My back yard

One of the nice things about not living in a subdivision is the noticeable difference in the amount of trees. Sure we had trees in our back yard, but now there are trees all around us!

Above is the view from the boys' room. Yes, they have a door that leads straight to the deck. I was a little apprehensive about putting them in a room with direct access to the outside, but it hasn't been a problem yet.

Even though we own only up to the driveway you see in the bottom of the photo, it is wonderful to sit on the deck, talk on the phone, and look at the trees.

(This one is for you, Becky!!! ;-)

My Favorite Commercial

Why I am publishing a post about a commercial is beyond logical thought, but I'm doing it anyway. I have seen this only once. Because we have a DVR, I watched it several times. I finally found it on youtube


Not that I will ever be one of the moms to "get myself back" but I love it anyway. And now that I have figured out how to embed youtube videos into my blogs: WATCH OUT!

Cub Scouts

When we moved into our new branch, the first thing I asked the Branch President was whether or not there was a cub scout program because my boys were quite involved in the old ward seeing as how I had been a scout leader for 3 years. Well, there wasn't a troop at first, but there was one formed about a month after we moved in. They sure are having lots of fun. These pictures are from their scout leader. The pics were taken at home depot and Burger King. They go to Home Depot every month for the young carpenter's program or whatever they call it. I couldn't get my old troop out for a field trip to save my life. Well, once, but only because it fulfilled a wolf achievement.

I am not sure why Jonathan looked like this since I wasn't there, but I just think he looks six sideways to funny. Not sure what that means, but I like it, so I'm sayin' it. Jonathan and his sister were visiting us for a week.

This of course, is my favorite. Of all my kids, Tre is usually the most likely one to be compared to an animal. Yes, he DOES look like a human trapped in a hamster maze. That's my Tre

Okay, I got tagged

yeah, yeah I am slow but here it is

got tagged by KRIS

Four things you may not know about me:

1. I love science fiction and am a huge Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. I have the opening sequence memorized (“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise….) and I know the differences between its opening sequence and that of the original Star Trek

2. 3 years ago, my baby sister-in-law introduced me to manga. Since then, it has become an invasive addiction and has branched off into an addiction to anime and Asian drama through which I now am able to visually know the difference between written Chinese, Japanese and Korean. I also now know a handful of Chinese and Japanese words. “Thank you” and “I am sorry” are the easiest to pick up since they seem to be said the most

3. When I was a teenager I went to Universal Studios and was picked from the audience to be an “extra” on their onstage version of one of the Indiana Jones movies

4. I love to drive and one time in college, I drove from West Lafayette, In to Chicago (about a two hour drive) just because I was depressed. The drive did make me feel better

Four places I go over and over again:

1. Church

2. Piggly Wiggly

3. the Library

4. Wal-Mart

Four people who email me:

1. Kristy

2. Becky

3. Erica

4. My Aunt Suzy

My four favorite foods:

1. Crab legs with lots and lots of butter

2. Corn with lots and lots of butter

3. Walnuts

4. CHOCOLATE (that I can’t have because it keeps Benjamin awake)

Four places I'd rather be:

1. Texas (yes, Texas, I miss Corpus Christi)

2. Seattle

3. Tennessee

4. In a swimming pool

Four movies I could watch over and over again:

1. The Princess Bride

2. Labyrinth

3. Fruits Basket (it’s actually a series – Anime of course)

4. Samurai Champloo (more Anime)

Four people I am tagging:

since the only one I know who blogs tagged me I am kind of tagless

If Walls Could Talk

Several years ago, HGTV had a series called "If Walls Could Talk" and they would feature older homes and some of the discoveries that the homeowners would find. Some were real treasures like old letters or photos holed up in the walls or floors. It has been quite some time since I have seen an episode, so nothing really pops into my memory other than remembering that I would think: "Gosh, I wish I had a home old enough to have treasures hidden inside"

Well, guess what, we may not have treasures, but our house sure is old enough now. It was built in 1895. It has been added to, painted and plastered over, but that just gives Larry an opportunity to do his favorite thing: DEMOLITION. Don't all guys like to blow up things and rip whatever they can find apart? He bought a heat gun and has decided to take off the ugly non-descript white paint from the window sills in the old part of the house and then decided to take off the sill itself and this is what he found. That wood next to the dry wall is quite possibly over 100 years old. The iron weight on the string is what was used to counterbalance the window when it was raised to the open position rather than the modern day springs that are used now. So now Larry is thinking of ripping off the dry wall to expose the wood that is peeking out. He SAYS that doing such would not pose an insulation problem. I don't know. It is all kind of over my head anyway. It is still kind of neat, though.

He was running out of projects with the old house, so we needed to find new opportunties for him and his passion for renovation. Boy, it will be a LONG time before he runs out of projects now. By the way, notice his tool of choice in hand: the crowbar and hammer.

Danielle

That is my baby sister-in-law, Danielle, (that you can now see, thank you Kris!)who just graduated from high school. She was co-saludatorian of her class and because of this she was asked to address the audience.
In her speech, she chose to use pieces of art to illustrate her point. (Ha Ha illustrate - art; oh well, the joke is lost in translation, or something like that).

I totally can't do her speech justice because I don't have a copy of it, but she first used a picture of DaVinci's Last Supper that we all know and love:And then she showed us a picture of Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" which is:

a urinal that he signed and submitted to the Society of Independent Artists for their 1917 exhibition, which, it had been proclaimed, would exhibit all work submitted. Duchamp was a board member of the Society of Independent Artists and submitted the piece under the name R. Mutt, presumably to hide his involvement with the piece. After much debate by the board members (most of whom did not know Duchamp had submitted it) about whether the piece was or was not art, Fountain was hidden from view during the show.

Basically, Danielle's point was that we should, as Duchamp did, think out of the box and not find beauty or artistic expression only in areas deemed by worldly values as beautiful or artistic. Or, as The Art of Noise said "a work of art, or an effort to create beauty, was always regarded by some people as a personal attack."

Again, no justice is served by my meager and disjointed explanation, but I was really proud of her. For someone who is not going to major in arts, I was really surprised how much she used it in her speech. I just guess she's really well rounded.

Danielle was assigned, as all recent seniors of her high school (for my brother-in-law Andrew who is two years her senior completed one, too) are required to make a scrapbook including family, friends, early years and school life. And of course, this was on display during her graduation party. I didn't expect to have a large part dedicated to me in her scrapbook and I didn't, but she wrote some great things about me. I almost cried. She wrote about how she introduced me to manga and how she really liked to spend time with me. And I really like to spend time with her, also. She just really loves life and is very sure of herself and knows where she is going. She is so smart! I am so glad my husband has a great family I can be a part of.

Look! There's more than just Benjamin

I have been reminded that while in my bio where I clearly list that I am the mother of FOUR wonderful children, my blog is blatantly missing pictures of anyone who is not the baby.

Yes I fell into the 'new baby trap' where all of my current pictures consist mainly of just him. In fact, I had to delve to find pictures of all the kids. These are from almost 3 years ago and they include ALL SORTS of kids. Well, mine and my best friend's kids. Since she blogs about them all of the time and posts fantastic pics of them, I figured I wouldn't get in too much trouble for posting them

Yes, that is LARRY serving the bacon or whatever it was in the background, not me; for he is the better cook when it comes to breakfast

Great Grandma

I don't know how long this post will be because Benjamin is seriously not in the mood for me to post, but anyway. We just got back from Indiana where we visited Larry's family. During one of the days, we decided to go to his grandmother's house so that the kids could fish at her pond. I brought the camera thinking I could get some cute pics of the kids fishing. Well, the only two pictures I took were of Great Grandma holding Benjamin. But that is totally okay. I do remember one photo that my mother took of me and my great grandmother on her mother's side and that is the only memory I have of her. So for posterity's sake, I guess these two photos were the most important ones I could have taken.

I never even made it outside. I just stayed inside and talked with Grandma while I fed Benjamin. I love her so much. She is so wonderful to talk to. She will be 88 soon (on July the 5th or 7th) and she is still with it. I saw alzheimer's take over my father's mother and I know how much Larry's grandmother is still mentally there in comparison. I hope Larry's family realizes how lucky they are not to go through watching that disease slowly pick your loved one apart.

Grandma will talk about everything from when she had her first baby (which was a funny story) to her daughter's ex-boyfriend to when she went to Japan with another of her daughters. She is just so great! I am just so glad that we got to take these pictures of her with Benjamin.