Lucy's 1st field trip

It was her 1st time on a school bus.

I was lucky enough to be able to go with her.

We went to the pumpkin patch and fed the goats at the petting zoo.

She got to ride on a hay ride with her friends.

She was very proud of the little pumpkin she got to take home. 

witchalina day 6

Here is the letter from Witchalina this morning:

She also left special glasses to help us look for ways to be helpers and make sure we are doing our part.

Haley and Ruby put the glasses on Lucy while she was still sleeping. She woke up and started laughing, I expected her to freak out and start hitting like a normal morning. I ran and got my camera to document Lucy happy 1st thing in the morning!

Witchalina day 5

Today we read a story called the the argument about 5 fingers that each wanted to be the leader. So the thumb decided that the 1st finger to pick up a piece of paper all by itself would be the leader. The fingers and thumb quickly realized that they could not pick up the paper unless they worked together. The moral- It's better to cooperate them insist on having things your own way. 

After getting frustrated, Haley cheated and licked her finger. 

You can read the actual poem  by clicking on it:
Eventually they found the treat under the bathroom sink. Witchalina left them each a friendship bracelet and some candy rings for their fingers!

What was I thinking???

I actually agreed to teach a 6 week quilting class to the GATE students at our school.  There are nine kids(4th & 5th graders) that signed up.  Nine kids that have never used a sewing machine and most of them never used an iron. One girl started crying when she stepped on the pedal and the machine started sewing. I have only taught 2 of the 6 classes so far and I keep saying to myself "What was I thinking????"

Witchalina day 4

Today Witchalina left us a poem about a monster named Grool and the golden rule! Witchalina also left 3 bottles of gold bubbles, 3 sets of monster teeth and 3 packs of smarties.

Witchalina day 3

This morning in the pocket we found this poem called "Scary stories". It's about three witches telling scary stories like using a broom to clean up a room- can you imagine? Ultimately after reading all the clues (scriptures) they realize that "being loving and kind is a bewitching theme".


After looking up all the scriptures and following the clues that were left, this is what they found in the oven. Recipe books with gummy candies and a witches cauldron filled with candy powder and a sucker for a broom. I have to wonder what Witchalina did before the dollar store was around.


They were very excited but being the mean Mom I am, I told them they had to wait until after church to eat the candy.

Witchalina day 2

It's 7:30 in the morning... Saturday morning and everyone is awake. The girls have had breakfast and are sitting on the sofa watching TV and eating jelly beans thanks to Witchalina!

This morning in the pocket we found this great poem about a little boy named Johnny that stuck jelly beans up his nose to be cool because someone told him too, and he ends up choking and dying.  We have had such an issue at our house with girls making a bad choice- because "My Sister told me too". We could not have had a more appropriate lesson this morning.

If you click on this photo, you can read the full poem.

Witchalina day 1

***If you have no idea who Witchalina is read this post from last year.***

This morning there was a poem in the pocket of the quilt that said:

Halloween is drawing near
so come close and give me your ear

I am a witch that is true
but I come bearing gifts for you!

Lessons, stories and maybe a game
each day is different, never the same

If you learns the lesson,
that's wonderful and neat

but you must use it in your life
to receive the true treat!

The girls were excited that she had come, but a little bummed that she had not left any treats. I think Witchalina was just running a little behind because when the girls came home from school, there was another poem in the pocket.

Look how scary Lucy was when she came home from school- 

The poem was about a dragon that had a bad attitude and always looked at the glass as half empty. You can click on the image below to read the poem in full (I don't feel like typing it out).



They found these glasses in the kitchen drawer with kids plates and cups.  So we made root beer floats for an afters school snack.

Thank you Witchalina, we will try to have a good attitude!

Where is she????

My girls are so excited about Witchalina and can't wait for her to come to our house. 

They have been checking the trick or treat pocket every morning and asking "WHERE IS SHEEEE?" 

Why I support proposition 8

I have never really gotten involved in politics. I do my research, and I decide who and what I will vote for and that's that. I have never felt that I needed to get out there and campaign for any particular cause. That has changed.

I have done my research. Eric found it hilarious that I spent several hours reading gay and lesbian web sites to see their perspective on prop 8.  It made me even more passionate about this issue. 

Over the past several months I have volunteered through protectmarriage.com and knocked on about 100 doors, not to debate with people, but to give them information about Proposition 8.  I have called several hundred people on the phone. We have donated money, have a Yes on 8 sign in our front yard and my car is currently sporting a "Yes on Prop 8" bumper sticker. I am totally anti bumper stickers- so you can tell my level of commitment.

I decided to tell the people who read my blog how I feel and why... all 3 of them.

1. I truly believe that Marriage is ordained by God and only between a man and a woman.

2. In 2000 61% of  California voters passed Propositon 22 that stated "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" then 4 judges overturned the will of 61% of the state and decided that gay marriage should be legal. I find this wrong on so many levels and quite frankly frighting. 

3. With a Civil Union, gay couples currently have ALL the legal and tax benifits that married couples have. I do not want to take away any of those rights.  I do feel that I need to protect my rights as a parent. As a religious person I want to protect the rights of churches. I want to protect the rights of children to be raised by a mother and a father.     

I fully agree with Steve Pogue from San Jose (You can read his whole letter here). He perfectly articulated how I feel about this:

"Our opponents in this fight seek to characterize our motivation as hatred.

Nothing could be further from the truth.
I oppose abortion but do not hate those who have it done.
I have opposed bond measures without hating their proponents.
I oppose drinking but do not hate those who drink.
I oppose carpool lanes but do not hate people who carpool.
I oppose couples living together out of wedlock, without hating people who do it.
I oppose same-sex marriage without hating the people who want it.
I oppose what I believe to be error, not because I hate those who err, but because I love the truth."

4. I do not think that children need to learn about gay marriage in school.  In Massachusetts(where same sex marriage is legal) when they teach about "diversity" parents do not even have the right to opt out. This Father was arrested for demanding that he be notified and have the option to not send his child to school that day.  Recently in California a class of 1st graders took a school sponsored field trip to their gay teachers wedding- you can read about it here.  Growing up I had several gay teachers (excellent teachers) and I knew they were gay, but it was never forced on me and I don't want it forced on my children.

So on November 4th I will be voting yes on proposition 8 and I hope that the majority of California will too. I just hope that this time the will of the people will actually matter.  

If you live in California and have not learned about this proposition, I strongly urge you to do your own investigating and vote for what you feel is right... even if you disagree with me. 

Oregon

Eric and I flew to Souther Oregon for a couple of days so he could interview with a group there. Ken and Natalie (Eric's Dad and Stepmom) were nice enough to take care of our girls while we were gone.  

I did not realize that we would be flying on a 50 person plane to San Francisco and then a 30 person prop plain to Medford.  When I saw the prop plane I just froze staring at it, until the employees started telling me I had to keep moving. I pulled out my camera to take a photo of the plane and I could hear the airline people laughing behind me. 

Holy cow. It was like being in your soon to be coffin with 30 other people. They had to ask people to change seats in order to balance the plane.  One we took off I seriously was trying not to have a panic attack. Fortunately I have the ability to sleep anywhere, so I forced myself to fall asleep.

I was still smiling in this photo because it was the 50 person plane- I thought was small, I had no idea what was coming next.

While in OR Eric left for his interview and I was picked up by the wife of one of the group members. She was super nice and drove me all over Ashland and told me all the wonderful things that area had to offer.  While we were driving around she asked how our hotel was. I said it was fine, but a little loud as there were 2 school busses of high school kids staying on our floor. She apologized and said that because the Shakespeare Festival was going on it was the only vacancy they could find. I assured her was not a problem at all and it was nice to be so close to the main street.  

After she dropped me back at my hotel I realized I left my jacket in her car so I called to see if I could drive out to her house and get it. She assured me that she needed to come back to town for something and would bring it to my hotel in about 30 min. About 45 min later the front desk called me to the lobby, that nice women was standing there with my coat and said "I have called all over to try to find another hotel for you and everything is booked- but I was able to find a suite for you at the Inn on the Creek in Ashford". I assured that we were fine in our hotel and there was no need to move us and she insisted that she help me move, so we did.  I am soo glad that we did. Here are some photos of our awesome Normany suite:

Out our bedroom french doors we had our own private patio... literally on the creek. I was so beautiful.  We could hear the creek all night!

That afternoon I was also driven around for several hours by a Realtor that showed me Medford and Jacksonville.  I loved both areas and should have taken more photos, but this historic house (in Jacksonville) was a mail order house from the Sears Catalog.  She said she thought it just sold for around 3 mil. 

After I got back to my room and was looking through a magazine on local art museums I found an add for a quilt gallery called Fourth Corner.

It was 4:50 pm and they closed at 5 pm. It was only about 8 blocks away from our "suite" but it was raining and I knew I couldn't make it there in time. 

After Eric got home we went out to dinner and drove by the quilt shop on our way home.  He stayed in the car and I took like 20 photos, zooming in on details and everything I could see. AMAZING!

I was so bummed to have to leave. It was so beautiful and smog, traffic, cranky people free and I knew I had to get back on a prop plane to get back to my girls.

If you click on this photo you can see the Golden gate bridge.  I couldn't help but think how my Grandmother was one of the original 99 women pilots and flew with Amelia Earhart. She actually got her nurses license taken away for flying under the Golden Gate bridge upside down- because it was un-ladylike. I'm sure she was looking down at me sweating and freaking out about this little plane and thinking "how is this girl a descendant of mine?". 

Veda's in town!

Last year my good friend Kaycee and her family moved to Hawaii.  I was so excited for them, but selfishly sick about it. Kaycee is the coolest person ever.  One time I called her from a store to find out what kind of jeans were in style (I'm a little fashion challenged) and with in 20 min she called my cell phone to find out what dressing room I was in because she was coming in to help me- that's how she is. 

It has really been hard having them live so far away. So of course we were thrilled to find out that we got to spend the day with them today before they head down to a family reunion tomorrow.

Lucy was SOOO excited to see Veda and I was sooo excited to see Kaycee. 

Sunday with Grandpa and Grandma

We had a great day at Grandpa and Grandma Brown's house. The girls actually watched conference. They usually lose interest in conference pretty fast, but today they watched each session completely. I printed off some LDS conference bingo sheets online and gave them Skittles to play with. At the end Haley said "That's not too bad, you just sit and listen to churchy TV for a few hours and get a big bag of candy". I hope they got more out of it then the candy.


I stitched the binding on my new Christmas quilt (Mackenzie Christmas Noel fabric) with Lucy's "help". This is the 1st time I have done a quilt with flannel on the back and I love it! It's going to be so warm for winter.

Our house was really hot when we got home, but the girls were so excited about the new quilt they took off their clothes so they didn't die from the heat of snuggling under it.

Even though Eric is on call this weekend and has been gone all day, he got home the same time we did and the girls couldn't wait to show him their Halloween costumes! I won't say what the girls costumes are but they are... very diverse.

We received a Halloween costume catalog in the mail with hundreds of costumes.
Haley thought this one was really funny and suggested that Eric and wear this one....



I told Haley "No way, we are not going as a plug and outlet"... to which she replied "Why doesn't Dad just wear his Doctor stuff and you wear this..."


Not going to happen!

How to impress Jenny

My good friend Jenny called me on Sunday to say that they were planning a last minute trip to southern Cal and would be at my house on Tues and Wed. I was so excited to see her and her family I couldn't wait. Then I hung up the phone and reality set in. Jenny is my OCD cleaning friend that wipes out her refrigerator EVERY morning (I think I wiped ours out a few months ago). I started to stress. There is no way that I could get our house up to her standards in two days... so I decided not to even try. She lived next door to me for three years and knows that cleaning is not my strength.

Jenny was such a trooper, even though we were up late getting kids to sleep, she woke up early and went riding with Melissa and I at 5:30 am!

So where did I take my great friend (and her 4 clean adorable children) while she was here... probably the dirtiest street in LA, Santee alley.

We bought designer sunglasses ($5 each) and checked out all the purses, clothing and jewelry.

Her little boys were having fun playing ring around the umbrella pole, trash can and taking turns jumping over the sick liquid in the middle of the street. Jenny just kept dispensing antibacterial gel.

Then the unthinkable happened....
Weston announced that he needed to use the bathroom.

"NOOOO" Jenny said really loud as if her detesting would make it not true. It was clear that he couldn't hold it, so we found out that there was a bathroom not far away up some stairs and on the roof.
We had to pay .50 cents each to walk into the bathroom only to find the most pathetic looking and smelling bathroom you could imagine. I said "Oh my gosh, there is not even toilet paper". At this point Jenny was hyperventilating from watching her kids touch every surface possible. Then the Lady that collected our money came in and handed us each a toilet seat cover and a piece of toilet paper that she had personally unrolled and folded for us. So sick.

About 10 stores later, Taylor (Jenny's oldest) said "Oh my gosh, I left the bag with the sunglasses in the bathroom". I watched the other kids as Jenny and Taylor returned to their now favorite hang out in LA. to retrieve the bag.

When we came home, I picked up my girls from school and the kids were all thrilled to play. Jenny and I were exhausted, but made a trip to our local Mexican market to grab some stuff for dinner. Jenny was dancing in the isles to the music in the store and we were cracking up.

As I am typing about what we did when she was here, I am wondering why I took her to every dirty place here, maybe I was subconsciously trying to make my house looks cleaner.

After dinner we roasted marshmallows over sterno in the garage. This is my kids favorite thing to do and Jenny's kids loved it too.


I fell in love with Jenny's youngest Weston. He is so handsome and loves animals. He would carry Opal around upside down and just sit and hug and love her forever.
Did I mention that the 2nd night they were at our house we had a 4.1 earth quake followed by a 1.9? We really know how to bring the best of LA to our visitors.

Jenny- I feel like I need a do over! We should have gone to Balboa Island or Disneyland.