happy and sad

a little bit ago, a sweet friend of mine called-

one of her dogs was not doing well at all, and she wondered if I would take some pictures of him and their family before he had to go,

and I was so happy to do that for her.

we headed to a park, and took some shots-

this was one of my favorites of them all-
they are all just so cute.

such a great family, I am glad to know them.

love you guys!

graffiti

every time we drive to the big city, we pass over a bridge.

sometimes I catch a glimpse of some cool graffiti that is under that bridge.

for a long time now I have wanted to take my boys there and take some pictures.

well, yesterday the boys told me they wanted some pictures-

by the graffiti.

how could I refuse.

so we drove down, parked somewhere we probably weren't supposed to,

walked on the train tracks and through some mud,

and took some pictures.

good times.

those are some cool dudes.

(and that was some very sweet graffiti.- only a few bad words.)

look out trees-

ben just got his learners license!

yikes.

I suspected as much

back a couple of episodes ago,

when Mr. Shu was having some fun,

and he was with that lady from Vocal Adrenalin,

I thought she looked an awful lot like Rachel-
lo and behold, she is her mother.

(but not in real life- although she totally could be. they are twinners)

yep, I am a gleek. now you know.

stuff

6more days of seminary.

why did it seem to drag all year, and now these last few weeks are flying by?

Now that all the tv shows are ending, I will actually be able to stay up and watch later tv shows!

yikes. I mean yay!

a local radio station had a contest last week- sing your way to LA, and they had two callers sing a song from glee, and then they picked one to be entered in a draw to win tickets to go to LA this weekend, and see a live glee concert. - so I called in, sang, and won!

I was so excited all week, thinking about my trip to LA.

but then they picked the winner yesterday and I didn't win. so very sad.

but if you listen to easy rock, and you hear the little commercial thing they play about the contest, that is me singing Sweet Caroline! funny.

and sad that I didn't win.

if you see Jack ask him what I looked like when I was singing on the phone. it is quite funny.

( I haven't heard the commercial thing yet today, so maybe they are done playing it- I guess I had my tiny bit of fame.)

science fair for the junior high kids is tomorrow.

I predict we will be up late getting it finished up.

I will tell you all about them when they are done!- I think they did pretty interesting projects.

Jed is already thinking up ideas for 2 years from now. funny kid.

the weather has been so hot here the last 2 days! nice.

my neighbor has volunteered to come and help me with my gardens. so nice.

or she is just so tired of seeing the ugliness.

either way, I am excited.

and those are my thoughts. such excitement around here!

the day has come

it happened.

Ben got a cell phone.

we did not get him a cell phone.

(I still think he doesn't need one- but we always said our kids could have one when they could pay for it) so, he got himself one.

and this is how he has been since Saturday-

I think his thumbs will be cramping up soon.

wow. back in my day we had to write notes on paper, and pass them .

or just not communicate all the time!

how did we make it through?

(really, I think we were better off.)

but maybe that's just me.

cell phones, face book- yikes. don't get me started!

if every day were mother's day

man, do I wish every day were mother's day.

or I wish it was more than once a year.

because my boys, and Cory, made dinner.

and every time I heard Cory ask any of them to do something,

they did it right away.

with no whining.

wow.

that doesn't happen every day.
and boy, did they set things up fancy.
candles,

and a table cloth.

that doesn't happen every day either!

it was a happy mother's day.

(and a very yummy supper.)

my mom

my mom is not close to me right now.

in fact she is a day ahead of me, and across the world,
her and my dad are serving a mission in the Phillipines!
I think it is close to one of the last places she would choose to go,

but she was called by a Prophet, to serve the Lord, and the people,

so she went.

and I love her for it.

and the great example she is,

and has been throughout my whole life.

Happy Mother's day, mom. even though it was yesterday for you!

(I borrowed this picture off of the mission president's blog. so fun to see what they are up to)

I dig it.

When I asked her if she was digging a hole to China-

she said no- to the Phillipines, so see Grandma and Grandpa.

a direct route to there in my back yard would be sweet.

dig on.

yuck

this snow needs to go away soon, because my toes are getting cold in my flip flops.

and that just won't do!

May the fourth

be with you.

(get it?)

May

April showers bring May flowers!

and some happy little girls!

Sunday evening

a rousing game of Settlers of Catan.

with a cool dude,

a grumpy guy,

a cute little girl,

a bored boy,

a handsome man,

and a pretty girl.

does it get any better than this?

(he wasn't really grumpy,

and the other one wasn't bored,

but it looked like it, didn't it!)