Filled with regret

So this morning I received my Ensign in the mail, and flipped to an article about using the internet to spread the gospel, and I came across this passage:
"As you participate in this conversation and utilize the tools of new media, remember who you are-Latter day Saints. Remember, as the proverb states, that "a soft answer turneth away wrath: but grevious words stir up anger" (proverbs 15:1) And remember contention is of the devil (see 3 nephi 11:29) There is no need to argue or contend with others regarding our beliefs. There is no need to become defensive or belligerent. Our position is solid; the church is true. We simply need to have a conversation, as friends in the same room would have, always guided by the promptings of the Spirit and constantly remembering the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, which reminds us of how precious are the children of our Father in Heaven. "

After reading that statement, my heart sank. I felt horrible for the things I wrote about in my last post, and I realized I did them primarily out of anger. And I didn't stop to consider her feelings on the situation. Yes, she made me mad, but I think in her heart she was feeling like she was doing us a favor. So I apologize to those who read it, I want our blog to be positive and reflect the kind of people Kory and I are. I hope all will forgive and forget

Thanks
Amy

To read the full article click here

Let there be light!

And a door!

For those of you who have been to our house, you know that if you need to use the bathroom, you can either A) hold it until your bladder explodes or B) Usher everyone out side you can have some privacy.

Well folks, NO more, because as of last night, we have not one but both of our doors hung in our bathroom. I know for all you pregnant ladies this is a huge relief! :)

But it gets better, you also no longer have to walk through our dark bathroom to find the lamp! Because last night we we put our lights in in too! And they look fabulous if I must say so myself. We are getting close, if everything goes smoothly this weekend we are looking at 2 more weeks until its done!

Our Vanity lights! (and paint)
underneath the lights will be a big mirror and then our sink and vanity

Our can light

Now that that's all done, we can put our sub-floor down, and lay the flooring! And say goodbye to our bathroom floor that has not one, but three different types of flooring on it. I guess four if you count the cardboard part. :)Thanks to Kory's parents for coming and hanging the doors, and helping us get the lights up!

Seafood

So last night after my enrichment activity, I came home and Kory told me he was going to make me a Seafood dinner. I hate seafood for the most part, I just can't stand the smell mixed with the texture. But I was very thrilled that he was going out of his way to fix dinner for me. He said he found this awesome recipe and wanted to try it. So I put on my brave face and said a little prayer to myself that I would be able to accept whatever he was making, and tried to be positive, who knows maybe I would like it. (But deep down I was hoping he was teasing me and really had something else planned).

When he put the dinner in front of my I just laughed and laughed! He had made "Sharks" and "Octopus" out of hotdogs, buns, grapes and chips! I couldn't believe it! I was so happy, and was so so sooo relieved it wasn't something else. :)

This is what he made

Please take note of the eyes! And the sharks even had tails!

So this post is to praise my husband, and how funny he is. That is one of the things I cherish the most about him. He is the funniest person I know, and he is always doing things to make me laugh and smile, even after all these years of being together. So thanks babe for filling my life with laughter. PS Don't give it up, you still got it! :)

Update

I need to apologize for my lack of posts this week. I have been super busy with work, swimming lessons, babysitting, and getting ready for enrichment, not to mention grocery shopping, and other household chores. Kory is back from Tennessee and had a really good time. He will post his own post here shortly about all that he did. While he was gone I managed to sand paint and prime the bathroom and clean up all the paint and dust mess. I also spent the weekend with my family going on a 9 mile bike ride, swimming, playing American Idol Karaoke revolution, and the list goes on, but those were my favorites. But I am glad Kory is home, I always miss him so much when he is gone.

CALLING ALL DANCERS and WANNABES:

My neighbor Charity and I are starting a dance group for all those who want to get started dancing again or new dancers. We will be meeting once a week. Also, we will be taking turns among all the dancers teaching and choreographing (only those who want to). We thought this would add variety to the group. We also have some new dancers interested in coming as well, so ANYONE is welcome. We are hoping it will be a very positive experience and just a good time! Spread the word!

The cost will depend on how many people are interested, as we are renting a studio for an hour or two. But it is looking VERY affordable.

If you are interested let me know!

The check out

So I need to vent.

I was at home depot yesterday with my sisters three kids, ages 8, 3, and 2. For the most part they were behaving really well, and I was able to get my paint, and a few other painting materials without much trouble from them. I was impressed with their behavior and was beaming with appraisal for these three what appeared to be angels. Then it happened. We approached the check out and it was as if the gates of hell opened up and turned these three angels into demons. First it started with the 8 year old, Aislynn.
"Amy, Can I have some gum"
"No, not today, I have some in my purse you can have" impressed with my ability to find a great excuse with out having to just be mean.
"Well, is it a whole pack, cause I never get a whole pack."
"No, you can just have a piece, you don't need a pack"
"WHYYYY?...Mady ate my last pack, and I NEVER get a whole pack and its only 98 cents..."
"Aislynn, I said no, you can have a piece of mine thats it."
"Hmmmmf" her arms folded and brow furrowed. I feel like I won the battle, but trust me the war just began.
"Can I have a candy bar then? Just that one? its only 79 cents?" at this point the word candy bar has sparked both Mady, and Nicolas' attention, and Aislynn now has reinforcement.
"Uhh Amy. I want a candy bar. That one, can I have a candy bar" and "I wan some Choc O Lat, I wan some Choc I Lat canny...." on and on, and now its just me against three.
So I say, ok we will get ONE candy bar to share."
"YEAH"Aislynn cheered, feeling victorious for her win, that yes she got what she wanted.
"Candy, candy bar!" maddy yelled, excited that she got to have ANOTHER treat.
I wan some Choc O lat Cannny bar, I wan some Choc O Lat canny bar..." Nicolas repeated over and over again, because he was unaware that he did in fact get a candy bar, but not until we reached the car, a concept he didn't understand.



So I grabbed a Twix bar, because they are the easiest to split, added it to my enormous car cart, that Nicolas HAS to drive in if he sees, and I have to struggle to push it around the store apologizing to everyone for being in the way.

So we walk for what it seems like for a mile AT LEAST, and Finally get to the car. All the while Nicolas is frantically pleading for the candy bar.

"Everyone get in their seats and once you are buckled in you can have your candy bar." I chime, trying to get them to somewhat behave at least once more. Aislynn runs to her seat, Mady climbs into her chair. And Nicolas waits outside the car with his hands open pleading "Ammy I wan some Choc O lat canny bar?!"

So doing what any Mom/nanny or normal human being would do, I pick him up to put him in his seat. Understanding that he doesn't quite get bribery just yet.

And then it happens. He starts to do what any "normal" two year old would do when they patiently waited, and asked for something and didn't get it. SCREAM.

And he screamed and screamed and SCREAMED. Tears streamed down his face, and snot rolled down his nose and into his mouth. Trying to do my best to stay "calm" at this point while he was resisting me putting him into his car seat, by arching his back, was not likely. Two ladies in their 50's were parked next to me, and where starring at me as if to say, what is she doing to that poor baby to make him scream like that! Because they don't know what it's like to have a child exposed to the check out stand, because in their day and age, when kids were bad all it took was "Do you want to go sit in the car?" and that was enough of a threat to make them stop. Now days that is child abuse, and even threatening your child like that in public would send DCS to your door. My parents weren't bad parents, I remember getting that threat a million times.


And so here is my point, I know you are thinking, you have one?
So here is is. I am so bothered that my perfectly good trip to the store was ruined all because of the check out stand. I know its a great way for the grocery store to make money, but honestly at what expense? I know that I am not the only one who suffers when they approach the check out stand. You can avoid the candy aisle, and the toy. But not the check out. Something NEEDS to be done.

So there you have it folks. I said what I needed to say, feel free to share your grocery store
NIGHTMARES!

My new calling

I am now the "Enrichment Leader" of the Provo North Park 3rd ward, (on a side note I found out that use to be called the "Homemaking Leader") and I am feeling somewhat inadequate for this calling. I was pretty surprised that they were calling me to this because my previous calling was a visiting teaching supervisor. Which to me is an important calling yes, but I just didn't like being the one to do it. Especially in our ward because we have a lot of member turnover due to students moving to and from the ward, and companionships are changing all the time. And I was constantly delivering papers to people's houses. So I am excited that I get to have something a little more creative and a little more fun.

My first sort of activity is next Thursday, they asked me to help before they called me, so I am not the one in charge of this one, but I am participating. Wish me luck! Also this week, Kory and I textured our bathroom, and our family room wall. It was messy, but it turned out really nice. Then tonight I put the first coat of primer on it. And my arms I swear were about to fall off when I was done. Tomorrow will be the second coat of primer, and then Saturday I get to PAINT!

Hazel or Brown?

There is an ongoing debate between Kory and some of his siblings (you know who you are). But the other night I looked at Kory and his eyes were strikingly hazel. SO hazel that I HAD to take a picture to prove that while there is some brown in the middle, his eyes are in fact hazel. But what do YOU think?

Gardening

I planted some more flowers in my garden this week. Its nothing spectacular, and I know its a lot of color, but I wanted to add some color to all the green. I planted them far back because we may eventually cut the planter in half. I don't know when that will happen, so to be safe, I planted them back so they wouldn't get hurt if we do...

One more room to decide on

This is what I decided for our kitchen. I love it in my head but does it work in that room?
(Also thanks to ALL of you for your comments on my last post!)
The other option for this room is for a lighter blue instead of the green...but I really want the green and blue kitchen. And the floors hopefully one day wont be that color...

Swatches

Before we got into our house I was so excited to get in and paint the walls! But when we moved in, I just got so overwhelmed and couldn't make up my mind. I finally decided on two colors, but it still stresses me out putting them on my wall, SO I took pictures and did a little photoshop and came up with 4 different designs that I like. So now its just deciding which one to pick....I am posting them on here to get advice, I can't promise I'll pick the one you like but I would love to hear what you all think of them, (It's a little cheesy, but you get the idea right?)

1. RED (gray)

2. GRAY (red)


3. GREEN (gray)

4. GRAY (green)

Bathroom progress

In case you are wondering where we are at in our bathroom remodel. We just finished the 3nd coat of mud, now we just need to sand, texture, prime and PAINT! then we can hook up our lights put in our sub floor, put in our vanity and mirror and then we can FINALLY get rid of our old sink! For those of you who have been to our house, you understand the GREAT need to get rid of the sink. I am really excited, I haven't been feeling too well these past two days because I have a sunburn on my shoulders from lessons, (I forgot or rather neglected to put sun block on and boy am I regretting that) so its been pretty much Kory and his dad doing all the work...but lets be honest, even if I was feeling good I still wouldn't be much help. :)

The family room wall

Kory working on the bathroom

Somewhere over the rainbow!

The other day while doing my dishes, I looked out the window and saw this...

Anxiety

I don't know why I am so nervous, I get like this each year! I am nervous because tomorrow I start my summer 2008 swimming lessons. I think the main reason I am nervous is because of expectation. I am worried that I wont be able to impress the parents as much as I did last year. I get like this every year before the first day. But this year is so much more intense because I have for the most part all returning students, and they all are coming with expectations. My lessons are much different than public pool lessons, and last year kids excelled so much! I hope I can get them even further this year. I put so much into my lessons. More than I think a lot of people realize. I get personally invested into my lessons, and students. I am so glad that so many are coming back, I am excited to see how much they have changed over the year.

But for the most part I am nervous.
I know I wont be able to sleep tonight.