Florida Vacation Part 1

A couple months ago Luther's mom sent him a text message asking us if we would like to go to Florida with them in January. We crunched the numbers and decided we could do it. So we settled on a week where Luther wouldn't have to use vacation time and booked that week using our timeshare points.

Day 1 January 26, 2011
Luther and I wake up at 1:30am to get ready and drive to the airport. We leave our house around 2:30am and drive 3 hours to my parent's home. We drop off the bunny and pick up my dad's GPS and my memory card that I had left there the last time we visited. Oh and since I left my straightener at home I had to borrow one from my mom. (Thank goodness she bought an extra one when she and my dad went to Disneyland last September.) After we say our goodbyes we drive over to Luther's parents house so they could take us to the airport.
Being that we have never flow on our own we decide to get to the airport 3 1/2 hours before our flight. I admit that was a bit zealous. :) After checking our bags and getting our boarding passes we go through security without a hitch. Luther wasn't too happy with having to remove his hat, jacket, shoes, and belt but he complied. Alexis loved looking at the flight crew and their "pretty" uniforms.
While waiting to board Alexis managed to pee so much that her diaper leaked then after I took care of that we went to breakfast and she spat orange juice all over herself. So, we ended up having to buy her a new shirt at the airport. Geez! LOL!
Alexis liked looking out the window watching the crew prep the airplane and staring at the people smoking in the smoke box. The latter was a little embarrassing. I guess it is time to teach Alexis it isn't polite to stare.
The flight was uneventful. Alexis slept a majority of the time and I got a terrible headache. After 4 hours and a bumpy landing we were finally in Florida. YAY!
At the Orlando International airport you get to take a tram to baggage claim. That was pretty fun but Luther worried that we would have to take another 3 before we got out of the airport. Luckily he was wrong and it was just the one. Baggage claim made me stress out, our bags were the last to go around the carousel. Alexis started to cry because her car seat was gone. Finally, all our luggage appeared and we could go get our car.
Our rental car experience wasn't too out of the ordinary. Just paid for the car, got sold insurance for the car, went to the garage, and picked out our car. We chose a Kia Sportage to use for the week.
Florida has toll roads. Well a major toll road that happened to be the way from the airport to the hotel. It was exciting to try and find the change for all the booths and luckily we had just enough to make it to our hotel.
We stayed at Vacation Village at Parkway. We couldn't find the check in office. Vacation Village is a timeshare resort that consists of 17 buildings. I tried calling and there was no answer. I was NOT a happy camper. Finally we found the check in building and got our room assignment and keys. Oh and we got suckered into going to a presentation breakfast. They gave us free breakfast and $80 so I guess it was worth it. I will talk about that a little later.
Our room was nice. It have a full kitchen, a small dining area, a living room with a sofa bed, a master bedroom with a jacuzzi, and a bathroom. The other room had a half kitchen, dining room, living room (with sofa bed), bedroom, and a bathroom. They were spacious and allowed us to eat most of our meals out of the parks and in our rooms. Luther and I went to Publix (a local grocery store) and bought some food items to get us through the first few days. When we got back to our room Alexis fell asleep and I sat in the jacuzzi tub. It felt wonderful after such a long day.
Luther then went to the airport to pick up his family and bring them to the hotel. I made chili cheese dogs for them to eat. Then went to bed so we could start our real vacation.

Random thoughts

As a member of the online forum cafemom, I see petty arguments day in and day out. Whether it is over parenting practices or what people should be allowed to purchase on food stamps at the end of the day hours upon hours have been wasted becoming too emotional. I guess it is hard for me to picture grown women fuming as they type to strangers across the country. I understand being passionate about a cause but more times than not these "debates" result in name-calling and nip-picking by the grammar/spelling police.
I have had my share of being offended easily and then lashing out. I have since learned a little from those instances.

1. Nobody benefits from being mean. There are ALWAYS consequences for your actions. Whether it is the guilt you feel after being so rude, the embarrassment you have caused yourself by acting like a fool, or getting kicked out of a dance studio there are negative impacts.
2. 95% of the time you are overreacting. We as human beings base a lot of our actions on our emotions. When we are young our emotions are more difficult to deal with. Some (like me) are born with lower boiling points than others but with time we can try to better ourselves. I am learning to stop taking things so personal. I have learned the I am not the center of the universe and coming to grips with that has made me more calm.
3. Whatever you are yelling/fighting/being mean about is usually not worth the consequence you will receive.
4. Nobody likes an ugly attitude. Happy people are drawn to happy people. I would much rather have happy friends than negative downer friends.

If I had a time machine and could go back to my junior high and high school years, one thing I would do different is be kinder to everyone. For some reason I got this idea in my head that to be popular and liked, you had to be mean. (Most of the popular people were mean to me so maybe that is where I got the thought from.) It never occurred to me that having friends that treated me nice and I gave the same respect would be better than being well-known but hated. If anyone that I have hurt reads this, I am truly sorry. I was stupid and confused. I could go on all day about how it is so and so's fault for this and that person's fault for that. But at the end of the day I made that choice. It was MY actions that put me where I was at. We all have our vices and my temper is one that I am working on. I HATE the mean me, I HATE hurting people, and I HATE that negative feeling that comes when I give in and be a jerk.

In Relief society today we studied President Thomas S. Monson's talk during the Priesthood session this last conference. It was titled "The Three R's of Choice" President Monson teaches that we all have been given choices. These choices have three different aspects; right, responsibility, and result. We have the God giver RIGHT to make choices, the RESPONSIBILITY to make wise choices, and we have to live with the RESULTS of the choice we make.
I am going to make it a goal this week to ponder me choice. I am grateful for the right to make choices for me and my family, I will strive to be responsible in making my choices so they don't have a negative effect on myself or my family, and I will be aware of the results of my decisions this week.
I wish you all a fabulous week and hopefully will touch base with you again! :)

Cute Alexis

My sweet daughter is definitely my favorite small person EVER. She just brings so much joy to my life. (And many other's lives too.)

Last night we decided to drive to Salt Lake because, well I didn't feel live spending the night in Rock Springs all by myself. We got to my parents house at about 9:30. I called my mom and told her that I was a half an hour away. My dad wasn't home at the time so we decided to surprise him. I pulled in front of the neighbor's house and called my dad telling him that he needed to help his granddaughter get her luggage. He was so happy to see his sweet granddaughter.

Somewhere between leaving Rock Springs and getting to Salt Lake Alexis was jet lagged. We arrived at my parents home and she wanted to stay up and play while everyone else was exhausted. (They had a weed pulling party at my grandma's and everyone was just plain worn out.) So we put in Pete's Dragon to entertain Alexis.

Alexis just fell in love with Elliott (the dragon) but was terrified to the point of shaking when the Goggins were after Pete. Throughout the movie Alexis would get scared. She was afraid of the school teacher (if you have seen the movie you know that the teacher is cruel, I would be afraid too.) It was just cute watching all of the different emotions she felt throughout the movie. She even told my mom repeatedly, "dragon blew on light." In the end of the movie Elliott uses his fire blowing to light the wick for the lighthouse. My daughter is too smart. :P

This morning Alexis had Marshmallow Mateys for breakfast. She ate them the way every child does. Picking out the marshmallows and eating them first. I even had to convince her to eat the rest of her cereal.

I LOVE my daughter. :)

Update

I think it is high time for a blog update. Here goes....

Luther is still working hard at Halliburton. He has started a new schedule that we are all trying to get used to. He will work for two weeks straight in North Dakota then come home for a week. So far I have lasted 4 nights before leaving for Salt Lake. I really would like to try to stay home but my wild imagination gets the best of me. Halliburton is actually treating him pretty well out in ND so I can't complain. He gets put up in a hotel, is guaranteed to be paid at LEAST 16 hours per day (whether he works that or not), gets $30 a day in per diam, and gets paid for the week he gets to spend with me. (40 hours worth.) We thought about it and we actually get more quality time with this schedule. I wonder how long he will keep this schedule though....

Next week Luther and I are going on a second honeymoon of sorts and are taking a Lexie free trip to Las Vegas! We will be staying at a different hotel each night and just having fun seeing what there is to see in sin city. :) We even bought tickets to see Mystere. I have wanted to see Cirque Du Soleil for a very long time and am so very excited to go. I think it will be good for me to have some time away from Lexie to recharge a bit and remember just how much I love that little bug. (Don't get me wrong I love her with all of my being, she just is in the two stage and can drive her mommy batty.)

My dear little Alexis has crossed over into the toddler world. She has decided that she is officially the boss and that everything belongs to her. The typical two year old mentality. :) She can also be a sweety too. She has a dolly that cries and she will pick it up and ask it, "what's the matter?" She says, "bless you" when anyway coughs or sneezes. She is a shy little girl though. Whenever she goes to nursery all I hear from the nursery leaders is, "she's so quiet.." "she's SO mellow," I rarely see that side at home. She did have a breakthrough this Sunday though. She said, "duck" and "quack quack." She is miss talkative at home, which I LOVE but sometimes I wish she would speak up in front of other kids. One day it might happen.

So I realize that I didn't make a post for Alexis second birthday. Oops. Alexis turned 2 on March 27,2010. We decided to have a small party at our home in Rock Springs. She got some fun things. She is one LOVED little girl. Here are a few pics...

Well again I have neglected my blog. I really am terrible at this.
Luther and I closed on a house on Dec. 1, 2009. it is a single family home with 4bedroom, 2bathrooms, and it has a family room. We are so excited to be in a home of our own. I have yet to take pictures of the house because right now it is so empty. We still have a few pieces of furniture in Salt Lake, we have a living room set (sofa, love seat, coffee table, & 2 end tables) that should be finished being built later this month, and we are in the market for a dining set, and a washer and dryer. But we will probably wait to purchase those.
Alexis has been LOVING all of the extra space that the new home provides. She runs around like a crazy woman most of the time. Today we adventured out to the backyard to play in the snow. Alexis wasn't too fond of the idea but I did get a few pictures...

As you can see she really did NOT want to be out in the cold.
All in all I think that we are well. Luther's work has kept him busy and I am starting to try exercising everyday. I want to wish you all a great 2010 and I will try hard to blog more. :)

It has sure been awhile.

I figure that I should probably get back to writing here so you all know what is going on with the Webers. We are still living in Rock Springs, Wyoming. We have actually decided that it is time to make this more permanent. We talked to the lady at the bank about a home loan and we were pre-approved! We get to look at a some potential homes on Sunday. We need to get the wheels turning so we can get everything finished so we can qualify for the federal home tax credit. Wish us luck!
Alexis is now 17 months old. She has 11 teeth now. She knows where her eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, cheeks, hair, ears, belly button, hands, feet and toes are. She babbles all of the time. It is so fun to hear all of the sounds and words she comes up with. Alexis LOVES to dress up. She likes to wear hats, sunglasses, bracelets, and shoes. We are introducing Alexis to the potty chair. She likes to sit on it but would rather pee next to the potty chair on the floor. She'll get it eventually. Alexis loves her baby dolls. They get many loves from her. She loves to share all of her toys with mommy. I can't get Alexis to eat fruit. She won't even eat bananas. She loves juices but will not eat raw fruit. I will just have to keep trying until she will eat them.
Luther is enjoying his job. He still FRACs for Halliburton. The past couple of months he has been going up to Williston, North Dakota to work. He says that the Williston doesn't have much going on and it is boring there. At least he gets great hours when he goes. I will usually go to Salt Lake and visit my family when he leaves for long periods of time.
I haven't been up to much. I am trying to be better at working out. It's a slow moving goal. I have enjoyed baking more often. I made cookies and flour tortillas yesterday. The cookies were yummy but the tortillas need a little adjusting. Well there isn't much going on I will try to write more often. :)

Happy Mother's Day Gift

I made this with my editing program for my mom and my mom in law. What do you think?? (Click on the photo to see the entirety of it.)