La-La-La-La-La-La-La Life is Wonderful!

WE HAVE THE COOLEST GRANNY!

2010-10-22T16:15:00.002-04:00

The Jeppson girls would like to thank their granny for the hard work, love, and style she put into making them... THE COOLEST APRONS EVER! Take a look... you gotta agree...

The cutest is, every apron matches my girlies personalities! It is so good they have a granny to sew them cute things since their mom has absolutely no sewing skills!

I had to make them stop being a divas so I could get a good shot of the aprons.... sooo cute!!! Lettie calls her's "My Pizza Making Apron"! She loves to help make pizza and we discovered she likes to stash extra pepperonis in the pockets for after-dinner snacks.

That's My Girl!

2010-07-28T18:19:00.003-04:00

I went to Williamsburg with the kiddos to see family and to have a little vacation! We stayed for a week and it was GREAT! We could fish when we wanted, swim when we wanted, ride the ferry, go to parks, pick blueberried, visit family... good times!

One of our favorite things to do was go to my Grandparent's dock and the kids would swim while 2 would take turns fishing! I was really suprised who my most dedicated fisher was...

JOVIE!

From a young age I have always loved to fish, was never scared to hold a fish, and would play with the worms...

turns out... Jovie is a chip off the old block!

Everytime she would catch a fish she would talk to it and then inform me it told her that it did not want to go back to the water, but rather, it wanted to stay with her. Then I would haveto inform her that because she cares so much for this fish she knows it needs water and it's mommy and daddy to live. She needed to explain to the fish what was best... so she would get close to the fish, explain the situation, and then lovingly throw it back to go home!
We caught A LOT of catfish. I was one busy (and slimy) mommy trying to keep up with the unhooking and baiting. Big and small. As soon as we threw out, we would hook one. I had to take a picture of Jovie with every fish she caught. Since she could not hold the catfish, I would hold it for her!

And when it was too big for me to hold it and the camera, I would put it on the dock and she would get beside it and wiggle back and forth in her best fish out of water impression.

And sometimes, she would hold the string! She was very brave!

And when she was not fishing she would play with the worms and if someone did not take their turn she happily took it for them! When did she get so big? I love my fisher girl!

I Am A Hungry Vampire!

2010-05-05T17:52:00.003-04:00

I have corneal abrasions... which hurt! A lot! And the eye is supposed to be the fastest healing part of your body... which it is... except when you think you have allergies or a bacterial infection so you treat it with allergy and antibiotic drops when you need a steroid drop to remind your eye that it needs to get better and allow you to see!

My eye has been bugging me for awhile, but since Sunday I have been unable to see consistently. And completely unable to drive. My eye was having spasms (made worse by light) that would uncontrollably shut my eye lid. My eye watered like Niagra Falls... and it burned... oh it burned! And it made me have a heache and feel sleepy. I would sleep for 10 hours and take a 2 hour nap. Basically it is hard to wake up when you feel like you can not open your eyes at all!

And you know it is bad when the doctor says you have problems in BOTH eyes and when he goes to diagram it on the outline of an eye on the computer he moves the mouse all over the cornea diagram and clicks, clicks, clicks away!

Luckily within an hour of putting in my eye drops I noticed a big difference. It was like a miracle. And today my eye lids are still a little swollen, but that is it!

But I had to go to a follow up appointment today with the eye doctor... where he dialated my eyes... which turned my blue eyes black... and made me look like a hungry vampire:

It is more shocking when it is your own reflection because you are used to seeing yourself in the mirror in light... so to see my HUGELY dialated pupils was weird for me!
Now I have to wear my glasses for a long time... which I dislike because I am not the cutest in glasses and the lenses are scratched up, so everythign has a haze of it. Oh well... if I must I must!

I had to wear the sexy temporary glasses that barely stay on your face, much less over your glasses. Then the dialation drops started wearing off unevenly while at work. So hopefully me customers did not get scared away thinking I was on drugs because I looked like this:

The good thing is you can walk to my doctors office from SouthPark Mall... so I had Cheesecake factory for lunch because the wonderful Granny watched the kiddos. So me and Levi had a early mother's day treat for me! Thanks Granny!

Happy Birthday Mom/ Grandma!

2010-04-23T20:53:00.004-04:00

WE GOT YOU A PRESENT!

It is a Saucer Magnolia!

(We hope we got it right)

Hopefully me and my "black thumb" can keep it alive until we go to the mountains!

We will do our best to take care of it and water it and hopefully keep it alive until we see you again!

We love you!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Bloomin' in My Garden!

2010-04-20T09:50:00.008-04:00

My sister-in-law Katie loves to grow flowers! She does a very good job! My little girls love that Katie does a very good job! They also love that Katie sometimes lets them pick some of her flowers (or sometimes just has them picked whether she wants them picked or not).

On the sidebar of her blog she always has a collection of pictures entitled "Bloomin' in my Garden". They are full of beautiful pictures of beautiful flowers.

As I was grilling burgers last night on the patio I looked around my back yard and took note of all the flowers I had successfully grown and were "Bloomin' in my Garden" and decided to take some pictures of them and post them here on my blog in honor of Katie!

Without further ado... I present:

BLOOMIN' IN AUDRA'S GARDEN:

Dandelion: Taraxacum officinale

I am quite proud of these! I have not only succeeded in growing an abundant amount of these strikingly beautiful yellow flowers. But I have also succeeded in keeping them exceedingly healthy until they reached their mature/ seeding state!

Wild Strawberry: Fragaria virginiana

My strawberries have been quite abundant this year! They have produced many pure white flowers and deep crimson fruit.

Thistle: Cirsium vulgare

I suppose I can not take full credit for the hardiness of my thistles this year. Basically, my thistle patch resides next to my air conditioning unit hidden on the side of my house and sometimes they are forgotten. But miracles of miracles, here they are this year, healthy and strong, with stems the size of your wrist. Eeyore would be proud! They are flanked by an impressive array of waist high brown grasses.

Azalea: Rhododendron periclymenoides

The azaleas are in full bloom and what could be prettier? My beautiful Azalea is doing well among it's well-maintained bed of displaced mulch, broken fence pieces, and firewood.

The Hillside Flower Bed

All I can say is variety, variety, variety. I have beautiful flowering Vinca Ivy inter-dispersed with large-woody plants with dainty soft pom-poms on the end. As well as strong hearty briers (the guardians of the Flowers) that tower over their dainty yellow sun-colored wards.

The Backyard Wildlife

Of course every back yard garden has its share of wild visitors! Especially the ever-so-helpful caterpillar.

Pansy:Viola wittrockiana

My pansies have reached a point where they are now delicately dropping over the side of their pots. A cascade of purple, green, and brown.

Thanks for visiting my garden! Did you like it?

Thanks Granny!!!

2010-03-25T19:55:00.005-04:00

When Levi and I went to Florida... I forgot to do Lettie's Gingerbread Man project with her!

Bad Mom!

Lettie was to take a paper cut-out of a gingerbread person and make it into anything she wanted. She wanted to do a ballerina, and I had no clue how I was going to pull it off. Luckily, I left Lettie in the very capable hands of her Granny!

When we got back, Lettie was gushing over the beautiful ballerina she got to make with Granny! Then she brought it home... and behold...

A sewn pink tutu, ballet slippers, curly hair, and a bow!!! How perfect! This was the highest quality paper gingerbread person I have ever seem! And Lettie was so proud! Granny truly has amazing sewing and crafting skills! I would have NEVER been able to pull this one off in a million years!

THANKS GRANNY!

As Lettie would say, this ballerina is "right up her alley"!

Tape + Toilet Paper Rolls = One Weird Kid!

2010-03-25T19:44:00.003-04:00

Silas was walking around the house with 2 toilet paper rolls asking for tape. I figured he was making some binoculars. Which he did... he just too it a step further...

and made them HANDS-FREE binoculars!

I love my crazy Silas!!!

Why I Have Not Been Blogging Lately #1

2010-03-25T18:44:00.003-04:00

I like to keep my blog updated... but I have been SO DARN BUSY lately!

Seriously Busy!

You know how sometimes people say "I have been busy" and you know they really have not been THAT busy?
(I am guilty of using "busy" to liberally... sometimes it means "I did not feel like it" or "I forgot" or "leave me alone for Pete's sake").

But I have been the real kind of busy! I have a list of things I have been up to to prove it. So, when I have time, I will tackle telling you about them one at a time! So I have a moment now... actually, I am putting off something else I need to do... so I will tell you about one:

So, reason for not blogging lately #1:

Started Selling Ukuleles at Aloha Snow!This sort of fell into my lap. But is a good thing for a variety of reasons. Some of which are:

-Ukes do not spoil or go bad, if I do not sell them right away, whatever. No biggie. My goal is 1 a month. I sold 3 the first month. I am 2 months ahead.

-They are like a functional decoration. Like the artwork or antiques on the wall of restaurants that you can buy. They look great, fit the theme, and you can take one home if you feel like it.

-It makes the shop even cooler than it already is!

-This is a lot of fun for me to do! I got to make a new Uke order yesterday and was absolutely giddy!

-I get to spread some Uke love to Charlotte!

-It brings in a little extra income! Fun stuff!

It took some doing to get everything rolling. It is not as simple as ordering ukuleles and hanging them on the wall. I had to hand make those Ukulele hangers (which look rad if I do say so myself. The design is a Mim original. But at the same time they are a pain in the butt to make). They look linear and industrial, and awesome! Then I had to hang them, which I did single-handedly and that is not easy and even caused me to get aggravated at those who said it could not be done. They replaced my shirts (which I need to figure out somethign else for) so that left some touch-up to be done on the wall. I needed to touch up the rest of the shop anyway. So I touched up the rest of the shop too. Then... I needed to make a web-site for my Uke stock. So I created and designed:

mimsukes.com

Which, again, I think looks awesome if I do say so myself! I use the cheapest program known to man. It is kind of like using paint for photos instead of photoshop. So, all things considered, I love the site!

I still need to set up an ebay store or ebay listings. Still working on that one and that is perhaps one of the aforementioned things I am putting off at the moment (I am SUPER tired, I was up till 1:30 last night painting and Callie slept very restless last night and yes, she ended up in our bed. I can't think strait).

So, now I sell Eleukes and Ohanas! Great Ukes!!! If ya want one, let me know, I will get ya a deal!!! Oh, and if you have any other musical needs, I am a Chesbro dealer now. So anything in their catalougue I can get for you if they have it in stock. I can even get it shipped directly to you if you want!

Tomorrow is IKEA day! HOORAY! There will be a blog post about that too because my upstairs in unrecognizable right now! Lets just say it looks flippin' awesome! Awww... yeah!

Our Own Little Oscar Night!

2010-03-07T21:15:00.002-05:00

We had our own "Oscar Night"!

We watched all the video submissions for Kangatheroo7's Disney Ukulele Contest and then I let Nolan read the post that announced the winner!!!

Here ya go:

The kids are so excited! But now they thing we can hop in the car and go immediately to Disney because we have 2 tickets... haha!

I read the results last night and was so excited... but I figured I would save the announcement for the kids until we had our own "Oscar Night"! So tonight we sat down as a family and watched all the Disney Uke videos complete with brownies and then I let Nolan (your ghost host) read the results!!!

If you have not yet checked out our video... here it is! Extrememly corney, but Epic in a Windows Movie Maker kind-of way!

Callie's Birthday: Part 2

2010-03-05T19:38:00.006-05:00

After Chuck E. Cheese we went to Build-a-Bear! Callie made a bear the week before for Carrie, she wanted a bear for herself as well, but never wavered that she was making a bear for Carrie and not herself. When I asked her if she wanted to build a bear for her birthday she just kept saying, "I make another bear for Carrie". When I finally explained that she could make a bear for herself as well, she was really excited.

So... when we got to the mall... she and Jovie ran for the door. You can see the excitement in their run!

When we got to Build-a-bear Callie stopped in front of the bear to pose for a picture because that is what we did the week before. She is such a creature of habit. She even made her favorite funny face.

Callie knew what she wanted... a panda. Jovie wanted a panda too, but she did not even look down the row of bears. Then. She saw it... The PERFECT bear! I mean... LOVE... at first sight! So here she is with her bear.

Jovie getting her bear stuffed. The lady was SO nice! She was great with the kiddos!

Jovie still did not trust her... haha! She just is shy. So when they lady asked her to rub the heart and kiss it and make a wish, she just glared at her!

Callie then got her panda stuffed. Here she is giving it a test-squeeze after it being stuffed. It was just right! And seriously, this lady was the best! Every time I went in previously I had to beg the workers not to stuff the bears too much where they were hard! She had them perfectly squishy!

Callie is a great sport! She gave the heart a really good warming with her hands.

I love this picture. When Callie is unsure she cocks her head to the side like this.

Giving the heart a kiss before putting it in her panda!

While Callie was doing her thing, I looked down at Jovie. She was lovingly looking at her bear. Then she would hug it. Pull it away from her, and then lovingly look at it again. Then she gently put her bear to her face and rubbed noses with it! It was so sweet, loving, and gentle. Then when I said, "Oh! You love you bear!" She got embarrassed and then scowled at me. She does not like to show her mushy side. But it was a sweet moment! Here she is giving a loving look at her bear.

The girls giving their bears a "bath".

I am not into buying a ton of clothes for the build-a-bears. The kids don't leave them dressed anyway. But they each picked out Hello Kitty panties for their bears. Then we went to the computer and named them. Callie named her panda... well, "Panda". Jovie named her bear "My Sweetheart"! Now just "sweetheart" "MY Sweetheart". Which was really sweet for me because the week before she said she would not be my sweetheart when I asked her until I explained to her what it meant to be my sweetheart and then she insisted she was in fact my sweetheart. She kept saying, "Mom! You're my sweetheart!" So for her to name her bear Sweetheart is... well... sweet!

And since she made her, Sweetheart is never far away. She is always sleeping next to Jovie, at the breakfast table, and even at the Blue and Gold Banquet.

Silly Callie being goofy with her Panda. She loves her Panda too. But not at the same intensity as Jovie. Callie is more of a baby doll girl.

All boxed up and ready to go home!

A video of them giving their new friends a "bath". Callie cracks me up! At the end she is saying, "It's for Carrie!" She was still wanting to buy bear accessories for Carrie. We had a really good time together.

Callie's Bithday: Part 1

2010-03-04T20:04:00.003-05:00

My Baby is 3!

It is bitter-sweet because she is my baby. My last little-one.

But she is growing up and becoming such a fun and sweet big girl!

She is full of personality and always keeps us laughing!

For her birthday, I decided to do her favorite things with her for the day. So the first thing we did was go to Chuck E. Cheese. It was just her and Jovie, so she got a lot of special attention. Our Chuck E. Cheese opens at 9, and often when we go they have not even turned on the music yet. People think it opens at 10. It is great to have the place to ourselves. So we had a good time. I have a game I like called Raptor's Revenge. I hit 200 tickets twice, so we had a lot of tickets by the end too! So she got to be spoiled some. It was a fun outing with my girlies!

Her favorite thing to do is ride the carosel! If there are more people there she usually parks herself on there and lets other people pay the tokens and she hitch-hikes.
Jovie's favorite is the horsie-ride. She rode this one 3 times in a row!

She is the queen of goofy faces!
We took a picture. It turned out really cute! I love the Chuck E. Cheese pictures! Only 1 token and you have a keepsake!
While waiting for your picture to print they always play this song, so the tradition is to dance to the music while we wait for the picture to print out!
See... Momma's gots Raptor's Revenge Skills!
Our loot! Last year at Chuck E. Cheese Callie won 200 tokens on the Big Win wheel. This time she won a coupon for Cotton Candy (which is equivalent of 150 tickets). And we ALWAYS get cotton candy first, so that freed up a lot of tickets. I can never get anything like that, even when I try. One token and she randomly pushes the button and wins.

That girl has really good luck!

More later...

The Haunted Mansion -- Jeppson Style

2010-02-26T15:54:00.003-05:00

Ok, there was a Uke contest where you could play a Disney song from a Disney movie and win 2 tickets to Disney World! So in thinking of the song I wanted to do I kept thinking of Disney ride songs. I asked if I could do a ride song and he said no problem. So... me and the kids did Grim Grinning Ghosts from the Haunted Mansion! It was a blast!!! I think the video ended up being about as long as the actual ride, but we had a lot of fun making it! I may have to do an out-take reel some time because there are some funny little things that happened... including a break down from Callie when she decided Ruby was too scary... haha!

The contest ends Sunday night... fingers crossed!

Oh, Lettie!

2010-02-25T12:28:00.002-05:00

Lettie likes to wear headbands. But she does not look in the mirror when she puts them on. There has been many a time I have the kids rounded up to go to the bus and turn around to see this...
And to add insult to injury, often the head band does not match at all!

But it is what makes her Lettie... she is an endearing, sweet, whimsical girl!

BTW: Sorry for only having Tomfooleries... we have been working on a epic rendition of a Disney song for a Ukulele contest for 2 tickets to Disney. I am going to put it together tonight and tommorrow and will post it here. We had costumes, lighting, camera angles, music, and voice over to put together. It should be EPIC!

In Mim on the Uke News:

2010-02-21T14:29:00.001-05:00

Before I show you this video I guess I should let you know this little tidbit (or you will be confused):

On Ukulele Underground my screen name is Mim. Like Mad Madame Mim on the Sword in the Stone. I thought it would be fun and I created a cute little avatar of Mad Madame Mim carrying a Uke around...

That being said... I never put my name in my signature, so people just refer to me as Mim... so I just owned it and for fun that is sort of my "Uke name".

Ok... now that I have word-ily prefaced this post... they have contests on this site and when I am bored and if I have time I will enter them. This is my first one. This one I put off until the last possible hour... LITERALLY! It was called Random Places Uke'in and you were supposed to play a series of chords twice over in Random Places to Enter and submit it by midnight Valentines Day. I submitted mine 5 min shy of the deadline. Then Krabbers was going to come up with a Random way to pick the winner:

Here is his video to set up the contest (mighty cute idea if I do say so myself):

I submitted this:

He compiled everyone's submissions into this:

And here is where he chooses the winners (if you have a hard time knowing which one was me... he calls me the "running machine girl" and I am on the left bottom) I would tell you if I won or not but that would spoil the fun of cheering on my sticky note!:

I think the coolest thing is how many countries all these submissions come from! We are one international group of crazy Ukers!

Better Late than Never

2010-02-20T19:32:00.002-05:00

Here are some of the pictures I took from the

Annual

Jeppson Family

nativity!

This year there were so many kids that we even had some "stable" animals!

Getting this many kids to look in the same direction at one time was a chore,

but we got some cute shots!

My favorite are the individual and small group shots!

The shepheard and wise men look cool and suave!

Mary and Joseph are the sweetest!

And the picture of angel Ruby trying to tame the wild angel Ollie is priceless!

The best Snow Hill!

2010-02-19T19:03:00.000-05:00

The Friday that school was getting out for winter break, the weather was calling for some good snowfall in the mountains. So, Levi packed up the kids and headed to the mountains before the weather got to bad to get there. Well, he almost got stuck in the snow (a whole other story) but he made it to my parents house and the kids had a weekend of fun in the snow!

It worked out well because I had a kid-free house to wrap presents in without having to hide anything... nice! But for awhile there I was afraid I would not have them home for Christmas!

Levi had to put a shovel in the middle of the hill to help the kids keep perspective on the hill and know where the road in the middle of the hill was because it is bumpy there! The girls did not sled that much, but the boys were all about the snow!

A Stop Along the Way

2010-02-18T18:11:00.000-05:00

On our way down to Florida, we made a few Geocachine stops!

This was by far my favorite!

This is the Smallest Church in America.

Or so they claim. I think there are a few others that claim that fame as well.

This one was built in 1950 by Agnes Harper and it is deeded to Jesus Christ.

It sits back from the road in a beautiful grove of mature trees dripping with spanish moss!
The inside is only 10 x 15 feet. People leave messages, pictures of loved ones, and prayers. It is very well taken care of and they ask you to make sure the light is off when you leave.
It is really a very sweet little spot to stop.

Workplace Hazards!

2010-02-13T17:49:00.002-05:00

Getting Caught Red Handed!

This happens a lot more often than I care to admit! This particular one is Strawberry Shortcake... a nice neon red! The worst is the Blue Raspberry... which is above my head and if a little flavor goes astray sometimes it will make a blue vein-like line down my arm. These colored hand and/or veins last for about a day no matter how hard you scrub. The worse is a yellow concentrate because that just looks "off" to have neon yellow hands.

Valentine's Day is HARD WORK!

2010-02-12T23:22:00.002-05:00

OK... only 3 of my kids are in school right now... but getting all those Valentines ready was exhausting! And 2 are home schooled! What if all 5 had to do them?!?

The good news... I bought some Valentines end-of-season last year and the kids LOVED them... so I did not even need to buy some!

The bad news... they were "make-your-own" kits, so they had to put them together!

The good news... they really enjoyed doing it.

The bad news... it really made a mess, took a long time, and after an hour they were over it.

The good news... I had some easy Pirates ones that they wanted to give the boys in their classroom.

The bad news... I had to put the little tattoos in them and sometimes the Valentines would rip and it was just cumbersome for the mommy!

The good news... the kids are old enough to write the names themselves.

The bad news... there are 3 of them, 1 of me, and they seemed to be impatient that I could not get the tattoos in them as fast as they were writing the names.

The good news... Nolan is a doll and sat right down and helped Ruby out with hers the whole time. They were a cute team! And the babies stayed away which is a modern-day miracle!

The other good news... they had a lot of fun and I had a really good time with them (once I gave them the "how many kids are there? how many mommies are there? Cut me some slack!" speech!) They would all ask me to do things at the same time and did not seem to understand I could not do 3 things at once for their valentines AND make dinner at the same time! Ha!

Here they are with their supplies spread out!
Lettie's teacher did not send a name list home... she just told you how many boys and how many girls! The woman is a genius!!!

Ruby looking over the name list as Nolan licks an envelope. Good thing their handwriting looks the same (very messy). You could not tell who wrote which! They would each talk about who they were making valentines for and cross the names off the list. Talk about cooperation.

Silas took his work very seriously and he was very thoughtful about which Valentine he picked out for which person. He is a sweetie!

He puts up with so much...

2010-02-10T11:00:00.002-05:00

I call Levi more "socially conscious" than myself...
in other words... my goofball meter is at like a 10, while his is at let's say a 6.

On our way down to Florida for our anniversary trip in December we stopped at some Geocaches along the way. This one was in the woods off the interstate in South Carolina and we never found it. But I did find this beautiful hanging vegitation that looked like hair... so... I put it on my head and enjoyed my long locks on the hike back to the van. With cars passing and everything...
Levi may be more socially conscious... but he is also a good sport and took this picture of me with my long "natural" hair! He is a good man... he puts up with me!

Supid Super Bowl Commercial...

2010-02-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

made me cry...

And probably not the ones that you think would normally make someone cry!

I was listening to Matt & Ramona (2 talk DJs in Charlotte) and they were talking about memorable Super Bowl commercials, and Ramona said the commercial with the baby Clydesdale dreaming of growing up and pulling the wagon made her cry. I thought that was funny and a little silly that it made her cry...

but for some reason Super Bowl Sunday, this one made me cry:

I think crying at this one is far worse than crying at the other one! What is wrong with me?
Maybe it was the lack or sleep or being a bit of a basketcase lately... but still...

Have you ever had something this weird make you cry?!

Cue the "pucker faces"!

2010-02-08T19:38:00.005-05:00

Jovie came up to Levi with the bottle of lemon juice from the fridge wanting some.

What is a dad to do?

Give her what she wants of course!

Callie and Lettie got into the action as well. Crazy girls! They did not like it, but kept coming back for more. Maybe it was the sour sensation, maybe it was feeling like they conquered something... but whatever the reason, it led to some great pucker-faced pictures!

Tomfoolery at 2

2010-02-07T14:00:00.001-05:00

I believe I have some brother-in-laws who NEED this umbrella!!!

My first Uke Jam...

2010-02-07T10:31:00.007-05:00

ROCKED!

At first I was afraid no one was going to come and I suddenly had a bunch of customers and only 1 uke player that I did not have any time to jam with. But there really was no reason to panick. It was only like 5 min. after start time. And then... the ukuleles started rolling in...

We ended up with about 6 ukes, 2 guitars, a trumpet, with some tambourine and maraca thrown in there... we played a group Somewhere Over the Rainbow... tried out a few more songs... and at some point we ended up singing some Latin music... which sounded really good with the trumpet!

Some random tidbits:

A lady showed up because she is looking for a Uke player to play Somewhere Over the Rainbow as she walks down the isle. (random, but cool, great people)

We had a local young person come and get a quick beginner lesson from our friend Jeff and she stayed and played a few songs... which was really cool! I can tell she enjoyed it! (Thanks Jeff)

And we have some great ideas and a good base to make the next jam even better! (some organized chaos without losing the 'jam' part)

I thought my shop would not be busy because the weather is crap... and for some reason we were packed! (not that I am complaining)

We got a few new people on the underground! (gotta spread the UkuleleUnderground.com love)

We are now going to meet every first Saturday! (and I already can't wait)

I wish I got more pictures and video... but I seriously was so darn busy! It was like a snow explosion!!! But here are a few:

My new love... (a completed post)...

2010-02-06T07:19:00.001-05:00

I bought a Ukulele in Florida. It was $14. Sort of a prop ukulele, but I was sure I would at least be able to tune it. Most you can. No luck...

So, I looked into getting at least a tunable ukulele for the shop. Did a little reseach. Came across a lot of awesome You Tube videos and Ukulele Underground. I realized the ukulele is quite diverse and a lot of fun to play. So, I went ahead and gave myself a Christmas present and ordered myself a personal ukulele (it is my customers-are-not-allowed to touch ukulele). I love love love it! So much fun to play! Small... portable... wonderful sound... addicting... love this thing!

I have always played guitar, but I am plagued by short fingers that make doing bar chords next to impossible. On the uke, however, there is not a chord I can't play! It just "fits" more. I will still play my guitar... but the uke is my everyday instrument now. I can take it to work and back and the case is about the size of a violin case.

I bought 3 cheap ukes from Sam Ash that customers can play. I made a hanger for them and everything and it looks great on my wall. I swear I have some people seriously considering picking up playing the uke. You can buy a Uke for $35-$40 that plays just fine. And it is easy to feel sucessful playing it!

Then I got involved on the ukuleleunderground.com forums and learned a lot about playing and quickly got what they call UAS (ukulele aquisition syndrom). And I really need to stay away form the forum where people are selling ukuleles. So I have already added to my collection a mahogony Eleuke. He is a good lookin' little thing and he is almost silent when you play him, but you can pop on a pair of headphones and listen to your hearts content. I have amps at home too... so it is fun to be able to add distortion to your uke.

So... yeah... I like to play the ukulele now! So fun! I am hosting a Uke jam at work today! I hope some people show up. I had some people coming from Atlanta, but they are having car trouble so they may not come. My brother-in-law Chad stopped by the shop today and I played for him a little bit of Soul Sister by Train, Lucky by Jason Mraz... he insulted both songs so I did a little Lady Gaga Paparazzi and Halo by Beyonce. I guess that is more of his style because he did not say anything snarky about those. Haha! I don't think he expected those songs from the uke. I am still learning though... so quality of the songs varies.

So, here are a few pictures of my new additions!:

A lot of people name their ukes, and of course I did as well... so here is...

York

For those who care, he is a Spalted Maple Solid Sitka Struce Kala Concert. He is even prettier in person.

And this is

Domo

(a Mr. Roboto reference)... my Mahogony Eleuke Soprano.

He is so thin and small and not as fragile as the acoustic that he is more of my traveling companion.

Here is my Uke hanger I made at work.

I did it by myself in between customers on a Saturday.

I gots skills!

Attention Designers!

2010-02-05T18:47:00.000-05:00

Ok... I know there are people out in the blog world who have great interior design opinions

(ahem: Katie... Olivia... )

I have 2 stair cases in our house covered in the lightest beige carpet imaginable. I also have 7 kids. Let's do the math:

Beige Carpet + 7 Kids = Yucky (period)

So we are painting our stairs... because staining them is not an option... the wood they used was not that nice. And there are some cute things you can do with painted stairs...

Also, we are starting with out "back" staircase so that if we screw up... well, it does not really matter much.

(Because basically... the "back" staircase is to the side of the kitchen and completely hidden. People who have never been to our house usually do not even know it is there until their kid goes up the stairs in the living room and then miraculously appear at their side later without coming down the stairs they went up. I get a lot of "where did you come from?" comments.)

So... need ideas/opinions/likes. You don't win anything... I just like insight. I am probably going to paint the walls a light slate grey or a chocolate milk type color. So, if I am going to have fun painting the stairs, this would be the stair case to have fun with.

Here are some examples: The kids really think painting the stairs "rainbow" is a good idea.

I have seen some cute stairs with "Come On Up" stenciled on them.
You can paint on your own runner.

This next one is done by using wall-paper on the back. The problem is finding the "right" wallpaper.
And this is not a "someday I want to project". I mean, it may take me a little bit to get around to it... but it will get done soon... And this is why:

So there is a blank canvas... visualize... and tell me what you think!!

My new

2010-02-05T16:15:00.001-05:00

Is this wrong?

2010-02-04T18:37:00.002-05:00

This is what I do to my healthy choice meals at work...

I do have to say it kicks the yumminess factor up a notch... but does it defeat the point?

Warning!

2010-02-03T14:00:00.003-05:00

If you are researching a sporting good and want to see whether a certain local sports store has it in stock... be careful that you type in the ENTIRE name of the store...

Levi was behind me and was talking to me, so I absentmindedly typed in the web-site... so he saw what I did before I even realized what I did and started chuckling. Ummm... yeah... not good!

So laid back... sometimes...

2010-02-02T14:00:00.001-05:00

Nolan has a tendency to "freak out". He gets frustrated and upset about the littlest things like school work or a game. You often hear him yelling "Ugh" from all the way across the house. Then you will hear Levi and I telling him to stop "freaking out" over little things.

Yet...

You can take him to the dentist ... he doesn't get nervous.
They bring out the "pokey" thing ... he doesn't flinch.
They tell him they have to pull 2 of his teeth ... no sweat.

Nolan has what I call a "shark tooth"... a tooth coming in behind the baby tooth instead of pushing his baby tooth out. So if this continues he would have a second row of teeth like a shark. The problem is... there was no room for it in the first place. So they have to remove his Canines on the bottom and go from there.

We got in the car and he asked me what would happen when they removed his teeth and I told him they would give him some good smelling air that would make him think funny things and then they would put shots in his mouth (Nolan is really good with honesty) and he was like, "eh, ok, whatever." He seems excited to feel the sensation of a numb mouth. Weirdo. He has had stitches 3 times, had 3 different minor surgery things, had weird electric current therapy, had to take the nastiest medicine known to man... yet ... he has always just went with the flow...

Lose a life on a video game... end of the world... get 2 teeth pulled... no biggie!

I sure hope he feels the same way tomorrow when he gets his teeth pulled...

My Guidebook

2010-02-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

This is the book I have been reading to facilitate my move from

squishy flappy arms to girly-guns.

So far so good. I really like it... I am still reading it, but skipped ahead and started the workouts while I finish-up reading the general and nutrition part. I am in my 3rd week and I can tell I am getting some muscles. The problem is it is still covered by squish, but that will take a bit to overcome. But when I do I should have some nice definition underneath it all. I have gone from shoulder pressing 15 lbs in each hand (total 30) to 25 lbs in each hand (total 50). I went from dead lifting 50 lbs to 70. Go me!

Wii Hula Hoop + Uncoordinated Munchkins =

2010-02-01T09:47:00.005-05:00

Hilarious!
I took a video and I am submitting it to America' s Funniest Videos.

We probably won't win, but Callie's booty shaking might be a great addition to some montages! And they make it really easy now that you can upload on-line!

AFV is our Sunday tradition! We always make cookies, watch AFV, and wrestle during the commercials!!! We call it "Cookie and Funnies"!

I would post the video on here, but the release says I can not grant permission for any other entity to use it, and my blog might count, so I am not going to post it.

If we don't get accepted I will because it is the cutest!

Braving the Nasty Weather...

2010-01-31T16:38:00.007-05:00

It was beautiful weather Friday night. The Snow was coming down in nice billowy large flakes that make you want to stick out your tongue with your mouth open and re-capture your inner child... which I did during my trips unloading my event stuff from my van into the store... hopefully no one was looking, but honestly, some probably were... I could not help it!

I left at 11pm to go home... all was well... no sticking. Got up the next morning. Sticking...
Our neighborhood roads looked bad, but they never plow those. But surely they would plow the main roads... right?! And of course any self-respecting shop would open no matter the weather... right?! And if my gym is open, it should not be too bad... right?!

So, I decide to hit the gym before work. So get in my little lime-green mini-cargo-van-with-a-industrial size-light-bar-on-top work van (the booger mobile) and slide out of our driveway. Our driveway is on a hill, so I literally just released the emergency break, did not even put it in reverse, and slid... that should have been my sign.

I get to the main roads of our neighborhood... of course the are bad, they have not had time to plow. Then I turn onto the side road that leads to the main road... of course it is bad, it is just a side road. Then I get to Albemarle Road (a big busy road around Charlotte), and it is yucky. Slushy, but only slightly slidy. But of course they would clear off 485.... no sense turning back now. So I get on the interstate and...

My 15 min trip to the gym took 40 minutes. But after an hour+ there, maybe it would be better. Nope. I slipped and slided all the way to work where I was greeted by this:

Not too bad. They had plowed, it looked nice, and it was starting to rain... not snow... so most of this should be going away... right? The snow under the van was just slush.

Then I notice all the other small businesses are not open. Even the Chinese food place... which never takes a day off... EVER! Maybe a self-respecting business would stay closed on a day like today... silly me. I needed to come out anyway though because my signs are on a timer and if I did not come out they would have been blazing the words "Open" and "Snoballs" and "Ice Cream" from 12 noon to 11pm.

So, I get to work and of course NO ONE comes. Maybe later. Then about an hour later I look out the window to see a big ol' truck doing donuts in the parking lot. Immature... whatever...

Then Levi calls an hour later and said I should probably come home. He said the temp was dropping and the roads were turning to ice. So, then I look outside and now a 4-wheeler comes out of nowhere and starts doing donuts. Where do these people come from and why are they using my parking lot. Then I notice... he is not kicking up slush... he is not even breaking the ICE!!!

So, I do a few last-minute things before going home. I go to put a letter in the mailbox and end up ice skating across a solid sheet of ice. Then I go to the grocery store and all the snow from my shop to the store is solid as well. Then I have to warm-up the car because the rain on the windshield turned into a 1/2 inch of ice. And SLIDE out of my parking space. When I left their was a guy in a Volvo doing donuts in the parking lot. Maybe he was living out some Edward rescuing Bella fantasy. Weirdos.

So, I venture home... slowly... and now THIS is what the roads looked like:

SOLID ICE!

The thing I found funny was I did not see one car or van in the ditch. But I DID see about 6 4x4 trucks and SUVs off in the ditch. It is like my dad told me once. You do not need 4x4 in snow unless you just want 4 wheels spinning on black ice instead of 2. I felt a little smug driving my booger mobile past their blunders.

But the kids have had fun in the snow and ice. Here they are drying their carnage from their 2 days of fun!

I really did not mean for this to be so long... oops!

Be prepared to die of cuteness!

2010-01-31T14:00:00.000-05:00

Seriously... hold onto your hearts folks!

Callie is a singer! Levi and I laugh because she is always singing under her breath, out loud, as she is going to sleep, when she is coloring... she just always has a song in her head. And this song is very special, so we recorded it for Carrie...

It is just so stinkin' cute!

I love how she sings "you'll never nosie" because we call Escimo kisses "nosies". Also, the way she says "love you" as "yuv you" just melts me heart!

According to Stephanie... this wouldn't work anyway!

2010-01-30T14:00:00.002-05:00

The Beast Within...

2010-01-29T14:00:00.002-05:00

I am trying to be consistent with my gym participation and started a new program...

I know... I know...

I seem to have something new I am always trying, but I think this one will stick. For awhile at least.
Which I know I have said before... but... yeah... don't rub it in...

I have been reading a book entitled:
"The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift like a man, look like a Goddess"

I have been doing it 3 weeks and already feel myself getting stronger, lifting heavier weights, and I have dropped 10 lbs without depriving myself.

But... I seem to be the only woman in what I lovingly call the "meathead" area of the gym. It is full of weight-dropping, grunting, neck as big as my thighs men. And there I am in the middle of them since I am not using machines or teenie weights because I am lifting like a man. And looking around, I really do not "fit in".

So, I embraced the lameness of my current physique and bought this shirt:
It is from 6dollarshirts.com. You chose the design, then chose a man or girl cut, and then a color. I do not think this particular image was meant for a size Large pink girl cut Tee, but I ordered it anyway and embraced the irony. So, when I look in the mirror at myself doing shoulder presses with 20 lbs in each arm and my muscles are screaming for mercy, I just look at my shirt and reassure myself that I am "Unleashing the Beast" within!

Do I really have to sell it?

2010-01-28T14:32:00.001-05:00

Because of this resolution...

I took the kids by McDonalds. I know... I know. They had a long car ride back from the mountains and I thought it was a nice treat. Did I get myself anything... of course not! But did I take a bite out of the 2 chicken sandwiches laid out, barely touched, looking so yummy, tempting, and sinfully delicious that I knew Lettie and Jovie would never eat more than 1/4 of... did I?...

OF COURSE NOT!!!

No one is getting my Wicked ticket... no one!!!

By the way... I have lost 10 lbs!

3653 Prayers

2010-01-13T17:45:00.002-05:00

This post is a little late in coming, but I have been insanely busy. But I did not want my anniversary to pass for but so long before I acknowledged it. It was a big one!

One December 28, 2009, Levi and I celebrated 10 years of marriage!

Man we are getting old!

I sad part is, I kind of forgot. I was working that day and quite distracted. We had "celebrated" by going to Florida, so it was easy to let the day slip. I know it is usually the husbands job to forget these things, but in our family... I am the forgetful one.

So, I am at work and tired and hungry and I call Levi and tell him I am going to pick up a cheeseburger and come home. He insisted I come right home, which is not like him. He was really sweet about it. I get into the car wondering what was up with him when it hits me... IT IS OUR ANNIVERSARY! My sweetness of a husband bought me Chinese food, had it out on our nice plates, with candles, the laptop playing 'dinner music', a bottle of sparkling grape juice, and a beautiful new vase with gorgeous daises in them.
And what makes it even more special, is I know he has orchestrated a lot of it with 7 kids in tow. That is an amazing feat of strength, skill, and love! He bought the vase with Lettie and for a 5 year old she is a super-dooper secret keeper, she never let a peep slip.

After we ate... he pulled up a selection of 350 pictures throughout our life (thought I stopped using Shutterfly, so it got a little sparse towards the end) and we watched it and reminisced about how far we have come and all we have accomplished in 10 years! It has been an amazing journey.

And do you want to know the coolest part, there is one thing we have done that I can brag about...

We have never missed a day of saying prayers with each other for 10 years!

That is:

Three Thousand Six Hundred and Fifty Three Prayers

We have prayed over the phone, we have prayed with the other half conscious, we have said prayers while I was calling from the custodian closet at one of my earlier jobs, we have prayed in hospitals, on vacation, on an airplane, in California, in Ethiopia, we have prayed from the one hot spot in the middle of the woods I could find when I was at girls camp... but we have not missed a day! I even called my mom at 11pm to drive to the McCall house in the mountains that has no phone or cell phone service to get Levi and watch the kids while he drove back and prayed with me! And he was worrying about it just as much as I was!

I love my "match"! He is my soul mate and match in every way. I could not have accomplished my life's purpose without him and vice versa. That is why Life is Wonderful, because of my Mr. Levi, my husband, my rock, my love, my match, my better half, my advocate, and my best friend!!! We have so much fun together... that is what life's all about!

Here is the slideshow

Rationalizing a Purchase

2010-01-08T14:26:00.006-05:00

Here's the story-

So, Katie sends me an e-mail that says, "Are you interested?" I open it and it is a forwarded e-mail from the Blumenthal Theater (which is basically the company by which all plays are brought to Charlotte) that says: Special Pre-sale on Wicked Tickets.

This is not an e-mail that you forward. This is an e-mail that you open and then immediately call you sister-in-law and say: Oh my gosh! Pre-sale for Wicked tickets! Lets get on the computer and buy them now now now!

So, I call Katie and ask if she is going, she says she does not know, needs to talk to Chad. So, while waiting for her to call I look up the available tickets. The best seats are $125, the next best are $75. But for some reason on the opening night, even the best tickets are $75. THEN, if you buy 1 ticket on it's own you can sit in row E, but if you buy 2 tickets, you sit in row Z! So, what is a good sister-in-law to do? Throw the whole good sister-in-law thing out the window...

So, I buy my 5th row ticket and call Katie and say the next single ticket available is for row G in the center and she can go the same night as me if you wants! But we will obviously be sitting by our lonesomes. Yes, I felt like I terrible person... but I do not want to go if I have Row Z. I am weird like that. Which Katie already knows, so she probably just shakes her head and thinkg, "There she goes again!"

She said she just could not rationalize the purchase right now. And so I said, "Yeah, I figured I would cut back in some area to compensate for it." I say this with almost every big-ish purchase, but really, I never do it! But she was right. Truthfully, I do not need to be spending the money now either. So, I thought: What do I spend the most unnecessary $ on? I am determined I will cut back on something.

And then the answer came and I did not want to admit it... but... I LOVE fast food! And I have been so busy that I rationalize picking up a $1 burger on the way to work, or home, or to the distributors, or to the grocery store.... And not only does it take my $, it makes me "squishy" if you know what I mean!

So, I proclaimed to myself that in the New Year I would not eat fast food until May 19, when I go to Wicked. If I give in, I would sell my ticket. The problem is if I proclaim it only to myself, then I can change the "rules" at any time and no one would know.

So, now I am proclaiming it to you. The rules are simple. No fast food! Anything that I can acquire through the window of my car. And, no, that does not mean I will be going inside. No fast food "period". Pizza does not count, but we do not order pizza. We make it at our house. But if I go to someones house and they order Papa Johns I am still allowed to eat it. Pizza is not my weakness because I can not just order it and 1 min later have it and never have to get out of the comfort of my own car. Fast food... gone!!!

And yes, all the way until May 19, or this little beauty is going on Craigslist:

Marine Mammal Keeper Experience at Sea World

2009-12-14T10:51:00.019-05:00

Here is a whole lot of pictures and review of our Marine Mammal Keeper Experience at Sea World in Orlando, Florida. I may be very wordy for this blog (which is primarily geared towards family and friends), but I want to give a full account in case anyone out in the web world is looking into doing this in the future. I know we did a search of "Marine Mammal Keeper Experience" and found blog posts that were VERY helpful to let us know what to expect as we planned our trip. So hopefully mine will do the same.

First off, this program is EXPENSIVE! But, if you have the $ and love marine mammals... GO FOR IT! I was always the kid who wanted to be a Marine Biologist, just so I could play with dolphins. We would never have been able to afford the $399 per person, but someone had won the tickets in a web contest and was moving and therefore sold them on Craigslist for a fraction of the cost. We were very blessed to be able to do this. It truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

So, we made sure we got a good night's sleep because we had to be there at 6:30 in the morning. We packed a bag with our bathing suits, camera, and aqua socks (didn't need aqua socks). The literature they send you tells you where to park. It tells you to park in the "visitor" spots, which we found meant the spots that say "reserved". We got there at 6:25 and waited for out keeper. We got Lauren as our guide for the day! She is friendly, chatty, funny, and full of information. We are chatty too, so it worked out well! We spent a lot of the day behind the scenes (no pictures allowed there). The first thing we did was feed a pool of rescued manatees Romaine lettuce. We chucked 2 boxes worth out there. Then with the 3rd box we filled up a tube with lettuce that sinks to the bottom so they can practice grazing on the bottom like they do in the wild.

Then we worked with 3 dolphins that were being kept in the back for observation. As soon as they saw their keepers they started jumping and getting so excited. It was cool to see how each dolphin has a different personality and temperament. The keepers worked on some target behaviors. The dolphin I was working with kept reverting back to her favorite trick because she did not want to do what was asked. Then is was time to feed and weigh the otters. The otters are funny as well. They were separated in 3 different pairs and each pair had their own temperament and dynamic as well. We were not allowed to touch them (they can bite), but they were fun to watch.

Then it was time to "suit up"! In other words, squeeze yourself into a wet suit! Not fun! I have never been in a wet suit before, so it was the weirdest feeling thing to wear. And the best advice I have for you is... go to the bathroom first. Once you get that suit on, you do not want to take it off for any reason!

Our transportation everywhere was a golf cart. They give you a bottle of water and a towel to take in case you need it. Then we were off to the Key West Dolphin Cove to visit with some dolphins. At each place you meet a different keeper that takes you through some interactions with the animals. At Key West we met Nick.

Key West Dolphin Cove

We went to the shallow area with Nick and 4 of the Dolphins came over. They hang out in same-gender groups, so we got a group of boys.
We got to feed them and do a few behaviors with them. Nick gave us a bit of Dolphin 101.
The Dolphin in Nick's face is Ajax. He is sort of the low-man on the totem pole and is basically the dolphin version of a "lap dog". He loves to get your attention and be right in your face. He is mine and Levi's favorite. You can tell him from the other dolphins by his spotted mouth.
Getting to rub down the dolphins.
I think that one is Ajax. He is an in-your-face type of Dolphin.
I swear the animals always seemed to get me more wet than Levi! Here I am about to get a face-full of water.
Some pictures from the other angle that Lauren took with our camera.

Underwater Viewing

After that we went to a storage shed where we picked out a few simple toys to play with the dolphins with. Then we went to the underwater viewing area to do some "enrichment" with the Dolphins. You hear the word enrichment a lot. They do a lot to make sure the animals have opportunities to think, problem solve, play, and basically not get bored. The funny thing is, they loved some of the simplest toys.

They loved watching Levi juggle. Their heads would go up and down as they watched the balls go through the air.
We played football and the dolphins would follow the ball between me and Levi.
Pinwheels were fun too!
The noodle made a squeaking sound on the glass which they liked.
More juggling fans.

They liked watching you push the car in front of the glass.

This toy was the funniest to me. It is just a little wind-up pony, about a inch tall, that jumps along. I thought there would be no way they would pay any attention to it. But this picture is worth a thousand words. Look at how into this toy they are!
When Lauren showed us the feed station there was all the dolphins' food for the day lined up, but one in particular caught my eye. There is a dolphin named "Callie". It is even spelled like my Callie's name!

We found her in the underwater viewing! Here she is... Callie the dolphin!

Manatees

Next we went over to feed the manatees. There are 6 manatees. We fed them bagged spinach, which they love. We were not allowed to touch them, but they are amazing to watch. Something about a manatee seems to peaceful!

After that we went over to the Dolphin nursery and met some of the mamas and babies there. There are also 2 males in the tank that are rascals. Lets just say they like attention, and when they did not get it they splashed me.

Belugas

We had some time to kill because we were running early, so we saw the fish house and what they have to do to get the fish ready to feed all the animals. It is amazing how much fish they go through in one day and what all they have to do to keep it in order.

Then we zoomed over to the wild artic to interact with some Belugas! Boy were they amazing! Here were are in the exhibit. They had 2 on exhibit and 2 in the back.

See, I always get splashed the worst!
If you drum your fingers on the top of their head like you are playing a piano, they make a cool noise.
My Beluga kiss!
Levi's Beluga kiss!
Awww... a hug!
Doing some tricks.
Levi did not even get splashed!
Another way to get them to make a cool sound like an air horn! They are called the canary of the sea because they can make so many different noises.
Then we went to the back where we got to do some things with Oreck, the Beluga.

Another kiss!

This picture really shows how squishy his head is!

She let us do some behaviors with him on our own. Towards the end he got to where he trusted us. At first he was not so sure. Here I am doing the sounds behavior again.

We also saw the harbor seals at the Wild Arctic area. They were so cute! They came out and immediately started kissing. And that was not even the behavior she was asking them to do!
This is where the pictures end. Next it was time to get out of the wet suits. And boy do those things stink when you take them off, but my body felt free again! We showered off, got dressed, and then went to lunch. You have a choice of taking your box lunch and eating in the park or in the staff caferateria. My advice, if you like your guide stay in the staff caferateria. We basically say with a whole table of the keepers we had been meeting through the day. We talked and laughed and had a great time. They give you a box lunch with your choice of meat on a croissant. We both got chicken salad. Then you have potato salad, fruit, huge rice crispy treat, and a cookie. We talked about all sorts of random stuff like Mariah Carey and trying out for American Idol.

Then we went to see the seals. On the way we say these cute little duckies!

We went to the harbour where they keep the seals. There are some in the back that required special care. We went and learned about them. Then we went out with 2 big buckets of fish and fed the seals. As we were throwing the fish out there was one seal that could intercept any fish I was throwing to another seal. I would check to make sure he was not around and as soon as I threw the fish, up he would pop out of nowhere and snag it. It was amazing!

Then we went back to the wild artic to see the polar bears. Polar Bears are obviously a no-contact animal so we looked at their biggest bear through the glass and she told us about their care. It is amazing how strong they are.

Then came one of my favorite parts.... the walruses. They have 2 walrus on their Wild Artic exhibit, Garfield and Dozer. When we opened to the door to go see them you could hear one of them making a huffing noise in his exhibit. He knew we were there and he was letting us know he was ready to eat! The keeper went out to get them. When they come around the corner it is amazing! They are HUGE!!! You can not appreciate the emormity of these animals until you are face to face with them. They have a barred door where they can come up to be fed, but a person can slip through in case of an emergency. They stuck their heads through the bars and they seriously take up the whole hallway. They have so much personality. Garfield makes a clicking noise until he gets fed. And they both make a variety of funny noises! We got a walrus kiss on our hand. It is the coolest feeling!

After that we were done! We looked at our pictures and it was hard not to buy them. The nice thing is they offer an option of buying all of them on a Shamu Tail shaped flash drive. So we bought the flash drive. The experience also came with a 7-day park pass. So we came back the day before we left. I found Lauren and Nick at Key West and said hello again. They were so much fun! I will miss them! We also went to the dolphin viewing area and found ways to get the dolphins to play with you. There were some kids down there too, so we showed them some tricks. They thought that was cool. One little girl in-particular captured my heart. It was weird being on the other side of the exhibit when we went back. When just a few days before you were hugging and touching all the animals, it was hard to just look at them through glass.

So for those people who might be considering it: So worth it, So much fun!

Sea World will never be the same for you! It will be better!

Sorry for the absence of blogging...

2009-12-04T20:08:00.006-05:00

But I had a wedding to go to (which was beautiful), then Thanksgiving, and in-between then I was trying to restore some sort of order to my home which I have not made a priority in about 2 years. What has happened in those 2 years you may ask:

Started adoption paperwork for Ethiopia
Christmas
My babies were only 1 years old
Traveled to Ethiopia
My family went from 6 to 9
Came back sick for at least a month
Had surgery that went wrong
Bought a flip house
Put a ton of work into flip house
Dad diagnosed with cancer
Christmas
Thought I sold the flip house
Levi resigned and we decided to start a business
Did all the paperwork necessary to open business
Flip house fell through
Got a new contract on flip house
Started "upfitting" my leased space for the business
Needed to replace roof on flip house
Fought with county over stupid permit issues
Opened business
Started doing events
Started homeschooling 2 of the kids

And during this time things were shoved into closets, couches were not swept behind, random papers piled up on my dresser. Basically, I would clean the house, but I would not clean-OUT the house. So I had been working on trying to clean-out but never had much time. This last week, Levi worked every day but one and I cleaned OUT! So far I have gotten rid of 6 FULL trash bags of stuff, 8 trash bags donated, and I have still not done the boys room, babies room, a few storage areas in my room, the garage, and kitchen. But things look SO much cleaner and I am finding joy in my home again! Once I clean out, it will be time to dedicate some time to the house I live in and not the house I am fixing up to sell. So, walls will be painted, laminate floor will be put down, and slowly I will have a home I do not cringe at when I think of company coming and seeing my colored on walls, my overly-stained carpet, and my dingy baseboards. My flip house looked SO GOOD when I was done. The colors were beautiful and it was clean and fresh. My home needs that now too!

So, that is why I have been behind on my blogging. I blog more at work and I have not been at work.

But now I can go on vacation knowing my house is well on it's way to being a de-cluttered peaceful place and it is no longer overwhelming to think about! Hooray!

Am I the only one, or do you like going on vacation with a clean house?

I know I do, but seriously, for like 3 years I have been unable to pull it off because of babies and adoptions, and life craziness! And I need a break! And luckily my 10 year anniversary gave me and Levi the perfect opportunity to take a break!

So, off I go to be kissed by a Walrus, ride some roller coasters, watch some movies, go to the temple, dine-out (not eat-out, but dine-out), enjoy 80 degree weather in December, and walk into an establishment without having to unbuckle someone, carry someone, yell "look both ways", say "wait your turn", take potty breaks, and manage multiple human beings all going in different directions. And most importantly, I can hold hands with the man I have been married to for 10 years and make him open the door for me again!!!

Ok, I am just babbling. Time to clean up shop! I close in a half hour, I clean out my ice cream machine, and we leave tomorrow!

Because my husband loves me... and is frugal...

2009-11-12T14:50:00.003-05:00

He found me the best birthday present EVER EVER EVER!

He found a listing on Craigslist of someone who needed to sell 2 tickers for a "Sea World Orlando Marine Mammal Keeper Experience" because they are moving before they can use it. We worked it out and we are going!!! You show up at 6:30 and until 2:30 you get to interact with all sorts of Sea World mammals... Dolphins, Manatees, Walrus, Seals, Belugas, Penguins... no day is ever the same, so I can not really tell you what I will doing until I do it! But to read a few experiences here a few!

I. Can. Not. Wait!

http://www.igougo.com/story-s1219536-Orlando-Sea_World_Orlando_Marine_Mammal_Keeper_Experience.html
http://wdwalone.blogspot.com/2009/10/sea-world-mammal-keeper-part-1.html
http://wdwalone.blogspot.com/2009/10/sea-world-mammal-keeper-part-2.html

Here is a really good blog post from someone else who went, complete with pictures at the end:

http://gabrielleluthy.typepad.com/my_weblog/seaworld_marine_mammal_keeper_for_a_day/
I am now even more excited about vacation! We said we wanted to do something completely unique, but everything was so expensive. This is going to be AMAZING!

My Hugga Bugga!

2009-11-03T20:33:00.000-05:00

I love this picture!

Because this picture is "So Callie"!

See her hand? She loves necks! It calms her to come up to me and Levi and touch our necks and then bury her face in our necks. Sometimes it looks like she is trying to choke us, but she just has a "need" to touch our neck. It is such a weird, but only Callie thing to do. It makes us laugh!

She usually comes up, looks you strait in the eye, and with one hand entended touches your neck. Then she gives a big strong Callie hug. Especially when she is tired.

She also is very strong and likes to jump on our backs (like in the picture). She sets her feet on our hip bones and holds on by herself. She is a little monkey! So, here she is after jumping on my back and touching my neck.

She is such a happy little critter!

And to further illustrate the Callie "neck thing", here is a picture of her at the Renissance Festival in her Granny's arms. It was toward the end, she was SO tired, so a neck had to be touched!
After this picture was taken she leaned in for the Callie bear hug and almost fell asleep, but the world was too exciting around her for a nap!

Happy Halloween: Part 3 of 3 - The Renaissance Festival

2009-11-01T20:29:00.009-05:00

We went to the Renaissance Festival. I have never been. I thought it was going to be a lot of booths and tents and a few buildings. I had no clue just how big it was! And it was SO much FUN! The kids loved it! I had a blast! And they had some special Halloween things for the kids! Next year I would love to go with just Levi so we can enjoy more shows and look through the booths. It was fun to go with the kids and enjoy it with them!

Here we are at the entrance!
The kids staring amazed at the stilt walker.

The king and spider queen!

Granny and Grandpa came too! Granny said she would dress up, so I thought, "I will be a good sport and dress up too!" I had a medieval dress in my costume box, so I threw that on. Granny backed out... haha! So I was the only adult in our group dressed up and once I saw the amazing outfits of all the performers I felt a little silly in my cheap crushed velvet costume in a bag outfit. But, I have now decided I must get me a better outfit for the festival. I will be checking out Ebay ;)!

Mother Goose! She had a duck and 2 geese. The white goose she holds naturally leans it's head over and gives you a hug. It is the sweetest thing.

Jovie was in love! She has been all about "ducklings" lately!

I thought this spiders web looked so pretty with the dew on it! The man and lady at the booth it hung from named it and everything!

For Halloween the kids could go to every booth and "trick or treat"! They loved it!

A glass artist.

I thought this sign was cute, I had to take a pic.

The first street performer we stopped to see. He is the ambassador to the fairies. Not a very good magician, but a really good character actor.

Waiting for the first show to start. When they say a show is "LC" (loose cannon), that means do not bring the kids! They assured us it would be more "kid friendly", but, it was pretty bad. The problem is we were on the front row with 11 people, getting up and leaving would have made us the center of the jokes and/or made a scene. It wasn't THAT bad, but it was not good either.

The Queen and princesses at the joust. I forgot to take more pictures, but it was a lot of fun to watch!

The cow at the petting zoo! Callie was obsessed with it and stood at the fence and stared at it for the longest time.

Callie and her grandpa!

Callie and Jovie ran right through a street performers show just to get to this horse!

Geoff the Gypsy. He juggles and balanced torches. He was hilarious too! So much fun!

He picked Silas as his little helper. And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is Silas holding a sickle, a knife, and a fire torch.

He told Silas it was his job to catch him. The funny thing is, Silas put out his arms and was very willing to catch him.

Juggling the torch, sickle, and knife while spinning plates on his hat.

Then he gave Silas the job to pass around the hat. Which again, he did willingly without questioning or looking insecure.

Geoff the Gypsy and his little helper Silas!

But then the kids were getting tired! Look at Callie's tired eyes!

Yep, they were tired, but they had a great time!

We will be back next year!

Happy Halloween: Part 2 of 3 - The Pumpkins

2009-11-01T09:50:00.003-05:00

When my dad brought us our annual supply of cow, he also brought us our own personal pumpkin patch! 15 of the prettiest pumpkins I have ever seen, straight from the farm!

Thanks Mom & Dad!

We put them around our yard and when Halloween came all the kids went out and picked out their pumpkins from our own personal front yard patch! I helped them gut them before I had to go to work. Then throughout the day Levi would sit down with them one on one and help them cut out the own personal designs. No matter how weird the request, he helped them cut out just what they wanted!

Here they are gutting the pumpkins:

Ruby questioning me... haha!

At the end of the gutting, our table and floor was a mess, but they had a good time!

The finished product (Left to Right):

Lettie- It has an "L" in the eyes and she insisted on a square nose. She is the teeniest, yet picked the biggest pumpkin and of course she had poor Yonas bring it in for her. Then he helped with Callie's and Jovie's. He is the most helpful kid in the world!

Yonas- A vampire pumpkin, Lettie said it "creeped her out"

Silas- Since Lettie had an "L", Silas wanted an "S" and Levi pulled it off. Go daddy!

Ruby- Looks like a clown, I think it looks so cute
Nolan- Scary and with eyebrows (the eyebrow idea fascinated some of the kids)

Happy Halloween: Part 1 of 3 - The Costumes

2009-10-31T23:46:00.004-04:00

This year I asked all the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween a month ago and told them if they wanted to be anything specific they needed to tell me so I could get it together. But, alas, no one had anything in particular they wanted to be. I collected a tub of costumes 90% off the last few years. So, I pulled out the costume tubs, sorted out the costumes, and let them pick! The results were fun, diverse, and the kids were all happy with their choices! It made for a stress-free, easy, and fun Halloween!

Yonas enjoyed scaring people as a monster!
Ruby was Hannah Montana for the Renaissance Festival (more on that in a later post). The costume got itchy so at night she went as a hat-less witch. You can see her Hannah Montana in the later post about the festival!

Nolan made a really good ninja!

Silas was Spiderman last year, but that is all he wanted to be was Spiderman this year! People gave him a lot of compliments on his muscles!
Lettie was a spider 2 years ago... it still fit her this year, it just did not droop down as low. She wished the costume had yellow on it so she would look like a Halloween Spider. We have 3 different Halloween spiders that live in our bushes. She "takes care" of them!
Jovie was a really cute pterodactyl! She loved flapping her wings!
And last, but not least, It's a bird... It's a plane... NO! It's a curly SUPERGIRL!
We braved the rain and went trick-or-treating! We did our area of the hood walking and with a stroller. Then we took to the car and hit some more houses. The babies would lag behind, but all the older kids were great about helping them along and waiting for them. At the end the babies were pooped and stayed in the car. The older kids were really cute about sharing their candy with them after they went to the houses. And I made the mistake of telling them how much I loved Almond Joys and raving about them as I ate them. So, they insisted on giving me every Almond Joy they had and they wanted to see me eating them. Too much sugar, too much fun... the rain is falling and making a wonderful soothing white-noise... time for bed!

He told me!

2009-10-30T21:48:00.005-04:00

To set this up, I have to let you know that Ruby will question EVERYTHING I do or ask her to do!

So, I am cutting the tops off and gutting 7 pumpkins... large pumpkins! I have to get ready for work soon. I had 4 hours of sleep (long story for another blog). Levi is sick so I am trying to get the hard part out of the way for him. I am busy and multi-tasking, and Ruby starts in on some "Why?"s! I have no clue what particular "Why" question led to this exchange, but it went like this:

Ruby: (Insert "Why" question here)

Me: Ruby, why do you have to always keep questioning me?

Nolan: (starts giggling) But mom, you just questioned her about questioning you!

He told me... that Nolan! Nothing gets past him! Levi and I just looked at each other and laughed!

Forget the Playground...

2009-10-28T18:51:00.011-04:00

Grandpa's farm has all the play equipment a kid needs!

A Barn + A Bunch of Round Bales = A Hay Bale Jungle Gym!

Forget a Rock Climbing Wall when you have a Round Bale Wall!

Who needs monkey bars when you have ladders?

The hay loft of an old milking barn makes a great Fort!

You can't beat a water fountain that provides you with spring water directly from the source! Ice Cold too!

And pretty flowers on the way there as well!

And who needs a slide?

And of course, the tractor rides are always a hit!

You get to check out the source of most your meals over the next year!

(And yes, I am serious! One of these beauties is not in my freezers!)
And although the view was at times a little unsavory...

...the company and conversation was GREAT!

And as if that was not enough ... there is a water slide!

And if you do not feel like racing your siblings through the tubes...

... you can always see which of the babies' shoes makes it through its tube first!

(Just have your net ready, because it is no fun chasing them down stream... which we learned from experience)

There are multiple climbing structures!

And even a place to draw!

And instead of a balance beam, there are "balance posts"!
.

How we love the mountains!

Every minute is like being in a huge playground!

I can not wait to go back!

Ok... here it comes...

2009-10-20T15:02:00.015-04:00

WAY TOO MANY pictures of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!

But I can't help it! It is my one Girl's Night Out a year!

A view from our seats! Great seats!

Always get best available on the side... NEVER the floor!

Trust me!

Here they come! The traditional white opening number outfits.
An upside down Ade!
The resident Ballerina. And Levi's favorite!
This year's winner Jeanine!

For the ladies, a picture of Jason!

The end of the Phillip and Jeanine "Mad" Hip Hop!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6-i362rscI

The "butt" dance! Such a cute dance! For those who did not watch the show this year, yes, this dance is about her butt. Mia Michaels choreographed and so cute. If you want to see it, go here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4-nmwoxp_4

Mr. Monotony! Cute routine... and Kayla seem to be in the most routines this year. Poor girl must be exhausted!

Romeo and Juliet Ballet.

Kapono! I always like the quirky Hawaiian dancers!

The Russian Fold Dance Spoof by Jeanine and Phillip.

Jason with Catelyn's booty in his face doing the Bollywood dance! Which was so much more awesome live I thought!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_zJKbm7I7A

The Sonja Superhero Girls Dance!

Kayla and Kupono doing Sonja!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQcfyY2SZ14

Evan and Melissa doing Broadway! This is my favorite picture!

The Tango/Hip Hop Dance with the water table! Jeanette was sick and was not there to do the dance. She usually does the water table. It just was not the same without her!

The "One" from A Chorus Line Group number!

The Zombie Hip Hop!

A Fosse number... Bye Bye Life.

Kupono's "infomercial" for SYTYCD work out DVDs. He looked good in short shorts.

The Boys Top 3 Group number.

The Russian Folk Dance spoof turned into an awesome group dance!

This guy somehow has a front row seat every year and he stands up and dances through most the performances. I would cry if I got a 2nd row seat and then realized I was behind this guy!

Brandon's Solo! He is such a powerful dancer that it makes you think he is a big guy. Even in-person on stage he just seems huge. Then you meet him in real life and realize he is shorter than me!

I refused to take pictures during my favorite dance, the addiction dance! But at the end I did manage to take a picture of Kupono's evil drug-addiction face on the screen. If you have not seen this dance, check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS3qNcEBCv0

Same thing with this dance. Love this dance. This is the Travis Wall contemporary. It is an amazingly done piece.

There was very little ballroom this year. I think because Jeanette was sick. But there was this piece that was very well done by Randi and Evan. Also Brandon and Jeanine had their Paso Doble.

Jeanine's solo.

The breast cancer piece. This one is so powerful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA6Nnez7bKI The final group number!

The end of the show! I am already looking forward to next year!

After that we stayed and, per tradition, met all the dancers. We just missed Jason, Jeanine, and Jeanette because they were sick. The only pic I got on my camera was of Phillip. I do have other pictures of some of the dancers holding signs that say thing about the business. But then I got into trouble because they are not allowed to promote products. I did not even think about it!!! I thought the guy was going to take my camera and make me delete them. But he was cool about it and asked that I not put the pics on the internet. Which I will not do. Because I am honest and all that. The only place they will be is on my "Wall of Fame" at work :)!

Here is us a Phillip!

I thought the picture was done, and ended up looking possessed!

Katie posted on her blog about today (the day after the show) going all wrong because of being out late the night before. The funny thing is I had the same thing. So, here is mine...

First off, on my way home (somewhere between 12:30 and 1am) there were no clouds in the sky and suddenly I see a flickering blue flash of light in the sky like there was lighting a long way away. I thoguht it was strange since they were not calling for storms. Then suddenly there is a HUGE flash of white behind me and blue light all around that lit up the trees all around me just like lightning had struck right behind my van, yet there was no boom, just a crackling sound. So it had me all shook up, so it was hard to go to sleep.

Then I had to wake-up for Muffins for Mom at school. And I am a little sick and it was hard to wake up. Basically Muffins for Mom is a way to get you in to buy books at the book fair. The problem is... the books at the book fair were rediculously expensive. They were full price. So I had to tell 5 kids we were not getting a book. Which made Lettie cry. And me feel bad. But each bedroom has a bookcase FULL of books, and then there are 3 boxes of books on top of the boys shelfs that do not fit on the 4 bookcases we have. We do not need another book. And they all wanted books that were overprices because they came with a neckace or stickers... sigh. I am a mean mom. I just did not want to spend $50 when they would have been more excited by a $1 store toy!

Then Nolan's teacher has been telling him he needs to pay for a rug he ruined, so I went to the classroom to check out the dreaded rug. Which was not as bad as it seemed according to the teachers note. He really does not have a mean bone in his body... just a lot of loud and impulsice bones!!! But the whole situation was frustrating and I ended up just crying on the way home because I know how it feels to be given a hard time by teachers.

Then I get home and go back to sleep for 3 hours where I dream that the SYTYCD dancers comeing to my shop and they keep turning off the lights and dancing with only the light from the outside lighting the shop, but when customers come in I turn the light back on and they keep turning them off again. And then my ice shaver completely falls apart (seriouly in pieces on the floor) and all my toppings fall over and my employee would not stop texting and then says she quits and walks out. Then I wake up and have to tackle the issue of freezing liquid in my ice block maker. And tonight is the hard night to be home because there is a lot of homework on Tuesdays and I knew I could not handle it so Levi said I could go to work. So, I have spent the afternoon putting pictures on my blog. He is so good to me! So, staying up till all hours, not good...

But in Katie's words...

It was ALL worth it!

Tonight...

2009-10-19T08:49:00.002-04:00

I am going to eat the best food ever,
eat the best cheesecake ever,
chill with the coolest people ever,
and watch the best dancing ever!

So You Think You Can Dance Tour Season 5 is today!

I will have some pictures tomorrow!

I will miss her!

2009-10-15T19:27:00.002-04:00

Mia Michaels is going on to do other things other than So You Think You Can Dance! Man, I will miss seeing her stuff! I wonder why she left and what she is going to do! I am sure some good ol' rumors and gossip will surface before you know it!

She "tweeted" this:

"I am officially an adoring fan of SYTYCD...Thank U for 5 wonderful yrs," Michaels, 43, Twittered Wednesday night. "To create moments and movement for the world to share with me was a gift...Thanks SYTYCD and look forward to what's ahead for me...lookout world!"

So any good conspiracy theories on why she is leaving?

Here are some of my favorite Mia Michaels dances just for fun:

One of my favorite movies!

2009-10-12T08:56:00.000-04:00

see more Lol Celebs

2 Babies in a Box!

2009-10-10T00:13:00.002-04:00

I love my "babies"! I call them "The Babies" and I do not know at which age they will cease to be "The Babies". But they are always referred to around the house as "The Babies" and I am in no hurry to change that! They are often refferred to as if they were one entity because they are always together.

They are really so opposite, yet they are SO CLOSE! The Yin and Yang that work in perfect harmony. I can not imagine one without the other! They love each other, help each other, look after each other, understand each other, play with each other... they truly are the best of friends. And they get a long so well to be so different.

Here is an example:

Jovie crawled into the diaper box today, announced that it was her ice cream shop, and offered me a lollipop made out of air. Of course, Callie wanted in on the action and went to get into the box. Instead of pushing her away, Jovie moved over, making room for Callie, and they BOTH served "ice cream" out of the cramped diaper box.

Proof that you can get them the best toys money can buy, but a diaper box can be just as fun!

Jovie is the "Clown" and Callie is the "Easily Entertained". Jovie is a lot like Nolan, she likes to put on a show. Callie just loves to smile. Callie thinks Jovie is hilarious! This is a familiar scene in our house. Jovie goofing off and Callie laughing at her!

Best Friends Forever!
These 2 were meant to be sisters!

The Princess and the Worms!

2009-10-07T09:42:00.002-04:00

We call Lettie Princess Teenie.

Because she is a Princess!

She LOVES to be a girly girl!

I was always a dig-in-the-dirt skinned knees Tom-boy.

But underneath that cute little blue-eyed Princess exterior...

DO NOT BE FOOLED!

She still takes after her Mommy! She loves ants, frogs, worms, and all things yucky!
She found all these worms underneath the kiddie pool when she moved it.
So of course she collected as many as possible and proudly showed them off!
She often brings inside all sorts of frogs, grasshoppers, worms, and bugs.
She is such a cute little walking contradiction!

The Brownie Sin!!!

2009-10-05T21:03:00.006-04:00

We had a really fun FHE (Family Home Evening) last night!

Confession Time: We really have not been good about doing FHE. I could tell you all my excuses... but seriously... we have had A LOT going on for a very long time. Life finally feels leveled-off and normal, and all our kids now understand most English, so that helps too!

FHE is really important right now! #1 Because the kids are old enough and it is time. #2 Because we are commanded to do it. #3 Is because since Yonas has never been legally 8 years old he was legally too young for baptism and now he is 9 so he has to have the missionary discussions (He has never been legally 8 years old). So we need to do teenie-tiny teach-the-son-with-limited-English steps to get him ready to even have the first missionary discussion. (We tried to do the first discussion, but when he answered every question with "Be good and help mommy and daddy and be nice" we realized he has gotten by at church on Sunday School answers. He would even say that when asked "Do you know what a prophet is?").

So we started with a lesson that focused on the key words "Prophet" & "Repentance" with a little "Holy Ghost" thrown in there. Then we were going to play a game and then we were going to eat brownies.

So I talked about what a prophet does. Talked about how we know things are true with the Holy Ghost. Then I talked about Samuel the Lamanite and how he told the people to repent and say they are sorry and do better because they sinned. But the people were angry and threw stones and shot arrows at him but they did not touch him because Heavenly Father protected them. Then I realized I needed to explain what sin meant. So I told them it was when you did something Heavenly Father does not want you to do. Then I gave examples and if it was a sin they had to yell "Sin" and if it was not a sin they had to yell "Good Thing"!

-Go to church!
-Good Thing
-Hit your sister!
-Sin
-Don't listen to mom and dad!
-Sin
-Give hugs!
-Good Thing
....
I went through a few examples and because we were having brownies as a dessert I jokingly threw in:
"Eat the Brownies when mom is not looking"
and they all yelled

SIN!
Then right on cue...
Someone I did not realize was missing came around the corner...
.
.
.
.
.
.

SIN!!!

I just said, "Oh no Callie! What did you do?!?"

Then, We all cracked up! It was hilarious and the timing was PERFECT!

The perfect object lesson!

But she said "Sawey" and Repented!

Here is how the rest of the FHE went! We went to the table and everyone drew a Sin on a piece of paper while they ate their brownies.

Lettie drew Callie getting into the brownies!
Silas drew people throwing stones and arrows at Samuel the Lamanite.

Yonas drew someone kicking someone else.

Ruby drew someone pushing someone at school.

Nolan drew himself using the computer and then when he leaves to go to the bathroom someone hops on the computer and plays his computer game.

Then they made their pictures into either a arrow (paper airplane)

or a stone (balled the paper up).

Then someone would stand on the ottoman and cry repentance to the people and as soon as they said "Repent" we threw our "stones" and "arrows" at them.

Repent!

After we were done in turned into a free-for-all of kids crying repentance and getting pelted with paper! They ran around the house laughing, giggling, and squealing until it was time for bed! Moments like that make me happy to have such a big bunch of happy kids!

I think sometimes I would put off making FHE part of our life because I was making it too complicated. FHE assignment wheels, home-made object lessons, visual aids. Not that all that stuff is bad. I just have a hard time not being a perfectionist and just being satisfied with what I can do right now, so I decided I was just going to do it. Even if it is haphazardly planned and I am winging it. Which I was. I decided on the paper throwing while making dinner. I decided I was going to do FHE, plan or not, I was going to do something. Then the lesson just came to me. But I must say it came together nicely, the kids are still talking about it this morning, and I may turn in to the queen of 10 min. preparation FHEs!

Why does he keep doing that?

2009-09-18T15:33:00.002-04:00

Nolan made the Chess Club!

2009-09-17T17:20:00.005-04:00

Yes, I am now the proud mom of a Chess Club Geek!

The thing is, he had to earn it! At his school, since chess club is during school time around lunch, you can not just join. You have to write an essay and then pass a skills test. He wrote his essay a few times until it was just right. He practiced his skills; with me, on the computer, or by studying his skills sheet. He said he felt he did well on the test, but we had not heard if he made it for awhile. I knew how much he wanted it, so I was hoping there was a delay and it was not that he just did not realize he had not made it.

So I am very proud of his effort and dedication!

He starts next Monday and we have been playing each other. I am REALLY bad a chess! I am impressed because he can just about beat me and he is really good about thinking ahead and planning out his moves! Fun stuff!

And he lost another tooth last night. I swear he loses teeth right and left! I was so worried before because all his friends were losing teeth and he had not lost any. Now they are practically falling out of his head! And he is really good about letting me know, letting them get a good amount of loose, and then letting me take a string and just pop the sucker out! I can not stand a dangally tooth!

So You Think You Can Dance is back on tonight!!!

2009-09-09T18:26:00.004-04:00

So You Think You Can Dance is back on tonight!!!
So You Think You Can Dance is back on tonight!!!
So You Think You Can Dance is back on tonight!!!
So You Think You Can Dance is back on tonight!!!
So You Think You Can Dance is back on tonight!!!

A friend told me she was afraid it would be too much So You Think You Can Dance...

I say...

Is there such a thing?!?

So, in celebration, here is my favorite group dance by my favorite choreographer,

Wade Robson! He performs in this one and he won an emmy for it!

And just for fun, here is a cool performace Wade Robson did on Dancing With the Stars and then for extra awesomeness I added Joel McHale's take on it:

What you doin' Joel McHale?

Bob! We found an affordable boat option for you...

2009-09-08T13:02:00.001-04:00

see more Fail Blog

Courtesy of Failblog!

The amazing thing is that it is registered and everything!

2 Little Rascals!

2009-09-08T11:59:00.002-04:00

First, Baby Mermaid... aka Jovie! This last week she has decided she is "Baby Mermaid"... not Jovie. And Lettie is "Mommy Mermaid". So, when she is calling for Mommy, is she calling for me... nope. Lettie! The other night she was not going to sleep and was instead standing at the gate outside her room yelling, "Mommy! Wake up! Mommy! Mommy Mermaid! Wake up!" Nope, she was not looking for me, she was looking for her Mommy Mermaid. I ask her if I was her mommy and she says, "Nope! You not my mommy! Mommy Mermaid is my mommy! You Lettie!" Sigh...

After this weekend in the mountinas she is ready to claim me again. So she is calling me mommy again, but she still calls Lettie "Mommy Mermaid".

The next few blog posts will have some of our mountain pics! This is how I found Jovie one afternoon; In her "Baby Mermaid" hat, eating watermelon... her way!
Then that night Callie said she was hungry so my mom gave her a piece of bologna and cheese, but she did not want the bread. A few minutes later we found a

Callie, Bologna, & Cheese Sandwich...

She never just eats lunch meat, she plays with it first! I forgot to warn my mom! Just today she had a piece of ham and she folded it about 10 different ways before tearing it into little pieces and eating it. She is really into folding things lately. Paper, lunch meat, clothes, towels, anything... I need to put her on laundry duty!

I'm Compelled... It is an addiction!

2009-09-04T22:44:00.003-04:00

A little over a year ago my fabulous Mother in Law, Linda, got a Webkinz for Lettie. She LOVED it! It was a black pony named Lettie (yes, it is a junior) and she sleeps with it even now! Then she got a bullfrog for Nolan, which he named Froggy. He sleeps with his as well!

For those not familiar with Webkinz, they are stuffed animals that come with a tag and a code and with that code you get to "adopt" your pet in Webkinz world, build a house for them, buy them clothes, play games with them, and what-not. You get 1 small room and $10,000 "Kinz Cash" to start, but does the Kinz Cash last long... no! So... to earn Kinzcash you have to play games and do jobs. If you do a job you can not do another for another 8 hours. Since I am a mom who hates to disapoint her kids (which is genetic, I swear), I ended up getting hooked on some of the games and checking the clock for when 8 hours was up so I could do a job and help them buy the pony and froggy a room or a bed or a bathtub or a stove, or food. If they were hungry they would look all sad and if you had no money you had to earn money to feed them.

This was fun because me and the kids did it together!

But...

Then I found myself playing when they were not even around. They have some great games on there.

Now they still play with them, but not so much. But... I still have this weird compulsion to play some of the jobs to earn money. The thing is, there are only 3 I like to do: Gem mining, Kinzpost Sorting, and Flooring. The other thing is I am totally obcessed with the Kinzpost sorting. I get excited when I see it available (because they switch the jobs around). The jobs available change every hour, so sometimes I will skip an hour to see if it is available next hour. If it is not, sometimes I will just settle for one of my other 2.

Now the Webkinz are rich!!! The boys (because all the boys have one now and they share an account) have almost $100,000 and the girls have $40,000. And they rarely play. I just am compelled now to keep racking up this Kinzcash. I have even considered getting one just for me... shhh.

Do, I now confess my weird compulsion. So you have any weird compulsions?

Love the Failblog.org!

2009-09-04T20:05:00.003-04:00

When you have nothing better to do, the Fail Blog is great! Basically it has a lot of pictures of people, well... Failing. So, check it out sometime!

The thing is, some things are quite crude. But the nice thing is that FailBlog.org has a place at the top of the page where you can choose to just view the "Rated G" fails... as to prevent seeing anything that might make you giggle with embarrassment.

So, since it is a slow night at work, and since I have been here since 8am and it is now 8pm and I was pooped at 7 when I woke up but I have not had a rest since, and since I have a worker here and I am paying her so I might as well make her work while I blog, here is my favorite FailBlog of the week:

see more Fail Blog

Back to Blogging...

2009-08-10T15:55:00.005-04:00

I have missed blogging. I really have. I have just been so darn busy!

So... I am back!

I am in more of a routine now and sometimes I have down-time at work. If I have down-time at home I will post pics of the kids and talk about family stuff. If I have down-time at work, you will probably get blogs on just funny stuff, deep thoughts stuff, life-in-general stuff.

So... here if my first little tid-bit now that I am back in the bloggin world... an article about paying for your kids college. Here it is...

http://babble.com/on-their-own-not-paying-kids-college/

I was so excited about this article because:

#1 It made me feel less guilty and bad about not having funds set up for all my kids. I have 7 kids and about 50% of people who find this out, the first thing they say is, "How are you going to pay for college for all those kids?" And I am not exaggerating! I hear that A LOT! (The other 50% of the people say something like, "Are you crazy?" first, THEN they ask how I am going to pay for their college).

#2 There is no way I can afford 7 college funds for 7 kids that are only 7 years apart! PLUS missions. Do I hope that my business will take-off and I can help ou?t... of course! But for now do I have the $ to put aside even $50 a month per kids for college fund? Nope! Do I feel bad about it? A bit... slightly guilty and inadequate when I get the before-mentioned comments in #1!

#3 Would I rather have just had 2 or 3 kids and had college funds for them all? Well, you know the answer to that one!

#4 Will my kids suffer because they do not have college funds? Yes... sort of. They will have to work in college. Did I? Yes. Did I have to? No. Was it good for me? Absolutely. Do I hope they qualify for scholarships? Please Please Please!

#5 Do I feel my kids have to go to college to be successful? No. If they are cut out to go to college I will encourage them and help where I can. I loved my college years. But my ultimate goal is for them to be happy, hard-working, productive adults who have in joy in where they ended up. And I think being a mechanic, plumber, mom, nurse, assistant, burger flipper is just fine, as long as they are happy in what they do.

So, this article made me feel a lot better!

Do you have anything that as a parent you fell guilty about doing or not doing? Have you every had a article, comment, incident that made you feel better about it?

I'm Famous!!!

2009-08-04T01:13:00.005-04:00

A lady came into the store saying she worked for Fox Charlotte and asked if I would be interested in any advertising. I told her a little bit about us and she thought it might be a nice human interest story. She said she would leave a note for their producer and I thought that was that. Well, that was the last I heard about it until a news crew showed up at the shop today!!!

I was so excited!!! The only thing is I was SO not prepared, had very little sleep the night before, had been running MAJOR errands ALL morning, and I know I was a disheveled mess. My feet were killing me, all my makeup had been sweated off, my hair was in disarray... but I swallowed my pride and had a great time shooting and interviewing for the 10pm news!!!

Some of my bestest regulars came in and it was great! At first no one was coming in. I said, "I swear people come! Just for some reason no one is here now!" In the 15 minutes after they left about 15 people came in.

I hope this brings in some more business! No matter what it was a blast to do!

Been a long time...

2009-07-26T21:48:00.002-04:00

I know I know! I am still here! Just insanely busy! In a good way! Business is going well for only having been open for about 10 days!

It is fun for me to sell Snoballs. It makes people happy and I have a lot of regulars already. So I feel like I am making a lot of new friends. My staff is great and I make a nice looking Snoball now (when it is not insanely busy, which seems to only happen when family and close friends stop by)! So they see me running back and forth like a chicken with it's head cut off. I like when it keeps me on my toes though. It means I am making money! And it is fun! Good times!

We are not rolling in it, but we are not doing bad either! I need more people to come so I can give my workers more hours.

I added some cute pics to the website so it is getting better!

I will try to make time to blog about my kids sometime, but for now I am going to get some shut eye! I worked about 70 hours last week. I am pooped!

Thanks for the input guys!

2009-07-03T23:09:00.003-04:00

I really really appreciate it! I have taken ALL your comments and pasted them into an e-mail and e-mailed them to myself so I can get on the changes and suggestions when I get home! So they did not disappear into cyberspace... I promise!

Why did the post get deleted you may ask?

Because I had a particularly grumpy day in which I wrote particularly grumpy things, and your support and kindness brought me out of my particular grumpy mood. And I do not want people to google my business name and get an account of my "horrible no good very bad day!" Haha! Bad for business! And also customers do not need to learn too much about how crazy I am! April and Annette say I should have a shirt that says, "Would you like me to show you how to stuff it?" Haha!

Also, I do not want my business linked with my kids and my family. Safety... you know. So you will no longer hear my business name on here... it shall be referred to as "the business" or "the shop" and I will do links to the web site. Like this : Go to my site here

But if you have any things you see that need attention in my site (other than changing the whole theme, you have been warned... haha ), or have any cool marketing ideas (promotions and quirky fun ideas) feel free to let me know!!!!!! (<-- I threw in extra exclamation points for you Angela!!!)

Just What I Need...

2009-06-30T20:35:00.005-04:00

There are many things I could be/ should be doing Thursday night:

-cleaning the house
-working on the business
-doing paperwork
-sleeping

But what am I doing instead:

It is only here for 8 more performances and when you only need 1 ticket, you can sometimes get a decent seat. I have row C on the first teir up. I called my sister who has seen it a few times and asked her if she thought that was a good seat before buying it. She said she would perfer that over anywhere else in the theater! So I am excited! I have never seen Phantom, but have always wanted to! I know all the music, and have known it for a long time. I have seen the movie. It is high time I finally see it on the stage! I will let you know how it goes!

Setting up Shop!

2009-06-29T19:33:00.002-04:00

So... now is when I work feverishly to make everything come together for my shop. The only problem is... my plans were wrong when it came to my electrical and plumbing, so we are a few days behind trying to remedy that stuff. And we are at the mercy of the inspectors... so PRAY that their hears will be softened! This whole process has been a pain in the batootie!

But here are a couple pictures of what I have so far!

This is the left side of the ice cream machine! It is where there will be toppings and hot fudge and caramel for Sundaes and we will make milkshakes and what-not!
This is to the right and this is where my sno machine and 50+ flavors and put together and served!

It is a really great set-up! If everything else will fall into place we can be in business!

Gotta Love Some Puppy Love!

2009-06-26T17:42:00.004-04:00

Here is a post to make you say, "Awwww!"

Jovie and Jackson... they are good buddies!

The sad and sweet thing is, apparently she has been telling Levi "Jackson not at grandpa's farm. Jackson ran away!" and she was really upset about this. The whole thing is, he NEVER ran away! We have no clue where she had gotten her mid-informed train of thought. We told her Jackson was still there, but she refused to believe it! In her mind, her good buddy was gone!

We get to the mountains and she hops out of the van and as soon as she lays eyes on him she yells, "JACKSON! JACKSON! Daddy It's Jackson! Jackson is here! Jackson not run away!" She was so relieved! Poor kid really thought he was gone! I wonder if she had a really vivid dream or something!

She has always loved Jackson! He is her height and they literally see eye to eye! And he loves the attention and does not mind her hanging on him! He is a really good dog! Very smart, and very sweet!

Lettie and her Kanga! She loves her dogs! And Kanga loves her kids! And Kanga loves to go back to the mountains and be a mountain dog for a little while! She runs by the Kaboda, runs through the cows, and lays in the cool creek and I swear you can see a smile on her face the whole time!

Flea on the other hand does not love Jovie's attention, but he tolerates it! Poor dog! He used to be an "only child" and I swear I saw his eyes roll everytime we brought a baby home! He always knew I was pregnant even before I was! I wonder if he was confused when suddenly Callie showed up! He probably thought, "Man! I usually have time to mentally prepare for one of these things!" He and Yonas are very close! He is more of an older kid dog! But he is tolerant of the Jo-Lea!

The Very Best Fishing Pond!

2009-06-23T21:20:00.012-04:00

We went to the mountains last week! Levi went up a day before me with the kids and then I joined them! The kids rode bikes with their cousins, damned up the creek, and built fires. We rode the Kaboda, went on a fun hike, and went fishing!

The best part is... my dad made his biggest pond even better! It was great before, but the cows could get all the way up to the water, so we were always dodging cow pies! Also, there were swampy spring heads that you could not cross so you had to walk around. Not a big deal if it is just me and Levi, but with kids all the way around the pond, it is nice to not have to walk all the way around the pond to get to the kids who is only 10 feet away... you just want get through the swamp!

Look...

Isn't it pretty?! There are rocks by the front you can sit on, it looks so pretty, there is penty of fish, no trees to get your line stuck in, and best of all... no poop!

The sitting rocks are basically where I park myself the entire time replacing worms, fixing snapped lines, and re-working bobbers! And I was on picture duty! We took pictures of almost every fish the kids caught! That was part of the fun... getting the trophy shot!

Ruby caught the first, and the biggest fish, of the entire trip!

This cat fish was HEAVY and was 25 inches long! Ruby was so proud!

Lettie's first catch!

Yonas' catch! But not his first! I accidentally killed his first... therefore a picture was not taken! I will not go into details... let's just say I feel really bad about it!

Dad and Silas!

Callie entertaining herself by climbing the fence and playing in the van and eating everyones snacks while they were not looking!

My silly girl! She thinks she is so funny! Lettie looking peaceful in her "lucky fishing hat"! She forgot it the 2nd day and was so dissapointed!

The guys across the way!

Nolan waiting for his dad to be done fixing his pole!

Silas... the cutie fisherman!

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn... the Ethiopian version!

Jovie's first catch with her daddy! She wanted to fish so bad, then Levi sat down with her and they were raking them in... like 5 in a row!

Jovie all snuggled in and ready to catch fish with daddy!

Levi coaxing the girls trying to get them to touch the fish! They would touch the fish and the SQUUUEEEEAAAL! I wish I had a video on it!

Nolan the nut showing off his fish!

Lettie flinching from the floppy fish!

The proud Ruby!

Silas' HUGE catfish! It was a little over 20 inches long!

Silas still did not want to touch it!

I NEVER got to fish! I just sat and did worms and hooks! Then I decided to try a lure for a little while. I ended up catching about 6 bass in a row! This was my biggest one! I am quite proud of it!

Nolan caught the only catfish in this pond (this is the smaller pond on my dad's Laurel Fork farm). The thing I am proud of is that he decided he would hold this catfish all by himself. Catfish are scary to hold... and this one was heavy! What a brave dude!
After Lettie saw Nolan's bravery she decided she wanted to hold a fish too! But we were packing up. And I could not catch a fish for her to save my life. But I kept trying and finally caught a bass (the best kind of fish for a kid to hold... does not sting and is not too pokey). She was so proud!
We are a fishing family!

Gosh this Top 20 is good!

2009-06-11T16:52:00.002-04:00

Levi and I remarked about how in the previous seasons (not so much last season but the seasons before that), that on the first episode they would always say "That was not great, but it was good considering the fact that you usually do ____ style of dance"!

Now they expect you to be good right out of the gate! And boy oh boy were these dances good! And the pairings this year are so complimentary! Who do you break apart when it comes to voting someone off! It was hard to choose my favorites, but here is my top 4 in no particular order:

I love Evan! This guy is great and so retro, but so good! And he and Randi are a cute couple! The only thing is I wish he was paired with someone who was not married where he was more comfortable having the chemistry!

I love Tabitha and Napoleon ones that "tell the story" and I really think Phillip was good and did a good job of toning it down to accent and match his partner!

This one was so sweet! And the fact that she is 29 and still so good is awesome!!!

My favorite on this one is Adams reaction! That was exactly how I was feeling! Oh my GOSH!!! How the heck was she THAT good!?!

There was a cool Bollywood and Wade Robson routine too!

Check out my 'stang...

2009-06-09T23:04:00.002-04:00

I wanted to do at least one fun thing with some of the $ we made on our flip house! Nothing crazy... just something fun! We thought about putting some $ into getting the Bobcat working, but my sister really wants it back, I can not drive stick... and if I had a fixer-upper just-for-fun car I wanted it to be a CONVERTIBLE!

So... I searched Craigslist and was suprised how expensive a working Convertible beetle and what-not were. But I was telling Levi how I liked the boxy look of even the 80s & 90s Volkswagens. BUT... even those were not cheap. Like THOUSANDS... Then we found this:

A MUSTANG!!!

Even better! And basically the ad said "It runs" and that is about all they knew about it! Some guy needed the $, had this sitting around somewhere, brought it into a "recycling & car center" and we bought it for $600! Not bad for a running Mustang Convertible... even if it is from 1986!!!

Now... when it gets above 45 it keeps wanting to slow down and you can feel it hesitating. The top does not automatically go down without a little help. And when you roll the windows down you have to give the back windows a little jiggle. But it runs! And we got it for so little it is not too big of a deal to have the engine looked over and fixed up!

And the interior is not in bad shape at all! Sure it needs a little work, but nothing terrible! And the interior is white leather... how slick is that?! There is only 1 crack in the bottom of the drivers seat, but I am sure I can find a cheap replacement on-line!

Happy day! I think I will wash it tomorrow so it can shine a bit more! This is going to be my to-work-and-back car! With the top down on nice days... ahhh!!! I went for a little cruise around my neighborhood tonight with the top down! It ran like a champ, no hesitating, but then again I did not get over 30 mph!

Our Famous Little Spot in Charlotte!

2009-06-07T21:49:00.003-04:00

There is a corner store on the way to our house! It was a dive little mom and pop type place that sold your basic soda and cigarettes and pigs feet type place. A little over a year ago they re-sealed the asphault in front, seemed to be "touching it up" a little bit. Then one day we see camera crews...

Turns out they were shooting an Armour All commercial with Tony Stewart (NASCAR)!

Maybe you have seen it! If you haven't you can see it here:

http://www.armorall.com/features/media.php

Levi and I drove past the shoot several times that day while doing our normal daily activities and we were wondering what was going on.

Since then they have covered a lot of the wood with vinyl and now it is called the "Red Sea Grocery" and it is the go-to place for all your Colt 45s and cigarettes. It has lost its home-town feel. But it's origional "quaintness" can be seen in this commercial...

But they never sold Slurpee type things... so that was brought in from somewhere. Probably the gas station down the street ;)

Define Long-suffering!

2009-06-07T21:19:00.002-04:00

Two different primary leaders came up to me and told me that they LOVE to hear Nolan's answers to their questions. #1 He is never shy about answering and #2 You never know what is going to come out of that boys mouth.

Apparently they were asking the kids if they knew what long-suffering meant. Nolan raises his hand and says:

"Long suffering is like when you are in the van and you are really hungry, but you don't say anything!"

Perfect example! Sometimes you just have to bear your trials and be long-suffering because complaining will not do you any good. Like being hungry on a van trip! Haha!

I love that boy! He has great "thinks" in his head!

Just Simply the BEST Thing Ever!

2009-05-30T18:51:00.008-04:00

I am a little late on this, but 2 Saturdays ago (5/23/09), I got to see my farvoritest band ever!

Toad the Wet Sprocket!

Right here in Charlotte!

They do not record together anymore and they just tour from time to time! And since moving from Virginia, they always seem to never come to NC, but ALWAYS come to Virginia. I wish they could come together and create some new stuff, but alas, in talking to the guys basically it is never going to happen!

My dear sweet husband got me the ticket! He heard they were coming before I did! I have no clue how that happened!

I had a 3rd row center seat! For some reason the 4 seats in front of me were empty, so it was as good as having a front row seat! The set was great and they sounded amazing! I got the set list afterwards and stuck around and had the guys all sign it! Basically there are very few shows I go to that I do not stick around and meet people. I do not get out much and it sort of makes the event last longer!

I talked to Todd a lot. Then I went out and talked to their tour guy Joe Lyons about t-shirts of all things. He sells the shirts and I need to get some printed up for the business, so we discussed shirts and business start-up and what not! He owns a place off the beach in Santa Barbara http://www.beachbreakcafe.com/ . Nice guy, fun talking to him!

Got to talk to Glen about his other projects. I still do wish it included some more Toad stuff, but alas, I will just have to find comfort in the fact that they still tour now and then!

Anyway, here are 2 videos I took during the performance from my camera and some pictures because I know you guys reading this are just so highly interested! I promise my next post will have something to do with my kids and not just music!

One of my favorite Toad songs called "Windmills". Love the melody and guitar on this one!

Good Intentions! A nice fun song!

Glen

Lead Guitar- Todd, Bass- Dean

This is Joe! He always has a cowbell solo! He has toured with them since FOREVER!

All the Toad fans know Joe!

Who knew Christie would find me a Death Cab for Cutie Slick Deal?

2009-05-30T16:39:00.004-04:00

So I mention on the diet blog that my next reward will be a Death Cab for Cutie t-shirt! Low and behold today Christie finds me this:

A Death Cab For Cutie Slick Deal: Their newest EP of 5 songs for only $.99

She said she never heard of them, but low and behold right after I mention it, there it is on slick deals! I had not bought it yet because it is not in any of the stores I go to and I do not want to pay $5 plus shipping because I am a lot cheaper than I used to be!

BUT... I fell in love with their song Little Bribes, which is about Vegas, through a video with the song a fan made! If you are so inclined, check it out here. If anything it is cool to see the neat stop motion effects the guy uses. He is a film student in LA and did it just for kicks, but it is pretty cool!

So, within a couple minutes of getting her e-mail I downloaded it and am a happy girl :)!

I really need to start finding bands that do not have weird and/or death metal sounding names.

-Toad the Wet Sprocket
-The Killers (sounds like a death-metal band, but nope)
-Death Cab for Cutie
-Queen (although a group of guys)

My mom would always sort of sigh and roll her eyes when telling people about what concerts I was going to. "Smashing the Pumpkins". Especially when she mentioned that I really liked "Toad the Wet Something".

A guy on the slick deals board told this story that sums it up perfectly:

I remember listening to Death Cab at work like 4 or 5 years ago. My boss walked up and asked what I was listening to. Before I could stop him, he grabbed my MP3 player and read the name, "Death Cab for.." He just looked at me out of the corner of his eye and put it down slowly. I tried to explain that they are not some crazy death metal band, but he had already stopped listening to me. Dang you, Death Cab, for having a weird name but having awesome music.

Another one said:
Some years ago, Death Cab & the Dismemberment Plan went on tour together. It was fun telling people about going to the Death and Dismemberment concert.

So:

#1 THANKS Christie!

#2 Do any of you guys like any bands that, because of their name, you hate to tell people like parents, grandparents, people at church, that you really like?

Poor Jovie!

2009-05-22T07:02:00.002-04:00

She was so tired and she was not feeling well! And she did not have her nap. So, she covered up with the dog bed and fell asleep! Then she would wake up enough to grump at whoever was around her and then go back to sleep! I tried to move her to somewhere more comfy and she went back to the floor to her dog bed. Crazy goose! This was a few weeks ago. Today she is sick again. Poor girl may have her momma's ears and need tubes again.

The curse of the American Idol Finale...

2009-05-19T23:41:00.002-04:00

Last year the power went out during the American Idol Finale!

This year, I checked the Media Center on the computer at around 7:45 to make sure the computer was all set to record it! Yep! No problems there! We were putting furniture together and putting kids to bed, so we did not get to settle in until 8:35. Levi says he does not see where the computer is recording and sure enough... not recording! And he still seems to not believe me that I checked and it did say it would record! I have it on "record series" for Pete's sake! I have not had to press a button to have to record it in weeks! But I always check because I do not like to miss my Idol!

So, I missed the first 2 rounds, saw the last song! I will catch up tomorrow on you tube! Saw some clips tonight. I voted for Kris anyway. A lot! I am so biased he could have come out and sung like crap and I still would have probably voted for him! So, I voted while reading a book, while sitting outside the babies door periodically saying "Jovie, get back in bed"!

So, I have the American Idol Finale curse! Power Outage, Messed up Computer... I wonder what will be in store next year! And you better believe I will be checking every time to make sure So You Think You Can Dance is actually recording. Especially since I will watch those over and over!

It seemed like just another day...

2009-05-19T07:17:00.005-04:00

My to-do list:

-Clean
-Pester real estate agent about why I have yet to get a closing date
-Clean
-Look up "big girl" beds on IKEA.com because it may be time to do the big girl bed thing
-Laundry
-Clean
-Order things for the shop
-Clean

Not the kind of day you get super excited about... until...

You realise...

IT IS AMERICAN IDOL NIGHT!!!

That always brightens my day! Tuesday become not just another day when I realize it is American Idol night! It sort of brightens my spirits and gives me something to look forward to that night!

And after American Idol will I despair that it is over?!?

I say unto you... NO... for then comes the time of the So You Think You Can Dance and there shall be MUCH rejoicing and calling of the Katie to swoon over those that dance very well!

So... 2 questions for you:

Do you have a show that when you realise it is "[insert show here] day" it automatically brightens your day?

And who do you want to win American Idol?
(only if you watch it)

Who do I love and will probably vote for like a 12-year-old (which I have done these past 2 weeks because dang it... I will not be the one who causes him to lose):

KRIS ALLEN!

I would buy his album! He is my kind of music! He reminds me of Jason Mraz, whom I adore! And of Glen Phillips from Toad the Wet Sprocket (my first musical love)! I love the guys with the acoustic guitars! So, I added some of his stuff! Enjoy and vote!

I love to watch Adam Lambert perform, but usually he just frustrates me with his

arrangements or makes me laugh with his melow-dramatic ways!

Ruby-doo's Birthday!

2009-05-18T07:36:00.008-04:00

Better late than never! Here are the pictures from Ruby's birthday party! Since we did not do presents, she went to Monkey Joes for her birthday! Well, actually the day after her birthday because Wednesdays is 1/2 price at Monkey Joes!

She dressed up as a princess for her party with her favorite flower in her hair!

Everybody with their party blowers lined up for Ruby's meal of choice: Hot dogs, baked beans, and macaroni and cheese!

Twisty straws too... just for fun! And Lettie and Silas dressed up too! Silas got out his Spider Man mask!

There were also party poppers! The kids love those! The rule was you had to yell Happy Birthday and pop them on Ruby... just not too close!

The group with the cake picture... uh, oh... does daddy have a suprise?...

Boom!

The after-reaction! Most are laughing, but I love Jovie's face! She was not scared or impressed! See the confetti hanging from the streamers?

My pretty birthday girl and her cake! I can not bear to get them absolutely nothing, so I do put something special on their cake! Ruby wanted a princess cake, so she got her own birthday princess crown! Hooray Wal-marts bridal section!

The king and his two princesses! After the cake we watched Enchanted. They had not seen it yet! They liked it a lot!

Time for some fun at Monkey Joes!

Me and Callie going down the huge slide! I love her little petrified face! After that she would go up and down it all by herself! She is a brave little critter... but she is still scared for you to lift her even a little bit above your head! Weird girl...

See Callie at the very top... fearless! & Ruby jumping!

The curls going up and the curls going down! I LOVE the curls going down picture!

Addis Under Construction

2009-05-17T22:09:00.004-04:00

I said I was going to write more on our trip during the last week. And frankly, I got busy. But I think I will intermix posts about our trip with posts about just life in general and then one day I will hopefully succeed in showing you our whole trip!

This post may only interest some. But I thought it was fascinating!

Addis Ababa is growing by leaps and bounds! They are in the process of building some beautiful tall buildings. Although many of them are still under construction, I look forward to going there in the future and seeing the finished product! The city is growing at such a rate that the electrical grid can not keep up so they have rolling blackouts now and then and certain sections of the city have sceduled time where they know they will not have electricity.

The thing that fascinated me was their method of construction. They did not have the big machinery you see in the United States. Everything is done with very primitive construction methods, yet the finished product is very modern and you would never know that the modern building you are visiting was built with this type of scaffolding:

All the scaffolding is made from thin trees and sticks tied together with rope. If you look at the top of the building you will see a very simple elevator.

The next picture is of a man who was working on the addition they were adding to the hotel we were in. There was no one else on site. Just him and a hammer with a ax blade on one end widdling a scaffolding stick down to size. No big machines. A lot of hand tools.

Here is the addition he was working in.

There were no bulldozers that I saw. When we first arrived at Addis, when I saw this following scene I quickly got out my camera and snapped a picture. 10 men doing the work of a bulldozer. The picture does not do it justice. Dirt was flying and it amazed me how quickly they filled up that hole!

Here is a picture from the 12th floor of our hotel looking down on the contruction site. The men were sawing the rebar with hand saws. I saw them pouring the concrete a few days later. They would make it on the ground in a small mixer (no concrete trucks) and send it up in a bucket with a crane. Fascinating to watch.
The electrician bending his poles with an old bucket of hot coals.

Anyway, I know this post will not appeal to the majority. But coming from a contruction, big equiptment, concrete background... I found the whole thing really fascinating! It is amazing what great things are built through simple means!