Simple

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car,

wearing beautifully tailored clothes,

my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.

I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.

I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn.

I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.

I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed some one's garden.

I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

Sister Hinkley

What a great quote to live by, and learn from. I just love this lady!

These are the kinda wrinkles I want!

The spa party.....

“Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigor. With such people the gray head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life.”Charles Dickens

I know that I have talked about wrinkles and growing old before and I am going to again so just bare with me. Last night I went to a spa party...One of my dear sister in laws great competitors~ I am afraid......and I won't name names. But like a typical party you start off with "the welcome and the spiel" and then you move into the feet stuff and then the facials and so on. I am a girls girl...but relaxing to me is going somewhere that they do it for you.

Any who.....A good friend of mine threw this party and although I loathe these things I went for moral support. (and besides I would never hear the end of it if I didn't). So after the "spiel" I found myself putting my foot in a trash bag to "marinate"....

Then I moved to the facial part of things.
YES, I have a routine for face care....
Its called showering....using soap.....applying lotion......then a light bronzer and viola... I am done. I am not fancy....I like to call it simple. Besides this step by step thing...I mean you guys really do this.....Step 1...step2.... step 501. I mean this is serious stuff....apply this, then this, then wash, now apply this, dab this and don't get it to close to your eye or it may fall out. It was a huge ordeal, I just don't have time for it. It was to much this and that. No, I did not tell this nice lady this...she was so serious and very cheery might I add....I was afraid that my "sense of humor" (as you well know) may of made her cry. So I tried to stay as low key as possible, which was hard not to make cracks.... although a few just flew out of my mouth....... uncontrollably.

The truth is that I like wrinkles.....and yes I am only in my 30's and have not had to deal with them yet. But I feel excited about them, something to show my wisdom. I will be quite upset for some reason I die at a early age and never get to see my hands with sunspots and all wrinkly. My face with my furrowing brow, laugh lines and crows feet. Why fight it? Why spend hundreds....(according to what they cost) Thousands of dollars a year on what my little $5 bottle of lotion and sunblock can do for me.

So how dare I tell these women that I want wrinkles....I dare...and I got the typical...."well... you don't have any yet so how would you know" bit....then I got the typical " yeah what is your weired fascination anyways?" question. I think it is about watching my Mom fight the wrinkles, the age spots and the gray hair on a daily basis. And no matter what she did it was a losing battle. She is a beautiful lady with what god gave her. I think by watching her fight a losing battle made me decide at a young age Not me, I wont do it.

From the facials we did hands...which I really dug....and can make out of brown sugar and sea salt myself for less than a dollar. Then we did a lip peal....which I really liked after the fact and since my lip have been so chapped from working out in the garden in the wind, They needed some peeling. But can't I just use tape or something??? and just rip it off really fast. I am pretty sure it would have the same effect. (totally kidding) Then there was the dreaded make up table where I always get the comment that "I could be such a pretty girl if I just accented my features". Something that I am quite use to it and my typical response. I just never felt that I needed too...and then I move on.

To the foot spa, something that is really nice and was really needed. I have winter feet. I never wear shoes at home and now that FOR TODAY....it is sandal wearing weather.....it would be nice to not have my feet look like Fred Flintstone.

Then came "check out".....WHO PRICES THIS STUFF???? I would dare buy something if ..... 1st off I wasn't such a cheap skate....and #2 didn't have to mortgage my home to buy something. Really $32 dollars for a small bottle of soap? That I am sure my kids would get a hold of to wash the toilet or something. So sorry dear friend my $5.50 cent purchase is far from helping you get to that $500 quota that you had hoped for!

All in all I had a good time. It was nice to hang out with a few of my dear friends that I have not
seen in a while and I did get one side of my face really clean as well as my feet. Oh wait there was one more station that I forgot to mention. Being almost one of the last people (IE looking through the catalog to find the cheapest possible thing) I got to personal visit the "fun" station this nice spa lady. AND Whats "fun" you ask????? Fun is hosting a party yourself and getting torture a whole new batch of friends to a Micro scrub and face peel!!!!! So being that my friend didn't have anyone sign up....Me the sucker.....signed up! So guess what friends......you have just now been invited to my spa party!!!!! Aren't you excited!!! Sometime in June. You'll know!

My garden....

My garden has yet grown again. I have tried to figure out a solution of the wind. I have given up on the rocks.

Sooooo...I've been thinking.....

Its been a busy few months. I am now re newed and excited to start my new~old Life again. I am excited for the start of spring and even more excited about the thought of just being a Mom. It is weired to think that - "I " can not have anymore kids-
I mean I could just think of being pregnant and then find out that I already was.
I feel good but the truth is that I feel sad and happy at the same time. But it is a weired feeling.

I knew I was done and I feel good about it. But the truth is....that no matter how much I complain about my kids that I really like them, and I might just keep having them until I get my own TLC show or my uterus just gives up and falls out. I am excited about getting to watch everyone grow up, I want to focus on my kids and not on being a bitchy pregnant Mom. I want to do fun things again. Its strange because in the last 7 years I have been pregnant for more than half of it. From then to now I think I have lost little pieces of myself, I have stopped doing things that I loved. I have stopped trying things for the fact that I would have to put the baby down, unattached the baby from a boob, or just get off of the couch. (bed rest/lazy)

I have set a few goals for my self and I figure if I let everyone know that I might feel some accountability for really doing them. These are not the kinda goals such as..."Lose 30 pounds, stop chewing my toe nails....(no I don't do this), shave my legs...(haven't in 5 months, But back to the ole' shaver again, SHUT UP I COULDN'T EVEN SEE MY FEET!!!). These are things that I have always seen other women do and thought "I couldn't ever do that".....and DAMMIT I can do that and I am gonna do that. Truth is that I am feeling ambitious and I still have tiny baby that is now a month old. But time sure flies fast these days and I am feeling that if I don't start now I may never and then I am just gonna get old and never do it!

So here we go....

#1 Live a more Simple life~ Live green, eat more fruits and veggies. Live more off the land.
#2 Run...I have always wanted to run. I see those people that run and it seems so effortless to them. I want to be able to do this!
#3 To grow a monstrous garden and can my brains out!!!
#4 Have more patience with my kids.....take special dates with just them and give them that one on one time that they need.
#5 Take sometime for my self. Do things I love, Try things....Be adventurous

Here is my plan for the running.....I found it on a friends blog. I am gonna give it a try.
Its called from couch potato to 5k.
http://www.marathon-training-schedule.com/couch-to-5k.html

As for the other goals I will post more about them soon!!!

Conference Sunday

We had such a nice Sunday.....55 degrees ....sunny! WONDERFUL!!!!

We woke up to one of our ward families bringing us OJ and yummy Cinnamon rolls.

Thank you who ever you were!!!

Then we got up (yes because we were still in bed) and the kids went out and got to be kids! ie playing outside!!! Something that we all have missed so much!

We listen to conference on the radio while I planted a few more of my garden starts, Mike took the Christmas lights off the house, and Grandma pushed the kids on the swings!

I am very excited about this year and the garden! We have tripled its size and we are planting rhubarb, horseradish and asparagus! Yummy! And tons more!!!

I am starting the watermelon and cantaloupe inside....to give it a while longer to grow!

Here is my slave labor..I pay them way cheap....with fruit snacks!

Picking rocks.... I am sure that soon this will be there favorite childhood chore/memory.

This is the look I get when I tell my husband that the garden " must be bigger...."

this is what i call his "holy cow woman" look.....But like a good husband does...he rototilled a little bit more for me!and rocks...Did I mention we have a lot of rocks????

Later this day we went to the duck pond and the play park....But I forgot the camera. we had a really fun day!