Just a few more days to go...

Ok, so back in January (2009) I posted about my New Year's goals (not resolutions). Then in April I did a little update on how I was doing up until that point (text in blue), now that it is only a few days away from the end of 2009 I thought I'd revisit these goals and see how I did (green text), I'm a little scared, I know I didn't do well at all!

Family Goals:
1. Only move once! HA! if you know us you'll know that's a tough goal for us! Well we've moved once already, now let's see if you we can stay here the rest of the year!! So we didn't stay in CA for very long. So in 2009 we moved from Enoch to Riverside and then back to Enoch. Oh well, better luck next year.

2. Family dinners every Sunday, I like this goal, it keeps our family together and helps us to stay in touch with what is happening with all our kids. This one is harder to keep now that we are in CA and the rest of the family is in UT or IN. James and I do eat together every Sunday though (and we bring Asher along with us) Family dinners have not worked out for us. Our family is so spread out now that they are growing up and moving on to bigger and better things. Plus most of this year was spend with James driving back down to Southern California on Sunday nights.

3. Save $$! YEAH RIGHT!!! ( I have no comment for this one right now!) Still no comment for this goal.

Creative Goals:
1. 200 Digital Scrapbook pages by Dec 31! I think I have 9 done already...woohoo I'm doing awesome on this goal! So far I've created 70 layouts, and it's only April. I'm not sure where I stand on this goal. I know back in June I had over 100 but when school started in August I stopped creating scrapbook pages. I have created so many that I've had to save them on disks and take them off my computer because they were taking up too much memory. I'll count them when I get back to Utah.

2. Project 365. Take a picture a day for 2009, I started a little late so I'm actually doing Project 360 hehe.Still going strong here also! Another project that completely stopped when I started school, I'm sad to say. I might try it again in 2010.

Personal Goals:
1. Lose the baby weight, get to 145 lbs before our Family Vacation (I think we are shooting for May) Not sure if we are doing the family vacation, but I still have about 7 more pounds left to lose. So I got below 145 right before I came down here (Riverside) for Christmas Break, but I'm pretty sure I've gained it all back since I got here :(

2. Read 10 books this year...almost a book a month, that shouldn't be to hard for me. Ok so I didn't think this one would be hard to accomplish but I haven't picked up a book yet...yikes! I better get on that. I've read 3 books for pleasure but that's it! When school started I didn't have time for reading for pleasure, but I did read a lot of school books, does that count??

I have a new goal to add here under personal goals
3. Run a 5k at the end of the summer. I started my training yesterday! WOOOHOOO I actually completed this goal! James and I did the 5K during the Iron County Fair. I didn't run the whole thing but we did finish it, next year I'll have a goal of finishing it faster then this last time. That shouldn't be to hard to accomplish since it took me 34 minutes the first time!

Is it completely sad that I've only completed 1 of my goals! And it wasn't even an original goal that I started the year off with. UGH! Well good thing there is always next year. I can't believe the year is almost over! It seems like just the other day I was first writing down those goals for the year. CRAZY!!!!!!

Dad's Surgery

On November 11, 2009 my dad went in for surgery. He had this lump on the side of his face, right side between his jaw bone and his ear. The surgery was an outpatient procedure, nothing too crazy. I decided not to come down for it because I had a lot going on at school and with the surgery being right in the middle of the week I'd miss to many classes. So I called right before he went in and wished him luck and then I told my stepmom Kim to call me as soon as he was done. This was at 10 my time. By 12:30 she hadn't called but the surgery was suppose to take about 2 hours so I wasn't too worried. Around 1:00 she called me and I could tell she was upset. She told me that when they cut my dad open they found out the lump had cancer in it. The doctor was pretty certain he had gotten it all out but there would be more tests later to determine the extent of the cancer in his body. After I hung up with her and sat down on the floor in the library and started to cry. The scariest thing in the world is to find out the one person you believe to be untouchable isn't. Even though school was busy I felt I had to be there with my dad. Within 30 minutes I had talked to all my professors, explained what was happening and told them I wouldn't be back for a week. They were all very understanding, which I am so grateful for.

By 2:30 I had Asher and I all packed and was on my way to my in-laws house to pick him up. We finally got to Riverside around 9pm. It was a long emotional drive but I was so happy to be in Riverside instead of Cedar where I couldn't do anything. Not that I was really needed there, but it felt good to just be around. My dad was in great spirits, of course, he always is. The day I left to head back to Utah my dad had a doctor's appointment. They told him that even though they were sure they had gotten all the cancer out he would still need to do radiation, 6 weeks of it, 5 days a week.

The week before Thanksgiving they did a PET scan of his entire body and found that there was no other cancer anywhere else that they could see. His radiation started Wednesday, Dec 9th. As soon as my finals were done on Friday the 11th I headed back down to Riverside to spend my Christmas break with him and to hang out with him while he drives back and forth to his radiation appointments. (which is where I am right now) Everything seems to be going ok. He is going to still get really sick from the radiation. The doctors have said that he will lose a lot of weight before the 6 weeks is over. I'm not looking forward to seeing my dad so weak but I am looking forward to knowing that he will be cancer free when it is all over.

A Little Splash of Color

I have always wanted a red kitchen and now I finally have it! Sunday and Monday night I tapped off all the cabinets and such and on Tuesday morning (11/10/09) I got up and started painting. It took me from 8am to 4:30 pm to get it all done, I had to do two coats, but it was so worth the time and effort. I love my new kitchen. Then the following weekend Jadeth and Whitnee stopped by for a quick visit and Whitnee said "Oh I love your new kitchen" and Jadeth said "me too, I like the new cabinets!" ROFL he is so funny. I guess the red made my cabinets look even better then they did before. And of course, here are some pictures of the kitchen and my little helper.

Asher vs. his dinner

Oh boy oh boy oh boy...what was I thinking letting Asher feed himself? But how could I resist, look how much fun he was having. Good thing I stripped him down to his diaper first!

Peace

On November 6, 2009 I was at school. I had brought my lunch and was trying to find a place to eat it. I looked out the building I was in and saw this! It was just warm enough outside that I didn't need a coat, the sun was shinning, the birds were chirping and I sat down on the grass an enjoyed my lunch. Isn't the campus at SUU beautiful?

Halloween 2009

For Halloween this year we decided to go visit my mom and Rocky in Kingman, AZ and then go to my sisters new salon in Lake Havasu for Halloween night since they close down the street her salon is on for a big street party.

The drive to Kingman was awful with Asher. It was just me and Asher, James came too but he was coming from CA and so it was just me and Asher. Somewhere after the dam (Hoover Dam) Asher got incredibly fussy. He wouldn't stop crying and I knew he was tired so I tried singing him to sleep but he would only sleep for a few minutes and then wake back up. He was still really fussy when I finally got to my mom's. Come to find out later he had a really back tummy ache. Poor little guy. Saturday morning, Halloween, he was back to his usual self. Around 3 we headed for Lake Havasu. Its about an hour drive from my mom's house. Asher was all dressed up in his hand-me-down costume. It was a Superman costume that I had semi-homemade myself for Bailey on his second Halloween. Asher loved it! Once we got there the street was just starting to close down and people were starting to show up. I could not believe how many people were there. It was crazy.

We didn't stay long, Asher was getting sleepy and we still had an hour drive back home to my mom's so around 9pm we headed back for Kingman. Sunday we hung around my mom's for a little while and then around 1 packed up and headed out. Asher was a lot better on the drive home. In fact he slept from Vegas all the way to Mesquite, which for him is amazing!

Here are some great pictures from that trip.

October 25th was my last post???

I'm so far behind. Almost two months. But in my defense that last two months have been crazy insane and I'm only now beginning to come down from it all. So in an attempt to catch back up with our life via the blog I'm going to skip the song titles for the next few blogs.

What Hurts the Most...

I love this song, even though it has to be one of the saddest songs I've ever heard I still love it. And I think the title is appropriate for this blog. But first, here is the link to the video on CMT, What Hurts the Most.

As a parent, I think one of the worst things in the world is when your child is sick or hurt and you can't fix it. James and I had to go through this twice the last week with Asher. On Tuesday we got back from our visit to California. James was moving the TV and trying to reconnect everything, and Asher, being the curious little boy that he is, was right there next to James trying to help him. I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready when I heard a crash and then a cry. Some how the TV had fallen off the stand we had it on and onto James, Asher and the rocking chair. Luckily James and the chair stopped the TV from really doing serious injury to Asher, but just to be safe James wanted to take him to the hospital for a check up since it got his head pretty good. All was fine, nothing serious, just some bumps and bruises but it was pretty traumatic for all 3 of us.

Thursday night Asher and I were home, James was in CA again working. Around 7 I put Asher in his highchair to feed him dinner, turned around to get something out of the fridge and then

next thing I knew Asher was throwing up! He was having a hard time so I rushed over and tried my best to help him. I gave him a bath thinking it was just the one time it would happen...wrong! From 7 until 10pm he threw up about every 1/2 hour, until he had nothing left to throw up and then it was dry heaves. He wouldn't drink anything and as I thought back to the time I picked him up from his grandparents I realized he hadn't had anything to drink since 4:30pm. His lips were really white and he had no desire to do anything but lay on me. I panicked, which I do often, and took him to the ER for the second time that week! The doctor gave him an IV and some medicine to stop the vomiting. We stayed at the hospital until well after 1:00am. The last time he had thrown up was a little after midnight so they sent us home. They left the IV needle in his arm in case I had to bring him back again for more fluid. Asher hated that. We didn't sleep well at all that night, he woke up several times trying to roll over onto the arm that was all wrapped up. Then at 6:00am he woke up with a fever of 102.5. I gave him some medicine, he finally drank a little water on his own and crashed back asleep. Friday we pretty much spent the day on the couch going in and out of naps and watching movies. I took him to the doctors office around 10 that morning and he said as long as he was keeping liquid down he was doing better, by Friday around 5:30 he hadn't thrown up again and had actually eaten a little bit of banana and some crackers so back to the ER we went to get the needle out of his arm. He actually cried more when they took the needle out then when they put it in. Poor little guy! He still isn't feeling 100% but I can tell he is getting better, thank goodness! Doctors said it was the stomach flu, I'm just thankful it wasn't the H1N1 flu!!!! Because James was in CA I took some pictures of Asher to send to him. Here they are, even sick he is still a little cutie!!!

The first two pictures were taken in the emergency room Thursday night and the last one was taken at home Friday afternoon. I knew he didn't feel well at all when he climbed on the couch and fell asleep without fighting with me to take a nap!

Big Green (well Red) Tractor

Oh yeah!!! Jason Alden's Big Green Tractor is the theme song for this blog. Except ours is a red tractor...but anyway...here is the CMT video for Big Green Tractor.

And here is a video and some interesting pictures from the day James and his dad picked up their big RED tractor. It was really hot that day and it seemed like it took them forever to get it all loaded up on the trailer but we finally got the thing home and James' dad has been in heaven ever since. Of course I can't seem to get him to come up and clear out my yard! What is up with that???

So the video is pretty small and it doesn't capture the craziness of James trying to back that thing onto the trailer but you get the idea. It was pretty scary to watch if you ask me! And the whole time all Asher wanted to do was get on his dad's lap and drive it! So cute!

Welcome to the jungle...

Being back at school again feels like I'm in a jungle! So the song for this blog is "Welcome to the Jungle" and HERE is the video.

I'm really behind in my blogging so I'm attempting to catch up today.

Back on October 15 I had a teaching assignment in one of my classes. We had partners and we had to give a 10 minute lesson on something...anything interesting. My partner and I decided we wanted to do something fun, and since it was October, we decided to do something related

to Halloween. So we taught our class how to carve a pumpkin. It was fun, the class really liked it and at the end we gave out candy!!!! I thought it would be really funny to see who I could get to clean the pumpkin out, you know, all the nasty stringy stuff inside the pumpkin...well I had NO volunteers, which was disappointing, especially since I had actually already cleaned it out! Here are some pictures of Asher helping me carve the pumpkin we used. He really enjoyed helping :)

So, like I said, school has been crazy. I've gone back and forth between continuing the path I'm currently on, to become a Secondary Math Teacher, or to veer off of it a little bit and do Elementary Education instead. One of the main reasons for this is my Discrete Math Class, and if any of you are friends of mine on Facebook you know what a nightmare this class has been for me so far. I'm completely lost...I don't get it, I don't know what it's purpose is and I certainly KNOW I won't ever use it again. My professor even told us Math Ed majors that we would never teach this stuff, but its a required class so I have to take it. This class is seriously making me doubt my ability to pass all the other math classes I have to take to finish this degree. These classes include 4 Calculus classes!!! YIKES! My other reason for thinking Elementary might be better is because I could finish that degree and be teaching about a year sooner than the Secondary Math. I need to figure it out soon because I have to register for Spring classes next week. I actually think I've made my mind up to do Elementary and if I decide at a later date that I'd rather do Math I'll just come back and finish the few extra classes it would require.

Well that's what's happening in our jungle....whats happening in yours?

Beautiful Day...

And just because I think its fun to watch music videos here is the video for U2's Beautiful Day.

It's been a crazy day today. Usually my Tuesday's start off with cleaning the house, doing laundry and hanging out with Asher. I don't have school on Tuesday's so its my day to catch up on stuff at home. However, my dad came into town last night and stayed the night with us so we could go get his Ford F350 and Jeep Wrangler inspected because both had registration that was due the end of September! This morning I woke up, quickly fed Asher and off we went to Tunex to get the cars inspected. Finally around 10 the truck was done so I headed home with Asher so he could take a nap. I told my dad I would come over to Panguitch later so I could take pictures of the park and get them up on the website for potential buyers to look at. James was back up in Brian Head today working so I thought, "hey why not go through Brian Head, have lunch with James, then head down to Panguitch? After all the leaves are changing and it will be a nice drive." So that was my plan. At noon Asher and I headed to Brian Head, along the way I stopped to take pictures, only realizing once I was half way up the hill that I was on 1/4 of a tank of gas. No biggie, Jeep says 90 miles to empty, that's plenty to get me to Brian Head and then over to Panguitch. So we had lunch and as I was leaving I asked James, "Ummm, where do I turn off this road to go to Panguitch??" and he said "Just up the hill a little more, there is a sign that tells you which direction Panguitch is." Ok, perfect! Should be easy, I'd never been that way to Panguitch before, normally I just drive north on the 15 until I reach highway 20, over the hill to the 89! So I'm driving and Asher is screaming, not crying, just testing his voice to see how loud he can scream...yikes! I must've turned to look at him at the exact time the sign came into view because I never saw it! I'm driving along, and driving along thinking, gosh it has to be here somewhere! Next thing I know I'm passing Cedar Breaks National Monument! Ok I know I've done something wrong now. And to top it all off, the Jeep now shows 30 miles to empty! UT OH!!!!! So I begin to panic, because of course, I have AT&T and they don't have cell service up the mountain!!! Now I'm beginning to wonder if I should turn around and head back to Brian Head or if I should keep going. I kept going and ended up at the 14, the highway that goes up Cedar Mountain. Luckily I have been up in that area so much that I knew Cedar City was only about 20 miles away and with 25 miles left until empty I was relieved! So I never made it to Panguitch today, guess I'll have to go Thursday or maybe Saturday. But it wasn't a complete waste, I did get these adorable pictures of Asher...on this very BEAUTIFUL DAY in Utah. I am posting these pictures for all of you who aren't lucky enough to live in Utah, this is why Fall is my favorite season of all!!!

New scrapbook kits (no that's not a song title!)

The song titles are only for random ramblings, not showing off my scrapbooking! Here are some great new kits by Staceys Scraps.



D is for Daddy























E is for Exercise
This kit will be released tomorrow (Oct 5)

Overcome...

Anyone know who sings this song??? This group was one of my favorites when I was going to school at SDSU waaaaayyyy back in 1996. Overcome is sung by Live. It's not my favorite song by them but the title kind of represents my thoughts this late Friday night as I think back over the week I just went through at school...just glad to have overcome it! Anyway, the song is really awesome. They wrote the song back in 1995, long before 9-11 happen, but the song has become sort of an anthem to some since 9-11. Here is a great video of the song if you feel like listening to it. Overcome on YouTube

School was a nightmare this week. I had a test in Discrete Math and Educational Psychology, along with a PowerPoint game due. The PowerPoint game gave me some trouble when I couldn't figure out how to get some shapes to disappear. I'm sad to say that I did figure out the problem and it was my Mac. Apparently the Mac version of PowerPoint doesn't allow you to put that kind of an animation on a shape, the Windows version does though. Lucky for me I have a Windows machine upstairs that I was able to use to complete the game. I must say, its an awesome game to use for Algebra students and I will be saving to use in my class...what I finally have my own class.

My Discrete Math test was HORRIBLE!!! I don't see the point of Discrete Math. It makes no sense to me as far as its use in the real world. My professor even told us the first day of class that as Math Education Majors we would never use this stuff! Then why do they require I take it????? Any how, hopefully I did well on it, I hope to find out Monday.

My Educational Psychology test was pretty easy, open book and all! Still, you just never know when the professor will throw in a tricky question. Also hoping to find out that I did well on it Monday afternoon.

I took a Trig test a week ago today and found out that I aced the test! Oh yeah! I was one of two people in the class of about 40 that got 100% <~~~~ yes that says 100%!!!!!!! Yeah me!

In other news...Asher now has 13 teeth, yes I said 13! I found 3 new teeth last night. Now he has 7 on the bottom and 6 on the top! The kid has so many teeth he could probably chew steak!

James and his dad are getting a tractor tomorrow. They are both really excited about that. I'll post some pictures this weekend of it once we get it home. Its an old tractor but James is looking forward to fixing it up and making it look new(er).

I talked to Bailey the other day, he seems to be doing well in Indiana. He is getting good grades and went to a dance a couple of weeks ago where he danced with GIRLS!!!! UGH! aren't boys suppose to think girls have cooties at this age?

We haven't heard much from Sabelle this week so she is probably just busy with school, work and Chad. Oh and her new puppy she got a few weeks ago.

Josten is working out everyday. We were looking at pictures of him from a few years ago and its amazing how much weight he has lost and how grown up he looks now. He is still trying to find a job but in the meantime he is getting registered to start SUU in the winter. So glad for that.

Jadeth, Whitnee and Jade are doing awesome, at least they were last weekend when we were up there visiting them.

Jared is busy working and learning all the tricks of the trade. I think he really enjoys learning and working.

Well now you are all caught up with the lives of the Sherratts (and Amo). Stay tuned, you never know what will happen around here tomorrow, or what song I might come up with as a title! :)

Days go by...

Hey, isn't that part of a country song? Days go by, I can feel them flying like a hand out the window in the wind as cars go by...Keith Urban! What a great song! That is not what this post is about however. I have such a hard time with titles, maybe I'll start making every title to a post from a song. Stay tuned, see how many I can come up with.

So, the this last weekend flew by. We decided to head up to Utah County to visit Jadeth, Whitnee, Jade, Jared and Tami. We got up there around 8pm Friday night and met Tami and Andy for dinner at a little Thai place by her house. It was yummy! Saturday James woke up and went over to the yard where Jadeth and Jared work. For most of the day they worked on shutters for our house. They are so awesome looking. Here are some pictures.

If anyone wants some made for their house go to www.davincidoors.net

Saturday night we went up Immigration Canyon to this great diner called Ruth's. The food was great and the music was awesome, but the best was the company. We had everyone hanging out with us, I loved it! Sunday morning we woke up and went over to Jadeth and Whitnee's to visit with them. Later that afternoon we ran to Target and then we went to Wingers for lunch. I love Winger's, their food is really yummy. After lunch we said goodbye to Jadeth, Whitnee and Jade and headed home. It was a great weekend. Here are some other cute pictures from the weekend.

This week is a rough one for me. I have two big tests, Discrete Math and Educational Psychology...can you say YIKES?!?!?? I did awesome on my Trig test last week so hopefully I will continue that trend this week. Well I'm off to watch my favorite show, Biggest Loser, and then it's off to study some more. Have a great week everyone.

B is for Back to School

Hey everyone,

We had a great weekend, I'll post more about that later. But for now I wanted to let everyone know that Stacey has another great scrapbooking kit out! It's the "B" in her alphabet series, B is for Back to School. I know that the kit would be great for back to school pictures but I couldn't find any of Bailey's back to school pictures and Asher hasn't started school yet so I found some other pictures that worked great with the kit...see how versatile it is???

Some great new kits by Stacey's Scraps!

Hey everyone...here are some great new kits by Stacey's Scraps over at www.scrapthatidea.com.

This kit, For Mason, is for a very special cause. All the proceeds for the sales of this kit will go to "Autism Speaks" in the name of Mason, a son of one of Stacey's good friends so please go buy it!!!

Here is a layout I did with the kit "For Mason"

This fun kit, A is for Autumn, is the first in a series Stacey is doing. She plans on doing a kit for every letter of the alphabet so stay tuned...I've seen all the way to D so far and they are great!!!!

Here is the layout I created with A is for Autumn. And in case you couldn't tell, right now my blog was created with this kit!!! I love it. Of course, fall is my favorite time of year, that could be way I love it so much.