Friends

I just received an email from a dear friend.....in it she wrote: I miss you. I miss good friends. I miss deep friendships. I am so glad you are my friend. Thank you.

I have been missing that too. My life is full with dear friendships....but there are some friends who have made such a huge impact and left such a tender spot in my heart. There are two people who I miss dearly and I do not get to see often....

I just came back from Ohio on Monday night...so many good memories of such dear friends. I had to pretend I was going to visit them, just the normal stop by for a quick visit...

You know who you are.

Service Auction

This month for our Enrichment night at church we had a service auction. We were given a brown paper bag and we were to write down some act of service that we would be offering for someone to bid on. This could be anything you were willing to do for someone else. I decided that I would offer to personalize a clipboard for someone. It's a great birthday gift, teacher gift or a just because gift. A lady named Karen in my ward bid on this and won it. She was so excited. She is having this made for her Mom! Her Mom always uses clipboards. They used to joke about it in their house, they would say, "Oh no, she has the clipboard!" She is a Disney fan and so after we chatted about it.....this is the final outcome.....I'm excited to show her, because I know she will love it.

I came home with the generous offer of a free night out....or as the lady who is offering this wonderful service....DATE NIGHT BABY!

Preschool Promotion

The BIG Graduate!It is hard to believe that we attended an actual PROMOTION for Noah today. Now, it was only preschool, but it's hard to believe a whole year has passed! He has grown so much. He not only physically grew, but mentally and socially also. He has friends at school, kids he even recognizes when we are out in the community. He has learned a lot. He's a pretty smart kid, even when he pretends to not be! Why are they like that?!?

This is Noah's little friend Lauren. They were attached at the hip. They would always play together, they would walk back into class holding hands, they would make sure they could sit together during circle time. They really enjoyed being friends with each other. Doesn't hurt that she is absolutely adorable and LOVES dinosaurs also!

I had to put this picture in....there is always one child that has to be standing in the front row, doing something that any parent would just die over....today, it is this little boy! It was too funny!

He attends a Christian Community Church so the program was a lot of singing and scripture was recited. It was just too cute. Now the video can be a little long, but we know that Noah's grandparents love watching these. So if they are a little too boring for you, just skip it!

I would hear Noah singing softly to himself sometimes, obviously practicing for his big day. If I ever asked him about it he would tell me, "it's a secret, I cannot tell you!" He was taking this serious!

After they performed their class song, they sat on the stage and all of the preschool classes sang two more songs. Noah was really just looking around and not participating much. I didn't video that portion, because he was not visible at all. He said he had a really fun time. They are so funny at this age.

This is Miss Desiree, or Miss Desi as the kids called her. Noah took about 2 months to warm up to her, he would not say one word to her. I told her it would take a while for him to warm up. He loves her now. He talks about her all the time, brings things to school to show her. You would have never guessed that 5 months ago he wouldn't even look at her.
Miss Desi has a wonderful helper in her classroom...her name is Miss Joy. Now, this was another story. Noah loved Miss Joy right from the start. She was always so nice and kind to him. I was a little sad because I never got to take a picture of the two of them. Luckily, Noah's Dad forgot to pick up his jacket after the program today. Miss Desi called me and told me it was in the office. I figured today was as good a day as any to pick it up, so we drove down to school. Guess who was walking to her car when we got out of the office???? MISS JOY!!! Noah ran to her and gave her a hug. So I was able to get a picture after all.

We made Miss Desi & Miss Joy clipboards with their names on them. Noah told me their favorite colors and I picked Miss Joy's paper and Noah picked Miss Desi's paper. They turned out pretty cute. Miss Joy told me today that she almost bought one the other day because she needs one. Perfect gift.

After his promotion program, we went to have lunch and then back home to start our .......

SUMMER VACATION!!!!!

Let's hope...

THAT LIGHTENING ONLY STRIKES ONCE!

For those that have already heard, YES, Scott was struck by lightening yesterday during those rare {all day long} thunderstorms that pummeled Southern California. The picture above as an actual picture taken in Temecula.

Now before you start thinking horrible things {and who wouldn't when you hear that!}...he was sitting at his desk at work, the window directly behind him was open. Right outside the window is the parking lot. Now, on a normal work day, this parking lot {which is very, very small} would have cars in it, but 1/2 of the employees in the office were out of town traveling. So Scott is working away and CRACK! the lightening struck, hit the ground and bounced right thru the window and struck Scott right in the back of his head!! NOW, we know that there is a tendency from my dear husband to exaggerate a bit...but he actually has a witness! The other lady in the office was talking with him and saw this happen right before her eyes....she was speechless...came running over screaming, "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you just got hit by lightening! Are you okay, do you hurt....etc., etc." He said it felt like someone smacked him in the back of the head.

So he called me on the phone and said, "So, I just got struck by lightening!" Now a normal wife {which I am normal, by the way...} would have freaked out, but me, I said, "are you kidding me?" because I would assume that he is telling a tall tale! So he told me what happened, I asked him how he felt. He said it feels like bees are flying around in my head. Oh, that's normal! I told him to go to the doctor, but you know how guys are, "no, I'm fine". He called me about an hour later and told me that the company was making him go and that he was not allowed to drive himself. BECAUSE THEY ARE SMART!!! It wasn't convenient seeing that he was supposed to go out of town on business at 11am for a trip up towards Bakersfield.

He went to the dr, they looked him over completely {never saw an exit point/burn}, ran an EKG and were surprised at how low his blood pressure and heart rate are. So, the doctor said, "you are fine" the nurses told him he needed to go buy a lottery ticket. Ironic thing is there was another guy in the waiting room who was also hit by lightening. CRAZY! He was cleared to go on his trip, so he finally left about 3:30pm. I kept asking him how he was feeling, he said, "I just feel smarter!" Funny guy! It was a pretty crazy storm. In fact 2 women died because of the storm, one was driving in Big Bear, the lightening struck a tree and it fell right onto her car as she was driving and instantly killed her. Another woman was standing under a tree in her front yard, it struck the tree and struck her and she was instantly killed. So crazy. We are just so glad that Scott's "strike" was not as serious as it could be. He was shocked {no pun intended} at how many people were calling him asking if he was okay. His company is helping with the San Diego County Fair and Scott is their contact person. He was driving home today and the guy at the fair called because he had heard what happened. He shouldn't be surprised, he's a likeable guy, what with his magnetic personality and all..........

Parker the Snail

I knew this day would come, I have dreaded this day, I hope this day does not come very often.... This is how the conversation went, "MOM, come here quick!"

"Look, I got a new friend, isn't he cool?"

{as I'm gagging looking at it sliming my sons perfect, soft, baby skin....}
Then, I thought to myself, grab your camera and video this conversation. Some of you know, some do not, but Noah is attending speech classes right now. So some of his conversation is hard to understand. And let me just forewarn you that my son does not say foul language. And I still am not able to tell you what he is saying for the small ones name, if you can understand him, let me know! {You will understand} Look at him, speaking so tenderly to his new little friend. {so gross!}
Do I have anything against snails, no, not really, but to see it slowly moving it's way up Noah's arm and the disgusting trail it leaves behind, NO THANK YOU!!!

Now, there are several videos, if you have the time watch some of them, pretty gross, but some of it is funny. {sorry, I could not get the video to rotate}

BOYS WILL BE BOYS!

Memorial Day Weekend

This is the Coronado Bridge in San Diego, California. This bridge is 11,179 feet long (or 2.1 miles) and it crosses the San Diego Bay. The highest point is 200 feet. When you look at the bridge, it is pretty big, not like the Golden Gate Bridge, but it's big...The reason I show you this, on Saturday, May 23rd we went down to San Diego to Silver Strand State Beach. This state beach is on the Coronado Island. Our friends were down there camping for the Memorial Day weekend. They invited us to come down for the day. Noah was really into the bridge. He thought it was pretty cool. The weather was pretty cool, but nice enough to enjoy the day at the beach. It was really windy, but we still had a great time.

This is Abby, she is the baby of the family.

Here's a silhouette shot of Todd surfing. There was no way to get a good picture because of the time of day.

The big hit of the day....the TETHER BALL! Todd was doing a great job in teaching Noah how to play the game. Noah & Madison were really into playing tether ball. They were not the only ones though, it was a hit with the adults too. In fact, my arm still hurts!

Scott & Hailey were having a good match also.

The best match of the day.....

The Dad's....

It's pretty long, but you need to see Scott's victory dance, it's about 1/2 way through.

Watching the BIG MATCH!

After spending the day at the beach, we headed into town and had dinner together. By the time we got in the car, Noah was asleep in about 3 minutes. It was a long day, but we had a great time spending it with our friends. Who knows....maybe we'll get into camping?!