My Scrapbooking Life

So I don't know how many of ya'll out there know this, but I work for a company called SEI. It is a scrapbook company. So, literally, I am a scrapbooker. SEI sends me all over the United States to teach scrapbook classes at scrapbook conventions. I also design some of those classes that are taught (with Brians help). Get this. The one design that everyone totally loved, it was Brians idea, I just made it look frooofy. Yeah, my husband is the real designer. Anywhooo, I was sent to Manchester, New Hampshire last month to teach. Scrapbooking is still kinda new over there and I had people asking for my autograph and wanting to have their pictures taken with me. Wow. I got a tiny tast of celebrity, didn't like it at all. I had a lady follow me to the restroom asking where I got my inspiration from. . . . . . NOT IN THE BATHROOM LADY!!! I couldn't handle being a celebrity.

Kidlets

Brooklyn and Kaden are getting too big. The other day Kaden woke up before everyone else and we heard him yelling under his door, "Brooklyn, cmere! Brooklyn, cmere!" He was calling his big sister to come and let him out of his bedroom. Brian and I got a good laugh out of that. Brooklyns favorite movie right now is Enchanted. Big surprise. Brooklyn graduated from pre-school two weeks ago. She got a hat with a tassel and a "diploma" even. She was very proud of the fact that she got an "award" for finishing school. Next year she will be going to The Joy School three days a week instead of two. She gets board so it will be nice for mom.;) I am going to teach the kids how to swim this summer hopefully. Kaden is pretty fearless and scares me. He has gone under a few times and I about had a heart attack.
We are going to Boise in a few weeks for my Family Reunion and the thing that Brooklyn is most excited about is riding horses with Grandpa John. She is big into My Little Ponies right now. She has it in her head that the horses are "magic" and they can fly. Hmmmmm. One too many Barbie movies.
Kadens favorite thing right now is his Lightening McQueen hat. He wears that hat everywhere, even to bed. We will go into his room in the mornings and he will be completely naked except for his hat. Over the weekend in Kemmerer, Uncle Shane taught him that we don't wear our hat during the prayer. So Kaden took his hat off and tucked it under his arm like Uncle Shane until the prayer was over, then he put it back on. If we leave the house without his hat, we turn around and go get it. Life is better when Kaden has his hat. Moms life is anyway. Kaden still loves to snuggle . . . YAY!!! I love that he is still a snuggler.

Memorial Weekend Mud Fun

Brian and I decided to go to Kemmerer, Wy. for the weekend to his parents house. We spent the weekend with his parents and his little brother Shane and his family. What you need to know is that we didn't go to see the family . . . oh no . . . we went to go motorcycling and 4wheeling. So why, you ask, did we go to Wyoming in May? Was it for the beautiful warm and sunshiny weather? Or was it the nice dry roads we could ride on? NAW!!! We left beautiful warm Logan Utah and went to Kemmerer(armpit of the arctic tundra) Wyoming and GOT SNOWED ON WHILE WE WERE RIDING! But did that slow us down? Nope. The funny thing is that even after we got rained, snowed, and yes sticky guey mudded on for the first day . . . WE WENT AGAIN ON THE SECOND DAY! It pretty much sucked for me because I was the only one of the four of us that didn't have all of the fancy gettup that would keep me warm and dry. Nope. Jeans and hiking boots for me. I was soaked before we had even left the garage. Course it didn't help that I was hitting every mud puddle that I could get myself close to. Oh well. It was a blast anyway. And I told Brian that if he wants me to go with him riding again, I want pants and boots that will protect me. How fun is that?!?!?! Leaving the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and going out on "bikes" and acting like a bunch of hooligans? Priceless. . . . The best part was watching Brian clean all of the mud off everything!!! From the nice warm house. All in all, our weekend rocked. I will have pictures of us riding when I get our camra from Brians parents. Yup, we left our camera in Wyoming. Go figure.
I really enjoyed getting to go and see my friends from Kemmerer. Usually we rush up and rush back and don't get a chance to see everyone. I got to visit while Brian cleaned up mud. HAH!

Update on Ashliman Family drama

Hello everyone!
Well I finally did it. I gave into peer-pressure and started our own blog. We will see how well I keep it updated. Oh well. Our little family has been nuts lately. Brooklyn had surgery on Monday. She was such a brave little Muffin Stud. She didn't even cry when they came and took her out of the room . . . I, however, cried like a baby. They removed her tonsils and adenoids and fixed all of her teeth at the same time. She was gone for about 3 hours. A pretty bad three hours for mom. I was lucky enough to have a friend who was willing to text me for three hours and keep my mind busy. Brooklyn is doing good now. We are on day 4 now and have figured out the pain medicine. She is loving the ice cream, Popsicles, yogurt, donuts, and juice. I told her last night that she was going to have to start eating good food and not just junk food. She wasn't happy about it.
Kaden is getting really big and is too darned smart. I am so afraid that my kids are going to turn five and be smarter than me. Kaden knows how to use the mouse on our laptop already. He turns two next month. Brians parents kept him while we did Brooklyns surgery and Karen said that he was lost without his big sister to follow around. He wandered from room to room, not knowing what to do with himself. He is enjoying all of the jello and Popsicles too.
Brian is still working at NOVAK and he really enjoys his job. He got himself a motorcycle for dirt riding and is anxiously awaiting summer so he can get out and use it. All this snow is killing him. What is really sad is that if we were still in Wyoming, we would have three more months of winter. Now that we are in Logan, we have had some really beautiful days and it teases him.
I am loving living here. I have made some wonderful friends who are taking really good care of me and my family. We found out a couple of weeks ago that I have poly cystic ovarian disease and endomitriosis. Yuck! We are really lucky that we had the two children that we have because both of these things make it really hard to get pregnant. I have been a total mess lately and my friends have really rallied around me. I am very blessed.
Anywhoooo, there ya are. Now you know all of the Ashliman drama as of April 2008. Hope you are all well!!!