Happy Birthday Sweetie!

We can't express how much we love this guy! We are so glad we get to be with him forever!

Fancy shmancy

Bob and I had a mandatory fancy shmancy graduation banquet to go to last Saturday. We got all dressed up and headed for our night out (with Reuben)... Bob received an award for teaching within the residency program, I received one for being a supportive spouse, and Reuben received a black eye from landing on a metal table leg.

All in all, it was a better evening than last year's banquet when Bob and I got locked in a car garage.

The "work" retreat by Jonas

Last week, on the 14th to the 15th, Dad's work had a retreat where all the doctors went on a campout and drank and smoked and swore and chewed tobacco, all except for Brother Hardman and Dad. So anyway, Dad didn't really want to go, so he asked me to come along to make the trip more enjoyable. I accepted. We left around lunchtime on the 14th and met up with all the other doctors and then left on the trip. It should have taken only 3 1/2 hours, but with all the stops we made it was more like 4 1/2. When we got there, it was raining. We stood on the porch of the cabin until it stopped raining. It was then during some conversation that I first heard a real bad swear word in action for the first time. Then I heard some splashing from the pond. Everyone wondered who would be swimming. We went to check it out. It turned out that it was the dog, Chico, that one of the doctors had brought with him. Chico and I were instant BFFs. I threw a frisbee for him time and time again, and he always dove into the lake to bring it back.

Needless to say , Chico and I were both soaked within 5 minutes.

After a long afternoon and an evening with a giant fire, Dad and I went to bed in the van.

I woke up bright and early, but Dad was still asleep, so I just hung out in the van until he woke up. At 7 am Yi, (one of Dad's friends from work) was tapping on the window for us to wake up. Lots of people were still asleep, so a doctor decided to fire a gun into the air to wake everyone up. SWEET! At least I was already awake. We had breakfast and I got back at Yi for Dad by having Chico go shake on him after he got wet. (Actually I hardly did that on purpose, maybe Chico just doesn't like Yi).

After a while, the doctors and the people who let us camp out there brought out the rifles and guns to shoot at targets. One of the men whose name was Buzz taught me all about the guns and helped me shoot them. He is the one standing behind me in this video of me shooting a fully automatic gun. In other words, a machine gun.

Cool, huh?

Here are some more pictures.

That is Dad.

Yes, I was the one who shot up that target.

This is Yi.

Anyway, after all this we went home to the ice cream dinner, exhausted.

THE END of my awesome story.

Groundhog Day

Remember the movie Groundhog Day? I think daily mothering is quite like that! We keep doing the same thing day after day, gradually improving. Interspersed are almost perfect days, but usually moms (and/or the kids) mess up.

I used to dread Mother's Day because of the guilt trips, but today I embraced a new philosophy. I want to choose to see the best that I do instead of the worst. Eventually the bad moments will fade away, and I'll have lived the best day, and I can move on to tomorrow...

Happy Mother's Day!

May the "Fourth" be with you!

Happy Star Wars Day! My kids found out that today was an official Star Wars Day, and planned a great day of all things Star Wars.

Jabba the Don-huts for breakfast, jedi cloaks, lego star wars video game and legos, jedi chores to jedi music, writing about Star Wars characters for school, Star Wars word searches...

Enjoy our slide show, and "may the fourth be with you today and alwayth"!