True Companions

.: (You really should read this first!) :. I think they need to create a child recall program. They could easily set the qualifications for children between the ages of 12-17. There needs to be some incentive for children to behave in order to continue into adulthood. It would definately be a program for OTHER people's children, because MY children are little angels who take responsibility for their own lives and love to provide solutions to the trouble the create in their lives. So a program for other people's children would be good. ('cause I am totally fine with counting down the days 'til they move to independence and freedom). Teenage children have many wonderful talents. Like the ability to spend 4 hours complaining about doing a task that takes 30mins to do. Don't get me wrong, younger children are capable of prolonging the timeframe of task completion, but teens have mastered the ability to add 'pizazz' to the misery of complaint. Pizazz - now ...

.: (You really should read this first!) :. OK - so I know I haven't blogged in FOREVER!! But I wanted to blog this to make sure that no one got caught as I almost did. So I was home today - Jilly was sleeping so it was nice and quiet at my house. I sat on the couch and was flipping through the channels. I watched a commercial for US Fidelis (one we have all seen many, many times). It is a company that claims they give you insurance coverage for your car so you never have to pay for any repairs again - even over 100,000 miles. With the fact that we have 2 vehicles that fall under that description I thought I would call and get a quote for coverage. So I call and talk to the guy. After a lengthy discussion, it sounded like a pretty good deal. I got Greg on the phone to discuss whether or not we should invest in this coverage. He was much more skeptical than I was. He asked a few questions and then my cell phone coverage disappeared (divine cell phone intervention????). In t...

.: (You really should read this first!) :. Well we are all back from our vacation to MN. (Pictures to come). We came back to 115 degree heat and a freezer full of rotten meat. We are making all kinds of improvements to the house (i.e. painting, hanging more stuff on the walls, rearranging the furniture, etc.) Jen is quite the busybody. The girls went to UT and even TX and NV as well. The boys will be back from MN soon and we can rearrange our schedules once again. Life is certainly interesting! Jileighan is a ball of energy and as smiley and loving as she has always been. Thanks to Auntie Kathy she now has a new little playhouse to practice being MOM. We are doing well and hope it cools off SOON!!!

I love my Father! He is my Hero, my Example, my Mentor, my Friend. I hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him. Thanks for being a wonderful Father! I love you DAD!

This is what happens when your well intentioned children take their little sister so mom can sleep in on Mother's day morning: ....... She eats pictures and gets the ink all over herself, of course! Just a quick note to tell all the mom's in my life that I love you all! I am so thankful for all of the advice (good and bad) that I get. I am a better mom for having you all in my life!!

Hrmm.. I hope the above photo doesn't qualify as Awkward . LOL

You'll have to ask Jen to tell you the story on this one... but I found a T-shirt that is almost perfect for the occasion. JEN'S NOTE: The cat threw up on Kendall's bed and Jilly happened to find it before I did. My sister's favorite text message: Jilly ate cat vomit for breakfast. Should I be worried??

After much debate, I have convinced Greg that he really could be a "two dog man". A free cocker spaniel fell into our possession. My mother (who is currently addicted to the humane society - and is bringing home her fourth dog tomorrow [crazy woman!!]) came across a woman who was needing a new home for her one year old cocker. After much negotiation (and the promise of a new super computer) Callie came to live with us. So far, she has been a great dog!!

I'm sure you could take this idea and run with it.. but take a look at this: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/04/21/freaky-food-fun-inse.html What do you think? Do you think the kids would like this?

Finally...after a short sabbatical....here I am (mighty mouse would finish it with.... to save the day!!) Well... I blew off hours of laundry (sorry, honey) and spent that last couple of hours online reading everyone else's blogs. I left a lot of comments and realized that I haven't actually blogged forever (OK since Christmas). But I felt a little bit better knowing that Dani and Amber are further behind than I am. (ha ha ha! sorry....schadenfreude) But anyway, I will try to blog and do laundry and workout and everything else I am supposed to do. Nothing like a challenge to keep life interesting. After all raising hooligans (see previous post) is hard work!! I have to blog steal this from Sarah and Twylla because it is hilarious. And you all know how real this really is, right? Again, just to quote my shirt...Just because I am a Woolf....Doesn't mean I can't love a vampire.

So our youngest son decided that it would be cool to take a knife to school today. Jen called me to let me know that she got the call from the principal's office and that she had to return to the school to pick him up. I think she had just dropped them off and it hadn't been an hour until she had to turn back and get him. I'm just happy this didn't happen in the Gilbert School district where they have ZERO TOLERANCE policy. Otherwise I think we would have to do this every morning: Needless to say, Jen wasn't happy. He also lied to his teacher. When asked if his mother knew that he had the pocket knife at school he said, "YES". Oh what fun.

Wow, it's bad when you haven't written in your blog for nearly a month. Now Jen usually updates this blog more than me, but I fear she has become quite busy herself. I just started school again (MBA at Keller) and hope that this ALL ONLINE SCHOOL is going to go well for me. So far so good. Maybe I will get some time to post a video or two. I really need to figure out a better way to post quality video without the compression engine screwing up my quality each time I post. grrr.. .: (You really should read this first!) :.

Well we made it through to another year. I guess we didn't really sit down and write out our new year's resolutions, but there are definitely some changes coming. I will be enrolling in school this week. I am going to go back for my Masters in Business Admin with an emphasis on Project Management. The budget cuts at work pretty much mean I will being paying for it... :( But maybe I can recover something after I get started. It will be worth it I am sure.

OK - so since I didn't post for anything in January I thought I would do this a month at a time. Jilly, the boys and I spent New Years with my sister and her family in Minnesota. Well, the boys were with their dad. But we had a great time. We had lunch at the American Girl Store at the Mall of America. Jilly loved all the dolls. I am going to take her back there for her 3rd birthday and get her first American Girl doll. We saw my friends Andrea and Kandi in Anoka. Then came home to the new year of school. Life was pretty normal for the remainder of the month. Jilly learned to drink out of a sippy cup but other than that we are just trudging along.