Dave's 44th Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my love!!!!

Dave was on his way home from Chicago on his actual birthday (March 18th), so we had his birthday cake today. His favorite, yellow homemade cake with chocolate frosting.

I got him some temple clothing items that he always has to rent. My kids told me it was a boring gift. . . Kiersten bought him a nice pink church shirt that Dave has always wanted, pants and the nice shirt you see him wearing in the picture above. Dave absolutely LOVES his little girl, so we were thrilled to have her come over.

Dave is a wonderful husband and father! I am so blessed to have him in my life! He is truly my better half. David is a lot more patient, kind, giving and loving than I am. I hope I can become more like him! LOVE you honey! Happy Birthday!

Utah State 2010 Chess Championships

These pictures don't due it justice. You can't see the entire room. Each age group had about 90 kids each, so there were a ton of kids! The kids had to be in their seats at 8:15 and the first round started at 8:30. We left Layton around 7:15. Clara was nice enough to wait for us on the side of the road to show us the way. It was at the University of Utah.

At State the kids play 6 rounds of chess instead of the normal 5 rounds for other tournaments. After the 1st round, the computer went down. The computer is how they match up which kids are playing together, so we had to wait over two hours while they fixed the computer and got it up and running again!!! That is a very long time when you have several hundred children from kindergarten to 6th grade! The kids were all bored waiting and got to where they were just running all over the place! The people in charge gave a little lecture about the kids behaving, but I have to admit, I was on the kids side. How do they expect all of those kids to sit still for two hours with nothing to do, while they tried to figure out what went wrong with the computer! Personally, I thought the kids handled it fairly well.

All in all, it was a long day! We didn't get out of there until 6pm! By time we got home, it was an 11 1/2 hour day. Considering I didn't get much sleep the night before, it was an especially long day.

Clara was there with Toby and Rindy, so that was nice. I always enjoy their company. Tyler loves to play with Toby and Rindy and Will played together. The boys always enjoy being with their cousins.

Overall, Tyler and Toby won 4 out of 6 games. Will and Rindy both won 3 out of 6 games. Tyler took 22 out of 90 in his age group! Which was great! He tied with a lot of people, but they grade it on how hard the people were that you play against. Tyler lost his first two games, but won the last four. Losing the first two dropped him down just a little. He was only two kids away from winning a bigger trophy. At first he wasn't too happy, but luckily he decided he was happy with his trophy. Will took about 40th out of 92. He did pretty good, but his last guy was really hard to beat.

It was a nice experience, but seeing how it took so long, I am kinda glad I get to wait a year before I have to do it again! The big trophy in the picture is the school trophy our school won. Our school took 5th place out of 52 schools, not bad.

New Moon Disappointment

New Moon DVD release didn't go as well as planned.
March 19 at 8:30 pm Michelle and I headed out to the movie release party, clear out in the Walmart in Riverton. Becca joined us around 10:30 pm. The movie was on sale at midnight, but three actors were supposed to show up at 10:00 to sign autographs.

The three actors were the one's who play Mike, Eric and Angela. We learned while waiting in the long, long line that the stars were only contacted to sign autographs for 300, after that they could chose whether to leave or stay and sign for everybody else. Well, we were about maybe number 1000 out of about 5000.

Poor Michelle. . . I drug her out there, five months pregnant to sit in a long line all night! She was a great sport! When Becca showed up, she got Michelle a folding chair from one of the aisles to drag around with us, so Michelle could sit down.

Well, the actors decided they were too good to sit there all night, so after showing up an hour and a half late, they only signed autographs for the 300 and left!!!! There were soooo many angry girls! If I would have known they weren't going to stick around, I would have stayed in Layton and gone to Target to get the 3 disc movie.

Last year when the woman playing Victoria showed up, she was only contacted for 300 as well, but she stayed until every single person in line got an autograph. Oh well. . . Now we just have to decide if we want to bother going all the way out there for Eclipse and risk staying up all night for nothing!

This picture is of Becca and Michelle as we were leaving! Becca came down from Provo and Michelle drove down with me from Layton, so we all had traveled a long way! My parents were watching Michelle's four kids so she could go. She ended up just sleeping over at my parents with all my kids. I got home at 2:30 in the morning and had the boys State Chess Championships in the morning. I had to leave at 7:00 in the morning! I was extremely tired! Good thing I wasn't the one playing chess!

Will's Arrow of Light Ceremony

Will earned his Arrow of Light awhile ago, we had the ceremony on March 17th to get his badge! This is the highest honor a cub scout can earn. It is one of the few badges that he can wear on both his cub scout shirt and his boy scout shirt.

Will has done a great job in Weblos. There are 20 pins the boys can earn and Will had earned a total of 15 pins! The majority of these we did by ourselves and not as a pack. To give you an idea how hard Will worked, the majority of the boys in his pack only have 5 pins. So congratulations Will!!! I'm proud of you!

We only found out about the ceremony several hours before it started, so only Will's Dad Bill could be there and myself. Dave was in Chicago and with only three hours notice, he couldn't make it home in time, although he really wanted to be there. Here are some pictures of Will's ceremony.

Joseph Smith Movie

On Tuesday, March 16, I took the boys to see the Joseph Smith movie downtown.

I think they liked it. It's a really good movie. It one thing to hear about the life of Joseph Smith, it's another thing to see it portrayed on film.

Tyler and Will were a little emotional after the movie got over. It was a great opportunity for us to have a good church based discussion on the way home.

I love our church. I know it is true, with every fiber of my being. I have had several challenges in life. . . placing my daughter for a better life, having my x-husband decide he was done and wanting a divorce, but through it all, the lord has been there, by my side. I am grateful to have my testimony, I am grateful to know where I am going, if I can be good enough :) I want so badly for my children to never falter. I want them to know the gospel is true. I want them to serve missions worthily and marry wonderful women in the temple. I can't wait to go to the temple with them. As soon as Will turns 12, I am taking him through the temple. We are going to do baptisms for dead. I want him to have a desire to always be worthy to carry a temple recommend. I want my boys to love the gospel and be by my side in the here after. Sorry for my ranting. . . I just know so many people that I love that have faltered a little in their belief that it is on my mind. I don't want to have them miss out in the next life. I don't want them to miss out in this life. I don't know how to help them, yet. . . So of course, that makes me think of my boys and their future and how I don't want them to lose their faith, ever.

EG King Chess Tournament

Last Saturday we had a chess tournament at our school. It was really nice not to have to drive very far this time to attend :) Tyler won 3 out of 5 games and Will won 2 out of 5. This Saturday is our last tournament for this school year. It is the state championship at the U of U. We are hoping to bring home a trophy!

Oscar

This is our HUGE cat! He weight about 30 lbs!!! He plays with raccoons, scares the dogs on our street and loves his papa! Dave can just say "purr Oscar" and he will purr so loud you can hear it in the other room. He likes to give my poor 3 legged cat exercise by chasing her around the house!

3 legged Tasha

I love my cat! I feel really guilty that I am the reason she only has three legs! She still can't jump, but other than that she gets around just fine. Except for last night, she decided to make a rare trip outside. After not seeing her for three hours I got kinda worried about her. She always will come to me when I call. I started driving around the neighborhood to see if I could find her hurt or dead on the side of the road. For any of you that love pets, you can understand how you can get so worried about not being able to find your pet. After praying for help to find her, I got a feeling to look in a closed room that my cat doesn't have access to. Once I opened the door to our utility room I turned the light on and saw two glowing eyes outside in the window well. My curious cat jumped on down, for who knows what reason and of course she can't jump out, so she got stuck down there until I found her! I had to wake Dave up, because I couldn't reach down that far to grab her! The sad thing is my curious cat will not have learned her lesson, the next time something comes up where she can stick her head in, she will jump right in without thinking twice!

Tyler

Tyler is in the 3rd grade. He just turned 9 years old! He had a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. He loved it! Dave and I liked it as well, because we could just sit back and let the kids run around and have fun. I keep telling Tyler he only has one more year in the single digits. My baby is getting old! Tyler is also in the chess club. He really wanted a trophy and was able to win one at the last tournament. He took 4th place out of 30 kids! We were proud of him. Tyler is also good at math. He is testing out to a 5th grade level! Tyler is a ton of fun and has a ton of energy!

Will

This is my Will. He is 10 years old. He will turn 11 in May. He is currently in the 5th grade. Will is very smart and creative. He is good at math. He is testing out at a 7th grade level for math! We need to work on our reading words per min, but other than that he does really well at school. Will is good at making friends and everybody loves to be around him. He is in the chess club and has recently taken 3rd and 4th place trophies! We are going to the state championship in a couple of weekends and are hoping to get a trophy there!

My Natalie

This is my Natalie! I just got this picture of her yesterday! She is 14 years old. This is her 8th grade picture. I always love hearing from her! I only get her letters once a year, a little after her January birthday. In this letter I found out she is taller than me now, she is 5'8"! I am 5'7". She has always been tall! She has my hooded eyes! According to her Mom she has a lot of friends and makes friends easily wherever she goes. Sounds like she got that trait from my Dad!

She plays the piano, she hates piano recitals, they get her nervous. She started dance and is enjoying it. Little children love her and she is doing a lot of babysitting. She mentioned how she wishes she could babysit Will and Tyler, I wish she could too. She is like me and can't stand a mess. When she was younger, she would sleep on the floor, so she wouldn't mess up her bed! Can't imagine where she got that from :) I'll make the bed with Dave still in it! She is extremely organized. I like knowing she got some of my personality traits without being raised by me.

You would think it gets easier as time goes by, but in reality it gets harder. I miss her more and more each day. I long for all the little things in her life that I am missing. I don't regret giving her a better life, I just wish I could be a part of it.

Only five more years and then I can see her again! I have wonderful adoptive parents! They send a letter along with Natalie's each year and tell me all about her and how much they love her and how they can't wait for all of us to be together again!

I can't write about her or think about her without crying. . . I love you and miss you Natalie!

Kiersten

This is Kiersten. . . she is absolutely beautiful! She is currently going to beauty college and is doing a great job! We let her practice dying Will's hair. It looked really good! Kiersten is really good at hair, makeup, all the girly things I wish I knew, but at 33, I give up, I will never be able to look half as good as Kissy! We love you Kissy!

Jason

This is Dave's 2nd child Jason. Jason just started driving for Central. He has done a great job! It's fun to keep track every day where Dave is on and the road and now I get to check daily where Jason is on the road. Jason is a hard worker and one of the nicest people I know. He is very caring and will make a great husband and Dad one day! This is Jason in Nevada during a scuba diving trip!

Jon and Kaylyn

This is Dave's oldest son Jon and his wonderful wife Kaylyn! Jon is creative and honest. He currently works at Hill Air Force Base and is doing a great job. He kicks butt at computer games and is always fun to be around.

Kaylyn is an angel and we are so happy to have her in our family. She is everything that is good, pure and sweet. I don't think she has a mean bone in her body. It would benefit me if I could try to be more like her!

They are expecting their first baby!!! We just found out a little over a week ago that they are having a baby girl! We are so very excited to have our first granddaughter! Her name will be Mariana Nicole! It's such a pretty name and sounds even better when Jon pronounces it! It is a Brazilian name, from where Jon went on his mission. We cant wait to meet her and spoil her! We love her already!

Dave has decided that we will forgo with the common name "Grandma and Grandpa," instead we will be known as Ga-mama and Ga-papa!

Welcome to our family. . . 2 Bucks and Change

This is us. . . The Bucks. Pappa Buck and Momma Buck. The handsome guy in the photo is our family rock and foundation. I am the lucky gal that is still amazed, five years later, that I am lucky enough to be his wife.

We met online at LDS singles.com. Pappa Buck dated a lot of nice, but weird women from online sites before I tracked him down. I think all the weird women helped me out, it probably made me look better than I really am :)

I found Dave first. He thought I was making a mistake when I sent him a note, because of our 10 year age difference. He was so cute, I didn't even think twice about the slight age difference. I'm not sure what got him to reply back to me, but he did and asked me out on a date. He wanted a date for that same day, but I had to say no. I had used up all of my babysitters (my Mom, Michelle, Donna) for that week, I just kept rotating who I would ask to watch my boys, so I could go out on all these on-line dates. So he had to wait a few day's, until I was able to ask Michelle to babysit again, then finally we were able to go out.

I let Dave pick me up at my apartment. He was wearing his nice slacks, white dress shirt and a black leather jacket. I will never forget the way it made my heart race when I first looked at him. He was so gorgeous. The next couple of days at work, I kept telling my friends how gorgeous he was. I loved his face, his hair and unlike the other guys I dated, he was as tall as he said he was, which I liked!

We went to what I now refer to as "our" restaurant. It is a quaint little restaurant tucked away in the heart of Salt Lake City. It is an Italian restaurant. He started a tradition between us that night, where he ordered for me. To me it is very respectful and it makes me feel like he is taking care of me when he orders for me. Now days, he almost knows what I will like more than I know myself!

During dinner he did most of the talking. Anybody that really knows me, knows this is very unlike me! For once in my life, I was actually nervous about what to say! I didn't want to scare him off! This is probably what got me a second date :) After our wonderful dinner, we both didn't want it to end. He invited me to go see a movie with him. I didn't even think twice about leaving my kids two hours longer with my sister, sorry Michelle! I didn't have a cell phone at that time, so I couldn't even call her to say," hey by the way, I'll be late." Michelle is wonderful and when I got to her place she was happy for me that I had fun and didn't say one word about me being so late!

We watched the Disney movie "Incredibles." I didn't really pay attention to the movie. I was too engrossed in the handsome man next to me, paying attention to his every move.

He dropped me off at home, opening the car door for me, which he still does to this day. That was the first day to the start of the rest of my life and eternity. . .