Are they talking to me?

Conference never ceases to amaze me, my questions and concerna are always answered. I know that they are truly inspired by the Lord I look forward to this weekend every April and October. This conference in particular.. life has been filled with stresses and being a mom has really been overwhelming lately. It was a very rewarding experience for Dustin and I and I am glad we got to attend it. We ended up having to attend all of the sessions at the church because we couldn't get the sound to work properly on our computer. But it turned out to be a great experience.. the boys didn't go nuts until the very last session which is understandablo that is when I start to get a little restless too. Anyways I LOVED ALL the talks this time.. they all touched on something I needed to hear, however, some that really stood out to me were President Uchtdorf's talk on Hope. Elder Wirthlin's talk (his story about the blind date was so HILARIOUS).. I loved how he said to Laugh.. laugher really does help.. I find myself laughing as a mother ALOT. President MOnson's talk in the sunday morning session was great too.. ok so I just loved them all. Please comment/share what your favorite talk or quote of conference was.. I love to read aobut them.

The "Unthinkable"

Back in August I had blogged about how Austin allowed a bird to sit on his arm. Well the picture has finally arrived! For those of you who don't know my Austie.. this is a big deal..he likes animals and bugs from a distance but if they try to come near him he basically freaks out.. so lets just say that when I told Dustin about it he couldn't believe it. This is proof that the "unthinkable" really did take place!

Under Water

For those of you who don't know we had an unfortunate occurance during our "relaxing" Sunday nap... we were woken up by Austin banging on the door yelling mommy, daddy there is water.. water is everywhere. So we jumped out of bed. My feet were greated with a nice sloshy feeling as I went to open the door. The edge of my pants quickly became soaked from inches of water flowing from the bathroom. Something had happened with the toilet! So we quickly soaked up as much water as we could,and moved the furniture and junk so that it was not near the wetness. We called Emergency Maintenance. They came and said we needed to depart for the night so we packed up and went to Mammaw and Pappaw's house. We ended up being there until Tuesday morning. However our apt was still not ready for us so Dustin went to work and the boys and I crashed at our friends the Stockings all day. Tera ended babysitting the boys while I came down to help Dustin fix the carpet and move furniture back into place. Needless to say the apt is still in disarray but at least we are living here again. Below are pictures of some of the flooded areas and our adventures at Mammaw's. The pics don't really do justice and you can't really see but they will help us remember this wonderful adventure!

Women's Conference Pictures

This is a picture of the friends I sat with to eat dinner and do the service project.

I am sorry this picture turned out fuzzy but it was a picture of the lovely white dots we painted on the ornaments for the children's hospital to sell at the fantasy of trees.

Long awaited vacation

Tonight I went on a much needed vacation. I packed my purse complete with camera journal, and the usuals and left with my friends for a wonderful girl's night. Tonight was the general Relief Society Broadcast (the women's group of our church had a broadcast from our leaders in Salt Lake City, UT). The evening started with a delicious dinner. We then made ornaments as a service project to help the Children's hospital. They will sell the ornaments at the Fantasy of Trees and all the proceeds go to the hospital. Then we watched a WONDERFUL, AMAZING broadcast. It is always so refreshing to listen to the broadcast and have all my questions, fears, worries, and thoughts answered. I love listening to the leaders of the church! Tonight we heard from the General Relief Society Presidency who all gave Amazing talks and then from President Uchtdorf whose talk was just wonderful. I reccommend to anyone who was unable to attend or listen to definately go to lds.org and read the messages that were given because they were so motivating and reassuring.

The New Doo

It has been a long time that I have needed a haircut and I was comtemplating to go short or not.. and whether or not to try a new style. Naturally I researched and studied it out. I took measurements of my face to determine the shape, and looked at numerous hairstyles on line finally I decided to go the Reese Witherspoon from Sweet Home Alabama route. But then my sweet huband tried talking me out of going short because he loved my long hair. Well today I got so aggravated with him that I decided to go short just to make him mad.. so after getting a second and third opinion I went to the hair salon and this is what the results turned out to be...

The funny thing is Dustin (after refusing to look at me for a some time after coming home from the salon) LOVES it.. and says it is very fitting.. My mean plan backfired. Moral of story is meanness bites you back!!
(I didn't get to style it quite right.. so this picture is not the best!)

The "RUSH" 24/7

Tragically over the last couple months I haven't been sleeping well, and have been gaining large amounts of weight for no apparent reason. I walk at least an hour to an hour and half everyday... I was watching what I ate like crazy and yet I was still gaining.. not even maintaining. It was very frustrating! All of the research I did showed that that was more than enough to lose weight let alone maintain it. So you can see where I started to get depressed and stressed which only heightened the situation. Well a few weeks ago (its been 3) Dustin surprised me with a membership to the RUSH (his gym). I haven't had a huge weight loss yet BUT I do feel a difference. As a matter of fact.. I FEEL GREAT! As I was working out yesterday I was looking around reading the wall.. parts of it said FEEL THE RUSH. Well I testify that working out.. a true work out.. really does give you a rush. I FEEL THE RUSH everyday. It really does help you to feel well. One of Dustin's professors works in the medical field and he says that research shows that exercise is just as effective as depression medication (prob. in mild to moderate cases). I testify to this! Exercise makes one feel WONDERFUL.. on a high.. ENERGETIC... HAPPY.. all the things that a mother of two boys needs to feel. Thank you Dustin for my daily medication.. I LOVE IT! And so does Austin he asks every 10 mins. when we are going to the GYM! Mason is still getting used to the idea.

A date "night" to remember

This week Dustin and I were fortunate enough to spend our date"night" at the TENNESSEE V FLORIDA game. It did not have the result we would have hoped for but it was still so much fun and now I can say that I went to a Tennessee Florida game. Thanks to a very good friend we had awesome tickets in some very comfortable seats out of the sun. It was AWESOME! So even though we got blown away we managed to smile and have a good time.

The HUSBAND Tag

This is a way fun, new tag that gives me a chance to brag about my man! Thanks Desi!
1. Where did you meet? We laid eyes on each other where Tazwell T's into another road all the way in Union County, TN (my family had come down for my Uncle's funeral), but the first time we met was at my aunt and uncles when I was 14 and we barely noticed each other

2. How long did you date before you were married? 7 months

3. How long have you been married? 5 1/2 yrs.

4. What does he do that surprises you? he does little things.. like help with dinner and clean up.. bring me home a candy bar or little gift.. a phone call to let me know he was thinking of me...etc..

5. What is your favorite feature of his? His eyes

6. What is your favorite quality of his? He is great with little kids.. he adores my boys and neices.. they adore him back

7. Does he have a Nickname for you? a few the most recent Ton, babe, babysnakes..

8. What is his favorite color? It used to be Green but he is very fond of ORANGE too

9. What is his Favorite food? anything meat and cheesy

10. What is his favorite sport? FOOTBALL but he loves to play all sports, esp. frisbee golf

11. When and where was your first kiss? In the SLC airport when he came to visit me at school

12. Favorite thing to do as a couple? We love to go hiking and to the mountains but we also love to snuggle and watch movies

13. Do yo have any Children? 2 adorable boys who want to be just like daddy

14. Does he have a hidden talent? He does a mean robot (dance) although he will never admit it and he is an amazing teacher

15. How old is he? 28

16. Who said I love you first? I am almost sure it was Dustin

17. What is his favorite type of music? He is in to multiple types but he loves Allison's & Travis's music so visit their blog to get a taste of what he likes

18. What do you admire most about him? He places the gospel first and would sacrifice anything for it. He loves the Gospel and he lives it too.

19. Do you think he will read this? Yes maybe not for a while but eventually

I tag Natalie, Laura, Terra, Kate, Shelly

THE BIG QUESTION

Our Saturday was spent watching football. We kicked off the day going to our friends house to watch Tennessee blow away UAB, then we watched BYU (my alma mater) STOMP ALL OVER UCLA... What an AWESOME game! We ended the day not so well with the OSU game. Anyways all day you could see Austin make a strange face whenever they said timeout.. finally as we were watching the OSU game the big question came

Annoucer on TV: OSU is taking a time out

Austin: Mommy what did the white football guy do to get into timeout?

Mommy: smiled and LOL, oh hunny that is a different time out... they needed to come up with a play..etc...