Reflections-

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it is I really want my kids to learn from me....not the ABC's and the 123's of life but the things that get you though the day....

Here i a go at it...

General Rules or Thoughts I would like them to take away from their early years....

Be a friend and a good one at that!

ALWAYS ask someone with a broken down car if they need help, even if you have no idea how to help them, just offering goes a long way for some one who is having a bad day!

SMILE- A friendly smile on your face can take you twice if not more the distance of some one with a sour puss...people will look forward to talking to you and will listen more intently

BE KIND- Hold doors, say "bless you" to complete strangers... they will not help but smile.

BE INVOLVED! BE THE CHANGE....some times it will be fun, others a challenge, other times blood sweat and tears but I promise it will all be worth it!

Be thrifty but not cheap

Be genuine! When your words and actions come from your heart, it shows....

LAUGH OFTEN

EVERYTHING in MODERATION- Don't set your self up for absolutes" I will never do___" Try it all (if it's legal and safe)

....leave only foot prints....take only photographs...

Hike and enjoy the outdoors- Your grandfather will smile upon you for such things

Observe but then join in! The doing is always more fun and rewarding than the watching!

Don't expect others to think they way you do, you will just be disappointed- plus a lively debate is good for the soul....

Do what you love with the people you love!

Always send out Christmas cards! Everyone loves to get mail!

Always take time for family, yes we are crazy but we do love you so!

Fall?

When you start thinking back to school, it in my mind elicits thoughts of FALL. In Arizona it is w whole other story! We are now on our second week of school and it is 107 degrees as I type this. Just waiting for the kids the amount of sweat is amazing. The stranger thing is store here such as Target and well all clothing store turn over to their fall lines. I hear many a story at open house of mom snatching up the last pair of clearance shorts because there were no new ones in the store. Did Target not get the memo?? I know national chains all that but it would be like selling swim suits in Alaska in January!! It just doesn't make much sense to me at all.

I love Fall the idea of it at least the leaves changing a crisp to the air...that is pretty much winter here! When you go for so many months of hot hot and hotter the the image of putting on a sweater is a nice thing!

So here is wishing everyone a cool start to school and dreams of cooler weather!

These pictures can only mean one things!

School is back in session! Yippee!

Abby is starting 5th grade and is elated that her wonderful teacher from last year moved up along with the kids! I had never seen her so excited about learning as she was last year and it was a great year for her so I hope that trend continues!

Tim is excited to be in sixth grade and be the oldest kids in the school. He has his ambitions set high...he is running a grass roots campaign to get vote class clown in the year book.... When he approached me about it he asked would you be mad, I said no as long as he is not disrespectful to anyone to reach his goal.

Max is starting school this year too! He is very excited and he actually starts on Wednesday. My friend Marin is going to be his teacher, we are working on calling her by her last name, but she insists Marin is just fine for him to call her. She has an amazing perspective on kids and a true passion for it.

Jim is going to get to go to school too! Max's school is a cooperative school and since he will now be off on Fridays he will get his turn at working in the class. I think it will be great for both he and Max.

As for me I am also starting a new adventure, I will be working with the Shade Foundation, an opportunity I am really excited about! I have also joined the committee for the 57th annual Parada Del Sol, Scottsdale's annual horse drawn parade. So it is expected to be yet another busy year!

The boys are making their bunkers...

Tonight I decided to throw all caution to the wind and let Tim have 3 of his closest friends spend the night. Abbey is at her friends house so one part of the disaster waiting to happen has been taken out....Jim not being as brave as I, when to the movies by himself just to get out of the house!

Max is here and as you all know he has no idea he is a 3 year old so he is helping build the bunkers. This bunker building took almost an hour with the instructions that it all must go back where you found it...we will see....

They are having a Nerf war, there is an intrinsic flaw in "Nerf waring"...you have to reload...and reloading requires everyone stopping the game and picking up all the bullets...They lasted all of 3 and a half minutes before they had all unloaded their weapons and well got too hot to reload...Now it is not like they have just one gun each or a few bullets each they have an arsenal! Clips full of bullets and still just a few minutes, then they all have their bullets labeled so they sort it all out....it is more than I want to even think about...They promise they are going to go out later when it is "cooler".

Stay tuned for more war coverage....

Abbeys' afterschool party...

We had Abbeys party with her school friends right after the last day of school, it was early release so it was a perfect ime for a dip in the pool!

Wow how time flies!

It is May, it has been awhile since I posted a new entry! Tomorrow is the last day of school and the house is filled with the smell of cake for Abbey's 10th birthday party we are having right after school tomorrow!

Ten years! I can't hardly believe it! She is not my first to reach that mile stone but at times she seems so much younger and older all at once.

She is just finishing up 4th grade, she is one of the youngest kids in her grade...most of the kids have passed the 10 year mark...Abbey has done a lot in her 10 years...

She went to her first major league baseball game when she was just 5 days old.

She was born a city girl we lived in the heart of downtown Phoenix.

When she was born had one grandpa (Carl) and a great grandfather(the great One), two grandmas (mom and sue) and two great grandmas (my grandmothers). Ten years later she has One great grandfather (the great one) gained and lost a grandpa (Bill)and three grandmas (Mom Sue and Bana) and two Great grandma's (G.G. my grandma and Grandma Jean, Jims grandma). She has lost but also gained!

When she was born she had one brother, 10 years later she has two. Tim 11 and Max 3.

She has been to both coasts and the sea of Cortez. At 7 she parasailed and 9 she surfed.

She has grown oh man has she grown, a few days before her birthday she is just over 5 feet tall!

She is spirited, never afraid to be different or to really care what others might thing. She is far more confident than I was at her age. She is caring and loyal, she has a big heart. She is never afraid to try new things and never shy around other people!

She plays volleyball and has tried other sports tennis, t-ball, basketball and even gymnastics.

She is a pesky little sister and a helpful mothering big sister.

What will the next 10 years bring, we wait at the edge of our seats to find out, I am sure they will be filled with joy adventure angst and all those lovely things that go with teen age years....

But mostly I hope they are filled with love and laughter and good friends....to help her get through it all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Abbey!

It's a good day...

We are on a roll today!

The battery died in the Xterra, it was under warranty and we got a new one for free!

I went to a jewelry party and won a real cool bracelet!

Jim and I went to move a chair and found the remote we have been missing for almost 6 months!

We are now turning everything else in the house upside down to see what else we can find!

Spring Break

I thought it was about time I showed you all our home away from home! This is it in all it's glory!Yes that is a "veranda" you know if you can't have on on the house if you can fit one in on your vacation home I would highly suggest it! It features just enough room for the 5 of us but when you can consider anything around you back yard it is a pretty good deal! I have really started to enjoy camping, Tim and Abbey are old enough to wander around with friends and they also do a good job of letting Max come along for the little things. I have resigned myself to know that I will be the one packing up all the stuff to go. I have created a system to where I just have to grab one big box from the shed that has the stove and all the other camping must haves. Then in a truck I have the tent sleeping bags therma rests and the all that jazz. Then it is just the clothes and we are set. I do believe the last hour of camping can kill the trip! The take down! Everyone is either tired or distracted and it is always I lot of "I told you to to bring this to the car" I don't want to have to ask you again" " you can't just sit in the car while everyone else works" I dream of the day when they "get it" that it would be so much easier if they just bucked up brought a few things to the car and we could be on our merry way with out all the nagging!
Oh well a girl can dream! Now here are some pictures as I am off to put everything back in it's place so it will be another grab and go at least out the door!
We took our home to Sedona this weekend with some friends it was a lot of fun.
Here is Tim at Slide Rock State park, we all agreed we will have to come back when we can play in the water...Pictures make me realize how many freckles he really does have!

Here is a family picture they are rare to come by! Again at Slide rock

Max and Mommy! Max was an amazing hiker, he could climb the boulders "better than Batman" or so he said!

Tim

Abbey and Max in what I think was an old pump house.

Max loved his ice cream

At the Chapel in the rocks.

Abbey with the view from the Chapel

Moving forward with 2009 one day at a time

To say that 2009 has seemed like an uphill battle so far would not be too far off. It has been one challenge after another. Bill (my father in law) died a few days after Christmas and then I got a concussion that I kept re-injuring, I was on the job hunt because...well the kids have to eat... I started a new job very part time, got sick lost my voice, the kids all got LICE from somewhere while I was sick as ... mom has a growth that is going to require surgery and that ugly "C" word was thrown around in the Dr visits.... it has been an uphill battle.

As January came to a close I had high hopes for February! So high that I almost felt bad for it in some ways, in others, I thought as long as no ones dies or the plagues of the earth are not unleashed it has to be better right???

I did however keep saying to myself, things will work out...they ALWAYS do. My girlfriend Patty reassured me of this...telling me, Amy you have had all kinds of crap thrown at you in your life and it does always work out...and always for the best...

So far February is been an okay kind of month, Max and I go to "work" together everyday. What started out as something to put a little bit of food on the table has turned into more. I must say I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I am!

Mom had an old friend visit and it was a fun distraction to have her here. We enoyed the Desert Botanical Gardens her last night here..

Sandra called excited that we got a reservation at the camp grounds at Havasupia Falls in the grand canyon. So the next step is to get in better shape these last few month have been a physical setback as well and it is great motivation to loss some pounds and enjoy the beautiful hike with good friends.

Tim is starting baseball and I do love to watch him play, it is his passion and he makes me proud of how he has grown since he started.

Abbey has decided she needs an "E" in her name! She is growing into quite the pre teen. She is playing volleyball and enjoying time with her friends selling girl scout cookies and playing with Max.

Nothing like snow in the desert!

The kids had a half day on Wednesday and a friend said to me at school "Did you see the snow on 4 peaks?" Now 4 peaks doesn't get snow often but when you are in the desert and you can see snow off in the distance it is a thing of beauty! So we drove off to see how long it would take up to reach snow on the side of the road...we found it here, just past sunflower where my Dad worked on the Arizona Trail. Every new mountain that came into view had more snow than the last.

Max was amazed by the "icebergs" that were breaking off the melting snow...

Busy bees....

This has been a busy month!
Max has invented his own form of transportation... just find a kids with a rolling backpack and hop on! Here he is with Ben and mooching a kid off of Abby...he will not ride out the school like this the other kids think it is very funny! I am just thankful he is not darting around the cars so it is a win win!

Tiny took a ride on of Max's cars...

Max has started to go to "work" with mom when she is working at the daycare! He is loving it!

Abby has started up volleyball again! They moved up to the 10-12 year old bracket! There is some serious players they are coming up against!

Max also found a way to stow away! Who wants to take him on their next trip???

I refinished the patio furniture.... Here is the before
and the after!

Not sure...

I am really not sure what to write about today but I fell like I should update something here so lets see where this goes....OH wait I have some pictures!

Every New Years day Tom's mom has a big party, each year it has a theme this year was Chinese New Year.

Max ate a ton of food using kid chop sticks...(note must pick some up)

Here is the Dragon I made with Sue- the head is a kite head hte rest I made....
They had noise makers- not so great when you have a concussion!
Here are the kdis walking down the street with it. They were a little embarssed taking it out on the street they are that age now...but they did it!

Here is Abby with her loot bag, an abacus chinesse jump ropes Po from kung fu panda and lots of fun things....