Happy Birthday Mom!

I wish I knew how to use the scanner part of the 3 and one copier that my sister and her family gave us for Christmas, because I would scan a picture of us from when I was just a kiddo...Maybe I will figure it out and add a picture to this post...But in the mean time I will post a couple of pictures that show how great of a Nee (what Jake calls her...It was going to be Grammie but this is what he came up with when he was tiny and it stuck) she is, and that will let you all know that she must be an amazing mom too. :) And she is. Happy Birthday Mom! We miss you but are so proud of you for serving a mission with Dad. You always have been and continue to be an inspiration to everyone that has their life blessed by knowing you! Enjoy the random Nee pictures...

I figured it out... :) Me and my mommy...

Looking at the lights a couple of months ago when we visited on their mission in Seattle.
Mom's last cuddle with her "Grand-dog" before leaving on their mission. (We had to put Emily to sleep a month and a half later because she had cancer...)
Last hug at the house before they left for their mission...We surprised them by following them to the bank for one more goodbye. :)...Wow Jake has really changed this past year...
And some other random pictures I looked at and they made me smile...

Simple pleasures...

I love opening up my cupboard to get a cup and seeing a childhood memory. When my Nana Lee (my fathers mother) passed a way the beginning of 2007 (...wow I can't believe it was that long ago), I mentioned to my Uncle Gary that I would love to have the cup that I always drank out of at Nana's house. Each of the grandchildren had a color that they drank out of every time we were at Nana's. Mine was yellow...Uncle Gary searched for the cups to no avail, until last summer when he came across them in a box in Nana's garage...All the grandchildren got their cup, plus an extra one from the set. I thought about putting them up in a safe place to make sure it would never break. I am so glad I didn't, because now I get to have the simple pleasure of seeing it in my cupboard and drinking out of it whenever I want to reminisce. It is also an amazing way for my son to remember how important my Nana was in my life. It is an honor to drink out of my treasured cup.


****THIS IS AN UPDATE! A new blog friend told me how to do the link thing and I did it! So, this last paragraph doesn't make as much sense as it did before, because you can click on the link now!****
Check out other people's simply pleasures at chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com...I really need to figure out how to link it...Yes I am serious I don't know how to that. Little help anyone?...It is also a simple pleasure to change my blog background whenever I feel like it... :)

Wordless Wednesday...

Wordful Wednesday: My Favorite Childhood Books

I am addicted to this awesome blog called "Chocolate on the Cranium" and she really had me thinking this past week about my favorite childhood books. I wish I had my camera and I would take pictures of them...but I left it at church on Sunday (we are taking pictures of all the kiddos in Primary to put on the wall. I made charts for stickers to show every week they read their scriptures. The Senior Primary has Book of Mormon chapter trackers on theirs...wait a minute this is off the subject...) , so just picture it in your mind. I couldn't pin point one specific book so here is a run down on the ones that I love, love, love...

*Charlotte's Web-My first grade teacher Mrs. Young read this to us...Definitely an all time favorite book.
*The Giving Tree-Does it get any better than this? I like it so much that I have mine from when I was a child and Jake has his own copy that I let him color in. I always wanted to color it in when I was little...This also reminds me of Where the Sidewalk Ends, also by Shel Silverstein (spelling?) . My sister had that book and I had to beg her to let me read it.
*Sweet Valley Twins and The Babysitters Club-Does this give you a hint at the error I was a tween? I so wanted to start my own babysitters club. I wanted to be Claudia so bad, with her cool fashion sense.
*Little House on the Prairie -I had the whole series, but I am ashamed to say I didn't read them all...Maybe I will now. I remember every time my mom made beef stew I wanted to turn off the lights and eat it by candle light. It seemed like something Laura's family would eat...I wanted to be a pioneer, until Hurricane Hugo hit and we didn't have power for several days...I really enjoy electricity...
*The Berenstain Bears-ALL OF THEM! Every single one of them. These probably are my favorite childhood books. The pictures just spoke to me as a child, and they still do. I am so glad my mom is a pack rat and had kept them all, so I could pass them on to Jake. I love "...and the messy room", "...go to camp", and "...go to school" the very best. I so wanted to live in their tree house and go to their school...I love the Berenstain Bears so much, that when Jake was in kindergarten I would watch the show on PBS when he was at school.


When I think of childhood books it makes me think of one of my favorite movies, You've Got Mail. There is a part where Kathleen Kelly's (Meg Ryan), boy friend who is a writer for a newspaper, writes an article to try and help save "The Shop Around the Corner" (you've seen this movie right? If not you have too! You will love it). No wait...maybe it is who Kathleen says it...I guess I will just have to go watch the movie again (bummer, an excuse to watch my favorite movie!). Any who, in the movie they discuss how what you read as a child shapes who you are (....Nope it is the boyfriend. Welcome to how my brain works people...It really can be exhausting listening to it.) as an adult. I agree 100%, and that is why my favorite books are all still children's books and that is pretty much all I read. I am still trying to shape who I am. :)

Check out other peoples favorites at Cocoa's blog...It is on my blog list that says: "We would so be best friends,if I actually knew them". When I have a minute extra I am going to figure out how to do the link where you just click and it pulls up... :)

State of the Union Address

I watched the whole thing (didn't plan on it), and was surprised to find there were actually a couple of things that Obama said, that I agree with. He is a very charismatic speaker and it made me almost want to believe him ...BUT, he doesn't fool me. I still think he is a Socialist. :) I think government is too big. I think we live on a budget, so why doesn't the government? I think that it was nice that the Democrats and Republicans sat together because it meant there was no annoying clapping and cheering that went on for 2 minutes. I think I am so blessed to live in a country where on a little blog I can type how I feel and not have to worry, because I am free to do so. I also forgot that Obama is left handed, so we actually do have something in common!

I watched the Republican response afterward and liked it. I agreed nearly 100%...My brain was starting to hurt from listening to politicians (it has been a long time because we down graded our satellite package to the bare minimum last year. Since we don't have Fox News Channel, I don't watch the news.), so I will give or take a few % points. Not as charismatic, but I actually believed what was being said...And now I am going to bed!

A moment in my brain...

As I made a quick trip to the post office, I had some thoughts run through my mind. After these few moments I realized just how random my mind is...Do you have a conversation with yourself in your head at all times? I feel like I do. If I am not talking to some one, I am talking to myself in my head...I guess it is really only a problem when you start doing it out loud right? This is kind of (I can't remember exactly so the quotation marks aren't completely accurate, but you get the picture right?) how my inner dialogue went in those few minutes:

*Walking out the front door: "Ummm...I love it when I can smell the dryer smell outside (the vent outside is near the front door), I wish outside always smelled like a cross between Downy (I splurged at Sam's Club a while back), and Arm and Hammer laundry deterent...."

*In the car driving the 1 minute drive to the post office, I see a man walking a black lab: "Look at that cute dog!!! Oh, I just smiled at the dog and didn't even acknowledge the old man...What a horrible neighbor I am. At least he knows I like his dog, which was cute-but no where near as cute as Emily was....I am so glad Jake doesn't have any cavities (he just went to the dentist last week). He is lucky he got my teeth not Aaron's. Aaron's look nice, but he has lots of issues. $4800 worth of issues to be exact...Who has $4800 laying around? (Aaron says he will just get dentures when he is old, he doesn't care...Wouldn't that be nice-the $4800 not the dentures)...I have never had a cavity. My teeth are little, tiny chic-lits but they rock!"

*Pulling in the parking lot: "Nice dude. I could have totally run you over. You didn't look this way at all...Oh, look that other guy shops at Bi-Lo. It is amazing how many people shop there. Every where I go I see people I "know"...Ahhh... look at that dad carrying that sleeping baby...So, cute...."

*On the way out of the post office, holding the door open as an elderly lady follows me out: "Old ladies perfume always smells so good-like they just put it on...How do they do that? Do they use powders or something? How do they always smell so nice?"

Tell me I am not the only one who is constantly having a conversation with themselves in their mind...

Skinny On The Inside...

"One more thing..." is my scrapbook. It is pictures of the faces I love and the memories I want to keep forever. It is my outlet. It is for posterity. It is "mom stuff". It is who I am, but only partly...

I have a new blog for the other stuff that I sometimes crowded onto this blog. My other blog is just going to be my journal about a journey I am going on. A journey I have needed to take for a long time but didn't have the guts to really commit to before. My "I am starting on Monday" is done. I am starting right now. I have said it before, but I have no choice. Time is slipping through my fingers and I am done with the excuses. I am done watching life pass me by and wondering what it could be like if I wasn't fat. I am ready to see how good life can be-even if it isn't exactly how I thought it would be. I wanted to lose weight so we could have more children. Is there a better reason than that? No, and it still wasn't enough. I didn't lose it because I was afraid of how I was going to feel about myself if I was skinny again and still couldn't get pregnant. What then? What I did was not even give myself the chance to cross that bridge if we came to it. I have made every excuse in the book before. I don't have any left. I am done being selfish. My family is missing out on life because of who I have become. I am done hating the person I see on the outside. I am ready to let the me I know is on the inside, buried down deep, out. I am skinny on the inside...