I could never

A little diddy bout me....

so when I was a young lass I would go with my mom to get groceries and I would watch the cashiers at the grocery store check us out and wonder how they did it...so much to do...handle money, deal with all the people, make change, stressful. It freaked me out. I thought to myself I could never do that. At fifteen I needed a job and ended up as a cashier doing just that and did it for I can't remember how long. At one point I was offered an office position that I couldn't take because of school, so I must of been decent at my job.

our store didn't look this nice :)

A few years after that Nicholson Farmhouse restaurant was opened by our former stake president Paul Nicholson and I LOVED going to eat there. I would watch the waitresses and wonder how they did it..taking orders, carrying those large trays, dealing with all the people, stressful. It freaked me out..for real. I thought to myself, I could never do that. When Brandon and I got engaged I needed extra money and found employment at..you guessed it Nicholson Farmhouse restaurant as a waitress..
This all of sudden makes me wonder why I didn't choose something else, b/c the "I could never do that" was very specific to these places, go figure.

Anyway, I digress, well maybe I digressed when I started. I was a waitress there for 7-8 months and one of my biggest fears was dropping the tray...it happened, only once, which surprised me...those trays were heavy and the doorways were old farmhouse doorways. I wish the restaurant was still open..yummy stuffed potatoes, bread, ranch dressing...I gained a good 10-15 lbs. there. But I did it and got good tips...the best during valentines and football season, rich people sometimes don't make good financial decisions...while drinking :), but I definitely worked for it. Moving on...

my mouth is watering..these are pics of plates from Nicholson's...best green beans!


When I came into 1st ward 13 years ago I would watch the Gospel Doctrine teacher and wonder how he/she did it.. for real! the prep, the questions, dealing with all the people (looking to you to lead the discussion.....shudder). It freaked me out..I truly said to myself...I could never do that. Years later I was eventually able to make comments and then I would say to Brandon, please don't let me comment and stew about it. Add to that, that everytime I think I know what my calling is going to be, I'm surprised, as I was a few weeks ago when I was called as...the Gospel Doctrine teacher....it took a lot of faith to say yes and I really almost called the Bishop the morning of my first class to bail. I didn't and I survived the class. I told the Bishop this past Sunday (on my day off) that I was enjoying my calling..when it's not Sunday. My spare thinking time is constantly on the lesson and helps me to be better, stronger..I really like that part. I don't know the end of this one yet, but I hope that like a little girls fears of cashiering and a young woman's trepidation with waitressing I can continue the outcome pattern. That I'll work for it and be a decent teacher, cause the tips and advancement of this job are certainly worth much more! :) :)

"but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:19


Thanks for indulging me on this little diddy bout me. Back to posts generally about the bosses of my full time endeavor...Brandon, Cole, Laura and Hannah.

So what do you do after "ice skating" in Florida?

well start your spring garden of course...

we like to start with seeds, just to make it more challenging

Hannah writing on her garden markers

Cole..this picture doesn't show it, but he worked hard..kind of ..he had an excellent knack for supervising, but he did do his part

I love this picture

jalapenos, jalapenos or jalapenos

it's for salsa, there were no vegetable she was interested in

oh Brandon says she planted squash

wish I could throw looks like this

see Cole's working :)

all ready to grow!


Spot, such a sweet cat!!!

Ice Skating in Florida - Really?

Yeah not really, the city bought a skate type floor. Years ago they had real ice and it would get a little slushy. Nicole warned me it wasn't realy ice, but I had already promised Laura we'd go and off we went. It surely wasn't ice and was actually harder to skate on. Ah well, Laura enjoyed it.

Our spectators, not so much, but don't worry they didn't stay the whole time.
They got Dairy Queen.

Hannahisms: edited to make more sense

I swear, four years old is definitely one of the funnest ages. There are no inhibitions and the cutest things come out of their mouths..Here's some of Hannah's recents....

she calls a statue a statua...Brandon explains the difference between spatula and statue, she could care less.

and her prayers are priceless, here are a couple
"please let Heavenly Father care about things that are funny and laugh at things that are funny and not things that are sad and bad". :)

"please help those people that don't have houses and help us to give our house to them and then we can get a house with stairs"

she was in our bed the other morning after a particularly cranky day for her and we sent her to bed early (read I layed down with her to make sure she was alseep before 8), when I woke her up she yawned and said "see mom I yawned, that means I need more sleep so I'm not cranky"

the day before this same particular morning..it was a school night and the kids asked Brandon if they could sleep outside and of course he said no..

so a few minutes after Hannah's cranky comment..she very seriously said. "Mom when daddy is your child and he's in your tummy and you're in charge, you let us sleep outside and there will be no more school days". I'm sure it was funnier coming from her, but not something I wanted to forget.

She calls McDonald's, Old McDonald's...she tries to remember the right thing, but always falls back on this. For the past few weeks she's been begging to go to Old McDonald's and I kept putting her off and last Friday they were going to my mom's so we got McDonald's before they headed out. Today we went to Sonic's happy hour and she's sipping her watermelon slushy and she says "Mommy, thank you for getting me Old McDonald's. It was SUPER sweet.

She calls me mama more often than anything else and it's kind of weird b/c I don't recall either of the other kids calling me that this late in the game. It's sweet and so Hannah.

She likes to look at books and very loudly tell the story as she sees it. It's really cute to watch.

I'm sure there are a million others and I'll try to keep better track of them. I watch her and see the "fourness" slipping away and it's pretty sad. I'd sure like to just bottle it up along an 8 and 10 year old I know. Parenting....hard, wonderful stuff.

A Decade

Cole is a decade old. How did that happen? Furthermore how is it that in another decade he'll be somewhere in the world on a mission? Actually we can fast forward to that part. As I understand it it's all up hill from here till then :( :( :(. Cole is a treasure, he's honest, can remember so well, particularly things he reads. He has the best sense of humor (which really just means he finds me funny and I really like that). He loves animals. He's a great writer..sample to come...and he still snuggles with me on occasion.in between video games, legos, heroscape, nerf and his greatest hero his dad---I'll take the in betweens. We had a low key bday because we had his friend party for his 10th during the summer. I"m sure we ate pigs in blankets, roasted potatoes, strawberry shortcakes and had a great time. Looking forward to seeing my little boy turn into a young man. I have no doubts that I will be astounded by who he becomes in the next decade.

Christmas 3 and final! :)

Christmas pics, Laura with the spinny wheel thingee and her red hair predecessor.
Cole with Halo legos that we heard about forever!
Cole with Santa hat and a weird look, but I like the pic
Laura...not sure what she's screaming and finally Hannah proving that it doesn't matter what you give them (at least four year olds)...she's holding a brush and she HATES getting her hair brushed!

Christmas 2

Christmas Eve we went to Mary's to celebrate her bday and eat, scrumptious food, play fun game (Farkle), back at home we read the Christmas story, opened the traditional one present and scooted kiddies off to bed,. Well, one kiddie then we had two helpers. I think Laura enjoyed it. We didn't don our kerchief and cap until 2:00 am and of course the kids were up at 6:00, I'm proud to say we were right there with them.

I have no idea why we're hugging (maybe the Christmas pjs), but I love the picture :)

feigning sleep (can you see the giggles coming forth?)

They're ready for Christmas morning...bring it on (if only mommy and daddy were)

After Santa came...Hannah calls these the "set ups"

Santa doesn't wraps, but names are necessary, cause great goodness if he didn't

and I happen to know this little house gave Santa some trouble in more ways than one