Tagged!!!

Tag!
How To Play This Game of Tag
Post these rules on you blog. Answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog.
List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts
Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.
Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Here it is...
JOYS :
1.The gospel of Jesus Christ. I find true joy in knowing who I am and what my purpose is here on the earth. As a result of recent experiences in our family, I am so grateful for the knowledge i have of a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of me.
#2. My family. I love Nathan and everything he does for me. This is my favorite age for all of my kids together. They are so fun to be around and do things with (most of the time). My parents are the BEST...I have 4 great brothers, who I appreciate and love as well as their families.
#3. My friends. I am a firm believer in the difference having friends can make in a life. I am a living example of that. I have great friends who I love dearly.
FEARS:
1.Loss of a loved one. When I was little I would stay awake thinking of everything bad that could possibly happen to our home and my family. I know crazy...but I fear losing someone I love, especially my kids and Nathan.
2. Debt. I hate the feeling of owing someone else for something I have.
3. Weight Gain...this may seem incredibly vain but I honestly do fear getting fat.
GOALS:
1. I want to finish my degree. It took me forever to figure out what I wanted to study in college. I have always wanted to be a mom and it is the best job in the world. However, I would like to go back to school and become an early childhood speech pathologist. Dayton had to have speech therapy when he was 2 years old and I loved the time I was able to spend in his school and seeing the difference that can be made in the lives of little kids.
2. I would love to learn how to play the guitar...I actually have a form to sign up for lessons with Alexa...just haven't done anything with it, yet. We keep having distractions.
3. To paint and decorate my kids rooms the way they want them...this will be a while but it is a goal.
OBSESSIONS:
1. For those who know me well...I have to put cleaning. Although I have seriously mellowed out over the past couple of years. I can't go a day without vacuuming some area of my house. Dusting, I'm lucky to make it a week.
2. Diet Coke with Lime....I love this drink.
3. Treats...we have a treat every night for dinner.
RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS:
1. I have been skydiving.
2. I am a fast reader. I love to read and I can finish a book quickly.
3. I love to bake. Mackenzie thinks I should open a bakery...in my spare time.
4. I can't sew to save my life, but I can use a glue gun on just about anything. I once used a glue gun to fix a hem on a dress.
Now that you all know way more about me than you wanted to, I am tagging......Traci, Sara, Natalie, Lyndee, and Rebecca! And anyone else who wants to do this! I wanna know all about the rest of you too!!

I feel the earth move under my BED????

We were awakened this morning at 5:38am by an unusual shaking of our entire bed and the crazy shaking of our ceiling fan. Nathan and I both flew out of bed and ran to the window to see if we were having some crazy storm but outside it is calm and peaceful. Crazy...EARTHQUAKE. Yep, earthquake. It was 5.4 on the Richter scale so not very big but enough to cause some alarm around here. There was little damage done and I felt another aftershock around 11:20am.
Dayton and Alexa had no idea anything unusual had happened when we woke them up a few hours later. Mackenzie said she woke up because she thought someone came into her room and was shaking her bed to wake her up but when she couldn't find anyone there she went back to sleep. I have experienced 2 earthquakes, that I can remember, in my life and the first was when I was in the 5th grade in Ohio. It was during the day because we were in school. The desks started shaking and the windows rattled really loud and everybody's pencil rolled off the desk. Crazy, who'd have thought living in the midwest would provide such grand adventure.

Famous American Report

Mackenzie has an assignment as a second grader to do a report on a famous American. She chose to report on Laura Ingalls Wilder. She had to research her life and then create something to display that represents that famous persons life. Mackenzie is quite talented when it comes to art projects and she chose to do her display in clay. She did a fantastic job. The project is not due until the 30th of April and Mackenzie has had her completed since the 16th of March. Now she is my kind of girl...no procrastination with her.
She made the pig and put the mud spots on him and he has to be lying down because he is rolling in the mud. Laura is the woman holding her daughter, Rose. Almanzo is her husband and he is pulling the cart on their farm.

Thunder Cake

Mackenzie read a book called "Thunder Cake" which is about a girl and her "babushka" (grandma) who make a special cake when a thunder storm is coming. She was able to try this cake in school a few weeks ago and has been begging me to make it ever since. So, we made it last night. It has a secret ingredient in it which is...tomatoes. Yep, pureed tomatoes. It was actually really good.

Shorts

These are the shorts that grandma made. This is the girl who will wear the shorts that grandma made. This is the smile on the face of the girl who will wear the shorts that grandma made. Thank goodness for grandma...

Not AGAIN!!!

Last night on his way to play racquetball Nathan was in a car accident. Nathan is fine....his car is NOT. It was not his fault and the other driver accepted responsibility but really...come on, we just did this. His car will most likely be considered "totalled." The 17 year old girl who hit him was in the left hand lane signaling to turn left but as Nathan was passing her on the right she changed her mind and smashed in to him and pushed him into a telephone pole. These pictures make me so sad. We got this car from my mom and we love it. It is the first car Nathan has had that was not a "junker." UGGGHHH! Looking at the damage we are so grateful he is alright because we know it could have been so much worse. But we weren't quite ready to have to look for a new car yet.

Quaker Steak and Lube

When I was a kid we used to occassionally drive to Sharon Pennsylvannia to shop and get "wings." The best wings ever. To this day, whenever my brothers come into town we get wings. Thankfully we don't have to travel quite as far to get them. There is a Quaker Steak and Lube in Columbus, Ohio so Nathan and I have picked some up on our way to mom and dad's. Lucky for us there is a brand new store in North Canton. YUMMY!! These wings are so good. You get to pick what flavor you want and our favorites are ranch, parmesan pepper, and barbeque. My kids love these wings and we were treated to them by mom and dad over spring break. Now most table manners are thrown out the door while eating wings as is apparent by the pictures. After Dayton had eaten a couple of wings he yells out, "Wow, I love these things." It was a great treat...although slightly messy.

My little "tree climbers"

My kids love to climb trees. Unfortunately in our neighborhood there are not trees that are mature enough for our kids to climb, but at grandma's house there are trees. So they climbed trees. This was the first year everybody could climb the trees without assistance. YEA!!! They had a great time.

Mom also sewed shorts for Alexa and she is so excited. It is so hard to find shorts that are long enough for her to wear so this was the perfect solution. She got to pick out her fabric and is very excited about the finished product. I CAN'T sew to save my life so I am so grateful for my mom and her never-ending talents that she shares with so many.

The Purse

Today we went to the Goodwill. It is my favorite Goodwill store because I find the best deals here. So as we were finding clothes for Alexa, Mackenzie started looking at purses and she found one she liked. She wrote a letter to her dad to tell him about the experience and gave me permission to restate it here:

Dear Daddy,
Today we were supposed to go to the place where you feed birds. (the park place thing) See we did yesterday but the birds did not eat because it was late. TODAY I GOT A PURSE FOR THREE BUCKS! I have to pay mom back. It had money in it. I found it when I looked through it. It had $15.29. I was honest and turned it in. The lady FIRST said I could keep it (the money) but then she went to the manager (boss) but he or she said I couldn't have the $15 but I can have the $.29. I was going to buy the purse from the fifteen but it got taken to people whose houses had been burned down, etc. So that's what you get for being honest: BLESSINGS
Sincerely,
MRP
I love you Daddy.

I am so proud of Mackenzie and her willingness to be honest. I really wish she would have been given the money because she did do such a good thing but she is right... Blessings come from doing the right thing... just not right when you think they should.

Cutting Hair

I have been cutting Nathan's hair since before we were married, which will be almost 12 years in just a few months. Nathan has been cutting my hair, not on as regular a basis, for the past 6 years. I think I do an okay job and Nathan is not picky.. which makes my job much easier. I only did an "oopps" once. And it was a big one. Nathan was getting ready to go for a job interview and needed a haircut. I was cutting his hair as I had done several times when the guard fell off of the trimmer, right on top of his head. He had a major bald spot. I had to shave his head. He did not get mad....he said, "the only difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is just a few days."

Nathan takes great pride in the fact that he cuts my hair. I'm not picky either...and he hasn't ever had an "oopps" with me.

General Conference

Conference Weekend is one of family traditions for the Pages. We watch all sessions of conference, sometimes in our jammies, eat, color pages related to conference and listen to those who have been called of God. As a kid, my family had to go to the church to participate in conference which was broadcast in the chapel and we had to wear our Sunday best. After a few years my mom had the great idea that we could put a TV in the gym and we could pull the couches from the foyer into the gym and watch the Saturday sessions in our regular comfy clothes. I have fond memories of those times and want to create similar experiences for my kids. Usually, on conference weekend we pull out our 72 hour kits and eat our food from there. Dayton thinks that is the best thing in the world. (We didn't do that this time and he hasn't remembered that we are supposed to yet, so shhhh.)

As a college student, I would spend the weekend at my grandparents house and every television set and radio was tuned to conference. You couldn't be anywhere in that home without being able to experience conference.

Today was a very special day for me and I hope for my kids. We were able to participate in a Solemn Assembly as we sustained a new prophet and apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As we sat in our family room and listened and stood to raise our arms in support I once again had witnessed to me the truthfulness of this gospel.

Earlier this morning Dayton was wondering what he could do so, in honor of Conference weekend, I gave him the idea to create the word "Monson" in LEGOS. He did it and super fast too.

BYU fans

After we got our new car Nathan started looking online at the BYU bookstore for a trailer hitch cover and miraculously found one. Well it came today and he is excited. No doubt about our loyalty to the "Y" with this "bling" on our car.

Reading

Mackenzie LOVES to read. She is just like me. Once she gets into a book, she doesn't willingly put it down and becomes quite grouchy when she is interupted for any reason. Last night she was reading in bed when I turned out her light and she had a complete meltdown. Apparently when she is tired and you tell her it is time to stop reading she lets you know exactly how unfair her life really is. I never let her read because she has to do so many other things, like take a bath, put away laundry and go to bed...which leaves "NO" time for her to read. Man, I'm a mean mom.

Spy Glasses

Dayton loves to play with Legos. It amazes me what he can create with his imagination. Yesterday he made each letter of his name with a different color of Lego. It was really cool. Then this morning he made "spy glasses." He came downstairs attempting to "spy" on everyone.