Don't Forget

Just want to make sure that these people send me their address so I can give them my awesome gift.

Sunny-D
Ashley
Brittany Nielson
Jerilyn
Amy (Mom Spark) I know where you live and will hand deliver it!
Mandi
Mikala (New Zealand)

If you have already emailed me your address, disregard this, if you haven't then don't forget!!
hitworldproductions@gmail.com

And the winner is!!

Here are the winners!!! (see video below). I have to make an addition. We had to do the video twice because, when only 2 names were drawn, Ava had a small breakdown so we had to start again. I felt badly about the two names previously drawn so technically there will be 7 winners. The 2 winners who were originally drawn but are not shown on the video above are:

Jerilyn

Mikala

All those who won please email me your address. I am so excited to send you your gift. It will take about 3-4 weeks so be patient....I hope you like it!! No, I am not telling you, it will be a surprise! hitworldproductions@gmail.com

This was lots of fun for us and I wish so much that I could afford to give you all gifts......it's killing me to not sell the farm and give something to everyone......:)

To those who didn't win: I just got a great idea.......all those who commented but didn't win......please also email me your address and in the subject line write CD. Be sure and let me know what your comment screen name was. In the next 6-7 months we will be recording a few of the songs my two oldest girls have written.....If you are interested, I will send you each a free CD when we get them.....there I feel better!!

It is Awesome!!

OK, I found the gift I am going to give for the giveaway and it it AWESOME. You have until midnight to leave a comment and then sometime tomorrow, most likely tomorrow evening I will have a drawing and post the 5 lucky winners. In regards to what the gift is.....well, I still can't guarantee that you will like it but I know that I would love to receive it so I hope you do too!!

I have really enjoyed doing this!!!

I will do the drawing tonight (Wednesday) and have it posted before 9pm central........!!

Enter at your own risk!

This blog is my journal, family history, scrapbook......I don't usually do giveaways, tags or meme's. This is my place to just quietly come and document our life for my family and posterity.

That being said, my sister did this really cute fun giveaway on her blog. I commented because of course I wanted something for free and I know how talented she is. I wasn't really thinking when I left the comment about the fact that I must keep my promise and pass it on. I don't have her crafty, creative talent or ability so all I can say is, Enter at your own risk.....I am just warning you, on other blogs you will get great giveaways.........on the other hand from me..........who knows, you could get a pair of socks. Ha ha that would be really funny, I am sure I would pick cute strippy ones.


And so I copy and paste from her blog with one small change........I will not give these strippy socks, or whatever I choose to grace you with, to the first 5 commenters as she did. Anyone who would like to chance it, leave a comment and I will do a random drawing of five lucky people to be graced with my gift.



So comment at your own risk


Here's the small print...Of course there are some restrictions and limitations:


1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I send to you! I can send whatever I want, this could be very risky.


2. My gift to you will more than likely NOT be homemade by me. Sorry I know my limitations.


3. It will be mailed to you sometime in the next two months. That seems like a long time but I also know my busy schedule and I need to give myself some room. It will most likely come sooner but you never know??


4. And last but not least...you can be out of town and even out of country...I will mail it.



More small print...The catch?



Oh, the catch is that if you win......you can if you want- re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people willing to do the same on their blog. I am not making this manditory. If you don't have a blog - feel free to post "anonymously" but post your name at the end so I know who you are and I'll still send you something anyway.)



I promise to do the drawing fairly and it will be done the end of the day tomorrow.

Something Old

My dear friend Dari......when I am with her I laugh until I cry....can't you see!

The four muskateers at our 20 year reunion, we are all the dearest of friends. Darci, in the green shirt knows more about me than I care for her to know!!

There is nothing better than an old friend. Don't get me wrong, I love meeting and getting to know new friends and every once in a while I will find a new friend that feels like an old friend, that is a treat. There is just something amazing about someone who has seen you through it all. We tend to get better with age (at least I hope I have) but I love knowing there are still people out there who knew me when I was raw, less refined and lots more embarrassing.

This came to light when a dear friend of mine moved away to another state. I met her when she moved into our ward (church) many years ago. When they moved here she was as poor as a church mouse mainly because her husband was just starting his orthopedic residency. She and I connected immediately. She was a kindred spirit for many reasons, one being that she was a doer. She started a business while her husband was in med school and she ran it by herself (often with a baby in tow) to make ends meet.

When her husband graduated and they moved away I knew that people would meet her and and see her differently than I did. She would be the beautiful, fashionable doctors wife who was wealthy and seemed to have it all but I knew better. Yes, she is so beautiful that she could wear a potato sack and still look stunning , but I knew her when all she could afford was a potato sack (ha ha). I knew her when she scoured clearance racks and only bought things, not just on sale, but sale items that were on final clearance. I knew her when she had NO PRIDE and to make a few extra dollars sold snow cones at the July 4th parade...It was a sight to behold as she wandered among the patrons and peddled her wares. I knew her when she struggled, cried, and prayed that there was a better tomorrow. I came to love her through these hard times and I build a deep respect for her because I saw her resilience and character in the face of adversity. She was more beautiful inside than out. Here is her blog if you would like to meet this amazing woman who I feel honored to call friend.

So lately I have had the chance to reconnect with many old friends. Each time I connect with one I think "Oh she is the one who tried to reassure me when at 15 years old I tried to show 20 plus people that I could do the splits up the wall and unexpectedly, in all my glory, I got to full split and loudly passed gas, fell to the ground with hot tears forming and screamed "Everyone go AWAY". She was there to get me through that.

Then there is my friend who in 6th grade thought it would be fun to play basket ball then convinced me it would be more fun if I attached the suction cup hoop to my forehead and acted as the moving BB hoop. Oh we laughed and laughed for the 30 min we played until I removed the hoop and realized I had a 4 inch round purple hickey smack dab in the center of my forehead. That was when I cut bangs for the first time and she reassured me that they were cute and that no one could see.

These were the bangs that covered the hickie, the hickie was gone at the taking of this picture but what I can't figure out is....why was I trying to feather them????

And who can forget the friend who, in my high school days when I seemed desperate for attention and would do anything to get it, took half the blame for breaking the glass windows to the high school office because I just had to joy ride the janitors dolly up and down the hall. She stood by my side as we went into the office and fessed up. She seriously took half the blame when I was the one at fault.

Our early morning seminary class....I was in the white shirt and the one who helped take the blame is peeking behind me to the left.

Of course there are my Sisters who could tell more embarrassing stories about me than this blog could hold and there is my husband who got me when I was still pretty much a mess in many ways. He knows me and that is a vulneralble thing because there are a whole lot of secrets I wouldn't want known.....he holds them all in his heart. This pic was taken when we were first married and headed to the middle east for a semester together.

There are so many more that I haven't mentioned, cousins, missionary companions, roomates. I have spent a lot of my life feeling awkward and sometimes just plain embarrassing. I always felt that I lacked a few key social graces but I have tried to learn from my mistakes and do better next time. I am sure grateful for all the friends who stuck with me through it all and knew me in my less graceful days. That is not inferring that I am in anyway graceful now.....just less ungraceful than in the past.

Run don't walk....

Run, don't walk over to my sisters blog. She is having an awesome giveaway to the first 5 commenters. There are seven comments but only 4 who qualify for the giveaway.....the first one over there gets it!!! RUUUUUUUUUN!!!!

What is keeping us so busy?

Wow, I think that I have our daily life running like a well oiled machine and then it seems we go into warp speed mode and I am barely keeping up.

To our family to have called in the past couple of days and we haven't returned your calls.....I am so so sorry, here is an update on us and why we are so busy.

Chris-There is no way to explain in words the triple portion that is on his plate right now. He has Averaged 3-4 hours a sleep a night for the past 2 months. He is working harder and longer than I would believe it possible for a human being to work. Lets just say that in addition to everything he always does there is more now than usual and he is also finishing his dissertation so he can graduate with his doctorate in April. Dr. Bray......I will be so proud of him and the years of work that he has put in. He is my hero!!

ME-My plate is covered with all the yummy things that my kids and husband put on there. It is a buffet of running caring, kissing, hugging, talking, LISTENING, and loving. Then in addition, you will usually find me sitting in bed at night reading, editing, and helping refine my husbands work. This often wraps up around 1 or 2 am. Last night I worked on editing his most recent 40 pages but fell asleep with 10 pages to go around 1:30 am. This will be a joyous memory when I look back, right now we are just really really tired.

This is where my life goes into warp speed. THE GIRLS!

Chloe-This whole year she has been taking piano and working hard with school. Well, she decided that she wants to try out for the High School pom squad. She has no dance experience so suddenly she is taking 2 private lessons a week in preparation for tryouts in 3 weeks. Tennis started this week and she made the school tennis team, practice twice a week. She made honor society and has been asked to be the keynote student speaker and has to prepare a speech. School talent show tryouts are this week and she is furiously writing a new song to be performed, in addition she has rehearsals for a comedy sketch she is part of. She also has a major piano recital at the university in 2 weeks and she will loose her cell phone if she doesn't keep her grades up. I am the one driving her to all these places so I basically live in the car. Wow, I feel stressed out for her.

Olivia-She has also been busy with piano and keeping grades high so she can keep that beloved cell phone. A few months ago she went with a friend to her tumbling class. Olivia took gymnastics when she was little but hasn't really kept up with it. Well, she went to this class and the coach had her try a few things and then by the end of the class he called me and asked her to be on the advanced cheer team. This is a huge honor as everyone on the team has been doing cheer and gymnastics for years and had to try out to be on the team. After only 2 practices she had all the tumbling passes down and is fabulous. She has practice twice a week for 3 hours. They have had 3 cheer competitions in which they have taken first place and now are invited to worlds in May. She also has auditions for the school talent show and is trying to write a new song for it. She also has piano lessons with recital at the university in two weeks.

Elle-She decided that cheer is really cool so now she is taking a cheer class in addition to piano (we have made piano mandatory in our house). Thank heaven she is only 7 so those 2 things are it!! She is just an absolute joy in every way!Ava- Well, she keeps me busy watching her dance routines. Oh this may sound simple but they are ENDLESS and constant and she needs me to sit and watch them all. Oh how I love this little sponge cake with her huge dimple. I make such a huge deal about her dimple....."Ava, come here, I want to kiss your dimple" that is pretty standard. Well yesterday she announced very loudly to everyone "I HATE MY DIMPLE" All of us immediately groaned...."oh no Ava, your dimple is sooooooo awesome....we LOVE it!!" She likes it today.
It is a blessing to be busy, I just have very little time to write on my blog or read others blogs. I will have to catch up in a few weeks when a few things clear off my schedule.

Too cute to not say something!

My niece had link on her blog. I went to it and these Valentines are so so so so cute. I am not, I repeat NOT crafty in any way. You will never come to this blog and see me doing adorable homemade birthday parties or creating original cute things but do appreciate others who do. Here is the website!! Enjoy.

Wait.....there's another one.....adorable. (She is my cousin) Wow, I am amazed at some peoples talent.

Superhero Complex

Near Death Experience... Ok that may be a little dramatic but it was close.

I tend to have a Superhero complex when it comes to tornados. I have experienced so many and survived that I tend to believe that I will continue to survive anything.   So yesterday I was heading to pick my daughters up from school.  I pick up Olivia first, the sky is looking dark and ominous and I think it is going to rain.  About this time Chloe texts me and tells me her school is on lock-down because a tornado is headed right toward them, so what do I do?  I head straight over to her school.  The whole time Olivia is telling me, "Mom, she is safe at the school.  This is dumb, lets go home and get in the shelter."  

The radio is giving me a play by play telling me exactly where the tornado is and how fast it is moving.  I do the calculations in my head and figure I can beat it, so I head to her school as fast as I can.  About a 1/4 mile from her school we start getting pelted with hail, that is always a bad sign, when the hail hits you know it is close.  We sped into the parking lot, and ran as fast as we could into the school.  At this point the principal is yelling for everyone to get to the shelter FAST!  Let me just say here that being in a shelter with 70-80  8th graders with no power is almost as horrific as the tornado itself.  It was HOT, stinky, miserable.   The tornado passed within 50 yards of the school and went on to hit 2 neighborhoods about 1 mile North.  

As soon as I heard that the tornado had passed the school (about 1o min later) I grabbed my girls, got in the car and headed to my 2 younger daughters school.   At this point we were just behind the tornado.  Incidentally all those kids at Chloe's school were stuck in lock-down for almost 2 more hours.  I was the crazy Mom who went back out in it.   We got to the little girls school just in time to run and get in their shelter.  I sent Chloe and Olivia to find Elle and I found Ava.  Once again, hot room, 80 pre-K and Kindergartner's, Oh please let me be sucked up by the tornado.  

We stayed there for about 15 min, just until I knew that it had passed and then I grabbed all 4 girls, ran for the car and headed home to get in our shelter.  I found out today that many of those kids were also at the school for 2 more hours.  I was so glad we braved it and went home.  

We had a great time.  I had made cinnamon rolls that morning so we grabbed them on the way down, grabbed blankets and pillows and we sat in our shelter eating good food and being rather cozy!!  

Needless to say I had little girls in my bed last night and I loved it.  We cuddled up and kept each other safe!  I love the weather here.  I love the excitement of the storms and tornado's.  

I say that now but one day my house will be sucked away and it won't be so exciting any more. 

Taken Hostage

Chloe and I in 1996 right around the time of the hostage incident!

Life with my husband has never been boring. From the day that I met him I can honestly say life has been one adventure after another. We have stories to tell. Hence comes the story of when my daughter and I were taken hostage and he came to our rescue.

I learned very quickly that Chris was voraciously protective of me to a fault. He took it very seriously that he was the man of the house and responsible for our happiness, well being and safety. This was a blessing for me as he made sure life was an absolute joy, but there have been some glitches along the way.

We were living in Waco Texas, had a beautiful brand new home, and a sweet little daughter who was the light of our lives. One evening Chris had to run to Kinkos. It was about 10:30pm and Chloe had been safely tucked into bed with stories, prayers and kisses several hours before. She was sound asleep and I was in bed reading. He had been gone only about 30 min when I heard something...............

I immediately ran to Chloe's room and was horrified to find her throwing up everywhere. It was the WORST...and I have seen many. It was projectile and the crib, the carpet, basically the whole room was covered. I grabbed her and took her to the bathroom, let her finish that round of vomiting and put her in the tub. I kept thinking "I wish Chris were here to help" I was flustered, as new Mom's sometimes are. Heck, now I am a pro at all things vomit, poo and stink but back then I was just starting to grasp how much of this stinky stuff I was going to have to deal with over the next many years and I wasn't liking it.

I bathed her and began to clean, praying the whole time that he would quickly return. Suddenly I heard the garage door open...."Thank heaven, he is here and can help" I kept cleaning but 5 min passed, then 10 and he never came in. This was bugging me as I wanted help, so I picked up Chloe and went to the back door to see what was going on. I opened the door and saw...............

Him sitting in his car going through papers. He was so engrossed I couldn't get his attention so I flicked the light switch on and off three or four times to get him to look at me. At that exact second Chloe started projectile vomiting again, I jerked back trying to avoid getting covered..........Chris looked up at that moment and our eyes met and I tried to give him the most urgent look I could....A look that said, "Get in here now and help me". I shut the door and ran for the bathroom as she barfed all the way down the hall and all over me. "He had better get in here NOW and help me!" I thought.

Anger does not begin to explain how mad I was when I heard the garage door open again and it sounded like he was leaving. He never came in. As soon as I could I went back to the door and looked out to see the garage empty....."HE LEFT ME". I went back to my work fuming that I was doing it all alone. The whole house smelled like puke and the amount of work it was going to take to get it all cleaned up was massive. She continued to throw up 2 or 3 more times. In think in total she thew up more than I could believe that little 1 year old body of hers could hold. When suddenly I heard a very loud noise.............................

At the door. It was a loud banging, so loud I was shocked, it scared me to death. I would call it more like someone was pounding with all their might at the door. It sounded desperate. I ran to the door, I was shaking, "who would be banging so loud at my door at midnight?" I opened it very carefully, just barely peeking out and almost died when I saw.........................

A police officer standing there with gun drawn, Chris standing behind him. My head started spinning. "Mam, we have the house surrounded" he said. I was in a state of absolute confusion. "What!!" I asked in horror. "Mam we are aware that there is a hostage situation here and we have the house surrounded." "A HOSTAGE SITUATION, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?", I say. Then Chris peeks out from behind him looking very serious and mouths to me. "if someone has a gun to you and you can't talk give me a sign." What the HECK???? I was aghast.

I suddenly realize that this is no joke, I peek out a little further and see 5 police cars with lights on in front of my house as well as all the neighbors in their pajamas looking horrified about the situation. They all really think I am being held hostage!!

I calmly try to convince the officer that I am fine.....he doesn't believe me and thinks that I am being coerced by some man hiding in my house who has threatened me. He demands to search the house. "Sure, Come on in to my stinky barfed up house!"

They spend a good 15-20 min doing a thorough search of the house while I try to find out from Chris what the heck is going on!

Chris's perspective

So This is how Chris sees the story. He leaves Chloe and I, healthy, happy and tucked into bed. He returns, pulls into the garage but stays there because he had to go through some of the papers he had just picked up. Suddenly the lights begin flashing, He looks up and sees me jerk violently then look at him with the most earnest pleading look he has ever seen then the door slams shut. He says at that moment his brain tried to process what could have possibly caused me to signal him with a frantic flashing of the lights. The most distressing thing was the haunting look of desperation I gave him before the door slammed shut. He knew I was in trouble.

He immediately called 911 and told them that his wife was being held against her will by an intruder. How he took that huge mental leap and came to a clear conclusion that I was being held? I will never know. He then told them that he was going back into the house to help me, but they said "absolutely not, you will put your wife and child in danger, get away from the house, stay on the phone with us, we have a team on their way. "

Hence the whole, guns drawn, house surrounded, hostage situation!!

We laugh at this story often and to this day he defends his actions. I just laugh until I cry every time I think about it. I was horrified at the time though!

The ever protective Dad!