Automated answering services

Have you ever had to call a credit card or bank or any other institution where you are forced to talk to an automated person? I think these things were probably invented to make you feel like you are talking to a real person so you don't get frustrated (this tactic never works on me). You can tell them you account number and tell them your selection from their menu. I don't know about you but I hate those things. I usually just go through the motions and try to listen for an option that will let me talk to a real person. I am also usually calling these places because I have a problem that I need resolved rather quickly. I don't know why but it makes me feel better answering these "people" as rudely as I can. I usually say my answer louder that I would to a real person, and with a lot more attitude. Come to think of it... maybe that is why they invented these "people". You can take out your frustrations and their poor employees don't have to suffer my wrath. Anywho... What do you think? Do you know what I'm talking about?

New Jeans

I don't know about you guys but I LOVE a new pair of jeans. I also love GAP jeans. I have never had a pair of pants that fit me so well (quote from the simpsons when Homer goes to clown college. Funniest one ever.). They also have a new fit called Curvy that seems perfect for the little tummy left over from having a baby but still fits well in the legs. I just got a pair (see photo) and I absolutely love them. I would be wearing them right now but I had to wash them today. They are so darky dark and so cute. Look at the cute back pockets. UGH!! I love them. I just had to share. Obviously I don't look like the pictures on me but I think they look pretty good.

If anyone has a chance to try them. Let me know what you think.

My Favorite Bedtime Book

When I bought this book last year I had no idea I would love it so much. It was on sale after Valentine's Day and I thought the pictures were cute. From the very first time I read it to Riley I couldn't make it through with out crying at some point and usually by the end I am a total mess. It is basically a little poem about how much love you have for your child. This is the poem:

How do I love you? Let me count the ways.
I love you on your very best and very worst of days.
I love to see you laughing and dancing in the rain.
And even when you lose your shoes, I love you just the same.
I love to hear you singing. I love to see you smile.
I love the way you take each day in your own unhurried style.
I'm happy when you're happy. And I'm sorry when you're sad.
And even though it may not show, I love you when you're bad.
How do I love you? Well now let me see...
I love the way you act so brave when you fall and hurt your knee.
I love to watch you sleeping, tucked away in pleasant dreams.
I love to hear you whisper all your giant plans and schemes.
I love the way you wear your pants with the front part in the back,
And the way you walk around sometimes with your head inside a sack.
I love to see you deep in thought.
I love to watch you play.
And though I'm sure you'll never know, I love you more each day.
How do I love you? It's impossible to say.
For if I had a million day and time enough for all the praise,
I couldn't tell you all the ways... I love you.

The illustrations are so cute and the little boy actually looks a little like Riley.
If you have a chance look it up. Maybe I'm a total boob, but I always get a good cry. I cry so regularly Riley calls it "the sad book" and always wonders why I'm crying.

Check out this giveaway!!!

I love this vinyl design. I goes right on the wall and is an easy decoration. Post a comment on the site and you can enter. Happy Holidays!!!

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2008/12/scribble-it-giveaway.html

Cancer Blog

My good friend Angie's mom is a cancer survivor and she started a project called Nana's Box. She makes these boxes for people going through cancer treatment or are survivors. They have pictures of the person and their loved ones. She has a blog where she has giveaways and it builds awareness for her project. She funds everything by herself but is getting donations. If you have a minute go check out her blog and sign up for the giveaways.

nanasboxnonprofit.blogspot.com

Thanks everyone.
~Beth

I've been tagged

Thanks Angie!


3 Joys-
*My sweet Riley
*My adorable husband
*playing board games


3 fears-
*anything happening to my Riley
*getting old
*having crazy kids


3 Obsessions or collections-
*Twilight
*Harry Potter
*High Heels


3 Surprising facts-
*I love to go tping
*I have been to 8 countries
*I love astronomy

I tag: Mary, Lindsay, and Melanie

Black Friday

This was my first time going out on Black Friday and I really liked it. I got Riley and Chris some things I think they will really like and got a lot of good deals. My friends Angie, Aimee, Ricann and I went to Target, Joanns, BabysRUs and Old Navy and it was so fun. It was so fun to go out with friends and not have out kids and just laugh and spend money together. I will often complain about how much I want to be away from Michigan but I really do like my friends I have here. Our kids are so cute together and we all have so much in common.

"Thanksgiving means giving thanks"

That was a quote from my brother when we were younger but it is so true. I just got done reading my few blogs I read and started getting emotional about all of the things people are thankful for. I try to be thankful all year round and am often times not very successful. I am pretty selfish and want a lot of things but I also love giving things to others. I love the holiday season because I have reasons to look for and buy the perfect gift for those I love. I love Christmas. I love decorating my house for Christmas time. I love when Riley says cute things like "Santa love Riley. Jesus love Riley. Mama love Riley. Dada love Riley." and he tells me he wants to sit on Santa's lap and tell him he wants a backhoe. He is loving all of the lights people put up and loves how the stores decorate for Christmas time and will shout "Mama look... Christmas time". I love my family and wish I could see more of them during this time of year.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Twihards unite!!

I love the Twilight series. I didn't think I would like it. It seemed like a silly plot...needless to say I was wrong. I was hooked pretty much from the very beginning. I have heard people complain about various things about the story, but I have enjoyed pretty much everything about the books. I am totally an Edward fan and think he is the best.

When I started seeing previews for the movie I wasn't happy with who they picked for any of the characters and was worried about how true to the book they would be. So, I had kind of low expectations for it and was pleasantly surprised. I loved Edward. I thought his hair was amazing and thought he was pretty much to die for. Bella did a good job and I loved Charlie and Jacob. The footage of Forks was beautiful and liked how true to the book it was. My friends and I made shirts and went to the mid night show. It was so exciting and fun to be there for the first showing. I love my friends. It was so fun and we all pretty much loved the movie. If any of you have seen it I would love to hear your reviews.

Happy viewing. :)

Incredible Halloween

This first picture is of Riley and his friend Leo wrestling at a party we went to that night. Leo was dressed up as the wolfman. Hilarious. Now I guess we know who would win in that fight. Dash's speed is no match for Wolfman's strength. :)



I love Halloween. It and Christmas are my favorites. I love dressing up and always have. Sometimes (actually all of the time) it is a struggle to get Chris to dress up as a theme. This year we were going to do separate ideas but Riley was going to be Dash. As I made his costume Chris decided it looked so good he would forgo his previous idea and would be Mr. Incredible. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to be Elastigirl because I LOVE THAT MOVIE and love her. So we did our at the last minute and it was a big success. These are my favorite ones we have done so far. I am also proud because I did them all by myself. Enjoy.

Fall friends

This was probably the last time we could go to the orchard for the year. We went to my favorite orchard called Wasems to enjoy some donuts and cider. We went with my two good friends and their adorable kids (Leo, Riley's best buddy and Ryah, his best female buddy). They are all so cute together.

Remind you of anyone?

Whenever Riley eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I am reminded of my most recent favorite villain from a movie. Heath Ledger was amazing as Joker.

I could feed 100 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and he would look the same after each one.

The Best Thing

The best thing about living in Michigan is the Fall weather. Fall is my most favorite time of year. The cooler weather and the trees make this the most beautiful time of year around here. I will complain about Ann Arbor a lot, but campus and the surrounding areas are so gorgeous this time of year. The students drive me crazy but it is easy to ignore them knowing that Halloween and the rest of the holidays are just around the corner. This tree is actually right outside our church building. I love it when trees are just starting to change and there are so many different shades of red and green and yellow. The trees almost look like they are on fire. So amazing!!

A mother of 3

I had the opportunity to watch my friend Aimee's two children for the last 2 days. Her oldest son Leo is Riley's age (they are actually best friends) and her youngest daughter Charlotte is 6 months. I was kind of worried about it, but it went great. Riley had some sharing issues and needed some extra attention from Chris and I, but other than that those kids were great. The noise level in the house was a lot higher and the mess was extensive, but it was a lot of fun. It was fun to see Riley play with Charlotte and he and Leo are two peas in a pod. I wish I would have taken more pictures of their time at our house. Maybe next time.

Sometimes I don't think I can handle more kids and other times I feel really ready. It is funny how experiences like these prepare us. I feel similar to David, how Heavenly Father gave him experiences to prepare him for Goliath. Maybe I will have twins next. :)

Hula class

I love my hula class. It is not only fun but a good workout and I love it!! Today we learned an amazing dance that I have seen performed and thought it was so pretty, and now I get to dance it. The movements are so beautiful and my teacher, Angie is great. We watched a documentary today about the history of Hawaii and how white men came in and basically brought disease and tons of problems for these Hawaiians and tried to stomp out their culture. Granted, I don't agree with their religious beliefs of worshiping the earth and all of that, but I also think people should be able to believe what they want. Anyhow.... I love that I can learn about different cultures here in little ol' Michigan.

It's funny being a parent

Being a parent it is funny to see the things that excite you that you used to think were silly or even gross. For example, today was the second time that Riley pooped in the toilet. You would have thought I won the lottery!! Honestly, even Riley was laughing to see how excited I was getting. We aren't into doing underwear all day or anything, but we are going in the right direction.

Another thing that I notice a ton is how many police, ambulance, and fire trucks are around. Riley calls them "light cars" and will make the siren noise everytime. Even when he is not in the car with me I still notice them and can hear his little voice make the noise. I also know all of the correct terms for construction equipment (ie. bull dozers, backhoes, front end loaders, man lifts etc.) I love having a boy!

Ypsi High revisited

This past Friday was my 10 year high school reunion. I had heard about it from a few people I had graduated with over the last few months and knew I wanted to go. This may be a shock to most of you because I will frequently talk about how much I hate running into people I knew from high school. I wanted to go however because it was under a different situation. It wasn't like I was running to Wal-mart in my jammies and happened to run into someone I hadn't seen in 10 years. I looked cute (thanks Biggest Loser) and I had a beautiful family to talk about. It was different being around school people again because I mostly hang out with LDS people, but it was fun. I reconnected with some of my good friends whom I hadn't seen in a long time. (of course I always have run into people that I wasn't really friends with at places like walmart). Here are some pictures from it.My gorgeous friend Hoodo who I had known for a long time and was so happy to see.

Erica, Anna, JD and myself.

Me and my sweetie. He was an amazing date. He was a champ at talking to people he had never met. It made me love him even more.

Cute Things

Being Riley's mom I am lucky enough to see the funny things he does on a day to day basis. When I try to catch these funny things on camera I am usually foiled by being too slow or the fact that Riley loves to see himself on camera now a days and would rather watch old videos of himself than let me take new ones.

The most recent funny thing that I just love is when I am unloading the dishwasher and I get finished unloading the little basket that holds the silverware Riley runs over, grabs the basket and walks away saying "bye bye work". Like he is leaving for work with his little basket. He does this with Chris' scripture case or any other basket shaped object. We got a video of him doing it but I can't seem to get it uploaded. If I figure out how to do it I will post it.

Another cute thing that he does is when he bumps or falls and starts crying we ask him if he got a "big boo-boo" or a "baby boo-boo". If it is a big boo-boo we give kisses and he recovers pretty quick. If it is a baby boo-boo then he just shruggs it off and is happy that we accknowledged his boo-boo.

Just thought I would share. I wish you all could see his cuteness for yourselves. But you will just have to take my word for it.

Midnight Sun

For those of you who are Twilight fans you have to read Midnight Sun. It is basically Twilight from Edward's point of view. Stephanie Meyer has a potion of it available on her website and I just finished it last night and it was amazing and totally makes me hungry for more. It makes me realize why I love Edward so much. It is because he LOVES Bella so much. I loved being in his head and having all of the time with the Cullen family. UGH!! I can't wait until the rest comes out. If you haven't read it yet, DO IT!! You won't regret it.

And the verdict was....

Guilty...unfortunately. I felt he was guilty, but it was a hard day. We deliberated for a while on Wednesday and still were undecided so we all took the opportunity to sleep on it and came back Thursday and talked for another few hours and decided on guilty. It was an armed robbery case and it turns out that this was the guy's 4th felony he was charged with. I started to cry when we walked into the court room and the poor guy was in his hand cuffs because they brought him from prison. It was a hard thing to see.

There were so many things that I wished were different in this world. The lawyers mentioned that he had a bunch of foster brothers and it just seemed like no one really cared about this kid. It all makes me want to mentor kids or something to show kids that they can be kids and that someone cares about them. It makes me want to love Riley so much and makes me grateful for the church. It was a good opportunity.

Juror #7

I have always wanted to go in for jury duty. I thought it always looked so exciting to be one of the people to decide the fate of some "bad guy" and to be in on all of the information. I also wanted to see what the big deal was about. It seems like everyone always complains about getting jury duty. My favorite part in "The Grinch" is when the Grinch is in the mail room and he starts throwing mail into everyone's slots shouting things like "Jury duty, pink slip, eviction notice etc."

I went in Tuesday morning for jury duty and was actually picked to sit in a trial. I was second to last to be chosen and I was given the juror #7 (my lucky number). I can not give any specifics but let's just say that it is not as glamorous as I had once imagined. I am thankful for our judicial system and am glad that I can do my "civic duty", but having someone else's life in my hands is hard. I can give more specifics after tomorrow because the case should be over.

Dreams...

I don't know about you all but I have some pretty crazy dreams sometimes. Like last night for example. (Disclaimer: You know how crazy dreams can be so bare with me) So the first part of the dream that I remember I was in the Olympics (see disclaimer) and I was running in a race. Edward (but I think I knew he was Chris) was there too and he was running in his own race. I ran super fast and it was a possibility that I could medal depending on the other races. Edward won the gold for his race and I couldn't wait to tell him (because for some reason he didn't know). Then the next thing that I remembered I was at the Cullen house and we were all just hanging out.

Now... I know what some of you are thinking... THAT I AM CRAZY!! but what is up with crazy dreams? I don't even remember thinking about Edward or the Olympics or anything that had to do with this dream.

This is just one example of my subconscious working stuff out. Anyhoo... just thought I would share. If any of you have crazy dreams to share I am sure we would all love to hear about them.
Peace!

Aloha!!

I have been taking Hula classes that are taught by a friend of mine through Rec and Ed for about 3 semesters. My friend Angie who is the teacher asked if I wanted to perform with her and two other women in some paid luaus. I was flattered to have been asked so I did. These are pictures from the last one that we did for her apartment complex.
This was our New Zealand dance.

A Momentous Day

A week or so ago we bought Riley some big boy underwear (Cars) and a new potty seat (also Cars) and started the dialog about potty training. I will frequently ask him if he wants to go potty and we will grab Where's Waldo and go take a seat. Nothing usually happens but it is good practice. So, this morning I asked him if he wanted to go potty in the toilet and he said yes so we took him in and HE DID IT!!! He went potty!!! We of course fussed and he was clapping and so happy that he did it. It was great. Riley called Dada at work and Aunt Mimi and Grammy to tell them the big news. It was pretty cute how excited he was about doing it.

And the Winner Is.....

ME!!!! So for those of you who don't know, I was in a weight loss competition over the summer with some of my family members. We did it Biggest Loser style and all put in some $ for the pot and then the one with the biggest percentage of weight loss won. Well, after a long summer of working out more than I have my whole life and watching what I ate I was declared the Biggest Loser. It feels great to be thinner and to look good in my clothes. I wish I could take the winnings and run to the mall but I need to be more responsible at the moment. Maybe I will take a trip to TJ Maxx in stead. :) My wonderful sister-in-law Lindsay gave me a run for my money and it was fun to be a little competitive too. I am happy I won, but happier that I am now in the habit of working out (especially with my 10 year high school reunion right around the corner).

Back to Normal

Last weekend I had my first garage sale at my dad's house. It was fun to get rid of some stuff that we don't really use and make a little cash for it. I also performed with a friend of mine in a Luau, so the practices kept me busy in the evenings. Not to mention trying to work out while spending every waking moment reading the Twilight books. I finally finished Breaking Dawn on Thursday and loved it. To treat Riley for all of his patience while I read, my sister Mary and I took Riley and her daughter Ruby to the D town zoo on Friday. Riley has his mom back and Chris has his wife back. I loved the books though. Thanks to all of you who recommended them to me. It was time well spent. So.... I hope to be making more posts and posting more pics now that I can get back into my life.

One Down

I just finished Twilight last night and loved it. I think Chris is feeling neglected and is starting to compare himself to Edward. He is a good sport though. I am trying not to neglect things around the house too much. So... thanks to all of you who recommended the books to me! And if you haven't read them. I would try them out. Now I just have to get my hands on the rest of them.

Twilight Series

Well I just started the book Twilight. I thought I would give it a try since a lot of people have told me how good the books are. So far it is pretty interesting. The newest book in the series comes out tonight and I have friends going to the party. What is up with these books like the HP series and Twilight where they have such a huge fan base that stores have release parties. I wonder if Tolkin would have had such a response when Lord of the Rings came out? I bet he would have considering the followings the movies had. Anywho...I hate jumping on the band wagon most of the time, but I guess my friends and family would never steer me wrong.

Resistance is Futile

Hey Everyone,

So, I have been resisting setting up a blog for some time now. I don't know why.... I just have. But looking at other people's blogs and being in a transitional period in my life I feel like I need it now. I hope you all will enjoy our blog. Happy reading