Can Somebody help that girl?!

How did I not know that Nicole didn't know how to use an umbrella? I guess it kind of does make sense though. Even though we are from the beautiful & RAINY pacific northwest, a mojority of the people there don't own umbrellas. I was included in the majority when we lived there. The other day it was pouring down rain and Ken had an umbrella in his van that he uses for Funerals. Nicole asked if she could use it to come into the house after school and he didn't mind. She never did get it open. To her defense it is a huge umbrella. Our whole family could fit under it if it was opened properly. It just struck me as funny.

My Friend Jessica...part 2

This is my friend Jessica. Hopefully after she watches this video she will still be my friend! Anyway, here is a montage of her at my house last Saturday. She has some amazing skills and I love her!

Eating lunch with my kiddos

For the last 2 days I have had the opportunity to eat lunch with my kids at school. I ate with Nicole and the 5th graders yesterday, and Matthew and the 4th graders today. I remember when my kids were in Kindergarten and First Grade. They wanted me and Ken to come to school and eat with them and it was awesome for them and I felt pretty darn good too. All those little kids love you. Now, as they get older my kids still want us to come eat with them, but I felt like they were embarrassed while we were eating. We visited and the kids were all really talkative, but for Nicole's class, when the boys started showing off (pouring ketchup in milk and drinking it as fast as they can) Nicole got really embarrassed. Matthew was a little bit uncomfortable because they have to sit ABC order by last name and he was surrounded by girls. I'm glad I got to go and be with them, but I also felt bad for them too. Here is a picture of me with each of the kids.

I've been tagged...thanks Jen!

The rules are:

* Link to the person who tagged you (http://catchthecards.blogspot.com/)
* Post the rules on your blog
* Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself
* Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them
* Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
* Let the tagger know when your entry is posted

Weird things about myself, in no particular order:

1. I kill all plants. It doesn't matter if they are Cactus or regualr house plants, with or without flowers. I have killed a cactus because I didn't water it enough. I just received a beautiful plant last week and I have it in a place that gets alot of sunlight, I am giving it water each day and I even put googly eyes on it's pot, gave it a name and I talk nice to it...it's leaves are starting to wilt. (The googly eyes, name & talking to it might count as 3 more weird traits, but it's true nonetheless)

2. Whenever I get together with 2 of my 3 sisters, we talk with really bad mexican or italian accents. We also name inamimate objects and talk to each other using them as props. Example..When my sister Heather, and I shared a room when we were teenagers, we had pillows. Their names were Gomez and Gessepi. They would talk in accents and yell for help when we got into bed and used them. My sister Gina and I have dropped the props, we just talk to each other with the accents, often quoting movie lines to respond to each other.

3. I have the weekest gag reflex on the planet. You can talk about something gross or something that I may perceive as gross and I will dry heave. Watching people chew gum or eat is disgusting to me, expecially if I can see or hear it. I have to look away, think of something else and at times actually excuse myself so I don't throw up.

4.When I am in a state of emergency I get the giggles. An example...About 8 years ago my little brother got pulled over by the police. He did not have a driver's license. My mom called me, I lived .10 miles from her, and she asked me to give her a ride to my brother. I started laughing before I got off the phone with, I laughed all the way to her house and while we were picking up said brother. She actually yelled at me before I got them back home reminding me that is was NOT funny, but I couldn't help it. I laugh when I get really nervous or panic.

5. I am deathly afraid of Railroad Track/Trains and Zoos. Have you ever watched the cartoons when Wiley Coyote is getting ready to cross the tracks, he looks both ways and no trains are coming, then just as he touches the tracks he gets run over? I have that same fear! I have panic attacks when I cross tracks at night. As for Zoos, I am scared of all wild animals, even birds that come too close to me. I went with Ken and the kids to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle about 6 or 7 years ago and I was so scared after we went through the Rain Forest Exhibit we had to leave. I was certain there was going to be a poisonous Anaconda in the grass as we walked thru the outside part of the Zoo. I didn't go back to a zoo until March of THIS YEAR, and I took the kids by myself. I only have 2 kids, so it's not a big deal to take them anywhere by myself, but when we went to the Zoo, Matthew actually previewed each exhibit for me and told me when to look the other way, etc.

6. Lastly, I can not make plans too far into the future, especially for dinner guest or when taking trips. If I do, I plan so much and think about all the things we are going to do, and when the time comes to actually do the plans, I feel like I've done them already and I don't want to go. When I was a little girl, that was a good trait. I didn't need alot of friends because my imagination was enough. As an adult, it gets annoying (the Ken) when I cancel dinner 2 hours before our friends are supposed to come over, when I put off a trip the day we are supposed to go for 2 or 3 more days, then we are only gone 1 or 2 days. I have to live more spontaneously, the plans make me nervous unless it involves a broadway show! I think that is why my trip to Seattle this summer was such a success. I decided to take that trip 10 days before we left, and then we were gone for 4 1/2 weeks. I didn't have time to think up and mentally live everything I knew we were going to do on that trip. PS If I ever canceled dinner with you 2 hours before you were supposed to come over, I'm sorry. I'm still working on that one!!

TAG!!! You're IT!

1. Jessica Z.
2. Ben D.
3. Sarah C.
4. Amy T.
5. Gina A.
6. Courtney S.

My Sister, My Friend

Every time I get together with my family, there's always ALOT of pictures taken. A year or so ago, my sister, Gina, and I decided we were going to find a song that we both LOVE and then we'll take all the photos we have of us and put them to music. While I was at home this Summer, I did just that. We collected alot of pictures and then set them to music. This was the outcome.

I would start the video at :20 because the intro is long and boring.

It's Like Pulling Teeth

Okay, so it's not LIKE pulling teeth, it's Matthew pulling out his tooth. MAtthew has to get braces because he has many problems with his mouth. The first thing we noticed, about 7 years ago was that he has 5 teeth in the front on the bottom where he is only supposed to have 4. We thought that would straighten out when his adult teeth showed up, but he has a 5th adult tooth also.

One of the things they will be doing is pulling out one of those 5, then moving all his other teeth together so he won't have a huge gap right in front. That's not all though.

Alot of his teeth, also on bottom, are growing in sideways, and he has a mutant tooth. That means it grew in lopsided and it's rotten, and has been since it broke skin and came all the way out.

So we have met with the orthodontist and he told us Matthew's mouth is an ortho's dream come true becuase it is so messed up.

In January Matthew will be getting headgear to streatch and straighten out his gums, then the braces will follow. Before he gets his headgear he has to lose 3 teeth, all on top. I told the ortho we would get an appt with the dentist to have them pulled and Matthew panicked, he said he wants to pull them out himself.

Last night he came in my room and told me he was ready to pull the first one, but he wanted to wait until his Dad came hom so he could see it done. Then Matthew brought me the camara and asked me to just film it so he could get it out of his mouth.

Personally, I LOVE pulling teeth out and I like to wiggle loose teeth and I like to watch them come out, so I had NO problem doing this video. If you don't like any of those things, enjoy reading this, but don't watch the video.

I guess the video didn't work out after all, I have to actually accomplish something today, so I'll add the video on Monday. Have a great weekend!

The last one...Maybe

So while my family was in town, my good friend Jessica came over to play. After lunch we were making a list of things we needed to pick up from Walmart, and she said, we need 8 packs of bubble gum. Gina and I didn't understand because that is ALOT of bubble gum and we don't normally chew that kind. She said it's fun to put as many pieces in your mouth as you can and then try to talk. Okay, game on! Add it to the list. My Dad took the 3 of us to Walmart, we bought all the things we needed--Googly Eyes, Bubble Gum, I think my Dad got something from home electronics and so on. When we got home, we set up all out camaras on a bar stool and went to town chewing bubble yuck, watermelon flavored, bubble gum. Gina was able to get 5 pieces in her mouth (1 WHOLE PACKAGE!), I got 1 whole package too, but it was so big I was dry heaving ALOT...who knew I had such a small mouth? Jessica was a whole other story. The girl put 9 NINE!! pieces in her mouth and had room for more.

Now that we have the gum, it's time to shoot the footage..of what you may ask? We weren't sure when we started, but we knew we only had one chance because Gina and I were going to vomit if we had to chew all that gum for very long. So here is the footage. I'll spare you the part where they were taping me dry heaving while I was trying to get all that gum in my mouth, it wasn't pretty.

In case you were wondering, the encouraging commentary at about :30 is my Dad. He was out supervision for this activity...Enjoy the video. I know I may regret showing this one day, but it's too late...it's already on Youtube. Thanks Jess..again.

I'm almost done sharing these

Do I even need to explain anymore?

More Chin Videos

Okay, so you may get tired of these before they are over, but we took alot of footage and I feel the need to share most of them with you. Here are a few of them that don't fit onto the blog video because they are took big, so I had to put them on Youtube.