For the Die Hards

I started blogging in the fall of 2007.  Back then it was all the rage and Facebook was still only available to the students of Harvard.  I’m proud to say I still blog.  I don’t blog as frequently as I used to, but I’m still plugging away.  In honor of blogging, I wanted to share my top 5 favorite blogs.  When these blogs show up in my reader, I can’t rest until I’ve read them.  Some of these are people I know in real life, some of them are people I wish I could meet.   And these are in no particular order:

The Clan  www.ourinbetweendays.blogspot.com 

Sheri’s blog is probably the first blog I ever read.  Her blog inspired me to start blogging.  She hasn’t let 4 kids, a demanding calling or going back to work get in the way of her blogging.  And she is one of the few blogs I read that is still written like a journal (not a brag-a-thon).  I’m not going to name names, but some bloggers let a little bit of online recognition go to their heads.  And to keep herself grounded, she’s turned off her comments.  When I get frustrated about that, I just go to her facebook page and comment there.  Which is totally okay, because when she explained to me why she turned her comments off, it made me like her even more than I already did.  :)

Rabbit in the Headlights  www.rabbitintheheadlights.blogspot.com

I don’t know this blogger personally, but I wish we were next door neighbors.  We both have the same first name, both been recently been released as RS presidents, and both love Reese’s.  Her blog never fails to make me laugh, even when she’s trying to be serious.  If I could have her sense of humor, I would die a happy woman!

Fred and Chana  www.chanaandfred.blogspot.com

I knew I liked this girl the minute she got up in Sacrament meeting and said she was a blogger in her talk.  Then I got to be her visiting teacher, and also found out when we became facebook friends that we have the same great-great-great-grandfather (who was the 3rd president of the church.)  So we are second cousins 3 times removed or something cool like that.  I thought my weird sense of humor came from the Rossiter’s, but now I know it came through the Taylor’s because we have the same sense of humor.   A recent tragedy has not altered her ability to express herself beautifully through blogging.    Just make sure you grab a box of Kleenex before visiting her blog.  You will be amazed and inspired by her strength of character and her testimony.  She is one phenomenal girl!

Bloggin’ Bout Books  www.blogginboutbooks.com

When you have teenagers, it’s a constant struggle to find books for them to read for school assignments.  This blog has been wonderful for giving me info on books since she probably devotes 50% of her reviews to YA fiction.  Other bonuses?  She gives grades to the books based on how well she liked it, she lists read-a-like books (if she can think of any similar stories) and she gives a movie rating (with info on language, sex and violent content.)   I find plenty of recommendations for myself on this blog too. 

MCP Actions www.mcpactions.com/blog  (and other photography websites/blogs)

This website has been instrumental in helping me improve my photography and photoshop skills.   I’ve learned a lot about photoshop and good picture taking techniques.  I still have loads to learn, but slow progress is being made!  Yay!  I can’t promote this blog alone though for photography, so I have to give credit to a couple others:  Pioneer Woman  www.pioneerwoman.com/photography was instrumental in helping me discover “actions”… my favorite photoshop cheat tool.  Amanda from www.kevinandamanda.com also has helped me figure out some easy ways to master shooting in manual.  I haven’t mastered manual yet, but progress is being made there as well!   One last photography mention would have to be Clickin’ Moms www.clickinmoms.com/blog.  The blog is free and gives you just a taste of what awaits you in this forum if you pay to subscribe.  I’m planning on doing a 3 month trial subscription to see if it’s worth the money and I’ll definitely report back and let you know!

I’m always looking for good blogs, so if you have a favorite, leave a comment and let me know!

Sea Life

One big perk of having all the kids in school is being able to go on lots of Field Trips.  This year I went with Brayden’s class on every field trip.  This one was especially fun, since they were visiting our new local aquarium and we’ve never been there before! 

This area was very cool – the kids could touch the starfish.  Brayden wanted NOTHING to do with that.  He wouldn’t even attempt to touch anything.  Oh well…

There were a lot of smaller aquariums…

and a couple really BIG aquariums too.

These sharks were residents of the biggest aquarium.  Watching them gives me the willies.

This poor seahorse accidentally got blasted with my flash… I thought it was turned off, but it blinded us both!

This tank had a kiddie tunnel tube… Brayden loved it, but it’s a little too claustrophobic for me!

After the rays were fed, they got pretty frisky and active… getting a picture of them was tricky without using the flash. 

All in all, it was a great visit.  They had a fun playground at the end for the kiddies, which Brayden loved.  In fact, once he heard there was a playground, he didn’t really care about stopping to see the rest of the aquarium… he just wanted to skip the fish and go straight there.   When the kids got back to the school, they had a pizza party in their classroom.  It was a great way to end the school year!

Mo Pro…

… is short for Mormon Prom!  And it’s not just for Seniors… anyone 16-18 can go!  Is it possible I have a child old enough for this?  Yikes!  Just one week after we let Taylor start driving solo, he took a date to Mormon Prom.  Some good friends of ours took a group of the kids to the lake where they rented two wave runners and took turns going out.  (Unfortunately, Eric and I had another commitment that day that prevented us from being able to take the boat and join them at the lake.)  Then after they went home and cleaned up, they went to Mimi’s Café for dinner and then out to the Barney Sports Complex in Queen Creek for the dance.  Taylor had a great time with his date, Amy… and isn’t she the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? 

I’d say the last minute purchase of the suit jacket at Kohl’s was well spent, wouldn’t you?

Random April Events

Children’s Museum of Phoenix:

Brayden and I went here with his kinder class for a field trip in February.  He loved it and they gave us all a coupon for one free admission if we came back in the next four months.  I promised him we’d come back over Spring Break, but that didn’t happen because I got sick.  So finally on Good Friday, we went.  (As did every other stay at home mom in the Phoenix metro area.)  It was totally crowded but the boys had a great time.  Ian brought a friend and Brayden finally got to do a project in the craft room, (which was something we didn’t have time for on our last visit.)  The only negative part about the day was the $25 parking ticket I got from parking in a lot across the street that I needed a permit for.  Oh well…

           

This is the boys at the top of the giant play structure.  It’s kinda like a McD’s playground on steroids, but all made from recycled building materials.  It looks really cool in person!

This was the little girls’ room.  The four sink at four different levels cracked me up.  And three of the mirrors have this funky reflector stuff in them, so you can’t even use them.  But they do look cool.

Driving a Stick: 

On Easter Sunday while we were all wishing we could nap off the sugar crash from easter baskets, Grandma decided to take Taylor out for stick shift driving lesson #2.  He did well.  He has the typical boy I-can-do-anything-if-you-will-just-let-me-do-it attitude.  Sometimes that’s good, sometimes that’s bad.  Grandma has more patience in the driver’s seat than I do, that’s for sure.   

America’s Next “Top Shot”?

When’s he’s not asking me to borrow the car, he’s often in the back yard doing this.  He has big dreams of one day being on Top Shot.  We have a friend who sent in an application for Season 4, so maybe we’ll get lucky enough to know someone who’s been on Top Shot.  I like that idea better.

Flutes and Field Trips:

At the end of the month I got to go on a Field Trip with Megan for band.  Her school band performed at a Band Festival in Mesa and then went to Amazing Jake’s afterwards for lunch.  I’ve never been to Amazing Jakes before and I’ve avoided it because it seems so pricey.  But in reality, it’s a pretty good deal, especially if you have time to spend the whole afternoon.  All you can eat buffet (pizza, pasta, salads, drinks, dessert) and games for $15.  Some games are unlimited, and you get a $5 card to play the coin-op games.  I think we’ll have to plan a day to go this summer.  It would be a great way to get out of the heat for an afternoon and enjoy someone else’s A/C. 

   

   

Dayton's Dash

I'm pretty sure most of you have seen this video posted on Facebook. (If you havent' watched it yet, go grab a box of kleenex and then watch it.... you won't regret it!) It never fails to inspire me. The most amazing part of this for me is that we were there. This is the same triathlon we did back in November. We watched the pool leg for Spencer and Dayton. If you think it's hard to swim 400 meters, imaging doing it with a harness and towing a boat behind you. Everytime I looked over to the pool and saw him swimming with that boat, I would get teary. We didn't know who they were at the time, and we couldn't see that Spencer was just a 13 year old boy, but we could see that whoever was doing that swim was towing a disabled person. What an amazing story this is!

Fast forward 6 months... I got word that Spencer is doing his Eagle Scout Project in Mesa tomorrow. If you want to participate, you can come to the East Valley YMCA (Recker/Baseline) and do a 5k, called Dayton's Dash. There is no cost, but they will be accepting donations for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation.

If you are on Facebook, you can see more information about the event by searching for "Dayton's Dash". Taylor and I are definately going, and I'm still working on convincing Ian to get up and go with us. It's going to be great... and thank goodness I'll be sweaty and wearing sunglasses so my boys won't be able to see me crying. I guarantee I will.

Books I’ve Read

April Edition

The Wrecker by Clive Cussler

This is the second book in the Isaac Bell series.   I enjoyed this book but not as much as the first in the series (The Chase.)  Perhaps because the first book dealt a lot with trains and this book again was ALL about trains.  Perhaps because there were similar plot patterns to this one as the first.  However, I still enjoyed it.  And I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, as it should avoid trains completely.  (I think the next one is about submarines.)  Still, the historical content is well researched and fascinating to listen to.  I love the characters Isaac Bell, Marian Morgan, Archie Abbott and the new kid James Dashwood (nickname: Dash.)   This isn’t the type of book I would pick for a book club or a deep discussion, but it’s great escapist fiction to help me get through a day filled with laundry, dishes and other mundane tasks.  I can’t wait for Isaac Bell’s next adventure!

Persuasion by Jane Austen

This was our April Book Club pick.  I’ve read several Jane Austen books, but I honestly didn’t remember if I’d read this one.  I remember reading P&P and I remember S&S and I also recently read Northanger Abbey, but since I’ve seen the DVD version of Persuasion so many times, I couldn’t specifically remember if I’d ever read the book.  It was excellent.  The characters were so well described and I loved this story.  Is there a a bad thing you can say about a Jane Austen story?  I don’t think so.

 

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

This is the second book in the Maze Runner series.  It’s good.  Some questions get answered, some get more confusing.  This series reminds me a bit of the TV show Lost.  Not that they have the same premise, but that they do the same job of teasing me along… lots of mysteries, and just a few answers here and there.  And quite honestly, most of the answers we’ve gotten so far, we can’t really trust to be the truth.  My only complaint about this book is that it’s a classic “filler” book in a 3 book series.  I am always wowed when an author can make all 3 books in a planned series be stand alone reads.  This book was good, and it left me hanging on the edge of my seat waiting for the final installment.  At least it’s not a long wait.  The Death Cure will be released on October 11th!

"Mom, can I borrow the car?"

Picture a cute little boy in this commercial and this was me 20 minutes ago. Taylor got his license a week ago and yesterday I signed him up on the insurance. Today I let him drive himself to his basketball game at the church. I was a nervous wreck for about an hour before it was time for him to go.


I asked him to call me when he got there, and he did... bless his heart! Of all the childhood milestones for him to pass through, this is the one that I'm having the hardest time with. It will get easier, right? Right?