Thanksgiving Rocks!!

Thanksgiving, the precursor to the one of the best times of the year! What I great day we had! I started off with the Human Race 5k in Draper. It was wet but fantastic! Last year it was 21 degrees so I will take the rain and 40 degrees! I took a van full of buddies and we rocked that race!! I was shooting for a personal best. That fastest I've gone on a 5k is about 30 mins. This time I did it in 28 mins and 15 secs.!!! I was so excited to know I did that!! It made me giddy!! I saw some friends there, too! Richel was there with her sister and brother and I saw a friend from the Logan days- brad and his wife Liz and a friend from my childhood, Erika! It's so great to see old friends! Some of my Running Peeps- Erin, Amy, me, and Alison! This was Erin's first 5k and she did awesome! Alison kicked all our trash with 26 mins.! Go Alison!!We had to get a pic with the big turkey-do you think he knows we are going to eat his cousins later?? MAHAHAHA

Later, that day we went to my parents for some good eats! All my brother's were there, that live here so it was a lot of fun! I love hanging with my family! They are some of the funniest and greatest people I know!!

Lily wasn't feeling so hot so she just laid in my lap. She had a fever from an ear infection, I think. Poor baby!!

Audrey with her cousin buddies! They just love each other!!

Ben, Jacob and Audrey.

One have my handsome and talented brothers, Mike and his daughter Allison. He is much happier than he looks!:) Cute, little baldy!!
This is Lily AFTER we found some Tylenol for her! She was much happier!

It was a great day! The food was AWESOME and the company even awesomer! There is nothing like starting off the day with great friends doing something you love and finishing the day with family and food! I hope your Thanksgiving was just as great! If you feel like it, share what you did!!

BEWARE of too much turkey and pie- this could happen to you!!!!

No, it's all about ME ME ME!!!!

I was tagged by the lovely Rachel so the deal is I have to share 8 things about me for your reading pleasure (or boredom, or sleeping aid, whatever you use my blog for). So, let it begin....

1-I love non-sugary cereals like Grape-nuts and Puffed Rice! I know, it's like eating Styrofoam but I love it! When we were growing up we never had cold cereal except for the one box we get the night before Christmas-we each got WHATEVER kind we wanted! My bro.s were getting Cookie Crisp or Sugar Bombs or some other disgusting sugary muck and I picked Puffed Rice! Also, the first 'solid' thing I ate after having my wisdom teeth out was a bowl of Grape-nuts...dumb idea! I hurt my mouth so bad since I hadn't been chewing ANYTHING for 3 days! If you have never had Grape-nuts, they are probably they hardest cereal out there! It's like chewing gravel! Oh, how I love it! I thought I was going to die!!!

2- When I was a kid, my older male cousin thought it would be wicked-cool to get a perm. We were at some family thing, a baptism maybe, and he walked in with this silly perm and just as I pointed at him and said, "who let that girl in!?!", a lady I didn't know walked in right in front of him and looked at me like I was talking to her! That is still one of my more humiliating and stupid moments of my life!

3- I think Xanadu is one of the greatest movies EVER!! Michael Beck in short short skating with only one button fastened on that awesome Hawaiian shirt is HOT!!! I really do think it's one of the greatest!

4-I am a treasure chest of useless information! I have a photographic memory for all things unimportant and stupid! Try to get me to memorize a scripture or important facts and you've lost me but I can play "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" with the best of them! Or give you a description of Michael Beck's (who knew that guys name but the one and only Mindi!!) awesome outfit in Xanadu in the "I Take The Fall" skating scene!

5- I love exercise! Yes, there are days when I have to talk myself into it but I love it! I would exercise vigorously for 2 hours a day if I could! I don't do so well on the eating part all the time but I do love to move it!

6- I love novels! I am a novel junkie! I'll read most anything but novels are my fave! I don't know what I would do without a novel around-in fact I am in that position now and I feel very naked and afraid without something to read!!!

7- I have always been active in the church, some times not so into it and I have made some really dumb choices but I have never really faltered on what I know to be true and I plan on keeping that way-even if taking 3 kids under 7 sucks right now! If I can make it through this I can probably make it through any faith shattering event...maybe I shouldn't say that out loud...

8- My mom was a health nut when we were growing up before it was 'cool' to be one. I mean that woman was up at the crack of dawn till she went to bed cooking and preparing food, grinding wheat, making bread, pasta, we never ate real candy or soda and we never had a frozen dinner or cold cereal as already mentioned. My aunt and uncle thought that was bad parenting and took it upon themselves to show me and my 3 older brothers what we were missing. While my parents were on a CES Jerusalem tour, Aunt Connie and Uncle Karl took us to Yellowstone and let us eat anything our little hearts desired! Each and every one of us ended up "marking our territory" with vomit throughout Yellowstone! I am pretty sure that when my parents found out about that, they had a nice chuckle over it!

The 8 people I tag are: Ruth, Jana, Heather, Carlee, Tristan, Stephanie, Tamara, and Brooke! If you've already done this or you just don't wanna, no worries but I had to come up with 8 or the Blogging Gods would make my water taste like chlorine and set a mouse loose in my house....oh, wait that's already happened..well whatever! Enjoy!!

"Climb Every Mountain!"

EEK!! We have offcially entered the climbing stage!!! Woe is me!! It was nice knowing you all, I am now too busy pulling Lily off of chairs, tables, the computer, the toilet, the end table, and soon I am sure it will be the ceiling fans!! Remember me, talk of me, send me chocolate and Diet Coke at the Funny Farm. I will either be going there or I will need to ductape Lily to the wall just to keep my sanity!!! Heaven, save us all!!!

"I knew I could fit here!!"

"HELP! I am so stuck!!"

I wonder who is in charge at this house?!?!

"Do you mind, I'm working here!!"

This is me at the end of the day. Don't ask me about the hand...I don't have an answer except maybe it's comfy!? Will you buy that?!?

The Top 50 Things Mindi is Grateful For

I thought it would be appropriate to do a gratitude list since it is Thanksgiving soon! So, I am grateful for.....

1. My family.

2. Birth control.

3. Mousetraps.

4. Being a stay-at-home mom.

5. GIRL'S NIGHTS!!

6. Friends.

7. The Gospel along with the perspective it gives.

8. Temples.

9. Things that make me laugh.

10. Memories.

11. Pain medication!!

12. Oprah-what would we do without her?!?!

13. A rockin' husband who thinks I'm the hottest thing ever!!

14. Squats and lunges (please see previous "Nice Booty" post!!)

15. My cellphone.

16. Rosie O'Donnell cuz without her how would we know what crazy is?!

17. Chocolate and Diet Coke.

18. TV because it I didn't have 'reality TV', 'Grey's', superheroes, who else would I live vicariously through??

19. Awesome parents who love me no matter how stupid I can be!

20. My 5 awesome brothers!

21. My 5 awesome sisters(in-law) who were brave enough to marry my 5 awesome brothers!

22. Sign language.

23. Naps.

24. King-size beds!

25. Living in Zion...I am mean Utah..*oops*...

26. Beaches.

27. Animals-they taste soooo good!

28. Education.

29. Music

30. A great book.

31. A Living Prophet.

32. Cheese-it makes anything taste good!!

33. Sunny days.

34. A great rain storm.

35. A baby laughing.

36. The fact that I don't have 3 eyes cuz that would just be embarrassing and how do you get fitted for glasses like that?!?!

37. Randomness.

38. Fiber.

39. Running-nothing clears your head like running!!

40. Any reason to eat!

41. Spelchek! Their is nothing wurs then mispelt wurds!!!

42. That there are people who are good at math so I don't have to be!

43. The Internet-what else would I do all day? Take care of kids, clean?!?! Now, that's just SILLY!!!

44. Al Gore who invented the Internet and global warming...

45. Girls who are brave enough to go through pregnancy and give their babies up for adoption!

46. Lots of hair on my head! It covers up the freakishly largeness of it and all those crazy lumps! If I were bald the Mother ship might find me and take me back to my planet!!!

47. Indoor plumbing.

48. Hot showers!

49. Lazy mornings.

50. I am a Child of God!!!

So, what are you grateful for?!?!

CURSE YOU, FACEBOOK!!!

It feels dirty and wrong that I haven't been on here for awhile. I have gotten involved with Facebook and I can't leave it alone!! Help me!! I have an addictive personality (SHOCKER) and this is just a new addiction! It's been so fun finding old friends and people from my mission and such! I never thought I'd be the kind of person who would spend their day at the computer but here I am, every moment I can spare, checking to see who is on, stalking... I mean looking for people to ask to be my friend. That's another thing! I feel like I am back in high school hoping to be in the "in crowd", sending a note to someone across the room, "Will you be my BFF? Check a box- [YES] [NO] [MAYBE]" I told myself I wasn't going to send friend invites anymore and I am really trying hard not to but tonight was one of my best finds! The first person I officially taught on my mission and was baptized was on there and I found out about her sweet family and what they are up to. I'm pretty sure she and her family are the only ones who are still active. Maybe that is pessimistic of me but there you go, I can't find any of the others to find out. Anyway that was awesome! Plus, it's just another way for me and my BFF to talk. Our husbands may leave us one day for it but we keep each other sane and laugh a lot. She keeps threatening to deactivate (she's done it once or twice already) because she has an addiction problem, too. It's okay, at least we'll be in Facebook Rehab together!

Just, Oh, I don't Know, Whatever!

Okay! So I am totally "Jonesin'" for some blogging! I've been watching everyone else going to town on their's and I haven't done anything all week. I didn't know what to blog about and then I've been a little consumed with reading a book for school and writing for it. I finally have a moment and a couple of thoughts to share so, yeah, me!

We celebrated Audrey's Birthday this week. We did so by going bowling and going anywhere she wants for dinner. You guessed it, McDonald's! I was hoping for Famous Dave's but, hey, it's not my birthday. Bowling was fun-my kids kicked my trash and ElRey kept asking me if I wanted the bumpers, too. I told him what he could do with his comment. So, they all got over 100 and I think I ended up with 65 or something. But I'm pretty sure I look pretty hot earning every point! Yeah, that's right! I said it!

So, after that family goodness, we had cake and ice cream with mine and ElRey's family at our mansion in the west wing-there's much more room in that wing. We surprised her with a new bike which she was very excited about! It's so stinkin' cute and she just had to ride it to school the next day! I was so proud of myself and my frugality! I found it on KSL.com for almost a quarter of the price and it looks almost brand new! Yeah, me!!
We, of course, had a High School Musical cake-it wasn't much, just a sugar sticker on a cake I baked but she was very happy with it! We had a great time celebrating her and Annie was super sweet to her all day! I think it was one of her better birthdays! It's always nice to take a break from friend parties!

So, if you didn't guess who these dolls are yet it's Gabriella and Troy and, no, they aren't mine (though, I wish they were!)! My parents gave them to Audrey and they were a hit. They made me realize something, though. I don't think I would want to be made into a doll. These two have been naked (said 'neked') more often than dressed since they moved in (I swear it's not me doing it!!)! I know we would all probably enjoy a little bit of naked Zac Efron (or Vanessa for all you men) but the other day when I was dressing him for the umpteenth time I thought, I am dressing Zac Efron. I wonder if he is somewhere feeling very violated. Annie was playing with them all day the other day and she started giggling and said, "Mom, Gabriella's necklace is in Troy's pants!" I busted up because of all the images that statement brought to my mind. So, Zac and Vanessa, I am so sorry for what is going on with your plastic selves in my house! I swear it is just innocent play by a couple of cute little girls. And maybe a little by a bored house wife...only a little...