A Little Letter and Some Pictures

I have been hit by the organization bug. Thank goodness though, because my house is in some serious need of TLC. Today I condensed 3 tubs of my stuff into 1! Bret will not believe it when he gets home. I had a blast going through some old pictures from middle school, high school and college. They brought back so many memories, some bittersweet, some made me giggle and others made me cry.

I touched things that now have more meaning since some of these things are from or belonged to people have left this earth; my grandparents, a friend from middle school and most recently my dearest Ester or Sue.

I came across this little note from my Grandma Georgie, my moms mom, and laughed at what she had written and mailed just to me.

Dear Alicen,
I'm so happy you sing so well - Do you sing at home when you're helping your mother? I hope so -
Love,
Grandma George

I really hope that my mom sends letters like these to my kids one day.

I dont know how I reacted when I got this letter. I am sure I rolled my eyes, thinking I was the best daughter my mother had, and didn't need to sing while I slaved for my mom. Now I wish she was around still to send this to my sister (9).

V-day

Today has hardly been a day of love for me.
Its been the day from HELL.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
The End.

Things I Dont Want to Forget

Wow. The last few months have just FLOWN by! So many things have happened that are 'blog worthy' as the Mr. likes to say. Since I don't want to forget about them, but also do not have a lot of time to write I will make a list and hopefully (with my fingers crossed) get to them soon.

• the lady at Micheals accusing me of stealing
• shot-gun wedding and making my very first wedding cake
• throwing up on the sidewalk (a side effect of morning sickness)
• the watersoaked bathroom
• febreze anyone?
  
• funny things my kids have said

In closing I will tell a short story about Mr. Roonie. He has been quite a handful lately, mischievous, destructive, relentlessly getting into things that not only does he know he shouldn't be getting into, but playing with and destroying these items. Today both he and McKinley have been at it. They were both full of energy with no ending in sight. We played hide and seek, chased each other around the house, played Candyland 4 times, read books, watched Spiderman, ate lunch, ran errands, and they still were as wild as could be. On our way back from my afternoon shift at x-ing, I was singing to the radio and listening to the kids talk back and forth. Tait out of no where says: "Mom, is there a problem here?"
pause without enough time for me to respond,
Tait: "because I want you to sit right here for now!"

I really do love them!

Skills Letter

Here is another assignment for my class. I am writing a cover letter for a job as an athletic trainer with the skills that I have right now...

Having spent the majority of my life unfit, in recent years I have spent a lot of time educating myself on what is healthy for your body and actively putting what I have learned and applying it to my daily life. With seeing the results of my education and work, I have the desire to share that with others who struggle with weight. Because of this I will be able to understand each patient I see and will be able to relate with them and teach them the skills they need to acquire to be healthy active people.

My Top 10 Values

For one of my classes I am required to start a blog, write a mission statement, and post my top 10 values. I will every once and a while be required to add things to that blog. Since this is my own personal blog and not my family blog I will just use this one for my career portfolio. If you choose not to read these things, that is fine, and if you do, you will get to know a deeper me. (lucky you!)

Choosing my top ten values was really not that hard for me. Putting them in order of their importance to me was the most difficult. I am glad that this class has forced me to write down my values and their order of importance to me. It might give my friends a deeper look into who I am and what is important to me. So here goes nothing.

1. Passion- Passion is important to me because it is what drives me. If I am not passionate about something, I don’t really care about it. I tend to get passionate about everything that I learn. This is why it is the number one on my list. It is by far the most important to me and the thing that drives me the most.

2. Relationships- Whether it is spending time with family or friends, I love being around people. I am rarely shy and LOVE meeting new people. I also love to force myself to get out of my own comfort zone and learn about new people. There is such an energy that you get from being around others. To me it’s like food.

3. Education and Teaching- There is something about my kids learning new things that bring me a type of joy that is unexplainable. I love seeing the "light go on" and seeing their excitement as they figure new things out and the pride they take and feel in accomplishing something. I think as adults we tend to not give ourselves enough credit for our hard work. My kids are constant reminders that it is exciting to learn new things and we should be proud of it! I love to learn new things and enjoy making myself a well rounded person.

4. Freedom &

5. Independence- I believe that these two things are very similar and go hand in hand. I love to do stuff just for me. As a woman in Utah I feel the same pressure most Utah women feel to be perfect all the time. I play so many different types of roles all day long I tend to lose myself. By doing things just for me (even if its 20 minutes in the bathroom reading in the tub) I love doing things just for me because it makes all the other roles I fill so much easier to do. I am able to do them with enthusiasm and excitement, rather than dread the next task at hand. Having a freedom and independence I am able to all in all be a better me!

6. Health &

7. Personal appearance- I love to workout. I also love to learn about our bodies, they way they work and how we can make them faster, stronger, healthier. I am a health education junkie. I love going to the library and reading on all the different theories on health and fitness. I can talk about it forever, to anyone and am a strong believer that ANYONE if they put their mind and have their heart in it can be healthy fit people. (and still enjoy the brownie every now and then)

8. Sense of accomplishment &

9. Achievement – There is nothing better than working hard at something and then seeing the end product knowing that you did that, you changed it, you made that difference. Getting that recognition from others is empowering and life changing. It drives you to keep making a difference and working hard to make a change. Even if that recognition comes from within, just the sense of accomplishment is well worth all the hard work and effort.

10. Financial comfort- This may be the #1 thing for many people. While this is important to me, it is the last on my list because there are many other things that bring me happiness other than money. It still made my top ten though because let’s be honest, I love shopping and I love dressing my kids in cute clothes as well as be able to afford to go on vacations and have nice things. This does sound a little vain, but ultimately I would love to be able to financially be able to do the essential things in life as well as be a little extravagant. Having a job that I love and one that will bring me financial comfort would be the best job in the world.

So there you have it, my top 10 values. I think that over time these values will not change maybe their priority will change, but not the value itself.

My Latest Obsession..

Years ago my sister in law, Robyn, watched this show... This was before the days of DVR's, so I always remember her talking about scheduling her life this silly show. At the time I had never heard of it, but now I do have to say thanks to her, a couple days ago I saw it on Netflix and started watching it. The show... drum-roll please....

Veronica Mars

I Love it.. you will too!

I am obsessed with Glee.
The music is my favorite part.
Thanks to my cute friend who made me remix CD's
I now take the music everywhere I go....