No More Blogging!!!!!

No More Blogging For Me!!!
Consumed My Life!!!
Became Obsessed!!!
End of Story!!!

At Least For Now!!!

I HAVE WITNESSED A MIRACLE

That's right people, I have witnessed a miracle!! And it all went down at my friendly neighborhood WALMART!(of course)

I had to take Cole to walmart so he could get his watch fixed and while we were in the jewelry section i did what any other normal, american woman would do and tried on a bunch of the totally fake, but HUGE DIAMOND rings that they have on a little kiosk there(see pic of said ring from walmart below). No big deal, it doesnt mean I don't LOVE my current wedding ring!!!!!!!(I swear), but a girl can look can't she???

So no big deal right?? My husbands at home with no idea of what I was doing at walmart. Everythings fine. We finish our shopping and go home. We eat dinner, we watch some TV and then at about 9:30pm we head upstairs to go to bed. It was right around this time that I realized I didn't have my wedding rings on!!! Uh Oh!!! I left them on top of the Kiosk at Walmart!! After a slight freakout, I spilled the beans to Jason, and we raced down to walmart (thank goodness they're open 24 hours) I prayed the whole way there, while jason silently fumed, did I mention that this is about the 4th time I've lost my wedding ring (something that drives my husband crazy) Anyway, I run in to walmart and they are still sitting in the exact same spot that I left them!!!!YIPPEE!!!!!A MIRACLE, if ever there was one.

Jason says the moral of the story is...Be happy with what you've been given Julie, and don't EVER take off my rings!!

BAIDU

Cole finally got his BIG award for winning The Stocket Market Game contest for the state of Arizona. They held the ceremony at Chase Field. His winning stock was called BAIDU (it's the chinese version of Google), just in case anyone is interested in buying a good stock.
He got cash, a certificate, tickets to the D-backs game and money for food. It was really exciting. We hope his junior high offers this program at there school next year. We were told that Arizona is the fastest growing state to participate in this special program.He also recieved a certificate and special recognition from Mesa School Board and a certificate of commendation from the Arizona State Senate.
Good job cole!!! Since jason and i know nothing about the stock market, cole's been teaching us how it all works, i think we might actually invest in some. It was such a fun experience for cole. Love you Cole

Matt and Monica "TIE THE KNOT"

Matt and Monica had a beautiful wedding on April 26th. It was a very happy moment for Jason and I. We are so proud of Matt and the man he has become. He is a hard worker. And a loving son and husband. He had a very difficult life before he joined our family when he was thirteen, but he is living proof that each of us is in control of our own happiness. He struggled for awhile, but ultimately realized the only time he was ever truly happy in his life was when he was living the gospel. And he's absolutely right!!We love you Matt and your new wife.
Raya and Jacy absolutely adore Matt and Monica!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Raya being adorable, She can only sit still for about 3 seconds straight, so the photographer was lucky to get this picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a Picture of all my brothers and sisters (except Tina). From left to right: Cami, ME, Misty, Monica, Matt, Josh, Chad, Bobby. (I'm the oldest, and bobby is the youngest)

PRICELESS

1. Ballet Lessons =$28.00/Month

2. Gas (to get to ballet lessons) =$150.00/Month

3. Dance Recital Costume =$37.00

4. Dance Recital Fee =$15.00

5. Getting kicked out of ballet class two weeks before Dance Recital, because your ballerina won't stop crying and won't dance ======PRICELESS!!!!!

(It's official!! last week i was politely asked not to bring Raya back to dance class!! What can i say? The girls got no rhythm.)

DANCE FEVER!!!!!

I've taken the plunge, I've signed Jason and I up for dance lessons YIPPEE!!! Elder Ballard says mothers need to take care of themselves and have interests of their own, so that's what i'm doing!! I've always wanted to take ballroom dance lessons with Jason, so, away we go. It's every friday night at 7:30 and they teach a different style everyweek (samba, waltz, cha cha, etc.,). I'm so scared, but i've decided i'm not getting any younger so now's the time!!

So, this is what Julie is envisioning after just a couple of lessons!!!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And this is what Jason envisions!!!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Help!!! I may have inadvertently given Jason a license to fulfill all of his John Travolta/Kevin Bacon dance dreams. (Anyone who ever witnessed Jason and his brother at the ASU saturday night dances knows what I'm talking about!!)

***Good thing I always had a crush on John Travolta***

P.S. Any of my friends who would like to join us for dance lessons let me know.

Dance To The Beat Of A Different Drum!!!

***I've waited 34 long years for my dreams to come true!!!***

1. Have a beautiful little girl (now I have two)

2. Sign her up for ballet class (how adorable)

3. Dress her in a cute little ballerina costume

4. Weep tears of pride as she glides across the dance floor

5. Comfort the other mothers as they watch my beautiful daughter's dance SKILLS and realize their ballerina's will never measure up!

*** 3 of out 5 isn't bad, right???***

P.S. Please notice ALL of the other girls doing the dance perfectly!!

Karate Kid Wannabe

Jason in High School = Mean, Blond, Bully
from The Karate Kid Movie

Hmmmm... i wonder who inspired Jason's awesome, 80's style????

Ode' to Brandice Kay

I just got off the phone with my friend Brandi (sorry i stole this pic off your blog) and i told her she needed to go read the first article in the April Ensign by President Monson. I love this article! It has changed the way i live my life. Ever since i read it I've tried to live in the moment and live each day like it was the most special day of my life (you'll have to go read it to understand what i'm talking about). Anyway, one the things i'm trying to do is not put things that are important off until another day, today is the day!!! So, i want my friend Brandice Kay(she'll love that i'm using her full name) to know how much i just love her. She is amazing!!! We have been friends for about 12-13 years. Her and Nathan kept trying to lose us by moving every year, but we just kept hunting them down.

1. She is an awesome mom, she has more fun with her kids than anyone i know.

2. She can speak spanish, something i envy greatly.

3. She is the funniest person i've ever been friends with, i.e. dancing on the stage of "The Price Is Right".

4. She has the best laugh, and she laughs often.

5. She has had a very difficult couple of years, but came out the other side stronger, more humble, more spiritual, and as a personal example of righteousness.

6. She is the one female person on this earth that i can completely be myself with (something that is very difficult for me to do) AND, she still seems to like me!!!

7. She has always been a shoulder to cry on when i needed her.

8. She's got GUTS!!!

9. She can laugh at herself, and does, alot!!

10. She is going to kill me for writing this, but will quickly forgive!!!

Thanks for being inspirational Brandi!!!

P.S. I'm an a roll now, so my other friends should beware...they might be next.

SETTING THE BAR A LITTLE HIGHER

I realized this week that I've been underestimating my kids. I also realized that Heavenly Father truly did save the strongest spirits for these last days. Have any of you been underestimating your children? or is it just me? Jason decided we should set a family goal to read The Book of Mormon (individually). He asked everyone to start in January and then we'd finish by June. I half-heartedly agreed with his challenge, but didn't really think the boys would do it. Enter in my underestimation of the amazing children on the earth these days. Not only did the boys agree, but they actually did it. You can imagine my amazement at walking into there room each night to turn off the light and finding them studying the scriptures. I couldn't believe it. Why have i been so slow to recognize the opportunity to set the bar higher in our young children? Cole came to us last week and announced that he had finished, he had read The Book of Mormon and loved it. He also told us that he particularly liked Moroni chapters 9 and 10. Ren is almost done with Helaman and about to start on third Nephi. We've always studied the scriptures as a family, but what a difference it has made to study individually. I ignorantly assumed that they were to young to read it, let alone understand what was being said. But let me tell you that is not true. Ren came to us a month ago and said whenever he used to try and read the Book of Mormon before he didn't really understand it, but this time, the spirit helped him comprehend it. He not only understood it, but he said he actually enjoyed reading it, it's exciting-he says(especially Alma).I think Jason was inspired to issue this challenge. It's made me want to study more. The spirit of our home has changed. Our kids come to us more frequently with spiritual comments or questions. And my faith and the faith of my children has grown. I truly believe Heavenly Father knows our kids are going to need all the strength they can get to make it through this world and He is pouring out His spirit now,enlightening our children's minds and strengthening their spirits. So, I've decided never to underestimate my kids again. We talk openly now about spiritual matters that i previously assumed they wouldn't understand. Instead of challenging our boys to read The Book of Mormon once before their missions we've asked them to read it 20 times before their missions. Jason and I bear our testimonies more frequently now and our boys share theirs more freely. In short, this challenge, that I half-heartedly agreed to, has been one the best experiences that our family has ever had. I'm sure most of my friends have already experienced this in their own families and I'm just a slow learner, but if you haven't, i hope you'll give it a try.

My Celebrity look-alikes

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

I just wanted to thank all my friends for letting me walk around this world looking like an old lady, next time you have food in your teeth or your hairs out of place, don't expect me to let you know!!!!!

Phone Dyslexia

So, Mindy thought this story would be perfect blog material. Unfortunately i still haven't figured out the whole picture thing, so I can't post a pic with it. Most of you probably don't know this about me, but i have a secret, when i talk on the phone, i LITERALLY cannot do anything else. I think that's one of the reasons i HATE talking on the phone. So, when someone calls me, I have to run upstairs to my room and lock the door (so the kids can't come in) and then go into my closet and close the door, this is the only way i can talk on the phone. (what is wrong with me? i need phone therapy! I think Mindy is the exact opposite of me when it comes to phone skills so I'll have to get a few pointers) Anyway, all of you know that i have a sister in prison right now and she calls me almost everyday, she only gets 15 minutes to talk so up to my closet i go whenever she calls. Well last week i somehow forgot to lock the door to my room, but since i was already sitting in my 'phone talking spot on my closet floor', i was unable to get up and shew them out the door, because that would require me to talk and move them at the same time, something i am unable to do. So i just stayed on the floor and totally focused all my energy on hearing what my sister said while blocking out the fact that my kids were in the room. Well, apparently i did a pretty good job of this. After 15 minutes the phone call came to an end and i started to get up from my spot when all of a suddden i felt something falling onto my arm, i looked down and saw chunks of hair on the floor and on my clothes. I am so phone challenged that i didn't even notice that Raya had been sitting right next to me on the floor, with a pair of scissors. But did she cut her own hair? oh no!!! she cut mine. That's right, she chopped my hair!! I spent the next hour cutting about 3 inches off my mane and layering the heck out of it to try and hide the missing chunks. Thanks raya for the new do. And if anyone has any tips on how to talk on the phone and use my brain at the same time, please let me know.

Alrighty, i guess i'm going to give this whole blogging thing another try! I gave up the very first day i set it up. I went browsing on all my friends blogs and came down with a case of blogger envy. I thought there was no way i could compete, especially after viewing "the queen of all bloggers" site (aka Brandi). But, soon i realized that no one is expecting anything fabulous from me, all my friends already know I'm pretty boring. Luckily i have a gift for becoming friends with really interesting, funny, outgoing people, so that i look a little more fun when I'm with them.

The tropical smoothie cookie drama

Some of you already know about the "tropical smoothie cookie" drama, but for those who don't....Tropical smoothie cafe is a sandwich shop that jason and i go to alot because it's right next to jason's office and it has good sandwiches. But more importantly it has the BEST cookies!!! My fav is the the Hope's Royale cookie (chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, coconut, YUM!!!). Anyway, my wonderful, thoughtful, big behind loving husband was trying to be romantic and so decided to order me a box of the cookie dough from the owner. By the way, i was on a diet when he told me of his romantic deed. So a week passed and the shipment arrived...a 45 pound box of Hope's Royale cookies dough, that's right, 45 pounds of pure evil. There was a least 200 cookies dough balls in the box. Needless to say the diet went out the window and we proceded to pigout on cookies for the next several weeks. I was hoping that if i ate a whole bunch I'd get sick of them, but no, I just loved them more. And i could never eat just one either, it was always 3 or 4 at a time. Ughhhhh! (also, i found out that each cookie has 200 calories (awful) and we always ate them late at night (more awful). So, finally, the reason for the cookie drama story is to report that we ate the last cookie last night. Hallelujah!!!!! It's my husband goal in life to make me at least 300 pounds(I'm not joking either) but I made him swear on his life that he'd never order a box again. So, I gained at least 5 pounds from those dang cookies, but i have to admit, it was a delicious 5 pounds.

Hey all,
Well I guess I'm always going to be a follower! Since everyone else is blogging, i've decided to give the 21st century a try. Thanks, Brandi, mary jo, mindy, heather and keri