Say Bye-Bye to 2008 (can you tell I hang out with my son wayyyy too much?)

2008 held alot of ups and downs and I'm ready to kiss it good-bye and start fresh in 2009. After Christmas I kind of forgot that it was still 2008, I was already in the new year mode..haha..I guess that's because I haven't really celebrated New Years Eve in about 5 years. The first year Mark and I were together, well I should say within the first few days of us being together we were ringing in the New Year, sort of, he had to work that night at the bar he was a bouncer for, so I got all prettied up and perched on a bar stool until he got off :), we were a whole 9 days into our relationship..I was devoted :)..After that I don't think we ever really did anything for New Years..Oh well, not a big deal to me, the holidays are over and a fresh start is just what this family needs :).

I decided not to do any resolutions this year, it's sort of a waste to me because I never stick to them, I do however have goals :) (not the same thing, I don't care what you say!). I will be starting school in 11 days! I have already started my healthy eating habits and since I have the Wii Fit to kick my booty I've already started my weight loss goal! So THERE! Hehehe..

I don't know about you, but I always feel a teeny tiny bit of hope at the start of a new year, it's as though there are a million possibilities ahead. I don't regret or feel that I wasted any of the last year and that is a great feeling :). I'm so proud of my boy for all the things he's learned and continues to learn. My daughter also accomplished a great deal this past year and is turning into quite the young lady! My husband got a promotion and finally loves his job and all before he'd been there a year! I learned how to be more patient and take one day at a time. I also learned how to breathe, I didn't know before that I wasn't...

Ok I'm done rambling about 2008 :) Happy New Year my family and friends! See ya next year..ba da bum bum..hehe...

Inspirational Tuesday

I was watching GMA this morning and saw a really great story/interview at the end about Dana Canedy, she is a senior editor at the New York Times, where she has been a journalist for twelve years. In 2001, she was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for "How Race Is Lived in America," a series on race relations in the United States. She is also the author of A Journal for Jordan which is a beautiful and tender introduction, a loving good-bye, a reporter’s inquiry into her soldier’s life, and a heartrending reminder of the human cost of war.

The reason this story inspired me is because it is a Father's words to his only son about life, love, and faith. This father kept a journal while fighting in Iraq and when his son turned 6 months old, he finished it, shortly thereafter he was killed while fighting. *Thats the short explanation*

It is a book that I will keep for my son as its message is one that I feel will guide him throughout his life's journey, as well as helping to guide mine.

There are many books out there have inspired me or helped to guide me, the one above is just the most recent. Another that I think everyone should read is The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch or at least (click on his name) watch the Video of him speaking!

I also love the Chicken Soup For the Soul series, there are some that are just really uplifting. There are others in the series that tend to make me a little sad, but there's always a good moral to it :).

So why am I doing Inspirational Tuesday? Well, I guess because I wanted to be different..lol..and every now and then I feel the need to put as much positivity out there as I can, it's more for me than anything, putting it out here means I have a place to come back too when I need a little uplifting. Anywho, I hope you enjoy my little list and take a moment to reflect on what inspires you :)

Stealing..for a good cause

My wonderful best friend sent me the sweetest email today along with a Youtube video and in the spirit of sharing I am stealing/borrowing her sentiment because I feel the same way about all of the wonderful women I have in my life, new friends and old ones alike. So in honor of True Friendship of all us gals please take a few minutes to view this beautiful video...I couldn't have said it better myself :)

Lots of love to all of you!!

A Better Place and The Twilight Movie

My brain seems to be in a better place today, I was reading some of my last posts and they have been on the somewhat bleak side, sorry about that. I am happy today, I went to the movies last night for the first time since living here in AZ with another person, my friend/tattoo artist! It was my first girls night out in months, and the other girls night outtings had all required me to travel to Las Vegas, don't get me wrong I LOVE GOING HOME to see my friends and family, but it gets a little expensive to drive that far just for a few hours of fun..lol..What movie did we see, you may be asking? TWILIGHT, yes I surrendered to the part of me that just had to see EDWARD CULLEN (Robert Pattinson) on the big screen. So, did I like it? **Warning- BIG SPOILERS TO COME, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW STOP READIN HERE**

Here is what I did like about it:

1.Robert Pattinson and Robert Pattinson

2.The super hilarious scenes, i.e. Bella falling (reminded me of myself), Bella "dancing" with Edward with a cast on (he was supposed to be dancing the both of them ya know her feet on top of his, but she's in a cast and poor Robert pattinson just looked awkward)

3.Robert Pattinson dipped in Glitter/Diamonds

4.The scenery-I'm seriously contemplating moving to where they shot this movie, it's THAT beautiful

5.James. Laurent and Victoria- they were portrayed beautifully.

6. Bella's truck

Here is what I didn't like:

1. Kristen Stewarts performance as Bella, she really didn't capture my attention the way she should have and her chemistry with Edward Cullen was BLAH, there was no passion AT ALL from her. Any emtoion she was supposed to portray just fell flat, even at the end when she was begging Edward not to leave her, her supposed to be hysteria was not even Tantrum material.

2. The boy who played Jasper was HORRENDOUS! His face throughout the whole movie had my in hysterics, he looked CONSTIPATED, seriously it was so bad I wanted to give him an Ex-Lax to help him relax.

3. The girl that played Rosalie-Ummmmmmmmm, so not pretty. I mean according to the books Rosalie is supposed to be a KNOCK OUT, this girl was anything but, Bella is supposed to be plain compared to her, well Kristen outshined her for sure.

4. Carlisle- yea, NO...it was all wrong.

5. I liked Emmett, but he should have been bigger :)

6. Hated Robert Pattinson's face he made when Bella walks into the classroom for the first time, he looked like he was going to vomit, he even put his hand over his mouth and made his eyes bulge, he needed a trash can.

7.Hated his facial expressions when he was trying to hard to have emotion

8.The so-called super speed, frankly it could have been done ALOT better

9.All the plot lines that were NOT IN THE BOOK, that is what frustrated me the most, they deviated from the book SOOOOOOO much that I was at one point confused because they would use dialog from the book but it didn't correspond with what was going on.

10. The boy who plays Jacob Black looked like he was wearing a really BAD WIG, that was also very distracting.

I could keep going, but replaying it my mind is upsetting me..lol..Here's the thing, I did enjoy myself in spite of all the screw ups, I feel bad for the Author, did she not have any say at all at how her book would be portrayed on the Big Screen? I know also that they had a very low budget to work with so maybe that was why they did what they did and also when it comes to books turned movie I tend to be a snob, BUT I really feel that they didn't do the story justice and I hope with all of my heart that the second one is done much better.

So there is my official review of Twilight-The Movie, my review of the books is THEY ARE UNREAL (in a really good way!). I am reading them for the second time and I love how it takes me to another place.

Today is also my mom's birthday (or would have been), I am actually ok, I know she's in a better place and is more than likely hanging out with Jerry Garcia! I'm jealous! :) I am also doing a countdown to when my best friend is coming to visit which is in 6 DAYS!! Woohoo! Ok off to be productive before Mark leaves me for being a bad wife..hehe...Happy Sunday! And Happy Birthday MOM! I miss you and I love you! Tell dad, grandmas and grandpas hi for me :)

I LOVE COFFEE..Yes I do! Don't You? What about Hot Chocolate?

So over at Lovely SITS a really great, totally awesome, completely mind blowing, fantastically and magically delicious GIVE-A-WAY is happening RIGHT NOW to Win a Keurig Platinum Brewing System and $50 worth of K-cups. My suggestion if you happen to LOVE coffee, tea or Hot chocolate is GET over there right now, join the SITS movement and try to win this beautiful coffee, tea or hot chocolate making machine.....Look how pretty it is...

Not only is the magical machine perfect, it has some really yummy coffee, tea and hot chocolate brands such as...

So do yourself a favor and go over to SITS and enter to win!! You might get lucky!!

Did I miss it?

Christmas went well this year, having my uncle here was so fun for not just me, but my husband and son enjoyed him as well. The best part for me this year was Nathen's face when he woke up Christmas morning and saw all the presents under the tree, he was so excited and just exuberant, his little eyes twinkled and I wished at that moment that I could bottle that feeling and save it for later. We opened presents and watched the Disney Christmas parade (which I had never seen before) and it was so beautiful, makes me want to go to Disney World now for Christmas. There was a performance by David Cook during the parade that brought me to tears and made me miss my family and mom and grandma so much I almost couldn't breathe, so instead of dwelling on the pain I let his voice take me away...This video is from his performance at the Rockefeller Center




I asked the question "Did I miss it?" because I feel as though part of me hasn't been present for the Holiday season this year, I feel a bit guilty because I was dreading so much the emotions that this time of year brings up in me, that I feel as though I shut down for about 90% of it, I didn't grasp the full Christmas spirit until yesterday, and I knew by then it was too late. I did my best and I am happy that my son enjoyed himself, I can't wait til he can actually understand the meaning of the Holidays and not just presents. So, I hope that all of you enjoyed yourselves and that the coming new year will bring us some peace and happiness :)

Merry Christmas

I am going on a blogging hiatus for a few days, my Uncle is coming to town so I have to be entertaining :). I just wanted to wish all of my bloggyland friends a very Merry Christmas!! *so far we are kicking the cold's out of the house and Nate is no longer running away from me, he is now trying to wipe MY nose* Merry Christmas again!!

Some of my favorite Christmas songs courtesy of You Tube..




Josh Groban...



Rudolph

Snotty Sunday

The Bush family is currently battling the beast of snot. Noses are running and trying to stop from being attacked by the MOM WITH A TISSUE! How can so much grossness come from one so small?? I am praying that we will all be healthy again in time for Christmas, I don't want to have to change the words from "I'm dreaming of a Whie Christmas", to "I'm living a GREEN Christmas"...UGH! And not the environmental GREEN either (gross..gag..gross) I'm sure you all wanted to know about this too, which is why I felt the need to share the small details of my Snotty Sunday :)

*How do you make a tissue dance?*
**Put a little boogie in it!**

Yes, I am sleep deprived and am losing my mind. Stay tuned maybe I'll say something funny tomorrow. Or maybe I'll get sleep and the snot will go away..oh that would be nice! *Fingers crossed*

Enjoy all of your not snotty sunday, is it weird that I giggle every time I write snotty sunday...wow I am sick....

I'm a WINNER and Now go Enter this fabulous GIVEAWAY!

I never win anything until TODAY! I won a $25 gift card today just for following a great blog! My prize supplier is Kalei at Bloggedy Blog Blog , she is also the Rambler's sister :). She has a really great blog so please stop by and say hello and become a follower!! Thanks Kalei!!! :) Woohoo!!!

Ok so since I won something today I'm trying my luck with this great giveaway that my bloggyland friend Sandy has recommended, so go check out POOBA for your chance to WIN THIS....

An Award and why I'm a stinker :)

First of all I have to give a big GIANT thank you to Janna over at Janana Bee, on Dec. 17th, she gave me an awesome award on her blog and it gave me the warm fuzzies and I feel blessed to have her has a bloggyland friend :) Please go check out her blog..she's a great writer and makes me laugh everyday! :)

The award states "This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I have met some really amazing ladies and gents through the blogging world and they all bring something different to the table and they all give me something to look forward on a daily basis. I have always been of the mind set that everyone that comes into your life does so for a reason and that there are no such thing as coincidences or accidents, I believe with all my heart that the Man Upstairs is in his own way showing me that it's ok to come out of my shell and make friends, even if most of them live far away or are just through this vehicle of the internet, I am becoming comfortable once again with who I am and even better I'm being accepted for who I am :) So while I am supposed to choose my 8 favorites, please know that I pass this award out to all that take the time out their day to stop by and learn more about me and my craziness and family :)

The 8 that I'm choosing today are....

1. Georgie at Decisionally Challenged

2. AngelJoy at Hippy Chick

3. Randy and Angie at Psycho Hairapy & Running With Scissors

4. Sandy at The Adams Family & Just For Fun

5. Young Momma at Perfect Pen & Kim's Keepings

6. The Rambler at My Rambling Thoughts

Ok so I'm stopping here because I am getting stuck, I can't choose anymore, it's too torturous! There are so many blogs that I read that I love just consider My Daily Reads list as everyone on their getting an award!! Ok now that thats done I will share with you all why I AM A STINKER!

Monday- going about my business, not doing anything out of the ordinary, checking the bank account since I have to do it every other day out of fear and paranoia (I had my debit card NUMBER stolen about a month ago and someone racked up 200 bucks in charges) so while I'm doing this WHAT DO I FIND.....a pretty large charge on our Credit Card (I am immediately in panic mode thinking the worst), anyway I see the charge is for a plane ticket...still worried, but now very suspicious, I start thinking maybe my husband is going somewhere or sending me somewhere and so I send my BFF in Vegas a text message asking if she might know anything and of course she says no. I call my cousin, ask if she knows anything, she says no....So against the advice of my BFF I call my husband and ASK him if he bought a plane ticket (because I suck and hate surprises) and of course he lets out this giant groan and sounds all disappointed, because YES I HAD RUINED my Christmas surprise, the wonderful man that he is (most of the time..hehe) is SENDING MY BFF (the one who claimed to not know anything..she's good let me tell ya! and by the way SHE LOVES TO TORTURE ME!!) to STAY WITH US FOR 4 DAYS!!! I'm so beyond excited!! Anyway, so I'm a stinker because I should have just not said anything..but I can't help myself...hehehe.. Well that's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it! So, in case you ever want to surprise me, please don't tell me about it or use a shared bank account with me :) (Love ya babe..THANKS again for the wonderful gift!!)

Yesterday

I turned 30, it was a good day! It snowed in my home town of Las Vegas, NV and I was homesick for a better part of the day, but I got through the Birthday that I had been dreading with happy times and bittersweet moments. Having lost my mom only a few months ago a part of me kept waiting for the "Happy Birthday" call all day, knowing though in my head it wouldn't come, my heart though kept skipping a beat every time my cell wrang...I wonder if that will ever go away? My husband gave me some great gifts and I got lots of presents and birthday wishes from my friends and family and my bloggy friends too, that are all so far away. Thank you for everything all of you, you made my day special and it means alot. :)

These shoes were my present to myself..and BONUS they were on sale :)

Bye Bye 20's...

Today is my official last day as a 20-something.....WAHHHHHH....This thought occured to me while I was driving today, the feeling of holy cow I have to grow up now because HELLO I'm going to be THIRTY 3-0 tomorrow! I can't believe how fast time flies....I mean seriously I feel like I just barely graduated High School and now I'm realizing that with my gray hairs, my achey bones when its rainy, my inability to eat a whole medium pizza to myself and not gain weight are all indicators that I am no longer in my care-free youth. Did I spend my time wisely? I really learned ALOT on my journey to 30, enough to last the next 30 years that's for sure! I wrote a blog on my myspace a few months ago and it still applies to how I'm feeling right this moment so I will share with you what I wrote :)...

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

So I'm turning 30 this year, I'm not alone in this some of my best friends are already 30 or are turning the BIG 30 before me, I have been thinking about this magic number recently and its causing me to start reflecting on my life and ask alot of questions. There are milestones in everyones life, turning 10 you're officially into the double digit age, turning 13 you're officially ateenager, turning 15 getting your learners permit and 16 getting a drivers license (if you're lucky) and then 18 you're a so-called "adult" and then 21 you can finally have a drink of alcohol legally, although most people I know started that way before the legal age..lol..and now the glorious age of 30, where now maybe you'll get taken a bit more seriously because you're no longer a twenty-something.

For the last few years I have had this sense of dread about turning 30, its halfway to 60, I'm starting to get wrinkles, I have a few gray hairs (no matter how many times I dye it they keep COMING back!), my boobs are not where they used to be, not they are at my knees or anything, they just aren't at the perky 18/19/20 year old stage anymore (so I will be getting a BOOB job!), I have a little extra baggage around the hips and butt and thighs and arms and face and well everywhere! I am ok with my flaws, well some of them, the ones I'm not ok with I am working on fixing, however,as much as this process can be daunting getting older is actually kind of fun some days, I look at the new generation and think back to the age of 15 and realize that I think we had it alot easier than the kids do now.

I used to wish all the time that I could go back, maybe do things differently, well somethings anyway, but now I am content to just look at today and try really hard not to worry about tomorrow or 30 years from now, there's a part of me that wonders what I'll be like, I can only hope that I'll still be me only wiser. It's kind of a strange feeling knowing that yes I will always have things to learn, but the milestones of life now belong to my children, I now get to watch my daughter reach her double digits next year and well Nate is still just LEARNING everything, everyday so I have that to look forward to, but as for me growing as a person, it feels like all I get to do is become one more year older and thats it.

Like I said though I know that there are still many lessons to be learned and many mistakes to be made, I just hope they are really small :).
So, the things I have learned on my journey to 30....

1. Keep your friends close no matter what, one day they may be all you've got.
2. Know your priorities and keep them straight.
3. Forgiveness...learn it..live it...love it...Forgetting, well just know that no one does unless they have alzheimers, so what you do to people and what they do to you will remain..
4. Love, still trying to figure this out, I thought I knew about a million times but somehow my "ideas" about it keep on changing...so I keep on learning
5. People will always disappoint you, its a fact of life.
6. Trust is earned and not given
7. Time heals ALL wounds, as long as you let it, if you keep picking and picking and picking you'll continue to bleed..so let it heal.
8. Faith, gotta have it even if you don't believe sometimes it just sneaks up on you..
9. Integrity, I never knew what it meant until now, its something I want to continue to have and never let go of.
10. Laughter can cure any ailment, seriously.... :)

So thats my top ten lessons for now, I'm sure I'll add more. Thanks for reading and I hope for you a wonderful journey through life, full of love and laughs and mistakes and lessons....

Christmas Pictures??? Yea..not so much

(Insert Family Here)
Did you know that trying to get a 2 year old to take a picture with the family is nearly impossible? I tried everything I could think of to get him to sit with us or even on his own in his cute little hat and funny Dear Santa shirt, but no, he just cried and screamed and yelled and threw himself on the floor, he would rather be the one TAKING the picture. Go figure. So this year the Christmas picture will be of Mark with Pudge. I am not including a picture of myself because I am fat, I have eaten too many of my chocolate chip cookies and Nate's birthday cake and now I need to lose 40 pounds! So I will be exercising on the Wii Fit for my birthday and wishing I could eat a Cold Stone Creamery Cake (drooling right now thinking about it!)....So anyhow, if you're on our Christmas Card list try not to be too disappointed maybe next year when Nate is 3 and not hell bent on being naughty, he'll join us! :)

Kim's Keepings GIVE-AWAY!!

One of my bloggy world friends is doing a really awesome give-away from her blog Kim's Keepings, she makes these awesome Book Bands, that are way better than book marks, which for me always fall out because well since I'm clutzy I drop my books 95% of the time thus loosing my place, so a book band would work for me :) And for all the other book worms I know! So go check her out HERE and sign up for the give away!

The Blog Frog!

So I learned about this from Little Bites of Heaven and decided to give it a try. It's an interesting site so far, some neat widgets to add to my overly crowded sidebar! I can't wait to change my blog around..any suggestions?? :) Anywho, go check out and sign up for free and YOU could win a $200 Target Gift Card!! Unless of course I win, then maybe I'll buy you a present with it ;)

7 Weird Things

Thanks to the The Rambler I have been asked to write 7 weird things about myself, well I'm not going to do this alone, so I have enlisted my hubs Mark to do 7 weird things about himself! *As soon as I asked him to do this his very first answer was and I quote "Marrying You!! Hahahahaha" Sometimes he thinks he's the funniest person alive...me not sooo much ( I love you babe...hehehehe)..So without further ado....7 Weird Things...

7. I am a clutz, I'm talking can't walk in a straight line down a sidewalk without finding a way to fall off of it and potentially disable myself or someone else type of clutz.

6. I like peanut butter and pickle sandwiches and no I am not pregnant.

5. I used to sleep with my socks half on, so that just my toes were covered. Yea, that's a little bizarre...

4. I'm afraid of the dark. Always have been and it seems I always will be.

3. I love getting tattooed, I love the pain of the needle- it helps clear my mind, I know thats really weird right? I can't help it though, once the work is done its like I'm a walking piece of art (I have a huge back piece that is comprised of all Amy Brown artwork) and I also have a butterfly on my left arm with two roses and both of my big toes are tattooed the left with a frog and the right with a moon and 2 stars and the top of my left foot has the word LOVE just as it was written on the cover of the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elisabeth Gilbert.

2. I am obsessed with the Twilght Series, I am reading it AGAIN for the second time. Also just can't help it...

1. I love to faux shop online, what is this you might ask? Well, it's kind of like window shopping, I basically go to all my favorite stores online and I look at all the clothes, accessories and shoes that I would love to have and I put them in the shopping cart and then I just don't checkout, I look at the total at the end of my spree and see how much I spent if I had all the money in the world :)

Mark's 7 Weird Things...

Apparently there's only one....

He Married ME!

Oh yeah and for those reading this...TAG YOU'RE IT!! Hehehe :P I also like to "hehehehe" and "LOL" alot..is that weird??

Happy Birthday Nate!

Two years ago today a sweet little man was born at 10:30 pm, he was brought into the world with the help of my husband, my very best friend Marylin ( his aunt ) and his grandma ( my mom..RIP). It was a super easy delivery after a very hard pregnancy. I remember that day clear as a bell, it was ( next to the day my daughter was born and my wedding day) one of the happiest days of my life. He is more than a blessing. Today he is 2, on the night he was born I remember watching Monday Night Football and the Chicago Bears were playing, well as fate would have it the Chicago Bears are playing tonight too, and BOY OH BOY does Nate LOVE football, if he could watch it 24 hours a day he would! He is my best friend, as much as a 2 year old can be, but I understand him (most of the time) and I really feel like he gets me (most of the time). It's funny to say he's my best friend, but he just is! He's had a great day today, he helped me make his cake ( by licking the beaters ) and he got some fun presents. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Bush and Auntie Charmaine and Uncle Harry and cousins Lance and Courtney for the cards and Birthday wishes :). Here are few pics to enjoy...

Now that's how you eat cake!

Who me? Freak out? Never....

The joys of having a 2 year old are endless, he's my little cuddle bug as well as a prize fighter, well almost prize fighter :). Today was one of those days that started out pretty normal, woke up at 8 am, made my giant pot of coffee, made him eggs, and checked my blog and my bloggy friends blogs :) and found some new blogs that I really like..They're on the Daily Reads list..

Anywho, morning passed to afternoon again without anything going on, out of the ordinary that is, which should have clued me in..No freak outs yet, no breaking up of any fights between Pudge (our sweet American Bulldog) and Nate, but something was brewing...I could feel it!

So, around 1:30 pm I'm chatting on the phone with one of my friends in Vegas and Nate is running wild on a sugar high ( I made chocolate chip cookies from scratch and he's addicted) and next thing I know Nate is standing next to me and I hear "crunch, crunch" coming from his mouth, well I hadn't given him any food and there was no way he would eat the dog food and then all of a sudden I spy something silver shining around his lips...I immediately hang up on my poor friend and grab Nate's mouth and yank it open and what do I find?! PART OF A FREAKIN GLASS ORNAMENT!
So mom brain took over.. I grab him- lay him down on the ground- and proceed to shove my fingers into his mouth while dialing his pediatricians office and cursing at the stupid automated voice asking me to push numbers! Don't they understand I have a real emergency here?! Poor Nate is looking at me with huge eyes that are about to pop out of his head and crying and gagging and I'm about to cry and gag too, I managed to get some of the pieces out of his mouth, but he definitely swallowed some of it. In the mean time I have spoken to the nurse and she's trying to get me to calm down, apparently this happens all the time, NOT TO ME, but I didn't say that, I just answered her questions and made sure Nate wasn't bleeding. After all was said and done, I was instructed to have him rinse and spit with water to make sure there were no cuts and now I just get to wait til it "passes" through his little body. I swear I will never have glass ornaments ever again! And I really need to learn how to calm down, any tips?? By the way this all happened in the span of 3 minutes! It seriously felt like I was in slow motion though...My mom brain has let me relax and I'm going to go take a book/nap break :) Does anyone else freak out? Or am I just a crazy overprotective/reacting parent? :)

The Closet of Me

I decided over the weekend that I would FINALLY clean the closet, Mark was so happy, not happy enough in my opinion..I mean really he should have danced the jig or something! Or bought me a present..hehe..anyway, so I am going through all the boxes, all the tubs, all the clothes....etc..etc..etc..I even cleaned UNDER our bed! Unheard of for me..I'm seriously the worst pack rat ever, but I have gotten much better in my old age :) While on my quest to be more organized and clean, I came across some "stuff" that made me go OMG and awww..I remember when I was that skinny...and WTF was I thinking keeping THAT...in going through this process I came to the conclusion that I might have MPD (multiple personality disorder) or I have just had alot of "versions" of myself....hehe..Scared yet? Don't be! I'm harmless, its the other ME's that have been in my closet that you should be afraid of!



I am the girl that apparently never throws anything away, clothing, make-up, paper, bags, shoes..My rational is that I might actually wear the clothes again one day, what- I used to be a size 6, it could happen again..if I stopped eating! The lots of paper,well maybe I will be a Hamster one day and need it for the bottom of my cage..I don't really know why I do this, but I do, some of the stuff I found was seriously like 10 years old, from my HIGH SCHOOL/College days...I found a note that was passed in my History 101 course, between me and some boy about a rental car and niglets ( I mean really? I needed that for the last 10 years why?) *by the way it was the boy who brought up niglets, according to him they are little ethipoian or african babies..and now I can't remember because I finally threw the stupid thing away! Apparently I used to think it was funny. I also found my report cards, I used to be pretty smart! I now suffer from mommyhood amnesia, it makes you forget everything that you knew before you became a mom.

So, now that I'm a mom and wife, its fun to look back and reminisce about being well not a mom or wife..not always single..hehe..I figured out that I have completely different versions of my outside self, I have always been pretty much me on the inside (except for the brain dead stage when I was teenager).

First version- The "I thought I was a model for a minute"- I was actually a model for a whole minute and then I woke up and changed my mind. But the evidence is still there, I found a few proofs from my first photo shoots..I was 18...I was skinny!

Second version- The "I think I need to shop only at Buffalo Exchange"- for those that don't know, that's a now super expensive "Vintage" shop, that only takes name brand items these days, I used to go there for everything, jeans (which I still own, but can't wear), tops (also still own, but can't wear), shoes and bags. I have all those things tucked away in a storage bin, out of sight out of mind, but still part of me.

Third version- The- "I thought/think I am a hippie"- So this one I still am, I am still the patchouli wearing, tye dye shirt having, Grateful Dead listening, GIVE PEACE A CHANCE screaming hippychic, only more subdued :).

Fourth Version- The "I am a badass biker momma"- Ok so I was this girl for a little while when Mark had a Harley, I still have her in me as well, something about Harley's and Leather and wind in your face and the feeling of flying when you're on a bike, however I can't fit into those clothes anymore either, so they are also thrown into the bin.

The version I am now- "I am a mom and a wife and a blogger and student (again)"- My clothing reflects who I am now, I shop at Kohl's and Target (tar-jay) and Walmart and I no longer care about brands or vintage, or being a badass (even though I am..hehe). I am just Me and I like who I am, I like where I am in life and I REALLY like that I can see the floor in my closet!

5 Things I heart :) and my first sort of award

So I was perusing my bloggy friends yesterday and The Scattered Mind of a Tattooed Minivan Mom was giving away an award for her first 5 commenters and also tagging them to list things they heart (love), so I was lucky number 5 and am going to tag/award my fave people so...here we go...

ALL OF YOU!!! Hehehe..I know what a cop out right? BUT I really do feel that way and since I plugged my bloggy faves yesterday then go check those out and my Daily Reads list :) So whoever decides to take my award and "run with it" is free to do so, you are ALL deserving! So, now on to the things that I Heart!

1. Friends and Family....that is a no brainer!

2. Laughter in my house, this is mostly because of Nate, however Mark is known to say or do some funny stuff every now and then and I also give myself comedic relief because of how clutsy I am, always stubbing a toe or kicking the never used Eliptical machine, I'm really surprised I'm still walking somewhat normally! Hehe!!

3. COFFEE...Not just any coffee though, I am a Starbucks junkie! I have to have an Iced Grande or Venti (depending how much sleep I've had) Vanilla- No Whip- Mocha! And at Christmas time I LOVE the Peppermint Mocha or Peppermint Hot Chocolate :)

4. Candles...I love Yankee Candles, almost all the Christmas Scents are my favorites, but there are others I burn all year round, like Vanilla, and Black Cherry, and Mango Salsa Orchard Pear...sooo yummy!

5. The Twilight Saga! Yay for Edward Cullen!! Hehehe..I'm such a fan of these books, I didn't WANT to jump on the bandwagon at first, but I'm really glad I did :) I'm reading them all again..I know I'm a nerd, but I can't help it!

So whoever wants to take the Award and list the things You Heart go for it! Just remember who LOVES YOU!! :)...ME!

My boy sure can make me laugh

Grandma and Grandpa Bush sent Nate a really cute musical Christmas Card and as promised we caught him on camera opening it :)*please do not listen to my voice I wish I didn't sound like I was 5*

Also in the box of goodies was mark's old football jersey from high school and Nate loves it :)

Nate also LOVES bread, he's a carboholic just like his mommy...Yesterday I was reading my favorite blogs, Janana Bee, The Rambler, my best friend Marylin, and CGGB (I have alot more that I read, but I would be here forever listing them all, so those are my top 4 that I follow every single day ) and now that I have shamelessly plugged blogs for my bloggy friends I will get back to my story about Nate and Bread...hehe..while I was reading he was in the kitchen, nothing new, he usually runs from the kitchen to the living room and down the hall and back again, over and over and every now and then he'll pause to show me something, well...while I wasn't looking he decided to empty the bread bag and eat it all! That's no sandwich, it's just bread...hahaha...

Please don't look at the rug (and I know you will now) I washed it yesterday after I saw this picture....I don't notice stuff like this and I should..I'm horrible! Anywho, there are so many more things I could post that Nate does that he does just to make me laugh, he is my little jokester and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! He really does crack me up everyday..even when he's bein naughty...How do you get mad at a face like his? I know I know I'm a sap!

More than I could hope for

I dedicate this post to my extremely wonderfully generous mother and father in law. We received the boxes of goodies today and I must say as I opened the box, I thought for sure Santa Claus had been here. (He delievers early via UPS and again wonderful parents :).) Times are tough every where this year and we are no exception, we make do with what we have and this Christmas our focus has been on Nathen and Elissa, the only thing I wanted was the Wii Fit :) and so that was our deal, get the Wii Fit and then all the extra funds were for the kids. I was not expecting to have presents under the tree for Mark or myself this year, and I didn't mind that, but now WE have presents too! I will be good and not shake them I promise :).
In all seriousness though, I am not doing my emotions justice with what I'm writing, honestly it's really hard to put into words the amount of Love and Gratitude I feel for my family that is in Michigan. It's like they saved Christmas :) So while I can still see the screen I'll end my post here (yes, I ama big old bawl baby when I'm overcome with emotions..so what?!) Thank you Mom and Dad Bush with all of my heart, you'll never know just how much this means to me...

The Christmas Spirit

Santa Biker in training :)

Merry Christmas!!

It's no secret that I have been struggling this year and now that the holiday season is upon us, I am doing what I can to hold onto the Christmas spirit as tightly as possible, this is my favorite time of year and I'm going to keep it that way :). So, over the weekend we put up the tree and got Nate a Santa hat. The hat is too cute, we walked around Walmart with it on his head before buying it and sooo many people kept saying "awww...look at the baby...and how cute!" He did a good job of spreading some cheer that day :). The tree has not been so lucky, unfortunately Nate would rather use the ornaments as baseballs and throw them all, so only the top half of the tree has decoartions and even those are few...Oh well, maybe next year :)

Top half of the tree

Bottom of the tree...even the garland is gone now...lol..

The Secret is in the Sauce: Merry SITSmas!

The Secret is in the Sauce: Merry SITSmas!

Merry SITSMAS! :)

Thanks to the Rambler for introducing me to the SITS-Mas blog :) If you are not familiar with this blog, go check it out its the really pretty link right off to the right -------> its pink with leopard print :) ------>
In an effort to get into the Christmas spirit I am sending all my readers and future readers to this Blog because it really just makes you want to stand up and SHOUT MERRY CHRISTMAS (I MEAN SITSMAS ..hehe..) Also if you add a link to their blog of your blog you might win a prize..HELLOOOOO FREE STUFF :) Enjoy!! :)

An interesting Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving dawned cold and rainy, fitting my mood, I was not in a very Thanksgiving-y place this year, missing my family and friends in Vegas and all that...anywho, Wednesday night I had decided to get a jump start on the baking and made the pies and Mark made the Green Bean Casserole, all that was left was the turkey, potatoes and stuffing..oh and the gravy. Put the turkey in around 10 am and watched football for a few hours.....the turkey cooked faster than we anticipated so around 1:30 it was a mad dash to get everything else done...as I was preparing the stuffing and gravy, Mark was warming up the greenbean dish, not wanting the turkey to overcook, we decided to take it out of the oven...in my mind things still happen very slowly, I remember picking Nate up so he would be out of the way, Mark grabbed the oven mits, opened the oven....began to lift the turkey out and next thing I know I'm paralized watching FLAMES shoot out of my oven and LICK the top of the stove....Mark was quick and slammed the oven door shut, extinguishing the flames, but not before smoke escaped and invaded the whole house..the turkey was fine, we were fine, stove and oven were fine...sadly my gravy didn't make it and the stuffing..well..it wasn't the best that I had made...all in all it was a very interesting Thanksgiving, and another thing to add to my thankful list...I'm Thankful we still have a house :)

Thankful

I am most thankful this year for my family and friends, without their love and support over the past year and a half really, I don't know where I'd be, more than likely I'd be in a looney bin, but thanks to them I am at home with my boys and will be celebrating the holidays with a bittersweetness. I miss my mom and my grandma more at this time of year than any other. I am so glad I paid attention when they cooked over the years! I find myself constantly wanting to pick up the phone to call about how to cook something. My family has always been big on getting together to eat, food seemed to be the glue that held us all together along with my grandma, she always used to make SOOOOOOOO much food, I mean even though I have a big family, she would cook like she was feeding 100, and there was usually only 20-25, everyone always had leftovers to take, maybe thats why she did it, so that she could take care of us for more than just that one night? I really wish I could be in Vegas this year, I have missed now 2 Thanksgivings now and it stinks! Sometimes I am glad we moved, but I get really really really homesick especially now. So, now that I have thoroughly depressed myself, and probably those that are reading (sorry about that), I will move on to more poignant things that I am grateful for.
1. I am grateful that Nate has finally started talking more clearly, makes life so much easier :)
2. I am grateful that my husband still has a job :)
3. I am grateful that I am going back to school next year for a psychology degree
4. I am grateful that I will be turning 30..they have got to be a better decade than my 20's
5. I am grateful for the new blog friends that I have made..seriously some days just reading funny anecdotes about someone else's life just makes me happy :)
6. I am grateful that I jumped on the Twilight bandwagon (even though mark thinks I read too much..lol)
7. I am grateful for the gas prices having gone down!
8. I am grateful for all the life lessons that I was taught this year
9. I am grateful that I have a wonderful support system
10. I am grateful that I am alive.
I know the last one was kind of dramatic, but I really am grateful to just be alive, to be able to experience every day. I don't live my life like every day is the last, because I believe that there will always be tomorrow, not that I take everything for granted, but to me when you say this could be my last day, its not a feeling of oh I better do everything I can, its a feeling of doom. I don't want to think its my last day I want to believe in a future :) So on that note, may this coming year be more than anyone hopes for :) and remember to be thankful for all you've got!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday Fun!

Today was family day for us Bush's, we decided to check out the Tucson Zoo, which up until about 3 days ago I had no idea even existed! So off we go bright and early to show Nate real live animals, all he's seen are dogs and cats and birds :). Now I must say that the website for the zoo is somewhat misleading, it makes it look like the zoo is really big and will take 2+ hours to see everything, soooo not the case! Even though it was small we all had a great time, Nate especially. I really did enjoy myself until I saw the Lion, when I saw this animal I almost cried, it reminded me of the lion from The Last Unicorn, the one in the traveling circus, Mommy Fortuna's traveling circus (I think is what it was called?), anyway the poor thing is literally skin and bones, not an ounce of meat on it's body ANYWHERE, it makes me sad and angry to think about it, needless to say we didn't linger long at that exhibit. My favorite animals there were the giraffes and elephants, they were most active and really neat to watch, one of the elephants was doing some sort of little dance all by himself :). Nate's favorites were ALL of them, he was so fun to watch, he just laughed every time he saw a new animal and asked very eagerly, "what's THAT?" every couple of feet :). The zoo only took about an hour to see and I am sure we will go back one day soon, just so I can watch Nate's face light up, that was the best part!

29 going on 13...

It seems that I am going back in time these days, I'll be turning 30 next month and yet my insides feel as though I'll be turning 13! By the way Twilight, completely obsessed with it! So much so that I went and ordered the entire BOX Set yesterday and had shipped overnight so that I wouldn't have to wait and buy one at a time, what can I say the saga appeals to my inner teen!

All day long I have had my front door open waiting to see the beautiful brown UPS truck pull into my drive way, which just did about 30 seconds ago, I probably gave the poor guy a heart attack as I came running, YES I SAID RUNNING, out of my front door to grab the box from his hands! He looked at me like I had 2 or 3 heads, but I don't care, I am that excited about these books! So now that I got them, I can calm down and read them! They really are quite pretty though, all hardbacks with beautiful slipcovers, I love BOX sets! :)

Ok so off I go, back into the Twilight world! :)

Peer Pressure!!! Or maybe it's just the bookworm in me :)

After a late night phone call from a very dear friend of mine YELLING at me to "GO BUY TWILIGHT, YOU'LL LOVE IT!" I finally succumbed to the peer pressure and bought it today. My inner bookworm has been craving something new anyway, and since I have been into Vampires lately, thanks to a show on HBO called True Blood, I figured why not? Also I have to say that my curiosity has been peaked ever since Tia over at CGGB (Clever Girl Goes Blog) did a post about it and then put a video of one of the songs from the soundtrack up too, I was pretty much sold! *Side note, if you haven't checked out CGGB please do, you won't be sorry, Tia is a great writer and makes me laugh on a daily basis!*

So tonight I will dive into the world of Twilight :) Expect a full review once I'm done, I love passing on good books! :)