High school memory

I have been on the planning committee for my ten year high school reunion.  As I have been looking in the year book and thinking about fun memories from high school I thought that I would share my favorite memory.
Whenever people ask me what I did in high school, my reply was always, "nothing".  I didn't do dance or cheer, or sports, or music of any kind.  I was just "there".  I wasn't popular, but I wasn't a total nerd either.  I would say I was a partial nerd.  One class I did enjoy both my junior and senior year was my peer tutoring class.  In this class I got to work the special education class.  I did have a favorite person that I loved to work with, and he made a HUGE impact on my life. 
His name was Brandon.  During these two years, Brandon became one of my best friends.  He couldn't talk, but I understood him, and when I talked to him, I know that he could understand me.  During my peer tutor class both years, I got to do "P.E" with Brandon and a few others.  I say "P.E." because I either took them down to the track downstairs and played basketball with them, or if it was nice weather outside, we would go walk the track.  I also got to go on many fieldtrips and we went to the movies, Bean Museum and other fun places. 
I would get to school early every day (I am always early, lateness bugs me), and sit in the hall with my friends until class started.  Brandon would come sit with me every morning.  And during lunch, Brandon would find me ( I sat in the same spot every day so I wasn't hard to find) and sit with me during lunch too.  I enjoyed having his company.  I kind of liked knowing where he was, and knowing that the people I was with would treat him kindly, than not knowing where he was, and wondering what others were trying to teach him that day.  People like that made me so mad in high school.  Taking advantage of Brandon and the others and teaching them to do inappropriate things just for their entertainment.  So, I was totally fine having Brandon sit next to me and want to visit with me. 
One time me and another peer tutor had taken Brandon and a few others to the downstairs track to play some basketball.  Well, the other peer tutor (who was a male) was just having fun and threw the basketball at me, missing on purpose but getting close enough.  Brandon was MAD.  He went up to this peer and was ready to throw a punch at him!  Brandon then looked at me, and I could read in his eyes, saying, "are you okay?"  I assured Brandon that I was, and that he was only playing with me.  From then on, I knew that I had made an impact on Brandon.
I have been out of high school for ten years, and every once in a while I will run into Brandon, usually at the store.  It makes me so happy that he still remembers who I am.  His nickname for me was "Crazy Driver" which he signs everytime he sees me. 
So, I may have thought I was a nobody in high school because I wasn't popular and I wasn't in any groups or clubs, but I did make an impact on someone's life while there. 

Whether you went to school with me or not, share with me your favorite high school memory.  I would love to hear it! 

Happy Birthday Paisley Love!

 Newborn

 2 months old

 7 months old

 1 year old

 18 months old

2 years old!!

I can't believe that my baby is 2 years old today!  Time has gone by so fast!  I sure do enjoy this little munchkin in my life.  She is so full of energy and life.  She has no fear.  She definitely keeps me on my toes. 

We started out the day with a special breakfast made by Lee.  Then her Granddad Bill and Grandma Loretta stopped by and brought her a present and visited with her.  Afterwards we went to lunch at McDonalds (a rare treat for her).  We then went and played at Jumpin Jacks for the first time.  We had so much fun there!  Paisley loved it!  She especially loved the huge slides and insisted on going down them all by herself.  After playing we went to DQ and got an ice cream cone.  On the way home she fell asleep.  We got her into the house and she slept for 2 hours.  We definitely wore her out.  After dinner we ate popcorn and watched a movie, and had a visit from Papa Kevin and Grandma Carolyn. 

I am pretty sure she enjoyed her special day!  She was smiling and having fun throughout the day.

Here are some pics from Jumpin Jacks today.  She is hardly looking at the camera because I couldn't get her to hold still long enough to take a pic!  :)

Birthdays, birthdays, and more birthdays!

My husband Lee turned the big 30 on the 30th of July.  It was a pretty big deal I thought.  A milestone, plus his golden birthday.  I wanted to plan something amazing for him.  But, he wanted to keep it low key. The day before his birthday we took him to Blissful Yogurt and ate some delicious Fro-Yo.  He then went to the store while Paisley was napping and came home with a mountain bike!  Although, I am a little irritated on this one, only for the fact that I had a really nice mountain bike, and last summer he told me to get rid of it, because I never use it and it was taking up space.  Now he has one, and I don't.  But my birthday is coming up at the end of the month, so maybe I will get one!  Hint, hint, Lee.  :) Anyway, on the morning of his birthday he went fishing with my dad and my brother-in-law.  While he was gone, the girls and I went to work on making him a few gifts.  I had the girls (mostly Tyra) tell me 30 things they love about their dad.  Then we put the pieces of paper in a jar and tied some ribbon around it. 
When he got home we just hung out around the house.  I made a dinner for him.  His request: ribs, roasties, and veggies.  He didn't want a cake since I was making him one for the next day. 
So, that was his big golden birthday.  Nothing crazy big, but he enjoyed it.
The next day was Sunday.  We celebrated Lee's birthday, my niece McKelle's birthday (who's is the same day as Lee's), and Paisley's birthday.  Paisley and McKelle are only ten days apart, which makes celebrating together lots of fun!  We got together with my family, and my sister's in-laws and celebrated all three of these birthdays.  We let Paisley open her presents that day, so it was like Christmas in July.  Wrapping paper was EVERYWHERE!    Shanny (my sister) and I decided to do Mickey and Minnie for the girls since they both love Mickey and Minnie Mouse.  Shanny's friend made the cakes and cupcakes for us.  They turned out so cute! I made a cake for Lee, so we had 3 cakes, and 24 cupcakes!  YUM!   I love celebrating birthdays!  I can't believe that my baby is almost 2!  Time flies by so much!   It seems just yesterday I was bringing her home from the hospital. 
Now, get ready for lots of pics!  Enjoy!

Some catching up to do....

Wow.   I haven't blogged for quite a while.  I have been putting it off, because I feel that there hasn't been really anything "blogworthy" to blog about.  That's not to say that I haven't been doing anything.  Our summer has been fun so far.  Last weekend we went camping with Lee's side of the family for the Shumway family reunion.  Also, last Sunday Lee and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary!  We were able to celebrate it on Monday.  We left the kiddos at home and we went to Boondocks and played like kids!  It was great!  I kicked Lee's butt in Laser Tag.  His score was 325 and mine was 1275!  Ya, I'm that good!  (It didn't help Lee that he was wearing a white shirt and tan khakis in a black lighted room!) 
Tyra had swimming lessons the past two weeks, and she has really enjoyed them!  She is getting so well at swimming! 
We have also been to splash pads, and the Payson Pool a few times and have had lots of picnics with friends and family.
I have started training a girl.  We are going to train to run the Onion Days 5k race.  My knee is still bugging me, and I am afraid I am going to have to lose my pride, and lose my worries about going to the doctors (kinda scared of doctors) and figure out what is going on with my knee so that I can run this race in September. 
I also got a new 'do and color.  I was trying to hard to grow out my hair, but my sister talked me into cutting it short again.  Telling me how good I look with short hair.  I also colored it, just for fun. 
This is the pic that I took in to my amazing stylist, Kara.

 And here are the results:

I think its a fun look.  Definitely nice for the summer.  What do you think?
Hope you all are having a fun summer! 

First day of Summer!

Today is the first day of summer!  Summer is my favorite season!  I love the sunshine, the warmth, being able to be outside all day, the color my skin gets when the sun hits it, the sno cones we get to cool us down.  Everything is wonderful! 
Today we (my girls and I) celebrated the first day of summer!  We started our day with a nice morning walk. We then went to the splash park out in Santaquin.  We ate ice cream cones outside.  We played in the backyard in the pool, on the swingset, on the trampoline.  We ate our dinner outside on a picnic blanket.  We layed out in the sun.  We definetely had lots of fun today!  The only thing I forgot was to take pictures!  We got so busy, and were having so much fun, that I completely forgot!  Oh well, I have the pics in my mind, and that will have to do.  :) 
I hope you all have had a great first day of summer, and I hope you have lots of fun-filled summer days!  I know we will!  :)

Father's Day

We had a wonderful Father's Day.  Tyra knew exactly what she wanted to get Lee for Father's Day......ties.  So we bought him a couple of ties.   We also made him breakfast in the morning.  We loved being able to celebrate Father's Day with Lee.  He is such a wonderful father to our daughters.  He loves them so much.  Paisley loves the weekends when Lee is home.  She won't even let me do anything for her, or hold her.  Only Lee can.  She is such a daddy's girl.  Here are a few pics with Lee and the girls.  They aren't the best pics.  None of them wanted their picture taken (well, Tyra did, she is a diva after all). 

For my dad for Father's day, my sister and I decided to take him out on a daddy daughter date.  We haven't had one in a while, and thought it would be fun.  We will be doing that this weekend, and we are all excited for it! 
I hope you all had a wonderful Father's day!

Motivation

I have gotten back most of my motivation this week.  I still haven't been able to do Insanity.  I have become so weak, I can't even make it through a warm up.  Its very frustrating.  I also have a horrible cough for the last two weeks, and as soon as I start working out hard, my cough takes over and I have to stop.  NOT FUN!  But, I have found other ways to work out this week.  I take my kids for a walk every day to the park.  I'm not sure how many miles we walk but it takes about twenty minutes to get to the park and twenty minutes to get home.  I used to be able to make it in shorter time, but now that Tyra walks instead of riding in a stroller it takes a little longer.  I think its about a mile each way.  I also bought Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown DVD and have been doing that every day this week.  I am LOVING it!  Didn't think I would like yoga very much because I am not a flexible person, but I am more flexible than I thought I was.  I also have been doing the Insanity weight training program every other day, and I have been doing Zumba on the opposite days of the weight training. 
Its been nice taking a break from Insanity, and switching up the routine. 
I took a pic of my back almost a year ago, and thought it looked pretty good.  My motivation is to get back to there again, or even have it looking even better!  :)