a few of my favorite things

 ...in no particular order

Elijah's hugs

Pudding

Maiah's kisses

Diet Pepsi

The gym

Vernie's smile

WoW and even better - my Dissension friends

Talking to Kirsten

Brandon's sense of humor

My new shoes - so sexy
Running

My pillow

Bridal sessions

Dancing (in the kitchen. with my kiddos.)

Maiah's laugh

my Victoria's Secret lotions

movie night/girls' night out

Calla lilies

the Beach

Happy babies

Cuddles
Fog
when headache medicines actually work :p

Christmas Eve

Have you ever worried that all you've got was somehow not enough? That's me this Christmas Eve.

Have you ever missed your family or loved ones during a special day & just wished you could change things and show them that they mean something to you even though they're far away? Yep, that's me too.

Have you ever had a sweet little monkey-babe smile at you and make everything seem almost okay, if only for a moment? Their hugs work too, and kisses are the bestest. Yeah. I heart my monkeys, and that's me this Christmas Eve.

Normally I love Christmas. I still do, I just feel a little detached this year - like something's missing. I've spent a lot of years in Utah and have developed a few traditions with my aforementioned babes, but I guess I haven't been caught up in monkey-joy just yet. I'm sure having Chinese food with Vern's family followed by some hopefully smile-filled Christmas morning festivities and our own traditions will bring some good times.

Yeah, it's just been a slightly blue-ish Christmas season thus far. Maybe more blah than blue - but definitely off regardless. Thankfully, I do think all of  my babes will be happy, and so am looking forward to enjoying them (and all of their smiles, hugs & kisses) this weekend. I'm channeling good thoughts to those I love who are far away. I didn't even do cards this year (again) but I'm hoping people feel loved regardless. I was able to do something for my dad that made me feel good. He felt loved I think. :) Hopefully I can do things for everyone else on my list as opportunities arise.

Merry Christmas (or whatever you may be celebrating) peoples! I hope that this entry finds people smiling, healthy and enjoying their loved ones. I'll add tree pictures once Santa arrives. :)

Hooray! Santa made it! My kiddos are going to be so happy when they wake up. Now I hope I can somehow sleep so I can enjoy them in the early morning hours. lol Physically I'm exhausted, but my mind has had problems shutting down & letting me sleep of late.  
Wish me luck!

a merry-wishing sort of blog entry

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. I've been battling the sickies, trying to get some work done and getting ready for Christmas. I'm all excited to see my kiddos' excitement on Christmas morning - that's my absolute favorite part. :) 

Christmas kind of snuck up on me this time around. I just haven't been all that into it, but we were at least able to do good things by our kiddos in the end, so all is well. 

I'll do my annual Christmas Eve pic tomorrow & hopefully my kiddos and I will all be feeling well enough to enjoy Christmas morning.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you blog-reading friends are enjoying your holidays. I wish you all happiness and good times. :)

sweetness

For those of us in need of a hug, a smile or some dose of sweetness in these last days before Christmas, I've got just the thing.

Awwww... yep. I love that little face so much! It worked for me. :) If the sweet face of a little one doesn't work for you the best consolation prize I can come up with is to share my cherry cordial kisses. So there. :p

/squishes!

tis the season :)

We're headed Christmas shopping today. I'm hoping it's a one-shot deal & we're able to get everyone everything we're hoping to get. We shall see! 

Yesterday's photo shoot with Kori & Ryan went awesome. They're going to have a LOT of fabulous pictures when I get them all sorted, sharpened and such. I crashed after getting them uploaded last night (it was such a long day) and am hoping to get a chunk of work done today in between things to start uploading sneak peeks to the private blog for them to see. 

I didn't get to play WoW at all yesterday & today is looking iffy. I'm having withdrawals and am hoping to be able to work hard enough on pics to feel like I've earned at least a dailies run & maybe a heroic if I can catch a guild run. :)

Oh, and with all of the junk food of late an actual get-off-my-butt run would be nice. I really really want my gym membership renewed for Christmas. 

I need to get a shot of my kiddos for a blog-style Christmas card, but you're all stuck with more April face for now, since that's what I had for a quickie attempt at some Christmas wishes.

I hope you readers are having a wonderful holiday season!

Squishes!

Monday morning

It's almost time for me to go pick Elijah up from school, but I wanted to get a quick entry in here first. It feels like it's been awhile.

Arinne hit 85 last night! Just working on gear and rep (mostly for gear) now. I got to heal a couple of runs last night too. (Yay!) Healing in cataclysm is going to be a bit more challenging maybe, but so much fun. :)

...okay, so it's Tuesday evening now & I'm just now coming back to this. I had to go pick up Ej yesterday & then my day snowballed from there. So yeah - I just made dinner & am wanting to log into WoW but here I am to finish this up first. :) I don't even know that I have anything amazing to say. Just hi - I'm here, the kiddos are good and, um - ooh! I can report that I a good temple run last night, and that Ari can run heroics now (though the mana strain should be interesting) and um, no I haven't gone Christmas shopping at all yet. There's not been a way to do it yet. Hopefully things will work out. Kori's bridal/wedding shoot is on Friday so I'll be really busy here soon, and yeah. That's all I've got.

Hugs!

just another Thursday night

Kirsten's drama showcase at the jr. high tonight was fun. She's so awesome! :)

I was able to get the cataclysm download and played with Brandon last night & got Arinne to 82 this morning. Yay! I'm loving exploring the new stuff - so fun. :) It's been awesome having lots of people on & in vent too - I heart my WoW friends. There are still a few missing, but I'll take what I can get. I hope we get all set to raid & play together. That's the bestest. :)

I'm desperately wanting a treat of some kind and have nothing. I don't even have the ingredients to make something. No pudding. No cookies. No sugar fix of any kind. Sadness.

The race I was thinking might be the next one to train for looks like a no-go after all. I'm a little sad. Mostly because I'd love to have another race to look forward to - though the thought of a 1/2 marathon in March was a little scary. lol I'm hoping to find something to work toward again. Yeah. Gotta find one that fits.

Brandon finally crashed after his couple day blitz to get Groshen to 85. He was fast! He was first in Dissension. He managed to clean the kitchen after helping Nina out with I think hers, then fell asleep the moment he laid down. He looks so cute all curled up on the couch now. :)  lol

It's a little cold down here tonight. I need some fuzzy socks or something. Brrrrrr...

I could use a hug too.

Oooooh, go me! I found a cake mix! There are cookies baking as we speak. It might not cheer me up completely, but it's a start. lol

 I'm torn between cuddling up with a blankie & my book, or finding some socks & finishing out vashj'ir. Mmmm... and my cookies should be ready. Hooray!

Well, either way - 'night blogland! :)

cataclysm

So Brandon started playing the cataclysm content last night - I was able to get him the digital copy in time for him to be ready to run as soon as it went live. It's been fun watching over his shoulder. It'll be even more fun when I can play too. :p I was hoping we'd somehow be able to get both of our copies right away but no, I'm still waiting. Starting out a little behind isn't new to me. Thank goodness for friends who'll hold my hand and help me when I'm the lost noob!

There, it feels better to at least mention that I'm excited for the expansion - just don't have it yet. :)
Have a great day!

the finish line

I figured I'd share the shots from the finish line yesterday. We're all sweaty, happy and sitting in the field listening to the award ceremony. I'm still so proud of us!

When the owie muscles all go away I'm hoping to convince Lauren that she wants to run one again. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll share the pics from today's excursion to Arches national park soon. It was funny hiking the 1/2 mile to the delicate arch viewpoint with our sore muscles today. lol Good times. :)

pictures will follow

...but I will say tonight that I'm so happy we did this 10k!

The snags didn't stop - but some will make for good memories. :)
Ask Lauren about her chapstick. And me if I can perhaps spot the port-a-potties at mile 3. o.O
It was much colder than I'd hoped, and I struggled with unexpected things (like having to pee so bad the last 2 miles that I could barely run for fear of accidents lol) but my time wasn't too horrible for a first timer. I came in at 1:10:56 (makes the pace 0:11:37) Ty came in at 1:18:25 (0:12:38) Lauren crossed the finish at 1:19:25 (0:12:47) and Vern was at 1:22 (0:13:17).
 I should have come in under an hour. I could have. If I could have pushed at the end like I planned I'd have made it, but I wasn't going to risk an accident so bounce was kept to a minimum. lol I almost cried when we had to cross a bridge over a stream and run alongside it for a bit.
It's all good. I'm ok with things overall. I had so much fun and am already wanting to train for my next race. :D And hanging out with Laurie & Ty is always fun. We're swinging through Arches National park on our way home tomorrow. Fun!

And like I said, there will be pictures.

ready or not, it's 10k time!

So I'm almost all packed and ready - we leave in the morning for Moab! We pick up our packets tomorrow afternoon after getting checked in to our hotel & try to be ready for race day come Saturday morning.

Wish me luck! Or Speed! And endurance! Yeah... All of the above would be good. o.O

After the sickies & the constant lack of sleep of late I'm just hoping to feel good & strong Saturday morning. I did everything I could to prepare my noob-runner self, so even with the last minute snags I'm just hoping for a good race day.

We'll be back Sunday evening and I'm sure there will be stuff to say. :)

Have a great weekend!!

brrrr...

I stepped outside & braved a few moments of snow in my flip flops this morning just to share with those of you in different locales just what I mean when I say it keeps snowing here in the Salt Lake Valley. This first one is to show the depth of snow in our front yard - you can see the cement in the bottom corner. Brandon has since shoveled the driveway, so now there's a nice bank along there. Oh, and it's snowing again, so yeah...

 

 

 

 

 

the weather outside is frightful

...but my pomegranate is delightful! (Cheesy, I know. I can't help it. :D)

As was my banana bread (with milk!) that I had for breakfast. Such yumminess. 

...And my house still smells like the pumpkin pies I made. So yeah, I'm surrounded by yummy things. 

I just wish it weren't so very cold outside. It has snowed all day too. Crazy I tell you. 

I did finally kick my 2.5 day headache, and I think my cold is easing up. Yay! I need to get healthy quick. 

I can't believe the 4th is almost here - I've had the least/worst training these last couple of weeks seeing as I've felt like crud and all, but my 10k is in 6 days. I'm just a little nervous at this point. o.O

Please oh please let me at least be able to sleep a little this week. (I've been dealing with insomnia again too. I literally am awake in bed all damn night. It's so frustrating, because it doesn't help my headaches or my cold at all and I'm just constantly exhausted. Yeah...)

I'm hoping we get to raid tonight - I haven't seen my wow friends in days. :(

I'm hoping to put my tree up tonight too. I was going to do it last night, but  had no help and I didn't want to have to drag everything upstairs by myself. :p

/squishes!

thankful

I'm a day late, but thankful nonetheless.
There was turkey, stuffing, lots of yummy pie, and the cutest little monkeys around.

Yeah, I love my kiddos. I'm grateful for their hugs, kisses, cuddles and for all of the joy they bring me.
We had a good (albeit brrrrr-frickin-cold) Thanksgiving.
Hope you all did too! :)

the sundering (a WoW entry)

It's patch day! It's patch day! 

I stayed up all night (well, until they took the realms down at 4) finishing up some achievements I was wanting to get done before the sundering of Azeroth. I took one last shot at a ZG tiger too, but without luck. Finally discovering Teldrassil for my world explorer achievement might not sound all that exciting but I was having fun trying to get those things done in time. :) 

Now I'm just waiting for the realms to be up so that I can be one of the crazy millions of people checking out the state of Azeroth after the patch. It's the last big patch before Blizz releases Cataclysm - it's the sundering. I'm all excited. :) Aw, it looks like they pushed things back to 5 pm. Time to go cuddle with my babe. (We both have colds.)

Have a great day!

My Friday

Just a meme tonight - I'm kinda sleepy. :p

A picture of you right now...

K, I have to grab the flip - I'll grab a still from it since it does okay in low light. :p

Something nice that was said to you today...

Um, "I love you" is always good.  :) Oh, and Vernie's little friend that helped us rake leaves in our front yard said "Oh, you have a young mom." That's always good too. lol

Your Friday night theme song...

Hmmm... Well I just thoroughly enjoyed listening to Kamelot's Forever so we'll go with that.

Favorite Friday purchase...

I have me some fudge shop cheesecake-middle cookies & a Glamour magazine from our grocery shopping trip. :)

This Friday was a good one because...

I have to admit I've been kind of down the last couple of days - not sure why. I had a great nap today though, enjoyed raking leaves with my boys and my dry-skin/teenage like breakout has finally vanished. (Yay!) So today was good. Oh and I have cookies! Can't forget the cookies. :) No workout though, so tomorrow I'll have to hit the gym hard.

Anything on your Christmas wish list yet?

I always have a wish list, but since my gym membership expires in December I was hoping we could get it renewed. That'd be a nice gift.

So yeah, now that I've answered a couple meme questions I'm so ready to cuddle up with my babe & my shiny new magazine.

Happy Friday!

Hugs!

in the end there will be candy

My kids and I have spent much of our day trying to find my authenticator with no luck. I wanna play WoW. :(  I really really hope we find it soon. It's been on my desk forever, but it wasn't there this morning. I'm guessing Maiah got hold of it, which means it could be anywhere in this house.

Then tonight Laurie & I went up to the Draper temple neighborhood for a run. We have the worst luck picking nights to train together. lol It was so crazy windy up there that there was just no way we were going to run it tonight. We did walk three miles, but yeah - not a whole lot of running going on. :p

So yeah, now I'm home - authenticator-less with only a very windy walk to account for my training today. Bummer. All I want at this point is some junk food, some good music & a hot tub. I can at least play me some tunes, since the other two aren't handy. Yeah...

Tomorrow's Friday though, and I'm one of the few people I know of at the moment not fighting some form of the sickies - so I can't complain. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have an awesome run. And maybe we'll find my authenticator soon. Really soon. And hey, the stores still open - I can go for a little walk and get me some junk food. Yeah, it's not so bad. Before this night ends I will have me some candy. Rawr.

'night blogland!

I love it when...

Photoshop, my monitor settings and the provider I use for all of my prints agree on color space. Having them not in sync while in the middle of a few important projects is so not fun. (I was ready to smash something. Really really hard.) But I have things running smoothly (with no off color tones!) once again.Go me! :)

I have a good run. Long enough. Fast enough. Yeah. Good runs are the bestest!

I get to have pudding. For breakfast. Mmmmm...

I wake up feeling pretty. You know it's going to be a good day when you wake up already feeling good about yourself.

Maiah gives me nice (non-zerbert style) kisses. :)

I have Lore on vent to play music for my round of fishing.

...and Gig in WoW to relay my typed messages to him since my mic is broken. Again. :p

My head doesn't hurt.

I feel strong.
I have a beautiful little monkey in my lap. Even though she likes to press the buttons on my keyboard a little too much. :p

We have a good raid night. Heroic ICC10 is going well. Fun times!

A good song comes on the radio when I'm cooking or cleaning in the kitchen. That's where the dancing happens. :)

My kiddos say I love you, just because.

There's lots more to love on this beautiful Friday, but I have got to get this pretty little girl to eat something, switch the laundry & finish editing these photos now that I can color correct in PS again. Yay!

Have a great day! :)

coming up for air

It has been a crazy busy week for me, and today I figured I'd better come up for air. 

After staying up until 5 again editing pictures & designing  announcements (I can concentrate better once my kiddos go to bed ) I was completely useless this morning. I actually ended up going back to bed - I was too tired to be of much use. :p
I ran 5.5 miles on Monday at almost goal pace. It was awesome. Of course, I haven't been running since then, so tonight I have got to get another good one in before my raid. I really shouldn't let life interrupt my training this close to the race.

My boys are loving being off track. I'm wishing they were more into getting their room clean & less into having turns on the computer.

It's so cold again today. The snow from this week's storm didn't stick at all though. It's just brrr frickin cold. 

I'd better get running or photo editing, just wanted to say hey. :) 

I'm here, just busy enough that I need to remind myself every once in awhile to come up for air.

Hugs!

Bring the Noise

Our family has had an eventful week!

Brandon's been sick - it turns out he has an inner ear infection (viral?!) and that's why he's been dizzy and feeling cruddy for days.  He's got some medicine to help with the equilibrium/dizzy issue and gets to wait it out. Fun!

 It was important that he feel better enough tonight to enjoy the game. We took our kiddos (minus Maiah) to the Jazz/Raptors game. It was so much fun! Kirsten & I were the only ones cheering (loudly) for the Raptors, B got to wear his personalized Raptors jersey to a game, Elijah got to see himself dancing on the jumbo-tron thing (maybe he made it on tv!), Vernie danced too and found out that games not involving a mouse & keyboard can be fun too and Vern escaped work for a few hours on a crazy day. I had forgotten how much I love cheering for an underdog team in a live game, and I always love crowds - so yeah, it was a good night. Even though the Jazz won. lol  Kirsten did do a good job of taking the advice of the Jazz' slogan. She did "Bring the Noise!" Just a little louder for the Raptors is all. :)

Maiah had a good night too I think! It was her first time ever being babysat outside of Brandon & Kirsten at home. She even let Lauren paint her toenails & do her hair. So fun! Now let's hope she sleeps well tonight. I have a busy morning ahead of me with parent/teacher conferences and an afternoon temple run planned with Lauren (with hopefully a nap before raid night) so a rested Maiah would be such a beautiful thing.

Oh, and a crazy thing happened today. My Canadian passport arrived! I thought it was going to be Brandon's, so was shocked to see my name & picture when I opened it up. Now we have to find out what's up with his. They responded to my status check e-mail with a "please have him call this toll-free number" thing that has me wondering why they've held his this long. They accepted his money in early October, so I just figured it was slow to arrive or be processed or something, but with how quick my turnaround was after my resubmit I'm now just hoping nothing's wrong with his application. We'll find out soon I hope. Please pray, cross your fingers or whatever other helpful thought comes to mind for my B and his passport. We need things to keep moving forward for sanity's sake. :p

Okay, so I'm up way too late again with so much more I'd like to do & say but I had better go find my pillow.
'night blogland!

fantabulous

My kiddos looked fantabulous for their Halloween parties at school today! I had fun helping in Vernie's class. I need pics of the kiddos all done up, but for now here's Ej & me goofing off after walking home from school. I'm not sure what he's doing to his hand there. Maybe eating candy? :p

Last night's raid was even better than fantabulous! Dissension finally got the Lich King down! I was so proud of us. :) Oooh, and Ari got a new mace. So awesome!

And it's Friday! I heart Fridays. It doesn't get better than that. (Well, it does, but I'll take it. :p)

/hugs!

made me laugh

Yep, smile every time I see this one. :p

Now here's hoping for a good raid tonight!
Happy Thursday! :)

a good run, Kinderbear and naptime

I had the most awesome run last night! I did a 3 mile temple run. (An outdoor run up in the Draper temple neighborhood - so fun and oh so hilly & I'm totally getting better and better at it!) It was brr-frickin-cold & windy, but I felt good and just had an awesome run. :)

Elijah brought home his class bear today. We took him on our walk to the library & the store. Fun stuff! Ej's being all cute about his "very lucky sleepover day." Awwww... :)

Kirsten came home from school all hyper. She must have had a good day. lol

Maiah didn't sleep very well last night. I'm hoping we can cuddle and have a nap soon. Sleep sounds so awesome right about now. :p

I'm trying to decide what to make for dinner. I had leftover pizza for lunch and am stuffed, but am sure the kiddos will be hungry. :p

Yeah, it's totally naptime first though. Then I'll feed the kiddos. Then to the gym to sweat & watch Glee. Then some WoW before bed. 

Sounds good.

Have a great day!

beautiful

I love this tornado monkey's little face...

...and I love Fridays.

Have a great one!

without

Here I am blogging without pictures again. My apologies. I've been meaning to blog for days, but have been distracted with real life stuff. 

So yeah, here's a haven't-blogged-in-days sort of update. :)

Brandon made it home from Arizona tonight. I missed him. He had fun. It was a much-deserved break. :) Thanks Kenyon, Jeanette, Brian & Beth!

The Office makes me laugh. lol Yep - Brandon's home. ;)

I think Maiah missed him almost as much as I did. :)

I walked/ran more than 8 miles again today, including walking to the gym.

We should know by the end of this week if my passport application goes through. I hope. 

Brandon's hasn't arrived yet. I wonder how long it takes.

Elijah & Maiah have watched How to Train your Dragon like 50 times in the last 2 days.

I'm making banana bread again since B didn't get any of the last batch. :p

The pile of clean laundry needing to be folded is entirely too big.

I'm trying to help Kirsten with her math homework. 2 girls who are not so great at math trying to figure this out is kind of comical. :p

Mmmm... that bread is smelling so good.

I wish we had a bathtub. A bubble bath sounds so good right now.

Yeah... Vern has resorted to helping K with her math. :p

Alright, it's time to take some headache meds, fold laundry & pull the banana bread out of the oven.

'night!

fixed

So I still wasn't 100% happy with Ari's ui, which meant tinkering again today while I did my dailies. Much better. :) This time I kept xperl's config window open to show where the raid frames and such go. The decursive box fits nicely as a 5x5 between the two. (Any guesses as to what my favorite visible personalization is? No it's not all of the pink or the swirling/turning runes like my family guessed. It's the Lore & Pain target macros that make me smile the most. lol Aren't they cute?)

Now to make sure I still love Leilah's. And to grab another slice of leftover pizza. Mmmmm... I have to fuel up to run later. I'm going for a long one today - see where my endurance is at.

I hope people are having an awesome weekend! I'll try to get some actual pictures for this little blog of mine. Meanwhile, yeah... Have a good one! :)