True Companions

I was reading through some other blogs and came across Thankful Thursday by my friend Audrey . So I thought I would blog steal (I hope you don't mind) cause I think I could use a bit more thankfullness. My top 10 things I am thankful for on this Thankful Thursday 1. Craigs List 2. My husband's creativity with items obtained on #1 3. Stephanie Meyer (she is the Twilight Saga author - but I don't think my husband is very thankful for her) 4. BED TIME!! (mine and the kids) 5. Pinal County Animal Control 6. Humility to accept the one calling I never wanted 7. My husband's patience while I have been lost in Forks, Washington for the last week 8. Sleeping babies 9. Knowledge of the Gospel - especially when I think about my dad 10. Random moments when my children tell me they love me.

We received a comment on our blog "Gerald Shepardson has passed away" reading: Anonymous said... I believe your father was the "Mr. Shepardson" that my siblings and I took piano lessons from fifty-some years ago. He was also a photographer, and took several pictures of our family in the early sixties. We have very fond memories of him! After six years of lessons under his guidance, I am now teaching piano myself, and earning money on the side using skills he fostered. My sister, brother and I extend our condolences to your family. To whomever you are: I wanted to say thank you for the kind words. It is amazing to hear about all of the lives my father touched. He was an amazing man!! I would love to know who you are. We probably even have some pictures of your family. We still have boxes of pictures to go through and my dad kept every picture he shot. If you read this and get a chance, please email me (Jennifer) at jen1shep@aol.com and let me know who you are.

Ok.. So I started off my morning with a drive down to Tucson. Today was the Scott Kelby's photowalk . It was a interesting event. It wasn't as 'exciting' as I thought it might be, but I guess you can't expect much from 50 random photographers getting together to kick off the release of a book (Many of whom hope to win a prize. Which I think is a book about Lightroom, a software package specifically designed for Photographers). Anyway..... I ended up meeting a few cool photographers. One in particular was Cody Conrad . So we ended up lagging behind and getting some cool shots (I'll have to share later). When we finally met up with the rest of the group at the El Minuto Cafe (You know the one... on Cushing and Main) we met up with some interesting characters. One 'artist' was showing us an OLD SKOOL strobe (A Minolta strobe with guide numbers) and so I pulled out one of my own. Apparently this was license for him to tell us the whole life story of his a...

We were invited for date night over to Twylla and Brian's. It was a triple date with them, us and Sarah and Robert. We brought the kids and they were banished to the upstairs. They played Wii and watched movies all night while the adults swam (pretending we were 12 by playing Chicken) and played board games. We finally came home about 11 p.m. Thanks guys!! We had a great time and would love to do it again!! Getting home that late, one would think the children would sleep in......but sadly, no.

So we started last weekend off with Bunco at Neely's house. For those of you who don't know what Bunco is...it is a dice game (reminiscent of Yahtzee) with 12 players. It is 12 women from our ward who get together, eat good food, and scream A LOT!! I brought Jilly and I am sure that she didn't appreciate the yelling as much as we enjoyed doing it! Next month it is at my house. The Theme: BACK TO SCHOOL - you may need to start school shopping now! :-) After the game (party) a few of us went to see the late showing of Momma Mia! We (Sarah, Twylla, Neely, Lesle, Greg, Jilly and myself) had a great time! The movie was really good. Our reviews are 3 great - 1 OK - 2 not soo great - 1 sleeping. After the movie the girls (Twylla and Sarah) decided to molest the Hulk. He looks like he was enjoying it!! LOL On to Wednesday....... Sarah called and said she needed to go shopping for her Husband's birthday, as it was the next day. Happy Birthday Robert!! So, again, a group of us (S...

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

I think I have developed a new language. I discovered it this morning while our children were supposed to do their chores. I have lovingly named it Chore Language. MY WORDS : TRUE MEANING 1. Go start your chores : Stay sitting and doing exactly what you are doing now. 2. Get up and go : Move yourself to another place to sit and do nothing 3. You need to do your chores : Stare at me in awed wonder as if I have a booger hanging out of my nose. 4. NOW! GO! : Please lay on the floor and kick and scream These are my top four. I am sure there are more but I must now go and deal with my "happy, cooperative, and well behaved children"

1. Where is your cell phone? RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME 2. Your significant other? GREG 3. Your hair? BROWN 4. Your skin? FAIRLY DECENT (THANKS MOM!) 5. Your mother? WILD AND CRAZY 6. Your favorite thing? SPENDING TIME WITH GREG AND MY KIDS 7. Your dream last night? VERY WEIRD - IT INCLUDED OPRAH AND MEATLOAF 8. Your favorite drink? MILK 9. Your dream/goal? JUST BE HAPPY 10. The room you're in? LIVING ROOM 11. Your ex? WHICH ONE? 12. Your fear? HAVING SOMETHING HAPPEN TO ONE OF MY CHILDREN 13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? RIGHT WHERE I AM ....MAYBE A BIT MORE FINANCIALLY SECURE 14. Where were you last night? BUNCO!!! 15. What you're not? TOLERANT OF STUPIDITY 16. Muffins? ONLY IF THEY ARE CHOCOLATE OR BLUEBERRY 17. One of your wish list items? A MAID 18. Where you grew up? 2114 HIGHLAND PLACE, Columbia Heights, MN 19. The last thing you did? DISHES 20. What are you wearing? PAJAMAS 21. Your TV? USUALLY ON FOR BACKGROUND NOISE 22. Your pet(s)? A CAT - MILO AND 2 DOGS - RIL...

Jilly has a friend named Kensington. Kensington is my friend Lisa's daughter. She is 7 weeks older than Jilly. It is fun to watch them grow. Obviously, our playdates don't consist of too much interaction between the two of them - but Lisa and I have a grand time. (btw - Lisa was also danny's kindergarten teacher and he LOVES her). We will get our girlies together once a month and will take pictures so we can see how they change. This was August 12th. Jilly is 8 weeks old and Kensington is almost 4 months old. This was from our first play date, right after Jilly was born. Jilly was one week and Kensington was 8 weeks. Again, their play date was not too thrilling for either one of them. LOL

If I was a full on post-it note writer, I would write the following notes: To my father-in-law: Listen you crazy old man, you might have some cool STUFF, but honestly we would rather have you around more than your STUFF. Granted, we could all do without the rudeness and biting sarcasm. Oh and if you'd pay an ounce of attention to other people and actually listen, instead of wallowing in your own self-pity, you'd probably find that more people love you and care about you then you ever want to believe. To my wife: I love you. I love you dearly! In the future however, when I tell you to kill the mosquito that is buzzing around my head, don't just smack me in the face without actually looking to see where the offending critter is located. (It was nowhere near my face at the time of impact) I understand your unconditional desire to help when called upon, but blindly smacking me while I am feeding our infant child is not exactly what I had in mind when I said, "Hey get th...

I know, I am getting ambitious. Two posts in one day (and both from me.... We decided to get Riley a dog. Meet MAX. He is an 18 month old Shepherd/Beagle mix. I think that makes him a Sheagle or maybe a Beagerd. Hmmm.... Anyway. A woman in our ward was laid off from the airlines and was moving to Texas to live with a relative and couldn't bring Max with her. Riley spends his days tormenting Milo (our cat). This way Riley can have someone else to play with. They are fun to watch, but our mantra has become "GO OUTSIDE!!" Danny is my animal kid. He loves any and all animals. He is thrilled to have a second dog. Maybe this will finally encourage Greg and I to get outside for some exercise every now and again....we'll see. :-) Don't you wish it was actually legal to have a "Kid Cage"?? hee hee hee. Danny thought this would make a VERY funny picture!

Well, I figure now that I am home with only one beastie to deal with (and she is soooo tough [heavy with sarcasm] )...there is no reason that I shouldn't be able to stay caught up with our blog and the exciting happenings at the Woolf house. As I said before, the boys started school last Wednesday, August 6th. I am attaching the pictures so you can see how big they are getting. There are days that I am AMAZED...they are both growing so big and they are so handsome (again, here comes my biasedness).

We went swimming ...of course we did, it's 110+ degrees!!! I love her little swimsuit. I found it (and the matching coverup..hee hee hee) at a second-hand shop in Minnesota. She is sooo cute! But she didn't like the bright sunshine. Maybe our next purchase should be a little pair of sun glasses. Danny is always there to love her and give her tons of kisses!! This is my friend, Catie. I used to work with her at Franklin South. I love the fact that even in the pool she needs her binky. :-) We also went swimming at night with the cousins.

.: (You really should read this first!) :. Well, we can officially say our little Jilly Bean is absolutely perfect! She went today and passed her hearing tests. Within the last few weeks we were sure there weren't any problems, as she responds when spoken to, but having the tests confirm it makes everything better. YEAH!!! School started today!!! The boys started at a new school today. We moved them to Benjamin Franklin Charter School Crismon Campus. It is about half the distance that Franklin South is and we are carpooling with a family in our ward. YEAH!! They each said they had a good day. Danny was a bit reluctant to go. I ended up standing with him for the flag ceremony, but then he went with his class to start the day. After school when I picked them up Hunter gets into the car and says "I think I lost my friend magic. I only made one friend today. I would have made a ton more if I still had my magic!" Ha ha ha! You have to love Hunter and his logic! I have pictures...

I knew a woman once.... (I know, I know, not a far stretch from the common Greg phrase,"I knew a man once...") Anyway... I knew a woman once who couldn't tell the truth even if it hit her right between the eyes. I'm not sure how JUDGEMENT DAY is going to play out as I am certain that this female individual could witness herself doing the very act of dishonesty and STILL turn around and attempt to deny or justify (but mostly deny) the VERY FACT of her dishonest action. That said, I have the unfortunate priviledge of sharing 'parenting time' with this person. (Unfortunate for both me and the children) The problem here is that my children will tell me a lie and then when questioned about the lie they will do one of two things: 1. Deny that the phrase that they just said 2 seconds before even came out of their mouth. 2. Act as if the lie was a miscommunication and that it is your fault that you didn't understand that what they said is not what they meant. EXA...

This was copied from my my sister-in-law's sister's blog. And if that isn't confusing enough.... read on! (Business at City Hall in San Francisco ) "Next." "Good morning. We want to apply for a marriage license." "Names?" "Tim and Jim Jones." "Jones? Are you related? I see a resemblance." "Yes, we're brothers." "Brothers? You can't get married." "Why not? Aren't you giving marriage licenses to same gender couples?" "Yes, thousands. But we haven't had any siblings. Wouldn't that be incest ?" "Incest?" No, we are not gay." "Not gay? Then why do you want to get married?" "For the financial benefits, of course. And we do love each other.Besides, we don't have any other prospects." "But we're issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples who've been denied equal protection under the law. If you are not gay, you c...