Merry Christmas

For unto us is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Repentance

May I apologize for the last blog. On Fri. the Reflections participants had an ice cream party. (That was what the "golden ticket" was for.) And they gave out medals at the party so there actually were"winners". I feel like such a "looser".

See what happens when I make snap judgments... I should at least wait a month and two days to see what will happen.

"Winners" and "Loosers"

Last month our youngest family member worked very hard to compose a song for the PTA Reflection "Contest". (Some of you might have heard it.) This is the recognition he (and every other participant) received. Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy. There were no "winner" and therefore no "non-winners". (See how politically correct I can be.)

What is wrong with people? Are we so worried that someone will feel "bad" that all competition should be eliminated? What an awful way to prepare our children for life.

Success and failure give us a chance to learn and develop character, which will benefit us our whole lives not just make us feel good for a moment. I want to teach my son that he has value regardless of his abilities.

There are MANY people who are better than me at MANY different things. That does not mean that I am less valuable. Or that just because I am not the best, I should give-up. That no one will like me unless I am perfect. Or if I work really hard at something I will always win. It means I can fail and I will still be alright. It means I am loved because of who I am, not how I measure up to someone else. And that when I succeed my friend and family rejoice with me.

Apparently this Reflections "Contest" isn't a useful tool for building character. Instead it demonstrated that A. my son is too weak to handle disappointment and/or B. that great art work should not be celebrated. Either way I think my son ended up "loosing" after all.

All I want for Christmas...

Do you know what your getting for Christmas? I'm not sure but I've had some hints.

As E. is watching Saturday morning cartoons he occasionally calls me in to see a commercial. "Do you want that Mom?" or "Watch this..."

Least you think he is selfish and thinking of getting me toys, I will give you a few examples: the ped-egg, water globes, the magic bullet. What's that? You don't know what any of those things are? You need to watch more cartoons.

And nobody will even need to take him shopping, all of these products can be purchased by mail order. And some of them even come with stuff thrown in for free!

Such a thoughtful son.

Confessions of a Slacker Mom

1. I forgot to take a picture of my only child in his Halloween costume.
2.I buy chocolates and nobody is allowed to eat them but me.
3. My bedtime stories consist of, "if I catch you reading after lights-out again this book is going straight back to the library and you won't find out how it ends!"
4. I never put sweets in E's lunch, even when I have them. They serve chocolate milk at school and I think that spoils the students enough.
5. I declined to be in the PTA this year.
6. we don't bake cookies, we just eat the dough.
7. I'm a poor sport when we play Monopoly.
8. I make E. wrap all presents. Because I don't like it.
9. E. wears his boots a size too large because I'm too cheap to buy them every year. E.: "But they're hard to run in."Mom:"You'll get use to it."
10. I did not make E. eat his vegetables last night.
and even knowing all of this I still enjoy myself.

Happy Halloween

Russell can be so helpful at this time of year. He was helping to carve the pumpkin all summer. I have named the jack-o-lantern "Scar Face" Later on Russell is going to help me make his famous poop-corn balls.

*********

Well the King of the Woodland is off to school, sorry no pictures just yet, I didn't think about it. Might be that I'm not a morning person...

On the menu for today:
Lunch
Bat sandwich and mummy's skin (fruit leather) Macey's is selling black and orange sandwich bread. I used the black bread and orange cheese to make Eric's sandwich this morning and cut it into a bat shape. "How spooky!"
Dinner
backbones
more mummy skin
eyes of newt
worms (on the black bread)
Russell's famous poop-corn balls
and some pumpkin pasta I made last year but forgot to serve so I saved it for this year instead, might be a little green...

Pictures to come later. Happy Haunting ;)

Happy Haunting

Witches Fingers
Use your favorite bread machine recipe for dough. Before adding the dry ingredients add 8 or so drops of green food coloring and stir. After the dough has risen once, form it into breadsticks. (we like to make ours lumpy, it looks like knuckles) Then press a sliced almond into one end. (Press it in really deep because when the bread rises it will push out some.) Brush with egg wash (1 egg and 2 tsp. water wisked together.) Bake as directed for rolls.


Baked Bones
Bones made from manicotti shells and mushrooms, blood tomato sauce, and cheese "marrow" make for this spooky and fun baked dish. Easy to put together and to make ahead of time, this is a great dinner party dish. Don't be tempted to omit the mushrooms even if you don't like them. They keep the manicotti rounded and "bony" looking.

14 manicotti shells
28 medium white mushrooms
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 eggs
2 pounds ricotta cheese
2 cups Parmesan cheese, divided
2 cups mozzarella cheese, divided
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
Salt
White pepper
3 cups favorite smooth tomato sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease individual baking dishes or a large baking dish. Cook the manicotti shells according to the package directions until al dente, but not too soft. Drain well and toss to remove most of the water. While the manicotti is cooking, clean the mushrooms well and toss with the lemon juice to prevent browning. Beat the eggs, ricotta, half the Parmesan, half the mozzarella, and the spices in a medium bowl until smooth. Pour the sauce into the prepared baking dish(es). Stuff the manicotti with the ricotta mixture using a long handled small spoon or a pastry bag and tip. The filling should be packed, but not so tightly that it cracks or breaks the shells. Add a mushroom to the end of each shell and place in the baking dish. Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and sprinkle the remaining cheeses over the bones. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the filling is hot and the cheese is melted. Serve hot. (The mushroom kind of fell out of the shells during baking so I recomend placing the "bones" close together so they can't fall out. I guess mushrooms shrink while baking.)

Makes 6 servings.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Three little words...

Hot Dog Flavoring,

think about it.

New Winter Fashions

Eric is one lucky kid. He got to wear his shorts and T-shirts all through Sept. But alas all good things come to an end. And so on this wash day the winter wear emerges from it's clearance rack cocoon.

And so the new clothes ritual begins, the snipping of tags, the pulling of stickers, the measuring of sizes... What's that you say, all sizes are created equal? Not so my friends, I have five different brands and three different numbers that are all the same size, and that's just the pants. And last but not least the dreaded color bleed test. Most years this is an uneventful test, but not this time. Sonoma must have moved production to China because all three Sonoma shirts failed the test. But not to worry. Red and Blue make purple so everything will have a nice lavender tint when it comes out of the wash. And you know how antiqueing is "in" right now, well the third shirt is brown. Maybe we'll start a new trend, who knows?

P.S. Don't get me started on the jeans. You can now buy them looking pre-worn so that you don't have to go through the work of wearing them out yourself. Fashion designers think of everything.

The Great Escape

Every morning Eric lets Russell the rabbit out of his hutch, to hop around in the back yard. Every evening he puts him back in so that the cats can't eat him. Most days I see him, but some days I don't.

I sent Eric out to put him away as usual on Thus. but he couldn't find him, and I couldn't find him, and Robert found this hole under the fence...

Nobody knew how long he had been out or where he had gone. After looking for about 15 min. I decided to look for clues. If he had been in the flower bed that day he probably ate the flowers. Sure enough there were missing flowers. So at least we knew which direction he has gone. Robert found him about 10 min. later at the house behind ours. We had a hard time trying to catch him. If Russell could talk, I'm sure he would have an evil laugh. You know he taunts us by washing his face as you get near, and just as you think you've got him he hops away. It's like a reverse game of tag. Half of the time he ends up hopping into his hutch by himself. (After Eric has chased him around the yard for 10 min.) Yes, I'm sure he has an evil laugh.

Although he really is a good natured rabbit, look at how he lets Eric carry him around.

Conference Confusion

This past Sunday we had regional conference. We went to our regular church to watch it on the satellite from the Conference Center.

Pres. Monson spoke at the end. After the closing pray I said, "lets go home." Eric said, "we don't have to stay for the next one? Can we watch it on TV at home?" It was then I realized that Eric was mistaking this conference for General Conference. I guess when you see the Prophet speaking from the Conf. Center it looks very much like General Conference.

Eric and the piano

Do your kids ever do things that just make you laugh? Here is one of Eric's.

So we are at piano lessons today, Eric has finished a set of piano books and his teacher bought him a new set. (I pay her back with his tuition.) As she pulls them out Eric lets out a happy little gasp. Who knew piano books would bring such joy to a little boy? He may just be sitting at his desk now, day dreaming about the new music he has. I'm sure it will take him twice as long to practice this afternoon because he has to look at all the pages of his new books.

I've also started hearing Christmas music coming from the piano this past week... I hope I make it to Dec. (You know his teacher hasn't assigned any Christmas music yet, it's him!)

Just got to love him, and his music!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!

Well its the second week of school and I think that we are back into the swing of things around here. Soccer games and practices, piano lessons, homework, etc. Today has been a nice and quite, and I don't have anything to do. Except the usual, cooking, cleaning, shopping, driving, hustling, bustling. But one thing that I want to get around to today is making a peach pie, I guess that means that I have to wash all the dishes because I can't cook in a dirty kitchen (weird but true). (Sigh) I hate washing dishes.

Don't you just love the fall weather we are having? I love this time of year. Eric wore his zip-off pants yesterday. (the kind that have zippers around the leg so that you can remove the bottom and turn them into shorts) He's so funny about them, of course they are much better than what he did in Kindergarten. He couldn't wear shorts on cooler days, so he would put a pair of shorts on under his pants (so I wouldn't know) and when he got warm at school he would just strip the pants off. I can just imagine what his teacher thought. But you know Eric.

Well, I haven't posted for a long time, because I've been a bit busy, and a bit lazy. Any way, I'm still feeling a bit lazy, so there will not be any pictures with this post. (Even though I have some, maybe next post I'll just put the pictures up so I can be lazy again. Sometimes my genius amazes me.)

We've had a great summer, Eric was sad to know that it was over. But he came home from the first day of fourth grade and said, "I love the first day of school." Apparently though he does not love homework because the third day of school he hadn't finished it and had to stay in from recess to finish. (serves him right for telling me he didn't have homework.) Life teaches great lessons.

I've not had the chance to sit and eat bonbons and watch soap-operas yet (Eric's been in school for four years and I still haven't) I've been busy bottling peaches and making raspberry jam, yummy.

Robert's off today helping at Heber Valley Girls Camp with a stake service project. Last Sat. he hiked to the summit of Timp. You should ask him about it. He's been wanting to do it for years but every time we get to the lake I flop down on the ground and refuse to get up for at least an hour, so he really hasn't had the chance to get up there. Of course last time I hiked Timp Eric was three months old. He didn't even invite me this time. Tomorrow I am going to Swiss Days with Amy, and tonight Julie is having her baby shower. And HE's not invited. (That will show him.)

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Regan and Kaia. And a belated big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Rylee. Happy first birthday you three!

Yesterday...

I can't believe summer is almost over! Time seems to move so fast. Robert has been busy bottling beans. I've been helping but since I twisted my ankle it's hard for me to stand much. 38 pints so far.

Yes, I twisted it three weeks ago, the same ankle that always gets hurt. I've been hoping that it would get better, but I think I may need to go to the Dr. Who of course will tell me what I already know, "stay off of it until it gets better." or even better, "wear this HUGE black boot, so everyone will ask what happened, and you can look stupid at the same time. " It's not even swollen, so I don't know what they would do if I decided to go get it examined, except charge me $20 for a copay.

Anyway everyone else here seems to be healthy. Eric claims to now "hate" school. He still claims that he is not a "servant" or a "golem". It took him five hours to practice his piano yesterday, and he wined about not getting breakfast from 8pm to 9pm (which is when he went to bed, under duress.) He actually did have scrabbled eggs at 10am but he claims that was his lunch. I don't know what he calls all the things he at between lunch and dinner because I called the eggs breakfast and those lunch, but whatever, I still hate wining. At least as an adult I can call it venting, which is what I'm doing here.

My primary class is behaving fairly well, so I guess I'm done "venting" for now. Perhaps today will be a better day, but it doesn't look promising.

Quiet Book

My Mom and I worked on this project for a few months before she and Dad left on their mission and I though that I would share the finished product with you all...

Pinewood Derby

I promised a few of you an update about Eric's pinewood derby...

Eric designed and made his car himself. (Dad did help with the cutting, but everything else Eric did himself.) I think this car shows a lot of personality.

1. The Color: Bright and a bit wild
2. The weights: spare keys he collected at Grandpa's house, of course he collects a whole lot of everything :)
3. The number: independence?
OK I don't know why he came up with that particular number. Everything else about the car, not a big suprise, but that number? The judge said "It needs a number." I said to Eric, "Pick a number any number you want and write it on your car." You see, no micromanaging, just good fun. And look what he comes up with. It is not my fault, the number was already written, before I relized what he was writing. And you can't say to a little boy who just wrote in permanent marker that the number he picked is well... you know. So you just smile and tell him how great his car is and how much fun it is to watch race.

Wild Flowers

How many can you identify? They were all taken this past weekend...

Weekend Madness

We had a fun festive 4th of July Weekend: First we went to Eric's last swim lesson, he's now level 5! Then we went camping. Just the girls and the kids. Our favorite part... the cool mountain air. Above are some pictures I took of the wild flowers. (July is definitely the time for wild flowers in the mountains.)
On the 3rd we went to the Drive-in to see "Wall-e" and "Narnia-Prince Caspian". We popped a 5 gal. bucket full of popcorn and it was gone by the end of the movie. Here is a picture of some of the munch-mouths.
We went to see fireworks on the 4th at Sugarhouse park, with thousands of other people. And ate more popcorn. (as if we hadn't had enough the night before)
On Sat. we did our house-work and then went to a Birthday/BBQ/Baby shower Party at Annette's. (I made ramen salad) and we did our own little firework show for the kids. E. slept over with the cousins so he could go to B. birthday party on Mon.
By Sunday we were worn out with all the late nights, it made my 6-yr-old class at church seem almost calm, almost. We spent a quiet evening at the Coopers playing cards.

Today I retrieved E. and we are recovering from all the fun (E. fell asleep in the car on the way home!). Tomorrow it's back to the grindstone with Piano lessons early in the morning.

Slothfully Yours

Perhaps I should apologize for my blogging, or lack there of. I now realize that it has been over a month since my last post. I have no real excuses for myself so I thought up a few for your benefit:
1. Yard-work season
2. Allergy season
3. I delegated it to Robert
4. I decide house-work should be more important
5. My hold came in at the Library (Mythbusters: season 2)
6. I am now actually reading the books for my book group
7. and my May Ensign
8. Our internet service doesn't like the heat
9. I had to wash my dishes (again?!)
10. The rabbit ate my posts
11. I've been feeling boring, and Lazy
Hope I made you laugh...

Slothfully yours,
M

Everyday Mussings

Have you read the book Fabelhaven? If you haven't you'll need a little help getting the reference here.

Every now and then when I ask Eric to do something for me, I hear him muttering, "I'm not a golem."

I find this funny and it's hard not to laugh. My version as a Mom is, "Do I have to do everything around here."

P.S. a golem is a magical creature created from soil, clay, and stone. The golem in the book is named Hugo. He's like a robot, he just obeys commands. He performs all sorts of manual labor.

Russell Goes To School

I have a friend who works at a preschool. Last week was "farm week". She borrowed Russell on Thurs. and Fri. to show her classes.

He spent his days in the block corner, eating apple pieces from the kids and lounging about. The children adored him. A few had to be dissuaded from climbing in with him. But they did get a chance to pet him. One of the children even exclaimed, "He hops like a bunny!"

Being in a classroom is hard work for a bunny, so I think he was happy to have his quiet days back.

"I own this road..."

We finally got out into the yard today. It was about 50 and nice and sunny. Robert tilled the garden and we planted peas, spinach, and lettuce. Eric was ready to plant watermelons but I think we'll have to wait a little. The flowerbed got it's spring cleaning and the morning glory is starting to pop up everywhere. The roses are leafing out and the peach trees are looking like they might blossom soon. Russell is enjoying all the spring dandelions, and sampling my tulips. (until I started sprinkling them with cayenne pepper.) And tonight we went to Eric's soccer game, so we are dirty and tired and happy.

Yesterday we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. That is some seriously good cheesecake!

Tonight Robert and Eric are working on his pinewood derby car, more on that later...

April Fool's

We had "cupcakes for dinner". (meatloaf with pink mashed potato frosting) We had "mashed potatoes and gravy" for desert. (vanilla icecream and butterscotch sauce) Eric thought I was crazy, until he tasted the mashed potatoes. When he tasted the cupcakes he thought the frosting tasted "weird". It took him a minute to figure out they weren't really cupcakes, and a little longer to figure out it was meatloaf and mashed potatoes, which he really does like. Got You Eric! Robert knew something was up when I told him to get out of the kitchen instead of asking him to help out. So I don't think he was fooled, much.

Easter

Happy Easter everyone! (although it's a little late)
We had a great time this weekend it was spring break and so we decided to go visit Great Grandma. We drove up Fri. afternoon and had a birthday dinner with Janese, Loriane, Lenard and all their families. It was fun to see everyone, but we missed having mom on her own birthday dinner.

On Sat. Grandma and Grandpa hosted the egg hunt. (there was even money in some of the eggs.) Grandma gave everyone a number and you could only take the eggs with your number on them. The exception to the rule is the Gold and Silver eggs. Jake found the gold one and made $10! Even though Eric didn't find a gold or silver egg he still was so excited to get the money so he could buy a singing bunny toy he wanted at the store.

He had the best afternoon, playing with his cousins, watching "Scooby-doo" on cable, and eating all his Easter candy. Robert was happy watching March Madness Basketball. And I had fun making some earrings with Janese. She has taken up jewelry making and is quiet good. Thanks Janese.

We had to hurry home for the Symphony that night. Eric liked it "OK", but he really enjoyed the guest percussionist, he was amazing. So we were listening to Tchaikovsky's 4th and at the beginning of the 4th movement there is a huge explosion of music. Of course I jumped in my seat and Eric just about died laughing (silently of course) because the program had said that if you fell asleep during the quiet 3rd movement the 4th would "rudely awaken" you. Thanks to everyone who came with us, we had a good time.

Sunday morning Robert awakened us with the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah. It's a good reminder as we celebrate the Resurrection. That Christ has broken the bands of death and we are all redeemed through him. I'm sure we sang for joy that first Easter morn. My sister brought over her web cam so we could Skype Mom and Dad in Hawaii. It was fun to see and hear them. They got our package on Fri. so there Easter treats took about four days to reach them.

At church our choir sang an Easter Requiem and Robert had a solo. It was beautiful, the song ran through my head all day, it was lovely.

After church we went out to Tolman's to have Easter dinner and hunt more eggs. I was helping the 18 mo. old and he kept saying "where's it?" then as soon as he saw an egg he would run as fast as his fat little legs would carry him to get the egg. It was cute to see. The kids had fun and when all the eggs were found we went inside to dump it all in a big bowl to share. (even Eric was coxed into sharing after we explained that there was no money in the eggs, and he checked to make sure :) We had a good time Thanks to Ben and Megan for hosting.

We stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's later on and had a nice visit with them, since we had missed their egg hunt on Sat. Then back home to bed, it had been a long weekend.

Robert and I went over to Wellsville on Sat.for a graveside service. (The funeral had been in Idaho that morning) It was the daughter of one of his coworkers. She fainted and never regained consciousness. The Dr. still don't know why.

It really made me think about the atonement. How grateful and awed I am for my Savior, for what he did, so I could be saved and redeemed at last. That my family and I need not part at death forever but for a short time, until we can be reunited for eternity. I can not express how much I need and love my Savior, Jesus Christ.

St. Patrick's Day

Dad: Why do we celebrate St. Patrick's Day, who was St. Patrick?
Eric: St. Patrick was the guy who discovered leprechauns on the 17th of March.... in Ireland.

I wanted to tell everyone about our vacation. (I hope nobody thinks I am bragging, I'm not trying to. I just love hearing about what other people are doing and I hope you like hearing about our family as well.)

We (Robert, Me, Eric, and Sam) left Mon. morning at 4:15 am. I thought Eric would sleep until the sun came up but he had a hard time because he was so excited. I on the other hand slept much of the morning.

The problem with going to Disneyland in Feb. is the snow. When we drove through Beaver and Cedar City the roads were icy. There was a bad wreck on one of the hills north of Cedar. (kind of scary)

We made it safely to St. George, and had breakfast at McDonald's. Eric played on the deserted playground until we were done eating and ate his breakfast in the car. (all part of the plan to stop as few times as possible.)

We made a few bathroom breaks and stopped to eat lunch and play tag in Barrstow. We got to Anaheim about 3:00 pm. Checked into the hotel and walked across the street to Disneyland.

We had a great time some of Eric's favorite rides were: Space Mountain (the dark roller coaster), Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones, The Tower of Terror and his most favorite was California Screamin'.

My favorite was the Tower of Terror. I love the free fall feeling. As Eric puts it "I was hovering over my seat!" The first time we went on the T of T I rode next to Bonnie. She did not like it at all. I like some of the slower rides also like the Fairytale Canal Boats and Peter Pan's Flight.

We didn't think much would scare Eric, on the rides, but we forgot about his uncles. When we went on the Indiana Jones ride he sat between Adam and Sam, who made it scarier than it normally would have been. He refused to go on it again that day. But the next day his Dad talked him into trying it again. "I conquered my fear Mom!" he told me. And now he loves it. Although he looks down when the ride goes past the statue (if you look into it's eye, according to the film (in the cue line) you get lost in "The Temple of the Forbidden Eye.") And he ducks when the darts are "shooting" at you. (air blows past) I think we rode it 4 times.

The crowds were really small. The longest line we waited in was 45 min. for the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. It was a neat ride but way too long line. Most of the mornings and evenings you could get on a ride in under 15 min. It was really nice because we could ride some of the big-attraction rides more than once. And we could ride Buzz Lightyear over and over trying to get a higher score. Sam of course got an insanely high score. (You get a "laser" and are trying to hit targets, the ride keeps score for you.)

In the slide show you can see the Jedi Training Academy. This was a show we saw on Wed. Eric, Sadie and Brigham were picked out of the audience to participate on stage. It was fun to watch how seriously Eric was taking his training. At the end of the training each padawan had the chance to fight Darth Vader or Darth Maul. Eric did an excellent job remembering his training during the fight. The force was strong with our younglings.

The weather was really nice the first 3 1/2 days. It was 80 on Wed. but on Thurs. afternoon the wind started to blow. Fri. was cooler around the high 60s, and Sat. when we went to the beach it was too cold to stay more than a few minutes.

Over all it was a great week! It was fun to have almost everyone there, and to make fun memories with everyone.

Our worn-out family drove back Sat./Sun. We stayed with Uncle Pete in St. George Sat. night.
We had a great time, but Robert and I have decided that Disneyland is great every 4 years or so. Eric begs to differ.

Our Disneyland Vacation

Here are a few shots from our vacation. In the left hand bottom corner is a speech bubble icon, if you click on this you can read my captions. (Just put your mouse over the corner if you don't see the icons.)

Sharingtime

This Sunday our primary class was assigned to present Sharingtime. Jamie and I wanted the scripture stories to seem more real. Here is our attempt. (I team teach the CTR 6 & 7 class with Jamie)

Captain Moroni & the Title of Liberty


King Benjamin



















Mormon and the Golden Plates

Hair cut...

Do you like my new do?











It's currently 36 degrees and snowing quarter sized flakes, here... in Disneyland it is 60 degrees and partly cloudy :)

Indiana Jones

Last night we watched "Indiana Jones and the Ark of the Covenant". After all if we are going to ride the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland Eric needs to have a little background. (I love the huge boulder rolling down, that is so cool.)

Well this morning this is what I found. Indiana Eric. Yes, Eric found all the props, and the right kind of clothing to be... Indiana Jones. Right down to the open button at the top of his shirt.(Eric pointed that out to me.)

You ask, "Where did he find a bull whip!?" Two words Cub Country. Yes, the first time he goes somewhere (with out me), with money in his pocket he comes home with a bull whip. Boys! (he also came home with 4 bottles of disappearing ink.)

Anyway, since taking the picture he has added a bag, and a jacket to complete the effect. (He keeps referencing the picture on the DVD cover.)

P.S. its 68 degrees in Disneyland today.

Chinese New Year

Thurs. Feb 7th is the Chinese New Year, the year of the rat.We are going to have a little party! Eat chinese food (beef and brocoli, sesame chicken, fried rice), play chinese checkers, maybe even watch Ratatouille. Have any more ideas? Leave me a comment...

It's now Feb. so I no longer have an excuse not to update my blog.

Sat. I did a little gardening. Don't look so shocked. It was the first day since Dec. that the snow has melted enough for me to get to the dirt. You see, I bought 4 bags of bulbs this fall and my Dad gave me some lilies, but I somehow forgot to plant one of the bags and half of the lily bulbs. Any way I hope they grow, we'll see I guess.

Well since I was out there and my feet were already caked in mud, I decided to prune the rosebushes. (The ice and snow has been doing a number on them.) I only got one bad prick. I'm sure the meter man will be happy about the trimming, since the gas meter is behind the worst one. It was a bit too cold to stay out long.

One of my daffodils is coming up!

Yesterday we went to Mom and Dad's to say good bye. That was a little sad. Especially when you think that the babies won't remember them when they come back.

I've been reading "The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2006" Does anyone have a newer version? I just can't bring myself to spend $20 for a new one.

January Blues

January is boring, not that I don't have plenty to keep me busy, but nothing exciting happens. Robert is super busy at work, so we don't see much of him. Eric is back in school, It's just me and the dishes at home. Even the rabbit is boring. He just hides in his house because it's cold. The most exciting thing that happened today: an icicle fell off the roof and made me jump.

I'll be glad when there is something new to look forward to, like watching for crocuses to peak out or clearance shopping for boots (my budget will be back in the black in Feb.) or Disneyland :) its currently 47 degrees there.

Food storage

Macey's is having an "emergency preparedness" sale. They have great prices on a lot of food storage items this week. Save $4.00 on a bucket of wheat, Morning Moo for $9.98 a can etc. Check out there ad at: maceys.com

If your getting one of those big water drums from Yvonne, they have siphon pumps.

The Call is HERE!

My parents received their mission call in the mail yesterday...Honolulu, Hawaii! No they did not request somewhere tropical. They stated that they would go wherever they were needed. My guess was Africa. Although I like the idea of having them in the U.S. and maybe being able to visit? Unfortunately airfare to Hawaii is about $500. Aloha.



So Wed. night Ben calls me and asks if I am going to be home all night. Very mysterious. Annette calls me and asks if I know if Mom and Dad got their mission call today, I think "Oh yeah, I was going to call and ask." So after I hang up I call home, but Sam is the only one there and he sees that I mission call is on the counter in the kitchen but he is trying not to look at it because Mom and Dad are at the temple and he doesn't know if they want to tell him themselves. So I called Mom on the cell, they are just leaving and say they will come out and tell us in person, they have been at Ben's telling him (he gets to know first because he and Megan are living in their house while they are gone). So I have to wait about 15 min. and when they get here Mom makes Dad whistle a song, that apparently is Mele kelekimaka? (the Christmas song from Hawaii) So now we all know and are excited for them, and Mom knows that she doesn't need any winter clothes for the mission. Rain slicker and galoshes are going to be hard to find in Jan. They leave to the MTC on Feb. 4th. Wow that Missionary Dept. doesn't waste any time. So congratulations to them, I know that wherever they serve they will give 100%.

The Cooper's top 10 from 2007

10. three new nieces, one new nephew, one new sister-in-law.

9. Robert trades his callings of Scout Master (5yrs) & organist for executive secretary and choir pianist. (I think he misses the scouts, well most of them anyway.)

8. I move from the Young Women's program to the 7-yr-old class in Primary.

7. Eric passes swimming level 4! He can now swim well enough that I don't worry about him ... much.

6. Robert reaches a milestone at Deseret Book, 6 years. (I now need another bookcase.)

5. Russell the Rabbit joins our family (funny bunny).

4. The family camp-out to Yellowstone.

3. Robert's and my trip to Washington D.C.

2. Our tenth anniversary, Wow ten year is a wonderfully long time!
I Love you Robert!!!

1. Hands down no contest #1 this year is.... Eric's Baptism and Confirmation.








Happy New Year to everyone, my your year be filled with a healthy body, joyous spirit, a peaceful heart and happy days!