The great and Terrible

As long as I can remember at the library, these have been popular.   The series by Chris Stewart.  I have been totally avoiding them, because I really don't usually like LDS fiction.  really!  It's too cheesy and perfect for me.  And many times it's terribly written.

So, I decided one day to see what all the fuss was about.  I enjoyed the first book was really wasn't crazy about it.  People told me to stick it out, as the series improves...boy were they right!  The next two books were really good...I'm now waiting for the 5th...out of 6.

They give fairly realistic situations and I like that a lot.  sometimes there are slow parts, and some parts I'm not sure about, but overall I highly recommend this series...

...they really make you think.

UPDATE...

well, I just finished book 5 yesterday and book 6 today. (may 3)  I was a little disappointed with book 6.  So, book one and six...OKAY...but all the rest inbetween were very good.

Oh, and a pet peeve??  characters that call each other BABE or BABY all the time...I mean, come on, who really talks that way.

Footloose and Earth Day

Here's Ben dressed as a parishoner in the Cardston Community Theatre's production of Footloose...

We saw the play last night and the best parts to me, were the 80's acid wash jeans...and the 80's hair-dos.  Not sure they always got it right, as I LIVED the 80's.  I really could have helped them with the hair dos.  But the play turned out fun.

Now check out how we get to spend earth day.  Under a blanket of snow.  Enough of it that they cancelled school here!  You know it's gotta be bad when they cancel school in Cardston.  Actually it's not any worse than normal, but I suspect travelling on the roads for the buses would have been bad.

Anyhow, yay for us.

I'm Elizabeth Bennet

Take the Quiz here!

Dude, OUCH

YES YOU CAN...get a re-birth of the chickenpox as a child.  It's called shingles...think it's just an old person disease?  wrong.

I found out, through the misfortune of my poor little Ayden feller, that if you had chicken pox before you were a year old, your chance of getting shingles as a child goes up.  

ALSO...if you have had the chickenpox vaccine as a baby or young child, your chance goes way up.  Apparently, this is a new development with the vaccine and they don't know yet if it's going to be a problem.  

Why not just let all kids get chickenpox?  It's not dangerous...sometimes the cure is worse than the problem.

Anyhow...it started out with tingling and then pain in the area...but we couldn't see anything there.  

a day later,  a rash that looked like bug bites popped out.  It stays on one side of the body.

Then, the rash started blistering and this is when I suspected it was something other than a rash.  

And no, it's not contageous.

The bubbles are getting bigger and darker.  I feel so bad for him!  Most of the time he's okay, but sometimes it really HURTS him and he has a hard time for awhile.   I keep advil and tylenol in his system...and today the doc gave him anti-viral meds.

So there you go... I hope none of your kids get this, but if they do...you'll know what to look for.

How to get rid of Easter eggs...

We've been known to roll our eggs down a slide to get rid of them...but this year, we got a bit more creative.

Mug shots

Well, we got our mug sh....I mean, passport photos taken yesterday.  Yup, that's right...we are waiting until the last possible moment to get those passports done.  I find it very irritating that we need these to go across the border.  so dumb!!!  I'll probably be glad when they're done, then I dont' have to keep track of birth certificates so carefully every time we go down.

Still...how do you like these poses...???  I could say some things about them, but don't want to hurt any of our feelings around here...including my own!  

After a few improvements...

Easter 09

We had a nice Easter day.  It started out with the kiddies on a hunt...apparently the Easter bunny still visits our house!  Then it was off to church....



After church, Kevin and Heather and kids, and grandma and grandpa Baker came over for a turkey feast!  We cooked a 4 hour turkey in our convection oven and it turned out great if I do say so myself.  The kids had fun and played around and played a board game with grandma..

We did our eggs on saturday evening.  For some reason they all turned out blue and green again, just like last year.  The weather has been great too which helps add to the feel of it really being spring at last....

Crazy-Hat day

Well, at least I didn't have to make Easter bonnets.  It seems we have a lot of hats in our costumes...I am partial to hats.  At Disneyland, I wanted to buy about 20 of them...ah well, maybe next time!

Band concert

Ben looking a bit like a possessed trombonist.
These guys are really getting good...but Bohemian Rhapsody?

68%  

Lets101 - >

Housewarming Party

that's right...we threw ourselves a big party tonight.  the Wright side of the family came over and we partied...a little Mario dance-mat...lots of homemade pretzels thanks to Pete...and even name that tune.  they are all a lot of fun and we enjoyed it!

The last of choir

The end!!!  WOW  I cannot believe it.  

I cannot say enough about how much I've enjoyed watching the school choirs over the 6 years.Let me just brag a bit about them...they are currently the number one choir in alberta...that includes going against high school choirs.  They just won gold in Calgary at a festival going against many choirs from the province.  

The choir director, Mrs. Linda Burwell, is absolutely amazing.  I don't know how she does it, but she makes all these kids ENJOY doing this...and they LOVE HER!!!  If you know anything about music (I know a couple things, not tons) you will be amazed at the unison, diction, and consanants.   Incredible.  They often have sung in parts.s..2 or 3.

I am so sad!  All the grade 6 girls were sad when it was done and tears were shed.  Likely on the parent's part too...Tessa in this picture with Sam and Emily...the 3 of them paid for 3 sets of flowers for the director and 2 pianists...out of their own pockets!  How sweet was that...

For a sample go here....HERE

Or try THIS ONE...it's my favorite.

THIS ONE has both sr. and Jr. choirs and is a bit of a tear-jerker.