We made it. This is the Florida airport.

Disney world here we come!  After we get a good night's rest.

Onflight entertainment

Whew. We made it. On the shuttle bus at least.

Spinach

I fed my kids spinach for dinner. I'm on a health kick. They ate it.  Taylor came home late. I made him a huge salad.  He didn't even complain. Much. Last time I was on a green kick and made salads for dinner I thought he was being a great sport.  Until I went out to his car to get something and found fast-food wrappers. Turns out he was stopping by jack-in-the box for a burger on the way home.

Nativity

In front of vectra bank on Pearl street

At the boulder river path

Today:

We got up, had breakfast and went to Boulder. We walked about 4 miles in all. We walked on the river path, walked on CU campus, walked on Pearl Street and had lunch at an asian bistro place that was alright. That's my Colorado Income tax penalty I'm about to mail in the picture there (had to pay a penalty but I'm disputing it because my accountant was pretty sure he was right..that's another story, but not much $) Then we came home and I made quiche, rolls, and good kid cookies (cake mix+1egg+1/4 c butter+2 Tbs water). I glued together the frame for a canvas. Then I took Evan to the YMCA. We changed into our suits and Evan poked my dimpled thigh and asked, "Mom, are you getting old there?" "Yup, I'm gettin old there" Or maybe just fat there. But that's OK. I'm OK with me and my dimpled thighs.

We came home from the Y and watched "Cheaper By the Dozen II" then we put up our Christmas decorations. There are mice- or maybe a family of them- living in our crawl space. Gross, I know. I mostly only store Christmas decorations there so needless to say they've had a free rein for a while. We've been setting traps for a few weeks now and have caught 3. Taylor and the kids just released #3 at the dog park across the street. Sweet. We have one humane trap and the other 2 we caught- we'll they're in mousie heaven as I tell the kids. I will conquer the mice.

Evan the astronaut

Denver museum of science today

Walking off dinner

The ultimate hot chocolate

Penzey's dutch cocoa makes the WORLDS BEST hot chocolate. That's what were having for breakfast.

Thanksgiving

I'm laying in bed blogging from my phone. For the first time ever we are having Thanksgiving dinner just with our own little family. I'm kind of sad about that. Last year we had 11 people over and that was a little crazy. But fun. I'm also paranoid about us getting sick right before our big trip so maybe its best that we don't spend the day with another family. We usually do get sick right after Thanksgiving. Not this year. Too much at stake.
My parents were just in Hong Kong and my dad had to go back to Saudi on business. So my mom came to the states to spend Thanksgiving in Nashville with Shawn and his family. My little brother Stan flew out too so he wasn't by himself. He's a recovering heroine addict. He's been out of rehab like 9 months now. Sam, my oldest brother, lives in Boston with his wife Carol and son Charlie. My sister Sandra lives in Dallas with her husband Philip and daughter Maya. Scott, just older than Stan, lives in Provo with his wife Alisa and they're going to BYU. My parents mostly live in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia but my dad travels alot. At any rate, I think the last time we were all together for Thanksgiving was probably about 15 years ago before anyone was married.
I didn't feel like cooking a turkey this year so I bought a prepared ham from Costco. And a lot of other yummy food.

Anyone else making gingerbread houses?

Its a sticky mess in our kitchen right now but lots of fun. I want to see everyone else's gingerbread houses;)

The kite store on Pearl St in Boulder

This is the kids favorite toy store.

Went swimming with the Hanks today. I'm not sure why but my kids always feel the need to get in the lockers at the gym. The Hanks' kids did too. Olivia doesn't look happy here but she did have a good time. She just isn't big on smiling for the camera.

Prayer

I read Elder Scott's talk on prayer.  Prayer is something I want to understand better.  I want to understand how to be more effective in my prayers and how to recognize answers to them.  I know I have had prayers answered, when I look back in retrospect.  I think one way to make the answers easier to recognize is to write down both what I'm praying for and what I think the answers are when they come.  Elder Scott said there are three ways that prayers are answered:  "First, you can feel the peace, comfort, and assurance that confirm that your decision is right. Or second, you can sense that unsettled feeling, the stupor of thought, indicating that your choice is wrong. Or third—and this is the difficult one—you can feel no response."

He goes on to say if we feel the 3rd way, getting no repsonse, we should give thanks to the Lord because he trusts us enough to make the right decision. Prayer is a difficult thing but something worth always improving.  We have the chance to talk freely with the God who created us and worlds without end.  One thing I don't really do often is pray vocally but I'm going to try that this week and see how that changes my prayers.

Taylor and Evan are headed off on the scout camp trip.

Taylor's scout master so he can take Evan even though he's a little young to be a scout. It's cold and I'm happy to stay here and do the Friday night pizza/movie routine.

Still working on this one

Evan and dad at the hardware store

We're getting wood for more paintings ;)

Invention convention

Emi's invention convention is tonight. Thought I'd send a few pictures.  She invented a fruity fizzy drink. In the second picture she's at the bottom.

Emily at the invention convention

Her invention was a fruity drink.

Evan and Viggo

vacation, mortality and marraige

We're gearing up for a trip to Florida for a Disney cruise. We're getting there a day early so we might go to Disney World too. The kids are over-the-top excited. I always get nervous before going on a big trip. We've never been on a cruise before and this is definatly the biggest trip we've ever done. I have a binder with all our documents (birth certificates, travel plans, etc.) ready to go.
....
Think about this. Life is a little bit like a facebook post or a tweet. It's just here and now then it's gone. I was cleaning out my basement the other day and going through pictures, letters and journal entries from college, highschool and before. Interlochen, where I went to h.s., was only 15 years ago but it seems like a whole other lifetime ago. If we are eternal creatures, 15 years is only a few minutes in the big picture. Our whole lifetime is only a few hours. I don't think about the past too much and I forget most of the details. Memories are like looking through the window of a fast-moving train that I catch glimpses of every now and then. So in a way this life is pretty abstract, because our memories only retain a very small part. The only thing that's really real is what's happening right now. I can't imagine how it works, but I'm pretty sure God is not bound by the dimension of time. I think the concept of time and that for us it is only going forward is unique to mortals.
.....
My friend Karin recently divorced her husband. It's been about 4 months. She was numb at first but now she really regrets it and it's too late, she says. She felt suffocated because he was always away on business and when he was home, he wasn't emotionally there. She felt like the only reason she existed was to serve everyone else's needs but she couldn't have any needs. So she had a break-down and said she wanted a divorce. Both wanted the other to put the breaks on the process but niether partner would. So they went through the motions of filing for a divorce and now she is realizing it maybe was a big mistake. They have 3 young boys. This is sad. But I think not uncommon. I think I am very lucky to have Taylor. Our marraige may not be perfect but he is good to me and a good father and I can honestly say through our ups and downs that we are still in love and we'll make it through whatever life throws our way. Together.

forgeting things

While working on fixing a slow-draining dishwashwer, Emi calls downstairs to me, "Mom, what was your room number in the hospital?"

"Uh, you mean when I had Evan like almost 5 years ago?"

"Yeah"

"I have no idea"

"How could you forget something like that?"

.....

It's snowing. I'm not ready for winter yet, but it seems to come anyway, ready or not.

......

I'm trying to be better than I am. Sometimes I think I'm making progress but then sometimes I still have breakdowns and it seems like I haven't made any progress at all. Like tonight. I had a fight with Taylor and I think it started with the dishwasher but somehow ended up a lot of other unrelated stuff and after a while I forgot exactly why we were arguing. Lame. Work is stressful, kids are stressful (yes, I know, I'm greatful, love them, etc. but if I'm being honest here which I try to be there are moments of raising them that are downright hard and stressful) marraige is hard and sometimes all of the stress comes to a head. Like when the dishwasher is backed up and dinner's not ready and the dirty dishes are all over the counter and Taylor says he's starving and maybe he should just go out since there's nothing to eat (aka there's no hot dinner on the table). So I made him a quick hamburger and the girls made themselves some ramen noodles. Does that make me a bad mom? Ramen noodles are gross. I bought them for the first time last week and the kids think they're heavenly. I had a roomate (actually a suitemate) in boarding school who was bulimic and was always barfing up ramen noodles so I cannot or will not ever eat them for this reason.

.....

Emi's play was cancelled tonight because no one knew their lines (except her, she really does have them all memorized)

Emi won the election, Life's too fast

I was walking around in the girls' school today, Sanborn Elementary, waiting for Emi to finish play practice and I was struck by how fast it's all gone. 5 years of Emi being in elementary school just flew by. I can't believe how fast. The wierd thing is that was the longest leg of school. I mean middle school is only 3 years and high school is 4. My kids are growing up way to fast and it makes me sad and nostalgic.

On the positive side, Emi is becoming a talented, dedicated and hard-working girl and I'm proud of her and her successes in life. She's smart and confident and I'm sure she'll do great things. She's been dreaming of being school president since second grade and it was quite the crowning reward for her to win. She's also in the fifth grade play tonight, with a solo. It's Labrynth, that good old David Bowie movie from the 80's. She's a pretty good little singer.

I'm trying not to let little things bother me because this realization of life going by like a train is rather sobering. Like when Evan crawls into our bed at 3:30 in the morning, most mornings. I fast forward in my mind to when he's in highschool and it's not cool anymore for me to smooch his cute little cheeks. Then I don't mind him being there.

Ice cream

3 boys+ice cream+ McDonald's playland= pure joy

Retro Camera

Vote for Emily

Well, Emi gave her speech and put up her poster.  Not sure when the election is but she's pretty confident she'll win. Keep your fingers crossed.

Clowning around

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Shannon Workman" <shannie28@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 3, 2010 11:38 AM
Subject: Clowning around
To: "Sheri Funk" <sfunk6@gmail.com>, "Shannon Workman" <shannie28@gmail.com>, "Kandy Workman" <kkworkman@gmail.com>

Evan made a clown costume at school today. He wanted to take his picture next to the circus tent.