Pictures from my phone

Times Square New Years Eve. Very fun!

Claire in the hospital needing Oxygen after her worst asthma attack. Don't recommend this to anyone.

Claire with curls and fully oxygenated.

She was a very bad girl this night not wanting to participate in the festivities. If you look behind Santa, you can see the fireplace that Eldon and I made. Well Steve Sabin "made it", we painted it and Eldon decorated it.

Oh the black mail pictures I will have when he is older. Thank goodness for digital.

Piano Recital. A bit blurry.

His first violin recital. A serious virtuoso.

Our little cub scout.

So here are a few pictures from my old phone that I saved. I hope the new phone has better images.

The only good thing about winter

The only good thing about winter is how cold my drinks get while being stored in the garage. How cold the water is when it comes out of the tap. How quickly a hot room can cool down when you open the window. These are marvelous things, but really are they worth it? Maybe just the cold drinks in the garage. I'm a sucker for that. They are way colder than drinks from the fridge but not cold enough to freeze. It's a rare treat.

The blasted pancakes

Ok - what child does not like pancakes? Max does not. Either he doesn't like them or likes to spend inordinate amounts of time manipulating us into thinking he doesn't like them. Every time we have pancakes, let me step back and say, every time Eldon makes the most amazing pancakes I have ever had, Max has a complete melt down. The first time, banana pancakes with caramel syrup. Unbelievable pancakes. He didn't eat for weeks after the trauma of us demanding he eat three bites.

Last night, chocolate chip pancakes that were really the most delicious I have had. Max ate his bacon, drank two glasses of milk and then tried to escape with having cut a piece of pancake away and not touching it. Normally I could care less if he eats, but I knew with the little amount he ate, we would find him hoarding a bag of pretzels 10 minutes later. Eldon put the hammer down and said he couldn't leave the table until he ate the pancake.

Oh the tears. Tears led to hyperventilating, then to gagging, then to near passing out from the drama. I mean who can eat a chocolate chip cookie by the dozen and not a chocolate chip pancake? It ended up he gave up his new DS until JUNE to avoid eating a delicious pancake.

I don't get it.

More thoughts

As you can probably tell, Eldon is traveling so I am left alone to my thoughts. I try to fill my head with TV so that my thoughts don't get too out of control, but I'm very frustrated with TV so I have moved to books. While reading, there are only thoughts in my head so here is to moving them out of my head and into the public.

I just finished reading "The Year of Living Biblically". I found profoundly interesting the views of agnostic people. So much of my life centers around religion that I just can't imagine not having any religious foundation and how confusing that must be. I'm sure the agnostics must feel that I have no time for real thought because so much of my time is wrapped up in religious thought. Anyhow, I recommend the book. It was funny, and I learned a lot about Judaism. I'm sure I learned about Judaism what a Jew might learn about Christ from "Jesus Christ Superstar" the musical but I did find a few nice insights.

I keep asking myself, why can kids be so polarized from day to day? I mean Jackson can go from telling me that I am beautiful to trying to rip the carpet off of the floor. Their scope is so limited that I can't imagine they can be that different from day to day. It's really driving me Crazy.

That's all for now.

Things I have been thinking about

I haven't done a post in so long and so I have about ten minutes and thought I would put down a few of the things I have been tossing around.

New Years Resolutions - I for once would like to make a New Years Resolution that wasn't only about weight loss. It's like why do I have to decide to lose weight in January? So this year, along with weight loss, I have included some work goals that will no doubt make my boss happy, but our family too. We also did this as a family and made some family goals for each of us.

-Family Scripture Reading - We have successully read the scriptures every morning since January 3. It has been much better than I thought and the kids are doing great. Max is definitely getting the most out of it, but the others enjoy being included in something that seems grown up.

-Family Prayer- We have also been able to do morning and evening family prayer since January 3. I think organization is the key for us as we have never been opposed to it, just not organized enough to make it all happen continuously.

-Making our beds and picking up our rooms before school. We have not done very good at this. I'm going to start over tomorrow with a renewed emphasis on it. The kids are capable and willing (kind of) but it's just how many battles can I fight before school?

Attitude - I have always had a pretty decent attitude on life and I think it has served me pretty well. But this week it has been harder to stay positive. My husband has been home for a few months and I just got used to having his help. But the traveling has started again and the transition to solo parent is starting again. To keep a good attitude, I used to plan fun things for me to work on while he was gone, but I'm not there yet. Hopefully my projects will seem more doable and I will help the time pass by easier.

Cleaning - I hate it. I truly feel like I'm pouring alcohol over an open wound whenever I think about starting it. I've become famously great at overlooking things that need to be done. My mother can't stand it as it knaws at her, but I tell you having to do it is more painful than stepping over a few things on the floor. I'm always very happy when things are clean, but I just don't get that rush that some experience when cleaning and seeing the finished product. So to tie in my New Years Resolutions, if I reach a certain mark within my sales, the maid comes back. Ivanni that precious girl who is so good at cleaning. Even if I work my darndest to get something clean, she always does a better job. So some may say this is a cop out, but when you work like I do and have a few minutes at home, who wants to spend that time cleaning???? I say if you can, hire it out.

What do these three things have in common?

Our dear little Claire decided that there was many ways to have fun with her Halloween candy this year. About two weeks ago, she had a bad cough and a head cold. But all of a sudden she started spiking these really high fevers at night. The odd thing was they would happen every other night. Since it wasn't a consistant fever I didn't worry too much about it. The odd thing was the next day she would be perfectly normal. So after about five fevers over 103, I thought it was strange enough to take her in just to make sure. The Dr. looked everywhere for something weird and finally checked her nose. She said, "Oh, there is something blue up there." After much digging and tweezing and cotton swabbing, the blue M&M made it's way out. Poor Claire was terrified of the whole thing. I felt so bad that I had let it go so long. I can't imagine having something stuck in my nose.

Everything had gotten infected in her sinuses so that was the reason for the fevers. After one day on the antibiotic, she was totally better. I'm still wondering if the boys put her up to it or if she did it all on her own?

Disney World

Here are the three pictures from Disney. It truly is the happiest place on earth. It is for 2 year olds, 5 year olds, and 8 year olds. It is even more so for their parents who get to watch over and over again their kids in total amazement and true happiness. It was so great. I highly recommend it. After the cost of the tickets, we were able to really go pretty cheap by bringing our own food and water.


Here is Claire and Jack with Buzz and Woody. Claire fell in love with Buzz.

Max got to go to Jedi school Here they learned some cool lightsaber moves and then got to fight Darth Vader. Max was lucky enough to be able to use the force on the two Storm Troopers. He was really proud of himself after they went flying when he used the "force push".

I will try and post other pictures as I collect them from the other cameras on the trip.

I'm so sad

So this past week has been so sad. I lost my camera. Yes, my big Canon camera with my favorite lens on it. I have scoured my home and garage and car and it is no where. I have been up at nights trying to remember what happened. I had it Tuesday night as I was taking pictures of the kids in the leaves and then on Wednesday night when I went to take a picture of Max in his cub scout uniform, it was gone. I didn't take it anywhere to leave it. The only thing I can get to now is that it was stolen out of our house. Our power went out Wednesday morning and I disabled the garage door so I could manually operate it. I had the strongest feeling that I should lock the door from the house to the garage and I didn't do it.

Seriously I think the worst part is that I hadn't downloaded my pictures for awhile. I have no pictures from Max's baptism now or his birthday. I'm tearing up now as I'm sharing. We had a service man at the house that morning that worked outside our house and I've talked to his manager to see if it were at all possible that he took it. So for the time being I can only post the three pictures from our trip to Disney world that I bought off of Disney's website.

I love taking pictures and scrapbooking them. It's really my only hobby. So now I have a huge void and it really feels like a death. I know that is so crazy but I'm in mourning. I will get over it and probably buy a new one at some point, but I'm too sad to get there yet.

Coolest Sunset Ever

The Heat Finally Broke

July was brutal this year. August was down right pleasant. While Eldon was travelling we had a night at the park where it wasn't over 100 degrees. Mr. Cool Max trying to pretend that he is too old for parks like this.

Miss Claire wearing whatever her babysitter could find this day which was a pajama top and stretch pants. But she still looks pretty.

My handsome Mr. Jack. He is always the one that runs until the very last minute. He is great at getting out all his energy in the time allotted.

First Day of School

First Day of School for our Kindergartner and Second Grader.. You can see how Max is acting like he is annoyed at the pagentry. Cute Jack is SO excited to ride the bus. Not necessarily that excited for actual school.

The momentous walk onto the long awaited bus ride for Jack. He has been turning every vehicle he can find into a bus. He is loving school now and still loves the bus. Max is doing great. His table in his class is with his best buddies. Let's just hope he can be quiet enough to learn.

It's Been 10 Years

Today is our ten year wedding anniversay. I can't believe it has been that long. I can't believe I am sitting in my kitchen today with our three children. Ten years ago I was so hopeful this would be my life. Of course there have been some surprises along the way, but I truly have everything I have always wanted. Eldon is the most wonderful husband. I am so lucky to have someone who knows how to spoil a lady. He is so romantic, thoughtful, creative, and kind. He works very hard to provide for us. I thought I would share an example of how he spoils me. For my birthday I was given this card:

He took me to NYC for just two short days. These days were filled with amazing things. We saw two Broadway shows on the first day. Our view from our hotel room is below. We also went to the Metropolitan Opera which was an experience of a lifetime all in itself. We ate wonderful food, and just enjoyed all the time together.

The second trip was to Palos Verdes California. (Shown below) We stayed at Terrenea which is an unbelieveable resort. We were still on east coast time the first day so we were up early. We went to the coffee shop in the hotel and got some breakfast to take to the beach. We sat and ate breakfast with the sun coming up and hiked all over the rocky cliffs and caves. We went ocean kayaking in the afternoon and had a blast. We laughed at how much harder it would have been if we had to coordinate our paddling in our first year of marraige! That night we went to dinner at a beautiful gourmet restaurant where he had to explain the menu to me. It was delicious. They brought out a beautiful cake. It had cooled down considerably in the evening so we sat around the firepit and looked at the sunset. Back at our room was a rose petal turn down service with Chocolate covered strawberries and our wedding song playing. The next day was a couples spa treatment and relaxation. We ate dinner right on the cliffs and watched the sun go down again. It was a magical weekend. Too bad I got sun burned while ocean kayaking!

Eldon added to my wedding ring earlier this spring with two bands filled with diamonds. Over the years I have tried very hard to compete with him in giving gifts or being thoughtful. I have decided that he will always win. I am so grateful to be in that predicament! I try to show my love through attempting to keep up on the laundry or bathing the kids. I'm so grateful that we are both so committed to each other and our family.

Here is to another ten years!