Jillian started running fever yesterday after staying up all night the night before! So needless to say she was a bear yesterday! The best thing happened… She learned how to swallow a pill! No more liquids for us!
This morning I woke up with a head cold and horrible headache. Today has been pretty lazy as well! Brooks was climbing the walls so I decided to have a little crafty fun with the kids.
First we made homemade volcanoes, then made play doh creation, and finished the fun off with a very competitive game of slap jack! It was fun made by all!
Brooks caught some great game changing instant replay pics and Jillian made some great split decisions as to who won… Andrew or Mommy!
(did I even spell that right, because I have trouble pronouncing!)
With me being here with the kiddos by myself… I am trying to keep a handle on the house staying spotless (so it can be shown at any minute), keeping my sanity, getting everything done for school, and starting to de-clutter for the move.
If you know me at all you know that I am artsy… not organized! I didn’t say dirty, just a “little” unorganized… My sisters took all the “OCD” genes before me because they are all uber organized! ALL of them! I could tell some stories, but they wouldn’t appreciate that! 🙂
So thanks to my “slight” addiction to Pinterest… these pictures are attacking my eyes… they cover my entire “Following” screen! Organization this and Organization that. What I KNOW what is really going on is this: 1. I am completely NORMAL and people pin organization ideas in the same manner they pin everything else… just pinning it to make themselves feel more accomplished, not that they truly are organized. 2. They are all so high on the OCD scale just like (cough) others mentioned earlier and are really doing this stuff! I choose to think the first response is the correct one.
Well, obviously who am I joking, I got the MomAgenda app for my iPad and created this “Binder” that has spots for everything school and house related. MomAgenda I have actually had for a while. It is really great. It separates the calendars into each family member or you can look at all at once. It also has a spot where you can select it to send you a text message to remind you about a certain event! Which has saved me on more than one occasion! Check it out, really!
In my search (that is a strong word… search… the fact that I couldn’t escape the pins on pinterest) I kept seeing these menu planning ideas. Me, really, I cannot do that! But I did come across a pretty cool site that has monthly meals planed out and they actually look pretty tasty and different.
Now committing to this is another story… It looks good on paper, but does the effort outweigh the end result. That is yet to be determined. I will keep you posted (If you never hear about it again, don’t think anything about it!).
So where I pulled the title of the post out of my ummm… HAT… Is that if there are any of you that are “searching” for a system that works, Here’s my number… Call me… Maybe! Big emphasis on Maybe!
Jillian started tennis lessons last years but there were about 20 kids in her classs and it wasn’t that much fun. Over the summer she took lessons in Jonesboro and has completely fallen in love! So we found another CC and she is taking lessons 3-4 days a week! I see a tennis star emerging!
After much discussion and thought, we decided to start school at First Baptist Church School again this year. Our lives have been crazy to say the least, but FBCS has always been a great place for Jillian.
Andrew is still staying in Dallas through the week and home on the weekends. And 7-Eleven was totally understanding and we all made the decision that we would stay in Shreveport until December or until the house sells.
Since we took the last minute trip to Utah… It made for a crazy day getting ALL of our school stuff together. We were supposed to get home the Sunday before school started. But we were literally STUCK at the airport for 3 days! The crazy thing is… I read this Yahoo story this morning… “Family of 4 stuck in SLC airport for 5 days” OMG it was the same time we were stuck in SLC airport. My heart truly goes out to them. Those 3 days were very difficult making the kiddos get up at 4AM to ride the shuttle for an hour to get to the airport to sit around for 10 hours! Then back to the hotel to wake up and do it all again:( Lesson… never fly standby with kids! Here is the link to the story! Family Stranded in SLC Airport
We finally made it home, and didn’t have much time to process that this was Brooks’ First Day of BIG school! He is finally at Jill-Jill’s school! And his teacher is our next door neighbor! We love Mrs. Wilkinson! He has already been her helper and brought Fresh Fruit to hand out to everyone… He loves being a Patriot
Jillian has Mrs. J.Cox… She is hilarious! She will be perfect for Jillian! I am so excited to be here for a little while longer. I just think it is a wonderful school and it has been a blessing to our family.
These Southern Ladies and Gents were not prepared for the cold temperatures to come in Utah! In fact we barely had jackets! This Louisiana Living will get you spoiled to not having a Winter! So, we got all geared up to hit the slopes! We are super excited and even if I have to say so myself… we are some pretty stylin’ Southerners… that do not know how to ski!! haha
We had a great time on the Heber Valley Train! We came across a package where you can ride the train and go white water rafting… well it was so much fun. The kiddos loved it. While we were on the train we got robbed by an old Western couple. They were after our treasure. As you will see the kids were a little nervous about that.
We went rafting down the Provo River. It reminded me so much of the Spring River. The temperature of the water was around 56 degrees then at one point it drops to 50 degrees. There were people tubing down the river… nope never going to happen! That is just too cold. Jillian and Maggie (our new friend) decided they would wade by the boat a little. At the end our our trip they served us BBQ chicken, pork, brisket, and ribs with all the fixins’ Southern style! It was go tasty and made me feel right at home!
Heber Valley Railroad has many excursions that all have different themes. A great way to spend some quality time with family.
High Country Adventures out of Provo were the wonderful people that took us rafting… A little shout out to Mr. Dave that told some pretty crazy rafting storied along the way!
The most amazing thing about PC is that it is just as much fun in the Summer as it is the Winter! We spent the day at the mountain and did a million fun activities! It was the “Tour of Utah” bicycle race that same weekend so it was a little crowded, but we had a blast. Jillian pulled off two back flips on the trampoline and brooks said he was Spiderman! I didn’t get it on video but Jillian later did two front flips! Lots and Lots of hard work for that. Here is the link to Park City Mountain site. Pack your bags cause we cannot wait to see you!
First of all, no matter my age or his… I have always loved Robert Redford! I mean like… LOVE Robert Redford! So it is only understood that when I got all the facts about Sundance, he holds an even bigger part of my heart these days.
Go ahead and make fun of me when I tell you this, but I am ready for it. I am not sure if it was that I didn’t care enough or just ignorant, but I never knew the story behind Sundance or even what it “really” was.
When Andrew and I headed up to Utah for our first trip I read the walls and history and immediately fell in love. Robert Redford came across this amazing mountain and decided that he had to own a piece of it. In the late 60’s he purchased his first part of Sundance for $500. After a few investors later, they created a preserved part of these mountains so it wouldn’t be harmed by tourist or other multi-million dollar outfits. They named it Sundance. Along the walls it tells it’s story. It is fascinating to see everything… and I think I only saw Rob’s name about 5 times. He doesn’t want it stamped with his fame.
This is a place where I could escape life and find myself. There is a stream winding through the property and the only thing you hear is the wildlife. I applaud Mr. Redford and his efforts. Thank you for preserving this amazing site.
Also, right down the road is a breathtaking waterfall named “Bridal Veil Falls” right next to “Nunns Park”! We haven’t made the trek up to the falls, but I will post the pics as soon as we do!
After a long day of seeing all the beautiful sites with the kids we took a COLD swim and headed to Empire Pass for desert! There are times in your life where children say things that total stop you in your tracks… Our desert time was one of them… Jillian, as she was eating her desert of iced sugar cookies, didn’t even look away from the mountain and said, “Mommy… This place is amazing… we are so lucky to be moving here… some people may never get to see these wonderful things God created… and I get to LIVE here!”. Tears formed in my eyes and at that very moment… I realized this, Park City, Utah was going to be a wonderful place we call HOME! I have a small tear forming now as I think that I am even missing one moment there. We are so blessed and all ready to have many, many more sunsets atop Empire Pass! Thank you God for creating “Heaven on Earth”!
Here is a link to the lodge that is just a few feet down from where we were… If anyone is looking for a great Winter vacation… Montage Deer Valley
Fun in the Sun!
Jillian wanted to “run” to the very top
So beautiful!
Two Angels sent straight from Heaven!
This… Is my “Heaven On Earth”
As the sun fades away at Empire Pass… we say goodbye until next time!
SLC & PC held the 2002 Winter Olympics… This is one of the facilities that they used. Now it is a museum and an adventure park for tourists. There is so much to do here! Brooks and Jillian got to ride their very first ski lift and summer bobsled! Jillian and Brooks were not happy that I didn’t sign them up for the ski training! There is always next year! Check out the link to Olympic Park! You will all have so much fun when you come visit us!
This is a bobsled used from the 2002 Winter Olympics held in PC
Livin' The High Life 