Overachieving or Insanity

Let me ask you a question...

How many sane people would invite a boat load of people to their house for a party in 24 hours and then decide they don't have enough furniture for their guests, so they roll up their sleeves and get to work...

Aren't there special institutions for people like this?

Off they go

Today was big day.  I loaded up our four calves that have been grazing all summer in our pasture and headed them off to the Blackfoot Livestock auction.

 

With the turn of the weather, I think a lot of farmers/ranchers had the same idea.  It was a day early, but there was a line of pickups and trailers ready to drop the livestock off at the stockyard.

 

I wondered how my $600 horse trailer would do on the trip.  It seemed to hold up well, though it looks like I should be buying some tires for it sooner than later.  If I had to go much further I would have been out at least two tires most likely.

 

I got the calves dropped off and signed the form.  In a couple of weeks we should be getting a check.  We’ll then know how profitable it was to pasture cows and irrigate the fields all summer.

 

If it goes well, Aylee and John will be making investments next spring for their own calves to help them prepare for their college and mission experiences that will be here before any of us realize it.

New kitchen furniture

I don't know if many of you remember what our kitchen looked like when we first moved into our house, but for those of you that can recall, we had a hanging cabinet over the peninsula. One of the first things Amber did was remove this cabinet since it contributed to the cave-like feeling in that part of the house.

It was just over a year ago that the Reed clan came over and helped us with the demolition.

We hated to have that cabinetry go to waste, however, so we put it in the barn and there it sat for nearly a year.

Over the past month, Amber has had a dream for the cabinet, but just wasn't sure what to do with it. After some brainstorming with Ashlee several weeks ago, Amber got to work and just finished up a very nice piece of furniture for our kitchen.

She added a footer to the cabinet, as well as sides and a new top and back. She then painted, distressed, and stained the furniture until it looked like a fine masterpiece.

It will be a tasteful addition to our dining area.

Quick follow up

Amber took this picture of Jace as they wheeled him out of the hospital this morning.

Jace has been home now for a few hours and still appears to be just fine.

The discharge notice said not to let him walk by himself. Quite Impossible as the kid is already running around the house, climbing on furniture, and joking with his sister.

He has a little stuffed puppy that the hospital gave him before the surgery. Jace has named the puppy, "Johnny". (as if we needed another John in the family, ha ha).

Stoned, but alive

Jace is out of his surgery now. It was cute, they loaded him in a little red wagon to haul him off to surgery. He was nervous, but very brave.

We're just sitting next to him now as he rests and they monitor him to make sure all looks right.

Jace getting ready for surgery

Jace just got his first taste with hospital gowns this morning He is now waiting for The doctor and anesthesiologist.

Jace has a type of hernia.

Shantell is at our place this morning helping get kids off to school.

Will send an update later.

Raking leaves?

We arrived home late last night from our two week spud harvest tour. I went out to the front lawn to see how many leaves we should expect to be raking and found a graveyard of tree branches instead.

I guess our area had 3-5inches of heavy wet snow this week while we were gone. It loaded our tree branches with so much weight that many of them broke and fell to the ground. We're going to be busy today!

You can tell you're from Idaho when....

You walk out to your parked car and find one of the doors wide open, keys in the ignition and purse on the front seat.

California Trip - Days 6 & 7

The last couple of days of our California trip were spent enjoying some time at Joe's house. We left Anaheim on Friday morning and headed off to Modesto to visit Joe. We tried to plan the drive so that it wouldn't happen during any morning or afternoon rush hours. We only had one stretch of stop and go traffic that lasted for about an hour.

When we got to Joe's house, we were greeted to a spa-like place. Joe had fresh cut flowers in almost every room of the house. He gave Amber and I his bedroom, which came with a complimentary box of chocolates on the nightstand.

We had pizza, chinese food, exotic cheeses, cookies, ice cream and, our signature favorite with Joe, delicious cannolies. Everyone got their own bottles of water as well. Joe's living room was decked with a stack of red box movies for the kids.

After dinner, Joe took Amber and I to Del Monte to check out his plant. We couldn't take cameras into the plant, so we weren't able to capture the awe and complexity of everything at the site. It was fun to drive through security and into to plant and see everyone smile and salute Joe as we drove or walked by.

They had just finished peaches and were working on processing Pears. It was incredible to see all of the machines that were involved in peeling, coring, sizing, dicing, preparing, quality control, and packaging of all that fruit. Joe showed us the various machines and explained how they worked. It is easy to see how those machines would keep a large crew busy with maintenance and troubleshooting.

It was pretty impressive to see how much Joe is responsible for at the plant. The complexity of the entire system is awe inspiring.

On Saturday we went to the farmer's market and bought some fresh produce. Joe made some yummy home made salsa from his treasures at the market. We loaded up a ton of food in a large cooler and headed to the park. We ate, relaxed, and played for a good part of the afternoon.

Lucy kept the kids entertained. They don't get too many chances to play with dogs their size. Lucy is so good with them and enjoyed having them around.

After all of the lush treatment at Joe's place, I was worried, that Amber would be sending me home with the kids and she would stay in Modesto. Luckily, she decided to stick with me and return home.

Come late Saturday afternoon, we packed up and made our way back to Idaho. We drove through the night and made the trip from Joe's house in a good 13 hours, rolling into the driveway just as the sun was coming up.

Here is a quick video of our stay with Joe...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLZIT3JKsfY

Making our way home

We spent the night a joe's house in Modesto and have spent the day with him. It has been great.

Going to be driving through the night to get home.

Feel free to follow us on latitude if you get bored :)

http://google.com/latitude

California Trip - Day 5

This was our first night without kids waking up and crying all night, or throwing up. Wow! It felt good!

We hit Disneyland in the first part of the day to get the favorite rides for each of the kids. Then we headed off to enjoy the beach in the sunny afternoon.

Once we finished with the beach, we came back and got cleaned up and headed back to Disneyland for the parade and then for their "World of Colors" event. The world of colors was pretty darn amazing. It was a 30 minute show with music, water fountains, projectors, lights, and lasers. Awesome ending!

Here is the video summary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2qspKAngo4

California Trip - Day 4

It was a very long night last night. I caught John stirring in his sleep so I sent him to the bathroom. As soon as he got in there, he started vomiting. I couldn't sleep for an hour after that for fear that he would have another vomiting spell on his bed. I also lay there wondering how we were going to handle the next day...would we be able to go into the park, or would we have to stay in the hotel and nurse sick kids to better health.

A couple of hours later, Alayna was up crying about her ear. I stayed up for two hours calming her down. During that time she decided to vomit as well. I was sure it would be a long Day 4 on our California trip.

When we all woke up, however, everyone was feeling well...including John & Alayna. We decided to go to California Adventure, and the kids did great.

This SOOO reminds me of our last theme park trip. People were sick and throwing up in the evening and feeling great during the day. I am thankful that they are doing so well though.

We have been getting our exercise. We walked nine miles today and over ten miles yesterday for our activities.

It has also been fun to meet people from East Idaho at Disneyland. We have met a couple of families from Firth. One is the area Mortician and the other family are friends to our good friends, the Rickabaughs. It is funny. We see each other almost every day here at the park and the hotel.

Here is today's video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTRQTXVLwT4

California Trip - Day 3

Sorry, I am running a day behind on this....

Monday night (early Tuesday morning) Alayna was up all night crying because of her ear ache. After breakfast, Amber took the rest of the family to Disneyland while I whisked Alayna off to the Emergency Room at a near by hospital to get her ear checked out.

When we got to the hospital and started to fill out the paperwork, Alayna vomited everywhere. They got us right into the Emergency Room though :). They checked her out and figure she has an ear infection. They gave us a number of prescriptions to help her out. I asked them about disneyland and they said they didn't think she was sick as she really doesn't have any symptoms of anything (fever, tummy ache, etc). They said it would be best to take her into Disneyland to keep her mind off of her ear.

Alayna and I grabbed her prescriptions and still got to the park before Noon. We still got in a full, fun day of activities.

See the video blog at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF0cJQB7f1I

Andersen Disneyland Trip - Day 2

We made it into the park today despite some problems with our tickets originally that kept us out of the park for a good 30 minutes. No harm done though, we had a full day to play still. No trip to disneyland would be complete without at least one child getting sick. Alayna was complaining about an ear ache by the end of the day. We gave her some tylenol when we got back to the hotel and put her right to bed. She was upset because the older kids were heading to the pool at 7pm. Alayna wanted to go as well, but I told her that since she wasn't feeling well, she would be staying in the hotel room and going to sleep. She didn't agree that it was a good idea. I tried to convince her that it was a good choice by saying, "What if I let you swim and then you woke up very sick in the morning and I had to say with you in the hotel all day while everyone else went back to Disneyland?" Without skipping a beat, Alayna said, "Well, we could watch TV all day!" Hmm...I just spent a few thousand dollars for a spud harvest trip when placing the kids in front of the TV would have sufficed?? :-) Anyway, I'm sitting at the edge of the pool while the older three are swimming. While they frolicked in the warm pool, I have compiled our video blog for the day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmRJzAtLMhE

Andersen Disneyland Trip - Day 1 (Video Blog)

A video blog of our travels down to California for our week long Disneyland trip. Day 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_m5WE92nok

Lots of Bugs!

Due to the sheer number of bugs around our place over the past week or
so, I set up our Bug Zapper last night. In Provo, I would have to clean
out the zapper once or twice a summer. After having it on all night, we
got up this morning to find it completely full of dead bugs. That
thing works over time. We'll run it again tonight. I am interested to
see if we have fewer bugs each night of operation, or if it makes a
difference at all. Yuck!

Swat Team

The month of September seems to be a pretty bad month for flies and
other bugs. I remember the when we moved into our house last year during
the last half of August and into September we had so many bugs in the
house. Amber and I just figured that we would have to get used to having
bugs in the house all the time.

We were pleasantly surprised, however, when most of the summer passed
without hardly any bugs in the house. As September rolled around,
however, the bugs have come by the droves and we seem to be plagued by
them just as we were last year.

Jace and Amber have taken on the daunting challenge of killing flies in
the house. John named them the SWAT team. They're pretty good at
catching the flies both on the wall and in midair. You just need to make
sure that there are no flies on your arms or your face when one of the
two of them are nearby with a flyswatter!

Spud Day Parade

This morning was the parade for spud days. Alayna had the opportunity to be in the parade. Some of the kids from her school were selected to ride in a school bus and throw out candy to all those who were watching the parade. Alayna was very excited to be able to do this.

The rest of us found a great place to hang out for the parade. We chose a place that was fairly close to the beginning of the parade so that we would have a greater chance of receiving candy. They ended up being quite a chilly day, so many of us wish that we had jackets on to keep us warm.

Our kids got so much candy from the parade. By the time that we got home and emptied their bags, we had over two ice cream buckets full of candy.

We were excited when we saw the school bus with Alayna inside. She looked very cute standing by her window and throwing out candy to the onlookers.

Jace turns four!

Today, Jace turned four years old. His birthday happened to coincide with spud day today. So along with the spud day celebrations, we spent plenty of time during birthday activities with Jace.

Jen and her girls, Janae, and my parents spent the night last night instead throughout the day to celebrate Jace's birthday.

Jace received a lot of fun presents. He even had a couple of Skype sessions with grandma and grandpa Reed as well as with Reed and Michelle and their family.

We are excited to see that Jace is now four years old. He is growing up to be a fun and handsome boy.

Amber's First 5k - The Shelley Spud Run

The kids were not the only ones to participate in a running sport for spud days. Over the past few months, Amber and a few of her neighbor friends have been getting up around six in the morning to go running together. They decided that it would be fun to train for the annual "spud run".

They have had a great time preparing themselves for the race. They met up this morning at 6:30 AM to run their race.

I had a great time hopping from station to station throughout the race. After Amber's first mile, she was looking strong. I wish I could have grabbed a picture of her at that point. At the second mile point, she was really sweating but she had confidence in her face. I knew that it would be a good race for her. At mile three, you could tell that she was giving it all she had. That last 10th of a mile was hard but she pushed through it and into the race at about 31 minutes -- making her pace a 10 minute mile.

Amber has really gotten into running this year. It has been a great experience for her. I think next year she's going to be ready to take on a 10K race. It has been fun to see her fight so much enjoyment running with some of her good friends here in Shelley.

Editor's Note: I actually slept in this morning and my subconcious convinced me that Amber's race didn't begin until 7:35 AM. I woke up accordingly and went downstairs. My Dad was down there wondering if I was going to the race. I told him that I was. He wanted to come along, so we hopped in the truck. On the way over (about 7:45) Amber called my cell phone. I was surprised that she would call during her race but wondered if they were starting late. I answered and Amber asked if I slept in. It then hit me that I was on the wrong time schedule...the race didn't start at 7:35, Amber was expecting to FINISH at 7:35. The good husband that I am missed the race entirely. I at least got there in time to snap the picture!

The Tator Trot

Given that this weekend was Shelley's annual spud Day celebration, the community posted a race for the younger children in the area. This year, we had four children participate in the "Tater Trot".

All of our kids were in the younger half of their age division this year. Despite the age difference between their groups, they all did a terrific job in their races. I think we have a family who likes to run. It was fun to see the kids don their race number tags and hit the pavement running.

It was especially fun to watch Jace do his run. Aylee ran next to him to help him along. Jace insisted on riding his imaginary horse most of the way. He even held his hand out and pretend to carry some reigns as he trotted in his lane.

It is fun to see the kids enjoy running. I hope it is something they carry with them throughout their lives.

A 37th Birthday

This Thursday I celebrated my 37th birthday. It was probably one of the more complicated birthdays that I have ever had simply due to logistics. I got up at 4:00 AM to catch my 6 AM flight from San Diego to Idaho Falls. I had been spending the week in San Diego participating in a training for service-now.com.

When I reached the airport, it was announced that our plane had broken down and that they hoped to have it flying again in four hours. We were instructed to call the airline and try to make alternate reservations. After waiting in line for many minutes I was able to get on the phone and get a new itinerary that would get me home around four or 5:00 PM in Idaho Falls. I was not too excited about spending my birthday in an airport, but at least it was going to get me home in time to celebrate my birthday as if I had been at work.

Luckily, they were able to fix the planes sooner than expected and I was able to change my flight plans again and get home only two hours later than I was originally supposed to. I was really grateful and relieved that are worked out that way.

Amber, Jace, and Avary picked me up at the airport and we went to the Olive Garden for lunch. It was so good to be home and see Amber and the kids again.

Work ended up being quite busy that day and so we celebrated my birthday from about six to 8 PM. After that Amber laid on the couch next to me and fell asleep while I worked on my laptop for several hours and made phone calls to help some sales guys on the West Coast.

By about 11:00 PM I finished up my birthday by waking Amber up and helping her up to bed. I was so grateful to be home and in my own bed that was still a very nice birthday!

Thanks to everyone who called or otherwise expressed your heartfelt birthday wishes. It is always good to hear from everyone.

15 miler

On labor day, Amber and I took Aylee and John on a 15 mile bike ride.  Shantell and Janae came along as well.  Dave was good enough to be our support vehicle driver and Jen watched our kids for us while we rode.

We rode from the top of Mink Creek down to Jen & Dave's place.  It was a fun ride.  Aylee and John did a great job with the ride -- especially since they really haven't ridden much all summer.

A fair time

On Thursday last week I wanted to get to the fair before it ended.  We were originally headed to Provo for the weekend, so Thursday was going to be my last chance.

I got all of my work done early and Jace and I dressed up in our best cowboy gear and headed off to the Eastern Idaho State Fair together.  He wanted to wear his vest and chaps.  He looked really cute.

Mom and Dad met us at the fair and we hung out with them for most of the our time there.  We had a great time together.

Jace got a lot of attention with his outfit.  People really thought he was the bomb. Some even gave him extra fair swag because they thought he looked so great.

We had a great time together.

Another day at the fair

This past weekend we were supposed to go to Provo to visit old friends.  However, several of the kids were still sporting Pink Eye  They were all on medicine, but we didn't want to make people feel uncomfortable with us staying with them, so we decided to stay home.

Since we were going to be home, we decided to go to the fair with the whole family.  I had gone to the fair the previous day with Jace, but we decided to go again.

We had a great time there looking at the animals, interacting with them, as well as checking out all of the fun entertainment and food.

Alayna spent some of her hard earned money to get her face painted.  She was really excited about it, and it looked great.

One of the big activities for the kids was the science exhibit.  There were lots of puzzles and experiments to play with.  The kids loved that section.

While we were there we ran in into Jake & Shantell and their family, Jen & Dave and their family, as well as Janae.  It was a lot of fun.  We were there for a good four or five hours.

Amber made a big purchase at the fair as well.  She has been wanting vinyl decals for the back of the suburban for a long time.  We found a place at the fair that let you design your own decals.  We let each of the kids choose their own icon for the banner.  It was a fun process and it looks great.

First Triathlon

On Saturday, September 10, there was a Kid's triathlon at the golf course in Shelley. John has really enjoyed long distance running, and he did well on the swim test at Scout camp this summer, so Amber talked to him and asked if he wanted to be in it. He was pretty excited, so we signed him up the next morning.

He didn't get to train for it at all since he had about 12 hours advance notice, but he did a really good job.

The triathlon consisted of: 100 meter swim, 3 mile bike ride, and 1.5 mile run.



His chain came off twice on his bike right at the beginning which put him back a ways, but he persevered and stuck with the race, doing a very good job.



He was in the same bracket with one of his best friends, Emily Rickabaugh...they both finished about the same time.

It was a very positive experience...we're really glad that he decided to do the race.

Four Wheeler

While I was at scout camp this week with John I have asked Amber to
check out a four wheeler off of craigslist. On Monday, Amber and her dad
visited the people that were selling the four wheeler. They took it for
a spin and liked it enough to buy it.

When I got back from scout camp, Amber and I took the cargo trailer over
and picked up the four wheeler. It is just over 10 years old but is in
pretty good condition for its age. It does have a few quirks, but it
seems to run pretty well.

It came with an electric winch as well as a good snow blade.

When we were picking up the four wheeler I told the guy that I had
purchased a snow thrower last winter and found out that my property was
just too big for it. If he was interested he could stop by our house and
check it out. Last night, he swung by our house and looked at it. He
liked it and bought it from us. It turned to be a pretty nice arrangement!

Where there's Smoke, there's Fire

Today, I had to get the oil changed on the pickup so I took my laptop to Big-O and did my work while they serviced the truck. While I was gone, Amber was home with all of the kids except for Aylee who is at Girl's Camp.

While Amber was taking a shower, she thought she smelled smoke, but kept on taking her shower. She could tell that the smoke was outside and a ways away, so she didn't think anything of it. When she got out of the shower and downstairs to check on the kids, she found John, Aliece, and Alayna all out sitting in the driveway out by the road with their 72 hour kit backpacks. They smelled the smoke and had grabbed their emergency gear and waited outside all prepared. Aliece even had her blanket and favorite stuffed animal with her just so nothing happened to them.

We both had a good laugh about it and were proud of their efforts. The only downside: while they had their precious belongings and were safe, they had let Avary and Jace stay in the house -- Avary in her bed and Jace playing with his toys. At least the stuffed animals will be safe :-)

Cowboy Jace

Ever since we moved to Idaho, Jace has had this thing about Cowboys. He often insists that we call him "Cowboy Jace" instead of just Jace. Amber was telling a friend today that Jace doesn't no how to run normally, he trots all of the time on his imaginary horse any time he wants to get somewhere fast.

Well, I just got home from Scouts tonight and was trying to find Amber. Jace has been having a hard time falling asleep lately with the sun being up so late in the evening, so I guessed that she might be in his room helping him fall asleep. Sure enough, as I peeked through the crack in the doorway, I saw Amber sitting next to Jace on his bed in the dark bedroom. Amber had Jace's head on her lap and she was lightly brushing his face and tracing the features of his face with nothing other than his silver toy six-shooter pistol.

Woah Tex...this kid has it bad!

Indiana Jones

Amber heard the Indiana Jones theme song coming from our closet. She walked in there to find Jace humming the song, flipping his rope whip, all while dangling down in our laundry chute.

He loves to play Indiana Jones!

Dad Singing Eggbert the Easter Egg

We had a great time this past Saturday with the family at our house for the Easter party.  It was especially fun to see Joe.  The kids loved having Lucy there as well.

I managed to catch a recording of Dad singing "Eggbert the Easter Egg" for all of the gang.  You can listen to it here:

http://www.callfamilyhistory.com/manual-uploads/joann/DadSingingEggbertTheEasterEgg.mp3

Potty training tool

As many of you know our son Jace has been having a hard time learning how to go poop in the toilet. He's getting old enough that All of his cousins that are his age are potty trained. He is lagging behind. I have tried lately to get him to sit on the toilet for an extended period of time by setting up a table with my iPad on it showing a movie of one of his favorite cartoons. We'll have to see if this works!

Arbor

The last couple of weeks I have been working on an Arbor for a wisteria vine on the side of my house. I thought I would send a couple of pictures so you could see the progress.

I planted that wisteria vine last year becuase I had visions of an arbor at the spot so the vine is well established by now and should start climbing the arbor posts.

Stool Sample

Tonight, Amber found some plans on how to make a long bench. She decided that the bench, if shortened would make a good stool. When I got done working at 5pm, I found her chopping up some spare wood scraps. By 7:30, she had her first prototype finished. It is sturdy and looks pretty good. We're going to paint it and then mass produce them to go throughout the house!

True Colors

Last night, one of tonight's appointments fell through so I decided to go on a date with Amber instead. As we were going out the door, Alayna grabbed onto me and pleaded that I would stay home with her instead. I was touched by her sincere desire to have some quality time with her dad. However, I was immovable on the matter. When she realized that I was indeed leaving, her true intentions came out with her question...

"Well, Dad, can you just leave your iPhone here then?"

So much for wanting Dad to stay home for some quality 1:1 time :)

Jace's new eating habit

Jace was having a hard time eating his lunch today. He then offered amber a solution that would help him eat. Surprisingly it did the trick!

2010-2011 Weight Competition Results

I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone that participated in the 2010-2011 Holiday Version of Leading Losers. It looks like over half of us were able to shed our holiday pounds...so congratulations. Everyone else was close to being back at their pre-holiday weight!

Those that lost weight or broke even:
John, Jen, Amber, & Jake

It was a fun go around, and I appreciate everyone's well wishes for me taking the entire pot of $168.00 (that's a few visits to chuck-a-rama!). As you can see by my picture, I still have more to lose, so we'll have to circle our wagons and plan our next weight challenge sometime!!

Aliece hits the news....

I was reading the Shelly Pioneer (a weekly newspaper for the Shelley area) and found that Aliece was mentioned in the paper. She recently won a story telling competition for her classroom. She then competed in the school and did very well.

I have scanned in the newspaper article about the occasion.

We were really proud of Aliece for going out of her comfort zone and doing such an amazing performance.

Splits

I don't know where Jace got the idea, but today at lunch he thought it would be fun to do the splits on top of the kitchen table. He did a pretty good job!

Flooring has arrived

We just got our hardwood flooring in yesterday. I had to take the trailer to the lumber store to pick it up. It weighed about 1.5 tons. It really maxed out my trailer's towing capacity. I was kind of worried, but we took it slow and made it home without any incident. When we got home, we had some neighbor kids come over and Haul the wood into the house. It is now sitting in boxes in the kitchen area so that it can adjust to the climate in our house. Within about a week or two the floor will be installed. It will be so nice to have a real floor again! The kids keep tripping into the subfloor and getting close snagged on pieces of wood. Before the floor gets in, we will need to replace our exterior doors. After the floor is complete, we just do some repair work on the cabinets and build an island. It will be nice when this project is done!

A sticky situation

This week we were at the high school switching buses like always when I walked passed John's stop and saw him on a pole. I told him to get away thinking that he would get his tongue stuck, but it was too late. He had already frozen his tongue there. Fortunately, one of his good friends was there and got a guard. While they ran to get water, I kept pushing his head forward so that he wouldn't cause any more damage. Luckily, he only hurt the bottom of his tongue! Well, Alayna is begging me to get off, so see you! Love A's

Remodel Project

Here are some pictures of the remodel of my breezeway. It is still a work in process but I finished putting the primer on the ceiling today. Next week I hope to put the paint on the ceiling.

Before:After:

Mommy Did It

This morning, mom turned the on monitor on the computer for Avary. For the Next while, Avary sat there watching small Sesame Street clips. When I walked in a little later, I noticed she was pressing the monitor button. I told her that wouldn't work, then she said: "Mommy did it." Who knows what she will pick up next!

Love you! A's

My kind of shoes

There was a picture I saw on Google Reader that showed the coolest high heels ever. They were black and totally covered with star wars stuff. Now those are shoes I wouldn't mind wearing!

Love you all!
A's

P.S. To those who didn't know, I am getting braces this month.

Suggested Resolutions

While sitting around the dinner table tonight, our conversation moved toward new year's resolutions. Everyone started suggesting resolutions for each other. Suggestions for Avary and Jace were to be potty trained. Alayna & Aliece, were suggested that they should learn to tie their shoes. John Jr was told that he should work on keeping his room clean. Aylee was challenged to show confidence when she talks to other people.

The kids caught on to this along the way and were firing these suggestions off right and left. Then they directed their attention to their parents. Alayna told Amber that her resolution should be to prepare dinner at the right time (tonight's dinner ended up taking place after 7pm).

Then John looked at me and said, "I know Dad's resolution!" The table went quiet momentarily as I cringed waiting to hear the verdict. Here it came, "Dad, you should just keep up the good work."

I looked at Amber a little haughtily and smiled proud.

John will be getting a $20.00 bill under his pillow tonight. :-)