Visit

My Aunt Rene and Uncle Perk recently came to visit us. It was so nice having them here. When we are all together it brings so many warm-fuzzy memories back. I love telling the kids stories about my Aunt and Uncle and they love to hear them. Seeing them with the kids was so awesome.

I hope my marriage is as strong and loving as their's is when we are their age.

My parents are so cute!

Our Prima Ballerina

I was cleaning in our master bedroom today. As I cleaned off the bookcase I wound my Great Aunt Helen's jewelry box and played the familiar song. Not long after Joci wandered up, hearing the tune and wondering where it was coming from. She started to dance and I ran for the flip video recorder. Normally, Jocelyn doesn't like to dance for anyone, but I got a special performance and was so happy to be able to catch it.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Shop Locally!

We are all more than aware how precarious the economy is right now. More and more people are saving their money if they are fortunate enough to still be making it.

My tip for today is to start shopping locally. I shop more at the scrapbook store that is close to my house, rather than the large one in another city. I even try to make sure that I shop at the Walmart or Target in my city rather than one that may be in another city on the way home.

Another great way to do this is to shop at your local Farmer's Market. Tomorrow, I am going to be going to a local Farmer's Market that a friend at work told me about yesterday. It is at a local subdivision called Agritopia. Here is their blog. They even are starting a communal garden which I think is a really great way to encourage people to garden.

I hope you all think about this. In these times, it is important to support our neighbors as much as we can, and shopping locally is a great first step.

Very Cute

I had this emailed to me and had to share...

CATS ARE SO DRAMATIC!

Cute...

"Remember,

As far as Anyone Knows

We are a Normal Family"

That's My Baby Boy!

A couple of pictures from Game 3 of this season. Unfortunately, it was against the Packers and they won...
The boys did really well, though.

I've Always Loved this Poem...

I was reading through some of my favorite blogs and found this Poem on the 5 Orange Potatoes blog, here. If you get a chance check out the rest of her blog. This blogger has a lot of teaching opportunities for you and your little ones.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference...
By Robert Frost

I SO NEEDED THAT!

I just finished a chair massage that my company offers here at work. Let me tell you, I so needed it.

Before my appt I had worked myself up over a lot of things that had happened or were going on in both my personal and professional life. I was so stressed out that my eyes were twitching. I’m glad I had the foresight this morning to make my appointment for a chair massage.

For awhile as I sat there it felt like the masseuse was working with my wooden shoulders, they were too tight, and that was while I was actively trying to put aside all of my worries and mind movies. When I was finally able to relax a bit, I could feel him able to really work those knots out.

My advice to you, is that if you have the opportunity, take it. Be good to yourself. Treat yourself to a little massage to help you work through your issues. I know it doesn’t sound like it would do much, but it does help.

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a great Easter! We had so much fun!

We dyed eggs, and I got to do something I had always wanted to do...we used the little plastic wrap that you put on the eggs. Then I used my heat gun to shrink the plastic around the eggs. It was so much fun!

Later, Jon pretended he was talking to the Easter Bunny at the door and the kids RAN for bed. Joci was so intent on getting to sleep that she buried her head under her covers.

I woke up really early to hide the eggs, inside and out.

The kids were really excited to follow the little egg trail I made down the stairs leading them to their Easter Baskets. This year I was excited to find that although we cut back on the goodies, it was still as exciting to them as ever.

Then, the hunt was on. I have to say, here, that my kids, well, they aren't the best egg searchers. The do ok, if the egg is, say, sitting out in the middle of the yard on the grass. Otherwise, they have a hard time finding ANYTHING that is even slightly hidden. Hopefully, this will improve more with age.

Later my parent came over to relax and watch the kids play in their Easter clothes. Mom helped me move the kids around for a bit of a photo shoot.

For dinner Jon made a ham and his now-famous macaroni and cheese.

It was a great family day, full of blessings.

The Best Laundry Soap Ever!

My very good friend Micheal gave me this recipe she found on http://www.tipnut.com/. The best part is that it is so inexpensive! So here is the recipe:

1 Bar of Fels Naptha

1 Cup of Borax

1 Cup of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda


Grate the Fels Naptha and then run it through a food processor to get it to as close to a powder consistency as you can. **Caution! It does look like grated cheese, so don't let your little ones eat it!

Add all of the ingredients together and run it through your food processor one more time. Then pour it all into an airtight container.

Here's the best part...

It only takes 2 Tablespoons per

Large load of laundry!

My Funny Husband...

The night before Easter I went a little crazy with the camera. I must have taken a few hundred pictures over the span of the weekend, so I had a lot of editing to do. When I saw these I had to laugh. I had wanted to take a picture of Jon, so he gave me lots of funny faces to use. I told him the mean looking one should be the one he uses as an avatar on his emails to the flag football teams. Enjoy! Ps. We are not really big Steelers fans, we are Bears fans through and through. That’s the team that he coaches for flag football. The back of his shirt says COACH.

Erma's Quote

It Rained, We Got Soaked

It rained Saturday. No big deal, normally, but…

We had our flag football games that morning.
The plan was that Jon was going to go a bit early to coach the 3-4 year old team for their 8am game. Then, I was going to get the kids around and get there by 8:30 for Joe’s game @ 9am.
So…

Joci slept with me that night and wakes me up to “Mommy, it’s RAINING outside”. Um, huh? Rain? So, I call Jon, he doesn’t answer, I leave a message questioning whether there would be a game or not. At this point I didn’t think there would be a game, but because I hadn’t heard from Jon, I decided to get around just in case. Hey, maybe it wasn’t raining at the field.

I get downstairs and find Jon’s phone on the coffee table, so that’s why he didn’t answer. I stash his phone in my purse and assume the reason he was still gone was that he got busy, as Jon often does, chatting with someone. They couldn’t possibly be playing in the rain.

I take the kids out to the jeep, and Joe is upset because he doesn’t want to touch the wet handle on the jeep’s door. Little does he know…

We are driving to the game and as we pull up to where we play, which is a large bowl in the ground behind a Walgreens I see all the cars at the fields and realize…OMG they are actually playing in the rain. Crap! I have no rain gear. I mean, who has rain gear in Arizona?
I decide to pull into the Walgreens on the corner by the fields. I run in and grab a couple of umbrellas.

I get to the fields and get the kids out, they are a cross between being freaked out about being or getting wet and happy about jumping in the puddles and using the umbrellas.
We finally get down to the fields and Jon has just finished up the 3-4 games, they lost.

I’m wondering how this is going to go over with Joe. Will he throw a fit and refuse to play in the rain? Should I make him play if he refuses? He ends up going out with his teammates and doesn’t complain once. In fact, it almost looked like he was having a great time. I was so proud of him.

Joci did a great job, too. She had a blast playing with the umbrellas.

Everything was going well, the kids were playing while it was sprinkling, not too bad.
Then, it starts to really rain, and they finally call the game. We did WIN the game...woohoo!

We get our stuff together quickly and head back up the hill, which now has a small river of water running down the hill. That’s when Joe flipped out a little. He was afraid that we were going to float away or die in a flood. Ok, so part of his flip-out is my fault. On the way over he had asked what a flood was and I proceeded to tell him about Katrina and Flash-Floods. Way to go Mom!
I told him it was ok, the water rushing over our feet wasn’t going to catch us in a flood. I wouldn’t let anything happen to him or Joci. He was ok, but I, of course, felt like the worst Mommy on the planet filling his head with horrific flood images.

Anyway, by the time we all get the car, we were soaked through. We decided that we would go over to Mom and Dad’s house to hang out and warm up for a little bit. It was a great decision. Mom and I got a couple of last minute Easter items, Jon did some work on our cars, and the kids got to hang out with their Grandpa.

All in all, while the situation was less than desirable, it did wonders for the cohesiveness of our team. We all kind of bonded through the shared experience.