Team Francks

Girlfriends Christmas Party

Another year of Girlfriends Christmas Party has come and gone... and its so much fun to plan... always sad to see it over... its a fun addition to my holiday season!

This year because of my extra load at work I had to modify things a bit... so instead of cooking dinner for everyone we went out to dinner at Olive Garden and then came back to my place for "Favorite Things" Gift Exchange (if you want directions on how to do this kind of party let me know) and then we had dessert and talked.

I liked going out for dinner... it was a lot less work but I also felt like it lost some of its coziness... it was hard to talk to everyone when we were all spread out at a long restaurant table... so next year I'll probably do the cooking again... but a change is nice every once in awhile.

It was a fun fun evening and I feel so grateful for these women in my life!

 

 

125 things about me...

I thought it would be fun to document who I am right now.  I've seen these lists going around for awhile now... So here are 125 things about me... before my life changes... honestly the new role shouldn't affect my list too much... but you never know  

I'd love to hear what we have in common.

1.  I love fresh cut flowers and love to have a vase of them around the house

2.  My favorite color has always been Navy Blue... now I love the color pink

3.  I love most seafood and especially shrimp... which is weird because we didn't eat seafood growing up.....I don't do oysters or squid.

4.  My Junior year in High School I wore Army fatigues and dog tags... I was having an identity crisis... now I wear skirts on a somewhat regular basis.

5.  I enjoy being domestic

6.  I love Farmers Markets

7.  I'm the oldest of eight children and LOVE being part of a big family

8.  I really like making bracelets... not really earrings or necklaces... just bracelets

9. I love scented candles... you can never have too many! My favorites are Salt City, Gold Canyon and Yankee's... and I've just discovered Scentsy.... oh how I love Scentsy!

10.I love fuzzy socks... my favorite pair are pink fuzzy socks that my husband bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago.

11. I drive a minivan

12. I never want to live in Southern California...so doesn't appeal to me... I love visiting...  Just don't want to live there.

13. I wish I was a scriptorian... I really really want to do better about reading and learning the scriptures

14. I hate that I struggle so much with my weight

15. I have good legs and ankles... not that I think so but have been told so... Does that sound vain?  It's not supposed to... Its just the only thing going for me.

16.  I thought I would live in Utah near my family forever... now I've been gone for nine years.  I miss Utah.  And my family.

17. I wish I could just travel... I love to travel... wish I could just walk away from everything and see the world with my husband.

18. Sometimes I feel sad that life is so unfair... on so many levels.

19. I don't know how to swim

20. I'm a name snob... huge name snob.

21. I love camping and being outdoors

22. In the past couple of years I've been forced in to situations that have taught me that I'm a good teacher and do well in front of crowds.

23. I grew up in Utah and have never been to Lake Powell, Zion's National Park or Bryce Canyon.  I hold my parents partially responsible for that :)

24. When on Study abroad in the middle east I went to use the bathroom with several other students in a secluded field behind the bus... had just pulled up our pants when a solider came running after us yelling that we were in a mine field.

25. Fall is my absolute favorite season.

26. I love love love homemade soups!

27. I make friends easily... I don't mean that to sound braggy or arrogant... I just think its maybe one of my spiritual gifts... I make friends.

28. Moving around so much for the last 9+ years has been an incredible experience for me and has helped me discover some of my strengths and talents.

29.  I'm intimated by pretty women my age

30. I love fonts!!!

31. I love road trips

32. I love hosting parties

33. I cry when I watch the Olympics

34. I love the smell of Paul Mitchell hairspray... sometimes I buy it just for the smell.

35. I won't eat butter unless its completely melted (like on toast)... the thought of eating butter in a non melted form gives me the heebie geebies.

36. I don't like animals.  Horses are good.  Cats, gerbils, hamsters, rodents of any form... bad.

37. I love love love working in Young Women's... it's my favorite place to serve.

38. I love Ice Cream.  Except for Rocky Road.  I do not like Rocky Road ice cream.

39.  I have a hard time being completely honest when I think it will hurt someone or make things unnecessarily complicated.

40. I do not like John Mayer’s music.  I think each one of his songs sounds exactly the same.

41. I love Milk Chocolate.  I tolerate dark chocolate.

42. College at BYU were some of my favoritest years.

43. I had a wonderful childhood.

44. I have so many fond memories of my grandparents farm in Beaver, UT... riding horses, swimming in the irrigation ditch, feeding the animals with my grandpa, the grain kept in the old store...

45. I feel bad for people who don't scrapbook... it's not really about the hobby (even though I love that part as well)... its about the connections that are made... recording those memories that would other wise be forgotten.

46. I love holidays and decorating for them.  All of them.

47. I love America.

48. I wish i was wiser with money and knew how to save and invest.

49. I love having girlfriends and am all about the YaYa sisterhood

50. Gerber daisies are my favorite flower

51. I love taking pictures

52. I prefer driving a stick shift

53. My favorite smells include pine-sol, rain on dirt and citrus

54. When I was 18 we were involved in a multi car accident on an Indian reservation in Arizona... my uncle, cousin and myself did CPR on a women for 45 minutes before she died. Five other people died in that accident.  I had nightmares about it for years.

55. I love pretty, fun, color coordinated dishes... it's a small obsession.

56. Mexican is my favorite food

57. When I drive alone I turn up the music and sing really loud

58. I love cloudy days and rain

59. The funnest jobs I've ever had were working for Simple Scrapbooks and Creating Keepsakes Magazine... it was an absolute dream job

60. I have lived in Utah, Hawaii, Jerusalem, Louisiana, Washington and Texas

61. I love bookstores and public libraries... I love books and and I love how they smell...

62. I love containers of all shapes and sizes... rubber-maid, sterilite, the container store and I have a great relationship!

63. I worked at a Mexican restaurant all through High School and college.  I worked there with my mom, two sisters and brother. 

64. I hate feeling scattered... which unfortunately is a daily occurrence.

65. I LOVE making lists and live by them

66. I HATE to iron... but still do it as I hate wrinkles more.

67. I love that I'm creative and seek after those things

68. I love naps... Sunday naps are absolutely delicious.

69. I love the Carpenter's... they've been one of my favorites for as long as I can remember... I own every album they've ever made. When I was little I thought I sang just like Karen Carpenter and I was positive that I was her biological child and that she had given me up for adoption when she divorced (ignoring the fact that I look just like my mom!)... it was a sad day when my mom assured me that I was indeed hers.

70. I'm an absolute night owl... and wish I enjoyed getting up in the mornings

71. Sometimes I think I hurt people's feelings... but I never ever mean to... its just that I'm clueless most of the time.

72. I love yard sales... some of my favorite memories are yard sales with my mom on Saturday mornings

73. I think I have ADD... I have a really hard time concentrating and staying on task

74. I wish I knew and liked Math... but I just don't.

75. Sometimes I wish I was more left brained... I envy Type-A personalities...

76. Swimming in dark murky water freaks me out, I don't want things (fish, snakes, lochness monsters) to touch me.

77. I love chunky bracelets

78. I love decorating for Halloween!  I think about it for months!

79. I love reading... especially in bed

80. I'm a people person but am really shy in new situations

81. I always worry what others think of me... I try not to but i can't help it.

82. I love BYU football

83. I lose my keys, credit card, cell phone, camera, etc more times than I would like to admit... I drive my self crazy and thankfully have a husband who is very patient with me.

84. My husband knew the first time he met me that he was going to marry me... it took me much, much longer

85. I was going on a mission for my church... I had my clothes bought, new missionary scriptures and taken all my missionary prep classes... at the last minute a cute boy talked me out of it...hindsight I wish I had gone and that the cute boy could have been patient and waited for me.... but we've had a great 11 years together and I don't regret that at all!

86. I love my ipod

87. I love perfume... my favorite right now being Beautiful Sheer by Estee Lauder

88. I love Jane Austen.. the BBC version of P&P is one of my favorite movies

89. I love Anne of Green Gables and have always had a crush on Gilbert Blythe

90. I love love love fresh vegetables from a Garden

91. I love cookbooks and have collected tons over the years but rarely ever cook out of them.

92. I have no musical talent, but wish I did

93. I cry when I get really mad...which I really really hate... I think I've cried in front of every boss I've ever had.... so embarrassing!!!

94. I love milk and drink it with almost every meal.

95. I love mowing lawns

96. I have close relationships with many people, and treasure all of them... I spread myself too thin, but would not give up any of these friendships.

97. I love flannel sheets in the winter.

98. I have picky feet... I can't sleep with my feet under the blankets if its a certain type of material... hard to explain but its been like this for as long as I can remember.

99.  I like cooking and baking but am usually put off by a recipe that has more than 6 or 7 ingredients

100.  I always over commit myself, and then stress out because I've taken on too much... it always gets done... but not without a small melt down here and there...

101.  I'm a people pleaser... (did I already say that??)... see #100

102.  I love fun mail... bills and junk mail... boo!

103. I love my wedding ring for the sentiment of it... but 11 years later I would choose something different.

104. I believe in Karma to a certain degree.

105. I love the sound of rain... it makes me happy!

106. I love cultures and people... I wish I could live every where just for a little while to experience it all.

107. I'm way too sentimental... but its who I am and I've learned to embrace it.

108.  When I was little I would spend hours and hours looking through my Grandma's photo albums... I love old pictures and the stories that go along with them.

109.  Our honeymoon (Caribbean Cruise) was so much fun. I always feel so tender towards my husband when I think of how much effort and time he took in planning it.... we were both in school and so poor but he wanted it to be memorable and I'll always be grateful to him for that.

110. Sometimes I'm scared to try new things but am always grateful when I do something that's hard and out of my comfort zone.

111.  Abuse to children makes me so sad and angry

112.  When I grow up I'm going to be an advocate for children... I've looked in to doing CASA but I can't give them the time commitment that they need at this point in my life.

113.  I've had a job non stop since I was 14 years old... I dream of being footloose and fancy free one day.

114. Sometimes I wish I could tell people what I really think but I won't because it would ruin our relationship and its not worth it...so I keep my mouth shut.

115.  My dream is to own a cabin some day.

116.  I have severe PCOS

117.  I believe that there are good people wherever you go.

118.  I want to learn to play the guitar.

119. I love love love flannel pj bottoms and would live in them at all times if that was an option

120. I wish I knew how to sew

121. I love canning.  Working full time I haven't had time to do it for awhile but one of these days I will be a canner again.

122.  I think Hawaii is a magical place.

123.  Becoming a mom is a dream come true for me.  I've always wanted to be a mom.  It's been a long, hard, emotional road... I'd like to believe it makes the reward that much sweeter.

124.  I'm so grateful for my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and am so grateful for my Tesitmony.

125. I am a child of God. So are you. 

 

Memories...

Ok... I'm a totally copy cat... I've seen this on a couple of my friends blogs and I thought it would be fun to play...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I have together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! 

(You can play this even if we're just blog friends... something that you remember from our blog time together! haha!)

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see what memories people have of you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

I would love to hear what you guys remember about me!

Random things about me...

I got tagged by my blog buddy Andrea to list five things...

1.    I always sleep on the same side of the bed regardless if I have the whole bed to myself (hotel beds included).

2.    I go through the mail in the mailbox... if it's good mail (letter, scrapbook magazine, etc) I bring it in the house.  If it's dumb mail  (junk mail, catalogs, etc) I just leave them in the mailbox and let my husband bring it in whenever he gets around to it... drives him crazy!

3.    I only use white dish clothes... and when they're dirty they go in to the pink bucket and soak in clorox for a day or two before they're washed. 

4.    I label my fridge.

5.    My closet is organized by color

and six just for good luck...

6.    I have to do everything on the hour or the half hour.  No random minutes.  I can't go to bed at 11:17.  I either need to go to bed by 11:00  or I'll wait up until 11:30. Can't start exercising at 3:13.  It either needs to be 3:00 or 3:30.  Same with waking up.  6:30 or 7:00 but no 6:52. 

Ok  I'm tagging Jennie, Heidi, Leslie, Jamie , Catherine, Hilary... and of course anybody else that wants to!

Exercise Challenge

Ok, I thought I had totally posted this earlier but I just realized that it was in draft mode and didn't post so I apologize for the lateness of it.....

I realize the importance of exercise and I don't mind doing it... actually I really like to do it... I just have a hard making it part of my daily routine... but when I'm in the habit of it I do really good and exercise almost every day.  Before I left for Seattle at the beginning of November I had been doing really really good at it... exercising for an hour six days a week... and then I went on my work trip and it was all over... Thanksgiving was the week after I got back and then Christmas and then family came into town and then it was New Year's and you know how the story goes... I've exercised here and there over the last month and half but nothing consistently.

So to get me back in habit I'm posting it out there in blog world (that's so embarrassing!) and starting an exercise challenge... so counting today there are 17 days left in the month, 18 if we include February 1st.  Let's just say Feb 1st.  So I'm going to challenge myself and whoever else would like to join me to exercise for at least 30 minutes for the next 15 days... So that gives us three free days... I don't exercise on Sunday and that will give me one extra day (cramps, Dr's appt, get hit by a bus, whatever... one freebie)...you use the three free days however you want and on Feb 2nd whoever has exercised for 15 days will get a prize from me... so who's in?  Post it in the comment section and maybe we can email each other with encouragement?  Anyone? Anyone? Don't leave me all by myself embarrassing myself in blog world.

P.S. if for some reason you read this post late and can only do 10 days or whatever you can do just email me your goal and if you meet your goal you can win a small prize.

In my next life....

Ok, scratch the drummer in a band from the list last week... well I still want to do it but maybe in my free time...

I have something even better that I want to do in my next life.  I want to be a surfer.  Seriously. 

Growing up I used to dream I was Gidget and I'd watch the movie over and over with my sisters... still one of my favorite movies to date. I was going to be a surfer and the fact that I grew up in the mountains of Utah and that closest ocean was 12 hours away didn't seem to deter me.  I wanted to marry my moondoggie and we'd split our time between Utah and Hawaii... life was going to be perfect! 

Then I went to college at BYU-Hawaii with my bosom buddy Leslie and my favorite cousin Tammy and besides it being one of the greatest experiences/adventures of my life it was also going to be summer that I learned how to surf. This was it.  I was in Hawaii and the university offered surfing classes.  And I was going to take the surfing classes and my instructor was going to be my moondoggie and he would look at me and know that I was his soul mate and the music would start to play and we would surf off into the sunset, hand in hand.

One small, teeny, tiny problem...  I don't know how to swim. And they won't let you take a surfing class if you don't know how to swim… I can doggy paddle, but just barely... but that's a different story for a different day.

So all my hopes and dreams of surfing off in to the sunset with moondoggie came to a screeching, dying halt in the summer of '95 and out of the three of us Leslie is the only one that became a surfer that summer (I don't remember why Tammy didn't).

I then went on to marry a pasty white (but very cute) boy who is also a wanna be surfer.   No real chances of him being a surfer either since he grew up living in places like Alaska, Alabama and Germany... no real surfing opportunities there.

Over the years we’ve watched the Endless Summer movies and other various surfing movies and we’ve talked about moving away to an exotic island and I guess in the back of my mind there was still the hope of “one day”.

So tonight was movie night at the Francks house and Joey picked to watch Riding Giants… a new surfing movie… and they were interviewing this cute, blonde, female surfer and it just kind of hit me… I’m never going to be a surfer! I’m thirty years old, I don’t know how to swim, I live in  North Texas and the closest thing to water here is funky, dirty Lake Texoma. I’m never going to be a surfer.

Later this evening as I was looking through my all time favorite book The Big Picture by the oh so talented Stacy Julian (and I have a shout out on the dedication page so that right there makes it my favorite book even if it wasn’t an amazing book, which it is) and I came across her scrapbook page on Shattered Horse Dreams. She was going to have a horse and instead she married a man who has asthma and is allergic to fur and she’s never getting her horse. And then she said something that at this moment really hit home to me… she said “Sometimes decisions become defining moments that alter dreams—isn’t life exciting!” 

And that’s how I feel... Ya I’m a bit sad that I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m never going to be a surfer (sadder that it’s taken me this long)… but I wouldn’t trade the experiences that I’ve had. I wouldn’t trade the ten years I’ve had with Joey and the amazing experiences we’ve had together. I wouldn’t trade the life long friends that I made in college… or the people that I've met in Utah, Louisiana, Washington and now Texas who have changed my life. Sometimes life and our dreams don’t turn out the way that we planned, but most of the time they turn out better.

Thank you Stacy for saying it so perfectly!

P.S. I tried to find pictures of me, Leslie and Tammy in Hawaii but I don't have any scanned and my scanner is broken... so just use your imagination... we were tan and we looked good!