We found the dress, we found the shoes...Prom will soon be through!

Today T and I had a fun day shopping for her prom dress! (I do have to admit though, I was worried that it would be frustrating to find a modest, well priced dress, in the midst of a very wordly, strapless, skimpy, designer world!) But I was wrong! T googled modest dresses in Arizona, and found a place in Mesa that sells them. We went to the store, and the selection was slim, but the woman sells them from her home too. I gave her a call and she graciously invited us over without an appointment, and the day before Easter to boot! She has a bedroom in her home that she uses as a dressing room, and she had racks and a huge closet full of the most beautiful formals. (Everyone of her formals are modest, and at the most reasonable prices.) She kept handing T more and more choices. It was so fun!! T would swirl around in the 3 way mirror, and smile or shake her head. T finally decided on a tea length, teal green formal. After dress shopping, we went to Cafe Rio for lunch, and then went shoe shopping. T found some really cute, strappy heels at the Nordstrom Rack, and then we headed home.

I honestly thought that we would be gone all day, and that we would come home empty handed, and a little bummed! I am so happy that we found that fabulous dress shop called 'A Dressy Occassion' I hope someday, wedding dress shopping is as easy!!

Bedroom Bliss

YES, I have finally reached bliss in the bedroom!! Hey this isn't X RATED! WHO DO YOU THINK I AM???



This is what I am talking about......

Our New Mattress! (although, that is not my bedroom)

We finally broke down and bought us a new mattress. We tried this mattress out, but the price tag was way out of our price range. So we had decided on a Sealy, when we went back to buy the Sealy, the Heirloom Mattress was on sale!! FOR HALF OFF. They were clearing out the floor models. This bed is so comfortable....and for all of you people going GREEN, This mattress is made of soy and latex, so in 10 years when I am out shopping for a new mattress, I can be rest assured that my mattress will biodegrade just fine!

SLEEP TIGHT...

Over the mountains and through the snow to grandmas house we go!

You Know you are on the down hill stretch when you pull into Provo, Utah! Our trip started on Friday the 13th. We left our home at 5:00 am so we could beat the morning rush hour of Phoenix, and pulled into Provo about 12 hours later! It was a fun day in the car, although long, the drive up US 89 from Kanab is so pretty. I just love the small towns along the Virgin River. From Provo, I still had a 2 hour drive.

Saturday: We went shopping in Layton, We went to Tai Pan Trading, and the Quilted Bear in Ogden. Some guy was handing out samples for Charlies deli as we were leaving the mall, the samples were so yummy! We decided to eat in the mall and skip the Olive Garden. It was so fun shopping with my sister, sister-in-laws, niece, and mom. We don't get to do the girl shopping thing together very often. M had the most fun!! In Arizona, she has mostly boy cousins her age, and hanging out with my niece B, meant so much to her.


This is M, C, and B (my niece) posing with the mannequins at Dillards. The girls were trying on prom dresses and being silly. I think the sales clerks were glad to see us leave.

Here we are leaving the mall with all of our shopping bags!

Sunday: Going to Grandma's house, means that Aunt Sheri also comes to visit. Sheri loves doing hair, and giving the girls facials. Sheri did M's hair before Sunday dinner.

After Sunday Dinner, all of the nieces and nephews went outside and had a huge snowball fight. (with what snow there was left)
Sunday relaxing time: Here are my 2 brothers and my dad.


Here is my sister, 2 brothers and my mom and dad. My 2 sister-in-laws, Chanelle and Jessica, were taking pictures.

Monday: I drove to Logan. Logan is a very special place to me, my friends in high school and I used to cruise main, and hang out in Logan. I went to Utah State in Logan. But the reason it the most special to me is that is where our first home was when I got married 20 years ago. I drove by our very first home, and showed the girls where their daddy and I used to live. The house was built in the 1940's. During the summer it was extremely hot and the winters it was really cold. The house wasn't insulated very well. I used to love sitting out on the front porch in the autumn and do my homework. The kitchen was huge, and their was the cutest fireplace inside the living room. The house when we lived in it, had the original brass, antique light fixtures.

My brother and sister-in-law invited the girls over for a sleep-over on Sunday. The girls had so much fun hot tubing and playing in the snow at their house. They bungee jumped their stuffed animals and went sliding down the stairs in the sleeping bags. For lunch, they took us to Cafe Rio for the best Mexican food!

After lunch on Monday, Chanelle took us to this very fun park to play in the snow. The park is named Ryan's Park, in honor of a 2 year old boy who fell off a house boat at Lake Powell 2 years ago and drowned. Ryan used to love to play at the park, so his parents and the community came together to build a park in memory of him. The funny thing is, I went to high school with the little boys dad.

Tuesday: We went to see my grandpa who is 89 years old. He is in pretty good health, and it was fun to visit him. My mom treated the girls to lunch at Chuck-a-Rama. The girls and my niece had wanted to eat at Golden Corral on Saturday, and Chuck a Rama is a close second.

Wednesday: On the long trip home, I stopped in St. George to see my friend Tonya. Tonya and I have been good friends since our days living in Washington State together. She used to watch M and C, while I subbed one day a week. We also became scrap book buddies, and she started my passion for scrapbooking. (Which I am now 4 years behind) We used to get together and scrapbook all day, neglecting dinner, laundry, and housework. We would plug in the Veggie Tales or some other movie and scrapbook, while our poor children rotted their brains. It was a good visit, although, my children were restless, and slightly annoying! Next time I visit I am leaving my children in the car! From St. George, we headed home. We pulled into our drive way at midnight.

Our Spring Break trip was so much fun! I am back to cooking dinners, laundry, and grocery shopping. School starts Monday:( and it is back to my masters class and grading papers.

D Day...

Okay....So, today was the day! It was D day! We started by all going to the "D"entist. (check an earlier post for the details) We all had our cavities filled, and the girls got sealants, and lucky me, got to have 1 cavity filled twice, because there was an air bubble behind the new filling. So he drilled out the new filling and refilled it! Calla was "D"isapointed when her one filling was so huge that it turned into a root canal! That will be filled on Thursday, and she will get to travel to Utah on wonderful "D"rugs! Wish I could take some! But I don't think I can drive legally and do codeine.(May take the edge off of my 12hour plus drive by myself with the girls:D)

I then went to the Day Spa and had my nails filled, the original plan was to take all of the girls for Pedi's but after forking out a huge amount of money to the new dentist, we decided to do our Pedi's at home. (Mike is in Denver this week) and so we it made for a chick night!

After our "d"elicious dinner of frozen entries, we all gathered around to do our pedis.

We filled up the tub, and scrubbed our feet. It was fun! but not as fun as a real Pedi, at the salon,

but it was cheaper and I will now have some extra spending money to spend shopping in Utah.

My award

I got my first blog award! I am so excited! I haven't been a blogger for very long and Susan over at Adventures of a Minivan Mom, gave me my first award. I met her through SITS. I follow her blog and she follows mine. I think if we lived near each other, we probably would take our kids to the park or have lunch once in awhile. I have really enjoyed meeting people through SITS, its a great blogging community, that links people from all over the world. Stop in and say hello at SITS someday.

So, here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude.
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

I nominate:
Tonya (who got me started in blogging)
Chanelle
Jessica L.
Jessica A.
Sarah
Tiffy
Noelle
Brenda
Agnes
Naomi

When the going gets tough...Get flossing!!

Dear Abby,

I used to be a very good mommy. A few years back, I faithfully took my 3 toothy, grinned, girls to the dentist every 6 months. My dentist was a member of our church, and he was very thorough! Infact, I often complained of his high prices, and his pro-activeness to tooth decay! Well, we moved 3 years ago to a new state, and it that entailed finding a new dentist, doctor, you know the whole works of moving to a new place. A co-worker told me that her dad was a dentist. Hooray!! So I made cleaning appointments for my girls. He was a grandpa, very conservative, had shag carpet throughout his office, and his office was very inconvientant from my house. It was a 45 minute drive and his last appointment was 3:30, making it very difficult to schedule that appointment when school dismissed at 3:00. So, I scheduled appointments during summer vacations and holidays. Well as time went on, I became less enthusiased about driving 45 minutes for a cleaning. Just recently our little town has had a growth spurt, and several new stores, doctors offices, and dentist office are now opening. I scheduled a cleaning with a new dentist just 3 blocks from my house, how convienent, and his office was very up to date with technology, and no shag carpet! Well now I am wondering if the 45 minute ride is worth the money because yesterday was our cleanings.

Daughter 1: Braces coming off soon, needs 2 sealants, and NO CAVITIES!!! HOORAY!!
Daughter 2: Needs braces, needs a root canal from a poor filling from done by grandpa dentist with the shag carpet, and has 2 cavities.
Daughter 3: 6 Cavities, and was overheard by her mommy telling Mr. New Dentist, that her mommy never showed her how to floss or brush her teeth! WRONG!! WHO IS THE ONE THAT REMINDS HER TO BRUSH AS SHE IS RUNNING TO THE CAR IN THE MORNING?
Mommy: 6 cavities, (surprised because last summer I had none from Mr. Shag carpet, conservative Dentist)

So....Thankful for dental insurance, but the nice receptionist informs me of my part of the payment $708.00, and that only is part of daughter #3 and my trip to the dentist.

So please advice,

Destraught by Dentists

Reality Check

I used to be a Reality TV junkie. I watched Survivor, many, many seasons of it, The Great Amazing Race, The Bachelor and the Bachelorette, and my life and conversations of revolved around these shows. It was the conversation at lunch on Friday who was outed on Survivor. A friend and I wanted to apply to the Great Amazing Race, it was our way to see the world and let our husbands have a taste of what mommy hood is all about! My husband finally asked me, "Why do you watch a shows, where you are rewarded to lie, cheat, and have no integrity to win a million dollars?" He suggested to me to get a life.

Well, I now have a pretty busy life, and now I have no time to watch TV at all. Well I do a have a couple of favorites, Criminal Minds is top, but last summer I started watching The Bachelorette again, and I got hooked on who DeAnna was going to pick. (For those who don't watch this show, DeAnna was a previous Bachelorette that wasn't chosen by Brad in the season earlier) I only watched a couple of those episodes and I didn't care much for DeAnna then:) Well last summer, they had this cute guy from Seattle who is divorced and has this darling son named Ty. I really thought that he had DeAnna had a connection, and I was so mad that she let him get down on his knee at the season finale and get ready to propose, and then she had him stop in mid-sentence to tell him that she chose the other guy. Well this season, Jason is the Bachelor and I am so hooked again!! We are down to the home town dates on Monday, and from the previews it looks interesting! My favorite Molly, has to have complete support from her family, if they don't like him then they won't embrace Jason in their lives! My second favorite choice is Melissa, and her family will not meet Jason on the air; to much publicity.

So, I now need a reality check! Between my master's class and tutoring, all I do is school. This stupid reality show has become my down time. Go figure!! Good thing that the Bachelor season is almost over!