Show me the love...

JANUARY is coming.
I hate January.

I could possibly eek out some happy feelings if I could spend the entire month
here:
Kailua Beach...

But then I would have to get into a swimsuit.
Yuck.
I hate January.

A Little Birthday Noel...

Happy Birthday Bethany...

One-track mind...

My two favorite things about Thanksgiving dinner 2009?

Bob's unbelievable cheesecake...
(yes, he made it from scratch).

Alicia's unreal Tin Roof Sundae Pie.
(yes, she forgot to bake the pie shell again-didn't really matter though).

You had to be there...

A Chance Ecounter???

Yesterday I ran into David Archuleta at a little bookstore just north of here. We had an intimate conversation...
that lasted about 10 seconds...
due to the 752 people in line behind me.
I even practiced with my B.I.L.* what I might say.
In rehearsal we were funny and clever-
In person I was ridiculously idiotic.
He smiled- I said nothing.
He asked me "How are you doing today?"
I choked.
I'll post the video when I can watch it without plugging my ears.
Or when I can stop giggling every time I think of it.
A fourty-four year old woman tripped up by an 18 year old kid.
Eat your heart out Billy Joel.

* Brother-in-law (you tried Steve, you tried.)

Random Halloweeness in no particular order....

Hannah (Supergirl) and her friend Cammy.

Word up it's Wordgirl...(Beth)

Will, the super-awesome Ninja!

Just another shady watch salesman...(Elijah)

Michaela, the "modern devil"

The pumpkin tribute to Buddha...

The gang...

On to Thanksgiving!!!

Ouch...

We have been looking at a lot of pic's of Buddha and came across this one from last Halloween. Will commented sadly: "I didn't know that this year Buddha would be a real angel."

August 2006- October 2009

Sadly today, our beloved Buddha passed away. We feel very blessed to have been given one more wonderful week where we intensely loved and cared for him. We know he is in a happier place, even though we feel quite certain that we gave him the happiest home he could possibly have here on earth. WE LOVE YOU BUDDHA!

Can I interrupt this Halloween for a little Christmas?

Might I say that there are few versions of O Holy Night and Ave Maria that I like more than David Archuleta's ?
...soooo beautiful.
(Clarification for those of you who have expressed confusion over this comment:
I love this Christmas CD.)

Big Black dog update...

Buddha is home. If my camera wasn't broken I would post pic's of the happy reunion. Trust me, it was sweet...

Two Reasons to Celebrate...

Today, Oct. 6th is a doubly happy day. Hannah is 10!!!
We are soooo happy that she came to us!!
She makes us laugh ( think: "you forgot to shut the door!").
And this favorite story when Hannah was 3 1/2 :
We were in the kitchen and I was doing dishes while Hannah quizzed me with a list of what Jesus wants us to do.
"Mom, does Jesus want us to have friends?"
"Mom, does Jesus want us to be nice?"
"Mom, does Jesus want us to love dogs?"
All to which I would reply "yes".
Then she asked me if she could have some cheese crackers to which I replied "no Hannah, you just ate breakfast".
Without missing a beat she said "Mom, does Jesus want you to be mean?"
I'm pretty sure she got some cheese crackers!

Our second bit of happiness today is Buddha.
About 5 days ago he got sick- he has been sick before- he'll eat something gross on a walk and it will throw him through a loop for a couple of days and then he'll be fine. Well, this time he just kept getting worse and by Saturday he was barely moving and on Sunday, we noticed he was peeing almost straight blood. We took him to the vet on Monday morning and the vet thought it could be anything from a liver infection to cancer. He did some blood work and we had to wait 24 hours to get the results. Needless to say we had a pretty teary night. Lot's of prayers went his way. This afternoon the vet let us know that the results seemed to point to an auto immune disorder where his red blood cells are being attacked. He should respond pretty quickly to a steroid treatment and if all goes well we should have him home by Friday.

Happy Birthday Hannah!
Happy Rebirthday Buddha!!

It's time to sample some Christmas treats...

Go to Amazon to listen to Christmas CD samples

Random pictures from our week...

Elijah needs a haircut...sideburns are not optional when you are 11.

We need a better picture but the message is clear...when Will is away, the friends still want to play.

Did I mention the fire dancer already?

Soccer has consumed us once again...

Michaela hikes the "Y" and apparently defies gravity...

How was your week?

First I will whine, then I will rejoice!

I woke up 2 weeks ago with the sensation of fluid in my ears-like after you go swimming and you tilt and shake your head and you feel the water drain? Well I kept tilting and shaking and nothing.
So yesterday I went to the doctor and got a prescription to help my malfunctioning ear drain...
The pharmacist mentioned that sleepiness would be a side effect...so, I took it last night at 10:30 p.m. thinking I would sleep through the sleepiness. It is now 8:22 p.m. -almost 24 hours later and I still feel like I am moving through peanut butter. I will not be taking another one of those. I am tired enough on my normal days...back to square one though with the ear.

Like October needs more excitement than changing leaves and Halloween...
Here are two more things to make you happy:

1. David Archuleta releases his Christmas CD on October 13th. Mr. Archuleta was born to sing Christmas music and I am ALWAYS looking for an excuse to start my Christmas music early.


2. October is actually National Chocolate Chip Cookie month!!! Can you believe it? A whole month dedicated to the awareness of my favorite past time! Can you even imagine the ways that I will be celebrating?

Pearly Shells...

Friday night we went to a Luau, a fundraiser at Grandma Singer's retirement center. If you closed your eyes and just listened to the music you could actually transport...eyes open...not so much. But it was alot of fun and the food was good. Grandma could hardly stay awake, and the kids ate their candy lei's before dinner was served.
The highlights of the evening were the fire dancer and the raffle- from which we won a big movie night basket...Aloha !!! What it really did was make us homesick...wish we were back on the beach. Michael summed it up when he said "once you've been to the real thing- these wannabe's just don't cut it". But do I sound negative? We had a great time hanging out with Judie and Great Grandma. Happy days!

March on 9-12 in D.C.

"When the Government fears the people there is liberty. When people fear the government there is tyranny".
Thomas Jefferson

Joy...

So tonight we went to a town hall meeting with our representative Jason Chaffetz. He is a rock star. There was some lively discussion, but for the most part, we are in Provo, Utah-there wasn't a whole lot of opposing ideas presented.

Over 700 people attended with overflow in the lobby...

But my favorite part of the night happened without a whole lot fanfare. We sat next to an older couple who had decided, that in their golden years, they were going to be activists- defending and supporting the constitution. They were attending all the rallies, tea parties, and town hall meetings that they could. They brought a flag to hang in front of our balcony seats that said-" Family, God, Country- Forever. "As we talked, they shared that they had been to a Common Sense rally on Saturday, at the steps of the courthouse in Provo. Their picture was featured in the Sunday paper. Earlier that day I had been at my sister's and grabbed 5 Sunday papers that had been saved for me (think coupon addiction). I threw them in the trunk of my car and forgot about them. Remembering these, I asked the couple if they had bought any extra copies. They said no and that they regretted it because they wanted to send copies to their family. I told them I had some in my car and if they wanted them, we could get them after the meeting. They were so excited and said "thank you, thank you". When it was over, they waited for us on a bench while we walked the distance to our car. As we walked, I pondered the unlikelihood of this coincidence: that I would happen upon the newspapers today, that I would put and leave them in the trunk of my car, and then sit by the couple who was featured in the front page story. When I voiced this to my husband, he said, "I don't really see any eternal significance in that." But when I handed over the papers to this woman, and she gave me a hug and kiss and said "you have made our day", I knew that even though some things seem unimportant to us, Heavenly Father sends little blessings of happiness- to remind us He is there, He knows us, and He wants us to feel joy.

I felt it tonight.

Their picture in the Daily Herald ...
Oh by the way, their oldest daughter? Her name is Brenda.

Town Hall Meeting with Jason Chaffetz

If you live here:

Then you should be here,Tuesday, August 25 at 7:00:

Congressman Chaffetz' name is pronounced
"Chay - Fits"

No good deed goes unpunished...

So I won tickets to see the Wizard of Oz at the Historic Draper Theater. I have never been to the HDT so I was excited somewhat. Free tickets, new experience...I knew we were in trouble however by a few clues:
*Munchkins was misspelled in the playbill
*The director's note referred to the author as Frank L. Baum when anyone familiar with Wicked knows it has to be L.Frank Baum or Elphaba would not exist!
* 15 minutes after curtain should have risen, they announced they were waiting for the tech crew to show up and no one had a key to the room.
*They announced a stand-in for Toto because the "star" had injured her foot.
*The ticket taker was playing the role of Zeke/ Cowardly lion (he was GREAT by the way).

Highlight: The Toto understudy pulled the fence down, to which he was tied, and ran off the stage trying to escape up the aisle.

Low point:Michaela and I realized we would be exiting at intermission when we saw the tornado in the form of 3 dancing tweens...looking like it had been choreographed by the 3 dancing tweens...

On a positive note- some of the actors were actually good- the production was simply cheesy. Dorothy had a very pretty voice- the scarecrow, tinman, and Lion were quite enjoyable...it just wasn't enough.

Oh, and the Red Vines were good, nice and soft, just like I like them!!!!
Just a small must see snippet of the tornado!

A couple more happy schoolers!!!

This one? Not so excited...

This one LIVES for school (actually the social life at school)!

First day of school for the young 'uns...

I'll miss you.