GNO New Moon Style

On October 22 I went to the theater to buy New Moon tickets. I knew for sure the 6 people that were coming with me. I got up to pay and felt very strongly that I should buy an extra ticket. I couldn't think of who would use it or a good reason to purchase it, but I did anyway. The 7 tickets sat in my wallet and on Thursday night, November 19, I was waiting for one of my foster sons to come out of his group therapy class. I had the thought to call my BFF Amy and invite her to come.

She has been taking a math class that is very hard and working as a CNA. She starts nursing school in January- Wahoo!! It had been a stressful semester and she really needed some girlfriend time. Had I asked her if she wanted to come back on October 22, she would have told me "no." On Thursday night she said "Really? I'd love, too." Our hubby's ended up getting together at her home with the boys and watching a video and eating pizza and popcorn.

We, Me, Sassy, Tree Monkey, Jumping Monkey, Frog, Stacey, and Frog left my home around 6:30 PM to hit the 7:50 showing. When we arrived there was no parking. Now, the only benefit to having rheumatoid arthritis is that I get a handicap placard due to my limited ability to walk far. When we arrived there was one spot left! But there was a guy parked there with no placard. So I parked behind the cars to the right of him and got out and asked, "Would you mind backing up so we can park here?" He replied, "I'd be happy, too." I then said, "Hey thanks for saving my spot for me." He laughed and replied, "My pleasure." As he started backing up his group of peeps came out. They went to the theater just to buy popcorn! Funny!

We went in and stood in line and after we got our seats we went to buy popcorn. We sneaked our own candy and drinks in. Shhhhh. Don't tell.

We watched New Moon with a good crowd. There were even some guys there and their comments were wayy funny! They did a good job on the special effects. Aaaaaaand the ending. . . . . . . .You will have to go see it. I'm not giving up anything.

Then we went to 5 Guys -Burgers and Fries and let me just say if you get a small fry you better have at least 4 peeps to share with. It's GINORMOUS!!! The burger was heavenly. We split it 3 ways. Then we came home.

Well on the way home, Tree Monkey started her farting. My girls are not lady like in that manner. They are not shy at all. Right Stacey? This started a whole convo of fart stories for us to laugh at on the way home.

I know there was way funny stuff that I can't recall right now. I just know that it was a SUPER FUN TIME!!!! We have already committed to seeing Eclipse in June!!!

The Power of Prayer

If you read the post just before (below) this one you will find that doctors had little hope for my friend. After a call for prayers and fasting today the news is that he is off the ventilator, he is out of sedation and when his wife told him what was going on he replied, 'that sucks." True to Ray form.

His doctor told Becky that this was the miracle that he told her about. PRAYER WORKS!

Thank you to all who prayed on his behalf. We have truly witnessed a miracle.

Birthday to Mother's Day

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. I have had FOUR fabulous days of celebration.

Thursday morning Monkey Wrench made me a hot breakfast. I went to a court pretrial with a foster son, Koda Bear, and was able to give the judge a good report on him. I then came home and took a nap for an hour. What a sweet treat.Puppy is up by my head and kitty is down by my legs. I did not sleep alone. :)

I got a call to tell me that a little 7 year old boy, that we have been trying help in his current placement for 3 years, is going to be coming to live with us. We know we can help him and we are so honored that the Lord has made it possible for him to come to our home where he can be safe and begin to heal from the horrors that he started life with. It was a great gift.

Got up and Monkey Wrench BBQ'd hamburgers and Sassy and Koda Bear made a yummy salad. We had fun eating and hanging out. Hubs had to work his part time job that night, but the kiddos made certain that I had a great night.

Friday morning, my mom and I went to Salt Lake for the day. We saw the Joseph Smith movie in the Legacy Theatre and then had lunch at the Navoo Cafe. We shared a sandwich and small salad. So perfect.

We wondered around temple square to enjoy the beautiful the tulips that were everywhere. So many beautiful colors. It was breath taking.



Friday evening hubs and I went for a quiet, just the two of us dinner at OutBack Steakhouse. I tried the sweet potato side and fell.in.love. I'm not sure that regular baked potatoes are going to be tasty enough for me anymore. The sweet potato had so much flavor.

So sweet to have some time alone with only the two of us.

Saturday was spent deep cleaning, celebrating Lazy Lion's 16th birthday, and going to eat at Outback Steakhouse with my mom, brothers, sis-in law, and baby sister. Oh, yeah I can eat there two nights in a row and not be sick of the food.

Here is what I learned the 2nd night.
**If you find an Orbit gum wrapper in your salad it's a lot more funny than finding the actual chewed gum. The manager was appropriately upset and brought me a new salad, sans the gum wrapper. We laughed last night and again today about it.

**Costa Vida alledgedly marinates all their meats in a highly addictive caffiene substance. Well that explains my new addiction. Any one want to meet me there tomorrow?

Woke up this morning to my favorite breakfast, over easy eggs over hash browns. Yummy! Hubs knows just how I like them.

Mother's Day Gifts from the kiddos.
(The candles are deco)

Went to a beautiful church service where the conducting member stated that "we love our mother's today" following the children singing I Often Go Walking. I leaned over to Monkey Wrench and said, "as opposed to all other days?" We laughed!

We then went to see grammy and pap in Salt Lake. Grammy is a dear friend of mine that I met through her son. Long, sad story. The short version is that he was their only child and died his senior year, my 9th grade year. We have maintained contact and she has always been my children's grammy.

We then stopped by my mom's for some fun and to give her this. I just know she will love it.

Jumping Monkey's family invited us over for dinner and fun. We ate hamburgers, braats, salads, chips, veggies, and played corn hole. Yeah, that sounds bad, but it was so fun.

Corn hole teams

We had a riot. So much fun and conversation. Truly a good time.
Their yard backs up to the river and is so beautiful and calming.


I have been overwhelmed by gratitude for the blessings of the Lord in my life. How I got the honor to be the mom to help these great children is only by the grace and will of my Heavenly Father.

I had a great Mother's Day and Birthday. I couldn't ask for anything more.

How was your weekend?

Time to Celebrate Me!!!

I know that sounds narcissistic, but as I celebrate me I get to celebrate all the great things about being me.

I got home yesterday and found this in my mail

If you don't know the Face Family, folks, YOU are seriously missing out!
They are amazing! They know how to love, have a good time, party, welcome strangers, and spread good cheer- just to name a few things.

Thank You Nancy Face!


I got this email in my inbox-

I know I'm a day early, but just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I remember when you were born. Judy, Elaine and I were working at a sewing place in P.G. but I wasn't fast enough (or they gave m the hardest jobs to do...like sewing in the zippers in men's pants then the pockets and when I couldn't do that fast enough they gave me my pink slip and sent me on my way.

Lynda was still working and needed a babysitter for you while she was at work, so voila, I became your first babysitter. Learned to feed and change your diapers and all that newborn stuff. So not only did you arrive on my birthday, but I got the chance to bond with you early on; though I suspect you don't remember any of that. It was fun watching you grow up and find your niche in life. So after all these years, here's a HURRAH for all that we've become and all that we have yet to become. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAL!

Love from Aunt Lorraine

My Aunt Lorraine is amazing. She has a son that lives in Texas and I used to tend him. She would take me to movies, feed me dinner, listen to Styx with me and so much more. She bought a Styx album just for the song Babe. Yeah, shes' great. She is someone I consider a great friend and has been a powerful influence in my life. Her love, example, and friendship has helped shape me and taught me much. She shares my birthday with me.

She mentions all of her sisters in the email. I don't know too many people who are friends with their aunts and not just nieces. I have a friendship with each of my mom's sisters.

I lived just up the road from my Aunt Judy for 10 years. She is strong, beautiful, and persevering. She has guided me as Aunt, friend, neighbor, and Relief Society President. She has three great kids that happen to be close enough in age to me that we can all be friends, too.

My Aunt Elaine was a single mom to 6 kids. Her three oldest are counted among my friends, too. Elaine is quieter than me. She tolerates my social side. She give much love to her family and her acts of service to her children and grand children are amazing. She also shares my brithday! Her and Lorraine are twins. Lucky, aren't I? Yep, I am.

My mom is my best friend. She is the woman who through hard times continued to show me how to grow and be like Jesus and Heavenly Father would have me be. She supports me in so many ways. She listens. She saved my children from certain mommy meltdown on numerous occasions. She helps me to strive to be the mother that my children need and that I want to be. She encourages me in all that I do. I know that I would not be who I am today with out her.

My mom and Frog chatting :)

So now I want to talk about some others that help me be the best me I can and therefore need celebrating on my special day.

Hubby- We have had our rocky times. I am so glad that we both are dedicated to each other, our family, and our marriage. He is my rock. He is my best friend. (If mom hears it, so does he) He supports me in all that I do and is so patient with my health struggles. He does all that he can to make my struggles easier. He is an incredibly hard worker and talented man. I scored big time when he chose me.

Kids- Being a mother is my greatest joy. I am so honored to be the one whom the Lord has chosen to raise, influence, teach, love, and be trusted with of my children. This classification is not just limited to the children who share my last name. Each child that enters our home is cherished and loved as God sees them. It would be really long (yes this post can get longer) to go into details about each of them so I am just going to name the current ones that give me such great privilege to be part of their lives:
Oldest and his fiance, Frog, Monkey Wrench and his girlfriend, Jumping Monkey, Sassy, Tree Monkey, Jaguar, Koda Bear, Lazy Lion, and about 20 other kids who frequent my home but have not yet chosen their jungle names.

Friends- Both online and in real life (which lucky for me is both in many cases)

Extended Family- On my mom's side as well as my dad's side I have many cousins that I call friend. We have had some fun times growing up and having families together. We keep in touch at least annually through Christmas letters with some being more often through email and face book, lunches, and family parties. Some of us blog, too!

Grandparents- On both sides of my parentage I have hard working people. I have a grandpa that taught me to love music, work on cars, laugh, hug, cry, and forgive. I have a grandma that made pancakes for me and the cousin or sibling that spent the night with us each morning. I learned to put bananas in pancakes from her. She taught me to sew and to be creative, by making ornaments with ALL of us grandkids every year. Most of all these two gave me my mom.

Many of those who have touched my life have passed on. They are with me and in my heart and thoughts often.

I am so truly blessed to have people in my life that help me grow and learn.

I cannot celebrate me without celebrating all of them.

Getting old isn't so bad. But I am only in my early 40's, still. I hope I don't change my attitude on this. Good stuff is a coming with weddings, more kids (through foster care), and eventually down the road- grand kids.

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Random Saturday Musings

Because there is never enough random

** While driving Frog states that oldest tells her she is directionally challenged. Really?! Maybe she is like his mom and just likes to explore while driving and traveling. Seriously. We have seen some amazing parts of San Diego, CA due to my amazing skills to sight see.

We found the dock and some amazing lights, trees, and boats.



**Today my BFF Amy is moving into her new home. Her two youngest were running around and well, not helping too much. For instance they have the reliance shelving for their pantry. The shelves fell over during the move and got all messed up. Her middle son, "fixed" them. Only problem is that the cans fell out when one tried to load them with cans. :) It is really sweet how he helps.

Her youngest was just running around with excitement, anxiety, or maybe just because he's 8. I showed up and they started begging to come to my house. Well, I do have a pretty cool house with nothing to do, so who wouldn't want to come and sit and do nothing? Hahahahaha.

Well I totally brought them home with me. We went to the park and they played with two little guys that Sassy was baby sitting. Holy kids running everywhere! How do you do it Tori? I had a hard time keeping track of these four boys ages 7, 8, 10,& 10.

We did have fun. Here's proof . . .

Sassy swinging like a little kid :)

A on the monkey bars

K swinging and thinking of jumping out.
He didn't.

M on the monkey bars.

Sassy pushing Z in the swing.

Tree Monkey showing up the boys
She rocks at the monkey bars AND tree climbing.

** Mr. Fabulous Hubs did the grocery shopping. I guess that means he wants me to cook.

**We took Monkey Wrench, Sassy, and Tree Monkey to Dairy Queen for ice cream treats on Thursday. We had 45 minutes with just them. They have been feeling neglected with the foster boys needing so much running around. They have noted that it seems that I am always taking one or more of the boys somewhere and they miss their mom. A more concerted effort is now being made to spend one-on-one time with each of my kids each week.

As each boy gets a visit with their family each week and gets treats and other special things we have decided to have things that are just for our children. One of the boys is way okay with this and the other two think they should get everything that our kids get AND what their families get. Well, I am the boss and we are doing it my way. They may understand later or maybe not, but I'm okay with the new arrangements.

** This week friends of mine are beginning to sell a CD that will make your Sunday mornings peaceful. His music is so soothing and beautiful. The CD's will make a great Mother's Day gift, birthday gift, or a just because gift. Get one for you and some to gift. Go here to get a sneak peak and to order. I promise you won't regret it.

** This little guy is providing hours of entertainment. Here is a short video of just one of his many antics.

Do you think it's AFV worthy?
The kids do.

Birthday 5, 6, 7, and one I forgot :(

Edited to add ANOTHER ONE I FORGOT

First off, I forgot my BFF's (since 7th grade) daughter. Miss Kate had her birthday on April 5th. If they had a party her dad didn'[t invite me, so I blame it on him. (Her dad and I were friends in high school, too. That's how her parents met. Friends, not sweethearts until after high school) Kate is getting so grown up. She is on face book with me. We chat about silly random things. Happy Birthday Kate. You know I didn't really forget. I wrote on your wall ON the day of your birthday :)

April 13th is my Aunt Reva's birthday. She is married to the only living sibling on my dad's side. I love this woman. She smiles when we come by and always worries about feeding us enough.
This picture is of my dad's brother JL, Aunt Reva, their grandson and his kids in May 2005.

It is also my cousin's son's birthday. He is 10 already.
Go read about him here.

April 16th is my dad's birthday. He returned to Heaven in August 2006. I learned to love music, dancing, and my vegetables from my dad. He did not teach me to eat meat. He tried to disguise cow tongue once. I was not fooled.

He told me liver was steak. I totally told everyone that I didn't like steak. My BFF (daughter mentioned above) and I went to Sizzler on one of our nights on the town. She ordered steak and I mentioned how that didn't look like any steak I'd ever seen. I tasted her steak and low and behold it tasted better than any steak I'd ever tasted.
Turns out my dad had been telling me liver was steak. Yes I've tried liver, and NO I do not like it. Yucky.

My dad taught me to love camping. I love to shoot guns, hunt, drive, and enjoy the canyon. Dad and I had a rocky relationship from the time I was 17 until I was 35. It took a major medical problem for him to let me back in his life and for me to seek him out. Our last years were filled with forgiveness, acceptance, and love. Sometimes I still feel sad when I remember he is gone. I wonder what they celebrate in Heaven?

April 17th is my friend Staci's birthday. We met our junior year in high school in marketing class. We worked at the same place and even dated the same guy. Me for a few months. Her for Sadie Hawkins. Our mom's ran into each other at the grocery store and as they were talking about their kids they realized that we knew each other and that I had been talking about Staci to my mom and her about me to her mom. Our moms were friends in high school. Like mother like daughter.
We go to lunch about once a year. We had gotten out of the habit while I was in grad school. We met last month and she made me promise that I will be available for lunch with her every other month. Love to. She is an awesome teacher and we even had our third babies just 5 days apart. That isn't as significant as the fact that her third child, husband, and older sister all share the SAME birthday!

April 24th is my BFF's (yes, the one mentioned above) baby's birthday. Shhh. He is a big boy now. He will always be the youngest and is a cutie pie. He is his daddy's boy and loves the sports like his dad and older brother. I supposed little Joe will letter in Wrestling, just like his daddy and big brother.



That is it for April birthdays. May has a bunch, too. Not as many as April, but a bunch.

Happy Birthday everyone.
I love you all and love that you are in my life.

Birthday 1, 2, 3, 4 and we have some more . . . . .

On April 2nd my baby brother turned 30! He's a foot taller than me and he still lets me call him baby brother. He likes to golf, watch all kinds of sports, and have fun. He's a big kid. He give me great big hugs and I just love him. He's also single, but you better know how to play and watch sports or you'll hardly see him.

On April 6th, Monkey D turned 15! Sassy made him a cake and we had ice cream last night at 9:30 with our cake. We are going to get a skateboarding helmet for him this weekend. He is excited to be riding again.

It was so late due to hubs and I making a run to a hospital to see a coworker of his that had a heart attack on Friday. Long story. Moral of story don't over eat and consume too much sugar when diabetes and heart problems run deep in your genes and especially don't drink energy drinks on top of it.

Today, April 7th, is my baby sista's birthday. She is older than the baby brother so we won't be sharing her age at this time. I haven't approved it with her yet:) She is the sweet one in our family. She give selfless service to others, even when it isn't appreciated. She has a strong testimony and is good about sharing it and setting her boundaries around those that violate her values in her home. I love that in her.

**Story time**
We have a sister that struggles with addiction. She was staying with my mom and sister for awhile. When she was there there was contention in the home. Birthday sister hung a picture of Christ in our other sisters room. It helped with the feeling of contention. She took it one step further. When struggling sis was arguing about house rules, baby sister turned on some religious hymns. Mostly to help herself not feel anger and hate towards the arguing one. The arguing ceased and baby sister told her that she didn't like the spirit that was in the home when she argued about rules that she just needs to follow. She reminded our sister that she was a guest and to act respectful for the privilege of staying at our mom's. Yeah, she is awesome.

Love you baby sis.

Tomorrow, April 8th, is my friend KB's birthday. What an amazing woman. Brilliant. Genuine. Honest. Real. She seeks out dead people. She is always available to help me seek out dead people. Her skills leave me in awe and wonderment. I loved attending her class on genealogy. I learned a lot. Now I need to get busy before I forget it all. Love you Kathy.

Thursday, April 9th, is my cousin's birthday. T is only 2 years older than me and we are the 2 oldest cousins on our moms' side. I looked up to her when we were growing up. She is beautiful. Always has been. We have some great memories together from staying over night at grandma's house together. Love you Tammy.



There are more birthday's this month. I'll try to get everyone some blog love. Don't be sad if I don't. I just live a crazy life.

Blogging Safety

Just a few thoughts about protecting your family and your identity. There have been some concerns on our local news and out in the blog world about the dangers. I just want to remind all my readers- all 5 or 7 of you- to be safe and keep your family safe.

Here are 3 ways to have blog safety and a note for blog etiquette. I haven't noticed a problem with etiquette, but I like the article and my friend has a way of getting it out there, plain and simple.

1. Under settings click basic and scroll down to Let search engines find your blog? and put NO in the box.

2. Read this caution and follow the two links in her post or click here and here.

3. If you need further proof about being careful read this story.

4. Some notes of blogger etiquette can be found here if you are interested.

Mostly I don't believe in living in fear, but we do need to be cautious. I use code names and try to keep things vague. I'm not always good at it, but I am going to be more aware.

The bottom line is to use the lingo and pseudonyms that others use for themselves when you refer to them. Like in real life I don't call my bloggy friends Millie or Heffalump or even Elastic, ( ok maybe sometimes) The point is they are trying to protects their identity and family so I honor the names that they have chosen.

For me, well, I work in a field that affords me the opportunity to work with people with some scary behaviors. So I want people to know as little as possible about me and even less about my family.

It's not mean, just cautious. Also, don't be offended if someone requests that you change how they are listed or if a comment gets deleted because it has too much info in it. It's all about safety.

When safety is gone it takes the fun with it. :(

That's why we are Monkeying Around The Jungle and I am Klin, married to hubs or Mr, mother to Oldest, Monkey Wrench, Mini-Me, and Tree Monkey. Occasionally I change the kids names to fit with their hobbies, likes, or activities, but for the most part this is how they are referred to.

Be safe out there. There are creepy and very sick people who hurt just to make others hurt. I don't want any of you to become victim to that.

I'd like to thank the academy . . .

. . . . . for the friends I have made blogging. They bring me joy, humor, tears, and a bond of humanness and girlishness. They know how to keep me sane, party on the beach, make me laugh, inspire my nightly meal preparation, keep up with politics, and to tell me to shut the h&%$ up when I've gone too far. One such friend (whom I really need to meet IRL) gave me this prestigious award.


It comes with a description which translates roughly to:

We all love blogs where the majority of posts target the marvels of friendship. These are people who are not as interested in the awards they are given as the friendships they are creating. Because of that this award may stop. But do we want this award to stop or to keep spreading? Then let’s try to give more attention to those bloggers! We must pass this award to 8 bloggers that in turn must do the same and post this text with it!

And so, now I have the privilege of passing along the honor and awarding these bloggers with the Proximidade Award, too.

Nancy

Tori

No Cool Story

Nobody

Elastic Waistband Lady

Amanda

Voices Carrie

Annie

And anyone else who is my friend and knows that they should have this award, too, but didn't get it from Sariah or was one of the 8 on my list.

I am Blessed

and quite derelict in my bloggy goodness reporting.

I got a wonderful b-day card from Tori:), a fun giraffe card from Lauren and Nancy Face- also for my birthday, a beautiful post card from Yvonne sent all the way from Hawaii, this cool award from Lauren ,



and the cutest and very popular key ring light, made just for me from Nancy Face.
This will show you what it does


It's so cute. My dog totally wants to play with it. Too bad, Coco. It's mine. All mine.


I also received this glittery award from Nancy Face. Nancy is really loving me:)


Which I shall now bestow on 7 other bloggers. I totally agree with Nancy's pick, too. I shall choose 7 others.

b.
Amanda
Carronin
Mad Libs Millie
Heffalump
Carrot
Aubrey

Hopefully those that I wanted to give this to, but being good only did 7, will get this honor bestowed on them by those that I did award. If, no, then next time.

So Much to Catch you Up on. . . . But First

I had the awesomest experience this past weekend. I got to meet 14 other sistas who let me come to their party. I was very tired from staying up late to read Breaking Dawn and trying to recover, but it was a rejuvenating weekend for me and I feel so full of life and charged right now.

Here are some pics to entertain you.
More coming soon as well as posts galore to catch everyone up on the latest Jungle happenings.

Thanks For Making My Day

I'm working this really long day and following a session I check my phone.

I have Picture Mail!



It's from b.

She's telling me Happy Easter.

AWWWWWWW! Thanks for totally making my day.

Blog Roll

Emily in Wonderland

Mel’s Thoughts and Whatnots

Gnome Place Like Home

Just the 6 of us

I gotta b.

Lisa's Ramblings

Our Lot In Life

Our Own Private Idaho

Peeking into Liam's World

Robin's Rambings

Sassi Cassi

Tori:)

Tori’s 76 to Now

We're Having A Baby

• A Little Revolution
• Anniethology
• Barefoot in the Kitchen
• Blissfull Life of a SAHM and Military Wife
• Busy Bee Lauren
• Carrot Jello
• elasticwaistbandlady
• Elizabeth-W
• Jean Knee
• Joy is My Goal
• I am the Luckiest
• I.A.M.L.
• Merry Weather
• My Life as Annie
• Mrs. Crybaby Jones
• Nancy Face
• No Cool Story
• SoDak Angel
  
• Special K Family-Toni
• The Life and Travels of Me
• Millie