Camping

This weekend we went camping on the Washington Coast. It was a lot of fun. (I hope to have pictures soon from my wonderful sisters, since my camera battery died after 2 pictures). We went with Shawn, Darci, Courtney (sorry sister, I can't get myself to spell your name wrong), Stephanie & Jay. We had a blast.

A lot of people don't like camping, and I think I know why. Camping is work--especially with kids. You have to pack EVERYTHING, bring ALL your food, set up camp, it's really dirty (especially camping in sand), it can be cold and uncomfortable (the older I get the more I notice this one), mosquitos (thank goodness for none this weekend), and bathroom accomodations are not always pleasant. BUT I love it--even with how much work it is!

Here are some reasons I love camping:

1. I get to enjoy nature, which doesn't always happen where we live except when the skunks come around.
2. It's so cool to get into your sleeping bag at night with the sound of a river, the ocean, the wind, or even the rain outside your tent. (MUCH better than the sound of cars, sirens, and loud abnoxious teenagers going by our house). I also love the sound of pine needles hitting the tent.
3. Allen's snoring is muffled by being out in the open, and ear plugs actually work because I'm not on a bed that vibrates from the snoring. :) (Love you, honey).
4. It's awesome to watch the boys play outside, and see the pleasure on Moochy's face when he runs from the waves. Both of my boys really loved playing with the sand (including piling it on their heads, rubbing it in their eyes, eating it, and throwing it all over the place).
5. I LOVE sitting around the campfire at night chatting and playing games--both kids passed out in the tent, and not having to worry too much about what they're getting in to. I like playing in the fire too.
6. It doesn't matter if you stink. (Some people might disagree with me, though). I still wear deodorant and brush my teeth while camping, but it doesn't really matter if you're dirty and smell like smoke.
7. I love puting on a fresh, clean pair of socks at night before I get into my sleeping bag (although, I usually end up taking them off because my feet get too hot).
8. I love being with the people I love.
9. I love going home and smelling the campfire on my clothes, etc, as a good reminder of our trip.
10. I love that first warm shower when I get home, and the kids usually sleep great the first night back. :)

The Name Game

I got this from a friend's blog. I thought it would be fun. Here are the rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker. (For those of you who don't know how to do this, right click the picture, click on "properties", and you'll see the URL there).
d. copy the mosaic image (right click, save image as) to your computer.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name? Angie

2. What is your favorite food? Lo Mein

3. What high school did you go to? Kentwood

4. What is your favorite color? Green

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Don't have one (It was Christian Bale back in the day, but I didn't want to steal yours, Kate.)

6. Favorite drink? Water

7. Dream vacation? Ireland

8. Favorite dessert? Ice Cream

9. What you want to be when you grow up? Interior Decorator

10. What do you love most in life? Family

11. One Word to describe you? Mom

12. Your flickr name? None

I love baking!

1. It's no wonder I'm 10 lbs overweight.
2. I'm so excited to get to use all the Wilton decorating tips, food coloring, etc my mom gave me for my birthday.
3. I enjoy making & decorating fun cakes for my boys' birthdays.
4. I think it would be fun to buy all the Wilton cake pans in the world (haha) and start up a business of making cakes.
5. I made a chocolate cake (completely from scratch) last week--Hmmm I actually made 2 of them. lol They were yummy. The best part was the frosting.
6. I baked rolls this week just because I could--when I started out baking they would always end up heavy and hard, until I realized that you don't have to keep adding flour until the dough isn't sticky.
7. I love making our own pizza dough--especially since Hayden will actually EAT pizza.
8. I have finally found something that will make all that wheat in our food storage useful--thankfully my mom has that VERY loud electric wheat grinder.
9. I bake cookies--often. (again, see #1)
10. I'm always trying to think up in my head what new thing I'm going to make next--I think I'll try to make candies, which means I need to add some new flavorings to my kitchen.

There is nothing better than seeing the ones you love truly happy. My heart is so full right now, and I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father answers prayers. I remember once praying that others would see the light of Christ in me. Shortly after that my institute teacher commented that I had a wonderful countenance. Even those prayers that seem so small and insignificant are important to our Heavenly Father because they are important to us.



With that said, here are a few silly pictures of my boys, who mean the world to me.

So, there I am, minding my own business with my feet propped up on the computer (bad, I know), when all of the sudden Mooch Man pops his head up through my legs. It was pretty funny.

I've been Tagged!

And I guess since I have nothing else to write about, I'll do this.

Here are the rules: Write five things about yourself that nobody knows or that is unique to you. Then tag five of your friends.

1. I have weird thumb nails. It all started in High School when Holly and I went to get our nails done. Those acrylics messed up one of my thumb nails, and now both of them are weird/deformed. Somewhere along the line I developed a habit of pushing my cuticles down, and that's why they now grow dented. lol They are SO ugly.

2. I would love to go back to school someday to study Math Education or Interior Design. Anyone who has seen my house is probably wondering why Interior Design. Just because MY house isn't nicely decorated, doesn't mean I wouldn't LIKE to decorate it. :)

3. I would LOVE to move back to Cheney, Washington, and raise my kids there. I like small towns, but I have to be within 45 minutes of a Target and other major shopping.

4. I get a lot of my adult interaction through message boards. I belong to a forum online full of women who had babies in October 07. We all went through our pregnanies together, and I have made some great friends there. I have a hard time staying away.

5. I'm a big homebody. I want to make friends and get out, but most of the time I would rather stay at home with Allen & the boys. I know I need to get out every once in a while with the girls, but it's always hard to get to that point. Once I make myself go out, though, I always have fun and I'm glad I did.

Now it's your turn. I tag Anika, Tera, Lynnea, Bernadette, & Laura. :)

Ramblings...

Some of you may be wondering why I haven't mentioned anything else about moving, preparing to move, or nursing school... And the rest of you, well you probably already know that we're not moving to Utah.

Our decision to do nursing school was a very quick one. We felt good about it and started to move forward with the plans to move to Utah. We always asked Heavenly Father in our prayers that He would let us know if this decision wasn't right, or that He would confirm it if it was. When we didn't get the money we were hoping for, we were surprised. We have never had problems in the past getting federal funding for school. Some of this must have been due to the fact that Allen already has a bachelors degree. Then we applied for a small private loan, for which we were denied--also a shock since we both have excellent credit. Anyway, this made us stop and re-evaluate things. We found out that Weber State (online) will give resident tuition to a non-resident living out of Utah. So, we thought maybe we could go that route.

At the same time, we started thinking of other career paths we could pursue. That's when Law Enforcement came up. One thing that is really appealing to us about Law Enforcement is the idea of NOT going into more debt. Instead, Allen would get an education incentive for having his BA, AND we can focus on paying off the student loan debt that we already have.

We have looked into a few different police departments (Oregon, Washington, & Idaho State Police, King County, & Seattle PD), and we are leaning toward Seattle. It's still way too expensive here for us to ever buy (or want to buy) a house. So we'll focus on paying off our debt, and maybe Allen will be able to transfer to Idaho in a few years (or at least Eastern Washington or Oregon). Obviously, he doesn't have the job yet. He tests for Seattle PD in October. I don't think he'll have a problem getting hired, but you never know. Sometimes Heavenly Father has other plans.

Update

It's been a couple weeks since I've blogged, so I guess I better update. I'll just post some pictures of what we've been up to.

The boys & I "camped" in our living room.

Little Brother did the dishes... a few times.

We went to the zoo with Aunt Courtney & Uncle Shawn.

My big boy turned 3!

(Yes, he always has the Wii remote in his hands).

We got Allen to "sort of" smile for a picture.

We took sisterly pictures.