What I've been up to lately

WORK. Thats what I am up to. ha. Honestly, I have been so incredibly blessed with 2 jobs that I totally love to do! Flying is going really well, I have chosen to be on reserve for the last 2 months, so I technically have less days "off" but I have only flown 5 or 6 times a month. I took a risk, but it has been great to be home with the kids more, I essentially make almost the same $$ and it gives me more time to do my hair and eyelash clients. Being a flight attendant is a really fun job, even though we don't fly anywhere too exciting its fun to be on a plane and stick my head out the plane door in gorgeous Montana, Oregon, or other much MUCH cooler, delicious smelling places. I really like the people I work with, even the passengers for the most part are pleasant and fun.I think I really have picked a great career fit for me. I can just kind of coast and work minimally for the next few years until the kids get bigger, then someday when I'm ready I can just slide into a great full time job that I am seasoned at and make the most of it.

Ironically, my hair and especially my eyelash extension business is BOOMing! It is so nice to be able to work from home and do something rewarding and just girly and fun. Extensions are super addicting and for a lot of women and total time saver, and it makes everyone feel so pretty! I am doing about 20 + hours a week in extensions!! Plus hair, of course.

As a side note, I feel like all of this is being put in place for us, as Mark is most likely transferring to Pinal County Sherriff in the next few weeks, which will be a great change for him in just about every way except it will involve a pay cut (gulp) and we needed a way to ease the transition until he can get going with overtime and off duty to make up for the salary cut.

So the kids are pretty bored this summer, we are doing a weeklong trip to MN with my parents and extended family, (no more driving for us.....flying FREE baby!) and they are in summer school, Krew, scout camp, girls camp, football camp, all the usuals. Day to day we just try to keep them busy with dollar store trips, swimming, friends over, sleepovers, and chores.  Cade is DYING to drive, he has his permit and pretty much drives any time he goes anywhere with Mark or I. Sadie is doing a modeling/acting class at John Casablancas in Scottsdale every Saturday morning, which she is absolutely LOVING and doing great at it. They did a photo shoot a couple weeks ago, and we got the proofs last week, and even I was amazed how GORGEOUS the pictures turned out. She may actually have something here. The instructors LOVED them too. Ya never know I guess. Cooper went to his first aaronic priesthood camp and that was a great experience. Cade said it was one of the best camps he's ever been to. I've been in Thatcher for 4 of the last 6 weekends for my baby sister Emily's wedding (shower, temple, wedding, then reception 4 separate weeks) It was very fun and SO amazingly beautiful.
Here I am at the reception.....Hi there!!

I'm BAAAACK

Blogging? What's that?? haha. I thought I should blog my experience in Flight attendant training for Allegiant Airlines (soon to be officially Allegiant travel company). Seeing as this is my journal and all, and probably one of my bigger life events ever.

Jan 2, 2012, I headed up to Las Vegas NV, to start my training activity. I had been told a little what to expect, which was a lot of class, notes, studying, and stress. We had a test every 5-6 days or so, and the tests got progressively longer, and 90% and above was passing, anything less was a FAIL. Tests were cumulative, with a few questions from past tests on each new one. We were allowed 2 retakes total the whole time, but only one per test. So if you fail one, you could retake it, but if you fail the retake, your out. When out instructor, Todd, would hand out tests, I literally culd not feel my arms and legs. It was the highest anxiety I had ever felt in my life.

But rewind to day one.....I had emailed with my roomate, and we really hit it off, love her. We met up at the hotel, I saw a couple of people I recognized from the interviews, and I was pretty excited because they seemed great.

We had been emailed a list 180 airport codes (phoenix is PHX, for instance) buuuut, some made no sense, for example Kalispell, MT is GPI. So right off the bat, we had been already studying, knowing that the test on that, and military time was in the first couple days. The first 4 day we were there were a little bit chill, not too crazy, but then it got pretty intense!
Practicing on the bus to Utah

Well the first test everyone passed, some retakes, but it was so hard when I just wasn't sure what to expect. I had no idea if my brain even still worked! I wasn't exactly a brainiac in High school. Then...the power points and notes started. OH my gosh, we had several DAYS of 8 hours a day just straight up taking notes. And almost all of it was going to be tested. So I kept making note cards, memorizing charts, studying, rewriting notes, making more note cards, and trying not to stress. One or 2 times we got 2 days off, but usually worked 6 days a week. CPR, first aid, self defense, service carts, customer service, emergencies, emergency landings on land, emergency landings on water, other emergencies, every detail of the plane, then everything all over for a different kind of plane, etc etc. We went up to Utah to train on a different plane, on a bus, and came back to Vegas the next day. On a bus. And tests all throughout. My awesome roomate didn't pass her retake on the second test, and I was super bummed to see her go, but my new roomate was cool too. Needless to say, we really pulled together as a group, and helped each other as much as we could. There were people from Florida bases, AZ, and Vegas, about 47 started and 42 finished, which is awesome considering the size of our group.

Our instructors, I have to say, were pretty amazing. One of the most annoying parts of class, even moreso than notetaking, was.....the questions. It took alllll my patience some days to just sit there while people asked questions. REally dumb questions. And it was always the same 5 or 6 people. But our instructors totally handled it, and keep in mind, that they have classes one ofter the other to answer stupid questions from. And when people asked pertinent and important questions, they gave very good answers. They did such an amazing job, being clear, concise, and consistent.

Food: We were provided breakfast at the hotel. It was a pretty good one, with variety. Which was great for about a week. I eventually had to start bringing my own cereal and instant oatmeal. We were able to take extra stuff from breakfast for lunch or up to our rooms (we had mini fridges and microwaves) but when you are sick of the breakfat, the last thing you want is the same stuff for lunch too. LOL We had to pack lunch every day, and that gave me a new appreciation for my kids taking lunch for school every day. Jello cups, pudding cups, nuts, and microwave soup were my usual choices. It dosen't take long to get sick of processed food, thats for sure. I had brought my crock pot, which TOTally saved me at dinner! I made Dr Pepper ribs a couple times, lemon chicken, baked potatoes, stuff like that. There was a really good Thai restaurant next door, and a really good Tapas restaurant too. I didn't go too much but it was nice to have options, because my crockpot was great, but doing the dishes in the bathroom sink, not so much.

It was VERY hard to sit for soooooo long every day! I could feel my legs losing what little muscle tone I had left. Still working on getting that back. We did have some fun times though. I met some really fun and great people that I will be friends forever with. You just get close with people in that situation, and people are pretty on the ball for the most part. I have been able to work with people already, and it was really great.

I made it through the whole thing without getting sick like most people.....until the 2nd to last day. Day before the finals (written 100 questions, emergency evac drills, verbal final including 2 pages that had to be memorized and almost word for word) & safety demo....I sat there in class for 8 hours with my face on fire with fever, my throat horribly sore and a throbbing headache taking notes. I had to go to urgent care after class, I had an ear infection, strep and a horrible horrible chest cold. Nice. Timing. I loaded up on meds and crashed. Next morning was the final, I did everything fine except.....changed 6 answers on my written test, 4 had been right originally and paired with some other mistakes.... which was enough to give me an 87%. EPIC FAIL. It was awful. There were 5 of us, most of us had passed every other stinkin test! So I had to study the night before graduation, still sick as a dog, while everyone else went out to dinner to celebrate. Boo ME! the next morning I got dressed up in my uniform for graduation, and went in early for my retake, which if I didn't pass I was going home with no job and a waste of 6 weeks. I tried not to overthink it, and I passed my retake thank goodness but what an adrenaline rollercoaster!!!
Study Study Study!!!!

BUT...bottom line, I DID IT!! It was certainly the hardest thing I can ever think of doing! SO worth it though, so far. Mark did such an AMAZING job with the kids the whole time I was gone, he totally ran the show, worked, got them to all of their stuff, kept the house super clean, cook actual meals, read scriptures, the whole nine yards. I am so proud of him! And the kids! It has been really good since I've been back, too because everyone has been helping out so much more and pitching in. I had a couple days off, then last week I flew 5 days, and I'm on all call this coming week, then March will be a little crazy. I do have a schedule, though so its good to have a set thing. After March it will taper off and not so crazy busy. Then in the fall I will hardly have to work but still get paid. WOO hoo! :D

Ahhhhh The relief on my face!!! LOL

Allie, Shane, me and Joanna!! We did it! WHEW!

SO glad I did it, I could never do it again!! LOL With great sacrifice comes great rewards!

Merry Christmas 2011

I have written a cute Christmas post several times here just to have it somehow dissapear so......here are some Christmas pictures.

Program:

Program singing:


And it is always more fun to have a baby on Christmas! Jeter had so much fun!





We always let the kids open their gifts to each other on Christmas eve. It takes some of the edge off of the anticipation and they can appreciate each others gifts more and the spirit of giving when the gifts arent swallowed up in the Christmas morning chaos.


And the elves brought jammies! They are so sneaky!


Christmas day was great too, we don't have tons of pictures, I was too tired to even remind Mark to take any. We have a few from early in the morning, but then I was busy in the kitchen and crashed out on the couch by 8! My sweet boys covered me up with my luxurious new blanket. My mom and dad came down, but Brianna and Killian were super sick and stayed home. Emily ended up sick Christmas night, and Sadie is totally sick today. I hope it skips me! Christmas is SO fun, but so much work. I try to do as much as possible as early as possible, but I always end up exhausted. Here are a few from Christmas morning

Grandma got Morphsuits for Wyatt and Dayton.....so wierd, but so cool LOL



Cooper came down for Christmas morning all ready for church since we had an 8 am meeting. Always such an early bird!

We saw what Santa brought, looked at stockings, then got ready for church. When we got home it was presents and egg casserole breakfast, then a Christmas story movie and waiting for Grandma and grandpas to come so we could have curry and ham and pie. Pretty much perfect!

Now on to a very exciting and adventurous 2012!!

This is Halloween....this is halloween

How cute are these little goblins? Cooper in the alien Morphsuit, Dayton is Thor, Wyatt is the Green Lantern, and Ava is a Monster High girl. Cade ended up being the same as last year, an army mercenary, and Sadie was a guy, but she was babyitting until after 6 and we already did pics. I sense the trick or treating Spazzy excitement of dressing up is dwindling. Sad. Dayton said that it wasn't quite as fun this year. In fact, I think this is the last year of buying costumes, we have amassed enough stuff that they can make whatever from now on. It was fun though, Mark was out of town but I got the house looking really cute and creepy and then sat out in the driveway with the neighbors and the firepit and roasted hot dogs and handed out candy. I was loving Halloween Pandora playing too. The weather was perfect and we had lots of spooky trick or treaters. I wish I could have taken good night pictures of the house because it was so cute but I took these the next morning.....

Wyatts is the puking pumpkin. And FYI it is hard to get dried pumpkin slime off of concrete. Nobody else wanted to carve pumpkins except Dayton so we only did two, but I was able to keep the others for Thanksgiving and they look pretty :D

And now it is time for my all time favorite time of the year, I'm doing 2 boutiques and making 2 custom cakes and popcorn for the season. I'll be getting REALLY crafty and sew-y and bake-y for the next 2 weeks to say the least. It will be fun! Then, we are having a Lamb Thanksgiving with our amazing Missourri peeps this year, which just really thrills me! I really CAN. NOT. WAIT.

Some Crafty Stuff :D

I haven't been blogging much, but I have been busy creating fun things for my house (and other peoples :) My friend Katy and I made book wreaths, which are SO stunning in person

I rolled my pages and inked the edges, Katy loosely accordion folded hers like ruffles and lightly inked the whole thing. They turned out different but both really cute.


I have had this bench FOR-EV-ER and gave it a facelift for my front porch

My Friend Rachelle made me this custom frame for my new family picture. LOVE it! Can't wait to get it hung up and my piano painted. Yep, thats right!

Burlap runner I made for my moms Thanksgiving Table....

Burlap wreath: made 3 of these (in slightly different versions ) for my sisters and mom. Hope I get to mine soon! :D
Along with all of this I have repainted my whole downstairs in what I have termed a "buttery tan" and got rid of all the red and khaki walls, which has just changed the whole look of my house. I love it. I have so much fun with makeovers!!

September to Remember

Today was my birthday! It was seriously the best birthday I have had in a really long time. I feel better in general than I have in a long time, I guess that has something to do with it, huh? Mark gave me lots of hugs all day and the kids mostly cleaned up the house. Most of my sweet family came all the way from Thatcher and Globe to celebrate with me and my neice who is turning 9 on Monday. We went to Coopers football game and then came back to the house. We ordered Greek food and I made this cake:

I was showered with presents from everyone and it was SO fun! Cute things for my house and a gift card to Home Depot from Mark so I can paint downstairs. Makeup, jewlery, cute Halloween decorations, AHH just so fun! Then we chilled and did what we love to do the rest of the day...eat, play Settlers, make holiday plans and chit chat. PERFECT. The guys watched college football and the Dbacks game and we all played with the babies. Yep. Pretty much perfect.

I have some great craft and sewing plans in the works, SO exciting. Right now, though I am exhausted and I still have to go pick up Cade and his friends from the dance. And we need more pitas for the rest of the delicious hummus for Sunday football snacking!! :D

Adventure Time!!

If you know about the "kids" show Adventure Time on TV, my apologies. I pretty sure I remember my parents thinking my fave shows as a kid were super annoying too, so I endure it.

If you are my friend on FB you already know about my new adventure, I am adding Eyelash Extensions to my Salon services. I am so excited, eyelashes are super fun! I have had mine for over a year, and I have been doing them for about a year. They are the biggest timesaver. I love them, although yes, they are a bit of a splurge. They really do make a difference. You wake up in the morning looking like this:




Whoah that is a big picture! Sorry Em! LOL but this is my sister with no mascara after I did a fill on her. Awesome, huh?


On the agenda for today:

Finish dusting and folding laundry
Mop
Make cookies for the kids
Work out with Mark after work
Make to do list for the rest of the week

This thing I made.....

My mom signed me up for a sewing class at Scrapbooks etc. a couple months ago, moms sure know when we need a recharge day to just go and create and have fun :D And if you have not been to see the fabric at Scrapbooks Etc. lately, you MUST GO. If you don't sew, after 5 minutes there..... you WILL. I tried to go there one time to just find purple fabric for an apron for my SIL, and I almost had a mental breakdown trying to pick it out. There was just gorgeousness overload! And its definetly on the pricey side (9 bucks a yard) so you want to get it right. If you're in their system you get 40% one item per month so that helps. Anyway, this is the pincushion I made in the class. I loved how mine turned out, but most of the other fabrics people picked to use were equally cute, although totally different. Anyway, I'm totally in love with this pincushion /attached notions bag, its so handy to put stuff in while I'm sewing, and easy to take with me when I want to sew somewhere else. I can put my bobbins, thread, shears, and anything else I might need instead of having to lug around my sewing box.





It looks kind of small in these pictures but it is actually really big. The puncushion is like 6 or 7 inches across and it is really heavy. I loved making it and I love using it.


I also tried out some Picky Palate brownie stuffed chocolate chip cookies. They were really good, but whoah, sugar overload. They are HUGE and SWEET. Good luck eating a whole one!! But fun to try out.

High School Mama

We celebrated Cade's 8th grade promotion last week. We will be registering him for high school in a few weeks, and he is already going to freshman weights at the high school weight room every morning with the coaches to get ready for football next year. Caaa-ray-zee!! And then next year Sadie will be there too! Its all going by waaay too fast!

Such amazing 8th graders!! Every one of these kids are smart, fun, talented and/or athletic! They are a fun group and most are in our stake. I'm so glad and I hope they will continue to have great memories through high school.

Cade with his good friend McKenna and baseball teammate Brandon.

We are so super proud of you Cade!!!

Spring Stuff

Nothing too super exciting is going on. Spring is really crazy for me as usual. Since we are back in charter school land it is full of major science projects, major book reports, Cades baseball season at school, the relentless daily hours of homework, and of course birthday season. I'm way way too lazy to get pics off of my camera so for now its bare minimum ( story of my life right now) for this post till I muster up the energy to get my other laptop from upstairs. I do have this though :D

My baby Dayton is 8!! And all my kids are baptised. Milestones, eh? No more hosting the little after church luncheons anymore. I'm a little happy about that, since Ive now done it at least 10 times between blessings and baptisms, and thats just for my own kids! It really was a super special day for my boy. It was such a spiritual meeting. My sisters and I sang a beautiful fancy version of If the Savior Stood Beside Me and it was all I could do to hold it together. Sadie gave one of the talks and my MIL gave the other. It was really great.

Wyatts birthday was at Makutus island with 5 friends and his brothers. It was so fun....for them. HAHA He really felt cool getting to go there with his friends. In reality it was because I was too stinkin worn out to think of anything creative and then pull it off, so I told him since dad had to work on his birthday he wanted him to have an extra fun party. Haha.


Cade is playing baseball for Legacy Academy and is pitching and playing 3rd base. He really loves it, it has been a few years since he played. I think football is still his true love. He is going to BYU football camp this summer with his cousin Wylson from Missourri. Just what BYU needs, a couple of studly Lamb boys walking around! LOL We are so excited for him to do that and of course the trek this year.

Coopers highlight this year will surely be this week when he and cade got to be batboys for the Dbacks last spring training game. He worked hard and the players were really cool to them which I reallly appreciated. Mark was working lots of security for the Salt River Fields and we got the royal treatment that day. And his birthday is Saturday, so he will be partying all day and has requested a family dinner out at Golden Corral.

Sadie is super stoked for Girls camp this year, probably because I am going as the assistant ward camp director and we are doing a ward camp this year. We are going to have SOOOO much fun and we have already had one craft night where they made cute little buckets for their secret sister stuff. We have about 15 girls going and they are all great girls so it will be really awesome and kickback since we are basically certifying before we go and then just chillin in a beautiful cabin in Pinetop. My kind of camping!!

Mark has just finished working 7 days a week (LONG days) since mid February between out of town training, regular shifts, and every day off at the Spring training fields. We are SOOOOO grateful for the extra income but I'm not gonna lie it has been hard on us all. Sad that the gravy train is ending but ready to have dad around again. We are taking a recharge trip to Vegas with some couples in a couple weeks for 2 nights. SO needed! Mainly by me for being a single mom to all these kids and their activities. I need the break that is for sure.

I know, I know!

OK so call it a case of the winter blahs, but yes I realize it is practically March. I have been hard at work playing angry birds on my phone and avoiding all but the most critical of chores, so judge all you want!!! LOL Finally sometime last week (days are kind of flowing together so I can't be sure) I started a major home takeover/major make-under. I got pretty far with it, and I got my craft room put back together and set up so hopefully I can get back into the swing of ME again and not be so overwhelmed (or underwhelmed-whatever). There are SO many things I want to work on!! I have a VERY busy summer and the usual spring insanity so I kind of had to pull myself out of hibernation. It was SO much more fun to watch Regis and Kelly and the Doctors every day!! But now, I gotta work. The list is long, and NOT glamorous but here are some fun projects I wanna tackle in 2011:

Paint over all the red: Entryway will become muted large diamond pattern, fam room wall to match the rest

Repaint kitchen (including cabintes, add hardware, bakers rack, pantry overhaul)

Backyard (can I get a triple woo hoo!!!)

Flooring (I think I have Mark convinced to tackle this one as well)

Slipcover upstairs couches and move them downstairs, lighten up all decor (the black and red is depressing me)

Laundry room: (I would call it a make over, but its never been "made" the first time so we'll just say......functionalize it

Its sounds like a LOT, but the plans I have are ALL DIY and really just surface stuff. The back yard is the biggie, but the one I can't live without. I've gone almost 3 years.....at this rate we'll have grandkids that can't go out back and play. The flooring is gonna be a HUGE job but not very expensive, Mark can do concrete on it. Everything else is paint, fabric, and elbowgrease. If and when I get to each of these tasks, there will be LOTS of before and afters.

Christmas Recap 2010

Ahhhh Christmas. Do you ever rate your Christmas? This year I felt way behind the 8 ball. I had such well made plans that got waylaid by work {popcorn}. I definetly dropped the ball in the categories of : Gracious hostessing, Home cleanliness, Neighbor gifts, Avoidance of last minute gift crafting, Advent calendering with the kiddos, and Christmas card sending. I get a D- in all of the above. FORTUNATELY this Christmas in the categories of : Family togetherness and harmony, spirituality, eating delicious food, awesome presents, Decorating, Staying on a decent budget, Healthiness and safety, and all around good time had by all, it was at least an A!! Or as my dad would say, it was a 10! Although I dont know that my dad would rate it as a 10, its my blog so my ratings :D

Lets start with crafty stuff. Not much new to see here, but I did get a Silhouette cutter, and many many good things will be forthcoming.... I did make this I saw on a blog...it really looked cute out on my porch. Its a little more topsy than turvy, but it was still cute.






Then I got a flash of recycle genius and grabbed this shutter that I had pulled out of someones trash back in the summer just waiting to be put to perfect use:

I hot glued mini clothespins on it to hold the cards. Love it. I'll be changing the saying on the top and making it into some sort of bulletin board for all year.

Christmas eve day...while my siblings and kids cleaned the house and did all the cooking I was shopping for Mark , delivering 80 bags of popcorn and sewing away. I had great company though :D My mom is recovering from a ruptured achilles so she was a great baby holder!

Brianna made this amazing thing:

Emily made the soup and dipped all my pretzels

A lot of this goes on when we are together:

My sis Katie and Kam had a puppy with them to give to Kams brother, the kids were in heaven with this sweet little guy. Nate had his 2 toy maltese running around as well. We also had Ava all week and the cousins had a ball

We had made the arrangements for my dad to bless Bri's little Killian on Christmas eve to kick off our little program. It was a very sweet event and the Spirit was so strong!

My brother Nate and his wife and 8 month old Aiden came all the way out from VA to spend Christmas with us

Seriously, the sweetest baby ever. And LOOK at those legs!!! The biggest squishiest legs I've ever seen!! LOL

HA!!! Caught ya lookin handsome!!


Christmas jammies!

Katie and Jeter, Bri and Killian, and Em holding Aiden. We missed Max SO much!! My brother Nick and his fam were sorely missed, but getting a fam of 5 home from Hawaii on a students budget is not realistic. Nicks wife had a baby this year too!

Acting out the nativity


It turned out to be a great holiday. It certainly wasn't perfect, but it will be SO much more fun and memorable to remember the Lego Santa debacle, the 3 crazy dogs, Mark yelling at me in front of my family, and Santa forgetting Ava's stocking. We had fun, got amazing presents and most of all spent time together and got to know Nates wife a little better. She is Korean and this was her first Christmas ever. This was the first year we had this many of us together in at least 10 years. Now its time to put it all away and start a fresh new year!