Presents

I didn't get many pictures of Marissa's presents, but.......

closing her eyes because I didn't wrap it
excitement when she sees her Wii Fit!!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy 9th Birthday Marissa!!!

9 Reasons Why We Love Marissa~

1. she is funny

2. she talks A LOT

3. she is a great helper

4. she is usually willing to play with her sister

5. she is NEVER dull

6. she loves everyone

7. she can tell a great LONG story

8. she never runs out of something to talk about

9. because she is Marissa!

1. Marissa

2. Birthdays

3. Mother's Day

Marissa's Birthday Party!

Marissa had a small birthday party this year with a few friends from school. It was nice, as I was able to pick them all up after school and we were able to party!

Marissa, Raylyn, Meghan, Shayla and Brynn
Isn't a party without cake!

Braden's First Track Meet

Braden had his first track meet on May 1st. He is doing the high jump and throwing the discus.

These pictures are in no particular order, but he won the meet in the high jump. He jumped 4'10"!!

BOSTON MARATHON!!!!

Today is Patriot's Day in MA!! There are A LOT of things going on today, the marathon,

the Red Sox play and there is a reenactment of the Battle of Lexington.

We chose the Marathon, free and not 5:00 in the morning!

Today is also the start of our weeklong Spring Break!!

Deriba Merga of Ethiopia, this is the guy that actually ended up winning the marathon. We had just gotten to our spot at mile 19 and he was running by. Yes, he was fast. The race started at 10 am and he passed us at about 11:30. He finished in 2:08:32.
This is Rick and Dick Hoyt. Dad is 68, son is 47. Dick pushes Rick the entire 26.2 miles.

They are very inspiring. Rick joined the church not long ago and is in a Branch that is in our stake.

We saw numbers in the 27000's.

Passing out water.

Brynn and Jane passing out water.

At one point, the kids were having a contest to see who had the most water taken.

More water!

It was a very fun day! I had a friend who was supposed to run this race, but she got hurt and couldn'tmake it, but it would have been so fun to see someone I knew. Although some of the friends we were with had friends running. Hopefully, we will have friends in it next year! I did get to see Bill Rodgers and he looked like he was going to throw up on Marissa. I was so excited to see him that I forgot about my camera and didn't get any pictures of him. I will do a post about him (since none of my friends that were with me at the race know who he is). I will wait until some of my friends who had their cameras and didn't really care about Bill and had the sense to take pictures, sends them to me!!!

1. MARATHON

2. decent weather

3. fun friends to hang out with and shake!

What is it???

What is your NAME???

I get this question A LOT!!

People do not understand our last name. I know it is a hard name, but really???

I do not like it when people don't pronounce names right. It isn't too hard and if you don't know it, ASK. Don't just assume. My youngest daughter gets called BRIAN all the time. People who run a business should be especially careful. My old carpet cleaner would call my neighbor(who he knew because she referred me to him) the wrong name all the time. I would even say her name the right way and he still didn't pick up on it. DUH!!!

Does this bug anyone else but me?

1. names

2. taxes being DONE!

3. dinner

Space Shuttle

The pictures are of the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station flying over our house!!



Last night at about 7:41, we were folding laundry when Braden reminded us that it should be flying over, so we all ran outside and we spotted it.



It was really neat, even though you could only see what looked like a shooting star!



1. sunshine
2. fun things to share with my kids
3. warm weather

Can You Guess??

What these pictures are of??

I Could Take It No LONGER!!!!

I had to get the BBQ grill out today!!

The weather has been teasing me, and it was time to grill!

Made teriyaki chicken, sticky rice and broccoli(I didn't eat the broccoli, never fear!)

My kids were playing at the bottom of the circle while it was grilling and they kept coming in saying they could smell it down there and they were wondering how much longer!

Now if only the weather will stay nice so I can keep the grill out!!!

1. nice weather

2. BBQ grill

3. smells of the grill

BTW, Happy St. Patricks Day! Everywhere I went today, people were wishing me a Happy St. Pattys Day and asking if I was having Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner. Of course not, I wouldn't eat that. I had several people ask me why not??, because I am Irish!! Am I??

Don't know

Backgrounds

I changed the background and we are back in business. Guess I will stick with the original background!

My Blog

Something has happened to my blog. I can no longer see any words. If you can see words, other than these, please leave a comment to let me know what you can or cannot see!

Absolute Craziness

It seems lately that most things on TV go too far.

Last night my cousin sent me an email from her Bishop about the HBO series 'Big Love'.

I guess it is a show about polygamists. I have never seen it, I don't have HBO and I wouldn't watch it anyway.

Well, according to the email, Big Love is now showing the Mormon temple ceremony and clothing as part of their show this week. Don't believe me?? Check out these links.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11874222

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5803281

I almost couldn't believe it myself.

My cousin's Bishop is asking everyone to contact HBO with our feelings. Here is some of what he said and the info to contact HBO.

Consider writing to HBO, Time Warner, and the FCC. Let them know your thoughts. I just did. This is beyond appalling. Please act now and spread the word. On Sunday March 15th, the HBO show Big Love is showing an episode containing an excommunication as well as temple ceremonies. They hired an ex-member to help re-create the ceremony, rooms, and clothing. HBO is owned by Time Warner. Send your emails, snail mails, phone calls, to both companies to show HBO that we won't stand for the use of things we consider sacred on their show Big Love, which is using a replica of an endowment room and celestial room to show what happens in the ceremonies there! Just keep it within Church standards please! HBO is owned by Time Warner: Time Warner Inc. One Time Warner Center New York, NY10019-8016

212.484.8000

http://www.hbo.com/apps/submitinfo/contactus/submit.do?title=GeneralInformation&questiontype=generalInformation&questiontype=general

Absolutely crazy and appalling in my opinion.

1. temples

2. sacred ordinances

3. being able to give my opinion

Can't Blog Without You

I think I have figured out one of my blogging problems.

My favorite blog to read is no longer happening. My friend is taking a break and it is breaking me. I looked forward to reading this blog everyday and it made me smile on a daily basis. Now I can't have a blogging smile without it.

Maybe this weekend will bring me out of my blogging funk(even without my friend) since the weather is supposed to be nice. I am hoping my friend will change her mind and decide to do her blog again, because that would probably help with my funk too!

Until then, I will try to smile without it!

I've Lost That Blogging Feeling

Updating this blog has been weighing on me lately. It is kind of like Visiting Teaching when I know it is the end of the month. I am not good at either. At this point, there is a ton to write about, and it is overwhelming. I really want to be a good blogger, since I am a horrible journal writer and my children have absolutely nothing to remember me by should something happen to me!

Hopefully I will get the blogging feeling back(because I love reading the blogs and get a bit bugged when people don't update very often). And maybe a bit of time!

14 Days

of LOVE.

I am not very good at challenges. I was somewhat guilted into this challenge! But, in the end, it was fun and my family loved it.

What was the challenge? It was 14 days of love. Showing love to your family and others for the first 14 days of February.

I am a bit deplete in the creativity department. My friend who gave out the challenge has a HUGE list of ideas, which were great, but she is much more talented and creative than I.

Here is a list of things I did:

1. made cookies after church(which is somewhat big for me considering I have to make 2 kinds and I always come home from church and want to do NOTHING).

2. made beds and left a chocolate on the pillow.

3. folded and put away everyones laundry

4. bought these cute mailboxes in Targets dollar section and left a treat in their mailbox

5. made breakfast

6. treat in mailbox

7. cleaned bedrooms

8. treat in mailbox

9. treat in mailbox

10. made beds with chocolate on pillow

11. made cupcakes

12. made everyone lunch

13. got special treats for movie night

14. made their beds and left a box of chocolates and a love note on their bed!

As you can see, A LOT of food. I don't think I really put treats in their mailboxes that many times, but I have already forgotten some of the things I did. And if you are wondering why breakfast and lunch are on the list, the only people I ever make breakfast and lunch for are Brynn and myself. Every breakfast and lunch around here are self serve!

My family enjoyed this, and next year I will be much more prepared and do a better job. I had several things I was going to do, but because of late nights and other things that got in the way they will be saved for next year! Thanks Les for the challenge!

1. challenge over

2. loving my family

3. school vacation