A Week of Photos...

Another week has passed, it's almost alarming to me how fast the time flies! Sometimes I feel like my life is zooming past me right in front of my eyes and somehow I wish there was a pause button I could push or at least a slow motion button available. And, then again, sometimes a fast forward button would be nice too!

Dan was in Dallas this week for the 3rd (of 4) course of a mini residency in cranial facial pain. On Wednesday we partied without him to celebrate my aunt Byrleen (actually my Dad's aunt) birthday. Byrleen and Corky are snowbirds who visit Vegas regularly (especially when there is snow in Pleasant Grove). Byrleen's birthday was on Wednesday and Corky's was on Thursday, so we had a double celebration!!! We LOVE having these guys down here with us and I'm going to be one sad lady when the weather turns warm up north and they leave us :(

My girls begged and begged them to stay the night, but Corky and Byrleen said they couldn't because they didn't bring their jammies. But my girls assured Corky that he could borrow their Dad's pajamas!

The girls blowing out the birthday candles...whose birthday is it anyway?!?

Sydney LOVES playing with my little camera, it is one of her very favorite past times. I never know what I'm going to find on my camera card!

I need to hang this one where I will see it regularly, it makes me laugh every time! Self-portrait Sydney style!

Yesterday (Saturday) we were searching for something to do since we were alone w/o Dan and we didn't want to sit home bored all day. I did a search online for "Las Vegas Zoo", is there one? Yes there is and this is what the internet had to say about it:

From the outside, the zoo looks like an abandoned roadside attraction, and it’s not on a road you want to stop on.

The stretch of Rancho Drive it sits on, just south of Texas Station, is the dividing line between Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. Other neighborhood attractions are broken bottles, tumbleweed trash and curbside arrests. Outside a house, a boy jumps on a giant trampoline covered in couch cushions he’s beating with a golf club.

Um...yeah, not going there! So instead we decided to brave "the strip". I looked online for free activities that might be suitable for kids and decided on the water shows at the Bellagio, the wildlife exhibit at the Flamingo, and an aquarium and knight show at Caesars Palace.

I know I'm crazy going down there, but I keep wondering if it would be ok to take kids down there or not. I had to try once...

The water fountains at the Bellagio were a huge hit! They are very cool, except you wait 1/2 an hour and then the fountains come on for 1 song (2-3 mins). But, the girls were happy so I was happy.

Then we walked over to the Flamingo Hotel (which has an entire side plastered with the faces of Donny & Marie so it must be an ok place to stop right?). The only place I could find to get into the hotel was through a yucky, stinky casino where everyone was looking at me like "why is that crazy lady with the kids coming through here?" I was wondering the same thing! We made it through to the back where the wild life exhibit is and where we were excited to see the penguins that were scheduled to be fed at 2:55. We wandered around and couldn't find them, so I finally asked an employee where in the heck the dang pengiuns were? She told me they didn't have them anymore that they were moved to the zoo. Could that be the same zoo that I mentioned before??? So we saw the flamingos, fish, ducks and a sign that led to a pool for 21 and older where "European Swimming" was acceptable. Yikes! Get me out of here and get me out fast!

It looks innocent enough doesn't it???

Needless to say we left the Flamingo and totally skipped Caesars Palace and went back to the Bellagio to see a few more water shows before we got the heck out of town!

So now I can say to visitors when they come...yes, there are fun things to do on the strip but it is definately NOT worth taking kiddos down there. The amount of filth that you have to wade through to get to anything that might be worth seeing is not something I'm willing to expose my children to. The billboards, the signs, the horrible cards that are lining the sidewalks made me cringe and made me realize that Satan's work is moving forward with alarming speed. But, on the bright side we did see some very cool water fountain shows and we did have a good discussion on the way home about Satan, modesty, family, and God's plan for us here on the earth. Needless to say, I was happy to get home to my little house in Henderson that seems millions of miles apart from where we had just been!

So that was our week...how was yours :)

A little help...

I know this is OFFICIALLY the lamest blog post ever, but help me out a little would you?!?

It's my car insurance (no...really, I'm being serious). As I mentioned before, Nevada is one of the highest priced states in the nation for car insurance.

I know the minimum requirements from the state are too low and could be the cause of a lot of problems in the case of an accident, injuries etc... And I also know that the agent on the other end of the phone is trying to sell me the most premium plan imaginable with coverages that are on and beyond what I really need.

So (I warned you that this was lame and you chose to keep reading...you are a true friend!) what is a good happy medium coverage amount that will cover us if an accident ever were to happen, but won't cost me an arm and a leg for coverage amounts that I don't really need. Please enlighten me (I know some of you used to work at Geico...you know who you are).

As a side note (I should have included photos of this one, sorry) speaking of car insurance...I did officially run into the Sequoia with the Camry pulling into our driveway the other night. Yes the Sequoia that just got out of the shop after the car bombing, yes the exact same spot where the body shop had just repainted, yes I am a little, shall we say...graceful, coordinated (feel free to fill in a word here___________). No, it wasn't bad, just a little paint exchanged between vehicles, but bad enough that I got the "C a r r r r r r i e" voice from my hubby. And I'm afraid to admit that this ISN'T the first time I've run into one of our cars with the other one. Ha...maybe I do need the very highest coverage possible since I have now proven myself to be a little questionable in the driving department.

Anyway...I'm calling today, what coverage amounts do I need? (If anybody really gives me honest, true, good advice I will probably mail you a special thank you surprise!)

comings & goings...

Whew...my life feels like a whirlwind these days! I feel like (and look like too I'm sure) a chicken running around with my head cut off. But in a good way...

I decided I would way rather be busy working on files and learning insurance instead of being busy causing myself an anxiety ulcer. At least this kind of busy might produce something good in the end!

Here we are in Portland eating at the Chart House restaurant on Valentines night. Nina and Joe (sitting next to me) are the amazing people who are giving of their time and talents to help get this little office off the ground. I can't even begin to tell you how much they are helping us...on and WAY beyond anything we could have hoped for! This restaurant they treated us to (at an 11:00pm reservation) was AMAZING! The food was delicious, the company was delightful and the view of Portland was amazing. Sometimes a simple "thank you" just doesn't quite express the gratitude you feel in your heart...

We were even lucky enough to still be at the restaurant after midnight...which meant it was February 15th...which meant it was our 13th anniversary! I remember the day like it was yesterday! Oh how I love this guy (even though he finds joy in causing me anxiety ulcers :) and I look forward to 13 more and then 13 more and then 13 more after that!

And just for documentation purposes...what would you do if you had to hang out at "THE OFFICE" day after day, hour after hour?

Would you play a little computer?

Would you write a few Valentines?

Would you play Littlest Pet Shop on the floor?

Would you sit around letting your brain turn into Jell-o while you watched TV?

The possibilites are endless :) But...look on the bright side, 14 NEW patients next week alone! And yes Adrie...I do feel like doing the "happy dance"! Then again, maybe I'll wait until we actually get a check from the insurance before I begin...but I'll start getting ready to dance!

sometimes...

sometimes...just sometimes...if you have enough people praying for you (who have more faith than you do yourself), the Lord sees fit to send a miracle, as a very direct answer to all of those prayers. We have been extremely blessed to get in contact with an office in Portland that is a limited practice in the treatment of sleep apnea through oral appliances, just like Dan's office. They came to visit our office this weekend...and we will go to their office in Portland next weekend.

I want to send a gigantic 'THANK YOU' to my friend Stephanie for flying down to my house to keep track of the girlies so we could really focus on all of the information these people had to teach us about the correct way to run an office like this one. It was such a blessing to know that my girls were in good hands while we spent many long hours with these kind people from Portland. This morning, Stephanie asked Syd if she was going to miss her. Syd said, "Yeah...but I'm REALLY going to miss Isaac."

Meet Isaac...Stephanie's 6 month old little sweetie that my girls were totally smitten by. He was extremely cooperative during our little 10 minute photo shoot out in the rainy, cold weather.

We have been truly blessed...thanks for your prayers in our behalf!

One Word...

Holy macro...I just scrolled through my blog forever trying to find a picture of myself to put on this post. You can tell who takes the pictures in our family! This is the best I could find...

Anyway...I was vacuuming today and I thought of an email that went around long ago that said something to the effect: how would you describe me in one word. I never passed the email along because very rarely do I forward anything, but for some reason today (probably a year after I got that email) I'm curious how people would describe me in one word.

Leave me a comment...and it can't be the same "word" that someone else used! Also, if it's going to be a mean word (which I can handle) make sure and do it anonymously :)

Phoenix...

Let me begin by making a little list of all the sad, torturous things my girls were subjected to by being forced to stay with Diane for 5 days- NOT! Ha- they were the opposite of tortured...they were Spoiled (with a capital "S"). They went for a nice sunny bike ride every morning, they made amazing princess dresses (they picked pattern, fabric, trim, etc.), they made jewelry, they made purses, they played Wii and watched movies, and even made their own TOAST...and LOTS of it! They had so much fun in Phoenix & we will be eternally grateful to Diane (& family) for saving my girlies from 5 long days hanging out at the office!

On Saturday we all packed up and headed to the Phoenix Zoo. I can't even tell you how beautiful the day was! The weather made you want to sit on a blanket on the grass and eat a yummy picnic lunch while staring at the fluffy clouds in the blue sky...yes it was truly that lovely. Aside from the fact that our children thought we were trying to starve them to death right around lunch time, we had mounds of fun!

Sometimes we forget it's winter in other places...

screaming because they are about to get eaten by a giant oyster...aaaahhhh!

I love that this little girl was saying, "mom- take my picture here", "mom- take my picture by this". I've trained this little turtle well!

This elephant was AMAZING! I can't get over how realistic it looks.

Love this one...we need a baby at our house!

Nothing better than a secret cave in the middle of a couple of gigantic hairy palm trees!

Proud member of the FFA!

And of course the petting zoo (can't fully appreciate these w/o imagining the smell that goes along with it).

Mom, pleeeeease can we get a goat?!

Samuel...

The only time the twins held still ALL day. They were TERRIFIED of the goats (however, they were NOT terrified of putting one of the goat brushes in their mouth and sucking on it...gag!)

A little blurry, but still a keeper!

After the zoo, Diane had to take her car in to get the tires balanced. I was a little tired so I laid down on Samuel's bed for a minute. Then my brain got thinking about a comment Diane had made about getting built-ins on either side of her fireplace. My little brain thought, "she doesn't need built-ins, she can use those nice bookcases she got from Costco...then she can move her dining room table into the other room and then she can shuffle the couches and the piano and the computer...etc...you get the idea. I mentioned my thought to her and the rest is history (much to both of our husband's dismay at having to move pieces of heavy furniture again & again until we found just the right spot). They helped move the piano and computer armoire and then we made them go to a movie while we did the rest. It was so much fun...I loved it and I loved how it turned out. The true test is whether the new set-up will function for their family or will everything get put back in its original spot next time I visit?!? Here are some of the before pictures...Diane will send after photos when all pictures are hanging and accessories are in place. Do our husbands still love us after this...that is yet to be determined!

We love the Jensen family...thanks a million-bazillion!