Joy of Service. Marshmallow Castles. Chicken Skins.

Not much happened this week. This post has potential for boringness. :)



1. Dentist visit. Yay. My front teeth don't line up exactly the way they used to and it's annoying.

___________________________________________________
2. Our branch has playgroup every Wednesday and someone's house and this past Wednesday it was here! It was lots of fun! I need to invite people over more often so I keep my house clean.

___________________________________________________
3. Went to the dermatologist for a check up. Lots of good news there:
A) I don't have to go back for check ups unless I start breaking out again,
B) I can do both my medicines in the morning instead of one in the AM and one in the PM,
C) I don't have to wait 30 min after my face wash to do one of the medicines!! (do you know how many times I fought to stay awake for 30min late at night?!?!)
and D) I don't have to take the antibiotic anymore! I stunk at remembering to take it anywho.

So a big YEEHOO all around!

___________________________________________________
4. Our family cleaned up the grassy common area/drainage ditch by our neighborhoods mailboxes. (I won't say whether or not I put up fliers to invite everyone to come clean and I won't say whether or not anyone else came...)
But 1 hour and 4 trash bags later, our street and the grassy area is all clean!

It felt good.


___________________________________________________
5. Speaking of feeling good, I've got a new goal for myself. When I get overwhelmed and am screaming for some 'me time', I'm going to do something for someone else!
I too often forget the joy I feel after serving. And not only will I feel good but the person I served will, also! It's a win-win!

___________________________________________________
6. I LOVE being a Pampered Chef consultant. But the hardest part is starting. And since we moved, I had to 'start' all. over. again.
I have to make new contacts and I can't do that if I'm not doing shows and I can't do shows if I don't have contacts. ARGH!

I've been trying and I could be trying harder but I'm just too much of a chicken to walk up to strangers and ask them to host. I would think it's creepy if someone did that to me so I don't want to do it... :( Boo hoo.
Have you busted out your violins to play me a sad song yet?

___________________________________________________
7. Oh my craziness in Japan! Facebook has been flooded with insane pictures and videos of all the destruction that has happened.
My heart goes out to all those families who have lost absolutely everything and also to all those who have lost family members as well.
I can't even imagine the heartache of loosing so much all at once.
I hope I never have to, either.


___________________________________________________
8. Adam and I have started dating again! We get paid every other Thursday so the Friday after payday we go out to eat or do something and the the other 'poor' Friday we do a cheap, stay home date! I've been getting some really good ideas from The Dating Divas. Haven't done any of their dates yet but I will!

This past Friday was a cheap date and we stayed in and built castles out of marshmallows and toothpicks!

Adam's cool dome castle with a mini reeses on top

My less impressive-looking castle

The boys have been helping us to eat them.





___________________________________________________
9. My sweet little sunbeam brought me a flower back from church! His teacher told them to give their flower to someone to make them happy.

That little boy makes me happy every day. :)



___________________________________________________
10. Speaking of that little boy: He loves Toy Story. We watch one of the 3 Toy Story movies at least 3x a week. Here's a cute video of Anthony watching the beginning of TS2. The first half isn't has cute/funny as the second half.

Poo. It's still not working.


___________________________________________________
11. Bad decision of the week: reading the ingredients of Campbell's Healthy Request Chicken and Rice soup. EW.

___________________________________________________
12. That's it for now. Got some exciting stuff coming up this week! Bachelor Finale tonight, a massage, Bath and Body Works fragrance party... Wahoo!

Oh, and Adam's birthday is coming up in 9 days!

13 kids. Spic'n'span-ness. Peanuts.

It's been a while. Like, an entire month while! :/

Highlights of the entire month of February:

1. I went to Dallas for Pampered Chef Spring Launch. It's like a big training meeting where they reveal the new Spring Products. It was fun but not worth the registration money plus the gas and hotel stay. But it's OK because I got to eat at my favorite restaurant once again! They don't have a Texas Roadhouse near me! :(

We stayed in a ghetto hotel that had this sign outside...YIPES.

The pretty Dallas Skyline

I came home to early Valentine's gifts waiting for me!


















2. On Valentine's Day, Adam and I watched 11 extra kids for our friends. It was crazy but kinda fun. This experience has reminded me how much I love my friends and how much I am SO not meant to be a Michelle Duggar!

I am very grateful I don't have 13 kiddos under the age of 9! :)
(11 were 6 and under!!)

Here are 11 of them.

3. Adam and I celebrated Valentine's Day the next weekend. We went out to PF Changs for dinner and then went to Fast Lane for some LASER TAG! We played arcade games while waiting for our turn and got tons of tickets! We 'bought' a bunch of insta-break, China toys for the kiddos with our ticket winnings. It felt like we were dating again! Complete with random old guy staring at us kissing in the parking lot! ;)

It was the best and most fun date I've been on in quite a while! I love my sweetheart, Adam, so much! I can't even describe it. He is my absolute favorite person in the whole world. And like I've said since we were dating, I could shovel poo with him and have the best day of my life. I love doing anything and everything with him!

We will definitely be laser tagging again soon! Anyone want to double date with us?



4. We got a new TV! It's an early birthday present for both Adam and I. It's a 47 inch LCD HD tv. And it's beautiful! We also got a sound system so we are having a blast watching all our movies on it! It's like we're in a movie theater.
I haven't taken a picture of it yet because I want to finish organizing around it first. And in order to do that, someone needs to buy our old TV! $50 for an old 65 inch Phillips TV that works. Anyone? Anyone?



5. It snowed 20 inches on us here in Northwest Arkansas earlier this month.


It was crazy but SO much fun! We dug trails into the snow in our back yard. Can you see our snowman that looks like a cone head?


And that night it froze over and we got beautiful trees the next morning!





6. Here are some fun pics of us at the play ground a few weeks ago.



7. I am on a mission to get better at cleaning. I've never been good at it and I figure 5 years and 2 kids into a marriage is a good time to start. HAHA!
I think my problem is that when my house is just a tiny bit messy, my brain doesn't notice it. I only notice when it's gotten out of hand. :/

So, I made this poster for myself. It is up by my TV.


I tell myself if it's not spic-n-span, there's something that needs to be done!

I think I've done pretty good for the last 2 weeks. I'd say my house has been no more than 30 minutes away from spic-n-span since I started! I am praying I can keep this up because I like my house to be clean!



8. I know Anthony could/should be in preschool now but
A) I have no idea where to send him and B) we might not be able to afford it (with the whole house in AZ thing)
So, I found this cool writing workbook for Anthony at Sam's Club. It starts with just tracing straight lines then moves to tracing curved lines and eventually moves to letters and then whole words.
He loves it and he's doing really well. He likes getting the stickers when he's done!

9. We found out Jimmy is allergic to peanuts.
Joy.

He had a blood test taken which came back positive for peanut, soy and wheat. I took him the allergist the other day and wheat and soy barely showed up but he reacted pretty strong to peanut. The doc said to avoid all nuts and bring him back in a year to get him tested again. It sounds like he doesn't have a life threatening allergy, though. Which I am very thankful for!!


10. Other cool February things that won't get their own paragraph:

I'm reading and I went to book group!
I'm watching the Bachelor for the first time. Reality shows are addicting!
I went to 2 baby showers
I painted my toes and the toes of a friend a day away from giving birth.
I took giant marshmallows to a Relief Society chocolate fountain activity.
We had FHE with some of our cool friends.
I held my own Pampered Chef show and got some cool stuff! $94 worth for $25. Chee hoo!
Anthony had an ear infection. Sad.