zip, zip

This is our new family game when we travel in the country thanks to Grandpa Thom (And grandma Pearl). You may wonder what a horse has to do w/ zip? I did too. When we were in Moses Lake this summer, we went on a Sunday drive out in the country and all of the sudden my mom & Thom started saying, Zip, zip,zip....zip, zip. What the heck?! Thom explained to me that when he was little he used to have to travel back and forth from Tacoma to Spokane a lot, (you know before tvs in the car) his mom(Grandma Pearl) came up w/ this game that when you saw a horse, you said zip, and counted them as you went along to see who could come up w/ the most. I asked if they said Moo for when you see a cow, but no, just zip. So the rest of the drive we were "zipping" along. :) Melissa said when we got back, "ask me how many I got - Zip!"

zip line

Keagan loves things that go fast! (He is going to have a great time at Disneyland!) This is a picture of him at the Falters house on their zip line. We went out there last weekend for Aaron Grubbs wedding reception. Don Bentley took this pic of him(on his really nice camera- my camera it would of been a blur), you can tell by the smile on his face what a great time he was having.

new blogs

Keagan wanted his own blog! So now he has one, and that meant that Melissa wanted one, too. (Usually it is the other way around) So you will see their blog titles on my sidebar now!

Calendar 2000 (year of 1999)

Our 2000 calendar has 1999's pics. Keagan was born in 99 so once again, thank goodness for cute pictures, the scrapbooking is getting slightly better, that is only if you compare them to the last years. There is even some pictures later on of Olivers, Falters, and Guintos! :)

This is when Melissa was spoiled by Aunt Darlene w/ a new dress every week!

My sleeping beauties - some things never change!

Look some Falters and Olivers at Melissa's party!

Melissa was soo proud of that shirt that said I'm the big sister, I think she still has it in her closet!

Joy school kids! Jenna, Melissa, & Maleah!

Poconos 97

In 1997 we went to Pennsylvania on vacation. We had a great time and got to do lots of fun things. I have a whole album of fun pictures that I haven't scanned yet, but here are some of the funner ones. John & Laura (Ray's brother and sister-in-law) took us to the Poconos. It was soo much fun! It was one of those all inclusive places, we could go get our dinner and snacks. There were a ton of things to do! It was geared for families, there was roller skating, paddle boats, miniture golf, a game room and lots of other things. They had a day when they had pony rides for the kids and the huge blow up bounce houses. We had a great time! Thanks East coast Shoops! I'll have to scan more pictures of this trip later.Melissa the Rugrat!

Soo true!

She was almost 2.

The Poconos is known for their honeymoon suites, we had fun looking at their "Land of Love" We saw a room w/ the champane glass hot tub and one w/ a heart shaped hot tub. Maybe some year Ray & I can go by ourselves. (H-O-T, see our old post on HOT!!!)

And my favorite one, how it really is in the land of love! :)

calendar 1999

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours scanning pictures and calendar pages. I started this crazy tradition that every year I make our families a calendar w/ picures (scrapbook pages) of the previous year of what we've done for the next year. For example, this year I will be making the 2009 calendar and I will try to put on it pictures what we did in 2008. A lot of times I try to match month to month what we have done. So Jan 2009 calendar will be Jan 2008 and so on, w/ the exception of Dec. because I try to have it done by Dec. 1 to send out to family, so I use the previous year for that one.

I started this crazy idea for the calendar of 1999. Ever since our families have said this is the one thing we can't stop doing for Christmas presents. The calendars have drastically improved, so has my scrap booking skills, the first 2 years I did it on half sheets of paper. Last year, for the first time I did everything on the computer. Here are our 1999 calendar pages.
Good thing the pictures are soo cute, cause the pages are a little frightening! More to come.

Keagan's note to me

Keagan made me this cute note yesterday. (The scanning cut the top of the M off)

This is the kind of thing that really makes parenting really worth it! So I couldn't really be mad at him about getting into my stamps....

18 days to Disneyland... but whos counting?! Melissa's power tap group (a little clogging & a little tap) is going to perform in Disneyland on November 8th and 10th. We're excited! My kids have never been to Disneyland, and it has been 15 years since Ray & I have been. The kids have been looking online to see what rides they want to ride. I think going in November will be a good time, we should have nice weather and shorter lines!

We are done with fund raisers! (not fun raisers as I accidently wrote to another friend) We had a raffle, sold concessions over the summer, had a garage sale (at our house...) and just ended w/ selling Little Cesear Pizzas. Hopefully Melissa's (and Brooklyn's) health will be up to all the walking and dancing!

(There are more dancers.... I think there are 20 going, this is Melissa's group, she in the "Srs" class.)

I miss Melissa!

3 weeks ago, Sept. 30th Melissa started to not feel well. She stayed home that day and the next. The next week she didn't go to school at all. This past week she went half days. Ray or I would pick her up at 12:30. She has had a sore throat, little bit of a runny/stuffy nose and a low grade fever off/on. Mostly she has been tired! That first week she when she was home she slept all of the time! I have never seen her sick like that before. We took her to the doctor and recently got results back that she has mono! (I told her to quit kissing the boys... she didn't like that!!)

I'm missing her fun personality! She has been soo tired that that is all shes been doing. Going to school for just half of the day has worn her out and she has come home to sleep for a couple of hours. I think we're over the worse part, we just have to be careful to not wear her out. From what I understand about mono, the fatigue could last a couple of months!

Thank goodness the last couple of days we are starting to see her personality come back out. Shes been joking around w/ us, but still not up doing the dishes.... hmmm! I miss that too. I have realized what a good helper she is around the house!

We are going to Disneyland November 5th, so I hope she gets her strength back by then!

Tag - You're it! (Thanks to Kathy Habel) :)

So here is the latest "tag". (One I can easily do) Go to your pictures and open the 4th folder and then post the 4th picture in that folder. That folder was 2002, I don't have very many pictures in that folder, yet. That was before my digital camera and I don't have very many scanned. This is Melissa's 7th bday party at Maleah's house in 2002. Kimmie & Katie Stringfellow, Brookln, Katie Carlock, Maleah & her friend from school, Melissa, Alexis Spivey, Riley Maughan, and Lauren.

(You can click on them to see them them larger)

Sweet and sour meatball recipe

This is my favorite cookbook. Our ward that I grew up in did this (I think as a fund raiser - that tells you how old it is). It is from the late 80s, has old fonts, lots of stains, but has some of my favorite recipes. It is also fun to make things and look at the name that submitted the recipe and remember them, also! Here is the recipe:

Sweet and Sour Meatballs - from Brenda Melum in Marysvilee 2nd ward

1/2 c. soy sauce

1 c. pineapple juice or water ( I add the juice and then add water to make it to the amount)

1 c. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 c. vinegar

garlic to taste

pineapple chunks - I usually add most of the can that I took the juice from

cornstarch if you want it thicker- I hardly ever do this.

The original recipe calls for 2 lbs of hamburger, but I use frozen meatballs from costco, I just dump some in until they are all covered w/ the liquid.

(I put the meatballs in before I bring it to a boil.) Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. I almost always double this recipe. We have it over rice. Yum!

Keagan's favorite dinner

We had Keagan's favorite dinner tonight - sweet/sour meatballs w/ rice. (I cheat and buy the costco meatballs, but the sauce is homemade!) He said the dinner prayer, which I love it when he says it when we have something for dinner he likes - He says, "please bless our dinner to be good......" and then he whispers , "which it will..."

The Olympian

We have been doing early morning paper routes off and on (more on than off) for the past 8 years. Every kind of route that there is at the Olympian we have done. Right now we have 3 different routes. The last few years, the main route we have been doing is the bundle haul.

In a bundle haul we go down to the Olympian get our papers, lots of bundles, for other carriers and take it down to a storage unit for carriers to pick up. For the last few years we have shared this w/ 4 different people so we don't have to do it every day. I do the bundle haul every Mon.,/Tues. and every other Wed. and every other Sunday. Ray does it every other Sat. This means I get up at 1:40 AM and go down to the Olympian and I'm home around 3 AM.

Ray does a home delivery rt. that we share witht the same person. (So he does the same schedule) He gets up at 4:30ish and does that, comes home and goes to the olympian and gets another little route. But that route is delivered to his work at the capitol and doesn't take too long. That route is a M-F route.

There have been changes at the olympian this past year when a new company bought them and now they are combined w/ the Tacoma News Tribune. We have been hearing rumors for a while, but this past week we got notice that we won't have the bundle haul after November 5th. We are mostly happy and a little sad about this. More sleep! yeah! Less money, but more sleep, more sleep, more sleep!!!! Yeah! No more Saturday insert run! We have always been blessed (we have payed our tithing) and I'm sure we will be now, too!!

Why do I sleep in?

This morning was a morning that I did the paper route, so I slept in as long as possible. (not that doing the paper rt. is the only reason to sleep in as long as possible...) Keagan is an early riser. This is what I find in my living room. Keagan loves to get this truck out out and ALL of the blankets! I have hid this "truck" many different places and he always seems to find it. I am grateful though that my kids are old enough that I can sleep in and this isn't the worse mess I have found when I have slept in! :) In my book sleep is more important!

To my true friends!

I don't do many forwards anymore, but one of my friends sent this to me and it cracked me up! Dedicated to my good friends!

None of that
'Sis'-sy Stuff
Are you tired of those
sissy 'friendship' poems
that always sound good,
but never actually come close
to reality?
Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of
True Friendship.
You WON'T see
cutesy little smiley faces on this -
Just the stone cold truth
of our great friendship.

1. When you are sad,
I will jump on the person who made you sad like a spider monkey jacked up on Mountain Dew!!!

2. When you are blue,
I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile,
I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.

4. When you're scared,
we will high tail it out of here.

5. When you are worried,
I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you
quit whining... ya big baby!!!!

6. When you are confused,
I will use small words.

7. When you are sick,
Stay the heck away from me until you are well again.
I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall,
I'll pick you up and dust you off--
After I laugh my butt off!!

9. This is my oath...I pledge it to the end.
'Why?' you may ask;
-- because you are my FRIEND!

I love google!

I have to say I love google. I love when you want to know something you can "google" it and find different web sites that you want to look at. I have also found that I can google directions, the weather, and movie times on my cell phone w/ a text message by sending the message to 466-453 (google) Thank you Jen for teaching me that! Well the other thing and prob. what I use it most for is spell check. I am an awful speller! And I like to have it spelled right because I have a couple of friends (you know who you are) who are awesome spellers... Sometimes I misspell so badly that spell check can't even give me an alternative spelling for the word I'm trying to spell, so I go to google and type my word in and it says, do you mean ________? Every time it makes laugh a little when I think, yes that is exactly what I mean! Computers are soo smart! :) (When they are working properly)

The seminary story

I have to tell this because my sister reads my blog and she would say, you only got 100% attendance because of this story.

I did have 100% all 4 years, even when I got my wisdom teeth pulled out, I went to seminary and then went home. Well, the spring of my senior year I got really sick and so did half of my ward. My seminary teacher got really sick, too. She called me and asked how I was feeling, I told her I wasn't feeling very well. She said she had called about 5 or 6 different people to sub and they had been sick or unavailable, and several people in my seminary class were sick, too. So she canceled seminary, but I would of gone anyways and then came home. (so, there you go, cindy) I had an awesome seminary teacher, Sister Gipson, she was my teacher all 4 years and we had our ward as our seminary class. I really liked it like that because it united our youth group in our ward. I don't remember too many specifics, but she was a great teacher!

About Me

I found that I don't have a very good memory, I cheated a little bit and looked at pictures. Thank goodness they have the date on them!

20 years ago...

1. I was a senior in H.S. and having a blast except when:
2. I got my wisdom teeth pulled out.
3. I had 100% seminary attendance for all 4 years (I have a story about that one to come later).

10 years ago

1. I was barely pregnant with Keagan.
2. For a few months I had both my youngest brother and sister living w/ us.
3. I had a 3 year old.

5 years ago

1. We bought our first house.
2. Melissa got baptized.
3. Ray's aunt and mom got to come visit.

3 years ago

1. We bought and sold a house & moved to a bigger house!
2. We visited Ray's family in PA!
3. Went to my grandma & grandpa's 50 year anniversary party and my dad's siblings were all together for the first time in at least 20 years!

1 year ago

1. Keagan got baptized.
2. We had our front tree cut down.
3. Celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary

This year

1. Melissa started middle school! Yikes!
2. Taught Preschool again.
3. Ray planted grass in the front yard and it looks beautiful!

Yesterday

1. Keagan had early release.
2. I took Keagan to play w/ Landon and visited w/ Leslie.
3. I went to enrichment and took my mom w/ me.

Today

1. I helped teach preschool.
2. Melissa is still sick.
3. Talked on the phone for a little over an hour w/ my best friend and roommate from college! Yipee!

Tomorrow

1. Hopefully Melissa will feel well enough to go to school.
2. I have to help pass out pizzas for our dance fund raiser and then be done w/ fund raisers for a while!
3. I need to get sharing time and my preschool lessons ready!

HOT!!!

Melissa likes to read my blogs so be warned, Melissa as you would say, this is eweth.

When I am putting dinner on the table Ray likes to joke around and say the dinner is hot just like your mom. Of course we have to really egg it on when we get the kids rolling their eyes and gagging! So every night at dinner Keagan tries not to say that anything of the food is hot because then Ray & I make kissy noises and the kids roll their eyes and pretend to gag! Well last night Ray was teasing the kids and making the door to our bedroom lock and locking it loudly and obnoxiously, of course he got the kids w/ the usual eeewww and gross. Well when I tucked Keagan into bed that night he said to me, "Mom, I know what happens in your room when you lock the door" Me, Ughh, you do (thinking I don't want to have that talk tonight....) Keagan spells, "H-o-t" Yep your're right Keagan. ;0)

General Conference

Thank goodness for the BYU channel! We can stay home and watch General conference! I don't think I even left the house yesterday. (I did get dressed, though) In our house one of our traditons is to have some kind of ymmy breakfast. Luckily my family isn't that hard to impress, they are used to cereal, so almost anything else is yummy. We had warm applesauce muffins. Another tradition is the blocks usually come out and some kind of conference center, church building, or temple is built. Here is Keagan's creations.

Another un-official tradition..... falling asleep.... or trying not to....
just can't make it ... awake... good thing we can read and listen to it later... and good thing I'm the one with the camera. (although I haven't fallen asleep, yet, the only one in the family)
Melissa following after her dad's footsteps.

Guess I better go listen.

Something Fun - Look-alike meters

This is something I was playing w/ while we were listening to conference. I tried it 2 different ways, the first time, I tried it w/ my kids pictures and Ray & I as adults, the 2nd time I tried it, I tried it w/ pictures of Ray & I close as I could to our kid's ages.

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Pedigree

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Suzy Homemaker - at least for me!

I've been "Miss Suzy Homemaker" the last couple of days, well, at least for me. This summer Ray got some tomato plants from a co-worker. The last couple of weeks they have been finally giving us tomatoes. A couple of weeks ago I made homemade speghetti sauce! A first for me, it was yummy! I snuck some zuchinni & carrots in there, too!
We found that the tomatoes ripened faster in the kitchen sink, here is a sampling of some of them.
This past week I have been experimenting w/ making applesauce. I found a good recipe on Carolyn's blog - from the year of crockpotting blog. I tried it a few different ways, w/ the the little red hot candies, w/ and w/out cinnamon (only because a couple of people in my family said they don't like cinnamon) I liked it best w/ cinnamon! We got some apples from the farmers market, the applesauce is soo yummy! I also made applesauce muffins for breakfast and for preschool (Our topic for the week was the letter "A", so we had everything about apples on Tuesday).