Go! Jazz Go!

On a whim I called Matt at work to see if he wanted to go to the Jazz game instead of our Ward Christmas Party a week ago. I'd had it up to here (my hands are really high above my head right now) with my kids and needed a little break. Plus, I wasn't really feeling the ward party for some reason. Matt of course didn't need any convincing, so he hopped on eBay, scored us some sweet 6th row tickets for a way good deal, and we went! The game was super crappy, but we both had a REALLY good time. It's so cool to see those huge NBA players up close and personal. However, it's a little embarrassing. Because we're so close, Matt thinks it's okay to yell out what he really thinks of all the players he doesn't like.

I felt like a proud mother watching the Jazz Dancers. Excuse me, The NuSkin Jazz Dancers. There's two former Cardinelles on the team that I use to coach at Northridge. Try as I may, I couldn't get a decent shot of either of them. They do a lot of head flipping!

I also tried to get a good shot of D-Will's tats to figure out what in the heck he has on his arms. Still don't know. Some sort of snake on one arm, and the other...?

Turducken Day

I've been in a blogging rut lately. I'm not really feeling it, so I'm really behind. And why is it that I feel like I have to blog about everything? If I take a picture of something, I have to blog about it. Hmmm, maybe that's something that needs evaluating in my life.

Anyhow, Thanksgiving was wonderful. Me, Matt, the kids, and my dad had a nice Thanksgiving at my house. We stuffed ourselves, took naps, went and saw Tangled, then played some board games. It was a really nice day!

Maya making stuffed mushrooms.

The Feast

The Pie!

The Cleanup

The Naps

The Games

And now, I've saved the best for last! This year Matt insisted (and I mean INSISTED) on making a turducken this year for Thanksgiving. For those of you that haven't familiarized yourselves with this massive bird, it's a chicken that's stuffed into a duck which is then stuffed into a turkey. Matt had his heart set on it, so I told him he was more than welcome to make it. So, by popular demand, here is a little slide show of "The Turducken!" Who knew this would be the topic of discussion wherever we go?!

Let it Be

I had this post all ready to go on my Door of Happiness blog, but I kept getting the feeling that I should post it on my regular blog instead. I had a really neat experience and I guess I feel as though I can tell more details on this blog. I feel at home on this blog. (Probably because 90% of the comments that I get on my Door of Happiness site are spam. It's so annoying and often makes me want to quit doing that site all together).

But anyhow, I had an experience yesterday that has given me the little boost that I have needed. Our stake had a stake temple night last night, so Matt and I went. Seeing as it's so close to my mom's death date I was REALLY missing her and REALLY wanting to feel her presence while I was there. So while sitting in the session I prayed for any little sign that she was with me. When I was done praying, I sat in meditation waiting for an answer to my prayer, but I was really annoyed because all that was going through my mind was the song, Let it Be by the Beatles. As hard as I tried, I could not get the song out of my head. And what was even worse, the only lyrics that I knew were "let it be." I had no clue what came before or after "let it be." So after thinking to myself, "I'm pretty sure singing Beatles songs in my head, in the temple, isn't going to allow the presence of anything holy to be with me right now," I decided to just forget about it and concentrate on what I was doing. But try as I may, I couldn't get that dang song out of my head. In fact, that song was with me all night long. Well, last night was a rough night for me and I was up all night long. With nothing else to do, I decided to google the lyrics for Let it Be. If that song was going to be in my head 24/7 I guess I could at least find out what the real words were, cuz I was pretty sure they didn't just repeat let it be over and over and over and over. Here's what I found...

When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, .....
And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, .....

When I saw those words I broke down in tears. Who knew that this Beatles song was the answer to my prayer? She was and can be with me. In my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me! I have since changed the words from "Mary Mother," to "My Mother," and am trying to take my mom's advise now. Let it Be. I've been so worried about fixing myself that I haven't just let things be. I am constantly fighting back the tears and am constantly getting discouraged when things are worse than usual. And oddly enough, the times that I cry with someone and tell them how I'm really feeling I feel so much better. My favorite part of this song is how it ends. When the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me. I can't ever forget that. If I'm patient and just let it be, things will come full circle for me. For the only way we can know happiness is if we know sorrow, right? So in the words of my mother/The Beatles, I'm going to just Let it Be.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Today marks the 4 year anniversary (is anniversary the right word here?) that my mom passed away. Is it any easier some have asked? Nope. It still hurts and I still miss her like crazy.



So, while my mom was here on this earth I fought and disputed the fact that I was anything like her. I was a unique person with my own characteristics and traits and plus, she was so weird! (At least that's what I tried to convince myself of.) But since her death I have been grasping at ways that I am like her. She was a better person than I gave her credit for. So in honor of her, here's my list of ways that I'm just like her... (can I just add how much she would love this list!) (oh, one more thing, those aren't just random pics of my mom, they're ones that demonstrate how we're alike)

• We both love to decorate.
  
• We both like to be frugal. She taught me everything she knows about shopping at second hand stores and I have come to love it just as much as she did. (The second picture is of her folding tissue paper so we could save it and use it again).
  
• We both like to linger at family gatherings. The longer we can stay the better. (Too bad my hubby doesn't feel the same way. He's like his mom, the sooner you can leave the better.)
  
• We both have a love for vintage things. But it can't be just any random vintage thing, there has to be meaning behind it.
  
• We both have OCD when it comes to things being straight and in order. For example, crooked tablecloths, picture frames, and bed covers drive us crazy!
  
• We both like to go all out when we are given an assignment or task.
  
• We both like comfort food, especially gravy. (The top picture is of her making her famous milk gravy.)
  
• We both love jewelry.
• We both love to dress up for Halloween.
• We are both people pleasers.
• We both make the same gagging sound when brushing our teeth.
  
• We both are So. Weber homebodies.
• We both love 50s music. Elvis, Buddy Holly, Doris Day, Perry Como, etc.
• We both love to dance.
• We both love to have music playing while doing chores or other things.

There's probably more, but my brain is like mush right now. I love my mom, and I'm proud to say that I have a lot of her in me.

How Sweet It Is

Two of my major responsibilities that I've been involved with have come and gone. And can I just say, HALLELUJAH!!! I like to be involved with things and everything, but this past month has been more than hectic. Talk about when it rains it pours! The first major thing I was in charge of was Reflections at the elementary. I thank my lucky stars that I had a good committee that helped me majorly through this. All in all, it went really well. Both my boys won awards in both the categories that they entered. I told them that I wasn't going to help them at all this year, so if they wanted to enter it was up to them. Isaac wrote an awesome story about four friends that got their black belts in karate and had to work together to fight off the bad guys. He also entered a really good clay octopus that he had already made for a class project. Luke drew a picture of little men/apples/circles (I still don't know what they were) holding hands surrounding the world. And then he constructed a dinosaur 3D art thingy. (you can see it in the picture below on the left side). Luke's artist statement on his entry form cracked me up. He said, "If we don't work together it will be really hard to find all the dinosaur bones." So true Luke, so true.

The second thing I was involved with that is now over was the Primary Program. I'm the Primary Chorister in our ward so I've been working hard to get this together. I think that it went really good and I'm so proud of all the kids. To tell ya the truth I was a little nervous going into it. I didn't know what to expect from the kids. The practice we had the day before didn't run very smoothly, so I wasn't sure how it was all going to go. But thankfully, everyone pulled it off really well. I gotta say though, it's good to have it off my check list.

Miss Maya has been working hard for the past four months (?) trying to earn stickers so she can get a pillow pet. Well, two days before her birthday she finally earned enough! So it is with great honor that I am here to announce the newest member of our family, Buddy, the Pillow Pet.

And lastly, my precious girl turned 4! Can anyone remember last year's post about Maya's birthday? If not, let me remind you..... there were a lot of pictures of Maya screaming and crying. This year it's quite the opposite. She warned me that she was going to be a big girl when she turned four, but I wasn't expecting her to really follow through with it. It was pure smiles and happiness from her all day long. She requested to have a Pinkalicious birthday (from the book), so I gladly obliged. We ate pink pancakes and pink milk for breakfast. I bought her a Pinkalicious dress that she wore all day. And she had her very first friend birthday party where her guests were asked to wear as much pink as they could. So, after hosting several parties for my boys and seeing how they and their friends act, I was expecting a chaotic house full of screaming little girls. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how sweet they were. They listened, they had good manners, they weren't rowdy, they were angels! I like this whole girl thing more and more each day :)

Halloween Extravaganza

We celebrated Halloween good and strong this year. To start off the festivities Maya had a preschool Halloween program. These little programs crack me up. I think they had to do just about every song twice because they weren't loud enough the first time.

Next, Matt and I went to our annual friend Halloween party. This party seems to get bigger and bigger every year as more and more people move into our neighborhood. In the picture below Matt and I is the big group picture. Believe it or not, that picture was taken at the end of the night when half the people had already gone home. The party was huge! So Matt and I dressed as the classic Devil and Angel. Matt was very adamant on wearing a unitard this year, so this was our compromise. You can thank me later for cropping the picture.

Next up, we had Maya's second Halloween Soiree. Her dance class learned a dance to the song on Nightmare Before Christmas. Once again this was very comical because none of the girls had the slightest clue what was going on. How do 3 year old teachers do it and still live a sane life? It's cute when Maya is oblivious to what's going on, but not when other little kids are.

And now here I am at my Book Club Halloween Party. We each dressed up as a character from one of the books that we've read. From left to right we have Novalee Nation from Where the Heart Is, The Nurse from Memory Keeper's Daughter, Elvis from Odd Thomas, Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, Aron Ralston from Between A Rock and A Hard Place, Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, (bottom row) A Bodach from Odd Thomas, Dr. H. H. Holmes from Devil in the White City, and Screwtape from The Screwtape Letters.

Next on the agenda the kids went trick or treating to Matt's work like they do every year. I carried the camera in my hand the whole time and didn't take a single picture.

That night we had my family's annual Halloween Costume Party. We ate soup, played Big Buddah & Monster Makers, then Steven told scary stories to each age group one at a time. I think they all came out screaming after their own scary story. Maya said her scary story was about a guy that drank milk and tried to tickle little girls. Isaac got told the classic The Babysitter and Luke of course can't remember a thing about his scary story.

Finally, Halloween night came. We started off with a little Trunk or Treating, then went to Grandma and Grandpa Merrill's, then the boys ended the night Trick or Treating with cousins while me and the babies came home and watched Halloween cartoons.

Zombie Jazz Players

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake and Clown?

Party Pooper
(He wouldn't put his Thomas the Tank Engine costume on for the life of him! Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was a little under the weather. He did however give ya a good "Raaauurrr" when you asked him what he was for Halloween.... if ya didn't notice he has dino pjs on)

Good to Know

One thing that sometimes annoys me is when people come across something good and then they try to keep it a secret so no one knows it but them. I hate it when people won't share recipes or the details of how they made a certain crafty project. And why not? Does it take anything away from you to share in the goodness? I think not! So, with that being said, I have come across a few websites that I thought were wonderful and want to share and pass along.

The first one is www.commonsensemedia.org. I have loved this website! It basically puts a rating on what is appropriate and not appropriate for all different types of media out there for our kids. They rate movies, books, t.v. shows, websites, video games, and even music. You can see things that they recommend, things parents recommend, and things that kids recommend. You can also filter things by age appropriate. My favorite though is when you find something that you want to find their review on, it's a very in depth review. For example, Iron Man 2 just came out on DVD and a few of Isaac's friends at school have seen it. So Isaac asked if he could see it. It's PG-13, so I immediately told him no and of course he began to whine and ask why not. So we came to this website and I showed him why not. It says there is a lot of violence, including a hanging and lots of other deaths from explosions. There are women dressed provocatively. There is swearing and it lists all the swear words they use. And there are several instances with drinking involved and people getting drunk. After we looked it up, the case was closed and he didn't ask why he couldn't see it any more. This is definitely a good website to use as a resource when it comes to our kids. Go check it out.

My second favorite website find is www.eshakti.com. Again, I love this website. It is a clothing website that allows you to alter their clothing. For example, if you love one of their dresses but just wish it came a little lower below the knee, they'll do it for ya! If you love a dress, but wish it had sleeves, they'll put them on for ya! All you have to do is just pay $7.50 more to have them altered. Another great thing about this site is the fact that the clothes are so dang cute!! They are very original and have such a unique style. As for the pricing, the shirts are a bit over priced, but the dresses are reasonable. They range from about $50-$100. This is the dress that I want to put some sleeves on and get. Isn't it so cute?!!
And last but not least, www.favfamilyrecipes.com. This is a recipe site. For the past month I have been incorporating at least 2 recipes a week from this site and not once have we been disappointed. Everything is super easy to make, the recipes are what normal people eat, and most importantly their very tasty. Another fun thing they do on this site, is they have recipes for a lot of knock offs. They have recipes for Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana, Cafe Rio's Sweet Pork Burritos, Pizza Factory Breadsticks, and many many more. So if you're in a meal planning rut, go check out this site for some ideas. You won't be disappointed.

Door of Happiness

So I've been hesitant as to whether I should advertise this on my blog or not. But after thinking about it I've decided that I'm amongst friends who won't judge me and will still love me no matter what. (I hope) Are you just dying to know what I'm about to reveal?

Well, as all of you already know both my mom and brother have passed away. With both of these events combined I have seen a change in me that I don't like. I have dealt with every emotion possible, but on a large, unwelcome scale. I'm sure a lot of you know that it's been hard for me, but I'm pretty sure nobody (not even my husband) knows what it's done to me on the inside. I deal with a constant battle of putting on a painted smile and going through the motions of what is expected of me. Well, I've gotten to a point that I'm sick of feeling and acting this way. I want to be happy. And not only happy, I want to be genuinely happy. I've tried antidepressants and I had a hard time dealing with the side effects, so I decided to research how to be happy without those meds. Amongst my search I have found countless lists and ideas of things to try, soooo....

I decided to start a website. It's basically my journey as I try these countless techniques and ideas. So far this website has already helped me. I've been given purpose in something that I'm interested in. And I'm hoping that maybe in my journey I can also help someone else. Just thinking about that makes me feel good.

So (I say the word so a lot) the reason for my posting this is because one of the tips that I've read is to rely on friends to help lift, comfort, and help you through trials. I'm assuming that if you're reading my blog I can consider you a friend. So (there it is again) by putting myself out there and opening myself up I'm allowing those around me into my life to help. No pressure though. I was thinking helping by leaving nice comments & encouragement and stuff like that. Not everyone needs to be calling me to ask how I'm doing every day only to hear my fake, "I'm doing good, thanks :)!" So (I can't help saying it now) come on over to my new website, and leave a nice comment!

www.doorofhappiness.com

Marathon Matt

It is with great pride that I am here to announce that Matt has successfully ran and finished his 4th marathon! This past weekend we went to St. George where he ran in the hottest St. George marathon ever. Because of this heat, over 1,000 people dropped out and didn't finish the race. I'm super impressed with all those that ran and finished. Marathon runners have got to be one of the most inspiring people around. It takes so much time and dedication to train and then actually run the 26.2 miles on race day. I'm very proud of my man! Here's a few choice pics from our trip.

The manly men in their short shorts.

The ladies in waiting.

Run Matt, Run!

I'm surprised at the pleasant smile he gave me for his post race pic. I guess it's more of a "relieved it's over" kind of smile.

Matt and his #1 fan

Victory dinner at Xetava. Way to go boys!!!

Blast from the Past

The past few weeks I have been taking a trip down memory lane. To start off, my Grandma Poll had her 90th Birthday Party. For her party, I volunteered to set up a display table. I really, really enjoyed searching through all her photo albums with her and hearing stories about her life. I always thought I had more of my mom's side than my dad's side of the family in me, but after talking with my Grandma, I realized I have more Poll in me than I thought. My grandma and I have a lot in common. Just like me, she liked to be involved in so many things. She was on dance decorating committees (which was a big deal back then), she was royalty at many dances, she won several pageants (Miss Weber was her big crowning moment), she was a class officer, she was in the pep club (also a big deal back then), and the list goes on and on. Here's one of my most favorite pictures of her. Isn't she beautiful?!

The party was just as I expected it to be. For 10 plus years we've gone to the same place any time my grandparents have a milestone birthday or anniversary. We rent out a banquet room at a hotel on 12th street. Why? I don't know. The food's gross, it's a terrible place to bring kids, and the scenery is getting pretty old. But my grandma seems to be stuck in her ways and doesn't want to go anywhere else. She says she "knows the people there" :). So I toughed through the grossest helping of potatoes au gratin I've ever had and tried to enjoy it for what I was really there for. We must love our grandma a lot to put up with that place year after year.

Here's the only picture I have from the night of the party. Love those cousins!

My second trip down memory lane was when Matt and I went and played night games with a bunch of adults in the neighborhood/ward. We have some friends that have a 3 acre backyard filled with trees. It felt like we were out camping in the middle of the woods. This was the perfect yard to play in. We played kick the can, steal the flag, and sardines. I had so much fun! It was amazing how all my childhood memories came rushing back to me. We were ALWAYS playing night games. This especially made me think of Travis. He always invited me to come play night games with him and all his friends. My favorite was when we'd go up to the elementary school and play. I remember one time we were up there playing and some police showed up. So we all ran and hid in the toys hoping that they wouldn't see us. Travis took good care of me and hid me in the old huge tires that were there. He said it was okay if he got in trouble, but he didn't want me to. What a good brother!

And my last trip down memory lane was when our family went and had Sunday dinner with the Birt family. Our families have been close way before I was even born. It started when my dad and Nolan were friends, and my mom and Diane were bff's in High School. Ever since then they have remained friends. Especially my mom and Diane. They have been besties ever since I can remember. In fact, they even had their kids at the same time. It's really quite freakish. Each of us are only within a couple of months of each other. (It may be even closer than that). I can picture the two of them squealing with excitement every time they found out they were pregnant at the same time. My friend Shaury and I are actually only 5 days apart. So it was a lot of fun to get together with their family. Unfortunately, that crappy void was there. My mom & Travis would have loved it! There's a lot of memories there between our families.