Jeremiah's restaraunt

We ate at Jeremiah's restaurant today for breakfast....ugh I'm stuffed.

Reasonable prices and huge helpings. Get there early if your going on a weekend because there is a wait, but it's worth it. The cowboys Benedict is awesome. It's bacony goodness, cheesy splendor, with the biscuits and gravy attitude.

The F bomb challenge!

I love Dr. Oz and I watch daily while I workout. It makes it easier to workout for sure. I am so not the type that loves to workout but I know I have to to keep me healthy and keep my weight off. So let me tell you about my recent weightless journey.

I have struggled since I have had kids to take the time to exercise and eat right. I almost felt guilty doing it or my children would bug me until I would get off the elliptical. I decided I needed to be more selfish with my time and also not caring what my kids thought about cooking healthy.  It's probably about a year. I worked out and tried to loose and loose but it seemed like it was not coming off fast enough. I talked to my doctor and he said to do a 1200 cal diet. Wow I was amazed how quickly it came off.  Did I also mention I hate working out especially because my muscles just get bigger? Well I didn't work out as much as I should but still stuck to that 1200 cal diet. It was awesome but I started seeing my skin flab (is what I call it) when I moved to West Haven I felt like I didn't have anyone. I started getting depressed. I decided I needed to really work out and get toned. It's only been about 3 months but lost inches but gained about 5lbs. My legs have gotten bigger as usual.  So I have had the self esteem issues again. Looking at my legs saying to my annoyed husband "are my legs fat?" Then thinking like he would even tell me the truth. I have gone from extra large shirts to medium and small & Pants from a 31 to  27.  I just realized it today when I was watching Dr. Oz that I should be happy with what I look like and stop using the F word (FAT) because I have worked hard and I will just keep on going. I also don't want my kids to use that word either. I know it's natural from being a girl to have the attitude "that I am fat" but at least my daughter would not hear it from her mom and maybe I can give her the confidence she needs. She tells me all the time already that she is fat and I know that it stems from me.  My husband is always telling me I am beautiful and I tell him he doesn't need to lie or he is just being nice.

So are you up to the  Dropping the F bomb challenge?

This means taking the compliments that people give you and not saying your fat, husky, etc. it will be really hard for me but....I am willing to try.

Our journey to a better life

Our Journey to a Better life

   So much has happened in the past few weeks that I don't even know where to start. Looking for a house was the biggest. I mean the BIGGEST PAIN in the butt! I truly belie though that the Lord guides you where you need to be. We were debating for a few days and even before mike got this job that if he did get the job. Would he commute? Well we decided that with gas prices and tracks  takes forever it would not. So house hunting it is! Thankgoodness! We are done being in this Hell whole ok not really its just old and our landlord is a cheapskate. Anyways, we were looking on ksl and Craigslist, yahoo, etc. basically everywhere. We found this one in Roy. I called the guy seemed to be perfect. Large house, his parents were going on a mission so they would put there stuff in the basement and we would have the other levels, rent was only a $1000, large back yard with cute playground, just a really really nice house. We thought this would be great then we could save a ton for a down payment. So we put In a application we were really nervous. Mike has a misdemeanor for possesion from when he was a dumb teenager. We just short sold our house like 8 months ago. I am sure our credit wasn't the greatest. On the application it didn't ask references or etc. so after filling it out Mike sent the guy an email explaining why we short sold our house. And that he regretted his past and now doesn't do stuff like that and since went on a misson etc. Well, the guy kept leading us on and saying next week.  So we were looking at other houses on KSL and saw he actually raised the rent to $1200.  I told MIchael about it and we felt like it was messed up he wasn't being honest.. Maybe he was overwhelmed with the response. But he could at least told us and the house would not all be ours and paying $1200. We were thinking so what else would this guy do in the course of the 2 years we were there. When mike went and looked at the place his own sister said he was a "a hard nose ".  The neighbors all around were family if we did something wrong would they get made at us? Well we emailed him and told him that we saw his ad on ksl again and it looked like he raised the price. He told us we would have known by now and he kept putting us off. We had been honest with him. We didn't want to pay more since the whole house wasn't going to be ours. We appreciated his time we were going to find something else. Holy CoW Did we offend him!  He wrote us back and  said that is was a free country he could do what he wanted. Michael needed to stop being so needy. Michael needed to look at his past as who he his and not whine about it. And best of all my favorite that we were one of his "TOP" picks. Oh yeah, and that he isn't doing it for the money it's just that he doesn't want all the other free loaders in the family to get it. Wow dude! Your parents are going on a mission. So if we were one of his top picks and it wasn't about the money than...why did he just pick us? Right?! Mike was so depressed after this email. I was so pissed! I hope this guys gets horrible renters. It would serve him right! Anyway on to our next adventure.
   So we decided we were going to look at some houses we pick out a few and then called a property manager. He said oh yeah I will take you to some. So the one I wanted to look at was taken. So he just took us to where ever. It was like the same house in a different area. I don't know why people build these new rambler houses without basements. There is no storage no nothing 1400sqft. Is just not enough when I am going to pay $1200 for rent. I wanted to laugh at they guy in the face.  Mike and I would go look at different houses. I kept telling him lets call before we go look. He kept telling me no we are just going to go down there.anyway what a waste of a trip. We watched ksl closely   found the coolest app ever. That notifys you when a rental come on the market. I kept telling Michael   maybe we are not supposed to live in Ogden. I looked at the school ratings & test scores. I was dying.        
 How could a state even allow any school district to be ok with an adverage of 60%. I thought to myself here we go provo all over again. I called all the charter schools they were worse than provo and not very nice almost like you were a #. Anyway the house that we got came on the market. Within our price range. Mike looked at the sex offender registry and there wasn't any that showed up and he said " how is that possible, is there a mistake" I think he tried it like 3 times. The school isn't too bad I will take a B average over D. They seemed really nice at the school. It's definitely in thee country. Hay fields everywhere. Our house is not though. It is more like a private neighborhood. There is townhouses, houses, our own park, we have to deal with an HOA again, we don't have much of a back yard. But I will take a great neighborhood over the ghetto any day. We met some of the kids in the neighborhood they said that there is tons of kids and its a really fun neighborhood.
  Mike has started his new job it takes him about 1 hour to get there and 2 hours or longer to get home . Oh my heck its so frustrating! So when he gets home it's like time for him to go to bed. I have basically packed the whole house as usual. I swear I need a vacation! He is liking it so far. After his interview he was really scared that's why he asked for so much but they have been very open to change. He has already been able to do amazing thing since he has been there and they appreciate his ideas and abilities. Which is AWESOME for him! I can't wait to just settle down. I know a lot of people have had their opinions of us especially some rude family members that I don't even care about that have said that we need to stop moving. Lol! Or that at a family function someone said that we were just miserable and get out of provo because everything seems to be going wrong their. Lol welcome to life witch! Sorry I don't live with my mother or mother in law so I can't buy anything and everything I want. Anyway, I hope everything works out I know it will. One way or the other. It's just that some of us have to take the long route to get there.

Feeling Blessed- Freaked Out-Nervous

I don't know how much sleep Mike and I got last night but I think we were afraid if we were to go to sleep this was all going to be a dream. Lol

  So we have been struggling back and forth between 2 jobs for about 2 months now. One in Nampa, Idaho and one in Ogden. They both were basically saying the same things. Mike was there top pick. The one in Nampa actually told Mike that the did not want to hire him though because he did not live in the area. Basically they did not want to pay for relocation.  So I guess they hired someone else. Then a  couple weeks later they called him again and told him that guy quit because the place he used to work for wanted him back. So they told mike the pay and she said she would talk to the supervisor. He hasn't heard back from them. While that was going on we also had this place in ogden they told Mike that they decided to not hire anyone and put the position on hold. Well a couple weeks later he got a email asking if he was still interested because they were opening it back up. He told them yes.  Another couple weeks went by he thought maybe they hired someone. Well he got a email last Friday asking him to give them his salary history. Mike has a very great mentor that used to be a BYU professor that is his Blackblelt coach. He explained to him that you never give a business your salary because if you are not making enough they will low ball you. Basically he gave him great advice. I guess I didn't mention when mike had his interview with this place he gave them a range in salary more than 2x's he is making now. I thought he was crazy for doing it. I thought he would never get the job. Well yesterday he got a email that said they were going to call him at 4:00pm. He called me and I knew they were going to offer him a job. He asked me what do I need to make? I gave him the # I thought thinking it would never be in the range he told them. He called me back and it was in the the mid range he told them he wanted. I could not believe it! Would I really not have to get a job? (Which I was looking all day for) or we might even be able to save for a house now. I mean SAVE. What is that? I am  so grateful for all I have learned in our journey here in provo. We will miss it so much! But, I am excited to leave for my children to find friends and to get in a neighborhood again. I am excited for Mike to have a job that he is good at and that he loves to do. I feel blessed that he is given this opportunity when they wanted someone with an engineering degree and picked him instead. God has a plan for each one of us and as long as we do what is right and do what we are supposed to he will guide us to where we need to be. My testimony has never grown so much as it has by these trials and I am truly grateful that I was able to get through them but I could have never done it with out my beautiful family.

The Trials never end

Trials are so hard they always seem to come to all at once. When life just seemed to be slowing down and looking up it seemed a start of a big and a never ending trial goes on for us.

  Mikes finding a job has never been a bigger trial for us.  People think people with a bachelors degree automatically get these great jobs or get jobs. Well Mike often has said "a bachelors of business is like having your GED" .  Which has inspired him to get his sx sigma certification.  Well that has opened up a lot more opportunities but again he has found the want engineering degrees with that. Grrr! He was working as a process engineer at US Synthetic for about six months solving problems. He was doing a great job. They decided that because the real engineers relied on the process engineers and the techs so much that they would get rid of their positions. His pay didn't change but he got put back as a operator. He. Found himself not using his talents and hating what he was doing. Working long hours and we would never see him.  He went to this great company with amazing benefits with a dream to move up but basically got a promotion and in some people's eyes got demoted and is miserable again. Because there is such a line in the positions that come up not too many are available or it's really political. So back to the job market!!!

The job interviews! in two days he got 2 job interviews. One in Boise to be a quaility manager assistant which he would love. But the problem is moving again! Grrr. And.  The other in ogden such a hard decision because he would have to commute for a while but would he enjoy it? The people didnt seem very happy.  It would have to pay a lot for him to sacrifice the time and eventually move closer.  Also, another hard decision is my kids love their school. Haven is a candidate for the gifted program. Moving away and not giving him the opportunity to be in that would be really hard.  After the interview my car broke down . We are praying its nothing big but think it might be the transmission. Our trials never end. It's hard to have faith. And feel that The Lords will guide us to where we need to be. 

9 years on Saturday .....I told him not to go

9 years on Saturday my brother passed a way. I remember the day so clearly. It was a typical Idaho Spring in the month of April;  the wind was blowing ,  sunny a few clouds in the sky. I had to go to work for my 4 hours a day too Haven to grandpas. Then went to work  and  after work went back to grandpas to pick up Haven . My dad was just so excited to see his son Brian. ( which is my brother) he told me to wait for him he should be here any minute. I waited for about a half hour and decided I had better go. While I was there my dad expresses he didn't want to go on this hunting trip that my brother and my dad had planned right before my brother started his big career.  ( my brother had just finished up pro golf school and got a job at a great golf course in Montana. Him and his wife just had there first baby and they were finally going to live there dream)
Well as soon as I walked out the door I saw him and his dog Ali. He always gave the best hugs . I sure do miss those. I remover how excited he was for his job. I remember him telling me that if you are not doing something you love for work you shouldn't do it. I also remember telling him that my dad didn't want to go on the hunting trip and maybe they should just stay home. ( keep in mind my brother had drove from Arizona to Idaho non stop in one day) . He was really exhausted. I remember he showing me all of Ali's tricks he had taught her. She was their oldest kid. I left when home said good bye he said Happy Birthday . They went on there way and I got a phone call from my mom that there was an accident and my dad didn't know if my brother was ok. My husband called the hospital and they told us the news. It was really hard to tell your sister and your mom that your brother has passed. So many great memories about him though. Here is some pictures.

Our struggling new beginning

As everyone know I hate blogging so here is to my once a year post. Lol! I really just just need to start doing it.

 KIDS AND SCHOOL

 To start we have been here about 6 months now. It seems to get better everyday. The kids are going to Freedom Predatory Academy, charter school. I absolutely love that school. It's the only thing that has kept me here in provo. I will never forget when we got the call to get in. I had the worst feeling about the school that they were going to from day one of the moment I stepped foot in that school. Obviously it wasn't good they just found a bunch of six graders dealing drugs there about a week ago. Anyway, I was praying and praying wondering what to do. I kept looking at the website of freedom academy. They second day of school at Franklin elementary I decided to just go apply for Freedom and pray they will get in next year at least. I applied for every charter school from Lindon to Spanish fork. When I went to Freedom to apply they said I couldn't apply for next year yet but I could apply for this year but probably couldn't get in because there was a lot of people in front of us. So I did. My kids were in school for about a month. I cried when I got the call. I know god has a plan for us. They are doing so well getting all A's in school. Workin their butts off to do so. Haven was won the top speller in his class. he and 3 other kids got to compete in the second grade spelling bee where there was 12 kids. he lasted 3 out of the 5 rounds. i couldn't be prouder of him. he was so broken hearted. his word was "FATIGUE". i don't think he will ever for get how to spell that now. He was devastated. I told my self I never wanted another kid to be in the spelling bee. Miles is doing great also i just love both of their teachers. They are both doing a after school ceramics class. They are so happy when they get out of school to tell me what they have made. I hope they have a some of there dads and grandpas art talent because I am not an artist at all. Mickayla is just happy being with her new cat pickles. She plays with him constantly. He is so good with her and she loves him like her own baby. She is 3 now absolutely loves spongebob that's all she wants to watch (yes I let her watch it. judge me how you want) Mikes job is slowwwwly moving up and the raises are too. They finally got their buts in gear and gave in a rais. We were hoping for bigger but I am just greatful he got one and is getting another one in a month. He has decided to drop out of school for now and my hope forever. Things are looking up and the best part is he loves his job. The waiting game is my weekness. He has already went from operator to process engineer in 6 months so that is amazing. For the most part everyone is happy here. I have struggled a lot with the kids missing their friends. I remember when I was thinking "why do my kids have to play every day or can't they play somewhere else", of course we loved it but it got tiring. It's been very different. Not many little kids neighborhood especially lds ones. We really have become closer as a family. My kids do have a lot of homework so they don't play only the weekends.its been rough! We are probably staying in this house for another year. I have been not my self and emotional lately really missing my brother, sister, old neighbors, & friends Remembering a lot of the good times we had. My brother always made things so fun. He would never let You be mad at him if you tried. Having my sister so close for a few years was fun too. I miss her to now it seems I don't have anyone now. We really miss our old friends. We are grateful that we can still see the Stubbs once and a while. The thoughtful cards of in the mail of old friends and the great friends that we have found here. We are all just really busy busy busy. We will be glad when summer is here and we can play a little more :)

OUR STORY

 As you have notice it's has been really hard especially lately. People don't understand why we did it. Why we went from a high paying job to a job he was only making a 1/4 of what was make when he started at us synthetic. Sold our house ect. We were living the American dream right? (What your supposed to do) thinking we would just be in our starter house for a few years and by the time that happened....... Well actually didnt happen that way. We had to sell our house to better my husbands physical health, mental health, spirituality, and our marriage. We were very inspired about very decision we made. We had to choose god and family over money. Probably they hardest thing we have ever had to go through. Satan has really tried to tempted us to choose the other way! When we first moved here Sysco was trying to get him to come back and he would have made even more money. That would have been crazy! Sometimes I get so frustrated and not very humble. Sometimes I just want to be able to do the things we used to and get the things I don't "need". I am not very good at seeing the big picture like Mike is. I am so grateful for parents that have helped and supported us in our hard decision. We are really hoping and praying that his job now can pull into a position that will be everything we have been praying and hoping for. It for the most part already has. He used to work nights and Sundays which would limit church and family. We both could not have callings because of his schedule. We tried but it was too hard. Then we could never have family home evening or just have that quality family time. We have family home evening every Monday (my kids make sure of that) family prayer every night, I get to sleep in the same bed at the same time at night as my husband now. ( which was hard to get used to) our relationship has never been better as a couple and as a family. That's exactly what I wanted. Money can not bring that! I know our sacrifices will bring our family great joy.

DOING GOOD FOR OTHERS WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY

Since I know like 2 people in my ward I can tell everyone my yearly service goal. I have been really trying service at least one a month for someone. I usually babysit when someone asks or make someone that is having a bad day cookies or is sick. Not this month I got really excited over it because I got to go shopping. I bought 2 little girls in our ward new dresses. These girls wore the same dresses every Sunday and you could tell they started not to fit. With me as a good shopper of course found 2 really cute dress for cheap. Doing this has really helped my kids with service to and are recognizing it more especially after this one. I am grateful that I have made this goal. I always have seen those great people doing service for others all the time and I just hope someday I can be just a tiny bit of that great. Sorry everyone for such a boring blog my husband totally screwed it up so I could only download a few pictures.. He is suppose to fix it so maybe before another year goes by I will blog again.

Our Family Art Collection

A lot people know Mike grew up going to art shows; when we got married we started going to a few and I learned to love art. My favorite kind is glass, Mike likes sculpture and painting, but likes all kinds. We decided to start our own little collection...go figure that that a lot of it is Jim's pottery. Mike is so proud of his dad and is so partial when it comes to who is the best potter. Mike always checks out the paintings at D.I.

It helps that he knows many of the local artists and that his parents can wheel and deal for him.

Love in the mist Photograpy by Pamela Ann Hiar

Mike had this plate made for me. So the frogs represent us. This one is by Johnny Hughes

I couldn't read the name on this one but it is handmade it has a lot of different kinds of stones and beads in it.

A water color painting by I also could not read the name on this one.

This painting was actually found at DI by my husband I almost died when he brought it home. I thought it was so ugly. It had a really ugly frame on it. I took it off and found its beauty.
It's by Rehle E Higham

This is my favorite of Mikes dads. He gave this to me for my birthday one year. I absolutely love it by Jim Simister

We actually got to pick this bowl out for our wedding. By Ben Behunin

These last two bowls are mikes two favorite bowls of his dads. By Jim Simister

We also have few put away and it totes.