A-Walk-About

I saw a little challenge to take pictures the next time you take a-walk-about the place you live. So, when I went walking tonight, I did just that. The only thing is it's not around my subdivision, but it is really close to where I live.

Daybreak - has beautiful walkways all around their man-made lake. It's such a great place to go for a walk.

To begin our tour. . . We first walk through SodA ROW  -  Daybreak's Shopping district.

Then on to the bridges - this is the first bridge we cross

On to the circular bridges - it's like a big circular stair case - only there aren't any stairs ;)

Across the bridge - isn't it cute?  I love going across these bridges - they're all over the walking path's.

Jeff & Steve came this time too. . . . . . . . and NO . . . they aren't holding hands :)

This is my FAVORITE bridge - isn't it pretty!!! ♡

This is my favorite spot of the whole walk - you go across a board walk and through the reeds and cat tails - LOVE IT ♡

Berneen found some friends today :)

Awwww so cute ~ a momma with her little babies :)

Isn't that beautiful - I love it :)

And here's what you see at the end of that little board walk - a pretty little cascading river :)

You knew I had to be in at least one of the pictures - right? It felt like a picture moment :)

And we saw a beautiful sunset. 

Another beautiful cascading river. So pretty.

The other side of that bridge :)

Back on Soda Row - This guy is so cool - don't you think?

And this now ends the tour of Daybreaks walk ways. Come with us next time :)

I Really Like the New "Views" Option on Blogger

How cool!  Have you seen this yet?  I'm very excited about the the new "views" option for blogger. I wish I could display my blog permanently one of these ways. I think right now my favorite new view is the Mosaic. It's fun to see a big page of pictures like that. Don't you think?

No wait. . .maybe it's the Snapshot. I like the way you can see the title from the post on each little tiny Polaroid picture. It's way fun don't you think?

Oh wait. . .do you even know how to do what I'm talking about?

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you a bit about it before I continue. I saw it in the Blogger Buzz tab in my dashboard here's the link to that article http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/03/fresh-new-perspectives-for-your-blog.html

Okay, so what are you waiting for, go do it, right now.  Take a minute or two and go up to the address bar. . . by the name of my blog. . . .  in the top by  prettydarnquick.blogspot.com   then type a backslash  and the word  view  like this /view  Now the address bar should look like this prettydarnquick.blogspot.com/view  Isn't that fun?  You have all sorts of options now.  Looks like it defaults to Sidebar - which is fun too.  But I really like the Mosaic.

What do you think?  It's fun right?!!  I love it!!  Great job Blogger - LOVE IT!!

Maybe I'm changing my mind again. My favorite really is the Snapshot.  It's so cute Ü

Playing Hooky!

A step by step guide on how to play hooky :D :D :D


1.     Tell your kids that they don't have to go to school. See the confusion on their faces and then see the big smiles that creep across their faces.

2.     Make them something yummy for breakfast. My kids like dippy eggs. (see more about them here.)


3.     Watch them spread to their special places to play video games. Then you get to do your favorite hobby now too. Mine today was blogging.

4.      While they are playing around, do something else you want to do.  Mine was Costco and Chic-Fil-A for a yum-O lunch with Jeffrey.

5.      Drag some of your friends into your evil plan too :) and make them come with you to a movie. We chose Tangled -(some said it had too much singing)- but I really liked it. I thought it was so cute and fun.  Loved the hair, loved the lanterns and loved the chameleon.

7.      Go out to dinner at your friend's most favorite fast food restaurant - our friends like Taco Bell.

6.      End the night with dessert. We chose A&W Root Beer Float Syrup (see more about that here) over vanilla ice cream.  Yum-O-Yum!


We had a blast Playing Hooky! Our hope is that with this step by step guide, you too can have a blast the next time you try Playing Hooky! :D :D :D   LOL   :D :D :D

Cleaning the Dishes

Okay. . .so here's another embarrassing picture. But again, I'm hoping it will help me accomplish this little goal of mine.  

I have been working on things that can make me happier.

One of those things is to quit being embarrassed about things. Well, I'm turning to my favorite quotes again.

"For every problem under the sun, 
there be a solution or there be none.  
If there be one, then quickly find it, 
if there be none, then never mind it."

 One of the things that I'm always embarrassed about is that I am a HORRIBLE cleaner. I really hate the idea of cleaning all those dishes after we've eaten dinner, because it took "so long" to make the dinner and now it's going to take "so long" to clean it up.


ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!  Can you say, lazy, lazy girl!!  I decided that I need to clean those dishes anyway. 
Instead of being embarrassed that my house is never as clean as I'd like it to be, just clean it! Just do it!! No embarrassment.


So, I timed myself last night as I washed the dishes.  It only took me 10 minutes to wash all of these dishes!!  10 MINUTES!!!  Wow that's not long at all.  I need to stick to my goal and get this done after dinner all the time - then dinner will be all cleaned up for breakfast in the morning :D

Life

I found this quote today and decided to post it.  I believe this is true.

New Blog for My 365

I just realized that I need to explain a little further about this whole "My 365" dealy-o!  I have started reading the Happiness Project again!!  Yes, I said again.  I started last year probably in October.  Got it from the library.  Didn't finish it during my "checked out" status and it had a waiting list so I could not renew it.  Anyway. . .right then and there I planned to finish reading it this year.  Also to make it part of my new years resolutions.  Many chapters are broken into months.  I decided to go month by month and try her goals as mine.  The January month is ENERGY.  Her idea for more energy is Organization. She talks about physical and mental energy.  Her idea is getting more rest for her physical energy (which has yet to happen for me, but it is my goal and I do still have 26 days to go).  For the mental energy she tackles "outer organization."  How happy it made her feel to organize her closets and her house.  Hence, the pictures of my attempts for organization around the house. Which is my effort at feeling happier this month too. :D


I decided that I need to post this in a separate place.  So I am creating a new blog for "My 365" if you care to follow my adventures at my attempt for more happiness in picture form :D

January 3 - Organization

In an effort to organize the house, today's picture is shelving for the boys closets.  

Just purchasing this shelving was quite a task in and of itself.  Figuring out measurements and how things go together has never been a strong point for me.  Thanks goodness for Jeffrey!!  :D He figured out how much we'd need of this shelving material and all the little brackets and doohickees that go with it.  So tomorrow maybe he can start on the cutting and sizing.  Hope to post a picture when they're complete :D

My 365

One of the challenges of 2011 is going to be my own 365. I've been inspired by Kami - she doesn't even know it, but I have really enjoyed peeking in on her 365 challenge and thought it might be fun to try one of my own. It appears that you take a picture every day. Create a gallery of your year through pictures and tell a story. I already blew the first day - ddrrrr. . . . . but I thought I'd just get going and start today instead and go forward. And so it begins. . . . :)

(Yesterday would have been a really cool day to begin because it was 1-1-11 that doesn't happen very often ;) )

So here's the first picture of the year

Why an empty shampoo bottle you ask? Well this picture represents something I learned today. I got in the shower to get ready for church and !*!KABAM!*! - this empty shampoo bottle was staring me in the face!! Yikes I had no shampoo. I felt very strongly that I need to store shampoo too - not just food - shampoo. So tomorrow I will have to go get shampoo to store.

Christmas Traditions

I think it's been almost every year so far in our marriage, except for maybe the first few that we have gone to the McFarlane's for Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day with the Quick's. This year Mom & Dad Quick got to go see Mandy for Christmas Day so they had their party on Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun. Gma Quick was SO SO generous this year!! She had 32 presents for each of us to open!!

WOW!! They had SO MUCH FUN!! They were so excited and loved each one!

We had fun just watching them open the presents and see their faces when their stacks were placed before them. :) :) :)

It was fun to see that Gma Quick had almost as much fun giving them the gifts as they did opening them.

Jeffrey & I got present's too :) :) :) We felt very spoiled!!!

Christmas Day ended up pretty quiet. The kids had a good time finding out what they received and had a fun time playing with their new toys.

Then it was just quiet the rest of the day. I realized I should have planned some fun things out for Christmas Day, but I had nothing.

Lynda White's family does a fun sock exchange as part of her party on Christmas Day and they have often gone to see a movie or they go up to the ski resorts and go sledding. That might be something fun & for us to do in the future for our family.

Baptism Day

Hayden was baptized on Saturday, August 28 at 11:30 am. He was SO excited!! He has waited for this day for a long time. Did you know that he has talked to me about getting baptized now for at least a year. He was super excited about it. He also waited an extra month because he really wanted his friend to be able to come to it. Isaac Peterson has a b-day just three days after his and he really wanted to see him get baptized and be able to have Isaac see him get baptized.

Hayden was the only one in our ward that was getting baptized from our stake this month. So he was in charge of the whole program.

He chose to sing Come Follow Me and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the opening and closing songs. He wanted Pam to lead the music and was excited that Wesley could play the piano and Haylee played the flute!! He wanted Grandma and Grandpa Quick to say the prayers.

Then I asked him who he wanted to give the talks. There was a Holy Ghost talk and a Baptism talk. He thought for a while and then said he wanted dad to do it. :) I told him maybe since dad was baptizing him and confirming him that we could ask someone else in the family to do that. I helped suggest lots of aunts and uncles that he could ask. He listened and then said, mom I want Josh to give the Holy Ghost talk - so we asked Josh and he said sure. Then he said, "Mom want you to give the baptism talk." Okie dokie.

I was so glad so many could come and Grandma Quick said in her prayer that she felt the spirits of those present and those unable to attend. I thought that was so special because I felt the same way.

Hayden, I pray that you will be able to feel the Holy Ghost directing you for good and that you will have the strength to follow through with those feelings and directions. I believe when you feel those promptings that they are coming right from your Heavenly Father. He loves you so much. I know because I love you so much too.