Before and After

Remember that beautiful hair?

Paul has to appear before a judge tomorrow to answer for his ticket. I thought a haircut might be wise. You can see how happy he is.

Crazy Busy Weekend

I love this blurry picture of Sara.

From Friday through Monday we we were going 100 mph.

Our weekend included:

1 tux rented and returned

1 gracious and wonderful mother-in-law picked up from the airport and returned

3 haircuts received

2 sets of new church clothes picked out

3 blue ties purchased

1 physics project partially completed

1 one wrist corsage picked up

1 strata made and eaten

1 CTR cake baked and decorated (no picture!)

2 sacrament meeting talks given (Holy Ghost)

2 sharing time lessons shared (modern prophets)

1 happy 16 year old son son delivered and returned from prom (home at 2:00am)

1 PEC attended by 1

1 BYC attended by 3

1 big skillet of Chicken Alfredo eaten by 8

1 year supply of rice purchased

1 garden weeded

and one big red girl baptized by her dad.

It was a great weekend, we got so much done but it so busy we hardly got to enjoy it and I only took one picture (above). The only thing that we really would have changed is to have had a few more days with Grandma Gloria.

Mitt

Prom 2008

Happy Birthday Jared Ralph!!

Look at those cheeks!!

Jared was the first baby I ever fell in love with.

Sisters and Parties

My little Sara turned 8 last weekend and we had such a cute and fun party! Between my sisters' blogs and Martha as well as little things I've gathered over years, I just couldn't go wrong.

This is the invitation.

Sara really liked the idea of this initial party from Martha so everything had a big S on it. The polka dots and streamers we made were inspired by this darling post on

my sister Design Mom's, blog and I used the colors from a jar of straws I've had on my counter all spring.

For party favors we covered giant Symphony bars with an "S" label.

We made new labels for these sodas too. I don't know what it was but the girls were totally enchanted by the these. The sodas were definitely the hit of the day.

We also made these tissue paper pom poms that my sister Jordan blogged about a couple of years ago. They are the greatest!! They are super easy to make and give you lots of bang for your buck. We hung them out by the road and up in the tree outside (you can see them behind Paul and Gloria, I can't believe I didn't get a better picture!) to say, "The party's in here!" The banner was fun to make and I first saw that on Jordan's blog too.

As the girls arrived we decorated these party hats. (Also from Jordan) They really just wanted to play outside so as they finished the hats they went out to play. While they were outside I was able to clean up and get ready for the games. Then I called them in and they'd play a game and they would go back outside while I got the next game ready or the food or whatever was next. This made everything run very smoothly.

Our menu was SSSSSandwiches and SSSSStrawberries and SSSSSSpicy chips (BBQ) and SSSSSoda.

It was simple and fun and Sara was happy.

Cracks me up!

I laugh every time I see this picture.

Happy Birthday Salem Levi!

I love watching Salem be such a good and fun dad. Hope your day is happy!!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Sara!

this and that

We are still in the midst of a super busy week, lots of stuff, fun and not so fun.

Here she is reciting poetry to all her friends.

Robin went to the regional tournament for her poetry reading last weekend and placed 5th. Only the top three go to the state tournament so that was a little disappointing. 5th place means she is 2nd alternate to state but is already focusing on finding next year's pieces.

This pic and info about the accident are being used with permission of the kid responsible, well permission or resignation, it's a toss up.

We are still dealing with the aftermath of Paul's accident. We went and saw the car when we turned the title over to the wrecker . . . what a sickening feeling. We are so so grateful he is okay.

They took this picture of me because I am such a natural, just wait until I really get going.

I went to my first yoga class. It was fun and I really think that I may have unblocked my chi or become one with the universe because I have stayed up until 11:00 and 12:00 at night cleaning and working on projects and I NEVER do that. Robin kept getting up and saying, "Mom are you okay? Are you worried about something? Do you need to talk?" The best part is that I feel great in the morning. I am looking forward to more classes. I may never have to sleep again.

We rented Paul's tux for prom next week. He is learning just how expensive dating can be. It was fun to see him looking so grown up.

The younger kids and I have been feverishly getting ready for Sara's 8th birthday party. It is Saturday, and it's gonna be great. She will get baptised the next Sunday, the 27th when Grandma Gloria is in town. We're so excited to see her!

Have a great weekend!

Sprechen ze Deutsche?

My throat is strepped . . .

Gloria and Sara are home with Strep today. BOOOOO!

Sisters and Poscasts

I got an ipod for Christmas and I'm afraid I haven't used it much . . . until just the last few weeks.

I was talking to Erin about ipods and putting mine to better use after she posted this and this , more recently, this and she suggested that I find some podcasts that I like. So I looked around and listened to a few but they really weren't what I was looking for. Then I remembered something that Sara had told me years ago about the Satellite Sisters. I looked them up and sure enough they have a podcast.

The Satellite Sisters are 5 sisters who just talk about what is happening around them; restaurants they go to, happy and sad events in their own lives, silly things they hear about, news, movies, music. What I like best is that it is so familiar and comfortable.

Their show reminds me of the best times with my sisters when we are all together and have eaten a great meal and are telling stories and laughing so hard we can't talk. I wish that could happen more often.

Do you have a favorite podcast? What is it?

Design Mom

Did everyone hear my sister Gabrielle's news?? I'm so happy for her!

Rock you like a hurricane . . .

Gloria's end of the school year performance for kindergarten was last night. (so refreshing that they didn't try to squeeze it into the last 3 weeks of school like most places we've lived) It was fun and put together very well.

She was supposed to dress like a rock star. Robin was her costume designer. After she was in costume she spent the next hour walking around the house with her air guitar belting out the chorus "rock you like a hurricane!" in her most convincing rock star voice. How does she even know that song?

Here is one to the sweet performances. I know . . . it is hard not to watch the rock star in purple.

Gloria was so happy!

A roof over our heads . . .

So last week we were so sick and this week we are getting better. I am still coughing but was finally able to go on a normal run yesterday.

Anyway, while I was lying there watching movies and wishing I didn't feel like a big blob and could outside and work in the yard, we had our two roofs replaced. They were damaged in the storm I blogged about here.

Don't they look great?
This is the house, before and after.

This is the shed before and after.

This summer we will paint the shed the same color as the house. After that what we need is something to make the shed nice to look at when we are outside. We are in Texas, so we can do what any good Texan would do and nail a big star to the side of the building . . .

. . . we don't hate that idea but we are hoping for something a little more fun or interesting. Any ideas?? Where do we even look for ideas??

Netflix at our house this week . . .

Aladdin: We all loved this classic. Robin Williams is great. We bought this on video tape when Robin and Paul were little and we didn't replace it when we went to all DVDs. I was surprised that I still have it memorized.

More Football

Matchstick Men: I love Nicolas Cage and I was hoping this would be funny. This was a good movie but I went away sad. I think I would have liked this better if I were in a better mood. It also didn't help that Paul figured out and told us the surprised ending about 5 minutes into the it. I need to talk to him about that.

Weekend Guests

Sara reminded me of Mr. Chin-a-gin last week, so I introduced the kids to him and his family this weekend.

Now I'd like to introduce you to Sara Chin-a-gin, (I love those awesome 7 year old teeth!)

Gloria Chin-a-gin

and Daniel Chin-a-gin

Joshua

Happy Birthday little brother.

Veteran's Affairs

We have been going to the VA every month for the last little while to tie up some loose ends with the army.

The VA has earned a terrible reputation for taking care of our soldiers but I am happy to report that the VA in Dallas has been nothing but good to us. The people working there are sincerely trying to help and are doing the best they can.

The main office we are working with is on the same hallway as the prosthetic limb clinic. It is always sobering to be there.

General Conference is my favorite!

I love Temple Square and Salt Lake City in the springtime and I miss being there during conference.

Aachoo!

I'm sick, I'll be back in a few days.