Martinez Family Journal

Utah vacation Part 1

2010-07-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

Since I know how incredibly boring other peoples' vacation photos can be, this post is mainly for my hubby so he can see photos of what we've been up to while on vacation in Utah, but if anyone else happens to be reading, enjoy! Warning, it is very photo heavy, though I've tried not to duplicate too many of the photos I've put on Facebook.

In chronological order, here is our vacation so far....

On the plane, 4th of July (the BEST time to travel - the plane was half empty!)...A quilting friend of mine happened to be on the plane right in front of me! We had a mini-show and tell. It was awesome!

What does a Mom on a plane do when her kids are behaving and entertaining themselves nicely? Quilt of course!At Grandma's, 5th of July...We love sitting in Grandma and Grandpa's front yard under the apricot trees just hanging out...
Roland's Dad
One of my favorite pics - it shows their personalities so well!
Fresh picked Utah cherries bought to us by Uncle Anthony. They were sweet and delicious!
Roland's best friend Dave (right) unexpectedly stopped by to visit. It was a great surprise!
Grandma taught Sofia how to make hats on this loom
I loved these red white and blue smoke bombs!The family watching fireworks
Joaquin getting his parachute man out of the tree
Spending the night at my friend Nanette's house in Oakley. Their home was beautiful and we were so comfortable. They made us feel so welcome! I just love good friends:)

American Fork Steel Day's parade and carnival...Phillip the monkey was excited for the parade....especially the police on their motorbikes. OK, inside joke there!
Joaquin eating breakfast waiting for the parade
OK, seriously, who did this kid's hair? Rachel??!!! lol...
Go, Kids, go!
Only in America!
Enlarge this one...look really closely....we are hoping that Roland and Rachel's Mom will be Miss Heritage one day;)
The boys and I
Coleman's 'lollie scramble' candy!
My new Keens bought for me as a present from Rachel and Chris - these suckers aren't cheap! Thanks guys! I love them!
Sofia and her Utah Grandparents
After going on this ride....

...Coleman ran off showing his new found New England roots by screaming, "That was *wicked* cool!"

After being on the Gravitron, Coleman could barely stand up...

Sad looking garden at our old house...Once upon a time this was beautiful and green. I'd love to get in there and make it pretty again!Coleman's birthday at Chuck E Cheese in Sandy...The birthday boy...
The guests....Sofia
Joaquin
Chris
Grandma!
Jane
Henry and Garrett
Games...

Cake

Yum!
Mr Chuck E Cheese is quite the artist...
Rachel laughing at that fact that Roland sent her a postcard with NO WRITING ON IT!!! Really, I think she would have been surprised if he had written on it!
Excited to get a gift card from Daddy!

Swimming lessons at SLC Sports Complex...

Children's Museum at the Gateway...

Utah Museum of Fine Arts...

Ogden Dinosaur Park...
Sunday, July 18th, Temple Square plus extras...Coleman lying on the grass in front of the SLC temple
The pin dropping demo in the Tabernacle. The kids thought I was joking when I told them about it - then they saw and heard it for themselves!
If anyone still believes that us Mormons don't believe in Christ, I hope this dispels that myth!

Assembly Hall on Temple Square - this used to be our stake center when we lived downtown!

The train driver let the kids sit in his seat and honk the horn...
This was Coleman's food of choice at dinner...a big ol' plate of green peppers....yes, really....Roland, your old hangout!

Sledding Day!

2010-01-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

Last night the boys and I went to Roby Park for a combined YM/YW activity - sledding! It was so much fun watching the teenagers and my little boys sledding down the huge hill, that today after school I took the kids to the park behind our house, Lincoln Park, to go sledding. There is a good hill there, not as big as Roby Park, but big enough to have a ton of fun! It was SO much fun watching the kids that I went sledding too! It was probably the first time I've been as an adult, and now I'm hooked. I took a ton of pics of the kids which I'll post below, but there was no way they were touching my fancy new camera so none of me sledding....sorry ;)

Then we came home and made hot chocolate, and I taught them how to do the Tim Tam Slam! Coleman's face when he tasted it is priceless!

Random Acts of Kindness

2010-01-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

#Update...I won I won!! Chavah had 3 paintings, 3 winners, and I won one of them! Yes I am pretty darn excited:)

I have an internet bloggy friend Chavah in NZ that I have never actually met, but she knows my nephew (he was on his mission in her small town) and she knows people I went to school with. So you may as well say she's my cuzzy because in NZ you don't actually have to be related to be cousins! Anyway, she has a Random Acts of Kindness competition/giveaway going on at her blog. Actually it's been going on for a good month now, and the idea is to do a RAK, blog about it, and you are entered to win one of her paintings. She is a wonderful artist, a practicing artist who actively sells her work, and I would be so excited to have a piece of her art hanging in my home.

So for the last month I have thought about it every day and then my day ends and I think oh darn it, I didn't do any RAK's today! I can think of plenty that others have done for me, for example, just today my neighbor sent her son over with 4 packets of Tim Tams, my favorite kind of cookie, just because she loves me!
So maybe I should just enter her? And the Nuns at my favorite thrift shop gave my son some free toys for his birthday - should I enter the Nuns?! I think they'd be excited... But nah - they'd just sell the painting in the thrift store to make money for charity ;)

Then I think more, and maybe I have done some RAK's. We did buy 5 pre-packaged boxes of food for the food pantry... but that was 2 days before the competition started, so I'm not sure it counts. And I did help my friend make quilted monogram letter quilts for her nieces and nephews for Christmas.
And I know I've babysat for friends this last month. I did let someone with only 1 item in front of me at the grocery store today! And I volunteer up in our school's preschool every Friday. Does that count? Hmmm it's more of a planned thing, and not so random. I wish I had had the opportunity to do something truly random for strangers. It seems that this last month the only people I've really helped are my family. Like when I cleaned my boys' room 2 nights ago by myself (that never happens!) to surprise them. Or all the times I snowblow the driveway while hubby is sleeping so he can get out to work in the morning. But those are things that we all do, just because it's the way life works.

So I think this challenge has made me think about how I can help others more this year, and not just people I know and love. I'd like to go out of my way to help those I don't know, because I know that service makes you feel good, and we all need to feel good! So that begs another question - is service really a selfish act? Do we serve to make ourselves feel good?! Or is that just a side effect?! Either way, I'll keep trying to find ways to do Random Acts of Kindness in my every day life.

Christmas Day

2009-12-25T17:25:00.000-08:00

I am just going to post all our Christmas photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in chronological order for family that wasn't here - and Rachel, this is what it looked like without a pixelated view through Skype....

Can you see Mittens the cat?! He was a little perturbed that presents were blocking his spot under the tree!
These next few are the kids finding the cookie crumbs and carrots that Santa and his reindeer had left on their way out of our house!

37 Things

2009-10-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

So one week ago today it was my husband's 37th birthday. For my 36th birthday he did a blog post with 36 things he loved about me, and I had the best of intentions to do the same thing for him. However, as usual, life got in the way and here I am, a week later, finally with the time to do his birthday post.

So let's get on with the show...

1) He faithfully goes to work every day, to a job that he is good at, but doesn't necessarily love, to provide for his family.

2) He can make me laugh like no one else in the world.

3) He deposits money in my check account whenever I need it, and never asks for an accounting of how I spent it.

4) He took Sofia to a daddy-daughter dinner dance at church on Saturday night, even though I know that's not really his 'thing'. He did it because he loves her, and it made her happy.

5) He will park his car outside when I need to use the garage for projects, and not complain.

6) He let me re-do our house this last month - new floors and paint, and willingly paid for it all, even though surprise expenses kept cropping up.

7) He takes Coleman and Sofia to school every morning, which means I get to stay in my jammies a little bit longer:)

8) He will listen to Kids Bop in the car because the kids love it!

9) He never complains if the house is a mess, even after a long hard day of work.

10) He likes to buy groceries on Amazon.com. What is this box outside my door? Oh - a whole carton of sardines? Awesome....

11) He likes to watch the kids play Plants vs Zombies on his computer.

12) He lets me use his computer (believe me, this is major!)

12) He never complains when family has come to stay - my parents even stayed for 3 months once!

13) He was so thankful that I went and paid his car registration for him last week - even though it only took me 5 minutes.

14) He would rather I make him a gift than spend money on one.

15) He lets me go to my friend Brenda's house late at night - even though he knows I won't come home until 4 in the morning because we can't stop chatting!

16) He will call me at Brenda's house at 2 in the morning, just to make sure I'm OK!

17) He will then look after the kids in the morning so I can sleep, since I stayed out till 4am lol!

18) He has every computer game ever made, yet only plays about 3 of them. For some reason I find this rather charming!

19) He worries about things that I don't, which balances me out.

20) He is an amazing kisser...ok way more than you wanted to know, right?! But it's true!

21) He happily pays for the kids and I to go on vacation, even though he still has to stay home and work.

22) He loves his sister and enjoys hanging out with her, even though they didn't get on or speak for years.

23) He wrote 36 things he loves about me for my birthday :)

24) He loves to read, and when it comes to buying books on Amazon (or random grocery items for that matter) money is limitless!

25) I earn Amazon certificates by doing surveys, and often I will email them to him to use just to let him know that I love him, and then he won't use it because he is hoping that I will:)

26) He writes the BEST book reviews on his blog, about books I would never think of reading. Um hello, Common Sense and Rights of Man by Thomas Paine? Check them out! www.wildpokerman.com

27) He is academically more intelligent than me and I love that!

28) He won't ever admit it though. He has humility.

28) I love to read his posts on a gaming forum he is on - that's when I really see his intelligence shine:)

29) He could happily live without TV for the rest of his life. Who knows, at one point we may just do that on purpose.

30) He loves to snuggle up in bed with me and watch boxed sets of TV shows. We are currently on season 3 of Six Feet Under.

31) He has worked hard to make sure we are almost debt-free. Darn that house-payment!

32) I have given him orders not to bring me flowers as they just die and I feel it's a waste of money, but he still has a strong desire to do so!

33) Every time I go to a quilt show he gives me more money than I need, to spend on stuff I don't need, but just want.

34) He is forgiving, and also willing to ask for forgiveness, both of which can be hard.

35) If I really truly asked and meant it, he would move to NZ so I could be near my family.

36) He still makes me weak at the knees.

37) He is so kind and generous that it would be easy to think of another 37 things to say...

So there you go, darling. Happy belated birthday:)

Garlic Naan Bread

2009-10-15T09:28:00.001-07:00

I've had a few requests this week asking how I make my Naan bread, so I thought just posting it on here would be the easiest way to show multiple people!

OK, I just use my basic bread recipe...

Put into mixer bowl in this order...(I use a Kitchen Aid...LOVE it!)

1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbl yeast
1/4 C sugar
1/4 cup oil (or butter)
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 C Flour

Mix it all up for about 10 mins, adding more flour if it's too wet. It should be fairly wet, but manageable.

Let rise until double.

Cut into 8 pieces, and roll them out quite thin into any shape you want.

Put on tray, and liberally brush with a mixture of butter, garlic, and cilantro. I use 1 stick butter, about 4 cloves garlic, and a good handful of chopped cilantro.

Bake on high, about 450 degrees until it is starting to turn golden. It would be more authentic if you could bake them on a pizza stone, or on the grill. Or in a Tandoori oven if you have one. I know we all have one lying around ;)

So yummy! Enjoy!

The Party

2009-07-24T07:10:00.000-07:00

Of course there is so much to catch up on since it's been forever since I updated this blog. I will try and post an occasion every few days until I catch up:)

Let's start with Sofia's party. It was a party for no reason at all - just because. The best kind of party! Really it was because it was the end of the school year and she wanted to have a party with all her friends. Any excuse for a party with that girl:)

It was so much fun, with games and prizes and lots of yummy food. Even Lolly Cake for all you Kiwis out there!! Take no notice of the date on some of the pics - it is wrong :) It was originally going to be outside, but due to rain we just set it up in the living room. A big banquet table in our tiny living room. Oh boy it was a tight squeeze, but still fun! Oh and take notice of the final picture. We finally have a cat! His name is Mittens and he is lovely.

Tune in for the next post...all about fun by the fire!

Skate night

2009-02-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

The kids' school rents out the local skate rink twice a year and the school families turn up, pay their money and have a fun time. It doesn't raise a lot of money for the school, but is done more to encourage school spirit. We decided to go for the first time on Thursday night. The kids were soooo excited - it's all we heard about all week! I was pretty excited too - I used to roller skate all the time when I was young, and wasn't too bad at it! I realized that it had been 20 years since I last was on roller skates, but thought it would be like riding a bike. So after spending the entire night at the end of the rink holding onto the rail, and being outskated by all 3 kids, I can safely say it is NOT like riding a bike - you DO indeed forget!! That, and I'm sure my centre of gravity has changed lol!!

We all started off on roller skates, and the kids had a very hard time. Joaquin refused to even put his on - he was literally screaming when I took his shoes off, so we just let him be for the first half. Sofia changed her skates for roller blades, and then she was off! She's never been on them before, but within 5 minutes she was skating round the rink like a pro. Coleman was so sweet. He had such a hard time staying up, but I have never seen a child try so hard. He kept those skates on the whole 2 hours, and stayed on the rink the entire time too. He was down the end with me, going back and forth holding onto the rail. He must have fallen over 100 times, but by the end of the night, he was able to go a few paces without holding on.

We finally convinced Joaquin to give it a go, and he didn't really try too much - he was far more interested in the video games! Uh, do you think he's related to his father??!!
As for me, well I tried, I really did. My feet ached and I sat down a lot. I had even worn a t-shirt in anticipation of being hot from all the laps of the rink I was going to do. I shouldn't have bothered lol! At the end of the night I was about to take my skates off when another mother/friend from school said, "Joanna, have you even been around once??" I said nah, I'll do it next year! She told me that no, I was going to do it now! So thanks to the kindness of a friend, I got up and actually made it around the rink....without even falling over!

What?? You didn't think there'd actually be a photo of ME skating did you??!!

Then there's Roland. We were lucky to even have him there at all! He was on day 2 of the worst gall bladder attack he's had, but he figured he may as well be sore at the skate rink instead of at home. His attack finally ended today, after 3 days, and he now has an appointment for surgery. March 12th. His doctor was going to wait a couple of months, but Roland called today and said uh-uh, I need it sooner than that!!

10 mins after we walked in the door, Grandma called! The kids were still super-hyped up about skating, so it was perfect timing for them to tell her all about it. This is Sofia talking to Grandma, pretending to be mad at me taking a photo of her! And here is Coleman pretending to be mad like Sofia!Today (well yesterday if you go by the date on this post - it's 12.30am right now) were the Valentines parties at school for the kids. I am one of the room Mom's for Coleman's Kindergarten class, so I get to help out at the parties. His was at 1, and Sofia's was at 1.30. Her class is right next door to his, so I went to hers and helped out too. Joaquin is one lucky boy. Since he is just 4, he tags along everywhere with me, and he got to go to both the parties!!
He stuffed his face so full that he didn't have any dinner. It was a fun day. I am so grateful that I can stay home during the day and be involved in things like this with the children.

Christmas!

2008-12-30T06:14:00.000-08:00

Santa was tired after putting out all those presents on Christmas Eve so he took a nap...
Well our Christmas day was nice and relaxing, nothing especially strange or abnormal happened, which is always a good thing! The kids woke up at 7, after begging to go to bed the night before (why doesn't that happen every night?!) and we dragged Roland out of bed, and opened presents! First the kids did their stockings and reindeer bags (thanks for the bags Rachel - they LOVED them!)...
... and then we moved onto the presents....

So around 9 we finished. Roland went back to bed (he had horrible stomach pain which kept him in bed all day and night - he didn't even play his playstation, so you KNOW he was sick!) and the kids played with their new toys while I got started on food to take to our friend's place. Since there are a lot of us from church who don't have family anywhere nearby, we get together for a lot of 'family' holidays. We really have become each others family! Plus it makes the cooking load very light on each of us. All I had to make were rolls and a dessert. The rolls were yummy - I did whole wheat with Italian Herbs, which went really well with the turkey/gravy etc provided by others. I had lost my dessert Mojo somewhere inbetween wrapping presents and rushing around for last minute things, so I ended up making Red Velvet cupcakes (from a box!) with pink frosting and marshmallows.

We had a lovely dinner at the Beccaria's home - they had got their kids a Wii for Christmas, so all the kids disappeared to the basement for the day/night and us adults had it pretty easy! The food was so delicious, and I am so grateful for friends who go out of their way to plan these things.I took the tree down the next morning. Christmas was DONE and I needed the space in our tiny living room!

So that's Christmas for another year. Roll on New Years! Today I get to go pick up our snowblower from the repair shop. Just in time for the snow tomorrow. Where was it last week when I needed it for the 2 feet of snow we got???

Ice Storm

2008-12-12T13:45:00.001-08:00

New Hampshire is known for getting snow, but something else we get is the beautiful but deadly ice-storm. Last night we got a doozy. Around midnight our power went out and for the next couple of hours, Roland and I laid in bed listening to branches cracking and landing. We thought maybe they were landing on our roof, and even at one point hoping the whole tree would fall on our house - because you know, getting this old house rebuilt and all wouldn't actually bother us too much! Especially when we need a new roof put on in the Spring.

But that plan wasn't to be. However, when we woke up in the morning, we did have some new plant life in our backyard...

Our neighbor has 4 huge pine trees next to the fence, and now we have half a pine tree in our backyard. But the neighbors seem to have the other half also, so fair's fair. We needed some firewood anyway. Now we just need a chainsaw!

I took some photos of the ice on the plants. It really is beautiful...

The power finally came back on at 2pm at our house. Luckily we have gas, so we were still able to have hot water and use our gas stove. It got a little chilly without the heat on, but I just pulled out the turkey carcass from the freezer, saved from Thanksgiving, put on a big pot of water to boil, stuck the carcass in it, along with some peas and corn and spices, and it kept us plenty warm. Best thing about it is that now, at 5pm, we have turkey stew/soup ready for dinner!

We are just grateful that we have power. Some parts of the state, and neighboring ones, won't have power until next week. It is apparantly the worst power outage New Hampshire has ever had, affecting over 400,000 homes and businesses. They have called it unprecedented. You can read about it here if you are so inclined:)

Tomorrow the temperature high will be below freezing. This all sure makes you grateful for electricity. Funny, it didn't seem to phase the kids at all. They just got out all our board games, wrapped themselves in blankets, and were all set! We pretended we were camping and even made Jiffy Pop to make the experience more camp-like. Rachel, tell Ann and Mike we thought of them and that Sofia even wanted a Jiffy-Pop competition ;P

Coleman's Christmas Concert

2008-12-10T05:51:00.000-08:00

Last night the Kindergarten classes at Coleman's school put on their annual Christmas Concert. Which is really just 20 minutes of adorable 5 year olds singing and looking cute! Sofia did this two years ago, and now it was Coleman's turn. They do the same songs every year so Sofia had great fun annoying Coleman all week by singing them:) These two children are very different. Sofia couldn't wait for the concert when she was in it. She was up front and centre, singing her heart out. There is no shyness in that girl when it comes to performing. Just like her Aunty Barbara! Coleman on the other hand, who is usually very outspoken and loud in everyday life, was very nervous and scared to perform. He kept saying he was scared he was going to be 'sweaty'! Funny thing is, he has the loveliest little singing voice, on pitch every time, but he really is shy to sing. Those of you who know him will know how suprising that is, especially when he is not at all shy in everyday life!Anyway, we finally convinced him to go to the concert and sing. Actually Roland is the one who did it - by telling him that he could go to Daddy's drawers and pick out any tie he wanted to wear. Did he pick a nice red or green one to go with the Christmas theme? Oh no, the bright orange one from the 'Jerry Garcia' collection! It of course came down to his knees.... But with a bit of tucking in, it was no problem! He looked adorable, and ended up doing a great job!

Coleman with his wonderful teacher, Mrs Doyle. You might want to go and watch this video I made of the kids singing 'Jingle Bells'. You will be able to pick out Coleman - he is the one who keeps ringing his bells when everyone else stops. Then he looks all around, realizes he's the only one ringing them and stops. Pretty funny stuff!

2 more years and Joaquin will be up there. It's becoming quite the family tradition!

New blog, first post!

2008-12-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

Well after deliberating a while, I decided to start a new blog to write about our 'happenings' for our family and friends all over the world. And you know I mean that quite literally for our family and friends are scattered far and wide!
I was blogging about the family on my other blog, Applique Today, but I'm going to try and keep that one quilt related, and this one just about family goings-on.

So first up, we have had a very busy couple of weeks. First there was thanksgiving, where we stayed in our pyjamas all day and ate turkey... and then the next day was Sofia's birthday. She turned 8, so it was a big one for her as she could finally get baptized!! But more about that later.

We decided that since there would be the whole baptism thing happening that Sofia would have a nice quiet family party instead of the usual big party with her friends. This was quite the stress-reliever for me! We have pretty much decided that the only time we go out to eat now is for birthdays, so that would be 5 times a year. You can thank the economy and lack of over-time at Roland's work for that one. Oh and fact that we realized how much money was being wasted by eating out. Something we already knew, but when you add it up over a year it's scary!

So back to the story, Sofia ended up having a plan A, B, C, and D. Why she thought she needed that many backups, we have no idea. Plan A was 'Friendly's'. A low-budget kind of restaurant that really caters to families and kids. Our kids like it because you get ice-cream sundaes with your meal. Plan B was a chinese restaurant, Plan C was Texas Roadhouse (which I was not-so-secretly hoping for!) and I 'think' Plan D was McDonalds? So glad the first 3 didn't fall through lol!

So we did go to Friendly's, and it was a lot of fun, even when we were totally embarrassed by the servers singing to our table. HATE that!!

Then we came home and had presents and cake. I had made Sofia a big doll with clothes and very VERY long hair, which she loved, (and kissed with her new lip balm and now the doll has pink on her face) and we had bought her a whole bunch of sweaters for the Winter. I had also been collecting High School Musical items throughout the year when I saw them on sale, so she was thrilled with them, since she is in love with the characters. Grandma had sent Sofia a beautiful white dress for her upcoming baptism, and also a pearl necklace which we gave her at dinner. She hasn't taken it off since! Thank you Grandma! And Nana in New Zealand sent a package with Pineapple Lumps (thank you Mum, I loved them hehe) and some other little treats from NZ.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera to Friendly's so I don't have any photos of the party, but not to worry, because......

2 days later it was Joaquin's birthday!! But since it was on a Sunday and we wanted to go out to eat, we went on the Saturday. Now Joaquin doesn't have too many original thoughts at his young age of 4, so when asked where he wanted to go, he said, "Friendly's!!!" So back we went. Yes, two days in a row. Friday night and then Saturday lunchtime. This time I requested that they didn't sing the embarrassing birthday song, and they very happily complied. (Roland said he remembers hating it from the days when he was a server!) This time, I did remember my camera, so here we go....

Coleman and his Sundae...
Sofia too busy with hers to notice I took her picture (and she has one of her birthday sweaters and pearl necklace on!)
And Joaquin LOVING his ice-cream. He has the sweetest tooth of all the kids.

Then once again, it was back home for cake and presents....

Opening his present from Nana in NZ (loved the Pineapple Lumps all over again, Mum!!)He got 'funny teeth' as a present...don't we look lovely?

So roll on to one week later. I had been extremely busy every single day getting ready to be a vendor at the kids' school's craft fair on Saturday, you can read about it here, and then on top of that Sofia was getting baptized on Sunday. We decided to wait a week since it was Thanksgiving the week before and some of her church friends would be out of town. Plus it gave us breathing room after the birthdays!

I really wish I had taken more photos but I was so busy I just snapped a photo whenever I had a free moment. When we were preparing the program I asked Sofia who she wanted to do what...she said that I could be the chorister, play the piano, and give a talk. OK, I said, I can give a talk, but I don't think I can conduct the music AND play at the same time!! So I ended up giving a talk (which I cried all the way through of course) and was the chorister. I had a completely different talk planned than the one I gave, but changed it right before we left home. Sofia had asked me a simple question, "Why do we wear white when we get baptized?" which made me realise there are some very basic things that us as adults know, but our little ones don't always know yet! So I did the good old project lesson with snow (luckily it had just snowed that day!) and red coloring and bleach. Yes she was amazed when the bleach turned the red snow clear! I was able to talk about it being like baptism etc....you family and friends who are LDS will know the point of the project lesson, I am sure! Even if you're not LDS, it's easy to figure it out!

Oh and we finally got a family photo taken. My friend Tami took it for us after the baptism, and getting all 5 of us in a photo is very rare, as you can imagine! For now, it's the header on this blog, so just scroll back up to the top to see it!

So that has been the last couple of weeks. There have been other things going on, like Sofia being out of school with a double ear infection, parent teacher interviews, a cookie swap at church, all sorts of things, but I have typed too long, and if you are still reading, all I can say is WOW!!