I'm still here...

I've taken a major blog holiday! I really am still here, but am overwhelmed by how far behind I am in every aspect of my life. So, unfortunately, blogging has taken a backseat. I still check out everyone elses blogs almost every day, which seema a little unfair that I am not providing any new information for any of you. I wish I had a magic wand, or at the very least, a maid! Oh wait, I AM the maid!! :) Actually, I have to say that my kids have been pretty good about helping out around the house, especially the two older ones. I do hear a little whining, but they earn their allowance, that's for sure. I made a job chart using the idea from this post. I tweaked it a little and you can see that here. Ever since we started using the new job system, my kids have been so much better. They have all week to do the jobs in their "jar", so that it doesn't have to be so overwhelming for anyone.

Now, if I could just stop adding projects to my to do list. I see so many cute ideas on the blogs I follow and LOVE to craft and create, so it's very hard not to bite off more than I can chew. I'm hoping that after the Thanksgiving holiday, I will actually download the pictures I have on my camera and share some of the things I've been up to. And maybe even post about some of the things that happened this past summer. I'm so BEHIND!

Anyway, we are going back to Dallas for Thanksgiving so we can see some of our dearest friends. The kids have been dying to get back there for a while now. It'll be fun for all of us.

Quickly, I just want to mention, in the spirit of Thanksgiving a few things I'm grateful for: My amazing and wonderful husband, who is truly my best friend, my sweet and crazy kids, our home, Adam's job, the gospel, Stephen's hot chocolate :), cell phones, and all of you! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

My amazing brother

I am constantly blown away my brother's artistic talent! He has always been an amazing artist, but lately he has been doing portraits from photographs. Amazing!! check out his artwork here. He also does web design and logos and so much more. If you have a facebook account, you can check out his stuff here. He's also a great friend and so hilarious. He's fun to play games with and just hang with. He's dating an amazing girl, too, who we all hope will be our sister-in-law soon. Russ, you rock!!!

His contact information is on his website if you'd like him to do some artwork for you. He's for hire!! I hoping to have him do some portraits of my kids soon.

1st installment of our Summer Vacation

We recently got back from Utah, where we went for our summer vacation. We packed a lot into the 18 days we were gone. Usually Adam will drive our family out there and will stay a few days and then fly home and work while the kids and I stay for a few weeks, then fly back out, stay for a few days and then drive us all home. We didn't want to do that this time. I enjoyed having Adam with us the whole time. It was heaven being together for that many days with our family and friends!

First we had a reunion with Adam's family at Little Creek Cabin.




This is the second time we've had the Seegmiller reunion there and it is so nice! There is plenty of room for everyone, even if the beds aren't very comfortable. There are acres and acres to explore and Uncle Hal always brings his horses and 4-wheelers for a great time. It's beautiful there and our kids always really look forward to it.


(Ethan and his cousin, Adam, earned their horsemanship badges for boy scouts, thanks to Uncle Hal.)

Grandma Janet had printed a story and pictures of ancestors for each of the kids to read out loud. She gave everyone a copy of all the stories in a binder so we could take them home and have them to read over and over. I thought it was such a great idea and am grateful that our kids will be able to know their ancestors better. Each night 4 or 5 of the kids took a turn reading their story to everyone.


(Ben reading his story with Adam's help. Grandma Janet had each of the kids put a sticky note, with their ancestors name on it, on the map to show where they had lived.)


(Levi reading his story. He's become such a great reader this year!)

We had fun making crafts, playing board games and horse shoes, and making s'mores. Grandma Janet even challenged the kids to bring books they were currently reading and read for at least 30 minutes some time during the reunion. She promised a treat if they did it. Fortunately she brought lots of treats because some of them read way more than 30 minutes so they could have more treats. Once again, a great idea!


(Here is our lovely Grandma Janet standing behind my nephew, Will. You can see a sliver of Papa Keith off to the right.)

After leaving the reunion, we went to Grandma Janet and Papa Keith's house for a couple of days. We caught up on laundry, played games, and Adam and Ethan went to see Great Expectations with Grandma Janet. I could've gone, but wanted to visit some more with my sisters-in-law, Mercy and Tasha. We all really enjoyed seeing family and catching up on their lives. The cousins had a blast together and we can't wait to see everyone again in a couple of years, if not sooner!

Stay tuned for details on our McMullin reunion, which was the next adventure on our trip!!

When it rains it pours!

This is a view of the "trickling creek" across the street from our house. It was not so "trickling" over the weekend!




Another shot of the creek. This isn't even a picture of it at it's highest. It got even higher than this. I was starting to worry for the houses across the street, but they were fine, thank goodness.




This is a picture of the grassy common area at the front of our neighborhood - totally under water! There is a walking trail that goes through the grassy area and people let their dogs off leash to run around in the grass. Not this weekend!!




This is another shot of the grassy area that is now a lake. You can see where the water came up so high on Saturday that it broke the fence and crossed over the road. They just finished fixing and repainting the fence last week - all for nothing.

We were lucky that we didn't have any problems, but a lot of people around us weren't so lucky, even in our own neighborhood. People all over the area were having to be evacuated and helped all weekend. A lot of the roads closed due to flooding, including the major interstates. Church was cancelled on Sunday because the Stake presidency didn't want people to try to get out with the road conditions. I don't think a lot of people would have been able to get to church anyway with the road closings. We just spent a quiet day at home making cookies and playing games.

School is closed today as well for the same reasons. They are expecting the water levels to still rise as the water runs off, even though there isn't any more rain in the forecast. I guess we won't know until Tuesday or Wednesday what the real damage is in the area. It will be devastating, with so many homes and businesses flooded and parking lots and roads full of cars under water. Crazy!!

Apparently this is the worst rain and flooding on record for the area. I've never seen anything like it. I couldn't believe how much it poured on Saturday. It was a bit scarey.

Adam and Ethan were on a boy scout campout and I thought for sure they would be home early Saturday morning because of rain, but they ended up staying and finishing their camping trip because they were 2 hours south of here and it wasn't raining at all. They went rock climbing and repelling and had a great time. Ethan (and Adam) repelled down a 200 ft. cliff apparently. Cool!! I'm glad Ethan is having so many great experiences with his youth and scout group here. They do a lot for these kids.

All I can say is that I'm grateful the Lord kept our family safe and sound this weekend. Levi said a little prayer on Saturday when he was scared that there might be a tornado and the Lord answered his prayer. I'm so grateful for that!! It's the simple things in life that mean the most!

Whoo Hoo!

I'm so excited... and I just can't hide it! I'm about to lose control and I think I like it! I got on the scale this morning and have lost exactly 20 lbs!!! I still need to lose at least that much more, but it feels so good to have reached this milestone. I'm down a pant size, too, which has been fun. I'm wearing clothes again that I haven't worn in years. I'm telling you, I LOVE being a Power Loser! Now if I could just love exercise...

Check it out!

I've just put a post on HERE of some of the crafty things I've been up to. Check it out!

Yikes!!!!

My world has been rocked! - BIG TIME!!! Our bishop called Saturday and said he would like to come over in the afternoon and talk me. Ok, those of you who are LDS know that the bishop only comes over to your house to talk to you if he is going to give you something big, so I worried and stewed and stewed and worried all day. I felt robbed of my thinking that we were in a ward that didn't need US because their are so many capable and willing people in our ward. Then I thought, well, I've been a counselor before and I'm good at following directions, so... no biggy. I had decided I was ok with that. When the bishop asked me to be the new Relief Society president I about fell off my chair!!!! I actually asked him if he was kidding and said, "You meant to say counselor, right?" He assured me that no, he really meant what he said. Is he crazy????? I never thought in a million years that I would ever be asked to be the relief society president. I don't like to be the leader! I would much rather be given an assignment than be the one doling them out. I know there are so many women in our ward who are more capable and qualified... I'm still baffled and in shock actually. BUT, I also have faith that the Lord called me and that there is a work for me to do. I'm scared spitless, but I'm willing to do what the Lord wants me to do and I hope I can be the kind of RS president that the women in my ward need. I pray with all my heart that I'll be able to do it. I know with the Lord anything is possible and I'm hanging onto that promise for dear life! Aaaah! I am excited to get to know the ladies in my ward better and to be able to attend RS again, eventhough I will miss my little primary class. I know the Lord has a plan for me and for our RS and 'I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord!' Please pray for me.

I scored!!!

Two of my main resolutions this year are to lose weight (I'm on a really good roll with that one) and to decorate my house finally. We've lived here 8 months now (I know, it's crazy how time flies) and I haven't really done any decorating. Part of that is because I don't want to put up the same old stuff I've had for years. My style and the things that I like have changed. But, when I go to the store to buy things, I can't stand to pay the prices (we were poor students for way too long). So, the other day I got onto craigslist and started looking for some of things I've been wanting. I ran across an indoor garage sale that had been postponed to this coming weekend because of the weather. I called on it and the lady said I could come look early, before the sale - she already had everything set up. I went yesterday and was sooooo glad I did. I spent $200 and came away with so much stuff. I know I would've spent WAY more than that at a store. She had a lot of the kinds of things I've been wanting, like wall art and a console table and a great big clock. Below are some pictures showing what I brought home. I'm sooo excited to start decorating now and finding a home for all of this stuff! I want to paint the console table and some of the frames. I'll take some before and after pictures and post them when I have them done.

Seriously?!

Ok, let me preface this post with the fact that I am originally from Utah where it snows a lot. Now I live in Tennessee where it obviously doesn't. Last Friday is was forecasted to sleet and snow, so Thursday night, before a snowflake had fallen, we got a call from the school district saying that school was cancelled on Friday. When we woke up, still no snow. Later in the morning it started to snow and snowed all day. That night we had freezing rain which basically turned all the snow to ice. When we woke up Saturday morning and walked outside, we could walk on top of the snow without sinking or leaving a footprint. It was amazing! The kids had the best time sledding. Fortunately I was finally able to find a couple of sleds a few days before the snow came. We have a big hill at the front of our neighborhood where we took the kids to sled and boy did they fly down that hill! It was slick and I was grateful that it was Saturday so that Adam wouldn't have to worry about going to work. We even let the kids sled in our yard on Sunday, which we normally wouldn't do in keeping with the Sabbath day, but we figured that it would be melted soon and they wouldn't get another chance. Apparently it hasn't snowed like this for about 6 years or so. Anyway, church was cancelled so we had our own little 'church' and then let the kids so sledding. They discovered, because of the icey crust on the snow, that they could start at the top our neighbor's steep driveway, who lives behind us, and sled all the way across their backyard, into and through our backyard, steer quickly (avoiding trees and things) and go past our house into our front yard and across the street! That's probably a couple of acres! It was so much fun to watch (from inside the warm house)!!

We got a call again last night saying that school was cancelled again today (Monday), even though the snow is melting and the main roads are pretty much clear. The kids went outside and did a little more sledding, but the frozen crust has started to melt away and so it's not quite so slick - they can't go quite as far, but they still had fun. I've enjoyed having them home and we've had a nice long, relaxing weekend.

Well, tonight we got another call saying that they won't be having school again tomorrow!!! I'm totally amazed! I know that they don't have all the equipment to remove the snow off of all the roads and stuff, but good grief, Walmart was packed today! People are shopping and going to work, but our kids can't go to school? Don't get me wrong, I love sleeping in with my kids and hanging out with them, but I'm wondering when they're going to make all this time up. I sure hope they don't have to go longer at the end of the year.

Anyway, like I said in the beginning, I'm from Utah so it seems a little too cautious for me, but that's ok, I still LOVE Tennessee! :) Here are some fun snow picures:

Feeling success!

Well, I've now been a Power Loser (www.powerlosers.com) for just over 2 weeks and as of today I've lost 10 pounds!!! It feels so good to finally see the scale going the other direction for a change. I felt some dispair last weekend when I felt like I was giving up so much and wasn't seeing results fast enough. I was mourning over the food I love but couldn't eat. I was a bit discouraged to say the least, but then I realized that I was being unrealistic and that a sure fire way for me to stay in my weight rut was to continue doing what I've been doing the past few years. I truly do want out of that rut and even though I've had to give up some things that I love, I realize that I'm choosing a better future for myself. I'm giving something up for something better. I've been really diligent in following the plan and I'm feeling really good about my progress. I'm grateful to have found a weight loss plan that is doable and that works for me. I'm no longer in mourning - I'm excited!



Onto a different subject, my awesome 12 year old, who has a natural talent for acting, auditioned for the play Tom Sawyer this past Friday and Saturday and got picked to be a part of the cast! He is going to be one of the school boys. He was hoping for a bigger role, but we explained that this will be good experience for him and eventually he'll start getting some of the bigger roles. He was really good about it and is excited to be a part of the play. To make it even more exciting, Grandma Janet, Papa Keith, and Aunt Joy will be visiting us from Utah one of the weekends he will be performing so they will get to see him! It'll be nice to share something like that with them for a change.

I just recently joined my sister's craft blog at www.bugaboocorner.blogspot.com and will be posting my crafty things on there now. I've been busy trying to decorate our home finally and have been making some things. I'll be posting pictures over there really soon, so check it out!

After day 1

Well, I made it through day 1 and am part way through day 2. I've felt a bit hungry, but I was told that that would be normal the first 2 or 3 days. Today is actually better than yesterday, so I'm assuming that tomorrow will be even better. The food I've been eating hasn't been bad at all. I've only found one thing I really don't like, but there are plenty of other things to choose from so that's not a problem. For those of you who don't know anything about Power Losers, you should go to the website www.powerlosers.com and check it out. If you sign up through that website you get a free health coach and 2 weeks of free food over your first 2 months. I can hardly wait until I start seeing results, which shouldn't be that long, hopefully. Thanks for all your support and good wishes!

By the way, we've been enjoying snow around here the past few days. The kids have even gotten to do a little sledding. It isn't quite enough snow to build a snow man, however. The grass is still peeking up out of the snow, but it's still been a lot of fun. They even closed school for 2 days, which is amazing to me since I'm a Utah girl. But, I guess since there is no way to clear it off the roads, it becomes dangerous here. It's still a bit comical to me, though. I've enjoyed having my kids home from school, however. We've really been lazy (except for the mounds and mounds of laundry I've done) and enjoyed reading books, playing the Wii, playing outside, and drinking hot chocolate. I love those kind of days!

I'm a Power Loser!

I've decided to get serious about my health and joined the Power Loser family. Today is my first day on the program and so far so good. I'll post my progress periodically, more for myself than for anyone else. I'm hoping to be my "old" self again before I go to Utah next summer. My goal is to get down to the weight I was when I got married. I plan on being more serious about exercise as well, however I have to wait 2 - 3 weeks before I can add that in. I'm ok with that. Baby steps, right? I decided to wait until after the holidays so I wouldn't be so tempted and possibly fail. I should be good to go now. Here are my "before" pictures, which is a bit morifying, but this way I'll feel a little more accountable - now that it's all out there!