Independent Moments

Excuse the cell phone pictures! Here are some memorable independent moments from the last few weeks.

Savanna Jane and her beautiful dimples!

A delicious surprise snack, made and designed from my Georgie himself!

The afghan & lamp picture posted as promised. Thanks DeAnn!
& of course Cricket took advantage of another photo opportunity LOL

Unexpected rose when we met up for dinner one night after work...
I love that he can still be romantic & I can still get butterflies*

Babysitting for our friend's adorable kids, Jaxon and Jerzie!
A BLAST

Ode to Marisha

I was playing catch phrase a few weeks ago and got a word. The hint I gave was, "My sister lives in...!" And in unison one yelled, "HAWAII!" while the other yelled "ALASKA!" Then it hit me... they are both right ~ and how crazy is that?! I realized that all of the kids in our family are very adventurous. My 2 sisters living in the 2 outside states and I lived in Brazil for a few months teaching English when I was 19. TC served his mission there, and James will be moving to Johannesburg, South Africa for his mission next month. We are all adventurous; I love that!

Now for the purpose of this blog: I am so proud of Marisha for going for it and following her dreams. On her blog, she wrote about how in High School she declared she was going to go to BYU Hawaii one day but somewhere deep inside of her she thought it was simply a dream - Like a wish on a star that would never come true. I am so excited that she made it happen!

Reds are red, Violets are blue,
Sisters are great, I'm lucky to have two.
Ones in Alaska, Ones in Hawaii
My sis in law's in Provo & I'm glad to have her by me.
Marisha's in Paradise (after living here)

Here are some pics of memories we made last year.

BOWLING HALLOWEEN

GOOFIN' AROUND...

I LOVE YOU SIS *** YOU CAN HAVE WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE***LIFE IS ABOUT CREATING***WAY TO LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

Holiday Glimpse

Finally our Holiday post! (Yes, we tortured Cricket into wearing a Santa hat which lasted about a minute).
Christmas Eve was spent with George's Dad's side of the family. All the peeps that grew up in or around New York/Connecticut area. Lots 'o political talk and jokes I didn't get but laughed at anyway! Also VERY DELICIOUS food. (Anytime we have family get togethers on George side we eat well)!!

Spent Christmas morning figuring out how we were going to get the presents and ourselves over to "the folks" house in the winter storm. (They live .2 miles away from us). Nonetheless its in a different neighborhood and down the hill. We thought about throwing the gifts and the dog into a bin and sledding over, but figured it would be too deep, too cold and probably too fun. :) We decided to go in the car and barely made it in one piece and just in time for a yummy hot Christmas breakfast.
George's angel Mother knitted me their traditional family stocking! Isn't it cute? I'm so excited to have it and for our kids someday to have matching ones too! Hopefully she'll teach me how to do it so we can carry on the tradition.

She ALSO made us the following beautiful dark red afghan that matches accents in our living room. It's so ornate and thick and warm; we love it. I will show a picture of our living room with that and our beautiful new lamps.

Ok. I was taking pictures of the Christmas Tree and Cricket apparently wanted to be in on it, you know, center of attention, and I snapped a shot. I guess she's a ham like me. Wait, what?
This picture was taken at my niece Savanna Jane's 1 year Birthday party. She was so grumpy and adorable!! She was a riot on her actual birthday though. I look forwarding to having pictures of my kids to post like everyone else, in the meantime, the pet and my nieces will have to do for now! ;)

Thanksgiving Highlights

Sooooo! Marisha and George and I drove to the Tri-Cities to spend the holiday with all the family except for TC, Ashley and Savanna unfortunately. But we created great memories!

The picture above is Lexi (2 and 1/2) and I at Columbia River Temple. I heard over and over again, "Wexi 'det married der"
Until her voice got so desperate that I realized she wanted to right NOW. I explained that she couldn't yet and why but we took a peak inside and she got to see a picture of Jesus on the wall. It was so cute to experience how exited she is almost like she really gets it.

Kaytlin (7 months) sucking on a wrapped candy cane for a min. So cute!

Having a feast in gratitude! ;) With our cousins. (Allison and Mike's family)
Later in the week we played Celebrity at their house which was SO MUCH FUN!

Kaytlin smiling at me doing patty-cake...and getting all into it. It's hot, you should see it. Maybe I'll even post a video of it later. ;)

Oh wait - not-so-hot. Okay... but HILARIOUS at the very least; just ask Kaytlin.

Awww! Lexi looking up at Angel Moroni.

I love this picture with the sunset and rainbow in the background while Lexi makes her way to the "very big swide."
We went on several play adventures. Pretty much to every slide within a 10 mile radius.

Guess I wore her out!
This was after one of our slide dates and also the 2nd night in a row that we drove around looking at "Christmas Wights." She'd say, "I wanna see all of 'dem, Aprow!"

I got to see my good friend Jen and her kidlets!


George and I had a relaxing time. The truth is, it's not always 'Gallagher Paradise' around here and it was nice to take a break from the stresses of life.

We played Kristin and John's Wii a lot. This picture was James and George in the middle of what seemed like a never ending tug-o-war! It was a riot to watch.

I love this picture.

This is Lexi and I having aunt/niece time ;) while Cricket covetously looks on. And I apparently didn't get the memo that it was a silly face picture.

It was a fun week, shopping, playing the Wii Fit, taking the nieces out, movies with the fam, out to dinner, watching John play fetch with Cricket in the big back yard, having quality sister time, and eating too many sweets. Great memories of Thanksgiving 2008!

It's About Time & WA Here We Come!

And now for a recent update!

As some of you know, we've been having quite financial challenges the last few months and have found it a blessing to even be able to pay some of the bills. I know this is something several people have been experiencing lately with the economic instability. I am happy to mention that we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. While I've had 2 great part time jobs that have gotten me through I have been offered a position at E*Trade starting in Dec and have accepted it. I will be able to use my current Series 7 and Series 63 licenses that I had achieved through my employment at Fidelity Investments. I am thrilled to be able to return to that industry and have a job with benefits etc. While George has been loving his job working as an Electrician's Apprentice, there are several classes and certifications he gets to have before moving up in pay. This new job for me will be a good opportunity for us to be able to get by while George pushes forward in his electrician career. Experiencing what we have the last few months has a way of assisting me in seeing what a huge blessing this is. It was the dark before the dawn, and the dawn is looking bright!

Tomorrow, George, Marisha and I drive to Washington to have Thanksgiving with my parents, my brother James and Kristin + John = the girls (2 of my 3 angelic nieces). I'm thrilled to be able to spend a week there. One plan is to go to the theater on Wednesday with all us girls and James and George to see TWILIGHT! (Yes, George and bro Jay have read all 4 books, I'm so proud of them)! ;) I think TC has too but they won't be there this year for Thanksgiving. I am using all the self control I can to hold out till Wednesday!

Another plan is shopping on Black Friday, a recent and destruction family tradition. ;)

George and I graduated from the 3rd part of the Self Mastery Impact Trainings. http://impacttrainings.com It was absolutely liberating! I sang at the celebration, "I'm Alive" by Celine Dion. Everyone danced while I sang and I felt so free. The training was a great experience for us both.

One more thing, I'm happy to mention that through my inspiration and other's, my mother has FINALLY started a blog. Feel free to check it out, family! http://tomandannperry.blogspot.com

Ok, that's all for now, I LOVE YOU ALL!

A Lil' Delayed

Fun times, ya’ll! I just realized that I had this post prepared for a few weeks now and had never posted it. Here’s goes!

We carved pumpkins with some friends for Family Home Evening the week before Halloween. They are in our ward and have 3 adorable boys. Twas’ fun!

I could not carve the face I wanted, so I attempted to be creative.

An hour or so after after my sis and I were complaining out our recent weight gain we got the monster munchies!! We were cleaning out the fridge and finding ANYTHING we could to snack on. I believe the conversation about our new “love handles” even came up while we were eating handfuls of candy corn. But we “had a breakthrough” and ate healthy for about 24 hours after that.

The Halloween party was SPOOKY AND FUN! I was Miss Teen South Carolina… see the following short video. She is the chick that became more famous than the girl that won because of how she answered the question why 1/5 of American’s can’t locate the US on a World Map. Her answer was “because some US Americans don’t have maps, and like such as.” There is more to it, but it’s a MUST see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQdhMSEqhfg Hilarious but mostly sad. Yes, I carried around a map that night. George was my Hill Billy South Carolina boyfriend. Cracked me up!

Marisha and George’s brother Dan were characters from Grey’s Anatomy. Doesn’t Marisha totally look like Izzy?? (Katherine Heigel’s character). I made an orange macaroni salad with black olives in it. Whitney made these cute deviled eggs that looked like eyeballs. I’m sure she has good pictures of the party on her page. We played a Celebrity game and Murder in the Dark. I loved it. If we had had time we would have gone to the other Halloween parties we got invited to as well. Hope you all had a good Holiday, I loved seeing all the pictures.

Ok, my good friend Brittany and I went to the Jason Mraz concert last week. I had been looking forward to it for almost 6 months and it was SO WORTH saving up for! He was seriously INCREDIBLE. You can hear his music at: http://www.myspace.com/jasonmraz His sounds like the product of: if Frank Senatra’s voice made babies with Gavin Degraw’s voice. He was such a fun performer. Marisha also got to go with a friend of hers and we could see them 2 sections over. It was an awesome experience that I will never forget!

Coordinating, Cookies and Chaos!

There are two kinds of people. The people who need to have their room “just so” to feel sane, and the people whose room IS the object of insanity to feel “just so”.
What kind would you say Marisha is?

Hey, I can’t blame her… first semester of college… having a sparkling room was not my priority!

Marisha’s top 3 priorities from April's 2 cent soap box:

1. Her guilty pleasure AKA: Finding time for whatever TV series has her interest at the moment...The OC, Grey's Anatomy and The Office, just to mention a few)
2. Schooooool. AKA: Seeking success in Nutrition & informing me of what food & vitamins I should be taking.
3. Experiencing new cuisine... AKA: Accepting as many dates as her schedule permits to enjoy the luxury of FREE FOOD. Did I get that right, sis? ;)

I made cookies! Peanut butter cookies! They were soft and warm and delicious and I owe it all to my Domestic Diva Apron. Oh, please pass the milk!

I learned today that after matching at church most Sundays, our fellow ward members have come to expect color coordination! Looks like George is in the market for a pink tie. Oh wait, he already has one from the reception. Sharp honnnney!

Talked to my sis Kristin (lives in AK) on the phone the other day for a long time and loved it. I am glad they will be in Washington for Thxgiving. I decided I am going to create a way to be there for a full week so I can spend more time with them and my fam. It will be the last Holiday I will have with bro James before his mission. He should get his call this Thursday or next.

*Dude! Story time: So...a young redheaded girl with hickeys on her neck came to the door today asking if she could shampoo the carpet on my stairs for FREE. I said, of course! At 2 pm the KERBY SALES MAN came in with the vacuumer man and was ALL up in my business while his buddy was working his vacuum magic. He shook my hand to introduced himself TWICE which was annoying, and pointed at my lap top, “So, what are you doing on there?” Just like that and I’m thinking, mind your own. He was going off about how everyone else in the neighborhood is my age and has a bunch of kids cause ya know, “it’s Utah.” ...THEN asked if I was Mormon. -Nosy salesman.- His pitch was: “A Kerby is only $2 a day, so everyone can afford one.” I said, “Well, I CAN’T and I am in a hurry to get to my $8/hr telemarketing cubical, are you almost done?” He surprisingly got the hint then left to probably go give that redhead another hickey. Gross... Vacuumer man stayed and my stairs look GREAT! :)

HaVe a FuN wEEk - gO to a HaUnTeD hOuSe oR SoMeThInG.