Girls Night Out

My sister, Becca, asked me to go shopping with her lastnight. She works for JC Penney and they were opening up a new Sephora store in the Penney's in Provo. I am always up for shopping even if it includes going someplace that I can't afford a thing from, however, this was a chance to be part of the pre-opening sneak peak. So, I packed "shopping" clothes to change into after work and planned on splurging on some lip stick. I love lip stick and gloss and have a bunch of it, but when I splurge and buy what I really like (Clinique) I get stingy with it because I want it to last forever.

Back to lastnight, Becca picked me up from work and we had to rush to the mall because I was running late. I know, no surprise there. During the ride down the freeway she announced that this was acctually her taking me early birthday shopping and had the whole night planned out. She was going to buy me all new make up from the Sephora store. I tried to argue with her that she didn't need to do that and all I wanted to get was some lip stick. She did not listen to me at all. By the time we got to the store I figured I would let it drop and somehow try to distract her while we were in there.

When we got to the store we found out that they were already closing everything down and it was over. They had a "guard" at the entrance that told us we were to late. Becca, however, had never taken no for an answer ever in her life. She quickly explained to him that we drove all the way down there from Salt Lake and that she wanted in. He left for a second and quickly came back and let us in, I guess he had to get permission from the manager. As soon as we got in we were approached by a sweet lady who knew Becca and she helped to pick out new make up for me.

I have been drooling over this make up for a couple of years. I hate to admit that I have watched more than one of the infomertials for this stuff and have wanted to order it. I actually have it now, I can't believe it. In fact, as soon as I am done with this entry I will go get ready for the day and use it. I am so excited!!!
Becca then surprised me and got me three more things;

Bare Minerals lip gloss, I think this has to be the best lip gloss that I have tried. It is so soft and it isn't sticky. If you wear lip gloss then you'll know what I mean by it going sticky. She also got me that amazing little purple tube that looks like it came from Hogwarts. It is eye shadow primer. I have never used that before, but she swears by it and promises that my eye shadow won't have a crease now. I can't wait to use it. She also got me brush cleaner so that I can take care of the brushes that came with the Bare Minerals.

Once we were done with make up, we wandered over and was looking at clothes and found the cutest dresses. I love dresses. Even when I was little I would almost always be in a dress. She grabbed one of the dresses that I had tried on and bought it for me. Look how cute

We finished off by her getting both of us our favorite little OPI packages of nail polish

We had so much fun and I am still in shock at all the stuff she got me. I guess that whole plan of mine to distract her never worked and she still has not had to take no for an answer yet.

Thank You Becca for making me feel like a pampered princess pooh pooh!!

"the dog barft"

Out of all the text messages I received from my children last week, this one has to be the best. This is the message that had me laughing so hard in my office at work that I had someone come in to check on me and see what was so funny. I thought it was even funnier that she couldn't figure out what it meant because of how barft was spelled. This message also stuck out because it reminded me of all the other times I have been told that the dog was throwing up.


This is Charlie. He has been a part of our family for five years. The first year was a very long year to get through and if I remember correctly I think I tried to find a new home for him every other week. What saved him you ask? His amazing personality and the fact that our boys absolutly love him (kids needs always come first and I don't have enough in their therapy fund to cover getting rid of the dog). We all love him and he is so much a part of our family now, even if I do have a countdown going according to how long his life expectancy is.

Back to doggy bodily functions. You might be wondering why the dog barfing would be such a big deal, but for Charlie, barfing is a common event. I keep thinking that this dog will one day figure out that he shouldn't eat certain things, but that day has not come. While I was reminiscing about all the times I have had to clean up Charlie puke, I thought that maybe I should share them with you. I mean, why should I have to suffer through this all alone?

I won't make you go through all the gory details and you can be very thankful that you didn't have to smell any of it either. It really all started the first Christmas that we had him. We knew that it would be a good idea to put the ornaments up high so that Charlie wouldn't be able to get any off the tree and break them. He must have decided to grow several inches while we were out shopping because when we got home he had not only gotten a hold of one of my nice glass ornaments, he also tried to have it for an after dinner snack. That was the first time I had ever cleaned up throw up full of glass. Don't worry about the dumb dog, he was somehow just fine.

Then there was the time that he decided to eat a mouse. Charlie, did you forget that you are a dog? When did dog's decide to eat mice? I truly thought only cats did that sort of a thing. Charlie learned real quick that mouse was not going to agree with his tummy and found the perfect spot to get rid of his snack. He stopped in the middle of my living room floor underneath the coffee table and threw up. Oh, did I mention that I had light tan carpet at the time. That was the first time I ever ever cleaned up mouse throw up. Once again, don't worry about the dumb dog he is doing great.

The next year at Christmas I had searched to find a certain kind of Cherry Chocolates for my Mother-in-law. After fighting many crowds at many different stores, I found what I was looking for and even wrapped it in snowman wraping paper (her favorite). Knowing that chocolate is not good for dogs, I even put her chocolates up high on a stool. Once again, we get home from shopping to find a very happy Charlie gretting us at the front door. Eventually I noticed paper on his paws and nicely asked him what he had been into. He just wagged his tail and acted like, "what do you mean? I haven't done a thing the whole time you were gone." When I was done unloading everything I noticed that part of the kitchen floor was blue. And then it dawned on me, it was blue from the wrapping paper. Charlie had unwrapped the box of both the wrapping paper and the celophane, he then procedeed to unwrap each individual cherry chocolate and eat the entire 1 pound box. The only thing that saved him that day was the fact that I was laughing so hard at him and putting it all together and then I noticed that it wasn't paper on his paws it was the tin foil that was around each chocolate.
When Kenny got home later that evening, Charlie was starting to feel very sick. He was supposed to see the vet soon for his shots so I could license him, so I felt it was my duty to announce that "if" he made it through the night I might make his appointment. Kenny on the other hand thought that this poor dog needed our help. I tried to explain that he done this to himself and "if" he made it through the night then maybe he would learn a lesson. Kenny and the boys had other plans and Kenny thought the perfect remedy would be to rub Charlie's belly to see if that would help him to throw up and get rid of the entire pound of chocolate. It did exactly that, Charlie soon starting throwing up everywhere. When I say everywhere, he threw up in our bedroom, in the hallway, in the living room, and in the kitchen. We thought he was done and we needed to run an errand, so we left him thinking he was done throwing up and would just rest now. Nay, Nay!!!! That dog was far from being done. While we were gone he threw up in the basement on our couch, went upstairs and threw up on Taylor's bed, and somewhere else that I have happily forgotten.
I look back at that experience and wonder why we didn't keep him confined to the kitchen or bathroom, you know, rooms without light tan carpet. Obviously, that would have made sense. That was the first time that I cleaned up cherry chocolate throw up (and unfortunatly not the last) and; Please don't worry about the dumb dog, he is still doing just fine.

Over the years we have learned that cherry chocolates are like crack for Charlie and to keep him away from them at all cost. Now, my question to you is, if none of these things have killed this dog yet; what do you think could possible make a dent in shortening his 7-10 year life span?

Disclaimer:

This in no way should be taken as me asking for ideas for a "hit", I am just curious because he has eaten enough chocolate to probably kill three dogs by now added in with rodents and glass and whatever else he has eaten that I don't know about.

Fake Injury Day

At Kelton's school today they had a special fake injury day for all the 7th graders. I still can't wrap my mind around wanting to walk around all day acting like you're hurt. Anyway, I also can't believe how much we had around the house for Kelton to choose from.



We had his finger splint from when he broke 2 fingers last year. Kenny's splint for his wrist for his carpal tunnel. 2 of Kenny's knee braces and one of Kelton's. We even have a walking boot, but Kenny is still wearing it for his broken foot.



As I have thought about this more and more today I was surprised to be able to come up with a whole list of things that I'm glad we have been able to get rid of. If they were still here I can't even imagine how many of them Kelton would have tried to haul out the door this morning.



So far, we have been able to return, donate, or simply throw away: several pairs of crutches, my knee brace, 3 kneck braces, Taylor's walker, and more than one wheel chair. If anyone out there remembers more, please don't tell me. It means that I have successfully forgoten that injury or car accident.



At any minute we could possibly qualify as the new evening medical drama on channel 5.






Luckily, Kelton kept it simple and only wore 2 splints. However, he couldn't smile because he was "injured".

My First Starbucks

Here it is, my first ever drink from Starbucks. I know there are people out there that will never believe it, but this is really the first. The only reason that I even think that this is note worthy is because I know there are some of you out there (ie The Pioneer Woman) who would die without their Starbucks. And, whatever it was that I had was gooooood. I think it was called something like a chocolate chocolate chip frapachino. I have no idea, all I know was that it didn't last long. Somehow I sucked it down in record time and didn't even get a brain freeze. It also reminds me of another first that I had a couple of years ago.

One of my co-workers and I were taking posters around for an event that we were hosting for USU Tooele Regional Campus. While we were out she talked me into getting my first Chai Tea. Okay, she really didn't have to talk that hard because I had really wanted to try one and see what all the fuss was about. We stopped at one of the little coffee shops in town and she ordered us a Chai Tea (with Soy milk, we had to be healthy). I have to admit that it was really, really good. I didn't have enough time to finish it before I went to pick my kids up from school and so I left it sitting on the kitchen countertop.

At this point in the story, I should probably explain that we are Mormon and so we don't drink coffee or tea (or alcohol but that's not part of this story). I feel as though I should explain this little tid bit of information to help you better understand why my son reacted the way he did. Also, just in case you are one of those people who will hunt me down for somehow breaking the word of wisdom. I did hear somewhere that some of these "herbal" tea's are okay. Even if I heard wrong, that is my story and I'm stickin with it.

First, my oldest son Kelton came into the kitchen and saw the cup from the coffee shop on the counter and announced that I had been drinking coffee. He made it sound as though I had just committed a mortal sin. Really, if you had been there and seen his face you would know that I am not exaggerating at all. Then Taylor comes in and gets in on the action and the rest of our conversation went something like this:

Taylor - MOM, You're drinking COFFEE??!!!!!!!!
Me - No honey, I just got a Chai Tea.
Taylor - Oh, so that's just your fancy way of saying that you are drinking Chinese coffee!!!!
Me - It is not Chinese coffee, it is a Chai Tea, I can have a Chai Tea if I want one.
Taylor - I don't care what you say, it is a Chinese coffee

I need to tell you that I had my one Chai Tea 4 years ago and he still brings it up and gives me crap for drinking a Chinese coffee. I really don't even know why it would be such a big deal to him. We really aren't that uptight about things. We have tons of family that drinks coffee every morning and we have never said anything mean or snotty about them drinking whatever they want to. I still can not figure out why he made such a big deal about my tea, but when I said that I had my first Starbucks today he brought it up again.

So, I think I have figured it out. According to Taylor; I can have all the Diet Coke I want. I just am never allowed to come home with anything that comes in an insulated coffee cup or anything that says Starbucks.

Family Time

Growing up I couldn't wait to be an adult and do whatever I wanted and I was going to make sure it was somewhere far from home. That has never happened and I have always been surrounded by family. Now that I am older, I am so thankful to have my family around me (and its not just because of all the free babysitting).

This weekend my boys got to have a sleepover with their Grandma Shauna and Grandma Chris. They love to spend time with all of their Grandma's, they have 3 of them. They have been blessed to have a strong bond with each of them and to have such good examples in their lives. One of the things that they love to do is stay up late and listen to Grandma Shauna tell them stories. I think at this point they know more about my mom then I do. She is so good to share stories from her childhood, stories about their Grandpa that they never got to meet, and their all time favorite scary stories.

This is their Grandma's (and they will never look in the same direction for me):
Shauna (my mom), Chris (my mom's partner), and Susan (Kenny's mom)

On Sunday we decided to go drop in on Grandma Susie and spend some time with her. We had so much fun catching up and sharing stories. We love to tell stories when we are all together and most of the time they are the same stories over and over. It's amazing that we never get bored of them. It's also amazing how some of them start to take on a life of their own. During this visit we were comparing stories of our dog Charlie with Grandma Susie's Aunts dog that was also a Dauchshaund. They both love sweets! We were laughing so hard remembering all the stuff this dog has eaten and the messes it has created. I'll share those stories later.

I am just so glad that we were able to spend so much time with our parents and that our boys could enjoy time with their Grandma's. I never realized how much the times I spend with my Grandparents meant nor how much I would miss those moments once they were no longer in my life. I truly hope that we can find a way to help our boys remember our crazy visits with family and cherish them.

One last thing. Please pray that none of them kill me for using that picture. Now that it's on here I can't figure out how to switch it to another one. But, I do promise that Chris is just trying to get something out of her eye.

Finally

I have wanted to start a blog for so long and finally sat down and did it. I chose Lee family adventures for our blog because our life is anything but boring. I wish I could say it is because we have amazing adventures and travel all over the world, but in reality it is because our lives are an adventure everyday just because we got out of bed.

I am so excited to start sharing all the fun stories that happen everyday around here. I will also admit that I am one of those mom's who loves to share any and all stories about my boys. That was your warning to get ready for almost every post to have a story about them. Starting a blog also will help me to remember all those stories that I thought I would never forget, but I have forgotten many of them.

So, without any further adieu get ready to laugh, cry, and roll your eyes at the drama.