44 BY 40

This past Saturday I turned 39, which means I only have one more year until the big 40. Last night we were watching TV and there was a commercial with Billy Jean King on it. Cam asked if she was famous so I said that she was famous when I was his age - I even had a Billy Jean King tennis racquet! His response was - "well, that was 29 years ago!!!" The mid-life crisis was set in motion! :) This morning I got brave and weighed myself at my neighbor's house. It wasn't good. My new goal for the following year is to loose 44 pounds by the time I am 40! I have steadily gained 11 pounds a year over each of the past 4 years. It's time for those pounds to go. Every Monday morning I will weigh myself and post an update (just in case anyone cares). Any tips or motivation would be greatly appreciated. :)

Hangin' With the Girls

Two of my best friends from Lindon,

Natalie and Julie, came to have a sleep-over last night! We went out for ice cream and stayed up way too late playing games. This morning we all went out for breakfast, thanks to a well-timed gift certificate we happened to get yesterday. :) It was so fun to spend time with them!! I miss all my friends "up North" so much! (You'd never guess these pictures were self-taken with a cell-phone!) Since they left we've pretty much just hung out being lazy (again). This time I have an excuse - it's my birthday - and according to my friend R'lene I'm over the hill. :)

Reveal Yourself!

1. Leave one memory that you and I have had together as a comment on this post. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot--just leave a comment about anything you can remember!

2. Next, copy and paste these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

If you're just a "blog stalker" that I don't know very well, please use this as an excuse to comment and say hello!

Lazy Day

Today, the 24th of July, is Pioneer Day, a Utah State Holiday. We celebrated by being LAZY! :) I still did my 2 1/2 mile walk with a friend bright and early but it went downhill from there. We had a BBQ for lunch with our friends the Tuckers. They have a grill and a fenced-in back yard with GRASS so we like to invite ourselves over! :) The boys had fun playing on the water slide and Elvis enjoyed running around without being tied to anything. We've pretty much just been LAZY for the rest of the day. If I get a spurt of energy maybe I'll take the boys to Monroe (15 minutes away) to see the fireworks tonight.

Along with being Pioneer Day, today is my sister Marri's birthday! She is at a girl's camp with her daughter Rachael and doesn't have phone service so don't bother trying to call her. :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARRI!

Up A Tree

My brother Don & his family were recently in Utah on a "vacation" from their home in Texas. On the 12th the boys and I were able to go to Lehi for Don's daughter Alyssa's birthday party. Of course I forgot my camera, but Don just sent me some pictures! Jacob decided to climb a tree and my sis, his Auntie Noreen, decided to join him! Don't they look so cute in their Thomas the Tank Engine hats?? Camaron pretty much pouted on a blanket....... It was good to be able to spend a few hours with my "fam." The middle picture is of Don with his girls Alyssa and Anna.

Playhouse Give-Away

For the third year in a row we participated in the 4th of July Parade, pulling a playhouse (see previous post). This was the first year we didn't throw candy. In our parade you can't actually throw candy from a moving vehicle, you have to walk alongside and toss it to the kids. This year I decided to just ride along with the kids on the playhouse rather than run back and forth throughout the whole parade filling up bags of candy for the kids to toss. Camaron is on the left and Jake is on the right. Inbetween them are Teron & Jeron Tucker, Cam's best friends. One time someone asked if all four boys were mine. I said no, but Teron jumped in saying that they were half mine because they are always at my house! I'd claim them any day - they are great kids! After the parade we put the playhouse in the City Park along with all of the festivities so that the Family Support Center could continue to take donations. At about 2:00 in the afternoon they did the drawing for the playhouse. A couple who lived right here in Richfield won. They were even there for the drawing. I think they said they have 13 grandchildren that live here so I'm sure the playhouse will be well used. The boys went to the Tucker's house and played on our water slide for the afternoon. We got the waterslide for $35.00 (originally $249!) on a super-clearance sale a few years ago. Of course we don't have any grass so they have to go elsewhere to use it. :) We went to BBQ with some other friends and had a nice evening, and then we went back to the Tuckers to set off fireworks and watch the City's fireworks display - they have a great view from their backyard. We drug ourselves home at about 11:00 and crashed. Between the playhouse, the Chamber Float and being on the 4th of July Parade committee I was beyond exhausted!!! I think I'll be lazy today and then start playing catch-up next week (good luck). All of the work on my desk has overflowed off onto the floor...it's not a pretty sight.

Chamber of Commerce Float

As promised, here are some pictures of the finished Chamber of Commerce float. The back is my favorite part. You can't really tell from this picture but there are two mountain ranges, which are cut separately out of wood and then mounted on top of each other. The sunrays are 1"x4"'s and the letters are each individually cut out of wood. Thank goodness we just had to paint and mount everything...it would have been a pain to cut it all out. The main body of the float is pretty generic so they can change things around every year. We also have a big lights parade here every December so they will use it for that as well. I'm just glad it got done in time for the parade!