Journal

The phone rang Thursday morning at 7:15am. Luckily, for the caller, I had been awake for some time and was almost done with my coffee. When I answer, my sister asks, “can you have a family emergency this afternoon, at about 1ish?”. I am intrigued and check my work schedule – seems there might be some wiggle room for whatever the sister has in mind. Turns out there is a long-overdue hair appointment scheduled and a very strong need for a babysitter for the little ones. Auntie Keri has been called and, like the Wonder Woman I am, I make it work. After arriving at my source of income, the bossman quickly agrees that the best place for me to be that afternoon is presiding over the care of the girls while their momma get pampered. Yeah!

I arrive at about 1pm, lunch in hand ready for the latest bits of info the sister has in store for me. The sleeping beauty should be out for a while (which means that as soon as she leaves for her appointment, sleeping beauty will wake up, ready to play with Auntie). The first born has already begun reciting the itinerary of activities planned for the afternoon; all of which are contingent upon the sleeper continuing to sleep.

The door closes behind the beauty-seeker, and the fun begins with a tour of the playroom and a detailed introduction to all of the 187 ponies and dolls that live in the playroom.

 

Luckily, I was not given a test on the names.

Approximately 12 minutes later, noise begins upstairs and it is decided that nap-time is over. Covered in sweat and sporting some awesome hair, the child is ready to play.

 

The decision is made, unanimously, to head to the park.

 

 

Although it was not in the original plan, I think they had fun.

Then, back to the house to tackle the fruit that need to be sliced…and eaten.

 MMM…watermelon

 and some toe inspection.

Then, off to watch a video…

   

(the best blurry picture in my collection!)

and some bubbles.

It was an afternoon of fun…and momma’s hair looks great!

There are tons of pictures from the afternoon in the album on the right - check it out!

Summer has begun with the annual 4th of July celebration! 

In the last few years there have been some changes in my family. We have lost a few, and gained a few and are waiting on more to come. A few members of the family have moved away. There has been divorce & marriage, and re-marriage. Thanks to computers we have all been able to stay in touch, even if just via email, blog postings or sharing of pictures. No matter how we keep in touch or get back in touch, we are all still family.

Family: any group of persons closely related by blood, as parents, children, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Dictionary.com

Families are like fudge… mostly sweet with a few nuts.
– Author Unknown

My Dad (on the left) is the oldest of the four sons of his mother. I have a bunch of memories and pictures of them and love to tell the stories of my very interesting and different uncles. Brian is the youngest, and this month, he turned 40.

I had the privilege & joy of being at his surprise birthday party (with my camera, of course).

A party put together by my Aunt Julie & my cousin Jenna Rose.

They did an amazing job keeping this secret from Brian, who was whisked away to his first Dodgers game (courtesy of Jack) then brought to a restaurant under the guise of meeting up with family for dinner and Surprise!! A gathering of his friends and family to celebrate his most recent, of many, accomplishments in his life -

his 40th birthday.

My Uncle Brian (UB) is an amazing man who has touched the lives of many.

 

Brian, I love you SO much!! Happy Birthday!

For a slideshow of all 86 pictures or to order pictures, click on the album called 09 April UB in the right hand column, under Family. 

My cousin is kicking my butt every time I see her. She is 14 and I think she is adorable...she thinks I am amazing...but a very bad blogger.

As many of my friends have heard too often, I got into reading the Twilight series.

When I say "got into the Twilight series" of course I mean that over the course of just 8 days, I read 2 800+ page books. My 14 year old (Young Adult) cousin was, of course, also reading the series. Once I began reading, we bonded Big Time as she was the only one who really understood (except my friend Sheryl, who I blame all of this on). After Twilight,

 I went to Borders and was directed to the Young Adult section to purchase the rest of the books - no turning back now. After finishing the first book, then the second, New Moon  I had to make a choice, Sean was coming into town. So I put the other 2 books away so that I would not be tempted to start reading them and completely ignore my boyfriend while he was here visiting from Boston.

I even waited a few days after he left to pick up book 3 and continue to love-adventure of Edward, Bella and Jacob. 

 Book 3 Eclipse

 Book 4 Breaking Dawn

Friday Nov. 22nd the movie opened. At the beginning of that week I spoke to my Uncle Brian about the movie and if Jenna Rose was going to see it. He explained that they were going out of town and that she would not have the time. A light bulb went off over my head and we devised a very sneaky plan that consisted of me picking Jenna Rose from school and Surprise! taking her to opening night of Twilight (leaving her folks a free night to pack, undistracted, and get ready for vacation). Brilliant!

Jenna had no idea. I heard that she was moping around Friday morning getting ready for school, sporting one of several Twilight T-shirts in her collection, mumbling something about how unfair it all was that she couldn't see the movie, even though everyone else was probably going to be going. *Sigh* The life of a teenager is very challenging, for sure.

The plan was working out perfectly. A wonderful turn was that Jenna's BFF Raha was also going to join us for the movie. Perfect - I can only keep Jenna's attention for so long and it would give her someone to really scream with when the movie started (or whenever teens start to scream at these events). I swung by Hot Topic and picked up a few shirts and the soundtrack and was off to pick up the girls from High School.

They were surprised when I rolled up, stoked to be picked up by Jenna's fun cousin, grateful, I'm sure, for a break in the routine, but still clueless. I had my shirt on and Jenna recognized the Twilight playing. I brought up the movie and they sighed about how bummed they were that everyone was going and they heard that tickets were sold out. I casually mentioned that it was a good thing that I got tickets for us a week ago. The screaming officially began at 4:02pm.

   

Could Jenna's smile get any bigger? Uh, NO.

The line was as expected for an opening night. And there were girls wearing homemade Tshirts, and making homemade Tshirts. We had a ton of fun!

 The beginning of the line

 Homemade shirts for Team Edward

  The arts & crafts section.

The movie was fun. It was really good actually. There was alot of screaming by the whole crowd. I think that those of us that read the book totally had an advantage and may have been more satisfied. But it really captured the emotion and intensity of the books. I will probably go see it again, just to be able to experience it with a little less screaming. It was a totally great time and I am glad to be "amazing" in the eyes of two great 14 year old girls.

 

Kenz just wrapped up her 2nd season playing soccer, with Daddy as the great coach on the field. her skills are sharper and she has much more confidence on the field this year, and even scored a goal a few weeks ago. Josh could not have been more proud after the goal was scored and Kenz ran straight for Daddy! It's been another great year.

Check out all of the photos in the album on the 2008 page!

 

We had the pleasure of going to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Kenz's birthday. Family, friends and soccer team members were there, along with Chuck himself.

Check out the pictures in the album under "Family"

 

We celebrated Hannah's first year, Mackenzy graduated from Pre-K and is getting ready for kindergarten, and we had several visitors including: Bill & Vera, Jesse, Julie & Audrey, and Uncle Brian, Aunt Julie & Jenna. I hope that the pictures capture the joy that we were all filled with!