Swimming

I think my children need a swimming pool seeing as how they are swimming in the street!

About me

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:15

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Iron Man

4. What is your favorite TV show? Lost

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Green smoothie

6. What is your middle name? Ann

7. What food do you dislike? soggy bread

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? John Mayer Continuum

9. What kind of car do you drive? My 1997 Pontiac Transport, which I am so glad to have back!

10. Favorite sandwich? My special tuna sandwich

11. What characteristic do you despise? being judgemental

12. Favorite item of clothing? PJ's

13. If you could go any where in the world on vacation, where would you go? Europe

14. What was your most recent memorable birthday? My last birthday is the only one I remember. I am getting old!

15. When is your birthday? December 1st

16. Morning person or a night person? night

17. Shoe size? 9, yes I have big feet

18. Pets? one Bo dog

19. Any new and exciting news? Nope

20. What did you want to be when you were little? a mommy

21. How are you today? GREAT!

22. What is your favorite flower? I love spring bouquets

23. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? July 30th, I am going to Idaho for Ed Week, and Aug 6th, I am starting my Zoning classes

24. What are you listening to right now? John Mayer

25. What was the last thing you ate? Left over lasagna from last night

26. Do you wish on stars? Absolutely

27. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? blue

28. How is the weather right now? hot and muggy

29. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My sister in law Roxanne

30. Favorite soft drink? None

31. Favorite restaurant? Chin Wah or Geckos or Panda Express

32. Hair color? blond

33. What was your favorite toy as a child? My cabbage patch doll

34. Winters or summers? Fall

35. Chocolate or Vanilla? Twist

36. Coffee or tea? Neither

37. When was the last time you cried? Sometime last week

38. What is under your bed? a whole bunch of junk

39. What did you do last night? started my cleaning for today so that I would have less to straighten today and made cookies, they are really good by the way!

40. What are you afraid of? Heights

45. Salty or sweet? both together!

46. How many keys on your key ring? three

47. How many years at your current job? six years

48. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

49. Do you make friends easily? I think so.

Luke Damien Garner

Notice I used his full name. There is a reason for that. I don't remember my other boys getting into quite as much stuff as he is at his age. He must be trying to keep up with his brothers.

Yes, this is him. He WILL NOT leave anything in the cupboards alone. He is always is in them. I swear I put the contents away at least 10 times a day. I dont' even organize it anymore. I just throw it in because I know it will be back out in about 5 min. He also puts stuff in them. I find dirty sippy cups in them all the time as well as pieces of bread and stuff.

This is also him. He will not stay out of my plant. He used to get in it and throw maybe one handful of dirt out and then he would leave it alone. I could deal with that. Now he just throws dirt everywhere. He always does it when I am in the bathroom or busy cleaning somewhere.

After him getting dirt all over the living room three times we decided to put the plant up in our bedroom.

This is him as well. Isn't he cute! It just kind of makes up for it all!

Memory Game!

I got this from a friend, it's fun to hear all the different memories.

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments

Where do they come up with these things?

Simon just told me that I am a "genieous" (genius). I have no idea where he picks up these words! It was meant as a compliment however so I feel flattered.

Deep thoughts from a 30 year old

I have been thinking a lot about my life lately. I have always heard that getting older is great because you are wiser. I really believe this. I have been 30 for over 6 months now, and as I look back over the last several months I can see that I have been living my life different then I ever have before. For one thing, I can say that I am truly happy. Even when things aren't going like I would like I can say that I am happy. I am truly enjoying everything about my life even the things that have seemed completely mundane to me in the past I am enjoying. Like doing the dishes for example. I actually don't completely hate doing dishes any more. I look at it in a completely different way. (I am still working on the laundry thing however.)
I have finally found myself and who I have always wanted to be, and who I knew I always was inside. I am now changing things in my life that I have always wanted and tried to change without any luck. It seems easier now, even though I think that it is more my perception of life that is actually making it easier. I feel like I have overcome some great trials that have made me stronger and wiser. These experiences are helping me get through the trials that I have now. Hopefully in a little bit easier way then in the past.
Now, I don't think that it just magically happened over night on my birthday, but because I have been reflecting back I have noticed it more.
I am proud to be 30! I am excited to get older. Hey, I might even love my 40th birthday! I don't think I will ever try to hide my age because I am proud. (My mom still says that she is 29! HA! I am older then her.)

Birth cousins

This is Luke and Elijah. Elijah is Luke's birth cousin. He was born one day before Luke. We got to meet him and his mom over the weekend. It was fun to see the two of them together and to spend some time getting to know each other a little.

July 4th

We have had a really fun few days. On Thursday we went camping and 4 wheeling. The boys has a lot of fun. Luke got real dirty as he loved to sit and play in the dirt. Grandma and Grandpa Garner came with us and we got to sleep in their tent trailer. We came home on Friday and got cleaned up then headed back out to go on a picnic with my side of the family. We played a game of kick ball after the picnic. Then we headed to my sisters house to wait for the fireworks to start at Thanksgiving point. We can see them well from her front yard. While we waited we set off some fireworks and the boys got to do some sparklers. The older kids, (ie the parents) played Guitar Hero which was projected onto my sisters garage door. It was a lot of fun!

Random Pictures

Luke never stops eating!

Simon at the park.

This is what Simon looks like every morning after he drinks his green smoothie. He loves them!

Simon with his birth mom at our birth mom reunion. I will post more about it later. I am going to be getting more pictures and will share more then.

Jonah and Simon with Jonah's birth mom at the reunion.

Yesterday

Yesterday was quite possibly one of the worst days I have had as a parent. The day started out good. I was planning on having some of my friends and their children over for a play date. I was excited! They came we played, ate and talked. The kids had gone outside to play in the back and I really wasn’t too worried about them. They only thing that they could really get into was the water, but Travis had just put caps on all of the bibs so that the kids wouldn’t play with them, or so I thought. I guess he had tried to put them on, but they didn’t fit. So, I went back to check on them and the entire stair well was full of water. They had turned the hose bib on and left the water running and it seeped down and started to full the well up from the bottom. Of course they didn’t think to turn the water off, or come and get me and tell me what was happening, they instead decided it would be fun to play in it. When I found them I was actually surprisingly calm and simply told them to go to their room. I told the mother of their friends that were here and she proceeded to take the kids home.

I went up to the boys’ room to check on them again and their window was open and all of their books, dresser drawers full of clean clothes, blankets pillows, sheets and toys, pretty much anything in their room that was not to heavy for them to lift was thrown out the window. Now let me just say, that their window is right above the stairwell that was now filled with water. Everything was sopping wet. All the books were ruined. I couldn’t stop crying about this. I love books! I love my children to have books to read and learn from. I am so disappointed in my boys. Don't get me wrong. I love them deeply, which is part of the reason for my disappointment. I am at a complete loss at what to do. Every time I went out to try and clean things up, all I could do was cry. We have tried, and tried to teach them the rules, to teach them obedience and responsibility for their things. Our FHE lesson on Monday was on obedience and it’s importance.

We have now taken everything out of their room except their mattresses and one blanket each. They will have to earn the rest of their stuff back. We cannot trust them with it. Their window is shut up so that they cannot open it. Travis found a way to cap the hose bibs. They are grounded for the rest of the week. And they must help me wash all the clothes that they threw out the window. I don’t know if any of this will teach them however. I feel so lost and unsure of what to do.