A place where Snow falls!

So if the subject line didn't give it away, I am in UT. Scarlett is with me, and we are visiting Joe's Parents, Glen and Rita. The drive wasn't bad actually, I am grateful that Rita is not a "no stops" kind of driver, and that Scarlett behaved so well, with little complaint over driving 12 or so hours in the car over the course of 2 days. We left Wednesday morning around 11, and spent the night in Kanab at a Comfort Inn. It was nice :)  It took Scarlett about an hour and a half to decide it might be okay for her to go to sleep, instead of just wanting to kiss me every few minutes and snuggle :) She is such a lover girl.
(to the right is  a pic of Kanab, pretty place... image from http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/utah/kanab)
Today we took off at about 1030ish from Kanab, and made it to  Lehi by about 3ish. I discovered "Fry Sauce" at DQ, which my mom has made for us to go with fish sticks all growing up, though I never heard it called "Fry Sauce" before.... must be a Utah thing.

Scarlett went to bed without TOO much complaint here at the house, once she realized I would be sleeping in the bed right next to where she was sleeping. I browsed my blackberry until she fell asleep, and was asleep for about 45 minutes before I tiptoed out to sneak onto a computer to blog.

My uncle Rick posted some pictures on Facebook tonight of my Shumway relatives, including my Grandma Shumway. I had never realized that we looked a little similar, but it made me smile. How I loved her. I have to admit I am already missing my Husband. He will supposedly be here for Thanksgiving. I am hoping that will be the case. He is settling well into working out in AZ, and we are enjoying lower electricity bills for a start! Our bill this month was only $99! I nearly went dancing in the street, till I remembered I am a bit afraid of my neighbors : / (image from http://www.clipartof.com/details/clipart/25867.html)

Well, I send my love, in this boring blog post that probably nobody will want to read. I was reading an ABC book today and thought it might be fun to do an ABC exercise, anyone who wants to do it on their blog is welcome to. List the first 3 words that pop into your head for each letter of the alphabet. Creativity is allowed when you get to letters like X and Z...

A- Art, Amphibians, Armadillos (Rita says that in Texas, they say, "why did the chicken cross the road? to prove to the Armadillo that it could be done" poor armadillos...).
B- Broccoli (Scarlett can't get enough of it), Blogs, Blackberry.
C- Chupa-Chups (image from http://www.last.fm/group/Chupa+Chups) , Cider (had some apple cider this morning at the inn), Calendars.
D- Dogs, Doorbell, Dinosaurs
E- Elephants (scarletts favorite animal, she kept hoping we would see one on the way, but only cows and horses appeared..) image from www.treehugger.com Eyes, Emu.
F- Fingernails, French fries, Freckles
G- Giraffes, Grass, Garbage
H- Hammer, Hanger, Handlebars.
I- Icecream, Igloos, Ink
J- Jaguar (both my husbands car and my daughters stuffed one), Juggling, Jester
K- Kiss, Kingpawn, Kaleidescope.
L- Ladybug, Lawnmower, Limbo.
M- Monkey, Marbles, Medicine
N- Numbers, Nuggets, and Now-and-laters
O- Octopi, Oranges, and Orangutans
P- Pumpkins, Pineapple and Penguins
Q- Queens, Quarries, and Quantum physics.
R- Radios, Rhubarb, and Rocket ships.
S- Snorkeling, Skydiving and Shaddow Puppets
T- Turkey, Turnips, and Thanksgiving
U- Umbrellas, Uncles, and Unicorns (another Scooby favorite)
V- Violins, Vaccuuming and violets.
W- Water, Winds and Walking sticks.
X- eXits, eXcapes, and eXtra terrestrials.
Y- Yodelers, Yaks, and Yarn knitters.
Z- Zifandels, Zinneas, and Zebras (image from http://animals.timduru.org/dirlist/zebra/).

Good night friends, I wish you all an enchanting Holiday.

In with the good things, out with the bad...

I know we all have those days, were we pretty much go on strike... Yesterday was one of those days for me. I refused to take a shower, Refused to put on anything cute to wear, refused to put on make up or do my hair, and surprise surprise, I had a crappy day, and felt sorry for myself all day long, ending it with a Migraine...

(image from http://migrainechickie.blogspot.com/2009/08/vintage-headache-ad.html)

This morning, I woke up refreshed, thanks to the Excedrine PM I took before bed. Scarlett woke up happy, I took a shower and blow-dried my hair and finally found something to wear; made a plan with my Friend Malia to meet up for lunch and hit up a thrift store. I weighed myself, I am almost 9 pounds down from my all-time high... gosh, weight loss is SO daunting... I did my make-up, and got Scarlett dressed and off we went.



We went to Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers for lunch. M and I both had dressed our toddlers in Green shirts and brown pants. Every time we hang out, our kids are dressed in the same colors, our minds think so much alike, its almost scary! I had the biggest migraine (returning from last night) by the time I sat down to eat. I decided, I was not going to let it ruin my day, so I made a pit stop at QT for gas (which was 5 cents MORE expensive at this one than the one I normally go to BOO!)  and got a Diet DP and some extra Strength Excedrine. I definitely am addicted to caffeine... this is a problem, and I think I need hypnosis.... any hypno-therapists feel like taking on a pro-bon-o case? While they are at it, if they could figure out how to make me stop eating so much, that would help too... :P I crack myself up..

My headache was gone in 20 minutes, and now I am having a fabulous day. We met up with M and her boys at Save the family. We got some great vintage board books for Scarlett. I also found 2 cute shirts "Avenue" Brand in the 25-cent bin outside, for another friend, and a Mary Poppins keychain for Mary Poppins, and dropped it by her shop on my way back home. I took one of her business cards, and Scarlett just loved it, "the cutest puppy I eber seen"... on it. For me, I found a cute little cameo Pin for me at the thrift store too.. I am wearing it in the picture below.



I brought Scarlett home, and she is napping. When she wakes up, we are going to Meet up with Malia to hit up Costco... I really need some more wipes... it is no fun dreading a poopy diaper due to "ill-preparedness." Thats all for now... Lots of love...

Good things come to She (or he) who waits...

This is what I keep reminding myself.... instead of being upset at the fact that due to circumstances out of our control, Joe was not able to comw home in time for Halloween, and I have NO idea when he will come back, and be here for good.

Good things come to she who waits.....

Also, I feel the same way about blogs.... sometimes a person will not post for a long time, but you still hold out, and keep them on your reading list, in hopes that they will return and continue to give you words to read, that entertain, or relate to you.

I'm back, and hopefully you can agree, that good things come to those who wait....

So, here are the pics that I have (so far) from Halloween, of my adorable Betty Boop, Scarlett Ribbons... I mean Rawlins.

this video i took with my cell phone, this was just moments after we put on her costume, she just wanted to spin and twirl and dance around, she was so happy

This pic, my friend Brook from brookslittleworld.blogspot.com took for me.



The following few pictures were taken by my dear friend Malia at ellieolivephotography.blogspot.com.

She is so talented, and accepting bookings for shoots, she is EXTREMELY affordable and well worth your time. ok, enough jabbering, here we go:

Thanks to everyone who made our Halloween special. We have only been home a month, but I am sure glad we are back to stay, and am still trying to wait patiently for when Joe will be home with us, cause he sure is missed...

Neglect.

There is no better word for my blogging behavior lately, than NEGLECT.

I think the problem is, instead of posting a blog with the adorable pic I took of Scarlett that day, I send it and add it to my status update on Facebook instead.... Guilty as charged of blogging, and bloglist reading, NEGLECT!!!
(image from http://www.thelatestone.com/sony-ericsson-c903-cybershot-review.html)

Forgive me, friends. I will try my best to do better.

However, there is definitely good news to report. Scarlett Paige has adopted an EXCELLENT sleeping schedule.... She goes to bed around 9:30 every night and wakes up at around 9:30 every morning, sleeping 12 hours each night. At around 2pm, she likes to take a nap. And she has been SO well behaved. I am so happy that we are reaching this point. Also, I am weining her off of soda. This ad cracks me up, and Scarlett would fully agree with and endorse this add, too, for SPRITE. (http://www.oddee.com/item_92625.aspx) Today she had some lemonade with a shot of strawberry, and some forced drinks of flavored water with a splash of juice. I wish I had realized I was creating such a monster with "sprite", and am glad to be rid of it, even if there is a mini-fit here or there. Before bed, she drank plain old water from a straw out of mommy's "special cup"! You have no idea how proud I am of the pain and suffering I have endured this week.

On a lighter note, Scarlett is going to be Betty Boop for Halloween. (image from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/portfolio.goamy/home) Our friend Elizabeth Smith is making us a costume with some fabric she says she already has. Scarletts hair is pretty long now, so I am not totally sure how I am going to make it look like Betty's, since I KNOW she won't go for a wig, but She will have the cute little red dress and garter, and beads. I will do my best to make the ringletts around the face, the black eyelashes on with eyeliner, and red lips. It will be so fun to dress her up. maybe I could make some red shoe covers for her tennis shoes, because with her fat feet I cant seem to find any dressy red shoes that she will wear......not even slippers :(

More good news....? Joe will be down here with us to stay hopefully by Halloween. We have put in our notice at the place in Irvine, and are glad to be rid of the high priced rent and living expenses. GAS was more than 50cents MORE expensive a gallon  there, for STARTERS, and our rent, $1400 more a month.

I'll try and post more regular, but as I am unpredictable, can really make very little guarantee. Just wanna say, I love being back in AZ, and Love LOVE LOVE my friends and family.

Thank you Malia for having us over for Dinner, Scarlett loves to play with Preston even if she does bully him some, poor kid.

I am getting pretty settled in here in the new place. For those of you who dont know where it's at, We are renting Grandma Shumway's old place just inside of Tempe. I have had a lot of fun unpacking, and finding places for all of my favorite decor, short of hanging things on the wall (dont have nails yet).
(image from http://crossstitch.about.com/od/patternsfromyourguide/ig/Scrapbook-Cross-Stitch-Designs/Home-Sweet-Home-Model.htm)
Thats all for now... Good night and good luck....

Its such a good feeling.

Mr. Roger's Neighborhood Singalong... Found this this morning, and it made me happy. Also found this great goodbye video that Fred Rogers did much later on.





Love, Red Rawlins.