FAIL!

Besides them turning out a little creepy looking and tasting sickeningly sweet,  they required the dexterity of a surgeon to place the nose and whispers. 

F+  

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Spring Break: The Boring Part....hopefully

It is my hope that I get to post a much more exciting account of the latter half of our Spring Break week, but until then....a glimpse of us in all our boring glory.  :)


Reading BOB books in bed, since Mommy said not to get up too early....

Long walks enjoying the gorgeous mild temperatures....

Racing down the hill...

Playing some LAX with Spence with the old school wooden stick he used when he played for BYU a few eons ago....

Spence and his new fangled metal and plastic stick, happy to shoot around with Dad....

Rocky eating up the attention of the kids being home all day and occasionally putting up with a girly makeover...

Adam wondering if the leaf could double as an umbrella, should the rain start....again.

And then there's me, bravely trying to keep my sanity while entertaining kids, arranging playdates, trying to make some headway on the house, and getting ready for Easter. 

Coming soon....either another very boring post or an awesome account of our first ever trip to Philly. 

Feel free to shower me with your best Philadelphia travel tips, since if you can't tell, I'm kind of hoping for the Philly trip.  :)

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Peeping at Pure Awesomeness

Doo, doo, doo, dee, doo...

I'm just walking around minding my own business.  

La, la, la, la...

HOLY PEEPING COW!!!!!!!!!!!

What is that beautiful splash of color adorning the lovely, classic style doorway? 

I must get a closer peep at that radiating loveliness. 

Golly gee!   I just can't get over the fantastical usage of the pastel pallet in this peeping sublime work of art.  

Whoa!  Check it out my peeps!   I think that this ethereal piece of artwork is hanging on MY DOOR! 

Just peep at the exquisitely lovely details on this beautimous creation...

Now, if I could just figure out how to keep the pests out of our peeping awesome Easter decor....

 Homeschool or not....art projects don't come any more peepilicious than this....

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Coolest Field Trip Ever...

Reason #9873 why we living near DC is so darn AWESOME.....

The Field Trips!!!!!

And today's field trip was about as cool as they come.... 


A whole line-up of Cub Scouts waiting in the hallway of Dulles airport...

to greet a bus full of WWII veterans who'd flown into town for a ceremony at the WWII Memorial in DC.

The looks on the veteran's faces when they saw the boys and heard their enthusiastic, "Thank you for serving our country." was a sight I'll never forget. 

Look at that joy...

and the pride in their country...

I was thrilled to have Ellie and Emma with me as well to participate in the amazing experience. 

If it hadn't been youth temple night tonight, I would have happily brought the whole family to show honor to our veterans.

In the end the scouts gathered round the veterans and sang, "God Bless America." 

What an unforgettable night...for me, for the boys, and for the veterans. 

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

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Family Home Evening in the Fast Lane

Part 1:  A trip to the school to see Emma's science fair project.  "Spritz! The Effect of Different Household Cleaners on Different Household Stains"  where they proved that Windex worked the best and that vinegar and water was equally effective as the eco-friendly Seventh Generation brand.    In other words, if you're going with organic cleaners, you may as well save your money and just use vinegar and water. 

 Part 2:  (no pictures)  Easter lesson in the car with Adam teaching us about the Last Supper and Ellie chiming in about Christ's birth. 

Part 3:  A family trip to Red Mango for the best darn frozen yogurt ever.  I am a fan of the  Pomegranate flavor and the kids just like that they can serve themselves.   

I figure that the fact that we had FHE at all will hopefully make up for the fact that we hurriedly put the kids to bed as soon as we got home...skipping story time, so Glen could work on our taxes and I could make a small dent in the disaster that seems to have consumed our house ever since I started focusing on organizing our bedroom. 




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RIP: Faithful Desktop

Our desktop died this weekend.  It was a virus that wiped out everything, then turned the computer off by itself.    I will take it in to try to salvage it, but I feel pretty sure that it will never quite be the same.  

It's the first time in our history of being computer owners that we've ever had a computer lose everything and it's quite disconcerting. 

I am mad that there are stupid people out there who take pleasure in creating havoc with people's computers on purpose. 

I am relieved that most of the important things are backed up on a back-up hard drive...pictures, documents, etc.

I am worried about our I-Tunes, since I never could figure out how to back it up  to our back-up hard drive and we have a lot of songs on there.

I am kicking myself that I didn't renew our virus protection immediately, but instead let a couple of weeks go by before renewing it.  By then it was too late.   

I am sad about having to spend the money to buy a new computer. 

I am excited to have a fresh start with a fast new computer that doesn't slow down to a crawl every time I open my Adobe Photoshop Elements. 

I am so happy that my friend emailed me recently and asked me to email her my sacrament meeting program templates, so that I had them easily accessible in my email sent file on Saturday, rather than having to figure out how to transfer files from my back-up hard drive to my mac. 

I am also grateful for another friend who was willing to stay up late on a Saturday night and print the program for me, since my laptop has no way to connect to the printer. 

I am already annoyed at having to share my laptop with the whole family. 

RIP faithful desktop. :(

Spontaneous Girls Day Out

What do you do when your daughter's homeschooling Statesman class is canceled for the day? 

Clean the house? 

Nah.

Do your logic assignment?

Nah. 

Go running?

Nah.

Go on an educational field trip?

Nah. 

You throw caution to the wind and spontaneously go to the mall and have some grownup girl bonding time.....

....including some spontaneous new summer haircuts. 

I admit that it probably doesn't look to different to most of you, but I did get about 4 inches off and a some layers that give it a little more style.    I like the new light feeling! 

 The hairdresser scooped out a big scolding about my grown out roots and unhealthy home-dyed hair, but other than that I totally enjoyed the time with Cami and can proudly say that I spent less than $10 on our mall trip (other than the haircuts).

Now I'm thinking it's time to lock Cami up.  

That and equip Glen and Spence with some big sticks to shoo away the guys!





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A Fresh Start

While cleaning out the feng shui disaster we like to call our bedroom, I found some long-lost items, a few of which we'd almost given up hope of ever seeing again.  Forget the couch cushions....after 10 years in the same house, it seems that our bedroom is a collecting spot for junk from around the whole house. 

We found things like....

our TV remote (missing for months)
the GPS (found "filed" with the bills if you could call a drawer full of bills "filed")
the fingernail clippers (long since replaced)
an unopened letter from a friend who has since passed away (postmarked in October)
my favorite pair of jeans (yay!)
Glen's black fleece jacket (he was quite frustrated not to be able to take it with him to China)

Can you believe it actually said, "Goodbye" on the envelope? 
It made us sad that we'd never responded. 

So now that we've thrown away the junk, rediscovered some treasures, and have a fresh(er) start, I decided that it's time to take control.

I think I'll start by wearing my favorite jeans to bed and keeping the GPS in the car.  And maybe posting a sign like this on our door. 

I'm sure it will work, but on the off chance it doesn't I've also decided that a trip to Ikea might help too.   Any words of wisdom for me before I go?     




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super hard quiz

What's the best part about General Conference weekend? 
(see correct answer at the bottom)

a)  a week off from our church callings


b)  our Sunday morning traditional homemade doughnuts

 c)  the chance to work on some long-forgotten projects




d) the chance to stay in our pajamas all day

e)  the chance to snuggle and, um, relax for a couple of hours at a time

f)  or for those under age 10, the chance to expend a little energy

g)  the chance to listen to our prophet and other General Authorities testify of Christ and instruct us on how to be happier people

h)     All of the Above

Happy General Conference weekend! 

ǝʌoqɐ ǝɥʇ ɟo llɐ--ɥ    :zınb pɹɐɥ ɹǝdns ǝɥʇ oʇ ɹǝʍsuɐ

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This Week's Gratitude List

I'm grateful to be eating  April Fools' Day meatloaf cupcakes, while Glen is in China eating crocodile.  (he said it tasted like chewy chicken)...

I'm grateful for an up-to-date AAA membership that could come take care of our flat-as-a-pancake tire that happened the day Glen left town. 

 Oh yeah, and I'm also thankful for Glen's comfy coat that he left behind to keep me warm in all this cold drizzly weather. 


I'm grateful for fun food, like these "mashed potato" cupcakes.  They looked surprisingly realistic and were totally worth the cheat day. 

Which brings me to being grateful for holiday traditions, in general, although it is a little shocking at how many of them revolve around food at our house....

I'm grateful for amazing people that have made Cami's year of homeschool all the more fabulous.  This is a glimpse at her Statesman class, which was 1000% better education than any public school social studies class ever could have been. 

I'm grateful for modern technology, because I love technology, but not as much as Glen, you see, but I still love technology.  Always and forever. 

Oh wait, I guess I got a bit distracted there.   

I'm grateful for the technology that makes it possible for Glen and I to exchange texts while he's in China. 

And I'm also grateful for friends that would never judge me based on the number of fingerprints that happen to be on my phone's screen right now. 



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