...And Many More....

Hey Sportsfans, that's right, it's the 5th anniversary of my 22nd birthday. Just like Gramma Barbara said she was 39 forever, I'm 22 and holding. Why 22? Casey was born on my birthday, so I don't have to get any older, right?!? EEEEEEnn! Wrong answer! I wish! Actually, no, I've had some really interesting life experiences and am at least partially glad I'm not as young as I once was.
We're not really doing much for the birthday today, Mark has school this morning and works all afternoon and evening tonight. Casey's not having a party, either, as he has been kinda sick. Also, I don't know enough of his school or Primary friends to know who to invite. Oh well, I think he's going to go to a basketball game tonight in Charlotte with his cousins. He'll enjoy that.
I am getting more excited for our Utah trip by the day. I can't wait to see mountains (REAL mountains!!!) again, see & hug Vicky and her kids again, and enjoy all the other things I've been homesick for for the last year and a half. It might even by nice to see snow again. They don't really get snow here in NC, if they do get even an inch, schools and everyhing shuts down for the day.
Not much news, just a lot of sniffles and coughs from everyone in the fam but me. FYI: I may not post for about 2 weeks...I'll be busy!
Live(fully)~Laugh(out loud)~Love(everyone)!!!

Halloween

Hi!
Not much is going on here, but there's 3 weeks till we fly to Salt Lake and the time can't go fast enough. I know it's foolish, 'cause time is time and the actual length of a minute or a week doesn't change (525,600 minutes... oh, wait, that's Rent:)), but I hope the next 3 weeks go by way fast and the almost 2 weeks that we're actually there go really slloooww.
The kids were really cute Tuesday for the ward Trunk or Treat. Casey was the red Ninja Turtle (Raphael), Aurora was Princess Aurora (original, I know) and Evie was the cutest baby "Who" (as in a Dr. Seuss who) you've ever seen. With tomorrow being Halloween and me not too sure about our neighborhood, I think we won't go Trick or Treating except for at Mark's work and one or two of our neighbors. Basically our average pizza and movie Friday night. But with a Halloween theme. Movies may include a Halloween Thomas bit, Clue, the Mummy (after the kids go to bed, obviously!). Not too much to report here, still a lot of drama from Aurora, insistence on being held from Evelyn, and way too much sillines from Casey.
Love y'all!!

Who took my sweet little girl and left me with a complete drama queen who is rude and then cries and "melts down" at the drop of a hat?!? I don't remember my nieces being quite this challenging at 3, but they probably were. (Past due condolences, Vicky, and Shane) And then there's Casey, who is all of a sudden coloring on furniture at school and at home (but at home he blames everything on Aurora). Yikes! At least Evelyn is being really cute. When I put her on her tummy on the floor, she "airplanes" and starts scootching back and forth by kicking her legs. I'm excited at the prospect of her learning to crawl, but I need to get a little better at keeping things tidy and out of reach. :)
I'm trying to lose weight. I am finally determined enough to try to diet, and I hope it works. Right now I'm just trying to limit calories, especially fat calories. My ultimate goal is to lose 40 pounds. Wish me luck! Anyone know a diet that is really good? South Beach? ADA?
Mark is loving the class he's in right now (pit crew). I'm getting impatient for his school to be done, for a few reasons. 1- he'd be able to get a better job and not be so tired all the time, 2- we'd be able to move closer to family, and 3- I could start school. I really want to go back and get my Nursing degree (BSN, and maybe CRNA later).
Well, I should probably go now.
thanks for reading!!!

Hello Out There!

Hello hello! The weather is cool and grey today. Aurora's birthday was beautiful. It was a warm sunny day and we drove out to Salisbury to go see Thomas the Tank Engine at the Transportation museum (Mark had taken the day off work. The museum is so cool. It's an actual train yard, with a roundhouse and different engines from the past 150 years. Grampa Toth would love it. One of the best parts is that it's free, unless you buy concessions or ride the Thomas train or the cool "caboose train" they have there. The caboose train has 1 engine and 5 or 6 cabooses. It looked cool. As the whole thing is pretty much outdoor, they don't complain if you bring your own food, so after we walked around everything and let the kids play (it was a carnival-type atmosphere), we sat down in the shade and had a nice picnic lunch. Aurora fell asleep on the way home, but was awake for the ham dinner and ice cream cake we had to celebrate that evening. She was so excited about the cake, she said, "Time to sing Happy Birthday to me!" It was cute.
The big downer was that once again we missed conference. It isn't broadcast on the regular (free) TV stations or radio stations here, we don't have the gas to get to our stake center (and the kids would probably go berserk anyways, 4 hours is a tall order for kids as young as this to hold still), and unfortunately we weren't able to afford cable or satellite to be able to watch it at home. Thankfully though, Mom and Dadgave us a subscription to the Church magazines last Christmas and we'll be able to read the messages soon.
Mark started his Pit classes yesterday and he is very excited about learning pit crew stuff. There are 45 days and counting till we fly to Salt Lake! We have a little chart and the kids get to pick a color for each day. It's fun.

Live, Laugh , Love!

Autumn?

Hey there. Here in North Carolina it's considering turning to autumn. It was rather cool this morning on the way to Casey's preschool and for the first time this year I could smell fall. You know, the dead leaves, the crispness, a faint spice in the air. I love this time of year.
It's Aurora's birthday on Sunday (hooray for 3!!) and she is getting more involved and busier and I'm actually kinda enjoying it. She got her first library card yesterday, and on Sunday we are going to the Transportation Museum to see Thomas the Tank Engine. It's a really cool place and free! We'll probably have a little party sometime in the next week for her.
The most exciting news of this week: We're flying home!!!! For the first time in a year and a half, we'll be going to Salt Lake! We'll get to be home for Thanksgiving and (hopefully) for my niece Karessa's baptism. We are stoked.
This is short, but over all, we are happy, mostly healthy and busy.

* peace * life * love * happiness *

Ta-DA!

Okay! For the past few years I've considered myself a little web-delayed, but here I fianally am with a blog of my own! And I figured it out all by myself!! (Thank you, Steph M. Fisher for having a blog, sending me to it and since I wanted to comment on it, I took the steps from there!) This posting is going to be short, 'cause Casey and Aurora want to go to Aiden's house, but I will try to post once a week anyway, and maybe I can get this going.
News of note for the week: on Monday Mark and I walked a total of 10 miles because my car needed a new starter and his car was dead out of gas and we needed to get Casey to preschool (3.5 miles each way). Thanks a million times again to my wonderful in-laws, and we got gas in Mark's car Monday afternoon and the starter replaced in my car today. Aurora loves her play group on Wednesdays. Evelyn has two teeth visible and got her 4 month immunizations yesterday and was cleared by the doctor to start on cereal and "first foods", i.e. applesauce, bananas, pears, carrots, etc. We are very excited. She now rolls from tummy to back and from back to tummy. She's getting so big I can barely believe it.
Well, hopefully I can post something worth reading in the next week. Till then: live, laugh, love!
~~Stephie