Oh October...

This month has been filled with some really high ups and really low downs.

We were able to attend my brothers wedding which was a really big up, but that was also mixed with Marks father and grandmother ending up in the hospital due to some health issues. I won't go into detail regarding Marks family out of respect for him and this not completely being a private journal, but just know we were scared and sad. Things look to be getting better, though we've got a long road ahead of us. We have hope and faith in the lord that everything will go according to his plan.
Grandma O for instance will not be returning to her home anytime soon and her home will need some close care, so Mark and I have been asked to take care of her place until we know when she can return. So, looks like we will be moving out of our place and into G-ma's. We had just renewed our lease, but luckily our complex is awesome and are not making us pay any fees for breaking the lease. We will most definitely want to return to Edgewood apartments if it is in the for seeable future. I love it here. Never thought I could feel at home in an apartment, but they are so nice here, they do not bother us with silly things, they keep the grounds clean, our place was nice and the walls were painted...which is huge for me (I hate plain white walls). I'm kind of sad to have to move, because I like it here so much...but family comes first and in the long run it will help us save tons of money! We are not officially out of here until January, but we will be moving little by little to the house and we will most likely be living there next month while keeping our apartment. The whole situation has me a bit stressed, but Mark is trying hard to keep me grounded.
We don't have to worry about finding a car anymore, which is bitter sweet. I'd rather have grandma driving it. But still a blessing in disguise.
Getting old sucks. and I hate watching our love ones go through these obstacles. The worst part for me is seeing Mark and his mother go through all of this sadness and not knowing how to make them feel better. I can't, because I can't make the family members physically better! I guess the best I can do is love and support them through this time. Many prayers needed.

We have had fun getting into the Halloween spirit. We went to Apple Annie's pumpkin patch, which was tons of fun. I wish we lived closer to farms and country settings, love it and reminds me of Oregon (minus the mud). There were a lot of bees, so we did not stay long, but lily loved running around without me grabbing her before running into traffic.

We attended a Halloween party. Lily dressed as Richard Simmons and we were the 'dancing to the oldies' video folk. Lily got to play beer pong, which makes me mother of the year! (no worries folks, neither lily or mark and I drank beer) She partied it up dancing with many people and even went around the room stroking ladies fishnet tights. No, we are not worried. She had a ton of fun, and so did we.
At work I convinced my co-workers to join the Halloween decorating contest, and I'm pretty sure we have the best display. I love my co-workers, they are so fun.

Halloween is still to come and I will post up pictures of the festivities. Now here is a lot of pictures of Pumpkin Patch and GTX Halloween party.

 

Lily was Richard Simmons for the party...and lived up to the character!

Couldn't get this in the right place, but this is at work in the HR area, our managers performed 'Thriller' for the agents. It was awesome, and they are awesome as well!

Horton Wedding 2013

This weekend we had the opportunity to attend my brother Daniels wedding in Allenspark Colorado at the Wild Basin Lodge. All of the Horton children and spouses were able to reunite to see my brother marry his soul mate. We had so much fun, even if it was for only two short days being with each other. It has been a few years since we were all together at the same time, and I miss those days of laughter. I have such an amazing family, they amaze me. I learn, I laugh and I feel so much happiness being with them. We definitely need to get together once a year.

The night before the wedding, we had the grooms dinner, my mom made an amazing meal and we had the chance to get to know Kari's family as well as their friends. We sang karaoke, which some people were pro's and others preferred to watch. I did sing, but it took a duet with Andrew in order to sing by myself. Lily was the evenings dancer and was mesmerized by the various performances. That girl is so crazy.

 

Seriously, she was amazed.

'Afternoon Delight'

Dad even sang!

 

 

 

 

 

Daniel and Kari were married 10/19/2013. It was such a beautiful wedding! Not just because of the gorgeous scenery, but because of the beautiful couple. Their love is so honest, and you can tell they really care for each other. They truly are soul mates and I welcome Kari with open arms into our family because I can see how happy she makes my brother. And she will be a wonderful mother to my brothers two girls. I am excited to see what the future holds for them.

 



He is such a cute daddy

She looked so beautiful. Love her dress!

My beautiful nieces, Joylynn and Avery.

We partied hard at the reception, especially Lily. She danced like a crazy woman, and stole the show. However, she became the party pooper by the end of the night...literally. We had only brought two diapers to the lodge, and happened to use all of them. So what does she do? Poop in the last 15 min of the reception. Since I did not want to miss saying goodbye to my brother, I let her roam the dance floor with a poopy diaper. Those who thought she was so cute, now just saw her as stinky. People started laughing because it smelled like poop...and that was a good way to separate the crowd off the dance floor to end the night. It was pretty funny.

 

Beautiful wedding and loads of fun. Love my family and can't wait to see them again!

 

And some random photos...of course a family photo

Lily and Charlie are twins

I love Isaac

Lily LOVED her cousin Brianna, such a sweetie!

 

My Brain is Overflowing, need relief

This is more or less a post of updates for myself to reflect on in years to come, nothing important...but my mind is overflowing and I need to make space.

So lately, I've been a little on edge. Reasons? Work drives me crazy and we are in need of a second vehicle and it is becoming impossible to decide on a car.

First, work. I should preface my comments by first saying that I DO like my job. I am very grateful to have a job which I can provide for my family, has a flexible schedule and I have great co-workers. I even got an 'exceeds expectations' on my performance review (go me).
Now, why I'm on edge. I've been assisting with filling multiple job positions, covering for people while they are on vacation and dealing with people who remind me of an episode of Seinfeld. Do you happen to know who MR. Pipp is? Well, he is Elaine's boss. He is an older, wealthy gentleman who gives Elaine strange job tasks which make her ask, why can't you do this yourself? One episode in particular: Mr. Pipp asks Elaine to buy him a pair of socks. He gives her a general description of what type of socks he would like, which seemed to be a pretty simple task to complete. She brings him back the socks, he tries them on and hates them. He sends her to go get more socks. Towards the end of the episode, Elaine has purchased hundreds of socks, and Mr. Pipp still is not satisfied. She asks out of frustration 'WHAT DO YOU WANT!', MR. Pipp responds 'I WANT A DECENT PAIR OF SOCKS'. (It is a really funny episode...and I love Seinfeld). Reason for the episode example...I work for many Mr. Pipps. A task which seems so simple, is actually very complicated. They all have an idea of what they want, and can easily complete the task themselves, however they rely on me (or others) to complete the work for them. When we do not give them what they want, they get frustrated and we have to start over again. I'm tired of working for Mr. Pipp...can I retire now?

Second, we need a vehicle. At the beginning of our marriage, Mark and I were fortunate enough to be provided with a second vehicle by Marks wonderful parents. It provided for our transportation needs for three great years. Now it is dead. Living in Tucson makes it impossible to live without two vehicles, everything is about 30 minutes away. So, we qualified for a loan and we're ready to find a car. Almost a month later, we still have not found a vehicle! We have only taken one car to see a mechanic and it failed to meet expectations. The other five cars...have strange owners with unreasonable requests...I'm over this car finding thing. It takes time to find a car, which time is not on our side. We are both way to busy. Are the car gods out there?! Can you hear me?! I'd like you to hand us a car please. Oye.

So that is the end of my stress vent...it's obvious I'm being overly dramatic and I should be smacked for acting like my life is so stressful...but I feel better.

We are going Organic...or at least Lily is. I'm trying really hard to only feed Lily organic, healthy food, not the processed crap that will give her cancer or make her diabetic. However, I admit I sin and take the easy route and give her chips, fries and candy. I figure, if she has those things every now and then, no big deal. But if I can promote clean eating, I will feel better as a parent. Organic food is way to expensive! Why does eating healthy have to cost so much?! I guess it will be worth it when we don't have to pay for medical bills.

I'm not doing so well with my weight loss goal for October. Fifteen pounds has now turned to twenty. oops. I'll be honest, I love food. It makes me happy. I try to repent the start of every week...but then DQ calls my name and I cave. Oh how being human sucks.

Lily is now 18 months! She went to nursery for the first time on sunday. She loved it, I hated it. Took me at least 5 minutes to walk away. I got the hint I needed to leave when one of the nursery leaders said, 'if you leave now she won't even notice'. Maybe it is selfishness, but I just ache when I have to leave her during the week, and now I have to leave her for two hours on sunday too?! Yeah, I know, I'm being dramatic...I'm just tired of leaving her. When I went to pick her up from nursery to go home, she did not want to leave. It's a good thing she is such a happy and easy going child, makes it a little bit easier for me...very little.

Overall, things are great. My family rocks and I love them so much! Now, there is more room in my brain for more important concerns. Thank you blog.

Randomness

We visited Utah for the fourth of July week. We had lots of fun visiting with family and friends and eating like Piggy's. I gained at least 5lbs...oops.

 My sister lives in Salt Lake, and we were missing the kids, plus Mark's Aunt/Uncle and kids had never met Lily, so it seemed like a good idea to go.

We got to go to a few favorite restaurants (Thai Ruby, The Roof, Crown burger) as well as visit a few fun parks and seven peaks. Mark got to play all the golf he wanted, I made a promise before we left. We had lots of fun! Mark and I have decided to have Utah be one of our 'future home' options. I'm in love with the parks and family oriented fun centers and mark is in love with the courses. We can get over the culture stigma :)

Here are some photos:

Ben was pretty excited that Lily was able to eat solid foods. He enjoyed feeding her LOTS of candy.
 (she is eating both a piece of taffy and a licorice stick)

While waiting for our flight. She loved running up and down these things!

Playing at Discovery Park with her cousins

At the Roof. Such a beautiful view and a great reminder of our eternal family.

 

 So, some random things, hence the title...

I had a dream last night that left me really frustrated, but is pretty funny now that I'm fully awake. I dreamt that I had woken up to get ready to head to the gym. I was putting in my contacts, but they were actually breast pads and were to large to fit into my eyes. Frustrated, I run to the other bathroom to look for contacts and all I had were right eye contacts, NO LEFT! I then looked at the clock and realized I had missed the women's class at my gym. And then I woke up. Dreams are so weird! I've been having a few weird dreams. The night before I had gotten a sleeve tattoo of Wiley Coyote and it was hideous...were the heck does my brain come up with these things?!

Mark and I will be running another 5k in September, it is the run or dye 5k which sounds pretty sweet. I've decided that I need to have a race or competition to work towards to keep up my exercise motivation.

Lily has her first pair of Nike's. They are awesome and she runs faster then ever. We took her to Costco, and she ran all over the place laughing like a crazy women. At times she would stop, lay on the floor and rest. She is realizing running takes a lot of energy.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. Work is work, school is school but we enjoy the random things that make our lives funny.