::Mom's Day::

Well, mom's day has come and gone and I don't have a single picture of anything we did but we sure did a lot to celebrate our wonderful mother's.

I love my mommy so much and couldn't imagine my world without her to help me through everything. I will say we didn't always get along .. especially in high school and early college but we made it through what she calls my "alien years" and she is my bestest friend in the whole wide world. I love that I can look back on things she did when I was growing up and think "wow that was really a great idea" here are some small examples that I learned from her and that I find myself doing with these two crazies

1- The whole "you have to eat your dinner before you leave the table" now I don't make them eat their dinner but if they don't at least try what is cooked (especially Bryson who is so picky) then they don't get to eat what they want and they don't get a treat, so basically they go to bed hungry .. sounds harsh I know but trust me it gets the kid to try things he normally wouldn't and he actually does like some of the things I cook!

2- Early bed time ... now I'm sure most moms out there have a bed time for their children but since B has been living with us I have to be to work very early on Tuesday and Thursday mornings so on Monday and Wednesday nights he has to go to bed at 8 pm ... even when it is light outside (which I hated when I was a kid) but come Tuesday and Thursday morning this kid is refreshed and ready to wake up.

3- School ... some may know after my first year of college (which was a blast!) I wasn't really into school and didn't really want to do it ... I kept going because my mom (and dad) always said "You have to get an education" so I did the bare minimum that I could to graduate and got them off my back ... about a year after I graduated I was bored and not using my degree for anything and decided I wanted to do something more so I went back to school for a second degree and now I am preparing to start graduate school this fall ... who would have thought??? Certainly not me .. well this is something that I push on B, I make sure he knows just how important school is and list all the things that he can accomplish with a college education so hopefully he takes this to heart and really wants to go to college!

4- The power of "the look" ... I always make fun of my mom for her "perma-crusty" but hey whatever works to get kiddies to do what we ask them the first time right!

I know there is so so so much more but right now those are all that are in my head! I love my mommy and all that she does and shares with me every single day!

Not only do I have the best mother .. I have a fabulous mother in law! I love everything she does for my little family including little Kira! She is an amazing woman and I hope that one day I can do for my family what she has done for hers!

At last .. but certainly not least the mother that shares her children with me ... now this woman is fabulous ... she is a fantastic mother and does most things all by herself. I look up to her so much and can't even describe how fabulous she is, what other mother out there would trust not one but both of her amazing children to the "baby daddy" wife??? I think it would be hard but she does it effortlessly and without question!

Thank you to all the mom's in my life for everything you have given me!

::Race for the Cure::

This post is super late but oh well! I did Race for the Cure with my mom, sister, Jenn, aunt, and cousin and we had a great time. This is such a great cause and I can't believe that I haven't done this walk before this year. I loved it. What a great, emotional roller coaster we were all on this day. I can't wait to sign up next year and I think everyone should ... take a look at this picture below ... this is just the small amount of people we could capture that were walking in front of us ... there were at least this many people walking in front of them and at least this many walking behind us. I was so impressed at how many people show up to "SUPPORT SECOND BASE!" (this was one of our favorite shirts that a group had) I will be reminding you all to sign up next year!



Here is the group we walked with ... well Dev ran but the rest walked!

::Rock's Anyone?::

Bryson has opened a rock store in his bedroom! Hahaha this kid kills me! He has a pouch of colored rocks he got in the Grand Canyon and has decided he can make some money off of them. So if you are in need of any rocks just let me know because Bryson's Rock Store has them for you!

::Playoff's::

Last Friday night my aunt called with two tickets to her company suite for the Jazz vs. Nuggets playoff game. It was such a fun night and an awesome game! Jeremy and I had such a great time hanging out with my aunt and uncle. We started our night at Spencer's Steak House and it was AMAZING!!!! Thanks aunt Kimm and uncle Brett for giving us a great night right before we have to put a stop on all our spending and live off of student loans for 2 years!

::Baseball::

Baseball season has officially begun for 2010 and we love it! We all get pretty depressed when we have rainout games, which unfortunately for this season has been all but 2 games! Oh well that just means baseball goes longer right! Go Mariners!!!

::Easter 2010::

Yes, I know I am late with this post but I just barely uploaded all my pics to the computer!

So, Easter was a fun time! We had B and Kira this year and had a blast with them both. The Easter bunny sure did spoil these two kiddos. When we got home Easter night I was putting ALL their stuff away and discovered they got 8 Easter baskets each ... ARE YOU KIDDING ME ... 8 BASKETS???? They sure did have a great time tho!

We started off our Easter celebration by coloring Easter eggs. I bought each of them a dozen eggs and their own color kit and they had such a good time and loved it so much that I went out and bought them each another dozen and another color kit. So yes we had 4 dozen eggs at our house, but they sure did have a great time and made some great lookin eggs!

Easter Sunday they spent the morning with their mom and we picked them up about noonish to go to both Great-Grandma's and to Grandma Lou's and Grandpa Doug's. They had such a blast doing the egg hunt, although they were both very slow at finding eggs they still had a great time. Kira found the huge Golden egg at the Rodda side party and was lovin that thing, it was huge and it took her like 10 minutes to pick it up! Also at the Rodda party we had a pinata and both kids really seemed to like hitting that and grabbing the candy.

We finished our evening at my parents and they kids found 20 plastic eggs filled with money. I think they both left there with a basket of goodies plus 20+ dollars, can you say spoiled! Oh well they loved it and Grandpa Doug and Grandma Lou love spoiling them!

Here are just a few pics of our day!

::The Best Day EVER::

Well, some of you may know that I applied to Graduate School this year for Speech Pathology and back in March I got my rejection letters (yes 7 in all :() and was depressed for days. This year I decided I needed to meet with whoever was in charge of the program at the University of Utah and figure out exactly what I needed to do to be able to get accepted for next year (2011). I was pretty much a pest until the guy finally e-mailed me back and we scheduled a meeting which took place on Thursday April 15, 2010.

I went in to this meeting with one thought and zero expectations ... I thought to myself: What if he tells me I have to retake my whole first Bachelor degree, then what would I do? Because let me tell you that just didn't seem reasonable to me but it was a possibility that he might suggest so I had to be prepared.

The meeting started out ok he just asked me some questions and of course my degree in Sociology loomed its ugly head. I didn't hide behind anything I told him how it was and that at that point in my life I wasn't 100% sure college was for me but my parents wanted me to have the degree, I then informed him (with big alligator tears in my eyes!) that I have changed and Speech is what I want to do and I need to know how I can do that. (If you don't know I can't work as a Speech Pathologist without a Master's degree so this is an issue!)

Well, much to my surprise we talked a little more about why speech, what I have been doing this past year, and how I plan to do in Graduate school .. this man (My Savior as I now refer to him!) looked me in the eye and said ........

"I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU START OUR PROGRAM FALL 2010!!!!!!"

UH ... WHAT??? I just sat there and stared at him and he finally said "Are you going to say anything?" I looked at him and said the only thing that was on my mind at that particular moment "I just need to know what classes to retake to get in next year." Uh hello Cherise, he has just accepted you and this is what you say, what are you a moron???

When I finally recovered from the shock of it all, I mean who has the power to do that?? He proceeded to explain to me that he knows I can do this, that on paper in front of a committee with 170+ applicants I don't make the cut but my diligence (fancy word for pest) and my commitment shows him that I can make this work. So needless to say April 15, 2010 will be a day in my world that I remember forever, this was a day that someone finally took a chance on me and had faith that I could this! There are many many many people that thought that all along but after 7 rejections one tends to get a little down on themselves!

I start school again on August 23, 2010 and work for 1 year and 9 months to complete my Master's of Science in Communication, Science, and Disorders and I couldn't be more excited, overwhelmed, nervous, anxious and everything inbetween! This has been a roller coaster of 3 months of applications, tons and tons of money, lots of heart ache and in the end all it took was one man to have the faith in me and here we are ... going back to school, racking up student loans, and starting a brand new adventure in our lives! I can't wait and I promise to keep you all posted (if I ever have time to blog again!)


(Here is my acceptance letter!!!)