Interview

1. In what place do you find peace and happiness, and why? Several places, i'll try to pick a couple... one is the Temple... Why? because I am closer to my Heavenly Father and he touches my heart and eases my troubles easier because I am more in tune and listening to his voice. My home... because i try to make it a place of peace and safety and of course I love my family.

2. What goals did you have when you graduated high school, and did you acheive them?
Goals... one was to move around and get out of Texas... yea I accomplished that one, partially, I wanted to go to Europe too... still haven't accomplished that one, Another was to get married in the Temple, Yep I accomplished that one, another was to be able to be somewhat self supportive so that I knew I would be able to support my family if anything happened to my husband and I needed to work. Still working on that goal. I will be finishing college in just over 2 yrs. I make a good wage and I love what I am doing. But I still don't make as much as my husband... But we could survive off of my income just on a lower level of living. Which is still living. I'm proud of the things I've been able to accomplish.

3.. Who do you respect the most and why? My husband, his honesty and just who he is, I respect most people, I think I'm genuinely a good person and try to show respect to everyone. Especially people who have overcome adversity positively and have helped others overcome adversity as well. That is just something that is amazing.

4. What is your favorite activity? hard to say right now. sometimes it's just hangin' out with my girlfriends (Not alot of time for that these days) or just spending quality time with my hubby continuing to build that eternal relationship. :)

5. What is one place you'd like to visit (money is no option), and why? All of Europe... does that count? I would love to take tours and visit historical places. I love history and experiencing new things. I'd also love to visit Hawaii... Beaches, sun... beautiful scenery.. need I say more? :)

And don't forget the rules to post on your blog:
If you would like to play along here are the directions:
1. Leave me a comment & your e-mail address saying, "Interview me." If you dare.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

The first five 'askers' get the interview!

Valentines Weekend....

Well, it has been a productive weekend as well as partly relaxing. I have done alot this weekend. But I think it all went pretty smoothly. I started my valentines day weekend on Friday, I babysat for one of my friends so she and her hubby could go and celebrate their Valentines day alone. We watched their kids overnight. The kids had a blast! they watched movies, and played. Saturday we all went and registered my three boys into little league baseball, then come to find out that they will have practice 3 nights a week and a game during the week and one game on saturdays. Luckily it won't start until April. I also signed up to go back to college. I start March 23rd. I can hardly wait. I will be finished in 10 months with my Associates in Business Administration and then 13 months later my Bachelors in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources. It will be non stop, but worth the sacrifice. Then it will be Bill's turn for him to finish. Leading by example. Saturday afternoon, my friends took the boys and Bill and I left for out date for Valentines Day. We went to a nice Italian restaurant called Cesca in Bethesda MD. It was a nice meal. my favorite dish was their ravioli's with potato and leeks with a mascapone cheese sauce. MMMM tasty... I crave that now! We had a nice leasurely meal. 4 courses to be exact. Then at the end of dinner Bill gives me my gift. a 5 diamond journey necklace. It's beautiful. I have noticed a theme with his jewelry he gives me. There seem to always be 5 diamonds. My anniversary band has 5 diamonds, the wrap on my wedding ring has 5 diamonds and my new necklace has 5 diamonds. He said it represents our family of 5... how sweet. AWWWW. He is such a sweety. Then he and I went to go pick up some flower, a pot of tulips from Sams Club so I can plant them around the front tree. They are beautiful. And we picked up a few movies to watch at home. Nights of Rodanthe, and The Secret Life of Bees. They are both goood movies. We snuggled on the couch and then fell asleep. It was so nice and relaxing to have some quality quiet time with him. We were well rested for church. We went to church on Sunday, I did NO house work on Sunday except made a nice dinner with marinated steaks and a wild rice with artichoke and roasted red peppers. I knew I would clean up on Monday so I wasn't worried. Yesturday I busted my behind... Luckily I had the help of a neighbor's daughter for most of it as I spent most of the day sorting, throwing away and washing laundry. But the house is much more organized and cleared out. What a relief to have it finished. I'm finishing up the laundry. But other than that... I'm done. I couldn't have finished with out the help of Jillian and Bill and the kids. When they came home from building their pinewood derby cars, helped finish the downstairs. I am so blessed to have the friends and family I have. I am so grateful for them all. What a filled weekend. It was wonderful!

What's next

Well, It seems every year at the beginning of the year, my husband and I try to figure out if we are going to do any major vacations and try to plan for them. We look into hotels, locations, times, things we want to do or teach the kids about. Huge discussions happen around these topics. Then we decide what we're going to do. and pray we'll have the money. time and energy to complete our plans. Oh and barring any outside forces of stopping us. We've been talking about taking a trip to Utah for years now. Every year we say we're going to go, we plan it out, we put in time to take off of work. and Bam! something happens and we can't go. last year, Bill's heart surgery, the year before, Bill was told he could take the time, but then they took it back, and said he was needed in Germany that time and then the day before we were originally scheduled to go after we reallocated the funds. Was told they needed him to go to Germany after when we had originally scheduled to go. So we still couldn't go, no more planning. I am getting a little tired of planning a trip we can't seem to go on. Why is it so important to go to Utah, you might ask. Well, Bill served his mission in Salt Lake City, over 10 yrs ago, and hasn't been back since. While he was on his mission he had open heart surgery right before he came home. He want's to go back and show us some of his favorite places and some of the people he knew there that he still keeps in contact with, after all these years. I love Utah, it holds a special place in my heart. I lived there before I met Bill. I lived in Provo UT, I worked at the Brick Oven and went to Beauty School there at Von Curtis Academy of Hair Design. We also have several friends who have moved to Utah. Plus church history and the temples. So needlessly to say, we were again planning a trip to Utah for this year. We were planning on driving out, so we could see different parts of the country on the way out and see my sister Kat on the way back in NM. Stop in at the Grand Canyon and all that. Well, we were going to go over the kids spring break in April. I was going to have the money, but we owe some taxes this year, and will have to pay that instead of our trip to Utah. Bill also wants to do other trips this year. He has good intentions, but I think our on the spot quick weekend trips seem to be the best. No planning really except the day we want to go. We check the budget and then pic a direction. In a usual 3 day weekend we've been know to do things like, take a trip to Boston, Go to Palmyra NY and Niaghra falls Canada. Or trip to Ocean City, MD, or Indianapolis IN. We like to drive and the kids are pretty good. too bad Utah is a 3 day drive one way. Well, eventually we'll get back there. It just might not be this year. I'm also trying to plan my family reunion in Texas. That should be fun. If I can pull it off. Here's hoping. Where should we go? What should our next big trip be or little 3 day weekend trip. We have one coming up next week with Valentines day/President'sday. hmmm will we go any where? We'll just have to wait and see. :) Do you have any ideas of where we should go?>

Family Reunion Planning - Dickson Clan

Ok, Here it goes, I'm going to kick off the newest Dickson Family reunion to be held in 2009. Hopefully from now on we can make this a yearly thing. When I was a kid my we'd all meet at Blanco State Park in Blanco TX. It would be great if we could all converge on that place again this year. I asked my mom how they did it before. She said that her and my dad would just let the family know when they were going to be there, and invited the rest of the family to join. Each family is invited. If your a decendant or addition to the Dickson line... From Joyce Dickson/Frazer. Your invited to attend. If you'd like feed back as to which month this summer we do this please feel free to let me know. We I think are planning on being down there in June. If that doesn't work for the majority of you all. Let me know and we can pick a different month. WE hope all can make it. Bring your tents, your lean-too's, your RV's and trailers. It's time to get the Dickson family reunion re-invented. if you'd like to converge at a different location. please let me know. Our home is always open for the fam. We are 90 min from DC. We love visitors. If you want a cheap vacation, stay with us! :) So for now. I'll get my calender and pick a weekend in June and I'll schedule us to be there. I hope you all can join us!

Disappointed Bitter-sweet

I was so excited my team the Pittsburg Steelers made it to the Super Bowl!!! I was so dissappointed at their poor sportsmanship! They had some really great plays and very methodical with their running game. It was such a close game. I could just not believe they would be so grossly horrible with their on field behavior toward the Cardinals. They were doing some personal fouls, but last I checked two wrongs doesn't make it right. I am a still a fan, just a dissappointed fan. I know they could have been better behaved toward the Cardinals. I wish they would have behaved better. I watched the SuperBowl with a house full of Cardinal fans... Lets just say I was royally imbarrassed to see the behavior of my team. All were appauld at their behavior. Yes they won... but at what cost. It was a win that due to their poor sportsmanship should not have gotten the win. But they did win. A bitter-sweet win. Go Steelers, but I will have a heavy heart.