Spring Cleaning Facebook

I have started getting a little bit of "Spring Fever" lately. With "Spring Fever" I always get the typical "Spring Fever" symptoms, wanting to plant my garden, open up the pool and of course, Spring clean! Since I live in Colorado, starting a garden in March is not a very good idea, especially since March is when we get the most snow. So, to ease my "Spring Fever" symptoms I have decided to do some Spring cleaning. I have been getting rid of things I don't need and cleaning in spots that sometimes get neglected. Last night I could not sleep! Sunday was the start of "Daylight Savings" and that has really messed me up! I found myself wide wake at 1 am. Since I really couldn't do much with everyone asleep I decided to check out the Internet. I naturally went to "Facebook" to see what all my friends are up to. No one was up this late so I had no one to chat with. A few weeks ago one of my friends on "Facebook" posted that she was cleaning up her account and getting rid of people that are more stalkers than friends. Although I don't think I have any stalkers I started thinking about the people that are listed as my friends, and are they really friends or mere acquaintances. I decided to clean up my account and only have friends that I really associate with. I noticed that I had lots of friends from high school and even from past church wards that I don't really ever speak to anymore and they never message me to see what is up in my life. I must say that by deleting them it was not a mean thing. I still like them I just don't find that we associate any more with each other. I have come to think that for some people "Facebook" is all about who has the most friends, kind of like a popularity contest. I noticed that I had several friends on my list that in high school they never even gave me the time of day. Now they want to be friends, weird. Not all of the people that I deleted I felt that way about but there were a few. I challenge anyone that is reading this post to do the same, "Spring Clean" your "Facebook" account! I bet half the people that you delete will never even notice.

My Dress Has Arrived!

Today I got a very pleasant surprise! My dress arrived at my door! I must say that I have been very excited and also very nervous at the same time about my dress. I was excited about finally finding the dress but nervous about ordering my dress online from a company that I knew nothing about. I found them be simply "Googling" Modest wedding dresses. This company has a section called, "Temple Ready Gowns." I looked through them and found a dress that I really liked. Before ordering from them though I "Googled" them to read reviews about the company. Everything that I read was good so I took a chance. Before I placed the order my husband wanted to look at the dresses. He saw a dress that he liked better than the one that I had chosen at first. He liked my first choice but did not like that the bottom of the dress was just tulle. I loved the dress, it was what I always dreamed my dress would look like. I kept looking with him and we both found a dress that both he and I liked so I placed my order on the 25th of February. A week later I still had not received my dress and had not heard anything from the company. I called up the company and the person one the phone left a message for the shipping manager to call me. On Tuesday the manager called me. She said that when my dress was pulled to ship the person who prepared my order got the size mixed up. They had boxed up a size 26, not my size! She told me that my dress would be in stock in May. I did not want to wait til May so I asked her about my first choice. It was available!!! There was a $100 difference in the dress. My new dress was $100 cheaper. So instead of asking for a refund I ordered my veil. I found a beautiful veil for $150. They took off the extra $50 for me since my order was messed up. Today when I opened my box I was very surprised. The Romanticgowns.com had also included in my order, free of charge, a satin wrap and a bridal purse. My dress was more beautiful than I could ever imagine! The plain tulle bottom was not plain! In the picture you can not see but there are random pearls and clear beads all over the tulle! It is stunning! The light just bounces of the beads and the dress looks amazing! Also the veil I chose has the same kind of beading on the bottom of it. It is a perfect match! Some things are just meant to be!

Happy Birthday To Me!

On February 21, I turned 38 years old! I have always felt that age was just a number so with that I celebrated another great year of life! As with all my birthdays over the past few years I was met with many birthday surprises! That might explain why I still LOVE my birthday! I woke up to lots of sweet birthday wishes and songs from my wonderful children and husband as I do every year. Throughout my day I kept receiving lots of little gifts of love. My 13 year old son Christopher had gotten up early to make me breakfast. Getting up early for Christopher is a big deal because since he has been home schooled this year he has enjoyed sleeping in. Christopher had gotten up and made me to beautiful and very yummy pancakes! With each bite I felt the sweetness and love from my son. Two of my babies that have went off to preschool spent the day with me because their school was closed for the day. Chance and Brody brought me beautiful pink tulips and 2 cookbooks! I loved it all! My sweet little daughter Bailee pulled out her fake kitchen food and made me a birthday cake. It was an actual plastic cake. Part of me so badly wanted to keep it because I cherish everything that my children give me. But I also knew that Bailee would want to play with it again so I took a picture of it for me to cherish. I also received several very beautiful pieces of art from my son Brennan and Bailee. Brennan took a large poster board and drew me a red tulip. It is now hanging in my craft room for me to cherish everyday. Tatiana, my 16 year old daughter, made me a birthday cake. Now that is a big deal for Tatiana because she does not cook much. I loved it! My dear friend Tina came by and instead of making me something, she bought me the supplies to make my own craft. I loved it! Richard, my wonderful husband, wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday but I told him that I would rather eat at home since I knew that this week I would be eating out a lot. He also wanted to take me to a jewelry store and buy me a ruby ring since he knows that I have been wanting one. I told him that there is something more that I would like and it wouldn't cost as much as a ring would. For under $50 and lots of elbow grease, my husband made for me a wall with hooks for coats and backpacks. I had seen it on someone else's blog and loved it so much that I wanted to have it in my house as well. Richard did an amazing job and I love it! In the mail I also received an Embroidered apron from my sister Mary! It was the perfect gift for me since I spend half of my life in the kitchen! I love to cook and Mary knows it is one of my favorite hobbies! Every year for our birthdays my best friend Holly and I go out to eat at "Texas Roadhouse". My birthday is on the 21st and hers is on the 24th so this works out perfect for us. Each year we always get each other a little something. This year I got her a Target gift card because we have a history together of shopping the clearance at Target. She had went to Target as well for me. She bought me a beautiful necklace that is engraved, "I am thankful that in God's design he planned it so your path crossed mine." It was perfect because I fell like it was meant for us to meet. I was called to be her "visiting teacher" and that is were our friendship began. I am so grateful to this day for getting that calling. Throughout the day I also kept checking "Facebook" as I always do. I was so moved by the amount of birthday wishes that I had received. It really did touch my heart so much. I vowed to always wish my "Facebook" friends "Happy Birthday" because of how it made me feel with each wish that I received. My birthday was filled with lots of love and as of today it was the best birthday ever but I can't wait to see if my 39th birthday can top this one!

A Very Special Valentine!

For the past year I have been homeschooling four of my children. With that being said, between teaching and working with my different children the kids each have some down time during the day. The other day Denver had finally gotten some decent snow. A couple of my children wanted to go outside and play in the snow. How could I refuse them the perfect recess! After being outside for a while one of my children came in to get me. Brennan was sent by Christopher to come get me because he had something to show me. First of all Christopher loves to build in the snow. Whenever we get snow he will spend hours if he can out in the snow building forts and igloos. He has become very good at it I must say. This day was no different. Christopher built his snow cave and it was amazing but he also made something else. I must say that I think it is his best work so far. When I followed Brennan outside I was so suprised at what I saw. Christopher had made several hearts out of snow and carved "MOM" into the snow. It was beautiful! Everyday when I get up I open my back door to see if my statue is still there! It will be very sad for me when the sun melts it away. I am grateful to have a camera that I can keep these memories alive for myself and for my children.

Table Centerpieces

One of my biggest stresses about the reception has been centerpieces for the tables. Especially since I have 40 tables to decorate. I really don't have a budget but I still want to keep this as simple and cheap as I can. I also don't want to end up with a bunch of decorations after the reception. Last night while I was heading off to lala land I remembered watching an episode of "DC Cupcakes". In that episode they made flower pot bouquets. So this morning when I woke up I had to "google" flower pot bouquets! What a simple way to decorate the tables. Plus I was already planning to make cupcakes for the reception but I was having a hard time figuring out how I was going to display 600 cupcakes! I also like the idea that flower pots are cheap! Since I am using daisies as my flower I plan to cut a daisy out of fondant and place it on each cupcake. I can't wait to get started!

Pictures

My husband and I have decided that one thing we want to do for the reception is to have a slide show of our family over the past 15 years. I also want to frame some pictures on a table as decorations. In my family room on my fire place mantel I have done this very same thing. It is really neat to look at all the pictures in the frames of different times in our family's life together. I even have an 8x10 picture of my husband and I at his senior prom. It is very special to me. While I was looking through my many files of photos I came across a picture of the Denver Temple that I don't even remember taking. It was such a neat thing to come across. It gave me such a warm feeling as I thought about the fact that I will be going there someday soon with my family. I had to post this special picture.

The Dress!

Since the ring thing didn't work out so well my wonderful husband still wanted to get me something special for our 15th anniversary. Since we are planning to go to the temple in June I told him that he could buy me my dress. Not only did he buy the dress but he actually helped me pick it out. Now some people may say that it should be a surprise and it will be because he will not get to see me in it until that day. My husband and 2 of my daughters went with me to "David's Bridal" and did find a dress but it was strapless. I was shocked when they told me that most of their dresses were strapless. I did find a very pretty dress but with the kind of alterations it would need to be more modest it would not look right. A little bummed I decided to check some Internet sites. I was able to find the dress of my dreams for a lot less than I was expecting to pay and it is beautiful! Romanticgowns.com has a huge amount of dresses. To my surprise they even have a section called "Temple Ready". After going to the site I wanted to "google" them to see if anyone had anything bad to say about the company. I was pleasantly surprised to only find good things about the company. I haven't received my dress yet but I will definitely be blogging about it when it comes.

Replacing the Ring!

For my anniversary my amazing husband wanted to get me something special.Since my husband's wedding band got eaten by the dog we thought about replacing his ring and possibly getting me a new ring set to replace my currant ring. I already have a beautiful ring that he bought for me 15 years ago but we wanted to look at possibly getting a new one. On the advice of several friends we went to "Jared". I should have known that it was going to be expensive because when we walked in the door there were eager sales people waiting to assist us. Once a sales lady approached us she told us about the wonderful playroom they had for children. My older daughter Tatiana took our youngest daughter Bailee to the playroom to play while the sales lady explained the importance of buying a "Jared" diamond! After the video about diamonds, that I must say, I still didn't understand or really care about, the sales lady takes us over to the counter and starts showing us bands. I like the wrapped band so she pulled out one that I liked. She then proceeded to ask me what size diamond I wanted to try first in the wrap, reminding me that 1/2 carat would not be good enough for that particular band. I fell in love with the wrap and the 1.5 carat diamond ring. Then came the fun part, the price! The band was only $1800.00 but the diamond would be an additional $15000.00! Suddenly the thought of replacing my ring vanished very quickly!! I tried to lightly nudged my husband hoping that he would not show a reaction to the price. The sales lady quickly offered a lay away plan or financing. If I really wanted the ring I know that my husband would have made sure that I got it that is just how he is. He spoils me beyond reason and I love that about him. At the same time I can think of far more important things to spend $17000.00 on! So with that, no, I did not get the ring instead I got a deeper appreciation for the ring that I have worn for the past 15 years! The only thing that I don't like about my ring is that it is still in 2 pieces. I have never had the engagement ring and band sealed together. So for $29.00 I am finally getting that done. My husband said that in a strange way the sealing of my ring is like a symbol of the sealing of our family.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday my husband and I have been married for 15 years. Knowing that this is a big milestone in our marriage brought great joy to us both. I am sure that there are many people out there wondering how we celebrated. We are planning to be sealed with our children in the Denver Temple in June so that is how we are celebrating. We are plaaning a huge reception for all of our friends and family to attend after our sealing. Since this event is such a big thing for us we decided that on our actual anniversary we would go out to dinner. My husband wanted to go some where really nice down town Denver since we have been married for 15 years. He did let me make the final decision though. Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about were to go eat. Of all the places that we could go eat I was craving "Panda Express". When I told my husband he laughed at first but then agreed. He had been wanting "Panda Express" too, just not on our anniversary. So for our anniversary my husband and I had a quiet dinner at "Panda Express." While we were there my sweet little 5 year old daughter called me on cell phone. She told me that she was not having fun because I was not there. A little history about my relationship with my daughter: My husband has 2 amazing daughters with his first wife. When we got married we ended up having 4 boys and then lastly a little girl. My little girl and I are very close. I am hoping that it stays that way but for now I am enjoying every minute of it! I told Bailee that we were on our way home with ice cream and cake. When we got home we celebrated our anniversary with our children. Of course during our celebrating we all talked about going to the temple. It is so interesting to me how much preparing to go to the temple has taken over our whole family. It is not just something that my husband and I want but our children as well. Knowing that when my life on earth is through I will be able to spend the eternities with the people I love most brings so much joy and happiness to my heart I can't possibly put into words. I wish the same for every family! Families can be together forever through Heavenly Father's plan!

Families are Forever

Being LDS I have always believed that "Families are Forever." It is through our Father in Heaven's plan that this is made possible. We believe that by obeying the commandments given to us by the prophets and living rightously we all can attain this goal. This year, actually tomorrow, January 26, 2011, my husband and I will be celebrating our 15 year anniversary. Although this is a wonderful milestone in ur marriage it also brings some sadness each year that we celebrate. I say this because, we have not been sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. This anniversary comes with a new hope because this year we will be taking our family to the temple. Tomorrow will be a great day but on June 25th, 2011 that will be an amazing day! That is the day that I will go to the temple with my wonderful husband and 7 amazing children and be sealed together forever! I have spent lots of time over the years imagining this that day. Many times it seemed so far from our reach. Gratefully I can say today that we have a day and those past dreams are now becoming my reality! As a member of the church it was often hard to sit in Primary and sing songs about going to the temple, knowing at the time I still had work to do. I must say that I am not perfect nor is anyone that enters our holy temples, but there are certain requirements that at the time I had not been living up to. I am glad that I can say today that I am doing everything I can to be able to receive the blessings of going to the temple. This blog is about not only my journey but also the journey of my family.