Saw this on my friend Whitney’s blog and tried it and also found it VERY amusing . . .

Go to google, type your name and then needs eg Melissa needs and see what pops up!

1. Melissa needs to take a break (yep seriously this was the first result!)
2. Melissa needs to board the blob ship that is hovering overhead. ...
3. Melissa Needs a Miracle
4. Melissa needs lots of guidance
5. Melissa needs hydration after the walk. ..
6. Melissa needs her meds, and I'm sure Mikey won't get them for her. ...
7. Melissa needs to find a new agent
8. Melissa Needs Maintenance Manuals!
9. Melissa needs to get on board with her new body
10. Melissa Needs Help - Catch Me... If You Can

I did the top 10 because I was so amused!

I arrived Thursday late so we just went back to Brandons apartment and went to bed. Friday morning we woke up got ready and went into his work. I spent the day playing on my computer, which was nice and relaxing. Finally about midnight Brandon got done and we went back and went to sleep again. Saturday morning we went down to Venice beach in the hopes that it wasn’t raining, and we lucked out! We spent the morning walking and looking at shops and stopped and got some lunch. (I can’t believe how expensive food is down there!) Then we went to the Santa Monica Pier.



We walked the pier, looking at vendors and talking. Then (ya!) we went down on the beach and I literally dug my toes into the sand! I hadn’t been to the beach in some 15 odd years so I was really excited by this.


After walking in the sand we went back up to the pier and found this really cute little aquarium that was only $2 to get into and free for kids (it’s under the pier if you ever go) I touched a star fish! They’re really slimy. We also got to see shark eggs which were neat and some other cool little artifacts like a whale vertebrae.



Then we ventured up to the J. Paul Gettty Museum. This was a really cool museum. It’s set on top of one of their “mountains” (more like a hill) We parked under ground then road the tram up to the museum.










The architecture and landscaping fascinated me more then the artwork. It was beautiful! But I’m more into the history of art, and thus also like Chinese and Eygptian art more then anything else. But it was an amazing experience! This was pretty cool, up top the water flowed through the little hole Brandon’s looking down into (I made him look again because I didn’t get my camera out fast enough)



And then flowed out of the little hole in the ceiling on this side.



Then we went back to try and go to dinner at this cool little restaurant on the Santa Monica Pier (seriously fresh fish!) but it was closed (weird for a Saturday night, it was only about 6) So we went to the restaurant on the end of the pier, which was also good! Then off for some sight seeing (did you know the Hollywood sign isn’t in Hollywood and also it’s not lit up at night?) I don’t feel as bad not going to the gym this weekend with all the walking we did on Saturday. Sunday we just had time for breakfast before I had to be to the airport and Brandon had to go back to work. (We lucked out Saturday night that he didn’t have to work) I had a bit of a wait in the airport due to my flight being delayed because of the storm here in SLC, but other then that it was uneventful.

I have to say a big thank you to Denise for giving me a buddy pass making it so I could fly. To Sicily and Shonette for taking me/picking me up from the airport, to my neighbor Stephon for watching the dogs and to Eddie for taking the weekend off to watch Nyah. I appreciate all of you even if you don’t read this!

I’M GOING TO LA! Sorry kind of excited I want to shout it from the roof tops to everyone under the sun!

What would you do to spend 48 hours with the man you love whom you haven’t seen in 17 days, and before today didn’t have the prospect of seeing until the middle of March? Last night in talking to Brandon he said it might work for me to come out there for a weekend so I said I’d look into it. Originally I thought I’d try and go out there in 2 weeks, the weekend after Jasmine’s surgery but then Eddie told me that’s the weekend he’ll be in Denver for training, nix that idea. The weekend before I have the girls and will need to be getting ready for Jasmine’s surgery. The weekend after that will be my weekend with the girls again, so it could either be this upcoming weekend or wait till February 21st! I decided to take the challenge and see if I could make this weekend happen. I had heard about Southwest flights being sold for $100 round trip which wasn’t bad, but then I looked up the flights and they weren’t doing the ones to Burbank, nix that idea. Then I remembered my friend works for Delta and said she’d be willing to give me a buddy pass. So I’ve been texting with her and found out I could fly there for a max of $75, pretty good deal. I decided to try and sell a few things on KSL to see if I could come up with the money, and started making phone calls to see if I could get the kids and dogs taken care of for the time I would be out of town. Luckily I have a wonderful group of family and friends 2 of whom agreed to help with the kids. Now i’m just trying to make arrangements for the dogs. So to answer my question, personally I’d bend over backwards, do 2 back hand springs a double flying backwards somersault all while blind folded just to spend 48 hours with my husband. And yes, I’d do it all over again, any day of the week!

Day one
I confess I haven’t been to the gym in months. But today is the new begining. I am doing the Salt Lake City 5K in April with my sister and I haven’t even started training yet! I’m feeling a little pressure. I know, a 5K isn’t much but for an ex-smoker who hasn’t been to the gym in at least 4 months it’s pretty much a marathon. So today I am going back to the gym. My goal is to go 4-5 days a week, which I was easily doing last year. Plus Sicily has also started back at the gym which is also good motivation for me, I like to work out with her. Plus I’m hoping with quitting smoking that training for a 5k will help me be good.

Wish me luck, I’m going to need it!

Jas continues to do well, as with before she has a hard time sitting for too long in class but luckily her teacher is really understanding and works with her. Every morning before school she still takes her motrin, and if she plays too hard at night she also takes some more before bed. The incisions are starting to itch pretty bad which is hard because they’re still pretty sensitive, so how do you scratch something you can’t touch? As usual she’s in good spirits and is one happy kid for all the crap she goes through.

I just realized I hadn’t updated that we got Jasmine’s next surgery date. We will check in to Shriner’s on Monday February 2nd in the afternoon. Her surgery will be Tuesday morning, and then we’ll come home Wednesday afternoon barring any complications. This surgery will be a lot easier and faster then the last one since they are only going in to extend the rods so she can continue to grow. She will have this same type of surgery every 5 months until she is 11 or 12, depending on when her doctor determines that her trunk has finished growing. After she stops growing they will do the final surgery of fusing her spine and put in permenant rods. After that surgery Jasmine should be done with major surgeries and will only really have to deal with braces, headgear and probably more speech therapy.

Luckily Eddie’s sister in law Autumn has agreed to take Nyah for me while Jasmine is in the hospital and Eddie will be driving her out to Tooele and picking her up. I think this will be better for Nyah then bouncing inbetween houses like we’ve done previously.

So I was told by someone that they didn’t like the set up of my blog, having to click the link to get into to read the newest entry. In their utter laziness (love you C!) they didn’t want to have to do the extra click, so here you go, easier just for you!

For awhile now Nyah has been picking out her own outfits most days, and this was a good one, the greatest part for me was the hat and the posing for pictures. It’s a lot of fun after she gets dressed and she thinks she looks especially cute. She’ll stand in front of my closet mirrors turning different directions and commenting on how cute she looks and what she likes best about her current outfit.

Bella really makes me laugh, sometimes. Sometimes I want too strangle her, especially when she’s chewed up something else she shouldn’t have. But usually images like these are what make me love her. She is hilarious with her toys. She loves to have someone throw them around for her. She is also really cold during the winter but refuses to keep her sweaters on. So instead she burrows under blankets anywhere that she can find them. Recently she also started climbing inside sweatshirts to keep warm. Good thing she’s so dang cute otherwise she probably would have been punted across the room a few times by now.

Nyah loves piggy back rides and is always trying to get Brandon to give her one. Occasionally he’ll ask when it’s his turn to get one. Over Christmas Nyah obliged.



But the rear view is what made me really laugh.



Yes that is her little booty, yes we have belts for her and no they do not work.

For those who haven’t heard yet, I quit smoking January 1st. I didn’t want to make it too widely known till I felt like I was doing good, and knew in saying it that it’s true. I’m done! It was a lot easier while Brandon was here. Each day has gotten harder, luckily I have friends who are also quitting, so that helps. Also I have one amazingly supportive sister who has come up with motivational surprises for me, so I have those to look forward to. Also the single digit temperatures help in deterring me from wanting to go outside. The thing is I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m bored now. I need a new hobby thats easy to pick up, and put down. Doesn’t require a lot of attention and very little training. It can’t take up a lot of space and needs to be easy to transport. I was thinking of knitting, but I need someone to teach me. Oddly enough I already have a lot of the supplies but haven’t put in a lot of effort. Maybe there is a website that can teach me. Anyway, day 6 almost down and counting.

Oh my, I have to say for how often I blog about the difficult things Nyah does, she really does say and do almost as many sweet and cute things. One of my favorite especially right now, she comes and cuddles in bed with me in the morning for a few minutes before she decides it’s time to get up.

This morning we were cuddling as usual and out of the blue she says, “When I grow up and am an adult I’ll come visit you lots mommy.” At first I was thinking she said this because she went and saw her Grandma Lee recently which doesn’t happen very often. But I asked her why she said that and she said “Because you like to have lots of time to talk with adults” Lightbulb goes on! Whenever her and Jasmine ask why they have to go with their dads one of the reasons I give is because I need time to be able to go spend with adults. I’m guessing this is also why she often tells me she wants to be an adult, although sometimes when I ask her why she wants to grow up she says because she wants to be able to drive.

Another very sweet thing Nyah said a few weeks back, we were driving in the car. Nothing special happening. Nothing big going to happen. Out of no where Nyah says “You’re the best mom EVER!” I almost started crying!

On Christmas day we were driving up to Brandon’s parents house and Nyah says (out of no where again) “Daddy I wish you never had to go back to LA” She said things like this several times while Brandon was home for the Xmas break, which just about broke my heart.

While Brandon is down there, most nights we try to either call or text him goodnight. Nyah’s favorite thing to say currently is “I love you with all my hearts” When asked how many hearts she has the number usually varies but is regularly around 20.

Christmas morning was the usual chaos of paper flying and kids squeeling their delight. As always watching them open their presents was th best part. Thanks to the Gilberts for joining us for presents and breakfast! We then braved the snow on our side of the valley to venture to the Ellsworth’s, only to find that apparantly it only decided to snow on the west side of the valley. Again we ate and then the paper flew as we watched more presents being unwrapped. Thank you to Mike and Cindy for having us up to your houseand for a delicious brunch!

The present from Santa this year was a Wii and then they each got a few smaller toys too.








As Brandon would say we need to buy Nyah some hips to keep those pants up! (belts do not work!)

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my side of our family over at my Grandma and Grandpa Gilberts. We always have a great time over there and this year did not disappoint. We played Wii (Jasmine the natural was in excellent form as always) We ate all the delicious food and even saved some room for pizza. Then we played SANTA bingo, and even more Wii before the night was rounded out with presents. As usual the girls got their new Christmas jammies. Thank you Norma, Richard and Julie for making this Christmas eve so much fun!

Nyah looks a little too excited about her sprite


Bingo, Nyah was “helping” call out the numbers, at least when she wasn’t dumping the cup on the floor



Jasmine LOVES my moms newest dog SuzyQ


Christmas jammies

Yes Grandpa Richard is asleep



Notice Nyah’s tongue.

Literally I was here watching this for 5 minutes. Each grade got to perform 3 songs before they were quickly ushered off the stage to make room for the next grade, but I did manage to get a few cute pictures of Jasmine.