The Next Best Thing to Winning 10 Grand

There are few things to do where we live. So last night instead of clubbing or doing the bar scene (cause no one wants to see me dance in public) we went to one of the local casinos. I don't gamble. I don't have the gift. Everyone in my family does tho. My older sister can literally walk into a casino, feel directed to one specific machine and put in one dollar and then win 3 grand. It's really irritating.

The most I've ever won is when I go with my aunt. She likes to have company, and since I never have any money, she hands be $20 to gamble with. I put the money in my pocket and then walk around for ten minutes and then return to tell her that it's all gone. She hands me another twenty and I walk around for a little while longer. Ultimately I still leave the casino with at least forty bucks. It's a win win situation.

So when I walked into the casino last night, I wasn't expecting anything good to really happen. We went there with one of hubby's new co-workers and his girlfriend to have dinner at the buffet there. It was great conversation. Great new friends.

We went into the sports bar just to get away from all the noise, to sit down and just relax, sipping water (cause we don't drink). The girl (Tish) went out to gamble and soon won $130 dollars. Then about ten minutes later she called saying she needed more money. I couldn't believe someone lost that much money so fast, but I knew how people gamble sometimes, after all, I spent one weekend a month in Vegas for about 3 years of my life when we lived in California (only a 2 hour drive to Vegas.)

A few minutes later, hubby's co-worker (Billy) came back to the table, his hands shaking.

"She . . . she just won ten thousand dollars."

We spent the next hour standing around machines while security guards congratulated our friends and she bounced around with glee. It was a very happy thing to be around. They took her picture, and had like three managers unlock the machine to print out a ticket and then she went with a bunch of people, including a guy who looked like he owned (or at least ran) the place into the back room where they were supposedly putting the money into bags for her.

"Have them put it in large sacks with dollar bill signs on it!" Matt said.

Her fiance grinned and said, "All I want is a new TV and rims for my car." His girl laughed, shook her head and then said, "New boyfriend? Need a new boyfriend right here." I nudged Matt towards her, heh.

There's something really exciting about being around someone when they win money. I'm the type of person that can't go into a Target before Christmas because it's full of angry spouses, debt ridden people, tense parents and screaming children. I can feel the stress moving in the air like some poisoned fog.

Last night was really nice for me. Being around such a happy and excited person. I'm really happy for my new friend.

"We'll have to do this again," She said and then laughed.

"Hey, maybe we're your lucky charms." I grinned. "I'm not above dancing an Irish jig every now and then if it helps my friends win money."

25 Things That Make Me Kinda Awesome

 

1. I can make homemade bread
2. I am devoted to my faith
3. I have a good memory
4. I love to laugh
5. I can sing
6. I am a creative person
7. I take pride in my home
8. I strive to better myself daily
9. I graduated college
10. I stand up for my beliefs
11. I can wear red lipstick
12. I am the shoulder that others cry on
13. I make the best Thanksgiving turkey ever
14. My husband is envied because of me
15. I help others everyday of my life
16. I teach Sunday School, and I love it
17. I am a writer
18. I have great taste in men
19. I can deal with big stresses so others don't have to
20. I am a caregiver
21. I can touch my tongue to my nose
22. I can blend in with almost any crowd
23. I have desires for the future
24. My eyes change colours
25. I have not lost touch with my culture
    

13 Things To Do While Reading Twilight

When You Can Live Forever . . . Why Can't You Live With Me?

My friends CJ and Tiffany have not read Twilight yet. This bothers me, and I've bothered them, enough that they've both agreed it just needs to be done. They must read it. So I've decided to put together a list of tips for them (and anyone else) who has not yet read the books.

1. Make meals ahead of time with labeled instructions. Once you put one book down, you instinctively pick up another and your family will starve until you finish Breaking Dawn.
2. Give a little extra love to your hubby before you begin the books. Cause you'll either be too busy to pay any attention to him over the next few days, and if you DO pay him any attention, he'll assume it's because you're thinking about Edward.
3. Don't think about Edward.
4. Unless hubby calls you Bella, then it's totally fine.
5. Don't force him to call you Bella.
6. Wearing a name tag that says "Hi My Name is Bella" is appropriate.
7. Check your heater before you begin. I thought mine was broken every night from 6pm-1am until I finished Breaking Dawn and then realised that I was just over heating, heh, ahem.
8. Go watch the movie.
9. Overlook the cheesyness of it all. It's a teen romance for crying out loud. I used to watch Pretty in Pink!
10. When you're finished with everything, come back here and tell me how much you loved the books!
11. If you didn't like it, then go tell someone else (or read it again until you do), cause I don't need my buzz killed.
12. Blog about Twilight like a freak.
    
13. Once you've accepted your fate as a Twilight fan, read all of Stephenie Meyers extras, go looking for Twilight gear, and think about getting a Lion/Lamb tattoo, head over to Twilight Continues where I'm writing the 5th book myself.

 

For more Thirteen Thursday, head over to Happy to Be At Home.

Dating is Better With Age . . . Like Cheese . . . and Children

Who wouldn't date this man? Especially when he's all sexified and rolling his eyes at me. I get all hot and bothered just thinking about his sarcasm.

So seriously, how come whenever you get married, you stop dating? It seems kinda natural to be honest. Why do you need to date? You won, right? Dating is what supposedly leads up to all the good stuff. Not sex you perverts, MARRIAGE. Of course marriage includes sex . . .  sometimes. I digress.

The hubby and I try to go out as often as possible. Whether it's a formal date to a concert or steak house, or just a day out with some friends at an awesome Thai buffet joint, we're always together. Sure we don't have kids, but guess what? Our friends do, and they date. So I'm sick of all the frickin' excuses that married people have for not setting a regular date night and giving it a go on the town.

Still have excuses? Of course you do. But there's no pity parties at Color Me Untypical! So head over to Happy to Be at Home and find out how to get over your excuses and get your date on!

LolCat Understands My Blog Layout Better Than I Do

As you can see, my blog layout has been changed once again. I'm very picky, and usually around the time that someone (see: April and Amy) compliment me on my layout, I must immediately change it. I'm a rebel.

Besides, Amy doesn't count because she actually created the last layout (and this one) and I just tweak them until they look a bit less perfect.

And April doesn't count cause she has more followers than I do.

PS: In the process of changing layouts, the strange Blogger version of CommentLuv decided to delete a lot of everyone's comments. So I went through and tried to re-add them on but only got like the last 20 comments that posted. So that either can piss you off, or give you plenty of incentive to go back and re-read all the things I've babbled about previously. Yay babbles!

Cause I'm Just Sad Like That

Please keep in mind that I didn't have a blog when I went through my Xena and Buffy obsessions, so you'll just have to either give in and celebrate Twilight with me, or pray to God that it's a phase and I'll get over it. Until that day comes, you'll be exposed to painfully crazy stuff like this:




You can purchase this button here.

Strange Things That Come Out of My Husbands Mouth

My friend Debilyn is doing a thing at her blog featuring quotes from other blogs. So while looking back through old blog posts, I began to notice that most of the strange quotes on here has been things that my husband has said. So in honor of my sexy weirdo . . . I'm featuring the top 5 Matt quotes thus far!


5. "Cute. Like Liza Minnelli's chubby cousin." (In response to me asking how I looked.)
He Said What?!

4. "That's not a medical word. Femur is a female lemur. And a male lemur is a Hemur. I saw them at the zoo. They'd know."
The Leg Bone's Connected to the Tree Dwelling Nocturnal Primate

3. "So I saw the most beautiful woman today but I can't remember where. I didn't make her up, I saw her. She wasn't at work. She wasn't dead on the side of the road." (A text message that eventually lead up to a picture of my he had on his phone.)
I Wonder If He Knows I'm Blogging This Right Now

2. "Don't take it off! It's a purple post-it, I've filed you under L for Love." (After sticking a post it on my during a nap.)
L for Love

1. "I'm a phone socks operator."
Socks is a Dirty Word

and as a bonus . . . .

"My mouth has been hemorrhoid free for just under a year."
Don't You Hate it When . . .

Marriage: Like Sticking a Fork in a Toaster . . . Cause of the Sparks . . . Not the Pain . . . . Or Possible Death

I'm often baffled when I hear my friends, family members or perfect strangers complain about losing the spark in their marriage. Sure the initial love tingles that come along with finding someone new eventually fade, but that doesn't mean that the love boat has sunk!

The tingles come so easily at first. When hubby and I first met, it was forbidden love. We had been dating each others best friends for crying out loud, and then when those relationships dissolved , we found ourselves in each others arms! He was a good Mormon boy (well, not that good at the time) and I was a practicing Wiccan. Not to mention, he wasn't allowed to date in the first place. Everything about our love was forbidden, rebellious, and made for such good teen angst!

But the forbidden love turned into pancakes together at midnight, and the teen angst turned into Sunday mornings at Church together, and all the drama turned into watching Biggest Loser together every Tuesday night. It sounds terribly boring in comparison right? Well I think that's the problem with marriage.

We so often compare marriage now to how it was then, but marriage changes, just as we ourselves change. The point is, that it takes effort. The tingles make life easy, and as much fun as it would be to carry those around forever, the chances are unlikely if you just expect it to happen.

So how do you make it happen then? In little but very significant ways. Check out Happy to be at Home to read my latest article, 10 Tips on Keeping the Spark Alive, or At Least Not Killing It.

The Bloggosphere Doesn't Know How to Count!

So we despite the fact that I myself have issues with counting, my friend April's 100th post celebration has me under the assumption that 100 posts equals at least 100 followers. I'm feeling a little ripped off here. I mean don't get me wrong, I appreciate the 17 followers that just happen to be the greatest people alive, and I'm certain these numbers have nothing to do with the fact that April constantly gives away free stuff on her blog . . . like all the time. Like now for instance.

And since this post is already about April, I thought I'd feature her for the new weekly carnival at 5 Minutes for Mom called Say it Forward, where bloggers can show some love for their loyal commenters. So join up with 5 Minutes for Mom every Friday and feature one of your loyal commenters.

So aside from her unfair blogging math, April is an awesome chica. She happens to have a great name to, it's almost as if she was born to have an easily made blog title: April Showers. She blogs at April Showers where she gives away free stuff, offers customized blog layouts, headers and buttons cheaper than anywhere I've seen . . . seriously, it's a steal!

She also blogs as Media Molly over at my community site, Modern Molly Mormon.

April is a good friend, the type of friend where you're so different sometimes that maybe you shouldn't be friends if you were all uptight or something. But since we're totally loose (there has to be a better way to say that) April and I get along just fine. We vote for different Presidents, go different routes for weight loss, and she was in a Sorority while I worked at McDonalds (which let's face it, is pretty much exactly like a Sorority) but April is still a cool chica in my book.

So Rock on Sistah-Friend!

Now everyone go and get free stuff from April cause she's giving it away like cardboard boxes on craiglist. And then give her some comment love, give me some comment love, and then go over to 5 Minutes for Mom and see other commenters who've been properly loved.

Twilight Consumes Me

So it turns out that Emos didn't ruin Twilight for me after all. Most people have at least heard of Stephenie Meyer, in fact my friend April is related to her! But for the longest time I refused to read the books myself. However, I have resolved to join with my husband in more of his hobbies, one of which is reading. I'm a non-fiction reader, and it's a rare occasion that I'll pick up a book that has any resemblance of a story involved.

However, I picked up Twilight, and in the space of three days, read all 4 books. I succumbed to all 2,491 pages and left my house in array and my family starving. Okay well I'm kidding about the last bit, but I did find myself engulfed in the world of Twilight for quite some time. Despite critisism from friend, foe and stranger, I was quickly reminded of high school, feelings that had been long since burried or forgotten, and also my love for stories was woken. Not just my love of reading stories, but my love of writing them.

4 books wasn't enough for me. So I dug around and found the outtakes of the books, as well as the leaked rough draft of the first 12 chapters of Midnight Sun, the 5th book in the works. Still not enough. Reading fan fiction didn't satisfy, so I decided ...

I was just going to write the next one myself.

It's a personal desire for myself really. Something to dive inside to get this creativity out of me. My need for writing sometimes is crippling, and sometimes articles just don't cut it. I need fantasy. I need escape. Heck, I'll admitt, it, I need Edward, haha.

I'm inviting others to read along, those fans who crave more since closing the cover of Breaking Dawn after reading the last page. So check it out!
Warning: My story takes place after Breaking Dawn, so if you haven't read all 4 books yet, the Preface alone will spoil the entire series for you.

On This New Day for America . . . I'm Full of Gratitude

For this man.

Stupid is as Stupid Counts

George Lucas is Responsible for Most of the Evil in This World

Hook was one of the best movies ever. I honestly can say that Hook is like a free pass for anything horrible Robin Williams did afterward, (License to Wed excluded, there's no getting out of that disaster.)

So after watching Hook this morning, curiosity called me to IMDB with a desire to know what happened to all the little lost boys in the great land of Hollywood. It turns out that most of them did stuff that I've never heard of, but holy snap! Remember Peter's little daughter? The one who sang that pretty song on the pirate ship? Well this is what she looks like now! And then I looked up how old she was, and she's my age. How did that happen? I could not have been that young when Hook came out. I know I'm "only" 24, but slowly I'm beginning to notice that people who were my age when I was young are getting old, and according to the math, that means that I am too. It's unpleasant.

Like the other week in Sunday School, our students were asking us questions, something along the lines of "What were 8-tracks like?" "Was the Vietnam war like?" and "Did you know JFK personally?" I may be exaggerating, either way we turned and I said, "How old do you think we are?" Most of the sweet and lovely little children were polite enough to label me somewhere between 22 and 28, when one kid shouted out, "35?"

35!?!? "I'm barely ten years older than you are you little . . !!" Kidding, I don't yell at my students. But she might have been able to read thoughts, I'm not sure. Either way, when did it become okay for kids half my age to think I was like 3 times their age? It's upbringing I tell you. Kids aren't taught manners. Or math. And none of them have calendars.

So I went back to looking through IMDB at all the people in Hook, and did you know that a bunch of actually famous people played random pirates? Glenn Close, David Crosby, and Jimmy Buffett are all pirates in Hook apparently. And then Carrie Fisher is listed as "Woman Kissing on Bridge", and I was like "Woah! Honey! Carrie Fisher apparently kisses someone on a bridge in Hook!" And then beneath her was listed: George Lucas as "Man Kissing on Bridge" and that just didn't sit well in my stomach. I mean, Carrie Fisher will always be Princess Leia, and George Lucas will always be old and pudgy, and now he's probably some sort of pervert that planned this all along. Get Princess Leia to wear a metal bikini in his movie, and then stalk her to another movie where he just happens to play her counter part on some dark strange bridge, and she can't exactly say no, because she's getting paid for the part, and really, she hasn't done much since Star Wars anyways, so she probably needs the money.

And then I realised that Steven Spielberg directed Hook, and so he officially has become George Lucas' pimp.

Honestly, where's Han Solo when you need him?

He's playing with freaking aliens, that's where he is.



Edit: My husband suggested putting "Spoiler Alert" before the whole "Han Solo playing with aliens thing", but honestly if you haven't seen the movie yet, I'm either ashamed to know you . . . or I'm saving you a rental fee. Maybe both.

Puppy Breath: The New Crack

Preparing for a litter of your own? Learn what you'll need by checking out my article over at Blissfully Domestic, Preparing for Newborn Puppies: Delivery 101.

Want to Tell Me and My Blog Off?

Then join in with fellow bloggers over at one of my favourite sites Blog Coach! Currently Color Me Untypical is up for their Critique This Blog! And you, my adoring readers finally have a chance to really rip in to my. I'm kidding, it's all serious over there (cause it's never over here) and I really want to know what you think. So go on over and tell me what you really think about this blog, design, content, etc.

Then if you really feel the need to, you can come back here and critique my personal character, dress size and body odor.

PS: I smell freaking fabulous.

Am I the Ideal Woman?

Before anyone else has a chance to answer that question, my answer is "No, not yet." I can very easily see my faults, and things that I am strong in, but are my strengths feminine? I can take on a leadership role very well. When I was in the work force I went into "manager mode" even if I was the lowest totem on the pole. I notice that I often do this at home, and while it can help create an efficiently run household, it also creates resentment in both myself and my husband because in doing this I am not respecting the roles assigned to our genders.

In reading Fascinating Womanhood, I decided to sit down and go through all the assignments.

One of the first assignments given in Fascinating Womanhood is to use the image to the left (Angelic Human Chart) and mark qualities you have and qualities that you don't have and to take a quality you lack and work on it.
Because it's early, and I wanted this to really be efficient both for readers and for myself, I snatched a list of feminine traits from The Fascinating Woman.

Qualities I Have
Domestic, Sassy, Kind, Spiritual, Sweet, Attractive, Desirable, Sexy, Daring, In Control, Spirited, Gutsy, Curvy, Daring, Clever, Intelligent, Loving, Submissive, Encouraging (Edited thanks to Desi: Creative and Intuitive)

Qualities I Lack
Spontaneous, Silent, Control over Anger, Sweet-Tempered, Gentle, Tender, Delicate, Refined, Cheerful, Soft, Stylish

I ♥ U 2

Today was a good day emotionally for me. I have been working very hard trying to let my husband know that I support and admire him, and it's apparently paying off. He made my day by sending me this text message:

"I felt I owed you this: over the past week or so I have more of a partnership with you than I ever have. I feel like we can truthfully and honestly talk and I can rely on your for anything. I wanted to thank you for our time that we have shared recently for I feel we have grown together more than ever. So I suppose that I am telling you in so many words that I love you and thank our Heavenly Father for ever meeting you."

I bawled like a baby. It was so sweet. I have such a good man.

The Dishes Can Wait

I am a Happy Housewife!

I am a Happy Housewife! I'm determined that this will be one of my most important goals this year. To be the best wife, the best woman, the best friend and best everything that I can be. So I've compiled a few links of goal oriented articles I've written over at Happy Housewives Club this week so that others can join me in this challenge to be happy and healthy in 2009!

A New Year and a New You!
I Love Me, I Love Me Not
Happy and Stress Free Year
Resolution Challenge

Read more of my articles and other great information over at Happy Housewives Club.

Marriage Resolutions

We can all say we want to lose weight, get out of debt and all the other typical resolutions, but how many of you are saying, "This year, I'm going to be a better wife"?

Check out my latest article on marriage over at Happy to be at Home.

Why I Haven't Blogged This Week

Were you worried about me? Well don't be. I've been knee deep in freshly born fur-babies, and breathing deep the scent of puppy breath.

Willow had puppies after being attacked by the neighbor dog 3 months ago. (She wasn't really attacked, but I don't like to think she'd be so easy. Honestly, they hardly know each other. Shameful.)

They were born EARLY Tuesday morning and kept me from sleeping for 24 hours straight.

Keeping with our Joss Whedon inspired theme we've named the 4 boys Mal, Jayne, Wash and Shepherd Book. The girls we've named Houdina (cause she's escaped from the whelping box twice already) and Wilbur (cause she's the runt - Thanks Tiffany for the idea.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go bask in the beauty of sweet puppies and enjoy the moments when they're too young to bark or crap all over my carpet.

Food Storage is Fun

Considering I belong to a Church that constantly promotes food storage, you shouldn't be surprised at all at how giddy I am over the new network Fun With Food Storage. Well . . . that and I love free stuff and this week they are giving away lots of it!!! So head over, and not just for all the goodies. Seriously, it's an awesome and VERY informative site!

My Choice to be a Housewife

 I remember the days when I was a little girl, dreaming of being a veterinarian, a singer and an actress, (yes all three, I was very motivated). But I also dreamt of  having children, and taking care of my husband. I watched shows where the man would come home and say, "Honey, I'm home!" and greet his happy housewife with a kiss.

She would be wearing a darling apron, dressed in her best and the house would be immaculate. I wanted that life so much more than I wanted to be someone famous.

This desire dug into me more and more as I grew up and though I worked outside the home from the time I was eleven years old until I was grown, I always knew where I wanted to be.
But just wanting to be a housewife isn't an option anymore these days. Society has made the term "housewife" something that seems almost derogatory. "Oh, you're just a housewife?"

A few years back I got a part time job. It was miserable, and I was going to school at the same time. At his work, Matt was telling a co-worker about my new found employment. Th co-worker said, "Wow, can you teach me how you got your wife to get a job? Mine just sits around the house all day playing with the kids." My dear, sweet, sexy, man of a man turned and said, "Did you think I was bragging? I was complaining. Why would I want my wife to work when I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself? I wish she would quit her job."

This is because when we first got married, Matt and I decided what our roles were going to be. Bits and pieces of me always thought that perhaps he agreed to me staying home because he didn't want to argue, or because he knew it was what I wanted. But at this very moment in time when he told me about this conversation, I knew his intentions, and I quit that job.

I've talked to friends who have tried to be a stay at home mother or a housewife, and often they complain about arguments they get into with their spouse about it. I strongly believe this is because the roles are not clearly defined, and they have not properly discussed this important change in their lives. So how should you go about with this discussion? Well you need to read my first article over at Happy to be at Home! Being Happy at Home is a Choice.

One Good Woman

Earlier this year, some friends and I attended Time Out for Women where Cherie Call performed. I had honestly never heard her before, but I became an instant fan. I've never felt the spirit so song while listening to music before in my whole life. This song in particular really struck me, and I listen to it everyday for inspiration and motivation to do good every day, being the best woman I can be.

"One Good Woman"
Cherie Call

Mary Chilton never knew what the salty winds would do
When she stepped aboard and sailed away on a 1620 autumn day
At Plymouth Rock she was the first to touch dry ground
But she became an orphan when the winter came and the tears fell down
But she grew, and married a good man
And they had eleven children
And they would never understand what she'd been through but they knew
That a girl of just thirteen
Crossed one big ocean
And that she grew up to be
One good woman


And Polly Angel didn't know what the hands of time would show
When she dressed in white and said, "I do" in the fall of 1832
Her life would change that very year forever more
When they heard the message of two strangers at their door they headed west
And Polly had six children, but only two survived
And they could never understand what she'd been through
But they knew that a woman of great faith
Crossed one big country
And that they were being raised
By one good woman


There they are, written in the spaces of a family tree
Till it all comes down to me


I know that I can never say that I'm the only one who's prayed
For pain to end or love to last or for time not to go by so fast
But it will fly and in a hundred years from now
Will there ever be someone who reads my name and wonders
If I laughed
Or if I believed in Jesus
Or if my heart were ever broken
They may never understand what I go through
But I will live the best that I know how
For one big lifetime
It's not too much to ask
Of one good woman

 To listen to this song and more from Cherie Call, check out her web page.

Ultimately Happy and Fascinating

Originally posted at One Good Woman.

To say that the first year of my marriage was a bit rocky would be the understatement of the century. Take one hot tempered Irish red head, mix in feministic upbringing, add a dash of divorce rate in the family, beat together two months of hormone overloading birth control pills and ten hour shifts of work . . .  pour over one unsuspecting husband and bake until crazy.

If I didn't have the complete faith I have in our love, I'd be shocked that we survived the first year too! Truth was, though I wanted to be the submissive, sweet, doting housewife, I didn't know how to be . . . and the path that took me to this point was rocky, and hard, and I fought it for quite a bit. It's been a progress.

Advice from other married women, Church leaders, and especially prayer helped quite a bit . . . and then of course there were books.

My addiction to self help books is quite astounding. I can't read fiction at all. I need to constantly improve myself, if not for me than for the benefit of my husband and future children. So I got every book on marriage I could find. Most I turned away. They didn't make sense to me. They were suggesting what I was already doing, and it just wasn't working. Some talked about how being a housewife was something of the past, and that submission to a man turns you into a doormat. Not to mention, not a one of them taught me how to clean worth anything!

A few lessons from one of my aunts, and The Ultimate Career given to me by my mother in law helped when it came down to cleaning, organizing and learning the things that I was never taught as a little girl. The book was helpful, specific, and most importantly, it was written by and for an LDS woman, just like me. This book helped my home.

It would be a few years before I found my next step. Though I could clean, I didn't so much enjoy it. I was constantly hiding away from questions asking me what I did for work. "Oh this and that." I'd say. Or I'd throw in the famous, "I'm a Domestic Executive." Because the word "housewife" seemed shameful. I was making myself and my husband miserable in my denial and confusion when it came to my place in life. What was when I found Happy Housewives. Saying that this book changed my life would be under appreciating the value it brought into my world. It wasn't only eye opening and helpful, but it was written as though the author was speaking directly to me. I read the book in a total of just a few days, and I was suddenly uplifted in my position as a housewife. The Happy Housewives Club, the books website, opened a new world for me. I found women on the forums just like me (but so different in many ways) many of whom have become my dearest and closest friends for life. Not only did I find there daily support from others who had read the book, but the author, Darla Shine spoke to me as well, and has become a dear friend (and boss since now I write for the website!) This one book changed me forever. This book helped ME, so I could help others.

But there was one thing lacking. My marriage. Ultimate Career and Happy Housewives improved it so much that it's hard to recall that first year (without crying). It was a good marriage, but I wanted something deeper. Try as I might, I couldn't control everything, nor could I force my husband to be the man I knew he could be. I had gone so many years being one way, that it was obvious where I had gone wrong. I had heard about Fascinating Womanhood, but it wasn't until my friend Liss spoke about it that I went in search of answers. It was everything I wanted. A strong, masculine husband . . . I could be the sweet and feminine housewife. We could be firm in our gender roles assigned by God, and simple steps in this book helped (so quickly) to fix the problems I had once created.

So I've decided to blog about it all. My experiences from day to day, my marriage (where my husband won't be able to find me LOL), and my life as a Happy Housewife, a Fascinating Woman, who has the Ultimate Career!

Resolutions: Who Doesn't Have Them?

Here were my resolutions in 2007, and then here's a few in 2008 . . . I think I'm going to be a little bit more dedicated and thorough in 2009. Heck, that's resolution #1 right there. Be dedicated and thorough. So call them goals, resolutions or what have you . . . I'm just going to do better this year, live bigger, and count my freakin' blessings every single day!

I am actually really in awe of how my friend Toni set up her goals for this year, so I thought I'd be a little more organized and follow her good example:

Family Goals

• Read the scriptures together every single day.
• Read the scriptures (Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon, D&C PoGP) cover to cover. This was Matt's goal that he dragged me into.
• Pray together daily.
• Take walks at least every other day to enjoy this beautiful earth.

Financial Goals

• Learn to live within our means.
• Keep up with a savings account.
• Continue to regularly pay off debt. 

 Homemaking Goals

• Stay on routine!
• Don't fall apart when one thing goes wrong in said routine.
• Blog more about homemaking to help others and keep myself accountable.
• Let Matt into the kitchen more since he's taken a liking to cooking.
• Stop complaining because the messes come back. They will ALWAYS come back. 

Personal Goals

• Take time everyday to spend with my Heavenly Father.
• Blog everyday. (Even if I don't post it, I should at least start saving drafts to use later.)
• Comment on other blogs.
• Stay on my blog schedule.
  
• Organize my pictures and websites.
• Learn to sew clothes.
• Go through old clothes and use fabric to make new things.
• Never miss Church unless I'm very sick.
• Prepare my Sunday School lessons earlier.
• Complain less overall.
• Love more.
• Count my blessings.
• Spend more time with friends.
• Have more get togethers and parties.
• Practice charity.
• Go to the temple at least once a month.
• Begin writing books again.
• Don't delete the books I write because I think they suck.

Ali Edwards has started this whole One Word movement thing and I'm darned if I'll be left out of this! What is your word. What one word will define you in 2009? I believe mine will be dedicated. I will be dedicated to my marriage, dedicated to my home, dedicated to my health, dedicated to my myself, and most importantly, dedicated to my God.

And last but certainly not least, I will be dedicated to taking and posting more pictures of this sexiness.

Who Doesn't Love a Giveaway?

April Showers is giving away a gift certificate for Bath and Body Works not to mention gift certificates for mark. the better Avon. Head over there to check out how you can win. (Pst, even if you don't win, you can get 30% off blog TLC or mark items just for entering. April is the best isn't she?)

Starting January 5th Everyday Food Storage is starting a huge giveaway including lots of gift cards, organizing stuff, aprons, and oh yes . . . a shelf reliance shelf. Salivate with me, and then check it out.

Get a chance to win a free anniversary getaway from strengtheningmarriage.com just by telling the story of how you met your better half!

Safely Gathered In is giving away a first aid kit (that looks so awesome I hope I hurt myself more this year) and all you have to do is talk about your food storage goals for 2009. So head over there and do just that.