This past week

We had a busy week and I thought I'd tell you about it.
We have been packing ourselves ragged. On Wednesday our moving truck arrived. We've been gradually filling it and we are running out of space. We were hoping to get all the work done by yesterday but there is still a few more hours of work left to do. The truck is supposed to be picked up tomorrow. Today we are enjoying the much needed rest though! Tomorrow will be an entirely different story.
My book club was supposed to meet this week. My friend Megan is in it and she told me that we were going to have our little book club meet at Olive Garden this month since I am moving away. (There are 6 of us in the group.) She picked me up and took me there and to my surprise there were 12 friends there! I was really touched by that and I had such a great time. I got a really sweet gift from Robyn too.
So to the topic of friends. I consider anyone that I would feel comfortable calling up and asking to go out a “friend”. Not that I do that. I get too busy. But I WOULD do that. That's the point. Up until the last couple of years I haven't really made friends. I've kept a few old ones, but not really made new ones. Steve is such a wonderful friend to me that I guess I didn't ever feel the need. And now that I am moving away, I find that for the first time in my married life I've got about 20 people that I can honestly call my “friends”. All right here in town too ---where we will no longer be. Some from church, some from dance, and a couple of neighbors.
At this point I can let the cat out of the bag and tell you where we are because I want to tell you some of the things I will miss about Boise Idaho.
1- My friends and our family.
2- Our baby boy's grave.
3-The awesome library system. Boise has the best libraries and programs I have ever seen. I have gone to the library almost weekly for the past 6 years. And I've relished tons of great free reading. My children love the library too. Celeste is a book worm through and through.
4- The nice drivers. There are so many nice, polite drivers in Boise. Of course rude Californians have invaded our turf and tainted our good record, but for the most part Boise has the nicest drivers of any city I've lived in. (I was one of those rude Californians years back, but was converted to being a nice driver in a hurry.)
5- The great family programs and activities there are to offer. There are so many fun things to do as a family here! We started a family tradition 5 years ago called “Family Fun Day”. On Saturdays we take our kids out to do something fun as a family. And it hasn't been hard to find something each week all those years. We've got some favorites that we've done repeatedly. We've made many great memories! But I am excited to move where we are going because I think there will be a lot of new material to cover for our FFD's.

Finally, I want to tell you about our last FFD in Idaho. Last night we went to the Twin Falls Temple Open House. It was such a special experience. Jonah was surprisingly calm the entire time in the temple. All of our children were. If you know me, you know I have a little obsession with temples. I love the Spirit I feel there and all the life changing experiences I've had in those beautiful edifices. The peace and comfort I feel there is not to be matched anywhere else. (This was the 28th temple I have seen in person.)
Afterwards we went to see Shoshone Falls. I thought it was impressive! We were so glad we took a break from the move to go down there. It was the best FFD ever.

Some of my beautiful Young Women came too. I love these girls!

A few stragglers

So I got a couple of more questions after I posted the last revealing post about myself. You were all surprised by my honesty hu? Me too...a little.
So apparently when Shed asked "Bunch or Fold", he really meant to ask what kind of Toilet Paper wiping technique I use. So with that I have to give you one more shocking confession. (Read this part imagining the "Jaws" theme song playing in the background;because I guess I am pretty much a serial killer according to Jenny.) I FOLD my toilet paper! (That part should have been read with derision too.) And just as a little bonus, I've included a picture of my favorite kind of toilet paper. Unsolicited by Charmin too. Love those guys.

Memzy asked what my favorite kind of ice cream was. You know, I don't eat ice cream very much. I would rather widen my hips with candy like Twix bars. And I don't really have a favorite per say. But if I had to choose one, it would likely be something like this:


Anna asked what my favorite childhood memory was. And since she asked, I ripped off a picture from my childhood from her blog. Thanks Anna.
This is a photo of the kids in my family in 1982. Which would have made me about 4 years old depending on the month. Andy must have been a baby and Molly and Sam weren't born yet. So I thought about this question and really had a tough time coming up with a favorite! I am grateful to Anna for asking me though because it was quite a happy, nostalgic feeling thinking through some great childhood memories. I'll have to share some of them sometime. I have to say that I had a BLAST with my siblings growing up. It was like a party growing up with them. I loved remembering all the crazy things Tim and Shed did. However, the memory I choose to share today is this one though. When I was 11 my Dad picked me up from school and took me out to lunch. Just me and him. With 8 kids in the family, that made me feel very special. He not only took me to lunch, he took me to the fanciest, most expensive restaurant in town; The Bistro. It was so nice! Then he just wanted to talk with me about my life for a long time. I was convinced I was his favorite. And I have never forgotten that. That is why I get a babysitter now and then and take one of my children out on a "Mommy Date" so that they all have a chance to feel special and like they are my favorite. Because in their own ways, they are.

Your answers

Great questions guys! Some are pretty hard to answer though.

Shed asked: "Bunch or fold?"
Are you talking about laundry in general or underwear specifically? It makes a difference.

Jenny asked the following questions: "How have you changed most in the last five years?"
I know a lot more about myself now. These past five years have included some really awesome experiences and some really tough ones too. I've learned a lot from both. So my biggest personal changes are in how I cope with everything and how I take care of myself.

"If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?"Top requirement would have to be with my family and people I care most about, near me.
Next, I would love to be somewhere beautiful. Giant mountains and lots of trees are always very appealing to me.


"If your house was on fire and you could only save one of your cousins (during a sleepover with all your cousins, lets say), who would you save?"
This picture really creates that dramatic effect doesn't it? This one is definitely gonna break some hearts. So I will apologize up front for that.
Jenny underestimates me. I know I can save at least three of my cousins. I would grab Jenny in my left arm, Sara in my right arm, and have Amy sit on my shoulders and run. No problem.

"What is the biggest secret you have that you would never ever want anyone to ever know? Ever." I absolutely cannot answer that in the way you are all wishing. But I will tell you this... I do have ONE secret that I have NEVER told ANYONE EVER. Not even Steve. And I will never ever tell anyone either. I've held on to this one for many years and I doubt there is anything that would get it out of me. Water boarding may not even work. But just so you know, it is a secret that I do not believe will affect my final judgment.

Tim asked: "What is your favorite Michael Jackson song and why?"
Thriller. The music video is classic. The best part is the dead people dancing. The choreographer deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for that one.

He also asks: "What was the '#2 too personal on your most heartbreaking' post?" Tim was referring to my "Top Two's" post. I really hesitate to answer that one. There are a couple of things that came to mind and it's tough to decide which one would have been #2. I'll tell you both. Well, here goes. This is big. Ok. Well, many of you know already being family and all; I have Bi-polar disorder. I was diagnosed about 11 years ago. It is something I am always struggling with and has at times been more than I can bear. I swing from being manic, (which I usually don't mind as long as I don't humiliate myself or get too reckless,) to being very depressed. Sometimes swinging between the two a few times in one day. Most of the time I swing up and down, but not to the high or low extremes. A handful of times the depression has gotten way lower than your average Brooke Shields type. I have had some pretty bad crashes. When I crash I suffer from this terrible self-loathing. A couple of years ago I crashed way too low. I hated myself deeply. I wanted to end my life and tried to do so. I don't know how close I came to it, but there was a space of time that I was unconscious and in the ICU as a result. The recovery from that was like climbing Mt. Everest. It took at least a few months. And I don't know if I will ever be the same again. The other thing will likely sound pretty lame after that, but it was really truly heartbreaking to me. Not to mention it took me a lot longer to get over than the experience I just shared. Like a death almost. It was a breakup with a guy. This obviously was before Steve came around! And I don't need to name names because it wasn't a mean breakup or anything like that and I have/had no hard feelings towards him. Just loved him a lot and had a tough time letting go. I hope it wasn't as hard on him as it was on me. Of course it doesn't hurt my little heart anymore.

Emily asked: "What was your most embarrassing moment?" Thanks for lightening the mood Emily! Although you will soon wish you hadn't asked.
If I could answer the last question, I can answer this one too. Although if you are a guy, PLEASE don't read on because only a girl can understand or even stand reading it. It's gross. It's a typical story you'd read in "Teen Magazine's Most Embarrassing Moments" section. Do they still have that? I haven't looked in that magazine since I was a teeny bopper myself.
Here goes. I was a cheerleader in High School. We had this big championship football game at the College Stadium that sat thousands and thousands of people. I cheered the whole game being as obnoxious as can be. Kicking my leg to my head and acting like I really knew the rules to football. In reality my knowledge of football barely reached beyond what a touchdown was. It wasn't until the end of the game and I was going home that I realized I had started my period sometime during the game...As evidenced by the blood dripping down my legs. Nasty. I warned you. Beat that one if you can.
(I'm the one standing on the left.)

Jennifer asked: "I want to know what your favorite style of dance is? And why you chose to pursue a degree in dance?"I have done almost every kind of dance you know of. I guess I was best at ballet, but I had more fun in jazz and tap class. My favorite style of dance now is contemporary. I did contemporary at the Pennsylvania Ballet and in College too. But my teachers were psycho or something. It wasn't hard for me, but I hated all the improv, "act like a tree", subjective dancing. When I see a good contemporary dance these days, I LOVE it! (Mia Michaels is amazing!) I also chose to pursue a dance degree probably because it was the easiest thing for me to do and I couldn't have imagined a career in anything else at the time. Having the dance director at the school beg me to come helped too. (This is me in my 4th year of "The Nutcracker" I was the "Rose" in "Waltz of the Flowers" among some other parts. It's hard to tell, but I am wearing the short tutu in the middle of all the girls wearing the long tutus.)

Any more questions people? I liked having something interesting to write about. Thanks!

Go ahead and ask

Jennifer who is super blogger extraordinaire came up with this idea. And since I am stuck in a rut with this blogging thing, I'm gonna copy her. So I am opening the forum up to questions. Anyone and everyone can ask me any question they want. I will do my very best to answer them too. I don't imagine you even care. But just pretend you do. I need some writing material! Plus I am anticipating some wise cracks from a few of you about this. Which I will most certainly relish. Of course you can ask the serious and personal questions too if you feel like it.

I'm Sad

I think this picture makes me look creepy. Doesn't even really look like me. I just realized that I don't think I've ever seen a picture of me frowning before. Maybe that's why. But it was my attempt to show you how sad I feel.
I am sad! I'll tell you why.
Today I got released as Young Women's President. I've known for a while that I was going to be released and thought I'd come to grips with it all. But apparently I hadn't. I felt immediately heartsick. I will miss being in this calling! I will miss the girls a ton. I will miss all the super cool ladies I worked with on my board. I will miss so many things about it. The new president is a great person who I think will be fantastic! She's a friend of mine who I have really liked since I met her. She was my Secretary too. So knowing the girls are in good hands is a big consolation. But can someone take the ache away please?

Like the new look?

I was looking at my blog and gagging on my own puke. I was sick of it! So I asked my sister who I know has no more time than I do, (how inconsiderate of me), to change it. Thanks Emily!

The Rodeo

Today we had our Bishop Family Reunion. It was really nice seeing everyone and it got my mind off of the need to pack. Mostly.
But tonight we all went to the rodeo. I've been to a rodeo once before a few years ago. I didn't like it then. I hated it tonight.
It started with the arrival. Seeing people sporting their cowboy hats, boots and gigantic belt buckles made me roll my eyes. Come on people! Why?!
The beginning of the show was fine. However, they had mutton bustin first. Tears immediately sprang up in my eyes. I know it's nuts. You're thinking I am just PMS'n - but not so. Just emotional. Something about seeing cute little children about to break their necks riding wildly on sheep made the motherly instinct in me cringe and then cry.
Then someone gave a prayer. Wow a prayer I thought! But the guy giving the “prayer” really just gave a sermon about peace in the world. I'm all for peace but I get bugged by sermons disguised as “prayers”. Then they had this patriotic part with a lot more preaching about our wonderful servicemen. Just fine for me. They sang the national anthem. I did like that too. The last good part of the show was turning the lights out and girls riding around in the arena with red white and blue Christmas lights all over them.
Then it turned sour.
The actual rodeo part began and I was not getting how it was entertaining to see a guy get thrown around by a horse. Thoughts like: “Does he go to a good chiropractor? Does that horse have a clue as to how much his life sucks? Are all of these cowboys sterile from riding like that?” came to mind.
It would have been fine, but Jonah was having one of his episodes. If you haven't seen Jonah in an episode, you can't understand. He just kept crying for this or that and would not stop! He would stand in front of us and keep nagging and crying for cotton candy, that cost $3, a drink or to go back to Grandma's house...Whatever. He made an unpleasant experience unbearable! We finally dragged our kids out of there; Jonah and Eden fighting us all the way out to the car. My migraine had come much earlier and I was beat. We actually paid $46 for THIS! We are back now and I just had to vent. Now you all know how I like lists. Here' s a list of things I'd rather do than a repeat of tonight:

*Change an elderly person's diaper.
*Scoop up Sunny and Cher's poop out of Anna's yard. (Her dogs.)
*Be in bed with the flu.
*Pick someone else's nose.
*Scrub all of my toilets.
You get the idea.

YEEEHAWW!

Top Two's

Top 2 material things I cannot live without:
My PDA - it's literally my brain.
My MP3 Player

Top 2 things I would change about myself if I could:
My sagging under eyes
I'd be about 20lbs lighter

Top 2 happiest moments in my life:
Getting married
The birth of my children

Top 2 heartbreaking moments in my life:
Losing baby Benjamin
#2 is too personal

Top 2 things that stress me out:
A messy house
Being late

Top 2 things that relax me:
Lying in my hammock
Listening to music in the bathtub

Top 2 stressful times in my life:
Directing the community ballet "Alice In Wonderland" a few years back
Now. Trying to pack and get ready to move

Top 2 things I want:
A baby
A job for Steve that he will love

I could go on and on forever.
That's all for now.

Because there's nothing else to say

Emily inspired me with her blog today and I felt like nothing I could say could really be that important after that. So today I will just give a feeble list of things I am especially grateful for today:
My knowledge of God and His plan.
My Savior Jesus Christ.
My husband Steven Bishop who I am madly in love with.
My kids who bring me tons of joy.
My extended family.
My friends.
Music.
Money. (Sorry, I guess I am a bit shallow, but I am grateful to have enough of it.)
My body that is able to do most of what I want it to do...even if my butt is too big.
Being bi-polar because when I am manic I get lots done. (Lets ignore the depression for now.)
The people on the freeway that let us know our tire was flat before we had a huge blowout.
The guy in Wallmart today that actually checked out my groceries in a timely manner. I'll also ignore that he was giving me a lecture on how my earth friendly green bags were not really helping the world. Because he did move fast.
And lots, lots more....

Yeah, I've still got a pulse

So I go from posting 2-3 times a week to leaving you hanging for a week. Sorry to all my loyal visitors! We are still out of town. We go home tomorrow though. Hopefully I'll get all caught up on your blogs by Monday. Don't hold your breath though.
It's been a busy trip! I spent so much time hunting for a rental house and * holy bananas!* was it a pain in the neck! We had an itty bitty budget and that made it a lot tougher. Finally today we signed a 10 month lease on a house.

It was a good deal, near my sis and it had the most space of all the other houses I found. It's actually kind of cute to me. It's about as big as the house we currently live in so we know we can live in it. But in addition to that space, it also has a basement that is not completely finished and is as big as the upstairs. Good for storage and toys. We want to stay there for the school year. The kids will go to school with their cousins! We'll save up and purchase a house probably later. So I am pretty pumped that finally all got settled. For a while there I thought we would be going home with nothing settled. Big relief!

So what now? We go home, we've got scout day camp Mon & Tues, family reunion in our hometown Wed-Sat, then we've got just a couple of weeks before we head to our new home. Move in date is Aug 1st. The moving company takes all of our junk away July 28th. I haven't started packing yet so we've got a lot of work to do!
How's that for an update?

Contest Results

I sit here quite frustrated that I am not driving down the road. We have been all set to go for an hour now but are waiting for a much needed package to arrive.

In the meantime, I will go ahead and blog away the worries.

To our contest. Here are all your names as you can plainly see! Still all there
Still all there

Now with this little lady See how she looks to the sky so as not to cheat! The name is being pulled...

The suspense is over!

Mark Bailey is our lucky winner! And I insist that he let me borrow that coveted scalp scratcher when he gets it. $14 Amazon bucks coming your way Uncle Mark! Congratulations!

Thanks for all your comments. It was fun getting them. Hope you aren't all annoyed by my desperate pleading for them. Still don't know who is in Japan or some other cities that keep coming up. But I think our MapLoco doesn't work right anyhow. Because of your comments, I was able to draw that conclusion. Appreciate ya. Take care everyone and have a great 4th of July!

Contest ends at 11am Mountain Time today!

We're headed out of town and I want to wrap this up. I'll probably post the results later though. See y'all later.

Guess where are we going?

To see this guy. (Well and other people too of course! I just needed an excuse to put that face up on the web again.)
We leave tomorrow morning right after our kids have their last swim lesson. I'm excited to go, but am I ready? NOOOOOOOO! The house is a wreck, the laundry isn't done, and I haven't even begun to pack.
As a side note, for those of you who don't know already --- We are moving. I don't ever mention where we live on my blog for privacy purposes, although I know it wouldn't be too hard to figure it out if you were desperate. So I wont say where we are moving either. But it's where this little guy above lives. The tentative date is August 1st. We don't have a lot of juicy details for you yet. But we're working on them. And when I've got enough info for you to make a post about, I'll be sure to do that.
Why are we going? Because of multiple reasons. I wont bore you with all of them, but reason number one is that it feels right.
I'm looking forward to living near my sister and her family as well as 3 of Steve's siblings and their families. We've got other extended family there from both sides of the fam. That will be nice!
So we will be busy during this trip getting things ready for us to move there. Meaning we've got to find a house speedily. I am hoping that the one I found yesterday through my sister will be the one! Stay tuned...