Sharing Talents for the Benefit of Others

&
Love Note to Nick

God has granted to each of us gifts, talents, and abilities, with the hope and expectation that we will increase and use them—not for selfish purposes, but for the benefit of others. Let us never forget that these gifts are given “that all may be profited thereby".

Henry D. Taylor, “Gifts and Talents,” New Era, Aug 1977, 4

Nick,
I really enjoyed your Poetry in Motion performance.
You have many talents!

Thank you for sharing them with me.

This is me, and you when you were a little guy.
And you on Dad's shoulders.
You are loved.

The Goal of 2008

I survived the decade of scrap booking without spending hardly anything on

zig zaggy scissors,
sticky thingies, You still use glue sticks? How early 90's.
designy papers, vellum? card stock? who cares?
page protectors, 8 1/2 x 11? or 12 x 12?
stamping things, glitter? ink? embossing? does it really matter?
sticking out things, buttons, brads, bows? or
"embellishments" as fancy people say,
let's just say, yea for computers.

This is the year for scanning in all photos and then printing them in books.

That is the goal of 2008.

P.S. I used to be so cute...look at that face.

Mid-Winter Break

Friday - Day 5
"Last Day of Mid-Winter Break"



Saw the movie "Jumper".

Played Scrabble.

Watched "The Office" DVD.

Mid-Winter Break

Thursday - Day 4:
"The Forest"

When you climb over our back fence,
there is another world to explore...

When we are in the backyard forest,
imagination games fill the entire day.

That is pretty much it.

Mid-Winter Break
Wednesday - Day 3

"Discovery of The Riley Challenge"

Attended the Seattle, Washington Temple.

When I got home, I discovered something really fun for kids (and mom's). You can click on it.

"The Riley Challenge"

It is a resource of cleaning ideas for kids. Yeah! Cleaning ideas. We chose the "May 15th Challenge" as our activity for the day. Go through all of the shoes in the house, assess needs, get rid of old shoes and shoes that don't fit. Brilliant.

This is a gold mine of great activity ideas! The rest of our vacation is pretty much planned out now.

Mid-Winter Break
Tuesday - Day 2
"Almost a Disaster"

Mukilteo-Suckilteo (pardon the language)
The idea was to go to Mukilteo State Park and build a bonfire by the ocean, burn stuff, cook hot dogs, and make s'mores. We get there and see this:

It's closed. At the TOP of the list of "not fun places to go" is this place.

Laura thought of a gorgeous alternative location:

The boys that were scouts got a fire going with the help of Shauna.

(Thank you, Shauna!)

We got s'mores going on... I ate 3.

There were Frisbee activities:

Spin on this thingy until you feel sicky activities:

A successful Day 2 with the Cardons & Collinwoods.

Click to view additional photos from that day.

Mid-Winter Break
Monday - Day 1
"The S.P.O."

Experience S.P.O.

Handbags that I've owned over the last 25 years.

And the new addition to my handbag family:

I love it, it's perfect. Thank you S.P.O.

My Dear Sweet Car,

I am sorry you had a bad day yesterday! I totally forgot about that carton of ice cream. It rolled out of the bag while we were driving and I didn't even see it when I unloaded the groceries. When I climbed in the next day I thought you smelled so great! So delicious and so chocolaty. And then with horror, I realized my grave mistake.

We have been through so much together. You know how our garage has like 1 1/2 inches clearance and you have troubles driving through without getting scratched? It's so hard, I know, but you do so well most of the time. I am so proud! And these scratches came off with a magic eraser anyway, so I forgive you.

As for crashing into the house though,

that was kind of naughty, but I can fix it! I fixed the other side of the garage, so I can fix this side.

Remember when Josh rubbed the paint off your door with sandpaper and Preston barfed up popcorn in your backseat? What about when you melted that Junior Mint on the seat from the seat warmer and I sat on it. We've gotten through tough times before. Part of that Junior Mint is still there to remind me of those times.

Remember when you were making that horrible screeching sound and we took you to your dealer for a new transmission? We were worried about you!
And remember the day after you got that new transmission, you started screeching again? That wasn't funny! You had to get another new transmission.
You sure have a weird sense of humor!

Your best display of love was that time when I left my purse on your back bumper after loading food in. I drove all the way home and you kept it safely in place until we got home. I could have lost everything! I am so happy!

We hardly ever fantasize about driving other cars. You are the only one for us. You have always delivered us and our friends to our destinations safely. One of these days I'll clean the ice cream out of your carpet and we will forget it ever happened.

We sure appreciate you!
Thank you for not complaining because we never wash you.
Thank you for beeping at close objects when I am backing out.
Thank you for getting me to gas stations even when you say you have "zero miles" of gas left.
Thank you for trucking up steep icy hills that few other cars can climb.
Thank you for heating us when we push the red button and thank you for cooling us when we push the blue button.

Thank you for keeping my kids strapped safely in.
Thank you for all that you do for us.
You are loved,

The Buckley's

Overheard!

I actually overheard the following quote from Christian yesterday, not kidding:

"Hey guys, be quiet! I am trying to read Pretties."

One thing led to another, I grabbed the camera... I captured this moment:


This gave me the idea to re-do the picture and get this:


Disturbing, I know. But as a courtesy, in case you weren't close enough, here is this:


And that escalated to this:


Escalating once more to this:

We could have kept going, but it was late.
It's about a world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. This seems like a good thing, but it's not. Especially if you're one of the uglies, a bunch of radical teens who've decided they want to keep their own faces. By Scott Westerfeld.

So you want to experience Seattle?

Here is a free tour.
With a dose of radical honesty.

So, you're driving to Seattle...and out from your car window you see...

picturesque sea-side villages...

quaint harbors,

landmarks and thingies.

Seattle.gov boasts, "the original grounds of the Seattle World’s Fair have been transformed into a center for arts and cultural – there is always something going on."

If "always something going on" means you'll encounter people asking you for spare change, then, Yes! There is always something going on.

Otherwise, we found it unusually desolate.
We approached the entrance of The Children's Museum, Seattle. "The Children's Museum, Seattle offers a hands on experience full of wonderment for children, birth to age 10, and families." Blah, blah, boring.
Really, it's a playground for babies and little kids. Quick shout out to Pacific Science Center (see space needle pic above, that was at the entrance to PSC.) The PSC is a "must see" Seattle attraction, it's just that we've been there already. We ended up passing by the Children's Museum opportunity up for non-babyish activities like The Pike Place Market.
"The Pike Place Market is the soul of Seattle. The Market's traditions, products, and people create a unique shopping destination and a thriving community."
Where else in America are you going to find a Banana Republic, Ross Dress For Less,or Starbuck's? Seattle dares to be different.
The original 1971 Starbucks was actually interesting.
It's about a 10 square foot shop packed with people, musicians, artists, tourists, photographers and beggars.
No. we did not get coffee or even hot chocolate. We just walked on by.

I think that the appeal of Pike Place is not the fish throwing, but being able to poke a gynormous sharky looking creature. Skip the Seattle Aquarium, come to Pike Place! The fish here are already dead so...that's nice, they are in fish heaven.
A "Must Have!" at Pike Place Market: a tricycle-tire size doughnut.
These babies are like 14 inches in diameter.
Just when you think you've had enough excitement, you must experienced the thrill of the monorail.
Nick & Josh's Seattle highlight was riding the Monorail.

"It is a favorite part of the Seattle skyline and provides a fun, quick and convenient link from downtown Seattle to Seattle Center"

True, except for that:

It's not a favorite part of the Seattle skyline, I have never noticed it before. Now that we've ridden it I still don't think I could find it. It's invisible. True that it's fast, the ride is about 48 seconds long and I couldn't help but think we could have just walked.

However, it's only $4 round trip for adults & $1.50 round trip for kids and the kids think it's a ride, so this is a "Must Do" tourist attraction.

Washington has a Costco. We went there before we drove to Seattle.
That was my personal highlight, getting a smoothie. And a churro.

In 1 week it's our mid-winter break.
We will be exploring many other Washington State hot spots.
(Christian & Preston were not present during this outing because they were busy.)