Vote for Emily

I've shared my sister-in-law's singing talent on my blog before in this post. She's amazing! She's auditioning for the show Glee, and I'm not being biased when I say that her video is the best one on MySpace - it really is.


Glee monologue

Glee MySpace Video


Glee song

Glee MySpace Video

If you have a MySpace account, please go here and give her a Gold Star. Good luck, Emily!

Happy Birthday, Jessica!

I can't wait to see you next month!

Sleeping Not-So-Beauty

I've been wanting to change my Facebook profile picture, but as the blogger of the family, I don't take pictures of myself - just Kevin and the kids. So I didn't think I had any recent pictures of myself to use.

While looking through my pictures for other posts recently, I've noticed that Kevin uses the camera more than I thought, but only to take pictures of me while I am sleeping:

This might look familiar. I found this first picture when I was looking for pictures of Rebecca with Dolly. I'm wearing maternity jeans, so this has to be from when I was pregnant with Braden.

I found this one about a month ago when I was putting my pictures on the computer from Braden's 1st birthday party. When I asked Kevin about it, he said that he liked how I was cradling my Coke like it was one of our kids.

I woke up to this one today after I heard Rebecca say, "I want to see it" and Kevin say, "Shhh!".

Apparently I am only cute enough for pictures when I am asleep. I guess I could use the second picture on Facebook. I'm sure my friends on there who don't read this would love to see how I sleep with my mouth open.

I Love Janet

One of my favorite blogs to read is written by my friend Janet. She is witty, inspirational, sassy, fun-loving, gorgeous, hilarious, a great mom and wife, and so many other things that shine through on her page. I can always count on being entertained and/or uplifted when I visit Janet's blog.

She is doing a giveaway on her blog right now, and it's all about service. I was going through a rough time last year around the end of my pregnancy with Braden, and I did a post about it on my blog. I recently reread this post, and I remembered how I felt from all of the service I received during that time.

Some of you have read this before, but here it is again. I shortened it a tiny bit since this post is already getting really long.

Posted January 20, 2009

The last few weeks have really been hard for me. I broke my right foot, so I couldn't drive, and I've been stuck in the house for the past two weeks slowly going crazy. And to top things off, I had the flu this past Saturday and Sunday. The weekend sucked due to fever and achiness, a hurting foot with a big clunky boot on it, and a big pregnant belly that is starting to get hard to maneuver around. It just seemed like things kept getting worse and worse. But I have to say that when things get really hard, Heavenly Father sends his angels to help take care of us:

• Like today, I went to Taco Bell (because I can now drive in my new smaller boot) and got food for the kids and a medium cherry Pepsi for myself. The guy at the window gave me a large cherry Pepsi, and said, "Here's your medium cherry Pepsi" with a wink and a smile. I don't think he knew how much I really needed those extra few ounces of caffeine, and I know he doesn't know how much I truly appreciated his extra kindness.

• My in-laws took care of my kids the whole time we were in Reno so that the kids could still have a fun vacation in spite of their mother's broken foot.

• Two weeks ago, my friends from high school and Hot Dog on a Stick Laurie and Kim called to have their kids come play with my kids. I had had a whole week of being stuck in the house with only kids, and I don't think they realized how nice it was for me to finally have a little adult interaction. Laurie showed up with breakfast for me and my kids, and Kim came back later with a nice cage for the backyard for our bunnies to run around in and some dinner for our family.

• My sister Jodi took me to my first orthopedic appointment way out in Henderson and watched my kids while my other sister Denise sat at the office with me for an hour and a half while I waited for the doctor. Then my mom treated us all to a nice lunch. And Jodi came back later in the week to bring us some more dinner.

• My neighbor and good friend Emilee took Rebecca to dance class last week and offered to take her for the rest of the month until I could drive, even though she is about six months pregnant and has her own four-year-old and two-year-old to take to the class. She also brought us some delicious taco soup last night for dinner.

• One of my oldest, bestest friends in the world Julie came by with a big dinner and some Anderson Dairy ice cream last Friday even though she and her family are getting ready for her husband to start a crazy year of paramedic school this week.

• My mom took me to my second orthopedic appointment last week and sat in the car with a movie on for my kids to watch while I was inside the doctor's office.

• And last of all, Kevin has been so wonderful through all of this. He carried me around in Reno, pregnancy weight and all, before I could really walk around in my walking cast. He helped me get in and out of the tub and helped me get dressed before my foot was stable enough to let me do these things on my own. He's been making dinner on the nights that we haven't had leftovers from our friends and family, and he's been cleaning the house so that it hasn't become too much of a disaster. When I had the flu he took care of the kids all weekend so that I could sleep it off. He even took both kids to church by himself. He knew that I really wanted to mop the floor, so he mopped the entire downstairs. He's been taking care of all of the grocery shopping since we got back from Reno, and he's been willing to go do anything I ask him to do to help me out.
  

I'm so grateful for you all, and I really don't think I could have gotten through this tough time without all of your help. Thanks for being my angels.

And that's my story of service.