HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEA!

Today is my Sister, Heather's birthday. She is #3 of the 8, and my next oldest sibling. She's 4 1/2 years older than me and growing up I idolized her.

From the time I was a young girl I always remember sharing a room with Heather and sometimes Wendi also. I remember when they included me in playing house. I don't remember much of the game, but I do remember when Wendi brought pizza into our bedroom and the 3 of us ate it. I felt like a big kid.

When I was a little older, Heather and I would play beauty shop in my mom's in-home beauty salaon. We would do each other's hair and make-up. I would get to do her hair first and I would do my very best work on her make up. When it was my turn, I would make her promise NOT to put mascara my eyebrows..AGAIN! (Like she did everytime.) Each time she would promise and I'd sit still while she her 'magic.' After I had my mascara on, I'd think I was done and then it would happen. She'd say, hold one, almost done and then I'd feel it...the mascara brush going through my eyebrows! I'd get mad at her, she'd laugh histerically. I'd tell on her, my mom would remind me that I didn't have to let her put the make up on me and then I'd be sad with ugly makeup and caked on eyebrows.

About 3 years ago I was at my Mom and Dad's house and Heather, Gina and I were staying up late in Gina's room, going through her stuff and listening to her music. I was doing my own makeup this night and I saw that Gina had clear mascara. I tried ito n my eyelashes and then for the good old time (IT WAS CLEAR REMEMBER) I applied it to 1 eyebrow. You couldn't tell a difference, but the feeling of the brush going through my brow brought back everything. I reminded Heather of that and Gina asked us to explain. Before I could, Heather told her the whole story about how I would make her hold still everytime we did makeup and I'd put it in her eyebrows...LIES!!! It was a fun time though...both when we were kids and that night 3 years ago.

When we were teenagers, we still shared a bedroom. We had many adventures in our room.

*We had pillows that spoke to us. Heather's pillow was Gomez, mine was Gessepi. They spoke in Italian/Mexican voices. When one of us would lay down on the pillow, our pillow would yell for help. We always laughed...I'm laughing right now thinking about it.

*One evening while talking about tatoos, one of us said that we had a tattoo. The other wanted proof. We'll call one of 'A' and the other 'B'. This way we are both incriminated but you don't know which one did what. haha!

A: I sometimes think about getting a tattoo.
B; I already have one!
A: No you don't...where is it? I want to see!
B: It's on my bum. Turn the light off and I'll show it to you.
A: ok. (A turns off the light, hears funny sounds in the dark, B turns the light back on)
B: See...just like I told you.

A then looks at B's bum and see a crooked smiley face that was hastily drawn on with a purple crayola marker.

* The bedroom that Heather and I shared was at one end our house and our parent's room was at the other end. We had 2 telephone lines in our home because of all the kids, my dad wanted to make sure he could get a hold of my mom. Sometimes late at night, we would listen to our music loud and if it was bothering my dad, he would call us from his room. We'd hear the phone ring in the hall right outside our door...and we'd ignore it. After about 15+ rings, we'd hear from down the hall 'ANSWER THE DA#% phone!' Heather would then calmly open the bedroom door, answer the phone and say, 'Any boy calling us this late at night is not worth talking to!' and then she'd hang up. 5 seconds later, Dad was in our room, telling us to turn the radio down. (SORRY DAD...AgAiN!)

After Hea (hay) got married, she would come over to our home many mornings after her husband went to work. I had graduated from HS and was doing my best to sleep in as often as possible. Many mornings I was woken up to her coming into my room and laying right on top of me, telling me to wake up because she was bored. IT got uncomfortable once she started to show in her pregnancy. HA HA

All growing up I only wanted to be like Heather. I would steal her clothes, try to fix my hair like hers, I wanted to hang out with her when her friends came over, and so on. I have looked up to her my whole life.

Now that we are adults I still look up to her but for different reasons. I love having spiritual conversations with her. I am envious of her knowledge of the gospel. We still love to laugh and joke and I am thankful that I have her as my sister and my friend. Heather, I hope you had an AWESOME Birthday! I love you and I miss living close. If I lived there, for your birthday I would take you to Azteca for toquitoes and rice and then Cold Stone afterwards. I'm sorry I'm not there. We'll go in January!

I have no new pictures of us together. I have a 'helper' working on that, so stay tuned for picturesin the NEAR future.

I AM SO HAPPY!!!

It's 10:38pm. Ken and Matthew have gone to Wichita to pick up a man from our ward who has been hospitalized for over a week. Nicole and I decided we were going to go to bed early because we are so tired. On my way to my room I notice she is carrying a stack of books. To many of my friends with children this is not an unusual sight. In our home, it is. I don't know where I've gone wrong as a mother, but neither of my kids like to read and IF we find a book that is interesting to them, once they've put in their 30 minutes a day, they are DONE...in the middle of the page, chapter or sentence, it doesn't matter. They don't like to read.

We get into my bed, and she opens this book, 'Love Your Friend, Hannah' by Minnie Skolsky and gets a couple of pages into it and is laughing! Nicole never laughs when she's reading books. I tell her we are turning the light off at 10 and I set us a timer. When it gets to 10, the weirdest and BEST thing happens!! Nicole asked if she could read a few more minutes. I told her to go ahead and finish her chapter. 10 minutes later, I ask her how far she has to go and she replies, 'Can you sleep with the light on?' I AM SO HAPPY!! Of course I say yes, I turn over to try to sleep, but seriously...she is so disruptive! She can't believe how funny this book is...AND she's asking QUESTIONS about stuff she reading in there!!!

I can't tell you how exciting this is for me! I feel like going on Amazon and buying every book written by this lady.

ps, she just asked me for a book report sheet because she WANTS to do one!! This is the first volunteer EVER in our home.

HOORAY!!

Random Thoughts...

You know the scripture in the Bible that says you can't serve 2 masters? This applies to more than whether or not you choose to live your life in a Christ like manner or whether you choose another course.

When I got on the internet last night I decided to look at my blog. I was shocked to see that I had not posted anything in 3 WEEKS!!! Where had all my time gone? What was I doing?

I'll tell you what I was doing...FACEBOOK! I've been a little obsessed lately.

Sorry all these posts are late...scroll down and you'll see what we've been up to the last little bit.

ttfn...I'm off to Facebook.

Cub Scout Advancement

A couple weeks ago, Matthew received his Bear Advancement in Cub Scouts and he is now a Webelow. I received my 3rd and final pin from him. He now attends with the older boys and will get his Tan Uniform. He's talking about the Arrow of Light Award and then being an Eagle.

I am so happy that is loves scouts and has a drive of his own that I just have to help him along the way. I don't know how well he'd do if I had to push him the whole time. I'd like to think it's a battle I'd choose, but I just don't know.

WAY TO GO MATTHEW!! I LOVE YOU!

Goodbye little furballs!

We got rid of all the kittens and their Mama too. They all went to a nice little farm north of town. I'm sure they are loving it there, but truthfully...I don't really care. I'm just glad they're gone and we are cat free. I do NOT heart cats.

Nicole's Birthday Cake

I have been blessed with many talents that I enjoy using. Cake decorating is NOT one of them. However, I am not willing to purchase a cake from the store that is professionally decorated because I think they are #1 disgusting, and #2 WAY TOO EXPENSIVE! But if they were good, I just may splurge 4 times a year. Anyway, they are not so I don't.

That being said, my kids get blessed with a homemade cake (courtesy of Betty Crocker or Pillsbury) and it's decorated however they want...that means, they tell me what they want, I draw a picture of it, and then it never looks the way I want it to.

So, here's Nicole's cake. She loved it. I thought it tasted good. Can you even tell what it is supposed to be??

an apron. I didn't leave her any strings. MUHAHAH!!

More little boy antics...

yes, this balloon is full of water.

yes, those are potatoes in the handcuffs.

Floating the River...or not

Our next door neighbors have been giving us TONS of cucumbers this last couple of weeks. I hate cucumbers. I have cut them up and soaked them in vinegar. I've put them on my salads and dipped them in ranch. They are one of those food that you don't even want to chew up if you taste it, I'd rather just spit it out on my plate. However, I also don't want ot be wasteful.

The other day I called my Mom after they brought us 15 more in a grocery bag and asked her what I could do with them. She reminded me of when we used to make cucumber boats in Idaho and float them down the stream near our house. So that is what we did with 3 of them after we had a 15 minute flash flood the other day. It provided just enough water to give us a nice little 'stream' in front of the house.

We hallowed them out and stuck army guys in them. Nicole contrubited Cinderella's mice and Bruno.

They really do float!

...unless you push it down with your foot, and then it will capsize.

**no army guys, mice or dogs were harmed in this activity.

BAD DOG!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!!

My little brother Kyle turned 20 on July 14th. He is currently serving his Mission in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission. He was in Harrisburg, but there's been a recent merge in missions. Here are a few memories about Kyle, I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. I don't OWN any of him...weird!

When I found out my Mom was pregnant with Kyle I was super excited and then really nervous I was going to have another sister. While some of my siblings talked and hoped for a girl I prayed and kept quiet about really wanting a brother. We didn't know until he was born what his gender would be and when my Dad called from the hospital to tell us he was a boy I started crying I was happy. He is the caboose of 8 kids...4 girls and 4 boys.

My mom had to go to work shortly after he was born because my Dad has recently lost his job. She had an office job in the late night hours and so I was left in charge to watch the baby and get him his bottle. I don't think she had to work for very long...a few weeks if I remember correctly, but during this time I loved acting like the Mom. I could boss Garen, Adam and Gina and I got to feed the baby.

I was a senior in HS when Kyle started Kindergarten. I had a.m. classes and I got home each day in time to take him to school. I often times enjoyed taking him, sometimes I complained that he should just walk...it wasn't that far!

When I got my first job I spent A LOT of my paychecks buying power ranger toys for Kyle. I loved seeing him happy. Please note that I was not the only person buying him stuff. It seemed that we ALL liked to buy him things...he was spoiled.

I got married shortly after Kyle turned 8, so although I don't feel like we are strangers, I also don't feel like we are super close. As he has gotten older I have enjoyed getting to know him each time I visited home. I am always surprised at how tall he is getting and each birthday he has I can't believe how old he is.

When Kyle was little he had quite the speach problems. A couple of my favorite things he said were:

One day he called from school and asked for a ride home. I told him to walk. (He was no longer in Kindergarten) He replied to me: Dedwa! It's powing down wain! I told him so what and mom made me go pick him up.

I was driving from W. Bremerton to Poulsbo Wa on highway 3 and I was speeding. I rounded the corner by the exit to go to the Scout Shop (Can't remember the name now) and there was a State Trooper right there. There was no way I wasn't going to get stopped. Immediately I started repeating my favorite 4 letter word for situations like this and I heard from the back seat, 'Dedwa, no sweawing.'

Through out the next several years and as recently as last week, I have said, 'It's powing down wain!' and I have said _______, no sweawing!

Kyle, I love you! I am so happy that you are on your mission and doing what Heavenly Father wants you to be doing. You are a good and obediant boy and I know that you are helping people and bringing them closer to Jesus Christ! KEep up the AWESOME work!

My BEST Girl turned 11!!

On July 13, Nicole turned 11 years old. She was so excited and happy and I felt a little sad inside. It stinks how fast they grow up! Here are a few pictures of my sweet girl just to show you how she's grown and how dang pretty she is! I LOVE YOU NICOLE!

WARNING!! Could be OFFENSIVE!!!

IF you choose to be offended that is...



This is the picture that was hanging above the ladies room at Red Robin in Topeka. HA HA HA HA!!! I'm sorry--ish, if you are offended. Angie and I laughed...every time we talked about it...for a few days even.

Red Robin

On our way home the next day from Kansas City, we went to lunch at Red Robin. Since both Nicole and Cameryn had a birthday coming up in the next week, we decided to celebrate it while we were there. The girls got free hot fudge sundaes and we were all too full to finish them.

What Happens When...

...you feed a little girl a huge serving of Cold Stone Ice Cream at 10:30 p.m.??

What goes up...must come down! She fell asleep about 90 seconds after the last picture wa taken.

Nicole and Cameryn

Random pictures of the girls, taken during intermission at the MoTab.

MoTab and Fondue in Kansas City, MO

In June Nicole and I along with my friend Angie and her daughter Cameryn went to Kansas City, Missouri for see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform. It was AWESOME! While we were there we also went to dinner at the Melting Pot, my MOST FAVORITE RESTARAUNT OF ALL TIME!!!

small talk

Today while Nicole and I were doing the dishes together we got to visit alot.  Here are a couple of our short conversations.   Nicole: Mom, I'm glad you're not like Cinderella's wicked stepmother. Me: How come? Nicole: You'd make me work all day and then I still couldn't go to the pool later.  Also, she's really ugly! (2 points for my best girl!!) ***** Nicole: Mom? Is it hard being the Mom? Me: Yes, it is sometimes. Nicole: Why? Me: It takes alot of work and sometimes the kids aren't always happy with you or the work you've done, the pay is lousy and you do it because you want to. Nicole: You even have to do it when you don't want.  Just like I don't want to clean my room, but I have to. Me: That's right. *****   I love her and her insights.  What a sweet girl she is.