Campaigning

Carol and Major ran for school offices last week.  Carol ran for President and Major ran for Historian.  Neither of them won, but they learned a lot.  They had the best posters.  Everyone especially liked Carol's.  They also did well on their speeches.  
There was a lot of competition.  About 10 kids ran for each office.  They did their best and hopefully they will win next time.

Girl Parties

Carol celebrated her 12th birthday on Saturday.  She had 13 girls come from school and church.  She had so much fun and was a very gracious hostess.  I was proud of her.

I stayed up half the night dipping chocolates.  We had chocolate dipped marshmallows, cherries, caramels and peanuts.  We also had chips and salsa and some other junk food.

I also made tuxedo strawberries and chocolate dipped pretzels.  Carol thought the strawberries looked like they were at church!
The girls broke into three groups and made up skits with a bag of props that we gave them.  They were very silly skits, but the girls had a great time!
Each girl made a birthday wish on a balloon and we let them go.

Lucy also had a party that day.  She went to a salon and had her hair styled and face painted and then got to ride home in a limo.  She had a great time!

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year!  Juliette has been sick since Christmas, but still keeps going.  Nothing slows her down!  She has been a snuggle bunny lately since she doesn't feel well.  She is so sweet and happy.  She draws all the time and tries to make words.  She also tries to play tunes on the piano.

Lucy is finishing up more antibiotics for yet another ear infection.  She will be having surgery this spring to repair the hole in her ear drum and then maybe she won't get so many infections.  She loves to dance and is always wanting to perform for us.  She is smiley and happy and a good student.

Major is now a Webelos scout and very motivated.  During Christmas break he constantly played his favorite song "The Entertainer" on the piano and even tried to do one hand playing that and the other hand playing "Music Box Dancer".  Now he wants to learn the guitar (or any instrument that we suggest.)  I have to constantly kick him off the computer!  I guess having gameboys and stuff does have advantages - I would be able to use the computer!

Carol is now in YW and loves it!  She is growing up so much!  She finally believes me that she needs to know how to play the hymns on the piano.  After going to YW just one time and seeing how no one can play, she has been practicing "I Believe in Christ" everyday so she can play it in YW.   She loves her animals (two cats and rabbit)!  She wants to have an animal kennel and take care of other peoples animals, since I can't stand to have that many.

I was lucky enough to get sick the day after Christmas.  I ended up going to the ER a few days later (only because no Urgent Care was open).  We have a new hospital right by our house and I was the only person there.  I was afraid I was getting pneumonia again so I went.  They gave me two breathing treatments, a shot and some heavy duty steriods.  It got me through, although I'm just barely now feeling normal.  School starts tomorrow and then no more sleeping in.  Boo hoo!

Clint is working hard, as usual.  Our 17th anniversary is tomorrow!  Wow!  Time flies!  We keep wishing we could go on a cruise, but there just never seems to be time.  Life is good!

Wedding

We had a great time at my brother's wedding in Seattle. It was cold, clear weather until we came out of the temple and then it was a blizzard! It snowed the rest of the day and was still raining when we left. It was great to be with all my family just as adults. Stephen married a great girl named Leone and we all think she is awesome!

Pre-Halloween

We had Trunk-or Treat on Saturday night. Carol was one of the judges for the chili cook-off so her banner says, "I'm the judge". She was so excited to be a judge. Clint was also a judge. Juliette did not want to be anything pretty and Lucy wanted lots of make-up. We didn't see much of Major as he was off playing Star Wars the whole time with his friends. We are quite sick of candy and we haven't even had Halloween yet!

Home Improvements

The last two weeks we have been living in chaos! We took the advice of many people and decided to install our own laminate flooring in the TV room because everyone said it was so easy. Bad decision! My neighbor, “Tim the Tool Man”, had pitty on us and “helped” us install it. Although we just helped him. He had all the tools and the experience. I will never try to do a home improvement that complex again.
But the room looks great! I did paint it. I can handle that. We got a new sofa and I’m going to get an entertainment center. It will be nice to have more storage. That room was such a junk pile. It’s going to take another month to organize and de-clutter.

Daily Life

We have been very busy. Carol gets up every school day at 5:30am and cleans her room, reads (listens to) her scriptures, practices the piano and cello and feeds the animals. I never have to remind her. She also is busy with school orchestra, school choir, cello and piano lessons, activity days, and East Valley Youth Symphony.

Major also gets up at 6:00am with no reminders and cleans his room, reads his scriptures and a book, practices the piano and has added the violin to his many talents. His teacher is amazed at his speed of progress, of course! He is also doing flag football, cub scouts, school orchestra, piano and violin lessons.

Lucy and Juliette need lots of reminders. We are starting a new "Miracle Music" point system that Alice loaned me to try to get them trained. I guess Carol and Major's example just isn't enough. They are sweet little girls and are involved in dance and tumbling.
Lucy also started the piano this year.
Juliette wants to do the violin and gets it out and "practices" everyday.

We have added a gray rabbit to our animal collection. Some people in our neighborhood were selling them at their garage sale. (They have lots more if anyone wants one.) It is really cute and I like it better than the cats. It's name is Lulu. We are calling it a girl. It seems to be fine around the cats. The cats are scared of it.