Random Tidbits

Megan: Who am I?????



Here are some random pictures of Tanner and Matt with Matt's Mom in Waterton















Here's my little munchkin on his first day of grade 2!







Is tidbits even a real word? It's sort of an odd word, don't you think? Anyways...

I love when it's cold at night. I love cuddling under a warm blanket next to a hot husband (he's hot blooded and ALWAYS warm) at night. I love waking up with the crisp air and wrapping a blanket around me.

I love a warm cardigan and scarf

I rarely wish people happy birthday on Facebook. I, personally, feel it's really impersonal when people on your friend list who you rarely or never talk to or write on their wall wish you a happy birthday. If you're my friend, I have your birthday written on my birthday calendar and I'll wish a happy birthday either by card or a phone call. Or if I see you I'll tell you happy birthday. Some people like that. It makes them feel more loved or whatever, but I actually don't like it. If you know when my birthday is and write it on my wall, that's fantastic...you've taken the time to show that you know me and care about me on a personal level, but if you don't know when my birthday is and write it on my wall on my birthday, I'm sorry if this sounds rude but I'm not sure how else to put it, but it actually doesn't make me feel any more special. That's just my own personal thing. If I mean something to you, then just call me up or send me a card : )

I love walking to church

We have our Halloween shirts and I'm pumped to be a 'matching' family this year

Tanner is in musical theater again this year.

Tanner told me he didn't want to be our son anymore because I made him pick up the toys that he knocked out of my hand. He apologized real quick when he realized that I wasn't going to read to him. He said he didn't mean it and that he was sorry.

I was a rebel and took out my earrings one week early (it was 5 days, actually). I love, love, love my new earrings!





Please excuse the yellowness. There's not a lot of good light today.



We had a great bon fire with Susanne and the girls.

I got myself 2 necklaces from bcharmed. It's a new company with very affordable jewelry. Just go to www.bcharmed.com to check it out.

We went for a bbq to a new friends house on Monday. We got Jolly Ranchers for the treat because we read this story about 2 ranchers and in the end they became friends so they became 'Jolly Ranchers'. We were asked to take a Jolly Rancher and give it to someone we care about (we assumed the kids would give theirs to their parents) and Tanner took his and gave it to the other Mom....ahhhh!!! He's so sweet.

So that's about it for now. Enjoy your blustery day!

Well, that's a fine how do you do

We were right! Telus came and just replaced part of our line (because the sidewalk layers spliced it) and now it works perfect! Danny (our Telus guy) said that we shouldn't have any more problems with it. We better not because this random phone working business is getting old. We had a strong feeling that the line needed to be replaced but when the other telus guy came out, he said there was nothing wrong with our line...yeah right! So now Telus is back in the black and not in the red, which makes us VERY happy. Welcome back to the land o real phones!

Another plus is that we didn't have to wait all day. The guy showed up at 10:30 and was gone by 11. How nice is that?

Tell us equals sheer stupidity!

I am totally frustrated with Telus right now so to get my mind off of the lameness that they totally are, I'm going to do a post about the things that make me happy.

#1. I am grateful (SO grateful) for a husband that doesn't complain or bat an eye when I spend money on things like earrings or faucet. I have to say, he didn't once object to upgrading our faucets in our house and every time I look/use them (I know this is going to sound super lame) I am reminded of how grateful I am for him allowing me/us to spend the extra money and get the faucets we really loved. Am I silly???

#2. For Matt taking Tanner to the Doctor and as a result has to stay a bit later at work today. Tanner hasn't been sick in a long time (at least 3-4 months) and he has a terrible cold right now and his nose, upper lip and chin are SOOOOO chapped. I thought I saw white spots in the back of his throat last night so we were able to get him into the Doctor today (another thing I'm so grateful and happy for). He doesn't have strep just a red throat and bad cold. They did swab him just to double check for strep but he didn't think Tanner had it.

#3. The peace that the Nephites had in the Book of Mormon. I wish we lived in a world where for even a day, or week, we could ALL live in total peace. I'm grateful for the gospel and for the peace it brings in my life.

#4. The Sears wish book. Nana brought this over to Tanner on Saturday and EVERY night he reads and studies it. This is a yearly thing and it reminds me of when my sisters and I were little and did the exact same thing. Except we initialed everything we wanted.

#5. My Mom. I have a super awesome Mom. She took us to Swiss Chalet on Friday and then we went shopping for some house things that we needed/wanted. She's such a good Mom and I really love when she comes to our house.

#6. Making Banana bread. I have probably the best recipe for Banana bread...super moist and yummy. I have tried to make it every Sunday or Monday for the last month. I have missed a couple weeks but I got back on the train this week.

#7. I'm going to tell this story because I already told Jamie the same thing. For my birthday(yes, my birthday is in April and I just got it 3 weeks ago. We're totally cool like that) she gave me this really beautiful necklace. I don't have my camera, otherwise I'd post a picture but it's a round silver disc with Tanner's name engraved on the bottom and his birthstone gem in the middle. Anyways, it was a really special gift. When I was little, my Dad gave my Mom a string of pearls and she had them restrung because they were a bit too long for her. So she kept the extra pearls thinking she would do something with them one day. Well then there was a YW activity where the mothers were asked to give/present their daughters with something special/meaningful for an activity and my Mom gave us 3 girls a single pearl from that necklace. Well, I lost mine a year ago and I was really upset because it had special meaning and it was like my Dad was part of me when I wore the necklace (which I wore 90% of the time). The necklace she gave me has the same meaning in that now I have Tanner with me all the time when I wear it. Am I the only one that gets attached to jewelry? or am I just weird?

#8. Picking up my earrings. Remember the post with the earrings? They're the first pair. I can't show you them with me wearing them because I'm not supposed to take my studs out for another week. I'll show you when I take a picture.

#9. Getting super excited about going to Kalispell!!!! Swimming and Big Sky and shopping here we come!

#10. No headaches for 10 days! Before that 10 days, I was getting a headache every day for nearly a week. I decided to eat more veggies and fruit and cut down significantly on sugary/fatty things. It totally worked! I just have to tell myself when I'm tempted to eat lots of cookies or chips "is this going to be worth the headache that will follow?". It's worked pretty good so far.

#11. Winning scrabble on my iPod touch. I have a couple of really hard competitors that I play against and I don't really play to win most of the time but when I start strong and keep strong, I like to win. Mostly I just play for fun but when I beat people that are really hard to beat, it feels good.

#12. My subway clock is finally up. We got it before we even moved and I am so happy to have it up. We don't have any clocks except on the microwave and stove (which are coincidentally in the kitchen right above each other) and that gets annoying sometimes because then you have to go into the kitchen to find out what time it is. We had clocks in most rooms in the old place so this is nice.

#13. Laundry, Laundry, oh and more Laundry! I LOVE laundry.

#14. QVC and HSN. Yep, as addicting as Pintrest (did I just say that?)

#15. Family Home Evening. Tanner taught the lesson this week. We talked about the importance of the Sacrament and how we should behave. He did awesome. Usually he reads to us out of 'The Friend' (99% of the time it's the Matt and Mandy story), but he was asked by his Primary teacher to teach a friend or a FHE lesson on the Sacrament. It was a good refresher for all of us on how to act and behave.

#16. My Pampered Chef Measuring Cup. It makes measuring butter and sticky stuff so much nicer and easier.

#17. Scentsy. Do you have a favorite scent? Mine is Peach a la Mode right now. It is so yummy. I had Root Beer Float on the other day and I had to turn it off because it made me crave a real root beer float and I only had half of the float (ice cream). That's how good it smelled.

#18. A really good visit with Jill. It's so nice to make new friends and I love that we are neighbors and our boys can (and DO) play with each other so easily and conveniently.

#19. A fan at night that acts as white noise. I thought that our fan was breaking this week because it was making a funny noise...turned out all it needed was a little tune up aka. tightening and dusting. Phew!

#20. I didn't realize that I had so much that made me happy and/or grateful this last few days. Well, that was a nice surprise!

Until next time...Happy last week of Summer Vacation!

Fascination

I have a slight fascination with earrings right now. I am constantly looking at them online and have found some ones that I love. These are the ones that I ordered recently and am waiting for them to arrive.








These ones I didn't know were the birthstone of Tanner until I read about the gemstone. They look big but on the description they're not actually super huge.







These ones are just dainty






I'm not really sure if I could pull off chandelier earrings but these are kinda fun







And these are pretty





So those are my faves for now. I have to wait and see if my ears will handle lower quality stuff before I get to excited about expanding my collection of earrings.

This week in our neck of the woods

We headed up to Calgary this last weekend for a farewell party for my little siter (aka Melany). She is moving to Charlottetown P.E.I. It's bittersweet for all of us. We had family pictures and I'm really looking forward to seeing those.

I was really productive yesterday. I painted and mod-podged all my frames so that when my Mom comes down this weekend we can hang up pictures (FINALLY!) on my 'family wall'. It took me all afternoon to do that and I'm looking forward to reaping the rewards when my pictures hang on the wall.

Susanne finally got home and we had a great visit on Saturday night.

Matt took the car in to get the oil changed and the plug or screw cap wasn't on tight enough and it was leaking oil on our brand new garage floor so he took it back and they put a new one on. It seems to have done the trick. No more leaks!

I got to go into nursery for music time. It was actually really fun. I am glad I got the opportunity to do that. Now just because I enjoyed that don't take that as I want to be in nursery. I was talking to the nursery leader and she said she LOVES nursery and that for her it's her 'break calling' just as being ward chorister is my 'break' calling right now. I don't really feel like I can give too much to a calling right now so chorister is perfect because I don't have to prepare anything. I just show up and wave my hand around (so to speak). That is right up my alley right now.

Big Brother watchers....What do you think about Brendon being back? I'm on the fence about this one.

I just started reading 'The Little Prince' today. I'm sort of confused by it so far. Maybe I'm just not that smart. It's like one of those books that has like 5 layers of depth to it. Those are some of the hardest books for me to get through. I'm kind of a face value type of girl. The book 'The Help' was deep for me...not too deep though. Maybe I need some help/explanation on this particular book. Maybe I need to get into it more. I am NOT giving up. I think the next book I'll read will be either 'The 4 Loves' or 'Anne of Green Gables'. Christal had a couple of books on her pintrest that I'd like to read...'The pioneer Woman' and 'Sarah's Key'. They both look like they are good books. Any good books you've read lately???

Gorilla Glue on the counter = not good! I had to use my foot file to file/scrape it off the counter. That stuff is super sticky. I was gluing a frame back together and I thought I had been extra careful and covered the counter but apparently not. Plus it got on my finger and I had to scrub REALLY hard to get it off.

I was at work alone today. As in totally 100% alone as part of "an experiment". I hope I passed and that the "experiment" worked. I did not treat people (hello that's illegal) but I just answered the phone and made appointments and re-called patients that needed to come in. It was actually really nice to be alone and focus on some of the things that don't always get the attention they need. I hope it was worth it for the productivity of the office : )

Did you know that the Cardston AND Edmonton Temple were closed at the same time??? The Edmonton Temple is closed for maintenance for 3 months at the same time as the Cardston one is closed for 2 weeks. I had to call down to the States to put 2 names on the prayer roll last week.

So I guess that's about it for this neck of the woods.

Interesting...

I came across THIS article and found it interesting because it's a cultural thing not a scriptural thing. What are your thoughts?

I want to know...

Why are mimes always in a box???

What is wrong with Rachel (on BB)?

Why are Lays chips so addicting?

Where can I take my bike to get a tune up?

Why hasn't there been any rain? You know pretty soon we'll all be asked to fast for rain. It happens every year. I guess maybe we're not as faithful as we need to be????

Why does our phone keep clicking? We've had more problems with our phone here in 3 months than we had in our old house in 4 years. It makes me kind of suspicious that our phone has been tapped or something.

If I will be able to order the broken piece of the ceiling fan I broke at work today (okay it was a part, not a piece of the fan. In fact it was one of the spotlight covers). I really hope I can just buy the part and not have to buy a whole new fan. I feel SOOOO horrible about it. It's not like I'm stupid and don't know how to change the light bulb in a ceiling fan. I just didn't put the cover in properly and it fell and shattered ALL over the waiting room (there were no patients in the office at the time). I know my boss was annoyed (he told me he wasn't mad when I apologized, he said he was just annoyed) but I'm hoping I don't have to buy a new fan. I just feel sick about it. It's like one of those moments you wish you could just rewind. Here's to me crossing my fingers and hoping I get the answer I want/need tomorrow when I call.

If anyone has any places they recommend we go to when we go to Kalispell next month.

What are some good car games for kids in the car?

How much Zumba costs because I think I'd like to do it in the fall.



Work was pretty awesome today (minus the breaking incident). It was busy (which is really nice) and we even got milkshakes from a patient. It's not too often that patients bring stuff in for us. The hutterites bring fresh bread every once in a while or jam or honey. So it's an extra special treat when people bring us in stuff.

I got to talk to a good friend last night. She's always such an example and inspiration to me. She's such a good friend.

Tanner, I've decided, needs some lessons in how to act appropriate at certain places. My ONE child was totally stressing me out at work today when him and Matt came in for an adjustment. He was a total hoolagin. He's into this "let's push the limit to the VERY edge...even just a little bit off" phase right now. When he gets mad, I can't look at him because he gets this super cute(to me) pouty/angry look and all I want to do is laugh at his facial expression. He such a cute boy! It's a wonder to me that we can love our children so much. How can one have so much love? I remember after Tanner was born, my sisters were asking me to describe the feelings I had about Tanner...what is it like to love a child? etc. Loving a child/being a mother is like trying to describe to someone who has never tasted salt, what salt tastes like . How can you describe that feeling? You have to experience it to really truly understand it. It's such an amazing feeling. It's, for me at least, different than the love you have for your spouse even.

So that's enough of that mushy stuff...

Today was good and tomorrow will be great!

August 9th

What makes your day happy? Mine include the following:

A huge hug from Tanner after I came home from washing windows at my Aunts this morning. Tanner was still asleep when I left so it was our first 'greeting' of the day.

Spaghetti for supper!! My FAVE!

Looking forward to talking to Erica tonight

My Earrings that I ordered being shipped

Finding the cord to our printer

Cleaning my bathrooms

Ice cream with chocolate sauce and marshmallow on it

A visit with Sharon(yesterday)

A walk with Tanner (yesterday)

A new magazine

"when i was your age"

you wanna know what's on my mind lately? it's driving me bonkers! when people say (around and/or to tanner)something to the effect "you know, when i was your age, if i ever talked to my parents like that, i'd get a whoppin'/spankin' "

all i wanna do is say: oh yeah, and what do you think spanking proves? that your parent was the boss? did the spanking make you stop talking that way every time?

i can count on one hand the number of times i've spanked tanner. it is used as an extreme last resort and i hate doing it. but it really drives me bonkers when people say this around tanner. like we should be spanking him. we have decided NOT to spank our child(ren) and choose to warn, or re-direct, or send him to his room if it gets really bad. i was spanked as a child, and i'll tell 'ya, it didn't do that much good because i was still bad. i even knew when i was getting a spanking and i'd go and lay on my bed on my stomach, waiting for my mom (my dad didn't usually spank us, although i remember a couple times he did). clearly spanking didn't work for me.

i certainly don't judge those who choose to use that method of discipline, but matt and i have made the personal choice not to use that unless we feel like the situation needs it. i realize that everyone has their opinions about this, but this is just mine and i just needed to get it off my chest *sigh* we can usually get tanner to stop the back talking with other methods and so that's what works for us.


and for this reason, i NEED to do a happy post

going to head smashed in buffalo jump for the first time today. it was really fun and i'm glad i got to finally enjoy it

matt and tanenr being home. i can't even begin to tell you how stinkin' bored i was while they were away. i actually finished the book "The Help" in one afternoon. i was about 200 pages in and read the rest of it. it's different being alone at home as opposed to going somewhere away.

air conditioning

cough medicine

pillows

cleaning

riding my bike

finding tanner on the way home from his book club and walking the rest of the way home with him

taking care of susannes yard while they are enjoying a vacation

a cool basement

food

temples

Where did the happy go?

I realized that I have been so absorbed in other things that I have failed at doing any happy posts lately so I am going to work on that. I am happy for many reasons:
my MIL is visiting and I love having company

Tanner doing ennie mennie to decide what toy he was getting with his money

Having a great visit with Jill

Working

Making time for things that matter most

Knowing my sister is okay after an unexpected procedure. She had a cyst removed.

Buying my first pair of earrings

Being looked after for a small moment by someone who could see I wasn't feeling good at all on Sunday

A message from a friend

Returning e-mails that I wanted to send earlier but didn't have the time

Kindness, patience, loyalty, honesty, love and friendship.

Have a great day!

The tour

I realized that I haven't put pictures up of the house. As you will see, we still have a ways to go. We are working on painting frames etc so that we can put pictures up soon. So enjoy the tour!

I am standing at the front door. The Hallway off to the right is Tanner's bathroom, Tanner's room and the mud room



Looking down the smaller hallway


Mud room to the right, Tanner's room straight ahead and his bathroom is off to the left

Mud room and entry to the garage



Tanner's Bathroom. I chose this color for the bathroom because the family I last nannied for had this blue and I loved it...so it's a bit of a reminder of my days there too.

Tanner's rooms. Looking from the door way to the right of his room.



Standing in the corner (on his bed). Left side of the room. You can barely see the closet on the very left of the picture. In 2 pictures I'll be sitting on the little blue chair in the corner.

Closet


Sitting in the little blue chair. His bed (we're working on getting him to make it. Perfection is not our goal right now. Just having it made is the goal right now)


Looking out of Taner's bedroom door into the hallway. That doorway straight ahead is the spare 'oom (guest room)

This is the entry to the garage.



Door to the spare 'oom in the land of woredrobe. And the pantry door.


Standing in the doorway looking to the left. That little shadow in the curtain is our house number on cardboard. We STILL waiting for them to paint the smartboard so we can put it outside.


In the corner.

My pantry. Not huge, but hey, it's still a pantry.



I'm standing at the pantry door looking into the living room straight ahead, kitchen and dining area to the left and that half wall on the right is the wall leading down the stairs.


I think I've posted pictures of the kitchen quite a few times.


I'm standing in the corner of the living room. That's the door to the back deck there. The chair...you'll see in the next picture.


I was standing over where the stereo is for the previous picture. The door there is to our room.

Standing in a kitchen corner.


Our room.



Standing in the closet.


Standing in the corner (beside the curtain in the previous picture)


Standing on the other side of the bed in the other corner


The ensuite





Closet


Stairs.

The only thing that's different downstairs is that I put together this map so now Tanner and his friends can drive the cars all around/over the world.


Our front door.



The ston on our garage and our front porch.

Tanner, Matt, J & D watching the cement being poured.