For everyone in Phx/Mesa Gateway air port has flights for $15 each way! Go to this web site to find out more. Shoot even if you drive here from somewhere else it's such a good deal you should check it out. The only thing is they have to be booked by 3 pm today!!!
http://www.allegiantair.com/aaLanding151515sale.php

And What Grade Are You In?

Tuesday night was our wards Young Women in Excellence. It was a great program! I left inspired and grateful to be a woman! After the program we had refreshments. One of the speakers was new to the ward so I decided to go introduce myself. After I said, "Hi I don't think we've met I'm Terina whats your name?" She said her name (which I've sense forgot I'm so bad with names!) and then asked me, "So what grade are you in?" I thought she was confused and asking what grade girls I was over. So I said "well I'm over the 14/15 year olds." Then she said Oh oh sorry! I thought you were one of the girls! I laughed good and hard and replied nope not quite. Graduated high school 8 years ago! So apparently I still look like I'm at least 18 or younger! I'm sure this will be great when I'm 40! But being mistaken for one of my young women. Not the greatest thing ever! But I did get a good laugh out of it, as did Brent and I hope you did too! I'm 26 1/2 and was mistaken for a high schooler!

rust, Rusty, RUSTY!!!!!!

So I really had no idea what we were getting into getting a puppy! He has chewed just about everything! Thankfully nothing of any significant value yet! Saturday we cleaned up really well. Put up everything he could chew on, moved all the DVDs off the floor, made sure there was no mail sitting out, put all of our shoes in a bin, etc. But still this morning he had chewed up a photo album from the book shelf (apparently the bottom shelf is no longer safe, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the stuff there!). He also chewed up our movie from Blockbuster. We do online movie rentals so they come in an envelope and you mail them back in the same envelope. Well it was sitting on the DVD player all ready to go and he got it and chewed it up! I don't know how I'm going to get the movie back to Blockbuster now! Which thankfully the movie was fine, just not the envelope! He also attacked my plant! He chewed up my money tree!!! That can't be good! He seems to mostly like paper/cardboard. We got a new trash can, one a little more Bosco proof, and we forgot about the box. The next morning the packaging was chewed to bits! So I decided since he likes boxes so much maybe he'd like being IN the box. So I put him in and closed the top up. I figured he'd knock it over and get out. But he didn't seem to be able to knock it over but, there was a hole in the side and he kept sticking his nose and paws out! It was too cute!

No need to worry we're not abusing Rusty! He was only in the box about long enough to snap the pic! He seemed happy as could be to be in there! He really is fun, it's just always a surprise what new mess we'll find in the morning!

Movie night

Sat night we took our niece and nephew Kierstie & Max to see a movie in the park! It was really fun to hang out with them and spend time with them. We hit up Burger King (by request of the kids) for dinner and just drove through. Then we headed to the park and had dinner there.

I was glad we got there just a little early since there were a lot of people who got there really early! The movie was Monster House. Kierstie kept covering Brent's eyes during the scary parts! It was too cute! Max kept saying what was going to happen! I think partly to keep himself from getting scared...."don't worry she'll be ok" They are adorable! It was quite a bit cooler then I had expected. Which wasn't bad with a kid on your lap but by the end they both had climbed down to the ground and wrapped up in the blanket. I was a but chilly! Kierstie fell asleep before it was over so we carried her to the car and headed home. But before we even left the parking lot, they were out!

It was too cute! We had a great time going out with Max and Kierstie! The best part it was free fun! They are wonderful kids and we love them!!! It's always so fun to spend time with there sweet selves!!!

Happy Thursday!

I love my husband! He is amazing.....want an example, I come home from work on Thurs. and there are flowers for me. When I ask "what did I do to deserve this" He replied "Happy Thursday"

Where Does it Come From?

So our cute adorable little Rusty has been such a delite to have! He is so much fun! He and Bosco are really bonding, which is the most important thing! In fact on Sunday we were at Brent's parents for dinner. His sister Erica and her family came over and brought there puppy Taylor. She is about 2 mo younger then Rusty but she's a Rottweiler German Sheppard mix. So she's already bigger then Rusty. But they are both puppies with WAY too much energy and they had so much fun in the big back yard! They just chased each other all over the place and then they would wrestle! It was so cute! But the best part was Bosco! Rusty and Taylor were running (she was usually chasing him) and Rusty yelped, Bosco jumped up went and ran in between the two of them and just gave Taylor this look. It put a smile on my face to see that Bosco has become protective of his new little brother! It's also funny that I used to think Bosco had a lot of energy. Boxers are a high energy breed and he can get quite bouncy and hyper at times, but nothing compared to a puppy!!!! We too him to the vet shortly after getting him which I'm glad we did. Turns out my suspicions of him being mistreated were pretty accurate. He is under weight and has ring worm (still waiting for the labs to confirm). Also he's not current on his shots so we had to get that done. Well since he's not current on his shots the Vet said not to walk him for 2-3 weeks. This is to try and prevent him from getting parvo or valley fever. Since you can get both of them from the air, dirt, other people/dogs it's not really safe to walk him, espically with him being under weight! The vet said that most likely he wouldn't survive being under weight. So no walks. The very next morning after going to the vet I get up and I'm watching the morning news and Rusty literal ran for an hour non stop!!!! Up the stairs, down the stairs, into the kitchen, over to the front door, out the back door, repeat! For an hour! He had so much energy I had no idea where it came from!!! But where ever it came from I needed to do something to help him get rid of it!! The next morning was just about the same thing so I decided if I can't walk him outside I'll just walk him inside! So that's just what I did. I put a leash on him and we paced the house for an hour! He didn't seem like such a fan at first but after a while he caught on to the idea and did great on our indoor walk! And it seemed to work, he went and slept after our walk so I think I did a good job of helping him get rid of some energy!

You know who else has so much energy I wonder where it comes from, little kids! The family I've been nannying for has had some things that have kept them out longer then usual. So I've been working late and doing dinner, evening entertainment, and putting kids to bed. I think I decided 4 kids is too many! I think we'll stick with 2 or 3! The almost 3 year old has decided she no longer needs a nap, although she really does! For a week now I've put her down and she is constantly getting back up! We decided to try telling her she didn't have to take a nap just to have quite time. Thinking maybe she'd fall asleep reading a book or quietly playing with toys. NOPE! This girl is stubborn! They don't spank there kids (which I think is fantastic!) but time out doesn't always work either, so here is her solution. Hot sauce on the tongue. After doing this (about the 50th time of her getting out of her bed) I found out this is way worse the spanking! And you don't teach them to be violent! You would think I was tearing her apart limb by limb with the screams that came out of her mouth after putting a tiny dab on her tongue. But even as tortuous as that was for her she was still getting up!! I even did it once more and she still was getting up! Talking with her mom about it she said we're just going to have to do it EVERY time she comes out of her room! Also one of the twins must be teething, he's been so cranky lately and they are both normally really happy babies! Now I can handle a little fussing and crying, that's part of taking care of a baby, but I'm a little worried he is going to give himself brain damage! He keeps throwing himself back onto the floor! And he'll do it on the tile! Or throw himself back into a table or something else hard! Which then just makes things worse! Poor kid! But I really do love them! They are beautiful children despite growing pains! And I'm still loving taking care of them! It is the best part time job I've ever had!

Ok I have to go walk my dog in my house in circles 100 times! Anyone want to join the pacing party?

Wonderful Week in New York!!!

So I haven't blogged in a while I promise it's only because I've been insanely busy! I'm forgetting if I'm coming or going lately!! Shortly after we got back from Hawaii my wonderfuly fabulous friend Amanda called me up and said "Hey I'm going to New York do you guys want to come?" Well of coures I absloutly wanted to! But first thoughts were....Could we take off for a week again, could we afford it? Well she found an amazing deal on flights! I have seen flights that cheap in years! We rented an apartment which ended up being much more cost effictive then a hotel. And turns out Brent still had plenty of vacation time stored up so with in 30 min. of talking to her I was booking our flights! Just a little spontainous. It was only 3 weeks away! I was SO excited immedeatly! I had not been back to NY since I had left, well there was one time. It was my flight home from Puerto Rico and I had a long lay over so I jumped on the subway and did some shopping during my lay over (yes that was the best layover I've ever had :)! But I dont think that really counts! So it was my first trip back since 2003! I could hardly wait! So it seemed like we had barely gotten unpacked from Hawaii and we were packing for New York! It was a little crazy. But once we finally got there it was amazing! We stayed in a cute apartment in Brooklyn. Which I loved! It felt like we were living there for a week. It was a nice little apt. and even had a back yard! It was a wonderful place to stay!

While we were there we tried to do EVERYTHING! I realized one day that I was trying to give Brent a years worth of my New York experiences in a week! It was a little exhausting! By the third day our feet hurt so bad and our back were killing us! The first night we just got settled into our apt and then headed into the city for dinner in time square. We figured it was a good introduction to the city for the boys, both Brent and Azam (Amanda's boyfriend) had never been to New York before. I had so much fun showing Brent around. I was just a little worried about the subways, after all it had been 5 years since I had used them to get around. But it all came back to me very quickly! Infact by the end of the trip we didn't even need to use the map any more!

One night we met up with some friends for dinner. It was amazingly flawless how dinner plans were made. A few calls and we got 12 people together! The most amazing one was Morgan, she was on my flight from Phoenix to NY. Brent and I were standing at the baggage carosell and someone comes up and taps me on the shoulder and I turn around and she say "You're Terina right?" And I said "MORGAN!!!" It was so funny. She just happened to be going to NY for vacation as well. So I knew we were going to do dinner with some friends and invited her to join us! The whole dinner started out as Amanda wanting to get together with Ted, who had been in our singles ward, well I knew Ted too so he had no problem with Brent and I joining them, then through her blog Amanda found out another girl, Nicole and her husband were going to be in town. Turns out her sister and her husband, Amy and Lamar, still lived out there and they wanted to come too (also from the ward). I had kept in touch with Carol and Dan (you guess it from the ward) and they were both, despite busy schedules, able to make it. So dinner with Ted turned into a mini Stamford 3rd ward reunion! It was so great to see so many people, catch up and reminiss!!

We hit all the fun places, went to battery park and saw the statue of liberty, went to the top of the empire state building, walked over the Brooklyn bridge, went to the MET (metropolitan museum of art), took a nap in central park, did some amazing shopping in china town, had dinner AND lunch in Little Italy (yes it is that good), had a canollie, had a hot dog on the street, ate some new york pizza, went to the public library (you know the one in all the movies, with the lions) went to St. Patricks cathderal (amazingly beautiful), did some good new york shopping, went and saw a broadway, spamalot, it was hysterical! Went to the worlds biggest Toys R Us (it has a ferris wheel inside!), went to Wall St, visited ground zero (it really made me sad that it's STILL just a hole in the ground!), went to grand central, saw city hall (beautiful!), saw a break dancing crew on the streets, saw many street peformers both on the streets and in the subway, went to the manhatten temple, wandered the streets, and the experience that made it a true new york day, saw someone peeing in the subway! We even saw some celebraties and a movie being filmed one night, we all saw Clay Aiken outside of the theatre he was perfoming at and Brent saw John Lithgow walking down the streets by the ABC studios.

It was wonderful to roam the city! But one of the best days was the day we rented a car and drove to Connecticut! Sounds simple but it took us forever! We had to take 3 subways and a train to get to the car renal. It should only take about an hour to get from the city to where I used to live and we left the apt before 9 and didn't get there till 11:30! Yeah it took forever! I was very nervous about driving in New York again! By time I had left the super narrow roads and crazy drivers didn't even phase me. Big city driving was a pieace of cake, which was helpfull when I then moved to LA. But I've been living in AZ which has lovely wide straight streets! It was so funny to be reminded of how insane the roads are back there! You see they were not set up and planned out like streets here in the west. They followed the old roads the farmers used. The farmmers followed the old indian trails. The indians followed deer trails. So you see the roads back east are based on the intelligence of a deer! I swear no exageration both lanes, the WHOLE road were in places as wide as one lane here! It quickly came back to me how my heart would beat faster and palms would get sweaty when another car would come the opposite direction! Ok sorry I've gone on and on about the roads way too long.....ok CT was fablous! The fall colors were beautiful! We met up with my old nanny family at an apple orchard, and picked apples!The fall colors were so beautiful! It was wonderful to see them again! The boys are so big now! Yeah surprise they grow a lot in 5 years! It was so fun to hear about their lives and what they are doing now! It was fun to drive through my old town and neighborhood, to show Brent this place that is such a huge part of who I am!

It was so sad to leave. Being there felt like being home. I love the energy the city has. I love the endless possibilities of a day. I miss the culture and diversity. I miss never knowing what you day will end up being or what hilarious experance you will have or funny thing you will see! There is defentally no other place in the world like New York, and it will always have a special place in my heart!

***if you would like to see more pics from our trip go to our online photo album***

Welcome to the family Rusty!

As you all know we made the tough decision to get rid of Bentley before we left to New York. I've kept in touch with his new owner and she says he is doing great! I really think it was the best thing for him. But poor Bosco has been depressed since he lost his best friend. Honestly depressed! He wasn't eating, he would mope around and whine, he has always been a cuddly dog but multiply that and that's how he was, always had to be right by me. It was so sad for me to see him so sad! So we made arrangements to adopt a new dog before we left. That way he could come join our family ASAP and Bosco could have a new friend ASAP! So I'm happy to announce that we have a new member of the family. His name is Rusty, he is a 5 mo. old beagle. A very cute puppy, but definitely still very puppy! His energy is amazing! It will be a challenge teaching/training him to be a good dog but I think we are up for it. In the mean time we are getting to practice patience, he's peed in the house I don't know how many times, pooed once, gotten into the trash multiple times, chewed on things he shouldn't have. But he is absolutely adorable! Bosco is much happier! They have been playing together. Here are a couple pics

I think this one is too great! All of my boys cuddling on the bed!

It was very difficult to get him to sit still long enough for a pic! We've only had him since Wed. and we love him already! He has already brought laughter to our home! He's funny! And makes great noises! Welcome Rusty!

I'm featured in a magazine article!!

I've been featured in an article for Latter Day Woman. It's an online magazine specifically for LDS women. But don't worry if you're not LDS the article is just about home based businesses. The like is http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?mid=wqfwtt#/page0/
The article starts on pg. 28 I'm featured about half way through it! It's pretty exciting so I thought I'd share! The only mildly devastating thing was that the accidentally used my maiden name :( Oh well! Oh and if you are wondering how they found me (so random right?!?!) I have an account at Our Ladies Room it's like myspace/facebook for LDS women. It's kind of cool. You should check it out. Anyway this is my exciting news, that and I can't wait to leave for NYC tomorrow! We are going to have a blast!!! Check back next week for pics and all the details!

Moving On

Brent and I have been released from the CTR 5 teachers in the primary. We are both a little sad! We truly love the little kids in our class! We have been teaching them every Sunday for almost 2 years! That is almost half their life! At least 2/3! It was so sad when we told them we were not going to be their teachers any more! Their little faces just dropped! They were so sad! Although we are sad to leave them we are both excited about our new callings. Brent will be a Sunday School teacher for the 14-15 year olds. We have heard a couple of times that it is a very tough group to teach! I bet he will be chasing them as much as our 4-5 year olds! I know Brent will do amazing though! He is such a great person and so easy to relate to and so easy going that I'm sure the kids will get along will with him. I think Brent will do amazing working with the youth! I got called to be the 1st councilor in the young womens program. I am SO excited about this calling. Although I am slightly overwhelmed I've been praying and pondering and I know that the Lord would not have asked me to do this if I were not capable of doing it! I've decided I just need to make sure I am in tune to the Lords promptings so that I will know what he wants me to do! Although there is a lot of responsibility I think where the most overwhelming feelings come from are the great love and memories I have of my young womens leaders! They were truly amazing and inspired me and helped me to learn volumes about the Gospel and myself. They plaid such a major roll in my life that I know how important this calling is! I worry that I don't know enough to teach them all they need to be prepared for the major things that are coming so soon in their lives! Even to help them through the major trials they are facing right now! I wonder, am I living a life that is "good enough" to be a good example to these young women? I guess I need to get a one piece swim suit! LOL but when I start doubting myself and my abilities I just pray and remember the Lord knows what he is doing! I went to my first young womens activity in 8 years on Tuesday. I was nervous, would the girls like me? Would I be able to relate to them? Will I be able to remember their names? (there are 12 girls in my Mia Maids class) Well it was such a blast! Only two of our girls showed up for the activity which in a way was nice, I think I'll remember at least their names and I can build on that! They were awesome and amazing girls! And my heart was so happy when the other leader Mary introduced me as the new leader and they seemed excited and said something to the affect of "way cool". I love them already and I don't even know most of them yet!! Also all the leaders in young womens seem like such fun and amazing women! I am so excited to get to know them better and work with them! Hopefully I can build some great friendships!

I am also looking forward to General Conference! I really need to hear the Lords direction in my life right now! I need to feel the spirit and the guidance and inspiration that always comes through hearing the living prophet speak to us! I have to give a little thanks to my seminary teacher for instilling this great love of General Conference within me! When I was in high school we would do "fast from the world week" Just like you might physically fast before an important occasion to be more in tune to the spirit we would do a spiritual fast to help us to be prepared to hear the words of the prophet and other leaders of the church. Our spiritual fast from the world consisted of.......(if I can remember everything it's been a while!) reading scriptures for 30 min a day, carrying your scriptures with you everywhere you went, wearing Sunday dress the whole week, dresses for girls white shirts and ties for the boys, no music, no tv, no radio the entire week. Participating in this really helped impress upon me not only the importance of General Conference but also the importance of preparing yourself spiritually to hear what the Lord is trying to say to you! So Brent and I will not be fasting from the world :) but we will be attending the temple tomorrow to spiritually prepare to hear the words of our Heavenly Father for us this weekend!!