The Incline

Over Memorial Day Weekend we went to a family reunion for Jason's family. It was held in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The next day we went to the local incline thing. It was amazing. I guess it was used to carry things up the mountain a long time ago. Now it is just for fun! You can even take your car up if you want to. It was a little creepy, but still pretty fun.

Layla's Birthday

Before the month of June is over, I better post Layla's birthday pictures! We had a family party and had a lot of fun. The kids got to decorate cupcakes and they also had a pinata!! It was great. And now my baby girl is 5 years old!! How does the time go so fast!?!

Happenings

Layla has started piano lessons. I was sitting beside her the other day while she was practicing and I was shocked at how tiny her hands looked on the piano keys. She is so little!

It has been three weeks now and it is official. We still like having the dog!! Anyone is welcome to come visit and meet her.

Old Pictures

This is to humor my brother Andy...These are the before pictures...you may have to really look to figure out what is going on because this is the second time Jason has finished the basement...And apparently I didn't take too many pictures while he was finishing it this time.

The flooring

These are the in progress pictures of the flooring in the basement. The hallway took longer than almost the entire rest of the rooms.

The (almost) finished basement

These are the pictures from today after Jason put the molding up in the toy room area. He has not put it up in the family room area, or in the hallway, or up the stairs, but you can see how it is going to look. I love it!! Maybe someday we will be able to afford furniture!! But probably not....

New Member of the family

This last weekend Layla and I both celebrated our birthdays. She turned 5 and I turned 30. More posts to come about those occasions.

On Saturday, as part of Layla's present we went to the Humane Society. Don't ask how Jason convinced me to do this, I must have gone nuts temporarily. We looked at all of the doggies there. There were so many. It was very sad. Most of the dogs were running around and jumping. Some were barking. Some were licking through the fences.

There was one dog who just sat quietly in the corner, not barking, not jumping, not running around. She had a sign that said her name was Abby. She had just turned 5 that week. The volunteer said that the best way to see her personality was to take her out on a walk and see how she behaved without all of the other dogs around.

When we asked to take her out they told us we needed to fill out the application first. The whole time I was filling it out I thought, I don't even want a dog!! They also wanted us to read the paper work that her previous owner filled out before we did anything else.

She was owned by a single women who traveled frequently for work and wasn't able to take care of her. Abby had lived with this woman for 4 years and 8 months, since she was able to leave her mother. The lady giving her up wrote that this had been a three year decision and she was so sad to get rid of the dog, but she just wasn't able to devote time to her.

We took her out on a walk. She was very timid around people, but wanted to see the other dogs we passed while walking.

Against my better judgment we signed the papers, paid the money and brought her home. It has been three days and I haven't regretted the decision yet. I know that it is early still, but so far, we have been very blessed.

Abby is fully housebroken. She doesn't bark, she doesn't jump, she hasn't tried to get on the furniture. She sleeps all night and lets the kids climb and lay all over her. She already is part of the family.

I will let you know if and when that changes.

Another quick one

I actually do have pictures to post, but don't have the time to post them!

I am in my second class (that is number two of seventeen!!!) in school and have had to give two oral presentations. I suspect that we will have to do at least one in each class. I don't like giving oral presentations, but I can do it. I am able to look up and have good eye contact. I am able to read far enough ahead in my notes to make sense when I am looking up. I am able to smile and not get flustered by people paying too much or too little attention.

In my last class someone mentioned that I have a good speaking voice. I think all of this is because of our church. Like it, or not, I have been standing up and speaking in front of an audience since I was three years old. I also think that being in Primary for the last four years has really made me be able to get up and just wing it. To be able to pull a good spiritual thought out of my memory, or to be able to steer the conversation back the way it needs to go.

This is one of the MANY things that I am blessed with because of my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Yesterday

I just have a minute before I have to go to work, but I wanted to share a funny/sad story.

Yesterday while the corn was boiling for dinner I decided to take a few minutes and do some Wii Fit. I have been really, really bad about exercising lately and I can totally tell. When Austin was about 9 months old I started working out. I worked out 4-6 days per week for over four years. Then LAST October, over a year ago, it just stopped. I don't know what changed, or why I stopped, but I did. I have been very sporadic about exercising since then, working out maybe an average of once every two weeks, if that often. Lately my regular exercise is forcing myself to take the stairs at work. I work on the fourth floor, it is pretty dang hard!

So anyway, back to yesterday. I turned on Wii Fit and got out my balance board. I have gained 4 pounds since I last used it, not surprising, we were out of town this weekend and last time I used it was first thing in the morning, not late in the afternoon after I had lunch with my friends for the WoW group...

I work out for 9 minutes...yes, that is all. I did have to feed the kids and get to school. I did torso twists, jack knives, something else I can't remember, and lunges. Well, I thought the lunges were going to kill me. Seriously. It was terrible. TEN lunges per leg, that was it!?!?! To give me a little credit, I did get all the points and scored expert, but still!

It was so bad that I had to move the seat forward in the car because I could hardly lift my leg to push on the gas pedal.

I feel fine this morning, I was worried that I was going to need a wheel chair to wheel me down the hall in the hospital, but I seem to be fine.

The point of this post...I am going to start exercising more. Please feel free to ask me how it is going!

Austin playing guitar hero

Believe or Not!!

These are the pictures from Layla's dance rehearsal and recital. She was adorable! The blue and green polka dot costume was for a newer version of Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid. They were shaking their little tails and it was SO cute!

beware!!

I know this may not seem for real, but I may actually be able to blog tomorrow. I have to prepare a paper and a presentation for school tomorrow, and take the kids to gymnastics, and go to lunch with my friends, but sometime I may actually be able to put some pictures on the blog...we will have to see!!!

Austin's 7th Birthday!

Austin turned 7 yesterday! When did he get so old? We had a fun family party with him. He got lots of presents and had a good day.

His Aunt Laura made his Birthday cake. It was DELICIOUS!!! And beautiful!

Chronical of Austin's!

This is a picture about a month after Austin's first birthday. This is one of the only digital pics I have from when he was little because our computer crashed so many timesThis is right after Austin's third birthday. Finally he has hair!! The next picture is Austin on his 4th birthday. We didn't do much for that birthday because we were still adjusting to having three kids!

For his 5th birthday we were in Florida with Grandma, Grandpa, Emily and David. That was LOTS of fun.

Food

When we were in Mexico we ate free breakfast. Which consisted of refried beans, tortilla chips with salsa and cheese (but not really nachos), scrambled eggs, fresh cantaloupe, watermelon, and papaya, and assorted pastries and dry cereals. Along with fresh orange juice, pineapple juice, grapefruit juice, milk, or hot chocolate. (The hot chocolate was very mild and had a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon. I loved it!)

For lunch and dinner each day we ventured out and tried to find authentic Mexican food. Not the kind made for Americans, but the kind made for the Mexican workers. We ate in little hole in the wall places, but man, they had the BEST food. We always drank bottled soda. I think only one place even had soda on tap. The bottles were glass and were obviously recycled.

The first night we were there we had pork tacos with cabbage and radishes as the garnish. No lettuce and cheese at that restaurant. In fact, only one place served cheese on the tacos, and I don't think we saw lettuce the entire time we were there...Oh, one time we did at a slightly more Americanized place, it was the place that had a stump in the floor and then a stump in the ceiling, they must have had a tree growing through the restaurant at one time and then decided to remove it.

At almost every single place we got to see our food being cooked. The kitchens were open into the restaurant. It was pretty neat.

They always served fresh limes. Man, they were good! Who knew tacos with lime squeezed on it would be so yummy.

One of our last nights there we were all ready for some good old fashioned American Food. Tacos are good, salsa is even better, but our bellies just weren't cut out for that much spicy food in such a short amount of time.

We were walking through Playa after walking on the beach and came upon a 1950s style restaurant that advertised a good old fashioned hamburgers and malts. We couldn't resist. Jason ordered a ham and cheese sandwhich, I got a vanilla malt, Jessica Loff got a BLT and we shared a plate of fries and onion rings. Man that food hit the spot. These pictures are of us in the restaurant and then after our second walk along the beach that night.

Tulum

Tulum is one of the ancient Mayan civilizations. It is right on the beach and is really neat. We took a crazy ride there. We rode the Collectivo, which I am not sure what that really means, but it was a big giant van full of all different people going to all different places. The van driver drove like a maniac and there were no seat belts. We were happy when we arrived there safely.

While wandering around and looking at the ancient ruins I could totally see the Nephites living there hundreds of years ago. It was so cool!

There was a big wooden set of steps that led down to the beach. A lot of people went down and were swimming in the water. We decided not to since none of us had our swimming suits on. Although that didn't stop some people...much to Jason and Lenny's entertainment!

Differences

There were a lot of differences in Mexico. One they seem to not worry about wiring being exposed. This is a picture of a street light. Seriously. The wires are just out there, open to the elements. It was like that is a lot of the restaurants that we ate in also...

Sorry the picture is rotated the wrong way, I couldn't figure out how to turn it the right way.

Mexico

We are home...We had an awesome time!!

The weather was amazing.

The beach was incredible.

The food was delectable!

I want to go back!