3.30.2009

Yes, I really did it

I have wanted a tattoo for a very long time
~
What do I want?
~
Where do I want it?
~
Would I really like it?
~
All very legitimate questions that made me wait until the day that I was sure.
Then...
That day came.
Courtesy of Joleen actually scheduling the appointment :0)

So, I underwent the most annoying 3 hours of my life.
Note that I didn't say the most painful, because it by far was not!
I've had children!



The end result was exactly what I had in mind.

Just

BIGGER


And a good friend to share it with.
Thanks Joleen!



3.17.2009

Me too!

I forgot to mention that I had my hair cut too! I really need to stop trying to grow it out.


It looks SO much better short :0)


Sorry about the HORRIBLE self-shot picture.
Those never turn out good. Oh Well, whacha-gonna-do?

Hair Cuts for All

It was time I took all 3 of my little girls in to go see Shannon for a little trim. Each of them with their nasty little split ends, walked in looking a little scraggly and left with beautiful, healthy heads of hair.
Shannon has been doing my hair since I was 15 (sorry to date things like that Shan...) and obviously all of the girls feel very comfortable with her having the scissors. So long as its not me, they're ok.

My little goldie locks was such a BIG girl



Faith was dying for some SIDE bangs.
I thought those were out...?
Who am I to say?
Anyway, she looks good with them and now we're done with this little go-round at the salon.



3.03.2009

Keep your fingers crossed...


So this is the house that I put an offer on in Reno. Its a beautiful 5 bed 3 bath home in Spanish Springs. What makes it so perfect and different from everything else thats on the market right now is that it is on just under .5 an acre and it backs right up to BLM land. That means the girls can take off on their quads and go riding right from our house.
This house is a short sale, so its a LONG process. It could be another 2 months before I hear whether they have accepted my offer or not. Then another 30 days til close of escrow.
I'm holding out hope that this will work, cuz it just seems like a perfect fit for my family.

Thats My Girl

Mallory is in her 2nd year of wrestling
She is standing here with her cousin Alyssa at a tournament
Yeah, my sweet little girl (who is a little scrapper at heart) is out there with all of the boys in a stinky sweaty gym, learning the moves to take them down,
One by One

If you're wondering, NO I didn't start this, nor was I excited when she started last year. She has a friend who wrestled and she thought it was something she wanted to try. At first I was upset and didn't want my baby out there being so physical and competitive with the boys. Its a very difficult sport and even harder when you see these kids come off the mat crying.

Last year was a great year. She won all of her matches but one. This year has been more difficult since she has moved up a weight class and is wrestling kids with a little more experience. I'm not sure if she is going to do it again next year, but I'm very proud of her for getting out there and being so tough.




Mallory is watching matches with her Uncle Robbie before she goes out there herself

Say, CHEESE!!!


Go gettum baby!



She looks awfully sweet, but she's very serious on the mat


We have a few more meets but we should finish up the season by the end of this month.
GOOD LUCK MAL!



3.01.2009

Back in Business

I finally have a computer now. WooHoo!
My very first laptop, with which I'm very much in love.


I'm gonna try to post about once a day. I have a lot of things to catch up on but my Internet is patchy at best so when I have a good connection I'll post something.



So lets start where we left off. I believe we were in Rome. What a fantastic trip that was. It was a great way to get our feet wet in Europe. We were there for about 9 days and had a great time walking the city and seeing the sights. There was plenty to see, but I'm content knowing that
I've seen everything that I wanted to see in Rome.


Obviously we took a ton of pictures and would love to show them all, but since that's not possible on a blog, I'll run through the highlights of our trip and show you a glimpse of what we saw.






Here was our home in Rome for 9 days, The Hotel Bolivar. We couldn't have asked to be placed in a better location. This cute little place was right in the heart of downtown Rome. We were able to walk to every part of the city from our hotel. We could have taken the bus but not wanting to miss out on the day-to-day part of the Roman life, we walked everywhere.



I really wish I would have taken some pics of our room because it was unlike any American hotel I've ever seen. It was TINY! At first it was cute and made us feel SO European. By about day 5 it wasn't so cute, it was cramped, claustrophobic and uncomfortable! At any rate we did really well for living out of a closet sized room for that long. There is no way to spend time "together" like staying in close quarters like that.
And yes, we enjoyed every minute together. :)



On the first day we walked to the Colosseum. It was a big ticket item for us so was rightfully the first thing we wanted to see.


While it was truly awesome to be there and try to imagine it in action, it was exactly what it looks like in all of the photos and movies. Its definitely an engineering marvel though. Its so hard to imagine how all of these great things were built back then and have been strong enough to last through the centuries.




This is Palatine hill. It sits just above the Roman forum and next to the Colosseum. Another gathering place for political and social life, it also was the home of Cesar Augustus.



We definitely used our opportunity to enjoy our time in such a romantic setting. Its a rare occasion when we get to be alone, but like all parents we desperately need that connection. Being in a foreign country we were put in a lot of potentially very stressful situations, but we compliment each other so well that everything just seemed to work. Lord knows I would have been completely lost without his sense of direction and I could understand the people and their broken English much better than he did. So, we did amazingly well.



These are just a couple of my favorite pictures. These little golden photo ops were everywhere



This is the view from looking down at a part of the Roman Forum. I can't express how overwhelmingly big everything is.




The Pantheon

The Pantheon was originally used as a temple to worship all of the Roman gods but is now a basilica or Roman Catholic church. Its known for its dome that is used in so much artwork and engineering.


The Trevi Fountain


My favorite hot spot in Rome. Tossing a coin into the Trevi fountain is supposed to give you good luck and a return trip to Rome. By far the HOTTEST sculpture in Rome. I certainly didn't mind walking by this statue a few times.




This one of my favorite pictures of Taylor. He was so patient with me, he let me wander and look around until my little heart was content.




This was a very common car in Rome. These little smart cars were the way to go in a city where parking is next to impossible. The streets are all tiny cobblestone alleys. If you didn't have a smart car, you'd better have a scooter.

So this is the end of Rome post #1. I'll have a few more to share in the near future. If you ever get the chance to go,

GO!