Fun with family

This past weekend, was crazy. We headed up to SLC after AJ got off work so we could be there for Sunday and spend some time with my family. My brothers that live out of state were in town and we had a party planned. It was a great day. We went to church with them, and of course I had to hold my new little niece and that was great, but she decided to leave a little mess on my white skirt. Oh well, she is well worth it. We also went to my sisters house for a barbecue, rock band party etc. It was a great time. I have the greatest siblings and of course parents.

This is a picture of AJ with his uncle Colt( my brother).

Here is the daddy of it all...

Of course you can't have a party without many pictures of family by Aunt Kristi.

This is a picture of my dad, my sister, Kami, and my two brothers playing Rock Band. We all had a chance to join in the fun. It was a hoot to watch and play in.

I have always loved teather ball and my sister happened to have on so Mike, AJ, and Todd had to try out their skills.

What a great day. My kids are the oldest grand kids of the family so they don't have cousins their ages to hang out with but they have their uncles and aunts that they have just as much fun with. This is what memories are all made of.

Up to Salt Lake and back for lunch all in one day

Last Wednesday, I think, Mike and I drove to Salt Lake to go to lunch with one of his favorite cousins that was in from New Jersey. Quintin was in town with his family. He brought his wife, Susie and Grace to have lunch with us at TGI Friday's. What a long ways for lunch but always worth it, with Quin around. Mike used to do everything with Quin when they were kids. Only a few things have changed, like amount of hair, a few wrinkles but mostly everything was still the same.
It was well worth the trip up and back to Cedar all in one day. Thanks Quintin and Susie for meeting us. Anytime you are in town we would love to do it again and maybe next time we can come to NY and see you.

So much to blog (I mean brag) about

These past two months have been crazy around here and I really have tons to blog about but it has been hard to take the time.

About a month ago we went to Youth Conference up in Kolob Canyon. It was gorgeous. I ended up helping with the games but my kids( which by the way are the greatest) had a great time and loved it.

Here is Ang, isn't this just the cutest picture of her.

This is of her getting ready to rappell and she really didn't want to do it but she DID it.

This picture shows her a little more happy about it. What a great experience.

This is one of the games that they were playing at Youth Conference. Todd is on the left.

This picture is of Todd rappelling. He is so much more confident about it than Angela but I think he has done it before.

I really need to update you on so much more. We have had so many great adventures that I need to share. I am so glad that my kids have opportunities like this.

Fun times for the Glads

I know it has been forever since I have posted. I hope you all have missed me.

On the 24th of July we went to an early morning breakfast and then to the parade. I guess it was brighter than I thought it was as you can tell by looking at the picture of my kids. It has been a tradition since they were little to get Old Navy flag tshirts for them for the 4th and 24th of July.
After the parade we came home and started our afternoon, day of playing Rock Band. It was a lot of fun but took pretty much the whole day. We conquered the 84 song list on Rock Band. We did break for dinner and homemade ice cream with homemade carmel. Mike makes the best.

This is a picture that I had my kids take yesterday after church. My husband has a kilt from his ancestors tartan. He wears it twice a year to church and boy does he get comments like crazy. It doesn't bother him at all, he is proud of his kilt. When his parents gave him the kilt they also gave me some material that matches his kilt. My mom made me a skirt to match his and guess what???? You guessed it, I always have to wear mine the same day that he wears his.

Really, I haven't fallen off of the face of the earth. We have been enjoying our summer except for the online Chemistry class that I am taking. My daughter received her learner's permit to drive. Wow. They just keep growing and growing. I spent a couple of days in SLC and got to go to dinner with my parents for my dad's birthday. I am leaving for girl's camp this week, wish me luck!!!!!!!!!

Where all dreams come true

We are so excited for this week to come. We have had reservations for a couple of months now to take our kids and go to Disneyland. We weren't going to go this year and go somewhere else but we have received a great deal because my husband is in the military. (one we can't refuse)
We all need a break and a vacation. That song " I Need a Vacation" comes to my mind.

We are planning on going to the beach, the Newport Beach temple and Disneyland for three days. My kids are getting older and I thought that they wouldn't be as excited to go but they just love Disneyland or any theme park for that matter, so they are quite excited. We are driving which won't be as fun as flying but we can get there in about 7 hours, so that isn't too bad.

I am going to need to get some healthy snacks, because we usually have junk food on these trips and I don't want to gain back the weight that I have just lost. I usually makes cookies, buy chips and drinks, but I am not planning on doing that. It will be hard to eat like I have been doing so if any of you have ideas, let me know. It is always hard to watch what you are eating when you are on vacation, because you should be able to splurge, right???
Have you been to Disneyland or Disney World?? What is your favorite part or favorite ride?
Like my kids say" I'm going to Disneyland."

Three and a half hours of what????

I just finished my last test that I am going to have to take to qualify for teaching other than my finals this week. This test is called the PLT. It is basically about Principles, Learning and Teaching children. There were about 15 case study questions that I had to write about each one of them according to the questions and 24 multiple choice questions. It took forever. It is so frustrating when it takes them four tries just to hand out the testing booklets.

I HATE TESTS!!!!!!!! At least I finished, some of the students didn't get finished. I hope I passed so I don't have to take it again. I hope you are all crossing your fingers that I pass. It is so nice to have one more thing behind me. Angela also had to take the ACT about four weeks ago because if she passed with a certain score she could start to take college classes and she did. She received a 23, which I think is pretty good for a Freshman in High School. Congrats Ang.

I can't believe my Summer is right around the corner.
I wish I had more Summer fun trips planned. Any ideas????

My diet and other randomness

This week has been very crazy. I am so sorry that I haven't posted, but school has been very busy and stressful. It is so hard to have a growing family and go to school full time too and keep my house up.

Texting- Anyway, to all of those wanting to know if we decided to get texting or not for Todd, yes we did!!! Thanks for your input. I told Todd that we were going to try it for one week and if for any time, texting begins to overcome his life then we would cancel it. We also made him and his sister help pay for it. One of the things that has a big deciding fact in this matter is that we receive texts all the time anyway even though we don't have texting, because I am going to school and friends from school text me about assignments and Karrilyn also has friends that text her, so we end up paying for those texts anyway. Wish us luck!!! I really think Todd won't abuse this, because he is such a good kid and I can't see him texting all day and night. We will see.

Diet( new way of life)Next thing on my mind, I have been on a diet(a way of life change) now for almost four weeks. It has been hard, but I have a great husband that also did it with me. I can't believe that he put up with it. Yes, we actually paid for a new diet plan that is out there and it really worked and helped quite a lot. If you are really interested, let me know and I can give you some information on it. It is definitely not for everyone.

The good news is that my husband lost 18 pounds and I lost 12 pounds. I was really thinking that I would have lost more, but I must be getting old. You are told that you do have the possibility of losing between 10-30 pounds, so of course, I am on the tail end of the weight loss. I guess I should add that I lost the weight in the first three weeks on the diet and the last week has just been a stabilization, but you are still pretty much on a diet but it is less strict. It is supposed to help you to not gain back what you have already lost. The other good news is that I feel great. We both had our blood drawn before and then again after and it lowered my cholesterol 45 points and also my blood sugar. It lowered my husband's too but not as much as we had hoped.

Would I do this again if I knew what I know now? yes, I probably would. I have learned a lot and I really think it has helped me to change how I live and how I eat. I haven't had any sugar for almost four weeks, that is just part of it but it does feel good.

School-The last thing on my mind is that I just can't believe how close I am to being finished with school. The end of this month I will be finished and then all I have is student teaching in the Fall. I am so excited but I will truly miss all of the friends that I see all day every day. It will be sad too.

I definitely need some fun ideas for this Summer down here in southern Utah. If you have any ideas let me know.

A Night Out

On Wednesday night, we were all hoping to be able to go to Tuacahn because AJ and Karrilyn had taken work off thinking that we were going to be able to get tickets. At the last minute the Shakespeare festival called and Karrilyn was able to get six free tickets for us to go to Tuacahn in St. George. Free tickets can you believe it. We were so excited.

If you have never had the opportunity to go to Tuacahn and see their plays it is great. Mike and I have had the chance to be ushers there but the kids have never had the chance to go see any of the plays.

It is so enjoyable, unlike any other theater, because it is outside right next to the red cliffs of St. George. Usually it is so hot that you just want to die but it was so nice and cool because it looked like it was going to rain.

The play that we went to see was "The Sound of Music". My kids just loved it. I am so glad that we had this great chance and Free to boot. We wish Todd could have come with us but he is up Parowan canyon on a Scout Camp.

Oh by the way, I wasn't supposed to have my camera in the theater but it was too late by the time I took these pictures but I wasn't able to take any of the play but at least if you have never been to the outside theater you will get an idea of how fun it is.

Finally!!!!

This Friday is my last day for this semester of school. I can't believe it. I have actually made it through the summer and had a math class to boot. I just can't tell you how hard it is to continue to be motivated during the summer when your entire family is home and you want to be doing activities with them.

It has also been hard because of my dad and the troubles that he has had while I have been in school. With school every day I can't just pack up and go see my dad and that has been very hard. In case any of you are wondering, my dad is doing a little better. He was put back into the hospital with a couple of blood clots in his lungs and his legs but they gave him shots that he has to give himself and sent him home the next day. I was able to go up and visit him last weekend.

This week he has been in a lot of pain with the blood clot that is close to his knee, but if he keeps his feet elevated and wears socks(hose) from the hospital it seems to help his pain. This whole recovery is going to take a while.
Back to school, I am so glad that I am going to have a break. I just can't stand it. If anyone wants to have a party and help me celebrate just let me know. I am up to lunch, a party, shopping or anything......

Thanks to all of you who really care and have given me support and encouragement during this summer and always!!!!

Now, I Know Summer is Coming!!

I woke up this morning and went walking with Karrilyn and it was actually not WINDY. It was beautiful. We walked four miles and enjoyed every minute of it.

I can always tell when Summer is close when there are baby lambs in the field by our home. I don't know why I get so excited to see the baby lambs, I love watching them following their mother all over. I guess that one of the reasons that I love seeing baby lambs is because it brings back memories to a time when I was a little girl and used to feed 50 or more baby goats by bottle and they used to think that I was their mother. I loved to hold them and to love and take care of them. There were days when I didn't want to do this chore, but for the most part, this was one of my favorite parts about living on a farm. I am so thankful for my great childhood memories and being taught truly how to work and to be able to work

I am so excited that Summer is on its Way Finally. It is so beautiful at this time of the year in Cedar City if only the wind would continue to STOP.