Another stolen from Marcie

Where Were You?

20 years ago, 1988: Umm wow I don't remember too much from back then. I was 8 yrs old.. still living in Rose Park across the street from Erin. Not much going on but normal 8 yr old stuff lol

15 years ago, 1993: 13 now... was living in Holladay and in Jr High school. Let's see that would have been 7th grade? Yeah.. hell from elementary school just seemed to follow me. Life kinda sucked and I'm glad it's all over!

10 years ago, 1998: Graduated from Oly High. Was just getting ready to start my first semester at Southern Utah University. Wow did my life change after that!

5 years ago, 2003: In those short 5 yrs a whole lot changed! I got married, moved to Iowa, got my degree in Elem Ed., got divorced, got remarried and got pregnant with my first child! Who knew so much could happen so fast! At this point in time 5 yrs ago I was 7mths pregnant with Tristan living off popsicles so I didn't roast to death and 1 mth newly married to Jason and living in Clearfield!

1 year ago, 2007: Last year I was a mommy to 2 little monkeys and being a SAHM. Nothing too exciting to report other than my adorable kiddos! We now live in Tooele too.

So far this year: We are still in Tooele. Still just a mom to 2 boys.. just way bigger boys! Amazing how much they change in 1 yr! So far I've opened a local mommies site that I run www.TooeleMommies.com and have started a new job! Crazy busy!



Yesterday, 26th: I spent most of the day sleeping. Good thing because the last 1 1/2 hrs of the day was spent getting sand out of Tristan's eyes at our Family BBQ. He had a ton in there and was not cooperating in letting us flush them out!

Tomorrow, 28Th: Cleaning, laundry, and working for Alishia.

This year, to come: Ummm working, teaching preschool and still runing my mommies group and being a wife and mom! No other surprises that I know of LOL

Tag.. who ever reads this is it!

Posting this cause I read Marcie's blog and so I was essentially tagged for reading it!

Let's see who reads my blog... and who's gutsy enough to comment!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! I guess good or bad, but be nice!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.

(if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!)

Fireworks on the 5th

After recovering from the parade on the 4th we promised the boys we'd do sparklers (after seeing the neighbors grandkids playing with some) and watch the fireworks at the high school from the front yard.

The boys LOVED the sparklers and went through the 6 small boxes fast! I got some cool pics (I think) of the fireworks but they are all funky cause of the wind *shrug* they still look neat to me.

I put them in slideshow form cause there's too many pics! So enjoy!

Water Fun

Today we had playgroup at Sarah's house and it was water mania! The moms hid out in the shade while the kids soaked each other!

































Sarah sprayed away some of the kids after getting attacked for water balloons



Then she drenched them for getting her wet LOL

It doesn't have to be prepared or by the book!

Read this on another site, she found it on www.homeschoolfreestuff.com

Home Schooling
A realization from the smartest, best mommy ever!

It hit me today.

We are in the beginning stages of homeschooling our two daughters ages 3 and almost 5. Since we decided about a month ago, for sure, to homeschool, I've been saying that we won't "really" start until next month. I've been telling others that we are currently just dabbling, dipping our toes to check the water. Then this happened.

Two days ago I made an offhand comment to my girls about the planets and how I had learned their names in order. My oldest had just learned from television that we live on the planet Earth. I told her that the way I remember them is by using this sentence: "My very early mother just served us noodle pizza". The first letter of each word is the same as the first letter of the names of the planets in order of how far they are from the sun. At my daughter's request I rattled off the names of the planets, knowing that she was too young to really learn them. She nodded and that was the end of the conversation.

Then today, TWO days later, she came rushing into my bedroom and said, "Mommy! You forgot the sun!" I looked at her blankly. "What about the sun?", I asked. She told me that I should have said, "Sometimes my very early mother just served us noodle pizza." Then it clicked. I realized that she had not only picked up what I had said in just one comment, but that she'd thought about it for two whole days, found a problem with it, and came up with a solution.

So I told her that she was very smart to think of that. Then I and the girls spent ten fun-filled minutes practicing saying the names of the planets until they had them memorized. When they left to go play it suddenly hit me. My 3 and 4 1/2 year old daughters had just learned the planets without any preparation and planning on my part. I didn't have to study like mad or prepare worksheets and unit studies, and I'm certainly not a certified teacher, but somehow I had taught!

So from here on out, I plan to relax, and remember that even if I don't do everything the way I think I should, my two wonderful little girls will still manage to learn, and will think that I'm the smartest, best mommy ever.

~Jessica Elliott ~

Happy 4th of July!

My mommies group was in our local parade yesterday. Here's some pics of us waiting for the parade to start.

Our last day before we headed home

Saturday we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed to head to Seattle to the Pacific Science Center. The boys had a blast. Before we hit there we ventured through Seattle a little to find it. I so do NOT miss city traffic. I hated it!! Jena was nice enough to show us how not to drive in Seattle by accidentally taking us down a one way street.. which is like.. oh every street in Seattle! We did get a good shot of the Space Needle though.


Tristan liked the space area and loved putting the puzzles together:



Then we all had to weigh ourself on all the planets.




I think our favorite part of the museum was the butterfly space. We got to talk walk through and see all the butterflies and flowers up close.


















They had a little cart set up with these puzzles so Tristan gave em a shot. He didn't do too bad on the whale one but the wood one was tricky!



We hit the kid zone for some water play


Then they had a tide pool where the boys got to hold hermit crabs and touch Sea Anemones



After the museum we had lunch and then hit the fountain. Very interesting and unlike any fountain here in Utah! Tristan chickened out and wouldn't go get wet but me and Griffin did. It felt good on a HOT 90 degree day!





















After this we headed home. We made it to Baker City where we again spent the night and hit the Train restaurant for breakfast. Sunday we got up nice and early again and made it home just after 4pm where we pulled into a nice wind storm.

It's good to be home but we had a great trip!