You Whine Like a Mule!

Over the past eight years R has discovered a little secret about me...I complain. Early in our marriage he would say, "You whine like a mule" and I would take great offense to that. Of course I was thinking in my "fat" mindset and thought he was directing his comment to my body shape being similar to a mule. He set me straight on that one and let me know he thought I looked nothing like a mule...he was just sick of my whining like a mule! One night on a walk home from campus he said to me, "I am so sick of your complaining!" I immediately responded that I was sick of him complaining about me complaining. That broke the tension and we avoided an argument! I guess his comments teasing me about whining like a mule over the years has made me realize that sometimes I do complain a lot. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. This week on Oprah I saw a guest named Pastor Will Bowen. He is the pastor of a church in Kansas City, Missouri and during one sermon he challenged his congregation to stop complaining for 21 days. In order to make the challenge a bit easier he gave everyone little rubber bracelets to put on a wrist and each time they caught themselves complaining they had to switch the bracelet to the other wrist and start their 21 days over. His church sends these bracelets out free of charge and is challenging to world to live complaint free lives. (see www.acomplaintfreeworld.org) He is not saying we don't have problems in our lives and not to acknowledge them, but go about discussing them in a different way. The attitude we approach our problems with and the tone in our voice says a lot about the person we are. Sure, life will always have its moments, but we just need to go about them with a more positive outlook. (On a funny side note, the pastor told a story of a group who ordered hundreds of bracelets, remember you get them free of charge, and sent them back saying they were of poor quality!! I guess they missed the whole complaining point!) I guess I just want to live my life with a more positive vibe. I know this won't change my world but who knows, it just might!

Responsible

Today is a new day! I have decided there are no more excuses for me. I know this is not going to happen over night and it will be a change in progress but I am responsible for me. Some days I wake up wanting to have a good day and then things go wrong and then I think o well, I guess I will have to try again another day. Guess what, I will not always be able to control the situations around me but I can control my reaction to the situations. I know this all sounds great and all but I am really going to start trying and living like this.

New Furniture

My new bedroom furniture!! I love it!

M's Haircut

BEFORE

AFTER!!

Happy

I wish that every day I could just wake up happy...I mean what do I not have. My life seems like the perfect life. A wonderful husband, two cute little girls, financial stability, a home, good friends and family, and yet I still struggle with being happy. I just wish I could love myself as much as I love others. O well, I guess I just have to keep trying.

Heart Stress

So yesterday I called my doctor because I had been having heart palpitations for over a day. The nurse at the doctors office told me I should "go straight to the ER...we don't mess around with the heart." After that reassuring phone call I broke down in tears for a few minutes and then had to call R at work and ask him to come home and take me to the ER. My lovely neighbor watched the girls for me and while I waited for R to get home I cleaned the house. I mean, what if something serious happened to me and someone needed to come to my house? Of course it should be clean. (Okay, I know I am a bit crazy but that's just me!) After some poking and testing at the ER nothing was found except that yes I was having Heart palpitations and no it wasn't going to kill me. The doctor told me anything from stress and lack of sleep to an excess of caffeine would give me heart palpitations. They wouldn't kill me but they would just be annoying. Now I don't think my intake of caffeine from chocolate is enough to give me palpitations but possibly my ability to make myself stress out is! When we got married R found it funny that I said I was stressed out as much as I did. I guess I use the term loosely. For instance, when I walk by a room in my house and it is really messy I usually feel stress. (This sometimes is a overwhelming feeling and it is often accompanied by a pressure on my chest, not my heart though) I know, weird stuff. So the Doctor just told me to cut back on stress in my life (especially emotional stress) and relax. Well, now I just have one more thing to stress about...my stress is causing heart palpitations, GREAT!!

The Black Look

So here is the picture of B giving her black look. When she was a bit younger all you had to do was tell her no and you would be rewarded with the black look. In all fairness to R's side of the family I am sure she inherited it from my side of the family. No, not from me, from my lovely sister T and (I've been told) from my mom. Isn't this picture of her worth a thousand words?! She doesn't pull it out as often now (she has other forms of expression like screaming) but when she does it is priceless!

RUNNING!!

Let me indulge and get this off my chest...I HATE RUNNING!!! Maybe I should clarify. I hate getting up and knowing I need to go running. I delay the run as long as possible. I play with the girls, talk with Ryan, watch the news and do whatever I can to delay the inevitable...running. I need my dad to wake me up every morning and tell to get dressed, we're going running. That was the only time in my life when I actually went running consistently!! Once I am on the treadmill I still don't particularly enjoy the run. Once I am off the treadmill though and done with my two miles I LOVE RUNNING!! I know, I'm a bit weird. I don't really enjoy the running and don't know if I ever will but I love the feeling I get when I am done. I have had a several year love/hate relationship with running and I know I will keep it up. It would be nice though if I could just get up and run without all the delay. So in spite of all my delays I guess in the end I LOVE RUNNING. (Just don't try to tell me that before my run!)

Getting to know me!!

and you thought you knew me...
four jobs i've had in my life-
-I worked at a bakery…yummy
-MTC bookstore! Probably my favorite job ever!
-Secretary
-Victoria’s Secret…might I add my husband would wait outside the store for me when he picked me up because he didn’t want to come in. I also heard a little boy once tell his daddy he didn’t think they should be in that store!!

four movies i can watch over and over
-A Room with a View (especially with my mom and sisters)
-Return to Me
-Clueless
-Life is Beautiful

four places i have lived
-So Cal (Costa Mesa)
-Utah (Provo)
-New York
-Charleston, South Carolina

four tv shows i love to watch
-The Office- I usually laugh so hard I cry
-America’s Funniest Video’s- once again the crying applies
-Men in Tree’s- it is getting a bit soap opera like though
-Project Runway

four places i have been on vacation
-Italy- Roma, Venizia, Milano
-Boston-one of my all time favorites
-Washington D.C. –God Bless America!
-Kansas City, Missouri – a really beautiful place

four of my favorite dishes
-Roast Beef and Baked potatoes-Sunday Dinner
-4 Formaggi Pasta from a little Italian Restaurant in NY
-Mediterranean Style fish from The Cheesecake Factory
-Anything Mexican

four websites i visit daily
-laughtear blog -and then I just visit all of the links on that page!
-quickutz.com
-dooce.com
-My husbands email account because I don’t get enough of my own!

four places i would rather be right now
-Talking with my husband
-Hanging out with a good friend
-Talking with my mom and sisters -especially when it’s late at night and we get slap happy!
-Cuddling a newborn baby

Favorite Colors (especially for shoes)
-RED, RED, RED
-Purple
-Chocolate Brown-for the moment-Pink
-Pink

Bougainvilla!!

So, why title my post Bougainvillea? I suppose some of you don't even know what it is. (may I suggest looking it up on wikipedia.org) It is a flowering plant that usually has purple flowers on it and I saw it a lot growing up in SoCal (as the cool people say southern California, I'm just trying to be cool) Anywho, one Sunday our family was driving home from church and I saw a bunch of bougainvilla in a yard and just started yelling/singing the word bougainvilla. My family, especially my dad I think, thought I was crazy. I think it was funny the first couple of times I did it (I guess you had to have been there) but after that I think everyone was especially excited to get home and out of the car since I continued my little chant for the whole drive home. I am pretty sure I was laughing hard and crying at the same time because I thought I was so funny (I seem to think I am funny a lot and other people just stare at me. At least I can entertain myself, right?!!) This word, bougainvilla has kind of come to represent me. I am a bit crazy and overbearing at times and don't seem to care if people think I'm funny as long as I am having fun. Whenever I go home I try to pull out the bougainvilla chant at least once, if not multiple times! I usually get a cute laugh from my mom and my dad rolls his eyes at me and tries to hide his smile. I know he thinks it's funny though and just wants to pretend like he is annoyed! I will always be a bit crazy and goofy and that is what makes me like myself and have fun!! Does anyone in the fam remember this Sunday drive???

Grateful

Things I am grateful for today...
1. Target...need I say more?? I'm addicted
2.The Internet...it makes me feel connected with people I love
3.My husband for putting up with my craziness
4.Knowing that my cupboards are stocked...I hate knowing I am almost out of something!
5.My friends...I talked to three of them today and it's nice knowing they care
6.My girls...even though they fight sometimes they provide hours of entertainment.

FRIENDS

So lately I have been so grateful for friends, whether it is a sister, parent, child or acquaintance. I am grateful for my sisters who have always been my best friends. I am grateful for my friends who live by me now and are like sisters to me. I am so happy to have a spouse that is my best friend. I am also grateful that my girls have great friends. I love watching R play with the girls and they love to wrestle with him. Whenever they hear the garage door go up they drop what they are doing and run to the door to wait for daddy. I am so happy to have great neighbors who love my girls and in turn we love their little one. Whenever we go outside B tries to get over to the neighbors house. When we are over there she never wants to leave! M love little H just like her own sister. Here H and B are eating fresh snow!!

I am also grateful that my two girls are such good friends. I know that they will always be there for each other throughout life. Without my friends my life would be so dull. They are one of the reasons I get up each day. Even though so many of my friends are far away from me I know I will always be able to count on them and I hope they know I love them no matter how long it has been since we last spoke!

pictures

B and I stayed home from church today because she has a runny nose. She decided to dress herself in her sisters pants which kept falling off! She then decided to wear these red and white striped beauties with her pink/brown/cream turtleneck! Quite the fashion statement for a two year old. She is actually very opinionated on the clothes she wears.

So this is M's new favorite dress. She wore it to church today and I thought she looked so cute. The red shoes are my touch!! Someone told her she looked like Dorthy but she is a bit too young to understand that one!

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