How about another movie review...

MONSTER-IN-LAW:

Totally funny movie.
My favorite character was Ruby (Wanda Sykes). She had some realy great lines.

Tales from the Crypt

Ok, so I've not died, but it has been a long time since I've added anything here. I have been to two more states and 4 airplane rides since my last post. Whew!

In September Mike, the boys and I flew to Orlando and Cocoa Beach, Florida for our family vacation. We had a wonderful time being on the beach and enjoying being away from home for a while. We stayed in 2 hotels (one we lovingly call "The Dump") and a resort. The resort obviously wins, hands-down, every award for our week away. They also had a lazy river where you could just soak up the sun on an intertube plus an amazing water slide and pool. It was just a few minutes walk to the beach too. Who could ask for anything more?

I managed to get all the boys in white t-shirts and jeans for a famly photo op. I think the picture turned out pretty good since I took it myself. LOL

The weather was wonderful while we were in Orlando. However, when it came time to move to Cocoa Beach, Hurricane Rita decided to make the ocean angry and the waves were pretty rough and it rained our first day there. I wondered if we would make it home on time or not. The airlines delayed our flight for a couple hours due to the weather.

Austen's decided he doesn't like to fly and cried when it came time to leave - he wanted to drive, take a train or even a boat, anything but a plane. Poor little guy. I bought him some Dramamine for the ride home and he did just fine.

Let's see... the next place I went to was General Conference in Richmond, Virginia. I was only home 7 days from Florida before I took off to Richmond. I have decided that I don't care for Virginia too much. The locals were not very friendly and the area didn't seem too great to me. But then again,I didn't get very far out of Richmond either.

My mom, Aunt Debby and I stayed together while we were there. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of laughing. The church services were really long (no surprise there).

Mike is going to Budapest, Hungry next month so that trip will put mine to shame, but I enjoyed myself anyway.

COMMENTS ON MY BLOG...

If you want to comment on anything that I have typed, you may do so by clicking on "Comment" at the end of the entry and leave your comment there.

I will be notified that you have commented.

Thanks.

I Survived!

Well, I made it back! Hallelujah!

Columbus was a lot of fun and we all had a good time. Our hotel ended up being about 6 blocks from the convention center/arena and we walked to church. So that killed our feet. On Thursday I wore my heels to church but carried my flip flops in my purse for the walk home. I noticed it wasn't too cheesy cause a couple of our girls did it the next night too.

We got to do a little sightseeing while we were there. We visited Greater Ice Cream and watched how they make it. The concept was the same as how we make homemade ice cream - salt and ice - only they have huge machines to do it. Their claim for charging so much for it is that they don't whip in a lot of air like other companies - when you buy a gallon of their ice cream you get all ice cream and no air. It was heavy, so maybe there is something to their claim.

The chaperones all wore t-shirts on Sunday night to church that said "I Survived Youth Congress 2005." I think it makes it sound worse than it really was. We had very little sleep and got up early most of the days.

The twins survived quite nicely - they stayed with mom and she took them to Grant's Farm on Wednesday and Lisa, Kaitlyn, Wendy, Rachel and Hannah took them to 6 Flags on Thursday. They had never been before and have been begging me all summer to take them. They had a blast and hardly missed dear 'ol mom and dad.

Hump day - Only 2 more days to go

Here is it Wednesday and this is the first opportunity I have had to update my blog all week. Whew!!

The heat index is once again over 100 today and this is one of those rare times I will say it's pretty hot out. But I would still rather have it hot than cold.

This week is my last week of calm for a while. Next week I will be in Columbus, Ohio with 16 young people from our church for 5 days. I think its going to be fun, but it's also a lot of work, so I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for it. Is that possible?

I can't wait until our vacation in September. Right now it seems that is all I'm living for. I really need to get away. I just hope all goes well while we're away. The twins are such home-bodies and anytime we go away, even if it's just for the weekend, they complain after about a day that they think we should be getting home. What will they be like in Florida for 6 days?!!! EEekkkk.

I'm trying out some new things here on the blog. I think I have a counter now, so I can tell how many people are hitting it. I also want to try and change the picture on my heading. I don't know if I can or not, I'm still researching that. So, maybe there will be some more changes coming down the road.

When I said this was "Random" I really meant it...

Today we finally have a break in the weather. It is in the low 70's today. We have been having 3 digit heat with an even higher heat index and that = Really hot!

I just wanted to share about my lovely teenager...This weekend he decided to shave his head. No, he doesn't have a buzz, he has S K I N. Ugh, I really hate it. He seems ok with it though. He's wanted to do this for a while and we really didn't want him to. He would ask us, when we cut his hair, if we would shave it off. We always said no. We finally told him we wouldn't do it for him, but if he wanted to do it, that would be fine.

We did put stipulations on it though. He has a friend at church that did it first. We told him people are going to think he is trying to be like Jon. We also told him that people would just laugh at him, call him names, etc. The stipulation is this...if he were to shave his head, he CANNOT get mad at people who call him names or make fun of him. He has to keep a good attitude about it and take the ribbing. He said he would be able to take it cause it's something he really wants. He acted shocked that we even thought he would get upset over some ribbing. HELLO!

Well, the first night with his friends was fine. He took all the names and jokes just fine. Then when we got home, the twins were calling him Jon and he got all mad about it. So, we had to remind him of his promise. I can't wait till it grows out. I'll try and post a pic soon.

Well, I better let this end for now. Who knows when I'll check in again....

Two Movie Reviews...

I forgot, we saw a really good movie last night - Cold Mountain. It's not child-proof, but I liked it. It was mostly predictable with a sad ending. Renee Zellweger was awesome in it and she had some great lines. I loved her character.

The last movie the kids watched and liked was Racing Stripes. I thought it was a really cute movie too. Lots of good one-liners. The Pelican is hilarious.

Dear Dad,

You have been gone for 11 years, but sometimes I feel like it was just a few days ago when I was on the farm with you. I can remember just like it was yesterday, walking down to the field where you were on the tractor. Sometimes I would bring you a thermos with water or lemon aid and we would rest under the tree. After a little break, we would get back on the tractor and I would sit on the wheel well while you plowed.

You were really good at making up silly rhymes. "Becky, Becky eyes of blue..., oh, you're eyes aren't blue" then you would say "Becky, Becky eyes of brown, sweetest girls for miles around." You even made up your own rhyme for your nieces and nephews: "Uncky Spunky was a bear, Uncky Spunky has no hair." Then you would pretend to be all upset when they would say it about you.

I know you would love your grandchildren. You always wanted a boy and I know you were so happy when Nick came along. You finally had your boy. I know the circumstances of his birth weren't the best but you didn't condemn me or throw me out, you still loved me and Nick.

They say that girls marry men who are like their father. I never really believed in that too much and always thought "God forbid!" Mike and I have been married for 12 years and the longer I'm with him, the more I see the resemblance to you. I am proud of that. I think you would be proud of us Dad. We are living for God and are raising our kids to love God and have their own relationship with Him.

We didn't always have a lot of money and you worked very hard for what we did have. Your motto was "5:30 comes early." You had to get up early to feed the cows and chickens and then get to work at the pudding factory. You literally worked from sun up to sun down.

There are so many things I would like to be able to say to you in person. I didn't listen to you a lot of the time, now I wish I would have valued my time with you. You were a wonderful Dad. I know I didn't say "I love you" enough. I would like another opportunity to say that.

I love you Dad.
Your one and only, Becky Boo

Scents, Smells and Odors...

Is there a scent that takes you back to your childhood?

One is a bittersweet memory. Ok, no pun intended, but the other day I was walking back to my office from lunch and there it was. The smell of chocolate. Not just any chocolate smells this way but it took me back to my childhood and some good memories of my Dad.
Although I don’t remember exactly how old I was, I just know that I was pretty young, I would visit my Dad at the pudding factory. Yes, my Dad "made" pudding for a living. We used to joke with him when he would make comments like this "I made pudding" or "I made some corn." We would ask him if he became God or something.
Dad worked for My T Fine pudding factory for several years. Over the years he would bring home many boxes of the pudding. When I was able to visit him at work, my favorite thing would be to go to the kitchen where the cook would make boxes of pudding from each batch to check the quality of the color or flavor. I would get to sample the puddings. Yummy!

So, needless to say, I was transported back to the days of Dad today. It brought back many great memories and, at least this time, not too many tears.

Another favorite smell is the smell of Pumpkin Pie. Mmmmmmm. Mom always made pumpkin pie for our family holidays. When holidays came around she always was elected to bake the pies. The smell of pumpkin takes me back to Thanksgiving and Christmas when the whole family would be together. Everyone met at Grandma and Grandpa’s to eat, talk, play games. The kids would try to beat Grandpa to the choice spot in front of the fireplace. Good times.

First Post

Well, this is my first blog. Never thought I would consider doing this. I have to come up with something to post now.