Sugarhouse Park

Beautiful Oregon!

A few pics from my Oregon trip! It was absolutely beautiful and not raining.

Astoria, OR

Newport Aquarium

Mom, Dan, Mandy, and Meg on the Oregon coast

Oprah Experiment

I have really been interested in the Oprah show lately which for some reason makes me feel old. On Monday there was an episode call "What can you live with out?" experiment. The base of the was exactly that. They took two familes and took away some of the everyday thing that as a society we feel we can not live without. For example, there was a family of 4 that enjoy television, toys, cars, etc. Their kids have all the toys they coiuld ask for, the drove to school everyday even though it was two blocks away, ate out most of the time and spent a majority of their time in front of the T.V. Oprah challaged them to live a week without these luxuries.



This got me thinking about my own life. We have cell phones, internet, tv's in our rooms, and of course tons of toys. Unfortunately, Josh has been layed off so we have been forced to give up a few things but I find that it has been a blessing. We no longer have cable, we don't go out to eat, and we spend a lot of time at home or outdoors. We no longer come home, sit on the couch and watch TV. We fix dinner, go for walks, and play games. We have Alyssah all this week so we went to the library and checked out a ton of books. Alyssah has spent most of her time reading to herself or us.



Moral of my story is that I don't need all of these extra things to be happy. I have been much happier spending time with my wonder family. I have loved sitting at the table all together and talking about each others days. I love going to bed and relaxing while reading a book. I love playing games and laughing together or just going for a walk and enjoying the beautiful weather. Yes, not having money is very stressful but I am a happier person today being closer to my family and having time for myself.

It's gone!!

So, I finally had enough of my hair. I thought is was beautiful but it was just to much to handle. I always threw is up in a ponytail anyway. It was long enough for me to donate to locks of love so that made it a little easier.

We have stairs!

We finally have stairs. We have converted our duplex into a home. I absolutely love it! We now have a large living room, large laundry room and Josh's jam room. We are so excited to have the extra room. Its not completely finished yet but this is just fine for now!

Mama's 50th birthday!

My sister and I drove up to Montrose this weekend to suprise my mom for her 50th birthday!! She had to work at the home and garden show this weekend so Meg and I suprised her with balloons and flowers. She didn't know we were coming up so she was shocked to see us when we ran up to her. And then of course she started crying. It was great to see the shock on her face. We didn't get to spend much time with her because she had to work and we had to head home. Mom had just enough time to have lunch before we left so we stop at a chinese buffet (with Sushi). Us girls always have a good time. Some of the food we didn't recognize so we had a few laughs while tasting and examining the interesting cuisine.

Meg and I headed home before it got to dark. We hit the canyon about 8 pm which wasn't the best idea. Driving the canyon in the dark is kinda scary!! But we made it home safely.

Love you mom!! Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Husband!

So, Josh turned the big 30 today! I put together a suprise birthday dinner for him at Olive Garden (his favorite restaurant) last night. He was definitely suprised. He had no idea. I thought it would be harder to pull off because he doesn't like secrets and has been really picky about spending money lately. But it worked and he was so happy. Once again I did not have a camera but my two trusty photographers (Tiff and Nikki) were there with theirs so I will post picks when I get them. Thanks to everyone that made it to dinner. He was really happy and suprised. He loved having his family there and was especially happy that his little girl was there.

Happy Birthday Babe! I love you!!