Grateful for...

I am grateful for my kids.

Today, Traeden had not 1, but 2 teeth pulled and a cavity filled. It must have looked extremely painful cause Elison went up to Traeden and grabbed his hand. She kept giving him small words of encouragement like "hang in there," "you can do it," and "they're almost done."

It was one of the sweetest moments I have witnessed in a long time and I'm glad I got to experience this special bond between my kids today!

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Today I am grateful that I got my garland up. It's not much, but it's a start!

And yes, I know I missed a day. Dang it...my streak is broken :-(

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Well, technically it's not today-it's tomorrow. But I'm still going to count this as consecitive blooding cause I am just finishing my day.

Today I am grateful for getting to wear my Twilight shirt-TWICE!

Since it is 3 am though, I'm going to have to elaborate on this later. I just got home and need some sleep!

So TTFN!

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Grateful for...

Today I am grateful for so many things...but I can only do 1.

I think that I am grateful that I at least had energy yesterday. I didn't get a dang thing done on my house which makes me sad. But I did get to the store to get some things I needed (like dinner for my New Moon party on Friday) and worked on Traeden's fundraiser some more.

So between waking up at 7 am after 5 hours of sleep (did anyone else notice the bright flash around 11 last night?), running errands all day, another doctors appointment (with a shot in my rear end), and walking another couple of miles with 2 kids and a dog in tow (STILL working on getting Trae's money for baseball) I am EXHAUSTED. So I'm calling it a night early. Well, early for me-10:45 pm isn't exactly calling it early, is it?

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Today I have to say that I am extremely grateful for my energy.

Lets just say that I haven't had too much of it the last couple of months. But with me leaving on vacation next week, I have promised myself that there are things that HAVE to get done.

Here is my list:

1) The kids bedrooms-clean, gone through, and organized.

2) The kids bathroom-organized and cleaned

3) The office-This one needs the most work. It's looked like crap for way too long now.

4) My bedroom

5) My bathroom

6) Christmas decorations-must be up before I leave or they won't get up at all this year.

7) Pack-I can't very well go on vacation without my belongings, right?

#'s 1-5 will take care of my upstairs. Something that really hasn't been done since we've moved into our house almost 5 years ago. And I'm hoping to get these ones done by Saturday so I can do Christmas decorating, pack, and Relief Society stuff Sunday - Thursday next week.

Well, as of right now, here is my list.

1) Bedrooms-Elison's is 99% done (putting away the laundry and a few more of Troys things is all that's left) and Traeden's is 75% done (cleaning out his closet and organizing a few drawers is what's left there)

2) Bathroom-90% done (just needs cleaning).

3) The office-90% done (just a few things that need to go to storage, garbage and the DI pile)-thanks to the ENERGY I had today!

4 and 5 are 0% done. That will be tomorrows chore.

So I am really happy and grateful that I had the ENERGY to get something done today other then my nap!

(I'll post some pics once everything is done...I'm getting excited)

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Today I am grateful the Traeden didn't have to have his tooth pulled. Next Monday I'll be saying some thing different though.

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I am grateful that I've blogged 8 days in a row!

Now, goodnight!

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Go Katie..Go Katie..Go Katie! 7 day in row! I can't believe it! So I'm really motivated now to keep on postin'!

Today was a pretty big day. There is so much that I could write about today, but the thing that sticks out the most is.....

I am so grateful that Football is over!

Yay!

Our routine has been as follows for the last couple of months:

1) wake up

2) eat breakfast (if we're lucky)

3) find Traeden's football stuff

4) get Traeden ready

5) make sure that Traeden is at his game at least 1 hour before the game starts to practice

6) usually we have forgotten something so we have to run back and get it.

7) watch the game

8) clean up after the game

9) stay for the after game team huddle

and

10) travel home with 2 extremely tired kids in tow and our Saturday pretty much shot!

The season actually finished on Halloween, so we've had a couple of weeks now to recover. Don't get me wrong, it was really fun, but it was a BIG commitment for everyone in our family. I was so tired that I actually pulled Elie out of dance for the rest of the year. It has been so nice to not have to worry about practices and games and homework and dinner every single night.

I do have to say that I really miss chatting with all the other parents though. We kind of formed our own little 'sideline family.' And I'm sad that I don't have that anymore!

Although today was the football party and I have to say it was a blast. Most of you will want to stay away from my house for awhile cause if you dare come in, I'll have to show you the awesome video that one of the parents made for all the boys. It was awesome! It was fun to see them all running around playing and just being boys. And out of 22 kids, there was only 1 boy who didn't show up. That, to me, is incredible! Football meant that much to so many of these boys and people that they would all take a Saturday (snowy) morning and spend with us just one last time. It was an awesome party to finish a remarkable season too, but...

I'm still grateful it's over!

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I am just grateful thy today is over! More on this to follow on another post.

Grateful for..

Ok-it's 10:15 at night and my teeth are still hurting me. And because of the medications that I've been forcing down me today and the lack of sleep I've had the last 3 days, I am going to make this one short. I was just about in bed, asleep, when I remembered that I hadn't posted yet. And I just HAD to do it. I am proud that I have officially done 4 in a row now. So here it goes....

To make a long story short, I went to the Doctor yesterday and it was there that a new, yet unknown, issue now has to be resolved. Since it was discovered at my neurologist and it doesn't really deal with anything related to the brain, I was referred to my OB.

I called them first thing this morning and tried to explain what was going on, the nurse told me she would talk to the doctor and call me back. Well, she did, about 6 hours later and decided that we had better start with some simple blood tests. Sounded good to me! So I headed to the doctor and then upstairs to the lab.

So, I bet your wondering exactly what is that I'm grateful for...well, here it is...

I am grateful that they finally got some blood after 4 sticks/pokes!

Grateful for...

Wow...I can't believe that I've been faithful in doing this for 3 days now. That is quite the accomplishment for me.

Anyways, today I am extremely grateful for my friend Kris. Not only is she a wonderful photographer who happens to take wonderful pictures of me and my family, but she a friend of mine too. But there is a story as to why I am so grateful for her today...

You see, right around Halloween was so incredibly busy for me-Traeden had football, Elie had dance and a recital, the Jazz season had started, Jordan had mutual, and there were all kinds of parties going. So with all of that, I really didn't even get around to thinking about costumes. Well, Traeden came in one morning (after playing a night of Rockband Beetles) and stated that he was going to be a Beetle. The first thing that popped into my head was 'why on earth would you want to be an insect?' I couldn't think of any reason, IE. cartoon show, movie, superhero, etc. that was a 8-legged insect. But then he told me one of the Beetle Beetles'. And I began to understand. He was going to as John, Paul, Ringo, or ______ (I can't seem to remember all of them). That was a great idea to me, cause I really didn't need to buy anything for it. He was just going to wear his grey 'baptism' suit and take a guitar with him.

And I was informed by my SIL that Elison was going as Tinkerbell. I tried to talk her out of it, but to no avail. She. Would. Be. Tinkerbell-END OF STORY! But I was informed that my SIL had already bought the costume. So I was home free. Until one day, about a week before Halloween I got a phone call from the SIL asking me what size Elie was. She was at WalMart and all they had were the smaller sizes. What? You mean you don't have a costume? Now I was in panic mode. I checked out a couple stores, but everyone was sold out of the bigger size Tinkerbell costumes. So I jumped online to see what I could find. And lo and behold I checked out the Disney Store and it was the last day to buy with normal shipping to guarantee it by Halloween. FABULOUS! And the costume was only $5 more then WalMart. FABULOUS! And they had matching Tinkerbell shoes and light-up wings (for cheap too). FABULOUS! So away I ordered.

Problems all averted, right? WRONG! Elie had a Halloween party at school which they were supposed to dress up for-only her costume wasn't coming until that day. Luckily I talked her into taking her Cinderella one. 1st problem solved. Friday was her recital (as a scarecrow) and the ward party immediately after (as Tinkerbell). I though she was going to go to the party as Tinkerbell with triangle eyebrows, a brown nose, red circle cheeks, and black lash lines, but at the last minute my dad invited me, Jordan, and Traeden to the Jazz season home opener. So we ditched the party and went to the game-minus Elie-so 2nd problem solved. And Saturday (Halloween day) was Traeden's last football game. But not only did it start at 3 pm, but it was at a field 45 minutes away, and they game started 30 minutes late. So it was going to be difficult to make it back, get the kids dressed up, and be at our neighbor hood soup before trick-or-treating at 5:30. So I dressed Elie up before we left. Yes, she wore her costume to the game. And Trae only took 10 minutes to get dressed. So, 3rd problem solved.

So you can see that it seemed to all work out, right? WRONG! During all of this, I forgot my camera and my phone was dead. So that meant no Halloween pictures of my kids! This is where Kris comes in. She called me a day later and said that she owed me a Halloween session and asked if I wanted to to it still even though Halloween was over. OF COURSE! It was an answer to my prayers. I was so sad that I didn't get pictures and the kids were so tired that we didn't go see everyone like we usually do so others didn't get to see them either. So this literally made my day!

So last Monday we had the pictures done, and I have to say that they are amazing. They are exactly what I would have wanted and exactly what I got. So I am so incredibly grateful for the pictures and for the photographer that took them. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

So here are my favorite ones (all of them are on FB though if you want to see them all)

Grateful for...

Today I am grateful for my cousin Bryan.

He just graduated from dental school (in NYC) and moved here to find a job. As luck would have it, my aunt sent an email out last week stating that he was officially working here. Well, yesterday Traeden and I had a dentist appointment to have some cavities fixed. I've had them done lots of times, so it was no big deal...or so I thought.

As the Novocaine wore off, I was in so much pain. It eventually got so bad that I started to cry. Which made my head hurt. I took 800 mg ibuprofen, 1000 mg of Tylenol, and a couple other meds to try and stop the pain-but nothing worked. With my injections, I was cautioned to be careful of certain medicines so I didn't want to try anything more without talking to a professional.

It was 6:30 last night and I decided that I needed help. So I decided to call and harass my cousin. I HATE doing that too. I hate using people I know for things, especially after normal business hours. But I was dying (OK, I know I would live), so I called him. He was kind enough to listen to my situation and offer some advise.

Today I am so grateful to him. I am still in a lot of pain-I can't open my mouth that wide and I can't chew anything, but I am doing so much better. And I have him to thank. So

"Thank you Bryan!"

I promise that I won't take advantage of you again-unless I feel like I am going to dye-again!

Grateful for...

I know I missed my October gratitude post, and I'm a little late getting November's out (obviously), but I decided to change it up a little big this month. Since the whole theme of November is to 'Give thanks' I am going to focus on one thing everyday that I am grateful for. Some may be funny or obvious things, some maybe personal, some could be spiritual, or just plain light-hearted. I hope that I can reflect back on all the posts this month when my spirits are down and realize just how many things I have to be grateful for.

So I'm going to start off the month with Elison. There was so much attention on Traeden with his baseball and football, that she kind of got neglected. She was so excited when she started preschool and dance again. She'd cry on the days that Traeden would go off to school and she wouldn't have it, or she'd cry when I'd drop Trae off at football and she had nowhere to go. I was honestly excited for dance too. She loves it and I love that she loves it. I love her school too. They haven't done recitals around Christmas in the past. They do a Halloween recital and an end of year recital. The Halloween one is so cute. It's mostly all the younger kids and they get to dress up in all kinds of fun costumes with funky make-up. They all have a ball. Plus there isn't the stress and rush with the holidays, so it's really nice for me. This year Elison was a scarecrow and danced to a song from The Wizard of Oz.

It was really cute. The recording is pretty crappy but it gives you the general idea of what she's been practicing for the last couple of months. Here is the video:

Just for Fun Friday

Hopefully I'm back up (at least for a couple of weeks-more on that later). I've just had trouble sitting down at a computer lately. If I can't do something on my phone then it just doesn't get done. So, I'm starting off easy. I'll start my welcome back with my Just For Fun Friday....

ENJOY!

Cristina Jackson started the day early...

Having set her alarm clock (made in JAPAN) for 6 a.m.

While her coffeepot (made in CHINA) was perking,

she shaved her legs with her electric razor (made in HONG KONG).

She put on a blouse (made in SRI LANKA),

designer jeans (made in SINGAPORE),

and tennis shoes (made in KOREA),

After cooking her breakfast in her new electric skillet (made in INDIA),

she sat down with her calculator (made in MEXICO) to see how much she could spend today.

After setting her watch (make in TAIWAN)

to the radio (made in INDIA),

she got in her car (made in GERMANY),

filled it with gas (from SAUDI ARABIA)

and continued her search for a good paying AMERICAN job.

At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day,

checking her computer (made in MALAYSIA),

Cristina decided to relax for awhile.

She put on her sandals (made in BRAZIL),

poured herself a glass of wine (made in FRANCE)

and turned on her TV (made in INDONESIA).

And then she wondered why she can't find a good paying job in AMERICA!