Time Hog

My time has been stolen and the culprit is this cutie.......
He takes up all of my time cuddling, laughing and playing with me!

My sister her fiance & my nephew Luca moved in with us about 3 weeks ago and I am more than thrilled to get to play with my nephew all the time!

A rumble in the night

Last night I was woken up and kept awake by pounding rain, loud obnoxious thunder and eye blinding lightning. I hate being woken up this way. Needless to say, I am really tired today now

Opposites attract

St. Croix

Dominican Republic


Verona Italy

We have a dilema...I really really really want to take a vacation everytime I turn around but Dennis wants to save all of our money and do nothing with it, just let it sit and pile up and take vacations later in life. What if i die before I get to spend it? I on the other hand want to spend it and travel the world. Is there anything wrong with wanting to see the world before you die? At this rate, I will die a rich woman who never saw anything past Illinois!

P.S. I don't mind saving money, but really? To the point of never taking a vacation until I'm 40??

I'm a business owner and I like what the future holds!

Ladies & gents, Little Orckids Preschool is open for business! Website has been created @ littleorckidspreschool.weebly.com. Classes start in September. Now on to finishing the room (pictures to soon follow) and marketing.

Wish me luck...... :)

Cubs game

I am way late in posting this one but better late than never. Dennis and I attended our very first Cubs game (sad I know since we have lived here our whole lives). We were able to support our friend, Laura, who has battled and beat Breast Cancer. It was a fundraiser event for her walk for breast cancer. We went with the Giacominos & Sedlaceks. It was great to jump on the train that morning and spend the whole day in the city without a care in the world, or a check of the watch.

It's baaaacccckkkk

The coughing and weezing and oh I feel like crap and all I want to do is sleep....is back again. I mean its not like I really enjoyed having it for 4 months and missed it so much I wanted it to come back! Why did it have to come back so soon? Really? I think this weather has something to do with it. I really don't want pneumonia again, it was not fun!

Found on a friends blog and I really liked, so I borrowed...thanks Kiera

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with perfectly manicured fingernails.

I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.

I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing my neighbor's lawn.

I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.

I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden.

I want to be there with the children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.

I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Well this has never happened before.....

I have never gotten the opportunity to have more than one interview in a hiring season before, I am actually lucky if I even get one. Well today I recieved a call from Amy Drayper at Echlerberger Elementary in Plainfield. She was calling to schedule me for an interview for the kindergarten position that I applied for. My jaw dropped when I heard her message and said shut the front door! So I called her back and I have an interview on Thursday afternoon. How crazy is it that I have 2 interviews within a week of each other, both for kindergarten! I still haven't heard back from my prinicpal yet to see if I made it to round 2 of interview at LC where I am now....the interview went exceptionally well and I should be hearing from him in a day or so.

Excitement!

Fingers and toes crossed, I have an interview Thursday for a kindergarten job at my current school! I am sooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!

Something is missing

Does anyone else ever get tired of feeling like something is missing?

3 weeks ago Monster got neutered and this picture reminded me of it. Although Monster isn't a cat, its still funny!
And from the whole experience I will NEVER make an animal go through that again!

Just when you feel like giving up.....

My favorite talk from conference this year was by James B. Martino. His talk was about Trials. There could not have been a better time for me to hear this talk. Here are the highlights.

* How we react to difficulties determines our success.
* Not when we face them BUT how we face them
* Trials help us develop traits & attributes like out Father
* We grow from experiences but challenge is seeing the eternal perspective as we go through them.
* 5 things can be learned from the Savior
1. Will of Father- he was commited even through his trials
2. Don't complain or murmur- Ask What am I to do? Change? Learn? not ask Why Me?
3. Seek help from God- this helps strengthen us and ease the burden
Don't become bitter, become faithful
4. Serve others- it helps us forget out problems and helps strengthen ourselves
5. Forgive others/Don't pass the blame onto them.

We also got to sing I Know My Reedemer Lives during Sundays afternoon session. I was very thankful that Conference fell on Easter this year, it made it all the more special. I was thankful that I got to hear such wonderful messages from a prophet of God and the General Authority of the church. My faith has been strengthen because I listened.

Everywhere in nature we learn the lesson of patience and waiting.
We want things a long time before we get them and the fact that we
wanted them a long time makes them all the more precious when they come.
-Joseph F. Smith

Meet the newest member of the Larson family

After much contemplation and a year of looking, we have decided to add another car to our family, a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder and we are in love with it!

Ok, so pie day was a little late

I made my first blueberry pie Monday night.....by Tuesday night it was all gone!

Happy April

...Oh believe it!

Happily Ever After

I attended the YW dinner and broadcast lastnight at our stake center. Can I just say that the Lord knows when we need to hear something. I have experienced this the last few weeks as I have not wanted to go to church just because I didn't feel like going BUT I went anyway because I knew I had to do. I get such spiritual fufillment from going to church. So far, every week I have felt like not going, I have heard a lesson or a talk that the Lord meant for my ears to hear. So back to the broadcast, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf was the closing speaker and I say they saved the best for last. His talk compared our lives to a fairytale, we have to go through some trial to get to our happily ever after. This is so true, we have to go through the trials in our life and learn and grow before we can have eternal life. We may not like our trials, who really does, but its how we deal with them and what we learn that helps us grow and move forward with our lives. I can say I have not enjoyed my trials at all, I dispise them but I am greatful to have gone through them because they have helped me grow and learn and I have drawn closer to our Heavenly Father.

Although....it would be nice to have a break for a bit!

8 weeks.......and counting

Wow have I neglected this blog or what? Nothing new really to report in the last month. I am STILL sick! We are going on 8 weeks now! The doc put me on my third antibiotic, Prednisone and gave me an inhaler. The list of side affect are super long, I was kind of scared to take it! Today I experienced hyperness, jitteriness, crabby-ness and then after lunch I crashed!!! I am so exhausted and I have a killer headache.
On a lighter side, the weather and perked up and it was a gorgeous 65 yesturday. I even went a purchased a new spring coat. I am hoping that his nice weather will help me feel better and finally kick the walking pneumonia to the curb.
SPRING IS COMING!!!!

My first experience with an earthquake

Wednesday morning we were awoken at 4am by a loud noise, barking dog and a shaking bed. I knew right away that it was an earthquake, Dennis on the other hand tried tp pass it off as Monster shaking. You see when he gets woken up in the middle of the night, he will bark really loud and start to shake because his adrenaline is going. This I am very greatful for because I know that no one stands a chance at getting into my house at with my guard dog. While the boys were up checking out what was going on, I could still feel the bed shaking, no way it was Monster, he wasn't even in the bed. So we brushed it off not really knowing what it was and fell back asleep. 6am my alarm goes off and they are talking about a 4.3 earthquake just 2 towns over from ours. Dennis starts hitting my arm, babe we have an earthquake last night he says to where I respond, see I told you, hit snooze, and roll back over. Ours was small, I can't even image what the people in Haiti went through.

Oh Joy!!

This picture pretty much sums up what I have been doing for three straight weeks, NON STOP!

So I have been sick for 3 weeks now. It started with a cough that just got worse and worse and worse. After anihilating an entire bottle of Robitussin DM, Niquil & Dayquil and having zero change in symptoms I decided to go to urgent care last week to see what was going on. I was told that I have an upper resp. infection. I always get them this time of year and they most likely turn into bronchitis or step. I was given cough meds adn sent home. A week after taking the meds, nothing changed again, still have my annoying cough and I even managed to hurt my rib in the process. Yesturday I decided to go see my PCP in Geneva because I just didn't feel right. I really haven't had much energy these last three weeks and haven't wanted to do anything. I have completely abanded my training schedule for my 1/2 marathon. I attempted hitting the treadmill earlier this week with no luck. I started coughing and just not feeling right. So the doc tells me that I have had walking pneumonia and sends me home with an antibiotic and nasty tasting cough meds with codene and instructions to stay home and rest. Mind you I took the nasty disguting made me wanna gag cough meds before bed lastnight. Well they wore off around 3:30 lastnight when I started coughing in my sleep so bad that it woke me up! I get up this morning to take the dog out, go to cough and hear a pop, fall to the ground because I can't breathe and start to cry. Now this really can't be good. I decided to go visit the chiropractor asap to get some treatments done and see if he can figure out whats up with my rib. Sure enough I had popped one out of place and I may have possibly cracked one. So now, it hurts to cough, laugh, breathe deep or pretty much move. There is nothing I can do except give it time to heal itself. So now when I cough I clench my fists hard and try to get through the pain. I am just glad I went to my PCP and found out what was really going on and finally got some goods meds that should knock this right out. I just hate this time of year because I always come down with something and it's never any fun!