Great Memory

Last Saturday created one of the most memorable days of my life. Brandon and I decided to take the girls fishing. It was a bit of a cooler day for July and it was on and off thunderstorms. We dressed a little warmer for the day and headed up highway 6 toward Scoefield reservoir. Brandon knew the sweet spot to go. As we got closer to the lake the scenery was beautiful and I just knew we were going to see some wildlife. I had a few $1 on me so I said the first person who spots a deer gets a dollar! Alyssa spotted the first one just seconds later. A few minutes after that Brandon spotted the next one and soon after Shirsten found the third.

We arrived at the lake and packed all our gear down a pretty steep hill, bad idea to wear flip flops. Brandon said "ok girls my pole is getting set up first so we have good luck and you gals catch some fish today". In went his pole, then Shirsten's and while he was setting up Alyssa's the first fish hit on Brandon's line! The girls got so excited! One after another we were all catching fish. They were giggling and smiling and just lit up with excitement. I was standing there holding my pole and looking around at the scene around me. Here I was looking at my two beautiful girls and the man of my dreams doing what we all love. I was completely mesmerized and so incredibly thankful for this wonderful life I am living.

Just then Alyssa started reeling in the biggest fish we caught all day. When it was close to shore, Brandon's line hit with another one... Doubles! Shirsten was feeling a little tug tug on her pole and reeled in the cutest lil fishy ever.

Then the rain came :) at first it was raining just a lil bit so we decided to wait it out in the car. We climbed the muddy hill and got in the car and turned on Despicable Me. After 2 minutes it was a full on downpour. We only had to wait about 20 minutes and ventured back down to the lake. Our trail walking down had become a rushing river. We were laughing so hard. Fishing became a little slower after that, although Brandon caught 2 more tee hee. We were down there about a half hour more when the downpour hit again. We were scrambling trying gather everything up and climb the muddy waterfall back to the car. It was seriously so fun!

After all was said and done we were soaked to the bone, had 4 fish that we kept, and in utter happiness!

Summer Summer Time!

Life is so incredible right now. For the first time in I couldn't even tell you in how many years, I am in love. Yep, that's right, I'm saying it! Is it scary as hell to say? Yep! LOL! But, in the same sense I'm not scared one little bit. I have clarity, I have direction, and I have a future. I'm so excited about everything in my life every minute of every day. I can't believe how much has changed for me in just a few short months. It's completely surreal.

Summer is here and I am SO ready! The girls are out of school and have stayed with their dad this week. I am missing them so much right now, but at the same time so happy they get some quality time with their dad. They both did SO well the last quarter and I just can't believe how smart they are! Alyssa is holding a 2.8 GPA and she worked so hard to get there. I have found that she knows all material she learns but testing for her is stressful and she doesn't do as well, but she KNOWS it! It is one of my goals to work with her next school year on testing and ways to be more confident in her answers. Shirsten also knows all the material she learns, but she sometimes gets too busy talking or playing to finish the actual assignments. Focus will be what I work on with her next school year. I am starting a reading program with them this summer where I will buy them the book series they want and when the report back to me what they read, they will get rewards. I don't want them to get too far out of the swing of how amazing books can be for their imaginations. We have tons of plans that they want to do this summer including boating, fishing, campouts, and just plain fun times with them. I love the stages they are in and they are literally growing right before my eyes. Only one year left with Alyssa in middle school, and Shirsten in elementary...yikes!

I also am so blessed to get to be a part of the life of an adorable 3 year old angel with the most beautiful brown eyes I have ever seen. She has melted my heart and I feel like I have known her her whole life. I love the stories she tells me and she has the most adorable catch phrase of "hey guess what". I can't help but answer with an excited "what" each time she says it just waiting for the cutest story to come out of her mouth. The more time I get to spend with her, the more time I want to be around her, like I said she has melted my heart and I am truly the luckiest girl on earth to be a part of her and her daddy's life. My girls love them both so much and everything has just seemed to fall into place for all of us, as if it was always supposed to be this way.

Well that's the latest in a nutshell! Life is fabulous and I hope yours is going just as well! TTFN!

Memorable Memorial Day Weekend!

I am still loving life right now! It has been a fabulous couple of weeks. First there was my Birthday Party where I got to see all my close friends and the most amazing man ever. We had a great time that night. On my actual Birthday I got up at 4 a.m. and took him to the airport to see his family in San Antonio for his Dad's 50th Birthday. He was the first person to wish me a Happy Birthday that day, and it was a great day (well besides the fact that he was gone, but I'm so glad he got to see his family). My Birthday weekend was really nice. I had my girls with me and we had a couple parties for my two nephew's Birthday's, let's just say we were 'caked out' LOL. It was crazy how much I thought about him and missed him while he was gone for almost 5 days. I never thought I would care about someone like that again so some of the feelings I have been having are very new, exciting, scary, blissful, and wondrous. Let's just say I've been on a roller coaster in a great way since I love them so much!

This past weekend was Memorial Weekend. As we were packing up to head up camping with his family my heart was broken that my girls weren't joining us. I asked Josh if I could have them but he had already made some plans with them. They were really sad when they saw us all packed up. I'm sitting here at home just WAITING for them to get here. I miss them so much! I can't wait until I get to see them right now. I am excited because no matter what I will be taking them fishing somewhere sometime this week. I need to do something fun in the outdoors with them.

Camping was absolutely amazing. I really enjoy being around his family. They are so much like my family and make me feel right at home. We had lots of laughs, lots of wind, and some pretty cold temps. It didn't matter though, we had a total blast. His little girl is so darling. She makes me smile just with the sound of her voice and she is so incredibly intelligent. It was some really good times.

Today on Memorial Day I got to have a BBQ with my family. It was such a great day. I got to play with my nieces and nephews and giggle with my siblings. They really know me and how to make my life complete. I don't know what I would do without my amazing family.

What else can I say? Life is fabulous right now! TTFN!

Sudden Turn...

So here I was reading my last post back in March on the 25th. I had to giggle...little did I know, 6 days after that post on March 31st, my life would take a sudden turn. It was my nieces Birthday party that night and my parents asked me if I wanted to head out to Wendover. Ok really, I didn't have the money but I knew that one of my friends Birthday party was being celebrated out there so I thought "Why not? It should be good times"!

I was in my Victoria character - you know the girl in the British accent - with my friend "Kate" (Kristi), walking over to the 3 Card Poker table. She runs into this cute guy she knew and introduced the two of us. Um...how did I never meet this guy in the last 2 years since we are both pretty good friends with the same crowd of people? Let's just say we hit it off really well. He was funny, flirty, and got along great with my parents too haha. We were together until 4 in the morning getting to know eachother and then me and my parents finally decided it was time to get some sleep.

The past six weeks have been amazing. I have had so many people say 'when you're not looking, someone will knock you off of your feet'...I sort of believed that and knew that one day I might be ready for something serious if I found someone that 'got' me (we all know I'm a little silly). Here he is right in front of my face now. He is absolutely amazing. I have met his little girl recently and she is so adorable. He met my girls and they all get along so great. My girls go on and on about how awesome he is and how happy I am which makes them happy. I met his family on Sunday and all I can say is they are really really good people. I felt so welcomed and they are so much fun to be around. My family adores him.... It is so crazy yet I'm not one bit scared, not one bit   questioning anything. Each day gets better and better and I am so excited to see where this goes. TTFN!

Hello Spring!

It has been a little while hasn't it? There have been some up's, some down's, and some perfectly calm times for me these past few months. First I'll start with an update of the all of the medical stuff I had to deal with last fall into this year. The first doctor I saw was sure that I had Multiple Sclerosis. We started treatments for it and scheduled many many tests. Since this was just my Family Practice doctor they were referring me on to a Neurologist. I first saw a Neurologist that could get me in fast and kept my appointment for the GOOD Neurologist I wanted to see but they were booked out pretty far. The 'fast' one, just continued on the path that my first doctor found and didn't really do much. So here I was taking some fun expensive treatments and not getting any more answers or even guesses as to if it was for sure MS or not. FINALLY I went to the 'good' doctor. He was so completely thorough. He went through each blood test I had had over the last 3 months (which was over 30 tests) with me. He went through my MRI scans and then did a full neurology test on me in the office. I was there for quite a while. At the end I received the best news I could have possibly received. He didn't believe that it was MS. He said "I'm not going to rule it out" since they can never rule it out but told me that the chances weren't that great and all of my symptoms were consistent with a severe Vitamin D deficiency and something else with a mineral that I'm missing. He wanted me to go on supplements and this other medication for the mineral for 3 months just to see what happens (hey I'd rather pay for that than the expensive crazy meds they wanted to do for the MS). Well it's 3 months later and I'm feeling so GOOD! I can use both of my arms, I don't get dizzy anymore, and I've had a little more energy. The only thing I really have to deal with now is just the extreme fatigue when it sets in and that really only happens about 1-2 per week instead of every single day. It has been so great to be awake most nights when I get home from work to see my girls. Unless I have another big episode I don't need to go back to the doctors or unless I get new symptoms. Can you say RELIEF??? I feel so blessed!

The girls have been doing so great. It has been wonderful living back at my parents with them to help me out. It is such an amazement to see the changes that these girls are going through while they are growing up right before my eyes. Alyssa is finishing up her 8th grade year. Her grades this 3rd quarter are the BEST she has ever had since she started Jr. High. She has worked so hard and I am so proud of her. We are going to have to get an award for her. Shirsten is still the chatty cathy and seeing her go through this transition of no longer playing with dolls and toys and now getting into perfume and asking me if she can shave LOL... I am in awe of them every day. I can only pray I'm doing the right things for them. Last year they met a couple of the guys I was dating and nothing came of those relationships. The last one they met they really really liked him and still ask me about him a few times a week and it breaks my heart for them.  So this year I won't be introducing them to any guys unless things get really serious with someone - like after dating 6 months exclusively serious haha...

Last but not least...love life. Simple - I don't have one haha. Sure I still date and have fun, but I am so not ready for a commitment right now. I have really close friends in my life and pretty much have my summer and the rest of the year planned. I'm not out looking and I'm not sad at all. I feel like my life is so full right now. Is there someone out there? Sure..but I will let love find me and when it does I'll know and he and I will figure out everything together. Until that day...I will be loving every second of my single life and continue on my journey of making myself happy and raising two of the most beautiful and amazing girls who ever walked this earth.

XOXO!

New Year...New Beginning

I'm very very excited for 2012, have a feeling this will finally be my year! First I haven't updated in a while for many reasons. The first one is kind of a big one...I have been dealing with some medical problems that are strange and have been unforseen. I have problems using my left arm and sometimes can't even blow dry my hair LOL...have had a couple MRI's and tons of blood work....so with the medical stuff, living on my own has become a bit of a challenge for a few different reasons. I'm listing my townhome on KSL this week and moving back home to get stable medically and financially.... Does this sound like bad news?? Well, you can't keep a good WO-man down, so I'm excited for this new chapter. I truly believe this is the universe telling me to slow down, be a mom, and live each day to it's fullest. You never know when tomorrow will never come...

Second, I've decided that sitting like a duck waiting for things to happen is just not a way to live...sooo....going full speed with no regret and no fear. More details to come on this later ;)

The girls are doing great and have been amazing in the transition we will have to go back home to my parents house. I can't believe how much they have grown! So this is where we are in our life right now :) I wish you all a Very Happy New Year!

Falling into Fall...

Slacker...who me? YES YOU! I haven't been on her much have I? Hmmm...maybe cause it has been an incredible summer! Ah-mazing... Let's see, what have I done lately? Boating, concerts, MOVING, going to the golf courses, planking, owling, Tuesday Night Bout Time's, movies, and loving loving loving being a mommy...oh the word mommy...don't get to hear that too often anymore with these teen's and pre-teen's I call daughters ;)

Alyssa is doing so well right now...she is almost 14, yup that's right FOuRtEeN! What happened?? I can't believe that in just four more years she'll be in her senior year and moving onto her life. I'm terrified for that day. They say...just wait, the next 18 years after you have a baby are going to be a long time...they're liars~! I have blinked and she is growing up on me. Doing her own hair, makeup, and boy howdy do we have the boys knocking on the door (literally)...she is in 8th grade and doing amazing. She has some really close friends and has been in fits of giggles telling me all about her shenanigans at school. She is almost as tall as me now and WOW just beautiful! She has this amazing creative side coming out in her and is constantly reading. She has written a couple of her own books even. I can't wait to see what she wants to do for a living cause at this point the world is at her fingertips...

Shirsten is as spunky as ever. She has contrived this new independence thing...InDePeNdAnT? Whyyyy??? She's my baby, I'm not ready for her to grow up on me too! She is now 10 and in 5th grade. She has masses of friends at our new house and the second she gets home from school rushes through her chores to go out an play. It's like pulling teeth to get her to come home. I am big smiles to see her so happy and doing so good in school right now. This little girl loves to talk and I wouldn't doubt if she ever became a talk show host...she can contrive almost any subject at any time just to fill the air :) I don't have a clue who she gets it from?? tee hee... She also won't let me do her hair and is constantly sneaking into or sometimes asking to put SOME makeup on. Picture day was an adventure when she wanted to dress in a dress for school...haha...she LOVES to dress up, for any occasion. My two girls are just so amazing and I can't believe how blessed I was! We are all doing so good right now.

And here it is fall....I am soooo ready for it too! I'm ready to slow the pace of life, get in the groove of the comfort food (I love fall/winter cooking) have lazy days watching football and enjoying my family and friends. This is my favorite time of year and I always fall in love with the falltime...the colors, the crispness in the air, the blankets, and the first snow (:-0 yep I said it, snow!).... So peeps ta ta for now TTFN and I'll see ya on the flipside!