My friend is M.I.A.

Many years ago, in a different space and time, a friendship was born. It has experienced it's share of bad times but it has expreienced many many many more good times then are countable.
Our friendship has made it through the fears of sickness, the fun and frustrations of moving, the miracle of birth, the sadness of death, the joy of adoption, the heartbreak of separations & break-ups, the excitment of road trips, the smiles, the laughs, the inside jokes, holidays, gifts, and probably more food and drinks then humans should possibly consume! :) Things that friendships are built on!

I hold a very special place in my heart for my friend. Actually she is more then a friend, more then a sister, she is a part of why I am who I am today, and a person I will cherish in my heart and soul for as long as forever is.

Although she is M.I.A. in my life today, she will always be with me in my heart. I miss her, and long to have my friend back in my life.

So today, Ky on your special day, I wanted to take a moment to tell you I love you and wish you a very happy birthday. (Dec 28th, 2008)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Just wanted to wish everyone a safe and wonderful Christmas! Hope you get everything your hearts desire this Christmas. Or at least anything more then a lump of coal! :)

TTFN

photos from the last few weekends...

So the weekend has been full again...

This weekend has been just as packed as the many in the past...but I am SOOOO looking forward to wednesday at about noon when I will be on Christmas vacation for a good 48 hours. WOO HOO. Friday night we had a horrible snow store and it took me an hour and a half to get home my normal 10 minute drive. BLECK. Once we got home we got comfy and did a little baking. Love to bake! We made some yummy cookies, banana bread, chocolates. Watching Christmas specials on tv, singing along with the Heat Miser. "They call me Heat Miser, whatever I touch, starts to melt in my touch, I'm too much!" WAA HAAA HAAA.
Saturday brought goodie deliveries, visiting with friends, and Christmas with my Dad down in Lehi. I got the fishing waders I wanted! WOO HOO. Last night we went to Mer & Summers so the boys could swap presents. Us 4 adults ended up playing the new Pictionary Man game and laughed hysterically! Patrice and I barely won by 1 point after Mer and Summer finally got in sync and started their come back. AHHH... WHAT A FUN GAME! I must have that! :)
This morning we got up about 8:00am and got all bundled up and went over to Hunter park where there is a pretty good size hill to go sleeding. Topper went with us and jumped right on the sled on my first time down! And then jumped up and ran as fast as he could back up the hill to go down again. I of course took a bit longer to get myself back up the hill. HA HA, so he was bouncy and anxious by the time I got there. Our last time down, Tristan and I decided to brave the yellow sled together. Probably not the greatest idea, as we started to turn, the sled caught and edge and flipped us over. SLEDDING IS SO DANGEROUS, why do we allow ourselves to do such insane things. I started to skid on my left shoulder and as the pressure built, the wind kept escaping my lungs...as my head stopped us from moving any further I felt my ribs callapse under my elbow and I new I had broken a rib. So now I am struggling breathing and am having a hard time bending over to get anything off the floor. What a joke...it was FUN though! Tristan was fine, I totally caught him and broke his fall. That seems to happen a lot with us. :) He got really upset and was worried about me. I had to remind him I was fine to keep him from having a total melt down. But honestly, I think I am fine, just a lot sore! :)
I am now at work, and Patrice and Tristan are going to her aunts for their family Christmas party.

Only 3 more wakeups until Christmas Eve! WOO HOO!

TTFN

The weekend update! (Photos will be posted later)

The weekends seem to be getting busier and busier, but luckily they have been filled with family fun. So that is a-okay with me. Friday night I met up with an old friend of mine for dinner and conversation. We went to Tepenyakki's(sp?) (one of my favorite places to eat) in Lehi, since it was a half-way point for us both. This restaraunt is a Japanese steak house. They cook on the grill in front of you, there is alot of Japanese goofy humor and a moment when I honestly would have loved the chef to bust out in a rendition of "Jingo beows, jingo beows, Far rah rah rah rah, rah rah rah rah". Japanese low sodium, (salt being shaken just above the already salty soy sauced rice) moved to Japanese high sodium, (salt being shaken about 3 feet above the rice). I giggled, as I usually do, and the other 2 couples with their 3 wide eyed children seemed to be just as entertained as I was. :) I think the cutest was the girl taking a bite of lobster tail, saying she liked it as she had the sour lemon puker on her face and then refusing to eat more as she shuddered after the swollow. So cute to make kids try new things!
After dinner I went to my Dad's (who lives in Lehi) and we looked over the "almost finished" sets of plans for the re-model. We have three floors of plans, mostly complete, and we need to start adding the details to the plans. My dad is retired now, but has been a contractor and a kitchen cabinet installer for so many years that he still has connections and so we are going to do our own kitchen. I can hardly wait to get started, picking out the wood, the styles, our kitchen will be a main entertaining point to our new home, and I am really looking forward to getting this one right! :)
Saturday I had to get up and work, but then we went to our annual GLPU (parent's group)Christmas Party! WHAT A GREAT EVENT. The kids and parents alike did cookie decorating, Santa and Mrs. Clause came and had photo ops with the kids while they excitedly told Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Tristan hestitated, but after a little encouragement, sat on Santa's lap and told him a few items off his list. Then off to play in the kids rooms upstairs they went. It was nice to meet new people, converse with people we have recently met, and see old faces that have been missing for awhile. I can't wait to have our house done so we can host on of our monthly events! :)
Saturday evening landed us at Patrice's mom's to help her decorate a little for Christmas. She is still on the oxygen tank, and isn't allowed to drive. They found a lung disease that they are treating (along side her pnemonia) with steroids. I guess they are recommending she see how this works for a little while and then after the first of the year she may have to retire and go on disability with an in home nurse. I guess with this treatment her immune system will be so limited that even being around people could 'cause death. So we will just take things one day at a time and see what we can do to help her get better baby step by baby step.
Sunday we got up EARLY (bleck) and headed to the Zoo for breakfast with Santa and the Zoo animals. As we ate breakfast we met the cute little family that sat at our table with us and became instant friends with their 5 year old son Ryan. He was very outgoing, and very excited about Christmas. The zoo volunteers walked around the room with an owl, another bird, an opposum, an armidillo, a lizard, and a madagascar cockroach (ewww). They let us pet them, told us all their history, and even had hand sanitizer after to keep our hands fresh and clean. :) They had crafts for the kids to do, wish lists for Santa that we all filled out and gave to him when we were done, and then we walked around the zoo in a few inches of snow seeing the gorilla's up close and watched the cat's playing in the snow. For the first time in MANY years we also saw the Gray Wolves. We walked around the zoo with our new friends Mark, Tiffany, and Ryan from Layton for about an hour and then said our goodbyes. We will probably never seen these people again, but we really had a great morning with them and want to wish them a Very Merry Christmas and much success with their endeavors.
After the zoo we headed up to West Point (west of Hill Air Force Base) to our friend Amy and Casey's house. We had a girls afternoon together of Gingerbread house decorating. For those of you that haven't done your houses yet this year, but plan to...make sure you have the time to let the house dry before you try to decorate, or your roof will sink in and you will be cursing the whole afternoon! :) We all had a fun time, we made a really cute house, and as always enjoyed the company of some really great friends! :) Mamosa's and goodies and all! :)Thanks Amy! :)
Sunday evening we did some measuring for the contractor, packed the dogs up and headed to my house for a sleepover. We cuddled in on the couch with the Christmas tree lights shining and watch a few of the Christmas movies that we have tivo'd the past couple of weeks. And then went to bed at 8:30pm. IT WAS A GREAT WEEKEND! :)
I can't believe Christmas is in 9 days. WOO HOO...TTFN

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. With Patrice's mom going from sick to a breathing tube and ventilator in the ICU (on Thanksgiving day) to her now being home but still no word on what is actually wrong with her lungs. We are grateful that she is home this week, even though she is hooked to an oxygen tank...she has a doctors apt next Wednesday where we hope to have some answers and a starting point to her recovery.

This weekend has been a little bit of a band-aid in our family time. We have spent so much time running here and there, from hospital to work to karate. We finally had some time to actually spend doing fun family things. Friday night we went to the Zoo with our really great friends Mer, Summer, and Cam. We walked around in the bitter cold looking at all the amazing lights. Saturday morning we got up and went to the Festival of Trees, a wonderful tradition that we have done three years running now. Walking around and looking at all the trees, enjoying the goodies, Tristan getting his finger nails painted (which he picked over calling the Christmas Elf on the phone to put in his Christmas requests. "I will call the Elves next year k Heidi? I want my nails painted"), and continuing to get into the holiday spirit. Afterward we went to pick out our Christmas tree. We all fell in love with the same one as we walked around the lot. We went home quickly, and started to pull out all the decorations. The lights went on quickly, the ornaments not as quick, at first my O.C.D. kicked in and every ornament that Tristan put on the tree I wanted to move to a more "appropriate" spot. But after a few minutes I put myself in check and realized it's just a tree. And beside that, I can move them later after he goes to bed. HA HA HA...I am proud to say I have not moved a single ornament. :)
After Patrice put the Mickey Mouse on the top of the tree, her and I ran downstairs to put a few of the bins away...next thing we know, Tristan is at the top of the stairs yelling down "we have a problem here...Mom, we have a problem!" We started up the stairs as he burst into tears, "what's wrong?" Patrice says to him...as we go up the stairs to find the Christmas tree toppled over in the middle of the room, water gushing out of the tree stand all over my laminate floor, and Mickey Mouse glass ornaments shattered all over the floor. "Heidi's favorite ornament is broken, it's going to be a horrible Christmas" cry's Tristan. I give him a little hug, and tell him it's going to be okay. We put him up on the couch and proceed to clean up the mess. Had the water not been gushing out on the floor I would have stopped to take a photo, but I wanted to get that cleaned up first. So the photos attached are of the tree decorated and standing. :) After we got the tree back to normal, the train on the track, the dogs settled down, and Tristan in his pj's we settled in for our first showing (of many) of the movie A Christmas Story. It's one of my favorites, that one and Elf I could watch over and over, and I do! This morning we got up, wrapped a ton of presents, cooked some bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns, listened to Christmas music, and wrapped more presents. I had to work today but prior to leaving Tristan and I worked on riding his bike without training wheels. Let me just say, this accomplishment will be HUGE, when he finally rides alone! Can't hardly wait!!!

Well, I think that catches everyone up for now. TTFN