I Wear My Sunglasses at Night (or inside)

I come downstairs this morning at 6am and look who I find in the kitchen, a sharp-dressed man with some cool shades. You know it is so bright in our house in the morning - ha ha What is so funny is that Adam cannot stand when men wear their sunglasses inside, he thinks that they are thinking they look so cool when actually they look so stupid. Whenever he sees Jack Nicholson in a picture sitting inside somewhere with his cool shades on Adam is yelling at him to "Take them off, you look stupid!" (Like he can hear him or something?) So of course I had to take a picture-

First Picture - "Why do you have a camera in my face? Is this for your blog?"

Second Picture - "This is stupid! Don't put this on your blog."

Third Picture - I don't know...I see a resemblance to Jack Nicholson!

Piano Boogie!

Yesterday Zack had his piano recital and I must say he did very well. It made me remember back to the days of my own piano recitals and the nervousness I would feel. My hands would sweat to the point of dripping and my knees would be shaking and knocking together. Oh what fond memories I have, no wonder I still hate to play in front of people. I never got over it. I could see that Zack was starting to feel a bit nervous but he handled himself like a pro and did a good job. His song was called "The Haunted House" and when he plays it he has a way of really getting into it by moving to the beat. The man sitting next to me at the recital says that Zack was the most entertaining. He really gets into his music. Great job Zack!

The Best Neighbors Ever!

We are lucky to have nice neighbors but our favorite neighbors live directly across the street from us. They have a little girl (15 months) Kayla that is so adorable! Well the other day they gave me the privilege to watch her for the afternoon. And I am not kidding when I say it was a privilege. First of all, I miss my boys being that age, she is a girl (I don't have one of those) and she is really a good little girl so I love being with her. I had alot of fun!

The next night our neighbor brought us over dinner to thank me for my service. Which like I mentioned before it was not a service but a free meal, sure we will take that. That was really nice of them. I had to take a picture of the meal they brought for it was beautiful and VERY delicious!! The picture doesn't do it justice, it was huge! I definitely need to get the recipe...it was wonderful! We are so lucky to have great neighbors! Yum!

Happy Belated Birthday Michele!

I just wanted to wish my mother-in-law a very happy belated birthday!

A beautiful lady with a beautiful heart! Thanks for being a kind mother to

Adam and a loving Grammy to Matthew and Zack. I am so lucky to have a

good mother-in-law. We love you!!

Rockets Flying

Zack hates this picture so of course being the kind mother that I am I just had to post it. He thinks he looks like such a dork. He always makes goofy faces for every picture but now that I blog maybe he will start to pose normally. Wishful thinking!

Last night they had the Cub Scout Space Derby and Zack actually took 3rd place. Not too bad since his ship (or whatever it is) broke three times. It is amazing what boys are entertained by!

Friendly Competition?

OK, so Saturday night we had Adam's sister and her family over to play games. We love to play games but unfortunately it seems as though we always play the SAME games. Please if any of you have any suggestions for some fun games please let me know. We are desperate! Anyways about Saturday night, Adam decides that we are going to play Cranium. Not one of my favorites but it can be fun- Matthew and I end up being a team and I thought "Great, we are so going to win. Matthew will know all the word stuff and trivia and I can draw, know my songs and my celebrities. No problem, this win is in the bag!" OK, well that was my first problem I started off too confident. Can I tell you that I absolutely STINK at this game. Matthew came through for us on alot of the trivia stuff except for the ones we missed because I insisted it was another answer. (I should keep my mouth shut and have more faith in Matthew's knowledge) The worse was when Matthew pulled a humdinger card that is where you have to hum or whistle a song and your team needs to guess what song it is. OK no problem I know my songs, this will be a cinch. So Matthew starts humming and right away I go "Oh Yeah that's "Up on the Housetop". Matthew shakes his head no. I listen even more attentively....nope that is "Up on the Housetop" or at least that is all that I can hear. Adam's sister tells Matthew that he should hum the chorus for me because then for sure I would know it because by this time everyone else has it figured out. Our time is almost up and I just cannot get it. The other teams are feeling sorry for me because I am obviously so stupid that they even give me a hint by telling me who sings it, the Beach Boys. Still nothing- I felt like a complete idiot! So to say the least we were in last place the whole night and I don't think that Matthew ever wants to be my partner again, even though he is so sweet and would never tell me that. The song by the way that I swore was "Up on the Housetop" was actually "Good Vibrations". Duh! Next time we are playing a different game-

Neglected House

Last week on my way to taking Zack to piano I noticed that our old house that we had owned was up for sale in the Texas tract. That was the first house we had bought and we loved it! Not only do we have alot of wonderful memories there but I really did love the house itself. It was small but it had personality. The living area had a bright, roomy feeling and we had plenty of parties there. The back yard had a great patio, large grass area and a fenced in pool (real pool). We loved it and we have always regretted saling it and we wish we would have kept it and rented it out when we moved into our current house.

So to see it for sale you could imagine my eagerness to see it and see how much they were saling it for at the chance we could repurchase it. Now home prices are dropping here but this has dropped quite a considerable amount. I found out it was in foreclosure, already vacated and was saling for the price of $415,000 so we just had to go by and take a look at it. What a depressing thing that was. The house was totally neglected. The front and back yards were just a sea of weeds and totally thrashed. As we let oursleves into the side gate..yes we were trespassing...we were shocked that it was even the same place that we had lived. I can't even describe the mess and we didn't look under the huge wood cover they had covering the pool. I can only imagine what we would find. To our surprise the back door was unlocked so we continued into the house. The kitchen was totally stripped of any of its appliances and the place was just a pit. I seriously felt like crying and felt as though we had let our poor little house down. How could we sale it to people that could not take care of it or take any pride in it. It was so depressing! It was amazing to me to see that neglecting a house can seriously turn a beautiful home into a huge dump!

Adam still was thinking that maybe for the right price we could purchase it and put money into it and then rent it out. We went back the next day with our camera to take some pics but found the side gate locked. (Someone probably reported the trespassers the day before-oops!) We called the realtor to see if he could show us but he informed us that it had been sold already. I am sure the buyer is planning on coming in and clearing it out and cleaning it up hopefully to what it once was. We loved our little house and it will always be dear to us and I will always try to remember how it was when we lived there. Such great memories!

Update on Dad

Well, my Dad is home from the hospital and is very happy about that. Resting comfortably in his own bed. He did get the results from the full body scan and it did show some kind of lump in the lymph nodes at the base of the spine. It also might be the cancer or it could be scar tissue resulting from an old injury. Which he has injured his back quite a few times. They do not do chemotherapy for prostate cancer so he is on some kind of hormonal therapy for the next while and they will see how that works. He will be checked again in June and that will be more telling of whether this treatment is aggressive enough or not. He is going to get a second opinion but at this time he is taking the medicine prescribed. Thanks for your kind thoughts and keep him in your prayers!

Love of Scriptures

By no means am I a scholar when it comes to the scriptures. I would love to be known as a scriptorian but as of yet I am not. I keep trying though. But one of my new favorite scriptures that I have come across is in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. It just struck a cord with me so I wanted to share it-

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.

"For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up."

I love this scripture and it can have many meanings. It can pertain to my husband who when I fall is there to help me up, or to the Savior for when I sin he is their with the atonement so that I can repent, or it pertains to our families for the love and support that they are to us. But I also think that it pertains to my friends that always seem to be there for me no matter how far away we are. I can always count on an uplifting word, an act of kindness or the unspoken service and support that they give me. I love my friends and for the friendship that they bless me with. Thanks to all those who have been a dear friend to me and some of you might not even know how you have touched my life and have changed me for the better. Isn't that a song from "Wicked"? Oh well it sounds good.

My Hero

My Dad has been in the hospital since last Tuesday because of discomfort he was having and some bleeding. My Dad has never been in the hospital before and he has always been very healthy. They believed that he had prostate cancer so they did a biopsy last Friday. Sunday morning I received a phone call right before going to church from my Mom who let me know that the biopsy showed that he did have prostate cancer but also that the cancer had spread to his bladder. Not good news. We held a family fast yesterday and we are praying that when the results come in from the full body scan that they will find that the cancer has not spread anywhere else. We should find out early this week. I was able to talk to my Dad and let him know how much I love him. It has been really hard to picture him lying in a hospital bed having to deal with these health issues. He has always been so strong and healthy and I know he can't stand being in the hospital. I wish I could be by his side because he has always been there for me when I needed him. He is such a wonderful man and I feel so blessed to have him as my father. I have always been close to him and have been referred to as a Daddy's girl. It is hard to see someone who has always been such a pillar of strength having to deal with this. My thoughts are with him always and we are praying for him to have a quick recovery. We love you Dad! Your the best dad, father-in-law and PaTa that anyone could have!

The picture above is one of my favorite pictures. Boy, if I don't look just like my Dad. Check out the matching noses! Love him!

Cancer has hit our family so hard this last couple of years. My sister had breast cancer last year and she has successfully conquered it. My Mom just had surgery over the Christmas holiday for a rare cancer that was on the inside of her eyelid. Adam's sister has been battling Non-Hodgkins this last year and hopefully is coming to the end of her treatments. It has been crazy! I really hate the word "cancer" and now with my Dad it looks as though we start the battle again! One thing that has come out of these horrible cancer experiences is that it has reinforced our belief in the power of fasting and prayer. Amazing miracles have happened and we feel so blessed as a family and we know that our Heavenly Father is looking over us and taking care of us. It has been a wonderful lesson for my children to see and has helped our faith grow. As my Dad said when he received the bad news about his cancer "Let's ask for another miracle, we know that they can happen." Miracles happen everyday we just need to recognize them.

Can't Wait 'till Summer!

Today has been such a beautiful day it is feeling like summer. Living in CA my whole life I am use to sunny days that is for sure. Sometimes the sun shines too long that I wish for a rainy day, a change in the weather. But right now all I want is sunshine! The only thing is that when the weather heats up then I am ready for school to be out. The only bad thing about the heat is when it is suppose to be over 90 degrees at the track meet tomorrow. Not looking forward to that....boy reading my blog makes me realize how much I hate them. I need to embrace them and began to love them. I have friends there that I can visit with and most importantly I can enjoy seeing my son doing what he loves. If I remember that maybe my attitude will change.......but that is very doubtful, lets be honest!

Matthew is playing on the Frosh/Soph Volleybal team at his high school this year and he is absolutely loving it. It has been alot of fun and the games are pretty exciting. They have been undefeated this season before Wednesday, that is when they lost to a team that hasn't won a game all season and to make things worst it was their rival school Simi High!! It was horrible! It was a real bummer! At least our JV and Varsity team won that night. Let's hope they win the rest of their games this season and we will be League Champions! Yeah!!

Changing

I can see that I am one that will probably always be changing my blog just as I would love to keep changing my house if I could. I am still experimenting but I love it that you can constantly be changing. Shouldn't we always be changing ourselves, hopefully for the better, and not get too comfortable. Sometimes life gets so mundane that I think it is important to make changes, even tiny ones, whenever we have control to do so. So don't be surprised if every time you check our blog it looks a little different. It is one thing that I do have control over in this crazy and fun life of motherhood!

Yeah, Monday!!

Run, Zack, Run!!

Well, what a wonderful weekend it has been! I love conference weekend and the talks that were given were inspiring and the sustaining of our new prophet was wonderful. President Hinkley was an amazing prophet and to think all that was accomplished during his time as prophet is truly amazing and he will be missed. I love PJ Sunday. Not only because I get to watch Church in my pajamas but because of hearing the inspiring words that are spoken and also because we actually had Adam home the whole day on Sunday. He loves his calling so much in the Young Adult ward and I am so happy for him but we do miss having him with us on Sundays so it was a nice change. We loved having him with us from morning 'till night....it was WONDEFUL!!

I don't usually look forward to Mondays but I was looking forward to having the boys back to school for the full day so that I can get some spring cleaning done. I am in the mood and I need to do it when the mood hits or I will never do it. Closets are filled to the brim and to open a cupboard in our house is almost like playing JENGA" as Matthew says. With Spring Break behind us and Zack had early day all last week the house has been piling up, especially in my hiding places so this week is the week to get everything in order. I actually look forward to hauling out all the old stuff and school papers galore. Paper, paper, paper everywhere! It drives me crazy! Oh well....Happy Cleaning!!

I love my son Zack and I love that he likes to run but I am not a fan of the all day track meets. If I am going to be out in the sun all day I would much rather be at the beach with friends and a cooler full of food and drink. One good thing from the track meet today was that Zack beat his record for throwing the shotput so far this year so he was very happy about that. Go Zack!!

Today Adam brought home a doughboy(sp?) pool that he bought out at Sam's Club and we put it up in our backyard this afternoon. Now what is funny about this is that Adam always said that he would never have a fake pool in his backyard because he considered that to be white trash. So you can imagine my surprise when he had purchased one. So now are we what you call white trash?? It is a huge one and Zack is especially excited about it so we will try it out this summer and if we love it keep it for the next summer. If it hasn't gotten a hole in it......should be fun!

This is my very first blog! How exciting!Looking at other peoples blogs has been so fun that I thought I would go ahead and start one of my own. It will be a great place to share my thoughts, happenings and memories. Even if no one ever visits here it will be great for just our own family to read. I look forward to sharing the many memories that we are making every single day. So much happens every day and I always wish that I would have written them down, well hopefully this will give me the venue to do just that.