Christmas 2008 Pictures

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Happy Birthday Olivia

It was Olivia's seventeenth birthday today. We had a great dinner with our family and as we like to say "the boyfriends," Travis (Olivia's boyfriend) and David (Erica's boyfriend), sadly Travis had to leave before my German Chocolate cake was finished -this is the reason he is not in the pictures. Olivia requested flank steaks, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, garlic bread.... and the cake. It was fun.

I can't believe Olivia is 17 ! Happy Birthday to my sweet little Lilly.

Homecoming 2008

Olivia went to Homecoming this weekend with her boyfriend Travis. Here are the first pictures.

I had a great idea this morning to also post some of my dance pictures - particularly one picture, but I ran into a few problems. First of all I don't have a scanner. And the biggest problem is I can't find the specific picture I wanted. I found two others - but I specifically wanted to show the picture where I was wearing a "Gunnie Sac" dress (Not sure on the spelling of that) I wanted to do that for a lot of reasons. I thought it would be interesting to compare styles, etc and because in 1980 that dress cost $100.00. Gunnie Sacs were all the rage back then. Incidentally, I was able to get Olivia's dress for $114.00 - It was first priced at $358.00 !!! I got a great deal. But all the credit has to go to Kevin.

At the first part of the month I was in school. So I delegated the job of finding Olivia a prom dress to Kevin. We had received an ad that a local dress shop (located in a lady's basement) was having a HUGE sale. This woman however had been gone on a sales trip and her shop had been closed for about a week and a half. The sale was to start when she returned. I told Kevin and Olivia that they needed to get down to the shop the day she returned.

To my great surprise Kevin and Olivia actually arrived about 30 minutes before the shop opened (This NEVER happens, being early that is) The shop owner is also a school teacher and she pulled into her driveway about the same time Kevin and Olivia. She let them in early!!! This gave them time to look over all the sale items before everyone else. At 4:30 (opening time) the shop filled with girls and moms. Olivia was already in the dress - and had her name on it. One of the reasons that the price was going to be so low, was because this dress was going to be rented out a few weeks before Olivia's dance. We got a call the next week saying the girl never picked up the dress - and the owner told us she was still giving us the 70% discount!!!

It was a great deal and Kevin did a great job. I was proud. He was the only dad in the place - He is awesome.

Olivia had a great time. She went with four other couples. They ate at Thaifoon at the Gateway in Salt Lake City and went to someones house after for ice cream and to watch movies. We really like Travis. He is very respectful, caring and very nice to Olivia. And Olivia looked so beautiful!!! As you can see. Travis was speechless.

Now that I have actually posted, I need to find that picture and this pretty much means I need to clean and go through everything in my basement. And that could take months. Please wish me luck. (I hate it when I lose things ) It puts me in a state!!!! (it's very scary)

My Handyman

First of all - it's been a month since I posted!!!! Wow and a lot has happened. I still have lots of things to write about my trip - its just the 1490 pictures I took that are holding me up. "Give me time - just give me time" If anyone knows what movie that quote is from - you are a true movie soul mate. Anyone have any guesses????


So on to this post. I thought this picture was great. Kevin is the ultimate handyman. He can do anything with - what he has - or doesn't have. In this case transporting A LOT of 2 x 4's without a truck. I'm just glad he did not get pulled over, or hit some one with the wood sticking out of the window.

This picture was about two weeks ago. Kevin now has the basement framed and wired. We are ready to sheetrock. YEAH

Post from Paris

Hi all

Thanks for the comments . Paris is unbelievable everything is so grand and magnificent. I cant type much here because the keyboard is different and its driving me crazy. I went to the louvre today and had a chocolate crossaint ITS AWESOME HERE

Post from POLAND

Hi all -

Well as you can see. I am posting from Poland. And now that I have finallly gotten in - everyone wants to leave this bar/restaurant/internet place. We are in the country - it is very rural, pastoral, quaint, etc, etc, etc. Yesterday we saw a man in his field with a sickle. I felt like I was in a Thomas Hardy novel - It was a dream come true for me.

Today we went to Hitler's bunker - in a place named "Wolf's Lair" Hitler had it built towards the end of the war and stayed there for a short time. Afterwhich he returned to Berlin - married his mistress and committed suicide. It was very interesting. And not to far - 19 kilometers from where my mother lived. She was living there when he was at this place. Today we saw where my grandfather and grandmother grew up - we have seen the first LDS church built in Poland / Europe ( it was in my mother's town) Zelwagi - or Selbongen the second name is in German the first in Polish. I wish I had time to attach some pictures - I think I have taken at least 700 - and I have about 500 more to go. Are you all excited for the slide show - ha ha

To all my family and friends I miss you and I have LOTS of stories to tell.

See you all later

Five Things... tag

My friend Amy had this tag on her blog - I'm really not sure how to tag other people or ??? But I like to read these things. If you want to comment please do - and let me know if you do this tag on your blog.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Raising my three daughters - back then they were 8, 6, and 4. (I miss those days)
2. Enjoying being a stay at home mom. (This was before Kevin's accident - a major life changing event.
3. My husband and I were building our first home - we're still in it.
4. Going to aerobics five to six days a week - (I had time back then)
5. Spending time with my parents at thier house - they were married back then.

5 Things on my "To Do" list:
1. Pack for my trip to Europe. I'm starting on Saturday.
2. Clean my house.
3. Visit my granmother - "Omi"
4. Spend time with my lovely daughters and my fun, cute husband (before I leave)
5. See Mama Mia for the third time - YEAH :)

5 Places I've lived:
1. Logan, Utah
2. Ft. Jackson, South Carolina - Army Basic
3. Ft. Sam Houston, Texas - Army Training
4. Albuquerque, New Mexico
5. Layton, Utah

5 Bad Habits:
1. Diet coke and caffiene in any form.
2. Watching too much reality TV.
3. Eating too much sugar.
4. Eating too much of anything.
5. Stressing out when I am in school. Okay just stressing out in general.


5 Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Build, furnish, and pay off my dream house.
2. Travel.
3. Help my family with debt.
4. Start an organization that would help people when they lose thier jobs.
5. Be Santa to those in need at Christmas Time.

5 Favorite foods/snacks:
1. Indian food - especially "Chicken Tiki Masala"
2. Thai food - especially "Chicken Panag"
3. Ice cream - (I love Cold Stone)
4. Chocolate Chip cookies.
5. Pumpkin Cake.