King's Korner

Happy Birthday Hyrum

2009-03-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

My little boy is two today! Which kind of scares me, because if we are just now entering the terrible-twos, then what was all that I went through last year!?

Just Kidding... well, kind of.

Hyrum has taught me that you can completely and utterly adore someone and yet at the same time want to toss them out of a window. It is a strange spectrum of emotions to feel at one time. But I love him! Oh, do I love him. I have no doubt that if he so chooses he will be able to conquer the world by the time he is five!

So, happy birthday baby! And try to stay a baby for just a little longer.

Mental Health Hotline

2009-03-05T00:03:00.000-08:00

OK, you know I'm married to a shrink when I can't stop laughing about mental health jokes. But I mean, come on, if we can't laugh at them what's the point in having them, because let's face it--EVERYONE has issues no matter who you are. Even Mary Poppin's, who was "Practically Perfect", had a serious case of narcissism! So here is a hot line that will have something for everyone!

Are you feeling a little too happy

2009-03-02T16:51:00.000-08:00

Finally! Help has arrived.

Fire Proof

2009-03-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

So I just wanted to do a quick blog about the movie "Fire Proof". It has taken me months to watch it, and I finally got a copy from the library and I have to say that I LOVE it. I would recommend it to anyone, especially anyone in a marriage, or about to go into a marriage or about to get out of a marriage, or was in a marriage.

Basically it's about a couple how has a bad marriage and works it out. Sounds simple, and cheesy and there is also a lot of Christian cheese too, not to mention Kirk Cameron stars in it, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your thoughts about the man.

But the movie was surprisingly wonderful! Yes there are a few moments of bad acting, yes there are several over the top moments of coming to Jesus. (which isn't bad, just a little cheesy) But man did I love the overall message. It is a great blueprint for any and every relationship we are in. Not only husband and wife, but all relationships. It's about learning to love unconditionally, that when you feel the love of God, you learn to love EVERYONE around you. It's about the importance of serving those we love and are close to. It's about loving people in a Christ-like way. That's why I loved this movie.

Even if you don't believe in God, I think the idea of serving one another is vital to all successful relationships, and something that is easy to forget in this selfish world. I know I have my fair share of selfishness, like everyone moment of everyday. And yes, I believe it's important to do things for our self, and have a few selfish moments, but this movie was a great reminder about the joy that comes when we bring joy to others.

I would recommend it to anyone, with the warning that there is a lot of Christian cheese, and if you're not into that to overlook it. If you are into it, then you REALLY should watch this. And if you can, try to grab your significant other to watch it with you. It's a great reminder to everyone how precious the marriage relationship is.

Hahahahaha! TWILIGHT!

2009-02-13T19:10:00.000-08:00

Are you looking for an awesome therapist/counselor in Utah?

2009-02-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, so if a wife can’t brag about her husband then what’s the point of supporting and sustaining him through years of school? Right? Right!

So I thought I would post Jason’s bio here so you can see what an amazing therapist he really is. If you need more information, click the following link for the website of his private practice. (No, there is no shameless advertising going on at all!)

Life Enhancement Center

Jason King, soon to be “Dr. J,” is a licensed and board certified clinical counselor. He is recognized in Utah as a leading expert among child welfare caseworkers, probation officers, and juvenile judges in working with troubled adolescents and their families. Jason has doctoral education in child and adolescent counseling and teaches family therapy courses for the University of Phoenix. He is also a guest professor on troubled adolescents each year at the University of Utah School of social work. He has specialized training and extensive experience in Functional Family Therapy with hundreds of court involved, incarcerated, substance abusing, and gang involved adolescents.

Jason is a dynamic, energetic, and “get-to-the-point” counselor. Clients appreciate his sensitive, yet challenging style that motivates them to change when hope is lost. He has a unique ability to deeply understand others and to tap into their inherent strengths. Jason is highly effective at seeing the big picture in families and unifying them through a common theme. His clinical specialty is families in crisis, single, divorced, and blended families; and adolescents with trauma and abuse, anger and aggression, suicide and self harm, depression and bipolar, ADHD, and substance abuse. Jason’s unique counseling style helps adolescents to form positive relationships with family, peers, and the community. He uses proven counseling methods and is respectful to various religious and cultural beliefs.

New post

2009-02-02T09:58:00.001-08:00

Ok, so, I know I've been lame on blogging lately... I will post again, someday soon, as soon as I can, I promise...
So until then, her is my new update!

HI WORLD!

(are you happy Sabine!)

;)

he he he, better posts coming soon!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T11:56:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful day as we celebrate the birth and life of our Saviour! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Black Paint

2008-12-15T10:50:00.001-08:00

My oldest daughter has always had the cutest most colorful room in the house. When she was six she wanted an all pink bed room. So, we panted her room bright pink with pink trim and with the help of my friend Sabine we painted darling flowers all over her walls.

Well now she’s 8, and wants a more “grown-up” room. In fact all she wants for Christmas is a camp rock room. Well there was no way I was going to paint over the flowers! Look how cute those are. So we agreed to paint her trim black.

Honestly…. I love the black trim. I think it turned out so elegant, and she loves it too. In a few years the room will probably go to her sister, and then I will probably spend two days and ten coats of paint making the trim white again, but until then, black it is.

Well, I thought I would need several more coats of paint then I did, so I was left with about ¾ a gallon of black paint. Thinking that maybe I would use it again for trim in my room, (yes I love it that much) or maybe for furniture I proceeded to take it down into the basement to store until next use.

There were three big problems with this idea:

1—I was wearing socks
2—I was running
3—The lid on the paint can hadn’t been hammered shut yet.

Yes, I slipped. I banged my arm on the paint can, giving me a healthy bruise, and popping open the lid on the paint can.

Of course it was the black paint, not the white I had used early, or even the pink. It was black!

About half of the black paint came gushing out of the can, soaking into the carpet, and splashing on the walls. I tried to clean it up, but after soaking a dozen towels, and smearing the paint more on the wall then getting it off, I gave up.

So, now we have a few very black patches on our stairs. Thank heavens it’s the stairs going into the basement! And thank heavens we’re not planning on selling our house anytime soon. Because, for now, I think the stairs will have to remain spotted in black.

My Favorite Christmas Movie

2008-12-08T20:33:00.000-08:00

I kind have forgotten the blogging world for the last month or so, but I’m slowly coming back.

If you are looking for a great fun Christmas Movie this year, look no further…

Stalking Santa is, by far, my favorite holiday movie of all times. It’s NOT sentimental like “It’s a Wonderful Life”. It’s NOT nostalgic like “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” It’s not even a classic like “A Christmas Story”.

Stalking Santa is in a category all its own. Made locally, it is surprisingly well done, hilarious, and charming. It’s a mocumentary. (Like a documentary, but totally fake and totally funny.)

The movie is narrated by William Shatner. It’s about a man who is obsessed with Santa and is determined to prove he exists! He makes sure his kids are “extra” good so that Santa will come. He collects rare “evidence” of Santa’s existences and even has a moment of discouragement when he discovers Christmas presents his wife has bought for the kids, “just in case” Santa doesn’t come.

I think the library has a copy, but the movie is only $12 on Amazon. If you want to borrow my copy, I am happy to lend it out—I’ve already watched it twice this season. And if you have seen it I would love to hear your thoughts, I’m curious if anyone else thought it was as funny as I did.

Nano Draino

2008-11-27T19:32:00.000-08:00

Hmmm...

yup, I think my Nano writing "baby" is on the verge of getting flushed down the toilet...

Well, there's always next year.

Half way there!

2008-11-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

I finally reached 25,000 words which is half way to the 50,000 word Nanowrimo goal.

YAY!!

and....

CRAP!!

I'm thrilled that I'm half way there. I'm doing much better than last year, but in order to reach the goal I shoudl be at 32,000 words today. 7,000 words behind. I hope I can catch up and with Thanksgiving coming up I'm worried I won't. But I'll keep doing my best. Also considering the huge whack of writer's block I had a week ago I'm feeling proud of myself. 25,000 words down, 25,000 words left, and ten days to do it. I CAN DO IT!! (and you can do :)

Awesome video

2008-11-13T17:41:00.000-08:00

After seeing this on my friend, Sonnett's blog, I had to post it. It made me laugh so hard.

Nana not so Wrimo

2008-11-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

I admit, I'm slacking on my writing for the month. I've been having a huge case of writer's block, as in I don't like my story any more. I loved it for a little bit, but now it's not enjoyable, which means one thing... time to write something different, But every time I start writing crazy thoughts start coming into my head. What if this story gets boring.... what if I can't really write anymore... what I never could write in the first place... what if I've been deceiving myself for years that I was a writer and the truth is I really suck.

I'm not certain what's brought on all these insecurities at this time, or why I'm really listening to them. Whatever is causing it it's really annoying. Hopefully the words will start flowing again, I'm not use to writer's block so I don't' handle it very well. Go away stupid dumb writer's block!!

You’re Invited to a Twilight Fanfare Party!!!

2008-11-04T16:40:00.000-08:00

Date: Saturday November 8th 2008
Time: 1:00-3:00 (It’s an open house)
Place: My house, (let me know if you need directions)

I didn’t have nearly enough invitations as I would have liked, so if you didn’t get an invitation, you are still invited. And if you did get one, please spread the word.

What is a Twilight Fanfare Party? It’s an opportunity to get some very cool Twilight merchandise! They will have Twilight T-Shirt’s, Twilight sweats, Twilight book marks, Twilight bags and even the very cool, Stephenie Meyer, approved “Bella Bracelet”. There will be munchies, awesome people, and if you need to bring your kids you are welcome to. (I have a playroom downstairs)

This is a great time to buy something to wear for the Twilight movie, to get a Christmas gift for a Twilight fanatic, or some fun stocking stuffers. Bring friends. Twilight fans of all ages are welcome.

I’ll see you there!

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

2008-11-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

Novemeber is NaNoWriMo!

Why I do it? It's not because I need an excuse to write, I'm almost always itching to write. I do Nanowrimo because I need an excuse to tell my kids to leave me alone to write.It's a lot easier for me to say, "I need to write, because I have to get a whole novel written this month and I only have so many days to do it," then for me to say, "I need to write because, well, I just do."

Nanowrimo gives me the excuse I need. Anyone who would like to try writing a novel, Nanowrimo is a great time to do it. Go their homepage to get more details on it. (They are a little bogged down right now.) In the meantime, if I'm distance, hopefully it means I'm writing, because I really do only have 30 days to write a book.

Had to post this!

2008-10-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

I just got my new catalogue for the Demotivational Poster. I saw this one and had to post it!

Falling off the face of the earth...

2008-10-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, I think I have...

Sorry I'm ignoring everyone, I don't mean to. Someday I will get back to life, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Book Club Wed Oct 15th

2008-10-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that Book club will be at my house this week, on Wed Oct 15th at 7:00. We will be discussing the book,

The 13th Tale
by
Diane Sutterfield

An awesome, creepy, and very well written book.

But if you haven't read it come anyway. I'm going to have yummy fall desserts, hot chocolate and great company. See you then

Yay for the new Twilight Trailer...

2008-10-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not excited at all!

Twilight trailer

Finally My Disneyland Pics

2008-10-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve been meaning to post about our fabulous trip, but I feel like I haven’t been able to get into a schedule again since we’ve been back. So finally here is the run down…

Disneyland is not only the happiest place on earth, but I think it's also the saddest. We definitely had our fair share of melt downs.

The Princess lunch was the most expensive thing we did, but also the one thing that was most worth the price!!

Prior to the lunch we took a trip to Libby Lou where the girls got a full makeover, nails,hair, makeup and tiara's! They were set to mingle with the princesses!

Originally we were planning not to bring Hyrum--too much work. But I'm sure glad we did. I had no idea how much fun he would have!

He absolutely loved Mickey Mouse! And greeted all the characters by giving them high fives.

And he left the park singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho", everytime we'd ask him what the pirates say.

The girls got to be Jedi Warriors

And have their face painted

Not to mention the park was totally decked out for Halloween

I would say this was the best vacation of my life. Everything I had ever dreamed and wanted in a Disneyland vacation! Well, except I think if I had it MY way I would have gone to Libby Lou and had MY hair and makeup done, and I would have gotten MY pictures taken with the princess. Thank heavens for daugthers that we can live vicariously through!!!

My Very Own King

2008-10-02T08:21:00.001-07:00

I had to post one of my all-time favorite pictures of Jason!

Happy Birthday Jason!!

Did you know…

Jason has an almost photographic memory
And he’s smart.
He’s learned to be very humble, because he’s sometimes prideful.
He’s passionate about whatever he believes in
And when there’s something he wants nothing will stop him from getting it.
He only has eight toes on his feet.
And when we were dating he wrote me poetry.
He can be a very good listener,
And he likes my cooking. :)

I love you sweetheart! Happy 34th Birhtday.

My Very Own Princess

2008-09-30T04:00:00.000-07:00

My sweet Sarah is five years old today! Happy Birthday! She is the child that, I feel, is most like me. Which means she is not only adorable, cute, and funny, she is also high-maintenance, a drama queen, and desperate for attention. Hmm…

So, here are five things I adore about my precious Sarah!

1. That endearing dimple every time she smiles. And she knows that when she flashes it she can get away with anything!

2. She has more make-up than I do, and that’s saying a lot! She also has a talent for applying it.

3. Her favorite show is What-Not-To-Wear. She loves to watch Carmindy apply makeup and tells me constantly that she’s going to be a makeup artist when she grows up. (I have no doubt of that.)

4. She hates to leave the house without a purse.

5. She loves to wear high-heeled shoes and wishes I would wear them more often.

Just to clarify she is turning 5.

Not 16…

FIVE!

Oh I love her.

Happy Birthday Sarah, thank you for everything you bring into our family, I couldn’t imagine life without you! I love you so much.

Piano For Sale

2008-09-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

The digital piano did not sale at the garage sale. SO...that means it's still For Sale. I actually had two people interested that said they would come back later... and never came back. LUCKY FOR YOU!!

It is a 2004 Roland Digital Piano HP1.
and Piano bench
$800

I bought it brand new for $1,800, and it's in fantastic condition. It comes with the manual, (the manual does have a few scribble marks, but not the piano) And it comes with the bench. I will post a picture of it soon, I promise. I'm just too tired to do that right now. This is just the factory picture, but I'll post actually pictures so you can see what you are buying... but it looks just like this. Leave a comment, call me, or come on over if you are interested or know of anyone who is. I'll be advertising it on Monday, but I thought I would post it here first.

You may ask why I'm selling it. I love my piano, it is a beautiful fun instrument, but I'm not using it. In fact I've gone the past two months without even turning it on. My husband recently left one of his jobs in order to focus on his private practice. That's good... and bad. Well not bad, it just puts us in a financial crunch for a few months. And I realized that the piano was something that, although I love it, is not being used by anyone in the house.

Of course, once my husband's business is strong and he's bringing in several million a month I'll have him buy me a new one... (several million a month, at least!!)

Thanks for your interest and please let me know what questions you have!

Come check out the Garage Sale

2008-09-20T08:48:00.001-07:00

IT'S AWESOME!!

We are selling a digital piano
some antiques
and lots of cool stuff

Massive Garage Sale

2008-09-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

Ok, we’re not really selling garages, just stuff. But it should be massive! Like giant. Huge. Really really big!

It’s my friend’s, Sabine’s, moving sale. As in, she is moving and all her stuff must go. Anything not sold will be sent to the D.I., so you better buy it now before the D.I. marks it up 200% from the price we’ll be selling it at. There will also be a cool boutique and other fun stuff.

When: SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 20th
Time: 8:00-1:00
Where: My house. (I’m not going to post the address, because I’m assuming that if you read my blog you know where I live, and if you read my blog and don’t know where I live then email me, and I’ll send you my address! Or, if you don’t want to email me, then you can randomly drive around Orem looking for garage sales on Saturday morning. We hope to put up lots of posters.)

Come by, and buy lots of fun cool stuff. We’ll have music, a play gym in the backyard for kids to play on while you browse, and lots of water for drinking. In fact, the first 100 customers get ice with their water—FOR FREE!!!

Ya can’t beat that.

See you on Saturday.

The Perm

2008-09-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

I think it turned out cute!

Welcome to SRA (Slow Readers of America)

2008-09-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Alyson King and I am a slow reader.

It started in elementary school when books with no pictures and pages of words terrified me. It wasn’t until eighth grade that my love of reading truly blossomed, but by then it was too late. Although I loved books I would find myself taking each word slowly, forming the sentences and stories in my head, taking three times as long to read something as those around me. I’ve tried throughout the years, I’ve struggled to skim sentences, skip over parts that seemed boring or unnecessary, but I find myself carefully reading each word. Taking days even weeks to read a book that might take only a day or two for others.

I thought I could hide this embarrassment from the world. No one ever needed to know. But I’m here today because I want help…

…OK, let me get the heart of this post. I seriously feel awful that I am such a slow reader and that there are people in book club waiting for my copy of the book that I STILL have not finished. I’m just not a fast reader. I don’t know why. But it really causes problems in my life and I don’t know how to fix it.

For most people, reading slow might not seem like a problem, but the more I’m trying to become a published writer the more I’m learning that to be a writer you need to be a reader. A good reader. A fantastic, fast, amazing, reader. I LOVE reading, but I’m not a fast, in depth reader that can devour four to six books a week in my spare time. I don’t think I could read four book s a week even if I did nothing but read. I’m not fast enough. I think I once did three books in a month, and I felt so cool afterwards. (Oh and they were all YA books that you can gobble up in a day.)

It’s becoming discouraging only because I feel that the harder I try to be a reader the further behind I fall. For ever book I read I discover three more I want to read… I'm creating this group for others out there that may feel that don't read as fast as most people, but still love to read, SRA! (Slow Readers of America) So here is my public announcement so it’s clear for all. I….a..m……a…….s..l..o..w……..r..e..a..d..e..r……

Who do you want for president?

2008-09-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk, lots of passion, lots of issues. Should we vote for Obama? Should we vote for McCain? Well, a solution just presented itself. Finally, someone who knows what they're doing!!

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Movie clips

2008-09-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

I had to join in the fun and post some of my favorite movie clips of all time. It was hard to pick only a few and I realized I might need to go watch some of these movies now and get them out of my system.

First up is Howl's Moving Castle. I ended up putting two scenes from this movie because I remembered just how desperately in love I am with Howl. What is it with two-dimensional anime men? I can't help but fall in love! This first scene is intensely romantic. It is one of the opening scenes in the movie and it can’t help but make you fall in love with Howl. Who wouldn’t want a wizard like this to save them?

My second clip is, by far, the funniest scene in Howl’s Moving Castle. Understand that it is about a girl who has been transformed by a witch and turned into an old woman. She is struggling to break her curse and has to deal with this selfish wizard that only cares about his own good looks. Love it!

OK, I had to include something from Grave of the Fireflies, because I think it is the saddest movie I have ever seen in my life. Since I couldn’t post the whole movie, and there isn’t just one scene over all the others that I love most, here is a montage of several scenes. The movie is about two young children trying to survive on their own in Japan during WWII.

Finally I had to include the ballroom scene from Labyrinth. Who knew that lipstick and eye shadow could look so incredible on a man? I’ve watched and diagnosed this scene far too many times; I find it interesting that it’s one of the few scenes in the movie that there are no puppets, only humans.

Thanks Kami for letting us do this. I hope others join the fun, I would love to see your favorite scenes!

Ghost Hunters ROCK!

2008-09-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of the TV show Ghost Hunters. Sometimes I’ll watch it and it’s a little blah, as in nothing happens, but every now and then you get an episode that is just awesome and cool, and super scary! Last night’s episode was like that. Chills! What I like about them is that they go into a situation trying to prove that a place is NOT haunted, so it's very cool when there are things they can't explain.

Does anyone else out there love Ghost Hunters the way I do? I love the idea of ghosts, though I think if I ever really saw a ghost it would scare me to death!

Getting a perm

2008-09-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

My oldest daughter wants to get a perm. I’m kind of excited by the idea, since her thin hair seems impossible to do in the mornings, since it’s so straight and, well, blah. She desperately needs some kind of style and refuses to let me cut it.

But I thought I would see if anyone out there had any feedback or information on perms for kids. When I was younger I got perms all the time, and they were always home perms. I’ve never had a professional salon perm. Has anyone? What’s the difference? I’m trying to decide if I want to perm her hair myself, or take her in and drop $50 to have someone else do it. I’ve never done it before, but I can’t imagine it would be too terribly difficult… (I say that nervously) Any feedback would be awesome, especially from all you amazing woman that do hair, what do you think, salon or home??

11 Things I Hate About You

2008-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Dearest Jason
Happy Anniversary! OK, I don’t really have 11 things that I hate about you, there’s really only one or two, and you know what they are, and I wouldn’t publicly announce them. I just had to put that as the title of this blog in honor of Miley Cyrus’s song (7 things I hate about you) because I think it’s stupid that she would list all the things she hates about a person and then tell them that she loves them… not super romantic, (in my opinion) but I’m not here to talk about Miley Cyrus, I’m here to talk about YOU.

So Jason, happy 11th year anniversary. Here is a list of 11 things I LOVE about you.

1. Your hair.
2. Your dedication.
3. Your insane ability to juggle a million things at once, (such as three jobs, a business, doctoral school, a family, and church callings) That was in no order by the way.
4. The way you kiss.
5. The fact that you call me five times a day because you miss me.
6. The way you write.
7. The way you teach.
8. I love you for buying me my dream house.
9. And giving me three beautiful children.
10. I love how forgiving and understanding you are.
11. And the fact that words like, psychopharmacology, idiosyncrasies, and paradigms, (along with a whole host of other words that I can’t think of right now) are part of you daily vocabulary.

Oh, and another thing I love about you “You make me love you!”

We Love you Stephenie! Sad news about Midnight Sun

2008-08-28T21:30:00.000-07:00

Poor Stephenie Meyer

So, besides all the rude and angry fans that are now throwing a tizzy fit over Breaking Dawn, it appears that a copy of Midnight Sun has made its way to the internet. Besides being totally illegal it has made Stephanie so sad that she has given up on the project completely, and posted a chunk of the manuscript on her website. I can’t say I blame her, with the reactions to Breaking Dawn, and then someone stealing her story I would want to throw in the towel too. But I wish she would finish Midnight Sun. I was so excited to read that book. So here is my note to the awesome inspiring vampire authoress:

WE LOVE YOU STEPHENIE!! DON’T GET SAD! DON’T GIVE UP!

Here is a link to her website where you can read Midnight Sun.

A quick thought on Breaking Dawn and Stephenie Meyer

2008-08-23T08:29:00.000-07:00

Stephenie Meyer and me. I'm nine months pregnant--so not an attractive pictures. (Of me. Stephenie is gorgeous)

I just wanted to say that it makes me sad how much negativity there has been on Breaking Dawn. I don’t mind people not liking a book, that’s fine, it happens all the time. Everyone should have their own opinions, but there have been petitions of people wanting to take the book back to the store and demand refunds because it wasn’t the book they wanted: people writing terrible things to Stephenie Meyer telling her how the book should have been written. I’m shocked.

Do they not understand how Stephenie Meyer has put her life on hold so she could write us this book, don’t they know she fought to give us a fourth book in the series. Whether or not we like it does not matter, it is a rare gift, given to us by an author who wanted to giveback to her fans. How selfish is it of people to be given a gift and then return it to the giver saying, it’s not good enough, it’s not what I wanted, give me something else. She must be exhausted, and rightfully so. Personally, I loved Breaking Dawn, I felt it was the best of the four books, and I enjoyed it like a delicious slice of chocolate cake. Some people don’t like chocolate cake, and that’s fine. But the least you can do is be grateful for what you have.

OK, I’m done with my soap box now. Thank you for listening, and please feel free to open up and share your thoughts on this.

Childless, just for a day…please!

2008-08-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

I do not mean to discredit all the woman out there who are desperately trying to have children, or long to hold a baby in their arms, or swear they would put up with any trauma just to have a family. I respect that. I do. There was once a time I felt the same way.

But I wish, that for just one day, I could have no children. I want to clean my house and have it stay clean, or fold laundry and have it stay folded, instead of having it be pulled around the house by a crazy one-year-old with sticky fingers. I want to go to the store without dreading the temper tantrums that might follow. I want to buy something and not worry about how long it will be until it gets broken. I want to go to sleep at night and not be woken up because someone needs me to take care of them. I’m tired of having my hair pulled, my makeup stolen, and my books ripped apart. And I’m really tired of changing poopy diapers.

I wouldn’t change my life, not for anything. I love my children, and at the end of the day when all of them are sleeping I can look at them and think there is nothing, NOTHING, that brings me more joy.

But is one day so much to ask? I just want 24 hours of no one else to take care of but myself. I would love to say, I’m going to take a nap, or I’m going to watch a movie, or I’m going to read a book, or I’m going to run errands, or I’m going to write, and do it without any extra drama, without juggling any other obligations. Just once. That’s all I need, just a 24 hour break and then I’ll be ok for a little bit.

But I’m a mom, and mom’s never get breaks, especially not for 24 hours. There’s no sick time, no vacation time, no paid time off. There’s not even unpaid time off. I know that, I accept that, but it doesn’t mean I can’t dream of it. Things such as a clean house, or accomplishing tasks quickly and flawlessly, or sleeping are just not in my job description. Sigh. At least I have three of the most beautiful and adorable children in the world, and I get the greatest title, and the most well-earned title anyone has ever had: Mom.

Love for the Wii Fit

2008-08-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

Do you have trouble exercising? Dread the act from beginning to end? Get the Wii fit! I can't believe how much I love this little machine. Why hasn't anyone thought of this sooner.

I'll have to blog more later, once I've used it for a week, rather than a day and see if I'm still in love with it. But as of right now, i feel that I have found a solution to my negative attitude towards exercise, and it's name is Wii Fit!

What Font are you

2008-08-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

The tests they come up with!

Take it and find out what font you are. I'm Times New Roman!

You Are Times New Roman

You are formal and conservative. You're concerned with how you appear to others.

For you, maintaining a good reputation is important. You want people to trust you.

Elegant and classy, you always maintain your composure. You are never crass.

You are professional, competent, and upstanding. And it shows!

What Font Are You?

30! We made it!

2008-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

My 100th Post!! How cool to have it on my birthday. Seriously, it wasn't even planned.

30 years old. Taken two days ago. I just got my hair cut and I knew it would never look that good again, (since they styled it) so I threw on some jewerly, (which I never wear for fear that my son will break it) and had my mom quickly snap a shot. See how clever I am, I stood behind the chair, allowing it to hide the width of my hips. I'm so smart. :)

Today I am 30. I was struggling so much with the idea of turning 30, but I have to say that making the 30 lists really helped. It made me realize what a wonderful past I've had, it helped me see what an exciting future I have before me, but most importantly it reminded me to live and thrive in the moment.

Thank you to everyone who read all my posts, I commend you for any attempt you made! Thank you for all the comments, and if I offended or hurt anyone in any of my posts, that was never my intentions. Mostly I wanted to capture myself now. I'm not good at journals, and I wanted to have something documented for posterity. You know, so when my great-great-great grandchild has to write a report for school on one of their ancestors, they can pull these up and use it. (Hey if I really ever do have a great-great-great grandchild read this, just know that I think you are awesome for considering me for your school report. Good luck!)

So here is a list of 30 people I tag to make up 30 lists with 30 facts about themselves and 30 pictures...

just kidding

I wouldn't do that to anyone, but I would recommend it to everyone. if nothing else try to find a picture of yourself for each year of your life. Make sure you have a digital, labeled copy of it. That was hard, time consuming, and very worth it! Everyone should do that for themselves and their children too, if you are bored.

But it was surprising to me as I put these lists together, what memories I came across that I had forgotten about, what personality traits I discovered about myself, so I think it was very worth the time for me. If anyone else enjoyed them then that is just AWESOME!

Thank you for sharing with me this monumental birthday. And I really am excited to turn 30 years old today. (I should find out from my mom what time I was born, I think it was around 11:00 am)I hope all of you have a wonderful day, and if today is your birthday, (like, oh say, Maria) then Happy Birthday to you too! (a cool fact about Maria and me, not only do we share the same birthday, but our daughters have the same birthday too. how cool is that!) Oh and happy birthday to everyone out there with August birthdays. And happy birthday to everyone else turning 30 this year. In fact, Happy Birthday to everyone that is having a birthday sometime this year. I hope it's a great one for you!

30 random things about me

2008-08-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

29 years old.

Well, we have almost covered everything. I'm sure you've read far more than you've ever wished to know. But, surprise surprise, there is still more. Here is just 30 random thigns about me. And don't worry, we really are almost done! Yes, there are some repeats on this, but I became too lazy to change them, and I figured that you probably either won't rememebr, or if you do remember then it will be just a great reminder.

1. I talk in my sleep, and say really funky things.

2. I can’t spell… at all!

3. My record of throwing up during pregnancy is 15 times in one day.

4. The day before 9/11 I was sick to my stomach with anxiety and felt like something bad was about to happen. I convinced myself and Jason that there was going to be an earthquake. Boy was I wrong.

5. I used to have prophetic dreams. But I haven’t had one for a while.

6. I floss regularly

7. Sometimes I really enjoy being alone.

8. At least once a month I stay up until 4:00am cleaning

9. Growing up my mom always gave me the most awesome birthday parties every year. My favorite was when we had a tea party and dressed up like it was the 1800's.

10. I would rather be too emotional, than not emotional enough.

11. I hate my feet! Especially my toes

12. My eyes are my favorite thing about my body

13. I love wearing makeup, but the older I get the lazier I become.

14. Growing up I always wanted to marry a king and live in a castle, guess what, now that I’m grown I’m married to a King and my house look slike a castle.

15. I think brown eyes and blond hair is the most beautiful physical combination there is. (No one in my family has it, not even me)

16. I love extra frosting on everything sweet

17. I have never been in a tanning bed, though I look much better with a tan.

18. I love the Japanese culture and wish I had lived there before I got married and had kids.

19. I love unicorns, fairies, and mermaids. But not so much dragons. Don’t know why. (You would think that with my love affair with the Japanese culture I would love dragons more than I do. Hmm, got to think about that one)

20. I have always been fascinated with ghosts and ghost stories. I have never seen a ghost but I totally believe they exist.

21. I can’t lie, it’s almost physically impossible for me to do. I would rather be honest, than deal with lying

22. But I do exaggerate, a lot. Especially when telling a story. I don’t mean to, it just happens. I think it’s the writer in my trying to make things more interesting. (so this posses the question, is exaggerating the same thing as lying… hmm, maybe I do lie, what do you think?)

23. I’m obsessive about washing my face each night, and each morning.

24. I don’t like camping; my idea of a vacation is having someone clean up after you, having meals prepared for you, and having a hot water and a comfortable bed.

25. But I love sitting around a campfire, and doing camping things, just not for extended periods of time. (Like more than 12 hours)

26. I’m a slow cleaner

27. I can resist eating sweets, but the moment I start I can’t stop. My self-control completely goes out the window.

28. After I had my third child I ate an entire box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, by myself, in an hour. And I didn’t even feel sick afterwards. (I blame it on having so much room in my body since a baby had been removed.)

29. In college I was very concerned about always wearing makeup. One night there was a fire alarm and I got up and did my makeup before I left my dorm. I know, pathetic. But at least I can laugh about it—now.

30. I can type really fast, but with tons, and I mean tons, of mistakes. I have never typed a whole page without several words being underlined in red and green. (It’s like Christmas every time I write)

30 things I hope to be doing in 30 years

2008-08-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

28 years old. I feel like this picture was just taken yesterday. Now we're really getting close to the big 3-0

As I made up this list I realized that I'm not doing nearly enough of what I need to do in order to accomplish all the things on this list. It was a good wake up call for me, and I hope I can focus more on some of my long term goals, not just my short termed ones.

1. I want to be financially sound, (as in no debt and lots of retirement money)

2. I want to be a grandma.

3. I want to be healthy

4. I better have published something by then, even if it’s just a magazine article!

5. I would love to be on the New York Times Bestseller list, or have been at sometime in my life.

6. I hope that by then my house will stay clean for longer than ten minutes.

7. I hope that my house is more organized and NOT more cluttered.

8. I hope to have made a lot of progress on my “too read” list.

9. I would like to still be living in the same house I am living in now.

10. I hope I’m traveling the world.

11. I want my kids to be happy.

12. I want to be in a position that I can help my children through their trails that they will face as they start their own families.

13. I hope I remember and keep in touch with the friends that I have now. I’m really bad at keeping in touch with people.

14. I hope I’m more forgiving.

15. I want to be looking forward to the next 30 years of my life. (As in, I hope to live to be 90.)

16. I don’t want to be boring.

17. I hope I’m not a “slow” driver.

18. I wonder if I will still be a night owl, or if I will go to bed early.

19. I think it will be fun when I turn 60 to go back and read these lists, and see if I still agree with them.

20. I plan on celebrating my 41st wedding anniversary

21. By the time I’m 60 I want to have gone back to college, and graduated.

22. I hope I still have all my teeth.

23. I believe my husband’s private practice will be successful by then.

24. I hope I still have most of my hair.

25. I hope that all my immediate family is still alive.

26. I hope I am still alive. (My father died at only 54.)

27. I hope by then “they” have found a cure for colds and cancer.

28. I’m curious to see what kind of technology there will be that my children and grandchildren can operate that I don’t have a clue about.

29. I hope I’m stylish when I’m 60, (age appropriate stylish)

30. I hope I look back at my life and be proud of what I’ve done.

30 things about me as an adult

2008-08-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Just a few more days of being bombarded with useless facts about me. Almost done! Hang in there.

27 years old. My husband and me.

This was a hard list for me to write, because how do you write how you are as an adult, when you’re still trying to figure out how to be an adult. Also I felt like a lot of things were repeats, or things I was going to put in a coming up post of, “30 random things about me”. But I finally was able to put together a list.

1. I had three jobs before I became a stay at home mom. I worked the concessions stands in a movie theater, I was a waitress at Marie Calendars, and I worked at Convergys.

2. I’ve been a mother longer than I was a teenager.

3. On multiple occasions my husband and I have BBQ hamburgers at 1:00 in the morning.

4. I am awesome at playing Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time for the N64. (Because, until recently, I had very few other games and no other game console.)

5. I own way too many DVD’s. I regret I’ve spent so much money on movies.

6. I own way too many books, but I don’t regret spending money on any of them.

7. In church callings I’ve served in the nursery, in the primary, in the YW, in relief society, and on the activities committee. There’s really nothing left for me to do, so I think I’m OK if I never get called to do anything else. :)

8. I DO NOT scrap book.

9. Or make homemade, cute cards. I admire people that can do this, but it is one talent I do not have, and I’m ok with that.

10. I do not enjoy being pregnant

11. I am not a very fun person to be around when I am pregnant.

12. But I would do it over again, even twice as long if I had to, for each one of my babies!

13. Growing up I never had anyone close to me die. In five years, four people in my family passed away. (My cousin, my father, my grandmother and my uncle)

14. I was the first person in my family to get married, even though I am the middle child.

15. I’ve started reading a much wider variety of books than I used to, and I like it.

16. I used to be immune to motion sickness. I could do any ride at Lagoon without batting an eye. Now just the thought of some of those swivel rides make me nauseous. (I blame it on the pregnancies.)

17. As an adult I’ve come to realize that I still love to play with Barbie dolls, and I’m glad that I have a daughter that reintroduced that to me.

18. I buy my kids waaaaaay too many toys!

19. I can’t remember numbers for the life of me. It took me two years to memorize my zip code. (Never ask me how much something costs, I will say the first number that comes to my head and it is probably wrong.)

20. As an adult I’ve learned that I am not a good housekeeper. At all!

21. I’ve also learned that I am a very poor gardener.

22. I used to think I was a very patient, kind and loving individual. Than I had kids and realized I had no understanding of the word “patience”.

23. I often wonder how differently we would treat each other if we could see people’s divine nature, see all their potential, their goodness, and their accomplishments. If we could see them how God does, then how would we treat them?

24. I’ve realized that a happy marriage takes a lot of work. If it was easy than everyone would have it. And all the hard work makes it worth it.

25. I am a very task oriented person. (This is a fancy way of saying that I can’t do more than one thing at a time.)

26. I experience my emotions deeply. But as an adult I’m getting better at understanding them.

27. The older I get the less afraid I am of getting old.

28. I’ve learned for myself the truth to the fact that chocolate really does make everything better. At least for a little bit.

29. I think it’s an amazing thing that right after having a baby, we woman can sit there, without having taken a shower for days, leaking milk, hurting in places we never knew we could hurt, and unable to think straight from lack of sleep, and have our husbands come in, clean, showered, full of energy, holding their new infant, and look at us with more love and admiration than they’ve ever had before because of what we’ve accomplished and given them. (OK, I need someone to diagram that sentence. Wow, that was a paragraph in itself!)

30. As an adult I realize that I still feel the same age as I did as a child. I feel like I know more, I understand more, I’m taller and certainly wider, but the core of who I am has stayed the same.

30 things about me as a teenager

2008-08-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

26 years old, right after I got a new haircut!

I don't like to remember myself as a teenager, because they weren't my favorite years. In fact I always cringe when I run into someone from high school, because I can't stop worrying about what terrible things they might remember about me from those years. Hopefully the bad memories have faded and the good ones have remained... hopefully. (Cringe)

In case if you are wondering, I graduated from Brighton High school in 1996. Wow, that was a long time ago.

1. There was a two year period that I loved wearing black and wore it almost every day. (But I wouldn't wear all black, usually)

2. I wanted to decorate my room with black carpet and lots of mirrors, (but I didn’t get to.)

3. I had an awesome earring collection with huge, long, and crazy earrings.

4. I would spend lunch writing instead of eating.

5. I woke up at 5:00 every morning just to write.

6. I would style my hair in crazy and elaborate hairstyles.

7. I wore a lot of braids.

8. I was so poor in high school that one year my family couldn’t afford to buy me a year book.

9. When I was 17 years old I had to get my first root canal.

10. My mother made huge sacrifices, just so I could have braces. It was of the greatest gifts she ever gave me. I started flossing religiously and brushing obsessively so that I could have beautiful teeth when they were taken off.

11. My first job was Nielson’s Frozen Custard. I worked here for two years, and became very addicted.

12. I only had two “official” boyfriends in high school, but I dated each one for about a year.

13. I was completely devastated when my first boyfriend dumped me after a year so he could date another girl. (Looking back, I don’t blame him. I was a little clingy,) But at the time I was so heartbroken I honestly believed I would never, EVER, be able to love again! (Don’t you love teenage angst.)

14. There was one semester when I went to school at 6:00 am for early morning seminary, and then I stayed at school until 6:00 pm for marching band practice. (This was on top of having a job, taking pre-calculus, and advanced English. No wonder teenage kids get stressed out, and I know it’s worse now than it was back then!)

15. I never watched TV. I didn’t have time.

16. One summer we had to move my bed room into the living room. It was really weird when the visiting teachers would come over.

17. Every summer, for about 2-4 weeks I would go down to St. George and spend it with Sonnett. She may never know how much that time together saved my sanity, (even though I would drive her crazy at times.)

18. I loved wearing skirts and high heeled shoes.

19. I refused to leave the house without wearing makeup.

20. I wrote a lot of fiction in middle school, but in High school I mostly wrote poetry. Lots and lots of poetry.

21. No matter how hard I tried I never received a 4.0. I missed it each time by one A-! EACH TIME!!

22. I loved being in marching band, despite how much people made fun of me for it.

23. I once had a guy send me a box of long stemmed, red roses during school, that was the coolest thing ever! (It was the end of my senior year. He was a college student that I had met the night before at a party. I felt so flattered.) I still think delivered roses are the most romantic, the coolest, the sweetest thing in the world (hint, hint… too bad my husband doesn’t read this. But if anyone sees him you can give him the message.)

24. My mother and I fought every day (but I think that’s typical for some teenage girls)

25. My family had no money for clothes, so over half my wardrobe was borrowed from friends.

26. I drove a beast of a car from 1978, (I can’t remember the make or model). It was literally the size of a boat, and it only had am radio. A bad am radio! My little brother and I would crank up the sound and drag Highland Drive, rocking out to “Papa Loves Mambo”.

27. Most of my paycheck went to pay for food for the family, or anything I needed, (i.e. shampoo, contact lens solution toothpaste..)

28. I lost the contact for my left eye, and my family was so poor I couldn’t afford another, and my only pair of glasses were broken, so for six months I only wore one contact.

29. Between my parents hating each other and hardly speaking, my family being dirt poor, my boyfriend breaking up with me, and being overwhelmed with school and work I went into a huge depression during my junior year. This is the year that I worry about what people remember of me. (Like crying all day—sitting in front of my locker crying—crying so hard in class that the teacher finally asked me to leave because I was disturbing the class so much, … It was bad. Now you probably understand why I married a therapist. Not only a therapist, but one who specialize in adolescences, especially female adolescences. Yes, I feel like the Lord has always been watching over me)

30. I was very skinny in high school. I had a 21 inch waist. And although I would love to physically have that again, I would never want to be in the emotional situation I was in that left me with such a slender frame. I’d rather have my curves and be happy, than be slender and depressed. :

30 things about me as a child.

2008-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

25 years old. I'm at a fancy tea house in Seattle, celebrating my birthday.

1. I hated reading in elementary school, and I’m a slow reader because of it.

2. When I was 7, I was in a fatal car accident that changed my family forever. (Not fatal to me, obviously, but fatal to the woman who hit us.)

3. I had a uni-brow and very crooked teeth. Because of this, I’m very hyper-sensitive to how my teeth look. We couldn’t’ afford braces until I was in high school and I cried the day I got them because I was so grateful to have them.

4. I was such a nerd!

5. I was very shy and was terrified of speaking to adults. (This fear lasted until I was in my 20’s. I still get nervous sometimes.)

6. I had a fiery temper and would throw and kick things when I was mad.

7. I had very sharp finger nails and thought it was fun to claw people, (I know I was messed up)

8. I was always worried about others, especially if I had hurt them.

9. I was awful at spelling, (huh, I still am. Some things don’t change)

10. I knew I wanted to be a writer.

11. I was good at kick ball and a fast runner, then around sixth grade those kind of sporty things ended.

12. I loved camping and being in the outdoors. (I hate camping now, I don’t know what changed.)

13. I loved playing dress ups.

14. I loved playing with Barbies, and went to great lengths to hide it from my friends. (It wasn’t cool to play with Barbies in fifth grade.)

15. I was scared of the dark and thought there were goblins in my room.

16. I loved climbing trees and would dream of living in a tree.

17. Whenever I played at playgrounds I would pretend I was a princess and that the play-gym was my castle.

18. My mother called me Aly-Sunny because I was always smiling, and with my blond hair and blue eyes she felt like I looked like sunshine.

19. I had a doll named Sunshine.

20. I had gold fish named Red Hot. Trying to be funny my brother told me he died right after I bought him. I broke into hysterical sobbing for a full ten minutes until my brother showed me he was joking.

21. Everyone called me Aly, I didn’t really grasp the fact that my name was Alyson, (around seventh grade I made everyone call me Alyson because I felt it was more “grown-up” now I don’t care.)

22. I had many perms in my hair.

23. Green was my favorite color. (Now it’s blue)

24. I loved paper dolls

25. I could ride a bike with no hands.

26. I got “married” to the neighborhood boy at least three times.

27. I believed that there were fairies living in my garden.

28. I had pneumonia when I was eight and had to be hospitalized.

29. I was never allowed to have Sees chocolates at Christmas time. They were only for grownups, I remember wanting so desperately to just have one piece.

30. I only ever cheated once in my life. It was on a spelling test in second grade. I wrote the word on the desk before the test and erased it afterwards. The word was “friend”. I felt sick for years afterwards and before I graduated elementary school I finally went and told my teacher. I never cheated after that experience. And I’ve never publicly admitted to this either. (Wow, does it feel good to get THAT off my chest.)

If I were rich

2008-08-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

24 years old. Ah, the good old Convergys days.

This is my list of things I would buy if I had more money than Bill Gates. But before you read this list, I want people to know that if I really did have tons and tons of money my first priority would be to give some of it away to help others. I am a huge believer of charity! I have been on both sides, receiving and giving, and I know how small acts have changed my life, and I know the joy that comes from sharing what you have. Most of the things on this list I probably would never really do because I couldn’t justify it.

With that disclaimer in place, it sure is fun to pretend. So here is what I would do if I had buckets of money, and everyone in the world had all their needs and many of their wants taken care of, and I could spend all of this money on myself.

I just don’t want people to think I’m selfish and that I would spend a billion dollars on myself. Come on people, I don’t need a billion dollars. I would be perfectly happy just spending a million on myself! :)

1. I would own my home!

2. I would pay to have a housekeeper come clean my house everyday!

3. I would have a cook, but I would still cook on occasion because I enjoy cooking a lot.

4. I love my house so I don’t think I would move, (unless if I had too many kids filling it up) But I would do several home improvements to it such as:
a. Add a patio
b. Repaint the whole house
c. Get tile everywhere I want
d. Finish off my basement
e. Decorate in high fashion

5. I would have a very lavish garden and hire a gardener to tend it.

6. I would get season tickets on Broadway, and go once a month.

7. I would take my entire family and Jason’s whole family on the Disney cruise for a week and then to Walt Disney World for a week, and pay for everything!

8. I would buy every Barbie doll I’ve ever wanted and have a custom-built display case made to show them off.

9. I would hire a babysitter once a week for a whole day so that I could have the entire day to myself.

10. I would buy clothes whenever I want, even if they weren’t on sale.

11. I would get my hair done once a month, (instead of once every two years, like I do now.)

12. I would go on luxury cruises all around the world.

13. I would buy every book I’ve ever wanted, and everything on my Amazon wish list.

14. I would buy a Honda Odyssey.

15. Anytime something broke I would throw it away and buy a new one, instead of fixing it or trying to reuse it.

16. I would eat out way too much, at restaurants so expensive that they don’t even put the prices on the menu.

17. I would have all my jeans custom fit, so they looked awesome and were comfortable.

18. I would hire a personal trainer and have my own in-house gym… (maybe I would have to buy a bigger home then)

19. I would buy this, just because I could.

20. I would completely spoil my kids and buy them anything they’ve ever wanted. (OK, I wouldn’t really do this because I don’t think it would be good for them, but every now and then I wish I could spoil them rotten and have them still turn out good.)

21. I would get my teeth movie-star perfect.

22. I would buy over-the-top lavish gifts for people at Christmas.

23. I would own one piece of expensive jewelry, (but only one piece because I know if I had more my kids would get into them and ruin them.)

24. I would own one expensive piece of art (When I say expensive I mean something over $1,000. It would scare me to own anything more expensive than that.)

25. I would have a kick-butt food storage and everything would be organized.

26. I would have stained glass windows put in place of my bedroom windows.

27. I would stay in super expensive hotels, in the most lavish room they have.

28. I would buy myself fresh flowers everyday.

29. I would throw the coolest most lavish parties. (These are my dream birthday parties I would give my girls. For Janae I would fly all her guests to California, go to the American Girl Doll Store, buy everyone a doll, an outfit for them and for the doll. Then we would watch a movie and eat in the restaurant. For Sarah I would take all her guest to get their hair, nails and makeup done, take them to each buy whatever dress up they would want and then rent out Hattfieldadelphia, where they have that big castle and let them be princesses for a day.)

30. My whole family would wear custom-made, awesome Halloween costumes every year. (Sounds dumb, but I’ve always wanted to go all out with Halloween, maybe it’s something leftover from my love of playing dress-up when I was younger.

30 of my favorite TV shows

2008-08-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

8/8/08 (What are you doing to rememebr this cool date? I hope you're reading this blog. That would make me feel so awesome!)

23 years old. This picture was taken at my brother, Robby's, wedding.

I don’t really watch that much TV, except for Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, and that’s by default, not by choice. But there are a few shows that have become very near and dear to me. I also added a few shows from my childhood. Which ones do you love? (as I made up this list I actually realized I watch way more TV than I thought I did. I know—pathetic.)

1. Sailor Moon (Season Five is the best, but all five seasons are wonderful. But you need to watch it in Japanese. The English version is just plain cheesy. Endearing, but cheesy.)If no one else at least Sonnett and Sabine have to look at how cute this site is!

2. Sailor Moon Live action (hands down my favorite TV show of all-time.)

3. Ghost Hunters (So creepy and cool all at the same time)

4. What not to Wear (Who doesn’t want a personal shopping trip with Stacey and Clinton, but until I get nominated, at least we have Laura Lee living in the neighborhood. She is easily as fashion savvy!)

5. Myth Busters (A learning show that’s hilarious, and you’d be surprised how much information I glean from these guys.)

6. How It’s Made (This has become a family favorite, we sit around learning how they make everything from golf balls to gummy worms.)

7. Iron Chef (I fell in love with the Japanese version years ago, and when they first introduced it to America it was a joke. Now, with the help of Mark Dacascos as the Chairman, a sassy chef like Bobby Flay, and a witty host like Alton Brown, it has become as fun to watch as the Japanese version. Although I do miss the great English dubbing.)

8. It Takes a Thief (Who would have thought to make a show documenting men breaking into your home. But it’s awesome to learn the way a thief might think.)

9. Kim Possible (I don’t know why, but I think this cartoon rocks!)

10. The Simpsons (I grew up on this, and something comforting overcomes me when I hear the theme song. Though I haven’t watched it in years, I still laugh thinking about my favorite episodes.)

11. Wheel of Fortune (Loved watching this as a kid, and trying to figure out the words)

12. Who’s the Boss (I think I was in love with Tony, and who doesn’t want an in-house cook and cleaner who’s hot and has an accent)

13. Gummi Bears (I would rush home from school every day in order to be on time to watch this cartoon.)

14. She-Ra (A kick-butt sword woman living in a fantasy setting who is also a princess! and she has a horse that turns into a flying unicorn. What’s not to love? This is probably the basis for most of my books.)

15. Jem and the Holograms (I’m still waiting for them to make a movie of this one. I love that everyone has every color of hair, except for a shade that is realistic.)

16. Lady Lovely Locks (About a girl who had magical power in her long, long colorful hair. Sweet!)

17. The Smurfs (I have never been so dedicated to a Saturday morning cartoon as I was to this one. I was heart broken when they took it away. It was a smurfing good show.)

18. Between the Lions (This show is so clever that even I get sucked into watching it with the kids.)

19. Full House (I have a hard time watching the reruns, but I sure loved it years ago.)

20. The Twilight Zone (I love the original black and white, not the new ones. They are so creepy and well done, I still love watching them late at night.)

21. The Polka dot Door (Did anyone else grow up watching this preschooler show? It was my passion when I was three years old.)

22. Strawberry Shortcake (The original. I’m not too big on the new version. But the original is near and dear to my heart.)

23. Saved by the Bell (I laugh just thinking of the title. Oh Zack! I was so in love with you.)

24. Property Ladder (Love watching people make housing mistakes, because I know I would probably do the exact same thing)

25. Avatar, the last air bender. (This is just a great cartoon with kick-butt super powers. I wish I could live in the world with Aang. Who knew an American cartoon could be so cool?)

26. Ace of Cakes (This guy is hilarious, and he makes awesome cakes too.)

27. Jon and Kate plus Eight (This makes me realize just how easy it is to have only three kids.)

28. A Haunting (Shown on Discovery each day it tells stories of true ghost hauntings throughout the years. Kind of theatrical, but still fun to watch.)

29. Cash Cab (The coolest game show on TV!! You get a free cab ride AND can earn money.)

30. Good Eats (I think Alton Brown reminds me a Jason, except Jason doesn't cook-at all. But they are both a little ADHD. That's why I like both of them!)

30 favorite candies

2008-08-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

22 years old. Taken right after my oldest child was born

Really, my favorite kind of candy is the kind in a black and white box from See’s. But I still, on occasion, get a craving for something I can run to the store and grab. I seriously think I have the worst sweet tooth in the world. And I wonder why I struggle losing weight. Look at my list and the answer will be apparent.

And I’m offering a contest. Do you remember how we use to make those candy-grams on poster bored, where you would incorporate as many different kinds of candy into the card and tape the candy onto the poster bored, (Hey Sugar Daddy, you take me to the Milky Way) he he he, I know, cheesy, I’ve never been good at them.

Anyway, whoever comes up with the best card, using the most kinds of candy from my list below will win a prize. (Your choice of any of the following candies) You don’t have to make me the card, (unless if you want to) just type in what you would do for it in the comments section (or you can send me an email). The winner will be announced on my birthday, August 15th. Good luck.

1. Jr. Mints

2. Rolos

3. Caramello

4. Jelly Belly (my favorite flavors are coconut, watermelon, and black licorice)

5. Hot Tamales

6. Good and Plenty

7. Red Vines

8. Butterfinger

9. Milky Way

10. Skittles and M&M’s together

11. Banana Laffy Taffy

12. Gummy Peaches

13. Cinnamon Gumdrops

14. Tootsie rolls, (when they’re fresh so they’re soft)

15. Symphony bar

16. Swedish fish

17. Pink Starburst

18. Mini Cadbury Eggs, (it’s a good thing these are seasonal)

19. Crunch

20. Mounds

21. Cherry Nibs

22. York Peppermint patties

23. Milk Duds

24. Whoppers

25. Sugar Babies

26. Pop Rocks

27. Hershey Kisses

28. Twix

29. 100 Grand

30. Orlando Bloom, (Oh, sorry I forgot we’re talking about edible candy, not eye candy. Oh, but I would like to take a bite out of him!)

30 facts about my family

2008-08-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Only 10 more lists left!

21 years old. This was taken on my first cruise. (I'm wearing the dress I had my bridesmaids wear. I borrowed it from my sister)

When I think about my family I think of two groups of people: my brothers and sister—and my husband and children. So I did fifteen facts about my family I grew up with and 15 facts about my family I’m living with now.

My brothers and sister.

This is the latest picture taken of my brothers, my sister, me and my mom. It was taken about two weeks ago. Left to Right: Robby. Erin, Tommy,my mother, me, Drew. (btw, Drew's single if anyone is looking. Isn't he a cutie.)

1. I feel smart if I can keep up with the dinner conversations, (they’re always talking about physics, computers, or politics)

2. We are very close, and love getting together.

3. Everyone in my family is very smart, (I feel dumb whenever I’m around them)

4. In 2000, our childhood home of 25 years burned to the ground.

5. Every single one of us had a feeling that someday our house would burn down.

6. I love reading, but I struggle the most with reading in my family. (Everyone else kicks butt!)

7. Growing up, I was the fairest in the family, and use to play it up all the time. Now my youngest brother is the most fair… cruse you Drew!

8. No one in my family skis, does outdoor sports, or watches them on TV. It’s a very un-Ingebretsen thing to do.

9. All of us LOVE to stay up late. We thrive as night owls.

10. We laugh like crazy whenever we are together.

11. We all have big butts.

12. and funny noses.

13. Most of us hate leftovers, (but not all.)

14. All of us know, and miss Bob Parley. She was as much a member of the family as anyone. (Only my brothers and sister, and they’re spouses will understand this comment. Well, I think. I don’t even know if Jason knows the details about Bob Parley.)

15. None of us sing, but we are all musically inclined and can play an instrument.

My family now: A husband, a wife and three crazy kids.

1. All of us love to play video games, especially games that we can do together, (such as Mario Cart, or Wii sports) but we don’t really have much time to spend on this.

2. We are all very emotional. The girls much more so than the boys, but even they have their moments. The girls, (including myself) are pure estrogen when it comes to emotions.

3. All of us love to eat cereal before going to bed.

4. None of us like tomatoes or mushrooms. OK, I admit I have indoctrinated my kids with this belief. Total brainwashing! But I believe someday they will understand)

5. Country music is not allowed in out house.

6. We have never once watched sports on TV. (Well except the Olympics, but even that is limited to Gymnastics, and maybe a little swimming)

7. Everyone in the family knows who Edward Cullen is. (Hyrum is still trying to grasp the concept, but we’re working on it.)

8. We are addicted to YouTube, even my children.

9. My children were shocked to learn that in the “olden days” they didn’t have DVD players. Ouch, am I really that old.

10. All of us LOVE birthdays and CHRISTMAS. (but is that really such a surprise)

11. None of us are good singers.

12. Or good dancers.

13. but that doesn’t stop us from doing both.

14. Our favorite TV channels are Discovery Channel and TLC.

15. We very rarely make our beds (but that’s more my fault, I just don’t see the point when you’re going to mess it back up in a few hours.)

Most expensive things I own that I couldn’t live without, or items that are irreplaceable

2008-08-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are lucky because you get to read another list of 30 things about Alyson King.

I dare anyone out there to make there own 30 lists of 30 things. it is hard, but very fun and very interesting to see what you learn about yourself.

20 years old. Here ends the professional pictures. It was hard to find pictures of me over the next few years, or at least pictures that I was not too embarrassed to post on the Internet.

As I was coming up with this list I realized that I really don’t have many things of much value. I often worry about someone breaking into my house. But then I realized there isn’t much for them to steal besides my checkbook and passport. Not sure if that’s really comforting or depressing, but I am grateful for the things I have and that what I have works. So here is my list of the most expensive things I own that I couldn’t live without, or things that are irreplaceable to me.

1. Gasoline. I’ve had my mini van for the past four years and I am certain that I‘ve spent more on gas for it, than on the vehicle itself!

2. Diapers and wipes. Maybe individually they’re not expensive, but I spend a lot of money on them, and I couldn’t imagine not having them.

3. My computer. I really don’t think I could survive without one, at least not for more than a few days.

4. My Car. I hate my car, it’s old, it’s clunky, but it runs and I know I couldn’t live without it.

5. My house. Ok, I don’t own my house yet, but I’m including things I hope to own someday, and that I’m making payments on now.

6. My grandmother’s necklace. When my father died my grandmother let me wear her Tiffany pearl necklace to the funeral, and told me I could have it when she died. This and my wedding ring are the only pieces of nice jewelry I own, but I love it more because of the sentimentality than because of the actually value. (Honestly I have no idea how much it’s even worth. It might not even be that much.)

7. Wedding ring. I could live without this, but I wouldn’t want to.

8. The TV. Ok, this is a must for anyone with kids. There are days I don’t know how I would survive without it.

9. CD player. How did people live I the “olden days” without the ability to hear whatever music they wanted whenever they wanted?

10. My book collection. I suppose if I was desperate and had no books I could go to the library for everything, but it give me a high, like a drug, for me to own my own books.

11. My bed. It’s nothing nice, in fact it’s 11 years old. But I love it much more than sleeping on the floor.

12. My pillow. I am very fond of my feather pillow, so much that I won’t travel without it. I just can’t sleep on the hotel room pillows. I have to have my own.

13. 700 thread count Egyptian cotton “sateen” sheets. Sigh. I’ve spoiled myself with this luxury, and now I’m addicted.

14. Food. Do you know how much money I spend on food? Especially good and healthy food. But so worth every dime. Literally, I could not survive without food.

15. Eye glasses/and or contacts. I would die in a car crash if I tried to drive without them, so I certainly need these.

16. My original books and stories that were hand written. My handwritten stories from my youth are fading with each year, but I treasure them as much as possible and I have done what I can to preserve them.

17. My table and chairs. As comfortable as my couch is, I prefer the table when I’m eating.

18. My education. We have spent much, much more on my husband’s education, but I value every cent I have spent to help me learn more, and I hope to spend even more money someday to help me expand that.

19. Hand-written letters that my father wrote to me when he was alive. After he died I looked for every personal thing he had ever given me. It’s amazing how seeing his handwriting with my name and those simple words, “I love you” can mean so much to me.

20. My flash drive. It has all my files backed up from my computer in case it ever crashed. I would hate to be without that in an emergency.

21. My cell phone. The bane of my life, can’t live with it, can’t live without it.

22. Clothes. Ok, I spend more money than I should on clothes, and that’s my fault. But let’s face it, clothes are expensive and I would be very uncomfortable living without them.

23. My children. Hands down they are the most expensive things in my house, and one thing that is irreplaceable and I couldn’t imagine my life without.

24. My fridge. Another convenience I can’t imagine living without.

25. My washer and dryer.

26. My dishwasher. No wonder the middle class had to have hired help. There is no way people could do it on their own.

27. My BBQ. This is my lifesaver in the summer, especially if my husband is going to help with the cooking.

28. The internet. This isn’t as expensive as it use to be, but it does take enough of my money over time, and I really could not live without it.

29. My newly acquired Wii. Once you play it you can’t imagine life without it, he he he…

30. My 20kt pink-diamond, Harry Winston necklace. I just love this so much I can’t stand to lock it up, so I let it hang around in the open on the rare days I’m not wearing it… Just kidding. I only wish I had a fat diamond necklace. I’m just running out of things to say.

Thoughts on Breaking Dawn—NO SPOILERS!!!!

2008-08-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the fourth book of the Twilight Series, Breaking Dawn. I loved it. I was surprised by how much I loved it. It was by far the best of all four books. I have always loved these books, but I have certainly had my issues, kind of a love-hate thing. The more I love them, the more certain things have bothered me. Breaking Dawn made all those annoyance worth it. The funny thing is that I wasn’t as excited for this book as I was with the others. I wasn’t planning on reading it as quickly or as soon as I had with the others. In my mind it was just going to be a close repeat of Eclipse, I was SO wrong! I feel that this was the real story meant to be told. The other three books were just preparatory for this book. It was rather long, more than needed to be in some parts, but I did not want it to end. I would recommend it to everyone. As I said the other three books need to be read, as they set this book up, but in my mind, Breaking Dawn is the true story, the story that shines far above all the others.

30 of the cheapest things I couldn't live without.

2008-08-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Another day, another list... almost done, don't worry.

19 years old. My wedding picture. (Yes, I got married very, very young)

Here is a list of those small annoying things that are all over your house, things that cost pennies, (well more like nickles and dimes lately, or even quarters and dollars). But they are the things that I can't imagine living without. What cheap conveniences do you depend upon?

1. Floss
2. Soap
3. Q-tips
4. Toilet Paper
5. Water
6. Hairbrush
7. Chap stick
8. Stamps (who else would deliver a letter across the country for 42 cents?)
9. Post-it notes
10. Hangers
11. Zip lock bags
12. Tin foil
13. Salt
14. Lip stick
15. Tooth paste
16. and a toothbrush
17. Paperclips
18. Rubber bands
19. Pens (there is nothing worse when you need a pen and you can’t find one)
20. Bleach
21. Nail clippers
22. A book mark
23. Kleenx
24. Scissors
25. A pacifier, (for my child—not me!)
26. Band-aids
27. Tweezers
28. Dr. Pepper
29. Chocolate
30. Sugar

30 Beliefs

2008-08-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, still going. Alyson King's 30 different lists...

18 years old. Finally, an adult.

These are just a few of my core beliefs, you may share some of them, you may hate me that I believe in others, but it’s who I am.

1. I believe in forgiveness.

2. I believe you are never too old to change.

3. I believe in admitting when you are wrong.

4. I believe it’s ok to not know something.

5. I believe in searching for answers when you don’t know something.

6. I believe first impressions can change.

7. I don’t believe in dieting, but I do it.

8. I do believe in exercise, but I don’t do it enough.

9. I believe in letting your kids explore the world around them.

10. I believe intelligence is the most attractive trait in a person.

11. Kindness is a close second.

12. I believe God gave me Jason to be my husband because he knew how much I needed him.

13. I believe that medication can be a very good thing.

14. I also believe it can be a bad thing if used improperly.

15. I believe it’s toxic to keep thoughts and emotions in, and very healthy to vent.

16. I believe money doesn’t buy happiness, but I also believe it can help make really awesome memories!

17. I believe girls can be feminine and strong.

18. I believe chocolate can make you happy, and relieve stress.

19. I believe we all have issues or “baggage” that needs to be worked through.

20. I believe boring women keep immaculate homes.

21. I believe that women are stronger than men, perhaps nto always physically stronger, but stronger in many other ways.

22. I believe men know this and have spent the entire span of mankind suppressing women because they’re really afraid of us. :)

23. I need my man in my life as much as he needs me.

24. I believe in wearing seatbelts.

25. I believe in getting my children immunized.

26. I believe education is one of the most important things you can give your children.

27. But not as important as love.

28. I believe in reading every day.

29. I believe that God knows each of us, and has a purpose for us.

30. I believe in myself and that I am capable of great things.

30 Most Memorable Memories

2008-08-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Still going, Alyson King's list of 30, well you get the idea.

17 years old. Senior Picture! Actually I think this picture was taken the day before my 17th birthday, but it still counts.

This was fun, I dare everyone to write down their most memorable memories, (we'll just call it MMM)Maybe it's just me, but I love strolling down memory lane, all thirty years of them.

1. The first time I cried in the movie theater. (It was “My Girl”

2. The moment I found out my Dad died. (I half expected a call from him saying he was just kidding and it was all a big joke.)

3. The day I got married. (August 29th 1997. I was late)

4. Each time my children were born, but especially when my oldest was born

5. The day I found out I was pregnant for the first time. (I think I took three tests just to "make sure")

6. The day I learned my husband had cancer. (I was pregnant at the time and at my own doctor when I got the call)

7. My High school graduation (June 6th 1996)

8. My first “real” kiss (Define real kiss however you want, this one was chaste. New Years Eve, 1994. I was 15 years old)

9. The day my daughter was baptized. (July 5, 2008)

10. The day I was baptized (September 5th, 1986)

11. The first time I tried Magelby’s chocolate cake (I was at Costco and they were giving free samples. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The guy that gave it to me warned me it was addictive. I should have listened)

12. The day my childhood home burned down (August 17th, 2000. We were going to celebrate my birthday the next day.)

13. The moment I learned my parents were “officially” divorced. (April 2000. I don't like to think about this one)

14. The day my mother remarried. (I was, and still am, very happy for her, but I couldn't even watch the ceremony. It was hard for me to watch my mother kiss a man that was not my father.)

15. The day I bought my home. (It was the day before my 7th wedding anniversary

16. The first time I listened to “The Phantom of the Opera” (I was driving to St George with Sonnett, and her father played it on the way down. I was 12.)

17. My first day of college. (More importantly I remember the day I moved into my dorm room. It was the first time i was living on my own, and it was awesome!)

18. The day I learned my parents temple sealing was canceled. (For years afterwards I struggled listening to the song "Families Can be Together Forever")

19. The first time I feel in love (Oh nothing like that jittery, electric, "in-love" feeling)

20. The first time I got my heart broken (Oh, ouch, don't like to think about this one either)

21. My 11th birthday. (I had an old fashioned tea party)

22. 5th grade (It was very good

23. The first big lie I told, (I was physically sick about it for two weeks, until I told my dad the truth. He was so good about it I never lied to him after. Never!

24. The first time I flew on an airplane. (I was seven and went by myself)

25. Going to Disneyland with my dad, just the two of us, when I was seven.

26. The first rejection letter I received for my writing...I don't need to go into that one.

27. The moment I was accepted into Orson Scott Card’s boot-camp. (It was the first "official" validation I have ever received for my writing... also the last, so far. But I'm optimistic.

28. The first time I bought a car from a car lot. (Ok, I'll be honest, my husband bought the car, but it was still cool to purchase a car that only had 6 miles on it.)

29. My last day of work (in an office, let’s face it I work harder now then I ever did at a desk job.)

30. The last time I spoke to my dad—two days before he died. (He told me to help my little brother, and to be kind to my mother.)

30 People who have changed my life.

2008-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

Still going.. Alyson King's 30 days of 30 lists, of blah, blah, blah

16 years old! (My braces years)

I truely beleive that every person I encounter affects my life. Some more than others. Below is a list of people who I feel I am a better person, and I've lived my life differently because they were a part of it.

1. Jason—My husband, good and bad, my life is completly different because of him. (Mostly good)

2. Sonnett—My best friend since elementary school

3. Sabine—My best friend since I've had kids, everyone needs someone to understand that tramu! (and joy)

4. Erin—My sister

5. Janae—My daughter

6. Sarah—My Daughter

7. Hyrum—My son

8. My Dad (there isn't much more to add)

9. Jenn—My best friend in high school

10. Monk—My best friend in college

11. Ms Edvalson—My eight grade teacher, (she loved my writing)

12. Ms Karen—My sixth grade teacher, (she taught me how to write)

13. Ms. Russel—My high school creative writing teacher, (she was the first one who told me I would be published some day, I hope not to disapoint her.)

14. Orson Scott Card—Changed my writing forever

15. All members of the 2007 boot camp—They keep me going

16. Amanda—My best friend while I worked at Convergys

17. My Mom

18. Drew—My brother

19. Tommy—My brother

20. Robby—My brother

21. Everyone who reads my blog—I wouldn’t blog without you ;)

22. Pres Hinckley—The prophet I’ve been closest to throughout my life

23. Everyone in book club—They help me survive each month

24. Harry-He would be my "phone a friend" life line if I was ever on "Who wants to be a Millionare"

25. Mimi—My grandmother

26. Grumpy—My grandfather

27. Jaymes—My first crush

28. Andy—My first heartbreak.

29. Ms. Ball—the greatest teacher I’ve ever had in my whole life

30. Paul King—My father-in-law

30 Things I can do...sort of

2008-07-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are still enjoying, (or at least tolerating,) Alyson King's ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists of 30 things about her. Don't worry we are now half way through. Wheew!
15 years old. I am the most tan and the skinniest I have ever been in my life. Oh to go back to those days.

Here are some things I can do, some I do ok, some not very well, some are just pathetic attempts. But I like to do them. So if you are ever wondering, gee I wish I know someone that knows how to, say, put up wallpaper, I'm your gal!

1. Write (You probably have figured this one out by now.)

2. Read (It goes with the whole writing thing)

3. Play the Flute (I use to be good, I even gave lessons at one time. Now, well, I kind of suck. Amazing how those talents go away when they're not used. But it's still fun to try it every now and then.)

4. Act (If I hadn't embraced writing and full-time motherhood, acting would have been my next pursuit)

5. Cook (I love cooking, and baking and being in the kitchen around food. It's the cleanup that keeps me from doing it more.)

6. Sing, (I’m horrible, but I still enjoy doing it, as long as there’s no one around)

7. Play the piano (just barely, not well enough to play in any kind of church calling...seriously!)

8. Do stuff on the computer (not sure if that’s a hobby)

9. Plan parties (If I had the budget all my parties would be way over the top. There is no question that I go over with every party I plan.)

10. Decorate for holidays (I love this and don't do it nearly enough, it's so much work to put everything up, pull everything down, and store everything that right now I'm kind of fading on it. But I hope to do it more in the future.)

11. Style hair (I used to style all my friends hair for prom, and even the Drama teacher put me in charge of hair for the musicals and plays. It started because I hated having my mom do my hair so i decided one day I would do my own hair. I used to get really fancy, but now I'm lazy. My kids wont' let me touch their hair so i worry I've forgotten what I knew.)

12. Apply makeup (I've always loved to do makeup, and i wonder where my daughter gets it from

13. Dance (My mother was a dance major in college, and for many years I loved dancing too. Wish i had kept it up, but it's another thing that has fallen by the wayside

14. Be a supportive mother (I try to do this, sometimes I better than at other times, but it's one thing I hope to do well someday.)

15. Be understanding (I think everyone thinks they are understanding, it's something that's hard to do well. I think this is something I'm either good at or terrible at, depending on the day, (or time of the month)

16. See the good in people (My father was amazing at this, and I hope i picked up his ability to always see people for the best they can be)

17. Lead music (It came with playing the flute)

18. Surf the Internet (Yeah, I know, it's a rel talent and I'm awesome at it. I bet I could spend hours at a time doing it, if I had the opportunity)

19. Blog (Ok, I'm not that good at blogging, not like some of you amazing bloggers out there. But I'm still on my learning curve, right?)

20. Wrap presents (This is something I've always loved to do, and I think I was the best at it in my family. That's not saying much, and now that I know my sister-in-law Lindsey, I know I'm not that good. But it is fun for me)

21. Tie bows (I can tie a bow well. Bet you didn't know that. Next time my girls wear a dress to church with a bow that ties in the back, check out the bow. i tied that!)

22. Snuggle with my kids (I snuggle with my kids everyday for at least half an hour. It's my to make sure they each get one-on-one everyday, but it does take a lot of time)

23. Eat sweets, especially if they involve chocolate (this talent has taken me years to get just right, but I still practice as often as possible)

24. Make homemade, pulled candy (My grandma has always made home-made candy at Christmas and so for many years I would go to her house and learn how she does it.)

25. Spend money (Another talent I try to improve every chance I can)

26. Put up wall paper (I'm actually very good at this one, too bad wall-paper isn't in style right now)

27. Balance a book on my head (Ok, now I'm pushing, trying to find things I can do)

28. Smile :)

29. Play “The Legend of Zelda” (I admit it, I love video games!)

30. Do Algebra (I hate math, but for some reason it makes sense to me)

30 favorite movies

2008-07-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Age 14

For this list I basically tried to pick movies that, if stuck on a desert island the rest of my life and I could only have 30 movies to watch again and again, which would they be. What are your favorite movies?

1. 13 going on 30 (Had to put this in, simply because I feel like I’m still 13 and I’m going to be 30!)

2. Legend This is one of those defining movies for me. I think I've watched it at least 20 times.

3. Labyrinth Mmmm, David Bowie as King Jareth sooooo HOT!

4. The Last Unicorn (Funny, this title is on my favorite song, book, and move list)

5. Grave of the Fireflies One of the most amazing movies about World War Two. Totally heart wrenching.

6. Robin Hood Prince of Thieves I haven't watched this movie for years, maybe because I will realize how terrible it is, and I like my happy memories I have with it. This was another defining movie for me.

7. The Little Mermaid I was 11 when this cartoon came out, and I was in love. The summer it was released on video, I watched it every single day!

8. Titanic I saw this more times in the theater than any other movie, and bawled every time.

9. Memoirs of a Geisha Of course the book is better, but I still loved this movie and how they captured the world of the Geisha

10. August Rush I just saw this movie for the first time and loved it so much.

11. Spirited Away Have I mentioned how much I love Hayao Miyazaki

12. Whispers of the Heart This is about a young girl who dreams of becoming a writer. How could I not love it? But what I love most, is the story told of her trying to look inside herself and finding a jewel, and how frightened she is to look, because she is so scared that all she'll find is a rock. Don't we all feel that way sometimes.

13. Twilight (ok, yes, it hasn’t come out yet, but I’m sure it will be a favorite)

14. Becoming Jane So deliciously romantic!

15. Lord of the Rings Besides being an awesome version of this great story, I wanted to include this movie, because of how long it takes to watch all three movies. If I was stuck on a desert island, this would be a great one to watch, because you would only have to repeat it every 14 hours.

16. Anna and the King Totally fell in love with Chow Yun-Fat in this!

17. Pride and Prejudice Love this and the BBC version. Every woman should love this story.

18. The Phantom of the Opera How could I not include this? I'm not really in love with Gerald Butler, however if you watch it with the French dubbing it makes it much more enjoyable!

19. Unico and the Island of Magic This is a fantastic movie I grew up on about a baby unicorn that brings happiness to everyone he meets.

20. Howl’s Moving Castle I am a huge fan of watching movies in their original language, but I make an exception with this one, Christian Bale as Howl makes me melt every time!

21. The Never Ending Story Such a classic movie. Why did they ruin it by making a sequel?

22. The Hobbit I loved this movie as a child and I'm so excited to see what they do with the new movie coming out.

23. Stardust Besides being packed full of hotties and being an awesome story, this movie is a must simply because of Captain Shakespeare.

24. Amadeus A fantastic telling of the life of Mozart!

25. The Haunting (1963 version)They just don't make scary movies like they used to. I love this movie. I use to watch black and white ghost movies with my father all the time, and this was, by far, the best. You never see a "ghost" through the whole thing, but all your other senses are used--the feeling of being watched, smells, sounds, all of that. No blood and gore, no psycho characters, just really cool camera angels, eerie sounds and a great plot.

26. Sunset Boulevard Another absolute classic. I discovered this movie on accident. When Andrew Lloyd Webber announced he was making a musical based off this movie Sonnett and I ran out and watched it. I fell in love with the movie and think it's so well done and such a great portrayal of Hollywood at that time, (and even now). The musical? Well, it's ok, don't love it, don't hate it, it's simple O.K.

27. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon This movie has it all! Kick-butt fight scenes, intense romances, and stunning cinematography, not to mention an awesome story. What more do you need?

28. Chocolat I love watching this on Valentine's Day. Don't ever watch it when trying to diet!

29. Fairytale: A True Story This is based on the story of the Cottington Fairies. During World War I, two young girls snap picture of fairies in their garden. Although the pictures prove to be fake, the girls claimed all their life that they did see and play with fairies, but were never able to capture them on the photographs.

30. Watcher in the Woods Who doesn't LOVE this Disney ghost story? This is another classic I love to watch each Halloween!

I'm a Barbie Girl!

2008-07-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

(Well, I'm not a barbie girl not in this picture) 13 years old.

I love Barbie dolls. I have never grown out of them, I went straight from playing with them to collecting them. In fact a few years ago I became so obsessive with collecting I made myself sell almost my whole collection. (I was obsessively buying Barbie dolls. It was bad) I do miss my collection, but I’m glad I did it. I was really feeling out of control. But I still love them and browse barbiecollectors.com all the time. So here is a list of my favorites. Some I have, some I don’t, but I love them all!

1. Lady of the Unicorns(If anyone is looking for a great gift to give me for my birthday, this would be it! Here's where you can buy it. So what that it costs $200--right??)

2. Mermaid Enchantress

3. Faerie Queen (brunette)Only 500 of these dolls were every made, and I did, at one point, have my own doll. It was the most rare doll I've ever had. Because she was worth so much I did sale her, (sniff, sniff)

4. Morning Sun Princess

5. Midnight Moon Princess

6. Venetian Opulence

7. Maiko

8. Peppermint ObsessionShe even smells like peppermint!

9. Dancing Fire

10. Fairy of the gardenShe's one I regreat selling.

11. IllusionThis was the first barbie my husband ever bought me.

12. Lord of the Rings

13. Phantom of the Opera

14. Lighter than Air

15. Marie Antoinette

16. Heartstring Angel

17. Harpist Angel

18. Water Lily

19. The Peacock

20. Merlin and Morgan Le FayI like this one because I think it's awesome they would make a Ken doll with such a massive beard

21. Romeo and Juliet

22. The PirateShe looks so awesome! I would love to write a story about her.

23. Orange PekoeShe is one of the most rare barbies out there. Limited quantity and made out of porcelin!

24. The Bard

25. 2003 Treasure Hunt

26. Winter Fantasy

27. Princess of the VikingsMy Norse heritage comes out in this barbie!

28. Vera Wang

29. Oktoberfest

30. Medusa

Out and about

2008-07-28T09:34:00.001-07:00

Wow, two posts in one day, how cool is that!

I hope everyone is enjoying my 30 days of stuff... or at least tolerating it. It is a bit excessive, but it was really fun to create.

Anyway I've been gone for the past two weeks, and just wanted to thank everyone for the posts, and emails, and I'm sorry I haven't responded, It's been crazy. This has been my past two weeks

Park City
Salt Lake
St. George
Camping
Lagoon
Zoo
Birthdays
Swimming
Croup
Pink Eye
Colds
Sore throats
High school Musical
Playing the Wii
Too much shopping
And lots of eating

The coolest thing though, that I really wanted to blog about, is my family surprised me and gave me my birthday gift early. They bought me a Wii!! Yes, I have my own Wii!!! So freakin' cool!

Anyway I have missed reading people's blogs and hope to get caught up on everything soon.

30 of my biggest fears

2008-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Age 12. This picture makes me laugh, simply because I felt so popular in my "cool" outfit, and crimped hair. Love it!

1. I’m scared I’m a bad writer, and no one will tell me the truth. But I love it too much to stop.

2. I’m worried that people think I’m dumb

3. I get scared thinking about where I would be if I hadn’t married my husband.

4. I terrified of some kind of disaster happening and not being close to my kids when it does.

5. I’m terrified of earthquakes!

6. I am scared of being in the car with my kids and falling into a river, and not being able to get them out.

7. I have a reoccurring dream of my kids drowning

8. I am scared of spiders, but not bees

9. I’m scared of rats, but not bats

10. I’m scared that people think less of me because I’m overweight

11. I’m so scared that my children will need me and I won’t be there for them

12. I have a weird phobia of calling people on the phone. (If I call you, know that it took some time for me to muster the courage)

13. I’m scared of ghosts, but I love them too.

14. I’m scared of my playroom 90% of the time.

15. I’m literally terrified of being poor, and worry that someday I will be really poor just so I can learn to cope with it.

16. Laser eye surgery frightens me, but I really want to get it down.

17. Any kind of plastic surgery freaks me out.

18. I’m scared of losing my husband

19. I’m worried I’ll get cancer someday. But I don’t do too much to prevent it

20. I’m really worried that oneday I will turn into one of those extremely obese people that you see on TV, that have to be lifted out of their house with a crane…. I really am afraid of that.

21. I’m scared of dying young and leaving my children before they are grown.

22. Did I mention the fear of spiders! Even if I kill one I think it might jump up and bite me.

23. I worry a lot about hurting people’s feelings

24. I worry my children will resent me and need years of therapy to deal with the childhood I’m giving them. (but I think there’s not much I can do, I’m trying my best)

25. I’m scared of failing as a mother, and as a writer (I know I’ve already failed as a housekeeper, so I don’t worry about that one anymore)

26. I’m scared I won’t be able to have more children

27. I’m scared of having more kids, (right now)

28. I don’t think I could ever parachute out of a plane, I’m too frightened of heights

29. I’m scared of farting in public and having people know it was me! How embarrassing!!

30. Just so we’re clear, I’m terrified of spiders.

Someday I hope to be a world travler. A list of places I want to go!

2008-07-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Age 11. Yup, these are my ugly years.

My list of places I have traveled is so pathetic, but I hope someday to travel the world, here is where I want to go. I didn’t even bother putting cities, because there are so many places I want to go, I just put the country.

1. Japan
2. Egypt
3. Jerusalem
4. Germany
5. Norway
6. Denmark
7. France
8. Ireland
9. England
10. Scotland
11. Wales
12. Austria
13. Switzerland
14. Prince Edward Island
15. Cancun
16. Hawaii
17. Alaska
18. Greece
19. Italy
20. China
21. Australia
22. Spain
23. Argentina
24. New Zealand
25. Philadelphia
26. Hershey, Pennsylvania
27. Coast of Maine
28. Cozumel
29. A private island (which I own of course, and has 5 star service!)
30. Mont Everest

Places I’ve been

2008-07-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Here I am at 10. I think of the next few pictures as my ugly years. I can't beleive I'm posting them on the internet!

I wish I was an avid traveler and I hope to someday, but until then here are places I have actually spent the night in that city. How pathetic, you don’t know how hard I had to rack my brain to come up with this list.

1. Orem, Utah
2. Salt Lake City, Utah
3. Bear Lake, Utah
4. Vernal, Utah
5. St George, Utah
6. Las Vegas, Nevada
7. San Diego, California
8. Los Angeles, California
9. San Francisco, California
10. Mexico
11. Sweden
12. New York, New York
13. Seattle, Washington
14. Park City, Utah
15. Twin Falls, Idaho
16. Boise, Idaho
17. Idaho Falls, Idaho
18. Lake Powell, Utah
19. Ithaca, New York
20. Cedar City, Utah
21. Heber City, Utah
22. Flagstaff, Arizona
23. Mesa, Arizona
24. Monterey, California
25. Cambria, California
26. Chicago, Illinois
27. Anaheim, California
28. Sun Valley, Idaho
29. Jackson Hole, Wyoming
30. Orlando, Florida

30 of my favorite names, (for both people and fictional characters)

2008-07-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…
Age 9

The majority of these names are from either my book or books I’ve read. But they are just cool names—perhaps not for a baby, but cool none-the-less

1. AaJanaet (ah-janae) Jason thought it was a bit much and agreed to Janae for the name of our first daughter
2. Eileyrie (Wish I could claim this one, but it belongs to Sonnett)
3. Xenzues (zen-zues)
4. Adalaid
5. Celestia
6. Cynthia
7. Tara
8. Cara
9. Usagi
10. Zyren
11. Autumn Lilly
12. Summer Rose
13. Ganarr
14. Mendrek
15. Kalliope
16. Serena
17. Cera
18. Adora
19. Ariel
20. Samantha
21. Elizabeth
22. Victoria
23. Benjamin
24. Zachery
25. Edward (don’t have a clue where that one came from)
26. Sorcha
27. Darien
28. Seyia
29. Welcome (Yes, it’s a real name, it’s the name of my great-great grandfather)
30. Alyson (of course)

30 of my favorite words

2008-07-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…
Age 8

Words are an interesting thing for me, being a writer they are the tool of my trade, and although I know very few, I do have a love for certain ones. I also find that I will favor words for a year or so, and then ignore them and favor other words, so these are the favorite words on my mind right now.

1. Paradigm
2. Diaphanous
3. Fathom
4. Feckless
5. Excruciating
6. Exuberant
7. Zephyr
8. Preposterous
9. Titillate
10. Adamantine
11. Impregnable
12. Sizzle
13. Envelope
14. Facetious
15. Perfect
16. Antidisestablishmentarianism (no longer the longest word in the dictionary, but so many fond memories using this word in grade school)
17. Copasetic
18. Seared
19. Loath
20. Hippopotamomonstrososessiquippadaliaphobia (The fear of long words, how great it that!
21. Iridescent
22. Zealous
23. Serendipity
24. Writhe
25. Satin
26. Copious
27. Ensue
28. Frivolous
29. Elated
30. Reminisce

My daydreams

2008-07-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

7 Years old

These are things I really want, or use to want, or pretend to have, or hope to have someday, but I haven’t had any of them yet. This is why I write, to have the things I can’t have. (Wow, I used have, had, and haven’t six times in one paragraph. See what an awesome writer I am)

1. I use to dream of being a Broadway Star
2. I dream of being a great writer, and on the New York Times bestseller list
3. Sometimes I wish I was single, successful, living in a spotless penthouse apartment in a big city, but then I think about how lonely I would be and I’m really glad I’m a stay-at-home mom.
4. I dream of having my entire house thoroughly deep cleaned
5. I dream of keeping it that way for at least 24 hours
6. I dream of having my own chef that cooks fabulous, healthy meals and cleans up afterwards
7. I wish I had a maid
8. I’ve always wanted to live in a castle with a huge garden in the front
9. I’ve always wanted to have a maze grown out of tall hedges in my backyard.
10. I’ve always wanted to go to a masked ball
11. I want to travel the world.
12. I honestly believe I will get published someday, I feel it deep inside of me.
13. I’ve always wanted two guys to fight over me
14. I’d love to have one of my books made into a movie
15. Sometimes I pretend I’m rich and famous and everyone wants to be my friend.
16. I wish I could talk to animals
17. I wish I could fly
18. I wish I could be a mermaid
19. I wish I could relive high school, knowing then what I know now.
20. Once in a while I wish I was very skinny and incredible beautiful
21. I wish I could pause time to sleep, clean, read books, and watch TV, so I wouldn’t spend time doing those things.
22. I wish I could walk on water
23. I wish I could run as fast as the wind
24. I wish I could give my kids everything they wanted, without spoiling them or going bankrupt
25. I wish I could go to Walt Disney World for two weeks, staying in the most luxurious hotel, and spend oodles of money
26. I also wish I could do more to help people who have no money, or no family
27. I’ve always wanted to win first place in a contest
28. I wish I was an amazing sword fighter, (well, I wish I was a sword fighter, period)
29. I wish I had magic
30. I wish I could clone myself, so I could get more accomplished

30 Writing Tips

2008-07-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Age 6

What qualifies me to give writing advice. Not much. I’ve never been published—at all. Well, except for some poetry in my high school magazine. But I have written—a lot! I’ve read a few books and gone to many workshops, so I feel like I have an idea, but just an idea. Maybe one day I’ll know how to write really well. But until then here is my small advice to anyone who wants to be a writer. (And I should add that I do fiction writing. Non-fiction is a totally separate ballgame, and I have no clue how to do that)

1. Write, (you’d be surprised how many people want to be writers, but they don’t write)
2. Write (keep writing, don’t stop once you’re done with a story)
3. Write (you can never do enough of it)
4. Read, especially books in the genre you want to write in.
5. Read books in other genres.
6. Read “Character’s and Viewpoints” by Orson Scott Card
7. Get added to Dave Wolverton’s “Daily Kick in the Pants” list. They are awesome!
8. Join a writer’s group, but one that you won’t be afraid of leaving when you get too close.
9. Attended writing conferences.
10. When you pick up a book to read, pay attention to who edited the book, and who the publisher is. You never know when that information might be useful.
11. Don’t write worried about what other people will think. Write first for yourself. In fact write with the idea that no one will ever read it. That allows you to remove so many writing boundaries.
12. If you get stuck in the story, either go back and start rewriting, or skip forward and write that scene that’s been running through your head, even if you don’t know how you’re going to get there.
13. It’s ok to kill characters, make characters do stupid things, or have them do something that’s totally out of character. Tomorrow, if you don’t like it, you can write it over again.
14. There is such a thing as something being too revised.
15. Keep writing (even if it’s nonsense, it helps you find your voice)
16. If your stuck and have no idea what to write, pick a movie or book that you didn’t like the ending, and rewrite it.
17. All writing rules were made to be broken
18. But you really shouldn’t break them, most of the time. They are there for a reason.
19. Attend book signings, and don’t be afraid to talk with authors. They are fun, cool, and often have great advice about writing.
20. Exercise. Your mind is more clear when your blood is circulating, and it’s very easy to get out of shape sitting in front of a computer all day. (Hmm, I need to take more of my own advice on this one)
21. Love to write. There is nothing to be gained as writer, unless if you love it.
22. Make time for your family. Sometimes we as writers forget that our characters aren’t real people, and that the real people around us need as just as much as our stories do. As Orson Scott Card said, “it’s your family that will surround you when you die, not your books.”
23. Try to write every day. Your brain and hands are muscles that need to be worked.
24. Be proud of being a writer, it is one of the coolest things in the world.
25. Find a support system, it is tough trying to break into print, and you need people there to love you through it.
26. When your not writing, think about your story as much as possible.
27. When plotting, always ask, “what if” and never settle on your first response. (unless you’re writing an LDS romance, there is only one or two plots to follow) Just kidding
28. Get familiar with word count, instead of page count. I’m so glad we have computers that do this for us.
29. Quantity is not always quality. Set your goals on making the best story you can, not in getting a certain word count.
30. When asking someone to read your story and you want honest feedback, ask them to look for the three grunts. (This is from Orson Scott Card, and it’s some of the best advice I’ve received) Basically if there is a time when they feel one of the following three ways they should mark your manuscript.
• Huh (the story doesn’t make sense)
• Yeah Right (the story is unbelievable in the world you’ve created)
• So what (they don’t care about the story)

30 Titles of Books (or stories) I've written

2008-07-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Age five, (I cut my hair myself for this picture) :)

So, I love to write. If could be described as one thing I would love for it to be a “Great Writer”, (well, after, a great mother, and a great wife, of course). Here is a little information about several books or stories I’ve written. Many have not been completed. And of course all of these fabulous ideas and stories are copyrighted, but hey if you think the story sounds good and that you could write it well, go ahead and use it. I’d love to see what you do with it.

1. (Age 6) The Bishop and His Tree House—My very first story I remember writing and being so proud of. It was basically about a bishop who noticed the children were sad, so he built them a tree house.

2. (Age 9) Where the Sidewalk Ends—Inspired by the famous book of poetry this was a story about two young girls who sent off on a journey to see where the sidewalk ends. The follow the sidewalk over mountains, across oceans to a golden tree.

3. (Age 10) Prisoner in Pink—My first chapter book! About a Princess who always wore pink, about 100 pages, handwritten

4. (Age 12) The Unicorn Necklace—A novel about two fairy princess who have magical necklace that can control the elements and a wizard who is trying to get them. (About 1,200 pages handwritten)

5. (Age 13) The Unicorn Necklace rewrite—I didn’t like the ending and rewrote over 600 pages, so I kind of consider it a book in itself.

6. Egypt and I—A novel about a beautiful popular high school student who is in an awful car accident that physically scars her. She goes to Egypt as an exchange student, and while exploring the pyramids is taken back in time where the Pharaoh believes her scars are a sign from the gods

7. Untitled—A perfect retelling of the story of Phantom of the Opera. Except the names have been changed. This was when I was young. Every writer goes through a phase where the rewrite their favorite stories, it’s part of becoming a writer, I promise.

8. The Tail of a Mermaid—Set in Spain during the renaissance, this tells the story of a Princess who is in hiding from her father and one day wakes up to discover a baby outside her door. She raises the baby as her daughter and discovers the the baby is really a mermaid who is destined to stop the feuding countries.

9. Angel of Music—A novel of the Phantom of the Opera, told through Christine’s point of view, starting with her birth. It focuses on her relationship with her father and Raoul, and why she was so in need of an angel of music when Erik came to her. This is one that I really hope to publish someday.

10. Untitled—Your typical romance book. Yes, I have spent a great deal of time writing a romance, and it is one that no one but me has read and no one else will ever read. It’s your basic plot of a beautiful kind woman, who is engaged to a millionaire, and, surprise, surprise, a billionaire, who happens to be the richest man in the world, falls in love with her. While her fiancée is away the billionaire tries to woo her by taking her on shopping sprees, eating at fine restaurants all that stuff. (blush and giggle) The sad thing about this, I’ve written over 400,000 words with this story. (That’s close to the size of a Harry Potter novel) Pathetic huh! And for anyone wondering, it’s not that kind of a “romance” I do have certain standards when I write.

11. Untitled—This is kind of a fantasy romance, about a Queen with magic who was left in the desert to die by her husband the king, so he could marry her lady in waiting. She survives with the help of the unicorns, and is taken to the great king, who hires her as a servant in the castle, and they fall in love. The great king learns the truth of what has happened to her with her husbands and seeks to prosecute him. About 200,000 words (And you wonder why I’m not yet published. Hmm, maybe it has something to do with my cheesy plot line. No…)

12. Untitled—My one attempt at an LDS romance, and it bombed! About a Mormon girl who gets involved with a man who she later discovers used to be LDS, but has left the church and wants nothing to do with it. Guess what! She’s the answer to his family prayers. Bet you didn’t see that one coming. Ok, I’m done talking about this book, let’s move on.

13. Untitled—a story I wrote in high school about a high school girl who has a teenage boy wizard come to her school because he’s searching for her and ends up falling in love with her.

14. The Mermaid—A retelling of The Little Mermaid. This is another one that I think might have potential of getting published. (about 60,000 words)

15. The Frog Prince—A retelling of the Frog Prince (still in outline form)

16. Fan Fiction for “Harry Potter” (anyone who doesn’t know what fan fiction is, it’s stories using the same characters and places of popular stories. The fact that I’ve written so much is kind of embarrassing, but I’m trying to fill up my list.

17. Fan Fiction for “Lord of the Rings”

18. Fan Fiction for “The Mummy”

19. Fan Fiction for “The Legend of Zelda”

20. Fan Fiction for Terry Brooks “Magic Kingdom” series

21. Fan Fiction for “Spirited Away”

22. Untitled—A story in outline form based on a dream I had about a princess who is in love with a warrior

23. Cara—A side story from my novel, about the Fairy Queen and her life 50,000 words

24. Harold—A side story to my main novel about the life of this character 35,000 words

25. Kaspian—I named my main character in this before I was familiar with Prince Caspian—OK! A sweet novel, that is a side story to my main book The wizards Princess. It a love story between a princess and a merman, kind of a twist on the whole Little Mermaid story. 80,000 words.

26. The Unicorn Necklace—A complete rewrite of the novel I wrote when I was younger. About 600,000 words. (my biggest piece of writing yet)

27. The Wizards’ Princess—My first serious novel, that I’ve actually tried to get published. This is the first of three books about a princess who finds a magical sword and sets off on a journey to find a wizard. (Available to read upon request) about 120,000 words.

28. Sequel the Wizard’s Princess (Untitled)—The story continues as Celestia searches in the ocean for the mer-people. Unfinished, so far about 60,000 words

29. Tutankhamen’s Conundrum—A short story I wrote during Orson Scott Card’s boot camp, and Tutankhamen, and many of the other ancient Egyptian mummies coming back to life in the modern day. Someday I hope to write this into a novel.

30. Untitled—A new idea I just started working on and I don’t have the story worked out, it’s about 7,000 words so far and involves fairies.

Favorite Books I've read

2008-07-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

4 years old

I love reading, and picking favorite books is like picking a favorite child. There are so many things I love about them, but also none are perfect, maybe I should do my favorite scenes from books. No, just the books. Here are lists of books I loved reading, affected my life, are amazing, or just plain fun. I would recommend each one!

1. “The Hiding Place” Connie Ten Boom
2. “The Twilight Saga” Stephenie Meyer, (how could I not put this on)
3. “Phantom” Susan Kay
4. “The Last Unicorn” Peter S. Beagle
5. “Enchantment” Orson Scott Card
6. “Austenland” Shannon Hale
7. “Magic Kingdom of Landover Series” Terry Brooks
8. “Sword of Truth Series” Terry Goodkind. (There’s making a mini series of this in the fall!
9. “The Belgarid” David Eddings
10. “The Phantom of the Opera” Gaston Lerox
11. “Les Miserable” Victor Hugo
12. “These is my Words” Nancy E. Turner
13. “Harry Potter Series” J. K. Rowling (had to put this on as well.)
14. “The Little Prince” Antoine De Saint-Exuprery
15. “The Sleepover Friends” Susan Saunders (I read these instead of the Babysitter’s Club”)
16. “And the Sky Full of Stars” Sabine Berlin (Of course had to put that in as well.)
17. “Silver Dragons” By Sonnett Shelline
18. “Characters and Viewpoints” Orson Scott Card
19. “Reunion” Fred Uhlman
20. “The Goose Girl” Shannon Hale
21. “The Great Gatsby” F. Scott Fitzgerald
22. “What the Witch Left” Ruth Chew
23. “Goodnight Moon” Margaret Wise Brown
24. “The Giving Tree” Shel Silverstein
25. “Winter Rose” Patricia A. McKillip
26. “Seven Waters Trilogy” Juliet Marillier
27. “The Black Swan” Mercedes Lackey
28. “Always Follow Your Dreams” A Collection of Poems Susan Polis Schutz
29. “Webster’s Dictionary/Thesaurus” (May sound lame, but you would be surprised how much I crack this book open
30. Any book I’ve written (That sounds so narcissistic, but I really am my favorite author)

Foods I would rather starve than eat, (at least I say that now, hopefully I won't have to test this claim)

2008-07-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Me at 3

As I said, I am a super picky eater, which drives most people who know me, crazy. But at least I know what I don’t like. Here it is.

1. I hate nuts!! Considering I’m allergic to them no wonder
2. Almonds are the worst
3. Mushrooms, (although I do like the flavor, it’s the texture I can’t stand)
4. Tomatoes (again, love the flavor, not so much the texture.
5. Wasabi sauce (too hot)
6. Strawberries, no matter how many times I’ve tried them, (dipped in chocolate, wrapped in cream cheese and brown sugar), I just can’t stomach them. I think I have an intolerance.
7. liver and onions, (ok I admit I have never tried this, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to try it either)
8. Ribs, too messy, too chewy, I’ve just never been able to fall in love with them. Amazingly my marriage has still survived despite the fact
9. Cole slaw (gag)
10. Most left overs ( for whatever reason I have a mental aversion to prepared food that’s been in the fridge)
11. Cow tongue, pigs feet, chicken beak. Or any animal body part that we don’t normally eat, (again never tried them, but the very idea makes me gag)
12. drumsticks, loved them as a kid, not so much as an adult and I don’t know why
13. most soups made from a powder, some are great, but there are a few that should just stay powdered
14. Any kind of chocolate delicacies with nuts. There is nothing worse than getting my hopes up that I’m going to have something delicious and wonderful, only to get them dashed when I see the nuts. (this happened many times to me in Europe)
15. Fast food hamburgers. I must have been traumatized as a child, because I haven’t even been able to order one in over 20 years.
16. McDonalds. Ok let’s admit it—it’s a love/hate relationship. But at the moment I’m leaning more towards hate, simply because I just had some. Curse you McDonalds, and your hot salty french-fries!
17. Twinkies. Never have and never will like Twinkies.
18. Lobster, by itself not so grand. Lobster bisque! YUM! Chunks of lobster in a cheesy fondue, SUPER YUM! By itself, err, not so great.
19. Western Family Mac and Cheese, yes there is a big difference form the Kraft brand, and trust me, it’s worth those extra $0.15.
20. Cornflakes
21. Hot dogs boiled in water
22. Green Peppers (but I love red peppers)
23. Jalapeños
24. Little Caesar’s Pizza (It use to be so good)
25. Chili (except on Halloween)
26. Pickles
27. Maraschino cherries (they just seem so unnatural to me)
28. Plain vanilla ice cream (add chocolate sauce and it’s great)
29. Raw pumpkin (carving pumpkins at Halloween, makes me gag)
30. Yams

Yummy, favorite foods!

2008-07-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Me at age 2

I am a very picky eater, as you will learn more about on my list of my least favorite foods. But when I fall in love with food it lasts forever. So here is my list of favorite foods. (and you might notice the majority of foods involve sugar on some level. That just means I'm very sweet, right?)

1. Magelbys chocolate cake
2. Hot homemade wheat bread with butter and honey
3. Pears in warm carmel sauce
4. warm chocolate chip cookies
5. Homemade chicken noodle soup on a snowy day.
6. Sonnett’s mother’s lasagna
7. most food items from Kneaders
8. Noodles and Company Macaroni and cheese
9. Chocolate éclairs
10. Vanilla Italian Cream Soda’s from Barnes and Nobel
11. Chick Fila
12. Grilled chicken salad
13. bacon, especially when it’s still sizzling
14. I love breakfast foods, pancakes, waffles, french toast, all smothered in syrup and real butter
15. mint brownies
16. rice crispies treats
17. Olive Garden’s fettuccine Alfredo
18. Red Lobsters Seafood Cheesy fondue
19. The bread over in Europe!
20. cupcakes
21. fresh squeezed orange juice
22. chocolate frozen custard
23. Sees chocolate, especially their butterscotch squares
24. gingerbread
25. hand pulled butter mints
26. chocolate cheesecake
27. Marie Calenders Kulaha Cream Pie
28. Dulce de leche ice cream
29. cinnamon sugar toast
30. homemade tapioca pudding

30 of my favorite songs

2008-07-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

You are enjoying Alyson King’s ultimate, 30 days of 30 lists with 30 facts about her…

Me on my first birthday, you can't see under the hat, but I was completely bald

How do you only pick 30 songs out of the hundreds that you love? So I finally decided to just pick my top 30 that either have some meaning, some memory attached, or a song I find myself putting on a play mix over and over. I also tried to limit one song per artist I love, even though most artist on here I love tons of their music, so I picked one of my favorite songs by them. (They are in no particular order)

1. “Silent All these Years” Tori Amos
2. “Walking on Air” Kerli
3. “Slow Me Down” Emmy Rossum
4. “Every time” Britney Spears
5. “The Phantom of the Opera” (I know this is a full musical, not necessarily one song, but I could fill up this list if I listed each song individually)
6. “Calling You” Blue October
7. “The Elf Knight” Steeleye Span (couldn't find a youtube video of this song, so I included Steeleye Span's most popular tune, "All Around my Hat"
8. “Window Panes” Karen Gibbs (impossible to find this song anywhere since it was only ever on a record, but it was the first song my Dad recorded with the new digital technology, and I can't hear it without bursting into tears)
9. “The Marvelous Toy” Peter, Paul and Mary
10. “Passion” Utada Hikaru
11. “Bonny Portmore” Loreena Mckennitt
12. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” Bonnie Tyler
13. “Ghost Love Score” Nightwish (check out this song, not only will you here this song, but see several awesome clips of the most amazing TV show Japan has ever done, “Sailor Moon Live Action”
14. “In the End” Linkin Park
15. “Oh Holy Night”
16. “Sono Luminous” Erasure (Mine and Jason’s Song)
17. “Behind the Waterfall” David Lanz
18. “Girlfriend” Avril Lavigne
19. “Love Changes Everything” Michael Ball
20. “Fly” Sarah Brightman
21. “All Love Can Be” Charlotte Church
22. The “ABC song” (it was the first song I ever learned, and one of the most important, how could I be a writer if I didn’t have my ABC’s)Watch this on youtube, it's adorable!
23. “Moonlight Sonata” Beethoven
24. “セーラースターソング” Theme song to Sailor Moon Season 5
25. “Candle on the Water” Pete’s Dragon
26. “The Kind of Love You Never Recover From” Christine Lavin
27. “The Last Unicorn” America
28. “Loved By the Sun” Tangerine Dream
29. “On My Own” Les Miserables
30. “I am a Child of God”

Everything you've ever wanted to know about Alyson King and so much more than you really care to know

2008-07-13T20:55:00.001-07:00

This is my hospital picture

So this year, on August 15th, I am turning 30 years old. It has been, for whatever reason, something I’ve struggled with. So to help ease the depression, or perhaps to help me take my mind off of the fact, I have created the ultimate list. So, 30 days before my birthday, (starting July 17th) I’m going to post 30 different lists, each one with 30 different facts about me. Yup, that’s 900 facts for your enjoyment. Now, I’m not narcissistic enough to really think anyone would want to read everything, but it was really fun for me to create. (It’s been a few months in the process) And it was a great way for me to document who I am for my posterity. I would recommend everyone try it, and see if you learn about yourself. I also want to apologize for all grammar mistakes through these lists, as well as I'm sorry if information is repeated. I can no longer remember what I put where and if I repeated myself. Here is a preview of what you will be getting over the next month. Enjoy.

My 30 list

1. 30 favorite songs
2. 30 favorite foods
3. 30 least favorite foods
4. 30 favorite books I’ve read
5. 30 titles of books I’ve written
6. 30 writing tips
7. 30 dreams I have
8. 30 favorite words
9. 30 favorite names
10. 30 places I’ve been.
11. 30 places I would like to go
12. 30 things that scare me
13. 30 favorite Barbies
14. 30 favorite movies
15. 30 Things I do
16. 30 people who have changed my life
17. 30 most memorable memories
18. 30 beliefs
19. 30 cheapest things I own
20. 30 most expensive things I own
21. 30 facts about my family
22. 30 favorite kinds of candy
23. 30 irreplaceable things I have
24. 30 favorite TV shows
25. 30 things I would buy if I was a millionaire
26. 30 things about me as a kid
27. 30 things about me as a teenager
28. 30 things about me as an adult
29. 30 things I want to be doing in 30 years
30. 30 random things about me

Swiper no Swipping

2008-07-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

I got swipped again! That kid! This time it was my contact lens case. It’s rather frustrating to go at 1:00 in the morning to take your contacts out and have no idea where your contact lens case is, and spend 20 min searching for it.

I found the lids, and just put them in that.

A great pair of pants

2008-07-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

I love shopping as much as the next girl. Heck, if I could I would look for any opportunity to spend money. Except when it comes to buying pants. Who decided that they needed to make pant shopping some kind of punishment for women? The other day I tried on over 30 pairs of jeans, searching for the perfect pair. They were either too short, too long, too baggy, too tight, gapped in the back, showed my muffin top, or came up to my chest. When I finally found a pair I fell in love with it cost a hefty $118. (the brand was Not Your daughter’s Jeans, tummy tuck. I would recommend them to anyone)

Why can’t inexpensive jeans fit as good as the expensive one. Why???? WHY?

Now I’m on the search for a good pair of slacks, something I could wear to Writing conferences where I will be schmoozing with editors and agents in hopes that I can convince them to buy my book. With three kids it’s been impossible to get out, so I’ve been roaming the internet.

If it’s hard to find a pair at the store it’s even more difficult on the computer. Trying to decipher how high, or how low it looks on the model just doesn’t cut it. Trying to picture my chunky thighs in place of their tiny sleek legs just doesn’t work. I need a virtual dressing room where I can download a picture of myself and try on each pair of pants, where I can clearly see how it will tug, cling, and chaff all through the computer.

Come on people, give us clothes that fit and easy ways to buy them. In the struggling economy where we can only afford buying one pair of jeans every ten years, we need to be making jeans that are awesome, comfortable, stylish and at an unbeatable price. Is that really so much to ask for?

We believe

2008-07-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

"We believe that the first principles and ordinances of Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost."

I don’t often get spiritual in my posts, but I couldn’t contain the feelings that overwhelmed me yesterday as I watched my oldest daughter get baptized. The ordinance itself is so quick, so simple, and yet it will set her on a path to guide her through her whole life. It is true that it’s these small, simple things that make great things come to past. After she received the gift of the Holy Ghost I had an opportunity to bare my testimony to her. Tears filled her eyes as I told her that I knew Jesus was the Christ and I can honestly say, at that moment I have never felt closer to my daughter. I have never felt so peaceful in my life. I truly felt a fullness of joy. I’m so grateful for this opportunity. I love my family so much and I’m so grateful for the chance to spend all eternity with them.

What a wonderful thing baptism is, that we can be clean forever of our sins. As we exercise faith and repentance we will be as spotless as the moment we were baptized. It was a good reminder for me, as I see myself struggle and fall each day, that the Lord will always love us, and always provide an opportunity for us to be spotless, to have a member of the godhead with us at all times, and to be with Him again. How truly glorious this gospel is.

Happy Birthday Sonnett

2008-06-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

Today my longest friend (of 20 years) turns 30!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONNETT

Don't you love the picture. It's Sonnett and me in 5th grade. (Yes, my maiden name is Alyson Ingebretsen)

So here are 30 things that you probably didn't know about Sonnett, (well a lot of people who read my blog don't really know anything about this awesome lady, so you'll find this extra fascinating!)

1) Sonnett's mother went into labor while watching Monty Python... that really says it all--but I'll go on.
2) I was in third grade the first time I met Sonnett and I thought her name was "Socket". (I had never heard of a sonnet before) and I thought that was a really weird name.
3) When I found out her real name I still thought it was weird and I never dreamed she was someone that would be my friend
4) I was violently jealous of her in third grade because she had a larger barbie doll collection than me, (I had the most of all my friends before she moved in)
5) In fifth grade we sat by each other because we didn't know anyone else in class. That's was the start of a beautiful friendship and the best year of school of my life!
6) During that year we co-wrote our first novel together, (about 100 pages)
7) Her house was so cool because it had a wall that opened up into a secret room.
8) We wanted to be Rock Stars. Our band's name was "The Florescents"
9) Sonnett always has been, and always will be one of my all time favorite singers. Her voice is incredible!
10)She has the most beautiful hands and finger nails of anyone I have ever known.
11) She has stunning large brown eyes, and because of her I think blond hair and brown eyes is the most beautiful combination ever.
12) We were nerds in fifth grade. (She wore a head-gear and glasses) It was awesome.
13) She can do a cool little twitch with her nose that pushes her glasses up when they fall.
14) So far, our most bitter fight happened in fifth grade. No one will ever understand the torment either one of us experienced over this issue, nor the passion with how strongly we felt it. The fight was over fairies, and whether or not they wear clothing.
15)She is an amazing reader.
16) All the great music I love was introduced to me by her.
17) She moved to California in sixth grade, but our friendship survived all these years through letters, phone calls, and lengthy visits.
18) We are very similar and so, at times, we drive each other crazy, but in the end we are always best friends.
19) We will sometimes go months without contact and then we can pick right up as if time had stood still.
20)The summer before eighth grade she started writing a novel, (which ended up being over 1,000 pages) Wanting to be just like her I did the same.
21) She has elegant handwriting
22) She is an amazing artist (as I have already ranted and raved about)
23) She is the oldest of four children
24) She has Bohemian-gypsy bones in her.
25) She understand my love with food, and understands completely if I say the words, M&M cookies, Carmel popcorn, Cocoa Krispies, French Bread and Sparkling Apple Cider
26) Everyone in her family is an amazing singer, her mother even has a CD out (Gypsy Bones)
27) We went to college together, but weren't as close during that time as we have been at other times in our life.
28) She understands my love affair with two-dimensional, fictional characters, especially those of Anime origin.
29) She spins her own yarn, knits, sews, and I just recently learned she sculpts too!
30)Last, but not least, she agrees with me that Broadway stars are way cooler than Pop stars!

Thanks for being such a great friend for the past 20 years. Here's to another twenty more. Love you a lot, have a wonderful 30th birthday.

The Case of the Missing Crest

2008-06-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

About two days ago I lost my toothpaste. Perhaps lost isn’t the right word. My toothpaste was swiped right under my nose by my sticky fingered one-year-old. No problem, I thought. He can’t go too far and there are only so many places a tube of toothpaste can hide in this house.

Two days of desperate searching and nothing. I had been forced to endure my husband’s toothpaste. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy his toothpaste as much as the next toothpaste. In fact his even tastes better than mine. But having ultra sensitive teeth, two days of not using my sensitive toothpaste and I began to really appreciate and miss it.

I looked everywhere—in the drawer where we keep the sippy cups, in the laundry basket, in the playroom, the bed room, even the bathroom—nothing! I combed through the garbage can, just in case if he thought it would be fun to throw it away, and every time I asked him, “Where’s mama’s toothpaste” he grinned and pointed to daddy’s toothpaste. Stinker! I swear he knew he was playing me. Determined to find it, I refused to add “toothpaste” to my grocery shopping list. It had to be somewhere in the house, and I would find it!

So today, I went to mow my lawn. As always I do a quick visual sweep to search for anything that might not enjoyed being mowed—play jewelry that might have been taken outside, left behind flip-flops, sidewalk chalk. You know, that kind of stuff. And low and behold what do I find in an unused corner of the yard? A silvery tube sticking up above the grass. Yup, upon further examination it was my lost tube of toothpaste. Of course it would be in the grass. Why didn’t I think of that before? (I say that with sarcasm dripping from my voice)

Perhaps I’m really wasteful, perhaps I’m a little O.C.D., but not knowing what kind of creepy crawlies might have tasted my minty sensitive delight, and leaving it to my imagination, there was no way I could bring myself to take it inside and use it. Into the garbage it went and I promptly went inside and added “toothpaste” to my shopping list.

Top of his class

2008-06-13T17:51:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it is prideful to be proud of your husband, but if I’ve ever been in a position to boast it’s now. As of today he is officially done with classes for doctoral school.

YEAH!!! (Huge sigh of relief!)

Not only that, but he will graduate top of his class with a 4.0.

So, can he be called Dr. King yet? No. Unfortunately we still have a long road ahead of us. In the Fall he will have three months of comprehensive exams, and then in January he will start his dissertation. (Well, he’s already started, but this is when he will be working on it more intensely) We estimate about a year on the dissertation. So hopefully January of 2010 he will officially be Dr. Jason King. (Wow, that sounds so far away)

But we are done with classes. Done with grueling hours of homework and long papers to write and thick heavy books to read. Well, at least I hope so. He just discovered a couple of graduate certificates he can’t wait to get his hands on.

Anyone wondering about his degree, he is getting his doctorate in Counseling, and he is one kick-butt counselor at that, especially with teenagers! If you would like any more information you can visit his web site, or call his cell phone at 801-404-8733 (Don’t you love my shameless plug for him.)

Congratulations Jason! I’m so proud of you.

Out of control busy

2008-06-11T22:51:00.000-07:00

I know this describes just about everyone, however it has been even more so for me lately, so I just wanted to apologize to everyone if I haven't gotten back with you. I've not even been checking my emails, none-the-less responding. Reading, checking blogs, chatting... HA! Yeah right....

Things should calm down soon. :)

Happy Birthday, Daughter of a King

2008-06-05T22:49:00.001-07:00

Eight years ago my life changed forever. I became a mother. I strongly believe there is nothing more difficult, more rewarding, more challenging, more beautiful, more emotional, or more wonderful than being a mother. I feel so blessed to be one. Being a mother has changed me, and continues to change me every day. I have grown, and learned so much, and as difficult as it has been—at times it has seemed impossible to deal with—I would not change the experience for anything else this world could offer. I love my parents, I love my friends, I love my husband, but nothing can match the unconditional love, the intense heart wrenching love, I feel for each one of my beautiful children.

Today I celebrate not only eight years of motherhood, but my precious daughter’s eighth birthday.

Happy Birthday Janae. I love you!

Here are eight unique, wonderful things about my daughter:

1. The biggest trial we have struggled with is her delay in speech. Hours of effort, and time, and tears of frusteration have gone into working with her, helping her, loving her and encouraging her. Because of it she has learned not only to communicate with emotions but she has become very sensitive to those around her. She is so quick to help someone who is hurt or sad, to offer her seat to one in need, to reach out to one who is troubled. She is quick to know when I am hurting inside, no matter how hard I try to hide it. She is always the first one to put her arms around me, assure me how much she loves me, and how wonderful she thinks I am. I could not ask for a better comforter than my daughter.

2. When she was four years old she had six hospital stays over a six month period. One was for major surgery, one was for dehydration and one was because she broke her arm and they needed to put her under to reposition the bones. As a result she has absolutely no fear of shots anymore.

3. At an early age she started drawing, and we discovered she had a gift of expressing herself through pictures when words eluded her. She is a great artist and she hopes to develop that talent.

4. She is better than me at playing Mario Cart on Nintendo. How did that happen?!!

5. She is dynamic. When she was one she did not want to come home from a cousin’s house. We had to strap her into the car and drive 30 min with her screaming. Once we got out of the car she wiggled out of my arms and darted up the street. By the time I caught her she was two blocks away. (By the time she was one she was a faster runner than me too.)

6. She is the most money conscious member of the family, more so than either me or my husband. Whenever we go to the store she is very clear to ask what my budget is before I buy anything, and for every item I grab making sure it is on the list or that we have money for it. (She always catches me when I try to sneak in those extra treats)

7. It drives her crazy when the house is messy and she is meticulous about cleaning and organizing. However she has to do it herself. If I try to force, push or even suggest she cleans than it will never happen. But the moment the idea comes to her on her own she will clean better than me.

8. She wants to travel the world and hopes to go to Egypt and see the mummies.

What a blessing she is to me. I’m so glad that, for now, she is still my little girl, and I’m amazed as she grows and matures what a remarkable woman she will one day become.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Austenland by Shannon Hale Now in Paperback

2008-06-04T19:00:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for a fun quick book to read this is an absolute! Besides having a darling cover, the paperback is affordable and easy to carry around.

I love this book!I read the whole thing in about four hours, and it is one of the few books that I laughed out loud and left a review on Amazon. Here is my review

This book was an absolute pleasure to read - a guilty pleasure - like chocolate on a diet. Satisfying in an almost sinful way. Shannon Hale has an incredible ability to create realistic characters that you can't help but fall in love with. Her narrative is beautiful, romantic, and oh so witty. (I laughed out loud several times, "The man deserved to be spited. Or spitted. Or both." HA! Austenland pg. 83) This is a perfect read for all of us Mr. Darcy fans that need a quick fix. The book can be read in about the time it takes to watch the BBC version and is equally, (dare I say) if not more enjoyable. I would recommend this book to anyone with a love for Jane Austen, a great sense of humor, and a need for a fun romantic get away!

Also check out her new graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge. The cover alone looks awesome! (Can you tell I love Ms. Hale. If there is one writer I want to be like it is her!)

What time is it...

2008-05-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

Summer time

It's our vacation!

Yeah for summer.

Who needs a good laugh

2008-05-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

Have you been in a Harrison Ford mood?

The title of this post could be “A Typical Sunday”, or “Why I Currently Hate Sundays”

2008-05-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

Here are my random venting thoughts on this “Holy” day of the week.

--The day starts out trying to gets kids clean, dressed, fed and maintain the cleanliness level of their Sunday clothes during meals as well as the keep the house clean, (without doing too much “ unrighteous cleaning”, um, yeah, right)

--After dragging kids to church, two hours are spent wandering the halls chasing my over-active one-year-old as he explores every inch of the church.

--An hour in relief Society with no kids should be bliss, but pure exhaustion hits me from the previous several hours, and it’s a struggle to maintain consciousness no matter how awesome the lesson is.

--Rush home from Church and get everyone snacks, changed, bottle-fed and put down for naps.

--Race around cleaning so that “Sunday Dinner” can be made.

--A good hour is devoted to making a healthy fantastic meal my kids can sit around the table and remember fondly for years to come.

--Dinner time approaches, and there is no fond memories to be made. Instead it’s a fiasco of trying to get everyone dished up, encouraging kids to eat the meal that I’ve spent over an hour making, and enduring their criticism of how much they “hate” what I just made. Trying to get the baby fed, and watching my plate of delicious food sit there as I work out temper tantrums, encourage vegetables to disappear, and keep my little boy from walking through my food as he climbs on the table.

--I don’t remember the last time I ate a hot meal on a Sunday

--A good hour of cleanup then follows as I scrub every pan that I dirtied in order to create my “hated” masterpiece.

--At least the kids do take their dishes to the counter.

--After cleanup it’s time to give the well-planned, adorable, home-made, Family Home Evening lesson that I’ve spent the week preparing… (uh huh, or grab a picture from the F.H.E. picture packet and quickly talk about it)

--Try to read scriptures as my hair is pulled, kids complain, and the baby tries to rip the page out of my scriptures.

--Try to talk about what we just read and realize I don’t know because of the commotion around me.

--Realizing no one cares.

--Off to the bath where I try to get everyone sweet-smelling and clean.

--Wrestling to get P.J.’s on.

--The begging, the pleading and the “gnashing of teeth” to get teeth brushed.

--Trying to tell stories, and put the kids to bed without falling asleep myself.

--Finally falling asleep only to be awoken by a crying baby just as I’m falling asleep. Of course.

And then Sunday is over. Needless to say being a mother is a lot of work, no matter what your situation. But Sundays are starting to wear me down. Thank heavens the Lord only set aside one “day of rest” a week. I couldn’t handle much more.

Bringing down the house!

2008-05-20T11:24:00.001-07:00

Perhaps we should have a moment of silence for the death of an old home….

Now it’s time to celebrate!! Huge shout out to Casey Nelson and his new construction company for doing a job so many of us have longed to do for years—tear down the old decrepit reminder of what was left of the fruit ranch many of us now live in. Living directly across the street from this house it has often been a yearning of mine to see it gone and replaced with something much easier on the eyes. I’m hopeful that come September or October a new, beautiful house will be in its place.

With that said this experience has caused me to reflect on this old house. What is it with our obsession to discard old and broken things and replace them with new and shiny? Certainly this house was unfit to live in, there was mold in every corner, asbestos in the plumbing, the foundation was cracked, and many other smaller, crawlier inhabitants had taken over residence. The cost to renovate and make the house livable was nearly the same price as rebuilding, so there was no sense in trying to save it.

Which made me start thinking about my own home. In a hundred years what will become of my house that I love so dear, that I work every day to clean and maintain.

The house across the street from me was over a hundred years old. Originally built in the late 1800’s, it has had two additions throughout the years. Babies were born in the house, people died in the house. Someone sweated and stressed and worked to pay its mortgage. Someone else faithfully cleaned and cared and maintained the structure. That house has survived over a hundred Christmases. It survived the Depression, two World Wars, recessions, integration. No one alive remembers the day it was built. When it was first built there were no automobiles, only horse drawn carriages. Orem, Utah was nothing but long stretches of stunning fruit orchards leading down to Utah lake. Life was slow, simple, and this house has stood by, watching the world change. It watched the freeway emerge, saw tress were sliced down around it to make room for large expensive homes, and it remained standing, a lonely test to time, as the world changed.

And now it’s gone forever.

Interesting how your paradigm can so quickly change. This ugly house across the street from me truly does deserve a moment of silence.

It is also good for me to remember every world thing that we hold, that we work for and strive to build, will very likely mean little to nothing in a hundred years. In the end everything turns to dust. And yet the things that never dissolve, that only grow stronger with time, are our relationships with people, as well as our memories. Although the house is gone, those who lived there, who loved it, will hold that forever. Today I will be cleaning my house, again, but I know that the memories that my family and I are building will be impressing into the walls of our structure and they will last eternally, even if and when these walls come down to make room for the latest technological advancements. It’s good to remember I don’t have this home for the house, I have it for my family.

Proud of my sister

2008-05-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

I just had to make a note of how proud I am of my sister. She's updated her blog after over a year of silence. (Just because she had twins and had a total of four boys, four and under was no excuse, really...)

Yeah Erin!

The most amazing artist in the world

2008-05-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

There are two people in this world who I consider my best friend. Sonnett and Sabine. Sonnett and I met in 3rd grade, became friends in 5th, and have remained best friends ever since—even though we have lived several miles apart ever since 6th grade. She was the person who started me writing, has kept me writing, and encourages my writing. She is one of the single most talented people I have ever known in my life! Besides being a kick butt singer, (she would blow American Idol away if she ever went on it) a great writer, an avid reader, a consiourger of fine music, art, and food, a fabulous cook, and massage therapist, she is also one of the finest artists I have ever known. (I’m not boasting, although I should since I’m her best friend, but I’m simply stating facts.) The greatest advantage I receive from this fact is that she is constantly illustrating pictures for my novel. Since I was twelve she has often given me amazing drawings for birthday and Christmas gifts. Well, knowing I was having a sad week, she sent my one of my all time favorite pictures she has given me. Here it is

I’m not sure if she has titled it, but I call it “Prisoner in Pink”. At first you might think it’s a beautiful picture of a princess, but it would mean more if you understood that it is a picture from the very first novel I ever wrote, (well, co-wrote with Sonnett). We were in 5th grade and together wrote a 100 page, handwritten novel about a young princess (Tara) who always wore pink, until one day, for her sixteenth birthday overheard her boyfriend (Prince David) complaining to someone about it. In the end she dresses in a blue gown for the ball and discovers that she never really loved Prince David, but truly loved Prince Ian all along. Awesome story! I’ll let you know when I publish that one, but until then you can enjoy the stunning picture of Princess Tara wearing a classic pink, heart-shaped bodiced gown, complete with puffy shirt and off the shoulder puffy sleeves. I love it! This is what my books are all about.

And for your viewing pleasure here are a few more fantastic pictures by Sonnett. (Hopefully she won’t mind me posting these) Each one is a character from one of the stories I have written. If you’re curious to learn more about them, just ask ;)

Celestia's Sword 2007

The Fairy Queen 1999

Ariel and Xenzues 2001

Check out the new Twilight Movie Page

2008-05-09T17:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not obsessed!!! It's a stupid book about a stupid story that's not even well written. I really don't care at all....

with that said...

I am soooooooo excited for the movie. I feel like a giddy teenager again! he he he

go check out the cool new movie web site. Sweeeeeet!!!!!

Sweet Twilight Trailer!

2008-05-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

**No copyright infringement intended! I do NOT own this video

Today my house is

2008-05-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

a) Immaculate
b) Clean enough, I’m not embarrassed
c) Dishes are done, but that’s it
d) Pretty messy
e) Disgusting. Please sign a waiver before entering, stating that any injury caused from stepping on “stuff”, falling, or trying to move through my house is done at your own risk.

Answer: ... (my answer is confidential, but I will give you a hint, no pictures will be posted on my blog today, and if you stop by, be prepared to sign your name.)

Dates that Matter

2008-05-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

May Day. Today was my parents wedding anniversary. Of course they’ve been divorced for eight years, but I still think about it every May Day. I don’t know why, perhaps because I still hold onto the idea of their marriage magically working out, or perhaps it’s a reminder of a reality so many people suffer. Whatever the reason I started thinking about other dates in my life, isn’t it interesting that every day is important to someone for some reason, so here is a list of different days throughout the year that always make me stop and reflect.

January 1st New Years Day
February 15th My half birthday and my brother’s birthday. I always thought that was so cool.
March 2nd The day my Dad died
March 30th My Dad’s birthday and the day my parents divorce was official.
May 1st My parents wedding anniversary
May 29th The day I was engaged, five years before I got engaged this was also the day that I finished my first real novel, ending at 1500 pages (I was thirteen years old)
June 6th The day I gave birth to my first child, my life changed forever.
June 30th My best friend, Sonnett’s birthday. Growing up, every June I would spend a week or two in St George and celebrate her birthday with her. Now, I ache to be in St George in June.
August 15th My birthday. I love my birthday! Perhaps I’m really selfish, but I love having a day about me
August 17th This is the day that the house I grew up in, and lived in for 20 years, burned to the ground.
August 29th The day I got married
September 11th …
November 23rd The day my mother remarried, I still have very mixed feelings about this, though I can’t be happier for my mother.
December 22nd The darkest day of the year.

I could have listed all the holidays I love, the birthdays of people I love, but I didn’t want to go on for too long, and I was worried I would get a date wrong. These are just dates that really stick with me. It’s fun to think about these kinds of things. What dates do reflect on something? Make a list. It’s always a fun reminder to think that everyday of the year is important to someone in the world.

A Smurfing good time!

2008-04-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

The Smurfs turn 50 years old this year! I recently acquired the first season of the Smurfs. Need I say more. And yet, I will say more.

Hopefully you hear the word “smurf” and magical images come to your mind of blue skinned creatures wearing only white leggings and white hats while dancing around their mushroom houses singing “la la la la la la la la la”

It has been years since these fantastic people were a part of my weekly Saturday morning routine, so watching them again as an adult I have made several observations about being “smurfed”.

In order to be a smurf you must

--Have everything you say, especially statements of exclamation incorporate the word smurf. “Someone smurfed all the food in the storage house” “Where the smurf did that potion go” “Everyone, smurf the best you can” “Have a smurfing good day”

--Your name should resemble one of the 7 deadly sins and it MUST define your personality and you can never veer from that personality unless someone casts a spell on you, or you are in league with Gargamel. (Vanity, Grouchy, Greedy, Hefty, Brainy)

--Always accept the big box/gift wrapped with a large bow from Jokey Smurf, despite the fact that every gift he’s ever given you has blown up in your face. (Which makes me wonder how he affords all the packaging, or even the illegal explosives that he uses. This might be a matter left to Papa Smurf to smurf into.)

--Brainy Smurf is not smart at all, but since it’s a children’s show they probably couldn’t have a name such as “Kiss Up to Papa Smurf, Smurf” hence they had to go with Brainy.

--The inside of your mushroom house will in no physical or logical way resemble the size and look of the outside of your mushroom house. Don’t question it, no one else does, just accept it.

--The size of a smurf can magically change throughout an episode, going from being as tall as Gargamel’s knee to being smaller than his shoe. That’s ok too.

I was also left with a couple of questions regarding the natures of Smurfs.

--All the members of the village, except one are male. Smurfette came along thanks to Gargamel’s crazy creations, and every smurf at some point falls in love with her, which makes me wonder why, with so many men, they don’t approach Gargamel to make even more Smurfettes?

--If Gargamel needs smurfs to make gold, yet he was able to create Smurfette, why not simple create smurfs to use to create gold?

Despite all these irregularities and strange observations I have loved having the smurfs in my home again, and I love that my kids love it to. I admit I’m just a big kid inside, and that ok too!

Check this out, I guess they announced they will be making Smurfs into a movie. That will be interesting!

Rejected

2008-04-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

...again....

time to break out the chocolate and Sailor Moon

Spring has Sprung (I think)

2008-04-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

I love spring time because of the flowers. Some of my favorite flowers grow at this time: tulips, irises, crocuses. My favorite scent in the world is blossoming lilacs in spring. Ever since I was a child I have dreamed of living in a castle with an enormous garden surrounding it. I longed for bubbling water fountains, laid stone creeks, wrought-iron benches, climbing roses, a maze made out of hedges. I would love to live in a time where hours were spent strolling through manicured gardens, gathering flowers in whicker baskets and wearing long, white, flowing dresses and large straw hats with trailing ribbons… sigh.

But I don’t live in those times (obviously, or I wouldn’t be blogging), but I still have done the best I could to capture that. When we landscaped our house I created a lot of flower beds in the front yard. I wanted flowers everywhere! The one thing I didn’t plan on was, where there are flowers there are also weeds. Yuck! I hate weeding, I hate planting, I hate all the work that comes from maintaining a garden, but I love the beauty of it. So this week I finally went out, gave my flowers some love, pulled up the weeds, put some fresh dirt down, mowed the lawn, pulled away the dead foliage and swept the path ways. Hated every second of the work, but I must admit I love my yard now. The tulips have come out, the trees look covered in popcorn, and my lilac bush is on the verge of blossoming. (I love, love, love the smell of lilacs in the spring, did I mention that already.)

So of course, I wake up this morning with a bitter cold breeze rushing through the air, and the rumors of snow over the weekend. My poor flowers. My poor lilac bush! Just when I was starting to believe in spring again, Mother Nature has to pull a cruel joke and bring winter back. Doesn’t she realize it’s almost May?? Perhaps Her and Father Time are having a disagreement, and all of the children are suffering because of it. Whatever the reason I hope to enjoy my flowers as much as I can for now, (and invite you to enjoy them too)

Spring Cleaning update—and why you wish Sabine was your best friend

2008-04-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

Two solid days of cleaning have yielded a spotless bedroom, closet and bathroom, 4 large bags to the D.I. and seven, (yes, 7) big bags of garbage. (It’s a good thing it’s garbage day today!) Every nook and cranny in my bathroom/bedroom/closet is spotless. You could eat off my toilet…not that you would want to. But it is that clean. Every blind, every baseboard, ever inch of crown molding has been scrubbed. It feels awesome and open. I forgot how huge my closet is. It looks so fabulous I had to take pictures, (you know I'm a true blogger when I'm taking pics of my closet and toilet for my blog!)

don’t you love my expensive, custom-made, designer curtains? They look like bed sheets hanging in the window, but they're not....really

My clutter-free closet

My sparkling toilet

My gorgeous tub

My guck-free window sill

I’m so proud of myself, but then I realized, it took two days, and I hoped to do the whole house over spring break. Hmm, not going to happen. But hopefully I can at least get the upstairs done.

So, let me tell you about one of the many advantages of having a good friend named Sabine Berlin. Knowing my daunting task of wanting to deep clean my house she came over Monday and offered to help. Our kids entertained each other while she washed my blinds, and scrubbed, (literally) all the guck out of my window sill. (You know, that black guck that builds up over time). She washed windows, my toilet and floor boards. And if that wasn’t enough on Tuesday, she took my kids to her house so I could have some uninterrupted cleaning time. She didn’t have them for an hour, or even two. No, she kept them for SIX loooong hours. Then to top it all off, she is watching my kids for me over the weekend so that my husband and I can have a much needed night away. (I secretly hope she never moves, I don’t know what I’ll do when she does!)

Well, I don’t really have much time to blog, I still have two more bed rooms, another bathroom, a linen closet and hallway to go clean. In the meantime the rest of my house is falling apart. So if you happen to come over this week, just go up to my bedroom and ignore everything else. Thanks.

Purge

2008-04-11T17:47:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have the urge to throw everything in your house away? I do. Right now. But where do I start. I want to just grab a garbage bag and start tossing, but I get so worried that I will throw away something that someday I will need. What if I regret the purge? That really holds me back. I need to overcome that fear and learn to de-clutter. Any advice? How do you let go of junk (both physical and mental)?

Sick, Sick, Sick, Sick, Sick

2008-04-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a pic of the flu virus. Don't you love the little spikes, like it's going into battle.

What is up with this season, everyone is sick! This is what we have endured the past two months

-flu
-ear infections
-croop
-strep throat
-stomach bug
-good old fashioned colds
-a trip to the ER
-a surgery for tubes in my baby’s ears.

Is there no end? And the sad thing is I know I’m not the only one who is suffering one sickness after another in their family. I hope it ends soon. I really do. But until then I promise I haven’t gone inactive at church, I’m staying home for legitimate reason.

Bones and Narble, a call from Orson Scott Card, and a home refinance falling through

2008-04-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

That sums up my April Fools Day, how about you? Every year Jason and I go to great lengths planning our April Fools Day joke on each other. We don’t breath a word about the day, hoping the other will forget, and without fail we pull some prank on each other every year. At first I was good about getting him, now he always knows and doesn’t trust a thing I tell him on that day. This year was no exception.

As many of you know I have sent in some of my writing to Orson Scott Card, and I’ve been waiting to hear back from him. Well I had this great idea to tell Jason that Scott actually called me because he loved my book so much and wanted to write a cover letter to TOR telling them what he thought. Maybe it was too far-fetched, or maybe Jason just doesn’t believe in my writing enough, but he saw straight through me. I thought it would work because I tested it on Sabine first.

She was ecstatic! She was so happy and so pleased for me I felt terribly guilty and quickly pulled the “April Fools” on her. Good thing we were on the phone or she might have hit me. But I was thrilled! I thought: if Sabine fell for it than Jason has to. No.

I call him up, “Guess who I just got off the phone with?”
“Who,” I can tell he’s busy and doesn’t really care.
“Orson Scott Card.”
“Right,” he says, “And he loved your book so much that he wants to publish it himself, no wait, he wants to put his name on it, no wait, I know, he just wanted to tell you that he doesn’t have time to read it, but he has time to call and play April Fools jokes.”
“Ha ha,” I tell him and pretend that I didn’t spend the last week concocting this April fools joke. “What’s your joke, that you got a huge contract for your business and that you can quiet your other jobs.”
“No, that would be lame,” he laughs. I hang up, feeling a little happy that Sabine was kind enough to allow me to fool her.

That morning I had explained April Fools to my daughter and we had fun saying things like, “I just bought you a hundred barbies. April fools! Oh no, your hair is turning blue, April fools.” By the afternoon I thought they had forgotten because we hadn’t said any dumb jokes for several hours. Well I had to run into Barnes and Nobel to grab a book, and as I did my four year old wanted to know the name of the store. I told her, “Barnes and Nobel.” “Bones and Narble?” She said bewildered. “That’s a really weird name.” I agreed and started walking in. Very solemnly she walks up to me and says, “Mom, I really wish your name was Bones and Narble.” I stared at her, surprised by her sincerity and said. “That would be fun, huh?” She grins at me, showing her dimple and says, “April Fools.” She totally got me, the little stinker!

Well, not even ten min after, I get a call from my husband. “I just sent you an email about our refi.” (We are refinancing to get out of an ARM) Since I’m driving I’m half listening and ask him what it’s about. “The deadline for our paperwork has expired and they’re not sure we can go through with it.”
“Yeah right. April Fools.” I wasn’t going to get caught.
“No I’m serious.” And he was. He was so serious! “I tried calling but no one was there.”
I rush home and check the email he sent me, and sure enough, the guy doing our loan sent an email saying he needed to speak with Jason.

My husband dragged it on all day. That night he comforted me, telling me things would probably be fine, it would just take a little longer, and that he would call the guy first thing in the morning. Then right as he was going to bed he softly says, “April Fools”

It took me about half an hour to accept that the whole thing was a joke. I was furious… Now I can’t stop laughing. It was hands down the best joke he has done. Apparently he had taken an old email from the man, forwarded it to himself and changed the message in the email. So it was official looking and everything. That’s what I get for marrying a smart man—I guess.

So what about you, did you get any good pranks done on you, or did you accomplish anything noteworthy? I would love to hear.

Oh, and leaving a bag of groceries in my shopping cart, and totally forgetting about them was not an April Fools joke. I really did that, and didn't even realize it for two days. Surprisingly, Maceys still had the groceries for me. Thank you Maceys!

Happy Birthday Dad! A tribute to my father Robert Bergstrom Ingebretsen 1948-2003

2008-03-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

I have been missing my Dad a lot this past month. March is always a very hard month for me because it was the month my Dad was born in and died in. Today he would have been 60 years old. He died five years ago.

I started putting together my 100 list about me and my first ten or so were all things about my Dad. That's when I realized I was really missing him and that I should just do a tribute to him on his birthday—get it out of my system so I can move on. So here it is. (I really don't expect anyone to read this, but maybe you'll find it fascinating. Who knows?)

1) My Dad was a computer genius. Really he was.
2) My father was the inventor of the technology that lead to the CD/DVD player
3) He worked with Ed Catmull, and together they made the first ever digital animated movie. It was a moving human hand and was about 20 seconds long.
4) Ed Catmull then asked my father to come to California and help start a digital animation company. My father declined, because he didn't want to move his family out of Utah. That "small" digital animation company is now Pixar Animation Studios.
5) Because of his pioneer efforts in digital recording, his invention of the CD player technology and digital animation he received an academy award in 1998.
6) His name was in TIME magazine
7) If you Google his name several websites pop up including

IMDB
WIKIPEDIA
Things invented by Latter Day Saints

8)Growing up in the 50's he was a member of a prominent family in Salt Lake and would often be photographed for the newspaper
9)He was the great-great grandson of Brigham Young
10)He worked in Los Angels as one of the leading digital sound recorders in the 80's. He even had a platinum record hanging in his office that he had recorded.

Doesn't all this sound really cool. But the truth is, I hardly knew this stuff when he was alive. It's interesting how I never associated these things with my father until after he died. Now, that's how people know him by. When people speak to me about him it's always, "oh you're Robert Ingebretsen's daughter, the brilliant inventor who did this or this....." So the following list is, to me, who my dad really was

1) He always had a computer. I never in my life had a time that there wasn't at least one computer in the house and very often there was two or three.
2) He always had the Internet. The Internet has actually been around since the 50's, and we've had it in our house since the late 70's. (Or maybe it was early 80's. I'm not positive on the date. I could go into more details about the history of the internet because my father taught me all about it)
3)He loved chocolate milk, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, and Wheaties
4) He loved physics, and often discussed random laws of nature at the dinner table
5) He had a stupid funny sense of humor.
6) He loved watching the news, Seinfeld, Louis and Clark, James Bond movies, and X-files.
7)He had a terrible temper, but he was very quick to apologize and ask for forgiveness
8) He was very quick to forgive others and forget anything bad about a person
9) He always trusted me, so I felt I could tell him anything.
10) He believed in the best of people.
11) He loved trains and built model trains in our basement
12) He loved his children more than anything else in the world
13) He was never famous or rich in his life, although he did many "worldly" great things.
14) One of his greatest fears was dying alone.
15) He died alone.
16) His death was so unexpected, no one discovered it for almost 18 hours.
17) He was only 54 when he died of a heart attack.
18) He and I spoke over the phone the day before he died. We talked about how much he loved my daughter and what he was going to do with her during the summer.
19) He had a strong testimony in Christ, repentance and the Resurrection
20) I was with most of my family when we received news of his death.
21) It took me almost a month accept his death. I kept calling his home phone, just to hear his voice on the answering machine--half expecting him to answer.
22)I archived every email he ever sent me and I love when my brother sends me emails because he has the same name as my father.
23) We told stupid dumb jokes at his funeral
24) I think about him and miss him every day
25) I have never been as close to my mother as I was to him. I hope that changes some day
26) He and I are very alike, and there has never been anyone who understood me as well as he did. That's what I miss most about him.
27) There have been at least three times, since his death, that I knew without a doubt that his spirit was next to me.
28) The Christmas before he died he had no money for gifts, so he made a CD of all his favorite songs to give to his kids. At the time he thought is was a lame gift and almost didn't give it to us. He had no idea how treasured it became after his death and what comfort it brought me every time I listened to it.
29) He made a lot of mistakes and hurt a lot of people in his life, but the last few years of his life were spent repenting and making amends
30) When he died I felt that he had become the best man he could in this life. He taught me that you were never too old to change and become a better person.

If you made it through reading all this, I'm impressed, I know it was both therapeutic and fun for me to remember my dad and put this list together.

Happy birthday Dad. I love you!

Lost in a sea of books

2008-03-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

My list of must read books grows every day. My list of books I am reading or have read does not grow every day. Thus I am starting to feel overrun by books I want to read. I feel like I am surrounded by people who devour 2-6 books a week. It amazes me. I can’t help but wonder what their secret is, how they are able to run their lives and keep on all their reading, and I am thoroughly jealous.

I admit, I use to be a much more veracious reader, but since my third child I keep feeling I am falling further and further behind. Not just in reading but everything around me: house work, laundry, kids homework—I don’t know why this third child has taken me so long to recover from, I mean he’s one now and I’m still feeling like I haven’t got my routine down yet. Hmm, maybe in the next eighteen years I’ll figure something out. I hope.

After reading Laurie’s post I feel kind of selfish going on and on like this, but I think sometimes it’s healthy to vent as well. That’s all I’m doing, venting and longing for more time to myself. I think heaven would be a place that I can sit down to read a book and no one will bother me until the chapter break. Or, I can sit and read and no one flushes toothbrushes down the toilet, unrolls the whole roll of toilet paper and rips it into tiny shreds, and dumps liquid fabric softener on my shoes while I spend ten minutes reading. Or even better, heaven will be a place that, when my kids are asleep, I have nothing else that has to get done, (i.e. laundry, cleaning, dishes, yard work) and I can sit back in a spotless home, with sweet silence and do what ever I want, (sleep, write, read) without feeling an ounce of guilt.

I love my kids but I admit I dream of a time when all my kids are in school and I have six hours a day to do whatever I need to/want to. Or a time when I have a husband that comes home before 9:00 at night, and has energy to help with the kids and give me a break. Or a husband who is home on weekends…. Someday.

But for now, I’m going to focus on the fact that someday I will have hours to myself and I will miss my kids and long to hold and cuddle a baby. So I’m going to love my kids, and cherish ever smile, ever temper tantrum, every second I get to be surrounded by them—the most precious things that I love. I will remember that they will grow and that one day I will no longer be a young mom. When I think of it that way it makes me sad and I find myself pulling my little ones closer, kissing them why they still let me kiss them and treasure every second that I have with them.

Stupid dumb word verification

2008-03-24T08:44:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to vent about how much I hate those stupid word verifications on blogs. I always mess up on them, because the letters are so fancy. I’ve noticed not all blogs have them. Is there a way to turn it off? I would really love to turn it off on my mine.