36 hours

36 hours and counting...

36 hours from right now I will be sobbing in the temple as my daughter is sealed for time and all eternity to her sweetheart.

36 hours and 36 things to do.

sleep, make breakfast, attach a bustle string to the dress, pick a dress for me, (still the pink or brown...just don't know!!)take Rachel's dress to home, arrange for ice, pay for linen rentals, pick up tables, clean out back yard, finish tying bows on candle holders, pick up tuxes, do some laundry, sign Scotty permission slip, check on hotel, pick up coolers, buy stuff for sack lunches, post a blog, get cookies from Carole, make salsa for Friday, buy tortilla chips, practice walking in high shoes, get a mani/pedi, fix Lauren's earring, take everything to Grandmas, buy Skyler temple clothes, go to temple, go to Fenton's after temple, buy strawberries, take chocolate to Pam for dipping, pluck eyebrows, decorate, wait for cake, wait for flowers, wait for food, organize kitchen, buy water proof mascara.

I have everything under control.

Stress level: 86

Stress....what stress?

4 1/2 days to the big wedding.........


I'm Fine!
Really Fine!
Doing okay!
I'M FINE!!
Everything is under control.

I took a stress test today... my score is....88.5. Could be worse, I'll let you know tomorrow's score.

Today is the first day of school. A day of monumental changes as we once again have a high schooler. Here is Jeff in my office, which doubles as his bank.


He's going to love his classes, he has his Dad for Biology, which means he will have 100% homework in that class. Gotta love that.
His Spanish teacher says that there is NO homework in his class and he used the "A" word about 100 times. Don't love that.



Here's our new middle schooler. He refused to let me take his picture unless the cat was in the picture. This is Scotty and his dog-cat Scout. All his best friends (except Luke ☺) are in the same PE class. He is happy because obviously this is a really important issue for him. (?)



This is me in the middle of my new seminary class. My photographer, CeliaFae forgot to get her own kid, Max, in the picture. He's cute, trust me. Oh, she missed Sadie too. Sadie is really cute, ask Jeff.

I've been looking for the perfect wedding gift for Lauren and Skyler. Byron thinks a wedding that cost $$$$$ is a present enough, he probably has a point, but I just hate it when he's right.
But I found this.....



Nothing says "I love you, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!" like an eight foot metal rooster. They don't have any furniture so there's plenty of room.

Or for those who know Lauren really well, I was thinking about this instead.....



Lauren doesn't want me to be in charge of the wedding present buying anymore.

My wish for her

When I was a teenager I spent hours daydreaming about what life was going to be like when I "grew up". My sister Rose and I would walk down to the canal behind our house with our transistor radio, baby oil and Sun-in for our hair. Hundreds of hours were spent talking, sunning and dreaming about what life held for us.

I always wanted a "white picket fence" life. I envisioned myself as the modern day June Cleaver. My husband would be a tall, dashing, successful Ward. I would wear the most current clothes, (with an apron while I cooked of course), I would bake bread, preserve fruits and vegetables, sew all my children's clothes. Speaking of children, they would be breathtakingly beautiful, charming and well behaved. I would volunteer for everything possible and be a stay at home forever kind of mom. My life was destined to be the life story books are made of, I would see to it.

Well, life happened. And as dashing and charming as my husband is, as breathtakingly wonderful as my children are, life hasn't quite been as perfect and trouble free as I had imagined and dreamed it would be. But that's life. My friend Vicki and I joke that instead of a white picket fence I seemed to have gotten a barbed wire one! But despite the wounds over the years, life is good.

Lauren, I wish for you millions of white picket fence moments. Those wonderful times when everything just seems perfect. It won't always be that way, but let those moments be the ones that define you, not the part of life that hurts. I wish for you pure joy. I wish for you that you never shed a tear in sorrow, but I know that wish won't come true. I wish that you have more tears of happiness (like I am shedding right now) than tears of sadness. I wish for you that you can always remember why you fell in love and remember the peaceful feeling you had when you knew Skyler was "the right one". I wish for you an eternity of happiness my little girl. I wish I could protect you forever; but now it's your time to walk together, making decisions, building a life and experiencing the good and the bad together.

And now as you prepare to go to the temple and make sacred covenants, know that we, your parents wish everything wonderful for you. As you leave our home and make one for yourself far away from us, every night I will look at the stars and know that somewhere you can see the same stars and I will make a wish for you.

A drumroll please......

At long last..........................











Your opinion please...............






Be gentle, it took everything I had in me to post these.........................

PINK? Sparkly and fun, no alterations needed, feeds my inner Dolly Parton.

Or....






Brown? Classy, elegant, major alterations needed (I had on 3" heels and it's still long)

(Oh and Andrea...eat your heart out on the cleavage.)

Which one?

You're invited too...

What do...


Kim....


Rachel....




(Lurker and out about it, ) ♥♥♥ Margaret... ♥♥♥


Tristan....


New Mama Kelli....


Uber Bloggers Celia and Paige....



Birgitta...


Niece Kellie...


Lauren's BFF Candy....


Our beloved City Mama....


Cute Trisha...


Good Friend Marty...


Grooms' Step mom Ardy


Photographer Nancy....



Bestest friends, Pam, Rachel and Vicki...

...all have in common?

They are all blogging friends (and real life friends) that are coming to the party August 2nd!

Reception 6-9,
Blog party 9-10.

Anyone else wanna come?

Saintly Friends

My friend MO has been graciously trying to keep me sane. I love MO. If I could be anyone but me, I would be her. She is beautiful, gracious, funny, generous, kind, smart, talented...and she will be horrified that I wrote this because she is also humble.

I went over the other night at 9:30, we were going to do some planning of the Friday night feast the night before the wedding.(Which she offered her home for...I told you, she's pretty terrific!) She brought out her party book, where she has meticulously written down every single detail of every party she has given in the past 100 years. The woman is a marvel.

Then she said...."what are you going to feed your out of town guests and family after the wedding before the reception?"
Uh.................................didn't have a clue, hadn't thought about it. After all, they can go through a drive-through as well as I can.
"Well," said MO, "at Sarah S's wedding we did box lunches." Cute! I replied with a sunken heart. One more thing to plan and organize. "Now listen..." said the perfect and wonderful MO, get someone to do this for you. DO NOT DO IT YOURSELF" she commanded.
"Who?" I meekly gulped. WHO could I ask to make lunch for 50 people, make it cute in keeping with the rest of the events?

THIS IS WHO...yet another saintly friend. My friend Kim, who is possibly the most creative person I have ever known. She is coming from Utah to help me, I asked her to make the lunches and she has gone above and beyond. Are these the cutest bags or what?






I am so, so, so thankful for my saintly friends.

Vicki, who addressed every single invitation
Pam, Vicki and Marty who tied bows on soda bottles for three hours and have listened to me endlessly....
Kim, for coming and bringing her creativity with her!!!
Paige, who is helping me pick a dress and giving me some confidence.
Jen, who has given me such cute ideas
Nancy, who will take the most gorgeous pictures
Lauralee, who is adding sweet details that will make things fun
Emily, who took gorgeous pictures and is making a guest book to remember forever
Maria, who is making the video for us
Lisa Marie, who will be my kids mom away from home and will give me peace of mind
MO, who is lending her house for a big party the night before and encouragement every day
Gloria and Mike, sweet friends who gave me the keys to their home because they will be gone
Carole, who gave the most spectacular shower EVER!
Rose, my sweet sister, who will give me strength and calmness
Rachel, for who there are not enough words of thanks...

My blogging sisters who have been so supportive and happy for us, I love you all.

I've got my butt covered...

Do you own some of these?

My "good" friend Rachel talked me into buying a pair of these. She promised that they would "smooth" me out. She neglected to tell me that I would be gasping for air just putting them on and probably will die from the lack of oxygen while wearing them. This is modern day torture, which I thought had been internationally outlawed by the Geneva Convention.

For your information, SPANX were designed to change lives. Good to know. Oprah loves them, in fact, she doesn't wear undies any more, only SPANX. That's a selling point for me, if they are good enough for the O, they're good enough for me. Yep, they are known for being able to dramatically improve my bottom line.

They are guaranteed to reshape your body. This is exactly how I want my body to be shaped.

If it is squeezing and reshaping...where does everything go?

And....Bra-le-llujiah!! There is a new SPANX which virtually eliminates VBL!
What? You ask...
"What is VBL?"
Visible Bra Lines. Let's not forget their nasty cousin, VPL, visible panty lines.
It's a miracle I tell you. A miracle.

And to avoid the flat, uni-butt look that many shapers give your backside, Slim-Cognito offers "The Great Divide." You won't feel the subtle butt separator, but the natural perky shape won't be lost on those behind you.

Be sure to be watching for pictures of me at the wedding with my newly shaped, smoothed and faux toned body.

Bod-a-bing!!

P.S. I think I might have a dress.

I'm back and tan

After 12 days in SoCal, I'm home!! Loved it! Had a great time!! Here is the pictorial of the trip.



Knott's Berry Farm...hadn't been there in years and years. It was very clean and had horrible rides like this one. My husband and my two youngest are in this picture at the top. I should have taken a picture of myself having the nervous breakdown. I don't know why I took a picture, maybe to document their demise (that I was certain of). I rode a total of two rides at the park, one left me ill and the other left me wet, wet, wet. I did enjoy myself though as I guzzled Berry Punch and Diet Pepsi in huge quantities. If you need to know where the restrooms are at KBF, call me.



This is my friend Tylyn, who bailed on Brentwood because we had no shopping when she was here, now that we have a Target and a mall coming, I'm hoping she'll move back. (not a chance, but I can dream.) We had dinner with Tylyn, John and their daughter Tahnee. It was fun to spend a few hours laughing and chatting. Check out the cleavage (Andrea) and the sunburn, day one in the sun.



The family at Disneyland, the tranquility of the picture belies the torture of the 95 degree day. They didn't have to charge us admission, we bought our admission in water bottles. For going on the 4th of July ( a lapse in good judgement) the wait in lines wasn't bad at all. We walked right on several rides, I think people were in a mass heat induced stupor.



Later that night we met our friends, the Hazen's to watch fireworks...which were a gyp!!! They were supposed to be 20 minutes long and patriotic...they were 8 minutes long and ended with a fizzle. We found out the next day there had been 'production problems', nice to know that even Disney isn't perfect.



After three days of amusement park fun (said with tongue firmly planted in cheek...) we showed Skyler other SoCal sites. The most exciting for him? THE OC BEACH, Newport beach. He was so excited!



Lauren was pouting about something...to which Skyler replied with.....



We're lovin' him more and more!!! He seems to have control of the situation!
From there, we went to Los Angeles, where the highlight of my trip occured...



We were just driving along La Brea and Lauren spotted LA Ink, which is a tattoo place on TLC. I was SO excited!! We went in the shop where I was a total tourist and a total goober, I've never been in a tattoo parlor before!! No, I didn't get a tat. :)



Then on to the Hollywood Walk of Stars where Skyler had the good sense to pay dutiful homage to the star of MaryKate and Ashley Olson, Lauren's childhood heroes. I was going to make a snarky comment, but I want Lauren to still love me, so I won't. Insert your own comment here: ---------.


After taking the lovebirds to the airport, we drove to San Diego to see the Hazens!! It was so fun to go and relax on the beach. Well, Rachel and I relaxed, Rob dug a hole 4 feet deep and the kids had a blast in the ocean boogie boarding and playing with sand crabs. Byron convinced Payton that sand crabs are eatable by "just boiling them and putting butter and a little bit of garlic salt on them." Byron is in BIG trouble if she decides to put the recipe to the test.





One of the fun highlights was meeting Queenie Weenie, Rachel's friend Allison. What a doll!



Byron and the boys went home and I stayed. Our friends Pam and Vicki drove down for a girl's trip ( with Pams' daughter Shaelie). The four of us have been friends for 8 years, it was so good to all be together, laughing and having fun, thanks Rob, for being so understanding and patient!!



We went to the beach again. See me in the surf? Of course you don't, but that's me in there, I wiped out. Did you honestly think I would post a picture of myself in a bathing suit? Not in any universe.



Bless Rachel's heart, I dragged her to go looking at dresses. Bought two, returning both. Still no dress, but we are closer...



While we were there, Payton dubbed us the Fairy Godmothers, Vicki is the tall one, Pam is the short one and I am the round one. She pretty much got it right!!!



After four days, it was time to go. We were leaving Rachel behind as we went north to LA to see the play 'Wicked', which was Shaelie's 17th birthday present. We had a little stowaway in our luggage! By the way, mine is the teenie tiny bag. Everyone else had massive amounts of luggage. Thanks to Rob and his tetris mind, everything got in. (Even the stowaway)




We went to see Wicked, then drove around Sunset Blvd etc....which is really wicked.



All in all, a wonderful trip. But the best part was loves from Payton!!!