"Suddenly I see"

I had Lasik on both of my eyes on Tuesday. I can't believe I won't have Logan smash my glasses into my nose or slap them off of my face. I don't even have to look for my glasses anymore or in most cases have Mark look for them because I couldn't see to find them without my glasses. I feel liberated. Wahoo!!

I wasn't nervous at all for the procedure until I read the disclaimer sheet. It listed blindness and among other things, death. Then, it asked me to sign saying that it was still OK to operate. I probably would have not gone through with it but I had some friends that just had it done and I knew a few people who had it done years ago and they all loved having it done...so being the follower that I am, I signed my life away and wah-la I have new eyes.

It is such an amazing surgery. It took less that 10 minutes for both of my eyes. They give you a Xanax to calm you down so you don't fidget under the laser, which by the way knocked me out and I fell asleep on the table. They put me under one laser that cut open my cornea and under the second laser after they lifted the corneal flap, it put bubbles to re-shape my cornea. Dr. Tooma put the flap back on my eye, and press out any wrinkles with a little sponge.  That was pretty much it.  Crazy!


The best part.....I got to sleep the rest of the day (with the help of Xanax). I have been looking for an excuse to let me do this since I had kids and I haven't been clever enough to come up with anything legit enough. It was great. Thanks to Mark for making this happen.  I think he just didn't want to see me in my auto-darkening grandma glasses anymore, which is fine because even I didn't want to wear them anymore.

"My Twins"

I'm not sure how to begin with this one, but after numerous comments and questions, I've come to the conclusion that there is a matter that needs to be addressed. Let's start from the beginning. There was a picture posted on Shad and Lizzie's blog that revealed to many that I may have been sporting a new "Rack". Much to my amazement, I have gotten a lot of attention (unwanted of course) from this controversy...."Are they real or not?".

I want to share where I got my new "friends". I went to a renowned body sculpting artist known as Victoria Secret. The cost for this augmentation was a little more than what I wanted to pay, but this was definitely something you shouldn't go cheap on right? At $39.95, I was pleased with my new look and would recommend it to anyone. As for the procedure, it was a little painful...as I really do hate to shop, but overall, by making this decision, my quality of life has been up-lifted and I feel I was supported in my decision.

Now, to pave the road for future conversations. If I ever do decide to have an augmentaion or as I call it "putting things back in their original positions", Mark is the only one that will every truly know. And in my own original fighting words "SO THERE!"

OK, so I did not want to put the picture back out there (in fact I asked my friend Lizzie to take it down from her blog a couple of weeks ago).... but I feel it is the only way to halt the discussion. Just so you all know, this is embarrassing to me as I feel people will judge me!

Note to self:
Remember to wear large, sparkley, dangley, type earings to put the focus higher.

Global Warming

I did not believe in global warming, but I think this is proof that Al Gore is 100% correct and that the debate is over! This is a ski resort in the Salt Lake City area, and I can tell you that if we do not act NOW, the Polar Bears in Salt Lake City will DIE! Once we lose the SLC Polar Bears, the Cape Buffalo, Caribou and Zebra populations will go out of control, this will of course cause more methane gas and which warms the earth even more. Traffic deaths from these rouge beasts will increase 20 fold. Then the Children will die from Global Warming (dehydration or drowning). The increased noise from the traffic accidents and global warming induced gun violence will cause an increase the gravitational pull of Earth. This will cause a comet to change course and crash into our planet. Only then will humans understand! We must act now and stop listening to conservatives fear mongering about perceived threats like terrorist and other silly things. ACT NOW! This is to logical to ignore!

Popular Re-run

Now that Shad has moved away from us, I think it important to send him off in style.   

Enjoy Shad Lamm.......

Washington DC

I love DC!! It is my favorite city in the world and the recent trip only made me love it that much more. I do not want to spend alot of time writing, but before you click the Youtube below, MAKE SURE YOU ARE OVER THE AGE OF 18!

Happy 70th Birthday DAD!

May 7th-11th, 2008

Behind the scenes there was a lot of buzzing going on as we all were coordinating a surprise party for my Dad for his 70th birthday. Thank you to all who worked so hard to pull the party off. It was so fun and so many family and friends where there. Thank you Ronz who did an amazing slide show of Dads life.

I decided to fly to Utah a few days early to spend some extra time with my siblings. I was just going to hang out at the condo but the day before I left, I got a light-bulb idea to drive to my sister Michele's house in Wyoming. It sounded a bit crazy at the time because I was traveling with the kids with out my hubby because the plane tickets that worked around Marks schedule cost $850, hundreds more than mine and the boys tickets cost put together, argg!! Anyway, the kids and I had a wonderful time. Michele let her kids play hookie from school and all the kids played till they dropped. Between the trampoline in the back yard and the park directly accross the street, my kids were in play heaven.


My favorite part was just talking with my sister. I enjoyed every minute of chatting with Michele. Her ears were probably very tired when we finally went to bed. Sorry Chele. But I have to say the kids favorite part of Wyoming was helping their cousins feed their 4-H pigs. Now, you would think because I was raised on a farm that my kids would know about animals and be so familiar with them. Yes, it is sad to say that most of their exposure has come from a book. Unfortunately my kids are city slickers.

Playing in the pig pen here is a little different than their pig pen bedroom back in Cali.

Lukie prided in making funning faces every time I tried to take a picture. I had to get sneaky with my shots.

Here Michele is working her tail off while I'm acting busy while taking pictures of the kids.

Logan wanted to take his cousin for a ride, but luckily for Mallary, he wasn't strong enough to move the wheelbarrow.
These two were just so cute together, unless Logan wanted to show who was stronger, then poor little Mallary wasn't an even match for Logan the heavyweight.
Here is another one of Lukies poses. The "I'm adorable right?" pose is what I think was the look he was going for.

After the rendezvous in Wyoming. I drove back to Utah. I picked Suz and spent all day with her on Friday running errands and getting things done. It was so nice to catch up on her life and....she probably got an ear full as well. I liked having one on one time with my siblings, I feel you get to know them better. It can get pretty chaotic when we all get together after all there are nine of us and if you mix in all the kids then just forget about a quiet room in the house. All of my brothers and sisters (sans Trevor) got together at the condo. I had a great time. The kids loved playing with their cousins. My kids don't even acknowledge that I exist when cousins are around. Sometimes that is nice but sometimes I start to feel like what an empty nester might feel. Here are a few of the pics while we were at the condo.


Suz and Breanne. Little Breannes skin was tinted orange because she ate so many sweet potatoes. I wonder if I could eat something that would make me look tan?

Here Madison is being the beautician on her aunt Chele.

Logan was passing out the vitamin waters to all who would accept. Paige ended up accepting most of his donations and then would pass them back up the line back to the case of vitamin waters. I don't think he caught on because he did this for about a half hour, thinking he was sharing with everybody. We all had a good laugh.
Jay was trying to make 3 women happy at once. Amazingly enough he had no problems with this tough crowd.

Dal and Misty holding down the fort.

Now for the birthday surprise. Drum roll please. Sorry this is quite a long post but a lot went down this week.

We all headed out to Roosevelt on Saturday afternoon. Suz and I barely made it there in the nick of time. I guess I should have budged extra time so when we came to a stopped fire-engine that was putting out a boat fire, I would have had time to watch it and not be stressed. Pretty bizarre. Well, we managed to get there about 10 minutes before Dad did. We quietly waited at the stake center waiting for dad to arrive.

Russ and Ran had the door covered waiting to jump. Then.....well Dad ended up coming through the back door. You could tell he was shocked. I think it took him a bit to figure out what was going on. Here is a video of the initial surprise. I have to apologize because I was really excited and emotional and I forgot I was filming and so the camera is all over the place. And yes I sound really loud...sorry. Its the only video I have and I would love it if any of my siblings that have pictures or video to send it to me and I'll replace it with the one I have. I'm definitely not made for the media business.

Me, my boys and my Grandma Watkins (my dads mom). I can only hope I can as mentally sharp as she is at her age.

A rare siblings only picture. We are missing Trevor here.

A picture with the birthday boy and little Breanne was having nothing to do with anyone else but her mom.

Do you really want a Buzz Lightyear??

Persistence

The problem with persistence is that it is such a great trait to have when we are adults but can be very annoying to us adults when our children are "practicing" this important attribute.

Persistence is something that Mark insists that our children learn. I have to brainwash myself into agreeing with him. But after the boys have asked me for the 10th time for something that I have said "NO" to, I'm not so sure it is a trait that I like quite as much. Especially with McKee, "No" is the beginning of the negotiation. "NO" does not mean no, it means "I have not come at this situation at the right angle" or "I have not asked in the right way". I think my kids continue with the "annoying" trait because Mark always gives them positive feedback when they outsmart their Mom, not to be confused with disobedience, because he is definitely backs me up there. Mark just loves to see how clever they are in asking for the same thing in different ways.

As this old video of our little ol' Mck (age 2) demonstrates, he came out of the womb persistent. It is fun to see how a two year old turned the tables on Mark. If I remember correctly, Mark was questioned a number of times about how Santa could really bring this new gift (an elephant) that was even better then a Buzz Lightyear...... I loved seeing how the hunter became the hunted and how all of a sudden Mark needed to be the clever one in explaining Santa's limited "capabilities". In the end, a little know how of Santa's Sled weight limit rule that Mark found on page 34 paragraph 8 in the Santa's handbook from Santa's website is what saved the day. It clearly goes into weight limits for gifts but thankfully allowed Santa to be as hefty as he likes.

And yes, in the end McK got his Buzz.

I love the whole world!

I have to admit that the Discovery Channel's commercial: I Love the Whole World, is one of my all time favorites.  It gets me right down to my soul whenever I see it.  I could see it over and over and never get tired of it.   I don't know why but tears start to well in my eyes and I start feeling all tingly inside.  I've thought that maybe is it the music that brings me back to my childhood days and brings the flood of memories of elementary school and music class....ahhh back when life was magical and there were so many things to wonder about.  Yes it is true that I have bonded with some of the shows it advertises like Dirty Jobs, Survivor Man, Deadliest Catch, Myth Busters, various animal documentaries, etc., yup pretty much everything on the Discovery Channel.  But I think most of all, I watch in awe, definitely humbled to see the amazing creatures and creations God has made and feeling (through the tingling and singing along with the commercial at the top of my lungs) of how blessed I am that I get to be a part this amazing world.  How awesome is that!