more pictures

I forgot to tell you that I added the other pictures from Celebrate Roanoke to Flickr. You can see them right here.

new new new!

Ok, so I finally broke down and got a flickr paid account. I switched my site back to Blogger. It works nicely. I haven't gotten all of my pictures on flickr that I want. That is going to take me a little bit. So, I hope you like the new template, its so fun!

My living room is all decorated for fall and so many people have been asking me to post pictures of the house, so while the living room is cute and super clean for once, here are a bunch of them!




I just realized Forest's hammer in that last one. That isn't part of my decor ;) I feel like my house is finally my home and I love the way the living room turned out. I'm sad it can't be fall all of the time, this is my absolute favorite decor for the holidays!

celebrate roanoke

Man I am such a slacker lately! Well, today was a fun day so I knew I had to sit down and post something about it.

Every year our great city of Roanoke has a celebration for the members of it's community, aptly named Celebrate Roanoke. They have several vendors giving away free things and information, food galore, fun things for the kids to do, etc.

I walked around with Grace for a while, avoiding the meltdown she sometimes has when her Mom is also with her sisters (she gets very jealous for some reason), although for the most part she was very good, even with the rest of the family there. Dal was off watching the UT/OU game in the morning (and UT won, yay!). On a side note, Forest had a terrible morning because the Cottonbowl (where they played today) is in Dallas, so it took him forever to get to work. Poor guy.

So, anyway, several booths had loads of candy and Grace can't eat chocolate or anything really gummy, so I thought I would try a Smartie. It touched her tongue for a nanosecond before she chucked it on the ground. I didn't think she would like it, but it was worth a shot! There was a huge tent that had several fun things to do, including caricatures, clowns, awesome balloon animals and spray-on tattoos. I was holding Grace to get hers and she looked at me with a look that said "please don't hurt me!". In the last few months every time she has been held still like that it's been so someone could inflict pain on her. She looked very cute with her little butterfly though. It stayed very well too, mine hasn't changed at all and Gracie kept whacking it with her slobbery hand, she must have thought it was quite strange. The older Grace gets, the more fun we have on outings. She finds more things fun and she seems more willing to explore new things, it's great. I took a few pictures, but the only one i have access too right now is this one:

I left my camera at Jennie's house (silly me), but I should have the rest tomorrow or Monday and I will upload them into an album.

Grace turned 6 last Wednesday and Jennie threw her a party at the Incredible Pizza Company, which is like a Game Works and a Cici's Pizza combined. I took Grace on the go-carts and she was beyond thrilled. She giggled the entire time, she was so excited. We played games and games and more games and all of our tickets combined got the girls some really fun things. Gracie also enjoyed the kids rides. I took a ton of pictures, you can find them right here!

I set up a better picture system at Flickr (still debating if I want to bite the bullet and get a paid account there...) and hopefully that won't crash a million times like my gallery was. I would get it perfect and some silly file somewhere would get corrupted. Very frustrating. It might eliminate my need to pay for server space and Flickr is much cheaper too!

We've had a productive few weeks and they have been fun. I have a lot of fun with Grace, as you can probably see. Today we went home and were relaxing and I was watching SNL from last weekend, pretty much just to see the Killers play. Their second song was called "Spaceman" from their new album and Grace just loves that song! She was laughing and bouncy throughout the whole thing. I guess the Dendys have another Killers fan :)

i love to see the temple, i'm going there someday

I just didn't know it was going to take this long for me to do it!

After many years of waiting and essentially dragging our feet, Forest and I are finally ready to enter the Temple. It's been an interesting road but we both completely understand what we are committing to and we want to do it for us. It has been very exciting these last few months with preparing and learning. Like any girl, the most fun thing as of lately is picking out my Temple dress. I can't wait to be all dressed in white and sit with my husband and finally be properly joined with him. We have had a lot of adversity since we've been married and I know that everything has been done to keep us from going. Once we finally got down to the bar and decided to make huge changes to prepare, things changed for us. We have been blessed beyond measure this year and I know the blessings will continue.

We have decided to take out our endowments at the Dallas Temple on November 7th. This particular date is very special to us. November 6th, 1943 was the day my maternal grandparents were married. November 8th, 1996 was the day that my Grandpa went back to live with our Heavenly Father. I was very close with him and I know he will be smiling down on us that day. We will have a special day to remember in between a good day and a not so good day. Anyone in the Dallas area is welcomed to join us, it is during our Ward Temple Night actually. We are so excited to share this day with everyone who can be there with us.

As for our Sealing, we haven't decided on the exact day but of course we are only able to invite a few friends to come with us. It will be during the Christmas Holidays, while my parents are here visiting us. We are beyond excited and I know so many people have been cheering us on for so many years. Thank you for not giving up on us and helping us reach this goal. It's been amazing.

addicted to facebook

I have found all sorts of people using Facebook this week (thanks a lot, Jennie). I think Melissa and I and I'm sure a few others need to start a FBAA (Facebook Addict's Anonymous) Club, because I'm addicted! It's so exciting to meet up with old friends and see where they are. I have to wonder though, what made us lose contact in the first place? My excuse is moving to the other side of the country. That will make it hard for people to find you! Well, I have to drag myself away from the wonders of FB and go get Grace and Lex from school!

trypophobia

When I was around 10, I remember standing outside at recess and noticing a tree. Around the tree were several small holes in the dirt. I was completely freaked out by this. I couldn't stop starting at it though, as uncomfortable as I felt. I grabbed a stick and poked the ground, messing up all of the holes. It was the only way that I felt better!

My Grandmother used to have lotus seed pods in several of her flower arrangements. They completely irked me, I felt like my skin was crawling whenever I saw them. I never really said anything because I thought it was so absurd. I wanted to crush those suckers into dust!

Anything that has many asymmetrical holes in a cluster makes me feel like this. I cannot stand honeycomb, even looking at videos of beehives. About a year ago we were watching Spongebob at the Dendy's and "The Suds" episode came on, where Spongebob gets sick and eventually plugs up all of his holes with corks. I thought I was going to die. The problem is though, the trigger for me is like a train wreck, as much as I want to look away, I have to STARE at it! I stare at it until I can't stand it anymore and I feel terribly uncomfortable. That episode came on the other day and before the corks came, I vacated the room. I am still mildly uncomfortable about Spongebob in general. It didn't dawn on me until that episode that he was full of holes! AH!

I avoid the flower arrangement sections during the fall, because I know that the lotus seed pods will be out in full force! The other day I got bored, so I was looking on snopes.com in the pictures section. One was of this "breast rash" in which someone had apparently had maggots growing in their breast. The thought of that didn't even phase me at all and I knew ahead of time that it was fake anyway. The picture was superimposed but the pattern of the rash was like a lotus seed pod. I had just seen something else that was *real* and actually much worse, but that *fake* picture sent me through the roof.

I thought for sure I was the only nut with this problem, no one else could be so trivial about something so silly. But, I'm not alone! It's called trypophobia and apparently several people suffer from it, some much worse than I do. I can usually get over the trigger in a few minutes and if any feeling is residual (I am still getting over that rash picture) I can still function even if I do feel a bit irked out. Out of all things to be afraid of, I'm afraid of small holes!

I'm sure not many people know this about me and talking about it seems easier now that I know there is a name for it and that I'm not the only one who suffers from it. I think it's probably one of the silliest phobias you can have and I'm glad I can laugh about it and get through it without too much trouble!

the 2 just doesn't work

I have discovered that the 2 on my keyboard does not work. I can use the 2 on the number pad, but that won't make the "at" symbol for e-mailing! The "D" also does not work part of the time. We have 5 other keyboards in this house, but this seems to be the one my husband likes best and insists on using. I do have my own computer, with the keyboard that I love, but it's in our spare bedroom. Our spare "oom" has no light fixture nor a ceiling fan, so it gets rather dark and hot in there. We bought a new ceiling fan for our bedroom so we are going to move the old one into that room and install the new one in our bedroom. Hopefully that will cool that room off! Then I can finally have a keyboard that won't malfunction.

It is very early in the morning, nearly 3 am. I am supposed to be up in 3 and a half hours to get Grace ready for school. I have had a really bad few weeks. My Uncle's passing has been very hard for me and my family. I have been an emotional wreck. Nearly two weeks ago I started feeling out of sorts. It was more than just my normal fibromyalgia outbursts because it was affecting my mood as well. The girls started school last week and I got up every day at 6:30. I did just fine, but I was coming home and sleeping until 1! I finally figured out what the problem was and after the week I have had I am almost certain that I had a miscarriage. Nearly the same thing happened 2 years ago, but this time the pain was more of a major concern than anything else. Friday night I couldn't do anything to feel better and I woke Forest up at 3 am. I was in tears it was so terrible. I was crying uncontrollably, I completely broke down mentally. It was an extremely strange feeling. I used to be prone to panic attacks and the last time I remember having one was in 2002, just before I met Forest. This was by far the worst one I've ever had. The pain stopped almost completely by Saturday morning, but I didn't end up working, I slept all day and on Sunday as well. I felt immensely better on Monday and have felt better everyday since. I am still taking naps after I get home in the morning but they aren't very long. I can't figure out why I'm not sleeping tonight. I have tried everything and nothing is working! I am notorious for not having a very good sleeping schedule and I know whacked out hormones aren't going to help that. I am hoping that next week I can really work on that and get all the sleep I need before I need to get up in the morning.

I really feel like I did miscarry, I can just feel it in my heart. I will probably never know if I really did or not and I would rather not know for sure. It's heartbreaking to lose something that special. I have wanted to have a child since the day we were married but I knew it was going to be a long, hard battle and I am fine with that. When the time is right, it will happen. For right now, I am glad that Jennie doesn't have to search for another care giver for Grace. I can't imagine finding someone I would approve to be good enough for her! ;)