Memorial Day

We celebrated Memorial Day over the weekend....not necessarily on the day itself. This weekend was all about family. So fun....we mostly hung out at home but, man, we had a great time doing it!!!! Bob and Wendy came to town for the weekend and we enjoyed visiting with Aunt Lorel and Uncle Dan, Aunt Vera and Uncle Jim, and cousin Carol and her husband Gary.

On the News

Madison made it to television. Follow the link to see the story she is in.
Go to www.ksd.org and scroll down toward the bottom (under the photos) to where it says Desert Hills Middle School Student Store and click on it. A video will come up.

Yak Attack

So, by the title, did you think I was attacked by a yak? Come on, admit it....you did! Actually, the Yak Attack is a soccer tournament we spent all day Saturday at in Yakima where Caden and his team played 4 "speed" games of soccer. They were 24 minutes long on a smaller than normal field with a smaller than normal goal and less players on the field. I couldn't believe how intense the game was and felt!!!

The theme of the tournament was The Movies and Caden's team was called The Force. Each player was a different superhero and Caden was Dash from The Incredibles. We tied our first game and won the next 3 games. It was a fun day in the beautiful sunshine and I got to do one of my favorite things....watch one of my boys play soccer.

Dermahealth Ribbon Ceremony

Sid and Rosy and their kids are family to us....they are also our partners in our Dermacare Skin Care and Laser Clinic. Sid is a Dermatologist and opened up his own Dermatology clinic and surgery center called Dermahealth and today was the ribbon cutting ceremony. Congratulations, Sid and Rosy!

Guns and Gardens

Madison















Caden















Christian








Our three older kids are taking a hunter's safety course. It's 6 days of classroom for 3 hours a day and a Saturday range day which was this morning. The kids LOVED it. Madison is a really good shot! Caden was chosen by the instructor as an example because he said Caden did it perfectly keeping his finger off the trigger until time to pull and then taking it right of the trigger into the correct position. Caden thought he was in trouble when he was called up! I have video of it but can't get it uploaded right now.

Tonight, we planted our garden. We've been trying to plant for two weeks but between schedules and yucky weather, it didn't happen til tonight. We aren't excellent gardeners but it's fun.

Name Rankings

I read an article on CNN this morning that prompted me to do something kind of fun! If you go to www.ssa.gov, they have their annual list of the 1000 most popular names for kids for 2008. I plugged in our names to see how popular they were. Here's what I found.

Madison ranked 4th to come out on top in our family.
Christian ranked 23rd.
Caden ranked 95th.
Ken ranked 136. (I can't believe his was more popular than mine!)
Leslie ranked 147th.
Macy ranked 281.

Macy's name surprised me. I really thought hers would have beat mine and Ken's. Try it out. It's really fun!

The most popular name for girls was Emma and for boys Jacob.

Hood Park

My parents like to camp at Hood Park. It's not very far from home but it still gets them "away" when they don't have a opportunity to leave town to do it....plus they can commute to work if needed.

Last weekend, we went and spent the evening while they were camping. We had fun playing soccer, fishing, climbing trees, and our favorite.....EATING! I do love a good smore!!!!

Almost Brought Me to Tears

Today I had one of those MOMMY MOMENTS that brought me very close to tears. Now, to some of you, your going to go, "Huh?"

Caden had his last regular season soccer game at 8am this morning. I am truly a soccer mom. I love love love love love to watch my boys play.

At 9am, Christian had one of two games he was to play. His team was down a player and, in order to not forfeit, Christian's coach asked Caden to play. Caden is 8 and the boys on this team are 10 and 11 year olds.

Caden was very hesitant to play. He's practiced with Christian's team but he was nervous to play. With a HUGE push from Mom, he played.....and he was FANTASTIC!!! Five minutes into the game, Caden's nerves were gone as he realized he could play with the big boys. It made me so proud!!!! But that wasn't the MOMMY MOMENT.

The MOMMY MOMENT came when Caden made a sweet pass from the right side across over to Christian and Christian shot it in for the first goal. That was my MOMMY MOMENT. Christian and Caden ran up to eachother with big smiles and high fives. They did it....together. They did it two more times in that first game and couple more in the second.

My excitement wasn't so much for the fact that goals were scored....although that was fantastic. It was the common (excuse the pun) goal the two were going toward together and accomplishing....TOGETHER...and then celebrating....TOGETHER.

Fellow Bloggers

Oh, Bloggers, Bloggers, wherefore art thou, oh Bloggers?

Okay, this is my plea to my fellow bloggers who are also on facebook. Facebook is not a replacement!!!! You know who you are! You don't update your blogs much anymore because your too busy finding out what kind of tv mom you are, who your celebrity boyfriend is, or what type of car you should be driving. That's all fine and dandy but...............

I miss you! I miss reading your posts. Please....come back!

"Alice is Hot!"

Christian has read the Twilight books recently and he has seen the movie. We're in the living room and he says to me and his best friend Chandler "Alice is hot!" Chandler says, "Dude, she's like 20!" Christian replies, "So, maybe she likes young men!" I start laughing and tell him that's illegal...keep in mind I'm telling this to a 10 year old! Christian responds, "Yeah, but when I'm 20, she'll be 30 and we can get married!" Chandler pipes in at this point and says, "Dude, you said you were going to marry a kindergartner!" I look at him with this weird look on my face and he says, "I was thinking of you and Dad, Mom. When Dad was in the 5th grade like me, you were only in kindergarten!" I can't even begin to tell you how hard I was laughing at Christian's line of thinking. He's hilarious.

Madison's Cell Phone Quest

Madison has wanted a cell phone for a few years now. We told her she would have a cell phone when we were ready for her to have a cell phone. Well, we're ready. She had to have one for her DC trip so I bought a pay-by-the-minute phone and a cheapy phone. She didn't like the little white flip phone until I told her I would trade with her. I have an ANCIENT Nokia clunker. She changed her tune.

Well, at the beginning of the school year, we told her that we would get her her very own cell phone if she could pull straight A's all year. She brought home her 3rd quarter report card yesterday and for the third straight quarter she has pulled all A's.

You're almost there, Madison. We're proud of you!

Madison's DC Trip

My dad gave Madison some names of people he was in Vietnam with who died. Garrett Eddy was on of them.
The White House group shot.
Arlington National Cemetary
Washington Monument....not as tall as I thought...ha ha
Theatre where Lincoln was killed
Mount Vernon

Madison spent 4 days of her spring break in Washington DC with a group from her 8th grade class. In order to go, Madison earned half of the trip costs which meant she earned and saved up $800. Good job, Madison!

She saw many of the capital's highlights including the memorial of the flag raising of Iwo Jima in which a cousin, Franklin Sousley, was one of the five men raising the flag. Her camera was dead at this point so I don't have a picture of that, yet.

Cyclist in the Making and Spring Break

For Spring Break, Christian went to the Oregon Coast with his other family, the Hansen's. Madison went on a school trip to Washington DC (she earned $800 to pay for half her trip), Ken worked, and I went to Puyallup and Olympia with Macy and Caden. First stop was Puyallup to my cousins Tim and Corina Hannah's house. Corina is 38 weeks prego and on semi-bed rest so we spent a few days with her and the kiddo's hanging out. My baby brother Mike is a police officer in their area so he would stop by a few times a day on patrol when he didn't have any calls or on his lunch break and visit. Toward the end of our week, we headed down to Olympia to Mike's house and my oldest brother J and his family came down for pizza and a movie. We went to this place called Charlie's Safari with Mike, Julina, and little LIncoln. It's an indoor playland. Very fun and it was busy!

One thing Macy got out of spring break was wanting to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. She saw her cousin Megan do it. So, on the drive home, she asked if I would take of her training wheels. I did so and she taught herself to ride in a matter of an hour. She didnt' want ANY of my help! Good job, Macy! I look forward to many rides with you!