Spring Dreams

I seriously love spring and not being cold anymore. I love planting my flowers and vegetable garden. I love wearing normal clothes and not needing coats and extra blankets. I love not having to warm up the car before I drive kids everywhere every morning. I generally have more positive thoughts and am more excited about life. I start dreaming and planning. So here are my big plans: a pool in our backyard, right here--can you picture it here?









It would be just lovely. I've been dreaming and drawing up shapes, looking at companies on the net and I might just call one this week or next. As you know, our kids are swimmers and since we usually don't like to take them anywhere more than 5 miles from our house, this would create hours of healthy entertainment for them and lots of friends and relatives. Just as I can picture how beautiful a pool would be in my backyard, I know I am a realist and worry about the upkeep. I'm also cheap, and concerned about the initial cost but also the increase in our electricty bills and all the chemicals we'd need to buy. So now I'm not thinking happy thoughts --- I'd better go spend some time outside in the beautiful spring weather, and who knows, we may just take the plunge (literally, get it :-) I know.

Guess Who?

So, Happy Valentines Day! When my niece, Makana, announced she'd like to throw a Valentine's Party, my reply was, okay, go ahead but my husband responded by offering to have it at our house. Then she said it was to be a dress up party and we were to come as an "iconic couple". I guess not showing up at a party at our own house wasn't really an option so we decided to go all out. See if you can tell who we are:

Yes, I dyed my hair a semi-permanent red and that really is Chris behind the wig and glasses. This next picture is full-length and you should be able to get it. Here's Chris with our friend from Grease.

Yeah, Ozzy Osbourne! Who knew we had it in us!

So here's the Grease couple, aka The Ashmeads.

And my niece, or Mary Poppins with the chimney sweep Bert.




And the Leas family went all out as the Addams
(yes the little baby has a little mustache)



Makana threw a fun party, with the food and games enjoyed by all. Below playing the "newleywed game" we had Clark Kent and Lois Lane; Hermione and Ron Weasley from Hogwarts; the Addams Family and the last couple who said they were dressed as Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain.

And finally, our children, this is our daughter as a young Osbourne. Just when we thought we were getting old and boring, we spice it up and win for the best costumes--who knew!

It's a Start

We arrived in the afternoon and it was my first time being picked up by someone at the airport holding up a sign with your name--it was Chris' name, but still, we're a team and a new experience for me. The hotel is in a working-class area, not the touristy part of town and not much English spoken around here. The beds are more firm than firm and the plumbing is loud, but Chris hadn't given me any impression that it was a fancy hotel, so it's actually better than expected. We get some shabu shabu for dinner--no forks--so with chopsticks I did eat.

This picture is actually lunch the next day, a similar thing, but they did have plastic forks. After lunch, Chris and his co-worker had to go back to work so I was shown the MRT (subway) and let loose (well they showed me the map). I'm a country girl, and this is one of the things I thought I would never do, but do I did! By myself, took the subway to a nearby shopping district, purchased a few items and made my way back.

These pictures are the scenes that greeted me coming up from the subway. Do I turn left or right? Right and 3/4 or maybe not quite? Well, with brains in my head and shoes on my feet I'll make my way any direction I chose--oh, the places I'll go! (that's a little Dr. Suess lingo).

Off On the Wrong Feet

Monday morning, Jan. 10th, awake @ 5:15, yes, Colton has got himself outta bed and his ride to swim practice shows up--yes! One down, three to go. I hear Eli's alarm go off too early, but he usually gets himself up. After 20 minutes I check, he fell back asleep. Oops, get him going and his ride shows up and now it's 2 down, 2 to go. Wake Jake and Livvy, get my shower and dressed. It's chilly still, too cold for bare feet so I'll put on my slippers till it's time to go. Get breakfast, pack the last few items, put away some dishes, load the dishwasher, a quick wipe-down of our bathroom--it's time to go! Chris warms up the suburban, get Jake, Livvy, Caleb, Makana, Jaedyn, Chris and I in the car, drop off the kids at school and it's off to the airport for a 10-day trip to Taiwan, via Tokyo. Traffic is heavy and we worry we're running late. But we're here now and I get out to help Chris get our luggage and something's wrong--I look down at my feet

Oops, forgot to put on my low-heel black boots, I guess slippers it is! Though it wasn't quite as noticeable as the picture as I had jeans on then. Unbelieveable! The check-in line is loooong, but Chris has platinum elite access status so we're able to get in the short line, which is not moving hardly. Hmmm, something's wrong. We find out the airline delayed our flight 5 hours in order to switch planes so we get to hang out at the airport, then fly 13 painful hours to Japan and stay the night--have to go through customs, get our bags, ride a bus (and they drive on the opposite side of the road--a first experience for me) to a hotel, sleep a few hours, get back on the bus to the airport, go through security again, and fly the final four hours to Taipei, Taiwan. But we're here now and I have two stamps on my passport and I feel somewhat tall around here--lucky me!

Merry Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas to all! It's so fun to see the kids so excited--though they acted so silly and hyper sometimes that I had to practice the virtue of patience. We always have new PJs and this year we went homemade, by me, though I ran out of fabric for Chris and I, and the store ran out too, so we made do, but the shirts match "My Family Rocks". These pics may show the hyperactivity we experienced, though I was surprised that it was the 15-year old boy in this pic.

The big boys made breakfast, waffles and smoothies--though who puts protein powder in 'em on Christmas? Yuck--I had to make my own.

And more silliness going on-I couldn't get them to be still for a "nice" shot.And then they had to go nerdy--someday they will regret these photos, but it's all fun today!

Christmas is Coming!

If you have kids in school, then there's always special "Christmas Performances" of bands, choirs and symphonies. Now that I have relatives here, I get to go to there performances too. My niece is in a homeschool choir and below is her group--she's the dark one on the front row. It was cute.

However, I seriously loathe, despise, possibly hate, the cold weather and its been colder than normal this year--though today is in the 70's. It was national news but I'm finally sharing my story of the rare snowfall that hit Houston a few weeks ago. At first I was lamenting the fact that I promised to go to my neice's choir performance in Kingwood--45 minutes East, but I got a lot better snow experience that way. The snow really didn't stick in my neck of the woods, but it did in Kingwood for a short afternoon. Here's the pic while driving there. The whole time I'm like incredulous saying "I can't believe this! I can't believe it! This just doesn't happen here!" It was surreal.

Beautiful, eh? And inside it was site to behold as well.

The choir performance was great, but it was at a huge nativity centered display at an LDS church--a better decorated cultural hall I never have seen--literally hundrends of private owned nativity scenes on display. Afterwards we all dressed the part. Here I am in shepard attire.

And here's our whole gang--Matt a wise man, holding angel Mason, then Kalani as Mary, Tia, me, angle Jaedyn, Makana and Matt's brother, Drew, another wise man, visiting from CA.

Except Caleb would have no part of costumes or pictures--so you'll just have to imagine his little stubborn 3-year old self--though he happily partook of the cookies!

It's Eagle Baby

Through all the campouts, merit badge clinics, sweat and tears Colton has earned the rank of Eagle in Boy Scouts. He had his last board of review last week and the award will be given in a ceremony next February. It certainly seemed at times this would never happen. He has always enjoyed the campouts and comraderie in scouting, but the self-initiative was often lacking. Our great incentive plan began the summer of 08 when a cell phone would only be granted upon completion of the eagle project and all required merit badges. This should take a few months I thought, then it turned into a year and a half :( But we all perservered and are so proud of his achievement.

Another thing you may notice from the pic is his teeth, specifically braces. Just hours before the board of review, he got braces put on. Fortunately his teeth didn't hurt yet during the interview, but the next few days were painful as he even missed a day of school and a swim meet. We're trying a new technique call "Fast braces"--google it. Supposedly this new technology requires about half the time of conventional braces and are about half the cost. Sounds like a win-win as long as his teeth don't fall out, right?