Here we go.

First- The Grand Canyon:

In 2003 Rich, Brooke and I went to the Grand Canyon with my parents and my two brothers.  It was amazing.

If you have never seen the Grand Canyon in person you can not comprehend how spectacular it is by looking at pictures.  You just have to see it in person.

After seeing the Grand Canyon we went to Las Vegas and visited all of the hotels, saw lots of shows and ate lots of food.

And did a little relaxing by the pool.

And we saw a real, live cactus.  At the airport in Las Vegas.

Next- Rich and I took a cruise in 2004.

We took a Carnival Cruise to Key West, FL and to Cozumel Mexico and It was wonderful!  Cruises are an excellent vacation choice.

One of the things that amazed me was the color of the water in the ocean.  I just love this color blue.

Third- a trip to Disney World in 2004.

Rich, Brooke and I took a trip to our favorite vacation destination in 2004.  We love everything about Disney World!

And a trip to Disney World in 2007:

Hailey having some fun at the pool at our hotel.

Hailey biting Mickey Mouse on the nose…

…and now biting Tigger on the nose.

And Disney World in 2009:

“…tell us about a diet or two (Atkins, Sonoma, Weight Watchers, South Beach, the You on a Diet, Best Life, The Abs Diet, The Zone, Cabbage Soup, E-Diets, Dr Phil, Jenny Craig, The Meditterranean Diet, Nutrisystem, Slim-Fast, Suzzane Sommers or No Name diet etc etc) that you have tried and what you liked or did not like about it. You can tell us about one diet that you had so much success with, or another that was a torture to follow or both.”

So if you’re a woman, chances are pretty good that you have tried a diet or two in your life time.  I know I have tried my share of diets.  I was actually really tiny (wearing a size zero kind of tiny) up until I went away to college.  Then all of the sitting around in class, at work and then sitting around studying caught up with all of the fast food and before I knew it I started gaining weight.  I have tried all sorts of diets and only had real success with one of them.  I have picked two diets to share today.

Atkins- I tried this diet about 6 years ago.  I don’t remember all of the details of this diet but you basically can’t eat many carbs.  This diet did not work for me because I can not completely remove a food group from my diet.  Besides, that doesn’t seem very healthy.  The one thing it did do though- it got Rich and me to stop drinking soda.  And both of us lost weight because of that.

Dr. Phil- I used this diet and it worked for me.  I actually lost about 65 pounds using this diet and got back down to a size 2.  This diet plan made sense for me and I very highly recommend it.  Not only did I reach my goal weight but I was able to maintain my goal weight for a year.  Then I got pregnant with Hailey.  She turned 2 in October and I still have 14 pounds of pregnancy weight to lose.  I need to use the Dr. Phil plan again and get back down to my goal weight.

So- there’s my dieting story!  Stop by Grace’s blog to see who else played along this week.

“I have decided to put a twist on the traditional Fun Monday. Instead of standing in your front door and taking a photo of what you see outside, let’s turn around and take one of the inside. Maybe that will prompt some of us to pick up a tad (you know who you are). ”

 Here are my pictures (and I did not clean up).

When you first come in my front door, if you look to the right you will see this little stand.  It is always decorated for the season or holiday that is here.  So for now my stand has some snowmen decorations (and yes, Santa is still there too.)  Off to the right of that is the door that connects to our garage.

Then if you look past the stand and down you will see our downstairs.  You can see our computer desk (with lots of wires underneath) that never, ever gets used since we both have laptops.  Our family room, Hailey’s play room and my laundry room are down there too.

Then if you look up you will see our upstairs.  On the left you can see the back of our piano.  And then you can see Hailey waiting to greet you.  Actually she was waiting with a handful of books for me to read to her and I’m not sure why she has her eyes shut so tightly.

So- there you have it.  A little peek into my front door.  Visit Another Chance Ranch to play along.

“My assignment this week was to see inside your closet, without your organizing it before the picture!!”

Easy, right?  I don’t have to clean or think- just snap some pictures of my closets.  So, here ya go:

This is my half of the closet.  I know I’m going to have some major closet jealousy when I visit the other participants and see the lovely walk-in closets that I’m sure many of you have.

This is Rich’s side of the closet- and I realize it is a bit blurry.  But I am much too busy lazy to go retake the picture.

We are actually in the process of switching some rooms around in our house and there is bunch of stuff stored on the right hand side of the picture that I was trying to hide (not in the closet, but up against the wall)- which is part of the reason it came out a little blurry.  We are switching around Brooke’s and Hailey’s rooms.  Brooke (my step-daughter) lives a few hours away from us.  When she was younger she spent every other weekend with us as well as school breaks and time in the summer.  Now that she is older she has a job and a lot of activities at school and isn’t able to come and stay with us anymore.  Lately we have been traveling to go see her.  Anyways, because of this we have decided to switch around Brooke’s and Hailey’s rooms.  Brooke had the bigger room and Hailey was running out of room in her room.  So, Brooke will still have a room here for when she is able to visit us but it will be a little smaller.  It just makes sense to let Hailey use the bigger room since she is here all of time.  I have very mixed feelings about all of this- I’m happy that Hailey will have more room in her room and I won’t have to trip over all of her toys in the living room because there will be room to keep them in her room.  But, I’m sad too that we don’t get to see Brooke very often anymore.  Anyhoo- who knew that my Fun Monday post was going to turn into this?  Not me.

Here is an empty closet.  This is Brooke’s old closet and will be Hailey’s new closet.  And right now the closet is (mostly) empty because Rich is in the middle of painting this room.

Here is Hailey’s closet, which will be Brooke’s new closet.  And usually all of that stuff is not on the floor.  But those are bags of clothes from Brooke’s old closet.

So hop on over to RDH Mom to see the other participants who were willing to share the secrets in their closets.

“I would like to see or hear about things you have made with your own two hands (or feet, I’m not fussy!) We all have different talents and abilities, maybe you like to sew or knit, chisel or sculpt, draw or paint? Whatever your talent is, please share it with us this week.”

I haven’t made anything recently because it is hard to find the time to do it with a toddler.  But, I used to do a lot of cross stitching and scrapbooking. 

So, here are a few things that I have cross stitched:

And here are a couple of pages from Brooke’s scrapbook:

Stop on by Karisma’s blog to see what everyone else makes in their spare time.

“We all have them…and if you don’t, you do….you just may not realize it. For some reason or another we all collect something and we collect it for reasons that will definitely make for good reading. So on Monday, I want to see your collection.”

So, I present to you- my collections.  I am starting upstairs in my living room.

I love Precious Moments, so here is part of my collection of Precious Moments.  The ones on the top shelf were used on our wedding cake- that’s the bride and groom in the middle with the attendants and each side.  

And, here are some more Precious Moments.  Be careful not to look too closely because there may or may not be some cobwebs forming.

I also have a collection of tea cups that belonged to my grandmother.

Moving on now to my family room downstairs:

Please shield your eyes from the terrible paneling that we have in our family room.  Here is part of my collection of Boyd’s Bears.

Here are some more of my Boyd’s Bears.  I actually have lots more Boyd’s Bears but since we have only lived here for 4 1/2 YEARS I haven’t had time to finish unpacking all of the boxes yet.

Visit Mariposa to see more Fun Monday participants.

Sauntering Soul is our host this week for Fun Monday.  Here is what she had to say: 

“I know we all try to be sweet and kind to people the majority of the time. But let’s face it….we also know that sometimes we can be a big jerk. It could be that you experience road rage from time to time. Perhaps you empty the coffee pot at work some mornings and don’t feel like taking the time to start a new pot for the next person. Or maybe you don’t return phone calls on a timely basis when you know someone needs a response from you. Have you ever “accidentally” ruined a favorite shirt of your spouse just because you didn’t care for it? Come on – it’s confession time! List the small things you do that make you a jerk and elaborate just a bit on each one. Please tell me I’m not the only jerk around here!”

I am having a really hard time writing this post.  Why am I having such a hard time with this post?  I think it’s because I think sometimes I need to be more of a jerk.  I tend to let people walk all over me.  I am usually one of those very nice people who ends up getting pushed around. 

Don’t get me wrong though, I can certainly be a jerk- but I’m pretty sure that the person who gets to see that the most is Rich.  And Rich is more than willing to help me write this post.  He tells me that when he tells me something I don’t want to hear that I sigh at him.  Well, excuse me- but if that’s the best he can come up with he should be counting his blessings. 

Really though when Rich is annoying me, here are some of things I do on purpose to annoy him back. 

• Continue piling the garbage up in the kitchen until it is spilling out all over the cupboard it is in.
• Hide the remote for the TV.  Or unplug the TV.
• Perhaps Rich is trying to take a nap on the couch.  I will wait for him to get all settled on the couch, nice and comfy.  Then I go to the living room and turn all of the lights on and leave the room.  (This doesn’t work too well in the summer when it’s light out, but in the winter it can really irritate him.

I’m sure that’s lots more, but for now that is all I can think of.  Anyone who knows me can feel free to leave a comment and tell me some of the things I do to be a jerk.  You can leave your comment anonymously

Stop by Sauntering Soul to see what everyone else does when they feel like being a jerk

“I would like to know “Who is Your Hero” Not from TV, but your real life hero. It can one or it can be many. Just someone you look up to. You can do this any way you would like and if you want or can, share pictures.”

As soon as I read the assignment that Kitten gave us I knew the answer to the question- my parents are my heroes.  But to really put into words how I feel and why they are my heroes- the words are just not coming.  So, my Fun Monday is going to be really short this week.

To put it simply- my parents raised me right, have always been willing to do anything and everything for me, made plenty of sacrifices along the way, and I know they love me unconditionally.  My parents are my heroes.

Stop by Kitten’s blog to see who else is participating this week.

“I’m going to make it a nice and easy Fun Monday this week. All I want you to do is take me on your favourite walk. In words or pictures. Or both of course! Tell me why it’s your favourite and point out things of interest on the way.”

Ummm, so I have been very busy lazy and haven’t been on a walk in awhile.  The weather is finally nice where I live (although we may have snow flurries this week) so I plan to start walking everyday.  But, during the winter when it’s too cold and snowy this is where I should do my walking:

The only point of interest along this walk is my TV and that’s only if I can find something good to watch, which isn’t very often.

Stop by AOJ and the Lurchers to see the other participants, who have hopefully taken some actual walks

“THE DOUBLE NICKEL 5&5 FUN MONDAY Challenge.  The rules are simple.

FIVE PICTURES – FIVE WORDS PER PICTURE.
Any 5 (FIVE) pictures, any subject, and any 5 (FIVE) words for the caption.  CAN YOU DO IT???”

So, I decided to introduce you to my family for this weeks Fun Monday.

Here’s my one and only.

Turning sweet 16 next week.**

My sweet and feisty toddler.

My little miss Dottie Doo.

Our favorite place to vacation.

WooHoo!  I did it!  Go on over to visit the Nekked Lizards to see the other participants.

**Updated- This picture is from 2000, that’s why she looks so young.  She hides from the camera now, so I had to pick an old favorite.  This doesn’t count as extra words though  I’m just responding to some of the comments about how young she looks.