The Proofs are In!

We had our first ever family pictures done two weeks ago and though the portraits aren't back yet, I couldn't wait to share the proofs with all of you! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Sounds Like Life to Me

Lake Winnepesaukah train ride-

June? Seriously I've been lacking in my blog posting- so lets do a top 10 of what's been going on-

1. We're potty training Gracie- armed with a little pink potty, a bag of princess pullups and a lot of patience

2. I took the kids + Meredith to the Chattanooga Zoo

3. I took the kids to Mayfield Dairy to see how milk is bottled and Ice Cream made, and of course we had to eat some Ice Cream too!



4. The kids started back to school (mom's favorite part of the summer)- Jake is in Pre-K full time so I only have 1 baby home all day.


5. Jason has taken up Geocaching as a hobby


6. I've read half a dozen books or more (Thank you Nora Roberts & Patricia Cornwell for your fabulous writing that keeps me up all hours of the night when I should be sleeping so I can get up in a better mood for my kids in the morning- Speaking of Patricia Cornwell, the infamous "Body Farm" is only about an hour away from me)


7. Job Hunting, Job Hunting, Job Hunting.... ick


8. I'm about 20% done with my billing & coding coursework


9. We moved- Again (for an explanation see #7)


10. I spent 8 days in the hospital- herniated bowel obstruction. It was scary but I'm better now.


11. (bonus)- The rains came down and the floods came up. We were not flooded but many we know were and the streets around us were.


This is not a lake. It's a several hundred acre GRASS park--- or it used to be grass before it was covered by water

Jason's mom's next door neighbor. That's a 5 foot fence

Nothing terribly exciting around here- Sounds like Life to me

Hot, Humid, Gorgeous...

HOME SWEET HOME

Did I mention Humid? Just a few words to describe our new home in Rossville, Georgia. I love being so close to Chattanooga and the Tennessee River and Chickamauga Battlefield and Walnut Street Bridge and RockCity and Ruby Falls and the Incline Railway.... there is loads to do around here, but it is SOOOO hot and humid. Luckily for us, Jack & Darla have a swimming pool and thanks to Grandma Ange the kids have a great water sprinkler toy that we have hooked up most everyday!

Jason and I are diligently job searching while Jake & Gracie adjust to sharing a bedroom. Madi loves that all her cousins are so close, I don't think I've seen her for more than 3 consecutive days since we've been here as she's always off staying the night with one cousin or another. School starts August 7th so only a few more weeks of summer for the kids and we'll all be back to our routine.

The babies are napping now and Jason took Madi fishing at the duck pond just a few blocks from the house so I could get some school work done, yet here I am blogging. I better go back to getting my education completed so I can find a job in the field I really want!

Here's a couple new pics of the babies, I can't believe Gracie is going to be TWO this week!!

Cornbread, Peaches & Coastal Beaches

The Hays family is headed back to their roots- well Jason's roots anyway. It's been a crazy couple months since I've blogged, but it all culminates in us moving to Georgia. We will be leaving June 26- one month from today so be sure to stop by and say hello-goodbye before we're East bound and down ;-)

Josie's Cabin

There's not a WHOLE lot to see and do in Vernal but once in awhile it's fun to play tourist. If you live in the area or plan on visiting and you're looking for ideas (like we always are) this is a fun little guide to check out- It's 101 ways to see and do things in the Basin. One of the things listed is to visit Josie's Cabin and the kids love to go there so off we went this past weekend.

Madi and Jake with Grandpa Jim in

the Box Canyon


Gracie and Grandpa Jim

"Are you coming, Mom?"

CHEESE!!

AWWWWWW

Could you have lived here in 1960? (yep NINETEEN SIXTY.. that's when Josie died here of a broken hip at the age of 90)

Workin' 9 to 5

You're singing the song in your head now huh? So it's acutally 8:30- 5:00, but I am working again. I really needed something to occupy my time (as if I didn't already have enough to do), and they cut Jason back to a straight 40 hours at Schlumberger, so off to find a job... and I did. I sent out exactly three resumes, recieved one interview & landed that job. I'm working for Advanced Title as their new Escrow Assistant. I've danced all around the Title end of the housing business but this is my first venture into it. I started on Wednesday and so far I'm liking it. Now that means my mom gets to watch the kids everyday.. she gave up 1 and took on 3... yikes! Jason is working 4-10's though so he gets to be home with them on Fridays which is good for him.. and them. Home on my lunch break... better get back to work!

It's Here!

I know the calendar says that spring won't be here for another couple weeks, but it's here

trust me

I mean it's 61 degrees in Vernal today- that's golfing weather for sure! Forget that the course is still covered in slushy grey-brown ice or that there's snow in the forecast for the rest of this week. Obviously meteorologists know NOTHING! Beyond the beautiful weather... the fact I can see my yard emerging from beneath the snow and the softball sign up sheet I recieved yesterday, I know that spring is here 'cuz I just bought my first (this year) bag of these:

So it's officially here... the warm weather and sunshine are here to stay... but just in case, I left a little something by the door upstairs...

Future Cindy Crawford

Gracie is practicing for her future modeling career LOL. I had the camera out this morning and she's such a ham. Check out these poses:

Sew Scrappy

Now that life has settled into a bit of a routine since the wedding is over.. the tonsils have been removed etc etc. I thought it was time to get to doing some "crafty" things- like scrapbooking my zillion pictures and learning to actually use the sewing machine that's been sitting in the closet for almost two years.

So I found a spot I thought would work. The storage room downstairs. Haul the table down, get the sewing machine out- only to find out the one outlet in the room doesn't even work

So on to plan B-

See that spot where the dresser is? Great wall for a craft spot .. but first

I had to tackle these dishes:

Then the bed needed to be made-

And this mountain of laundry put away-

Then it was lunch time- Leftover Beef Stroganoff (the picture isn't great but trust me its delicious)

After lunch it was naptime-

(Apparently the bed wasn't good enough- see how she surrounded herself with toys... fell asleep playing after I'd put her in bed)

Time for mom to catch up on some of her favorite blogs-

By this time Madi was home from school and it was time to get dinner started, then baths, jammies, brush teeth, family prayer & bed.. WHEW!! A full day. And just for kicks here is a great article about what Stay at Home moms do all day.

See what time it is? (mental note- fix the date on the camera)


And NOW I can begin my project- or Jason can anyway:


After about an hour, a can of black spray paint and some baby food jars collected from freecycle.org I have My "Sew Scrappy Craft Area"




I even put it to use to make my first sewing project- a one yard apron.

It's not much, but I'm pretty proud of it and I can't wait to see what other great things come from this Sew Scrappy table!

Love at First Sight

I decided to start printing our blog a couple times a month and mailing it to our family members without internet access so I began printing it yesterday which then made me nostalgic as I reviewed it from the beginning. I realized in reading it that I never told our "How We Met" story, and not everyone may know. So here it is... How "We" came to be-

I had been in an "on again-off again" realtionship with a guy in Idaho and we were in an "off-again-lets-just-be-friends" stage when I logged into one of the many singles websites (http://www.singlesnet.com/ - I should send them a thank you card) I belonged to in order to check my email in June 2008. In my inbox were the usual off-putting, creepy or otherwise undesireables.. and then there was a very attractive photo of this guy and a very generic.. "hey saw your profile , would like to get to know you"- kind of email.


One of Jason's profile pictures (this was added after the initial picture I saw)


Jason's first wife, Christina had passed away in May from cancer and suddenly after 9 years of marriage, he found himself a single father with 3 young children. He'd joined singlesnet to find some people he could talk to. He stumbled across my profile, saw my pictures and decided to send me an email. He says that he didn't think I'd ever even write him back...

I shot back a short email and we corresponded that way for several weeks. I was just biding my time until I was back into an "on-again" phase with Idaho-guy so I wasn't really looking to start a relationship. Besides, I lived in Pleasant Grove and Jason was three hours away in Vernal.. a town I'd been through ONCE in 13 years and it was when we first moved to Utah. It's not like we were ever going to meet. I wouldn't even give him my phone number at first. After several weeks of back and forth emails I finally gave in and gave him my number.

He called one night and from then on we spent hours on the phone every night. He would call me after the kids were in bed about 9 and we'd talk til 1 or 2 in the morning then he'd get up for work at 6! I don't know how he managed all those weeks. During one phone call we found out that we were both going to be at the SLC airport at the same time. He was leaving to go visit family in Georgia and I was going to pick up family coming to visit SLC. So we figured we may as well meet in person seeing as how serendipity brought us to the same place at the same time...

He walked up to me in the airport and though I'd never believed in it before, it was literally love at first sight. We only had MAYBE 5 minutes before he had to go catch a flight- 3 babies in tow. And I spent the next week waiting on pins and needles for every text message. They were few and far between and I didn't know if he was even really interested. When he got back from Georgia a week later we set up a date for the 15th of August.


Me on our first date (what was with my hair?)

I drove to Vernal that weekend of August 15th and it just confirmed what I already knew. I would marry him.. I didn't know when but I knew it would happen. We went to dinner and he showed me around town and took me hiking - I was wearing 4" platform heels- he figured if I could make it through that, I might be a keeper LOL. Everything after that was a whirlwind- Our first date was the 15th of August, he proposed 11 days later on the 26th of August and we were married November 8th, 2008.

He's my confidante, my best friend and my soulmate. He's the most amazing, generous man I've ever known. In six short months we've seen both sides of the country, had a wedding, honeymooned in Las Vegas & Disneyland, bought a house, blended a family, been through a surgery and a million other tiny little things.. a lifetime of activities already and I can't wait to spend the rest of our lifetimes together. As we turned to leave the altar at our wedding ceremony and greet our guests he said to me "Are you ready?" Yes honey, I waited 29 years for you, I'm definately ready.

3 Things

How is it that things seem to come in 3's? It's been said that celebrities pass away in 3's. I have 3 children, my children have 3 parents, we have 3 cars and today I have 3 things to blog about... go figure.

1.) Valentine's Day...ahhh another Hallmark Holiday made up to sucker millions of people out of their hard earned money for $150.00 flowers that will be $9.95 on February 15th and still be dead by February 20th. Valentine's Day at our house came from Sears -in the form of a ratcheting wrench set for Jason (romantic huh? lol) and the Dollar Tree - in the form of inexpensive decorations, candy & toys for the kids. I made pink heart shaped waffles for breakfast and the kids thought it was great. Here's a peek at what our table looked like for
V-Day:

2.) Redneck Baby Gates

What the heck are you talking about? you ask. Jason and I discovered last night- after two months of freezing in our room every night, that the heating system was installed in our bedroom but not actually hooked up to the unit. We have a weird heat pump system that heats the house by pumping hot water through the baseboard units and we're not sure how to fix it. Our answer in the meantime is to keep the bedroom door open during the day so that the room stays semi-warm with the heat from the rest of the house.

The dilemma: How to keep Gracie (the main culprit) from destroying the room as has oft been the case when the door is open.

Answer: Redneck Baby Gate

My plastic roller cart from the downstairs bathroom and the garbage can from my laundry room. Yes I could've shelled out 22 bucks for a "real" baby gate at Wal-Mart today, but seriously 22 bucks? Butter is on sale at Smith's for 1.49/lb. Do you know how much butter I could stock up on for 22 bucks? But I digress... This is my current answer to the Gracie dilemma and hopefully I'll no longer have to chip the icecicles off my face to kiss my husband goodnight.

3.) We have a family of 5... that means 5 times the laundry I had to do when I was single.. and I had a fully stocked walk-in closet of my own. So if I'm gonna do that much laundry, it's at least going to be in a place I don't dread. Hence my decorated laundry room.... the only room in the house that is totally decorated LOL

It started with this border I found on clearance for 50 cents at Lowe's. A little country? Perhaps. Pretty cheesy? Yeah. But its a laundry room not a Jackson Pollock.

Some $2.00 clothesline, a $1.50 bag of wooden clothes pins & a bundle of $3.00 dishrags and I have this adorable window treatment. The window only looks at the basement window well in the backyard, so it didn't need to be functional, just cute. I bought the supplies but Jason "designed" and hung the window treatments. (told you he could decorate in the last blog posting didn't I?)

So that's it for today. Great things come in three's and right now two of my children are taking a nap... better go take one myself so that will make 3.