IT'S OFFICIAL.....Drum roll please!!!!

Today marks the FIRST week of me being 30 (okay, so I started this on Sunday & now it is Thursday!!!!!)! I know, what an accomplishment, right!? It is funny how many people have asked me if I feel different now that I am the big 3-0! Nope, I feel the same as I did when I was 29, heck even when I was 25, except for maybe a few more stretch marks & grey hairs! I have embraced this new age of mine & look forward to making this next year a very memorable one, full of new goals & new adventures! Maybe if I get around to it, I'll even dedicate a post to the "30" goals that I am working towards this year!

So, I am sure y'all are DYING to know what Jen Mortensen did for her 30th birthday. Here are the glorious details!

Unfortunately my birthday fell on a Sunday & so all plans were set for Saturday. Kiley & I got the kids up & headed up to the YMCA for a quick work out. We raced home, I got showered & ready & then my two great friends, Kate & Kim, took me to lunch at the Olive Garden. Kiley had informed me earlier in the week that I needed to be prepared for Saturday. The preparations included: shaved legs, wear something comfortable, bring along a cowboy hat, and a blindfold. After lunch, the girls surprised me with a pedicure that Kiley had planned. That is why I needed to shave my legs.....don't want to gross out the lady who would be giving my legs a rub down! It was a wonderful time & am grateful to my girlfriends for such a fun afternoon!

Kiley had planned for our kids to be watched by our friends & we were off by 5pm for a fun adventure! He took me to Benihana's---so good! It was a great meal & so nice to spend some time alone with him! They sang to me & the waiter announced to the entire restaurant that I was celebrating my 21st birthday....awwww sweet! :) When we got into the car, Kiley put the blindfold & cowboy hat on me. Now of course I had a sneaky suspicion that he obviously had some surprise planned...I thought he was taking me to the Cowboy Dance hall & that some of our good friends would be there to celebrate & dance the night away with us. After a crazy drive & me feeling terribly carsick, we made it to our destination. He told me that we were in a big parking lot & to be careful not to run into any cars. He helped me through the door & instantly I KNEW where we were.....the smell gave it away....we were at my best friend Kate's house! I ripped off the hat & blindfold & to my surprise there was a house full of great friends ready to party with me! Rock band, good food, bday cake, & even presents!!! It was such a fun surprise! I told Kiley months ago that he had better make my 30th a big deal....like throw me a surprise party! I didn't think he could pull it off, luckily he had Kate along with the help of Kim, to do all the dirty work! :) Thanks guys for such a fun night!

On my actual birthday, we rushed to get to church on time (8:30 am, ya I know, it's a love/hate time frame). I enjoyed all the birthday wishes from such great friends!!! Too my surprise, when I came out of church, my car was decorated in "30" & "honk, I'm 30"! It was pretty darn funny! I did get a few honks a few days later & thought people were mad at the way I was driving. Then I realized that Kiley hadn't wiped off the Honk I'm 30 on the back window! We had a little BBQ & Birthday Cake & Ice Cream in the afternoon with a few close friends. It was a wonderful Birthday weekend! Thanks babe for everything! I truly felt so very loved & also so very grateful for such great friends!

My sweet kids gave me a beautiful diamond heart necklace & earrings! Click on this picture above & you may get a better view of it!

It was the best Birthday EVER!

Pillar of Character award goes to.......

Teagen & Brayden both were awarded the Pillar of Character award for Responsibility this past month. Two kids from each class received the award. They got to have a fun donut & juice breakfast & then were given their awards along with a free meal at the Olive Garden. I have to say that I was pretty proud of both of them & had to fight back a few tears. I am thinking that maybe I should award a Pillar of Character once a month in our home...........maybe there would be less fighting, whining, complaining, etc. Any how, it was a proud parent moment! Way to go boys!

Where did December go????

I can not believe that December has come & gone! I have been meaning to blog all our December Goingons, but seem to read about everyone elses that I just haven't had the time. So, as a New Years Goal, I am really going to try harder to keep this blog up to date-work on mine FIRST before reading yours, especially since I have a terrible memory & can pretty much only rely on remembering the goingons a week at a time! :)

We got home from our trip to Utah Dec. 1st & put our tree up that very day! The boys had so much fun & were SO excited to have all the holiday decorations up!

We had our church Christmas Party a few weeks into December. Kiley was asked to sing in a quartet. They sounded great! As you will see, there is no picture of Teagen sitting on Santa's lap. He flat at told me that it was stupid and we don't even use that word in our house! He was too cool to sit on the old man's lap....Teag is only 7! Liv wasn't too thrilled either, but at least I was able to capture it on the camera!

Brayden with some of his posse!

The boys had their piano recital this month as well! They both did great & I was so proud of them! Brayden could not wait until it was his turn! He was so excited that he actually went up when it wasn't his turn & did it anyway! They were great & we really love their teacher, she is very patient & very sweet! Thanks Brooke!

I went to the Nutcracker Ballet with several of my girlfriends & their daughters. I went solo & really enjoyed it! One of my good friends daughter was performing & so it was SO fun to see her! She was so adorable up there! We had the NOSE BLEED seats, all the way up at the tippity top, but we made our way down to the main level & ended up with amazing seats! Way to go ladies!

I hosted our Music Class Christmas Party. The kids had fun, even though Liv was sick! She LOVES music class.......do I go to the gym, or take her to class????? Such a struggle! :)

Our little neighbor John or JohnG as my boys call him had a big birthday party at Pump it Up! It was so much fun! Even the adults got into it! Liv had lots of fun & even tried to strip off her jammies while we ate dinner & birthday cake!

We went to a couple other fun Christmas parties. One was an Ugly Christmas Sweater party & the other was a Tacky Christmas Party. Both were fun & we really enjoyed the company we were with! Atwood's pretty much took the "trophy"!!!! It's great to have such wonderful friends when you don't have family around to share the holiday with!

We are such a lovely couple!

We also enjoyed a fun dinner with some wonderful friends the night before Christmas Eve. It was fun to catch up with an old friend from Arizona times. Susan, your kids are adorable! So fun to see you!

We spent Christmas Eve at Sea World with our good friends! It was so fun & such a beautiful, warm day! That evening we made home made pizza, played games, opened up our Chritmas PJ's & our one fun gift & then we went to bed early!

I was sicker than a dog on Christmas day. I think I have had bronchitis or pneumonia. I was so sick & slept half the day. I am just now finally starting to feel almost 100% better! Other than being sick, we had a fun morning & I think the kids enjoyed the things they received. We wanted to keep it simple this year. They would have loved a Wii or a Nintendo DS, but we figured if we don't have the mula, we can't work magic! They didn't seem to mind! Liv was so funny to watch unwrap gifts! She totally got it & really enjoyed each gift! She loves her babies & baby gear!

Kiley worked on New Years Eve, so I went to bed at about 11:00. This was his 3rd year now working on New Years Eve.....Lame! Fortunately he had the entire week of Christmas off & then half of the next week as well! We enjoyed the holidays! Kiley was able to go golfing a few times. The weather here has been so bizarre-80 one day 44 the next! Oh well, at least the sun is still shining! Hope y'all had a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

I HATE Fire Ants!

You don't want to skip this post.......

FireAnts
Who Are These Fiends?
Fire ants are known for their lively and aggressive behavior, swarming over anyone or anything that disturbs their nest, often attacking wild animals, baby animals, pets or people, in some instances, even killing them. Their painful stings affect about 40 percent of people in infested areas each year. 20 million people a year are stung by fireants!
When these pesky critters invade an area, they do it with a vengeance. There will be enormous numbers of them which can dramatically reduce populations of native ants, other insects, and even ground-nesting wildlife. Watch out. They invade homes, school yards, athletic fields, golf courses, and parks. They will damage crops and electrical equipment, costing humans huge amounts of money each year in repairs and eradication.

The Southern Pest
The red fire ant was accidentally introduced into the United States in 1929, when a cargo ship that had used soil as ballast arrived in Mobile, Alabama from South America. (Thanks a lot!) But South Americans don't have nearly the problem that the United States does. They only have 20% as many fireants as we do, probably because North America lacks the natural enemies of the pesky critters.
These guys are aggressive! They initially spread throughout Alabama and Florida, but it didn't take them long to invade twelve of our southeastern states and Puerto Rico. In recent years, the fireant has spread as far west as California and as far north as Kansas and Maryland. Today the fireant habitat in the USA covers 300 million acres and it is growing all the time. Although fireants keep marching farther and farther, northerners don't have to loose sleep over it because researches predict that they will not be able to survive in areas where soil temperatures drop to near freezing for more than 2 to 3 weeks.

SO, with all that information & obviously y'all have seen the pictures of my foot, about a month ago, I was brutally ATTACKED by these wicked, unruly insects! A friend of mine had stopped by to say hi as we were outside minding out own business hanging the Christmas lights on the house. I walked over to talk to her & seeing that it was almost 80 degrees, I had on my flip flops. There was no sign of fire ants anywhere. You can't miss their mounds of dirt that pop up in the yard warning you that millions of these nasty creatures are lurking nearby ready to attack! As I was enjoying my conversation with my friend, I looked down at my lovely feet & saw that I was COVERED in FIRE ANTS! Now, I have been bitten several times by them & have been just fine. They leave a nasty little pimple like thing that itches & burns like crazy, but is bearable for the most part. I thought I had gotten by with maybe only one bite. WRONG! I was covered in bites. I started to panic a bit cause I am an itcher---I itch til it bleeds! Any how, my friend went to her house to get me some benadryl cream. She came back & as we were sitting in my front room, I started to itch like crazy. First it was my armpits, then my head, then my neck. I looked in my armpits & about freaked out! I looked like I had elephantitis in my armpits! There were HUMUNGO welts & I truly thought I was done for! I thought I would not be leaving my house for days & days! Then my head had welts all over it & then my face broke out in welts, they were even coming out of my nostrils! Not a pretty sight! I flipped out & thought Kiley would be a bit more concerned. But he remained calm, too calm! :) He told me to settle down, take some benadryl & I would be fine. He said that as long as I didn't start having problems breathing, I'd be just fine. JUST FINE! How could I possibly be just fine looking like a freak show???????? So, instead of believing what my smart husband, who is a doctor & takes care of patients in much worse off scenarios, I called our good pal who is a dermatologist & made him come over. I took the benadryl before hand. Literally by the time he got to our house, I was almost back to normal. He was pretty disappointed, hoping that I was some freak show & even brought his camera to take pictures. I am so sad that we didn't capture all my swollen parts....I think we all would have enjoyed being able to check out those armpits--they were so frightening! With in an hour, I was back to normal EXCEPT for my foot. It was ENORMOUS! Apparently I am allergic to fire ants......oh ya, and Bees! If you check back in a post I made in Nov of 2007, I have a great story about a bee sting that resulted in a HUMUNGO swollen hand (Pic is included below:)).

My foot was so swollen that you couldn't see all the bites, except

for the one higher up.

I couldn't wear a shoe on this foot cause it was so

swollen & it would leave an indentation that didn't

go away very fast!

Yes, this is the result of ONE measly little bee sting...OUCH!