Day 14 of 30

Day 14: Someone who fascinates you and why

This is Sandra Lee. She is an author and host of a Food Network show, Semi Homemade. It is one of my favorites on the Food network. She fascinates me because of what she has been through and what she has become because of it. Here is the condensed version of her story. She is the oldest of I think 4 siblings. Her mom raised them alone and also suffered from depression. This made it hard for her to function as a 'normal' mom, taking care of her kids and house and keeping a job. There were a lot of days that she would just lay on the couch and watch tv. So Sandra had to step up to take care of herself and siblings, as well as pay the bills, do laundry, prepare meals, etc. She was only about 7 or 8 when this all started. In her book she said there were times when she didn't know where her next meal would come from. So, fast forward to her college years and she developed the idea of cooking the semi homemade way. "70% store bought ingredients and 30% fresh ingredients give you easy, fast, delicious meals that you can make in minutes." There were a lot of publishers that told her this idea of cookbook would never sell...they were wrong! She now has many, many cookbooks, a memoir that she wrote, and her tv show that has been on air for about 6 years.
I just think she is amazing because there were many times in her life that she could have just thrown her hands in the air and said "forget it!" Instead she chose to persevere and look at what her hard work and dedication has made of her! She is such an inspiration to me!

Day 13 of 30

Day 13: Give pictures of 5 guys who are famous and you find attractive

Brad Paisley

Tony Stewart

Gordon Ramsay

Trace Atkins

Blake Shelton





Quite the list right? We have 3 country music artists, a world famous chef, and a Nascar champion driver. Apparently I like guys with accents, deep voices, and kind of have a cocky, 'bad ass' (pardon the language) attitude.

It's kind of funny, cause even though my hubby can't sing (at least professionally), he is very similar to these guys. He wants to be a Nascar driver when he grows up and he definitely has the cocky attitude. Interesting...

I'm Bored, Already

So here we are, the first day of summer vacation, and I am pretty sure Jaxon has told me "I'm bored" about a thousand times today. If this is the way the next 3 months are going to be...oh man!! Never mind the fact that he has a playroom full of toys, or a closet full of movies, or his own personal library full of books. Nope, none of that is any fun cause he is bored. So to fix this problem we decided to plan out our summer with 5 different themed days for the week. Here is what we came up with:*Movie Monday
*Crafty Tuesday
*Where can we go Wednesday
*Treat time Thursday
*Fun Fact Friday
So every Monday we will watch a movie together. Every Tuesday we will make a craft. I have every Wednesday off so we will go on some type of adventure. Every Thursday we will make some type of treat, and every Friday we will learn about something. We are also going to work on learning to read and know our sight words, continue practicing our writing, and do some worksheet pages out of his workbook each day. Our library does a summer reading program and we are going to be participating in that as well. We also have 9 days of swimming lessons at the beginning of June too. I think after reading this list of activities this kid isn't going to be saying "I'm bored". I am going to try my best to blog about our fun filled summer. What do you all have planned for the summer?

Day 12 of 30

Day 12: Your highs and lows of the past year

The highs:
*Giving birth to a perfect, healthy little boy
*Paid off quite a bit of debt
*Pretty healthy family for the most part (more on that later)

The lows:
*My kids getting bigger and bigger every day (it's a good thing but makes this mama sad!)
*I really can't think of much else, I can honestly say that this last year has been one of our best yet!

Day 11 of 30

Day 11: Somewhere you would like to move or visit

This is on my 'bucket list', to visit Hawaii. I want to go and spend about 10-12 days of sight seeing and laying in the sun on the beach. Aaaahhh!

ABC of Me

I totally copied this from my friend Abby's blog. I thought it looked like fun, enjoy!
Age: 28
B. Bed size: Queen
C. Chore that you hate: Cleaning the bathrooms (especially the toilets), washing dishes
D. Dogs: My Chihuahua, Harley (he is the cutest thing ever and makes me laugh every day!)
E. Essential start to your day: A few minutes of quiet
F. Favorite color: Pink
G. Gold or Silver: Gold when it comes to diamonds, silver for most anything else
H. Height: 5'0
I. Instruments you play: None  :(
J. Job title: Mom, Office Manager
K. Kids: One 4.5 year old and a 1 year old
L. Live: Payson (West Mountain), Utah
M. Mother's name: Brenda
N. Nicknames: Sometimes my mom calls me Mandy, and my dad used to call me Mandy Pandy

O. Overnight hospital stays: 3 - One for heart surgery in 7th grade, one for giving birth to Jaxon and one for giving birth to Anthony (the last 2 were the best!)

P. Pet peeve: When people run late, when there isn't a 'plan' for something, judgemental people

Q. Quote from a movie:

R. Right or left handed: Right

S. Siblings: I'm the oldest, then a younger sister and a younger brother

T. Time you wake up: 7 a.m.

U. Underwear: Victoria's Secret

V. Vegetable you hate: Cauliflower

W. What makes you run late: Getting two boys ready 

X. X-Rays you've had: One when I broke my foot in 5th grade

Y. Yummy food that you make:

Z. Zoo animal: Hippo

Day 10 of 30

Day 10: Bullet your whole day

Ok, I'm back. We have made it through the first birthday and Easter and now life has settled down...a bit. Try to contain yourself when reading the events of my day...it's sooo exciting!! :)

*Woke up at 7:30 a.m. (wanted to sleep longer but the boys did not...they won)
*Made breakfast for the boys and myself
*Hubby got home from working a graveyard
*Ate breakfast while visiting with hubby, looked at Facebook (look at me multi task!)
*Hubby went to bed, I got ready for the day
*Opened my office at 9:00 a.m. (I work from home)
*My mom came over at 10:15 a.m. to watch Anthony
*Emptied the dishwasher
*Went to school with Jaxon from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (thank goodness for preschool teachers...those kids wear me out!)
*Came home and ate lunch with my mom and Jaxon
*Walked outside for an hour
*My mom left and I got the mail
*Looked at Facebook, e-mail and blogs
*Tried to fix our DVD player that Anthony broke
*Hubby woke up, came down and tried to fix DVD player...no success, thank you Anthony
*Visited with hubby
*Closed office
*Hubby ate dinner while I got him a lunch together
*Got the hubby out the door for another graveyard (the last one for the month, YAY!!)
*Fixed Anthony dinner, I ate with him
*Fixed Jaxon dinner
*Bathed Anthony and made a To Do list for tomorrow (I have a hard time functioning with out them)
*Got Anthony lotioned up and in jammies, mmmm he smells good!
*Played with the boys, read books
*Helped Jaxon with his preschool workbook
*Cleaned up the playroom with the boys
*Put Anthony to bed
*Hung out with Jaxon, did this post
*The rest of the night will probably be watching Sprout with Jaxon til he goes to sleep then catching up on my DVR'd shows, then head up to bed around 11:00 p.m.

In the midst of all this excitement I also changed diapers, let the dog outside, and worked in the office. Told ya it would be exciting!!