Three Cups of (Herbal) Tea

Happy New Year!

2012-01-07T22:04:00.002-05:00

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

happy valentine's day

2011-02-12T20:32:00.000-05:00

a couple of days early...

Valentine's Collage Red Valentine's Day

Modern greeting cards and party invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

milestones

2010-10-19T09:52:00.000-04:00

So, I've given up on the summer recap. I seem to be much busier than I dreamed when Rachel got on the school bus! However, I can't let a couple of milestones pass without their mention.

July brought Timothy's 12th birthday. A big deal for a young man in the LDS Church. What a difference the priesthood has made in his life (at least on Sundays). He loves passing the Sacrament and takes it seriously. Somehow, helping with this ordinance each week has helped his behavior in general during the rest of the meeting. All of the sudden I have a peacemaker on my hands versus the one throwing the punches. May it last...

Along with receiving the priesthood, he has also been able to attend the temple twice already. Trevor and I were able to go with him on his first trip. What a blessing it is for these kids to be able to get away from the world and enter a place of such peace.

September 11th had new meaning for us this year. 8 years ago on this day we brought home our first baby girl (on the first anniversary of that horrible day). I remember the nurse coming into my room that morning and instructing, "Don't even turn on your TV this morning. This is to be a happy day for you." And it was. It was so again this year as that same daughter experienced a rebirth of sorts as she entered the waters of baptism. Thank you to all of our "family" that came to support her. We really feel blessed to have you in our lives! The spirit was so strong at the service and I know Hannah felt the same as she was so overcome with emotion and couldn't explain why. It has been interesting to watch her sensitivity to the spirit since that day. She truly has been given a gift.

Speaking of gifts, my ever-so-talented-friend Sharese made Hannah's dress for the special occasion. I thought I was going to be able to pull it off myself. When I quickly realized I wasn't going to be able to, she quickly (and willingly) came to my rescue and took care of things for me! Thanks, Sharese. I owe you BIG time!

I asked for a daughter

2010-09-09T16:02:00.005-04:00

and was sent a princess.

I'm not kidding.

After two very precocious boys, I prayed and prayed for a girl. A well behaved one. I must have been in good graces with the Lord 8 years ago, because He sent me exactly what I asked for.

Hannah made life easy from the beginning...she arrived 45 short minutes after our arrival at the hospital, was sleeping eight hours a night by three weeks old and never really fussed unless she was hungry, tired or messy.

She is typically the life of the party and is a girly-girl through and through (something I am not).

However, she's never let that stop her from keeping up with the "Stinky Brothers!"

She's always (OK, almost always) willing to lend a hand...

...and is a great big sister.

She is generous with her love (and kisses), even when she may not be feeling her best...

...yet can throw a pretty mean kick if needs be!

She's growing up to be a lovely young lady and I'm proud to be her mom.

Happy Birthday Cis!

Love,

Mom xoxo

the end of summer

2010-09-08T10:53:00.001-04:00

Usually, when it comes to 3-day weekends, Trevor and I don't plan very well. We typically spend the weekend at home, cooped up with our 4 kids doing chores and breaking up fights. We always say that we need to do something fun. We just have a hard time of following through!

This past Friday night, Trevor and I were out to dinner (I can not believe that we can finally leave our kids home alone for a couple of hours!) when he looked at me and questioned (after letting out a big sigh), "What are we going to do tomorrow?" I immediately began thinking of all the things that needed to be done around the house when he followed with, "Why don't we go canoeing?" Good answer.

We got up the next morning, ate breakfast, packed some lunches and headed up to Fort Ancient to the canoe outfitters. We (the boys and I--Trevor is the expert canoe-er) spent the next few hours bickering on how to steer a canoe and get it unstuck from the many shallow areas along the river. The kids froze their toushies off after getting in the cold water and Rachel screamed every time we got stuck, thinking we were going to tip. I got to listen to all my kids tell me how much better Dad is at steering the canoe (this was my first trip down a river, Trevor used to make a living at it) and that they would much rather ride with him. I think next time I will go with Trevor and let the kids fend for themselves in their own canoe (and we will pay the extra 5 bucks for a plastic canoe that never seems to get stuck)! :)

What am I going to do when that girl is 14? HELP!

He looks happy now...

Are we having fun yet?!

Rachel isn't so sure she's up for another canoe trip any time soon!

Sure enough, after these 4 photos (and about 30 minutes into our day) the camera battery died. Leave it to us to have a dead battery and no back up!

Monday morning rolls around and, once again, we are completely unprepared for the day. I kept thinking about everything we didn't accomplish around the house on Saturday (I know, such a stick in the mud), when Trevor proclaimed, "We're going biking today!" to which Hannah exclaimed, "Wow! Two fun things in a row!" Are we really that pathetic as parents? So, we packed up the kids' bikes and a backpack full of water and headed out the door. Jonathan saw our "other" camera sitting on the desk and grabbed it for us. Timothy yelled out, "Make sure to grab extra batteries!"

I managed to click this one shot before, you guessed it, the camera went dead. That's what we get for not listening to Timothy!

We ended up riding 15 miles (Hannah rode the whole thing on a too-small bike) and the kids explored in the river for sometime. We ended the day with lunch at The Works and Hawaiian shaved ice, after which Jonathan declared this 3-day weekend "the best ever!" I would have to agree.

Thanks, Trevor, for "planning" such a great weekend.

the result

2010-09-02T09:55:00.006-04:00

"Isn't she lovely, isn't she wonderful..." Thank you, Stevie. I happen to think so.

Trevor and I are both thrilled about finally having double ovens. One for me, one for him.

See that little wall we built? It hides a desk (actually, a Costco plastic table until we get a desk) so that my countertops can remain junk-free (a woman can dream can't she?).

Notice the new windows (window treatments are still to come). One of my favorite things. Not only are they bigger, but gone are the sliders so they are one big piece of glass. Washing dishes with a nice view is much better than washing them without a view.

Sorry about how dark this one is. I can't get our lame camera to take it any differently. I recently told Trevor that I think we should get a better camera. It probably wasn't the best thing to say after just having finished this project!
And, finally, from the back. New deck, new windows (that don't scream, "Look at me!") and new siding.

I told you it was worth the wait.

Next up: landscaping!

P.S. A shout out to Diane for helping me pick out everything!

summer recap parte dos

2010-08-30T22:35:00.016-04:00

WARNING: This post contains a gazillion photos. However, I feel the need to show you all aspects of my "old" kitchen so you can appreciate the "new".

Back in oh, February, Trevor and I decided it was time to move ahead on our long-awaited kitchen project. After months and months of waiting, we finally got started one week after school let out. We still aren't 100% finished, but we're close. I'm such a ding-dong (probably was just over anxious to start the project) that I didn't take any before photos. So, I had to dig through all of my old photos to find any that were taken in/of the kitchen.

I present to you: the "old"...

Our house in Arizona lacked any colors on the wall. I think we overcompensated when we moved into this house! Once we started painting, we couldn't stop. We ended up with what we affectionately called the "Crayola" house.

I always wanted a yellow and blue kitchen. I certainly had it! Take note of the windows and the vent over the stovetop.

I promise I didn't include this one to show off my attractiveness (anyone ever seen the Steve Martin movie, "Roxanne"?) Just focus on the junk room behind me. It has been a useless eye sore (who puts carpet in a sunroom where it's 90% humidity most of the summer?!) for the past 9 years and we finally decided to do something about it!

I know it's hard to take your eyes off my adorable daughter, but try for a second to check out the fridge and microwave/oven combo behind her.

Trevor obviously has a few lessons to learn about taking pictures of his wife...

Couldn't leave out the view from in the kitchen. See, proof that our house was Crayolaesque! For some reason that I can't pinpoint, we always craved mint chip ice cream while sitting in the family room watching TV and Trevor doesn't even like mint chip.

OK, I try to be photographed as little as possible. So, can someone please explain to me how I ended up in all of these?!? As you would remember from last year (because I know I am so popular and you have all been devotedly reading my blog, even with 14 month gaps between posts), we put in a new deck last year. Our renovation this year included the exterior of the sunroom (with the white windows that scream, "Look at me!").

The first week the Greg and John (our fabulous contractors - I happily recommend them) were here was better than summer camp. They were demo-ing the sunroom and apparently it was so entertaining, my kids set up this viewing area to watch them rip it apart. I not kidding when I say they spent the better part of the week in this very spot. Except for Timothy - he was out there hauling drywall and brick to the garbage (and talking John's ear off). I kept asking Greg if we were going to get a discount on our bill since Timothy did so much work.

When I was a kid, my parents remodeled just about every room in our house. Before putting up the new wallpaper, they would let us cover the walls with drawings. Not only was it fun to have permission to draw on the walls, but I'm sure it was quite the reward for subsequent owners when they had to strip all that wallpaper.

For Family Home Evening one night, I broke out a bunch of Sharpie's and let my kids have at it.

Let's all breathe a collective sigh of relief that I took this picture and that it wasn't taken of me! Here are a few of the results.

Is that a plea or a threat?

Was Trevor's a plea too (that the sunroom would turn out OK)? I love that he still loves me like a middle-schooler (I'm not kidding). However, I think it's missing "2gether 4ever".

Self-portrait by Rachel. I'm not sure who was wishing good luck, nor for what. I should have guessed that what it really meant was, "Good luck without a kitchen for the entire summer!"

The result? Well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow as I have to now go clean the kitchen and take photos of the "new".

Let me just say, it was worth the wait!

summer recap parte uno

2010-08-30T22:02:00.010-04:00

That is "part one" for our English speaking friends...

Since now I actually have some uninterrupted time on my hands, I thought I would use some of it to document how we spent our summer this year.

Before a couple of days ago, the last post I wrote was about the Braves beating the prideful Cubs. That was soooooo last year's news. This year, Jonathan was actually drafted (I use the term very loosely) to the Cubs. Thank goodness there were new coaches and a completely new team. These coaches were kind and actually taught the boys to play hard and to be good sports!

They ended the season 14-0 and were runner-ups in the tournament. Jonathan was soooo mad they didn't win the tournament too. I'll admit I was a little bummed myself.

Collecting their "League Champions" t-shirts at the awards ceremony.

Jonathan even got some action behind the plate this year and loved every moment of it!

So serious...is this really my kid?!

The following photos represent what the girls did most of the season to keep themselves busy (when they weren't fighting with one another).

We are taking donations for her orthodontic work. I'm afraid it's going to break the bank.

Not quite sure what the tongue thing is all about but, quick, someone hand that girl a tissue!

Way to go Cubbies!!

our very own charlotte

2010-08-27T11:06:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday night I opened the front door to take Bella out before going to bed. It's a darn good thing I turned on the light or I would have walked right into this HUGE web! It seems as though we have our very own resident spider. Trevor and I sat on the front porch watching her create her web for about an hour. It was fascinating. Just wish we had a better camera. The moon was full and we kept commenting how the scene was a photographer's dream. Too bad we only own a "point and shoot"!

Sunday night she was back! Same place, new web. I am astonished how she carefully spins a new web every night. It takes a couple of hours of non-stop work for her to complete her web. This night we woke up the kids and let them watch. They even had the pleasure of seeing her catch a moth, wrap it up and carry it to the center of her web where she dined while patiently waiting for another catch.

Night three Charlotte moved her web a few feet off of our front porch to between some bushes and has been there every night ever since. She's really big and looks as though she could potentially be quite dangerous, but she has now become sort of a "pet". We check for her every night before we go to bed to make sure she's there and again in the morning when we get up. She's always gone (as is her web) by the time the boys leave for the bus at 7:10 AM.

Six nights and counting...

a long time a comin'

2010-08-26T09:53:00.000-04:00

It's official! My baby got on the bus yesterday (@ 7:35 AM!) for all-day Kindergarten. Just look at that happy face (unlike that of the bus driver's). The smile was even larger when she got off the bus yesterday afternoon! My neighbor asked me if I was going to cry. Not after 9 years of a half-day schedule. Trevor called me about 10:oo am to ask me how my day was going. My response was, "The house is soooooo quiet and I'm loving every moment of it!" Maybe after a year+ of not blogging, I'll now be able to find some time to post.

Jonathan (5th grade) has graduated to the "early" bus this year and gets to ride again with his big 7th grade brother.

Look at all that stuff they had to haul to school the first day. It looks as though they're leaving for good!

Hannah (3rd grade) is now the last one to leave in the morning. I think she is enjoying having a 1/2 hour of just the two of us each day.

Humble Pie

2009-06-02T14:53:00.006-04:00

A week ago last Saturday my boys had a baseball game. OK, they have a baseball game just about every Saturday, but this one was different; they played the Cubs. Unbeknownst to me (until after the game), the Cubs are the best team in the league. They have the biggest kids, the best pitchers (at least 5 deep, I might add), the best hitters, the best fielders and the most overzealous, obnoxious coach on the planet. You know, the kind that makes you sit on the sidelines quietly thanking the heavens above that your kid didn't end up on his team.

The game didn't go so well. By the end of the 2nd inning we were down 9 to 1. Apparently, however, this wasn't a large enough lead for the Cubbies' coach as he would still yell at his players, "C'mon we need more runs!" Turns out, his goal of every game is to "mercy rule" the opposing team. He got his wish. After 4 innings, the score was 14-4 and it was over. Our Braves were down, but our coaches kept telling them to keep their chins up as they played a great game. And they did.

I guess 42 games isn't enough for 9 & 10 year-olds to play in a season because we get to play each team twice. Last night was our second match up with the Grizzly Bear and his Cubs. The Braves were fired up, just like we wanted them to be. You should have seen Jonathan during the game, so focused, so intense. Trevor made the following statement to our team parents after we scored 4 runs in the top of the 1st inning: "There are two kinds of people in this world: those who are humble and those who are about to be." That's right, our boys fed Mr. Grizzly Bear some humble pie by pulling off an 8-4 win. It was awesome.

I didn't get a lot of great video last night, but I was able to catch Jonathan getting a great hit (and an RBI). Hopefully I'll get enough video by the end of the season to do another iMovie for your viewing pleasure. Until then, you'll have to live with this:

And just to make things fair, here's one of Timothy from Saturday's game:

He may not have the best stance (I keep trying to help him but he doesn't want much help from his mom) or run the fastest, but I'll tell you what, he can sure hit the ball!

Way to go Braves!

The Timbertec Deck

2009-05-31T21:54:00.005-04:00

Our deck is finished (well, almost-just a couple of minor things to fix and some staining of the storage doors)! Dummy me forgot to take before photos, so these are what I could find of the old deck...

See how tiny the darn thing was? Don't ask me what we were doing with a sandbox on it--nothing else would fit (taken Easter 2004)!

Not a great shot of the deck, but you get the idea of how old and ugly it was (taken Easter 2006).

The boys had an absolute blast ripping out the old deck. No need to pay the contractor for demolition--just hand the boys a crowbar and a hammer and they'll take care of things!

(Sorry about the black lines in these photos. I had to take them from inside the house through the screen!)

Notice how conscientious we were about safety: Gloves? Check. Safety glasses? Check.

It kept them entertained for several days. You certainly can't beat that!

And now, for the finished product. It's approximately 3 times the size of the old deck, is maintenance free and we won't get splinters if we walk out there barefoot! Woo hoo! See the lattice door that's open? Those are the doors that have to be stained. Behind them is firewood storage...enough to hold a cord + of wood!

Look at the size of that bench. Think we can host a few people? We're looking forward to many a b-b-q. All we need now is a table and some chairs and we're in business!

n. i. n. e.

2009-05-14T15:18:00.004-04:00

Just before his birthday (about a month ago--I'm so on the ball), Jonathan announced his plans for an elaborate "Star Wars, Clone Wars" birthday party. As my kids get older, the less I look forward to birthday parties--the planning, actually sending invitations, cleaning my house, games, a bunch of wild banshees running around my freshly cleaned house. You get the idea. When Jonathan presented his fantabulous birthday party idea, I enthusiastically replied, "How about you invite 1 friend and we hit Kings Island instead!" I couldn't believe when he consented and was even excited about it.

Sooooo, we had our traditional "family party" complete with green pasta (rotini with pesto--better than you can get at any expensive italian restaurant), ice cream cake (yes, he requested the Carvel cake from Kroger) and a few presents on his "real" birthday.

I know the cake looks disgusting, it's actually pretty good.

I'm not sure what he was wishing for, but I'm pretty certain it didn't come true.

The following Friday, I loaded up the car, loaded up on Dramamine and Advil and headed to KI with 5 kids in tow. The boys were stuck with me and the girls in the Nickelodeon area until Trevor arrived from work. After loading up on pizza, we parted ways with Trevor and the girls and headed for the "big rides". That was a brilliant thing to do after loading up on pizza. There were hardly lines for anything, so we just kept riding. One. after. another. after. another. I told the boys that my limit was twice in a row for Vortex. My 37 year-old, post-partum (4 times) body just can't take that kind of beating any more. We were able to ride just about everything (longest wait: 30 minutes for Firehawk) except for Diamondback (they chickened out on me--except for Jonathan) and then finally got kicked off the Vortex (at closing) after riding it 8 times in a row (they never even had to get off). Lucky for me, the boys (and apparently the girls) proclaimed, "This was the best night of our life!"

"Mom, why are you torturing us? Let's get to the rides!"

Plankton's Plunge is deceiving and they are all feigning boredom...

I love how they can't hold back the laughter...

This one actually makes me laugh--especially Hannah's missing teeth!

Mom does it again! :)

Easter

2009-05-04T22:02:00.003-04:00

While Trevor and Timothy were out on the "AT", we were in need of some fun activities at home. I'm usually not a fan of "messy" fun (I can't stand Play-doh, glitter or other childhood obsessions that find themselves stuck between the grooves of my hardwood floor). However, my kids begged me to dye easter eggs and I gave in. I even allowed a neighbor friend to join in.

Applause, please.

I tried really hard not to be too controlling and dye all of the eggs myself so my table and their clothing wouldn't get stained. I succeeded in letting them do it themselves, and they succeeded in getting the dye all over the table (even though I covered it in garbage bags) and on their clothes. OK, in reality, there was a tiny bit of dye on the plastic and Hannah got a tiny bit of dye on her shirt. They decorated 2 dozen eggs in record time and I was one happy momma to get it all cleaned up!

Believe it or not, this was Rachel's first time dying eggs!

This takes some serious concentration!

The happy clan. I was just as happy as it was time to clean up! :)

The result.

I know, you think my kids are deprived. So do they.

Hardly.

Left Alone

2009-05-04T21:35:00.006-04:00

Picture this:

It's Sunday morning and it's time to get the girls in the shower so I can help them get ready for Church. I help Rachel take off her jammies and pull-up and this is what I find...

Upon questioning how this ginormous band-aid got stuck to her cheeks she replied, "Yesterday, I kept yelling for someone to help me wipe my bottom and nobody came." (Hannah and I were at the boys' baseball game and Trevor was out mowing the lawn). I'm not quite sure if it was meant to protect the bottom or the undies. This is a girl with some serious problem solving skills. She showed me just this morning that she knows where the Desitin is kept and that she knows how to use it. Trevor and I were in tears and we couldn't resist documenting the moment for the future.

Poor kid.

She's going to be in need of serious therapy when she grows up.

P.S. Why does she feel such a strong need to get into band-aids? Remember this?

Hiking the AT

2009-04-23T10:04:00.006-04:00

Every year Trevor takes a father/son trip with one of the boys. It was Timothy's turn to go this year. I'm not sure how it came about, but they decided they were going to hike part of the Appalachian Trail. For weeks they talked about their backpacking trip and planned their hike. The day before they were supposed to leave it was freezing and even snowing (that's Spring Break for you in Ohio). I kept asking them if they had a back up plan as I could just see them being completely miserable for 3 days and Timothy deciding he was never going to go backpacking again. I even put in a bid on Priceline for really cheap tickets to Phoenix so they could hike the Grand Canyon instead. Since the airlines weren't desperate enough to accept my low-ball bid (you would think they would want every 20 bucks they could get), my boys were stuck with their plans. I kept reminding myself that it would be OK, because I was going to be at home in my nice warm bed!

I'm pretty sure God wants these boys to have a good experience on these trips as last year Trevor and Jonathan were expecting poor weather and it turned out to beautiful for them. This year was no different. I called Trevor for a weather update when they were about 15 miles from the trailhead. He said the weather was gorgeous: mid 50's and blue skies as far as the eye could see. All I could think was, "Whew!" They ended up having a fabulous time hiking 15+ miles in 3 days, meeting all kinds of "through hikers" (those hiking the entire trail from Georgia to Maine; a 6-month adventure) and managed to steer clear of any bears. Here are a few photos (out of a couple hundred) for your viewing pleasure...

Doesn't he look so clean and anxious to hike?

Looking cool crossing the "bridge".

Playing Uno with the "Taliban" (as Trevor referred to them) in their shelter the first night. Apparently, most of these "through" hikers were jobless, waiting out the recession on the trail!

Grateful for a loo, no matter how primitive.

These shelters sure came in handy. Too bad this one slept 26 people the first night, when it was meant to hold about 16!

Lucky for them, all of the snow was on the ground! It could have been much, much worse!

Slush and muck.

YIKES!

Taking appropriate precaution with the bear bag!

He was so thrilled to be able to build a fire the second night. He even whittled a marshmallow stick for everyone in their shelter, earning him the trail name, "Blade". Are you imagining the laundry I got to deal with upon their return?

Day three brought rain. Good thing they were hiking out!

He found a vine to swing on along the trail! Looks like fun, doesn't it?

A little reward at the end of the trail. That night they stayed in a hotel and were grateful for a hot shower, plenty of toilet paper and a huge steak dinner!

Jonathan's already started planning his backpacking trip for next year...

Serious ADD

2009-03-24T21:16:00.002-04:00

I can't seem to keep focused on anything these days...including this blog. I keep jumping from project to project, not really accomplishing anything. I have a million photos to post and I'm sure even more stories to tell--I just can't seem to get focused long enough to land any of them here.

Soon.

I promise.

Weather Forecasters Don't Know Jack

2009-02-03T21:49:00.005-05:00

1-3 inches. 1-3 inches is what they said. What we got? A foot. Another. foot. of. snow.

Translation: Another snow day for the kids. I think Sharese's kids performed the "snow day recipe" one too many times!

Maybe I'll catch up on some posts tomorrow...

(If I'm not in bed in the fetal position with the covers pulled over my head).

On the bright side, Timothy may actually get to celebrate his late July birthday at school this year.

Becky needs...

2009-01-29T09:10:00.002-05:00

Thanks, Lydia...this was fun!

Go to your favorite search engine, type in your first name and then "needs" and see what you get!

Here's mine:

1. Becky needs a little taste. (of what?)

2. Becky needs to listen to "Kareem Abdul Jabbar" by Kevin Devine and to laugh about it.

3. "Miss" Becky needs a change with pictures, videos, personal blog, interests, information about me and more.

4. Becky needs free download, freeware and shareware.

5. Becky needs a friend. (How sad.)

6. Becky needs jd's special c-tex in port boliver tx (huh? Sounds kinky.)

7. Becky needs a psychiatrist! (Probably true!)

8. Becky needs a friend. (Wow, it's also #11 & 13. Becky must be REALLY lonely!)

9. Becky needs to blackmail a friend to get information about her blind date.

10. Becky needs the AEROBO machine. (Again, probably true, although I don't know what the heck this is!)

What Becky really needs? For the kids to go back to school. AAARRGGGHHH!

For Hire

2009-01-27T18:32:00.008-05:00

So my kids haven't been to school for a full week since before Christmas. Between MLK day, teacher in-service days, a nasty stomach flu bug and now, our first decent snowfall of the year, my kiddos have been spending quite a bit of time at home (AND we're only in the 4th week of the new year!)

I have to admit, I do love a good dump (I'm actually referring to snow) and it helps to be able to send the kids out to play. Before I let them play, however, I asked the boys to help me shovel the driveway. You would have thought I asked each of them for a kidney.

Why, oh, why can't my boys do an ounce of work without wither complaining or fighting? They are ALWAYS keeping score on who has done more work. Apparently they had a scale outside measuring the weight of the snow each had shoveled as they were quick to tell me that this one had shoveled "20 lbs." and the other "a million pounds". Better than a snow plow, I tell you.

By the way, he's for hire. At a million pounds a half hour, I should be able to bring in some serious money.

In the meantime, the girls were thoroughly enjoying themselves on the "hill" in the backyard. Rachel did offer to shovel the driveway, but since she could only handle a sand shovel, I let her off the hook.

Life is good...

when your brothers are shoveling the driveway.

It's currently pouring "freezing rain" and we're expecting another 3-5 inches of snow on top of that. Sounds like my boys will be kidney-less after tomorrow.

Priceless

2009-01-19T16:56:00.005-05:00

I have tried to get these videos uploaded straight to blogspot, to no avail.

To see Hannah's fabulous performance (pun intended) and the kids reaction to their Christmas present, click here...

http://gallery.mac.com/thestansburypatch

Sunblock: $8

Underwater cameras: $30

A week on the Disney Magic with 20 members of your family: Priceless

Thanks, again, Grandma Connie for making it all possible! :)

P.S. I promise I'm not a scary stage-mom like I sound in Hannah's video!

Santa Came to Town

2009-01-19T15:25:00.010-05:00

My kids were very lucky that Santa was in a good mood on Christmas Eve. You see, when he checked his list, he couldn't find several of our kids names on the nice list. Instead of taking the time to check his naughty list (he was on a tight schedule), he decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and assumed their names were simply hiding from him. Knowing that this clan of kids was receiving a great present from their parents (the best ever, as a matter of fact), he decided to leave them just one gift each, so as not to spoil them too much (too late). Grandpa Russ and Grandma Leonore did spoil them with a karaoke machine (I will post video of Hannah in her debut performance later). This has been much fun as well as the Dance, Dance, Revolution Santa left for Hannah. Even Timothy, who refuses to ever sing or dance, has been known to cut loose on both the dance mat and the microphone. Maybe, just maybe, our kids will learn to keep a beat and carry a tune!

Oh, I can hardly wait. Tylenol, anyone?

She doesn't even own an Easy Bake Oven. She has to borrow Hannah's. Poor kid.

Probably the best gift of the day. Well, maybe the second...

The best gift of the day was a bunch of letters taped to clues. The kids had to solve the puzzle. Getting closer...

Solved! I'll post video of their reaction to this one too.

Christmas Traditions

2009-01-19T13:47:00.008-05:00

Aren't you so glad I'm stretching Christmas into the middle of January for you?

I have to admit, I'm the kind of gal that LOVES December 26th. I get to take down all of the Christmas decorations and get my house back in or

der. I have decided that next year I am going to limit the decorations to our tree, stockings and maybe an advent calendar for the kids. I am NOT the type that loves decorating for Christmas. All it does is cause me stress.

On that lovely note...

We don't have a lot of Christmas traditions in our household, but our favorite (of which I am lacking a picture) is turning out all of the lights in the house and reading a Christmas story each night under the lights of the Christmas tree. The kids get to take turns picking a book out of the basket and I have to say I do like this one as it calms everyone down before bed!

At some point between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my kids insist we make a gingerbread house. I think they don't like making the house as much as they love stuffing their faces with fists full of candy! I do love that I can pick up a "gingerbread house kit" at Costco and that I don't have to worry about doing any of it myself. Presenting this year's version...

A full pound of Wonka candy. Now that's something my kids get excited about! Can I just ask what you're supposed to use Pixi-sticks for on a gingerbread house?!?

I guess Rachel came up with the answer...

This year the paste, I mean frosting, didn't work so well. We had to keep readjusting the roof, which didn't work so well either. We even tried to make some supports for it (as the box instructed--maybe Wonka knew about the faulty roof), but to no avail...

Apparently the kids didn't care too much. I guess Rachel thought the rest of the candy belonged in the same place as the Pixi-sticks. It certainly didn't make it onto the house!

The sad, pathetic, looks-like-it's-been-in-a-California-earthquake result...

Adding insult to injury, our hometeacher stopped by the next night with this beauty...

I'm sad to say it was completely homemade. A project he completed with his 23 year-old son. Note the 4 Gene Simmons' ready to devour it at one fell swoop...

Since I know you haven't had enough, I am also crazy enough (simply because I feel the pressure from my darling husband) to make Christmas cookies with the kids. This always makes for an interesting experience as it always makes a huge mess and induces fighting amongst my sweet children. "I wanted that angel." "How come she got the snowman?!" "Mom, he stole my sprinkles!" Don't let this picture fool you...

Happy (Belated) New Year!

2009-01-19T13:22:00.003-05:00

Boy, do I have some catching up to do! It has been a crazy month+, but I have to admit it has been good too. We have spent a lot of time together as a family and have been doing a lot of fun things. Let's just put it this way, we still haven't sent out our Christmas cards. Now that the New Year has passed too, it looks like everyone will be getting a Happy Valentines from us!

A Perfect Day

2008-12-10T09:07:00.004-05:00

Picture this: Snow falling, fire glowing, kids reading (or playing outside in the snow), Christmas music playing and no errands to run. That was the very infrequent scene in our house last Saturday!

Not to mention, the first gift showed up under the tree.

That's enough to break any mother's heart.

A perfect day, indeed.

Good 'Ol Ed

2008-12-09T08:49:00.011-05:00

The Ideal: Drive 30 minutes to a fabulous tree farm where we are overwhelmed by the selection of beautiful Christmas trees and the smell of pine. Be pulled by horses in a sleigh until we get to the said selection of trees at the farm. Wander through the field of trees until we find the Perfect One. Cut down the Perfect One with a hand saw and load it into the sleigh to be drawn back to the car. Drink hot chocolate and visit with the live reindeer. Load tree onto the van and drive home. Spend the remainder of the day decorating our tree while discussing what a romantic experience it was for our family and how we can't wait to do it again next year.

Our "horse-drawn" sleigh

Searching, Searching, Searching

"This must be the Perfect One, Mommy, it's just my size!"

Tired of searching

The Reality: Drive 30 minutes to an OK tree farm overcrowded with cars and people looking for the romantic experience of cutting down their own tree. Find a sled in which Trevor pulls two cold, whiny girls to the trees while listening to the boys complain and question why they don't get to ride. Wander through the trees looking, looking, looking for the Perfect One. Find some trees that are OK and would probably work, but find out they aren't for sale. Wander around some more hoping we might find a Decent One. Check the price of a 3 1/2 foot tree. $50. Look at one another and decide in unison, "Ed's!" Drive to our old stand-by, Ed's Feed and Seed, where we immediately spot 83 Perfect One's. Decide on the 9-footer that Hannah declares, "wants to go home with us". Have the tree loaded on the car, pay the guy 75 bucks and drive home happy knowing that next year we'll head straight to Ed's.

See you next year!

'Tis the Season

2008-12-04T11:18:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T14:19:00.007-05:00

I'm still so new to blogspot...I'm having trouble getting my photos posted as I want them with my text. Why do they keep posting backwards? You know what I mean, right? Plus, I can't get my text to inter-mingle with the photos. Please help me, ANYONE! So, forgive the bunch of photos followed by the text. Once one of you smarty-pants out there gives me a clue, I can edit this and it will make some sense. Until then...

Yesterday was a great day! We started out early for the 99th Annual Thanksgiving Day 10K. The boys weren't very happy about it as Trevor told them that 10 kilometers is equal to 16 miles. I still can't believed that they fell for that one. The girls have been very excited and have been asking everyday when we would get to go to "the race". Maybe they were more excited because they knew there was a stroller involved? I am still amazed at how many people were there. We were looking for the highest bib number and saw 14,000 something. I tried to get some photos of the sea of people, but they just didn't do the scene justice! Amazingly enough, we ran into several friends there and even Jean Schmidt stopped to say hi. OK, really it was her daughter, Emilie, (she owns and runs the ballet studio where my girls attend) that recognized us.

Jonathan became excited once we were there and kept insisting that he wanted to run the whole thing. We kept warning him not to try and run too fast or he would become too tired too fast. I decided to jog with him and Trevor did his best to keep up for the first 2 miles (he was pushing the stroller and had Timothy to contend with). After we couldn't see Trevor and company behind us anymore, Jonathan and I decided to just keep going. I was very proud of him. He only walked 2 times--both when we were going uphill and just for a minute or two. For the last mile or so, I picked up the pace and he started to hurt. He kept saying, "Mom, I can't! I have to walk!" I just kept telling him to go another block and that we were almost there. Finally we turned the corner and could see the finish line. I thought he would take off in a sprint, but he was pretty dead. I encouraged him across the finish line and couldn't believe he jogged the whole thing! This morning he did complain that his legs were a bit "wobbly".

Poor Trevor. I guess around the 3 mile mark Rachel began to cry because she was cold. Trevor did his best to warm her up and even got her out of the stroller and carried her while pushing Hannah. Then, about a mile later, Hannah started to cry because she had to go to the bathroom. All the while, Timothy was complaining about the race, about how he was tired, about how stupid this idea was and how he wanted to stay home with a babysitter next year. I sure felt guilty about taking off with Jonathan when I heard what he was left with! It will be interesting to see what we decide to do next year. We'll either get a sitter for Timothy and the girls and just take Jonathan, or we'll repeat history by trying to convince ourselves that it will be different when in reality it will be just the same...

We had a fantastic afternoon feast with some friends to counter-balance all of those calories we burned off in the morning. We didn't think to take a picture until after we had all stuffed ourselves and who wants to see pictures of that? Once again, there is always next year...

On a Lighter Note

2008-11-05T09:04:00.005-05:00

I really don't feel much like discussing last night's election results. I've just decided to move on and pray. Boy, do we ever need to pray for this country.

That being said, I thought I would begin the day on a lighter note. Awhile back my good friend, Sharese, wrote a post titled, "100 interesting things about me". I thought I would give it a shot. So, here is my list of 100 interesting (or not so interesting) things about me. Maybe you'll learn a thing or two that you didn't already know about me. Then again, maybe you won't.

1. My maiden name is Butcher (now there’s one to get us started).
2. I have always found myself in disbelief when someone asks, “how do you spell that?”
3. I always answer, “just like it sounds” while thinking, “Haven’t you seen it spelled in huge block letters on the grocery store wall your entire life?” Dummies.
4. My father was a High School Vice-Principal or Principal for most of his career.
5. We (his kids) thought he should hang a meat clever on his office wall.
6. He never did.
7. I learned to drive a stick-shift at 14.
8. I taught my older sister how to drive a stick shift when I was 14.
9. I drove a 1968 Ford Mustang nicknamed “The Green Pig” in high-school. Wish we still had it today. It might be worth some $$.
10. I once had 13 people piled (more like smashed) into said Mustang.
11. I was the only girl on our water polo team in middle school and high school.
12. I quit playing after my freshman year and became the “manager” (kept the books at the games) instead. Was tired of everything that went on under the water.
13. I missed out on Title IX.
14. My grandfather was a fisherman. I hate fish. Don’t know how that happened.
15. My favorite food on the planet is lobster. Smothered in melted butter. Don’t know how that happened either. Did I mention that I hate fish?
16. I think I have the perfect family.
17. No, we’re not perfect. Just having 2 boys and 2 girls is.
18. My family couldn’t survive without me. Example: Monday morning I spent an hour looking for a cell phone that wasn’t mine, got a phone call from my oldest saying he forgot his trumpet at home and could I bring it to him (I did which made #4 late for school), then received another phone call from 2nd child saying he lost his backpack (how does one lose their backpack walking from the bus to the classroom) and therefore did not have a lunch. Could I bring him one? When I showed up at school with one, the secretary informed me that the backpack (and lunch) had been found. Why couldn’t I have received that call?
19. I love my life.
20. I hate doing laundry.
21. I hate ironing even more.
22. I would much rather scrub toilets than iron.
23. There is a skinny hard body inside of me screaming to get out.
24. I’m working on that.
25. I am also not delusional enough to know that it will never happen.
26. I love playing sudoku.
27. I love doing puzzles.
28. I’m good with numbers. Trevor’s not.
29. I deal with all of the finances for our household.
30. I still remember my best friend’s phone number from the 4th grade—213.254.5854. Wonder who it belongs to now?
31. My dream car is a Suburban. Yes, a Suburban. I love driving those boats.
32. I’ll never have one as my husband thinks they guzzle too much gas.
33. I traveled alone to India at the age of 16. I arrived at the airport outside Calcutta praying that someone would be there to meet me. The first place we stopped was at my friend’s uncle’s house in Salt Lake City. I kid you not.
34. I’ve been to the Taj Mahal.
35. I’ve always wanted to visit the 7 Wonders of the World. What are they? Depends on who you talk to.
36. The 7 musts on my list include: the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal (check), the Great Barrier Reef, Machu Pichu, the Grand Canyon (I lived in Arizona for 5 ½ years and never went—we’ll have to take the kids), the Colosseum. By no means is this an all-inclusive list.
37. I was Homecoming Queen in high school.
38. I used to alphabetize my mom’s soup cans and spices when I was a little girl. I still like to have my spices alphabetized.
39. I hate my wardrobe. It basically consists of jeans and a collection of long sleeve t-shirts for the winter and shorts and short sleeved t-shirts for the summer.
40. My shirts are arranged in my closet by color. Lightest, to darkest. Used to do the same thing with my collection of Izods when I was a kid.
41. I love to organize. Can you tell?
42. My favorite animal on the planet is a dolphin. Wish I could swim like them.
43. I got to swim with them once. I’m dying to do it again.
44. I’ve promised Jonathan that we’d do it together someday—just the two of us.
45. I can’t stand ungrateful people. We all have so much to be grateful for.
46. In addition to my hometown in the LA area where I lived for 17 years, and Ohio where I currently live, I’ve lived in Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, Chile and Argentina.
47. When I married Trevor, I dreamed we would live the perpetual ex-pat life. I’ve now lived in Ohio for 7 ½ years with no end in sight.
48. I love Ohio.
49. I still dream of living an ex-pat life.
50. I’m insanely jealous of Amy who is about to move to Spain to live the ex-pat life.
51. I like to think I’m funny. See #37.
52. I’m really not that funny.
53. I love, love, love my funny friends.
54. Wish I could spend more time with my funny, funny friends to laugh until I cry (or pee my pants).
55. Laughter truly is the best medicine.
56. Other than babysitting, my first job was at Baskin-Robbins.
57. I was only 14 and my boss thought I was 17.
58. I got paid minimum wage--$3.35/hour. Soon got a raise to $3.50/hour. Was worth it for all the ice cream you could eat!
59. I was a swimmer in high school.
60. I spent 3+ hours a day in the pool. Good thing because of #58.
61. The bottom half of one of my front teeth is fake.
62. I have a great dentist (Dr. Della Bella) that makes it look like I don’t.
63. I have to pull the blinds in my house when it gets dark. I can’t stand the thought of anyone watching us.
64. I grew up in LA with the Night Stalker running the streets.
65. I am a true sap. I cry at everything—movies, sappy articles, even Pampers commercials (the one with the baby animals).
66. I love to swim.
67. I love the water.
68. I get sea sick.
69. I deal with the sea sickness to be on the water.
70. I’m proud of my moldy watch and my thrashed car. It’s a symbol to me that we’re living within our means. Besides, if I got a new car, my kids would only trash it (i.e. mud, food, books, etc.) and my husband would crash it.
71. I know a lot of people named Jennifer and none of them are the age of any of my kids.
72. I hate exercising, but I love waking up sore the next morning after a good workout.
73. I like proper grammar.
74. I try very hard never to end a sentence in a preposition.
75. One of my pet peeves is when I see “sister-in-laws" (or anything of the like) instead of “sisters-in-law”. The plurality is in the sisters! I almost e-mailed Ann Romney one time when she posted "daughter-in-laws". Trevor informed me that I should refrain myself. I took his advice (although I didn't want to).
76. I really wish people would learn the difference between your and you’re and there their and they’re.
77. I really, really wish we lived near family.
78. No two members of my immediate family or Trevor’s immediate family live in the same state.
79. My family lives in the states of California (OK, both parents live there, but they’re divorced), Washington, Maryland & New York.
80. Trevor’s family lives in the states of Colorado, Virginia, Nebraska, New Mexico, Arizona and North Carolina.
81. It’s difficult for our families to get together.
82. I love maps.
83. I could sit and study a map for hours.
84. I can’t study maps on road trips because I get car sick.
85. I do most of the driving on road trips or I get car sick.
86. I hate doing most of the driving on road trips.
87. My last (paid) job was at Fox Animation Studios in Arizona.
88. I can’t draw.
89. I am a pretty good cook.
90. My family is extremely spoiled when it comes to dinner.
91. Loved having a 7 foot fence in our backyard in AZ. We had complete privacy.
92. I wish I had one here.
93. Fall weather is my favorite. Crisp, cool weather with the sun shining. It doesn’t get any better than that.
94. I hate cold, grey, Cincinnati winters. They bring cracked, bleeding hands and feet.
95. I have this phobia that everyone looking at me is picking out every single one of my physical flaws. Please don’t tell me if you really are. It will just make my phobia worse.
96. It bothers me that I color my hair. I wish I could have just held on to the natural blonde I had pre-kids. Maybe I should just let it go yucky brown again?
97. I had a killer Farrah Fawcett haircut in high school—too bad it was the 80s and I hated it the minute it happened.
98. I can’t stand people that think they know it all.
99. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.
100. I’m grateful for repentance. I need it a lot more than I would like.

Do Your Duty

2008-11-04T09:56:00.005-05:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

I did mine! I didn't even have to wait in line. Whew!
P.S. I love JibJab (at least when they're not being crass).

I've Made the Switch!

2008-11-03T21:36:00.003-05:00

I’ve been thinking for some time now about switching to blogspot. First, I want to remove our last name from the blog. Second, I’m sick and tired of my comments not working (so, please leave lots of good, witty comments)! I miss the witty comments coming my way. Third, I want to be able to blog whatever is on my mind, whether I have a photo to go with my thoughts or not. It has taken me forever to switch pretty much for one reason only—I couldn’t come up with a new name. So, here is the story behind “three cups”.

Several months ago, my sister recommended a book to me that she had just finished reading. She thought Trevor and I would both love it. I thought it sounded great, but I thought, “I don’t ever have time to read anymore” and that was that. Then, the week before Trevor and I were leaving for California for my brother’s wedding, I was wandering through Target (maybe if I spent less time at Target I would actually have time to read!) and saw said book sitting there, staring at me. I picked it up and threw it in my cart thinking it would be a great read for our trip.

In the meantime, I had been trying to come up with a good name for my blog. Seems like everything I tried was already taken. I turned to my extremely creative and mostly humorous husband thinking he would come up with something immediately. No such luck.

So, there I was, sitting on our flight to California when I decided to pull out my new book and start to read. I read for awhile, then Trevor and I began to have a conversation. I can’t remember what it was about, only that somewhere in there I reminded him that he hadn’t given me any good ideas for a new name for my blog. He looked down at my book and said, “I have a great idea. Why don’t you call it ‘Three Cups of Tea’?” I looked at him like he was crazy and told him I couldn’t plagiarize and we didn’t even drink tea. He responded with a smirk, “How about ‘Three Cups of Herbal Tea’?”

The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. First of all, it was available. Secondly, no one would ever guess it’s meaning without an explanation and thirdly, it captures the essence of our love of travel and my intense desire to live out our retirement years doing humanitarian work. Not to mention, we consider so many of you, our friends, as family since we haven’t had family live near us in our almost 12 years of marriage.

Good Intentions

2008-07-18T16:20:00.000-04:00

So, I had the best intentions of taking time to download photos and post while on vacation. Here I am, just a few days from returning home and I haven't posted a thing! You'll have to wait until I get home to see them. We have had a great time. We spent the 4th of July in my hometown and went to the town parade in the morning and fireworks in the evening. The kids loved it! We spent the next week at the Colorado River and enjoyed every minute (OK, except when the kids would fight) and the boys even got up on skiis. That's a story in itself. After that we spent a few days in Prescott, AZ with Trevor's parents and grandparents and then on to Mesa to visit with my grandmother, aunt, cousins & their kids. Back to LA on Wednesday to get Trevor to the airport and then down here to Newport Beach where we are currently staying with my dad. We went to Legoland yesterday where the boys fought incessently and today has been a day of eating and sleeping. Everyone is trashed. Rachel asked me this morning if I was sick. I assured her I was just tired and she replied, "Are you just a little bit sick?" I guess I'm looking sick at this point. We're off to the beach after naps (the kids are asleep right now) and perhaps a ride in a duffy boat in the bay that surrounds the island where my dad lives. I have to admit we've been living the life of luxury. I did wake up this morning, however, thinking that I was just about ready to go home. I'm not exactly sure why, because I know the kids will just be bored and constantly at each other's throats. Maybe I'm just craving a good night's sleep in my own bed with just my husband who doesn't kick me constantly during the night. Then again, maybe, just maybe there really is no place like home.

You've Found Me!

2008-06-30T16:05:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the boring look, but this is just a temporary site (unless I change my mind and I'll fix it later) until we get home from vacation. I can at least post photos and give updates while we're gone this way!