let it snow!

She's up . . .
. . . . . wait, she's down.Ok, now she's up. Wait, no she's down.A fun day on the slopes. Although the camera caught both of the girls on their back ends, they claim they weren't down very often. Way to go!!!

i'm worried

I'm worried about my children's spiritual welfare. I found the following story in my church notebook. Does anybody listen to the sacrament meeting speakers????

"Once upon a time, there was a frog. The frog was very lonely and he wanted a wife. So he went off to find himself a wifey poo. But after 24 hours of traveling, the frog got too dry and needed water. As he was resting on a toadstool, a fairy came up and asked him if he needed anything. Yes, he said, I need water or else I will dry up and die. Oh ok, said the fairy and flew off. But the fairy never came back and the frog died of dehydration and he never got a wife. The End."

All right girls . . . 'Fess up . . . Who wrote this?? It's not my handwriting or Mel's. (btw - this was followed by random paragraphs of word-perfect dialog from Nacho Libre. That, I'm afraid, is a dead give-away clue to who had my notebook that day!)
note to self: no more paper and pencils in sacrament meeting.

bring it on!

Melanie tells me she was in 6th grade when this fantastic collection of poetry was penned:

Melanie -
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I love you so much that
well, we stick together like glue.

Mom -
You're crazy, Melanie.


Melanie -
Thanks!!
Roses R Red
Violets R Blue
Mom's shoes look nice but, . . .
mine are better! haha

Mom -
Roses are red
Violets are blue
your poem doesn't rhyme
and where the heck did you get those cool, pink shoes?

Melanie -
What the heck kind of poem is that?

Mom -
It's the kind of poem that I want to know where you got those shoes!

Melanie -
Roses R red
Violets R blue
I don't like
the smell of poo.

Mom -
I love roses,
Red ones the most.
I don't like your poem
There's a word that is gross!

Melanie -
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
What's sticky is glue
and that's so true.

Mom -
Your poem is so clever.
The facts, they are true.
But it's also not funny -
Write a funny one or two.

Melanie -
Cleaning the garage,
I almost feel like camoflauge,
looking at all of the junk,
Smelling some kind of funk.

Mom -
Better, but not hilarious,
Make me laugh delirious . . .
Clouds are fluffy, clouds are nice
Clouds are pretty, too.
Clouds are bright, clouds are dark,
Clouds are old or new.
Do you know what I think about
When I get out of bed?
I hope one doesn't fall down
And bonk me on the head!

Melanie -
hahaha
I like your poem oh so well
but mine are fairly better.
The exchange of my words are scrambled
with many different letters.
BRING IT ON!!

Mom -
You think you're going to challenge me?
You think your poems are better?
Don't even think you can compare -
Not one word, not one letter!
My rhyming brain will always win,
I'm an award winning poet.
You think you want to "Bring it on"?
I'm a poet, you don't even know it!

Melanie -
Okay, okay, I guess I'll give up --
If you ever try to beat me again,
My brain will be more clever.
That's why I found the barried treasure
Because you know, . . . I'M CLEVER!!!

Mom -
You are so clever, that is true,
Your words . . . they are so telling.
However, I should call your teacher,
So she can work on your spelling!!


(Hmmmm . . . . Sadly, I can't remember what the sacrament meeting topics were the day those were written.)

just stuff

Ok, Ms. Roxanne - I'll take your challenge. I doubt I can come up with as many random facts as you and it would be crazy to try to top Katie's 50.
1. I much prefer reading a hardcover book to a paperback.
2. I've had a piece of artwork published in a medical journal. It was an article on circumcision. Guess what I drew?
3. When I was a freshman in HS, my seminary teacher was talking about circumcision. Although I was terribly shy and rarely ever spoke in public, I asked what circumcision was. He told me to go home and ask my mom. (hey, mister, . . . you're the one who brought it up!)
4. I love "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". I've watched it multiple times and never get tired of it.
5. I usually don't like to watch movies over and over.
6. I've been involved in a bookclub for about 14 years.
7. I'm a night owl. I can get more done after 7 pm than most any other portion of my day.
8. I refinished the wood on our 50 year old piano.
9. I love getting the mail every day. I always have.
10. I fell off a toilet when I was three and had to get stiches in my head.
11. I grew up in a family of nine kids and still ended up having a bedroom all to myself through high school.
12. I never visited the Meteor Crater until I moved away from Winslow.
13. There weren't many interesting destinations in or around Winslow. Our 6th grade went on a field trip to the BVD underwear plant.
14. My first traffic ticket was shortly after I got my driver's license. I was so scared, I had tears before the police even got to my window.
15. I haven't had a traffic ticket in 20 years now.
16. My dad was our bishop all during my teenage years.
17. When I was very young, our ward was being divided. Everyone was talking about it and wondering how it would be split up. I was very nervous that I would be in a different ward than my parents and wouldn't know when to go to church.
18. My earliest memory is being scared of a witch that was apparently living in our lower level garage. There were often witches outside my bedroom windows in several of our homes during my childhood.
19. I was very excited to head off to an out of state college and then was scared to death to be dropped off in an unfamiliar city.
20. I make pretty good home-made bread, but I don't make it very often.
21. I hate wearing shoes. I am always barefoot at home. I would also be barefoot in most public places if I thought I could get away with it.
22. My middle name is Leigh. I love the way it is spelled.
23. I didn't visit the Grand Canyon until I was an adult. It was a bitter cold day in February and the canyon was full to the rim with fog.
24. I have been married for almost half of my life now. I love that.
25. Fantasy is my least favorite genre for books and movies. My husband and daughter love them. I can hardly sit through a fantasy movie.
26. I was painfully shy when I was in grade school. I had a teacher that would force me to talk to her by asking me what I ate for breakfast. I really didn't care for her. Then she became friends with my mom and started showing up at our house.
27. I got an Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design in the 1980's. This was before computers. Everything we did/made/drew/designed was done manually. The minute I graduated, the whole industry started going electronic. My entire degree was instantly outdated.
28. I'm still glad I finished my degree.
29. I have hit my head and knocked myself unconscious 3 times in my life.

30. Dave and I have been on 9 cruises.

I tag Meghan and Cindi. Random facts . . . as many or few as you want.

Random Roxanne

After many weeks of my mom nagging me to write something up on her blog, I decided to take Kaite's challenge of writing a few interesting, unknown facts about me..here we go.
1. The farthest place I've ever traveled is Asbury Park, NJ. Either that or the Bahamas, I don't really know which is technically furthest from here.
2. My favorite subject is math, I love it. On paper, it comes naturally..but apply it to real life and I'm lost (physics!).
3. One of my most recent embarassing moments was last week: I was in mid-sentence and I totally drooled all over myself. Only two of my friends were there and saw, and of course I laughed it off, but it was terrible.
4. My favorite color is green.
5. I love the smell of crisp, new books and rain.
6. I have an irrational fear of elevators and grating my fingers in the cheese grater (weird, I know).
7. I have a lot of OCD moments. I like having things even, organized, and neat.
8. One of my dreams is to someday study medicine. Even more than that, I'd love to be a contemporary dancer.
9. When I was little, my best friend Emily and I would play 'jungle' by the huge oleander bush in her front yard and we'd make strange concoctions from things we found outside. We'd also go outside and have picnics together a lot. Man those were the days!
10. In third grade I was frequently chosen to clean our guinea pigs' cage along with two other kids in my class. Why that was considered a privilege, I have no idea.
11. I refuse to eat eat seafood.
12. I'm a very picky eater sometimes. Among my long list of NO'S are chocolate, popcorn, eggs, hot dogs, pickles, and turkey. And yes, I am at least a little American.. I love apple pie :]
13. I dyed my hair last year and I hated how it turned out. This is what it looked like. (Jennifer used me as a sort of candid model that day. There are other pictures of me modeling up there too.)
14. Like Katie, I get really tense listening to people eat. I can't stand the sound.
15. I dream very elaborately about new outfits, accessories, makeup, and hair styles & cuts I would love to have. Yet my everyday look always seems to consist of jeans, a plain shirt, mascara, and eyeliner with my hair down.
16. I'm the only child in my family who actually likes eating my vegetables.
17. I randomly remember dreams I've had years ago every now and then.
18. I love getting acrylic nails. They make me feel fancy.
19. My all time favorite flower is the star gazer lilly. I think it looks cool.
20. I have a very good photographic memory.
21. One of my favorite experiences on a vacation was when I went snorkeling with my dad in the Bahamas..even though I was clenching onto him the whole time because I'm terrified of fish and sea grass (I'm not sure what it's actually called).
22. I was on the swimteam this year.
23. I cannot stand going to girls camp.
24. I also modeled for Kirk Hays. He's painted one painting of me and is currently working on another for a gallery showing in September I believe. I'm excited to see what it'll look like. (If you want to see those too click here. Go to Painting Journal. There are a few pictures of the most current one so far.)
25. I hate to admit it, but my mom says I watched Barney all the time when I was two.
26. When I go out to eat I usually end up just ordering chicken. I try to branch out but it rarely ever happens.
27. I listen to music 24/7, its my addiction. I love finding new bands and listening to new sounds.
28. When I was younger, I had a recurring dream about a scary mailbox.
29. On October 28th, 2003 I was in a car accident and crushed one of my vertebrae. They called it a chance fracture, sounds pleasant right? I wore a back brace for over three months. I also had severe damage to my intestines and had major surgery a few days after the accident. I have a nice 5+ inch scar up my stomach ;)
30. I can do a weird human trick, I can fold my ear inside itself.
31. Running and writing are my best vents for stress.
32. I have no idea what I really want to be when I "grow up".
33. I have never cried watching a movie.
34. I hate reading.
35. I too can get very competitive but Katie seems to have beat me on this one..I'm stumped on what else to write about myself. Congratulations, haha :)


Well, thats me.
Anyone else who wants to take the challenge is welcome to.

meet lexi

We did it -- she's got a name.

"Lexi"

(Whew - that was harder than it should have been!)

Thank you one and all the the name suggestions. It took a whole village of people to make that decision! (It also took an hour of sequestering the girls to make a final choice they could be happy with.)

Parker, she does kind of look like "Tortellini". Thank you for that wonderful suggestion. I would love for you to come and play with her some day.

say cheese!

About 15 years ago, there was a knock on our door. A man asked for me by my maiden name and said he was from the studio that did our wedding photos. They were going out of business and were selling the stored negatives. (ok children - back in the olden days, pictures came with a sheet of negatives that had to be used to make reprints. An old shoe box was the accepted storage system, set on a shelf to collect dust for years and years and years.)

Anyway, we purchased the negatives, but unfortunately we were in the middle of our decade of poverty so I didn't get them printed right away and tucked them away until we had some money, then promptly forgot about them. Well, they were found this week and I got them printed. I was very excited to pick them up today. I've always been very happy with our wedding photos. We have about 30 beautiful prints in a lovely album that captured every aspect of our wedding. But we were newlyweds and couldn't purchase everything at the time so now I was hoping there would be some candid shots of wedding guests, or some shots of my dad or grandparents who are no longer with us.

I paid for 190 reprints, here is what I got:

Of course there were the 30 that we already owned.

Then there were about 130 very similar shots of the 30 that we already owned. ("Everyone gather around . . . ok, SMILE!" click, click, click, click, click)

Then of the last few we had some of these:

And some of these:

I think this is my little cousin, I'm not sure. I don't know who this other little girl is. She doesn't show up in any other family groups.

This is a view of the very unfortunate orange curtain backdrop.

This was somebody standing in for Dave for a moment. I don't remember his name.

Well, that was certainly worth the anticipation!

BUT . . . looking at all the pictures again made me remember how much I love this guy !

it's a girl !

Look what we got today !!!

We haven't thought of a name yet . . . any ideas?