December is here!

We had a terrific time at my mom's house for Thanksgiving! We had about 20 people for our big FEAST at Papa and Great's house! As usual, I forgot to snap any photos, but I did get one of my mom and her sister Pam who was visiting from Texas, via Alabama. She surprised 3 of her 8 kids and their families, who didn't know she was coming. The food was yummy; I finished New Moon, we watched football and movies, and went to see Twilight/Bolt (depending on age/obsession). Mom also spent a good deal of time working on us in the shop--making us beautiful and doing a great job, as usual.

We managed to get in some shopping at the University Mall, where I always see someone I know--this time it was my old Bishop and his wife from Pine View Ward. It's so weird, but true! Then, we helped get the old Coca-cola Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus down from the attic for the Christmas Display in Mom's yard.

All in all, a great holiday with all the traditional trimmings! And now, December. Best wishes for this busiest of seasons!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to wish all my dear friends and family a very Happy Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for having you in my life! It is often hard for me to express my love and gratitude to those who are closest to me, but I feel so blessed to have girlfriends to play with, daughters to grow with, and a wonderful husband to live, laugh and love with. I'm grateful for my extended family as well...for parents who love us and are terrific Grandparents to our girls; for brothers and sisters who make my life more interesting and fun, and for nieces and nephews who make my heart swell with pride. Everything important to me in my life has been touched in some way by the people I love and, especially at this time of year, I am grateful! And, now I'd like to express my gratitude for the Most Important People in my life...Edward Cullen and Bella Swan.....

Just Kidding! Come on you guys! I'm not that bad!!!! Happy Thankgiving!

A New Look for Christmas

I took a little bit of time off from my obsession with Twilight to update my blog for Christmas! What do you think? I even added some of my favorite Christmas Music.

Well, that was fun.

Now back to Edward and Bella and Jacob. Just starting New Moon again...gotta run!

I've Been Bitten!

Okay, I'm actually more excited about Twilight now that I've seen the movie than I ever was before. I was quite reluctant to even read the book at first and I thought the series was pretty good, but I wasn't one of these people who was dying to see the film...until I saw it.

It was really good! So, then I had to go see it again. (I saw it twice in one day...well, technically the second started at 11:59pm, so it was still in one day!)

And now I'm reading the book again. I'm especially looking forward to the sequels....since I'm really more of a Jacob fan...although Edward is growing on me after seeing him in "real life." It's fun to see a movie you really enjoy...it feels like it's been a long time!

Now, Taylor wants to go see it too! So I guess I'll be going a third time....I'm not complaining....but I have to decide if she can handle it (and the previews before the show.) Scott's not interested....I wonder why?!? Not many husbands seem to be into it. So weird.

Vampire-mania!

So...I think I'm the only person in the Universe who has read the Twilight series who is not already lining up to see the movie premiere this weekend! Which is a bit ironic, since I have been a fan of the Vampire genre since WAAAY before this series became popular. And I have taken much grief for it too....but now it's suddenly cool and everybody's into it...and I'm the one without tickets!!! Oh well. I'm not bitter. I'll get around to it soon enough. It will probably be at Redbox before too long anyway.

Sick Day

I'm home sick today and I'm not thrilled about it. I hate being sick, first of all, and, secondly, while I don't always hate missing work, I do hate missing money, especially right before the Holidays. I've caught a chest cold and it is on the way out, but I always make the mistake of feeling a little bit better and then I jump up and get bustling and it comes back even harder and keeps me down longer. So I am coddling myself a little bit, but I know it's for the best. Thank heaven for medication...and resting....and my family, who take good care of me.

Today, Shaylie is on a field trip to Beauty and the Beast at Snow Canyon High School. I know Shay will love it, she really enjoys things like this. I wanted to go as a chaperone, but I was told that I couldn't go because there wasn't enough room. It's okay though cuz I'm sick.

Taylor had a rare soccer free week...no tryouts or games or practices. She does have her Season End Party tonight though. They'll get their trophies for being League Champs--three in a row--JJ has nothing on my girl! There is another Northern tryout in Orem this weekend but I think we might just wait for the next St. George meet. That will give her 3 and the ODP recommended two, we'll see.

Scott had a fun time in Las Vegas over the weekend. His train club is now a chapter of the National Model Railroad Association. He and James and Jim Harper went down to a Club meeting and Clinic on Saturday. He said it was so fun to be around people who get genuinely excited about trains. I know what that's like because I live with someone like that! He is hard at work on his latest project. Hopefully, he will post pictures. Shaylie's been helping him paint and they've been having a good time.

I just realized that most of this stuff is more appropriate for our TechFamily blog, that's more like the Large Plates of Jesienouski....more day to day stuff. This blog is for more Small Plates stuff. But sometimes I forget where I am. Not in an OldTimers way, just in an I Have Too Many Blogs way. Anyway...it's been kind of quiet on the Blog Front these days, so I just wanted to post an update. I think my meds are kicking in, as you can tell from my rambling....so I'm off to take a nap.

Let it go, for Sanity's sake!

If you read my blog post about the coupon mess up, you know I am struggling with my sanity when it comes to this crazy coupon clipping. I went back several times last week to try to get some of the GREAT deals, but they were out of everything! Everytime I went, the shelves were empty.

So, last night I was getting ready for this week's sales and reading about how it was going to be another big one with lots of 5-star deals and I went to bed, only to wake up about 3am in a panic after dreaming that I got to the store and everything was gone! I had planned to get up at 6am and get to the stuff before it was gone, but after the dream I decided maybe I need a break from my new OBSESSION! So I let it all go, and if I get some deals, lucky me! If not, I'm good too. At least that's my new objective...I'll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE: I went to the store today and got all the deals I wanted! It was even pretty stress free, although I did have a bit of anxiety pulling up to the store, but it quickly passed!

Scott and I had fun at the BYU game. It was the first time that either of us had been to a BIG college game. It's a very fun experience. I almost didn't accept the tickets because Scott has always been such a big Utah fan and very NOT interested in BYU. But my coworker talked me into taking the tickets and having a fun adventure. I didn't tell Scott about my doubts until after the game, and he was shocked! He said he is a BYU fan unless they are playing the U. I guess it's never too late to learn something new about your spouse.

I liked the feeling of being in a crowd that was 99% LDS. I told Scott it was like being in the Celestial Kingdom. He liked the idea of football in the Celestial Kingdom, I'm sure. And we both enjoyed the band...at half time, they did a medley of video game theme songs and marched in Tetris shapes and the color guard was locked in Mortal Kombat. It was a perfect day for football, just a little chilly in the shade, but a beautiful day!

While we were at the game, Taylor went to another tryout in Layton. It was a much bigger tryout (about 800 girls she said) and she got to show off some of her Goalkeeper skills. She was the only girl from Southern Utah so she was recognized for that. She felt much better about this tryout so I was glad she decided to go.

We had a good visit with my Dad and Pam. Shaylie had a good time hanging out and playing the Wii. As usual, I forgot to take pictures, so I'm posting an older one just for fun. . .It's hard to believe how much the kids have grown. This is from 2001!

We're glad we got the chance to visit! Thanks for letting us stay and for taking the girls in hand while we went to the game. We had a lot of fun!

SNAP!

I went shopping today to get some AWESOME deals, but I totally messed up!

You were supposed to buy in $30.00 increments to get $15 coupon for your next trip. So I spent about an hour preparing to go to the store, getting the list ready and finding coupons. Unfortunately all my organization went out the window because they were out of almost everything I wanted (lots of free stuff this week!)so I had to do some quick and headache-making rearranging at the store in order to hit the $30 mark.

I did get my $15.00 vouchers (twice) but I forgot to use my coupons on the first transaction!!!! And on the second, I was $1.00 short, but they gave it to me anyway because I made such a big noise about forgetting to use my coupons, they just wanted to get rid of me. But I was glad!

I want to go back to get the free stuff or at least try to catch them after they've restocked. I also want to get the KUNG FU PANDA deal. I loved that movie!!! And free stuff is cool too! I wish my head wouldnt' get so muddled while I'm actually shopping. It would be nice to be sharp again, but I'm afraid those days are long gone!

Please, all my friends, I'm begging you...if you hit Albertson's and see that they've restocked some stuff (Progresso Soup, Dove Shampoo, Suave Lotion)...let me know! Thanks!

Election Alert!!!

I don't usually get too political, but I thought this was worthy of a post.

If you were going to vote for Obama, you might want to reconsider. Shaylie came home from school today, seriously upset. She told me that all the kids at school were saying that if Obama is elected he is going to "send all white kids to an orphanage and you'll never see us again".

After a night like tonight, I said, "Why wait until Barack is president? Let's call the orphanage tonight. I'll drive you over."

I don't think that helped.
Happy Election Day!

Christmas Already...

I went to work today and turned on FM100 as usual and they were playing Christmas Music!!! Can you believe that? I don't mind so much, but the thing I hate is when I try to hear Christmas tunes the day after Christmas and it's nowhere to be found. I've also seen Christmas ads on TV for the past two days now...I actually saw the first one on Oct. 30th this year. And don't even get me started on Wal-Mart!

I think we need to have a moment for the Forgotten Holiday: Thanksgiving! What is it? Chopped Turkey. I did buy a few Turkey Day decorations in July when I saw them on sale....good thing too or I'd be out of luck now!

At any rate, enjoy the Holiday Season...you have plenty of time to do it!