happy anniversary .. 7 years and counting

Joe and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this month. We got a babysitter and headed up to Tucson to spend the morning together. 

We went to Bobo's where I had the BIGGEST chocolate chip pancake ever! I couldn't even finish it. I decided when my face started tingling that that was enough sugar for me. 

We then went to Kohl's where I discovered Petite cropped pants fit me like shorts and Joe charmed the elderly cashier into giving us a discount from a coupon that wasn't supposed to be used until tomorrow. 

We then went over to La Z Boy and checked out their recliners. I found one that I LOVE and am now hoping it goes on sale!

For lunch we went to Beyond Bread. Their cookies are enormous and their sandwich's delicious! 

A mere 40 minutes later we were back home and picked up the kiddos from the babysitter. It was a great day spending the morning with my handsome, smart, talented, and loving husband. 

Here's to many more years! I love my man!

shopping tip: shorts

I am not a shop-a-inista. Never have been. Never will. But I figured out a splendid little shopping tip today that I hope others will benefit from: petite pants!

I am a Mormon and as a Mormon wear garments which are simple white underclothing composed of two pieces: a top piece similar to a T-shirt and a bottom piece similar to shorts (click here to find out more about garments and/or the Latter-day Saints). 

Because of these garments, my tops and bottoms need to cover them, which means my bottoms need to go to about my knees. My body is one where my top half of my body is kind of short and my bottom half is super long; finding bottoms feel and look weird and I HATE some of the fashions today.

Cropped pants.

I can't stand cropped pants. It's like they can't decide whether or not to be pants or shorts. They are just stuck in the no-man's land and look a bit like floods to me. 

Shorts

Obviously, they are not and would not be any where close to my knees and therefore not even an option. 

Bermuda Shorts

These shorts are closer to covering my garments, but they are still a bit too short. 

I found a solution today .... Petite Cropped Pants!

I never fully understood Petite clothes, but I'm guessing that they are just shorter than Regular sizes. I found these cute, cute, cute cropped pants today but they didn't have my size plus I would have had to cut and hem them and basically change them completely before I felt completely comfortable in them. And then I found the EXACT pants in petite and in my size. I tried them on and they fit PERFECTLY as shorts!!!!!! I was so excited that I bought another pair in a different color for good measure. 

So, if you are looking for bottoms that fit taller legs, go look in the Petite section!

double trouble

I love Pinterest! Love. Love. Love. However, I do not like have my boards brimming full and me never doing any of the projects, so I am constantly deleting and updating my Pinterest boards. 

Here is a project I recently finished for Halloween (I know. I know. Summer isn't all the way over yet.)

You can check out my inspiration website here.

• I painted all the blocks their base colors and then painted on most of their accessories like Frankenstein's scar, the pumpkin's mouth, and the witches black bottom. 
• I used large google eyes for all of them for uniformity (trust me, the pumpkin looked weird and out of place with triangle eyes). 
• My hubby drilled holes and screwed in bolts. 
• I used jute for the witch's hair, glued a ribbon around her middle, and used a button for her buckle. 
• The mummy is wrapped in tule. I wanted to use gauze, but ever the pragmatic one, my hubby thought that was an expensive choice. My tule was ultra thin and about 4 inches thin. I twisted the tule to double up the thickness and wrapped it kind of tight. So now you can see that it is, in fact, a mummy with its texture and my cleverness. 

What holiday(s) do you like to decorate for?

train your brain to be happy

Have you ever listened to, or watched, "Ted Talks"? I love them!

I recently watched two talks that I absolutely LOVE! They are:

"The Game That Can Give You 10 Extra Years of Life"

and
"The Happy Secret to Better Work"

I'm starting to believe that our brains are so powerful that what we imagine, we can have. I have also recently read a book called "Remembering Wholeness" that has changed my perspective on things in a big way. I won't go into a book review of it, but go out and read it! Now!

I'll wait ....

In the book the author tells her readers to imagine/decide what you want in life. Write it down and be as specific as you want. Then, ask your angels. When she first brought up angels, I was a HUGE skeptic. I almost felt guilty for wanting to believe that there are more people in the universe that want to help me out. After you have decided and asked, GET OUT OF THE WAY! Do not create resistance, or doubt, or anything negative. And then finally, when the thing you wanted happens, say thank you to your angels and your god.

Are you a skeptic?

For example, the other day my hubby applied for in-state tuition for the remaining three years he'll be in school. He turned it in at 10:00 one morning. He came home and asked me to make my magic happen and will for him to get in-state tuition. I laughed and told him he had the power within him to make it happen. I walked him through the steps and emphasized to get out of the way of this great thing happening. Within three hours he got an email explaining the board had reviewed his application and he had indeed had his tuition status changed to in-state!

Coincidence? I'm telling you, read the book, figure it out on your own, and be happy!

book review: Rules of Murder

I liked this book overall.

What I liked:
the love story; Drew, Madeline, and Nick; the random story with the kittens in Drew's room; the nice little wrap-up at the end of the story; the clean murder mystery; God and his gospel written in the story (I'm still getting used to reading about this).

What I didn't like:
the jerky plot twists; the many, many, MANY characters at the beginning that have nothing to do with the story or the plot or with anything.

zebra bday party

My little girl recently turned two. We invited a few people over where we ...

Ate some cake.

Played some games.
I was dealing with two-year-olds and 4-year-olds. I needed the games to be simple, but entertaining. I first gathered some treats and prizes and separated them into separate baskets. 

I then blew up 10 balloons with a slip of paper inside that either had a 1 or 2 on it. Each kid, and adult, had to pop the balloon with a pin or their body to get the paper out. Which ever number they got, that was the basket they got to chose from.

The second game was apparently THE HARDEST game the kids had ever played! The goal was to get the bean bag into any of the targets. Once they made it, they got to choose from the opposite basket they didn't get in the balloon game. I started out all strict and wanted the kids to stand behind a line that wasn't that far away--so I thought. I had an "ah-ha" moment and let the kids stand where ever they wanted to make the basket. The two-year-olds stood above the targets and the four-year-olds were about a foot away!

And opened presents. 
Jovi got spoiled and I'm okay with that. It's her birthday and she should get a special day were she gets treated a little different.

**I need to take pictures of people!

2nd year ... here we come!

School starts back up for Joe in about 6 weeks. Where did the summer go?! When I was pregnant, Joe kept warning me that the 2nd year was the hardest and to be prepared to not have him home all that often. Yikes! When I sit down and think about it, I kind of hyperventilate! But this is the 2nd year of pharmacy school! We're actually making it!