Belated Anniversary Gift.

Way back in August, I made the mistake of mentioning to Darcy that I had an idea for a gift that I wanted to give she and Michael for their anniversary. Now, I say "made the mistake" because she literally didn't let up on me for all these months! I mean, pestering me weekly about it. "Where's my gift?", "What's the hold up on my special surprise?", "Geez, how long does it take to make this damn thing?", "You're a stay at home mom. What's the deal with this thing?". You know ... statements like that. It bordered on torturous. At one point, I made another mistake and randomly sent her a framed photo of my family and she was so excited (thinking her suprise had finally arrived). Well she was quickly brought back to reality when she realized it was "just a framed photo of the Butler's" (her words ... I kid you not). Anyhoo ... long story short. I finally got around to making the dang thing, and I even mailed it to her, so I thought I would show it here. I think she liked it quite a lot. She said she did (I hope she did). And on a side note I should clarify: she never pestered me. :) She waited patiently and I was such a lagger (sorry, Darcy!)

Sizzler.

Dang. So Shawn and I had lunch today. He decided on Sizzler. Kind of a random choice, but I thought okay, yeah, I used to love their Malibu Chicken. You know the breaded chicken patty with the ham and melted cheese on top? Yeah that. So we went. And I ordered the Malibu Chicken and he ordered steak and broccoli. He's trying to stay away from major carbs (kind of an Atkins thing). Well, I'll tell you what. I quickly realized why it's been over 10 years since I've been to a Sizzler. It's gross. No two ways about it. Nasty. With a capital "N".

Good fortune.

Bailey's school has mini days the last Wednesday of each month. On those Wednesdays it's quite common for she and I to go to lunch. The last few months we have also invited Lauren along, which we did yesterday. The girls decided on Prime Wok, a little Chinese place that has decently good food. The highlight of Chinese food, of course, is the fortune cookie. I don't know why this is. They really don't taste all that great, but I guess the surprise of finding out your fortune for the day is relatively exciting. Especially for kids. Anyway, I found myself with two memories of fortune cookies:

1. Our friends, Tom and Amanda, had told us once that they always added the words "in bed" to the end of each fortune they ever got. So, in my little brain, I always add those two little words when I read a fortune cookie. I know. I know. Tom and Amanda need to get their heads out of the gutter. Haha. So with Bailey's fortune above, it would read "welcome change in bed". Here's a few more examples: "find beauty in ordinary things ... in bed", "something you lost, will soon turn up ... in bed", "a pleasant surprise is in store for you ... in bed", "good luck is the result of good planning ... in bed". Anyway, as you can see it's actually quite funny, so I thought I'd share it with you.


2. My other memory relates to my kids. When they were little and could not read yet, they would ask me to read them their fortune. So I would get a kick out of changing it to read something that always related to me or Shawn or their life in general. You know ... "your Mom loves you more than anything", "your Dad's favorite thing is a hug from you", "keep up the great work at Rail Ranch Elementary", "you have the best mom in the world". You get the idea.

Two Wolves.

I read this today. And liked it. (Not sure of the author).

One evening an elderly Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Carcerys Vale Video, Part 2

Celebrating Grandma Joan

We spent several hours at The Bamert's today to celebrate Mom's 70th birthday and crazy enough ... these are the only photos I took. I know. I'm weird like that. I knew that Tiffany had their new pig for the fair and I told Bailey, let's go take some pictures of the pig. She quickly decided that "no" she really didn't need any pictures of the pig. Haha. She instead decided to take some of their dogs. Perhaps she'll get those posted on her blog? Anyway, we had a wonderful time being with family and eating a delicious mexican meal. Can I just say that Joan makes killer guacamole and the chunkiest, most delicious salsa I think I've ever tasted? I think I could have just eaten that with chips and been perfectly happy. But then Tiffany had to go and make this awesome shredded pork and a very snazzy and flavorful cold rice salad, so we (I) then went overboard on dinner. We're so grateful to have been able to spend time with everyone today.

10,446

Because I love to put a picture with a post, I present to you: Austen, self portrait, 9/2006.

So .... back to the number above: 10,446. Wondering what that might be? Well, I'll tell ya. Our Verizon bill arrived yesterday, and the monthly amount never really changes, except when the boys get sneaky and buy a game or ring back tone. Thankfully, that doesn't happen often, and when it does, well ... they just have to pay me for those charges. No biggie. Anyway, back to the number. For some strange reason, I found myself curious about the number of texts the boys send/receive in a month. Again, our monthly dollar amount never changes, as we have unlimited text messaging. Kale had a whopping 2,996 and I had 488. Which when you really think about it ... I only text Austen, Kale, Darcy, Shawn (sometimes), Alexa (rarely) and my friend Adrianne about carpooling (also rarely) so that seemed like a high number for me. But here's the kicker: Austen had 10,446 for the month. That's 348 texts PER DAY. And let's assume he has about 16 hours per day to text (and eat and be at school and do homework and well ... you get the idea) .. that would translate to about 22 texts per hour. I don't know if I should be impressed or annoyed. I mean, he is still an excellent student, plays sports and has the band. I guess if it's not interfering with life in general, and it's not costing me anything, then what's the harm, right?

Well, then I was wondering. Gosh, this whole text messaging phenomenon ... does that create less-sociable kids, or people in general? Do they stop conversing like normal people? So, then I checked their minutes used and apparently Austen still finds time to talk on the phone, too. He used 972 minutes, Kale used 246 and I used 399. Interesting.

Happy Birthday Grandma Joan!

Grandma Joan turned 70 today (Valentine's Day). The pictures above are from a nice little surprise dinner/birthday party that her neighborhood friends held for her last night. (we weren't there, she just sent the pics for us to see). Such loving and wonderful friends she has. We will get to see her and celebrate next weekend at Tiff and Buzz's. We are looking forward to that.

Also, Happy Hearts Day, of course. We just hung around the house today. Our very favorite thing to do. I scrapbooked with Bailey, the boys did myspace, Shawn took a nap, and the guys are now watching the All-Star Shoot-Out Basketball thingy. For dinner, I bbq'd steak and made baked potatoes. Good stuff. I also baked a berry pie, which I'm planning to go enjoy right now with some vanilla ice cream. I had to chuckle. Earlier in the week, I made it over to See's candy. I decided that I'd get Shawn a heart full of chocolates, and also get the kids some little things. That stuff is expensive! So, being my frugal self, I got the kids these small $5.00 hearts and I got Shawn a decent size $20-ish heart. I thought I did pretty good. Haha. This morning, I come down, and Shawn had the same idea about the See's candy. Only he got me the heart that was twice the size of the heart I got him (figures!)

This week so far.

1. Monday: no school for the kids. I always love an extra day off from school, and I don't even go to school (haha), so I can imagine the kids love the break. We had lunch at Kazoku and I took Austen to the doctor. He's been sick for months.
2. Tuesday: We found out that Austen has mono. I don't know that he's had mono this whole time (I sure hope not), but he just hasn't gotten better. After Mom suggested we have blood work done, and Dad wondered if he could have mono (good call, Dad!), I urged the doctor to have some blood taken. He seemed reluctant, because Austen didn't have some of the typical symptons of mono (enlarged spleen and swollen lymph nodes), but I really pushed for it. I mean, geez ... he has every other symptom: sore throat, fever, weight loss, extreme fatigue. So the blood work was done on Monday. Thankfully, his CBC came back perfectly normal, but he tested positive for mono. Doctors really annoy me sometimes.
3. Wednesday: Kale had his very first singing lesson. Woohoo! He will go once a week, for a half hour and then he's expected to practice all week. Austen came home early from school.
4. Today: Austen stayed home to rest.

Another page.

Not a great picture. The color in person is so much richer and prettier. Oh well. You get the idea. The paper behind the large photo is a gorgeous textured raised velvet type paper. Good stuff.

Busy little scrapbooker.

Because I no longer scrapbook chronologically, I really never feel behind. This is such a good feeling, especially when weeks or months go by, and I scrapbook absolutely nothing at all. Haha. But, wow. This weekend I was on a creative roll and I made several pages. I was feeling mighty good about that and thought I'd share just a few here:

Oh my. Is this the cutest darn thing? Who are these people? Seriously. It's almost like looking at the wedding picture of Shawn and I. Really. Who are they? Teehee. Just kidding of course. This is from about January 1996 (of course I had to ask Darcy, because I could not remember specifically). You know how I roll.

Oohhh. So cute. Just had to do a page about our love for Charlie the Caterpillar. One of the best books of all time. No lie.

This is from Thanksgiving 2007. See what I mean about the beauty of not scrapbooking chronologically? It does not matter to me one bit that this is from 2007, and the page about Darcy's family is from 1996. Nope. I'm just going to stick them in their proper album and be on my merry way.

Let's see ... what else did I get done? Six pages about a little camping trip we took with Grandma and Grandpa Butler in August 2001. Yes, 2001. The kids looked like babies. Almost. Well, Bailey was only two-ish, so she really was still a baby.

Google

I picked up this rather funny coaster at Outback Steakhouse a few years ago. I just thought it was the funniest thing. Anyway, when you Google Kristen Butler, thankfully, nothing comes up relating to me. I think that's a good thing, for sure. But now a days, when you Google Carcerys Vale, what do you think happens? Stuff actually comes up. Who knew? Anyway, thought that was rather impressive. Along with the fact that yesterday, 2/9/2009, they had just over 1,000 plays on their myspace. Yes, I said one thousand. Each of their three songs posted on myspace has been played a minimum of 10,000 times. Yes, I said ten thousand. For a total of something like 30,130 total plays. Crazy and impressive.

be funky.

So, I ran across this neat site: be funky. While there, you can upload a photo and then change it up with a variety of artsy techniques, with just the click of a button. Here's some samples, using the photo above. This is just a small sampling of what's available on the site. I had some fun there.

This is called Scribbler in a purple tone.

This is called Sunburst.This is called Scribbler in a gold tone.This is called Stenciler.This is called Cartoonizer.

15 years ago today ...

We were in Las Vegas getting married. Wow. Of course, we were lucky to have the important people in our lives with us that day. First and foremost, Austen. Our little dude was 13 months old at the time. Secondly, Kale. Well, he was sort of there. Ha. I was pregnant with him. Then, Mom and Dad on both sides, Pat, Darcy, Nathan, Brandon, Tiffany, Buzz and Auntie Avril. And then three people who are no longer with us, and missed dearly: Grandma Lorraine, Uncle Rollie and Uncle Bob. How lucky and blessed we were to have all those people there to celebrate with us.

Today, it's amazing and wonderful and crazy to think we've been married for 15 years. How cool is that? Of course, we've known each other about 27 years. Now, that's crazy. And all of a sudden, I feel extremely old. Haha. It's all good. So, amidst all the craziness that is our life today, and has been at times, Shawn has always been my constant, steady rock. I love this man more today than in the beginning, and I can't wait to see what the next 15 years holds for us.

Carcerys Vale Video, Part 1

CARCERYS VALE PROMO VIDEO

This is video taken from the Lodi Show. The guys had a friend video tape the entire thing, with two cameras. He then edited it, to combine both views (close-up and distance) to make kind of a cool little video. He also included some behind-the-scenes stuff. Take a look.