A band wagon jumper on-er...

I can't believe this has happened to me... a complete parent FAIL!!!

My daughter is a band wagon jumper on-er!!!

It's true.

Yesterday she was wearing a Justin Bieber shirt and reading a Justin Bieber book...

This morning I walked in and found this hanging up on her push pin wall...

It's true... a Justin Bieber poster!  I may have bought the shirt and book for her with begging and pleading... but a POSTER!?

I'll understand if you judge me, I would do the same in your position...

The apple, however, hasn't fallen too far from the tree... I remember putting up a poster, or two, of New Kids On The Block when I was younger... but I had reformed and thought that I could teach my children better... apparently I failed.

Do you think I can find a support group?  Let me know, I'll wait here and wallow in my failure.

Have a good Tuesday everyone!

See Mom Smile shows me the way... if you want to help...

I was reading in my reader and found THIS POST by See Mom Smile... who I have met in person btw... and I thought that I'd pass on her awesome message, although, you should read her post because it's better and way more informative.

But basically, I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I pay my tithing and this is where some of it goes to. I love that because I know no matter the disaster, in some way, I have been a part of helping it.

You, however, don't have to be Mormon, or LDS, or pay your tithing to donate to the LDS Charities who is a major part of ANY disaster and in a lot of the cases, first to respond with help.

Here's the LINK again. It's a charity you know your money WILL be put to helping those areas greatest hit by the Japan Disaster and any other disaster that comes along... which is inevitable.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

It's my son's 9th birthday and so I have to go party with him right now... I'll leave you with a little treat he and his sister did for St. Patty's Day yesterday...

Your. Welcome.  And YES my kids are super rad!

Death by age and kipping pull up

Here's the thing.

I try to let me kids know about stuff that use to scare me as a child.

Things like Death.

I was SOOOOOO scared of dying.

Not ME dying but people I loved and depended on... so mostly my parents.

There was more than one night where I would have to think about my favorite childhood church song to make me feel more at peace because at times the thought of not having my parents around would consume me with paralyzing fear. Which is quite a feat in and of itself when you have a little sister kicking you in the twin bed you share with her.

Anyway... back to my point. I try to lessen the fear by talking about Death and the fact that we will see the people that die again. I try to make it seem magical. "Death is what get's us back to our families and loved ones that have passed on, so it's a good thing" and "it's okay to miss them right now, but did you know that time goes really quick up in Heaven so after they get there it will seem like minutes until we are there with them again!" and "it's hard for us because we miss them down here with us, but they are having such a great time up there!"

So the other day my daughter and I were driving together... somewhere. I forget now. And she starts this conversation about getting old.

Her: Mommy-when you get old you'll die.

ME: Yes, I will, but I have a long way to go until I get old so you have nothing to worry about. (assuming she was worried I would die)

Her: I'm not worried, but you ARE getting really really old, so it might not be that long.

And there you have it. The reason why my daughter can't speak right now, because I turned around and throat punched her. (I was kidding in case you thought I was being for real).

Since we are talking about death. I've been going to a CrossFit box here where I live, I have endearingly termed it Satan's Lair, if you remember. I am quite obsessed with it actually and go 5-6 times a week. For the first time in a long time I have not concentrated on how much I weigh, but on how I'm improving on workouts. I've been going for 6 months now and have cut my times down by whole minutes on some of the workouts while lifting more or doing more reps--but I about die each workout--each one harder than I expect--but such a sense of accomplishment when I get done!

I still work on how I see myself in the mirror--realizing more and more that I need to remember that I'm working towards the perfect 10 ME and not some really slender girl with no hips or sisters on top aka boobs--basically I'm owning up to reality. And it frees me a little bit more from my mind and the destructive thoughts I battle.

I thought I'd show this picture that the owner of the CrossFit here where I workout took of me and posted on their blog-- a kipping pull up with no band-- just me myself and I.

I know it looks like I was eating the bar... but there you go. I think we did 40 pullups that day and I did it all with out the band.

So yea... working on the perfect 10 ME and killin myself one workout at a time.  But I'm NOT getting really really old!!!

Love,

Bloggy Boot Camp, My New Crush, and Super Girl and Nerd Boy!

I've been majorly slacking around here. I've been so busy with my other job that I just really haven't had time to update you guys on everything I need to update you on!!!

First of all, there is going to be a Bloggy Boot Camp in St. George, UT and anyone that lives close is encouraged to go! It will be awesome. It is sponsored by the SITS girls, who anyone that is ANYONE... knows that they are awesome. Check out their website and more about the event which is this Saturday, November 13, 2010, HERE.

On top of that, I am helping my wonderful awesomest friend T from You Asked For It and April to host a GNO the night before for all those attending the event! CLICK HERE for more info on the event... but I need people who would like an opportunity to promote themselves! If you'd like to donate your talents of creating incredible things to the GNO then we will hand out your card and promote the heck out of your stuff as well as giveaway what you donated with a promise from the blogger to Post about it on their blog to all their followers! SO email me at blokthoughts@gmail.com.

In greater or greatest news, my sister whose son passed away a year and a half ago from a heart condition, had her 2nd baby boy almost a week ago! He is healthy and beautiful! You guys judge for yourself. I'm partial because I've been munching on his gorgeously fat cheeks for the last few days!

I've never been a part of such an easy, happy, more beautiful natural birthing experience.  I mean, she was flawless.  Not one complaint.  In fact, she was happy go lucky up to the time she pushed, and she was only not up beat at that time because she was focused on her goal.  Maybe a hand full of pushes later and her 9 lb 5 oz baby boy came out.  I think Heavenly Father was definitely watching over her, her husband, and their sweet new baby boy.  I definitely have a new crush.  His parents are having a hard time keeping me away from him... I'm a bit obsessive! :)

Last but not least.  My kids' Halloween Costumes this year.  Gotta love last minute creativity!

Super Girl and a NERD!

A little closer look For Nerd Boy.

A little closer for Super Girl...

An even CLOSER look at Nerd boy!  Your Welcome.

And of Course we have to have an even closer look for Super Girl!  And don't judge me, it's the one day she can wear make up I humored her!  And yes, those ARE her natural and real eyelashes.  I hate her too.

Okay... so I threw a lot at you!  Please though, if you know of anyone that would like to Donate a giveaway gift for our girls night out... let me know!

Love,

She wants to be like me... ut oh!

I walked into my house after a long, tiring day at work.

Walked isn't really a good term for what I was doing.

I was more... dragging myself into my home.

Anyway.

I get down stairs. And laying on my love sac is my black heels, skirt and scattered haphazardly around it was my jewelry. As I continued to stare at what was suppose to be my family room, but looked like a tornado had touched down, I smelled my Love Spell by Victoria Secret body splash.

Usually at this point, I flip. Sometimes inside my brain and sometimes, unknowingly to me, I go wild eyed crazy out loud. It's like this outer body experience and although I know I may be toeing the line of being committed into a insane asylum, I can't stop myself. I bark orders and get red in the face and turn into a HUGE, UGLY, Monstrous thing. It's not pretty.

But that day.

Well, it hit me.

My little girl wants to be like me.

This beautiful, independent, absolutely funny and persistent little girl... who is incredible just the way she is... wants to be like ME.

But I don't want her to. I don't want her to mimic me, because along with the wonderful being I am... and I understand I am worth modeling to a point, I have these flaws about me that I don't want her to ever have.

I know I can't control that.

But I panicked.

You see. She's completely and innocently confident in herself. She loves how she looks, she's funny, she cares about everyone, she hates when people are sad she is an empathetic crier, she is a great helper, she's bossy in a good I'm a leader sort of way, and best thing about her is-she could care less what people thought of her. If they don't want to be her friend or they don't like her she figures they are losing out.

And you know what?

She's right.

I sat down on my couch, absently moving princess high heels over, and became a bit overwhelmed by the idea.

So I've decided. I want to be more like her, and in return, she will end up being just herself! So I will start studying and modeling who she is.

My only problem is going to be fitting into her heels and skirts... but the jewelry should fit just fine. :)

So how did you react when you realized you child wanted to be just like you? Am I just a dorky parent or what?

Love,

Where are all the parents??? Based on a true story.

I have a story I must tell.

One that may shock you... or not.

See there once was this girl, cute, fun personality, smart, and totally excited to start school. I may have added to that excitement by reminding her she was going to start her first day of school every day for at least 7 days before she actually "started" school.

Me: "Aren't you so excited to be a big girl and go to your Big Brother's school!"

PeePs: "Mom, I'm 5, not 2. But I'm so excited!!! Yay me!" As she jumps up and down clapping her hands.

See here where I live they tease Kindergarten-ers. They say, "Today you start school! Well you kinda do. You get to come and meet your teacher and sign up for a day that you can test and we can see where you fit and watch your progression through the year. So you don't actually go to school, no, you just meet your teacher and then come back later that week to test. Then NEXT week you get to start school."

So we did that. We had her meet her teacher... she tested (she rocked it-and teacher was somewhat worried she might be bored-but we are going to play that by ear...) Then we patiently waited for the day she would actually get to go to CLASS and LEARN.

Proud Mom fact and a bit of a sidenote: I should tell you that my daughter has this incredible drive to learn. Everyday she makes her Grandma sit with her (I can't because I'm at work) and do "homework" with her. And I'm not just talking 10-15 minutes worth, no, I'm talking an hour and a half later her Grandma is firmly telling her she has to stop for the day-where my daughter is none-to-happy about it. I don't know where this drive comes from, but I'm not about to worry about it.

So back to the story: Monday this week rolls around and my daughter and I get her dressed for her FIRST day of school.

Keep these images in your mind... they may break your heart later.

So as you can see.  She was ready and excited to start BIG GIRL school.  And I'm telling you... like DisneyLand excited!

It's 10 minutes until her first day of school should start and I grab her hand and we head out the door, to brave the heat, and walk to her school.

As we approach her school and the area where the Kindergarten kids meet I start to notice something is wrong.

Where are all the parents?

As I'm running off of fumes because I had little sleep the night before, I just shrug it off and we head to her classroom door.

Just as we are about to open the door her Kindergarten teacher opens it and looks at me, a bit surprised, (her Kindergarten teacher, BTW, is a friend of mine, we worked as lifeguards together), she says "Hi" and hesitantly shuts the door.

I sit there, befuddled for a moment.

Is my daughter late?  Is she teaching me a lesson?

I look at my phone and we are one minute early.  That is WAY on time for me.

Hmmmm... maybe she is still getting things ready...

I look around the area... WHERE IS ALL THE PARENTS?  It was just me and another lady (who I found out through polite conversation didn't speak much English) smiling at each other and looking away.

My friend, my daughters Kindergarten teacher, pokes her head out the door and has a super huge smile on her face... like the smile you have right before you are about to laugh, and says, "Shelle, did you know that school doesn't actually start until Wednesday?" bwahahahaha... hahahaha... holding her stomach, bending over laughing, and she sees the light bulb go off in my head, "we are still testing until Wednesday." hahahahahahaha... still can't breathe, she is bending over laughing at me.  "Shelle!" heave, breathe, heave, laugh, heave, breathe, "you haven't changed a bit!"

I'm feeling totally embarrassed and dumb right now, even though the only audience to this faux pas is me, the teacher, my daughter, a few other first graders playing on the play ground, and the cute non-english speaking lady.

And when I feel embarrassed I laugh.  And when I laugh, I cry.

When I could breathe again... and she could breathe again, and I grab my daughter and start walking away I say over my shoulder, "You know this won't be the only time something like this happens!"

The End.

This story is based on a true story.

So today we try again.  TODAY she is going to her actual first day of school!  We didn't take pictures again because she looks exactly like she did in the pictures above.

Love,

Girl time with PeePs!

I have like five minutes to type this.

I am at a Dance Convention that I put my daughter in. It is her very first one.

Doesn't she look so cute.

She has just been a sponge and has just ate everything up that they have thrown out at her. She's new to all of it so she isn't always sure exactly what's going on, but she has thrown herself into the whole experience and it has been so fun to watch.

It's kind of weird being the MOM in this scenario, since I have always been the dancer... really weird.

Here she is with one of her "favorite" teachers. But you know what? She has named all the teachers at one time or another as her "favorite"... but this is the only pic I have on my phone.

Anyway--I was reminded of something. Did you know that Mom's with fake boobs, and skinny minny bodies, and great tans, and really are just pretty-- are incredibly nice and fun ladies? Yea... they are. I don't judge them, it just surprises me sometimes... I have no idea why? But I thought I'd do ya'll a favor and remind you that they are fun and as goofy as they come!

It's been a blast and I'm sad today is the last day. My daughter and I have had some incredible bonding time, except when I have to drag her kicking and screaming out of the pool, other than that... it's been great girl time for us!

Love,

Shelle

One of my exceptions.

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. ~Rabindranath Tagore

There are many things I am thankful for.

But very few I am thankful for everyday-with 4 exceptions--

She is one of those exceptions.

Happy Birthday Girl. We love ya!

PeePs, Dance, and Makeup!

My little PeePs.

I put her in tap this year. If you have been reading me at all you know that dance has been a big part of my life.

So it isn't hard to figure out that my daughter will be put in dance. People expect that. What they are confused about is that I put her in tap.

Confused-nose-in-other-peoples-business-parent: "Shelle I see your daughter is ONLY in tap"... nose scrunches a little.

Me: "Yes, that's because it's an incredible waste of money to put my FOUR year old daughter in ballet and jazz when she really just needs to learn rhythm and counting and the basics of musicality right now, tap teaches that. Believe me, she won't hurt in ability if she doesn't start ballet or jazz at the young age of four."

Confused-nose-in-other-peoples-business-parent: "But you danced."

Me: "Yes... so?"

I got that a few times. That was always my answer, of course, I said it with a smile on my face! :) I'm always courteous, my mom and dad taught me well.

Anyway, being normal, I began to worry if my daughter was actually learning anything from this class and if I had made a wrong decision, because every time she came home and I asked her to show me what she had learned, and she would say, "I forgot Mom, can I go play?".

By the time recital came around, I had prepared myself for my daughter being the one little girl just standing their, frozen, staring out in the crowd... and I would console myself by saying, "Well at least she got experience out on the stage" as my husband grumbled, "That was a complete waste of money."

As we were driving to the recital I started to prepare her, telling her that no matter how things went, Mommy and Daddy are already proud of her. You know what she said? "Mommy, don't worry, I was made to be on stage!" I kid you not. Those words came out of her mouth. I thought to myself, "WHOA! She's too young to already be a big talker like her DAD!" (My husband speaks daily of how awesome he is, don't believe me? Just ask him!)

But I want to boast a little here. My daughter was fantastic!!! She was one of three that actually knew what she was doing, or at least followed really well. I wasn't wrong! She also was on beat so she learned musicality! Big sigh of relief. I felt completely validated.

In my euphoric state of happiness I excitedly went to collect her from her teacher after her performance and grabbed her to hug her tightly! Her daddy had given her flowers and she was smiling so big! So I asked her, "How did it feel to be out there on stage". Without hesitation she answered, "I just liked wearing make-up!"

If you're bored you can watch her debut right here!



Love,



P.S. I am also in a debate about technology over at Real World. I say it is overriding our family interaction on a day to day basis. Go over and see who you agree with!

My daughter and Grape Medicine...

So I think my daughter might be a Hypochondriac? But not in the sense that she is worried about her health as much as she really likes the taste of medicine?

Does anybody else find this odd?

We buy grape medicine whenever we can. I hated the bubble gum taste of medicine when I was a kid so I feel I shouldn't subject them to something I think is atrocious. But now I think as an "intervention" I might have to introduce my daughter to bubble gum tasting medicine so that she isn't "sick" all the time.

See she uses her "pains" as a convenience. Like if Max and Ruby or Dora the Explorer is on, then her belly hurts, until the show is over, then she can come to the store with us or whatever. Now I'm not a pushover so I only allow this if I need to twitter, facebook, or blog. Other than that... I'm so super tough on her...I roll my eyes and drag her with me to the store or whatever...

I might have indulged her once or 10 times (but only two handfuls of times) when it was Sunday and I could get out of church to take care of my "sick daughter" because I wanted to sleep in and it was early church. (What!? Don't look at me like that!?).

But either way... it's odd.

So I'm off to buy bubble gum tasting Children's medicine and making all my family write a letter of how much we love this little girl and why she is important to us and changing her beloved Grape medicine to Bubble Gum medicine is because we LOVE her not because we want to punish her.

Everyone else have a good weekend!!! :)

Love,

What is MY song???

As much as I like to jump on the bandwagon and do what everyone else is doing... I just can't bring myself to write resolutions or give you a low down about my blog for the year!!!

I sniff failure in the air and those of you that have gotten to know me know THIS... I fail a lot... so WHY would I set myself up to fail again when I can prevent it???

Plus who has time to think of crap like that? Besides all of you that have written them?
Let's talk about more important things like... my kid DCar, has decided he has "a song".

Yes. He announced on our drive down to our annual BreakFast in a city south of us, that he has made THIS song HIS. It is HIS, if any of you try and steal it and make it YOURS or YOUR kids' I may have to slap you on the wrist with one of those SLAP ON WRIST bracelets I use to covet but my parents could never afford. (When I turned old enough to make my own money and buy my own stuff I owned now less than 5 slap on bracelets... and they were totally out of style, but I rocked them.)

Here is HIS song:

Now his Dad, MountainSport Man, is an avid fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers... thinks they are a band that is pretty much infinite and eternal so no surprise that whenever they needed to run to the store he would play his Red Hot Chili Peppers CD's.

One snag... my son is like me in so many ways. He sings the songs at the top of his lungs but doesn't ALWAYS get the words write. So when the song says, "FINALLY" he thought it was saying, "FAMILY". And even after we corrected him he says he likes it better the way HE sings it. (I wonder if RHCP will redo the song for my son... since it is HIS song? What do you think?)

My daughter has vowed that this song(DCar's song) is also hers... even though not the day before she said this was HER song and made me play it no more than 999,989 times while she shook her booty better than Shakira ever has and I pounded my head against my desk. But now I like it and find myself listening to it when she isn't even around???

The reason I mention this?

Cause I feel now the need to find my OWN song.

Maybe in lue of you guys, my friends, I should make THIS my song?

Well I'll leave you with that today. And my goal for this week is to find MY song. But I'm all talk usually so we will see...

ANybody have suggestions on what you guys think would be MY song??? If you come up with a good one and I choose it then you will be RICH for the rest of your LIVES!!!

Do your in-laws get involved with raising your kids? Read how Sage's do over at Real World today! :)

OH! and this kinda sorta ROCKS like BIG time if you have time to view it! CLICK HERE!

Mark this day on your calendars...

I want every one to mark this day on their calendars because I WON something with out having to pay somebody to draw my name or without whining about it!!!

I WON I WON I WON!!!

I am not the type of person to flaunt other people's losses in their face...but it feels so GOOD to win! No wonder people do that!

See over at Hot Dads (where I'm an official Hot MOM-but I did pay someone to do that so it doesn't count like me winning) they had this FANTASTIC giveaway.

They had a bunch of stuff but what I really wanted was this HARD DRIVE that SeaGate was letting the Hot Dads giveaway and this is why:

For those of you who don't know I do photography on the side.

I take a lot of pictures and my hard drives on my computers fill up fast because I'm afraid to throw anything away. So what I have been doing is burning them on a DVD and storing them in a CD case...but the process takes a long time to burn for those of us who have A.D.D. (not clinically proven that I do...but it's self proclaimed) so I rarely find the time to burn the DVD and then my pictures slow down my computer.

So I was at the store a while back and saw this nifty external hard drive that you could fit into a purse! See the other external hard drive's I have bought to store my pictures were big and bulky and a big PAIN IN THE REAR!!!

When I saw that nifty small one I realized I had to have it...but because of Dave Ramsey I couldn't buy it on credit right then, I had to save for it. So I was going to buy it for Christmas as my Christmas gift from the money we had saved for Christmas!!!

So when I saw that Hot Dads was giving one away...I entered, with no thought of actually winning, but I entered and crossed my fingers and hoped and all that other stuff.

So imagine my happy dance when HotDads main guy TentCamper told me I had won! HERE is the proof!

Let's just say I jumped up and down and almost re-broke my clavicle!!!

AND I've already got my hard drive. SeaGate must have sent it right when I emailed TentCamper my address because I got it a couple of days later!

Here is my new baby:

(That's PeePs' hand. She's four. Technically I could fit HER in my purse, but even if you had a small purse you could fit this hard drive into it!)

I'm absolutely, positively in love...and it holds all of my pictures on it! My computers are happy and working faster than ever!

So even though you guys aren't as cool as me and have won one of these adorable babies...you should go out and get one if you are in need of somewhere to store extra stuff to relieve your computers hard drive! Just sayin :)

Now...enjoy my son DCAR singing to me in the car--



Now feel free to leave in comments how totally cool I am for winning this...

Love,

See PeePs... the wannabe picture book!

You know when you had to read in school but you brain was just TOO tired to read???

I remember that.

I loved reading... but sometimes my brain just couldn't take one more plot!

So I would look at pictures books and make up my own stories in my mind. I kid you not!

Since my mind is still temporarily out of service.

Here is a picture post about PeeP's last day of summer and first day of school... and then, and THEN, she...sniff...well, you'll see...

See PeePs wear her swimming suit and rain boots for the last day of summer, may they R.I.P.

PeePs loved her rain boots. She wore them almost everyday like her swimming suits.

See PeePs sick of Mom taking her picture of her last day of freedom! (Mom's first day of freedom, at least for 2 1/2 hours! Can I get an A.Men.)

See PeePs' first day of school outfit. See PeePs giddy and excited.

See PeePs humor Mom and take a picture in front of her pre-school play ground! :) Take a look for the last time of PeePs' long, long, hair that she hated to get combed because "Cinderella's rats slept with her at night".

See PeeP's long hair intact for the last seconds of it's life. (can you tell this was a bit unnerving for me?)

See PeePs' excitement that her hair was cut/hacked off! PeePs loves loves loves her "bouncy" hair!

See PeePs happy and content that Mom finally allowed her to cut off her hair.

Hope you enjoyed your picture book, reading level 1. Now you can sign off your fifteen minutes and turn in your homework!!!

Love,

We took her training wheels off!

My little Princess who doesn't, usually, have a brave bone in her body... was TOLD by MountainSport Man that it was TIME she took her training wheels off.

He's pretty adamant about our kids learning to ride their bikes on their own without the training wheels so they can move on to bigger and better things, like mountains... who am I to argue? As long as she gets to dance and I can live vicariously through her, who am I to tell HIM what he can do to live vicariously through his children? (or we are desperate for friends to hang out with us!)

I pretty much was terrified. You see, with DCar... I was like, he's a boy it's okay if he falls a few times, he needs to man up and take those training wheels off-- (I think he was 2 1/2 maybe 3?) With PeePs... I was like, "are you sure? She seems still so small... I don't want her to fall and get hurt"... WHY IS THAT do you think?

Anyway... she totally did it her first try! I have evidence.
I had a reason I brought the camera... so I wouldn't have to HUFF it after her! That's what Dad's are for anyway right?

Both of my kids stick their tongues out when they are concentrating! Weird...

Peeps didn't have stopping down yet... so DCar helped her stop by being a road block (Or I yelled at him, "Don't let her hit me!")...awww what a good kid..

She was fully stopped and then just kind of fell over... she's was laughing so we were good...

But then it was just easy peasy for her!


I shouted to him, "How are you going to catch her if she falls?" MSM said, "I'm not..." uuuhhh okay, I'll just keep shooting I guess...

I love how DCar always pretends he's interested in what she has to say. She was telling us all how she did it by herself... like we weren't there and hadn't seen it...

Okay... this pic is solely for me...

It was hot... and she was thirsty after showing us she was a pro at riding her bike... I'm not gonna lie, I was completely proud of her!

Okay all family out there that keeps harping on me to put up more pics of the kids! There ya go! And I'm going to go one step above that... here's a video of it all!!!



So how early do you guys start your kids riding their bikes???

Love,