Grandma's 80th Birthday

On Saturday, May 21st, my family celebrated Grandma's 80th birthday! We all met at Ligori's in Ogden for dinner. She was surprised and it took her a while to realize what was going on, but she finally caught on and was thrilled to see a lot us together. My poor Grandma has her good day and her not so good day....it's hard to watch her memory slip away a little at a time. I will always treasure our weekly lunch dates and the time we share together.

I'm missing my boy!

Ry finally comes home tomorrow, Woo-Hoo! Well, that's the plan anyway (I'm crossing my fingers). He's been gone since last Wednesday, May 25th, and although the first couple days were nice and quite...We're ready for him to be home! Joel's parents invited him to go to the Green River on a fishing trip and I'm sure he has loved every second of it. However, Joel and I missing him terribly...and so is dog, fisher. Ky is saying that she is enjoying being an only child, but she sure lights up every time her brother calls home. He's called everyday and, when there is a wi-fi connection, he uses facetime to connect with us using his ipod touch. It's been fun to be able to see him while he's telling us about his adventures, he sure keeps us laughing :)

I'M MISSING YOU RHINO...HURRY HOME!

It's Offical. . . . She's OLD!

To my super fabulous sister-in-law, Christi!

As of today, she is not only tired from to much school & work, kind of grumpy, brutally honest, and exteremly sarcastic...but now she's also OLD :P

Love ya Christi! I hope you have an amazing day sitting in your new truck, lol :) Also, I did tell Brent that ALL the business calls need to be forwarded to me today, but we'll see if that happens ;)

...Other Things...

All of these events have happened at the end of April and first of May...but not necessarily in this order.
While my Dad was working under his car, the jack slipped and the car fell on top of him. Luckily the tire was still on, so when the car fell he just got smashed...not CRUSHED. He yelled for help but nobody heard him, it took him over an hour to little by little scoot out from underneath it. TWO HOURS later when Susie got home he was sitting in a chair completely out of it. Susie call me and as soon as I answered the phone she said, "MAKE DAD GO TO THE HOSPITAL!".

We finally convinced my stubborn father to go to the hospital. Brent and Christi came and picked me up, we went and got Susie, and the headed to LDS Hospital where my Mom took him. After many tests and x-rays they agreed, with my stubborn father, that he was okay. It's always better to be safe than sorry though and I'm glad we convinced him to get checked out...

We finally made the island bigger...it's been on the to-do list for a VERY LONG time!

Ry & Mclayne took their last turn with morning announcements.
The Peer Leaders also had their "END OF THE YEAR" party!

Ry was asked by our city to be a Youth Fishing Instructor this year. He is loving being able to help with the Fishing Club :)

Ry and the rest of the 6th grade class graduated from D.A.R.E
Ry welcomed everyone and lead the pledge of allegiance.

The 4th graders had Pioneer Day. I helped Ky's teacher with the souvenir photo rotation, we had a great time :)

Ry and Emma participated in the Pop Can Tower event at the
W. School District Math Science Olympiad.

AND...LAST, BUT NOT LEAST...
The Greek Galley was finally able to come back to our local Winegars! Coach Dixon's father-in-law owns it. He introduced us to The Greek Galley a few season's ago and we became addicted. It's, hands down, The Best Greek Food! WOO-HOO!

~~ Mother's Day Weekend ~~

The entire Mother's Day Weekend was super fabulous! It started with a date on Friday night. Joel and I went to see a movie, Something Borrowed, and then to Cafe Rio for dinner. It was perfect!

Saturday morning Ky and I went shopping. We had a great time...she had birthday money to spend and I had mother's day money :) After lunch we went home to get the boys and headed to Lagoon. The kids favorite ride this year is the Rock-O-Plane...I'm not a fan :P Lagoon was EXTREMELY busy and so we only stayed for a few hours. We left there and met my brother and his family at Ligori's for dinner before going to meet the rest of the family at my Grandma's house.


At Grandma's we celebrated Ky's Birthday and Mother's Day.


On Sunday we went to visit Joel's mom in the morning then went home for a 3 hour Mother's Day nap...it was heaven! Later that evening we went to visit my mom. It was a great day!

I took pictures on Mother's day, but I can't find my SD card :(

Monday Memoirs. . . .

My niece, Haylee, will be turning 1 in a few weeks. She is so cute! She is at that fun stage where they are learning new things everyday. Unfortunately she still doesn't say Heidi :( We're working on it though!

I love that Haylee looks so much like ME (round face...blue eyes), it makes me giggle. It drives my sister crazy how people (her in-laws, our extended family, and numerous others) keep pointing it out :) HOWEVER...she acts 100% just like her mother! She is already showing signs of being stubborn, feisty and able to hold a grudge just like Susie, I love it!

Watching Haylee has also made me baby hungry...CrAzY, I know! We mentioned having another baby to Ry and Ky a few weeks ago and they freaked out. Then the next Sunday in Church --after playing with Shawna's baby girl-- Ry went out into the foyer and announced to Joel, and everyone out there, that I should go off of birth control and start working on making another baby...I wanted to climb under a rock and die!

So, for today's Monday Memoirs I am going to post Ry and Ky's baby pictures from when they were around that fun age. Hopefully it will cure any and all thoughts ~ these two keep me jumping plenty!

Ky

6 Months Old

1 Year Old

2 Years Old

Ry

6 Months Old

1 Year Old

2 Years Old
Looking back it's hard to remember them ever being that small :/

The week started off with a bang!

literally....A VERY LOUD BANG when my brother backed into my car!

Learn from my mistake ~ Don't park behind Brent ;)

This is where his hitch went through my front bummer...

AND THEN....4 days later

Pretty once again...for the bargain price of $1.168.00

Ray's Auto Body, out in West Haven...West Weber... (idk, out west somewhere) fixed it extremely fast and did a great job!

I would like to say that this is the first time someone in our family has backed into another family members car, but NO, I can't say that :( My Mom has backed into Brent's truck and also into Susie's car...and I have also backed into Susie car -- that girl just doesn't learn ;)

It's probably just for the best if you not park behind anyone in the "A" family....apparently, a few of us get distracted easily :) I will admit that I think my Dad's wreck, a few years ago, takes the gold prize for the worst driver...he rear-ended a lady while texting.

AND, Yes...In case you are wondering,
I will be parking in the mud
with the guys at work from now on, lol

Christi, my sister-in-law, posted about it too....

Click here to read her post :)

Friday Confessional. . .

1. I confess that we eat out too much. It's pretty sad that the waitress's know my kids by name and ask how certain activities in their lives are going....I don't care, nope, not at all. I love that everyone gets what they want, I love that someone else buys it, prepares it, and then cooks it, and I LOVE that someone else cleans it up!

2. I confess that I am counting down the days until summer. I think I am more excited for summer than my kids are...Ry will miss teasing the girls and the recess football/basketball games, Ky will miss her Teacher and just school period, she loves it all. I on the other hand will miss none of it! I am looking forward to being off "schedule" for a while and not having to fight over homework, reading time, and bed time. On top of that, I'm super excited about the longer days and warmer weather!

3. I confess that I am SO relieved to be done with the PTA. This will be the first summer in 6 years that I don't have to worry about the end of the year reports and taxes that are due during the summer and then about the upcoming PTA year. WOO-HOO!! I started on the PTA Executive Board, as Secretary, the year Ryan went into the 1st grade. My PTA "career" went like this... health & safety commissioner (HSC) for a year (when Ry was in Kindergarten), then HSC AND Secretary for two years, then HSC AND Treasurer AND President-Elect for two years, and then the president for two years....and now I'M DONE!!

--- Being part of the PTA was a great learning experience, I worked with and got to know a lot of super fun ladies, I lived through LOTS of typical girl drama, and I wouldn't change or do anything differently...absolutely no regrets...but at the same time I am super excited to be DONE! At the beginning of this year our PTA board agreed to change our bylaws...As of now, like at most elementary schools, the Executive Board positions will be a one year term instead of 2. At the end of my first year I wasn't completely burned out....NOW I AM. The 2011-12 Executive Board is filled with young kindergarten Mom's that are full of excitement and new ideas. It will be exciting to see the new changes at the school. As for me, I am excited to be going back to being just a "Room Mom" for Ky's last two years. ---

4. ....This is for my sister-in-law, Christi.... I confess that I started this blog post on Friday and it is now Saturday night around 10:24 (: Yep, I confess that I am easily distracted :)

Mother's Day

Friday Confessional. . .

1. I confess that I am totally creeped out, weirded out, and FREAKED OUT that someone broke into our house yesterday. Okay, they didn't actually break in. . . .the door was unlocked and they walked right in. Luckily they didn't steal anything, that we know of, they just went around moving things and left it so that it was obvious someone had been in here messing around.

2. I confess that we have an alarm system on our house that use at night but have never used faithfully during the day...that's all changed now!

3. I confess that my weekdays are extremely routine and very predictable, that too is going to change. I am going to mix it up and make a point to randomly stop home more often.

4. I confess that if I find out that my brother-in-law is behind this....even though he swears he's not....I'll hurt him and I will get even, it won't be pretty ;)

The Party's Over!

Ky's 10th Birthday Party!

This year Ky invited her entire 4th grade class to the park for her party. It was CrAzY! I'm not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to it. Out of the 32 invites she gave out, only one of them did not show up. The kids had pizza, cupcakes, and a lot of fun. I'm just glad Joel and Susie were able to be there to help!

Yikes!

As of today, I no longer have any kids in the single digits :(

Happy 10th Birthday Baby Girl!

I hope you have a super fabulous day!

Osama Bin Laden killed in Pakistan

Osama Bin Laden's demise: US rejoices after a decade

May 2nd, 2011

(...For my journal...)

WASHINGTON - After nearly a decade of anger and fear, America rejoiced today at the demise of Osama bin Laden, the terror mastermind behind the horrific 9/11 attacks. Navy SEALs who killed the world's most-wanted terrorist seized a trove of al-Qaida documents to pore over, and President Barack Obama laid plans to visit New York's ground zero. Bin Laden, killed in an intense firefight in a daring raid at his fortified hideout in Pakistan, was hunted down based on information first gleaned years ago from detainees at secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe, officials disclosed. His body was quickly taken away for burial at sea, but not before a DNA match was done to prove his identity.

A U.S. official said there also were photos showing bin Laden with the fatal wound above his left eye, a gunshot that tore away part of his skull. The photos were not immediately released. "The world is safer. It is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden," Obama declared, hours after U.S. forces killed the al-Qaida leader in the middle-of-the-night raid on his compound in Abbottabad. Obama was expected to visit New York, the site of al-Qaida's attack on the World Trade Center, and meet with the families of those killed, an administration official said. The CIA already was poring over confiscated hard drives, DVDs and other documents looking for inside information on al-Qaida, including clues that might lead to his presumed successor, Ayman al-Zawahri. Bin Laden's death after a decade on the run unloosed a national wave of euphoria mixed with remembrance for the thousands who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Crowds celebrated throughout the night outside the White House and at ground zero in Lower Manhattan where the Twin Towers once stood. Thousands of students at Penn State University and in other college towns spilled into the streets and set off firecrackers to mark the moment. -- via ksl.com

"Congratulations to the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to the mission! This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The U.S. has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done. " -- Former President George W. Bush

Monday Memoirs. . . .

LAGOON - IT'S WHAT FUN IS! or so they say...

LAGOON

This past weekend we bought our season passes to Lagoon. We arrived when it first opened and NOBODY was there. It was kind of creepy....cold and creepy, but the kids loved it! Within two hours they had gone on every ride, that they like anyway, and some two or three times.

As I was setting out by the Wild Mouse, I got thinking back to the days that my friends and I would get season passes, back in Jr. High - High School. I would run from one ride to the next all day without a thought about motion sickness. I didn't appreciate it enough. Now I make it on two or three rides and I'm pretty much done for the day. I'll walk around and watch my kids, drink a coke, and visit with my husband....when he doesn't go with them.

My least favorite ride at Lagoon would be the sky ride. My kids love it, because they know it tortures me. I don't mind the heights, just not when it comes to my kids being up that high with that wimpy pull down bar. I automatically start thinking about everything that could go wrong. I make the kids split up and ride with one of us...I held onto Ky the entire trip across the park, especially then it came to a stop at the highest point. YIKES, I hate that!

My favorite ride at Lagoon would be the train! Yep, nothing scary or dangerous about the train and I've never seen anyone get sick from it, but the rest of them don't see it that way :)

See, they can barely contain their excitement on the train ;)

Even though it's not my preferred choice of entertainment these days, I do have great memories of Lagoon from when I was a kid and that's what I want for my kids - Fun summer memories that they can look back on and I'll have the pictures to prove it :)

**Every once in a while Ry and Ky try play the "YOU NEVER DO ANYTHING WITH US" card and that's why I live with a camera in my hands -- to prove how it totally sucks to be them....or not ;)**