Mindie's Simple Life

New Beginnings

2010-09-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

I guess I should announce that I am now married to my childhood sweetheart. His name is Robert (Rob) Winfield. We were married on July 2, 2010. After his sister learned about the trial I was going through the summer and fall of 2009 she told her brother to look me up on facebook because he also was going through a similar challenge. When we started chatting and emailing each other in February things just clicked for us. We are very similar in our ideals and he is so sweet to me. I feel so loved and cherished. The challenge is building a family around each of our children, he has 6 children Karl 18, Chrisjen 12, Jayden 8, Chloe 6, Shaleena 5, and James 2. They each have a mom of their own that they are loyal to and love, so I could never be their mom, but they love me as much as can be expected in this type of situation. My children are learning how to accept Rob as a father figure in their life, he is patient with them and tries to do fun stuff with them. Rob works for a company called YESCO, as an electronic tester. I am working at Logan Reginal Hospital and still working towards my goal to become a nurse.

No Idea what to write about......

2010-02-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a bit of time since I have blogged. I have no excuses except that I have been a really busy mom. I work evenings cleaning the American Fork Hospital and go to the gym every morning and clean the house and...... well you get the idea. I am working towards getting my nursing degree, and found a program here that will get me ready to take the NCLEX for Practical Nursing in a year. After talking to various programs in my area, none of them will accept my Anatomy and Physiology and other prerequisites that I did years ago. Then I found out about this program for LPN and they will take my previous classes. After I get my LPN I can apply to jump into a RN program without doing those prerequisites over. So doing things this way I will finish up my degree in Nursing one year sooner. I am unsure how its going to be working and going to school at the same time, especially when I have to be at school at 7:30 am and I get into bed after work at about 1:30. I hope my body adjusts to the new schedule quickly and I don't fall asleep while trying to study the materials from school. Along with trying to keep my kids feeling loved, fed, and nurtured. I guess we will find out this August. I am grateful that I have good family support helping me through this challenging time.

Allyssa's First Girl Haircut

2009-12-02T15:38:00.001-08:00

Allyssa has been wanting to have her haircut everytime I cut the boys hair. So when I told her we could both go get our hair cut at this beauty school for $3.50 on Tuesdays. She jumped at the chance. They called her back first and so I waited my turn. While I was getting my haircut, this cute little girl walks around the corner. I think it turned out really cute. Still long enough to do pig tails if I chose but short enough to cut back on the snarles she so hates.

First Day of School

2009-09-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here I sit posting about my last child's first day of school, basking in the quiet background noises. Allyssa loves her new teacher Mrs. Wood (who is teaching her first year of school) she was slightly disappointed that her original teacher and classroom was switched the day before she started school. After all she did go and meet her teacher and her classroom. So as soon as I found out she got a new classroom and teacher we headed over to the school to see if we could sneak a peak into her new classroom and find her teacher. We did get a glimpse of the classroom, unfortunately she had to wait til her first day of school to meet the teacher. The biggest let down was that she lost her cute little toilet to a slightly bigger one, lol. Its still child sized, but not as small as her original classrooms.

School has been very fun for her though and she loves the playground. She got the opportunity to fill up and bring in the sound bag for the letter C, we put in crackers as a snack, a cup, a block with the letter C on it, a carrot, a cake mix, a cupcake paper, a car, a cow, a cat and a candle.

All in all school for her has been the best. She is now a grown up kindergartner.

Happy in Utah

2009-08-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

A lot has conspired in the last couple months. I will focus on the positive stuff. I have moved to Utah with the kids. I live at my daughters home with all of my kids (even the ones that moved out) and my super awesome son in law. I moved to Utah in the beginning of August and got the kids registered for school and they started officially today. Well all of them except Allyssa, she starts August 27th.

Ashtons comment today when I picked them up after school was, "I have the best teacher in the whole world". If they behave well they get rewards and one of these ultimate awards is to be able to read on a beanbag chair with the classroom pet resting on your chest (the classroom pet, Lulu which is a Bearded Dragon Lizard) I am not so sure I would want that as a reward, lol. Ashton says she is really gentle and all that she does is sit very still. She eats crickets like a frog would he says.

Travis says his teacher is a very nice guy too. They have a newer concept in seating. To keep the desks nice and neat, each day the kids get to pick a new spot to sit. So they never have the same spot, which means that they are not to leave anything in the desks. He keeps all his supplies and stuff in a cubby. His teacher is a young guy and likes to skateboard, and lots of sports (he used to teach snowboarding) and rock climbs.

Allyssa went in for her kindergarten assessment today and she did great. It was fun watching her though processes. She was asked to identify all the letters of the alphabet upper and lower case. She demonstrated counting and math skills. She was asked to write out a sentence the teacher verbalized to her (this was hard for her). I guess they have a full day kindergarten class and if they did well on the assessment they are considered for full day. My most favorite comment she made today when she was unsure of the answer was "that is kinda tricky". Her most favorite thing in her classroom is the small toilet in the girls bathroom that is within the classroom. She is most anxious for school to start.

Justin is excited about his classes he is a sophomore this year. His schedule is interesting he has A days and B days. Which alternate so he has 4 classes each day. When he first got his schedule he had to recheck it a bunch cause he felt like he was getting a easy load. But all of the required courses were on there and some of the fun ones he has are even meeting requirements.

Its very nice being in a state with pretty green lawns and trees. I really missed the seasons in Pahrump. I also really like living with my grandchildren. I know eventually I will have to move on, but I am enjoying every minute of this time.

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Our Puppy experience

2009-06-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

I know I know I know. I have neglected my Blog. Maybe someday I will be prompt and regular.

Warning this is not a catch up but a guilt reliever so it may be long.

Over the years we have always been a cat type family. We went through at least 4 baby kitten experiences. Growing up I had both cats and dogs around. But I would have to say I always loved cats and Tiffany and I could have long conversations with you of the benefits of having a cat over a dog. But Last year for some reason I had this feeling that we really needed a dog.

So according to Will I went out and got our family a dog without his approval, (I disagree) I clearly remember talking to him about it and him saying ok. March of 2008 Sadie joined our family.

Sadie a little over a year later.

I guess it was fair for Will to come home this year in April with another dog. He decided to help out a new family in our ward by taking a stray dog that had been eating them out of house and home. This new dog was, they thought, pregnant. When I first saw her I thought maybe she was or maybe she had just had several batches of puppies.

Bella joined us Mid April with the possibility of puppies too. I can't say that it wasn't a exciting prospect. I had never in my life experienced puppies. I began to doubt that she was pregnant until around a month before School was to get out. She suddenly really started to look pregnant. So we began to "guess" when these puppies would enter our world. If you know when your dog concieved its 60 days approx. from beginning to end. I had no idea when these puppies were due so I read all I could on what to expect from a dog when it was time. I estimated she would have them around when school got out or right before. Well on Sunday June 7 she had a loss of appetite (one of the signs of labor in a dog) I figured she would have them that day since she was a very avid eater and watched her all morning. I got a substitute for my Primary class (Thank You Will). Our church is at 2 pm I figured if she didn't show signs of being close I would go to Sacrament meeting and then go home to hang out with our laboring dog. I was excited to say the least. I called Ruth as promised and then the waiting began. She had her first puppy at 4:30 I missed that one. So I watched her more closely. Waited and waited some more. Went into the house to visit with my brother who came into town to visit for a couple days. And missed the second puppies birth by seconds also, which was born 3 hours later. Then Ruth arrived and we began a vigilant sitting by Bellas side. Laboring ladies need each other Right? Then one right after another 4 more puppies were born within the the next 3 hours. At 10:30ish we decided that she had probally had all of the puppies and called it a night. I woke up in the middle of the night to go check on our new puppies and found 3 new additions. So we are now the owners of 11 total dogs. Know anyone that wants a Puppy?

Consider The Lilies

2009-04-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.hoffmanhouse.com/writingconsider.html This is a link to a song the Tabernacle Choir performed today in Saturday Mornings General Conference session. It touched my heart. I looked in the hymnal for it and of course did not find it. So I decided during the break between sessions I would find out more about it. I wanted to know the words that they sang. That is why your getting the link. I was touched by the story behind the song. Our Heavenly Father loves us each so much. I have always been conforted by the verses in the scriptures that the song was inspired from. (Mattew 6: 25-34) I know he will watch over us in these times of hardship and take care of those that can't at this time take care of themselves. All he asks of us is that we seek first to serve him and he will take care of the rest. I love my Father in Heaven and I am thankful we are blessed with the opportunity to partake of General Conference 2 times each year. It has been such a blessing in my life.

I guess I just shared my Testimony with you guys. I feel like I should end it in the name of our Great Redeemer Jesus Christ Amen

Are you putting this on your blog mom?

2009-02-15T12:05:00.000-08:00

Okay so I guess I will, lol good idea Travis. I saw my 3 youngest eating soup all in a row and I couldn't resist it was picture worthy to me. I love those kids. Travis said as I was running around getting them all water and making soup warmer cause I didn't make it warm enough on the stove. That he felt bad for me. I asked why? He replied cause your doing tons of stuff for us, my response back was, "Travis do you know why I do this?" He said yes, "cause you love us." I am glad he knows that I care and don't mind doing small tasks to make them happy.

Boys and Girls

2009-02-09T05:41:00.000-08:00

Travis and I went to Walmart to pick up some things we needed after his basketball game on Saturday. On the list were new underwear for Allyssa. He couldn't understand why it took so much time figuring out which ones to get her. Then on the way home I said that Allyssa was gonna be so excited for her new underwear. She would tell her female cousins and they would say I want to see. Then the comments would be made of "Oh those are pretty" or "Those are Cute". Well Travis thought this was so funny. Then we laughed and joked about how boys and girls are so different. That if he were to get new underwear and brought them home and told his brothers they would be like oh cool, and none of them would even care to see them.

It has amazed me that Allyssa growing up in a home predominately boys, is such a girl. I have not gone out of my way to push girl stuff on her she just came that way. I really am happy that I have been blessed a second time around with a little girl. She has been such a treat. As for my boys, I wouldn't trade them at all for little girl replacements. They are very wonderful each of my children.

Christmas

2009-01-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

As you can tell blogging has not been on my priority list. My perspective is I will get to it eventually. So if you want to find out what is going on currently with me and my family. Just call us. Because you will get late info here on my blog. But if your a casual blogger as I am then you will do just fine with my style of blogging. That said, here is a overview of December for us.

With Thanksgiving over and Christmas coming to say the least December was a full and busy month for me. I needed to get my Paladin in WOW to 80! Goal one accomplished. I needed to get all the presents out to family and purchased for family. Goal two done (on December 24th well at least I got it accomplished, lol).

I really enjoyed this Christmas with "all" my children. It was super fun spending time with my adorable grandkids and my adult children. I would say one of the hardest thing for me as a mom, is having my kids grow up and move away. I really miss Tiffany and Kevin not being at home. Yes I know they must grow up and move on. But if I could have it my way they would never grow up and move away. I do love my grandkids though, so I guess growing up and moving out has its bonuses. We spend lots of late nights with My Kids, Joe, Kathryn, Ruth, and Tim playing some really fun games and just visiting. Then it all came to a end =( . I hate goodbyes!

November

2008-12-02T17:14:00.001-08:00

Well November was a full and busy month for us. We had tons of family expected for Thanksgiving and while weightlifting one day out on our back patio that takes up the whole back of our house. It measures 12' x 70' approximately. I had some Divine inspiration. I was inspired that we could use our existing patio roof and concrete pad and have Will add on to our house 2 new rooms off the North end of our patio. Well Will took this idea and ran with it and in 2 weeks time we had a couple new much needed rooms added to our house. THANK YOU!!! to all the family members who put in time helping us accomplished this amazing goal. Now our little girl has a room of her own and the 4 boys at home have more room in the rooms they share. It also make our Thanksgiving much funner. With this additional space.

My Halloween Project

2008-11-04T12:39:00.000-08:00

This was my huge project for Halloween this year. Little did I know that making these costumes would take so much time. All in all it was a really fun project though and it reminded me how much I love to sew. In fact I also made Ashton a grim reaper costume and Allyssa some cute pajama pants.

Halloween

2008-11-03T21:08:00.000-08:00

Every year we have a tradition to carve pumpkins for Halloween. Over the years we have pushed it off to the Monday before. Here in Pahrump we have had to wait as long as possible because pumpkins just don't do well in this warm weather. It's interesting watching what happens. This year they were drying out and not really molding. We tossed them in the trash before the weeks end. Anyways here is a picture of them 2 days after carving, remember its dark but.....going from left to right is Ashtons (a bat) Allyssa's (a cat) Travis's (scary face) After the first day Travis's was starting to look like a old man, lol his face was shrinking in and we had some great laughs about it. This year Jordan and Justin decided to not do one. I guess they are to big to carve pumpkins.

A giving Heart

2008-10-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

Allyssa has been blessed with an abundance of bikes. Three to be exact. About a month ago she was given her third bike and I felt she didn't need 3 bikes. So I suggested she give one of her bikes to Ellie. She was determined that all 3 bikes remain hers, so I just left it at that. Then this last Sunday my little girl determined that Ellie would love one of her bikes. As we were getting ready to go to the car Allyssa was wheeling one of her bikes to the car to give to her cousin. I was so happy to see that she came to that decision all on her own. I could have made her give one of her bikes away or I could have just given it away without her knowing. But enstead she came to that idea on her own and I am so pleased she did. For she was the one that got to see the big smile on her cousins face when she brought it in the house to give to her. Now that is priceless the lesson she learned. We all grow up sometime.

Fall is coming

2008-10-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

I am so excited fall is coming. The weather here is cooling down. Fall is my most favorite season living here in Pahrump. It was Spring when I lived in Washington I loved the blooming of the Rhodies and the dogwoods and all those beautiful trees. You knew when it was Spring. Here I have no idea when its Spring except for the obvious months that it usually comes in. But Fall is a season here that you can experience, the tempature cools down below 100+ and you can go outside for walks, runs or bike rides. So here is to Fall! I hope you all are enjoying fall as much as I am.

Another Picture of my Talented son

2008-09-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

its says Guaranteed to keep the girls away from your hotness!

The below picture....

2008-09-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't know....This picture of hands is mine and Wills taken by my most talented son Kevin, he also added the text to it. I do have bragging rights, right? He is the most talented kid with web design and photography. To see more of his work go to www.kevingent.com

I am adding the picture again so you can see the text which says Never Let Go Its not who is right... Its what is right.....

Allyssa on her first Day of School

2008-09-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

Yes I know this is late but I am at least making the effort to post, lol.

Doesn't she look cute!!! Thank you Kathryn for sending me the pictures. =)

Life has been going and going and going.........

2008-09-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

Okay so its been some time since I have updated my blog and a lot has happened……Will and I had a chance to go away overnight to see Brian Wilson in concert at Buffalo Bills Hotel and Casino in Prim, NV. Which is not to far from home but far enough. We enjoyed a Chinese buffet, checked into our room and then came the concert. Wow the volume was loud, I guess I am getting old because that was one of the first things I noticed going to our assigned seats. He is I think the lead singer for the beach boys. We got the benefit of hearing lots of the great Beach Boys songs and then we heard his latest album. It was a truly fun experience.

We had a great visit from Debbie Jay and their girls.......and as always they spoiled us with great food (Jay bought fish to share with me)

David Fatima and their girls honored us with a visit also this past week….. Their girls are growing up so fast and are such beauties. David performed his doctoring skill on our son Travis. He has had this terrible wart just under the tip of his nose and if you didn’t know that was what it was you would have felt he needed to wipe his nose. Needless to say we have been trying to get rid of it on our own with no luck. So when we found out that David was coming we asked for his aid. He did a wonderful job and after he was finished Travis Thanked David by looking him in the eyes and saying Thank you so much Uncle David! I know it has probably been a difficult thing to deal with. SO THANK YOU DAVID!

And Allyssa has been going to preschool starting at the beginning of this Month. She really enjoys all that she is learning and being a big girl going to school. Her Aunt Kathryn has been her teacher this month and her Aunt Ruth has been her helper so that has made going to school even more fun because her cousins are there.

I guess that is it til next time.................

School, Soccer and Crosscountry

2008-09-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well the school year has started. To my utter delight! Its so funny I look forward to school ending because I want freedom from a routine. Then I look forward to having it begin again for the exact opposite, I need the routine LOL. The house is always chaotic for me during the summer, even with all the helpers in keeping it organized. When they are in school its organized and runs smoothly. You would think I would get it, "routines are great!" But I always need the break. When I say smoothly I don't mean not busy its the opposite now more then ever since I decided to have Allyssa, Travis and Ashton play soccer, but with a routine of course its smoother. The house is usually clean by 10 am and I have all this free time to do my most favorite past time World of Warcraft. Allyssa and I have the home to ourselves, Will works in his corner of the house and we hardly hear from him til feeding time. She quietly plays with her various activities (barbies, tea party, making art work, PBS) and I leave this world to another. In my other world I am a mighty Paladin saving the Alliance from all its various monsters. But enough of WOW. I could bore you with how fun it is.
Soccer: We had our first games of the season last night starting with Travis. His game was enjoyable to watch he was a little clumsy out there at first but as the game progressed I saw him get over his shyness of his role and get aggressive and actually kick the ball. His team didn't come away the victors but they came away more prepared for the next game (which happens to be tonight). Then Allyssa and Ashton had a double booking, and since I have seen Ashton play before, Will and I opted to watch Allyssa play her game for a bit and then I left to watch our son Ashton kick it up in the field. He has such exuberance he ran to me during his first break and said "Hi Mom, I am number 6". Me and the other parents laughed, as if I needed verification of which one he was out there on the field. Then he got assigned a spot close to my side of the field and he waved "Hi Mom I am number 6". I guess he was concerned that I would not know who he was out there in that uniform that matched all the others?
Allyssa was the cutest little ball kicker, she was so excited to have the ball and just kicked right past the goal going side to side on the field neither up or down. During practice I was not sure she was getting it, she was clumsy with drippling the ball on the field and seemed bored with her various practice routines. But I guess some of it stuck because she had no trouble performing in a real game.
Then to top it all off Justin is doing Cross country, this adds to my time in the car taking kids to various activities. Justin has had 3 meets so far and seems to be very content with his coach, which happens to be Ashtons coach also. And if he coaches Justin like he coaches Ashtons soccer team he has a very encouraging and positive coach.
This year Justin is in 9th grade and so he also started seminary. He was very excited to begin seminary too. Justin has really developed a love for the gospel and seems to hunger for more of it because during his free time here at home (he has very little of it) he finds talks on the Internet from various speakers he had at Education Week and listens to them. He and Will have long conversations over the various gospel topics he is learning. It pleases me as his mom to see him heading in that direction without me pushing him that way.
Jordan is bored with his chosen lack of school (High School Graduation behind him) and unemployed state. He has put his application out there, don't get me wrong but at this point he doesn't have a job. I hope he gets one soon, he really needs something to move him in the Adult world he so wanted to enter. This summer he had a eye opening experience with sales trying to sell security systems for a company of a friends in Kansas City, Missouri. He found that he really did not enjoy that type of work and really missed his family (this was at the age of 17 mind you) so he left early and came home and plans on taking some Internet courses on writing, he has wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember his when I grow up goal.
I guess that sums it up as to what is going on now in "my simple life".

Locks can be a serious distraction

2008-08-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Travis needed a lock for his bike so he could ride it to the bus. Never did I know what kind of genius I had (hes 10). After purchasing his lock his whole focus was on how to change the combination of the lock. So we figured it out after soccer and scouts for the day. I explained to Travis that he would need to remember any combination he set it to. That evening after we had all gotten into our beds Ashton comes running into my room announcing "Travis can't figure out his combination to his bike lock". After hearing this I knew that soon would come into my room a pretty upset Travis. As predicted I could hear a very sad young man coming towards my room to announce his predicament. I was a prepared mom though and gave him the best advice I could think of and that was "try all the number combos that were as close to the one you had it set to before you messed it up" and of course "Say a Prayer". The following morning the lock remained locked. So a very disappointed Travis went to the bus stop without his bike. The only thing I could say to him was that maybe he would be hit by a car today so Heavenly Father didn't answer his prayers to figure it out before leaving for the bus. Then amazing of all things Travis comes home and announces after school today "I found out the combination to my lock" I was impressed apparently he had a friend tell him that it would be a simple thing to figure out all he had to do was try all the possible combinations from 1-9999 and he could do that within a couple of hours. Travis told me "It only took me a bus ride and a couple of recesses". Little to say I was a very impressed mom. I guess all you need is a little determination!

Joining the ranks

2008-08-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

I decided that if Aunt Linda had a blog maybe its not just for the young moms out there. So I am joining the ranks. From time to time I will try to think up something that is going on in my simple life. Thinking ??????????