101 Things About Me

My old college friend, Robyn, made a list of 100 things about herself on her blog and invited others to do the same. It was fun to read her list, so I thought I would challenge myself to do one too, but I’ve increased it from 100 to 105 things! It didn’t take as long as I thought it would ---

1. I am a chocoholic.

2. I love going out to eat.

3. But I also love to cook.

4. I like experimenting with new recipes.

5. I hate cleaning up my messy kitchen after cooking.

6. I love reading cookbooks & recipes and planning my weekly menu.

7. I am a planner and list-maker!

8. I always put on makeup before leaving the house.

9. I hate procrastination!!

10. I love laughing!! Sometimes I laugh too much. Spencer says I embarrass him at the movies. Josh says he likes my laugh. My parents and siblings say they could recongnize my laugh if they were blindfolded and their life depended on it.

11. I like being around people who make me laugh.

12. Kind words make me happy.

13. My “love language” is ‘words of affirmation’ (Read “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman).

14. I enjoy cross-stitching.

15. I also enjoy sewing.

16. If I could, I’d see a movie or two every weekend in the movie theater.

17. My favorite movies are romantic ones … sorry Joshua. (Favorite Movie is "Pride and Prejudice", both versions)

18. But I also love thinking movies, and action-thrillers.

19. I am fanatical about taking pictures, especially of my children. I take 'thousands' of pictures every year!

20. I love the summer!

21. My birthday is the first day of summer.

22. Joshua has promised me that we’ll retire somewhere tropical.

23. I hate to be cold.

24. But I hate wearing a coat. I only do when absolutely necessary!

25. My ideal place to be is on a warm, sunny beach ...

26. ... And Disney World; I want to work there someday!

27. I love rollercoasters and thrill rides!

28. Everyone tells me that I look like my mother (always a nice compliment).

29. I was born of 'goodly' parents.

30. I love to wear perfume.

31. I love spending the whole day doing fun things with my family. Wish I could everyday!

32. I spend the majority of the summer playing and running around with my kids.

33. I am a chronic worrier.

34. I love working with children.

35. My favorite callings in church are in the primary.

36. I am very observant.

37. I am also very curious; sometimes too curious for my own good.

38. I avoid confrontation whenever possible.

39. I am trustworthy and am good at keeping secrets.

40. I have a very supportive and loving husband who helps me around the house daily.

41. I met Joshua at a stake youth conference when I was 16 years old; He was 17. He says we met a few months before at our stake seminary graduation dance, but I don't remember.... He even remembers what song we danced to and what I wore....

42. I love being a mother!! I've prepared and looked forward to being one my entire life!

43. I think about how I can be a better mother to my children on a daily basis.

44. I believe it’s my MOST important calling in this life.

45. I’m going to be sad when Logan goes to full-day kindergarten next year and all my kids will be in school.

46. Logan kisses me about 40- 50 times a day, no joke :>

47. I am sad that my kids are growing so quickly!

48. Sometimes, I’d like to turn back the clock ....

49. I’d love another baby, but I think I’d go crazy in the process! (When I was in high school, I wanted 9 kids! By the time I was in college, it dwindled down to somewhere between 4 and 6.)

50. I love to declutter my house!!!

51. I am a member of the "FreeCycle" community (go to http://www.freecycle.org/). This is where I give away my stuff after 'decluttering'.

52. My favorite drink is raspberry lemonade.

53. I have an extremely low tolerance for pain.

54. I hate my hair and my legs.

55. But I like my hands.

56. When I eat a sandwich, I always have to have chips to go with it.

57. I love listening to piano and guitar music.

58. I always have on toenail polish.

59. I love to wear jewelry.

60. Patience isn't my best quality, but I've learned to be very patient with my kids.

61. I’m an extremely frugal shopper.

62. I get a thrill when I save money or find a good deal!

63. I’ve become pretty good at finding good deals (without cutting coupons!).

64. I am the oldest of 5 kids.

65. My siblings have told me I was pretty bossy....

66. I’m 12 years older than my youngest sibling.

67. I hate a dirty house!!

68. But having an organized, tidy house is more important to me.

69. I HATE cleaning! I could never be a maid!!

70. I'm not very good at opening up to others. I'm pretty guarded until I completely trust someone.

71. I carry lip gloss or chapstick with me everywhere.

72. I sometimes love and sometimes hate that I am a perfectionist.

73. I'm not very spontaneous; I like to have a plan about most things.

74. I stress out very easily.

75. I am a ‘Type A’ personality.

76. I sing made-up songs to my kids.

77. I unconsciously bop around when there is music playing.

78. I can’t keep my legs still when I am in a deep thought, don't feel well, or I’m nervous.

79. I wear slippers constantly in the winter.

80. I find that I can express a point much better in writing than with spoken words.

81. I have a hard time swallowing pills.

82. I have a love/hate relationship with jogging.

83. I love being in the outdoors!

84. I usually drive twice as much as Joshua, on long trips and around town.

85. I've gotten somewhere around 15-16 speeding/traffic tickets - Once, I got 3 tickets in a 2 month span!

86. I love long car rides with my family. (I hate to fly on airplanes!)

87. I am a night owl.

88. I am super productive at night after the kids go to bed.

89. I like to play card and board games.

90. I am a big-time jokester, but usually only with my husband and kids.

91. I am a logical thinker.

92. I always have gum in my purse.

93. I can say the names of the 50 states in alphabetical order.

94. My favorite kind of pizza is barbecued chicken pizza.

95. My favorite color is red.

96. I love to travel!

97. I love decorating.

98. I love a clean and fresh smelling house.

99. I like my personal space.

100. But I love hugging my kids!

101. My motto is “I can figure it out!”

102. I try really hard to look at the bright side of things (although it doesn’t always come naturally).

103. I love hanging out in small groups of friends, not huge groups.

104. I usually go to sleep as soon as I hit the pillow.

105. My knowledge of Heavenly Father's love for me has been a constant blessing in my life.

Recipe Request ...

A few people have asked me for the recipe for the Key Lime Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce that I made for Joshua's birthday. It is so easy to make and very yummy!! Here goes ---


KEY LIME CHEESECAKE with RASPBERRY SAUCE

A graham cracker crust
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup bottled Key lime juice (or fresh squeezed)
1 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese

10-oz. pkg. frozen raspberries
1 Tbps. cornstarch
1/2 cup currant jelly

Put condensed milk, cream cheese and key lime juice in a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour into graham cracker crust. Chill. It will thicken as it chills.

For raspberry sauce, thaw and crush frozen raspberries. Combine with cornstarch and currant jelly. Cook and stir until bubbly. Cook 1 minute. Strain and cool. Chill until ready to use.

When ready to eat, drizzle plates with chilled raspberry sauce; add pie slice and drizzle top with sauce. Top with a few raspberries, if desired.

Come on Spring ..... PLEASE!

The other day, I saw this sign and had to stop and take a picture. It expressed the thoughts of my mind ......

AND ON THE OTHER SIDE, IT READ ....


I guess that's a good way of looking at it, although I can't wait to finally thaw out.

Come On Spring... PLEASE!

A Mid-Winter Break

The kids were out of school all last week for their mid-winter break. We spent some time the weekend before brainstorming all the fun things we wanted to do together. This is what our "fun-filled" week turned out to be ---

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18 ---

In the morning, we played games while Logan was at his "playgroup". Here we are playing "Alien Race", a fast and fun dice game that the kids love!

After picking Logan up, we went to the mall to eat lunch in the food court. We checked out some fun stores and played in the play area. Before going home, we got some ice-cream cones - YUM! In the evening, I took Spener and Jessica to see "The Spiderwick Chronicles". I thought Alex and Logan would be a little frightened so they didn't come. After seeing it, I'm almost SURE they would've been, so it was a good call -- But Spencer, Jessica and I really liked it!

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19 ---

I told the kids that if they helped me clean the house in the morning, I would take them to "Caesarland" for lunch. I told them that the faster we cleaned, the more time we'd have to eat and play, which really encouraged them to get it done quick. I didn't have any complaining either. They were super good helpers that day!

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20 ---

I had a bunch of free passes to a local bowling alley, so on Wednesday morning, we went bowling together. Alex and Logan had never been bowling, and they loved it. So did Spencer and Jessica. They haven't stopped talking about it! Spencer even wants to go back for his birthday in a few weeks. It was everyone's favorite activity that week. We had the ENTIRE place to ourselves!

For a late lunch, we went to eat and play at McDonalds. At around 4 o'clock, there was a 'meet & greet' for the Plymouth "Whalers", a local semi-pro hockey team. Alex is the only one who's been to one of their games (with a friend and his family) and somewhat knew who they were, so we weren't very eager to meet them. The kids continued playing while other people around us got in line to get autographs and take pictures. But, after the line died down, the hockey players started playing with the kids in the play area. Alex and Logan especially had a fun time with them so they decided they wanted a picture with them. One of the hockey players even played video games with Spencer.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2008 ---

We ate lunch at "IKEA" today. I love their swedish meatballs, but the kids were still hungry after eating upstairs in the cafeteria, so we went downstairs and got hot dogs, cinnamon rolls and ice-cream too. They were bottomless pits today!

After we ate dinner, Joshua and I took the kids swimming at an indoor pool at our local community center, just down the street from our house. We had a really fun time! The kids loved the heated pool and waterslide. I loved sitting in the hot tub!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2008 ---

I scored a free admission pass for four to the "Detroit Institute of Arts" last week. Our local library has a program where they hand out a certain number of passes to several Metro-Detroit museums each week, but the "DIA" passes are the hardest to get a hold of. They are the most popular ones. But, I was determined to get one, so I went in every morning to see if they had any, and on Wednesday morning, I was lucky enough to get a hold of one!

So, on Friday, I took Spencer and Jessica with me to spend the day looking at the extensive art collections inside this large museum. Alex and Logan playing at a friend's house. I knew they'd be extremely bored and wouldn't get much out of this trip. They were fine being left behind since it didn't sound very interesting to them anyway. But I was excited to take Spencer and Jessica, although they were also very hesitant. It didn't sound very fun to them either. But, once we got there, they had a better time than they expected to. They enjoyed looking at the different pieces of art, pointing out their favorite ones, reading the explanations about some of the more interesting ones, and eating lunch in the cafeteria. We had a fun and memorable day. I was glad to fit in some culture this week.

"Self Portrait" by Vincent van Gogh

"Girl Reading" by Pablo Picasso

Spencer liked this Egyptian Mummy

Spencer and Jessica thought the 'Contemporary' Art Wing was extremely unique and at times, kinda humorous. We thought these guys were pretty funny - They wanted a picture with them.

We walked somewhere around 5 hours. We were tired when we were done! But it was a fun and very educational experience. I don't think Spencer and Jessica would mind going back again someday.

Julie's Singing Time Blog

Towards the end of January this year, I was called to be the primary chorister for our ward. I was sad to be released from the nursery since I had been the nursery leader for almost three years, but thrilled to be called back into the primary as the chorister. I love being in primary! I've had numerous callings in the primary organization and have grown to love being around and teaching these sweet and precious spirits. I have secretly wanted to be called as the primary chorister in our ward. I had this calling 9 years ago when we lived in Texas and went to the College Station 2nd Ward while Joshua was in graduate school. I loved it and am beginning to remember why I loved it so much! It has taken me a few weeks to get comfortable, but I think I'm finally getting use to it. This calling is a lot of work, and takes a lot of thought and time, but I have many, many ideas jogging around in my mind right now and hopefully, I'll be able to use them all soon. I pray that I'll be blessed in my efforts.

I was thrilled this week that Joshua was called as the primary pianist! I'm so excited to be working with him. It'll be a lot of fun. He was released as priesthood pianist, but still has his other callings --- ward choir director and elder's quorum second counselor. After singing time each week, he'll have to run off to priesthood pretty quickly.

Anyway, shortly after receiving this calling, I went through my old "singing time" box of things I kept from the last time I had this calling, and I realized I didn't document or write down very many of my past efforts and ideas. I had a few things here and there, and of course memories of things that worked well before, but this time, I'm going to do a better job of documenting my work. I decided to start a 'Singing Time' blog to keep a record of all my ideas this time around. Each week, I'll upload pictures and record the week's lesson plan.

My singing time blog address is http://juliesingingtime.blogspot.com/. I created another link on the right side of this blog (under "Blogging Friends" as Julie's Singing Time Blog). So, if you are so inclined, check back often to see what I've been up. So far, I've already recorded the four weeks I've been the primary chorister. If you have any good ideas for things you've seen done in your primary singing time, let me know. I can use all the ideas I can get.

Which Jane Austen Character are you??

I took a quiz off a friend's blog to find out which Jane Austen character I am most like. Turns out that out of all her heroines, I am ---

Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.

Very interesting! I think, for the most part, this is right on the money. Check to see who you are. I have a link to the quiz on the right side of my blog, below my movie ratings and weather forecast. After taking the quiz, let me know who you are too!

Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

We had Family Home Evening on Sunday night and spent the majority of the time making Valentines for grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. The kids had so much fun creating their own cards, and boy, did they get creative! They made some really nice cards, and we sent them out on Monday morning.

The night before Valentine's day, I put out some candy hearts filled with lots of yummy chocolates at the breakfast table for each of the children. Each one of them ended up eating all the candy in one sitting and by the end of the day I think it resulted in sugar-bouncing kiddos -- but they also ate a bunch of junk at their Valentine's parties at school so I'm sure that also had something to do with my sugar-crazed kids. Grandma Williams sent the children a Valentine's package with cards for each of us (and $5 in each card for the kids), the movie "Ratatouille", and a Valentine door banner. It was so sweet of her to remember us on Valentine's Day. The kids were so excited to get such great stuff this year.

After school, we had a special family Valentines dinner in which all of our food was heart-shaped. The kids had fun helping me. Then we played some Valentines games and watched "The Princess Bride" together. It was a fun evening, but also a school night, so they couldn't be up very late.

Joshua brought me home a dozen roses after work. As much as I LOVE red roses (they are my very absolute favorite!), I always tell him not to buy them for me because they die after a week and it seems like a waste of money in the end. But he said since he had avoided buying them for years, I deserved to get them this year. It was very thoughful. We are so excited to finally have a babysitter in our household -- Spencer is almost 12! -- so after the kids went to bed, he watched over the house while Joshua took me to dinner at "BD's Mongolian BBQ". We also saw the movie "Definitely, Maybe". Josh would've rather seen the movie "Jumper" which also opened in the theaters on V-day, but he was very thoughtful to let me see the 'romantic one' instead. What a sweet thoughtful hubby I had this year for Valentine's Day!

Hope you all had a nice one too!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Finding their Valentine surprises

Opening a present from Grandma Williams

It's the movie "Ratatouille" from Grandpa and Grandma Williams

Playing Valentine's Day games

Logan picks up his candy hearts to throw again

Jessica's turn

Cute boys!