Such a cool gift!!

I have a Canadian friend named Laura

who is a very talented web designer.

She also adores Bren and is such an encourager to me.

She always takes the time to comment on my posts

and her words bring a smile to my face.

For her 6th birthday,

Laura made Bren a youtube video

set to her favorite song!
I just love it!

Thanks Laura!!

Check it out!

Happy Birthday Brendell!!!!

Six years ago today,

God put the "cherry" on top

of our family Sundae,

and it's been a sugar rush ever since!!!

The following is a pictoral trip

down memory lane.

Our little girl has grown up so fast!!

She's brought us so much joy and laughter.

What a gift she is to us!

I won't make a huge post now,

we've got lots of celebrations planned

for the next few days,

so come back for class party pictures

and birthday party pictures in the next few days!

For now enjoy these photos...

I'm going to make the birthday girl some breakfast!

American Idol Recap

So we are back to four judges this week

with our top seven

and Disco tunes!

I have to say that this is traditionally my

least favorite week.

But there were a few shining stars this time.

*

Lil Rounds was not one of them.

She sang I'm Every Woman.

I totally agree with the judge who said

that she actually has shown us

every woman but herself during this competition.

It's actually getting a little sad.

*

Now for the star of the week....

Kris Allen!

He sang She Works Hard For The Money

with a very cool arrangement.

I loved every bit of it!!

He took an overdone song and made it current

with a very cool vibe.

Well done, you little ladder climber you!

*

Danny sang September.

I love this song only because

it mentions the 21st night of September

which happens to be my husband's birthday.

Danny definitely got his groove on

with this song, but it wasn't my favorite from him.

He's still one of my picks for top two,

but tonight wasn't his greatest.

*

Allison sang Hot Stuff.

She looks a little better tonight.

Somehow a tad softer,

or as soft as you can be when you are

head to toe in black leather!

I really loved her intro,

but the whole thing was just a bit awkward to me.

Maybe it was a tad to slow,

maybe it was the arrangement.

Whatever it was there was definitely

a bit of awkwardness tonight.

*

Adam sang If I Can't Have You.

He slowed it down and sang the heck out of it tonight!

Like I've said before,

this boys range just blows me away.

He really is musically brilliant

and in a class all by himself.

He's versatile and distinctive.

A rare talent!

He'll definitely be in the finals

and probably take the whole thing!

*

Matt sang Stayin' Alive.

I was worried when they announced this song choice,

but I was pleasantly surprised.

It wasn't great, but it was better than I thought it would be.

Let's hope he did well enough to justify his

judges save last week.

*

Anoop sang Dim All The Lights.

Ug. I just hated this song.

Anoop had some moments,

but not enough I'm afraid.

I think he's in trouble tonight.

*

Bottom three:

Lil, Matt, Anoop.

Going Home: Lil

Fave of the night: Kris

Ribs gone wrong!

Have you ever had one of those days

when it seems like so many things go wrong

that you just have to laugh?

Well, today was a day like that for me.

It started out normal enough.

I went to a Zumba class which was great.

I enjoyed it so much and came home with so much energy

that I mopped the floor, beat out my throw rugs,

scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom

and vacuumed the living room.

And then came dinner.

The witching hour.

The time when the women are separated from the girls.

I made a promise to myself that I would cook a full meal

every night for the remainder of this month.

I was well on my way with two pyrex pans full of ribs in the oven.

I was feeling like suzy homemaker

and couldn't wait for David to come home

to a clean house and a hot meal.

Halfway through the ribs cooking time,

I always take the pan out and drain the fat.

This is one of those times when in one single instant

everything can go terribly wrong.

At some point the hot pan touched a bit of cold water on the counter

and burst into a zillion shards of blue glass!

The undrained fat splattered all over my newly mopped floor

and the disposal in the sink was full of glass!

It took me 45 minutes to get it all cleaned up.

We still had one pan of ribs that survived,

but it was not enough to feed my family.

I ran back out to the store to buy another pack of ribs.

I found what I needed

and proceeded to place it on the conveyor belt in the check out line.

There must have been a hole in the package of ribs

because as soon as I picked it up out of my cart,

it ripped open and ribs fell out all over the conveyor belt!

At this point all I could do was laugh.

I tried to pick them up and put them back in the package,

but they are slippery little suckers

and one slipped out of my hand and into my open purse!

Ewwwwwwwww!!!

Thankfully, the line of people behind me were patient

and laughing with me as I ran back to grab another pack of ribs.

As I type this, the second batch of ribs is in the oven,

and David and I will finally have our dinner at about 8:30 tonight.

Sometimes "Murphy" just comes to live in your house, doesn't he?

The secret is to find beauty in the chaos

and to make lemonaide out of lemons right?

Some of those shattered blue glass pyrex pieces caught the sun

streaming through the kitchen window

in such a way that they were actually beautiful.

I kept several of them and used them to decorate

my window box coffee table.

Now whenever I think I'm having a bad day,

I can look at those pieces of glass

and be be reminded to look for the silver lining.

Because there always,

always

is one.

Meeting Sammi

You know how there are some people

that you just click with from the start?

Well, Sammi and I had that kind of chemistry.

As a bonus, she's family!

Sammi is my Dad's first cousin on his father's side.

I met her once when I was Brendell's age,

but she's lived far away ever since.

She now lives in Gig Harbor, Wa

which is about 2 hours from where we live.

My Dad was so excited for us to meet

and hooked us up through e-mail a few months ago.

We met for lunch in downtown Seattle yesterday

and had the most wonderful time.

We talked for 2 and a half hours

about life, kids, memories, exchange students,

photography, church, school

and different places we each have lived.

When she heard that Bren's birthday is so close,

she let the waiter know

and he brought out a little surprise for Bren.

She loved it!

If being a military family has taught me one thing
it is to grab time with family whenever you can.
We are thrilled to have met Sammi
who is just so delightful.
We are looking forward to spending more time
with her and her husband over the next two years of
our time here in Washington.

Canvas hopeful

MCP actions is having a fabulous contest!

I've decided to enter this photo of my nephews to win a

gallery wrap canvas of this shot.

Cross your fingers for me!!

Per the contest rules, I'm making this blog post for my entry and including this text:

I am entering this photo in the MCP Actions/Color Inc. Win a Gallery Wrap Canvas Photo Contest at http://mcpactions.com/blog. I certify that I took this photo and give both parties permission to use this photograph on their blogs/sites.

American Idol Movie Night!

Led by Quentin Tarantino

{who I don't particularly like

but whose direction of the contestants

last night I really did like}

Our American Idol top 7

sang hits from the movies.

*

First of all I have to comment on how nice Ryan looked.

I was loving his polka dot tie!

Now Paula on the other hand....

I'm not quite sure what she was wearing

and apparently neither did Ryan

because when he went to comment on it,

the only word he could find was

"Expensive?".

I guess that was better than,

"My what a lovely bejeweled dog collar you are wearing

tonight, Paula!"

I'm just saying.

*

Ok, on to the contestants:

Allison sang "Don't Wanna Miss A Thing."

This song is a favorite in our house

and we all loved Allison's version of it.

Branded "The girls only hope" by Simon

Allison did a great job with a big song.

In my opinion, she still needs wardrobe direction!

I haven't liked a thing she has performed in yet.

*

Anoop {dawg} sang "Everything I do".

This boy steps it up every week!

I'm liking him more and more.

I don't think he has the chops to stand with Danny and Adam,

But he might give the other two boys a run for their money

in the next few weeks!

*

Adam sang "Born to be Wild".

The black fingernails and heavy eye-liner are back again

this week with a rocked-out, Axle Rose-esque

version of this song with a hint of techno flavor.

Brilliant!!

Adam's range blows me away everytime!

He's not screaming, he's actually hitting and holding those notes!

It's just amazing to me.

He commands the stage every week

and his confidence makes for a very compelling performance.

Adam brought out the metaphor/cliche/inspirational quote library in Paula

tonight.

Apparently he was dancing in the path of greatness,

or something like that.

And she closed with "fortune rewards the brave".

Sometimes it does.

Sometimes it throws the brave right into freakville!

Such is the case when Britney was brave enough to shave her head

or when AI was brave enough to let Lady Ga-Ga sing

on it's stage.

*

Matt sang "Have You Ever Loved A Woman".

I love the lyrics of this song,

but I didn't love Matt singing it.

When he stuck to the melody in the beginning

it was great, but he messed up somewhere toward the end

and it was enough to put him in the bottom three in my opinion.

I'm happy to see him back at the keys,

but I'm afraid his inconsistency

could put him jeopardy.

*

Danny sang "Endless Love"

I loved this!!

I think it was the perfect song choice for his raspy voice

and he sang it with such emotion.

Whenever Danny sings an emotional song

such as this

I'm always afraid that he will break down in tears.

He holds it together though,

which is something that can't be said for those of us watching him!

*

Kris sang "Falling Slowly"

I'm going to find this song and put it on my playlist.

It's lyrically beautiful!

Kris started out a little shaky and to me he looked

awkward as he paused between those first few slow lines.

It seemed like he didn't know what to do with himself,

but then toward the end of the song

he hit some awesome notes and

I think he redeemed himself.

I watched him sing two times

and the second time through

I liked it much better.

I think the first time I was too tense

because of his awkward beginning.

I do think that with such an obscure song,

he could be in the bottom three though,

but he's not ready to go home.

*

Lil sang "The Rose".

Nope.

She tried to put her spin on it,

but unfortunately her efforts fell flat.

I did not like this at all

and I'm afraid Lil may have exhausted

her many second chances.

Bye-Bye Lil,

we could have loved you!

*

Best of the Night: Danny

Bottom three: Lil, Matt, Kris

Going home: Lil

In a perfect world.......

Every street would be lined with

flowering pink trees!

Sometimes the breeze catches

these tiny little pink blossoms

and sends them spinning in the air

like confetti.

The swirling and whirling of soft pink petals

sometimes lands on our windshield

and we carry them with us as far as they will go.

We were caught up in this fairy dance

as we drove down this street

the other day

and Bren and I both giggled

at the whimsy of nature's play.

Bren said,

"Those pink flowers make me feel all smiley!"

Wouldn't you feel all smiley too

if your ordinary drive down an ordinary street

was celebrated in such an extraordinary way?

Happy Spring!!

The Accidental Easter

Easter really crept up on me this year.

I kept putting off plans

thinking I'd get to it

when I had time.

It's been a crazy week around here

and with David's deployment

being extended at the last minute

to include Easter,

I was left to fend for myself

as far as putting together

a celebratory weekend.

I decided to not plan,

and just do.

So today we just did

and we had so much fun!!

On a whim, I decided to take Bren

to an egg hunt at our local park.

I'm so glad I did!

I saw so many of my friends there.

Lot's of SOALO (officer's wives group) girls,

PTA girls, and moms I knew from the soccer team.

If you aren't a military wife

or if you have never moved to a new area,

you really haven't experienced the feeling of

being in a place where you don't know

any of the faces in the crowd.

David and I always get excited

about the first time we get to wave

at a familiar face after we've moved

to a new town.

It means so much to belong.

It settles the soul to know that

you are a part of a "group"

and that someone else in your

day to day world knows your name

and cares enough to smile

and wave when they see you.

It's seems like such a small thing,

but we've learned that it's

one of the things we miss most

when we move to a new town.

Being familiar to someone else is comforting.

Check out these SOALO kiddos!

Aren't they adorable?

They all had so much fun

opening their eggs and

checking for prize tickets.

My friend Karen's little boy Kai

(who is in the blue hat above,

but you can't see his sweet face)

won a killer Easter basket

with a big plastic sports car

and tons of candy in it!

It rocked!

After saying hello to the Easter bunny

and goodbye to all of our friends,

we headed home to

start boiling our eggs.

When we got home

a box was waiting for us

from Pro Flowers.

My mom had sent me

these gorgeous Easter flowers.

I love them!

It makes me all kinds of happy

to have fresh flowers on my coffee table.

Thanks Mom!

There was even a little bunny

inside for Bren.

Sweet!

Ok, enough with the cuddling....

on with the egg coloring!

Years ago, when we lived in Kings Bay

my friend Stacey would come over

every Easter and we'd dye eggs together.

We got pretty creative

one year and made little people

out of the eggs.

They had yarn hair, googly eyes,

and scrap fabric clothes

and were just as cute as can be.

For the life of me,

I cannot conjure up that level of creativity

anymore.

I don't know why.

Maybe it was because

we were young and our mommy brains

were just in their beginning stages

of degeneration.

Our hair showed no signs of

the kind of grey

that can only come from being in the same house

as our teenage offspring

and our youthful faces weren't yet wrinkled

from years of laughing at mostly ourselves.

Creativity runs rampant

in a mind not pulled in forty-eight different directions.

Minds that are pulled in forty-eight different directions

use sticker faces on their eggs!

I'm just saying.

Egg coloring is lost on the older three.
Madison came over and dyed one or two,
but it was mainly a Brencentric activity.
She had a blast and I enjoyed watching her
create her masterpieces.

Bren and I talked alot about the meaning of Easter.
We talked about the reason we celebrate Easter
and that it isn't just about chocolate and rabbits.




I told her that Easter morning is the day that
Jesus rose again from the grave.
The day he conquered death for us
so that we could live.
As we dyed eggs, I tried to explain to her what it meant
to have "new life" in a way that she would understand.
I told her that we are like the plain white egg.
But when we emerse ourselves in Jesus
who is the bright pink dye (her choice)
and let him completely surround us with his love,
He changes us into something new and beautiful.
I took our egg out of the pink dye
and we marveled at it's beauty.
I looked into her eyes
and marveled at the gift I have in her.


I thought about all of my kids and my husband
and what gifts they are to me.
I thought about my Savior
and his work on the cross
and about new life
and I marveled at
His amazing love.






After our eggs were all colored and decorated,
we moved on to our cupcakes.



The following is a photographical tour
straight up Sugar Rush hill!!

We've almost reached the summit!!

Can you see it in her eyes??

From our family to yours,

Happy Easter everyone!

He is Risen!!