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These are my two new favorite sayings:

"You can never get enough of something that you don't need."

"Wanting less fells better than having more."

Both true for me!

Just Wondering

Do you notice that in almost every picture I post Adam is wearing his football jersey? Just in case you did, and you were grossed out, I do wash it!

You would be so proud of me!

I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my stupid computer--none of my pictures would upload. Then, all by myself I figured it out. Turns out, it wasn't stupid computer, it was stupid me!

Family Fun

Last week Craig's sister, Becky, and her family came to see us. We had a really great time with them! We always love it when they come down. Becky and Monte have four children. Courtney is 12 and she and Megan are the best of friends. Nicole is 10 and she and Keri have a great time together. Ryan and Adam are only about 4 months apart in age and Kyle is 4. The boys always have a great time together and this visit was no exception.

On Friday we had a great day trip to Los Alamos. Craig had to work, Tori was in Colorado at a band competition with Amie and my mom, and Katie had to go to school so it was just Megan, Keri, Adam, Aaron and Me. Craig's dad works in Los Alamos and so it was fun to go see where he works. Everything he does is super classified so we couldn't even really see the building that he works in but we got the idea of the drive he makes everyday and the proximity of his office, (he drives 1 1/2 hours each way to and from work).

The first thing that we did was go to the Atomic Museum. The Atomic Museum tells all about the first nuclear bombs and how they were made. I was not that excited, I mean learning about a bomb that killed so many people is really not up my alley. I soon changed my mind, however, and decided it was a wonderful place to go! I would even really like to go back without my kids so that I could read everything there.

We went to a movie about Los Alamos. It talked about how Los Alamos came to be, (it was a secret city during the war, set up to try to make the bomb and end the war). They talked about how many scientists, including Albert Einstein, wrote President Roosevelt and begged him to do research in this area so that the war could end. I loved that their goal was ultimitaly to save lives!

The museum also talked about all the advances that have been made as a result of nuclear power. It had a great kids room with hands on activities. All of the exhibits has computers you could work on to help you understand the science behind the exhibit. It was really cool!

After we left the museum we went to Bandelier. It was perfect weather, (70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky) and a perfect time of year, (lots of green, yellow and red leaves, beautiful blue sky). We had a delicious lunch by the river and then hiked to the ruins. Bandelier is National Monument full of native american cave dwellings. You can hike up to them and go inside to see what the native americans lived like many years ago. There are also Indian Ruins on the ground that you can see. We all had a great time.

We drove home through the Jemez mountains where we saw several deer and other wildlife. It was a gorgeous drive home!! The perfect ending to the perfect day!

I Hate Homework!!!!!!!!

That's it. I hate homework!

Oh, and I also hate making bunkbeds!

The cute things he says

Today I was making some phone calls for a carnival that I am co-chairing at the middle school.( I know you are thinking, "co-chairing a carnival when you have so much going on, are you crazy?!!!" Yes!) Anyway, I called my friend Carla, who I am working on the carnival with and Aaron was sitting next to me while I talked to her.

We then had this conversation:

"Who was that?"

"My friend, Carla."

"Does Carla have a hun?"

"I don't know, what is a hun?"

"You know, like I'm your hun."

"Oh, a child?"

"Yes, does she have a hun?"

This just totally cracked me up. I never realized how much I refer to him as hon or honey!

I've almost made it!

Fall is the busiest time of year for us! Of course, I just may think that because I am now in the fall. We'll have to see what I am saying in the spring.

Anyway, this fall, Adam has been playing football. Football practices M,T,Th,F, with games on Saturday. He is also in cub scouts on W.

Keri plays soccer. She has practice T&W and games on Saturday. She is also in a girls group at church on W nights.

Megan is in show choir on M,TH, &F. She has youth church activities on W.

Tori is in marching band. They practice everyday and play at all the football games, sometimes practice on Saturday, and have all sorts of competitions. Youth activities on W.

Katie is in student government and she is playing indoor soccer. These activities have no schedule and take up tons of time. She has youth activities at church on W.

Thankfully, Aaron is only three and he is happy to ride in the car and talk to me non-stop.

It has all been a lot of fun, but I am happy this hectic schedule will soon come to an end. Football ended two weeks ago, soccer ends this week, marching band practice is over and they only have two more games, indoor soccer will end in a few weeks, and election day is in two weeks, (this has taken a lot of my time during the day). What will I do in November?

SLEEP!!

University Choir

My Mom and Dad sing in the University of New Mexico Choir. They have been doing it for about three years. The kids and I have been to several of their performances and they are VERY good. We love to hear them.

The Fine Arts Academy is featuring the Choir on the front of their magazine this month. We just got the photos and...

Here is my Dad, singing away!




My Mom can be seen in this one on the far right.Fun!!

Tori in Marching Band

Tori is in marching band. She is a wonderful musician! She started playing the piano when she was 5 and has always loved music. Her first piano teacher taught the Suzuki Method which was great for her. The philosophy of Suzuki is that you learn to speak before you learn to read and so you should learn to play before you learn to read music. She learned to paly and when she was in second grade her piano teacher moved and she started with a teacher who taught traditional music. She was reading music before we knew it. When she was in 6th grade she took choir so that she could play the piano for the choir. Because of her advanced classes they put her in art instead. She came home from school and said, "I have to be in music, put me in any music class!" I called the school and the only class that would fit in her schedule was advanced band. I was nervous but, at her instance I enrolled her anyway.

The reason that I was worried is because I know Tori. When she was about 18 months she noticed that Katie, who was three, got herself dressed. She decided that if Katie could do it, she was going to do it. She didn't have the coordination to do it and so she would get her legs all twisted up and her arms all in a knot and she would cry and scream at the top of her lungs. I would offer to help and she would scream at me, "I can do it". After about an hour of this she would finally be dressed and we would all breath a sigh of relief. She did this EVERY DAY. I was so glad when she got a little older and this became easy for her.

So, Tori started advanced band. She decided to play the flute and she practiced every waking moment, (luckily her mouth was busy and so she didn't scream and cry! Just kidding!). A few weeks into school they had their first music test. They had make a recording of a particular piece of music and turn it in for a grade. The teacher told the students to tape it over and over again until they felt good about it. Tori taped it about ten times and finally turned it in. A few days later, the music teacher came and pulled her out of class and said, "Tori, is that really you on that tape? It sounds like one of your sister's friends." She assured him that it was her and he told her she would have to play that day in front of the class to prove it. She played and he was blown away. He took her aside and told her that when he had listened to the tape blind, he had picked it as the best and chosen her to be section leader. Then he found out it was Tori and she had only been in band a few weeks and she wouldn't be able to help the other students as the section leader since she was not experienced enough. Tori had a new love, the flute!

This whole band thing was divine intervention, another way we have seen the hand of the Lord in our lives!! Our Heavenly Father knew where she needed to be and he put her there. She loves band and she still loves and plays the piano. She gets to play the piano in seminary, (a religious study class she takes every day), and she plays at church. This year she started marching band and there is a pretty sharp learning curve when you first start marching band. She, as usual, has worked herself very hard and is awesome. Here are a few pictures of the latest marching band competition, and of my cute Tori in her band uniform.

Just a side note: When we went to the homecoming football game to see her march, Aaron and I went to the snack bar after the half time show. We saw Tori there. Aaron had never seen Tori in her uniform and was afraid of her. It was so funny. I guess that he thought that she was a soldier or something. It wasn't until I picked him up and he looked directly at her face that he finally relaxed. It was cute.

Beware! Long Post!

It has been an eventful two days at our house and since I remembered to bring my camera, you have to hear about all of it.

Thursday evening we went to the special shapes balloon glow at the balloon fiesta. It was beautiful and so much fun. Every year we go and take fried chicken, tail gate, watch the balloons and then enjoy the fireworks and dessert at the end of the evening. This year we went with our good friends the Borens.
This is such a beautiful event. All of the special shape balloons fill up and stay at the field. The different balloons have balloon cards that they give away to the kids. They are like baseball cards but with pictures of the balloons. After all of the balloons are filled up they all pull on thier propane lines and light up at once. It is spectacular! They stay filled up for about an hour and then they deflate. After the balloons is the fireworks. It is a great show to rival any 4th of July. Lots of fun!!



We got home late, got up early and went to a eagle scout project for one of the boys we know. It was a gross project!!

This is gum on a slab of cement at the high school.
This is the high school courtyard. You can't really tell from this picture but it is HUGE!! The project was to scrape all of the gum off the cement. Now, the kids way of revolting is to spit their gum on the sidewalk. There is lots of gum. The great thing about this project was that everyone could help.

We left the service project and went to Lisa's to do some work on her campaign. Everyone worked again.

Okay, some of us played!!

We left Lisa's and came home for Adam's birthday slumber party. He has been waiting to have his party until after football was over and finally the day came. He was so excited!! I was less excited. Ten boys came over. We had cake, played football, decorated cookies, roasted marshmallows, ate pizza, watched a movie and did very little sleeping. Adam had a great time!!

I am so tired today!!

My Friend Lisa

My good friend Lisa is running for district attorney for Bernalillo County. Lisa and I met when we were both in college. We worked together and were work friends. We keep in loose touch after she graduated and went to law school through her mother, (who happened to be my boss). When Lisa was going through her divorce, she moved to Rio Rancho and we became very close friends. She had two children at the time, Andrew and Mallory, and I had just had Megan, (so I had three for those who have lost count). We spent lots of time together. Our kids spent lots of time together. We laughed, we cried, we shopped, we laid by the pool, we had parties, (you get the picture). Lisa moved to Enchanted Hills. We moved to Enchanted Hills.

Then, when I was pregnant with Adam, Lisa met Dan. They fell in love and got married and I stood as Lisa's matron-of-honor in her wedding. I was very matronly too, (eight months pregnant), but I digress. Lisa and Dan moved across town and our days by the pool ended. We do still get to see each other but we don't get to spend as much time together as we once did.

Lisa is a big time attorney. She has won all kids of awards. She taught at the law school. She worked for the DA's office. She advocates for foster children and women. She is wonderful. She is now running for district attorney.

Lisa should be our district attorney. She is smart and an incredibally good lawyer. Lisa has just the right amount of toughness and compassion. She has excellent judgement and would make great decisions about who to prosecute and so forth--something our current district attorney lacks. You can check out her web site at www.torraco4da.com.

I have been volunteering on her campaign. I do slave labor, label postcards, walk neighborhoods, but it has been a lot of fun. Today the kids labeled over 1000 postcards while I took grandma Penne to the store. They are awesome.

I hope Lisa wins!! Pray for her, will you?

Big Weekend

I have been so impressed by Jennifer"s blogging that I decided to give it a try myself.

This was a big weekend at our house. Adam had his last football game and threw a pass for a touchdown. This was a very big deal because his team is, shall we say, working toward improvement, and this was only their second touchdown of the entire season. The other was made on a kickoff return. The advantage to being on a team in need of so much improvement is that Adam gets to be the quarterback, the kicker and an outside lineman. He has had a great time and been one of the stars of the team. He may not have gotten to do all of this if his team was a little more skilled so it has been fun even though they get slaughtered every game

Keri, one of our star soccer players, played her soccer game and she scored three goals. Way to go Keri!! No pictures, camera elsewhere.

Tori marched in her first marching band competition and they got first place. She plays the flute and has enjoyed marching band so much this year. Unfortunately, I din't get any pictures of the performance since we only have one camera and it was at the soccer game. I'll try at the competition this weekend.

Katie went to homecoming. She looked beautiful and had a wonderful time. She went with one of her friends from church who asked her to go by leaving a "build-a-bear" with a voice recorder on the front seat of her car. When you pressed the hand it asked, "Katie, will you go to homecoming with me?" It was very cute, Her best friend, Chanel, came over and Chanel went with Katie's other best friend, Kaleb. The dance was outside and it drizzled the whole evening. The kids danced outside and said the rain made it more fun. The came back here for breakfast. It is fun to have teenagers, (did I really say that?)!!