Yea!! I passed

I am so very excited. I took the final mortgage loan officer exam and I passed!!! I am so glad to be done with the class. It took me an hour and a half to take the exam and I was all stressed out about it and it turns out that it was very easy. Now, all I need to do is submit for the license. My family has been very supportive and encouraging and I am very grateful to them. Shameless plug....if anyone needs a mortgage loan, let me know.

Birthday, Soccer, and On and On and On

Life lately has been rather hectic. Mark's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and we had 2 parties for him. One party was a friend party and the other was a family party complete with dinner for both. Crazy, crazy, crazy. The soccer chaos has begun and with back to back to back games. Mark and I have had to split up with one taking two of the girls and the other with one of the girls.
I have completed my 20 hour mortgage loan officer course and now need to take the "BIG" exam that takes 3 hours to complete. After the completion of the exam, I can apply for the license. I'm on the verge of insanity. The only thing that is keeping me sane is the 2 and a half hour morning break of having all the girls in school. It is very nice to have the house stay clean and having it quiet. I don't know what I will do once the chaos is over. Have another baby??? Just kidding!!!!!

Chaos

What chaos is going on right now in the family. This week the girls started school. Yea!! Emily is in 5th grade, Kayla is in 3rd grade and Hannah will start kindergarten next week. Wow, what will I do?? Well, I started working on getting my mortgage loan officer license yesterday. It is a 20 hour course that has a three hour test after completion of the 20 hour course. One would think that after 10 plus years in the mortgage industry that this would be a cinch. Ah, no. Most of the info I do know but, wow, a lot of things have changed. I am also doing the crossing guard thing again. That is a cinch.
This week the girls are doing the "Future Falcettes" at Clearfield High. My niece Samantha is on the drill team at the high school and they do a fund raiser which boys and girls learn a dance and then they perform at the first high school football game at half time. The girls did this last year and had a blast. It is a lot of fun for their Dad and I to go and watch them.
Also, they all start soccer this Saturday. We haven't heard anything about Kayla's team yet but Emily and Hannah will overlap some of their games. They all play at different fields, too. I know.....what was I thinking??
Let the chaos begin!

Boating

Our cute neighbors/friends asked us to go boating with them yesterday. Mark had to work so I took the girls and we went to Pineview Reservoir for the day. We had so much fun. The girls haven't been boating before so they were way excited. They spent most of the time in the water swimming and jumping off the boat. Emily got out of the water maybe three times all day. Kayla was pretty much the same way and Hannah got out a few more times. We had lunch on the beach. Kayla rode on a huge tube and was a real trooper and brave. The tube broke and no one else was able to ride it. It was a bummer. The girls slept all the way home and we nursed sunburns last night. We had a great fun.

St. George

We took an opportunity to go to St. George last week thanks to Mark's awesome sister and brother-in-law (we love you guys). Mark's brother-in-law's family owns a condo down there and they let us use it. We left Thursday morning and arrived back home on Saturday night. It was a quick but great trip. We loved it. The weather was perfect. We went to the outlet stores (duh) and I love the Old Navy store down there. We ate at the In-N-Out burger (the absolute best burger hands down). The girls were dying to go swimming so we took them to the Green Valley Resort. They have 3 outdoor pools and 1 indoor pool which the girls played in the most. We had a great friend loan us her portable DVD player so the ride down wouldn't be too miserable for the girls. We are grateful for the opportunity for this quick but relaxing trip.

Anniversary Part 2

For our anniversary, Mark surprised me by taking me to Park City on a little overnighter. It was great fun. He arranged for a babysitter for the girls (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Stratton) and we took off on Thursday evening. We stopped in Salt Lake and had dinner at Macaroni Grill and continued on to PC. We stayed at The Yarrow, very nice hotel. We just hung out which was very, very nice. We wanted to go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory but we didn't make it there. Love their carmel apples. Friday we spent the day at the outlets. Torture, torture, torture. Found a couple of bargins at Eddie Bauer (my favorite store ever). I haven't been up there for a while and did not know about a couple of new stores like Columbia Outfitters and Lucky Brand Jeans (my favorite).
It was nice not to hear or answer to the name "Mom" if but for a small moment but I missed it, too. It was great to see the girls come running out of the house when we arrived home. Love those girls of ours. Lucky to have this life of mine. Well, more like blessed.

Anniversary

This Friday will be our 22nd anniversary. Wow. 22 years of marital bliss. Seriously. Total and complete bliss. Thanks Mark for 22 wonderful years. I wouldn't change my life with you for anything in the world. I think anyone who can remain with me for that long deserves a medal.

Now that the serious stuff is over we can talk candidly about the 22 years together and give you a glimpse into our life together (whether you want to or not.) I remember one Christmas, about 19 years ago, that Mark went by himself to get us a tree. Let's just say that he hasn't done it since. He came home with what he thought was a fantastic and beautiful tree. Needless to say, I DID NOT agree with his choice. I said to him, "That is the ugliest tree I have ever seen." He promptly picked it up and threw it out the front door into our front yard and that is where it stayed for a couple of days. We laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny then. Also I remember when we were just barely married and I was brave and I had to...lets say...toot. One would think that I would retire to the bathroom but it was late and I was already in bed and too lazy to get up. I tried very carefully to do it quietly. Not so fortunate. I tooted. Mark sat up in bed and said with all seriousness, "Was that a shotgun?!" I laughed so hard that it took a solid two minutes before I could tell him that it was me. We still laugh about it to this day.
I hope that you have enjoyed this little glimpse into our lives. I have thoroughly enjoyed the past years of my married life. We are very blessed to have 3 beautiful and bright girls. I hope that we are fortunate to have many many more years of happiness.
I love you Mark.