Valentine's Day

Not to toot my own horn, but if the missionaries in our ward -- no, no, any missionaries anywhere -- have ever had a better dinner than ours did at our house tonight I'd really be surprised.  First of all, I decorated giant Valentine's cookies (homemade by my amazing friend) for dessert.  They were each sitting on a plate when the missionaries got here.  Then I baked lobsters and Tom grilled steaks.  I even made the garlic butter to dip the lobster.  I baked potatoes and steamed asparagus for the side dishes.  And we opened a bottle of sparkling cider to drink.  Obviously I'm proud of myself.  

Morgan loved the lobster, or "monster" as she called it.  And I'm proud that our 2 year old likes lobster.  Set your sights high, Mo.

Aahhhhh!

I generally try to be a positive person.  That said, I don't like January or February.  I thought this year was better because it has been a little warmer and without snow but guess what, it's still too cold to go play outside so we still have to find things to do inside.  I'm feeling trapped!  Does anyone else feel this way?

I tried to take Morgan to the movie (Puss n Boots in 3D) but she only lasted 10 minutes.  Then it was home to watch Caillou and eat popcorn.  Man I wish she was into Anne of Green Gables or something like that.

Here's to a quick February!

Hello Neglected Blog

Oh, wow, have I been busy.  Clearly, no reason to not write in my family blog, but the excuse I am using because that's what everyone says when they don't do something.  Which brings to mind a Wonder Pets song, which leads me to talk about my life.

I'm sitting on the floor of our bathroom while Morgan takes a bath (usually the first "me time" of the day).  Tom was unexpectedly asked to accompany his boss on a business trip to Canada -- like, I found out last night and he left this morning.  I would normally have no problem with this last minute trip but I had a makeup appointment at Macy's today (I've had it for a month) and Tom was supposed to watch Morgan and I was supposed to get my makeup done and walk around the mall by myself.  Instead, I imposed on my friend who I'm sure had plenty of Saturday things to do and I went to the appointment and home after (with a short stop at Jo Ann's in which I did not purchase anything but I did feel overly made up with my smokey eyes -- I'm sure it was intimidating for the other shoppers).  And to this point Morgan and I have watched three movies, taken a nap, and I have probably eaten a quarter gallon of chocolate ice cream and a box of See's chocolates.  I don't even like chocolate ice cream.

All that health and TV watching aside, Morgan is lots of fun.  She has been singing Christmas songs for two months (doesn't she know it's over?!).  Some of my favorites are Rockin Around the Christmas Tree (how does she even know that one?), Jingle Bells ("Oh wha pah it is to ride"), and Frosty the Snowman ("was a jolly happy snow").  She also loves the Wonder Pets opening song and has memorized the episode, Wonderland (which really may be called something else, but that's what we call it).

As long as I'm on the subject of how much TV (movies/Netflix) we watch, I love it when Morgan warns Ariel that the shark is coming and when she tells me that Ariel is crying when she sees Eric with Ursula in the lady's body.

Moving on.  M started dance class a couple of weeks ago.  I think she loves it.  She's in the 3-4 year old class (even though she's 2) and talks more than anyone else there.  I'm not bragging because I didn't say she speaks better than the other kids.  I don't know that.  I just said she talks more.  That's her.  Not shy at all.  She loves putting on her ballet outfit and being a ballerina.  I wish she would let me take pictures of her.  Here are the best I got.

I have been doing things like editing a mining video (10 hours -- ask me anything about mining), making business cards (and I finally just had Tom's brother remake them), and creating a website for my business www.homestagingidaho.com.  Let me know what you think.  Oh, you don't think that giant picture with the ocean in the background is great for home staging in IDAHO?  Well, that brings me to my next point that maybe Oregon just shouldn't be there.  Then that picture would work out perfectly.

Tom's been working.  The end.

Now I feel like I sent out a Christmas card.

Well, I get to go watch another movie and let my girlie sleep in my bed with me.  I love cuddling that little mini human.  And she LOVES sleeping in mommy's bed.

Goals for 2012

Happy New Year!!!  We celebrated at 7pm with Tom's sister's family and some friends.  We watched Sydney, Australia ring in the new year on Youtube then Tom and I had a little "celebration" of our own later (which means we went over our budget and goals for the year -- ha!)


Last year I made some goals for the new year and now it is time to own up to them.


1. Read the Bible.  I didn't do so well with that one.  I got to Numbers in February and guess what, I'm still in Numbers.  I did, however, read the entire Book of Mormon in one month so that helps make up for not finishing the Bible.

2. Get published.  It didn't happen yet but I did have two publishers ask for a resubmission.  I resubmitted and one declined. I'm still waiting on the other.  We'll see.

3. Lose 10-15 pounds.  Well, I lost 8.  Then I gained 4.  So hey, there's a net loss of 4 pounds.  Not a goal reached, but not too shabby.  

4. Coupon and donate.  It's hard to say how well I did with this.  I did a lot of couponing the first half of the year.  I got at least $100 in pads for free and I'm donating them but it was really a hassle to keep track of everything, especially with the move.  So I did do it, but I don't think I would do this goal again.

5. Limit T.V. watching to one show per day for me and one for Tom.  This worked well, especially after the move because we put our T.V. upstairs in the theater room so we are not tempted to watch during dinner or just randomly.  We generally watch one Netflix show per night.  We don't have cable, satellite, or really any free T.V. channels that work.


Here are our 2012 goals, assuming the world doesn't end before the year is up (see Mayan calendar).  A lot of mine are business related and might bore you, but I needed to write them down.  Also, some of mine are ours and some of Tom's are ours but I didn't want to make it too complicated.


Kelli’s Goals
Finish putting together client's video by January 5th.
Record webinar for home staging training - January 20th.
Find commission salesperson for Home Staging Idaho - January 31st.
Get affiliates for How To Make Hair Bows -- Invite bloggers by January 7th (if you blog and want to be an affiliate to earn extra cash, let me know).
Make money blogging -- ads, affiliates, etc.
Set up a coat drive for charity -- encourage people to buy coats on clearance in the early spring.  
Finish Bible.
Read from BOM in Spanish.
Resubmit book if not accepted by publisher by March.
Read with Morgan every day.
Foster/adopt/have baby. Something to do with a baby in my house.
If pregnant, gain less than 40 pounds (20 would be ideal).


Tom’s goals
Gym at 9pm 4x per week.
$---k range (he knows what that is -- just shouldn't be made public).
Practice Chinese -- movies/lessons/China.
Go to temple 2 x at least.
Daddy daughter date 1 x per week.

Random Happenings

I wanted to write a couple of things about Morgan before I forget.

The other day we were shopping at the craft store and Morgan was in the cart.  She won't sit in the seat and face me.  I mean, that is like the worst punishment ever.  She will sit in the big part of the cart and try to stand up the entire time though.  So there we were.  Me pushing Morgan in the cart and telling her to sit down every two seconds... then I saw a wreath of bells.  Perfect distraction for a two-year-old.  I gave it to her and started walking again.  A few seconds later Morgan started singing Jingle Bells at the top of her lungs.  The whole chorus.  I had no idea she knew it.  The girl makes me laugh.

When Morgan wants to have time alone with her dad she says to me, "you be right back, mommy."  She must associate that phrase with me leaving, which totally makes sense.

It was the end of the day and I was ready for Morgan to go to bed (we had been shopping all day and shopping with Morgan just isn't a lot of fun).  She wanted something off of the dresser so she dumped out her clothes basket for the second time and stood on the basket to reach the stuff.  I was so frustrated a made the "uuuuhhhhhhh" sound and grabbed her and told her I was mad.  Then I gave her to Tom and left the room. I'm a great parent, I know (sarcasm intended).  Anyway, I heard her say, "I want my mommy," so I went back in the room and she looked at me and smiled a huge fake smile -- the one that says "cheer up, mommy!"  I started laughing and told her I wasn't mad anymore.

Along with those great stories is the Festival of Trees.   We went on the last day and they had lots of stuff for kids to do.  Morgan's favorite was when she saw the little performer ballerinas.  She went up to the girls and said, "hi princess."  She is so enamored by dancers and pretty dresses so I signed her up for dance classes starting in January!!!  EEEeeeeee!  I'm so excited!

Disney Cruise Pirates Video

I was going to do a few posts about our vacation but to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of reading vacation posts.  I know they're mostly written for the memories and for grandparents, so something must be said.  Instead of a big long post with hundreds of pictures, I made this one minute video of our Disney cruise.

And here are my top 10 most memorable things that happened:

1. Morgan told me, "I'm not a child."
2. My sister-in-law rented a cabana on Castaway Cay and we were lucky enough to hang out there with them (and the other rich people).
3. Cinderella taught Morgan how to wave and curtsy like a princess.
4. Tom and I watched The Help in the theater.  It was my second time and I cried more than I did the first time.
5. I lost my passport before the trip and found out that you all you really need are your drivers license and a birth certificate.
6. Every ten minutes I thought of scenarios on how to save Morgan if she fell off the ship.
7. I ate less on this cruise than I have on any other cruise.  I even only had one lobster on lobster night, and I didn't even finish it!
8. I ran a 5k on Castaway Cay with about 20 other people (out of 2,000) and got a free Disney water bottle later that night -- a total surprise.
9. Always. Bring. Ear plugs. Snoring. Aaaahhhh!
10. I have the coolest in-laws in the world.

Excursions:

Grand Cayman: We took a small boat out to swim with sting rays.  Morgan loved it because she actually got to swim (she couldn't on the ship because she wasn't potty trained).  She was a little scared of the sting rays though.

Cozumel: We rented a Jeep and a driver.  The seat belts were all broken!  We were able to see the island and I would definitely go back and stay a while.  We also searched for vanilla for like 2 hours.  I'm not kidding.  Tom is sometimes all about perfection, and this vanilla search was very important.  And I was totally annoyed after 30 minutes.  But I got a very pretty ring that looks like Princess Dianna/Kate's wedding ring.  It's the most I've ever spent on jewelry (which means it cost more than $10.  Bahahah!).

Family Pictures

We just got back from a tropical vacation where we took a few family pictures.  Here are some of my favorites.