How I Clean

I have never been a neat freak, or even anything remotely close to it. My older sister used to have to bribe me with brownies to keep my junk in our shared room neat, and even then I still didn't do a good job of cleaning. I was assigned dish duty on Wednesday nights when I was a wee thing and I would ALWAYS cry my way out of it (dishes are still my least favorite). Now that it is mainly my responsibility to keep the house clean (I really dont have any good excuse not to) I really have to do it or no one will. So, to motivate myself to clean I turn on one of my playlists titled "Girly Music" and I listen to the tunes while I clean. On this playlist, I have artists like Miley Cyrus, Aly & AJ, Jonas Brothers, Ashley Tisdale, Nelly Furtado, Leona Lewis, Hilary Duff...and the list goes on. For some reason I just love that type of music (the only other people in my family that can stand are Joanna, my 15 yr old sister, and of course Audrey). Anyway, listening to the music makes cleaning fun because me and Audrey dance around and sing along. Plus, I clean for longer because I want to keep listening. And that is how I clean.

NC Fair

We went to the NC State Fair last night. We live less than a mile away from the fair grounds, so we saved money on parking and walked there. I could definately use all of the exercise after all of the junk food we ate! We started the night off with some pizza and french fries.

In case you can't read underneath the Deep Fried Pecan Pie, it says "It's a Southern Thing."

When we went to the PETTING ZOO Audrey made it her mission to touch every animal that she could, and she did. Me and Audrey took a ride on the swings that spin around, this was her first "big girl ride". She was smiling the whole ride, but her knuckles were white from holding the bar so tightly.

What is a fair without the deep fried treats? We got a funnel cake, and a deep fried Milky Way. The Milky Way was very melted but it was pretty good. I would not make a habit of eating them like that though. Of course we had to get Cotton Candy! Audrey liked it, but it was a little too weird for her. All in all, we had a great time.

get LOST

Are you bored, tired of watching the same tv shows? Well in case you are not already a fan of LOST, I will recommend it to you. abc.com has all of the seasons available online to watch, so this means you can catch up on the series for free! Me and Travis started watching the first season last weekend and we have just barely started the second one. It is a great show, and it pretty much has all of the ingredients to attract any viewer.

G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

Audrey LOVES putting on makeup, and today she helped me with mine. She also helped herself to at least 3 different lipsticks. I showed Audrey her reflection in the mirror and she loved the way she looked.

She actually did a pretty good job considering she is only 2, but when she offered to put some lipstick on me I must admit that I declined.

Audrey is in love...

For all of those people who don't know, me and Travis both have callings in the Cub Scouts. I am the cub scout committee chair and he is the cub scout master. When we first got called by the first counselor of the bishopric Travis only had one question for him: "Which one has more power?" I still think that is funny.

Anyway, on Saturday we went for a field trip with the cub scouts to the RDU airport open house for a new terminal. Audrey was very good for the whole day, but she had a really hard time leaving when she met these two characters...

She gave both of them about 100 hugs each and she kept butting in front of other kids to hug them. I am glad that she had a good time.

Just like mAgIc

Audrey really loves coloring with crayons, especially on surfaces like walls, doors, and the floor. I have been putting of cleaning a wall that she colored all over because I was dreading putting the time and muscle into it. I remembered seeing a commercial about Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and on it they showed a lady wiping off crayon on a wall. So today I bought one of those magic erasers and it worked really well! I probably spent less than 5 minutes cleaning 2 walls. I was so happy and excited that I decided to dedicate a blog about it.

And I thought I liked sugar...

Two days ago a few of the neighbor kids came over so that I could teach them how to sew (yeah, I know...scary right?). One boy came over and he had a sandwich. At first I thought it was just two pieces of bread, but then I saw a filling of some sort. It turns out he had confectioners sugar in between the two slices of bread. I will be the first to admit that my addiction of sugar borders on unhealthy, but I do not love sugar enough to make a sandwich out of it. The sugar sandwich makes me queasy just thinking about it!

Yearbook Pictures

I was looking through my old yearbooks today and let's just say that I went through some VERY awkward stages during high school. After looking through Trav's yearbooks I am glad to say that I am not the only one that was so awkward.

Back when I would do my hair like this, I went through one can of aerosal hairspray per day! That adds up fast.

I always thought Travis would look good with a mullet!

What do you think our best looks were?

Unfortunately, I think Audrey is doomed to follow our high school looks.

Weekend

Last weekend we got to spend some time with Travis's Mom and Janae's family.

This was the best picture we could get of all 3 grandkids on the Andrew side. Audrey and Brighton kept running away. Addison was perfect though.

We brought Audrey and Brighton to the park. They loved swinging next to each other. Brighton would get bored every few minutes so he would ask us to tickle his feet.

PiCnIc at the PARK

TRAVIS usually work 10-12 hours per day 6 DAYS a week, so we don't get a lot of time to spend together as a FAMILY. Today he decided to take a few hours off to be with me and Audrey. We went to our favorite PARK for a PICNIC lunch, and then Audrey played for a while. The weather was PERFECT and we all had a great time.

We ate HAM and cheese on croissant rolls and they were delicious! We also had chips, soda, GRAPES, nilla wafers, and Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip COOKIES.

I love how GREEN the grass is!

After Audrey ate a TON of grapes she got bored waiting for me and Travis to finish eating so she kept RUNNING away from us.

Sometimes AUDREY will come up behind me and give me a big HUG, I LOVE it when she does that!

Audrey usually goes on the SWINGS for about 10-15 MINUTES every time we go to the park. She LOVES them!

How to use an Accounting 312 Book

I chose Acct 312 (managerial accounting) as one of my elective accounting courses for my major. After a few weeks of the class it was obvious that I was not going to do well in it (nothing says failure like a 55 on the first test). The teacher was new and his style was totally wrong for my learning, plus this course it one step above earth science (the worst possible subjet) as far as interest goes. So I tried to sell the $150 textbook back but the bookstore would not take it because they were getting new textbooks for the next semester. Anyway, 2 years later, I have finally found a use for it (ok, so there was no point to keeping it, but I had a hard time throwing away $150 like that).

Audrey has a high chair, and a little table, but we havent purchased a booster seat for her. Instead we use old text books, like my accounting one.

Isn't it perfect?

First Kiss

4 years ago from yesterday, October 6th 2004, was the first time that Travis kissed me. We met one of the first weeks of the fall semester at country dancing on a Wednesday night (BYU-I has country dancing every Wednesday night). Travis asked me to dance and I was really flattered that he would ask me because he was so cute. He was a good dancer to. A few songs later I noticed that he was standing alone so I asked him to dance again because I thought it was a waste for someone that could dance as well as him, and was as cute as him to sit out for a dance. After that night, we kept seeing each other every where. I really liked Travis right off, and I told myself that even if he didn't want to date me he would be a really good friend at least. So we went on a few dates, and I wasn't sure how Travis felt about me. Randy Travis was coming to BYU-Idaho for a concert and I asked Travis to go with me. I didn't even know who Randy Travis was but I thought it was a good excuse to ask Travis out. We had a great time at the concert and it turned out that I did know a few of Randy's songs. 3 Wooden Crosses had always been one of my favorite country songs, but since I was a fairly recent convert to country I didn't know who sang it. So after the concert we went to Travis's house and we watched Top Gun. That was the first time I ever saw the movie. Travis put his arm around me and of course I was really excited about that. After the movie, he drove me home and walked me to my door. He hugged me and said that he had a good time and then he kissed me. I totally wasn't expecting it, but I was glad that he did. It was the perfect first kiss. When I walked into my apartment one of my roommates was sitting in the front room and she saw that I was smiling really big and she said "he kissed you didn't he?" If Travis had asked me to marry him that night I probably would have said yes. I was so head-over-heels in love with him already! He had all of the traits that I wanted in a husband and then some. The more I got to know him the more I loved him. He is devoted to the church, he loves me unconditionally, he is such a hard worker, he is extrememly self-motivated, he supports and encourages me in everything that I want to do, he is a great Papa to Audrey, he is my best friend, he strengthens our family, he is so much more than I deserve. I love him more and more every day. And that is the start of our continuing love story.