This and That IV

*Ken is home from Emporia...TO STAY! hopefully. He's been away from home 33 days since March 1st.
*I have to go to the dentist tomorrow, the first time since we lived in Grandview, Washington...6 years ago. I was excited about it...not so much anymore.
*Matthew also has to go to the dentist tomorrow, it's his last appointment before he enters the wonderful world of orthadontia! Yea Head Gear!
*The kids are in Summer School for the month of June. Mon.-Thurs. 8-12. Nicole loves it, Matthew thinks they invented it just to torture him.
*While Ken was gone last week for 4 days I had a few of my friends over to stamp with me. When I say a few, I mean that my house pretty much had a revolving door for the 4 days. At least 7 hours each day I had 1 friend, sometimes up to 3 over, with our without their children and we played. I stamped for 35 hours!! It was so much fun.
*I'm going to start selling Stampin' Up again, hopefully beginning this fall. I LOVED selling it! I was good at it and I actually made money. I actually spent all the money on more stamps, but I did make money! The only reason I quit was because we had just moved to ORegon and I didn't know how to continue my business when I didn't know anyone. I didn't want to bombard the girls in my ward...I needed friends! So anyway, I'm super excited about it.
*My little brother is moving to Cheboygan Michigan and he'll be visiting next Wednesday. I haven't seen him in at least 3 years, so that should be fun.
*Nicole and I rented the movie Penelope with Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon. It was super cute! Rent it. You'll like it. You can also watch it instantly on Netflix if you have that.
*Nicole was so excited to see Home Depot, she took a picture of it and asked if we could go in and look at the paint choices. I LOVE HER!
I think that's all for now!

Highlights from Matthew's Birthday...

Matthew wanted Steak and French Fries for dinner, so that's what he got. I think he was hoping for the Applebees variety, but this tasted a lot better.

Matthew is an airplane FANATIC! He knows a ton of stuff about aviation and what he doesn't know, he has no problem making up as he goes along. This is his cake. I just looked at alot of pictures on google at airports and made it up. When he looked at it he informed me that it's a taxi-way and a landing pad. I knew about the landing pad. MAF is the code for his Airport...Matthew's Air Field.

It was a fun night. He loved the gifts he recieved and after we were done with cake, we rushed him over to the church for Cub Scouts. He's now a Weblo.

Riding Backwards Takes More Skill. ?

While we were at the Patee Museum, some of the kids wanted their picture taken on a horse in front of the Carousel. My nephew, Devon wanted his pic taken, but he rode it backwards, because that takes more skill.

I told him he was right, it does take alot of skill to drive a horse's behind. I thought I was clever.

A Super Fun Day!

Yesterday I was able to spend the WHOLE DAY with my Sister, Wendi and her famdango. They have been on vacation in Missouri/Illinois/Iowa/etc for the last week and when they got to Kansas City for a couple of nights we went over to see them. The kids and I picked Ken up from Emporia on Monday and then drove over to KCK to spend the night and then the day with them.

The night we got there we went swimming and ordered pizza.

The next morning we went to Leavenworth, KS. We saw the Federal Penn and were able to get on base. Larry (My Brother in Law) said it was the easiest base he's ever gotten on. He works on a Military Base in Washington.

While we were on the base we were able to go to the Ft. Leavenworth Museum, see the National Cemetary, we got a tour of a base housing neighborhood(Courtesy of Ken's shortcut LOL!), and while en route, Wendi got to take a photo of the Base Fire Station.

Next we went to St. Joseph, MO and toured the Patee Museum. It was AWESOME! The picture of our famdango at the top of the blog right now was taken in that museum in front of an old horse pulled hearse. It was awesome. A little morbid side note...there was a toe pincher casket in that hearse that was child sized and they had a doll in it that you could see. Weird!

We were able to visit the Fire Museum in St. Jo as well. I enjoy seeing Fire Trucks. I like lights and sirens as much as the next person. I'm not going to lie...I'm a gawker when it comes to accidents on the road and I've followed a truck before. My BIL Larry is a Fireman. So was his Dad, so was his Grandpa. Larry LOVES seeing Fire Trucks. HoWeVeR, It was difficult to enjoy the tour guide who was79 (he told us),retired from a Fire Station, seriously quizzing Larry down about procedure and the names/job of each member of the crew. It was funny, he couldn't keep Wendi and I straight (Because we look so much a like! HA HA) and he didn't like Ken's profession (A Mortician)so he didn't talk to him much. That could be because when Tommy asked Ken if he was a Fireman too, he replie, "No, I'm a mortician. I step in when you're done.) Our 45 minutes tour could have lasted 3 minutes. When it was over, Larry went back with our guide, Tommy, and bought a shirt. The guide was persistant that I help Larry find the shirt that he wants and I told him he could get it himself. I reminded him I wasn't his wife...he never really figured it out. We all ended up leaving Larry there and we got the kids loaded back into our cars and then Ken said someone should probably rescue Larry, but no one was willing to go in! He came about 5 minutes later. It added some spice to our day.

The highlight of the day for me was when we went to Liberty Jail. It was my 2nd visit and I already can't wait to go back.

We got back to the hotel around 6 I think. We all went swimming again, then Ken and I left for home around 8-8:15. We got home at 1 O'clock this morning. It was a super fun day.

Happy Birthday to my BEST BOY!

Me: Matthew, are you excited for your birthday on Wednesday.
Matthew: Yes, but I'm not going to be single anymore!
Me: (puzzled) How come?
Matthew: (duh!) Because I'm going into the double digits!

Matthew is 10 years old today. This also means that for the next 40 days I'll have 2 10 year olds! Then Nicole will turn 11.

Happy Birthday Matthew! I love you more than you can even know.

Nicole got a haircut...

I LOVE IT!

Better late than never...

*I thought I posted this over a week ago!! It is even MORE late than I thought. SORRY GINA!

My sister, Gina, turned 23 about 6 months ago...Just kidding, on the 8th of May. At that time, my computer was still giving me grief, so I told Gina it would be a little late. I didn't think it'd be this late, but anyway...

Gina is my only sister younger than me. For most of her life I didn't enjoy having her around but once she got older and became a human we have become close friends.
Some of my favorite memories with her are:

*Singing primary songs opera stlye.
*She introduced me to Stuart when we were sitting in a restaraunt and she put her foot in my face at the booth and informed to 'say that into the microphone'
*I was with Gina the first time I ever...
-Went to Missouri.
-Rode to the top of the Space Needle.
-Did a photo shoot in a public place (Costco, in the camping area)
-Went to Multnomah Falls
-The list could continue...

Every year for the last 3 years Gina and I have taken our picture together at the beach. We didn't mean for this become a tradition, but it has and I look forward to the visit to WA and the
beach each year.

Gina I love you so much! I hope your birthday is amazing (was amazing) and that you know how awesome you are. I also hope that you were able to break away from your twilight books long enough to read this. :)

Here are some pics of Gina and I...

*This video is a rerun, but I LOVE IT!

This and That Volume 3

It seems that for the last 2 1/2 weeks or so I've felt a little burnt out on blogging. Instead of trying to add a post for each thing that I didn't tell you about I'm going to copy my friend Kate and just give you a list of notable events...

*May 22 was our last day of school. YAHOO!! The kids and I are so excited for the break.

~We bought a used swimming pool--3 1/2 feet deep and 14 inches in diameter. When we filled it in the back yard we noticed that land is not as level as we thought. So we drained the near 3000 gallons of water in the backyard and I'm digging a 14 x 14 whole, 4 inches down so we can level the ground and try again. It should be ready to be refilled TONIGHT!

>We have been living in a hotel room since Friday. Ken was called out of town last week and we followed him when school was out. We are going home today.

! I've been informed that bull snakes will most likely show up in my back yard this summer. If you know me AT ALL, you might know that this is a deal breaker and I will NOT be living in this home for a very long time. I asked the neighbor how to get rid of them and she said we just have to kill them with a shovel. Everyone pray that if a snake shows up, it is when Ken is HOME. I do not consider myself helpless. I can handle A LOT infact, but I do not do snakes. (I just tried to pull a site up to link to the type of snake but a picture popped up and seriously freaked me out. Look them up on your own if you're interested!)

+ I am surprised to tell you that I do not hate baby cats. Don't get confused into thinking that I like them, but I don't hate them! When we get home today their eyes shold be open. The kids are excited for that. I'm looking forward to giving them away in 5-7 weeks. Does anyone want a little orange furball? 3 boys and 2 girls are available.

A riveting game of FOOTBALL-ish.

D.A.R.E. Graduation

It's time to make up for 3 weeks of no blogging...These posts are out of order, but here is an update of what's been going on...



Nicole had DARE Graduation a few weeks ago. Below is the video of what she wrote about herself and the pictures of are of Nicole and her 5th Grade Teacher, Ms. Shelton. (The best teacher on the PLANET!)