Here's my Sister St

Here's my sister St. and her Husband St. hanging out with Gavin Degraw. I had to look up who the heck Gavin Degraw was but they won this lunch with him ad tickets to his concert from a radio station.

Journal Jar Question for Tuesday

Do you remember a special birthday party you've had, given, or attended?

Once I did a special Birthday party for DH, I think he turned 28 and he had graduated from the Master's program in Education. I had each of the attendants bring a one word description of Scott written on an apple. I assigned each person a letter of the alphabet. It was fun. He didn't really care about the party but it was fun to celebrate being done with school. Now he is going back to school in the fall for his Administrative license, he is going to be really busy and really stressed. Yay for school!

When I was 16 my parents and friends planned a surprise Birthday party for me. I started suspecting something was up when my family was frantically cleaning the house but didn't ask for my help. Then later all my friends came down the road in a big caravan towards my house honking their horns. We lived out in the country so you can see the roads for about a 1/2 mile in any direction. That's a great memory.

When I turned thirty my husband planned a surprise party and my sister and her family drove to Boise Idaho and back to bring my other sister over for a Sister's weekend. I was really surprised because they had told me they were going to the beach for the weekend. I was pregnant with Ballerina at the time so it meant a lot to me. We went to the beauty school and I got a face massage. I enjoyed that more than any body massage I've had.

This last February my sister and I bought my Older Sister Staci (from Boise) a ticket to come over for our second Sister's Weekend, which I have blogged about previously. We decided we need to do Sister's weekends every year.

First Annual Sister's Weekend February 22nd to the 24th, 2008

I wish I had taken more pictures. For my oldest Sister Staci's birthday Jenna and bought her a plane ticket to fly over from Boise. The fares were so cheap we just couldn't resist. We had all arranged with our husband's to be around to watch our kids. Friday morning I picked up Staci at the airport. We met up with Jenna at her work then we went to lunch. We had sushi. I only ate mostly to fully cooked items but it was really good. The restaurant was really fun. Even Ballerina and Em enjoyed it. After we took Jenna back to work Staci and went to Value Village. She found some great deals. I chased the girls around the store. Ballerina figured out her shirt had snaps and took it off and ran around the store topless for a while.

We went and picked up my kids from school then we went home until Scott got there. We picked up Mom and went over to Seldie's Salon where she was working. Mom got a trim and I got my eyebrows waxed and a trim. The wax didn't hurt that bad so now I want to keep doing it. I want to get my lip waxed but she said that one really does hurt bad the first time.

After that we went to The Graze at the church to sample foods and get recipes for food storage. That was really fun and we got so full. SIL Brenda met up with us there. We went over to Jenna's afterwards and chatted and Seldie gave us pedicures. I stayed up till about 1:00 am but Staci and Jenna stayed up till almost 5:00 am. They were so tired the next day. I was more tired then they were but I figured it was because a few days later I got a bad cold.

Saturday morning Jenna drove her Land Cruiser and we all piled in. Brittany went with us even though she really wasn't feeling well. We went to the beauty supply store which is in the pictures below. Jenna was the driver for our Saturday outings. She was sporting her 80's hair for fun. She usually has it straight but she looked really cute with it wavy.
Mom gets the cutest outfit award for our Sister's weekend.
Seldie provided the great deals on hair supplies. And she gave us all great advice and what to get for our hair.
Staci has the greatest smile and her hair always looks perfect, even when she wakes up in the morning.
Here is a group shot of us at Ikea. Left to right: Seldie, Me, SIL Brenda, Mom (Tanya), SIL Brittany, Staci.
We spent many many hours at Ikea. Some our group got lost and kept going in circles. Ikea can be soooo overwhelming. Brittany had to go home after that, her cold had worn her out. We went to this little restaurant by the truck stop. There were very few people in there and the food was not great but the waitress was really good and we could talk and be giggly and no one cared.

Sunday Staci went to Church with us. Then later Jenna took Staci back to the airport. We all had such a good time. We are excited to see what we can do for next year.

Christmas Memories

Ok, here is my lovely family. We had such a great day. It was busy and the kids were tired but everything turned out nice. The kids slept in till 8:00 AM. We opened presents for about an hour then we played. I took a shower and decided to trade fashion for comfort. I wore my sweatshirt and stretchy pants all day. I twisted my hair up in a bun so I was pretty lazy. Ballerina was pleased most of all with her cheapest present; a Hello Kitty coloring book she got in her stocking. She does like her Leapfrog alphabet toy that magnatizes to the fridge. We also got her a baby doll, stroller, and little car seat. Mya got Heely's, The Daring book for Girls, Scooby Doo movie and a few other small things. Cory got Knex, a book light, and a Webkinz but the website was so clogged today we couldn't get on. But he worked on some other projects. Em was the hardest to shop for but she got a Webkinz Pink Poodle, Island Princess movie, and from her cousin a Pink Volkswagon bug, that is her favorite thing so far.

My parents got us a Toaster/Convection oven that goes on the counter. It looks pretty cool. My brother J got us The Princess Bride movie and book and a computer game for Scott. From Santa we got a comfy computer chair that I am enjoying now. Scott got me a gravy boat and a butter dish, both were on my list. Santa got me a new pair of Ginghers. Sharp. I got Scott a Zune, that's a really cool MP3 player. He loves it. I like it too.

Christmas Eve we went to Kelly's house, unfortunately her husband and his brother had to fly back to Peru that morning because their mother passed away. So with the stress about Grandma and his mother it's kind of been a rough Christmas. Plus a woman from our ward passed away so it seems strange. But the family parties went on as planned and we all enjoyed being together. Christmas day we went to Aunt Jolae's for brunch then to my brother's house they just bought in Woodburn. Poor Scott wasn't feeling good but he made it through. I got my feelings hurt by something my family did but it wasn't intentional so I let it go.

I did talk to my Older Sister S a lot and she starting texting my on Christmas day, asking me where I was and what we were doing. She is so funny. I missed my sister and brothers that live away. We had great Christmas's growing up so it's kind of sad not to have them around. It also seemed strange that Scott's parents weren't there either. But Christmas was a success and I was really JOYFUL about that.