I am thankful to be by myself?

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Here it is Thanksgiving morning and I am literally by myself. No dogs, no husband and no kids. Toni went to a sleep over last night at a friends house, Zeke went to mom and dads and slept over last night and this morning Dan and Zac went pheasant hunting and took both dogs with them. It is really quiet and I am not really sure what to do. So far I have showered and dressed, made my bed, made spinach dip, jello salad, and put out the rolls. I painted my nails (they look yucky), read my scriptures and watched 2 conference talks. But, I am sure this is just the calm before the storm. Mom and Dad are staying home today so it is just us for Thanksgiving. I am sure missing our big, loud get togethers. Hopefully everybody will have a great day. I will update you on the results of the hunting trip. I am anxious to see how little Sam does on his first trip hunting.

Don’t Buy Your Kids Toys from China This Season

Don’t Buy Your Kids Toys from China This Season
November 21, 2007 on 12:00 am
As we head into Thanksgiving, and the beginning of the biggest shopping season of the year, it’s time to take a stand regarding the kind of toys we buy our kids. Case in point:
1. Mattell, Inc. recalled 675,000 Barbie® Accessory toys because the paint on the surface of the accessories contained excessive levels of lead. Lead can cause learning and behavior problems and even death.
2. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled roughly 4 million arts and crafts toys called Aqua Dots because several children in the United States and Australia were hospitalized after swallowing some of the toy’s beads. The beads had a chemical coating that evidently was related to GHB, the “date rape” drug.
3. An additional 175,000 Curious George plush dolls made by Marvel Toys were recalled because of lead on the toys’ plastic faces.
This past summer, the toy industry recalled more than 22 million toys because of serious danger issues. The common denominator seems to be that all these toys are made in China. China is the world’s number one producer of toys, due to cheap labor and manufacturing costs. While the world’s governments lazily deal with tougher controls to intercept dangerous toys before they hurt our children, how about we parents taking control and only purchasing toys made in the U.S.A. this holiday season? We should be supporting our own economy anyway.
If you don’t know how to find toys made in the USA, here’s a start - a parent single-handedly took up the charge and created a website that links to USA-made toys. toysmadeinamerica.com/.
If you want detailed information on toys that have been recalled by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, you can find a list of all the latest recalls at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/category/toy.html.

Our Gingerbread House

The kids are out of school and are already showing signs of boredom. Grandma Sandy sent home with Dan a gingerbread house kit so we built it today(thanks Grandma). Here is the result of our hard work....





So, thats 20 minutes of entertainment. What to do for the next 4 and a half days?

I am thankful for my husband

As you may or may not know, I am HUGE Dr. Laura fan. I even got tickets to her show coming to Portland in January. I think she is very insightful and has a lot of good to offer. Anyway, I got this off of Dr. Laura's newsletter. I think it is a nice reminder to us all to be appreciative and kind to our spouses. Something Dr. Laura always says and I try to live by everyday is to "be the kind of wife you would want to come home to."

Thoughts From a Soon-To-Be Ex-Husband
November 16, 2007 on 12:00 am
I got this eloquent email recently, and wanted to share it with all of you, as it addresses the consequences of some behaviors that often come up from callers to my radio show:

“Two months ago, I left my wife and children and moved into a condo about a mile from our home. This morning, I was moved to write the following, just to help me vent my frustration over the treatment from my wife that led to this painful and damaging decision, called “For Years:”
For years, you behaved as if it didn’t matter whether I came or went, so I went.
For years, you were unsatisfied with the income I brought in, even though it was way more than enough to allow you to stay home with the children. Now you have less, and you get to go to work.
For years, you behaved as if my touch meant nothing to you. Now, it’s gone.
For years, you never complimented me on the household repairs I made, keeping up the lawn and garden, cleaning and organizing the garage and the hundreds of things I did to keep our home balanced and running. Now, you can do them.
For years, you complained I didn’t do enough housework. Now it’s all yours.
For years, you chose not to attend community and social events that were important to me. Now they’re not an option.
For years, you expected me to read your mind when you were hurt or upset. Never could, never will.
For years, you punished me with your silence. Now you have plenty.
For years, you would not share information about our kids’ schedules, doctor’s appointments and so on. Now some attorneys will help you polish your communication skills.
For years, I chose to love you, protect you, provide for you, confide in you, and have fun with you. Now, I don’t.
For years, you behaved as a long-suffering martyr. Now you can be one.
For years, I chose to raise your son as my own. Now, he’s hurting.
For years, you treated me as the lesser parent. Now I am.
For years, our precious young daughter has watched this debacle. What do you think she’s learned?
For years….
P.S. I bought and read “The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage” months ago, and asked my wife to read it with me. She laughed.”
(Signed)
Still My Kids’ Dad in Southern California

By-the-way, I bought and read the book “The Proper Care and Feeding of Marriage”. What a great book this is. It is a fast read, really entertaining and it will change your marriage for the better, even if you already have a great one!

August Rush

I was lucky enough to get 2 free passes to go to the "sneak preview" of August Rush. I found a babysitter and invited mom to go with me. I was so excited to go because it was free. This looked like a good movie from the previews but sometimes you never know. I am happy to report that this not only was a good movie but it was an AMAZING movie. I loved every moment. It was so full of hope and the wonders of music that we miss everyday. Not only that but there was a wonderful love story that melted your heart. The acting was fantastic and so was the music. Definitely a movie your whole family could see. It actually releases on November 21st. Click here to see the trailer:http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//title/tt0426931/trailers-screenplay-E33986-314

Today

Today I got my kids out the door to school with lunches packed. Then I headed off to Kaiser for Zeke's speech therepy appt. When we came home Zeke had his friend Blake come play. I cleaned up around the house. We had lunch and then at 12:30 I took them to school and volunteered in both Zeke and Toni's classrooms until 2:30. I came home and rested for about 20 min. I then remembered that the Utah quarters were supposed to be released today so, I went to 2 different banks to try and get one for Zac's collection. They did not come out today. Then it was 3:50 and Zeke and Toni came home. I started to make dinner when Dan called me at 4:20 and told me he was catching the 5:40 flight to Utah tonight. This was news to me. So I packed his bags and tried to keep making dinner until I had to take Dan. Zeke came in and asked if he could have this bottle of juice to drink. I said no because there was OJ in the fridge. He got mad threw the bottle on the ground where it promptly bust open and flew everywhere. I screamed at him and sent him to his room. Dan was ready to go and my sweet Toni was helping me clean up the juice. It was 4:40 and I was on my way to drop off Dan at the airport while making arrangments for Zac to be picked up at school at 5:00 from wrestling practice. I called Calixta to tell her why Cathy was calling me Susan. I arrived at home from dropping Dan off at 5:45. I finished making dinner. We ate at 6:30 and I left with Zeke at 6:55 to Enrichment that I HAD to go to. I got home at 8:30 with an extra kid whose mom needed help because she was attending a meeting and I took the dogs potty. Then I hooked up my video camera and made sure I had empty video tapes and a full battery for Zac's wrestling match tomorrow night. I watched some old movies of our kids we had recorded 4 yrs ago(my favorite part of my whole day) and finally the extra kid went home at 9:40. Dan called to say family prayer with us and kids went to bed at 10 pm. They are going to be tired tomorrow. Then I read blogs for about 20 min. Cathy has 15 comments on her last post. I think half are from Stacy. Now it is 11:00 and I am finishing writing this boring post. I am tired and I am going to bed but, I might just go down stairs to watch Grey's Anatomy.

Christmas drawing results

I called Zeke and Toni in to help me with the drawing and Zeke saw the pieces of paper with the numbers on them and said "Mom who are you making this for?" I told him that is was for my brothers and sisters and he said "ooohhh, how cute"! What a nut he is.
Ok, like I said, today I had Toni and Zeke assist me in the drawing of the numbers. (Please direct any and all complaints to Zeke & Toni)

Here are the results of our drawing exactly how they were drawn out of the bag:
1-2 Blackburns give to Prows'
5-1 Andrew's Family gives to Blackburns
6-3 Ashby's give to Knightons
2-6 Prows' give to Ashby's
3-4 Knighton's give to Alex's family
4-5 Alex's family gives to Andrew's family

Hopefully this makes sense. I talked to Cathy last night and we got to thinking that doing a theme would be fun. So, I think that this year we will do a game theme. These are the parameters to the gift giving:
First, let's try and stay around a $25 gift limit for each family.
Second, send (1) your favorite game you like to play with (2) either the recipe for or your favorite game time snack. I think we all have the basic games like Twister and CandyLand probably even UNO so try to make it something fun that we all probably don't have. It can be either be for the kids or the adults or for the whole family. Hopefully this sounds good for everyone. Lets have fun with this! Merry Christmas!

Blah Blog

Don't really have much to say. I have been busy doing RS secretary stuff and laundry today. I was also able to talk to Andrew today. He said that he was in for the gift exchange and group gift to mom and dad. We went fishing yesterday and it rained and rained for hours. I ended up going back to the truck with Zeke. Dan & the other 2 kids stayed for another hour and they still didn't catch anything. But we did see some huge Chinook Salmons jumping out of the water 4-5 feet in front of us. That was cool. See you tomorrow.

Zeke's face

This is what happens when you attempt to try and stop yourself on a run away skateboard with your face. Not a pretty sight! This happened in September and all is well now. This picture was actually taken several days after it happened...it was worse than this. I kept him home a couple of days from school. Zeke is a WILD MAN!

Zac's First wrestling meet

Zac had his first wrestling meet this past Friday. It turns out that he was competing against his rival middle school in Camas called Liberty. When it came his time to wrestle in his weight class we heard "the next up will be Prows and Tobey". I couldn't believe it, he had to wrestle Seth! Seth is in the 8th grade, is almost 2 years older, weighs 5 lbs more and is a couple inches taller not to mention that he considers him his cousin. But Zac went out there and fought/wrestled hard. He eventually got pinned but he put up one heck of a fight and hung in there for a while.

Toni's Organic Milk

Today we were all in the truck on our way to Costco. Zac brought a bag full of goodies someone donated to all the wrestlers last night. In that bag was a "juice box" of organic milk. Toni loves milk so she volunteered to try it. After she tried it she tried to get the rest of us to try it, when all of us refused she said, "Come on, try it. It's good. It's so organic you can't even taste it"! She is a funny girl!

Hunting & Fishing

Dan has taken all 3 kids out fishing and Zac hunting these last couple of weeks. Dan has had a great interest in fishing lately, although I am still trying to wrap my brain around this because we don't even eat fish! We end up giving it to mom & dad. The kids have a great time. Zac went pheasant hunting this week and was able to shoot a rooster. He was so pumped. He even took his hunting dog Eco with him. I still think Sam would be a better hunter but it might take him longer to bring back the game!

Family Christmas Gift Exchange??

Just thought I would put this out there for some feed back....so tell me what you think.

Because our family is so big it is pretty hard for us to exchange christmas gifts with everyone so I thought maybe this year we would do an exchange like we did when we were kids. I was thinking that we would be assigned numbers in the order we were born then I could randomly select numbers out of a hat or something to match us up. This way we would just get one family gift and it could be more econmical. I was also thinking that maybe we all put in some money (amount could be discussed) for a group gift for mom & dad??? Just some ideas so tell me what you think or give me some different ones if you have any.

Soccer

So I am going to shock everyone with two post in a row.

We are coming to the end of our soccer season here at the C/W Soccer Club. Zeke and Toni have already had their last game and Zac has his last one this Saturday. This was Zeke's first year playing outdoor soccer. Dan was his coach and the team name was the "Junk Yard Dawgs!" He loved every minute of it. He just ran chasing the ball up and down the field with a huge smile on his face the whole time! He loved to yell "Go Dawgs"! Believe it or not, Zeke was not the smallest boy out there.

Toni is a great soccer player. She likes to be aggressive and to be in the middle of all the action. She and her friend Ali were the "power houses" of the team. She loved getting all that attention. Toni's favorite position to play is forward. This year she even tried being goalie a couple of times. Her cheeks were always so flushed from playing so hard. She loves to play and she is good at it too.

Zac played up a year this year. He had a great year as a goalie and as a forward even though his team has only won one game this season. He was one of the few players to ever make a goal! He was so pumped when he did it. He was exceptional as a goalie. He made some great saves...especially when the majority of the game was played in front of his goal. He is such a diligent kid. Zac has also started wrestling this year in middle school. This Friday will be his first match. I'll take pictures and try to post soon.

As for this fall soccer season, All 3 kids went out and gave it their all this year. We are so happy to be back here. The kids are all doing so well.

May 11, 2007 A day that will NOT last forever!

OK, all of you smarties out there...Cathy and Calixta...I thought about only doing a new post every May 11 just to bug you! But I have taken mercy on all of those who still occasionally check my blog to see if maybe I might have done a new post. Now the new date that you will see for the next 6 months is November 4, 2007!

Seriously, I didn't think I would ever remember my password to get back on!

Anyway, this post is really about Halloween. We had a great time this year. We had perfect weather and the kids trick-or-treated their hearts outs to the tune of almost 8 lbs. of candy! I let them go crazy on it for one day then I took it away!! I am releasing it a couple of pieces at at time. I am such a mean mom...at least that is what I have been told. One of the things that made this year so fun was Zac's costume. He let me talk him into dressing up as a nerd! He looked GREAT! Toni wanted to be something other than a witch again this year...but she had some crazy idea about running around with an air rifle! When I gave her a solid "NO!" on this idea, she called Dan and cried, saying "Mom won't let me creative!" (Imagine this with some great drama sobs attached to it) Zeke decided 45 minutes before we left that he no longer wanted to be a Jedi Knight but rather a pirate! As you can see by the pictures, I also won this battle. Did I mention, I am a mean mom? Speaking of moms, MY Mom came over to my house with Aden & Jocelyn and hung out there trick or treating with us for a while. Jocelyn was mad at Toni because she couldn't keep up with her while Aden was busy telling all the candy givers how disappointed he was with their candy selection. But all in all it was a fun night and we were soooooo grateful for the dry, windless Halloween night!

Mothers Day again?

Ok, Dan left to go back to Utah yesterday and he will be there at least 10 days working. Somebody said that it stunk that he will be gone over mothers day, I say not so much! Mothers Day is just not that big of a deal to me. Anyway I have never gotten a whole day! In Relief Society this last week I heard a more accurate description of what it really is and that "Mother's Moment"! So, to my sweet mother and to all my sweet sisters and sisters- in -laws, Happy Mother's Moment!

This week the weather has been FANTASTIC! Also, Zeke had his EEG done and we should get the results back soon. We expect everything to be fine. We are getting ready for Toni's birthday in less than 10 days!

Here are some pictures of our Spring Break.

I am back

Just thought I would let you all know I am still alive. As usual, we have been busy getting set up again after yet another move. We have now been in our rental here in Camas since February 17th. Our kids are back into their old school Dorothy Fox Elementary which they love so much and we are back in our old Grass Valley ward with all our friends. We have been able to get Zeke a ton of assistance through the school as well as medically. So far we have found out that he is pretty delayed educationally, there is a strong possibility that he has some degree of ADHD as well as OCD but there appears to be nothing wrong genetically. YEAH! Zac and Toni have fallen right back in with their friends and activities and I have been called as Relief Society Secretary in our ward. Today Dan & I finally finished unpacking our office....next will be the garage, ugh! We have started getting used to the rain but we also appreciate it as it confirms that we are home. We have also picked out a new lot to build yet another home for ourselves and we have secured approx. 5-7 pre-sold custom home projects! Dan is still commuting back and forth to Utah. Business is doing well both here and there. Things are looking good for us for a change and we couldn't be happier or more feel blessed. We are truly happy to be what we feel to be our home.
Hopefully I can blog at least once a week....if we would just stop moving maybe I could do this more regularly. We will see!

Missionaries, Fasting and Other News.

Yesterday, I had a funny experience. There was a knock at my door and I answered it only to find the missionaries. We talked for a brief moment and I mentioned that we were LDS because I thought that they were out just tracting and happened to be in my neighborhood. One the missionaries said "So are you very active?" "Yes" I responded. He then asked "So you go to church every Sunday?" I said "Yes, almost every Sunday, why?" (I was kind of confused by their line of questioning.) The missionaries looked at each other and then said, "Oh, we must of got some wrong information." I said "Well, we just moved into the ward in the middle of October, and we have missed several Sundays going to different wards for family functions and then the holidays were here and family was in town and a couple of times we have been sick...but we go." Then I realized that we were REFERRED to the missionaries as an inactive family!!! My first instinct was to run and grab my wallet so I could show them I was a current temple recommend holder. But I refrained, instead I smiled sweetly and said "Oh, someone must be worried about us? How nice." They said yes, that someone had been worried about us. Then I told them we were getting ready to move back to Washington, and I quickly threw in that before we left Washington we helped baptize an entire family. They thanked me an asked me to pray last night to have a missionary experience (which I did) and they were on their way. I guess I should try and stick out a little more at church. That way I will get noticed and people won't "worry" about us. The only problem with that is that when you get noticed, you get assignments and callings! I guess there will be no more flying under the wire for me! Oh, well.

Moving on....

For the past little while, I have not felt as spiritual as I thought I should (I wonder why?). I realized that I wasn't looking toward my Heavenly Father as much as I should be, that I was trying to do it all on my own. So, this past weekend, I actually set some New Years Goals for once in my life, one of which was to fast every fast Sunday. Sounds pretty simple, huh! Well, I have always been terrible at fasting and I was glad to know that I was exempt from fasting while I was pregnant and nursing. I milked (no pun intended) this excuse for way to long considering Toni is 8 1/2 now. So this past Sunday was my first go at it. I was preparing for this to be a very difficult day but, surprisingly, it wasn't. I truly felt that my Father in Heaven was blessing me to have a positive experience. I had fasted for 2 specific things, one of which was that the house in Vancouver would sell. I am happy to report that last night we got an offer on the house. Even if this offer doesn't go through I have been taught an important lesson in faith and reliance on our Lord. I was once again reminded that even I can be acknowledged by the Lord and he does look out for me each and every day. All I have to do is ask and he will provide (maybe not always exactly what I ask for) and he will comfort me.

Other news:

• Business is doing great!
• My landlord agreed to let us out of lease early. He said we could leave at the end of February or when ever we got a new renter, which ever one came first. So, I have put a For Rent sign in the window and have advertised on Craig's List and KSL. Hopefully we will get results soon!
• All of our kids are on antibiotics! (Toni just has an antibiotic cream)
• Our kids have another swim meet on Saturday in Orem.
• I have not yet been flipped off, cut off or honked at this week by one of these crazy Utah drivers.
• But I did hit a cat ... that made me very sad.
• I found out I really don't need new tires for my car for another 10,000-20,000 miles! And I got new windshield wipers for my car. YEAH!!

Well, that's it for me today. Have a great day....I am off to vacuum, again!

Funny video you might like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJpAMXXGZ9o

SWIM MEET RESULTS UPDATE

Ok, we just got back the official results of the kids first swim meet here in Utah! There was about 5-7 different teams competing at this meet from across the Wasatch front area.

Zac swam in a 200 yard freestyle event and took 7th place overall with a time of 3:48.12. Then he swam a 50 yard breaststroke event and took 4th place overall with a time of 53.45.

Toni swam a 100 yard freestyle event and took 4th place overall with a time of 1:48.45 (which was only .98 of a second from the 3rd place time and 2.51 seconds from the 2nd place time). Then she swam a 50 yard backstroke event and again took 4th place overall with a time of 57.72 (which was only 2.31 seconds away from the 3rd place time). It turns out they didn't DQ her after all!

Way to go kids!! I am so proud of them.....now they (and I) can't wait for the next meet.

Hunting Trip

Here we are the second day of the new year! I love new beginnings. We just finished up our year 2006 with a bang like always. Dan & I celebrated our 14Th year of marriage and Zac turned 11! He is so big!

Dan took him with him to Washington to go do some business but also to go goose hunting. Zac was so excited. He said this was his best birthday ever! They have done a lot to get prepared to go hunting....taken classes, tests on identifying birds, getting licenses, equipment and etc. Zac went pheasant hunting in Oct and got both a hen and a rooster. He was very excited, so this time he was even more excited to see what he could do. They got up at 4am to get out there early to get a good blind. By the time they got there they were already taken. After a while they finally got what they thought was a goose. No, not a goose. Instead it was a sea bird called a Cormorant (see picture on the left). Turns out it is a protected bird and you aren't supposed to "get" them. Just to be clear, Dan was the one who shot it. They said it was the ugliest thing they had ever seen. Just to think about it makes Zac sick. I think he is done hunting for a little while. Mean while we are waiting for word as to if we will be fined or not. Keep your fingers crossed.

Something else that happened before the year was over is that Dan & I decided that our family's home truly is the northwest. We decided that we are going to move our family back to Camas Washington. This is our home and we have been away for too long. We anticipate moving back within the next 1-3 months. We have enjoyed being close to our family here in Utah and spending time with all of you. I have especially enjoyed getting to know Adam, Nate and those 2 beautiful girls of Ciria's. We love them all as well as the rest of our family... although I am partial to my side of the family. This is an important move for our kids. We have drug them around quite enough...with our gypsy spirits...they need to be settled. Especially our Zac he getting to an age where this is more important to his growth as he is about to enter middle school. We will continue doing business in both areas, so this means Dan will be traveling back and forth so I am sure we will be back to visit often. Again, wish us luck!

Happy 2007! I have a feeling it will be a great year!