SUGAR PLUM IS ALMOST HERE!!!!!!

My friend Mary has been trying to adopt a baby girl from China. The process has been long and grueling. It's been an emotional roller coaster. And as the time got nearer, anything and everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong including stopping all adoptions because of the Swine Flu. But after over 3 1/2 years, she got her referral today. I can barely type this because I'm shaking with excitement. We can not be more HAPPY for Doug and Mary and we can't wait to meet the Sugar Plum!

Doug and Mary, we are so beside ourselves with joy for you and Jacob and Benjamin. When we heard the news, we started screaming and crying, including Sydney. The whole family is beyond excited!!!!!! We are all just thrilled for the good news.



This isn't her but I just thought this little girl was so cute.

If anyone would like to read about Mary and Doug's journey to get their little girl, click here.


This is Mary and I, back in the 80's.

Skate or Die!

So we found this ramp at a yard sale for $10. I was probably more excited to find it than Scott and the boys were. Growing up we had a huge half pipe in our back yard. My dad built it for my brothers to skateboard on. Well in about a week, as soon as that thing was done, we were like the most popular kids on the block. Most of the neighbor kids played on that thing for hours every week. It was super fun....that was until my dad heard weird noises at night and found half the neighborhood kids in our backyard having a skate party on the ramp...can you say LAW SUIT!? So after that my dad had to pull a chain across it and lock it up at night so we didn't get the pants sued off of us for some punk kid breaking his neck.

Well Gavin is still learning his way on the skateboard but he totally rocks it on the roller blades. He couldn't wait to get home from the yard sale that day and try out his mad skillz on that ramp.

He was very afraid at first...and the first couple of jumps were SCARY! But within about 10-20 minutes, the kid was jumping leaps and bounds across that thing. It was so funny watching him.

He was almost practically doing the splits every time he came off that ramp.

And one point, every time he would jump in the air he would look like a super hero.

Because I was worried about him smashing his face in, I pulled the ramp next to the grass. Well that didn't last long. Once he learned his moves, that ramp was pulled out to the street. Cars were swerving around it to get by. And of course, our house has become the most popular now because of the ramp.

But as long as the ramp is in the street, they can break their necks...it's not on my property...not my problem! So skate away...I'm a cool mom like that!

Of course Dylan and Luke tried to get in on that action.

Dylan is either really scared in this picture or he's take a poop! Poor kid never gets any privacy doing his bidness.

"Hmmm, yeah, I think I'll try this out"

"Whoa, this looks a little bit harder than I thought"

"Maybe if I teeter the skateboard up here and then just jump on it, I might catch some air"

"Well maybe if I just slightly slide my body down it won't be so dangerous"

"Oh forget it, I just cannot do this...this skateboarding bizness is for the birds"

Oh and there was NO WAY Scott wasn't going to try out his old 80's moves.

Oh dear lord, I see yet another injury in our future.

Yeah right poser...but it does look pretty SA-WEET!!!

Day One AGAIN!!! Grrrrrr!

I'm on day One of the South Beach Diet again.

I'm in a really really bad mood!!!!

Any ideas or suggestions for the next two fun filled carb-less weeks?

Swine Schmine!!!

Yes we were throwing up in Mexico the entire time (well I wasn't, which is totally unfair because I would love to lose a few El Bees), BUT for the record, we DID NOT bring back the Swine Flu so all you Facebook Freakies, stop blaming me!!!

We're on Vacation Again

This time, we're in Rocky Pointe, Mexico. We love this trip. We take it twice a year every April and October. We come with a pretty good size group of family and friends. My kids so look forward to this trip because we camp in travel trailers right on the beach and every morning they go out when the tide is out and crawl across the corral to find little "treasures" (fish, octupus and what not). I like it because it's relaxing but not to worry, I am still connected to the internet, that is...thank god!

The boys love looking for these

Sydney bides her time checking out these

For sure I'm going to have one of these

And Scott will for sure have more than one of these

And of course we can't leave without having a few days worth of these bad boys

But most of all, I look forward to enjoying a few of these..the sunsets!

Will post pictures when we get back!

CHEESSSSSEEEEEE!!!!!!

What's In A Name?

Sydney Rayne

A few days ago, Sydney walked up to me and asked me a question about Barack Obama and this is how the conversation went:

Sydney: Mom, do you know what Barack Obama's middle name is?

Me: No, what is it? (Of course I know what it is, but I want to see where this is going)

Sydney (with major emphasis): It's HUSSEIN!!!

Me (all surprised like): Really?

Sydney (with even more emphasis with a side order of sarcasm): SCARY!!!

I totally cracked up laughing. Sydney knows our religious beliefs and how we know that God's rulership and government is the only thing that can bring true peace to this earth. She knows we are neutral on all earthly politics. But then she says to me: "Does everyone know this?..You know...the people that voted him in?"

Again, cracking up laughing. I told her yes, most people that voted for him know that his middle name is Hussein. It's obvious that she relates Hussein to someone scary.

This conversation made me think of a recent talk we had at our Sunday meeting. The brother gave examples of people and what we think of them when we hear their name. For example...Hitler, Charles Manson, Saddam Hussein. Of course, most of these people make us cringe at the thought of them.

He then told us to ask ourselves..What do people think of us when they hear our name.

I have to be honest...there are certain people that when I hear their name I cringe. But there are other people that when I hear their name, I get a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach for them. And then I wondered what people do when they hear my name...do they cringe or do they get the warm fuzzy feeling. I asked Scott what he thought and he made a good point. We try our best to make sure that people view us as god fearing caring and kind individuals but because of our circumstances in our life and how other people are either raised or their circumstances in their life, we can not please everyone.

This brings me back to my conversation with Sydney. I told Sydney not to judge Barack Obama by his middle name and that was just a name given to him by his parents. I personally don't want my daughter judging anyone anyways, but I told her to view someone by their actions, their speech and the dealings in their life. Barack may be a kind person and have a great family life but does he love Jehovah? Is he doing what's right in God's eyes?

That's how we should view someone. How is their family life? How do they treat people? How do they treat their family, their spouse, their children? Are they kind? Do they find the good in everyone? The people that make me cringe are the people that breed on the drama, the hatred, the constant turmoil. I told Sydney to try and not judge these ones, but to focus on what's important...her name. The name she makes for herself while on earth and how Jehovah feels about her and the name she's made.

I can't make people be kind but I'm just going to try and work on my attitude toward these ones. My conversation with Sydney made me realize that it's not our physical name that was given to us by our parents that defines us, rather, it's our actions and how we treat others that make our name. I hope she got something out of this. Raising children is hard...probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I just hope what I say and do can be a positive influence on my kids. I know what I am doing now is shaping them for their eternal future...(but no pressure!...HA!)