Camping

This past weekend we went camping with our Ward up in Prescott. It was beautiful and cold at night! Down to about 35. We took lots of blankets and sleeping bags for everybody. Dan slept great. So did Kacie. She has a super thick sleeping bag, and she pulled it over her head and was out all night. Not me! Sam misplaced (lost?) our cold weather, mummy bags. Left them with one scout leader or another, and didn't bother to remember or tell us until it was to late to track them down. Jim has a great sleeping bag also. I got Sam's. Not a cold weather bag! I think if Crissie gets a space heater to take camping I'm sleeping in her tent next time too!

This is Kacie and her friend Kylee. Kacie is being a big goofball. Go figure.

Olivia, Jared, his friend Jordan, and Dan. I think this is what the guys did the whole time. Sat in the chairs, ate halloween candy, and just hung out.

See what I mean. My nephews Jared & Jacob.

This is Piper and Annie. A couple of super cute little girls in my Ward. I just love that they're playing in the dirt. Give them 8 years and they won't want to do this again!

See! This is Crissie's step daughter Samantha, the one with the really cool face painting, and her friend, also a Jordan. Do they look like they're having fun? "Like, I am so done with this."

My favorite photo from the camp out, Dan and Olivia. She is such a cutie. She took great care of Dan and played with him most of the day on Saturday.

Finally, he fell asleep just before we got home. I wish this picture showed the chocolaty drool that was on the other side Dan's face! I snapped this as we pulled in to the driveway.

Exiting news!

Just had to share this bit of news with everyone. Sam received his first scholarship for college today! He was selected by Arizona State University to receive the ASU President Scholarship award for $9,000 a year. Renewable for four years the total amount is $36,000. Looks like it's enough to cover the cost of a dorm room. He already qualifies for tuition waver because of his class rank. Way to go Sam! I'm very happy for you and love you bunches!

It's State Fair Time!

Today I got to go to the fair. One of Kacie's best friends is Jordan and she has great connections! Her grandparents are carnies, so we get to go for free! That's right, got to park in the special permit only area (free). Enter through the back (free). Ride the rides (free)! Oh it is so good to know people! Or maybe I should say it is so good to know Jordan! She rocks! Thanks Jo Jo, we had a great day.

This is everyone getting ready to ride G Force. Ok, everyone but me and Dan.

Kacie and Jordan on the Sky ride.

Spinning in the dragon

I love this one!

This is funny! Jordan and Chrissie getting ready to ride The Experience.

Than I actually managed to get a photo as the ride was starting to slow down.

As soon as I get the video uploaded I'll post it.

Creative

Figured it was time to post something else, so here is something I did recently.

While searching the net for some cool nail art ideas I came across a new acrylic nail company called Young Nail. They have these really great c curve sticks that I used to put circle shapes in the white acrylic and then filled the circles with a purple acrylic.

And a close up shot.

Since it's finally cooling down at night Dan and I went out back to play and build a sandcastle in his sandbox. I think we did a great job!

The livestock and the truck were his idea, and the landscaping was my idea.

When Jim got home I took him out to show him what Dan and I did. Did he say good job? NOOO! Instead he said something like "You cut my bushes?" Umm....ya! I don't think I hurt anything by snipping off a couple of flowers! Men!

Strange Kids

My children are so weird! Especially Sarah and Kacie. You would think that these two beautiful girls of mine would try to actually look nice in their photos. Not them! I want to show all of you what I'm talking about. Hey, they documented these things themselves! So if they are embarrassed by them being posted on my blog....too bad!

This was taken by them at Christmas when they first started this stupid thing. This great look is created by blowing a raspberry with your lips!

You'll notice that Sam has enough dignity not to look stupid.

As if it wasn't bad enough for the girls to make faces, they are now teaching Dan how to do the same.

Sarah played out back with Dan Sunday afternoon. They did take a couple of nice pictures.

They also drew a giant family picture on the back patio with sidewalk chalk. Personally I think Sarah is a mean girl with no real sense of the nice person that I am.

If you click on this picture to see it enlarged, you'll see that Jim is the grumbly faced one, and I am yelling and looking mad!

You know, this is such a dejavue picture. When my sisters and I were little girls, Margaret was the artist in the family. One day my parents had new carpet installed. We lived in this great old John F Long home. The closets actually had drawers in them. One long one across the bottom, and set of 3 stacked drawers up one side. Well, upon ripping out the carpet that covered the top of that long bottom drawer, we discovered why my parents had carpeted it in the first place. Margaret had drawn a picture with a black magic marker there. I'm sure that back then there was no such thing as Killz to cover up the permanent marker, so the picture would just bleed through the paint that they tried to cover it up with. I wish we had a photo of that picture. It was just like this one by Sarah, a stick figure family. Everyone i had a big happy face. Except my mom. She was drawn with a big frown. Hmmm............and I wonder why I sometimes I accidentally call Sarah Margaret?

Luncheon of the Homecoming Party

Margaret's creativity inspired me, and Crissie showed me how to extract photos, so I had to give it a try. Lexi, Sam's date to homecoming, gave me a disk of pictures from homecoming. Because homecoming was the same night as the General Priesthood broadcast they had to figure out how to do both. They decided to have a late lunch instead of going to dinner. That way, as soon as the broadcast was over, the guys could pick up their dates to go to the dance. This is the picture of all of them eating lunch.


This is my favorite painting by Renoir, titled The Luncheon of the Boating Party.


And here is the combination of the two pictures!

My ice-cream personality

Margaret says it's my turn to share this. I actually took the test the day Crissie put it in her blog, I just didn't blog my answer.
Hmmm....is this really me? Thought it was funny that mine was so different from Margaret and Crissie in the beginning.

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You are not a particularly modest person. You're proud of who you are, and you don't care who knows it. You have a wild reputation, but you're not as wild as you seem. You take risks, but only measured risks. You are a fairly open minded person with a wide range of tastes. You are quite accepting of unusual ideas and people. You are a natural multitasker. You feel alive when you're doing more than one thing at a time. You can be a big dramatic and over the top sometimes. You are bold in every way

http://www.blogthings.com/theicecreampersonalitytest/">The Ice Cream Personality Test

80,s Pop Culture

Kacie is my chatty child. She loves to tell me all about the good, and especially the not so good, things of her life. I enjoy hearing her stories about her friends and teachers at her high school. Last week she came home and related to me a comment made by her English teacher. He said that the 80's were a terrible era for pop culture. Nothing good came from it. Kacie argued a some of the bands and he did relent that U2 was one good band to come out of the 80's. I was appalled! What? Nothing good? Now, I know that being a generation xer makes me biased, but I definitely disagree! Like, oh my gosh! Fer sure! That is totally bogus. I happen to look back on the 80's with much fondness. Let me share with you some of the things that I've come up with. I'll start with movies. The 1980's brought us the adolescence of the "Brat Pack". You remember that oh so popular group of youth who were featured in many of John Hughes films. What a wonderful bunch of movies they were. The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, Uncle Buck, Weird Science, 16 Candles, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the most defining movie of our youth, The Breakfast Club! Let us also not forget some other classics that premiered at that time. The Blues Brothers, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Risky Business (remember Guido the killer pimp?), Footloose, Valley Girl, Return of the Jedi, Goonies, and the Lost Boys (before we had a reality TV show about the two Coreys).

Television brought us the first ever night time soap operas. Remember Dallas, Knots Landing and Dynasty? We also watched the Cosby show, A-team (I love it when a plan comes together), and M.a.s.h. aired until 1983. One of the biggest things to hit television was the premier of MTV in 1981! Of course that was when the m stood for music, not mundane! Shall we talk music? I love the music of the 80's! My children can attest to this fact. I will gladly admit that not all the bands that came out of the 80's were great. Lets face it, the 80's brought us bands like Wham, Boy George, and the one hit wonder Dexie's midnight runners. But it also brought us Joan Jett, Billy Idol, Def Leppard, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Ozzy, Cheap Trick, Madonna, Corey Hart, and Cyndi Lauper. We also had the continued success of such bands as ACDC, Journey (released 7 albums in the 80's), Rush (9 albums), Chicago (6 albums). Prince released his first album in 1979. Also, Pink Floyd's The wall was released in 1979, but continued to be a huge seller throughout the 80's, along with 5 more albums that decade!

The 80's were a time for Big Hair! We sure did love our Aqua Net hairspray! My sisters and I called in aqua rock. We wore acid washed jeans, parachute pants, Converse high tops, and the most radical Vans. Lots of dark makeup. Almost to the point of looking clownish! If you were a preppy you dressed in Izod shirts with the collar turned up, and wore penny loafers. Remember skinny ties? Okay, so I'll admit, in hindsight, the fashion was like grody to the max!

It was the era that brought us the popularity of the video arcade, Baby On Board signs hung in car windows, and unforgettable slogans such as "Where's the beef?" and "I've fallen, and I can't get up!

What about the Rubik's Cube?

We saw the Berlin Wall come down, heard political statements such as "Read my lips. NO new taxes.", and will never forget the phrase coined by Nancy Reagan "Just say no to drugs." We will also forever have imprinted in our minds the tragedy of the Challenger Space Shuttle.

Now, what do you think? A bad era for pop culture? I for one say am JUST SAYING NO!

Oh, and Mr. Curtis, what do you say now? Do I get an A?

Me before a football game, and Crissie and me before prom in the 80's!

Here I am!

So I was reading my sister Margaret's blog, Confessions of a Sim addict, and after I got back in my chair (rofl) I figured I really was way over due in updating my blog! So here are all the things I've been photo documenting over the last week or so with the intent of adding them to my blog.

Sam's high school homecoming is this weekend (Go Sunrise Mountain Mustangs!) and the teens today make it much more complicated than when we were in school. You know back when dinosaurs walked the earth. Back then the homecoming dance was just another dance immediately following the football game that night. Dressing up for the dance might mean wearing a new sweater with you jeans. Today homecoming dances are held the following night, on Saturday, and the kids dress up, and go to dinner before the dance. Also, you can't just ask a girl to go with you while your at school (face to face). Nooo....you have to come up with something clever, posters, puzzles, talking bears, pickle jars, (ask me about that one later) to ask a date to homecoming. Sam asked this cute little girl named Lexi to go with him. Oh, and she's a Jones too! But not related to us! Apparently she has a huge aversion / phobia of balloons popping. So Sam made a poster asking her to go to homecoming with him and then she had to pop the balloons to find out who asked her. Kind of cruel, huh? She got him back. The next day her friend called and we arranged to get Sam out of the house so Lexi could come leave something for him. When Sam got home this is what he found.

.

Yes, cute poster, but that is 2 bags of peanuts spread all over his bed. Or should I say dumped out on his bed. Along with all the salt and dust that was in those bags! I thought it was funny.

Next on my list of fun things to add to my blog is this!

Dan and I went to Joann's to get fabric and I bought him a set of paint. We went home and got out the butcher paper so he could paint, but of course not without Indy's help! Dan actually kept yelling for me to come get Indy! But I thought it was cute, so instead I grabbed the camera! Grizzy wanted to know what was going on so she came to check it out also. Well, that and the fact that she's a freak and licks plastic bags, so the temptation of the huge plastic bag that I keep the butcher paper wrapped in was to big to resist. This was taken after she finished taste testing the plastic.

I promise I have more to tell you after this weekend. I've had an idea for blog post for awhile but can't add it until after the weekend. I'm sure you will all be sitting with great anticipation waiting for Monday morning!