Concerning the discovery Q and a friend made of a stinky caterpillar last summer

A: Are you sure it wasn't you who was stinky?

Q: Well, it didn't smell like armpits.

invitation....

We would love to have you/some/all come to dinner at our home. Please respond back here and we can make plans for a Sunday to share some food fun and memories with Grandpa. Let me know what is good for you guys.

Liz

A Christmas Story I Told My Kids This Week

Once upon a time, a long time ago, before the Internet, there were things called "catalogs." There were three amazing stores that sometimes sent these "catalogs" to people's home, named JC Penney, Sears/Roebuck, and Montgomery/Wards (aka. Monkey Wards). When I was a little girl, these "catalogs" had special editions known as "Christmas catalogs" that were filled with wonders. My sisters and I would sit and stare at the pages and pages of everything from matching robe and pajama sets to sparkly holiday dresses to canopy beds to spiral staircases to Easy Bake Ovens to train sets to outdoor pools to indoor pool tables, and our heads were NOT filled with sugar plums, but rather with unabated covetous consumerist hunger. We WANTED these things, in fact, were were pretty sure that we needed a lot of them. We would circle the pictures, and make stars by the truly awesome stuff, and show our mom, and show our mom, and show our mom. Usually, at some point or other, she would say something about "choices" or "limits" or possibly "self-restraint" (when we got old enough to understand that, sort of). At some point, we'd make a list, and it wouldn't usually include everything we'd circled... usually. And we knew that, come Christmas morning, not everything we circled would be there, under the tree, or on the chair, or the couch. But we hoped; deep down, we hoped.

OVERWHELMi

I HAVE A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My school offered me a job today!!!!! I am so excited that I get to stay with my kids!! I am going to be an aide for the fourth grade. The aide we have now is leaving about the time that i finish student teaching!!!!! Plus this is a great way to get my foot in the door!!! I feel SO SO SO SO SO SO blessed!!! i cant even describe in words......

Piggy Piggy

We think we are a family of swine fluers! (is there such a thing?) I declined the test because the doctor said it wouldn't change the way they treated the children. Zach and I have escaped (thus far--fingers crossed).

Zach's weekend view of Swine flu:
Going to the football game--taking dinner half made for Shields family
Leaving the football game early--kindly attending to feverish children
Enduring a football loss--pain was greater than any flu symptoms
One hour of church--we have a lot of this in our area lately
Creating a home church meeting--complete with kids giving talks and music
Liz's weekend view of Swine flu:
Brain melts after watching Barbie Movies -- the first 3 were fun :(
Cabin Fever is so great--talk to the Fed-Ex guy like he is family
Want to go to the football game--babysitters don't like kids with fevers
Relief with a drive to Wyoming to pick up my Dad--the sky and sunset were Perfect
Happy Zach is so kind and tender to all of us cooped up nuts!!!

These two images give me comfort when thinking about mom!

Lon is a Hero!!!

Thanks Lon ! You ROCK! Grandpa had a great time!!!