Jasmine

Alright, I've been tagged, again. I was supposed to post the 4th picture in my 4th photo album and write about it, but that picture just happened to be the picture of the rear end of my car. We had put it up for sale about a year or so ago, and then I changed my mind and decided I didn't want to part with the booger because it was almost paid off. So I was making a scrap page of some more of my adorable little neices, and decided to post it.

Jasmine is my sister's daughter. They live in New York. She loves to ride horses and read. I haven't seen her for a while, and I sure miss her. I love this picture of her in the little hat and scarf my sister made for her. She looks so adorable. She's always posing for pictures in her "cool" clothes. The other picture is of Jasmine, Becca (blonde), and Blyss (back, brown haired). Becca and Blyss are my brothers 2 little girls. This picture was taken back in 2006 when my sister came down from New York to visit. Those girls had so much fun playing together. I wondered if we would ever pry them apart!

So there you have it!! I think I've officially posted some pictures of all of our neices. We also have 3 little nephews, and they are all trouble!! I have some pictures of Jesse, so once I make a page, I'll post it! I don't have any pics of Cody and Cooper yet!

I now want to tag, Brittney, Kendra, Rachel, Sandi, Shawna, Cierra, Lori & Ashley. I think I've got you all!! Ha!

Chow for now!

New House!

As promised, here is a short video clip of our new house!

Also, I will not be responsible for any claims of motion sickness after watching this video. I made myself sick!!!

Sanity

Yes, you will be wondering the entire time you read this post, if my sanity is in check.

I think by now, most of you that know me really well, know that I absolutely adore animals. All of them, big and small, smelly or not, I love them. I think its amazing that we have these animals to keep us company when we're lonely, to be apart of our families.

I think this love for animals came from my own little dog, Lucy. It seems that she has been my pal for the last 6 years as I have went through some tough times. Wherever I go, Lucy goes, if I could stuff her in my purse and take her to work, I would. When I'm having a bad day, I just want to go home and play with her, I know she will make me laugh with her cute little face and excitement as soon as I come in the door. She is always excited to see me when I come home, and is always forgiving if I have yelled at her for something.

Now that I'm done expressing my love for a dog...I'll tell you what I've gotten myself into.

I am apart of the Ambassadors Club with the Chamber of Commerce in Jerome, and the other day an e-mail came across. In this e-mail was a heartfelt request for volunteers to help out at the animal shelter. Obviously, I must have been in one of those moods and all I could think of was those poor animals who are locked up in cages all day long with no one to let them out or play with them. And worst of all, they have to sleep on cold floors!! I was at the point where I was going to make pillow beds for all of them, but was advised that thats probably not a good idea as they do have accidents.

So, I decided I would volunteer to help. How bad could it be? One or two nights a week won't kill me to give a little attention to another animal who has been dumped off at the shelter or abused because people are ignorant enough to not take care of their animals or give them the love and attention they need. They have feelings too!!

Wednesday night was my orientation, the first time I got to go over to the shelter and see what its all about. Boy was I in for a shock. Not only is the animal shelter located far off the main road, its chuck full of dogs needing homes, food, and clean sleeping quarters. We were taken into the back of the shelter where they keep the dogs. Basically we were taught how to scoop poop and spray and mop down the stalls.

I think that you all know that I am pretty small too...I'm talking not even 5 ft tall.... well, some of these dogs...are bigger than I am!! I was told to go to Walmart, purchase some overalls, and some rain boots. I couldn't quite imagine why, and then I was informed that when you get in the stall with the dogs, they are so excited that they jump, and they jump all over you. And if they have had an accident, chances are...its all over their paws, and after they are done jumping all over you....accident is going to be everywhere!! EEW!

Now you all know...why my sanity is in question...who the heck wants to go and scoop poop, and not get paid...I'm seriously volunteering to scoop poop!!

I'll tell you what I told my husband, "How would you feel if you had to eat and sleep in a stall where you have had to go potty because noone was there to let you out or clean up after you?"

Way too much compassion...way too much......

Emma Ray

This is Emma Ray, one of our 5 neices. She just turned 3 years old, and boy does she have a way of wrapping you around her finger. It doesn't take much. She has taken us all by surprise with her little jokes, stories, and stand up comedian acts. Oh ya, and her sweet little singing voice. She knows alot of the primary songs by heart. So cute. We have seriously got to have some kids so I can stop bragging about everyone elses! Its getting ridiculous!!

Anyhow, I have been playing around with the digital scrapbooking, and I'm totally loving it, so here is my latest creation of little Emma.

Also, we are finally moved into our house! Took 3 days to get our stuff moved and put away, but we are here! Pictures to come soon!!!

The TV is on fire!!!?

So it seems that life in the Darrington household proves to be quite interesting. You never know what kind of trouble is brewing....

The other day I was going about my usual business on Saturday, cleaning, laundry...ect ect. I was in the middle of vacuuming when the power decided to go out.....again!!! I looked at Ryan and he said, "Its your turn to go flip the breaker back on." Since when do you take turns flipping the breaker on everytime it blows? Well...since its an everyday occurance at our house, my husband decided he would be funny...and make it MY turn. So I put on my boots and off I went, out into Antartica (too much snow...) to flip the breaker back on.

Upon my entering back into the house, I started to take off my boots when my husband came running out of the living room screaming, "THE TV IS ON FIRE!! WE NEED TO GET OUT!! HURRY!! WHERE IS YOUR PHONE?" I'm thinking...what in the world is going on? I wanted to go look to see if it was really on fire, but he was so busy running around frantically like a crazy man I didn't know what to do!! I was trying to put my boots back on and I kept thinking that I needed to grab Lucy, but I couldn't find her. Then I said "The tv is not on fire Ryan!" And he just started laughing. I was so ticked off at him, but I wanted to laugh, because he did look ridiculous running around screaming that the TV was on fire. I could have done without that scare. Its not funny to pretend your house is on fire! Or something inside of it for that matter!

Then, yesterday as I was washing the dishes, I found myself being squirted with a spray bottle. Ryan thought it was SOOOO funny to grab my spray bottle and squirt me from the living room when I wasn't looking. Of course, I'm helpless when it comes to fighting back with him. So I finished washing the dishes, and decided that I would wrap clear tape around the spray nozzle on the sink. I was going to get him back....I'm tired of always getting picked on!! I'm horrible at hiding things too, I kept cracking up as I was sewing my purses, and Ryan kept asking what in the world was so funny.

I was just waiting for him to go into the kitchen and turn on the sink. Whats even funnier, is that I was scared at what would happen if he did get soaked, I knew he would get me back, and like I said...I can't fight back! I figured he would tackle me and tickle me to death for hours and I would be laughing so hard I would just have to deal with it, or try to bite him or something.

FINALLY, he went in there to make some brownies, he turned on the sink, but not all the way so he figured out what was going on before he got soaked. My big plan flopped. :( I really suck at pranks!! Obviously!

Who would have known that I married a prankster!! I must just look like I need someone to tease me!

HaPpY nEw YeAr?

So its a new year...and I'm thinking to myself... What the heck am I going to do this year? What types of goals should I make for myself, my family...resolutions? I can't think of any!! Let me tell you why...


Went to Rigby this weekend to visit family, came home Sunday night to a freezing cold house with frozen water pipes. Whats even funnier...the first thing I said after we discovered the frozen pipes was, "Oh Ryan, Lucy doesn't have any water!!" haha...I was more worried about our dog not having any water than Ryan and I not having any water!

Have you ever had your pipes freeze? I sure haven't! So...I called the landlord, and he didn't even know what to do!! Ryan and I called all of our parents, of course they can't really help since they are all far away. So we decided to tough it out and wait for a plumber to come the next morning. Can I just tell you how interesting it is to not have any running water. Luckily I had a case of bottled water we could use to brush our teeth and clean up a bit. I won't even go into the bathroom facilities. I've never felt so disoriented in my whole life. I found myself trying to turn on the water a number of times, only to realize that nothing was coming out. Sometimes I don't think we really appreciate the value of the simplest things...such as running water.

My husband...bless his heart....was trying to be so helpful. He went outside and loaded up a plastic storage tub with snow...thinking it would melt and we would have water to dump in the toilet to flush it if needed. Really...it would have been easier to just drive down to Walmart and buy a tub of water...already melted.... But who wants to do that at 11:00 at night? And who would want to do something the easy way?

His great idea never really worked. Of course the snow wouldn't melt...and it was mostly just evaporating and what did melt was making a huge wet mess all over our bathroom. I know you are probably laughing right now...at all of this and my ridiculous complaints.... :) Obviously we are all a little spoiled in our day and age, so spoiled we don't know what to do when we don't have water.

The plumber finally showed up around 11 the next morning, he hauled a gigantic propane tank and heater down under our house and after an hour the pipes unthawed and we had water again!!

And now...I'm thinking that I should make a New Years Goal to have some more gratitude for the simplest things in life, that we are all blessed with. Like running water for instance.