possibly carry and getting all three kids their required balloons and smarties and running out into the thick fog and searching for our car. Jeremy unloaded the cart while I wrestled the kids and balloons into the car and into appropiate seats. We came home and began the process of unloading all of our groceires and trying to simatameiously get the kids in pj's and bed. We noticed a little something was missing from our groceries. When we came to the end of the grocery bags all we had left were the storage buckets, sugar and flour bags and still no Frozen Chicken, Brocolli, Carrots, Corn, Tortolleni and a few other frozen food items. We searched through the car several times and then began to think badly of my beloved Macey's. I mean seriously it was at least three bags of groceries missing! How does someone miss puting three bags in a cart. I called Macey's and they said they hadn't had any missing food reported to them so it must have been put in another shoppers cart. I was ticked! They told me to come back and I could get all the missing items. Jeremy began to mock my Macey's and I must admit that I lost my faith in the best store that Tooele has to offer. I got in the car drove threw a thickening fog and somehow arrived at the store without a single accident. I went straight to the customer service desk explained to the nice lady what had happened and tried to let them know I was disappointed in what seemed to be poor bagging skills. I gathered all my missing groceries brought them back to the customer service lady she bagged all my groceries I went to hand her the reciept and she said it wasn't necessary. Ummm wow way too trusting. I drove back home in the even thicker fog and barley made it back to my house. I put all the groceries away and then went to take the buckets down stairs to fill with the flour and sugar. When I lifted the buckets they were so heavy. I was totally baffeled. I opened the lid only to find the forgotten frozen food. I was so glad that I was home because I could feel my face flush as red as a sunburned utahn on a cruise.
Jeremy laughed pretty hard. I had the mixed emotion of wanting to cry and laugh and scream that's probably why my face was red it was an consitpated emotion effect. Well I pleaded and pleaded with Jeremy to take the groceries back. Jeremy just laughed more. I could tell that he was in no state to drive through the fog. I thought for a second that I could keep the groceries but then that annoying good girl in me rejected that and so with tears trickling down my face I got back in the car with my stolen booty and braved the fog one more time.
I made it back to the store barley being able to make out the giant yellow MACEY'S and started my walk of shame back to the customer service desk. The customer service lady was shocked to see me back. I explained what had happened. I was awaiting some sort of snotty lady look or remark but instead got a gentle laugh and a warm smile. I put the groceries on the counter and before I could turn and walk away once again in shame she handed me a sucker and gave me a happy Thank you. I almost asked if I could have a balloon to see if that could help lift my dragging behind but amazingly enough made it out of the store on my own will power.
And thus my love has been fully restored to Macey's. Although I'm still a little ashamed and questionable if I'm still worthy of the love that Macey's gives to all so well maybe not totally free but at amazing low prices, not to mention their great produce and meat sections.
I love you Macey's!(I've added a link to their store just in case you want to start hearting them as well)

Cute as a tape worm.

So I had this wacked out dream last night and I so need to write it out in hopes that it'll make more sense to me.

So Michael, from The Office (the T.V. show) and I were grocery shopping at Albertson's in Price. (Which made total sense because that's where I did all of my grocery shopping when I was at CEU over 9 years ago) As we were shopping in the frozen food section I couldn't help but notice something white wiggling out of his skin. I recognized them at once as maggots and noticed a lot of wiggily things underneath the skin of his arm. So we went back to his apartment which looked a lot like the homes that the who's live in in Horton hears a who. He turned on the T.V. and started watching something while I went and got the tweasers to pluck the maggots out of his arm. Jeremy came by to pick me up from Michael's house and noticed something wiggiling underneath the skin on my right arm right above my elbow. Jeremy knew he had to get it out of my arm and I was so mad at Michael for spreading his nasty maggots to my arm. I was peterbed but when Jeremy started slicing my arm open to get the maggot out I was amazed that my arm looked a lot like the chicken breast that I buy from Maceys. I wasn't grossed out by the meat of my arm but more of the fat pocket that this maggot was digging in. Jeremy couldn't reach the maggot so he went and got his needle nose pliers and as he started to tug on it we noticed it wasn't a maggot but a long white tape worm. The incision that Jeremy had made was really deep but Jeremy didn't know how to close the wound so I went to find my dad. Dad was way too busy to help me and said that it would just heal itself if I didn't move too much. Which was totally plausiable except for the fact that I am a mom of three kids and had a mountain biking trip planned with Brother Wihonghi from the Overlake 2nd ward. I was showing brother Wihonghi the super cool bike trailer I had for my kids and he wanted to buy it for me but had to test it out. So I showed him that it could tip from side to side and the kids would stay safe. You could even jump off your bike and let the kids crash in it and they would still be Okay. Then I started complaining about my incision on my arm but if I held my arm just right it stayed close. I started biking up this hill right next to a park that climbed the mountain following brother Wihonghi and watching all the kids climb on Monkey Bars.
When I woke up this morning my arm hurt really bad and my legs felt like they had been pushing on something really hard all night long.



Another weird side note. My eyelashes are falling off or breaking off right in the middle of my lash line and I don't know why. It's driving me nuts but every time I go to buy fake eyelashes I can't do it. So instead of having regular looking eyelashes I look like I've had some sort of bad dance with a flame thrower. Or a pair of maverick scissors. or.....I'm so screwed up.

The Man Cold

a friend posted this. Ya that about says it all.

Girl Time

So hello blogger world. My mind has been churning lately. Well churning more than usual. And some people may understand my churn but some may only be able to sympathize.
So as many of you know I'm the only girl of 5 brothers. I love each and everyone of my brothers so much. They really are so crucial to me and who I have become. But honestly each of my birthdays from the time I was 5 on I wished for a little sister. With each brother came small disappointments but in the end ginormous love. I always thought, "well, I guess I'll get a sister when my brothers marry or when I get married". And man I've been blessed. I love my sister-in-laws like crazy. They are all so unique and amazing. I've learned so much from them and truly feel so blessed to count them all as such good friends. I have no doubt if we had met in different circumstances we'd be lifelong friends anyhow. I've had many friends who have held me in troubling times and lifted my spirits. Many friends that I've been able to share those deeply personal experiences with and continue to meet many "sisters" in the gospel that I'm sure have been put in my path for a reason.
Yet here my brain churns with that little girl wish still. (And No. Mom, honestly if you gave birth to another child now I would be forever freaked out. I know that Sarah and Sariah did it but I think I'll be ok. really.) It bugs me that I still want a sister and I think now as a 28 year old woman I finally understand why.
I watch groups of sisters do things together as adult women. Things like going to Women's conference, reading books together, "borrowing" clothes from each other (I know that was/is a major battle for many of you sisters, but still I can't ever borrow my brothers clothes when I go home.) Anything girly you want to do or talk about you've got someone to talk about it with. Trust me I tried telling my brothers my birth stories and they were both disgusted and embarassed and weired out for a lifetime.
I have been blessed with an amazing mother whom, for the longest time, I've considered to be one of my best friends. And she is so great to talk to me about all these things and share with me her life experinces which I am so so so grateful for. Yet.... It's not the same. This has bugged me as well. And finally it dawned on me. My mom cannot be my sister. She can remember my childhood but not as a child, she can only remember me as a parent watching a child grow. She may have been annoyed with me as I grew but she, luckily for me, had the patience of a mother not the lack of patience of a sister. I can relate my girly stories with my mom but her stories are decades dated and not quite the same as mine. Of course there will be similarities but THANKFULLY things have changed in the whole womanly department in the past few decades. I share my childhood memories with my brothers and thankfully they see things as boys not as girls. And as I'm experincing this time around as a parent, girls and boys do not exactly see things the same way.
I honestly believe that having a sister is like having a piece of your childhood forever within glance. My heart aches at times for this sister that has never been and despite my best efforts to feel that void it never will be what I'm looking for.
(Man this is a drag of a read) I really don't know what my point is in writing this. Maybe it's to help those of you out there with sisters better appreciate the gift that you've been given. Maybe it's to help those of you out there who don't have sisters understand maybe the ache of your own heart. Or maybe it's just to help me vent this and find some sort of closure or some kind of reasoning to my own heart strings.
Anyhow to my friend sisters,
Thank you. Thank you for going on long walks with me. Thank you for hugging me when I felt down. Thank you for helping me pick out clothes that made me look skinny and made my eyes sparkle. Thank you for eating Ice Cream with me in the freezing cold winter. Thank you.
To my sisters in the gospel,
Thank you. Thank you for sharing your spirit and lifting me to new higher levels. Thank you for praying with me and reading with me. Thank you for serving me and giving me the opportunity to serve you.
To my Sister-in-laws,
Thank you. I love you all so very much and truly feel so blessed to have you in my life. I am so grateful to my husband for having such fantastic sisters and for my brother and brother-in-law to marrying such amazing and dynamic women. I know that you all are really the closest thing I will have to a real sister. I guess it could be a blessing that we didn't know each other growing up but even if we did I'm pretty sure we'd get over it.
To my Mother-in-law,
Thank you. Thank you for raising such wonderful girls to become the women that they are. Thank you for raising the boys to become the men that they are, especailly for my man. It's amazing to me how easy it has been to flow into your family and feel as if I've always been there. Thank you
And lastly to my Mom,
Thank you. Thank you for being my friend, my mom and my sister. I know you did your best to get me a sister but I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father knew I'd be Ok with just you. Thank you for teaching me, serving me, listening to me and being so patient with me. I love you more than words can say. I know because of the things you've helped me see that we will always be able to have our special connection. I love you.
If any of you out there are still reading this. Thanks. I really do know that we are all children of God and honestly that makes us all brothers and sisters. I'm grateful for the knowledge that I am a daughter of God and how that has helped me realize who I really can be. I know that He loves me and I will spend my life trying my best to show him that I love him too.

Things that I should have been doing instead of reading twilight.

Darn it all. I am if anything a trend bucker. The more someone pushes something or raves about how awesome something is I tend to shy away from it. I know it's stupid but in my defense I thought it was always funny when people would use the line "everybody is doing it" you know like in" just say 'no'" seminars and what not. Honestly that pitch doesn't ever really appeal to me so when all of my friends, family, strangers on the street, Ellen Degeneres started talking about the Twilight series and the soon to come movie, my eyes nearly sprained themselves from rolling so much. I was the same way with the Harry Potter Series, The Lord of the Rings, Blogging, and probably a whole bunch of other things that if I were to admit them now I'd feel like a GIANT hypocrite. Well I thought I'd get on the Library's waiting list for the overly talked about Twilight series giving me plenty of time to let all the hype be done. Unfortunately the Library had a copy right there that very day and I had to take it because for some weird glitch in their system they couldn't put me on the list as long as they had a copy in the building. Fine. I was slightly irritated that I would have to join all the avid readers and put my life on hold. I figured I would wait and start the darn book when I was at my parents house while the husband was on a hunting trip with all the other manly men from my family. I threw the book down after the first three chapters and started to think all these crazy people think this is a good book!! First it really bugged me that the story was told in first person because honestly what insight can an author really give you in first person. Secondly, Bella I mean come on grow-up already. I know I was a little judgemental and harshly critical but because I have this OCD thing about books I decided to finish the book so that I could let all the dumb people who loved this book how warped their brains were. Ummm my mistake the book was awesome. I eagerly texted all my friends who had read it and begged for their forgiveness for being so slow to head their raves. Anyhow after I emerged from reading book 1, 2, 3, and 4 plus the midnight sun manuscript on-line. I looked around my home to discover I may have neglected a few things while I submerged with vampires, werewolves, stupid teenage hormones and the taste of anticipation, twitterpation and then of course love. Anyhow I could tell you all the things that I liked about the books but they're probably the same things you liked. I didn't like Jacob Black at all (Sorry tonia, he's just a dorky teenage boy to me) and to be completely honest laughed so hard in book 4 when that thing happens to him and the kid ( I'm trying to be vague for those who haven't read it yet) that I had to call a friend to have her calm me down. Also what the junk was with her telling the story from Jacob's point of view??? Seriously there were a few more options out there but I guess when you tell the story in 1st person it gets kind of tricky to cover character depth. Anywho I'm excited to see the movie just so I can laugh at how poorly it depicts the books. But I digress, the series was thoroughly entertaining and my house could use a serious maid right around now but I thought I would take pictures so you could all feel better about neglecting things to for a moment or two of indulgence.



Up first are the dirty dishes overflowing out of my sink. The smell was nasty.

But on closer examination there was a balloon in the sink so I didn't have that many dishes but they still stunk really bad.

Next up was the weeds in my garden, ummm all of that, morning glory. Ya it's supposed to be strawberries. But the snow is coming soon right?

Clothes that should have been unpacked from a long time ago still sitting in various duffel bags. It was nice to find some clean clothes though.

Clothes that should have been folded and put away but instead were strewn across the floor mixing in with the dirty clothes. Not so awesome.

Abby's constant outfit. Here princess nightgown and butterfly wings. Ya luckily we didn't leave the house much and occasionally I made her wear pants and a shirt with them but I wasn't really going to fight her much not if it took away from reading time.
Gorgeous here was so completely content as long as he had something to eat. Sometimes washing him off was too big of a chore but I still did it after I was done with a chapter. (Seriously I'm so glad I'm done.)
I mean look at those hands. You can see the junk between the fingers. At least he's cleaner now.

All in all a great read but I'm glad to be done. I'll seriously be glad when I can walk around and stop trying to think like a vampire or wonder what it would be like to read that person's brain, or wonder if i growled at that person if they would give me a dirty hiss in return.
"Well off to buck a new trend." She said with a chagrin smile.... OK I had to throw that one in too because seriously how many times can you use that word? And who ever really says it on a daily basis? But go...Read...Neglect....it's OK everyone is doing it.

Growing Old

Gpa and Gma Rawlings were here on Lizzie's Birthday and were lucky enough to spend the night. The next morning as I was getting the girls cereal and what not Gma Rawlings snuck by to visit the lady's room and Lizzie and I had the following conversation:
"Mom?"
"Yes sweetie?"
"I don't want you to be a Grandma when you grow up?"
"Why wouldn't you want me to be a grandma? Don't you want to be a mom?"
"Yes but....." her little voice was close to cracking and she was on the verge of tears
"But what?"
"When you become a Grandma you won't love me as much as you love your grandkids."

So Grandmas and Grandpas out there beware that Grandkids can see how you love them so. And don't forget to show your grandkids that you love your kids.

Dear LiZzIe

My Dear precious Lizzie,
So you are now 5 years old. Wow it has been so amazing being your Mom. I am forever grateful that you are my first child. You have made being a mother challenging and yet incredibly joyful. You are doing so much right now, but that's how you came to this earth. I could tell from the moment you took in your first breath that you took so much in with each breath.
I'm so proud of you and the good choices you are making so early in your life. I would love to say it's because I'm a great mother. I do try my best to teach you right from wrong, and I try to help you remember who you are but a lot of your choices come because you know. I worry already that people are going to try to strip that knowledge from you and every time I send you out into the world I secretly hyperventilate until you come back to me. But as we visited your preschool this past week and listened to your teacher talk about you my heart was so filled with joy. She told me that you were a leader, and not the snotty kind of leader that tells people what to do. Instead of telling people that they are doing things wrong you help them. You let them know how great they are and still help them learn things the right way. You reach out to those around you and are kind to those who need it. She told me about how smart you are and we already knew that and there is much that we can do to help that continue but above all your academic skills what really means the most to me is that you are staying true to who you are. I never thought it was so possible to feel the spirit so strong come from a 5 year old girl but as I try to teach you things and help you learn and grow I feel the spirit all the time. I know that you are learning quickly and for a very important reason.
I hope you can stay a little girl for a little while longer. That is why I don't let you watch Hannah Montana, I'm sorry if it's selfish but I want you to stay as pure as possible for as long as possible. I love watching you play dress-up. You are such a sweet and proper princess that it really cracks me up. So if you don't mind I'm going to let you indulge in the sweet things for awhile.
You are such a kind sister. Much kinder than I ever was. You think about how everyone feels and truly want everyone to be happy. I've seen you sacrifice things that on an adult level may not seem like much but to a kid I know it means a lot.
You are my big helper. I really will panic when you go to kindergarten next year. I marvel at the things I ask you to do and that you actually do them. I don't know if all 1st borns are this way but you are incredibly responsible and amazingly mature.
You have a way about you that draws people to you and people recognize immediately who you are. It's always been that way but as you get older it gets stronger and stronger.
I see you take pride in what others say about you and I worry sometimes that you might need that too much. Don't worry about what others say. You are enough on your own. It's nice to hear nice things but be strong enough to be able to go on without it.
Most importantly remember who you are. You are a beautiful daughter of God. As long as you live up to that potential you will never have to worry about anything. It's not always easy. People, things and sometimes even yourself will want to pull you down but you, my dear daughter, can rise above it all.
I love you so much and will forever be grateful that you have been in my life. I look forward to the next 5 years and seeing how much more you can grow. I'm proud of you. And hope you know how much you mean to me.
Love Forever and Ever
Your Mom