VT Question #4

Sorry, it's been a while since I've done one, but the jar disappeared. I suspect, by little hands. But today it was sitting on my desk, like it had been there the whole time. I know it wasn't!

Did you have a favorite TV show as a child or youth?

I remember most the Kroft Super Show hour. They had all these little shows, like: Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Lost in Space, and my favorite, The Bugaloos. The spelling and names of the shows could be slightly off. They had other shows, but these are the ones I remember most. The Bugaloos were these little bug/fairy people who were really a band from England or something and there was some witch that would try and capture them in pretty much every episode. I'm sure the writer's never won an emmy. I can still sing the theme song, though. The Buggaloo's, the buggaloo's. We're in the air and everywhere. Flying high, flying loose, Flying free as the summer breeze! Pretty sad, huh?

Oh, look! I found a picture of them on the internet! Wow. Brings back fond memories! Got to LOVE that seventies style!



I used to love to pretend to be the girl. I think her name was Joy. Maybe. Anyway, I can remember going to Lake Mission Viejo, which we could walk to and spend everyday in the summer swimming, and pretending to be her. I would swim through the water and pretend I was flying like her. HEHE. I wish I still had the great imagination I had as a child. But I get just as much fun out of seeing my kids imaginations at work.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend was a busy one for us. Scott and I actually had a date night on Saturday. We decided we would do a double feature at the movie theater. We saw both Indiana Jones and Iron Man. I liked them both, but Iron Man was better. Anyway, we still wanted to do something big for the holiday, so Sunday afternoon (we have 9:00 church) we packed up our trailer for a quick overnighter. We drove up to Farmington and stayed at the campsite right next door to Lagoon Amusement Park. We had every intention of spending our Memorial Day riding rides and eating junk. Well, some time during the night, the heavens opened and didn't stop for most of the next day. So, we never got into the park. But we had a lot of fun just using the trailer and spending time together.

We were so close to the park that we could walk along the fence and see the animals in the zoo area.
My kids are so spoiled that we can't even go camping without being able to watch movies.
My son. I really don't understand him. He came up to us all upset that he couldn't get this chair off over his head. Why he put it on in the first place is beyond me, but mean mom, left him in the chair long enough to get the camera and take pictures! Wow, I'm going to have some great things to embarrass him by when he's older!
A couple of week ago, Scott took Porter on the Father/son camp out in our ward. And while there, he taught Porter how to pee outside. He has unleashed a monster! Porter couldn't get enough of peeing anywhere and everywhere. He'd just whip it out and go! He didn't care who was there or if anyone was in the way. I knew we were in trouble, when he was standing in the doorway of the truck, pulled his pants down and let it go. On my shoe (I was wearing flip flops). And the car door. He almost got Regan, but she's pretty quick when she wants to be. He'd never give any warning. Just point and shoot. Luckily he knows that it only applies when we are camping. He doesn't try this at home.

A Very Different World

You can tell that we are getting closer and closer to the Second Coming. The world is a different place than when I was a kid. I rarely told my mom where I was going to play, just that I was going outside to play. These days, my kids have to tell me where they are going and who they are playing with. If they decide to go to someone else's house, they have to come home and let me know.

So, my sister has been getting some anonymous comments on her blog that were really creepy. And frankly, kind of mean. We had many conversations about it, contemplating who could be leaving these messages. They had the tone of someone who knows her and we thought it could be this woman, who has recently, really made life difficult for my sister and her family. It was all very sinister! And we both, started taking measures to protect our blogs. It really started freaking us out.

Then, yesterday, I noticed that anonymous left a comment on my mother's blog referring to my dad as "dad". All of a sudden, all the "mean" comments took on new meaning. MY STINKIN' BROTHERS!!! And they are probably getting a real kick out of knowing they freaked us out! Just goes to show that brother's never stop being POOPS! It's a good thing we love you or you'd both be dead! Rotten, stupid, brothers.

A Love/Hate Relationship

I have a love/hate relationship with otter pops. What could be better on a really hot day then sucking on one of these babies?! And I love having something easy to hand out to pretty much ALL the neighborhood kids. I think I'm the only mom here that lets kids in, so they all congregate at my house. BUT. I hate the wrappers! I find them everywhere! All year long! My kids have a great aversion to the garbage can. It seems like I'm the only one in the house who ever throws anything away! And otter pop wrapper seem to really bug me. Hence the love/hate thing. And I just bought a box today. And so another season begins.

Adventures in Potty Training 2

Porter has started a new phase in the potty-training-a-boy cycle. He stopped aiming. Today, he sprayed his little sister. Yesterday it was the toilette paper, the wall, the floor. It's really gross to walk into a bathroom with your bare feet and find it's wet. And you know it's not water. I don't get the missing part. It's not like your aiming for the point on a pencil. The toilette bowl is HUGE! And he used to get it in there just fine! UGH. Every new phase we go through with Porter I think, "Man, I'm so glad that God only sent me one!" My hat is off to all of you ladies dealing with multiples.

VT Question #3

Describe your first car.

My parents bought me a Ford Festiva. I actually found a picture of one on the internet, but mine was a dark grayish/black color. Gosh, I forgot how small they are.

My friends called my car the Black jellybean, because as you can see, it's not exactly the biggest car around. It was surprisingly roomy inside. You should have seen the amount of people we managed to squeeze in! Oops, I mean, only as many as there were seat belts, mom and dad! And I could fill it up for about $6.00. Yeah, those were the days. The car had NO upgrades at all. It was a stick shift with no air conditioning or even a radio. My dad installed the radio and he wired it wrong. The light would stay on all the time and if I went a day without driving it, the battery would die. I have fond memories of that car. My parents sold it to someone my dad worked with, while I was on my mission. I understand it ran for many years after. Go little jellybean!

VT Question #2

Hey, everyone, feel free to answer any of these questions yourself! I would love to hear some of your answers.

Where is the most exciting place you've ever been?

I'd have to say, Austria, where I served my mission. There really is no substitute for actually living in a foreign country. It was so beautiful and many times I would be walking around and just stop and think, "wow, I'm really here." You get to see lots of smaller towns, too, not the normal tourist places. You get to know the people and really understand their culture and language. I really wish I had retained my German.

The other night I had a dream that I met some girls who were speaking German and I started to ask them (in German) where they were from. And in my dream the whole conversation quickly turned to English. I was really sad. I kind of thought that at least in my dreams all that German that is stored deep (DEEP) in my brain would have been able to come out. Bummer. I guess that blows that theory.

This is a picture of a little town called Villach on the Italian border. It was my first area, so you can imagine how blown away I was about being in Austria.

I just had to add this picture for Christie and Tammy! These were all my companions (not at the same time) when we happen to meet in the train station in Vienna while all transferring to new areas. I thought they'd get a kick out of seeing themselves, what, 16 years ago? Holy cow. I shouldn't admit to that. Eek, scary me without the flat iron!
This is me in my favorite castle of all time. I can't even remember what the name is, but I know that it's north of Vienna. I took my parents here when they picked me up.

There's a story about that lovely coat. I had this beautiful black wool coat that my parents had bought me and I wore a hole in the side of it from my bag the very first winter I was there. So this bea-u-tiful coat I found in the closet of one of the apartments I lived in. I had it for the rest of my mission. It was still cold when my parents came to pick me up and my dad HATED that coat. He complained about it all the time. So finally, in London, he bought me a new coat and had the sales lady throw this one away, because he couldn't stand to look at it! I must keep coats for a long time, because I still have the one from London!

Mom

Yes, I will proclaim for all who read this blog to see:


Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!