Humble blessingS~

Its been a week of blessings at my house! This past weekend my hubby took a little trip to the city. He was driving down the canyon when someone on the opposite side of the road decided to pass an extra long semi pulling a "pup". Evidently the person either didn't realize they didn't have enough room to pass before Deron passed OR they thought they could just gun it and make it OR they just weren't paying attention at all. As they got closer and closer to Deron, he could see that the outcome wasn't going to be good, he either had to run off the road and wreck or he was going to hit head on with this truck that was coming toward him. "Something" wouldn't let him swerve off the road...so he kept heading toward what he knew would end in death. Just when they were going to hit, the OTHER vehicle went off the road,on Deron's side...IF Deron would have swerved and gone off the road THE two vehicles would have collided! Because he didn't, both vehicles and all the people involved were safe....a little shaken up, but safe. I am grateful that Deron listened and did what he was prompted to do. I am grateful this day and this holiday season I still have my husband here with me!!!

I woke up this morning bright and early to wake the kids for school...just like I do every day. As I went into my daughters room I could smell something burning...plastic burning. It was a very strong smell that permeated her room. At first I thought it was maybe her curling iron that was left plugged in and had melted something, then I thought maybe it was a florescent light that had burnt out (because they put off a strong "burning" smell too)...but then I looked over by the side of her bed to see that her fan, used to keep her cool during the night, had melted. Sometime during the night it had stopped working. The cord, as well as the plastic around the motor had gotten hot and melted. It was still melting when I unplugged it. I feel very blessed this morning that she, as well as the rest of us were protected by a loving Father in Heaven during the night. I'm so grateful that our home is still standing instead of being in a heap of ashes. I'm grateful that we are all fine, safe and sound. I feel very humbled and very blessed that we were being watched over.

I know that the protection and blessings of safety that Deron received this weekend, as well as the blessings we received here in our home last night, aren't just something that comes from being "LUCKY"...I know that we are constantly being watched over and protected by a loving Heavenly Father. I am grateful for life, for my family, for my home and for the power of prayer...EVERYDAY, but especially today!

Happy ThanksGivInG...

I'm very thankful!

Confession....

I know...I know... THESE yogurt bites are for TODDLERS...BUT I am totally addicted to them! It all started when Little Mister was over for a visit several months back and he had a bag of them in his diaper bag. I bit one in half to give to him and I ate the other half...MISTAKE number ONE. Right then and there I KNEW that I was going to have to buy me a bag!!! Pathetic I know, but what can I say...it is what it is. SO now when I go to the store and buy a bag of yogurt bites for him, I buy a bag (or 2 or 5) for me too. The only problem with that is that I eat mine in one sitting and his bag can last for weeks (the reason I buy 5 bags so I don't dip into his). They are so stinking good! NO, I'm not making a recommendation that you all dash to the store for a bag of these for yourselves, (mainly because if your a local....there won't be any left at the store for me if you go out and buy them all) because I am sure its an acquired taste...and sadly enough, I've acquired it! The Gerber peach flavor is my favorite...but I like the Parent's Choice Strawberry ones too...the Gerber bites are more thick and crunchy than the Parent Choice brand...regardless of thick or thin, name brand or generic, they are both my little guilty pleasure's right now. Guess I'm just a "kid at heart" right?!!

Well....now that I've got that confession off of my chest, I'm feeling much better!

Merry ThanksGiviNg!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house...after all it IS AFTER HALLOWEEN! I spend hours, and often DAYS decorating my house for Christmas SO... I start early so that I can actually enjoy it before I have to take it down again. This year I added a FEW little changes to my Christmas decor, which I like to do every year, but this year it was more than just moving where I put things...I actually had to MAKE a few things. It started out with this window...which DIDN'T look like a 6 pane window when I started...it WAS just a great big window with a piece of glass in it.

Dayna and I went garage sale shopping during the summer and made a KILLING on a few old windows and doors...I asked the man who was having the garage sale if he had any "old window's with panes in them"...he responded that he didn't, but then told me how I could MAKE the ones that he had INTO a 4 0r 6 pane window...he told me to just epoxy molding right onto the window, after all it will be hanging on the wall and no one (except all of you) will even know... SO that's just what I did. I ADORE it and am thrilled with my THRIFTY FIND!...after hanging it up on the wall I whipped up some satin Christmas stockings and WALAA....my new Christmas Wall!

I made a another set of white lace Christmas stockings to display in my dining room...

I love how they turned out.

I am excited to have them all hanging up and "just sittin' and lookin' pretty" for the holidays!

The next craft I took on was this darling little nativity...its hard to see it with the black table runner that its sitting on...but trust me, its so stinkin cute!

Christmas is a wonderful time of year...and the only time of the year that I put up any

holiday decor...so I guess if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it big! I have 2 rooms DONE and I am debating on ONE more...hopefully it will happen this week.

Hope your holidays are starting and you can hear the Christmas Carols playing from my house...yes, they've been playing for a few weeks now too.

"Merry Thanksgiving" to you all~

It was "WON" of those DAYS!

"AND the 2011

1A STATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS ARE....

DUCHESNE HIGH SCHOOL"

Saturday November 12, 2011 proved to be a glorious day for many boys in the small down of Duchesne, but will go down in history as being one of the greatest day's to one senior boy imparticular, Cam Wilkerson, my great big senior son. Cam's been working extremely hard for months for this day to come...the day of STATE FOOTBALL. Many hours of sweat, cold, heat, bruised arms...legs, long hours and a lot of great memories went into preparing for this day that so many teams hope for, but few get to ever see. This is the teams second year in the past 4 years, winning the State Championship...last year Cam didn't get to play much, but this year he was a very big part of the team and was a valuable asset, making it even more exciting to be on the winning team. He played an awesome game and I couldn't be prouder of my amazing senior son!!! We braved the cold, the snow and the wind as we sat there and watched him work his tail off to help bring his team to a victory! It was an amazing game and a fantastic season especially since we went UNDEFEATED the entire season...now that's a team that works hard and sticks together!

Here are a few pictures of the game that will go down in Cam's book as being one of the best days of his high school career!

Cam (#70) playing strong against Layton Christen Acadamy

Cameron and his dad with the State Trophy

Our sweet neighbors and adopted nephews with their favorite buddy, Cam

The team, with Cameron holding up the State Trophy

Cam's siblings, except for Halle (who left with her cousins earlier)

and Dana (who wasn't able to come), congratulating

him on a game well played!

The bus leaving to take off for the big game, but first heading down main street for the

STATE FOOTBALL send off...with a procession of about 20-30 cars

all wishing the team the BEST OF LUCK!

Announcing the team players just before the game began.

Cam waiting to head onto the field..anxiously waiting~

Cam taking off after "someone"...

I would hate to be on the receiving end of THAT sprint"

pushing, shoving, hitting, tackling...sounds like great fun if your a boy~

Cam ready to take the man DOWN!

All that hard work requires alot of water!

"YOU'RE going DOWN!"

Cam says to his opponent, "TAKE THAT!!...you just lay there until

I tell you that you can get up!"....ha ha ha ha ha

"WE did it, WE ARE #1... hallelujah~ happy day!"

A lot of smiles from some pretty happy boys!!

AND the final score IS~ 35-9.... I guess you can say, we WON!

You did an OUTSTANDING job, Cam! The entire football season was filled with memories

that will fill your heart and soul for many years to come.

We, your little family, are proud of you and LOVE YOU so much!

Our ViSiToR from another world~

Halloween always brings out the little spooks and happy kids...but this year

we were invaded with the cutest little alien ever!

Kenron came dressed as the "Alien" from the Movie "Toy Story".

He was so stinkin cute. He loved shaking his head from side to side and

feeling the ears on his costume shake back and forth....it was adorable.

Grandpa helped him eat a sucker...one lick at a time.

I took advantage of all the hugs and kisses that our little Alien was

so willingly giving out for Halloween.

We continued to answer the door for all the other sweet trick-or-treater's while Kenron was visiting. One little boy came to the door trick-or-treating and saw Kenron dressed up in his Alien costume, his eyes lit right up as he looked at Kenron and he said, "Hey, do you know Woody and Jessie?" (if you aren't familiar with the movie, Toy Story, Jessie and Woody are other characters from the movie too)....we laughed and laughed about that all night. Little kids are so adorable!!

So glad that Little Mr and his mom and dad

came for a Halloween visit!

Hope all of you had a few good laughs on Halloween too.

"RUN Forest, Run"....

Running has never been "my thing"...so I was a little shocked at myself when I put "Run a 5K" on my bucket list a few years ago. I have always WISHED I could run because it looks fun, but I have always found running very hard and painful. I've never found it exhilarating like other people have...so I choose to power walk because I CAN DO THAT without much pain and I actually enjoy it.

THAT BEING SAID.....back in May my daughter, Kim, gave me a very sweet and thoughtful gift for Mother's Day. She gave me a certificate that said that she would run the "Highway to Hale 5K Race" (The "Hale Center Theater" puts on the race to earn money for their theater improvements) with me, since she knew that running a 5K was something that I had put on my bucket list. I was THRILLED to say the least!! Finally I had the motivation I needed to run the race. Dayna and Jack had decided that they would like to participate in the race as well, so all that was left to do was "Train" for it. I power walk about 3.5-4 miles every day...but this was a race, I was going to have to improve my time and prove to myself that I could do something hard....I have a bad hip and running isn't something that I do because it causes a lot of pain and most often than not, pops my hip right out. So I decided that I would mostly power walk...that was until my sweet son-in-law gave me a little pep talk. There was something that he said that just gave me the encouragement that I needed to RUN (yes, really...to RUN... I KNOW crazy, right?!) the race and finish it strong and without regrets. I spent the night before the race at Dayna's house, as we had to be at the Hale Center Theater bright and early in the morning. I had a hard time falling to sleep that night because I was actually EXCITED for the race, but mostly I was excited to RUN (I still can't believe that). Jack said I could do it...and so I believed it!

We woke up, ate a good breakfast of OATMEAL, drank some water (not the brightest thing I chose to do that morning...as I went to the bathroom frequently right up until the race was about to start), dressed in our WARM running gear (as the temp was a brisk 40 degrees) and headed down to pick up our numbers and line up.

Everyone (don't know who they all are) signing up for the 5K

Pinning our numbers to our shirts/jackets and YES...at this point

we ARE STILL SMILING!

All warmed up and ready to take off...

All of us girls decided to wear YELLOW Bandanna's

(Which was a super idea because we could see each

other wherever we were in the crowd)

Jack and Dayna gearing up for the big race~

Dayna and I getting ready for the run...

had to snap some pics first~

Kim and I wearing our "consecutive" numbers (174 &175)

and ready to get on with the race~

Jack planned on running the entire race, so as we lined up...all the "RUNNERS" were asked to come to the front of the line...I wasn't quite sure if I would REALLY be able to RUN so I didn't go to the "front"...BUT Dayna, Kim and I all agreed that we didn't have to stay together, if someone wanted to run, we were okay with that and they could go on ahead without feeling guilty about leaving the pack. I figured that Dayna and Kim would go on ahead, they are both competitive and I am not so much (or so I thought)...and I was okay with that. I figured I would take off when my body had warmed up enough and I would do my very best to run as far as I could.

AND THEN THE RACE STARTED....

and my little legs just took off running. I think I was as shocked as they were (my legs)...there is something about being in a large crowd where everyone is running that made me want to run too...I felt a little competitive and started picking out people in the crowd that I wanted to pass up. I started looking ahead and watching others as they ran and I wanted to catch up to them... I started to feel an ADRENALIN rush and away I went....and it felt GOOD!!!

I ended up running close to 95% of the race, cutting 20 minutes off from my normal time.

With sweat dripping from every part of me, I finished the race at 32:22 minutes...

I was THRILLED!

And to top it off... I placed

2nd in my age division

and placed 51st and ended up in the top 1/3 OVERALL!!!

(Not too shabby for my first race)

(pictures taken of people after races are just NOT flattering at all...sorry)

Jack finished the race in

24:00 (AMAZING GUY!!!)

He placed 4th in his age group

and finished 24th place overall (there was 150+ people in the race)!

Dayna finished in 41:47 (So stinkin Proud of her)

She placed 15th in her age division and

108th overall!

Kim finished in 40:17

and 16th in her age group.

She was 104th overall! (So stinkin Proud of her too)

Jack and Dayna...after the 5K...tired and worn out, but still cheering!

After showering and cleaning up, we proudly put on our "HIGHWAY TO HALE" RUNNING SHIRTS and headed for a celebratory lunch where we ate and enjoyed a few laughs, some relaxing and just being with each other!

Finishing the race was something I was determined to do...no matter how hard it got (AND YES, IT WAS HARD). Many times I had to give myself a little pep talk and remind myself that I WAS NOT a quitter and that it was okay to do things that WERE DIFFICULT and CHALLENGING! I walked away from my day having learned A LOT about myself and feeling as though I had truly done the very best that I could have!

With my clothes dripping wet, my body sore (more than I had ever dreamed it might be) and feeling as though I really wanted to throw up...I came away from my day feeling like I was

on top of the world because I had done something I never thought was possible nor ever dreamed I would really ever do....

Yes, I know now how

"Forest" must have felt as he ran and Ran and RAN (in the movie FOREST GUMP).....

It feels good to run (not so much the day after...but during the race it felt great)...it feels good to set a goal and accomplish it...it feels good to laugh and smile...it feels good to be alive!

I plan on running the "Highway to Hale 5K"again next year...my goal is to beat my own time!

I'm AlwAyS up to SOMETHING~

Its time once again....for the Holly Fair. Which means a lack of me doing much else (during my free time) other than getting ready for the big craft fair...that means very little cooking, minimal cleaning...and only the HAVE TOO'S getting done around here. This year I have been painting old cupboard doors and turning them into wall art/home decor. I started a bit earlier than normal this year, hoping to avoid the "cramming" at the end...it didn't work. I don't think it really matters when I start, I will always feel that "last minute rush" because there are always the last few things that I forgot to do or still need to do...I guess feeling stressed and pressed for time is just part of participating at the Holly Fair. I am excited about how my "old cabinet doors" turned out though....who would have thought?....

I've painted birds on a few of them.....

Different words on others....

and attached hooks and knobs and signs on them as well...

RESULTING in a dining room that now looks like a "Little Boutique".....

As you can see, there is home decor everywhere you look....

...there is a lot of this and a little of that in every nook and cranny~

Needless to say, I am excited for my dining room to look like a DINING ROOM ONCE AGAIN and hopefully to sell all of my inventory!....only ONE more week~