HOLY HANNAH- She's actually blogging!

So, I've been neglecting my blog for a number of reasons. I hate my blog and haven't had time to beautify it, so I haven't wanted to actually write in it. I have also found out there were a number of people out there reading my blog and it kind of freak me out. I couldn't take the pressure of coming up with cool blog post worthy of your eyes.
Okay, although all those are semi valid reason for me to drop out of the blog-o-sphere, another big reason is any time I had for the computer has been going to Facebook. I love Facebook, but it is time consuming especially when there is no time to be consumed! I've set up some goals to get back into the blog-o-sphere and by March 1st I plan on debuting a new look for my blog. In the meantime I will be doing a few posts here and there. Today's is kind of a cheater post because it's actually a tag from Facebook. So, for all you losers not on Facebook yet(RY-RY)- here is my "25 Random Things about me":
1. I love to watch movies. Although, after watching a scary movie I have to watch a cartoon before going to bed to minimize the nightmares.
2. I love to read. If there is a book being made into a movie I always try to read the book first. And if it's part of a series (like Harry Potter) I will read the entire series again before seeing the new movie.
3. I wish I could be a world traveller like my husband. I hope to someday make it to Hawaii, Ireland, and Rome.
4. I think snow is so beautiful, but I hate living in it, walking in it, and driving in it.
5. When I bake I talk out loud like I'm Rachel Ray or Paula Deen. It makes cooking more exciting!
6. One time while getting a Body Scan/MRI the technician asked my husband if I had ever had any organs removed. To which my husband replied, "No, is she missing something?"
7. I am afraid of spiders and even have a "spidey sense". Meaning, I have woken my husband up in the middle of the night to have him kill a spider I could feel crawling towards me on the ceiling on the other side of the room.
8. I talk in my sleep and have also been known to occasionally sleep walk.
9. Ever since an illness 5 years ago, my body temperature is never lower than 100.3.
10. The three hardest things I've ever had to deal with in my life are; The divorce of my parents when I was 28, the aggressive war the muscular dystrophy has taken on my body, seeing the pain my son has gone through with all of his surgeries.
11. The divorce of my parents was not shocking, but the aftermath of having a crazy mother, a distant father, and a broken family has been shocking and heartbreaking.
12. I went to Disneyland for the first time when I 28.
13. I love the sound and smell of rain.
14. I will some day have a book published. Most likely a children's book. (I better start writing!)
15. I still get a warm, fuzzy, tingly feeling whenever my husband looks at me or kisses me!
16. I feel extremely guilty whenever I have a moment of feeling sorry for myself about the muscular dystrophy because I am so blessed in other areas of my life!
17. I also feel extremely guilty that I don't have a better relationship with my parents because I know for a fact that four of my close friends would give anything to have their deceased parent back in their lives.
18. I have an obsession with handbags and purses!
19. I love pina colada jelly belly jelly beans and slushies.
20. My greatest accomplishments are my two awesome kids!
21. I love to laugh and have been told by my family that I laugh too easily!
22. I love St. George and can't wait to live there some day.
23. I am so thankful to be married to my best friend and can't believe we've been married for 14 years this September!
24. I would much rather be reading about my friends than writing about myself!
25. I love to play video games and usually win when we play as a family! I love to play games in general!

Parental Lottery

I'm beginning to think my kids have been unlucky in the parent lottery! I have never claimed that Matt and I are the world's greatest parents. In fact, Matt and I disagree on what is crossing the lines of teaching the kids a good work ethic or child slave labor.
Case in point - Today it snowed and Matt made the kids go out and shovel. Which means Chloe was left to shovel the 10 inches that fell because Jordan only lasted 5 minutes outside. Chloe on the other hand was outside for 2 hours shoveling her little heart out. What was her reward? $3! THREE WHOLE DOLLARS! I felt bad at first, but she didn't even seem to mind. She even seemed happy with her $3 or she's just resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't going to get a penny more!
Other parental highlights, where we as parents have a chance to redeem ourselves tonight. The past three times Jordan has lost a tooth, the tooth fairy has failed to leave money. I know, I know you are shaking your heads thinking why do you even have kids if you can't follow through with traditional kid things. The first time we forgot we blamed the tooth fairy and put more money than we normally would have. The second time we blamed Jordan's messy room and then put the normal pay for a tooth. The third time, I think the poor kid was catching on and felt bad he had such loser parents. So while he was in the shower we slipped the money ($5) under his pillow and told him he must have not looked very well. Tonight is the night! We will redeem ourselves! We will not go to sleep without placing the money under Jordan's pillow!

Gratitude and Gravy

I have much to be grateful for in my life. As I've gone through my day cooking my Thanksgiving meal, my head kept filling with thought after thought of all the things I am thankful for. Instead of sharing that list, I thought I'd share the list that each of our family members created this past Monday during our FHE (Family Home Evening) where we filled in the feathers on our turkeys.


As a side note- I let my family know early this morning that there was a dress code for dinner (basically no pj's allowed) and look what this little fella came to the table wearing! Very snazzy indeed!

Jordan listed he was thankful for: family, home, Mom, food, Dad, friends, cats, cousins, drawings, Chloe, and the Wii.. (Chloe was upset at how far down she made it on his list, but we pointed out to her that at least she even made it on his list!)


Chloe listed she was thankful for: school, teachers, books, babies, family, a house, food, clothes, friends, cats and other animals, music instruments, the Gospel and all things related. Chloe also happened to add an extra feather so she could add "politics and things to talk about and debate on."
Matt and I shared a turkey and filled in the feathers together and this is what we came up: family, the scriptures, our cute kitty, our callings, our (mostly good) children, our Heavenly Father who loves each of us unconditionally, our financial situation in these scary economic times, naps, our wonderful friends, and our Savior Jesus Christ. (I color coded them so you could see who said what.)

As you can see our family has much to be thankful for and as I wrap up my Thanksgiving Day of 2008 I have a few more things I could add to my turkey feathers. Such as........

Wonderful kids who set a beautiful table for our family to eat at!
A yummy turkey, that gave us a bit of panic about 2 hours before we were about to stick it in the oven only to find out that it still had some frozen parts - but in the end it turned out great! And best of all the gravy turned out as well! Last year's was okay, this years gravy was very tasty!
My delicious Pumpkin Walnut Torte - Isn't it so pretty?! !And last of all, even though I told him that he ruined every picture because he seemed to be having a "Chandler Moment" he assures me that he wasn't doing it on purpose. (yeah, right!) I am still ever so grateful for the love and laughter he brings into my life. And I am also thankful for all the help he gave to me throughout the day to make the Thanksgiving dinner a success, therefore the official Thanksgiving MVP goes to you sweetie!


As you can see our family has much to be thankful for! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A hallow's eve tale!

We had a great Halloween here at the Roblyer house! Even the morning light got the memo that it was Halloween! The orange and pink colors with the sun coming up was absolutely gorgeous and perfect for the holiday!

The kids had a bit of a hiccup with their costumes this year. Their school decided to have the kids dress as their favorite book characters and then the day before Halloween we received an email mandating that no street clothes were to be worn. Well, originally Chloe had planned to be Bella from the 'Twilight' series and Jordan had chosen Percy Jackson from 'The Lightening Thief'. Both of these characters wear nothing but street clothes. So Jordan changed to Harry Potter (a costume from last year) and Chloe decided to be Penelope from 'The Wanderings of Odysseus' where she used her fancy witch dress and changed it to fit the Penelope character.

Chloe also changed into a different costume to go Trick-or-Treating. She was a 70's girl where she used her spring dance costume. Jordan stuck with the Harry Potter costume.

Sadly this is Chloe's last year trick-or-treating. And we had to pull her teeth (not really), to stay with the family this year. We compromised with a deal that we would let her throw a Halloween party next year if she went around with the family. In the end she admitted that she had fun with her dad and brother trick-or-treating.

I was a little disappointed with the turn out of trick-or-treaters. I think we over prepared! We had a total of about 35 kids and we bought 2 bags of candy (one 150 piece bag of chocolate, & one 250 piece bag of assorted) Needless to say we have lots of candy left over!

M@t Returns!

It has been a blissful four days since Matt's return Friday evening! It has also been very busy. Matt's plane landed a half hour early. Luckily, the kids & I had everything prepared so we were able to jump into the car and go get him. We did have to swing by and pick Chloe up from a birthday party on our way to the airport. She insisted that "it is tradition that she be in the car when picking dad up from the airport" I tried to assure her it would be fine if she stayed at the party and we could pick her up when it was over. I thought it was sweet and obvious that she missed her daddy!

We had a full weekend of various activities and errands. Matt has adjusted surprisingly well, with little to no jet-lag. He took the kids to see High School Musical 3 on Saturday night, so I could do some last minute Primary preparations. It has probably helped that we have gone to bed earlier than normal and also taken naps to combat his jet-lag. Overall the transition back into family life has been smooth! Matt seems to have had a great time in Prague. I can't wait to see the pictures!

Missing M@t - Day Nine

Talk about a crazy day! I was busy this morning with Primary stuff,(meeting) and while I was gone Chloe called and left a message for me to bring her belt she forgot to put on this morning. Unfortunately, by the time I got home and got the message she had already received a "white slip" for dress code violation. Our little Chloe is not a rule breaker and goes out of her way to abide by every rule humanly possible, so she took the white slip personally, but I think she took the fact that one of her friends ratted her out even harder. I don't understand "mean girls" but Chloe is friends with this girl and continues to be so, despite my best efforts to discourage it. Probably because she has a bigger, more forgiving heart!

Jordan finished his wooden scrapbook at the Webelos Den Meeting over at the Young's. It looks amazing and I will post a picture Tuesday where it will be displayed at Pack Meeting. He will be receiving his Arrow of Light Award and his craftsman pin at this Pack Meeting! Very exciting for Jordan!

Chloe had to baby-sit this evening and it went smoothly. No phone calls home for tips on cooking or anything else. She also had dance class this evening. She was way excited about dance because they measured her for the costume for the concert in December. It sounds really cute, can't wait to see the finished product.

The excitement is in the air here at the home! As I write this late at night here is SLC, it is morning time in Prague where Matt is heading to the airport to come home! We are ready for him to be home.

Missing M@t - Day Eight

It's been one of those days. Not a bad day, but not a great day.

I had to start off my day with ironing which was not all bad because I got some much needed iPod listening time in.

I was stood up for a phone date. (I'm sure he had a good reason.)

After school, we ran some errands searching for vampire teeth for Chloe's costume party for her Activity Day's Party. The clerk at Shopko said every kid in the valley seems to be dressing as a vampire for Halloween and then she told us what stores to avoid because she had already searched earlier that day. Crisis was averted because Chloe decided to go as a "Hippie Stayin' Alive Party Gal" (her spring dance costume came in handy!) We will continue our search for vampire teeth on Friday when we have more time! I'm hoping she'll decide to go with the Hippie for Halloween night, but chances of that are slim!

Chloe had fun at her party. Everyone loved her costume. All was well until dinner time. Needless to say, Chloe is going to bed hungry tonight. She has developed this horrible, nasty quirk. Chloe refuses to eat leftovers. Contrary to the belief of her father who says I taught her this - so not true- this annoying trait has really been bad the past two months. I understand that there are things that do not reheat well, but this was a pasta dinner that only gets better with age. I gave her a choice to eat what was offered or she could go to bed hungry. She went to bed hungry! I was hoping after having our Family Home Evening lesson on President Boyd K Packer testimony on being frugal and conservative she would be willing to eat what's offered, but that is not the case. Don't worry, I checked a parenting website and a kid will not starve to death from missing one meal, no harm done. I just get to go to bed feeling like a crappy mom.

Surprisingly Jordan was rather cooperative on all issues (homework, shopping, dinner, bedtime.) That is a shock. I think he's trying to butter me up for something.

Tomorrow is a new day and I think it is going to be great!