Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Friday, June 22, 2007

The Black Hole

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"
— Steven Wright

Why don't I live by this? I throw A LOT of stuff away, but it seems to keep piling up. And where do you put it? In my master bedroom, the kitchen counter, the garage, or...I can't believe I am about to admit this...in the corner of the basement. I have this odd corner in the kids playroom. It's only 3x5, but it can hold a lot! I put their easel (a toy my kids really never use, but I could resist buying) in front of the little section. Behind there is The Black Hole. If you are missing something, chances are I "cleaned up" before people came over and stashed it there. This phenomenon I claim came from my mother. When I was younger and people were coming over, she would pick everything up, put it in a paper grocery sack and put it in the garage. It looked neat, but the paper sack was quickly forgotten and months later, you could find ten or more sacks in the garage. Obviously we could live without whatever was in them. The Black Hole is the same way. I should have a goal to clean it out, but really what is the motivation?

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Too Much Yard Work

"A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken."
— James Dent

(I'll add when the kids are not whining!)

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Red Box

I love this company!!! It is like Netflix only in your grocery store (or McDonalds). We don't rent movies all that often, (not enough for the $9.95/mo) so it doesn't make sense for us to get Netflix. Our movie rental places in town are not all that great and are often out of the movies we want. The red box allows you to pick movies you want, swipe your credit card, and then return them to ANY other red box kiosk ANYWHERE! All that for only $1/day!!! We could rent a movie in Billings and return it in Salt Lake City should we want to have a more peaceful trip to visit friends (if we could ever get our act together to get there!). Or, say you're in Indy and you are coming to visit us...map your trip and rent DVDs along the way!!! Yesterday we rented "Everyone's Hero" - very cute, and nice and cheap!!! Check them out and find one near you!!!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Appalled!

You have to read this! Maybe we should start checking the sippy cups first!!!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Only in Texas?

Are we crazy? Well, maybe a little. We drove to San Antonio and back with six kids. The drive down took almost three days mainly because Muffy thought every 45 minutes would be a good time to stop and go to the bathroom. Now imagine if you will the Wyoming countryside, or the West Texas landscape. THERE ARE NO BATHROOMS! There are MILES between exits. Needless to say when a four year old says, crying, "I have to go to the bathroom now!" You pull over. At one stop (a truck stop) I took Muffy into the bathroom. Let me give you our conversation:

Lady in bathroom: Are all those kids yours?

Me: (wondering how she means this) Yes, they sure are!

Lady # 2: They are adorable and so well behaved!

Me: Thank you!

At this point I'm feel pretty proud of myself, so in order to keep up that "perfect mommy" image I start a conversation with Muffy.

Me: Muffy, you are being such a good girl. Are you having fun on our trip?

Muffy: YES!

Me: What is your favorite part of our trip?

Muffy: (thinking for less than a second) When daddy took off my pants and my panties and I spread my legs really far and peed in the grass!

And there goes the pride. I'm now hurrying out of the bathroom ASAP, we'll use purell in the car, just get out of here before either lady comes out of their stalls!


(SIDE NOTE: even crazier, we made it home in two days - 16 hours on one and 14 on the other. Nobody wants to get back in the car for a while!!)


We spent some great family time - a good chance to be together.

Grandpa and Grandma, the six-pack, and cousin Tyler!





Now for another observation. We discovered some fun things about Texas. I'm not saying they can't be found anywhere else, but these seem unique to Texas for us:
  1. Whataburger: why would you name a food place this???? They are open 24 hours though, so nice for the college student! They are actually all across the south, but seem prolific in Texas.

  2. The Xcelerator hand dryer. this thing is so forceful it'll show you how much fat you have on your hands.

  3. When driving on a two lane highway, Texas drivers will pull onto the shoulder and continue to drive just to allow the person behind them to pass - passing or no passing zone. However, they also expect that you will do the same if they come up fast behind you!

  4. Every podunk town DOES have a DQ and Subway.

  5. Every DQ is inundated with flies!

  6. There is such a thing as a Texas shaped waffle maker. We had Texas shaped belgium waffles on day two. Mike was surprised they didn't have star-shaped butter to put on your waffle - good idea!

  7. We could have purchased nice patio furniture with the texas star in the back of the seats! We've also seen a texas shaped hottub!

  8. When ordering a coke, you will be asked which kind. At which point you can respond: coke, diet, dr.pepper, orange, etc.

  9. Y'all is singular and all y'all is plural (that's just southern)

  10. There are not words to describe this:

Mc Cows

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Remebering Joy

We are now home from TX. I have many stories to share, but the most important is Joy's memorial service. It was amazing to see the outpouring of people that she had an impact on and to read the abundance of cards and letters that my parents received. There were so many medical staff there, all expressing what a neat person Joy was. Her main transplant doctor was particularly touched by her service and is still a bit baffled as to why we were not so distraught - why Joy was so unafraid to die. He was amazed that she was able to sign her own DNR and make all of her own decisions about her medical care. Please pray that he realizes that God is the one that made the difference. My parents have talked with him and plan on keeping up a relationship with him. My brother, Josh, read a list of the reasons why he loves Joy and did an amazing job. You could see him struggling to stay composed, but he did awesome. Then my grandfather said a few things. (This is the grandfather who was married to my grandmother that passed away in August and that Joy was named after - and that Morgan is named after - Elizabeth) It was a beautiful service and opened with this video. It was produced by some friends of my parents. These people became friends with my parents when my brother Jeremy died. Their son had died just a few weeks before Jeremy. I wanted to share this with you and thank each of you for praying for Joy and my family. No laughing at the fashions or hairstyles!!!





I have discovered that while we were in TX I was so focused on caring for kids and making sure that my family was doing okay that I really never grieved for Joy. Now that I am home, she is constantly on my mind. I am still amazed that we will not have any more memories of her. She will never be older than 21 years and 15 days. But we know she is dancing in Heaven with her Savior and Jeremy and Grammy. And in a "blink of an eye" we will see her again. Thank you again for all of your prayers!!

From Mike and Jenn and the Six-pack!

UPDATE: Howard May is the one that produced the video, and he is putting the video and the audio from the service onto one CD. Let me know if you would like a copy.