THE END

I have run out of room. My blog is finished.
You can now find me at
Too Many To Count Two

lanamarieblog.blogspot.com

Monday, March 31, 2008

cough, sniff, drip and clear your throat

Allergies.

With our windows open to cool the house while we are working on our AC dilemma everyone is suffering.

Yuck.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

A new game

We had a fun Sunday. After church we went to the Roberts for dinner and had a great afternoon visiting and having fun together. Shalayna has been staying with them for the last few months and is leaving this week back to Utah so we wanted to get together before she left.

The kids played well and we looked at Cierra's wedding pictures and then they introduced us to Settlers of Catan. A very fun game, which I, by the way, won.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

trophy, soda and such

Yesterday I got to spend the day waiting around for the AC guy to come again. Ironically our AC worked fine until we got a cleaning special and these guys came round and found all these broken parts and started to "fix" it. Last week it was to the tune of $500. This week another $400 and we still have the other unit to work on. Most distressing. I am grateful that we can pay for it, I am just annoyed that it has to be paid for at all.

Last night we had a KBT at the Cooks. DH won the trophy! It was very exciting. More importantly everyone had a fun time and left with good feelings...unlike last month's blood bath.


Today was a typically busy Saturday. DH and J went on a hike with the venturing crew. He was teaching the girls how to use the GPS and they are in training for their hike this summer. They went 7+ miles today. Both J and DH reported that it was fun.

Meanwhile I had volleyball duty and the school carnival to attend. H enjoyed her game, I think. The team isn't very good but they are making improvements. The important thing is to have fun, of course the fun thing is to win but I guess we can't always win :)

After the game we headed over to the carnival. It wasn't very crowded when we arrived, which I was glad about since I was trying to keep track of everyone at the same time. The kids played games. Lu won a bottle of soda by throwing a ring on it. E and H had to give it a second try but only got candy. E did do great at throwing the other things and so did H. They bounced in the bouncing houses, bid on silent auction baskets, ate carnival food and H got her hair sprayed purple and orange.

Tonight S and J and I are going to the Young Women's Broadcast, which I am looking forward to. My only wish is that Dani were here to go with us.

After the carnival we had to stop at Wal-mart. When we were walking out there was a big commotion. We heard something about a fist fight or something. Great. I had everyone hop on the basket (or buggie if you are a true texan) and went for the far door to try and avoid the crowds. What it actually was though was a man, handsome and well dressed, being held to the wall by 3 workers. He had been shoplifting and they were waiting for the police to arrive. It made my stomach drop to see them, then I noticed he was yelling "where are my kids? someone get my kids". We turned the corner and there were four little kids (also well dressed and cute). The oldest boy was talking on the cell phone telling someone they needed to come get them cause dad was going to jail. The little girl was crying. It was awful. There were a couple of girls from the optometrists office helping them so I didn't stop. Plus my kids were now scared and crying. It was an awful scene. I was thinking for the $30 item, or $100 or whatever it was this man has traumatized his children. They will forever remember him being held to the wall and waiting for someone to get them and being scared. So sad.

Friday, March 28, 2008

from greater minds than mine

I got an email from Uncle Brian this morning that cracked me up. After I read it I had to read it out loud to my parents and we all laughed. Then I decided it was worth sharing. Hope he doesn't mind :)

...
I noticed your blog comment on geography. A couple personal notes:
- Which spelling? Their spelling, our spelling, the State Department's spelling, their language letters or ours, etc.? For example, is it Germany, Deutschland, or FDR (Federal Republic of Germany)? Is it China or PRC (People's Republic of China)? Is it England, Britain, Great Britain, United Kingdom, or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? Is it Siam or Thailand? Switzerland or Helvetia? I got interested when I tried stamp collecting many years ago -- why did countries spell their names on their stamps that way? (And today, why is the internet domain code for Spain es, for example, or Switzerland ch?)
- How many countries? We had an office argument about countries a few years ago, and I did some research. There is no official formal agreement on what constitutes a 'country', and consequently no agreement on how many there are. There have been members of the UN that were not countries, and countries that were not in the UN. Is Puerto Rica a country? How about the Knights of Malta? (I believe they occupy an apartment in the Vatican these
days.) And how about the Vatican? The Antarctic? And lots of islands scattered about the Pacific that have various relationships with bigger countries, some of which they don't agree to. There used to be a deserted atoll in the Pacific that you could buy; would that make you a country?
It's a very interesting area to research. You wouldn't believe how many islands and island groups there are in the Pacific. (There used to be a web site that listed them, with maps.) Geography is a good topic to turn kids loose on.
BrianT

Thursday, March 27, 2008

uh oh back to geography 101 for me








in my defense, they only accepted countries whose names you spell correctly. I think I could have doubled that if spelling didn't count.
still shameful but a bit better

I missed 232 countries, wow!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

middle of the week

today was dental health day. Otherwise known as bi-annual torture day. Today was no better than any other. Maybe a little worse. I found out this week that our dentist will no longer be accepting our insurance plan. Our dentist is barely adequate as it is, now we are stuck with Monarch dental or other such group, which I do not want to go to. Luckily we've all gone this year and we can switch to a nicer (read: more expensive) plan in the fall and then pick who we want to go to without too much of a time gap. We do have two dentists in our ward, I am pretty sure I don't want to go to them though. Not that I think they are bad, I am sure they aren't. I just prefer to have a stranger tell me that I need to floss, instead of a friend.
My hygienist today was the one I always get. She's real nice and we always have a nice, albeit one wayish chat. She chats and I say uhhh, ohhh, mmm, hhh until it's time to spit then I spit and quickly answer the ten questions she asked me and open again for the next round. Unfortunately for her, and today for me, her husband cheated on her and left her after 12 happy years of marriage and all though she's "over it", I got a very thorough cleaning between sniffs and jabs that left me bloody, and sympathetic.

I hate the dentist, and men.

Neither J nor I have cavities. DH got gold star on Monday and H goes next week. S has a small cavity.

Before the dentist I made funeral potatoes for MollieAnne's funeral. After the dentist I made a spiderman cake and spring swirl cake for brother's carnival. No photos because I watch Ace of Cakes and know what a good cake looks like and this was not it :)

Lu got to play with K and P while I was at the dentist, thank you Nikko.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

cute kid stuff

Lu keeps asking me to teach her to read. She loves "boups" and often will read stories to her babies. I guess I'll teach her...or try to anyway. I don't know if she's really ready, I guess we'll see.
a line up of little guys is a common sight around here. I often find army
men in a row behind the couch or jedi's on the buffet or in this case dragons~ battle ready, under the kitchen cabinet. I think it's so cute. I'm going to miss that when he's too big.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Easter Slide Show


I don't know why S and J are sideways. They were not when I made the slide show, nor are they when I go into it to edit. Annoying.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

The hunt




Happy Easter

Everyone looked nice....some didn't want to take a picture though :)

the one shot we have of Lu on horse back.

see her little head poking out behind me. Fab-u-lous!

camping report

I just can not begin to rave enough about our fun trip to OK. We rented a cabin, which was so lovely. The kids were excited all week to go and ran around exclaiming in delight over all the details when we got there. It was beautiful and rustic and we had plenty of room and all the comforts of home.

I forgot how much a like state parks. I love the smell and the nice pathways and the sunshine and the rangers. It makes me feel like singing John Denver songs aloud and skipping around...which is what we did.

Highlights: playing outside around our cabin. The kids had a wonderful time. Bub had lots of bad guys to fight and sticks to fight with and guys to set up in battle.
The jacuzzi was wonderful and we went in it several times a day to relax and look at the trees or the stars and talk.

Sitting around the camp fire. Everyone enjoyed laughing and roasting marshmallows, reading aloud or listening, talking about our hopes, our family and God.

We enjoyed the several free museums and cabins and displays to look at.

It was cold but of course the kids couldn't resist the river. We took several nice hikes and wadded and climbed. We found a couple of geo caches and enjoyed the splendor of the outdoors.

Inside we painted Easter eggs, cooked, watched movies, and relaxed.

J brought her personal progress and she and I worked on it quite a bit. She now only has two projects left and she'll earn her medallion, which I am so excited about. The quiet time with no distractions was really nice and allowed us to have time for meaningful conversation and study.

I didn't get a chance to go to the library so I didn't have the book I wanted to read, which I was so sad about, but it turned out for the better since I looked around the cabin's library and found "A Purpose Driven Life", which I probably never would have other wise read, and read it (not all but I will go check it out now and read the rest) and I really liked it. It was very evangelistic in accent but had a lot of good ideas and I enjoyed the way it was written and the message it gave.
My one sadness was we went on a trail ride and I was really looking forward to taking everyone and especially of getting pictures of E and G on their first "horse back ride". They didn't allow cameras though, which made me annoyed. DH snuck ours in his pocket and did take some; however we didn't get any good ones. Lu was riding in a buddy saddle behind me and we have one where she's peeking around but it could have been a cute picture and instead we got a lot of horse butts and trees but nothing good.
The ride itself was highlight. Everyone enjoyed it. Brother was scared to do it but overcame his fear, rode Queenie all by himself and did great. Lu was scared and hanging on to me in the beginning and leaning over hitting trees with her hands and chatting a mile a minute by the end. I had to keep one hand on her pants to keep her in the saddle:)
H was a huge helper and so fun and everyone got along the whole time. At one point H said "I think we are having more fun than any other family in the world" which was a highlight for DH and I.

And, true to form, we had a mishap as well. It was our last day and we were eating our picnic lunch and planning our next hike when J said "it's almost not like a real vacation because no one has thrown up" Laughing by all. Not five minutes later H was complaining about a headache/stomach ache ran to the bathroom and ...explosion. Someone sick, check. It was a real U family trip :)


Saturday, March 22, 2008

beaver's bend, OK


Real quick, while I am waiting for my turn to hit the showers. We went "camping" this last week to OK. It was SOOOOO fun. Everyone had a great time.
but for now I stink and it's late so more later ;)


Wednesday, March 19, 2008

wordless (almost) wednesday Silly Girls




We took 51 shots last night, they were very silly and very fun. I need to figure out the best way to get them copies :)

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

last one




You Are Bert



Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you lovable - even if you don't love them!



You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you



You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil



How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

and another




You Belong in San Diego



Laid back and friendly, you were meant to live most of your life on the beach.

You usually think everything is "all good"... except when the weather dips under 60F.

You stay classy - especially when you're in Tijuana!

a quiz




What These Roses Say About You



You are a classic romantic who believes in true love.

You often experience deep emotions and feel warmth toward almost everyone.

You are a bundle of positive feelings and sweetness.

spring break~ so far

Yesterday we did some spring cleaning. We had an AC guy coming to look at our AC between 10-2. At 4 he arrived, an hour and a half before we were having friends over for FHE and St Patricks day dinner. Conveniently.

The AC repairs cost us $500+ so far, we have another unit that needs to be replaced and I don't even want to think about what that will cost.

Dinner was yummy~ corned beef, colcannon, green stuff, spinach salad and Tori brought a yummy apple carmel cake.

Then we sang, then we got into teams and made dioramas of our favorite scripture stories. Then the kids disappeared and we sat around and visited.

Today it's been pouring rain. We went to the movies and saw Spiderwick. Papa and I took E and H, Grandma kept G. S and J went to a different show. It was different than the movie, of course, but we enjoyed it and it wasn't annoyingly different, just different.

Tonight I have my Sunday School class over for pizza and Wii. Sadly or septic alarm has been blaring and when DH went out to look at it we discovered we had an emergency. The pump wasn't working. I was worried since we spent our life savings on the AC and really didn't want to repair anything else.
After some cold soggy time outside playing in the poop water I think they got it fixed...I hope. Gross. I hate having a septic system. It stinks. Literally.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Ward Conference


We had an awesome ward conference today. It was so uplifting and nourishing, I loved it. We had a youth speaker, Denise Mensink, who did a great job. She is so poised and mature. After her the Bishop spoke. He did a great job as well. As I was watching him I was thinking, here's this guy who we have known awhile now. Our families have been friends and I feel like I know him pretty well. I know his face. He has a kind face, a face that laughs easily, he's a kidder and he's clever and gentle. Those are all looks I know on his face. While he was speaking though I saw another face. A look I have seen now several times, but one that is still new. He has the look of a Bishop, not all the time but now and then he says something and his whole face changes, he has authority and I know he is speaking with the voice of God. His words are sharing with us the mind and the will of the Lord. What a blessing. What an awesome transformation to watch a man I know and like grow into a Bishop I love and follow. It's powerful.
After he spoke Tori sang. She has the voice of an angel, I always love when she sings, always, this song was one of her best. She sang "This is the Christ" and she was clear and perfect and the words were powerful and stirring. It was a wonderful experience. I am jealous, I can't sing at all and I will never be able to share my testimony with the strength that she can through music.
Pres. Hadley spoke next, and he was awesome too.
Then we went to Sunday School. My whole class brought their scriptures, first time ever. I had told them if that ever happened they could come over and play Wii so Tuesday night is the chosen time. They are excited. We had a fun lesson on feasting on the words of Christ. Last night J and Emma helped me make paper feast food, then I wrote verses and questions on the backs and we turned them over and read and discussed. It went well.
Lastly we had a combined Priesthood/Relief Society meeting. It was also really good. President Vigil, who I have always loved, spoke. Also Pres. Hollinger and President Hadley. They are all so loving and gave such great messages. I loved President Hollinger's remarks about setting the standard. He talked about high jumping. If you want to complete in the high jump you have to qualify but jumping 7 ft 3 and a 1/4 inches. Which is high. He showed a place on the wall that is that high. Then he talked about keeping the Lord's standards and how that keeps us close to him. Sometimes it seems like it can be too hard,who can jump 7 feet 3 1/4 inches, right? But the Lords standards can be kept by an 8 year old child getting ready to enter the waters of baptism, or a 19 year old young man leaving on a mission, or an adult ...anyone.
President Hadley talked about doing the simple things we need to to follow the Lord. He told a cute story about his car, it had lost it's knob to adjust the heat/AC on the car so it was stuck on hot. For awhile they had a pair of pliers to turn with but then they got lost and the family was stuck with hot air ...for two years, in TX. I can relate, how many silly things do we do because we don't realize how easy the fix is and then when we do it's like duh? Well finally he went to the store and asked about buying a new knob, turned out you could, you didn't have to go to the dealer or anything complex. And now they have hot and cool air. He then related Prayer to that, do that simple thing and get the fix you need in life. Very fun. All three men are interesting and inspiring speakers. It was a good day :)
And during the last hour I got to sit by my friend Joy and giggle with her over silly things...which can be dangerous but also fun :)
Yesterday's thing went well, so I was glad.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Tagged

B, the playful professional tagged me to do a meme. Since I am busy procrastinating...hey my workshop isn't for hours yet, I thought I'd go ahead and do it.

What I was doing 10 years ago:
I was engaged to DH. We were busy planning our wedding and getting to know each other. I was teaching 1st grade. I was getting ready to turn 30 and Ellen, Kim and I were planning on going to go see "RiverDance" in LA for the big event :) We "let" Dh and Al go too. It was very fun.

Five things on my To Do List today:
Come up with something brilliant so my dry boring talk will seem fun and sparkly
Watch H play volleyball
Go on a date
Drive J and Emma to Emma's house to take care of Scout, then back, then back again, then back here :)
Make sure everything is ready for an 8:30 start time for church manana.

Snacks I enjoy:
turtle chex, clementines, m&m's

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
pay for college for all the kids, take the whole family on an awesome vacation~ maybe even every year, buy shoes, save, give to a cause I believed in, .....have a big happy sigh that there would be no more money worries (or would there?)

Three of my bad habits: procrastinating, leaving wet towels on the bathroom floor, I don't always make my bed, even though I know if I was a more responsible person this would really bother me.

Five places I have lived:

San Fransisco CA, North Edwards CA, Lancaster CA, Palm Desert CA, Palmdale CA

Five jobs I've had:

Sales girl at Howard&Phils, the store that won the west. File Girl at Dr. Yegahni's office. babysitter. Scheduler for TYBRIN, and first grade teacher.

Five people I want to know more about (a nice way of saying TAG!): Cheri, Michelle, Charmela, Mom who just started her blog, and MSV.

Friday, March 14, 2008

sail away

The girls had a great time. Gretchen is such an awesome activity day leader, she always has the most fun activities planned and the girls all know that she loves them. I do not have enough good things to say about her and am so grateful that H has this opportunity to learn from her and spend time with her.



spring has sprung...I hope

It's been warmer. Last night we had soccer practice in our backyard and some of the dads even said it was hot. I wouldn't go so far but it is much warmer.
E has his Easter egg hunt at school today. I am sure that will be very fun. They didn't ask us to bring anything to the party....strange, I just realized that. I hope I didn't miss a message.

H gets to go sailing tonight with the activity day girls. She is really excited.

I get to spend the day inside writing a "talk", I've been asked to present a workshop for the regional singles conference tomorrow. I have to do it twice and my topic is "You are Not Alone" single parenting. Groan. I am really not looking forward to it. I have been thinking about it for two weeks but am still not sure what to talk about, I guess I'd better get seriously thinking. I think I am a strange choice because a) my girls were pretty little when we were single, D was 7-11, S 4-7 and J 2-5 and those are kind of easier ages. b) I missed a lot of the drama of who gets the kids when blah blah blah because I had them all the time and c) I kind of liked being single and at the time thought it was WAY easier than being married. Now that I am married again I wouldn't want to be single and there are many things that are easier with two parents...some that are easier with one though :) and d)I'm kind of a boring speaker.
Also I am not really one to dwell on the past. I don't wear a cancer survivor pin, or put angel wing babies avatars on my sidebar or attend blending families support groups or wear an "I have no hand eye coordination" tee shirts or.... Not that those are bad things I just prefer to look forward or to play Cleopatra "queen of denial" and ignore unpleasantness. So I've had to really think about what it was like then and try and remember. Too bad I didn't blog then :) It's been a strangeish experience to think about all that so much. What made it even weirder is Mark, the big girls father, who they hear from literally maybe 2-3 times a year, called to say he was getting married again and wants them to come. Which a) I like Bea, his long time girlfriend/live in a lot and wish them well b) great the girls are excited and they should go to the wedding c) we actually thought they were already married but weren't sure ~so how crazy is that d) it made me think she's lived with him for years and he's been nice enough that she wants to marry him now~ so why wasn't he nice to me? I am not that difficult to live with. You can't help but having guilt and regrets. I was thrilled to divorce him, don't be mistaken, but what a great gift it is to marry and stay married. For children to have two parents who love them, and take care of them and to miss all the drama of steps and exs and splitting holidays and all that. It still makes me mad.
Also, back to the beginning topic of the long ramble. Whether you are single or married or whatever you still want the same things for your children. Being a parent is still hard and still wonderful and still much the same so....

on a more cheerful note, Papa is painting J's room, She'll be thrilled. The sun is up and shining. That idiot Chet is finally off survivor, thank goodness and it's only 5 hours until the start of spring break!!!

Whoo Hoo!!

and I just read two fun books "Ready to Wed" about a southern girl who has a dream that she thinks is a message from God to move to this town called Acorn Hill and there she will find the man she is supposed to marry. So she moves, and it's very fun and cute what happens. And "Future Homemakers of America" the story of 6 air force wives stationed in England where their husbands are pilots and how their lives unfold. It's not all cheery but I enjoyed seeing how their friendship carried them through life's challenges and trails and the different paths they took. And I just got an email from the library telling me a book I've been wanting to read has finally come in "Austinland" so yeah something to read next week!!

And Happy Birthday Emma!!!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

a list, just for fun

activities the kids have participated in this school year :

Lucy
Tuesday and Thursday morning preschool co op. Very fun.
Monday and Wednesday for the month of March only baby aerobics
Wednesday mornings mommy and me playgroup

Brother
karate (started last summer~ finished around Christmas time, I don't remember exactly when)
soccer fall and spring
kindergarten
and late spring this year he'll do baseball

H
Early Fall she took violin, singing and drama at TAFA and karate and horse back riding lessons
Switched to public school and continued with horses and karate
Stopped riding lessons at Christmas due to yucky weather, muddy ground and a too busy instructor
Now she's got karate and volleyball
Activity Days the whole time
She wants to go to summer camp and start back to riding (we'll see~ but most likely not)

J
piano lessons
drill team
YW
Seminary
School
venturing

S
working
school
seminary
YW
at school she's doing dance/gymnastics and art this year for fun and AP classes also for fun :)
stake youth committee

no wonder I am ready for summer and not activities!!

the big dilemma





Poor H had a huge dilemna. We are a busy family. We try and keep it to one activity per kid, not counting music lessons, but that still has us running a lot. H and DH have been taking karate togehter and that was her one. Brother started the whole karate thing, they joined and then he stopped karate and has been focusing on soccer.

However since first grade H has been asking to play volleyball. I have told her it doesn't start until 3rd grade. Well, third grade came and we didn't sign her up because we were doing karate. She was upset so I told her in the spring we'd try and work it in. Now it's spring and we worked it in, hopeing we wouldn't have too many conflicts.
Last night she had volleyball practice, her long awatied and practiced for belt test, and open house at school. She agonized about which to attend. I told her she could pick. She could do volleyball and then go over to open house. Or she could go to her belt test (which would take the entire time of both the other activities.) She finally, with great difficulty, and some hestitation, and a little nudge from her dad, choose karate.

Open House is a lot of fun. However we are in the classroom and involved with the kids education so I didn't think missing that was the end of the world. Today I am going to go in and pick her up and look at her stuff. It won't be the same but hopefully that will lessen the sting a little. I did feel bad about missing volleyball since the team hasn't been able to practice. We will continue to work with her and she'll make the rest of the practicies.
Karate is a committment to more than yourself. You have to be there for others to progress as well since they needed her to spare against as well as she needing them to do the same. She has been a yellow belt for many months and has been working toward orange and this was the agreed upon date. I guess something always comes up and you have to pick.

At the end of the night she got her belt and was happy with her choice.

..brother however cried. He is jealous that he isn't an oragne belt and now wants to go back to karate. He didn't really like going when he did go however. I always had to persuade him to get ready and go and he cried about being gone too long and missing me. I do not have that problem with soccer. Also he is signed up to start baseball as soon as the soccer season is over so I am not at all anxious to sign him up.

boxes



It's always an exciting day around here when the doorbell rings and we find a box waiting for us. Nana is great at sending surprises!

Yesterday we had such a day! There was a box filled with shirts from American Eagle and Abecrombie and Fitch. A co worker's daughter was done with them and gave them to Nana who sent them to us. They were in great shape! a perfect fit! and from the stores J loves best. She scored! and was very happy. She is itching to head to the mall over spring break and to buy some shorts to go with them and she's all set for summer. Yeah!

The little kids also got some new outfits for summer. They tried them on, everything fit (shocker) and they liked everything. Whoo Hoo! Now we just need some warm weather to go with our warm weather clothes and we are in business. ....I did hear a rumour that things will be warming up soon and just in case H and E both wore new clothes to school (under their jackets) :)

a boy and his Papa


Brother loves Papa, of course.
Last night they went out in the backyard together. Papa was teaching bub some "tricks" on the swing set. Every now and then E would run in and make me come out and look. He was laughing his head off and would say "this one is really hard, and it hurts...it's so fun" Crazy boy thing I guess. If it's hard and it hurts it must be worth doing :)

Monday, March 10, 2008

this little kisser is having a birthday!


Happy Birthday to my little sister!! She is awesome!!! Go wish her a happy birthday :)

Abba's Visit

coming to visit us is very exciting! You get to do fun things like:

hammer things,


play piano duets,



eat yummy food with three kids on your lap,


participate in family talent shows,






read betime stories,
and most importantly get your butt totally whooped by lose at wii bowling to your daughter in law :)

I hate springing forward

that's all.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

State Champs!!




karate, soccer, dance and volleyball..it's all in a days drive:)

Weekend. Abba was supposed to come visit on his way to a conference in Houston. Then he got sick and they got dumped on in the snow department so he wasn't going to come. Then he felt a little better and the plane was de-iced and he got to come after all! Yeah!

Last night we went to the library and PFChangs on our date. It was very fun.

Today we had H's first volleyball game. If she looks clueless it's because they never had a practice and she hadn't met her coach or teammates before this morning.
Not the coach's fault BTW. The Y is very disorganized in the youth sports program and it drives us nuts. DH switched from Y soccer to EMSA for this very reason. H has been begging to try volleyball though so we decided to give it a try. They girls were creamed but they 'll get to practice this week and the coach seems real nice so hopefully it will be a good season. After the game DH and H went to Wal-mart and bought a volleyball and he worked with her in the yard. We'll try and play a little each day to help out.

Soccer was canceled because of muddy field.

Abba arrived and we went to watch H and DH spar at karate. They are both getting much better. Hopefully they'll get their next belts soon.

Tonight H is going to Emmaline's American Girl Mystery party. J is at state dance competition today, I hope they win.

We finally have our Easter decor out. Tonight I am making Hawaiian Haystacks and Kauai Krunch Kake. Can you tell what's on my brain?