"Let's get down to the Nitty Gritty"

Whidden blog~ written by the mother
about the children
the dad
and a lot of ramblings about life here in Utah.

A few things we love
Traveling
Camping
Fishing and Eating Nachos

11.21.2011

21

I am thankful today for sisters.

11.20.2011

20

Today I am thankful for some little boys with crazy, amazing imaginations. It is never a dull moment around here.

11.19.2011

16,17,18,19

Whew, things are not turning out like I wanted them to this month and my blog is suffering as well.
As some of you know Ben is from Canada and Target is opening 200 new stores over a few years and Ben applied to be one of the first store managers to move up there and we obviously would move with him.
He went through two interviews and felt the first one went bad and the 2nd went well.
Well......he didn't get chosen to go up there, to be honest I was completely shocked he didn't get it, I thought since he was a Canadian national he would have a good chance and I was getting excited about the possibility of going on this new adventure.
I think I might have been more sad than Ben was, but he doesn't have roller coaster emotions to begin with so I didn't expect him to burst into tears and cry on my shoulder.
But with the spirit of the month, it would be silly not to be thankful for the opportunity he had to interview, he needs all the practice he can get, also we are thankful that he has a good job and he likes his job.
In spite of the "bad" news Ben did get some good news, he was nominated to go onto something called ADP, it is a process in which he will go through a series of interviews and then prep sessions, once he completes the sessions they will send him to a final interview to be passed of as a DTL (he is a STL a DTL is the manager of a few STL's) . However that news wasn't Ben's idea of good news, he hates interviewing because he thinks he stinks at it.
We are thankful for good jobs, jobs that afford us some travel perks and a steady income.

11.15.2011

15

Maybe it is a theme for the day, but I just read on someone else's daily Thanksgiving about friends.
My life has gone in many different directions with friends, but the one thing that has never changed it what and how much I learn from my friends...... from being a better mom, to more fashionable, more spiritual, I could go on and on.
I know that some friends are lifelong friends and some are not, some friendships that end might be a blessing in disguise and some friendships are just blessings.

I guess I will get on my little soapbox about being friendly, and please understand I don't do these all of the time either, but here we go.
If you see someone in the store, why pretend like you don't see them, why is it so hard to smile and wave?
If you see someone at church why is it so hard to pay someone a compliment?
When walking down a hallway with someone you don't know how come it is hard to say Good Morning or hello and smile?
Even if you don't say something to someone you are walking past, how about a smile?

I learned a really good lesson once at work, as the passengers were deplaning a was standing there with a straight face saying goodbye and thank you and a man walked up to me as he was about to walk off the plane and said something to the extent, that "it wouldn't kill you to smile". I will never forget that. EVER. I think about that a lot and the way our body language and words affect other people.

Some of us have lots of friends- some of us have a few friends-some of us want more friends and some of us feel like they don't need friends,  I know I have felt all of those feelings but the feeling today and many days is I am thankful for every one of my friends, each has more positives than negatives and I know that my friends make me want to be a better person and I would be sad if they didn't know that I was thankful for them.

14

Today is another lame post without a photo but maybe with some background music to get into the spirit of the post.
I am thankful for music, it has always been a big part of my life, and is not as big right now as I would like it to be.
I would have music playing all day if I could get away with it.

11.13.2011

10,11,12,13

Wow, I am a little behind...not that I am not grateful but a little busy. We had an awesome anniversary weekend this last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We got an awesome hookup to stay up at Stein Erickson Lodge in Park City, Utah. It was nothing short of amazing, it is the only 5 star hotel in Utah. It is a little hard to get used to the amazing treatment, the only valet parking, the bellmen desk, concierge, the turn down service, the papers on your door, I could go on and on.
Our anniversary was on 11.11.11 this year, our original plan was to go the 11state which is New York btw, but we decided to save some cash and time with black Friday less than 2 weeks away.
Ben commented on facebook at 11:11 am we had been married for 11 years but at 1:00pm we were married for 12 years.
The kids stayed at Grandma's house, she is probably home right now passed out on the couch. They had a great time and didn't want to leave even when we got there.
Friday night, we went out to dinner and hung out at the hotel.
Saturday we went to see a movie and not a cartoon movie or rated G. (Tower Heist, pretty good and funny)
Sunday we went to the Stein Erickson Brunch, if you have not gone and need to add something to your bucket list or need a gift for the person that is hard to shop for, treat them to that. It was so AWESOME and hopefully someday will be able to take my Mom back up there for watching my kids for the weekend.








It was so fun and really nice to be just hang out with Ben and be able to talk to one another, without any interruptions.

11.09.2011

9

 I am thankful for the desire to keep learning, in my patriarchal blessing it mentions to keep learning and luckily I like to learn new things. Sorry about the self portraits, but this is a tutorial I found that I wanted to use on a scrapbook page I was doing and practiced on some of my photos (photos taken by Jeni Boston).
A list of things that I would love to learn more about....
Cake Decorating
Photoshop
Jewelery making
Cooking classes
Speaking french
I would love to go back to school and take psychology classes and or nursing classes.
History classes
There are so many to list, but that would be a good start.