Give a day...get a day

Disneyland is running a promotion to give away a free full day pass for those who give a day of service.
Starting January 2010, anyone age 6 yrs and older can qualify for a free full day pass (with very limited blackout dates).  Get registered and get serving.  What a wonderful way to introduce service and smile your way to d-land. 
Click HERE to be linked to the Disneyland/Disneyworld site outlining the details.

Happy Birthday Jacob

A very happy birthday to Jacob!

Our fun, smart, creative, kind, full of laughs, agile, fast footed, great friend, dashing good looks, sports minded, Webelos Scout, pianist, artistic kid!

You help to make our house an adventure! We love you mucho.

Here's a sample of Jacob's clever wit:

Scott got an old style shaving brush for Father's Day.  Jacob picked it up and asked, "Is this old man hair. It feels like old man hair that they made into a shaving brush." 

Tour 2010

The Tour of California/Amgen is coming next year.  Armstrong and Levi are confirmed. It will be very exciting to see the tour again. We are hoping to catch the time trials!! If you enjoy watching cycling fly past with the speed of sound, you will enjoy catching a glimpse of these crazy riders.

Maybe one day they will ride past our house and I can sell tickets on our front lawn and the kids can have a lemonade stand.  Hopefully this will inspire me to take a few turns on the bike (at a much slower pace mind you).

Birthday Flashback

My 40th Birthday party was sooo much fun! It was an 80's flashback complete with cake, friends & dancing.  It was totally tubular and I had a great time.  One of the funniest things was I got to wear Jacob's shoes which were similar to a pair I had (of course mine were in Christmas plaid) and are my size.  Thank you Scott for helping this bash be awesome, fer sure.  Still gotta love the Thompson Twins, Depeche Mode and all the neon!  Scott wore the breakfast club/rebel look and I got to wear strands of long pearls, broach and the long black jacket complete with the lace ribbon in my hair.  Everyone looked great, we even had Tom Cruise & Debbie Gibson come over with a few mullet rockers. Thanks everyone, I loved it!

Anyone know the Capital of Maine

Who is afraid of homework... Well, I found a website that is helping me and is a lot of fun.  Yes, for me it's 5th grade geography time.  I found a FUN website that helps kids to learn all sorts of things about: our Country. States, State Capitals, Lakes, Landmarks, US Presidents, farm animals, jungle animals, map puzzles... and a link for Preschool games and kindergarten games like : create an animal forest. Cool stuff!!  Now I can look like a genius without having to be one.
Here's the link Sheppard Software site.  Jacob, here's the one we are working on for State Capitals. Now it's been blogged, I don't have to keep looking it up.  Jacob, CLICK HERE. Pencils down, test is over!

Seriously, I LOOOOOOVE this site. Please check it out and end the quarrels about homework.
If you haven't clicked to check it out yet... here's your last chance, what are you waiting for? (another meltdown?) CLICK HERE FOR Sheppard software.com

Dog Days: Fawna is rescued

It's been brewing for years... and here we go.
Scott and the kids have wanted a dog for a few years now. First, we answered, "When Jacob is 8".  Then when he was 8 we answered, "Maybe within the next year".  You get the picture; I wasn't ready to take care of another plant let alone another someone to feed etc.  After a big delay I am announcing our latest arrival, Fawna.

She is a Corgi, so if the Queen of England ever comes for a visit, her dogs will feel right at home with Fawna the same breed.  Basically, Fawna is around 4 years old and was a rescued dog who is just happy to be with a family who loves her.  She is a good little doggie with a sweet personality who loves her tummy rubbed.  Thanks to my sister Dre' who is a major good dog trainer. We've gotten advice with how to help this sweet girl transition to our house. She's not into the puppy stage of chewing, wetting barking, whew! She already knows commands of stay, stop etc.   I can't believe that I'm going to say this because I'm not a pet person.  But, I do really like her. I even took her on a walk today by myself.  Big girl stuff, I know.  (Don't tell Scott, he would be shocked).  And, for those of you like my cuz Keri, who think a new dog is filling the need for a new baby...well this was just a need for a dog.

Religious Freedom

13 October 2009 An apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said religious freedom is being threatened by societal forces intimidating those with religious points of view from having a voice in the public square.
“We must insist on our constitutional right and duty to exercise our religion, to vote our consciences on public issues, and to participate in elections and debates in the public square and the halls of justice.”
Here's an excerpt of Elder Oak's Address: click HERE to link to full article

Noting that the students he was addressing were among the generation that would face continuing challenges to religious freedom, Elder Oaks offered five points of counsel:

• Speak with love and show patience, understanding and compassion to those with differing viewpoints.
• Do not be deterred or coerced into silence by intimidation from opponents, insisting that churches and their members be able to speak out on issues without retaliation.
• Insist on the freedom to preach the doctrines of their faith.
• Be wise in political participation, remaining respectful of those who do not share their religious beliefs and contributing to reasonable discussion.
• Be careful to never support or act on the idea that a person must subscribe to a specific set of religious beliefs in order to qualify for public office.

“Religious values and political realities are so interlinked in the origin and perpetuation of this nation that we cannot lose the influence of Christianity in the public square without seriously jeopardizing our freedoms,” Elder Oaks concluded. “I maintain that this is a political fact, well qualified for argument in the public square by religious people whose freedom to believe and act must always be protected by what is properly called our ‘First Freedom,’ the free exercise of religion.”

It Figures!!

Hooray, I figured out how to do custom backgrounds and Headers.  Here's the new look... it took a few hours and I am in no way a pro; but I finally figured it out. Sheez, I remember now why I hate working with computer code.  It is very unforgiving and wants everything perfect.  I'm still trying to learn new things besides all the mom stuff (can you relate?) From what I post you can pretty much tell what I am interested in: Family History, digital scrapbooking and graphics, emergency preparedness, being a Christian, home stuff, and of course my sweet family!

Hope you enjoy the new look. I'd better get going on Christmas now, because you all know I'm a Christmas groupie!

Dowload youtube clips

Fall is here (but where I live you can't tell by falling leaves. You can tell by the fire season).

Anyhow! Here is the latest Ahhh Haaaa thing I learned to pass along to you.
How do you download youtube clips?? Well, it's pretty easy once you download the free software to do it.
Click HERE to link to DVDVideosoft.com and just download the patch that will get the clips from the internet to your ipod, or to your DVD player.  While you are downloading the clip from a favorite show or a laughing kitty; don't forget to look up the ones called,  "mormon messgaes". They are uplifting and inspiring and now can be shared on a DVD as a pick-me-up gift.  Class is over; now go and work on your school project of the month: DVD clips.

By the way, a big thank you for all the firefighters who work very hard protecting our area.