If Home Is Where Your Heart Is. . . .

Andy made this video of our day on the mountain yesterday!  Enjoy!

We had another perfect day on the mountain today!  I absolutely love living here. . .where we can get up every Saturday morning and head to the slopes together as a family!  I love it!  We don't actually board too much as a family.  Hays has practice from nine to four and Maggie, Tiki and Dax have practice from nine to noon.  So, Andy and Gabby and I get to board (and ski--Gabby) together all morning.  Then we all meet for lunch with TONS of our friends!  It is SO MUCH fun! The day was beautiful.  Sunny and about 44.  It really doesn't get much better than that!  I love the no coat skiing days! Some of us came home early because Maggie got plowed over by another boarder.  But hopefully we'll all go up tomorrow (and hopefully I'll get some pictures).

So, I'm starting a fitness class today called Body Sculpt & Burn.  Does anything about that title scream, "COME TAKE MY CLASS"?  No!  It doesn't.  I'm scared to death!  I'd much rather do the class called Morning Flow Yoga, but this is the only class that fits my schedule.  So, on Monday and Friday from now on (at least until the Spring Break Cruise) I am going to go to Body Sculpt & Burn.  Yikes!  I have been successfully putting it off for several weeks with wonderful excuses.  Today, my excuse is that I don't want to be first-day-of-working-out sore right before we go snowboarding tomorrow.  Seems like a pretty good excuse to me (and it still may win out. . .I still have an hour before class).  However, I am dressed for the class and ready to go so that I have more going in the "YES" column than in the "NO" column when it comes time to walk out the door.  Oh boy.

Nice title.  Huh?  Well, maybe not for a mom blog post, but it is a great title for a book!  And it is the title of Andy's new book coming out the Spring (and available for preorder on Amazon now)!  He is doing a blog with his book, too.  This book is written for parents of teens and youth pastors and it will blow you away!!!  It is unbelievable what teens are doing now. . . and the most unbelievable part (to me) is that for the most part, there are no emotional strings attached anymore.  If you have a teenager or a preteen, you NEED this book and you need to follow Andy's new blog: Secrets, Lies & Hooking Up .  Don't think that your kid isn't the one. . .this book will blow your mind!

In Tiki's class this year there are three children who are adopted internationally.  It is really fun that his class is so diverse!  His wonderful teacher, Mrs. Greenberg, thought it would be a great idea to study adoption as a part of their social studies curriculum so that the kids could have a better understanding of adoption and of other cultures. So, today they started talking about adoption and the students who were adopted and one kids raised his hand and said, "Tiki isn't adopted."  And Mrs. Greenberg assured him that Tiki is, in fact, adopted.  And this kindergartner said, "No, he isn't.  His parents just made him on a beach."  HYSTERICAL!!!  (For those of you who don't get it, Mrs. Greenberg and I are thinking that this child thinks that he is so tan because he was conceived on a beach.)  Oh to be a kindergarten teacher and hear things like that all of the time!

As I go along every day, sometimes happy and sometimes sad; sometimes ready to conquer and sometimes totally overwhelmed; sometimes content and sometimes feeling like I am lacking. . . whatever it is that I am feeling, I often feel alone in these feelings.  And I was reminded today by conversations with two dear friends that I am not alone in my ups or in my downs (mostly feeling alone in my downs).  I am not the only one hurting or struggling and since that is that case, I wanted to share with everyone some quotes and verses that have come to mean a lot to me over the past several months.  By no means is this all of the words I have found useful, but they are the ones that just came to mind as I felt compelled to encourage others. I follow C.S. Lewis and John Lindell on Twitter (among others) and these are my favorite Tweets (or whatever) from them over the past few months. So, if you are down today or if you find yourself struggling or if you are in a low place because of different

Just a little temporary addition to my fridge!  So fun!

Okay, did you know that it is polite to pull over when you are passing a funeral procession on the highway? I was driving down Highway 550 today and a funeral procession was passing me going the other way and I was one of only two cars that pulled over and I was blown away!  I was so frustrated because people today are so self-focused and always in such a hurry to get to wherever and the fact that they can't even show a little respect for pulling over for two minutes just floored me. Well, my brother, Brady, called in the middle of my frustration and he reminded me that maybe everyone doesn't know that they are supposed to pull over.  Well, now 60-500 people will (depending on how many readers I have today). I love pulling over for funerals.  I know, that sounds crazy, but I do. The first reason is that it gives me a minute to pray for the family and friends left behind by the person who died.  That procession is a line of sad people who have lost someone very dear.  I

This is the newer version of the book I am using. . .I may have to get this newer version when I get tired of the food in the old one!  Yesterday my friend, Gretchen, and I did our cooking for the month.  I haven't done it in ages and I'm so glad that I started up again.  It is one big trip to the grocery store (that I did at 5:30 yesterday morning because I had put it off until the last possible minute) and then one full day of cooking and cooking and cooking.  It is exhausting, but it is so worth it! The first year I started it, I did it because we always had random people showing up for dinner and I was never prepared for company.  So, I started having these meals pre-prepared in my freezer and when someone would show up, I would just pop in my nice meal and it was great. I restarted it again yesterday for a couple of reasons:    1.  to save money (it really is so much cheaper)    2.  so that my family could eat good and more creative meals instead of the same 2 I a

Oh my!  We had the most fantastic day on the mountain today. . .maybe the most fantastic day ever!  The weather was absolutely perfect and we were together with the kids and Andy was with us and we had tons of friends. . .it was a perfect day!  I am so thankful that we get to live here so that our weekends can be like a vacation every time they come around!  I'm also so thankful that Andy is home every single weekend for the next three months and he will get to snowboard with us each time!  Yipee!  (Hays wasn't with us because he was practicing with the team, but we stalked him on the half pipe a couple of times and it felt like we were all together just for those moments!)

Last night I got to go have a girls' night with two of my great Durango friends, Valerie and Gretchen.  We were out for my late birthday and for Gretchen's early birthday.  Andy kept our nine kids (Val left her two at home with her hubby) and we had a great evening.  We talked and laughed and it was so long overdue and much needed for me!  Happy Birthday (tomorrow), Valerie!  And thanks for taking us out, Gretchen!  I can't wait until next year to do it again!

My brother, Brady, got to meet Sleeping Beauty. . .what a wonderful picture!  Too bad Prince Philip has Aroura's heart because I think she and Brady make an adorable couple! Brady wrote a song a couple of years ago (about Jennafer before they lived in Orlando) and here is part of the song. . .so cute and appropriate! You fall asleep when I drive And dream of me till we arrive Sleeping Beauty, peaceful one You make my heart come all undone You're just you, you're just you, you're just you And you're just you through and through There's no pretense in all you do You're just you, gorgeous you You're just you

Okay, I'm not sure I'm really liking the new me. . . it isn't really a new me that I officially turned over, it is just a new me that has appeared out of nowhere.  At first glance, the new me seems pretty wonderful.  For those of you who read my blog faithfully, you remember me writing about how abandoned I felt in Cabo when Andy left.  I thought it was just because I was on vacation. . .well it wasn't just on vacation.  Andy has been gone since Friday and I have turned in to one of those seemingly pathetic women who cannot function without their husbands.  (If you're one of those, I don't really mean that you're pathetic, it is just very foreign to me.)  I cruised while Andy was gone for the past 13 years.  No problems.  I ran the house, we chatted on the phone and life moved on.  But now I am pathetic.  I'm lonely and I miss him and I need his help and his companionship.  What has gotten into me? My thoughts are that he and I are in a really great

Oh my! I finally got the CD with our Valentine's Day 2010 pictures on it! One year later I am now the owner of my photos!!! Enjoy. . .I sure am!!!

Here is Caleb and Will Franklin Chapman's band, Caleb, live! I love these guys! Don't miss Will Frank on drums in the background!

When we were in Tulsa over Christmas, BeBe had a photographer come and take our family pictures.  It was a fun day and many of the pictures turned out wonderfully!  Enjoy! I have to say it, my husband is just gorgeous!!! BeBe and PaPa and all their grandkids! Andy's brother, Philip, his wife, Nancy, and their three sweeties.

So, ironically today I was working on my annual cure for the winter blues and one of my friends was blogging about her winter blues.  So, I am here to tell what I do for these winter blues of cold January.  When I undecorate my house from the Christmas bliss, I immediately decorate for Valentine's Day.  What?  I know, I'm weird, but it helps!  I use red accents and make my house feel like love (whatever that means).  It is really fun and I love walking into my living room and seeing and feeling "love."  Today I even drug the love into the master bedroom with a small bedroom make over that consisted of a vase of roses (fake) and a new duvet cover and a couple of throw pillows (left over from Christmas decor). So, I thought I'd share the "love."

Well, we got home last night and it is good to be all together as a family again!  It is a little overwhelming to be home:  schedules and school and packed lunches and Friday folders and car pool and work and mail and cooking and laundry and. . . . . Cabo was FANTASTIC this year!  The last day we all went to a "new" pool and we had this huge pool all to ourselves!  We felt like rock stars!  We could be as loud and obnoxious as we wanted to be and we didn't bother a soul! Thanks, GoGo and Pops for a WONDERFUL two weeks!  I look forward to that family trip all year long!  Only 50 more weeks! :)

This is Tiki and Dax running down the beach with the wind blowing their towels (super hero capes) behind them.  They were laughing so hard. . .it was a highlight for me. Okay, a picture sometimes is worth a thousand words, but sometimes it just doesn't truly capture the moment.  What was really happening right here?  Maggie was on her own private planet where she spends most of her time.  Tiki and Dax were dancing and shaking their booties to some music playing in both of their heads.  And Gabby was attempting to wash the sand off of her bottom. . .all together it way a hysterical scene that still photography just couldn't fully capture! Dax and Pops on the wave runners.  They got to get within about five yards of a whale and her baby out on the Sea of Cortez.  What a great experience! Maggie and Pops. . .she kind of looks terrified here, but she had a great time and also got to get up close and personal with the whales!