We're Back! And now it's Election Day.

We got back from our wonderful vacation today! I'm looking forward to blogging all about it. On vacation we had my sister in-law Emily (THANKS Memzy!) take our family's photos and I first want to post my favorites from that. She did a great job and it was hard to choose just these ones.
It's election day because I am asking that all of you please vote on your recommendation for which of the 3 family photos I posted here I should send out for our Christmas cards. I wanted to do this before I start going on about our vacation in future posts so that I can also get to work on our Christmas cards. So pretty please...vote at the end in your comments.

First we've got the beautiful Anna Celeste age 9. Braces to come in a couple of years :)

Our spunky and angelic Eden Elizabeth. Age 7

She does this look over the top of her glasses all the time.

The very adorable Rebecca Susan aka Becca Boo. Age 5.

Amanda and Steven.

11 years (as of yesterday) since we've met

And loving each other deeper as time passes on.

The currently very sweet Jonah Steven. Age 8.

Another set of braces for us to pay for. But for that smile,-- totally worth it!

And here are my top 3 picks for the family photo. She did some cool black and white and color variations with these too, but I think I want to go with color.

Option #1-

Option #2-

Option #3-

Finally, I think I will send off a Christmas photo of our family that I wont have to change out kids heads and bodies via photoshop! That is something I haven't done for about 4 years.

Hope you all had a filling Thanksgiving!

Fave Foto Friday

I love this old family picture we took on a vacation about 4 years ago. Back when my kids were much younger. ::Sigh of longing::

Now this morning we're leaving on another one! We decided to go ahead and fly Steve to Calif too this weekend! I'm so happy he'll be there with us for a couple of special occasions. (So he'll fly out after work today and still possibly arrive there before the kids and I arrive by car tonight. Then he'll fly back home Sunday morning and fly to Idaho on Wednesday night. Oh the perks of being a hard working man.)

Check out these guns

Today I ran a half marathon! I only planned on going 10 miles, but while I was out there it was such a gorgeous day and I was feeling good, so I decided to keep going. I actually went further than a half marathon! (FYI half marathons are 13.1 miles.) And I kept it at 2 hours. I know that isn't super fast, but it is a 9:15 per mile pace which is good enough for me going that far. I didn't have to stop once and didn't need water or anything.

It felt awesome, and I had to come here to brag.

I think I can officially call myself an athlete.

Or can I; I'm not sure?

Here's some images to plead my case.

First my biceps. I know they aren't that impressive, but give me a few more weeks of weight training and we'll see if I can do better. But check out my calves. (On releve - that's ballet)
Yeah, I put on a little lotion to make it look all shiny like that.

Trick of the body building trade right?

But no photoshopping here!

Hope that's not too racy for you.

I'm about to leave on a 9 day vacation and I had to take images of myself today before I go get all fat. Without fail I gain on average about 1 pound per day while on vacation. One vacation I actually gained 13 lbs in 4 days. So you do the math. In about 2 weeks, I'm not gonna be lookin so good and it will take weeks to get that vacation weight off.

But that's how it is and there's nothing I can do about it.

Family Fun Day - Dinosaur Edition

Today's FFD consisted of a trip to the Dinosaur Museum.

We had a great time.
I'll let the photos tell the story this time around.

Foto Friday Haunted House

In my last Foto Friday post in passing I mentioned our Haunted House on Sunset Ave. Here it is. This photo was taken after I got married and went back and took a photo of the place for old-times sake. Notice that tiny window up on the third floor? That was the window I was talking about before. Tim and Sherod lived up there.


We moved here when I was about 9 years old. It was a really old house in downtown Bakersfield. What was it built about 1920 or something? I can't remember. It was such a cool house! It had all kinds of nooks and crannies. Little cubbies to hide in and play. The laundry shoot was fun! We used to have a blast sliding down that thing. I'm sure it wasn't nearly as big of a drop as I thought it was being a little child.

But the house was haunted. I don't think these ghosts were bad. They didn't seem to try to do anything sinister. They just insisted on inhabiting the house with us and we had no other choice but to let them. So back me up Waites, was it haunted or not?

Holiday Plans

I decided to let you all know what our plans are for the upcoming holidays. That way you can all start making plans to be with us. Right?!

So on Friday November 21st, I will be loading up my 4 rowdy children and Anna with maybe one of her rowdy kids and driving to Bakersfield. (Anna will be going home with someone else though.) The kids and I will stay in Bakersfield with Tim - Still ok with you Tim? Thanks, I thought so. We will stay in Bakersfield until Tuesday or Wednesday then drive to Idaho. If I decide to split the 14 hour drive up among 2 days, I'll leave Tuesday. If I decide to do it all in one day, I'll leave Wednesday. We'll see. So I will be in Nampa with my kids on Wednesday night and staying with the most wonderful in-laws ever created. Steve will fly in to be with us that evening after he gets off work. (Lucky!) The 6 of us will spend Thanksgiving with Steve's extended fam. I think we are having a family temple trip on Friday. And we will either drive home on Saturday or Sunday (the 30th.) So there are a bunch of people I would love to see on these trips. There are obviously going to be things going on in which I will get to see many of those loved ones. But there are friends that I hope to see too! (Megan and new baby for example.) So all you Idaho friends who watch my blog, please make yourselves known if you'd like to get together! We'll work something out.

For Christmas we are going to just stay home.

Quality Control

Question: How do you know your last blog post sucked?
Answer: You get approximately 100 page views since you posted it and only 4 comments.
Question: Do comments matter?
Answer: We like to blog for "journaling purposes" so the answer is "no"
Real Answer: Lets be honest with ourselves - Your feelings of self worth increase and decrease depending on the amount and quality of comments.
Question: Why do most family and friends from Idaho never comment? (Megan, Jennifer P., Hot Pants, Robyn and Katie all share adequate amounts of comment lovin. We're talking about the other 20+ of you.)
Answer: In Idaho it is perfectly acceptable to use the bathroom at a gas station and never buy any gas or merchandise. They still like the gas station.
Question: What should I blog about now?
Answer: If you want comments go for something political or controversial.
Answer 2: Your life is pretty boring these days so how about a lame post with questions and answers about blogging.

I do use my blog for journaling purposes. I actually print it off and put it in my journal. I also have not updated all our scrapbooks this past year because I think my blog will do an adequate job of keeping my little family's life documented for later enjoyment.
But I also blog because it is my way of spending a little portion of my day staying in touch with the multitude of people who I love and cannot talk to on a daily basis. And I must say the comments I get on my blog bring me delight!
There are so many reasons I blog and all of them are beneficial to me. The only downside is I will sometimes get behind on catching up on other people's blogs and then I get a little overwhelmed because I don't want to spend too much time each day on the computer but want to share the comment loving around. There are people out there that say they don't have time to blog. But we all have the same 24hrs, we just choose to spend our time differently. I for one spend a little time each day blogging, but I never watch TV and give up other things so that I can blog.
So here's one more.

Question: Does this post suck?
Answer: Absolutely.

Have a good day everyone!

I love love stories

Last night Steve and I went to see this ^ musical. (It was fun seeing it with you Brent, Jen, Janice and Jay!) Musicals are interesting aren't they? Often times the play starts out all normal and you rapidly get used to the fact that these actors are playing certain characters and you get into the plot. Then during some dramatic scene they are talking and then music starts and instead of talking, they begin singing their conversation. Who thought of this? Seriously, I want to know. Then it gets better -- they start breaking out into dancing while they are singing. At first you are like, "Hu? that's a little strange. When do people in real life just start singing to each other and then dancing while they sing?" But let me tell you, I LOOOOOOOOOOVE musicals!!!! If real life were like this, this world would be a much better place.
Musicals are so weird but I get really into them. I have never seen Aida before and I didn't know what the story was about either. So it was really fun to see the story unfold and not know how it was all going to play out. There was a lot of cheesy dancing and singing and it was awesome! It was also a great love story. The lead couple had some chemistry. They seemed to be really into each other and it almost felt awkward at moments in the tiny theatre when the two of them were kissing for a very long time and we are all just sitting there watching quietly. But oh mommy, I love it! If you like cheesy singing and dancing and a good love story, I highly recommend this one.

Fave Foto Friday and Fave Shed Memory

Ask Memzy requested a post about my favorite memory of Shed. But first just a little background on his name for those who don't know. Sherod is an old family name. Pronounced Share- ED. It's different and people often don't get it. At Molly's wedding I heard him introduce himself to someone saying "Hi. My name is Sherod. I'm Molly's brother." The guy replied "Jared?" And Sherod just said "Yeah." He doesn't even bother to correct people.
Online we call him Shed though. Cuz it's cool.

Shed is my big brother. As you can see in the photo above with just the 6 oldest children in my family, Shed was a really cute kid! He's 3 years older than me. (He's #3 and I am #5.) I had a really tough time trying to come up with my favorite memory of Shed because I have so many. This guy is hilarious. Of course all of my brothers are. They all make me laugh super hard. I am a huge fan of all my siblings.

Growing up Shed and Tim (#2 kid) were always getting into some kind of mischief together. Shed could do it all alone quite well too. So I finally decided that my favorite memory of Shed is the time he and Tim strung some fishing twine from the 3rd story attic window of our haunted house on Sunset Ave., to the white picket fence across the street. Then they proceeded to try hooking various random things to the twine like a wig, or a naked Barbie doll. When cars would come down the street, they would have the naked Barbie doll or wig go flying down the fishing twine from our third story attic window, to the other side of the street; making it's path right through the middle of the road. A driver would be minding their own business driving down our street when all of a sudden a naked Barbie doll would come flying out of nowhere and cross it's path right in front of their windshield. That's how creative he is. Pretty funny. Wish I had photos of that! Even better - video.

My reaction to the election

So I'm putting myself on the chopping block here because I am going to discuss my thoughts on the election results. We all know politics can get people who even love each other all emotional and upset with each other. Hope that doesn't happen here. I've got no animosity, so I hope nobody brings it here to my blog.

So we have elected Barak Obama as our new President. And what I've said for months are these things:
1- I think he'll win.
2- I like him as a person, but do not like his policies.
3- His policies get me nervous.

Now that he is elected, I actually am excited to have a black president. But couldn't it have been a black guy with better policies? Maybe this guy?
And by the way, I did watch Obama's infomercial, and did read his website and do all my homework. So I am not totally ignorant on his plans.
The good things about him are:
He's black. (White people are nice too though.) He's young and charismatic. He's got a pretty wife who seems sweet enough and two cute daughters. And a black family in the white house sounds so cool doesn't it. Just say it out loud to yourself and see.
The things I don't like:
His economic plan. He supports abortion. He supports gay marriage. Among other things.

Which brings me to gay marriage. I am glad Prop 8 passed in California. What a mess that was! Here's where I may get people coming out of the woodwork calling me a hatemonger and all that. But guess what? I'm not. I actually like gay people too. Like this guy.

When news broke that Dumbledore was gay, I was literally rolling my eyes. Come on JK Rowling! The books were already all released and the guy is fictional. His sexual orientation was never mentioned in the books at all. But I still love Dumbledore! He's the greatest wizard who ever lived. Fictitiously of course.
I grew up with a lot of gay people being a dancer and all. There are many gay people that I just loved to death! But I don't agree with the institution of marriage being redefined. I don't think that gay couples should adopt children. I don't think it is healthy for a child. But I am sure there are plenty of people out there to argue otherwise. And I'll let them. Just don't start getting all mean to me about it. K?
Like my super smart and cool cousin Jenny, I find politics to be fascinating as well. Especially the history of our country and how our government even came to be. Some of my favorite books to read are ones about the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The hand of God was certainly in the building of our country. And I love it!
Like my other cousin who I barely know but I am sure is also smart and cool- Cathe, I am extremely grateful to be an American and for the great blessing it is to live in this time in this land.
So I am gonna put on a happy face and carry on and hope that our Constitution and the values our country was built on can remain in tact.
And my next post will be completely non-political! Thanks Ask Memzy for the advice. I'm thinking about it and will do.

Say your prayers people

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." -- John Quincy Adams



Well, I've voted. I've never waited in a line that long to vote before! And living in the state that I live in, I hardly felt like it made a difference. But it was the principle right? We are mostly red over here. Not that that is a problem, it just makes you feel like your vote is just a drop in the bucket. I did not however vote all Republican. (I know I can hear a few virtual gasps coming through your screens, my way.) In some cases I voted for members of the Constitutional Party. I tried to just vote on the person's principles and visions rather than party lines. Which we are taught to do anyhow right? The party system is one of those things that gets me all frustrated inside when I think about it. So I wont even talk about it here.



I did not vote for Obama. But here's another shocker for you. I didn't vote for McCain either. I just couldn't do it. I voted for Charles Baldwin from the Constitutional Party instead.

Yeah, I know you're thinking I'm a freak. Oh well.



I titled this post "Say your prayers people", because frankly, I am worried about what is happening in our country! And to refrain from making this a real downer post, I will not elaborate on why. But I am sure many of you can guess.



On a lighter note, my children had a mock election at school a little while back. I asked them who they voted for for President. They all voted for McCain. I asked them why. Celeste and Jonah didn't really have good reasons. But Eden did. I was wondering if my kids were racist or something and so I asked "Was it because you thought that the white guy looked better than the black guy?" Eden says, "No." I felt relief. Then she continues: "I actually thought the black guy looked better. But the white guy had an elephant next to him and elephant starts with the letter 'e' and my name starts with the letter 'e' so I voted for him." Ok, good answer Miss Eden! Then I start thinking...maybe I should have voted for Bob Barr from the Libertarian Party. The reason being, if you say his name fast it sounds like "Babar". And who doesn't love that sweet elephant Babar?

Monday Memories

I was thinking about my early childhood and a disabling fear I had.
Dolls. Porcelain dolls to be specific.
It didn't help that my mother was a gifted porcelain doll maker. And my Grandmother a gifted seamstress to make clothes for those beautiful dolls. They even owned a doll shop where she sold these things. "Eliza's Babes" was the shop name. There was a basement in that shop where she worked on the dolls I believe or something; and that basement was probably the scariest place on earth. Might as well been a torture chamber for small children.
When I was a little girl our house was littered with these fragile, um, - things.
I thought they looked pretty...during the day. But at night, I was FA-REAKIN out!
I would have nightmares that they were alive at night and coming to slaughter me.
One memory in particular.
We lived in what we have always called "The White House" on Panarama Rd. in Bakersfield California. I was about 4 years old. Which happens to be the approximate age of picture displayed above.
The house was a two story with a short hallway upstairs that had an open banister to see areas down below (in which those dolls were displayed.) This hallway had my parents bedroom on one end, and my bedroom on the other. You could not go from my bedroom to their bedroom without being exposed to the view of said dolls. I had lots of nightmares growing up. Some quite gruesome. When a nightmare would come, I would run from my bedroom to my parents as if the Incredible Hulk were chasing me. He happens to be the subject of one of those nightmares. The dolls too. I remember one night being paralyzed in the middle of that hallway with terrifying fear. I could not move. I could not get myself to my parents bedroom because I had to keep my eyes on THE dolls. I wanted them to know, I could see them and I was watching their every move. They weren't moving of course; while I was watching them that is. If I took my eyes off of them, they would surely actually move and make a run for my throat. My life would end right then and there. I don't remember how long I was paralyzed there but I don't ever remember leaving my position. I think I was there until dawn broke.
Of course I never expressed this fear to my mother. Otherwise she probably would have never taken me to get my pictures taken at Olan Mills with those dolls in the actual photo! I remember her getting me ready for this photo shoot and then packing the car with the dolls.
So when I see this picture, I remember, them; meaning possessed dolls bent on killing me.