New Year...New Beginning...2012

This was probably my post title from the beginning of last year but oh well...it's a good title to stick with. Ahhhhh! A new beginning. Don't you just love it? Every year we think of ways to imporove ourselves. Loose weight, become more organzied, more religious, or better people in some way. And then when the year comes to a close we get depressed because we didn't come even close if not farther away from the goals we set at the beginning of the year. So here's to another year!. Raise your glasses high to another year accomplished. I think we should just be proud of ourselves if the most important thing we did accomplish was to breath every day and stay alive on this earth then we are okay. But I ask myself, maybe this new year should start off with a resolution of some sort and what should that resolution be? Well, I can make it simple and practical like getting in shape and loosing weight. That's a good one. Or maybe a toughie like becoming more organized, ehhhh...boring. Well one particular one that comes to mind is being a better blogger although I don't know anyone that blogs anymore. Everyone just posts on facebook which is fine. That's what I do. But Blogging is more like a journal. We are counseled to keep records and journals and now its faster and easier than ever via the internet and computers and typing instead of writing. So This is my new year's resolution to get on here once a day and blog or journal the happenings of the day whether they are exciting or boring. Happy New Year everyone! 2012 is going to be exciting I can tell!

New Year

Month of May

Today is FRIDAY the 13th! EEEEEEkkkkkk! But, it's 5:13 pm and I feel I've had a pretty good day. Kyle sent me a text letting me know I was WAY behind on my blog. Thanks Hun! Now to get to work....

The last blog I posted talked about our new horses. Since then we've had Weston's birthday, our mini vaca to Seattle and Mother's Day.

Weston turned 10 on April 13th, but in our house we seem to have BIRTHDAY WEEKS, not BIRTHDAYS. We celebrated by going to Seattle and taking the kids to the common sites. The Science Center, Space Needle, The Aquarium, The Zoo, and of course THE CHEESE CAKE FACTORY. We went shopping and ate and ate and ate. The kids thought the space needle was a little lame. The Zoo was fun but we had to be speedy tourists because we had to still get to the Aquarium and Warf by the afternoon. Kyle's schedule was set on getting out of Seattle before 4 pm. It didn't happen. After the warf tour we went to find a place to eat. We wanted to eat at the Crab Shack and give the kids their first dose of clams, crab legs and oysters but we had to settle for Red Robin. The wait to get into both were an hour! With hungry kids you really have to try to AVOID that. But we had a good dinner and Weston got sang "Happy Birthday" to at Red Robin. We didn't leave Seattle until 8 pm. lol! But it was fun to get away as a family and "chill" or "bond". Later that week we had Kyle's Dad and Mary over for dinner to celebrate, my parents took us to PERKINS for a birthday dinner, he celebrated at scouts and of course I made him a RODEO birthday cake. So he turned 10 with a BANG!

Mother's Day was a beautiful celebration. I woke up early and made a cake (see picture below) Finished in time to make it to sacrament meeting to hear my kids sing to me. Afterwards we came home and had my family and my parents over for a MOTHER'S DAY BBQ. Thanks to the beautiful weather we had a beautiful Sunday. BUT my favorite part of the day was the night before when I came home to a late night run to Walmart to a new leather sectional! Kyle is so thoughtful! He knew company was coming the next day and took the time to move my old stinky couches out and the new sectional in before the big celebration the next day. He's so nice!

Well, other than work at the restaurant our life has been kind of slow and easy. Just the way we like it. Summer is just around the corner and I am crossing my fingers I can slow down at work and take time to have fun with the kids. We are getting ready to go on our annual Cattle Round up at the Ranch. We are leaving Wednesday and coming home Saturday. All the kids are going this year and all of our HORSES. lol. Maybe even the dog. Stay tuned! Oh! and this is a picture of a cake I made for my neice Madi for her 1st communion.

It's been a week already since we moved to Cali!

I can't believe it's been almost a week since April Fool's! I am sorry to all those who followed along and then got a BIG surprise that we didn't actually move to Cali (California) although with the weather the last few days it would have been a dream come true. So for your comfort I won't play an April Fool's joke next year....or will I (insert eyebrow lift, eyebrow lift) It's just so fun! Exhausting but fun! Lol! I still have my fake pregnancy test from 2010, ha! ha! THAT I promise to never do EVER again! Tell people you are pregnant...SHEESH! I was getting comments for a whole year on that one! So Kyle is dealing with his horse fetish again. Everynight I've come home to a new horse in the pasture. He says everyone in our family needs a horse. I look at him with my arms crossed and my eyebrows lifted. "Seriously" I say and He replies with "Yeah. Some families buy bikes or 4 wheelers, we buy horses for entertainment." Who can argue with that right? A man who is thinking of his family and spending time with them is so sweet. Well with almost 13 years together I know how to read his mind. I DO! Seriously! I knew what was next. It's kind of like the book "If you give a mouse a cookie". In the book a boy gives a mouse a cookie, then he needs milk, then a camera and so on and so forth...Well in our case if you give a man a horse he needs new bridles and saddles, and chaps, and blankets and soon (with in an hour) he said...wait for it..."Hun I need a new pickup so we can haul these horses to places." yep I read his mind alright. I just shook my head and said what any good wife would say "Whatever makes you happy Hun." and I meant it. Some men fish, some men watch sports, some men golf and drink beer, mine likes cows and horses. He lives for livestock! So I should be thankful his butt isn't planted infront of a 80 inch big screen watching men in tight pants fight over a pigskin. :-) So I decide to engage myself in his interest. I use to ride horses ALL of the time when I was younger. So on Sunday in between conference sessions I decided to get on Shasta, the big brown brother of Cola. He took me for a ride!! As soon as I got on him he took off like one big brown bolt of lighting. I couldn't get him to stop. He ran and ran until I guess he was thirsty because that's where he headed. And EEEEEEErch!! Right infront of the water troph. I hopped off and handed the reigns to Kyle. "How did I look?" I asked. He said "Scared out of your mind" I just laughed and went inside. For the last three days, even though I'm walking around like a 60 year old bull-legged cowboy I think I did pretty good! And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

"Be Humble..."

I've heard this twice today. Once from my Mommy Dearest and once from my hubby. Why you ask? Well, today was a very humbling day. We had COURT! EEEkkkk! It all began on Valentine's Day. Kyle took off for work and called me 10 minutes later to let me know the police had him pulled over and said he had a suspended drivers license. So I arrived and they took my info and said I had a suspended drivers license. WHAT!?! And the nice policeman handed us Warrants for 3rd Degree "CRIMINALS" was stamped across the front! So...we spent the day trying to unravel the mysterious case of the SUSPENDED DRIVER's LICENSE...DUH! Duh! DUH! (input creepy music) Well by the end of the day we kind of had it figured out but had had to shell out about $600 to get my license and Kyle's license "somewhat" figured out and unsuspended that we didn't even know were suspended in the first place!! Come to find out the whole thing was ONE BIG misunderstanding. ONE BIG computer error! ONE BIG headache!! So Kyle and I were stamped "CRIMINALS" for committing a "CRIME" that we didn't even committ...well except my ticket was marked "unpaid" and so was Kyle's. But they had record of Kyle's being paid somewhere they just couldnt figure out which departmet of the government didn't do their job and forgot to mark it "PAID"...and this is where health care is going people...UGH!! As for me we couldn't prove anything so I had to walk away with my tail between my legs. Now fast forward to today. Our court date where we were going to go down kicking and screaming no matter what! They were going to know we were innocent! So we get all spiffied up and looking "professional" with our papers and evidence to show good ole Mr. Judge that we were done wrong! The morning was spent sweating and hyperventalating and praying and more sweating and hyperventalating. I sent a very important text to my mommy to see is she was praying (cause you know how mom's have that direct line to Heaven) and she texted back "BE HUMBLE and don't be afraid to cry" so I walked into that court room with my head held high. I WAS INNOCENT I TELL YA! INNOCENT! Kyle was first. He walked up to that Mr. Your Honor what's his name and the judge said "State your full name please" and Kyle responded proudly "Kyle Noyes" I was so proud of him! Then the judge flipped through the papers and said "Ok I see you have taken care of this, DISMISSED" yeah!! Now my turn...oh boy I was nerveous...but I walked right up to the Judge and he said "Is your name Mishelle Noyes?" and I nodded yes and he flipped through my file and said "DISMISSED." and I started giggling. We got in the car and Kyle said "BE HUMBLE" and I said "I will" And that is the theme of the day. BE HUMBLE.

A buck is not just a buck....

Im going to make this quick since I have to leave for work in 40 minutes and I am still in my P.J.'s (lol)

Speaking of work...for those of you reading the next time you go to a restaurant I want you to watch your waitress. Not just glance at her when she passes by or check out the earrings she's wearing. No, I mean watch her. See where she goes, what she does, how many things she is doing at once. Why? Because I have had a lot of customers lately that think that they are the only ones in the restaurant. They want FULL service. People are becoming so impatient lately...Are you ONE of them? I've been a waitress for 12 years. I know my stuff. I can tell you it takes me 9 times to check back on a table to excpect a good enough tip I think I deserve. That's right 9 times. Here's how it goes.

-Welcome guests
-Get Drink orders
-Order Entrees
-Serve food
-Check back for accuracy after two bites
-Fix any problems
-Refill drinks and pre-bust table
-Present Bill
-Cash out customer
-Thank them and welcome them back

But I want you to take in consideration that you need to remember you are not the only table I have. Lets take yesterday in for example. I had a slight lunch rush. This means I had 9 tables all at once ( 11:50-12:00 is our lunch seating time). Average was 2 people per table. So that's 18 people all at once. So lets take 18 people with 9 steps to each person that is 18 x 9 = 162 steps to follow for a decent tip. What do you tip for your waitress to follow her 9 steps for you? People ask alot: What should I tip? They usually base it on a mathmatical equation. 18%? 15% 10% Man that adds up when you think about it. So I tell you what. The next time you go to a sit down restaurant bring this list of 9 steps with you. Everytime your waitress executes a step cross it off. If she does an extra step that wasn't on the list like get you extra napkins or crackers for your soup add that to the list. Then at the end of your meal add them up. I'm sure you'll be surprised at the steps she did that weren't on the list. We are trained for 2 weeks when we first become servers. We are told that these 9 steps are our protocol. It's all we have to follow. But a good server will go beyond this list. What would you pay someone for getting you an extra refill? 10 cents? 20 cents? If you gave her 10 cents for each step she did that's 90 cents. But I'm sure your waitress will go beyond 9 steps. I'm sure she'll do 10 or more. That's a buck per person at the table. So...a bucks a buck. And you don't know what 1 dollar means to a waitress. Seeing just a dollar means a lot to a server. It means "Hey, thanks for bringing me food, making sure it's hot and cleaning up after me and my messy self." Be patient, smile and for goodness sakes leave a tip...it's good karma :-)

My Honey turns...(gulp) 33!!

Well, it's Kyle's birthday again. This year he turns 33! He laughs and says he's fat and bald, but I find him more sophisticated. If we didn't have kids and RESPONSIBILITY I think turning 33 would feel a whole lot younger. But having kids and a crazy job has made him feel older. (It doesn't help that the kids think their Dad is OLD) I brought it to Weston's attention that my Dad was turning 46 when I was his age!! Their dad is young and "HIP"! Happy Birthday Honey!

A little New Years thought...

I would like to share an experience I had that really opened my eyes.

I had had a dream the other night that was so terrifying. I had backed the suburban up and ran over Savannah. I know horrible right?!? A parent's worse nightmare! The dream ended but the feelings stayed with me all day. I just couldn't get it out of my mind. I kept telling myself to get over it. It hadn't had happened and it wasn't real so just relax. I had work to do and needed to focuss.

Well I had a half an hour break at work. This gave me just enough time to run to the sitters where Savannah was. I took her home, throw dinner in the oven, say hi to the kids, get the other babysitter settled with the kids, jump in the car and head back to work. As I was bouncing down the porch steps to get back in the car the dream popped into my mind again. I was angry at myself for thinking about it again. My eyes teared up as the feelings from the dream raced back into my heart. I noticed Cody and a neighbor playing in the yard. I yelled "Good Bye! Love you!" He turned to wave to me just as I closed the door and turned on the ignition. He kept waving to me to come see him and yelling something I couldn't make out. I was aggrivated that he didn't understand I didn't have time to have a conversation. But I rolled down my window to see what all the comotion was about. I yelled out a very short "What is it Cody? I'm in a hurry" and he raced over to the passenger side and bent down to pick something up. It was Savannah!! She had some how followed me out the door without me noticing. She wanted another kiss good bye. Cody had noticed her and was yelling for HER to come to him not ME! I think I sat there for 10 more minutes in astonishment. Heavenly Father had been trying to tell me all day that that moment was going to happen. If I would have turned the wheel to pull out of the drive way like I wanted to the dream would have come true! He was trying to warn me all day through the Holy Ghost. Because he loves ME and because he cares for ME he didn't let that awful thing happen! I am so thankful for HIM and the things he does for ME. He watches over ME even when I don't ask for it. I wonder how many times he has saved ME and me not even know it. I've made a lot of stupid decisions this past year. I've had to repent a lot this year for being human and everytime I have felt his warm passionate forgiveness seep into my soul. I have had to learn to become meek and humble and like a little child when it comes to his teachings. Submissive to all things. I would like to close with this scripture Mosiah 3:19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

-Amen