Lucky Day

I wasn't even going to leave my house, but after dropping my kids off at school, I thought, I guess I can run some errands. I've been looking for an herb pot...You know the kind that have the little holes for different herbs...
I saw one at Crate and Barrel yesterday and had to have it, but of course it was Crate and Barrel, so I didn't. I thought I might be able to find a cheaper alternative at Walmart. No luck there, but I did find an AWESOME flower pot that I'd wanted to get at Target that looked the same but was bigger and half the price. Yay! Lucky thing number 1!

Next, I thought SURELY Hobby Lobby will have an herb pot. Nope, but I found 5 other things that I HAD to have...got to the cash register, everything I bought was HALF OFF! Lucky thing #2!

So, it's about 10:30 at this point and I could go home and get Grant lunch and then take him to preschool...or head across the parking lot to Chick-Fil-a and make G super happy. So, I go, thinking I'll totally be bored sitting by myself. Little did I know that the girls from church had set up a playdate that morning at Chick-Fil-A at 10:30... So, needless to say, lucky thing #3. Grant was a little late to school, but it was totally worth it!

So, as I'm driving G to school on post, I figure I'll check out the PXtra after I drop him off, and see if they have any herb pots, because dang it...I'm not giving up yet. Pulling into the parking lot, I see the very pot I've been in search of ALL morning sitting right outside the Preschool door. I dropped G off and searched out his teacher to find out WHERE did she find this pot!!! She says to me, oh...it's cracked...just take it. SWEET! Not only do I get the pot I want, IT'S FREE!!! Lucky thing #4.

It's not even 1pm yet. Can't wait to see what else is in store for today. :)

Bathroom Before and After

I've always hated our Master bathroom. It's horribly small, despite our gigantic bedroom. We've thought of everything to try and make it bigger, extending the shower, cutting into our bedroom, but the thought of doing all that work and then moving in a couple years, just didn't sound reasonable. It was hard because we started with a pedestal sink and little to no storage. Notice all the crap on the floor!!! A girl's got to have her bathroom storage! So, here is what we managed in our 24 hour remodeling adventure. I am very pleased with the results.


New sink, new mirror, new lighting, new cabinet. The flooring we already had. Now all my crap has a home...a pretty home.

Don't you just love it!!! I finally don't cringe when I walk in. I might actually enjoy a nice long soak, now. Hooray!

Date night

Adam and I usually have pretty awesome date nights, but last night was really cool. He took me out shooting. I've never been to a shooting range before, so I was super nervous. I finally got to shoot the glock Adam bought me years ago. It was pretty sweet and I was actually pretty good! It also felt good to unload some of my PMS stress onto my poor paper target. I can't wait to go again.

Food For Thought

Bryson: What does disappeared mean?

Me: It means all gone or you can't see it anymore.

Bryson: Yeah like when you eat food and then it goes in your tummy and you don't see it anymore.

Me: That's right!

Bryson: But you might see it again if you throw up.


This one's for you Brandi. :)

Just Call Me Catwoman

Some lady was staring at me today. "You know you look just like Catwoman!"

"I get that a lot"

Meow

Jokes on me

I tried this on Bryson. He put his hand up. I slapped his hand into his face. He was stunned. Then, he slapped me across the face. Ow.

Myrtle Beach

I love Myrtle Beach. Last year, we got suckered into one of those timeshare deals with Wyndham. I thought for sure we'd made a mistake, but after a year of totally getting great vacations through Wyndham, I've not regretted a second of it. We went to Cozumel, Williamsburg and Myrtle Beach so far this year, plus we're planning Atlantic City and Orlando for next and once we pay it off (hopefully with our next tax return) we don't have to worry about monthly payments. Our vacations are ours! Love it!

We were able to stay 5 nights in the Cottages at Wyndham in conjunction with the 4 towers that Wyndham also owns. So, basically we stayed in our very own beach house just minutes from the ocean, but got to use all the hotel amenities, like lazy rivers, pools, playgrounds, game rooms, etc. Everyday, we'd call for our shuttle to take us to the beach then when we were done, we'd head back to the beachfront hotel for some pool time, then grab a shuttle back to our place. The kids loved the golf cart (shuttle) rides. Grant became good friends with all the drivers and was eager to tell them all to go Weally weally wealllllly, super fast.
Here's a sandbag game Adam got at a local store. Kept the kids pretty busy. Especially, Grant who doesn't like water or the sun.

Oh yeah...Grant doesn't like getting his picture taken either. Love this shot.
Nona, our little mermaid.

Most of the time was spent trying to peel the boys away from their DS's It's ridiculous how addicted they are. We did manage to get them out miniature golfing a couple times and hit some of the local restaurants. We went to Ripley's aquarium. The kids LOVED it. They had a whole feature on all the horribly awful things some of the fish in the ocean can do. Many of them I recognized from snorkeling in Cozumel. I'm glad I didn't touch any of them. Holy cow! We're talking fish that poison you, gas you, throw stinging darts, you name it. I was scared to go near the water after that. The kids spent a good 2 hours at the sting ray encounter patiently trying to touch the rays as they swam by. I say kids, but really , I think I was right there with them...after they assured me that their stingers had been removed, of course.

New Song

I wrote a new song about a week before Adam got home. I wanted to express what it's like to be away from someone for soooooooo long allllllllll the time. The song tries to express it. It's kind of on the mild side. Sometime I'll write a rock song that truly expresses how much it SUCKS! but for now, here's your ballad.

Waiting

What Have you Smelled today?

This morning I woke up to the smell of homemade raisin nut bread.

This afternoon I woke up from my nap to the smell of spicy middle eastern rice.

For dinner, the smell of shrimp and bacon-wrapped scallop kabobs wafted in from the grill.

Then, there were the chocolate chip cookie smells for dessert.

Now, granola, homemade. Hopefully, that smell will linger into tomorrow.

I love having Adam home.

Adventures in Yoga

Tuesday is yoga day. Me and Sharla met at Marianne's to eat yummy, health food and do yoga. I just have to say that Sharla is AMAZING! She teaches yoga over at LA Fitness. The three of us (plus extras) have been doing yoga for quite some time now. We love to try the trickier, cooler looking poses and get all twisty. Today we attempted headstands. I love how Sharla looks like she's running upside down.

I, however...

lol

It's a good thing I'm not afraid of falling and a good thing Marianne's house was there to break my fall...each time I fell. :) I did stay up for a couple seconds though.

What a gorgeous day, too. High of 73. Marianne's deck was perfect for our little yoga session. I love yoga. I love the way my body feels like it can breathe again. Can't wait to do it again. Good thing I teach Centergy in the morning! Wahoo!

And on a side note...Guess who comes home tonight!!! Jumping, happy, giggly Ariella is here to stay!

Not so little any more

Viona spent the last 10 days in Utah. She flew out all by herself and met her Nana to have 2 weeks of fun! She spent most of the time shopping. Skinny jeans galore. Uncle Alex and Nana took her to the mall and spoiled her rotten. She got to see Uncle Ames's play, "Big River." She also spent time at Seven Peaks where both Uncle Ames and Aunt Syssa work. Let's see, a zoo trip was planned and carried out by my dad. And can't forget all the fabulous movies and tv she got to watch with her nana. Just 2 girls having fun. I can't wait to see these pictures. Nana, find your camera!!! :)

Happy Birthday to...ooops

Today is Bryson's Birthday. He's six. We're planning on throwing him a party later when daddy and Nona are back, but I wanted to do something for him, so I made him some brownies. We went over to Kimbur's after church to celebrate. After lighting some candles we had everyone join us in a chorus of Happy Birthday. What we didn't realize was that Bryson was sitting on the toilet with the door wide open as we came round the corner.

"NOT YET!!!"

Oops.

In a pictureless nutshell

Ok, so...I can't find the cord that goes from my camera to my computer. Thus, no pictures. It's pretty sad too. I have pics on there from Christmas. Yikes!

So, what has the Bell family been up to for the past, say...SEVEN months? Here's a quick recap.

February:
Alyssa went home. :( (but now she's living with roommates and has 2 jobs, so all in all, doing pretty awesome)
Endured another month without Adam. sniff
Endured snow HELL
Started knitting...a lot

March:
Adam came home!!!
Matt and Mary came to visit.
Adam and I went to Cozumel.
Matt, Mary and the rest of us cool Bells went to Busch Gardens.
Visited with Cousin Darcy.

April:
hmmm, honestly April's a blur.
My email has a lot of Library notices, so I must have read a lot.

May:
I went to Tucson to see my brother get married!
Gained a new Sister in Law and Nephew.
Sara and Jonathan Newey came for a long visit. yay!
Nona started Softball.

June:
I turned 30!!!!
I'm pretty sure Adam left again. (Is it sad that I can't keep track of how often he's gone)
My baby G, I mean GRANT, turned 4.
Adam came back home.
Left for AZ.
Spent 3 fabulous days in Phoenix visiting with family. Eating, riverboarding, visiting.
Went to Greer for a "family" reunion.

July:
Drove back down to Tucson and spent another week with Aubry and Chris! So fun!
Left Adam behind in AZ for ANCOC and traveled home with all 4 kiddos. very sad
Became very busy with our summer Launch schedule.
Knitted some more.
Netflix Instant Watch became my new best friend.
The DS became my kids best friend.

August:
Started working at the gym full time...jk...just feels like it. lol
Doing some marketing for Transformations. Let me know if you want to join. I'll hook you up.
Started playing the Organ in church. Yes, laugh now.
Bryson turns 6 today.

So there you have it. I'll post pics as soon as I find that stinkin' cord. Or you can visit my FB page. There are at least some pics there.

BEWARE!!!

I might actually post something new this week.

January

Are you sensing a theme in my clever titles?

So January was full of fun. We had lots of time off school, a couple birthdays, some vacations...pretty fun, even with Adam still gone.

School resumed as usual on the 3rd of Jan, freeing me of the majority of my children during the day. Yay!



Jan 14th was Alyssa's 20th birthday...no longer a teenager, but a beautiful, talented young woman. I took her out to dinner and some shopping a little earlier in the week and had a couple of her friends take her on a surprise outing when her special day came. Alyssa's leaving us on Feb 1st. So sad! But, I'm sure Utah will treat her well and she'll have more fun surrounded by the plethora of LDS young single adults that inhabit that neck of the woods.

As for me, Jan 15th brought a weekend full of JOY!!! I got to go to a GORGEOUS house in the Outer Banks with 15 of the coolest ladies I have ever met. Most of the ladies were at one time part of the Ft Meade Ward. They have since moved to places like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Hawaii, but we all came together for one weekend of crazy awesomeness. I so miss it already. We ate lots of good food and talked late into the night and took long walks on the beach. I'm starting to sound like an ad in the personals, but really, it was awesome.

I totally miss this foursome.How I LOVE all these girls!!!

The only down side was that I missed Nona's birthday. Yes, my little girl turned 7 on the 16th. But, I like to think I made up for it by spending exorbitant amounts of money by taking all the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge.
Nona got a few articles of sparkly clothing, a new DS purse, and the book, Where the Sidewalk Ends. She loves her collection of silly poems. She stayed up late reading with me. Isn't she gorgeous?!

I've posted about this place before. Totally worth every penny! Indoor water park, magic wands, a room to go back to inside the lodge. Everything right there. SO easy. That's my kind of vacation. Next time I will be inviting another family to go along, though. 4 kids is just too many when all of them want to do something different. I just felt bad that I wasn't able to spend time with Nona or Bryson, going down water slides with them or just watching them have fun, because the whole time was spent watching to make sure Grant didn't get into trouble. I did have fun with my little G, though. I even got him to go down the giant water slide.

Josh spent the majority of the time playing MagiQuest. You go around the lodge pointing your wand at things to obtain runes that you'll need to defeat digital Goblins and dragons. Josh did the whole game twice. We were almost ready to go when Josh asked to do it just one more time, PLEEEEEEAAASE!!! So, I told him 30 mins. We laughed each time he zoomed past us. Here's a video of one of Josh's super fast flights, although he does stop for a quick photo op.

The kids watching the show in the lobby.

I just found out that Grant is now eligible for part day preschool! He'll be going to the Ft Meade preschool from 9-12 everyday. I'm so excited. He's so excited! THIS is a VERY good thing. All my kids in school...it's like dreams coming true!Gotta love this hair!!! I couldn't bear to comb it down. lol

Josh had his second pinewood derby this January. He won his first race! So excited. I'm sure he's already taking notes on how he's going to improve his car for next year.

Some of his best friends from school joined Josh's cub scout group. It's so fun to have them there with him. Look at all those cute little boys!!!


I've spent most of the month reading. Although, Marianne has dragged me away from my books long enough for me to make some of my own jewelry, start knitting, and I think she's even increased my desire to cook. I know! She's amazing in so many ways.

Oh! and I wrote a new arrangement of "Our Savior's Love." If you were at church for ward conference, you heard it. I couldn't bear the thought of singing the song (that the stake picked out for us) straight from the hymnal, so I broke down and tweaked it a few days before we performed. My mom helped me with the last verse and I have to say, it's pretty darn good. If you'd like a copy of the sheet music let me know.

So, that's January in a nutshell.

December

Aaron and Corinne came and visited with us at the beginning of Dec. They came over before their big NYC trip and then we went to Corinne's cousin's place for dinner and saw them again after they got back. I think Grant thought Aaron was daddy for a little while. He took right to him.



Alyssa and Nona making the gingerbread house. So grateful Alyssa got to spend the holidays with us. We even did some Nana traditional baking minus tamales. Alyssa made sure we had twice-baked potatoes, orange rolls and ham, though.
Our first snow of the year. 2 feet. Craziness. Grateful for my neighbors and ward members who helped shovel me out.

Here are the kids singing at our ward talent show. So dang cute. Watch for Grant reaching for Nona's hand. My favorite part.

Christmas was awesome. I'll download pics soon. If you want to see them though you'll have to check my FB. The kids got Wii games, board games, stuff for their DSs, Nona got a Gizmo (which is the cutest thing ever), and lots of other stuff. Adam got to see it all via Gmail video chat. Yay for technology! He also read the nativity the night before so the kids could act it out. So cute!

I lost a very good friend this month, you know, the kind of friend that when they leave your heart just hurts. Sara Newey, you will be missed. My music/bathhouse/ errand/lunch-date/recording/awesome friend. What am I going to do without you?!!!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season!

Lame

Ok I'm lame. I haven't posted in forever and I'm not even putting any pics. Sorry guys.

Here's an update anyway. Once I upload my camera, you'll get Halloween and all kinds of other fun times. :) Promise.

1. I am Happy! It's been forever since I could truly say that. I think the planets have finally aligned to create my happy place. Let's just hope it lasts.

2. I really shouldn't be happy. Adam has been gone for a week now and he'll miss EVERYTHING this deployment. Josh's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, our 10th anniversary, Alyssa's bday, Nona's birthday, and my fabulous getaway weekend with my girlfriends. It sucks! Yet somehow, I'm still happy. Ah adversity.

3. Alyssa, Adam's sister has been staying with us. She's amazing. I absolutely love having her here. Yes we had some crazy drama at the beginning, but now that things have mellowed out, I can say that I'm going to be really sad when she goes.

4. What's up Monday luncheons? Where is everyone? This party used to be rocking! Now, as I write during the potluck (yes...no one is here), I'm feeling somewhat unloved and so not cool (yet still happy!). At least I can count on Marianne. :)

5. Here is something I've been meaning to share. Do you hate coming up with dinner menus? Do you hate creating the shopping lists to go with those menus? I have the solution for you. Woman's Day magazine online has free monthly menus complete with shopping lists. It's pure genius. I don't like to cook, but when there is a plan involved, oh life is so much sweeter. Most of the meals are healthy. There's variety and you can always modify to your needs. So here's the link. Go...enjoy. http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Food/Month-of-Menus!

6. My friend Sharla hooked me up with some yoga dvds. Now, I know, I teach yoga, but Centergy is mainstream and I've been wanting a challenge. These dvd's rock! I've feel like a twisted happy pretzel. I love it!

7. My awesome husband read this book. Food Matters. So now we're eating little meat and little to no refined sugars. I'm making granola. Yeah. and doing yoga. and I'm hippy...I mean happy.

Ok...done for now. Have a great happy day. Marianne's here. We're going to party.

Missing books

I've joked about making a list of who actually borrows my books and now I'm thinking that I should have. Darn. I'm missing some of my favorite books, so if I lent them to you, please let me know. I can't seem to track them down and I haven't seen them since the spring of this year.

Book 1

Book 2-3
- Vampire Diaries

and the Sookie Stackhouse Novels

If you've seen them, have them, or know who I lent them out to please let me know. I miss them. sniff. sniff.

Another cute Quote

So, Bryson has been yelling, screaming, crying all morning.

Adam: It's just not your morning is it, Bryson.

Grant: Nope, It's my morning.

Quote of the day

Adam visited the kids at school yesterday. In Bryson's kindergarten class they were discussing how the kids woke up for school. Did their parents wake them up, alarm, etc. Adam was totally expecting Bryson to say my brother, or the alarm...nope.

Teacher: Bryson, How do you wake up in the morning?

Bryson: My SMELLY BED!