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I just added a poll. Please vote for Team Edward or Team Jacob.

Jam Packed!

We are so poopin excited for Auntie Mira to come this evening! We will get to go after naps and pick her up! The girls are so excited to have company and love to read the books that she has given us for their birthdays and Christmas. I am so happy to see her, I have not gotten to see her face to face since right before I found out I was having Sarah. Then, after Auntie Mira leaves on Saturday, the Ghigleri's come on Monday for a day. Then it's Cat's recital and we are off to Louisiana to visit Manda, Kate and Luke. Jam packed!!! Then we come home and close on our house and I get to move.....again. Probably the last for a couple of years. Hooray!!! If you want to see our floor plan go to www.drhorton.com and click on Phoenix, Az. Then, click on Queen Creek and a group of 4 little orange houses will be near the middle. They each have a name, click on Waverly at Pecan Creek. Then, the second page of floor plans has the Cunningham, which is ours. I am so excited that we found a house so quickly. It was a spec house, so it was already built and ready to move in. It saved us a lot of time, since our lease is up July 1st. I am excited to start painting and decorating. I finally get to paint!!!

Swimming, Drowning with Flair...whatever you want to call it!

Sarah after a full day of lessons

Cat after being dunked

Blowing Bubbles

Debbie, Sarah and Cat

As stated earlier, we started swimming lessons this week. I was very pleased with Catherine on Monday. She didn't fuss or act timid like she normally does and Tuesday was the monsoon so we didn't have lessons. Wednesday she fussed and cried and actually screamed bloody murder, not the best day we have ever had. Yesterday, went really well again. Sarah had only been making it about 5-10 minutes before she got to cold and got out, but yesterday she got back in and learned with the other kids how to fall in, turn around, kick to the wall and climb out of the pool ( she had help, we didn't let her do it by herself). Debbie really wanted them to do this so if they ever did fall in, they know how to get out, since most of them won't completely be able to swim after lessons are over. I am hopeful that Cat will be close though and by the end of the summer will be comfortable. Today, we have our makeup lesson from Tuesday, so we will see what today brings. Wish my poor girls luck, it has been pretty chilly!

Blasts from the Past

We started swimming lessons on Monday and had to take yesterday off due to a monsoon. I love monsoon season, it is one of my favorite parts of living in the desert! It is so beautiful to watch as a storm rolls across the valley and then hits. The rain is intense and the thunder is so loud! Yesterday, both Cat and Sarah got a little scared when the house shook and a huge clap of thunder roared outside. I love it. We always went outside and sat on the porch to watch the thunder and lightning when I was growing up. It was part of my Mom's summer routine. We would sit in the dark and ooh and aah over it. I loved sleeping upstairs in the summer, with the fans blowing and it still slightly light out at 10p, looking out my window until I fell asleep. Or the sound of rain on our tin roof, and the smell of the lilacs outside my window. It seems peaceful to remember, but at the time I am sure it wasn't. It is a shame that everything looks better in retrospect. I have been reading "Pride and Prejudice for like the billionth time, and watching it on our DVR (we recorded the Kiera Knightly version). I love it! It appeals to my sappy romantic nature I suppose. I love the soundtrack too and am going to get it. I have the song Dawn on my playlist, check it out. Also, a friend of mine had some CD's that are a playlist that Stephenie Meyers made for herself when she was writing each of her books in the Twilight series. I love them and borrowed them to make myself a DVD. I am loving listening to the lyrics and thinking about all the books and the characters and the relationships and how really good songs perhaps played a part in her writing what she did. It also is a really great way to pass the time when you are cleaning your floors. I would love for anyone to leave a book list or a song list for me to read and listen to.

Mother's Day...Hooray!

Catherine and Mommy

Brady and Berta

Sarah, Cat and Mommy

Sarah and Mommy

I love Mother's Day! I really enjoy having a day that is all about me, who wouldn't? I am the luckiest Mommy and wife in the entire world! I have two beautiful, healthy, active, creative, smart girls. They drive me up the wall on a daily basis, but ultimately, they are my joy! My husband is a hard worker, and provides for us in all ways, he spends so much of his time working so that we can do all the things that are important to me. I am so happy to have such a fabulous man by my side. He made me a yummy breakfast in bed, with BACON! We all know how much I love bacon! Then, I had choir practice and church. We came home and put Sarah to bed and had lunch. Then, we went to the Thomason's for dinner. We had delicious kabobs, rice, asparagus and salad. For dessert, Karson made a 3 layer cake with white chocolate frosting and shaved white chocolate on top and pirouette cookies all around the sides. Plus, homemade rocky road ice cream that was to die for. I am so chubby this morning! Not that I am not a bit on the chubby side every morning...hmmm. So, we ate and then chatted for a while and brought our kids home for bed. It was a very nice Mother's Day and my present is that I get a whole Mother's Week. I have appointments this week to get a pedicure and manicure and an hour long massage, so I am excited to go and have my treatments, but I always love coming home to my family.

More Husband and More Edward

Whew! What a week! On Tuesday I had Pre-School Musical Theatre, which was one of the most fun times I have had in a while! We danced to "Do Re Mi" from "The Sound of Music", I had more boys than girls, which was amazing! They all did such a good job! Friday, was Top Performers, so Brady was supposed to have meetings in the morning and have the afternoon off, but he skipped out and stayed home with us, which meant that I woke up and had a husband! I enjoyed having him home so much. We went out to his work to drop some things off and have lunch at the new cafe with a friend. Then, we went to my sister-in-law Sarah's house to look at their new kittens. Hopefully, we will be getting two soon. Sarah loved them and was dragging a kitten all over the place and laughing and talking. Cat was trying to be brave, she touched the cats and then actually held a kitten twice to take it back to it's Mom. We had a nice afternoon and then I took Cat to her friend Olivia's butterfly birthday party. It was so cute! I also got to watch the Twilight Teaser and I am so excited to see that movie. It comes out around my birthday so that is a nice treat for me! If you haven't read the Stephenie Meyer "Twilight" series, first you are nuts and the only one, and second READ IT! They are fabulous books! I have encluded some great pics from the new movie.Enjoy!

One of those days

Today is just one of those days, where no matter how hard I work, I am just tired, cranky, and sad. I hate blue days. On a better note, I picked up cans and lids from the cannery and on Thursday or Friday will put 50lbs. of wheat and 50lbs. of oats into #10 cans and can them for our food storage. I am at Grandma Thomason's and I am about to grind all that wheat into flour. Fun! I enjoy doing food storage. It makes me feel that I am doing my part to prepare for the future and take care of my family. I also am a master planner, so it is right up my alley. Not much for today...

My Basket is Bountiful

Today I had my bountiful baskets and I was so happy! I called my parents because I had to share that I received 11 carrots, 2 red bell peppers, 1 large head of romaine lettuce, 7 tomatoes, 1 head of broccoli, 7 bananas, 4 cucumbers, 4 zucchini, 4 onions, 3 avocados, 11 limes, 13 potatoes, 7 oranges, 9 apples, 3 grapefruit, and 2 bunches of cilantro. It is just amazing to me. I had to take a picture because it looked so beautiful to me. With the price of food right now, to pay $15 for all of it makes me happy too. I love bountiful baskets and it made me think about how bountiful my basket of life is. I have a good family, wonderful kids, a nice place to live, fun things to do, and good food to eat. I enjoy all of my many blessings and I am thankful for them!

A Whole lotta Whole Foods

Today I took my class at the gym and I got a little better at krumping. I finished the routine this time, but who knows what it looked like while I was doing it! I keep the mirror behind me. Then, we ran out to Whole Foods since we were half way there. You would think that bribing kids with a treat would have results, but not my kids. I promised them we would eat lunch there if they were really good...you see where this is going? While trying to shop I am simultaneously trying to keep Cat from touching everything and knocking it over, and Sarah from escaping the confines of the cart, read my list and navigate without taking anyone out. It is not as easy as it sounds. We were waiting for our case of cheese to be brought out to us, our cart is full, and Cat decides she needs to go potty. This is not easy! I cannot take the cart into the bathroom and I cannot leave Sarah in the cart to watch it, and the cheese guy is not back yet. I tell Cat to wait, but suddenly with the bathrooms in sight, she develops an over active bladder that needs to empty right then and there! Thankfully, the cheese man appears and I push my cart near the bathroom in the hope that people will leave it alone and I won't have to redo the shopping that already about killed me. Sarah, of course, decides she needs to go potty if Cat is and neither one is to be rushed. Washing our hands is a rule, but I find that in instances like this, I am really close to saying forget it, but my kids? Not so much...They wash and wash and wash and need more soap because they didn't get enough, then the water is too hot...too cold... a little bit...more... okay, right temperature, but not enough water coming out. You get the point. Finally, we can towel off, much to the delight of the lady waiting behind us, she finally gets her turn. She asks me how old they are and when I reply 4 and 2, she says," They act like twins"! Lady, they feel like quadruplets. We get back to our cart and nothing has been touched, whew. Then we are done and pick our lunch. Then the hard part, waiting for said lunch while we check out. It is torture to see the food sitting there waiting while a man from a foreign country slowly rings us up, asking me questions I can't understand anyway! Less talk, more action! Whole Foods people are killing me today. So, I take the kids and the food to the booth across from my line and get them eating. Water and forks are tricky business and inevitably someone spills their water and someone gets stabbed by the other's fork. Luckily for the little foreign cashier man, the bagger speaks English and knows how to ring up a case of cheese and a case of rice milk. Rocket Science! I dropped my weary bones into that booth to eat with my kids and then took on the task of keeping Sarah awake on the drive home. Now, Sarah is asleep and Cat is having rest time, and I am playing catch up. It's true that too much Whole Foods can kill a person!!!

Even I am Sick of Bathrooms!

For those of you who know me well, and even some of you that do not, you know that I love cleaning bathrooms! Not just bathrooms, but toilets specifically. This is not a joke...this is real! Don't ask me why, I don't know, there is just something really satisfying about seeing it rid of all it's nasty bacteria and filth, looking pristine, like the throne of the john it really is. It's sick, I know. Anyway, yesterday Tara and I went over and cleaned our friends bathrooms because she is having a rough time keeping her baby in and she has two more months. I was excited to do it. It was fun to have a friend to clean with and that way I didn't have to do the bathtubs, which are my least favorite part of bathrooms. We finished and were cleaning the kitchen, and I ended up taking Sarah home for naps. Then I look at my cleaning schedule and realize it's Tuesday and I need to clean my girl's bathroom and the powder room. More bathrooms. I finished and had cleaned 5 bathrooms that day. Not to mention that I cleaned Tara's powder room the day before and I get to clean our bathroom today. Friends, I, Berta Thomason, am totally and completely bathroomed OUT!!!!! No more, I beg of you! However, we went swimming yesterday for the second time and it was beautiful. Sarah took a header into the pool and managed to avoid breaking her neck on the steps, narrowly. Then she jumped in while I was holding Cat and I had to let her floaties bring her to the top before I could grab her. We set a strict rule about jumping thereafter and it seemed to work. Cat however is afraid to jump and I have to force her to do it once per swimming session. Children are so different. We start swimming lessons in two weeks and I think Sarah might be swimming before Cat. Sad...