De-Stress Thursday (1st One)

A fellow blogger does a De-Stress post every week and I love reading them...very helpful stuff she got. For this week's De-Stress Thursday, she invited anyone interested to list about 100 things that make them happy. I actually like this one because once I'm done writing my list, I'm sure I'll be able to put my life back into perspective. So, here goes:

Anjeny list's of 100 things that makes her happy: (the order of this list is random)

1. The sound of my kids playing nicely together
2. Jen singing
3. Kaitlin singing and dancing
4. Hanging out with my kids doing anything and everything fun
5. Making cards
6. Ladies' night out
7. Cuddling up in bed with hubby and just chatting about anything
8. Sleeping
9. Hanging out with my friends
10. Listening to my teen girls telling about their latest crush or boy interest
11. Reading a really good book
12. The new book club I joined
13. Home Enrichment night
14. Family Home Evening
15. Reading my scriptures
16. Teaching the Beehive class in Young Women
17. Playing the piano
18. Goofing around with my kids
19. Singing karaoke with my family
20. Getting new craft ideas
21. Attending my Card Swap
22. Receiving different cards from the ladies and looking through each card
23. Love swapping homemade cards with other people
24. Kaitlin giving me kisses and hugs
25. Jonathan telling me I'm the most beautiful mom in the world (hey, I'm only human, I'm bound to be conceited sometime)
26. Eating Steph's yummy baking
27. Of course, kisses and hugs from my hubby
28. Kev's attempt at cheering me up with his goofiness when I'm down
29. Being a LDS
30. When hubby and all the kids are home
31. Friends
32. Family
33. The Gospel in my life
34. Talking on the phone with my siblings/parents and my mother-in-law(♥ her)
35. Going to the beach with my family
36. Going on any kind of outing with my family
37. Alone time (need this time to rejuvenate myself)
38. Sleeping in on weekends
39. Homemade gifts
40. Getting presents from anyone
41. Playing games with my kids
42. When I finally get any part of the house cleaned or organized
43. Visiting with friends or friends visiting with me
44. Browsing around in a bookstore
45. Shopping for shoes
46. Hanging out in a baby section of a store
47. The smell of a newborn baby
48. Holding a new born in my hands
49. Being a witness to a baby's mildstone moments
50. Sound of laughter coming from my kids
51. Shopping with my daughters
52. Going to the movies with my sons
53. Watching scary movies with my son Chris
54. Going trick-o-treating with my kids
55. Christmas music/carols
56. Christmas morning
57. The looks on my kids' face on Christmas morn when they are opening their presents
58. To see my hubby relaxing (he's way too hyper and stress, can't sit still)
59. Discovering a new hobby
60. Creating something with my hands for my kids/hubby
61. Showing off a recently done craft projects to my family for their ooohs and aaahs
62. Playing dress up with Kaitlin
63. Playing dollhouse with Kaitlin
64. Watching my boys play fairy tales story with Kaitlin (such good big brothers)
65. Listening to Jen tells me about her day at school or evening at work
66. Eating seafood (♥ sushi and shrimp)
67. Kids' ready cooperation when it comes to doing chores
68. Getting surprises from friends & family
69. Receiving a StampinUp order (like Christmas everyday)
70. When every member of my Card Swap group shows up for our Card night
71. When I'm around positive and happy people
72. Going to craft fair
73. Window shopping for home furnitures
74. It rained after a long hot sunny dry weather spell
75. Going on dates with my hubby (even if it's just a stroll on the beach)
76. When my kids are happy
77. When my kids are not fighting with each other
78. When we get to church or any other places on time
79. Cruising around in the car with my girls
80. Kayaking with my hub and kids
81. Camping with the family
82. Jet skiing with friends and family
83. Trying out a new recipe
84. Cooking with my friends Laura & Isabelle
85. Learning a new skill
86. When the kids aren't sick
87. When the hubby would surprise me with his spontaneity
88. When I finished a project
89. When my kids enjoy the food I cooked
90. When my kids would snack on fruits instead of junk food
91. When the kids do things without being told
92. Read people's comments on my blog
93. When I get good report about kids from their teachers
94. When my 18 year old would ask my advice about anything (she's the kind of person who keeps things to herself)
95. Getting breakfast in bed
96. When our bills are paid on time
97. To watch my kids perform in school or church functions
98. When my hubby sings (he has a wonderful voice)
99. When I can blog uninterrupted
100. That I actually can do this post without too much headache (LOL)

There ya go...things that make me happy. As I get close to the end of this list, I find there are still more things I find that make me happy, but I'll just stick with this list. Enjoy!!

Haunted Lagoon

The Polynesian Cultural Center is having a haunted lagoon this whole month of October. This is actually the second year they've started this, they started it last year. Only last year, they did the event the last two nights of October. This year they've decided to do it the whole month, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights.

So, a few nights ago, I took my kids to the haunted lagoon. If any of have even been to the Polynesian Cultural Center, you probably enjoyed watching the canoe pageant taken place in their man-made lagoon. That's the same lagoon that they transform into a haunted place at night. I took Steph, Chris, Joey, Danny and Kaitlin with me. Jonathan had gone with friends on the first week they opened up so he didn't want to go again. Jen was going with friends and Kev didn't want to go so that just left those five kids and me. When we got there, Steph saw some of her friends so she decided to go with them.

I think PCC did such a great job of advertising this Halloween event because there were so many people there. There was a long line of people buying ticket and an even longer line of people trying to get on the canoes. My kids and I stood in line for two hours just to go on the canoe ride. I'm glad to say that it was worth the wait although if we ever go back again, I would get the tickets well in advance like we did and be the first ones there so we would be at the front of the line.

{Here we are, just before we got into the canoe. We ran into one of Chris' friend and invited him to join our little group. Even the creatures from Pirates of the Carribean movie came to support this spooky event. Jack Sparrow was the photographer and look how Kaitlin is trying very hard not to look at creepy monster standing next to us...LOL}

So, if any of you are in the area or have friends and family visiting the islands during the month of October, I totally recommend you go check out this totally scary event. Be prepared to be scared of your wits if you are the type of person who likes this kind of stuff. After all it is Halloween month and the one time of the year where it's totally acceptable to see ghosts, goblins, witches and pretty much any creatures that go bump in the night, no? LOL. Yes, my kids and I are totally into the creepy scared out of your wits kinda thing so this was totally right up our alley. The canoe ride was a ride of a lifetime and all the creepy scary creatures who came out to visit us on our ride was spooktacular!!

If you have a hard time visualizing this little image I'm trying to portray, then check this out.

In Honor of Them

I have an incredible post I was planning on writing today...I even have a really spectucular story to tell about my special day but I've just been made aware that today is a very special and memorable day for a ton of the moms out there who's ever lost a baby. So instead of focussing on myself today, I thought I'd put the spotlight on someone else.

Just so everyone knows, today (October 15th) is Pregancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. There are two blogs that I followed faithfully {although I don't comment on these blogs as faithfully} are prmoting this day (the whole month as a matter of fact) both of whom had lost their babies by stillborn. If any of you reading this post has ever lost a baby through stillborn or miscarriage, go to these two blogs. They are both courageous women who from their trials of losing their angel babies were able to talk about those darkest moments of their lives and still able to come out strong in the end. I have never lost a baby, all six pregnancies came off without any complications so I can't even imagine the pain that these two women had gone through and all those other women out there who'd gone through this trial.

So tonight at 7 p.m., no matter wherever you are on this globe, whether you've lost a baby through pregnancy or not, please remember all those sweet angel babies who've never had a chance to experience this earthly life and light a candle for them.

Ter over at With An Angel on My Shoulder is doing a wonderful and beautiful thing in memory of her baby girl who never made it by sending a traveling teddy bear to any moms who had lost a baby to spread her love. That bear is embarking on his journey today where he will be travelling to any bereaved blogging moms for a whole year. I thought that was the sweetest thing anyone's ever done. I wanted to do something and send some cards with this bear but of course as always, my good ideas usually come too late to be able to do anything about them so I thought I'd spread the word here on my blog. If you want to know more, check her out on her blog and read her story...she really is an incredible woman.

Emily (who happens to be best friend's sister) over at Stepping Stones is also doing something wonderful on her blog. She's started a newsletter on her blog to help those whose suffered the same loss she did able to cope, basically to help any bereaved moms have a place where they can meet and talk about how they're doing in dealing with their loss and know they are not alone and that they should never have to feel that they had to hide how they feel. Another thing I thought was really beautiful about what Emily did was with the help of her sister Swirl, they started a blog called Aloha Remembered where people(women) send in the names of their angel babies to them and they (in this case Swirl since she lives close to the ocean) write the name of the sand and take pictures of them and send them back to the bereaved moms as part of a memento to keep for their babies. Isn't it that just the most thoughtful thing you've ever heard?

If you want to know more, check out those two blogs listed above or go here and here and read their stories. And if you are a bereaved mom or know of any, check these two ladies out....their blogs are really great places to get together to remember the little ones who've left us. I can say that from reading these two ladies, I have learned what things I can say and not say to someone who's just lost a baby and that I don't feel so stupid around them anymore.

So, please remember tonight, in any time zone, any where you are on this globe to remember all those little ones and light a candle for them. I'm sure all of us have experience the loss of a little one either by our own or from someone who know and love, a friend, sister, aunt or mom.

God bless and ♥ to all!!

Nonsense Ramblings (Parents Lie to Their Kids)

I can't seem to be able to put any coherent thoughts together to make a perfectly sensible post lately. That's why my blog has been sitting here post-less. I guess I can say I have completely come to a hump in my blog writing. It's not that I don't have things I want to write...I have loads of thoughts and things I want to write about, I just can't seem to organize them well. I wonder if that is hint of some form for me. Maybe I do need to organize my life or my home so that my thoughts can get organized too, uh?

So, I was watching "Malcolm in the Middle" the other day and it got me thinking about something. The mom in the show was trying to get the youngest son to get rid of his teddy, he's had it since he was a baby and to her he was too old to keep cuddling up with a stuff toy. And of course, the teddy has been used so much it's practically in rags. The mom used all kinds of clever ways she can think of to get the son to throw that teddy away but to no avail. She even threatened him, bribed him but nothing worked. Finally she sat him down and told him that she needed to wash the teddy because the stuffed toy is soooo dirty it's loaded with germs. And if the son doesn't let her wash the teddy, he would get all those germs on him and get sick and die.

That freaked the son out and he finally relented. The mom was happy because she now was able to get rid of the teddy. But her plan backfired on her because now her son has taken her germs-causing-sickness-that-would-make-him-die ploy seriously that he practically doesn't want to leave the house anymore to avoid any contact with anything that would pass germs on to him. He even wrapped himself up with plastic covers from head to toe and every time he come across anything on the floor, bugs or anything else that moves, he freaked out. Now the mom has another problem on her hands..how to get her son to stop being so scared of getting sick that he avoided pretty much everything. Anyways, it was gross because he saw something black on the floor and he freaked out big time so his mom came in and picked it up off the floor and told him it was only raisin. He didn't believe her, said it was a bug and so to prove it to him that it's an harmless raisin, she put the thing in her mouth and chewed it up and swallowed it. That snapped him out of his phobia.. it was actually a bug but of course there was no way the mom was going to tell her son that.

Anyways, that got me thinking....parents do lie to their kids. It's sad but true. We, parents, spend our days raising our kids and instilling honesty in our kids but yet we do lie to them, I would say all.the.time. I know there are reasons we lie to kids, most of the time we lie to protect our kids. As a kid, I always believed anything my parents told me. I found out as I grow older that most of the things they told me were not actually true. Like for example, they told me that if I ever said a bad word, my mouth would grow some fungus on it and fall off. (Yeah, I know, you're laughing at me and thinking how gullible I was to believe it.) I did believe them, kept me from ever saying a swear word even though there were times I wanted to badly..LOL. Of course I know that wasn't true, it was just their way of keeping me from swearing.

And Santa Clause...we all know every parents tell their kids that Santa Clause is real, the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny are all real. Keeps the kids on good behavior. How about the monster under the bed? My hubby even told me how his grandmother would keep him and his siblings in line when they visit her by telling them that there's a monster that comes out to swallow up kids when they misbehave. My mom has told me that too...especially if I wanted to play with my cousins {who live right across the road from me} at night that a monster comes out to snatch up little girls and eat them for dinner just so I make sure I'm inside the house as soon as the sun sets. (Yep, I learned that wasn't true as soon I got older and tested that theory out.) I was a really naive kid so I totally believed anything my parents told me or any adult told me. I realized as I got older, those were just their technique to make me behave and obey them. I could go on and on but it would be too embarrassing, you know..LOL.

So, now I'm a parent and I try to do that...darn kids of mine are too smart for their own good. They never believed any of those things. Ok, yes, I did tell them Santa Clause is real and they did believe it for a while and actually figured it out when they get to a certain age. I am just glad that the older kids were nice enough not to make me and hubby look like total liars by telling the younger kids that Santa Clause is sooo not real and that Santa Clause is actually Daddy, that's why mommy was kissing Santa Clause under the mistletoe...And that the reason that mommy seem to be always tired and sleepy on Christmas morn was because since she was Santa's helper and that her Santa is a procrastinator so he usually procrastinate his Christmas shopping til the night before Christmas to do shopping and make his helper stay up all night wrapping gazillions of presents. And that when the tooth fairy stumbles around in the dark to leave a dollar bill under the pillow to replace the detached tooth, he most likely would make a mistake and leave a five dollar bill instead of a dollar bill and that when there are more than one tooth waiting under the pillows, coincidentally daddy would come home for lunch the next day because he's lost all his money under those pillows that night before playing tooth fairy...

So, tell me..if I lie for the benefit of my kids or to teach them something, does that make it ok? Aren't I breaking one of the commandments about lying? If most of a parenting teaching method revolves around lying, why do we then punish our kids for lying?

See, I told you guys, my thoughts are totally jumbled up. I'm just trying to get rid of them so I can make rooms for other thoughts who's trying to make their way in...LOL.