What's Wrong With This Picture?

What's wrong with the above picture? If you look closely you'll see....

Two different shoes! Similar, yes. But definitely NOT a matching pair. Julianne woke up late this morning and missed the bus. She was a bit panicked because her class was taking end-of-year tests first thing and she adamantly informed me that she COULD NOT be late! After dropping her off and arriving back at home I found two shoes in the truck. One brown, one blue. Funny, I thought...I could've sworn I'd seen both pairs in front of the door earlier this morning. How had they got in the truck? One was a left, one was a right. And then I laughed as I realized that Julianne must have been trying to decide which shoe to wear as we rushed off to school. Brought both pairs with her and then forgot that she hadn't officially decided and was wearing one of each. I thought she'd call and ask me to bring the correct shoe to her. She didn't. She actually didn't even notice until someone in her class pointed it out to her and then she laughed and laughed. I've worn mismatching earrings before but never shoes!

Sleepy Family

The members of my family tend to fall asleep in odd places at times. The kids are especially bad at zonking out in places other than their beds, forcing us to haul their half asleep/half awake bodies to their rooms each night. Rebekah especially is funny when this happens because she talks sleepy nonsense on her way down the hall.

Happy Birthday Rebekah

It was Rebekah's birthday on Saturday. She turned 13 years old. A teenager. And even though she's been acting like a teenager for quite some time, it still kind of shocked me. A teenager. Wow. How did that sneak up so fast? Remember when she adored "Winnie the Pooh"? Remember when she insisted on hauling her two favorite blankets around with her everywhere? Remember when we had to tie her binky to her bed so she could only suck on it when she was going to sleep? It doesn't seem all that long ago. But I don't want this to sound like I'm eulogizing the death of Rebekah's childhood....like I'm sad that it's gone. Because as wonderful as it has been watching Rebekah, my first born, make her way through her elementary years, I'm hugely excited for what's next.


So, a little about Rebekah:
*She loves shopping at Aeropostale. Most of her shirts come from there.
*Her favorite show on TV is "Survivor".
*She loves making homemade cards and bookmarks...and is really good at it too.
*She has been on the high honor roll at school this whole year. I never got on the high honor roll.
*She babysits a lot and has quite a stash of cash....some of which she is going to have to use to pay off her cell phone bill.
*She auditioned for and made it into the school's Concert Choir for next year.
*She likes boys...and they like her. One in particular...the one she emails and rides the bus with....brought her a cute bag and some chocolate for her birthday. She was thrilled. Maybe she'll let me borrow the bag sometime.
*She's a peacemaker....especially amongst various friends who find themselves at odds with eachother.
*She's confident, outgoing and friendly. People remember her and like her.
*But mostly she's our sweet Rebekah who holds an important place in our family and we love, love, love her.

Broken Lilian Update

Look at my sweet, little cripple. Actually, she's not much of a cripple anymore. Luckily, blessedly, thankfully the orthopedic specialist, when fitting Lilian into her hard cast, said that Lilian did not have to keep her weight off her leg. In fact, as soon as she felt up to it she could start walking. It only took a few more days before she started hobbling around. It was kind of like watching her learn to walk all over again. She was wobbly, lost her balance easily, fell over a lot. But now, just a few days before she gets the cast off, the girl can actually run. It's a funny looking run, certainly. You try running with a cast from ankle to hip! But she can do it. And I am SO relieved that I haven't had to carry her around for the past four weeks.

Favorite Photo Friday: Singing

This is a picture of my sister Katie and myself after singing in a concert with The Sally Bytheway Chorale. Spring 2006, I believe. And I'm posting it today because I'm feeling a little sad. Tomorrow night the Chorale is singing in their first of three spring concerts. And I'm not singing with them this season. One of the concerts is the day of my triathlon so I made the (tough) decision to bow out this season. Silver lining....it will be fun to listen to the concert from the audience and enjoy the music as a whole instead of concentrating so hard on just the soprano part. Plus, it might be fun to make faces at my mom and sister and all my friends up there on the stage!

(Sorry Katie....I know you hate this picture!)

Knight Trek

Rebekah ran a 5k on Saturday morning. Three miles. In the pouring rain. It was called the Knight Trek...a fun run sponsored by her school. Her gym teacher told the students that anyone who signed up and ran the 5k would get to opt out of all the timed runs for the rest of the year. Rebekah found that to be incentive enough. I wish I could've been there for it....I would've run it with her. Good practice for my own 5k part of the triathlon in two weeks. She ran the three miles in 33 minutes, however, which means I would've been hard pressed to keep up with her!

Can you see Rebekah over there running in her yellow jacket?

St. George Weekend

Rachel and Jackson (Katie's 7 month old), Melissa and Madelyn (9 weeks old), Sarah and Kaden (Mary's 8 month old), Katie, Mary

I had the chance to go to St. George with my sisters and parents this past weekend. Bryan's parents let us stay at their vacation home. Bryan offered to use his frequent flier miles to fly Mary in from Texas. All the husbands took days off work to take care of the kids. And we had a WONDERFUL vacation together....laughing, playing games, watching movies, shopping, swimming, eating all the meals that we love but our husbands hate....it was great fun! Here's some pictures of our adventure.


What would a girls weekend be without some serious shopping at the outlet stores? Trying on clothes together sounded a lot like this: "That looks so good on you!" "Does this make me look fat?" "This doesn't look good on me but I bet it would be great on you!" "Hey, can you grab me a different size?" "That is SO cute!" And the comment probably heard most often? "Jeremy/Bryan/Spencer/Ryan/Scott is going to kill me when he sees how much I bought!" I enjoy shopping...probably more than I should...but shopping with my sisters? SO much fun.


Most mornings looked like this...curled up on couches in sweats and t-shirts, talking and drinking slimfast shakes.


My sweet Daddy came along to be with all five of his daughters one last time before Rachel moves to Georgia. When hearing that my Dad was coming along, my brother-in-law commented that the poor guy was going to be bored out of his mind with all of our gabbing. Bryan laughed. "Where do you think Sarah gets it?" he commented. "Her Dad will be right in the thick of it!" And we loved that he was!


We decided to take advantage of us being all together to run over and get our pictures taken. This is us trying to decide on which pose turned out best.


What's a St. George trip without some swimming? We all came back a little pinker than we had been before.


And reading. Ah, reading. It's not a Dalton trip without books, books and more books!

Pinewood Derby

Brandon and "Blue Lightning"

Wow. I had no idea that the Pinewood Derby was taken so seriously. Seeing as I am a female and therefore, have never been a scout and seeing as I come from a family of all girls...this was my first experience with the Pinewood Derby. Brandon has been in scouts for less than a month so we didn't have the weeks and weeks of building time that the other scouts did. In fact, we picked up our car kit the day before they were due at weigh/check-in. But I wasn't worried because Bryan had all the tools we needed in the garage and I really didn't think it would be that hard. And it wasn't, really. More time would've been nice, certainly....we were literally drying the paint with a hair dryer to get it done in time! But it looked cool, I thought. And Brandon thought so too. Until he got to the check-in and saw the other cars. Bryan came home somewhat disgusted. "This really ought to be called the 'Dadwood Derby'"! One father/son reportedly bought 15 different car kits until he found one with perfect wheels that rolled just right. Another father/son supposedly sent their car out for a professional "skin" paint job. My heart hurt when Bryan told me all of this and what Brandon's reaction had been. And I hoped and prayed that when the day of the race actually came that Brandon would have a good time and not worry about what the other cars looked like.
And thankfully, all did turn out well. Brandon was kind of in awe at all the decorations and the big track. The scoutmaster pulled Brandon up in front of everyone and congratulated him for getting his car done in the least amount of time. And his car consistently came in 2nd place in all of his heats. I saw Brandon proudly pointing his car out to his friends. And he should be proud! Because he helped build that thing from start to finish. He designed the shape and details of what it should look like. It was his idea to have a lego guy in the driver seat (the only car with a driver). He picked the color and then was the one blow drying the paint. He came up with the name. That car is totally and completely his and I'm so glad that it ended up being a good experience for him. But let me tell you, we will start much earlier next year!


Not that you can tell really well but Brandon's car is on the race track in this picture. It was a cool track. And it was kind of fascinating watching how they timed and videoed all the heats. I was really impressed with how much work goes into putting on a Pinewood Derby.

My Favorite You Tube Videos

These are my three favorite you-tube videos right now. Maybe you've seen one or two. They take time to watch so don't feel obligated. But if you're up for wasting a bit of time on the computer these are fun.

The first one is of some monks who have taken a vow of silence but have read in the bible that they should "make a joyful noise". This is their version of the Hallelujah Chorus. I can't even imagine how long it must have taken them to get this exactly right.

The second one is a new Jon Schmidt arrangement called "Love Story meets Viva La Vida". "Love Story" being originally by Taylor Swift and "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay. It's a great song even if you don't know the original versions. But if you do, it's that much cooler.

And the third one is Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. I loved it for a few reasons. One, she sings a great song marvellously. Two, it was great watching all these people who were mocking and laughing at this frumpy 47 year old have a jaw dropping "oooops" moment as they realized they had totally misjudged her. And three, because you just don't see Simon smile like that on American Idol.

Favorite Photo Friday: Kauai helicopter ride

January 2007. A helicopter ride over Hawaii has always been on Bryan's "to do" list. So when we stopped in Kauai on our Hawaiian cruise he made sure to book us on a flight. Wow! It was an amazing feeling flying in a helicopter. And the scenery of Kauai has got to be some of the most beautiful in the world! But I was 4 months pregnant. And even though I had taken motion sickness medication in preparation for the trip, I started feeling queasy. Queasy enough that I had to take advantage of the barf bag next to my seat. The pilot was worried enough about me that he decided to take a different route home that wasn't through the bumpy storm clouds. Which meant that we all got a longer ride than we had initially paid for. I think the other passengers were very appreciative of me and my unborn baby for making that possible! And this picture? It's a fun picture. But what I always remember when I see this picture is that barf bag I'm hiding behind Bryan's back.....