Draw Your Dad

Both Regan and Hadyn entered the local "Draw Your Dad" contest. They have to draw a picture and send a snapshot for judging. Here are the girls' entries:

Regan chose this picture of her Dad in his Boise State sweatshirt.

Notice she even drew the hood...

Hadyn chose this picture of her and her dad:

The funniest thing about Hadyn't drawing is that she hunted all over the craft room and her bedroom for the perfect color of brown for his eyes...then gave him turquoise hair. I love it.

Tag! I'm Finally Getting Around to Being It! (Sorry Beth)

Okay, one of Beth's recent posts very kindly reminded me that i had not posted her meme...I am a slacker, and, I think I'll get to repeat that further down this post...

A. Post the rules.
B. Answer all the questions about yourself.
C. After you are done, tag 5 people.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

I had been married for 5 months and Jeff and I were living in the TINIEST apartment in Chandler, Arizona. We were adjusting to no longer being in school, having real responsibilities and having no family around. I was working for Northwestern Mutual as an admin, whatever that means. I think I was the ward chorister then. Without a doubt the toughest calling I ever had, since I don't play an instrument, can barely read music, and had NEVER lead music before. We are talking tears after most sacrament meetings. Other than the music thing, life was good. I was enjoying being married and being independant.

2. Five things on your to-do list today:

* Grocery shopping.
* Make salad for family party.
* I'd like to mow the lawn and clean up the back yard and garden.
* Deep clean the refrigerator...I absolutely loathe this job.
* Post on my blog...CHECK!

3. 5 snacks you enjoy:

I am not picky when it comes to snacking. Call me an equal-opportunity snacker. If I had to list my favorites...

* Hostess 100 calorie chocolate cakes. Seriously, these are good.
* Microwave popcorn.
* Tortilla chips and homemade salsa and/or guacamole.
* Yogurt with frozen berries.
* ANYTHING chocolate.

4. What would you do you you suddenly became a millionnaire?

That depends, does Jeff know I won the million? Ha ha, okay, Jeff, we'll save it... Other than boost our savings and retirement, I'd love a bigger house, with a bathtub in the master bathroom (I really miss our bathtub in Arizona). I'd get Jeff a car that he didn't have to work on so often. I can't think of anything else. How boring...

5. 3 bad habits:

* I said it before, I am a slacker (see above). I tend to procrastinate. Not because I don't want to do something, but because I think it needs to be done in such a way that it will take sooooo long, that I don't have time, and don't want to "kind of " do it. Bad, bad habit...
* A good book can sideline me for the duration unless I am very strict with myself.
* I don't say "no" when sometimes I really should.

6. 5 places I have lived:

* Ririe, Idaho
* Moscow, Idaho
* Chandler/Gilbert, Arizona
* Penang, Malaysia
* Boise, Idaho

7. 5 jobs I've had:

*Waitress at Jacob Lake Inn, near the Grand Canyon
* CNA at Good Sam's in Moscow, Idaho
* Admin at Northwestern Mutual and John Hancock Financial Services
* Executive Assistant at Varsity Gold in Gilbert, Arizona
* Mother

8. 5 things people don't know about me:

I'm pretty much an open book, but some surprising things might be...
* I aspire to excel at many old-school homemaking skills. I would love to get really good at gardening, canning, quilting, sewing and baking. Some of these I am working on, some I haven't started yet. Who would be most surprised? My mother who tried her best with me, but I was not at all interested in high school, when I had her there to help me. Now I just call her a lot for help.
* I have hiked the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to the South Rim in 12 hours.
* My favorite job I ever had was as a waitress.
* I wish I would have majored in nursing in college.
* I have travelled to more countries than I have states.

Okay, now for the tags...I think I've seen some version of this on some of the blogs I read, so I'll try to avoid those people:

* Rebekah
* Crystal
* Shannon
* Andrea

Ladies of the Jury

Wow, I think I almost need to introduce myself... sorry I haven't updated in so long, but here you go.

Last week Regan and I were both ladies of the jury. Me, for real, at the Ada County courthouse where I was called up for jury duty. I, of course, got put on the jury. I've had jury duty 3 times in my life. Twice I was on a jury, and once I was on bed rest and was excused. Anyway, it was interesting, and short, both of which I was glad of. We finished it in one day, although we stayed until 8:30 at night to do so.

Regan was also a Lady of the Jury in her ballet recital of "Alice in Wonderland". She made a much cuter juror than I did. She did a great job. I took video, but I can't get Blogger to upload any of it, so you'll just have to imagine it. Here she is with her flowers that Jeff gave her after her performance. She is such a ballerina. She loves ballet. We've tried to get her interested in soccer and t-ball. You'd think she'd be interested, Jeff and I both played sports. But, no. She loves ballet, so, we do ballet. She has one more class this week, then we break until September. Tell me she isn't so cute!

These pictures are from Regan's fieldtrip that I was able to go on. They got to walk down to the local Albertson's store to learn about healthy eating. It was fun. The highlight was definately when they took the lobster out of the tank and let the kids pet him...her...it. That is the back of Regan's head moving in, cautiously for her turn to pet it. Also, a group shot of everyone at the service-deli. FYI, the visors are color coding for the adults. I was in charge of the blue group. We were, by far, the coolest group. (Sorry about the pictures, I think Blogger is acting out against me for staying away for so long...)

Why Blogs Fail

I've realized that blogging, for me, is essentially doomed. When I actually have interesting things going on, I have no time to actually blog. When I have extra time on my hands to sit down to blog, nothing interesting seems to be going on. Alas, I am tired, and I am going to bed. What, you ask, do you have to look forward to hearing about when things slow down and I actually catch up on my blog? I'm glad you asked...chew on this for a few more days...a new bathroom, I hope, a new bike trailer, and hence sore legs and backsides, Mothers' Day (yes, I know it was almost a week ago), a visit (tomorrow) from my parents, a ballet recital on Saturday (Regan, not me...and no, not Jeff either), and lastly, me fulfilling my civic duty by completing jury duty. I was actually seated on the jury, so, said duty has been fulfilled for a minimum of two years...details to come...

The Luckiest Mom/Wife Ever

Lately I've been thinking about how lucky I am. I really do live a charmed life. Two great kids that make me smile and laugh. A husband that continues to love me in spite of the craziness that I sometimes create and/or embody. Something about Jeff that I have noticed lately, is how willing he is to give the girls time. Sometimes as he is literally walking out the door to work and they ask him if he'd like to color/build a tower/read a book with them. If I were in that same situation, sadly, I would probably say, "I would love to honey, but can I do it when I get back, I'm just walking out the door." Not Jeff, he always sets his bag down, sits down and gives them a few minutes before he leaves. I know that is something they'll always remember. Their dad ALWAYS has time for them. He is so great. My kids are so great. I must be living someone else's life, someone way more deserving... :)

My girls picked these for me today and said they were for Mothers' Day. Aren't they beautiful! What girl doesn't love to be brought flowers (even if some of them did come from the neighbors' lilac bush...)

Jeff isn't only the greatest dad, but he is the handiest guy I know. My car has been running badly for around 2 years. It chugs. All the time. When we're driving, when we waiting at a light... No one ever seems to know what's wrong with it. Jeff has tried fixing the things other mechanics have suggested, but nothing seems to work. A month or so ago, Jeff stumbled across some website that talked about a problem Mazda's can have with chugging...long story short, Jeff has fixed my car! It took a couple days, A LOT of hard work and late nights, but it works. At one point there was more of my car on the ground in the garage than under the hood. He fixed the problem, and put every nut, hose and wire back in its rightful spot. It runs like a dream. Did I mention how great my husband is?

No-TV-Week

Today is day one of No-TV-Week at our house. If our family agreed to turn the TV for seven days, and read instead, Regan gets all sorts of fun stuff from her school. For every 10 minutes of reading (or being read to) she gets a raffle ticket she can put in her choice of raffles next week. The prize that really got her, though, was that if you stuck to it and didn't watch any TV, she gets a couple throws at the dunk tank during her school field day. Sitting in that dunk tank, will be her her brand new principal, Mr. Phillips. Regan just starts giggling every time she thinks about him falling in to the water. I guess she really likes him, or really doesn't, depending on which way you look at it... Anyway, in preparation of the week, we made a list of alternate activities, and Regan made us all a sign which sits on the entertainment center:

I'm not too worried about the girls, since they actually don't watch very much during the day, but what will Jeff and I do in the evenings after the kids go to bed?! Talk?! :) Wish us luck. Thank heavens for DVR, I'm afraid I'd be a little less-supportive if it meant missing House and The Office...

Don't Be Silly!

Tonight was Pioneer Elementary's Read Night and Art Showcase. It was really fun. Pioneer is an Arts Magnet school, so they do a lot of art projects in class, as well as a weekly Art class where they explore different artist techniques, etc. All the teachers had every inch of the hallways covered in the students' artwork. Regan was excited to show us her water colors, pointillism project, etc. Then, for Read Night, there was a book fair, a used book sale, and a table set up to sell Judy Cox books. She is an author from Ontario, Oregon that writes the Mrs. Millie books, among others. Ever since we started going to the city library, we have loved the Mrs. Millie books. I never even looked at the author information, and had no idea she was (relatively) local. Regan and Hadyn were so excited to meet the actual person who wrote their favorite book, "Don't Be Silly, Mrs. Millie". She was reading a couple of her beginning reader books, and signing books. Here are the girls with Judy Cox:

She was really sweet. Regan was excited to learn that on top of being an author, she is a kindergarten teacher. Very cool. If any of you want a good book to read to kids that will have them laughing, check out her books!