SNOW DAYS!! January 2008

Brenton, Payton, Talmage, Jon, and Kennedy 01/16/2008

On Wednesday evening, it started to snow. Let me tell you in Atlanta, Georgia this is a big deal. It either snows or freezing rains 1 or 2 times a year. The snow or freezing rain only lasts less than a day, but during that less than 24 hours everything gets cancelled. Wednesday is our church youth, boy and cub scout, and achievement day girls night. That was cancelled. Oh, you can't really tell by the picture that it only snowed less than 1/2 inch and that was only on the grass, decks, and roofs. The roads were just wet (not freezing). If you were to go to the grocery store that evening, they would basically be out of all their bread, milk, and water from people stocking up on it from either the night before or that morning. I think it is so funny but this happens every time there is word of snow or freezing rain in the area. Since we have lived in Georgia (over 10 years now), the roads in our area have been free from snow or ice a few hours later (usually it snows early in the morning and by the time the sun comes out the snow melts quickly) and then the roads are just wet. The snow north of us once you get out of the suburbs of Atlanta sticks around a little longer. To bad for the kids that the snow started about 10 hours too soon because school was not cancelled. Spending my middle and high school years in Michigan I think it is so funny that they cancel school for such a tiny and I mean tiny bit of snow. Any way 3 days later when we woke up it was snowing again.

Talmage, Hayden, Kennedy, Payton, and Brenton 01/19/08

As you can kind of tell from the picture, the 2 snowmen took up just about all of our snow in our front yard. I don't know which the snowmen had more of leaves and pineneedles or snow. Poor Hayden just look at those red hands. We are not prepared for snow in the glove department. Well, the kids lost out again because today was Saturday. Well I guess we totally didn't miss out. On Sunday, we combined with the ward that meets before us and had one big sacrament meeting and then went home and had some family time. The bishopric didn't want to put pressure on the teachers if they didn't feel comfortable coming out in the bad weather. What bad weather? By Sunday morning all the snow was basically melted and I don't remember but the road might have even been dry. Well it gave me a break from my Primary lesson. Those were the only snow days of the year. We enjoyed them while they lasted and for me it was just the perfect amount and lasted the perfect amount of time.

Happy Birthday Jan. 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENTON

On January 21, 2008, Brenton turned 11 years old. Brenton is the oldest out of the 6 kids. He is really a smart kid who loves to play video games. As of right now, he wants to make video games when he grows up. I think he would be great at that since he has a really great yet sometimes strange imagination. Perfect for making games. This year he is going to go through lots of changes. Brenton isn't one for change so this should be interesting. He finished up with cub scouts by earning his Weblos and Arrow of Light.

Brenton and Ryan crossing over to Boy Scouts

Now he is an 11 year old boy scout. Brenton is finishing up 5th grade (well since it is the end of May has finished already). Next year, he will be in Middle School (Yikes!!). Jon and I will also have him babysit the kids for an hour or less at a time in the summer to get him ready for when he turns the big 12.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

Dad with a real life tarantula on his shirt (Yikes!)

My dad also had a birthday on January 24. It was his big 60. My mom, sisters, and I threw a surprise party for him and boy was he surprised. We had the party at Christa's house. Here is how it all went down. It was Friday night and Taylor (My 15 year old sister) had a basketball game which my mom and dad took her to and watched her play. After the game was over, my parents were going to drop Taylor off at Christa's house to babysit her kids. The way we got my dad and mom in the house was Christa had just made Turtles (ya know the yummy candy) and invited them in for a few seconds to have some before they went out. Little did my dad know we had about 40 other people there. Of course when he walked through the door, everyone yelled surprise. We had the chocolate fountain going with lots of yummy food to dip in it. My mom, Christa, Cheri, and I each made one of my dad's favorite desserts. Instead of presents we had everyone bring a white elephant gift that were all exchanged so everyone got to bring a little something home good or bad. My dad really like the white elephant gift exchange. Jon made a DVD of pictures a few from my dad's childhood all the way to the present day. We had that playing on Christa's TV. It was a really great night especially since we were able to pull off the surprise.

Hello blogging world

Well, after many months and with the help of Leanne I am finally here in the blogging world. This is something I have wanted to do since the beginning of the year. So with that said I am going to start my blog out by highlighting the year so far. It may take awhile to catch up to today since I don't know what I am doing yet.