Happy Valentine's to my Sweethearts!

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I love Valentine's Day because we get to spend the whole day thinking about why we love someone so here's my top 5 reasons I love my sweeties. There's lots more reasons, but 5 is a good start.


Top 5 reasons I love Mike....
1. He love's me with all of my flaws and helps me to see when I am wrong and how I can improve.
2. He make's me laugh. He is one of the funniest people I know. Everyone needs a good laugh and he does it for me.
3. He supports me in everything I do. He never complains that I have a church meeting or need to study etc. he just encourages me to do my best.
4. Recently someone commented on my weight loss and said to him you must be so proud of her and Mike said I've always been proud of her. He's loved me no matter what size I am. I wanted to cry that day that meant so much to me!
5. He really listens to me and loves me. If I need to talk I'll say to him I need to talk and sometimes he thinks that's code for he's in trouble and I have to reassure him I just need to talk and he always makes time to listen. He's my best friend and I love him!!



1. I love Katy because she looks for the good in people. She gives everyone a fair chance before she judges.
2. She makes me laugh. She gets that from her Dad. If she weren't my daughter I would want her for a friend because she's o fun to be around.
3. She wants equal rights for everyone. She hates seeing people treated unfairly.
4. Katy is very thoughtful. She thinks about others feelings.
5. Katy is a loyal friend. She stands by her friends and is there for them.



1. Eric is very thoughtful. He's always thinking of my feelings.
2. He is always willing to apologize when he's wrong and always feels sorry for hurting others feelings.
3. Eric is funny. He cracks me up. Thank heavens their Dad passed that trait on to them.
4. He always tries to do his best. He works hard at school and sports so he can accomplish his goals.
5. He gives great hugs. He's always asking me if I want a hug. I love it!

This is why you want them to stay little!

So Thursday night we received a call from Katy crying telling us she got in an accident. I think she was pretty scared to call us for fear we would freak out, but we were fairly calm once we knew everyone was okay. She had two friends in the car with her and got distracted and rear ended another car. As you can see the damage to her car was extensive. The other car looks much better. Just a little damage to the other car. Needless to say Katy's car is totaled since it isn't worth much it won't be worth it to repair. So she'll be riding the bus for awhile. We had already planned to get Mike a new car and send her to College with his old one, but we weren't planning on buying one this soon. If anything happens to his old car it will be a bike for her because we're out of old cars. I am just glad no one was hurt and the people she ran into were so nice about it. She was crying and the man said don't worry about it no one is hurt and that's what is important. What a nice guy!

My baby girl is growing up!

We got some exciting news this week that Katy has been accepted to Southern Utah University. When she opened the letter on Friday I was so excited for her. I also attended SUU my first year out of High School. It is a great campus and I wish I had stayed to complete my education, but life took me in another direction. I think her Dad would have liked her to go to Utah State University, which he attended for one year and loved, but she decided she wanted to pursue SUU instead. The more I thought about her leaving and going to school away from home the more sad I got. I mean I am so happy for her. This is a great opportunity for her to be independent, accomplish her educational goals etc. but I will miss my wonderful daughter. She's such a good girl and I love her. She's thoughtful and makes me laugh. The comforting thing for me is that my Mom, Sister, Brothers, and Grandparents all live in Cedar City so she will not be there without any family. Any of young Mothers that feel like you are going crazy at times with your little ones realize it goes by so fast. I remember being one of those Mom's that couldn't wait for my kids to grow up so life would be easier. I miss those days at times. It goes by way too fast.

Proud to be their Mom!

The purpose of this post it not to brag about how perfect my kids are. They are not perfect by any means. They make mistakes and struggle at times, but they truly are great kids. Recently a friend of Mike's told him how great our kids are. She told him that they are polite, friendly, and just great to be around. It made me so proud that others notice them trying to be good people.

Katy wants world peace. She has a favorite necklace of the peace sign. She's my little hippie! She wants equal rights for everyone and is always thinking of others feelings. She looks for the good in people and is a good example to me. I wish I could take credit for her generous heart, but I think she inherited that from her Dad. Katy has a great fondness for elderly people. She's always pointing out some cute elderly person to me.

Eric always wants to do his best whether it be in sports or school. He's always giving me hugs and asking if I am okay. He's always willing to apologize when he's made a mistake. Last week I took him to the bus stop and he had to hurry and get out to catch it. Later in the morning he sent me a text that said sorry I forgot to tell you goodbye and I love you. What a great text to get. It makes paying for the cell phone all worth it.

I am so blessed to have such great kids. They are the joy of my life and I wiil forever be thankful to be their Mom.

Our week!

Okay so I don't have really any exciting things going on and since I use my blog for a journal this post is really just for me. Don't feel compelled to read all of our not so amusing weeks details.

I went to my second week of school on Monday night. Yikes I thought my Computer class was going to be easy I think I may have thought wrong. I know how to use a computer, but I don't know all the details on bits, bytes, speed, and by the way did you know there lots of different names for viruses like worm, trojan horse and others? I expected my Nutrition class to be a lot of work, but not Computers. Needless to say I was alittle overwhelmed Monday night and left feeling once again like can I do this. I hate when you doubt yourself. I guess I need to have more faith and know that I can do it especially if I rely on the Lord to help me.
I am also way excited to start clipping coupons and save my family some money. My friend Miriam is giving a lot of good advice on how to save more money and I am excited to get going. Now when I was a stay at home Mom I did a lot of coupon clipping and shopped for all the good deals, but since I've been working and going to school life has gotten more busy so I let it go, but I think I can find the time to do it again. A lot of this I already know, but all the coupons on the internet are new to me so that has been a good bit of info. I'll let you know how it goes.

Mike spent Wednesday night at the hospital. He's perfectly fine, but had some chest pain Tuesday night and more on Wednesday at work so he decided he should have it checked out. We were shocked when he went to the ER and they ran tests that came out normal, but wanted to keep him over night to observe him and run further tests. For any of you local people wondering if he stayed at our local hospital the answer is yes. They were great with him and he was as happy with the care as he would have been in the city. I realize I work there so I am a little bias, but we really appreciated the great care he received. All the tests came out normal and he's just fine. He was very happy to get home and sleep in his own bed.

Katy is working really hard to get everything in line for graduation. She got a lot done on her to do list this week for school and we were really happy about that. The new semester starts this next week and she's going to do an internship at one of the local Medical Clinics so she's looking forward to that. She helped a lot Wednesday night when her Dad was in the hospital. It was so nice that she could drive her brother to the places he needed to be. She's a great help!

Eric has a had a very busy week. He has been in a Social Dance class at school and they performed on Tuesday and Wednesday night. We attended on Tuesday night and he did a great job. He did a waltz, cha cha, and the 16 step. It wa so fun to see him dance again. He took ballroom dance for 2 years a few years back, but soccer became the preferred activity. Then on Thursday he had a swim meet. He's almost done with swimming and I think he's a little relieved. Anyone that knows Eric well knows that he's a home body. So this past week was a lot for him. Let's just say I think he won't be leaving the house much this weekend.

Well as you can see it's been a busy week and a little stressful. I am so thankful Mike is okay. I don't know what I would do without him. I am also so grateful to have great children that step up and help when it is needed.

To set goals or to not?

Every year at this time I wonder if I should really set any goals or not. I get so tired of setting goals and not accomplishing them. For years I set the same goals of loosing weight, regular scripture study, and family prayer only to do well for about 6 weeks and then fall off the wagon. That's my pessimistic way of looking at it or I guess I could look at it, as atleast we worked at it for a time and were not any worse for trying. Then I think if I never set any goals do I ever really force myself to become any better. Do you ever feel like you're just not progressing? I feel that way often. I wonder if I have taught my children all that they need to know (the answer to that, is not) but I hope I have taught them enough. So I guess as I ponder the goal setting dilema I think I will try again another year to do somethings that will help me be a little better. Maybe the goals will be a little more attainable if I don't set the standard too high. Maybe having family prayer most days instead of everyday will be a good start or maybe losing just 10 lbs, instead of trying to weigh what I did before I had kids (like that will ever happen again). Or maybe just thinking more of others and sending a nice note will be enough this year. So I guess for me I will sit down tonight and think of some ways to better myself this next year. Isn't the important thing to just be trying to become a little better and having joy in the journey?

Back to school I go...

So Monday I will head back to school to pursue hopefully a nursing degree. I took sometime off after my surgery and am now ready to get going again. It seems like I will never be done with school. With having to work and taking care of a family all I can seem to take is 2 classes at a time. I keep teasing that I will be lucky to be done by the time I am 45, but that's not so far away for me. I have to admit that school scares me a bit. I have never been a super smart student. I have to work really hard for the grades I've gotten and nursing is so competitve that there's no room for less than an A.

My sister Kari is also headed back to school this semester and is a little nervous about the possibility of failing and to that I say there is no failure. The only failure is in the not trying. So it make take us longer than we'd like to get the job done, but time is going to go by whether we're working at it or not. I keep telling Kari that we can do hard things. I've definetly done hard things before and I am sure there will be many more to come. I am sure lots of prayers along the way will get me where I want to be. In one of our Sunday meetings recently Eric said how proud he was of me for going back to school and he knew I could do it. I guess if nothing else I hope my exampls shows my kids that they can do anything if they put their mind to it and that it's never too late. Hopefully they will do College when they are much younger than me though.