Oh gosh!

Brent loves to stand in front of the mirror and act like he is getting ready for the day. Well one night we caught him in the bathroom putting something in his hair....it was the entire bottle of hand soap.


He was just doing what mommy does, but believe me I don't put that much product in my hair and in only one place. Never a dull moment at the Smith house.

Do you know what really bugs me...warning this is a really long post, and I'm sorry

What is really starting to annoy me is all of the stupid bridal couples coming in to register for gifts just to turn right around and return every damn thing they get. That is such a waste of time. For the month of January every registrant we had returned 54% of the things that people bought for them. I couldn't believe it! You ungrateful punks! People come into the store and try to find something that they think you would like and would use and what do you bridal couples do...turn right around and return it and then throw a fit and demand cash. If you are so in need of money maybe you shouldn't have gotten married right now. Maybe you should get your finances in order and grow up and then decide if you are ready to take the plunge. Do you know that 78% of the people who got divorced said it started over money issues! And what in the world is with couples who go to BYU. Our worst couples have been from BYU and live in Wymount. Last weekend every couple that had a return over $1000 (no I am not kidding $1000) had an address from wymount. Do you have to be greedy, non grateful punks to live in wymount? I don't get it.

Yes I did return some things, something like $100 worth of stuff, but I spent like $600 right after. These little brats walk in and always at the end of the month because rent is due soon, and return everything and then walk right out the door and we usually never see them again (and yes we know you don't come back because we have amazing ways of tracking things-I can pull up any one's registry and know exactly how much was purchased and how much was returned, the day, time, register, if you used a coupon. Oh yes, we can look up anything). Why waste your time? If you are that desperate for money then put it on your freak'n invitation-money tree available, or yet just add your bank account number and have people put it right in your account-that takes out a couple of steps. I understand that this could be tacky but at least be honest, its what you want most.

The idea behind registering is so that people know your colors and are able to pick out things you would like. And then IF you get duplicates (that means 2 of the same thing, not one in chrome and one in white, 2 of the EXACT SAME thing) then you can get cash back. And if you don't really want china, then don't freak'n put it on your registry-just to have someone (who is amazing) buy you every place setting you ask for. And of course what do you do...you return every piece you got. I have been married for almost 7 years and right now I only have 5 place settings, I would be thrilled, yes thrilled to have been GIVEN all of my china. Am I crazy, am I unreasonable to think that if someone buys you something that you have personally picked out that you would not want it?

And while I am at it, quit bringing your mom in to register with you. Last time I checked being married meant making decisions with you and your spouse. Cut the umbilical cord already and decide something on your own. If you need your mom to go with you two to pick things out then that is exactly how your marriage will be, just you, your spouse and your mom. No, you probably won't get everything right (but who does), but at least you will learn together and learn to depend on each other.

And lastly, really get to know each other. It is so sad when I am at work and my friend, who is openly gay, comes up to me and says, "hey monica see that couple over there scanning, that guy hit on me at the gay club last saturday". As funny as this sounds it has happened more than once. If you are doubting anything, then don't go through it. There is nothing wrong with needing more time. That is just your way of being an ADULT and realizing you might not be ready or 100% sure that this is right. Don't worry it took me 2 1/2 years to be ready and sure that I wanted to marry Brent, and I so glad that I did because I have no regrets at all. (I just added the pic because I needed something on the happy side for a second)


I know it looks like I am pin pointing just BYU couples and this is the same issue everywhere....it is not. I have worked at alot of the stores: Sugarhouse, Fort Union, Meridian in Idaho, American Fork, and orem is the worst, by far. No other store has the issues that we do, and that includes all 800 stores in the US.

If I can leave you with anything it is to be grateful for what you get, especially if it is free, and only register for what you need and really want and quit wasting every one's time and money. Hello, can you say recession, there are people going out of business right now. You might think that you can just return it now and then buy it back later...well I am telling you right now I am at the later part in my life and no you won't.

And always, always, always give bridal couples gift cards! The back of the card says not redeemable for cash! (I smile really big when I get to tell those ungrateful couples sorry, can't be cashed out!)


A little note: this is not directed towards any specific person that I know. All of my friends are already married and way past this point in their life. I just wanted to vent for a minute. And to make everyone aware of the little punks who do this and think that this is what registry programs are for.

Leap frog buddies

After breakfast my kids decided to play with the leap frog pads. They each grabbed one and sat down on the floor and played with them for hours and didn't even fight how cute is that...... ok I am totally lying, but sometimes I like to think that my kids can get along, and sometimes they really do...sometimes. This is what really happened, they fought over who got which one, Brent doesn't care on color just sometimes he wants what Ry has. Then ry wanted the book Brent was looking at, so I told her to finish hers and then they can switch. But Brent didn't want to switch so what did I do... I switched them without Brent knowing. Then after all of that Brent decided he didn't want his blue one anymore.....I give up! At least they stayed still for a couple of mins while I worked on my camera skills with horrible indoor lighting. Yeah for crappy out dated kitchen lighting! I am trying to be positive here.

I love my photography class

I have been so busy this month I haven't had time to really post anything. Just to let you know my m/w/f are completely booked out with workouts with Jill, Ry's preschool, and then I head off to work. I work 9 hours every tues to make up for my 6 hr shifts on m/w/f and then thurs I work from 8 to 5 and then head off to my new obsession.... photography. I am taking a class every thurs for 2 hours and I can't believe how much I have learned. It is amazing and I wished I would have started it earlier (especially when I was a manager and making way more money). We had a field trip up Provo canyon to work on using ISO/shutter speed/and aperture. The first pictures we took were to get a good Exposure compensation of the dogs - Now just to let you know I am still learning and we are just focusing on the basics and using our manual modes or creative modes.As you can see the snow behind him is over exposed and I had a hard time getting it right. And come to find out snow is really hard to work with, it tends to turn gray if under exposed and really bright if over exposed. Plus our lighting sucked but I was glad to get the practice. Our goal here was to get the dog in focus but have the trees behind out of focus. we were working on depth of field. See the snow looks a little better here, still gray in some areas and bright in others but not as over exposed as the first one.

Same exercise here, just easier with something else in the background besides lots of snow.


And again with these trees, I just think they look kinda cool. Repetition is a great tool when learning something new. The snow behind is too bright though.


This one is a little better.


I finally got a picture with snow and it doesn't look gray or too white. I know it just a bbq with snow on it, but I was proud of myself for getting it right on manual.

Superbowl Sunday with the fam

On superbowl sunday Steve and Jill blessed their little guy, Easton, kinda ironic huh? If you don't get it Easton is a sporting goods line. But anyways, it was fun to all get together even for a day. My parents flew down for it and then had to fly back during the superbowl, sorry dad that sucks. But here we all are with our 3d glasses, thanks to Andy for grabbing them-I didn't even know that there was going to be some commercials in 3d but Andy knew because he works at Pespi. And we all are because he provided tons of Mtn Dew! Yeah for me!

Don't even ask what Steve is doing because I don't know.

So Tyler wasn't in the mood to be happy so he went and sat on the stairs. Well I thought he looked so cute so I took a picture of him and lets just say he didn't like that. Every time I lifted up the camera to take a picture he would cry and yell DON'T! But I got one good pic.


I tried not to laugh but it was pretty funny, and it didn't help that Andy was laughing too.

After he calmed down he came up to me by himself and said, "you can take a picture of me now". He is just like Andy.

Kangaroo Zoo!

Last week Rylee's preschool had a field trip to Kangaroo zoo in PG. I went last year and we all had a blast so of course, I had to sign up to go again this year. Well being the immature parent that I am, I went on every slide in the place, and usually before Ry did (she is afraid of heights so I had to show her that it was not scary). After 10 mins Ry was going down every slide and having a blast. A couple of Ry's classmates thought it was fun to try and beat me down the slide.

There is a picture at the top of the slide that shows you how you should go down the slide (which was feet first and your arms folded). So rylee decided to do it to.

Going up the big slide and to my surprise- no plumber's butt. She really has a problem with that




See...we continually tell her to pull her pants up, and she will only wear a belt once in awhile.






This is Anya, she is so cute!


This is Zach and Ry. Ok so I pulled a "Monica" with Zach (I got that from the sitcom Friends, but it so explains me sometimes). So Zach's mom is really protective of him and sort of paranoid. On his first day of preschool, which was a month after preschool started, I was there to help with an activity, and his mom sat there a watched how the teacher was with her kid. He was all over the place and couldn't concentrate at all. Well she kept telling Miss Shaneen how to handle him and the best thing to do when he acts like this and that. I was thinking, "Lady this teacher is great will all types of kids, and I am sure she knows how to handle him" I just kept thinking, "you keep acting like this and you are going to turn him into the biggest mommas boy ever". I should have known by now that you should
NEVER ASSUME
anything. Well....come to find out he is Autistic. Yes I know I pulled a "Monica" and I have done this before (don't even get me started with the blind customer I had at work, that's an embarrassing story) But anyways Zach can't handle a lot of situations most kids can. And since I was such a jerk for thinking his mom is crazy we did whatever Zach wanted. So needless to say I now have a new buddy in Ry's class, and he didn't leave my side the rest of the day, which was unusual for him. Oh please don't let me go to hell for this one!


The blow up slides have holes on them where some of the air escapes, Ry just didn't like having it in her face, go figure!

She gets red in the face just like her dad does.