Happy Christmas Eve

We are havinig a nice time in Mexico. Today we spent the day in Encinatas. It is about 50 kilometers away which is about 40 miles. We had a nice time being bombarded by little children to buy their wares and/or just give them money. I don't do so well. Dad and Marc purchased new suits for about $70.00. That was a great deal. The people are very friendly. Many of them speak english. It is hard to remember that it is Christmas. But there are a few Christmas trees around. Hopefully pictures will follow soon.

Belle Voix

The correct pronunciation is Belle vwaaaaaa. this is the singing group for Sophomores at our high school. They have been doing "gigs" at area christmas party almost every Friday or Saturday night through the month of December. They had their Christmas concert on Wednesday and this is the first I have heard them sing. They did an excellent job and she looked beautiful. Ok, my computer won't let me post a picture so I'll have to do that later. But for now this will bring me back to the top of Loras blogger list.

16th birthday for Ashlee

She received a little speaker for her i-pod(I think this is the thing she was most excited about). An i-tunes gift card. a converter to play her i-pod in the car and a gas card.

seat covers for the neon and a steering wheel cover.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEE WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it!!!!!

She can't!!!! I have an easier time.

She is going to her moms after school today and having some friends over for movies. So we aren't going to see her until late tonight and tomorrow is a crazy day. So we made her open her presents before Marc left for work.

In October I told her that since this was her 16th birthday we could do something extra special. So be thinking about what you want to do. Well her choices were - spend the weekend in St George or have a mystery dinner theatre. Well we pretty quickly ruled out St George. We have to share her birthday with her mom so that would have left an overnighter in St George. So I started looking for dinner theatre ideas. The internet had quite a few. But we luckily tend to procrastinate. So early in November she received her schedule for Belle voix performances. Pretty much every weekend. So luckily she is having friends over at her moms otherwise she wouldn't have any party at all.

Ashlee Christmas in October

Well no need to retell the whole story so see Cortnee for a full explanation of why Christmas was in October at our house. Oh yes and I should say that in addition to paint, new bedspreads we also redid their floors with laminate. With 16 years of living their floors were more than disgusting. But they look beautiful now.

I also should add that I like Ashlees room now but I really liked her room before. This new change is a little grown up for a sixteen year old. But she likes it I think. I should also add this is Ashlees third major change in 9 years and so she has been told this will be the last bedroom makeover that we will pay for. The picture of her room didn't turn out that nice. It actually looks much better in person.

Cortnee Christmas in October

Well this is going to be a different kind of Christmas. Cortnee decided that she wanted to redo her room. So I told her it could be her Christmas. That is not real exciting but bedroom redecorating is way too expensive when you are on a budget. So she picked her colors. We had a lady in our ward help us with ideas. Cortnee had come up with most of it on her own. Liz just help us fine tune. She also painted for us. Mom, Dad and Heidi all did the quilt. They did a wonderful job. I said I want circles all over and other than that they didn't get much help from me. They did such an excellent job. I love it. (so sorry I don't know how to do links or I would plug your family quilts web site) This is the first major redo of Cortnee's room in 9 years. And I am so very pleased with the outcome. Best of all I think she really likes it as well. I guess I should finish with why it was in October. When both she and her sister decided to redo their rooms for Christmas we said great that will be Christmas. Well Marc and I decided to go to Mexico with mom and dad so the girls will be staying with their mom. I decided that I didn't want to spend the whole month of December painting, etc. So needless to say October is when the rooms were done.

Disclaimer

I just have to remind you all that when I started this I knew I wasn't going to be very faithful. So......
However, I just learned today from Lora that I get moved to the top of her blogger friends by updating. So I am going to try to be better. I hated being clear down at the bottom.
I have been working a part time job at Mervyns since last Christmas. I worked the Christmas season and then worked mostly one night a week through most of the year. Well they announced in August that they were going out of business. So I decided that I better pick up as many hours as I could before they were gone. It turns out that the extra money was nice.
Anyway, this monday will be my last day there. I have kind of enjoyed it. Not the last month or so. Too many nights and weekends away from home. But the rest of the time not too bad.

Flowers

I Iwanted to post pictures of the flower pots that we did in the front yard this year. There is a nursery near our house and if you take your pots into them in February they will pot them and give them a lot of TLC until May when you get to take them home. I have been wanting to do it for several years and so this year broke down and did it. This is what they look like today. I wasn't sure I would be able to keep them alive this long but thanks to our new sprinkler zone just in the flower beds we have them being watered three times a day for a few minutes. seems to be the ticket. I did have the pots on the stairs and the sidewalk and just the two big ones in the flower beds but it was just too hot. So I wanted to share how pretty they are. Plus Shilo ( never can tell you enough about how cute she is.) she loves to lay in the front yard. Not on the chain. If she has to be on the chain she would rather be in the house. Silly dog. But I love her.

Cortnee has another new haircut

Cortnee's last haircut was soooooo cute but apparently she hated it. So now she has a new one. I'm thinking she just didn't like the attention of people telling her how cute she was all of the time.

She was at Oak Crest all last week. She had a great time. She cried when she had to come home. Oak Crest is a Church camp up by Kamas. You have to have finished 7th grade and 8th grade to go. She met some fun new people and had a great time. We missed her and are glad she is home but very happy that she had fun.

vacation 2008

This year we had planned on purchasing into the worldmark timeshare program. So last year when we were in Washington we purchased a one week vacation that allowed us to be locked into the same rates as last year if there was a change in the price. I know all of the sales pitch. So we planned on going to St George during spring break. Since mom and dad's 50th anniversary is coming up and we may go somewhere extravagant we didn't plan to do too much this year. Marc's neice Tanya passed away during that time and so we were here with family. Anyway, we ended up changing our vacation plans to Midway over the 4th of July. Marc and I went up on Tuesday night, Ashlee and Cortnee were at their moms, then we both worked on Wednesday. Wednesday night I picked up Ashlee and Cortnee and they each took a friend with them. Ashlee invited Cami and Cortnee invited Morgan. We then picked Marc up from work ( well at least eventually we picked Marc up from work.) Always long drawn out stories but we ended up getting to Midway around 8:00 p.m. I think. The next day we went to Park City and spent the day at the Park City Resort. I think that is what it is called. It is at the base of the ski runs by the ski lift. The Alpine slide is there and they also have a zip line and a roller coaster to name the big draws. But there is also a small miniture golf course, a human maze, a carousel, a trampoline that you gets strapped into so you can do back flips and such. Anyway, quite the fun place. We were there from about 11:30 until 9:00. In case anyone is wondering it is very pricey but since we were on vacation and not doing a whole lot this was our splurge. In case anyone is wondering the alpine slide and the zip line are not really worth it but the alpine coaster, now that was FUN!!!!with a capital F, if anyone remembers our BORING with a capital B trip to Mesa Verde a couple of years ago. On Friday we took the girls over to the Homestead and they went swimming and snorkeling in the crater. The pictures aren't great but they are what we have. Midway did a pretty good fireworks show for the 4th and we went home on Saturday. And that is our 2008 vacation.

Ashlee surgery

Day after surgery - July 15th
















July 16th - friends came to visit
she doesn't feel well enough to even visit with them.








Sunday July 20th. She was staying at her moms and Marc and I went to see how she was doing. Finally she looked like she had a little life in her eyes. Not in this picture necessarily but she even kind of smiled.






July 27th at her best friends babtism. She still can't close her lips but looking quite normal.












This is today. August 10th.
She is going to be unwired on Wednesday 4 weeks and two days after the surgery. Originally the doctor had told us that she would be wired shut for one week. But after surgery he said she would probably be wired shut for 4 weeks just because her bones weren't that healed from her wisdom teeth surgery 3 months ago. She has been miserable and a pretty good little trooper but better to be safe than sorry.


On July 14th Ashlee had her surgery. It has some extremely long name but basically they extended and tipped her bottom jaw and extended her chin about 1/4 of inch. She was actually not in a lot of pain right from the start. Pretty much just nauseous for a week!!!

Haircuts

Ashlee and Cortnee got new haircuts. They always tell me they want to grow their hair out long but then they get antsy to change. So this is what they ended up with. I love both of them. Cortnee went in planning to get a trim. But what she ended up with looks so cute on her. I'm glad she did it. Oh yes, I took the picture of the two of them in our messy kitchen and then Cortnee in the living room and then my camera died......so no individual picture of Ashlee.

Ashlee and the BABY!!!!!!

When Ashlee first heard about the class where you get to take a baby home she thought it was so cool. I think the closer she got to actually taking a baby home she was a little more nervous. She named her baby Aidan. It has a monitor in it and the mother (Ashlee) wears a monitor on her wrist. This tells the baby that the mother is near. Periodically the baby will cry and need either a diaper change, a bottle or just to be cuddled and the mom has to figure out what it needs. Ashlees baby cried a lot at night. The first night she put the baby to bed and then tried to go to the bathroom. Every time she would get to the bathroom the baby would fuss. After a couple of times she was heard muttering "stupid baby". Marc and I just laid in bed and tried not to laugh. I expected the baby to cry in the night and Ashlee to sleep through it. But surprisingly she jumped right up. By Sunday night she was sitting in her bedroom crying and rather embarrassed to have been caught. But all in all it was a good experience for her.

Cortnee turns 13

Well she has been looking forward to this day for quite awhile. It is finally here. We didn't do anything too exciting as far as a party or anything. But she did get a pretty great present. Hopefully she enjoys it.

2008 womens conference

We had another great year at womens conference. Mom, Ruth Ann, Judy, Noreen, Jenni, Heidi, Rachel and Lance, Kelli and Melinda were able to make it. We of course missed Lora and Jeri. We just have a silly time. But we also hear some wonderful spiritual messages. President Monson spoke at the closing session. Each year we have lunch at the MOA (museum of art) restaurant. They have different food and it is always wonderful. This year the wives of Brother Oakes, Brother Bednar and Brother Clayton were in line behind us. I'm not ever sure how to address these brethren but I think everyone knows who I mean. Oh yes these pictures of Heidi and I are with Melindas hair extensions. I always wanted to know how long hair would feel.

Ashlees wisdom teeth

Well it has been awhile once again. Here is a picture of Ashlee with a little bit of swelling after her wisdom teeth were removed. It wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. But it is done and we have a surgery date scheduled for her jaw to be fixed. July 14th. Whew hoo (i'm not sure how to spell that)

New calling

Before I end, I should let you all know that I was called and set apart as the 1st counselor in the Young Womens Presidencey!!!!!! I was the Mia Maid advisor for 4 years prior to that. Needless to say I am not real thrilled. But I will do my best to do a great job for the young women of our ward.

Ashlee

This has been a big weekend for Ashlee. She had her wisdom teeth removed on Friday. We have been talking for awhile and asked her orthodontist about it. She has a huge overbite and she wanted to know if there was something that could be done quicker than the braces which don't seem to make much difference. Well he referred us to an oral and maxilofacial surgeon. We had a consult about a month ago where we talked about what it would take the costs and whether it would be covered by insurance or not. (Me being the pessimist, glass is always half empty kind of gal that I am) was pretty certain it would not be covered and that I probably wouldn't be willing to fork over half (because of divorce we would only have to pay half) of a 10,000 to 15,000 surgery. Well the doctor submitted it to our insurance and guess what? They approved it!!!!!!! So they gave us a 90 day approval time. So that meant that we had to get her wisdom teeth out immediately because they needed 3 months to heal before doing this other surgery. Whew!!!!! So sometime in July Ashlee will be having a sagittal split mandible and mandible anterior osteotomy. They will cut the jaw and put in an expander plate and do something similar in her chin. She will have to have her jaw wired shut for at least one week!!!!! Anyway, it has been a crazy weekend (which she spent at her moms) and then she has been home since Sunday night. She has missed monday and tuesday from school but I hope she can make it back tomorrow. In fact I need to get her up and taking a shower so she can start preparing herself.

Tree doctor

I can't remember if I have commented on this before or not. But we have a maple tree in our front yard and Marc just loves this tree. Every year when we would sit out front under the wonderful shade that it provides, he would say isn't this tree just getting so big and beautiful. Well last year we noticed that it really didn't give us much shade because it didn't seem to have the leaves it normally has. So I called the tree doctor. I wasn't sure that Marc would be up to losing this tree. Well the doctor came out and said that it may be able to survive and it may not. It could either be a fungus that was treatable or not. Don't you just love doctors? Well they deep root fertilized and told us to deep root water frequently. So we tried it. So far this spring the tree does seem to be getting a lot of leaves but only time will tell. WELL........ as with everything else we try to do. Fixing one problem has just brought out another. If you look in this picture of my window out at the lawn you will notice pretty green spots, well that is where they deep root fertilized the tree.. Those spots are the most green, lush, thick spots of grass and the rest of the lawn looks like CRAP........So if the tree survives hopefully the grass will too.

And more home improvement

Well this will teach someone to comment about missing hearing what is going on in my life (Lora)

4 years ago we (mostly Dad) finished our downstairs bathroom. Well I had been planning to paint the top portion of the wall dark blue and add a shelf and put some fun beach stuff on it. Well I finally painted the wall, and I finally asked Dad to cut me a shelf (which he had completed in a couple of days) I finally painted the shelf and purchased the cutest floral arrangement with greenery and sea shells in it. ( you will probably have to wait until next months blogging spree to see the final project ) So I am hoping to have this room done before tooooooooo long.

Home improvement - Does it ever end?

My blogs today will mostly be about home improvement or things that need to be improved. Or in reference to my last blog new always means more. Our main bathroom needed some new grout and so I called one of the many wonderful people that are always advertising and have them give me a bid. $440.00 to remove and regrout our shower/bathtub. Well Marc decided he could do it. And so he did!!!! It took him the whole weekend and he spent this whole last week home with bronchitis (not sure they are related but probably because he inhaled grout all night Friday and all day Saturday) But including the new dremel that he purchased he did it for around $250.00. So not bad and it does look nice.

With new comes more..........

Ok, so now I have these beautiful new windows and I don't know what to do for window coverings..........That is what I mean by with new comes more. So you(or I) always think that I can just get something new. But of course then you have to figure out the rest of it. So if anyone has any ideas for window coverings please let me know. The crazy part about these beautiful new windows is that I just got new blinds about 6 months to a year ago and now they do not fit!!!!!! Again, that is what I mean by more. So the blind sales man is going to come over probably today to give me some ideas about blinds or shades or something. But then I think I will still do a valance or something. With my beautiful new sliding door I have to get a new rod to cover the expance of the 6 foot door. I did have extra fabric to add on to the curtain ( I guess that is what it would be called.) So now I just have to get the rod hung and we can feel a little covered at least in the family room. However, I also had to paint the wall the door was in. I could do the whole room and I'm sure it needed it. But I chose to change the color of that wall only. It is a little oranger than I think goes with my burgandy and tan curtains and our burgandy furniture but it works, at least for now. And so........as I said with new always comes more.

Time and money

Before Before
Kind of in the middle
After
And After

This is my current favorite saying. "all it takes is time and money, two things we have very little of." But we have been getting some things done around the house. Marc received a bonus at work and he is so kind to let me spend most of it. I have always heard that is the way it works. What's his is mine and what is mine is mine!!!!!! Anyway we got new windows in our living room. And a new sliding door. I am such a sucker that I let the contractor and the window salesman (who happens to be our neighbor) talk me into a 6 foot door. But it is so nice. I love it.

Kasey's wedding

What a beautiful wedding. It was held at a historic house that has been converted into a reception center while trying to maintain the main house. Anyway, it was beautiful. Here are pictures of the ceremony, Chance and Jaxon , The bride and groom, Jordan, Kolton and Cache and for those of you who live far from home and haven't seen Trevor in awhile that is him next to Brian.