Bai Bai HP (good-bye in Chinese)

Today is Chris' last day working at HP -- hooray! As we say good-bye to them we can say hello Mr. Vice-President. Chris has a new position as a VP with Cyberlink, a software company based in Taiwan (thus the Chinese goodbye--get it?). It became apparent a couple of months ago that it was time for a change and it totally stressed me out. Chris investigated a few other opportunities which would have had us moving out of state. With Colton starting high school I was anxious that he get started off right and we still hadn't finished the room above the garage for selling the house. For about a month I felt like I could only sleep 5-6 hours a night. We both just worked on the things that needed to be done, de-cluttering and finishing the room. Now if you read the Book of Mormon you learn that Nephi made both large and small plates for "wise purposes, which purposes are known unto the Lord." And of course that all turned out well. So I kinda feel like that because as we've been working on finishing this room, we weren't sure if it was just to sell so someone else could enjoy it. It turns out that Chris will be working from home out of that room. He'll have his own phone line and bathroom and the 20 steps it'll take to communte to work is perfect. We feel very blessed and wanted to share our good news with all ya'll.

(Texas lingo and Chinese in one post--impressive huh?)

Fourteen years as a Mom

Happy Birthday to my big boy Colton--fourteen today! He got the opportunity to break us in as parents. This picture was just after Chris graduated from Cal Poly and we moved to beautiful Monterey CA and Colton is around 9 months old. I look at this and wonder where the rest of the family is--it's odd to have so few members! But this is how it all began and it was fun.

The other pictures are from Colton's "Superheroes phase" He loved them all--especially Power Rangers. Now he's a super great kid and a super big brother and we're excited for his next adventure into high school.

Yeah, I sewed these costumes--Colton is Hercules--I don't know how I had the time. I still try to get the kids to wear these to feel justified in sewing them. Caleb was this same clown last Halloween because he didn't get to choose--that's just the way it is!

These are hot

In my mind, my thirty-something, mother-of-five, mormon mind, these shoes are hot! My black sling-backs busted a strap at church a few weeks ago and I found these as replacements. The amazing part is that they weren't even on sale, which is so out of character for me. I usually can rattle off the discount price I paid for things like its an obsession. But these were just regular priced shoes--admittedly at the Kenneth Cole Outlet, but I still shop clearance at outlet stores. So, it's a major step toward maturity for me with the added bonus of super hot shoes.

My swimmers

It went on for about 10 weeks taking major portions of 8 Saturdays, but it has finally ended. I just ordered actual swimming pictures taken by the team photographer--they're awesom and will be posted soon.

The kids are all good swimmers and Colton ended up with the 2nd highest points for his age group and Jake with the most for his age group. Colton was also playing water polo for a summer league through the high school that ended just last Wednesday night. Now during summer league swimming, most kids wear the longer jammers (modeled by Eli in the picture) but in high school they don't--it's little speedos that barely cover the backside. Colton is quite a modest kid, but yes, he has to fit in, so he got his first little speedo. But, aghast, his upper thighs are too white and so he tried to get a tan, laying out(I got him some self-tanning stuff to help avoid skin cancer). When he was born almost 14 years ago, I never thought this is where we would be--tanning to wear speedos? I pictured baseball (which Colton hates) wearing full uniforms, everything covered. But, alas, this is the perfect sport for him, and I'm so glad he has something good to do in high school. Much better than his fallback of catching rare pokemon on the computer. I'll take the swimming.

And now Caleb is already following. He's found Jake's old speedo and loves it. It's our delimma. It's just the cutest, but am I training up a righteous posterity? I'm sure modestly applies to boys as well as girls. But, if this is my greatest worry these kids give me, then I suppose all is well. It seems we're in for years to come of speedo-wearing boys. I should get used to them 98% naked and maybe I should be buying stock in that company?

My Sweet Girl

Seven years ago today I got my one and only pink bundle of joy!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Olivia--what would I do without my little girl! It was so exciting to find out we were expecting a girl. My family gave me a baby shower a couple of months before she arrived and I couldn't imagine using all those pink clothes--that they were really for my own little one. I just felt like I'd won the lottery by getting such a cute little girl with so much hair. And now that she's getting so smart and such a good helper I look forward to all she will be.

She had a fun party today at Skate Champions--and I had a good time skating too. It made all the months (like the past 11-1/2) of hearing the question "Mom, how many more days until my birthday?" all worth it. Though the countdown till 8 will probably start tomorrow.