Oscar Night on DVR

Hugh Jackman just did the funniest opening number at the Oscars. Adam and I are watching it on DVR which is the greatest invention ever! (Yes, Adam, EVER!)

My favorite shows:
Chuck
Grey's Anatomy
House
Private Practice
America's Next Top Model
My Boys
The Office (Adam got me hooked)
Scrubs
Gossip Girl

I love that they now have two TV seasons. One now starts when there used to be nothing but reruns. Yeahh! TV shows!

"I did then what I knew then, & when I knew better, I did better." -Maya Angelou

I was seriously crying...

I was laughing so hard!

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES:

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned houseclean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of "pretend" bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment.

He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care.

He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himselfwith jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find timeat least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

They will need to read a book and then pray with the childreneach night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teethand comb their hair by 7:00 am.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and eachfather will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice. If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right To be called Mother!

(I'm dying again just editing it... oh man, it is just too funny!) Gotta love being a mom! Kids, so you know, I really do know all that stuff at any given age and although I don't put on makeup every day, the rest of it is pretty true! Now after having said that, even though your dad probably couldn't pass that test, he is pretty amazing and you have a great time with him too! When it comes to playing on the bed, he is definitely the one you go to! Gotta love having a great dad!

Playing hockey in Seth's gym class

Mr. Joe is great about letting Ryan come to gym after recess. As always, Seth and Ryan are a great team. All the other kids are great about letting her join in too. In fact, they typically take turns "taking care of her" at recess and then in gym.
Hockey is one of Seth's favorite games to play in gym. After, Mr. Joe gives them points based on scores and sportsmanship. They are so fun to watch. Ryan really gets in the middle of it. Seth kinda hangs out on the outside until he know he can get a clear shot and then goes for it!

A friend wrote this!

Hey KC, Here is the nomination letter I wrote about you. If anything is glaringly inaccurate please feel free to correct me.

Hello Holly, I was hoping to find the time to send you a nomination that included accurate titles and such for all that this person does, but I'm afraid I will run out of time if I do not send you at least something.

I would like to honor KC Merrill as our 2009 CGSWA Woman of the Year. Keeping true to SAFV's tradition of honoring women who "make a difference in the lives of women and children" I believe that KC would be an ideal candidate. As a very productive member of her LDS Church KC is always making a difference in the lives of others. She has been called on all hours of the day to help church members find solutions to personal matters. I know that this position was very time consuming, yet very rewarding to KC. (I apologize for not knowing the name of the position/calling). She is also instrumental in the LDS youth music program, including the directing of a performance in the 2008 Annual Sitka Christmas concert. KC has also been very involved in many of Sitka's Schools over the last 4 years. She was a parent volunteer at Mt. Edgecumbe Preschool and even chaired the annual Pansy Sale Fundraiser. The following year she became an active volunteer at 3-5 Preschool. Two years later she stills volunteers at the school in addition to her two years of parent volunteering at Baranof Elementary. This year I have watched KC become even more involved with our community's children as an active Baranof Baracudas (BBSC) swim parent. She housed an out of town swimmer for the ABC Swim meet in October and has volunteered to work as a timer at swim meets. Additionally, KC became a Tiger Den Leader for Cub Scout Pack 26. She is responsible for conducting weekly den meetings, attending monthly pack and leader meetings, and leading the children in pack and community events such as the Annual Salvation Army Food Drive, the Pine Wood Derby, and the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. Finally, as a CGSWA member KC has previously chaired our annual Valentine's Day Auction, CG Day, and served as our interim President. I have also worked with her at our Children's Christmas Parties and our Galley Christmas Decorating. Thank you for considering KC. I will be happy to get more information if needed.

Sincerely,
Susan Bourassa

(Not only was it nice to see what this friend knew about me, but mostly what a great example of getting around to doing a wonderful thing. She was the Coast Guard "Woman of the Year" last year and her being sweet enough to write this so she could nominate me is one example of why we chose her. If only I got around to doing all the things I should. But having good examples around me is inspiring and I am better because of them.)

(I have fun pictures of her and I at the Alaska Day Ball in our Dance hall girl dresses, when I get them at the picture place, I will post them.)

Ryan's Fairy Princess Half-Birthday Party!

We celebrated Ryan's half-birthday yesterday at the Fairy Garden (aka the middle school gym). All the fairy princesses rode bikes, skateboards, roller skates and had a great time flitting and fluttering amidst the balloons. The Queen fairy had to comfort the Birthday girl when the other fairies didn't follow her to the "pond"/drinking fountain. I explained that although this was her day, not everything could be all about her. The fairies decorated birthday cookies on a stick (yes, with homemade frosting- I know, I shouldn't be so proud of something so simple, but their were six different colors!) and paper diamonds with princess stickers at the art table. Seth was her official "Reader of the cards" and he took his position very seriously. He did not need any help from the Queen. After a great party, Ryan and her little friend Megan had a sleep over. Ryan chose mac-n-cheese and pears for her birthday dinner (we put 4 and a half candles in her noodles, the half one we just broke to make it shorter- that was very important!). She "realized that she hadn't had that in a long time" (direct quote). I was surprised that she didn't choose raviolis (the spinach and cheese ones from Costco, that is her FAVORITE meal especially when they have babysitters. As for her sleepover movie, she chose The Neverending Story. However, after finishing it they both ended up in my room on the floor because Seth was already in the bed (Adam was on duty, so Seth and I played Lego: Indiana Jones while the girls watched their movie). So, by 9:30 all was quiet and I finished reading my book with my little nightlight.

Brandon Sanderson

I just finished a book called Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson. He is an LDS author who is going to finish the 13th book of the Wheel of Time series. So backing up... I bought this book in the airport on the way to Sitka. It was a prelude to a fantasy series by Robert Jordan that luckily was already almost finished (I hate waiting for the next book to come out). Well, before the final book was written Robert Jordan died and the series was on hold. We heard that the outline was already done and that his son was going to finish it. Well, after three years, I thought about it again and googled to find out what was going on. Jordan's wife chose Brandon Sanderson because she had read and loved the Mistborn Trilogy that he had written. So not only are we going to get the 13th book, but I had another suggestion for a new author. Our library didn't have the trilogy, but it did have a young adult book about Alcatraz. So I read it and the guy is hysterical. Maybe I appreciate his humorous sarcasm and stream-of-consciousness witticisms because I try them in my own writing and they always seem forced and just never turn out that funny. But this guy is good. The story line was good enough, but the writing was just fun! I am excited to read a book that doesn't rely on first-person commentary. I love finding new authors or genres and then reading everything I can by them. I went through my social commentary genre (1984, Brave New World, Grok...), all the books by Chaim Potok starting with The Chosen, of course everything by Orson Scott Card (he's my favorite author), and fantasy (this genre, I hope, will be almost limitless).

Well, gotta head off to McTeacher's night with the fam. More on books later

Seth's "100th Day" project!

The 100th day is a big celebration at Seth's school, Baranof Elementary. Last year, he counted out 100 toothpicks (he and Ryan both counted out 10 groups of 10 for FHE) and then we all glued them on a poster board to make a picture. This year he decided to count 100 things he found at the beach. So for FHE this year, we counted out 10 groupd of 10 and then Seth and Ryan lined them up along the outside of the frame. He is so sweet about letting her help with his projects and does it so kindly. They are such a great team. Well, then I glue gunned and he stuck all the shells and sea glass. Then he made a title for the frame: "100 things from the beach by Seth".

Thursday is my "helping day"!

I went and helped at Ryan and Seth's schools today. Ryan and I played baby like always. We took it on a bike ride to California and then I babysat while Ryan took off her tights (she chose a dress to wear, of course), got her feet painted and walked across a strip of paper to make blue and pink footprints. We also found the My Little Ponies on our "trip", so we made them a block corral. While Ryan had them talking and making friends (I really don't like that part), I was brushing out their hair just like I used to when I was little (I think she found that about as fun as I find the pretending part). She was ready to go back on our trip pretty quickly.
Later, at Seth's class, they both climbed the rope in gym class after recess. Yes, Ryan is only in preschool, but has been going to kindergarten and first grade once a week for two years. We've had such great teachers to let her come with me all day on my helping days.

Tomorrow is Ryan's half-birthday! More on that after the party.

One of our typical nightly routines- Seth and Ryan jumping all over Daddy. This is not really my kind of playing so I usually just watch and laugh. Sometimes they slide down Adam, or in this case, Ryan is using him as a loungechair while Seth is being his barbell. Or they hurry to keep jumping on his back so he can't get up-- what team work! And as with many sports, there are somtimes injuries. Ryan bonked her head and started to cry. Seth quickly checked on her, asked if she needed an ice pack and quickly ran to get her one. They really are good to each other. And lucky for them, Adam is really good to them too!

Family Home Evening

It's FHE tonight and we are looking at our new blog before we go play Rock Band. Seth-- I like playing with Kord and I miss him. I like playing Wii with him.
Ryan-- Layne and Hadley are my friends and I miss them and I like playing with them. I like the flower bows that Aunt Nicole made me (see Pinewood Derby picture). Adam-- Welcome to the 21st century!
Alright, let's get to it. We have some drumming to do!!

Seth's Pinewood Derby

This is our first Pinewood Derby. OK, really it's Seth's, but it was a family event. Adam and the kids picked ideas for their cars-- Seth's was Tanky Tank and Ryan's was Kitty Car. Seth couldn't wait to put one of his Star Wars guys on the back as the gunner and we were so excited to find a picture of Ryan with kitty ears that we could print and put in the window. Ryan was also very specific about what kind of kitty needed to go on tip. Seth and Ryan were both great about sanding their cars for FHE.

Although we were not the fastest family, (OK, we were just happy that they made it across the finish line) the kids' cars were definitely fun to look at. They are even displayed in the case at McDonald's for the next month.