Happiness just might have a price tag . . .

Today I'm smiling.

And its even real.

and bright.

Actually... I'm way past smiling. I'm giddy.

I just found out that there is finally a generic for the crazy expensive medication that I have to take. Do you know what that means?! I'm saving $220 a month.

I can barely contain my joy.

In fact, I kind of look like this:
except I don't have 'istockphoto' written on me.

Oh happy day!!

Don't be such a cry baby . . .

It's a very rare occasion to see tears streaming down my husband's face. In fact, in the nine and a half years we've been blissfully married I've only known him to cry a handful of times. So when I observed my husband's eyes starting to glisten the other night, I knew it had to be blog worthy.

He was watching this:

That's right. He only cries when he finds something so unbelievably funny that he can't help himself. You can only witness this event under the right circumstances though, i.e. when he is sleep deprived and its really late at night, or when he's had a little bit too much root beer to drink. Okay, I might be lying about the latter example...

Other clips that made his beautiful brown eyes overflow?

Pure Luck: Who could forget this gem? From about a minute into the show and all the way through it, Greg is happily watching. However when Martin Short gets stung by a bee....

Galaxy Quest: The part where the Alien monster gets transported inside out. Gets him every time.

Top 100 Most Outrageous Moments of all-time: These beauties are so funny and since we have the episode recorded, we've watched it a lot. The best times are when Greg lets the tears flow in anticipation of his favorite clips.


Am I sad that I've never seen my dear husband shed a tear out of emotion? Nah, I love this feature of my eternal companion and besides, tears with laughter are so much more fun to watch.

When life gives you lemons . . .

It all started when Greg came home with a ton of these lip puckering sensations. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I was so excited because, you see, these are no ordinary lemons. Oh no...... they're special. They're a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange and they're amazing to cook with.

The problem lied with the amount of the lemons that Greg brought home. Over 2 dozen. I like lemons as much as the next girl but there was no way that we were going to be able to use 2 dozen before they spoiled.

And then I had an idea.

We were going to challenge our neighbors to a cooking competition.

Yes, that's right. A cooking competition like nothing that you've ever seen. It was going to be fun, a little courageous and well, downright silly. We called it the "I can't believe it's not Iron Chef" competition.

It turned out awesome.

Some highlights:

• secret ingredients: Meyer lemons, Ricotta cheese, Zucchini and LUCKY CHARMS.
  
• The opposing team used all of the secret ingredients in their dessert. I'm not kidding. And it got a thumbs up from the judges.
  
• The kids were amazing judges, they would not be bribed.
• My kids were introduced to new foods.
  
• Costumes. What would a cooking competition be without stellar dress-ups?
• um, the fantastic food... but that was probably a given.
• Staying up way past our bedtimes. On a school night.
• Memories to last a lifetime.
  

The only drawback for the day was the migraine that hit the morning of the competition. 3 hours of physical therapy got me through the worst of it though and all we had to do was change our menu, start the competition a little later and omit the prizes. Next time baby, it'll go as smooth as honey.

The ironic thing? Greg bought the lemons for a purpose... they were for a fabulously authentic Italian dessert that he had been dreaming about making for months. You guessed it. He didn't even get to make the dessert. Maybe he should buy more lemons next time? ;)

Families Can Be Together Forever . . .

We took our family to the Draper Temple open house March 9, 2009. It was one of the most loverly experiences of my entire life. I'm pretty sure my favorite part of this whole experience was preparing my family for what they were going to see and re-briefing what the temple is all about and sharing my testimony with them about Eternal Families. These conversations also led me into reminding my kids to be reverent inside the temple, I guess I drilled this reverence reminder inside their sweet little heads so much, in fact, that when we were walking through the temple's halls and going up and down the stairs, Natalie kept shushing everyone around her and walking on tip toe. Oh I love that three year old of mine!

And then there was the weather issue. Brrrr. and I repeat. BRRRR!!! It was such a wet, cold, snowy day. We were so glad to get onto that nice heated 'red' bus to take us to the temple and then bring us back again.

The inside of the Draper temple was breathtaking. Seriously. I loved all of the murals and my girls loved the Celestial room. They were all pretty convinced that they needed a chandelier like the one in the Celestial room to hang in their bedroom... could you imagine? I'm pretty sure it would take up their whole room.

Lastly, we enjoyed refreshment. You gotta love that, right? Well, we sure did. Probably a little too much.

I am so grateful for the amazing opportunity of seeing inside this temple with my family before it was dedicated. I pray that all my children will make the choice to come back to the temple when they are older so they can enjoy the tranquility and beauty and strength that can be found within its walls. I am ever so grateful for the covenants that I've made and the blessings that I've received because of our Father's Holy House. I love the temple.

Carpool . . .

I carpool with the best of ladies. Seriously. I am so lucky to be part of their child taxiing group... 'cept I think that they may be ready to trade me in soon. Especially after the stunt I pulled the other day.

Imagine, if you will, this little scenario...

My turn was coming up to drive the kids in the morning, which means not only having the kids up and at 'em, ready, fed and out the door at 7:40 am but myself as well. No promblemo, right? Ya, if it wasn't for my horrid headaches and lack of sleep. Since my friend knows of my situation, and being the ultra sweetypants that she is, days before it's my turn to drive in the mornings she pleads and begs for the privilege to do it instead. She asks at least a dozen times and every time I tell her, "no, I can totally handle it."

Fast forward to the first day that I'm supposed to drive for the week...

8 minutes before school starts, there's a knock at the door. and then another.

I'm dead asleep-- as is everyone else in the Debra Lea household, the knocking continues and I semi- wake up, look at the clock and tell Kaydee to tell the neighbors to "go ahead without us."

Then the realization runs through my body. I'M supposed to drive. I jump out of bed but am so dizzy from the meds and waking up from such a deep sleep that my body is teetering all over the place. I try to grasp on anything to keep my body upright all the while trying to explain to a just waking up Greg that he needs to drive the carpool today. I look out the window to see the confused fifth grade neighbor tell her mother that we told her to go ahead. I grimace from embarrassment and scramble around frantically to try to find my cell phone. By then my other friend (the one that offered over and over...) has already pulled around the corner to do my duty.

-sigh-

Then I can't remember my friend's cell phone number (the one that is now driving the kids to school) to explain and apologize. So I call my next door neighbor friend and tearfully apologize and explain the whole situation to her. I explain that I'm nuts. That plus not falling asleep until past 4 a.m. for a week, a dandy of a headache + a prescription that I rarely choose to take, but I took the night before= a really crazy Debra Lea-- that's barely standing.

I'm really crying now.

I tell her how our other friend asked me over and over if she could drive but that I thought I could handle it. and This is how I handle it. Then I burst into laughter. Uncontrollable laughter. which is apparently contagious because my friend was laughing just as hard as I. -whew- because I tell you what, if she weren't, this whole situation could have been REALLY embarrassing.

and then she brought me dinner that night.
I couldn't ask for better carpooling friends. or friends period.

some whoppers . . .

Two whoppers in one day, why I tell ya...

#1 In the other room there's a little bit of a scuffle between Kaydee and Natalie. Seconds later Natalie comes running out to tell us that Kaydee has done THE most serious offense... she stuck her tongue out at her. I know, bad huh.
Kaydee is in close pursuit to defend herself, "No I didn't."
Upon further questioning, she said, "I was just stretching my tongue. I stretch my tongue when it itches. see. Like this."

#2 My kids have a hard time going to bed. Surprised? Don't be. This is almost a nightly ritual. Sometimes the trouble starts even before we say the three dreaded words: "time for bed". This night was no different and Natalie was being the ultimate stinkeroo. She was playing 'you can't catch me' like the best of 'em all the while taunting her daddy and avoiding her bed at all costs. Adorable right? Ya, not so much at the end of the day. So instead of Greg loosing his cool, he grabbed the ultimate anti-bedtime nonsense weapon ..... the froggy sprayer >>>>>

He gave her a brief squirt to the forehead and in an instant her bottom lip started to quiver. She put her hands to the sides of her face and then let out the most broken heart sob a little three year old can make. When she was able to catch her breath, in between sobs, she said, "I don't want to be a froggy!"

It took me another ten minutes to calm her down and convince her that even though we use the sprayer for our frogs, the water inside it would not turn her into one.

Sorry frogs, I'm sure Natty didn't mean to offend. She loves you, she just doesn't want to be you.

playtime creativity . . .

Nicole, my dear sweet 8 year old.

I love you so much and I'm just not sure how to say this so I'm just going to be brutally honest. The housing market .... well, Um... its just really stinks right now. So if you want some advice from your mother, (which I know you do) next time you and your adorable friend get together, you might rethink the profession that you role play--REAL EsTATE agent just might not be the best option right now.

luvs ya,
mom