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Hi,


I'm writing my thesis, or not writing my thesis, depending on what day it is. I feel that I shouldn't do anything else, but write in my spare time. I actually haven't done all that much writing because there is little spare time, but I feel that I shouldn't blog or other such things, like do laundry. You won't hear much from me until December (I've been so prolific otherwise).


I read a story last night to Ryan that had some Halloween facts. One was that 9 out of 10 parents sneak candy from their children's stash. He was truly shocked and distressed. I must keep that book from Lydia.


Here are a couple of birthday pictures. It was fun and easy. Ryan had a wonderful time and so did his friends. I sure did fight the Chuck E. Cheese birthdays to begin with, but they have been OK. This was probably the last year, and I might miss the old rat.

First Day of School

Apparently, my very busy, but relaxing summer passed without a blog post. We all had a marvelous summer that included a visit from the Greens, beach trips, soccer camp, horse camp and many days just swimming in the pool.

My first day of school was a couple of weeks ago, and the kids started last Wednesday.


Ryan was too excited to pose. He was very wiggly. The kids both had a great first week and like their teachers.

We celebrated Lydia's birthday with multiple parties. Following are miscellaneous pictures.

This is after the pinata broke. Kids sure do love a pinata. I suppose I would, too, if it were filled with adult treats, or even fine chocolate.


This is taken on our new trampoline. You should have seen Joel and me putting it together. The box said 1200 pieces. I know that was a typo, but it felt like that many pieces. We amazingly did it, though, and the kids have been loving it.

Ryan has been taking pictures with my camera and I think the lens might be dirty (based upon the looks of these pictures). The kids watched Lassie last night. Ryan cried for over an hour because a dog, Toots, died in the movie. Both kids were sobbing hysterically at one point.

Sadly I think our cat has been snatched by a coyote. I saw a coyote in the backyard Thursday morning, and we have not seen the cat since Thursday afternoon. We should have kept him in, but we have also always had the coyotes and Kerry had a kitty door to the garage and escaped to it. He spent the nights in the house. I think the coyotes are getting hungry and they are out at all hours now. He has never been gone for more than a day. The kids don't know yet, because Joel and I keep hoping he'll show up. He was a wonderful cat, and loved everyone. We will all miss him very much.

Summer!

Hello! We have been enjoying a marvelous summer. We returned from our MN family lake vacation. It is always so nice to hang out at Gull lake with the family. Putting worms on the hooks is not so nice. I drew the line at leeches. I am not going to purposefully touch a leech.

Here are a few pictures from Lydia's talent show and her 2nd grade show "The Big Sing-Colors of Our World"- both great successes.

Lydia is doing a musical theater camp this week...they are doing "Working" in a week. Good luck to them. I like to drop her off and say, "Best of luck." Quite an endeavor. She and a friend are doing the "Neat to be a Newsboy" song. Should be fun.

Ryan is doing a three sport camp next week and Lydia is doing a soccer camp. We are going to try to paint their bedrooms this summer...which is a pretty big job. Last year, when we painted the office, I dropped the gallon of paint on the carpet. Let's hope it goes a little better this year.

Let's see, other news...Lydia shot another commercial for Mattel's Splatster. That name rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? She did a great job. She worked 9 hours and maintained focus. I was impressed. She really enjoys it, so that is good, too. Ryan swims from early morning to late at night. His hair is chlorine crispy, but at least it isn't green yet.

I forgot my camera when we went to the lake, so hopefully my mom will send some pictures!

More later!

Ryan and the Talent Show

I believe Ryan is our new Simon Cowell. I was watching the talent show auditions with him, and he couldn't help but comment on every number. At first he was loud, and I quickly shushed him and asked him to only say nice things or nothing at all. He couldn't help himself, though, and whispered (thank god) the rest of the comments in my ear. Comments included: That was awful! Way too long. Oh boy, she can't sing. Whoa, what are they doing? He did have nice things to say too, such as: Wow, they can hula hoop and I liked that.

Funny thing, is he was so right with all of them. He doesn't watch American Idol, or any other shows with us where we make comments like this. It is his own thing. I must channel it, or help him to know when it may be appropriate to say these things...like the privacy of your own home!

But Wait, There are More!

The Barbie commercial where the hardest thing she did was give the panda a shot one handed with her left hand

and

the aquarium commercial where she had so much fun and kept telling producers, "I'd do this for free!" She would really do them all for free because she has a great time. Her parents would probably not drive her around kingdom come for free. College fund!

Now Ryan, he is a boy about having fun on his own terms. If his friends are doing it and it looks OK, then he is in. Otherwise, he is not so sure. He watches, and then decides if he will do it or not. Not so great for auditions, but he is more cautious then Lydia, which is a trait I truly appreciate!

Commercial Links

Here is a link to Lyd's water slide commercial...shot in the winter.

Commercial Link

Here is a link to Lydia's Sempra Energy commercial. There is a picture of Lydia on the homepage. Scroll over the pane with the little girl's eye bottom center and click on the Everyday campaign link , and then on the TV to watch the commercial. They played it during American Idol here in San Diego last week. It was fun to see!

Breaking news - Celebrity Swine Flu Fatality

And we all know who gave it to him.






*News forwarded to me via email

He's Got the Moves

Watch Ryan at Rock n Roll night at school.

He is in between two friends whose dad is filming. I'm sure he was trying to film his boys, but Ryan was into it with Power Ranger infused moves.

Jill

Brindy is forced to play pirates with Ryan.

The kids were sobbing in the other room. I went to check on them and they were loudly bawling, but not injured, thank goodness. I asked them what was wrong. They are watching Air Bud, and apparently it is very sad. I can't convince them that it will be OK and couldn't calm them down with hugs, but they wanted to keep watching, so I left them sobbing. Who knew Air Bud was a tear jerker?

Ryan came home very excited today saying, "Mom, guess what I learned in school today?"
I, the ever proud mom, said, " What, Ryan?"
He said, "I can burp anytime I want now, even when I don't really have to!" It's good to learn some useful skills in school.

The Movie

We went to see Hannah Montana: The Movie. Ryan really didn't want to go, but I made him come with us. When the movie was over he was wiping real tears from his eyes and said, "That was so great, it made me cry. Can we buy that one?" That's my sweet boy.

Happy April Fools Day!

Lydia traded the cereal in two boxes this morning. I let Ryan pour his cereal out and he was so mad that he burst into tears and went back to bed. Don't mess with Ryan and his food.

That darn dog!

Our dog thinks she owns the back yard. She chews absolutely anything that is left out there...and I mean anything. Door mat, lawn chairs...anything. It is ironic that the bones we give her to chew on are quickly buried. She also keeps digging holes under the fence. She has become an escape artist. Any tips, especially on the escape artist issue? I really don't want to crate her while we are gone, but it isn't looking good.

Keen Observation Skills

A car like this goes by us the other day and Ryan says, "There's one of those cars with the funny tops." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You know, the ones with different color tops that the old ladies drive."

Well, there you go.

Another Commercial!

Lydia shot a commercial yesterday for Sempra Energy. They own SDG&E down here and I think they are doing a big natural gas push. There will be many different scenes with people using natural gas. Lydia and other kids are running to a bus to get on and then the camera focuses in on the CNG symbol on the back of the bus. It was a fun day. Lydia had a blast and I continue to get exhausted by watching her work. What is that about? I needed a nap by the time we got home.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today was my dad's birthday...and I forgot to call. I was working nonstop from morning through a 5:30-8:15 class and he goes to bed at 9pm MS time. I almost called anyway, but thought a better present would be to let him sleep.

So, Happy belated birthday, Dad, who used to purposely change to put on your ugly shirt and insist on driving the old, rusty, party color truck to drive me places. These days, I'd actually ride in the seat instead of on the floor and ask you to come in with me instead of drop me off a block away. Thanks, Gollott and I love you Gollott. I'm still relieved that I finally got the Gollott joke.

1966

Here we are: Linda, Ron, Ted, Gail and little no neck.

Supposed to be Writing

I am currently writing my thesis. Chapter 1. That is as far as I've gotten. Joel says he knows when I have a project due because the house is suddenly clean, I'm doing laundry, and all sorts of other things that I never get done start getting done. I'm thinking I should walk the dog, but it is raining. I haven't blogged in a while...


It may be a little late to be sharing the event, but we had a fabulous Christmas! Thank you to all of our holiday hosts, but we owe an especially big thank you to Phil and Martha who provided us with a beautiful, comfortable suite of rooms complete with delicious meals and incredible company. Good thing they shopped at Costco. Following are some photos from the visit.

Ice skating was fun for Lydia and stressful for Ryan.

I think there is something in the coffee.

Beautiful Mary.

Ryan, Connie, Donna, and Bruce opening presents, and enjoying Evan's toys.

Martha and Phil: Hosts extraordinaire

Chris and Karen

The Royal Family above and below with Grandpa Ed.

I got food poisoning before I got on the plane and was very disappointed that Delta stopped putting the vomit bags in the seat pockets. Bad move. The airports also don't have enough bathrooms, I might add. Joel dragged me along, much to the dismay of other passengers and any pride I might have had. Thank goodness we made it, though, and have wonderful memories of Christmas 2008.

A Day in the Life of Lydia

After a good night's rest, Lydia gets up to play a few Chopin Mazurkas.

A nice breakfast and then ready to practice her dressage.

She comes home and plays a little Webkinz, and then begins baking. I assist her in the kitchen a bit while wearing one of my favorite wigs.

Dinner and then off to bed to do a little reading of the classics before falling asleep.

Too Much

Oh boy. I am overwhelmed at work with too much to do. I feel that I don't have time to teach because I have too many issues to deal with and other responsibilities. Enough of that.

I don't believe that I ever posted about Lydia's other commercials and Ryan's print shoot. They were all before the holidays. Lydia did a Little Tykes water slide commercial. Haven't seen it, but it was fun to watch them shoot. She did an especially good job when she and another boy were chosen to have buckets of water dumped on their faces from above as they looked up into the bucket. The Director was trying to not have them flinch around the 10th time as they began to anticipate the freezing bucket of water dumped up their noses, so he started telling them, "We aren't going to really dump it this time, just look up." Of course, he dumped it on them. They fell for that 2 times before they caught on. At the end of the day, a bug flew into Lydia's eye and she freaked out. Luckily it was the end, but she was traumatized by the bug. She was ridiculously dramatic about it, but I vaguely remember sprinting crazily in and out of my house for a couple of years around 2nd and 3rd grade because there were some plants around the front door that the bees liked. Here is the group of kids who were in the commercial. They let them warm up in the hot tub at one point.

A couple of weeks later, Lydia did a Born Doll commerical that will probably be seen mostly in Europe. She and another little girl worked hard all day, but had a fun time. Amazing all they do for 1-3 minutes of finished product. On the same day, Ryan did an OshKosh/Carters print shoot. Very exciting. Neither Joel or I had cameras for any of it. We are slackers. Another mom emailed some photos. Strangely, Lydia is most excited by the food selection all day. Hmmm.

I plan on doing some Christmas posting, but 1st things first. Do you know what this is?

Lydia spent the night with a friend Friday night...a very clean friend, I might add. The mom called Sunday night to say her daughter had lice. After very close inspection, I found one on Lydia's head and then we stayed up until 11:00pm doing the treatment, combing through the hair, washing everything washable in the house. It was a personal nightmare. I found nothing on Ryan, thank goodness. I took us all into the school nurses office Monday morning and she checked all of us. We are clear, but I'm still checking Lydia daily and I have to treat her next week, too. I'm also washing sheets every night for a week. Thank goodness the friend's mom caught it when she did. The friend has very thick hair that was hard to go through and her sister had it, too. The sister was like Lydia, though, and it looked like the little bug had just recently moved in. We can only assume it came from school. Ugh.

Here is a miscellaneous picture of the kids working in the yard. Their yard work gear is very interesting.

Happy New Year!

We have had a fabulous month of festivities. The kids walked through the airport like this on New Year's Day and then through the hotel as well. The only problem was that Ryan got upset that people were looking at him...but he wouldn't take the hat off. I'm not allowed to post anymore until my Christmas decorations are down. Let's hope I post again before February.