It's a good day...

Did you know that if you start this movie at PRECISELY 8:44.45pm, it will be 10:04pm when lightening strikes the clock tower in the movie? Precisely.

Can't wait to hear what everyone ELSE did to celebrate TODAY!

Seasons of change...

The Process of our Living Room... has another chapter. The bookcase we got from Ikea! Ryan put it together for me with relative ease:) Now I am in the process of adding treasures to it... I prefer not to have something out just because it's cute (although that happens a lot, too!), and so far the pictures on the top are really meaningful to me.

LOVE the picture on the top left "To everything there is a season" (I got it at Ross!!) I love Ecclesiastes 3, and the sweet reminder that while there is a time to weep, there is also a time to laugh! Isn't that encouraging? And I also love the fact that if you read FURTHER, "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men..."... and also v14, which you can look up yourself, just for fun! This picture reminds me of all this, and mostly to DIG DEEPER, read FURTHER.

The picture on the far right is the Oregon Coast, which we all know was super special to all of us! LOVED the time I spent with our family there... we just made so many special memories.

The picture of Ben and Great Grandma Tuinstra. I think of so much when I look at it... Ben RELAXED for once! A reminder of a SWEET day with Grandma, where she remembered Ryan and that Ben and Carly were his kids ~ it was really precious. Grandma's hands, so visible, so loving... so often folded in prayer for US, daily in fact. The sweet little smile on Grandma's face... and how she wanted to hug Ben that day, and a reminder of how she hauled Carly up into her lap in the chair to snuggle her. And finally, a reminder of Where she is today. Where's she's wanted to be her whole life. I had the black and white printed for our stairwell, but decided I needed it to be much more visible to everyone.

So far, The Shelf is also holding our collection of scrapbooks, and Ryan's prized Peanuts Books collection (not on the shelves when I took the picture...) and a picture of Ben and Carly and Torrey at the beach this summer (who DOESN'T need to be reminded of the carefree days of summer and the relaxing beach and your best buds??!)

and a picture of Eli that Rochel just gave us. And Cassidy. HA!

Oh! And here's what we did this weekend!!!! We were relying on Mom's pictures, so I figured you might was well just check out Rochel's update!

Girl's Night Out... with Eli

I'm patiently waiting for Rochel to post Birthday Party Pictures so I can do a weekly update post.

While I wait... Ryan's parents came to visit this past weekend. Truth be told, they came for Eli's First birthday party, but we stole them to stay at our house. I came up with some excuse about Helping Rochel Out since she's packing. Ha! Silly girl fell for it! So, Ryan decided he wanted to take his Dad to see the Orlando Magic game (because they were playing the Piston's) for HIS birthday (Dad's, not Ryan's...) so the boys took off for Orlando Friday afternoon. That left The Girls! Well, and Eli, since he's somewhat attached to his mama. Anyways, Carly and I and Rochel, Eli and Mom did a little Christmas shopping... and had a little fun at JoAnn's, too! (which brought about the Quote for the week... see sidebar on left) But my favorite funny moment was Rochel showing us her new refrigerator at hhgregg. She hugged it. Yup, and while she was embracing it, the salesman came around the corner. Might have been even funnier hearing her try to EXPLAIN why she was hugging it. HA! It is a pretty nice icebox, I must say. We had a yummy dinner at the Macaroni Grill (mmmmmm), then went home to get the "Little Ones" to bed (that would be Carly and Eli). While sitting around my living room with The Girls was so fun and refreshing (you know, AFTER the kids were in bed!), my favorite part of the night was this:

Carly getting to hang out on Ben's bed/Grandma's bed, reading to her Grandma. It was really sweet... she was happy to "show off" how she raised ALL THAT MONEY for the Read-A-Thon!

Read-A-Thon

Carly's Read-A-Thon is over! She read 15 books/chapters during this past week, and was able to raise $100. THANKS to all her GENEROUS supporters! We will let you know if she wins that trophy!!

Shameless Solicitation

... well, since I'm NOT homeschooling, we have another fundraiser to solicit for... hopefully the last of the year.

Read Around the World. That's right, a Read-A-Thon. Now, Ben has decided NOT to participate ("I read anyways!!" So this makes NO SENSE to him...) so this one's for CARLY! Last year, she won a trophy for the Highest Donations Received in her classroom. All she had to say THIS year was, "I'm working for another trophy!" HA! You might be wondering WHY you never heard about this LAST year... well, her ONE and ONLY donation was $20 from her mother who felt very guilty for NOT encouraging her daughter in the Read-A-Thon by soliciting pledges from all her friends and family. Ironic, since her FATHER is a Librarian!

Here's how this works:

IF you choose to participate and help Carly get a trophy (I mean, help raise money for the school... ALL money collected goes RIGHT to the school, so this is a 100% profit fundraiser!!) then just email me what your preferences are. You can sponsor her for a certain amount per book read (and for Kindergarten to 2nd Graders, "one non-chapter book" or "one chapter" of a chapter book = one book) or give a flat one-time donation. Would you like a Guess at how many she'll read? MMmmmmmm, I'm going to ballpark it at 20.

That's all... EMAIL ME... you know, for CARLY!!!!

Nothing but Gum Madness

WARNING: No pictures.

Perhaps you remember the Original Gum Madness... Well, this week brought MORE gum madness, among other fun events. Why not start with this fun story... even though it's Out of Order:

So, Saturday. Carly is rummaging through kitchen drawers in my mom's house. (They got home from Israel the day before... told you it was Out of Order!) I say, "What are you doing?" Carly says, "Ummmm. Nothing". Carly runs out of the kitchen... past me, where it occurs to me her hair is a DISASTER. I tell her to go brush her hair. (you've heard me say how distracted I get, right?!!) As soon as she's out of the room, I look at my mom. "Hmmmm. 'Nothing' ALWAYS means 'Something'. Know how I know this? She's a GIRL. GIRL's ALWAYS say 'nothing' when 'something' is REALLY up..." There sits my mom. Giggling away. I follow Carly into my mom's bathroom where she is busily brushing her hair. Gum and all. In her hair. Oh boy. Front of her hair. Completely stuck. You know, because it's been BRUSHED in. (oh, by the way, with my DAD's hairbrush) "MOM??!!!!!!!!! (that would be ME yelling, not Carly!) Do you have any scissors?!?!" Little Voice Under my Arms says, "No, she doesn't have any, I just looked...." Ahhh, the Nothing we were Looking for. THANKFULLY Carly couldn't find the scissors or the few snips I had to do to get the gum out, would have been a Full Blown Bowl Cut, I'm sure. And we would have been flying Aunt Randee down for an Emergency Hair Fix. Which wouldn't have been so bad because I could really use some highlights.

Perhaps I should have started the above story with the PREVIOUS conversation of Carly asking ME for gum. I said no, and she asked Grammy. And we all know what Grammy said.

MY PARENTS ARE BACK! Safe and sound. For a week, anyways, until they take off again. We had a fun Friday Night with them, eating dinner and drinking COFFEE and eating ice cream cake! Mmmmmmmm. Ben and Carly got to spend the night, and I'm sure ate more ice cream for breakfast!

Saturday Night (Halloween) we had an excellent time at a Fall Festival Party with much of our Church Family. Still unable to have it where our church is located due to the ongoing construction of our new building... One of the elders in our church hosted it at his home and it was so much fun! Forgot my camera, so you will have to refer to Rochel for pictures... thankfully she caught my Superheroes along with her own! Ben and Carly didn't dress up for this party ONLY because there were going to jumping houses there, and well, being Darth Vader would REALLY have gotten in the way of jumping! Please let the record show that BEN won First Place in the kids Potato Sack Race... There was only a prize for the family race (um, which we DID NOT win... hey, have YOU tried to hop in a potato sack? The Brady Bunch we are NOT, apparently). Anyways, my Race Star was pretty sad not to get a little recognition for his Fine Hopping, so here it is, Ben! Great Job! Unfortunately, Rochel had to leave early with Over Tired Eli, so that left ME to fill in on her singing parts in the Blue Grass Throw Down... Um, I don't know any Blue Grass songs. So that's how that went... but RYAN filling in with our friend Kyle was VERY ENTERTAINING. Any opportunity to make people laugh, I guess.

Oh, one last thing... The MAGIC are back! That's right. Just when I thought it was safe to start watching TV in my living room again (you know, since Baseball Season is over)... it's basketball season! We kicked off Opening Night with a little chinese food to celebrate (mostly I didn't want to cook after working all night!!! you know, and NOT sleeping enough!!) and enjoyed watching (Dwight Howard) the Magic win!! Some day the kids and I will be able to watch iCarly somewhere OTHER than gathered around the very small TV in my bedroom! HA!

One Frightful Party

... well, probably not THAT "Frightful". Not much is scary about a BOWLING Halloween party. Last night was the Annual Swim Team Halloween party at the bowling alley. It's kind of a fun party for the kids, and I'm guessing none of them minded missing practice for it!

I was pleased to see that Ben WANTED to dress up... kind of a big deal for him, since he doesn't usually enjoy that part of October-fest events. His sister? Now she's ALL OVER getting to dress up, and in fact, doesn't need to wait until Halloween to do so! We were fortunate enough to get "hand-me-down" costumes from my co-workers this year. THANK YOU DENISE AND ASHLIE! I'm guessing one can figure out WHO Ben and Carly are... we try to make it obvious:)

... that would be Carly doing the Famous McGregor WipeOut... made famous by her father! She thought she was quite clever, let me tell you, and could NOT understand why her friends were not laughing hysterically! Life Lesson Learned: No one is as entertained by US as WE are! Sometimes you just gotta be a McGregor to get it! Speaking of McGregor's who get it....

Ryan's sister TOTALLY hooked us up with these fabulous cookies! We had to bring a dessert to share, and well, yeah. Not a baker. So that's when being related to the Best Cookie Maker Ever comes in handy! Apparently I am not beyond sucking up to get cookies. I'm not ashamed. Those cookies are delicious! I am also not ashamed to admit that I made Ryan go back and get the leftovers when everyone was leaving the party! I was SHOCKED there were any left, but she made a TON for us! Also like to add that she won many Auntie Points (because those really exist) by making Ben his own special cookie WITHOUT the evil Red 40 Dye.

In other news from last week:

Carly had some "Friend Issues". You know, where one of them was mean to her. I started out being annoyed that kids are mean, but then being kind of glad when these things come up so we can talk about how to handle this stuff, and reiterate how to be a Good Friend. I ended up being really proud of my Nearly-Eight-Year-Old daughter when she wrote a note to her friend saying that she forgives her for "having a bad day... and I'll be your friend whenever you are ready". She came up with that one on her own... thankfully, by the next day (and before the note was handed over!) the Issues were all resolved and forgotten... the beauty of being 7. Carly really is a very sweet girl, and I'm pleased to know that Elfy won't have to be her ONLY friend for the rest of her life:) That was a close one!

Ben and his friend from school qualified for the SCIENCE Olympics! They made a roller coaster that went the fastest, and that won them a spot to compete at the Museum of Science and Industry next month... however, after much deliberation on his part and also due to the fact that said partner will be out of the country at the time, he has decided to attend the already scheduled swim meet on that day, instead of the science fun. Of course, this means Ryan and I will have to take him to MOSI for the day sometime:) That's part of the fun of getting to go to the Science Olympics... a day at the museum. It was a hard decision for him to make, but in the end "another chance to get a better time" won out... see below.

From my previous post, all are aware of Ben's Junior Olympics cut time for his free style stroke in swimming. What a great accomplishment! Unfortunately, we found out that he WON'T be able to compete in the event, as his birthday comes 6 days before the Olympics. That causes him to "Age Up", which in the swimming world means, he will then be in the 11-12 year old age group, and his qualifying time was for 10 and unders. In order to get to participate in the 2010 meet, he will have to qualify as an 11-12 year old. That means a faster time. You never know with this kid, he could do it! But honestly? We are THRILLED that he met this accomplishment RIGHT NOW, even if he doesn't actually get to compete at the meet. He has an unfortunate birthday, that's all! IF ONLY he hadn't been born 3 weeks early! He's disappointed (not nearly as much as WE are, though!!!), but his 2nd reaction was, "What time do I need to qualify for 11-12 year olds?" Umm, that would be 28.59 seconds. Ok, Ok... his FIRST reaction (because I KNOW you are wondering!!!) was "Stupid, Stupid Birthday!!!!" HA! Sorry Tracy! Anyways, there are about 3 more meets (see previous paragraph) before the Big One, so we'll see what happens!

We enjoyed our Swim Celebration Night Out, where Ben picked Tijuana Flats for dinner... and Carly picked Dairy Queen for dessert! And Ryan picked Barnes and Noble (thank you Laurie!) for our entertainment. I picked getting to sit quietly in the car in between stops, as I had only slept a couple of hours after working all night... I was too excited for the kids to rest anymore after hearing their great news on Saturday afternoon!

Hmmmm, this is beginning to sound like one of those Christmas letters where it's all about how great someone's kids are... but, it's my blog and I don't care. My kids ROCK!!! :) How's THAT for obnoxious?!?!?!

That's how last week went...

This week looks pretty promising for us, as our long, lost relatives who think they are Israeli are coming home Friday!