Taurus, the Bull

My zodiac sign is Taurus.  Some traits of a Taurus are: 

Patient and reliable

warmhearted and loving

persistent and determined

placid and security loving

Some negative traits are:

Jealous and possessive

resentful and inflexible

self-indulgent and greedy

I feel like I fit 100% into my sign.  I have all of these traits the good and the bad.  Another trait is that Taurus' are that we will never allow someone to drive us, but we will willingly follow a leader we trust.  I am definitely more of a follower than a leader and I'm okay with that.  I don't want to be in charge, but I am more than willing to help out when needed but I also want the credit for it.  That's what's so great about us, we are very strong headed and want lots of glory and compliments :)  (insert sarcasm)

We are hard workers but very stubborn.  We are very loyal to our friends, but are very careful with trusting others.  We love to be wined and dined and have luxurious things.  We love art, but only secretly :) We like stability, being attracted, things natural, time to ponder and comfort and pleasure.

This is all me, I really can't explain it more than how it's put.  

Comfort Food

Day 5, this is one of the easier posts in the challenge for me.  I am a food lover through and through and love all sorts of foods, but the ones I seem to go to in times of need are the following:

Pinoy Food, or Filipino food.

Bryce went to the Philippines on his mission and brought back his love for the food.  One of my favorite meals is one that he makes called Pino a po minok, translated into the sitting chicken.  It's a whole chicken cooked in sprite with onions, garlic and ginger.  It takes 3-5 hours to make depending on the day and you eat it over a bed of rice.  Our tradition is to eat it like they do in the Philippines, without utencils and just your hands.  We love it.  The picture is of our new found favorite Filipino food truck.  He is parked just 15 minutes away and we go there just about once a week if not more :)  The food is so good and on a long day it's nice to just run over there and have a little chat with our food truck man and bring home our favorite food.

Swig

This has become my mommy addiction.  Again I am here at least once a week but usually and more and the top picture is basically what my order looks like.  A Raspberry Dream for me, sugar cookie and chocolate chip cookie to share with the kids.  It's yummy and the perfect treat on the long days and really make me feel happy that I have this little guilty pleasure just down the street.

Chocolate

This was and always has been my number one comfort food.  I love chocolate, all kinds of chocolate and if I don't have any in my house, it's a problem for me.  I used to eat a lot more of it, but lately I'm good with a little bit after the kids go to bed as my little treat as I sit down for two seconds for myself.  

Yes, my food is not the healthiest foods by all means, but comfort food doesn't have to be.  I try hard the rest of the time to do better with my eating, but with three kids and me still trying to figure out how to be a mom of 3 these things are definitely a helpful thing that make me a little more sane.  

My view on religion

I started this post early in the day and I probably won't get it completed until late tonight.  I have a lot to say concerning religion and I don't want to just sit down for 15 minutes to try and put it all out there and not say it the wrong way.  So i'll take it a little at a time and hopefully it all comes out the way I want it to and I can say all that I want to.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I have been for my whole life.  Not necessarily very active my whole life, but a member non-the-less.  I believe in the values taught in the church.  I believe in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.  I believe that when I die there is life after death where I will be with my family as long as I live the way I need to be living, which I could really step up on that a little bit.  I believe that Jesus Christ died for me and that he loves me more than I could ever know.  I believe in the power of the priesthood, I have seen it do so much good personally and couldn't imagine not being able to have it in my life.  On that note I also believe that women and men each have their own roles in the church.  I am not thrilled with the woman thinking they're not being treated equally.  When in reality, we are.  We just have different responsibilities than men and the power of the priesthood is so strong and sacred, it's an honor to have it for any man, they work for it and when it's earned it's a great experience.  I honestly don't know that I would want that responsibility with how great of a power it is.  I'm a mom, that's my big, great, grand responsibility given to me from God, and that's all I need.  Let me take care of the worldly things I can and let my husband be able to take care of the rest for us.
Now, as far as other religions go, I have nothing against them, and I will always treat others the way I would hope they would treat me in this matter.  I have family from all sorts of religious backgrounds and I love them all because of who they are, not the religion, or no religion, that they are.  One of my best friends is not of my same faith, I honestly couldn't tell you what religion she is, but she is AMAZING.  She is the most loving, giving, charitable woman I know.  She puts others first, believes in God, and is just all-in-all absolutely pleasant to be around.  She doesn't attend her church weekly, but she does go occasionally, and that's her choice, but to me, that doesn't make her a bad person.
I have a cousin who I am really close to and she has grown up not liking the LDS faith because of the reputation some members have given off.  She thinks members of the LDS church are all stuck up, and only want to convert those that aren't of the faith.  Yes, in a sense converting others is true, but I don't push it.  I'm one to only tell you if you ask, other than that, I leave it alone because I don't want to offend you if you're just not interested.
Too often I feel like because somebody isn't of our faith we are too quick to judge.  I'm not okay with this, if you drink, smoke, shop on Sunday, are a little different than me, but treat me and my family they way we deserve to be treated, like normal human beings, than we will all get along just fine.
We just had a lesson one Sunday about helping spread the word of our church and all great things came out of that lesson, but I also feel like we shouldn't be pushing people.  Everyone is at their own level in life, and even at their own level with the LDS faith.  My brother is no longer active due to people being too pushy with him when all he really needed was people to love him for him and stop the judging.  I have been taught that I should be talking to him often and bringing it up frequently with him, but I know the way the conversation will go, and I value my relationship with him too much to let one little session of trying to teach him something put that to crap.
So to really sum it up yes, I believe in God, I love my church, but I also love that I don't have to be 100% in attendance to feel like i'm doing okay.

Top 5 Pet Peeves

I am getting to this 20 minutes late due to my crazy obsession with Black Friday shopping, but we'll talk about that another day :)  This topic is weirdly kind of a hard one for me.  I know I have pet peeves but I honestly can't think of a whole lot right off the top of my head so I'm going to do my best and i'm sure later down the road I'll talk about a lot of things that really irk me.  

1.  Crazy, mean, aggressive drivers.  Oh gosh, I found one :)  I hate the ones that cut me off, ride my tail and are just plain stupid drivers.  I really hate when I'm the passenger in one of the cars that it happens to and the driver gets mad and starts driving aggressively.  I truly believe this is a huge possibility that this is how i'm going to die.  Weird, yes, but some of things that my husband, I mean, people I am a passenger with, do to make someone realize they "wronged" them make me crazy.   

2.  Rude customers.  I don't work anymore but after working in Customer Service I realized how mean people can be.  They complain about the dumbest things and sometimes are just whining just to whine.  I make a huge effort to be nice as a customer and only make a deal of something when necessary which is usually hardly ever. 

3.  Flakes.  I have known too many flakes in my life to not put this on my list.  I hate making plans and then all of a sudden it falls through.  Now let me clarify a little, there are times when this is okay and I don't get bugged like sickness, emergencies and things like that.  But just because you don't want to or I find out you blew me or my kids off to go do something different with another friend will put you on my not so awesome friend list.  I try my hardest to make plans and keep them, I really honestly expect you to do the same for me.

4.  The term "In-Laws" (said in the roll your eyes tone of voice).  I absolutely love my other family AKA my hubby's family and Brother's wife.  From day 1 Bryce and I have always said we didn't want to feel like, ugh, we have to go to the in-laws, but to love them and hopefully get that love and respect in return.  I feel like I've belonged to my other family forever now that i'm in it.  Yes, we did have our struggles at first but those are a distant past we don't need to think about because now I have 3 awesome sisters and 2 brothers gained from that family.  I can't leave out Caryn, she's my sister period.  I call her with everything you would call your sister with from the good the bad and the ugly.  She has listened to many struggles and sat with me so I could just vent and helped me through some hard times.  I am so grateful for these awesome inherited siblings, and parents I get to call my family. 

5.  People telling me how to live my life.  I'll make this short and sweet, I know what i'm doing, this is my life, i'm doing what I feel is best for me and my family, so move along.  If I want your opinion i'll ask for it.  

Whew, now that I've got started I could keep going but I won't, I should probably get to bed before Jack Jack wakes up so get some mommy snuggles and eat.

Where I'd like to be in 10 years

This is a great thing to contemplate for me right now as we are about to step into a new chapter/adventure in our life.  In 10 years I would like to be in our forever home, somewhere in Heber or Midway, Utah.  I see us still with only the 3 kids but owning our own business.  We will be successful because Bryce is already so great at what he does and he can only get bigger and better from here.  I'd like to have gone back to school and gotten a degrees to be able to help out where needed with the business.
Kaydince will be 16, ugh, driving, dating and hopefully being a good example to her friends and siblings.  I hope she still loves school and is doing as great as she is now.
Adison will be almost 14, a weird and hard age for any child.  I hope being the way she is now she will be able to cope with whatever comes her way and that she will grow into a strong young woman and be a great friend to everyone.
Jack Jack, my little baby will be 10, I want the same things for him as his sisters, to be a great example, to be smart, to love school and even though he may be the youngest, I hope that he will be a protective brother to his sisters and love them.
It's weird to think that far down the road, but I feel like the future has a lot of good things in store for us and I can't wait to see how it all plays out.

30 day challenge

Here I go, my first "real" blog experience.  Let's give this a go and learn some more about me.

Okay, so Day 1: my current relationship - HAPPILY MARRIED :)

Yes, I shout this loud and proud.  No doubt we have our moments and I have found myself wondering what my life would be like if I had gone a different direction with my choice of husband but it all ends up with me being completely happy.  I love our story, so here you go, enjoy.  Bryce Clayton Hale and I met in High School Seminary on the first day of my junior year, his senior year. I was already in the classroom sitting at a desk checking out everyone that walked in hoping to have a friend walk in or even a really cute guy ;).  Well, this kid, dressed all in black, with crazy spiky hair and the ugliest twine necklace with a fish charm hanging off of it walked in and my first thought was, wow, this kid does not belong here.  He sat down in a seat by me and I decided to pick up my things and move to another seat.  Yes, I was that girl, anyway, as luck would have it the teacher had an assigned seating chart and wouldn't you know, we got to sit next to each other.  

So we went through many days and he would talk to me and I decided to be nice because he actually was really nice so I guess you could say we kind of became friends.  Although back then I wouldn't admit it.  After a couple of months I actually transferred out of that class due to class schedule conflicts and Bryce and I would see each other in the hall here and there and say hey and that's about it.  One moment I realized he was a really great friend was after I had taken my driving test and I had failed.  I was so upset and just set off on my way to class as fast as I could so no one could see me or talk to me because I was on the verge of bursting out with all emotion.  Of course, who would I run into but him, he asked how my day was and I let it out.  That was when I got my first Bryce hug, (the best hugs EVER, FYI) and I knew I had a good friend.  

One day my best friend, who at the time had a little crush on him, asked me to ask him if he would ask her on a date.  With no hesitation I walked up to him and said, hey, you should take her out.  He replied with, "no, she's not my type, but i'll take you out"  I was speechless, in the not so great way.  I wish I could see the expression on my face.  After him asking again another day down the road I finally agreed as long as it was a group date, not just one-on-one because my mom wouldn't let me go without a group, which is true.  I went home and told my mom about it and told her how I really didn't want to go but didn't have the heart to tell him no.  So she told me to just tell him that she said I couldn't go because I had other obligations.  He called me to set up a time to pick me up and I gave him my little lie about not being able to go because my mom said I had other things I had to do.  

The next day I was not looking forward to seeing him, but when I did he had his normal Bryce smile for me and hug and then let me know that I missed out on a great night out.  He was going to take me out to dinner and then shopping at the mall.  Again, I wish I could have seen my face, he was really wanting to take me out and treat me like a girl deserves to be treated.  

The rest of the year went on and at the end of the year we signed each other's yearbooks.  He also made me promise that when he got his mission call I would go to his farewell.  I said yes, gave him my number and really just kind of forgot about it.  

We didn't talk at all through the summer, but he held up his end of the promise and I got a call from him one day.  He told me he had got his call and he was going to the Philippines and gave me the date of his farewell.  My heart stopped, something hit me and I realized, wow, I don't want him to go, I like this kid, why didn't I do something before now.  Now he's going to leave for 2 years, he doesn't know how I feel, heck, I just realized how I really feel about him.  I went to his farewell, cried through half of it, and then stupid me didn't go to the luncheon after even though I wanted to but my friend didn't want to and I didn't want to intrude on family time.  

The next day he asked if I would come over to get the address to where he would be so I could write to him.  We sat and talked for a minute and then as I was leaving I went to shake his hand because that's what missionaries do right?  He laughed and gave me one of his famous hugs.  I didn't want that hug to end.  

We wrote for the 2 years he was gone, I dated other guys, not to say i'm happy with those choices, but I always talked about Bryce and my missionary in the Philippines.  Little did we know that while he was out he was telling people I was his girlfriend and I was saying he was my boyfriend, I thought that was a fun little random piece of info :)  

When he came home, I was so excited, beyond excited.  He tried to come visit me but I missed him :(  He left an invitation on my door to his homecoming, but I was leaving out of town.  I was so bummed and almost didn't leave.  I called him and explained what was going on, and cute little Bryce said, "that's okay, but we should go out soon".  YAY, we went out on a little outing to a corn maze with his sisters 2 days later :) and from that day on we were inseparable.  We got engaged December 5th, 2005, about a month and a half after he got home.  We were married May 4th, 2006 and here we are 8 1/2 years and 3 beautiful kids later.  It's been a crazy journey but we're in it together and ready to take on whatever comes our way.  

The beginning of a new adventure

Well, here it goes, I've been wanting to start writing for years now and I've had many tell me to start blogging.  I haven't started because I didn't know where to start but then I saw a friend's blog and how she was able to just let everything out and I thought, hmm, that's what I want.  So here I am, embarking on this new adventure and hoping to make something of it.  My mind is full of random information and now I have a place to put it all.  Whether or not anyone reads this is not the issue, it's mainly for me and if someone happens to read it great, sorry if you get bored, I've just got a lot jumbled up in my head and I'll just start spilling everything on any random topic at any given moment.  There is a blog challenge out there that I think I am going to start as well because it seems fun to me. So here's to my new and exciting adventure, I'm looking forward to it and hope to make something of myself one day because of it.