So much to be thankful for

I love how Thanksgiving is put smack dab in the middle of two exciting holidays. It is a great portrayal of life...that sometimes I need to stop the whirlwind, pause for a moment and give thanks. My girls are on a big "why are there no Thanksgiving songs or big decorations?" kick. I am personally glad. Sometimes there just needs to be a moment to breathe. A moment to reflect and to say thank you. So thank you all! Thank you for being such great friends. Thanks for taking the time to lurk. Especially thank you for taking the time to comment. I love reading them! I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am planning on spending the whole weekend with people I love and I couldn't be more excited!

No Twilight for me

It finally came...the weekend we have all been counting down to, the premier of Twilight! We had a group of 25 together, and had great plans! We hit Red Robin for dinner and then had tickets for the 7:15 show. Just before we were done eating I felt my throat go numb on the inside and start to swell. I grabbed Dan and we ran across the parking lot to Target. The pharmicist left the people she was helping at the counter and ran over to us (I must have looked panicky by that point) She helped me OD on Benydryl to stop the swelling, because I was getting to a point where I couldn't breathe very well. Dan rushed me to the ER and by that point I felt like I was going to pass out. They didn't even make me do triage, they got me into a wheelchair and right back into a room and hooked up to machines. My pulse and blood pressure were out of control, and weren't going down. Apparently I also am one of the (un)lucky few that have adverse reactions to large amounts of Benadryl. I was also going into anaphalactyc(?) shock. Good times! They gave me some steroids and after a few hours got me stable enough to go home. The next day I was really tired , but thought I was doing better. I walked downstairs and almost passed out. Everything started to go back up again. Our neighbor is a life flight nurse and he came over and gave us some great advice on what to do to counteract what was happening. Our stake President (who was there the night before when it all happened) came over and helped Dan give me a Priesthood blessing. What an incredible calming experience that was! My heart rate was pretty erratic for the rest of the day and night, but this morning everything was dropping down to normal and my heart was beating strong and regular again. What a horrid experience! I am so lucky to have a husband with some emergency medical training, who was able to keep tabs on me and know exactly what my stats were every so often.
SO, I have a couple of Twilight tickets...they are a few days old and not worth much anymore. Luckily, Dancingqueen got to stay and see the movie with my sister and our friends. I found out that I am DEATHLY allergic to melons and not so good with large doses of Benadryl either! Good to know!

you know when THAT song comes on the radio and you are in the car by yourself and you just can't help yourself? The volume goes up WAY louder than you would ever let your kids put it on and you just have to sing like you were performing in front of thousands and they actually paid to see you so you'd better make it good? And if you had a piece of licorice you would use it for your ultra cool microphone. And it's a song that you would be mortified about if your friends knew you knew all of the words AND secretly LOVED it?

you don't?

Oh.

Never mind.

I don't either...just sayin'

Keep Your Pants On

Dancingqueen came home from School yesterday with a little brochure. It was from Health class where they were having the birds and bees discussion. It was the upteenth time she has heard this discussion, since at her old school they began teaching it in the 4th grade, and we as parents needed to jump on the topic BEFORE that.
This by far was the best literature though! We are getting tons of mileage out of it here. The front cover has a close up of a crotch with a padlock and steel chain belt. The title is "keep your pants on!"
There is no beating around the bush anymore! Love it! We have been walking around all day saying "hey...keep your pants on" everytime she turns around! Poor girl is going to stop bringing the stuff home to share with us. I think it needs to be made in vinyl...Amanda, can you get right on that? Thanks!
And if any of you out there are unsure of how to start talking to your kids about sex or are too embarassed?...I have the brochure to get you started! How's that for a friendly PSA for the day?

TSO

Last night we went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert. AWESOME! I love their music, but wasn't sure what to expect as far as the performance. We were NOT disappointed! It was the most incredible light/pyro/sound show I've ever been to! To get a good idea of the experience (but it still doesn't do it justice!) go to Amanda and Travis's blog...she has a youtube video and pictures from her cell phone.
SO FUN!!!!
IF you were the man on the main floor in the black t-shirt totally rocking out...Thank you! You were a source of great entertainment for all! Rock on!

Danielle's Baptism

A few days before our trip I got a phone call from my cousin Danielle. She had some exciting news for us, she was being baptized on Sunday night! My mom joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when she was a teenager, and has been the only member of her family for all of these years. Dan and I were so excited, because we knew that it was only a few hours from Phoenix to So. Ca. We called her back and told her we were going to be able to be there. Dan was able to confirm her a member of the church, and that was such an incredible thing for him to participate in! She shared the most incredible testimony afterward, and we could feel the Spirit so strong. The Missionaries who taught her were so sweet! It's such a great feeling to know that we are going to be able to go to the temple with her and her wonderful husband and son next year. My aunt and uncle and her sisters were so supportive of her, and came to the baptism. She has such a strong Italian Catholic heritage, and it has helped her develop into such an amazing person.
We had a blast afterward, Jared's parents had a dinner for all of us and we hung out for a few hours before getting back on the road to head home. It was the perfect ending to our trip!

mini family vay-cay

as you can guess by now, we took a little family vacation this past weekend. It actually started out as a family trip to see Dan's brother graduate. We had his graduation and my 20th reunion within two weeks of eachother, and had decided to go to the graduation, since the kids could see the cousins and we could see family. The day before my reunion we got an email saying he wasn't going to walk, and don't worry about coming down. It was too late to arrange a trip to Ca for my reunion (dang it!) so we decided to go on a family trip instead. We had already planned on staying with our good friends in AZ and spending time with them, so we decided to still go down, and just take our time instead of rushing. We stayed the night in Vegas, at Circus Circus. Crazygirl got to shop at her favorite store on the planet...Boot Barn, just south of the strip. She had been saving all of her money for this. In addition to playing with our friends, we went out to dinner with grandpa, which was so fun! We really surprised him! He said he was told we weren't coming down. We told him, "hey, we never said we weren't coming! We were just told there was no reason to!!"
We also popped in on Dan's Brother and family. I thinked we shocked them the most! We had a good time catching up with them and the kids had a blast playing Mario kart with their cousins. It was hard to say goodbye. We went to my cousin's baptism in So. Cal. (which I will post pictures of tomorrow), Then headed up through Vegas again to go home. We love road trips, and this one was no exception! We all now have the HSM3 soundtrack completely memorized, and Daddy got us addicted to listening to books on CD. We came home with enough inside jokes to last for the next year, so I consider the trip a huge success!!

Hangin' with the cool crowd

Have you ever had such a good time hanging out that you forgot to take pictures? Yeah, that's what happened to us! We had a blast with our super fun friends in AZ and seriously forgot to take a single picture. Up until we were getting in the car to say goodbye, then did the panicky group shots. Nothing of the kids playing rock band, air hockey, basketball, riding bikes in the gorgeous 83 degree weather, soccer games (go sam!) or of us stuffing our faces over and over with Mexican food or chili's while leaving the kids to fend for themselves at home. It was a great vacation because we did what we do best with them, we. just. hang. out. No stress, no having to be anywhere, just seriously hanging out on the couch or in a lawn chair. That's what we love about them! Next time it's going to have to be for a bit longer though!!!!
I do have lots of fun pictures from the rest of the trip, which I will post tomorrow, especially of my super cute cousin's baptism, but it's late, and this trip was honestly about just what was in this post. Just Hanging out. Every now and then we all need vacations like that!

TTFN

We're off to stimulate the economy! Hope everyone has a great weekend! We'll see you all when we get back...hopefully with lots of pictures and FUN stories to share!

Halloween Fun!

We had a little get together with a few friends before our ward Trunk or Treat. We have a Halloween Party every year, and everyone knows that they can't walk into our house without a costume on, or we dress them up ourselves! We have so much fun seeing what everyone comes up with...they are all so creative!