Sweetest man alive!!!

Wife of 10 years

I was planning to make a post today about how Mark and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary today, but Marko beat me to it!
(Isnt he a QT!)

I am not a poet like Mark, but I want to say; these past 10 years have been full of wonderful memories. Even the hardest times have been worth going through because I have such a good, sweet, loving and understanding man!

We have grown so much, and learned so much from each other, and had some awesome memories! Allow me to share snip its from these past 10 years together:

Year 1: We lived in a small 1 bed room apartment, both of us working, blissfully happy in our "honeymoon stage". Mark is going to college and working Very hard!

Year 2: Mark is still working full time and going to college full time. We go through Frustrating feelings and discouragement, as we unsuccessfully try to start our family. Emptiness threatens to consume us.

Year 3: We experience tears of sorrow, and finally joy as we are blessed with our first child Savannah! Shortly after, Mark loses his job and finishes his Bachelors degree in computer science.

Year 4: Mark is out of work for almost a year. Despite Trying hard every day, he is unable to secure a job due to lack of experience in his field, or over qualification in jobs NOT in his field.
Mark buys a high quality camera and starts doing wedding photography to earn money on side jobs.
I am working, and trying not to get overwhelmingly sad at the fact that my new little baby and I are separated for more then 8 hours a day.

Year 5: Mark is blessed with a good job, after going through a few small jobs, and I am blessed enough to stay at home with Savannah and our new addition, Kiera! And later I start babysitting my sisters child Drey.

Year 6: Mark changes jobs, where he makes a little more. We search for a home of our own for months, and end up at a home of Matt's to rent for a while. Then we fall in love with our neighborhood and ward, and swear never to leave. So we buy the house, and for the first time, we feel we are FINALLY HOME!

Year 7: I spend this year enjoying being a stay at home mom, and care taker of my sisters child Drey. Mark is still working at his job, and loving it! He works so hard at his job, and also side jobs of photography to help keep me home. (Which I am eternally greatful to him for) His job allows him to work from home so he can help me on days I need a little more support.

Year 8: I am still loving being a stay at home mom, and now I start watching my sisters newest child Mila. Mark works from home a few days a week, helping me as I struggle with tendinitis in my arms.

Year 9: I start home schooling Savannah, Kiera and Drey after having a less then positive experience in the public school kindergarten. Mark is working hard as ever, now able to be at his office more then at home. (I finally got the routine down and my arms are healing. Mark and I are enjoying our lovely little family! Our girls Love when daddy comes home! As do I!

Year 10: I continue home schooling, and loving it! I face medical trials, and Mark is a real support and help to me through all my pain and complaining! He does all he can, and more, to try to help me. He goes into debt to try to help relieve some of my pain. (I might add that he despises debt, and so for him, this was a real sacrifice!)

One thing I have discovered through these past 10 years, is .... Every year I am more in love with Mark then I was the year before! Thanks, Mark, for all the years of sweat, tears, pain and most of all, for all the Wonderful love and support you have always been to me!
I am looking forward to see whatthe next 10 years has in store for us!

I love you.
For ALL ETERNITY.

Her Sunrise

Mark

Her Sunrise

Hues of red rise in the East, bathing the clouds in deepest crimson.
Bars of light slice through the sky, freeing my soul with its ransom.

Moments of disregard and reawakening, stir ones awareness of change.
From crimson to gold within a breath, throughout the Celestial range.

Slumber clasps ignorance to a sleeping world, unawareness refined.
Oblivious of the mornings splendor, hollow imaginations of the mind.

Prisms of purity, revealing elements of truth, unto one such as I.
Abolishing darkness, bringing warmth and love, holding me nigh.

Such is the state of my mortal plane, the beauty within my life.
All gratitude given to my sunrise, my eternity, my wife.

Written for my dearest Bonnie, on this the Tenth anniversary of our life together.
Yours for time and all eternity,

Mark Barber

Puppies are growing

Bonzoid

So the puppies are 3 weeks old this coming Thursday. At first the 3 brown girls looked identical, so we have waited to name them. But yesterday we started noticing one of them is definatly long haired. Her fur is starting to get wavy, and is a bit longer then the rest.
We got all 4 of them out today and discovered that we have one long hair with duke's coloring, one short hair with Duke's coloring, and one that looks like she might be red like Daisy. She is not the shade of her other 2 sisters, so that is fun!

So the long hair girl, we have named Curley Sue, The one that looks like Duke is DJ (that stands for Duke Jr, but since its a girl we are calling her DJ, sounds more feminine) The one that looks like Daisy we are going to call DeeDee. The black girl we are calling Black Beauty.

I am pestering Mark to post more pictures of the puppies, but so far he hasnt emptied the camera. Keep checking back for pictures, hopefully they'll be on here soon! :)

Hot tub....Oh Yea!!!!

Bonzoid

Yesterday Mark was able to get our new hot tub up and running. We filled it with water around 4:00 pm, and by about 10:30 or 11:00 pm it was up to temp. Which was 103 degree's.
So after game night ended we tried it out for the first time! Which was about midnight!

It was absolutely wonderful! So blisfully relaxing, and it has groovy gets that massage the back, feet, and even shoulders!
It is deeper then our old hot tub, and much more snazy!
It was pure bliss roasting up to my chin in hot water while gazing at the few stars we could see from the city! I told mark how awesome it would be to have the view that we had of the stars up in the mountains while sitting in our tub!!!

I dont know if it was the tub, but I sure slept good last night!!! And for those of you who know me well, that is really something!!! So, we'll be trying an experiment to see how much this helps me with my fibro! If nothing else it helps me and my muscles relax before bed time!

Thanks to Everyone who helped us get things ready, and helped us get it moved! All my family and friends have been an outstanding support to me and I'm So grateful to all of you!
Love you all!
THANKS!

Update on stuff n junk

Bonzerdelly

Ok, for those of you who follow my blog here is a list of things that have been going on:

-The puppies started opening their eyes last night. And one of them has Really found its voice! Sounds like one of those annoying squeaky toys! haha

-Our hot tub just arrived this morning, and I'm anxious to try it out! This morning is one of those where I got out of bed feeling like I'd been beaten in my sleep! It would have been nice if I could have had the tub this morning! I am SO EXCITED!!!!

-We have started doing a bit of school at our house. nothing too vigorous, just a little here and there. Kiera was SO excited to get going, I figured it was a good way to start school out nice and slow so they dont get overwhelmed.

-I harvested most of our garden a couple days ago. Pulled all the carrots, unions, garlic, and beets. (I've never seen beets SO FREAKING HUGE in my life!) So we are heading to my dads today to bottle & pickle my beats! Mmmmm!
All I have left in my garden now is tomatoes, potatoes, and lettuce. Oh, and I can't forget the weeds,... my weeds are thriving SO well this year! They are so easy to maintain too, maybe next year I'll only plant the weeds!

Well, thats it for now. Tah tah

Moon Lake Barber Family Reunion

Bonzerdelly

July 30th -Aug 2nd we headed up to Moon Lake to have another Barber Family Reunion. It was Beautiful up there! Only thing we didn't like was the buffalo gnats! (We cal them vampire gnats) You don't feel them bite, but you just notice that you are bleeding. And with me, 2 days later, that bite swells up and starts to itch!
Oh Well!

Wednesday was just our family and Chet & Rachel's family, it was nice to be able to spend some one-on-one with them the first night. We have gotten so close to them from the summer's they have spent here, that it was wonderful just chilling together!

We did lots of fishing! On thursday we rented a boat and spent part of the day taking turns going out for rides, and we tried some fishing from the boat, with absolutely no fish!!! I took a turn driving the boat, & I didnt even get the chance to leave Mark on the shore as I drove off laughing, aahh well, maybe next year!! LOL
We had been there a month before that, with friends, and the lake since then had gone down a WHOLE LOT!!! WE drove to the damn to fish, and I said "This doesn't look like the right place, it doesn't look like where we were a month ago". But it was! Apparently they have a spill way where they drain the lake during the summer to help water the farmers crops. And in the 4 days we were there, the water was still dropping at a pretty significant rate!! I think from the day we arrived to the day we left, it dropped about 4 feet. How we measured that was, we had propped up these rocks to hold fishing poles up, and when we were fishing on the last day we noticed those rocks we'd arranged right next to the water line, was 4 feet back on the beach, not right next to the water.
And for a lake that big to be able to notice that much water had been drained,...that is TONS of water they are draining!!!!
CRAZY!

We spent much of our time at the beautiful sandy beach. The kids would play in the soft beach sand and cover themselves in mud, so they could go out into the lake and rinse off and start all over again!
All the kids, and even some of the adults, had the most fun digging holes and making mud pits to play in!
Kathen, my nephew, decided he was going to get a full bath in the mud! So he laid down and bathed himself in mud!
(And to think, you can spend Hundreds of dollard to go to a day spa and have a mud bath, and here, it was FREE!)
His dad came up after a while and painted his face with the mud! He soon became camouflaged! His dad took pictures of him, with 2 kids behind him. And he thought it was hilarious to show people the picture and say "Can you see all 3 kids?" And everyone said "There is only 2 kids in this one". Chet would just laugh and say "Look harder!"

On Friday we all got together around the camp fire: Chets family, Wendy's family, Matt and his foster son, Camile and her daughter, Lori and her family, Kim & levi, Glen & his family, Mom and Dad, and Mark & I and our girls. We had a little program of sorts, that was very cute! There were many songs performed, and Preston, one of our nephews performed an AMAZING drum solo! WOW!!! GO PRESTON!!! And Matt's foster son Joe showed us his guitar talents! That was neat! Wendy & Carter also played their guitar and sang! Always fun to listen to them! They sing so well together! Chets kids all sang a Mercy Me song called "Rise up". They decided while sitting there, that they wanted to sing something too. So Chet asked if I wanted to play a Mercy me song while they sang it. This was a song I was learning and no where near perfected yet, but it was such a blast listening to his kids, and Savannah, singing that song! it was Adorable!
Heather was real cute, she gathered the kids at the beginning and at the end of the program and helped them sing primary songs! Which is really sweet, cause she has been put in as primary song director in her ward, and she is working hard to learn all those songs that she had never heard before she got her calling! GO HEATHER!

And while this was going on the kids were sitting in the dirt, and they decided to start playing with the dirt. Well, Kiera started painting her arms, then her legs, then her face with this dirt! She was soon looking like child of another nationality! It was HILARIOUS!
Kiera really took to heart the saying I have said for years "the dirtier you are, the Funner you've had!"
( We took pictures, and Mark will post them on the site soon!)

On Saturday we got up early and went down to the Damn to fish, just Mark and I with the girls! in about 2 1/2 hours we caught 14 fish! Just 2 fish shy of catching our limit! It was such a blast!!! That afternoon we all got together and cooked TONS of food to share! We cooked 20 fish that afternoon! (GO MARK!)
We had all kinds of wonderful food! Pork chops, chicken, fish, hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, fruit, salad, and much more!! It was GREAT!
Thanks To EVERYONE! That was such a FANTASTIC smörgåsbord!

BIG Thanks for everyones hard work! This was one of the most fun, & most memorable family reunions I've ever had!!!!

Camping List

Master Camper

My Camping List

http://ctremail.com/services/campingList

Understanding me & fibro

Bon

I have been thinking about posting just a blurp about how my health has been, for anyone who is curious. (If your not, just skip this one!)
I have several people ask me "what is fibromyalgia?" So I thought I would attempt to answer what its like for me. (Because everyone with fibro seem to experience it just a bit different, in either severity of pain, or amount of symptoms)

(I'm not adding this to sound like I'm complaining, cause I'm not trying to. I Just wanted to help others understand the condition.)

First off in the book I'm reading it explains what fibromyalgia means.
"Fibromyalgia is a form of muscular rheumatism characterized by tenderness, soreness, pain, and muscle spasms.Fibro- means fiber; my-means muscle; algia means pain."

Have you ever gone to the gym, and worked out real hard? Then a day or 2 later your muscles are achy & stiff and you think to yourself "What did I do to myself"?
Well, this is how I feel most days, and its not from working out every day, cause I dont.
Some days are much better then others, so...good days, & bad days. And kind of like when you have over done it at the gym, if you get up and start exersizing lightly when your sore, it helps you feel a bit better! Thats how I am. So I have tried to go walking every day since I got diagnosed, and it has helped a Great deal! But on bad days, it is so hard to get out and go walking because some times it really hurts!

A word on sleep....sleeping is a very difficult thing for me! If I lay on my side, my hip feels like its severely bruised, and my shoulders start throbbing and hurting really bad! I cant sleep on my stomach because my neck injury doesn't allow me to have my head in that position. So I lay on my back, which isn't my favorite position to sleep, nor is it the most comfortable. Because of that, falling asleep usually takes a while! And I sleep so lightly that when the girls roll over in bed, the creek of the bed wakes me up & I feel WIDE AWAKE! That is how I sleep all night! Then I wake up, achy, and feeling as though I have just been beaten while I slept!

My shoulders, neck and down in between my shoulder blades usually ache. Each day for me, as far as pain, and where the pain is, has been so differnt that its hard to say what its like. My shoulders and that whole area aches, and I find when its late, and when I'v had too much sugar they ache REALLY bad! Its best described like when you have a really bad case of the flue, and your hole body just hurts. Thats the best way I can describe that feeling! At times like this I take ibuprofen 800, and that seems to help a lot. One intersting thing is when it aches really bad in my shoulders, it seems to spread down into my arms as well!

My arms, previously thought to be tendinitis, is also part of the fibro.
Its harder for me to describe the problem in my arms...so bear with me as I attempt it.
Starting at my shoulders, and going down into my forearms, a light touch is quite painful! (my husband knows this, cause I frequently ask him to rub my arms and with every touch its "OUCH!")
With all the muscles in my arms sore, and tight, they pull on the muscles and tendins in my wrists, which then make hand movements, and pressure, excruciatingly painful!
So for example, lifting up a child can be not only hard, but painful, and it usually aggravates it, if it isn't currently hurting. Carrying a laundry basket has the same effect. Some times, picking up the dish washer soap and pouring it in hurts!
With this, and everything else, I have some days that are not as bad as others. And some days I just wanna cry!

My hips are another very painful part of my condition. I feel as though my hip is bruised all over, or has been shot with a gun, and its trying to heal. (that is the best way I can describe that) So walking, though good for me, can Really hurt! But the walking usually seems to decrease the severity of the pain there. Stretching, like in yoga, has been one of the Best things to help the pain here! And actually the yoga I have tried, which is very easy stretching, (not any of those complex funky positions that only a double jointed acrobat could do) has done the most good for me! I find that when I am able to do yoga stretching that the next day I'm having a better day! So I am convinced of the good that it can do, not just for me, but for anyone and everyone!

Next I'll just briefly mention my tummy. This condition very often includes irritable bowel. My doctor explained it this way: A "normal" person without I.B. wont feel an air bubble moving through their intestines, or feel solids going through it. But someone with I.B. can usually not only feel it, but it tends to be quite painful! If a "normal" person's body doesn't react well to certain foods, like dairy, they might feel bloated, or slight discomfort. But then someone with I.B. will REALLY feel it!

Tiredness is another lovely part of this condition, and honestly I have found if I just keep moving, keep myself busy, and not allow myself to sit very long,then I am not usually effected very much by the fatigue. But if I do sit down, like to watch a movie with the kids, then I get hit with this fatigue that makes me feel as if I havent slept in 2 days! Its a Terrible feeling!

Treatment for this is a difficult thing. Because there has not been a definite "cause" of fibromyalgia, it is tricky to treat. The doctors start out by treating the sleep, because when your body is deprived of sleep your body doesnt produce enough of a chemical called "somatomedin-C".
"This chemical plays a part in repairing the muscles. So people with fibromyalgia have muscles that are tighter and less flexable then most people...and the muscles would be more subject to microtrauma"
(taken from the book 'Fibromyalgia a comprehensive approach')

My doctor is having me try excersize and muscle relaxers at night to see if that helps. And honestly, the muscle relaxers have done a little, but not much.
My FANTASTIC husband, Mark, has been so wonderful! He has given me countless massages, and has tried so hard to help me in any way he can! I have had 2 doctors tell me that a hot tub would really help improve my health. So, my WONDERFUL Mark, has ordered a hot tub from Costco!
I'm Very excited to try out this new "therapy"!

Kudos to you Mark!
I know you cant sympathize with my pain, but I think I'm a good enough pain for the both of us! hahahaha :)
But seriously, I know at times its hard to understand me, and what I'm going through. I am very proud of how sweet you are, and how you have stepped up to the plate and just really taken care of me! Your WONDERFUL!!!

Fishing W/ my Family

Bon

Today we went up to Sliver lake up at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. My parents and Mark and I invited Alisha and her family to join us, so we traveled up there this afternoon and when we arrived at the lake, on the 24th of July weekend, the lake was PACKED!!!! (No surprise there) And so we walked around to the spot where my mom and dad were already set up and fishing.
Now, for those of you who dont know my dad, he can go to a lake that is "skunked out", and he can catch his limit almost every time! Its been this way ever since I was a child.
So we get there, and they had already caught 5 fish. (He has a favorite spot he likes to fish, says its the "best" spot there, and I agree)
So, within 2 hours we caught 16 fish! It was Wonderful! I am used to getting excited at catching my own fish, but now its all about my kids! Its more fun to watch their excitement! Its so fun to help my kids, and Alisha's kids to real in the fish, they get So excited and anxious to see if its "a big one"!

This trip Savannah got to set the hook and real in 2 fish ALL BY HERSELF! She was So proud about that!! Man they are getting big!!!

Kiera-Boo had a Wonderful time playing and exploring the forest around us with Carson! Those 2 are such good friends!

Sweet little Carson, Alisha's oldest boy, found out that catching fish meant killing them, and he did NOT agree with that! Although he did like realing them in! hehe One thing did make him happy, we caught a couple fish that were really small and only lip hooked, so he got to watch happily as they swam back into the lake!

We had a wonderful time with Alisha and her kids, Dayv unfortunately couldn't make it, he was slacking off at home, doing something he thought was much more important then fishing.....homework!
Good grief, priorities!!! (hehehe)

Puppies Puppies EVERYWHERE!!

BONBON

This morning at 12:30 our female dog, Daisy, went into labor. So I separated Duke and my dads dog that we are dog sitting this week, from Daisy.
Poor Sweet Daisy would bark and whine and cry if she was alone, so I stayed with her, and she would roll over and basically put her body Right under my hands where she wanted me to rub her! It was very sweet! While I was with her petting her, she would just barely whine and cry. So I felt like I was helping her out in some small way!
The poor girl would shake and shake, then she would get up and walk around the floor, then come back to me, lay down and shake. The hole while letting off a little wine.

At 2:00 this morning she gave birth to an empty sack. That was kind of interesting, and it kind of worried me. But then it wasn't till 4:30 that she finally gave birth to her first puppy!

I was So exhausted at that point, that I watched her for a few minutes clean the baby, then try to get the puppy in a position to nurse, then I went off to bed. I got up about every hour to check on her. At 5:00 when Mark got up to get ready to play racquetball, she had 2 puppies. When he got home at 7:30 she had all 4 puppies!

From the look of things right now, it looks like we have 4 girls!!!! 3 brown, and 1 black! That just hilarious, last batch of pups it was all boys! haha

We posted pictures of our new pups to
http://ctremail.com/services/pupies08 <
We should be updating the pictures fairly often, so we can share updated pictures of our cute little "Wiener Schnitzels"!!!

Fibro in Children???

BonBon

So, I have been reading a book called "Fibromyalgia: a comprehensive approach" by: Miryam Ehrlich Williamson it states: "Primary FM shows up early in life, with signs and symptoms emerging as early as four or five years of age. Children with primary FM usually complain of random pains and aching legs. ...such complains often dismissed as "growing pains" should not be ignored".

My good friend Alisha popped to mind when I read this, her son has had "growing pains quit severely for some time now, so I called her up and told her about it, and later she sent me this site:
http://users.wildblue.net/wmson/children.htm

So I thought I would post it here because of how unknown it is in general! And thought I would do my part in spreading awareness!

If anyone is interested in how my FM (Fibromyalgia) is doing, its ok. I have good days, bad days, and REALLY bad days! hehe
I have found that if I sit down for a while to relax that I am suddenly overtaken with tiredness that completely over takes me! I feel incapable of doing anything, even keeping my eyes open is a struggle! Yesterday was Terrible as far as fatigue goes! So I got to bed early, and woke a bit early too.
(sleeping was not so pleasant last night, its never great, I always hurt, but last night more so then lately)
Then I took my girls for a walk at 7:30 am. We got home and I started "keeping moving". Doing dishes, laundry, other misc cleaning. Then I sat down for a little while to read the book I mentioned at the start of this blog, and I felt that fatigue start hitting me. So I JUMPED up and ran downstairs, did more laundry and then just haven't sat down for more then a few minutes since.

So I am learning what I need to do as far as keeping that in check. Exersize, I have found, helps my pain level as well, so I have several reasons to keep physically active!

Thanks to EVERYONE for being such a HUGE support to me through all this! Its wonderful to get a call during the day, and an encouraging word! You are all wonderful
Thanks!

When it rains in Utah

Bonzo

The forecast for our weather for the past couple days has been "possibilities of rain". (Which means "rain??? Yea right!")
Yesterday we got a drizzle during the night, and today, it looked CLEAR as ever. Then out of no where this Cloud came in and all of a sudden these HUGE rain drops were falling from the sky. The drops on the cement looked like they were about an inch or larger! It was slowly doing this for a few minutes, just Huge drops here and there. THEN...SUDDENLY.... the sky started falling!!! It rained SO hard and so furiously for about an hour that our street in front of our house became a small river, it came up onto our sidewalks even!

(And through this hole thing in our upper 90 degree weather it was still sunny except for this patch of cloudy sky where the burst was from. But, for some reason through most of the storm it was sunny)

The kids took advantage of this Wonderful new and foreign event(rain in Utah) and got in their bathing suits and went running and stomping through the rain, and in all the puddles that were on the sidewalks! It was Great fun!!!

Then I talked to Mark about how crazy all this rain was, and apparently, 12 miles away at his work, not a drop had fallen!
Thats Utah weather for you!

Cowboy Jubilee Family reunion

Bonnie

Saturday the 19th we had a Family reunion on my mothers side of the family!
Let me tell you why its called "Cowboy Jubilee". Years ago when I was about 11 years old we met at my moms uncles ranch and had a reunion. But, it wasnt your every day reunion! They decided to make a family film and they called it, the Cowboy Jubilee! We all dressed up in cowboy garb, and some even went as far as talking in southern accents!
It was all very silly, and watching the video now is a bit embarrassing! In fact Mark watched it, and his comment was "I wasn't even there, and I"M embarrassed!"

So now, 14 years later, they wanted to attempt another one! Kind of a "next generation" thing.
We met at Wheeler Farm, we started out with a smörgåsbord of food. My parents bought about 20 or more cowboy hats that were lots of fun, and a BIG hit!
Then we all took turns posing for family pictures then a HUGE group picture in our cowboy hats, even if you were too cool to wear a cowboy hat, you still worse one! haha!
Then a bunch of us went on a wagon ride.

The girls got to go on a pony ride, that was adorable! They had such a blast! These little pony's were TINY cute little things! And they all had names of food, one was Marshmellow. The girls LOVED that! While they were on their pony ride, the guy leading them around showed us a goose with 12 eggs she was laying on. Later We fed ducks and geese and had a nice time walking around in the hot 100 degree weather! :)

The actual video part of this kinda fizzled a bit....probably because everyone was "too cool" to do it! ;) hehe (Me as well) haha

My mom is putting together a video on what was filmed and probably pictures put to video. So that will be fun to see! :) I'll be posting pictures when we get them loaded off our camera.

So all in all, it was a nice Family Reunion! :)

Article about Fibromyalgia

Bonnie

Here is an article my sister, Mandy, found about my condition, I found it fairly informative, so I thought I'd post it! My doctor says 1 out of every 5 women in the USA has fibromyalgia.
Enjoy the article.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/07/14/hm.fibromyalgia/index.html

Thank you Mandy for hooking me up with that article! YOU ROCK SIS!

DIAPER FREE!!!!

Mom-Bon

For all those moms who have gone through the waiting of "I cant wait till that child is out of diapers", I am FINALLY THERE! My sweet little niece Mila is 2 1/2 and our potty training efforts have paid off!!! She is in underwear, and very rarely ever has an accident! We are SO excited about this!!!
I know she is excited about it too because she likes to be a "big girl" like Savannah and Kiera.

And kudos to Alisha's Tahirah! She is potty trained and Alisha is just THRILLED! And Sweet Tahirah is So excited about it that every time we see her she says to me "Bonnie, I went POTTY!!!" haha I LOVE IT! GO Tahirah!

If your a mom potty training and feeling frustrated, Hang in there! It will come!

As far as my wonderful nephew Austin that I watched for 2 months, we tried for 2 whole months to potty train him, he did good, but wasnt fully trained when he left! But I'm proud of all he did! And I sure miss those boys!
I still get teary if I think about it! They sure had a way of melting my heart!!!!

I LOVE YOU JAMES AND AUSTIN!!!!!!!!!!!

Puppies on the way

BonBon

So, for those of you who dont know, our dog Daisy is expecting puppies at the end of this month. According to our calculations they are due July 31, which is also the date of our Barber Family Reunion. Mark and I were petting Daisy tonight. She is SO hilarious! She is normally SO skinny, and right now she is SO fat!! She comes up on my lap, rolls right over belly up, and looks at me with a pleading look of "Rub me Please"! Or she will actually come up and put her nose under my hand and flip my hand back onto her neck and then move around till she is in the exact spot she wants me to rub her, then she'll turn her head around and stair at me as if to say "Ok, RIGHT THERE!"

So, Mark and I actually felt puppies in her big ol' belly tonight, and we got debating how many we thought she was going to have in this litter.

So....I wanted to make a post asking for everyone's guess on how many pup's you think Daisy will have. And maybe even a guess on male or female.
Last litter she had 3, all male! The average for this breed of dog is 2-4. So..... any guesses???
Email me any guesses you have and I'll post them here, and we'll all see who gets it right!

For anyone who wants to see the pictures from the last litter of puppies she had go over to the left side of this page and click on the word "puppies". They were So much fun! What a neat experience for my family and I! The brown pup went to my groovy sister in law Rachel. His name is Tater!
All those pups by the way were long hair, both parents are short hair! Should be interesting to see what comes in this next batch!!

(And by the way Rachel....Your AWESOME! ) tehehe

Faces

Mark

I was reading news and ran across this website that does studies on faces. It has a web-app where you can take the average of faces and generate the hybrid.

http://www.faceresearch.org/demos/average

I want to get paid to do this sort of thing.

RSS Feed

Web Master

For anyone who cares, I added a RSS feed to this Blog per recommendation by Kalon.

Go Kalon!

My Moon Lake Post

Sparky Malarky

(This is a reply to the post made by Bonnie earlier. So if you haven't read that, read it first then read this. It will make more sense that way)

Re: Moon Lake Trip,

You would not believe how funny it is to see Bonnie start to take off, backwards into the lake without me.. Not only was she taking off at full speed, it was with the motor leading the way. Additionally she started heading back into shore, blades first....

I could just imagine her going full speed into the bank with the blades first. She was not the only one panicking at that moment, but as soon as she flipped the motor off and was drifting, I could not think of anything funnier.

Ohh, it was a great look on her face as she sped off without me.... and I knew I was in trouble when she looked at me while I was laughing, but I could not help it.

It reminds me of another times I could not stop laughing... I got in a lot of trouble that time too, but that is another story.

Moon Lake Trip

Bonzo

July 3-5th we went camping with friends up to Moon Lake. It was Fantastic weather up there, it was about 79 degree's up there! Down in WVC it was around 98 degree's.

Friday we rented a boat and all took turns cruising around the lake. We even tried a little trolling fishing. We caught 4 that way.
One funny story is Mark and I were taking our girls out on the lake in the boat, and Mark wanted me to start the engine while he pushed us into the water. I have never even tried to run a boat before, and I didnt really want to, having had NO instruction at all! Mark said "Ok, when I tell you, start it up". So, I tried it, and it started right up! Not only that, but it started taking off away from Mark, Very quickly! I PANICKED, tried to quickly learn how to turn the freeking boat around, and while trying to do that, I found a button that said "off". As the boat stopped running Mark was standing in the water up to his waist laughing. ( I was NOT happy about that) Mark said he was laughing at the expression of panic on my face! (at this point I wanted to find some very good torture and use it on him!!!!)
Apparently the knob that determined the speed was not on the slow idling setting when I started it up, it was all the way up!

After Mark got in the boat, I was determined to learn how to use that thing (that way, next time that happened I could just keep going and leave him on the shore! Then I could say "Look who's laughing now!" And cruise off cackling like a witch!!!! Aaaahhh, I'm just kidding, but it sounded like fun! haha

Saturday we did some shore fishing and between everyone there, we caught 15 fish. We had some first time fishers there with us, which made things really fun! Jon & Melanie brought their friend from Taiwan, Kathy, and her cousin Shing How (sorry I dont know how to spell that) they both had never been fishing, or camping before, so this was a strange new experience for them!
Also the VanOrmens hadnt caught fish as a family before, so Carson got to help real a couple in, and at first he was REALLY Excited about it. But later he was saying how it was sad that the fish were killed, and he didnt really like it much after that.
It was cute, all the kids had a lot of fun "petting" the fish and playing with them.

It was really funny, there was a point saturday when Mark spent the whole time going pole to pole setting up hooks, bating hooks, taking fish off, and casting for everyone around us. And for a few minutes, I was taking fish off hooks and bating hooks because mark had his hands full doing the same thing, and no one else knew how to do it! It was such a blast!
It actually reminded me of fishing as a kid! My dad usually spent the whole time doing that for us, and never got much of a chance to fish himself! But as I discovered, its just as much fun, if not more fun, helping others get the fish, and watch them & seeing their excitement!
It was a BLAST!
We had so much action for a while that we were kept busy a good part of the time!
We will be heading back to Moon lake in a few weeks for our Family Reunion. I cant wait! We will be getting a boat for the day then too,I cant wait!! Bwahahahahahaha :)

Finally, answers

Bon-Bon

For the past year I have had a mystery pain in my stomach. I have had many many tests done, from gallbladder scans & blood work, to scopes & biopsy's of my large intestine. And for a few years now I have had pain all over my body. My shoulders, neck, back, arms, & hips.
Yesterday I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.

http://www.medicinenet.com/fibromyalgia/ article.htm#2whatcauses

This site has some info on the condition, but for those who dont want to read it, here is a little part of what fibromyalgia is: "Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition causing pain, stiffness, and tenderness of the muscles, tendons, and joints."

Its not a condition that can be cured, but I feel empowered knowing exactly what my pain is from, and that there are some things I can do to help relieve some of it. Staying physically active is going to help a lot. The doctor prescribed physical therapy as part of my treatment. My doctor also has prescribed muscle relaxers, mostly to take at night.
Those should help me sleep better at night. Sleeping has been one of the most painful parts of my life for a while now, so I'm excited for things to start improving!

Flying

Barbarious

Have you ever felt the pure exhilaration of flying? Wind in your face, land passing quickly beneath you.

Have you ever witnessed a sunrise or sunset and felt like you were truly part of it? Been able to ponder the colors as you glide over the Earth? Felt the temperature changes as you fly past rivers or other water features?

Have you ever been exhilarated by the fact your are completely free? No need to have a destination, but simply out and about for the joy of the journey?

Put simply, Joy is a laid-back, cruising Motorcycle.

Potty training

BonBon

Ok, so I have had Mila and Austin in underwear for the past 2 days. Today is the 3rd day. And so far (knock on wood) No accidents! We are all SO Excited about this progress!!!! We are almost 100% diaper FREE!!!!!!!!!!!! Wahoooooooooo!

In other parts of our lives we are going to be holding a little mini graduation for Savannah, Kiera, and Drey this Saturday to mark the end of their first year of home school.
I have made little packets with some of their school work that has been saved from this year, and will present them with that, and a graduate certificate. I'll have them sing a couple songs for our audience. (parents and Nana and Papa)

Kids are adorable...

Mommy

Ok, so I had to add this to the Blog today...

Savannah was asked to take some laundry downstairs. (And a couple months ago she realy wanted to learn how to do the laundry; soap, sort, know how to use all the settings on the machines, and how much soap to poor in.) So ALL 6 of the kids go downstairs to "help". So 5 minutes later, I hear all kinds of silly sounds coming out of the laundry room. I walk in and ask what they are doing. Savannah replies "We are cleaning in here. We are doing the stuff you dont get to do a lot". So then I look around and I see Kiera who has a stick, and Drey who has a broom and those two are wipping off the cob webs from the walls that are just beams. James,Kiera and Savannah are sorting laundry into laundry bins. Austin and Mila are just sitting in there "helping". (those two soon after came upstairs to play with toys) So I smiled at them, and let them continue! Still 10 minutes later they are still refusing to come upstairs, because they are cleaning! (By this time I'm a bit annoyed because they SHOULD have been upstairs finishing school)
So I go back into the room and now I see Savannah Scrubbing the cement floor around her and Drey and Kiera still working on finding and demolishing cob webs!

I'm amazed, annoyed, tickled pink, and flabbergasted, all at the same time! (annoyed because I'm trying to get them up here to do school)

I love how independent they can be, I just wish they had a better sense of When its appropriate to do these kinds of things! hehe
They never seem to want to do them when I ask them to do them! Hmm, Oh well! Life is still Great! I'm Loving every minute of it!

Looking forward to weekends

Bon-Bon

I thought I'd write a little bit what our weekends are like. We have gotten into a really fun routine to end our work week, and it has produced some pretty funny moments, some of which I will try to remember and share.

Every friday night we usually get together with our friends Jon and Melanie with their son Andrew, and Alisha and Dayv with their 3 kids. We get together and have dinner, and let the kids run a muck for about an hour, then we put a movie in for them and the adults get out games and start trying to unwind and relax. We usually end up in tears of laughter over something funny that was done or said. For example, one of the more recent lesser things that happened was Mark was trying to throw ice down my shirt, and when he finally made it, he bent down to pick up the ice off the floor, and Alisha decided he needed a little "cooling off" and dumped her cup of ice water down his neck!
( I felt adequately satisfied!!)

Other nights it gets so late that the normally lamest things that are said are the most hilarious, causing the bigest uproar of laughter!
One example of this was, we were playing a game called "Imagine If" and in the game one option for multipule choice was "or Making dough nuts in a vacant parking lot". And Alisha and I had the same train of thought which was "Why would anyone want to be cooking/making dough nuts in a parking lot?" (like the dough nuts that you eat) And we both said something about it, and sent the WHOLE room in an uproar of laughter! In which everyone was RED in the face and crying our eyes out! I, for one, could hardly breath! And at the point we started to calm down and breath normally again, Dayv shouts out "with SPRINKLES!" And we all ended up in hysteria again! This has now become an inside joke. We occasionally bring each other dough nuts, and we never forget some with SPRINKLES!

We have also found that before the night is over, someone ends up with pie,whip cream or water all over themselves!
If only we had a camera rolling during those times!

I think that everyone needs a day once in a while to burst into uncontrollable laughter. It clears the mind! (and makes for good stories)

June 5th, nothing exciting

SuperBonBon

I'm trying to get into the habit of writing on our blog, so I'm making a boring entry today.

I have been trying to potty train Mila, and Austin these past couple months. Some days it goes good, others it doesnt. The kids (all 6 of them) get along so well and have so much fun together! Mila and Austin play so well together, and Drey has other little boys to play with! I'v just Loved having James and Austin here. I have 2 weeks left, and I dont really wanna think about it, cause I think I'll cry!

The weather has been so flip floppy. Its 80 degrees, then the next day its 60 degree's and rainy! The kids got all excited to use this slip and slide I bought, and I bought it on a sunny hot day, and ever since it has been rainy and cold. So every time the sun shines through the cold clouds they shout "YEA, we can get out our water slide now!!!" Ahh well, hopefully by the weekend it will be nice enough!

Our stake just had boundary changes, which added part of a ward into ours. The changes are exciting, but stressful! I'm currently the president of the Young Womens in our ward. So, we went from 2 girls, to about 10. Sunday will be our fist meeting with all our newly acquired ward members from the other ward. Should be fun and interesting!

Kiera is starting kindergarten this fall in the K-12 that we have been doing. And Savannah is moving on to 2nd grade in K-12. we have had lots of fun learning this year! I think history was our funnest subject....well it was for me anyway! I certainly learned lots of interesting things! We're going to be holding a cute little "graduation" for Savannah, Kiera, and Drey in a couple weeks, mostly to show the end of one school year, and the start of another. Also to recognize their hard work this year!
Well, thats all for now!

Monday June 2nd at the Barbers

Super-BonBon

Today we started out our day with James, Austin, Drey, Mila, Savannah & Kiera doing Music time. Its a Wonderful noise at my house when we do music time! We sing all kinds of silly songs, and cute kids songs. The one they like the most is "An Austrian went yodeling" because they all get to pick an animal, or sound and make that sound in the song! They get quit creative with it! Its lots of fun!

The girls have one of their last "princess classes" today. That has been an adorable way for the girls to learn table manners, yoga, dance, and other fun things while playing with other girls their age, and all while in princess dresses! They love it!

We went on a trip to Chets house

Fork Dish (AKA Dork Fish)

Kathen is getting Baptized today! We are staying with Chet's bunch and playing with the kids. Hopefully we get some fish latter today, but only time will tell.

Hey, its later now, and guess what....we caught our limit fishing this cute little fishing pond up in Manti canyon. What a blast that was!! Manti is a very pretty place!! We'll be going back for sure! Thanks to Chet and Rachel for letting us all crash their house for the weekend! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kathen and Kyler! We love you guys!

ctremail.com News

Puppy pictures posted

Sweetest man alive!!!

Her Sunrise

Puppies are growing

Hot tub....Oh Yea!!!!

Update on stuff n junk

Moon Lake Barber Family Reunion

Camping List

Understanding me & fibro

Fishing W/ my Family

Puppies Puppies EVERYWHERE!!

Fibro in Children???

When it rains in Utah

Cowboy Jubilee Family reunion

Article about Fibromyalgia

DIAPER FREE!!!!

Puppies on the way

Faces

RSS Feed

My Moon Lake Post

Moon Lake Trip

Finally, answers

Flying

Potty training

Kids are adorable...

Looking forward to weekends

June 5th, nothing exciting

Monday June 2nd at the Barbers

We went on a trip to Chets house