Cousineau Family Blog

Sundance Film Festival

2012-01-22T11:54:00.001-05:00

http://www.sundance.org/festival/

If you don't know what Sundance Film Festival is I'm going to give you a very brief explanation.

A bunch of people who have artistic talent of some kind, throw together, or get huge fund to make, a movie. They try it out at a local film contest. Those that win go to Sundance. Two movies that I know of that didn't make the cut were Cathedral Pines and Turkey Bowl. But no one cares about those movies.

The movies at Sundance are supposed to be the cream of the crop. Already having gone through the judging process, they should have substance, cohesiveness, and a theme that many find interesting.

All this I already knew. What I didn't know is that the movies are shown in theaters all over the place. Mostly in Park City, UT and Salt lake City, UT. But I know of at least one in Ogden, UT. So it is actually very difficult to see every movie showing. It also lasts for 10 days, so there is plenty of time to see plenty of movies.

So far we have gone two days and seen one famous person at the table next to us at the restaurant and spoke to a few after the movie. We also got to go to an art gallery with amazingly talented artists showing their work. At least one artist was present, who we got pictures with and got to spend quite a bit of time talking to. Very nice gentleman, and extremely talented. I will have to write down his name and google him so that when I post pictures you will know who he is.

Pictures will be coming soon! As well as my movie reviews for Robot and Frank, Where Do We Go Now?, and Excision. And possibly more over the next 10 days.

What's being going on out here...

2012-01-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

So I want to give a quick synopsis of what we have done since the move.

August- we drove out. This is covered in another blog post.

September- The kids started school. They quickly made friends, and when I say quickly I mean very slowly. Bailey and Madison wasn't too bad, it was with in the first week they had a group of playmates. Taylor and Jordan it took 2-3 weeks to figure out where they fit in. Which makes total sense.

October- We were the only family on the block that decorated for Halloween. Very few kids came to the door, even though the neighborhood is filled with families. One house had a guy who was exposing himself to the kids. I was going to call the police, but no one remembered which house it was. }:-( The kids started to have friends come over to the house and spend the night.

November- Madison mooned another kid. Jason thought it was funny. The other kid's parent did not. Madison can no longer play with that boy. And we found out that there are two bullies that pick on Madison. One is in middle school, the other is in the same grade but another classroom. We have spoken to the school. They are watching the boy in the same grade, but there is nothing they can do about the other kid, because it is on the way home that he see's Madison.

December- we had to put a lock on our fence. Someone kept opening the fence and letting the dogs out. If the dogs got picked up by Animal Control we would be in trouble and get fined.

We had a great Christmas! So many people were so sweet to us! We had a lot of help from family, friends, church and the school! The kids didn't get anything like i-pods, computers or video games. But they got clothes, boardgames, books and other stuff they just loved everything! And really appreciated that they got anything at all. Because J and I are mean, we kept telling them that they weren't getting anything because we didn't have the money! Hahaha!

We went to temple square, which i blogged about already. We also went to Ogden and saw the Christmas villages. We got Bailey and Madison light up toys for $1 and $2, which would have been a minimum of $5 in MA. And we got candy for Jordan, $1.50 UT ($6 MA), and Taylor wanted nothing. We did get cookies and Hot Cocoa, which was $1 each. Depending on where you are in MA it would be the same or less expensive. Seeing the lights was free, and they had live music for free as well. So total we spent, $14.50. About the same as if we went to Bright Nights in Springfield, without getting hot cocoa, cookies or souvenirs. (I have loving how the dollar stretches out here! It feels like I can do more as a family, without feeling like we have to cut back on other things)

January- The month has just started, but it feels like we have yet to stop! During the kids vacation, December thru January, I was working 8-10hr a day 6 days a week. So J got to be home and spend time with the kids. And it was no fun for me. I am back to volunteering, but now it is only 3 days a week! Whew!

We are getting another dog. He is a Cocker Spaniel, all black, just a tiny bit of brown on his paws. I'm sure one of his parents had black & tan in him. He was kept in a garage for the 1st year of his life. And he is another great dog, who's owner is moving so can't keep him. It's like his story mirror's Lady's. His name is Hem. I think we'll call him Hemi for short. We are going to DNA test him, if all goes well and his DNA is good we'll get his papers and breed him with Lady in the spring.

Jordan's birthday is this month. We are going to have pizza and cake at the house, then head over to the Nickelcade. It's an arcade that takes nickels! (Guess you could have guessed that on your own!) You pay $2 (or less) to get in, then trade your dollars for nickels and then go crazy! We spend hours there when we go. We took the kids once and J and I went once for a date night! It's so much fun because the have all the games from when I was a kid, some from when J was a kid, and some even older!

I am going to have to get some pictures posted. Some from the nickelcade and some from the Christmas Village. I don't have any of the Nickelcade so i guess we are going to have to make a trip! ;)

Stuff

2012-01-04T00:16:00.002-05:00

Taylor walked Mickey at the Pirate festival. She helped earn money for the rescue animals.

J's parents came to visit. That is Willard Bay behind them, which is a bay in the Great Salt Lake

Bailey facing down Captain Jack Sparrow of Utah

Our new dog Sadie

She is AKA Poppet

A rescue Kitten horse racing.

Iz in ur regiztrah steelins ur monies

Quiet in the library you brats!

Wise old Sadie

Jordan being walked on Blondie by Crystal

Bailey on Mickey

Madison on Star

Temple Square At Christmas

2012-01-03T23:13:00.000-05:00

We went to Salt lake to see the lights. And here are a few more pictures of that trip.

These book stores are everywhere. But this one has a cool display!

There are Seagulls are at the top of this spire. Do you know why? If not, research it! It's a cool story!

Millions of lights on every tree

From left to right- Brandon, Becky, Taylor, Bailey, Madison, Jason, Karley, Kevin and Brenda
Jordan was taking the picture.

Madison saving bailey's life - Hancock Style.

The hills above Ogden

Taylor loving her picture taken. Brandon in the back ground and my neck.

Brandon- appears to be making a Zoolander pose.

Really cool the way this picture of the temple came out!

The organ. It was made in Boston and sent to Salt lake.

Why I am so busy?!? I'll tell ya!

2011-12-27T11:04:00.000-05:00

"What happened to your blog?!?" says Ericka. I respond, "It's there, I just haven't updated it. I'm very busy."
So this is why I am so very busy, that I can't email, write, blog or go on fb for 5 seconds.

I volunteer at the Pack N Pounce Animal Rescue These are some of the pets we are adopting out or have adopted out.

Paisley- renamed Gizmo

Paisley is a "pure-bred" AKC Registared Beagle. NOT! When she came into the rescue we threw her papers away because they are worthless. She is not a beagle, well maybe 1/16th Beagle. She was from a good home, but the owners were having trouble potty training her. She got adopted and the new family had the same problem. So she is back in the rescue for potty training, but will go home to her new family soon. She has been renamed Gizmo.

Popper- still needs a home

Popper is a very sad story. He is a Chihhuahua-Italian Grey Hound mix. That explains the large chest. You can see some blad spots on him, especially his tail. Popper was owner by a Meth addict, who lived in a Meth lab, his home, and regularly tortured him. He was burnt all over his body, especially his ears and tail. He ate poop and didn't know how to use the doggy toilet(dirt outside). His ears were crumpled up from the burns, but have unfolded. It was expected that his ears would need to be cut off, but they, and he, has recovered better than expected. He is now ready for adoption after 1 year of recovery! But he will never grow all his hair back.

Curly- back with original owner

Curley's owner felt that he couldn't spent enough time with him. He was concerned that Curly wasn't getting the attention he needed. So he was brought into the rescue. After about a week, Curley's owner called us back in tears, he said that he kept having dreams of Curley coming to him and telling him, "I want to come Home!" The owner could not stand one more day without his little buddy and pick hm up right away! Curley had never been happier!

No name- stray with Kittens. Kittens are in homes, she is too feral(wild) so is learning to be a barn cat.

This kitty was found under a bush with a litter of kittens. The woman who found them tried to feed and care for them, but the mother just kept loosing weight. So she caught them and brought them into the rescue. She paid for all their spays/nueterings too! We were able to separate mom from the kittens and feed her some his high calorie kitten food. She had been starving herself to ensure that her kittens would have enough to eat! What a wonderful mother! She is now spayed and will not need to burden herself and body anymore.

No Name- Adopted and given as a Christmas Present to a 8yr old

I wanted this bunny so bad! She is so cute! But She went to a wonderful home! A little girl who wants to be a vet someday adopted her. We don't have much information on her, other than her owner could not care for her anymore. Some towns, in Utah, consider rabbits to be farm animals, or pests. So if you live in a city, you can not own rabbits as pets. We get most of our rabbits because of this law. But occasionally, we get some that are ill and the owners can't afford the vet bill.

Snickers- (closes his eyes- everytime- for pictures)- indoor-outdoor cat- not adopted

Snickers is a great cat! He got dropped off at the rescue as a kitten, no note. So we know nothing about him other than he's a great cat! He's already nuetered- we try to get that done early! And so he just hangs around until adoptions. He usually jumps into the car because he likes going to adoptions. We just haven't found his Forever Home yet.

So I work with the animals, sometimes socializing, sometimes feeding, sometimes giving love, and lots of times working the Thrift Store! To pay for all the food and vet bills, we run a thrift store. We take donations just like Salvation Army, and sell the goods at a really good price. Cheaper than the other thrift stores. The idea is to help the people and the animals. Everyday we take in new animals. We have taken in about 205 this year, and counting. And have adopted out over 180. Our goal is to reach 200 adoptions by December 31st.

But I have written a lot here, and it's now 9am, time to shower and get to work!

Visiting Temple Square at Christmas

2011-12-27T10:31:00.000-05:00

Jordan took the camera from me while we were still in the parking lot. So all these beautiful pictures are her's. We went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. It was our 6, plus Brenda and her son Kevin, and at the time, his girlfriend Karley, I really like the name Karley! I hope they name their kids all K names, that would be fun! And Brandon was there too. Brandon was visiting from Louisiana, where he is currently stationed. Brandon will be shipped off to Korea soon. So it was nice to see him before we won't be able to see him for a long time.

Salt Lake Temple

Kevin and Karley, they just got engaged Christmas Eve. I wonder if they will name all their kids K names?

The Lights at Temple Square

It's an amazing light display! Very beautiful

It look slike every tiny branch is covered in lights

The Big Move II

2011-12-19T00:06:00.000-05:00

We stopped at a few places while traveling across the country. And today I'm posting pictures, because I don't have time to write out our adventure!

Madison on the moon

Nauvoo from the rear

Nauvoo from the front

Abe's head in Wyoming

A memorial to Abraham Lincoln for doing something with the highway out in Wyoming.

A water fountain that makes a bubble

Salt Lake Temple

The Cristus

Huge organ made in Boston, of all places!

Pretty Window

A really cool wall behind us! This wall represents the many generations and nations of people who do genealogy. Or something like that.

Salt Lake City from above

And the other side of Salt Lake City

Taylor on Mars

Bailey on the Moon

Taylor on the Moon

Bailey on Mars

Jordan on Mars

Madison on Mars

Jordan on the moon

The Big Move

2011-12-16T23:44:00.000-05:00

So we moved back in August. We moved from Massachusetts to Utah. It was huge. We have all had quite a few adjustments to get used to. The actual move wasn't bad. We had a fun time peering out the car windows at the different parts of our beautiful country. The flattest lands were like a giant snow globe. It was as if we were on a tiny little road running down the middle of grain fields. The sky was so blue! And the clouds so white! It was amazing! When we hit the Rockies it was night, so we missed the view there. We did get to drive down the side of the mountain in pitch black! Even with the other headlights, it was like ink- think and dark. Very scary.

Once we got here we had a couple of people come and help us move in. We had really hoped that more people could have come to introduce themselves, or some of our missionary friends shown up. But it's ok. One Missionary did show! Elder Davies, who is something like a 2nd cousin by marriage, of mine. Of the group of women that did make it, they mostly just talked to each other while I and one other sister unpacked the truck. It kinda sucked.

One of the many things that I appreciate out here are the sunsets. AMAZINGLY beautiful! I love going out into my yard watching the sunset.

Jason got called to the same calling he had in MA, Elders Quorum 1st Counselor. And I got a calling teaching the 5 & 6 year olds. I was hoping that my primary days were over, but obviously these sweet children have something to teach me. (I think, humility, but who know's for sure.)

So that's all I have time for tonight. I will post more about what we have been doing since we settled in shortly. I'm very busy with the holidays, so please don't hold your breathe! But do feel free to text me and remind me to blog!

The line between the hills and the blackness below is the Great Salt Lake

Day 17 & 18

2011-08-06T17:58:00.000-04:00

Technology we had laying about.

My favorite shoes.
Calf skin!
Bought on sale.
I paid $35 for these $150 shoes.

Day 13 & 14

2011-08-06T17:54:00.000-04:00

Me with 13 things.

The 13 things I chose were things that I love, use, or are affecting me right now. I have my (1)Dragonology book. Yes, I love Dragons! And my (2)Twilight book, not only do I love reading, I love the Twilight Series and purchase every book Stephanie Meyer publishes. I drink lots of (3)Coke, not a good thing. I have my (4)dog and her (5)collar. There is a jar of (6)Mango Chutney from Harry & David's, Yummy! And my (7)lens, as I could not include my camera. Yummy smelling (8)hand soap. 40% Deet (9)bug spray, I don't want West Nile, or any other buggy disease! A (10)balloon weight, because I love to party! My (11)lens cap from the lens I'm using to shoot this image. The white blob at the bottom of the Dragonology book is a (12)wash cloth, because I feel like I am constantly cleaning! And finally (13)a box, because we are moving!

Eyes. Taylor's in fact. They used to be blue, now they are green, gray and hazel.

Day 7 & 8

2011-08-05T00:28:00.001-04:00

Something That Makes You Smile

Horses make me smile and so does J. That's why I married him!

A Bad Habit - This is very hard. Trying to think of a bad habit to show. Something that my model won't be embarrassed to have posted all over the internet. Taylor thought of the idea to chew her finger nail while picking her nose. But for some reason she won't pose for me! So I had to find another bad habit.

This looked better in B&W, even though it's not B&W day.
A bad habit that so many of us have- buying shoes!

Day 5 & 6 Photo Challenge

2011-07-31T21:59:00.001-04:00

I'm not so good finding the time to post the images for the photo challenge. I am getting the pictures taken though.

Something from a High Angle

Something from a Low Angle

Day 3 & 4 of the 30 day Photo Challange

2011-07-27T12:30:00.001-04:00

Something Green and Clouds was the challenge today. I took many, but decided to go with these. I like the texture of the moss on the wood, but I like the toy on the book, too. And I light the light blue sky and the light coming through the clouds.

I have to admit I could have tried a little harder and it would have been easier to pick a picture. But I had a guy coming out to look at the boiler to see if he was interested in buying it. So I had only a few minutes. Maybe I won't make that collage, if I don't start taking better pictures!

Day 1 & 2 of the Photo Challange

2011-07-26T19:45:00.003-04:00

I am smiling a little. I just don't have an expressive face. It's hard to take a self portrait with my camera!

I Rocked those stains!

Photo Challange

2011-07-26T19:22:00.000-04:00

So I am taking the Photo Challenge that my dear friend Tammy found at pinterest.com. Here are the challenges.

30 Day Photography Challenge

Day 1 Self Portrait
Day 2 What You Wore Today
Day 3 Clouds
Day 4 Something Green
Day 5 From A High Angle
Day 6 From A Low Angle
Day 7 Something That Makes You Smile
Day 8 A Bad Habit
Day 9 Someone You Love
Day 10 Childhood Memory
Day 11 Something Blue
Day 12 Sunset
Day 13 Yourself With 13 Things
Day 14 Eyes
Day 15 Silhouette
Day 16 Long Exposure
Day 17 Technology
Day 18 Your Shoes
Day 19 Something Orange
Day 20 Bokeh - It means blurred background.
Day 21 Faceless Self Portrait
Day 22 Hands
Day 23 Sunflare
Day 24 Animal
Day 25 Something Pink
Day 26 Close up
Day 27 From a distance
Day 28 Flowers
Day 29 Black and White
Day 30 Self Portrait

I am going to have to double up. I want to have this done by the time we leave for Utah. Which is in 24 days. That will give me time to pack and get pictures taken of the area before we move. Then I hope to put them all together to make a collage.

The humidity is killing me! And, one less tooth!

2011-07-18T17:31:00.000-04:00

I just want to let anyone who might wonder why we are moving to Utah. It's the humidity. We have lived here in MA for 15 years and for 15 years I have prayed every summer to leave. I hate the humidity. I don't like the cold and snow. Spring is too muddy and wet, and two weeks of fall just isn't enough for me. So all of these other things that have facilitated our move are only happening because the humidity was killing me. I have become allergic to latex and grapes because of the humidity. And I can't drink apple juice anymore either, all because of the humidity. My house is a mess right now, not because we have suitcases everywhere from camping, but from the humidity.

Also, I got a wisdom pulled today. It happened so fast! It was like a few seconds and bam! It was out! The last time I had a wisdom out it had taken a half hour of digging the broken tooth out of my gums! I was so happy! But unhappy because that was a lot of pain killer for such a short time! I was numb from my jaw bone to my temple, from my ear to my nose! And when I say nose, I mean my entire nose was numb, and my eye ball was numb, and my ear drum was numb! I now know that I can still see, hear and smell when my senses are numb. Not taste or touch though, isn't that funny?

Also, all our puppies are sold a long time ago. They are almost fully grown and their families love them very much! We won't be having any more puppies, however.

And just a warning for those out there who were wondering: (Found at the end of a news article)
Parents: be sure to add heroin to your list of "things not to give the kids," along with PCP,meth, nose-eating cocaine, and limb-eating crocodile. And every other illegal drug, really.
Just go with ice cream.

Opportunity to Serve

2011-06-22T22:27:00.001-04:00

The opportunity we have had to serve in Springfield has really helped my family! At first, the younger three, were not at all interested in all the "work!" But they have come around. They definitely don't have the patience or strength to work for 3-4 hours like J and I do, but they do an awesome job every time!

I'm really grateful for the people who are letting us come into their yards and help out. I have wanted to do something for our community since we moved in. I have tried with the PTO and other school stuff, and it was just so unfulfilling! The people were either not interested in receiving help or not interested in new idea's. So I went to the library and they don't have a volunteer program for adults, just teens. I also tried the YMCA, they are all paid positions. Where the heck was I going to volunteer! I did what I could with my photography, mostly teaching classes at church, because they were the only ones who seemed interested in my talent.

But now, after a tragedy, I have something I can do! It's not my favorite thing to do, cleaning up trees, smashed garages, roofing tiles, gutters, glass, bird houses- one occupant I found didn't make it through, etc. But I tell you what! I have never been able to pick up such huge pieces of wood! These logs are various sizes, but I find that I always have the energy to lift and carry them as far as I need to go. And they aren't nearly as heavy as I think they should be. I feel like there are Angels helping with the clean up. Every time I lift a branch over my head to throw it on a pile that is 5ft high, or carry a log 30ft to the street, I know that I'm not doing it alone. There is no way I am physically capable of doing that.

And the kids are really enjoying helping. They love to play with the other children and compete to see who can carry more branches. They love seeing the home owners smiling, grateful faces. Even the dog behaved when we brought her. Normally, she'd bark at new people, but the time we took her, she was quiet and sat on the lap of the homeowners son who is in a wheel chair, making that boy feel special.

A true family effort!

Alas, there is still more to do. But we will enjoy it! How could we not!?!

Auction

2011-06-22T22:09:00.000-04:00

We have tried everything we can do, but we are stuck. The house sells tomorrow. Some unlucky person is going to buy this house and is going to have to deal with us living in it for a short time. As well as all the problems with this monster. I hope to move sooner than later, but it is what it is. Part of me wants to cry and another part want to sing.

Jason spoke to a job recruiter and the recruiter mentioned that there are plenty of jobs available in Utah. And that he suspects Jason should actually make MORE than what we do now! It's shocked and hopeful, but I won't get my expectations up, that's when I seem to get cocky and the Lord humbles me soon after.

We are putting all our faith and trust in God. He is the one that is going to make this work. I am so afraid of moving out there! I know all my Utah friends and family might not like this, but these are MY feelings! And you have a right to be offended. I'm sorry if you are though. I HATE the idea of moving to Utah! I want my kids to experience so many things, and not one of them is being saturated in "Mormon culture." I know there are good people everywhere, I just hope my kids are able to find them. I HATE having to trust other people's kids to behave! I know my kids friends here are good kids, I know the parents are good. But out there....unknown! My fear is that 'they' might just putting on airs to pretend that 'they' are "good Mormons" and then I let me guard down and BAM! I found out I shouldn't have been so trusting! Please, don't think I think I'm perfect, or even a "good Mormon", I try my best, and that's what matters. So maybe I have no reason to worry.....

My fear is more based in the teenagers, not the adults. Teenagers who party on Saturday night and in white shirts on Sunday morning. What if my kids get into that crowd, the "No one will know", "It's not hurting anyone", "We all do it" crowd. Do I trust my kids, not really. Do I trust other people's kids, not on my life! I know kids are going to try things, do things, need to cut apron strings. But out here, in MA, we have a moral/religious connection that helps bind us. When everyone else has the same moral/religious inclinations, then I'm afraid it will be that much easier for the kids to let those binds loosen.

Maybe I worry too much. But, I don't think so. My goal is to maintain my strong family connections. With in our immediate, but also with the extended family. Whether we do so through vacations, phone calls, or Skype. I think if I keep my family strong then we will do fine. But I relax on family stuff, then they will suffer.

Struggling...

2011-06-10T08:47:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you find yourself in a tough situation and you just don't know what the best thing to do is. That is, obviously, where I find myself.

I have my family that I have to look out for, care for, watch over and pray for. And I have Ben, too. Many tell me that I was a fool for taking him in, a fool for letting him stay so long and a fool for accepting him as family. And in some ways, I agree. But in most ways, I disagree. Our experiences are what make us stronger, struggles make us into better people, learning empathy is mandatory for a Christ like life.

It appears that Ben didn't learn much from living with us. Definitely not empathy. But he did teach us a lot, which I am grateful for. The kids have said, "If I start to act like Ben, hit me and tell me, and I'll stop!" I don't think there will be any hitting going on, but I think Taylor has learned to be less selfish because of his stay. The other kids are younger, so they probably won't remember how difficult it was living with him.

In a way, I feel like I failed him. I feel like that if I were a better person I would have been able to teach him empathy. Teach him to understand that his thoughts and feelings aren't the only one's that count. But then there is that part of me that says, "It's his choice to learn it! There is nothing more you can do than to tell him and show him." And I know that's right, and true. But do I feel any better? Sometimes.

And we have this move. I had hoped to move in July, but it looks like it's going to be August at the soonest. Maybe later. I don't want to homeschool anymore. Taylor has made it too difficult. She is lazy about school work and would rather clean the house than read a text book. I was the same way as a teenager, so I comprehend. But I was in public school, and didn't have a choice. Keeping her from getting an education is only going to hinder her, and I'm not going to let that happen. But put her back into Palmer High School? Where she will have to walk through pot smoke to get to classes? And deal with teachers who don't care? Or teachers who judge a student by their athleticism or personality? I don't want that either!

If your gay, it's ok. If your Emo, that's fine too. But if you are shy and quiet, then there is something wrong with you and you fail math. IT MAKES NO SENSE!!!

Ben has a blog, I think it's private because I had to log onto it. But in the blog he talks about how he's tired of "the BS" he had to go through to go on a mission. The BS he refers to is meeting with the Bishop and the Bishop trying to get him to understand somethings. But he refuses to humble himself and listen to the spirit or the Bishop. I told him to read his Patriarchal Blessing, and he refuses to do that too. But I know why, he knows that he will have to humble himself if he does.

So why do we fight so hard against the Truth! I think I did the same thing as a teen. I knew the church to be true, I always have, yet I still chose to make mistakes. I should have been like Nephi, but I was more like Laman and Lemuel.

I know what Ben is doing is wrong, the choices he is making is wrong. Yet, he won't listen to me. If I told him, no matter how I said it, he'd take it as criticism. He'd feel like I was attacking him, or saying he's a bad person. I know that many kids feel that way, and low self esteem is an issue of Ben's, which makes every comment, no matter how it's said, a personal attack. Which is why I think he won't listen to the Bishop. The Bishop didn't praise him for being the best person in the world, so that means the Bishop was being mean to him. Yes, this is all overly simplified, but still.

With all that is going on in this world, this is what I'm struggling with. Now that's it's all written down it feels so petty and inconsequential. I could have spent this time helping someone, but instead I'm sitting here typing. Remembering to keep your eye on the Prize is difficult. Especially, if it is an eternal one[prize].

City Living

2011-05-06T00:23:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, Jason and I went to Gail's house to then head over to a friend of hers. Her friend had wood for Gail to use to warm her house in the winter. On the way home we saw the police had cordoned off an entire parking lot. In the parking lot I saw spent gun shells with those little markers that you see in CSI showing the places where the bullets had landed. People were crying, hugging. There was much distress. I could tell, from in my heart, that someone had died. A few days later I heard on the news that two people were murdered and there was a shoot out with the police. Two officers had been shot, but both survived because of their bullet proof vests. The murderer was an escapee from a jail somewhere in the state.

Today I found out that Taylor's nest friend Melany has a friend missing. She disappeared after school and has been gone for two days. The police have been notified, but I haven't heard an Amber Alert. I don't know why. Maybe because of all the news with Osama bin Laden.

My heart ached when I saw the pain on those peoples faces in the aftermath of the shoot out. And it pains me more now, knowing that there is a possibility that this girl could be the next Molly Bish, or pushed into prostitution and drugs. She is only 14 or 15 years old. She's just a tiny thing of 5'2" and weighted only about 100lbs.

Oh, how I wish for the Second Coming of Christ. I wish the evil would be burned from me and this planet. So these evils will be put to and end. If I am not worthy, then I wish to be burned and purified in Christ.

I don't understand how people can do to each other what they do. I was reading online about the images of bin Laden, release them, don't release them. No one know's what is best to do. They did release at least two photo's. This particular website posted images of the twin towers, a man falling from them and more, as well as images of a solider who had been captured, strung up on a bridge and burned. It also showed a beheaded American worker who had been kidnapped. The evil done in the name of God is sickening. But just as horrible is the evil done in no one's name at all. The evil done for the gain of one person.

Where is the news story of this little girl? Why is no one letting the public know that we need to be looking for her!

Something wrong! And Birthday Par-Tay!

2011-04-28T12:44:00.001-04:00

There is something wrong with my camera. Insert very sad face here Taylor turned it off while I was uploading images to the computer. Now it won't work! So no pictures at the moment.
EDIT: I got it working! Prays are answered!

Taylor's Birthday cake! Poor cake, My hands were hot the oven was heating the house up and the frosting was on the only available counter space which was next to the dishwasher which was letting off steam! It's amazing it turned out so good! And it was really tastey too!

Taylor had her 15th b-day party. Some of the girls she wanted to invite she couldn't get a hold of. All this technology and still we have trouble get in touch with people! Those who came had a great time. They bounced on the trampoline, we sang camp songs around a bonfire, ate S'mores and pizza and more. Taylor got WONDERFUL gifts! She got an Owl City necklace, an owl blanket (handmade!), an Invader Zim shirt and game boy games, and MONEY! She asked for clothes, so I just gave her cash. It's easier for her to try on clothes and find what she likes on her own or with friends. The problem with gift certificates is that you are stuck at that one store. And if you don't find anything modest or that has the right fit for your body then you are stuck with a gift card you can't use.

Those Crazy Kids!

Bridget, Taylor, Melany and Kara

The very next day Jordan got the rest of her birthday gift. Jason and I took her and Shannon, her BFF(Best Friend Forever), to the Anime Boston Convention. She and Shannon loved it! They got their pictures taken with other's who were dressed as the same characters. Plus, I got to take many, many pictures! Jason wasn't really excited, he's not an anime person. But he put up with it because the girls LOVED it! Jordan paid an artist to do a Chibi of her. It's a mini-me, a squat cartoon picture in the pose you want. The artist takes a picture of you with her celphone and then draws and inks you picture. If my camera were working you'd see how cute the Chibi turned out!

You can see Jordan's likeness in the image she has drawn

Unlike another girl Jordan posed with, this girl is dressed as Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket. Same as Jordan, but Jordan's skirt is longer! And we didn't have the right shoes. You can kinda see that she had knee high black socks on.

We were tired and had to wait for Jordan's Chibi

This is Jordan's artist, the best at the show in my humble opinion

Puppies at 6 weeks, Ready for new Homes!

2011-03-29T08:43:00.000-04:00

Taho's is a Black and Tan, you can see the tan on his cheeks.
Taho is still looking for a home!

Vader chillin'
He's such a chill little dog!

Taho is so calm and relaxed. He is happy to be held for pictures!
He loves kisses and sleeping with his head under the couch and his feet sticking out!

Vader's beautiful brown eyes. Gorgeous color!
Vader has a prospective buyer!

Taho and his gorgeous brown eyes!
Taho is still looking for the right home.

5 weeks

2011-03-23T15:39:00.000-04:00

Vader dragging a Cheetah

I love his baby blue eyes! I hope they stay that way!

Snips and snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Wren chewing on my pants

Clover taking a nap

Vader keeping my toes warm

Taho napping

Cuddling

These two are fighting over who gets to chew the Cheetah

The puppies like to climb under the couch and nap!

Clover has a good mouthful of cheetah face!

"Can you stop taking pictures of me now?"

Ears are tastey!

The puppies are now learning how to jump!

Lady is such a good mom! She never gets upset when the puppies try to eat her face, lips or ears. She loves to play with them! She is so big compared to them, but she is very gentle and they love to play with Mom!

So I will be taking deposit's for anyone interested in Taho or Vader. I have a perspective buyer for Vader, so if you are interested you must contact me quickly. The deposit is only 50% down.
Remember, these are AKC registered dogs, with Champion Lines! The parents are all healthy dogs and so are these puppies!

Two weeks

2011-03-15T22:44:00.000-04:00

The puppies started on real food today! I give all my pets Iams, it's a good quality food, and is made by a toothpaste company, so they spray all their dog and cat food with toothpaste which gives the pets a little brush every time they eat. So today the puppies got puppy food with a ton of water added to soften it up. It took longer to soften than I realized. I am not going to make the puppies go cold turkey from their mother. They will nurse and have food available as well. From everything I have read it helps make the puppies into better, more social, less skitsh dogs.

There would be pictures but Blogspot wants me to purchase additional space. I deleted some photo's from the first year of my blog, but they still aren't happy with that. Email me, comment here or go to my facebook page to see pictures.

Puppies played together!

2011-03-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

Oreo Cookie!

The puppies played with each other for the very first time! I was peeking in after the puppies were finished eating and one, Clover, wasn't sleeping, it appeared as if she was trying to get comfortable. But then all of a sudden she bit Vaders paw. He didn't wake up, barely stirred, but she continued to bite his paw and step on him in an effort to play! She eventually woke him up and the two played, shakily, as they aren't sure on their feet yet. They ended up waking up the other two and the four played together.

Here are some updated pictures from yesterday. It's amazing how big they are!

Wren walking and sniffing. I always think of the Pokey Little Puppy when I see her.

Anime Puppy!

Wren as a loldog

Clover walking.

Clover sat down and practiced her "woof." It came out more like an "oaf."

This is Taho, always sleepy!

Such an adorable face!

Taho's got a sweet face!

Vader is our big boy!

A quick cuddle before they start off again!

2011-03-09T14:42:00.002-05:00

Hey all. I am Jordan, second child of the Cousineau family. My family is moving to Clearfield Utah. I have 2 feelings. Happy and sad. Happy because......

Better schools
more mormons
better house
family within walking distance
i can start over

Sad because......

i must leave my friends
i will have to re-adapt
I WILL MISS EVERYTHING!!!!!

Also I request permission for my nickname to be "Jone." I wrote it on my homework and I liked it. I know its corny to nickname your self but..................

srry its short but i'm at the library so....

BYEZ!!!

Boo wrote this

2011-03-02T21:54:00.002-05:00

Fall Asleep, Fall Asleep

Time to close

those tiny, sweet little eyes

and be rocked away to sleep

as you sail the ocean blue

you sail away

on a pirate ship

or await your knight in shining armor

as you drift away

to sleep

Travel far and travel wide

but tomorrow open wide

to see your family's loving eyes

and share your sunshine

Lyrics to an unknown song that my 10 year old wrote.

Puppy Photo's

2011-03-01T02:27:00.000-05:00

The puppies are growing so fast! Pictures make it very difficult to tell how much they have grown, but seeing them everyday makes me wonder how they do it!

They opened their eyes today, not totally open, but you can see their eyes. Right now they are blueish, they will darken shortly.

The picture I'm posting are over a few days, not just today. You can see how the first pictures their eyes aren't open yet.

The Silver has her eyes open the most and because of her coloring you can see her eyes the best.

We have given the puppies temporary names. It makes it easier than trying to call them Puppy 1, 2, 3 or 4.

This guy we call Vader. When he was born his ears were forward, so he looked a little like Darth Vader.

This little girl we call Clover. Because she is small and unassuming.

This is Taho. We just like the name and it seems to fit him well.

And we call this little girl Wren. Because she chirps like a bird.

She is sleeping with her mouth open!

Waving, "Hi!"

Winking! What a freshy! LOL

Valentine's Puppies!

2011-02-16T14:38:00.000-05:00

Lady had her puppies on February 15th! It was her first pregnancy so it was difficult for her and took many hours, but all went well. Mom is doing great and though we had one terrible loss, we have 4 beautiful healthy and thriving puppies.

Two puppies are spoken for already, but two are available for sale, contact me, if you are interested, at bcousi@gmail.com. We will know which are available as soon as the two that are spoken for are chosen. Most likely it will be two of the black ones.

FYI: Lady is a pure bred, American Cocker Spaniel, registered with the AKC as Camic's Lovely Lady and the father Ronnie is also a pure bred, registered with the AKC. They both have Champion lines.

Here you can see the Silver (99% sure this puppy will be "spoken for")

They grow so fast!

Their tiny faces are so cute! In a few short weeks they will be ready for new home!

You can see that they are about the same size, except for the male on the left. Who is only about 1/4" larger.

Cuddled up and sleeping

Their pink noses will change to be like their mothers

Some states allow puppies to be sold as young as 6 weeks, other's 8 and still other's 10 weeks.
Massachusetts, where we live, is 6 weeks.

Look how tiny that paw is!

Their eyes and ears are closed when they are born, they will slowly open as they develop.
This one looks most like her mom.

Counting Down

2011-02-12T19:04:00.000-05:00

With 5 days to go Lady is showing signs of impending labor. She hasn't eaten all day except a few snacks. This is a sign of the first stage of labor. Other signs are panting, pacing, and maybe vomiting. Nesting behavior begins at this point too. We are going to take her temp again and see how it is. Earlier today it was 99.7, remember her normal temp was 100.2. So it's not a big drop.

Also, we hope to have yarn or string to make the puppies, male and female, as well as who was born when, so we know who is growing and who needs a little extra.

I really am hoping that they don't come until Sunday night/ Monday morning. That way we have Valentine Puppies!

Wish us luck!
And tell your friends, they are available for sale!!

Puppies Due Any Day

2011-02-10T16:22:00.000-05:00

Most of you know we are having puppies! Lady is a pure bred American Cocker Spaniel with champion lines, she is AKC registered as well. The father has the same spec's. The puppies will also be registered and ready for sale in a few weeks after birth. I hope to have them all sold by the time they are 12 weeks old, starting the sales at around 8 weeks old.

Somethings you might not know:
When a dog is about to go into labor her temperature drops about 1 degree.
When a horse is about to go into labor her temperature increases.
The hair on a mom dog's belly will fall out, making it easier for the puppies to eat.
Puppy bones are only cartilage, they will then harden allowing x-rays to be taken only 1 week before the birth.
Most dogs, large, medium or small, delivery after 63 days of pregnancy.

One week ago we took Lady's temperature and got 100.2F Today we took it and it was 99.8. So she probably isn't ready yet. A few more days and a few more percentages of a degree and she'll be pushing out puppies! We are so excited! The puppies toe are so tiny! I have a picture of Lady's preggy belly, and I'll have more of the puppies, once they get here.

Taken Jan 31st

Taken February 4th

Taken Feb 10

Planning A Vacation

2011-01-31T21:45:00.000-05:00

Even though I am about 99% sure that this year we won't be going away for a vacation I really do enjoy making plans for vacations. I'd love a job that was like a party planner, but a vacation planner. Where I can book the hotel and flights, but also give people a schedule of what to do when and back-up plans for those times that you are running late, want to stay late because you are having so much fun, or are bored and are ready to move on.

Whenever we have gone on vacation we have never had a moment of, "Well, what do you want to do now?" I always have ideas and plans and directions to get there! And I always plan for unintended stops. You know those times where you are on your way and you see something really cool that you want to do, but you are unsure whether you are going to have time? Well, I plan for those. We always end up early enough to stop at a cave, or touristy spot. I think these things should be planned into everyone's trip. Kids can last only so long before they need a break, and a break is good fro the adults too.

When traveling by car we try to leave very early in the morning. It's still dark outside when the tuck the kids into the car. They stay away for a little while, but then fall asleep and the interruption keeps them sleeping a little bit longer than normal. That way we can make our breakfast stop at 8am or 9am instead of 6am or 7am. And that makes it so the kids won't become cranky with hunger 2 hours later. You can plan for only one snack between lunch instead of two.

I recommend the first stop be at lunch time, eat breakfast in the car, as much as you can. Breakfast isn't the time to get the kids up and going. You want them to stay groggy as long as possible, so keep them in those car seats! By lunch time, I found that the kids would have lost their minds if they didn't get some exercise. Here is when we planned an "unplanned" stop. We drove until we found something interesting. Highways always have signs for their local attractions. Some of the things we have stopped at are caves, road-side stands, theme parks, and mining shop. Our favorite is definitely caves.

Caves are great because they are not only educational, but they get the kids moving! Usually the cost is low and after lunch the kids can take a walk through the caves, which vary in length, but we have found that most tours last about one hour. That's a good walk for little ones. Don't be tempted to bring the stroller! The more exercise the longer the kids will handle the second stretch of your car ride!

We have a rule, as a husband and wife. We won't go anywhere if we aren't going to spend twice the time it takes to get there. For example: It takes one hour to get to a friends house, and one hour for the return trip. We won't go unless we expect to spend four hours there. Got to make the trip worth the effort and gas you are putting into it. For the most part this is a good rule to follow with vacations as well. Who would want to spend only a day at Disney anyway.

Flying is a fast way to get to your destination, but I would prefer to drive in many situations. Just because of the fact that you can get out and walk around. The people in the plane don't appreciate you getting up and walking around with your children. Especially, if your getting up because of a dirty diaper or a case of the wiggles and screams. Driving does take more patience, but it can also be a lot of fun if you keep a positive attitude and make stops long enough to wear those kids out!

A great website for world travel with kids, or state-side travel, or just local travel is Trekaroo. Other parents who love to travel with their children rate places and means of travel, plus give advice and idea's for traveling with kids.

These are some places I have been thinking about since the snow started. Hawaii- Thank you Josh and Janel for putting those thoughts in my head. *wink* Florida, not necessarily Disney, and a desert mmmmm...warm!

More Snow

2011-01-31T20:50:00.001-05:00

For those of you who keep contact with us via this blog, I want to let you know that we have another storm coming. They are predicting 6-10 more inches and then on top of that an ice storm. Fun, fun, fun!

I hate winter!

Someone in Palmer did this in their yard.

Happy Birthday Jordan!

2011-01-31T15:39:00.000-05:00

Jordan turned 12 today! Yeah, she made it! It was a great day because her birthday gift arrived in the mail! She wanted a Cosplay Costume of Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket. Here she is!

Isn't she cute!?! We need to get her knee high socks, the one's she's wearing are Jason's so they aren't quite the right look. And we found the perfect shoes in our closet! Then we found that they were 2 sizes too small. So sad. So we will have to get her shoes and socks. But that's ok.

I have talked to Cindy Mulcahy and she has agreed to plan Bailey's Birthday party. We are going to have a Tea Party. The girls will dress up and have tea and sandwiches. It should be a blast! If anyone needs a party planner, let me know! Cindy does a great job and is reasonably priced. Comparing what I spent on Jordan's party and what Cindy will be charging, and she does everything, except clean the house and make the guest list, it will cost only $20 more. THAT is well worth it!

Cindy is doing the main work for Taylor's sweet 16, and we have attended a few parties she has planned and the kids always have a blast and they are never bored. I'll blog more about Taylor's sweet 16 when we get closer to the date.

What's Another Few Inches

2011-01-27T22:57:00.001-05:00

Jason standing next to the snow bank in our front yard. Yes, it is over his head.

After working all night and not sleeping well the day before, Jason went out and shoveled the driveway. Which is something I'd usually help out with, but I was dead to the world this morning exhausted from life, lack of sleep from getting up at 6am, not matter what. Unfortunately, my body is now in a routine, so even on Saturday and Sunday I'm up at 6am. I hate early morning, but the schools refuse to consider a later start time. J did ask Ben to come out and help, but from what J said he didn't do much. It took him over 15 minutes just to get outside, then he moved his car and got that brushed off before he started to help with the driveway. Then he stopped to talk on the phone. I'm not sure why getting the car done was so important, because he didn't go anywhere. But I guess it's just a typical teenager thing to think of your self and your stuff, before thinking about the fact that J had just worked all night long.

So J didn't get to sleep well today. I took the kids out of the house to help keep it quiet, but being amped up from the shoveling/exercise made it difficult. He's going to be very tired tomorrow! Worst part is...we have plans to get together with friends, and then on Saturday we are going to the Temple for 7am. Which means we have to be out of the house by 5:00am. This is much easier on me, as I'm used to getting up early and it's only one hour. But for J this will be difficult. Because Friday morning when he gets home he's going to need to sleep as much as possible. Then getting together with friends will be fun and will make him really awake, then we have to come home and try to sleep. I'll probably have no problem, but I worry that J will.

I think I'll drive tomorrow!

The good thing about going to the temple early, is getting home early. So he can sleep all day Saturday and be awake and ready for Sunday. So even though today through Saturday will be hard, at least Sunday will be good.

I have to add to this! Our neighbors are great! Our next door neighbor snowblowed out our mailbox, then the plow came and a different neighbor did it again! Saving J's back, a lot of work and time! Thank you so much to Bill and Kyle!

2011-01-26T11:22:00.005-05:00

Snow, Snow How I Hate The Snow!

2011-01-25T12:19:00.000-05:00

Bailey and Madison are playing in the snow. They were so excited to have such a big storm! It dropped about 2 1/2 feet. Our snowblower isn't working, so we had to be outside with shovels, that adds to the height of the snow banks because it concentrates the snow from the drive way to the sides of the driveway. Plus, the wind and the neighbors blowers add a small amount to the top. So the snow was 2 1/2' but the banks were almost 6'! The kids would take their sleds and try to go down the banks, but they kept ending up in the driveway. The banks slopped more towards the driveway than the yard!

We are cheating a little (a lot) in this picture. Underneath this snow bank is the mound of dirt from the driveway. When the workers put in our well the dirt wouldn't go back in. A few weeks later it froze over and so the ground never had a chance to settle. So we are stuck with a much dirt, and now snow, mound until Spring. We hope.

This is storm three in as many weeks. The first storm dropped 2 1/2feet, the second 5" and now another 3" today. Tomorrow we are supposed to have another storm!
The driving conditions are terrible! I drove Jordan and Kara (the neighbors daughter) to school, which normally takes 25 minutes. Today took 50. So I had drive Madison to school as well, and which normally takes 10 minutes, but took 30. Four of the school buses arrived at 9am and I passed another on the road 10 minutes later.

The streets hadn't been plowed at all! And the sand was from the previous storm! I don't think I went over 20 and I did that only on long straight aways. I'm also thinking our tires are going to need replacing, because there were times when I was sliding and other cars were fine. Just another thing that adds to the cost of living in New England.

I am seriously thinking of moving west.
Just looking at this picture makes me feel warm.

Jordan's12th Birthday Party

2011-01-22T07:46:00.001-05:00

I'm writing this the morning of the party, so I'll post pictures later.

One day you have a baby and everything they do it sweet and tended and special! Her first word, her first step, her first pair of glasses. her first hair cut. Every moment an achievement of growing up. And then one day they see themselves as all grown up. One day they are looking to you for approval in each step on their journey to adulthood and the next moment they are too mature for silly games, parents or siblings.

The changes at the tween stage in life are so fast! And so confusing! One moment Jordan is in a tickle fight, the next she is too cool and too mature for the color purple.

Some things that Jordan has decided are too mature for her are:
Purple, her new favorite color is blue- that's much more mature!
Siblings, they are oookkaayy, I guess, as long as my friends aren't around!
The Bus, all the cool kids get dropped off.
Playing outside, that's for babies! Like 11 year olds!
Cartoons, Anime is what big kids watch.

Jordan got a whole new makeover Friday. She got a hair cut and when we got home from the salon we got a call from the eye doctor letting us know her new glasses came in. She looks like a whole new girl! Very grown up and mature.

Contrasting

Taylor turned 12 and decided that she didn't want to get any older. So she agreed to be 11 again and has been getting younger every birthday since.
Jordan isn't 12 yet, but says anything an 11 year old would do it way to immature for her!

Everyone expects their children to have different personalities from the other. You expect younger kids to mature faster than the oldest sibling because the older sibling exposes them to more. What you don't expect is that influence to be minor, nonexistent or ignored!

On To The Party

For our party theme we chose a "Mystery" theme, or Clue theme like the game, but it's not exactly like clue, but similar. Let me make sense of my rambling.

We are going to play a life size clue game. The kids will run from room to room playing games and gathering clues. They only have to figure out who done it and with what. We took the names of a bunch of Jordan's least favorite teachers as suspects. And Jordan's favorite teacher as the victim. And some every school items as the murder weapon. (Glue bottle, pink eraser, pencil, dry erase board, etc.)

The kids will start in a "classroom" and play a game called pickle. Pickle is when the kids get a 3X5 card with a word on it. They put it on their forehead and the other kids have to give them clues to figure out the word. I have a large stack of words for them. What the word is, is a mystery!

The next "classroom" they will play a getting to know you game. Answer a bunch of questions on a bunch of cards, which they can look at if they choose to or just quickly answer. Learn your friends secrets!

In the "Gym" we are playing a game in which the kids trace their foot onto a piece of paper, then label it. We mix up the feet and then it's a race to find your own foot! Who's who in feet!

Mystery meat game! Of course, the "Cafeteria"! I have three canned meats, turkey chunks, spam and tuna. The kids can smell it, taste it, look at it and they have to figure it out. I didn't make a meatloaf concoction to have them try to identify, I figured I didn't want to make anyone sick.

Then they are off to the Principals office! There they will be out version of red light, green light. The girls have to sit in a chair and try to get to the envelope underneath and pull out the clue. If they make noise or are caught moving they get sent to the principal. Which is the other room. Jason will them "interrogate them" and try to convince the kids that one person or another is murderer and what the weapon was used. Obviously, trying to keep the principal off the suspect list.

And to get their clues, you noticed that I didn't mention that yet, did ya? Well, in each room after each game the girls get a bunch of balloons to choose from and pop. And whether they get a clue or not is a mystery! Each balloon has a slip of paper, so even we don't know which one has the clue!

I'll post pictures as soon as the clean up crew, me, has finished.

Jordan the Author

2011-01-15T00:36:00.000-05:00

Jordan has penned an article that will hopefully make it to The Fedora Chronicles shortly. She decided to write about Women in Anime. Without giving too much away, before the article is published, she wrote about her favorite character and her friends favorite character, and how they have tried to take on the positive qualities of these fictional characters.

The we recorded a podcast, I was hosting, Jason and Jordan were the "guests." Our friend has to receive it, edit it and see if it was quiet enough in the house to use it for the website. I hope it works, but if it doesn't I still have it and can always transcribe it so that it can be another article.

Jordan's Birthday is on the 31st of this month and she wants to dress up in Cosplay and go to the Anime Convention in Boston. It's not too expensive ($25 to get in for one day) and she has a friend who's parents are willing to let her go with Jordan. So Jason and I will try to get Press Passes, like we do to the comic book convention in NY City. That should cut down our expenses.

So Jordan's Cosplay dress is Tohru Honda
And this is the cartoon character.

We got the costume made longer in the leg than the cartoon. We are going to have to work on the brown shoes.

So the only issue that will come into play is that we are going the day after Taylor's birthday! The convention is on April 22, 23 & 24. We plan on going on Saturday the 23rd. Taylor is against going, she isn't interested in Anime at all. I'm sure we'll figure things out.

The next challenge we have is that all three girls are going to be part of Taylor's best friends Quinceanera. Which means new dresses for each girl, and shoes, and tights. Thankfully, Melany's mom is good at hair, so we won't be going to a salon! They are very excited though, new dresses and a chance to dress up.

So look for Jordan's article on the front page of The Fedora Chronicles!

Christmas, New Years and Beyond...

2011-01-10T09:55:00.000-05:00

This was a good Christmas. We didn't expect it to be, but overall it went really well. Sometimes you think you aren't going to have anything to spend on your kids (husband included), but some how it works out that they all get what they wanted.
Madison got to play Santa and hand out presents. It's a tradition that a Santa hat is worn to do this job. But this year Meme found a new Santa had that sings and dances on your head! Still pictures don't do it justice.

The most exciting gifts were from Ben. Madison got a Bike, Taylor a Crystal owl, Jordan a cellphone and Bailey an ipod touch! When Jordan saw her cellphone she didn't know what it was. It's a Twist phone. You don't slide it or flip it, it twists. It looked like just a blank screen, until we told her to twist the top, when it pooped open she was so excited! Bailey LOVED her ipod touch! As you can see by the picture. It wasn't charged, so she couldn't play with it until later. Now it's her constant companion!

Here lady is waiting for her gift.

Here Lady is hating her gift.

Lady is having puppies around February 17th. We are hoping for February 14th, but there are no guarantee's with anyone's pregnancy. Except those who get a c-section, but we aren't going to that expense with a dog just to have the puppies die because they needed more time in the cooker!

We spent New Years at Jason's parents with Suz and her two younger kids. It was fun. The boys couldn't seem to figure out how to play with out killing each other. And even the girls were over tired and cranky. I think it's better when these kids can get 8-10 hours of sleep and then play! (No pictures, not because there was nothing to take pictures of but because I forgot my camera) We went sledding down a HUGE hill! That was so much fun! Even lady enjoyed it until the sled tipped over, then she just trotted away like it was nothing and the person on the sled got a face full of snow. It helps to have 4 legs!

I sent in Lady's information to the newspaper to have it published as Pet of the Month. They said it will show up in March. It's only the local paper, so I'll see if I remember to take a picture of it to show it off here.

I really can't think of anything else exciting going on.

I lied, I just thought of one.

Ben is thinking about going on his mission early. I guess the Ward or Stake Senior Missionary couple, the Stake President and the Bishop have decided that Ben should leave now for his mission. He still has some things he needs to put into order. But once he does they want him to go. This messes with his entire plan. And he doesn't like it when plans change. He sets a goal and works towards it. If things change it makes him feel out of control. So he is praying about it to see if they are prompted by the Lord, or if they are just trying to see him off sooner.

Personally, I'd like to see him go sooner. He seems to be stuck to me. He's working, he's being a good kid, but he has a life to live and it's like he's waiting until October to start it. So I prayed that he would find an answer, the right answer.

So it will be exciting if he goes early. It will be just another day if it turns out he has too much to put into order first.

Oh, and our friends, the Dahl family, Mark, Kat and Canon, came over for Christmas day. They have no family in the area, so we invited them to come with us. Here Canon is playing with his giggling Elmo that TJ and Co bought for him. Isn't he so cute! The girls just love him! We have to be careful though, I think Bailey and Jordan might love him to death. Unintentionally, but literally I'm afraid.

Unclogging Vs Hiring someone to Dig it for you

2010-11-05T07:09:00.002-04:00

In case you have a well.... don't bother to try and unclog it. It's cold, uncomfortable and pointless.

Hiring a well guy to dig it is expensive, but much easier. We tried to save money and all we really did was waste time. We can't afford it, after last fall/winter we are tapped out with left over debt, though a good chunk is paid off, it still lingers. So, though we hate to do it, we have to rely on Jason's parents to dig us out, get the pun? Not very punny, I know.

It really puts you in an uncomfortable place when you know you have no choice, and you know because of you and your choices that are costing someone else a huge amount. If this had happened next year, we probably wouldn't be in this situation. But it always seems that this is the way our lives go. Maybe one of us mocked being stupid-stitious one too many times. It seems that no matter what something bad happens to us. I can't remember breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder, but we do have a black cat and we can't help but cross her path.

One friend asked, "Why do bad things always seem to happen to good people?" Though I appreciate his sentiment, I don't know how "good" we really are. Not that we are bad either, but we could be better. If we were really good or perfect, we would have a $1mill (or more than we have anyway) in savings and investments because we'd have followed every prompting, every piece of advice and every recommendation from anyone and everyone who gave us good advice.

So a huge THANK YOU! to Jason's parents who are once again helping us out in a bad situation. I don't know what we'd do without them! They have taught us to be better parents, given us an example of the type of grandparents we hope to be, they have helped us over and over again and forgiven us when we've been dumb. When we are hurting they there with a positive attitude trying to help us see a bright side. They have done so much and I don't know how much I want to write here, because I don't want to be rude. But I know every thing they have done, I have forgotten nothing. And I'm grateful for such good and loving parents! I hope that someday we can repay them for all that they have done, both financially and emotionally.

For those who have helped Thank You!
The Cousineau's- Thank you for the water, for paying the bill, for the manual labor, for fixing the snow blower again! Thank you for being such good grandparents and parents, better than we deserve!
The Longs- Thank you for showers, use of the washer and dryer and water!
The Metzgers- Thank you for the much needed water!
The Willinghams- Thank you for the paper bag, the water cooler and the refills!
The Stevenson's- Thanks Eric for jumping down the well twice!
The Otero's- Thank you for the sump pump, and the manual labor!
The Sacco's- Thank you for the food and water!
The Robbins- Thank you for the water and water coolers!
The Bodily's- Thank you for listening!
The Callanta's- Thank you for listening and relating!
Chris and Shari- Thank you for calling, caring and listening!
The neighbors- Thank you for telling us your horror stories and helping with water and buckets.
And a Thank You to all those other's who will help, and those who want to help, and those who have offered to help, but I have had to turn them down as we were already getting help.
If I have missed you, it's not intentional! It's just hard to remember everyone who has helped and offered because we have received so many offers from so many directions, that it is hard to remember everyone!

And the biggest THANK YOU! goes to Heavenly Father, for giving us such a wonderful family, such wonderful friends, for giving us trials and tribulations- even when we'd rather not have them. For forgiving us when we ask for it, even if we don't deserve it.

1001 Things you need a well for.

2010-10-28T02:06:00.001-04:00

1 Water
2 Doing dishes
3 Doing laundry
4 Cooking
5 Wiping down your counter
6 Mopping
7 Flushing toilets
8 Cleaning up dog mess
9 Showering
10-1001 everything else in life

Though, I can't list them all, I do know them all now that our well has gone dry. And I have to say, I'd rather be without electricity than water. The pictures I'd have to show for this particular thread, wouldn't be pleasant, so I'm not taking any. If you ever run into a situation like mine, you will thank me for it.

So my day Tuesday goes like this:
Can't sleep cause I'm not feeling well, get about 2 hours.
Drive Jordan to school because once again, she's late.
Miss the usual gas station and have to go to a new one.
Try to buy on credit, cause there's nothing in the bank, and can't.
Try to pay by check, but J has the checkbook.
Go home to dog poo on the floor.
J has to use his gas money and write a bad check to cover $20 additional to pay for the gas in the minivan.
We gather bottles and cans to recycle to pay off the last $4 of the $64.50 gas bill.
Get home, thinking all is well. (No pun intended) But dog has diarrhea on the kitchen floor.
Madison is at a park with Ben and Bailey, and get diarrhea too.

The best part is, we have no water to clean anything!

This is probably one of the worst days of my life. What do I do? I cry, yes. But I also laugh and feel gratitude!

I'm grateful because when J talks to neighbors they are all willing to help anyway they can. I talk to friends from when we were little, tween and teenager and they are praying for us. How could this get any better? I don't think I have ever had so many people praying for me and my family! We have been given food, so we don't have to try to figure out how we can cook. We have been offered showers, help with laundry, water to flush, water to drink and cook with. We have been blessed by so many just by their concern and thoughts!

Though this is nothing compared to what others must go through, this has been tough. But it could have been a million times worse. When this all started going down hill and I thought I'd be depressed, but I thought about the example of my Bishop, and other friends & family (whom I don't feel it would be right to mention by name) and how well they went through their trials that were so much harder. If they could go through so much and still be alive, smile even when it hurts and keep a positive attitude, then I would too.

I'm so lucky to have so much love in my life, towards and from, my dear friends and loving family.

I love you all! And I'm thankful for you!

May God bless you as he has me, with plenty of trials!

Homeschooling Blues

2010-10-15T13:27:00.000-04:00

Why are there some days that no matter what you do, you just can't motivate yourself to do anything. And then, you have to, some how, motivate your kids to do their work. Ho hum. What I want to do today is go shopping. I need to get a few groceries, just a few basics that we are low on, like crab meat. Ok, maybe not totally basics. But I really want crab dip!
So, I like to listen to this song when I'm having one of those days that just need a bit of motivation.

Make sure you turn off the music at the bottom to watch this video.

I think today we will work on measuring, fractions, following directions, portion control, and the convection heat. In other words, we are going to go bake a cake. I'll publish the picture later today.

Even more picture from the NYCC

2010-10-15T13:13:00.000-04:00

Something got in the way of my flash and I can't crop the picture! :(

This guy was such a ham! Thunder cats, HO!

I think having a mask lets them be more...outrageous! I love it though!

I saw a few people wearing this hat and all black. There must be a reason for it....

I love Pocky Sticks! Not sure what Pocky Chocolate is though.

I don't think this butterfly girl has a costume on, but tons of guys were taking pictures of her. She obviously enjoyed the attention! Then the other two in the picture aren't looking, but I got three in one.

Storm from the X-men. My personal favorite.

No idea what these guys were, but they posed and looked neat.

She has a pet person!

Who you gonna call?

Pirate, anime, and comic characters. Another three in one!

It was really had to keep people from walking into the frame as your taking someone's picture. Even when they were posing!

The Powder Puff Girls! My girls were that for Halloween once too!

Ashe with Picachu

No idea what he is, but the stuff on his face scares me.

Someone's costume was coming undone, so the girl in pink was fixing him up.

Thor with his girlfriend, and a giant purple and yellow guy. Notice that his hat is almost touching the ceiling? Yeah he was that tall! I'm guessing 10 feet.

This was a last second pushing through a crowd and so my flash was not on, but I got Mario with his brother Luigi, and the girl in from was with them, but I don't know who she is, the Princess maybe?

More picture from the NYCC

2010-10-13T09:34:00.000-04:00

The first Cosplay costumes I saw that morning

One of the many Cosplay costumes

One of the many interviews that went on that day. Aren't these guy weird looking?

This is where we were headed, The Press Room!

The IGN Theater is down. The line behind the sign goes into a room packed with people and then out the door. Upstairs is the convention center.

Eric and Doug heading downstairs to the Press Room.

Jason on his was down to the Press Room

You can see the line behind Jason.

Eric is now in the press room preparing the computer for recording podcasts.

Action figures that you don't play with

Dark Horse publishes Comics, some Jason even likes.

This is for you Doug! A Stan Lee image

Buy your Cosplay or Halloween costumes today!

Not sure what this guy is supposed to be, or the girl with the bunny ears. I don't read Manga

This guy in the suit has no sense of humor. And he was selling posters for $3500+

You can see the crowd and the decorations put up to advertise

Doesn't look natural, but I like it anyway

I don't know why I took this, except maybe the person I was going for ducked in between a group of people and I missed him/her. That happens a lot with such large crowds and so little space.

Raz Al Ghoul, or something similar in spelling. There were many tables with the free comics and buttons set out.

More pictures to come at a later date. Also, we are thinking of going to the Boston Anime Con and/or the Boston Comic Con. Both in April of next year.

New York Comic Convention

2010-10-11T23:18:00.000-04:00

Welcome!

We go to the Comic Book Convention because Jason loves comic books and his friends are very good to him. Because Eric runs The Fedora Chronicles we are able to go on a Press Pass. Jason and Doug go as a writer/journalists. They are able to have fun, do interviews and totally enjoy themselves in their Geekhood. Eric is less into comic books but enjoys the people and the high energy. He goes to the panels to listen to the speakers. I go to take pictures. This year he went to a panel with a speaker who discussed voice-over work. When asked for volunteers he got right up and walked to the front. Didn't hesitate at all. A young woman, obviously a college student, really wanted to go up, but raised her hand instead. Eric told her to go up with him, but she was too nervous and missed out. Poor thing! Eric on the other hand was asked to do a small child voice, a child's laugh, and then to sound like a chicken. He got totally into it! Afterwards, the speaker got his info and asked if he'd be willing to do voice over work!

Doug

Doug brought some comics that he planned to sell. He got $13 for a X-men Origins- Wolverine. Not bad. The other's weren't sold. :(

mixer

This is the 4 channel mixing board. We were able to plug in 4 microphones to do podcasts. Except we only brought 3 microphones! People were very eager to be interviewed for the podcast. Some were podcasters themselves! If you are interested in listening to the podcasts, please go to The Fedora Chronicles and listen! They will have a new podcast weekly.

Woman who works at MSNBC and Forest of Fear in Tuxedo, New York

The woman being interviewed above was interviewed shortly after I arrived from walking the floor. I missed the couple before her, they were dressed as vampires. They are actors in the Forest of Fear in Tuxedo, New York. They don't have a website that I have found, but you can check them out on you tube. Though she doesn't want her job at MSNBC mentioned on the podcast, keep work and play separate, she did let us know that she is a journalist for MSNBC.

The line to get in. Note: it's not the entire line, only as much as I could fit in my lens

The line was already building up to a crescendo when we arrived at 9:00am. The doors don't open until 10am! This picture was taken at 9:30am. There is a lot more line, but the wall was in the way and the floor. This line lead out into a giant hallway which lead outdoors. They said that this year was 300% larger than last year.

I took this thinking the kids would like to see the dolls. Then I looked closer at them at home. The kids won't be seeing these closely.

There were all sorts of wares. Costumes, t-shirts, dolls, comics, posters, chainmail jewelry and clothing, and so much more. An entire blog post could be posted listing only what was available.

This guy was paid to be in the suit. This is not Cosplay.

There were so many things to see! Famous artists, products for sale, people dressed in Cosplay, people in costume to advertise a video game or movie, a car and a motorcycle, and much more!

Another person paid to be there.

I had Jason pose with this guy because I got the kid with the other one! It seemed that everyone who dressed up was there for one reason. To get their picture taken!

These two are Cosplay types

Here I caught Spiderman and the girl behind him not posing. They were posing seconds before. I did get him posing afterwards, but you can't see her in the picture and I liked her pink outfit. Don't worry, you'd never catch me in that thing!

Curt Shilling started a video game company with Todd McFalane and R.A. Salvatore, 38 studio's.
R.A. is one of J's favorite writers. The guy in the green shirt is just a fan boy.

Jason applied for a job at 38 studio's. The company is here in MA and was in the same building that Jason works in! Unfortunately, the HR guy who submitted the Ad didn't really know what he was looking for. So he kept getting people like J to apply, but they needed someone with a completely different set of skills.

Jason posing with the Black Beauty

Jason absolutely loved this car. It was neat. This is the car used in the movie, The Green Hornet, coming to a theater near you! Follow the link for the official site and release date.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!

Not everyone who is into Cosplay wears weird stuff. This guy is completely normal with his "Slimer" on his shoulder and hundreds of dollars spent on the costume.

Chainmail outfits...very tempting to get the necklace on the bottom right!

This girl is showing off and selling chainmail clothing items and jewelry. It looked really neat! I'd totally want some of it if I have any possible use. But it would be wasted on me.

Doug, Voice-over-woman, Eric Rendering King Fisk. Eric was offered a possible position doing voice overs by this woman after he volunteered during a program about voice over work.

This woman has a name, but either I forgot it or missed it. She was glad to see that the Fedora Chronicles has a woman on the team. She had only met Eric and Doug until I arrived with Jason. She asked me why I wasn't wearing my Fedora, and I told her that I have a cloche, but it's too hot to wear it. She was very sweet and I would be glad to see her again.

This guy was absolutely HUGE! Must have been 8 feet tall!

This guy and three other guys were at least 8-10feet tall. There is a guy dressed up as Thor and with normal boots his head was almost touching the ceiling. Just amazingly tall. That stuff coming off his back, in the picture, were wooden swords. About 5 or 6 of them, and all huge and heavy!

More Cosplay. Her gun was 8 feet tall!

This girl's gun was made from foam, so it was very light. Her outfit it based on a Manga character. Manga is a Japanese cartoon art style that is huge in America and Japan.

I found this company! Retro-a-go-go They are now sponsors of the Fedora Chronicles. Cute stuff! Rock-a-billy, Retro-30-50's, and all genre's, horror, classic, pin-up, ect.

This company is my new favorite online store! I wish I had money to buy some of everything! I love the retro stuff!

Jason and Eric when we first arrived at 9:00am

We arrived at 9am, parked and walked to the convention only two blocks away. But that meant that we had to leave J's parents at 5:00am, and Eric who came from New Hampshire had to leave at 4am! All of us were so excited we didn't get to bed until midnight! Jason not until 1am. So we were all short on sleep.

Leaving the Convention at 7:30pm

We decided that we should go out to eat and drive Doug home. The food was bland. Sorry Doug. He recommended the place. It was Chinese food. I've never been a fan, but I like Vietnamese soups, and the soup on the menu had the same description. But totally different flavor. On the way home it took us an hour just to pay our toll for the George Washington Bridge. That's one hour of going 0-2 miles per hour, just to pay a $8 toll. And there were no gas stations open! So by the time we got back to J's parents we had to borrow J's dad's truck and a 5 gallon tank to go and get gas from the turnpike so that Eric could make it to the closest gas station. No offense Doug, but we won't be driving you home next year!

My very good friend did offer to let us park at her Uncle's apartment in NY city, then it will only cost $35 a day for parking. Much better than the $50 we had to pay. I hope we don't have to take a taxi to get from the apartment to the comic con though!

One of my favorite poems

2010-10-11T22:03:00.001-04:00

“The proper way for a man to pray,”
Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
“And the only proper attitude
Is down upon his knees.”

“No, I should say the way to pray,”
Said Reverend Doctor Wise,
“Is standing straight with outstretched arms
And rapt and upturned eyes.”

“Oh, no, no, no,” said Elder Slow,
“Such posture is too proud.
A man should pray with eyes fast-closed
And head contritely bowed.”

“It seems to me his hand should be
Austerely clasped in front
With both thumbs pointing toward the ground,”
Said Reverend Doctor Blunt.

“Well, I pray while resting every day,”
Said Mr. Henry Pack.
“So I should think you say your prayers
While lying on your back.”
“Last year I fell in Murphy’s well—
Headfirst,” said Cyrus Brown.
“With both my knees a’stickin’ up
And my head a’pointin’ down.”

“And I made a prayer right then and there,
The best prayer I ever said,
The prayingest prayer I ever prayed,
A’standing on my head.”

“So, if your prayers come
From mouth and not from soul;
God may just someday let you
Fall into a hole!”

Cooking

2010-09-23T15:55:00.000-04:00

I seem to have a habit of cooking large amounts of food when I can't do dishes for a few days, and then finally can. OK, so that sentence makes no sense! We ran out of dishwasher soap, so I had to buy more, but I didn't have time to get to the store right away. It took two days before I had time, and had to do dishes by hand. And just thinking of doing dishes by hand makes me feel......

...scared, sad and abused! (That's what happens when you grow up doing dishes by hand when there are 13 of you! -to be fair, Mom always did the heavy pots and pans.)

Some might think this is an exaggeration, but really, it's not. Really. No really! She'sh! Maybe a little!

So I finally get soap, I now have to use and wash every dish I own. But I can't wash clean dishes, I must cook many things. Many difficult things. I made fried green tomatoes. Not as hard as I thought they would be. Not bad, either. I was a little scared to eat them, but they weren't bad. As I said, I had to dirty all the dishes in the house, right? Well, this is what I did first. I didn't read the directions. Second, I threw all the ingredients together and got mush, and then thought, "This isn't going to work." It was all pasty and not going to coat the tomato slices. When I read the directions it made things so much clearer! But I did dirty several bowls and utensils.

Taylor likes the cornmeal coating, better than the tomatoes. They tasted kind citrus-y to me.

Next I started to make Acorn flour. To make it you need to first play "sink or swim." Basically, float the nuts to see which one's float, if they float they are bad. Since I had two kids helping, I had two small pots for the floating, one pot big pot for the good and a bowl for the bad. Then I thought, this big pot is too big, so I got out the medium pot, and eventually realized I should have just used the big pot after all.

Here you can see the big, medium and small pot and the bowl. But you have to really look. I must add that making acorn flour is not easy. My hands HURT! First, you take all the good ones then rinse the dirt off them, then shell them (this took about 2 hours for aone gallon bag), then you have to boil them for hours or days, depending on the type of acorn. I have no idea what kind I have. Then roast them and then finally grind them into flour. Whew!

Then I wanted to make apple crisp. I bought apples for just this purpose! Since apples are in season it should be a nice treat. For me and Jason, anyway. The kids won't eat it. I first pulled out a small casserole dish, well it turns out I underestimated, again. And I had to pull out a much larger dish.

Looks tasty!

I think I am going to end up with one entire load of dishes that are completely clean except that they touched uncooked food for a few seconds.

With all of this going on I am having to call and find out from the school why I haven't heard from them about Taylor being able to take French II. I called and found out that the Superintendent wanted a detailed description of what we are going to be covering! Ridiculous! I'm supposed to tell them that in World Geography we will be studying the worlds geography? And that in Algebra we will be covering Algebra? After some discussion he finally says that he wants the title of the books. Whew, that took a while to communicate! And I told him I'm using Abeka. He was happy with that. Now I have to write it on a piece of paper and send it too him. Because it must be in writing. Ugh!

My hands hurt.

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-09T14:06:00.003-04:00

Jason's parents have been volunteering their time to the Blandford fair for years! So it has become a tradition for us to go to the fair and hang out with Meme and Pepe and just have a good time. We let the kids ride the rides, but we skip the games. There aren't very many and the prizes aren't good. But we do let the kids pick a gift for themselves. Bailey was the only one who wanted her face painted, but Madison and Bailey both got balloon animals, but both popped before we got pictures.

Chainsaw Carving

Horse Show

Horse Pulls

Bailey Squared- Bailey holding Bailey

After a day and a half of the fair we drove up the Vermont for camping. We went hiking on a trail that was 2 miles each way, but we didn't make it, we got 1.7 miles and turned back. The hike was fun, not much to take pictures of though. But I got a few with the kids.

At the fair

K-9 unit show

Truck pulls

G-Force Ride

Having fun at the fair!

Truck pull

Madison feeding sheep

Bailey feeding sheep or goats

Jordan also feeding goats or sheep

Bailey's face painting!

Camping at Otter Creek, Vermont

At the trail head

The Midway

Pictures from the Home School Kick off

2010-09-02T09:43:00.000-04:00

#60

#61

#59

#64

#68

#66

#67

#62

#63

#65

#58

"I'm so sad school is starting!"
#69

If you want a picture just let me know which one by the number and I'll email it to you.

Home School Kick Off

2010-09-01T19:40:00.000-04:00

We had our home school kick off today! I don't know everyone who was there, but I have some pictures! The kids got to swim and have a good time and the parents got to talk about their panic of the up coming school year.

Getting ready to go camping and for the holiday weekend

2010-08-31T17:30:00.000-04:00

We are lots of plans for this coming weekend. I hope the weather holds out so that I can get good pictures to show you. And I hope not to have a weekend like Tammy and her familia! You'll have to read her blog for more information on that.

So the plans are thus:
Thursday- go to Marie's to get her pictures that she is entering in the Blandford Fair. Then bring Marie's, Rita's and my own picture to be entered into the fair. As well as he kids drawings/paintings. At this point I may go to my in-laws to stay the night, or more likely I'll head home.
Friday- Get up and call the school and them that we are out of town for the Holiday. Then get up and get outta town! We need to fill the tank and head out to Blandford. We may stop off somewhere before we go to Meme's and Pepe's but that really depends. There is nothing we NEED to do. So it would just be something fun. I may have to go to All About Apples website and find a place to go apple picking. Great snacks for the fair as well as on the camp out! Once we get to Blandford we will go to the fair which opens at 3pm. And I will get to find out if I won anything and call Marie and Rita and let them know if they won anything.
Saturday- The Blandford fair! We will be hanging out here most of the day. We will have to get our pulled pork sandwiches, apple dumplings and giant lemonades! There are Carni-rides, which the kids ask to go on from the moment we get there to the moment we leave. We usually make them hold out as long as possible. But I'm sure the kids will get a chance to go on them. My favorite is always the horse pulls. If you know me well then you would have said, "of course" when you read that. The ox pulls are neat, but not as awesome as the horses. Saturday also has the chainsaw carving! That's so cool!
And Saturday night we will be leaving to Vermont for camping. And then we get back on Monday night. What we will be doing while camping will probably be sitting, hiking, napping, burning things, napping and sitting some more. I guess we will also feed the kids at some point as well. We are going with Suz and her two kids. Hopefully the kids can get along. Her youngest, Adam, has a hard time with Madison. But since they are both out of their elements, maybe it'll work better. It's hard to the littlest to have to constantly sharing and having no more personal space because someone else is sleeping in his bed and playing with his toys.

I'm sure it will be fine. If not we may just loose one of the kids in the wood of Vermont. Just kidding!

Melissa and Luke's Wedding

2010-08-30T14:01:00.000-04:00

Newport, RI. Castle Hill Inn & Resort.

It was a beautiful place. The only problem was that poor Luke has the sun in his eyes! And it was stinking hot for those who had to sit in the front because they had no shade. But over all it was a wonderful wedding and it was the most entertaining wedding I'd been at for a long time. In fact, it was at Luke's brother's wedding that I was also entertained! I liked that fact that each portion was short and to the point. I was able to pay attention and my ADD didn't get the best of my me. Which is rare. And I could tell before we even arrived that the wedding would be difficult to pay attention to. It was perfect though! Very well thought out! A new tradition that I had never heard of before: They took two colors of sand and poured them together, signifying how they went from two separates into one whole that can not be separated. I really liked the symbolism and the story/poem that went with it.

I had hoped I'd get better pictures, but this hill was giving me all sorts of trouble. As well as a few other things like trees and bushes. But that's ok. Being able to take pictures was just a bonus for me. The wedding was so much more interesting than the scenery!

I think I will try to plan my kids receptions like the one they had.

Madison's Baptism

2010-08-28T15:06:00.000-04:00

I forgot again! I posted about Salem and was just reviewing my previous posts, debating on where I should fix the errors or just leave them, (I left them) when I read that I was supposed to blog about Madison's baptism. I think I mentioned something about getting on in years in another blog post.

Here he is. My little man. He and his perpetual squint in his left eye. That's a squint of trouble. Kinda like when you see someone with an eye patch you know they are a pirate, so watch your treasure chest. When you see a cute kid with an eye squint you know to watch out, you don't know what he'll do!

Actually, Madison is a sweet and caring little boy. He loves his family very much. A friend was telling me about a time when his sister was upset and crying and he was stoking her arm and hand and talking sweetly to her trying to calm her down and make her feel better. What a sweetie!

At night Madison likes to cuddle so much that fairly often you will wake up with him on top of you. So far no one has died, but I have dreamed of being strangled many times from him laying his arm, leg, or entire body across my neck and chest.

Madison was very happy to be Baptized. He was very excited for weeks for when he got to have Ben Baptize him. He also was looking forward to seeing his Meme and Pepe as well as Grandma and Grandpa who came all the way out from California to witness this momentous day for Madison.

The Bishop talked to Madison before he was Baptized and asked Madison what he knew about the Ten Commandments. Madison jumped up and showed him a cute routine that the Primary has taught him. It incorporates hand motions that relate to the commandment. For example: Show number 1 and then say "only one God." and I don't know if that is even correct, but he has it down. You can ask him, he'll show it to you. Or if your kids are in Primary and they haven't shown you yet, you can ask them. Anyway, my point was, the Bishop was very impressed with Madison's knowledge and eagerness to be Baptized.

Jonas gave a talk that was very well thought out and touched hearts.
The Sister Missionaries talked a little but and my mother talked as well.

Over all, it turned out great.

An idea I had to help show our appreciation for those who came and still allow us to get out quickly was this: I made gift bags, just brown paper bags, I added a three cookies and then stapled the bag closed. I had the kids hand out the bags and water or juice. Everyone seemed to appreciate the snack, especially those with little kids, the kids were probably starving! And I'm sure the adults were too. I made 60 bags, thinking that I'd rather have too many than too few. We had exactly the right amount. Ben and I were the only ones to not have bags at the Baptism, so when we got home we went to see what was left and there were two bags. Yeah!

Pictures from Salem- read previous post for explanations

2010-08-28T12:19:00.000-04:00

Vacation Day #5

2010-08-28T12:12:00.003-04:00

Salem, MA

Salem was a lot of fun. But don't bother going to every with museum there is. Just go to one. The information is basically the same in every place, with just slight changes. We got free passes for the Salem Witch Museum, and we bought triple passes for Witch dungeon museum, New England Pirate Museum and Witch History Museum. Choose one of the many witch museums then go to the pirate museum. It is very much the same set up as the witch museums but with totally different information.

For some reason I can't upload any images right now, so I will add more later.

We went on to a ship, they let people just walk around their ship and have a donation box, if you choose to leave money. We did. It was really fun to be able to walk over the ship and look at all the things that make up a ship. I don't know what most of those things are called! The kids had a blast. We also got to watch seagulls feasting on fish. These fish swim to the top of the water for who knows what, then the seagulls swoop down and grab a mouth full.

After doing the self guided walking tour we headed out to Salem Willows. (If I had my choice I'd do a guided tour through Salem, we were walking through a cemetery and listened for a few minutes, and it was very interesting!) Salem willows has a few arcades, a wharf, loads of fun places to eat and a beautiful view of the ocean. (The header to the blog is a picture from Salem Willows) The kids got to play arcade games while mom and I walked around looking at the sights. We found a place where they have bands, just not the night we were there. At the wharf a mother and her four kids were catching crabs with raw chicken. The two girls caught about 10 and the boys didn't catch a thing. The difference is where they were putting the trap, but since you can't see the bottom, you don't really know if you are in a good spot until you pull it up.

We stopped at Peppy's pizza for fantastic pizza, it was so good. I would rate it near the top of the best pizza ever list. We also had ice cream and popcorn from Hobb's.

There was one thing we wanted to do, but just didn't have the time. And that was Mahi Mahi Tours. They have a ship and you go and see the sites, you can get a guided tour or you can get a meal tour. The meal tours you order your food which is then cooked right there on the ship. But the guided tour tells you where you are and other interesting facts. I would love to do a guided tour. We may go back sometime in the future to do that.
Mahi Mahi Cruises & Charters

Morning Cruises:

This is the grand tour! A relaxing 14-mile loop throughout Salem Sound so you can see all it has to offer.

Departs Daily at 10:30am
1½ hour in length
Costs: Adults $18, Children $14, Seniors $16

Early Afternoon Cruise & Late Afternoon Cruise:

A shorter version of the Morning Cruise, you’ll either venture along the Salem coastline to Marblehead Harbor or along Beverly’s Gold Coast to Great Misery Island.

Daily at 2:00pm and 3:30pm
One hour in length
Adults $14, Children $10

Lunch Cruises

Let loose, kick back and relax...

During this one-hour lunch break you’ll find everything you’d need for a relaxing experience: the bar is open, the grills are hot and the music is always playing. This one isn't narrated but passengers are always welcome to inquire about the passing landmarks as we set course for either Marblehead Harbor or The Misery Islands.

Departs Daily at 12:30pm
One hour in length
Adults $12, Children $8

The Main Stuff...

Chicken, Steak or Tofu Kabobs – Our most popular choice! Prepared with ease in mind, these bite-size pieces are served on skewers with tri-color peppers, mushrooms, and onions so you don’t have to deal with utensils. Two kebobs per serving. $14

Shrimp Kebobs - Unique and delicious, these seven jumbo shrimp are served on delicious edible sugarcane sticks. Two kebobs per serving. $14

Finger Sandwiches – An absolute favorite! An assortment of Boars Head® Ham, Turkey, Roast Beef, Egg Salad, Chicken Salad and Tuna Salad all in mini rolls. You’ll want more than one! $3.50/each

Gourmet Burger – Here at Mahi we’re burger snobs and wouldn’t think of serving you anything but the best. Over a ½ lb. of premium ground beef grilled to order with your choices of cheese, lettuce, onion and tomato on a fresh jumbo bulky roll. $10

Chicken Sandwich – Simple yet desirable! A healthy sized breast seasoned and served with your choices of cheese, lettuce, onion and tomato on a fresh jumbo bulky roll. $9

Grilled Pork Loin – This juicy, mouth-watering favorite is full of flavor. Sliced and served with crushed pepper. $12

New York Strip – A tender 12-oz. steak prepared in a robust rub and grilled just how you like it. $16

Mahi Mahi Steak – Known as dolphin in the tropics, but don’t worry we’re not going to grill “Flipper!” This white-pinkish, firm-textured, mild-tasting fish is lightly seasoned and grilled to perfection. Available as a sandwich with a side of tarter sauce if desired. $14

Twin Grilled Lobster Tails – Two fresh native lobster tails prepared with Caribbean flare and melted butter or rum BBQ sauce on the side. Market Price

Boxed Lunches – Boars Head® Turkey, Ham or Roast Beef sandwiches, accompanied with a refreshment of your choice, chips, and a homemade cookie. $12

Tidbits...

Make it a meal! Add any of the following to your main course for $2.50 per person.

Balsamic Penne Pasta Salad
Prima Vera Pasta Salad
Traditional Garden Salad
Gourmet Potato Salad
Grilled Asparagus
Sweet Corn-On-The-Cob
Tropical Fruit Kebobs
New England Clam Chowder
The Little One's Favorite Hot Dog

Treat Yourself...

Key Lime Pie – A large slice of tropical heaven! The perfect way to end the evening. $4.50/slice

Cookie Basket - A variety of your favorite cookies all together in one basket. $1.50/person

Traditional Pastry Platter – A delicious assortment of all the best pastries. Everything from apple and raspberry turn-overs to brownies, congo bars and butter cookies. $4.25/person

Custom Cakes – Perfect for a birthday, graduation, or anyone deserving recognition. Many different sizes, flavors and options. Prices Vary

They have a dinner menu as well, but you can follow the link yourself to find out more!

For my family of six, plus the food we'd most likely eat would cost us $124 plus drinks. I'm sure it would be a tasty $124 though.

Vacation Day Three and Four

2010-08-26T23:42:00.000-04:00

Day three and four were not days for pictures. Day three we did laundry. While my parents went with J's parents to the Norman Rockwell Museum. And day four we went to the temple. I planned to take pictures of the outside of the building, but we took my parents rental car, and my camera was in my car. Oops!

We were in the temple when the fire alarm went off! We had to evacuate the building! It was not fun. But you don't realize how white white can be until you see a bunch of people in white standing outside the temple. On our way home the highway, all three lanes! was closed. So we had to figure out a way to get home. Thankfully we are in Massachusetts and they don't bother with silly things like detour signs. So we kinda just guessed and it worked out well. It may have been the most out of the way possible route to the highway, but we made it! And it took us less time than another Sister who left about an hour and a half after we did. We took just over 2 hours, her ride was 4 hours!

I'll post about Friday tomorrow. It's almost midnight and I'm tired. And I just realized that Madison's Baptism was the point of this vacation and I have neglected to mention it!

Vacation Day Two

2010-08-26T23:35:00.000-04:00

Gillette Castle- Not the razors but the actor.

William Hooker Gillette, noted actor, director, and playwright, built this one hundred and eighty-four acre estate, the Seventh Sister. The focal point of his effort was a twenty four room mansion reminiscent of a medieval castle.

Gillette Castle Website

Gillette was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1853, the son of former U.S. Senator Francis Gillette and his wife Elizabeth Daggett Hooker Gillette, a descendent of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford.

Go to the website for more interesting facts! Parking is free and it's $6 for kids and $8 for adults, I think, to tour the castle. Magnets are $2. I forgot my $2, so I'm sad. But we will go back and walk the grounds instead of tour the castle, which is free. Excepting gas.

Mr Gillette gave Sherlock Holmes his particularities that everyone thinks of when they think of Sherlock Holmes. Things like, "Elementary, my dear Watson." and the pipe.

You can't touch anything while inside the castle, but it is still interesting. The guy was a real jokester too! He had a special lock on his liquor cabinet. He'd lock it up, then retire to bed, letting his guests know that they can go ahead and have another drink. He'd go to his room and watch, from a mirror in the wall, his guests struggle to figure out the invisible lock! After a time he'd go down stairs and ask why they hadn't made themselves a drink. Then he'd just open the cabinet as if it were nothing.
The attendants will show you the secret to the lock and the story. Then you can go and stand at his bedroom doorway and see the liquor cabinet.

This really pretty arch leads to a building in the bottom right corner. That building is the composting building. There are no animals large enough to leave droppings for fertilizer, other than the humans. Thankfully, the bathrooms didn't smell but it was still gross.

I washed my hand through two verses of Happy Birthday and then had try to dry my hands with an air dryer! So I had to touch the door with my bare hands. Just adding to the Eww factor. Bring hand sanitizing wipes!

Here is a side view of the castle.

I have many more pictures, but I don't want to spoil the tour for anyone. But as a hint to anyone interested. The light switches, the window latches, the doors and all the locks, even for the liquor cabinet are all wood!

On our way to lunch we decided to take a ferry ride. It was only $3! But it was plenty of fun! We got to get out of the car and look over the edge. It was neat feeling the salty spray and smell of the ocean water that is mixing with the fresh water.

Vacation Part Deux

2010-08-26T23:05:00.000-04:00

Glacial Pot Holes and The Bridge of Flowers-

The Bridge of Flowers is located in Shelburne Falls. There is not much to do there, other than a short strip of shops, similar to what you'd find in any tourist trap. The Glacial Potholes are a short walk down the street from the bridge giving the town three reasons to be visited. The third being the candy and ice cream shop at the end of the bridge. Which, if you go, stop there and get the Burnt Sugar ice cream, it's fantastic. The kids really enjoyed the chocolate cookie dough ice cream. I can't remember what every got, but it was all good!

The potholes are not as exciting to look at as I had hoped. They have an interesting history though. As the water rolled down the hill the small rocks would tumble around and create a small concave. Over time that concave became a hole. They have damed up the water flow. They also don't allow anyone to get too close because too many have been hurt, and there is almost no way to get an ambulance down there. In this picture you can see two small glacial potholes and a large one with less regular edges. As well as a half hole that must have broken as the water direction changed, possibly from the damming of the water.

Taylor

Madison

Bailey

Jordan

Jason

Grandpa

Grandma

Me. Becky

Here we are all enjoying our most delicious ice cream. You will probably never see another picture of me on this blog. So enjoy it.

Vacation!

2010-08-26T22:38:00.001-04:00

At the first rest area after entering Vermont

Day one: Joseph Smith Memorial- We got up early to make it there at 9am. We arrived after 11am. It's a long drive, 2hrs and 40 minutes. So we needed to stop for a potty break and to give the drivers a chance to stretch.

After the kids used the facilities, then they also had to play on the playground for a few minutes. Which it wasn't until after the kids were leaving that we noticed the sign that said "No Pets!" So my Dad says to the kids, "Uh oh! We shouldn't have let you guys go on the playground!" Jordan looks at him quizzically and asks, "Why not?" And he points out the sign saying, "No pets allowed"

The sign on the left is not that playground sign, but another sign that I thought was humorous enough to take a picture of.

The Memorial was great! We got the tour by Sister Elder Peterson. Sister Peterson accidentally grabbed her husbands name tag, so though she introduced herself as Sister, we teased her about being Elder. She had a good sense of humor about it. Her husband showed up later and he didn't notice, even after Sister Peterson showed it to him. We all got a good laugh from that as well.

Not as funny now as it was then.

Dad made a face, mom didn't smile. If it's not the kids it's the adults!

What I like about this picture is that Madison and Grandpa didn't know that they were going to make the same silly face, yet there they are. They are so lucky we love them!

When choosing the picture of the spire for the blog is was difficult. I didn't want the best picture that I plan to reserve for my website. But I also didn't want a bad picture. So this is the worst picture with the bluest sky. So I think that is a good compromise.

Not the best of the many I have, but the sky is the bluest.

The kids were doing several things here. But first, this is the 2nd most sacred place in the world. The first being where Christ was born. -According to a Prophet, but I now forget which one. This spot is where the corner stone of the house where Joseph Smith was born.

So the kids either contemplating spiritual matters or praying. I'm sure none of them were thinking anything but the most positive spiritual thoughts. (Yeah, I can be delusional occasionally) But they did want to pray, so we did as a family.

I want one of these!

This stretched limousine of a golf cart was the most fun part of the day! We got to ride up and down hills at break neck speeds of up to 15 miles per hour! (I'm really just guessing, I don't know the actual speed) But it was so much fun we all commented on how we all know why they don't have the young Elders doing the tours. We didn't request the ride, I think Sister Elder Peterson just really enjoys going on the ride.

So what good is a bridge if you can't jump off of it? None at all if you ask my kids....

Why do the kids enjoy this? I don't know, but they insisted on pictures. It was fun watching them enjoy themselves pretending.

My mom caught Jordan praying on her own. She left the group and went to the opposite side of the monument and knelt down to pray. Mom went looking for her when she didn't pop up on the other side, then she motioned for me to come over quickly. And here she is. Madison and Bailey saw her and they too came over to pray silently.

I love my family! My kids are amazing. I don't know what I did to deserve such fantastic people for my own, but I am ever so grateful for them!

For my own ego, I hope it's good parenting. But I also know that I'm just the second set of parents my kids have had and the previous set were perfect, which I am not. So I can't take too much credit.

Getting on in years...

2010-08-26T21:46:00.000-04:00

I'm 35-ish. -ish because I will be before the end of the year, but I'm not there yet.

I have been thinking for a few months now about my mind. And the mind of my husband. Not that we are insane, but we aren't totally like everyone else. So possibly not totally sane either?

We don't think the way other's do. When I'm at the mall, I have two things go through my head. Either, "Let's get the heck outta here!" Or "Look, toys!" I hate clothes shopping, grocery shopping, shoe shopping and all that adult stuff. It's depressing.

I also find that when I'm at adult meetings I get bored quickly and my mind wanders. After some meetings I feel that I wasted my time because I couldn't keep my mind on the subject being discussed. And I've wasted the teachers time by being distracted. That's part of the reason I'm hesitant to go to Time Out For Women. I'm going to pay all that money and just be bored or distracted.

I have spoken to other women about my age, give or take, and they don't have these same issues. And then again, a few do...I'm not naming names, just in case.

I don't relate to adults very well. I usually put my foot in my mouth because I'm blunt and to the point with little reservations. Except with kids, I know I have to keep my thoughts to myself.

I noticed this for the first time while at girls camp. I don't want to give the wrong impression, every person I met was fantastic and wonderful! The other leaders were so sweet! I loved spending time with them. All ten minutes of it! Because I spent most, no, ALL my free time with the girls. If not my second years, then it was the third years or the YCL's. I did try to talk to the other adults, but I just faded in and out and got bored quickly. I'm not even sure what they talked about.

About a month after girls camp Taylor tells me that I'm not like other mom's. Jordan pipes in and agree's. They say I'm a "Cool Mom." I don't want to be my kids best friend or anything, I don't want them to think they can go out and get drunk and call me and I'll be just peachy with it. But I kinda like that we can talk openly with out feeling uncomfortable. I am on the fence of whether the Cool Mom label is a compliment or a doormat label.

So at 35 should I have to think like an adult? Should I be relating more to those my age? Or is it okay to enjoy the company of my kids and their friends? Do I have to start thinking more about how the neighbors think than how much fun I'm having with the kids?
Is that really how adults think? (Bills, keeping up with the Jones', who's got the smartest kid, etc) I hope not. Cause you can't make me!

6th Grade

2010-08-25T22:41:00.003-04:00

Hi, everyone! It's me, Jordan! Well, 6th grade is only six days away and I have HR 103 and Math teacher Mrs. Herring.So does Avery [:)] and Sierra[<:(]. I am worried, that when I don't answer Sierra, the next day she will ask me why, and I will have to think of new excuses evryday. :(.

Please remind me to DO MY HOMEWORK. I didn't do a lot of my homework last year and dropped my grades by a LOT because of it. Oh, well. Mrs. Herring is supposed to be nice and give no homework. Let's hope she doesn't change over summer. Fingers are crossed.

The S.S. teacher's name is a mouthful. Something like Mr. Haghendashunzzah-Stacey, or what ever. Let's hope we get to call him Mr. H. :). G2G. TTUL.

All came crashing down....

2010-08-01T14:02:00.000-04:00

J and I went to the Temple yesterday. It was great, as always. Nothing special or exciting to report, just being there is great. So we are on our way home and we are starved! We were going to eat at the temple, but we really needed to get on the road. The missionaries are coming and the house needs to be cleaned. But we are STARVING! So we stop by a Burger King, order and pay with the debit card. I had just deposited $50 the day before, which means that I should have a little over $50 in that account. NOPE. Not my bank. I write a check and it's deposited into someone else's account and presto! The money is removed from my account the same day. I deposit money from someone else's account to my own (we both use the same bank!) and the money takes 3 days to be deposited into my account. So we had to use our cash, which meant we didn't have toll money. So now we have to take the long way home. (Instead of 1 hr 15min it takes 2hrs)

So we are about 15-20 minutes from home and we get a phone call. Jordan is upset because the bathroom cabinet fell off the wall. Bailey was searching for toilet cleaner in the toothbrush cabinet and suddenly bang it fell on her! I'm guessing she planned on putting toothpaste in the toilet? I don't know. Taylor is on a walk because she got really mad and Madison is crying because he thinks he is going to get spanked. (We rarely, as in once a year, maybe, spank the kids so I don't know why he's so afraid of getting spanked.)

Bathroom cabinet on floor of hallway and a bag full of medicine and toiletries

The back of the cabinet is still on the wall. Hey, maybe this means Jason will finally paint the bathroom!

No time to clean up! We have to get the house cleaned up because on our way home we ran into the missionaries and they are moments from the house! And our friend Jonas is also coming over. So I'm able to do nothing before the missionaries arrive. So we start dinner and talking. With the bathroom and house a mess. The sister graciously help me clean up the kids breakfast, because even though they are quite old enough, unless I tell them they won't put their dishes in the sink. And they'd never even think to put them in the dish washer. (Which was empty, by the way.)

After the sisters have left Ben needs help with his bike pedal. He needs to transfer it from one bike to another because he is doing another charity ride, but on a new-to-him bike. After struggling with the pedal for a little bit I suggest they are going to wrong direction with the screw threads. I'm ignored. So a little while after that I see that the pedal moved tighter, so I told them what I saw and suggested trying the other way. J gave it a half hearted effort and went back to trying the first direction. Finally, after a while longer, J finally decides to give the other direction a shot, and it takes about a minute to get it loose. After 15 minutes the wrong way. At least it came off!

Ben's friend Joe comes over to give a donation to Ben for Tour De Cure, he's still shy by about $600, and the new benefit ride he's doing (I think he needs only $100?, not really sure though). If you know us you know we are very social people. Joe and Jonas are also very social. So we talked to about 1am, Joe left and J and I walked Jonas to his car at about 1:15am, then we proceeded to talk some more. It was a great talk! But what's said after mid-night, stays in Vegas....??? You get the point. Maybe I'll blog about it later.

Jason had to work, and so he was off quickly and I was off to bed. Then about 2 or 3 hours later I'm woken up by the awful sound! It's Ben's alarm going off getting him up for his benefit ride. I HATE alarms. So now I can't fall back asleep. Eventually I do. But then I don't wake up to my own alarm. At 11am I wake up because Jason came home.

And I just remembered that Jason invited the guys over tonight to game! And I have only a few hours to get the house clean and the bathroom cabinet repaired before everyone comes over!

So when we get home we see this.

A sweet 16 in planning....

2010-07-30T17:22:00.003-04:00

Taylor is 14, I know. But I like to plan things WAY in advance. Madison and Bailey didn't get birthday parties this year because I didn't plan early. Jordan and Taylor got one each. I know, I'm a bad mom.
So I am starting Taylor's Sweet 16 early. I had thought about doing it at 15 like a Quinceanera, but I think I'd rather party like it's 1999, than go through the ceremony. Quinceanera's have so many traditions and I'd rather not mess up a beautiful thing, so I'll do a typical American Sweet 16. Most American traditions have been thrown out for the "modern America" so the Sweet 16 that used to be similar to the Quinceanera in it's coming out ceremony and tradition, it's crumbled into a bratty-rich-kid-slut-fest. Or at least the one's on MTV are. Which of course, we won't be doing. But a lack of tradition, just have a good time- thing is perfect for me.

This is Taylor and Bridget after doing makeovers. It's so much fun experimenting with makeup!

So I thought Taylor would be against this. She doesn't dance, she doesn't like boys, she doesn't like parties- she is focused on preparing for her mission and graduating high school. (I know! What happened! I think she got mixed up at the hospital because she couldn't be MY kid! It must be Jason's fantastic genetics.) Taylor is not only for this party, she is excited for it! Shocker! Our theme is Midnight Owl Blast. I don't know why Blast has to be in the name, other than Midnight Owl sounds dumb. And at this point it is too late to change the name. Because I bought a sign on the cheap. (I love finding excellent deals!!)

Big sign for in front of the DJ on the stage.

Since we have a theme it is fairly easy going waiting for a good deal then buying the stuff. I was able to find stuffed owls for about $4 each, most places were asking $10 for the same stuffies. Taylor about died when she saw them. They are cute. No pictures of them, I recently ordered them and they haven't all arrived yet.

So she wants a candy buffet, that's when you have a table with all sorts of jars of candy. The those who choose to can make little party bags of candy as take home gifts. It should be really fun for everyone. Google Candy Buffet Images and you will find 100's of pages of images to look at.

We will also have a Sundae bar. That's basically where you are served ice cream and the toppings are put out for each person to choose what they want.

And one last thing, on each place setting I want a chocolate truffle. Again, I'm friends with a woman who owns a chocolate store. I don't think I could get anything but a bulk discount. But I have 2 years to work on her. ;P

Taylor's colors will be light green, ice blue and silver. The sign is not the colors, but it's close enough.

I hope to have a corner where we can take pictures with Taylor and her friends. I have a friend who is a photographer, so I'm hoping she will give me a deal!

I don't know if this is possible, but I'd love to get what is called a BOGO light. It's a spotlight with a design, you see them at expensive weddings usually the initials of the couple. They are called "Inexpensive" online, but that means about $200. So I'm not sure if that is going to happen or not. But a big 16 or an owl pointed at the floor would be awesome!

We will also need signs. I found signs for free! Only $12 for shipping....not so free. But anyway, I can get two lawn signs with stands and shipping all together $12. Not bad. Those will go outside the church building at the two entrances.
And a sign for when you first walk in. I was thinking I'd have the kids sign in on the sign itself. But that idea is great, but who keeps that stuff? Is she really going to be interested in it when she's 30 and having babies? Not really, but another idea I have- that takes the party planner idea that I borrowed from online and tweeks it- Get a photo album each guest signs one page, or half a page, except in the center where a 4X6 area is blocked out. That way when we are putting the pictures we had taken into an album (which is much more portable than a 24x36 poster) we know exactly where the picture goes. Again, it's an idea. We'll see how it goes.

Assigned seating is an idea I'm toying with. It would be nice, but not necessary. Balloons are a must! Owl, moon and star theme center pieces, and painted cardboard cut outs to hang from the ceiling, that shouldn't be too hard. I was also thinking of having a donations box at the front door. Have each guest bring a new unwrapped toy to be donated to a local charity.

Another gift that we want to give out are tiny buttons. You see teens with them all the time. They are about 1" and have all sorts of sayings, the kids usually put them on their backpacks. Taylor wants to stick with the owls. Again, expensive. So we will have to see about the buttons.

We'll have buffet style foods. That's a can of worms I have yet to even think about!

And I have a DJ already lined up. He is a member of our stake, so he gives discounts to his LDS family. Yeah!

So that's what I have so far. We have yet to purchase 99% of what we need, but I still have 2 years to save up, plan & buy.

Photography Class

2010-07-24T23:45:00.000-04:00

So I teach a monthly photography class. I thought it would be fun for the sisters to be able to learn how take close up of flowers at different angles, capturing interesting backgrounds. So we went to a nursery. It was kind difficult, because of the green house ceiling, to get certain angles. But over all there were many nice pictures. My camera battery was dead, so, No Problemo! I grabbed my other battery. It was also dead! I must have forgotten to charge them! So I got off one picture and them helped them with the rest.

Overall I'm happy with the image. The flowers are beautiful, the color is excellent, and the background neutral. The grout in the bricks are actually leading the eye to the center, in a way pointing to the flowers.

I have convinced my students to take their best images and print them to be entered into a local fair. As well as to show them off during Relief Society.

RPG's

2010-07-24T23:39:00.000-04:00

RPG stands for Role Playing Game. And if you know Jason then you know he loves RPG's. When we lived in Attleboro we knew one guy who played RPG's, in our new ward, half the men in the ward play RPG's and one woman, other than me! Can you believe it? Don't worry guys, I won't let out your secret geekdom. But I do have a picture of the boys that were at the house tonight.

Arthur- left, Joe- middle and Blake- right.

I and Jason also played, it was really fun!

Taylor's Retainer

2010-07-24T23:35:00.000-04:00

I thought retainers were supposed to be uncomfortable bulky metal and plastic things. In reality, Taylor's looks like invisilines. They are plastic but they are more like covers for her teeth. She only wears them at night, and you can't even see them. The first three days are hard, because she has to wear them 24/7 except at meals and brushing. But she says they aren't uncomfortable at all!

You can kinda see that her teeth are shiny.

Here she popped out the tops.

Braces are much better than what they had in the past.

Free blog designs

2010-07-21T09:40:00.001-04:00

So I have this block background from "The Cutest Blog on the Block" and they are discontinuing it. This is just a slight annoyance. I would rather not have to change things around, because of the formatting of every single post. When I first got this particular background, which you may or may not be able to see at this moment, I had to change the format of all my posts. But it was early, so it wasn't that big of a problem.

The point: Why does everything have to change? Why can't I clean my house and it magically not change, and stay clean?

Which leads to: Why can't we have magic? I just want a magic floor and counter top. Something that as soon as something touches it it goes into a magic spot where it can be retrieved at any point in time, excepting garbage. Garbage should just magically be transported to the trash can. I had to scrape up chewed gum off the floor the other day because "Someone" missed the trash can. "Someone" either didn't notice or didn't want to clean it up because of the grossness of it. I wish "Someone" would stop visiting our home, it would be much easier not to have to clean up after him/her.

And when I say I had to scrape up chewed gum, I mean Taylor had to scrape up chewed gum. Because she provided the gum she graciously donned gloves and a scraper.

I will be taking pictures this week, so the blog will have some posted soon. (My laptop is giving me trouble, but it's the only computer I have that still has space for large files!)

Background is changed. You like it or want to see more backgrounds from this site? http://hotbliggityblog.com/
Hot Bliggity Blog

LOL, I love it!

No more braces!

2010-07-20T12:02:00.001-04:00

Taylor got her braces off yesterday! She looked in the mirror and said, "My teeth look big." And really they do, the braces used to hide most of her teeth and it will take time to get used to them. She also has J's larger than mine teeth. She will get her retainer in a few days and wear that for as long as the orthodontist tells her to. Then Jordan will be ready for her braces. She has only 2 tiny baby teeth left, one is half way out the other refuses to budge. Which is fine because I need time to save up the $1500 deposit! A year later it will be Bailey's turn and two years after that Madison's turn.

Check out my website for pictures of the other kids. I'm not sure if I have many showing their teeth in close ups.

Rebecca's Photography ~ Capture the Moment

A new website

2010-07-20T11:54:00.000-04:00

I've got a new website!

http://rebeccasphotography.zenfolio.com

I'm putting up some of my favorite pictures, so far over 200, for sale. I'll also be able to put clients photo's there with a secure log in so that only the family can see the images. Protecting the kiddies!