I moved!

Well, I finally moved out of Amie's basement! Yay for Amie and Clay regaining their privacy! Holy smokes, I lived there for a lot longer than anybody EVER expected. I REALLY appreciate having a place to stay and I am even more thankful for this new home.

I miss the noise! I've been to dinner and home evening and I had some time to play with Lia on Sunday before we went to a farewell break-the-fast for some people moving from the ward.

Clay and Bryce were over here on Saturday helping to set up things like the washer and dryer, stove, and tv. Bryce looked like Ghostbusters over here spraying for bugs. The roaches are the HUGE flying kind. I found a dead one Sunday morning and didn't see another one until tonight. It's dead and is in the downstairs bathroom. I have to work up the courage to go get it and throw it away. I envision it coming back to life and crawling on me or flying in my face. I may have to make friends with a neighbor and see if I can convince someone else to come in here to dispose of it. OR... I can put on my Big Girl pants and just take care of it. Yeah. That's what I'll do. Tomorrow.

Tonight I'm going to watch the rest of America's Got Talent.

Tyler and Andrea's Wedding

I haven't posted a thing in forever and decided that despite the lateness of the hour, I wanted to get some pictures of the wedding posted for everyone to enjoy. I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I see a difference

Here's a picture of me and Amie in December last year. I had actually lost a bit of weight by then. I was feeling like I had not made any progress over the last year, but I do see a difference. Here is a picture of Caetie and me ready to go see Wicked. When I went to see them for Thanksgiving, I had a girl's night out with Caetie and it was a ton of fun! I'll be posting more pics and telling you about my best vacation EVER. For now, I am just getting myself psyched to keep up with my Biggest Loser workouts through the holidays.

Telling on myself

My mother called me Joan when I was growing up because she said I acted like a martyr. Yep. Joan of Arc. She would also call me Sarah, for Sarah Bernhardt, a movie star known for being melodramatic. She would put her hand on the back of her hand on her forehead and strike a pose to mock me. Man, my mother had me pegged.

So I guess, from an early age, I was trying to be manipulative to get my way. I do remember thinking that if I turned on the tears, people would feel sorry for me.

My mom would make us go out to play when I was a kid, and even though I didn’t always like it, most of the time I would be playing so hard, I would lose track of time. We had a rule that wherever you were in the neighborhood, or no matter how far you had pedaled your bike, when the street lights came on, you needed to be home.

We had a bike route we would ride that went down the Tyson’s driveway, across the street to the Rosemary Marston’s yard where we made a groove in the ditch to get around the stop sign (known in our circles as “Dead Man’s Curve”), back across to the Tyson’s yard, going back up the driveway, through the back gate, around the patio, and back through the gate to the driveway to start all over again. The hardest part for me was not Dead Man’s curve, but feeling confident enough to not lose my balance through the back gate.

The Marstons had a huge sycamore tree in their yard that hung with Spanish moss.We used the moss to build forts and armed ourselves with “sycamore balls” to stage battles And yes, we did get itchy. If I had ever seen a picture of a moss bug, I might have thought twice before covering myself in moss to hide from the enemy.

I didn’t always like being outside. When mama sent us out, we needed to really have to go to the bathroom badly or have something else seriously wrong before she would unlock the sliding glass door and let us in. One day it was unusually hot and I wanted to be inside so I threw up to “prove” to mama that I was sick. I think I could do it at will sometimes, because I definitely remember throwing up at school and getting to go home. That particular day when I "got sick" I got to go inside and sit in Daddy’s swivel recliner and watch TV, and it was so nice and cold inside, I even got a blanket. But when mama caught me making faces at the unfortunate kids who were still outside, she jerked me by the arm outta that chair, spanked my butt, and threw me outside so fast I barely had time to comprehend what had happened before I heard her tell me that I could throw up all I wanted to, but I was NOT coming back inside! It was hard to pull one over on my mother for very long.

Summer...YAY!

I enjoyed Memorial Day weekend. Amy and Bryce came over for a barbecue and we got to sit outside. We had a feast of steak, watermelon, corn on the cob, smores, homemade oreo cookie ice cream and chocolate cake. Yes. I gained a little at Weight Watchers this week. *funny story coming*

I went walking with Amy on Tuesday and walked a HALF MILE! Woo hoo! Got to see Maddie, Presto, Action Jackson, and Gare Bear mid-week, so that was cool. It wasn't so bad seeing Bryce either. So Amy and I are going to be walking regularly on Tuesdays. There was a downpour on the way over, but I'm glad I stuck to the plan because we were able to get to the track. She lapped me once, but that's ok. It's just nice to get some one-on-one time with ya, Amy. *keep going.. funny stuff ahead*

Cailey had her piano recital last week. She did great! I have to figure out how to ddownload pics from my camera. When I do, I'll post some. Kendall had her ballet recital today and she was awesome. Nice cartwheel in the middle of a dance routine to "You Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me." Faith was sick last weekend but she's better now. Clay's brother Brian is here visiting with his family. His Gracie is a clone of Faith. It's insane how much they look alike, down to their glasses.

No more suspense... Here's the funny story:

So we were all outside eating and enjoying the wonderful summer evening. Perfect weather. Clay and Brian had the kids on the trampoline and the rest of us were visiting at the table. Amie put Lia on the grass to let her crawl around, but soon realized that she may be eating something. She moved her and told us that she had been right by a dead worm. So close call, right? Well, Lia loved that grass and soon she had booked across the lawn to the edge by the trampoline. She got some playtime there, but Clay's dad brought her back over to the deck. Amie decided to give her a little more playtime on the grass, and within less than a minute I laughed and told Amie, you'd better check to see if she's eating that worm. I was only teasing, but apparently Lia had made her way right to that worm and had it in her mouth!!!!

Gnarly! Gave us all the jeebs.

Belated Birthday Post

Happy Birthday to me! For those of you who haven't guessed, I'm not 27. I know some young grannies, but that doesn't apply to me. Amie just used what she had in her cupboard. Just so happens that you can double that and know my real age. Another odd little trivia note is that Amie and I could have used the same candles on our cakes last year.
I really appreciated the birthday party with balloons in MY FAVORITE COLOR! I was still on Atkins at the time, and Amie made me a special chocolate mousse dessert. Nice!

Relay for Life

I joined Relay for Life when our bishopric encouraged us to become more active in the community. I thought that this would be a really special way to get to know some of the people better at work and help out with a worthy cause. It was amazing! Bryce helped out by offering a free 2 week cleaning that we sold raffle tickets for. We raised quite a bit of money for our team. Thank you, Doctor Carter! I also wanted to walk in the Relay as a milestone for myself. When I visited Lance and Caetie for Thanksgiving 2007, I got winded after walking just a few feet. At Relay, I wound up walking 2 miles and being on my feet for the majority of the time. We wound up getting rained out, which was very disappointing, but we still got to participate in the luminary service where they send lit lanterns into the night sky and have luminaries lit all along the track. It was very emotional and touching. I would encourage everybody to get involved next year.