MY FIRST BORN TURNS 20!

Our Jessica just turned 20 yesterady! I can hardly believe it. Where did the time go that I thought I 'd have?   We celebrate as a family by taking the birthday child out for dinner at a place of their choice. This year Jessica chose The Rainforest Cafe. 

It's a really fun place with decent food.  It's like you're inside a Rainforest and every few minutes the "animals" come to "life" and move and make LOUD noises! We even had "Cha Cha" the Tree Frog stop by and we got a photo of him with Jessica!

We also had the coolest glasses that "sparkled" underneath with multi-colored lights going on and off. It was a FUN drink! (You may not be able to 'see' all the colors in the photo. Trust me, it was pretty!)

Emily was pretty scared of the elephants.  Bob tried to DRAG her over to them, but she started crying and saying "NO!" really loud, so he finally let her go, and just he went over and stoof by them, trying to show her they're not real. lol!

After the dinner, Jessica was "surprised" by the crew having her stand on her chair and dance to "Happy Birthday to You!" while flapping her "wings" like a toucan!  That was followed by a HUGE and YUMMY "Volcano Cake" with brownies, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, caramel, fudge, and topped with an "eruption" of sparkling tinsle!

We had a great time.  It was good to be together as a family again.  Jessica has moved back home and is trying to straighten her life out and make better choices.  We're hoping to support that as best we can.  It's hard to be a young adult in today's world if your values and standards are that much higher than the world's.  But then again, the Lord's people have never fit easily into "the world."  Be IN the world, but not OF the world.

I love my family.  I am so blessed.  I have the greatest husband.  In the almost 22 yrs of marriage, he has never once complained about a weakness of mine. He has never corrected me or chastised me, telling me that I need to better in this area or that.  He fully supports anything that I want or need to do, and he trusts me completely, as I trust him.  I'm so thankful for that. He is truly my best friend.  I cannot imagine life without him. I hope I never have to. I hope we'll die together when the time comes.  Although that will be twice as hard on the kids, at least they will only have to experience it once - much like what I had to do, and I am thankful I don't have to go through that again!

Goodnight world.  Off to be with my family!

LOST

We have been TV-free for 7 years this month!  It has made such HUGE difference in our family life.  We not only have more time and less fights over interruptions of TV shows, but we also have a better Spirit in our home because there's so much less worldliness from the TV shows and the commercials.

That being said, we did "find" the TV seasons of LOST on Netflix about 4 weeks ago.

I began watching it as a fluke when I was home alone one night and felt like watching something new.  I got hooked, I think, after the first episode!  That following week, I invited Jonathan to watch it with me.  So he and I have turned this in to a "mother/son" bonding activity each night.  After Bob and Emi go to bed, we watch LOST.  That has worked fine and dandy until we finished season 5 (last year's season) and season 6 isn't on DVD yet.  We've been going nuts trying to find it somewhere on the internet.

FINALLY we found the site that has all the seasons, including this last season 6.  The website is http://www.cucirca.com/ and it has worked fine.  The quality of movie isn't too great.  It's rather fuzzy and choppy.  But it  works well enough to watch it, if you're as desperate as we are to watch the final season.  HOWEVER... there is one little glitch: you can only watch 72 minutes worth of streaming before the website requires you to take a 54 minutes break.  So we get about 1 1/2 episodes in, then have to start over.  When we went back today (after watching 1 1/2 episodes last night), we fast forwarded to the middle of that episode (since we'd already seen it last night).  Well, guess what?  IT COUNTS THOSE MINUTES! :'(  We are so bummed!  So we waiting our 54 minutes (doing much needed other things like chores and schoolwork) and then we shall resume watching it.  Ahhhhh!!!  I'm pulling my hair out!  

Ok, truth be told, I will survive just fine without ever watching the last of LOST.  But since I don't ever get to go on vacations, I never get a day off as CEO (Chief Everything Officer around my home) and since I NEED a break every once in a while, I am indulging in LOST and allowing myself the pure pleasure of purposefully addicting myself to it while it lasts. :)

So.... I'm thinking perhaps of watching "24" after LOST is done.... or do you have any other recommendations?

It HAS been a FUN time watching this series with Jonathan.  We have our treats, and enjoy the laughs and the guessing games of who's who and what's what as we work our way through the episodes.  I love sharing "free" time with my kids - where homework and chores don't need to get done, and there's no parent/child conflict.  It's a time we can just relax and play and laugh together without any other pressures.  I love it!

Facebook vs Blogspot

Why is it that we start something and then never finish it?  I started this blog a few years ago and really enjoy posting.  But it seems that Facebook has kind of taken over the blogging world and everyone logs in to Facebook daily, whereas those same people do not log in to friends' blogs daily.  I much prefer the blogs, because it's private and more "you" than facebook.  But EVERYONE is on facebook and it's hard to post on TWO 'blogs': facebook and blogspot.  So what should I do?  Hmmm..... thinking, thinking, thinking,.....

If you have any ideas, let me know. I really only have time to blog in ONE place.  which one?

CHANGED MY MIND....

OK - I won't be deleting this blog after all.  I'm just gonna stick with it for the time being. Too much other stuff going on that seems to suck up all my time.  I need to get back into the groove here.  Facebook seems to have kind of taken over... since I have so many more friends on there, and it's a great and convenient way of sharing photos etc.  BUT... it certainly doesn't provide a place to 'talk'.  So I'm going to take up blogging again.

I just found out a daughter of a dear friend of mine is engaged.  I'm sooo excited for her.  Brings back so many memories of when her mom and I were in college together.  Now our own daughters are marrying-age!  That's really weird.  Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterady that these girls were babies and I was wondering if they'd ever grow up and what they'd be when they did grow up.  Well, welcome to the future... it's happening even as I type.

Spent the first half of today at the Church for our Stake's Primary Activity Day.  It was a "roadshow" of sorts.  The title was "The Book of Mormon" and it was so awesome!  The people that set it up really went way out to make it great, and it was.  Emily had a great time, and I loved looking at all the displays, but I think the best part of it all was watching the kids perform their parts and singing along with all the music!  What a great Church we have!  I love that it's a world-wide church and that each buildling is only one part of the church.  It's not like other religions where each building is a church unto itself.  No, our Church is not only the only true Church of JESUS CHRIST (of Latter-day Saints, as opposed to the old world saints) but it is truly ONE world Church.  No matter where you are in the world, each Sunday you will experience the same exact meetings, lessons, and culture. It is amazing and awesome.  If you're LDS, then you have a HOME anywhere you travel to in the world.  And the reverse is true as well... any person in the world who is LDS could stop by our home and will find a home of their own.  So cool. :)

Here's a "Nephite" and the "Liahona" (compass).  The Liahona was handcarved by a man in our Stake, and it looked like it was made out of Olive Tree Wood - but I'm not sure. It was beautiful!

More pictures later.... just got interrupted....

THIS BLOG IS BEING DELETED

I have decided to create my own personal blog through my Mac.  So this blog will be deleted soon.  I will post the new blog address on this blog before deleting it.  I will let it sit for a few months. That way, hopefully everyone will get a chance to get the new blog address.  If not, then too bad for you. ;)

Wish me luck!