6 Random Things About Me

Okay Teri here I go. I am sorry if you are all tired of reading boring facts about me. Lets face it February if a very boring month and we are not the most interesting people anyway. So if I want to post something new this is all I have got. Don't worry I will be posting new pictures soon. I don't blame you if you want to skip right by this.

1. I have kept a franklin day planner since I was 16 years old. Every day I write 6 highlights of my day. Some days that includes what I made for dinner or that I cleaned my bathroom. Pathetic I know. Just whatever I did during the day that makes that day unique. Every morning I like to look back to what I was doing a year ago back to eight years ago. By doing this I can remember how I was feeling that day or who I talked to, those kind of details. This planner goes with me every where I go. I used to even carry in around in my purse with me. Thankfully I am not that big of a dork anymore, but you can bet if I am going on vacation or something it comes with. A year or so ago we took a trip out to Utah and my luggage got lost. I had put my planner in there and it was lost as well. I would not speak to anyone for two days I was so distraught about losing it. Luckily my luggage was found and now it only goes in my carry-on. Nobody is allowed to look at this planner except of course Eric (Souli this means you). There are no secrets or anything -- I am basically just afraid of getting made fun of.

2. My favorite time of day is at 5:30 when I start making dinner for my family. I know that's crazy -- most moms hate cooking dinner, but I just love it. There is something about getting all my ingredients together and seeing them come together for a meal that really thrills me. The neighborhood children are always out playing, the sun is going down, Eric will be home soon, and my children are hopefully playing nicely in the other room. All of these things put together makes 5:30 a very happy time for me. There are exceptions of course like when Lance is having a complete meltdown because Luke isn't having fun with the one toy Lance was willing to share with him and Luke is going after one of Lance's fifty toys. Sadly this happens more than you would think. Obviously a lesson on sharing is needed.

3. I hate bargain shopping. This is one of my awful faults that I am really trying to work on. For me if something is marked down or on clearance I won't even consider it. It drives Eric crazy -- he hates when I go grocery shopping because he can go and get the same list for $20.00 less. I always get the brand name. I think if something is more expensive, it is obviously better and I am willing to spend the extra money to find out.

4. I secretly love when I can't get to sleep at night. I go out to the couch with a blanket and watch TVland all night. I love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Brady Bunch, Mary Tyler Moore, these are all my favorites. Why don't they play these during the day, or maybe they do and I just never have time to watch them. Either way it is much more enjoyable to watch them in the middle of the night when the rest of the house is sleeping and you can really enjoy them. This is one of my favorite pastimes.

5. I would love to write a novel one day. I love to read a good book and I would really love to write one myself. I have three huge notebooks filled with stories that I would one day like to put into a novel. My problem is I can never bring myself to let anyone read them, not even Eric. I have all these stories in my head that I love to put on paper. I don't think I would ever want to publish them. First of all ,I am sure they are not good enough and second, I really only want to do it for my own enjoyment. One day this really is going to happen though.

6. I love beng a mom! I know this is really not random and all you other moms feel exactly the same way. However I thought you might find it intersting to know my favorite things about being a mom. I love to hear Lance call me mommy in his little two year old voice. I love seeing their sweet faces in my rearview mirror when I am driving. I love when they are scared or hurt they only want me to cuddle them, (or Eric). I love running errands with them and feeling like they really are my little buddies. I love going to the mall and sharing a pretzel. I love that Lance will not let us go to bed without saying family prayer. I love when Luke is getting tired and will sit and let me snuggle him and suck on my arm (a funny habit he has). There are thousands more that I could think of but these are definelty at the top of the list. There is truly not a greater blessing than being a mother to my two angels.

TA-DA

Lance has had a really hard time adjusting to nursery. He has been going now for over a year, but every week we are not exactly sure what to expect. For the most part he cries for quite a while and Eric or I end up going to get him. This last Sunday we dropped him off as usual in tears but suprisingly, after five minutes or so, he stopped. When we picked him up at the end of church he was thrilled with a picture he had colored. Well being the proud parents, we were thrilled he stayed the whole time by himself. We made a big deal about how great his picture was and how happy we were with him. When we got home, we displayed his picture on the fridge and continued to praise him. Two days later that picture is still there and every so often Lance is in fear that we have forgotten about how great it is. He will drag me over to the fridge and say "mommy ta-da, oh cute". For the next five minutes I have to go on and on about how wonderful it is and how he is such a big boy. Not only that but now, he is getting random pieces of paper around the house and displaying them as well. I fear my fridge is in the process of being taken over by a two year old. Today I had to go on and on about my grocery list Lance felt inclined to hang up. Oh we love this boy!

My Favorite Things

I got this idea off a friend's blog and thought it looked like fun. With Christmas just having gotten over I have some new products that really get me excited. I thought I would share my list with all of you!



The Cricut--Okay I know I just did a post on my cricut not too long ago, but how can I do my favorite things and not include it. I looovve this thing. It is amazing all that you can do with it. I only have two cartridges so far and yet I find myself using it for nearly every page I do.

Magellan Maestro GPS--As I said on my husband tag, I hate to drive, and one of the main reasons is I always get lost. I can go five minutes from my house and end up driving around for a half an hour with no idea where I am at. This thing has saved my life, there is no way you can get lost with it. I have been a nervous wreck about moving to a whole new state in a few months, and this has brought me great comfort. Thank you Smiths -- truly a great present.

Cocomotion--I am addicted to hot chocolate ever since my mom bought me one of these at Walmart. I have to limit myself to two cups a day or I would seriously drink one after another. Hmm, I sound like I am talking about coffee. The cocomotion makes the perfect cup of hot chocolate; just the right amount of chocolate, the perfect temperature, and so creamy. If you have not tried this I strongly recommend it.

Dawn Foam--My mother-in-law introduced me to this product when she saw how many baby bottles I was washing all the time. I know this is not exactly new, but I just love it.


Simply Scrappin' Kits--Sorry to all of you who don't like to scapbook, I know I talk about it a lot, but here is another product I just love. Stampin' Up's simply scappin' kits. They are so great. They come with coordinating paper, designer paper and cardstock stickers, with a sheet of ideas on how to use them. You can seriously get three or four layouts done in under an hour. So much fun!

Luke's New World

Today was a big day for our little Luke. For those of you that don't know, we found out a few weeks ago that Luke does indeed have severe hearing loss in both ears from being so premature. He does hear a few sounds, but for the most part everything is a big jumbled mess to him -- most importantly voices and speech. From there we decided to go the hearing and speech therapy route instead of sign language. Today he got his first pair of hearing aids. At first they really bothered him, but the audiologist explained that from going to hearing nothing much to all kinds of new noises would be very shocking to him. Something as little as whistling or Lance just talking would make him jump through the roof and scream in shock. However in typical Luke fashion after an hour or so he was being his normal happy easygoing self. It is amazing the difference we are already seeing in him, he is responding to everything. We hope that this will help him along with going to speech therapy every week until he is five so that he will be able to lead a normal life and learn to speak like any other child. Because of the severity of his hearing loss, a cochlear implant is a definite possibility in the near future. But for now we will see how this works for him.
I may just be being a biased mother but I think he looks absolutely adorable in them.
Of course I am not sure his sweet little face could ever look anything but cute. We are so grateful for modern technology, not only did it save his life but he will also be able to hear as well. Luke, you are such a miracle! Oh in case you are wondering, the orange string is just a little clip to hook to his shirt so we don't lose them (he has a tendency to pull them out).

Husband Tag

What is his name? Eric Steven Smith
How long have you been married? We just celebrated our fifth anniversary on January 23.
How long did you date? From start to finish a year and a half with a few break ups in between.
How old is he? 28
Who eat's more? Definitely Eric
Who said I love you first? Sadly I don't remember, but Eric says it was him.
Who is taller? Eric is 6" and I am barely 5"2. Sometimes I think we look a little funny together, he has to stoop to even hold my hand.
Who sings better? Eric by a landslide, I can't carry a tune to save my life. Though that doesn't stop me from trying. Eric is actually very musically gifted, he is amazing on the guitar and piano and has a very nice voice.
Who has a worse temper? Probably me, okay not probably, definitely me. When I lose it watch out, luckily it doesn’t happen that often. Though Eric’s is not great either, he is just more quiet about it. I like the whole world to know how mad I am. Throwing, hair pulling, yelling all of this has been known to happen.
Who does the laundry? Me. After five years of having the same laundry baskets I am still finding towels mixed in with the darks. Honestly girls, is it really that hard to remember? The only experience Eric has had with the laundry is turning a huge pile of whites a lovely shade of fuchsia. I cringe at the thought of him “helping” with the laundry. Although he points out he does all his own ironing.
Who does the dishes? Again me, though he will help me clear the table and on occasion he will surprise me and tell me to go relax and he will take care of everything. Eric this could happen more frequently, just a thought.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do, though I don’t really understand this question. Do people actually fight over the right side? Neither of us really care, the only time we do is when our kids are babies and then I sleep nearest to them. If your husbands are like mine it’s amazing how they get a deaf ear to a crying baby in the middle of the night.
Who mows the lawn? Eric. I have never mowed the lawn and he has never vacuumed the house and we like it that way.
Who drives when you are together? Eric. Anybody who knows me knows I will do anything to avoid driving. I hate it.
Who cooks dinner? I do but I love to cook so I don’t really mind. Eric is good at helping me though.
Who pays the bills? Again I do, sometimes if I am lucky I have an extra five dollars at the end of the month that Eric doesn’t need to know about. However being in law school, it’s usually the other way around and I am trying to scrounge up a few more dollars to not go into next months funds.
Who is more stubborn? Definitely Eric, I may have the temper but oh my goodness, if you have ever tried to convince Eric of something he doesn’t agree with, watch out--it can go on for hours. I guess it’s a good thing he is going to be a lawyer.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Eric is really quick to say he is sorry, probably because he is usually wrong. Hee hee. No really he is really great that way, I could go on for days and not admit I am wrong.
Who has more friends? Probably a tie, neither of us are really outgoing people but we both have good friends that we keep in touch with. It seems that most friends we have we have made together.
Who has more siblings? Eric. The Smiths have 5 boys, Williams has 3 girls.
Who wears the pants in the family? This is a tough one because we both hold our own pretty well. Probably Eric though, but we like to think we usually make decisions as a family.

This was really fun to do; it’s easy to forget all the great things your husband does for your family. This has been a great reminder of how much I love Eric, and how much he does for me and our children. Eric will kill me if I get to mushy here, but I want you to know you are an amazing husband and father. You take your role very seriously and it shows. We love you so much!

Now I tag Stacey and Ashley.

Happy Valentine's Day

Best Buddies

Lance and Luke are the best of friends. Lance is Luke's protector and Luke is Lance's entertainment (most of the time he thinks Luke is hilarious--except of course, when Luke is playing with one of Lance's toys). As you can see in the above two pictures, Luke is following in Lance's footsteps and already enjoys watching Toodles with his big brother.

Valentine Cookies

We love to make sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. It seems like the plan is always for it to be a family project, but somehow I end up doing the work, and the boys end up doing the eating.

UK Basketball

Yesterday (Saturday), after two-and-a-half years of living in Lexington, KY, I (Eric) finally went and saw a University of Kentucky basketball game at Rupp Arena. For all of those that are completely ignorant to college sports (and I would dare put a fair share of the readers of this blog in that category--you know who you are), The University of Kentucky is one of the best teams in the history of college basketball. So going to see them play is a pretty big deal to a sports junkie like me.

Attending a game at Rupp Arena was fantastic. It holds 23,500 people, about 4,000 more than the Delta Center (sorry...Energy Solutions Arena--it will always be the DC to me). Although the arena itself is not bigger than the Delta Center, the upper bowl has benches so they can pack more fannies in the seats--we were squashed in there like sardines (leave your personal space at the door). At one end of the arena they have their National Championship and Final Four banners. Along both sides of the rafters are retired numbers of past players. The place was sold out (as always) and a spectacle to behold. The atmosphere was much different though from a Jazz game. There wasn't any artificial sounds or songs. All the noise came from the fans and the band and you could sense that everyone in the place was hanging on every play. It was a great experience.

Potatoheads in Lance's World

Lance has been on a Toy Story kick as of late (since he destroyed the Cars DVD). Whenever he watches "Buzz" he gets out his Mr. Potatohead set he got for Christmas. Above are his creations: Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead. We'll let you decide which is which. As you can see, he has an "anything goes" philosophy (we particularly like the two arms coming out one side of the head).

Farewell President Hinckley

Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandements of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.

-Mosiah 2:41

~What a wonderful thing is death, really, when all is said and done. It is the great reliever. It is a majestic, quiet passing on from this life to another life, a better life. We go to a place where we will not suffer as we have suffered here, but where we will continue to grow, accumulating knowledge and developing and being useful under the plan of the Almighty made possible through the atonement of the Son of God.

-President Hinckley

When we heard of President Hinckley's passing, we were first saddened at losing our great prophet, but then happy to think of his reunion with Sister Hinckley and the many other great prophets. No doubt shortly thereafter, he rolled up his sleeves and asked where he should get to work.

Happy Birthday Jenny!!!

We celebrated Jenny's birthday on Monday. Thanks to a gift from her mom, we were able to go to P.F. Chang's, one of Jenny's favorite restaraunts. As you can see on the cake, she reached the quarter century mark. Sorry Jen...it's all down hill from here.