THAT'S HOT!

You may wonder what I do while I sit waiting for my boys to get done with their baseball practices...

Well, I read, or play games on my phone while sipping on a delicious salted caramel hot chocolate from QT.  YUM!

 

150K

The good ol' burbie turned over 150,000 miles today!

Wow!!

Uuuuggggg....

So, in the process of trying to get some photo files off of the Internet, I unintentionally deleted every photo on my blog.

 

Who knew that deleting a Google+ file would remove my photos from Blogger?????????

 

Obviously I didn't.

 

So now I have to go through and manually re-enter all of the photos from my posts.  I am really thankful that I have books printed of my blog through 2011.  I think I will just re-insert all of the 2012 photos and start fresh from there.  You know, because I have tons and tons of extra time to be able to do that...

 

Uuuggggg.

Post Election Funk...

I'm exhausted.

I haven't slept for the past few nights due to major anxiety surrounding the Presidential Election.

Last night, after watching the results, I tossed and turned all night.  I am in serious need of a nap right now.  I'm so very, very tired.

AND I'm in such a funk.

I attribute the funk to the fact that I was completely invested in this election.

I have been reading everything I could set my eyes on for the past 6 months.

I have talked to everyone I know about the issues I felt the strongest about.

I "tweeted" and "facebooked" oodles and oodles of information I found.

There wasn't any more I could have done.

But I still feel completely let down, and quite frankly, a bit in shock.

As Kevin and I were talking this morning, we both agreed that it's not necessarily the fact that Obama won a second term that upsets us most, (although it does upset us!) but the steep decline in moral and ethical attitudes of the American people.

Washington, Maryland, and Maine legalized same-sex marriage.  As of November 2012, six states— Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont—as well as the District of Columbia and two Native American tribes, have legalized same-sex marriage. In the November 2012 general election, voters approved ballot measures in Maine, Maryland and Washington to permit same-sex marriage in those states, but same-sex marriage will not be official until state election officials have certified the results.

Maryland and Rhode Island recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.

Colorado and Washington legalized the recreational use of marijuana.  Really?  Recreational use of marijuana??  I am curious if Obamacare (i.e. ME being taxed within an inch of my life) will pay for drug rehab for all the pot heads this will create?

 

Massachusetts actually voted on whether doctor assisted suicide should be legal.  Did you know it's already legal in Montana, Oregon, and Washington? 

 

Even though the Catholic church claims it is against abortion, over 50% of Catholics voted for Obama, and by voting for Obama they basically voted for Obamacare which includes funding abortions. 

 

On another note, New York has banned the sale of SODA over 16 oz. in their restaurants, street carts, and MOVIE THEATERS.  Excuse me? 

 

Did you know that in 2008, President Obama assigned a "Technology Czar" whose main function was to make sure that regulations were put in place to LIMIT THE VOLUME OF YOUR PERSONAL STEREOS, CAR SPEAKERS, IPODS, ETC????

Excuse me again??

(for a complete list you can find it here)

 

Did you know that President Obama has used his "Executive Order" 130 times during his first 4 years in office?  President George W. Bush used his 140 times in 8 years.

Factcheck.org says this:

Obama has been sidestepping Congress through his “We Can’t Wait” initiative, a series of executive actions that he claims benefit the middle class through infrastructure projects and economic policy changes.

He also skirted Senate approval in January when he appointed nominees to the National Labor Relations Board and to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The appointments were unprecedented because he made them when the Senate was technically not in recess, prompting legal challenges from conservative groups.

In June, the president halted deportations of illegal immigrants who entered the United States when they were children and met certain requirements, such as the lack of a criminal record. The change mirrored provisions of the DREAM Act — failed legislation that Obama supported and Senate Republicans blocked in 2010.

And in July, Obama changed welfare policy to allow states to modify work requirements if they test new approaches to increasing employment. Obama did not submit the policy change to Congress for review, which the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office concluded he should have done.

 

I have many friends (who happen to be teachers) who voted for Obama because they claimed that Romney didn't care about class sizes and would cut education budgets down to the quick. 

From factcheck.org:

Obama also claimed that Romney “cut education spending when you came into office.” That’s true, though it’s worth pointing out that the state faced a budget gap and the Democratic Legislature proposed cuts, too. Our colleagues at Politifact documented a similar Obama claim on this point.

 Romney actually proposed a modest increase in state (Massachusetts) K-12 spending categories and larger cuts elsewhere. The $248.7 million in education-specific cuts reflected primarily the work of the Democratic Legislature in a time of serious financial crisis that predated the governor.

He did not want to cut education spending...just wasteful education spending.

 

It concerns me, beyond measure, that the unemployment in our country is hovering around 9%...although depending on where you look, some numbers are as high as 19%.  Any way you look at it, however, it is too high.

 

I can't understand why people can't grasp the fact that if we don't MAKE anything in this country, we can't CREATE jobs.  Everything in our country revolves around the ECONOMY.  If the economy is healthy, then everything else follows. 

 

President Obama claims that manufacturing jobs have doubled since he took office.  That is not true.

Obama correctly states that manufacturing jobs have increased by more than half a million since hitting bottom, but he fails to mention that the number regained is less than half the total lost since he took office.  (factcheck.org)

The auto industry and failed bail out is also a travesty.  There are substantiated rumors that Chrysler/Jeep and looking to move their production to China.  C.H.I.N.A. 

 

Obama claimed that he was "going to war" on coal energy and oil.  He is more interested in developing "clean energy" than to use the resources we have HERE IN OUR COUNTRY.   Pennsylvania's main job provider is coal mining...

explain to me, then, why they would vote, overwhelmingly, for Obama?

 

 

  Here's what I have finally come to:

I did what I could.  I exercised my right to vote.  I love to be able to cast my ballot.  What an amazing freedom.

And through these past few days my testimony of my loving Heavenly Father has been strengthened.  My resolve to "prepare every needful thing" has been strengthened.  I know that when I live as I should, when I obey the commandments, and when I put all of my trust and faith in God I will be okay.  My family will be okay.  And God knows exactly what He's doing.
I love this quote:
"It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. … If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." - Gordon B. Hinckley

How Is October Almost Over????

I can't believe it's the 24th of October already...

The speed at which time is flying by is shocking to me.  I can't seem to get a handle on it.

I also can't believe how bad I've been at blogging lately.  I guess I just don't have anything to say, or at least not anything worthwhile.

The boys are insanely busy, which makes me insanely busy.  Between Kevin's work schedule, the boy's baseball practices, and Tanner's Student Counsel responsibilities, it seems like we are always running and none of us are ever in the same place at the same time. 

I have been really thankful, lately especially, for some really great friends who have been so helpful with giving rides, etc, to help me out.  I have found that it is truly impossible to be in 4 places at the exact same time, no matter how hard I try. 

So what exactly have I been up to?   Well, I have been obsessed (to put it mildly) with politics lately.  I can't seem to get enough information.  In fact, just a couple of minutes ago I watched Donald Trump offer President Barack Obama 

FIVE MILLION DOLLARS

 to the charity of his choice if he would offer up his college applications and his passport application.  FIVE MILLION DOLLARS to do something he should have done four years ago.

Heck, he can have my college and passport applications in exchange for FIVE MILLION DOLLARS payable to the Lewis Family Charity!!!!

I got giddy when I was filling out my early voting ballot.  It makes me happy to be able to VOTE!  What a wonderful privilege!

I'm excited, however, for the election to be over only for no other reason than getting rid of the horrible, viscous, and untrue t.v. advertisements.  The amount of slander and disrespect in this country seems to be at an all time high, and I am sick of seeing it every 15 minutes.  (That is, when I actually have time to watch t.v., which isn't very often.)

What else? 

The boys had their Fall Break from Oct 12-19th.  We basically just chilled out for a whole week!  It was fantastic!!  We did go see the movie "Here Comes The Boom", which was excellent, and we also watched a lot of movies at home.  Kevin took the boys to an ASU game but they ended up leaving before half time because ASU was getting massacred!  They came and picked me up and then we went to get a Bahama Bucks. 

On the 19th we went to our community's annual Fall Picnic.  It wasn't as good as years past, but we still had a good time...

until we couldn't find Tate...

for 45 minutes.

We finally had to send out all of our friends to look for him.

I had a smallish...or huge-ish (depending on who you ask) panic attack.

Ty FINALLY found him INSIDE the video game truck.

Don't ask me why he was INSIDE the truck, but he was.

Dang kid.

 

This week I have Treyson and Tate's Parent/Teacher conferences, and then this weekend is the big Halloween Scream Baseball Tournament.

Treyson plays in Peoria, Ty plays in north Mesa, and Tate plays at Big League Dreams in Gilbert.  They all play at the same times...not sure how we're going to do that, but as usual, we'll figure it out.

I'll post photos this weekend.

That's all for now...

Now on to my day!

WHEW!

Today is August 20th.

The TWENTIETH.

I am amazed at the speed these past two weeks have flown by.

I am going to have to play CATCH UP again. 

Where to begin...

Well, the first day of school (the 8th) went off without a hitch.  The boys had a good day and I had a good day because HAIR day is ALWAYS a good day!!

Scott, Katherine, and Chase came on the 4th...I forgot to mention that-or maybe I didn't-I don't remember.  I tended Chase from 1 p.m. on.  Scott and Kat were attending a conference in Phoenix.

On Thursday I nearly lost my mind.  Unfortunately, that's not a difficult task these days.  The day started out earlier than usual because my 3 extra kids came at 6:45.  The Herrera kids will be spending some time with us during this school year...should be fun!  I also had Chase today while his parents went to their conference.  On Thursday night, our book club threw a beautiful bridal shower for Hayley Jorgensen.  Everything turned out so nice, but I had a bit of stress getting ready for it.  I was in charge of an appetizer, as well as the ice cream for the ice cream bar we were serving.  I spent 45 minutes scooping ice cream into cupcake wrappers only to realize that they would never transfer to the shower in 115* heat without turning into a puddle of cream.  DUH!!  I ended up stopping at the store on the way to the shower to buy another gallon of ice cream. I don't know why I always have to do things the hard way.

Payton doesn't have school on Friday, and I was watching Chase all day while Scott and Katherine went to their conference, so after I dropped all of the boys off at school I took the little ones to run a couple of errands.  It has been a long time since I've had a 3 year old and a nearly 2 year old.  I had forgotten how much work it takes to get them in and out of their car seats, into a stroller, and into the store, only to reverse the process once you're finished.  It was 114* at 9 a.m. and I was a sweaty mess by the time I finished my errands.  We went back to the air conditioned house and chilled out for the rest of the day.  We were all pretty tired from the hectic week, so once we got Chase down to bed we all headed to bed!

The weekend was busy.  We had Chase again on Saturday.  He's a hoot!  We love that little guy!

We ran errands, did the grocery shopping, and got ready for Sunday.  Ty had try-outs for the Predators USA club team Saturday night, so he did that.  Tanner had a party at one of his friends homes, and Scott took Kevin, Tanner, Tate, and Chase to the Diamondbacks game.  I had a lovely, quiet evening at home all by myself.  That doesn't happen very often!!

Church, as usual, on Sunday, then we were back to our "normal" school routine on Monday morning.

Scott, Katherine, and Chase left Monday evening.  After Kevin took them to the airport, we went to dinner as a family to Chili's. 

Ty had more try-outs on Tuesday, and Treyson and Tate both had practice for their club teams on Tuesday night. 

Wednesday night was mutual.  Treyson, Tate, and I worked on homework and watched the D-Backs game on T.V. 

Thursday night I had a Relief Society activity and Ty, Treyson, and Tate had practice.  It was a crazy night trying to get everyone where they were supposed to be.

On Friday night, Kevin and I, along with Brian and Sara, went out to dinner at Carabba's then to Gilbert for Brett and Haley's (Jorgensen) wedding reception.  It was beautiful, and the weather was amazing for the middle of August!  Not too hot, and NO RAIN!!

Saturday was filled with baseball practices, a family swim, and chilling out at home.  

Sunday was the same as usual.

Well, I guess I'm caught up.  I'm sitting here watching a show called POCOYO with Payton.  She helped me dust and vacuum this morning.  She's such a cutie! 

As soon as her mommy comes I'm headed out to meet my friend, Staci, for lunch.  Yay!!

 

JUNE

Well...today is the last day of June and I'm just now realizing that I did a really crappy job of blogging this month.

I don't really know why...

Maybe it's because I (happily) sat through 26 baseball games.

Or maybe it's because it's a GAZILLION degrees outside and all I want to do (when not sitting at baseball games) is sit in my air conditioned house and veg out.

It could also be because I've just had nothing to say. 

Life is pretty ordinary right now...nothing good and nothing bad...just ordinary and un-exciting.

Treyson and Tate did go to Cub Scout Day camp a couple of Saturdays ago, but they didn't have much to say about it.  Treyson did say that it was "the same as last year", and Tate was upset that he lost his neckerchief.  

See?  Un-exciting.

However...we are headed up to UTAH on Monday and I can't hardly wait.

CAN'T.  HARDLY.  WAIT.!!!

It's been a year since I've been "Home" for an extended amount of time.  I look forward to seeing the beautiful mountains and being in a place that feels familiar and comfortable (not that AZ doesn't...you know what I mean, right??).

I am looking forward to driving up the canyon, spending time with our loved ones, seeing Bryan and Rebecca sealed in the Manti temple, and just enjoying all the wonderful things Utah and family have to offer.

I'm sure I'll have plenty to blog about in JULY!!

Delay...

 Baseball games in Arizona aren't delayed by rain, or wind, or snow...

They are delayed by SNAKES!!

It was a 5 foot Bull Snake!!! (according to my sis, the entomologist)....I guess that's what we get for living in the desert!!

Baseball Season Means...

...having an awesome flip flop tan!!

Oh, HAIL!!

I've lived here for 11 years and have never seen anything like this before!!  Hail the size of marbles came down for about 10 minutes.  CRAZY!!

FOURTEEN

{FOURTEEN}

The number of hours spent with DIRECTV either on the phone or with a technician in my house in the past week.

You would think that someone at that company has a clue.

Turns out...NOPE...NOT SO MUCH!

Ugggggg.........

Another Awesome Find

At Tanner's baseball game on Saturday, I was complaining about not being able to get the red desert dirt out of my kid's baseball uniforms.  That is when my friend, Ella, told me about this awesome stuff:

Holy Cow!!  I don't think Tanner's white baseball pants have ever been so white!!

The only down-side is that it bleaches out any logo or stitching on the pants--the upside is that I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT!!!

Woo Hoo!!!

August

Why It Stinks To Be In Arizona In August...

...and I could mean that quite literally.

This has been the message on the news for the past week.

Umm...DUH!!! 

Do they think we're stupid??

 This forecast is actually mild compared to this past week.  On Tuesday the thermometer in my car, in my garage, read 123*.

That's HOT!!

I'm ready for some cooler temps!!! 

However, the snowbirds can stay home this year!!

Well...except you, mom and dad. 

You can come.

Gadget Girl

Those of you who read my blog know how much I L-O-V-E gadgets!  Well, recently I've purchased a few and thought I'd better share.

While in Utah I purchased this beauty

I love it!  I really do.  I'm not kidding.

They boys love to cook their corn dogs in it because it's not as scary as the "big oven", and it makes the corn crispy instead of soft (like in the microwave.).  I love that it doesn't heat up the entire kitchen, like the oven does.

SCORE!!!

The next gadget is this baby

The sad thing about this is that my kids asked me what it was. 

And, Kevin keeps asking me if I know what year it is. 

 I think that he thinks I've warped back to the '70's. 

Maybe I have. 

So what??

I, however, am thrilled that I don't have to wrestle with a piece-of-garbage-does-not-work-hand cranked can opener any longer.  Seriously, I think I've spent $50 trying to find a hand held can opener that actually works, and then have to replace them because they break.  Bleh!!  We'll see how this goes. 

This little beauty used to be my favorite gadget, until yesterday, when it was replace by my new favorite.  Here it is...do you know what it is??

It's a carpet rake!!!

I love it!  It perks up my matted down carpet, while removing all of the gross stuff that gets caught down deep.  I am so glad my gal Tiffany told me about this!!  I just rake and vacuum and the carpet looks soooooooo much better...especially on my stairs!

The next gadget on my list is this:

My microfiber duster!!!  It picks up, and holds all of the dust.  It doesn't just swish it around.  When it's dirty I just throw it into the wash and BAM, it's ready to go again!!  Woo Hoo!!

OK, now brace yourselves.  Here is my new FAVORITE gadget...

I got it yesterday at Wally World, and it brings joy to my soul.

Drum roll, please...........................................................................

It is the Shark Professional Pocket Steam Mop!!!  (Say that 10 times fast!)

I mopped my tile with it yesterday and it looks so good!!  I also used the hand attachment to clean my wood blinds and my bathrooms.  The steam gets into nooks and crannies and makes all that nasty filthiness come out, and then you just wipe it away.  The hot steam kills germs and odors and you don't have to use any chemicals.  Love, love, love, love, LOVE!!  They should hire me to be their spokesperson.  hee hee hee

Anyway...I'm in gadget heaven right now. 

 Sadly I have to go to Costco. 

 I'm hoping it won't kill my vibes. 

Peace! 

 (Oh, wait...that's the 60's...)

TONIGHT!!!

Oh my goodness...I'm soooooooooooo excited!!!!!!

I've Been...

My mom left me a message on my cell phone yesterday that said two things.

1.  You haven't updated your blog lately.

and

2.  Call me.

So...I've been...

Repairing...

...only to find out that I didn't have a tool needed to fix what I needed to fix.  And, yes, I'm doing it in the house because it was 113* in my garage.  I'm not exaggerating.

Redecorating...

...my bedroom...

I found this comforter set for a fantastic price and just went with it.  New curtains, lamp shades, and decorative pillows finished off the look.   

And...I'm recuperating from a whirlwind summer. 

It doesn't help that I have a ton of extra time to sit around and think of all of the things I want to do to/in the house.

Dear Friend...

...it's been a l-o-n-g three days since you've been gone.  I miss you.

I've had a constant headache, even though your replacement is very similar.  You have been my constant companion for the past 15 years and life will sure not be the same now that you're gone.

I am happy, though, to finally be able to let you go.  I don't need all the extra luggage you've caused in my life--and on my body.  So, this is it...farewell dear friend...I'll sure miss you!

Hello,  new friend...

Love,

Tina

Utah: Day 4

Back-To-School Shopping

{and let the record show that it was the BOYS idea!!!}

Utah: Day 3

Sunday.

1/2 hour Sacrament Meeting at the Hospital Branch.

(My dad's in the Branch Presidency)

Best Sunday EVER.

What more can I say??

Haboob

This went through my neck of the woods last night.

Strangely Facinating

and

Spectacular

and 

Scary

at the same time. 

{pictures taken by Mark J. Rebilas / US Presswire }
Haboob: 

 strong wind associated with large sandstorms and duststorms and may be accompanied by thunderstorms. It usually lasts about three hours, is most common during the summer, and may blow from any direction. A haboob may transport huge quantities of sand or dust, which move as a dense wall that can reach a height of 900 metres (about 3,000 feet). The term haboob is taken from the Arabic word habb meaning wind.