Aviation Minnie & Me!

When we ran across  this Minnie just outside of the Grand Californian Hotel (right across from California Soaring, go figure), I just couldn't resist! I was compelled to join the line and have my picture taken.  Afterall, we female pilots must stick together!

Mission Beach

     Today (Friday, May 4th), we woke to very cloudy skies. That seems to be the norm for our trip. Not to be deterred  from our plans, we all loaded our cars, checked out of the hotel (which I am certain had traumatized Trason for life), and loaded up to head for the beach. Mindy & Katie took Madison & Jace with them while Joe & I ran Brian into town to go to the Oakley shop. While waiting for him, Joe & I enjoyed a slice of pizza made by an Iraqi guy. It was interesting.
     By the time we met up at the beach, the sun had finally made an appearance! Due to the cold weather that morning, none of us had clothed our children in swimming attire. Bet you can guess where this is going! Yup! Wet kids in wet sandy clothes. Eventually they all made into swimming suits. They had a blast! They played in the surf, chased seagulls, collected shells, buried each other, dug holes & who knows what else. A few sunburns later it was time for the Keller's & Berry's to head for home.
    We then packed up and drove to Newport Beach in anticipation of Timmy's upcoming nuptials. We spent the night at a very nice Marriott near the temple and were able to dine at a family favorite, the Cheesecake Factory.

My girl & I

Maddie & I at the Cheesecake Factory in Newport Beach.

The Long Road Home

We spent this past week in California with our family. All of it! (Merlin was not feeling well so we left him in St. George). We had such a wonderful time! I am going to blog our trip in reverse. Today we spent the morning at the Newport Beach Temple. Tim Anderson was sealed to his sweetheart Brenna. It was a beautiful ceremony! It was great to see Mike, Konni, Kimbo & Justin. Madison & Jace were excited to get to go into the temple. They were allowed to wait in the waiting room with the wedding party. They thought they were real big stuff! After the bride and groom emerged in all their glory, we said our goodbyes and took off.
     We did a quick clothing change at Olive Garden, ate a speedy lunch, hit CVS (cold medicine for Maddie, solarcaine for Jace), gassed up and here we are.  I-15 for the next 13 hours! Yeah! Good times!

We're Back!!

Well, after an absence of more than a year, we are returning to our blog.  So much stuff has happened that I had delayed updating because I didn't know where to start.  After much debating, I have decided to basically start fresh.  I will post some past items, but for the most part, my goal is to just stay current.  Bear with me!

Lysol Testers Wanted

So the other day when I picked the kids up from school, Jace spent the entire ride home lamenting the fact that he has never been on the news. He was so upset! "Madison has got to be on a few times, Mom was on the news with Madison, and Daddy gets to be on all the time!!" I tried to console /cheer him up as best I could without having any type of fix to offer.

The next day when I picked him up from school, he climbed into the car blurting that he was going to be on the new TONIGHT!! Well, I'll be darned! He was! (So was Madison..... again)

Not Much to Crow About

Fast Fowl Power Shift

Power to the Hennies!

Last Saturday I had finally had it with the roosters picking my poor hens! None of the new hens have tails anymore, poor babies. There was just too much testosterone in the coop. I felt justified in sacrificing the roosters, well, because you know how men are, eat the food, strut in the yard, and produce nothing of value! So Joe and I made short work of four of the less fortunate aggressive males. Here's a look at what's in my crock pot now!

Just goes to show you. We don't put up with fowl behavior at our house.
(Take note Jace! You could be next!)

What Does Mom Know...... Now??

So you know how your kids always think you have no clue? How you tell them things that are just ridiculous? Well, here's how that worked out for us today.

Being the mother of a 6 year old boy on 30-acres of dirt has proven to be it's own special challenge. Since it began to thaw, I feel that I spend a majority of my time repeatedly telling him to stay out of the mud. "Get out of the mud, you'll fall down." "Get out of the mud, you'll get dirty", and the latest, "Get out of the mud, you'll get stuck!" And as always I hear, "No I won't!"

Yup. So how's that working for ya now son?!?

Told ya!!

We recently returned home from a wonderful, much needed Southern Caribbean cruise. While we were away, here is a clip from the blooper reel!

{Our horses got out! Apparently a tree branch had fallen on the fence and enabled the horses to leave the pasture and hang out over on Mike Coombs' property. Poor Mandy discovered they were out and "captured" them with not-all-that-helpful aid from the kids. Here is her txt to me regarding the situation.}

".... I've been very impressed. Your kids are very well behaved! They did leave the gate open and all the horses got out on Wed. which was a little traumatizing for me since Tyson was gone and I'm secretly afraid of horses. We got them back in! It just took us longer than it would have taken a normal person"
"Trust me, it was hilarious! I was trying to stay calm cuz the kids were scared enough but when Maddie handed me a bridle (really a halter) and told me to go catch them, I had to go hide and call Tys. He got a kick out of it too! I was like, I don't even know how to work a bridle!"
"Haha. Tyson told me to find some oats or something to lead them back in (to the corral), so we did that, which was working great. Then Jace came out of nowhere with a whip and started whipping them so they all ran right at me which about freaked me right out! but we got them! Then Jace had the nerve to say that now you (Mandy) do the farm work. You can do it everyday and we don't even need Tyson! Haha It really was hilarious!"
Yup! That's my boy. Appear out of nowhere to whip those horses back into shape! What the heck?! I'll never understand what runs through that noggin of his! He honestly thinks he saved the day! Way to go cowboy!

This is NOT the Indy 500!

On Monday we picked up our new (used, new to us) 120 snowmobile for the kids. We now have two of them. The kids were so excited to be able to ride together and to be able to race. So, we turned them loose and boy was it an eye opener regarding their personalities!

As they buzzed around the yard, Joe and I observed their every move from our birds eye vantage point, also know as our bedroom window. After they had ridden for 10 minutes or so, they decided to race down the driveway. (Our driveway is 600 feet long or so, which makes a great runway!) The first pass wasn't too successful. Madison took off down the lane before Jace got turned around. Cheater. The second pass started off better. They got lined up, counted, and took off. The machines are pretty evenly matched, Madsion had a bit of a lead off the line, but she was not pulling ahead by any means. She remained just inches ahead the entire length of the lane. Just before they entered the yard, she veered to her left, pushing Jace off the lane and nearly into the pasture. He managed to get back into the yard alright and didn't seem to be rattled by the events at all. Shortly thereafter, Madison came into the house for something. We asked her about the incident. Her reply? "I didn't want him to win." We talked to her about fair races and about safety on the snowmobiles and sent her back out.

Joe and I watched the kids for another 15 minutes or so. Suddenly Jace ran into the front yard, where Madison was alone on her snowmobile. (He had been in the back with Madison just seconds before). He said something to her, she dismounted her snowmobile, he jumped on and took off. We scratched our heads. Where the heck was Jace's sled?? Our answer came soon enough.

Enter Madison. She came in and we asked her what was going on. She replied that Jace had crashed his sled. Then she burst into tears saying "I will never get to ride a snowmobile again!" Huh?!?

We went out to investigate. Holy crap! He had indeed wrecked his sled. He had nosed it under our flat-bed trailer which stands about 1 foot off the ground. Buried up to the headlight! Needless to say the hood has seen better days. We actually had to use the tractor to lift the trailer off the snowmobile! Once that problem was solved, we began the process of accident investigation. Madison told us that Jace had come up the hill and crashed into the trailer; he had gone too fast she said. Jace told us the rest of the story. He and Madison had been racing side-by-side in the back pasture. As they came over the hill onto the building pad, he realized he was heading for the trailer and had tried to veer to the left (he couldn't go right because that is where the tractor was). Madison wasn't going to let him in (she said she again saw this as a chance to win). He realized his fate was to hit the trailer, so he JUMPED before impact! Thank goodness he had the foresight to bail because he probably would have wound up with a broken leg as he sailed over the wreckage. Just to put your minds at ease, yes, they both wear helmets!

All's well that ends well. However, NEVER compete with Madison. Apparently death is an acceptable rick for her! (Maybe the black eye Jace got during a Wii tennis match with her was not accidental! Perhaps we should have seen this coming!)

So Much For Small Town

Yesterday started off as all other school days do. Kids up, kids dressed, lunches packed. Kids to school, mom to gym. Home. Once I got home, my cell phone started dinging txt messages at me. The first one I got said "The Sheriff's Department has placed your school under precautionary lockdown. More information to follow."
What!!??!!
I called the kids school and they had no clue what the text was regarding. We figured it must be for Woodland Hills. I turned on the news, made some phone calls and found that something unusual had occurred in our not-so-little cow town.
About 10:00 am, an iHop employee was leaving the staff entrance to take the deposit to the bank. Some Goober (possibly and ex-employee) robbed the iHop guy at gun point. He hit the employee on the back of the head with the gun and shoved him into the garbage container area in the parking lot. Cue school lockdown. The Sheriff's Dept placed close to 10 schools on lockdown due to the fact that the Goober was armed, violent, and had disappeared. The kids were locked in (parents out) for roughly 1 1/2 hours. The lockdown was called off at 11:20 am. However, Goober is still at large.
I watched the local news last night to see if any developments have been made in the case. I had to laugh. Welcome to small town newscasts. The report was that they had not caught the guy but they were sure they could find him if only they had video surveillance. Ya think?
What about iHop says "get-rich-quick" to you? Anyhow, in the mean time, I am sure that our goober is enjoying his new-found wealth. Don't spend it all in one place!







**UPDATE**
They caught the guy! Get this, the robber was the victim! Who would've thought! What a GOOBER!

This morning my dear children woke me up at 5:40 am to tell me they were going to let me sleep in. Ummm, I don't think they get this sleeping in thing.

America Rising Video- A Must See

This video has been posted and removed multiple times on you tube. I found it to be very true and very powerful. It is time to take America back!!
America Rising Video- A Must See

It's starting already!!

Well, I knew it was going to begin sooner than I was ready for, but I am thinking that this is just ridiculous!
Yesterday Jace and I were looking through my e-mails. I got one from Lexus announcing the new 2010 GX. Jace thought we should check it out. We watched the little video which highlighted all the safety features. Boy were they cool! You know me, I love technology gadgets!
The GX has auto-adjusting cruise control which senses the vehicle in front of you and automatically adjusts the cruise control, so you never get too close. It has rear, side and front mounted cameras which eliminate blind spots. There are lots of neat-o airbags strategically placed around the cabin. It also has sensors which will tell you if you are approaching the lane lines (handy for those who do their best sleeping behind the wheel.... JOE). Anyhow, it really was cool, so we priced it out. $62,000. Yeah, it's off the short list! Well, Mister Jace, clever fellow that he is, says "We should get that Mom. Just think how safe all that stuff would make me when I can drive". I started to open my mouth to tell him he was INSANE for thinking that, when he quickly added, "By the time I can drive it would be an old car. But it would still have all that safety stuff. Just think how safe I would be."
Oh crap. I am not ready for him as a teenager!

New Year

Well, we have survived it.... 2009 that is. We have been so blessed this past year! Our Christmas was wonderful. My children got to spend their first Christmas with their Grandma and Grandpa Clark as well as with assorted Aunts, Uncles and cousins. We were so excited to have them all. We were only missing the Flemming Family adults. (Abby was able to join us). We ate and played games and watched Grandpa and the kids play endlessly on the snowmobiles. Hopefully they all had a good time. I know we did. Memories we will never forget. Thanks gang!

Well, the New Year is here and is a vast clean slate. What am I gonna screw up this year? What are we gonna get right? What new lives will be brought into our family and to whom will we say goodbye? These are all things that only time will tell. I pray that as the year unfolds, our family will be blessed with bounteous joys to accompany the sorrow and hardships we are sure to find. May the New Year bring each of you great joy and success!

Don't Shoot!

Yeah, here is a true boy story. About two weeks ago we had a mission farewell in sacrament meeting. The kids had the wiggles so to help them pay attention, I told them that I would quiz them after each speaker. They were intrigued and so the challenge began. The soon-to-be-Elder gave a nice talk about some of the silly things he and his friends had done, and how he avoided serious trouble in his life because they were good influences on him. Among those silly things were driving through a drive-thru backwards and shooting the lights off of Christmas trees. He then went on to talk about great missionaries in the scriptures, including Ammon. He went into the hole chopping off of the arms of robbers thing (which I assumed was captivating to young boy). At the end of the talk, as promised, I asked the kids what they had learned. Madison told me that Ammon was a faithful man who was a great missionary because he was humble and faithful. What a great listener! Then I asked the Maggot. I asked him what the missionary has talked about. He looked really thoughtful for a second or two. Then his eyes lit up, he got very animated and he responded "Oh! I learned that you can shoot the lights on a Christmas tree out with a BB gun!!" Yeah. Definitely NOT the take home message!

Barnes & Noble Singers

On Saturday, the kids school held a fundraiser at Barnes & Noble. Clifford the Big Red Dog was in attendance, which was kind of exciting for the kids. The elementary class sang three lovely songs. Two were about the wind and fall weather, and the third was Johnny Appleseed. It was so fun to see them share their talents! They also got to display their fall artwork in the store windows. Madison and Jace's were together right at the store entrance!

Waiting for Pain!

Well, now that H1N1 has peeked and appears to be on the down slide, the government has made the vaccine available. Sounds about right..... Due to Jace's IgA deficiency, we felt it important to have him vaccinated. He fit the criteria to be among the first in Idaho Falls, but because it was first come first served, we (my friend Amberly and her cutie Abby came with us) decided to be there PLENTY early. The clinic opened at 2 pm, so we planned to be there at noon. Luckily Amberly had watched the news the night before. She called me at 9 am to tell me to be ready in an hour! Pocatello had done their shot clinic the night before and 3000 people showed up! Long story short, we grabbed blankets, snacks and chairs and joined the line about 10 am. We were 4 hours early and there were already 50 people or so in front of us. It was a line like I have never seen (especially considering it was for shots!) There were over 2600 people in that line and I am so grateful we weren't at the end! They had mostly flu mist and Jace cannot have live virus (due to his lack of antibodies). If we had been farther back in line, we may have wasted our time waiting.

Jace and Abby had a great time together and were amazingly patient! I never heard either one of them complain, whine or comment that they were bored. What great little troupers! The kids have to have another shot in 21 days and Jace is counting down the days until he can "call Abby to get shot" with him.

GROSS!

I came home a couple of days ago, pulled in the drive way, exited my car and when I passed the garbage can, my kids popped out! I screamed; not because they scared me, but because it was do disgusting!! Sick! Will we ever get all the germs off of them?!?