Keep it coming

Well rain fell today on our valley and it kept falling and falling and falling. We woke up to it and as I sit here and write it continues to fall. It was actually a nice change that we don't get to see a lot of. Dan didn't appreciate it too much since he had to be out working in it for a while this morning but it was nice to have a fire this evening and enjoy the wet weather from indoors.

The good news is that when there is rain at our house there is SNOW on the mountain. We checked the reports and YES... Mt. Charleston is receiving snow. In fact over the last 24 hours they had received over 9 inches of snow and have about 12-18 inches for a base. Now I know that is not a lot but we are at least progressing. We have to be hopeful for something. Every little bit counts at this point. Keep it coming Mother Nature!!!

Deck the Halls

We spent Sunday decorating the inside of the house for Christmas. We also realized that we have A LOT of stuff. The tree this year just has colorful globes on it. We try to do a theme each year and that is what we decided on this year.



Our fireplace is where the collection of Santas goes. This is getting quite large but still fits nicely up there. We also have our stockings hung waiting to be filled by old Santa himself.



This is a photo of where all the drama began. This is our china cabinet and where we use to be able to display ALL of our Nativity scenes. No longer does this hold them all. We have TOO MANY. This is only a sample of what we now have. They have out grown this.



More of our Nativity scenes. I love them and love to collect them and find different and unique ones. But I think I need to slow down or I will never find a place to display them or store them for that matter.

I am thankful for....

We were able to go to California to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends and it was great. We are so blessed and we have such great family (including those we were not able to spend the holiday with). We love them all so much. We are thankful for so many things in our lives including our health, our marriage, the Gospel, and our families. We hope that we are able to take the attitude of thankfulness and bring it with us through the entire year and not only remember and recognize it at Thanksgiving. We are blessed everyday by our Heavenly Father and we need to thank Him daily instead of just once a year.
We had a great time in California surrounded by our family, old and new, and we hope that we will all be able to spend time together again soon. We need to take the opportunity to do that more too.

Love stinks

Dan speaking here.....
Well I am taking this opportunity to use this Blog to express my discontent with the happenings of a show called "The Bachelor". Some background on "The Bachelor" is that he dates 25 single women looking for LOVE. As the weeks and weeks progress through eliminations the Bachelor tries to narrow down the potential "candidates" to fall in LOVE with. As you may well know last night the season finale aired on TV. The Bachelor had two remaining females to choose from. The point of the show is to "fall in LOVE" with one of them. As Aranne and I watched the show the first female, Jenni, who he had a strong connection with (our pick) was turned down for the reason of wanting more. In our disbelief we realized, by process of elimination, that DeAnna, the second female, was then going to "win". As DeAnna stood in front of the Bachelor hearing the news that he was sending her home as well caught us by surprise. We have never seen this occur in the show before. I then immediately felt USED. I then realized that for the past however many weeks the Bachelor's season is was all for nothing. It will be hours upon hours that I will never be able to re-live. I am using this Blog to inform everyone of the anger that I feel towards Brad Womack aka The Bachelor. In conclusion the point of the show is to find "true LOVE" and if that does not occur in the show they (the network) should either A. have a disclaimer or B. not have the show. I will then be taking heed before watching another show of this caliber. Please do the same.

Another year older...

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a great day. I was overwhelmed this year by the amount of cards and calls and just "Happy Birthdays" that I got. It was really nice. I also got some nice gifts which is fun too. I think the most original gift was from my brother and sister-in-law who bought me the Oprah Magazine collection book. It is fabulous I must say. And I think my own brother gets the prize for the funniest gift. He bought me a gift card online but put Cox on it instead of Urbancic... I mean I've only been married over 5 1/2 years... I did give him a hard time for that one.

All of the gifts were great, the cards were beautiful and the calls were wonderful. Oh that reminds me. I did get a surprising call too. I got a birthday call from the Stake President.. Yep, the Stake President. He just called to wish me a Happy Birthday. I told you that I got lots of calls and I felt like everyone remembered this year. It really was a great birthday which hopefully means it is going to be a great year.

What do you say?

There is not much that you can say to a friend who losses their mom. My friend just lost her mom on Saturday, and to top it off she passed away on my friend's birthday. (I know.. how horrible is that) I went to the funeral today and had no words to comfort her. Really what do you say? There are no words that can bring comfort in a time like this. The only thing you can do is be there as a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen but nothing can take away the pain and nothing can bring her mother back to her or take away the fact that from now on her birthday will forever be associated with the death of her mother.

I love her so much and just wish there was something more I could do. She is strong though and I know she will come out on top and will make it through this. I pray for her each night that she will be comforted and find the strength for one more day and then another, and each day will hopefully be better than the next.

FSA Breakfast

Saturday morning we had our first FSA (families supporting adoption)activity that we were able to be involved with. We didn't know exactly what to expect but we went anyways. It was a pancake breakfast; they had a bounce house for the kids and we were doing a service project for the local hospitals as well. It turned out nice and we were able to talk with some of the other couples and get to see Brad (our counselor) outside of the office setting which is great. One of the best parts was watching the kids as the enjoyed the thrill of the bounce house. The one thing that was the common among everyone there was the love that we had for the kids and the repect that we have for adoption. It was awesome to be able to see so many families that had come together because of adoption and how much love was there.


Look at the pure joy on this sweet baby's face.


How precious is she?


Doesn't she make you smile?


How can you beat this face?

Time for a change

Well I have been trying to decide what I wanted to do with myself. Did I want to cut my hair short? Did I want to try bangs again after over 10 years without them? I wasn't really sure...


Well, Friday afternoon I went and did it. I got my hair cut and decided to go with the bang idea. I am still not sure about it since it has been so long since I have had them and now I don't quite know what to do with them but I guess it always takes a while to get use to change. The one good thing is that they are still long enough to pull back when I need to and that was very important to me. We will see how this goes, after all it is only hair and it should grow out in a couple months anyways, then I can decide what I want to do next time.

Cards, Cards and More Cards

This is a very busy time of year for me as far as cards go. From October through December it is one thing after another... It starts with Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then our family Christmas party that I make the invites for, then my Christmas cards, then any birthday cards or anniversary cards that happen to fall in there too. Plus the thank-you's that I need for my birthday and Christmas gifts too. Let me tell you I feel like I have cards coming out of my ears. But I still love to make them and would never cheat and run to the store and buy one, even though there are the days when I feel like I am never going to get them done on time....

Another week begins....

Another week begins and that means another MONDAY... I have just recently realized that I don't particularly care for Mondays. I save my wash for Mondays which means that I have that to do and if I don't do it Dan especially has no clean clothes for the week and that is not a good thing. The doctors that I type for are extremely busy on Mondays which therefore makes me extremely busy on Mondays. Usually they alternate days that they work but EVERYONE works on Mondays. Great for me!!! I also have dance on Monday nights. This is both good and bad. It is good because I enjoy going to dance but sometimes it just comes too soon and I am not done with everything else I need to do and then it feels like a chore too. I hate when that happens. But most of the time it is my only release and I definitely need one come 6:15 on Monday night... Oh well... another week here we come.

The List

Okay so my birthday (and Christmas for that matter) is coming up and everyone always wants to know what to get me or what I want and I decided that for once I was going to actually make a list and now I have somewhere to put it. There are some things that I have been eyeing recently but have not purchased and so here goes the list.....

The Gift (CD) by Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband
Let it Snow! (CD) by Michael Buble
Noel (CD) by Josh Groban
The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright
At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks
The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
Gilmore Girls (Entire Show) on DVD
Coco (CD) by Colbie Caillat
Carnival Ride (New CD) by Carrie Underwood

and of course gift cards to Deseret Book, Best Buy, Old Navy, Kohls, or Borders are always fabulous. I am thankful for the gifts I receive but like to help out those who are interested in what I REALLY want this year. Thanks for taking a look.

I'm lost without you...

I am a little embarrassed to say that I have been lost without my phone this week. I left my charger in CA this past weekend and it only took a few hours for it to completely die on me and I have been left totally alone this whole week. I never really thought I was that addicted to my phone but recent events have proven me wrong. I feel very unconnected to the world and my friends. The main reason is that ALL of my phone numbers are stored in my phone and that is the BIG lesson that has come from this. As soon as my charger is returned to me I will be extracting said numbers and writing them down in case I ever do this again, or phone is broken, or last or stolen or whatever I will at least have all of my important phone numbers because as it stands right now I do not. They are all contained in my phone and nowhere else. Very bad mistake. I have also become subject to texting and I have felt lost without that ability. It is a very easy way to communicate and I have lost that ability and that has left me sad and alone.

I am just kidding about all of these things except that fact that I really do need to pull out the numbers that are in my phone. If I ever did lose my phone completely there are lots of numbers in there that I have nowhere else and that is a bad thing. I also didn't realize how much I do use my phone and just how weird it feels NOT to have it. I am not addicted to it but I do feel a little lost without it. Oh well, thank goodness I still have the computer!

November

It is finally November, my favorite month of the year. It is not only my birthday month, but the month where it finally turns cold, we usually get a chance to go snowboarding this month, I now know it is National Adoption Month, it is Thanksgiving which is my favorite holiday and I am officially allowed to pull out the Christmas movies and music - YES!!! This is something that I truly look forward to all year. I love watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music. I usually don't do it until after my birthday on the 18th but this year it might start happening a little earlier. I just feel the urge. I also get to put together my "Wish List". My wish list is extra long because it has my birthday and Christmas all on one list. Most people have their birthday and then have Christmas a few months later. Well mine seem to get closer and closer each year. When I was younger it seemed like my birthday was really far away from Christmas but now it seems like they are only a week apart. I know they have not actually gotten any closer but time just goes by so fast and the stores skip Thanksgiving and start celebrating Christmas so early that is appears that they two are much closer than they really are. I am going to be starting a "Wish List" very soon and it will be posted on here just in case anyone is interested in it - Hint, Hint..... Anyways... Yeah for November the best month of the year.