Basket Case? YES!!

With Annie having a boyfriend I am a basket case! She's barely 13 years old, her text messages to him refer to "Handsome" or "Prince Charming" and they always have "I love you" or "I love you soooo much" or "I miss you!" Am I going crazy?!?! I don't think I had a boyfriend at this age that I talked to let alone wrote love you messages! AND the cutesy name thing is killing me! I'm soooo thankful that he moved to Virginia but I wonder what kind of closure is this going to leave her with when they "break up"? And then I look back on my experiences and think I wasn't much older then she is when I met Darrell (I keep telling myself I was WAY older, but almost 16 is less then 3 years older then she is now!) MY KIDS ARE GROWING UP WAY TOO FAST!!! And they think I'm lame! What happened to those sweet little girls that adored me and didn't want anything more then to spend time with me and Darrell? When did they stop believing that boys were bad? And what happened to our family rule, NO BOYFRIENDS UNTIL YOU'RE 30?!?!? I can't deal with boyfriends, this is going to kill me!

I miss the days when all she wanted to do was love on Pooh!

The first day of school! Precious!!

And the days when it was hard to whistle! (Shawna doesn't have a boyfriend yet, thank goodness!)

I'm stil trying to pound into this ones head that boys are bad!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today is my wonderful hubbys birthday! I know he'll never read this blog but I just wanted to shout out and say how much I love this wonderful man! He is such a good husband! Who would have thought that when we started dating our Sophmore year of High School that we'd have made it this long! Guess I knew what I was doing (or he did!) I get to see the best side of him! He's always so tuff and gruff around people but I've seen him tear up watching "What a girl wants" and cuddling with our kids when they need a hug. Darrell is by far the more patient parent of the 2 of us! He's such a good daddy for our girls! He's kind and caring and he tries to keep me from loosing my temper too often (which is an amazing feat!) He works so hard and I give him such grief for the long hours he sometimes keeps. He takes pride in his work and he's successful at what he does! He loves his family! He's so close to his Mom (hard not to be when she's such a wonderful woman! Thanks to her I have this fabulous man!!) and he tries to keep in touch with his Dad which isn't always an easy task! His brothers all know they can count on Darrell if they need anything, and even though we don't get together often, when we do you'd never know that they don't see eachother every day because they're all so close! Darrell is truly a good man, I'm so blessed that he picked me to live his life with and I love him with all my heart! Happy Birthday Honey! I LOVE YOU!!!

Food for Fattys!!

I'm living through recipes and pictures! These are DELICIOUS!! My sister asked for this recipe and I had to oblige, however, don't bring them to my house!



HOMEMADE OREO COOKIES

1 devil's food cake mix (any cake mix will use, lemon is good too!)
1/2 c. shortening
2 eggs
Mix the above ingredients together. Roll the dough into dime-sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool cookies.


FROSTING:
8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 square butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 to 4 c. powdered sugar
Mix all of frosting ingredients until smooth. You can also use premade frosting found in the cake section of the grocery store, it's just as good! Frost BACKS of cookies and place together to make sandwich cookie.

Working Out!

I've worked out 2 days in a row! Killed more then 600 calories each day and I'm feelin' pretty good about myself! I've been keeping my food log and yesterday I killed more calories working out then what I ate for breakfast and lunch combined! That's pretty awesome! My muscles are really sore (Thanks Raylnne for kicking my butt yesterday!) but I didn't let that stop me from going this afternoon! I can't wait for Monday when I hit the gym again!

I'm gonna do it!

I'm so tired of being overweight, of feeling bad when I eat, of letting myself down because I stood on the scale and again it's not changing (or it's changing towards the wrong end!) I'm tired of taking blood pressure medicine and aspirin. I'm tired of getting naked and feeling like I need to hide my body from my husband because I hate the way I look! I'm tired of putting on pants that are too small because I can't bear buying another pair of bigger ones! I've done it before, lost 20 pounds and then I jumped back to where I am now, I don't know why, just laziness?!?! It's frustrating to see, and I'm tired of being the example I am to my kids! Today is the day! I'm making the change! I'm going to meet with my trainer today at 4pm, I'm going to work my butt off (and hopefully some of my stomach and thighs and arms and back fat and I can go on and on!) and I'm keeping a food log of every single thing I stick in my mouth! Today I'm gonna do it! I'm on my way to losing weight but most importantly I'm on my way to feeling better about myself and the example I'm setting for my kids!

Easter for Teens!

What does the Easter Bunny bring for young teenage girls?!?!

Lots of fun stuff! Since the girls got their new beds and are going to get new paint (SOON I HOPE!) I guess the Easter Bunny thought it would be fun to bring Scentsy! The girls each got a warmer from the raised dot collection, Annie's is black and Shawna's is blue

and they got 3 scent bricks each! Summer is coming and since we live sooo close to Jordan Landing I guess the Easter Bunny thought they could walk on over! He brought gift cards for

Rumbi (1 of the girls favorite lunch spots!)

and Jamba Juice!

YUMMY!

They also got ITunes gift cards, lip balm and stuff. Last but not least they got lots of gum,

a little bit of jelly beans and a Reester Bunny!

Our morning was nice, we slept in and when we could finally coax Darrell out of bed the girls went through their baskets, found the hidden eggs, and we ate breakfast together. We got ready for the day and went to Layton to spend some time with the "Doughnut Boy" and Brock (who I might start calling veggie head just so we can get a good food group theme going!) and then we headed to Grandma Marilyn's for Easter dinner!

It was a great day!

Teens!

Today we officially start the teen years at the Byers household! Annie turns 13! When I look back at the day she was born it was such a time of excitement! She came 4 weeks early and weighed in at a healthy 6 pounds 8 ounces! She had a Marge Simpson head, all long and pointy, and it scared my mom to death! The entire day was busy with family and friends but the most special part of the day was after everyone left, it was me, Darrell and our new baby girl. He was sitting in the chair in the corner of my hospital room when he looked up at me after studying her for a bit and said "Isn't she's the coolest thing ever!" I replied yes she is and it hit me that we were truly a family! I am so proud of my beautiful Annie! She is kind and thoughtful, people gravitate towards her because she has such a wonderful spirit and she's fun to be around! She knows who she is and doesn't let others influence her negatively! She is growing into a beautiful young lady and I'm excited to see what the future holds for her! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIE! I love you!!

Here piggy piggy

We aren't hunters, Darrell's been a couple times and has always been successful, we just don't enjoy the "thrill of the kill" or cooking venison when we can buy beef.
Having said that though, I am soooo proud of my hubby! He recently got a bow and went hunting with a group of guys for pig and look what he got!! 1 shot, the pig took a step and toppled over! The meat from this bad boy is sooo delicious too (nothing like scary bacon!) I've made several pork roasts, bacon, sausage (which is to die for and I don't even like sausage!) and tonight I'll be making ham steak with cheesy potato skillet! YUM YUM YUM! It's nice to know if there's ever a disaster and we have to depend on Darrell for our meat he can get it with a gun or a bow and arrow! Plus, he just looks HOT in camo!

Mrs Byers?!?!

I don't know what I've done to get myself in this position but tomorrow and friday I will be teaching at the middle school! ME, TEACHING!!! It's all day 7 different classes and I'm starting to scare myself silly with all the senarios running through my head! I hope the teacher I'm covering for realizes I'm just a mom and has me put in a good video or something so I don't have to do much! My luck, I might be subing for a Geometry teacher who thinks I'm proficient in teaching plygons and angles (I'm totally not!)

Wish me luck! Those little punks don't know what they're in for (or I don't! One of us will be surprised!)