Halloween 2009

We had a wonderful time this year during the Halloween season. I made my annual Spooky Meals, we carved our pumpking and went Trick or Treating and Trunk or Treating. The kids enjoyed the Holidays and were excited about dressing up. Noleigh was a sorceress and Hiram was a gate-keeper, well until he saw how scary he was, then he took of his costume and became a zombie soccer player.

Fall Fun

It is Fall again in our area. The air is crisp and cool, leaves are turning the colors and all the Fall activities have begun. The kids have started soccer and are enjoying their season so far. They both have wonderful coaches and enjoy the other children on their team. No-no's actually playing on a real sized field this year, they have goalies, and a referee, which the younger children do not have. She is excited and feels like she is playing for "real" now, as she puts it. The practices are on the same nights and the same time, so I am very happy about that. I have about 45 minutes two nights a week to myself (YAY!) and have taken that opportunity to run on the track that is next to where they practice. I can keep an eye on them and get my exercise in as well, so it has been wonderful.

Last Saturday was a very busy day for us and I have pictures of some of our events below. It started with a soccer game for my daughter, than on to my son's belt promotion ceremony. That was followed by a Primary Activity after, which went very well and my kids had such a good time. It was fun to see our Priesthood come and play games and spend time with the kids. After the activity we headed to a play, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, which the kids just loved. The story was fun, the actors sang and dance, and well, could spin a good yarn. I am excited that we bought season tickets and can enjoy other plays. After such a fun day we went to church for dinner and then headed home to CRASH. It was a great day!

We just came back from D.C. tonight. We spent yesterday and today in the Capital. I can't say how much I love that city (well, if I don't have to drive in it). We picked the best time to go, as the Mall was very quiet and we were able to enjoy the museums and monuments without the throng of people. Yesterday we went to Arlington National Cemetery and visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I had not had the opportunity to walk through the Cemetery before and am so grateful we took the time yesterday to do so. It was such a quiet and reverent place. My kids were a little overcome by the number of headstones they saw. It is an overwhelming sight. We visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and had the opportunity to witness the Changing of the Guard Ceremony. It is such a precise ceremony. You can see the path the soldiers walk marked in the ground from the years of black soles that walk the ground. I was very impressed with the sacredness that this ceremony is conducted in.

While at Arlington, we walked past President Kennedy's burial sight and noticed two small white crosses before we reached him. We looked closer and saw that this small white cross marks where his brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, was buried a few weeks ago, another cross just off to the right outside the frame of the picture, is where Bobby Kennedy is buried as well.

We went to the Museum of National Archives yesterday and saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It was amazing to see those original documents, to read the names of the brave men that signed their names to it, and to re-read the words that created this nation. We arrived right as they were locking the doors, so we only had a chance to see those documents, I'd love to spend more time in that Museum.

This morning we arrived at the Mall, just in time. We got in and parked about 9:30 and headed to the Washington Monument. We went to see if tickets were available and they had some for 10:00, WOW!! Amazing, I've never been able to go in before and this was just amazing. We went all the way to the top and were able to see the capital from such an amazing view.

After the Washington Monument we went to the Museum of American History. No's favorite exhibit was the First Ladies exhibit, where we were able to see some of the gowns that our President's wives wore for different occasions. Hiram really liked seeing Kermit the Frog and Dumbo. We then went to the Jefferson Memorial, which the kids called the "Giant Man Place." We then headed home before traffic became too heavy.

FYI- A Great Find

The Peninsula Community Theatre has a fun upcoming Children's Theatre Season. Their rates are very reasonable, $7 a person per show, or you can buy season passes for $25 a person, which allows you to see all 5 of the upcoming plays. The season will have plays about American History, a caterpillar, King Arthur, a Christmas play, and a play about Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Dan and I went and saw 1776 performed here, and they did a wonderful job, it was well worth the $15 we spent on our tickets. For more information, you can go to their website http://www.pctlive.org/children.php

This year for Christmas they are performing The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which I would love to see (Dan, hint hint, Christmas gift :-) )

"Where were you. . ."

For those who know me well, you know I love country music, I love a good story, and country music is about story telling. I also love country because it often can capture so well the depth of emotion of so many of our life experiences. With yesterday being the Eighth Anniversary of 9-11, this song just touches my heart. It was written and is performed by Alan Jackson:



I took the kids to the zoo yesterday, to enjoy their company, get out of the house, and well just enjoy the beauty of the day. It was enjoyable to spend that time looking at God's creatures and to be around such beautiful gardens. The kids and I had such a good time, I'm glad I bought the year pass, so we can go as often as we would like.

After the zoo, we headed to our local 9-11 Memorial Walk. It was a beautiful, cool evening and their was such a spirit of camaraderie. The young lady pictured below, was one of the responders in the weeks following 9-11. She went to New York to relieve the firefighters there and to help in whatever capacity she could. She spoke about her experience there, and it brought me to tears, all the sadness of that time came back to me. Of course, in my memory that day has always stood out, but I had forgotten about the firefighters and police officers and the search effort that followed for several weeks. Its amazing how our memories fade. It was good to be reminded of the sacrifices so many made to help in the recovery effort.

Shopping for Older Kids

This past Saturday, the kids and I went shopping for some church clothes, as they had outgrown much of what was left in their wardrobe. Hiram needed a new white shirt and tie that didn't stop at his chest and Noleigh needed a new fall dress. This turned out to be a very interesting and eye opening experience for me.

It started at Macy's. Noleigh wanted to look and see if there were any dresses she liked there and of course the majority of the ones available were those sleeveless bubble dresses that are so popular right now. She kept asking for one of those, "Please, Mom, I can wear a sweater over it. . . .Please, Mom, I can wear a white t-shirt under it. . ." But, me being the mean, strict, mother I am asked her to wait until we could agree on a dress.

Hiram, after hearing us argue back and forth reminded us we were at the store to get HIM a new white shirt. We headed to the boys department and found them, when all of a sudden he realized the shirts came with clip-on ties and it was at that point I was informed that clip-on ties are for babies. I offered to buy him a real tie, but I was informed that he is not quite old enough for the real ties. He let me know that there are zip ties that look real and are easy enough for a boy his age to use and he asked if he could have one. My sweet son wants to wear a tie he can put on himself for church that looks real and here I am thinking about the financial cost (which really wasn't an issue as I was willing to purchase the real tie that cost the same amount of money). As I was looking in his big blue eyes, I knew my decision was already made, after all, what mother would be upset that her son WANTS and is ASKING for a tie to wear to church?

So we buy his zip tie, and he is happy that he will now look grown up on church on Sunday, but we were still having a difficult time finding Noleigh a dress. We headed to Penny's to see if there were any other options there. They had a much better selection to choose from, but Noleigh dislikes all of the different prints that are out right now. She doesn't like the peasant, mix and match look. She told me that all those colors are "just not right to look at." She found a simple brown dress she liked real well, but when we tried it on, we realized that the entire bottom of the dress was see-through. WHO MAKES DRESSES FOR LITTLE GIRLS THAT HAVE SEE-THROUGH SKIRTS? Unbelievable! So I finally decided on a simple, pretty, teal dress, but Noleigh didn't like it. I promised her that if she didn't like it when she tried it on at home (this was the Saturday before school started and I was done dealing with the crowds) we would return it for a new dress. Fortunately for me, we get home and it was a winner! Thank goodness... I will take pictures later this week of the kids in their nice new clothes. We are all happy, but for a while there I didn't think we would reach an agreement.

I guess I now know what I have to look forward to as they get older and continue to have their minds set on the kind of clothes they like.

Words from those who came before

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

William John Henry Boetcker (1873–1962)

Art Day

Did I mention how much I love the kid's art class?

Tibetan Monks

I was downloading pictures off my camera card and came across these:


During dinner one night, we heard snoring. I peaked under the table and found Oreo sound asleep at my feet. It was the funniest/sweetest thing. We are enjoying that little guy in our home.


A couple of weeks ago I took the kids to see the Tibetan Monks at our local theatre. They were building a sand mandala, so we were able to watch them as they worked. Also, they had a separate one the kids could work on as well. They used colored sand and it takes days to finish. After it is done they sweep it up and pour it into a nearby body of water. This ceremony is to honor the impermanent nature of existence. It is truly a labor of love and takes extraordinary patience.

Just Loved This

Taylor Swift is a young singer, but every once in a while, one of her songs catches my attention, this is one of them. I love it!

Another New Addition

Meet Oreo. This is our little La-chon (lhasa apso/ bichon frieze mix). He is 8 weeks old and is very sweet. The kids have just fallen in love with him (well, really at first sight.) It has been a busy last few days. He joined our home on Thursday evening, so the past few days have been spent house training. He is doing pretty good, I must say. We are also kennel training him and working on "sit." He is playful and funny to watch. The other night he was being a ferocious beast trying to rip apart his little chew toy. We got a good laugh out of that. I look forward to him growing up with the kids. I think he will make a good playmate and friend for them.

New Member of the Family

After Scales died, we decided that we would put off a new Beta until we returned from Germany. Noleigh picked out our new fish and Hiram named him "Pirate." So this is the newest addition to our family. Welcome, Pirate! I think Noleigh did a good job. He's very beautiful, the coloring is blues and greens with reds and purples around the edges. We have had reds and pinks before so this is a nice change!

Norway, France, Home

YAY we're home. I have finally had a moment and am feeling well enough to finish posting pictures from the rest of our trip. We arrived home on Saturday, July 19. It was a very interesting experience, which I'll share later.

The last day we were in Norway it was pouring rain the night before and most of that day. During small break, my mom went outside to stand on the balcony and heard water running. So off we went on a hunt for the source of the noise (it was also a great excuse to get outside for a walk.) Just next to the little house we were staying was this beautiful waterfall. After checking out the waterfall we walked a little ways, just checking out the beauty around us. The following are pictures from our little excursion. We got home just in time, as we were closing the door, the heavens opened again and it poured the whole rest of the day!

Our last night, Hiram lost his other tooth. We had spaghetti for dinner, in case you couldn't tell. After we were going to have watermelon for dessert, which he didn't want to eat because his tooth was bothering him. I asked if he just wanted me to pull it. YES! he said, so out it came. He enjoyed his watermelon much more after that!

We flew back to Germany on July 10th and arrived in Frankfurt Hahn, Germany. We had a room reserved for the night in a German motel, which would sleep five people. I thought the room was so cute and funny I had to take a picture. . . the motel did not lie, it certainly slept five people! It was very much like a college dorm.

While at the hotel, Hiram but together a bed for his Bakugan (sp?). It made me laugh so much I had to take a picture. It is tucked into "bed", reading a book with its own lamp. The things kids come up with. . .

We arrived in France on Saturday afternoon after a long drive. On Sunday we went in search church, which was in and of itself a very interesting experience. We got up early so we could have time to find the building. The directions were very bad to begin with and sent us in the complete wrong way we were supposed to be going. We went through a toll booth, only for the directions to turn us around on the highway to go back through the same tollbooth. We finally start heading in the right direction and make our way to the street the church is supposed to be. The street changed from a four lane road to a two lane road without my notice, so we ended up driving on the wrong side of the road, thankfully it was not busy. What made it weird though was that the oncoming car was just going to go around us and pass us, instead of honking to let us know we were on the wrong side of the road. It made me wonder how many British visitors they might have? So we get on the right side of the road and found the street address the church was supposed to be in. It was a huge apartment complex in a very dominant Arab or Muslim neighborhood, so we knew we were not in the right place. As we were walking back towards the car, a flash of light caught my attention on the other side of the road, and I spotted an older couple walking with black badges on their clothing. YAY, we found missionaries. We waved them down and they walked us the couple blocks to where the church building was. We never would have found it. The only sign facing the main road was a very tiny one in a side window. The missionaries told us that the church felt it would not be safe for the members if the building had any larger markings that would bring attention to it. It made me grateful for our ability to worship at home, without any hostility toward our faith. We went for sacrament meeting, which I understood some words of. I had to laugh because I got "me", "Joseph Smith," "Jesus Christ," and most of the numbers, but that was about all. The closing song was sung, a very happy bright song, but when the closing prayer started, the music continued to play quietly. I thought that was a little strange, but I closed my eyes when the prayer started. The music continued so I peeked to see who was playing, no one was so I looked out the window and saw a circus truck with two lions pacing outside in a cage. I had to show the kids and my mom, so we were not very reverent as we were gawking at the most unexpected site! It certainly was fitting though after the rest of our experience!

The next few days we spent at Disneyland. We had a great time riding rides, watching parades and fireworks, and seeing shows. It was fun for the kids to see some of their favorite characters and to be in such a magical. We had a wonderful time!

I thought this guy had the funniest eyes. He made me laugh.

These pictures of Hiram made me laugh too. It was so funny seeing him try to hard to pull out the sword. It was so cool for him because he likes the movie, but also my mom showed him a movie called "The Last Legion" which is a legend about Excalibur, which he loved.

The fireworks were spectacular and were in honor of the French's Bastille Day. This is the day they celebrate the storming of the Bastille, a prison, during the French Revolution in 1789. It is similar to our 4th of July, except we celebrate the ideals written in the Declaration of Independence, and they celebrate the brutal murder of nobles. Just a little difference.

On Wednesday, the day after Bastille Day we ventured into Paris and visited some of the more famous points of interest:

The Arc De Triumph, erected in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte and his victory over the German States. The Nazis had great pleasure marching through it during WWII.

Well, this one speaks for itself!

Of course, the Eiffel Tower. This was such a beautiful piece of architecture. It was truly beautiful to see! I was surprised out how tall it really is.

The kids enjoying a treat under the Eiffel Tower. It was interesting because there were several beggars asking for money. I gave one young lady a couple Euros. After buying treats for the kids, she came to me and asked for more. She said, You have enough to buy treats, you need to give me more. I didn't give anymore the rest of the time there.

This was taken at a small park next to the tower. It was cool to see the turtle sun bathing, I just wish the bread and trash wasn't in the picture.

After the Eiffel Tower, we headed to see Notre Dame. What an amazing cathedral this is. The kids loved seeing it, as they are big fans of Disney's Hunchback. Hiram and Noleigh loved looking for gargoyles and finding other architectural features they recognized from the movie. It made me laugh that they were using that as their frame of reference. We'll work on changing their knowledge of it this year in history.

We walked along the Seine River to get to the cathedral. I have to say the little walkway we were in was not the most nice smelling place I've been in. It smelled a lot like urine and I encouraged the children to avoid touching the walls, which I'm sure had been used as target practice for centuries. Yuck.

This was just a beautiful part of Paris that caught my eye as we were headed back to the Subway.

After France we headed back to Ramstein to fly home. We arrived on Thursday afternoon, checked into the airport, then headed to find lodging for the night. I had emailed some of our information to reservations at the military lodge across from the airbase, but they said they could only make reservations 1 day in advance. We did not have access to the internet or a phone, so I didn't know if the reservationist had been kind enough to go ahead and make us a reservation or not. I took our chances and went to check in. They were all booked, so I asked about our reservation and the reservationist had sent in our request. I was so happy we got a room there. Not just a room, a two bedroom apartment, with a full kitchen, washer and dryer. I was so excited because if it took us a few days to get a flight, at least we would be comfortaable and have a place to stay. Mom and grams stayed the night with us there, and was going to spend the next night too, so they could help us get back and forth to the airport. The next day we went and was marked present at the airport, then went to have lunch and go shopping with mom. I went to the commissary to pick some food, in case we got on a plane, so we could have some snacks. We went back to the airport, and waited to see if there were any flights available. There were two: one to Baltimore and one to Dover. I didn't care which one, as both would work for us. They started Roll Call for Baltimore, which I knew we wouldn't get on because of the number of people waiting and the number of seats available. Then out of nowhere, this new flight to Dover appeared. After checking the list, I knew we would get on that flight, which we did. It was interesting because, it was not the same flight that was originally listed. Once we landed in Dover we heard that that flight had still not taken off, we got very lucky.

It was funny though because my dad was going to meet us in Dover when we got off the plane at midnight, but he went to the air terminal and they told him no flights were exptected until early Sat. morning. Dover had no record of the flight we were on, and were only expecting that other flight that did not leave. Very strange. So he went back to the hotel and went to bed. We got in at midnight, as planned, and waited for Dad, who wasn't there, nor was he answering his phone. I was worried about his whereabouts, but figured I needed to get some rest before I could deal logically with the situation. We took a taxi to a nearby hotel and crashed. At 5 in the morning Dad texts me to let me know he's safe and there in Dover. We meet up and get a good laugh over the situation. It was so weird that we got on this flight that no one had any record of!

So that is our European trip, in a nut shell. I am thankful for the experience, but I am truly grateful to be back in the US. I am thankful for all of our selections, the low cost of our living, the free public bathrooms, the good drinking water, being back in my home ward, and being in a nation with a lot less smokers. I couldn't believe the number of people that smoked.