So last night the premiere of Grey's Anatomy aired!! I didn't really watch the show until the end of last season because all my girl friends watch it and LOVE it! I started in with about 4 episodes left in the season and became officially hooked. The girls and I started watching it together each week and have all looked forward to the new season. Well last night everyone was meeting at my friend Brecken's house to watch the Season Premiere. I decided not to go because I had so much to do to get ready for our trip tomorrow so I stayed home and watched it here. This morning I woke up to an email from my friend Tamara saying she missed me last night! Here is my response and I strongly believe any TRUE BLUE Grey's Anatomy LOVER will completely agree with me!! Enjoy and here's to a new season of Grey's!!!!

Hey Tam,

Thanks for the invite. Although I did stay up cleaning and doing laundry, one reason I didn't come was because Adam announced to me that he wanted to start watching a new show this season. He asked if his "new" show could be Grey's Anatomy and if he could watch it with me. We used to watch all our shows together and in the past few years our TV show interests (and bedtimes) have changed so we never watch anything together any more. I thought it might be fun to get back to our Thursday night TV line up routine and despite missing "my girls" thought Grey's Anatomy was the perfect show for us to watch together!!!

UUUUUURRRRRRCCCCCHHHHHH!! Stop right there!! Did I mention the TV watching rules for Grey's Anatomy. Well here they are!!

#1. After explaining the previous season to help you catch up and know where everyone is in the story line we have a period of question and answer!

#2. If another question arises it is perfectly appropriate to push PAUSE to ask it but PAUSE MUST be pushed. We DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE ask the question or talk for that matter, during the scene when McDreamy is telling Meredith he's in love with her and when he had the choice he "chose wrong"!! WE PUSH PAUSE!!!!

#3. We do not watch ANY commercials, even if it is the preview for the new Leonardo DiCaprio/Matt Damon movie

#4. We appropriately push pause to ooooo and ahhhhhh over McDreamy (or any other hot member of the cast....I'm happy to stop the show so he can ooooo and ahhhhhhh over any hot girls, just for the record)

and finally

#5. WE DO NOT FALL ASLEEP DURING GREY'S ANATOMY.... EVER!!!!! ESPECIALLY WHEN IT IS NOT EVEN 10:00 YET!!!!

This whole, "watching a show together" thing may have to come to an abrupt halt for my poor DH (darling husband!). Just kidding!! I actually am thrilled that he wants to watch it with me. It just may take a little training (and practice) for him to understand all the rules!! I did miss watching it with the "GIRLS"!! I guess I may just have to figure something out and talk him into a different show or watch it with both the girls and him. Regardless, I WILL be watching it religiously!! I'm so excited that the fall shows are back!!!

Love, Mar

Just thought I'd share an announcement Garett made to me today in the car while driving to Preschool!
Says he, "Mom, I can't WAIT to grow up!!!"
I say, "It will be fun, won't it?"
Says he, "Yes! I can't WAIT to grow up....I can't WAIT to go on a trip....I can't WAIT to go on an airplane by myself...AND I'm going to be a DOCTOR!! I just can't WAIT!"
I've been giggling about it all day! He said it with such authority that I actually think he might someday be a doctor....Stay Tuned!!!

Oh my gosh have the last two/three weeks been just crazy for our family!! They have been great but very busy!! To save you all the gorey details of everything that has been going on I'll give a brief synopsis for you.

First, I must say that Adam, the kids and I LOVE, LOVE American Idol!! We tried to get tickets to the concert here back in May but they were apparantly sold out! Two weeks before the concert Adam checked for tickets again and to our surprise was able to get 4 seats, 4 rows up on the front left corner or the stage!! (We were about 3 rows in front of Ace's family and Spencer, of course made friends with his dad and brother, Mark before the night was through!!) Anyway, The plan was to take Spencer and Annie with us! We were sooooo excited but unfortunately the night before the concert Annie made some poor choices and was not able to come (that is a whole other story and I will save you the horrible details of that. Just so you get an idea, I will say it was the most difficult 24 hours I have ever had as a parent thus far! I hope and pray I NEVER have a day like that again!) Despite the drama of Annie not being able to go, the concert was a blast!! Spencer brought his friend Brady and the two danced the night away! They were adorable. Thankfully by the next morning Annie had learned her lesson and we were back to a "Happy Family"!!

Second, Garett had his first day of preschool! He is LOVING his class this year and already has a little "love" interest, according to his teacher! She says it is soooo cute to watch him try for her affections. She, of course, has no idea that he is smitten!! Hilarious!

Third, I have been going crazy with planning two big church activities. I love to throw a good party, as you may know, but prefer them not to be two weekends back to back. Well, these two "parties" were back to back! Talk about running like a chicken with my head cut off! Anyway...the first of the two was for my calling as the Stake Activity Days Leader (AKA: help the Primary President keep track of how the Activity Day Program is running in the Stake). I love the calling as it is pretty low key except for the two activities I"m in charge of per year. The one I just finished was a "Daddy Daughter Picnic and Games Night". We had over 200 people attend and despite some weather scares and the typical "criticism" it turned out to be a fabulous night for all the dads and daughters!

The next big activity was Youth Conference. During the summer Adam and I were assigned to bet the Youth Conference Coordinators for our Ward Youth Conference. Our Stake does it on the Stake level every other year and on the Ward level the off years! This year was the ward level so since in the summer neither Adam or I were busy with our callings they asked us to do it! As we began our planning we realized that most of the youth would be out of town for the weekend we were supposed to have the conference so we postponed until September! I didn't tell the Bishop about my Stake Activity because I didn't want him to take the assignment away from me. When he found out about it, he wasn't too happy with me for not letting him know I had so much going on!! Ooops! Anyway, with so much time to plan we really wanted to make the Conference GREAT! You know the kind where at the Testimony Meeting at the end all the kids are bawling and saying how much they love eachother! Well MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! Adam and I, along with some other Youth Leaders planned an "AMAZING RACE" patterned after the reality TV show for the kids! It was SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!! They split into 7 teams of 6, we had two leaders on each team, one was a driver, and one was a "videographer". We sent the kids all around Denver finding clues and completeing tasks, we had a service project painting the fence around the temple, we took them hiking to a beautiful location where a Youth Speaker talked to them at the top of a mountain, we had them ride an Alpine Slide, etc. Anyway, it was sooooooo awesome!! All the kids were in Red Youth conference T-shirts and all the leaders were in Black t shirts. Each team had different colored bandanas. Each car had vinyl lettering on the back that said "Race In Progress" written in their team color! The leader cars (those of us who were at the clue locations --three teams of 3 leaders--had the words "RACE CREW" on the back of our cars! We made a CD of awesome youth songs to remind the kids of their experience and then of course we ended with an amazing Fireside/Testimony meeting where all the kids and leaders bore their testimonies! The finish line of the race was the Temple! We compared the AMAZING RACE to the RACE of LIFE as we strive to return to Heavenly Father so the Temple was the perfect place to end at!! The whole thing was just awesome and though I'm exhausted from it, I'm sooooo happy that we were able to be a part of it! It reminded me of my EFY days both as a counselor and as a participant! The youth are AWESOME! It's been so long since I've worked with them it was a great reminder for me!

Finally, last on the agenda for a crazy few weeks was the Cheryl Crow/John Mayer Concert. Adam and I, along with 2 other couples went to Red Rocks last night for an awesome concert with the beautiful, talented and buff, I might add, Cheryl Crow. John Maher was great too! We danced, and relaxed and enjoyed having nothing else to do but have fun!

So, that sums up the past few weeks for us! I'm sooooo happy to be finished with all the craziness but at the same time soooooo grateful I was able to be a part of both the activities as well as all the extra curricular concerts, school days etc.

Wow!! Breathe!! Now I'm ready to be a mom, friend, wife, happy, stressfree me!!! Yipee!!

(all the pictures to the above events are posted below! Enjoy the pics!)



Some of the pictures were taken with a zoom, but not a very powerful one. We were SOOOOOO close to them!! Spencer even got to reach out and shake hands with Chris Daughtry!


Ya gotta LOVE this kid!!


"ARISE AND SHINE FORTH TO FINISH THE 'AMAZING RACE' OF LIFE" Youth Conference



They wouldn't let us take cameras into the concert so this is the only one we got!

When I was a little girl the phrase September 11th had a wonderful, happy and funny meaning to me. It's my cousing Kathy's birthday and she was always soooo funny about reminding me what day her birthday was! My favorite year was when she turned 15 and as she would remind people that September 11th was approaching, they would ask, without fail, how old she was going to be. Her response was "half way to 30"! I laughed every time I heard her answer! Now, 18 years later I am so saddened that the words September 11th don't put the same smile on my face that they did back then. I smile as I think of those I love who have birthdays today, but I also use the day to reflect on that day 5 years ago that changed each of us, forever! It seems strange to me how something that happened 5 years ago can still affect me so much! Each of us have our own stories of where we were on that horrific day! We know exactly where we were, who we were with, who we called and how we felt! We remember every feeling we had! The shock, horror, disbelief, sorrow, sadness, devastation and fear! We still wonder how it could have happened, and we mourn the loss we felt as a nation! As we reflect today, I hope each of us can be reminded of what is really important in this life! Our faith in God, our families and our friends are the things that truely matter in this life! They are the important things! Remember today to make an extra effort to go forward with more determination to love a little deeper, smile a little bigger and offer thanks to Heavenly Father a little more often! Though our world is a scary place, we are so blessed to live where we do and with those we love! Though it's a sad day, it is a good day because it reminds us of what is important and THAT is how we go forward! Happy 33rd Birthday Kath and Happy 6th Birthday Tyler! I Love You!

Tonight I'm going to brag a little about what a FABULOUS garage saler I am! Friday and Saturday my friend Brecken and I had a garage sale. With Adam out of town, it was the perfect weekend to do it since we had no other committments! Anyway, we had had a garage sale with 5 other friends back in April to help raise money for Brecken's sisters wedding reception. We made $1500 bucks and which ended up being exactly enough money to pay for her entire reception with leftover to give them for spending money on their honeymoon! It was so much fun and since Brecken and I both did some extra organinzing in our houses over the summer we decided to have another sale before sending all our stuff off to Goodwill! I didn't think we would make a ton of money this time cause there wasn't as much stuff, and we were selling it for a little more than we did last time....but, once again, we made $1500! With just the two of us! Unbelievable! It is truely amazing how one persons trash is another persons treasure! We had so much fun setting up, selling, bartering and of course, counting the money after everyone was gone! We decided that the reason why our sales are so successful is because 1. We price our stuff really low, but not too low! We usually price it a little above how low we'll go so if someone wants to buy a glass vase, we price it at $5, barter with them down to $3 and they think they got a good deal! More times than not, the person will still spend that leftover $2 and we not only made money, but got rid of one more thing we don't want! 2. We are always friendly and chatty (even if they don't understand English...my friend Erin served her mission in South America and it was awesome to see the looks on the faces of some of the customers at our last garage sale when she would start talking to them in fluent Spanish)! A definate boost in sales was the result! 3. Organize and clearly mark prices, sizes, etc. We had rubbermaids to divide kids clothes, we had tables to set up all the knick knacks, blankets, electronics, etc. We had a money safe and kept track of how much each person sold and 4. We had clearly marked signs off of the main roads to find our house! Anyway, I'm really getting a knack for getting rid of my JUNK and getting money for it! After the sale was over I gave each of my kids a few buck (they were all such HUGE helps during the sale) and we went to Target! The kids each got a treat and I bought a new end table and a really cool wicker chest thing to put all my blankets in for our Downstairs family room! It was so fun to pay cash!!! If you ever have a garage sale, let me know, I'd LOVE to help!!